Red Tigress' Lair

Surveyed Likud voters ready to reject Sharon pullout plan 04.30.04 (3:49 pm)   [edit]
I found this rather interesting! Any comments people would like to share?
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[i][b]by John Ward Anderson, Molly Moore, Washington Post [/i]
Friday, April 30, 2004[/b]

Maleh Adumim, West Bank -- From his apartment in the West Bank's largest Jewish settlement, Likud activist Gidon Ariel is waging a rearguard action against his party's leader, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon -- a battle that Sharon seems on the verge of losing.

As he pounds his keyboard -- updating a database listing which party members support and oppose Sharon's plan to withdraw Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers from the Gaza Strip -- dozens of other like-minded activists are pounding the pavement and working the phones, arguing, cajoling and pleading with Likud members to vote "no" to Sharon's plan in a party referendum Sunday.

Just two weeks ago, Sharon returned from Washington with a strong endorsement of his disengagement plan and an assortment of U.S. guarantees favorable to Israel, including promises from President Bush that the United States opposes the return of Palestinian refugees to Israel and supports Israel's eventual annexation of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

But the bottom fell out Thursday with the release of three new polls of Likud members showing Sharon's disengagement plan going down to a stunning defeat when his party's 193,000 members vote Sunday in an advisory referendum.

In print and broadcast interviews Thursday, Sharon seemed to be relying on his leadership and charisma to pull him through, saying a vote in favor of the plan is a vote of confidence in him. He stopped short of threatening resignation if the plan is defeated.

"You can't support me and not vote in favor of disengagement," he told Maariv newspaper. "It doesn't work that way. Those who want me have to vote with me."

Defeat of the plan, he told Israel Radio, would damage Israeli-U.S. relations, the economy and the stock market. He said it would lead to the downfall of Likud and would be a major victory for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Hamas, which has been one of the main groups waging a suicide bombing campaign against Israel for more than three years.

It was unclear whether Sharon could marshal the forces necessary to turn around the numbers in such a short time, especially since the opposition -- as illustrated by Gidon Ariel -- is highly motivated, ideologically driven and well organized.

A loss would leave Sharon at odds with his party, which has aggressively advocated the expansion of Jewish settlements in Gaza and the West Bank, not their dismantling. If he loses, some analysts say, he would have to resign, given his enormous personal and political investment in the proposal.

"If he fails, he will try to find the most promising way to have his own way after all," said Abraham Diskin, a political science professor at Jerusalem's Hebrew University. "He might call for early elections."

Sunday's referendum is not legally binding, although initially Sharon's advisers said he would be morally bound by it and would do as instructed by Likud's members. While the prime minister and his supporters scoffed at a traditional media campaign, opponents of the disengagement plan rallied supporters to man phone banks and go door to door to twist Likud arms.

They plastered the streets with posters saying "Disengagement (Equals) Suicide" and "You vote in favor, you get Peres," a reference to the head of the Labor Party, Shimon Peres, who as a father of the much-criticized 1993 Oslo peace accords is anathema to many Likud members. If right-wing parties bolt Sharon's coalition, political analysts consider it likely that Labor would step in to give Sharon a majority and keep his government afloat.

In a development underscoring the difficult state of security in the Palestinian territories, the Israeli military acknowledged Thursday that a Palestinian academic shot dead last week in a West Bank village had not been involved in terrorism, as the army initially claimed, and was a civilian hit during a shootout with Palestinian gunmen.

Yasser Abu-Laymoun, 33, was shot in a field in Taluza, north of Nablus, last Friday. That day, Israeli military officials said they had killed an armed member of the Hamas faction, although they did not identify Abu-Laymoun by name.

The dead man's relatives and colleagues at the Arab American University in Jenin, where he had taught courses in hospital administration for the past two years, described him as a doting father and husband with no ties to militant groups.

In a statement, the Israeli army said it had determined that Abu-Laymoun was accidentally caught in the cross fire between the army and Palestinian gunmen. The Israeli military "regrets Abu-Laymoun's death," a statement said.

Palestinians said the army's admission of guilt was incomplete.

[i]The New York Times contributed to this report.[/i]

Israeli Polls Forecast Defeat for Sharon 04.30.04 (2:49 pm)   [edit]
The time has come for the return of Nitanyahu. Sharon will be gone! :D
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[b]Thu Apr 29, 2:53 PM ET
[i]By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer [/b][/i]

JERUSALEM - With polls forecasting defeat, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Thursday portrayed this weekend's Likud Party referendum on his proposed withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as a vote of confidence in him.

Sharon stopped short of saying he will resign if he loses, but he warned that rejecting a plan supported by a vast majority of Israelis might eventually force Likud out of power. He portrayed his opponents in Likud as extremists who he said use "lies, obscene language and deceitful propaganda" in their campaign.

The prime minister spoke after polls reflected a dramatic flip-flop among the 193,000 eligible Likud voters just three days before Sunday's referendum.

In recent weeks, plan supporters maintained were ahead by several percentage points, but three polls published Thursday indicated a clear advantage for plan opponents.

The referendum marks the first time a vote is being held in Israel on an issue that has divided the nation for decades: whether to give up land captured in the 1967 Mideast War.

Under the plan, Sharon would withdraw troops and 7,500 settlers in the Gaza Strip and evacuate four small settlements in the West Bank.

Palestinians suspect Sharon is giving up Gaza to tighten his hold on much of the West Bank, and the prime minister's critics in Israel believe he proposed the plan partly to deflect attention from two corruption probes against him.

Yet the withdrawal proposal also marks a drastic departure from Sharon's former views. During decades of championing settlement expansion, he often placed new Israeli enclaves where they would most effectively break up contiguity of Palestinian areas.

In recent weeks, though, he has increasingly attacked his former core constituents. The settlers, he told the Maariv daily newspaper Thursday, represent a minority in Israel and must not be allowed to impose their will on the country.

A vote against his plan is a vote against the prime minister, he told Israel Radio.

"You can't be for me but be against my plan," he said, addressing Likud members.

He said a defeat would sour relations with the United States and deal a serious blow to the Israeli economy.

Still, polls published Thursday indicated the plan would be defeated.

A Yediot Ahronot daily newspaper poll said 47 percent of Likud members would vote against it, compared with 39 percent who would vote for it. Two weeks ago, the same polling company, Dahaf, found 54 percent in favor and 32 percent against.

Thursday's poll questioned 583 respondents, and no error margin was given.

A Maariv poll showed 45 percent of Likud members opposing the plan and 42 percent supporting it, with 13 percent undecided. The poll of 470 Likud members had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.

A survey in the Haaretz daily had 43 percent opposing the plan and 36 percent supporting it, with 14 percent undecided and 7 percent refusing to answer. The poll was conducted among 504 Likud members and had an error margin of 4.35 percentage points.

Dan Meridor, a prominent Likud member and former Cabinet minister, said Sharon should not have called the referendum. Meridor noted that former Prime Minister Menachem Begin never asked the Likud for permission to sign the historic Camp David peace accord with Egypt in 1979.

It remains unclear whether Sharon would take the plan to his Cabinet and parliament for approval if he loses the referendum. He initially said he would be bound by the Likud vote, but he has backtracked in recent days.

On Thursday, Sharon raised the possibility of calling new elections if he loses. Another option is to reshuffle his Cabinet by bringing in the moderate Labor Party, a strong plan supporter.

Opponents are telephoning and visiting Likud members at home. Their campaign has focused on the emotional cost of uprooting people from their homes and accused Sharon of caving in to terrorism.

Activists have visited more than half the 193,000 Likud members and will continue such meetings through Sunday, said Eran Sternberg, a spokesman for the Gaza settlers.

"We have a very good feeling about the campaign," he said. "We think we're going to win."

Settlers also plan to send volunteers to 168 polling stations Sunday for last-minute lobbying. Official results are expected Monday.

Opponents got a boost Thursday from 300 rabbis with ultranationalist views, who urged Likud members to vote against the withdrawal. The rabbis said in a letter that a pullback violates religious precepts and endangers lives.

A revered rabbinical sage, Yitzhak Kadouri, also opposed the plan. Kadouri, who is in his 90s, has some influence among observant Likud voters.

In another development, a remote-control bomb went off Thursday in the home of Gaza police chief Ghazi Jabali, destroying the ground floor but causing no injuries. The blast was seen as part of a power struggle between Palestinian security chiefs.

This is Great!

04.30.04 (12:55 am)   [edit]
Found this at [url=http://cmaze.tblog.com]cmaze's[/url] blog:



=http://www.tblog.com/user_ima...

Hilarious, no? :)

The Real Story. Uncut, Unbiased.

04.29.04 (7:08 pm)   [edit]
You decide what you want to believe....

Ok, so here we have it folks.

From [url=http://www.tblog.com/template...]whoisjohngalt's[/url] blog:

http://www.tblog.com/comments.php?bid=144952" title="http://www.tblog.com/comments.php?bid=144952" target="_blank"http://www.tblog.com/comments...

These are comments in my conversation with WhyNot. Notice how I even extended the olive branch to him in the name of decency.

He later misquoted and mis-stated the actions of that chat on his blog. That's the truth, folks. Un-cut, unbiased, and raw.

But what of Spymaster? Well, if you venture to
[url=http://www.tblog.com/template...] WinstonSmith's blog[/url]:

http://www.tblog.com/comments.php?bid=163199" title="http://www.tblog.com/comments.php?bid=163199" target="_blank"http://www.tblog.com/comments...

That's the true story there of what happened. Uncut, unbiased, and raw.

Decide for yourself what your opinion of those happenings were.

Don't listen to misquoted lies from some frenchie.

Twisted Words & Sad Little Men

04.29.04 (4:17 pm)   [edit]
I sit before you at my computer. I have just read an unfounded attack on me. Someone called me the usual racist epitaths (I'm a facist zionist, bent on the mass extermination of all arabs... yada yada yada). I responded to that person, angrily, but I think that my anger was totally understandable and rightful. Then, some peice of crap frenchman decided that he'd take the ball and run, posting a blog filled with out of context misquotes and lies (not to mention some pretty vulgar imagry).

I'm tired.

Tired of being lied about. Tired of being sterotyped. Tired of crap. My only crime is being here and being who I am. These sad little men, who get orgasmic thrills from being horrible people make me sick.

"Bush is evil! Ne-con, neo-orwellian facists are ruining America..."

Here's a tip, you really want to know what's "ruining America"? Sad little men who twist the words of the truthful in the name of their racist little dicks. That's right, I said it.

Either they are mentally handicapped, unfamiliar with the English language, or evil men who know exactly what I said but refuse to portray that accuratly in the name of their own hatred for me, my people, my cause.

As I write this, I'm crying. I guess I probably shouldn't even admit to that because then that fuels their little orgasms more. Oh how elated they must be to know that they made the little Jewish facist cry. Well, I'm glad they're happy. At least someone can be.

All my life, I have been dicriminated against because I'm Jewish. It continues to this very day. People ignore what I say, but rather, revamp it with their own idea of what they think I [i]should[/i] say to forfil their prophacy of racism. I'm misquoted, taken out of context, and lied outright about.

What consequences to these sad little characters face? None. At least, not in this world.

I've written before about some of these same people. Some of them are the same who my 'Shut Me Up' article was devoted to, others are newcomers with the same goal. One is a french pussy who thinks it's witty to put me on his "blogs that suck" list. You know what? I don't suck half as much as he sucks other French cock. OOOOh, yea I said it.

These are sad little men. Very sad, petty, little men.

You won. I'd rather die than take this anymore.

You are all pathetic.

Find me quotes by me that say I hate all arabs and advocate their extermination. Find me quotes anywhere that say I want war always and not peace. Find me quotes that support the denial that I am nothing more than someone who wants to make the world a better place for human kind.

You won't find them.

I'm not giving any of your blogs any visits anymore. You can't benefit from anything that I have to say. You can't benefit from any kind of sanity. You don't want me there, I don't want to be there. The feeling is mutual. I'm keeping to myself, aside from the few SANE blogs that are left here.

Your racist little brat selves won. You're all a bunch of hypocrites. Don't go lecturing everyone about how you want to take this country back for the powers of good, don't lecture everyone about how you fight against antisemitism (that's a real joke and a half!), don't lecture everyone on how you are a proponent of diversity. You're all a bunch of liars.

I hope everyone sees you for what you are. If they don't, they're just as backwards as the lot of you.

You all make me sick. If I could, I'd spit on you.

Feel free to leave your hateful comments below. I'm not reading them anyhow. I really just don't give a shit anymore.

=http://israelimages.com/mediu...
[i]And I think to myself; What a wonderful world...[/i]

Nobel Laureate Warns on Anti-Semitism 04.29.04 (2:22 pm)   [edit]
Words to heed!
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[b]Wed Apr 28, 8:16 AM ET
[i]By GEIR MOULSON, Associated Press Writer[/i][/b]

BERLIN - Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel warned European and North American countries Wednesday that anti-Semitism is on the rise and fervently urged them to keep "the poison from spreading."

The appeal by Wiesel, a survivor of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp, marked the start of a 55-nation conference of foreign ministers called to debate ways to fight anti-Semitism, including more education and stricter law enforcement.

"Stop! Stop a disease that has lasted so long. Stop the poison from spreading," Wiesel said.

Wiesel, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for his writings on the Holocaust and campaigning against evil in the world, pointed to violence against Jews and desecration of cemeteries in many countries.

"The Jew I am belongs to a traumatized generation. We have antennas. Better yet, we are antennas," he said.

"If we tell you that the signals we receive are disturbing, that we are alarmed ... people had better listen."

Foreign ministers from Europe and Secretary of State Colin Powell were expected to address the two-day meeting, which follows a rise in anti-Semitic incidents and attacks last year in France, Britain and elsewhere in Europe.

Held amid extremely tight security, the gathering of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is the third major conference in Europe to address anti-Semitism in the past year.

Wiesel said it was fitting that the conference was taking place in the German capital, where the Nazis developed their plans to destroy the world's Jews. The venue is the German Foreign Ministry, a huge building that once served as Nazi Germany's central bank.

"It is precisely because it takes place in Berlin that a powerful message ... should be composed here," Wiesel said, urging the leaders to send a manifesto against anti-Semitism in all languages to everyone in the world.

He said he found "particularly contemptuous" comparisons of Israel's policy toward the Palestinians to Nazi Germany's atrocities against the Jews.

Simone Veil, a Holocaust survivor who became a French Cabinet minister and president of the European Parliament, said anti-Semitism has grown in France but the government has taken commendable steps to protect Europe's largest Jewish community.

Still, Veil said, "It's less and less a good thing to be Jewish in France or have a Jewish name or even display a Hebrew letter."

An Israeli anti-Semitism watchdog group said last week that worldwide incidents of attacks on Jews and vandalism against Jewish sites increased 15 percent in 2003 from the previous year.

The Stephen Roth Institute of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism said France, Britain, Russia, Germany and Canada had the highest rates of anti-Semitic incidents.

The conference's timing has focused attention on eight former Soviet bloc countries joining the European Union on Sunday. Some say the eastern European nations have lagged in tackling anti-Semitism.

"The anti-Semitic potential in the EU is going to get bigger," Salomon Korn, the vice president of Germany's Central Council of Jews, said in the Berliner Zeitung daily newspaper.

Jewish organizations urged the OSCE governments to devote more resources to fighting anti-Semitism, strengthen law enforcement, promote education about the Holocaust and appoint a high-profile official to ensure countries are meeting their commitments.

Youths from large Arab communities in France, Belgium and other European countries have been blamed for attacks on Jewish property and individuals that have increased as violence surged in the Middle East.

German President Johannes Rau said it was important to distinguish between anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel, although he acknowledged that "massive anti-Semitism" is behind much of the opposition to Israeli policy.

"I know many friends of Israel who criticize Israeli policies toward the Palestinians because they are greatly concerned about the state of Israel and Israeli society," Rau said. "Friends have the right to be told openly what others think about what they are doing."

But he said critics of Israeli policy had to temper their views — and sometimes keep it private — with the understanding Israelis have lived since the founding of their state under a threat to their existence.

College Paper Regrets Holocaust Cartoon 04.29.04 (1:58 pm)   [edit]
"[i]I am hopeful that this apology is a sign of progress toward more responsible editorial judgment and exercise of their First Amendment rights,[/i]" ... I couldn't have said it better myself. Media has an obligation to be responsible with what their paper says.
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[b]Wed Apr 28, 8:20 PM ET[/b]

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - Student editors of a campus newspaper at Rutgers University apologized Wednesday for publishing a cartoon that mocked the Holocaust.

Editors of the Medium acknowledged they had hurt the feelings of readers by printing an illustration on the cover of the April 21 edition showing a man throwing a ball at another man sitting on an oven at the campus' spring fair. The text read: "Knock a Jew in the oven! Three throws for one dollar! Really! No, REALLY!"

"It is the responsibility of our staff to ... act with dignity by responding with a due apology," the newspaper said in a statement.

The cartoon sparked strong objections from many students and school officials, including university President Richard L. McCormick. Several national Jewish organizations also condemned the alternative weekly newspaper.

Editors said the drawing was not intended to be anti-Semitic but was "meant to amuse through extraordinary absurdity."

McCormick said he was pleased with the newspaper's apology. "I am hopeful that this apology is a sign of progress toward more responsible editorial judgment and exercise of their First Amendment rights," he said in a statement.

The Medium receives nearly $10,000 a year through the university's student government.

Israeli Troops Foil Suicide Car Bombing in Gaza 04.28.04 (3:54 pm)   [edit]
Wed Apr 28, 2:09 AM ET


GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers thwarted an attempted car bombing against the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, military sources said.

Soldiers in a military vehicle gave chase after a Palestinian jeep disguised as an Israeli car and decorated with an Israeli flag approached the settlement, the sources said.

Suspecting an attack, the soldiers opened fire at the vehicle and it exploded, they said. The blast wounded four soldiers, one seriously, a military source said.

The militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. It identified the bomber as Tareq Hmaid, 24, from central Gaza's Nusseirat refugee camp and said he was killed in the blast.

"A military vehicle chased the jeep bomb. They fired at it and hit it and the jeep bomb blew up," Israel Radio said.

The attack took place a day after tens of thousands of Israelis attended Independence Day celebrations at Gaza's Gush Katif settlement bloc to protest against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plans to evacuate Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.

Sharon's Likud party will hold a referendum on Sunday on his Gaza withdrawal plan, which is part of a broader scheme of unilateral separation from the Palestinians.

An Image I like

04.28.04 (3:30 pm)   [edit]
Came accross this today:



=http://img19.photobucket.com/...

I really like this! It makes me feel real patriotic. It's my new desktop wallpaper now.

If you can't read the caption there (you probably can't), it reads,

[b]"THESE COLORS DON'T RUN"[/b]

Nice, eh?

Russell Crowe Offers Aid to Montreal Jewish School 04.28.04 (2:45 pm)   [edit]
I love Russell Crowe even more now!
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[b]Tue Apr 27, 2004 02:50 PM ET[/b]

TORONTO (Reuters) - Tough guy actor Russell Crowe was so upset by a fire-bombing at a Jewish elementary school in Montreal, he called the school to offer a donation to help rebuild its library, a school spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

Crowe is in Toronto to film "Cinderella Man," a film directed by Ron Howard about the life of boxer James J. Braddock, who defeated world champion Max Baer in an upset match in 1935.

"It was a huge morale boost for the school community," said Shelley Paris from Montreal.

United Talmud Torahs elementary school was fire-bombed earlier this month and police said a note with anti-Semitic comments was found on the outside wall of the gutted library.

"He said he was very upset about what had happened that a place of learning should be attacked that way," Paris said.

"He wanted to make sure that our students knew that he was thinking about them and that he was very upset about the fire-bombing," Paris said.

The Academy Award-winning actor, who captured an Oscar for "Gladiator" four years ago, offered to make a donation to help rebuild the library, Paris said. The figure was not available.

Paris said the school hopes to reopen the library by August, the start of the new school year, and has received donations and support from across the country.

The arson attack sparked outrage in Canada and prompted a fierce condemnation from Prime Minister Paul Martin. The incident was one of a series of attacks on Jewish targets in Canada and raised concerns about a rise in anti-Semitism.

In March, vandals knocked over dozens of tombstones in a Jewish cemetery in Toronto while someone sprayed swastikas on a synagogue in a separate incident.

($1=$1.35 Canadian)

Lapid to PM: Government not bound by outcome of Likud poll 04.28.04 (2:36 pm)   [edit]
[i][b]By Mazal Mualem and Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondents, and Haaretz Service [/b][/i]

Justice Minister Yosef Lapid warned Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday that the government would not be committed to the results of Sunday's referendum of Likud members on his disengagement plan.

"I must inform you that the Likud's stance is not binding for Shinui representatives [of the government], and not, of course, for the Israeli government itself," Lapid wrote in a letter to the prime minister.

"The vote by Likud members has no legal authority, and is just an expression of opinion. I stand by the fact that the plan will go to the government for debate and it, and only it, has the authority to make a decision regarding [the plan]," the missive said.

Also Wednesday, the High Court of Justice rejected four petitions against the disengagement plan and the Likud ballot. The panel of three justices accused the petitioners of having political motives.

Two of the petitions called for the prime minister to declare that he is not bound by the results of the vote and that he will bring the proposal to the cabinet and the Knesset for approval, no matter the outcome at the ballot.

The State Prosecution called on the court to throw out the petitions since the referendum is an internal party matter and that the court should not be dragged into a political party dispute.

Another petition called for Sharon to postpone the referendum until the attorney general decides whether to indict the prime minister for alleged corruption.

Justices Eliezer Rivlin, Ayala Procaccia and Asher Grunis said that the petitions do seem to be rather weak. Justice Rivlin said that the petition calling for Sharon to postpone the referendum until the attorney general has reached a decision is particularly weak since the court has already ruled in the past that the prime minister has the authority to sign on far-reaching diplomatic initiatives, even while serving in a transition government.

Homesh settlers disrupt pro-pullout meet
A gathering convened by supporters of Sharon's disengagement plan was disrupted Wednesday after residents of the West Bank settlement of Homesh burst into the Kiryat Motzkin hall in which the meeting was being held and caused a ruckus.

Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, as well as a number of other Knesset members were taking part in the meeting when the settlers brought it to a halt.

Some 193,000 registered Likud members are eligible to vote in Sunday's referendum, it was revealed on Wednesday. There will be 443 voting stations in 168 locales, with 167 lawyers observing the vote. Five companies will provide 1,300 guards to provide security on the day. Police will also beef up their presence around the voting stations.

The voting stations will open at 8 A.M. on Sunday and close at 10 P.M., and a high turn out is expected.

With four days to go to Sunday's Likud referendum on Sharon's disengagement plan, his associates increasingly fear the plan will not pass.

Likud MK Haim Katz informed the prime minister on Wednesday that he would be heading the campaign teams against the disengagement initiative, despite Sharon's request not to do so.

The Tel Aviv District Court was also due on Wednesday to rule on a petition to post two observers at each voting station - one who supports the plan and one who opposes it, and not merely employment agency workers.

Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the prime minister's point man on the plan for a Gaza withdrawal, said Wednesday that he was "very happy" that tens of thousands of Israelis attended the Tuesday mass protest in the Gush Katif settlement bloc against the proposed pullout, saying it showed the world how painful the step was for Israel.

There have been fears that momentum generated by some 60,000 demonstrators who took part in the Independence Day protest would sap vital support for Sharon's plan in the Sunday vote.

Asked for his reaction to the demonstrations, Olmert told Israel Radio on Wednesday "I am very happy about that," adding that "I would have felt awful had I seen us taking apart settlements and it passing without any reaction, protest, or opposition.

"I am certainly happy that there is opposition, because the entire world must understand that every such step involves terrible pain for us, terrible misgivings, and great suffering."

Olmert also voiced doubt that all the tens of thousands of participants in the demonstrations were opposed to the plan.

Olmert had been scheduled to visit the settlers in the Strip on Wednesday, but he said the tour had been canceled at the settlers' request. "Three days ago, they said that they feared that their meeting me would aid my public relations effort and not theirs, so they were deterred."

Sharon's supporters will spend the next few days striving to persuade Likud members to show up at the polls Sunday, on the assumption that the higher the turnout the more likely the disengagement plan will pass.

The prime minister himself plans many telephone conversations with numerous Central Committee members, on the assumption that a personal call from Sharon, in which he asserts that the defeat of his plan would spell the end of the Likud government, will galvanize them. Sharon will also take this approach in public appearances and interviews.

Sharon's associates also plan to draft Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat into their campaign, by claiming that Arafat is the person who will be happiest if the plan is defeated. They dismissed Tuesday's massive rally in Gush Katif, saying that most of the 60,000 people who attended are not Likud members in any case.

Israelis marching through the Gush Katif bloc of settlements in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. (Reuters)

Iraqi Governing Council changes colors of new flag after protests it resembled Israel's 04.28.04 (2:32 pm)   [edit]
So now that it's a darker shade of blue, it makes them feel better because their hatred of the Jewish infidels runs that thick. PATHETIC and SAD!
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[i][b]The Associated Press[/i]
4/28/04 2:35 PM[/b]


BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqi leaders presented a new national flag Wednesday after protests that a version unveiled earlier this week resembled the flag of Israel.

The new design was more or less the same as the one announced earlier this week: two blue stripes along the bottom with a yellow stripe between them, and a crescent above them in a white field.

But the stripes and crescent were a considerably darker shade of blue than the original version published in an Iraqi newspaper, which showed the stripes as being light blue.

Many said the light blue stripes were reminiscent of the light blue bands on the Israeli flag. Hundreds of university students in Mosul demonstrated against that version Wednesday.

They waved the old Saddam-era flag -- a red, black and green banner emblazoned with the words "God is great" -- and said it should not have been changed because it carries the name of God.

Council spokesman Hameed al-Kafaei said the flag's colors were not changed, but rather "the copies you saw in newspapers were not accurate."

In the new flag, the parallel blue lines represent the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers -- and by extension Iraq's Sunni and Shiite Arabs, since the river basin is their heartland. The yellow line represents the Kurds, while the crescent is a symbol of Islam.

But Governing Council president Massoud Barzani said the design was temporary.

"This will be Iraq's flag for the coming months until a permanent flag is chosen," he said.

He said of the former flag: "We cannot raise the flag of a party that committed many crimes against Iraqi people."

Powell: Not anti-Jewish to censure Israel, but Nazi imagery is 04.28.04 (2:29 pm)   [edit]
[i][b]By Haaretz Service and Agencies
[/b][/i]

BERLIN - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told an international conference on anti-Semitism Wednesday that while censure of Israel was legitimate, "the line is crossed" when critics employ Nazi symbolism to do so.

The summit, called by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and attended by 600 top officials from 55 nations, remained split Wednesday on whether criticism of Israel should be seen as a form of anti-Jewish bias, amid warnings Jews faced growing threats.

"It is not anti-Semitism to criticize the State of Israel," Powell said, "but the line is crossed when the leaders of Israel are demonized or vilified by the use of Nazi symbols."

The conference at the German Foreign Ministry in Nazi Germany's former central bank comes after rising attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions in some European countries over past years.

Israel swiftly moved to center stage of the meeting, with German officials saying a debate was raging behind the scenes pitting some Arab countries and Turkey against most of the Western nations.

President Moshe Katsav lashed out Wednesday at anti-Semitism in all its forms, calling anti-Jewish sentiment an urgent issue of global proportions.

"Any revival of anti-Semitism is a matter that affects the entire world," Katsav said told the Berlin summit.

"Anti-Semitism is clearly on the rise... but not only in Europe," said Holocaust survivor and Nobel prizewinner Elie Wiesel in a speech to the meeting.

"France is up against a wave of anti-Semitism," said Simone Veil, Auschwitz survivor and former president of the European Parliament.

Katsav's remarks were made after he emerged from talks with German President Johannes Rau, who earlier warned that anti-Semitism is often cloaked in criticism of Israel.

Katzav praised Rau for his remarks, calling the German president "the best friend that Israel has in the world."

Rau opened the meeting by underlining that the Middle East conflict and Israeli policies were playing a growing role in anti-Semitism debate in Europe.

"Everybody knows that massive anti-Semitism has been behind some of the criticism of Israeli government policies in the past decades," said Rau.

But Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said playing the race card was wrong whether used to attack or in defense.

"The exploitation of race for political purposes by any government or any politician, be it as an offensive weapon or as a shield to fend off criticism, is quite simply unacceptable."

A U.S. participant said an important step was made late Tuesday when Russia provisionally accepted the interpretation of anti-Israel criticism as a form of anti-Semitism.

This issue will be a key element of the final declaration the OSCE conference has to adopt unanimously Thursday when the two-day meeting ends.

Criticizing Jews and Jewish institutions was allowed, said Rau, adding, "but we certainly also know that criticism of Jews and Jewish institutions frequently comes from people with deeply held anti-Semitic sentiments."

Wiesel noted that while a just solution was needed for the Arab-Israeli conflict, he could never associate himself with those who sent out suicide bombers.

And he bitterly attacked some Muslim nations for, as he put it, making "Jew hating... part of official policy."

Wiesel admitted he was better at posing questions than finding ways to fight anti-Semitism. "If Auschwitz didn't kill anti-Semitism, what can?" he said.

Nevertheless, Wiesel said that holding the conference in Berlin - just a few blocks from where Adolf Hitler plotted the Final Solution - would send out a powerful message to "stop the poison."

Other officials attending, including German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, talked about practical matters including beefing up European police cooperation, collecting and publishing national data on anti-Semitic attacks and passing more laws aimed at anti-Semitism in Europe.

OSCE Chairman Solomon Passy stressed that education was the key to rooting out anti-Semitism.

But Veil, the current president of the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah, warned that French schools were faltering in this task as young immigrants from Muslim countries took up what she called "victim competition."

Some French teachers were now declining the teach about the Holocaust for fear of causing controversy with such students, she said.

Summing up the overall situation of Jews in Europe, President Rau underlined that there was clearly a big difference between today's problems and those of the 1930s and 40s.

"Back then the barbarism came from the state - the German state," said Rau, adding that today all European states and the international community staunchly oppose anti-Semitism.

Colin Powell and Joschka Fischer addressing reporters during the anti-Semitism conference in Berlin on Wednesday. (AP)

Sister Soldiers Won't Return to Iraq 04.27.04 (6:30 pm)   [edit]
[i][b]By JR ROSS, AP[/b][/i]

MADISON, Wis. (April 27) - Two young Army women who were given the choice of returning to combat in Iraq after their sister was killed in a Baghdad ambush decided Tuesday not to go back.
A Family's Struggle

Rachel and Charity Witmer chose instead to ask for noncombat jobs outside Iraq.

"It's by far the most difficult decision we have ever made,'' the women said in a statement.

They said they were concerned that if they went back, the increased attention on their units might put their fellow soldiers at risk.

Their new assignments have not been determined yet.

The two arrived home April 12 to attend the funeral of Michelle, their 20-year-old sister and Charity's twin, who was killed April 9 in an attack.

The decision ends weeks of speculation over whether the sisters would head back to Iraq. The family's ordeal drew nationwide attention after the women's father issued an emotional plea to the military to spare his daughters from having to return to combat.

"I can't live another year like I've lived this one,'' John Witmer said at the time. "It's a burden I can't bear.''

Under Pentagon policy, when a soldier is killed while serving in a hostile area, other family members in the military may request a non-combat assignment.

Rachel Witmer, 24, serves with the 32nd Military Police Company, as did Michelle. The Wisconsin Army National Guard unit already has served a year in the Middle East and recently had its service extended four months.

Charity Witmer is a sergeant and medic with the 118th Medical Battalion, which arrived in Baghdad in February.

The women said Wisconsin's adjutant general, Maj. Gen. Al Wilkening, had advised them to seek reassignment outside Iraq.

"Although he said he could not order us to request reassignment, he was very clear to point out that a decision to return to Iraq might expose our fellow soldiers to increased danger. This we will not do,'' the statement said.

Gov. Jim Doyle also weighed in on the matter, encouraging the women to stay with their family. "No one can say that this family has not done enough to serve our country,'' Doyle said in a statement.

The sisters' unit commanders in Iraq had also recommended that the two be given non-combat assignments, Wilkening said.

04/27/04 17:36 EDT

[i]Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.[/i]

HAha!

04.27.04 (1:06 pm)   [edit]
These quizzes are great!


Take the quiz: "What instrument are you?"

Guitar
You are a Guitar. You have a bit of ego and you like to show off. Look at me I'm doing a solo for way too long. Shut the fuck up thats only exceptable in instrumental music.

Take the quiz: "Which Late Night Host Are You?"

Conan O'Brien
You are closest to Conan O'Brien. You're funny, witty, likable, modest, and the best! You don't get enough credit for all of the things you do and have done.

Take the quiz: "What Disney Princess Are You?"

Ariel
You can swim, flip, dive and be one with fish...WHY DO YOU WANT MORE?

Take the quiz: "Which prop from 'American Pie' are you?"

The Bottle of Prescription Laxative
You are the industrial strength Laxative Stifler put in Finch's Mochachino. You are the tool of everyone's vengence. People seek you out for the ditry work.

Take the quiz: "Should You be Allowed to Breed?"

Congratulations! It's a boy!
You'd make such a good parent I've taken the liberty of impregnating you myself. Just send your medical bills to me. If i's a boy, we'll name him Phoenix. If it's a girl, we'll name her Sophia. See you in nine months!

Blasts heard outside Canadian Embassy in Syria 04.27.04 (11:48 am)   [edit]
[b]Last Updated Tue, 27 Apr 2004 14:20:47[/b]

DAMASCUS - Explosions and shootings rocked the diplomatic residences in Damascus on Tuesday, including the Canadian Embassy.

Syrian state TV reported that security forces clashed with a "terrorist band" in the Syrian capital.

