Palmach Ze'evi: Israel Is In Danger

Rehavam Ze'evi's son Palmach had sharp words for the army's leadership Sunday, berating its handling of the war in Lebanon and lambasting Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz for thinking "that the air force could wipe out a [fanatical] religious organization like Hizb'allah."

Speaking at the official memorial ceremony on Jerusalem's Mount Herzl marking the fifth anniversary of his father's assassination, Ze'evi emphasized his father's military service and lifelong dedication to Israel's security. Ze'evi said that his father's vision for a secure Jewish state was not being followed, and warned against what he described as the growing danger of militant Islam, whose purpose, he said, was "to exterminate everything that is not Islamic."

Archive: Knesset votes to memorialize Ze'evi legacy
Palestinians are indoctrinating their children to hate Israel, Ze'evi said, while Israel "gives gifts to terror."

"The Yassers and Mohammeds took you from us," the bereaved Ze'evi said in what seemed to be a mixture of anger and grief. Pausing to collect himself, Ze'evi added "but they did not take your legacy."

Among the political figures who attended the ceremony was President Moshe Katsav. When asked Sunday if he objected to Katsav, who is currently facing a number of criminal charges, making an appearance, Ze'evi replied, "Until [Katsav] resigns voluntarily, or is forced to by a Knesset vote, he's my president."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert eulogized Ze'evi as a "man of iron principles that did not bend and did not change." If the political reality did not match Ze'evi's powerful convictions, Olmert said, "then the reality had to change, and not the other way around."

"Ghandi could be a bitter political enemy and the most loyal friend at the same time," the prime minister remarked, reflecting the late Ze'evi's reputation as an outspoken firebrand who was also widely respected for his fairness and decency.

Born in Jerusalem in 1926, Ze'evi served in the underground Palmach and as an intelligence officer during the War of Independence. He headed the army's Central Command from 1968 until a week before the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War. When the war broke out he returned as a special adviser to the general staff and then served briefly as head of the army's operations branch.

Ze'evi retired from the military in 1974 and served in prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's government as an adviser on terrorism and security.

In 1988, Ze'evi founded the nationalist Moledet party, which won two seats in the 12th Knesset that year and later united with Israel Beiteinu. Ze'evi was known for his controversial right-wing views - in particular his advocacy of a "voluntary transfer" of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza.

He joined Ariel Sharon's government in 2001 as tourism minister, but resigned in protest of its handling of the second intifada.

Before his resignation went into effect, Palestinian gunmen shot Ze'evi in the head at close range as he walked to his room at the Hyatt hotel in Jerusalem.

Six members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine were held for his murder for almost four years in a Palestinian Authority jail in Jericho under British and American supervision, until the IDF captured them in March, after the US and Britain ordered their guards home.

Ahmed Sa'adat, the alleged mastermind of the assassination, was jailed in Israel on terrorism charges after authorities concluded there was not enough evidence to charge him with Ze'evi's murder.

Jerusalem Post
10.23.2006

Israeli 'Virtual Cancer' Engine Accurately Predicts Cancer

Israeli biotechnology start-up Optimata has won a seal of approval for its new computerized virtual cancer patient technology from Cancer Research UK after a successful trial at Nottingham City Hospital.

In the joint clinical study held by Optimata and Cancer UK, it was found that Optimata's Virtual Cancer Patient Engine (VCP) enabled doctors to correctly predict how individual breast cancer patients will respond to chemotherapy treatment in 70 percent of cases. This is substantially higher than the current prediction accuracy of oncologists which is estimated to be 25-30 percent.

In the study, which involved 33 patients suffering advanced breast cancer that has spread to the liver, lymph nodes or lungs, researchers programmed the VCP to model how individual breast cancer patients would be expected to respond to the chemotherapy drugs docetaxel or doxorubicin. These drugs can be used on their own to treat a number of cancers, but have different effects in different people, making treatment unpredictable.

The VCP looked at how the drugs would affect the growth of the cancer, how the drugs would behave in the body, how the cancer cells would respond to the drugs, and which drug out of the two would work best in each patient based on the size of their tumors and the speed at which they were growing.

Researchers then compared the predictions of the VCP with the actual response of the patients to test the effectiveness of the technology.

"We found the computer program accurately predicted how the patients responded to treatment in around 70 percent of cases," said Dr. Stephen Chan, head of the Department of Clinical Oncology at Nottingham City Hospital and the director of the study.

"This was a very interesting early study that could potentially have a big impact on how cancer patients are treated in the future," added Kate Law, director of clinical trials at Cancer Research UK. "Tailoring treatments to individual patients will ensure the best possible outcome for every patient. This is a hugely important area of cancer research."

Optimata was founded in 1999 by world-renowned biomathematician Prof. Zvia Agur, the company's chairman and chief scientific officer. It has been supported financially by private European investors, and Israel's Office of the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which also paid for the Nottingham trial alongside Optimata.

Aside from the Nottingham City Hospital trial, the company is currently completing a bio-simulation clinical trial on breast cancer patients in collaboration with Soroka University Medical Center in Israel.

Optimata's VCP technology is based on a computer-generated method of accurately predicting how individual patients or patient populations will respond to a compound. The technology combines computer models of human physiology, specific diseases and the therapeutic impact of a compound. The in-silico technology enables drug developers to conduct experiments at an unprecedented scale, enabling an unlimited number of "virtual trials" to be carried out on an almost infinite combination of dosages, treatment schedules and patient population characteristics.

Aside from drug development, the technology can also be used for drug treatment repurposing - enabling drug developers to find new uses for drugs that have not proven successful in development - and in clinics and hospitals for improving the efficacy of current drug treatments on patients.

By predicting how a drug will affect a patient, the technology allows doctors to tailor treatment more accurately to ensure that patients receive the most appropriate and effective therapy for their particular disease. Aside from increasing the efficacy of treatments, this can also reduce the amount of drug a patient needs to take, easing the often-debilitating side effects.

Though the technology can be used for any number of diseases, Optimata is focusing initially on cancer.

"This is a huge field," said Agur.

The Nottingham City Hospital trial began in December 2004. "Every cancer is slightly different and every patient will respond to treatment differently. We wanted to find a way to predict how patients would respond to a particular drug in order to limit their side effects and give them the best chance of beating their disease," said Dr. Abhik Mukherjee, from the hospital.

In the wake of this trial, Agur said new Phase II clinical trials are planned, which will compare the efficacy of the VCP against that of physicians in finding the best drug regime for patients. Agur said she hopes some of these trials will take place in the UK.

The 15-person company based in Ramat Gan has collaboration agreements for the use of its technology with multinational pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly & Co., and other drug companies. The start-up now plans a new round of fund-raising, and hopes to raise about $3 million.

"We are thrilled with the results of this study which validates our technology and offers new hope for cancer patients," said Guy Malchi, Optimata's CEO. "In the clinical setting our VCP technology offers the prospect of made-to-measure, safer and more cost-efficient use of therapies. In the global drug industry the VCP already is transforming drug development as more and more biopharmaceutical companies are using our technology to predict the outcome of drug candidates."

"The results of this study show the enormous potential the VCP has as a tool for treatment individualization," added Agur.

Israel 21st Century
10.22.2006

Return the Golan?

The Golan Heights is a semi-mountainous escarpment of some 451 square miles, ranging in height from 400 to 3,000 feet. It rises steeply from the eastern and northern shores of the Sea of Galilee, runs the length of the Huleh Valley and overlooks the coastal plains of the Galilee and northern Israel. There is a Jewish connection to the Golan, as it is dotted with ancient Jewish villages and synagogues.

In 1948, Syria joined with other Arab states in an aggressive attack against the newly re-established State of Israel. Syria was defeated by Israeli forces and an armistice line was drawn between the two nations in 1949. From 1949 to 1967, Syria used its position on the Heights to shell Israeli farms and settlements in the Galilee below, and to attack Israeli water projects in the Huleh Valley. In 1964, Syrians on the Golan attempted to divert the headwaters of the Jordan River, which would have severely curtailed Israel's water supply. Israel used military force to oppose the diversion.

In June 1967, at the start of the Six Day War, Syria again joined Egypt and Jordan in an aggressive attack against Israel designed to obliterate the Jewish State. Artillery fire from the Heights rained down on the Israelis below. The Syrian positions, built with Soviet assistance and guidance, were deemed impregnable, with layers of fortifications and overlapping fields of fire. I recall personally visiting Tel Azzyazziat and viewing, through a machine gun position, the Israeli fields and fish ponds below. At great cost, the IDF stormed the Heights and captured them from Syria.

Six years later, at the outbreak of the October 1973 Yom Kippur War, Syria mounted a massive surprise armored attack into the territory. In a costly stand, the IDF stopped the Syrian thrust across the Golan and then counterattacked, driving a fifteen-mile bulge into Syria. Israel later withdrew from this bulge in 1974, but stayed on the Heights.

It is important to recall that there is some legal question as to the status of the Golan Heights belonging to Syria in the first place. On June 30, 1939, France detached the Sanjak of Alexandretta from Syria and ceded it to Turkey. To date, Syria has never recognized this transfer of territory, terming it illegal. Similarly, in 1923 Great Britain transferred the Golan Heights from Mandatory Palestine to the French Mandate of Syria under a Franco-British agreement delineating the boundary between the two mandates. Israel is the legal successor state to Mandatory Palestine. Thus, the Golan Heights is an area in dispute. The Syrians can't have it both ways. If they insist on return of Alexandretta, then Israel has the right to insist on return of the Golan Heights.

