January 2008 Archives

Until European intellectuals take on board the racist basis of the Jewish State, their support for the struggle of the Palestinians will always ring hollow, writes Joseph Massad

What is it about the nature of Zionism, its racism, and its colonial policies that continues to escape the understanding of many European intellectuals on the left? Why have the Palestinians received so little sympathy from prominent leftist intellectuals such as Jean- Paul Sartre and Michel Foucault or only contingent sympathy from others like Jacques Derrida, Pierre Bourdieu, Etienne Balibar, and Slavoj Zizek? Edward Said wrote once about his encounters with Sartre and Foucault (who were anti-Palestinian) and with Gilles Deleuze (who was anti-Zionist) in this regard. The intellectual and political commitments inaugurated by a pro-Zionist Sartre and observed by Said, however, remain emblematic of many of the attitudes of leftist and liberal European intellectuals today...

In 1910 a living toad was found when a piece of coal was broken open; another was found in 1906 six feet underground in a solid layer of clay. The most commonly found seem to be stuck in limestone.

The theory is that a small tadpole somehow enters a crack in a forming nodule or pocket and gets trapped in there as it grows. As it does, the smell attracts tiny insects which feed the toad and keep it alive. Through this crack also comes water and air. This is fine for some of the many examples that have been found but makes no sense in cases where live frogs have been found in totally sealed or deeply buried pockets.

Some frogs have been found with the impression of their bodies so tightly jammed against the rock 'pocket' that even the skin's crackles can be seen imprinted on the sides of their frog-shaped hole --meaning the rock formed around them somehow.

In 2006, Tufts' Hillel received part of a $1.6-million Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grant to promote "inter-faith and intercultural dialogue." The program's intentions are noble and its goals laudable, since it is best to resolve conflict through dialogue.

But this past fall, Tufts' Interfaith Initiative, "Pathways," used its federal money to sponsor a dinner and dialogue by Edina Lekovic on "Women, Faith, and Women."

The problem is that Lekovic is a radical Islamist sympathizer who has gone so far as to defend Osama bin Laden.

A former managing editor of "Al-Talib, a Muslim publication at UCLA, Lekovic was on the masthead when it published an editorial - signed by the Al-Talib staff - praising and defending Osama bin Laden.

The editorial stated, "When we hear someone refer to the great Mujahid, Osama bin Laden, as a 'terrorist,' we should defend our brother and refer to him as a freedom fighter; someone who has forsaken wealth and power to fight in Allah's cause and speak out against oppressors. We take these stances only to please Allah."

When confronted on national television about it, Lekovic initially denied any participation in the publication. Yet recently, she has admitted her involvement - claiming, however, that her position was insignificant, though it was listed as second highest on the masthead. She furthermore remained on the publication for the next three years and attributed the editorial to a printing mistake...

...These individuals are uncompromising extremists who are not really interested in dialogue. By inviting such extremists to speak at Tufts, the Pathways program gives them stature and publicity; moreover, such dialogue leads Muslims away from accepting American values like human rights and freedom for all. Moderation and dialogue are laudable goals, but the Pathways program works against them.

Indeed, it is by talking with the wrong people that we raise their elevation in their own communities - thus promoting a particular form of extremism...

A top congressman blasted the PLO office in Washington for lauding a terrorist leader who died recently.

Afif Safieh, who heads the Palestine Liberation Organization's Washington office, on Monday described George Habash, who headed the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, as a "great leader" and opened a condolences registry for him.

"I am astonished that the PLO's representative to this country would make such an asinine comment and would actually have the temerity to call on Americans to come to his office and sign a 'register of condolences' for this vicious individual," U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Commitee, said Tuesday in a statement. "How disgusting."

Habash's group pioneered airplane hijackings in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Habash broke with the PLO for negotiating the Oslo peace accords. Although he eventually reconciled with the mainstream Palestinian leadership, he never endorsed negotiations for a two-state solution with Israel...

...One of the things that saddens me most is that the press and media have had an active, perhaps even major role in fermenting hate and inhumanity. It was not religious fanaticism alone.

This was first brought to my attention by the Pakistani Consul General who came to offer condolences at our home in California. When we spoke about the anti-Semitic element in Danny's murder she said: "What can you expect of these people who never saw a Jew in their lives and who have been exposed, day and night, to televised images of Israeli soldiers targeting and killing Palestinian children."