In London, a British Foreign Office official said explosions and shootings were heard near the Iranian ambassador's residence and in the vicinity of the British ambassador's residence.

"At the moment, there are no injuries to U.K. Embassy staff. Our staff are in the process of assessing the situation," the Foreign Office official said on condition of anonymity.

The BBC reported three to five explosions were heard near the Canadian and Iranian embassies in Syria.

[i]Written by CBC News Online staff[/i]

PA threats to annul recognition of Israel 04.27.04 (11:39 am)   [edit]
Considering the fact that the maps in the textbook-atlases in their children's schools don't include Israel (but rather, show the region with a great big 'Palestine' draped accross it instead), I dunno about you, but this threat has REALLY got me shakin' in my boots.
[line]
Gaza, , Apr. 27 (UPI) -- An aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat warned Tuesday harming Arafat means annulling Palestinian recognition of Israel.

Ahmad Abdel-Rahman told reporters Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's recent threats against Arafat cross the line. Sharon last week said he was no longer bound by a promise no to kill Arafat but said there were no immediate plans to act. Members of his government later played down the threat.

Abdel-Rahman urged Palestinians to halt "all practices that could provide Sharon with the necessary pretext to target Arafat."

He also called on Palestinians and other Arabs to develop a unified position.

The Bottom Line / Made in Israel

04.27.04 (11:21 am)   [edit]
[i][b]By Oded Hermoni, Haaretz[/i][/b]

Israeli women who rave about the products of the American lingerie chain Victoria's Secret would likely be surprised to discover that there is a small tag on the bras noting that they were manufactured in the Tefron factory in Israel.

Israelis who drive Opel, Peugeot or Porsche models are probably unaware that the oil pan at the bottom of the automobile's engine is produced here in Israel by Tadir-Gan (Precision Products). It's doubtful whether users of Intel's new mobile computers, equipped with the Centrino chipset, know that this chipset was developed in Haifa. Similarly, farmers using Natafim's drip irrigation system are not always aware that it originates in Israel.

It's true that Israel has yet to produce a company the size of Finland's Nokia, but quietly, with almost no public relations locally, dozens of Israeli firms in various fields - agriculture, automotive, pharmaceuticals, textiles, and technology, of course - have succeeded in making an impact on the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world. Most of these people, like us, have no idea that these products come from this conflict-ridden part of the world they hear about in the news.

The Israeli technology industry is the exception: There is worldwide recognition of the R&D capability of Israeli brainpower in this area. "The world's Silicon Valley" and "a global source of technological innovation" are just some of the superlatives the world has attributed to the Israeli high-tech industry. Trailblazers have included Scitex, Checkpoint, Comverse, Zoran, Indigo, and M-Systems, as well as some 50 R&D centers of foreign companies like Intel, Motorola and Texas Instruments. Common to all of them is technological innovation that allowed them to create new markets or change existing markets. Today, in practically every area of technology, there is something Israeli - a chip, application, or particle.

Hundreds of Israeli companies have developed in this atmosphere of technological innovation and hundreds of startups are following in their path. The long line of Israeli companies registering patents in the United States, and the huges sums invested in Israeli startups (surpassing Europe in recent years), are additional evidence of Israeli inventiveness.

In addition to its achievements in "traditional" technological fields like medical equipment, software protection, digital printing, chips and telecommunications, the last two years have seen new and promising developments in the areas of digital video, nanotechnology, Internet and cellular applications.

These technological developments are bringing investors and foreign companies to Israel in search of "the next thing" - even during days of terror attacks. Of course, not all of these new technologies will succeed and only a small percent will prove to be revolutionary. Even when Israeli technological innovations do not result in business success, they often generate additional ideas, some of which will succeed and end up affecting the lives of us all.

Thousands participate in Independence Day events 04.27.04 (11:17 am)   [edit]
[i][b]By Haaretz Service[/b][/i]

Over one million people frequented Israel's national parks on Tuesday, celebrating Independence Day, Israel's media reported.
According to Israel Radio, police in the Tel Aviv area requested that celebrants avoid Ramat Gan National Park, Hayarkon, Charles Clor and Safari parks, noting they were jammed and no additional parking was available for visitors.

Ashkelon police announced the national park in the city was completely full.

Park Golda in the Negev was reported full, and heavy traffic was reported on the roads leading to the Gush Katif settlement bloc in the Gaza Strip, where 60,000 people attended a mass rally on Tuesday afternoon.

There were also reports of very heavy traffic in the north, around Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee.

On Monday night, the eve of Independence Day, hundreds of thousands of people took part in celebrations throughout the country, Army Radio reported early Tuesday.

As the sobriety of Memorial Day for Israel's fallen soldiers faded into the revelry of Independence Day on Monday night, municipalities across the country began their planned festivities, secured by the police and private security firms.

Thousands of police officers and soldiers were patrolling Independence Day Eve events and city centers, following threats of terror attacks planned for the holiday. On Tuesday, security forces will be patrolling outdoor recreation areas such as parks and the seashore. Monday night and Tuesday mark the 56th year of Israel's independence.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Sunday that Hamas and Tanzim were concentrating their efforts to carry out a terror attack on Independence Day, telling the cabinet that 13 would-be terrorists planning to carry out attacks over the holiday were killed over the last few days.

A state torch-lighting ceremony was held at Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem to kick off Independence Day. Tel Aviv hosted a number of Independence Day events Monday night.

Tel Aviv's main stage was at Rabin Square, which was to host performances by Boaz Sharabi, Gidi Gov, Habalyanim, Hani Nahmias and Tse'irei Tel Aviv.

Jaffa's Davidoff Park was to feature singers Yoav Yitzhak and Avner Gadassi, who were also planned to play at Tel Aviv's Park Darom. Davidoff Park will host activities for the entire family on Tuesday.

Herzliya's main event was to take place at the city's center Monday night, featuring Eidan Reichel and Monica Sex. The city was also planned to host a Hasidic performance as well as a stage for children's shows.

Ra'anana's celebrations were to take place in the city's main park, with performances by Monica Sex, Shotei Ha'nevua and Shigatz.

Mosh Ben-Ari, Olearchik and Miki Gavrielov were to perform in Ramat Hasharon, while Sophie Tsedaka, Ron Shuval and a sing-along with Gaby Berlin, Aviv Avidan and others were to entertain Holon residents.

However, several cities, including Bat Yam and Kiryat Shmona, have decided to cut back on Independence Day celebrations due to budgetary constraints.

Mayor Shlomi Lahiani has decided that because of its huge deficits, the city cannot spend large sums of money to bring in big-name performers, so local singer Ravid Goeta will head the bill at Bat Yam's amphitheater.

A number of local authorities in the north - including Hatzor Haglilit, Tirat Hacarmel and Kiryat Shmona - have also decided to cut back due to budgetary problems.

Tirat Hacarmel Mayor Arieh Farjoun said he was forced to cancel contracts with artists who had been invited, and to advertise that the festivities had been canceled. Farjoun said that some of the money set aside for the festivities would be used for educational projects.

Israel identifies Hamas leader Zahar as next target 04.27.04 (11:14 am)   [edit]
TEL AVIV: A top Israeli security official said that Hamas senior leader Mahmoud a-Zahar would be a potential assassination target.

After assassination of Shaikh Ahmed Yassin and Rantisi, Hamas leadership has decided not to disclose the identity of the new Hamas leader in Gaza. However Israeli newspapers identify Mahmoud Zahar the new leader of Hamas.

Israeli military chief in a recent interview to an Israeli daily had said that Zahar becomes new leader of Hamas after assassination of Rantisi no action will be taken against him if Hamas remains silent.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Hospitalized 04.27.04 (10:46 am)   [edit]
JERUSALEM - Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir Yitzhak Shamir was hospitalized Monday after fainting, but was in good condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Shamir, 88, a hard-line prime minister from 1983-84 and then again from 1986-92, represented Israel at the historic 1991 Madrid peace conference, the first time Israel openly sat with Palestinian Liberation Organization members.

Shamir was taken to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv after fainting, a spokeswoman said.

What A Great Audience!

04.26.04 (8:26 pm)   [edit]
My weekly article at [url=http://www.behindenemyheadlin...] BehindEnemyHeadlines.com[/url] had a wonderful response last week! I even got mentioned at sites I have never even heard of! Like this one, for example -- [url=http://www.imao.us/cgi-bin/mt...]IMAO.us[/url]

I really like that site, too.

A couple other sites linked to it as well. And the responses in the comments were overall highly positive and congradulatory!

So, I just wanted to say thanks to all my new fans!

I wouldn't be so popular without such a great audience!

Next week's article at B.E.H. will be back to your regularly scheduled programming. :) In the meantime, check out [url=http://rasta.tblog.com]Rasta's blog![/url]

Israel celebrates 56th Independence Day 04.26.04 (4:39 pm)   [edit]
Woo! Happy Independence Day!!! Happy Birthday, Israel!
[line]
[i][b]By NINA GILBERT, The Jerusalem Post[/b][/i]

Israel began celebrating its 56th birthday Monday evening, at the end of the solemn commemoration of the annual Memorial Day for Israel's fallen soldiers.

At sundown, the somber atmosphere abruptly gave way to fireworks displays, open-air concerts and spirited street festivities. Israelis explain the juxtaposition by saying that the battles in which the soldiers died helped create and maintain the Jewish state.

Interviewed on Channel One's Independence Day broadcast Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he was confident that by this time next year, "we will be in the midst of disengagement from Gaza. This is good for Israel, good for Israel's security, good for the economy and good for peace, which I believe will come one day."

Despite Leftist criticism, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin dedicated the lighting of an Independence Day torch Monday night on Mount Herzel in part to the residents of Kfar Darom, who have been slated for evacuation from the Gaza settlement under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan.

The text of Rivlin's dedication reads: "In honor of the Knesset, Israel's legislature, the pioneers, all of the settlers of the land of our forefathers and their redeemers – from Hanita to Kfar Darom, from Negba to Kiryat Arba, Hebron – and in honor of Jerusalem, the eternal capital of Israel."

Rivlin's words drew a round of applause from the large audience, Israel Radio reported.

Earlier, addressing a crowd at a Remembrance Day ceremony in Gush Etzion settlement bloc, south of Jerusalem, Rivlin said: "We will continue to hold on to the lands of this wonderful country, even in times when the hands of those who carried on their shoulders the vision of the Land of Israel have become weak."

Rivlin came under fire from Knesset factions to the Left of the Likud for his plan to mention the residents of settlements. MKs criticized Rivlin for exploiting the opening ceremony for Independence Day to campaign against the disengagement plan.

Meretz MK Zehava Gal-On called the planned speech a "disgrace" and an "exploitation and politicization" of the Knesset speaker's position.

Gal-On also said Rivlin was trying to ignite public debate about settlers at a state ceremony.

Shinui faction leader Reshef Cheyne said that Rivlin has become swept up in the political storm over the plan, and has apparently forgotten about the fine line between his political and state persona. "He has brought politics into one of the most (important) national ceremonies, and by doing so has harmed the Knesset and his own stature," Cheyne said.

Rivlin reacted to the criticism by saying that all of the settlements he mentioned existed before the establishment of the state, Knesset spokesman Giora Pordes said.

Security was tight and Palestinians were banned from entering Israel during the holiday, which began at sundown.

[i]With Associated Press[/i]

Is the Jewish claim that the world is 5,764 years old controdictory to science?

04.26.04 (4:31 pm)   [edit]
Torah and science can never contradict each other, because two truths cannot be contradictory. When we find an apparent contradiction between the two, it is generally due to a misunderstanding regarding what one is saying.

Science cannot really prove the age of the universe. All that scientists can do is speculate about the age of the universe by extrapolating from observed phenomena. No scientist alive today can say that he or she has first-hand information regarding the beginning of the universe.

The Torah tells us how old the universe is.

Science tells us how old the universe seems to be.

To give a simple example: how old was Adam when he was first created? Was he a baby? Young man? Old man?

Our sages tell us that he had the body and maturity of a 20-year-old man. Now, let us imagine Adam going for a medical exam a day after he was created. The receptionist asks for his age and he answers: “one day”. “You must be kidding me,” she would reply. “You seem to be at least 20 years old!”

They are both right. Adam is saying how old he really is, while the receptionist is estimating his age based on “scientific proof.”

The scientist that does not believe in God has no reason to assume that the age of the world is different than what it appears to be. The one who believes in God, however, can perfectly accept the fact that the world was created in a mature state and therefore does not contradict the fact that it is really younger than it seems to be.

Israel Identifies New Secret Hamas Leader 04.26.04 (2:25 pm)   [edit]
Did they really think they could keep this kind of thing from Israeli intelligence, the best intelligence on the planet?! If so, then they're more delusional than I thought! This guy isn't going to last long either! So, in case anyone doesn't hear, the new Hamas leader is 53 year old Mahmoud Zahar!
[line]
[i][b]By MARK LAVIE
Associated Press Writer[/i]
Originally published April 26, 2004, 4:19 PM EDT[/b]

JERUSALEM -- Israel identified the new, secret Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip as Mahmoud Zahar, a 53-year-old Egyptian-trained physician, and signaled Monday he won't be targeted if the militant group halts attacks on Israelis.

Hamas, however, refused to reveal the name of its leader for fear he will be assassinated like his two predecessors.

Also Monday, Israeli troops killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy and seriously wounded a 15-year-old girl near Israeli settlements in Gaza. The girl, described as mentally retarded, had wandered into a restricted area.

The Palestinian attorney general said he would speed up prosecution of dozens of suspected collaborators with Israel and search for those who helped Israel kill Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi on April 17. Fifty-three alleged informers are in Palestinian custody awaiting trial.

Rantisi, the successor of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, himself assassinated by Israel, had taken extreme precautions, but Israel spotted him when he made a rare visit home and killed him in with a missile attack.

Hamas declared after Rantisi's death that it would not disclose the name of his replacement. However, speculation centered on Zahar -- Rantisi's deputy, Yassin's personal physician and for years one of the most visible and uncompromising Hamas spokesmen.

Three Israeli newspapers on Monday identified Zahar as the group's new leader. Several days ago, Zahar told reporters Hamas would not disclose the name of the new leader but did not deny he had the title.

Israel's military chief, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, told the Yediot Ahronot daily the new Hamas leader had inherited the post "automatically" and reluctantly accepted the position. Yaalon also signaled Israel would avoid attacking him as long as the group remains quiet.

"He doesn't want it, and he is apparently avoiding making decisions, and he is apparently avoiding terrorism," Yaalon said. "Anyone who doesn't use terrorism against us, we do not deal with."

Yaalon did not identify the Hamas leader, but military officials said he was referring to Zahar. The officials said it is impossible to identify the leader with certainty because of Hamas' fluid leadership structure.

Zahar has escaped two Israeli attempts on his life, most recently in September when his eldest son and a bodyguard were killed. Zahar rejects any settlement with Israel and compromise with the Palestinian Authority.

In Washington, the CIA declined to comment on whether Zahar is the new Hamas leader.

In the Gaza violence, a 14-year-old boy was shot in the back by Israeli army fire and died, Palestinian medical workers said. The boy was among several youths who had climbed sand dunes to watch soldiers deployed around the Israeli settlement of Nissanit in northern Gaza.

Witnesses and Palestinian security officials said the boys were about 700 yards from an Israeli watchtower when the teen was killed.

Military officials said soldiers used non-lethal means to disperse stone throwers near a settlement and did not know about a boy who was shot.

Medical workers also said a 15-year-old, mentally handicapped girl was seriously wounded after approaching the Israeli settlement of Morag near the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza.

Military officials said soldiers saw a woman running toward the settlement in an area off-limits to Palestinians, assumed she was attacking the settlement and opened fire after she ignored calls to stop and warning shots. They said the settlement has been a frequent target of Palestinian militants.

Morag and the other 20 Jewish settlements in Gaza and Israeli military installations would be removed under Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "unilateral disengagement" plan. However, Palestinians suspect Sharon's real agenda is to trade the small settlements in Gaza for a permanent hold on most of the West Bank, where 90 percent of Israeli settlers live.

In an interview Monday on the Al-Arabiya satellite TV channel, former Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinians should not cooperate with the Israeli withdrawal.

He also harshly criticized President Bush, who gave backing to the main points of Sharon's plan.

"America has now no credibility at all," Abbas said.

On Sunday, members of Sharon's Likud Party vote in a referendum on the withdrawal plan. Polls indicate that the outcome will be close.

[i]Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press [/i]
[line]
Just to recapp; Hamas' new leader: [b]Mahmoud Zahar, 53![/b]

Anything else you'd like to hide from Israel, Hamas?

Rutgers Paper Runs Holocaust Cartoon 04.26.04 (2:15 pm)   [edit]
I think this joker should apologize. And I wrote that in my letter to that paper.
[line]
[b]Fri Apr 23, 4:00 PM ET [/b]


NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - Rutgers University's president says the student editors of an alternative campus newspaper should immediately apologize for a cartoon that mocked the Holocaust.

The full-page drawing on Wednesday's cover of the Medium weekly showed a man throwing a ball at another man sitting on an oven at a campus fair. The text read: "Knock a Jew in the oven! Three throws for one dollar! Really! No, REALLY!"

President Richard L. McCormick said the cartoon was "outrageous in its cruelty."

Ned Berke, 19, the editor who selected the cartoon, said it was clever. "It took a serious situation and made it ridiculous," he said.

Berke, who is Jewish, he had relatives who died in the Holocaust.

"Humor is a way of honoring them and trying to get over it and to laugh," the journalism major said. "The Holocaust has been taboo for years."

Michael Stanley, the Medium's editor in chief, was out sick and did not edit the issue, and he said he probably would not have used the cartoon. "I certainly understand why people are offended by it," he said.

The Medium receives nearly $10,000 through the Rutgers College and Livingston College student government.

Please pass around this email!

04.26.04 (2:12 pm)   [edit]
I recieved this in an email. Please pass it around! :)
[line]
Shalom from Yerushalayim.

This week Israel commemorates Soldiers Remembrance Day immediately
followed by Independence Day. This juxtaposition serves to remind us that
our independence is dependent on the continued service and sacrifice of
our Regular and Reserve soldiers to the Jewish people.

PizzaIDF continues to deliver Pizza & Soda, as well as Burgers, Healthy
Hot Winter Soup, Ice Cream and traditional treats for Jewish festivals,
to our active duty soldiers on behalf of Israel's many supporters like
you.

On this Independence Day, we wish to thank you very much on behalf of
the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces for all your support. The
soldiers greatly appreciate every contribution and especially your warm
words of encouragement and support. Even when they are not in the
headlines, they are always there, on the front lines, for all of us. We all
depend on them at the forefront of the fight against terror.

It is our honor to continue representing you to our soldiers. Thank
you.

Wishing you all Yom ha'Atzmaut Sameach.

Shimon
www.PizzaIDF.org

PS Your gifts of over $250 are eligible for a US IRS tax deduction.
Please tell your friends about this way to help our soldiers:
www.PizzaIDF.org/SendToFriend.htm

Remembering Israel’s Fallen Throughout Modern History 04.26.04 (2:09 pm)   [edit]
[b]18:35 Apr 26, '04 / 5 Iyar 5764[/b]

(IsraelNN.com) Today at 11:00, a two-minute Memorial Day siren was heard around the country, bringing the nation to a standstill of silence. Memorial services for the fallen are being held today in cemeteries around the country.

The late Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, who made the decision to institute Israel's Memorial Day immediately before Independence Day, once explained Memorial Day's significance:

See the comprehensive story -- http://www.israelnationalnews...

An explanation of our search results.

04.23.04 (4:57 pm)   [edit]
From Google:
[line]
If you recently used Google to search for the word "Jew," you may have seen results that were very disturbing. We assure you that the views expressed by the sites in your results are not in any way endorsed by Google. We'd like to explain why you're seeing these results when you conduct this search.

A site's ranking in Google's search results is automatically determined by computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page's relevance to a given query. Sometimes subtleties of language cause anomalies to appear that cannot be predicted. A search for "Jew" brings up one such unexpected result.

If you use Google to search for "Judaism," "Jewish" or "Jewish people," the results are informative and relevant. So why is a search for "Jew" different? One reason is that the word "Jew" is often used in an anti-Semitic context. Jewish organizations are more likely to use the word "Jewish" when talking about members of their faith. The word has become somewhat charged linguistically, as noted on websites devoted to Jewish topics such as these:

* http://shakti.trincoll.edu/~mendele/vol01/vol01.174
* http://www.jewishworldreview....

Someone searching for information on Jewish people would be more likely to enter terms like "Judaism," "Jewish people," or "Jews" than the single word "Jew." In fact, prior to this incident, the word "Jew" only appeared about once in every 10 million search queries. Now it's likely that the great majority of searches on Google for "Jew" are by people who have heard about this issue and want to see the results for themselves.

Our search results are generated completely objectively and are independent of the beliefs and preferences of those who work at Google. Some people concerned about this issue have created online petitions to encourage us to remove particular links or otherwise adjust search results. Because of our objective and automated ranking system, Google cannot be influenced by these petitions. The only sites we omit are those we are legally compelled to remove or those maliciously attempting to manipulate our results.

We apologize for the upsetting nature of the experience you had using Google and appreciate your taking the time to inform us about it.

Sincerely,
The Google Team

p.s. You may be interested in some additional information the Anti-Defamation League has posted about this issue at http://www.adl.org/rumors/goo... In addition, we call your attention to both the Jewish Internet Association, an organization that addresses online anti-semitism, at http://www.jewishinternetasso..., and Google's search results on this topic.

SA man's Iraqi killer: 'I killed the Jew' 04.23.04 (4:55 pm)   [edit]
[b][i]By Graeme Hosken and Reuters[/b][/i]

A former South African police task force member has been shot dead in a Baghdad supermarket just days after leaving South Africa.

The former police officer, who cannot be named until his next of kin have been informed of his death, had just returned to Baghdad.

He had been in South Africa for a week's visit after his wife and infant child were hijacked near their Centurion home.

'There was meant to be a get-together for all of us'
The man, who worked for a South African security company, was shot dead in the Sunni Muslim district of Adhamiyah in the capital on Thursday.

Sources who worked with the South African in Baghdad said on Thursday evening that the man, who was shot twice in the head and once in the back, had been sent to a butchery to buy meat for a farewell braai for another South African due to return home later this week.

"There was meant to be a get-together for all of us before our colleague returned home," said a security personnel man who asked not to be named for fear of repercussions from the South African government.

The man - the fourth South African to be killed in Iraq since January - was working on a four-month contract as a bodyguard for the United States-led Coalition Provisional Authority.

The three other South Africans who have been killed in Iraq are Francois Strydom, Gray Branfield and Hendrik "Vis" Visagie, also a former task force member.

'This is a Jew, why do you deal with him and sell to him?'
Witnesses said the dead man's translator, who was also at the small supermarket, was wounded and taken to a nearby hospital.

"A gunman came in and shot them both," said Aslan Khalil, a worker at the shop where the incident took place. "When the gunman came in, he told us 'This is a Jew, why do you deal with him and sell to him?' "

The owner of the supermarket was wounded by a bullet in the leg.

Another witness, Aydan Khalil, said the gunman had a keffiyeh headdress wrapped round his face and used an assault rifle. Afterwards, he left the shop and tried to get into the victim's four-wheel-drive vehicle across the street.

"He tried to smash a car window and then turned and said 'I killed the Jew inside - you burn his car'."

The gunman then left in his own car, the witness said.

There are numerous South Africans working in Iraq, mostly employed by private security firms.

The department of foreign affairs said arrangements were being made through the South African mission in Oman and the man's employers to ensure that his remains were repatriated.

Meanwhile in Cape Town, Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane said the United States and Britain owed it to the world to admit they had invaded Iraq based on inaccurate information.

He said they should also admit that they falsely alleged that Iraq posed an immediate threat to the world.

Speaking on Thursday after bomb blasts in Basra, Iraq, that caused more than 60 deaths, he said: "The US had no real evidence for war on Iraq."

ADL Praises Google for Responding to Concerns about Rankings of Hate Sites 04.23.04 (4:47 pm)   [edit]
One more thing before I'm outta here for the weekend. It seems we have a victory for the forces of good!
[line]
[b]Thu Apr 22, 2:41 PM ET

To: National Desk, Technology Reporter[/b]

Contact: Myrna Shinbaum, 212-885-7747, or Todd Gutnick, 212-885-7755, both of the Anti-Defamation League

NEW YORK, April 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today praised Google for responding to its concerns about rankings of extremist Web sites. Google has assured ADL that its staff is looking at various technical modifications that will enable the Internet search engine to better identify and categorize racially offensive sites that come up in search results.

In a letter to ADL, Google President Sergey Brin apologized to users who found the search results for the word "Jew" upsetting and promised to work for a solution that would satisfy ADL's concerns and those of users offended by the No. 1 ranking of an anti-Semitic Web site.

"We are extremely pleased that Google has heard our concerns and those of its users about the offensive nature of some search results and the unusually high ranking of peddlers of bigotry and anti-Semitism," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "Google has shown great responsiveness to this issue and a willingness to consider changes to better identify extremist Web sites, so that users can still have the benefit of Google's unique search technology while being alerted when they are about to enter into a hate zone."

In response to a deluge of e-mails about Google, ADL contacted the company earlier this month to express its concern and offer suggestions for categorizing hate sites without censoring them in the results. Google's response was immediate and has led to ongoing discussions between ADL's Internet monitoring team and Google's technical experts.

Until the technical modifications are implemented, Google has placed text on its site that gives users a clear explanation of how search results are obtained. Google searches are automatically determined using computer algorithms that take into account thousands of factors to calculate a page's relevance.

"We apologize for the upsetting nature of the experience you had using Google and appreciate your taking the time to inform us about it," Brin said in his letter. "This is clearly an issue that we care deeply about, and we plan to explore additional ways of addressing it in the future."

------

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.

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

-0-

/© 2004 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/

D'var Torah for Tazria-Metzora (Leviticus 12:1-15:33)

04.23.04 (1:17 pm)   [edit]
(Hey, that title kind of rhymed!) :wink:
Both Parshat Tazria and Metzora discuss skin ailments on one's flesh, who to see about it (the Priest), how to treat it (isolate it), what to do if it spreads (isolate yourself), and so on. While we get caught up in the details of the treatments, we might fail to realize how strange all of this is. This is the first time the Torah discusses personal physical hygiene.

Why would the Torah spend almost two entire Parshiot (multiple Parsha) on personal hygiene?

Rabbi Munk in [i]The Call of The Torah[/i] explains that by giving these afflictions so much attention, the Torah points to them as examples of the spiritual causes at the root of many illnesses (In our case, Tzaraas -- the affliction discussed in the Parsha -- is caused by one of seven sins: Slander, murder, perjury, debauchery, pride, theft and jealousy [Talmud Arachim 16a]).

As the Rambam (Maimonides) asserts, the best medication is based on ethical values, helping to re-establish harmonies between spiritual and physical forces (Guide to the Perplexed 3:27). This discussion in the Torah is meant to remind us that illness is sometimes spiritual, and that it's connected to our physical well-being.

We should feed our bodies, so long as we nurture our souls!

Have a nourishing Shabbos!

Some funny quizzes...

04.22.04 (6:03 pm)   [edit]
HAHA, I don't know if I like this one!



Take the quiz: "Which American City Are You?"

Washington DC
You're rotten to the core. You're deeply agressive; street-level violence and big-time politics.

Diffused.net would never cease to entertain you. What Kind Of Webmistress Are You?

what sort of weirdo are you?

this quiz by orsa

Non-Jews, please respond!

04.22.04 (5:24 pm)   [edit]
I happened upon someone else's blog where they asked a couple of good questions about how non-Christians felt about Christians. I figured I'd do a similar take on that here.

Please read the first question and then answer it before you read and answer the second question!!! Also, if you could just kind of state what religion you are, or if you don't have one, etc.



1. How do you feel about Jewish people?







2. What do you think Judaism is about?



Thanks for participating!!!!!

Uncomfortable

04.22.04 (4:35 pm)   [edit]
I've come to the conclusion, recently, that I make people uncomfortable. No, it's not because I'm a poor hoastess. It's not becuse I'm rude or nasty to people (in less they start it! :wink:). It's not because I pick my nose in public or scratch myself (well, I at least don't get caught).

It's because I'm Jewish.

In thinking about a comment that was left on my blog recently, I got to musing about it. Allow me to chart out the reasons, as I see them, as to why this might be...

[b]1. I believe in God.[/b]
That's right. I do. I will affirm this whenever I am asked; and I will do so proudly. This, I feel, aggrevates some atheists. They could give me all the 'proof' in the world that there is no God and I'll reject it and bring my own proof to the table in response. No one can really proove it either way. It's all a matter of opinion. I'm correct. <-- and that very statement makes people uncomfortable, if not angry to say the least. >
And, it's not just any God, it's the Jewish God and no other. I won't accept anyone else's god's claim to supremecy or even existence. I don't believe in Jesus, I don't believe in Vishnu, I don't believe in Giya. I understand that there are people who believe contrarily. I can respect them for having beliefs, however, I don't validate their beliefs by stating that their's *may* be the true being(s), for whatever reason.

It's not that I'm intolerant. On the contrary, as I just said, I understand other people's positions and I wish not to offend them. However, I hold my own opinion and it is unchanging and unwavering. There is a God: HaShem. HaShem is my God, He is the One and Only. This makes people uncomfortable.

[b]2. I feel that Jews have a right to exist in a homeland. I believe that homeland is Israel.[/b]
In accordance with my belief in God, I also believe He gave this land to the seed of Jacob. That would be us Jews. It does not belong to anyone else. All others should stop killing themselves (literally) to take it from us. We've got, among others, God on our side.

What bugs me greater is people who say contrarily in the name of God (ie. Muslims and even sometimes fellow Jews). Islam, an offshoot of Judaism, states that everything in the Torah is God's word. It states this in the Koran. The Muslims have no claim to Israel. The Koran even agrees that God gave it to us. And my fellow Jews who also feel differently really need to read up.

[b]3. I'm 'Different'.[/b]
I do things differently. I won't work, drive, or even turn on and off lights on Saturdays and holy days. I won't eat pork, shrimp, or osterich (among other things). I wear skirts and modest clothing (I don't think my stomach has seen the sunlight since I was a young child!). I pray and I do it in a different language (which I understand). People always fear or are uncomfortable around something or someone that is unfamiliar or unlike them. I feel I fall under this catagory.

[b]4. I have defined notions of morality and right & wrong.[/b]
There are right things to do and wrong things to do. We each have the ability to choose which we will execute. Protesting something we don't agree with is right and just fine. Decemating property and hurting people in that process is wrong. Killing in self-defense is right. Killing just for the fun of it is wrong. Abortion is immoral as a form of birth control. Not having sex is a moral form of birth control. Taking illegal drugs are wrong. Stealing is wrong. Lying is wrong. These are all unchanging. They are constant.

This notion makes people uncomfortable. I think it's because they don't like being told that they can't do whatever the hell they want, no matter how stupid and immoral it is. I also think that may be part of why so many people hate Jews. We're the ones who convey these standards. No one likes the messanger. No one likes to be told what they're doing is wrong. The human physical inclination is to do whatever the hell I want, whenever and screw the consequences and scew those who warn us about the consequences.

[b]5. I try and be the best person I can be.[/b]
This may sound like a weird point. However, I really think it's valid. In having the above mentioned moral standards, I try and live my life that way. Of course, I'll screw up every now and then. That's a given. I'm not perfect nor am I devine. I'm human and fallible just like anyone else. Thing is, though, I strive to be better. I really do. I try and be a nice person, I try and be respectful and not use hatespeech, I try and be fair, I try and be a good person!

With everything I mentioned above about that, people are put off. They think I'm being holier than thou. Nope. Like I said, I'm not better than anyone; I just try and be the best me I can be. That said, people think I'm hiding something with that. No one can have these ideals, moral standards, etc..., and not be somehow evil. I must try and make people live how I want them to.

Nope. I simply am here to help people in any way I can. I can't make anyone do anything. It's all up to them. I can give you my opinion, you can take it or leave it. It all depends on yourself. Just like it all depends on myself to try and be a good person. I'm sure someone reading this is uneasy about that because it sounds too good to be true or whatever. That's really how I feel. You can choose to believe me or not. The choice is yours; I know where I stand.

[b]6. I'm misunderstood.[/b]
I know I've mentioned this kind of thing before, but it's SO true! Just because I am who I am and I believe what I believe, sometimes, because people are uncomfortable by it all, they make up their own pre-conceived notions of what to expect. This is usually the biggest mistake someone can make about anyone! Stereotypes, no matter where they come from, are the biggest opsticles to understanding, enlightenment, and the betterment of our world.

Listen to what everyone has to say before you judge things for yourself, not just what I have to say. Stereotypes make everyone uncomfortable!

Letter To the Editor: An Update!

04.22.04 (2:21 pm)   [edit]
You may remember the letter I wrote to the editors of my college newspaper. You can glance at it here -- http://www.tblog.com/template...

The newest development of my story here is I received an email this afternoon from the newspaper. It reads:

[i][b]Dear [me],

I must have a last name in order to print this letter.

Holly Smith
Editor in Chief
[my college newspaper's name][/b][/i]

So, it appears, my letter may just get printed after all! Considering that I've written to them SO many times because they have a VERY biased peice of work, this really shows that persistancy pays off when you are defending a Jewish cause in a prodominantly Muslim school.

Needless to say, I replied with the requested information. I hope it does get printed.

It's not like I'm trying to be famous. No. And if I were trying to do so in a collge newspaper, that would be reall sad/pathetic. (If I cared that much about that, I'd join the staff!)

My entire reasoning in my rejoice of the prospect of getting published (finally) is solely based on my commitment to fight antisemitism and the media's bias therein, etc. Even if it does start with such small potatos as this college's news outlet.

The truth must be heard.

