Virtual Museum of Tolerance Exibits!
02.29.04 (5:23 pm) [edit]
[b]Now you can see exibits on the net!
http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/exhibits/index.html" title="http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/exhibits/index.html" target="_blank"http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/e...
I think everyone, no matter if they're black, white, brown, yellow, pink, purple, or grey should take a look at these!
Highly educational and highly important!
Please take a look![/b]
02.29.04 (4:22 pm) [edit]
[i]By ALI DARAGHMEH[/i]
Associated Press Writer
February 29, 2004, 1:51 PM EST
![]()
=http://img19.photobucket.com/...
[i]A masked militant of Islamic Jihad distributes leaflets to supporters during the funeral of Islamic Jihad commander Mahmoud Judah in Beit Lahiya northern Gaza Strip, Sunday, Feb. 29, 2004. Judah and two other Islamic Jihad militants were killed during an Israeli air strike on their car in Gaza city Saturday. (AP Photo / Adel Hana)
NABLUS, West Bank -- They were young, perhaps the youngest ever to try an armed attack against Israelis, and they were ready to die.
The arrest of three boys ages 12, 13 and 15, accused of trying to slip into Israel with homemade guns, sparked horror among their families and concern by Palestinian officials that militant groups have gone too far in their choice of recruits.
"That's absolutely unacceptable," said Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat. "Our children should have hope and a future and should not be suicide bombers. We want them to be doctors and engineers."
Israeli forces arrested the three Palestinian youths from the village of Tubas, near Nablus, on Thursday as they tried to cross a checkpoint, Israeli police spokesman Gil Kleiman said.
The boys said they planned to shoot people in the northern Israeli city of Afula, he said.
The army said it was still investigating the case and had not decided whether to charge the boys.
Palestinians have carried out thousands of attacks against Israelis during 41 months of violence, killing 930 people, while 2,688 have been killed on the Palestinian side, almost all in Israeli military strikes.
The boys, Jaffar Dababaat, 12, Tarek Abu Mahsen, 13, and Ibrahim Suafta, 15, left behind a letter saying they wanted to strike a blow against the barrier Israel is building in the West Bank. The note identified Tarek as a member of Islamic Jihad and the other two as members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militant group linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.
"If we die, if we become martyrs, don't feel sorry for us. Just have a massive protest in our honor and distribute sweets to everyone," the letter said.
Tarek's parents were outraged and criticized Islamic Jihad for recruiting youngsters for an attack that would likely lead to their deaths.
"My son doesn't know how to write such a letter and never belonged to any groups. Someone older wrote this letter for him," said his mother, Amira Abu Mahsen.
"If it is proved that someone in specific sent them on this mission, I will make sure they are punished. They shouldn't send my young boy on such missions," said his father, Mohammed Abu Mahsen.
An Al Aqsa official who declined to be named strenuously denied the group had sent the boys. "This is impossible. I don't know where these kids came from," he said. Islamic Jihad spokesmen could not be reached for comment.
Criticism of attacks on Israelis is rare among Palestinians, but in recent months more people have been condemning the recruiting methods used by the militant groups.
In January, Hamas sent a mother of two young children as a suicide bomber to attack a crossing point between Gaza and Israel. Days earlier a 17-year-old bomber died when his bomb belt exploded prematurely, a week after his 15-year-old brother, Amjad, and a cousin were killed in clashes with Israeli forces.
But the ages of the Tubas youths was especially shocking for many.
Neither police nor the army knew if the would-be attackers were the youngest sent against Israel, but most militants are in their late teens or early 20s.
The three boys "don't have enough life experience to make such decisions," said Hafez Barghouti, editor of the Palestinian daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida.
Barghouti said the use of youngsters to carry out attacks was on the rise, though he declined to speculate why. Others have said that as Israel has become more adept at stopping attacks, the militant groups have been forced to turn to people less likely to arouse suspicion.
The boys' parents found it hard to reconcile their image of their children with that of militants.
Amira Abu Mahsen said Tarek learned to love motorcycles from his father, a mechanic. He also kept birds as pets. "They were his greatest joy," she said.
His father recalled that a neighbor had told him that two strange men were looking for the boy about a week ago. Relatives said they were stunned to find out the boys had been arrested.
"We never thought he was ever involved in politics," said Jafar's father, Hussein Dababaat, before he burst into tears.
"I lost my son," he said.
[i]Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press [/i]
[i]By ALI DARAGHMEH[/i]
Associated Press Writer
February 29, 2004, 1:51 PM EST
[i]A masked militant of Islamic Jihad distributes leaflets to supporters during the funeral of Islamic Jihad commander Mahmoud Judah in Beit Lahiya northern Gaza Strip, Sunday, Feb. 29, 2004. Judah and two other Islamic Jihad militants were killed during an Israeli air strike on their car in Gaza city Saturday. (AP Photo / Adel Hana)
NABLUS, West Bank -- They were young, perhaps the youngest ever to try an armed attack against Israelis, and they were ready to die.
The arrest of three boys ages 12, 13 and 15, accused of trying to slip into Israel with homemade guns, sparked horror among their families and concern by Palestinian officials that militant groups have gone too far in their choice of recruits.
"That's absolutely unacceptable," said Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat. "Our children should have hope and a future and should not be suicide bombers. We want them to be doctors and engineers."
Israeli forces arrested the three Palestinian youths from the village of Tubas, near Nablus, on Thursday as they tried to cross a checkpoint, Israeli police spokesman Gil Kleiman said.
The boys said they planned to shoot people in the northern Israeli city of Afula, he said.
The army said it was still investigating the case and had not decided whether to charge the boys.
Palestinians have carried out thousands of attacks against Israelis during 41 months of violence, killing 930 people, while 2,688 have been killed on the Palestinian side, almost all in Israeli military strikes.
The boys, Jaffar Dababaat, 12, Tarek Abu Mahsen, 13, and Ibrahim Suafta, 15, left behind a letter saying they wanted to strike a blow against the barrier Israel is building in the West Bank. The note identified Tarek as a member of Islamic Jihad and the other two as members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militant group linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.
"If we die, if we become martyrs, don't feel sorry for us. Just have a massive protest in our honor and distribute sweets to everyone," the letter said.
Tarek's parents were outraged and criticized Islamic Jihad for recruiting youngsters for an attack that would likely lead to their deaths.
"My son doesn't know how to write such a letter and never belonged to any groups. Someone older wrote this letter for him," said his mother, Amira Abu Mahsen.
"If it is proved that someone in specific sent them on this mission, I will make sure they are punished. They shouldn't send my young boy on such missions," said his father, Mohammed Abu Mahsen.
An Al Aqsa official who declined to be named strenuously denied the group had sent the boys. "This is impossible. I don't know where these kids came from," he said. Islamic Jihad spokesmen could not be reached for comment.
Criticism of attacks on Israelis is rare among Palestinians, but in recent months more people have been condemning the recruiting methods used by the militant groups.
In January, Hamas sent a mother of two young children as a suicide bomber to attack a crossing point between Gaza and Israel. Days earlier a 17-year-old bomber died when his bomb belt exploded prematurely, a week after his 15-year-old brother, Amjad, and a cousin were killed in clashes with Israeli forces.
But the ages of the Tubas youths was especially shocking for many.
Neither police nor the army knew if the would-be attackers were the youngest sent against Israel, but most militants are in their late teens or early 20s.
The three boys "don't have enough life experience to make such decisions," said Hafez Barghouti, editor of the Palestinian daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida.
Barghouti said the use of youngsters to carry out attacks was on the rise, though he declined to speculate why. Others have said that as Israel has become more adept at stopping attacks, the militant groups have been forced to turn to people less likely to arouse suspicion.
The boys' parents found it hard to reconcile their image of their children with that of militants.
Amira Abu Mahsen said Tarek learned to love motorcycles from his father, a mechanic. He also kept birds as pets. "They were his greatest joy," she said.
His father recalled that a neighbor had told him that two strange men were looking for the boy about a week ago. Relatives said they were stunned to find out the boys had been arrested.
"We never thought he was ever involved in politics," said Jafar's father, Hussein Dababaat, before he burst into tears.
"I lost my son," he said.
[i]Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press [/i]
Interesting Times: The war for human rights
02.29.04 (2:45 pm) [edit]
[b]Feb. 26, 2004
[i]By SAUL SINGER, the Jerusalem Post[/b][/i]
[i]"The group was led to the front of the bus, where the headlights were directly on them. They were pushed to the ground and then were pulled up one at a time to be executed. He does not remember any words being spoken - except the plea of the three brothers, who begged that at least one be spared. They were executed one at a time. Next, the woman was shot in front of her five-year-old child. The child lunged at the legs of the executioner and was kicked away and shot in the face." [/i]
I apologize for sharing this with you, but this just-released report has received no discernible press attention. It describes the raw face of a genocide, and the evidence left behind. Not in Rwanda, Cambodia, Bosnia, or Auschwitz, but in Iraq.
The report, written by the US Agency for International Development (www.usaid.gov) and titled "Iraq's Legacy of Terror: Mass Graves," says that since the fall of Saddam, 270 mass grave sites have been reported, 53 of which have so far been confirmed. According to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, an estimated 400,000 people were buried in these mass graves, many of them non-Iraqis. Human Rights Watch estimates that 290,000 Iraqis were "disappeared" by Saddam's regime.
The report includes an important survey of how the US has been working with Iraqis to discover and investigate the mass grave sites. The chilling part, however, is the collection of survivors' stories, including that of "Ali" above. In the stories, like those of Holocaust survivors, each witness narrowly escaped execution while witnessing others being mowed down or burned alive.
It is remarkable enough that there is no news interest in this report, not even of the sneering political kind (such as "Administration spotlights evils of former regime"). What is even more striking is that there is no similar report by a non-governmental agency, such as Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch.
One might think that human rights organizations would have regarded the removal of totalitarian regimes, in Afghanistan and Iraq, reason for common cause, or at least grounds for celebration once accomplished. Yet now, even with the extent of Saddam's human carnage emerging, there is not only a total lack of retroactive support but an active effort to deny the war any humanitarian label.
Last month, Human Rights Watch director Ken Roth even issued a long statement called, "War in Iraq: Not a Humanitarian Intervention." Sounding much like those who defended right-wing dictators like the Shah, Marcos, or Pinochet to the howls of groups like his own, Roth writes, "One is tempted to say that anything is better than living under the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, but unfortunately it is possible to imagine scenarios even worse. Vicious as his rule was, chaos or abusive civil war might well become even deadlier, and it is too early to say whether such violence might still emerge in Iraq."
PROPER MOTIVES are a critical factor for Roth. Though it was "reasonable to believe" that Iraqis would be better off without Saddam, "it was not designed or carried out with the needs of Iraqis foremost in mind."
The war not only failed to qualify as a humanitarian intervention, but "risks undermining an institution that [is a necessary] tool for rescuing people from slaughter."
To Roth, the war in Iraq is giving humanitarianism a bad name. But if removing Saddam does not advance human rights, what does? How did it happen that those who claim to care most don't seem to have a dog in the fight between the West and militant Islam?
To human rights groups, the war against terrorism seems to be mainly a source of abuses, by either the unintentional killing of civilians, the abuse of the civil rights of suspected terrorists in Guantanamo, or because some brutal regimes have used it as an excuse for their own crackdowns.
Many, or even all, of these criticisms might have substantial validity. But to focus only on such derivative matters is to ignore what these same people like to call the "root causes" of the problem.
The world will debate forever whether it was necessary to carpet bomb Dresden or use atomic weapons against Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yet no one could argue, from a humanitarian perspective, of all things, that the cause of defeating Nazism and fascism was not just.
Retail humanitarianism has its place, but it is not enough, and it must not forget that our only hope lies in the wholesale victory against the greatest engine of tyranny and human suffering of our day.
The fall of Baghdad and Kabul has not ended the global struggle with militant Islam, its "secular" variety remaining in Damascus, and its fundamentalist variety left in Teheran. We can argue about means, but we are, in fact, in the greatest human rights struggle since the 1930s.
The war in Iraq, in both a local and a global context, was a super-humanitarian intervention. Terrorism and those behind it are the greatest threats to human rights - the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The fight against terrorism does not compete with the struggle for human rights. It is that struggle.
[i]saul@jpost.com
- Editorial Page Editor Saul Singer is author of the book, Confronting Jihad: Israel's Struggle & the World After 9/11 -- http://search.barnesandnoble....
V&isbn=1593600011&itm=1[/ i]
The UN's favorite occupation
02.29.04 (2:36 pm) [edit]
[b]Feb. 29, 2004
[i]By SHLOMO AVINERI, the Jerusalem Post[/b][/i]
On May 1, 2004, Cyprus will join the European Union. The island has been divided since the Turkish invasion in 1974, with a Turkish puppet regime in the North. For decades, futile negotiations have been going on for reunification.
Despite this, the European Union has decided that Cyprus will be admitted in any case: If reunification occurs before accession, the whole island will join the EU; if negotiations fail, only the Greek part, represented by the legitimate Republic of Cyprus, will become a member. In such a case the current Green Line dividing Cyprus – and running through Nicosia – will also become the external border of the EU.
This, of course, raises a number of serious concerns for the EU. Hence its support for the UN-sponsored Annan Plan, aimed at reuniting the island before May 1, has now gone into high gear, with intensive talks taking place between the two sides under UN sponsorship, with the blessing of the EU.
The Annan Plan is a 400-page document. Few people in Cyprus have read it, despite the fact that both communities will have to vote on it before May 1. In typical UN arrogance, it has not been translated into either Greek or Turkish, so most people have only a vague idea of what is in it.
But despite its promise to end the division of the island by setting up a complex loose federal system, a poll released last week suggests that in the Cypriot Greek community 61 percent oppose it, while only 27 percent support it.
Why such meager support for what promises finally to bring peace to the island? The answers are in the details.
Many Greek Cypriots feel that the haste now evident by the UN and the EU stems from the wish to pave the way for talks about the accession of Turkey to the EU. Obviously, if Turkey continued to occupy part of an EU member state, negotiations about its membership could not begin.
GREECE ITSELF has now – wisely – dropped its opposition to Turkish EU membership. Looking at the details of the Annan Plan, however, it appears that the international community, through its wish to pave Turkey's accession, will be legitimating the outcome of Turkish aggression. It is obvious that the Annan Plan contradicts some basic values of both the United Nations and the European Union:
Most of the 200,000 Greek Cypriot refuges who were uprooted by the Turkish invasion will not be able to return to their former places, nor will they receive full compensation;
Most of the Anatolian Turks who have been settled in the North by the Turkish occupation authorities will remain in place;
Until Turkish accession to the EU, Turkish forces will remain in the North;
Greek Cypriots will not be able to move freely or settle in the Turkish part.
The last prohibition rattles Greek Cypriots most: It means that in a united Europe – where every French, Portuguese, Polish or Estonian citizen will be more or less free to take up residence and work in the Turkish part of Cyprus – Greek Cypriots will not have freedom of movement in their own country. In a way, the Greek Cypriots will be ghettoized.
Furthermore, the provisions regarding Turkish settlers and the continued presence of the Turkish army will mean that Turkish aggression has been rewarded.
The UN and the EU, which justly condemn Israeli occupation and settlements in the West Bank, now condones Turkish occupation and Turkish settlers.
If the negotiations prove successful, Kofi Annan may get the Nobel Peace Prize for an agreement which legitimizes ethnic cleansing and occupation. As always, the gap between the lofty ideals of the UN and the sleazy way in which it goes about its business could not be wider.
