The End Times Observer

Global Warming - The Sun And The Apocalypse

2007-07-27T02:49:00.001-07:00

Who has not heard the term "global warming?" These days, secular minds are absolutely obsessed with what has come to be called "anthropogenic climate change." This fancy term simply refers to the warming of our climate attributable to human beings, as opposed to natural geological and biological processes such as increasing carbon dioxide, volcanism, and the respiration of global vegetation.

Pushed along by media presentations (most prominently by Al Gore’s video production, called "An Inconvenient Truth") there is a current wave of doctrine that the human consumption of carbon-based fuels is radically changing earth’s climate. In hysterical tones, its proponents proclaim that within a few years, our atmosphere will be so charged with excess carbon dioxide and other smog-producers, that the earth will go into an irreversible heating process. The result, they say, will be vast deserts, flooded coastlines, crop failures and the deaths of millions of the people.

The zeal to promote the global warming hypothesis has now assumed the proportions of a religion. Quite simply, it is the worship of the Earth. They view the "big blue marble" as our originator and sustainer. This, of course, is the natural outgrowth of evolutionary theory. If the legendary "billions of years" from primordial ooze to intelligent human society are sufficient to produce mankind as we now know it, then maintaining the environment rises to the level of worship. Under these conditions, environmental stewardship is not merely good sense, it is religious law. "Science" becomes the clergy. Dissent is not tolerated. Already, there is action to silence any scientist who dares oppose the liberal consensus about human activity causing global climate change.

Global government is being invested with the power to enforce the credos of this new religion. For them, the greening of the planet is the number one priority. A new form of law is rapidly taking shape. This law has been committed into the ethical and moral stewardship of the UN.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) brought forth the Kyoto Protocol. Participating countries agree to reduce their carbon dioxide and Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions. Over 160 nations have submitted to the protocols, supposedly bringing about fifty-five percent of the GHGs under authoritative UN control. The current drive is to achieve one-hundred percent participation … or submission.

The new religion is not without its indulgences. Heavy GHG producers can purchase "carbon credits" from less vigorous producers under various emissions trading plans. The result of this scheme is a transfer of wealth from richer to poorer countries. Most will recognize this as the religion of socialism, which has always maintained that redistribution of wealth is the road to peace.

Behind it all, the prime motivation for adherence to the new rules and regulations is the horrific vision of a coming global disaster, as judgment for the excessive consumption of energy. The global warming brigade is threatening a reign of punishment for those who fail to heed their warnings about a collapse of global weather systems.

In effect, this secular priesthood is predicting its own version of the apocalypse. Their vision centers upon certain atmospheric changes that are interpreted as harbingers of global superstorms, scorching heat and waves of human misery. They believe that man, not God, will cause the apocalypse. For them, the biggest share of the blame goes to pollution produced by the consumption of oil, coal and gas.

These frightened critics have focused their wrath upon what they see as an out-of-control free market that gobbles resources and spews fumes. Radical environmentalists demand the greening of the world. They cry, "You don’t care about the children; you don’t care about the planet; you don’t care about the future." Their usual answer to the problem is to put on the brakes by taxing commerce into submission, and imposing draconian economic penalties on the offenders.

Let’s Get Real

Before agreeing with their hysterical charges, perhaps we should take another look at the future of planet earth. The biblical -- and of course, true -- version of the Apocalypse is quite different from that imagined by political fear mongers. As is well known, the Bible has much to say about our climatic future. In fact, it speaks volumes about a future period of intense heating. But this heating is not caused by man. Nor is it caused by greenhouse gases. Rather, it is caused by the Sun, which the Bible links to this future period of blazing heat. It is caused by the Lord and has a specific purpose. A good example of this is seen in the following verses:

"And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.

"And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory" (Rev. 16:8,9).

Here, we have a verse of Scripture that reveals a major Bible truth. The natural world is under God’s constant control. In this "enlightened" age, it is common to think that natural processes control themselves. Even most Christians believe that they were set in motion at some time in the ages past, from that point onward, to regulate themselves. Stars burn, until they burn themselves out. Their inner processes are driven by physical processes well known to astrophysicists. If a star (like our Sun) grows suddenly cooler or hotter, it must be because of some natural variation, like gravity, gaseous, or electromagnetic changes.

The Bible, however, is unequivocal in the matter. The Lord can send forth a messenger to change solar output. Exactly how He does this is unknown. In the above case, the result is an increase in heat output that has a direct impact upon human existence. The angel’s action causes global warming.

The Apocalypse brings other cataclysmic changes, including killer hailstorms, shifting tectonic plates and rampant volcanism will also bring earth-shattering weather. It must be stressed, however, that man’s misuse of fuel has nothing at all to do with the judgments ahead. Instead, changes in Solar activity lie at the center of these disturbances. Its output is our neighborhood’s most important feature.

The Sun, and Only the Sun

Compared with the size of the Sun, the Earth is almost a nonentity. The diameter of our home planet is 12,756 kilometers (7,926 miles). The Sun’s diameter is 1,390,000 kilometers (863,746 miles), almost 109 times larger!

The Sun is overwhelmingly gigantic when compared with all other objects in our planetary system. For example, it boasts 99.8 percent of the Solar System’s total mass! Jupiter, largest of the planets, contains most of the rest. Earth’s mass is only a tiny fraction of the remainder.

The Sun is a thermonuclear engine designed by the Lord. It produces heat and light in precisely the correct proportion for the support of carbon-based physical life as we know it. Its output is no accident of physics; it was created that way. Neither is Earth’s orbital distance from the Sun a matter of coincidence. At the speed of light, we are about eight minutes from the Sun, or 93 million miles.

At this ideal distance, the combination of solar radiation, our atmospheric composition, magnetic fields and other interplanetary factors produce an ideal climate for human life. These factors cannot be mere coincidence. Even the existence of a Moon that is about one-fourth the size of the Earth provides the tidal stability that keeps us from boiling or freezing. Science has called Earth "The Goldilocks Planet." It is neither too hot nor too cold, but just right. We are protected from hazardous radiation, but given ample light in the proper spectral range to produce warmth and growth.

Given all these factors, we must never forget the single, important factor in all this. The Sun is the only source of heat for the surface of our planet. It if dims -- even slightly -- we freeze. If it brightens -- even slightly -- we burn.

Fire, or Ice?

Our own planetary history demonstrates this principle with extreme clarity. Not so long ago, in the nineteen-sixties and seventies, scientists were actually predicting a new ice age in the not-too-distant future. Their observations drew much from the past, since the northern hemisphere was once covered by glaciers that reached as far south as the central regions of today’s America.

Furthermore, recent history reinforced their cooling hypothesis. Climatologists refer to a "Little Ice Age," which was observed in Europe between the 13th and mid-19th centuries. As late as 1816, the famous "year without a summer," witnessed freezing temperatures and frozen crops in Europe, Newfoundland and Canada. Midsummer ice on rivers and lakes, with accompanying blizzards, were recorded as far south as Pennsylvania.

It is hardly a surprise that the common factor in this climatic aberration seems to have been the Sun. It is well known that this period was marked by the virtual absence of turbulent solar storms. At times, sunspots were simply absent. Most of the time, they appeared with extreme rarity. Sunspots, by the way, are among the most well documented events in the history of astronomical observation. Literally centuries of observations are available.

Well known to astronomers is the so-called "Maunder Minimum." It marks the period from 1645 to 1715, when solar observers counted few, if any sunspots. In the year 1670, not a single one was seen. The three decades at the heart of this historical epoch produced only about 50 sunspots, as opposed to the normal 40 to 50 thousand for a similar period!

This situation, lasting about five centuries, brought the northern hemisphere much cooler temperatures than normal, in exact synchronization with diminished solar activity. More sunspots brought more heat, and vice versa. Certainly, human endeavors were in no way connected with the changes, since they happened long before the Industrial Revolution.

Interestingly, the years just prior to the Little Ice Age are referred to as "The Medieval Warm Period." During this period, explorers from Iceland were led westward from Iceland across the northern Atlantic by the famed explorer Erik the Red, whose forbearers had originally come from Norway. Around A.D. 982, they came to a lush new territory, so rich and green that they immediately colonized it. Because its southern regions were covered with lush vegetation, they promptly named it Greenland. Crops and vines flourished. Trade routes were established. Even an archdiocese from the Norwegian church was established there!

Needless to say, Greenland isn’t green anymore. After about four and a half centuries, rapid cooling quickly covered Greenland with ice. The Norwegians retreated back to their homeland. The fifteenth century brought Greenland a "Little Ice Age." From that day to this, the territory is still encrusted with ice that continues to accumulate, sometimes hundreds of feet deep, where crops used to grow and villages thrived.

These notable climatic changes all took place prior to man’s use of carbon-based fuels. There is little doubt that they are tied to solar activity, rather than the by-products of human activity, as is currently taught. If there is one Bible truth, it is that God, not man, controls the weather. The Bible asserts that He regulates the output of the Sun, and therefore, the level of heat energy throughout our planetary system.

Let’s look at few examples that demonstrate this truth.

Joel’s Fivefold Declaration

Long ago, the prophet Joel wrote of the Tribulation Period. Most expositors believe that it was written in the ninth century, B.C., during the reign of King Joash, king of Judah. Most fix the date of his writing at around 835 B.C., much earlier than the other prophets. This makes it all the more remarkable that the Lord gave him the defining vision of the "day of the Lord," a phrase which he uses five times.

This terrible day, chronicled in the distant past, is still future to us. Yet Joel mentions it as imminent, even though he penned these words over 28 centuries ago:

"Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come" (Joel 1:15).

Five times, Joel invokes the name, "day of the Lord," the dreadful day of the Lord’s wrath. The phrase, "at hand" tells us that these words were written for the Israel of the latter days. It is intended to convey the conditions of the Tribulation.

The second time he uses the term, he associates it with an invading army, whose power is such that they are capable of reducing the land to a smoldering ruin:

"Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

"A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

"A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them" (Joel 2:1-3).

His third mention concludes the same thought:

"And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?" (Joel 2:11).

Joel’s fourth invocation of future cataclysm elevates the nature of the catastrophe to a distinctly higher level. Here, Earth’s weather systems seem to go completely awry, producing an atmosphere that obscures the Sun and Moon:

"And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

"The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

"And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call" (Joel 2:30-32).

His final use of the term seems to transcend Earth’s weather systems entirely. Here, in the worst calamities of the Tribulation, the Sun, itself seems to be affected:

"Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great.

"Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

"The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining" (Joel 3:13-15).

These words describe an astronomic and meteorological tragedy of the first magnitude. This disaster is far worse than any vision summoned up by the global warming congregation. A close examination of the biblical account of the Tribulation reveals a disruption, not only of the Earth’s immediate environment, but also of the entire Solar System. Apparently, the air will be filled with obscuring debris, perhaps from volcanoes. But in addition to this, the Sun’s output will be diminished. The Moon, being a reflector of the Sun’s light, also dims. The assertions of the prophets, like Joel, fly in the face of current scientific belief, which insists that rapid changes in natural processes simply don’t happen.

Astronomers and geophysicists think in terms of millions of years, during which time change is slow and steady … barely perceptible. Such thinking as been labeled "uniformitarianism." It is the stuff of evolutionary thought, holding to the theory that the present functions as the model for the past. Under this view, conditions on Earth are generally conceived as absolutely stable, with change coming in small increments, rather than global convulsions.

The Day of the Lord

However, the "day of the Lord" is always viewed as global in nature, not local. And it is definitely a convulsion. Like the great Flood of Noah, it will affect the entire Earth. Science has always scoffed at the reality of a worldwide flood, refusing to believe that such a thing could happen. This is probably because they are unable to hypothesize a set of conditions that would produce a flood of biblical proportions. Again, the answer to this problem is simple: God controls the weather.

Not only will the day of the Lord be global in nature, it will be a time of destabilized chaos, unparalleled in history. Jesus, Himself, described it as uniquely horrifying:

"For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

"And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened" (Matt. 24:21,22).

Jesus here speaks of the Tribulation, which is another way of speaking of the judgments of the day of the Lord. Taking His words literally, the Tribulation will be the worst upheaval ever to afflict planet Earth. From our human perspective, with two thousand years of relative calm in the geosphere, it would be difficult to overestimate the intensity of that day. Trying to conceive of the horrors of the Tribulation is almost beyond our imagination. Yet the history of the present world system, dating back to Adam, includes many large-scale catastrophes, including the Flood of Noah, which was far more than a condition of rising water.

Students who hold Scripture to be divinely inspired believe that the Earth of those days endured both a global flood and some kind of major rearrangement of the continents. This being true, Jesus’ statement about the coming judgment is powerful, indeed. He says the Tribulation is to be even more violent than that. Not only was there a worldwide flood, but also great cracks and shifting of the Earth’s crust:

"And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.

"In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

"And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights" (Gen. 7:10-12).

It has been suggested that these "fountains of the great deep" may well have been volcanoes, spewing great clouds of various gases (including superheated water vapor) into the air. For a very long time, the Sun was not even visible. Slowly, the air cleared and the waters of the flood receded, revealing a volatile new world of winds, weather, thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes and all the rest.

Prior to this deluge, Earth’s meteorology was so stable that the weather systems did not even produce precipitation. As difficult as this is to believe, the Bible is unequivocal about the matter. In the following verses, we must take note of two things. First, it did not rain, and second, God is revealed as the cause of the rain:

"These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,

"And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.

"But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground" (Gen. 2:4).

Here, as others have chronicled in great detail, solar radiation, Earth’s geology and climate were far different from today’s conditions. God tailored the environment for His creation.

In other words, God controls the weather, the climate and the interaction between the Earth and the Sun. He is both Creator and Controller, who at that point in the history of the planet, had not yet caused it to rain. This is a far cry from modern opinion, which holds that somehow, man is the chief influence on weather systems.

In this day of radar and satellite monitoring, we sometimes credit the weatherman with control of the weather. When he brings good weather, he receives congratulations; when it’s bad he gets blamed, as though he actually caused it. This is a convenient little lie we tell ourselves, so we will not live in fear of catastrophe. Some theorists go so far as to say that we are on the verge of planetary weather control. Given the present state of understanding, this is ridiculous.

In fact, meteorologists continually protest that they are unable to predict weather patterns beyond a few days at the most. Nevertheless, on local television, there is always a competition to see who can forecast the weather beyond a seven-day period. And think of this: The hysteria about global warming is always placed in the context of man’s complete inability to control his environment. Its proponents continually scream about humanity being on the brink of uncontrollable disaster. Many of them proclaim that we are only a few years from tipping the climate past the point of no return.

Leaping forth from this noisy background of contradictions, the Tribulation will involve all of the upheavals of the Noahic deluge, but also several additional catastrophes, some of which reach into the heavens, and the Sun, itself.

The Future of the Sun

As is well known by science, and mentioned above, the Sun’s energy is essentially all the energy of our local planetary system. As it goes, so goes life in this part of the cosmos. Therefore, it is especially interesting to look at its future from the perspective of God in the heavens.

He created it, and He can use it to achieve whatever goal He has in mind. During the Tribulation period, His angels will go forth to unsettle global systems, even to the point that humanity will be on the verge of extinction. In the context of the Tribulation, Jesus said that conditions would be so fierce that the very survival of humanity would be at stake:

"For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

"And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened" (Matt. 24:21,22).

Why would this be the case? What could possibly happen that would threaten human flesh? The answer to this is quite easy, particularly when we consider the current phobia about too much sunlight being carcinogenic. We’re all being encouraged to wear ultraviolet absorbent glasses and contact lenses to protect our eyes from the Sun. Television commercials by the thousands urge us to avoid prolonged exposure to the rays of the Sun, and to apply an approved sunscreen to our skin.

Why? Because a variety of cancers and other maladies can come to those who overexpose themselves to the Sun’s rays. Imagine that our atmosphere’s ability to absorb those rays is weakened by massive weather changes. Perhaps the colossal nuclear exchange that lies in our future will have this effect. Then, imagine that the nature of the Sun’s radiation is subjected to deadly alterations. Now, carefully consider the following words:

"And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

"Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.

"Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire" (Isa. 30:25-27).

If you imagine a hot summer Sun, then multiply it by seven you have some idea of what the Bible means when it invoked the image of "scorching heat." Here, the prophecy of Isaiah is certainly speaking of the closing days of the Tribulation … probably near the time of the battle of Armageddon.

Earlier, we quoted Revelation 16:8, where "… the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun." Isaiah’s prophecy seems to be a reference to the same event, with emphasis upon the result, rather than the cause. And the result is spectacular! Under these conditions, human beings couldn’t go outdoors without complete skin cover, plus very dark and absorbent glasses. Imagine the drought, wildfires, spontaneous combustion and the intensity of heat inside homes and vehicles. Since Adam was created, the world has never experienced such conditions.

This judgment is aimed at the kingdom of the Antichrist. Imagine the consternation of his followers, as their kingdom becomes a fiery hell on earth. Surely, they must turn on him at some point. In the same context, note the judgment of the next angel:

"And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,

"And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds" (Rev. 16:10,11).

Apparently, right in the midst of blazing solar heat and blinding light, another angel darkens the Earth. The result would be unimaginable … heat in darkness. We are reminded of the Egyptian plague in the days of Moses, when for three days, they dared not move. The fear and anguish of those alive under such conditions would drive them to the brink of madness. But in their reprobate state, they refuse to repent. Instead of begging the Lord for forgiveness, they fill the air with blasphemy, blaming Him for their plight.

The Lord’s angels are invested with the power to raise the Sun’s output, then lower it. Perhaps they do it by increasing the number of sunspots or solar storms. Perhaps the Sun’s energy spectrum is altered in some way. There is no way we can know. But the result is obvious. Mankind is subjected to massive doses of harmful radiation. In that day, no one will blame excessive human consumption of hydrocarbons for the climatic disasters that threaten their very lives.

Who knows the result of all this solar fury? Sunburn? Skin cancer? Blindness? It seems obvious that men will be reduced to adopting some sort of full-body covering if they venture out during the daytime. Within the last few years, massive solar storms have resulted in megatons of charged particles being hurled from the Sun’s surface. Fortunately, at this point in time, they have missed our planet. But these so-called "Coronal Mass Ejections" (CMEs), have the potential to scorch our world with both heat and radiation.

Observers credit their evasion of our planet to "good luck." On the contrary, we would call it a blessing from God. But whatever you call it, our own experience reflects the potential predicted in Scripture. Certainly, there will be a time when the Sun will rage with unbelievable heat.

Light and Dark

The judgments of the Tribulation are specifically arranged as a demonstration of God’s power. Men who believe in their understanding of "natural processes" will be shocked to learn that those processes are under the control of a mighty intellect. This idea is quite clear in Isaiah’s prophecy:

"Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

"Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt:

"And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.

"Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

"For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.

"And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

"I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.

"Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger" (Isa. 13:6-13).

It would be easy to say that the conditions described here are simply the result of local fires, or the aftermath of a nuclear war that has filled the air with smoke and dust. But "shaking the heavens" is hardly a local catastrophe. Precisely what is meant by these words cannot be ascertained, except to say that somehow, even the Earth’s rotation and orbit will be altered. In the end, even the length of the Solar year and the length of the day will be changed.

A Future Calamity

The twenty-fourth chapter of Isaiah has often been called the "Little Apocalypse." It opens with a picture of devastation that is practically unbelievable:

"Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof" (Isaiah 24:1).

There could hardly be a more disturbing picture of total planetary destruction than this. Imagine the aftermath of nuclear war, compounded by perturbations on an astronomical scale by blazing radiation. The result would be a smoking wasteland, virtually devoid of vegetation. Men would stumble about in a daze, wondering where their next morsel of food would be found.

But Isaiah’s description of the curse that will come upon the Earth becomes even more profound:

"Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.

"And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.

"The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.

"The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.

"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. (Isaiah 24:17-21).

How could such things happen? Somehow, the Earth’s steady rotation will be disrupted. Might it be the result of huge earthquakes that will dislodge tectonic plates? If continents were somehow loosed to slide into new positions, could they destabilize the polar alignment of our planet? Whatever the method used by the Lord to effect these massive changes, the result is clear: The present world system will fall, never to rise again.

When the Tribulation comes, let the leaders of the United Nations try to save Earth’s climate. Currently, in spite of continual complaints, we live in a state of blessing, where food abounds, and the necessities of life are taken for granted. Even the luxuries are available in a way never before seen in the history of this planet. Yet even under these circumstances, fear mongers cry that humanity is on the brink of extinction.

What will they say in the day of great earthquakes, when the globe is shaken? Think about these words:

"And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places" (Rev. 6:14).

And how will they react when their dread of a bombardment from the heavens becomes an actuality? It will, as the following words plainly declare:

"And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood"

"And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.

"And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; (Rev. 8:8-10).

The religion that places its faith in global stability is about to be smashed. Those who look to a green Earth for their salvation are about to be severely tested. On the other hand, those whose faith rests upon the finished work of Christ will be spared from His wrath. Our faith is not in this planet, nor is it in the Solar System. Global warming? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

By Gary Stearman - Prophecy In The News

Hate Terminology In Arabic

2007-03-01T02:09:00.000-08:00

The Ma’an News Service publishes numerous daily announcements in Arabic, which it subsequently translates and releases in English. In recent stories, PMW has noted that the Ma'an releases in Arabic include the hate ideology espoused by the terror organizations that deny Israel's right to exist, express reverence for suicide terrorists and justify terrorist murder as "resistance." But when translated into English, the same stories go through a sterilization process to hide from the English readers – and possibly from the two Western countries, the Netherlands and Denmark, who give them funding – the terrorist ideology Ma'an is helping to propagate.

The following are two examples:

1 – On Jan. 29, 2007, a suicide terrorist killed three Israelis in the city of Eilat. The Ma'an Arabic report included the language of the terror organizations, while the English was cleansed with changes and omissions, including changes to the language of direct quotes. The differences are striking:

Denial of Israel's right to exist
In English Ma'an accurately reports that the event happened "in the southern Israeli resort of Eilat." But in the original Arabic, Eilat is changed from an Israeli city to a Palestinian city occupied by Israel – reflecting the terrorist assertion that all of Israel is “occupied Palestine.

Ma'an English: "…in the southern Israeli resort of Eilat." Ma'an Arabic in first reference: "… in Eilat located in the south of occupied Palestine." Ma'an Arabic in second reference: "…carried out a brave deed and for the first time in occupied Eilat.”

In the English the mother is referred to simply by her name and age: "Ruwaida Siksik, 42." In Arabic Ma'an adds: " Ruwaida Siksik, 42, whose family originated from the occupied city of Jaffa."

The routine definition in a news story of Jaffa, a part of southern Tel Aviv, as "occupied" and Eilat as "occupied Palestine" is a way to linguistically express denial of Israel's right to exist, and is the terminology used by the terror organizations.

Glorifying suicide terror as Shahada – revered Martyrdom
The act of the suicide bombing is likewise reported differently in the English and the Arabic. The English refers to a "bombing," while the Arabic gives it an idyllic Islamic categorization of an "Amaliyyah Ishtish'hadyyah" - a Shahada-seeking action. This is not merely a positive categorization, but is defining the suicide bombing as an honored Islamic action. The perpetrator is given the status of a Ishtish'hadi- Shahada-seeker, who becomes after his death a Shahid – a revered holy Martyr.

In Arabic: "She heard the news on Monday morning that he died as a Shahid …

In English: "Family of Eilat bomber"

In Arabic: "mother of the Shahada-seeker"

Another interesting difference is that in the Arabic, the brother of the bomber admits to knowing that his brother was leaving on a terror operation. This is omitted from the English version.

2- The second article demonstrating the terror support by Ma'an is its release yesterday about the murder of Erez Levanon, a 42-year-old Israeli musician and father of three children, who was attacked and stabbed to death by two Palestinians while praying in a field.

The Ma'an English: "Palestinian sources told Ma'an that armed Palestinian men ambushed an Israeli …"

The Ma'an Arabic: "Palestinian sources told Ma'an that Palestinian resistance men ambushed an Israeli …"

This is not just semantics. In choosing to categorize murder as "resistance," Ma'an is choosing the language used by terror organizations to justify murder.

The following is the chart of the changes in the translation of the suicide bombing story, followed by the visuals of yesterday's story. Ma’an in English

Family of Eilat bomber speak to Ma'an..
Ma’an in Arabic
[PMW translation to English]

Mother of the Shahada-seeker [Martrydom Seeker - Islamic term of honor for suicide bomber] and his wife speak …

She heard the news on Monday morning that he had blown himself up
She heard the news on Monday morning that he died as a shahid [Islamic term for revered Martyr]

in an unprecedented operation in the southern Israeli resort of Eilat… in an unprecedented operation in
Eilat located in the south of occupied Palestine…

Did his mother, Ruwaida Siksik, 42,
Did his mother, Ruwaida Siksik, 42, whose family originated from the occupied city of Jaffa,

know about her fourth son's intention to operate in Israel? know about her fourth son's intention to carry out a Shahada – Seeking operation in Israel?
She said: "I knew he wished for
Shahada …”
She said: "I knew he wished for Shahada -Seeking and for Shahada…"
On Monday 29th January, the son's identity was reported as being the bomber of Eilat. On Monday, was reported the death as a Shahid of (her) son, and
The mother prayed that it may send a message to the fighting brothers in Hamas and Fatah, to stop and direct their weapons against the Israeli occupation. the mother prayed that Allah will receive her son as a Shahid…
She added that she is ready to sacrifice all of her nine sons and daughters for Palestine and Al-Aqsa mosque… She added that she is ready to sacrifice all of her nine sons and daughters for Palestine and Al-Aqsa mosque, and that she will not be stingy with them…
Muhammad's brother, Na'im, 26, said:

"What my brother has done is dignifying for all of us…”
Muhammad's brother, Na'im, 26, said: "I knew he was leaving and I wished him that he would achieve Shahada as he wants. When I heard the news about his Shahada-seeking, I prayed for him, that Allah will receive him. What my brother has done is dignifying for all of us…”

Nadia Siksik, wife of the
deceased bomber, expressed pride over her husband's operation.
She said: “… after what he has done for Palestine,
I am proud…" Nadia Siksik, wife of the
Shahada-seeker expressed pride over her husband's operation.
She said: “… after I was informed of his death as a Shahid today,
I am proud…"
The bomber's little sister, Dalia, 13, burst into tears while she expressed
her pride over her brother,

"who refused to be a victim of the clash of brothers."

His youngest sister, Dalia, 13, burst into tears while she said:
I am proud of my brother Muhammad,
"for he died a death of honor and
refused to be a victim of the bullets of brothers.
He chose Shahada among his enemies and carried out a brave deed and for the first time in occupied Eilat."

PMW

Road Map Parallels To Munich Germany

2007-02-28T02:13:00.000-08:00

As the UN led by Russia and Islamic nations condemns Israel as an apartheid state and the British prepare to reduce their already puny forces near Basra; as Arabs prepare an intifada over the Temple Mount again and Iran waves its rockets we must review how the Oslo-Road Map process follows the tracks of the phased destruction of Czechoslovakia by British diplomacy in the 1930s. The lessons to be learned grow ever timelier.

The Arabs west of the Jordan River, both Israeli Arabs and those in the Autonomous areas have many more political and economic privileges and benefits than Arabs in any other state. From medical care to virtually free electricity and water, to uncensored media that spew Nazi-style Jew hatred, their liberties reach license. Similarly, in the 1930s "the minorities of Czechoslovakia were the best-treated minorities in Europe and the [Sudeten German] agitations were noticeable precisely because they were living in a democratic liberal state that gave them the freedom to agitate."*

The resemblance of that situation to today's murderously violent Arab agitation in Israel is clear. But the media have grown into a form of global incitement that follows and sometimes helps stage anti-Israel spectaculars: as the Arabs are the open weapon, the media has become the hidden hand of the diplomatic-financial interests. Their polemics are not about market share but to isolate Israel as an "apartheid" state (cf. Jimmy Carter's book) and justify its destruction (per the "Baker group").

Just as British diplomats and officials stirred up the Arab riots of the 1920s and '30s against Jews in the yishuv so their European colleagues enabled Hitler during the 1930s, encouraging even helping finance (via America) Germany to rearm, making statements in Parliament and sending messages in meetings on the continent that Eastern Europe was for the Reich to take. These same diplomats undermined or crushed all those who resisted their grand design. The victim is demonized, delegitimized and dismembered in the modern version of ancient cults of human sacrifice, -- just as Israel is demonized, delegitimized and about to be partitioned in our day.

Remember: even the 1949 lines are not recognized borders but armistice lines. Don't believe that the British Foreign Office or their friends in the State Department have surrendered the goal of an Arab Federation from Baghdad to Cairo. The situation in the Negev (as with the contiguous Gush Katif before it) shows it is being set up to be severed from the State, in whole or in part. Arab attacks and the refusal of Israeli regimes to respond forcefully are meant to make Jews leave. If they don't, they eventually will be dragged out or killed. A Polish-corridor style free access from Gaza to Jericho and the West Bank would be just the start and would lead to a similar result, Arthur Dove's Arab Federation, "its front door on the Mediterranean," a goal aped by Fatah-affiliated groups.

Look at the parallel details in the policies of appeasement, war policies. Beginning in 1935, second President Czech President Eduard Benes made numerous conciliatory offers of self-rule for the Sudeten Germans. These included proportional representation throughout the Republic but they declined it. One thinks of the gift of total autonomy within Area 'A' with which the Arabs remain unsatisfied though Jordan and Egypt gave them no autonomy and little if any services; one thinks of the re-definition of Fatah as "moderates" and Abu Mazen as "a man of courage." Clearly self rule is not what Fatah wants. It was not what the Sudeten, German or British leaders wanted either.

In 1937, Czech Prime Minister Hodza offered to transfer all German administrators serving in the Czech government to the Sudeten area so Germans there could be entirely self-ruled. "Plan after plan for minority rights, economic concessions, cultural and administrative autonomy and even political federalism were produced by the Czechs…but brushed aside as inadequate…" Under British pressure, the Czechs even agreed for dual Czech-German nationality for the Sudetens (similar measures have been proposed for Arabs in Yesha). But "none of these suggestions were acceptable to Konrad Henlein, head of the Sudeten German Party for the simple reason that he wanted no concessions within Czechoslovakia…his real desire was to destroy the Czechoslovak state." Here is a precise description of the position and rejectionist behavior of all the Arab states to an Israeli state, even the possibility of a Jewish state, no matter how small since 1920, from Amin al Husseini to the PLO, Fatah and Hamas today. It's like listening to a tape: they don't want concessions; their real desire is to destroy the Jewish state while western diplomats minimize or back page this ugly fact, the pre-selected outcome of the process. As in 1937-8, the pressure on the victim to submit is relentless, the 'guarantees' increasingly strained and absurd; the professions of allies that they cannot do more to help are precisely the same: false and outcome-based, the outcome being the disintegration of the victim.

But concessions continue to be offered, then and now, under pressure of the great power "friend" of the beleaguered nation in question. Months before Hitler demanded self-rule for the Germans in the Sudetenland, Neville Chamberlain, Lords Halifax and Lothian among others were privately discussing, inadvertently 'leaking' and eventually publicly stating in parliament (March 1938) that the Czechs should cede their entire mountainous region to Germany outright. This demand for compromise was clearly a recipe for dismemberment and ruin because the Czech fortifications were built into the region. The Sudeten Mountains then, the mountains of Judea and Samaria today; a historian asks: how could Czechoslovakia have its peace or even its existence guaranteed by France, as the British claimed it could, after surrendering its key defensive positions when according to the British it could not be guaranteed by France, Russia, and England with these defenses intact because Britain was overextended? As the London Times asserted February 20, even its five thousand troops remaining near Basra may be "significantly drawn down" by late 2008. At the same time, British officers are training PLO Force 17 in Gaza under the eyes of the UN. For this they have time and personnel as they did to train, equip and lead the Arab legion during the 1940s. The writing again is on the wall.

How will the United States, even with the best will in the world guarantee and maintain the existence of Israel minus Judea and Samaria when it claims that peace will never come so long as Israel retains its mountainous heartland and maintains full autonomy for its own people and armed forces? The entire process is one of terrorizing the target state to make suicidal concessions just as was done in 1938.

Another link between those times and ours is the disjunction between the upper diplomatic echelons of western governments and their military, parliaments and people. The purpose of the so-called negotiations with the Czechs (as now with successive Israeli regimes) is to exert pressure to surrender at any cost. The importance of "consultation before partition," Chamberlain said, was that "it could be represented as the choice of the Czechoslovak government," as the expulsion of Gush Katif was sold as the "choice" of a supposedly representative and "democratic" Israel and the "rightwing nationalist" Ariel Sharon. Blackmail in the form of negotiations "would have a more favorable reception from the British public" then as it may from the American public today. Above all, Chamberlain added negotiations and eventual Czech agreement, like a handshake on the White House lawn "would dispose of any idea that we were ourselves carving up Czechoslovak territory." And so it is with administrations in Washington since that of Jimmy Carter.

Given the orchestrated UN uproar against Israel, meant to legitimize Hamas and cover Hizbollah's activities in Lebanon, it is clear that Mr. Carter's book, its title and the timing of its release were not an isolated exercise in individual bias. The resignations from his institute at Emory University are apt but come very late in the day. And as to Russia, the major supplier of Iran's nuclear and missile program and former backer of Egypt, Syria and the PLO: why did American and England let them into the UN at all when the world body was created "to foster democracy?" Because Russia shares and serves, as they have since 1917, various global interests of the Anglo-American elite, mainly the drive toward a regionalized world system that uses constant wars of attrition or "terror" to impose security measures on their own populations.

The gap between the agenda and methods of the diplomatic top tier, western parliaments and general electorates was strong then as now. When six months of betrayals, pressure on the French, and green lights to Hitler had wrung acquiescence from Paris and crippling concessions from the Czechs, Chamberlain found that he had created a monster. At a meeting in Godesborg on September 22, 1938, having repeatedly been assured of and received British diplomatic help Hitler was in a fury, demanding the whole pie immediately without impressive treaties. For everyone but Chamberlain and his clique and the top French diplomatic group it was a deal-breaker; the English and French Cabinets rejected the entire partition plan; the Czechs formed a new Cabinet that rejected it; the Russians served notice that if German forces moved they would invade East Prussia and protect the Czechs. But Chamberlain would not let go of his grand design. With the help of the media his group created a war scare, a terror war in Britain based on grossly exaggerated descriptions of German military might. Having previously ordered the Czechs not to mobilize their forces (shades of summer 2006) they now ordered that they do so. Pronouncements of Germany's military omnipotence filled the news. Through dominance of the media, a small clique can impose its agenda and views on a nation, via hysteria and manufactured despair when they feel it useful.

If Mahmoud Abbas announced tomorrow that he was going to take all of Israel from Eilat to Lebanon and Jerusalem to Tel Aviv would it create as great revulsion and stir? Would Congress, let along the EU or Russia formerly repudiate Oslo and the Road Map? No; the State Department would not even need to order Olmert to mobilize the IDF (for show) and to flood the complicit media with stories about dirty bombs exploding in American cities in order to secure Israel's unilateral surrender, termed "disengagement."

One last parallel to emphasize: just as the Czech armed forces' quantity were on par with those of Germany in fall 1938 (the British government knew this via its military attaches on the continent) and the quality of Czech forces far superior, so is the quality of Israel's armed forces today still far superior to those of its neighbors. The vulnerability of the Germans then was as evident as the weakness of Fatah and Israel's Arab neighbors now. So grave was the German position that the German Chief of Staff and other top officials were prepared to assassinate Hitler on September 28, 1938 if and when he gave the order to invade the Czechs; Arafat, too, in 1982 and afterward, and now Abbas have been and are saved by America and by Israeli regimes. Without its mountain barrier, Jewish settlements, and with EU, UN and NATO troops ready for Judea, Samaria and Gaza military advantages will be gravely compromised as happened to the Czechs without the Sudetenland. And with all governments and major media claiming that "the cycle of violence" will rise without Israeli concessions (that invite attacks by Hamas and Hizbollah on the "apartheid" state and suppress Israeli response), the military advantages of the victim, as great as those in 1938 can be neutered. Milner's words that Palestine "must never become a Jewish state" will be fulfilled.

British diplomats had no problem having Americans rebuild the continent their policies had led to ruin; Anglo-American and EU diplomats would have no problem letting Americans rebuild Israel after a similar process of "consultation before partition." It's good for business and demonstrates authority. Mesopotamia may not be the only killing field in the Middle East unless a sovereign Israel finds and rights itself.