Under international law, the principle of ex injuria jus non oritur ("right cannot originate from wrong") calls for the punishment of an aggressor state. Syria launched aggressive war against Israel directly three times, in 1948, 1967 and 1973. It committed acts of war from 1949-1967. By those acts, it has forfeited any claim to the Golan Heights as surely as Germany lost territory to both Poland and Russia (then the Soviet Union) after its aggression in World War II. Similarly, Japan lost territory to China, Korea and Russia after that same conflict.

Now, unable to regain the Golan Heights by force, having tried direct attack in October 1973, Syria and Hizbullah manufactured the bogus issue of the Shebaa Farms. The Shebaa Farms is part of Mt. Dov and the Golan Heights. Hizbullah claims it is part of Lebanon, in order to give Hizbullah an excuse to keep fighting against Israel. The weak, still Syrian-influenced Lebanese government agreed. They all demand that Israel return the area, a 200-square-kilometer piece of territory, as basically a reward for Hizbullah's aggression. The United Nations, after Israel's unilateral withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, certified that Israel had indeed withdrawn from all of Lebanon, and that the Shebaa Farms was part of the territorial dispute between Israel and Syria.

Syria still seeks to use force to regain the Golan. In July 2006, even before the rockets stopped flying from Lebanon into Israel, Bashar Assad, the president of Syria, announced the formation of a new terrorist group, the Front for the Liberation of the Golan Heights. Hizbullah had shown the way, stated Assad. Terrorism and rocket fire, he claimed, had defeated Israel; indeed, terrorism alone had forced the unilateral withdrawals by Israel from southern Lebanon in 2000 and from Gaza in 2005. Now, Assad plans to use these tactics and weapons to open a fourth front (escalating terrorist attacks from Judea-Samaria being the third) in the ongoing, 135-year Arab-Muslim war against the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. Hizbullah has already volunteered to train the Syrians. No doubt the Iranians will be there as well, as they were in Lebanon.

Incredibly, as the most recent round of fighting ended, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his Foreign Minister Tsippy Livni began speaking of negotiating with the Assad regime. That regime had just threatened Israel and vowed to attack the Jewish state again. Appeasement proved to be a failure in 1938, it has been proven a failure in the 13 years of the misnamed Oslo "peace process." Retreat has only encouraged terrorism and war. It has emboldened the patron states of Syria and Iran and their terrorist minions, Hizbullah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah and others (new groups are formed on a regular basis).

For Israel to retreat from, let alone return, the Golan Heights to Syrian control would be the height of geopolitical folly. Given the range of today's missiles, virtually more than one-half of all of Israel would literally be under the gun from even the short-range missiles.

The Golan was under British control for three years, under Syrian control for 44 years and under Israeli control for 39 years. Under Syrian control, it was used only as a launching pad for attacks on Israel. Under Israeli control, it has become a peaceful and productive region, threatening no nation. Given the historic record, the Golan Heights is essential to Israel's security. It should remain in Israel's hands.

Israel National News
10.21.2006

Europe Knows Not Evil

I, a French-born rabbi, have been sitting in a small synagogue in Brussels, celebrating the High Holy Days. Almost 200 years ago to the day, Napoleon convened an assembly of Jewish leaders to help him open the door of citizenship to French Jews. It was the Enlightenment. The Jews of France prepared to receive equal rights and become full partners in the affairs of state. They could call Europe home.

Now I wonder if it was all an illusion. I and other Jews have begun moving toward the sad and frankly terrifying realization that ultimately we may have no home in Europe. It is not that I no longer identify as a European, or that somehow my sense of loyalty to the place of my birth has weakened. No, it is not me who has changed, but Europe. A conflict has emerged between this new Europe and my Jewishness, and I do not know how to resolve it.

MUCH HAS been said and written about the reemergence of anti-Semitism in Europe, but all the discussion hasn't made the phenomenon any more comprehensible to me. I suppose that after the Holocaust, no amount of anti-Semitic madness should surprise us. Yet, I am surprised - and frightened.

I am frightened not just by the anti-Semitism but by the collective European response of indifference and appeasement. Today, Europe worships compromise. It is "fanatical" in its non-violence. It is a Europe that, in the face of Islamist fanaticism, is ready to stay silent.

This is the heart of the matter. By refusing to truly battle the Islamist ideology, by refusing to firmly and consistently oppose the dangers of Iranian nuclear proliferation, by refusing to support Israel in its battle against the menace of Hizbullah, Europe is saying everything is "negotiable."

MY FAITH forces me to reflect on the eventuality of having to confront radical evil. It teaches that everything is not negotiable; not everything can be compromised.

When I read in Deuteronomy that it is my religious duty to "erase the memory of Amalek from beneath the heavens," I frankly find myself frightened by the violence of the passage. How can we accept a religious commandment that necessitates us, under certain circumstances, to annihilate the Other?

This dilemma is not only mine. There's a story about an Orthodox Jew who went to Martin Buber, the great German-Jewish philosopher of the 20th century, to tell him of his profound dilemma: "How is it," he said to Buber, "that when King Saul showed mercy in his struggle against Agog, the king of the Amalekites, he was chastised by the Prophet Samuel for showing himself capable of compassion and being ready to compromise?"

Buber remained silent for a few moments before answering. "I think that Samuel was mistaken about God's intentions."

BUT RABBI Emil Fackenheim, one of the great post-Shoah thinkers, strongly criticizes Buber's reply and tells us: "Through this answer, Buber disposes of the problem of absolute evil, because if Amalek is not its incarnation, then absolute evil does not exist. Here, we are therefore better served by tradition: Amalek continues to be recognized for what he is, but [also] as a symbol.

"On the level of Jewish values, to distinguish between Amalek and evil in general is always a difficult task. To an extreme extent, one risks seeing a replica of Amalek in every enemy, while in fact the rabbis recommend trying to make a friend of every enemy.

"However, our era has shown that the opposite danger is greater: that which consists in believing or dreaming that Amalek does not exist."

This last sentence warrants further thought. The price of refusing to believe in the existence of evil and in the absolute necessity of confronting it is often very high. Indeed, the greatest danger would be to consider every enemy as a "potential Amalek." Peace is an absolute value and we must always make compromises to achieve it. But we cannot, however, escape one crucial question: If we have to make compromises, with whom? Compromise and dialogue are not values in themselves if the question "with whom?" is not asked.

I fear that my religious tradition is indeed on a collision course with Europe, which seemingly refuses, on principle, all ideas of confrontation. Has Europe not learned that one day we have to confront what frightens and terrorizes us? Or is Europe still looking for a path to the laying down of arms and the dubious compromise?

For us, the Jews of Europe, after witnessing the murder of 6 million of our own, we find ourselves today unable to see eye-to-eye with the political orientation of our old continent. And if what is happening today is not the ultimate wake-up call for Europe, it seems to me that our presence in Europe, 200 years after we were granted citizenship, is reaching its end.

The writer is a member of the executive board of the European Jewish Information Center in Brussels.

Jerusalem Post
10.20.2006

Israeli Airport Security Team Making LAX Safer

A team of Israeli airport security officials from Ben-Gurion International Airport is in Los Angeles this week advising Los Angeles International Airport officials on ways to improve security.

Nahum Liss, Hadas Levitan and Alon Browon of the B-G security authority examining the terminals, perimeter security, airfield and parking structures of LAX, and will likely make preliminary recommendations at the end of their visit.

"This is an unprecedented visit by the head of Israeli airport security to cooperate with us and help us spotlight what is needed," Councilman Jack Weiss told the Los Angeles Daily News. Weiss chairs the City Council's Public Safety Committee and arranged the visit by the Israeli security team.

"They sat down (Monday) with our professionals and you could almost see the sparks fly as they exchanged ideas," he said.

LAX is one of the busiest airports in the world and considered by American security experts to be a prime location for a terror attempt. Some 61.5 million travelers used LAX in 2005, compared with 60.7 million in 2004.

Security at LAX has been studied extensively for the past four years, including a periodic review by the Rand Corp., which has found the biggest vulnerabilities are the crowds outside terminals. In the most recent incident, a gunman killed two people when he opened fire at the airport's El Al ticket counter on July 4th, 2002.

While the Israeli security team is expected to pass on specific steps that officials at LAX can take to better secure the airport, it may not be practical to implement all the recommendations.

"You can't copy and paste Ben-Gurion's security into America," Weiss told AP. "It's a different airport, different scale, different problems. But what you can learn from (the Israelis) is the philosophy and the approach."

The team also will review the plans for the $576 million redesign of the Tom Bradley International Terminal to ensure that state-of-the-art security is included. And
Councilman Bill Rosendahl, whose 11th District includes LAX, told AP that he would like to see the Israeli advice implemented in the plans.

"Their insights will be invaluable for us. I hope that the best practices and the protocols that our partners in Israel give us will be incorporated into how we go forward with these renovations," he told AP.