Many Greek Cypriots feel that they are being bludgeoned into submission in order to appease a much stronger Turkey. They may be exaggerating; but if the negotiations fail because of the Greek Cypriots' feeling of being, once again, victimized by realpolitik, they will not be totally wrong.
[i]
The writer is professor of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and former director-general of the Foreign Ministry. [/i]
The Writing on the Wall is in Arabic
02.29.04 (2:20 pm) [edit]
[i][b]by Carl Alpert[/b][/i]
Haifa -- Gradually and belatedly the western world, particularly the European states, are awakening to the realization that the Arab/Islamic campaign against Israel is only a preliminary step in their avowed goal, the ultimate Islamization of the West. The popular slogan, "Today the Saturday people; tomorrow the Sunday people" was long reguarded as a joke. Suddenly it is being revealed as a threat.
What is strange is that until very recently the West has overlooked or ignored open declarations of extreme Islamic ambitions. Scores of assertions of the Islamic goal are on record, and more are constantly being added. Very recently the chariman of the board of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was quoted as telling a large public meeting in California that, in effect, Islam is not in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. Later he denied the statement, but there were too many auditors who provided confirmation.
Other Muslim leaders, whether deliberately or accidentally, have been even more outspoken. Some have no hesitated to warn the Western world of what is in store. Bassam Tibi, of an Islamic reform movement, and a teacher at Goettingen University in Germany, warns that the quest of converting the entire world to Islam is a fixture of the Muslim attitude to the non-Muslims. Only then will peace be possible.
In Britain, Shekh Omar Bakri wrote in the London-based [i]Al Hayat[/i] that, "Allah willing, we will transform the West into Dar Al-Islam (that is, a region under Islamic tule) by means of invasion from without... We will be the army and its soldiers from within."
Sheikh Muhammad bin Abd Al-Rahman Al-'Arifi, of Saudi-Arabia, is explicit: "Allah is with us. We will control the land of the Vatican. We will control Rome and introduce Islam in it -- and before then, in Bosnia and before then in many places in the world."
sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, an influential Sunni Islam cleric, is at least reassuring: "Islam will return to Europe as a conqueror and victor... (but) the conquest this time will not be by the sword, but by preaching and ideology."
More outspoken, Sheikh Nasser bin Hamud al Fahd, one of the leaders of the extremist movement opposing the Saudi leadership, issued a decree calling for the death of ten million Americans.
The Americans preferred to ignore the many manifestations of enmity that marked the calendar even before the twin tower attack on Sept 11, 2001. There was the bombing of Pan-Am flight No. 1103... The earlier attempt at the World Trade Center in 1993... The bombing of the marine barracks in Lebanon... The military barracks in Saudi Arabia... The attack on the [i]USS Cole[/i]. The list is long, all perpetuated by Muslims. We tend to forget.
In Indonesia and E. Timor thousands of Christians have been massacred, and others forcibly converted to Islam. It is reported that Christians in Pakistan and Iran live in terror of accusations against them. Most of the extremism is so common that it no longer merits reporting. Fortunatly there are groups that follow what is going on, and provide translations of what the extremist Islamic press is fomenting. Outstanding is the Middle East Media Researche Institute, {MEMRI) which flashes a spotlight on the Machiavellian plotting. Most of the quotations we have cited come from MEMRI.
Only very recently have western European countries begun to be aware of what is giong on within their own borders. [b]Long overlooked was the warning by H.G. Wells, many years ago, that "the armies of Islam were advancing triumphantly in the conquest of the world."[/b] And the West does not yet fullyl realize that as in the days of Hitler Nazi period, the Jews are once again serving as a barometer of a threat to our civilization.
As Prof. Yehuda Bauer pointed out recently: "It is commonly and mistakenly thought that Islamic fundamentalists seek to banish the West only from the Middle East. In effect, Islamic fundamentalism wants to control the entire world."
02.29.04 (1:27 pm) [edit]
[b]Sat Feb 28, 7:21 AM ET
[/b]
JENIN, West Bank (Reuters) - Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group inside Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, claimed responsibility on Saturday for the killing of an Israeli settler couple in the West Bank.
The 30-year-old man and his wife, 25, were shot dead in their car outside the Jewish settlement of Eshkolot on Friday night. Israeli security sources said military trackers were searching nearby Palestinian towns for the gunmen.
A Brigades spokesman claimed responsibility for the drive-by shooting in call to Reuters in the West Bank city of Jenin.
The Brigades have recently stepped up attacks amid rancour over an Israeli barrier going up in the West Bank. Israel calls it a security precaution. Palestinians call it a land-grab.
On Thursday, two Brigades gunmen killed an Israeli soldier on the Gaza Strip boundary before being shot dead by troops.
Israel points to Brigades operations as evidence that Arafat has fomented violence during a more than three-year-old Palestinian uprising. He denies involvement.
Dismantling the Brigades was up for discussion at a reform debate by Fatah's Revolutionary Council, a key decision-making organ in the Palestinian Authority due to end on Saturday.
But Palestinian officials said the faction was powerless to act against the group, comprising roving bands in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that have become increasingly fragmented and autonomous under Israeli military crackdowns.
[b]Sat Feb 28, 7:21 AM ET
[/b]
JENIN, West Bank (Reuters) - Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group inside Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, claimed responsibility on Saturday for the killing of an Israeli settler couple in the West Bank.
The 30-year-old man and his wife, 25, were shot dead in their car outside the Jewish settlement of Eshkolot on Friday night. Israeli security sources said military trackers were searching nearby Palestinian towns for the gunmen.
A Brigades spokesman claimed responsibility for the drive-by shooting in call to Reuters in the West Bank city of Jenin.
The Brigades have recently stepped up attacks amid rancour over an Israeli barrier going up in the West Bank. Israel calls it a security precaution. Palestinians call it a land-grab.
On Thursday, two Brigades gunmen killed an Israeli soldier on the Gaza Strip boundary before being shot dead by troops.
Israel points to Brigades operations as evidence that Arafat has fomented violence during a more than three-year-old Palestinian uprising. He denies involvement.
Dismantling the Brigades was up for discussion at a reform debate by Fatah's Revolutionary Council, a key decision-making organ in the Palestinian Authority due to end on Saturday.
But Palestinian officials said the faction was powerless to act against the group, comprising roving bands in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that have become increasingly fragmented and autonomous under Israeli military crackdowns.
02.29.04 (1:25 pm) [edit]
[b]Sun Feb 29, 4:31 AM ET [/b]
CAIRO (Reuters) - Syria has joined Arab heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Egypt in opposing Washington's plan for political and other reforms in the Middle East, according to an interview published Sunday.
"Our position is that we don't want any reform project to be dictated to us from abroad. Reforms must spring from the specifics of the region and not through the diktats of external forces," Syrian Information Minister Ahmad al-Hassan told the London-based daily Arabic newspaper al-Hayat.
"No regime would accept the implementation of reforms under external pressure or diktats from abroad."
Saudi Arabia and Egypt, both with close U.S. ties, said last week the Arab world was going through its own reforms and would reject any change imposed from outside.
They were reacting to Washington's Greater Middle East Initiative, which proposes funding for projects which would promote free elections, civil society, the empowerment of women and the modernisation of education.
Relations between Syria and the United States have been strained for years because of U.S. support for Israel and U.S. complaints about the presence in Damascus of Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups.
Hassan defended Syria's emergency laws on the grounds that part of the country, the Golan Heights, is under Israeli occupation. The laws, in force since 1963, give the security authorities wide powers of detention.
"There is no country to the world which has part of its territory under occupation that does not have exceptional laws that might be used if its security is at risk," he said.
The State Department, in its annual human rights report released last week, said members of the Syrian security forces committed numerous serious human rights abuses in 2003.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail, arriving in Cairo Sunday for Arab League meetings, also objected to the Greater Middle East Initiative.
"The countries which want to impose reform from outside must know that this will fail as long as it is not in the framework of a partnership," he told reporters.
[b]Sun Feb 29, 4:31 AM ET [/b]
CAIRO (Reuters) - Syria has joined Arab heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Egypt in opposing Washington's plan for political and other reforms in the Middle East, according to an interview published Sunday.
"Our position is that we don't want any reform project to be dictated to us from abroad. Reforms must spring from the specifics of the region and not through the diktats of external forces," Syrian Information Minister Ahmad al-Hassan told the London-based daily Arabic newspaper al-Hayat.
"No regime would accept the implementation of reforms under external pressure or diktats from abroad."
Saudi Arabia and Egypt, both with close U.S. ties, said last week the Arab world was going through its own reforms and would reject any change imposed from outside.
They were reacting to Washington's Greater Middle East Initiative, which proposes funding for projects which would promote free elections, civil society, the empowerment of women and the modernisation of education.
Relations between Syria and the United States have been strained for years because of U.S. support for Israel and U.S. complaints about the presence in Damascus of Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups.
Hassan defended Syria's emergency laws on the grounds that part of the country, the Golan Heights, is under Israeli occupation. The laws, in force since 1963, give the security authorities wide powers of detention.
"There is no country to the world which has part of its territory under occupation that does not have exceptional laws that might be used if its security is at risk," he said.
The State Department, in its annual human rights report released last week, said members of the Syrian security forces committed numerous serious human rights abuses in 2003.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail, arriving in Cairo Sunday for Arab League meetings, also objected to the Greater Middle East Initiative.
"The countries which want to impose reform from outside must know that this will fail as long as it is not in the framework of a partnership," he told reporters.
Israel can't even take the weak way out
02.29.04 (10:45 am) [edit][b]JNW Editorial
[i]By Ryan Jones[/i]
Jerusalem - February 24, 2004[/b]
Israel has for the past decade conducted a limited war on Palestinian terrorism, consisting largely of reactionary, rather than proactive, military efforts to curb Islamic violence against its citizens.
IDF raids on terrorists who only recently slaughtered Israeli Jews, or who were preparing to do so, invariably raised howls of indignation throughout the world.
So rather than up its military campaign to destroy, expel and otherwise do away with the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure plaguing its people, Israel last year flinched at the catcalls, and opted for the weak way out.
Amid the international hypocrisy and the slaughter of its own civilians, the Jewish state decided to take what it felt would be the least provocative path, while still providing some semblance of security.
So Israel built a fence.
But even that was too much for the Arab world and its allies in the Non-Aligned Movement of nations - "the usual collection of dictatorships and Arab states against Israel."
Between them, both groups habitually hijack the UN General Assembly, exploiting the world body as an arena in which to gang up on, and bash, the "Zionist entity."
They did so again, voting to put Israel on trial for building a fence behind which the Jews could take shelter from the forces of terror.
Instead of boldly supporting Israel - whose infants, little children and old women have been blown to smithereens along with the mothers and fathers of countless others - most of the other UN member states abstained from the vote.
(Just a few decades before these same nations made do with mouthing weak complaints while Hitler went after Europe's Jews.)
Their abstentions revealed that they, too, had a problem with Israel putting up a barrier between itself and the "Palestinian" terrorist hordes.
Thus, for doing the absolute minimum any nation could be expected to do to defend its citizens, Israel is today paraded as an outlaw before the world.
Israel's decision to erect a flimsy wall between its people and those desiring to murder them, rather than go after and obliterate the forces of evil arrayed against it, is indeed regrettable.
At least one American lawmaker believes that the correct and sensible response would be to "carpet bomb" the "Palestinians." Is this, or is this not, a war?
If the case against Israel at the United Nations' International Court of "Justice" proves anything, it is this: The Muslim world will suffer no attempt by Israel, no matter how weak, to protect itself from what Islam insists is the Allah-decreed fate of the Jewish state - annihilation.
02.29.04 (10:40 am) [edit]
[b]JNW News
IDF nabs Arab youths en route to attack
[i]By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff[/i]
February 29, 2004[/b]
Jerusalem (jnewswire.com) - Israeli security forces operating in Samaria last week apprehended three Palestinian Arab youths en route to carry out a shooting attack in the northern town of Afula.
The boys were age 14 and 16.
Their parents expressed outrage that Palestinian terror groups would recruit children so young for a "mission" that would inevitably end with the boys' deaths.
The Palestinian Authority has long cultivated a culture of death in "Palestinian" schools, regularly glorifying "suicide" bombers and pushing the "honor" of being killed in the struggle with Israel.
In other violence, two Palestinian Arab gunmen slaughtered a young Jewish couple in a roadside ambush south of Hebron Friday evening.
The killers made an orphan of the couple's two-year-old daughter.
[b]Child killers[/b]
Israeli forces conducting anti-terror operations near Jenin last Thursday captured three Palestinian Arab youths toting improvised firearms en route to carry out a shooting attack in the nearby Israel town of Afula.
The boys, two aged 14, one aged 16, left a letter for their families, saying they had gone to carry out "an attack against Sharon's fence," and that they didn't expect to return.
"Palestinian" terror groups have upped their efforts to carry out attacks inside sovereign Israel in order to prove Israel's separation fence will not provide its Jewish citizens with security.
"We want you to give out candies and don't cry for us and hold a big demonstration," one of the boys wrote, referring to the traditional mass funeral processions for Palestinian Arab "martyrs."
The boys' parents were outraged that "Palestinian" terror groups had recruited children so young for a "mission" that must inevitably end with their deaths.
"My son doesn't know how to write such a letter and never belonged to any groups. Someone older wrote this letter for him," the Associated Press quoted the mother of one boy as saying.
Security officials have reported a worrying trend whereby "Palestinian" children are more often being called on to carry out attacks as they have a better chance of slipping by Israeli security forces.
The two 14-year-old members of the cell claimed to be members of the Palestine Islamic Jihad, while the older boy said he belonged to Yasser Arafat's Fatah Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
[b]Cultivated culture of death[/b]
The Palestinian Authority has long cultivated a culture of death among the next generation of Palestinian Arabs.
Schoolchildren are regularly taught to regard death during violent confrontations with Israeli soldiers as honorable, while posters of favorite "suicide" bombers hang from classroom walls.
Youth soccer teams are typically named after "suicide" bombers, and trading cards and other trinkets bearing the pictures of "Palestinian" mass murderers are popular commodities.
Children's television programs on official PA-controlled TV push the idea of martyrdom among children at the youngest ages.
[b]Terrorist murder[/b]
In other "Palestinian" violence, two terrorist gunmen slaughtered a young Jewish couple as they made their way from their home in Judea to the coastal city of Ashdod Friday evening.
Eitan Kokoyo and Rima Novikov were gunned down shortly after leaving the Judean Jewish community of Livna, which sits on Israel's 1967 border.
The murder took place west of the "Green Line", inside sovereign Israel.
After firing an initial volley of bullets and bringing the couple's car to a halt, the gunmen reportedly approached the vehicle and fired another round of bullets into their victims' heads at point-blank range.
The killers left the couple's two-year-old daughter, Michelle, an orphan.
Kokoyo's sister, Tasia Levine, said that she and her husband would not let Michelle suffer, but would adopt and raise her in place of her murdered parents, Arutz 7 reported.
[b]JNW News
IDF nabs Arab youths en route to attack
[i]By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff[/i]
February 29, 2004[/b]
Jerusalem (jnewswire.com) - Israeli security forces operating in Samaria last week apprehended three Palestinian Arab youths en route to carry out a shooting attack in the northern town of Afula.
The boys were age 14 and 16.