At the time, it was not clear whether she was trying to exonerate Pakistan from responsibility for Danny's murder, or to pass on the responsibility to European and Arab media for their persistent de-humanization of Jews, Americans and Israelis. The answer was unveiled in 2004, when a friend told me that photos of Muhammad Al Dura were used as background in the video tape of Danny's murder.

Al Dura, readers may recall, is the 12-year-old Palestinian boy who allegedly died from Israeli bullets in Gaza in September of 2001. As we now know, the whole scene is very likely to have been a fraud, choreographed by stringers and cameramen of France 2, the official news channel of France. France 2 aired the tape repeatedly and distributed it all over the world to anyone who needed an excuse to ratchet up anger or violence, among them Danny's killers.

The Pakistani Consul was right. The media cannot be totally exonerated from responsibility for Daniel's murder, as well as for the "tsunami of hate" that has swept the world and continues to rise...

...But the Bible also offers us a foolproof test for discerning false prophets from true ones. The test is not based on the nature of the reported facts, but on the method and principles invoked in the message. Translated into secular, modern vocabulary, the true journalist will never compromise on universal principles of ethics and humanity, and will never allow us to forget that all people, including our adversaries, need be portrayed with dignity and respect as children of one God.

Accordingly, to distinguish true from false journalism, just choose any newspaper or TV channel and ask yourself when was the last time it ran a picture of a child, a grandmother or any empathy-evoking scene from the "other side" of a conflict.

I propose this simple test as the "Daniel Pearl standard of responsible journalism." Anyone who reads Danny's stories today, and examines the way he reported the human story behind the news, would agree that adopting the proposed standard for the profession would be a fitting tribute to his legacy.

They have practiced hatred against Christians, Jews and Americans! They have rioted, bombed and maimed! One of them actually killed 223 Arabs in gang warfare. They have recruited and trained others to hate! They have been part of sleeper cells in the USA, while hiding among us!

The Air Force academy has invited Walid Shoebat, Kamal Saleem and Zak Anani to address their annual political forum held at the US Air Force Academy during the first week of February so that the cadets can understand the mindset of terrorists in our war on terror. The Three Former Terrorists will make their addresses at different times during the day of February 6th 2008.

"We are delighted that the United States Air Force has recognized the brave stand that these men take in educating the American people on the real causes of terrorism. The fact that the Academy has invited our speakers is an important step as to understanding the issue of terrorism and the issues surrounding the problems of the Middle East." says Keith Davies, the director of the Walid Shoebat Foundation.

Interview Ops Available

Walid Shoebat, Kamal Saleem and Zak Anani are former Islamic terrorists. The three men have spent the past couple of years on speaking tour across America, providing insights into the minds of terrorists. They share their personal experiences and stress the dangers that the Western world faces today, as Islamic Fundamentalism grows with fervor around the globe.

This is the first time that the 3-X terrorists have spoken at a military academy. The most fertile recruiting ground for the Radical Islamic movement has been college and university campuses, and the three have spoken at more than 50 state and private college campuses. Most speaking events are open to the public...

...let the international community begin its humanitarian work!

Greek Cypriots can advise Israel about concessions necessary to Muslims involving a divided Jerusalem. Russians and Syrians can advise the IDF on how to deal properly and humanely with Islamic terrorists. Poland, Russia, China, and Armenia might offer the proper blueprint for giving back land to the defeated that they once gained by force. A North Korea or Pakistan can offer Israel humanitarian lessons that might blunt criticisms that such a recently created country has no right to exist. Iraq and Egypt would lend insight about proper reparation and the rights of return, given its own successful solutions to the problems of their own fleeing Jewish communities.

But why limit the agenda to such a small array of issues? The world has much to teach Israel about humility and concessions, on issues ranging from how other countries in the past have dealt with missiles sent into their homeland, to cross-border incursions by bellicose neighbors.

No doubt, Middle East humanitarians such as Jimmy Carter, Arun Gandhi, and Tariq Ramadan could preside, drawing on and offering their collective past wisdom in solving such global problems to those of a lesser magnitude along the West Bank.