Weiss, Deputy Mayor Maurice Suh, fire Chief William Bamattre and police Cmdr. Mike Downing toured Ben-Gurion Airport during a visit to Israel in March, when they met with security officials to gain insight on airport security. During the trip, Weiss invited the Israeli security officials to inspect LAX.

According to Israeli Consul General Ehud Danoch, it's imperative for the US and Israel to share information in their joint front against terror.

"The United States is a great ally of Israel and we always cooperate, especially now with the issue of terrorism over the past few years," Danoch told AP. "We have many experts in counter-terrorism, and we are going to continue to share the knowledge and our experience with the United States."

Israel 21st Century
10.19.2006

Debugging The Peace Program

Have you ever banged your head against a wall? Does it accomplish anything, other than give you a headache and possibly damage the wall? If someone told you that banging your head against a wall would make you lose weight, or get rich, and you tried it and didn’t lose weight or get rich, would you keep on doing it anyway? Why would anyone want to bang their head against a wall anyway?

Sometimes even the most well-intentioned projects don’t perform in reality the way that they were expected to perform in theory. When that happens, it’s wise to look for errors in the original script before running the program again.

Sometimes all that is wrong is a misplaced comma or semicolon, and you’re up and running. Other programs are so full of bugs and errors and endless loops that they never execute successfully.

There is nothing more frustrating than trying to integrate a legacy application, which never really worked to begin with, into a new environment with which it is completely incompatible. It wasn’t working well before; it is completely broken now, and no amount of patching and tweaking can fix it, but produces even more errors. Just scrap it and start over with a blank screen.

Bug in design

Let’s just say that not even Microsoft would have released the “Peace Program” even as a beta, and if the “Peace Program” was a computer application, it would fail to even compile, let alone execute.

No corporation would support such a thoroughly useless project, or continue to employ incompetent developers who failed to produce a working application after thirteen years of tweaking and debugging.

The people who designed the “Peace Program” were not professional engineers or scientists who are trained to produce results based on proven methods, but career politicians determined to create a “legacy” for themselves without a thought to the consequences of failure.

This determination to obtain a “legacy” unattached to any measurable accomplishments was further impeded by the tragic murder of the chief developer, Yitzhak Rabin, which caused all his original errors and false expectations to become enshrined as critical core components never to be touched or tampered with.

Even worse, the extreme act of a deranged lone individual has been used to scapegoat and demonize the entire population of religious Zionists, particularly the “settlers” but also those living within the 1949 ceasefire lines, designated as “sacrifices for peace,” who are collectively and exclusively blamed for the failure of the program.

At the same time, the unstable element of “The Palestinians” is always designated as “peaceful,” “moderate,” and “innocent,” no matter how many acts of murder, kidnapping and terror they commit or how many unapologetic genocidal gangsters they elect to their government.

Matter of numbers

Even demonstrably provable mathematical facts are brushed aside in order for the “program” to proceed. The variable of “Palestinian demographic growth” is assigned an arbitrary number far in advance of its actual known value, as an excuse for further withdrawals and retreats, while the variable of “Jewish population” is assumed to be flexible and subject to removal at any time, for any reason.

Even more flawed is the assumption, based on no evidence, that the amount of land that can be exchanged for a true and lasting peace agreement is the total land area of the entire State of Israel.

When programmers screw up this badly, they get fired. When projects drag on with no evidence of progress or probability of success, they are scrapped. When the same actions applied over and over again consistently result in the same failure, it is time to stop repeating these fatal mistakes and try something else, something that hasn’t already been done and known to fail.

Getting back to the original question: Why would anyone want to repeatedly band their head against a wall?

Because it feels so good when you finally stop.

Gamla
10.18.2006

President Bush Continues To Legitimize PLO

US President George W. Bush on Saturday extended the right of the PLO to maintain an official presence in Washington for another six months, just as he has done every six months since becoming president.

Read the official letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice:

"I hereby determine and certify that it is important to the national security interests of the United States to waive the provisions."

Those provisions cited by the standard letter refer to the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987, which prohibits the PLO from maintaining an official presence in Washington.

The act was passed into law during a time when the PLO was still recognized as the preeminent global terrorist network, and its leader Yasser Arafat as the Osama bin Laden of his day.

Today, the Washington offices of the PLO act as the primary contact point between the Bush administration and PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas, who Bush insists is a "moderate," despite the fact that Abbas for decades served as Arafat's right-hand man.

The PLO office's presence in Washington and official recognition by Bush also violates the so-called "Oslo" peace accords, which forbid the "Palestinians" from establishing de facto embassies and conducting foreign relations prior to a final peace agreement.

Jerusalem Newswire
10.16.2006

Syrian Military Instructors In Gaza

AMAN chief Maj.-Gen Amos Yadlin and head of research division Brig. Yossi Baidatz also reported to the Israeli cabinet Sunday, Oct. 15. that Hamas is taking delivery of anti-air missiles as well as anti-tank rockets.

Saturday night, 3 Qassam missiles exploding near at Nir Am triggered an Israeli air strike at Palestinian launch team near Jebalya, N. Gaza.

During the day, Israeli forces killed 8 Palestinian gunmen in clashes in Jebalya, northern Gaza Strip. At least 6 were from Hamas and they directed anti-tank fire at Israeli troops. They were killed when an Israeli rocket hit a house. Israeli ground forces are operating in three Gaza Strip sectors to fight off Palestinian missile attacks and destroy their arsenals.

The IDF has stepped up pressure since the June kidnapping of Cpl Gideon Shalit. This operation, which went into its fourth day Saturday, is aimed at stemming the inflow of Iranian long-range anti-tank weapons and Grad 17-km range rockets through the tunnels of the Philadelphi border strip with Egypt. The latest arrivals now are ground-to-air and anti-tank rockets. The Egyptian police do nothing to hinder the Palestinian terrorist arms build-up in Gaza through their lines in Sinai.

Debka File
10.16.2006

Unthinkable, Not Inevitable

Last week, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert convened a special meeting of security chiefs to discuss Israeli strategy toward the Iranian threat, amid concerns that Western responses to it are inadequate. These concerns have grown with the expectation that any sanctions imposed on North Korea after it claimed to have exploded a nuclear weapon will amount to little more than a slap on the wrist.

The prime minister's meeting reportedly concluded that Israel would continue to support the diplomatic approach toward the Iranian challenge, as led by the United States and Europe. In other words, Israel will continue to attempt to walk the fine line between encouraging the international community to take the lead on this global threat, and insisting that failure is not an option.

It is natural that the current situation would be compared to that which Israel faced in 1981, when it became clear that the world was doing nothing about Iraq's nuclear bid. Then, Menachem Begin ordered the strike on the Osirak reactor, which did set Saddam Hussein's nuclear program back about a decade. In 1991, the US discovered and destroyed Saddam's rebuilt program when it evicted the Iraqi army from Kuwait. When Saddam was removed in 2003, it seems he was further from developing a bomb than he had been decades earlier.

Iran, presumably, has learned from Saddam's experience and has hidden, hardened, dispersed and defended its nuclear program to a degree that it would stretch Israel's military capabilities to unilaterally incapacitate it. But Iran, unlike Iraq seemed in 1981, is not just Israel's problem.

By stepping back, Israel is trying to accentuate the global nature of the Iranian challenge, but Israel can and should be doing more to explain this. As a small country that the Iranian leadership openly says should be destroyed, Israel obviously has the most direct interest in preventing Iran from ever achieving such a capability. But the consequences for other nations of an Iranian nuke seem less obvious and need to be constantly reiterated.

Increasingly, as the world's feckless response adds to the impression that Iran will succeed in its nuclear quest, claims begin to mount that this is something that the world can live with. Not all Iranian leaders are as crazy as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and he may not control the weapons, we are assured. Besides, why would Iran risk the nuclear retaliation that any use of its weapons would assuredly bring?

As comforting as this line of thinking may be to some, it fails to address several critical aspects of the Iranian challenge. First, it ignores the apocalyptic and martyrdom-lionizing ideology of the Iranian leadership, under which the deaths of millions of Iranians could be justified as ushering in the return of the "hidden imam" and the triumph of Islam.

Second, even if the Iranian leadership is more like the Soviet politburo in its latter days than Adolf Hitler with respect to its belief in its own declared ideology, the dangers of an Iranian nuke are not limited to suicidal scenarios.

Even if the mullahs are intent on preserving their lives and their power, and therefore would never openly initiate a nuclear attack, this logic can hardly guarantee that they would not either transfer such a weapon to a terrorist group, or create a supposedly independent group for that purpose.

Iran specializes in proxy warfare. It is currently backing Hizbullah in Lebanon, Islamic Jihad in Gaza, and assorted terrorist militias in Iraq. Is it really feasible for Israel or the US to automatically retaliate against Iran for a nuclear explosion of unknown origin? Finally, even if Iran neither explodes nor farms out a nuclear bomb, simply possessing one would greatly increase that regime's ability to foment "militia mayhem" - in Mideast expert David Makovsky's phrase - throughout the region and beyond.

The mullahs fervently believe that nuclear weapons will not only protect their regime, but allow them to expand their power and the grip of their own militant brand of Islam throughout the world. Israel cannot accept such a genocidal threat, but neither can other free nations accept such a blatant attempt to hijack the world order. Our government, crucially, should not allow the understandable desire to encourage a global response to be misinterpreted as a sign that even Israel is beginning to treat the unthinkable as inevitable.