History does repeat; but with awareness of the pattern the game need not again be played till the checkmate: holocaust and a huge spike in global terror.

Gamla

Supporting Peace Education In The PA?

2007-02-27T06:15:00.000-08:00

Anyone who hopes for peace should be horrified by the content of the latest set of Palestinian schoolbooks. In many respects, these new books for Grade 12, written by Fatah-appointed Palestinian educators, are the worst of the textbooks produced by the Palestinian Authority since 2000.

These newest books deny Israel's right to exist, anticipate its destruction and define the conflict with Israel as religious, not merely territorial.

As we point out in our latest report "From Nationalist Battle to Religious Conflict," the ideological divide between Fatah and Hamas appears to be disappearing.

Hamas has always defined its war with Israel as religious and existential, and now that is what all Palestinian children will learn in school: "Ribat for Allah is one of the actions related to jihad for Allah, and it means: Being found in areas where there is a struggle between Muslims and their enemies. The endurance of Palestine's people on their land these days... is one of the greatest of the Ribat." (Islamic Education, grade 12, p. 86-87)

THE PALESTINIAN conflict with Israel is a unique and eternal ribat with a special Islamic destiny: "The reason for this preference [of the Palestinian Ribat] is that the momentous battles in Islamic history took place on its land."
As to when there will be peace with Israel? Never, according to the schoolbooks: "[Palestine's] residents are in a constant struggle with their enemies, and they are found in Ribat until Resurrection Day."

Israel's right to exist is denied and Israel's founding is called a theft: "Palestine's war ended with a catastrophe that is unprecedented in history, when the Zionist gangs stole Palestine and expelled its people from their cities, their villages, their lands and their houses, and established the State of Israel" (Arabic Language, Analysis, Literature and Criticism, grade 12, p. 104). Israel is called: "the Zionist entity," and "Zionist Enemy." Israel's existence since 1948 is an "occupation" (ibid pp. 104, 122).

The conflict will eventually end - not with peace, but with Israel's destruction, effected by Palestinians of all ages and abilities: "Palestine will be liberated by its men, its women, its young and its elderly" (Arabic Language and the Science of Language, grade 12, p. 44).

THE BOOKS anticipate this future destruction of Israel by painting a picture for the Palestinian child of a world in which Israel already does not exist. The place of Israel is marked as "Palestine" on all maps, and "Palestine" is defined as a dawla - the Arabic word for "state," not a geographical region.

This "state" is said to have water access to both the Mediterranean and the Red seas, a situation possible only in a world without Israel. (Physical Geography and Human Geography, grade 12, p. 105)
Likewise, the size of "Palestine," the "state," is said to be more than 10,000 sq. km., a situation possible only if Israel does not exist, since the West Bank and Gaza Strip together total only 6,220 sq. km.

Because Israel has no right to exist, and must be fought and destroyed for Islam, violence and terror against Israel since its founding are justified and glorified as muqawama, resistance: "The tragedy of Palestine of 1948… and afterward the muqawama in which the inhabitants carried acts of most glorious heroism and sacrifice" (Arabic Language, Analysis, Literature and Commentary, grade 12 p. 105).

THE WORLD cringed in horror at the Iranian Holocaust denial conference. But the new PA schoolbooks teach World War II without the Holocaust. There are extensive details about the history of the war, lessons about the Nazi "race theory" and even mention of "an international court to bring to trial the senior Nazi leaders as war criminals." (The History of the Arabs and the World in the 20th Century, grade 12, p. 46).
However, the books fail to mention why the Nazis were on trial, or that their "race theory" involved elimination of Jews and other minorities.

It is clear that the newest PA schoolbooks are a tragic recipe for incessant war. Israel is presented as an illegitimate enemy to be hated, fought and destroyed. Even the most well-meaning student is left with no justification or religious option to accept Israel as a neighbor to live beside in peace.

THEREFORE, anyone who is truly interested in peace and peace education should be appalled by these new books, repudiate this hate material and demand that the books be discontinued and rewritten. US Senator Hillary Clinton said earlier this month that this curriculum, together with PA media targeting children, "basically, profoundly poisons the mind of these children" and that these books are "an indoctrination," not an education.

But an American Jewish group, Brit Tzedek v'Shalom-Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace has rushed to defend these hate-filled schoolbooks. As reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the group wrote Clinton urging her to "re-examine claims that the Palestinian schoolbooks indoctrinate hate." The group argued that the books encourage "a peaceful resolution of the conflict," and are better than those used in most of the Arab world because they "endorse democracy."

This superficial defense of PA books, compared to the fully-documented, 35-page PMW report, with its line-by-line descriptions of hate education, leaves us with the strong impression that no one from the group has actually read either the schoolbooks or our report. If so, the group's eagerness to defend these new texts is irresponsible.

We just find it hard to believe that Brit Tzedek v'Shalom has actually studied these grade 12 textbooks and is seriously endorsing an educational curriculum that denies Israel's right to exist, justifies terror and promises an eternal religious battle for Israel's destruction, knowingly defending incitement to murder.

TRAGICALLY, the Palestinian Authority will exploit this Jewish group's ill-considered approval of its new texts. Can Brit Tzedek v'Shalom be so blindly determined to champion the Palestinian cause that it will defend even the indefensible? In the past, groups such as Brit Tzedek v'Shalom created sufficient uncertainty about PA hate-education to ease international pressure on Palestinian leaders to pursue peace education.

Our challenge to Brit Tzedek v'Shalom: If you are as dedicated to peace as we are, you have a moral obligation to publicly retract your defense of the PA-sanctioned books described above and demand instead that the authority pursue peace education.

Jerusalem Post

Hizb'allah Building Up Forces North Of Litani River

2007-02-26T02:09:00.000-08:00

Hizb'allah is building up reinforcements north of the Litani river in anticipation of another potential war with Israel, the London Times reported on Monday.

According to the report, Hizb'allah guerrillas have begun to gather in the area, which is just outside the area patrolled by UNIFIL troops, with the apparent aim of creating a Shi'ite-controlled buffer that would allow the organization to avoid notice while they build their forces.

The group is reportedly being aided in its enterprise by Shi'ite businessman Ali Tajiddine, a diamond trader with close ties to Hizb'allah, who has begun buying large tracts of land from their Christian and Druse owners to serve as Hizbullah's base of operations.

"The state of Hizb'allah is already in existence in south Lebanon," Druse Lebanese MP Walid Jumblatt was quoted as saying.

UNIFIL's presence in southern Lebanon following last summer's war, along with the IDF's continued operations along Israel's northern border, has hampered Hizb'allah's efforts to rearm and rebuild its forces. However, the group has continued to attempt to smuggle in weapons and train fighters.

Officers in the IDF's Northern Command told Vice Premier Shimon Peres last week that weapons reach Hizb'allah from Syria "on a weekly basis," usually at night, evading UNIFIL peacekeepers stationed in Lebanon.

Earlier this month, a number of bombs disguised as boulders were found along the northern border, raising doubts as to the IDF's and UNIFIL's ability to effectively prevent Hizb'allah from carrying out further attacks on Israel.

Jerusalem Post

Rude Awakening

2007-02-25T04:33:00.000-08:00

Arthur Ruppin, the famed "father of Jewish settlement," was one of the founders - in 1925 - of Brit Shalom, forerunner of Peace Now and assorted allied outlets of unflagging Jewish liberality, naivete, trust in the essential goodness of man and in the destiny of reasonable compromise to triumph over all adversity.

Such utopian sentiments - then especially prevalent among the more refined and urbane Jewish intellectuals of Western Europe and America - gave rise to pacifist dreams of kinship, cooperation and harmony with local Arabs. "Mutual voluntary non-domination," it was envisioned, would facilitate the creation of a bi-national state with a joint government and blissful communal coexistence. Pretty sweet and alluring stuff - if you can get it.

By 1929, though, Ruppin realized that all that sweetness and light was - alas - unattainable. His rude awakening followed the bloody jihad set off by preceding Arab exhortations to "holy war to protect al-Aksa from Jewish conquest." To fan the flames, provocative photomontages of Herzl (then deceased for 25 years) seemingly near the Aksa compound were circulated.

Ruppin wouldn't have been surprised had he heard Raed Sallah inflame passions last weekend and rouse "believers to launch a third intifada to liberate al-Aksa" from Jewish predations. It would all have sounded unpleasantly familiar to Ruppin, already accustomed to ferocious shouts charging, as Sallah just did, that "Jews want to build their Temple in place of al-Aksa, while our blood drenches their clothing, stains their doorposts and saturates their food and drink."

True, Ruppin died before Sallah was born, but harangues identical to the above were delivered by Sallah's spiritual forebears, foremost among them avid Nazi collaborator Haj Amin el-Husseini. There isn't an iota of originality in any of the calculated hysteria Sallah whips up. It's all been done before and because of it Ruppin quit the very Brit Shalom in which he invested so much gullible cerebral energy and wishful thinking.

The fanatic Muslim agitation sprouted with the British Mandate's inception, when Muslims suddenly evinced emotional attachment to the Western Wall, claiming it to be the hitching post where Muhammad tethered his winged steed Burak. Jewish wailing was tolerated there occasionally, after remittance of exorbitant fees for the privilege - providing Muslim sensibilities weren't offended. The problem was there was no telling what would give offense.

TODAY IT'S replacing a collapsed walkway. In 1919, wooden benches for the old and infirm were cited as the insufferable affront. The British promptly removed them, but Arabs then began to regularly drive cattle and laden donkeys through crowds of Jewish worshipers. From 1920 the muezzin was dispatched to bellow his loudest chants precisely during Jewish services.

In 1921, the sound of the shofar blown on the High Holy Days in front of the Wall became the next pretext for unrest. The British obligingly forbade the annoying blasts.

The shrillest Arab outcry was raised in 1928 over a flimsy partition put up to segregate male and female worshipers at the Wall. The British lost no time in removing the insulting screen right at the climax of Yom Kippur services. From then on premeditated disruptions at the Wall grew increasingly violent, till trumped-up tales of Jewish attempts to take over the Temple Mount sent Arabs rioting on August 23, 1929. The bloodbath lasted a full week and left 133 Jews slaughtered.

The rampages began in Jerusalem, but the most notorious massacre was in Hebron, where 67 men, women and children were hacked to death in homicidal frenzy. The centuries-old Jewish community was uprooted, as were smaller Jewish enclaves in Gaza, Jenin, Tulkarm and Nablus.

THAT'S PRECISELY what Sallah has in mind when he urges "a third intifada." The carnage of 1929, still reverentially dubbed by Arabs as "the Burak Battle," is Sallah's jihadist model for liberating the holy site from the presence of Jews (who sanctified it in the first place). When he barefacedly accuses Jews of "aiming to raze al-Aksa," he knows that such falsehoods have already instigated horrific vendettas for counterfeit causes.

Worse yet, Sallah isn't the oddball firebrand. When the entire Arab/Muslim world refuses to condemn flagrant deceptions, it assumes culpability for the calumny and unbridled hate-mongering. The fact that even non-radical peace partners like Jordan and Egypt, and non-Arab Muslim states like Turkey, chime in with Sallah's screeching chorus ought to send shivers down our spines.

The fact that Israel's Arabs rushed to hostile judgment, without allowing easily verifiable facts to interfere with their knee-jerk inimical opinions, ought to deprive us of sleep. If Israeli-Arab leaders score popularity points via incitement, then we're in unimaginable trouble. If Arab Knesset members profess to believe without reservation or hesitation that Israel's ultra-broadminded democracy has nothing better to do than kindle an explosive religious conflict, then we have dangerously deluded ourselves about coexistence even within Israel's pre-1967 borders.

It's time to stop babbling about judicious Arab moderates, about boosting nonexistent Arab restraint with enticing concessions, about the feasibility of deals with those who know full well that we contemplate nothing like what they assert, yet have no inhibitions to furiously fabricate libel.

If we retain any residual self-preservation instincts, we need to own up to the fact that the lies so brazenly spread about us also, inadvertently, impart a critical truth - every bit as bitter as the one Ruppin was man enough to admit: "The conciliatory tone" of the Brit Shalom he led, Ruppin candidly conceded, "was interpreted by the Arabs as weakness."

Nothing new under our sun.

Jerusalem Post

Aid To Palestinians Increases Since Hamas Election

2007-02-24T01:46:00.000-08:00

Following Hamas's victory in last year's Palestinian elections, the international community suspended direct aid to the Palestinian Authority government until the newly empowered Islamist organization renounces violence, recognizes Israel's right to exist and agrees to abide by previous official agreements between Israel and the Palestinians. Opponents of the suspension have decried the policy, claiming it ignited a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territories. But in fact, aid to the Palestinians has substantially increased since Hamas took over.

In order to bypass Hamas, Western governments simply redirected aid to the office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who at least in theory recognizes Israel. This leaves the Palestinians as the largest recipients per capita of charitable assistance in the world.

The decline in the Palestinian economy has occurred despite the increase in foreign support, and not because of any supposed decrease in aid.

Aid to the Palestinians in 2006

Two recent reports highlight the confusion over aid to the Palestinians. The first, an article in the National Catholic Reporter, asserts:

[T]he decision to cut off aid and impose economic sanctions on the two regions [the West Bank and the Gaza Strip] could lead to an experiment in famine. (“Another Somalia in the Making?,” Neve Gordon, Feb. 2, 2007)

Similarly, an article in the Financial Times states:

Concern is mounting in the international aid community that policies aimed at isolating the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Hamas movement have backfired by further impoverishing the people of Gaza and the West Bank without seriously undermining the Islamists. (“Palestinian aid policies backfiring,” Harvey Morris, Feb.7, 2007)

These assertions overlook the fact that while the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Finance is receiving less funds since Hamas took over, the aid has continued to flow to other institutions not controlled by Hamas, in particular the Office of the President. An October 2006 report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) explains the situation:

Government reciepts and expenditures, instead of being channeled through the Ministry of Finance's Single Treasury Account, are now recieved or made by various institutions, including the MoF (now only to a very limited extent), the Office of the President, ... [and] international donors ....

The IMF notes that the Palestinian Authority received $573 million during the first three quarters of 2006. In a later report, released on Dec. 17, 2006, the IMF estimated that during the last quarter of 2006 the Palestinians had received an additional $136 million, bringing the total for the year to $709 million. This figure is up substantially from the approximately $350 given to the Palestinians in 2005, as reported in the October 2006 IMF report.

Actual receipts might even be higher. Mohammad Yagi, a columnist for the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam and an analyst for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, stated that according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics total donations to the Palestinians exceeded $760 million this past year.

An article appearing in the Dubai based Gulf News on Dec. 7, 2006 quotes a figure of $900 million in foreign aid during 2006.

Additionally, an estimated $66 million has been smuggled in by Hamas couriers and government ministers, the funds apparently being deposited into the PA Finance Ministry. (See, for example, this Dec. 6, 2006 article in the Jerusalem Post.)

Based on these figures, total donations to the Palestinians amount to at least $775 million, more than doubling total foreign donations reported by the IMF in 2005.

The increased donations offset the reduction in revenue arising out of Israel's decision to withhold money it collects and had agreed to turn over to the Palestinian Authority government on the basis of negotiated agreements with the previous Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority. According to an article in the Jan. 19, 2007 issue of the International Herald Tribune, Israel withheld $500 million in 2006. This, however, has been softened by Israel's recent decision to transfer to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas $100 million of this revenue.

The overall aid picture is still higher. Not only is funding given to the Office of the President and other governmental or quasi-governmental institutions, but money is also channeled directly to the Palestinian people through humanitarian and development organizations such as UNRWA, Oxfam, the ICRC, UNICEF and others.

Ibrahim Gambari, Undersecretary General for Political Affairs at the UN, explained on Jan. 25, 2007:

Total assistance to Palestinians last year – not including funds channelled to the Palestinian Authority Government or Hamas by regional donors – had been some $1.2 billion, which represented a nearly 10 per cent increase over 2005. Humanitarian assistance alone had doubled since 2004, taking mainly the form of food aid and cash-for-work programmes.

The Real Crisis

Despite the influx of foreign donations, Palestinian productivity has declined, a trend which undoubtedly has increased the suffering of the Palestinian people.

The Palestinian Authority’s Central Bureau of Statistics notes a broad decline in productivity in Gaza and the West Bank that began when the Hamas government took power in early 2006. This decline reversed a gradual improvement that was underway in 2005. According to the Bureau's figures, the per capita gross domestic product in the West Bank and Gaza declined 18.3 percent between the third quarter of 2005 and the third quarter of 2006. And based on continuing trends, it is quite possible that figures for the fourth quarter of 2006 will likely show an even wider gap from this time frame and the fourth quarter of 2005.

Reduced trade with Israel, the single largest trading partner and employer of Palestinians, is certainly one important component of the Palestinian economic deterioration. This decline in trade is a consequence of Hamas's electoral victory in 2006. Hamas's commitment to the destruction of Israel and refusal to renounce violence, the unabated missile bombardment from Gaza of southern Israel, and the continuing attempts to infiltrate suicide bombers into Israel have prompted Israel to establish a security regimen that sharply curtails economic activity between Palestinians and Israelis. Notably, Palestinian groups including Hamas have also attacked crossing points between the Gaza Strip and Israel, for example the Karni cargo terminal, which are vital to the Palestinian economy.

The unstable political situation in Gaza and the West Bank is another cause of economic decline in Palestinian areas. Increased factional and clan violence, which especially in the Gaza Strip has become part of Palestinian life, interferes with normal business activity and discourages private investment.

Journalists who blame economic hardships in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on a nonexistent "cut-off" of international aid mislead the public, and miss out on reporting the actual causes of the recent crisis: the election of a Palestinian government that refuses to recognize—and launches attacks against—its neighbor and largest trading partner; repeated Palestinan attacks on crossing points that are vital to the Palestinian economy; and intra-Palestinian violence bordering on civil war.

Camera

Egyptian Blogger Jailed For Insulting Islam

2007-02-23T02:25:00.000-08:00

An Alexandria court convicted an Egyptian blogger on Thursday for insulting both Islam and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and sentenced him to four years in jail over his writings on the Internet.

Abdel Karim Suleiman, a 22-year-old former law student who has been in custody since November, was the first blogger to stand trial in Egypt for his Internet writings. He was convicted in connection with eight articles he wrote since 2004.

Rights groups and opposition bloggers have watched Suleiman's case closely, and said they feared a conviction could set a legal precedent limiting Internet freedom in Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country.

The London-based rights group Amnesty International said in a statement: "This is yet another slap in the face of freedom of expression in Egypt." The group considers Suleiman to be a prisoner of conscience, jailed solely for peacefully expressing his opinion, the statement added.

The Paris-based press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders said the sentence was "a disgrace" and the United Nations should respond by disqualifying Egypt from hosting an Internet Governance Forum in 2009.

"It is time the international community took a stand on Egypt's repeated violations of press freedom and the rights of Internet users," a statement added.

Major forum

A fellow blogger who runs the "Rantings of a Sandmonkey" blog said: "It's a dangerous precedent because it will impact the only free space available now, which is the Internet. The charges were undefined and vague."

"Tell me. What does insulting the president mean? What is the difference between criticising religion and being in contempt of religion?" he added, asking to remain anonymous.

The Internet has emerged as a major forum for critics of the Egyptian government to express their views in a country where the states runs large newspapers and main television stations.

While Suleiman was the first blogger to go on trial for the content of his writings, other opposition bloggers have been arrested periodically during street protests and then held for weeks or months before being released.

Suleiman, a Muslim and a liberal, has not denied writing the articles but said they merely represented his own views. His lawyers said they planned to appeal the verdict, and one member of the defense team described the trial as unfair.

One of Suleiman's articles said that al-Azhar in Cairo, one of the most prominent seats of Sunni Muslim learning, was promoting extreme ideas. Another article, headlined "The Naked Truth of Islam as I Saw it," accused Muslims of savagery during clashes between Muslims and Christians in Alexandria in 2005.

He has also described some of the companions of the Muslim prophet Mohammad as "terrorists," and has likened Mubarak to dictatorial pharaohs who ruled ancient Egypt.

"I was hoping that he would get a harsher sentence because he presented to the world a bad image of Egypt. There are things that one should not talk about, like religion and politics. He should have got a 10-year sentence," said lawyer Nizar Habib, who attended the trial as a member of the public.

Y Net News

Israeli Mines Copper To Keep Bacteria Away

2007-02-22T01:48:00.000-08:00

To accomplish goals as diverse as preventing the transmission of the avian flu virus to curing athlete's foot, Cupron, a small American company with a research base in Israel, has developed a valuable new technology out of a very old element - copper oxide.

Copper's anti-microbial properties have been known for more than 5,000 years. Ancient Egyptians used copper pipes to transport water safe of parasites; shipbuilders used copper to keep algae from encrusting ships, and French vintners use copper to fight fungus on grapevines.

Cupron decided to take the uses one step further and introduce copper into clothing and textiles, that, according to the company, will lead to healthier living.

"My dream was to develop a self-sterilizing textile," says Jeffrey Gabbay, founder and CEO of the company, who has a background in textile and chemical engineering. He and his researchers have put together what is considered to be the widest spectrum anti-microbial technology known today. Based on copper oxides, Cupron's state-of-the-art technology is incorporated into special yarns and fibers that present antibacterial, antiviral, and anti-fungal properties.

"Copper oxide is a very active compound," Gabbay told ISRAEL21c. "It is very hard to work with. Most people work with elemental silver as it is effective against bacteria and easy to work with. The problem is that silver oxidizes and it has little effect on odor and viruses. Copper oxide is extremely effective in these fields. We invested in copper and have made it easy to work with."

Cupron's manufacturing technology binds its proprietary copper compound to textile fibers, non-woven fabrics, paper, latex and other polymeric products. The range of products that stand to benefit from the technology include healthcare textiles (curtains, gowns, uniforms, towels, catheters, gloves and gauze), anti-microbial air filters, anti-dust mite mattress covers (which reduce mite-related allergies), and warfare protective clothing, among others.

The research and development component for this project was launched 10 years ago in Israel. Today, there is a small 500-square-meter research plant in the city of Beit Shemesh, just outside of Jerusalem, and a main office in North Carolina. The company also has agents in England, Germany, Italy, France, and Turkey.

"We want to be a North American company, a European company and an Asian company," says Gabbay. Cupron sends its chemistry innovations to an associate partner in Georgia and from there the chemistry is shipped to polyester manufacturers.

"We don't need to own a factory," explains the American-Israeli who splits his time between Jerusalem and Greensboro. "There is so much production out there. We will supply a lot of jobs to the industry but don't actually need a big factory. You could say we jumped on a moving train."

Earlier this year Gloves2Go, a specialty glove manufacturer in the US, announced cooperation with Cupron. "Gloves, incorporating the Cupron technology, will alter the safety conscious landscape in food handling, food processing, and healthcare," said Joseph D. McGarry, President and CEO of Gloves2Go and a 30-year healthcare industry executive, in a press release.

"We thought our gloves were novel to the market until we learned about the Cupron technology. It's far superior to anything out there including ours. Consumers are inundated with antibacterial and antimicrobial products, but the new gloves offer special antiviral efficacy in the face of the avian flu scare and other viral contaminations," said McGarry.

He was not the only one impressed with Cupron's technologies. Gabbay interrupts the interview to joyfully point out that Cupron just received notice that it is the recipient of this year's Frost & Sullivan Best Practices award for technological innovations in an industry.

"It's a nice thing to get the acknowledgment," says Gabbay. "We know we're the innovators of the year. Our hope now is to have an impact on both the textiles and the health-care industry. It is gratifying to know that we have contributed to solving the conundrum of anti-microbial activity in textiles."

Cupron is also working with Renfro Corporation, one of the US's largest manufacturers of socks, to offer products containing copper oxide. "We have socks that can cure athlete's foot," says Gabbay, who is fluent in Arabic, Hebrew, Italian and English. "The US Marines already use them. Because soldiers in combat may not be able to change their socks, socks with copper oxide help them avoid or cure athlete's foot."

Cupron also has 'medical socks' which can aid millions of diabetics who often develop foot infections as a result of their disease. "Diabetics have problems with their feet. If they wear our socks, we will assist in making sure the infections don't occur and in case of existing wounds, we will promote their healing," he says.

Cupron is especially interested in helping the health services industry. Gabbay says they have developed surgical masks that look like the disposable ones but have active ingredients that offer preventative measures against SARS, avian flu, and other viruses. "If and when the virus enters the mask, our mask will deactivate the virus," he says.

The copper-impregnated fibers and polyester products are also used in bed sheets, pillow covers, and gowns and could reduce the high rate of deadly infections. The Herzog Hospital in Jerusalem is now preparing to test Cupron treated fabrics.

The New York Times has reported that as many as 100,000 patients die in American hospitals each year as a result of such infections. Hospitals in the UK, Ireland and elsewhere are experiencing the same crisis.

"We believe we're going to impact hospital-acquired infections. We have identified what we believe to be an important method of transmission of bacteria," says Gabbay. "When sheets and pillowcases are changed in hospitals there are 60 times more bacteria in the air than you have at home.

"Copper oxide shortens the life of germs, viruses, fungi and dust mites, and it inhibits their reproduction. This could make a real impact in reversing the current health crisis - the unacceptably high number of patients who die or suffer lasting injury because of infections contracted in hospitals."

Cupron has its own viral labs in Rehovot where testing is done. The National Institutes of Health (in the US) has also tested its data. Yet even with positive results, Cupron is finding it difficult to persuade health officials that it knows what it's doing. "We are now working on finding ways to protect people from the avian virus through prevention," says Gabbay. "But people don't believe what they're seeing."

He notes that some of Cupron's future offerings could include treated underwear that would help women avoid yeast infections, bristles for toothbrushes, diapers to avoid diaper rash, filters for the machines that pump blood during heart operations, and filters for the ventilation systems in airplanes and buildings where air laden with germs and viruses are re-circulated.

Gabbay points out that copper oxide helps with skin renewal. He says someone who sleeps on a copper-impregnated pillowcase can "reduce wrinkles and get rid of crow's feet." Cupron is currently in talks with three leading cosmetic companies to commercialize its products.

Moreover, Cupron is a "green" company, meaning it recycles all of its water, chemistry and waste products. "We are committed to improving the quality of life of people all over the world," says Gabbay.

"Our goal is to save lives. That's really what we're about," he concludes. "We are going to make people's quality of life better."

Israel 21st Century

Equal Number Jews, Arabs In Jerusalem

2007-02-21T01:47:00.000-08:00

If there is no change in the reproduction rate among Jerusalem residents, by 2035 there will be an equal number of Arabs and Jews residing in the capital, a study by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies has found.

The institute will present the data Thursday at the opening ceremony of a lecture series to mark 40 years to the reunification of Jerusalem.

The data attained by Ynet reveals that the reproductive rate of the capital’s Arab population is double that of the Jewish population.

According to the study, 720,000 people lived in Jerusalem, of which 66 percent were Jewish (475,000) and 34 percent (245,000) were Arab.

By the year 2020, the gap is expected to narrow, with Jerusalem population expected to be 60 percent Jewish and 40 percent Arab.
Since 1967, when Jerusalem numbered 266,000 residents, its population has grown rapidly, although over the past four decades the Arab population has increased at a higher rate than the Jewish population.

Since the Six Day War, when there were 197,000 Jews in the capital, the population increased at a rate of 140 percent per year to reach 495,000. In comparison, the Arab population grew at a rate of 257 percent per year, from 68,000 in 1967 to 244,000 in 2005.

“If these trends continue, we’ll reach a situation in which the Arab population outnumbers the Jewish population,” Dr. Maya Choshen, a researcher at the institute, told Ynet.

“The separation barrier being built around Jerusalem is hastening the growth rate of Arabs in the city because many that are afraid of losing their civilian rights move to the Arab neighborhoods. There are a few possible options to prevent the process – like for example increasing the attractivity of Jerusalem through development, or even separating from a number of the city’s neighborhoods,” Choshen said.

The institute stressed that the data challenges Israel’s declared state policy since the city’s reunification to maintain a Jewish majority in Jerusalem.

Y Net News

Good Terrorists, Bad Terrorists

2007-02-20T01:35:00.000-08:00

A sparkling afternoon on the White House lawn; the Jewish celebrity world was there, side-by-side with their Muslim cousins. The Israeli prime minister, a war hero, was shaking hands with one of the most despicable mass murderers of modern time, the man who ordered the torture, mutilation, and killing of hundreds of Israelis, as well as Americans (including soldiers and diplomats), Europeans, Canadians, etc. But this mass murderer had reformed; he now wanted peace. And we believed it.

For the next seven years, the fraud continued unabated - the PLO and its leadership encouraging and committing mass murder of Jews while preaching peace and brotherhood on CNN. And we believed it, shielding our eyes from the brightness of the exploding buses and baby strollers. We went a step further than just believing - thinking that life must resemble theater, we created "good guys" from the murderers, hard though that may be, to distinguish from the "bad guys", believing the truism of the modern world that they can't be all bad.

So, no matter what the "bad guys" did, we had to keep talking to the "good guys". And the stories would have been comical, if they were not so tragic. One "good guy" ordered a suicide bus bombing from his cellphone in Bill Clinton's White House oval office (and you thought Monica was the worst thing to happen there). The Israeli prime minister met with the PLO leadership while their subordinates were committing two suicide bombings at the exact same time. And the stories go on and on.

In September 2000, the good guy terrorists and the bad guy terrorists attacked in an all-out war against Israel and the Jewish people; and I thought the world, or at least the Jewish world, recognized there was no distinction among the terrorists - the destruction of Israel is their joint goal.

After five years of unabated mass murder and over 1,000 deaths, we still fall for the longest running joke in the Middle East: the good guys of Mahmoud Abbas and the bad guys of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The Israeli prime minister meets with Abbas and raises the flag of murder in Jerusalem. The US secretary of state calls for the renewal of meetings with this PA charlatan. And the Jewish leadership, led by Peace Now and the Policy Forum, are already clamoring for "final-stage negotiations" with another Holocaust denier who dreams about the end of Israel (and another Holocaust).

Now that the cataracts have been removed from our eyes, let us review what we see:

1. The PLO, led by Mahmoud Abbas, is directly responsible for numerous acts of mass murder and the importing of thousands of weapons, some of mass destruction;

2. The PLO, led by Mahmoud Abbas, worked and frequently works side-by-side with the "bad guys" in committing these murderous acts;

3. The PLO, led by Mahmoud Abbas, wants the destruction of Israel and the genocide of the Jewish people just as much as the "bad guys" do;

4. The PLO, led by Mahmoud Abbas, was directly responsible for the murder of US diplomats and soldiers;

5. The PLO, led by Mahmoud Abbas, celebrated and supported the Hizbullah forces and victory just as much as their brethren on the "bad guy" side;

6. The PLO, led by Mahmoud Abbas, has supported the murder of US soldiers in Iraq and gave full support to its mentor, Saddam Hussein;

7. It is only because of the game Arafat played and Abbas now plays with and on the West that resulted in Arafat receiving billions of dollars of support from the US and Europe, and will now allow Abbas to start receiving comparable sums as long as Abbas does not use Ahmadinejad's language of Holocaust and genocide;

8. According to a recent poll, fully two-thirds of Palestinians continue to see violence against Israel as a justified act of "resistance".

And just last week, after nine months of relative calm (i.e., no successful suicide bombings, just dozens of rockets, mortars and shootings), came the first-ever suicide bombing in Eilat, an (until now) oasis of calm in the Israeli storm. Consider the following press report of the attack:

"A Palestinian suicide bomber killed three Israelis at a bakery yesterday in the first such attack inside the country in nine months, and the two radical groups that claimed to have sent him said they were trying to end weeks of Palestinian infighting by taking aim at Israel instead."

Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aksa Martyrs' Brigades claimed joint responsibility. This time, the United States government did not single out a particular Palestinian terror group for responsibility in the attack. For the first time in recent memory, the US held the entire Palestinian Authority government responsible, primarily because the Palestinians loyal to Mahmoud Abbas, the chairman of the PA and the head of the Fatah organization, took credit for the murders in Eilat. Indeed, the official evening television newscast of the PBC, the Palestinian Broadcast Corporation, owned and operated by the PA, announced that the Fatah shared credit for the attack - even though the official Israeli government TV Channel One newscast announced that these were "graduates" of the Fatah, hinting that Abbas could not have been responsible for the attack.

Let's take a test - I'll quote a Palestinian leader and you'll tell me - moderate or radical?

"These weapons liberated the land, and by these weapons we will continue the liberation process."

"Radical" Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

"We plan to eliminate the state of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian state. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion.... We Palestinians will take over everything, including all of Jerusalem."

"Moderate leader" Yasser Arafat.

"Peace for us means the destruction of Israel. We are preparing for an all-out war, a war which will last for generations."

Again, "moderate leader" Yasser Arafat.

"With the will and determination of its sons, Fatah will continue. We will not give up our principles and we have said that rifles should be directed against the occupation."

"We have a legitimate right to direct our guns against Israeli occupation."

Radical? Nope. That was our "moderate" partner, Mr. Abbas.

It's time to open our eyes and realize that Abbas and his cohorts in Fatah and the PLO or PA are evil, even on a relative scale; unfortunately, there is no one on the Palestinian side to talk to. In fact, Abbas's position concerning Israel cannot change, given the nature of the society over which he presides.

It is a society that fails to discipline its people after they decapitate an Israeli reservist and use his head as a soccer ball, that routinely allows alleged Israeli "collaborators" to be dragged from their homes and shot in front of their families, that throws candies into the air to celebrate the murder of Israeli civilians, that mourns the death of the Butcher of Baghdad, and that extols the virtues of "martyrdom" in its classrooms, marketplaces, children's video games, essay contests, summer camps and on its billboards. It is a society that has a serious pathological problem that cannot be rectified through negotiations and roundtable discussions.

Under such conditions, there cannot be anyone to talk to on the Palestinian side and will not be until the Palestinians expunge all of this from their society. It will take years; it may take even longer.

It is time to wake up, my friends, and think about those things we hold dear - our people, our values, our religion, our state - and protect them.

Israel National News

First Step In Network Protection - Israel's Insightix

2007-02-19T01:56:00.000-08:00

Network Access Control (NAC), the holy grail of network security, has become a hot topic. Laptops - easily plugged in at home, at the airport, in a hotel - are a boon for business. The downside of increased mobility and the fanning out of the workplace, however, is that it increases the vulnerability of an organization's network to unauthorized access. The result: viruses, worms, and malicious attacks.

The market for NAC is expected to soar to $3.9 billion by 2008. But in an industry led by NAC firms such as Cisco, Juniper, and Symantec, a nimble Israeli company, Insightix, has leapfrogged over some major contenders to earn the Frost & Sullivan World Network Access Control (NAC) Best Value Award, for a security product it launched just six months ago.

Insightix NAC provides a complete inventory of all computer devices connected to a network. Because of its on-going monitoring feature, the product detects changes in inventory as they occur. Quality and cost were reasons cited by Frost & Sullivan, a highly regarded analysis firm that provides global consulting and research services, in its choice of Insightix NAC.

"Insightix delivers technologically solid solutions at an attractive price. (It) allows organizations to implement a fully operational NAC solution with their existing network gear (and) simplifies a great deal of the implementation challenges," reported Frost & Sullivan research analyst Robert Ayoub.

Ofir Arkin, the CTO and co-founder of Insightix, says that NAC is an essential first step in protecting computer networks.

"The laptop of a sales manager reconnecting to the network after a business trip or the unknown laptop of an outside consultant connecting to the network exposes a company or any organization to serious vulnerabilities if unchecked," he told ISRAEL21c. "Every business or organization needs to safeguard access to its information network, and its contents."

Insightix's founder is an internationally recognized expert on NAC, and is a frequent speaker at security conferences. A respected maverick, Arkin stirred up the industry at a conference in August, where he challenged existing assumptions about NAC as defined by some of the large vendors, and showed that present solutions are by-passable, and do not provide 100% coverage.

Arkin will be speaking on the topic again at the OSSIR in Paris in February, at Infosec World Conference & Expo 2007, in Orlando, Florida in March, and at the SchmooCon in Washington, DC also in March.