Their parents expressed outrage that Palestinian terror groups would recruit children so young for a "mission" that would inevitably end with the boys' deaths.
The Palestinian Authority has long cultivated a culture of death in "Palestinian" schools, regularly glorifying "suicide" bombers and pushing the "honor" of being killed in the struggle with Israel.
In other violence, two Palestinian Arab gunmen slaughtered a young Jewish couple in a roadside ambush south of Hebron Friday evening.
The killers made an orphan of the couple's two-year-old daughter.
[b]Child killers[/b]
Israeli forces conducting anti-terror operations near Jenin last Thursday captured three Palestinian Arab youths toting improvised firearms en route to carry out a shooting attack in the nearby Israel town of Afula.
The boys, two aged 14, one aged 16, left a letter for their families, saying they had gone to carry out "an attack against Sharon's fence," and that they didn't expect to return.
"Palestinian" terror groups have upped their efforts to carry out attacks inside sovereign Israel in order to prove Israel's separation fence will not provide its Jewish citizens with security.
"We want you to give out candies and don't cry for us and hold a big demonstration," one of the boys wrote, referring to the traditional mass funeral processions for Palestinian Arab "martyrs."
The boys' parents were outraged that "Palestinian" terror groups had recruited children so young for a "mission" that must inevitably end with their deaths.
"My son doesn't know how to write such a letter and never belonged to any groups. Someone older wrote this letter for him," the Associated Press quoted the mother of one boy as saying.
Security officials have reported a worrying trend whereby "Palestinian" children are more often being called on to carry out attacks as they have a better chance of slipping by Israeli security forces.
The two 14-year-old members of the cell claimed to be members of the Palestine Islamic Jihad, while the older boy said he belonged to Yasser Arafat's Fatah Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
[b]Cultivated culture of death[/b]
The Palestinian Authority has long cultivated a culture of death among the next generation of Palestinian Arabs.
Schoolchildren are regularly taught to regard death during violent confrontations with Israeli soldiers as honorable, while posters of favorite "suicide" bombers hang from classroom walls.
Youth soccer teams are typically named after "suicide" bombers, and trading cards and other trinkets bearing the pictures of "Palestinian" mass murderers are popular commodities.
Children's television programs on official PA-controlled TV push the idea of martyrdom among children at the youngest ages.
[b]Terrorist murder[/b]
In other "Palestinian" violence, two terrorist gunmen slaughtered a young Jewish couple as they made their way from their home in Judea to the coastal city of Ashdod Friday evening.
Eitan Kokoyo and Rima Novikov were gunned down shortly after leaving the Judean Jewish community of Livna, which sits on Israel's 1967 border.
The murder took place west of the "Green Line", inside sovereign Israel.
After firing an initial volley of bullets and bringing the couple's car to a halt, the gunmen reportedly approached the vehicle and fired another round of bullets into their victims' heads at point-blank range.
The killers left the couple's two-year-old daughter, Michelle, an orphan.
Kokoyo's sister, Tasia Levine, said that she and her husband would not let Michelle suffer, but would adopt and raise her in place of her murdered parents, Arutz 7 reported.
02.29.04 (10:38 am) [edit]
[b]JNW News
[i]By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff[/i]
February 29, 2004[/b]
Jerusalem (jnewswire.com) - Israel resumed its assassination of Jew-killers in Gaza Saturday, sending two rockets into a car carrying three terrorists, including the head of the Palestine Islamic Jihad's so called 'military wing' in the Strip.
The IDF issued a statement confirming it had "attacked a car in which senior Islamic Jihad operatives [sic], who were responsible for a number of murderous attacks, were traveling."
The strike came a few days after Israel's political and military leaders reportedly decided to increase assassination operations of Hamas and PIJ members after the February 22 Jerusalem bus bombing in which eight Israelis were killed.
[b]Judgment from heaven[/b]
The strike came at around 6.30pm, plunging out of the clear, darkening sky over Gaza City, where an IAF Apache helicopter had reportedly been seen circling overhead.
Eyewitnesses reported between two and four missiles slammed into a car carrying three members of the Palestine Islamic Jihad through what were said to have been crowded streets in the Saftawi neighborhood.
"Palestinian" sources originally claimed that a six-year old boy had been killed in the hit, but this report was altered a few hours later to say that 10 bystanders, "including several children," had been hurt.
[b]Head of the snake[/b]
One of the three terrorists killed was Mahmoud Juda, believed to be the number one leader of the PIJ's "military wing."
[Ed note: The Palestinian organizations Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah all have what they call their "military wings." These branches, however, are no more separate from the main terror group than, for example, the IDF is separate from the Israeli government. Their special designation is employed by these terrorist organizations to create an artificial "distance" from, and deniability for terror attacks.]
According to Israeli sources, Juda had directed numerous attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers, and had been responsible for an attack last October on the Gaza Strip Jewish community of Netzarim, in which three IDF soldiers were killed.
Like the mythical hydra-headed serpent, Juda will be promptly replaced by another Israel-hating Muslim Arab.
A second wanted terrorist, Ayman Dahdou, had been sought by Israel for planting bombs aimed at Israeli civilians and soldiers.
The third victim was also a PIJ member, but he reportedly had not been a target in this attack.
[b]Vows of vengeance[/b]
Television cameras recorded "Palestinian" crowds milling around what was left of the killers' Subaru automobile shortly after the strike.
Efforts were made to extricate the dead men from the car, a task that appeared virtually impossible.
Later reports said hundreds of Arabs had descended on the morgue where the remains were eventually taken. Armed men had fired shots into the air, while cries for revenge had gone up from the crowd.
PIJ leader Abdallah al-Shami declared Sunday that, in response to the killings, "The coming days will be the blackest days in Israel's history."
[b]Fair warning[/b]
Israeli leaders warned last week the country would resume its execution of terrorists and their leaders following the February 22 "suicide" attack on a Jerusalem bus that killed eight Jews and wounded another 70 people.
That attack was the work of Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, whose "military wing," the Al-Aqsa martyrs Brigades, claimed credit for it.
Back to News Archive
[b]JNW News
[i]By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff[/i]
February 29, 2004[/b]
Jerusalem (jnewswire.com) - Israel resumed its assassination of Jew-killers in Gaza Saturday, sending two rockets into a car carrying three terrorists, including the head of the Palestine Islamic Jihad's so called 'military wing' in the Strip.
The IDF issued a statement confirming it had "attacked a car in which senior Islamic Jihad operatives [sic], who were responsible for a number of murderous attacks, were traveling."
The strike came a few days after Israel's political and military leaders reportedly decided to increase assassination operations of Hamas and PIJ members after the February 22 Jerusalem bus bombing in which eight Israelis were killed.
[b]Judgment from heaven[/b]
The strike came at around 6.30pm, plunging out of the clear, darkening sky over Gaza City, where an IAF Apache helicopter had reportedly been seen circling overhead.
Eyewitnesses reported between two and four missiles slammed into a car carrying three members of the Palestine Islamic Jihad through what were said to have been crowded streets in the Saftawi neighborhood.
"Palestinian" sources originally claimed that a six-year old boy had been killed in the hit, but this report was altered a few hours later to say that 10 bystanders, "including several children," had been hurt.
[b]Head of the snake[/b]
One of the three terrorists killed was Mahmoud Juda, believed to be the number one leader of the PIJ's "military wing."
[Ed note: The Palestinian organizations Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah all have what they call their "military wings." These branches, however, are no more separate from the main terror group than, for example, the IDF is separate from the Israeli government. Their special designation is employed by these terrorist organizations to create an artificial "distance" from, and deniability for terror attacks.]
According to Israeli sources, Juda had directed numerous attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers, and had been responsible for an attack last October on the Gaza Strip Jewish community of Netzarim, in which three IDF soldiers were killed.
Like the mythical hydra-headed serpent, Juda will be promptly replaced by another Israel-hating Muslim Arab.
A second wanted terrorist, Ayman Dahdou, had been sought by Israel for planting bombs aimed at Israeli civilians and soldiers.
The third victim was also a PIJ member, but he reportedly had not been a target in this attack.
[b]Vows of vengeance[/b]
Television cameras recorded "Palestinian" crowds milling around what was left of the killers' Subaru automobile shortly after the strike.
Efforts were made to extricate the dead men from the car, a task that appeared virtually impossible.
Later reports said hundreds of Arabs had descended on the morgue where the remains were eventually taken. Armed men had fired shots into the air, while cries for revenge had gone up from the crowd.
PIJ leader Abdallah al-Shami declared Sunday that, in response to the killings, "The coming days will be the blackest days in Israel's history."
[b]Fair warning[/b]
Israeli leaders warned last week the country would resume its execution of terrorists and their leaders following the February 22 "suicide" attack on a Jerusalem bus that killed eight Jews and wounded another 70 people.
That attack was the work of Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, whose "military wing," the Al-Aqsa martyrs Brigades, claimed credit for it.
Back to News Archive
More on the Saudi Jew-hating issue...
02.29.04 (9:45 am) [edit]
Here are a few links that may interest you...
http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=9967_Sa udis-_No_Jews_Allowed" title="http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=9967_Sa udis-_No_Jews_Allowed" target="_blank"http://www.littlegreenfootbal...
http://www.freeman.org/m_online/jan98/fistel .htm" title="http://www.freeman.org/m_online/jan98/fistel .htm" target="_blank"http://www.freeman.org/m_onli...
http://www.mideastweb.org/log/archives/00000205 .htm" title="http://www.mideastweb.org/log/archives/00000205 .htm" target="_blank"http://www.mideastweb.org/log...
And, of course, once again, the origional version of the website for Saudi tourism: http://homepage.mac.com/cfj/....
I urge you to check all of these out! Enjoy!
Middle East “Super Monday” in Washington
02.28.04 (8:34 pm) [edit]
[b]DEBKAfile Special Analysis
February 28, 2004, 9:25 PM (GMT+02:00)[/b]
[i]Javier Solana - these days a welcome visitor to DC[/i]
Monday, March 1, several hives of activity will focus on the Middle East’s most intractable conflict and the next stage of the Bush design to remake the region.
Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon’s two senior aides, Dov Weisglass and his new national security council director Giora Eiland, will be in Washington, officially to present the essentials of the prime minister’s initiative for Israel’s unilateral disengagement from the Palestinians by means of the partial evacuation of Israeli dwellers from the Gaza Strip and from isolated locations in the West Bank and the construction of a fence - both for protection against terrorists and as a divider.
To ease acceptance, the fence was shortened by 80 km and underwent major surgery to straighten out loops curving into the West Bank. The biggest sacrifice is the section that was supposed to guard Israel’s international Ben Gurion airport, the densely populated Modi’in-Re’ut-Maccabim region, and highways linking it to Jerusalem, from terrorist attack. These vital areas will be denied the protection of a defense barrier separating next-door Palestinian areas.
The European Union’s foreign affairs executive Javier Solana will land in Washington on the same day as the Israeli delegation. He will be coming to hear arguments from secretary of state Colin Powell and the president’s national security adviser Condoleezza Rice in favor of Europe joining forces with the United States in the execution of a regional strategy and the Sharon plan.
All parties are aware that Israel will be at the receiving end of demands for further “adjustments” to make the Bush strategy attractive to the European Union.
Therefore, the fate of the Weisglass-Eiland presentation depends largely on the outcome of Solana’s talks with US leaders.
Not entirely by chance, Friday, February 27, Irish foreign minister Brian Cowan handed visiting foreign minister Silvan Shalom in Dublin with a plan that Solana will also discuss with his American hosts. Ireland is the present EU president. The plan centers on the deployment of NATO forces in areas evacuated by Israel, NATO being a euphemism for European troops. Long dreamed of by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and embodied in the Geneva proposals developed by Israeli dove Yossi Beilin and Palestinian Yasser Abd Rabbo, every Israeli government has rejected the notion in the past. Shalom explained to the Irish minister that the presence of foreign troops would hold Israel back from pursuing terrorists and prejudice its national security.
As he spoke, the subject was being thoroughly explored in the White House, according to DEBKAfile’s Washington sources, by President George W. Bush and German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder when they met to bury their pre-Iraq War hatchet.
Solana will almost certainly take up the American offer. He will not miss the opportunity to gradually forced Israel back, step by step, into a comprehensive withdrawal - not only from the Gaza Strip but also from the West Bank under the US-European aegis. Every peace proposal he ever initiated always hinged heavily on Israeli concessions to the Palestinians.
The erosion has begun. Sharon’s proposed removal of 17 of the 19 Gaza Strip Jewish settlements has morphed in diplomatic parlance to total withdrawal of settlers and troops alike. The most unobtrusive casualty of this projected stampede is the security strip along the Israel-Egyptian frontier that was enshrined in the 1979 peace treaty signed by the late Menahem Begin and Anwar Sadat, for which they shared a Nobel Prize and which holds up to the present day. Eliminating the border crossing at the southern tip of Rafah would push the Israeli frontier 70 km north almost up to the Mediterranean town of Ashkelon.
And that is just for starters. Powell, Rice and Solana are both old hands at the negotiating table. Concessions made at the outset are likely to snowball. The European official will not miss the chance of building on the Gaza withdrawal and partial removal of West Bank settlements. He will get his chance when Washington asks to hear what concessions Europe requires from Israel to get the Europeans behind the United States on other issues like Iraq and Syria.
Both sides will be keen to accommodate one another and increase Bush’s Middle East momentum. The mission that takes Weisglass and Eiland to Washington is therefore not the presentation of the Sharon plan but rather to hear what further concessions are demanded before the Israeli prime minister is invited for his oft-postponed visit to the White House.
The Bush administration faces a far tougher challenge to its plans for the region on the Arab side of the Middle East. Monday, too Mark Grossman, the state department’s Number Three, heads out for Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Bahrain and Turkey, to sell the president’s democratic reforms program to key Arab leaders as well as Ankara. His trip follows a little-noticed declaration delivered in unison last week by two moderate Arab leaders, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak. Together, they flatly rejected the Western model of democracy that “does not suit a region largely driven by Islamic teachings.” They affirmed that the US “Greater Middle East Initiative” is not compatible with the “its specificities and Arab identity.” Bahrain has since endorsed this declaration.
To make sure the message is audible in Washington, 22 Arab League foreign ministers meet in Cairo this same “Super Monday” to draft a common stand against “the controversial American plan to spread democracy in the region.” It will be tabled at the Tunis Arab summit on March 29-30.
02.28.04 (8:27 pm) [edit]
I wish there was a way to give it BACK to the families of whom they belong to? :evil:
[line]
[b]Last Update: 28/02/2004 23:41
[i]By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondent [/b][/i]
France has proposed loaning to the Israel Museum hundreds of works of art stolen from Jews during the Holocaust, a group of French MPs and diplomats told Minister of Diaspora and Jerusalem Affairs Natan Sharansky last week.
Among the works are Monet's "Women in the Park," Renoir's "Portrait of William Sisley" and other 19th century masterpieces.
The delegation told Sharansky that the National Museum Authority of France is completing a list of works that are presumed to have been owned by Jews, but have no documentation or legal heirs. A French Embassy spokesman confirmed to Haaretz that the list is nearing completion and will be presented to the Israeli authorities. The Israel Museum will then reportedly be able to choose any item for long-term loan. However, Israel Museum director James Schneider believes only a small number of the works will be worthy of display.
In 1995, a secret report of the French State Ombudsman found that some 2,000 works of art were in the possession of France's national museums, including paintings, sketches, sculptures, tapestries, furniture, and other items. The items were presumed confiscated from Jews by Nazis and members of the Vichy regime during World War II.