Jerusalem Post
10.15.2006

The Need For Missile Defenses

Senior military officials who spoke with The Jerusalem Post this week were adamant: Defense Minister Amir Peretz was "mistaken" when he stated that an effective defense against Katyusha rockets could be deployed in two years. "Nothing will be ready in two years," one of the officials told our reporter, Yaakov Katz.

Two weeks ago, Peretz said in an interview, "Both Kassams and Katyushas are tactical weapons that have become strategic threats because we have yet to find an answer to them." Israel will obtain a "significant system that can [defend against these missiles] and this will happen in no more than two years," the defense minister said.

Security and Defense: Needed ASAP: A shield against rockets
Peretz is right about the significance of even primitive, short-range missiles if Israel has no way to defend against them. It is disturbing, however, that he seems to be misinformed about where the technology to do so stands, and is unwittingly misleading the public as a consequence.

As we report elsewhere on these pages, Israel is looking at both an American system called Skyguard and at developing its own system for shooting down short-range rockets. The American system, produced by Northrop Grumman, has shown success in tests but seems to be more than two years away from operational capability, and may prove too expensive to deploy against thousands of extremely cheap rockets. An Israeli company is developing another, laser-based, system, but it is also a number of years away from possible deployment.

In the minds of our enemies, the recent war in the north and the Kassam offensive from Gaza against towns in the South have demonstrated that the missile has largely replaced the suicide bomber as the terror weapon of choice. It took years for Israel to decide to build a security fence against suicide bombers - indeed, that fence has yet to be completed. We have been similarly slow to build equivalent defenses against short-range missiles.

In both cases, there were valid reasons for hesitation. With limited funds for national defense, we have preferred to invest in our capability to fight and deter terrorism rather than to erect barriers against it. Successful deterrence is the best defense, since it prevents attacks from being launched in the first place.

What must be realized, however, is that defenses, not only offensive capabilities, are critical components of deterrence. It is a myth that a defense must be 100 percent effective or else it is worthless. There would be a huge difference in an attacker's calculation when faced with zero defenses against short-range missiles, compared to a situation in which Israel could reliably shoot down 80% or more of missiles launched against it.

The importance of missile defense only grows with respect to medium- and long-range missiles. The Arrow system that Israel has already deployed against such missiles is a good start, but more should be done, and not just by Israel.

The US, for example, is currently defended by just 11 test interceptors in Alaska and California. These are inadequate to defend against the long-range missile threat, recently accentuated by North Korea's missile test in July and its purported nuclear test this week. Europe has no such defenses, and the US is not defended at all against medium- or short-range missiles that could be fired from ships.

It makes no sense for the West to forfeit its vast technological advantages and leave itself almost completely exposed to missile attack. In the wake of 9/11, the Bush administration reversed previous US antipathy to missile defenses, withdrew from the 1972 ABM Treaty that all but banned them, and committed to deploying a multi-layered defense of both US territory and US forces abroad. Yet actual defenses are not being developed and deployed as quickly as they should.

Missile-defense opponents, though they have largely conceded the debate on principle, have succeeded in steering spending away from the programs that seem to have most promise: space-based and sea-based systems that could address the ballistic missile threat on a global basis and in the near term.

One of the reasons that rogue states such as Iran and North Korea pursue both nuclear and long-range missile capability is that the West has so studiously avoided defending itself against just such threats. Missile defenses are critical both to deterring such proliferation, and to defending the free world should deterrence fail.

Jerusalem Post
10.14.2006

Jewish Charity Money Going To Arabs

A broad swath of center-right American Jewish groups is expressing shock and outrage that millions of dollars being raised by Jewish federations in North America for the post-war recovery effort in Israel is being used in part to help Israeli Arabs.

"To placate Israeli Arabs in the north who were celebrating Israel's defeat is totally absurd," fumed Helen Freedman, former director of the Americans for a Safe Israel. "Let the Arab countries take care of them. They are a fifth column that is working to support Hezb'allah and Hamas, and we foolish Jews are saying there is no difference between Israeli Arabs and Jews who were victims of this war."

Stephen Savitsky, president of the Orthodox Union whose own Israel emergency campaign merged with that of the United Jewish Communities, said he was unaware that the UJC money went to help Israeli Arabs. Told it does, Savitsky said he plans to ask the UJC to "segment the money" raised from OU members "to make sure it goes to the places we want."

He said that before the campaigns were merged, the money the OU raised was designed to "help Jews in need." He said it went to provide entertainment and food to those in bomb shelters and that "whoever was in the shelter we serviced; we didn't discriminate."

But the idea of the campaign, Savitsky said, was to "raise money to help Jews in need."

"If we help in Haifa and there are non-Jews there, we should not discriminate. But we would not go to an Arab village or town to give services."

A spokesman for the UJC said the money raised did not go to municipalities but rather to provide services for those in need — Jews and Arabs alike.

Howard Rieger, the UJC's president and CEO, when asked for a breakdown of the money, said that of the $92 million spent to date from the Israel Emergency Campaign, a total of $9 million, or some 10 percent, "went to [Israeli] Arabs." He said the campaign has thus far raised $329 million in pledges, and defended the decision to use the money to help Israeli Arabs and Druze.

"About one-third to one-half of those killed [by Hezb'allah rockets] were Israeli Arabs, as well as Druze who serve in the Israel Defense Forces and died in the IDF," he said. "We were getting kids out of harm's way [in the north], and we think it is a fair and valid use of the funds" to help Israeli Jewish and Arab youngsters.

Rieger said his organization was asked at the very beginning if it wanted to treat Israeli Jews and Arabs differently and that "our answer was no."

"We're proud of that," he said.

Asked about distribution of the rest of the money, Rieger said a committee is expected to decide that in about a month.

Freedman said, however, that she finds it distressing that the decision to use part of the money for Israeli Arabs was not widely known.

"I am sure that most people who give to the UJC have no clue that a percentage of their money is going to Arabs," she said. "I think they would be horrified. I have copies of letters from people who wrote to Howard Rieger denouncing" the move.

Among the e-mails Freedman said she received and shared with The Jewish Week was one from a man who called the help to Israeli Arabs "absurd," especially in light of the fact that the UJC "gave nothing" to the Jews made homeless by their expulsion from the Gaza Strip last summer.

Another writer wrote his response in rhyme: "How odd of G-d to choose the Jews, and how odd that Jews support those who want them to lose."

Steven Mostofsky, president of the National Council of Young Israel, said he was "really surprised" to learn that Israeli Arabs were benefiting from the Israel Emergency Campaign, which was launched shortly after the outbreak of the Israel-Hezbollah War in July.

"It's not that I want to seem harsh or that this is an anti-Arab statement, but money raised from Jews because of a war against Jews should only be used for Jews," he said. "There are plenty of Arab not-for-profits in the United States. They should be supporting the Arabs. … Any money that is raised because of the recent war should go to benefit the Jews who suffered in the war — those whose houses and businesses were destroyed and hospitalized soldiers whose families need support."

Morton Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America, said he too was unaware of the UJC practice and asked, "How did they determine that money should go there and that their donors would wish that money go to Israeli Arabs?"

Jewish World Review
10.13.2006

God Says: "I WANT YOU!"

In years past when our country was threatened by enemies around the world, the nation of America began to pull together on every front. Men joined the army, women took over many of the jobs the men left, boys and girls pitched in and helped in many ways, there was food rationing as well as other items as well. When the danger was high and "freedom's way of life" was threatened, people put aside their differences and many of their selfish needs and pulled together for a cause greater than themselves.

One of the ways such campaigns were launched was through the use of the famous "Uncle Sam" poster on which he looked directly in the face of the view and pointed his long finger directly at them. People responded. They answered the "call" and willingly gave of themselves to the tasks at hand. It was this "unity" of cause that strengthened the nation and empowered people to work together to build in dangerous and uncertain times. Even today, we have seen some of that in the aftermath of the horrible attack on 9-11!

God is calling His people, and He is calling us to a greater cause than even the freedom of the nation we love! He is calling all who have received Him as Savior and Lord to rise up to prayer for the souls of lost men and women around this world. He is calling us to take a stand for Him, His Kingdom and His way of life in this dark hour in which we live.

If ever there was a time our God needs us, His people, to rise up under the "Banner of Jesus Christ", taking a stand for righteousness and truth in our own lives so that we can be pure vessels of honor for Him and of prayer toward Him...it is NOW!

I wish the times were simpler. I wish the dark storm clouds were not mounting up. I wish the "winds of war" were not picking up as they are. I wish we could just have a sweet little Sunday School lesson, say "nice things" and go home and take a nap! But sadly, that is not the truth!

As we read the headlines, listen to the television reports, read the internet by-lines, only an ostrich could fail to see the 'handwriting on the wall." We are in for an unpleasant time around the world, and the protected nation in which we live and abide in "peace and freedom" has been drawn into the fray!

We who are Christians must come forth to lift up our voices in prayer in this hour! God has called His people to awaken! He wants us to rise up, to be alert, watching in prayer with our spirits, and to begin to help Him sound the alarm that Jesus is coming! As the people of God, we must be ready! We must be willing to answer every call that He sends forth in these perilous days!

