Red Tigress' Lair

Where have you visited?

01.31.04 (8:48 pm)   [edit]
Here's where I've been in the US. You can make a map of the places you've visited in the whole world also! This is really cool!




create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide

My New Pulse Poll Question...

01.31.04 (8:04 pm)   [edit]
If you voted already in my poll to the right, PLEASE vote again! As of today, I had to redo it completely because of a java error and all of the data was lost.

If you havn't voted yet, PLEASE do!

Thanks for your help!

Your opinion really does count!!!! :)

A Jewish Soldier in Iraq

01.31.04 (7:23 pm)   [edit]
Joe Kashnow, an Orthodox U.S. soldier from Baltimore, was serving in Iraq when terrorists ambushed his unit on the roads to Baghdad. His right leg was broken, mangled, and penetrated by shrapnel below the knee. It would take much reconstructive surgery to get him to walk again.

Picking up the cause of the former NCSYer, [u]ou.org[/u] asked people to daven for [b]Yosef Eliyahu ben Malka Ita[/b], as well as to send emails earmarked for him to his brother at [u]mikekashnow@yahoo.com[/u]. The response overwhelmed Mike, who wrote:

[i][b]There have been over 70 emails that have come in as a result of your posting! I am sure that is indicative of at least 5 times the amount of people who have seen the notice, and of only a fraction of those who are davening for a rufuah shleimah because of it.[/b][/i]

More recently, after Joe's latest surgery, he wrote:

[i][b]BS"D
2-Dec-03

On September 17, 2003, I was wounded in a terrorist ambush outside of Baghdad. Since then I have been the recipient of an incredible display of compassion, caring, and concern from people all over the world. Most of the letters and emails have been from people I don't even know. This community display of achdut has been very moving, and, more importatnly, a great Kiddush HaShem. I want to take this opportunity to personally thank everyone who has taken the time to send in a letter or email. My family and I very much appreciate all the kind and thoughtful well wishes. This reaction from the community has been overwhelmingly supportive during this difficult time.

Any frum person who has spent time in uniform knows that holding onto your yiddishkeit while in the army, (especially when at war), isn't exactly the easiest thing to do. Davening was one of the hardest things. Certainly there were days that we had leisure time towake up and do whatever personal things we liked. There were also plenty of days where we were awakened after only a few hours sleep and ordered to leave on a mission "right this instant!" We would stay out for several hours without stopping and thus I missed the chance to daven properly. Perhaps the most interesting davening experience I had, beside the driver's seat of an armed HMMWV occured while stationed in Tikrit inside Saddam's second wife's palace. I probably was the first Jew in the palace compund, but I definatly was the first person in Tallis and Tefillin there. My ordeal in Iraq taught me priceless life lessons. My perspective and appreciation for HaShem and the life He has given me has fallen into a new light, and I know I must reciprocate the goodness I have recieved. In response I have created the[/i] Jewish Soldier Foundation[i]. The Foundation is to help protect the religious rights and freedoms of fellow Jewish Soldiers. I can only imagine how difficult it was for my wife, Sarai, when herhusband of one week went into work on a Sunday afternoon to begin deployment preperations. I know first hand what a Jewish Soldier and his family needs, and I want to be able to secure what's needed for my brothers in uniform.

Again let me say thank you to everyone for your caring and support. It is all very much appriciated. On December 9th I am scheduled for bone graft surgery which, with G-d's help, will be the last major surgery I need. The doctors are confident that they have saved my leg and that it's not long until I leanr to walk on it again. I know your prayors have played a tremendous part in this.

Thank you again,

Spc. Joe Kashnow
The Jewish Soldier Foundation[/b][/i]

Another Quiz

01.31.04 (7:00 pm)   [edit]





in my eyes i see you as mysterious and strange alot
of people wish they could know you better and
you are probably an artist? i really wish there
were more people like you out there..i really
do. (rate?)


in my eyes you are...(pics and different outcomes)
brought to you by Quizilla

The Most Pointless Game Ever

01.31.04 (6:44 pm)   [edit]
But perhaps the most fun!

This is penguin baseball: http://www.fury.com/mirror/pe...

And it's very stupid, very funny, and did I mention very stupid?

Click the abomidable snowman and then when the penguin reaches close to you bat, click again and watch the penguins fly!

Enjoy! This is getting added to the links section!

D'var Torah for Parshat Bo

01.30.04 (4:55 pm)   [edit]
Parshat Bo contains the very first commandment the Jews received as a nation; the Mitzvah to have a first Rosh Chodesh (new month), and to mark the beginning of every month thereafter (Exodus 12:2).

What makes this commandment so important for it to be the very first commandment for the Jews? Also, when describing the first month that the Jews need to acknowledge, the Torah fails to name that month. If the Torah values the months, wouldn’t it be important for the Torah to name those months, just like the Torah names important places the Jews had traveled through?

The Ramban (Nachmonedes) explains that the Torah called the months as first, second and so on because the numbers refer to how many months the Jews were removed from the moment when we were established as a people. This helps focus our attention to the most important moment we had as a nation. But it also focuses us on something else; The months we now control (both in name and in timing) dictate when holidays occur, when customs are performed, and even when God judges us.

The very first commandment is the one that empowers us. The first commandment as a nation makes us partners with God, because although we didn’t determine the holidays to celebrate, we do determine when they are celebrated. So every time we celebrate Rosh Chodesh, we should celebrate our partnership with God, and our being empowered to individually “name” the month as we, as a people, see fit!

Have a great Shabbos!

Israel criticizes Annan for 'vague' statement on J'lem bombing

01.30.04 (4:53 pm)   [edit]
[b]Israel criticizes Annan for 'vague' statement on J'lem bombing

[i]By Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondent, and Agencies [/b][/i]


Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Daniel Gillerman on Friday launched a rare criticism of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for issuing a "vague" statement on the suicide bombing in Jerusalem the day before, in which a Palestinian policeman blew himself up on a bus, killing 10 people and wounding more than 50 others, some seriously.


Meanwhile, Israel on Thursday condemned as "outrageous" the failure by Security Council diplomats to agree on a press statement condemning the suicide bombing.

Gillerman told a news conference Friday that while Israel respected Annan's efforts toward a Middle East peace, his statement the day before signaled a trend by failing to mention Israeli victims in the Jerusalem explosion.

"No mention is made of the Israeli victims slaughtered in the bombing. In fact, no specific reference is made to the attack at all, or to a condemnation, in any terms of the terrorist perpetrators," he said.

"This is in distinct contrast to the tendency of the office of the secretary-general to issue statements of reprimand, with clear and specific detail, when Israel engages in defense measures against terrorist operatives..."

Annan's statement said in part: "Once again violence and terror have claimed innocent lives in the Middle East. Once again I condemn those who resort to such methods."

Gillerman said the "vague references to those who resort to violence and terror that have claimed innocent lives in the region are not sufficient."

Apparently anticipating the news conference, Annan told reporters in Brussels, "As you know, I have always condemned without reservation suicide bombings that take innocent lives..."

UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe said Annan's Middle East policy should be seen in light of all statements he had issued on the subject and one statement did not "make a policy."

On Thursday, Gillerman blamed on Algeria, the only Arab nation on the council, for insisting that any statement include a condemnation of the deaths of eight Palestinians in an IDF operation in Gaza City on Wednesday.

The suicide bomber, a Palestinian policeman from Bethlehem who struck near Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's residence, said in a note that he was avenging the Gaza deaths.

Council diplomats said three hours of closed-door negotiations fell apart Thursday when Algeria refused to issue a statement that did not include condemnation of the Gaza raid. Several other council members supported Algeria, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Gillerman said Thursday that the United States had unsuccessfully attempted to persuade its allies on the council.

"This attempt by Algeria to make a parallel between a clash between IDF soldiers and armed Palestinian gunmen and a suicide bombing in a bus killing 10 civilians is totally outrageous," said Israel's deputy UN ambassador Arye Mekel.

"We are upset that the council did not find a way to condemn this killing of innocent civilians."

Gillerman's criticism Friday was unusual as Israel has usually distinguished between Annan, who has spoken frankly against anti-Semitism, and the UN General Assembly, where Arab supporters have a majority.

Gillerman acknowledged that Israel now was taking the offensive in delivering criticism and proposing resolutions and statements in the United Nations, even if rejected.

He said Israel had a hand in asking the United States to prepare a Security Council statement condemning the Jerusalem attack by a Palestinian Authority policeman.

Gillerman said he had noticed a trend in Annan's secretariat over recent months. He singled out a requested General Assembly report on the West Bank separation barrier and said the secretary-general's dossier showed a "bias... that borders on the absurd.

"We know that there is a lot of criticism about the fence, but there are facts on the ground which nobody disputes." the ambassador said.

Powell condemns Jerusalem bombing, says terror has got to stop

01.30.04 (4:48 pm)   [edit]
WASHINGTON: Condemning the "horrendous attack" by a Palestinian suicide bomber in Jerusalem that killed at least 10 persons, US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said such terrorist activities would make it difficult to achieve the goals laid out in the Middle East 'roadmap'.

"Once again, terrorists have killed innocent people, and at the same time they have struck a blow once more against the aspirations of the Palestinian people to have a homeland of their own," Powell told reporters here yesterday.

"This kind of action has got to stop," he said, imploring Palestinian leaders, "and especially Prime Minister Abu Alaa, to do everything in his power to ostracise these terrorists." As long as it continues, the hopes of both Israelis and Palestinians, for peace will constantly be dashed, he said.

The road map to create a Palestinian State living in peace side by side with Israel, Powell said, is still there, but "the longer time goes by without progress, we can't get it going, the parties can't get moving because of this terrorist activity, the more difficult it will be to achieve the goals laid out in the roadmap with respect to the time-table."

Referring to Syria, Powell said that Syria cannot be serious about wanting a better relationship with Israel, the United States or anyone else so long as it serves as any kind of a transshipment point for weapons that are going to "terrorists of the kind who killed innocent people" yesterday in Jerusalem.

Powell, who was appearing before the media jointly with visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Gul, said "pressure on all sides" is needed to solve the Greek-Turkish dispute over Cyprus.

AJC Expresses Horror at Jerusalem Bus Bombing

01.30.04 (12:45 am)   [edit]
Thu Jan 29, 2:06 PM ET
To: National and International desks

Contact: Kenneth Bandler, 212-891-6771 or bandlerk@ajc.org; or Lisa Fingeret Roth, 212-891-1385 or rothl@ajc.org; both of the American Jewish Committee; http://www.ajc.org

NEW YORK, Jan. 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The American Jewish Committee today issued the following statement after a Palestinian policeman destroyed a Jerusalem city bus, murdering at least 10 and wounding dozens, in a suicide bombing.

"After so many senseless, barbaric Palestinian terror attacks on Israeli citizens, it is difficult to find the right words to express our sorrow, our horror, and our anger, yet today we are even more outraged that a member of the Palestinian Authority police carried out the bombing in the heart of Israel's capital. We again are reminded that there are those Palestinians who not only oppose peace, but who object to the very existence of Israel, whatever its final borders may be.

"When the AJC Board of Governors travels to Israel and meets with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem in the coming days, we will personally express our deepest sympathies to the people of Israel, as well as our continuing, unwavering support for Israel's longstanding quest for peace and security."

http://www.usnewswire.com/" title="http://www.usnewswire.com/" target="_blank"http://www.usnewswire.com/

-0-

/© 2004 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/

Hezbollah: Group May Kidnap More Israelis

01.30.04 (12:41 am)   [edit]
Disgusting! The prisoners that Israel holds are criminals who wish to do civilians harm. Hezbollah will kidnap more innocents (and possibly kill them--definatly torture them) to get the other inprisoned criminals free! How can this be ok with everyone? Either way, they want to "Throw the Jews into the sea!" I say NO negotiations with hostege taking terrorist garbage! NO return home for the criminals Israel captures! Throw the terrorists into the sea!



[b]Hezbollah: Group May Kidnap More Israelis
AP
Thu Jan 29, 3:16 PM ET

[i]By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer[/b][/i]

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hezbollah will kidnap more Israelis to secure the release of Lebanese prisoners, if necessary, the militant movement's leader warned Thursday.

Speaking at a mass rally to welcome 21 Lebanese prisoners freed by Israel hours earlier, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said his guerrillas could capture more Israelis to bargain for the freedom of Lebanese still held in Israeli prisons.

Turning to a huge poster of a guerrilla ambush in which three Israeli soldiers were captured in October 2000, Nasrallah said: "This is a choice."

The soldiers bodies were part of the major exchange of prisoners and remains of fighters that was effected between Israel and Hezbollah on Thursday through German mediation.

And Justice Shall Prevail

01.30.04 (12:35 am)   [edit]
[b]Israeli Troops Raid Bethlehem After Bus Bombing
Reuters
2 hours, 40 minutes ago

[i]By Said Ayyad[/b][/i]

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli forces pushed into Bethlehem on Friday for the first time in six months in a sweep for militants after a Palestinian policeman from the city killed 10 Israelis in a suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus.

Near the West Bank city of Hebron, soldiers shot dead a Hamas militant who the army said had opened fire at them as they entered his house to arrest him.

Palestinian witnesses said Israeli armored vehicles rumbled into Bethlehem before daybreak and troops fanned out to search houses, including one where the policeman -- a member of the militant Al Aqsa Brigades -- was thought to have lived.

Witnesses said soldiers detained 12 Palestinians. About 15 Israeli armored vehicles took part in the operation.

"The operation was launched after we made clear the Palestinians had not fulfilled their obligations to stop terror, something which was made clear in yesterday's bombing," an army spokeswoman said.

Israel handed Bethlehem to Palestinian police in July to bolster a now violence-stalled peace "road map." Israeli officials said at the time the army would be back if Palestinian forces did not rein in militants in the city of Jesus's birth.

Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, linked to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, claimed the bombing and issued a letter left by the bomber that said he was avenging an Israeli raid that killed eight Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday.

It was the deadliest suicide bombing since an October 4 attack on a Haifa restaurant, where a woman bomber from the Islamic Jihad faction killed 23 other people.

The bombing, which also wounded dozens, overshadowed the latest push by a United States envoy to revive the road map.

But in a hopeful sign for mediation efforts, U.S. officials said Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie had told them he was ready for a summit with Israeli leader Ariel Sharon (news - web sites).

The Palestinian Authority condemned the bombing and also called for a halt to Israeli violence. Israel accuses the Palestinians of failing to crack down on militants.

BOMBING COINCIDED WITH PRISONER SWAP

Sharon expressed his condolences for families bereaved by the bus attack at a ceremony on Thursday for three dead soldiers brought home in a deal with Lebanese guerrilla foe Hizbollah.

"This (the bombing) appears to be the price paid by a society that holds life sacred living alongside a society that does not lift even a finger in order to uproot the murder and evil from within," he said.

Israel freed hundreds of Arab prisoners -- most of them Palestinians -- in exchange for the three soldiers and a captive businessman, Elhanan Tannenbaum, who was to be questioned by security services after returning to Israel.

The young soldiers, Benny Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Souad, were abducted on a border patrol in 2000. Souad was one of the many Israeli Bedouin Arabs who volunteer for the army as trackers. All three were to be buried on Friday.

Some 30 Arab prisoners, mostly Lebanese, also returned to a heroes' welcome in Beirut, where Hizbollah threatened more kidnappings as an option if Israel did not free the longest-serving Lebanese prisoner.

Kerry and Dean Are Out of Step On Israel

01.29.04 (1:20 pm)   [edit]
Scratch another Democratic candidate off my list of posibilities...


[b]Kerry and Dean Are Out of Step On Israel
by Ariel Natan Pasko
Jan 29, '04 / 6 Shevat 5764[/b]

Both Democratic wanna-be presidents, John Kerry and Howard Dean, proved recently how out of step with the rest of America they are in regard to US policy vis-a-vis the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

The leading US Democratic presidential contender, John Kerry, just said that the government in Israel currently lacks someone - i.e. Sharon - who can provide the goods in everything connected to negotiations with the Palestinians.

Yet, according to a poll commissioned by the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) and carried out by the firm of McLaughlin & Associates during mid-January of 2004 - the poll questioned 1,000 Americans from throughout the United States - 67.4% of Americans say that the Palestinian Arabs have not met US President Bush's conditions for statehood, such as fighting terrorism, halting incitement to murder, and respecting human rights. So why blame the Israeli government?

Kerry, who spoke at a political rally ahead of the New Hampshire primary, criticized the settlement policy of the Israeli government; i.e., building homes for Jews in their ancestral homeland. He said that it was a mistake to increase building there at this time. When will it be a good time? When Palestinian Arabs stop hating Jews and being racist?

Yet, 66.6% of Americans disagree with the Arab position that all Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria - the West Bank - and Gaza should be expelled from their homes. Most Americans see Jews continuing to live in all parts of their ancient homeland; even after a peace deal is made.

John Kerry called for strengthening the Palestinian Authority so that it will be stronger than Hamas. Here, Kerry's main rival, former front-runner Howard Dean, agrees with him. Dean said at a campaign event recently that America should increase resources for the Palestinian Authority in order to persuade the Palestinians to relinquish the "right of return".

I guess they haven't heard about how Yasser Arafat and his cronies have embezzled most of the donor money they've been given till now. That's hundreds of millions of dollars, and the reason that even the pro-Palestinian European Union has curtailed funding to the Palestinian Authority.

65.2% of Americans say the Palestinian Authority "cannot be trusted to fulfill peace agreements that it signs with Israel." That means most Americans don't believe the Palestinian Arabs will stop terror or give up the right of return.

And even more Americans, 73.6% say the US should stop sending the $200-million each year to the Palestinian Arabs, that it does send. So why exactly do Howard Dean and John Kerry want to waste American taxpayer dollars?

Dean called on Israel to demonstrate flexibility in regard to final borders in order to allow the creation of a Palestinian state.

Yet, 55.7% of Americans say that the Palestinian Arabs' goal is "the eventual destruction of Israel"; only 21.3% say their goal is "to have a small state living in peace alongside Israel." And here, Americans are right on target again, and the Democratic candidates are way out of touch.

Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi not long ago said, "We will continue with our holy war and resistance until every last criminal Zionist is evicted from this land. By G-d, we will not leave one Jew alive in Palestine. We will fight them with all the strength we have. This is our land, not the Jews'."

Finally, John Kerry promised that if elected president, he would ask former US presidents Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter to serve as a special envoy to the region.

Clinton's Foreign Policy failures are well known. His peace-making efforts in Northern Ireland and the whole Oslo peace process have gone nowhere. He coddled Saddam Hussein for eight years. Need I say more? As for Jimmy Carter, other than receiving a Nobel Prize, what good has he done lately? Both have been soft on terror, the Palestinians, the Iranians, every evil dictator and regime, in fact. Their re-involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian issue would be disastrous.

As ZOA National President Morton A. Klein recently said, "It is a myth that American public opinion supports creating a Palestinian Arab state or expelling the Jewish residents of Judea-Samaria and Gaza. An overwhelming majority of Americans oppose creating what would be a new terrorist state, and oppose the racist, un-American concept of kicking people [Jewish 'settlers'] out of their homes and towns on the basis of their religion or ethnicity."

If these pronouncements by candidates Kerry and Dean are as "wise" as they get, then (1) it's clear they are out of step with the American people and, (2) need to go back to school and learn a lot more about the Middle East.

(c) 2004/5764 Pasko

10 DEAD, 10 INJURED! DEATH TO THOSE WHO HELPED TO MAKE IT POSSIBLE!

01.29.04 (12:14 pm)   [edit]
DEATH TO THOSE WHO ADVOCATE THE MURDER OF INNOCENTS!






[i]Injured Israelis receive first aid next to the wreckage of a destroyed bus following an explosion in Jerusalem January 29, 2004. At least 10 people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up on a bus near Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's official residence in Jerusalem, security sources said. (Yossi Zamir/Flash 90 via Reuters)[/i]


[b]Bombing Plunges Jerusalem Street Into Nightmare
Reuters
Thu Jan 29, 7:50 AM ET

[i]By Corinne Heller and Steven Scheer[/b][/i]

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - One minute, it was a quiet tree-lined street drenched in morning sunlight. The next, it was a nightmare of blood, screams and mangled bodies.

A Palestinian suicide bombing on a crowded Israeli bus on Thursday again brought scenes of carnage to Jerusalem, a city that had been spared such attacks for more than four months.

Ofer Mozes was walking nearby when the explosion ripped Bus Number 19 apart before his eyes, hurling body parts into the street and sending black smoke into the sky. At least 10 people were killed and dozens wounded.

"People were lying on the floor, burned and half-naked," he said. "There was the smell of death. Hair was burning and blood was dripping everywhere."

Another witness, Drora Resnick, said she watched in horror as the "pastoral serenity" of a residential neighborhood was shattered.

She peered inside the bus, its roof partly peeled back and its insides gutted by the blast near the official residence of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

"Bodies were sitting in their chairs burned, motionless. There were burned children sitting together," she said.

The Palestinian militant group al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the bombing. A statement from the group quoted the bomber as saying he carried out the attack to avenge an Israeli army raid in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday in which troops killed eight Palestinians, including five fighters.

Police said the bomb was packed with nuts and bolts to maximize casualties.

Nir Azulai, 21, was working as a security guard on another bus nearby when he heard the explosion. He jumped off and rushed to the scene.

"I never saw such a horrible sight (or smelled) such a terrible smell. "People were broken up in pieces. People without legs were crying for help."

Shalom David, a passerby, called the explosion the "loudest boom I ever heard in my life."

"I was thrown back violently and hit the back of my head hard. I heard screaming, people were in hysterics. Glass went flying and there was blood everywhere. Black smoke filled the air as it poured out of the bus and I couldn't breathe."

David blacked out and woke up at a nearby hospital.

"It's my birthday today -- I am 51 and this is what I got," he said.

Tredgedy strikes the holy land: They've done it again. I'm having trouble trusting...

01.29.04 (12:05 pm)   [edit]
This is higly unacceptable. Israel can NOT be forced to live this way! 10 dead 50 injured, body parts blown everywhere! Glass broken, chaos! How many more lives must be taken before these evil subhuman murderers (Palestinian terrorists, not all Palestinians) are thwarted? Terrorists don't want peace, they want death and they want the whole of Israel for themselves. Hamas and other terror organizations must be thwarted! There is no other way! Ah, but it was a Palestinian policemant that did this! A POLICEMAN! You know, those in a position to SERVE AND PROTECT. Not maim 50 and murder 10. IS IT PEACE THAT THE WHOLE OF PALESTINE WANTS OR IS IT DEATH AND DESTRUCTION???



[i]The covered bodies of victims lie on stretchers after being removed from a blown up bus nearby in central Jerusalem Thursday Jan. 29, 2004. A homocide/suicide bomber blew himself up inside the bus killing at least 10 Israelis and wounding about 50. The attack took place near the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's official residence. (AP Photo/Ilan Mizrahi)[/i]


[b]Jerusalem Bus Bomber Kills 10, Injures 50
AP
1 hour, 30 minutes ago

[i]By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer[/b][/i]

JERUSALEM - A Palestinian suicide bomber detonated a bag of explosives on a crowded Jerusalem bus outside Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's residence Thursday, killing 10 passengers and wounding 50 bystanders in the deadliest attack in four months.

The blast sent body parts flying into nearby houses. Shaken survivors crawled out of broken bus windows. A chunk of the bus' roof landed on top of a two-story building, and witnesses said there was an overpowering smell of blood and smoke.

Sharon was not home at the time of the attack, claimed by the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militant group close to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

The bomber, identified as Ali Jaara, 24, a Palestinian policeman from the West Bank town of Bethlehem, said in a note he left that he wanted to avenge eight Palestinians killed in fighting with Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip the day before.

The bombing marked another setback for stalled peace efforts. It came at a time when senior State Department officials were in the region to try to revive the U.S.-led "road map" peace plan.

Washington has criticized the Palestinian Authority for not doing enough to stop militants, and the bomber's ties to the security forces were particularly embarrassing. Bethlehem is one of only a few Palestinian towns not under Israeli military control.

White House Press Secretary Scott McLellan said, "These terrorist attacks only undermine the aspirations and hopes of the Palestinian people. We continue to urge the Palestinian cabinet to take steps to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure."

Secretary of State Colin Powell said continued terrorist activity will only impede the progress of the peace plan.

"The longer time goes by without progress because ... the parties can't get moving because of this terrorist activity, the more difficult it will be to achieve the goals laid out in the road map with respect to a timetable," Powell said Thursday in Washington.

The attack also coincided with a German-brokered prisoner swap between Israel and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, which went ahead as planned. It was not clear whether the Al Aqsa militia had timed the bombing to go off during the exchange.

Police spokesman Gil Kleiman said the bomber boarded the bus carrying about 15 pounds of explosives in a bag. The assailant detonated the explosives on bus No. 19 just before 9 a.m. in the Rehavia district in downtown Jerusalem, just 15 yards from Sharon's official residence.

Passenger Svetlana Minchiker said she was talking on her cell phone as the blast went off — a bang that left her so disoriented she thought at first the phone had exploded.

"At first I did not see anything except my hands," she said, holding up one hand still stained red. A trickle of dried blood marked her left cheek.

"As my feelings slowly returned to me, I managed to ... crawl through the window."

The green Egged bus was charred, with wires dangling everywhere. One side was blown out and the back half of the roof was blown off. Eli Beer, a paramedic, said victims were scattered over a wide area.

"There were a lot of heavy injuries, a lot of the people who were injured were in bad condition, a lot of people had missing limbs," he said.

Bret Stephens, editor in chief of the Jerusalem Post, was near the scene at the time of the blast.


"There was glass everywhere, human remains everywhere," he said.

People, dazed and crying, wandered around the area.

Jaara, who lived with his parents and nine siblings, was described by relatives as a devout Muslim who showed little interest in politics.

"I was expecting to marry him, not to bury him," his father, Munir, said.

Jaara's mother cried uncontrollably on a mattress on the floor, holding a picture of her son in his police uniform carrying a police-issued Kalashnikov rifle. Many family members said they opposed militant attacks against Israelis.

"These operations are not only not good for us, but really bad for us. They only hurt us," said Jaara's 26-year-old sister, Ola.

Thursday's bombing was the deadliest since a female suicide bomber killed 21 people at a seaside restaurant in Haifa on Oct. 4. The last bombing was a Christmas Day suicide attack at a bus stop outside of Tel Aviv that killed four people.

Israeli officials said the weeks of calm preceding the bombing resulted from Israeli security measures, not a reduction in violence on the Palestinian side.

The blast came amid renewed efforts to bring about a cease-fire.

Earlier this week, senior Egyptian officials had tried to win a pledge from Palestinian militants to halt attacks on Israelis. Two senior State Department officials, David Satterfield and John Wolf, were meeting with Israel's defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, at the time of the explosion, Israel Radio said.

In response, Sharon and his foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, canceled a planned meeting on the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian areas that was to include the Americans, Palestinians and international donors.

"A difficult day when innocent Israeli citizens are murdered in the streets of the capital of Israel is not the time to discuss the easing of restrictions (on Palestinians)," the two leaders said in a statement.

After a three-hour meeting with his security chiefs, Mofaz decided not to impose a closure on the West Bank — Israel's usual response to bombings, a senior security official said.

Powell phoned Shalom to express condolences, the Foreign Ministry said.

Palestinian Authority officials condemned the bombing while also denouncing the Wednesday deaths of the eight Palestinians during fighting in Gaza. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia appealed "to all parties to stop this bloody series of violence," declare a cease-fire and resume the peace plan.

Abdel Aziz Rantissi, a Hamas leader in Gaza, praised the bombing.

"It's not important who carried out this operation. The only thing which is very important is that we are resisting occupiers who came ... to occupy our land and to kill our people," he said.

Sharon's spokesman, Raanan Gissin, said the attack underscored the need for the barrier Israel is building in the West Bank.

Israel says the structure, which dips deep into the West Bank, is needed to keep suicide bombers out of Israel. But Palestinians have accused Israel of seizing their land. With Palestinian backing, the legality of the barrier will be decided by the World Court in the Netherlands.

Balaam And His Ass

01.29.04 (11:50 am)   [edit]
Recently, I was asked a biblical question by one of my fellow tbloggers (and friend), LynnKramer (http://lynnkramer.tblog.com). The letter went as follows...




[b]Dear RedTigress,
I surmise from your blog writing that you are a devout Jewish person?

I am a somewhat devout Catholic, who from time to time has trouble understanding my own Bible.

You being Jewish, with respect could you do your best to help me to understand verse in what we call the "old testiment" (being before the coming of Jesus)? I am thinking that if you could put them into another context, perhaps I would see more clearly the meaning. I am most interested in verses 22-35. Thank you in advance for your kind help.

The verses are these:

Num 22:1
And the children of Israel set forward, and pitched in the plains of Moab on this side Jordan [by] Jericho.
Num 22:2
And Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites.
Num 22:3
And Moab was sore afraid of the people, because they [were] many: and Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel.
Num 22:4
And Moab said unto the elders of Midian, Now shall this company lick up all [that are] round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field. And Balak the son of Zippor [was] king of the Moabites at that time.
Num 22:5
He sent messengers therefore unto Balaam the son of Beor to Pethor, which [is] by the river of the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt: behold, they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me:
Num 22:6
Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people; for they [are] too mighty for me: peradventure I shall prevail, [that] we may smite them, and [that] I may drive them out of the land: for I wot that he whom thou blessest [is] blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed.
Num 22:7
And the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the rewards of divination in their hand; and they came unto Balaam, and spake unto him the words of Balak.
Num 22:8
And he said unto them, Lodge here this night, and I will bring you word again, as the LORD shall speak unto me: and the princes of Moab abode with Balaam.
Num 22:9
And God came unto Balaam, and said, What men [are] these with thee?
Num 22:10
And Balaam said unto God, Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, hath sent unto me, [saying],
Num 22:11
Behold, [there is] a people come out of Egypt, which covereth the face of the earth: come now, curse me them; peradventure I shall be able to overcome them, and drive them out.
Num 22:12
And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they [are] blessed.
Num 22:13
And Balaam rose up in the morning, and said unto the princes of Balak, Get you into your land: for the LORD refuseth to give me leave to go with you.
Num 22:14
And the princes of Moab rose up, and they went unto Balak, and said, Balaam refuseth to come with us.
Num 22:15
And Balak sent yet again princes, more, and more honourable than they.
Num 22:16
And they came to Balaam, and said to him, Thus saith Balak the son of Zippor, Let nothing, I pray thee, hinder thee from coming unto me:
Num 22:17
For I will promote thee unto very great honour, and I will do whatsoever thou sayest unto me: come therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people.
Num 22:18
And Balaam answered and said unto the servants of Balak, If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the LORD my God, to do less or more.
Num 22:19
Now therefore, I pray you, tarry ye also here this night, that I may know what the LORD will say unto me more.
Num 22:20
And God came unto Balaam at night, and said unto him, If the men come to call thee, rise up, [and] go with them; but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do.
Num 22:21
And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab.
Num 22:22
And God's anger was kindled because he went: and the angel of the LORD stood in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants [were] with him.
Num 22:23
And the ass saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way.
Num 22:24
But the angel of the LORD stood in a path of the vineyards, a wall [being] on this side, and a wall on that side.
Num 22:25
And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she thrust herself unto the wall, and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall: and he smote her again.
Num 22:26
And the angel of the LORD went further, and stood in a narrow place, where [was] no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left.
Num 22:27
And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam's anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff.
Num 22:28
And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?
Num 22:29
And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee.
Num 22:30
And the ass said unto Balaam, [Am] not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since [I was] thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee? And he said, Nay.
Num 22:31
Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face.
Num 22:32
And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? behold, I went out to withstand thee, because [thy] way is perverse before me:
Num 22:33
And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times: unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive.
Num 22:34
And Balaam said unto the angel of the LORD, I have sinned; for I knew not that thou stoodest in the way against me: now therefore, if it displease thee, I will get me back again.
Num 22:35
And the angel of the LORD said unto Balaam, Go with the men: but only the word that I shall speak unto thee, that thou shalt speak. So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.
Num 22:36
And when Balak heard that Balaam was come, he went out to meet him unto a city of Moab, which [is] in the border of Arnon, which [is] in the utmost coast.
Num 22:37
And Balak said unto Balaam, Did I not earnestly send unto thee to call thee? wherefore camest thou not unto me? am I not able indeed to promote thee to honour?
Num 22:38
And Balaam said unto Balak, Lo, I am come unto thee: have I now any power at all to say any thing? the word that God putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak.
Num 22:39
And Balaam went with Balak, and they came unto Kirjathhuzoth.
Num 22:40
And Balak offered oxen and sheep, and sent to Balaam, and to the princes that [were] with him.
Num 22:41
And it came to pass on the morrow, that Balak took Balaam, and brought him up into the high places of Baal, that thence he might see the utmost [part] of the people.[/b]


So, being the helpful spirit that I am (or at least try to be), I researched and wrote back:


[b]Dear Lynn,

Yes, I am an observant Jew. :)

I can do my best to help you as I am not a Rabbinical authority. I'll site the Rabbinical commentaries as necissary so that you know where this information came from. I'm not exactly sure of what you are asking except to merely better clarify these verses. I am happy to try to answer any questions you may have. I shall just clarify and explain these verses to you roughly and if you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask. It would make it easier for the both of us. :)

I shall also give the direct translations from the Hebrew (which may differ sometimes from the other versions) because the direct translation from the true source proves more accurate and easier to understand and clarify. :) Again, if you are looking for something more specific in an explanation, please don't hesitate to ask. :)

I hope the entire message gets through as this is very long. ;)

Num 22:1--

"The children of Israel journeyed and encamped in the plains of Moab, on the bank of the Jordan, opposite Jericho."

When it says, "in the plains of Moab," we're talking about the plain seperating the eastern bank of the Jordan from the high plataeu further east. Even though it had been part of Sihon's kingdom, it was still called Moab, to which it had formerly belonged.

Num 22:2--

"Balak son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorite."

Although he was the king of Moab (v. 4), his title is not mentioned here, possibly because he was renowned as a mighty warrior long before he became king. Thus the Torah wishes to imply that even Balak -- not a mere king who relied on others to fight his battles -- was cowed by the approaching Israelite host. It may also be that Balak was not a king at first; his people elevated him as a result of their fear of Israel (according to Nachmonedes). According to Rashi, (v. 4), Balak was not even a Moabite. He was a foreign noble whom the Moabites appointed to lead them against Israel.