Libels, medieval and modern

04.21.04 (8:17 pm)   [edit]
[b]Apr. 20, 2004 23:29
[i]By MICHAEL FREUND, the Jerusalem Post[/i][/b]

Situated outside the Swiss village of Montreux, along the shore at the eastern end of Lake Geneva, sits one of the most impressive architectural relics of the Middle Ages.

With its turreted towers and Gothic architecture, the Chateau de Chillon, or Chillon Castle, built on an islet nearly 1,000 years ago, projects an image of beauty and serenity that strikes all who come to see it.

But the dazzling exterior is deceiving, for beneath it lies a dark and sinister secret, one that says a great deal about Europe's relationship with the Jews in the distant past as well as in the present.

The year was 1348, and the Black Death was ravaging the Continent, wiping out entire communities in its wake. The Jews of Europe suffered no less from the plague than did their non-Jewish neighbors, but that did not save them from being blamed for it anyway.

Slander against the Jews, such as rumors of well-poisoning, spread quickly throughout France and Switzerland, laying the groundwork for massacre and persecution.

In September 1348, the Jews of the Swiss town of Villeneuve were taken to the Chateau de Chillon and imprisoned in its dungeons. Horrible tortures were inflicted on them until a Jewish surgeon named Balavignus finally "admitted," under duress, that local Jews had concocted a poison made of Christian hearts and flesh, spiders, frogs, and lizards, topped off with the "sacred host" used in Catholic ritual, with the aim of poisoning Christian wells and rivers.

As a result, Villeneuve's Jews, its men, women and children, were burned alive in the depths of the castle.

As historian Joshua Trachtenberg writes in The Devil and the Jews, "This tale, in one form or other, spread on the heels of the plague and was eagerly seized upon by the terror-stricken populace as an adequate explanation of its origin."

A few months later, in January 1349, 600 Jews in Basel were burned to death.

This horrific pattern repeated itself in all its horror in other communities throughout France, Switzerland and Germany. Back then, Europe's treatment of the Jews was shaped and molded by a ridiculous lie. In that sense, at least, very little seems to have changed.

FOR WHILE Europeans once charged us with the "blood libel," saying we illicitly used other people's blood, they now falsely tar us instead with "land libel," alleging we have taken other people's territory.

Just this past Monday, we were witness to this, when Swiss ambassador to Israel Ernst Iten refused to attend a street-naming ceremony in Jerusalem in honor of a Swiss Righteous Gentile. The reason for the ambassador's rudeness was that the street in question is located in the Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood, which Israel took in the 1967 Six Day War and Europe considers to be "Arab land."

"Unfortunately," the ambassador wrote in a letter to Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski, "the embassy cannot attend a ceremony for a street that is not located within the internationally recognized territory of Israel."

In other words, what His Excellency was really saying was: You Jews are a bunch of thieves because you stole Palestinian land.
This, of course, represents not only the individual view of Switzerland but that of Europe as a whole, which has long pressed Israel to yield control over Judea, Samaria and Gaza to the Palestinians.

Just last week, the EU reiterated its stance on this issue after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with US President George W. Bush in the White House. At an April 15 news conference in Brussels, European Commission spokesman Reijo Kemppinen said that Israel and the Palestinians would have to negotiate an agreement resulting in two "viable and independent states based on Israel's 1967 borders."

"The European Union," he added, "will not recognize any changes to the pre-1967 borders, other than those arrived at by agreement between the parties."

Now the Europeans are free to ignore thousands of years of history and archeology, which prove that the Jewish presence in places such as Hebron and Bethlehem predates that of their own civilization. And if they wish to pay no heed to the Bible and its mandate, which promises the land of Israel to the Jewish people and no one else, that is between them and God.

But they have no right to slander us and cast aspersions on us, falsely accusing the Jewish state of occupying someone else's land. This is not just a question of historical truth, but a matter of life and death.

For just as belief in the medieval "blood libel" legitimized the murder of Jews in the minds of its adherents, so too does the modern European "land libel" lend legitimacy to those who now target us, be they Islamic fundamentalists, Palestinian nationalists, or European anti-Semites.

After all, no one likes a land-grabber, and if, as Europe insists, the Jews are pilferers of Arab territory that would appear to set the stage for transforming them into a justifiable object of hatred and disgust.

Over six centuries ago, it was precisely this kind of attitude that led to innocent Jews being burned in the dungeons of Chillon. In its modern-day incarnation, the result is suicide bombings, synagogue desecrations and shooting attacks. And so, despite the passage of hundreds of years, one thing remains unchanged. Then, as now, Europe is no less culpable for what it has wrought.

[i]The writer served as deputy director of communications & policy planning in the Prime Minister's Office under Binyamin Netanyahu.[/i]

Justified and productive

04.21.04 (8:10 pm)   [edit]
[b]Apr. 18, 2004 20:38
Updated Apr. 19, 2004 15:08
[i]The Jerusaelem Post[/i][/b]

"[i]They had the opportunity to hand themselves to justice and answer for their crimes. They refused to do this. It goes without saying that we would have much preferred this, but the news that Saddam's sons are no longer a threat to the security of Iraq will be a reassurance to the Iraqi people.[/i]"
– Jack Straw, July 22, 2003, on the killing, by US troops, of Uday and Qusay Hussein

"[i]One has to treat such claims and proposals by al-Qaida with the contempt they deserve. This is a murderous organization which seeks impossible objectives by the most violent of means.[/i]"
– Jack Straw, April 16, 2004, on the proposal, by Osama bin Laden, to arrange a truce with Europe

"[i]Unjustified and counterproductive.[/i]"
– Jack Straw, April 18, 2004, on the killing, by Israeli forces, of Abdel Aziz Rantisi

Will the British foreign minister explain why the killing of Uday and Qusay Hussein was justified and "productive," but the killing of Abdel Aziz Rantisi was not? All three are, or were, leaders of what the British government defines as terrorist organizations.

Will the minister also explain why it is unthinkable for European countries, including Britain, to negotiate with al-Qaida, while it is not only thinkable, but necessary, for Israel to negotiate with a Palestinian regime implicated in Hamas's terrorism? All bin Laden asks of Europe is what Europe asks of Israel, which is to get out of Arab lands. If that demand is reasonably made of Israel, why is it any less reasonably made of Europe?

And will the minister tell us why, in June 2002, after describing suicide bombers as "misguided and depressed," he went on to say that "behind those people are some very evil terrorist leaders who do not put their own lives on the line when they are making sure that others' lives are ended." Was this not a description of people like Rantisi and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, whose killing last month Straw also condemned in the strongest possible terms?

At least former French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin was consistent when he warned that the killing of Uday and Qusay would contribute to the cycle of violence in Iraq. That's a foolish view, but it is not a hypocritical one. Straw's view, however, is hypocritical. It is also foolish and at variance with his previous statements.

The minister says Israel may act against the likes of Rantisi, but only within the parameters of international law. That suggests that Rantisi ought to have been arrested and tried, not killed.

Well then: Arrested how, and by whom? Maybe we have missed the minister's calls for the Palestinian Authority to meet its responsibilities under the road map to "undertake visible efforts... to arrest, disrupt, and restrain individuals and groups conducting and planning attacks on Israelis." But if the minister has in fact issued such calls, he hasn't made them with the force and indignation of his denunciations of Israeli action.

Maybe the minister will allow that Rantisi may lawfully be arrested by Israel. But wouldn't that require an unlawful entry by Israeli troops into Gaza City? And would it not also have entailed a much larger loss of life? And possibly the use of military components supplied by Britain? This last the minister is on record as strongly opposing.

To follow the minister's pronouncements to their logical conclusion, Israel may take no measure in its self-defense except to arrest suicide bombers when they reach Israeli soil, which is as good as no defense at all. Alternatively, he believes Israel must resume negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, notwithstanding the failure of the PA to take steps against terrorist organizations and the evidence that it is deeply implicated in terrorist activity.

This is foolishness. Either the minister accepts Israel's right to take what efforts it thinks necessary against terrorism, or he must demand the PA do the same and make it pay a price if it doesn't. So far, the minister's government does neither.

It is noteworthy that after Saturday's killing of Rantisi, Hamas would not name its new leader. The bravado is gone. They are afraid. This will not prevent future attacks on Israel. But it puts paid to the lie that attacks on Hamas only embolden it. In that sense, Saturday's strike has served a purpose.

Vanunu's release

04.21.04 (8:04 pm)   [edit]
[b]Apr. 20, 2004 23:53
Updated Apr. 21, 2004 1:20
[i]The Jerusalem Post[/i][/b]

Among the many things said about Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli due to be released from prison today after serving his 18-year sentence for revealing the country's nuclear secrets, is that he is a champion of the anti-nuclear cause.

Not so. In 1981, Vanunu, with Arab activists, protested against Israel's destruction of Iraq's Osirak reactor. Vanunu, then, wasn't against the bomb outright. He apparently approved of it in Arab hands.

Indeed, for years prior to Vanunu's arrest and trial, he was a pro-Arab extremist to the point that Hebrew University students and staff, who knew he was employed at the Dimona reactor, wondered how such a person could be allowed near the nation's most secure facility. This was the first, most easily preventable, and most egregious error of the entire affair.

Today, Vanunu has become the stuff of legend, at least to some people. He has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. There is a US "Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu." He was the subject – indeed, the hero – of a BBC Panorama documentary that aired last summer.

Upon his release he will be greeted by a coterie of high-profile admirers, including Irish Nobelist Mairead Maguire, British MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Colin Breed, and Bruce Kent of Britain's Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Letters of support from actress Emma Thompson and playwright Harold Pinter will be read aloud.

Ostensibly, Vanunu owes his fame to what he stands for: nuclear disarmament, freedom of information, human rights. In fact, it is owed mainly to what he stands against. "I am against Israel," he is reported to have told the Shin Bet. "I am against your state." It would be interesting to know how many of Vanunu's supporters share this sentiment.

In Israel, Vanunu gets little sympathy, even from the Left. Shimon Peres, who was prime minister when Vanunu was seized and tried in 1986, is blunt: "Vanunu violated norms and betrayed his country," he told Army Radio.

"This is justice."

In an editorial, Haaretz accuses him of "seriously harming state security." Yossi Sarid, the former leader of Meretz, describes him as a pathetic, mentally disturbed man. His advice is to ignore Vanunu to allow the current media feeding frenzy to die with a whimper.

We wish we could be as sanguine that Vanunu will disappear from public view. More likely, he will become a handy tool for anti-Israel campaigners, particularly if he is allowed to leave Israel in a year. The cumulative damage he will continue to do to Israel as a propagandist will considerably exceed the damage he caused as a spy.

That said, we do not mean to suggest that Vanunu should be forbidden to leave a country he no longer recognizes as his own. On the contrary, this was a right he ought to have exercised long before he chose to betray Israel's secrets and must be allowed to soon exercise again.

Vanunu may remain a threat, but that consideration ought to have been taken account during his sentencing in 1986. Now his sentence has been served and his rights must be respected. In this regard, the decision by the government not to place Vanunu in administrative detention is correct.

Indeed, it is this very fact that most powerfully gives the lie to the arguments of Vanunu's defenders. An Israel that gratuitously violated the rights of its citizens would not have sentenced him to a fixed term and then released him, proud and by all appearances healthy, when his time came.

Much less would it have countenanced the celebration that will be held today in his honor.

In the very act of letting him go free, Israel proves wrong Vanunu's contentions about the State of Israel.

We do not expect Vanunu or his defenders to take this into account. These are people who are beyond persuasion, animated by rage and undisturbed by fact. But as they make the moral case against Israel, Israel will make the moral case for itself. We trust that fair-minded observers will draw the obvious conclusion.

In the case of Vanunu, justice has been served and will sooner or later be recognized.

US eases visa requirements for Israelis 04.21.04 (7:59 pm)   [edit]
[b]Apr. 21, 2004 18:06
Updated Apr. 21, 2004 21:03
[i]By HERB KEINON[/i][/b]

US Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer formally announced Wednesday the US is easing visa requirements for Israelis born in countries on its list of states sponsoring terrorism.

According to the new regulations, one's country of birth will not be a determining factor in deciding whether the visa application will be processed in Israel, or sent to Washington.

Sending visa applications for Israelis born in Iran, Libya and Syria to Washington considerably lengthened the visa process. The other countries on the US list of states supporting terror are Sudan, Cuba and North Korea.

The main criterion now for determining how to process the visa will not be where one was born, but rather to which country one owes allegiance. Since most Israelis born in Iran, Libya and Syria have no tie to their country of birth, their visa applications will be processed in Israel like all other Israelis.

After 9/11, the US severely tightened the visa process, and Israelis born in the blacklisted countries – even if they had not been there for decades – were subjected to greater scrutiny than others.

This procedure caused problems for such high-profile personalities as Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and the singer Rita, both born in Iran.

Philip Covington, the consul-general at the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, urged Israelis to apply early for visas to the US, saying that the rate of requests for visas from Israel is among the highest in the world.

Covington also warned Israelis against overstaying their visit to the US, saying those who do so are likely to face problems getting a visa the next time they apply.

Israel Begins Annual Holocaust Mourning 04.21.04 (7:42 pm)   [edit]
[b]Sun Apr 18, 9:22 PM ET
[i]By STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press Writer[/i][/b]

JERUSALEM - Israel on Sunday began its annual day of remembrance for the 6 million Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis, with a torch-lighting ceremony at Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum.

Places of entertainment shut down for the evening, radio stations played mournful music and TV channels broadcast Holocaust-related documentaries and dramas. Flags on public buildings were lowered to half-staff.

Though nearly six decades have passed since the end of World War II, the effect of the killing of a large portion of the Jewish people plays heavily on the psyche of Israel, and observance of the annual day of remembrance is almost total among Israel's Jews.

At the ceremony, shortly after nightfall, six Holocaust survivors, all veterans of the Auschwitz death camp, lit memorial flames, one for each million victims.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel had learned the lessons of the past and would never again tolerate attacks in Jews.

"We shall never allow the murderers of today or those of tomorrow to harm our people," Sharon said in his address. "Anyone who dares to do that will be struck down."

The ceremonies came a day after Israel assassinated the Gaza Strip leader of the Islamic militant Hamas group, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, in a missile strike.

During a visit to the Yad Vashem memorial earlier Sunday, the commander of Israel's armed forces said Rantisi was a Holocaust denier who claimed present-day Israelis were more evil than wartime Nazis.

"One of his recent comments was that comparing the Jews to the Nazis is an insult to the Nazis," Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon said.

On Monday morning, sirens were to sound, with streets becoming still and motorists stopping their cars to stand at attention beside them for two minutes of silence.

The theme of this year's commemoration is the continuing effort to document each individual victim of the Nazi extermination of Jews, under the slogan, "To the last Jew, to the last name."

Yad Vashem has about three million names on record of Jews killed in the Holocaust, only half the number of victims.

Also Sunday, in Germany, more than 500 people gathered at the Sachsenhausen memorial to mark the 59th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp located in Oranienburg, just outside Berlin.

Some 200,000 people — including political prisoners, captives from Poland, Soviet POWs as well as Jews — were interned at Sachsenhausen between 1936 and 1945, and tens of thousands died.

"The memory of the murdered must serve as a warning for coming generations," said former prisoner Zdzislaw Jasko, now vice president of the International Sachsenhausen Committee.

The camp, liberated April 22, 1945, by the Red Army, was then used by the Soviet occupiers to hold prisoners for several years until it was turned into a memorial.

A new visitor center was opened at the camp earlier this month, and the entrance to the site is to be moved for the 60th anniversary of the camp's liberation so that visitors pass through the same gate as prisoners did.

Some 500 others attended a similar weekend service at Ravensbrueck, a concentration camp for women 55 miles north of Berlin, which was liberated by the Soviets on April 30, 1945.

More than 130,000 women and children and 20,000 men were imprisoned at Ravensbrueck, and tens of thousands died.

Schwarzenegger Attends Holocaust Memorial 04.21.04 (7:34 pm)   [edit]
[b]Sun Apr 18, 9:11 PM ET
[i]By LAURA WIDES, Associated Press Writer[/b][/i]

LOS ANGELES - Crimes against Jewish people are crimes against all humanity, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Sunday during an annual Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony.

"We accept the Holocaust as a symbol of our duty and responsibility to prevent such travesties from ever happening again," said Schwarzenegger, a longtime supporter of Holocaust memorial efforts who also paid for an investigation into his father's Nazi past.

The event, which drew about 3,000 people to the Los Angeles Holocaust Monument in Pan Pacific Park, was held to remember the 6 million Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis.

Schwarzenegger, a native of Austria, was joined by Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo. Lantos noted what he called a rise of anti-Semitism in Europe and defended recent military actions taken by Israel, including the assassination of leaders of the Islamic militant group Hamas.

"People are perfectly prepared to commemorate the Holocaust, but they won't recognize our right to prevent the next Holocaust," Lantos said.

Dignitaries from Hungary and Israel also attended the ceremony, after which hundreds of people circled the Holocaust monument, six black granite pillars that evoke the chimneys of gas chambers.

Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi has been working to resolve claims of Holocaust survivors. Speaking at the event, Garamendi said only 172 claims have been paid of the 7,000 Holocaust-related insurance claims submitted in California.

"This is not about justice, this is about what is basically right," Garamendi said.

More Fun With My Digital Camera...

04.21.04 (6:55 pm)   [edit]
...Or, how I spent the day after the day after my birthday!

Once again today, I set out on an adventure to capture images of beauty and interest. My first stop today was this mountain in town that overlooks the coastline. On top of this mountain is a cross. It was erected there as a memorial for all the veterans who served in the wars. The land that the cross is on is a government funded sanctuary. A while ago, people wanted the cross taken down because it violates the seperation of church and state. The city got around that by selling the little square of land that the cross itself sits on to a private entity. The cross still stands and so does the fight to have it taken down. (therealsparticus007-- you may remember I mentioned this to you a while back. I still think America is a Christian country.)

At anyrate, here's a photo I took of this large, government-funded religious monument:
=http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/solidadlowercaseT2 .jpg

After I got done there, I went to another beach to take some more photographs. Here are some pretty nice waves:
=http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/waves3.jpg

=http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/waves4.jpg

Here's a lovely photo of the coastline as taken from the beach:
=http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/shoresbeachskyline 2.jpg

There's a rather large pier that goes out into the ocean. Shool does marine research from it. The pier is considered part of campus. I stood under the pier and took this:
=http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/pierwaves2.jpg

In the rocks by the water, you can see fossilized creatures and remnants. This is a photograph of the fossils in the rock. They're in a kinda swirlie design so I thought that would make a neat picture:
=http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/fossilswerl2.jpg

I also found a bunch of dead jellyfish that washed up. This is one of them:
=http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/deadjellyfish2.jpg
Sidenote: there was alaos a dead pelican further down the beach. It was tangled in fishing line. IF YOU FISH, PLEASE CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELF! That made me so angry! I didn't take a picture of that though. Poor taste.

Here's more coastline:
=http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/blacksbeachskyline 2.jpg

And that's about it. I thought this picture would make a good closing photo :wink: :
=http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/redtigress2.jpg

Hope you liked it! :D

PS: If anyone wants larger versions of any of the photographs I've posted, let me know and I'll send it to you! :)

Canadian Jews, still reeling from recent hate attacks, remember the Holocaust

04.21.04 (12:33 pm)   [edit]
[b]Sun Apr 18, 9:34 PM ET
[i]RITA TRICHUR [/b][/i]

TORONTO (CP) - Hundreds of Canadian Jews, still smarting from a recent spate of hate attacks in Ontario and Quebec, gathered Sunday to mark worldwide Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The ceremonies in Toronto and Montreal each drew about 2,000 people to honour Holocaust victims of the past and remember that anti-Semitism can flourish in the present.

"We must never allow anti-Semitism to exist in the shadows," Sylvain Abitbol, president of the Combined Jewish Appeal, told the Montreal crowd.

Abitbol likened the firebombing of a Jewish school in Montreal last month to images of the Kristalnacht attack on Jews in Nazi Germany and condemned other recent anti-Semitic incidents in Ontario.

"We have a responsibility not to be silent when headstones are toppled in Jewish cemeteries in the black of night or when thugs paint swastikas on Jewish homes," he said.

Congregants filed into a Montreal synagogue for the ceremony as a dozen young people stood on the stairs reading the names of Holocaust victims. Hundreds of white remembrance candles flickered in the hall, which displayed five Holocaust projects from a Grade 6 class of the bombed school.

In Toronto, a Holocaust survivor recounted her experiences in Auschwitz, the infamous Nazi death camp in occupied Poland.

"Never should we forget how short is the road from hate speech to genocide," Judy Cohen said.

"Never will I forget most aspects of our miserable existence in all the camps I was in. The sick, the starving, the dying, the unheeded prayers and feeling abandoned by both all the deities and all humanity."

A lone cello player provided a sombre backdrop as Toronto participants, sheltered by a tent - sides flapping in the rain - lit six white candles on a black wooden candelabra in memory of the six million Jewish victims of the Second World War.

There was also poetry, singing and prayer, all in the shadow of Toronto's Holocaust Wall of Remembrance and its inextinguishable flame that roared brightly against the grey sky.

A man from Brampton, Ont., was also awarded a special medal for his parents' tireless efforts to save Jews during the Second World War. John Boeltjes said he was honoured to accept the posthumous honour on their behalf.

Johan and Johanna Boeltjes were Christians who risked their lives to save two Jewish men in Holland. Oscar Schindler - whose life story was portrayed in the Oscar-winning film Schindler's List - was the first recipient of the award in 1962.

"With all the massacre, the killings and the genocide, they will never eliminate the Jewish people," said Ya'acov Brosh, Israeli Consul General to Toronto, before presenting the medal.

In Ottawa, Justice Minister Irwin Cotler and Conservative Leader Stephen Harper were among the dignitaries at a ceremony at the Centennial Flame on Parliament Hill.

Also on Sunday, several hundred people gathered at a synagogue in west-end Montreal for the presentation of a religious scroll dedicated to Jewish terror victims.

Male members of the congregation gathered in the main aisle to kiss the ornate velvet covering of the scroll, inscribed with the names of victims of suicide bombings in Israel and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center.

The scroll was to be transported to its permanent resting place at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Asher Jacobson of the Chevrah Kadishah B'nai Jacob - Beth Hazikaron congregation said the world must never forget victims of genocide or terror.

"For 60 years, Jews have been screaming and yelling, 'Never again, never again,' " he told reporters. "And what greater way to say never again than to say that we're still Jews, we're still proud to stand as Jews and we'll go out into the street and say, 'We'll continue on.' "

And the younger generation is heeding that call for solidarity, said Shauna Waltman. The recent vandalism of Jewish homes, synagogues and cemeteries in Toronto, coupled with the arson fire at the Montreal school, has inspired Canadian-born Jewish youth to glean lessons from the past, she said.

"I remember the fear that filled me as I read the recent headlines of hate graffiti, synagogue vandalism and firebombed libraries," Waltman said. "Yom Hashoah is a day of remembering but it is also a day for reminding the world of the price we pay for ignoring the spread of hatred."

Israel Settler Families Search for Homes 04.21.04 (12:29 pm)   [edit]
[b]Mon Apr 19,12:16 PM ET
[i]By LAURIE COPANS, Associated Press Writer [/b][/i]

JERUSALEM - Dozens of Jewish settler families in the Gaza Strip and West Bank have begun searching for new homes inside Israel because of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's proposal to evacuate their communities, an Israeli official and real estate agents said Monday.


Sharon plans to dismantle the 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the northern West Bank as part of a plan to "disengage" from the Palestinians. The plan must pass votes in Sharon's Likud Party, his Cabinet and the parliament before it can be implemented.


About 30 families from the Gush Katif bloc of settlements in the Gaza Strip have in the past two weeks inquired about homes in the Negev Desert in southern Israel, said Orly Katav, a spokeswoman for the Negev Settlement Promotion Authority.


Dozens of families from West Bank communities slated for evacuation have hired agents from the Anglo Saxon realty office in the northern city of Afula to find them homes there, said the manager of the office, Amir Meiri.


"I think that this is connected to the disengagement plan because there has been a wave of inquiries in the past weeks, just like there was a wave at the start of the fighting," Meiri said.


Settlement officials denied residents were making preparations to move.


Debbie Drori, a spokeswoman for the West Bank settlement of Kadim that is slated to be evacuated, said she knew of no families there planning to move.


Settlers are currently embroiled in a campaign against Sharon's evacuation plan prior to the Likud referendum on May 2.


Almost 8,000 settlers would be moved according to the plan, out of a total of about 220,000 who live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The settlers would be compensated under the plan, which is slated to be implemented by the end of 2005.


Some settlers say they would resist any dismantling of settlements, insisting the areas are part of the biblical land of Israel granted to the Jews by God.


Palestinians demand an independent state in all the West Bank and Gaza Strip — which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

3 Hurt When Rocket Hits Israel Settlement 04.21.04 (12:27 pm)   [edit]
[b]Mon Apr 19, 1:33 PM ET [/b]

EREZ CROSSING, Gaza Strip - A Palestinian rocket exploded in the Jewish settlement of Nisanit after nightfall Monday, rescue workers and settlers said, and three Israelis were lightly wounded.


The Magen David Adom rescue service said the rocket hit a house in the settlement, which is in the northwest corner of the Gaza Strip.


Earlier Monday, an Israeli was seriously wounded in another rocket attack. Palestinians fire homemade rockets and mortars at the Jewish settlements in Gaza and communities just outside the fence frequently.

Saudi Jailed in Texas for Killing Jewish Friend 04.21.04 (12:21 pm)   [edit]
I am glad the guilty party is recieving punishment. If this were the story of two Muslims or two Americans or two Jews, or whatever, I'd still feel the same way.
[line]
Mon Apr 19, 8:18 PM ET


HOUSTON (Reuters) - A Texas court on Monday sentenced a Saudi Arabian student to 60 years in prison for killing a Jewish friend last August.


Mohammed Ali Alayed, 23, apologized for slitting the throat of Ariel Sellouk in a statement read in court, but did not say why he did it.


Sellouk's father, Michel Sellouk, said in court that Alayed was "the face of evil" and he hoped someone would cut his throat in prison.


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


Alayed admitted to the murder and agreed to accept a 60-year sentence in a plea bargain with prosecutors.


Defense attorney George Parnham complained in December that Homeland Security agents, without notifying him, had gone to the jail where Alayed was being held and interviewed him.


Homeland Security detective Bill Moore said agents did not talk to Alayed about the case but about "jail security" issues" and that such interviews were conducted regularly at the local jail.

Sharon Pledges Israel Will Keep Killing Militants 04.21.04 (12:12 pm)   [edit]
[b]Tue Apr 20,12:19 PM ET[/b]

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel would keep killing top militants Tuesday after the Jewish state assassinated two senior Hamas leaders in less than a month.

"We got rid of murderer number one and murderer number two and the list is not short," Sharon said in a speech at the port city of Ashdod.

Pope to Send Cardinal to Synagogue 04.21.04 (12:10 pm)   [edit]
[b]Tue Apr 20,11:21 PM ET
[i]By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer [/b][/i]

VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II has declined an invitation to pay a second visit to Rome's central synagogue for an anniversary celebration next month and will send a top-ranking Italian cardinal in his place, the Vatican said Tuesday.


A senior Vatican official said John Paul did not want to take away from the "unique and historic" nature of his 1986 visit — the first by a pope to a synagogue — by returning.


The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, ruled out that politics or the pope's frail health were behind the decision.


Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said John Paul was sending Cardinal Camillo Ruini, president of the Italian bishops conference and papal vicar for Rome, as his representative on May 23, when Rome's Jewish community marks the 100th anniversary of the synagogue's construction. Ruini will be accompanied by Cardinal Walter Kasper, who heads the Vatican's office for relations with Jews.


John Paul has worked throughout his 25-year pontificate to improve relations between Catholics and Jews. During his 1986 visit to the monumental building facing the Tiber River, he referred to Jews as "our elder brothers."


The pope made an official visit to Israel in 2000, a few years after the Vatican and the Jewish state established formal diplomatic relations.


"I'm very sorry," Rome's chief rabbi Riccardo Di Segni told the ANSA news agency after the Vatican announcement. "Obviously his representatives will be welcomed."


The 83-year-old John Paul, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, has made few appearances outside the Vatican in recent months but Vatican officials are considering several foreign trips in the coming months.

HAHA! ...Oh man!

04.20.04 (8:59 pm)   [edit]
I found this little gem on my camera. It's a leftover from last night's drunken escapades....


=http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/c3965e97.jpg

I must have taken this myself, though I don't remember. Like I said; Best Birthday EVER!

IDF may close Erez industrial area in Gaza Strip 04.20.04 (8:29 pm)   [edit]
[b][i]By Amos Harel, Haaretz[/b][/i]

The Israel Defense Forces is leaning toward shutting down the Erez industrial zone in the northern Gaza Strip, due to the spate of terror attacks in the area.

The army is finding it hard to protect soldiers who are deployed at the Erez junction, senior IDF officers told Haaretz yesterday. Under the present circumstances, they said, it is hard to justify an arrangement that endangers the soldiers' lives.

Last Saturday, a Border Policeman was killed, and three other security personnel were injured, when a suicide bomber sent by Hamas and Fatah attacked the worker terminal area in the industrial zone. Three other attacks have occurred in this area since January, killing five security men.

"It is quite possible we will have no choice but to close the industrial zone, despite the damage this will do to the livelihood of thousands of Palestinians," a senior IDF officer said yesterday.

The Erez crossing has become a locus of terror activity, Israeli security officials believe, because terrorists are finding it hard to penetrate fenced-off areas, and heavily guarded areas around settlements in the Gaza Strip.

The Erez crossing is virtually the last place where thousands of Palestinians and hundreds of Israelis can be found alongside one another and terrorists find it relatively easy to penetrate this area where the two groups commingle.

About 4,000 Palestinians work each day in the Erez industrial zone. IDF officers believe some 40,000 Gaza Strip residents earn their livelihood from work done in the area.

On a visit to the Gaza Strip yesterday, IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon said the Erez industrial zone will not be re-opened until a suitable way of protecting the soldiers is found.

Fun With a Digital Camera (or, How I Spent The Day After My Birthday)

04.20.04 (7:03 pm)   [edit]
For those of you unaware, yesterday was my 21st birthday. Aside from getting wonderfully (and rediculously) drunk off my ass, I also got some great loot! :wink: Among this loot, I recieved a day at the spa from my boyfriend (LOVE you!). This includes: An hour of massage; scalp massage; shampoo, haircut & style; and manicure/spa pedicure! I also got some lovely Godiva chocolates and candles from some friends (Thanks!) and I'll be recieving an ipod soon (thanks to my parents). From my grandparents, I recieved a brand-spankin'-new Olympus 3.5 mega-pixil digital CAMERA!!!! (With a kick-arse zoom, too!)

Naturally, today I went out and put it to good use! I got some awesome photos and so I figured I'd post a few here....

=http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/beachskyline2.jpg
The lovely California coastline. You can click here -- http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/fb4aaf3c.jpg to see a larger version of this photo! :)

=http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/clearoceanwater2.jpg
Our beautiful clear water. Larger -- http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/clearocean.jpg

=http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/c5ffc28e.jpg
Among the inhabitants of our coast; Beach Squirrels! These are babies! They live in holes under the ground all along the beach. (these were SO tiny!)

=http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/mommy-babysqkiss2.jpg
This is a mummie with one of her babies. Simply adorable. And a great photo, if I do say so myself. :wink:

=http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/mysteriousshadow2.jpg
I wonder who this mysterious shadow belongs to? Hmmmm....

=http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/oceanfoot2.jpg
That's some of the water that can be seen from a ledge that over looks the ocean. I sit there and think much of the time. It's my spot. As you can see, the tide is coming it and getting my shoes wet.

=http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/oceancrash4.jpg
The waves crashing up against the rocks (as seen from my ledge). Larger picture can be seen here -- http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/oceancrash.jpg


=http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/oceancrash3.jpg
More of the previous (I really think that these two are some great photos! ::almost too proud of self::) Larger photo here -- http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/oceancrash2.jpg

=http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/246c771a.jpg
We also have seals (See those brown turd lumps on the beach? Those are them) that have taken over part of the beach that used to be used by humans. This is a man-made beach. Population incread of the seals have led them to take over the whole dang beach right here. They also attract sharks. They are protected by environmental laws, so they just kinda lie there and smell. They are pretty cute though and they can prove educational for young chilren. The area where they lay is roped off for the safety of the seals and those who watch them. You can also go out on the jetty (as I did) and take photographs from there. Larger version -- http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/seals2.jpg

=http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/seals4.jpg
Let me tell you though, they really smell like crap. You can't swim in the waters near this particular beach because of all the seal poo. It's their breeding season right now too. So they're having babies to poo on the beach as well. Their babies are cute too.

=http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/sealssign2.jpg
They have signs posted to help inform visitors of the seals' habits and so on. Funny, they don't mention the poo they leave all over the place. I guess that's self-explanitory. You can probably read this better with the larger version -- http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/sealssign.jpg

=http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/whitepigion2.jpg
I also found a white pigion today. I was feeding the squirrels some old Matzah (left over from Pesach) and a mass of pigions came over and were all, "Hey bitches, those be ours!" and scared away the squirrels. This one, I think, was a homing pigion that didn't make it home yet. It had bands on one of it's legs (not sure if you can see it, but it's there) that looked placed there on perpose. It's a pretty bird.

=http://img19.photobucket.com/...%20With%20My%20Digital%20 Camera/flockofseagulls2.jpg
I'm a big Flock of Seagulls fan! :wink:

And so ends my extravaganza. I love my new toy! All in all, I think this birthday was the best one I've ever had (aside from the origional).

Quiz For President!