In 1997, the report was leaked to the press, arousing a storm in the French Jewish community.
Shortly thereafter, a commission of inquiry was established and it presented its findings in April 2000 to then prime minister Lionel Jospin. The report, which also dealt with real estate, bank accounts, and insurance policies stolen from the Jews during the Holocaust, noted that more than 100,000 works of art had been confiscated by the Nazis and French collaborators. Only 61,233 items were returned to the French authorities after the war. Of those, 45,441 items were returned to their owners or heirs, and 13,500 items, estimated of low value, were sold in 1954 by the French state custodian. However, 2,000 works of art, defined as masterpieces, were transferred to the National Museum Authority.
Most of those were kept in the basements of various museums, although - to the embarrassment of the French government - the report revealed that dozens of items went on display in government offices.
Jospin admitted in a 1999 interview that nine confiscated pictures were on display in his official residence. Prior to the interview, Jospin ordered an original copy of Rodin's "Thinker" removed from his home after it was realized it was stolen Jewish property.
Museum director Schneider confirmed that negotiations with the French National Museums Authority have been underway for the last few months. "I believe that most of the items will not be of interest to us," Schneider noted. "We will be borrowing only those works that have unusual artistic, historic, or other special value from a French-Jewish perspective."
I wish there was a way to give it BACK to the families of whom they belong to? :evil:
[line]
[b]Last Update: 28/02/2004 23:41
[i]By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondent [/b][/i]
France has proposed loaning to the Israel Museum hundreds of works of art stolen from Jews during the Holocaust, a group of French MPs and diplomats told Minister of Diaspora and Jerusalem Affairs Natan Sharansky last week.
Among the works are Monet's "Women in the Park," Renoir's "Portrait of William Sisley" and other 19th century masterpieces.
The delegation told Sharansky that the National Museum Authority of France is completing a list of works that are presumed to have been owned by Jews, but have no documentation or legal heirs. A French Embassy spokesman confirmed to Haaretz that the list is nearing completion and will be presented to the Israeli authorities. The Israel Museum will then reportedly be able to choose any item for long-term loan. However, Israel Museum director James Schneider believes only a small number of the works will be worthy of display.
In 1995, a secret report of the French State Ombudsman found that some 2,000 works of art were in the possession of France's national museums, including paintings, sketches, sculptures, tapestries, furniture, and other items. The items were presumed confiscated from Jews by Nazis and members of the Vichy regime during World War II.
In 1997, the report was leaked to the press, arousing a storm in the French Jewish community.
Shortly thereafter, a commission of inquiry was established and it presented its findings in April 2000 to then prime minister Lionel Jospin. The report, which also dealt with real estate, bank accounts, and insurance policies stolen from the Jews during the Holocaust, noted that more than 100,000 works of art had been confiscated by the Nazis and French collaborators. Only 61,233 items were returned to the French authorities after the war. Of those, 45,441 items were returned to their owners or heirs, and 13,500 items, estimated of low value, were sold in 1954 by the French state custodian. However, 2,000 works of art, defined as masterpieces, were transferred to the National Museum Authority.
Most of those were kept in the basements of various museums, although - to the embarrassment of the French government - the report revealed that dozens of items went on display in government offices.
Jospin admitted in a 1999 interview that nine confiscated pictures were on display in his official residence. Prior to the interview, Jospin ordered an original copy of Rodin's "Thinker" removed from his home after it was realized it was stolen Jewish property.
Museum director Schneider confirmed that negotiations with the French National Museums Authority have been underway for the last few months. "I believe that most of the items will not be of interest to us," Schneider noted. "We will be borrowing only those works that have unusual artistic, historic, or other special value from a French-Jewish perspective."
Forget about a Palestinian state
02.28.04 (8:24 pm) [edit]
[b]Feb. 29, 2004
[i]By EFRAIM INBAR, the Jerusalem Post[/b][/i]
Sharon's proposal for unilateral withdrawal from Gaza challenges the widespread conventional wisdom favoring a negotiated two-state solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Despite the fact that a large majority of Israelis favor partition, they are also quite aware that the Palestinians are incapable of establishing a political entity living peacefully next to the Jewish state.
Moreover, it has become increasingly clear that a two-state settlement is elusive because of the Palestinian national movement's inability to establish a state and maintain it.
Next to Israel lies a sick society led by a pathological national movement. It is a society that produces suicide bombers that have become a role model in kindergartens and schools. Recent pronouncements by Yasser Arafat on the occasion of Fatah Day, as well as statements from many other nationalist figures in the Fatah camp, laud those "shaheeds" while clinging ferociously to the ethos of "the right of return" for the refugees.
Palestinian Islamists, drawing the support of about a third of the Palestinian people, do not, of course, foresee any coexistence with a Jewish state. Official Palestinian incitement against the Jews, who are blamed for all Palestinian misfortunes, will inevitably turn a Palestinian state into an irredentist one, that is, a state dissatisfied with its borders and intent on using force to achieve territorial aggrandizement.
The liberal belief that replacing poverty with affluence would moderate the Palestinian political agenda is unlikely to be tested. It is doubtful that the corrupt economic system established by Arafat could produce widespread economic benefits.
Massive foreign aid rendered in the previous decade generally failed to filter down to the masses. Moreover, the high rates of economic growth needed to match the high fertility rate of the Palestinians (among the highest in the world) are very improbable, and will actually doom the Palestinians to even greater poverty in the near future.
Thus the impoverishment of Palestinian society, coupled with a very high level of hatred toward the Jewish state, would guarantee the continuous existence of a very hostile community.
The proposition that statehood inevitably produces responsible behavior – a doubtful belief, considering the number of leaders who have led their states into the abyss – will also remain untested because the Palestinians have already proven their inability to build a state.
GIVEN THE opportunity of self-rule in 1993, the Palestinians have established a corrupt, inefficient, lawless and authoritarian political system. Its main failure has been in the area most critical to state-building – monopoly over the use of force.
The existence of many armed militias defies central authority and preserves a fractured Palestinian community. What we see in the territories is another example of a failed state.
Even with the best intentions and much territorial largesse there is nothing Israel could do to bring about a Palestinian state any time soon.
Unfortunately, then, Israel is left with only one option: unilateral measures to minimize the repercussions of living next to a rather young and poor population indoctrinated to hate their Jewish neighbors and with relatively easy access to weapons. Nothing Israel can do will spare it the need to deal with extremely hostile neighbors ready to pay a high price for acting on their hatred.
Israelis have to get used to the idea that there is no peaceful solution in sight – only interim measures to manage the conflict. If they want to have a state, there is no choice but to continue to fight Palestinian terrorism for decades.
Unilateral withdrawal involves inevitable risks. It will obviously not remedy the basic situation – perennial terror. It may even encourage it since Israeli withdrawals are seen by the Palestinians as capitulation.
On the other hand, the removal of several settlements may minimize friction between Israelis and Palestinians. It may bring greater Egyptian involvement in Gaza because of the daunting prospects of a Hamas-ruled territory. Moreover, it may buy Israel some good will in the international community (whatever that is worth), as unilateral withdrawal will demonstrate that Israel is serious about partition.
Such a demonstration may also be necessary to maintain social cohesion at home, an important precondition to withstanding the tests of protracted conflict.
The Herculean attempt to remove several settlements in Gaza will clearly show Israelis the political costs and tragic circumstances of implementing such a decision, thereby strengthening popular determination to avoid or minimize such steps in other parts of the land of Israel.
*[i]The writer is professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University and director of the Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies. [/i]
02.28.04 (8:21 pm) [edit]
[b]28 Feb 2004 23:35:23 GMT
[i]By Mohammed Assadi[/b][/i]
RAMALLAH, West Bank, Feb 28 (Reuters) - A top decision- making body in Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah group on Saturday reiterated calls for a ceasefire with Israel but failed to announce major reforms of the group.
The Fatah Revolutionary Council said in a statement after a four-day meeting that it was in favour of a mutual ceasefire.
The meeting was a bid to head off a slide into chaos signalled by mass Fatah resignations, accusations of corruption by the group's ruling old guard and its faltering control over Fatah militants.
"Fatah's Revolutionary Council announces Fatah's commitment to the peace process," the statement said. "Based on this, the Revolutionary Council urges Israel to an immediate mutual and binding ceasefire agreement."
The council said it would form a committee "to carry out internal reforms... within (Fatah's) central committee, down to the smallest organisational cell (in Fatah)".
It was the council's first meeting since the start of a Palestinian uprising three years ago. It said it will reconvene in a year.
Participants in the session said there was no discussion at the council on disarming Fatah's armed wing, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, that has carried out dozens of attacks on Israelis since the September 2000 start of the Palestinian uprising.
Arafat has blocked Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie from revamping Palestinian security forces and assuming security powers key to a U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan, which calls on the Palestinian Authority to dismantle militant groups and on Israel to freeze all construction works in Jewish settlements.
Azzam Al-Ahmad, a member of Fatah's Revolutionary Council, said that should Israel agree to a ceasefire, the resolutions of the council would be binding to al-Aqsa as well.
"When Fatah takes a decision on the level of leadership, this is binding to anyone who belongs to Fatah, be it al-Aqsa Brigades or others," Ahmad told Reuters.
Council member Jamal al-Shubaki said another committee was formed to prepare for elections to Fatah's central committee, the movement's highest decision-making body. A vote was intended to take place within a year, in an apparent bid to limit the influence of Fatah's old guard.
[b]28 Feb 2004 23:35:23 GMT
[i]By Mohammed Assadi[/b][/i]
RAMALLAH, West Bank, Feb 28 (Reuters) - A top decision- making body in Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah group on Saturday reiterated calls for a ceasefire with Israel but failed to announce major reforms of the group.
The Fatah Revolutionary Council said in a statement after a four-day meeting that it was in favour of a mutual ceasefire.
The meeting was a bid to head off a slide into chaos signalled by mass Fatah resignations, accusations of corruption by the group's ruling old guard and its faltering control over Fatah militants.
"Fatah's Revolutionary Council announces Fatah's commitment to the peace process," the statement said. "Based on this, the Revolutionary Council urges Israel to an immediate mutual and binding ceasefire agreement."
The council said it would form a committee "to carry out internal reforms... within (Fatah's) central committee, down to the smallest organisational cell (in Fatah)".
It was the council's first meeting since the start of a Palestinian uprising three years ago. It said it will reconvene in a year.
Participants in the session said there was no discussion at the council on disarming Fatah's armed wing, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, that has carried out dozens of attacks on Israelis since the September 2000 start of the Palestinian uprising.
Arafat has blocked Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie from revamping Palestinian security forces and assuming security powers key to a U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan, which calls on the Palestinian Authority to dismantle militant groups and on Israel to freeze all construction works in Jewish settlements.
Azzam Al-Ahmad, a member of Fatah's Revolutionary Council, said that should Israel agree to a ceasefire, the resolutions of the council would be binding to al-Aqsa as well.
"When Fatah takes a decision on the level of leadership, this is binding to anyone who belongs to Fatah, be it al-Aqsa Brigades or others," Ahmad told Reuters.
Council member Jamal al-Shubaki said another committee was formed to prepare for elections to Fatah's central committee, the movement's highest decision-making body. A vote was intended to take place within a year, in an apparent bid to limit the influence of Fatah's old guard.
TROUBLED KINGDOM
02.28.04 (8:06 pm) [edit]
[b]Saudi tourism: No Jews please
Islamic nation opens to holiday travelers, but not all
Posted: February 27, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com [/b]
Saudi Arabia will begin issuing tourist visas for the first time, bringing more attention to its restrictive policies, which include banning Jews.
Travel to the desert kingdom has been limited to business, employment, pilgrimages and specially approved visits, but in the next several weeks a new tourism law will be enacted, reports Arab News, an official English-language newspaper.
The government says it plans to set up a national council for tourism to promote the country in world markets.
But on the Supreme Commission for Tourism's website is a list of those who are not allowed in the county: [i][Editor's note: Since this story was posted early this morning, the Saudi commission has edited the page. Here -- http://homepage.mac.com/cfj/.... is how it originally appeared. This is the current version -- http://www.sauditourism.gov.s... .] [/i]
1. An Israeli passport holder or a passport that has an Israeli arrival/departure stamp.
2. Those who don't abide by the Saudi traditions concerning appearance and behaviors.
3. Those under the influence of alcohol ... .
4. Jewish People
The website also says if a woman arrives in the country alone, "the sponsor or her husband must receive her at the airport."
"Every woman must have confirmed accommodation for the duration of her stay in the Kingdom," the rules say.
Also, "A woman is not allowed to drive a car and can therefore only travel by car if she is accompanied by her husband, a male relative or a driver."
Saudi Prince Abdul Aziz told Arab News the government expects the tourist industry to create 1.5 million to 2.3 million new jobs for young Saudis by 2020.
"There are more than 10,000 tourist attractions in the Kingdom," he said.
A college for tourist and hotel management is under construction and the government has plans for 50,000 new hotel rooms.
Saudi writers also have called for opening up the Kingdom to foreign tourists, the Arab News said.
"Foreign tourists would love to enjoy swimming, tanning and water sports in our warm seas in fall and winter, and all-year activities like mountaineering, hiking, car racing and conferences," wrote Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi of Al-Madinah newspaper.
For Saudis and expatriates, however, the U.S. State Department paints a dark picture of life, stating in its human-rights report the Islamic government has "prohibited or restricted freedom of speech, the press, assembly, association, religion and movement."
The State Department's annual report on religious freedom says bluntly, "freedom of religion does not exist in Saudi Arabia."
In its May report, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom ( http://www.uscirf.gov/index.p... ) said "Saudi Arabia is a uniquely repressive case where the government forcefully and almost completely limits the public practice or expression of religion to one interpretation: a narrow and puritanical version of Islam based on the Wahhabi doctrine."
Jewish students are attacked and persecuted on campuses all over the world!
02.28.04 (7:58 pm) [edit]
[b]Jewish students are attacked and persecuted on campuses all over the world - not due to Israels policy, but due to them being Jewish![/b]
[b]The World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS)[/b] held a Press Conference at the opening of the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem. WUJS had assembled the members of its Executive Committee, who at the same time are leaders of the Continental Union of Jewish Students around the world.
[b]“Anti-Israelism is just an excuse for Antisemitism”[/b]
The Chairperson of WUJS, Peleg Reshef, expressed his concern over the increasing number of attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions. Peleg declared that the same way as students are in the forefront of the attacks, they must be in the forefront of the attempts to fight Antisemitism. “There is no difference between Antisemitism and Anti-Israelism. The latter is just an excuse for reviving the old fashioned Antisemitism”, Peleg Reshef said.
The head of the Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS), Jason, explained that Jewish students in Australia are facing frequent assaults by pro-Palestinian and socialist groups on campuses, under claims that it only is a question of being Anti-Israeli. It has also become increasingly difficult to send groups of Australian students to Israel.
Martha, the Chairperson of the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS) is experiencing the problems of representing Jews in 32 countries. Many countries in Europe have a large Moslem community and face antisemitic attacks as a result thereof including burning of synagogues and attacks on Jewish people and property. Other countries in Europe, who did not experience the Holocaust have a very indifferent attitude to Antisemitism, and in order to increase the fight against Antisemitism, EUJS recently held a Hasbara Leadership Training Programme with delegates from over 30 countries.