When it talks about "all that Israel had done to the Amorite," it's referring to the fact that the Moabites had relied on the mighty Amorite kings Sihon and Og for protection. If they were powerless to stop the Jews, surely Moab was in mortal danger (Rashi). The Moabites entertained this fear even though God had forbidden Israel to attack Moab (Deut. 2:9,19), because, Balak reasoned, part of the Amorite domain had once belonged to Moab -- if the Jews did not hesitate to seize that part of Moab's patrimony, they could be expected to ignore God's command and take the rest as well (Tanchuma).

Nachmonedes suggests that even if Israel would not invade Moab, they would conquer all the surrounding lands and force the Moabites to become a vassel state and pay tribute.

Num 22:3--

"Moab became very frightened of the people, because it was numerous, and Moab was disgusted in the face of the Children of Israel."

When it says, "because it was numerous," it's talking about how Israel had multiplied miraculously under Egyptian servitude, whil Moab was a relitively young nation, whose population growth had been natural. Thus, it was heavily outnumbered by the advancing Jews (Nachmonedes).

Num 22:4--

"Moab said to the elders of Midian, 'Now the congregation will lick up our entire surroundings, as an ox licks up the greenery of the feild.' Balak son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time."

Moab and Midian had been traditional enemies, but now they came together in response to the perceived threat from Israel, which, they feared, would uproot and utterly destroy everything in its path, as an ox pulls out the roots of grass so that nothing is left of it. Seeking some formula to save itself, Moab hoped that the Midianites, among whom Moses had lived when he fled Egypt as a boy, could shed light on the reason for his success and how he could be defeated. The Midianites said that his strength lay in his mouth, so the Moabites sent for the evil prophet Balaam, whos power lay in his ability to curse (Rashi).

Num 22:5--

"He sent messengers to Balaam son of Beor to Pethor, which is by the river of the land of the members of his people, to summon him, saying, 'Behold! a people has come out of Egypt, behold! it has covered the surface of the earth and it sits opposite me.'"

"By the river," refers to (according to Onkelos and Targum Yonasan) that this was the Euphrates, which, as the primary body of water in the region, was referred to simply as "the river," much as the Nile was called "the river" by the Egyptians.

"The land of the members of his people," i.e., Balak's native land was Aram, where Balaam lived. Balaam had prophesied that Balak would become king, so that the new ruler of Moab knew of Balaam's prowess firsthand (Rashi).

According to Ibn Ezra and Nachmonedes, however, the verse refers to Balaam's homeland, not Balak's. Indeed, according to the Midrash in the Zohar, Balaam was a descendant of Laban, who was from Aram and who taught him the occult arts that he was now called upon to practice against Israel.

Num 22:6-7

"'So now -- please come and curse this people for me, for it is too powerful for me; perhaps I will be able to strike it and drive it away from the land. For I know that whomever you bless is blessed and whomever you curse is accursed.' The elders of Moab and the elders of Midian went with charms in their hand; they came to Balaam and spoke to him the words of Balak."

Balak hoped that Balaam's curse would enable him and his cohorts to defeat Israel in battle. By speaking of Balaam's power to bless, Balak was merely flattering him, because Balak knew that his power was limited to knowledge of the most advantageious time to invoke God's wrath by cursing. Otherwise, Balak would have requested a blessing for his own success (Sforno). He sent his agents to summon Balaam not for prophecy, although Balaam was a prophet, but to effect a curse. To make sure that Balaam could not please that he lacked the necessary tools, Balak sent charms, the tools and implements that Balaam would need to cast spells (Rashi).

Num 22:8--

"He said to them, 'Spend the night here and I shall give you a response, as HaShem (God) shall speak to me.' So the officers of Moab stayed with Balaam."

"The officers of Moab," -- from this point, the elders of Midian, who had been part of the delegation (v. 7), are no longer mentioned. They had decided beforehand that if Balaam stalled, it would indicate that he was a fraud, so when he asked for an overnight dely, they left his house (Rashi).

Num 22:9-10--

"God came to Balaam and said, 'Who are these men with you?' Balaam said to God, 'Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, sent to me: ..."

We can assume that God is referring to the people who have come to Balaam in request of a curse.

Num 22:11-12--

"'"Behold! the people coming out of Egypt has covered the surface of the earth. Now go and curse it for me; perhaps I will be able to make war against it and drive it away."' God said to Balaam, 'You shall not go with them! You shall not curse the people, for it is blessed!'"

"Curse...for me," -- In his request, Balak used a term which meant to drive away the Jews [arah] and is far milder than the term for the curse to destroy them [kavah]. He wanted only to save his people from conquest or harassment, and asked that he be enabled to drive Israel away, not that they be destroyed. Balaam's hatred of Israel was far greater. He employed a much stronger expression of curse and spoke of "driving it away" totally, implying total destruction. [Later, however, Balak himself used the stronger term (v. 17). Perhaps as his fear of Israel grew, his hatred increased with it.] In forbidding Balaam to go, God used the milder term for curse [loe ta-or] (v. 12), to make it clear that he was not to pronounce a curse of any kind. Ever the sycophant, Balaam said that he would go bless Israel, to which God replied, "It is blessed!" -- it needs neither your curse nor your blessing (Rashi).

Num 22:13--

"Balaam arose in the morning and said to the officers of Balak, 'Go to your land, for God refuses to let us go with you.'"

"With you."--According to Rashi, based on Tanchuma, Balaam chose his words
carefully. He was too arrogant to admit that God had categorically forbidden him to go. By saying "with you," he implied that it was only with THIS delegation that he could not go -- but if Balak were to send a delegation of higher rank, the answer might be different. As the following verses show, Balak understood the message. Apparantly, Balaam hoped that God might relent, or that Balak might abandon the plan and spare Balaam the embarrassment of another rejection.

Num 22:14-17--

"The officers of Moab arose and came to Balak and said, 'Balaam refused to go with us.' Balak kept on sending officers -- more, and higher ranking than these. They came to Balaam and said to him, 'So said Balak son of Zippor, "Do not refrain from going to me, for I shall honor you greatly, and everything that you say to me I shall do; so go now and curse this people for me."'"

All of this basically reflects the above commentary.

Num 22:18-19--

"Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak, 'If Balak will give me his houseful of silver and gold, I cannot transgress the word of God, my God, to do anything small or great. And now, you, too, stay here for the night, and I will know what more God will speak with me.'"

Continuing the Midrashic interpretations that focus on Balaam's base of character, Rashi notes that by speaking of a houseful of gold and silver he revealed his greed [as if to say if he WERE able to transgress the word of God he would -- but only for a huge sum of money (Gur Aryeh)]. He implied here that it would be far more economical for Balak to pay him for an effective curse than to invest even larger sums in a standing army that was not guaranteed to win in battle.

Num 22:20--

"God came to Balaam at night and said to him, 'If the men came to summon you, arise and go with them, but only the thing that I shall speak to you -- that shall you do.'"

God's acquiescence to the mission is difficult to understand. Following are some of the interperetations:

--Rashi: In his reply, God used the word "Lecha," meaning "to you," which also has the connotation of "for your benefit," meaning that if Balaam felt that it was to his financial adcantage to go -- and his greed was already shown by his earlier dialogues with the emissaries -- he was free to do so. However, God, told him clearly that the permission extended only to his right to go, but he had no freedom to say what he pleased; he could say only what God instructed him.

--Ibn Ezra: Sometimes God is influenced by the entreaties of people to do things of which He does not approve. An example of this is the permission God gave the nation to send spies to the Land even though He had promised them that it was good and they had nothing to fear. Since Balaam was so anxious to go, God left it up to him, but warned him that he could not say what he wished against them. Nachmonedes adds that his is summed up pithily in the maxim "they lead a person on the path he wishes to travel" (Bamidbar Babbah 20:20). God was angry because Balaam went even though he knew it was wrong (v. 22).

--Nachmonedes: From the start God told Balaam that he was not to curse Israel, and he informed Balak's emissaries of this, but Balak [undoubtably aware of Balaam's greedy and arrogant nature] simply assumed that with higher-ranking emissaries and suggestions of ample reward, Balaam would redily come. When the second delegation came, Balaam said he had to consult God -- which was proper -- but he did not tell the emissaries what God had said. God told him he could go, but only if the emissaries were ready to have him on his terms, i.e., that he would pronounce only the words that God would tell him -- not a curse. God wanted Balaam to go and bless ISrael, so that the nations would know that even their own prophet had t o add his blessings to God's Chosen People. But Balaam did not tell this to the delegation; he let them think he had been given permission to curse. Thereby he desecreated God's name, for he led them to believe God had gone back on His word, and later, when God commanded him to bless, Balak and his people would be sure that GOD, not Balaam, had decieved them.

--Midrash HaGadol, citing Mishnas R' Eliezer (ch. 10): Before God destroys the foes of Israel, He elevates them. Balaam deserved to be punished for his powerful desire to curse an entire nation that had done him no harm, so God let him think that he was permitted to go, provided Balak gave him sufficient honor and money.

Num 22:21--

"Balaam arose in the morning and saddled his she-donkey and went with the officers of Moab."

"Balaam arose"--The Sages (Sanhedrin 105b) describe Balaam's enthusiasm contemptuously. Hatred causes people to violate norms of conduct. Surely it was not fitting for a man of Balaam's stature to saddle his own donkey, but he hated Israel so much that he did not let dignity stand in his way, and even got up early in the morning to do it. God said, "Wicked one, their forefather Abraham preceded you, for he got up even earlier and saddled his own donkey to do My will and take his beloved Isaac to the slaughter!" Furthermore, the verse says that he went WITH Balak's people, implying that he wholeheartedly subscribed to their desire that he curse Israel (Rashi).

Num 22:22--

"God's wrath flared because he was going, and an angel of God stood on the road to impede him. He was riding on his she-donkey and his two young men were with him."

"An Angel of God"--The use of God's name, the one that indicates God's compassion, is used here to imply that God was being merciful to Balaam by sending an angel to save him from a sin that would lead to his own destruction (Rashi).

Num 22:23--

"The she-donkey saw the angel of God standing on the road with his sword drawn in his hand, so the she-donkey turned away from the road and went to into the feild; then Balaam struck the vineyards, a fence on this side and a fence on that side."

"The she-donkey saw"--Rashi and Nachmonedes disagree reguarding what the animal saw. According to Rashi, animals are allowed to see spiritual beings that are blocked from the human eye, because human intelligence would cause people to live in constant fear if they could percieve everything around them.

Nachmonedes asserts that angels are not physical beings and cannot be seen by people or animals, unless they assume human form -- as when they visited Abraham -- in which case they are visible to everyone. In Balaam's case, it was not that the she-donkey actually SAW the angel. Rather, it SENSED that it was in danger, for, figuratively, a being with a drawn sword stood before it.

"With his sword dran in his hand"-- This confrontation symbolized the eternal rivalry between Jacob's "voice" of Torah and prayer, and Esau's "sword." The angel was about to show Balaam that if he attempted to usurp the power of the voice and use it to harm Israel, he would be subject to the sword that characterizes the gentile nations led by Esau (Rashi).

Num 24-27--

"The angel of God stood in the path of the vineyards, a fence on this side and a fence on that side. The she-donkey saw the angel of God and pressed against the wall, and it pressed Balaam's leg against the wall -- and he continued to strike it. The angel of God went further and stood in a narrow place, where there was no room to turn right or left. The she-donkey saw the angel of God and crouched beneath Balaam. Balaam's anger flared and he struch the she-donkey with the staff."

Rashi cites Tanchuma that the three times the angel blocked the she-donkey symbolized the three Patriarchs. Tanchuma elaborates that it was as if a different Patriarch did the blocking each time. The first time (vs. 22-23), the angel prevented him from moving ahead, but he could have gone to the right or left, symbolizing that Balaam could curse Abraham's progeny that had drifted to the right or left, i.e., the descendants of Ishmael or of Keturah (whom Abraham married after Sarah's death), but he could not harm the descendants of Isaac, Abraham's true son. The next time (vs. 24-25), the she-donkey had only a narrow space to avoid the sword, alluding to Isaac, who had only one unworthy son, Esau. Finally, the third time (v. 26-27), there was no room at all for the she-donkey to move, symbolizing the offspring of Jacob, all of whom were righteous and whom Balaam could not curse.

Overview vs. 22-27; God impedes Balaam's path: Balaam went with God's permission but, as discussed above, with the hope, if not the outright intention, of flouting His will. To show him and his Moabite escort that he was powerless to act on his own, God dispatched an angel to block his way. That he was unable to see the angel until the very end of its mission, while his she-donkey sensed or saw it, was a refutation of his brazen boast that he knew God's will and was His spokesmen, as it were.


Summery vs. 28-37; In a most unusual miracle, Balaam's she-donkey now was granted the power of speech to admonish him for striking it. The purpose of the miracle was to show Balaam that even man's normal functions, such as the ability to speak, are under God's control. If a beast could speak intelligently, then surely Balaam could be forced to say what God wanted him to, and be silenced if he wished to oppose God's will. This proved to him that his sorcery could not prevail against God (Nachmonedes).

Num 22:28--

"God opened the mouth of the she-donkey and it said to Balaam, 'What have I done to you that you struck me these thress times?'"

"These three times"--This was an allusion to the future merit of Israel, which would protect it from the Balaams who wish it harm. Three times a year, for the three pilgrimage festicals of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot, Jews would leave their feilds and homes without protection and go to Temple in Jerusalem. Did Balaam think that he could harm a people that had such faith in God? (Rashi).

Num 22:29--

"Balaam said to the she-donkey, 'Because you mocked me! If only there were a sword in my hand I would now have killed you!'"

"I would now have killed you"--Balaam's reaction to the she-donkey's admonishment is puzzling. In the face of an obvious and unprecedented miracle, all he could think of was to threaten the helpless animal, as if that could have silenced God, as well. This is another illustration of his pagan philosophy that probably saw God as a supreme ruler of many forces, whose will can be challenged by someone who can marshal cosmic forces. This is the same mind-set that made Balaam think his machinations could secure permission to accept Balak's offer and ultimatly curse the Jews (R' Hersh Goldwurm). He appeared as a fool to his escorts. The man claimed that he could kill an antire nation with his curse, but he needed a sword to dispatch his she donkey! (Rashi).

Num 22:30-31--

"The she-donkey said to Balaam, 'Am I not your she-donkey that you have ridden all your life until this day? Have I been accustomed to do such a thinkg to you?' He said, 'No.' Then God uncovered Balaam's eyes and he saw the angel of God standing on the road with his sword drawn in his hand. He bowed his head and prostrated himself in his face."

"The God uncovered"--It appears obvious from this verse that Balaam was not accustomed to seeing angels, for if he was, it would not have been necessary for his eyes to be UNCOVERED. This also proves that he was not a prophet, for even Abraham's wife Hagar and the prophet Elisha's servan Gahazi saw angels, though they were not prophets. If Balaam had been a true prophet, he would have had no trouble seeing an angel; bu his base character (see vs. 13, 18) made even such a degree of revelation impossible. Actually, Balaam was a sorcerer, not a prophet. The sublime prophecies he uttered later in the Sidrah were temporary aberrations that God granted him only for the honor of Israel. After his ignoble return to his homeland, he did not prophesy again, and reverted to his permanent status of sorcerer, as he was called (Joshua 13:22), "Balaam son of Beor, the sorcerer" (Ramban).

Num 22:32-33--

"The angel of God said to him, 'For what reason did you strike your she-donkey these three times? Behold! I went out to impede, for you hastened on a road to oppose me. The she-donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. Had it not turned away from me, I would now even have killed you and let it live!'"

The angel knew very well what had happened, but chided him for being insensitive to the Divine omens. Three times God's angel tried to prevent him from continuing on his evil mission and three times he persisted, impervious to the sword wielding angel (Sforno).

Num 22:34-35--

"Balaam said to the angel of God, 'I have sinned, for I did not know that you were standing opposite me on the road. And now, if it is evil in your eyes, I shall return.' The angelof God said to Balaam, 'Go with the men, but only the word that I shall speak to you -- that shall you speak.' So Balaam went with the officers of Balak."

Sanctimoniously and cynically, Balaam played the role of an obedient servant of God. He ignored the fact that the angel represented God's ire at his true motive in going, which was to sure the JEws. When he said that he was ready to turn back, he was sidestepping the truth (R' Hersh Goldwurm).

Now he was forced to admit that despite his boasts that he knew the mind of God (24:16), he -- unlike the lowly she-donkey -- could not even sense the presence of an angel. By offering to return, he was actually alluding to the audacious suggestion that God was reversing Himself, as if to say, "God Himself told me to go, and now He sends an angel to reverse Himself!" Even after the angel warned him to go on the condition that he say only what God told him, Balaam still hoped to deliver a curse, for verse 35 states that he went "with the officers of Balak;" the word "with" implies that he was united with them in their intention (Rashi).


Num 22:36-40--

"Balak heard that Balaam had come, so he went out toward him to the city of Moab, which is on the border of Arnon, which is at the edge of the boarder. Balak said to Balaam, 'Did I not urgently send to you to summon you? Why did you not go to me? Am I not capable of honoring you?' Balaam said to Balak, 'Behold! now I have come to you -- am I empowered to say anything? Whatever word God puts into my mouth, that I shall speak!' Balaam went with Balak and they came to Kiriath-huzoth. Balak slaughtered cattle and sheep and sent to Balaam and to the officers who were with him."

Balak's attitude is revealing. He had gone to great lengths to induce Balaam to come. He knew of Balaam's prowess from their days in Aram and he was convinced that Balaam was his only hope, yet he treated him with contempt. He greeted him with a verbal onslaught that accused him, in effect, of being interested in personal honor. And when he prepared a feast for Balaam and his entourage (v. 40), he sent the food to them, and did not even deign to joing them or invite them to his own quarters. In view of the Jewish concept of sages as holy people who deserve the utmost deference, Balak's attitude toward one of his one "holy men" is shocking.

Num 22:41--

"And it was in the morning: Balak took Balaam and brought him up to the heights of Baal, and from there he saw the edge of the people."

Balak took Balaam to a hill on which was a Moabite idol, Baal, in the hope that it might inspire him and perhaps add to the efficacy of the Jews, and that perhaps the prophet's malevolent gaze might have a deleterious effect on Israel.[/b]

I hoped that helped and so I also share it with readers on my blog. Fortunatly, it did help because she writes:


[b]Thank you so much for your prompt help. Your interpretation was most helpful and enlightening for me.

You know from a child I have been told that the old testiment was the words of God and a history of his people until (in Catholic belief) the coming of Jesus. I never really understood until recently how rich and full of additional information and insight the Hebrew Torah can provide for me.

Certainly we must have a lot of common beliefs afterall, don't you agree? If I have any more problems I hope I might be allowed to call on you in the future.

You are a jewel among women.
Thank you again.[/b]

::blushes:: My reply was of course gracious:


[b]You are most certainly welcome! :)

I love to help so please do ask anything that comes to your mind in the future.

You are very sweet and I am glad to have proven helpful. :)

You are most welcome once more! :) :)

-Tigress[/b]


So I hope this may have been helpful to anyone else reading. It is good to ask questions becuase how else are we to learn things?

You can feel free to ask questions of me at any time or you can have a look at the Torah resources in the links section to the left. I highly recommend askmoses.com for most inquiries, but it is also good to get a variety of sources whenever you are seeking answers. Always look to the giants of which you stand upon the shoulders. :)

A Midnight Quiz (More like 1am-ish, but who's counting?)

01.29.04 (1:20 am)   [edit]
I don't know if I like this result or not...





Yours are DEMON wings, possibly resembling
those of a bat - huge, black, and clawed. You
are cold and impure, and a born Creature of the
Night. Possibly with an interest in those of a
vampyric nature, or possibly one yourself. You
have little sympathy or care for humanity and
see them as existing for no real purpose -
thus, you can be very manipulative and bend
them to fit YOUR purpose. And you do have a
purpose, to everything you do. Nine times out
of ten it will be strictly for your own self
gratification or perhaps merely amusement. As
soon as a person or situation is no longer
productive or pleasurable in your life, you
will rid yourself of it or them. You could very
well have just a touch of superiority complex
(or perhaps more than a touch?). Despite all of
this, you are capable of love so intense that
you place that person's wishes even above your
own - the only time that you will do so.
Chances are you are attracted to people in
which you see...yourself. Though many hate you
for your carelessness and evil...Sexy, fierce,
sinful, and mysterious...you turn me on.


*~*~*Claim Your Wings - Pics and Long Answers*~*~*
brought to you by Quizilla

Judaism's Concepts of "Heaven" and "Hell"

01.28.04 (9:35 pm)   [edit]
Judaism does have a concept of reward and punishment in the afterlife. However, since words we use bring to mind certain images, particularly “Heaven” and “Hell,” it is better to use the Jewish terminology which comes without the baggage.

When someone dies, the disembodied soul leaves this sensory world and enters “Gan Eden,” the spiritual Garden of Eden (a.k.a. “Heaven”). In the Garden of Eden, the soul enjoys the “rays of the Divine Presence,” a purely spiritual enjoyment dependent on the Torah learning and good deeds done while in a body. Every year on the yarzeit, the day of passing, the soul ascends to another level closer to God. This gives it tremendous pleasure.

Before entering the Garden of Eden, though, every soul must be refined, for it cannot enjoy the Divine Presence to the fullest degree with the pleasures and coarseness of our physical world still engraved on it. These would give the soul poor “reception” of divine radiance, and must be removed.

In order to restore the level of purity the soul had possessed before entering the physical world, it must undergo a degree of refinement commensurate to the degree which the body may have indulged itself. If a person sinned in this lifetime, as most of us do, then, to continue the radio analogy, we have serious interference. This means there is even more cleaning to be done. This cleaning process hurts, but is a spiritual and mental process designed not for retribution, but to allow one to truly enjoy his/her reward in Gan Eden. This cleaning process is called “Gehinom,” or, in the vernacular, “Hell.”

The Thirteen Principles of Faith

01.28.04 (9:19 pm)   [edit]
The Jewish faith has many laws, traditions, beliefs, etc. But there are thirteen principles upon which the whole of Judaism stands.

To use a mundane example, think of baseball. There are many intricate rules and strategies in the game. But in order to play on the most elementary level there are a few basics without which you cannot play.

Judaism’s basics are encapsulated in what are called the Thirteen Principles. These were composed by Maimonides, one of the greatest Jewish scholars of all time. Some Jews have the custom of reciting these principles everyday after the morning service. These principles are also expressed in the famous synagogue prayer “Yigdal.”

Here they are:

· That the Creator creates and controls everything. He alone has made, is making, and will make all things.

· That the Creator is one. There is no other unity like His. He alone is our God. He was, He is, and He will always be.

· That the Creator is not a physical being. Physical concepts do not apply to Him. Nothing at all resembles Him.

· That the Creator is without beginning and without end; He precedes all existence.

· That it is proper to pray only to the Creator. It is not proper to pray to anything else.

· That the Creator communicates through His prophets.

· That the prophecy of Moses was true. He was the chief of all prophets, both before and after him.

· That the entire Torah (both Oral and Written), which we now have is that which was given to Moses.

· That the Torah will not be changed. The Creator will not give another Torah.

· That the Creator is aware of all of man’s deeds and thoughts.

· That the Creator rewards those who keep His commandments and punishes those who disobey His commandments.

· That the Messiah will come. Even though he will delay, every day I will expect his arrival.

· That the dead will be brought back to life. The Creator will decree the time for this awakening.

OMG!!!! I need a caption for this photo!

01.28.04 (8:53 pm)   [edit]
Ok, this has to be the most funny/disgusting photo I've seen in a while! Therefore, I'm sharing it with everyone and asking them to give me a caption for it! It's a total open forum on this one. Let's see what you can think of! :)




Please leave your captions in the comments section below!

Enjoy and have fun!

Prayor "Disrespectful"?

01.28.04 (7:37 pm)   [edit]
[b]House Democrats claim prayer is 'disrespectful'

The Arizona Republic
Jan. 28, 2004 12:00 AM[/b]

Rep. Doug Quelland, R-Phoenix, caused a stir on Tuesday when he delivered a prayer on the House floor that took aim at multiculturalism, welfare, abortion and "alternative lifestyles."

It was a prayer that has made the rounds on the Internet since 1996 when it was delivered before the Kansas House of Representatives.

Offended Democrats, led by Rep. Wally Straughn of Phoenix, filed an official protest, saying the prayer was partisan, disrespectful and divisive.

Here is the prayer:

Quelland: "Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know your word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values. We confess that:

"We have ridiculed the absolute truth of your word and called it pluralism.

"We have worshiped other gods and called it multiculturalism.

"We have endorsed perversion and called it alternative lifestyle.

"We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

"We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.

"We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.

"We have killed our unborn and called it choice.

"We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.

"We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.

"We have abused power and called it political savvy.

"We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.

"We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.

"And we have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

"Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.

"In the name of your son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen."

This is the Democrats' response:

Straughn: "Pursuant to House Rule 20, we, all the members of the House Democratic Caucus, protest the lack of respect that was shown the members of this body and the citizens of Arizona during the opening prayer on January 26, 2004.

"The opening prayer is the one opportunity during each day that we can come together as a body. The opening prayer should unite us, not divide us.

"But the prayer on January 26, 2004, was divisive. It was a pandering, mudslinging, name-calling political statement. It was hateful and mean-spirited. It was undignified.

"The citizens of Arizona deserve better. We are diverse. We have unique perspectives. And our unique voices should be respected. Especially during the opening prayer, as members of this body we must set aside our differences and show respect for Arizona in all of its diversity."

An Exotic Dessert You'll Love to Share!

01.28.04 (2:32 pm)   [edit]
I have found my dessert that I shall make in two days time -- finally! This sounds very good and not so hard. It should be slightly challenging though which is how I like things to be; especially when it comes to my cooking. You can try it out for yourself with the recipe here, if you like. Let me know how your's comes out! :)


Crostata di Limone (Italian Lemon Tart)
Recipe copyright Mario Batali, 2002. All rights reserved.

Recipe Summary
Prep Time: 20 minutes Cook Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 6 to 8 servings

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup ground toasted almonds
1/2 cup sugar
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 egg, plus 4 eggs, separated
Pinch salt
3/4 cup sugar
2 lemons, zested, plus 3 lemon, juiced

Grease the bottom and sides of a 9-inch tart pan with butter and set aside.

Toss together the flour, almonds, and sugar. Cut the butter into the dry mixture until it is the consistency of fine bread crumbs. Add 1 egg and salt and mix well, kneading slightly. Form the pastry into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate while you make the filling.

Beat the 4 egg yolks with the sugar until very thick, then beat in the lemon zest and juice. Transfer the mixture to the top of a double boiler and set over barely simmering water. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture becomes thick, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Roll the dough, if you can, between 2 sheets of waxed paper. Place in a pan and prick the dough with a fork all over the bottom, line with waxed paper, and fill with dried beans or rice to keep the bottom from puffing. Place in the oven and bake 10 minutes, then remove the paper and beans, and cook an additional 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat the 4 egg whites until very stiff and fold them into the cooled lemon mixture.

Remove the pie casing from the oven and reduce the temperature to 325 degrees F. Spread the lemon filling over the pie shell and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the filling is thoroughly set.

What are miracles? Should modern man still believe in them?

01.28.04 (1:17 pm)   [edit]
Miracles occur whether we see them or not. Two people can look at the same occurrence in life, and one experienced a miracle while the other a simple accident of nature.

When Joshua led the Jewish nation in a miraculous battle, defying nature itself, the Torah says that the sun stood still in the skies throughout the battle, not setting in its proper time and allowing the Jews to emerge the victors. Some philosophers argued that the battle was won so quickly that it appeared that time had stopped and the sun stood still.

Rabbi Yehudah Loew, the legendary Chief Rabbi of medieval Prague, disputes this claim. He argued that the sun indeed stopped in its course, yet it was perceived only by the Jewish nation. To the other nations, reality was unchanged and the sun moved on. A physical occurrence was experienced, yet simultaneously the perception of that reality was vastly different, depending on the spiritual level of those experiencing it.

To experience miracles, one must open oneself to the experience. Explaining a miracle scientifically does not lesson the miracle. In fact, nature is as great a miracle as a supernatural occurrence, and perhaps even greater. For nature is a miracle that occurs constantly.

I want this outfit!!!

01.28.04 (12:41 pm)   [edit]
How pretty is THIS:



[i]Laura Michelle Kelly as Eliza Doolittle is seen in a West End production of 'My Fair Lady' in this undated file photo. Kelly will star as everyone's favorite umbrella-carrying nanny when a stage version of the P.L. Travers' book and the Disney-Julie Andrews movie opens Dec. 15 at the Prince Edward Theatre in London. Before playing ``Poppins,'' the 22-year-old Kelly will portray Hodel, the second of Tevye's three daughters, in a production of ``Fiddler,'' opening Feb. 26 in New York. London rehearsals begin in July. (AP Photo/Michael le Poer Trench,PA)[/i]


SO pretty!!!!

More on the French Banning of Head Shmatahs

01.28.04 (12:24 pm)   [edit]
[b]French Cabinet Adopts Head Scarf Ban
AP
18 minutes ago

[i]By ELAINE GANLEY, Associated Press Writer[/b][/i]

PARIS - Despite protests at home and abroad, the French government took its first formal step toward banning the Muslim head scarf from public schools, adopting the measure in a Cabinet session Wednesday.

President Jacques Chirac defended the legislation that would outlaw conspicuous religious symbols from public schools, which some believe is discriminatory. He said France must uphold its secular foundations.

"To do nothing would be irresponsible. It would be a fault," Chirac told the closed-door Cabinet meeting, according to government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope.

The bill would ban Jewish skullcaps, large Christian crosses and other religious symbols as well as Islamic head scarves. But Chirac has made clear that it is aimed at the Muslim coverings.

In a nationally televised speech in December, Chirac called for a bill that could be passed quickly and put in force by the new school year in September. Parliamentary debate is set to begin Tuesday.

The bill stipulates that "in schools, junior high schools and high schools, signs and dress that conspicuously show the religious affiliation of students are forbidden." It would not apply to students in private schools or to French schools in other countries.

Sanctions for refusing to remove conspicuous religious signs would range from a warning to temporary suspension from school to expulsion.

Most, but not all, public schools already have guidelines forbidding head coverings. However, schools have been left to decide themselves whether to take action against those who flout the rules.

The draft law has drawn criticism from Muslims around the world, and opponents fear it could trigger a backlash in France's huge Muslim community.

Some lawmakers have already said they would abstain or oppose the bill in the scheduled Feb. 10 lower house vote. Among them are centrist allies of Chirac.

Even Chirac's party, the conservative Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP, appeared to lean toward amending the bill.

Jacques Barrot, UMP leader in the National Assembly, said Wednesday that the text should emphasize that students would be allowed to appeal the decisions.

"It's not firstly a law of interdiction. It's a law of dissuasion," Barrot said.

Despite dissent, the bill is all but assured passage. Chirac's party holds 364 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, and a bill needs only 288 votes to pass.

Some 10,000 people, mostly Muslims, marched through Paris on Jan. 17 to protest the proposed law. A similar number of protesters marched in countries around the world.

In Pakistan on Wednesday, about 70 women belonging to the radical Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami protested in front of the French Embassy in Islamabad.

Echoing a complaint heard in France, party leader Samia Raheel Qazi said the law amounted to a "clear-cut violation of basic human rights."

However, Chirac said France has a duty to protect French values, notably the constitutional principle of secularism that underpins French society.

France has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe, estimated at some 5 million, and there is growing concern that Muslims are not integrating. The concern has been magnified by fears of a rise in Muslim fundamentalism.

Not acting would mean "leaving teachers and school principals alone in the face of growing difficulties," spokesman Cope quoted Chirac as saying. The legislation "lays down a clear principle."

Chirac evoked fears of what the French call "communautarisme" — minorities and ethnic groups living apart from mainstream society. France must do something so it does not "leave open the dangerous path," Chirac said.

The legislation culminates 15 years of often bitter debate over the wearing of Islamic head scarves in school.

Arab-Israeli Prisoner Swap Schedule

01.28.04 (12:16 pm)   [edit]
Here is how the swap is expected to unfold, according to Israeli military officials. All times are EST and subject to change. (I recieved this from the [i]Associated Press[/i]):

[b]WEDNESDAY[/b]

_3 p.m.: Non-Palestinian prisoners to be taken to Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport.

_9 p.m.: Planes carrying prisoners scheduled to leave Israel; at the same time, a German plane carrying the Israelis is to leave Lebanon.

[b]THURSDAY[/b]

_2 a.m.: Planes due at Cologne-Bonn military base in Germany. Tannenbaum and Arab prisoners to stay on planes while Israeli teams examine Tannenbaum and identify soldiers' remains.

_6 a.m.: Exchange expected to take place. Simultaneously, Israel to turn over remains of 59 Lebanese fighters at border with Lebanon, and release 400 Palestinians into West Bank and Gaza. Tannenbaum to return on flight with soldiers' remains.

_11 a.m.: Plane arrives in Israel. Israeli families to claim remains of soldiers. Tannenbaum to be reunited with relatives, then taken to hospital.

_1 p.m.: Israeli President Moshe Katsav, joined by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other senior officials, to attend memorial ceremony for the fallen soldiers.

Kin of Israeli Soldiers Hope Men Alive

01.28.04 (11:38 am)   [edit]
Sad.....






[i]An armed Palestinian from Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement attends a march in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, January 28, 2004. The march took place today to show support for Hizbollah and the prisoners swap deal reached with Israel. REUTERS/Nayef Hashlamoun[/i]


[b]Kin of Israeli Soldiers Hope Men Alive
AP
Wed Jan 28,10:36 AM ET

[i]By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI, Associated Press Writer[/b][/i]

PETAH TIKVA, Israel - Three and a half years after Beni Avraham was captured by Hezbollah guerrillas, his family wants just one thing: certainty about his fate.

On Thursday, the family expects an answer to its questions with a German-mediated prisoner swap in a secret location near Munich.

Israel will give Hezbollah 436 prisoners — mostly Palestinian and Lebanese — in exchange for Israeli businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum and three soldiers, including Avraham.

Army rabbis have declared the soldiers dead, but all three families are clinging to hope that somehow they will return alive.

"We are under terrible stress and we are waiting. We want catharsis," said Efrat Avraham, Beni's sister, surrounded by family and friends who have been gathering at the family's home in central Israel since the swap was announced on Saturday.