Before co-founding Insightix, Arkin was a consultant on security matters to numerous multinational companies in the financial, telecom, and pharmaceutical markets. He was recently elected to the board of directors of the Voice over IP Security Alliance (VoIPSA).

"I became interested in computers at the age of 12." Arkin said. "While some kids would rip up a car to find out how it works, I wanted to know how a computer works." Arkin says that he still likes to play with the technology and to figure out ways to innovate the products.

While studying computer science at the University of Haifa, he began working for a software company that specialized in security, and was on a team that consulted on security for a major bank in Switzerland.

Later, working for a consulting firm in England, Arkin recognized the need for a comprehensive system to track every device on a network - desktop computers, routers, switches, servers.

"Knowing what is on your network is the essential starting point for any IT (Information Technology) security initiative," he says. "Many organizations work in the dark."

Arkin and Lior Tal, an entrepreneur in IT security, co-founded Insightix in 2004. The company's investors include Nasdaq-traded Quest Software, several technology veterans, and Blumberg Capital. Its advisory board includes industry leaders from IBM, Computer Associates, Citrix, Check Point, RSA, Comverse, ECI Telecom and AudioCodes. Insightix Discovery was launched at the beginning of 2006, based on Arkin's 10 years in security research.

According to Tony Marquez, the manager of technical services at the Children's Specialized Hospital in Mountainside, NJ., with branches, clinics and labs in six other cities, the installation of Insightix NAC has made a big difference to the hospital's ability to keep track of its complicated computer system.

"Unknown laps and wireless access points, especially in our remote locations, are no longer beyond our visibility and control," Marquez told ISRAEL21c.

"Many companies still go from room to room to count devices," said Tony Miller, Insightix's marketing director. "It is easy to miss a device. Missing just one device exposes a company to vulnerabilities."

Insightix uses an intelligent combination of active and passive discovery techniques to achieve a complete inventory of all computer devices connected to the network.

"Discovery systems that use only active methods that scan periodically can miss a device that is not plugged in at the time of the scan," Miller explained. "Another problem with active scans is they are based on sending out packets which slow down performance of the network and are often dropped by any firewalled-protected device. The unique system Ofir developed overcomes these problems. It identifies every device connected to a network in real-time."

"We needed a product that showed real-time traffic analysis. Insightix automatically goes out and discovers your entire network," said Erik Tebelak, director of information technology for MobiTV, the first mobile TV and digital radio provider, with over a million subscribers. "Plus, it is inexpensive compared to other systems."

"Once we had a good Discovery System to identify all devices on a network, our customers urged us to develop a NAC solution to control network access," said Arkin. "It was a natural evolution."

Insightix's NAC ensures that only authorized and compliant devices are allowed to operate on the network. The company's unique Quarantine Silo technology is the first line of defense against rogue devices that try to connect to the network. Each device is put in isolated quarantine, shielded from other devices in quarantine that might infect it, while it goes through compliance checks, such as making sure anti-virus software is installed and running. A computer cannot interact with another device in quarantine or access any part of the network while it is in isolation. Competitive products do not have isolated quarantine.

"Insightix NAC performs continuous network monitoring to make certain that the endpoint stays compliant throughout its operation," said the Frost & Sullivan citation.

Summing up the advantages of the system, Miller says: "The customer does not have to buy expensive new hardware or software; it requires no software agents, and it can be installed in a matter of hours. We are changing the assumption in the market that for a good NAC solution, you need a 'rip and replace' approach."

Insightix's line up of satisfied customers already includes banks, insurance companies, and health care organizations in the US, Europe, and Asia. "We are getting very good feedback," said Miller.

"A customer in Singapore was amazed that the system was installed in two to three hours," said Miller. "They joked that they were able to install and evaluate the system before other vendors were able to send them proposals."

Israel 21st Century

Western Wall Is Muslim

2007-02-18T04:47:00.000-08:00

"The Western Wall - on all its various parts, structures and gates, and all the names these parts, structures and gates are called – is an inseparable part of the al-Aqsa compound," declared Islamist leader Sheikhh Raed Salah.

The Western Wall "is part of Al-Aqsa's western tower, which the Israeli establishment fallaciously and sneakily calls the 'Wailing Wall'. The wall is part of the holy al-Aqsa Mosque," added Salah, who heads the northern faction of the Islamic Movement in Israel.

However these statements were not made recently. Rather, they were made at a time when then Prime Minister Ehud Barak was sitting in a room at Camp David, trying to forge a peace agreement with Yasser Arafat's Palestinian government. But Salah still stands firmly behind them and they can be found on the Islamic Movement's website.

Those who believe in Jewish link to wall - traitors'

Two key issues have come into light following the recent events in Jerusalem, and Israelis will likely not be pleased with either: The first – Salah is establishing his position as a known Muslim leader struggling for the al-Aqsa Mosque (he is now known as the Sheikh of al-Aqsa).

The second – moving even the smallest pebble in the larger Temple Mount area will draw similar reactions, even if it is minor repair work to the Western Wall visitor's site. These works will again bring to confrontations born out of a claim that "Israel is harming the Temple Mount and desecrating a place holy to Muslims."

The reinforcement work to save the collapsing Mugrabi Gate walkway outside the Temple Mount was certainly not seen as such by the Islamic Movement in Israel and Salah immediately arrived at the scene to proclaim the project part of a wide-reaching Israeli plot to destroy the mosque.

According to Salah's sermons, which can be found on his group's websites, Jews have absolutely no connection to the 'al-Buraq Wall', the name given by Muslims to the site."The Mugrabi Gate is part of the western wall of al-Aqsa," says Salah in a sermon number 32, which can be found on his websites dedicated to his organization.

Salah also slams the notion of allowing Israel sovereignty over the Western Wall in exchange of Muslim sovereignty over the Temple Mount, accusing all those who would consider allowing Jews access to the Western Wall traitors.

"He who says that the Jews or the Israeli establishment has any right to al-Aqsa, even to just one stone - this is an abominable attack, a falsehood, completely baseless," says Salah, "he among Palestinians, Arabs or Muslims who accepts this, is a traitor to Allah and his prophet."

Not only the Western Wall is Muslim

But the current controversy is not the only such one, Salah and his followers launched a campaign last year against the construction of the 'Museum of Tolerance' in Jerusalem, saying it was being built on Muslim graveyard or any number of places in Safed or Yafo, where according to the Islamic Movement 'Jewish' buildings were constructed on the ruins of Muslim holy places.

Since his release from prison two years ago Sheikh Salah has been steadily building a name for himself as a leader for all Muslims, this despite the fact that he lives in Israel. By focusing on social issues he has won over people from the bottom up, though his followers say his humbleness, manners and simple attire also helped establish his persona as a leader. He is a daily newsmaker in the Arab media and for now, his star seems to only be rising.

Y Net News

The Rapture And Glorious Appearing Of Jesus Christ

2007-02-17T04:12:00.000-08:00

The New Testament clearly teaches that Jesus Christ will "come again" (John 14:1-3) and "appear the second time" (Hebrews 9:38). At least nine biblical terms are used in the New Testament to describe the return of Christ.[1]

1. Ho erchomenos. "The coming one," as in Hebrews 10:37, "For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come."

2. Erchomai. The act of coming. Used often of Christ's return. Cf. Matthew 24:30; John 14:3; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; Jude 14; Revelation 1:7; 22:20.

3. Katabaino. To "come down" or descend, as in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout."

4. Heko. Result of one's coming, to have "arrived," as in Revelation 3:3, "I will come as a thief."

5. Parousia. Denotes arrival and presence (of a ruler), as in 1 Thessalonians 2:19, "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?"

6. Apokalupsis. Meaning to "unveil" or "uncover." Rendered "appearing" (1 Peter 1:7) or "coming" (1 Corinthians 1:7) or "revelation" (Revelation 1:1). Involves the unveiling of His divine glory.

7. Phaneroo. To "appear" (John 21:1) or be "manifest" (1 John 3:5). As in 1 John 3:2, "It is not yet made manifest what we shall be. but we know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he is."

8. Epiphaino. To "appear" in full light or visibility. Denotes the "brightness" of His coming (2 Thessalonians 2:8) and the glory of "that day... unto all them that love his appearing" (2 Timothy 4:8).

9. Horao. To "see with the eyes," or to "appear" visibly, as in Hebrews 9:28, "and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time."

NATURE OF HIS COMING

The Bible predicts the literal personal return of Jesus Christ to rapture His church, to judge the world and to establish His Kingdom on earth. At times this is described as one grand event. At other times it is clearly divided into separate phases.

1. Personal. The intensive pronoun "himself" means the Lord and no other, as in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven."

2. Literal. He will return as He ascended literally. Acts 1:11 promises: "This same Jesus, who is taken up from you, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven." Revelation 1:7 promises that "every eye shall see him."

3. Glorious. He will return in the glory of His deity. Matthew 16:27, "in the glory
of his Father." Matthew 25:31, "in his glory." Matthew 24:30, "...great glory."

4. Powerful. Jesus will return in the "glory of his power" (2 Thessalonians 1:9). He will employ angels of power (1:7) to establish His Kingdom on earth as He comes with His angelic heavenly escort (Matthew 25:31).

TIME OF HIS COMING

Most evangelicals agree as to the nature of Christ's return, but there is substantial disagreement on the time of His coming. Notice these key aspects of the time of our Lord's return:

1. Future. The entire emphasis of the New Testament points to a future return of Christ. He promised "I will come again" (John 14:3). The angels promised He would return (Acts 1:11). The apostles taught the certainty of His future return (Philippians 3:20; Titus 2:13; 2 Peter 3:3-8; 1 John 3:2-3).

2. Progressive. The present tense of "cometh" in 1 Thessalonians 5:2 indicates that He is in the process of coming again, marking the steady, uninterrupted movement of time toward that certain day. Hebrews 10:37, "For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry."

3. Imminent. The return of Christ is always described as potentially imminent or "at hand" (Revelation 1:3; 22:10). Every generation of believers is warned to be ready for His coming. Luke 12:40, "be... ready also: for the Son of Man comes at an hour you think not." Believers are constantly urged to look for the coming of the Lord (see Philippians 3:20; Hebrews 9:28; Titus 2:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:6).

4. Distant. From God's perspective, Jesus is coming at any moment. But from the human perspective it has already been nearly 2,000 years. Jesus hinted at this in the Olivet Discourse in the illustration of the man who traveled into a "far country" (heaven) and was gone "a long time" (Matthew 25:19). Peter also implies this in his prediction that men will begin to scoff at the second coming after a long period of time (2 Peter 3:8-9).

5. Undated. While the Rapture is the next major event on the prophetic calendar, it is undated as is the glorious appearing of Christ. Jesus said: "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, not even the angels of heaven" (Matthew 24:36). Later he added: "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons" (Acts 1:7).

6. Unexpected. The mass of humanity will not be looking for Christ when He returns (Matthew 24:50; Luke 21:35). They will be saying, "peace and safety," when caught unprepared by His return. So unexpected will be His return that, "as a snare shall it come upon them that dwell on the whole face of the earth" (Luke 21:35).

7. Sudden. The Bible warns that Jesus will come "as a thief in the night (and) then sudden destruction" will come upon the unbelieving world (1 Thessalonians 5:2-3). His return for the Bride will occur in a flash: "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye... for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead (believers) shall be raised incorruptible, and we (living believers) shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:52).

TWO ASPECTS OF HIS COMING

The Second Coming of Christ is a series of events fulfilling all end-time prophecies. These include predictions of Christ's coming for His Church and with His Church. Pretribulationalists generally divide the Second Coming into two main phases: the Rapture of the Church and the Glorious Appearing of Christ.

The Rapture (or translation) of the Church is often paralleled to the "raptures" of Enoch (Genesis 5:24) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:12) or the ascension of Christ (Acts 1:9), all of whom were "taken up" into heaven. The Bible clearly states: For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up (Greek, harpazo) with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, italics added).

The hope of the Church is the Rapture. She awaits the Savior who is coming for His bride. The Church does not await the destruction of the world as unbelievers do, she awaits a Person. Peter explains that the present world is "reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men (2 Peter 3:7, italics added). While the Church is warned to prepare for suffering and persecution throughout the Church Age, she is not as the object of God's final wrath.

The Church is promised that the "coming of the Lord" will result in her being "gathered together" (Greek, episunagoges) into him" (2 Thessalonians 2: 1).[2] It is this promise of the Rapture, not the Wrath, that is in view in Revelation 3:10, "I will keep you from (Greek, ek "out of") the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world." Notice that the Church is to be kept from not through, the hour of tribulation. We are to wait for Jesus to come from heaven to "deliver us form the wrath to come" (1 Thessalonians 1:10).

The Rapture will take up those who have died in Christ over the centuries and those believers who are alive when He returns. This will occur in the future. Jesus said: "A time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice and come out" (John 5:28). Believers are pictured as being raised to life (first resurrection) to reign with Christ a thousand years (Revelation 20:4-5).

There can be no doubt that the Bible teaches a Rapture ("caught up," or "gathering together") of the Church. Amillennialists and Post-millennialists miss this point altogether. There will be a Rapture, or 1 and 2 Thessalonians need to be removed from the New Testament! The only real question is when will it occur?

THE ORDER OF THE RAPTURE

By combining John 14:13, I Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-53, Tim LaHaye suggests the following sequence of events:[3]

1. Jesus Christ descends from heaven (John 14:1-3; I Thess. 4:16).

2. He comes to receive us (church) unto Himself (John 14:13).

3. He comes in the "twinkling of an eye" (1 Cor. 15:52) with a shout and the trumpet call of God (1 Thess. 4:16).

4. He resurrects those believers who have "fallen asleep" in death (1 Thess. 4:14- 15).

5. Those who are alive at that time will be "caught up" (Rapture) with the resurrected Church in the clouds (1 Thess. 4:17; 1 Cor. 15:51-53).

The Rapture will be followed by:

1. Judgment Seat of Christ (Romans 14:20; 1 Cor. 3:11-15; 2 Cor. 5:10) and 2. Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-9).

These two events precede the return of Christ in power and glory at Armageddon (Rev. 19:11-21).

CONTRAST BETWEEN THE RAPTURE AND GLORIOUS APPEARING

RAPTURE GLORIOUS APPEARING

1. Christ comes for His own (John 1. Christ comes with His own

14:3;IThess. 14:17;2Thess.2:1). (1 Thess. 3:13; Jude 14; Rev. 19:14).

2. He comes in the air (1 Thess. 4:17) 2. He comes to the earth
Zech. 14:4; Acts1:11).

3. He claims His bride 3. He comes with His bride
(Rev. 19:6-14).

4. Removal of believers (1 Thess 4:17). 4. Manifestation of Christ (Mal. 4:2).

5. Only His own see Him 5. Every eye shall see Him
(1 Thess. 4:13-18) (Rev. 1:7).

6. Tribulation begins. 6. Millennial Kingdom begins.

7. Saved are delivered from wrath 7. Unsaved experience the wrath of God (1 Thess. 1:10; 5-9) (Rev. 6:12-17).

8. No signs precede Rapture 8. Signs precede glorious appearing
(1 Thess. 5:1-3). (Luke 21:11, 15).

9. Focus: Lord and Church 9. Focus: Israel and Kingdom (1 Thess. 4:13-18). (Matthew 24:14).

10. World is deceived. 10. Satan is bound (2 Thess. 2:3-12) (Rev. 20:1-2).

REASONS FOR A PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE

1. Christ promised to keep the Church from the Tribulation. In Revelation 3:10, the risen Christ said the Church would be kept from (Literally, "preserved" or "protected out of")the hour of trial, or divine retribution, that is coming on the whole world.

2. Tribulation judgments are the "wrath of the Lamb." Revelation 6:16 depicts the cataclysmic judgments of the end times as the wrath of Christ. Whereas, Revelation 19:7-9 depicts the Church as the bride of the Lamb. She is not the object of His wrath which is poured out on an unbelieving world.

3. Jesus told his disciples to pray they would escape the Tribulation. In Luke 21:36 He said: "Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen. Remember, even Lot was given a chance to escape Sodom before divine judgment fell.

4. His coming in the clouds means the Church's deliverance has come. Jesus told His disciples: "Lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near" (Luke 21:28). The hope of the Church is not in surviving the judgment of Tribulation, but escaping it.

5. God will call His ambassadors home before declaring war on the world. In 2 Corinthians 5:20, believers are called "Christ's Ambassadors" who appeal to the world to be reconciled to God before it is too late.

6. Moral restraint will disappear when the Church is taken home. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-11 warns that after the "coming of the Lord" and "our being gathered to Him," the "man of lawlessness" (Antichrist) will emerge on the world scene. The Church's restraining ministry of "salt" and "light" will no longer hold back the tide of evil.

7. The Rapture will happen in the "twinkling of an eye." 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 promises that "in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye... the dead shall be raised imperishable and we (living at the Rapture) will be changed." This instantaneous disappearance will terminate the Church's earthly ministry.

8. The Rapture will take place in the air. Unlike the glorious appearing when Christ descends to earth, splits the Mount of Olives, overthrows Antichrist and binds Satan, the Rapture will occur when we are "caught up together... to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thess. 4:17).

9. Woman who suffers persecution during the Tribulation symbolizes Israel. This is a very important point. The woman who delivers the male child (Christ) represents the nation of Israel. Israel, not the Church, brought forth Christ, and He in turn, brought forth the Church. He is the founder of the Church, not its descendant. Therefore, the persecuted "saints" of the Tribulation are Jewish - the remnant of the woman's seed (Revelation 12:1-2, 5-6, 17).

10. Marriage of Christ (Lamb) and His Bride (Church) takes place before the Battle of Armageddon. The Bible describes the fall of "Babylon" (Kingdom of Antichrist) in Revelation 17-18. But before it tells of Christ's return to conquer the Antichrist, it tells us "the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready" (Rev. 19:7-8). This clearly indicates the Bride has been taken to heaven earlier and that she returns with Christ and the host of the "armies of heaven... dressed in fine linen, white and clean" (Rev. 19:8, 14).

1996 Pre-Trib Study Group Dr. Ed Hindson

END NOTES

[1] 1. See Herman A. Hoyt, The End Times (Chicago: Moody Press, 1969), pp. 63-65.

[2] A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1931 reprint), Vol. IV, p. 47. He notes that episcunagoges is a late word found only in 2 Maccabees 2:7; 2 Thessalonians 2:1; Hebrews 10:25. It means "assembly" or "collection." Robertson notes that it refers to the rapture in 2 Thess. 2:1.

[3] Tim LaHaye, No Fear of the Storm (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 1992), pp. 28-31.

Land Owners Right To Defend Property With Force

2007-02-16T00:29:00.000-08:00

A new draft bill proposing that land owners who take physical action to defend against intruders on their property not be subjectable to prosecution self-defense passed a first reading in the Knesset on Wednesday.

Inspired by the ordeal of a southern farmer who shot and killed Bedouin criminals he caught on his farm last month, former Agriculture Minister and Likud MK Yisrael Katz described his draft bill as "revolutionary."

"This is one of the most significant civil revolutions in years," Katz said of his bill which was passed by a 37-19 vote. The bill needs to pass second and third votes to become law.

Shai Dromi fired at Khaled al-Atrash and Ayoub al-Hawashleh who broke into his Negev farm in late January. Dromi was charged with manslaughter for the killing of al-Atrash.

Al-Hawashleh was injured and was indicted for attempted burglary upon recovering from his injuries.

The incident split the country into supporters and opponents of changing the laws to protect land owners by giving them legal protection should they choose to take physical action against intruders.

'Absurd'
Citing a similar law in the United States, farmers and other groups argue that such law will make burglars think twice before breaking into private property.

Civil rights group however say the bill will be interpreted as a "license to kill" by armed land owners and violates the legal rights of burglars whom they say should be tried in court instead of being executed at the scene of their crimes.

"The Knesset is telling citizens: we trust your judgment and allow you to protect yourselves from those who break into your homes," Katz said who collected the signature of 100 local authority leaders and mayors in favor of the bill.

"Under the current law, one can not really and practically defend his home," he said. "Even women who are attacked at home can not protect themselves automatically."

Although the government has yet to make clear its official position on the issue, the newly-appointed Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann criticized the state's failure in cracking down on crime and protecting its citizens.

"Israeli governments are not providing their citizens with the protection from criminals as they deserve," Friedmann said.

Minister-without-portfolio Yitzhak Cohen of Shas described the bill as absurd. "What happens if a hungry boy breaks into a bakery to eat bread? According to the law his sentence is death. That's absurd," he said.

Israel Insider

35 MKs Want Joseph's Tomb Reopened

2007-02-15T01:52:00.000-08:00

Thirty-five MKs, including members of Kadima, Gil (Pensioners Party), Likud, Israel Beiteinu, United Torah Judaism and Shas, sent a letter to OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh asking to open Joseph's Tomb to Jewish visitors for prayer.

MK Uri Ariel (National Union-National Religious Party) is spearheading the parliamentarians' effort to renew the visits. All members of Ariel's party signed the letter to Naveh.

The tomb, located inside Nablus, was abandoned in September 2000 at the beginning of the second intifada at the behest of then prime minister Ehud Barak. Palestinians destroyed the Torah scroll, holy books and other Judaica on the premises.

In May 2002, as part of Operation Defense Shield, the tomb was recaptured, and shortly afterwards in response to numerous requests the IDF renewed guarded tours of the tomb.

One day every month at midnight as many as 800 visitors were allowed to pray at the gravesite. These visits were designed to prevent unauthorized and unprotected clandestine visits, mainly by Breslav Hassidim.

However, for the last three years due to security concerns, Naveh discontinued the visits to the tomb.

Signatories include MK Moshe Sharoni, chairman of the Pensioners Party, presidential candidate MK Reuven Rivlin (Likud), all members of United Torah Judaism except Ya'acov Litzman and five members of Shas.

Jerusalem Post

Syria: We Have Missing Israeli

2007-02-14T02:09:00.000-08:00

A Syrian organization has claimed that they are holding Guy Hever, the IDF soldier who disappeared some 10 years ago in the Golan Heights, it was reported on Tuesday evening.

The organization, which calls itself "The Resistance Committees for the Release of the Golan Heights," published an announcement that read, "Don't think millions of your dollars will return the soldier who went missing in the Golan. You know very well how to get him back," according to the report on the Ynet Web site.

The group reportedly demanded the release of nine Syrian prisoners who are currently in Israeli jails in exchange for the missing soldier.

Following the release of the report, Hever's mother, Rina, said that it only reiterated her absolute certainty that her son was, and always has been held by the Syrians.

"I always said that [Syria] is where he is, and no one listened to me," she told Army Radio.

Army officials said that this was not the first time that an organization has claimed to have Hever in its custody, but nonetheless, the military was investigating the latest claim.

Hever was last seen in the Golan Heights in August of 1997.

Jerusalem Post

Telling Friend From Foe

2007-02-13T01:55:00.000-08:00

One of the most difficult things in life is to draw the line between friend and foe. Take the Palestinian terror groups.

Last week in Mecca, the Fatah terror group, which mixes the murder of Israelis with negotiations with Israelis, officially joined forces with the Hamas terror group, which murders Israelis while refusing to negotiate with us.

Although the agreement makes it clear that both are at war with Israel, on Sunday the Olmert government decided to reserve judgment on the terror unity deal. And Monday morning Vice Premier Shimon Peres warned that saying bad things about the Mecca deal would only weaken Fatah terror boss Mahmoud Abbas, whom we should strengthen because he likes to negotiate while killing.

Given how hard it is for Israel to identify its Arab foes, it is little wonder that identifying Jewish foes is a near-Herculean task.

Last month the American Jewish Committee took an important first step in this direction by publishing a paper by Prof. Alvin Rosenfeld from the University of Indiana entitled, "'Progressive' Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism." Explaining the difference between criticism of Israel and demonization of the Jewish state, Rosenfeld wrote, "To call Israel a Nazi state… as is commonly done today, or to accuse it of fostering South African-style apartheid or engaging in ethnic cleansing or wholesale genocide goes well beyond legitimate criticism." Rosenfeld noted that these descriptors of Israel, which aim to single out Israel "as a political entity unworthy of secure and sovereign existence" are today "part of a standard discourse among 'progressive' American Jews, who seem to take for granted that the historical record shows Israel to be an aggressor state guilty of sins comparable to Hendrik Verwoerd's South Africa and Hitler's Germany."

HAVING described the phenomenon, Rosenfeld proceeded to identify prominent American Jews, including New York University Prof. Tony Judt, playwright Tony Kushner, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, Noam Chomsky, and Adrienne Rich as leading Jewish lights in the leftist assault on the Jewish people's right to self-determination in our homeland.

Rosenfeld's paper evoked strong reactions in the American Jewish community. A New York Times write-up of the controversy entitled, "Essay Linking Liberal Jews and Anti-Semitism Sparks a Furor," described how the same "progressive" Jews and their supporters are up in arms over being painted as anti-Semites. Judt opined that the point of the article was to silence them.

This of course, is pure nonsense. All the Jews in America couldn't silence Judt and his colleagues even if they wished to. As anti-Israel Jews, they will never lack prestigious forums from which to propagate their hatred for Israel.

Far from seeking to silence these hostile Jewish voices, Rosenfeld's essay simply serves to draw lines between friend and foe where such lines are important. The views of Kushner, Judt and Cohen are no less anti-Jewish than similar statements by non-Jews.

Rosenfeld's efforts, while important, are insufficient. The likes of Judt and Kushner use their professed Jewishness as a tool to advance the cause of Israel's denunciation. Others hide behind protestations of Zionism to undermine Israel's right to defend itself against enemies actively working toward its destruction.

CASE IN point is the Union of Progressive Zionists. The UPZ is the US campus representative of the Labor and Meretz parties as well as of Hashomer Hatzair and Habonim Dror. In its mission statement, the UPZ claims to be "a network of student activists organizing on campuses across North America for social justice and peace in Israel/Palestine. The UPZ was created to provide guidance, education and resources to students who seek to impart a progressive voice into the campus debate on Israel."

There is also UPZ's "progressiveness" to consider. Given that for four generations, American Jews tied their fortunes almost solely to the Left, expelling leftist groups from Jewish umbrella groups involves openly recognizing the painful fact that today the Left makes little place for the pro-Israel community in its ranks.

As Rosenfeld put it, "Because... the ideological package that informs progressive politics today links anti-Zionism to anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism, anti-globalization, anti-racism, etc., one is expected as a matter of course to be against Zionism." Or as he quotes political scientist Andrei Markovits, "If one is not at least a serious doubter of the legitimacy of the State of Israel… one runs the risk of being excluded from the entity called 'the left.'"

THE LEFT'S abandonment of Israel is compounded by the fact that the Palestinian jihad, which is rooted in a Palestinian rejection of the notion of coexisting with Israel, has rendered irrelevant the "progressive Zionist" goal of forcing Israel to withdraw its forces and citizens from Judea and Samaria in order to establish a Palestinian state in the areas, as well as in Gaza and eastern Jerusalem. Instead of accepting this paradigm-shattering truth, "progressive Zionists" have chosen the path of radicalization. Rather than calling on the Arabs to abandon jihad and accept Israel, they have turned to criminalizing Israel for defending itself from the jihadist forces bent on the wholesale slaughter of its citizens.

Like Israel, if American Jews are to have any chance of properly defending themselves, they must first openly identify the trends. As political loyalties and alliances shift, a small people like the Jews must be willing to distinguish friend from foe. This is true whether the friend or foe in question is an Arab or a Jew; a self-proclaimed progressive or a self-proclaimed conservative.

Jerusalem Poast

IDF Warns Of Tunnels In West Bank

2007-02-12T02:00:00.000-08:00

With dozens of tunnels being dug across the Philadelphia Corridor -between the Gaza Strip and Egypt - an IDF officer has told The Jerusalem Post that he believes it is only a matter of time before Palestinians in the West Bank also begin using tunnels in attacks against Israel.

According to the officer, Maj. Eran Davidi, deputy commander of Sayeret Yahalom, the Engineering Corps's elite unit, Palestinians could begin digging tunnels under the West Bank security fence when it is completed since they will be cut off from Israel.

"At first it will start with criminal infiltrations and people looking for jobs," he said. "But like the southern border with Egypt, the terrorists will then begin to catch a ride on the back of the criminal infrastructure and will also use the tunnels."

Responsible for defusing bombs and mines and destroying tunnels, Sayeret Yahalom played a key role during the Lebanon war this past summer in tracking down and demolishing Hizbullah bunkers and command centers.

The unit has also operated extensively in the Gaza Strip. In the IDF's last operation there before the cease-fire went into effect in November, Sayeret Yahalom was behind the discovery and demolition of over a dozen tunnels in Rafah that were used to smuggle weapons in from Sinai.

Last week, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Chief Yuval Diskin said there were at least 10 tunnels being dug from Gaza into Israel intended to be used in attacks against Israeli targets, including IDF outposts. He said that there were dozens of tunnels being dug in Rafah that are used to smuggle weapons into Gaza from the Sinai Desert.

Davidi further revealed that the Palestinians had recently improved their defense systems around tunnels and that now almost every tunnel in the Gaza Strip was surrounded with booby-traps and explosive devices.

During the operation in Gaza in November, Yahalom discovered a massive tunnel being dug inside a chicken coop that was booby-trapped with explosives.

He also said that the explosives used by the Palestinians were supplied by Iran and Syria and were of high quality.

"We work under the assumption that almost every tunnel is surrounded with bombs and booby-traps," Davidi said.

Jerusalem Post

HAMAS WON THE JACKPOT

2007-02-11T07:34:00.000-08:00

The unity agreement signed in Mecca last Thursday marked a major victory for Hamas. Khaled Mashaal and Ismail Haniyeh could not have hoped for a greater achievement.

Even amid the pressure exerted by the Suadi king, Hamas would not waver and came out stronger as far as the internal Palestinian arena is concerned, and much stronger in the eyes of the Arab world and the international community.

Hamas did not relinquish its rule or ideology, did not recognize Israel or renounce terror and did not agree to acknowledge past agreements with Israel. In return for this inflexible stance it received the unity government that it wanted so much.

Hamas sought a unity government to promote the lifting of the economic and political siege imposed on the Palestinians by the international community’s and end the infighting.

The organization wanted Fatah’s participation in the new government so as not to bear sole responsibility for the economic, social and political failures in the Authority and to gain the legitimacy to remain in power and continue instilling fundamental values in Palestinian society.

In Mecca Hamas won the jackpot. The agreement, along with millions of dollars from the Saudi king, will help Hamas recover from its economic crisis, strengthen its hold on government and arrive at the next elections in a position to win the presidency as well as the elections for the Legislative Council.

Nothing to lose

And what if the unity government collapses? Hamas still has nothing to lose. If the bogus partnership should fall apart - and this may happen rather quickly – the blame will fall on Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas, not only in the PA but in the entire Arab world as well.

Mecca’s sanctity, coupled with Saudi king’s efforts, was not enough to bridge the gap between Islamist Hamas and the nationalist Fatah organization. It was Abbas who eventually backed down when he agreed to establish a unity government before drafting its guidelines.

Abbas' body language on Thursday testified to the disagreements and to the fact that he understands that the Saudis and Hamas have trapped him.

The important question as far as Israel is concerned is whether the agreement would accelerate Gilad Shalit's return home. Abbas demanded his release as a condition, but it appears that as long as the government is not established, Hamas will continue to take advantage of Gilad Shalit as a bargaining chip in its battle against Fatah.

If the international community recognizes the new government – and this might definitely happen in light of the cracks in the Quartet's stance – Israel could find itself isolated in the face of the stance demanding that it negotiates with the Hamas-led government.

Expressions of unity and joy and an end to the street battles are expected in the Palestinian street in the coming days. But one must not be mistaken. The ideological differences have remained deep and wide as they were, and it is only a question of time before the clashes erupt once again. And have no illusions, even a unity government will not bring an end to terror and the launching of Qassam rockets.

Y Net News

THE FUTURE & YOU?

2007-02-11T03:54:00.000-08:00

Everyone wants to know about the future!

But did you know that in a very real way, there are two divergent futures? One is the fate that lies ahead of a world that continues to reject Jesus Christ as Savior. The other is a marvelous destiny that belongs to all who have come to Christ in faith believing.

You and you alone will determine which future will be yours!

Many have complained that Bible Prophecy is a message of "Doom and Gloom," but that is not necessarily the case. Bible Prophecy is simply future history written in advance! Because of that, we recognize it to be the compassionate message of a loving God. It is designed to produce faith in your heart, prompting you to make decisions in your life that will secure a wonderful future for you - both in this life and in the eternities to come.

The fate of the world will be to move into an era of globalism, culminating in a world government, a world religion, and a world economic system. Sadly, that new world order will eventually be led by an evil person that the Bible calls the Antichrist. During his 7 year quest for world domination, over half the people in the world will die!

Admittedly, that message is one of "Doom and Gloom!" But the Good News is that you don't have to be a part of that future. By believing in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you become a member of a marvelous entity that is called "the church, which is His body." When you make that decision, you are instantly and eternally saved. You become a creature of destiny!

As a Child of God, you will be spared from the wrath to come by a glorious event that is called "The Rapture of the Church!" You become a joint-heir with Christ, sharing with Him a marvelous inheritance that includes not only this Earth, but the vast reaches of the universe.

There are two futures ahead. Which one will be yours?

If you haven't yet believed on Jesus Christ as Savior, why not do it now? Today would be a wonderful day to begin the rest of eternity as a victorious Child of God. Make that decision today. We pray that you will!

Iran Sends Anti-Air Missiles To Iraqi & Hizb'allah

2007-02-11T02:38:00.000-08:00

DEBKAfile’s sources in Tehran and Kurdistan disclose that, last month, two Iranian QW-1 and SA-7 missile consignments reached Iraqi insurgents allied with al Qaeda and one, radical Shiite Moqtada Sadr’s Shiite militia, the Mehdi Army. Israeli sources report the same anti-air weapons were delivered at about the same time to Hizballah units in Lebanon including the south.

Our military sources add that Iran’s arms industry has succeeded in replicating a quality version of the Chinese QW-1 and improved its electronics. It is 1.447meters long and packs 16.5 kilos of explosives. The IDF estimates that the first of these missiles used experimentally by Hizballah caused an Israeli helicopter to explode during take-off near the Litani River in the Lebanon War last summer.

Iranian markings have been erased from the equipment going into Iraq and Lebanon to suggest they were bought on the black market. Dated Soviet-era models of the SA-7 were indeed bought by Iran on Far East black markets and supplied to Iraqi insurgents and also pro-Tehran governors in western Afghanistan. Iran is preparing the ground for a Shiite insurgency against NATO forces there.

According to our sources, all three consignments to Iraq went through the North Iraqi Kurdistani town of Suleimaniya not far from the Iranian border. An Iranian clandestine center operates there like “the liaison center” the Americans raided in another Kurdish town, Irbil, last month. The Suleimaniya center operates with permission from Iraqi’s Kurdish president Jalal Talabani.

They weapons were smuggled in concealed compartments of trucks transporting building materials and iron from Iran for a Kurdish building company. After unloading their legitimate freight, the trucks drove on south up to the regional border where Iraqi insurgents off-loaded the missiles to their vehicles and distributed them to their networks in Baqouba, Ramadi and Tikrit – north of Baghdad and Hilla to the south.

In January, two-man teams of Iraqi insurgents and Hizballah operatives were trained in the use of the new weapons against American and Israeli helicopters as instructors for missile crews in Iraq and Lebanon. One crewman was taught to locate the target and help the second to aim. The training facilities were set up in Kermanshah and Qasr-e Shirin close to the Iraqi border.

Tehran is stepping up its provocations in reprisal for the US president George W. Bush’s directive to US forces to capture or kill Iranian agents, America’s refusal to release the Revolutionary Guards officers captured in Irbil and finally by the seizure last week of an Iranian diplomat in Baghdad.

Debka

Politically (In)Correct About Iran

2007-02-10T03:35:00.000-08:00

Ever since the Iranian president issued his call “to wipe Israel off the map” in October 2005, debates have been raging about what exactly he said, what exactly he meant, and what the response should be. The arguments are endless: Iran is an ancient civilization, its people are no primitive anti-Semites, Ahmadinejad doesn’t really have the power to set Iran’s foreign policy, diplomacy will be sufficient to deter Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, and if not, Iran will not be so crazy as to attack Israel.