04.20.04 (6:43 pm)   [edit]
I was snooping around the net and found this little interesting thing:



[url=http://www.presidentmatch.com...]President match[/url]


It was interesting. What they do, is they ask you about issues and then they 'match' your responses to the candidate that may be correct for you to vote for in 2004.

I didn't like my results so much though. They didn't line up with how I was planning on voting. Here's my results:

[i]1 Kerry Score: 69% Kerry
Party Democrat
Has Held Elected Office Yes
Served in the Military Yes

2 Kucinich Score: 54% Kucinich
Party Democrat
Has Held Elected Office Yes
Served in the Military No

3 Bush Score: 37% Bush
Party Republican
Has Held Elected Office Yes
Served in the Military Yes[/i]

They also allow you to compare each candidate in more detail with the others. It was interesting. Check it out. Let me know how you score!

Student Told to Remove Israel Flag from Dormitory Window 04.18.04 (5:30 pm)   [edit]
By Jennifer Krishnan
NEWS EDITOR

A flag hanging from the window of an MIT dormitory became the center of controversy last month when its owner was asked to take it down and refused.

Administrators said the Israeli flag was a safety hazard and that hanging it outside a window, in a “public space,” violates MIT housing rules and regulations.

Jonathan A. Goler G, the owner of the flag in question, said that when he was first asked to take down the flag, he was told it was because a fellow resident of the Sidney-Pacific Graduate Residence had complained that the flag was offensive.

“My biggest objection is they would ask me to take it down in the first place,” Goler said. “A flag is a symbol that should be out for people to see, and it’s part of the expression.”

“It didn’t matter to us whether the flag was an Israeli flag or a Canadian flag” or anything else, said Anthony E. Gray PhD ’01, a residential life associate. It “had to do with MIT’s housing policies regarding safety and whatnot.”

Nilsson said MIT was concerned with the appearance of the building. Some of MIT’s buildings are “architecturally significant,” and hanging something like a flag from a window “just looks terrible.”

Complaint triggers controversy

Goler said Associate Housemaster Keith N. Hampton came to him on July 2, informing him that he had “received a complaint that the flag was offensive and inflammatory and contrary to the open spirit of the [Sidney-Pacific] courtyard.” Goler said Hampton also mentioned a fire safety issue.

“There’s no question that the issue first came to our attention from a student’s complaint,” Gray said, but once they were aware of it, it was the safety issue they were concerned about.

“It’s not the flag that’s the issue, it’s hanging anything outside the window of a graduate building,” Nilsson said.

Goler’s flag, which he first put up in early June, is still hanging from his window. Nilsson said that the Sidney-Pacific house government would get to decide what to do, but that if they decided to allow Goler to continue to fly his flag, she would ask questions about safety.

Krishnan Sriram G, president of Sidney-Pacific, said that the dormitory’s policies prohibit any object or posting on any doors or corridors inside the building as well as on the exterior of the building. He said that enforcement was the house manager’s role and that the house government was working on better publicizing the policy.

Hampton could not be reached for comment.

MIT concerned about safety

Nilsson said objects hanging from windows posed a number of safety concerns, and that all objects protruding from windows in MIT dormitories -- from flags to air conditioners -- must be approved by the house managers of those dormitories.

An object hanging from a window could be flammable, she said, or the wind might cause it to “bang up against the building and cause damage to the building.” Or it could “become dislodged, fall, and hurt someone or hit a car.”

MIT’s housing policies and regulations state that “the use of flammable decorations, including natural evergreens, in any room, corridor, stairwell, lounge, dining hall, lobby and other public areas is prohibited by Massachusetts fire laws.”

Gray informed Goler via e-mail on July 3 that “your flag is considered flammable decoration by MIT (flammable decorations include more than just evergreens, and run the spectrum from construction paper to bed sheets).”

“I called the Massachusetts fire marshal and said, ‘Is it okay to hang a flag outside your window?’” Goler said, “and they said, ‘Sure, why not?’”

Additionally, the same policies say that “The use of non-flammable decorations must be approved by the House Manager.”

Administrators say Goler is free to hang his flag inside his window.

“Those rules ... are certainly not applied to anyone else for flammable objects in public spaces,” Goler said. “Keith Hampton has a presumably very flammable dried flower wreath on his door.”

Two Israel flags hang at Bexley

Jonathan Battat ’05, a Bexley Hall resident, has two Israeli flags hanging from his windows, which face Massachusetts Avenue.

“That is different [because those have] been reviewed, Nilsson said. They are not “banging against the window.” And “ongoing discussions [about them] are still happening.”

Battat’s flags were “approved by the house manager, the housemaster, and the students,” Gray said. It “hangs on the window,” rather than from the window.

Nilsson and Gray said a process exists for approving banners to be hung on the exteriors of dormitories. This process requires, among other things, that the banner be made flame resistant and that it be approved by the house manager, Gray said. The banner hung at Senior House’s annual Steer Roast is approved each year by this process.

Goler says rules applied selectively

“I think the problem is that Keith Hampton listened to a couple of bigoted students and acted on it,” when he should have told them there was nothing he could do about it, Goler said.

“Tony Gray seemed to be covering for Keith,” he added.

Goler said even if he were in violation of the rules the administrators are pointing too, these rules are not regularly enforced and that this is a selective application of those rules.

Gray said the rules were enforced regularly, citing as an example Bexley’s “I Jerk Off” banner, which is unauthorized and therefore removed every time it goes up. Dean for Student Life Larry G. Benedict said an anti-war banner was removed from Ashdown House last year for the same reason.

“I don’t think that it’s being selectively enforced,” Gray said.

Fellow students respond

“The problem boiled down to the fact that the person who was telling Jonathan that his flag had to be removed was doing so as a response to pressure” from the complainant, said Maxim Shusteff G, co-president of the MIT Students for Israel, speaking on his own behalf. “To then talk about the flag as a fire safety issue is ... clearly not addressing the root of” the problem.

“If somebody specifically complains about the fact that there’s an Israeli flag and they don’t like the fact that they can see it, the official response to that should be ‘tough,’” he said.

“If somebody chooses to display the flag of Saudi Arabia, I’m not going to go to the administration,” Shusteff said. “I might argue with this person, [or] I might write in to The Tech, [but] I don’t think I have a right ... to complain to the administration.”

Arjun Mendiratta G, a member of the Social Justice Cooperative, said the group saw this as “not so much a free speech issue, [but] more of a community issue.”

“If people in the community feel it’s offensive,” MIT should do something about it, he said.

“MIT has a responsibility to ensure a comfortable living and working environment for all students,” Mendiratta said.

“Looking at this as a free speech issue ignores some of the real points that are there,” he said.

Sriram, the Sidney-Pacific president, said the ban on publicity materials inside the building was out of respect for fellow residents. He said the prohibition on objects and postings on the exterior of the building was for respect for the neighbors, since the building “interfaces with Cambridgeport.”

[i]Keith J. Winstein contributed to the reporting of this story. [/i]
[line]
Source: http://www-tech.mit.edu/Info/...

Heller Freezes Over Israel

04.18.04 (3:26 pm)   [edit]
[i]Reuters' Jeffrey Heller turns a major news story into a cheap melodrama.[/i]

President Bush's landmark [url=http://www.whitehouse.gov/new...]statement of support[/url] yesterday (Apr. 14) for Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan triggered heavy media coverage ― some of it highly unbalanced and defamatory.

One reporter in particular, Reuters' Jeffrey Heller, revealed blatant bias in his report, [url=http://www.reuters.com/newsAr...§ion=news]'Bush Mideast Policy Shift Causes Palestinian Outrage'.[/url] Consider this description:


[i][b]Sharon will fly home on Thursday armed with what he came to Washington for ― U.S. "guarantees" he can flaunt in the face of opponents of his proposal to uproot all Gaza settlements and four of the 120 in the West Bank.[/b][/i]

'Flaunt in the face of opponents'? A neutral reporter would never portray a democratic national leader as such a caricatured, vindictive figure. Heller continues:


[i][b]Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie, seeing the sum of all his people's fears realized, immediately denounced the statement as unacceptable. [/b][/i]

'The sum of all [Palestinians'] fears'? Bush's statement was a setback to the PA, but the loss of US support for the 'right of return' and American acceptance of Israeli settlement blocks are certainly not the 'sum of all Palestinian fears.' If the UN, EU, and United States withdrew all financial and political support for a Palestinian state ― that might constitute 'the sum of all Palestinian fears.' Heller's distortion of Bush's statement is journalistic hyperbole at its worst, turning this major news story into a cheap melodrama.

This was the second consecutive day of dishonest reporting from Reuters' Heller ― on Wednesday (Apr. 13) Heller's dispatch ( http://www.reuters.com/locale...;:407dec06:ec48ca60a6ddef a3?type=worldNews&locale= en_IN&storyID=4827993 ) was factually inaccurate regarding Sharon's Likud party:


[i][b]Sharon, who in the late 1970s emerged as the architect of a plan to vastly expand the settlements, heads a right-wing party that views the West Bank as part of the Biblical territories of Judea and Samaria, given by God to the Jews.[/b][/i]

While many believe that Israeli rights to the land derive from the Bible, this is not a Likud position. Likud is a mostly secular party that recognizes Israel's right to the land based on historical claims. The official [url=http://www.knesset.gov.il/ele...]Likud platform[/url] describes their position on the West Bank with no explicit mention of God or the Bible:


T[i][b]he Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are the realization of Zionist values. Settlement of the land is a clear expression of the unassailable right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and constitutes an important asset in the defense of the vital interests of the State of Israel.[/b][/i]

[The full, [url=http://www.likud.org.il/da/de...]Hebrew version[/url] of the Likud party platform makes no mention of land 'given by God to the Jews.']

Jeffrey Heller, who has lived in Israel [url=http://www.snunit.k12.il/proj...]since age 14, [/url] certainly knows the elementary fact that Likud is not a Bible-based party. So we wonder, why does Heller falsely portray Sharon's party in these terms?

The combined effect of Heller's two reports is to portray the Israeli Prime Minister as an antagonist and his Palestinian counterparts as maltreated. [b]This, from the world's second-largest 'news' agency, whose[/b] own [url=http://about.reuters.com/abou...]editorial policy[/url] claims its reporters 'do not offer subjective opinion,' but intend merely 'to enable readers and viewers to form their own judgement.'

Comments to: editor@reuters.com ― or use [url=http://aboutreuters.custhelp....]Reuters' online editorial feedback form.[/url]

Does your local paper carry Reuters articles on the Mideast conflict? If so, HonestReporting encourages writing to your local editor to raise awareness of Reuters' pattern of bias, and to express your preference that Reuters' Mideast articles no longer be carried.

[i]Thank you for your ongoing involvement in the battle against media bias.

HonestReporting [/i]

Israel Puts Teenage Would-Be Bomber on Trial 04.18.04 (1:31 pm)   [edit]
[b]2 hours, 51 minutes ago[/b]

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli prosecutors indicted a teenage would-be suicide bomber Sunday whose globally televised surrender last month brought condemnation of Palestinian militants. Sixteen-year-old Hussam Abdu had a bomb strapped to his body when soldiers stopped him at a checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus. TV footage of the bewildered-looking boy trying to remove the bomb belt was shown around the world.


According to the charge sheet, Abdu told investigators that he was recruited by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.


They gave him the explosives belt with which he was meant to carry out the attack on March 23, it said.


Abdu will be tried in a military court, starting on July 8. If found guilty, he could face a maximum of life in prison. But military sources said his youth could be a mitigating factor.


Abdu was arrested the day after Israel's assassination of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Palestinian factions have vowed to avenge his killing and that of his successor, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, Saturday.


There was a surge of anger among Palestinians that militants would send someone so young to carry out an attack. "I'm angry at those who recruited him and angry at Israel because its measures lead to all this," said Abdu's father Bilal.


Suicide bombers have killed hundreds of Israelis during the 3-1/2-year-old Palestinian uprising against Israel.

Assassinated Hamas Leader Had High Profile 04.18.04 (1:24 pm)   [edit]
Please mark the text that has been bolded. This man was a criminal.
[line]
[b]Sat Apr 17, 4:17 PM ET
[i]By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer [/b][/i]

TEL AVIV, Israel - Abdel Aziz Rantisi, the Hamas leader assassinated in an Israeli air strike Saturday, was one of the highest profile and most extreme voices of the violent Islamic group.


He served as Hamas leader in Gaza for less than a month after Israel killed his predecessor, Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, in a similar helicopter missile strike on March 24.


[b]Rantisi rejected any accommodation with Israel, following strict Hamas ideology that called for destruction of the Jewish state in the Middle East. [/b]

A pediatrician by profession with a reasonable command of English, Rantisi was readily available to foreign journalists and was one of the most recognizable of Hamas' leaders.


Even before he was chosen to replace Yassin, Rantisi was in Israeli gunsights. Last year, an Israeli helicopter fired missiles at his vehicle, wounding him.


Rantisi, 56, was undeterred by the Israeli attempts to kill him and seemed to predict his death.


"It's death whether by killing or by cancer; it's the same thing," he said the day after he was chosen Hamas leader in Gaza. "Nothing will change if it's an Apache (helicopter) or cardiac arrest. But I prefer to be killed by Apache."


Rantisi also told journalists that day, "My priority is to unite the Palestinians in the trenches of resistance because there is no one left who believes in something called the peace process."


Rantisi, Yassin and five other men founded Hamas in 1987 at the start of a first uprising against Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The group grew into one of the region's largest militant Islamic factions and called for a Muslim Middle East [b]without a Jewish state. [/b]


In the early 1990s, at the start of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that Hamas opposed, the group pioneered suicide bombings in Israel. During the current conflict, which has lasted more than three years, [b]the group has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and shooting attacks. [/b]


Rantisi was born on Oct. 23, 1947, in Yibnah, now the Israeli town of Yavneh. He was the fourth of 12 children. When he was 6 months old, his family fled the war that came with Israel's creation in 1948.


The family ended up in the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza. Rantisi moved to Gaza City during the first uprising.


After co-founding Hamas, Rantisi was the group's first leader to be captured and imprisoned by Israeli forces. Altogether, he spent seven years in prison.


During one confinement, he shared a cell with Yassin and committed to memory the Quran, the Muslim holy book of around 600 pages — an achievement he spoke of proudly.


In prison, he also once meticulously assembled a model of Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque from empty cartons of milk, cigarettes and toothbrushes. He displayed the colorfully painted memento of his prison days on a table in his living room.


[b]In 1992, after the killing of a soldier, Israel sent Rantisi and more than 400 other Islamic militants into temporary exile in southern Lebanon. [/b]There, Rantisi first became internationally known, using his command of English to become a spokesman for those deported.


Back in Gaza a year later, Rantisi, with a gray-flecked beard and gold-framed glasses, quickly became one of the group's most recognizable faces, serving as a Hamas spokesman, welcoming journalists to his apartment in Gaza City's Sheik Radwan neighborhood.


[b]Rantisi was targeted by Israel's air force in June of last year.[/b] He leaped from his jeep as a helicopter missile pounded the vehicle. Six other missiles pulverized the jeep with thunderous bangs, killing Rantisi's bodyguard and a bystander and wounding his son Ahmed.

As he ran, Rantisi was hit in the leg by machine gun fire from the chopper.

Fellow Hamas founder and surgeon Mahmoud Zahar operated on Rantisi to repair damage to arteries in one of his legs. Recovering at Gaza's Shifa Hospital, [b]Rantisi vowed Hamas would crush Israel: "I swear we will not leave one Jew in Palestine." [/b]

Hamas Appoints Unnamed Successor to Rantissi 04.18.04 (1:10 pm)   [edit]
[b]Sun Apr 18, 1:59 AM ET [/b]


GAZA (Reuters) - The militant Islamic group Hamas appointed a secret successor to Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi hours after he was assassinated in an Israeli helicopter missile strike, a Hamas statement said on Sunday.


Faced with an Israeli threat to kill all leaders and operatives of Hamas, the movement has decided to keep the name of Rantissi's successor secret, a Hamas source said.


Rantissi had replaced Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated by Israel late last month.


Palestinian sources speculated that possible successors could be Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hamas leader who escaped an Israeli assassination attempt last year, or Ismail Haniyah, Yassin's former right-hand-man.


Israel has stepped up assassinations of Hamas leaders ahead of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's planned pullout from the Gaza Strip, which won U.S. backing last week.


It wants to weaken Hamas ahead of a withdrawal from Gaza so the Islamic militant group, which has spearhead a suicide bombing campaign that has killed hundreds of Israelis, will not fill the power vacuum after the Gaza pullout.

Koran Therapy

04.18.04 (12:40 pm)   [edit]
Secret sources have sent me this website:




[i][b]'Why I hate Islam'[/b][/i]


It is quite amusing. There's a movie and everything!

[i][b]CAUTION[/b]:[/i] If you are Islamic or a PC liberal, you may be offended! ... This means if you fall into one of the aforementioned categories, and you do watch it, don't bitch. Even if you don't fall into one of the aforementioned categories, don't bitch!

[i][b]*NOTE/DISCLAIMER:[/ b][/i] The attitudes and opinions of this website may or may not reflect those of the Tigress. When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me.

Who Was Abdel Aziz Rantisi?

04.17.04 (8:53 pm)   [edit]
Another Hamas leader dead! In case you were wondering; yes, I am happy. Not because I enjoy seeing death (believe me, I dont!), not because others were injured in this mission (I am sorry that they were. Innocents that may have been involved and injured is also a tradgedy. However, Israel was not targetting them -- we must keep this in mind!), but because JUSTICE has been served! I feel for the Palestinians, but murderous organizations like Hamas and their leaders will not assure peace.

God bless the IAF, IDF, Israel, and of course, America.
[line]
[b]Apr. 17, 2004 21:45 | Updated Apr. 17, 2004 23:10
[i]By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH, The Jerusalem Post[/b][/i]


Abdel Aziz Rantisi was one of the six founding members of the Hamas movement, which was established in 1987.

Born in Yibneh, Rantisi moved with his family to the Gaza Strip in 1948. He studied medicine in Alexandria, Egypt and in 1972, after completing his studies, he began working at a local hospital in Gaza and teaching at the local Islamic University.

In 1992, Rantisi was deported along with 416 Hamas and Islamic Jihad members to Lebanon. After returning to Israel in 1993, he was incarcerated until 1997.

Following the arrival of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in Israel 1997, Rantisi, together with Yassin, reestablished the Hamas leadership.

Rantissi was arrested numerous times by the Palestinian Authority due to his fierce opposition of Chairman Yasser Arafat and the Oslo Accords.

In 1999 Rantisi was released from a Palestinian prison and became Yassin's right hand man.

With the demise of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin last month in an Israeli targeted attack, Rantisi declared that he was the new leader of Hamas.

His leadership was contested by Khaled Masha'al, Hamas leader residing in Damascus, and it was decided that Rantisi would become the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip.

Recent quotes from Rantisi
[i][b]"We knew that Bush is the enemy of God, the enemy of Islam and Muslims. America declared war against God. Sharon declared war against God and God declared war against America, Bush and Sharon. ... The war of God continues against them, and I can see the victory coming up from the land of Palestine by the hand of Hamas."[/i]- Last month, after the United States vetoed an UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel for assassinating Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin.

[i]"We will be unified in the trenches of resistance. We will not surrender, we will never surrender to Israeli terror."[/i] - Last month, after being selected Hamas leader in Gaza after Yassin was killed.

[i]"Yassin is a man in a nation, and a nation in a man. And the retaliation of this nation will be of the size of this man. ... You will see deeds not words."[/i] - Last month, after Yassin's assassination.

[i]"We will all die one day. Nothing will change. If by Apache or by cardiac arrest, I prefer Apache."[/i] - Last month, after Yassin's assassination

[i]"This operation, whoever is behind it, is a natural reaction for the bloody aggression against our people."[/i] - Last September, after deadly suicide bombings at a bus stop crowded with Israeli soldiers near Rishon Letzion and five hours later at a Jerusalem nightspot.

[i]"They think that targeting leaders will stop Jihad (holy war). They are mistaken. ... All of us in Hamas from top to bottom are looking to become like Abu Shanab."[/i] - Last August, after Israel killed Yassin aide Ismail Abu Shanab.

[i]"The word cease-fire is not in our dictionary. ... Resistance will continue until we uproot them from our homeland."[/i] - Last June, as Egypt tried to work out a truce.

[i]"The Zionists will pay an expensive price for all of their crimes."[/i] - Last June, from his hospital bed after a deadly bus bombing in Jerusalem that followed Israel's attempt to kill him. [/b]

[i]With AP[/i]

Planting seeds of the next war:The Truth about the Palestinian schoolbooks

04.17.04 (8:26 pm)   [edit]
[i][b]by Itamar Marcus, director PMW [/b][/i]

Introduction:
One of the most meaningful gauges of the integrity of a peace process and its likelihood for success is the degree to which the “peace partners” educate towards peace. It is for this reason that the entire Palestinian Authority (PA) education apparatus, both formal and informal, has been such a dismal disappointment. Instead of seizing the opportunity to educate the future generations to live with Israel in peace, the PA has done everything in its power to teach hatred to young minds.

Making matters worse, the Palestinian Authority has been spreading two clever lies about the schoolbooks that have succeeded in deflecting international pressure for change. This week, at a meeting in Jordan, Nebil Shaath answered Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom’s complaint about the schoolbooks saying that the PA has “spent five years” rewriting the books, implying that they are now proper. Then he added, that Israel used the same old Jordanian books for educating the local Arab population “for 30 years”, and therefore has no valid complaint to the PA. Many European governments, and many Israelis, have come to the PA’s defense, citing these and other arguments.

The truth about the PA schoolbooks is first, that both new and old are far from proper - both include anti-Semitism, de-legitimize Israel’s existence and incite to hatred and violence. In the new 6th grade book “Reading the Koran”, anti-Semitism is presented openly, as children read about Allah’s warning to the Jews that because of their evil Allah will kill them: “...Oh you who are Jews ...long for death if you are truthful... for the death from which you flee, that will surely overtake you ...”In other sections they learn of Jews being expelled from their homes by Allah, and in another Jews are said to be like donkeys: “Those [Jews] who were charged with the Torah, but did not observe it, are like a donkey carrying books...” [Reading the Koran, grade 6. p.20, 23, 78]. This religious based anti-Semitism is the most dangerous, as children are taught that hating Jews is God’s choice. And while Islam is not being critiqued, it is very grave that although Islam has positive traditions regarding Jews, the PA educators chose to incorporate only hateful religious traditions.

The new PA schoolbooks that Shaath was so positive about, also teach that Israel has no right to exist, de-legitimizing Israel as a foreign occupier, compared to colonial Britain: “Colonialism: Palestine faced the British occupation after the First World War in 1917, and the Israeli occupation in 1948 …”[National Education, sixth grade, p. 16].
Since all of Israel is said to be an “occupation”, all of Israel’s cities, regions and natural resources are presented as being part of “Palestine”. For example:
“Among the famous rocks of southern Palestine are the rocks of Beersheba and the Negev” and “Palestine’s Water Sources - ... The most important is the Sea of Galilee.” [Our Beautiful Language, grade 6, Part A, p. 64, National Education, sixth grade, p. 9-10]

The Negev, Beersheba and the Sea of Galilee are in Israel and do not border the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria. Yet PA children are taught these are “Palestine”. Continuing this ideology a book is citing dedicated to “...Palestinians, so that they would remember their stolen homeland and work for its salvation...”[Our Beautiful Language, sixth grade, Part A, p. 112] and it is referring, not to the disputed territories, but Israel pre 1967.

Educating not to recognize Israel’s existence is cemented through tens of maps in the schoolbooks in which “Palestine” encompass all of Israel. Israel does not exist on any map, within any borders. The PA defense of their schoolbook map, that since there are no final borders the map is not portraying modern “Palestine” but “Mandatory Palestine”, is an insult to our intelligence. Are we expected to believe that when Palestinian children see the map called “Palestine” in all their schoolbooks they imagine Britain a half a century ago? And when Beersheba is called Palestine, the children are picturing Biblical history?

Another new book teaches what must be done for “occupied Palestine” and the “stolen homeland”: “Islam encourages this [love of homeland] and established the defense of it as an obligatory commandment for every Muslim if even a centimeter of his land is stolen. "I, a Palestinian Muslim, love my country Palestine...” [Islamic Education, sixth grade, Part A, p. 68]

The complete and total message Palestinian children are taught is that Jews, according to Allah, are like donkeys; Israel is a colonial occupier who stole their land; the cities, lakes and deserts of Israel are “occupied Palestine”; and they, the children, have an obligation to liberate it “even if a centimeter is stolen”.

All the above messages are found in new schoolbooks written and published by the PA since 2000. The first claim that new PA books are “proper” is flagrantly untrue. However, the majority of the books still in use by the PA schools are books they republish under the symbol of their own Ministry of Education, that were written by Jordan. These books include the following hate promotion:
“One must beware of the Jews, for they are treacherous and disloyal.”
[Islamic Education for Ninth Grade p. 79, these and below from CMIP report]
“I learn from this lesson: I believe that the Jews are the enemies of the Prophets and the believers.”[Islamic Education, Part Two, for Fourth Grade p. 67]
“Remember: “The final and inevitable result will be the victory of the Muslims over the Jews.” [Our Arabic Language for Fifth Grade p. 67]
“The clearest examples of racist belief and racial discrimination in the world are Nazism and Zionism. “ [The New History of the Arabs and the World, P. 123]

The second great PA lie expressed by Shaath this week, that Israel used these same old books, is particularly resourceful, as the best lies include a grain of truth. Indeed, Israel did use Jordanian books to educate the local Arab population. However, Israel reprinted the books without the hate education. In fact, Jordan registered a complaint to the UN charging that Israel’s changing the schoolbooks was a violation of international law, but the UN checked what Israel had done and approved it. The PA has put back into the old Jordanian education all the hate education that Israel had removed.

Moreover, as early as three years ago foreign governments offered money to the PA to reprint these old books without the hateful material. The PA turned down the money and refused to reprint them using a variety of arguments, the first of which was: “Don’t get involved in our education - it is our Palestinian heritage.” These hateful Jordanian books are republished today unedited by the PA by choice and the PA must stop passing responsibility onto others for the hate content.

Finally it should be stressed that all the books cited here were written during the most optimistic periods of the peace process, before the violence began in September 2000. They are not a reflection of the war, but were a great contributing factor to the war. The ongoing attempts to defend PA schoolbooks are tragic, as the PA is using these arguments to justify their indefensible hate education, and to refuse to improve their books. The PA is planting the seeds of the next war in their youth, and the defenders of PA hate education, including Israelis, are nurturing those seeds of war.

Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch, [www.pmw.org.il] was Israel’s representative to the Tri Lateral [Israeli-Palestinian- American] Anti- Incitement Committee.
[line]
Source: [url=http://www.pmw.org.il/new/]Palestinian Media Watch[/url]

D'var Torah for Shemini

04.16.04 (4:00 pm)   [edit]
As the Parsha relates the joyous time when the Jews finally started the long-awaited service in the Mishkan, Parshat Shemini abruptly interrupts that with the disturbing death of Aaron's 2 oldest sons (Nadav and Avihu). Their sin was that they wanted to show their love for God SO much that they took it upon themselves to take incense and burn it on their own.

The Torah then relates that a fire "came out from before Hashem and consumed them". It seems strange that the same fire that 2 Pessukim (verses) ago came down to burn the offerings was the SAME fire that came down to kill Aaron's 2 sons. Also, why did they specifically die with fire, which is the very method they tried to use to serve God?

The Rashbam helps us understand the reason why the sons were wrong by explaining that they weren't authorized to bring the offering, and that their bringing it minimized the miracle of the fire coming down from the sky. However, although they died, the verse says they died "before God", which commentaries explain to mean that they at least tried to do a good thing, and were worthy of dying before God.

Trying to preempt God's commandments by burning things themselves minimizes the very essence of those commandments. We too have to follow the guidelines of the Torah, not because they make sense to us and we'd do them anyway, but BECAUSE God wants us to do things a certain way. The point of the fire was to show us that God would use fire FOR us, unless we make Him use that very fire ON us by altering the "plan".

The critical lesson from all of this is that we need to observe the commandments correctly, so that we strengthen the fire within us, which in turn will strengthen us even more!

Have a strengthening Shabbos! Hazak Hazak, V'Tis-hazek!

The Holiday Of Lag B'Omer

04.15.04 (1:34 pm)   [edit]
Lag b’Omer—pronounced lahg b-OH-mehr—is the 33rd day between the second day of Passover and the holiday of Shavuot. There are altogether seven weeks, 49 days, between the two holidays, and Lag b’Omer comes out in the second to last week.

This period is traditionally a time of mourning for a terrible tragedy that took place during this time almost 2,000 years ago: the death of almost all of Rabbi Akiba’s 24,000 students (see Talmud, Yevamot 62b). Jews traditionally do not marry during this period, attend concerts, take haircuts, etc. Other tragedies also befell our people during this time.

The 33rd day of the omer, by contrast, is one day out of the omer that we not only do not mourn, we celebrate.

There are a number of reasons for this,* but here are the main two:

1. On this day the plague that killed Rabbi Akiba’s students was suspended (or stopped entirely, or began to subside, depending on the various opinions).

2. On this day, the author of the Zohar, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, passed away. He made it very clear that he wanted the day of his passing to be celebrated as a holiday. He said he “had been waiting for this day for my entire life.” He revealed more kabbalistic secrets on that day than he did throughout his life.

In general, the anniversary of the day of passing is a day when all the good deeds and positive light that the deceased person brought into the world is amplified. It is a day when the soul of the deceased ascends to a higher sphere within the spiritual realms. So on Lag b’Omer the immense illumination that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai introduced is especially present.

It is therefore a day that we have an extra capacity to tap into the inner dimension of things, the soul, G-d, Torah, and carry its inspiration through the rest of the year.

*According to Chassam Sofer, for example, on this day the manna began to descend from heaven.

[b]How is Lag b’Omer celebrated?[/b]

There are a number of customs.

According to Ashkenazic custom, by not mourning. Unlike the rest of the days between Passover and Shavuot, Lag b’Omer we celebrate with music, marriages, permission to take haircuts etc. (Chabad custom is to hold off until the day before Shavuot for the haircuts.)

Sefardic Jews, however, stop mourning on the 34th day. From then on, the mourning is over for the sefardim. Ashkenazic Jews resume mourning after the 33rd day. These differences are based on varying opinions of the exact details relating to the death of Rabbi Akiba’s students.

But everyone enjoys the day by going out into the fields and celebrating. The two main symbols of Lag b’Omer are bonfires and bow and (wooden) arrows.

Some Chasidic groups treat the day as a festival, dressing in their festive clothing and holding a banquet like on Sabbath of festivals.

The grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, Rabbi Baruch of Mezibuz, would study the entire Zohar (authored by Rabbi Shimon) each year, concluding its study on Lag b’Omer. He would then take the Zohar in his hand and dance with it for many hours with great ecstasy and rapture. For him it was a day like Simchat Torah.

By far, the largest celebration for Lag b’Omer takes place in and around Miron, the town near Safed where Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his son Rabbi Elazar are buried. Large bonfires can be seen from miles away and the celebration is unparalleled.

In some circles there are special poetic songs that are sung on this day extolling the greatness of Rabbi Shimon.

Many also have the custom to give a boy his first haircut at age three on Lag b’Omer, and if possible, in Miron.

In short, it is a day of great inspiration, study, prayer and celebration.

This year, Lag B'Omer falls on Mother's day, Sunday May 9th!

Israel Removes Two West Bank Outposts 04.15.04 (12:50 pm)   [edit]
So where is the news that Hamas has been dismantled? Very one-sided, if you ask me.
[line]
JERUSALEM - The Israeli military evacuated two unauthorized West Bank outposts early Thursday, arresting seven settlers during the operation, the army said.

Both outposts were uninhabited. The arrested settlers had come to prevent the evacuation.

At the Havat Maon outpost near the West Bank settlement of Hebron troops removed three trailers, the empty shell of a bus and one wooden structure, the army said.

Soldiers scuffled with settlers and one policeman was lightly wounded, the army said. Seven Jewish settlers were arrested.

In the northern West Bank troops also took down an empty building near the settlement of Yitzhar, the army said.

Israel is to dismantle dozens of illegal outposts as part of the stalled U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan. The Palestinians are required to crack down on militant groups. Neither side has carried out its commitments.

A Statement By President Bush & A Question For My Readers

04.15.04 (12:42 pm)   [edit]
I ask this question of my readers: If Jon Kerry were currently in office, how do you think he would handle this issue? What kind of statement would be issued from Jon Kerry of this nature today if he were President? If you want to try to convince me, here's your chance. Please be truthful in your statements and opinions.

The following is a statement by President Bush:
[line]
I remain hopeful and determined to find a way forward toward a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

The Israeli Plan:

I welcome the disengagement plan prepared by the Government of Israel, under which Israel would withdraw certain military installations and all settlements from Gaza, and withdraw certain military installations and settlements in the West Bank. These steps will mark real progress toward realizing the vision I set forth in June 2002 of two states living side by side in peace and security, and make a real contribution toward peace.

I am hopeful that steps pursuant to this plan, consistent with this vision, will remind all states and parties of their own obligations under the roadmap.

The Path to Peace:

I believe certain principles, which are very widely accepted in the international community, show us the path forward:

* The right of self defense and the need to fight terrorism are equally
matters of international agreement.
* The two-state vision and the roadmap for peace designed to implement it,
command nearly universal support as the best means of achieving a
permanent peace and an end to the Israeli occupation that began in 1967.
* United Nations Security Council resolutions have repeatedly spoken of
the desirability of establishing two independent states, Israel and
Palestine, living side by side within secure and recognized borders.


Having these principles in mind, the United States is able to make the following comments.

Peace Plans:

The United States remains committed to the vision of two states living side by side in peace and security, and its implementation as described in the roadmap. The United States will do its utmost to prevent any attempt by anyone to impose any other plan.