"We want to get to the end. Even if it's a tragic end, at least it's over," she added.

The three soldiers were captured in October 2000 when Hezbollah militants detonated a roadside bomb on their unarmored jeep during a patrol along Israel's Lebanon border.

Despite the rabbinical declaration that Avraham and two other soldiers were killed, the family still has some hope the 24-year-old will get off the airplane in Ben Gurion Airport on his own two feet rather than in a coffin.

The rabbis based their conclusion in 2001 on intelligence information, Efrat Avraham said. They refused to share the information with the families, but admitted that no one had seen the bodies and there was no concrete physical evidence that they had been killed.

In addition, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah refuses to say what happened to the soldiers, further adding to the families' anxiety.

"We are not fooling ourselves, we know where we stand, but because of the uncertainty there remains a sliver of hope," Efrat Avraham said.

She told Israeli army radio Wednesday that unlike the rest of her family, she has no expectation of seeing her brother alive.

"I can only speak for myself, there is no hope," she said. "All (the rest of) the family still believe the boys will come back alive."

In the Avitan family home in Tiberias, Israel, a big chart on the wall ticks off the 1,208 days since Adi was captured.

"It is not easy. There is some excitement that this affair is going to end ... but on the other hand there is a fear because to this day we don't know how he will return," said Eyal Avitan, Adi's brother. "No matter the end, it will be a good end, because at least it will be over."

Omar Souad — a Bedouin Arab from northern Israel — was the third soldier captured in the Hezbollah attack.

Souad was the only one of the three who was married. His 8-year-old son, Kassem, eagerly awaits his father's return. "I heard on television that they are returning Daddy, and I am happy he will return alive," the boy told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot.

Meanwhile, businessman Tannenbaum was to meet his family — and his new granddaughter — in Germany, Efrat Avraham said. The Tannenbaums left Israel on Tuesday, she said, and told her he would not be included in the ceremony for the soldiers at Ben Gurion Airport.

Tannenbaum is suspected of having shady business dealings that led to his capture in a Persian Gulf country in Oct. 2000, and will be immediately questioned by police.

In the Avraham family's living room, a picture of another Beni Avraham hangs on the wall.

For the family matriarch, grandmother Victoria Avraham, 74, her grandson's capture is like reliving her own son's tragic death. "My heart is exploding, I have no words," she said, sitting on a coach, gripping her hands tightly in her lap.

Fun Places to Visit on the Internet!

01.28.04 (12:52 am)   [edit]
Puzzles for blondes: http://www.digital-laughter.c...

Crank call to a secretary: http://www.simonhardwick.com/... (it takes a moment, but it's SO worth it!)

Sidewalk Chalk art: http://www.dodger.com/wenner/... (Gordious!)

Baby Hedgehogs: http://hedgehogclub.com/color...

Wrong predictions: http://my.athenet.net/~jlindsay/SkepticQuotes.html

DEMOTIVATIONS TO LIVE BY
http://www.demotivate.com/giveup.cfm?asd=197" title="http://www.demotivate.com/giveup.cfm?asd=197" target="_blank"http://www.demotivate.com/giv...

There ya go, fellow internet junkies. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. :)

Thousands Protest Swedish Art Exhibit

01.28.04 (12:25 am)   [edit]
[b]Thousands Protest Swedish Art Exhibit
AP
Tue Jan 27, 5:40 PM ET

[i]By TOMMY GRANDELL, Associated Press Writer[/b][/i]

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Sweden's prime minister has been bombarded with about 14,000 e-mails from a U.S.-based Jewish human rights group protesting an art exhibit featuring the image of a Palestinian suicide bomber, the government said Tuesday.

The flap threatened to overshadow a three-day international conference in Stockholm on preventing genocide that ends Wednesday.

Israel downgraded its representation at the conference after the Museum of National Antiquities refused to remove a display showing a picture of Islamic Jihad bomber Hanadi Jaradat, who killed herself and 21 bystanders in an Oct. 4 suicide attack in Haifa, Israel.

The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center said the exhibit glorified a "Palestinian homicide bomber" and Sweden should declare suicide bombings a crime against humanity.

In a letter posted on its Web site last week, the center said Sweden has championed the exhibit under the rubric of artistic freedom.

"But what is Sweden prepared to do for the real victims of terror? No nation has yet had the courage to officially come forward to declare suicide bombing 'a crime against humanity,'" the letter said.

Prime Minister Goeran Persson described the protest e-mails as similar to letter campaigns organized by lobby groups.

"We are subject to this kind of mail bombardment every now and then, but I can't say that it's very effective as a way of voicing an opinion," Persson said, describing the letters as "not very threatening."

Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds said the government does not have the right to censure art.

"The government can't influence the museum in its actions, but it's the museum itself that decides what will be shown or not," she said. "We have freedom of expression, and our departments and museums are independent."

Israeli-born artist Dror Feiler, who created "Snow White and the Madness of Truth," said the piece was meant to call attention to how weak, lonely people can be capable of horrible things.

Israeli Ambassador Zvi Mazel tried Jan. 16 to vandalize the display, which is in a rectangular pool filled with red-colored water.

Museum officials rejected Mazel's calls to remove the exhibit but said they would take down 26 posters with Jaradat's face that were placed in Stockholm subway stations to advertise the exhibition.

But Israel lowered its representation at the genocide conference as a result of the flap, sending a diplomat instead of Israeli President Moshe Katzav.

On Tuesday, Persson attended a candlelight ceremony for Holocaust victims in downtown's Raoul Wallenberg Square.

"This is a possibility to reflect on how cruel people can be to each other," Persson said.

"The Holocaust wasn't the end of genocide. I just have to mention Rwanda, I just have to mention Srebrenica. In our time, we are not exempt from attacks against the values of humanity."

Persson also attended a Holocaust memorial service amid tight security at the Stockholm synagogue.

The Virdict of a Lawsuit Against Hamas!

01.28.04 (12:21 am)   [edit]
Hell YEA! They should also have to pay for the many other deaths they are responsible for!!!! It's about time that Hamas and other terror organizations and their sympathizers take responsibility for their crime against humanity! Be it by serving time or paying of the survivors of their victims! This story has put me in a great mood!



[b]Judge Issues $116 M Verdict Against Hamas
AP
Tue Jan 27, 7:42 PM ET[/b]

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - A federal judge Tuesday ordered the Palestinian militant group Hamas to pay $116 million in damages for the deaths of an American citizen and his Israeli wife near the West Bank in 1996.

The ruling upheld a magistrate judge's decision last month on behalf of relatives of Yaron and Efrat Ungar, who lived in Israel when they were killed.

Family members of Yaron Ungar sued in March 2000 under a 1991 law allowing relatives of American victims of overseas terrorism to seek damages in U.S. courts. Efrat Ungar was an Israeli.

It was unclear whether Hamas would honor the verdict or whether the group has the money to pay. Hamas has had no legal representation in the lawsuit.

The Ungars were killed in a drive-by shooting in 1996 near the Israeli village of Beit Shemesh as they returned home from a wedding. One of their two children was in the car but escaped unharmed.

U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Lagueux awarded $30.5 million each to the Ungars' children and $15 million each to Yaron Ungar's parents, both of whom live in Israel. Three siblings were awarded $7.5 million each.

The lawsuit filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1991 also names the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority as defendants. Those groups allegedly provided a safe haven and operational base for Hamas, which is responsible for many of the suicide bombings in Israel.

The PLO and PA say moving forward in the case could violate their claims of sovereign immunity. The Ungars' motion for a ruling against them is pending. Family members are seeking the same amount in damages as were levied against Hamas.

Some Choice Jewish Quotes.

01.28.04 (12:10 am)   [edit]
"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." - Albert Einstein

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." - Albert Einstein

"Words which come from The Heart enter The Heart." - Moses Ibn Ezra

"Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end." - Igor Stravinsky

"I Create That I Create." - Paul Palnik

"Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein

"Joy is not merely incidental to your spiritual quest. It is vital." - Nachman of Breslov

"I will sing unto The Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me." - King David 13:6

"I have come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge." - Albert Einstein

"Man's wisdom is at the tip of his pen his intelligence is in his writing.His pen can raise a man to the rank of a king." - Samuel Hanagid

"I've reached the age of ninety-two and still look for great tomorrows." - Florence Melton

"When someone does something good, applaud! You will make two people happy." - Samuel Goldwyn

"Honor is what enables the soldier to die alone, the political prisoner to resist, the singer to sing her song, hardly appreciated, on a side street." - Mark Helprin

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but to reveal to him his own." - Benjamin Disraeli

"Never try to teach a goat to sing. It wastes your time, and it annoys the goat." - Yiddish Proverb

"Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads." - Erica Jong

"He is not The God of would be spirits. He is The God of The Human Heart." - Hayim Bialik

"God desires The Heart." - Sanhedrin 106B

"Things created conceal The Creator." - Abraham J. Heschel

"My thoughts form an Eden in My Heart." - Judah Ha Levi

"There is no reality more fertile than the Eternal Creative Present. In this soil what ever is planted, grows. Be mindful of the seeds you sow." - Paul Palnik

"May it be The Will of God that His Presence rests in the work of our hands." - Moses

"The Flame of The Soul rises by itself and none can impede it on its course." - Abraham Isaac Kook

"Every single person is a new thing in the world, and is called upon to fulfill his or her particularity in this world." - Yehiel Michael of Zlotchov

"Now it came to pass that The Heavens opened and I saw visions of God." - Ezekiel 1:1

"Every blade of grass has an angel that bends over it and whispers, 'Grow! Grow!'" - The Talmud

"Develop your awe of heaven and you will diminish your fear of everyone else's opinion." - Menachem Shneerson

"Nothing is as liberating as joy. It frees the mind and fills it with tranquility." - Nachman of Breslov

"God's dream is...to have mankind as a partner in the drama of continuous creation." - Abraham J. Heschel

"There are halls in Heaven that open only to the voice of song." - The Zohar

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science." - Albert Einstein

"Art or the creative act begins in love and giving, for there must always be present this empathy, this basic act of giving over." - Clifford Odets

"Playing the violin must be like making love-all or nothing." - Isaac Stern

"Music can name the unnamable and communicate the unknowable." - Leonard Bernstein

"Every person born represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique." - Martin Buber

"The principal mark of genius is not perfection but originality, the opening of new frontiers." - Arthur Koestler

"Life is a celebration or can be a celebration. One of the most
important things is to teach man how to celebrate." - Abraham J. Heschel

"Fairness is giving our children what they each individually need, not in treating them all the same way." - Steve Brown

"I work in whatever medium likes me at the moment." - Marc Chagall

"God is of no importance unless He is of supreme importance." - Abraham J. Heschel

"Man is created to create, from the poet to the potter." - Benjamin Disraeli

"The chief thing is Creation." - A.D. Gordon

"The poet and the artist create by nature and not because of what they acquired by learning." - Moses Ibn Ezra

"We are what we create." - James Oppenheim

"To live means to create." - Milton Steinberg

"The artist must penetrate into the world, feel the fate of human beings, of peoples, with real love." - Marc Chagall

"He who has art in his life can never be entirely lost." - Ossip Gabrilowitsch

"The true artist sees the harmony, the wholeness, the tendencies toward perfection, in all things, everywhere." - Richard Guggenheimer

"In matters of art, I am a supernaturalist." - Heinrich Heine

"For an artist, there are no limitations." - Jozef Israels

"The artist is the one to whom all experience is revelation." - Ludwig Lewisohn

"None may enter the academy who is not inwardly as he is outwardly." - The Talmud

"It ain't necessarily so." - Ira Gershwin

"His wisdom and power in creating an ant or a bee is no less than in the making of the sun and it's sphere." - Judah Ha Levi

"I believe with perfect faith that The Creator Blessed Be He is The Author and Guide of everthing created." - Moses Maimonides

"A heartache shared is half a heartache, a joy shared is twice the joy." - Yiddish Proverb

"In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through to you." - Mortimer Adler

"We should approach all education the way we teach language to children. When a toddler makes a mistake in learning speech, we chuckle and say, isn't that cute. The child's mistakes are greeted with non threatening smiles and in this gentle way the child learns to speak." - Zvi Bekerman

"To be young in Spirit is an active understanding that in the dynamic, creative, present, one shall never be this young again." - Paul Palnik

"Be here now. Be someplace else later. Is that so complicated?" - David Stiebel

"An impatient man cannot be a teacher." - Hillel

"Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time." - Yiddish Proverb

"Education is that which remains, when one has forgotten everything he learned in school." - Albert Einstein

"A child of five could understand this. Fetch me a child of five." - Groucho Marx

"Each child brings his own blessing into the world." - The Talmud

"Even when freshly washed and relieved of all obvious confections,
children tend to be sticky." - Fran Leibowitz

"A man is led the way he wishes to follow." - The Talmud

"The more intensely real an experience is, the more it can not be adequately expressed." - Paul Palnik

"If you keep on saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of being a prophet." - Isaac B. Singer

"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork;" - King David 19:2

"Creativity exists in the present moment. You can't find it anywhere else." - Natalie Goldberg

"Exalted and hallowed be His great Name throughout the world which He has created according to His will." - Kaddish

"Real Creative Consciousness is a way of being and becoming, knowing and understanding, thinking and loving, while fully focused in the present." - Paul Palnik

"Have a vivid intuitive imagination. New ideas are not generated by deduction but by artistic, creative, imagination." - Max Planck

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." - Albert Einstein

"The life of the creative man is led, directed and controlled by boredom. Avoiding boredom is one of our most important purposes." - Saul Steinberg

"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven." - King Solomon

"When inspiration does not come to me, I go half way to meet it." - Sigmund Freud

"I don't want to achieve immortality through my creative work—I want to achieve it through not dying." - Woody Allen

"Writing comes more easily if you have something to say." - Sholem Asch

"Arise, shine, for your light has dawned; the Presence of the LORD is risen upon thee." - Isaiah 60:1

"Behold, as the clay in the potters hand, so are ye in My Hand, Oh house of Israel." - Jeremiah 18:6

"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." - King Solomon 23:7

"Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life: everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment." - Viktor Frankl

"A carpenter without tools is no carpenter." - Midrash, Exodus
"There is a ladder whose foot is on the ground, and whose head extends into the heavens." - Genesis 28 Vs.12

"Creativity is the miraculous coming together of the uninhibited energy of the child with its opposite; the disciplined adult intelligence." - Norman Podhoretz

"I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician or king." - Charlie Chaplin

"Everything above and below is one unity." - Baal Shem Tov

"Those who are pure of heart find new thoughts whenever they meditate." - Nachman of Breslov

"It is not necessary that you leave the house to create. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will present itself to you for its unmasking, it can do no other, in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet." - Franz Kafka

"Making the private world public, that's what the poet does." - Allen Ginsberg

"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." - Albert Einstein

"Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression." - Isaac B. Singer

"The creative ability of a people, is the true yardstick with which we can measure the immigration potentialities of the land." - David Ben Gurion

"The earnings of a poet should be reckoned by a metaphysician rather than a bookkeeper." - Edward Dahlberg

"True creativity often starts where language ends." - Arthur Koestler

"A powerful idea communicates some of its strength to him who challenges it." - Marcel Proust

Survey time...yea...

01.27.04 (6:51 pm)   [edit]
BODY ILLS AND SKILLS --

Nervous Habits?: I scratch my head a lot. Kinda one of those thinking things. I rub my eyes also. When I'm really nervous I fidget. That or throw up.

Are you double jointed?: Yesh.

Can you do weird things with your tongue?: I can tie a cherry stem in a knot, if that's what you're asking.

Can you raise one eyebrow at a time?: Yes.

Can you cross your eyes?: Yes, but I hate it.

Tattoos?: Heck no!

Piercings?: One in each ear.

Do you make your bed daily?: No, I don't even make it weekly sometimes.

-- WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU --

Kissed?: My boyfriend.

Hugged?: My boyfriend.

Talked to?: Dad.

Went on a date with?: My boyfriend.

Laughed with?: At or with? I just laugh sometimes.

Hung out with?: My cat.

-- WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU --

Took a shower?: Yesterday. Time for another, that reminds me, thanks!

Cried?: I never cry.

Talked on the phone?: When I was driving home from the store.

Read a book?: Yesterday.

Punched Someone?: I can't recall.

-- CLOTHES --

Which shoe goes on first?: Um, socks generally go on first.

Speaking of shoes, have you ever thrown one at anyone?: Yes, but we won't talk about that...

On average, how much money do you carry with you: I am not at liberty to disclose that.

What jewelry do you wear 24/7?: My diamond/ruby heart necklace that my boyfriend gave me, my ring and my watch.

Favorite Piece of Clothing: That would have to be my green jacket. It compliments my eyes.

Pajamas: The ones that say "bad kitty!"

-- FOOD --

Do you twirl your spaghetti or cut it?: Twirl and slirp.

Have you ever eaten Spam?: No, I have an aversion to all pork products, actually.

Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Mississippi Mud: Chocolate icecream with a swirl of fudge and chunks of browny. It's from Baskin Robbins. I get that with extra hot fudge on top and sometimes nuts. YUM!

How many cereals in your cabinet?: 4: Frosted Flakes, Berry Blast Cheerios, Cranbury Corn Flake something er other, and CoCoa Puffs!

What's your favorite beverage?: Mexican Hot Chocolate.

What's your favarite resturant? Does Krispy Kreme count?

Do you cook?: Yes, all the time. It's one of my passions!

-- GROOMING --

How often do you brush your teeth?: Twice a day. What kind of a question is that?

How often do you shower/bathe?: Every day or every other day, dependant on stress levels and how busy I am.

How long does your shower last?: In a hurry: 5-10 mins. When I just feel like relaxing, I've been known to escape in there for an hour at most.

Hair drying method: I usually just let it dry as is.

Do you paint your nails?: On special occasions, but it's usually clear.

-- MANNERS --

Do you swear?: Only when I'm really, really pissed off.

Do you ever spit?: Only when there's phlegm!

-- WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE --

Animal: Tiger/Cats

Food: Oooh, tough one. Any kind of good beef, does that work for ya?

Month: April, cause it's a gonna be ma' birfday!

Day: Erm, ma' birfday?

Cartoon: The adventures of Superman/Samurai Jack

Shoe Brand: Um, shoes...I don't care about brand names. I usually wear converse sneakers.

Subject in school: History, it's my major.

Color: Red.

Sport: Not so much into the sports.

TV show: Scrubs.

Best Looking Male Celebs: Matthew Broderick, Antonio Banderes. I can't think of any more right now. Any of the tall dark and handsomes...

Thing to do in Spring: Sleep.

Thing To Do In The Summer: Beach.

Thing To Do In Autumn: The same things?

Thing To Do In The Winter: Eat.

-- IN AND AROUND --

The CD Player: Dave Matthews Band.

Person you talk to on the phone: My boyfriend.

Ever taken a cab?: Yes, when I was in NY.

Do you regularly check yourself out in store windows and mirrors?: Yes, cause you never know when you'll have a booger up your nose.

What color is your bedroom?: White because I rent.

Do you use an alarm clock?: Yes, but I never hear it.

Window seat or aisle?: Window!

-- LA LA LAND --

What's your sleeping position?: My back or my left side.

Even in hot weather do you use a blanket?: Yes, I like to be covered.

Do you snore?: Nope.

Do you sleepwalk?: Nope.

Do you talk in your sleep?: I make noises sometimes but that's it.

Do you sleep with a stuffed animals?: I sleep with my cat. He's not stuffed but he's pretty fat (hey, that rymed!).

Do you fall asleep with the TV or radio on?: No, I like total dark and silence.

-- WHICH IS BETTER --

Coke or Pepsi?: Erm, Snapple?

One pillow or two?: Uno.

Deaf or blind?: God forbid!

Pools or hot tubs?: I can't swim. How about a bath tub?

Blondes or brunettes?: I prefer Brown or black haired guys. But, for all you men out there you should know, it's ALL about the REDHEADS!

TV or radio?: Computer.

Tic tacs or Certs?: Mentos, the freshmaker.

Tall or Short?: I'm happy with how I am. I like taller guys.

Sunrise or Sunset?: Sunrise marks new beginnings.

Hamburger or Cheeseburger?: Hamburger. No thanks for the milk and meat mixtured.

Morning or night?: I'm a night person.

Sports or news?: News.

Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?: Chanukah.

Cake or ice cream? Both!!!

Spearmint or Peppermint?: It's all the same to me.

Bath or shower?: Shower when I need to be somewhere. Baths are relaxing!

Book or Movie?: Books are better than movies. I'm a movie buff too though.

Green or Red apples?: Green.

-- THE FUTURE --

Where do you see yourself in ten years?: God willing, married.

Who are you going to be married to?: Hopefully my boyfriend.

How many kids?: 4 is my limit.

Your profession: I'll either be a teacher or a lawyer. Not sure yet.

Never Forget

01.27.04 (6:20 pm)   [edit]
This is what happens when we forget atrocities... This is also what happens when we remember them and agree with the agressors!


Jan. 28, 2004
Holocaust memorial vandalized in Budapest
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
BUDAPEST, Hungary

Vandals smeared red paint Tuesday on a mosaic placed on the banks of the Danube River to commemorate Jews killed during World War II, the state-run news agency MTI reported.

The memorial honors Jews shot and thrown into the Danube by pro-Nazi forces. Around 600,000 Hungarian Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

The vandalism coincided with observances of Holocaust Remembrance Day. It marks the day when the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex - where more than 1.5 million people perished, 90 percent of them Jews - was liberated by advancing Soviet troops on Jan. 27, 1945.

Israelis Threaten Challenge to Prisoner Exchange

01.27.04 (6:11 pm)   [edit]
Comments?




[b]Israelis Threaten Challenge to Prisoner Exchange
Reuters
Tue Jan 27, 6:53 AM ET

[i]By Jon Immanuel[/b][/i]

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Families of Israeli victims of Palestinian militant attacks threatened a legal challenge on Tuesday to the release of hundreds of Arab prisoners in an exchange with Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbollah.

The Prisons Service has named 436 prisoners, most of them Palestinians, to be freed in return for an Israeli businessman held by Hizbollah and three Israeli troops presumed dead after they were abducted while on border patrol in 2000.

Some Israelis fear the deal could encourage more Hizbollah kidnappings. Representatives of families bereaved by militants say they oppose releasing any of about 7,500 Palestinians jailed by Israel -- many in the past three years of violence.

They acknowledge that a challenge in the High Court of Justice is unlikely to prevent anyone being released, but scoured the roster of those to be freed so as to appeal against freeing specific prisoners.

"We are still going over the names before launching an appeal, it is very painful," said Yaffa Elharar of the Victims of Terror Organization. Her 18-year-old daughter was killed in a 1994 car bombing which she said had been arranged by a recently released prisoner.

Families celebrated in the West Bank and Gaza Strip at news their loved ones would soon be coming home. About 400 of those being released are Palestinians.

"This will give us a chance to live in peace," said Azmi Dweik in Hebron, preparing for the return of his 28-year-old son Ossam who was jailed for two years as a member of Islamic Jihad. "It is a good step for Israelis and Palestinians."

Palestinians say prisoner amnesties are key to salvaging a U.S.-led peace "road map" battered by bloodshed. U.S. diplomat John Wolf is in the region to try to salvage the plan. He was to be joined by fellow U.S. envoy David Satterfield Tuesday.

Senior Egyptian officials held talks with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat as part of the new flurry of diplomacy.

Israeli officials had sought to assuage public outcry by pledging no Palestinians "with blood on their hands" -- involved in injurious attacks -- would go free.

But number three on the list, Ali Yussuf, was jailed for killing a soldier in Lebanon in 1992.

Among others were failed suicide attackers, stone throwers and petrol bombers.

Following Thursday's swap, Israel is to return the remains of 59 Arab guerrillas killed in action to their next of kin.

Thursday's roster also includes 23 Lebanese and 12 other Arab prisoners, as well as Steven Josef Smyrek, a German convert to Islam convicted of planning to carry out a suicide attack in Israel on behalf of Hizbollah in 1997. (Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Haitham Tamimi in Hebron, Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah)

Internet Gold Increases Penetration in Israeli Search Engine Market

01.27.04 (6:07 pm)   [edit]
Thought this might be a good stock tip~





[b]Internet Gold Increases Penetration in Israeli Search Engine Market
Tuesday January 27, 7:07 am ET[/b]

PETACH TIKVA, Israel, Jan. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Internet Gold today reported that during fourth-quarter 2003, it increased its activity in the rapidly growing Israeli search engine market. Internet Gold's MSN Israel subsidiary reported a 56% increase in sales of MSN Search in Hebrew during the quarter.

MSN Search in Hebrew is an independent Microsoft search engine, utilizing the search engine platform developed by Microsoft Corporation. In addition, Internet Gold has a strategic cooperation with Netex a popular Israeli navigation system and search engine. Netex (patent pending) provides the first comprehensive solution for the Internet user to reach websites directly in his mother language.

Internet Gold estimates that revenues in the Israeli search engine market will reach US$4 million in 2004. Through the activity of its two brands, Internet Gold estimates that it currently holds 35 percent of this market.

Internet Gold's CEO, Eli Holtzman, commented: "Just as more and more people worldwide are accessing the speed and power of search engines to get the information they need, we estimate that the growth of Israel's search engine market will continue to accelerate in coming years.

"Many advertisers are leveraging both the easy availability and the relatively low prices of this powerful tool, and a number of them advertise their products and services on different search engines simultaneously. These trends produce excellent potential for our efficient search engine, MSN Search in Hebrew, as well as for Netex and I expect our sales in this market to increase in 2004."

About Internet Gold

Internet Gold is a leading Internet service provider in Israel. The Company provides a wide array of Internet services tailored to the needs of residential and business subscribers, including Internet access and related value-added services, as well as content through its portals. The Company provides the full variety of Internet access services including Broadband access via DSL lines and Cables, dial-up and private lines. Internet Gold operates the leading portal in Israel through its MSN Israel subsidiary (50.1%) with Microsoft Corp. and is a leading e-Commerce provider in Israel through its e-Commerce joint venture, Gold Trade (48.3%). In addition, Internet Gold has two wholly owned subsidiaries, Gold Mind focusing on Internet value added services and Internet Gold International specializing in international internet and communication services. For additional information about Internet Gold, please visit our Website at www.igld.com.

Certain statements made herein that use the words "estimate," "project," "intend," "expect," "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those which may be expressed or implied by such statements, including, among others, changes in general economic and business conditions and specifically, decline in demand for the Company's services, inability to timely develop and introduce new technologies, services and applications and loss of market share and pressure on prices resulting from competition. For additional information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties associated with the Company's business, reference is made to the Company's Annual Report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and its other reports as filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

For further information, please contact:
Ms. Idit Azulay, Internet Gold
+972 3 939-9848
idita@co.zahav.net.il

Or

Mrs. Ayelet Shaked Shiloni
Integrated IR
+972 3 635-6790
ayelet@integratedir.com

[line]

Source: Internet Gold

Iran, Europe Are Part of Hizballah’s POW Sting Operation

01.27.04 (12:54 pm)   [edit]
This article and more can be found at: http://www.debka.com and also in the links section to the left!






[b]Iran, Europe Are Part of Hizballah’s POW Sting Operation
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
January 27, 2004, 2:37 PM (GMT+02:00)[/b]



[i]The late Batya Arad opposed release of terrorists for her son`s remains.[/i]

The Israeli-Hizballah POW-abductees-DIA deal going into effect Thursday is even more lopsided than first reported, as discovered by DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources from unpublished elements of the accord. Tuesday, January 27, the Israeli government published the lists of prisoners to be released two days hence for the bodies of three Israeli soldiers kidnapped three years ago by the Hizballah on the Israeli side of the Lebanese border and businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum.

It includes 371 Palestinian prisoners and 60 detainees, 30 Lebanese and Arabs, and 1 German plus 59 bodies. Extra Palestinians were listed to top the figure up to 400 in case appeals to Israel’s Supreme Court in the next 48 hours block some of the releases.

However Part One of the deal is dwarfed by Part Two, according to the fresh revelations obtained exclusively by DEBKAfile’s sources. They also demystify some puzzling remarks dropped in the last three days: Saturday, January 24, the German mediator, Ernest Uhrlau, thanked Iran for its contribution (!); 24 hours later, Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah, reversing a long-held claim, announced that the missing Israeli navigator Ron Arad was not in Iran but Lebanon.

Our sources have discovered that not only Germany, but France, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece and the Netherlands are “contributing” to the victory parade the Hizballah chief is stage-managing in Lebanon to celebrate the successful outcome of the deal. These European countries are preparing to release Iranian, pro-Iranian, pro-Syrian Lebanese, Hizballah and other prisoners under sentence for assorted terror-linked crimes dating from the 1980s, mostly against American and Israeli targets.

However, in a second round of releases, Israel will pay up too by setting free thousands of Palestinians, including men convicted or detained for murdering Israelis, on top of the 400 going to their West Bank and Gaza Strip homes Thursday.

Israel’s reward will be information attesting to the fate of its missing airman.

Over a TV talk show Monday night, two former Shin Beit directors, Shabtai Shavit and Yaacov Peri, spoke persuasively about the need to pull back from Part Two of the deal before it gets out of hand. They questioned prime minister Ariel Sharon’s claim that the transaction was moral when even the German mediator has not been told whether the information on offer proves the navigator is alive or dead. Like a majority of Israelis, his family is against handing over terrorist killers for his remains, certain that they will soon return to their old ways and gained a further incentive to continue kidnapping Israelis.

It has gradually dawned on informed Israeli circles that Part Two is the outcome of the German mediator actively assisting Iran and the Hizballah chief to use the POW deal for a sting operation against Israel. He has struck a secret side deal with Tehran to open a great many European prison gates to Iranian, pro-Iranian, pro-Syrian, Lebanese and possibly Palestinians convicted of terrorism. Israel has been drawn over its head into the arrangement by the lure of unspecified information about a serviceman who fell captive 18 years ago. Part One of the POW deal therefore may now be labeled “the small transaction” because Part Two is ballooning out of hand from a single name, that of the Druse Nahariya killer, Samir Kuntar.

The fallout is already palpable:

1. The Hizballah chief has begun boasting about how he sprang more Palestinian prisoners from Israeli confinement than all the Palestinian leaders, from Yasser Arafat to Abu Mazen, and Arab rulers rolled together. He is therefore claiming the adulation of the Palestinian and Arab masses and the right to force international diplomats to reckon with him as a strong regional voice in any future Middle East steps and decisions. For the Europeans, a new and forceful representative of the Palestinian people takes the place of the discredited Arafat.

2. Sharon and his defense minister Shaul Mofaz, who refused to negotiate with Arafat but agreed to engage Nasrallah, will find it hard to continue dismissing him as a mere terrorist chief.

3. The Europeans have nailed two birds with a single shot: First , Israeli concessions have enabled them to extend their protection to the Hizballah and its chief in case the United States takes action against a group listed officially in Washington as a terrorist organization. Second , for the same price, Europe has built itself a new bridge to Tehran, whose hard line leaders will be grateful to find relief from much of the international pressure weighing on their sophisticated weapons, including nuclear programs.

DEBKAfile’s sources with access to the text of the Israel-Hizballah agreement mediated by Germany were surprised by the gaps. There is no provision for either contingency of Arad being discovered alive - however unlikely, or being proven dead. In both cases, Israel is committed to freeing thousands of Palestinians. One source said: “Had there been any chance of recovering Arad alive, the price might have had a modicum of logic. But if Hizballah and Iran come up with proof that he is dead, Israel is trapped in a blind commitment and can hardly turn round and say we are reneging on the deal because you murdered our airman.”

In the interests of morality as well as avoiding the Hizballah-German-Iranian trap, Sharon and Mofaz would have done better to heed the last wish of Batya Arad, the aviator’s mother, who said on her deathbed: “If my son is dead, not a single terrorist should be given away for his body.”

Interestingly no comment has come from Washington on the European ramifications of the POW swap even though notorious murderers of Americans may go free. DEBKAfile’s Washington sources note that last week Sharon said Israel was wiling to iron out of the security barrier separating the West Bank and Israel the enclaves winding round the Jordan Valley, Ariel, Beit Arieh and Gush Etzion. In a conversation with the Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer Monday, January 26, he said he was considering re-routing the fence, whose construction has slowed down in the last week. Mofaz has meanwhile set up a special defense ministry team to take care of Palestinian humanitarian needs.

When these developments are added to the prospect of thousands of Palestinians being turned loose from Israeli prison in the coming weeks, including convicted murderers, the Israeli government looks as though it is in the midst of a sweeping policy change as regards the Palestinians. This departure, which coincides with the arrival of John Wolf, a senior state department official, may be Sharon’s way of meeting the Bush administration halfway in its demands with regard to the barrier and the need to address the human problems of the Palestinian people.

Saddam Husein's Guilt -- Or Not: Another Tigress Challenge

01.27.04 (11:23 am)   [edit]
I was snooping around the tblog community and I saw something that gave me an idea. Therefore, like once before, we're going to do another pseudo O'Rielly Factor thing and have the readers answer a question. So here we go...

Is there anything wrong with this statement:

[i][b]Saddam Husein should NOT have been "ousted" or "dethroned" on the basis that he massicred many Iraqi people. This is because those massicres happened years ago. We should have just left him alone and allowed him to continue running Iraq.[/b][/i]

So, if anyone who reads this may just respond DIRECTLY to the statement and the question posed with it, I'd appriciate it. It's a very streight forward question. I'm looking for a yes or no and then a short explanation of why.

Thanks!

France's AntiSemitism

01.27.04 (10:57 am)   [edit]
Respectfully lifted from rsheinfield's blog: http://rsheinfield.tblog.com




[b]Anti-Semitism: The French Crisis
[i]By Michel Gurfinkiel[/i]
New York Sun | January 26, 2004[/b]

There is currently an upsurge of anti-Semitism all over Europe. In France, the European country with the largest Jewish community (600,000 to 1 million, or 1% to 1.5 % of a global population of 62 million), it is reaching alarming proportions. According to recent polls, anywhere from one-third to one-half of French Jews either feels threatened enough or unsure enough about the future to
consider leaving the country or to advise his children to leave the country.

This is not petty anti-Semitism, as we may have known it for about 50 years in North America and in most of Western Europe - a tale of marginal incidents being carried on by fringe extremists - but rather a development that affects the entire nation. This is not a case of mere anti-Zionism either. The contemporary French anti-Semites are explicitly targeting Jews and Judaism, not Zionists. And they make no distinctions between the Jewish people at large, whether the Jewish community in France, in Europe, or in Israel.