...The vehicle finally stops at a dirt track. The Islamic Jihad rocket factory is housed in a kind of garden shed. The hut measures five meters by five meters, metal pipes with small wings lean against the wall in the corner: Half finished Qassams. There are several tightly packed garbage bags on a shelf. "TNT," says Abdul and produces a chunk. The explosive looks like lumpy sugar. A large cauldron is sitting ready on a gas cooker while bags with Hebrew writing are piled up high up against the wall. "Fertilizer for the rocket fuel," Abdul says and grins. "We get it in Israel."

Abdul is 22 but, tall and lanky as he is, he could still pass for 16. He has been making rockets for three and a half years and says he has finished hundreds of Qassams. A veteran with a double life: He studies geography during the day and makes his contribution to the Jihad at night...

...The team can make up to 100 rockets per night shift, but today it won't be more than 10. Instead of the usual 12, only three of Abdul's men have turned up tonight. "The other guys are over in Egypt, shopping," he says, adding that the militants are just ordinary people who want to experience the open border with the neighboring country. Will they be looking for ingredients for building the Qassams? "Hardly," the oldest of the group laughs. "They are buying potato chips. We have enough raw materials to last for a few years."...

...I first became aware of the situation when a Canadian reader emailed me with the news that not only was Steyn being charged by the Human Rights Commission, but in the documentation against him was his very positive review of my previous novel, Prayers for the Assassin. Steyn's praise for Prayers, a book written by a "recognized Islamophobe" according to the CIC, was further evidence of his prejudice against Muslims. For the record, I am neither Islamophobic nor recognized.

When I heard about the complaint, I confess I dismissed it as something akin to getting a warning from a pimply hall monitor telling me that my shoes squeaked. I was wrong.

In fact the complaint seems to be part of a campaign to use the Canadian Human Rights Commission, not for redress of racial or sexual discrimination in jobs and housing as originally intended, but as a method of harassment against free speech and intellectual inquiry, particularly where it pertains to Muslims. While the Human Rights Commission's punishment is limited to fines and orders to desist, the procedures of the commission involve steep costs for the defendants, and no cost whatsoever for the one filing the complaint. Steyn will be forced to travel to British Columbia and appear before the commission on June 3 to defend himself and his writing. He will probably chose to bear the cost of an attorney, but he will not be allowed to have the attorney present when he testifies before the commission...

...Seems [Steyn's] very positive review of Prayers for the Assassin in Maclean's is cited in the addendum to the lawsuit against him, since I am "a recognized Islamophobe." Odd, since it was my long time publishers in France, Germany and Italy who turned down Prayers citing fears of being sued under their own "giving offence to religion" laws, while Turkey was the first foreign sale, printing as many copies as they did the latest Stephen King novel. There's even an Arabic edition...

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, mourns the passing of Dr. George Habash. We also celebrate his life and resistance as one of the most influential and principled leaders of the Arab struggle for liberation, unity, and equality. Dr. Habash never wavered from the path that we, as Palestinians, have the right and duty to return and reclaim our homeland, stolen from us in 1948 by the combined forces of European Zionism and Western imperialism. Dr. Habash's political work found expression in the creation of the Arab Nationalist Movement followed by The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He never wavered from his belief in the popular (people's) struggle, and that it was the people themselves who determined their destiny.

Dr. Habash was an outspoken opponent of the Oslo accords and of all the capitulation schemes for accommodating the occupier...

Bostom, an associate professor of medicine at Rhode Island Hospital, has compiled a large collection of documents concerning jihad in his voluminous The Legacy of Jihad. Bostom's book amply documents the systematic and destructive character of Islamic jihad, refuting the much-repeated argument that jihad is a "rich""concept that has many meanings and that jihad first of all signifies "inner struggle." Jihad is first of all war, bloodshed, subjugation, and expansion of the faith by violence. The book implicitly devastates the fashionable but uninformed opinion that all religions are elaborations of the Golden Rule. Jihad is everything the Golden Rule is not.

Jihad has been extremely effective and has served Islam well. In the light of this success, it can hardly be expected from Muslim leaders that they renounce jihad for more peaceful methods for propagating their faith. Renunciation of jihad would simply not be in the interest of Islam. But it would, to the contrary, be very much in the interest of the rest of the world. How should the rest of the world react to Muslim insistence on the legitimacy of jihad? Do modern, free, and democratic societies have the stomach to withstand jihad? This question becomes more and more important when jihadists see themselves increasingly not as an alternative to Christianity, Judaism, or any other faith but as an alternative to democracy. One almost gets the impression that present-day jihadists fervently desire to add Islam to the list that starts with Nazism and communism.