Security:

There will be no security for Israelis or Palestinians until they and all states, in the region and beyond, join together to fight terrorism and dismantle terrorist organizations. The United States reiterates its steadfast commitment to Israel's security, including secure, defensible borders, and to preserve and strengthen Israel's capability to deter and defend itself, by itself, against any threat or possible combination of threats. The United States will join with others in the international community to strengthen the capacity and will of Palestinian security forces to fight terrorism and dismantle terrorist capabilities and infrastructure.

Terrorism:

Israel will retain its right to defend itself against terrorism, including to take actions against terrorist organizations. The United States will lead efforts, working together with Jordan, Egypt, and others in the international community, to build the capacity and will of Palestinian institutions to fight terrorism, dismantle terrorist organizations, and prevent the areas from which Israel has withdrawn from posing a threat that would have to be addressed by any other means. The United States understands that after Israel withdraws from Gaza and/or parts of the West Bank, and pending agreements on other arrangements, existing arrangements regarding control of airspace, territorial waters, and land passages of the West Bank and Gaza will continue.

The Two-State Solution:

The United States remains committed to the two-state solution for peace in the Middle East as set forth in June 2002, and to the roadmap as the best path to realize that vision.

The goal of two independent states has repeatedly been recognized in international resolutions and agreements, and it remains a key to resolving this conflict. The United States is strongly committed to Israel's security and well-being as a Jewish state. It seems clear that an agreed, just, fair and realistic framework for a solution to the Palestinian refugee issue as part of any final status agreement will need to be found through the establishment of a Palestinian state, and the settling of Palestinian refugees there, rather than in Israel.

As part of a final peace settlement, Israel must have secure and recognized borders, which should emerge from negotiations between the parties in accordance with UNSC Resolutions 242 and 338. In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli populations centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949, and all previous efforts to negotiate a two-state solution have reached the same conclusion. It is realistic to expect that any final status agreement will only be achieved on the basis of mutually agreed changes that reflect these realities.

Palestinian Statehood:

The United States supports the establishment of a Palestinian state that is viable, contiguous, sovereign, and independent, so that the Palestinian people can build their own future in accordance with the vision I set forth in June 2002 and with the path set forth in the roadmap. The United States will join with others in the international community to foster the development of democratic political institutions and new leadership committed to those institutions, the reconstruction of civic institutions, the growth of a free and prosperous economy, and the building of capable security institutions dedicated to maintaining law and order and dismantling terrorist organizations.

Palestinian Obligations:

Under the roadmap, Palestinians must undertake an immediate cessation of armed activity and all acts of violence against Israelis anywhere, and all official Palestinian institutions must end incitement against Israel. The Palestinian leadership must act decisively against terror, including sustained, targeted, and effective operations to stop terrorism and dismantle terrorist capabilities and infrastructure. Palestinians must undertake a comprehensive and fundamental political reform that includes a strong parliamentary democracy and an empowered prime minister.

Israeli Obligations:

The Government of Israel is committed to take additional steps on the West Bank, including progress toward a freeze on settlement activity, removing unauthorized outposts, and improving the humanitarian situation by easing restrictions on the movement of Palestinians not engaged in terrorist activities.

As the Government of Israel has stated, the barrier being erected by Israel should be a security rather than political barrier, should be temporary rather than permanent, and therefore not prejudice any final status issues including final borders, and its route should take into account, consistent with security needs, its impact on Palestinians not engaged in terrorist activities.

Regional Cooperation:

A peace settlement negotiated between Israelis and Palestinians would be a great boon not only to those peoples but to the peoples of the entire region. Accordingly, all states in the region have special responsibilities: to support the building of the institutions of a Palestinian state; to fight terrorism, and cut off all forms of assistance to individuals and groups engaged in terrorism; and to begin now to move toward more normal relations with the State of Israel. These actions would be true contributions to building peace in the region.
[line]
Source: White House Press Office

THE REAL JOHN KERRY STANDS UP

04.14.04 (4:47 pm)   [edit]
This is completely horrible.
[line]

[b]Wed Mar 31, 8:02 PM ET
[i]By Maggie Gallagher [/b][/i]

When the bodies of Laci and Conner Peterson washed ashore on the California coastline, the authorities had no problem recognizing two bodies, two victims, two crimes. Scott Peterson now faces double-homicide charges.


But the law treated the murder of Tracy Marciniak's baby differently. Five days before her son was due, her husband viciously attacked her: "He held me against a couch by my hair. He knew that I very much wanted my son. He punched me very hard twice in the abdomen. Then he refused to call for help, and prevented me from calling," Tracy testified before Congress.


She almost died; her child, Zachariah, was dead. Blunt-trauma injuries, the doctors said. Yet at the time, Wisconsin law did not recognize that anyone was killed that night. A man got away with murder.


In her testimony last year, Tracy said: "Mr. Chairman, I ask you and the other members of the committee to look at this photograph and ask yourselves: Does it show one victim, or two?"


One victim or two? You can judge for yourself by going to the National Right to Life Committee Web site and viewing the photo of Tracy holding her son for the last time. (www.nrlc.org/Unborn_victims/index.html)


"I carried Zachariah in my womb for almost nine full months," said Tracy. "He was killed in my womb, only five days from his delivery date. The first time I ever held him in my arms, he was already dead. This photo shows the second time I held him, which was the last time. There is no way that I can really tell you about the pain I feel when I visit my son's gravesite in Milwaukee, and at other times, thinking of all that we missed together. But that pain was greater because the man who killed Zachariah got away with murder."


Last week, by a vote of 61-to-38, the Senate passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, also known as "Laci and Conner's Law," which makes the death or injury to a "child in utero" a federal crime when it is committed in the course of another violent federal crime. President Bush immediately applauded: "Pregnant women who have been harmed by violence, and their families, know that there are two victims -- the mother and the unborn child -- and both victims should be protected by federal law. I look forward to signing this important legislation into law."


Abortion, medical treatment, and the acts of the woman herself are specifically exempted. But some people can't get abortion politics out of their heads.


Sharon Rocha, Laci Peterson's mother and Conner Peterson's grandmother, wrote in 2003: "What I find difficult to understand is why groups and senators who champion the pro-choice cause are blind to the fact that these two-victim crimes are the ultimate violation of choice." In a Feb. 26 statement rejecting a substitute bill proposed by Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., Rocha said: "Laci knew that Conner was her son, and I know it too. Two people, Laci and Conner, would be here with us today if they had not been murdered. There were two victims in this crime, not one."


Last week, only 38 senators voted against Laci and Conner's law. Sen. John Kerry was one of them. In a letter to constituents, Sen. Kerry expressed concern that, even though abortion is specifically exempted, recognizing two victims might somehow undermine Roe v. Wade.


Was it a profile in courage? Maybe you think so.


But isn't there something profoundly unattractive about a man who can see a pregnant woman brutally attacked and worry about abortion politics? That's a cold man. Cold, ideological, mechanical, mean.


Did the real John Kerry just stand up?


(Readers may reach Maggie Gallagher at Maggie@imapp.org.)

My letter to the newspaper: LIES, DAMN LIES, AND BIAS!

04.14.04 (4:09 pm)   [edit]
The following is the latest letter to the editors of my college newspaper. I will keep you updated as developments in this story arise.
[line]
I would like to voice my disappointment at the Apr. 13th issue's spread in the Campus/Local section. At least a couple of times in your spread about 'U.S. out of the Middle East,' your paper makes an irresponsible claim that reeks of media bias and ignorance. The caption on one photo reads, "Protestors, beginning from the federal building walk down broadway with one goal, get Bush out of Washington and the soldiers out of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel out of Palestine." Another section from an article reads, "End the occupations of Iraq, Palestine, and Afghanistan."

These irresponsible statements misrepresent and fuel an even larger problem: Lies.

There is no such place as Palestine!

This may have been direct quotes or paraphrases, even snippets, of attitude that came from the protestors who chanted such epitaphs, but your paper has a moral responsibility to qualify these statements and provide an unbiased view of the facts to your readers. You did a fair job of this where the Iraq issue was concerned. You even stated oppositional protestors. However, Israel is NOT IN Palestine! Again, there is no Palestine. I take great offense to the "get Israel out of Palestine" particularly because it sounds strikingly (and scarily) similar to the pledge of Hamas and other Palestinian organizations (as well as Arafat himself) to "Throw the Jews into the sea" ([url=http://domino.un.org/unispal.... ]Source[/url] ). Better yet, the vows of Rantisi, the new Hamas leader, to "rid the region of Jews" (Associated Press). I fear that situations like this may give legitimacy to the murders that Israel suffers at the hands of such evil.

To you, this biased and irresponsible statement of mistruth by the protesters and later relayed by your paper may seem harmless and of no consequence. To those of us who are sensitive to these issues, have witnessed Palestinian violence first hand, and are bracing themselves for the next wave of violence in the name of such ignorance, we are upset to say the least.

In closing, I have a response to the protestors who were pictured in the photo which caption I quoted earlier. The sign in the photo read, "I have condemned any organizer of war, regardless of his rank or nationality. --MLK [Martin Luther King Jr.?]":

Palestinian terror organizations arrange, organize, and perpetrate war every day. Not only do they target military officials, but also innocent civilians (important to note: CHILDREN included).

I would now like to provide a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that I found:

". . . You declare, my friend, that you do not hate the Jews, you are merely 'anti-Zionist.' And I say, let the truth ring forth from the high mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys of God's green earth: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews--this is God's own truth.
"Antisemitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, has been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind. In this we are in full agreement. So know also this: anti-Zionist is inherently antisemitic, and ever will be so.

"Why is this? You know that Zionism is nothing less than the dream and ideal of the Jewish people returning to live in their own land. The Jewish people, the Scriptures tell us, once enjoyed a flourishing Commonwealth in the Holy Land. From this they were expelled by the Roman tyrant, the same Romans who cruelly murdered Our Lord. Driven from their homeland, their nation in ashes, forced to wander the globe, the Jewish people time and again suffered the lash of whichever tyrant happened to rule over them.

"The Negro people, my friend, know what it is to suffer the torment of tyranny under rulers not of our choosing. Our brothers in Africa have begged, pleaded, requested--DEMANDED the recognition and realization of our inborn right to live in peace under our own sovereignty in our own country.

"How easy it should be, for anyone who holds dear this inalienable right of all mankind, to understand and support the right of the Jewish People to live in their ancient Land of Israel. All men of good will exult in the fulfillment of God's promise, that his People should return in joy to rebuild their plundered land.

This is Zionism, nothing more, nothing less.

"And what is anti-Zionist? It is the denial to the Jewish people of a fundamental right that we justly claim for the people of Africa and freely accord all other nations of the Globe. It is discrimination against Jews, my friend, because they are Jews. In short, it is antisemitism.

"The antisemite rejoices at any opportunity to vent his malice. The times have made it unpopular, in the West, to proclaim openly a hatred of the Jews. This being the case, the antisemite must constantly seek new forms and forums for his poison. How he must revel in the new masquerade! He does not hate the Jews, he is just 'anti-Zionist'!

"My friend, I do not accuse you of deliberate antisemitism. I know you feel, as I do, a deep love of truth and justice and a revulsion for racism, prejudice, and discrimination. But I know you have been misled--as others have been--into thinking you can be 'anti-Zionist' and yet remain true to these heartfelt principles that you and I share.

Let my words echo in the depths of your soul: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews--make no mistake about it."

From M.L. King Jr., "Letter to an Anti-Zionist Friend," Saturday Review_XLVII (Aug. 1967), p. 76.
Reprinted in M.L. King Jr., "This I Believe: Selections from the Writings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."

I stand by both my countries, for they are allies, in this time of war! Peace is something I wish for greatly. In Israel, it is our very lives that are at stake. For, if the Palestinians would put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews were to put their weapons down today, there would be no more Israel!

Israel has the right to exist. The Jews have a right to a homeland in peace. Please be more responsible with your paper. If there are any protestors who were at that rally/march reading this, please think about your words and your actions as well as the effects therein.

Sincerely,

[My signature]

JUNKING THE ROAD MAP?

04.14.04 (3:23 pm)   [edit]
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has a key meeting with President Bush in Washington today (Apr. 14) to discuss US support for Sharon's 'disengagement plan.' Here are the main actions Sharon has proposed:

● Complete Israeli withdraw from the [b]Gaza Strip[/b], with the probable exception of the 'Philadelphia corridor' along the Egyptian border. This would include abandoning 21 Jewish Gaza settlements ― home to over 7,000 Israelis.

● In the [b]West Bank[/b]: 1) immediate Israeli withdraw from four small northern settlements, and 2) retaining five block of Israeli West Bank communities, protected by the new security fence: Givat Ze'ev, Gush Etzion, Ariel, Maale Adumim and Kiryat Arba/Hebron.

It is important to note that Sharon's disengagement plan has yet to be approved by even his own Likud party (which votes on it in two weeks), let alone the entire Israeli government. Jerusalem Post notes that these upcoming, fiercely-debated decisions will make this month 'one of the most politically contentious in Israel's history.'

Rather than report these developments straight, many news outlets are misrepresenting Sharon's plan and Washington visit as a cynical, unilateral 'abandoning' of the road map to a two-state solution. Some examples (emphases added):

● [url=http://www.usatoday.com/news/...]USA Today[/url] : 'a proposal by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon [b]to junk[/b] the Bush administration's [b]"road map" for Middle East peace...'[/b]

● [url=http://www.washingtonpost.com...://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4442 -2004Apr11.html]Washington Post's [/url] Jackson Diehl: The [b]'audacious' Sharon 'aims to abandon[/b] a decade of efforts to arrange [b]a negotiated settlement [/b]between Israel and a new Palestinian state...[b]to overturn the apple cart of the Middle East peace process.'[/b]

●[url=http://www.boston.com/news/gl...]Boston Globe:[/url] 'Bush...would be [b]contradicting[/b] not only longstanding US policy but his own commitment to the [b]road map for Mideast peace [/b]if he gives Sharon the guarantees he seeks.'

These media outlets somehow manage to remove Sharon's plan from the bloody context it springs from ― three and a half years of relentless Palestinian terror that has taken 957 Israeli lives and destroyed any hope for the road map to be implemented in the near future. To blame [i]Sharon [/i]for 'junking' the road map ― while exonerating the terrorists and their PA supporters ― simply defies reality.

=http://img19.photobucket.com/...

Moreover, the Sharon plan does [i]not[/i], as the Washington Post and others state, 'abandon' negotiated settlement toward a two-state solution. An [url=http://www.forbes.com/markets...]Israeli official[/url] describes the plan as 'a parking place for Israel to park comfortably for some time.' And [url=http://www.whitehouse.gov/new...]Bush[/url] himself said:

[i][b]We both [Sharon and I] are in agreement that if Israel makes the decision to withdraw, it doesn't replace the road map, it is a part of the road map, so that we can continue progress toward the two-state solution.[/b][/i]

Indeed, the missing condition for the road map remains as it always was ― [url=http://www.whitehouse.gov/new...]in Bush's words[/url] , a Palestinian leadership 'not compromised by terror.' Israel waits patiently for that to emerge; in the meantime, Israel will exercise its right to protect its citizens.

Comments to USA Today: editor@usatoday.com
Comments to Washington Post: letters@washpost.com
Comments to Boston Globe: letter@globe.com

As the Sharon-Bush meeting takes place, HonestReporting encourages subscribers to be on the lookout for local media misrepresentation of Sharon's plan as 'junking negotiation' and the road map.

[i]Thank you for your ongoing involvement in the battle against media bias.

HonestReporting[/i]

Madrid Document Listed Jewish Targets 04.14.04 (2:45 pm)   [edit]
[b]Wed Apr 14,10:44 AM ET
[i]by CIARAN GILES, Associated Press Writer [/b][/i]

MADRID, Spain - Police searching an apartment where suspects in the Madrid terror bombings blew themselves up found a document listing possible Jewish targets, members of Spain's Jewish community and Spanish officials said Wednesday.


Listed in the document was a Jewish cemetery and cultural center called La Masada in Hoyo de Manzanares, a mountain town 20 miles northwest of Madrid.


Police combed the area last Thursday but found no bombs, Fernando Esteban, mayor of Hoyo de Manzanares, told The Associated Press.


"They told us documents were found in the Leganes apartment in which the Masada center was named which indicated it might be a possible target," Esteban said. He said police gave him no details as to what type of document was found in Leganes, a town south of Madrid.


But the Interior Ministry, which handles police and security issues, and officials at the National Court on Wednesday denied evidence had been found which indicating any Jewish was a target.


"There is nothing (of what was found) which would lead one to think or indicate that there was any concrete target," said ministry spokesman Richard Ibanez.


Police believe the seven suspects who blew themselves up on April 3 in Leganes included some of the ringleaders of the March 11 Madrid bombings which killed 191 people and injured 1,800.


Esteban said some 60 police officers took part in the search of the Masada and neighboring Jewish cemetery but later confirmed that all was safe. He said that a small contingent of police officers continued to patrol the area.


The Masada center is located on some 4 acres of private land and is used periodically by members of the Jewish community for meetings and social gatherings.


Spain's Jewish community numbers 30,000 to 40,000.


A spokesman for the Israeli Embassy, Jackie Eldam, said embassy officials had been made "aware of the information regarding the document found in the apartment" but declined to give more details.


The president of the Jewish community in Madrid, Jacobo Israel, was not available for comment Wednesday. But another member, who asked not to be identified, confirmed that they had been informed of the matter.


Both the embassy spokesman and the Israeli community member said no new security measures had been taken as a result of the find.


The conservative daily La Razon said Wednesday that besides the Masada center and the cemetery, the list found by police included Madrid's lone Jewish school, the city's main synagogue and two meeting centers.


However, Cecilia Weismann, director of the Jewish school, told AP that police had denied the school was named on any document found in the Leganes apartment. She said she was unaware of any other threat to the school.

Questions about Jews and Judaism?

04.14.04 (2:37 pm)   [edit]
Stubled accross an very nice site today:



[url=http://howieconnect.com/infoj...]What's Your Biggest Question about Jews and Judaism?[/url]

The owner of this site created it because of the recent anti-semitic site that comes up on Google. He can help dispell any issues or questions anyone may have about the Jewish people and our religion etc.

Please check it out! :)

Israel Praises Relationship With Hungary 04.14.04 (2:33 pm)   [edit]
[b]Wed Apr 14,11:25 AM ET
[i]By PABLO GORONDI, Associated Press Writer [/b][/i]

BUDAPEST, Hungary - Israeli President Moshe Katsav praised Hungary's efforts to combat anti-semitism as Hungarian authorities Wednesday again denied there was a bomb plot to kill the president of the Jewish state.


Katsav was in Hungary to inaugurate Budapest's Holocaust Memorial Center. On Tuesday, police arrested three Arabs for an alleged plot to bomb a Jewish museum.


There are two Jewish museums in the capital, a small permanent exhibit and the larger Holocaust Center, which Katsav was to inaugurate Thursday. But police have not said which museum was being targeted.


However, an aide to Katsav and Israeli diplomats said the president, who came to Budapest on Tuesday for a three-day visit, was the target of the conspiracy.


But Hungarian officials have repeatedly denied that Katsav was in danger — the Israeli president "was not the target of any (planned) attack in Budapest," government spokesman Zoltan Gal was quoted as saying Wednesday by MTI, the state news agency.


Police said the main suspect was a 42-year-old dentist of Palestinian origin who holds Hungarian citizenship and is the spiritual head of a small Islamic group in Budapest.


Investigators did not discover any explosives while searching buildings where the suspect spent time, like his home or office.


But "we have found other physical evidence and documents, which we are in the process of evaluating," said police spokesman Laszlo Garamvolgyi.


Hungary's National Security Agency alerted police to the potential threat posed by the suspect three weeks ago, he said. That warning came as security was heightened throughout Europe following the terrorist bombings of commuter trains in Madrid, Spain.


"Since (the Madrid bombings) there can be no room ... for taking any chances, if we have evidence and information we have to act immediately," said Gal, the government spokesman.


But he did not say why police waited three weeks to arrest the man.


The suspect will appear in court Thursday.


Despite the threats, Katsav pressed ahead Wednesday, meeting with Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy.


Afterward, he told journalists: "I am convinced the Hungarian government is doing everything against anti-Semitism ... which is not just a Jewish problem but also the enemy of all of humanity and democracy."


Overt cases of anti-Semitism are rare in Hungary, home to between 80,000-100,000 Jews. Some 600,000 Hungarian Jews perished in the Holocaust.


Hungarians want "the Hungarian Jewish community to live safely in Hungary while keeping and enriching its traditions and culture," Medgyessy said.

Anti-Semitic preacher gets attention, fear 04.14.04 (2:20 pm)   [edit]
[i]Many in Bay City area worry about his impact. [/i]
[b]April 12, 2004
[i]BY MARSHA LOW
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER[/b][/i]

A feisty Jewish woman sat inside Bay City's Temple Israel, talking about the hatein the quiet, quaint town.

Samantha Harrison-Stand talked about her fear caused by a man she has never seen or spoken to. He's a man she's been forced to know because he preaches to dozens of people regularly at a furniture store just down the road about hunting and killing Jews.

The words of James Wickstrom, she said, are horrifying.

"It's not Mr. Wickstrom that really frightens me. It's the people who listen to him," Harrison-Stand, the synagogue's executive director, said last month. "The people who will go to the movie theater, see 'The Passion of the Christ,' and just crack and go out and do something crazy. That's what I'm afraid of."

Temple Israel Cantor Daniel Gale is also concerned. He notes that the region of Bay City, Essexville and Hampton Township -- where Wickstrom does most of his preaching -- is home to an estimated 200 Jewish families.

"Certainly, we feel there is a lot to respond to," Gale said of Wickstrom's teachings. "But we have chosen not to instigate, not to provoke, but to lay low."

This is a story about disquieted lives. It's about a community working to make its mark as a picturesque vacation spot but instead having to battle the presence of hatred. It's about residents living a small-town existence, forced suddenly to question whether their neighbors are bigots. And it's about Wickstrom, at the center of it all.

Wickstrom, 61, is among the nation's most notorious leaders of an ultraright ministry that mixes bigotry with the Bible and anti-government rhetoric with the suffering of the small businessman.

Word of Wickstrom's presence in the region of Bay City, Hampton Township and Essexville was met last spring with shock and concern.

Hundreds of residents rallied, holding an antihate forum, teaching their children tolerance and acceptance, informing themselves about Wickstrom and his beliefs.

The attention was so intense, Wickstrom left for Tennessee a few months later -- only to return in December, forcing residents to bear his presence once more.

Wickstrom did not respond to requests by the Free Press for an interview. But what he holds true, the message that he spreads nationwide, has a region unnerved.

"I tell you, there is no religion left that has a thread or a morsel of truth in it," Wickstrom said at a 2002 rally of the Aryan Nations in Pennsylvania. "And it comes right from the heart of that damn Jew."

[b]The followers[/b]

Among Wickstrom's most ardent followers are Mary and LeRoy Marquiss. Michigan driving records list their address as Wickstrom's own.

It's from the plaid couches of the Marquisses'Hampton Township furniture store, Wickstrom holds Bible study meetings.

Believers come from all points of the state to hear Wickstrom preach. Police said that regular meetings attract nearly 25 listeners; on Christmas and Easter, up to 200 will show.

Wickstrom calls himself a minister, and his religion is Christian Identity. Its followers believe they are the true Israelites and that present-day Jews are impostors, the spawn of Eve and Satan. Identity followers are waiting for Yahweh's (God's) call to take up their swords, kill Jews and minorities and reclaim the promised land, which they believe is America.

Wickstrom is also linked to Posse Comitatus, an antigovernment, antitax movement that recognizes the county sheriff as the highest form of law enforcement. Posse followers denounce state and federal authority.

"They are fanatics," said Joe Roy, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project. The Alabama-based non-profit, public-interest law firm tracks extremist groups and said Wickstrom began preaching at the furniture store in 2001.

"They are angry, frustrated and afraid," Roy said. "They are looking for someone to blame for losing their jobs, their wives and for their lives being so out of control."

Last year, meetings were held twice a month on Sundays in the furniture store. Recently, Wickstrom has been keeping an irregular schedule, police said.

The FBI would not confirm or deny that it is investigating Wickstrom.

But Hampton Township police -- whose station is 100 yards away from the furniture store -- peer out their windows to see what is happening down the road.

"He's been keeping a very low profile," said Hampton Township Police Chief Gerry Runde. "What he's advocating is not good, but right now he's not breaking the law."

Those who track hate crimes said Wickstrom is cunning and will not break the law.

"He is a smart man, and he knows how far he can go," said Rick Eaton, senior researcher at the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, which tracks hate crimes.

Mary Marquiss declined requests for an interview with the Free Press, saying that what happens inside her store is not anyone's business and that the news media "tells only lies."

But in a June 1, 2003, report by the Bay City Times, Mary Marquiss said she believes in killing Jews "when our heavenly father says it's time to wage war."

Neighbors and nearby business owners said they are largely unaware of what the Marquisses are allowing in their store.

"I don't appreciate anyone preaching hate, but they've never led me to believe they hate anyone," said Jeff Idalski, owner of Shirts, Mugs & More and a neighbor of the Marquisses.

But his message, spread via Internet radio and at rallies nationwide, is clear.

"If it were up to me, I'd love to see every Jew grave dug up and burn their bones," Wickstrom said at the Pennsylvania rally.

[b]Wickstrom's background[/b]

Wickstrom was raised in the tiny Upper Peninsula town of Munising, a pristine and largely uninhabited land on the edge of Lake Superior.

In 1966, the 23-year-old Wickstrom protested U.S. involvement in Vietnam, calling it a war fought for "Jew bankers," according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

On his Web site, Wickstrom explained: "When I went back and looked at history, the Rockefellers, Armand Hammer and a handful of others of the Jewish race had their hands in the subversion of this country. . . . They even created groups to attack anyone who questioned their agenda, like the Anti-Defamation League."

Tangles with the law bolstered Wickstrom's credibility with followers.

In 1983, Wickstrom was arrested for illegally forming his own Wisconsin township called Tigerton Dells. Wickstrom acted as clerk and judge over about 30 mobile homes and a bar until federal officials razed his town.

He ultimately served 13 months in prison.

By 1987, Wickstrom was traveling the country preaching on behalf of the Identity movement. He also began attending annual meetings of the Aryan Nations, a white supremacist group with followers nationwide.

Federal officials alleged that it was with his Aryan Nations brothers that he came up with a scheme to pass $100,000 in counterfeit bills to build a paramilitary group. The case ended in a mistrial in 1988, but at a second trial in 1990, he was convicted and sentenced to 38 months in a federal prison.

It is unclear exactly how many followers Wickstrom and other Identity ministries have across the country. But officials at the Southern Poverty Law Center said they believe their numbers are growing slightly.

The Bay City/Essexville/Hampton Township region is home to 50,500 people, according to the 2000 census. People farm for a living and run small businesses. Many more work at the Dow Chemical plant in nearby Midland and at the GM Powertrain plant and the Big Chief sugar factory, both in Bay City.

Last year, the Rev. Kim Lewis opened the First Baptist Church of Bay City to hundreds of residents who gathered to learn about and rally against Wickstrom. Recently, he explained that Wickstrom is not a preacher but a liar.

"What he's done is create an undertow of doubt in our community," Lewis said. "People are looking at their neighbors asking, 'Is he a follower? Is she a follower?'

"He is setting out to fool people with lies, and I hope he fails notoriously. But in my heart, I know that he won't fail completely."




Contact MARSHA LOW at 248-351-3299 or low@freepress.com.

Google Says Anti-Semitic Site Offends, But to Stay 04.14.04 (2:13 pm)   [edit]
[b]Tue Apr 13, 8:58 PM ET
[i]By Lisa Baertlein [/b][/i]

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc., under fire for refusing to exclude an anti-Semitic Web site from Internet search results, on Tuesday said it cannot deny users access because that would betray a vow to deliver unbiased information -- no matter how it detests the site's message.

The offending Web site, Jewwatch.com, shows up as the first search result when users type "Jew" into Google's popular Internet search engine.

The site, which says its mission is to keep "close watch on Jewish communities and organizations worldwide," includes links to numerous hate groups and other anti-Semitic information.

"I certainly am very offended by the site, but the objectivity of our rankings is one of our very important principles," Sergey Brin, who started Google with fellow Stanford University graduate student Larry Page in the late 1990s, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"We don't let our personal views -- religious, political, ethical or otherwise -- affect our results," said Brin, who added that he is Jewish.

Several weeks ago, a New York-based real estate investor started an online petition urging Google to remove the site.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the petition -- at [url=http://www.removejewwatch.com...]RemoveJewWatch.com[/url] -- had collected more than 50,000 signatures.

Brin, who has received numerous e-mails from friends who oppose the site, said the decision to continue including it in search results is about maintaining editorial integrity at Google.com, where results are determined by complex computer algorithms.

"We do not want to have people involved in showing the results for a query," Brin said.


JEWISH GROUP SUPPORTS GOOGLE


He added that most people searching for information about Jewish people or organizations use the term "Jewish" in their queries as opposed to "Jew," which is often used in an anti-Semitic context. A Google search using "Jewish" as a search term did not turn up hate sites in the top results.


Prior to the current flap, the key word "Jew" showed up in about one of every 10 million queries, Brin said.


"There are 100 times as many now," he said, mostly due to curiosity related to the controversy.


The Anti-Defamation League, which monitors hate groups and anti-Semitic activity, has come down on the side of Google.


"The ranking of Jewwatch and other hate sites is in no way due to a conscious choice by Google, but solely is a result of this automated system of ranking," the Anti-Defamation League said in a March 30 letter on its Web site.


Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York has a different view and has sent Google a letter asking that it change its algorithm to make the site less prominent in its search results, a spokesman for Schumer said.


In the past, Mountain View, California-based Google has removed sites dealing with illegal activity, such as pedophilia, or sites that "maliciously" attempt to manipulate search results.

Outrageous Criminal Acts

04.11.04 (4:42 pm)   [edit]
You may have read my last article that had a petition called, "[url=http://www.tblog.com/template...]Outrageous[/url]." Well, this should also have fit into that article somehow:

[url=http://www.petitiononline.com...]A Call for UN & World Leaders to Prosecute Organizers of Suicide/Homicide Bombings Against Civilians as War Criminals[/url]

Please sign. These bombings must stop. These are CRIMES against humanity. If you are a true humanitarian, you'll agree.

To deny this fact is wrong and disgusting, not to mention also outrageous. If we want peace, this must stop. Those who perpetuate these CRIMES must be tried and punished accordingly. So far, that does not happen. This must change! Please sign [url=http://www.petitiononline.com...]this petition.[/url]

[i]Sorry for the slopinness of this message, but I'm in a hurry.[/i]

Jordan Says Found Cars Laden with Explosives 04.11.04 (4:29 pm)   [edit]
Sat Apr 10, 3:11 PM ET


AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordanian authorities said on Saturday they had found cars carrying explosives that an underground group had planned to use to attack American interests, a senior security source told Reuters.


The source said an unspecified number of cars laden with explosives were found and the suspects who sought to use them had been arrested.


"The group planned attacks on American interests including the embassy and a number of U.S. organizations based in Jordan," he said.


Senior security officials said earlier this month that cars carrying explosives had been driven into the kingdom from Syria. Jordan's long desert border with Syria is patrolled by both sides, but smugglers slip in.


Officials had said they had uncovered a group planning attacks in the kingdom, arresting some suspects now under interrogation.


Three others got away, and state television has run their pictures appealing to Jordanians to give the police any information on their whereabouts.


Jordan's close U.S. ties and 1994 peace with Israel are unpopular with many in the conservative kingdom and there is strong support for Islamist militant groups in some areas.


In mid-March, the United States increased its level of alert in Jordan, urging Americans to step up vigilance after receiving information about possible attacks on hotels in the kingdom.

Main Groups Claiming Attacks on Israelis

04.11.04 (4:26 pm)   [edit]
[b]Sun Apr 11, 1:38 PM ET
[i]By The Associated Press[/b] [/i]

A look at four groups involved in attacks on Israelis during the past 3 1/2 years of conflict. The groups are on the U.S. terror watch list.


*AL AQSA MARTYRS' BRIGADES: A violent offshoot of Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s mainstream Fatah (news - web sites), it was set up after the outbreak of hostilities in September 2000. Militants first concentrated on gunfire attacks in the West Bank but soon moved on to suicide bombings and other attacks in Israel. The group is highly decentralized with autonomous cells. In recent months Fatah started paying some Al Aqsa militants a stipend not to attack Israeli civilians, but some of the more virulent cells have continued attacks with funding from the Lebanese Hezbollah.


*HAMAS: Founded in 1987, it is the largest Palestinian militant group. Responsible for most of the 112 suicide bombings against Israelis, it rejects a Jewish state in the Middle East. It cemented support in the impoverished Gaza Strip (news - web sites) by running a network of social and charitable services. Hamas vowed bloody revenge after Israel assassinated its founder, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, last month.


*HEZBOLLAH: Founded in 1982 with Iranian backing during Israel's invasion of Lebanon, the group originally fought to drive Israel out of the country. After Israel withdrew, it funded Palestinian militants and recently became the major patron of several Al Aqsa cells. Hezbollah guerrillas also occasionally launch rockets over the border into northern Israel. The group is backed by Syria and Iran, its major funder.


*ISLAMIC JIHAD: Founded in 1979, it is a breakaway from the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood, guided by fundamentalist Islamic ideology and backed by Iran. Leadership is mostly in Syria. It has attacked dozens of Israeli targets, mostly through bombings and suicide bombings.