I have often written on a subject to which I "hear" God calling to us, His People: "AWAKE! ARISE! ALERT! ALARM!" and it still stands today. God is calling each of us to answer that call in our hearts! The deeper we get to the times of peril and turmoil we are hearing about through the news media, the more obvious the message is to everyone. We are seeing and hearing of many "End Time" scenarios in our news reports today!

In 1990, the Lord gave me four separate dreams of FIRE! In each one, I was in a burning building and I was trying to get people out before it consumed them. In every dream I warned, sounded alarms, pled, begged people to hear, and NONE would listen to me at that time! They ignored me, my urgent pleas, and imperative alarms. They pushed me away. They laughed at me for believing that there was a fire, much less that they were in actual danger. They were eating and drinking and reveling in a party mood, never accepting the truth of their impending doom!

Heartbroken, I went away sorrowful for their souls; for I knew how real this danger was and how much the "alarm" was needed! I have cried many tears in these last 14 years over those "visions" and His imperative "words" spoken to my spirit , for they were from the mouth of Almighty God! Yet the people in the dreams were deaf and blind to the truth of His "alarm"! How He longs for people to "wake up" and get away from the danger of not living close to Him and come to the safety of being obediently under the shelter of His Wings.

It was after these 3 sobering dreams, each coming over the period of a year, that I received the AWAKE! ARISE! ALERT! ALARM! word in a night of prayer! It was as if the Spirit of the Lord emblazoned this thought in my heart...and it has never left me, all these years! I recorded these piercing words in a personal journal and have often spoken them to Christians in the arenas of influence which I have been given. Each word is a call to action...and each word expects a response from the people of God!

Recently, the Lord impressed my heart again with these things, so I obediently raise this banner once again. He told me to open my mouth and give out that which He has given me and to begin calling forth "Release" to His people....to begin to OBEY Him in responding to His Spirit in these things.

His specific words were these: "Speak life! Release My Spirit in others. Watch as floodgates come down in people's lives, and My Spirit will flow out of their walled up hearts - many years of holding back and now they shall begin to flow in that which I have called them unto!"

"For the calling I have given you is a HOLY ONE, and NOW is the time in this darkest hour on earth to date for My Glory to begin covering the earth as the waters cover the sea. And it will be as My people begin to be released and give out that which I have faithfully given them that My waters shall cover the earth! Against the backdrop of world turmoil, My Word and My Light will shine increasingly unto an everlasting Day!"

May each of us be watching and listening in our hearts to what the Spirit of the Lord is speaking to us today. He will never speak to us anything He has not spoken in His written Word, for it is the foundation of our faith and our instructions for living.

Our God is calling and saying..."I want YOU!"

He is calling each of us to be obedient to the seeds of truth He, Himself, has planted there. Whatever He has asked of you, be it large or small..."Just DO IT"! Don't let the world "out-do" us with their Nike commercials!

When Jesus comes again, may He find us faithfull DOING the things He has sown in our hearts over the years.

Looking Unto Jesus,
Sandy Brunson
10.12.2006

History's Dangerous Repetition

It would seem that Karl Marx got things backwards. History does not repeat itself first as tragedy and then as farce. Rather, it repeats itself first as farce and second as tragedy. This, perhaps more than anything else is the conclusion one should reach from North Korea's nuclear test on Columbus Day.

It was the Clinton administration, which back in the Roaring '90s began the policy of appeasing North Korea. Throughout the decade the US wined and dined the North Korean Stalinists who always responded by pocketing US concessions and escalating their nuclear and ballistic missile activities and threats against the US and its Asian allies.

The farce was then US secretary of state Madeleine Albright's visit to Pyongyang in late October 2000, two weeks before the US presidential elections. There, after the North Koreans tested the Taepo-Dong 1 ballistic missile off the coast of Japan in 1998 and refused to end either their missile programs or missile exports to Iran, Albright tripped the night fantastic with Kim Jong-Il. Her buffoonery was a perfect capstone to eight years of the Clinton administration's addiction to ceremony over substance.

While America's tone towards North Korea chilled under the Bush administration, there was little substantive change in its policies.

Secretary of state Colin Powell met with his North Korean counterpart Pak Nam Sun and to this day US attempts to strike a deal with Pyongyang have not ended. And now, Pyongyang, with its medium- and long-range ballistic missiles, has tested a nuclear bomb.

THERE IS of course also North Korea's ally Iran. Toward Iran, too, the substance of the Bush administration policies is little different from that of his predecessor. Like North Korea, the Iranians respond to US attempts at appeasement by escalating their rhetoric and redoubling their offensive military build-ups of missiles and nuclear capabilities.

The great shift, then which occurred under the Bush administration, a shift for which President George W. Bush has been pilloried by his political rivals, has been rhetorical.

While hypocritical, the division between rhetoric and substance has something to recommend it. The benefit of the current US position toward North Korea and Iran is that the rhetoric has left open the possibility that the policy itself will finally be suited to reality. Today, unlike the situation in the 1990s, the American public is at least aware that these states are a threat to US national security interests.

In the aftermath of North Korea's nuclear bomb test, the US can support military actions by Japan and South Korea against North Korea; build up its missile shield; and perhaps end its 14 year self-imposed moratorium on nuclear testing and so revamp its nuclear arsenal.

Were the Bush administration to change its policy tomorrow regarding Iran — begin shaming Europe into ending its appeasement, and threatening Russia with trade sanctions if Moscow continues supporting Iran, Syria and Hizbullah, while building up its military options to strike at Iran's nuclear installations — the American public would understand why the policy change was necessary. Indeed, such a move could even help the Republican Party in the upcoming elections.

DISTURBINGLY, WHILE Bush has paved the way rhetorically for a shift in policy toward North Korea and Iran, he has done no such thing in the US's relations with the terror-ruled Palestinian Authority. And as is the case with Iran and North Korea, the stubborn and ill-considered continuation of the Clinton administration's appeasement policy toward the PA during the Bush years has only exacerbated and escalated the threat posed by the PA to US national security interests and to the national security of US allies — first and foremost, of Israel.

In the 1990s, the father of modern terrorism, Yasser Arafat, was the most frequent foreign visitor at the White House. The head of the PLO was the object of adoration by the Clintonites. It didn't matter to them that Arafat never revoked the PLO Charter calling for Israel's destruction. It didn't matter that he indoctrinated a generation of Palestinian children to become suicide bombers in jihad against the Jews. It didn't matter that he used billions of dollars of American and European taxpayer money to build the largest terror army in the world. Arafat showed up at signing ceremonies. He was the poster child of appeasement.

The Clinton administration tied itself to a policy toward the Palestinians which, like its policies toward North Korea and Iran, opened it to ever escalating blackmail. As the terror threat emanating from the PA-ruled areas rose, empowering Arafat became the obsession of the Clinton White House. He was showered with money, guns and love. No Israeli security consideration could hold a candle to the need to strengthen Arafat.

From bombing to bombing, Arafat was enriched and empowered. Israel's security became the main obstacle to the signing ceremonies.

After seven years, the myth of Arafat the peacemaker exploded in the faces of more than a thousand Israelis who would be killed over the next six years of the Palestinian jihad. But the myth of the PA endured.

For the past six years, each bombing, every clear indication that the PA itself is a terrorist entity is met by more breathless US protestations of support for Palestinian empowerment and statehood. The fact that the last six years have left the State Department unfazed was made absolutely clear during Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit last week.

Since Arafat appointed Mahmoud Abbas, his deputy of 40 years, PA prime minister in 2003, the US has upheld Abbas as a man of peace, a moderate and a respectable leader that the Bush administration wishes to strengthen. To this end, the Bush administration has overlooked Abbas's clear support for terrorism. It has excused his constant appeals to merge his Fatah terror group with Hamas and Islamic Jihad. It has ignored the fact that his Fatah terror group has committed more acts of terror than Hamas and that Fatah's involvement in terror and the sophistication of its attacks has only increased since Abbas replaced Arafat after the latter's death in November 2004.

During her visit last week, at Abbas's request, Rice was scheduled to meet with Fatah commander Hussein a-Sheikh in the American Consulate-General in Jerusalem. The meeting was cancelled at the last minute when Israeli activists demanded that Sheikh, who was directly responsible for the murder of dozens of Israelis and several American nationals, be arrested by Israel police upon arrival at the consulate. Yet, Rice still met with other Fatah leaders, like Muhammad Dahlan who has been directly implicated in the murder of Israelis in terror attacks perpetrated by men under his command.

EVEN MORE disturbingly, Rice has officially sanctioned a policy put together by US Army Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton to expand by up to 70 percent Abbas's presidential guard and personal army, Force 17. The administration wishes to raise some $20 million to fund the training and arming and expansion of Abbas's army from 3,500 to 6,000 soldiers. This move comes after the US transferred 3,000 rifles and 1 million bullets to Force 17 in June. Yet Force 17 is a terrorist army led by terrorists.

Right after he received the weapons shipment, Abbas appointed Mahmoud Damra commander of the force. Damra, who like many of the Force 17 officers and soldiers, doubles as a Fatah terrorist, was wanted by Israel due to his direct involvement in the terrorist murder of at least 15 Israelis. One of his deputies claimed that the US rifles were immediately used to attack a bus carrying Israeli school girls in Judea.