And finally, this is not a case of bigotry, where anti-Jewish prejudice is derived from a lack of information about Judaism and the Holocaust. On the contrary, Judaism has been playing an important and visible national role in France throughout the last decades of the 20th century, and Holocaust awareness or pieties about the Holocaust are deemed to be part and parcel of the
contemporary national culture of France. The 16th of July, the anniversary of the infamous roundup of Parisian Jews in 1942, is now a national day. Every school where Jewish pupils were arrested either by the German Gestapo or the Vichy France police has been turned into a national landmark. For all that, the new anti-Semitism has been gaining ground day by day.

President Chirac, who first flatly denied anything like that was taking place, now acknowledges it as a major political concern. On November 17, 2003, he solemnly warned that "attacks against French Jews are attacks against France" and issued orders for a monthly review, at the highest government level, of anti-Semitic incidents.

What Are the Facts?

Since 2000, anti-Semitic violence has been rampant in France. According to the Interior Ministry, anti-Jewish violence has dramatically increased, to a yearly average of about 120 incidents in the 2000-02 period from a yearly average of about 10 incidents throughout the 1990s. Some 80% of all racist incidents in mainland France (except for the island of Corsica), are anti-Semitic. Some
20 synagogues, schools, and other communal facilities were destroyed either by arson or vandalization in the 2000-02 period. Two further cases of complete vandalization (one synagogue, one high school) occurred in 2003.

Several Jewish shops have been attacked. Jewish people are routinely being molested or harassed in some areas, especially on their way to synagogue or school or at school. Several rabbis have been attacked and beaten in the street. Jewish youths have been attacked while exercising at public sports facilities. Jewish school buses have been stoned or even shot at. One case of abduction
and one of near lynching in the street have been reported. And there is some reason to believe that two murder cases in 2003 were motivated by anti-Jewish hatred.

Even if and when actual violence is subsiding, the climate of the country is deteriorating. Murderous anti-Jewish slogans such as "Death to Jews!" are routinely being shouted at large-scale street demonstrations. Various groups and even elected officials are campaigning for a global boycott of Israeli and "Israeli-related" (i.e., Jewish) goods, or for the suspension or the termination of academic cooperation with Israel or even with individual Israeli scientists, a move prohibited under French law.

Explicitly anti-Jewish books have been published by major publishing houses, including books intended for children and teenagers, a market that, in theory, is strictly regulated by law in France.

A radical Islamist preacher who publicly singled out some French intellectuals for being Jewish and therefore foes of Islam, Tariq Ramadan, was turned into a television superstar of sorts. So has an Afro-French humorist who indulges in provocative anti-Jewish jokes and statements, Dieudonne Mbala.

Moreover, according to various reports and at least two recently published books ("Les Territoires Perdus de la Republique," edited by Emmanuel Brenner, and "La Republique et L'Islam," by Michele Tribalat and Jeanne-Helene Kaltenbach), schools and universities are becoming major hotbeds of anti-Semitism.

In some cases, both parents and pupils insist on rewriting the textbooks in a more anti-Jewish or anti-Israel way, and dropping programs and debates about Judaism and the Holocaust, which are part of the government-mandated curriculum. In many places, Jewish students, teachers, and academics feel physically or verbally threatened or abused but get precious little support from principals or teachers and colleagues.

The Response

The response from the government and the other powers that be has been limited or ineffective for too long. It took more than a year, from October 2000 to November 2001, for the French press (some exceptions notwithstanding) to report extensively about the anti-Semitic crisis. Even now, some press and broadcast groups keep referring to "intergroup friction," as if Jews were engaging in racist violence as well or retaliating, which is not the case. The French political class has reacted in an even more awkward manner.

Political parties and nongovernmental organizations didn't call for demonstrations against anti-Semitic violence, as might have been expected, or as it has occurred in the past (in 1980, 1982, and 1988), nor associated, on April 7, 2002, with a mass rally against anti-Semitism and terrorism sponsored by the Conseil Representatif des Institutions Juives de France (the Representative
Council of Jewish Organizations in France).

Under the socialist government of Lionel Jospin, until April 22, 2002, officials - especially at the Interior Ministry - were busy denying or downplaying the crisis. Things have improved since the 2002 elections, with the conservative government led by Jean-Pierre Raffarin. Still, the Interior Ministry remains very cautious in its estimates of anti-Semitic incidents and seems at times
reluctant to enforce the existing antiracist laws, including a new law passed by the conservative-dominated National Assembly at the request of the conservative Jewish representative for the 9th District of Paris, Pierre Lellouche.

An extremely small number of people have been prosecuted or indicted for anti-Semitic offenses. Those who have, unfortunately, have not been sentenced as heavily as the law permits. More often than not, French courts have turned down complaints of anti-Semitism. There is even a case of a Jewish family that was sentenced to a 3,000-euro fine for simply having lodged such a complaint.

The Muslim Factor

The new anti-Semitism in France has much to do with the unprecedented immigration from the Islamic world, both legal and illegal, that is currently reshaping the country. Conservative estimates - in the absence of reliable race or religion-related statistics, which are not allowed under French law - put the current Muslim population of France at 6 million. Some sources point to 8 million.

The non-Muslim population is aging and declining. Its fertility rate is said to be close to 1.4 children for every woman, just like in most neighboring European countries (e.g., Germany: 1.3; Italy and Spain: 1.2).

The Muslim population, however, is young and rising: its average fertility rate is said to be of three or four children for every woman. When it comes to the youngest age bracket - residents under the age of 25 - the overall ratio of Muslims rises significantly (25% to 30%). Moreover, there is evidence that intermarriage is common between non-Muslims and Muslims, that most interfaith
families tend to associate with Islam rather than with Christianity, and that conversion to Islam in rising all over France, whereas the Christian faith and practice is plummeting. Islam may thus develop soon into a full-fledged French religion and culture, and even replace Christianity, at some point in the future, as the main religion of the land.

Quite naturally, this sudden demographic and religious change is bringing about a social and political change: French Muslims are poised to play a growing role in the coming elections (most are French citizens by now, especially the younger generation, since France bestows full citizenship on any child born on its soil) as well as in education, business, professions, the Civil Service, the police and the military forces.

The conservative minister of the interior, Nicolas Sarkozy, is in favor of affirmative action for Muslims. Perhaps as a first token of things to come, he put a Muslim prefet (governor), Aissa Dermouche, in charge of the departement (county) of Jura, in Eastern France.

Now, it is a sad fact that traditional Muslim culture, both at the popular and the scholarly level, is deeply contemptuous of Judaism and the Jews. And it is another sad fact that contemporary Muslim culture - either strictly religious or semi-secular - is permeated by a more extreme, more radical, anti-Semitic philosophy, according to which Jews are not just despicable but
intrinsically unreliable or evil and should be either marginalized or annihilated.

As far as Muslim immigrants in France are concerned, they come from countries where these negative views are nurtured by religious education, political discourse, the educational curriculum, and the press. Once in France, they keep in touch with their country's culture and biases in many ways, including Arab television networks. The same considerations apply, to a large extent, to the
French-born citizens of the Muslim faith, who are the sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters of the immigrants.

French Muslims thus live in a cultural enclave and are well equipped to dismiss those parts of the dominant French culture that do not fit their own culture. Admittedly, some parts of the immigrant community are less prejudiced.

As a rule, the more committed to Islam and Arab culture they are, the more anti-Semitic French Muslims tend to be. Conversely, the less committed they are, the more likely they are to reject anti-Semitism. This translates into ethnic lines.

French Muslims of Arab descent are usually religious Muslims and unreconstructed anti-Semites. French Muslims of Berber descent (especially the large Kabyle community, estimated at 1.5 million) are usually more secular and more prepared to reject radical anti-Semitism and engage into good relations with Jews. As for militant Berbers or Kabyles, they tend to be frankly friendly with Jews and to entertain positive views about Israel.

Old Anti-Semitism Reawakened

The growth of Islam and of Islamic anti-Semitism is only one side of the problem. The other side is that it is reawakening and reinforcing an autochthonous French anti-Semitic tradition. Anti-Semitism, both right wing and left wing (the 19th century socialist, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, advocated "either sending back the Jews to Asia or exterminating them") played a rather important role in French culture and politics from the Revolution through the Third Republic, and was turned, with comparatively little effort, into a state policy under the pro-German Vichy regime, from 1940 to 1944.

Even after it was suppressed as thoroughly politically incorrect in the post-Holocaust era, it has retained tacit or not so tacit acceptance in many quarters, including the political establishment. The man who headed the French Resistance against the Germans and Vichy, and then founded the Fifth Republic, General Charles de Gaulle, in 1967, shockingly described the Jewish people in a
public speech delivered in the wake of the Six Days War, as "an elite, self-conscious, and domination oriented nation" - an anti-Semitic cliche. One year later, he alluded to "noteworthy Israeli influences" in French public life.

The socialist president of France, from 1981 to 1995, Francois Mitterrand, was reported to have expressed similar views in private. He had been close to radical anti-Semitic circles as a young man and remained for all of his life a close (and devoted) friend of Pierre Bousquet, the head of the Vichy police during the war, and as such, one of the main organizers of the Holocaust in
France.

It comes, accordingly, as no surprise that the lesser ranks of French politics and public administration feel free to engage in radical anti-Semitic discourse or practice of one sort or the other. Vilification of Israel as an illegitimate "rogue state" or even as a "little s___ state" is not infrequent among senior civil servants, especially at France's foreign office, the Quai d'Orsay.

Anti-Semitism has also extended, time and again, to mainstream politics, either in a thinly veiled form as "anti-Zionism" (a term favored by the left) or as "anti-lobbyism"(a euphemism in use at one well-known far right organization, Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front).

Quite obviously, the present anti-Semitic crisis in France should be addressed by the citizens of France first, either Jewish or not. Quite naturally, it should elicit appropriate concern from Jewish communities in the rest of the world. However, the fact that an important, democratic nation in Western Europe can be so quickly and so thoroughly undermined by anti-Semitism should also be
matter of concern - and a warning - for all Western nations, including America.

REVEREND SHARPTON'S ANTI-SEMITIC & RACIST BROADCASTS

01.26.04 (11:26 pm)   [edit]
Here is a set of complete transcripts revealing Democratic Primary Presidential candidate Al Sharpton's feelings about Jews and other non-blacks.

http://www.jewishpost.com/jewishpost/jpn201g.html" title="http://www.jewishpost.com/jewishpost/jpn201g.html" target="_blank"http://www.jewishpost.com/jew...

This site will be added to the links section.

THE JESUS THING

01.26.04 (7:39 pm)   [edit]
[b]I found this rather interesting so I thought I'd share it.

[u]*Disclaimer: The attitudes and feelings expressed in this Op/Ed do NOT necissarily refect my own attitudes and feelings! So please don't bombard me with anything accusing me of things I don't feel, say, nor advocate! I just put it up here to see what people have to say about it! Thank you and enjoy the piece:[/b][/u]


[b]Thu Jan 8, 7:01 PM ET
[i]By Ann Coulter [/b][/i]

When they were fund-raising, the Democratic candidates for president all claimed to be Jewish. Now that they are headed for Super Tuesday down South, they've become Jesus freaks. Listening to Democrats talk about Jesus is a little like listening to them on national security: They don't seem terribly comfortable with either subject.


To ease Democrats into the Jesus thing, the Democratic Leadership Council is holding briefings for Democratic candidates teaching them how to talk about religion. The participants were warned that millions of Americans worship a supreme being whose name is not Bill Clinton. As has been widely reported, the DLC gingerly suggests that Democrats start referring to "God's green earth."


Democrats never talk about believing in something; they talk about simulating belief in something. Americans believe in this crazy God crap that we don't, so how do we hoodwink them into believing we believe in God? It's part of the casual contempt Democrats have for the views of normal people.


What is arresting is the Democrats' fantastic habit of openly talking about how they plan to fake out the American people. The Democrats candidly say: How do we make sure the Americans don't know what we're really thinking? Let's get a Southerner, let's talk about Jesus, let's talk about NASCAR -- white Southern guys seem to like that. Let's see ... If we could get a general on the ticket, Americans will forget how much we hate the military and long to see America humiliated.


Never has a major political party talked so openly about their plans to fool the voters. It's the damnedest thing I've ever seen. They seem not to realize the people they are talking about are listening and might not be fooled.


In the current New Republic magazine, Peter Beinart points out that the capture of Saddam has hurt the anti-war cause and left the Democrats with nothing to say. He proposes that Democrats pretend to support the war on terrorism by calling for a massive campaign to catch Osama. Yeah, let's try that. That'll fool 'em.


In the debate this week, John Kerry responded to a question about how he would appeal to Southerners by saying he could put a Southerner on his ticket. As Howard Dean has explained, they're stupid enough: It's just a bunch of white guys in pickup trucks with Confederate flags.


Dean himself has recently made the fascinating discovery that a lot of Americans believe in God. Hold the phones -- the Democrats have a soothsayer in their midst! Next, Dean will be announcing that he's just discovered how important this sex thing is.


Before the poll numbers came out on religious belief in America, Dean said: "We have got to stop having our elections in the South based on race, guns, God and gays." Higher taxes, gay marriage, abortion on demand and surrender in Iraq -- that'll do the trick in Mississippi!


Then about a month ago, the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press released a poll showing that people who regularly attend religious services supported Bush 63 percent to 37 percent, and those who never attend religious services opposed him 62 percent to 38 percent. When you exclude blacks (as they do in Vermont), who are overwhelmingly Baptist and overwhelmingly Democratic, and rerun the numbers, basically any white person who believes in God is a Republican.


The only Democrats who go to church regularly are the ones who plan to run for president someday and are preparing in advance to fake a belief in God.


Though Dean is pursuing the Jesus thing with a vengeance, the results so far have been mixed. In Iowa last week, Dean said, "Let's get into a little religion here," and then began denouncing Christian minister Jerry Falwell. "Don't you think Jerry Falwell reminds you a lot more of the Pharisees than he does of the teachings of Jesus?" I don't even know what Dean means by that. I am sure his audience doesn't.


Rapping with reporters about God on the campaign plane, Dean said, "(I)f you know much about the Bible, which I do" -- and then proceeded to confuse the Old Testament with the New Testament.


Dean illiterately claimed his favorite book of the New Testament was the Book of Job. (He said his least favorite was the Book of Numbers and then explained how he planned to balance the budget.) Having already complained to DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe about other Democrats attacking him, Dean recently said: "I'm feeling a little more Job-like recently." That's comforting. A few snippy remarks from the likes of Dick Gephardt and Dean thinks it's the wrath of the God of Abraham. Yeah, that's definitely the guy we want leading the nation in perilous times.


Dean's epiphanic religious awakening occurred over a bike path -- and that's his version of what happened. He was baptized Catholic and raised an Episcopalian, but left the Episcopal Church in a huff when he finally found his true religion: environmentally friendly exercise.


The Episcopals don't demand much in the way of actual religious belief. They have girl priests, gay priests, gay bishops, gay marriages -- it's much like The New York Times editorial board. They acknowledge the Ten Commandments -- or "Moses' talking points" -- but hasten to add that they're not exactly "carved in stone." After Bush said that the most important philosopher to him was Jesus Christ, the Episcopal bishop in Des Moines, Iowa, C. Christopher Epting, pronounced the answer "a turnoff." So there isn't a lot of hair-shirt-wearing and sacrifice for the Episcopalians.


But the bike path incident was too much for Dean. A key tenet of the Druidical religion of liberals is non-fossil fuel travel. So Dean left the Church of the Proper Fork because the Episcopal Church in Montpelier hesitated before ceding some of its land for a bike path.


On CNN, Judy Woodruff asked in amazement, "Was it just over a bike path that you left the Episcopal Church?"

Dean: "Yes, as a matter of fact it was."

Dean waxed expansive on the theological implications of bike paths, saying: "I didn't think that was very public-spirited."

But recently, Dean has leapt even beyond the DLC-recommended "God's green earth" and begun talking about Jesus, saying, "He was a person who set an extraordinary example that has lasted 2,000 years, which is pretty inspiring when you think about it." Gosh, Jesus is giving Oprah a run for her money. Also, Christ died for our sins, but let's not get into the hocus-pocus part of Christianity. The gist of the New Testament is about bike paths.

Dean's relationship with Jesus is a little like David Lloyd George's relationship with the Slovaks. At the Treaty of Versailles conference, the British prime minister was heard to whisper: "Who are the Slovaks again? I can never place them."

Quizzerinos!

01.26.04 (5:57 pm)   [edit]
Yee...





Fight Club!


What movie Do you Belong in?(many different outcomes!)
brought to you by Quizilla


Ghost or spirit: You are a lost soul. Very calm and
sweet, you are often the one who asks: What if?
With a clever mind, you want to explore the
world on a different level. Without the
answers, you aren't ready to move on. You are
most likely very creative and find yourself
thinking things through on a different level.
(please rate my quiz)


**Where will you go when you die?**(now with pics)
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You have a fiery soul. You aren't the quickest to
get angered, but when you do get angry things
can go really wrong really fast. You are
generally very passionate in the things you do.
(Rate my test)


What force is your soul?
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Jesus as Messiah...

01.26.04 (4:48 pm)   [edit]
So this was a reply I got to a previous post. The writer quoted me in his reply.

01.20.04 [1:39 pm] (PST)

I have replied to these in my blog.
All the fallacies that you've come up with against Jesus Christ's name are disproven.
I will reply to all of your comments in two parts.

» 01.25.04 [11:18 am] (PST)

[quote]
Judge for yourself:
Did Jesus fulfill ALL these criteria?
The Jewish tradition of "The Messiah" has its foundation in numerous biblical references, and understands "The Messiah" to be a human being - without any overtone of deity or divinity - who will bring about certain changes in the world and fulfill certain criteria before he can be acknowledged as "The Messiah".
[/quote]
When Jesus Christ was here on earth, He was indeed a man. In full flesh, bones, and blood, He was a made created of the same stuff of life as you or I. This is why He was able to be tempted as satan. This is also why He was fully capable of committing sin. But Jesus Christ also had the Holy Spirit. All men do have spirits but the Spirit of Jesus Christ was God's Spirit. He was also created in the exact image of God, the way the first Adam (Hah-Ah-Dam) man was.

[quote]
The genealogy of the New Testament is inconsistent. While it gives two accounts of the genealogy of Joseph, it states clearly that he is not the biological father of Jesus. One of the genealogies is through Nathan and not Solomon altogether!
[/quote]
The scripture is indeed consistent. It seems inconsistent to those that do not read it with understanding. The two accounts of Jesus Christ's genealogy were given in the beginning of Matthew of Chapter 1 and the Gospel According to Luke of Chapter 3 starting at around Verse 23. Matthew goes forwards starting from Abraham and going all the way to Joseph, where Luke starts from Joseph and goes backwards toward the first Adam, calling him the son of God because he was created by God.
Now all of the Bible is mathematically correct. Matthew began forwards and divided the genealogy of Christ into 3 sets of 14 names, which is in accord with the number that is God's seal, the number 7.
In the Gospel According to Matthew,
1st Chapter, Verse 17, states: "So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations."
The carrying away into Babylon was of that mentioned earlier in Verse 11. where Josias begat Jechonias and his bretheren, then Jechonias begat Salathiel. There is a reason why he did this. The whole of the word has mathematical meaning and the meaning described by Matthew is no exception. Matthew leaves out, selectively, generations so much as to describe that the genealogy is sacred. The number 14 equals the numerical value of the name of David (DWD). There are 42 mentioned in the genealogy and in Luke's description there are 77, in multiples of seven. The seventy-seven is given by Adam to Abraham (21) to David (14) until the exile (21) to Joseph (21), in numerical significance. But, it traces it all the way back to Adam, where Matthew only goes back as far as to Abraham. It says in both that Jesse is the father of David who is the King, but Matthew's says that David had Solomon and goes from there, where Luke's goes from David to Nathan, which is where you had trouble. Luke goes from Adam to Abraham. Then that's where you can compare the two. They are both in accord from Abraham to David. Then they both take a different turn right after then. This is where your Nathan trouble comes in. In those times, Jewish laws, as Jesus and from those he was descended from were both Gentiles and Jews, permitted that, given a brother were to die or pass on, his widow would have to become his brothers wife and his children to go with him. Thus, the dead brother would be kept alive through his children by their mother wed to their father's brother, who becomes their father by law, a legal father. A father to children by law is as much of a father as a father to children by nature. But, it was done this way so that it was sort of a mortal attempt at resurrection where the name of the deceased brother would be perpetuated so by his children or his widow. So, one genealogy is by nature, the other by law; and if you examine the genealogies, you will find evidence of this. Some of this is revealed in the line where it says in genealogy according to Matthew in
Verse 6 "And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias; ..."
Matthan was descended from Solomon. Matthan had Jacob and when Matthan died, Melchi, who descended from Nathan, had Eli with the same woman. Eli and Jacob were brothers in this way by the law. Eli died childless and Jacob took Eli's widow and gave birth to Joseph, who was his son by nature, but by law still Eli's son. Joseph was the son and descendent of both Solomon and Nathan, where the genealogies split off and [i]appear[/i] to disagree. But, there is no error. This proves His ancestry is through King David, who was promised by God to give birth to a Kingdom that should last forever; and it also proves He is from the root of Jesse in the Book of Isaiah Chapter 11 Verse 1 to 5 and 10.
Who could be all of these things but Jesus Christ, the man depicted here in God's words who is of God? Do you think that there is a messiah that is yet to be born?


[quote]
First of all, he must be Jewish - "...you may appoint a king over you, wham the Lord your God shall choose: one from among your brethren shall you set as king over you." (Deuteronomy 17:15)
[/quote]
As it is proven in the ancestry above, Jesus Christ is Jewish.

[quote]
He must be a member of the tribe of Judah - "The staff shall not depart from Judah, nor the sceptre from between his feet..." (Genesis 49:10)
He must be a direct male descendant of King David and King Solomon, his son - "And when your days (David) are fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who shall issue from your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will make firm the throne of his kingdom forever..." (2 Samuel 7:12 - 13)
[/quote]
In those times, the law did not permit them to marry outiside of their tribe. Even Joseph, who was of the tribe of Judah, married Mary, who was also of the tribe of Judah.

You said that you do not believe Jesus Christ to be of the ancestry of King David which is of the tribe of Judah because Jesus Christ wasn't biologically the son of Joseph. But Jesus Christ was of Mary, who was married to Joseph. Marriage Biblically, as described in Genesis, is leaving your mother and father to be cleaved to your wife. Then, in God's Almighty eyes, the two, a man and his wife, shall be seen as one flesh. It doesn't matter whether Jesus Christ wasn't conceived from Joseph uniting with Mary. Jesus Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit, as it says, and carnated in the flesh in Mary, who was married to Joseph. So he is His father. It doesn't matter how men see it. How God sees us is far more important. This can be divided back to The Book of Genesis Chapter 2, Verse 24.

[quote]He must gather the Jewish people from exile and return them to Israel -"And he shall set up a banner for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." (Isaiah 11:12)
Are all Jews living in Israel? Have all Jews EVER lived in Israel since the time of Jesus?
[/quote]
His believers were Jewish and Gentile alike. There were Jews that believed in Him and Jews that did not. He did have disciples that followed Him and after His resurrection and they did spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the corners of the earth (end of Verse 20 in Chapter 28), which would include Jewish exiles from Israel. And yes, they did speak in tongues by His Holy Spirit, communicating with the people of each nation. And Jesus Christ came to bring all people to His Father, whether they are Jewish or not. Gospel According to Matthew Chapter 28, Verse 19.

"He must rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem." He rebuilt the temple. But the temple isn't what you think it is. God incarnated the Holy Spirit into Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God, which all things were created for. In the Gospel According to Matthew Chapter 26, Jesus says:
Verse 61: And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.
God is all around us and within us. I think you can agree that God sees all and has power over everything. But, why would God's temple be a temple built by men? The body is a temple. God loves in the hearts of the righteous, does He not? The Holy Spirit was incarnated in Mary's womb and Jesus Christ as a man was the result. This was the temple that God was talking about. They crucified Jesus. Indeed yes, on a cross. And He did there die on that place. But after 3 days He was raised from that state by His Father. He was rebuilt and was with the Father in heaven and in a body that was no longer of the flesh at his crucifixion. He returned to the earth to direct His disciples and sent them out as apostles. The temple that He was talking about wasn't the temple built in fourty and six days, but God's temple, as the human body of God is His temple. The temple which housed the Holy Spirit.


Part II is coming soon.

[LINE]

Here is what I have to say about it:


[i]When Jesus Christ was here on earth, He was indeed a man. In full flesh, bones, and blood, He was a made created of the same stuff of life as you or I. This is why He was able to be tempted as satan. This is also why He was fully capable of committing sin. But Jesus Christ also had the Holy Spirit. All men do have spirits but the Spirit of Jesus Christ was God's Spirit. He was also created in the exact image of God, the way the first Adam (Hah-Ah-Dam) man was.[/i]

That goes against the Jewish tradition. That is not how Adam was created. Adam was a man with a soul of his own that God breathed into him--not God-incarnate. Every human soul is a part of God. That is part of how we were ALL created in His image. We are, however, not God-incarnate. Furthermore, the criteria for Messiah, according to Judaism, requires just that: a man with a soul of his own; not God-incarnate.

[i]The scripture is indeed consistent. It seems inconsistent to those that do not read it with understanding. The two accounts of Jesus Christ's genealogy were given in the beginning of Matthew of Chapter 1 and the Gospel According to Luke of Chapter 3 starting at around Verse 23. Matthew goes forwards starting from Abraham and going all the way to Joseph, where Luke starts from Joseph and goes backwards toward the first Adam, calling him the son of God because he was created by God.
Now all of the Bible is mathematically correct. Matthew began forwards and divided the genealogy of Christ into 3 sets of 14 names, which is in accord with the number that is God's seal, the number 7.
In the Gospel According to Matthew,
1st Chapter, Verse 17, states: "So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations."
The carrying away into Babylon was of that mentioned earlier in Verse 11. where Josias begat Jechonias and his bretheren, then Jechonias begat Salathiel. There is a reason why he did this. The whole of the word has mathematical meaning and the meaning described by Matthew is no exception. Matthew leaves out, selectively, generations so much as to describe that the genealogy is sacred. The number 14 equals the numerical value of the name of David (DWD). There are 42 mentioned in the genealogy and in Luke's description there are 77, in multiples of seven. The seventy-seven is given by Adam to Abraham (21) to David (14) until the exile (21) to Joseph (21), in numerical significance. But, it traces it all the way back to Adam, where Matthew only goes back as far as to Abraham. It says in both that Jesse is the father of David who is the King, but Matthew's says that David had Solomon and goes from there, where Luke's goes from David to Nathan, which is where you had trouble. Luke goes from Adam to Abraham. Then that's where you can compare the two. They are both in accord from Abraham to David. Then they both take a different turn right after then. This is where your Nathan trouble comes in. In those times, Jewish laws, as Jesus and from those he was descended from were both Gentiles and Jews, permitted that, given a brother were to die or pass on, his widow would have to become his brothers wife and his children to go with him. Thus, the dead brother would be kept alive through his children by their mother wed to their father's brother, who becomes their father by law, a legal father. A father to children by law is as much of a father as a father to children by nature. But, it was done this way so that it was sort of a mortal attempt at resurrection where the name of the deceased brother would be perpetuated so by his children or his widow. So, one genealogy is by nature, the other by law; and if you examine the genealogies, you will find evidence of this. Some of this is revealed in the line where it says in genealogy according to Matthew in
Verse 6 "And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias; ..."
Matthan was descended from Solomon. Matthan had Jacob and when Matthan died, Melchi, who descended from Nathan, had Eli with the same woman. Eli and Jacob were brothers in this way by the law. Eli died childless and Jacob took Eli's widow and gave birth to Joseph, who was his son by nature, but by law still Eli's son. Joseph was the son and descendent of both Solomon and Nathan, where the genealogies split off and [i]appear[/i] to disagree. But, there is no error. This proves His ancestry is through King David, who was promised by God to give birth to a Kingdom that should last forever; and it also proves He is from the root of Jesse in the Book of Isaiah Chapter 11 Verse 1 to 5 and 10.
Who could be all of these things but Jesus Christ, the man depicted here in God's words who is of God? Do you think that there is a messiah that is yet to be born?[/i]

The geneology is through Judah who is to recieve kingly lines forever.

If Jesus is the son of God (for Mary was a virgin who gave birth to God's child), how can his lineage be traced through Joseph, Mary's husband, if Joseph didn't father the child? If Joseph is the father, Jesus then isn't the son of God and Mary was not a virgin when she gave birth. Contradictions.

The messiah may have yet to be born. He could also be already in existence and just hasn't surfaced yet.

[i]The scripture is indeed consistent. It seems inconsistent to those that do not read it with understanding.[/i]

Do you mean people who don't just blindly follow?


[i]As it is proven in the ancestry above, Jesus Christ is Jewish.[/i]

Yes, and not look to start new religions. He must be a man of HaShem, not a man of himself in replacement of HaShem.

[i]In those times, the law did not permit them to marry outiside of their tribe. Even Joseph, who was of the tribe of Judah, married Mary, who was also of the tribe of Judah.

You said that you do not believe Jesus Christ to be of the ancestry of King David which is of the tribe of Judah because Jesus Christ wasn't biologically the son of Joseph. But Jesus Christ was of Mary, who was married to Joseph. Marriage Biblically, as described in Genesis, is leaving your mother and father to be cleaved to your wife. Then, in God's Almighty eyes, the two, a man and his wife, shall be seen as one flesh. It doesn't matter whether Jesus Christ wasn't conceived from Joseph uniting with Mary. Jesus Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit, as it says, and carnated in the flesh in Mary, who was married to Joseph. So he is His father. It doesn't matter how men see it. How God sees us is far more important. This can be divided back to The Book of Genesis Chapter 2, Verse 24.[/i]

What determines whether you are Jewish or not goes through the mother. What determines which tribe you are from goes through the father. If his mother is from Judah it doesn't count. He isn't counted among the tribe of Judah.

Furthermore, "in those days" you could marry throughout any of the tribes. There were no religoius nor lawful restrictions of marrage between tribes. There is documentation in the Five Books to prove this. The only thing is that Jews should marry Jews. Levi married into Judah, Ephraim married into Menasheh. I'm not sure where you got that notion from.

[i]His believers were Jewish and Gentile alike. There were Jews that believed in Him and Jews that did not. He did have disciples that followed Him and after His resurrection and they did spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the corners of the earth (end of Verse 20 in Chapter 28), which would include Jewish exiles from Israel. And yes, they did speak in tongues by His Holy Spirit, communicating with the people of each nation. And Jesus Christ came to bring all people to His Father, whether they are Jewish or not. Gospel According to Matthew Chapter 28, Verse 19.[/i]

You missed the point. It didn't gather all of the Jews back into Israel and out of Diaspora. That is what is supposed to happen. You dodged it. He never did it.


[i]"He must rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem." He rebuilt the temple. But the temple isn't what you think it is. God incarnated the Holy Spirit into Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God, which all things were created for. In the Gospel According to Matthew Chapter 26, Jesus says:
Verse 61: And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.
God is all around us and within us. I think you can agree that God sees all and has power over everything. But, why would God's temple be a temple built by men? The body is a temple. God loves in the hearts of the righteous, does He not? The Holy Spirit was incarnated in Mary's womb and Jesus Christ as a man was the result. This was the temple that God was talking about. They crucified Jesus. Indeed yes, on a cross. And He did there die on that place. But after 3 days He was raised from that state by His Father. He was rebuilt and was with the Father in heaven and in a body that was no longer of the flesh at his crucifixion. He returned to the earth to direct His disciples and sent them out as apostles. The temple that He was talking about wasn't the temple built in fourty and six days, but God's temple, as the human body of God is His temple. The temple which housed the Holy Spirit.[/i]

Um, I'm pretty sure I DO know what the temple is and I know that it doesn't stand and we do not make sacrifices to HaShem within it's walls anymore (as we are supposed to in the Messianic era) because the walls do not stand. A mosque resides on the temple mount today. One wall stands (the "wailing wall") in Jerusalem and that is it. The Temple wasn't rebuilt. The prophacy refers to a physical rebuilding. Just because Jesus said he could do it doesn't mean he did it. That's really weak.

Jesus is not the messiah. The messiah has yet to be revealed. You havn't convinced me of his "Messianic Heritage" but only furthered my belief that he is truly not the messiah.


If you or anyone would like more information on the Jewish crieteria and ideas of messiah, please check out these links:

[url=]http://www.jewsforjudaism.com...[/url]

[url=]http://www.outreachjudaism.or...[/url]

[url=]http://www.torah.org/[/url]

[url=]http://www.ou.org/[/url]

[url=]http://askmoses.com[/url]

*You can find these links and many more in the links section to the left on my blog!

Hatzluchah to all in their ventures to find the true light of God.

Captain Kangaroo DIED! :'(

01.26.04 (3:57 pm)   [edit]
This is so sad. A moment of silence for a great childrens telivision pioneer! First Mr. Rogers and now this...

:cry:

[u][b]TV's 'Captain Kangaroo,' Bob Keeshan, dead
Friday, January 23, 2004 Posted: 1:45 PM EST (1845 GMT)[/b][/u]


(CNN) -- Television's Captain Kangaroo, Bob Keeshan, died Friday morning in Vermont, a family friend told CNN.

"Captain Kangaroo," a children's show, featured the walrus-mustached, bowl-haircut Keeshan entertaining youngsters with his gentle, whimsical humor. Among the show's other characters were Bunny Rabbit, Mr. Moose and Mr. Green Jeans (Hugh Brannum).

The show ran on CBS from 1955 to 1985, and then moved to public television for six more years.

Shows were frequently interrupted with silliness, such as hundreds of ping-pong balls dropping from the ceiling or Mr. Moose's knock-knock jokes, but the mainstay was Keeshan, who chatted with Brannum and told stories.


[line]

Copyright 2004 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

Comic Prosecuted for Anti-Semitic Remarks

01.26.04 (1:38 pm)   [edit]
[b][i]The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.[/i]

-Martin Luther King, Jr.[/b]

It's about friggin' time France steps up and does something right for once! I brought you this story origionally when the comic had first done his deed and the Jewish leaders from all over got very upset (and rightly so).

How very funny that Israel is accused by this farce French comic of the very evil that France helped to commit against the Jewish people! Enjoy the latest development...!