The Chairperson of the South African Union of Jewish Students (SAUJS), Jody, expressed her concern over the rising Antisemitism, but explained that it at least has brought the Jewish community closer together. Israel rallies are being held under threats from fellow students, but the solidarity is so far bigger than the fears.
Josi, the Vice-Chairperson of the Latin and South American Union of Jewish Students (FUSLA), explained that the old-fashioned Antisemitism as it is known in Europe is not yet affecting the Jewish students in this area, but ignorance about the situation in the Middle East is a big problem. Josi pointed out that better education of the Jewish students in the Hasbara of Israel is needed, since it is better to act before it is needed to react.
The Chairperson of the Union of Jewish Students in Great Britain (UJS), was happy to announce that he this morning received a delegation of over 100 students, who arrived on a solidarity trip to Israel. In Great Britain, there has been a significant rise in Antisemitism on campuses and Palestinian and Right Wing groups are joining forces against Jewish students. UJS are arranging rallies against the heavy Antisemitic propaganda that continues to compare Zionism to Nazism. UJS are also involved in Interfaith contacts as well as contacts with the leadership of England, including Prime Minister Tony Blair in order to improve the conditions for Jewish students and Jews in general.
Paul, the representative of the French Union of Jewish Students (UEJF), declared that the job of Jewish student leaders today is to fight Antisemitism. On universities around France, there are daily attacks on Jewish students, who are increasingly afraid to identify themselves as Jews. UEJF has published a book that in details explain all the attacks taking place on Jewish institutions, children, students, synagogues, etc. A copy of the book was handed to President Jacques Chirac, who promised the Jewish students to do his utmost for their security and their right to live freely as Jews in France.
[b]“The Future is Here”[/b]
The Chairperson of WUJS, Peleg Reshef, closed the press conference by declaring that WUJS through its global network and its leadership potential, has all the possibilities of leading the battle against Antisemitism. “If WUJS will be given the right tools, what we have presented here today is the future leadership of the Jewish world – in fact, the future is here!”, Peleg Reshef concluded.
[i]For further information, please contact [b]WUJS [/b]Chairperson Mr. Peleg Reshef on 053-310123 or Press Officer Mr. Kim Melchior on 051–264017.[/i]
02.28.04 (6:47 pm) [edit]
Feb 26, 2004 6:42 pm US/Pacific
WASHINGTON (AP) Rep. Anthony Weiner, a frequent critic of United States policy toward Saudi Arabia, said Thursday that the Middle East country's new visa policy outlined on a tourist Web site should be quickly condemned by American officials.
The Web site, promoting a new Saudi program to offer tourist visas to encourage more foreign visitors, lists four groups not entitled to tourist visas, including "Jewish People."
The Saudi government has traditionally only issued travel visas for employment, Hajj pilgrimages, and other visits with official sanction.
In addition to Jews, the Web site by the Supreme Commission for Tourism also says it will refuse visas to anyone with an Israeli passport or a passport that has an Israeli stamp.
"It is very difficult to see the Saudis as anything other than a backward country with backward ideals and this reaffirms that," said Weiner. "I think the administration should take a hard look at this Web site and decide whether a country that has these policies should be considered our ally."
Weiner said the U.S. should close its doors to Saudis until they "clarify" their immigration policy.
[i]© 2004 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. [/i]
Feb 26, 2004 6:42 pm US/Pacific
WASHINGTON (AP) Rep. Anthony Weiner, a frequent critic of United States policy toward Saudi Arabia, said Thursday that the Middle East country's new visa policy outlined on a tourist Web site should be quickly condemned by American officials.
The Web site, promoting a new Saudi program to offer tourist visas to encourage more foreign visitors, lists four groups not entitled to tourist visas, including "Jewish People."
The Saudi government has traditionally only issued travel visas for employment, Hajj pilgrimages, and other visits with official sanction.
In addition to Jews, the Web site by the Supreme Commission for Tourism also says it will refuse visas to anyone with an Israeli passport or a passport that has an Israeli stamp.
"It is very difficult to see the Saudis as anything other than a backward country with backward ideals and this reaffirms that," said Weiner. "I think the administration should take a hard look at this Web site and decide whether a country that has these policies should be considered our ally."
Weiner said the U.S. should close its doors to Saudis until they "clarify" their immigration policy.
[i]© 2004 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. [/i]
Oooh!
02.27.04 (3:50 pm) [edit][b]I really, really liked this quiz!!![/b]
Which Silver Screen Siren are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
'There are TWO sides of the story'
02.27.04 (3:38 pm) [edit]
[b]That is the mantra I hear from those who purely and only recognize the postion of the Palestinians.
'There are TWO sides of the story,' I am told when I make my point.
IF there are two sides of the story, why is our side dismissed?
Recently, after making a comment on someone's blog I was told:[/b]
[i]RedTigress You are a propagandist who doesn't even read the articles you comment on and you care nothing for truth. There are 2 sides to this tragic war and people like you will perpetuate hate. People like you will never broker a peace deal because you love the slaughter of Palestinians.[/i]
[b]Oh reallly? Well, I have this to say...[/b]
[i]And i'm talking about my side of the story. There are two, remember? You dismiss my side because it actually doens't include killing Jews. You've forgotten that there are two sides to the story, my friend.
And I don't want to see the slaughter of anyone. Once again, you are farce. You dismiss my position as you refuse to listen to it stating, "There are two sides to the story."
If you really thought that, you'd actually hear what I say.
If there are two sides to the story, how come you don't recognize the Israeli side to the story?
I, on the other thand, do recognize both sides. I think the terrorist rulers of the Palestinians are awful and have sold out their own people. The leaders perpetuate violence. I feel sorry for them. Once you conspire to kill an innocent, you are guilty of that crime though. Israel has a right to protect it's men, women and children. Oh, but you won't hear that because all you care about is YOUR side of the story. Right? there are two sides, but (blogger)'s side is the most important.
You're blog is one-sided, hateful, lying, and farce.
You make me laugh, really.
If you actually paid attention to what I have to say, you'd not need to make up false accusations about how i allegedly want to slaughter Palestinians.
You advocate the slaughter of Israelis.
There ARE two sides of the story. :)[/i]
[b]Yes, my friends, there are TWO sides of the story. Don't silence mine because it isn't yours!
I won't be silenced and I will stand by my people and their 'side.'
Obviously, this individual is illogical. I only speak truth and they make ad-hominim attacks toward me. ZERO credibility. ZERO.
Why don't you go assasinate you're own character, sir.
Oh wait, you do that with your very own blog![/b]
Palestinian Mayor in West Bank Resigns
02.27.04 (2:17 pm) [edit][b]45 minutes ago
[i]By ALI DARAGHMEH, Associated Press Writer [/b][/i]
NABLUS, West Bank - The Palestinian mayor of Nablus has resigned, citing frustrations over rising lawlessness in the West Bank's largest city.
Mayor Ghassan Shakaa told The Associated Press he has submitted his resignation to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to protest inaction by Palestinian leaders and security forces to stop the chaos.
The Palestinians' police forces have been weakened during more than three years of fighting with Israel. With no real authority on the streets, gangs and rival clans wage deadly gunbattles, while militants have kidnapped and beaten government officials.
"I have submitted my resignation to President Arafat because I see my city collapsing and I don't want to stand idly by and watch this collapse," Shakaa said. "My resignation is a warning bell to the Palestinian Authority and the residents of Nablus, because both of them are doing nothing for this city."
In November, Palestinian gunmen killed Shakaa's brother. The mayor, who had been locked in a power struggle with armed gangs, named suspects, but security forces still have not arrested them.
The mayor said Friday that was not the reason he stepped down.
Still, he said, the security forces under the control of Arafat's Palestinian Authority could do more to restore order.
The Palestinian Authority holds Israel responsible for the growing anarchy, saying military campaigns have weakened the Palestinian security forces.
"I don't deny the role of the (Israeli) occupation in destroying the city through the frequent invasions, but we as an authority and as citizens are doing nothing to protect the city," Shakaa said.
Shakaa said he would stay on until May 1 to finish several development projects, including the construction of a shopping mall.
02.27.04 (2:10 pm) [edit]
[b]52 minutes ago [/b]
To: International Desk
Contact: Michele Ammons of Christian Coalition, 202-549-6257 or 202-479-6900
WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Christian Coalition today condemned the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague for attempting to sanction Israel for erecting a 450-mile security fence to keep out terrorists, saying "Earlier this week, a Palestinian terrorist blew up a bus killing 8 innocent Israelis including 2 teenagers and wounding another 60. Israel contends that the ICJ has no jurisdiction and indeed it does not. The International Court of Justice -- as well as the General Assembly of the United Nations (whose membership is dominated by dictatorships and despots) which authorized the hearing against Israel -- has no right to intervene with the sovereignty of a nation."
National President Roberta Combs said, "The International Court of Justice should be putting on trial international criminals rather than putting Israel on trial for just trying to defend itself. When I and some of my staff visited Israel in late 2002 upon invitation of the Sharon government, we witnessed the site of a terrorist bus bombing which killed a dozen innocent Israelis and wounded many others. Since then, the terrorists' campaign of violence has continued as evidenced by Sunday's bus bombing. Israel has the right to protect itself with a security fence, just as the United States has the right to protect our borders.
"The Israeli government is correct when it says its security fence is a defense against suicide bombers. In fact, in areas where the security fence has already been constructed, the incidents of suicide bombings has decreased. The Israeli people overwhelmingly support such a barrier between them and the Palestinian terrorists. Quoted on Christian Broadcasting Network's 700 Club Monday, New York Democrat Congressman Jerrold Nadler who was one block from Sunday's terrorist bombing when it occurred said, 'How can you question the necessity of whatever security measures Israel takes?' If Israel's security fence had already been completed, the innocent lives lost Sunday in the Palestinian terrorist attack in Jerusalem, probably would not have been lost."
[i]http://www.usnewswire.com/
© 2004 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/[/i]
[b]52 minutes ago [/b]
To: International Desk
Contact: Michele Ammons of Christian Coalition, 202-549-6257 or 202-479-6900
WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Christian Coalition today condemned the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague for attempting to sanction Israel for erecting a 450-mile security fence to keep out terrorists, saying "Earlier this week, a Palestinian terrorist blew up a bus killing 8 innocent Israelis including 2 teenagers and wounding another 60. Israel contends that the ICJ has no jurisdiction and indeed it does not. The International Court of Justice -- as well as the General Assembly of the United Nations (whose membership is dominated by dictatorships and despots) which authorized the hearing against Israel -- has no right to intervene with the sovereignty of a nation."
National President Roberta Combs said, "The International Court of Justice should be putting on trial international criminals rather than putting Israel on trial for just trying to defend itself. When I and some of my staff visited Israel in late 2002 upon invitation of the Sharon government, we witnessed the site of a terrorist bus bombing which killed a dozen innocent Israelis and wounded many others. Since then, the terrorists' campaign of violence has continued as evidenced by Sunday's bus bombing. Israel has the right to protect itself with a security fence, just as the United States has the right to protect our borders.
"The Israeli government is correct when it says its security fence is a defense against suicide bombers. In fact, in areas where the security fence has already been constructed, the incidents of suicide bombings has decreased. The Israeli people overwhelmingly support such a barrier between them and the Palestinian terrorists. Quoted on Christian Broadcasting Network's 700 Club Monday, New York Democrat Congressman Jerrold Nadler who was one block from Sunday's terrorist bombing when it occurred said, 'How can you question the necessity of whatever security measures Israel takes?' If Israel's security fence had already been completed, the innocent lives lost Sunday in the Palestinian terrorist attack in Jerusalem, probably would not have been lost."
[i]http://www.usnewswire.com/
© 2004 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/[/i]
Lord Knows
02.27.04 (2:00 pm) [edit]
[b]Thu Feb 26, 6:34 PM ET
[i]By Phyllis Berman [/b][/i]
People have used the Bible to predict the Second Coming and the end of the world. But John M. Brown is one of the first to rely on the Old Testament to hunt for oil in Israel, where others have tried and failed. "Over the last five years significant amounts of gas have been discovered off the shore of both Israel and Gaza," insists Brown, chairman of Dallas-based Zion Oil & Gas.
Decoding verses from Deuteronomy, he is determined to look for black gold to the south of the Mount Carmel range, a region known as "the head of Joseph," and an area near the Mediterranean, a.k.a. "the foot of Asher."
How to pay for this holy flyer? Zion recently went public on Nasdaq in a best-efforts offering for 1.3 million to 7 million shares at $5 apiece. The kicker: Brown must pay a hefty 8% to 10% of the proceeds to the underwriters--no believers, they.
The money will support drilling on sites licensed from the Israeli government. And if the first efforts bear no fruit? Brown seems ethereally unconcerned. Many of his backers are evangelical Christians who want him to succeed. Besides, we are entering the season of miracles.
Man, woman killed in Negev shooting incident
02.27.04 (1:51 pm) [edit]
[b]Feb. 27, 2004
[i]By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH[/b][/i]
A man and woman were killed Friday night in a drive-by shooting on the Hebron-Beersheba road (No. 38) near Eshkolot in the southern Hebron Hills.
A Border Police patrol driving along the southern part of the Green Line spotted the vehicle at the side of the road, its windows shattered.
Paramedics and a doctor who reached the site confirmed the deaths of the two passengers.
Magen David Adom officials said they received a report at 8.24 p.m. and within minutes a team was at the site.
IDF forces and Southern Police District are searching the area for the perpetrators.
Security officials said, according to initial findings, that as a result of the shooting the driver lost control of the vehicle which overturned.
They added that while the findings point to a terrorist shooting, they have not ruled out possible criminal motives as the cause of death.
02.27.04 (1:44 pm) [edit]
![]()
=http://img19.photobucket.com/...
[i]An Orthodox boy hastening.[/i]
[b]Feb. 27, 2004
[i]By ETGAR LEFKOVITS[/b][/i]
Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall were briefly evacuated from the site Friday, after hundreds of rioting Palestinians teens pelted police with stones from the Temple Mount at the culmination of Friday Muslim prayers.
Police in riot gear then rushed into the ancient compound, and dispersed the Palestinians with stun grenades.
Three policemen were lightly wounded by rocks during the violence, while four Palestinians were lightly hurt in the melee.
As a police helicopter hovered in the air, the crackle of stun grenades could be heard from the Old City throughout central Jerusalem on a balmy February afternoon.
Several large rocks were later discovered on the section of the Western Wall allocated for women's prayer. None of the worshippers were injured in the noontime violence, police said.
An hour later, calm was restored to the site.
[i]An Orthodox boy hastening.[/i]
[b]Feb. 27, 2004
[i]By ETGAR LEFKOVITS[/b][/i]
Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall were briefly evacuated from the site Friday, after hundreds of rioting Palestinians teens pelted police with stones from the Temple Mount at the culmination of Friday Muslim prayers.
Police in riot gear then rushed into the ancient compound, and dispersed the Palestinians with stun grenades.
Three policemen were lightly wounded by rocks during the violence, while four Palestinians were lightly hurt in the melee.
As a police helicopter hovered in the air, the crackle of stun grenades could be heard from the Old City throughout central Jerusalem on a balmy February afternoon.
Several large rocks were later discovered on the section of the Western Wall allocated for women's prayer. None of the worshippers were injured in the noontime violence, police said.
An hour later, calm was restored to the site.