Israel arrested Damra at a checkpoint shortly after he received Abbas's appointment. The US immediately began pressuring Israel to release him.

In addition to Damra's direct involvement in Fatah terror, he also has close ties with Iran and Hizb'allah. In 2002, Arafat reportedly appointed him Force 17's liaison officer to Iran and Hizb'allah forces. The fact that Abbas appointed Damra Force 17's overall commander just weeks before Fatah and Hamas began Iran's proxy war against Israel by attacking the IDF position at Kerem Shalom and kidnapping Cpl. Gilad Shalit, should say something about Abbas's intentions. Yet, last week, Rice couldn't praise Abbas enough.

North Korea's nuclear test and Iran's nuclear intimidation show us what happens when failed policies are not abandoned. Due in part to its continued US-backed legitimacy, the PA is used by Pakistan as an excuse for terror sponsorship and nuclear proliferation and by jihadists throughout the world as justification for attacks on Western and Jewish targets.

No doubt the North Korean nuclear test is a turning point in this world war.

The question is whether it will force the US to finally part with appeasement, or whether Rice will convince President Bush to take his chances by repeating history a third and fourth time.

Jewish World Review
10.10.2006

Gush Etzion Celebrates - Fears For Its Future

Yochanan Ben-Yaakov doesn't remember his father, who was killed defending Kfar Etzion in 1948.

Nor does the silver-haired man recall the home there where he spent his first three years until he was evacuated with the other children, also in 1948.

But he has lived his life as if he had.

On the strength of his mother's memories and those of their friends and former neighbors, he was among the 15 young adults who resettled the religious kibbutz in 1967, three months after it was returned to Jewish hands in the Six Day War.

Here in the hills outside Jerusalem he has built his home and raised six children. While he remains confident that it will stay in Israeli hands, he participated Monday in an event initiated by the Religious Kibbutz Movement designed to tell the High Court of Justice that Jews throughout the country feel a connection to Gush Etzion, where close to 40,000 Israelis now live.

Heading into the 40th year of the resettlement of Gush Etzion, the Religious Kibbutz Movement had planned to hold a solidarity event there last April, in advance of a petition to the High Court regarding the security barrier's route there.

The Kibbutz Movement and Gush Etzion's leaders are concerned that if the court rules in favor of the petition submitted by neighboring Palestinians, it could endanger the area's future status, even though, according to them, there is a consensus among Israelis that the area should be included within the state's permanent borders.

The April event was canceled due to an outbreak of bird flu. Since then, the High Court has heard the petition and a ruling is pending.

The Religious Kibbutz Movement decided to hold the event on Monday, to celebrate the continued Jewish presence in the area.

Some 2,000 kibbutzniks came from all over the country to hike, visit the winery and listen to songs, skits and speeches at a closing ceremony in Kfar Etzion.

Speakers spoke of the 240 residents who were killed in 1948 and the growth that has occurred since Jews returned after 19 years of Jordanian rule.

Shaul Goldstein, head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, said he wished that those who lost their lives defending the area could return to see how it had blossomed.

Former MK Hanan Porat, who lives in Kfar Etzion and like Ben-Yaakov, was born there and returned in 1967, spoke of the need to prevent any further territorial withdrawal. He told the audience that there should never be another disengagement like the one in August 2005 when some 8,500 Jews were evicted from their homes in the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria.

Both Goldstein and Yair Reinman, the executive director of the Religious Kibbutz Movement, said that despite the support the Gush Etzion bloc enjoys from the public and the fact that the government speaks of retaining it in any final status agreement, they do not feel their future is totally secure.

Only last week, Kadima Minister Meir Sheetrit spoke of using the Saudi plan approved by the Arab League in 2002, which calls for a full withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders, as a basis for talks with moderate Arab leaders.

"I fear parts of it [Gush Etzion] could be given away," said Reinman.

"I am not sure about anything," said Goldstein. "There is a fear that once one starts to surrender one will continue to surrender," he said.

Ben-Yaakov said he had faith that he was home for good after his family had endured so much both in Israel and in Eastern Europe.

Sitting on a plastic chair on a lawn filled with visitors, he described how his grandfather was killed in a pogrom when his father, Yaakov, was only three years old. As young adults, his father and uncle immigrated to Israel; the rest of their family was killed in the Holocaust, including their five sisters.

Instead the two men were killed in Kfar Etzion. Ben-Yaakov said that to keep his father's memory alive, he his took his first name as his last name.

Just like Diaspora Jews grew up on stories of Jerusalem and Israel, he grew up on stories of how he would one day return to Gush Etzion.

Now that the Jews are thriving here, it won't be given away, he said. "I have a personal promise from [former prime ministers Menachem] Begin and [Yitzhak] Rabin to that effect," he said.
He still trusts those pledges, he said.

Jerusalem Post
10.10.2006

Hitler Promotes Brazilian Dentists

A picture of a smiling Adolf Hitler popped up on billboards rented by a chain of dental clinics a few days ago in the Brazilian capital.

The Nazi leader was chosen from a list of figures well-known throughout the world in order to advertise for the dental clinics under the slogan, "A smile can change the world." President Bush was also among the public figures chosen for the ad campaign.

Israeli Ambassador to Brazil Tzipora Rimon was appalled to see the billboards featuring Hitler and his smile and did not hesitate to call the owner of the company to notify him that the billboards hurt Israel and the Jewish people.

The owner was surprised by the telephone conversation. He apologized, admitted that he made a mistake and gave instructions to immediately remove the advertisements.

Y Net News
10.09.2006

The Fertility Of Succot

The celebration of Succot has to be the most enjoyable of the three pilgrimage festivals. The Torah commands this by emphasizing the concept of simha (joy), one has to be "altogether joyful" when celebrating this festival (Deut. 16:15). As Succot comes in the autumn, it can certainly be considered as a joyous harvest festival.

It is the time when the harvest is in, when the countryman can relax, sit in his garden booth and admire the crops stored in his granary and fruit basket. He has donated his first-fruits to the priests and the Temple, and the remainder is his, for him and his family to live on until the new crop is gathered in before next autumn.

Thus it is a time of satisfaction and rejoicing, but the canny farmer will know that he has now to prepare for the next season, to see to it that next year's crop will succeed as well as the present one, or if that was not too good, to seek an improvement in the coming year. How is he to do that? His main concern will be for the fertility of the soil and for the right weather. The rains have not yet started but he needs them very soon and then to continue on and off till Pessah, the next pilgrimage festival that comes in the spring.

During that time he has to clear the ground, to plow and to sow, to prune and to plant. But it is not all in his hands.

FERTILITY OF the soil and the right kind of weather are not functions of his hard work; he needs to have the hand of God working for him. It is all very well to fulfill the commandments, but will that ensure fertility and good rains as God has promised? The farmer cannot be sure and so he will seek to do what he can to secure the future, and the symbols of Succot will come to his aid.

He is to sit in his booth, to take his meals there and to sleep there. Why? To remind him that the Children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt, lived in succot (booths, Lev. 23:43).

But did they? The Torah says quite clearly elsewhere that they lived in tents and not booths made of palm branches. Thus one of the rabbis of the Talmud, R. Eliezer ben Hyrkanus, says (Succa 11B) the booths refer indirectly to the "clouds of glory" that protected the Israelites throughout the Wilderness. At the end of the desert episode these divine clouds disappeared, so how can they now help our farmer on his piece of land in Israel?

The succa, however, has other overtones. On the one hand it can be a small temporary hut that gives shade, as it did to Jonah after the debacle of Nineveh (Jonah 4:5); while on the other hand, it represents the everlasting dynasty of the Royal House of David which, as predicted by the prophet Amos (9:11), will once again rule over Israel. The succa is a structure that is both humble and majestic, both temporary and permanent, and one can safely say that it represents the fragile Jewish home, whether it be modest or not.

THE SECOND ritual that the farmer is urged to perform is to take four plants (Lev. 23:40), the lulav (palm) group consisting of the palm branch, the myrtle and the willow, together with the etrog (citrus) fruit, and wave them to the four points of the compass, as well as upwards and downwards, before the Lord.

Clearly they are a precursor of the fine fruits that the farmer hopes to gather in the coming year, and they are all signs of the future fertility of his land. But how will all this help the poor man in the coming year? In order for the farmer to practice these rites, he must first have confidence in their effectiveness. Today we city-dwellers carry out the rituals in a mechanical manner and give them all sorts of metaphysical interpretations, but to the Israelite farmer they were meant as practical expressions of a religion that would lead to results, and they had to give him results if he was going to repeat them year after year.

To make these rituals believable to the farmer, one can show that they were rooted in earlier symbolism, much of it lost on us today. One basic idea was the power of the tree for fertility, and the notion of the tree permeates the idea of Succot. It is present in three of the plants of the lulav group held in the hand, and in the tree cuttings that are used for the s'chach (roof covering) of the succa itself.

The power of the tree is such that two cherubim (angels) and a flaming sword had to be set by God to stop the way to the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. Abraham sat under an ancient oak tree when God appeared to him, and He appeared to Moses from an arboreal bush. In ancient Mesopotamia, the power of the Emperor Ashurnasirpal II is shown in his role as Master of the Sacred Tree, for which he is being anointed by a genie with a citron-shaped cone dipped in liquid, as depicted at biblical Kalah (Nimrud), in the ninth century BCE.