[b]Comic Prosecuted for Anti-Semitic Remarks
Fri Jan 23, 9:05 PM ET [/b]

PARIS - A well-known French comic will be prosecuted for on-air antics that included dressing up as an Orthodox Jew and decrying an "American-Zionist" axis, the Paris prosecutor's office said Friday.

Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala's performance, which drew criticism from the French prime minister, came during a prime-time TV show, "On Ne Peut Pas Plaire a Tout le Monde," ("You Can't Please Everybody") on Dec. 1.

As part of the skit, the comic raised an arm and shouted "Isra-Heil!" — a reference to the Nazi slogan, "Heil Hitler."

Prosecutors opened a preliminary investigation Dec. 24 into whether the comic's skit and "incriminating comments" constituted racial defamation.

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has said he was "shocked" by the performance, and the show's host, Marc-Olivier Fogiel, apologized for the episode. Several Jewish groups complained.

On Thursday, Justice Minister Dominique Perben said that "justice would be inflexible" if racism is proven.

"Racism is an evil that I don't want to see develop in this country," Perben said.

France has been battling a wave of anti-Semitic violence for more than two years, often involving attacks against Jewish schools, synagogues and community centers.

Israeli-Arab Prisoner Swaps!

01.26.04 (1:26 pm)   [edit]
History does seem to repeat itself, doesn't it?




[b]Israeli-Arabs History of Prisoner Swaps
Sat Jan 24, 3:44 PM ET

[i]By The Associated Press [/b][/i]

Israel has carried out many prisoner swaps with Arab countries since declaring independence in 1948, almost always giving more prisoners and bodies than it got in return. Here is a list, according to the Israeli army, of some major prisoner exchanges.

1948 War: Israel exchanges thousands of prisoners for 885 Israelis captured by various Arab countries.

1956 Sinai campaign in Egypt: Israel captures 5,500 Egyptian soldiers. Two months later, Israel trades all the Egyptian soldiers for four Israeli soldiers.

1967 War: Fifteen Israeli soldiers are taken prisoner by Arab countries. Israel trades 428 Jordanians and 572 Syrians in subsequent exchanges. In one instance, Jordan fills two coffins with dirt; the two soldiers who were supposed to be in there remain unaccounted for.

1973 War: Arab countries capture 314 Israeli soldiers, while Israel takes about 9,000 Arab soldiers. Prisoner exchanges take place in November 1973.

November 1983: Israel releases 4,765 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for six soldiers held by Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s Fatah (news - web sites) faction.

June 1984: Israel gives Syria 291 soldiers, 13 civilians and the bodies of 74 soldiers in exchange for three soldiers, three civilians and the bodies of five other soldiers.

May 1985: Israel releases 1,150 Arab prisoners in exchange for three soldiers captured in Lebanon in 1982.

August 2003: Israel hands over the bodies of two Hezbollah guerrillas in a goodwill gesture as German mediators negotiate a larger swap between the sides.

January 2004: Israel and Hezbollah reach agreement on exchanging an Israeli businessman for 400 Palestinians, 23 Lebanese, five Syrians, three Moroccans, three Sudanese, one Libyan and one German. Also included in the deal are the bodies of three Israeli soldiers and 59 Lebanese.

D'var Torah for last week: Vaeira

01.26.04 (12:47 pm)   [edit]
The Hebrew language has so many hidden lessons, and one such lesson lies within this week's Parsha, Vaeira, where God promises to take the Jews from under the 'burdens' of Egypt (6:6). But as the Rebbi of Gur explains, the Hebrew word that means 'burden' also means 'tolerant', which would make the Passuk (verse) read..."I will deliver you from being tolerant of Egypt".

We find proof for this tolerance when even after the Jews were released from Egypt, when the situation looked bleak, they wanted to go back to slavery. Had their slavery been such a burden, why would they ever consider going back?

The answer is that the problem was not that they were overworked, but that they were too tolerant of their surroundings! Hashem (God) therefore told them, and is telling us, that the first step Jews have to take is to realize when we are "slaves" to our society.

[b]If we tolerate our surroundings, not only will we not appreciate how LUCKY we are to be different, but also we'll forget that we even ARE different![/b]

In a society where some people hide their religious identity, the Torah is telling us to always keep in mind our ultimate differences as Jews, to never settle for being just like everyone else, and to love it, show it, and prove it in constructive ways every chance we get! In response to this Parsha, we should all pick one way to show the world, and OURSELVES what it means to be a Jew, whether it's by volunteering to visit the sick, to give charity, or to say one Perek (paragraph) of Tehilli (Psalm)nevery day: Find a way to find your way!

New Revelations Emerge About Nazi Victims

01.26.04 (12:27 pm)   [edit]
Disgusting...





[b]New Revelations Emerge About Nazi Victims
Sun Jan 25,10:25 PM ET
[i]By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer[/b] [/i]

NEW YORK - A flood of new revelations about grisly medical experiments on Jews during World War II show there probably were thousands more victims than had been previously thought, an expert said Sunday.


So far, 1,778 Jewish victims of Nazi medical experiments from 33 countries have responded to Jewish groups dispersing money from Holocaust settlements recently reached through lawsuits filed in U.S. courts.


Their stories — shocking even to those familiar with what was already known — should prompt a re-examination of the magnitude of experimentation done by Dr. Josef Mengele and his Nazi cohorts, said Gideon Taylor, executive vice president of the Conference on Jewish Materials Claims Against Germany.


A few of the written testimonies submitted to a settlement committee in the last year are being released Monday, Taylor said.


"We certainly didn't expect this number," Taylor said. He added that many of those who responded said they were more interested in having their stories known than in the $5,400 payouts, which will begin getting mailed this week.


Taylor said such a large number of people making claims indicates there were thousands more who died during the experiments or have died since. "Our knowledge has been significantly broadened," he said.


Data collected from the claimants show there were about 178 different types of medical experiments conducted in more than 30 camps and ghettos. Some victims were not Jewish, including a group of Polish nuns, Taylor said.


One 82-year-old man described an experiment in which Nazi dogs with poison on their teeth were let loose to chase him and another man and rip flesh from their legs.


A 73-year-old woman told of Mengele pulling her from a line of people headed to the gas chambers at Auschwitz to go to his laboratory, where she was injected with drugs and chemicals and "they made cuts into my body and left the wounds open for them to study."


"I was used as a guinea pig for medical experiments," she writes. At another point, she says, "As bad as the experiments were, without them I would not be here today to write this."


Reading the testimonies "forces you to believe the unbelievable," Taylor said. "These people have been through hell. There's no other way to describe it."


The victims' written statements will be given to Holocaust institutions, including the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.


Here is a list of the countries from which victims have responded and the number from each: Argentina, 6; Australia, 53; Austria, 6; Belgium, 12; Brazil, 10; Canada, 99; Chili, 1; Croatia, 1; Denmark, 6; France, 38; Germany, 65; Great Britain, 16; Greece, 5; Hungary, 182; Israel, 389; Italy, 3; Luxemburg, 1; Monaco, 1; Netherlands, 25; New Zealand, 2; Norway, 3; Peru, 1; Romania, 7; Serbia-Montenegro, 4; Slovak Republic, 66; South Africa, 3; Spain, 4; Sweden, 52; Switzerland, 6; United States, 707; Urugay, 1; Venezuela, 2 and Yugoslavia, 1.

Well, I'm back!

01.26.04 (12:14 pm)   [edit]
I'm back! Some of you may or may not have noticed that I vanished. I went to Florida last week. I visited my friends who just moved to this sunny state of humidity. Needless to say, it's a lot of fun. There are SO many Jewish communities in Maimi! You'd never have guessed. At least 70 Kosher restaurants and about as many synogogues! It's amazing! The food was great and so were the sites. I saw the alligator farm in the everglades and went on one of those swamp air boats.

I think I'm moving to florida! :P

So, I just wanted to let you know that I've returned and we shall continue our regularly scheduled program shortly...

My Latest Personal Run-In With AntiSemitism

01.18.04 (5:53 pm)   [edit]
So I was downtown today and needed to turn onto 5th Ave. to get into the mall. While in the turning lane, there was a black man with a knitted cap, a t-shirt and jeans standing on the corner with a sign. My first thought was that this was another homeless guy begging for money, as there are many of these downtown.

Then I noticed in one hand he was holding the sign and in the other he had little flyers that he was handing out, ready to give to anyone that so much as made eye-contact. As I moved closer to the corner, the sign became readable. It read, "9-11 was staged by the CIA, FBI and the Mossad (JEWS)!"

I was shocked!

Now, I've heard the Urban Myth that was propogated shortly after 9-11 that the downing of the twin towers was masterminded by the Jews. The Urban Legend goes further to say that 4,000 Israeli workers were warned ahead of time not to show up for work because of what was planned. Of course this is a complete fabrication. 4,000 Israelis didn't even work at the WTC. 400 Jews did, however, and many of which perished in the tradgedy. I know several families personally who lost loved ones and they are Jewish. I have written about it in the past on my blog. This myth was propogated by Arab radio and TV and some in the states were reached by it and, aparantly due to the bearer of this awful and hateful sign, many still believe it.

Sure I've had other AntiSemitic run-ins before. This isn't the first time. I've seen my synoguge vandelized as well as my old high school with swastikas. It doens't happen that often, thankfully, but it is a shock when an incident erupts and it's aimed at you or your people. Lately these incidents have happened more and more often though.

It was yet another rude awakening for myself.

You hear about AntiSemitic acts on the news all the time. You see suicide/homocide bombings on the net or TV. You may get riled up. You may just flip the station s'more. In America we are desensitized. When we become desensitized, we forget how terrible Jew-hatred, and hatred for any other group, really is.

When this happens, we are prone to hate. If we don't have a radar that is in proper function, we let things slide and we look the other way. Which is what many people on the street were doing: looking the other way.

On the positive side, I didn't see anyone taking his pamphlets. For that I am extatic. But what was also unsettling was that I saw no one challenging him either. As if, by public ommission of disgust, everyone almost gave it an "OK" stamp of approval. They may have had no problem with it. They may have just not cared. I'm not sure which is worse!

Well, as a Jew and one who is supportive of the Jewish state as well, I wasn't about to just pass by and say nothing. I wasn't about to "not care."

When I got to the corner before I made my turn, I rolled down my window. The man came over as if he was going to win another mind or heart. I shouted, "[b]FUCK YOU, JEW-HATER![/b]" and sped off and into the driveway of the mall parking structure.

A Memo To Yasir Arofat

01.18.04 (12:18 pm)   [edit]
This came from http://www.muslim-refusenik.c...



[b]“Take a leaf from the Prophet”

by [i]Irshad Manji[/i]
Globe and Mail, February 5, 2002[/b]

Salaam, Yasser! How goes the battle? Okay, bad choice of words.

I’ve been reading Raja Shehadeh’s new book, Strangers in the House: Coming of Age in Occupied Palestine. Even if you don’t know Raja very well, you’ll recall his father, Aziz. A lawyer and human-rights activist, like his son. Ring any bells? After the 1967 war, Aziz became the first Palestinian to draft a two-state solution to the conflict that has plagued you, every Israeli and U.S. leader, and the rest of us.

Now you remember? I wonder if you think that maybe Aziz had it right?

Of course, that wasn’t your view back then. In fact, what shocks me is how, according to Raja, you and your guys responded to his father’s proposal, calling him “a traitor, a despicable collaborator” on Arabic radio. “You shall pay for your treason,” the husky voice said. “We shall eliminate you. Silence you forever.”

Aziz lived till the mid-1980s, but he was mysteriously murdered. And long before that, the Palestinian lawyers union disbarred him.

Come to think of it, that’s not unlike what happened last year to playwright Ali Salem. The Egyptian writers union booted him out because of his visits to Israel. Or was it because the lessons he picked up on those visits fuelled his calls for Muslim moderation? Oy, it’s muddled.

Why resurrect the past? you ask. Because it shows us that preserving Arab honor is non-negotiable, right? The challenge is to find an approach to sharing the land that will let Palestinians retain dignity, identity and integrity. Well, in the Arab tradition of mediation, please allow a Muslim sister from North America to help. Laugh if you must, but I think I’ve got the key to a new way of thinking this puzzle through.

It starts with a piece of Arab history that most Muslims were never taught at the madressa: namely, that Jews cultivated a climate in which Prophet Muhammad could survive and spread the word about Islam.

Mecca’s pagan Arab population did not exactly welcome the Prophet in the early seventh century. They oppressed him to the point of threatening his life, obliging him to flee north to Medina. As Albert Hourani observed in A History of the Arab Peoples, the Prophet’s escape was helped by traders who needed an arbiter in tribal disputes. “Having lived side by side with Jewish inhabitants of the oasis, they were prepared to accept a teaching expressed in terms of a prophet and a holy book.”

Don’t you see, Yasser? The groundwork for Muhammad’s safety was laid by that gang who embraced earlier prophets and scripture. Say it with me: J-e-w-s.

And it gets more curious. Every Muslim knows that Prophet Muhammad’s journey to Medina is referred to as the hijra, or flight. Yet how many of us know that, in its original translation, the word means “seeking protection by settling in a place other than one’s own?” Rather like what Jews did after the Second World War.

Do you glimpse the breakthrough? I mean, here’s a form of Arab ammo, rooted in an Arab past, that permits Palestinians to claim the occupied territories as their own and yet compels them to welcome the other children of Abraham! Jewish tradition provided our Prophet with sanctuary and succour. Today, it’s payback time.

I appreciate that none of this settles the finer points of any deal. But what it does is remind you of the moral obligation to reach one – based not simply on rights, but also on reciprocity. If your people don’t know this, Yasser, teach them their history.

The Trouble with Islam

01.18.04 (11:57 am)   [edit]
This book I just got is very interesting. The Authors main site can be found here: http://www.muslim-refusenik.c... and you can find it now in my links section. You should definatly check this book and the website out. It's a must read whether you are Muslim, Jewish, Christian or otherwise. Enjoy the review below...

Irshad Manji is a name that the world will be familiar with very shortly. A self-proclaimed “Muslim Refusenik” – someone who refuses to join an army of robots in the name of Allah – Manji is among the foremost figures today calling for change within Islam. Her new book, THE TROUBLE WITH ISLAM (St. Martin’s Press; January 2004) has already caused a firestorm abroad and its content has led to the author being dubbed a “non-fiction Salman Rushdie.”

In this incredibly informative, thoroughly researched, bold yet entertaining book, Irshad Manji dares Muslims worldwide to take responsibility for their role in what ails Islam, to embrace rationality and to re-discover freedom of expression. She also dares non-Muslims to ask the important questions without worrying about being deemed “racists.” In more ways than one, THE TROUBLE WITH ISLAM is a clarion call for a fatwa-free future.
[LINE]
[u][b]This is from her website in the "Talk To Me" section:[/b][/u]

"I see from the many emails posted on your site, some of the venom thrown at you by Muslims. Keep the fight up. The cause is right and just. You are a great role model for my three daughters." - Anwer

"For all your correct indignation at the bastion of male chauvinism that our religion has become, I do counsel one thing: Be careful that you are not used by those who foment hate." - Khaleel

[i]Irshad replies: Let me tell you a story. When I was in Gaza over the summer, I met a Palestinian human rights advocate who spends much of his time exposing the human rights violations that the PA itself inflicts. I asked him, 'How do you respond to those who say that your criticisms will be used by people with racist, right-wing agendas?' He responded: 'Stop the human rights violations, and those people will have nothing to exploit.' Khaleel, I think he's got it right. He's putting the burden of change on those who would seek to excuse human rights abuses rather than expose them. That's my stance too. As the late Edward Said pointed out, 'The intellectual's role is to speak as plainly, honestly and directly as possible. No intellectual is supposed to worry that what is said embarrasses, pleases or displeases the people in power.' Feel free to let me know if you think I've got it wrong.[/i]

Saudi Pleads Guilty to Killing Jewish Friend in Texas

01.17.04 (9:57 pm)   [edit]
This is very strange and unfortunate...




[b]Saudi Pleads Guilty to Killing Jewish Friend in Texas
Tue Jan 13, 5:00 PM ET

[i]By Jeff Franks [/b][/i]

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A Saudi Arabian student has pleaded guilty to killing his Jewish friend, in a bizarre case tinged by world politics and U.S. security, his lawyer said on Tuesday.


Mohammed Ali Alayed, 23, faces up to 60 years in prison after admitting in court on Monday that he slashed the throat of Ariel Sellouk on Aug. 6.


Defense attorney George Parnham told Reuters he did not know the motive for the killing, in which Sellouk was nearly decapitated, but said religious differences were likely a factor.


"I can't help but believe this was an element, but how strong an element is totally up to speculation," said Parnham.


Alayed was in the United States on a student visa and became friends with Sellouk, a Jew of Moroccan descent, while the two attended Houston Community College, the Houston Chronicle reported.


They spent time together at local bars and socializing with women until about a year before the killing, when Alayed ended ties with Sellouk after a religious reawakening that led him to adopt a more conservative, Islamic lifestyle, authorities say.


Then, in August, Alayed contacted Sellouk again, they went to a bar and ended up at Alayed's apartment, where Alayed sliced Sellouk's throat. Alayed then went to a nearby mosque, authorities said.


Parnham said he recommended a plea bargain because he felt Alayed likely would be found guilty and get a life sentence, or 99 years in prison, due in part to the post-Sept. 11 climate.


"I think the whole dynamics of our present situation did not bode well for a defendant of Muslim heritage and a victim of Jewish heritage," he said.


Adding to his sense of foreboding, he said, was the fact that Homeland Security agents showed up at the jail to talk to Alayed without notifying Parnham and without his being present.


"I find that disturbing because these are the very types of things we are fighting to keep intact, the right to counsel and of counsel confidentiality," Parnham said.


"We have the dreaded knock in the middle of the night from Homeland Security, unbeknownst even to local law enforcement."


Homeland Security detective Bill Moore, who made the jailhouse visit to Alayed, told Reuters that Parnham was not contacted because the agency talked to his client about "jail security" issues that had nothing to do with the case.


"We routinely go over and interview inmates in the jail about matters not related to the case," he said. And they routinely do not tell the inmates' lawyers, he said.


Parnham said Alayed would be sentenced in April and he hopes by then Alayed's parents can come over from Saudi Arabia to testify on their son's behalf. They have not been able to come to his aid because they have been unable to obtain a U.S. visa, he said.

Israeli Rabbis Seek Pope's Help with Anti-Semitism

01.17.04 (9:49 pm)   [edit]
Joining together to fight AntiSemitism!

[b]Israeli Rabbis Seek Pope's Help with Anti-Semitism
Fri Jan 16,11:30 AM ET

[i]By Estelle Shirbon [/b][/i]

ROME (Reuters) - Israel's two chief rabbis met Pope John Paul Friday and asked the leader of the Roman Catholic Church to help combat anti-Semitism and terrorism.


Shlomo Amar and Yona Metzger said the pope, who has worked hard to mend Christian-Jewish ties during his 25-year pontificate, had shared their concerns on the issues.


"Our meeting should serve as a way to combat anti-Semitism in the world and especially in Europe," Amar told a news conference in the Great Synagogue of Rome, on the banks of the River Tiber, after the papal audience.


A survey published Thursday suggested anti-Semitism was on the rise in Italy, with 35 percent of those polled saying they believed Jews secretly control finance and the media.


The poll was the latest to warn of anti-Semitism in Europe and follows a disputed European Union study that linked anti-Semitism to a surge of violence in the Middle East.


"There is a link between anti-Semitism and terrorism (against Israel) ... The causes of terrorism are also religious," said Metzger.


The rabbis said they had spoken to the 83-year-old pope for 35 minutes and had found him on good form.


"He heard everything, he spoke, he was very involved in the conversation. He was very warm, very kind to us," said Metzger.


The pope, who suffers from Parkinson's disease and hip and leg ailments, has been in frail health in past months and sometimes has difficulty speaking.


INVITATION TO SYNAGOGUE


The rabbis said they had invited him to revisit the Great Synagogue of Rome this year, its 100th anniversary year, in what they said would be a fresh strong symbol of reconciliation between Jews and Catholics.


The pope visited the synagogue once before, in April 1986.


Israel and the Vatican had cold relations for decades but under Pope John Paul the two states have built ties. They signed an accord in December 1993 that opened the way for full diplomatic relations, which started in June 1994.


The pope visited Jerusalem and prayed at the Wailing Wall, Judaism's holiest site, in 2000.


The rabbis said they had requested that the Vatican loan or give Israel some precious manuscripts by Maimonides, widely considered the most important medieval Jewish philosopher, as this year marks the 800th anniversary of his death.


The Vatican holds a huge amount of precious artifacts and documents from throughout the centuries.


Ahead of their papal visit, Amar had suggested that they would raise the subject of a golden menorah, or seven-branched candelabra, that was taken by the Romans from the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago.

The menorah is rumored to have ended up in the Vatican, but the rabbis said the issue was not discussed. Asked by reporters whether they believed the menorah was really there, Amar said: "It is not clear. We don't know. There are rumors.

Metzger, smiling broadly, added: "We don't know if this menorah exists or not. If it exists and he's prepared to give it to Israel then obviously that would bring us great joy."

Israel-Swedish Diplomatic Row over Pro-Palestinian Art Exhibit

01.17.04 (8:59 pm)   [edit]
Unfortunatly, the diplomant shouldn't have acted the way he did initially for he only gave fodder for the already anti-Israel media to demonize him and the state further. He should have just stated verbally is disgust and anger and not done anything physical. This will reflect poorly on us all. For this I am saddened.

This "art", however, saddens me even more as it is disgusting and largely offensive, I don't care how "artsy" or "beautiful" anyone may feel it to be! If I made a painting of a Jew disemboweling a Muslim (an act that would never occur) and made it out to be an act of greatness, everyone would be all over me and the exibitors who dared to show it (on the off chance that it would even make it to gallery). Why is it that if "art" that is anti Palestinian is created it's shot down as horrific and insulting. But this "Snow White" peice is a-ok with everyone? Please read the article below. You can also see the article and a photo of the "art" at: http://debka.com/article.php?...

It is truly disgusting!


[b]DEBKAfile Special Analysis
January 17, 2004, 9:34 PM (GMT+02:00)[/b]

An undiplomatic act by Israel’s ambassador to Sweden has switched the spotlight on a virulent strain of anti-Semitism sweeping West Europe that draws its moral legitimacy from demonizing the Jewish state. What better symbol of this hybrid object of hate than the exhibit whose plug ambassador Zvi Mazel furiously pulled?

The exhibit consists of the photo of the female Palestinian suicide bomber who blew 21 Israelis to their deaths in a Haifa restaurant on October 4; it is planted on a boat floating serenely on a large pool of red water. Labeled “Snow White”, it was shown in an exhibition that opened Friday night, January 16, at Stockholm’s Museum of National Antiquities, part of an upcoming conference on genocide hosted by the Swedish government.

After wrecking the exhibit and calling it “a monstrosity and an affront to the grieving families,” the Israeli ambassador was hustled out of the museum and informed he would be summoned to the Swedish foreign ministry next Monday to explain his actions.

In Jerusalem, the Israeli foreign ministry official Ran Curiel called the Swedish ambassador to warn him that if the offensive exhibit is not removed, Israel will reconsider its attendance at the conference. Sweden, he said, would not be allowed to hide behind the principle of artistic freedom to justify terrorist murders of Israeli citizens.

A diplomatic storm had blown up in hours.

The designers happened to be an ex-Israeli Swede called Dror Feiler and his Swedish wife Gunilla Skoeld Feiler. Dror is president of a group called “Jews for Palestinian Peace.”

Clearly, they neither knew nor cared that the red pool represented Jewish and Arab blood – both Jews and Arabs were murdered in the restaurant by innocent “Snow White.” The bloody symbol they used inevitably recalls the fictional blood libels drummed up by European anti-Semites as the pretext for medieval pogroms. In modern-day Sweden, the purported Christian boy victim has been replaced by a real-life Palestinian suicidal killer.

The angry ambassador was backed to the hilt by his boss, foreign minister Silvan Shalom - more unexpectedly by former prime minister Ehud Barak, who said he understands the emotions the exhibit aroused in the diplomat, but confessed he cannot fathom Israelis like Feiler who efface themselves at European feet.

The to-do in Stockholm occurred on the day that Pope John Paul II invited Israel’s two chief rabbis to the Vatican for the first time to discuss the tide of anti-Semitism besetting Europe. Crucifixes were taken off the walls of the papal audience chamber as a gesture of respect to the guests. But did the historic meeting have any concrete results? Not immediately.

Heads of the European Union and its members talk constantly about combating the blight of anti-Semitism but the only action they have taken is to shelve a report they themselves commissioned because it pointed to Islamic and Palestinian agitators as leading culprits.

Israel has not done much either. When Miki Theodorakis branded the Jews “the root of the world’s evil,” the Greek government, while refraining from entering the controversy over freedom of speech versus racial incitement, made the gesture of finally introducing a Holocaust day on the 2003 national calendar, suddenly noticing that 90 percent of Greek Jews had perished in Nazi concentration camps in World War II. However, in Israel, no banking or financial institution has ever responded actively to comments made by the Dutch wife of the president of the European Central Bank last year that “Israel is worse than the Nazis,” and “the rich Jewish lobby in America is responsible for the Palestinians’ plight.” ” (“Jews” and “Israelis” are interchangeable when it suits their denigrators.)

The recent poll in which a majority of Europeans canvassed described Israel as the biggest threat to world peace likewise went by without response. In fact, shortly after its publication, Israel’s deputy prime minister and minister of industry, Ehud Olmert, bowed to the EU’s demand to add special markings to Israeli products manufactured across the Green Line in order to help European consumers boycott them.

As for Sweden, after the Palestinians embarked on their 2000 confrontation with Israel, more than one voice urged the Nobel Prize committee to recall the peace prize awarded jointly to the late Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat from… Peres.

If Israel were to follow the European example, its ministers, senior officials and high court judges would tomorrow morning hand in the Swedish Volvo automobiles which are standard Israeli VIP issue and trade them for cars made in other countries. There is nothing, moreover, to stop the heads of the Jewish Agency advising Jews around the world to boycott Volvo, SKF and Ikea, in the same way that many American consumers spontaneously blacked French wines and cheese in response for French hostility to the Iraq War.

European democracies like Sweden might then have the necessary incentive to finally decide how far freedom of expression or art may be indulged when blood libels against Jewish citizens are published freely on European Web sites and exhibited publicly in their national museums. Who will draw the line on freedoms used to license incitement to mass murder?

New background and a new site link!

01.16.04 (4:03 pm)   [edit]
I hope you all like the new background that I've created. I've made the collage of Images with photos from:

http://israelimages.com/home.asp" title="http://israelimages.com/home.asp" target="_blank"http://israelimages.com/home....

This breathtaking library of images has gorgeous scenes from Eretz Yisroel! I have added it to my links section and you should definatly check it out. Not only does it depict beautiful scenes of Jewish life in Israel, but also Muslim and Christian scenes as well. All of them beautiful and completely breathtaking, all of them from Israel!

Am Yisroel Chai!

D'var Torah for Shemot

01.15.04 (6:33 pm)   [edit]
Parshat Shemot (Exodus 1:1-6:1) begins with the slavery of the Jews in Egypt, and immediately tells us of the birth of Moshe (Moses), the one who would ultimately free them of that slavery. The Torah tells us of Moshe’s parents by simply relating (2:1) that a man from Levi went, and married the daughter of Levi.

The Talmud explains this strange language (Sotah:12): Moshe’s parents had his sister Miriam (and his brother Aaron), but after the Egyptian decree to kill all the Jewish males, they decided to not have any more children.

Miriam, who was 5 at the time, rebuked them, claiming that while Paroh looked to prevent the males from living, they were preventing the females from living too, since all the Jews followed their example!

It was because of her argument that they got back together, and had Moshe a year later.

Which brings us to a fascinating thought ...

Paroh (Pharaoh) had all the Jewish males killed because he was told that a Jewish leader would be male, and that the leader would have something to do with water. Not only was Moshe male and Jewish, but he was saved from the water by Paroh’s own daughter, ended up being raised in the royal palace, and was even named Moshe (which Batya, the daugter of Pharaoh, named him because she “drew him from the water”)!!

Was Paroh so blind that he didn’t see that Moshe was the Jewish
leader he was warned about?

Also, why was Moshe called his whole life by the name given to him by Paroh’s daughter, and not the one given to him by his own parents?

As the Lekach Tov helps to explain, we have to know that throughout life there’s a grand plan, and it will happen with or without us, so we may as well be a part of the solution.

We can be the way Moshe’s parents originally were, and justify doing things we know are wrong. Or we can do the right thing, despite the consequences we know might follow, and trust that things will work out. God wanted Moshe to live, so he made sure Paroh did not realize the obvious, despite what logic would dictate.

But it only happened because Moshe’s parents actively decided to do what they knew was right and let destiny happen. The very name ‘Moshe’ symbolizes the ultimate trust Moshe and his family
had in God! In God we must trust, and in that trust we must live!

Have a wonderful Shabbos and a great weekend!

Dirty Whore Named Worst Dressed!

01.15.04 (5:41 pm)   [edit]
HAHA!



[b]Paris Hilton tops Worst Dressed List: Called the ‘vapid Venus of Beverly Hills’[/b]

[b]The Associated Press
Updated: 8:05 p.m. ET Jan. 13, 2004[/b]

Mr. Blackwell, chronicler of clothing catastrophes, poked fun at socialite-reality TV star Paris Hilton Tuesday for committing the worst fashion follies of the past year.

The acid-tongued critic and former fashion designer has been ailing in recent years, preventing him from reading his 44th annual list aloud to the press.

But in an exclusive interview, Blackwell told AP Radio in Washington: “Paris came up shining with a big spotlight saying, ‘Pick me!’ She was just the most natural contender to make No. 1 this year.”

“From cyber disgrace to red carpet chills -- she’s the vapid Venus of Beverly Hills!” said Blackwell.

Hilton, star of the Fox reality show “The Simple Life,” became an inadvertent Internet icon when a homemade sex video she shot with her then-boyfriend made the rounds online.

“She does everything she can to be outrageous, everything she can to be over the top, everything she can to be too much and she succeeded — and what she got from it was a great TV show,” Blackwell told AP Radio.

In a statement, he described those on the list as “Ten Titans of Fashion Terror that, in 2003, ran the gamut of style-free excess from trashy to flashy, frumpy to dumpy and every egregious variation in between.”

Madonna and Britney Spears — “kissin’ cousins of couture crime” — were tied for second place, followed by Shania Twain (country-fried kitsch), Diane Keaton, Jessica Simpson, Celine Dion (half-sequined scarecrow, half-gaudy acrobat), Missy Elliott, Melanie Griffith, Courtney Love (torrid temptress of fashion) and Lara Flynn Boyle.

“I’m not telling them how to dress,” he told AP Radio from his home in Hancock Park, Calif. “I’m just telling them what I think of it. ... A lot of the stars are looking better than ever and it was very tough to find 10 bad ones.”

On the positive side, Blackwell praised Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Garner, Diane Lane, Salma Hayek, Oprah Winfrey, Katie Holmes, Tippi Hedren, Beyonce, Faith Hill, Sarah Jessica Parker and the Countess of Wessex, the former Sophie Rhys-Jones, as “Fabulous Fashion Independents for 2003.

[i]© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.[/i]

Female Suicide Bomber Gets Hero's Funeral

01.15.04 (5:25 pm)   [edit]
How can they not realise that they are also punisheing themselves? When Hamas kills Jews, it makes it harder for all of the Palestinians to live. Israel will close off gates and boundries and tighten security so that more people are not killed. How can the Palestinian prime minister not denounce the recent murder? I thought he wanted peace? If Palestinians wish to live in freedom, why don't they condemn their true oppressors, Hamas. If Hamas and terror were gone, they'd be existing peacfully in prosperity. Hamas shoots all of Palestine in the foot.


[b]Female Suicide Bomber Gets Hero's Funeral
AP
Thu Jan 15, 1:35 PM ET

[i]By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer[/b][/i]

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The first female Hamas suicide bomber was given a hero's funeral Thursday, a day after killing four Israeli border guards, and Israel sealed the Gaza Strip to review security at border crossings.

The one-day closure prevented thousands of Palestinian workers from getting to their jobs in Israel and a nearby industrial zone. The workers, among the few with jobs in the impoverished region, worried life would only become harder — but few were willing to openly blame militants for their new hardship.

Wednesday's attack at the Erez border crossing between Israel and Gaza was the first time the Islamic militant group Hamas dispatched a female suicide bomber, and the group threatened more violence.

"She is not going to be the last (attacker) because the march of resistance will continue until the Islamic flag is raised, not only over the minarets of Jerusalem, but over the whole universe," Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said.

An Israeli closure shut down the Erez crossing and a nearby industrial park, where 6,000 Palestinians work. The army said only those with humanitarian needs could cross.

Some workers, though unwilling to directly criticize Hamas, questioned the wisdom of the target. "I think we have the right to fight to end the occupation, but at the same time we have to think 100 times before any act," said Fawaz Radwan, 42, who works in a factory near the Israeli town of Ashkelon.

Even such veiled criticism remains relatively rare, though some Palestinians grumble in private about tighter travel bans or other hardships prompted by the militants' actions. In a society where consensus is valued, criticizing the armed groups openly is seen by many as a betrayal.

The bombing was carried out by Reem Raiyshi, 22, a mother with two young children. Raiyshi was escorted into a room for a security search and then blew herself up in an attack jointly claimed by Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a group linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

Thousands marched through Gaza City during her funeral. Masked gunmen from Hamas and Al Aqsa carried her coffin, draped in the Hamas green flag.

"It is not enough to call her a hero. Calling her hero does not give the whole truth. This woman abandoned her husband and children to win paradise," Zahar said in the eulogy.

Three of those killed in the attack were border police, and the fourth was a private security guard. The army said four of the seven wounded were Palestinians.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia declined to condemn the attack. Palestinian leaders usually denounce attacks on civilians in Israel, but not on soldiers or settlers in the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians views Israelis in occupied areas as legitimate targets.

Before violence erupted in 2000, about 100,000 Palestinians from Gaza worked in Israel, providing the main source of income for the territory. Now only 15,000 workers and another 4,000 merchants — in addition to the workers at the industrial park — have permits to cross into Israel.

Some workers worried that the already extensive checks at the crossing would become even more stringent.