02.27.04 (1:25 pm) [edit]
Published on Feb 28, 2004
Israeli tourist Carol Cohen, whose body parts were recovered from a Bangkok canal earlier this week, might have been knocked out by a blow to the chin before being stabbed to death, the chief of forensic medicine said yesterday.
The 26-year-old's husband, Eli Cohen, has been charged with her murder but denies committing the crime.
Pol Maj-General Wichit Samathiwat, commander of the Forensic Medicine Institute, said the autopsy of the body parts indicated that the victim's chin was struck once with a fist and then again with a hard object.
"The cause of death should be the knife wounds to the lungs and heart," he added.
Wichit said Eli Cohen might have been able to skin and cut up the body as he used to be a barber and cook.
He said the institute had completed the DNA tests of the severed head and body parts and was awaiting DNA samples and dental records to be sent from Israel by Carol's parents to confirm that she was the murder victim.
Wichit said wounds that were found on the murder suspect's hands might have been accidentally self-inflicted while using both hands to try to cut the corpse.
Cohen, 36, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with murdering his wife, cutting up her body and then stuffing it into a suitcase and dumping it in Klong Phadung Krung Kasem.
The torso of the body was found in a large black suitcase on Wednesday near a sluice gate on the canal near Government House.
The head was found in a blue plastic bag on Thursday and a leg and some human skin was recovered from nearby.
Cohen continued to profess his innocence yesterday, saying he might have been framed.
"I love my wife and I have two children. I am innocent. I never do anything like this," the dishevelled, bespectacled Cohen told Reuters after he was arraigned in court to be remanded in custody for another 12 days.
"Maybe someone try to make me look like I am doing this, but it's not me. I hope they find out."
Cohen told Israeli reporter Guy Sharett that his wife went missing after leaving the hotel room to buy a swimming suit.
Sharett quoted Cohen as saying that he broke a glass bottle and used a piece to hurt his hands out of anxiety over his wife's disappearance.
The reporter also quoted Cohen as begging that his picture not be published for fear that it would affect his nine-year-old son in Israel.
Published on Feb 28, 2004
Israeli tourist Carol Cohen, whose body parts were recovered from a Bangkok canal earlier this week, might have been knocked out by a blow to the chin before being stabbed to death, the chief of forensic medicine said yesterday.
The 26-year-old's husband, Eli Cohen, has been charged with her murder but denies committing the crime.
Pol Maj-General Wichit Samathiwat, commander of the Forensic Medicine Institute, said the autopsy of the body parts indicated that the victim's chin was struck once with a fist and then again with a hard object.
"The cause of death should be the knife wounds to the lungs and heart," he added.
Wichit said Eli Cohen might have been able to skin and cut up the body as he used to be a barber and cook.
He said the institute had completed the DNA tests of the severed head and body parts and was awaiting DNA samples and dental records to be sent from Israel by Carol's parents to confirm that she was the murder victim.
Wichit said wounds that were found on the murder suspect's hands might have been accidentally self-inflicted while using both hands to try to cut the corpse.
Cohen, 36, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with murdering his wife, cutting up her body and then stuffing it into a suitcase and dumping it in Klong Phadung Krung Kasem.
The torso of the body was found in a large black suitcase on Wednesday near a sluice gate on the canal near Government House.
The head was found in a blue plastic bag on Thursday and a leg and some human skin was recovered from nearby.
Cohen continued to profess his innocence yesterday, saying he might have been framed.
"I love my wife and I have two children. I am innocent. I never do anything like this," the dishevelled, bespectacled Cohen told Reuters after he was arraigned in court to be remanded in custody for another 12 days.
"Maybe someone try to make me look like I am doing this, but it's not me. I hope they find out."
Cohen told Israeli reporter Guy Sharett that his wife went missing after leaving the hotel room to buy a swimming suit.
Sharett quoted Cohen as saying that he broke a glass bottle and used a piece to hurt his hands out of anxiety over his wife's disappearance.
The reporter also quoted Cohen as begging that his picture not be published for fear that it would affect his nine-year-old son in Israel.
02.27.04 (1:13 pm) [edit]
[b]Last Update: 27/02/2004 19:03
[i]By Haaretz Service and Agencies [/b][/i]
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat agreed Friday to hold elections in his ruling Fatah movement within a year, but young party rebels clamoring for more influence said they doubt he'll keep his word.
Arafat's promise came at meeting of Fatah's 126-member Revolutionary Council in the West Bank city of Ramallah, called against the backdrop of reformers' demands to elect new Fatah leaders.
The reformers have chided Arafat for widespread corruption in Fatah, and an unwillingness to give residents of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip a leading voice in its Central Committee, the main decision-making body.
The committee is dominated by officials Arafat brought with him when he returned to the Palestinian territories from Tunisia in 1994.
Participants at the Revolutionary Council meeting said Arafat agreed to hold a party convention within a year, rejecting demands to hold it within six months. The participants said the main purpose of the convention would be to elect a new Central Committee.
However, some participants were skeptical that Arafat would carry out his promise. They said he has often made such promises in the past and could easily use Israeli-Palestinian tensions as an excuse for delays.
A Fatah convention is to be held every five years, but the last one took place in 1989. Delegates come from Lebanon, other Middle Eastern countries as well as the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The three-day Revolutionary Council meeting, which was to conclude Friday evening, was tense at times.
During Thursday's session, Arafat branded his former security chief, Nasser Yousef, a traitor and threw a microphone at him, participants said.
Arafat became angry when Yousef questioned the efficiency of the security forces.
"You traitor, spy, shut your mouth, you have no right to talk," Arafat was quoted as shouting to Yousef.
Yousef chucked a pen at the veteran Palestinian leader before other members of the Fatah Revolutionary Council intervened and calmed down the two septuagenarians.
On Wednesday, Arafat told a crisis meeting of the council that he would push again for peace with Israel and hold internal elections to promote reform.
"Security and peace are not only a Palestinian interest but an Israeli interest. Our option is peace and we will work [anew] for this goal... There is [also] the need to bring new blood into Fatah based on democratic steps," Arafat told the council.
Arafat, who has increasingly been criticized for vagueness and lack of follow-through by Fatah's younger generation, gave no details or timetable.
"His promise to hold leadership elections is a positive step in response to demands of the rank-and-file, and we will see to it that happens within six months," said former security chief Mohammed Dahlan, a reform advocate recently at odds with Arafat.
Most of the 130 Revolutionary Council members demand elections to start replacing an elite around Arafat that has dominated for decades.
Participants in the meeting said a possible dissolution of a Fatah armed wing, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which has been behind suicide bombings against Israelis, could come up during the gathering.
[b]Last Update: 27/02/2004 19:03
[i]By Haaretz Service and Agencies [/b][/i]
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat agreed Friday to hold elections in his ruling Fatah movement within a year, but young party rebels clamoring for more influence said they doubt he'll keep his word.
Arafat's promise came at meeting of Fatah's 126-member Revolutionary Council in the West Bank city of Ramallah, called against the backdrop of reformers' demands to elect new Fatah leaders.
The reformers have chided Arafat for widespread corruption in Fatah, and an unwillingness to give residents of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip a leading voice in its Central Committee, the main decision-making body.
The committee is dominated by officials Arafat brought with him when he returned to the Palestinian territories from Tunisia in 1994.
Participants at the Revolutionary Council meeting said Arafat agreed to hold a party convention within a year, rejecting demands to hold it within six months. The participants said the main purpose of the convention would be to elect a new Central Committee.
However, some participants were skeptical that Arafat would carry out his promise. They said he has often made such promises in the past and could easily use Israeli-Palestinian tensions as an excuse for delays.
A Fatah convention is to be held every five years, but the last one took place in 1989. Delegates come from Lebanon, other Middle Eastern countries as well as the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The three-day Revolutionary Council meeting, which was to conclude Friday evening, was tense at times.
During Thursday's session, Arafat branded his former security chief, Nasser Yousef, a traitor and threw a microphone at him, participants said.
Arafat became angry when Yousef questioned the efficiency of the security forces.
"You traitor, spy, shut your mouth, you have no right to talk," Arafat was quoted as shouting to Yousef.
Yousef chucked a pen at the veteran Palestinian leader before other members of the Fatah Revolutionary Council intervened and calmed down the two septuagenarians.
On Wednesday, Arafat told a crisis meeting of the council that he would push again for peace with Israel and hold internal elections to promote reform.
"Security and peace are not only a Palestinian interest but an Israeli interest. Our option is peace and we will work [anew] for this goal... There is [also] the need to bring new blood into Fatah based on democratic steps," Arafat told the council.
Arafat, who has increasingly been criticized for vagueness and lack of follow-through by Fatah's younger generation, gave no details or timetable.
"His promise to hold leadership elections is a positive step in response to demands of the rank-and-file, and we will see to it that happens within six months," said former security chief Mohammed Dahlan, a reform advocate recently at odds with Arafat.
Most of the 130 Revolutionary Council members demand elections to start replacing an elite around Arafat that has dominated for decades.
Participants in the meeting said a possible dissolution of a Fatah armed wing, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which has been behind suicide bombings against Israelis, could come up during the gathering.
02.27.04 (1:07 pm) [edit]
Feb. 27 — JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A Palestinian suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up next to an Israeli military jeep in the Gaza Strip on Friday, but caused no casualties among its occupants, the army said.
It said only the bomber had been killed in the afternoon incident outside the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom, a frequent target of Palestinians waging a three-year-old uprising. There was no immediate comment from Gaza militant groups.
Tensions are simmering among Palestinians over a barrier that Israel is building in the West Bank, now under World Court review.
On Thursday, two Palestinian gunmen killed a soldier guarding a crossing point on Gaza's boundary with Israel, before being shot dead themselves by security personnel on the scene.
[i]Copyright 2004 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. [/i]
Feb. 27 — JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A Palestinian suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up next to an Israeli military jeep in the Gaza Strip on Friday, but caused no casualties among its occupants, the army said.
It said only the bomber had been killed in the afternoon incident outside the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom, a frequent target of Palestinians waging a three-year-old uprising. There was no immediate comment from Gaza militant groups.
Tensions are simmering among Palestinians over a barrier that Israel is building in the West Bank, now under World Court review.
On Thursday, two Palestinian gunmen killed a soldier guarding a crossing point on Gaza's boundary with Israel, before being shot dead themselves by security personnel on the scene.
[i]Copyright 2004 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. [/i]
My Letter To Bill O'Reilly
02.26.04 (10:11 pm) [edit]
So I figured I'd send a letter to Bill O'Reilly tonight. I wanted to give him my 'pithy comments' and my two cents. I also figured I'd share it with my readers here. Tell me what you think...
[line]
Subject: The Passion not Anti-Semitic according to the Anti-Defamation League?
To: oreilly@foxnews.com
Dear Mr. O'Reilly,
I'm a big fan of your show and I watch it on Fox and
listen on the radio whenever I can.
Tonight I was watching and you were talking to a guest about why the 'Passion' has been feared to be anti-Semitic. You mentioned in passing that the head of the ADL made a statement saying that the movie is not anti-Semitic. Well, I wanted to see that for myself so I went to the ADL website to look it up. I didn't find that statement, but I did run across this:
http://www.adl.org/media_watch/newspaper s/20040224-TheDailyNews.htm" title="http://www.adl.org/media_watch/newspaper s/20040224-TheDailyNews.htm" target="_blank"http://www.adl.org/media_watc...
I was curious to know what you have to say about this?
As an Orthodox Jewish person, I fully respect the convictions of Christians everywhere and, while I haven't yet seen the movie (I plan on it), I haven't formed an opinion of whether or not the movie is actually anti-Semitic because to do so without viewing
it isn't truly fair. I hope that the movie isn't anti-Semitic because I just plain don't want to see anyone get hurt, verbally or physically. I also am semi-skeptical about this film because, given the history of what has happened to my people, I have reason to. I think that's fair as well. There are lots of whackos out there who still believe in the libel of deicide at the hands of the Jews. I don't know if Mr. Gibson is one of them because I don't know him personally. All I can do is see the film.
Yet, having a concern over the possibilities that a movie is hateful, rather than not seeing it and condemning it as hateful, are two different things. I think what a lot of Jewish leaders are voicing is pure and mere concern. Others, like the media, are taking it out of hand and running with it to be sensationalist.
At any rate, I look forward to viewing the film and forming my own opinion of it and its message!
Thank you for being on the air and I hope to continue to enjoy your show!
Warmly,
(My Signature)
ADL Outraged at Church Sign Blaming Jews for Death of Jesus
02.26.04 (9:42 pm) [edit]
And it continues. It has begun again...
[line]
Denver, February 25, 2004 ... Bruce H. DeBoskey, Mountain States Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), issued the following statement today in response to the Lovingway United Pentecostal Church's sign that stated: "Jews killed the Lord Jesus…Settled!":
We are outraged by the outdoor marquee of the Lovingway United Pentecostal Church to post a sign blaming Jews for the death of Jesus. For more than 1,900 years, this accusation has fueled anti-Semitism in the Western world. Now those same words appear on a sign on a busy Denver thoroughfare.
In a private conversation with Pastor Maurice Gordon, we asked him to remove the sign. He refused to do so. We continue to call upon Pastor Gordon to remove his church's divisive and painful message.
We also call upon the leaders of other Christian groups in Denver to reaffirm the statements they have made: that all of mankind shares responsibility for Jesus' death, and that blame should not be placed collectively on the Jews of the time or the Jews of today.
We fervently hope that Jews and Christians can use this time as an opportunity for dialogue and learning, not blame and divisiveness.
[i]The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.[/i]
Bill O'Reilly Wrong About the 'Passion'?
02.26.04 (9:35 pm) [edit]I've been watching the O'Reilly facter for a long time now. If you've been watching lately, he's been doing segments all week about Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion of the Christ." Tonight, while I was watching, he said that the Head of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said that the movie, "The Passion of the Christ" wasn't anti-Semitic. Well, after the show, I went looking for that statement on the ADL website. I found no mention of a statement of that nature, rather, I found this letter to the editor.
The following can be found at: http://www.adl.org/media_watc...
[line]
Anti-Defamation League
Letters to the Editor
The Daily News
February 24, 2004
To the Editor:
Bill O'Reilly is wrong to suggest that Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of the Christ" is an accurate rendering of the four Gospels ("Lay Off Mel Gibson," Feb. 22). Religious scholars who have seen the film state that it in fact deviates substantially from religious teachings and historical fact.
Prominent Jewish and Christian leaders are deeply troubled by Gibson's sources for the film, which include the writings of a 19th Century anti-Semitic nun.
It is unfortunate that O'Reilly has positioned himself as an unquestioning backer of this film, while engaging in attack-dog style rhetoric against Gibson's detractors.
Sincerely,
Joel J. Levy
New York Regional Director
Woman collapses during screening of "The Passion of the Christ," dies at hospital
02.26.04 (7:10 pm) [edit]This is just weird!
[line]
WICHITA, Kansas (AP) - A woman collapsed during the final, bloody crucifixion scene at a screening of "The Passion of the Christ" and later died at a hospital, local media reported.
Peggy Law Scott, 57, of Wichita, collapsed while attending a morning screening with co-workers Wednesday, The Witchita Eagle newspaper said.
Scott was later taken to a local hospital, where spokeswoman Roz Hutchinson confirmed the death.
No cause of death was immediately known.
An autopsy will be conducted on Thursday, according to a county spokeswoman.