You can go on and on with the debate along these lines — but there are also red lines, and if you cross those, you will be accused of (Jewish) hysteria and (neocon) war-mongering. Of course, some of the usual suspects did not hesitate to cross those red lines anyway. Prominent among them was Binyamin Netanyahu, who mesmerized his audience at last year’s United Jewish Communities General Assembly with a powerful speech that focused single-mindedly on the assertion “It’s 1938 again.” If you make this kind of comparison, you can’t expect anything but despise from the liberal left.

But it’s still worse if you do what Benny Morris did and conjure, in most vivid terms, the frightening specter of a “Second Holocaust.” Morris’s piece, which was featured in the Jerusalem Post, was deeply disturbing, and perhaps it was all the more powerful considering that Morris was once adored by those who draw the red lines in the public debate about Iran. Indeed, not that long ago, Morris was regarded as a leading member of the “New Historians” because of his research on Palestinian refugees, but since he has in the meantime distanced himself from the political use that was made of his work, he is now despised as the “new” Benny Morris by those who couldn’t care less what a nuclear Iran might mean for Israel. In these circles, many will consider Iran’s nuclear ambitions not only as a perfectly legitimate expression of the hegemonic claims of a proud people, but also as a welcome counterweight to the irksome power projected by the US.

But if Binyamin Netanyahu and Benny Morris crossed red lines by talking about 1938 and a “Second Holocaust”, it seems that the lines that proscribe the range of the politically correct debate are now being drawn ever more narrowly. A recent article in the Forward described the startling predicament which Jewish groups in the US may face if they focus their advocacy efforts on calling for a tough line against Iran’s nuclear ambitions: they are risking accusations of pushing for a war with the regime in Teheran. As the article explained, “scapegoating” can be expected after the experience of the Iraq War, because “antiwar groups have charged, with growing vehemence, that the war was promoted by Jewish groups acting in Israel’s interest.”

Moreover, as the Jerusalem Post reported this week, Jewish organizations had to realize that, also in purely practical terms, it will not be an easy task to launch a campaign that focuses on Iranian threats against Israel: leading American news media have refused to sell Internet site ad space to the Jewish Agency for a campaign that features clips of some of President Ahmadinejad’s relevant speeches, because the content of the advertisement was “political.”

Obviously, media outlets are entitled to decide for which kind of advertisements they are willing to sell space on their sites, and Jewish organizations that want to draw attention to the threats posed by a nuclear Iran will find ways to do so even if some leading news media will not agree to carry related advertisements. But the problem that is much harder to tackle is posed by the ever growing de-legitimization of the uneasy sense of a looming disaster that many Israelis and Jews currently feel.

In the debate about Iran’s intentions, anybody who is not privy to top-secret intelligence information is ultimately reading the tea leaves, and no matter how knowledgeable an analyst is, he or she can only put forward a well-reasoned case for a plausible scenario. But it is neither well-reasoned nor plausible to suggest that Ahmadinejad’s threats should simply be disregarded as the foolish fantasies of a freak.

While comparisons between theocratic Iran and Nazi Germany may be politically incorrect, they are not that easily refuted by pointing out that Ahmadinejad is widely despised and ridiculed by Iranians and that there is little propensity for anti-Semitism in Iran. If you think that settles the issue, how do you like this one: “Hitler visits a lunatic asylum. The patients give the Hitler salute. As Hitler passes down the line, he comes across a man who isn’t saluting. ‘Why aren’t you saluting like the others?’ Hitler barks. ‘Mein Führer, I’m the nurse,’ comes the answer. ‘I’m not crazy!’” There are more jokes like that to be found in a recently published German book on humor in Nazi Germany — and these jokes were quite popular, even though telling them could cost your life.

And on the second point, the lack of anti-Semitic sentiment in Iran, consider this statement: “even though it may seem paradoxical, the German people are still the least anti-Semitic [in Europe]” — that’s what you could read in “Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism,” a book that, soon after its publication in early 1942, came to be regarded by many as the “definitive” analysis of Nazi Germany. The author was Franz Neumann, a widely respected German-Jewish intellectual who had escaped to the US, where he worked for some time as a leading political intelligence analyst in the Central Europe Section of the wartime US intelligence agency, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).

Neumann and his colleagues in the OSS believed that the Nazis cleverly instrumentalized anti-Semitism to cement their grip on power — as one of their analyses from 1943 stated: “For years, anti-Semitism has served the purpose of forcing all Germans either to identify themselves with Nazi-ism or pay the price of dissent.” Again, comparisons may be politically incorrect, but it is hard to overlook that, for years, even decades now, anti-Semitism has also served a number of political purposes in the Islamic world. For an Iran that aspires to gain hegemony over the Middle East, anti-Semitism, or the fight against Israel, is arguably an indispensable tool, since the Iranian theocrats would have to overcome not only the Sunni-Shia antagonism, but also Arab hostility to Persian hegemony. While that may well be “mission impossible”, wiping Israel off the map would seem pretty much the only way to try to achieve that.

Another reason for real concern is the fact that even the most dovish analyst will acknowledge that Iran’s nuclear program enjoys widespread popular support in the country. If you wonder why Iranians, who are painfully aware of their country’s dire economic situation, want their government to spend resources on a nuclear program, you will hear about national pride, and the perfectly understandable notion that Iran needs a nuclear program for defensive reasons. To defend against whom? Well, against the US, of course — against the country that, as many dovish analysts will tell you, Iranians actually greatly admire, the country that has just deposed of Iran’s greatest enemy, Saddam Hussein. True enough, there are indications that some groups in America would like to see “regime change” in Teheran — but supposedly, this is also what many Iranians want. For the time being, however, it seems that what Iranians want even more are atomic weapons.

A fundamentalist Islamic theocracy, armed with nuclear weapons and openly pursuing hegemonic aspirations in the region, can only be regarded as a potentially existential threat to Israel — acknowledging that, and acting to prevent it, should be regarded as the only politically correct option, not least because there is one irrefutable lesson of history: those who have said that they want to kill Jews have always meant what they said.

Jerusalem Post

Arabs Increase Threats At Western Wall Plaza

2007-02-09T01:25:00.000-08:00

Defense Minister Peretz, in the face of Muslim violence, appealed to Prime Minister Olmert to halt the construction of the footpath at the Rambam Gate to the Temple Mount. Olmert turned him down.

Jews were blocked Thursday from reaching the Kotel (Western Wall) Prayer Plaza by the hundreds of Israeli-Arab protestors. Islamic clerics leading the demonstration as well as Arab politicians threatened an “Intifada worse than the previous one in 2000” if the Israel Antiquities Authority did not immediately halt the repair work and excavations at the site.

Spokesman Aryeh King, representing the Jewish associations in the eastern part of the capital, said that if the Jerusalem district police did not disperse the Arab mob, he would petition the High Court.

Peretz, in his letter - which Olmert’s office said was delivered to the press before it was delivered to Olmert - quotes Defense Ministry official IDF General (res.) Amos Gilad, who claims the work damages relations with Arab and Muslim nations. The Labor Party Chairman wrote his own opinion that the construction would create friction with the Arab world instead of maintaining calm.

The Prime Minister’s Office rejected Peretz’s call. A statement was issued as follows:

“The restoration of the Mugrabi path after the place collapsed and was declared a dangerous structure was done in complete coordination with all parties, including foreign countries, relevant Muslim officials and international bodies. As has been explained, this work is being carried on outside the Temple Mount, and the repairs do not constitute any damage to the Mount or Islamic holy places.

“The work is being carried out by professionals and with complete transparency, entirely for the safety of visitors to the Mount. A thorough examination of the matter would reveal that nothing about the work underway will harm anyone, and there is no truth in the contentions against the work."

A Foreign Ministry statement dismissed the criticism as an exploitation of the situation. "The Temple Mount is the holiest site of the Jewish people,” Foreign Minister Tzippi Livny said in a statement Wednesday. “The State of Israel will never do anything to harm the freedom of worship of members of all religions - in Jerusalem or anywhere in Israel. There are irresponsible elements, who know full well that no harm is being caused here to any holy site, who are exploiting Israeli democracy to fan religious feelings for political gain. This is true of both political groups within Israel and extremist elements outside Israel.”

Meanwhile, Muslims are escalating their threats and violence throughout the Middle East, including in Israel’s own Knesset and among Israeli-Arab leaders. Arab Knesset Member Taleb El-Sana (Ra’am-Ta’al) called upon the Organization of the Islamic conference to meet on the issue of “Israeli damage to the Temple Mount.” El-Sana echoes the Department of Arab and International Relations (DAIR) of the Palestinian Authority, which claimed Israel has begun "demolishing two rooms in [the] Al-Aqsa mosque...in line with the Israeli plans to demolish the entire holy shrine and build the alleged Soleiman [sic] temple in its place."

Israeli-Arab Sheikh Raad Salah, who heads the radical Islamic Movement, was arrested Wednesday for attacking policemen blocking his entry to the Western Wall Plaza. He has issued a call for an “Intifada” of Israel’s Arabs and vowed he would return and address Thursday’s protesters despite a 10-day restraining order he received before being released by police.

The leaders of Jordan, Syria and Iran, as well as Islamic chiefs in Egypt, have all condemned the work. "The world of Islam should show a serious reaction to the Zionist regime's insult to Al-Aksa Mosque," Iranian Islamic ruler Ayatollah Ali Khameini said on Wednesday. Khameini called on Muslim nations to attack Israel in response during a meeting with Islamic Jihad chief Ramadan Abdullah Shallah.

Arutz Sheva

Aksa Martyrs Vow Synagogue Attacks

2007-02-08T01:13:00.000-08:00

The Fatah-affiliated Aksa Martyrs Brigades threatened on Wednesday to attack synagogues if Israel continued its excavation near the Temple Mount ahead of the planned construction of a new bridge to the Mughrabi Gate.

In a press release sent to newspapers, the group announced that all synagogues would become legitimate targets and that "the sanctity of the Al Aksa Mosque should not be less than that of the synagogues."

The terror organization joined scores of other Islamic organizations in calling on the Palestinian people to hold processions and angry protests until the construction is stopped.

A Jerusalem court on Wednesday ordered the fiery leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel to stay out of the Old City of Jerusalem for the next 10 days after he tried to force his way to the site of a contested archeological excavation outside the Temple Mount, police said.

Sheikh Raed Salah was one of seven Israeli Arabs detained by police near the Dung Gate on Wednesday morning.

Salah said Wednesday evening that he was intending to come to Temple Mount on Thursday, a move that would effectively breaking the court order.

Salah and his supporters had scuffled with police guarding the workers carrying out the salvage excavation near the Temple Mount.

The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court ordered Salah and three of his associates to stay 150 meters outside the walled Old City for the next 10 days, Jerusalem police spokeswoman Sigal Toledo said.

In court, Salah accused Israel of "the crime of demolishing a part of the blessed Al Aksa compound" and of "pushing the whole region to religious war." The archeological excavation under way ahead of the planned construction of a new bridge to the Mughrabi Gate is taking place dozens of meters outside the Temple Mount compound.

Salah, who heads the extremist northern branch of the Islamic Movement, which denies Israel's legitimacy, had called on Tuesday for an intifada over the archeological dig by the Jerusalem holy site.

Salah has served a two-year sentence for a series of security offenses, including financing Hamas activities.

For the second straight day, police - in a largely successful effort to ward off violence at the compound - barred non-Muslims from entering the Temple Mount on Wednesday and limited Muslim entry to the holy site to men over 45 with Israeli identity cards.

In sporadic stone-throwing incidents in east Jerusalem, seven Arab teens were arrested by police.

Police, who are bracing for renewed violence following Muslim prayers on Friday, are expected to extend restrictions at the compound.

Meanwhile, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Wednesday urged Islamic nations to retaliate against Israel.

Khamenei did not say what sort of response he intended, but he said the Islamic world should make Israel "regret" what it is doing, The Associated Press reported.

The eight-month construction project is meant to replace a decades-old stone ramp that partially collapsed in a snowstorm three years ago.

The Temple Mount, which is Judaism's holiest and Islam's third holiest site, has been the scene of violence in the past, which later spilled out across the country.

Israel's opening of the Western Wall tunnels in 1996 sparked a wave of Palestinian violence that killed 80 people, while former prime minister Ariel Sharon's 2000 visit to the Temple Mount sparked rioting among Israeli Arabs and Palestinian violence.

Israeli efforts to downplay the dig fell on deaf ears amongst the Arab public, with Arab media playing up the heated rhetoric of Islamic officials blasting the work.

In a sign of continued tension, the Islamic Movement announced that it planned a demonstration Friday against the dig.

There have never been any archeological excavations on the Temple Mount itself due to religious sensitivities.

According to decades-old regulations in place at the site, Israel maintains overall security control, while the Wakf, or Islamic Trust, is charged with day-to-day administration of the ancient compound.

The latest controversy comes as an ancient wooden pulpit destroyed in the Aksa Mosque four decades ago by a deranged Australian tourist hoping to hasten the coming of the Messiah was restored with Israel's blessing and as Jordan presses ahead with plans to build a fifth minaret at the site.

Last decade, Wakf officials built the largest mosque in Israel in an underground architectural support of the Temple Mount known as the Solomon's Stables, throwing dozens of truckloads of antiquities mixed with rubble in a garbage dump outside the Old City.

The construction of the mosque, which was carried out without any archeological supervision, was later called an "unprecedented archeological crime" by Israel's top archeological body for its massive destruction of antiquities at the site.

Jerusalem Post

Terrorists Tunneling Towards Israeli Civilians

2007-02-07T01:30:00.000-08:00

Arab terrorists in Gaza are digging tunnels towards Jewish communities in southern Israel, according to General Security Service (Shabak) chief Yuval Diskin.

Diskin says that the terrorist organizations have dug a network of tunnels from Gaza towards Israeli territory. The purpose of the tunnels is to detonate large charges under Israeli civilian and military targets. Israel's security arms believe a number of tunnels, in various states of completion, already exist.

Diskin says that underneath what he termed the "relative quiet" on the Gaza front in recent months, the terrorists have been digging tunnels. Unlike those they dug in the past, which ran mostly towards Egyptian territory and were meant to smuggle weapons and personnel in from the Sinai area, these tunnels are being dug towards Israeli territory. It was a similar tunnel that Hamas and its allies used to enter an army camp near the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Gaza, Israel and Egypt last June, when they abducted Corporal Gilad Shalit and killed two other soldiers.

A resident of one of the kibbutzim near Gaza recently reported that the inhabitants have been hearing the sound of hammer blows underground, although it was not clear from where precisely they were coming. The residents, he says, are convinced that they are hearing the sound of an Arab terrorist tunnel being dug underneath their feet.

The civilians in the area are concerned that terrorists might detonate explosives underneath one of the Jewish communities or infiltrate through the tunnel and carry out an attack against a civilian community.

Arutz Sheva

Lebanon's Next Round

2007-02-06T01:50:00.000-08:00

Round One of Hizb'allah's attempt to take over Lebanon has failed. Watch out for Round Two. The struggle over Lebanon is a battle in the war being waged by Iran, Syria, and their allies seeking to control the Middle East.

Hizb'allah is the largest group representing the Shi'ite Muslim community in multicultural Lebanon. But Hizb'allah is also the client of Teheran and Damascus, acting in their interest more than that of Lebanon itself. Indeed, Hizb'allah leader Hassan Nasrallah is the official local representative of Iran's spiritual guide.

Against Hizbullah stand the majority of the other communities, Christian, Sunni Muslim, and Druse. This alliance controls the government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora; the president, Emile Lahoud, is a Syrian client, elected in 1998 when Damascus controlled the electoral process. Last summer's war, set off by Hizb'allah's cross-border raids against Israel, let the Islamist group pose both as victor and as Lebanon's patriotic champion.

Both claims are thin. Hizb'allah did not so much win as survive the war. Lebanon suffered tremendous material damage. While Hizb'allah staged showy ceremonies to give money for reconstruction - reportedly counterfeit US dollars - it has done little since then. Moreover, the dispatch of a UN force to southern Lebanon as part of the cease-fire blocks Hizbullah's ability to attack Israel or control that area.

WHATEVER political capital Hizb'allah gained in the war was quickly squandered as the group sought to take over Lebanon. Hizb'allah's arrogance and aggressiveness forced most other political forces to align against it.

In its propaganda, Hizb'allah denounced these rivals, known as the March 14 movement, as American and Israeli agents. This movement began after the assassination of popular former prime minister Rafik Hariri by Syria in February 2005. Since then there have been about 20 terrorist operations, mostly attempts engineered by Syria to murder other leading politicians and journalists.

In his shrill speeches, Nasrallah - who remained in hiding, fearful of Israeli retaliation - took a hard-line stance. Demonstrations were organized, roads blocked, and massive sit-ins established to show Hizb'allah's power.

But the majority struck back. Christian and Sunni Muslim militias asserted their control over the places where those communities lived in Beirut. They also cut roads, showing that Shi'ite neighborhoods could be easily surrounded and isolated. The government refused to resign.

TWO THINGS particularly anger most Lebanese. First, in its bid for power Hizbullah is ready to drag the country back into communal civil war. Everyone remembers the terrible strife and bloodshed that shook the country from 1975 to 1990 when 100,000 people were killed, 100,000 seriously injured, 250,000 emigrated, and almost 1 million displaced during that fighting in a country whose population is under 4 million. That Hizb'allah is ready to revive that senseless slaughter and wreckage in order to impose a Shi'ite Islamist state on Lebanon - a country about half non-Muslim and 70 percent non-Shi'ite - is horrifying.

The second problem is Hizb'allah's subservience to Iran and Syria. While the group does represent most, though by no means all, Lebanese Shi'ites, its positions are often dictated by foreign interests.

For example, Hizb'allah is trying to block any serious inquiry into the Hariri murder and punishment of those responsible. Both UN-directed and Lebanese investigations have shown direct involvement by Syria's regime and its Lebanese clients. Indeed, the UN investigation named both the brother and brother-in-law of Syrian President Bashar Assad as being behind the killing. Hizb'allah's and Syria's number-one demand is that the Lebanese government must abandon the effort to find who killed Hariri.

THE NUMBER-TWO demand is that Hizb'allah be given 30 percent of the power in Lebanon's government. This alone would let it veto anything, such as an attempt to disarm Hizb'allah's private army or put southern Lebanon under government rule. This would also be enough to give Hizb'allah, along with its pro-Syrian allies, control of the government altogether.

The other two demands, backed by Syria, are to have quick parliamentary elections and get rid of the March 14 movement's legislative majority; but no presidential elections, to keep Syria's man in office. Lebanon's government is never going to accept these conditions. It is also unlikely - despite the temptation felt by many in the West - that democratic countries are going to turn over Lebanon to Syria in order to appease the Damascus regime.

As a result, Hizb'allah's first bid for power has been turned back. But it may not be long before Hizb'allah, and its Syrian sponsors, turn to Plan B: the assassination of Lebanese leaders. One cabinet minister, Pierre Gemayel, was killed last November, on a day when an attempt against another minister failed. If two more ministers were killed, the government would fall.

The other tactic could be attacks on UN forces in southern Lebanon in an attempt to drive them out of the country. Syria has hinted such assaults may take place. Though carried out by Syrian agents, they would be blamed on shadowy al-Qaida forces.

Lebanon is a battlefield in the broader effort of Iran and Syria to gain hegemony in the region. It is imperative that Lebanon's government and majority be given international support so they can resist this campaign, whose ultimate power rests on a base of terrorism and subversion.

Jerusalem Post

Denial Is An Ugly Thing!

2007-02-05T01:27:00.000-08:00

I've finally discovered what they call "linkage" between the war in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But, instead of seeing any connection between what goes on inside Iraq and that fraudulent "peace process" by which the one party wanting "peace" (Israel) is gradually destroyed by the other party using "process" (the Palestinians) I see linkage in the overall American approach to the two war zones. Our strategy is identical. In both cases, it is based on a complete and willful suspension of disbelief. It ignores all evidence to ward off reality.

Take a recent report from Fox News explaining why the Bush administration this week postponed the release of a dossier linking Iran to murder and mayhem in Iraq.

"U.S. military officials say the decision to go public with the findings has been put on hold for several reasons, including concerns over the reaction from Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — as well as inevitable follow-up questions that would be raised over what the U.S. should do about it."

There's so much wrong with this picture it's hard to know where to start. Surely it is Mr. Ahmadinejad who should be concerned about the reaction from the world's sole superpower to findings of Iranian complicity in American combat deaths, and not vice versa. Incredibly, the administration doesn't appear to think so. This is deeply upsetting.

Equally upsetting is the news report's implied suggestion that "follow-up questions" about Iranian aggression are, in effect, more difficult to face than the aggression itself. It's as if the logical conclusion to such findings — in all likelihood, the obvious inference that Iran is already waging war against us — is to be avoided more than the war itself. Better to take the Iranian facts on the ground — the bombings and kidnappings, the backstabbing and subversion, and the American casualties — and just bury them. Otherwise, reality would ruin everything.

This same ostrich-like viewpoint drives administration policy on the Palestinian Authority, which hinges on the contrafactual belief that PA President Mahmoud Abbas is a "moderate." Indeed, the ostrich outlook helps explain President Bush's see-no-, speak-no-, hear-no-evil order this week to bestow an additional $86 million on Abbas. It's not just, for example, as Palestinian Media Watch has noted, that the PA municipality of Yaabid has recently named a school and its main street (newly paved by American taxpayer dollars) in honor of Saddam Hussein. Or that a city block in Jenin was named after a suicide-bomber who killed four Americans in Fallujah. Or that American funds built the PA's Salaf Khalef Sports Center, named for the head of the Black September terror group that was behind the murder of two American diplomats in Sudan and 11 Israeli athletes in Munich.

Mr. Bush's order came shortly after Abbas himself, in a speech marking the 42nd anniversary of co-founding the Fatah Party with terror kingpin Yasser Arafat, exhorted Palestinians to put "our internal fighting aside and raise our rifles only against Israeli occupation." In other words, not only was the "moderate" calling for violence against Israel — a call quickly answered this week when the Fatah-linked Al Aqsa Martyr Brigades, acting with Islamic Jihad, sent a killer to self-detonate in an Israeli bakery — he was also calling for reconciliation with forces of Hamas, the jihadist terror group. As if to underscore his message, Abbas went on to praise assassinated Hamas guru, Ahmed Yassin. He also invoked rankly anti-Semitic verses from the Koran (5:64) to claim that Jews are corrupting the world.

As Andrew C. McCarthy has written at National Review Online, such actions and behaviors merit "not one thin dime" from the U.S. Regarding this most recent outrage, it is true, as Worldnetdaily.com noted, that most media didn't report the full extent of Abbas' remarks. Indeed, the Associated Press' shamelessly sanitized account — "Abbas calls for respect at Fatah rally" — was mainstream typical. But if I, sitting deskside, could get the real skinny, certainly the U.S. government, with all of its resources, could do the same. In other words, being uninformed is no excuse. The terrible conclusion to draw is that the president, along with too many other political leaders, simply prefers to be uninformed.

Their world looks rosier that way. Which isn't at all to say it's a pretty sight. In fact, it's hideous in its own way, something I'd prefer not to look at. Denial is an ugly thing. But it's urgent that we confront it.

Jewish World Review

West’s Psychological War On Iran Failing!

2007-02-04T02:23:00.000-08:00

Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki claimed that over the past month his nation signed multiple deals with foreign countries, worth over USD 33 billion, despite sanctions imposed upon Iran.

During a speech at Tehran University, Mottaki said this was proof the "psychological war" waged by the West on Iran was failing.

“The West is trying to ‘impose’ its problems on other countries. But despite their efforts, most of the world supports Iran’s position,” Mottaki was quoted by the Iranian news agency Fars.

Mottaki attempted to persuade his audience of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s successes: “We are trying to devote special attention to various places in the world, which up until now have not enjoyed a relationship with Iran. Many African countries have turned to us to help them find fuel reserves in their territories. Likewise, we signed a substantial deal with Venezuela.”

“In the past 40 days, we signed countless deals with different countries. These include building a subterranean power station, and various fuel and gas projects,” the Iranian minister added.

Mottaki stressed that Iran had no intentions of suspending its nuclear program and would remain steadfast in its stance in the face of Western pressures.

Meanwhile, however, a senior Iranian official told foreign news agencies that Tehran had agreed to ease its position and allowed United Nations inspectors install surveillance cameras at the nuclear facility in Natanz.

According to the official, speaking on condition anonymity because he was not authorized to give statements to media, the video cameras were mounted over the past few days. This contradicts reports from Vienna diplomats, who claimed that Iran barred the UN inspectors from setting up cameras.

The Iranian official further denied reports that Iran had installed 3,000 new centrifuges at the underground plant. “We have not yet started,” he said.

Y Net News

JNF Replacing Trees Burnt By Katyushas In The War

2007-02-03T03:02:00.000-08:00

During last summer's Lebanon war, when Katyushas were falling on the lower Galilee, Hiroy Amara, director of the Jewish National Fund's Golani nursery, first made sure his workers were safe. Then he started worrying about the saplings.

When Amara saw the smoke rising over the forests and learned of all the forest fires, he knew his work was cut out for him. The nursery, which supplies the JNF's northern district with all its saplings, prepared some 150,000 after the war - the same amount it prepared in all of the previous year.

"We can recruit personnel and order the equipment, but the main problem is reaching the final product - a ten-month-old sapling - in four months," says Aviv Eisenband, director of the JNF's seeds and nurseries.

Eisenband and his staff brought a large quantity of seeds to the Golani nursery for sprouting. The seeds are produced from fruit gathered in the forests. The workers harvest fruit from some 300 tree species, using ropes to climb tall trees if necessary.

Preparing the seeds requires simulating natural conditions. Some go through an acid bath to simulate passing through a bird's stomach.

"A week after the war, I already had all the seeds," says Amara.

He knew he had to use the best quality substrate beds and grow the saplings in trays, rather than in plastic bags.

"In plastic bags, the plant becomes root-bound. The advantage of sprouting trays is that the roots grow downward and to the sides," says Haim Katz, the JNF's community and forest coordinator in the lower Galilee.

To accelerate the seedlings' growth, the workers exposed them to light at night. Everyone worked frantically to sprout and grow tens of thousands of seedlings to replace the burnt forests.

Eisenband says that in addition to the pine trees so prevalent in the north, this year they intend to plant numerous olive, carob, fig, almond, pomegranate, pistacia and oak trees.

On Tuesday, when the trays of saplings were loaded onto trucks on their way to the Lower Galilee, Amara stood by bursting with pride, but concerned as well.

"When you grow the saplings from nothing, the nursery is their home and I'm the father. They're my children," he says.

Amara immigrated from Ethiopia 16 years ago and graduated from the Agriculture Academy in Kiev, Ukraine.

"Fortunately for me, the JNF then opened a course for new immigrants with academic degrees. There were 24 in the group, all immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Russian speakers. For a long time they didn't realize I spoke their language," he said.

At the end of the course, in 1993, he started working for the JNF.

Six years ago, he was appointed manager of the Golani nursery.

In a few days, when the planting season is over, Amara's nursery will be almost empty, waiting for new seeds to sprout and a calmer summer, when the routine means spraying and watering potted plants.

Haaretz

Stop Their Deranged Midwifery Of The PA

2007-02-02T00:44:00.000-08:00

When will the madness end? When will the Bush administration and Condoleezza Rice’s State Department finally stop their deranged midwifery of the Palestinian terror state conceived by the Clinton administration amid the mood music of two Intifadas?

On Monday, a 21-year-old suicide bomber, Muhammad Faisal al-Siksik, self-detonated at a bakery in the coastal town of Eilat on the Red Sea. Three innocents were killed: the bakery’s two Israeli owners and their Peruvian employee (whose family hails from Miami). Soon after came the claim of responsibility. The operation was carried out by the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, working in conjunction with Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

FATAH’S “MODERATE” CON JOB

The Aqsa Brigades are not just any group of terrorists. They are the most ruthless, accomplished terror wing of Fatah, the organization bequeathed to us by the late Yasser Arafat. The Bush administration delusionally regards Fatah and its leader, Mahmoud Abbas (also known as “Abu Mazen”), as the “moderate” Palestinian faction. There is nothing moderate about them. Yet, the administration appears determined to play this foolish game to its inevitable end because, like its starry-eyed predecessor, it is entranced by the holy grail of Israeli/Palestinian peace.

Peace, of course, would require two sides desirous of coexistence. We’re one short. Palestinians do not seek to coexist with Israel. They seek to destroy Israel. But that may have to await their annihilation of each other, with Fatah and its fellow thug, Hamas, now locked in a struggle for control.

Hamas is proudly unyielding in its announced intention to vaporize the “Zionist entity.” By contrast, Fatah is cagier but no less determined. In the Arafat style, it feints every now and again toward negotiation with Israel. There is, after all, a trough of Western billions for any Palestinian leadership willing to affect aspiration toward the Clinton/Bush nirvana: two states, Israel and “Palestine,” living side-by-side in peace. Fatah needs those billions to keep its operatives loyal. Historically, it is a pervasively corrupt, creakily socialist outfit — a former Soviet client averse to elementary economic development.

But the act is just that, an act. The Fatah constitution still calls for the “eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence[,]” through an “armed revolution” which is to be the “decisive factor in the liberation fight and in uprooting the Zionist existence” — a revolution that “will not cease unless the Zionist state is demolished and Palestine is completely liberated.”

Consistent with this overarching plan, the U.S.-led “peace process” has been a 14-year sham — hence, the intervening Intifada and related terror gambits. Fatah may occasionally say it will live with Israel, but it has demonstrated, repeatedly, that it will never agree to the commonsense requirements of coexistence: It not only demands land and Jerusalem as its national capital; it refuses to disarm terrorist militias and insists a refugee “right of return” — an influx of well over a million Palestinians that would effectively destroy the tiny Jewish state from within.

By our State Department’s lights, this qualifies as “moderation” — perhaps because Hamas’s direct approach is bereft of diplomatic nicety, while the savvier Fatah seems willing to attrit Israel to death. (Such new gloss on the withering Bush Doctrine is also on display in Baghdad, where the administration now regularly consults with Abdul Azziz al-Hakim, or, as the White House describes him, “His Eminence,” leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq — a creation of Iran).

FATAH’S AQSA BRIGADES

The murderous Aqsa Brigades, however, put the lie to Fatah’s charade rather embarrassingly. They were officially designated by the United States government as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2002 after executing a series of atrocities conjoined to Arafat’s orchestration of the second Intifada, which began in late 2000 and has never officially ended.

There is no question the Brigades are part and parcel of Fatah. Documents seized by the Israeli Defense Force established that Arafat was paying them directly. Moreover, in a 2004 interview with the Arabic daily, Asharq al-Awsat, Fatah’s Ahmed Qurei, then Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, proclaimed: “We have clearly declared that the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades are part of Fatah[.]… We are committed to them and Fatah bears full responsibility for the group.” Qurei maintained that they “will not be dismantled,” and that each of the Brigades’ members had “the right to play a political role within the framework of Fatah.”

The Brigades are brazen about their intentions. They have, for example, expressed their “[i]dentification with and overall support of the position and declaration of the Iranian President [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad], who called with all honesty to wipe Israel off the map of the world[,]” adding: “We stress our support of the Iranian president's position toward the fictitious Zionist state, which will disappear with the help of Allah.”

This should come as no surprise since, like many terrorist organizations, the Brigades receive financing from Iran and training from Hezbollah, with whom they coordinate attacks. (In fact, the Jerusalem Post reported just a few days ago that Hezbollah has provided Palestinian terror groups with “high-grade explosives that have significantly improved the effectiveness of roadside improvised explosive devices (IED) used against [Israeli Defense Force] patrols.”)

Of a piece with these alliances, the Brigades have recently taken to threatening the United States directly. Last May, while Abbas conferred with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, the Brigades issued a warning that “[w]e won't remain idle in the face of the siege imposed on the Palestinian people by Israel, the U.S. and other countries[.]…We will strike at the economic and civilian interests of these countries, here and abroad.”

Abbas keeps close ties to the Brigades. His wary confederation with Marwan Barghouti, a formative Brigades figure currently serving a life sentence in Israel for multiple murders, was essential to his 2004 election as Palestinian Authority president. The support of Barghouti and the Brigades remains key to Abbas’s hold on Fatah’s reins. Indeed, the German weekly Welt am Sonntag reported last March that Abbas has appointed another Aqsa heavyweight, Zakariya Zubeidi, to head the police force in Jenin — only after personally witnessing a demonstration of the wild popularity Zubeidi and the Brigades enjoy in that West Bank cauldron (Hat tip to the Vital Perspective Blog).

Consequently, the revelations recently reported in the Israeli press by one “Abu Ahmed,” a Fatah member and Aqsa Brigades leader, are alarming, albeit predictable. Ahmed explained that Abbas’s claim to recognize Israel’s right to exist was merely a “political calculation,” and that the aims of Fatah and the Brigades remain one and the same: the ultimate destruction of Israel. “The base of our Fatah movement keeps dreaming of Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jaffa and Akko,” he reportedly stated. “There is no change in our position. Abbas recognizes Israel because of pressure that the Zionists and the Americans are exercising on him. We understand this is part of his obligations and political calculations.”

END THE MADNESS

Regrettably, the quixotic quest for Middle East peace has rendered Secretary Rice oblivious to Fatah’s long-entrenched and quite current record of terror. In an October 11, 2006, speech at the inaugural gala for the latest “Task Force on Palestine,” she asserted:

If peace and dignity are to prevail in the region, then it is absolutely essential for leaders to be able to show, for moderate leaders to show, that their ideas, and their principles, and their vision for the future can offer a better alternative than violence and terrorism. That is why President Bush asked me to travel last week to the Middle East — to confer with moderate voices, with moderate Arab governments and with moderate leaders, to build a support for those people who are trying and who need our help more than ever now, leaders like ... most especially, of course, President Abbas in the Palestinian territories, from whom we have just heard.

It didn’t take long for Abbas to make a mockery out of this gushing tribute. On January 11, 2007, addressing a throng of about 50,000 at Fatah’s 42nd anniversary (after laying a wreath at the hallowed grave of the terror master, Arafat), the “moderate leader” railed: “[W]ith the will and determination of its sons, Fatah has and will continue. We will not give up our principles and we have said that rifles should be directed against the occupation.... We have a legitimate right to direct our guns against Israeli occupation....”

Those “principles” were reaffirmed yet again on Monday. They snuffed out the lives of three ordinary civilians whose great contribution to the “occupation” was to toil at a bakery. It was, once more, the handiwork of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the savages who do Fatah’s dirty work while America swoons.

Remarkably, the Bush administration has asked Congress to fork up $86 million in aid for Fatah’s security forces — forces in which many Brigades members now serve, and into which Fatah envisions someday folding the Brigades. That, evidently, is the “moderate” manner of “dismantling” terrorists: you simply mantle them to the regular police.

It is madness. Congress should give Abbas not one thin dime. Let’s stop making fools of ourselves. Let’s first hear Abbas unambiguously condemn the Aqsa Brigades and purge them from Fatah. Let’s hear Abbas loudly assert that all suicide bombings and other attacks intentionally targeting civilians are unacceptable. Let’s hear Abbas acknowledge that a peaceful settlement cannot realistically include a right of return.

How hard can that be for a “moderate”?

National Review

Israel Must Prepare For Warfare In Space

2007-02-01T02:15:00.000-08:00

Israel will be facing a possible threat to its vital space-based assets within the coming decade for which it has to start preparing immediately, Israel Air Force chief Maj.-Gen. Elazar Shkedy told the second Ilan Ramon Annual International Space Conference in Herzliya Wednesday.

His comments came in light of China's destruction on January 11 of one of its own satellites, an act that has sparked concern among the world's leading space powers that potential enemies may target their space-based assets in a version of Star Wars not heard of since the Reagan administration at the height of the Cold War.

Although China has officially denied any military or political motivation for its act two weeks ago, a point reaffirmed Wednesday to the Post by the Chinese military attache in Israel, the US and India have, since the Chinese incident, made remarks about the need to protect their civilian and military [dual-use] space assets.

Addressing the conference, which was held under the auspices of the Fisher Brothers Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies in Herzliya, and the Science, Sports and Culture Ministry, Shkedy said: "The advantage of information and intelligence in a time of war is paramount to victory. Operational capabilities, command and control, as well as application of force are increasingly connected to space-based assets. It is hard to imagine fighting a war without these assets. Israel will develop its capabilities in space in the coming years as the connection between the military and space is growing. The Americans, Indians and Chinese are all investing huge sums of money in space."