Outrageous

04.10.04 (8:45 pm)   [edit]
I find myself now in the middle of the Passover holiday period, and some introspection is always a good idea. It may seem a bit silly but I thought it would be interesting to see what the Internet has to offer on Judaism, on being a Jew and what a Jew is.

Ok, I'll admit it -- I saw an article recently that sparked my curiosity a little bit at [url=http://jimdoney.tblog.com]jimdoney's[/url] blog. Apparently, when one uses the word "Jew" in the Google search engine -- just the word "Jew" and nothing else -- one finds at the head of a list of sites, an anti-Semitic site called "Jew Watch." A New York real estate developer discovered this, and now he and several others are working to change that. It seems this site is at the top of a list of 1.75 million sites that the Google search engine identifies. That's an astounding number to begin with.

The most unfortunate part is that any person seeking to learn a bit more about Judaism is directed to choices such as "Jewish Controlled Press", "Jewish World Conspiracies", "Jewish Media Lies", and "Jewish Banking and Financial Manipulations" within that site. There are even links to dozens of articles dedicated to Holocaust revisionism. As if Mel Gibson's father's views weren't enough. There is now also a site called Remove Jew Watch, and that site contains a petition that has already gotten more than 3,000 signatures. You could spend a worthwhile few minutes by going to [url=http://www.removejewwatch.com...]RemoveJewWatch.com[/url] and signing that petition.

You can also check out the site that Jim wrote about on his blog that promotes truthful education about who the Jews are: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Another of the obvious dangers is that children doing school assignments will stumble onto this site. Not being able to discern what is true, these children could certainly be given wrong and hateful information and they could use anti-Semitic and racist remarks as part of their school work and as part of their "education" from that point forward. Unfortunatly, the first amendment to our constitution preserves the right of the authors of "Jew Watch" to say whatever they want. Maybe that's as it should be because that amendment protects many rights for all of us.

Still, there must be a way for that site to be buried significantly farther down the list of 1.75 million sites so that a person's chances of stumbling onto it are substantially reduced. Now that this site is recognized for what it is, for the people at Google to do anything other than removing or moving that hateful site would be absolutely outrageous!

How they vote in UN

04.10.04 (8:23 pm)   [edit]
I got this from [url=http://rattlerred.tblog.com]RattlerRed's[/url] blog...
[line]
Below are the actual voting records of various Arabic/Islamic States which are recorded in both the US State Department and United Nations' records:

Kuwait votes against the United States 67% of the time.
Qatar votes against the United States 67% of the time.
Morocco votes against t he United States 70% of the time.
United Arab Emirates votes against the U. S. 70% of the time.
Jordan votes against the United States 71% of the time.
Tunisia votes against the United States 71% of the time.
Saudi Arabia votes against the United States 73% of the time.
Yemen votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Algeria votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Oman votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Sudan votes against the United States 75% of the time.
Pakistan votes against the United States 75% of the time.
Libya votes against the United States 76% of the time.
Egypt votes against the United States 79% of the time.
Lebanon votes against the United States 80% of the time.
India votes against the United States 81% of the time.
Syria votes against the United States 84% of the time.
Mauritania votes against the United States 87% of the time.

US Foreign Aid to those that hate us:

Egypt, for example, after voting 79% of the time against the United States, still receives $2 billion annually in US Foreign Aid.

Jordan votes 71% against the United States and receives $192,814,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.

Pakistan votes 75% against the United States receives $6,721,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.

India votes 81% against the United States receives $143,699,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.

Perhaps it is time to get out of the UN and give the tax savings back to the American workers who are having to skimp and sacrifice to pay the taxes.

Pass it along. Everyone needs to know this.

Might even mention it to your congressman, who knows it anyway...what a disgrace...no wonder the world has no respect for us!

***

The "private sector" of the economy is, in fact, the voluntary sector; and...the "public sector" is, in fact, the coercive sector.
~ Henry Hazlitt

D'var Torah for Pesach 5764 (Passover 2004)

04.09.04 (5:29 pm)   [edit]
We live in a world that has increasingly embraced the inalienable right of every person to be free. It would seem that we are more free than we've ever been, conquering time and space with the World Wide Web, palm pilots, and digital do-it-all pens. But for all this prosperity and high tech, are you more free of your inner demons and scars, of oppressive employers or pressures? Are you more free in your relationships, free of jealousy, anger or substance abuse? Or are we all slaves to our work, situations and relationships?

With the mitzvah of counting the forty-nine days known as Sefirat Ha'Omer, the Torah invites us on a journey into the human psyche, into the soul. There are seven basic emotions that make up the spectrum of human experience. At the root of all forms of enslavement, is a distortion of these emotions. Each of the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot is dedicated to examining and refining one of them. The seven emotional attributes are:

1. [b]Chesed [/b]- Lovingkindness;
2. [b]Gevurah [/b]- Justice and discipline;
3. [b]Tiferet[/b] - Harmony, compassion;
4. [b]Netzach[/b] - Endurance;
5. [b]Hod [/b]- Humility;
6. [b]Yesod[/b] - Bonding;
7. [b]Malchut[/b] - Sovereignty, leadership.

The seven weeks, which represent these emotional attributes, further divide into seven days making up the 49 days of the counting. Since a fully functional emotion is multidimensional, it includes within itself a blend of all seven attributes. Thus, the counting consists of structured suggested meditations. For a detailed description and daily exercise, please check out [url=http://www.meaningfullife.com...]MeaningFullLife.com [/url]

Negotiations Begin with Radical Shiite Leader 04.09.04 (4:49 pm)   [edit]
[b][url=http://www.debka.com]DEBKAfile[/url] Exclusive Report
April 8, 2004, 4:46 PM (GMT+02:00)[/b]


Since Wednesday, April 7, four Shiite delegations have been in secret negotiation with radical Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr in Najef for an end to the uprising he instigated five days ago in a half a dozen Iraqi cities including Baghdad. This is reported exclusively by DEBKAfile’s intelligence and Iraqi sources. The four groups represent the Shiite Dawa Party, the Islamic Action Party, Shiite members of the provisional Iraq Governing Council and SCIRI, the faction headed by council member Abdel Aziz al Hakim, brother of the Grand Ayatollah who was assassinated last year in Najef. No Americans are in direct talks with the outlawed Shiite firebrand, but the negotiating teams are in continuous communication with US administration heads in Baghdad.

America’s handling of the radical Shiite uprising is going forward on two levels:

The military level:

Fresh US divisions newly arrived in the country are overlapping with the divisions which have been held back from ending their one-year stint in order to boost the coalition’s military effort to stamp out spiraling Sunni and Shiite violence. Coalition strength stands now at 145,000-strong, of which 125,000 are US troops. They are availed of immense armored and aerial firepower for combat against the Shiite militia in the south, the Sunni insurgents in central Iraq and al Qaeda and foreign combatants on both fronts. There are also the first makings of anti-US Sunni-Shiite coordination, as confirmed by Iraqi commander Gen. Ricardo Sanchez in his press briefing Thursday, April 8 - in Baghdad, northern parts of the Sunni Triangle near Kirkuk and a number of East Iraqi cities in the vicinity of the Iranian border.

The administrative-political level:

The four Shiite teams talking to Sadr in Najaf is one channel. Another is the instigation of a stream of missives from a group of Iranian ayatollahs centered in the holy city of Qom and jointly opposed to the hard-line regime in Tehran. These respected clerics are urging Sadr to give up violence and reach terms with the US-led coalition. DEBKAfile’s Tehran sources report the first of these letters has been sent out by Ayatollah Hosseini Shirazi.

The four Shiite teams talking to the maverick cleric in Najef are pitching the following arguments:

US intelligence has evidence that the hands behind the Shiite uprising belong to Iran and the Lebanese Hizballah, operating through the veteran Lebanese arch terrorist Imad Mughniyeh. They advise the 31-year old Shiite rebel to look over his shoulder, because he will then discover that he was tossed onto the Iraqi warfront to fight alone without the promised support structure for himself and his Mehdi Army militia. He is warned most solemnly that if he continues along the road of fire and blood, the Americans are determined to eliminate him with the hard core of his following and his militia. The continuation of the US offensive against his forces will leave a bloody mark on the entire Iraqi Shiite community and Sadr will be blamed for the calamity.

This line of persuasion rests on two US intelligence assessments:

1. Indications that Sadr and his men are themselves overwhelmed by the consequences of their revolt and reluctant to press on with fresh military initiatives. That judgment was refuted almost as soon as it was formulated by initial reports of a Shiite radical strike Wednesday against a new target, Japanese forces, in a new location, the Sunni Triangle city of Samarra.

2. The Mehdi Army was seen to fall back on more than one front. While retaining its grip on Najef, Diwaniyeh and al Kut, its commanders struck deals in Nasseriyeh with the Italians and Basra with British forces to hand over town centers. Furthermore, on Wednesday, April 7, Shiite forces managed to besiege the Polish base in Karbala and were poised to move in to attack when at the last moment they pulled back. They had heard that US fighter jets and helicopters were on their way to strike them. US analysts misread those signals. On Thursday, the Shiite withdrawals turned out to have been tactical. Shiite militiamen returned to the battle against Polish and Bulgarian troops and opened up new war arenas.

It is clear to the negotiating teams and the Americans that no real momentum will be achieved in the talks before the Shiite Arbain observance in the coming weekend, where between two and three million pilgrims are awaited in Karbala, most of them Iranian. Many will also step over to visit the shrines of Najef, obliging the Americans to leave a clear field for Sadr in the two Shiite shrine cities and the roads linking them.

For the moment, the Shiite rebel leader has four large incentives for dragging out the negotiations as long as possible:

A. The opening day of the Arbain observance is proclaimed only after authorized imams determine the moon has reached the correct angle over Iraq. This leaves the Arbain date up in the air and at the discretion of Sadr and his ability to obtain a determination that fits his strategy.

B. He also needs time to see if the Iranians make good on their promise to pump reinforcements and arms to his militia under cover of the mass pilgrimage. He will not get his answer before the weekend or early next week.

C. A spark could inflame the millions of Shiite pilgrims and send them on a jihadist rampage against US and coalition bases across southern Iraq. The Americans, pinned down by Sunni insurgents north and west of Baghdad, do not command sufficient strength close by to stem a mass stampede of potential suicides. That threat Sadr still holds over coalition heads.

D. The Shiite cleric will profit from extra time also to continue to cultivate his militia’s operational ties with Sunni insurgent forces battling the Americans, especially in Fallujah and Ramadi. Gen. Sanchez confirmed Thursday there is coordination “at the lowest level” and said it must be contained.

Also Thursday, mixed Sunni-Shiite groups in Baghdad and surrounding cities began organizing for a march to bring food and aid to the “injured and hungry” population of besieged Fallujah. Muezzins of Baghdad’s Sadr City called on Shiites to donate blood. Aid convoys began flowing to the embattled Sunni Triangle town. They are believed to be the advance guard for tens of thousands of civilians to swarm through the city and disrupt the US anti-insurgency offensive. Any interference would be condemned at once as “human rights abuses.” General Sanchez hastened to assure the assembled media Thursday that “the people of Fallujah would not be cut off from humanitarian aid.”

On all four grounds, it is hard to imagine US-backed Shiite negotiating process getting very far before early next week.

The Sunni warfront focuses mainly on Fallujah where Thursday saw intense street combat between US Marines, who suffered 3 dead and many wounded, and a new Iraqi guerrilla force. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the new Al Farouk Battalions are made up of ex-officers and NCOs from crack units of Saddam’s Special Republic Guards, who were barred from joining the New Iraqi Army, and al Qaeda elements. They have recently acquired advanced rocket-propelled grenades smuggled in from Lebanon and Syria.

Belgium Investigates Email Threats Against Jews 04.09.04 (12:52 pm)   [edit]
Now wait a tick... Here's a serious question here. IF all of this was just about the Palestinians need for a homeland and their "right to return", what's the use of bothering Jews in BELGIUM? I mean, c'mon. IF they are "freedom fighters", as we are so led to believe, and IF targetting innocent people in Israel is "ok" because those people are seen as combatants, why target Jews in BELGIUM??? Could it be that Palestinian terrorists are LYING? Could it be that, perhaps, this is about a little more than "returning to their land"?

Palestinian terrorists kill Jews because they are JEWS! It is only naive westerners that are told otherwise. This is NOT about Palestinian freedom, in less by freedom you mean that they have the freedom to commit genocide against the Jews as they so please.

Hamas leaders, other Palestinian leaders, and most of the Arab world echos this. Wake up!

It is their wish to see us all wiped from the earth.

Don't be stupid.
[line]
[b]Fri Apr 9,11:22 AM ET[/b]

ANTWERP, Belgium (Reuters) - Belgium is investigating a series of e-mail threats against the local Jewish community to avenge Israeli attacks against the Palestinian militant group Hamas, a spokeswoman said on Friday.

Investigators were looking into the e-mails sent to the prime minister's office and several newspapers that threatened attacks on Jews in the northern port city of Antwerp.


"We have opened a file and we are checking it out," Lieve Pellens, spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office, said.


"We don't really give it that much importance," she said, adding the office received such reports regularly.


The daily Gazet Van Antwerpen reported that e-mails sent on April 1 threatened to attack the Jewish community, as well as buses, trams, and shops.


The messages contained the name of Abdelkarim el Mejjati, suspected of being one of the masterminds behind the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people, it said.


Mejjati is also suspected of being the operational leader of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, which investigators blame for last year's bombings in Casablanca.


Gazet Van Antwerpen said the e-mails carried the mobile phone number of a group of Cameroon students. The newspaper contacted the students who denied any knowledge of the threats.


Antwerp is the world's largest diamond distribution center and many members of the port city's orthodox Jewish community of about 20,000 work in the business.


Earlier this week, the diamond sector called for extra security after a local Arab militant group said the industry could be attacked by Islamic militants if the Jewish community did not denounce Israeli policies against Palestinians.


Antwerp police say they have increased protection.


Israel killed the wheelchair-bound Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in a helicopter strike on March 22, accusing him of being behind suicide bombings in the Jewish state.


Since the start of the latest Palestinian uprising in 2000, Belgian Jews have complained of a rise in anti-Semitic violence and virulent anti-Israeli propaganda.

NY Girl in Baghdad

04.09.04 (11:06 am)   [edit]
I got this [url=http://www.alien-zoo.com/newy...]flash movie/video[/url] off an email that was sent to me. It is hilariously funny and artfully done.

It's done like a music video. The tune will stay with you for a while, but I think everyone here who sees it will enjoy it. I guess I'll put this into the politics section because it is mildly political, even though its humorous.

Enjoy!

Mr. Phillard's Twins

04.09.04 (10:46 am)   [edit]
One day, Mr. Phillard rushed his pregnant wife over to the hospital. As the doctors were prepping his wife, Mr. Phillard's idiot brother Bill arrived to watch the birth. But when Mr. Phillard saw the blood and everything else, he fainted. When Mr. Phillard woke up he was in a bed with the doctor standing above him.
"Mr. Phillard," the doctor said, "you are in the recovery room. Don't worry, your wife is fine and she had twins, a boy and a girl. Because you were unconscious and your wife was still under anaesthesia, she requested that your brother Bill name the kids."

"What! My brother, the idiot! I can't believe you let him! What did he name them?"

"He named your daughter Denise."

"Hey, not bad! I underestimated my brother. What did he name my son?"

"He named your son Denephew."

This is funny!

04.08.04 (7:11 pm)   [edit]
Annoy [url=http://www.expression.philips...]this dude[/url] with your mouse. Don't worry, he doesn't know it's you! :wink:

HAHA!

Public Service Announcement from the Lair: Lamps Lit on Passover, Holy Days, Risky for Kids 04.08.04 (6:44 pm)   [edit]
Please read! Very important! I know that the first part of the holiday is over, but we still have the last yontiv days to go and, of course, all the other holidays during the year as well as Shabbosim! PLEASE READ!
[line]
[b]Tue Apr 6, 3:10 PM ET
[i]By Alison McCook [/i][/b]

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Orthodox Jews who light lamps that use paraffin oil need to take extra precautions to keep their children safe, according to researchers.


In a new study, the investigators found that the great majority of cases of accidental poisoning with paraffin oil occur in Orthodox Jewish children. Moreover, more than half of the incidents took place within 10 hours of the Sabbath or a religious holiday, the authors report in the journal Pediatrics.


"Watch children closely, teach children about safety, keep poisonous substances out of the reach of children," study author Dr. Robert J. Hoffman told Reuters Health.


He explained that paraffin oil can be dangerous because its consistency causes it to be shunted into the lungs, rather than the stomach, when it's swallowed. Eventually, paraffin oil can irritate the lungs, causing a form of chemical-induced pneumonia.


This can lead to serious breathing problems and even respiratory failure, noted Hoffman, who is based at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City.


For their study, Hoffman and his colleagues reviewed all cases of childhood poisoning by paraffin oil that were reported to the poison control center in New York City since January 1, 2000. The researchers then contacted the children's families and asked about their religious backgrounds.


The researchers found 45 cases of paraffin oil poisoning. Most children were between 10 months and 4 years old. Around one-third developed symptoms, including vomiting and cough. Seven were eventually admitted to the hospital.


More than 70 percent of children were Orthodox Jews. Only 9 percent were not Orthodox Jewish, and the religious background was unknown for the remaining 20 percent.


Based on the data and census information, the researchers conclude that Orthodox Jewish children have an almost 400-fold higher risk of poisoning from paraffin oil than other children.


Hoffman explained that children are at risk of accidental poisoning whenever they have regular access to paraffin oil.


Paraffin that is imported often lacks the mandated child safety cap, he said. In addition, some people use a smaller non-child-proof bottle to transfer the oil from the original container into the lamps.


Also, the lamps that burn paraffin oil often have a metal or glass tube that acts as a wick, but can also serve as a straw, Hoffman noted.


"The risk with paraffin is its availability," he said. As his team writes, "All poisoning is preventable, and these paraffin lamp oil ingestions are no exception."


[i]SOURCE: Pediatrics, April 2004. [/i]

Antwerp Diamond Trade Seeks Security After Threats 04.08.04 (5:08 pm)   [edit]
[b]Wed Apr 7, 6:06 AM ET [/b]


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgium's diamond industry, which involves a large number of Jewish businessmen, asked for extra security on Wednesday after a local Arab militant group said it could be attacked by Islamic militants.


The Belgian port city of Antwerp is the world's largest diamond distribution center and home to a long-established orthodox Jewish community of about 20,000.


A leader of the Arab European League (AEL), which has a following among some young people of immigrant origin, said last week Islamic militant groups such as the Palestinian Hamas movement could target the city if the local Jewish community did not denounce Israeli policies.


"The AEL calls upon the Antwerp Jewish community to cancel its support for Jewish policy as fast as possible and distance itself from the state of Israel. If not, attacks in Antwerp are nearly unavoidable," Ahmed Azzuz, one of the group's leaders, told the Belgian weekly Knack in an interview.


"Antwerp is an obvious target. The diamond sector openly supports the Zionist regime," he was quoted as saying.


AEL leader, Dyab Abou Jahjah, was briefly arrested in Belgium late 2002 on accusations of inciting ethnic riots.


The Diamond High Council, an umbrella organization that represents the industry, said it had filed a complaint against the AEL with the public prosecutor's office and was "asking for additional police measures to guarantee safety in the sector."


"It is the first time the diamond sector has been named as a target in such an explicit manner," the council's director general, Peter Meeus, said in the statement.


A spokeswoman for Antwerp police said rigorous security measures had already been introduced. "They're already doing everything they can."


Meeus said the Arab European League was "importing" the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians into Belgium.


Security measures around the diamond district have been reinforced since the March 11 Madrid bombings and the killing of Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin by Israel on March 22.


Belgium's 50,000-strong Jewish community has complained of a rise in anti-Semitic violence and virulent anti-Israeli propaganda, particularly on the political left, since the start of the latest Palestinian uprising in 2000.

Prime Minister's White House Visit Draws Red Flag 04.08.04 (5:05 pm)   [edit]
[b]Warnings: Jerusalem Summit Analysis Rings Alarm Bells in Washington, DC, & Jerusalem
Wednesday April 7, 8:31 am ET [/b]


JERUSALEM, April 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The Jerusalem Summit today released a special analysis in advance of Prime Minister Sharon's White House visit next week concerning the risks of a prospective Palestinian state for US national interests.


The Jerusalem Summit is headed by US Senator Sam Brownback, Prof. Daniel Pipes, Knesset Member Dr. Yuri Shtern and Prof. Moshe Kaveh, head of Bar-Ilan University. Gary Bauer, a national Christian leader in the US, serves as Chairman of the Summit's International Advisory Board, which comprises over 40 internationally known experts in Middle East politics.

Researched and written by a team of Summit experts, the document examines the track record of PA (Palestinian Authority) and its leaders; analyses the position of the PA viz. the Arab world and the US; and arrives at the conclusion that current PA leadership is committed to creating a totalitarian, radically anti-Western and anti-US state of militant Islam, which will pose immediate dangers to American security, values and stability in the Middle East.

Lt. Gen. Paul Cerjan (US Army, Ret.), who serves on the Summit's Advisory Board, reacted to the study: "This is one of the most comprehensive discussions of the issue in a short concise paper that I have seen in years."

Daniel Pipes, Board Member of the U.S. Institute of Peace and Co-President of the Jerusalem Summit: "It is imperative for Americans to study carefully the ramifications of a prospective Palestinian state, for a look at the record suggests that such a state is likely to become an enemy of the United States in the war on terror."

Dmitry Radyshevsky, Executive Director of the Summit, stated, "After the facts are in, the American people and legislators will pose the question: Why, having sacrificed so much to overthrow terrorist regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, are we striving now to create another terrorist state? As it stands, a Palestinian state can only become a vanguard for militant Islam that will use its Mediterranean geographic location to threaten Israel, the US, Europe and the whole free world."

The full text of the research can be read at: www.jerusalemsummit.org.

The Jerusalem Summit works to become an international alliance of value-committed people of different cultures and faiths who reject the new totalitarianism of radical Islam and believe in the central, spiritual and strategic role of Israel. Organizers of the first Jerusalem Summit included Israel's Government Ministry of Tourism, the Jerusalem Municipality, the Michael Cherney Foundation and the National Unity Coalition for Israel.

More Info: Yael Katsman, RUDER FINN ISRAEL, Tel. +011-972-54-676-963

[i]Source: Jerusalem Summit[/i]
[line]
Subjects in this article may or may not reflect the opinions of the Tigress. When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me.

A little bit of this and some Matzah on top

04.08.04 (4:17 pm)   [edit]
So, passover has started. The cleaning has ended. Now comes the massive amount of unlevened products. I'm glad this holiday only lasts 8 days (if I were in Israel, it would be 7)! The Seders were nice. Family and friends gathered at the table to talk about what God did for us in taking us from the land of Egypt and eat a yummy meal. As I sit here and eat my chocolate covered Matzah, I thought I'd share a snippet from the Seder's Haggadah and some insights from it...

The parable of the four sons is discussed at the Seder table.

"Concerning the four sons did the Torah speak: a wise one, a wicked one, a simple one, and one who is unable to ask."

The four sons represent four types of people who were saved from Egypt because of four different types of merit. The four types of merit were:

1. [i]The merit of the Patriarchs [the God of your forefathers sent me to you (Shemos 3:13)].[/i]

2. The Covenant of the Patriarchs [i][and God remembered his covenant (ibid 2:24)].[/i]

3. The merit of Israel which was prepared to accept the Torah [i][When you remove the nation from Egypt, you will serve God on this mountain (ibid 3:12)].[/i]

4. The merit of the performance of commandments [i][and I shall see the blood [/i](i.e. the blood of the Passover sacrifice) [i]and I will pass over you (ibid 12:13)].[/i]

The Chacham (wise son) inquires about the commandments because he is utterly debvoted to their performance. That type of Jew was saved from Egypt because of [i]the merit of the commandments[/i]:

"The wise son -- what does he say? [Devarim 6:20] 'What are the testimonies, decrees, and ordinances which HaShem, our God, has commanded you?' Therefore explain to him the laws of Pesach: that on may not eat after the final taste of the Pesach Afikoman."

The Tam (simple son) represents the person of limited attainment who was nevertheless saved because of his [i]willingness to accept the Torah.[/i]

"The simple son -- what does he say? [ibid 13:14]: 'What is this?' Tell him [ibid]: 'With a strong hand did HaShem take us out of Egypt, from the house of bondage.'"

The Ayni Yodea L'sheol (son who is unable to ask) is far removed from his heritage, but such people were saved because of [i]the merit of the Patriarchs.[/i]

"And for the son who is unable to ask, you must initiate the subject for him, as it is stated [ibib 13:8]: 'You shall tell your son on that day: It is because of this that HaShem did so for me when I went out of Egypt.'"

The Rashah (wicked son) has no redeeming virtue, but even such people were saved thanks to Beris Avos, because a covenant, by definition, must be honored even if its beneficiaries possess no independant merit.

"The wicked son -- what does he say? [ibid 12:26] 'Of what purpose is this work to you?' He says, 'To [i]you[/i]', thereby excluding [i]himself.[/i] By excluding himself from the community (of believers), he denies the basic principle of Judaism. Therefore, blunt his teeth (which means to basically [i]rock his world[/i]or his logic) and tell him [ibid 13:8] 'It is because of this that HaShem did so for me when I went out of Egypt. [i]'For me'[/i], but not for [i]him[/i] -- had he been there, he would not have been redeemed."

The Obligation of Profound Appreciation

04.05.04 (1:29 pm)   [edit]
So even if we were all sages, all wise, all learned in Torah, it would still be a Mitzvah for us to tell about the exodus from Egypt and the more one increases in telling the story of the exodus from Egypt the more he/she is praiseworthy. (Haggadah)

In each and every generation a person is obligated to see themself as if he went out of Egypt. (Haggadah)

Why shouldn’t there be an exemption for those who are familiar with the Haggadah? They already saw the movie and read the book. What more is there for them to learn? It may sound too cynical for the wise one to ask but, "What’s different about this night from all the other past nights of Pesach?"

Well, there was once a huge and elaborate celebration. The groom was marrying the only daughter of a wealthy holocaust survivor. At the meal the father-in law stood up to say a few words. In his broken English he tried to grab the people’s attention but many were lost in conversation until he declared;

"Everyone has a story that they like to tell about themselves. I would like to tell a story about myself! When the day of liberation came to the camps I was 60 or 70 pounds at most. I had lost my will to live. I had only one wish and that was to crawl beyond the barbed-wire fence of the camp if only to defy my oppressors, and so I did. After that I made peace with my creator and with my last ounce of strength rolled into a pit resolved that this would be my final resting place. I was there for I don’t know how long. I didn’t know which world I was in. Suddenly I feel that I am being jostled and lifted up. I am being carried by a 'Bais Yaakov'- girl. She carries me some 5 or 6 mile and brings me to her family in a nearby city. They had managed to hide themselves.

They didn’t know what to do with me. I was too weak and sick. They were people of means and influence so they got me a bed in a crowded local hospital. They fed me there and gradually my strength grew.

After a month I could stand on my own and the bed was badly needed by others so they released me. I didn’t know where to go so I made my way back to the apartment of that family. They were gone. Everyone was going to someplace different. I scraped some monies together and got on a boat for North America. I ended up in Toronto. I started to work to make a living but my main obsession was to find the broken pieces of my youth. They had these meetings that were advertised in the papers. People from a certain town or region would gather to see if they could find anyone who knew anything about their family or any other fragment of their lost lives.

I went to many of these gatherings and never recognized a soul until one time I spotted a familiar face. Could it be? Yes it was that Bais Yaakov. I went over and introduced myself. It was her. I began to thank her. I thanked her and thanked her and thanked her as no one has ever thanked another human being before. Three weeks later we were married. Today we are marrying off our only child and I have never let this story escape from my lips. I have been waiting all these years to have this many people together to have a chance to say thank you to someone who has been the best friend and partner, a person could ever ask for and someone who literally saved my life. I would like to say thank you to my wife!"

If that is the thanks due to one who carried us a few miles, what is owed to One Who has carried and fed us an entire a lifetime. When we consider the many miles of kindliness that have followed us and our people through the rough terrain of our history, our hearts should be overflowing with endless gratitude.

The Pesach Seder is not just a place to download cold bytes of information through the ages. The more we tell the story year after year and feel it real for ourselves the more praiseworthy we become, and no one is too sophisticated to have outgrown the obligation of profound appreciation.

L'Shana HaBah B'Yerushaliyim!

The four sons ask new questions

04.05.04 (11:54 am)   [edit]
[i]Why is this generation different from all other generations? A Passover reflection. [/i]

[i][b]by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz [/b][/i]

The Passover seder is a singular event in the Jewish calendar, requiring days, or even weeks, of preparation. When we sit down at the table, at last, and coax the youngest participant to ask Ma Nishtana, we know exactly what is different, and how much effort it took to make it different.

The next set of questions -- those asked by the four sons, or the four children -- addresses a larger issue. According to one perspective, the four sons represent four generations of the Jewish people. This leads us to the wider question I have posed above. A different night is one thing, but a whole different generation?

The first generation is not only wise, but enthusiastic -- or perhaps it is enthusiastic because it is wise. It has received a solid Jewish education and is steeped in Jewish life and Jewish culture. Its members ask questions so as to broaden and deepen their commitment.

The second generation is wicked (the language is harsh, but it's the text we have): This generation may have learned the "behavioral" part of Judaism, but it has missed the spiritual and the inspirational elements. Lacking a meaningful understanding of Passover -- and, indeed, of Judaism -- it rebels.

The third generation asks a question that is almost primitive: "What is this?" This generation is ignorant, too ignorant to be rebellious. Yet the grandchild notices unfamiliar objects and actions, and so he approaches the grandfather with his questions.

The child of the fourth generation, however, is not motivated to ask, and would not even know what or whom to ask. No one in his orbit is Jewishly knowledgeable or Jewishly connected. His grandfather is a member of the second generation, the one who rebelled against the Jewish heritage and rejected it. He has no memories and no context.

This tragedy is being played out all over the world. It is particularly stark in the former Soviet Union (FSU). The pogroms of the 19th century gave way to the religious repression of the 20th. Now, less than a generation since Jews regained the right to practice Judaism openly, how many Jews in the FSU can ask the questions? How many have memories of Jewish life? Of a seder at their grandparents' home? Of a menorah in the window?

For too many Jews in the FSU today, Judaism is not even a memory -- it is the memory of a memory.

This generation is different, because so many cannot access the familial aspect of Judaism. This generation, more than any other in Jewish history, has been distanced so long and so effectively, that it must reach out beyond itself in order to reconnect. At the same time, we who are capable of transmitting Jewish knowledge must rise to the challenge and meet it more than half way.

The task before us is to inspire and empower this generation, in the FSU and elsewhere, to re-create Jewish memories and restore Jewish knowledge. It is almost a miracle that, so far removed from the positive practice of Judaism, there are those who still seek, and even hunger for, Judaism.

But let us not be complacent: The FSU is not the only place where generations of Jews are being lost.

Throughout our history, and in almost every country of our dispersion -- with the noteworthy exception of the United States -- others have tried to destroy us with hate. Today, however, the biggest problem -- especially in the United States -- is that we are being decimated by "love," as, one by one, Jews are voluntarily surrendering their Judaism on an unprecedented scale.

Our response to this threat must also occur one-to-one. At the Passover seder, and every day, we must respond to our children's curiosity with substance and we must meet their passion with our own. We must assure that we live a Judaism that is fresh and vigorous and compelling, so that every generation will be able to establish itself as a first generation that is both wise and enthusiastic.




Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz is an author, scholar, and social critic best known in the United States for his monumental translation and commentary on the Talmud. He is the founder of a worldwide network of Jewish educational institutions. His efforts are supported in America by the Aleph Society. Rabbi Steinsaltz's most recent releases are The Miracle of the Seventh Day and Opening the Tanya: Discovering the Moral & Mystical Teachings of a Classic Work of Kabbalah, both published by Jossey Bass: Wiley.

Israelis Prepare for Passover Holiday 04.05.04 (11:34 am)   [edit]
[b]Mon Apr 5, 9:07 AM ET
[i]By LAURIE COPANS, Associated Press Writer [/b][/i]



=http://img19.photobucket.com/...
[i]Orthodox Jews burn leavened items in a final preparation before the Passover holiday in the mainly Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Sharim in Jerusalem Monday April 5, 2004. All leavened food, such as bread, is forbidden to Jews during the week-long Passover holiday commemorating the hasty departure from Egypt.[/i] (AP Photo/Enric Marti)

JERUSALEM - Israeli Jews burned bread in the streets and cleaned their homes Monday in last-minute preparations for the weeklong Passover holiday, overshadowed by high security alerts and spreading poverty.

Police instructed all licensed gun owners to carry weapons during the holiday. Security forces guarded markets and malls as shoppers bought supplies for the seder, the ritual meal eaten after sundown Monday, at the start of the holiday.

Islamic militants have warned they would retaliate for Israel's assassination two weeks ago of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin.

Israel's poor crowded soup kitchens reported a 30 percent increase in requests for holiday meals over last year, the Social Affairs Ministry said.

Tamir Israel, a worker at a soup kitchen in Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Makor Baruch, loaded meat onto a large tray as people waited outside for lunch.

"Last year, 15 percent of the people who ordered holiday meals didn't pick them up," said Israel, 36. "But this year everyone came, and much more, people we couldn't serve."

A Dutch volunteer at the soup kitchen, Ada Bres, 50, peeled piles of carrots and potatoes for the holiday meal while trays of rice and strawberry yogurts were piled on delivery cars outside.

Economic indicators show Israel is starting to climb out of a recession but unemployment remains close to 11 percent. Poor families were hit by recent reductions in welfare assistance, such as child allowances.

Moshe Levkowits, manager of the Meir Panim center for the needy near Jerusalem's bus station, said he expected about 4,000 people to attend a communal seder, up from about 2,000 last year.