[i]©Indiana Printing & Publishing Co. 2004[/i]
D'var Torah for Terumah (Exodus 25:1-27:19)
02.26.04 (6:42 pm) [edit]
The Aron (Tabernacle) contained the most precious gift the Jews got: the Tablets handed from God to Moshe (Moses). The receptacle had to be worthy of the insert, and therefore the Aron had to be intricately constructed with symbolism as meticulously configured as its beautiful design.
The Aron consisted of three contiguous boxes of gold, wood, and gold each inserted into the other, and gold plated wooden staves with which to carry the Aron.
The Torah goes on to state that "The staves shall remain in the ark; they shall not be removed" (Exodus 25:14).
Rabbi Kamenetzky asked that if this is meant as a prohibition for anyone to remove the staves, why didn't the Torah just command us not to remove them, instead of telling us that they won't be removed?
Rabbi Kamenetzky answers that perhaps the Torah is making a powerful prophecy in addition to a powerful regulation. The wooden staves represent the customs and the small nuances of the Torah. They may not be as holy as the ark, but they will never leave its side.
When the cherished handles of those staves are invoked into use, the entire Torah is raised with them. As the Torah is clearly demonstrating, the Torah is moved by the little actions that we do, the inconspicuous little actions that impress no one, but mean the world to God!
Have an uplifting Shabbos! :D
The Human Rights of Israelis: What the ICJ has not been asked.
02.26.04 (5:39 pm) [edit]
[b]February 26, 2004, 9:07 a.m.
[i]By Anne Bayefsky[/b][/i]
The International Court of Justice in the Hague is being asked by the U.N. General Assembly to provide advice on the "legal consequences" of Israel's security fence. Predating the request for such advice, was a November report from U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan detailing the harm done to Palestinians said to result from the fence and a December 2003 General Assembly resolution already deciding that the fence violates international law. The question before the court has therefore been carefully crafted to elicit a list of negative human-rights consequences for Palestinians.
One element, however, is missing: [b]the human rights of Israelis[/b]. Secretary General Annan's report does not describe a single terrorist act against Israelis. The same 2003 General Assembly which decried the fence was also marked by its refusal to adopt a resolution on the rights of Israeli children — after passing one on Palestinian children.
The U.N. message is clear — the human rights of Israelis are not part of the equation. If they were, the legal balancing act would be this: On the one hand, suicide-bombing violates the following rights and freedoms of Israelis — all derived from international human rights treaties ratified by Israel:
[b][i]the right to life, the right not to be subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, the right to equality and freedom from persecution, security of the person, the right to health and well-being, the right to safe working conditions, the right to work, freedom from incitement to violence or war, freedom of religion, the right to the protection of the family, the right to the protection of the child, the right to education, freedom of movement, the right to vote, freedom of association, the right to an adequate standard of living and the right of self-determination.[/b][/i]
Suicide bombings (along with other terrorist acts) target Israelis at work, at play, at worship, and in transit, anywhere, anytime. They have been hit in synagogues, at bar mitzvahs, at Passover seders, moving from home to work or to school, while voting, gathering with friends in public places, in restaurants, cafes, and discotheques, in their homes and in their bedrooms. They kill and maim children and adults, women and men. They destroy health and any chance for happiness or well-being.
The violation of human rights by suicide bombing, starting with the right to life, falls within the category of the gravest human-rights violations in international law: [b]It is a crime against humanity[/b] — according to the definitions in the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal and the Statute of the International Criminal Court, as well as reports of organizations such as Amnesty International. [b]The major human-rights instruments also render it an attempt at genocide or "the commission of acts with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group."[/b]
The violation of the right to life by suicide bombing fits one other label of modern times — ethnic cleansing, or the systematic removal of a group of people identified by ethnicity from a certain area through killing or forced migration. [b]Suicide-bombing kills some Israelis, encourages others to leave the country, and discourages Jews from visiting or immigrating. The specific intent is to ethnically cleanse the area of Jews, a fact which has already been accomplished in all other neighboring Arab states, and most other Arab and Muslim countries.[/b]
So on the one hand, Israelis are subject to crimes against humanity, attempted genocide, and an effort to accomplish ethnic cleansing. International treaties demand that Israel protect the human rights of its citizens, just as the government of any country would be expected to protect its citizens from the most grievous offences known to humankind.
What about the other hand — the rights of Palestinians? [b]Suicide-bombing also violates the rights of Palestinians.[/b] It violates the right of Palestinian children not to take part in hostilities. Palestinian children having been used as suicide bombers and armed combatants, their right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, and their entitlement to the protection and care necessary for their well-being, have also been violated. The Convention on the Rights of the Child says [i]"the education of the child shall be directed to ...the development of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms...[and] for civilizations different from his or her own.., [and] for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance... among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups".[/i]
The right of the Palestinian child to an education which promotes tolerance and respect is violated by Palestinian media, schools, textbooks, posters, and summer camps — all of which routinely encourage Palestinian children to hate, and to harm their neighbors.
Palestinians have other rights which have been limited or infringed, like the right to work and freedom of movement. These rights are limited or infringed, however, not by Israel's fence, but by the terrorists who live and operate among them. If an armed robber takes a hostage and in the course of the crime the hostage is killed by police, the law states that the death of the hostage has been caused by the robber, not the police. For if there was no armed robbery, the hostage would not have been harmed.[b] If there were no terrorism, there would be no fence [/b]— and no "consequences of the fence" as the International Court has been asked to state in isolation from the acts that preceded it. The Palestinian civilian population is hostage to the terrorists and suicide-bombers among them. Israel's actions, like those of the police officer, are taken in fulfillment of its legal responsibilities to protect and end violent and illegal behavior.
The language of human rights is one of the most powerful political currencies of our times. That is why terrorists attempt to use it to their own ends, and claim victimhood for violations for which they are responsible.
[b]The International Court of Justice is at a crucial juncture in its history: to become another weapon in the terrorists' arsenal or to reject the gross abuse of the rule of law and the attempt to deny the equal value of the human rights of Israelis.[/b]
[i]*Anne Bayefsky is an adjunct professor of law at Columbia Law School. A version of this appeared in the Jerusalem Post and is reprinted with permission.[/i]
Palestinians' unwavering in determination to kill Jews...
02.26.04 (5:28 pm) [edit][b]Arabs set to take terror over the fence
[i]By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff[/i]
February 25, 2004[/b]
Jerusalem (jnewswire.com) - Whether Israel keeps the security fence in place, or folds before enormous international pressure and takes it down, the Palestinian Arabs remain determined to inflict terror and death on the Jewish people in whatever way they can.
According to Israel's Internal Security Services (Shin Bet) director, Avi Dichter, the "Palestinians" are working hard to develop artillery and other weaponry to fire over the combination wall-fence barrier.
The security fence, being erected as a desperate measure by a nation that has seen hundreds of its people murdered by Muslim "suicide" bombers in the last three-and-a-half years, may actually spur "Palestinians" to improve or develop new methods of terrorism.
Dichter warned that the successful "Palestinian" deployment of artillery that can reach Israeli population centers would probably necessitate a major IDF operation into the Gaza Strip.
Apart from all this he stressed that the security fence had already proven to be truly effective.
Determined to kill Jews
Addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Dichter said the Palestinian Arabs were working to introduce chemical agents into their bombs, something that could dramatically increase the number of casualties in future terror attacks.
The Arabs were also trying to produce an artillery piece that could fire shells over the wall into Israeli cities and towns, similar to the way Qassam rockets and mortars were being launched from the Gaza Strip against Jewish targets in the south.
Dichter said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to unilaterally withdraw Israel from Gaza would not effect the "Palestinians," who would upgrade their weapons whether Israel left or not.
An increase in attacks after Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip would likely mean that the IDF would have to mount major anti-terror operations in the area after its withdrawal.
No Hamas state in Gaza
Addressing the recently expressed concern that Israel's vacating of Gaza would leave a defacto Hamas-run terror enclave in place, Dichter said the Islamist group would not be able to depose Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority.
"Hamas is not going to take over after we leave, the PA has more resources, and Hamas knows this, and will not opt for a show down," he said.
The fence works
Dichter lauded Israel's internationally criticized security fence, rolling out statistics to show how, where it has been completed, the barrier has brought "suicide" attacks screeching to a halt.
But while the finished fence up north had almost completely stopped terror from Samaria, further south, specifically around Jerusalem - where a lot of the fence has yet to be put up - efforts to infiltrate bombers have trebled.
It was important to complete the fence around Jerusalem as quickly as possible, Dichter stressed, adding that if he could push a button to make the fence go up immediately he would.
Unending war?
Israelis anticipate the efforts to destroy their state will continue whether or not there is a security fence and whether or not they withdraw from parts of the land claimed by the Palestinian Arabs.
Israeli opposition leader Shimon Peres said earlier this week that by holding onto just 10 percent of "Palestinian territory" Israel would be holding onto 100 percent of the conflict.
But while Peres' position is that Judea, Samaria and Gaza are "Palestinian" territory, the Palestinian Arabs insist that all of sovereign Israel is also their land.
To this end the "Palestinian" terrorist organizations (including Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the PLO and the Palestinian Authority) have all committed themselves to the eradication of all of what they call the Zionist entity.
Although many war-weary Israelis wonder aloud whether the violence will ever cease, Bible believers are convinced that an end is on the way.
Christian supporters of Israel point to numerous verses in the Bible that show how God promised to bring the scattered Jewish nation back to their land, there to offer them safety, security and, eventually, peace.
They believe Israel's ultimate victory over its Arab neighbors is prophesied, and assured.
02.26.04 (1:24 pm) [edit]
[b]Wed Feb 25, 1:52 PM ET
[i]By Marilyn Chase, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal [/b][/i]
NEW YORK -- Scientists said they have identified a protein that shields rhesus monkeys from the AIDS virus, a finding that opens new avenues for drug and vaccine research.
The protein, called TRIM5-alpha, is believed to be part of the innate immune system that patrols the body looking for invaders and blocks their ability to infect.
People make a version of TRIM5-alpha that is 87% identical to the monkey protein, but isn't able to thwart AIDS. Scientists said they hope to find ways to beef up that human protein, or to use the monkey protein in treatment or prevention.
Joseph Sodroski, an AIDS researcher at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and Matthew Stremlau, a candidate for a doctorate at Harvard Medical School, reported the discovery with coworkers in the journal Nature.
Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the finding sheds new light on the HIV life cycle and "opens new avenues for intervening in early stage of HIV infection before the virus can gain a toehold." HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.
The discovery caps almost a decade of work into why the human immunodeficiency virus infects some animals and not others. Scientists long had wondered why Old World monkeys -- a group including rhesus monkeys (or macaques), baboons and mangabeys -- didn't get AIDS.
"It became clear that monkeys were making a potent and specific factor blocking HIV," said Dr. Sodroski.
But isolating it took "heroic efforts" by Mr. Stremlau to pluck a gene for this protective factor out of the 40,000 genes in a monkey's genome, Dr. Sodroski said.
"It was like looking for a needle in a haystack," said the 27-year-old Mr. Stremlau. First he made a library of all 40,000 genes. Next, each gene was put into human cells normally vulnerable to infection by HIV. Then they unleashed HIV to observe the effect of the genes on infection.
To screen cells that got infected from those that didn't, the team had engineered HIV to emit a green fluorescent light to signal when infection occurred. Infected cell cultures shone bright green; a dark culture signaled infection failed. One stood out as especially well-protected.
"Cells carrying the gene for TRIM5-alpha didn't get infected, no matter how much HIV you put on them. They remained dark," said Dr. Sodroski. "It is really potent in blocking HIV."
Making the discovery was "like winning the lottery," said Mr. Stremlau, who was drawn to AIDS research after family travels in Africa.
Dr. Sodroski said questions still remain as to how the protein works, and whether variants exist in humans that may protect some people from getting AIDS. Among future possibilities, he said, the protein could lead to gene therapy, to vaccines, to improved animal models, or eventually to drugs that mimic the most active part of the protein.
The work was funded by grants from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, the Bristol- Myers Squibb Foundation, and the Center for AIDS Research of Dana-Farber, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Children's Hospital Boston.
-By Marilyn Chase, The Wall Street Journal, 415-765-5125
[b]Wed Feb 25, 1:52 PM ET
[i]By Marilyn Chase, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal [/b][/i]
NEW YORK -- Scientists said they have identified a protein that shields rhesus monkeys from the AIDS virus, a finding that opens new avenues for drug and vaccine research.
The protein, called TRIM5-alpha, is believed to be part of the innate immune system that patrols the body looking for invaders and blocks their ability to infect.
People make a version of TRIM5-alpha that is 87% identical to the monkey protein, but isn't able to thwart AIDS. Scientists said they hope to find ways to beef up that human protein, or to use the monkey protein in treatment or prevention.
Joseph Sodroski, an AIDS researcher at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and Matthew Stremlau, a candidate for a doctorate at Harvard Medical School, reported the discovery with coworkers in the journal Nature.
Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the finding sheds new light on the HIV life cycle and "opens new avenues for intervening in early stage of HIV infection before the virus can gain a toehold." HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.
The discovery caps almost a decade of work into why the human immunodeficiency virus infects some animals and not others. Scientists long had wondered why Old World monkeys -- a group including rhesus monkeys (or macaques), baboons and mangabeys -- didn't get AIDS.
"It became clear that monkeys were making a potent and specific factor blocking HIV," said Dr. Sodroski.
But isolating it took "heroic efforts" by Mr. Stremlau to pluck a gene for this protective factor out of the 40,000 genes in a monkey's genome, Dr. Sodroski said.
"It was like looking for a needle in a haystack," said the 27-year-old Mr. Stremlau. First he made a library of all 40,000 genes. Next, each gene was put into human cells normally vulnerable to infection by HIV. Then they unleashed HIV to observe the effect of the genes on infection.
To screen cells that got infected from those that didn't, the team had engineered HIV to emit a green fluorescent light to signal when infection occurred. Infected cell cultures shone bright green; a dark culture signaled infection failed. One stood out as especially well-protected.
"Cells carrying the gene for TRIM5-alpha didn't get infected, no matter how much HIV you put on them. They remained dark," said Dr. Sodroski. "It is really potent in blocking HIV."
Making the discovery was "like winning the lottery," said Mr. Stremlau, who was drawn to AIDS research after family travels in Africa.
Dr. Sodroski said questions still remain as to how the protein works, and whether variants exist in humans that may protect some people from getting AIDS. Among future possibilities, he said, the protein could lead to gene therapy, to vaccines, to improved animal models, or eventually to drugs that mimic the most active part of the protein.
The work was funded by grants from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, the Bristol- Myers Squibb Foundation, and the Center for AIDS Research of Dana-Farber, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Children's Hospital Boston.
-By Marilyn Chase, The Wall Street Journal, 415-765-5125
02.26.04 (1:18 pm) [edit]
[b]Tue Feb 24, 3:10 PM ET
[i]By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer [/b][/i]
JERUSALEM - Lebanese guerrillas financing Palestinian suicide bombings have paid bonuses of several hundred dollars for each Israeli killed, the chairman of the Israeli parliament's security committee said Tuesday.
Palestinian militants confirmed having received large sums from the Hezbollah group, including single payments of up to $50,000, and said deadly attacks were rewarded, but denied there was a fixed pay scale.
The most recent bombing on Sunday killed eight Israelis and was claimed by the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which has ties to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. Al Aqsa has been one of the main recipients of Hezbollah money.