From a purely operational perspective, Shkedy added, Israel needed to become fully autonomous in its space industry and develop its own capabilities. While not relating to China's motivations for destroying its satellite in the fashion that it did, Shkedy said the message "cannot be ignored."

"Battle in space is on our agenda, whether we want it there or not. We need to understand how we develop and protect our space assets at the relevant time. Within five to 10 years this will sadly be very relevant. There may be those who would seek to harm our forces in space, as they would our forces on land and at sea. We could face this reality in a high-intensity conflict in the future," Shkedy said.

Last year, at the first Ilan Ramon Conference, Shkedy announced a change in the official name of the Israel Air Force, to the Israel Air and Space Command. Israel Aircraft Industries recently changed its name to the Israel Aerospace Industries.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz, who was not at the conference but sent a statement to delegates, said Israel had to be ready for "present and future threats" from unfriendly nations harming its space assets, "as we saw was possible by the Chinese example."

"Israel needs to make sure that it is not cut off from its space assets during a time of conflict," Peretz said.

Maj.-Gen. [res] Prof. Chaim Eshed, head of the Space Program Department of the Defense Ministry, says that while the surveillance aspect of the global satellite industry is at five percent, Israel's situation is much different, with a much larger percentage of Israel's space-based assets focused on high-resolution surveillance and other defense-related surveillance functions.

Gen.[res] Prof. Itzhak Ben-Israel, head of the Israel Space Agency, said satellites are integral to the direction of smart munitions, such as the Joint Direct Attack Munitions [JDAM], or bunker-busting guided missiles, of which, as first reported in The Jerusalem Post this week, Israel has just purchased $100 million worth.

To "qualitatively upgrade" Israel's geopolitical situation, it would have to spend between $150 and $200 million on its space program, Ben-Israel said.

Israel currently spends $50m. on its space industry.

While several senior officers pointed to Iran as the major threat to Israel's national security for the foreseeable future, one former top IAF officer told the Post that Iran was still far off from threatening Israeli satellites. Although boasting it would soon launch its own satellite, Iran was just showing it had developed advanced missile capabilities, with missiles that could travel the required distance at the required velocity to break through earth's orbit. That in itself was a threat to Israel, the former officer said, adding, however, that Israel was much more advanced than Iran in its space-based military capabilities.

Speaking to the Post before his speech to the conference, Lt.-Gen. Frank G. Klotz, vice commander, USAF Space Command, said space was becoming increasingly important for all aspects of life, and particularly in the military sphere.

Echoing Shkedy's comments, Klotz, a three-star general, said it would be difficult to imagine conducting complex military operations without space-based assets. "US worldwide military deployment requires fast communications and control over vast distances. As a nation that is very dependent upon space, we expect there will be emerging threats from adversaries in the future recognizing the critical import space plays in the economic and military operations of our nation, and will no doubt try to engage us there," Klotz said.

He added that America was concerned over these threats, and would act to counter them. "We're concerned about any attempt to deny our country, or any other country for that matter, access to space and its peaceful purposes," Klotz added. The senior USAF official added that both America and Israel relied heavily on satellites for missile launch warnings, navigation for ships and ground troops, and guided munitions.

None of the currently serving IAF and US Air Force officers would comment on how they plan to protect their satellites, and the Ministry of Defense Space Authority would also not be drawn to react to Shkedy's comments.

The former IAF officer pointed to sophisticated ground-based and airborne laser systems as possible tools the USAF was looking into as a defense mechanism. These lasers would target and destroy incoming missiles that threaten US satellites.

The former officer would not say if Israel had asked to make use of these systems once they became operational, but noted that Israel and the US were involved in deep and continuous strategic dialogue spanning a wide variety of threats.

Israel entered the space race in the wake of the peace agreement with Egypt, after which Israel agreed to cease all surveillance flights over Egyptian air space. Israel's endeavors in space started for defense purposes "has largely retained that function" but has also branched out into commercial and dual-use applications.

In 1981, prime minister Menachem Begin authorized the Defense Ministry to establish a Space Department, and in 1983, the Israeli Space Agency was established under the auspices of the Science Ministry. In 1984, the Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa opened a Space Research Institute, and in the following years both Tel-Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have done extensive work on satellites and space research.

Israel has launched, or piggybacked on other nation's launches, several satellites into orbit: the Ofek 1 and 2, Amos 1 and 2 commercial satellites - with the Amos 3 and 4 in development, the Eros A and B, and the Ofek 3 and 5 military satellites.

Other developments, especially in micro satellites - a field in which Israel excels - are in the pipeline. NASA is particularly interested in Israel's expertise in the smaller satellites, as they are lighter in weight [100kg to 200 kg], which allows for an easier launch. Israel has also developed a plasma propulsion mechanism for these satellites, which has garnered great attention by the European Space Agency.

China destroyed its satellite as it was "out of use," and not due to strategic military or diplomatic needs, Senior Colonel Zou Jizhi said, adding that China had given the large space powers advanced warning ahead of the satellite's destruction.

China, Jizhi told the Post, decided to blow up the satellite and not leave it in orbit in order to "not add to the pollution around earth's orbit."

Robert Joseph, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, was quoted in the January 22 edition of The New York Times as saying, "This is a wake-up call," adding, "A small number of states are pursuing capabilities to exploit our vulnerabilities."

Janes, a respected military publication, called it a "big, fat challenge" to the US, in effect putting America and others on notice that they could not take for granted their vast, and growing, reliance on satellites for military purposes.

Jizhi rejected what others are calling a "geopolitical bombshell" towards the major space powers.

Jerusalem Post

Fatah Follows "Moderate" Abbas' Instructions

2007-01-31T00:20:00.000-08:00

On January 29, 2007, the southern Israeli resort city of Eilat was shaken by the explosion of a Palestinian suicide bomber that killed three Israeli civilians and wounded several others. Responsibility for the attack—the first of its kind in Eilat and the first Palestinian suicide bombing in months—was jointly claimed by Islamic Jihad and Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade. It followed a speech by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas two weeks earlier to a Fatah rally in which he exhorted Palestinians to avoid internecine fighting and direct their arms at Israeli "occupation" instead.

In his January 11 speech to the central Fatah rally in Ramallah, broadcast live by Palestinian Satellite Channel Television, Abbas affirmed his own Fatah movement’s dedication to fighting Israel:

Since our launch and to date, we have believed in principles and have not renounced them. Since our launch, we said: Let a thousand roses bloom. Aim all rifles at the occupation....We have pointed our rifles at the occupation. This is a legitimate right; this is a legitimate right....

Not to be outdone by his Hamas rivals, whose reputations are built on their terrorist attacks against Israelis and steadfast commitment to Israel’s destruction, Abbas rejected any negotiation with Israel about Palestinian refugees or Jerusalem and "salute[d] the spirits" of "a long list of [Fatah] martyrs who fell in many locations during our struggle and led this blessed revolution." Identifying them by name, Abbas hailed high ranking members of Fatah who were heavily involved with or masterminds of terrorist attacks against Israelis—including airplane hijackings, assassinations of diplomats, the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre, the 1975 hostage taking at Tel Aviv’s Savoy hotel, the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre—and responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilians.

He further inflamed the audience against Israel by describing a recent IDF arrest operation of a senior terror operative in which six Palestinians were killed, as a random, "barbaric" attack targeting Palestinians solely because of their nationality:

We remember the totally uncalled for barbaric attacks in Ramallah last week, which resulted in the martyrdom and injury of many young Palestinians for no reason whatsoever other than being Palestinians. For this reason Israel came with its deadly means in order to kill them and destroy what it indeed destroyed, and everyone witnessed this, the world witnessed this, and God witnessed this.

Given these words of incitement, is it any wonder that within weeks a Fatah group claimed responsibility for a terrorist attack against Israel? One need just listen to the words of the suicide bomber’s mother to hear Abbas’ own words echoed. Upon hearing of the murderous attack in Eilat, the suicide bomber’s mother expressed pride at the actions of her son, saying:

I pray to Allah that Muhammed will be accepted as a shaheed [martyr]. I hope that his martyrdom will deliver a message to the Fatah and Hamas fighters to stop the fighting and direct their weapons against the one and only enemy - Israel.

What is a wonder is that Abbas continues to receive a free pass by the media, who have ignored his incitement to violence against Israel. Far from reporting on his January 11 speech rousing his followers to direct their rifles against Israel, the media continues to portray Abbas as a "moderate." For example:

Significant progress has been made in secret coalition talks between the supreme Hamas leader and envoys of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, officials from both sides said Saturday, signaling a sudden shift in atmosphere after several weeks of deadly internal fighting. (AP, Jan. 13, 2007)

At least 30 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since moderate President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah called for fresh elections last month, raising the stakes in his bitter power struggle with the governing Hamas Islamists. (Reuters, Jan. 15, 2007)

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday promised a bigger U.S. push toward a Palestinian state in a bid to bolster moderate President Mahmoud Abbas in his power struggle with Hamas. (Reuters, Jan. 15, 2007)

Moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was to meet in Damascus on Saturday with the top leader of Hamas, Khaled Mashaal, to try to forge a unity government that would satisfy all sides. (AP, January 18, 2007)

Although both Israeli and U.S. government officials have apparently preferred to downplay Abbas’ incendiary statements, such avoidance of his incitement to violence does not absolve the media in any way of its responsibility to report this critical information.

News consumers should be told the full story of the Eilat suicide attack. By ignoring the roots of the violence against Israel, the media fails in its duty to inform the public.

Camera

Welcome To Palestine

2007-01-30T01:29:00.000-08:00

In the world of international diplomacy few issues receive more wall-to-wall support than the notion that it is essential to establish a Palestinian state. Leaders worldwide are so busy speaking of how essential it is for a State of Palestine to be founded that none of them seems to have noticed that it already exists.

This state was officially founded in the summer of 2005, when Israel removed its military forces and civilian population from the Gaza Strip and so established the first wholly independent Palestinian state in history. Israel's destruction of four Israeli communities in Northern Samaria and curtailment of its military operations in the area set the conditions for statehood in that area as well.

And so it is that as statesmen and activists worldwide loudly proclaim their commitment to establishing the sovereign State of Palestine, they miss the fact that Palestine exists. And it is a nightmare.

In the State of Palestine 88 percent of the public feels insecure. Perhaps the other 12 percent are members of the multitude of regular and irregular militias. For in the State of Palestine the ratio of police/militiamen/men-under-arms to civilians is higher than in any other country on earth.

In the State of Palestine, two-year-olds are killed and no one cares. Children are woken up in the middle of the night and murdered in front of their parents. Worshipers in mosques are gunned down by terrorists who attend competing mosques. And no one cares. No international human rights groups publish reports calling for an end to the slaughter. No UN body condemns anyone or sends a fact-finding mission to investigate the murders.

In the State of Palestine, women are stripped naked and forced to march in the streets to humiliate their husbands. Ambulances are stopped on the way to hospitals and wounded are shot in cold blood. Terrorists enter operating rooms in hospitals and unplug patients from life-support machines.

In the State of Palestine, people are kidnapped from their homes in broad daylight and in front of the television cameras. This is the case because the kidnappers themselves are cameramen. Indeed, their commanders often run television stations. And because terror commanders run television stations in the State of Palestine, it should not be surprising that they bomb the competition's television stations.

SO IT WAS that last week, terrorists from this group or that group bombed Al Arabiya television station in Gaza. And so it is that Hamas attacks Fatah radio announcers and closes down their radio station claiming that they use their microphones to incite murder. Because indeed, they are inciting murder. What would one expect for terrorists to do when placed in charge of a radio station?

And so it is that in the State of Palestine, journalists - whether members of terror groups or not - are part of the 88 percent of their public who are afraid. Sunday they protested outside the offices of one terror faction or another that controls the Palestinian Authority.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, reporter Ala Masharawi explained, "No one goes outside, no one moves without thinking twice. Gaza's streets have become terrible streets, especially at night. Gaza is a ghost town."

As the Post's Khaled Abu Toameh reported last week, in the State of Palestine, Christians are persecuted, robbed and beaten in what can only be viewed as a systematic campaign to end the Christian presence in places like Bethlehem. As Samir Qumsiyeh, owner of the Beit Sahur-based private Al-Mahd (Nativity) TV station lamented, "I believe that 15 years from now there will be no Christians left in Bethlehem. Then you will need a torch to find a Christian here."

MANY GOVERNMENT ministers and commentators seek strategic meaning in the strife in the State of Palestine. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, for instance, goes on and on about the need to strengthen the "moderates" - that is, the Fatah terror group - over the "extremists" - that is, the Hamas terror group.

Helping her to propound this nonsense is PA Chairman and Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas and his men tell Westerners how pro-Western they are at the same time as they name streets and schools financed by US aid after Saddam Hussein and build sports facilities on the American taxpayers' tab in memory of terrorists who killed American soldiers in Iraq.

For the umpteenth time, on Sunday Fatah spokesmen in PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's office blamed Iran and Syria for the escalating violence in Gaza and Judea and Samaria that has killed 29 people, including two children, in four days. "Iran and Syria are encouraging Hamas to continue fighting against Fatah," they alleged.

Damra and his partner and fellow Fatah terrorist Mahmad Ramaha, who was arrested a month ago, were working under the instruction of Hizbullah - that is, under the direction of Iran. According to the Shin Bet, Hizbullah - that is, Iran - has taken over Fatah operations in Nablus. Since Israel's withdrawal from northern Samaria in August 2005, the Shin Bet has noted that, like Gaza, the Nablus area has become a mini-Afghanistan.

So not only are Hamas terrorists operating under Iranian and Syrian direction today, Fatah terrorists are as well. Yet this doesn't stop the US and Israel from pouring guns and money into the hands of Fatah terror chiefs. They fail to recognize that what you see is what you get.

These guns are not used to encourage moderation. These guns are used against Israelis and Palestinians alike in a turf battle between terror groups over money, guns and power that will never end. And it will never end because fighting and killing for money, guns and power is what terrorists do.

FOR THE past 13 years, since the Palestinian Authority was established in 1994, the contours of the State of Palestine have taken form in front of our eyes. Starting with Yasser Arafat's abrogation of the rule of law and murderous campaign against land dealers and journalists, with each passing year and with each move to further empower the PA, the situation has only grown worse. And yet, international pressure on Israel from Arabs, Europeans and the US to surrender more territory, curtail its authority, abrogate its claims to the areas set for Palestine, and finance the Fatah terror group have only grown in intensity.

And with each passing year, as the reality of Palestine has become clearer, the Israeli leadership's will to resist this pressure is increasingly eroded.

So it is that last week Defense Minister Amir Peretz announced that he supports negotiating with Hamas. Peretz laid out his "vision" for the reinstatement of the so-called peace process with the Palestinians, and stated that, to "empower" the Palestinians, he supports extending the ban on IDF operations from Gaza to Judea and Samaria. It should go without saying that such IDF operations are aimed at preventing massacres of Israeli civilians like the one that happened in Eilat Monday morning.

LIVNI, FOR her part, has become the international champion of Fatah. Gushing to an audience of international peace processors in Davos, Switzerland, last week, Livni said, "In order to achieve peace and in order to promote a process, we must stick to this vision of a two-state solution and examine what the best steps to take are."

Of course, neither Livni nor Peretz, who insist that Israel's most urgent priority is to establish Palestine, is willing to recognize that Palestine exists already. They refuse to acknowledge what we already know: Palestine is a terror state and an economic basket case fully funded by the international community. Indeed, over the past year since Hamas won the Palestinian elections, international assistance to the Palestinians has increased dramatically.

As Ibrahim Gambari, the UN under-secretary-general for political affairs, noted last Thursday, official Western aid to the Palestinians, not including Arab and Iranian support for Hamas and Fatah, increased by 10 percent in 2006 over 2005, and stood at $1.2 billion.

The Palestinians, who receive more aid per capita than any people on earth, are needy not because they lack funds. They are poor because they prefer poverty, violence and war to prosperity, peace and moderation. So it is that 57 percent of Palestinians support terror attacks against Israel.

The multitude of protesters worldwide who demand an end to the so-called "occupation" and the establishment of Palestine should be made aware of the fact that Palestine already exists. The hordes of political leaders mindlessly squawking about "visions" and "two-state solutions" should know: This is Palestine. Enter at your own risk.

Jerusalem Post

Cabinet Approves Israel's First Muslim Minister

2007-01-29T00:37:00.000-08:00

The cabinet approved on Sunday the appointment of Israel's first Arab cabinet minister when it voted by a large majority to name Labor MK Ghaleb Majadle as MK Ophir Paz-Pines's replacement.

The decision to bring the appointment to a vote came after weeks of negotiation by MK Eitan Cabel (Labor), the minister in charge of the Israel Broadcasting Authority, who agreed that for now, Majadle would be a minister-without-portfolio, rather than becoming minister of arts, culture and sports as planned.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that within two weeks, Majadle would be assigned a portfolio.

MK Nadia Hilu (Labor) expressed on Sunday her satisfaction with the appointment of fellow Labor MK Majadle to the cabinet.

"Today, a step forward was made in the integration and equality of the Arab population," Hilu said. "We only hope that in two weeks, the prime minister's promise will become an actuality."

"Majadle is a talented minister who deserves to have a portfolio," Hilu added.

The first scheduled cabinet vote on Majadle's appointment was postponed due to political sparring between Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz, as well as within the Labor Party.

Olmert complained that Peretz had decided on the appointment without consulting him and that he informed the press of the decision before the Prime Minister's Office. Olmert told Kadima ministers that he had unsuccessfully tried to reach Peretz.

Peretz's associates countered the allegations by accusing Olmert of delaying the appointment out of a combination of racism and a desire to help former prime minister Ehud Barak unseat Peretz, and threatened to deliver an itemized list of phone calls from Peretz's office to prove that the Prime Minister's Office was contacted before the press.

'The addition of an Arab [to the cabinet] is a significant act whose time has come,' Olmert told Kadima ministers. 'But the move must be made while looking at the big picture of vacancies in the cabinet and the demands of Labor and Israel Beiteinu.'

Sources close to Olmert said he warned Peretz that if Majadle filled the vacancy in the Science, Culture and Sport Ministry, it would mean that Labor had abandoned its claim to the vacant Social Affairs portfolio.

On January 11, Israel Beitenu MK Estherina Tartman described the promotion of an Israeli Arab to the cabinet as an 'affliction,' prompting the State Attorney to investigate whether her remarks were a criminal violation.

In a letter to Attorney Eran Hermoni, chairman of the Labor Party Young Guard, Mazuz's assistant, Eyal Yinon, wrote that 'we would like to point out that on the criminal level, MK Tartman's words are being examined by the head of the Special Tasks Division in the State Attorney's Office [Attorney Shai Nitzan].'

Also in the cabinet meeting, Olmert, in a thinly veiled reference to Iran, said that Israel would "not allow the world" to be indifferent to calls for the Jewish people's destruction.

Olmert spoke after the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution condemning the denial of the Holocaust.

The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has called the Holocaust a "myth" and has repeatedly preached the destruction of the Jewish state.

"We will not allow the world to once again sink into indifference, heedlessness and silence, thereby giving moral approval to speak in such terms about the existence of the Jewish people," Olmert told members of his cabinet on Sunday, without mentioning Iran by name

Jerusalem Post

Yad Vashem To Collect Names From FSU

2007-01-28T03:33:00.000-08:00

Yad Vashem and the Immigrant Absorption Ministry have embarked on a project to record the names of Soviet-era Jews who perished in the Holocaust.

Their emissaries will spend a month attempting to visit the roughly one million Russian immigrants in Israel to create a database of names, the ministry said.

Immigrant Absorption Minister Ze'ev Boim said there was a need to "knock on every door" to ask for information about the people who were murdered in Nazi-occupied Soviet territory during World War II.

The "Immortalization Month" campaign aims to gather as many names as possible of the hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews who perished. Yad Vashem has 3.1 million names of Jewish Holocaust victims in its database, of which only 350,000 names belong to Soviet Jews.

The Nazis and their collaborators murdered six million Jews. The low proportion of victims from the Soviet Union whose names have been recorded led Yad Vashem and the ministry to launch the campaign.

According to the ministry, only 20 percent of the victims from Soviet areas have been recorded, as opposed to about 80% from Western European countries and about 40% from nations like Hungary, Poland and Romania.

For example, Yad Vashem has the names of only 7,000 Jews murdered at Babi Yar in the Ukraine, although it is known that some 33,000 Jews were murdered there.

Boris Maftzir, who heads the project for Yad Vashem, lists several reasons for the dearth of recorded names from the former Soviet Union.

During Soviet times it was impossible to commemorate and document the Holocaust, and there was no access to archival material. In addition, the large migration of Soviet Jews in the '90s hampered efforts to collect information about those who perished, Maftzir says.

Another reason names were not readily accessible, according to Maftzir, was that the Germans had only begun to develop their systematic killing machine when they invaded these areas, and, despite tallying the number of dead, did not document their victims' names.

To date, Yad Vashem has collected the names of 30,000 victims from Jews living in Russia and the Ukraine. Only several thousand names have been documented as a result of questioning Russian-language immigrants in Israel. Yad Vashem estimates that many of the missing 3,000,000 names are of Jews from Soviet lands.

The project will be conducted during February all over the country, especially in areas with large concentrations of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. They will be presented with a "Witness Document" questionnaire.

Officials from the ministry will focus on its branch offices, immigrant centers, clubs, housing projects, libraries, local authorities, as well as working through immigrant organizations.

The questionnaires, which will collect biographical information about victims from the general public, survivors and the families of victims, will be collated and kept in the hall of names at Yad Vashem.

The Absorption Ministry is also recruiting dozens of volunteers from the immigrant community to conduct interviews with survivors and relatives of victims.

Boim said the campaign would also help to fight anti-Semitism, and called on the Russian-speaking immigrant community to cooperate in the "holy endeavor."

"The time we have to immortalize those who perished is running out," he said.

Jerusalem Post

Germany Refuses To Return Nazi Stolen Jewish Art

2007-01-27T02:22:00.000-08:00

A special German panel ruled on Thursday against returning a valuable collection of rare posters stolen by the Nazis to the son of the artwork's original owner.

Peter Sachs was only a year old in 1938 when his father's collection of 12,500 posters was seized and his family fled Germany for the United States.

Sachs sought to have the collection returned to the family -- but the panel ruled against him, citing a letter from the man's father and a 1960s-era compensation payment as grounds for keeping them in Germany.

"I am inexpressably saddened by the recommendation made today by the Limbach Commission," Sachs told The Associated Press.

Sachs, 69, had been invited to address the panel in an effort to win the return of what remains of the collection: some 4,300 posters with an estimated value of between US$10 million and US$50 million, held by Berlin's German Historical Museum.

It was not immediately clear what legal action Sachs might take, his New Jersey attorney Gary Osen said, noting that it was "hard to fathom" that his father, Hans Sachs, would have wanted the collection to stay with a museum instead of being returned to the family.

"I don't think that Peter Sachs can ever abide by the conclusion or the moral implication of what the commission has written," said Osen.

The collection includes elaborate advertisements for exhibitions, cabarets and consumer products, as well as political propaganda -- all rare, with only small original print runs.

The museum maintains that since Hans Sachs received compensation of 225,000 German marks (approximately US$50,000 at the time) from the West German government in 1961, the posters should remain in its collection.

Sachs' main argument is that the compensation was paid when it was assumed the collection was destroyed in the war, and that once his father found out that part of it had survived, he started trying to get access to it in the East German museum where it ended up.

However, the commission cited a letter dated 1966 in which Hans Sachs expressed to a West German friend that he viewed the payment as appropriate compensation.

Hans Sachs died in 1974. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German Historical Museum inherited the collection from its East German counterpart in 1990.

Peter Sachs, of Sarasota, Florida, testified behind closed doors before the eight-member panel, a special commission set up in 2003 under an agreement among federal, state and local governments under Jutta Limbach, a former chief justice of Germany's Federal Constitutional Court.

The panel's mandate is to mediate in disputes involving art looted by the Nazis from Jewish and other owners and to make recommendations.

The Nazis looted an estimated 150,000 pieces of art from Western Europe during World War II and some 500,000 pieces from Eastern and Central Europe.

The panel sat for two hours before retiring to discuss its recommendation.

Israeli Insider

WHO Chief Wants To Up Israelis' Role

2007-01-26T00:51:00.000-08:00

Dr. Margaret Chan, the new director-general of the World Health Organization, has invited Israeli health professionals to contribute their experience and skills to the UN organization.

"I welcome any help from every member country," Chan told The Jerusalem Post at a reception for the WHO's executive board this week.

Two out of the possible nine Geneva headquarters positions currently are filled by Israelis. However, the WHO's executive board has 34 members who are qualified in the field of health, none of whom are Israelis.

The agenda for the forthcoming World Health Assembly is agreed upon and resolutions for forwarding to the assembly are adopted at the board meeting, which will be held in Geneva in May.

Chan, a physician from China, received her MD in Canada and began her career in public health in Hong Kong 30 years ago. She said her primary interests as secretary-general were health in Africa and women's health around the world.

Chan expressed much interest about Israel's achievements in absorbing tens of thousands of Ethiopian immigrants and treating those suffering from infectious diseases with modern medical techniques and of its advances in women's health.

Chan was director of health in Hong Kong for nine years. In that capacity she managed outbreaks of avian flu and of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

Chan replaced Dr Lee Jong-wook of South Korea, who died at the age of 61 last May following a sudden illness. She took office January 1.

Dr. Marc Danzon, head of the WHO's European Region, to which Israel belongs (years ago it was part of the Eastern Mediterranean Region, but its presence there became impossible due to opposition from the mostly Arab members), told the Post even though most countries felt their know-how was not adequately tapped by the WHO, Israel had "grounds for such a feeling."

He said the reason was "not discrimination," but that Israeli health experts tended not to apply for jobs in the lower ranks of the organization, from where they could climb the rungs to reach senior positions in Geneva.

Danzon, who has Israeli relatives and visits the country frequently, said Israeli expertise in medical fields was very high and that it should be used more by the WHO.

Chan told the executive board she would continue ongoing reforms at the WHO but would not introduce changes that cause upheaval.

"There will be some changes, but these will be gradual and carefully managed," she said.

The WHO has managed to reduce the prevalence of measles, which can be deadly to children, especially in developing countries. In Africa, the region with the heaviest measles burden, deaths of children from measles have been cut by 75 percent. The WHO is also targeting malaria, which annually kills millions of children worldwide due to a lack of insecticide-infused mosquito netting.

Jerusalem Post

Israeli Male Lifespan Among Highest

2007-01-25T02:10:00.000-08:00

The average lifespan of Israeli men is among the highest in developed countries, according to an annual Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel report released Wednesday. Israeli women, meanwhile, rank close to the middle of the pack compared to their international counterparts.

Men in only five countries have longer lifespans than Israeli males, who live an average of 78 years: Iceland (79.2), Japan (78.6), Switzerland (78.6), Sweden (78.4), and Australia (78.1).

Even though Israeli women place lower than Israeli men, they live longer, with an average lifespan of 82.4 years.

The average lifespan is one measure for defining quality of life and differentiating between developed and undeveloped countries.

According to the report, the mortality rate in cities in the center of the country as well as Jerusalem is 7 to 8 percent lower than the average national rate.

The most prevalent causes of death here are heart and blood vessel diseases, which were responsible for 30 percent of all deaths in 2003, and cancer, at 25 percent.

"The quality and high level" of doctors and nurses "are not an insignificant source of the success of the Israeli health system," the report said.

However, although the number of doctors in Israel is similar to the rate in other industrial countries - 3.4 per 1,000 people - not all residents equally benefit from such prevalence. Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have more doctors than the national average - 4.2 and 3.9 per 1,000, respectively - while northern communities have only 2.3 doctors per 1,000 residents.

Residents of the periphery also have access to fewer hospital beds and an inferior medical infrastructure compared to those in the country's center, the report said.

While the number of nurses has increased in many developed countries since the 1990s, there has been no similar increase in Israel. Israel's 5:1,000 nurse-to-resident ratio places it at the bottom of the list of developed countries, along with Poland, Portugal, Greece and Turkey. Ireland, Norway and the Netherlands have three times as many nurses working in their health-care systems.

Haaretz

Pilgrims' Road To Second Temple Unearthed

2007-01-24T01:37:00.000-08:00

At the end of the 19th century, the archaeologists Bliss and Dickey discovered a short piece of road dating back to the Herodian period in Jerusalem's City of David. The road ascended from south to north in the direction of the Temple Mount. Many years later, in 1963, the archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon found another piece of the road, a little closer to the Temple Mount. When, a little over a year ago, Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) archaeologists found yet another section of it, they believed they had solved a puzzle, and that they could now sketch the course of the main road by which many pilgrims of Second Temple times made their way up to the Temple after immersing themselves in the Siloam Spring. It turned out they were wrong. That road was apparently secondary.

The road that IAA archaeologists Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron have now found, which is much grander, wider and more central, is parallel to the one Bliss and Dickey discovered. Reich believes that at a certain point further to the north, these two roads converged.

The City of David excavations are funded by the Elad Association, which buys houses in the City of David area and populates them with Jews. The dig also enjoys government backing, and funding from the Tourism Ministry; the Israel Nature and Parks Protection Authority and the Jerusalem Municipality are involved as well. About 20 laborers, mostly Arab residents of Silwan (the Arab neighborhood where the City of David is located) are employed by the IAA in the dig.

Not far from there, at a lower point, the IAA has continued to unearth the Pool of Siloam, which is much bigger than previously thought. But this dig has been halted for the time being, until talks are resumed with one of the churches, which owns the area believed to cover the rest of the pool.

Haaretz

Yaalon: Israeli Concessions Will Only Aid Jihadists

2007-01-23T02:14:00.000-08:00

The Palestinian government and Hizb'allah are seeking Israel's destruction, not just the end of the occupation, former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon said at the Herzliya Conference Monday. He also warned that Israel could not avoid a confrontation with Iran.

"The fact that Israel was attacked last summer from two areas it left strengthens the sense of a dead end, and proves that the root of the conflict is not the occupation of territories," Yaalon said.

He added that Hizbullah's aim was not the liberation of Lebanon, but the destruction of the State of Israel, and that the same was true of the Palestinian Hamas government.

"Erase the green line and the '67 borders -- Israeli concessions will only aid jihadists," Yaalon declared.

Turning to the Iranian threat, Yaalon said: "We cannot avoid confrontation with the Iranian regime.

"The sense of self-confidence in Iran is growing, and they have not paid any price for being a rogue regime. If we do not take political and economic steps, we are actually bringing a military conflict closer," the former chief of staff warned.

"This (Iranian) regime won't last forever," Yaalon said, but added: "I don't see any internal change without a shock coming from outside.

"Iran is a rogue government that supports terrorism. It must be punished by the international community," he insisted.

'UN losing authority'
Yaalon slammed the United Nations for failing to punish Hizbullah, Syria and Iran during the Lebanon war, saying that the international body "is losing authority in the world" as a result.

He urged cooperation with Sunni elements that "view the Shiite hegemony as a threat to their existence."

"The clash of civilisations is also going on inside the Muslim world. Not all Muslims are jihadists," Yaalon emphasized. "They too see what is happening in Gaza, and recognize that the culture of death is destructive. The West and Israel must make contact with them."

In response to a question as to the viability of the two-state solution, Yaalon said: "There is no full program on how it will look in the end. You have to point to the challenges and offer a strategy for the long-term. I don't know what will happen. I know those who talk about a road map or call for pressure on Israel to take steps to solve the problem (are suggesting something that is) irrelevant. Withdrawal will not solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or solve the jihadi threat."

'Palestinian education root of terror'
He added that without a drastic reform in the Palestinian education system, which he said brainwashes children to become terrorists, there could be no hope for peace. "We tried to ignore the education in Palestinian society. Eventually we were surprised that (Palestinian) society, educated from kindergarten to become suicide bombers, acted as it did," Yaalon said, pointing to the bomb attacks throughout the Oslo years of the 1990s.

"The basis of our belief, that the other side wants two states, is false. I think there is deep understanding among the American public over this," Yaalon added.

His comments were backed by former CIA Director James Woolsey. "As long as Wahabis are running Palestinian education, and little boys are taught to be suicide bombers, I don't see any reasonable prospects for settlement," Woolsey said.

The former CIA chief added that in Israel one-fifth of the population is Arab, living freely with full rights. He called for Palestinians to be held "to the same standard as Israel," adding that if standards were the same, "something in the order 500,000 Jews would be living in West Bank," with freedom of expression and religion...

Israel Insider

What About IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit!

2007-01-22T00:47:00.000-08:00

Gilad Shalit’s great-grandfather (his father’s paternal grandfather) was murdered by the Nazis and his paternal grandmother survived the war in Vichy France, as The New York Times reports. His uncle, Yoel Shalit, died defending Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur war. For more than six months, Shalit has been held captive by Arab terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

Two fellow soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, remain hostages of Hezbollah in Lebanon, if they are still alive. All three were seized by terrorists in brazen acts of war. Shalit was kidnapped in a raid in Israel on June 25. Goldwasser and Regev were snared last July 12.

Four weeks of warfare ensued. Shalit is believed to be alive, but there is nothing clear about the other two.

It is hard to believe that more than six months have passed. I read of Regev and Goldwasser’s capture while checking the news on July 12 before leaving for a train trip to Boston. The next afternoon, news of rocket shellings upon a number of Israeli towns was broadcast on a television set at an Israeli bookstore in Brookline. It turned out that one Israeli civilian was killed in Nahariya and 11 were wounded in Safed.

It is incredible that the continued imprisonment of our soldiers is barely on the radar screen. Jewish newspapers are stuffed with letters about Mel Gibson and Jimmy Carter, but concern expressed for the plight of the three soldiers has been limited. It is not like this is a matter of debate. A life-and-death crisis for three young Jews has been largely overlooked by the general public.

The captivity of our three MIAs symbolize Israel’s relationship with Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority. Their capture set off this two-front war, and the soldiers remain prisoners of Israel's enemies. The Lebanese government and the PA are fully responsible for controlling these terrorists, and therefore Israel has every right to re-engage in warfare to secure their release.

It is fundamentally humane for citizens to speak out in support of the three soldiers. We cannot be under the delusion that a public outcry will produce their release, but it is crucial that Americans, especially American Jews, tell the world to care about these soldiers.

Thankfully, a nationwide campaign is underway to lobby for their release. Among other actions, several major Jewish organizations are seeking a million signatures on a petition to be presented to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanding their release. The petition can be accessed at Freethesoldiers.org Web site, which is operated by United Jewish Communities, the umbrella organization for Jewish Federations throughout the United States.

Several members of Congress and the New Jersey legislature of both political parties urged the release of the three soldiers during a Dec. 20 news conference in Scotch Plains, N.J., along with Jewish leaders. State Senator Tom Kean, a Livingston Republican, said he will press for a resolution to this effect. Good idea: Such a measure need not be limited to the New Jersey legislature.

Speakers quoted in the Jewish News said it all:

“For the world community not to do something, gives the terrorists the feeling they got what they wanted out of their actions,” said Lori Price Abrams, director of the MetroWest Jewish Community Relations Committee. “There would be nothing to stop them from doing it again.”

Adi Segal, a High School senior in Teaneck said, “I felt I had to do something about it. We are showing the world American Jews stand by Israel in solidarity.”

And U.S. Rep. Michael A. Ferguson stated, “We cannot and will not forget these people and the people who are working to find these men and bring them home safely.”

If we as Americans, especially American Jews, do not show we care, why should anyone else? No release, no peace.

Arutz Sheva

UK Youth: What Is A Holocaust?

2007-01-20T00:58:00.000-08:00

More than a quarter of young Britons do not know if the Holocaust happened, according to a poll on Friday that sparked alarm among Jewish leaders determined the world should not forget the Nazi genocide.

"This poll reinforces the necessity to observe the motto -- Never Again", said Winston Pickett, spokesman for the umbrella group, the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

The poll, conducted by The Jewish Chronicle to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, showed that 28 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds in Britain do not know if the Holocaust happened.

But teachers were given some comfort by the poll -- just one percent of those surveyed by YouGov pollsters thought the Holocaust was a myth.

By a majority of four-to-one they favoured Britain's decision to mark Holocaust Memorial Day every year on January 27, the day in 1945 when the advancing Russian army reached the Auschwitz concentration camp.