"You feel the pain of people and see the tears in their eyes, but you can't help everyone," Levkowits said. "The poverty trend is growing."

The seder commemorates the flight of the ancient Israelites from bondage in Egypt, as described in the Old Testament. Observant Jews eat matza — unleavened crackers — to illustrate how the Israelites had no time to let their bread rise as they fled.

Religious Jews who do not eat any leavened products during the holiday get rid of the last of their bread the morning before Passover by burning it in the streets.

As three boys tossed bread onto flames on a sidewalk in the Makor Baruch neighborhood, two soldiers holding M-16s stood across the road, watching over four crouched Palestinians apparently detained for entering Israel illegally.

Israel had clamped a closure on the Palestinian areas since Yassin's assassination for fear of retaliatory attacks. The closure meant to keep out Palestinian militants was slated to last until April 27, security officials said.

Noa Novik, 23, a store clerk at Jerusalem's bus station, said she preferred not to travel on buses due to Islamic militants' tendencies to target them for suicide bombings. But taxis are too expensive, she said.

At the start of Passover in 2002, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in an Israeli hotel, among guests holding a seder. It was the deadliest Palestinian attack since the outbreak of fighting in 2000.

Israeli Alzheimer's Patients Get New Leash on Life 04.05.04 (11:24 am)   [edit]
[b]Mon Apr 5,10:39 AM ET
[i]By Tova Cohen [/b][/i]

TEL AVIV, Israel (Reuters) - Reuben, a 62-year-old Israeli suffering from the early stage of Alzheimer's disease, says his life has been transformed since he welcomed Bella into his home.

Bella, a 2-year-old smooth collie, is the first graduate of the Alzheimer's Aid Dog project, a four-year collaboration in Israel between her trainer, Yariv Ben-Yossef, and social worker Daphna Golan-Shemesh.

Reuben has had the dog for more than a year. When he gets lost, he commands her with the word "habaita," Hebrew for home.

"I always go out with her. She has brought me home many times and has given me a tremendous feeling of confidence," Reuben said.

The medium-sized black, tan and white dog is much more than a guide. She is a companion who gets Reuben out of bed on days when he does not want to get up by licking him or pulling off the covers.

"We're not just talking about a guide dog or a dog who can push an emergency button. The dog needs to be in focus 24 hours," Ben-Yossef said.

Reuben, who did not want his full name disclosed, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's three years ago. He participated in an Alzheimer's support group and since it was known that he liked animals, he was asked to take part in the canine pilot.

Though there are projects around the world that have trained dogs to assist caregivers for Alzheimer's patients, Ben-Yossef said the Israeli endeavor is the only one that also pairs patients and animals.

"If I am not in a good mood she does something funny and I laugh," said Reuben, showing off Bella's soccer-playing skills on the front lawn.

Golan-Shemesh said 10 percent of the elderly suffer from dementia, of which Alzheimer's is one form. She said a major problem with sufferers is their feeling of seclusion and isolation.

Bella helps boost Reuben's self-image, she said, noting that he can once again pick up his grandchildren from school.

"The dog is an anchor to real life again," Golan-Shemesh said. "The patient can't work or drive or do what he did before. Now he feels competent again."

Bella is also a tool for interaction, drawing Reuben into conversations even with strangers on the street.

"One of the problems with the illness is we become very withdrawn. She and I go out and we have a lot of interaction with other people who always ask about her," he said.

Bella helps family members as well, reducing their stress and bringing them together through their cooperation in training her.

"Bella has completely become part of the family," Reuben said.

The dog is equipped with a global positioning device so that if Reuben is gone for a long time or he forgets the home command, the family can pinpoint their location. They can also dial a special phone number that sends out to Bella a high-pitched tone, signaling the dog to bring Reuben home.

Early stage Alzheimer's patients "can lead a normal life with the dog. Without the dog they would be in life-threatening situations," Golan-Shemesh said, noting statistics show patients not found within 12 hours of getting lost will probably turn up dead.

FAMILY HELP

Family participation is vital in this project as Reuben is responsible for Bella's care, including walking and feeding her.

Alzheimer's patients have difficulty remembering to complete routine tasks and Reuben's wife and son must step in if he forgets to give Bella food and water.

The cost of training Bella and fitting her with a special harness and the global positioning system is about $16,000, compared with $12,000 for a regular guide dog.

So far, Ben-Yossef's Disabled Service Dog center has funded the cost of the project, but his goal of having 25 dogs working with Alzheimer's victims by next year will depend on finding more financing.

Ben-Yossef works exclusively with collies for the project. A second dog will graduate soon.

"They are stable, highly developed in terms of behavior, work well under pressure, are confident and like to take responsibility, so they are good leaders," he said.

The center has also trained dogs to assist later stage patients, some of whom are in nursing homes. The dogs bark to alert caregivers if a patient leaves the premises and can press an SOS box if there is a gas leak and even turn off the gas.

Golan-Shemesh said not enough has been done with early stage Alzheimer patients and believes dogs can play a big role in delaying the slide into the later stages of the disease.

Reuben said Bella has helped tremendously in preventing a deterioration in his condition.

"With Bella, every day is better," he said.

Battling Al Qaeda in Europe

04.05.04 (11:18 am)   [edit]
In a bold move to capture terrorists that were hiding out after plotting and executing the deaths of nearly 200 Spanish citizens, Spanish anti-terror units discovered their hide out and prepared to storm the apartment building. When the terrorists realized they were surrounded by Spanish Special Forces they panicked and blew themselves up.

Sarhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, a Tunisian, was among the dead and reportedly was the organizer of the 3-11-04 terror attacks that killed innocent people on morning commuter trains.

Videotapes released by radical Islamic leaders have shown they believe that they can take over the world and rule it like the Taliban did for al Qaeda in Afghanistan. An Islamic leader(pre -9-11) in London declared in frenzied speech, we will use terror anywhere in the world and “our message will be seen” in increments at a time around the globe, as a poster of a giant boot over the world was displayed in the background. Several terrorist plots were thwarted on and immediately after 9-11 around the globe, due to fast working leaders and their governments.

In the first battle with an al Qaeda linked Islamic group in a prominent European capital, at least 4 terror suspects were surprised and killed. Witnesses report that when the suspects realized they were surrounded by Spanish Special Forces they started screaming in Arabic. Officials believe the explosives used by the suspects on 3-11-04 in the Madrid railway bombings were the same type that killed them during the raid.

One Spanish police officer was killed and 15 were wounded. The bombers were holed up in an apartment building in Leganes suburb of SW Madrid. The anti-terror task force had the area cordoned off and 40 apartments were evacuated prior to storming the terrorist hide out building.

The Spanish interior minister reported one terrorist might have escaped before the area was sealed off.
Several terror suspects have been arrested and 11 of the 15 detained are Moroccans. They claim to be with the al Qaeda-linked, Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group.

The Spanish army and helicopter units have been guarding railways after discovering another bomb Friday on a high-speed Madrid-Seville railway track.

The FBI last week warned local authorities of “uncorroborated” summertime threats to metro transportation systems near major US cities. Terrorists may use many devices, including a backpack or other small luggage to fill with explosives. Citizens and authorities are asked to be aware of suspicious behavior and activities.
[line]
Source: http://www.nyjtimes.com/cover...

Quizi

04.05.04 (10:55 am)   [edit]

Hehe~



Which Survivor of the Impending Nuclear Apocalypse Are You?
A Rum and Monkey joint.





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Taken Many Bizarre Quizzes Lately?
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I am a Baseball Cap. I enjoy sports, either to partake or to spectate. I have something of an all-American personality. I am a consumer, witness my power. What Sort of Hat Are You?

Utah Museum Returns Painting Looted by Nazis 04.05.04 (10:20 am)   [edit]
[b]04/02/04 12:05 [/b]


More than a half century after a Paris art gallery was looted by Nazis, one of the paintings that was taken has been returned to the owner's daughter. The small pastoral painting, "Les Jeunes Amoureux" by Francois Boucher, was part of a collection of hundreds that disappeared after Jewish art dealer Andre Jean Seligmann fled with his family to the United States. The painting was donated to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts by a collector in 1993. David Dee, the museum's executive director, returned the painting to Seligmann's daughter, Claude Delibes, and his daughter-in-law, Suzanne Geiss Robbins, on Thursday.

Yassin's death is justice long overdue

04.05.04 (10:17 am)   [edit]
[i]Hamas is a movement with a clear purpose - the destruction of Israel by armed force - and Sheikh Yassin was the Palestinian idealogue of mass murder. [/i]

[i][b]by Jonathan S. Tobin[/b][/i]

To listen to much of the commentary from world leaders and American editorial pages this week, Israel's killing of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was a crime that would set back the cause of Mideast peace. But the truth is, the three missiles fired from Israeli helicopters that ended Yassin's life was merely a case of belated justice.

Yassin was a 67-year-old quadriplegic, a fact that aroused sympathy for him, as well as revulsion against Israel's actions from many. Far from being a victim, Yassin was the most important leader of a movement that has killed hundreds of Jews in cold blood. He was the Palestinian idealogue of mass murder who bore responsibility for countless crimes committed by others in the name of the radical Islam he championed for decades from the confines of his much photographed wheeled perch.

Given the misleading language that is often used by the media to characterize Hamas, it is probably not surprising that Yassin's death would be the cause of so much pointless criticism. Though it has taken on a quasi-governmental role in Gaza, Hamas is neither the religious nor social-service agency it is often described as.

The Washington Post editorialized on March 23 that Yassin's killing puts off the day when Hamas will morph into a peaceful Islamic group. This is a farcical notion. Hamas is already a movement with a clear purpose - the destruction of Israel by armed force, the expulsion and/or murder of its Jewish population and the establishment of a radical Islamist state over the territory that would remain, including areas under the administration of the Palestinian Authority. The idea that Yassin was a force for moderation within Hamas is equally comical. Hamas was and is a group without a "moderate" wing even by the distorted and violent standards of Palestinian society. Compromise with Hamas is impossible.

While it might still be possible for some to pretend that Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement is a peace partner, no sane or honest person can harbor the same illusion about Hamas. As such, Israel not only had the right to pursue Yassin, it was duty-bound to track down him - and every other active member of Hamas - just like the United States hunts down members of the equally despicable Al Qaida.

There will be many who will seize upon the successful dispatch of Yassin and see it as an understandable rationale for future Hamas terror. But to accept this premise is to fall into the trap of blaming the victim - Israel - for having the temerity to defend itself. Like all previous Israeli acts of self-defense, this latest one is not part of a mythical "cycle of violence" that Israel is helping to perpetuate. Neither this incident nor the deaths of any of Yassin's henchmen was the motivation for any past or future terrorist attacks.

Hamas's murderous rampages are based in its belief system, not on any individual act of Israel. The only driving force behind Palestinian terrorism is Arab rejection of the right of the Jews to live in peace and sovereignty in their own homeland.

Some in Israel will question the wisdom of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his decision to launch an attack on Yassin now that he's announced a plan for withdrawal from Gaza. They question whether the cost of Yassin's death to Israel will be worth it. I don't know the answer to that question. But let there be no doubt as to the justice of this act, or that foreign criticism of Yassin's killing is rank hypocrisy.

History will deliver its own verdict on Sharon's judgment. But despite the culture of appeasement of Islamic terror that reigns in Europe and the rise of international anti-Semitism, Yassin's death proves again that as long as a Jewish state exists, it's no longer possible to murder Jews with impunity. And for that point alone, Sharon will deserve credit.

We are told by some experts that Arabs now have a greater motivation to kill Jews.

That's laughable; Hamas needs no new excuses to go ahead with their depredations anymore than they did in the past when they have killed hundreds.

Also ridiculous is the idea that Yassin's death will undermine America's war on terror because now moderate Arabs will be less inclined to work against Hamas' spiritual cousins in Al Qaida. Americans should stop kidding themselves about there being a difference between the two. The Europeans already understand this and seek to appease both in a vain effort to stay out of the fighting. Americans need to understand that a real war on Islamic terror that grants immunity to Hamas is a sham.

Whatever happens in the coming days, Palestinians should think more clearly about the costs to themselves of their passion for the spilling of Jewish blood that Yassin helped inspire. Let those who would follow his path, including those who seek to murder Americans in the name of Islam, draw the proper conclusions from Yassin's fate.



[i][b]Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor of the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia. [/b][/i]

Sharon: Disengagement will strengthen Israel 04.05.04 (10:03 am)   [edit]
[b]Apr. 5, 2004 15:09
Updated Apr. 5, 2004 18:16
[i]By JPOST.COM STAFF[/b][/i]


Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told IBA news on Monday that the returns on disengagement would strengthen the country. Some concessions would be presented at his upcoming meeting with US President George W. Bush, he said.

Granting a special interview to reporters on the eve of the Passover holiday, Sharon said security forces are doing all they can to avert attacks and hoped that by next year Israel would be in the midst of disengagement from the Gaza Strip.


Terror would be on the decline and the situation in Israel will improve, Sharon told reporters.

Lacking any viable alternative, he said, disengagement would enable Israel to fight terror more effectively. "I preferred to approach a negotiation using the Road Map and our 14 amendments," he said.

"Qurei hasn't the authority to move policemen from one side of the street to another"

"If there was someone with whom I could advance towards an agreement, I would. But there isn't," Sharon said. "I have met [Palestinian Prime Minister Ahemed] Qurei many times," he said, "he was at my home; we met in Washington and at the Prime Minister's residence. Our relations have always been warm. But he hasn't even got the authority to move a policeman from one side of the road to the other. He doesn't want to meet me because he has nothing to offer," Sharon explained.

"What the Palestinians would like is to skip over the first part of the Road Map, that is: dismantling terror organizations and organizing their security forces. They don't want to fight terror," Sharon said. "And here, I must commend the Americans on their stance against the Europeans in refusing to budge from their insistence on fighting terror. We too must not waiver in our stance," Sharon said.

More than anything else the disengagement plan had been formulated to prevent damage inherent in other plans being proposed and discussed across the political agenda, Sharon told reporters.

"But you can't leave a vacuum. Storms of programs spurt and evolve like mushrooms after rain. So it may be more convenient to sit back with a convenient coalition and do nothing. But the plans are there."

[b]"Realities change" [/b]

Asked by reporters to explain his "apparent re-orientation from one who would not negotiate under fire to one who is prepared to retreat under fire," Sharon said he was left with no choice. "I was right then, and I'm correct now. Realities change," the prime minister said.

"The situation then (the Oslo Accords period in 1993) was that Israel spread out the first red carpet for Arafat, and the rest of the world followed suit. It took quite some time for everyone to realize the scope of his evil intents.

"The situation today is that we realize we have no one to talk to. But there has to be some kind of process. This process (disengagement), that includes the Americans, enables us to exist in what I believe to be a better situation."

Sharon hinted that Egypt may contribute to solving security problems in the Gaza Strip, but refused to elaborate. He said that although at first transport arteries into the Gaza Strip would remain closed, he personally would like to see the area opened as soon as possible, in order to relieve Israel of any responsibility for the running of internal affairs in the Gaza Strip.

[b]Civil war? [/b]

When asked if he saw the schism between those for and against disengagement leading to an Israeli civil war, Sharon said he found that hard to believe. "We all want peace and quiet in today's situation, I believe I am one of the few people who can prevent this from happening."

Commenting on the threats made by right-wing parties to bolt the government following a possible ratification of the plan, Sharon said he believes elections to be a mistake, "and so if parties leave the cabinet, I will have to replace them, and maybe even with the labor party."

Sharon also reiterated his position to reporters that anyone who threatens Jews and Israeli citizens is "marked for death". Asked if PA Chairman Yasser Arafat and Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah were included in this definition, Sharon said he had already made his point clear on this subject. "Anyone who aims to kill Jews, just because they are Jews, and anybody who sends people to kill Jews, is marked for death," Sharon added.

"We are an independent state," he told Army Radio, "and we don't need to wait for anyone's permission for this kind of action."

Following a pullout, Sharon said he had no intention of destroying abandoned houses in the Gaza Strip, but rather to request international organizations accept responsibility for them.

Contradicting rumors to the contrary, Sharon stated that the withdrawal from Gaza and four West Bank settlements would not take place before the US elections as a gesture to President George W. Bush.

Sharon said he had no agenda regarding where to relocate evacuated Gaza Strip settlers. Although he appreciates Labor Party leader Shimon Peres' preference for developing the Negev, he said he would not force any solution on settlers.
[b]
Syria - a "sure thing?" [/b]

Army Radio reporters asked Sharon why he preferred a gamble on the Palestinian front rather than making concessions to a "sure partner" – Syria.

The Prime Minister responded that Syria is a country under threat and should therefore be approached with caution. "Israel is interested in peace treaties with all Arab countries, especially those with which we share a border," he said.

"Syria is at the top of the terror pyramid," he said. "They are preventing the Lebanese army from deploying along the Israeli border, an Fatah Tanzim. We should not forget any of this."

[b]Politics and the man [/b]

Army Radio asked Sharon about the relationship between his shaky situation in the Likud and the growing popularity gained by Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's recent economic plan.

"What we are seeing is a budding of the economic situation, also according to Moody's economic revue," he said. "I'm glad I gave the finance minister my full support for his steps. These are difficult actions, but tax reforms are a positive thing," Sharon said."

"The interest of investors in Israel is greater than what it was and the steps we are taking enable us to participate in the world economic recovery," Sharon said. "We are still waiting for reform in education, which is soon to come," he promised.

Sharon responded strongly to allegations that the disengagement plan was a ploy to draw attention away from his legal problems, saying his awareness that a plan was needed and his expressions thereof predated any legal complications that have since arisen. "In November, when I met the White House spokesman in Rome, I already said that there was no chance of finding a political solution with the present PA," he said.

Sharon took the opportunity to defend Israel's intelligence community when asked about the alleged intelligence failure regarding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program. Army Radio reporters suggested that Sharon himself had been one of the sources for US "misinformation", an accusation that the Prime Minister refuted: "There must be something negative that has happened since the destruction of the Second Temple for which I am not to blame," he contended.

"I am certain I will not be indicted [in the Greek Island Affair]," the prime minister said.

When pressed to describe his relations with businessman David Appel, Sharon responded that the Appel family was politically active on many fronts, and "anyone who is in politics finds himself talking to the Appel family at one time or another. He has helped a lot of people. But connecting the two things is libelous."

Asked about documents being demanded by the state of his son Gilad, Sharon said "his house was open", his hands were clean, and that he had nothing to hide.

Sharon was especially defensive of his friend South African businessman Cyril Kern. "Kern was my soldier when he came as a young volunteer in 1947. It pains me that someone like this who took part in the War of Independence, a person who is all positive, and they (the media) make him into something evil.

First Terrorist Bomb-Belts Reach Europe 04.05.04 (10:00 am)   [edit]
And so it begins...
[line]

[b][url=http://www.debka.com]DEBKAfile[/url] Special Report
4 April: [/b]

=http://img19.photobucket.com/...

Serhane ben Abdelmajid Farkhet, 35, alias “The Tunisian”, suspected ringleader of the Madrid train bombings, was one of the terrorists who blew themselves up Saturday night in the southwestern Madrid suburb of Leganes when Spanish police closed in on their hideout. Spanish interior minister Angel Acebes said it is impossible to establish how many al Qaeda suspects were holed up in the building. They began shooting from a window at police approaching the apartment building. Special police agents prepared to storm the building when the terrorists set off a powerful explosion with several bomb belts shouting God is great in Arabic. One policeman was killed and 15 injured. Some of the suspects may have escaped under cover of the blast or before the police closed the net around the building.

Also found in the damaged apartment building were additional explosive devices and 200 detonators.

Forty apartments were evacuated and the area sealed off. Three of the terror suspects who committed suicide have been identified, but the possibility of more having taken part in the group suicide has not been ruled out. Spanish radio reported Jamal Ahmidan, 33, was among the dead. He was named in one of the six arrest warrants issued in the March 11 train bombings investigation.

This was the first time terrorists are known to have used bomb belts in Europe, also the first battle with al Qaeda to take place on the continent.

Spanish police are already holding 15 suspects in connection with the attack on the commuter trains last month. Six have been charged with mass murder and nine with collaborating with a terrorist organization. Eleven are members of the al Qaeda-linked Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group.

Friday, April 2, Spain went on terror alert after a bomb was found on the Madrid-Seville high speed rail track near Toledo 10 km south of capital. The device was connected to a detonator with a 130 m cable. The Spanish army and helicopters are now guarding Spanish railway lines.

New Warfront Opens in Iraq Three Months before Handover 04.05.04 (9:55 am)   [edit]
[b][url=http://www.debka.com]DEBKAfile[/url] Special Analysis
April 5, 2004, 1:00 PM (GMT+02:00)[/b]

In the last 24 hours, Shiite radicals of Baghdad and southern Iraq have gone on the warpath, vying with the Sunni Triangle’s al Qaeda and Baathist guerrillas in anti-US violence. One year after ending the combat phase of the Iraq war, the US-led coalition finds itself fighting therefore on the two fronts.

Monday, April 5, US forces opened a major offensive called Vigilant Resolve against Iraqi guerrilla-al Qaeda strongholds in Falluja and Ramadi, leaving many casualties. They quickly blocked highways linking the two towns to Baghdad and the Jordanian frontier.

On their second warfront, US forces counter-attacked the illegal Mehdi Army militia of young firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, 31, to nip his rebellion in the bud before it developed into a generalized civil conflagration. US administrator Paul Bremer thereupon declared Sadr an outlaw and a threat to the security of Iraq.

In a day and a night, 9 coalition troops and nearly 50 Iraqis died and Sadr supporters had seized a number of police stations and public buildings, including the governor’s office in British-controlled Basra in the south and Kufa near Najef, where the worst outbreak took place Sunday, April 4. There, in a three-hour gun battle, 2 coalition troops – one American and one El Salvadorean – were killed and 20 injured, while Iraqi Shiites attempting to storm the Spanish-led garrison lost 20 dead and 150 injured. Similar confrontations flared in Amara and Nasseriyah.

Before Monday morning, Mehdi militiamen using grenade launchers and small arms, attempted to seize police stations in Baghdad’s Shiite slum district, killing 7 US troops and injuring 24. Two hours later, US forces counter-attacked on ground and by helicopter, leaving 24 Iraqis dead and 74 wounded.

US-led coalition troops are therefore embattled in most of southern and central Iraq, from Basra in the south up to Baghdad and the Sunni Triangle. Western Iraq and the Kurdish-ruled north are relatively calm although Iraqi guerrillas still operate there too.

Al-Sadr, enjoining his followers “terrorize the enemy”, claimed the protest was sparked by the arrest of his aide, Mustapha Yacoubi, for the murder last year of pro-US cleric Ayatollah Abdul Majid Khoei, who was hacked to death in a Najef mosque. The radicals also railed against the 60-day closure of the Sadrist newspaper Hawaza accused of inciting anti-US violence by false information.

The two incidents, three months before Iraqi is scheduled to be handed over to Iraqi sovereignty, are marginal. The real cause underlining the Sadr rebellion is brought to light by DEBKAfile’s intelligence and counter-terror sources. They stress that it was far from spontaneous. Indeed it was prepared well in advance to at the behest of Tehran - with the collaboration of Damascus and the Hizballah - by the Shiite master terrorist Imad Mughniyeh. Its purpose: to trigger Iran’s Spring Offensive against the Americans in Iraq.

Sunday night, the young radical cleric al Sadr told cheering followers in Kufa: “From now on we are the beating arm of the Hizballah and Hamas in Iraq”. The crowds, raising clenched fists, declared: “The occupation is over! Sadr is our ruler!”

Our military analysts read this as a battle cry – not only to launch the young Shiite cleric’s bid for power in the whole of Iraq – but also for spreading the unrest around the Middle East at large. The Lebanese Hizballah, which controls the most effective military-terrorist force in the region and is heavily armed with an array of missiles and artillery, will not want to sit on the sidelines; likewise the Hamas and its Gaza-based “military arm”, Izz e-Din al-Qassam. However, both must be guided in their next steps by the Iranian leadership topped by Ali Khamenei and the Syrian president Bashar Assad who have been holding separate emergency round the clock conferences in the last few hours.

A decision by the two governments, collaborators thus far, to continue to operate together will be bad news for the spiraling Iraqi crisis.

In March 2003, days after the American invasion of Iraq, Tehran sent al-Sadr into the country, well-padded with Iranian weapons, intelligence, combatants and cash, which are still on tap. However, the Iranians may feel they are still in sufficient control to decide whether to go forward and back his anti-American campaign to the bitter end, or hold back and cash in on their gains. According to DEBKAfile’s sources in Tehran, the ayatollahs will be guided by two considerations:

1. Will the violence incurred until now push Washington hard enough to abandon its international campaign against Iran’s nuclear program? What Tehran is after is US assent to its continuing enrichment of uranium for military purposes up to the point where all the components of a nuclear bomb are in hand but left disassembled. If the Bush administration agrees to let this pass, Tehran will call al-Sadr and his militia to heel and instruct him to come to an arrangement with the Americans for calm.

2. The Mehdi Army is riddled with hundreds of Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers and agents, dominated by the most extremist and belligerent elements in the Iranian regime. If ordered to hold their fire, these fire-eating combatants may well switch their loyalties to the most implacable factions of the Revolutionary Guards to which Mughniyeh also belongs.

The decisions facing the Assad regime are equally complex. While Tehran may believe it has acquired a nuclear bargaining chip in the Sadr rebellion, Damascus may use it as leverage to fend off US economic sanctions and force Washington accept the Hizballah and Palestinian terrorist organizations based in Damascus as legitimate arms of a national liberation movement, rather than terrorists. If that acceptance is forthcoming, Bashar Assad could promise – once again – to seal its Lebanese and Iraqi frontiers and not permit Hizballah contingents to cross into Iraq and join the Mehdi Army offensive against the coalition. He might even offer to prevent the Hizballah from opening a new front against Israel.

However, the Syrian ruler is not a free agent. In the summer of 2003, he allowed Mughniyeh to cross Syria into Iraq from his hiding place in Lebanon to program the Shiite offensive. Last November, he was allowed to return by the same route. With the onset of the Shiite uprising, Mughniyeh took command of Hizballah forces, pushing Hassan Nasrallah into second place. Damascus can therefore no longer act on its own.

In the first hours of what looks like evolving into the second Iraq war, it is impossible to predict how the combat will develop or where the coalition and the radical Shiites are heading. The fact that the US Iraq command decided despite the Shiite flareup to go ahead with Operation Vigilant Resolve in the Sunni Triangle to avenge the Fallujah lynching of four Americans and attack that killed 5 US marines Wednesday, March 31, indicates that the United States is determined both to fight the Sunnis and to clamp a tight lid down on the Shiite threat to kindle the flames of civil war.

The big question is: why did the Bush administration and US command fail to heed the operational bond developing for ten months between Iran, Syria and the Hizballah and the deployment of one of the world’s most vicious troublemakers, Imad Mughniyeh, in Shiite Iraq last fall? The transfer of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction to Syria between January 10 to March 10 2003 was ignored in the same way with unfortunate consequences.

Strangers on a Train: A Joke

04.05.04 (9:50 am)   [edit]
A scientist gets on a train to go to New York. His cabin also has a poor farmer in it. To pass the time the scientist decides to play a game with the guy.
"I will ask you a question and if you get it wrong, you have to pay me 1 dollar. Then you ask me a question, and if I get it wrong, you get 10 dollars. You ask me a question first." The farmer thinks for a while.
"I know. What has three legs, takes 10 hours to climb up a palm tree, and 10 seconds to get back down?" The scientist is confused and thinks long and hard about the question. Finally, the train ride is coming to an end. As it pulls into the station, the scientist takes out 10 dollars and gives it to the farmer.
"I don't know. What has 3 legs, takes 10 hours to get up a palm tree and 10 seconds to get back down?" The farmer takes the 10 dollars and puts it into his pocket. He then takes out 1 dollar and hands it to the scientist.
"I don't know."

Jewish Official Starts Christian Outreach

04.05.04 (9:47 am)   [edit]
[b]Sun Apr 4,12:21 PM ET
[i]By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer [/b][/i]

MADISON, Conn. - It was another tough conversation for David Elcott, whose job is full of them these days. Speaking to a group of Christian clergy over a chicken dinner, he tried to explain why many of his fellow Jews don't trust them.

Mel Gibson's epic "The Passion of the Christ" had just been released, and for Elcott and others, it was yet another sign of the gulf that has grown between the faiths.

Elcott had seen the movie at an Illinois church with thousands of pastors. He was disturbed by how Jews were depicted, but saw that his Christian colleagues were visibly moved.

"I realized, with pain, that I didn't understand the people next to me," he said. "For Jews, it's particularly frightening. It taps into, `If we don't really know them, what's beneath all this?'"

Elcott's concern is more than personal. Just over six months ago, he became the national head of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, a leading advocacy group based in New York.

The job involves representing the Jewish community to everyone from local pastors to the pope — and it has never been easy. But in the last few years it has become a minefield of old resentments and present-day policy disputes, eroding relations long before this latest debate over Gibson's true intentions.

Bitter differences over Israeli policy toward the Palestinians have been partly to blame, but so, too, has a drop in support for interfaith dialogue as Jews felt more established in the United States, experts say.

As the Jewish holiday of Passover begins at sundown Monday and Christians observe Holy Week, leaders of both religions say more must be done to build connections between them.

"The ongoing work has slowed down tremendously," said Rabbi Leon Klenicki, a 30-year veteran of interfaith outreach with the Anti-Defamation League.

One sign of the times: The American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League are now the only major Jewish organizations with full-time interfaith relations people on staff, experts say.

Jewish success assimilating into American culture is a main reason why, said Rabbi James Rudin, who worked for 32 years in the job Elcott now holds. As Jews focused inward — on issues such as religious education and intermarriage — national agencies responded by trimming their outreach programs, he said.

"Many Jews saw interreligious (work) as a way to fully integrate into the American mainstream. Younger people think this has been done," Rudin said. "I think that's unfortunate. I think the work is so important."

Meanwhile, Christians have been struggling with their own troubles, over homosexuality and, for some mainline Protestant denominations, steadily declining membership.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, just started an initiative with several Christian churches to reinvigorate local interfaith dialogues.

"In recent decades, interfaith work has declined precipitously," said Yoffie, who started the program partly in response to resurgent anti-Semitism. "In many communities, little survives beyond Thanksgiving services and model seders."

Like many who enter the field, Elcott's interest is rooted in family history. Christians saved his mother during Kristallnacht, but many more of his relatives were wiped out in the Holocaust, he said.

"I grew up with a really complicated worldview," said Elcott, 54, an intense man who runs marathons and spent a vacation meditating at a Buddhist monastery in Thailand. "I recognize the potential evil done in the name of God, while knowing that Christians who owed my family nothing saved my family's life."

When Elcott took the job last September, relations with the Roman Catholic Church were strong, even though some tensions arose soon after over the response to the film by some church leaders. But dialogue with mainline Protestants had suffered over Israel.

Jews have always had a complex relationship with moderate and liberal Protestants. The two sides agree on many domestic issues including civil rights, and Protestants support Israel's right to exist.

But they part ways with many Jews over the Palestinians, often viewed by progressive Christians as victims of unjust Israeli government actions backed by an unethical U.S. foreign policy.

Elcott said relations were so poor when he was first hired, that he had to spend weeks badgering international policy officials in mainline denominations before they would return his calls.

He said part of the difficulty was a perception that some Jewish leaders had become so hawkish in their defense of Israel that dialogue would not be productive. Many Christians were also angry at being labeled anti-Semitic for expressing concern about the Palestinians, he said.

"It was rupturing a historic relationship," Elcott said.

Working with evangelicals poses a different challenge.

Conservative Christians, for their own theological reasons, are among Israel's staunchest supporters, but they also consistently evangelize American Jews — who find proselytizing offensive.

Top American evangelical and Jewish leaders generally disagree on domestic issues and have little formal dialogue, even as the Israeli government honors religious right figures such as Pat Robertson for their support. The Jewish willingness to work with Christian conservatives on Israel has further alienated liberals.

Still, when the controversy erupted over Gibson's film, most U.S. Christian leaders, including the Rev. Franklin Graham, put aside any differences with Jews and responded to their concerns. They told their members that Jews could not be collectively blamed for killing Jesus.

Elcott likes to raise this point in his meetings with Jews.

He contends they focus too much on anti-Semitism in interfaith dialogue, making prejudice the main issue instead of religion no matter how much their Christian counterparts denounce past wrongs and apologize.

Klenicki agrees, calling this tendency "the theology of pointing fingers." He says it leaves Jews dangerously ignorant about Christianity.

"All the churches bent over backwards to say it's a sin to say Jews killed Jesus," Elcott recently told a group of Jewish community leaders in New Haven, as they discussed Gibson's movie. "If Christians say, `We are not anti-Semitic any longer,' can we believe them?"

Elcott thinks the answer should be yes, otherwise fear — however well-founded — will cost Jews a historic chance for reconciliation. He has been traveling the country to say so — at near-nightly interfaith events about the movie.

In May, he hopes to convene a summit of American Jews and Christians on Israel to examine, as he describes it, "Are we going to work together on peace or are we going to fight each other?"

"Both sides are diminished by the loss of conversation," Elcott said. "I'm taking steps to assure them that our passion for peace is real."
[line]
On the Net:

[url=http://www.ajc.org/ ]American Jewish Committee[/url]

D'var Torah for Tzav

04.02.04 (1:50 pm)   [edit]
Our Parsha, Tzav, informs us that the priests' first task of the day was to remove the ashes from the offering sacrificed the previous day (Leviticus 6:3). Is there any significance to this being the priests' first order of business with which to start the day?