Palestinian security officials said Tuesday they have evidence that Hezbollah funded Sunday's attack, as well as a bus bombing in Jerusalem on Jan. 29, in which 11 passengers were killed.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups were also involved in the last two bombings.
In the aftermath of Sunday's attack, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) launched an unprecedented verbal attack on his Palestinian counterpart, saying Ahmed Qureia heads a "government of murder and lies," and that Israel could not negotiate a peace deal with him.
Sharon's angry comments, published Tuesday in the Yediot Ahronot daily, came in response to what the Israeli leader felt was a lukewarm condemnation of the bombing by Qureia.
However, Sharon also appeared to be setting the stage for his plan to impose a boundary on the Palestinians and dismantle some Israeli settlements once he concludes that peace efforts have failed for good.
Qureia said Sharon's remarks were unacceptable, but said he assumed the Israeli leader spoke during a "nervous moment."
Israeli military officials, meanwhile, told Palestinian police in the West Bank town of Bethlehem that they should not be seen in public with weapons to avoid being mistaken for militants in the event of Israeli raids.
The assailant in Sunday's bombing came from the village of Hussan near Bethlehem, and Israeli military action in the town was expected.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, declined comment on the funding allegations.
Al Aqsa militants have said they have received money from the group, through Fatah middlemen in Lebanon, since the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in September 2000. In the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, for example, one Al Aqsa group receives about $1,000 a month from Hezbollah just for ammunition and cellular phone cards.
Yuval Steinitz, chairman of parliament's Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, said Tuesday there is a new twist to the funding. "Following the attacks, a bonus is paid" of several hundred dollars for each Israeli victim, he said.
Steinitz spoke after Shin Bet security chief Avi Dichter testified before his committee, and Israeli media said he disclosed the bonus payments.
Hezbollah and Israel have been bitter enemies for two decades. They fought a guerrilla war in south Lebanon before Israel's sudden withdrawal in May 2000, but the hostility continues.
The Al Aqsa militants have loose ties to Fatah, but many reject Fatah leadership. After Sunday's bombing, one Al Aqsa group claimed responsibility, while another Al Aqsa statement disowned the attack.
Also Tuesday, Brig. Gen. Eran Ofir, the army's logistics chief, said another 125 miles of Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank, including a section around Jerusalem, will be completed this year.
About one-fourth of the 450-mile barrier is in place.
Israel says it needs the partition to keep out bombers. The planned route of the barrier cuts deep into the West Bank, and Palestinians charge its real purpose is to deprive them of much of their land and prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.
The International Court of Justice at The Hague Netherlands, held a second day of hearings Tuesday on the barrier's legality.
In the West Bank, soldiers fired tear gas and rubber bullets, injuring seven Palestinians in clashes near two sections of the barrier under construction, Palestinian officials said.
[b]Tue Feb 24, 3:10 PM ET
[i]By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer [/b][/i]
JERUSALEM - Lebanese guerrillas financing Palestinian suicide bombings have paid bonuses of several hundred dollars for each Israeli killed, the chairman of the Israeli parliament's security committee said Tuesday.
Palestinian militants confirmed having received large sums from the Hezbollah group, including single payments of up to $50,000, and said deadly attacks were rewarded, but denied there was a fixed pay scale.
The most recent bombing on Sunday killed eight Israelis and was claimed by the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which has ties to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. Al Aqsa has been one of the main recipients of Hezbollah money.
Palestinian security officials said Tuesday they have evidence that Hezbollah funded Sunday's attack, as well as a bus bombing in Jerusalem on Jan. 29, in which 11 passengers were killed.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups were also involved in the last two bombings.
In the aftermath of Sunday's attack, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) launched an unprecedented verbal attack on his Palestinian counterpart, saying Ahmed Qureia heads a "government of murder and lies," and that Israel could not negotiate a peace deal with him.
Sharon's angry comments, published Tuesday in the Yediot Ahronot daily, came in response to what the Israeli leader felt was a lukewarm condemnation of the bombing by Qureia.
However, Sharon also appeared to be setting the stage for his plan to impose a boundary on the Palestinians and dismantle some Israeli settlements once he concludes that peace efforts have failed for good.
Qureia said Sharon's remarks were unacceptable, but said he assumed the Israeli leader spoke during a "nervous moment."
Israeli military officials, meanwhile, told Palestinian police in the West Bank town of Bethlehem that they should not be seen in public with weapons to avoid being mistaken for militants in the event of Israeli raids.
The assailant in Sunday's bombing came from the village of Hussan near Bethlehem, and Israeli military action in the town was expected.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, declined comment on the funding allegations.
Al Aqsa militants have said they have received money from the group, through Fatah middlemen in Lebanon, since the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in September 2000. In the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, for example, one Al Aqsa group receives about $1,000 a month from Hezbollah just for ammunition and cellular phone cards.
Yuval Steinitz, chairman of parliament's Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, said Tuesday there is a new twist to the funding. "Following the attacks, a bonus is paid" of several hundred dollars for each Israeli victim, he said.
Steinitz spoke after Shin Bet security chief Avi Dichter testified before his committee, and Israeli media said he disclosed the bonus payments.
Hezbollah and Israel have been bitter enemies for two decades. They fought a guerrilla war in south Lebanon before Israel's sudden withdrawal in May 2000, but the hostility continues.
The Al Aqsa militants have loose ties to Fatah, but many reject Fatah leadership. After Sunday's bombing, one Al Aqsa group claimed responsibility, while another Al Aqsa statement disowned the attack.
Also Tuesday, Brig. Gen. Eran Ofir, the army's logistics chief, said another 125 miles of Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank, including a section around Jerusalem, will be completed this year.
About one-fourth of the 450-mile barrier is in place.
Israel says it needs the partition to keep out bombers. The planned route of the barrier cuts deep into the West Bank, and Palestinians charge its real purpose is to deprive them of much of their land and prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.
The International Court of Justice at The Hague Netherlands, held a second day of hearings Tuesday on the barrier's legality.
In the West Bank, soldiers fired tear gas and rubber bullets, injuring seven Palestinians in clashes near two sections of the barrier under construction, Palestinian officials said.
02.26.04 (1:11 pm) [edit]
[b]Wed Feb 25, 7:32 AM ET
[i]By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI, Associated Press Writer [/i][/b]
JERUSALEM - Israel and Jordan are breaking ground next month on a joint science and technology center, the first major educational venture since the two countries signed a peace deal in 1994, officials said Wednesday.
The project is backed by two major U.S. universities, Cornell and Stanford, as well as Israeli and Jordanian business people and former Israeli military officials.
The "Bridging the Rift Center" will be built over the next five years on 150 acres of desert land straddling the Israeli-Jordanian border. A section of the border fence already has been removed ahead of the start of construction.
Groundbreaking is set for March 9. Simultaneously, Jordan's King Abdullah and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will host ceremonies in Amman and Jerusalem.
The center will offer doctoral programs and conduct research, and will be a "hub for technology, research and education for all people in Middle Eastern countries," said a statement by the private Bridging the Rift Foundation overseeing the project. Initially, it will be open to students from Jordan and Israel, and possibly Palestinians.
Assaf Shariv, Sharon's spokesman, said the prime minister's office has been involved in getting the program off the ground. "We see it as a very important thing ... we see this as a very positive step," Shariv said.
Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty a decade ago. Although there has been little violence, relations have been strained as a result of more than three years of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Jordan has taken a particularly strong position against a separation barrier Israel is building in the West Bank. Jordan fears the barrier — which Israel says it needs to prevent suicide bombers from entering its towns and cities — will lead to mass Palestinian emigration and shake up the country's delicate demographic balance.
The center, described as a science and technology village, will allow students to receive doctorates from Stanford and Cornell, said Eitan Ben-Eliyahu, a board member of the foundation and Israel's former air force chief. Some of the research will focus on the campus' environment, the desert, he said.
"The whole idea is to have distance from political issues and to focus on academic issues," Ben-Eliyahu said.
[b]Wed Feb 25, 7:32 AM ET
[i]By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI, Associated Press Writer [/i][/b]
JERUSALEM - Israel and Jordan are breaking ground next month on a joint science and technology center, the first major educational venture since the two countries signed a peace deal in 1994, officials said Wednesday.
The project is backed by two major U.S. universities, Cornell and Stanford, as well as Israeli and Jordanian business people and former Israeli military officials.
The "Bridging the Rift Center" will be built over the next five years on 150 acres of desert land straddling the Israeli-Jordanian border. A section of the border fence already has been removed ahead of the start of construction.
Groundbreaking is set for March 9. Simultaneously, Jordan's King Abdullah and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will host ceremonies in Amman and Jerusalem.
The center will offer doctoral programs and conduct research, and will be a "hub for technology, research and education for all people in Middle Eastern countries," said a statement by the private Bridging the Rift Foundation overseeing the project. Initially, it will be open to students from Jordan and Israel, and possibly Palestinians.
Assaf Shariv, Sharon's spokesman, said the prime minister's office has been involved in getting the program off the ground. "We see it as a very important thing ... we see this as a very positive step," Shariv said.
Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty a decade ago. Although there has been little violence, relations have been strained as a result of more than three years of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Jordan has taken a particularly strong position against a separation barrier Israel is building in the West Bank. Jordan fears the barrier — which Israel says it needs to prevent suicide bombers from entering its towns and cities — will lead to mass Palestinian emigration and shake up the country's delicate demographic balance.
The center, described as a science and technology village, will allow students to receive doctorates from Stanford and Cornell, said Eitan Ben-Eliyahu, a board member of the foundation and Israel's former air force chief. Some of the research will focus on the campus' environment, the desert, he said.
"The whole idea is to have distance from political issues and to focus on academic issues," Ben-Eliyahu said.
'Best Chicken Soup in America' Cook Named
02.26.04 (1:06 pm) [edit]Wednesday February 25, 11:49 am ET
Rosely Himmelstein of New York City wins decisive 'Soup-er Tuesday' victory in Shabbat Across America's Chicken Soup Challenge
NEW YORK, Feb. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Shabbat Across America's Chicken Soup Challenge came to a full boil as life-long New Yorker Rosely Himmelstein's soup was declared "the best chicken soup in America." (Recipe follows at end of news release.)
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bi... )
The national contest was sponsored by the National Jewish Outreach Program (NJOP), and held on Tuesday, Feb. 24th, at Abigael's in New York, one of the city's premiere kosher restaurants. Five finalists, selected from approximately 500 entries, prepared their original recipes, and a panel of nine distinguished judges had the task of tasting the five soups.
Rosely's soup is a traditional, comforting broth made with root vegetables, including parsnip, sweet potato, and rutabaga. The mother of two and the grandmother of two grandsons, she says that her recipe is the result of a long evolution that began with watching her mother make chicken soup and "includes a little family, a little friends, and my own innovations, and is always served with affection and pride."
In addition to bragging rights, Rosely has won the grand prize trip for two to Israel, a gift certificate to Abigael's, and other prizes.
The contest, which was open to amateur cooks age 18 and over of all faiths, was held in conjunction with NJOP's 8th annual Shabbat Across America event, which will be held on Friday evening, March 12, 2004. More than 700 synagogues across the U.S. and Canada from all denominations are expected to participate, opening their doors to tens of thousands of unaffiliated and marginally affiliated Jews to introduce the joys of the Jewish Sabbath.
According to the contest's executive judge, chef Jeffrey Nathan of Abigael's, "Each soup was delicious and had a unique flavor profile. Some of the entrants used a lot of unusual ingredients, but in the end, Rosely's simple soup, made with TLC, was the winner."
The other judges were:
-- U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner, New York.
-- Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Borough President.
-- Arthur Schwartz host of "Arthur Schwartz with Food Talk," heard on WOR
radio.
-- Michael Steinhardt, the legendary hedge fund manager and noted
philanthropist.
-- Helen Nash, the author of kosher cookbooks.
-- David G. Marwell, Ph.D., the director of the Museum of Jewish Heritage
-- Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Chief Rabbi of Efrat, Israel.
-- Sarra Schwartz, NJOP board member.
"The Best Chicken Soup in America"
Winning recipe from Shabbat Across America's Chicken Soup Challenge
(serves about 6)
-- 2 quarts of chicken broth (see below)
-- 1 chicken, quartered; rinsed
-- 1 large carrot, peeled, cut up
-- 1 large onion, peeled, cut up
-- 1 stalk celery
-- 1 leek, white and light green parts only; washed
-- 1 parsnip, peeled, cut up
-- 1 parsley root, with greens attached
-- 1 sweet potato, peeled
-- a handful of dill
-- 1 small rutabaga, peeled, cut up
-- a few sprigs of cilantro (optional)
-- Salt and pepper to taste
- Put chicken broth in pot; bring to boil.
- Add chicken. Return to boil; lower heat.
- Gently simmer uncovered for 1 hour.
- Add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer for one-half hour more; stir
occasionally.
- Skim fat from top.
- Pour into bowls; into each add a slice of carrot and a sprig of
cilantro.
- If storing, let soup cool before refrigerating. When cold, remove the
fat that rises to the surface.
CHICKEN BROTH (makes about 2 quarts)
-- 2 pounds of chicken
-- 1 onion, studded with 4 whole cloves
-- 3 garlic cloves
-- 1 carrot, peeled
-- 1 bay leaf
-- 1 celery stalk
-- 1 leek
- Combine all ingredients with 10 cups of water.
- Bring to boil.
- Simmer over medium heat for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
- Cool, then strain.
CONTACT: Richard Dukas
201-833-1466
richard@richarddukas.com
[line]
Source: National Jewish Outreach Program
The Winner of the 'Your Experience' Contest!
02.26.04 (12:36 pm) [edit]
Way back when, you may remember I sent out a contest challenge to my readers ( http://www.tblog.com/template...%20experience ). Well, the results are in and we have a winner!
Congrats to hbettenhausen for your excellent entry! Please check out her weblog at: http://hbettenhausen.tblog.co...
As promised, she will recieve the first place prize of 400 tbucks, a mention on this blog to go visit her, and her entry shall be published!!! :D
The following is her award winning entry!!! ....
[line]
Actually, I've been sitting here thinking about my interactions with people for quite a while. I suppose the outlook does depend on my gender and my race even though the unified star trek the new generation world that exists in my head tells me we need to act as a global community...and not as our stereotypes.
On a daily basis, I listen to NPR, read papers, read political nonsense, journals, (sensationalized and otherwise). I read all I can...I try to keep up...convinced that what our US news says is the equivalent of reading the tabloids...
I work with my mother (who started a non-profit visual rehabilitation center for people with eye diseases/low vision) and many of her clients are elderly...I was at work one morning and the older lady says to me, "Your mother tells us you're going into the Peace Corps..." I say "yes..." followed by an excited little chat...the lady turns to my mother and says, "you need to talk her out of that...it's dangerous over there (East/Central Asia)"
Fear...is what drives many people...these are my interactions. People ask me why I do not eat meat..."you need meat"...no, i don't...I was an Ag major in college...People think I'm crazy for running marathons...people's fear of unknown sensations...fear of travelling to really SEE what is there...my interactions with people involve explanations of why I am not a practicing catholic anymore...my interactions with people involve trying to evoke emotion and a sense of why they feel the way they do or why the elderly folks that come to us for help feel so much fear...fear of something they have not ever met, and cannot describe, but it has plagued them...they make jokes about "nigger...kike...jap..." and each time I have to calmly tell them that there will be no use of that language or of those jokes in my presence...My grandparents were from Italy...am I a dago? A wap? Do y