But only 16 percent of those polled felt that denying the Holocaust should be made a criminal offence in Britain.

They won backing from 85-year-old Auschwitz survivor Freddie Knoller who said: "We are in a country that has freedom of speech and I wouldn't like that to change."

But he did say that the figure demonstrating widespread ignorance of the Holocaust among young adults was "frightening. I lecture to schools, mostly to children over 16, but this makes me think I should concentrate on that group."

The Holocaust Educational Trust, which gives lessons in schools across Britain to inform the young about the Nazi genocide, said the survey gave cause for concern.

"It re-motivates, focuses and invigorates us at the trust to recognise our work is not done," executive director Karen Pollock told Reuters.

"Since the Holocaust, we have seen what happened in Kosovo, Rwanda, Cambodia and now Darfur," she said. "People have to apply the lessons of the past."

British Muslim leaders have in the past said they are unwilling to attend the annual commemorations, arguing that Holocaust Memorial Day should honour victims of genocide everywhere.

"We have misgivings about the name," said Inayat Bunglawala, spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain.

"Our concern is that the day should be inclusive, as mass killing of any people, as happened in Rwanda and Bosnia, is unacceptable," he told Reuters.

Y Net News

Arab Convert Arrested For Aiding Jihad Brother

2007-01-19T01:21:00.000-08:00

An Arab convert to Judaism living in Haifa was indicted Thursday for conspiring with the enemy and contacting a foreign agent – his brother, an Islamic Jihad terrorist.

Assaf Ben-David, born Hussam Hafez Mahmoud Suafta, converted to Judaism and left the PA-controlled village of Tubas, near Shechem, once he received Israeli citizenship in 1993. He is now accused of trying to pass materials for manufacturing explosives to his brother Salah, a member of the Islamic Jihad terrorist group

Salah was killed on December 20th in clashes with the IDF in Tubas before he could receive the nitrous acid from his brother.

Hussam Suafta, 39, was arrested a number of times for taking part in riots and anti-Israel attacks during the Intifada of the late 80s. He worked in Israel illegally and in 1993 began the conversion process, even enrolling in a Jerusalem yeshiva. Three years later he received Israeli citizenship and changed his name to Assaf Ben-David. He later married a Jewish woman, started a family and received the status of an oleh chadash, a new immigrant to Israel.

Hussam was in touch with Salah by telephone in recent months and met with him in Jenin in October, when he agreed to procure a large amount of nitrous acid. The two developed codes in order to evade detection and Salah gave Hussam several SIM cards to be used to evade Israeli surveillance.

Salah was killed resisting arrest on December 20th and Hussam converted to Islam anew just before he was apprehended on December 26.

Two of Suafta’s brothers are also in Israeli prisons after taking part in plans to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel recently.

Al-Aksa Brigades Terrorist
Also Thursday, Mohammed al-Gandur, a member of Fatah’s Al-Aksa Brigades was killed by IDF soldiers during an operation in Shechem. Al-Gandur was involved in a shooting attack and the preparation of bombs to be used against Israelis. Three other Al-Aksa terrorists were injured. No IDF injuries were reported in the clashes.

Thirteen wanted PA Arabs were arrested overnight, nine in Kalkilya, three from Fatah’s Tanzim, in Bethlehem and an Islamic Jihad terrorist in Jenin.

Terrorists opened fire on IDF forces operating in Ramallah, but failed to inflict any injuries.

Hevron police Thursday located a stolen Israeli blood-bank ambulance in the village of Dura. The ambulance had been stolen from the Tel Aviv region. After it was examined by police sappers, it was returned to its owners.

Arutz Sheva

Germany: Sharp Rise In Conversions To Islam

2007-01-18T00:49:00.000-08:00

A report prepared at the request of the German Interior Ministry revealed that 5,000 Germans converted to Islam between July 2004 and June 2005, a figure that is four times higher than that of the previous year.

In previous years the average number of Germans who converted to Islam stood at only 300.

The researchers said that while in the past most of those who converted were women who married Muslims, today many university graduates and high-wage earners are joining Prophet Mohammad’s religion.

According to Berlin Imam Mohammed Herzog – a former protestant priest who converted to Islam – the Germans are choosing Islam ‘as they respect its clear values and decrees.’

Y Net News

Skyguard Anti-Kassam Laser Back In Race

2007-01-17T02:30:00.000-08:00

With two weeks left before Defense Minister Dir.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi is scheduled to reveal the anti-Kassam system the government plans to adopt and develop, US defense conglomerate Northrop Grumman retook its place in the contest this week after it finally presented new findings on its laser cannon to Israeli defense officials.

Last week, The Jerusalem Post learned, officials from the Pentagon and Northrop Grumman came to Tel Aviv for a meeting with the Defense Ministry's Research and Development Authority (MAFAT), assigned the task of choosing a short-range missile interception system that would counter the Kassam rockets from Gaza and the Katyusha rockets from Lebanon.

Israeli defense officials said that following the presentation by Northrop Grumman, the company was "back in the race" and stood a chance at winning the estimated $300 million deal.

Formerly known as the Nautilus, the Skyguard was developed by the US Army in conjunction with the IDF as a laser cannon capable of intercepting short-range missiles and projectiles, such as the Palestinian homemade Kassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip. Israel, which invested $100 million in the project over the past decade, several years ago decided to suspend its participation and investments following a similar decision by the US Army.

During the meeting, which officials said lasted several hours, defense officials received answers on the system's range and were also told that the system covers close to 10 kilometers of territory, far more than the three kilometers it was initially capable of protecting when it was first developed.

"The system is operational for rocket defense in Gaza and the North," Dan Wildt, director of business development for directed energy systems at Northrop Grumman, told the Post Tuesday.

One of the Northrop Grumman officials who visited Tel Aviv last week, Wildt said that the number of units Israel would need to defend its southern and northern fronts was less than defense officials had initially estimated. He said the system could be delivered to Israel within a year-and-a-half.

"One unit could defend Sderot and one unit could defend Ashkelon," Wildt said. "We can also have an operational system in Israel within 18 months of when the order is made."

Following the war in Lebanon, Defense Minister Amir Peretz appointed Ashkenazi to head a committee to locate and purchase an anti-missile defense system. According to officials, the committee plans to make its recommendation by the end of the week.

Northrop Grumman had been asking for a meeting with Israeli defense officials for several months but the meeting was only set after the US company received permission from the Pentagon to present Israel with classified information concerning the capabilities of the newly-upgraded system.

One system has already been tested at the US Armed Forces missile range in White Sands, New Mexico and, according to Northrop Grumman, could be operational and deployed in Israel within six months.

Jerusalem Post

Hamas Says We Will Never Recognize Israel!

2007-01-16T01:22:00.000-08:00

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said on Monday the Islamist militant group Hamas would never recognize Israel.

Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, said in an interview from Gaza with Lebanese guerrilla group Hizb'allah's al-Manar television: "Hamas will never recognize the legitimacy of the occupation (Israel)."

"Hamas will never show flexibility over the issue of recognizing the legitimacy of the occupation," he added.

Hamas took control of the Palestinian government last March after winning parliamentary elections a year ago.

The United States and its allies imposed sanctions on the Hamas-led government to pressure it to recognize Israel, renounce violence and abide by interim deals. The group has refused to abide by these demands.

Haniyeh said there had been "an encouraging start" to efforts aimed at forming a Palestinian national unity government with rival movement Fatah.

"I am full of hope that these efforts could succeed and I hope that the national unity government could see the light in the nearest time possible if the intentions were honest," he said.

At least 30 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah called for new elections last month, raising the stakes in his power struggle with Hamas. Some Palestinians fear the fighting could lead to civil war.

Haniyeh renewed his rejection of Abbas' election call.

He said Hamas would never agree to conditions set by Western powers, which also included accepting previous interim peace accords signed in the 1990s by the Palestine Liberation Organization with Israel.
Abbas has called for peace talks with Israel.

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in 2001 and have remained deadlocked further since Hamas took power.

Last week, the movement's exiled leader Khaled Meshaal told Reuters in Damascus where he is based that Hamas does "not talk about recognizing Israel or accepting it as a reality".

Barghouti for Shalit

Haniyeh said in the al-Manar interview there was "talk that progress has been achieved" on bids to free an Israeli soldier held captive in Gaza by militants in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. "They used to refuse talking about numbers and now they (Israel) have agreed," he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he was willing to free Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel for Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was captured last June in a cross-border raid by gunmen from Hamas and other factions.

Haniyeh confirmed for the first time that factions had listed jailed Fatah leader Marwan al-Barghouti among those they wanted freed. Barghouti was jailed by an Israeli court for five life terms for ordering attacks on Israelis.

Israel has in the past refused to free prisoners with "blood on their hands".

Palestinian armed factions have demanded Israel release more than 1,000 prisoners for Shalit. Israel holds some 11,000 Palestinian prisoners in its jails.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, mediating to arrange an Israeli-Palestinian prisoner swap, said at a summit with Olmert this month in Egypt he hoped an agreement would be reached soon.

Y Net News

Ahmadinejad Kisser's Wife Files For Divorce

2007-01-15T01:43:00.000-08:00

Moshe Aryeh Friedman, a senior Neturei Karta member, who passionately kissed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will now be forced to look for a woman who will agree to kiss him, as his wife has decided to leave him following his participation in the Holocaust denial conference which took place in Tehran about a month ago.

The participation of six Neturei Karta leaders in the Holocaust denial conference in Tehran continues to strip up emotions in the ultra-Orthodox community.

Friedman, who lives in Vienna, is the harshest person among the Neturei Karta representatives who arrived in Iran , and was even photographed kissing the Iranian president. He also stayed in Iran for another two weeks after his friends left, visiting universities across the country in order to speak against the State of Israel.

The 'Ultra-Orthodox Voice' service reported that when Friedman finally returned to Vienna he found out that his wife, following her parents' advice, had fled to the Satmar community in Williamsburg, New York City. There she approached rabbis and asked them to help her divorce her husband due to his misdeeds.

Friedman is not the only Neturei Karta member who is in trouble following the Holocaust denial conference. The group's British representative has been put under tight security for fear he would be hurt after the Jewish community in the United Kingdom decided to banish him.

Y Net News

PA Names Youth Soccer Tournament After Saddam

2007-01-14T03:18:00.000-08:00

A soccer tournament for Arab youth in Tulkarm has been named after recently executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

“The sports department in the youth community center in Tulkarm is organizing the first soccer tournament named after the Shahid and leader, Saddam Hussein,” Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, the official organ of the Palestinian Authority, reported on January 10.

The irony was lost that Hussein's son Uday - who ran the Iraqi Olympic program under his father's brutal regime - used to torture athletes who failed to perform to his satisfaction.

In a separate development, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida also reported on January 8: “The Fatah movement in the Deheishe camp south of Bethlehem erected yesterday two memorial stones in the memory of two shahids, Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein. This took place during a ceremony of the movement for the commemoration of 42 years to its establishment, with the presence of the delegate of the Fatah movement, Muhammad Al-Laham… Al-Laham: 'The erecting of the two memorial stones comes from a positive recognition of the immense sacrifice that the two shahids realized for the sake of their nation. Both went without renouncing their national principles.'”

The two reports, translated into English by Palestinian Media Watch, reflect the abiding support Hussein enjoyed in the PA. His execution in Baghdad on December 30 sent many PA Arabs into deep mourning as they struggled to come to terms with the demise of perhaps their most steadfast ally.

Captured by American forces on December 13, 2003, Hussein was convicted of crimes against humanity by the Iraq Special Tribunal and was sentenced to death by hanging. On December 26, 2006, his appeal was rejected and the death sentence upheld. He was executed four days later.

Unlike much of the rest of the world, where Saddam Hussein was viewed as a brutal dictator who oppressed his people and started regional wars, he was seen in Judea, Samaria and Gaza as a generous benefactor unafraid to fight for the Arab cause, even to the end.

Saddam's final words were reportedly, "Palestine is Arab."

"We heard of his martyrdom, and I swear to God we were deeply shaken from within," said Khadejeh Ahmad from the Qadora refugee camp near Bethlehem. "Nobody was as supportive or stood with the Palestinians as he did."

During the first Gulf War in 1991, the Arabs of Judea, Samaria and Gaza cheered Saddam's missile attacks on Israel, chanting "Beloved Saddam, strike Tel Aviv," as the Scud missiles flew overhead.

Hussein further endeared himself to the PA Arabs during the Intifada against Israel by giving US$25,000 to the family of each suicide bomber and US$10,000 for each local Arab killed in fighting. The stipends amounted to an estimated US$35 million.

Arutz Sheva

From Jenin To Baghdad

2007-01-13T01:26:00.000-08:00

The average Israeli is not particularly interested in the US-led war in Iraq. As far as most Israelis are concerned, that war, going on just a few hundred kilometers from our borders, might as well be taking place in outer space. It simply doesn't seem connected to our local reality of the Palestinian-Iranian and Lebanese-Iranian jihad. Although greeted with sadness, the daily news updates on US and Iraqi casualties seem to bear no tangible relation to us.

Conversely, most Americans do not think that the war being fought against Israel is linked to the war in Iraq. Both the Bush administration's efforts to limit IDF operations against the Palestinians and Hizbullah and the US media's generally hostile portrayal of the war against Israel lead most Americans to share the Israeli view that the wars our nations fight are separate, distinct ones. And so, as far as most Israelis and Americans are concerned, Americans have nothing to learn from Israel's war and Israelis have nothing to learn from their war.

But the truth is far different. Indirectly, US President George W. Bush's address Wednesday night on the new direction the war in Iraq will soon take was a testament to this truth.

Although expected to announce a radical change in his administration's strategy in Iraq, in Wednesday's speech Bush did no such thing. In essence the president restated his long held view that victory in Iraq will come with the stabilization of a unified, democratic Iraqi regime and the parallel defeat of both the Sunni and Shi'ite insurgencies. Conversely, the enemy forces, operating under Syrian and Iranian sponsorship, fight precisely to prevent the stabilization of the regime and undermine the unity of the multi-ethnic, multi-religious Republic of Iraq.

Bush's plan to implement a "surge and hold" strategy for taking and maintaining control over Baghdad and the al-Qaida infested Anbar Province is based on a new realization that establishing and maintaining a modicum of security for the country's citizens is a precondition for any subsequent moves towards stabilizing Iraq politically.

FOR ISRAELI ears, the most notable aspect of Bush's "surge and hold" strategy is its striking similarity to the IDF's Operation Defensive Shield in 2002.

There is little doubt that the US has much greater leeway in its operations in Iraq than the IDF enjoys in its efforts against the Palestinians or Hizbullah. Their ability to cultivate and empower Iraqis who share their strategic outlook while weakening others who oppose them is far greater than Israel's ability today to influence the Palestinians or the Lebanese.

But for all that, the fact is that after nearly four years fighting in Iraq, the US essentially embraced the counter-insurgency strategy that Israel adopted in Judea and Samaria five years ago. And similar to the US operations in Iraq until now, Israel only adopted its surge and hold strategy in Judea and Samaria after two years of absorbing unrelenting and ever-escalating Palestinian terrorist attacks. Until Defensive Shield, Israel responded to the war being waged against its society by carrying out brief incursions into Palestinian towns, conducting arrests and swiftly retreating.

Indeed, if the Americans want to get a sense of the president's new plan's prospects for success they would do well to study developments in Israel since Operation Defensive Shield.

Bush warned that his new plan will not end the violence in Iraq. As he put it, "This new strategy will not yield an immediate end to suicide bombings, assassinations, or IED attacks. Our enemies in Iraq will make every effort to ensure that our television screens are filled with images of death and suffering. Yet over time, we can expect to see Iraqi troops chasing down murderers, fewer brazen acts of terror, and growing trust and cooperation from Baghdad's residents."

Ariel Sharon's voice echoes deeply in Bush's statement. After Defensive Shield failed to end Palestinian terrorist attacks, Sharon repeatedly stated that we couldn't expect for terror to end. And it is not surprising that the president's message was so familiar. His plan for Baghdad gives the same opportunities and places the same strategic limitations on success in Iraq that Defensive Shield placed on Israel's chances of ending the Palestinian jihad.

In both cases, the chosen strategy works to prevent terrorists located in specific, limited areas from rebuilding their capabilities by first defeating them and then remaining in place to block them from rearming or operating openly. Israel's experience since April 2002 in Judea and Samaria demonstrates its success. By maintaining IDF control over the areas, Israel has succeeded in limiting and delaying the development of the Palestinians' fighting capabilities in Judea and Samaria.

If US forces do surge and hold Baghdad, the Americans can safely assume that in the months to come Baghdad will experience a steep and sustainable drop in violence.

But by the same token, the Israeli experience also informs us of the price of adopting a strategy limited to an isolated front. Neither the war in Iraq, which is sponsored by Iran and Syria, nor the Palestinian war against Israel, which is sponsored by Iran, Syria and Egypt, are isolated, singular campaigns. And yet both the Israeli and the American surge and hold strategies treat them as if they are isolated, distinct, non-regional wars.

While IDF units capably tie down the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, they are incapable of wiping out the Palestinian terror infrastructure. Outside of Judea and Samaria, in places like Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran, our enemies continue to develop and diversify their capabilities and today those capabilities span the terror and weapons of mass destruction spectrums. Indeed, by refusing to attach its operations in Judea and Samaria to a regional strategy for victory, the government has rendered the forces in Judea and Samaria powerless to achieve true victory in the areas. If the Israeli government is ever foolish enough to order the IDF to stand down, those terror forces will immediately rebuild their capabilities.

Israel's refusal to recognize the regional nature of the Palestinian war against it stems from the strategic blindness of Israel's leaders. Sharon and his successors Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, together with the opinion makers in the local media who back them, all refuse to recognize the regional nature of the war being waged against us. Ignoring the overwhelming evidence that the Palestinians - from Hamas to Islamic Jihad to Fatah - take their marching orders from Teheran, our leaders irrelevantly and dangerously work to establish a Fatah-led terror state in Judea and Samaria. That is, they seek to create a new Iranian-run terror state that will operate side-by-side with the Hamas-led Iranian-run terror state in Gaza.

While the Olmert government's decision to fork over guns, ammunition and $100 million to Fatah makes clear that it will not change its current course, Bush's address Wednesday gave hope that his administration may actually not ignore the regional character of the war it faces in Iraq. After presenting his plan for Baghdad and the Anbar Province, Bush spoke forthrightly about the ideological and regional nature of the war. Pointing an accusatory finger at Iran and Syria for their support for the insurgents in Iraq, Bush announced his intention to take action to end to their interference. He even hinted that the US may take military action against Iran's nuclear facilities saying, "I recently ordered the deployment of an additional carrier strike group to the region."

BUT THERE is also cause for concern. As Bush gave a clear warning to Iran and Syria, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was preparing her next trip to the Middle East. Thursday Ma'ariv reported that Rice will devote her time here next week to pressuring Israel to agree to withdraw its forces from Judea and Samaria and so enable Fatah to establish a terror state there. Rice's reported plans indicate that far from acknowledging the regional nature of the war, the administration continues its slavish adherence to the view that war's various fronts are wholly unrelated, and that an Israeli defeat will either not impact or advance the chances for an American victory in Iraq.

In addition to the battlefield constraints the limited strategic approach imposes, it also causes damage on the home front. During Operation Defensive Shield, the Sharon government prevented the IDF from destroying the Palestinian Authority or even mounting a similar operation in Gaza. By so acting, the government ensured that the Palestinian war against Israel would continue on.

Yet at the same time, the unprecedented scale of the IDF's counter-terror offensive and Sharon's own rhetoric led the Israeli public to believe that after two years of stalling during which war had been waged against Israeli society, the government was finally ordering the IDF to win the war and defeat our enemies and so secure us from yet more massacres and terror. When the limited offensive did not bring about a sustained victory, Israeli society began to lose faith in the IDF's ability to defend it.

Similarly, the humiliating results of last summer's war with Hizbullah caused the public immense disappointment which only served to intensify its sense of despair. That disillusionment and despair also goes a long way towards explaining how the Kadima Party - which ran its election campaign last year under the banner of "pragmatic" defeatism - was able to win in the general elections. And it is the same despair that feeds our enemies' growing faith in their ultimate ability to destroy Israel.

In the US, the fact that the Bush administration's limited strategy in Iraq has taken a toll on the public's faith that victory will ultimately be achieved was demonstrated even more starkly in last November's Congressional elections. The Democrats won those elections while running as the anti-war party that will "Bring the Boys Home," from Iraq. Bush's attempt Wednesday to lower the public's expectations for victory by including statements like, "There will be no surrender ceremony on the deck of a battleship," in his speech, risked making the Democrats' defeatist message for them.

At the same time, by finally acknowledging the Iranian and Syrian role in the war in Iraq and implicitly widening the battlefield to encompass them, Bush's address presented the first cause for hope in recent memory that the US may actually stop its current policy of acting like Israel and fighting a regional war by playing defense on one front. For the first time since 2004, Bush gave reason to believe that Iran should be worried today.

Sadly, as long as Israel's current government remains in power, Israel has no chance of sharing what may well be America's new clarity of vision.

Jerusalem Post

American Weapons To Be Used On Jews'

2007-01-12T02:05:00.000-08:00

The United States, aided by Israel, over the last few weeks has provided 7,000 assault rifles and more than 1 million rounds of ammunition to militias associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, senior Fatah militants told WND. The arms were provided to bolster Fatah against rival Hamas factions, the Fatah militants said.

Fatah and Hamas have engaged in weeks of deadly firefights since Abbas last month called for new Palestinian elections in a move widely seen as an attempt to dismantle the Hamas-led PA.

Abu Yousuf, a Fatah militant from Abba's Force 17 security forces, told WND while some of the weapons may be used in confrontations against Hamas, the bulk of the American arms would be utilized to "hit the Zionists."

He said if there is a major conflict with Israel, U.S. weapons provided to Fatah may be shared with other "Palestinian resistance organizations."

According to documents revealed Friday, the Bush administration will provide $86.4 million to strengthen security forces loyal to Abbas, including Force 17, Abbas' security detail, which also serves as de facto police units in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Some members of Force 17 also are openly members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror organization, Fatah's declared "military wing."

U.S. officials confirmed the financial aid is set to be transferred to Fatah.

The multi-million-dollar grant will be used to "assist the Palestinian Authority presidency in fulfilling PA commitments under the Road Map (peace plan) to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism and establish law and order in the West Bank and Gaza," a U.S. government document said.

Force 17 members told WND ammunition and 7,000 assault rifles they say were delivered the past few weeks reached Fatah security forces in the Gaza Strip and in Ramallah in the West Bank. It was unclear if the arms were part of the $86 million in U.S. aid.

Like other recent confirmed arms transfers from Egypt and the U.S., the latest American weapons shipments were driven through Israeli checkpoints by convoys protected by the Israeli Defense Forces, according to sources familiar with the transfers. In Gaza, the weapons were accepted by Fatah strongman Mahmoud Dahlan, the sources said.

A spokeswoman for the IDF refused to deny the latest purported U.S. weapons shipments.

"This is a matter for the state (of Israel) and the prime minister's office," the IDF spokeswoman said.

Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, could not immediately provide confirmation or denial of the American weapons shipment, saying Olmert's visit today to China is "keeping the staff fully busy."

The U.S. State Department did not return a request for comment before press time.

In an interview with WND, Fatah Force 17 security officer Abu Yousuf said some of the U.S. weapons his group received would be used against Hamas.

"The first place of these U.S. weapons will be to defend the Palestinian national project, which is reflected by the foundation of the Palestinian Authority. If Hamas or any other group under the influence of Iran and Syria wants to make a coup de tat against our institution, these weapons are there to defend the PA," said Abu Yousuf.

"We don't want to go to civil war with Hamas, because this is what both the U.S. and Israel want. This is our last option. We hope our brothers in Hamas won't oblige us to find ourselves in confrontation," Abu Yousuf said.

But the Fatah militant said the new American weapons may also be used to target Israelis. He admitted previous American arms supplied to Fatah were used in "resistance operations" against the Jewish state.

"If Israel will deliver what it promised to Abu Mazen (Abbas), [meaning a] withdrawal from Palestinian lands, including east Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, remove all the checkpoints in the West Bank, release our prisoners, and find a clear solution for our refugees, we'll control our forces and the distribution of weapons

"But if Israel doesn't deliver, and we find ourselves manipulated by Israel, we cannot guarantee members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Force 17 will not use these weapons against Israel. Our goal is to change the occupation," said Abu Yousuf.

" Its unnatural to think these American weapons won't be used against the Israelis," he said.

Like some other Force 17 members, Abu Yousuf is openly also a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

The Brigades, together with Islamic Jihad, has taken responsibility for every suicide bombing in Israel the past two years, including an attack in Tel Aviv in April that killed American teenager Daniel Wultz and nine Israelis. The Brigades also has carried out scores of deadly shooting and rocket attacks against Israeli civilians in recent months.

All Brigades leaders are also members of Fatah. Abbas last June appointed senior Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leader Mahmoud Damra as commander of Force 17. Damra, who was arrested by Israel in November, was on the Jewish state's most-wanted list of terrorists.

Abu Yousuf said the American weapons shipments may be shared with other Palestinian terror groups. He said that during large confrontations with Israel, such as the Jewish state's 2002 anti-terror raid in Jenin, Fatah distributed weapons to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

"We don't look where this piece or that piece of weapon came from when fighting the Israelis," Abu Yousuf said.

He also pointed to what he said was Hamas' infiltration of some of Fatah's security forces as a possible mechanism Hamas can use to obtain Fatah's American-supplied weapons.

"Our organizations are infiltrated (by Hamas). In the last elections campaign, our Fatah party was astonished at how many of our security members votes for Hamas – we thought our own forces would vote 95 percent vote for us, but it was 70 percent for Fatah and 30 percent for Hamas," Abu Yousuf said.

A senior Fatah security official, speaking yesterday to WND on condition his name be withheld, says Fatah has a "significant problem" of its militia members in Gaza joining Hamas.

Sources close to Hamas said the Fatah militants, including members of Force 17, worked with Hamas after receiving larger paychecks from the terror group.

"When they join Hamas, they bring along their new weapons," said a Hamas source.

During a WND interview earlier this week, Hamas spokesman Abu Oubaida told WND his terror group will obtain any American weapons transferred to Fatah militias or purchased by Fatah using the incoming $86.4 million in U.S. aid.

"I am sure that like in the past, this $86 million from America will find its way to the Hamas resistance via the honorable persons in the Fatah security organizations, including in Force 17. I can confirm 100 percent that this money and purchased weapons will find its way to Hamas," said Abu Oubaida.

The last confirmed American arms shipment to Fatah took place in May. At first, it was denied by the U.S. and Israel, but Olmert in June admitted the transfer took place, telling reporters, "I needed to approve the shipment to help bolster Abbas."

The U.S. weapons were delivered to Gaza and Ramallah by the IDF, according to reports.

U.S. weapons prompting Palestinian arms race?

Meanwhile, Abu Abdullah, considered one of the most important operational members of Hamas' so-called military wing, told WND the U.S. aid and weapons shipments have prompted a Palestinian arms race.

The Hamas leader said weapons procured as a result of the U.S. shipment will be used against Israel.

"The more the Americans give Abu Mazen (Abbas) weapons, the more we will have in the future weapons to use against the Israelis, because it incites the different organizations to intensify their own supply of weapons," said Abu Abdullah of Hamas' Izzedine al-Qassam Martyrs Brigades, Hamas' declared "resistance" department.

According to Palestinian security sources, the increased drive by Hamas to obtain new weapons has raised the price of arms in Egypt and Jordan.

"An M-16 that sold for 6,000 Jordanian Dinar now is worth 10,000 Dinar because Hamas is trying to get more weapons," a Palestinian security source told WND.

Like Hamas spokesman Abu Oubaida, Hamas' Abu Abdullah said U.S. weapons to Fatah would eventually fall into the hands of Hamas:

"These American weapons will be one day the property of all the Palestinian people and its resistance, including Hamas," Abu Abdullah said. "The U.S. gives weapons to Fatah during internal Palestinian clashes, but one day when we go back to carrying out operations together, these [weapons] will be shared."

WND

Terrorists: Our Demands To Free 1000 Are Just

2007-01-11T01:32:00.000-08:00

A spokesman for one of the organizations responsible for the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit faults Israel for wanting proof that the soldier is still alive without freeing 250 terrorists in exchange.

Abu Mujahid, a spokesman for the Hamas-affiliated Popular Resistance Committees, spoke with the Palestinian Authority news agency Maan about the stalled talks for the release of kidnapped IDF Corp. Gilad Shalit.

The spokesman blamed Israel for sabotaging the talks, saying Israel should have accepted the Egyptian proposal. This proposal, he said, "was the closest one to the Palestinian demands in terms of the number of terrorists [to be freed from Israeli prisons] and the criteria for their release." He said that Israel actually expected to receive "free information" proving that Gilad Shalit was alive, while Hamas had demanded 250 prisoners in exchange for a video of the soldier.

Abu Mujahid says that Gilad's health is fine, and "he is being treated according to Islamic tradition... He was not humiliated or tortured." An Egyptian source also said recently that Shalit was alive, but no outside observers, such as the Red Cross, have ever been allowed to verify this.

Shalit was captured over six months ago by a group of eight Palestinian Hamas terrorists who tunneled underground from Gaza into Israel, murdered two tank
crewmembers, wounded a third, and took Shalit captive. Prime Minister Olmert said at the time that he holds PA chief Abu Mazen "personally responsible" for Shalit's safety, and said he would not conduct negotiations with Hamas for the soldier's release.

How many terrorists is Hamas demanding in exchange for Shalit? Though rumors of 1,400 have been circulating for months, Abu Mujahid has a different story: "Our just and humane demand is for the release of 1,000 Arab and Palestinian prisoners, including women and youths - and it will not change. The occupiers will surrender to our demands in the end, because stalling and condescension will not return the kidnapped soldier home... [We] can hold him for years."

Addressing remarks to Shalit's family, Abu Mujahid said, "Your government does not want to return your son back home. If it would have agreed to the Egyptian proposal, he would have been home already."

The two other IDF soldiers captured last year, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, were taken by Hamas at the start of the war in Lebanon. Information regarding their condition is even sparser than that on Shalit, and Olmert even let slip several weeks ago that he "hopes" they are alive.

Arutz Sheva

US Orthodox Slam Natorei Karta

2007-01-10T01:28:00.000-08:00

The participation of the Natorei Karta in a Holocaust denial conference held in Teheran last month, continues to draw the ire of Jews, but particularly that of the haredim who feel their credibility and image was threatened by the actions of the small anti-Zionist group.

The latest show of opposition came Sunday when hundreds of Jews, mostly Orthodox, protested in Monsey, NY, where the Natorei Karta have one of their headquarters.

Organized by a far-right Jewish group, the Jewish Defense Organization (JDO) that holds training sessions to teach Jews how to defend themselves against anti-Semitism, the protest was held outside the Natorei Karta headquarters and home of Rabbi Dovid Weiss who recently returned from the conference in Teheran. Weiss was one of several members of the group who attended the conference hosted by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Weiss would not comment on the protest, and told The Jerusalem Post that he has a policy of not speaking to "Zionist newspapers." The protest was one part of a larger campaign, called "Operation Screwball," by the JDO to ostracize the Natorei Karta. The JDO Web site now features photos of several members of the sect with their telephone numbers and addresses, in an attempt to encourage harassment. The group, which is not affiliated with the Jewish Defense League, is calling on synagogues and Jewish businesses in Monsey to deny entrance to or association with the group's members.

"We want them fired from their jobs and run out of Monsey," said Mordechai Levy, the national director of the JDO.

Protesters at Sunday's gathering, who came from Brooklyn, New Jersey and other parts of the New York metro area, carried signs that read "Natorei Karta U R Traitors." They were met with equally provocative signs from the Natorei Karta that said "Judaism rejects Zionism and the State of Israel." The anti-Zionist group stood outside their headquarters with a torn Israeli flag.

Since the conference in Teheran in December, some of the most vocal opposition in New York to the Natorei Karta's attendance has come from ultra-Orthodox groups such as the Satmar, some of whom ascribe to a more moderate from of anti-Zionist belief. The opposition stems in large part from a fear that the Natorei Karta will be seen to represent all of the ultra-Orthodox.

"The anti-Zionists who don't do anything to hurt government officials, but who support their philosophy, will be most outraged out of fear that they [Natorei Karta] are reflecting on them," said Rabbi Avi Shafran, director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America. "We are hoping the media realizes that this is an aberration."

Shafran said the Natorei Karta who attended the conference represent a "sliver of a sliver" of the Orthodox community, and he added that the Orthodox community has done everything possible to distance themselves from the radical group. Like the Natorei Karta, Agudath Israel also opposed the creation of the state. But today, Shafran said, they accept the reality of Israel and said the group has good relations with Israeli government officials.

"Our basic philosophy is that perhaps the creation of the State of Israel would not have been the best thing to do at the time, but one has to deal with reality," Shafran said. "One does not coddle one's enemies, if one does one is taking a dangerous step."

The attempt by the ultra-Orthodox to distance themselves from the Jewish men who attended the conference in Teheran, "is all about fundraising," according to Professor Samuel Heilman, a sociology professor at Queens College in New York.

"Other groups recognize the appearance of somebody who looks like them, tars them all," said Heilman. "Besides the moral outrage, it is a real PR problem and they need to find some way to distinguish themselves." Though they seek to isolate and insulate themselves from the outside world, the ultra-Orthodox are "heavily dependent" on it, added Heilman.

"The Teheran group has easy PR, but their opponents don't have that kind of option." The Satmar, because of a shared commitment to anti-Zionism, feel particularly threatened.

"When the world sees someone who looks like me and goes to Iran and associates themselves with an enemy of the United States, so I have to raise hell and say I am not part of this," said Moshe Deutsch, a columnist for the Satmar newspaper in Brooklyn Der Yid. "Satmar has always stood against Zionism, but had its rules, parameters. These people went out of every norm and somehow it is presumed that's our position on Zionism."

Jerusalem Post

Give Us Leadership!

2007-01-09T01:39:00.000-08:00

Conflicting government policies relating to the so-called truce with the Palestinians are truly mind-boggling. What has unfolded over the past few weeks signals that our leadership has plainly lost the plot.

The pride of Zionism was that after 2,000 years of powerlessness the Israeli army could defend the Jewish people. In fact, our citizens' army did successfully repel the combined forces of all the Arab states seeking to annihilate us. Even now, in the wake of the blunders of our military and political leadership during the Lebanon war, the army of Israel remains the most effective military force in the region.

Yet over the past few weeks most of us have been aghast and enraged at the failure of the government to fulfill its primary responsibility - ensuring the safety and security of the civilian population.

Our leaders entered into a "truce" fully aware that the Palestinians were incapable and had no intention of even trying to genuinely curtail the terror initiatives being directed against us. Our prime minister, Ehud Olmert, kissed Mahmoud Abbas, the duplicitous successor of Yasser Arafat, and proclaimed him a moderate genuinely committed to the illusory peace process. Yet this man, who hypocritically repeats the mantra that terror attacks harm the Arab cause, sustains a genocidal culture. He not only sanctifies suicide bombers; he personally introduced legislation to provide pensions for the families of the murderers.

To this day he adamantly refuses to intervene against terror initiatives orchestrated under his jurisdiction. His own "security" forces remain actively engaged in terror initiatives and are responsible for murdering more Israeli civilians than Hamas.

Hamas accepted the truce for its own, short-term strategic requirements. But at least its leaders were honest about their intentions, proclaiming that, at a time of their choosing, they would unhesitatingly resume the battle for the liberation of all Palestine.

The IDF bitterly opposed the truce and warned the government that Israeli civilians would be at greater risk and that additional casualties would ensue. Although following the inauguration of the "truce" the Kassam rockets continued raining down on Sderot and the adjacent region, the army was explicitly precluded by the prime minister from taking defensive measures against the terrorists even if they were observed actually launching missiles against civilian targets.

The pathetic rationale of our prime minister and foreign minister was to prattle on about the enormous, positive global "diplomatic benefits" and the "good-will" Israeli restraint was achieving.

FOLLOWING A series of near-disasters, including Kassams striking a kindergarten, and only after two youngsters were critically injured did the prime minister ultimately agree to permit the IDF to fire on terrorists - but only if they were in the actual process of launching attacks. Even then he continued to deny the army the right to pursue killers after the missiles had been launched.