The Jewish attitude to the magical tree is ambivalent. The Torah forbids an Asherah tree to be planted next to a local altar (Deut. 16:21; it seems to have been a kind of live totem pole) and it was condemned as a sign of idol worship. On the other hand the Book of Proverbs (3:18) tells us that Wisdom "is a Tree of Life to those that cling to her." The Rabbis take Wisdom to mean the Torah itself, and the quotation graces the front of many synagogue arks. Whichever way we consider such a tree, we see it as having special powers of fruitfulness and endurance, powers appreciated by and necessary to the farmer.

AS FOR the succa itself, as we have seen, it is not really a representation of the dwellings in the Wilderness, which were tents, but rather it is symbolic of the Jewish home, perhaps in a temporary form.

It is the woman who rules the home, as expressed in the talmudic term for wife as debaitha, "she of the house," just like the English word "housewife." When it comes down to the Israelite farmer, the succa represents his wife, and she was of course the important element in the fertility of the family, and indeed of the land as well.

A barren wife, so often depicted as a figure of misery in the Tanach (Hebrew Bible), was considered to be casting a blight on the fertility of the farm and flocks of her husband. That is why she always had to entreat God for a child, to save her and her husband's prosperity. For the good of the next year's harvest, it was essential that the wife reproduce successfully and thus guarantee a good crop in the coming year. Succot was the time for this endeavour and it was expressed in visual and symbolic form.

There can be no clearer visual symbolism than the shaking of the lulav (the palm branch and its associated fruits) in the succa. When you see the lulav group, the rigid lance-like palm branch surrounded by the two bushy branches and the cone-shaped etrog, who can doubt that it represents the male organ, and to see it waved vigorously in six directions within the succa womb, that really is the ultimate fertility symbol of Succot

Soup Kitchens Gear Up For Special Succot Meals

Last year, Ya'acov (not his real name), his wife and his two young daughters spent Succot at the soup kitchen of Hazon Yeshaya in Jerusalem. For the family, living below the poverty line and relying on government benefits to get by, it was their seventh year receiving food donations from one of the country's largest humanitarian aid organizations.

"[My daughters] grew up at Hazon Yeshaya," he explains. "We all went there to eat.

"It is very easy for a person to fall between the cracks," adds Ya'acov, describing how his wife got sick, then he was fired from his job and suddenly the family had to rely on others to feed them. "But if people really want to, they can learn how to get out of a desperate situation. They have to learn to take advantage of what is on offer around them."

Throughout the years that he visited the center for food, Ya'acov said he also volunteered in the kitchen until eventually he gained enough confidence to take a course to become a professional chef. "I could see how much pressure the kitchen staff was under. People were waiting a really long time for their food, so I decided to help them out."

It wasn't easy at first, recalls Ya'acov. "But the kitchen staff encouraged me and told me to give it a try. They said if I helped out it would give me the confidence to continue."

The 39-year-old finally qualified a little less than a year ago, and three months ago he found work in a Jerusalem hotel. This Succot, Ya'acov says, even though his family no longer needs the services of Hazon Yeshaya, he will again volunteer during his free days.

By doing so, he has become one of thousands of volunteers who will offer their services this year during Succot at various soup kitchens and outreach centers around the country for many different non-profit organizations.

According to the National Insurance Institute's recently released poverty report, 26.2% of Israelis, more than 1.6 million people, lived below the poverty line in 2005. And a spokesman for the Ministry of Social Affairs estimated Thursday that three thousand people live on Israel's streets.

"Succot is meant to be a happy time, a time when the Jews in the desert were protected as a nation," says Moshe Lefkowitz, director of Meir Panim, another non-profit organization devoted to feeding and caring for Israel's needy. "While a country cannot provide that kind of warmth, a neighbor can, and the role of the individual during this time is to give love and help the weaker people in society."

Both Meir Panim and Hazon Yeshaya have built succot at their centers to ensure that those in need have at least one festive meal during the holiday. Lefkowitz estimates that more than 6,000 people will be fed during the holiday at one of Meir Panim's 15 succot.

At Hazon Yeshaya, founder and CEO Avraham Israel says that a quarter of a million hot meals are prepared each month for its 38 distribution centers around the country.

"It is important for these people to feel the harmony and joy of the holiday," continues Israel. "If we don't do these things then it will feel like any other day of the year. We are Jewish people and we should celebrate the holidays properly."

Twelve succot have been built by the organization, with the one in Jerusalem set to host more than 500 people like Ya'acov, who is now giving back to the organization that helped him and his family.

"I try to return and help whenever I can," he says. "I know how to repay kindness."

As a recipient of free hot meals at the soup kitchen, he noticed the overwhelming burden facing the kitchen staff. "The media do not know what really goes on there," says Ya'acov. "They say they do but they don't and the politicians live in a different world. None of them know what it's like to stand in a line for hours to receive food."

Israel and Lefkowitz highlight the growing poverty among citizens in the North of the country following this summer's war.

"The situation in the North is adding more poverty to this country," says Israel, adding that 12 more Hazon Yeshaya centers are set to open in the coming months. "Since the war many people have lost their jobs or gone out of business, unemployment in that region is almost double of what it is elsewhere in the country."

His comments are backed up by figures collected by organizations such as Latet, which oversees distribution of food packages to more than 100 aid organizations around the country, indicating increases of at least 27% in the number of people requesting aid compared to last year.

Jerusalem Post10.08.2006

Abbas Does Not Really Recognize Israel

A senior Fatah official this week gave the lie to the US-backed Middle East peace process, revealing that even the "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas is ultimately seeking Israel's destruction.

Abu Ahmed, leader of Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, told WorldNetDaily that Abbas only recognizes Israel "because of pressure that the Zionists and the Americans are exercising on him."

He noted that the "peace" agreement Abbas is seeking with Israel includes the right to flood the Jewish state with millions of so-called "Palestinian refugees," thus demographically destroying the Jewish state.

Abbas has repeatedly pressed for what he calls the "right of return," and made the issue the main plank in his election platform in December 2004.

Some Israelis still remember that Abbas was for nearly three decades the right-hand man of arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat. He is believed to have been behind the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre of nine Israeli athletes.

WND
10.06.2006

You ARE Worthy

"For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of your-selves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9)

There is a lot a information packed into this single verse. To begin with, it says ‘for by grace you are saved THROUGH FAITH’ – let’s stop there for a second.

Grace’ (Gk charis) means benefit, favor or gift. It is from the word ‘grace’ that we get the word ‘gratitude’ or the sense of being grateful.

Note that grace alone does NOT save. Grace is both the extension of the gift and the gratitude of its recipient. To be grateful, one must first receive. While grace is extended to all mankind, not all mankind accepts it.

Not all mankind is grateful. Grace is extended to all, but salvation comes by faith. A simple concept, but many miss the big picture.

Let’s look at the next section of the verse, ‘And that not of yourselves’. What is not of ourselves? Grace? If it refers to grace, then the Lord has wasted words unnecessarily. Of course we can’t extend grace to ourselves! It is not only impossible, such an extension of grace would be meaningless. We haven’t the authority to save ourselves.

Read the verse again. “For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Since we already KNOW that grace ‘is not of ourselves’ that only leaves one other element that can be the ‘gift of God’ and that is saving faith.

So the Scriptures say that even the faith that saves us is a gift from God, and not something we conjure up as a result of our own works, ‘lest anyone should boast.’ This verse is the great equalizer of Christians.

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who has sent Me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:44)

We all come to the Cross the same way; recipients of God’s extension of grace, which we receive by a faith which is God-given. None of us has any reason to feel superior. If we are saved, it is because we were drawn of the Father to the Son.

“It is written in the Prophets, "And they shall all be taught of God." Therefore everyone who hears and learns from the Father comes to Me.” (John 6:45) Allow that to sink in.

“So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.” (Matthew 20:16)

And again; “For many are called, but few chosen.” (Matthew 22:14)

And again; “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.” (John 15:16)

“Among whom are ye also the CALLED of Jesus Christ:” (Romans 1:6)

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the CALLED according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

The goodness of God in converting and saving sinners encourages others to hope in His grace and mercy. Our faith, our conversion, and our eternal salvation, are not of works, lest any man should boast. These things are not brought to pass by any thing done by us, therefore all boasting is shut out.

It is the free gift of God, and the effect of being quickened by His power. It was His purpose, to which he prepared us, by blessing us with the knowledge of His will, and His Holy Spirit producing such a change in us, that we should glorify God by our perseverance to holiness.

‘Holiness’ (Gk hagiasmos) means ‘purification’ which is a PROCESS, also accomplished by God through Jesus.

“Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath BEGUN a good work in you will PERFORM it UNTIL the day of Jesus Christ:” (Phillipians 1:6)

There are no Christians more deserving than others. Because you have not yet achieved the state of holiness others have does not mean you are less favored. We all come to the Cross equally lost, and we all came away equally saved.

Salvation is an eternal state for which each of us were chosen before the world began.

“Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,” Paul writes to Timothy, (2 Timothy 1:9)

"In hope of eternal life, which God, that CANNOT LIE, PROMISED before the world began. . ." (Titus 1:2)

We are eternally secure, because we are eternally saved, which was accomplished in the Mind of God when each of us was called -- BEFORE THE WORLD BEGAN!