Currently, they have to walk 800 yards down a narrow path to wait in long lines to be searched, workers said. They then must walk a considerable distance to vehicles waiting to take them to work.

"I think we will face more humiliation and inhuman treatment, and I think the coming days will be black ones for us," Radwan said, adding that each crossing usually takes over an hour.

Others said the situation could not get much worse.

"What's a drop of water going to do if you add it to a big lake of humiliation," said Salim Ali, 37, who works as a tailor at a factory near Tel Aviv.

He blamed the Israeli occupation, not the Palestinian militants, for his people's plight, saying: "The problem is not a Palestinian problem. It's the problem of the world that is watching us silently without any help."

Also Thursday, the Palestinian parliament approved a $1.69 billion budget for the year — more than twice projected revenues — in hopes foreign aid will make up the difference.

Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayad said he hopes to get $650 million from donor countries to pay 125,000 government employees.

Donor countries, who have propped up the Palestinian budget during more than three years of Mideast fighting, are demanding financial reform in the Palestinian Authority.

Turkey prepares to abandon Northern Cyprus: a lesson for Syria?

01.13.04 (5:51 pm)   [edit]
Check out this and more at http://www.debka.com



[b]Turkey prepares to abandon Northern Cyprus: a lesson for Syria?[/b]
[i]Special report from DEBKAfile`s Washington and Ankara sources
January 10, 2004, 5:31 PM (GMT+02:00)[/i]


[b][i]No Turkish flags in Cyprus after May[/i][/b]

Update January 12: Turkish Cypriots form a new government led by Mehmet Ali Talat’s Republican Turkish party which favors UN’s reunification plan Greek Cypriots and others may remain skeptical, but DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources believe Turkey to be genuinely committed to a speedy settlement of the decades-old division of Cyprus. Speed is of the essence because Cyprus is due to join the European Union this May: if the division is healed, and a federation formed, the whole island will join; if Turkey’s protégé, Northern Cyprus, continues to hold out against the federal plan, only the internationally recognized government of Greek Cyprus will join the EU, and the northern Turkish third, which Turkey alone recognizes and supports, will be more isolated than ever.

DEBKAfile’s confidence is based on the secret talks that took place this week between Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, and Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s president, who was in Ankara for a 3-day state visit. Erdogan told Assad that the Turkish leadership had decided to force Rauf Denktash, the long-time Turkish Cypriot leader, to go along with the plan first put forward by the UN’s secretary-general Kofi Annan in November 2002. This envisages a federation of two constituent parts, with a rotating presidency. Last March talks on this plan collapsed after Denktash held out against it.

But Northern Cyprus is entirely dependent on Turkish support, and on the 30,000 Turkish troops that have been stationed there for the 30 years since Turkey invaded the island in 1974. According to DEBKAfile’s sources, Erdogan told Assad that Turkey has decided to withdraw this occupying army after Cyprus joins the EU, thus forcing Denktash’s hand. And, indeed, Turkey has good reason to do so. It is itself an applicant to join the EU at some point, and furthering a peace in Cyprus will advance its case.

At a closed-door meeting between Assad, Erdogan and Abdullah Gul, Turkey’s foreign minister, on Wednesday January 7, Erdogan told Assad that the decision, in effect, to stop supporting a semi-independent Turkish enclave was taken at a meeting of Turkey”s National Security Council in late December. Though there was opposition from some military commanders, the council agreed by a large majority. It will meet again on January 23, and will then reveal its “road map” to peace.

The leaders of all four Turkish Cypriot parties have been summoned to Ankara to hear Turkey’s decision. But Debkofile has learnt that, contrary to what Gul told CNN on January 10, Denktash will not be allowed to lead the Turkish-Cypriot delegation to new talks with the Cyprus government on the peace plan. It is being suggested instead that Mustafa Akinci, the leader of the Movement for Democracy and Peace (BDH) chairs the delegation.

The link to Golan?

Erdogan explained to Assad why he had chosen him to tell such things. No other leader, he said, would understand how painful it was for him to give up Turkish Cyprus, and what huge obstacles he faced in selling this concession to public opinion. “To give up Cyprus is like giving up part of Turkey itself,” he said. But Gul added: “If we want to escape from international isolation, we have no other choice.”

DEBKAfile learns that, according to the reports that Turkey sent to the US and Israel reporting on this conversation, Assad listened very intently when Erdogan and Gul spoke of the need to give up territory, and explained how to overcome domestic opposition to such measures. He did not make any reply at all.

He was more forthcoming when the discussion turned to Turkish-Syrian trade, and Turkey’s proposal to set up a customs point on the border between Syria and Alexandretta. Assad agreed to sign a document of understanding on this, which was tantamount to Syrian recognition of Turkish ownership of the province, giving up Syria’s historic claims.

But DEBKAfile believes that the implications of this talk about giving up territory stretch from Alexandretta all the way to Golan. The Turkish leaders, in their report to Jerusalem, were well satisfied with their tactic of talking about giving up Cyprus as a model for what Syria itself might be prepared to give up

The message seems to have been absorbed by Israel. Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s finance minister, has been talking about the possibility of negotiating with Syria without having to hand back the Golan Heights, or at any rate large chunks of the region.

On Saturday, Syria’s semi-official newspaper wrote “Syria is calling on the US to renew Syrian-Israeli negotiations from the point they stopped in 2000.” Israel’s prime minister, Ariel Sharon, will not accept this, insisting that any new talks should start from scratch. This is a big difficulty. But the newspaper’s call on Israel to be “objective, honest and not miss the opportunity for negotiations” amounts to a rare direct approach.

In the next few days, Washington and Jerusalem will try to clarify Syria’s position. A group of congressmen are to visit Damascus. And Jordan’s King Abdullah, now on a visit to Saudi Arabia, will make Syria his next stop. Turkey’s prime minister was making an important point. But lessons about giving up territory may cut many ways.

Laws of Ona'a

01.13.04 (5:31 pm)   [edit]
"When you sell property to your fellow, or buy any from your fellow, you shall not wrong one another." (Vayikra 25:14)

The Torah introduces here a prohibition against "wronging" one another in the commercial realm, a prohibition to which Chazal describe as "ona'a" (based on the terminology in the verse – "al TONU ish et achiv"). What precisely does this prohibition entail?

The Arukh Ha-shulchan writes (227:1):

"There are two types of ona'a. The first is ona'a
regarding the actual merchandise, when one sells it
as quality merchandise that comes from such-and-such
place, when it actually comes from a different
place, or it is somewhat defective, unbeknownst to
the buyer… The second ona'a… applies when the
storekeeper knows that this merchandise is now sold
in all the stores at such-and-such price and no
more, and a certain buyer is not proficient [in the
prices], so he takes from him an expensive price,
more than the conventional price."

Thus, the prohibition of ona'a includes two halakhot. First, a seller may not conceal from the buyer important information concerning the item he sells, and secondly, the seller may not raise the prices inordinately. The first type of ona'a arises in many situations, for example, when a person sells a car and lies about its mileage. Needless to say, this violates an explicit
Torah prohibition, and this applies as well to any item one sells, both new and old.

Raising Prices

The Gemara states that if a seller misleads the buyer and charges more than one-sixth above the standard sales price, the transaction is null and void. This halakha gives rise to the question posed by the Rosh as to whether there exists a prohibition against raising the prices even less than one-sixth. The Arukh Ha-shulchan (227:6) explains the Rosh's ambivalence as follows: Does a person violate the prohibition even by raising the prices less than one-sixth, only the transaction remains valid, or does the prohibition not apply at all when one raises prices less than one-sixth, as this constitutes standard commercial procedure? In any event, the Rosh concludes, "A God-fearing person should satisfy all opinions."

The basic question that arises regarding the second type of ona'a is, on what basis do we determine the standard price of a given object? Today, for example, one can find virtually any item in many different stores at many different prices. Therefore, in order to determine if a given retailer violates the prohibition of
ona'a, we must first decide what is the "normal" price -- a very difficult task given the differences in price between different stores.

To resolve this problem, let us bring several examples of different kinds of products. Some products are under price supervision, meaning, the law establishes fixed rates. Here, of course, the situation is very simple: whoever charges even a penny above the fixed price violates the prohibition of ona'a.

Other products have a recommended price, or a list price. On the one hand, one might equate these products with those in the first category, and claim that the list price determines the standard amount for the given product just like those established through legislation. On the other hand, however, many times prices are intentionally listed higher than the items' true prices so as to give the retailers the appearance of lowering prices. In these cases, the list price will not help us determine at which amount the seller violates ona'a. Clearly, however, one who sells for a price higher than the list price violates this prohibition.

One who sells a product for a much higher price than do the other stores, violates ona'a. But what if one sells an item for the price charged by the expensive stores? This will depend on whether or not he in fact charges a set price. A seller must establish consistent standards and prices. Often, retailers will inform consumers of a high price, but someone who asks for a
discount can purchase the item for a cheaper amount, whereas those who do not ask will pay the full, listed price. This, as we saw, is forbidden; one violates the prohibition of ona'a when he sells the item to those who do not ask for the discount, since he sells it for mor than the actual price.

Unique Circumstances

According to one view in the authorities, the prohibition of ona'a does not apply on Erev Shabbat. For example, if on Erev Shabbat a person still has no wine for Shabbos, he is willing to pay more than the accepted price, and therefore one may sell him wine for a higher price. The Shulchan Arukh (227) cites different views concerning this issue.

This debate would impact upon the phenomenon of merchants who take advantage of the location where they sell their merchandise. The buyers understand full well that the price charged far exceeds the standard price, but they realize that this stems from the unique circumstances in which they currently find themselves. What is the halakha in this regard?

According to the view presented earlier, it would appear that the prohibition of ona'a would not apply, since this situation directly parallels the case of someone who desperately needs to buy wine on Erev Shabbos. Even under these circumstances, however, there is an accepted price for such situations, and if a given merchant raises his prices far beyond the amount charged
by others who sell in those same locations, he violates the prohibition of ona'a.

We must emphasize that the prohibition applies even if the buyer knows that the seller overcharges but decides to purchase the item nonetheless. The Arukh Ha-shulchan (se'if 22) writes, "One who says to his fellow, [I sell you] on condition that you do not accuse me of ona'a' – he may accuse him of ona'a."

Wholesalers

Halakhic literature speaks of a "nosei ve-notein be- emuna" (literally, "who buys and sells on trust") – the middleman, or wholesaler, who buys merchandise from manufacturers and then sells it to retailers. He offers to sell it at, for example, a one-percent profit, without assuming any responsibility for the merchandise he sold. At times, the wholesaler may have purchased the items at a higher price than what is accepted in the market. Nevertheless, if he then sells it for an even higher
price to the retailers, he does not violate the prohibition of ona'a, because he charges a reasonable one- percent profit, and the retailer is aware of the original price and the middleman's profit. Indeed, the Arukh Ha- shulchan (se'if 30) writes:

"We can extract from what has been explained that
those middlemen who sit in large places and purchase
merchandise on behalf of stores from cities
throughout the country, and they take a specified
profit – such as two or three percent, they are not
subject to claims of ona'a, for this is precisely
the case of 'nosei ve-notei be-emuna.'"

Later in his discussion, the Arukh Ha-shulchan explains that the retailers themselves must be aware of the nature of the merchandise, and the wholesaler bears no responsibility in this regard.

Needless to say, this assumes that the wholesaler deals honestly. If, for example, half of his merchandise is at one standard, and the other half is of a lower quality, then when determining the price he must take into account the lower quality of half the merchandise. If he sells this half based on half the price he paid for the entire stock, then he undoubtedly violates the
prohibition of ona'a, since he sells lower quality items at the price he would sell the higher quality merchandise.

Salaries/Service Fees

The Gemara establishes that the prohibition of ona'a does not apply to the sale of real estate, nor does it apply to the sale of servants, which are halakhically equated with real estate (through a "hekesh"). Obviously, however, one should refrain from overcharging for real estate, as well.

What is the status of workers with regard to ona'a? Do we equate them with ser such that the laws of ona'a would not apply to rendering services?

The poskim distinguish between two types of workers: a day-worker, and someone hired for a specific project. If a person works a day-job, he commits his time to his employer, since their arrangement requires that he work for specific hours. He therefore has the status of a servant, towards whom the prohibition of ona'a does not apply. A contract worker, by contrast, who did not commit to specific hours of work, differs from a servant and therefore the laws of ona'a apply. For example, a community's head of security commits himself to do his work whenever his services are needed; he does not commit
specific hours to the town. Therefore, even if he receives a monthly salary, he would have the status of a contract worker, and the laws of ona'a would not apply.

Canceling a Transaction

As we saw, when the price exceeds the standard price by more than one-sixth, the transaction is null and void. Does this halakha have a statute of limitation? For how long after the unfair sale can the buyer demand its revocation?

The Gemara establishes, and this is indeed the accepted halakha, that the buyer has the period of time necessary to go immediately after the transaction to an expert to inquire whether he paid a fair price. Clearly, this is not a very long period of time. This then gives rise to a problem, given the fact that people generally trust sellers and do not run immediately after a purchase
to ask if they overpaid. People usually discover this only sometime later.

In any event, it would appear that if as part of the price negotiations the seller gave the impression that he charges the standard market price, then the transaction is null and void regardless of how much time transpires. In such a case, we would consider this misinformation one of the conditions of the sale. Since the buyer agreed to the transaction under a misconception, the sale is automatically null and void, no matter when the buyer comes forth to demand his money in return.

This may be one of the most funniest things I've ever seen!

01.13.04 (4:02 pm)   [edit]
You HAVE to go to this site: http://www.phonelosers.org/pr...

This man "punk'd" (forgive the MTV/Ashton Kutcher refference) McDonalds!!!!

SO funny!

New Phototherapy Technology Developed in Israel

01.13.04 (3:54 pm)   [edit]
If there were no Israel, no Jews for that matter, we wouldn't be able to heal so many people...

[b]New Phototherapy Technology Developed in Israel to Treat Psoriasis, Vitiligo, Atopic Dermatitis and Leukoderma Gets FDA Clearance
Tuesday January 13, 12:26 pm ET[/b]

OR AKIVA, Israel, Jan. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- A new technology developed by Israeli dermatologists that has been proven safe and effective in treating psoriasis, vitiligo, atopic dermatitis and leukoderma has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to be marketed in this country.


MultiClear(TM), manufactured by CureLight Ltd of Or Akiva, Israel, is the first computer-controlled, targeted phototherapy system which utilizes both UVB and UVA rays. It will be widely available in the U.S. by March 2004, according to company officials.

"This system is a breakthrough treatment for psoriasis, vitiligo, atopic dermatitis and leukoderma," said Dr. Yoram Harth, medical director of CureLight.

"It is an effective non-drug alternative, combining the emissions of UVB and UVA from a single optical delivery system, allowing optimal high- intensity, targeted UV band selection for the treatment of these common skin disorders. It protects patients from exposing their entire bodies to harsh and risky treatments of the past," he said.

"Oral tablets, injections, or full-body light boxes cannot zero in on the affected areas, and thus they run the risk of harming the patient systemically or damaging other parts of the skin. Our technology acts only on the affected area," said Harth. "The MultiClear's(TM) computerized system allows the exact matching of wavelengths and doses to optimally treat specific skin disorders."

Dr. David J. Friedman, board-certified dermatologist and former Brown University assistant professor, currently uses MultiClear(TM) for his patients. He said, "It's safe, responsive and gets good aesthetic results as well. The choice between using UVB, UVA or tailored combinations of UVB and UVA in one system results in fast improvement of psoriasis, and repigmentation of hypopigmented lesions such as vitiligo and stretch marks. In some vitiligo patients repigmentation may start after the fourth treatment. Typical treatment lasts about five minutes and that's another real plus. Usually less than 10 treatments are needed."

Psoriasis is one of most common skin disorders treated by MultiClear(TM). It affects more than 7 million people worldwide and 200,000 cases are diagnosed each year in the U.S. alone. Current therapies include prolonged use of topical creams, full-body lightbox treatments repeated 30-40 times or life-long weekly injections.

Vitiligo is a pigmentation disorder affecting roughly 50 million people or about two percent of the world's population. Atopic dermatitis is a common eczema disorder that also affects millions, usually appearing first in childhood and then persisting throughout an adult's life. Leukoderma or hypopigmented skin appears in stretch marks and acne and surgical scars, and cannot be treated effectively topically or systemically.

MultiClear(TM) will be featured at a forum sponsored by the Aesthetic Buyers Guide, concurrent with the American Academy of Dermatology's annual meeting in Washington, D.C., February 9.

CureLight Ltd is a leader in the development, manufacturing and marketing of technologically advanced, effective and safe phototherapy systems for key medical disorders. CureLight has developed the first light-based systems to ever receive FDA treatment of moderate inflammatory acne. ClearLight®, the company's award-winning product, is the first light-based, FDA-approved acne treatment device to be introduced to the U.S. market. iClear(TM), another CureLight Ltd product, is also approved by the FDA for moderate inflammatory acne and is now being marketed to physicians and Medi-Spas around the world. More than 600 clinics worldwide are currently using ClearLight® and iClear(TM).

For additional information visit the web site at www.curelight.com or call 888-287-3548.

Two Great Websites!!

01.12.04 (5:10 pm)   [edit]
I've put both of these in my links section, but you should really check them out so I'm posting them here too!

Site #1: Clay Kittens II
http://www.richsalter.btinternet.co.uk/cks2/index2.html" title="http://www.richsalter.btinternet.co.uk/cks2/index2.html" target="_blank"http://www.richsalter.btinter...

This is a hilarious shooting game. I'm a cat lover, don't get me wrong, but it's a fun game that I think you'll enjoy. I did.

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Send your family and friends a message in the snow!

HAHA! So I hope you like it! They're both a little crude, but very enjoyable.

French Sikhs Oppose French Secular Plan

01.12.04 (1:54 pm)   [edit]
[b]French Sikhs Oppose French Secular Plan
1 hour, 22 minutes ago

[i]By ANGELA DOLAND, Associated Press Writer [/b][/i]

PARIS - In World War I, Sikhs point out, their ancestors wore turbans when they helped the French fight on battlefields. Now, they're enraged by a plan to ban religious attire in French classrooms — and they say that shedding their winding head coverings is unthinkable.



France's Sikh population is tiny — from 5,000 to 7,000 in a nation of about 60 million. That's likely why French officials neglected them while they consulted with Muslims, Jews and Christians before drawing up proposals to maintain France's tradition of secularism, Sikhs say.


Still, it hurts.


"We're shocked by this," said Chain Singh, president of a temple in Bobigny, outside Paris. The turban is an article of faith, he says, and the idea of appearing in public without one is unthinkable.


The proposed law, expected to go before parliament next month, will ban Muslim head scarves, Jewish yarmulkes and large crosses in public schools. It's likely to go into effect for the next school year.


Much of the debate has focused on Muslim head scarves. France's Muslim population is 5 million-strong — the largest in Western Europe. Already, girls have been expelled from school for refusing to shed their veils.


Few people realize Sikh children face a similar situation, said Singh, who sent a letter of protest to French President Jacques Chirac.


Parents in some schools negotiated with local officials to let their sons keep the turbans, which cover their long, unshorn hair. Sikh girls also don't cut their tresses: Some go bareheaded, others wear veils, and some also wear turbans.


When the law is passed, Singh worries, there will be no room for such negotiations.


"We can't live without our turbans," Singh said. "We even sleep wearing a little turban."


The debate over religious symbols in schools has simmered for years, but it gained momentum in July, when the president appointed a panel to study French secularism.


The panel's report, the product of six months of work, made no mention of Sikhs. One commission member said they were not considered.


"We're not in London," Jacqueline Costa-Lascoux replied, simply.


Britain, which today has a large Sikh population, has carefully taken Sikh values into account. Sikh policemen are exempt from wearing uniform caps, and Sikh motorcyclists don't have to wear helmets, according to United Sikhs, an international umbrella group.


The group is rallying Sikhs around the world to the cause with a petition online that it hopes to present to French ambassadors. There are more than 20 million Sikhs worldwide, with most living in India.


London Sikhs and Muslims plan to march against the French ban Saturday, said Mejindarpal Kaur, one of the organization's directors, saying it "is an interfaith effort."


For the march, Kaur is designing T-shirts with a black-and-white image of Sikh soldiers marching during World War I. Sikh regiments in the British colonial army fought on bloody French battlefields like the Somme.

In the photo, the soldiers wear turbans, and one waves a rippling French flag. The front of the T-shirt reads: "1914: Sikhs marching for French freedom."

The back reads: "2004: French Sikhs fight for their freedom to wear the turban."

Israeli Accused of Driving Suicide Bomber

01.12.04 (1:43 pm)   [edit]
Any comments?

[b]Israeli Accused of Driving Suicide Bomber
Mon Jan 12, 7:44 AM ET [/b]

JERUSALEM - An Israeli taxi driver has been arrested for allegedly driving a Palestinian suicide bomber to the site of an attack, the first Jew to be accused of assisting a bomber in three years of fighting, the prime minister's office said Monday.

Ofer Shwartzboim, a 39-year-old resident of the West Bank settlement of Oranit, gave the bomber and an accomplice a ride in his taxi to the Geha highway on Dec. 25, the prime minister's office said in a statement.


The statement did not say that Shwartzboim knew that the man in his taxi was a bomber, but it is illegal to assist Palestinians without permits to enter the country. The law is aimed at preventing suicide attacks.


The bomber blew himself up in a bus stop, killing four Israelis.


In the past, Israeli Jews have been convicted of selling arms to Palestinians. But it was the first time a Jew was arrested for helping a bomber carry out an attack since violence erupted in September 2000. Israeli Arabs have been convicted of assisting Palestinian attackers.


Shwartzboim was arrested on Jan. 8, the statement said, and confessed to driving the bomber and his accomplice to the Geha highway.


Shwartzboim said the bomber's accomplice had called him and asked for a ride from the nearby Arab-Israeli town of Kfar Kassem to the bus stop. During the short ride, the men told Shwartzboim they were going to get money from an employer and did not have permits to be in the country, the statement said.


The bomber and his accomplice paid Shwartzboim $22 for the ride, the statement said. It did not say how the men had entered Israel.


Shwartzboim told interrogators he often drove illegal Palestinian workers into Israel, even though he was aware he could be assisting potential attackers, the statement said.


In the past, an Israeli court sentenced an Israeli Arab to 10 years in prison for driving a bomber to an attack site.

#&!%#$% Jew!

01.12.04 (12:11 pm)   [edit]
[i][b]by Rabbi Avi Shafran
Am Echad Resources[/b][/i]

It was a case of life imitating media.
More days after [i]New Republic[/i] writer Gregg Easterbrook apologized for appending, for no apparent reason, the word "Jewish" to the phrase "...executives [who] worship money above all else," in an otherwise laudable denunciation of Hollywood excess, I experienced my own "anti-Semitic-slur-out-of -the-blue" moment.

The [i]New Republic's[/i] editors also apologized for what Mr. easterbrook (an insightful and talented observer of, among much else, religious matters) wrote in his weblog, characterizing him as a "good individual" who "erred" in writing a "bad thing." he is not, they insist, "an anti-Semite."

Indeed he may well not be, at least not in the classical sense. But the lesson of l'affaire Easterbrook, to me, is that anti-Semitism (like, probably, racism too) can sleep quietly in many an otherwise sublime soul, only to awaken and growl in moments of carelessness or anger. To be sure, the term "anti-Semite" should be reserved for those troubled souls who are obsessed with Jewish people, but the "ism" itself is nevertheless more common, if quiescent, than we might think.

My personal experience involved my Staten Island neighbor Fred, as I shall call him. My wife and I don't have much to do with Fred and Agnes, as I shall call her; they are at least a decade older than we, and if they have children, they are grown and living elsewhere. We, who are clearly identifiable as Orthodox Jews, have several children still living with us. And, in any event, I just sleep at home; like many New Yorkers, I basically live at work. But Fred and I have exchanged pleasantries, and my 13-year-old son helped Fred, who isn't in great shape, shovel out from under last winter's blizzard.

What happened recently was that my 19-year-old daughter, a new driver, scratched Agnes' car's bumper while parking. Though neither Fred nor Agnes witnessed the crime (nor, likely, would have even noticed the scratch), my daughter, true to how she was raised, took pains to notify the victims. Fred seemed thankful and promised to have "his man" give her an estimate for painting over the scratch. We preferred to not file a claim and thereby court the insurance gods' wrath.

When the estimate came in at over $300, I suggested to my daughter, who is without great financial resources, that she ask Fred and Agnes to please secure another estimate. They balked, to put it mildly; Agnes raved and ranted so vociferously she drove my daughter to tears. I took the phone and wasn't abke to get a word in edgewise.

A bit later, Fred came to the door and demanded the name of our insurer, a request I chose not to honor. We were prepared to pay for the damage without filing a claim, but $300 just seemed a bit exorbitant for a small touch-up job; I didn't feel it was inapropriate to request a second estimate.

Fred, though, disagreed, to put it delicatly. He huffed and puffed and threatened to go to the police, which I acknowledged was his prerogative, although I wasn't quite sure what the charge might be. And then, just before he stormed away, he remarked, "gahdam #&!%#$% Jew!"

As I considered if it wouldn't have been wise to just have handed him the money he demanded, I also pondered his parting words.

Do Fred and Agnes sit around planning cemetary stone swastika painting? I don't think so. Do they deliver Mahatir Mohammed-style speeches to each other bemoaning the Grand Jewish Conspiracy? Nah.

But deep within them (or at leas Fred; I'll give Agnes the benefit of the doubt), apparently, there festers an at least latent Jew-hatred, Is it of a kind with the aminus that Hitler so effectively tapped in the German people in the 1930s? I don't know, and hope to never find out. But its not inconceivable.

Assuming that he hadn't found any relief at the police station, I left a note in Fred's mailbox the next day. I made no mention of his colorful comment and just reiterated that I was asking only for one other estimate for the job, and assured him that he would have a check in hand as soon as I could compare the two work orders.

He responded several days later by dropping off a claim estimate from his own insurance company, assignin considerably less money for the pain job but adding an additional several hundred dollars for body damage he was now claiming. It was odd that he was apparently filing an insureance claim himself but he nevertheless reiterated his demand for my daughter's $300. She, as an obervant #&!%#$% Jew, paid him promptly so that the scratched area could be repainted without delay.

Unfortunatly, there's another bit of damage, hidden deep within Fred, that isn't so easily repaired.

[i]Rabbi Avi Shafron is director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America.[/i]

Why The "Calm"?

01.11.04 (9:05 pm)   [edit]


The major news outlets have determined that since there had not been a successful suicide/homocide bombing for a while before Dec. 25, Israel experienced a "period of relative calm":

--[i]Christian Science Monitor[/i] (11/25): "Israel is enjoying a period of relative calm -- there has not been a Palestinian suicide bombing in seven weeks."

--BBC (12/1): "Our correspondent says Israelis never stopped making arrests during the recent period of relative calm."

--Reuters (12/10): "Signals that Israel is getting ready to impose its own arrangement have increased pressure on the Palestinians at a time of renewed interest in the road map, thanks to a spell of relative calm and a new Palestinian government."

This description is highly misleading, for it implies that Palestinian terrorists had made a recent, peaceful gesture to "calm down."

In fact, the head of the IDF Intelligence Corps states that no less than 25 suicide/homocide bombing attempts have been made in recent weeks, all but one foiled by the tireless efforts of Israli security forces. Events such as these two recent IDF intelligence successes receive little media coverage:

[b]IDF officers plan Gaza anti-terror mission[/b]

12/8: Israeli security caught a 40-year-old Palestinian mother of seven trying to carry a bomb belt for a suicide bombing in Rosh HaAyin. The Tanzim militia, exploiting IDF humanitarianism, recruited her to smuggle the bomb from Nabulas because IDF soldiers rarely do body searches on women.

12/3: Two suicide bombers -- both members of the PA security forces -- were en route to attack Israeli schoolchildren in Yokne'am (near Haifa) when they were captured by Israeli security forces while hiding in a West Bank mosque.

By describing this as a "period of relative calm," the media suggest Palestinian terrorist efforts have abated. They haven't -- IDF diligence has simply won out. But foiled bombings don't make headlines.

A more accurate term for that period of time: "A period of thwarted terror."

[b]Security Fence Is Working[/b]

The UN GEneral Assembly voted to ask the World Court to rule on the legality of Israel's security fence. Israel's UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman said, "Israel regards this vote as a moral victory" since the countries who voted in favour were "mostly tyrannical dictatorships, corrupt and human-rights defying regimes."

The security fence has also played an important role recently in deterring terror. UPI reports that because of the fence's effectiveness, life is returning to normal in Netanya.:

(A Netanya resident) marveled at the city's signs of recovery. "You see more people in the streets! All the shops are open! People are eating in resaurants!" she said...

The atmostphere changed after Israel built a formidable security barrier, at edge of the West Bank, 10 miles east of Netanya...

Wednesday the army caught an Islamic Jihad suicide bomber on his way to attack an Israeli school in Yokne'am south east of Haifa. The bomber and his guide first went to a remote village to skirt the fence's northern section, which is still under construction. They were arrested in a mosque in that village.

In reporting on the UN decision, did your local media note the fact that the security fence has already proven itself an effective anti-terror measure? If not, HonestReporting encourages you to contact your local editors to make them aware of the fence's effectiveness and of the failed terrorist efforts above.

Poison Gas, Poisoned World

01.11.04 (3:12 pm)   [edit]
[b][i]By Rabbi Avi Shafron
Am Echad Resources[/i][/b]

Much discussion followed the initial decision, now -reversed, of the foundation responsible for a Holocaust memorial in Berlin to drop Degussa, a German chemical company, as the contractor to provide an anti-graffiti coating for the structure.

An affiliate of Degussa, it had emerged, a company by the name of Degesch, supplied Zyklon B gas pellets used by the Nazis in their death camps to murder their victims.

Many survivors of Hitler's evil were flabbergasted at the possiblility that a company in any way connected to the Third Reich's killing machine might be involved in an effort to preserve the memory of those it killed. And even Degussa itself, although it said it "regrets" the foundation's decision, still "respects it."

What complicated matters is that Degussa is one of 17 German companies that created the Foundation for Rememberance, Responsibility and the Future, which has raised millions for a special fund to benefit victims of Nazi concentration camps and slave labor. What is more, other German companies that supplied the Nazis -- like Daimler-Benz (now DaimlerChrysler) and Siemens, not to mention an American one, IBM -- have not been held responsible for the actions of their executives over a half-century ago.

Still and all, it is easy to understand objections to the involvment of a company in any way associated with the perpetrators of that era's horrors with an effort to honor their victims.

Novelist Thane Rosenbaum went even further in a New York Times op-ed. "The soil and soul of Germany," he wrote, "are fated to have long memories, and Degussa, despite its commendable recent deeds, should not be profiting from its newfound virtue."

But an unremarked-on irony hovers in the periphery here, and, at least in larger context, it dwarfs the fine points of long memories and comendable deeds.

The irony's backdrop is the virulent hatred of Jews that has metastasized beyond all imagining in recent years.

More than a half-century since Hitler demonized the Jews, a Malaysian prime minister did the same -- to the unanimous applause of his listeners, kings, emirs and presidents.

The same number of years since Jewish blood drenched Europe, a majority of Europeans is of the oppinion that the country formed as a refuge for the remnant of the Jewish people represents the greatest threat to world peace.

At the same time that dictators who torture and murder their citizens with impunity, and countries that foster slavery or support international terrorism, are regarded with benign neglect (and even occupy positions of authority on United Nations human rights panels), that sole refuge-country, Israel, is condemned for building a fence aimed at keeping proudly bloodthirsty murderers out of its restaurants and buses and bedrooms.

And thousands of years since Jews were first killied for being Jews, and their burial places overrun and desecrated, Jews and their gravestones spray-painted with words and symbols born of rabid hatred.

And therein lies the irony that should overwhelm the entire brouhaha over the Degussa affair. Because what is most remarkable and tragic about the whole business is not Degussa's history but the fact that its particular product, even after all these years, is needed by the memorial.

[i]Rabbi Avi Shafran is director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America[/i]

Sharpton for Janitor!

01.11.04 (2:48 pm)   [edit]
Al Sharpton for janitor! This man is a Jew-hater and a fake! Read on....!

[b]Sharpton Seeks Respectability in President Race
Sun Jan 4,11:35 AM ET Add Politics to My Yahoo!

[i]By Rolando Garcia [/b][/i]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Before he traded his jogging suits and bronze medallion for business attire in the U.S. presidential race, Al Sharpton was a scrappy street activist with a knack for thrusting himself into the center of New York's most highly charged racial incidents.


From the Crown Heights riots to the Tawana Brawley case, which resulted in a defamation judgment against Sharpton, the Pentecostal preacher has used fiery rhetoric, a flamboyant and confrontational style and lots of media attention to become a player in New York Democratic politics.


Although Sharpton is a longshot to win the Democratic presidential nomination against eight rivals, his campaign seeks to energize minority voters and pull the party to the left and away from the centrism of the Clinton era.


His platform includes constitutional amendments guaranteeing the right to education and health care, and support for affirmative action to promote minority hiring and abolishing the death penalty.


"The majority of Americans have been left out of the political dialogue," Sharpton said last January after filing papers for his presidential bid with the Federal Election Commission in Washington.


"The Democratic Party cannot win unless we expand our base and get those who have been disaffected."


Despite the racially tinged rhetoric that made him famous, Sharpton became a political force in New York, where he won 32 percent of the vote in the 1997 Democratic mayoral primary with a strong showing among African-Americans. He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination in 1992 and 1994.


His freewheeling appearances in a series of fall Democratic debates bolstered his reputation and earned him a slot in December as a guest host on "Saturday Night Live," and he could win enough black votes in key states like South Carolina to influence the outcome.


He has campaigned hard and made frequent appearances in black churches in South Carolina, which holds an early Feb. 3 primary and where at least 40 percent of the Democratic voters are expected to be African-American.


PRESCHOOL PREACHER


Sharpton, 48, says he began his life of public activism when other children were still in preschool. Sharpton was born Oct. 3, 1954, in Queens and delivered his first sermon when he was four and was ordained at 10, the standard Sharpton biography goes. As a teenager, he worked for Jesse Jackson's Operation Breadbasket, organizing protests against companies that discriminated against black people.


In the early 1970s, Sharpton joined James Brown's entourage, accompanying the soul singer on tour. The two became close and Sharpton identifies Brown as a mentor and father figure.