To top off this surrealistic scenario, the Palestinians warned that if Israel acted against the Kassam launchers, the truce would be ended!

Such shocking behavior not only disgraces our dysfunctional leaders. It reflects adversely on the entire nation.

If Israeli civilians in Tel Aviv or other major cities were under missile attack and the government insisted that the army stand by passively, the people would march on the Knesset and street riots would ensue. But apparently, if the casualties are "limited" and restricted to a border region like Sderot, this may be justified on the grounds that European politicians and even Egypt applaud us for the restraint we display while terrorists launch lethal missiles against our civilians.

Such callous indifference to the life and limb of citizens is shocking. It is of course utterly inconsistent with the sanctity of life and the obligation to defend oneself from murderers, both embedded in Jewish tradition. But even setting that aside, the fact is that other than the Palestinians and their allies, no other country in the world would, as a matter of deliberate policy, sacrifice civilians to promote diplomatic interests.

The world is now becoming accustomed to Israeli civilians being targeted by missiles, and when the day finally comes that we act we will probably be condemned for not continuing to stand by passively as our innocent civilians are killed and maimed.

But there is worse to come. We acquiesced to Gaza being flooded with new and devastating weapons, explosives and missiles via the porous Egyptian border. These arms may complement the Hizbullah buildup in the north. In addition, our government also deferred to the request of the Americans that Abbas's presidential guard be enabled to receive weapons knowing that, as in the past, it is virtually certain they will be employed against us.

And, of course, the Iranians are training and funding Hamas in the most advanced techniques of terror. They even provide financial rewards to those involved in Kassam attacks, with bonuses when Israelis are killed.

WHAT MUST the Palestinians think? They surely believe that Hassan Nasrallah was right when he described Israel as a spider web, lacking the backbone to protect its own citizens. Our enemies are becoming emboldened, celebrating the fact that whatever was left of our deterrence is disappearing. They are being encouraged to believe that by continuing to kill and maim women and children, they will ultimately force us to capitulate.

Our apparent willingness now to release large numbers of prisoners with blood on their hands "as a goodwill gesture" makes it clear that killing Jews no longer even guarantees incarceration.

How much longer can the people of Israel be expected to continue tolerating the outrageous spins and zigzags of our failed prime minister, or the crude rhetoric of our chameleon-like minister of defense using the media to castigate his prime minister? Or the vacuous outpourings of our foreign minister in defiance to Olmert, announcing that she intends to open an independent channel for negotiating with Abbas?

Other ministers also publicly argue with one another over crucial issues. And all this chaos prevails while our enemies gird themselves for war. Now, more than ever before, this country needs a coherent policy and a government which will speak with one voice and understand that the preservation of its citizens' lives and limbs represents its first priority. If our failed leaders are unable to move in this direction and get their act together they forfeit the moral right to lead the country. The madness must stop!

Gamla

Won Marathon But Lost Citizenship

2007-01-08T01:27:00.000-08:00

Just two days after winning the Tiberias Marathon and speaking about how "people should live together in harmony," Kenyan-born runner Mushir Salem Jawher was stripped of his Bahraini citizenship Saturday for competing in Israel.

The first athlete from an Arab country to compete in an Israeli marathon, Jawher won the race after completing it in just over two hours and 13 minutes.

His comments in The Jerusalem Post on Friday alerted Bahraini authorities.

"When I decided to come I didn't know it was history for me to be in here, but when I arrived [I was] told no other athlete had competed in Israel," said Jawher, a Catholic. "For me, it was no problem and I hope to come back and compete next year."

But while he celebrated afterward and declared that he was "very proud" to have run in Israel, Bahrain's Athletic Union said in a statement Saturday that it had received the news that a Bahraini national competed in Israel with "shock and regret."

"The union deeply regrets what the athlete has done," the statement said. A committee of sport and government authorities decided to strike Jawher's name off the sport union records and strip him of his Bahraini nationality, the statement said.

It said Jawher had entered Israel with his Kenyan passport and added that the runner's Bahraini citizenship was revoked because he had "violated the laws of Bahrain."

On Sunday, Israeli Athletic Association Chairman Shlomo Ben-Gal announced that he would be sending a letter to the International Association of
Athletics Federation requesting it support Jawher.

"According to the international treaty, an athlete has the freedom to compete at any event he chooses to and there can be no discrimination for political reasons," Gal rightly said. "We believe that sports should be above all political considerations, and that athlete s and sporting events can bridge and connect between countries across the world."

Jawher was born in Kenya in 1978 and moved to Bahrain in 2003, according to the International Association of Athletics Federation.

The tiny Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain has no official ties with Israel but is a close political ally of the United States.

The oil-refining and banking island also hosts the US 5th Fleet.

Jeruslaem Post

Is Israel Planning To Attack Iran's Nuclear Sites?

2007-01-07T03:07:00.000-08:00

Israel has drawn up plans to destroy Iran's uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons, according to a report in the London-based Sunday Times on Sunday morning.

The British newspaper said that two IAF squadrons had been training to blow up an enrichment plant in Natanz using low-yield nuclear "bunker busters."

Jerusalem officials refused to comment on the report later Sunday morning, Army Radio said.

A heavy water plant at Arak and a uranium conversion plant at Isfahan would also be targeted, using conventional bombs, according to the Times.

Reportedly, the plan envisaged conventional laser-guided bombs opening "tunnels" into the targets. Nuclear warheads would then be fired into the plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce radioactive fallout.

IAF pilots have flown to Gibraltar in recent weeks to train for the 2,000 mile round-trip to the Iranian targets, the Times said, adding that three possible routes to Iran had been mapped out, including one over Turkey.

The Times suggested that Israel may be trying to scare Iran or to cajole the US into taking stronger action against Teheran's nuclear program.

However, the report went on to speculate that Israel may strike at Iran's nuclear facilities and pressure the Americans to agree with the move after the event.

In March 2005, The Sunday Times reported that Israel had drawn up secret plans for a combined air and ground attack on targets in Iran if diplomacy failed to halt the Iranian nuclear program.

The newspaper then claimed that the inner cabinet of former prime minister Ariel Sharon had given "initial authorization" for an attack at a private meeting on his ranch in the Negev.

Jerusalem Post

Hizb'allah Wants Its Terrorist For IDF Prisoner

2007-01-06T01:35:00.000-08:00

Hizb'allah officials recently made surprising promises to the family members of Lebanese prisoner, Samir Kuntar, according to which he would be released from Israeli prison "very soon".

In the past, Hizb'allah regarded releasing Kuntar as an obligatory precondition for any future prisoner exchange deal with Israel. The militia's chief also declared that if Kuntar would not be released Hizb'allah would not negotiate any exchange whatsoever.

A Hizb'allah delegation recently met Kuntar's family in the city of Abiya. The Lebanese Sheikh who came with the envoy, Sheikh Atalla Hamoud, told Kuntar's family that his release would happen very soon. "Your meeting with us is at hand," he turned to Kuntar in the meeting with his family members.

During the meeting Kuntar's brother, Bassam, who in recent years has been leading the campaign to release his brother, thanked the Lebanese prisoners captured during the recent Lebanon War and the "Shahids who defeated the enemy."

Hizb'allah leader Hassan Nasrallah said many times in the past thatreleasing Kuntar is one of his top priorities. Last April Nasrallah made a speech in which he promised to continue resistance to Israel and Jihad actions until Kuntar's release.

"You will return by the force of the resistance's guns, the resistance's blood and the resistance's actions. I want to promise you and your brothers that when we practice Jihad we rely on our right to release our prisoners by any means possible," Nasrallah said.

After the kidnaooing of the two IDF soldiers, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, in July 2006, Nasrallah held a press conference in which he repeated his commitment to release Kuntar in a prisoner exchange deal with Israel.

Jerusalem Post

Lost In The Palestinians' Shadow

2007-01-05T00:55:00.000-08:00

Recent weeks have brought a great deal of hand-wringing over the world's failure to do anything about the genocide in Darfur.

Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, for instance, gave an address last month in which he bemoaned the fact that "60 years after the liberation of the Nazi death camps, and 30 years after the Cambodian killing fields, the promise of 'never again' is ringing hollow. The tragedy of Darfur has raged for over three years now, and still reports pour in of villages being destroyed by the hundreds and of the brutal treatment of civilians spreading into neighboring countries. How can an international community that claims to uphold human rights allow this horror to continue?"

Similarly, The New York Times ran an editorial last week blasting the international inaction on Darfur. Noting that "the killings and atrocities have spilled across Sudan's borders" into Chad and the Central African Republic, it wrote: "If Darfur's grim tally - several hundred thousand dead, two million driven from their homes - can't persuade the world to act, then perhaps the threat of a regional conflagration will."

What is remarkable about all this hand-wringing, however, is that it is coming from two of the institutions most responsible for the world's inaction - namely, the UN and the media.

That might seem counterintuitive, since neither the UN nor the media themselves have the power to take any effective action: that can only be done by national governments, either within or outside the UN framework. But in reality, no government will engage in difficult, unpleasant action that serves no clear national interest unless forced to do so by an overwhelming pressure of public opinion. And that pressure can only be generated by those who control the world's bully pulpits - first and foremost, the media and the UN secretary general.

Instead, however, both institutions have consistently treated Darfur as much less important than other, far less deadly conflicts. Western publics, and therefore their governments, have consequently followed suit.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for instance, has claimed some 5,400 lives - 4,300 Palestinians and 1,100 Israelis - over the past six years. That compares to an estimated 400,000 people (no precise statistics exist) killed in Darfur over the last three.

Yet an archives search reveals that The New York Times published only 418 articles on Darfur last year, compared to 2,528 on Israel and 1,146 on the Palestinians (the discrepancy between the latter two stems from Israel's war with Lebanon - which, using the highest estimates, killed some 1,100 Lebanese and 160 Israelis). That makes Darfur's 400,000 dead, by NYT standards, about one-third as important as 4,300 dead Palestinians.

OTHER LEADING newspapers worldwide acted similarly. The Times of London, for instance, published 142 articles on Darfur last year, compared to 579 on Israel and 248 on the Palestinians. For Le Monde, the figures were 253, 500 and 500; in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, they were 239, 1,898 and 638. The Spanish El Pais was particularly egregious: A mere 120 articles on Darfur, compared to 2,730 on Israel and 2,013 on the Palestinians, giving an Israelarfur ratio of 23 to 1.

But even these figures understate the skew, because they ignore the equally important issue of prominence. Take, for instance, a pair of articles that appeared two days apart in the NYT's wholly-owned European subsidiary, the International Herald Tribune. One described Israel's accidental shelling of a house in Gaza, killing 18 Palestinians. That merited a four-column headline in large type and 30 column-inches of text. The other reported that over the past week, 220 Chadians had been killed by the same Sudanese militiamen responsible for the Darfur genocide. That merited a mere brief: two inches of text under a small-print, one-column head. If the media considers 18 Palestinian lives to be worth 15 times as much space as 220 slain Chadians, is it surprising that Western governments and publics view the slaughter in Africa as low-priority?

THE UN'S behavior has been similarly warped. The UN Human Rights Council, for instance, finally held its first session on Darfur last month, but declined to condemn the Sudanese government for the slaughter. Yet the council found time to adopt no less than three resolutions condemning Israel this year (even Annan termed this "disproportionate").

Similarly, the General Assembly devoted three full days in November, as it does every year, to debating and condemning the Israeli "occupation." If you cannot recall an equivalent session on Darfur, the problem is not your memory. Altogether, the GA's fall session passed no fewer than 25 resolutions condemning alleged Israeli human rights violations. But it could not be bothered to pass a single resolution condemning the genocide in Darfur.

The UN also has numerous bodies, such as a permanent Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, which are devoted exclusively to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and therefore naturally strive to focus attention on it. Palestinian refugees even have an entire agency, UNRWA, all to themselves, while all other refugees worldwide must compete for attention from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. It is thus hardly surprising that Darfur's two million refugees are lost in the Palestinians' shadow.

Finally, there is Annan himself - who declared last November that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the most important in the world, because "no other conflict carries such a powerful symbolic and emotional charge among people far removed from the battlefield."

If the UN secretary-general considers the "symbolic charge" generated by 4,300 dead Palestinians more important than the actual deaths of some 400,000 Darfur residents, is it surprising that many governments deem the slaughter in Darfur equally trivial?

Like all human beings, those who run governments can only focus on so many issues at one time - and in democratic countries, they usually choose the ones that dominate the public square.

Thus as long as the UN and the media continue to accord the Darfur genocide such low priority, one can confidently predict that global inaction in the face of this genocide will continue.

Jerusalem Post

Report: 51 Priests In Same-sex Civil Partnerships

2007-01-04T02:29:00.000-08:00

Revelation confronts Anglicans already on verge of schism over homosexuality

A report claiming at least 51 priests are in same-sex civil partnerships will confront the Church of England at two major upcoming meetings.
The figures, which include four lesbian priests, come from a homosexual-rights group comprised of church members called Changing Attitude, the Times of London reported.

"Civil partnerships have helped to increase the stability of same-sex relationships and reduced the social exclusion to which lesbian and gay people are often subjected," said the group's director, Colin Coward.

But next month, proponents of homosexuals in the clergy will face two significant challenges. Traditionalists say they will force an open debate at the General Synod meeting. And in Tanzania, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, likely will face criticism from leaders of the worldwide Anglican Communion, to which the Church of England belongs. In the U.S., the Anglican Communion is represented by the Episcopal Church

The summit in Africa, in fact, was called to address division in the church caused by the ordination of Episcopal homosexual priest Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. The rift over homosexuality, however, has been a major issue for more than three decades, reflecting a deeper divide over biblical orthodoxy.

Church of England bishops have been criticized for not enforcing a church policy requiring homosexual clergy to be celibate before entering into any civil partnership, the Times reported.

"Many of these people have defied the guidance," said George Curry, chairman of the Church Society, the oldest evangelical organization in the Church of England. "These are men and women who are in active sexual relationships. These figures expose the bishops' failure of leadership."

Among the prominent church leaders in civil partnerships is Canon Jeremy Davies, worship leader at Salisbury Cathedral, who is with an opera singer, Simon McEnery.

Paul Collier, a chaplain at Goldsmiths College, London, said he received little questioning from his bishop before entering into a civil partnership with his companion of seven years.

Collier said Christopher Chessun, bishop of Woolwich, wanted him to acknowledge the policy of the bishops but did not inquire about the nature of his relationship.

"We didn't go into any great detail about that," Collier said, according to the London paper.

1.3.2007 - © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Israeli Medical Diagnostics 'Moo-ves' To The Farm

2007-01-03T01:51:00.000-08:00

If Little Bo Peep wants to find her sheep and never lose them again she might want to consider investing in a new Israeli technology firm Veterix. The company has developed an electronic capsule that sits in an animal's stomach to wirelessly report back to the farmer real-time about the health of the herd. It can send messages to a farmer's cell phone and email, alerting him if animals are distressed, sick, injured or lost.

"Healthy animals mean healthy people," says Eliav Tahar, the company's CEO and co-founder. "We have built a system that ensures animals will give better meat and milk."

Better quality meat and milk is certainly a competitive advantage for farmers to think about, but it was the love for animals, says Tahar that compelled him to develop Veterix's e-capsule. After his dog was injured in a road accident and he couldn't be at home all day to take care of it, Tahar started thinking. Maybe he could invent a collar which a dog or cat could wear that would allow people to monitor their pets when they were far from home. After meeting with vets and scientists, their brainstorming sessions led Tahar to investigate health-monitoring options for farm animals.

"We looked for a solution and the main reason was the welfare of the animals. I wanted to give the quickest remedy to any problem an animal has. We believe if the animal is happy, the farmer will be happy," Tahar told ISRAEL21c.

Embarking on building such a system, Tahar found that cattle have tissue in their necks that are too fatty for a collar to work. His quest led him to develop the e-capsule, which due to its sheer weight stays put inside the cow's stomach.

Fabricated by using a unique polymer, the e-capsule was designed to run on low-power sensors that measure physiological parameters such as heart rate, respiration and digestive processes. It also measures temperature.

The e-capsule doesn't need a professional to administer it - it can be inserted by the farmer into the mouth of the animal. Once swallowed, it stays in the cow's second stomach, the reticulum, for the animal's lifetime.

An e-capsule prototype is now being tested on a herd of cattle in Israel and is expected to be ready by 2008. The company's target market initially will be the United States, home to 100 million head of cattle.

The device is now customized for cows and measures 11 centimeters in length, but a smaller prototype is currently being developed for sheep and goats.

Coupled with a sophisticated monitoring station, the e-capsule can also relay more than just simple physiological parameters. It actually studies the animals over time and gives farmers diagnostic abilities and can suggest ways to feed or water the animals better. It can also tell a farmer when an animal is ready to mate.

Tahar believes that the e-capsule will have enormous cost savings on feeding: farmers can decide which animals are more productive and keep them or sell them accordingly.

Down the road, the e-capsule could be a promising early-warning detection system against bioterrorism threats; and serve as a diagnostic tool for catching symptoms of mad cow, or foot and mouth disease.

Veterix hopes the e-capsule will be used to spare the mass slaughtering of animals suspected of carrying an unwanted disease; and to prevent the giving of unnecessary medications to the animal, an action which is both costly to the farmer and the consumer.

"Today the farmers give antibiotics whether or not an animal is sick, to 'avoid' any kinds of diseases," says Tahar. "We are saying 'don't do it'. This constant injection is damaging to the animal, to its meat and milk; and eventually the people who are drinking and eating the milk and meat."

Now more than ever, people are concerned about the quality of food they are eating. They are looking for free-range meat and milk and there is a growing awareness to consume antibiotic-free animals.

It is the savvy consumer, which Veterix plans on marketing to at first. "I want people to look for our stamp on the meat and milk in the grocery store. So they will know that the animal was treated with respect and is healthy," says Tahar.

One day, he hopes, the Veterix stamp will be recognized in the same way as BIO-organic labels, Jewish kosher symbols or Moslem Halal stamps are on products today.

The cost will be about $75 per capsule (per cow), which does not include end-user monitoring tools and diagnostics software.

Veterix employs a staff of 11 and is headquartered at Ramat Ishai in Israel. The team includes cattle scientists, veterinarians, a biotech professor, engineers and business developers. The manufacturing plant is expected to be built in Israel.

Veterix, agrees Tahar, will benefit in the international market from Israel's known reputation of delivering both high-tech and agricultural solutions. And more specifically in the "inner" diagnostics market, Veterix will benefit from the reputation of Israel's Given Imaging camera-in-a-capsule technology that has revolutionized the way colonoscopies are done.

Tahar concludes, "We are dealing with the future. People should be aware of all of the things involved in the food process, which includes the health and well-being of the animals."

And with Veterix's e-capsule working effortlessly 24 hours a day inside the herd's bellies, farmers can sleep soundly knowing they won't have to wait or worry for the cows to come home.

Israel 21st Century

Duped To The Tune Of Billions Of Dollars

2007-01-02T01:41:00.000-08:00

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Yasser Arafat was a master of the big lie. Since he invented global terrorism with the founding of the Fatah terror organization in 1959, Arafat successfully portrayed himself as a freedom fighter while introducing the world to passenger jet hijackings, schoolhouse massacres and embassy takeovers.

To cultivate the myth of his innocence Arafat ordered his Fatah terror cells to operate under pseudonyms. In the early 1970's he renamed several Fatah murder squads the Black September Organization while publicly claiming that they were "breakaway" units completely unrelated to Fatah or to himself.

In 2000, as he launched the current Palestinian jihad, he repeated the process by renaming Fatah terror cells the Aksa Martyr Brigades and then claiming that they were completely unrelated to Fatah or to himself. This fiction too, has been successful in spite of the fact that all Aksa Martyr Brigades terrorists are members of Fatah and most are members of Palestinian Authority official militias who receive their salaries, guns and marching orders from Fatah.

Last week, with the quiet release of a 33-year-old US State Department cable, a good chunk of the edifice of his great lie was destroyed.

ON MARCH 1, 1973, eight Fatah terrorists, operating under the Black September banner stormed the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan during a farewell party for the US Embassy's Charges d'Affaires George Curtis Moore. The terrorists took Moore, US ambassador Cleo Noel, Belgian Charges d'Affairs Guy Eid and two Arab diplomats hostage. They demanded that the US, Israel, Jordan and Germany release PLO and Baader-Meinhof Gang terrorists, including Robert F. Kennedy's Palestinian assassin Sirhan Sirhan and Black September commander Muhammed Awadh (Abu Daud), from prison in exchange for the hostages' release.

The next evening, the Palestinians brutally murdered Noel, Moore, and Eid. They released their other hostages on March 4.

Arafat denied any involvement in the attack. The US officially accepted his denial. Yet, as he later publicly revealed, James Welsh, who served at the time of the attack as an analyst at the National Security Agency, intercepted a communication from Arafat, then headquartered in Beirut to his terror agents in Khartoum ordering the attack.

In 1986, as evidence of Arafat's involvement in the operation became more widely known, more and more voices began calling for Arafat to be investigated for murder. As the New York Sun's online blog recalled last week, during that period, Britain's Sunday Times reported that 44 US senators sent a letter to then US attorney-general Edwin Meese, "urging the American government to charge the PLO chief with plotting the murders of two American diplomats in 1973."

The article went on to note that the Justice Department's interest in pursuing the matter was making senior State Department officials uneasy: "State Department diplomats, worried that murder charges against Arafat would anger the United States' friends in the Arab world, are urging the Justice Department to drop the investigation."

As late as 2002, in spite of President George W. Bush's pointed refusal to meet with Arafat, the State Department continued to protest his innocence. At the time, Scott Johnson, a Minneapolis attorney and one of the authors of the popular Powerlineblog weblog, inquired into the matter with the State Department's Near Eastern Affairs Bureau. In an emailed response from the bureau's deputy director of press affairs Gregory Sullivan, Johnson was told, "Evidence clearly points to the terrorist group Black September as having committed the assassinations of Amb. Noel and George Moore, and though Black September was a part of the Fatah movement, the linkage between Arafat and this group has never been established."

So it was that for 33 years, under seven consecutive presidential administrations, the State Department denied any knowledge of involvement by Arafat or Fatah in the execution of its own people.

Jewish World Review

Israeli Lie Detector Keeps Skype Users Honest

2007-01-01T02:57:00.000-08:00

Zvi Marom, founder and CEO of BATM Advanced Communications just wants to have a bit of fun. That's why the company's wholly owned subsidiary, KishKish, has just released a lie detector that can be used as an add-on to Internet phone service Skype - one of many new applications for what is fast becoming one of today's most popular methods of communication.

"You've got to have a bit of fun in the workplace," Marom told ISRAEL21c. "It can't be technology, technology, technology all the time. We're not doing this because we want to make zillions of dollars, we are doing it because it's great fun."

The KishKish lie detector, which was released earlier this month, has already sparked a great deal of interest. In the short time the software has been available, the company's server has crashed six times.

"That means we have several hundreds of thousands of users," says Marom, though he adds that the company is not trying to measure the number of users at present, but prefers instead to open a dialogue with as many users as possible to find out what they think of the product.

The lie detector can be downloaded free either from Skype or from two-year-old KishKish. It monitors in real time the stress levels in a speaker's voice and alerts users when these levels start to rise. Higher sound frequencies are a telltale sign that someone is being dishonest, according to BATM.

The detector is activated whenever a Skype call is placed. To avoid legal problems, the program automatically informs the other person that the call is being monitored by a lie detector.
Before giving a reading, the software calibrates for 10 seconds to the general stress levels of the speaker. A needle meter moves up and down to show stress levels, and an indicator light turns from green to red, when stress levels are high.

Marom came up with the idea of a lie detector less than a year ago after having a run in with someone he felt was lying to him.

"It was a bad experience and I felt the person was not really telling the truth but I had no way of checking it," he said. "The problem with Western culture is that when people tell you something, they don't always mean it."

Frustrated, he suggested that a couple of members of his R&D team work on the idea. The company was in a good position to do so. BATM, which was founded in 1992 and is now traded on the FTSE exchange, is a specialist is broadband data and telecommunications solutions geared towards the needs of corporate enterprises and telecom networks. The company, which has subsidiaries in the US, France, Germany, and the UK, excels in the design and manufacture of innovative high-performance communications equipment.

"We understand how broad band works, and what carries the voice," explains Marom. "We can measure lots of parameters of the voice that normally no-one else can measure. We can measure tension, change in amplitude, and density of voice."

Armed with this information, the company only had to develop a system to manage these parameters, and to present them effectively to users.

Marom likens the system to a polygraph used by forensic experts, which measures blood pressure, sweat, and heart rate. "The voice has all these parameters too, but there is no need to test blood pressure and heart rate," he says. "We don't try to understand what we are hearing, we are not listening to you, we are just measuring your body language."

Voice stress analysis (VSA), is not new. The use of it as a lie detector first became popular in the late 1970s and 80s, and today it is used by law enforcement agencies and military bodies all over the world. This is the first time, however, the technology has been widely available to the general population.

According to Marom, the strength of the KishKish lie detector is that it can handle cultural differences.

"Every culture is different. Finnish guys are very quiet for example, while Mediterranean ones are much noisier. These differences will not affect the detector, however, because we compare the user to himself. We sample how a person talks, and then measure deviations in this pattern," says Marom.

The software was tested by insurance companies. "They were extremely satisfied with the results which showed a 95-98 percent accuracy rate," says Marom.

BATM has been working with Skype, which boasts between 130 to 150 million users worldwide, for over two years. It has developed a number of add-ons to enhance the Skype experience including an answering machine, contacts book and SMS service. Recently the company became a premium partner for Skype. The lie detector is the first BATM software to be available on Skype's web site.

At present the lie detector software is being offered by Skype free of charge, and will continue to be free for the next three months.

"We are in an experimental period at the moment," explains Marom. "We want to see how the software works and how people respond to it. If they are happy with the experience they will continue. After that we will decide if we want the software to remain free of charge, or whether we will charge a nominal fee."

"This is a really neat application, and the kind of thing we want to see more of," said Paul Amery, director of the Skype Developer Program, in a company release. "The Kishkish team has managed perfectly to integrate this unique application to meet the needs of our clients. Lie Detector is the latest in a variety of products in our premium add-on program (extras for Skype) which greatly enhance the Skype communication experience."

Aside from the lie detector, Marom says BATM's technology can also be used to measure other parameters - like excitement. The company is now working on a new software for Skype called the Love-o-meter, which can detect emotional interest levels.

"In many cultures people are very shy, and don't say what they feel, but the person on the other end wants to know whether they are interested in them or not," says Marom, who is currently testing out the software on his 18-year-old daughter and her friends.

The company has also developed a small modem that enables users to call Skype from their mobile phones, avoiding all roaming charges.

"We developed this software because we could," say Marom. "It's not because it's part of our business plan, we are just having fun with technology. People in the company come with ideas, some are nice, some are idiotic. We debate them and if we like them we do them.

"I see my responsibility as a manager of a technology and science company not to look through the keyhole, but to try to deal with the broad aspect of things."

So will the lie detector stop people telling tales?

"I don't expect people to stop lying, but if the option is there to check the truth, maybe they will think twice before they say all sorts of things," says Marom.

Israel 21st Century

How Mideast War Is Waged On TV And The Web

2006-12-31T01:07:00.000-08:00

It's no secret that the global clash of civilizations is being fought to the death on a screen near you. There is a hot frontier in today's global clash of civilization -- the mass media, and especially the Internet, where even poor terrorists can loom large in providing training, recruitment and operational guidance. After decades of relative silence, scholars, journalists, and military experts alarmed by jihadist media tactics came together to discuss how to fight on this 21st century front.

Participants of the 7th Annual Herzliya Conference on the Balance of Israel's National Security, entitled "The Media as a Theater of War, the Blogosphere, and the Global Battle for Civil Society," examined the national security lessons for Israel and the West to be gained from recent incidents of the use and misuse of the media in war.

Initiated by noted historian Boston University Professor Richard Landes, the conference attracted hundreds of visitors to the Daniel Hotel in Herzliya last week. Landes, a medievalist by training, has turned his attention in recent years to analyzing how the media is serving as a modern battlefield in the clash of civilizations, playing an influential role in the global battle for "civil society," in his scholarly work, the Augean Stables blog, and the media conference, considered the largest such gathering since CAMERA launched the first "media and mideast" conference back in 1989.

"The main theme of this conference is that reality bites, and it bites with sound bites and megabytes," Landes told Israel Insider. "The conference capitalized on the sense of urgency so many of us feel around addressing the problem of how the media portrays Israel and also how Israel and the advocacy community can use the media to good effect," he said.

"The attitude until now has been to be as conciliatory as possible," regarding accusations made against Israel in the media, "which is the Oslo method." The conciliatory view, as in Oslo, marginalized the assertive view. "What I think needs to happen is that we need to play 'tough cop-nice cop' and not undermine each other."

For some others, the conference represented a "coming out party" for a group of under-recognized but influential Middle East media experts, wrote Ami Isseroff, a blogger-participant from ZioNation.

These scholars, journalists, and PR experts "have been laboring to bring people the truth about what is happening in the Middle East, including the inconvenient bits left out by the 'mainstream' media," said Isseroff.

Incidents in which stories were faked and then distributed by the mainstream Western media, such as the infamous Qana incident, were exposed by online watchdogs as pro-jihad propaganda.

Mark Regev, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, added that Israeli spokesmen could do a better job of selling Israel's case by avoiding speaking what he called "American English." He argued that using terminology that is largely associated with the Bush Administration automatically aligns much of the world against Israel.

Instead, Regev suggested enlarging Israel's support base by speaking the language of "international legitimacy."

One focal point of the conference was the notorious distortion of the death of Muhammed Al-Dura, a Palestinian boy who was caught in the gunfire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen and became a pivotal symbol of "martyrdom."

Despite expert examination which showed that video of the incident had been faked by French and Palestinian cameramen to make it look as if the Israeli soldiers shot the boy, most of the mainstream media reported the fabrication as truth -- Israel never even contested the frame-up.

Nidra Poller, the noted journalist and Paris Editor of Pajamas Media, explained that in producing an episode where Jews were falsely portrayed as wanting the blood of children, the jihad media and its Western distributors have created a modern day blood libel.

Media expert Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch, showed how the boy's death was used as a propaganda tool to entice other Palestinian children to martyrdom.

A television commercial targeting children showed a photo of Al-Dura and quoted him as saying, "I wave my hand to you, not in parting, but to tell you to follow me as martyrs."

Another video clip showed by Marcus exhorts a small Palestinian child to massacre.

The popular show for preschool-age children features a small yellow hatchling bird who tells a young girl that if someone were to cut down his tree he would, "Call the whole world and make a riot! I'll bring AK-47s and the whole world. I'll commit a massacre in front of the house."

Despite the shock in the audience, many of the seasoned experts such as Dr. Raanan Gissin, strategic consultant and former advisor to Ariel Sharon, Jonathan Davis, a veteran of the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, Joe Hyams of Honest Reporting, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev, Israel Insider publisher Reuven Koret, and renowned "national pacifier" Nachman Shai (so named for his cool and reassuring demeanor as IDF spokesman during nightly SCUD attacks in the first Gulf War), appearing on a panel about the second Lebanon War, observed that what they were seeing has been going on for years.

Koret, who coined and popularized the term "Hezbollywood," spoke about the way Hezbollah exploited civilian deaths in Qana during this year's Lebanon war: "Bloggers did what the mainstream media and the Israeli government did not do: show that reports of a massacre were untrue, that deaths were exaggerated, and that the aftermath was crudely staged."

Blogs, such as Richard North's EU Referendum which did in-depth analysis based on photographs of the incident, investigated the role of a supposed "rescue worker" -- 'Green Helmet' as the man came to be known -- who played the role of director and lead actor in the staging.

Bloggers discovered that 'Green Helmet', who had posed as a rescue worker in the 1996 Qana incident, holding up a dead baby, was busy -- while wearing the same headgear -- performing a similar role in the 2006 Qana episode: North documented that he was shown holding the same dead infant in at least eight different locations, directing photographers to be sure that the media was there to snap photos as he displayed the body -- in one case tossing it into the air -- for all to see.

"Keep on filming!" he screamed at the photographers (many of whom were from mainstream media organizations), who complied without question or protest. "Better images must be shot!"

Israeli Insider

A Terrible Silence

2006-12-30T02:19:00.000-08:00

The record, says Irwin Cotler, is shameful.In 1948, chastened by the abject failure of the international community to prevent Hitler's mass murder of the Jews, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This imposed a responsibility among the signatories to punish not only the crime of genocide but also "conspiracy to commit genocide" and "direct and public incitement to genocide."

If the title was a mite unwieldy, there was an easier way to remember the law: It was, in short, the "Never Again" convention. But it has proved to be the most criminal of dead letters, and its easy-to-remember nickname the most despicable of misnomers.

"On no occasion has the UN acted to prevent a genocide," says Cotler, the former Canadian minister of justice and attorney general, a generally calm man whose voice rises involuntarily at the outrageous ineptitude. "Regrettably, we've had genocide again and again," he rails. "Either action has come too late or there has been no intervention at all."

Darfur, he elaborates, "is a genocide in the making. The media is still using the 2002 figure of 200,000 dead. Actually, 450,000 have already died. The media is still reporting 2.5 million displaced people. It's 4 million according to the UN's former humanitarian aid coordinator. There are mass atrocities - mass rape, forced expulsions, the bombing and burning of villages. In 2005, the UN passed a resolution banning Sudanese offensive flights. It has not been enforced. In August, the Security Council mandated the establishment of a multi-national protection force. It has not been established.

"In Darfur, the world knows and it is not acting. In Rwanda, the world knew and didn't act and 800,000 people were killed."

And then we come to Iran, which, incidentally, signed on to that "Never Again" convention in 1949 and ratified it in 1956.

"Ahmadinejad's genocidal criminality is as clear and compelling as any I've ever seen," says Cotler, who then delivers a sentence he has plainly polished many times over, and one that is all the more powerful for it: "This is advocacy of the most horrific of crimes, genocide; embedded in the most virulent of hatreds, anti-Semitism; propelled by a publicly avowed intent to acquire nuclear weapons for that purpose, and dramatized by the parading in the streets of Teheran of Shihab-3 missiles draped in the emblem "Wipe Israel Off the Map."

The remedies are ready. In the face of such blatant culpability, the worldwide purported commitment to humane values and the rule of law has provided no shortage of avenues designed to avert genocide and bring its would-be perpetrators to justice.

Cotler recites them with weary familiarity: punishment via that "Never Again" convention, which enables the UN to impose all manner of sanctions on the Iranian regime; debate and action initiated personally by the UN secretary-general, who has the UN Charter-enshrined authority to refer any matter that threatens international peace and security to the Security Council; UN or state-initiated referrals to the International Court of Justice (as employed over Israel's West Bank security barrier); criminal prosecution of Ahmadinejad at the International Criminal Court; all the way down to the immediate placing of Ahmadinejad and other suspects on watch lists that would bar their entry to concerned countries.

The route to genocide prevention is clearly signposted and wide open. But where is the will to follow it?

COTLER IS a frequent visitor to Israel and one of the driving forces behind a group - including fellow law professor Alan Dershowitz - now bidding to galvanize legal measures against Ahmadinejad's genocidal plans for the Jewish state.

He says firmly that his home nation intends to take action. "I have spoken to the Canadian foreign minister and the prime minister. They are looking to exercise one of the remedies. They said to me that they will."

He has been in discussion with members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee. He has held talks with the Hungarian government, which is looking into the matter, and with the Argentineans, who just weeks ago issued arrest warrants for former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani and other Iranian officials found responsible for masterminding the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center building in Buenos Aires in 1994. And he has, he says, "high hopes that Germany" - which should, of course, know best of all about the need for action - "will either go it alone or at the helm of the European Union from January 1." He has written to the new UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, who branded Ahmadinejad's statements unacceptable on the very day he was sworn in.

But what, you may ask, of Israel, the nation so explicitly and relentlessly targeted? Cotler has been meeting with the Israeli government, too. He held talks here back in September.

"I don't know why Israel isn't acting," he sighs. "Israel could and should exercise some of these remedies, particularly since it is the threatened party, although international peace and security are threatened too."

Presumably - though Cotler does not say this - Israel's defeatist ambivalence about invoking the mechanisms of international law is a factor.