Let's bring it together. Nobody can come to Christ unless they are drawn by the Father, who provides us with both the extension of the offer of salvation and the faith necessary to receive it, a calling that was sealed in heaven before the world began, according to His purpose and grace.

Our salvation is immediate and eternal, but our purification is a process, which, having been begun in us at the moment of salvation, will be perform in us BY CHRIST until the day we stand before Him. Lest anyone should boast.

"As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." (Romans 3:10-12)

"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:" (Romans 3:23-24)

"I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Galatians 2:21)

Legalism runs counter to the clear teaching of Scripture. This is a very difficult doctrine to both teach and understand. It sounds like a license to sin. It is not.

It is an understanding that our relationship to Christ is unique -- that God knows our hearts, and has already judged us accordingly. So that sin cannot reign supreme in our mortal body and thereby render us useless to our calling.

The most effective weapon we have in our war with the enemy is the knowledge that he cannot take away our salvation. There is never a time when we are unworthy to tell others of Jesus Christ.

Paul tells us, "Finally, my brethren, be strong IN THE LORD, and in the power of HIS might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." (Ephesians 6:11-12)

Paul says we put on the 'armor of God' in a specific order. The certainty of the truth of Scripture, the breastplace of righteousness (imputed by Christ) the knowledge of the Gospel and the shield of faith. Our heads are protected by the 'helmet of salvation' - the certainty of our eternal salvation. These are all DEFENSIVE weapons.

Having secured our defense, we then take up our only offensive weapon, the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.

If the enemy can convince us of our own personal unrighteousness (of which each of us is acutely aware) or cause us to doubt the truth of Scripture or of our faith (which is a gift from God, lest anyone should boast) or cause us to doubt our own salvation, then we will not be able to effectively wield the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

God chose each of us, and His plan is to use us to seek out those similarly chosen and introduce them to their Savior. That is our assignment on this earth. THAT is our 'calling.' To spread the Gospel.

That isn't Calvinism -- Calvinism teaches that because the Church was predestinated, we are under no obligation to lead people to Christ -- God has already chosen them so He'll sort it out.

There is a joke about the Calvinist who fell down the stairs, and remarked, "Thank God that's over."

Instead, the Scriptures teach that God foreknew who would be saved, therefore it is predestined. But God also knew who He selected to carry the Word to that person. And the enemy will work overtime to thwart God's will by convincing us we are not worthy to carry it.

As Christians, we have an awesome responsibility before God. We have been assigned to seek out the lost and offer them the Gospel. To accomplish our mission, we need to be fully equipped for the task.

That is what eternal security is all about. Not a license to sin, but rather a certain knowledge that our sin is forgiven.

Jesus said of His sheep (the Church) "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."

"Give" (Gk did?mi) means 'to bestow'. It is a present-tense verb. The Scripture does NOT say, "I WILL give them eternal life," it says it has already been bestowed upon us.

Jesus said that no man can pluck His sheep from His Hand. I am a man. If I can sin my way out of His gift of eternal life, it is neither eternal, nor is it a gift. It then becomes wages, dependent upon my works.

But the Scriptures say; "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

And since I, a man, can, by my works, undo His Word, it means His Word is not true.

Our works are the 'fruits' of our labor for Christ. Our labor is to lead others to Christ.

"According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon." (1 Corinthians 3:10)

Our foundation is our salvation, but our obligation is to build upon that foundation by leading others to the Cornerstone of Life. But our individual salvation is already an accomplished fact.

When we stand before the Bema Seat of Christ, "Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but HE HIMSELF SHALL BE SAVED; yet so as by fire." (1 Corinthians 3:13-15)

The mission of the Omega Letter is to provide each one of us with the information necessary to equip us for the work of one on one evangelism.

Henry Ford once said, "I'd rather have one percent of the work of a hundred men, than 100% of the work of one man." Ford was the father of mass production. In the time it takes for one man to build a single car, a hundred men can build a thousand cars.

Don't let the enemy render you powerless. You ARE worthy, not because you are you, but because of Him Who made you worthy according to His will and by His own Hand.

"Therefore said He unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth labourers into His harvest." (Luke 10:2)

By Jack Kinsella Omega Letter Editor

Blessed Art Thou, O lord our God, King of the Universe who has preserved us, sustained us and brought us to this season.

Report: Oil Discovered In Dead Sea Area

Oil has been discovered in the Dead Sea area, Dr. Eli Tenenbaum, an official from Genco, the national company responsible for drilling in the region, reported on Wednesday. Tenenbaum stated that the amount of oil could reach commercial levels.
"We noticed that the pressure in the area was very high and when we opened the tap, oil started flowing freely for several minutes," Tenenbaum told Channel 10.

Tenenbaum said that the workers washed their hands with the "black gold" when they made the discovery. "We hope it was the first of many [such discoveries]," he added excitedly.

Not far from the drilling site, the crew spotted an oil reserve that Tenenbaum described as "very attractive," which they believed contained between four and six million barrels, worth an estimated 300 million dollars.

The operation began 10 years ago but was put on hold since it was not deemed economically viable. However, due to the recent soaring oil prices the discovery of new oil sources became necessary.

Genco was drilling at a depth of 2000 meters.

Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer said it was "just the beginning" and that is was vital to find out whether the oil field was commercially viable or not.

"It is an encouraging sign," he said. "We are checking the entire area and we are opening the whole region for drilling. We will give our full support to any company that wants to try."

Jerusalem Post
10.04.2006

The Gap Between Islam And Peace

When George W. Bush says "Islam is peace," and Tony Blair insists the war now begun "has nothing to do with Islam," some of us scratch our heads and try, brows furrowed, to reconcile their soothing words with our frightening vision: the dirty war on Western civilization waged by evil forces in the name of Islam.

The experts tell us militant Islamic fundamentalists, or "Islamists," represent a narrow, if murderous, fringe. They number no more than 10, maybe 15, percent of all Muslims. That estimate works out to somewhere between 100 million and 150 million people. Which is a lot of murderous fringe.

Meanwhile, where is that peaceable majority overflowing Islamdom? Are they filling the streets in unity with America's effort to eradicate Islamist terrorism, "marginal" though its supporters may be? Hardly. Only last week, UPI reported that Pakistan's Tahirul Qadri had become "the first prominent Muslim scholar to condemn Osama bin Laden and the Taliban so strongly in public." Even if the wire service missed a bin Laden-condemning cleric here or there, the singularity of Qadri's achievement is striking. Indeed, sampling some of the world's largest mosques, The New York Times recently found clerics from England to Pakistan denouncing America, saluting the Taliban, or even declaring solidarity with Osama bin Laden.

In Cairo, the paper reported, Friday prayers at the famous Al Azhar University mosque ended with a rousing chant of: "America is the enemy of Arabs and Muslims. Let us die in our war against America." In New Delhi's largest mosque, the imam urged "moral" support for Taliban jihad. In Nairobi, services progressed from attacking the United States to the parable: "Every Muslim is Osama bin Laden."

Every Muslim, of course, is not Osama bin Laden. But why don't more Muslims say so, quite loudly and very specifically? Muslim condolences after Sept. 11 very often came across as rather generic expressions of sympathy, equally as suitable for a natural disaster as for a terrorist act of war committed by co-religionists. Little sense of the magnitude of events is being communicated, and, thus, little recognition of the urgent need for civilized people of all faiths and nations to denounce this evil, vociferously and by name, and array themselves in warring solidarity against it.

What accounts for this weakness? And what is a reflexively tolerant, post-multicultural Westerner to make of it? Our dauntless leaders may repeat that the Islamist threat has nothing do with Islam, but, frankly, their mantra is getting a little ridiculous. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Amir Taheri, an Iranian author and journalist, recently declared that "to claim the attacks had nothing to do with Islam amounts to a whitewash." It's also, he wrote, a "disservice to Muslims, who need to cast a critical glance at the way their faith is taught, lived and practiced."

Taheri, frank as he was, did not offer how-to specifics. But with reporters mining Islam for information previously limited to specialists, it's clear how important this call for Islamic reform really is. As the horrors of our Taliban enemy have become common knowledge, we also learn, for example, that a similar strain of Islam, Wahabbism, is practiced and exported by our so-called ally Saudi Arabia. Examining a textbook for one of five compulsory religion classes for Saudi 10th-graders, The New York Times quoted a lesson regarding whom "good Muslims" should befriend. "After examining a number of scriptures which warn of the dangers of having Christian and Jewish friends, the lesson concludes: `It is compulsory for the Muslims to be loyal to each other and to consider infidels their enemy.'"

This comes straight from the Quran. "O believers," the Quran says (Sura 5, Verse 50), "do not hold Jews and Christians as your allies. They are the allies of one another; and anyone who makes them his friends is surely one of them." As historian Paul Johnson noted in National Review, such "canonical commands" — along with "slay the idolaters wheresoever you find them" (Sura 9, Verse 5) — "cannot be explained away or softened by modern theological exegesis, because there is no such science in Islam." Johnson goes on to explain that contrary to the evolving nature of both Christianity and Judaism, Islam has never undergone any update, reformation or enlightenment since its inception in the seventh century. "Islam," he wrote, "remains a religion of the Dark Ages.

Jewish World Review
10.04.2006