Rabbi Avi Weiss explains that the priest begins the day by removing the ashes to illustrate the importance of his remaining involved with the mundane. Too often, those who rise to important positions separate themselves from the people and abandon the everyday menial tasks. By starting the day with ash-cleaning, the Torah insists it shouldn't be this way.

A few years ago a couple appeared before Rabbi Gifter, asking him to rule on a family dispute. The husband, a member of Rabbi Gifter's kollel (an all day Torah learning program) felt that, as one who studied Torah, it was beneath his dignity to take out the garbage. His wife felt otherwise. Rabbi Gifter concluded that while the husband should in fact help his wife he had no legal religious obligation to remove the refuse.

The next morning, before the early services, Rabbi Gifter knocked at the door of the young couple. Startled, the young man asked Rabbi Gifter in.

No, responded Rabbi Gifter, I've not come to socialize but to take out your garbage. You may believe it's beneath your dignity, but it's not beneath mine! This message comes to us courtesy of the sacrificial ashes!


I'll be posting a couple more commentaries before Yontiv on Monday, so stay tuned! Until then enjoy reading archives and links! I'll probably check in durring Chol Hamoed Pesach, but I expect to be busy with the holiday, as you can imagine.

Have a fun, happy healthy, and kosher Shabbos and Pesach!

And a great week/weekend to all!

8) :twisted: :lol: :?
(The wise son, the evil son, the simple son, and the son who doens't know how to ask!)


Next Year B'Yerushalyim!

Al Qaeda-Hizballah Bomb Team on Amman Revenge Mission for Hamas 04.02.04 (1:08 pm)   [edit]
[url=http://www.debka.com]DEBKAfile[/url] Special Report
April 2, 2004, 6:31 PM (GMT+02:00)


=http://www.debka.com/photos/8...
[i]Meridien-Amman - targeted for terror[/i]

The building in the picture, the five-star Le Meridien Hotel, in the Shmeisani district of Amman, walking distance from the Hussein sports center and the Palace of Culture, was projected for reduction to charred rubble Friday, April 2 by a joint Hizballah-al Qaeda bomb team. This is revealed by DEBKAfile’s exclusive counter-terror sources. But part of that team was captured by Jordanian forces as it entered the kingdom from Syria at the Rahmtha crossing Wednesday, March 31, driving a suspicious looking pickup truck found on examination to be loaded with hundreds of kilos of explosives. The four detainees, questioned at Jordanian army security headquarters in Amman, soon gave them game away. They also disclosed that another one or two explosives-laden trucks with the rest of the terror team had managed to slip into Jordan before them and was at large - whereupon the royal security forces shot into pursuit mode and placed armed guards on the palaces, the US and Israeli embassies and strategic sites.

Amid the hue and cry, King Abdullah put in calls to the United States and Israel to report the captured terrorists had also divulged they were on their way to carry out a mega-strike against at least two hotels and a large Amman shopping mall to avenge Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in the Gaza Strip on March 22.

The al Qaeda-Hizballah terrorist plot would have left several hundreds of people dead in Amman – a catastrophe several times greater than the Madrid train bombings. According to our Jordanian sources, the captured terrorists claimed that because the Hamas, Hizballah and al Qaeda were prevented thus far from carrying out a mass-casualty attack in any Israeli city by its heavy security build-up, they opted from the Jordanian capital as target. Initial input from the Jordanian inquiry has been relayed to Washington and Jerusalem.

The terrorists driving the missing truck or trucks were to have rendezvoused at an unknown location with a second team of fellow al Qaeda operatives who were to have collected the explosives and used them for suicide car bombings inside Amman. The truck seized at the border was to have blown up Le Meridien.

DEBKAfile’s military sources add: the Jordanian army, police and security services have been on high alert for three days, special units reinforcing security at the royal palaces and for heads of government and economy. Royal Air Force craft are swooping up and down the kingdom hoping to spot the missing bomb vehicles and terrorists before they gain access to any Jordanian town. First thing Thursday, April 1, when they had still not been located, the king telephoned Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah in Riyadh and Hosni Mubarak in Sharm el Sheikh with bitter recriminations against Syrian President Bashar Assad for failing to avert the attempted assault on his capital city. He said the trucks could not have been packed with explosives on the outskirts of Damascus and then set off for the Jordanian frontier without the knowledge of Syrian military intelligence. Indeed, the captured terrorists admitted they had been assured they would not be bothered at the Syrian border crossing because the border guards had been told not to search the trucks.

Then and there, to avoid the embarrassment of shaking hands with the accused Syrian leader, the Egyptian president ordered their meeting later that morning to be cancelled. In case Assad turned up anyway, Mubarak took to the air and flew out of the Sinai resort to Cairo.

Had the Le Meridien Hotel hit been achieved on behalf of Hamas, DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources sketch the resulting scenario:

1. Hamas would have claimed its vow to avenge its dead leader vindicated with the help of forces outside the country.

2. The pick-up truck or trucks still loose might still strike an Israeli target such as the Israeli embassy in Amman or an Israeli-Jordanian factory in the kingdom.

3. Jordan would carry the brand of the most loyal ally of America and Israel in the Middle East.

4. Even though the Hamas had no direct role in the operation, its leaders would claim that its reach had crossed national Palestinian borders and the movement was now part of the al Qaeda-Hizballah terrorist network in the Middle East and beyond.

Jordanian media named the notorious al Qaeda operative Musab Zarqawi as the suspected mastermind of the attempted al Qaeda-Hizballah Hamas mega-strike in Amman. DEBKAfile’s terror experts note that the familiar al Qaeda names bandied about after every terrorist action belong to the fundamentalist network’s command level current until the end of 2002. They are yesterday’s men. A new generation has meanwhile risen from the middle ranks whose names are unknown. Their anonymity has become the biggest obstacle facing Western intelligence in fighting or predicting al Qaeda actions. Zarqawi is a Jordanian himself and still active, but it is hardly credible that one man is capable of wreaking devastation over a short period in Baghdad, Karbala, Irbil, Madrid, Amman, Istanbul and every other world site targeted for terror.

Armed Palestinian man shot dead by IDF troops in Gaza 04.02.04 (12:32 pm)   [edit]
[b][i]By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and Agencies[/b][/i]

Three Palestinians, including a 16-year-old, were killed Friday by gunfire from Israel Defense Forces troops in incidents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
A Palestinian man armed with a Kalachnikov rifle and grenades was killed by Israel Defense Forces gunfire Friday when he approached the Karni-Netzarim Road in the Gaza Strip, a short time after a 19-year-old Palestinian man was killed, Palestinians said, in heavy exchanges of gunfire with IDF troops on the Gaza-Egypt border.

Hospital officials identified the man said killed in the Rafah refugee camp along the border as Mohammed Abed. Medics said Palestinian residents described him as a bystander, but an IDF source said he had no information on Palestinian casualties.

In the afternoon, the Palestinian news service reported that Nisa'ar Isa Hajachjeh, was killed by IDF gunfire at the northern entrance to the West Bank city of Bethlehem. According to the report, the teen died from wounds caused by heavy fire. The army said that he was shot after he threw a firebomb at IDF troops in the Rachel's Tomb area.

Meanwhile, Palestinians opened fire Friday at IDF troops near the Hila pass in the Gaza Strip settlement bloc of Gush Katif, but caused no injuries, Itim reported.

Also Friday morning, the IDF closed the Erez industrial zone to Palestinian workers in the Gaza Strip due to warnings of a terror attack at the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel, Army Radio reported. Troops were searching the area. The West Bank and Gaza Strip are under a general closure through the end of Passover out of fear of an attack during the holiday.

IDF tanks entered the Rafah refugee camp on the border early Friday, residents and Palestinian security officials said. There were heavy exchanges of fire between soldiers and Palestinian gunmen, they said.

The IDF said a limited operation was underway, aimed at the infrastructure of tunnels used by Palestinians to smuggle weapons from Egypt.

IDF soldiers took over the rooftops of three buildings and used them as positions for sharpshooters to keep the gunmen away, witnesses said.

The Rafah camp is a frequent focus of clashes, as IDF troops enter to look for the tunnels. The IDF often destroys buildings used to cover the entrances to tunnels, leaving hundreds of Palestinians homeless.

Al-Aqsa mosque riots in Jerusalem 04.02.04 (12:28 pm)   [edit]
[b]April 2, 2004
[url=http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/0...]RTE[/url][/b]

(17:21) Israeli police in riot gear have stormed the square outside al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem after Palestinians gathered to throw stones at the spot where a Palestinian uprising began four years ago.

Police said they fired rubber bullets and tossed stun grenades after hundreds of Muslims leaving Friday prayers threw stones at security men and Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall below.

Shmuel Rabinovitch, chief rabbi at the Western Wall, said police rushed in and evacuated worshippers after a single stone fell into the plaza.

The Islamic Waqf, which oversees the mosque compound, said police acted without provocation and more than 60 people were injured.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said in a statement that al-Aqsa was ‘in danger’ and called on all Muslims and Christians and the US-led diplomatic ‘Quartet’ of peace brokers to help safeguard it.

'Righteous Gentile' Honored 49 Years After Holocaust, Saved Lives of Jewish Teens

04.02.04 (12:08 am)   [edit]
[b]'Righteous Gentile' Honored 49 Years After Holocaust Leader of Segregated All-Black Army Unit Saved Lives of Jewish Teens
Thursday April 1, 1:00 pm ET[/b]

RUMSON, N.J., April 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Forty-nine years after he saved the lives of two young Jewish teenagers by hiding them within the ranks of his Army unit, former Lieutenant John Withers is being honored by Congregation B'nai Israel. The ceremony will take place on April 18, 2004, at 7:30 p.m. in conjunction with the synagogue's Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance service.

"John Withers represents the best of America and the best of humanity," said Rabbi Jack Rosoff. "He extended a helping hand at substantial personal risk to save the lives of two teenage boys. It is important for people to know that there are those in the world who will put themselves at risk for people in need," he added.

ABOUT WITHERS:

Near the end of World War II, a time when the U.S. Army was segregated, Withers lead an all-black supply convoy unit in Germany. In direct violation of Army orders and at the risk of a dishonorable discharge, Withers hid two Jewish teenagers within the ranks of his truck company for over a year. The two, both survivors of Dachau concentration camp, were literally sores, skin and bones when they came to the unit, and stayed for more than a year becoming stronger, healthier and learning English from Withers and his men.

At the time, Withers fought for freedoms that he, as a Black American, could not enjoy; black soldiers rode separately from whites and were expected to step aside when a white walked by. Yet, he understood the difference between right and wrong, and knew that leaving these young men, whose families were killed in the Holocaust, was wrong.

Because of his heroic humanitarian acts, Withers has earned the title "Righteous Gentile," a named given by the Jewish community to those who saved the lives of Jews before and during the Holocaust.

In a recent interview published in the Wall Street Journal, Withers said of his decision to hide the boys, "I think I identified with them very strongly and instantaneously."

Dr. John L. Withers, now 87 years old, is a retired Foreign Service Officer, who served in Laos, Thailand, Burma, Korea, Ethiopia, Kenya and India. He served in the U.S. Army from 1941 to 1947.

A presentation that crosses all religious and cultural lines, the event will include music from the Congregation B'nai Israel choir, as well as the 60-voice Emanuel Baptist Church choir from nearby Tinton Falls.

Founded in 1922, Congregation B'nai Israel, on the corners of Hance and Ridge Roads, is one of the oldest conservative synagogues in Monmouth County. For directions and more information, contact the B'nai Israel office at 732- 842-1800.

This release was issued on behalf of the above organization by Send2Press(TM), a unit of Neotrope®. http://www.Send2Press.com
[line]
Source: Congregation B'nai Israel of Greater Red Bank, NJ

Something That Makes Me Nuts!

04.01.04 (2:45 pm)   [edit]
Ok, so I'm at [url=http://samadams.tblog.com]SamAdams'[/url] blog today. Sam is a good friend of mine and we chat it up every once in a while. So, on one of his entries, I asked a question. It was kinda off topic, but I didn't think I was being rude to anyone by just chatting and showing a curiosity. My comment went:

[b][i]» RedTigress 04.01.04 [9:36 am] (PST)

Just curious, sam -- kinda off topic -- but how do you feel about the mutilations that went on by Iraqis of U.S. soldiers?[/i][/b]

That's it. I addressed it to Sam, as you can see. I didn't give any opinion of my own. All I did was ask a question, and I did it in a kind manner, as Sam is, I repeat, a good friend.

What came next? Out of no where, my little resident stalker (we'll just call him "Fucker" for now) who usually 'yells' at me and calls me names for whatever reason imaginable, saw this and said:

[b][i]» ["Fucker"] 04.01.04 [10:48 am] (PST)

Reply to: RedTigress
Mutilations by Iraqis wouldn't have happened if Shrub hadn't illegally invaded a sovereign nation that didn't even threaten the U.S. dumb-bunny![/i][/b]

Now what the fuck was that? Honestly? Was I even TALKING to him? No. And what's up with "dumb-bunny"? Did "hitler zionist bitch-whore" get old now (yes, he did actually call me that a couple of occasions!)?

This bullshit makes me crazy! I didn't even DO anything. It's bullshit. He doesn't like me because I'm a Jew/Zionist (both are one in the same, really) and so he's been "stalking" me for a while with this kinda crap. Lost? Here are some articles I wrote about this idiot:

"Shut Me Up?" -- http://www.tblog.com/template...

and

"Extending the OliveBranch" -- http://www.tblog.com/template...

and

"Olive Branch Update" -- http://www.tblog.com/template...


Right. So I'm sick of this, as you can imagine. It's silly, it's childish, and it's wrong. This immature antisemite just can't let things go, nor can he be civil!

My reply in this most recent run-in:

[b][i]» RedTigress 04.01.04 [2:24 pm] (PST)

Reply to: ["Fucker"]

What was that? I thought I heard a noise! Could it have been the sound of ["Fucker"] molesting himself again? Oh my... that's just indecent.

The way Iraq was invaded may not have been great. However, Saddam needed to go. He was a totalitarian evil dictator -- Just like Hitler. Oh, but you wouldn't have minded if Hitler was in power today either, would you? You don't care about human rights. If you did, you'd be just as against a human rights VIOLATOR like Saddam Hussein in a moment!

Why don't you cut the crap. You can't have an actual conversation so you call me a dumb-bunny? Oooh! You musta been hot shit in the dodgeball court.

Be civil, and we'll talk.

The people from Iraq that did this to these soldiers are MOST DEFINATLY responsible for their own actions, reguardless of what 'shrub' did.

Typical; no self-responsibility being imposed upon you or criminals.

I bet if you had your way, Charles Manson would be free. Why? Because he wouldn't have ever been a homicidal maniac if it wasn't for a society that was so un-loving. Bullshit.

If you kill someone and then maim their dead body, I don't care who the fuck you are or what the fuck happened prior. You are at fault and you need to be punished!

No go back to your cage![/i][/b]

And then right after that:

[b][i]» RedTigress 04.01.04 [2:25 pm] (PST)

Reply to: ["Fucker"]

And by the way, just for the record, I do believe that I wasn't even talking to YOU!

In less your name is Sam, kindly shut the fuck up. :)[/i][/b]

Should anyone have to take this, my friends? I answer you: No!

This is bullshit and it makes me nuts!
[line]
PS: Wanna know who "Fucker" is? Contact me!

Anti-semitic attacks on the rise in Europe: study

04.01.04 (2:14 pm)   [edit]
My great thanks to [url=http://winstonsmith.tblog.com...]WinstonSmith[/url] for bringing this article to my attention.

This is wrong, this is disgusting. People need to realise what is going on! These acts can not be allowed to continue! We must fight this at it's core! We can not let another Holocaust happen! Read on...
[line]
April 1, 2004

The number of anti-semitic attacks in Europe has soared in recent years, with a report by the EU's racism watchdog naming five countries - Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Britain - for particular concern.

The study is likely to revive alarm at rising anti-Jewish sentiment on the continent, already fuelled by a recent opinion poll in which Europeans labelled Israel as the greatest threat to world peace.

Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Britain have seen a notable rise in anti-Jewish attacks over the last two or three years, said the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) report.

Most countries also saw worrying trends, it said, although few problems were recorded in four countries: Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Finland.

"Europe has a problem with anti-semitism, manifestations of which have been getting more frequent in some parts of the EU over the last two or three years," said the EUMC in a report presented to the European Parliament.

The report comes after the EU held a high-level conference in February to clamp down on anti-Semitism - a "monster" that Jewish leaders warned had returned with a vengeance to the continent six decades after the Holocaust.

That conference was hastily organised after a shock opinion poll in November which found that Europeans saw Israel as the biggest threat to world peace, ahead of countries such as North Korea and Iraq. The United States came second.

The 344 page report by the Vienna-based EUMC was the first time that data has been collected systematically across the European Union, which expands from 15 to 25 members on May 1.

Areas of concern highlighted by the study, focussed on 2002-2003, include:

In Belgium "a catalogue of incidents of varying extremity ... including the firebombing of Jewish property and some serious physical assaults".

in Germany most acts were verbal rather than physical. Jewish groups reported increasing numbers of letters, emails and phone calls from 2002.

In the Netherlands anti-semitic acts increased "significantly" in particular in Amsterdam which has a relative large Jewish community.

In Britain there were violent attacks on two synagogues, two cases of suspected arson and several attacks on Jewish cemeteries.

In France there was a sixfold increase in anti-semitic incidents in 2002. "There were many incidents of Jewish people assaulted and insulted, attacks against synagogues, cemeteries and other Jewish property," it said.

Other trends identified in the study included a tendency towards verbal abuse in everyday life in four countries: Greece, Austria, Italy and Spain.

In these countries," whilst physical assaults and (violence) were absent or relatively rare .. antisemitic discourse was nevertheless particularly virulent in many aspects of daily life," it said.

In Greece there was a kind of "popular antisemitism .. with a large section of the Greek public subscribing to conspiracy theories of Jewish world domination".

Parliament head Pat Cox expressed alarm at the report's findings.

"The documented rise in anti-Semitic attacks, flies in the face of the fundamental principles on which the EU is founded," he said.

"Is there a problem with anti-Semitism in Europe? This report tells us that the answer is yes. The evidence presented today indicates that incidents of anti-Semitism in Europe are on the increase and suggests that events in the Middle East are disturbing the social fabric of European society."

[i]AFP[/i]

Tehillim vs. Hamas

04.01.04 (9:27 am)   [edit]
This from Michael Winner's site Frum.org
I saw it at J.P. Bradley's site: HasidicGentile.org
[line]
Tehillim (The book of Psalms) is divided up by the days of the (Hebrew) month, each day saying specific daily chapters of Tehillim. As I am sure you all know the head of Hamas (in Hebrew& Arabic called Chamas) was killed Monday morning (29th day of the Hebrew month of Adar) via missiles fired down by the Israelis. Tehillim Kapital (chapter) 140 is read on the 29th day of the month. Monday March 22, 2004 was the 29th day of the month of Adar....you must to read the daily chapter of Tehillim for THAT DAY!!!!!

Note: the Hebrew words "Ish CHAMAS" (the man of Hamas) or "the man of violence" is used 4 times in the day's chapter!!!!

Check it out! Especially verses 11-12 that's exactly to what happened!!! Here we go.

Psalms Chapter 140

140:1 For the Leader A song of David.

*** 140:2 Deliver me, O the Lord, from the evil man; preserve me from the man of violence (the man of Hamas);

***140:3 Who devise evil schemes in their heart; who assemble daily for wars.

*** 140:4 They have sharpened their tongue like a serpent; a vipers' venom (CAHAMS) is under their lips.

*** 140:5 Keep me, O the Lord, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man (the man of Hamas); those who contrived to jostle my feet.

140:7 I have said unto the Lord: 'Thou art my God'; give ear, O the Lord, unto the voice of my supplications.

140:8 O GOD the L-rd, the strength of my salvation, who hast protected my head on the day of battle,

*** 140:9 Grant not, O the Lord, the desires of the wicked; let their conspiracies be not be carried out, for them to be exalted. Selah

140:10 As for the head of those that compass about me, let the mischief of their own lips cover them.

*** 140:11 Let fiery coals fall upon them; let them be cast into the fire, into deep pits, that they rise not up again.

*** 140:12 Let not the slanderer be established in the earth; the violent, evil man (the man of Hamas) shall be hunted with thrust upon thrust.

140:13 I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the poor, and the right of the needy.

140:14 Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto Your name; the upright shall dwell in Your presence

Hamas, al-Aksa Brigades nix Qurei's call to end attacks 04.01.04 (9:20 am)   [edit]
[i][b]By KHALED ABU TOAMEH, the Jerusalem Post[/b][/i]

Hamas and Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs' Brigades, on Thursday rejected Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei's appeal to end suicide attacks against Israel and vowed to continue the fight until the Palestinians achieve all their rights.

Qurei said Thursday, after meeting with US envoys Steven J. Hadley, Elliot Abrams and William Burns in Jericho, that the Palestinian people are prepared to be "full partners" in the peace process with Israel, yet he conditioned his support for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan with a full Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Fatah and al-Aksa Brigades were reacting to comments made by Qurei on Wednesday at a special session of the Palestinian legislative Council. Qurei said suicide bombings were "morally unacceptable," turned the international community against the Palestinians, and caused extensive damage to the Palestinian issue.

Hamas condemned Qurei's statements as irrational and unacceptable, while the Aksa Martyrs' Brigades accused him of being ignorant with regards to what's happening on the ground.

"These remarks are illogical and unacceptable and come at an inappropriate time," said Mohammad Ghazal, a senior Hamas leader in the West Bank. "Our people don't accept such statements."

Ghazal said Qurei's government failed to make any achievements since it was established four months ago, largely because its policy is inconsistent with the aspirations of the Palestinians.

Referring to Qurei's call for an end to the state of chaos and lawlessness in PA-controlled areas, he said: "If anyone is responsible for the chaos of weapons in our areas, it is the Palestinian Authority, not the Palestinian resistance factions. The attempt to create a link between the resistance and the chaos is an expression of self-abuse, and I don't think any Palestinian can accept this."

Ghazal said Hamas would not agree to surrender its weapons, warning that any attempt to disarm its members would result in failure.

Zakariya Zubaidi, a senior Aksa Martyrs' Brigades commander in Jenin, ridiculed Qurei for stating that suicide bombings were an obstacle to peace. "The problem with Palestinian leaders and politicians is that they don't know what's really happening on the ground," he said.

"Of course for people like Qurei, who have nothing to do with the resistance, suicide bombings are an obstacle. Unfortunately, our leaders still don't know the Israeli leaders, who consider military action in the occupied territories and the killing of innocent people to be legitimate."

Zubaidi, who is at the top of Israel's list of most wanted terrorists in the West Bank, stressed that he and his colleagues would not lay their arms until Israel withdraws to the pre-1967 borders.

He said he did not believe Qurei was referring to the weapons he and his friends possess when he hinted in his speech to the need to disarm the various militias. "I believe he was referring to the weapons in the hands of those who don't belong to the Palestinian resistance," he added. "I don't believe that the Palestinian Authority will confiscate the weapons of the resistance groups. There are weapons in the hands of individuals who use them in personal disputes and crime. We support disarming such people."

Hassan Khraisheh, deputy PLC speaker and a prominent Fatah operative, accused Qurei of coming up with various excuses to cover up for the failure of his cabinet to make any achievements. "He didn't talk about any achievements on the ground for his government," Khraisheh said in response to Qurei's report summing up his first four months in office.

He dismissed Qurei's argument that suicide bombings gave Israel an excuse to step up its military offensive against the Palestinians. "These claims don't convince anyone," he said.

According to Kharaisheh, Qurei's report illustrates the failure of Palestinian decision-makers to tackle a number of important issues, first and foremost the state of anarchy and poverty and unemployment. "It's clear that there is no political will to confront the chaos," he added.

Meanwhile, Said Siam, a top representative of Hamas, announced on Thursday that talks between the various Palestinian factions would be resumed next week in Gaza City.

"The dialogue would be deep and focus on forming a united leadership and finding a common political ground in taking national decisions," Siam said.

He added his movement had finalized its plan that was aimed at organizing and administrating the Gaza Strip in case of an Israeli evacuation. "Our plan is ready but wasn't presented to the other factions due to the latest developments in the territories and the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, but we will present the plan to the factions in order to discuss it," he said.

Siam said the plan is based on political cooperation between different factions in order to protect the Palestinian people's interests and preserve their achievements and unity.

"The plan works on preventing law trespassing or any other violations that harm our national achievements. There is also another plan that would be used as a common ground for the Palestinian dialogue in the West Bank," he said

Catholics, Protestants, Jews to Join Voices in Spirit, Song and to Pray for Freedom...

04.01.04 (9:11 am)   [edit]
[b]Catholics, Protestants, Jews to Join Voices in Spirit, Song and to Pray for Freedom, Confront Oppression, Celebrate Justice
Sun Mar 28, 4:05 PM ET [/b]


To: City Desk


Contact: Rabbi Devon Lerner, 781-643-7759, or Brad Reichard, 617-470-8265, both for the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry Web: http://www.rcfm.org


BOSTON, March 28 /U.S. Newswire/ -- On the eve before the Massachusetts legislature resumes its Constitutional Convention, the Right Rev. Thomas Shaw, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts; Rabbi Ronne Friedman, senior rabbi of Temple Israel, the largest Temple in New England; United Church of Christ Rev. Carl Schultz, interim minister of Old South Church; and Sr. Rosemary Brennan, a Catholic nun with the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Boston, join clergy from across the commonwealth in an interfaith service titled "Praying for Freedom, Confronting Oppression, Celebrating Justice" at Old South Church in Boston's Copley Square.


Sponsored by the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry (RCFM), this service includes speakers including Massachusetts State Rep. Byron Rushing (D-Boston) and Rabbi Devon Lerner, co-chair of the RCFM, as well as music from the Boston Gay Men's Chorus.


"As the Constitutional Convention continues, there has been a crescendo of support for equal marriage rights from people of faith across the Commonwealth," states Massachusetts Rep. Byron Rushing (D-Boston). "Our constitution protects individuals' freedom of religion, and the hundreds of clergy who have been active in the freedom to marry movement help remind legislators that there is no rational basis upon which to deny gay and lesbians their civil rights. This service serves as a testament to these religious leaders' commitment to equality, as well as their desire to ensure that gay and lesbian couples who have valid religious marriages or go to a justice of the peace will also be able to obtain a state marriage license.


"Many RCFM clergy have been performing same-sex religious marriages for years." states Rabbi Devon Lerner, co-chair of the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry. "Amending the Massachusetts constitution would not only take away civil rights from same-sex couples, it would also take away our religious freedom to marry same sex and heterosexual couples according to our beliefs. We pray that the legislature will heed the voices of truth and justice and not impose other faith traditions' beliefs on us or on the individuals and families of our congregations and communities. Civil unions do not provide adequate legal protections and are disrespectful of the many faith traditions that that have religious marriage for gay and lesbian couples."


Comprised of clergy and faith leaders from 18 different faith traditions, including the United Church of Christ, Episcopal, Unitarian Universalist Association and Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism, the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry (RCFM) supports civil marriage rights for same gender couples and seeks to promote dialogue within faith communities about religious marriage for gay and lesbian couples. Since its founding in 1997, the RCFM mobilized more than 550 clergy and congregations from across Massachusetts to sign the "Massachusetts Declaration of Religious Support for the Freedom of Same Gender Couples to Marry." This action has become the model for similar initiatives across the nation.




[i]http://www.usnewswire.com/
© 2004 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/[/i]

An Important email

04.01.04 (9:02 am)   [edit]
[url=http://www.middle-east-info.o... ]Middle East Info[/url]

Read it, learn, grow.

Here is the email I recieved about this awesome knowledge base:
[line]
Advancing democracy, pluralism and mutual respect in the Middle East
The Middle-East = 10% of world land area = 22 Arab regimes, Iran and Israel

Dear Sir/Madam,



This is to request that you place a link to [url=http://www.middle-east-info.o...]Middle-East-Info.org[/url] , a leading site concerned with regimes in the Middle East.



The Middle East includes [url=http://www.middle-east-info.o...]7 out of 19 of the most repressive regimes in the world [/url] and their weapons of mass destruction. It is also the hotbed of [url=http://www.danielpipes.org/ar...]Jihad (Holy War), [/url] an ideology of world domination. The scourge of international terrorism now reaches far beyond the United States and Israel. Nearly half of [url=http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls...]the world’s major terror groups[/url] are Arab and Iranian. [url=http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls...]5 out of the world's 7 state-sponsors of terrorism are Arab and Iranian[/url] . [url=http://csis.org/stratassessme...]The combination of these factors[/url] makes it more important than ever to be acquainted with the reality of the Middle East:



URL: www.middle-east-info.org

Name: Middle-East-Info.org

Description: Concise information about all regimes in the Middle East = 10% of world land area = 22 Arab countries, Iran and Israel. The site aims to advance democracy, pluralism and mutual respect in the Middle East. Arab and Iranian dictators oppress their subjects, [url=http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls...]sponsor [/url] about half of the [url=http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls...]world’s major terror groups[/url] and imperil [url=http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin...:H.RES.61:]Israel, the Middle East’s sole democracy[/url] . [url=http://middle-east-info.org/g...]360 million people in Arab states and Iran[/url] are entitled to the same freedom and prosperity enjoyed by Europeans, Americans and Israelis.

Banners:

=http://img19.photobucket.com/...

=http://www.tblog.com/user_ima...


[b]Please let us know if you plan to place a link to Middle-East-Info.org on your website and send us the URL of that page. Your comments or suggestions to improve Middle-East-Info.org are welcome. [/b]



Yours sincerely,


Daniel Katz, Editor
Middle-East-Info.org

Terrorist sentenced for plans to murder Israeli ambassadors 04.01.04 (8:22 am)   [edit]
[b]Apr. 1, 2004 12:44 | Updated Apr. 1, 2004 16:45
[i]By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH[/b][/i]

A terrorist of the Fatah Al Aksa Brigades' in Jenin who planned to murder Israeli Ambassadors in Germany and China, poison water resevoirs, blow up a gas tank and bomb a wedding hall at Jerusalem's Hyatt Regency hotel was sentenced on Thursday in the Samaria Military Court to 18 years in prison.

Alam Khader Mahmud Koka was also given an additional three-year suspended sentence that will go into effect after he serves his initial term.

In reaching its decision, the court noted on Monday that none of Koka's intentions reached the planning stages or were close to being implemented.

According to details released from the court protocol, his charges included membership in an illegal organization, participation in illegal activities, three counts of shooting at IDF tanks and seven counts of manslaughter and soliciting manslaughter.

Prior to the sentencing, the military prosecutor said a number of considerations were taken into account when examining claims for a plea bargain.

"The [suspect's] shooting at tanks was perpetrated from a distance that rendered the attempts ineffective," he said. "The Military Appeals' Court has delivered its opinion on the difference between effective shooting at targets such as mobile vehicles and unarmed people and at armored vehicles where the potential for harm is low."

The prosecutor went on to mention that while the accused made numerous attempts to launch a variety of attacks "none of the plans ripened to the point where they were close to being implemented. While one can see the complex planning of an array of new ideas, they generally remained in the framework of ideas only... his plans were far from reaching the planning stages and far from being implemented."

The military prosecutor gave an example of the defendant's plans to target Israeli ambassadors abroad, noting that contacts with other activists regarding the idea failed to advance the plans to the point of implementation.

Nevertheless, the prosecutor said, "eighteen years is not a short sentence and we believe it is a fitting punishment that suits the serious nature of his crimes. We ask the court to support the plea bargain."

The defendant's lawyer told the court that he agreed to the sentence and noted his client admitted to the charges in the preliminary stages, thus saving valuable court time, a significant matter in light of the numerous charges and large number of witnesses that were called to testify.

In handing down the sentence, the court judges wrote in the verdict, "the defendant is a member of a murderous organization who joined its military squad under the codename of Abu Ramush."

"He launched three shooting attacks at IDF tanks, as well as planning a series of horrendous actions, that fortunately failed to reach their planning stages. The most outstanding among them was the defendant's plans to murder Israeli Ambassadors in Germany and China, poison water resources, blow up a gas factory and a wedding hall...

"We know that the terrorist organizations constantly seek to upgrade their activities and launch attacks which will cause massive casualties. The organizations are also attempting to expand their activities outside the borders of Israel and the immediate area. This can be seen in the plans the defendant plotted ... Through the internet the defendant succeeded in contacting other military activists or potential suicide bombers, within Israel and abroad, including a member of the Hizbullah... He gave a bomb to others seeking to launch an attack and prepared false documents for an activist from abroad that was to enter Israel and poison water resources.

"His arrest prevented the plans from being implemented the potential victims were lucky."

Israeli Troops Arrest Palestinian Militants in Bethlehem Raid 04.01.04 (8:20 am)   [edit]
[b]VOA
01/04/2004 18:04 [/b]

Israeli forces raided a mental hospital in the West Bank town of Bethlehem early Thursday and arrested 12 wanted Palestinian militants.

Witnesses said Palestinian militants holed up inside the building fought a brief gunbattle with Israeli soldiers. There were no reports of casualties. Israeli military sources say the militants were suspected of planning terrorist attacks against the Jewish state.
Meanwhile, a team of U.S. envoys ( U.S. Assistant Secretary of State william Burns and White House officials Stephen Hadley and Elliot Abrams) is expected to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders Thursday.

The talks are expected to focus on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to unilaterally remove almost all Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip and some from the West Bank.

Wednesday, Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qureia cautiously welcomed a possible Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Speaking at the Palestinian parliament he said the pull out should extend to the West Bank and include a resumption of the internationally-backed peace process. Mr. Qureia also used strong language to condemn suicide bombings. He said they are an obstacle to peace and have harmed the Palestinian cause internationally, damaged the economy, and given Israel an excuse for military incursions.

[i]Some information for this report provided by AP and Reuters. [/i]

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