Sharpton entered the national scene in 1985 as an itinerant preacher and activist with the Bernhard Goetz case, demanding the white man who shot a black gang of young muggers receive a stiff sentence.


His most notorious case came in 1987, when Tawana Brawley, a black teenager from Poughkeepsie, New York, said she had been abducted, raped and smeared with feces by white men.


Sharpton accused Steven Pagones, a young assistant district attorney, of being a participant in the rape. A grand jury later found Brawley's charges were phony and the crime had never occurred.


Pagones successfully sued Sharpton for defamation and in 1998 was awarded $65,000.


[u][b]The Brawley case did not deter Sharpton. After the 1991 Crown Heights riots in New York City, in which a black mob killed a Jewish man and injured about 100 others, Sharpton spoke of "diamond merchants," a reference to Orthodox Jews in the neighborhood.


In 1995, Sharpton denounced a Jewish store owner in Harlem as a "white interloper." After weeks of protests against the Jewish owner, an arsonist set fire to the store, killing eight people. [/b][/u]

Five years later, Sharpton's newfound status as a Democratic power broker was ratified when 2000 presidential candidates Al Gore and Bill Bradley and Senate candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton conferred with him.

He is married to Kathy Jordan and they have two teenage daughters.

Afraid of Mad Cow?

01.11.04 (2:38 pm)   [edit]
Try Kosher beef!

[b]
Orthodox Jews Suggest Kosher Beef Safer
Tue Jan 6, 5:46 PM ET

[i]By RICHARD N. OSTLING, AP Religion Writer [/b][/i]

NEW YORK - Orthodox Jewish experts on kosher regulations say that eating beef certified by rabbis might help protect consumers against mad cow disease, though they acknowledge there's no guarantee kosher beef is safer.

Rabbi Menachem Genack, administrator of the kashrut (kosher) division of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, said that two of the new preventive measures announced by Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman last week are already part of traditional kosher slaughtering:


_Banning from the human food chain all "downers," animals that are unable to stand on their own. Ancient rabbinical rules forbid use of such animals because they might be close to death.


_An end to stunning cows with an air injection before slaughter to make the animal unconscious. The problem is that the technique might dislocate brain tissue, which is a carrier of mad cow disease. Kosher slaughtering tries to be humane by instantaneously severing the animal's trachea and esophagus with a razor-sharp blade.


Still, Genack acknowledged, kosher rules provide no absolute guarantee for consumers. For instance, kosher animals receive the same feed and come from the same herds as non-kosher ones, he noted.


He also said there's no evidence that the mad cow scare has caused any increase in sales of kosher beef.


Genack and Rabbi Yehuda Kravitz, the Orthodox union specialist on slaughtering, issued a joint statement last week that said "the consumer may be at an advantage by purchasing kosher slaughtered meat, since the likelihood is much less that meat from a cow slaughtered according to kosher laws will be tainted with mad cow disease."


In some countries, the kosher practice of "nikkur," which includes removal of sciatic nerves, also might help preventive the disease, Genack said. U.S. kosher practice is to exclude eating of the entire hind quarter, where those nerves are located.


Genack emphasized that the ancient biblical and rabbinical rules may have "ancillary health benefits" but are observed by Jews to give "even mundane activities like eating a sense of purpose and holiness."


Besides details on slaughtering, kosher requirements include examination of the lungs and other organs for imperfections, along with the draining and salting of meat to remove blood. Also, various species of animals are prohibited as food altogether.


___


On the Net:


Orthodox union's kosher information: http://www.ou.org/kosher

Israel and Turkey kickin' Al Qaeda in the you know what

01.11.04 (2:29 pm)   [edit]
From the NY Post:


[b]ISRAEL AND TURKEY JOIN FORCES VS. AL QAEDA
Sat Jan 10, 5:40 AM ET

[i]By URI DAN[/b][/i]

JERUSALEM - Israel's chief intelligence agency, the Mossad, is now working with Turkey to track down al Qaeda agents in the region.

The extraordinary alliance between security officials in Muslim Turkey and the Jewish state shows how seriously the world's intelligence agencies are taking the continuing threat from Osama bin Laden's terror network.

Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, confirmed the ties to Mossad in a recent interview with Israeli TV.

Erdogan admitted Turkey had misread the al Qaeda threat before homicide bombers struck twice in Istanbul last November.


"That's the nature of terrorism," he said. "It is toying with the different intelligence agencies around the world."


The bombers first attacked two synagogues and then, less than a week later, bombed the British consulate and an HSBC bank.


"What hurt me deeply," said Erdogan, a proud Muslim, "is that the attacks on the synagogues took place during the prayers of innocent people."


Turkey quickly launched a massive hunt for the bombers' accomplices.


Sources said one of the arrested suspects admitted: "We wanted to attack American targets in Ankara and Istanbul. But they're so tightly guarded even birds can't fly over them."


So, he said, the terrorists chose the second-best targets. More than 50 people were killed and more than 300 wounded in the bombings. Another man, a major suspect in the attacks, was arrested within two weeks of the bombings when he tried to flee to Iran with false ID.


But still safe and in hiding is the mastermind of the attacks, a Jordanian named Abu Musab al-Zarkawi, according to the Turkish newspaper Huriyet.

Dis-cord Or Dat-cord?

01.10.04 (7:29 pm)   [edit]
A while back, I talked about the so-called GENEVA ACCORD. This initiative is recently much ballyhooed "agreement" hammered out by Yossie Belin, the former Israeli justice minister and Yasir Abed Rabbo, the former Palestinian information minister. It did NOT have the backing or support of either of the respective governments. It was simply an initiative undertaken by two citizens who felt like something needed to be done.

I agree with the effort. Something certainly needs to be done and the two governments are moving toward a solution at a painfully slow, almost glacier-like pace. I expressed the thought that these moderates should be supported in their effort.

Now, however, the so-called accord seems to have taken on something of a life of its own. Even Secretary of State Colin Powell has given it some support. The problem is that while it may be a good start, there are some significant problems with it.

For example: why is it that while Israel would be required to start withdrawals (from the West Bank settlements) immediately, there is no time element associated with disbanding the PLO terrorist infrastructure? Why would the IDF (Israel Defense Force) be barred from patrolling the airspace of parts of Jerusalem that would be under Israeli control? How can Israel be asked to relinquish their religious rights to ancient Jewish sites?

While the initiative would prohibit certain weapons in the Palestinian state, there is not provision for clearing out such weapons smuggled into the state in defiance of its stipulations. Under the initiative, Israel would have to agree to give up control over most of East Jerusalem and all of the West Bank settlements and return its borders to something approximating the pre-1967 borders. Is this a rational approach from a defense standpoint?

These are only a few examples of what has clearly turned out to be a very one-sided piece of work. It's a start, but it's not a wonderful start and needs a tremendous amount of re-work and revision. While we still support the moderate viewpoint on both sides of these issues, those moderates need to sit down once more, re-evaluate their work product and make their best efforts to come up with a document that is truly equitable and not so obviously weighed in favour of the Palestinian positions.

Perhaps then, it can truly be an accord and not what we have currently, which is a road map to continued discord.

Daniel Pearl's murder anniversery

01.09.04 (2:52 pm)   [edit]
[b]Judea Pearl, Father of Slain Wall Street Journal Reporter Daniel Pearl, and Professor of Islam Akbar Ahmed, to Make Exclusive Appearance for American Jewish Committee

Thursday January 8, 12:41 pm ET[/b]

Event Coincides With 2nd Anniversary of Daniel Pearl's Kidnap and Murder and Release of Judea and Ruth Pearl's New Book, I AM JEWISH: Reflections Inspired by the Words of Daniel Pearl


PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Coinciding with the two-year anniversary of the kidnap and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, the journalist's father, Dr. Judea Pearl, will make an exclusive appearance in a special program hosted by the American Jewish Committee in Philadelphia.
ADVERTISEMENT


At 7 PM on Tuesday, 20 January, 2004, at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology's Harrison Auditorium (3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA), Professors Judea Pearl and Akbar Ahmed, a Muslim and Jew, will share the stage in an important evening of frank and open dialogue, with the hope of bridging the gap between East and West, Jews and Muslims, through better understanding.

Dr. Pearl, a computer science professor and artificial intelligence expert at UCLA, is the father of Daniel Pearl, the well-known Jewish reporter who was kidnapped on 23 January 2002 in Pakistan while covering the war on terror, and subsequently killed nearly a month later. Dr. Ahmed, born in Pakistan, is a former Pakistani High Commissioner to Great Britain, and is currently the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies and Professor of International Relations at American University in Washington, DC.

"Our aims are modest," said Judea Pearl, reminding us that his son's lifework was dialogue, "but their ripple effects may be enormous if people from both communities join the discussion in the same style." Appearing on behalf of the Daniel Pearl Foundation, Judea Pearl is committed to trying to bridge that gap of understanding. In addition to his work as a scientist and author, Pearl, together with his wife, Ruth and their family, established the Daniel Pearl Foundation as a way of continuing his son's legacy, and addressing the root causes of his tragic death. A new book, I AM JEWISH: Reflections Inspired by the Words of Daniel Pearl, edited by Judea and Ruth Pearl, is slated for publication release this month.

Moderated by noted broadcast journalist and author, Larry Kane, and including audience participation, the program is free and open to the public. Prior to the formal program, there will be a Press Q&A for media only, beginning at 6:15pm. Credentials will be required.

For nearly 100 years, the American Jewish Committee -- this nation's premier human relations organization -- has worked to improve the quality of life for both world Jewry, and for those with whom we interact.

For more information, contact AJC Assistant Director Ilana Wilensik at 215.665.2300 or wilensiki@ajc.org.

For directions and parking, please visit http://www.museum.upenn.edu/n...

[line]

Source: American Jewish Committee / Philadelphia

France's New Law: What a Backwards Country!

01.08.04 (8:26 pm)   [edit]
When I first heard about the banning of Hijaab (the Islamic hair covering for women) in France, I also learned that this also goes for the Jewish head-covering, the Yamulka/ Kippah/ "Skullcap (I hate that one)." I would also assume that this goes for Christian symbols as well.

This law is applicable in the public school system of France and allows companies to decide on whether or not their employees can wear religious symbols in the work place. In other words, it doesn't (to my knowledge as of yet) have anything to do with walking in the street or going to a private school or being in your own home and wearing outward religious clothing or hats, necklaces, and so on.

So far, I've heard big-time complaints from Muslims, or I've heard about Muslims protesting that this is taking away their freedom by not allowing them to practice a fundamental part of their religious devotion. I've not heard complaints from Jews nor Christians of the same nature at all. Perhaps this is because there's more focus on some groups by the media and not others, or perhaps the followers of Islam are making a bigger stink, or worse, the Jews and Christians really are saying nothing--I'm not sure.

So I was thinking about all this and it came to me that this is very interesting and puzzling. The people who have more of a valid reason to be upset/ protest/ complain/ whatever about this law, either aren't or they are and it's not getting publicized much (or they're not squeaking loud enough for more oil). The people who have less of a reason to complain, are getting a lot of coverage for their protest.

What am I talking about?

Well, the wearing of a Yamulka is a commandment for Jewish males, not for oppressive purposes. On the contrary, it is a complete choice that a man must make on whether he wishes to wear one or not. The reason for the Yamulka isn't modesty purposes, but rather a mere reminder that there is "God above your head."

Similar to the head covering of the Muslim woman, is the traditional head covering of the married Jewish woman. This, like the Hijaab, is a commandment for modesty. "Orthodox" Jewish women cover their hair not only to be modest but also to signify a change in status from single to married.

However, like the Yamulka for the men, this is not something which is forced upon the individual. The Shulchan Aruch (part of the Talmud) states that a man cannot force his wife to cover her hair. It is prohibited for him to do that under Jewish law. If a women will cover her hair after she is wed, it is a completely personal choice for HER to make. Some opinions state that she can even be granted divorce from her husband if he forces such things upon her or so much as tries.

Christians wear crosses around their necks and other Christian symbols in jewelry or shirts, and other Christian paraphernalia on themselves and that is a complete choice, whether male or female.

However, Hijaab is regarded by many to be a symbol of oppression toward women. In many Islamic countries and communities, women don't have a choice to wear this head covering--they are forced under penalty of death to cover their hair. The punishments range from death by stoning to rape and then burning and even worse. Modesty is FORCED upon these poor women and if they do not submit to be controlled by their male counterparts, they are destroyed; thus, they cover their hair and live in fear.

Which brings me back to my main point...

Why is it that Muslims are up in arms the most about this law that France has instated? Why don't they rejoice and cast off the shackles of masculine oppression? Why aren't Jews and Christians upset about this as much as the Muslims? They have more reason to be protesting!

It seems that France took away the Jews' and Christians' rights to choice but they seem to say nothing.

France has liberated the Muslims and they are outraged.

Everything seems to be backwards! (Including this ridiculous law!)

Perhaps I just don't get it.

Twenty facts about Israel and the Middle East

01.08.04 (1:04 pm)   [edit]
Source: http://www.israelinsider.com/...
HIGHLY educational!
Enjoy!

[b]Twenty facts about Israel and the Middle East
By William Bennett, Jack Kemp, Jeane Kirkpatrick
May 22, 2002

Used with permission of Empower America.[/b]

The world's attention has been focused on the Middle East. We are confronted daily with scenes of carnage and destruction. Can we understand such violence? Yes, but only if we come to the situation with a solid grounding in the facts of the matter -- facts that too often are forgotten, if ever they were learned. Below are twenty facts that we think are useful in understanding the current situation, how we arrived here, and how we might eventually arrive at a solution.

[b]Roots of the Conflict[/b]

1. When the United Nations proposed the establishment of two states in the region -- one Jewish, one Arab -- the Jews accepted the proposal and declared their independence in 1948. The Jewish state constituted only 1/6 of one percent of what was known as "the Arab world." The Arab states, however, rejected the UN plan and since then have waged war against Israel repeatedly, both all-out wars and wars of terrorism and attrition. In 1948, five Arab armies invaded Israel in an effort to eradicate it. Jamal Husseini of the Arab Higher Committee spoke for many in vowing to soak "the soil of our beloved country with the last drop of our blood."

2. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded in 1964 -- three years before Israel controlled the West Bank and Gaza. The PLO's declared purpose was to eliminate the State of Israel by means of armed struggle. To this day, the website of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority (PA) claims that the entirety of Israel is "occupied" territory. It is impossible to square this with the PLO and PA assertions to Western audiences that the root of the conflict is Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

3. The West Bank and Gaza (controlled by Jordan and Egypt from 1948 to 1967) came under Israeli control during the Six Day War of 1967 that started when Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran and Arab armies amassed on Israel's borders to invade and liquidate the state. It is important to note that during their 19-year rule, neither Jordan nor Egypt had made any effort to establish a Palestinian state on those lands. Just before the Arab nations launched their war of aggression against the State of Israel in 1967, Syrian Defense Minister (later President) Hafez Assad stated, "Our forces are now entirely ready… to initiate the act of liberation itself, and to explode the Zionist presence in the Arab homeland… the time has come to enter into a battle of annihilation." On the brink of the1967 war, Egyptian President Gamal Nassar declared, "Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel."

4. Because of their animus against Jews, many leaders of the Palestinian cause have long supported our enemies. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem allied himself with Adolf Hitler during WWII. Yasser Arafat, chairman of the PLO and president of the PA, has repeatedly targeted and killed Americans. In 1973, Arafat ordered the execution of Cleo Noel, the American ambassador to the Sudan. Arafat was very closely aligned with the Soviet Union and other enemies of the United States throughout the Cold War. In 1991, during the Gulf War, Arafat aligned himself with Saddam Hussein, whom he praised as "the defender of the Arab nation, of Muslims, and of free men everywhere."

5. Israel has, in fact, returned most of the land that it captured during the 1967 war and right after that war offered to return all of it in exchange for peace and normal relations; the offer was rejected. As a result of the 1978 Camp David accords -- in which Egypt recognized the right of Israel to exist and normal relations were established between the two countries -- Israel returned the Sinai desert, a territory three times the size of Israel and 91 percent of the territory Israel took control of in the 1967 war.
6. In 2000, as part of negotiations for a comprehensive and durable peace, Israel offered to turn over all but the smallest portion of the remaining territories to Yasser Arafat. But Israel was rebuffed when Arafat walked out of Camp David and launched the current Intifada.

7. Yasser Arafat has never been less than clear about his goals -- at least not in Arabic. On the very day that he signed the Oslo accords in 1993 -- in which he promised to renounce terrorism and recognize Israel, he addressed the Palestinian people on Jordanian television and declared that he had taken the first step "in the 1974 plan." This was a thinly veiled reference to the "phased plan," according to which any territorial gain was acceptable as a means toward the ultimate goal of Israel's destruction.

8. The recently deceased Faisal al-Husseini, a leading Palestinian spokesman, made the same point in 2001 when he declared that the West Bank and Gaza represented only "22 percent of Palestine" and that the Oslo process was a "Trojan Horse." He explained, "When we are asking all the Palestinian forces and factions to look at the Oslo Agreement and at other agreements as 'temporary' procedures, or phased goals, this means that we are ambushing the Israelis and cheating them." The goal, he continued, was "the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea," i.e., the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea -- all of Israel.

9. To this day, the Fatah wing of the PLO (the "moderate" wing that was founded and is controlled by Arafat himself) has as its official emblem the entire state of Israel covered by two rifles and a hand grenade -- another fact that belies the claim that Arafat desires nothing more than the West Bank and Gaza.

10. While criticism of Israel is not necessarily the same as "anti-Semitism," it must be remembered that the Middle East press is, in fact, rife with anti-Semitism. More than fifteen years ago the eminent scholar Bernard Lewis could point out that "The demonization of Jews [in Arabic literature] goes further than it had ever done in Western literature, with the exception of Germany during the period of Nazi rule." Since then, and through all the years of the "peace process," things have become much worse. Depictions of Jews in Arab and Muslim media are akin to those of Nazi Germany, and medieval blood libels -- including claims that Jews use Christian and Muslim blood in preparing their holiday foods have become prominent and routine. One example is a sermon broadcast on PA television where Sheik Ahmad Halabaya stated, "They [the Jews] must be butchered and killed, as Allah the Almighty said: 'Fight them: Allah will torture them at your hands.' Have no mercy on the Jews, no matter where they are, in any country. Fight them, wherever you are. Wherever you meet them, kill them."

11. Over three-quarters of Palestinians approve of suicide bombings -- an appalling statistic but in light of the above facts, an unsurprising one.

[b]The State of Israel[/b]

12. There are 21 Arab countries in the Middle East and only one Jewish state: Israel, which is also the only democracy in the region.

13. Israel is the only country in the region that permits citizens of all faiths to worship freely and openly. Twenty percent of Israeli citizens are not Jewish.

14. While Jews are not permitted to live in many Arab countries, Arabs are granted full citizenship and have the right to vote in Israel. Arabs are also free to become members of the Israeli parliament (the Knesset). In fact, several Arabs have been democratically elected to the Knesset and have been serving there for years. Arabs living in Israel have more rights and are freer than most Arabs living in Arab countries.

15. Israel is smaller than the state of New Hampshire and is surrounded by nations hostile to her existence. Some peace proposals including the recent Saudi proposal demand withdrawal from the entire West Bank, which would leave Israel 9 miles wide at its most vulnerable point.

16. The oft-cited UN Resolution 242 (passed in the wake of the 1967 war) does not, in fact, require a complete withdrawal from the West Bank. As legal scholar Eugene Rostow put it, "Resolution 242, which as undersecretary of state for political affairs between 1966 and 1969 I helped produce, calls on the parties to make peace and allows Israel to administer the territories it occupied in 1967 until 'a just and lasting peace in the Middle East' is achieved. When such a peace is made, Israel is required to withdraw its armed forces 'from territories' it occupied during the Six-Day War -- not from 'the' territories nor from 'all' the territories, but from some of the territories."

17. Israel has, of course, conceded that the Palestinians have legitimate claims to the disputed territories and is willing to engage in negotiations on the matter. As noted above, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered almost all of the territories to Arafat at Camp David in 2000.

18. Despite claims that the Israeli settlements in the West Bank are the obstacle to peace, Jews lived there for centuries before being massacred or driven out by invading Arab armies in 1948-49. And contrary to common misperceptions, Israeli settlements -- which constitute less than two percent of the territories -- almost never displace Palestinians.

19. The area of the West Bank includes some of the most important sites in Jewish history, among them Hebron, Bethlehem, and Jericho. East Jerusalem, often cited as an "Arab city" or "occupied territory," is the site of Judaism's holiest monument. While under Arab rule (1948-67), this area was entirely closed to Jews. Since Israel took control, it has been open to people of all faiths.

20. Finally, let us consider the demand that certain territories in the Muslim world must be off-limits to Jews. This demand is of a piece with Hitler's proclamation that German land had to be "Judenrein" (empty of Jews). Arabs can live freely throughout Israel, and as full citizens. Why should Jews be forbidden to live or to own land in an area like the West Bank simply because the majority of people is Arab?

In sum, a fair and balanced portrayal of the Middle East will reveal that one nation stands far above the others in its commitment to human rights and democracy as well as in its commitment to peace and mutual security. That nation is Israel.

Quizzies

01.08.04 (11:55 am)   [edit]
BORED!


You know a lot about the Simpson's!!!!:) You most
likely watch it everyday! and you can't get
enough of them! Don't worry I'm like that too!


How much do you know about the Simpson's?
brought to you by Quizilla



You like to dress sexy and arent afraid to hide it.
You have a wild side and like to have. You
would most likely get a dress that reflects
that like something semi revealing and daring.


What Prom dress are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

your a real punk yeh *rock on* dont let anyone tell
u different well, even if they did you'd
probably punch them in the facem/


are you a punk or poser...?
brought to you by Quizilla


You are Vizzini. You are an intellectual
phillosopher who makes Plato and Socretes look
like morons. Perhaps you are over confident in
your brain power, or perhaps you should never
underestimate a man in black. You always have
a plan and people turn to you for ideas on how
to make money.


Which character from The Princess Bride are you? (with pics)
brought to you by Quizilla

D'var Torah for Vayechi

01.08.04 (10:41 am)   [edit]
Vayechi (Genesis 47:28-50:26), relays the story of Yaakov moving to Egypt. We find that Yaakov blesses all his sons. Of particular interest is the blessing Yaakov gives Efraim and Menashe, who aren't even his children, but rather Yosef's. Not only does he bless them, but he also says that their children and future generations should be called in his name and his forefathers. On the outset this seems like a strange blessing. Of all the blessings, what's the significance of carrying his name, and why would he give that blessing to Yosef's sons?

One answer, given by Rav Moshe Feinstein, could give us something worth pondering. We first must realize how differently Yosef's sons were raised, as opposed to Yaakov's.

First of all, Yaakov's sons had Yaakov around, which in itself is an asset. Not only did Yosef's kids not have Yaakov, but also they were raised in a country that had different religious ideals and vastly different value system, and in a house that had many visitors who didn't exactly fit in with the 'nice Jewish home'. Yet through all that they managed to become great people, from whom great leaders like Yehoshua (Joshua) came out.

It's the fact that they weren't influenced by their surroundings that impressed Yaakov so very much that he wanted to be associated with their names. He wanted to be named with them because the name is what identifies a person.

They kept their 'names' means that they kept their identity, and knew what was important in life and protected it.

We have an opportunity in our lifetime to imitate Efraim and Menashe, and make God want to be associated with OUR names. Every day we can show God that we too know what's important in life, and not be influenced by our negative surroundings. We too should protect our own grasp/observance of the Torah. We too should want to make God proud of US!

We should want to make our families and our frineds proud of us as well as ourselves too. This can happen by trying as best we can to be good people. Have a wonderful & restful Shabbos and a great weekend too!

Zen Zionist

01.08.04 (12:35 am)   [edit]
Haha! Someone I was talking to today characterized me as a "Zen Zionist" after I told them I try to remain as civilized as possible, have balance, and be as tolerant as I can (though I am a human and complete tolerance is against our nature, of course--but I try. We all should try). I thought that was pretty cute. I've never heard that one before and I like it. I almost considered changing the name of my blog again to "The Zen Zionist." What y'all think? It's catchy, no?

LOL!

Thanks, DarkMood! You're great! :wink:

Everyone visit DarkMood.tblog.com and give him a hollar! :D

Priceless

01.07.04 (11:15 pm)   [edit]
Found this humorous. Heehee. It's surely a fake (ya think!) but it still made me crack a little bit of a smile.




Hope it shows up!!!

Messiah : The Criteria

01.07.04 (10:56 pm)   [edit]
Judge for yourself:
Did Jesus fulfill ALL these criteria?

The Jewish tradition of "The Messiah" has its foundation in numerous biblical references, and understands "The Messiah" to be a human being - without any overtone of deity or divinity - who will bring about certain changes in the world and fulfill certain criteria before he can be acknowledged as "The Messiah".

First of all, he must be Jewish - "...you may appoint a king over you, wham the Lord your God shall choose: one from among your brethren shall you set as king over you." (Deuteronomy 17:15)

He must be a member of the tribe of Judah - "The staff shall not depart from Judah, nor the sceptre from between his feet..." (Genesis 49:10)

To be a member of the tribe of Judah, the person must have a biological father who is a member of the tribe of Judah.

He must be a direct male descendant of King David and King Solomon, his son - "And when your days (David) are fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who shall issue from your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will make firm the throne of his kingdom forever..." (2 Samuel 7:12 - 13)

The genealogy of the New Testament is inconsistent. While it gives two accounts of the genealogy of Joseph, it states clearly that he is not the biological father of Jesus. One of the genealogies is through Nathan and not Solomon altogether!

He must gather the Jewish people from exile and return them to Israel -"And he shall set up a banner for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." (Isaiah 11:12)

Are all Jews living in Israel? Have all Jews EVER lived in Israel since the time of Jesus?

He must rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem - "...and I will set my sanctuary in their midst forever and my tabernacle shall be with them.." (Ezekiel 37:26 - 27)

At last check, there is NO Temple in Jerusalem. And worse, it was shortly after Jesus died that the Temple was DESTROYED! Just the opposite of this prophecy!

He will rule at a time of world-wide peace - "...they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." (Micah 4:3)askyourself...

Have you seen a newspaper lately? Are we living in a state of complete world peace? Has there ever been peace since the time of Jesus?


He will rule at a time when the Jewish people will observe God's commandments - "My servant David shall be king over them; and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall follow My ordinances and be careful to observe My statutes." (Ezekiel 37:24)

The Torah is the Jewish guide to life, and its commandments are the ones referred to here. Do all Jews observe all the commandments? Christianity, in fact, often discourages observance of the commandments in Torah, in complete opposition to this prophecy.

He will rule at a time when all people will come to acknowledge and serve one God - "And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, says the Lord" (Isaiah 66:23)

There are still millions, if not billions of people who practice Hinduism, Buddhism, Satanism and many other forms of pagan and polythesitic religions. It is clear that we have not yet seen this period of human history unfold.

All of these criteria are best stated in the book of Ezekiel Chapter 37 verses 24-28:

[i]And David my servant shall be king over them; and they shall all have one shepherd. they shall also fallow My judgments and observe My statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Yaakov my servant, in which your fathers have dwelt and they shall dwell there, they and their children, and their children's children forever; and my servant David shall be their prince forever. Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them, it shall be an everlasting covenant with them, which I will give them; and I will multiply them and I will set my sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore. And my tabernacle shall be with them: and I will be their God and they will be my people. Then the nations shall know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary will be in the midst of them forevermore.[/i]

If an individual fails to fulfill even one of these conditions, then he cannot be "The Messiah." A careful analysis of these criteria shows us that to date, no one has fulfilled every condition.

... and Certainly NOT Jesus.

(For the sources and more on the topic of Jewish belief in the messiah, click here: http://jewsforjudaism.org)

This is DEFINATLY a Must-Read...

01.07.04 (8:46 pm)   [edit]
Check out this link: http://www.adl.org/anti_semit... There, you'll find a wonderful expose' entitled "Arab Media Review: Anti-Semitism and Other Trends" from the ADL.

It's very thorough and VERY eye-opening!

Jews Face a Widening Web of Hate

01.07.04 (8:42 pm)   [edit]
You can find this article and much more in the links section to the left. This came from the Anti-Defamation League...


[b]Jews Face a Widening Web of Hate

By [i]Abraham H. Foxman[/i]
National Director of the Anti-Defamation League
[i]This op-ed originally appeared in the December 28, 2003 edition of the Los Angeles Times. RULE
Posted: December 29, 2003[/i][/b]

NEW YORK — Throughout the 1990s and even after Sept. 11, 2001, discussions about anti-Semitism often included the view that Jew hatred had diminished and was no longer a real threat. Such complacency is dangerous. Anti-Semitism is not a relic of history but a current event. Its resurgence is stronger and more widespread than even the most pessimistic among us predicted. And the threat is growing. Indeed, the contemporary rise of this oldest hatred in the world is by far the greatest since the 1930s, sharing some characteristics of that most terrible time for Jews. But it also has new forms and modes of transmission.

In one weekend in November, two synagogues in Istanbul, Turkey, were attacked simultaneously by suicide bombers, and a Jewish school outside Paris was destroyed by arson. These attacks occurred about a month after the Malaysian prime minister, in his swan song to the leaders of 57 Islamic nations, issued a call to a holy war against the Jews "who rule this world by proxy." Mahathir Mohamad proclaimed that Jews were not just the enemy of Muslims but of all peoples and nations. Whether the suicide bombers in Turkey were moved by his message is a question that will probably go unanswered. But one thing is clear: Their acts were motivated by a deep-seated anti-Semitism.

Meanwhile, in the United States, a Holocaust museum in Terre Haute, Ind., was leveled by arson. The attacker left behind the words "Remember Timmy McVeigh," which were spray-painted on an exterior wall. Acts of vandalism and intimidation and anti-Semitic graffiti have hit other Jewish communities across the country as well.

Where does this hatred come from? Why is it growing today?

Historically, anti-Semitism shares many characteristics with such forms of prejudice as racism and xenophobia. What makes it different — and what lies at the core of the disease — is the notion that Jews may appear to be people like you and me but are, in fact, alien, conspiratorial, all-powerful evil beings.

That premise underlies the medieval charge of blood libel against Jews and of the poisoning of wells as an explanation for the Black Plague. Even today, Jews are accused of using Christian blood in their rituals.

That premise underlies the belief that the forged document known as "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion," created by the czarist police in 1903, was a real Jewish plan to take over the world.

That premise allowed Adolf Hitler to convince huge numbers of Germans that they were the victims of the insidious Jew and that they had to do anything to protect themselves from this all-powerful foe.

Today, nearly 60 years after the slaughter of 6 million Jews in Europe, this core of anti-Semitism is finding new life, not merely on the margins where it always had followers but among the mainstream in too many societies, though mostly in the Islamic world.

Anti-Jewishness has always been part of the refusal by Arabs and the Islamic world to recognize Israel's legitimacy as a state. But that attitude has taken on a far more ominous tone than the political, nationalistic hostility of earlier times. One example of how the idea of the all-powerful alien Jew has entered the mainstream is the theory, believed by tens of thousands of Arabs and Muslims, that Israel and Jews — not Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda terrorists — were the "real" perpetrators of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The mere fact that so many believe this fantastic, ugly lie is testament to the dispersion of anti-Semitic stereotypes. In today's global village, the Internet and satellite communications allow the anti-Semitism spewed in mosques, newspapers, television, governments and intellectual circles to crisscross the globe instantaneously and to enter homes uninvited.

The results of this kind of poison are immediate and long-term. For now, it helps recruitment of Middle East suicide bombers who see the Jew as victimizer. In Europe, it caused hundreds of attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions over the last three years. The hesitation of European governments to apprehend and prosecute the perpetrators, most of whom are Muslims, is disturbing, as is their unwillingness to acknowledge that one-sided condemnation of Israeli policies creates a climate in which anti-Semitism flourishes. If you doubt that excessive criticism of Israel fans hostility and hatred that feeds anti-Semitism, consider a recent European Union poll. When asked which nation poses the greatest threat to world peace, a majority of respondents answered: Israel. In its frequency and tone, EU criticism of Israeli policies has tainted the entire state of Israel.

As bad as the new anti-Semitism has been, however, it could become far worse unless good people begin to stand up. The combination of Jew hatred and the accumulation of weapons of mass destruction by hostile governments makes the threat of this anti-Semitism the greatest since the Holocaust.

What is needed now — unlike what happened in the 1930s when the world stood by until it was too late to save the Jews of Europe — is a united and vigorous stand by free nations and free peoples against anti-Semitism. This is necessary not only because it is the moral thing to do but also because it is a matter of self-interest. The idea that anti-Semitism is the canary in the coal mine — the first warning against an insidious danger — has never been more relevant. It will only start with the Jew; it will not stop there.

That is why efforts by some to blame the surge of anti-Semitism on the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon are not only wrong but highly damaging. Certainly, one can be critical of Israel and its policies and not be anti-Semitic. We daily read such legitimate criticism in the Israeli and American press. But it is indisputable that the criticism of some is fueled by anti-Semitism.

How to distinguish the two? When the United Nations repeatedly accuses Israel — and only Israel — of human rights violations, or when the U.N. General Assembly votes, as it did, to raise the issue of Israel's security fence with the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Israel is judged by a different standard than the rest of the world. That is anti-Semitism. When Zionism — the nationalistic aspiration of the Jewish people to have a homeland, a culture, a common society and capital — is harshly criticized but other nationalistic movements are spared such antipathy, that's anti-Semitism. The Jew hatred at the core of such selective treatment of Israel has far, far more to do with scapegoating Jews for all the ills in the world — in this case mostly in the Islamic world — than any one event involving Israel and the Palestinians.

History teaches that we must not be complacent, that anti-Semitism has a life of its own, that it has little to do with the behavior of Jews but with using Jews as the ultimate scapegoat. Democratic leaders and good people must stand up — for their own sake as well as for the sake of Jewish communities — so that the theme of "never again" will be a living reality.

Libya's flirtation with Israel...

01.07.04 (11:51 am)   [edit]
This is from http://www.debka.com. You can find this and similar links to the left in my links section. This is very interesting information...


[i]Najat al-Hajjaji, the current chairperson of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.[/i]

[b]Is Libya flirting with Israel?
Special DEBKAfile report

January 7, 2004, 4:07 PM (GMT+02:00)[/b]


Libya’s intense efforts to improve its relations with the UN have led it to explore Jewish channels.