And it may be, Cotler allows, that Israel doesn't want to take the lead - doesn't want this turned into a head-to-head, wants the rest of the international community to internalize the full, wide, terrifying scale of the threat and address it. "But at the very least," he says, "Israel should be pressing other nations to act responsibly."

Because the sorry, demonstrable fact is that nations don't recognize, don't even know of, their obligations.
In 2004, when he was minister of justice, Cotler vouchsafes, "I can tell you that three [fellow] justice ministers in the G8 were truly unaware of the genocide-by-attrition taking place in Darfur.

"People live in bubbles. We have to bring this to their attention and sound the alarm."

Last June, the Iranians sent a delegation to the first meeting of the new (and obsessively Israel-bashing) UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that included a Teheran prosecutor named Saeed Mortazavi.

Mortazavi has been implicated in the illegal arrest, torture and murder of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi. Canada asked that he be arrested. Mortazavi didn't hang around to see whether the Swiss would take action. He fled Geneva.

"This shows what you can do if the will is there," says Cotler.

Three months later, by contrast, terrorist-training, would-be Israel-eliminating Mahmoud Ahmadinejad flew to the United States. No watch list entry prevented his admission. No indictment for inciting and conspiring to commit genocide awaited him. He was free to pontificate duplicitously about how to achieve "peace, tranquility and well-being for all" in a world beset by "military domination… and the spread of terrorism" to a rapt audience at the General Assembly of United Nations - a body ostensibly dedicated to prohibiting the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. The irony was evidently lost on his hosts. It was probably not lost on Ahmadinejad.

Iran's recent Holocaust denial shindig prompted vast waves of outraged spluttering. Cotler isn't complaining. But why, he wonders, when so much concern is rightly directed at the misrepresentation of a past genocide, is so little devoted to preventing a new one? Neither the United Nations Security Council, nor the General Assembly, he notes, has ever so much as debated the Iranian president's avowed intent to destroy the Jewish state.

Ahmadinejad has laughed off his UN hosts' belated, anemic anti-nuclear sanctions package, swaggering that nothing and nobody is going to stop Iran's power drive. Why would he think any differently, when "never again" has become an empty slogan?

Jerusalem Post

'Flood Chasers' Throng To Judean Desert

2006-12-29T01:28:00.000-08:00

Ofer Ben Asher, of Tel Aviv, is one of the most veteran "flood chasers" in Israel. Since 1991 he has been going to the Judean desert regularly whenever there is a flood.

Yesterday we met him on the bank of Arugot River. "Once we were completely alone, we used to call the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority (INNPPa), find where the flow began and take off," he says.

Flood chasing has become much more sophisticated since then. Yesterday Ben Asher started out by checking the cloud radar on the Internet and looking up weather forecasts.

"When you see the rain front reaching the Hebron and Jerusalem area, it's time to be on your way," he says.

Ben Asher was not alone. The Judean Desert was teeming with hikers who came to see the floods, an activity that has taken off recently.

"People are looking for thrills. An ordinary hike no longer excites them, they need a thrill, and floods are a thrill," says Ein Gedi Field School director Kitri Maoz.

Amir Balaban, the director of the bird watching station of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel(SPNI) in Jerusalem and a veteran flood chaser says: "On such a day the desert changes completely. If you go out to the desert today you're in for a treat."

Balaban does not like the term flood chaser. "These are not hurricanes, after all," he says. "Seeing a flood is like seeing an iceberg avalanche in Patagonia, only you don't have to travel across half the world. It's an hour from Jerusalem."

Dozens of vehicles crowd in the Judean Desert's paths. The most popular spots were the large rivers crossing the Dead Sea road - Og, Dragot, Arugot, Hever and Ze'elim. Also, one must not miss the waterfalls of Hatzatzon, Salvadora and Kedem rivers.

Yesterday was a perfect day for floods, there was sufficient rain for water to flow in most river beds, but without flooding roads or endangering cars.

One of the most popular spots is on the upper Dragot river, dubbed Mashash-Murbat river. Several waterfalls flow furiously from the brown water, forming a series of pools among the rocks.

Yedidia Hefetz, a guide in the Kfar Etzion Field School, arrives with a group of guides. He swiftly takes his clothes off and dives into one of the small pools. "After five minutes it's not cold," he tries to persuade his friends to join him.

Shuki Alpert is the uncrowned leader of a group of some 20 accessorized jeep owners from Holon. He won the title by virtue of his special hot chocolate recipe, which he brews on every trip. "We go according to the weatherpeople and our gut feeling. When there's a rain forecast we drop everything and come," he says.

"When it rains in the desert, adults turn into children. "Rain, rain, come, come," they sing at the top of their voices. Not far from them stands Ilil, a State Prosecution attorney, in her lawyer's garb. "I had a court hearing this morning, I finished it and came for the important stuff," she says.

Haaretz

U.S. Admits Arafat Murdered American Officials

2006-12-28T02:10:00.000-08:00

After 33 years of secrecy, the U.S. State Department has finally declassified a document admitting it knew the late Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, plotted and supervised the murders of two U.S. diplomats in Sudan in 1973, a cover-up first exposed by WND in January 2001.

The document, released earlier this year, with no fanfare, makes it clear the Khartoum operation "was planned and carried out with the full knowledge and personal approval" of Arafat, a frequent visitor to the White House throughout the 1990s who died in 2004.

In the attack March 1, 1973, eight members of the Black September terrorist organization, part of Arafat's Fatah faction of the PLO, stormed the Saudi embassy in Khartoum on Arafat's orders, taking U.S. Ambassador Cleo Noel, diplomat Charge d'Affaires George Curtis Moore and others hostage, and one day later, killing Noel, Moore and Belgian diplomat Guy Eid.

The admission comes 33 years after James J. Welsh, then the National Security Agency's Palestinian analyst, saw a communication intercepted from Arafat to his terrorist commandos in Sudan.

Within minutes, Welsh told WND, the director of the NSA was notified and the decision was made to send a rare "FLASH" message – the highest priority – to the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum via the State Department.

But the message didn't reach the embassy in time. Somewhere between the NSA and the State Department, someone decided the warning was too vague. The alert was downgraded in urgency.

The next day, eight members of Black September, part of Arafat's Fatah organization, stormed the Saudi embassy in Khartoum, took Noel, Moore and others hostage. A day later, on March 2, 1973, Noel, Moore and Eid were machine-gunned to death – all, Welsh had insisted for years, on the direct orders of Arafat.

Welsh, who left the Navy and NSA in 1974, spoke to WND about the incident in 2001 after years of attempting to get answers from his own agency and the State Department. He became particularly troubled about the cover-up of Arafat's role in the murders of American officials when President Clinton invited the PLO leader to the White House for direct negotiations on the Middle East.

Ever since, he had been on a personal one-man mission to uncover the tape recordings and transcripts of those intercepts between Arafat and Fatah leader Salah Khalaf, also known as Abu-Iyad, in Beirut and Khalil al-Wazir in Khartoum.

"I have decided that my oaths of secrecy must give way to my sense of right and wrong," he told WND. "I was particularly outraged as I had spent four years following these individuals and, at the moment of our greatest intelligence coup against them, an uninformed GS level had pooh-poohed our work and cost the lives of two U.S. diplomats," he recalls.

Welsh has continued to research the Arafat murders continually and stumbled upon the 2006 State Department document during a routine Internet search.

The document goes on to say that Fatah leaders never expected their hostage-taking to result in the freeing of the captives. A primary goal of the attack, it says, "was to strike at the United States because of its efforts to achieve a Middle East peace settlement which many Arabs believe would be inimical to Palestinian interests."

The report also said the Khartoum operation demonstrated the ability of the Black September organization to strike where least expected and warned the U.S. was at risk of future attacks from the group and its Fatah allies.

Welsh believes the initial cover-up of the communications breakdown and the role of Arafat was launched to prevent embarrassment to the State Department and White House. President Nixon, he points out, was in the death throes of the Watergate scandal at the time. The last thing he needed, Welsh speculates, was an international scandal to deal with on the front page of the Washington Post.

Later, after Nixon was gone, Welsh believes the whole matter of the Arafat tapes was kept quiet to protect the future viability of signals intelligence intercepts of this kind. And, finally, he said, the cover-up persisted to foster Arafat's role as a "peacemaker" and leader of the Palestinian cause.

Back in 1973, Welsh had received spontaneous transcripts of the dialogue between Arafat and his subordinates. But, under NSA protocol, he was not permitted to keep copies. Under normal procedure, he expected copies of the final transcripts and tapes to arrive on his desk for further analysis. They never came.

"Things were recorded but never arrived at my desk," he recalls. "I know they were recorded because I was receiving simultaneous reports from a collection site. The warning I drafted for the State Department was based on those reports."

After the deadly attack in Khartoum, Arafat ordered the eight gunmen to surrender peacefully to the Sudanese authorities. Two were released for "lack of evidence." Later, in June 1973, the other six were found guilty of murdering the three diplomats. They were sentenced to life imprisonment and released 24 hours later to the PLO.

Before surrendering, the Khartoum terrorists demanded the release of Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, the convicted assassin of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, as well as others being held in Israeli and European prisons. Nixon refused to negotiate.

WND
12-28-2006

Olmert Dismantles Checkpoints As Qassams Strike

2006-12-27T02:30:00.000-08:00

Israel will ease restrictions on Palestinian travel in the West Bank and cargo transfers to and from Gaza, an effort by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to boost moderate President Mahmoud Abbas in his bitter struggle with the militant Islamic Hamas.

On Monday, Olmert approved streamlining checkpoints and removing some Judea and Samaria (West Bank) roadblocks "to strengthen moderate (Palestinian) elements," according to a statement from Olmert's office. Olmert has already pledged to pump $100 million in frozen tax money into Abbas' coffers and indicated he might release some Palestinian prisoners.

In another development Monday, Jordan invited Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas for talks in Amman, the Jordanian capital. Palestinian government spokesman Ghazi Hamad said Haniyeh was expected to go to Jordan this week, and Abbas would also attend. Jordan's government confirmed it invited the two but gave no date for a meeting.

Talks between Haniyeh and Abbas of the moderate Fatah over a joint government have broken down, and there have been clashes between armed forces loyal to the rival movements. Jordan has offered to mediate in the past.

Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said inspections would be eased at 16 West Bank checkpoints, and 27 unmanned roadblocks would be removed. Also, crossings for people and cargo between Gaza and Israel would be upgraded "in order to accelerate the economy in Gaza to lessen the poverty and despair."

Olmert singled out Abbas as a Palestinian leader who is interested in peace with Israel -- a clear contrast to Hamas, which rejects the existence of a Jewish state in an Islamic Middle East and has rebuffed international demands to renounce violence. Hamas controls the Palestinian government.

On Saturday, Olmert and Abbas had a summit meeting, the first since last year. Abbas brought up the issues of prisoners and roadblocks -- among the highest priorities for his people. Delivering on those two items would serve Olmert's interests in boosting Abbas, but they would also cause him considerable political trouble at home.

For six months, Hamas-linked gunmen have been holding an Israeli soldier they captured in a cross-border raid. Up to now, Olmert has said he would not free any of the estimated 8,000 prisoners Israel is holding until the captured solider is freed. His apparent change of heart has drawn fire from the father of the soldier and hardline opponents in parliament, but more importantly, from members of his own Cabinet.

Removing roadblocks has also stirred opposition. Only a fraction of the more than 400 permanent barriers in the West Bank would be taken down, but the Israeli army commander in the West Bank, Brig. Gen. Yair Naveh, warned in a closed meeting that even that would aid Palestinian militants in attacking Israelis, according to security officials.

The statement from Olmert's office said in the first stage, the checkpoints would be expanded and services extended to cut down on waiting time for Palestinians. Later, some roadblocks would be lifted.

"We must consider easing roadblocks in places where this does not pose a danger," Defense Minister Amir Peretz told reporters.

Palestinians welcomed the decision. Although hundreds of roadblocks will remain, "we still consider this a step in lifting the internal closure in the West Bank," said Saeb Erekat, a top Abbas aide.

Trouble was also brewing on the Gaza front, with militants firing rockets at Israel every day despite a cease-fire.

Five rockets exploded harmlessly in Israel on Monday, and two mortar shells landed near an army base at the vital Karni cargo crossing between Israel and Gaza, the military said. Israel on Monday instructed its U.N. ambassador to lodge a complaint with the Security Council over the rocket fire, a government statement said.

Hardline politicians have been clamoring for Israeli retaliation for the rocket launching, but so far Olmert has held firm in his decision not to respond to the provocations.

Israel Insider
12.27.2006

Glad Tidings Of Peace Processes

2006-12-26T02:45:00.000-08:00

You have to wonder what thoughts passed through the minds of Bethlehem's Christians as Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah commander Mahmoud Abbas appeared at the Church of the Nativity for Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

On April 2, 2002, as IDF forces swept into Bethlehem to root out the terrorists who had taken control of the city, between 150 and 180 Fatah terrorists under Yasser Arafat's command shot their way into the Church of the Nativity. For the next 39 days they held the sacred site and some 150 clergymen hostage.

Three weeks into the siege, three Armenian monks escaped from the church through a side entrance and revealed what was happening inside. Friar Narkiss Koraskian told reporters: "They stole everything. They stole our prayer books and four crosses. They didn't leave anything."

When the siege ended, the released hostages told of frequent beatings of clergymen. The terrorists, they told The Washington Times, "ate like greedy monsters," gorging themselves on food and slurping down beer, wine and Johnny Walker scotch they stole from the rectory as their hostages went hungry.

CATHOLIC priests said that the terrorists used their bibles as toilet paper. Franciscan priest Nicholas Marques from Mexico reported: "Palestinians took candelabra, icons and anything that looked like gold." Thirteen of the ring-leaders of the siege were deported to Cyprus and then dispersed to European countries. Twenty-six were sent to Gaza.

Bethlehem's Christians could not hide their relief at the expulsions. They spoke of a "reign of terror," of rape, murder and extortion that the men had waged against them over the previous two years. Helen, a Christian woman, told The Washington Times, "Finally the Christians can breathe freely. We are so delighted that these criminals who have intimidated us for such a long time are going away."

On Saturday night, as part of his massive effort to "strengthen" Abbas, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to convene a joint committee to discuss the return of these terrorists to the city.

Speaking of his good friend Mahmoud on Sunday afternoon to a Kadima audience in Ashkelon, Olmert allowed that "Abu Mazen [Abbas] is an adversary." But, he explained, he is an enemy Olmert can do business with.

IT IS TRUE that business sometimes can be done with enemies. But what business can Olmert do with Abbas? And how does any of this business advance Israel's national interests?

At the cabinet meeting Sunday, Shin Bet Director Yuval Diskin embraced Olmert's decision to "strengthen" Abbas, by, among other things, giving him $100m. and agreeing to release terrorists from Israeli prisons even without receiving so much as a sign of life from IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who has been held hostage by Abbas's underlings and their Hamas pals in Gaza for the past six months.

Diskin warned the ministers that if elections were held today in the PA, Hamas would win hands down. Not only would they retain their control over the PA government, they would no doubt rout Abbas himself and take over his presidency.

In light of the Palestinians' apparent satisfaction with their lot at being governed by genocidal jihadists from Hamas as opposed to corrupt genocidal jihadists from Fatah like the ones who took over the Church of the Nativity, the government believes that it needs to make the PA irrelevant - a mere school district - as one government official put it. In the meantime, the real power will be placed in the hands of the Fatah-controlled PLO.

There are of course, two problems with this. First, that "mere school district" will be armed to the teeth and controlled by an Iranian- (and Saudi-) trained, funded and armed regime that is overwhelmingly popular among its "students." This little backwater will continue to serve as a nexus for global jihad that is little different from Somalia.

Hamas has made clear that it will fight to the last man to protect its regime. Yet in the interest of "strengthening Abbas," Israel is doing nothing to weaken Hamas either militarily or politically.

THE SECOND problem with the "school district" strategy is that the edifice of power the Olmert government seeks to replace the PA with has no interest in making peace with Israel. To the contrary, far from seeking to transform the PA into a liberal, pacific democracy committed to peaceful coexistence with Israel (or for that matter, just freeing Shalit from captivity), Abbas seeks to strengthen the terrorist character of Palestinian society.

Abbas's demands of Olmert make this fact perfectly clear.

If Abbas were interested in peace he would not be demanding that Israel release terrorists from prison; stop arresting wanted terrorists; make it easier for terrorists to operate in Judea and Samaria by suspending IDF counterterror operations and taking down roadblocks; bring more terrorists into the areas from Jordan; arm terrorists through Egypt; and give him money to pay the salaries of terrorists.

If Abbas wanted peace he would be asking the IDF to escalate its fight against the terrorists. He would prefer that they rot in jail and not be released to enjoy the freedom to kill again.

In other words, if Abbas were interested in peace he would be doing precisely the opposite of what he is doing.

THERE ARE three reasons why Olmert and his government are acting as they are. First, they are doubtless bowing to pressure from the Bush administration. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated several times over the past week alone that the US has decided that its interest is advanced by Israel giving things to Abbas. But is US pressure a reasonable justification for Olmert's treatment of Abbas?

Olmert justifies his refusal to negotiate with Syrian dictator and Iranian toadie Bashar Assad by noting that the Bush administration strenuously objects to holding such talks. Yet this is a flimsy excuse for not negotiating with Syria. Even if the US were pressuring Israel to negotiate with Syria it would make no sense to engage Assad because Israel has absolutely nothing to gain from doing so.

As is the case with Abbas, by holding talks with Syria Israel would be conferring unwarranted legitimacy on Assad while receiving nothing of value in return. If Syria agreed to the handover of IDF hostages Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser and to ending Syrian sponsorship of Palestinian terror groups and Hizbullah in return for negotiations with Israel, it might make sense to confer such legitimacy on Assad even if the US objected. But Assad will do no such thing, and so there is nothing to be gained from talking to him.

So too, were Abbas to agree to fork over Shalit and end Fatah terrorism and indeed cooperate with the IDF in fighting Hamas and Islamic Jihad, there would be something to be gained by meeting with him - regardless of the US's position.

Although US pressure is real, it would be relatively easy to brush off simply by publicly pointing out the obvious. Aside from Washington's carping, Olmert's decision to "strengthen" Abbas stems from the fact that his government has no strategic vision whatsoever. Cast adrift, Olmert is moved by the prevailing winds.

FOR THE PAST two weeks or so, since Assad began chirping about his wish to negotiate, the leftist-controlled Israeli media has been excoriating Olmert for bowing to Washington by refusing to meet with Assad. The weekend papers were full of condemnations by the chief diplomatic commentators in the major papers demanding that Olmert give the Golan Heights to Assad regardless of what the fuddy duddies in Washington think.

And so, Saturday night's kissy-kissy meeting with Abbas was aimed, among other things, at shutting them up. And it worked quite nicely. Both Ma'ariv and Yediot Ahronot merrily proclaimed in their Sunday editions that Abbas was a stand-in for Assad - but he'd do for now.

Finally, it is impossible to ignore the contribution the apparent stupidity of Israel's leaders made to Olmert's decision to embrace Abbas.

Sunday morning, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni exposed this idiocy when she asked Diskin whether he thought that Hamas was strong enough to stop the rocket attacks on Sderot and the Western Negev. In response, Diskin gently pointed out that Hamas is a terror group that is dedicated to destroying Israel, and so while it could stop the rockets, it has no interest in doing so.

GEE, HOW COME she didn't think of that? But then Diskin inanely opined that if Israel responds to the rocket attacks on Sderot's kindergartens, elementary schools and apartment blocks, Hamas will get really mad at us for breaching the cease-fire that only the IDF upholds and will continue to attack us.

In light of his schoolhouse analysis, Diskin concluded that there's nothing we can do except pretend that the terrorists will change their minds about attacking us after we reward them for doing so by giving them money to pay themselves, bullets and rifles to shoot us with, send their terrorist buddies home from prison to join them in attacking us, and maintain the imaginary ceasefire to enable them to shoot at us with impunity.

In the meantime, while Olmert is planning to spring terrorists from prison next week in honor of the Islamic holiday, Gaza's Christians were too terrified to go to their Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. So the mass was cancelled.

And in Bethlehem, as the dwindling Christian population reeled with the news that their tormentors may soon return to rape, murder and extort them again, Manger Square stood near-empty on Christmas.

But at least the peace process is getting back on track.

Jerusalem Post
12.26.2006

It's About Ideology, Stupid

2006-12-25T00:57:00.000-08:00

The newest buzzword in Middle East diplomacy is "strengthening the moderates." This is an expression that continuously rolls off the tongues of both world and Israeli leaders these days. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert uses this phrase repeatedly and heard it often on his visit two weeks ago to Rome and Berlin, and in his meetings last week with the visiting prime ministers from Britain and Norway.

The question is how to do it. How do you prop up the moderates? On Saturday night, Olmert gave his answer: by providing the moderates with money. And he is not alone in the belief that this is the way to help combat Islamic extremists.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who spoke at his press conference with Olmert in Jerusalem last week about providing funds to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, was asked whether this was not tantamount to buying votes - paying the Arab street to vote for the good guy. The British prime minister gave a long-winded reply that could not be interpreted as an unequivocal no.

The West, he said, had the right to support financially those who shared its principles. This argument takes on added weight in light of the fact that with Iran successfully smuggling hundreds of millions of dollars to Hamas - some estimate the sum to be $250 million - those being hurt by the world's financial siege of the PA are the moderates, who are not seeing this Iranian money.

Now this is about to change. The money that Israel freed up Saturday night is intended to prop up Abbas. It will go to him directly, and there is little real fear - because of the intra-Palestinian fighting - that he will then pass this money on to Hamas. This money is clearly meant to buy him support on the Palestinian street.

The problem with this approach, however, is that it underestimates the strength of religion and ideology in the society, and reduces everything to shekels and agarot. It is a throwback to the Shimon Peres way of thinking of the early 1990s, that if you just improved the Palestinian economic situation, peace would spring up along with the next branch of McDonalds.

While few dispute that destitution nurtures terrorism, alleviating the poverty will not necessarily dry up the reservoir of terrorists. Remember that those who brought down the World Trade Center were not destitute refugees in rags.

If this summer's war in Lebanon taught Israel anything, it is that our conflict is as much an ideological/religious one as it is territorial. Hizbullah had no legitimate territorial claim on Israel, yet it provoked a war.

The same holds true in Gaza. Israel has left Gaza completely, yet the rockets continue to fall. It's not only territorial, not even mostly territorial, but largely ideological and religious.

And for whatever reason - and they are myriad - an extreme ideology is on the ascent from Afghanistan to the Sudan. And it is an ideology that is more attractive to the masses - or so it now seems - than the stodgy, bland, often corrupt alternatives offered up by the Arab "moderates."

While Egypt's Hosni Mubarak was critical of Hizbullah this summer, his people loved what they achieved. While King Abdullah is concerned about what Hamas represents, what the organization stands for has an appeal for a significant number of Jordanians.

While the war in Lebanon won Hizbullah the admiration of the Arab masses, it divided those masses to a large degree from their "moderate" regimes - at least in Jordan and Egypt.

Which doesn't mean that Saturday night's decision to try and prop up the moderates in the PA was wrong. Just that it should be done with eyes wide-open, fully aware that in this part of the world - where religion and ideology have such a powerful pull - money isn't everything, and throwing money at the problem won't necessarily solve it.

Jerusalem Post
12.25.2006

Privatizing The War Of Ideas

2006-12-24T01:33:00.000-08:00

The domestic and international debate about the Palestinians has become thoroughly detached from reality. On the one hand there are the friendlies. These include the Olmert government, the Israeli media, the Bush administration and some European governments. The friendlies say that the "moderate" Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah terror organization commander Mahmoud Abbas is the key to peace. Everything must be done they say, to strengthen Abbas against the Hamas terror organization, which they oppose.

But if this week's bloody battles between Fatah and Hamas terrorists in Gaza showed anything, they showed that Abbas is anything but weak. When he wishes to confront Hamas, he is more than capable of doing so. The reason that peace has eluded us is not because Abbas is weak but because he doesn't want peace with Israel. He will battle Hamas to enhance his power but not to secure chances of peace with Israel. Far from the key to ending the Palestinian jihad against Israel, Abbas is part of the problem.

Pitted against the friendlies, are the unfriendlies. These include people like EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, UN officials, the European press and Ha'aretz columnists. Although members of this group adore Abbas, they object to the friendlies' refusal to accept Hamas's rise to power in the PA.

The unfriendlies call for Israel to negotiate with Hamas on the basis of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's offer for a cease-fire with Israel in exchange for an Israeli retreat to the 1949 armistice lines. If Israel refuses to accept Hamas's offer, this camp warns, it is liable to find itself facing Al-Qaida rather than Hamas in the future, and that, they claim, would be much worse.

As Johann Hari, from Britain's Independent put it this week, "Every time the Israeli government rejects a Palestinian leader because he is too hard-line, they do not get a cuddly Gandhian moderate in his place. They get somebody more hard-line still."

Hari, who went on to advocate that Israel recognize Hamas and give it Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem, wrote these lines after he visited with Al-Qaida terrorists in Gaza and described how these jihadists are terrorizing Gazans into accepting Taliban-like repression of women and modernity.

Both the friendlies and the unfriendlies share a fundamental assumption and acceptance of Palestinian jihadism. They assume that Palestinian society will never be anything but a jihadist society and that the only change it will undergo will be one of further radicalization. By limiting their argument to whether Israel should either give its land to Fatah or Hamas, they accept as legitimate the view that for the Palestinians all roads lead inevitably to Osama bin Laden and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. For both groups, the goal of diplomacy is to arrest, not reverse this trend. And both believe Israel should be willing to pay whatever is necessary to appease those who hate it less, or face those who hate it more.

Although Hari clearly shares this defeatist view, he inadvertently demonstrated that it is wrong and counterproductive. Hari quoted 29-year-old Basa Abu-Jased, whose Internet caf in Gaza's Jabalya refugee camp was firebombed by jihadists. Abu-Jased expressed his despair and frustration at the emerging Islamist state in Gaza, saying, "Of course women are frightened now. [Even as a man] I am really frightened! I used to sit on the street and talk to women. Now I won't do it. You don't know what's going to happen."

What Abu-Jased and his friends need most desperately is for someone to offer them the opportunity to support something other than competing terrorist organizations. But no one gives them this opportunity.

In the interest of "strengthening" Abbas, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert refuses to take any actions to defend southern Israel from Kassam rocket attacks. Olmert cannot imagine a "peace" policy that doesn't involve Israeli land transfers to terrorists and so is incapable of conceiving of a policy other than the current failed one of embracing the fantasy of Abbas as the key to utopia.

ISRAEL, OF course, has options other than surrendering to either Hamas or Fatah. It could defeat them. A policy aimed at victory would be based first of all on a recognition that today there is no power structure in the PA, including the PA militias, that is not a terrorist organization. It would similarly recognize that there is no such thing as a good terrorist organization. Consequently, a strategy for winning would recognize that Israel must launch a concerted campaign aimed at defeating and dismantling the PA as a whole.

A policy for victory would also start from a recognition that the common thread joining all the Palestinian terror factions together is jihad. In light of the ideological nature of their common war against Israel, a campaign based on military might alone cannot bring about any long-term sociological or political change in Palestinian society. Unless the ideology of jihad is defeated, a new crop of jihadists will rise up to replace the current one.

Since jihadist ideology is what makes the Palestinian war against the Jews intractable and vests it with its central importance to the global jihad, the defeat of this ideology in the marketplace of ideas will go a long way towards defeating the global jihad as a whole. And the ideology of jihad is far from indestructible.

With its call for genocide of Jews and subjugation of all other non-Muslims, and with its demand that Muslims live under a literal interpretation of Shariah law which enslaves women and abolishes the very notion of human freedom - jihad is an inhuman ideology. It is inherently unattractive to people who sanctify life rather than death. So central to a strategy for beating the Palestinian jihad would be an Israeli ideological assault on jihad.

The unattractiveness of the notion of jihad is most apparent to the jihadists themselves. This is why they spend billions of dollars on a never-ending stream of propaganda aimed at brainwashing as many people as possible. The aim of the jihadist mosques, television and radio stations and Internet sites is twofold. First they work to indoctrinate and mobilize supporters. Second they serve to demonize anyone who fights them - be that George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Salman Rushdie, or Israel.

The Olmert government's inability to recognize the actual state of Palestinian society and act accordingly has two major sources. First, the government is incompetent. As with the Palestinians, so with Iran, Syria, and Hizbullah. The Olmert government is simply incapable of conceptualizing policies capable of defending Israel.

Yet, aside from the specific incompetence of the Olmert government, in its inability to contend with the ideological nature of the war being waged against Israel, the Israeli government is little different from Western governments from Washington to Brussels. Six years after the Palestinians launched their jihad, and five years after the jihadist attacks on the US, the governments of the free world remain deeply hesitant about engaging in a true ideological struggle with jihad.

It is not merely that fearing accusations of racism, the leaders of the world's democracies are averse to noting the monstrous nature of an ideology that marginalizes life and embraces death. Terrified of being falsely labeled fascists, Western leaders, held intellectually hostage by the multicultural police, refuse to assert what ought to be obvious: Liberal, free societies, which uphold human freedom and sanctify life, are superior to jihadist societies that do the opposite. Not only must the free world win the war against the global jihad, we deserve to win it, because we are the good guys and our enemies are the bad guys.

If our leaders are incapable of conceiving a policy for victory or of explaining to either themselves or to our enemies why we must win and they must lose, is there any reason to hope that we can survive, let alone emerge victorious in this war?

THIS WEEK we received a clear sign that indeed, we can win. On Tuesday, Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu embraced an initiative launched last Thursday by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Led by former UN ambassador and Netanyahu adviser Dore Gold, the JCPA launched an effort to have Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad indicted under the Genocide Convention and tried as a war criminal at the Hague for his calls to annihilate Israel. This campaign is the first constructive Israeli public relations campaign against Iran. If backed by mass protests of Jews in Israel and in international capitals calling for the overthrow of the genocidal mullahs in Teheran, this initiative could form the basis for an effective Israeli political campaign against Teheran. And it is a completely private initiative.

What the JCPA's campaign shows us clearly is that just as private groups can wage political war against Iran even if Olmert is too incompetent to do so himself, so too, private groups and individuals can wage an ideological war against the ideology of jihad far more effectively than our governments can. For while the Olmert government and its Western counterparts are at the mercy of the multicultural commissars, private citizens are under no such constraints. And Israelis are better positioned than any Western society to launch such a war.

Tens of thousands of anti-jihadists Israelis - both Jewish and Arab - are completely fluent in Arabic, contemporary culture and the Internet. A private initiative to operate hundreds of Arabic language websites with anti-jihadist, liberal, pro-American and (dare we say) Zionist messages would constitute a serious challenge to jihadist predominance over Palestinian and pan-Arab consciousness.

Philanthropists in Israel and worldwide should have no difficulty investing a few million dollars for a project that would do nothing more than state the patently obvious: The path of jihad is immoral, inhuman and no fun at all while the path of human freedom is moral, just and can be highly enjoyable.

After Netanyahu presented the JCPA initiative to indict Ahmadinejad to foreign ambassadors, Defense Minister Amir Peretz was asked if he agrees that Ahmadinejad is a war criminal. Peretz did agree. Although he hadn't considered the issue himself, Peretz could not possibly have opposed what is obviously true and obviously an Israeli interest.

So too, were Olmert asked whether he agrees that Zionism and the notion of human freedom it embodies are superior to the notion of jihad, no doubt, Abbas's most enthusiastic champion would say yes. This is so not simply because Zionism is objectively better than jihad. It is so because it would be politically foolish for Olmert to say otherwise.

Although the dangers our world presents us with mount by the day, much of the power to surmount those dangers lies in our hands as citizens of Israel and of free societies more generally. By acting privately, we can force our leaders to defend us publicly and to adopt policies based on reality that see victory rather than surrender as our best option moving forward.

Jerusalem Post
12.24.2006

Jews Responsible For War

2006-12-23T02:53:00.000-08:00

British writer David Irving wasted no time Friday offending Jews and black people at a news conference, a day after his return from Austria where he was imprisoned for denying the Holocaust.

At a news conference in London, Irving endorsed actor Mel Gibson's drunken comments earlier this year that Jews were responsible for all modern wars. He also referred to his success as an author in the 1970s by talking about how be used cash to buy a Rolls-Royce - the color of which he described by using a racial slur against blacks.

Irving, 68, was sentenced to three years in prison for his views on the Holocaust. Vienna's highest court on Wednesday granted Irving's appeal to convert two-thirds of his sentence into probation. Authorities deported him to Britain and banned him indefinitely from Austria.

Asked Friday if he was anti-Semitic, Irving said: "No, I like to think I am not."

But then he said: "In many respects Mel Gibson was right."

"They (Jews) should ask themselves the question, 'Why have they been so hated for 3,000 years that there has been pogrom after pogrom in country after country?' and it's the one question they seem to be very shy of," Irving said.

Irving told reporters that he had done research on the Holocaust that other historians had not, but acknowledged he had been mistaken on the subject in the past.

"My books will be the ones that survive into the next century," he said.

He said sales from his book on World War II German Gen. Erwin Rommel enabled him to walk into a car showroom with a paper bag stuffed with cash to buy a "(racial slur) brown" Rolls-Royce.

Y Net News
12.23.2006

Our Nuke Plan An Inspiration

2006-12-22T02:02:00.000-08:00

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday mocked the United States and its allies for trying to stop Iran 's nuclear program which he said had become a source of inspiration for other nations.

Britain's UN Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said on Wednesday he expected the UN Security Council to vote this week on a resolution imposing sanctions on Iran for failing to heed calls it halt sensitive nuclear fuel production work.

Iran says its nuclear program will only be used for peaceful aims, such as electricity generation, and not to make bombs as United States and its European allies fear.

Ahmadinejad said Western efforts to deflect Iran from its goal were fruitless.

"America and some European countries know well that they are incapable of doing anything against the Iranian nation," he told crowds during a speech in western Iran.

"They think the Iranian nation will wait for their permission to make progress but they should know that the Iranian nation has chosen the path of greatness of honor," the official IRNA news agency reported.

The president reiterated a prediction that Iran would announce it had become a full member of the nuclear energy club during celebrations to mark the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution in February.

'We'll soon become an example for other nations'

He said Western efforts to rein in Iran's nuclear plans were motivated by fear that others would follow Tehran's example.

"Iran's independence, prosperity and progress will soon become an example for other nations," he said.

"The bullying powers are also afraid that the Iranian nation's progress will raise the expectations of other nations, pushing them to stand up to these powers," he added.
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki struck a more conciliatory tone in Tehran, stressing that Iran wanted to return to negotiations over its nuclear program.

"We believe it is possible to build a bridge between the two sides such that Iran can have its rights (to nuclear energy) and any question or ambiguity (about its program) can be removed," he said.

"We have to repeat that the language of threat has lost its usefulness and negotiation is the best way to find a possible solution," he told a joint news conference with visiting Pakistani Foreign Minister Kursheed Mehmood Kasuri.

Y Net News
12.22.2006

Ehud Barak Poised For Labor Chair

2006-12-21T02:06:00.000-08:00

While former prime minister Ehud Barak has made no official announcement that he intends to run for the chairmanship of the Labor Party, sources close to Barak reported Thursday that he has been coalescing support for a campaign.

Meanwhile, Labor's current chair, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, held his first reelection rally at the Labor headquarters on Wednesday evening. Peretz entered the room to the strains of the Yoram Gaon song "They won't beat me so easily," Army Radio reported.

Existing tension between Barak and Peretz escalated in November after Peretz resisted pressure by Labor party players to appoint Barak to the cabinet post vacated by Ophir Paz-Pines.

National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told The Jerusalem Post at the time that he supported adding Barak to the cabinet, as the move would, in his words, " help stabilize the party and delay adding further shock to the party."

"But everything depends on there being dialogue between Barak and Amir Peretz and at this point, there is no trust between them," Ben-Eliezer continued.

When questioned about opposition to Barak within Labor's ranks, former MK and Barak's personal friend Weizman Shiri told Army Radio that Barak hadn't changed. "The new Barak is just like the old Barak," Shiri said. "The [Labor] old guard will be the first to stand by him," he added.

Shiri said he thought it was extremely likely that Barak would run for Labor chair.

Jerusalem Post
12.21.2006