Two senior Libyans, Saif el-Islam Qaddafi, the elder son of the ruler, Muammar Qaddafi, and Moussa Kussa, the head of Libya’s intelligence services, are seeking to establish communication with various Jewish institutions, including the US Committee of Jewish Presidents and the Jewish lobby in Washington.

For the same reason, Libya is putting out tentative feelers about some sort of accommodation with Israel. DEBKAfile intelligence sources report that Saif el-Islam, who studies and lives in London, traveled to a Middle Eastern capital last June to meet five Israelis, at least three of whom have political or military influence in Jerusalem. His purpose, he said, was to explain his father’s ideas about establishing a single Israeli-Palestinian state to be called Isratin. He explained that there was no hope for a Palestinian state, that an ethnic Israeli state would not survive, and that there should instead be a joint state. He also emphasized that Libya had turned into attention from the Arab world to the African one.

As DEBKAfile published last month, Aron Proshar, political adviser to Israel’s foreign minister, had a meeting in Paris in the third week of December with Musafa Nahed Tlas, daughter of Syria’s defense minister and businesswoman and celebrity in her own right. Though the subject of the meeting was Israeli-Syrian relations, Libya was also talked about. Mrs Nahed Tlas has close contacts in Tripoli, including Saif el-Islam. This indirect approach may have been a way of bypassing Ariel Sharon’s instructions to Israel’s foreign minister that he was not to make approaches to Libya, though some reports say that a Libyan was in the house with Mrs Nahed Tlas.

On January 5, Muammar Qaddafi himself said that all people, including Jews, whose property had been confiscated during Libya’s revolution should be compensated. Next day, Al Siyassa, a Kuwaiti newspaper, reported that representatives of Mossad, Israel’s military intelligence, had met with a high-ranking official in Vienna. The paper did not give the names but DEBKAfile can report that the Libyan was Najat al-Hajjaji, Libya's ambassador to the UN and the current chairperson of the Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

There two conflicting reports about this meeting. The first is that Mrs Hajjaji, who in her early life had experience in public relations, was in Vienna to prepare the ground for Qaddafi’s announcement about dismantling Libya’s WMD, and that she just stumbled on the Israelis who were in Vienna as members of the UN’s international nuclear commission. If this is so, the meeting was of no importance. But the second report says that Mrs Hajjaji flew especially to Vienna to meet the Israelis.

Senior sources in Jerusalem tell DEBKAfile that Libya’s only reason for any approach to Israel is its wish to improve relations with the US. Nothing of consequence is, in fact, going on. If Libya wants to make a move towards Israel, say these sources, it should do so through the US Committee of Jewish Presidents.

Interesting...

01.07.04 (11:43 am)   [edit]
Iran tries to forge ties with Egypt and Lybia tries to forge ties with Israel. Hmmm...

[b]Israeli MP: Libya Could Forge Ties with Israel
Reuters
Wed Jan 7, 9:09 AM ET

[i]By Gwen Ackerman[/b][/i]

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli lawmaker who met the son of Muammar Gaddafi last summer said Wednesday the Libyan leader could go as far as forging ties with the Jewish state that has long considered him an enemy.

But a senior Israeli Foreign Ministry source said "the road to establishing relations between Israel and Libya is a long one" and added that Gaddafi "must prove by action that he truly intends to conduct dialogue."

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is also skeptical about recent meetings with Libyan officials, including secret talks held two weeks ago with a senior Foreign Ministry official, a top political source said.

Word of the diplomatic initiative surfaced after Libya issued a surprise announcement last month that it was abandoning its unconventional weapons, a move welcomed by the United States as a key step toward ending Libya's international isolation.

Ephraim Sneh of the opposition Labor party said he and a member of Shinui, a centrist party in Israel's governing coalition, met in August with Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who analysts believe is being groomed as his father's successor.

"My impression is that Gaddafi has made a strategic decision and he is not a man who takes small steps," Sneh told Israel Radio. "He will not stop midway and could even go as far as forging ties with Israel...Right now it is in Gaddafi's hands."

SWORN FOE

Any breakthrough would be a major turnabout in relations between the two countries. Libya has long been a sworn foe of Israel and for years sheltered anti-Israel militants, including Palestinian guerrilla chief Abu Nidal, who died of gunshot wounds in Baghdad last year.

In 1973, Israel shot down a Libyan airliner with more than 100 people aboard after it strayed into Israeli airspace.

At a non-aligned summit in Belgrade in 1989, Gaddafi suggested that Jews should move to a new homeland in the French region of Alsace-Lorraine, Alaska or the Baltic states.

Political sources confirmed a television report that senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official Ron Prosor met a Libyan representative two weeks ago to discuss opening a dialogue.

The sources said Sharon received a report on the meeting but it was not known whether the talks had yielded any progress. The Foreign Ministry source voiced concern that the media leaks about the meeting could jeopardize further talks.

The daily Yedioth Ahronoth said the Libyan official had broached the subject of Israel's presumed unconventional weapons arsenal, asking whether it would agree to disarm as Libya had, but the newspaper gave no indication of Prosor's response.

Israel is widely believed to have nuclear weapons, though it has never officially admitted it and has refused to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Yedioth Ahronoth cited officials as saying Prosor was told that Libya would find it easier to forge ties once there was a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, who have been locked in violent conflict since the start of the Palestinian uprising against occupation in September 2000.

Tehran Renames Street in Move Toward Egypt Ties

01.06.04 (2:45 pm)   [edit]
Yea, they don't want to have ties with Israel, the state they refuse to recognize, so this works out for them. Read on...

[b]Tehran Renames Street in Move Toward Egypt Ties
Reuters
Tue Jan 6, 4:35 AM ET[/b]

TEHRAN (Reuters) - In a gesture likely to pave the way for restoring the ties Iran severed with Cairo 25 years ago, Tehran City Council on Tuesday changed the name of a street which had honored the assassin of Egypt's former president.

The official IRNA news agency said the name of Khaled Islambouli street had been changed to Intifada (Uprising) street at the request of Iran's Foreign Ministry.

Iran and Egypt have expressed a desire in recent weeks to patch up their differences. Cairo had demanded Iran rename the street before it would contemplate restoring relations.

"This is a step in accordance with (Iran's) detente policy and trust-building with all countries, especially Islamic countries," IRNA quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi as saying.

"For the same reasons that relations with Egypt were cut they should now be restored because it will help the Palestinians and they themselves (the Palestinians) want it," Asefi said.

Iran broke ties with Egypt shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution for striking the Camp David peace deal with Israel and hosting Iran's exiled shah.

Islambouli, an Islamic radical, shot Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981.

The new street name refers to the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.

Iran's President Mohammad Khatami and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak met on the sidelines of a conference in Geneva last month -- the first such meeting for more than two decades.

"Anti-Zionism = Anti-Semitism"- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

01.05.04 (10:19 pm)   [edit]
Source: lifted from http://www.hasidicgentile.org...


". . . You declare, my friend, that you do not hate the Jews, you are merely 'anti-Zionist.' And I say, let the truth ring forth from the high mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys of God's green earth: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews--this is God's own truth.

"Antisemitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, has been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind. In this we are in full agreement. So know also this: anti-Zionist is inherently antisemitic, and ever will be so.

"Why is this? You know that Zionism is nothing less than the dream and ideal of the Jewish people returning to live in their own land. The Jewish people, the Scriptures tell us, once enjoyed a flourishing Commonwealth in the Holy Land. From this they were expelled by the Roman tyrant, the same Romans who cruelly murdered Our Lord. Driven from their homeland, their nation in ashes, forced to wander the globe, the Jewish people time and again suffered the lash of whichever tyrant happened to rule over them.

"The Negro people, my friend, know what it is to suffer the torment of tyranny under rulers not of our choosing. Our brothers in Africa have begged, pleaded, requested--DEMANDED the recognition and realization of our inborn right to live in peace under our own sovereignty in our own country.

"How easy it should be, for anyone who holds dear this inalienable right of all mankind, to understand and support the right of the Jewish People to live in their ancient Land of Israel. All men of good will exult in the fulfilment of God's promise, that his People should return in joy to rebuild their plundered land.

This is Zionism, nothing more, nothing less.

"And what is anti-Zionist? It is the denial to the Jewish people of a fundamental right that we justly claim for the people of Africa and freely accord all other nations of the Globe. It is discrimination against Jews, my friend, because they are Jews. In short, it is antisemitism.

"The antisemite rejoices at any opportunity to vent his malice. The times have made it unpopular, in the West, to proclaim openly a hatred of the Jews. This being the case, the antisemite must constantly seek new forms and forums for his poison. How he must revel in the new masquerade! He does not hate the Jews, he is just 'anti-Zionist'!

"My friend, I do not accuse you of deliberate antisemitism. I know you feel, as I do, a deep love of truth and justice and a revulsion for racism, prejudice, and discrimination. But I know you have been misled--as others have been--into thinking you can be 'anti-Zionist' and yet remain true to these heartfelt principles that you and I share.

Let my words echo in the depths of your soul: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews--make no mistake about it."



From M.L. King Jr., "Letter to an Anti-Zionist Friend," Saturday Review_XLVII (Aug. 1967), p. 76.
Reprinted in M.L. King Jr., "This I Believe: Selections from the Writings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."

The Tenth of Tevet: Yom Ha-Kaddish HaKlali

01.05.04 (9:25 pm)   [edit]
The Fast of the Tenth of Tevet was yesteday (Monday).

In the State of Israel, Kaddish (the Jewish prayer for the deceased) is recited on this day for people whose date or place of death is unknown. Consequently, many rabbis have designated it as a day of remembrance for the Holocaust.


[b]Historic Significance[/b]

[i]'And it was in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth (day) of the month, that Nebuchadnetzar, King of Babylon came, he and all his hosts, upon Yerushalayim, and he encamped upon it and built forts around it. And the city came under siege till the eleventh year of King Tzidkiyahu. On the ninth of the month famine was intense in the city, the people had no bread, and the city was breached.' (Second Melachim 25).[/i]

We see then, that the tenth of Tevet - on which the siege of Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) began, was the beginning of the whole chain of calamities which finally ended with the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash (Holy Temple).

[b]The Purpose of Fasting[/b]

[i]'The essential significance of the fast of the Tenth of Tevet, as well as that of the other fast days, is not primarily the grief and mourning which they evoke. Their aim is rather to awaken the hearts towards repentance; to recall to us, both the evil deeds of our fathers, and our own evil deeds, which caused anguish to befall both them and us and thereby to cause us to return towards the good. As it is said (Vayikra 26): 'And they shall confess their transgressions and the transgressions of their fathers.' (Rambam: Hilchot Ta'anit Chapter 5).

'The aim of fasting, therefore, is to subjugate our evil inclination by restriction of pleasure; to open our hearts and stir us to repentance and good deeds through which the gates of Divine mercy might be opened for us.' (Chayei Adam; Klal 33)

'Therefore, each person is obligated to examine his deeds and to repent during these days. As it is written of the people of Nineveh: 'And the Lord saw their actions' (Yonah 3), upon which the Rabbis say: 'It is not said, He saw their sackcloth and fasting, but rather their actions ' (Ta'anit 22). We see hence that the purpose of fasting is repentance.' (same as above)

'Therefore, the people, who fast but engage in pointless activities, grasp what is of secondary importance and miss what is essential. Nevertheless, repentance alone without fasting is also insufficient, because there is a positive commandment of Rabbinic origin to fast on this day.' (same as above)[/i]

[b]The Observance of the Fast[/b]

The fast begins, as do all the public fasts with the exception of Tisha B'Av and Yom Kippur, at "alot haShachar," "dawn."

These four public fasts: Asarah B'Tevet, Tzom Gedaliah, Shiva Asar B'Tammuz, and Ta'anit Esther, are also alike in that there do not apply any additional physical constraints, such as the prohibition of washing or of wearing leather shoes, etc.

One who is in the category of being ill-even-without-danger, or who is a pregnant or nursing woman, for whom fasting might be difficult, and all children, are exempt from fasting.

All those who are exempt from fasting should not, in any case, eat publicly or indulge in purely pleasurable forms of consumption (such as eating black-'n-whites), but should eat only that which is necessary for good nutrition.

If a public fast falls on Shabbos, it is delayed until after Shabbos since fasting is not permitted on Shabbos. The one exception is Yom Kippur, which, based on a verse in the Torah, is observed even if it falls on Shabbos. The Geonim also write that the same was once true of the tenth of Tevet, since it is written of the tenth of Tevet: [i]'On this very day' (YechezkeI 2)[/i]. In our calendar calculation, however, the tenth of Tevet can never fall on Shabbos.

If a public fast occurs on Erev Shabbos, we fast the entire day 'till the conclusion of the fast, even though it means entering Shabbos while fasting. Neither "Avinu Malkeinu" nor "Tachanun" are recited at Mincha (the afternoon prayor). The fast continues until after the completion of Maariv for Shabbos--the evening prayor for Shabbos (after the appearance of the stars). One should not eat or drink anything until after Kiddush (blessing over wine at Friday night dinner).

Nowadays our calendar calculation is such that the only public fast which can fall on Erev Shabbos is the tenth of Tevet.

Israel OKs Work Permits to Palestinians

01.05.04 (7:57 pm)   [edit]
So here's what I don't quite understand: If or when Palestinians gain their own state, are they still to be reliant on Israel for jobs? Will the international community continue to pressue Israel to provide jobs for people from another country? Is the U.S. then obligated, because of the poor living conditions and squalor as well as the poor economy there, to HAVE to provide work for Mexicans?

Don't get me wrong, I am all for the work permit idea to allow out of country workers to work within Israel. That's lawful. If they have permission to work in another country, they should be allowed. But what is this "pressure" that is forced upon Israel, whose economy is DYING because of the LACK of TOURISM due to TERRORISM? I don't get it.

I hope that the Palestinians generate a way to start their own nations' economy once it is in place. If Israel's economy dies due to terrorism, I know, and I'm sure many others do too, that they won't be allowed into Palestine for jobs. They'll be blown up at the boarder.


[b]Israel OKs Work Permits to Palestinians
AP
Sun Jan 4, 5:50 AM ET[/b]

JERUSALEM - Israel on Sunday reauthorized work permits for 29,000 Palestinian laborers from the West Bank and Gaza Strip (news - web sites), weeks after revoking the permits following a suicide bombing in Israel, the army said.


Israel has frequently clamped suffocating restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza since Israel-Palestinian fighting broke out three years ago. These restrictions have dealt a heavy blow to the Palestinian economy, which is heavily dependent on jobs in Israel.

Under international pressure to make life easier for Palestinians, Israel had granted about 33,000 permits in recent months, the army said. The permits allow the workers to enter Israel for jobs in construction, restaurants and other professions.

Those permits were revoked after a Dec. 25 suicide bombing near Tel Aviv that killed four Israelis. Sunday's decision restored most of those permits, allowing 19,000 Gaza residents and 10,000 Palestinians from the West Bank to work in Israel.

While the permits bring some relief to the Palestinians, the number of workers remains far below the estimated 150,000 Palestinians who used to work in Israel before the outbreak of violence in September 2000.

Unemployment and poverty are rampant in the Palestinian territories, and the international community — led by the United States — increasingly has pressured Israel to ease the restrictions.

This is hilarious...

01.05.04 (7:29 pm)   [edit]
Be careful what you name your children, folks!

source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/n...


[b]Harassed 'Saddam' Seeks New Name
Reuters
Mon Jan 5, 8:02 AM ET[/b]

RIYADH (Reuters) - A Saudi Arabian man who called his son Saddam Hussein 14 years ago is now desperately trying to have the name changed. Mohsen al-Harithy first asked the relevant authorities to change his son's name in 1990, when the forces of the now-deposed Iraqi president invaded neighboring Kuwait, the Saudi English-language Arab News newspaper reported Monday.

But the boy's file was destroyed by an Iraqi missile attack on the civil status department in the Saudi capital Riyadh in the 1991 war to liberate Kuwait.

"After I found the paper was gone, I forgot about the whole thing but recent events and the capture of Saddam force me to change the name," he said. "The Saddam name now symbolizes pessimism, evil, mockery and disappointment all at once."

[b]Saddam, once regarded as a hero by Arabs for adopting policies against the United States and Israel[/b], was captured by U.S. troops in December without a fight. A U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam in April.

Al-Harithy told Arab News his son was constantly fighting with his classmates who tease him about his name. The newspaper did not say how the man planned to change his son's name without paperwork.

Purported Bin Laden Tape Likely Authentic

01.05.04 (7:22 pm)   [edit]
This is some truly scarey stuff! I can't wait for them to catch Osama, but what they really need to put a stop to is the Islamic fundamentalist racism that permiates many Islamic societies.


[b]Purported Bin Laden Tape Likely Authentic
AP
Mon Jan 5, 9:18 AM ET

[i]By MAAMOUN YOUSSEF, Associated Press Writer[/i][/b]

CAIRO, Egypt - A speaker who was purportedly Osama bin Laden said on an audiotape that the U.S.-led war in Iraq was the beginning of the "occupation" of Gulf states for their oil and called on Muslims to keep fighting a holy war in the Middle East. The tape is likely authentic, U.S. officials said Monday.

The voice on the audiotape, which was broadcast Sunday on the Al-Jazeera satellite channel, referred to recent events — including the Dec. 13 capture of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and peace initiatives between Israel and the Palestinians.

The speaker urged Muslims to "continue the jihad to check the conspiracies that are hatched against the Islamic nation."

A CIA official speaking on condition of anonymity said that a technical analysis determined that the tape was likely an authentic audio message from bin Laden, the leader of the al-Qaida terror network.

On CBS's "Good Morning America," Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge also said that "preliminary assessments says this is the voice of Osama bin Laden."

Al-Jazeera played the audiotape while showing a still photo of bin Laden against a dark blue background.

"My message is to incite you against the conspiracies, especially those uncovered by the occupation of the crusaders in Baghdad under the pretext of weapons of mass destruction, and also the situation in (Jerusalem) under the deceptions of the road map and the Geneva initiative," the speaker said.

A Mideast peace plan dubbed the Geneva Accord was launched Dec. 1 by Israeli and Palestinian negotiators. The phrase "road map" refers to a U.S.-backed plan for a Palestinian state by 2005.

Ibrahim Hilal, Al-Jazeera's editor-in-chief, told The Associated Press the network received the message Sunday. However, he declined to reveal how it was delivered.

Hilal said he was certain the voice on the tape was bin Laden's.

"It is bin Laden's superb and special Arabic language that is very hard to emulate," Hilal said. "It is undoubtedly his voice, his style, and the typical examples from history he uses."

The original message was 47 minutes long but the network aired only 14 minutes, Hilal said.

In those excerpts, the speaker urged Muslims to "liberate the Islamic world from the military occupation of the Crusaders."

He said Gulf countries have given in to U.S. pressures "thinking that would not open the door for toppling of the dictatorial regimes by military force from outside, especially after they saw the capture of their previous comrade in treachery, a hireling of America," referring to Saddam.

The speaker criticized leaders of Muslim nations for refusing to pressure the United States on the Palestinian issue and for not supporting the Palestinian resistance.

He also criticized Gulf countries for receiving members of the U.S.-appointed interim Iraqi Governing Council.

He said the "big powers" were trying to control the region for its oil.


"The occupation of Iraq is the beginning of the full occupation of the other Gulf states. ... The Gulf is the key for control of the world in the point of view of the big powers because of the presence of the biggest deposits of oil."

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Monday in London that he had no confirmation that the voice on the tape was bin Laden's but that it was a safe assumption.

"There is no question that the al-Qaida organization and its networks are still around. And so far as we know, Osama bin Laden is still alive," Straw told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Al-Jazeera last broadcast an audiotape purportedly from bin Laden in October. CIA analysts examining that tape concluded it probably was authentic.

___

Associated Press reporter Rawya Rageh in Dubai contributed to this report.

Are genetically modified foods kosher? Is it permitted to alter species in this way?

01.03.04 (9:46 pm)   [edit]
Although there are instances of genetic material of non-kosher animals being used in kosher foods, to date, no one has succeeded in demonstrating that this renders the food non-kosher. The issues are complex, and require a thorough knowledge of halachic precedent to date.

On the other hand, are we allowed to mess around with species in this manner? This is a whole other issue. The debate centers around the words of the outstanding medieval Jewish scholar, Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (known as "the Ramban" or Nachmanides—not to be confused with his predecessor, the Rambam).

Concerning the Biblical prohibition of grafting trees or cross-breeding animals, he writes that this is forbidden for a reason of cosmic import: It disturbs the fundamental path of nature. He calls this act, "obnoxious and vain." Humankind, he says, is given the right to make use of the Creation and to dominate it, but not to disturb its fundamental nature. Speciation is God’s business, and off limits to human beings.

The Ramban has a significant retractor on this point: Rabbi Yehuda Lowe (aka "the Maharal of Prague), who lived a few hundred years later. The Maharal, with support from the Talmud, asserts that any change that human beings introduce into the world already existed in potential when the world was created. All that humans do is bring that potential into actuality.

The Torah prohibition against cross-breeding is specific to Jewish people and only under the conditions specified by the Torah. Once performed, a Jew is permitted to benefit from the results. I have not come across a significant argument that the current procedures of genetic engineering constitute cross-breeding as prohibited by the Torah.

The truly crucial issues of genetically modified foods are the health and environmental issues. There is a considerable outcry from informed voices that research has been far from thorough in these areas. In fact, there appears to be strong evidence of significant dangers involved.

Forty years ago, a horticulturist wrote the Lubavitcher Rebbe about his work stimulating plant growth by means of electric current. The Rebbe expressed his astonishment at the lack of long-term research concerning the effects of foods grown this way on human health, since, "For all these years, human beings have not been eating foods grown this way." Certainly, when such radical adjustments are being made to the schemes of nature as we are doing now, a responsible attitude is to progress cautiously.

However, greed and the apathy of government agencies have worked against us in these matters. As a talmudic sage, Rabbi Yaacov of Kfar Chanin, said, "Adam was told to dominate the earth. But the word 'dominate' can also be read as 'descend'. If Adam approached the earth as he was made in the image of the Creator, then he dominates over it. But if not, if he comes as just another selfish creature, then he descends lower than any of the creation."

Dean's SO smart!

01.03.04 (6:55 pm)   [edit]
He's just as smart as Bush! Do we really need another idiot in office? Let's see, Bush is a monkey and Dean is a Turnip (or at least he has the IQ of one).

This is rediculous! He's such a faker. I'm sorry, but as a religiously learned person, this makes me nuts because I can see right through what he's doing! He's desperatly trying to appeal to the religious and the south! I'm not buying it!

I just thought I'd share this quote from Howard Dean. Good GOD! Read the quote below and then check out the source that I listed for the full article!

after he went off on how spiritual and what a devout Christian he is, Dean said this...

When asked to name his favorite book in the New Testament, Dean cited Job -- which is in the Old Testament -- because "it's such an allegory." More than an hour later, he came back to correct himself, telling reporters he had misspoken. (source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/n... )

Vote Lieberman or Clark '04!

"State of Palestine" Constitution Institutes Islamic Law

01.03.04 (5:50 pm)   [edit]
Source: http://israelnn.com/news.php3...

[b]"State of Palestine" Constitution Institutes Islamic Law
21:44 Dec 31, '03 / 6 Tevet 5764[/b]


The Palestinian Authority has adopted an official constitution based on Koranic "Sharia" Law, rendering all people living in the PA subject to Islamic Law. So writes independent investigative journalist David Bedein in FrontPageMagazine.com.

Over the past three years of the Oslo War, Bedein writes, hundred of Christians living in areas ruled by the PA have been arrested and imprisoned for holding church services or conducting public Christian practices without authorization. Some of the arrested Christians were set free in 2002 when the IDF took over control of what had been PA-controlled cities. This eased their conditions only slightly, however, as they now take refuge by hiding throughout Israel and surreptitiously try to get their families out of PA cities to join them and emigrate to any safe haven they can find in the West. One organization that helps Arabs who wish to emigrate from Israel is called HaMotzi and can be visited on the internet at .

Bedein met with some of these former prisoners, and writes,
"One of them, whom I shall call Joseph... described to me how his family cannot openly practice Christian holidays in Bethlehem under the watchful eyes of the PLO's Islamic police force. After all, the only place in the West Bank where the PLO army currently operates is in the Bethlehem area. Joseph also described how the US-funded Palestinian public school system has become Islamicized, and how his late nephew was literally tortured to death at age 12 by his schoolmates because he expressed love and respect for his uncle as a practicing Christian."

Bedein maintains that the United States refuses to acknowledge these disturbing developments, despite many queries to various officials - and despite the fact that it was US AID that financed the formulation of the PA State Constitution that restricts Christians' rights. The Vatican Ambassador to the Holy Land, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, "expressed his concern to visiting US lawmakers that the PA had adopted Sharia Islamic Law, based on the Iranian and Saudi Arabian models," Bedein wrote.

The PA Constitution, as can be seen at , begins by stating that the territory of the "State of Palestine" is an "indivisible unit based upon its borders on the even of June 4, 1967" - which include, of course, all of Jerusalem and many of its Jewish suburbs. It also states, "All residents of this territory shall be subject to Palestinian law exclusively." Equally improbable is Article 3, which states, "Palestine is a peace loving state that condemns terror, occupation and aggression."

Bedein concentrates, however, on the PA Constitution's Article 5, which reads as follows: "Arabic and Islam are the official Palestinian language and religion. Christianity and all other monotheistic religions shall be equally revered and respected." "In other words," Bedein explains, "as Archbishop Sambi noted, other religions such as Christianity, let alone Judaism, are only to be respected, while being denied any juridical status under the new Palestinian State Constitution." Similarly, Article 7 states, "The principles of Islamic Sharia are a major source for legislation."

Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran that have adopted Sharia Islamic Law have made life quite difficult for Christians, Bedein points out: "Under Sharia Islamic Law, Christians are considered 'dhimmis,' which in effect leaves them as second class citizens. The Archbishop was particularly worried that all Christian churches and schools will be placed under the authority of Islamic Law." Saudi Arabia, run by Sharia law, is in fact one of the most oppressive countries for Christians, according to a report released last year by the Jerusalem Center For Public Affairs, as is Iran.

In the PA, a similar trend is noticeable. The mainstream media have hesitated to report that less than 5% of the population in Jesus' birthplace, Bethlehem, is Christian - compared to only 35 years ago, when a majority of the city was Christian. The exodus of Christians from the city during its ten years under PA control has been dramatic.

"President George W. Bush's administration has envisioned a democratic Palestinian entity that is devoid of terror," Bedein concludes. "Instead, officials of US AID have fostered a constitution that envisions creation of the Islamic totalitarian state of Palestine, completely devoid of religious freedom and human rights. [At present,] no Church can operate in Bethlehem without Islamic approval... This is the legacy of what the US AID has facilitated, with or without the knowledge of the White House."

Jewish Group Says European Commission Anti-Semitic

01.02.04 (3:59 pm)   [edit]
This is disgusting and should not happen again! Read on...

[b]Jewish Group Says European Commission Anti-Semitic
1 hour, 38 minutes ago [/b]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two Jewish leaders accuse the European Commission of encouraging anti-Semitism by releasing a "flawed" poll accusing Israel of being the greatest threat to world peace and then by failing to release a report on the involvement of Muslin minorities in anti-Semitic incidents.

In a piece to be published on Monday in the Financial Times, World Jewish Congress President Edgar Bronfman and European Jewish Congress President Cobi Benatoff said, "Anti-Semitism can be expressed in two ways: by action and inaction. Remarkably, the European Commission is guilty of both.

"First, the Commission released a flawed and dangerously inflammatory poll, which purported to name Israel the greatest threat to world peace. Then, it censored a study commissioned by its own Monitoring Center that reported on the involvement of Muslim minorities in incidents of mounting European anti-Semitism. Let us not mince words: both of these actions were politically motivated."


The poll, released in November, reported that 59 percent of respondents -- citizens of the European Union -- answered yes when asked if Israel posed a threat to world peace, a higher percentage than those who opted for other countries including North Korean, Libya and Iran.


The Commission, an arm of the European Union, disassociated itself from its survey with the EU presidency saying the poll did not reflect the group's position on the Middle East.


The World Jewish Congress, which released a copy of Bronfman's and Benatoff's article on Friday, said it was starting a global campaign soon to secure passage of a stand-alone U.N. resolution condemning anti-Semitism.


"At the last U.N. General Assembly session, Arab states torpedoed an effort on the part of the Irish to introduce such a resolution, WJC executive vice president Elan Steinberg said, adding that the initial step was to seek the resolution's adoption at a conference of European nations next April.

D'var Torah for Vayigash

01.02.04 (1:06 am)   [edit]
In this week’s Parsha (chapter), Vayigash (Genesis 44:18-47:27), Yosef (Joseph) finally reveals himself to his brothers, after making sure they didn’t resent him still. As Rabbi Haber points out, what’s more amazing is that Yosef forgave his brothers, after being stuck in a dangerous pit crawling with poisonous snakes, screaming out for help while catching a glimpse of his brothers sitting down to break bread, ignoring his pleas for mercy. If one’s brothers sold them as a slave, would they ever be able to forgive them, kiss and embrace them, and adhere to all the families’ laws and customs after they caused you such profound pain?

Yosef did all of these things. He didn’t assimilate; he didn’t become an antisemite. He defied every law of human nature. How?

Rabbi Haber goes on to explain that Yosef was empowered by one sentence: "You didn’t send me here, God did!" The fact is they did send him there, but from Yosef’s point of view that was something THEY had to deal with. As far as Joseph was concerned, it was all an act of God. He was not the judge, he was a brother and he was a Jew. He would act like a brother and he would act like a Jew. We can learn SO much from Yosef today!

It is not for us to play God. If we could just memorize and adapt one line into our lives--“it wasn’t you that sent me here; it was God"–-we’d all be closer to all our “brothers”, and we’d all be better Jews.

Share these words at your Shabbos table and have a wonderful Shabbos! May everyone have a lovely weekend!

Egypt Urges Palestinians to Move on Peace

01.02.04 (1:04 am)   [edit]
Even Egypt is telling the Palestinians to crack down and stop the violence....

[b]Egypt Urges Palestinians to Move on Peace
AP
Thu Jan 1,10:33 AM ET[/b]

By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH, Associated Press Writer

RAMALLAH, West Bank - An Egyptian envoy urged the Palestinians on Thursday to lead the way toward ending more than three years of violence with Israel, saying he is hopeful that Israel will respond favorably to such moves.

Egypt has been trying for weeks to get Palestinian militants to halt attacks against Israel to help restart peace talks. Osama el-Baz, a top aide to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, traveled to the Palestinian areas on Thursday as part of those efforts.

El-Baz voiced some optimism after a meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

"We are deeply concerned to get out of this problematic situation which threatens the whole region," he said. "What I heard from President Arafat makes me more hopeful for the future."

Israel and the United States accuse Arafat of fomenting terrorism and impeding truce efforts, and el-Baz did not give specifics on whether Arafat had made any concrete undertakings.

The Palestinians have refused to dismantle militant groups as required in the U.S.-led "road map" peace plan — and their Egyptian-backed efforts to win a no-violence pledge from the militants have so far failed. Meanwhile, violence continues and Israel has not frozen settlements or carried out other road map obligations.

The road map calls for an end to violence and the establishment of a Palestinians state by 2005.

On Thursday, el-Baz urged the Palestinians to take an active role in improving the situation.

"We should set a good example. We, from our side, should take decisions and measures that can lead the way to a better future," el-Baz said. "Then, we hope the Israelis will do the same, because (resolving) the whole problem depends on the willingness of both sides."

Arafat, who has been confined to Ramallah for two years by Israeli troops, said only that they had discussed "the problems that we face as the Palestinian people."

A senior Palestinian official told The Associated Press that there were growing concerns among the Palestinian leadership about Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's threatened plan to draw unilaterally an Israeli-Palestinian partition line leaving the Palestinians with a fraction of the land they seek.

Sharon threatened last month to do this if he concluded there was no possibility of implementing the road map with the current Palestinian leadership.

The Palestinian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the Palestinians hoped to reach an understanding with the United States whereby violence would stop on both sides before an actual forceful dismantling of the militant groups.

Israel has in the past insisted it would accept nothing less than a full disarming of the militants responsible for killing hundreds of Israelis — something its own army has failed to accomplish in more than three years of concerted effort.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia has been trying for more than two months to forge a Palestinian-only truce agreement nonetheless — and the failure of these efforts has delayed a hoped-for meeting with Sharon.

The efforts have been strongly backed by Egypt, which in 1979 became the first Arab country to sign a peace agreement with Israel and has frequently mediated between Israel and the Arab world.

A failed Israeli airstrike this week in the Gaza Strip, aimed at two militants from the Hamas group, has also complicated the cease-fire efforts.

Hamas, responsible for most of the more than 100 suicide bombings in Israel over the past three years, had appeared to scale back its operations in recent weeks but vowed revenge after the airstrike.

Meanwhile, the New Year passed without major incidents in Israel, where security forces had been on high alert, setting up roadblocks and patrolling highways and popular gathering spots.

In the West Bank city of Nablus, Israeli troops tightened a curfew, conducting house-to-house searches for fugitives, witnesses said. Overnight, soldiers evacuated residents from their homes as they looked for militants, they said.

The army has carried out a series of raids in Nablus, a center of militant activity, for more than two weeks.

The army also said it had removed a blockade of Jenin, another town in the West Bank that has been a center of militant activity. It said the move — imposed a week ago because of many terror "alerts" — would allow pedestrians and vehicles to move in and out of the town.

Bus Tire Explosion Causes Panic in Israel

01.02.04 (12:57 am)   [edit]
I'm going to put this on my car:



You can find this bumper sticker and much more at: http://www.israelmilitary.com...
[line]

Can you imagine living under such constant fear of yet another attack in the US similar to that of 9-11? Israel has lived that way for some time now. What a wonderful New Year's Eve they had...

[b]Bus Tire Explosion Causes Panic in Israel
AP
Wed Dec 31, 9:02 AM ET[/b]

TEL AVIV, Israel - A bus tire exploded in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, causing a brief panic in a country on edge amid a flood of warnings about possible terrorist attacks on New Year's Eve.

Officials said there were no injuries. After the initial reports of an explosion, emergency vehicles rushed to the scene, but police and fire officials then said it was a false alarm and there had been no bomb.

Israeli police had been on high alert after receiving numerous warnings of an impending attack — possibly timed to coincide with New Year's Eve.