Bostom not only presents us with classical mainstream Islamic sources and their justifications for jihad, plus witness reports from victims that survived by accident, etc., but he also quotes contemporary Muslim clerics. For example: Yusuf al-Qaradawi (b. 1926) discusses "martyrdom operations," a relatively new tactic of jihadists. Are such operations jihad or suicide? This is an important question because Islam forbids suicide. Luckily Qaradawi, regarded by many in the West as a moderate, knows the exact difference between suicide and a martyrdom operation. Someone who kills himself is "too weak to cope with the situation" in which he finds himself. "In contrast, the one who carries out a martyrdom operation does not think of himself. He sells himself to Allah in order to buy Paradise in exchange."

If this is how the moderates reason, what can we expect from the radicals?

AMERICA ALONE: At a dinner party in Washington last week, a British diplomat was asked if Prime Minister Gordon Brown believed, as did his predecessor, Tony Blair, that there is a "special relationship" between America and Britain. He said no - all of the United Kingdom's relationships are special (which really means, of course, that none of them are).

Also at the dinner was a former U.S. senator who spoke about the "Free World" - and the need to defend it against militant Islamism. I asked the British diplomat if he'd use the term, the "Free World." He said he did not think it useful since some countries are more free and some less and so it's difficult to know which to include and which to exclude.

I asked if he'd use the term "militant Islamists" to describe those committing acts of terrorism against some of the freer countries. He said he thought such terms also unhelpful and perhaps needlessly offensive to some...

...Not very long ago, Oslo was an icy Shangri-la of Scandinavian self-discipline, governability, and respect for the law. But in recent years, there have been grim changes, including a rise in gay-bashings. The summer of 2006 saw an unprecedented wave of them. The culprits, very disproportionately, are young Muslim men.

It's not just Oslo, of course. The problem afflicts most of Western Europe. And anecdotal evidence suggests that such crimes are dramatically underreported. My own partner chose not to report his assault. I urged him to, but he protested that it wouldn't make any difference. He was probably right.

The reason for the rise in gay bashings in Europe is clear - and it's the same reason for the rise in rape. As the number of Muslims in Europe grows, and as the proportion of those Muslims who were born and bred in Europe also grows, many Muslim men are more inclined to see Europe as a part of the umma (or Muslim world), to believe that they have the right and duty to enforce sharia law in the cities where they live, and to recognize that any aggression on their part will likely go unpunished. Such men need not be actively religious in order to feel that they have carte blanche to assault openly gay men and non-submissive women, whose freedom to live their lives as they wish is among the most conspicuous symbols of the West's defiance of holy law...

Below is a statement in support of Israel from Ayman Hassan who still lives in the Middle East.

Shalom. As an Arab Muslim I once asked myself: Why do I hate Israel? I really thought about this question. After little deliberation the answer was clear, because I am a Muslim and Islam is extremely intolerant. It's the intolerance to everything non Muslim, that is the problem and I say this as a Muslim, but today I have rejected the teachings of Islam for this very reason. I have left Islam. As an Arab "Palestinian", living in Lebanon, coming from a Muslim family, I was brought up with the hatred of Jews, Christians, and all non Muslims. Now I'm 24, I have matured enough to view the world through a different perspective; I reviewed real history and studied the sequence of events before and after the restoration of the State of Israel. I decided to step outside the mindset of a typical Muslim. It didn't take long to realize that I was on the wrong track and I moved quickly to the other side. In order to be at peace with myself I have come to reject the hatred of Israel and now love my former enemy. I have not embraced another religion but I am pursuing a new spiritual path.

...The morning started with multiple calls from Natasha saying: "please do not come, we are under a barrage of Kassams, the city in in an emergency situation." This posed a dilemma -- should I go, or should I follow Natasha's advice and wait for her to come to Jerusalem. After having listened to Natasha, I decided that my wife and daughter would not accompany me, but that I had to go. There were a few reasons behind my decision -- I really wanted to see the shelter, that was built with hard-earned money of people of the Russian Jewish community of Boston, and I felt that I have to show the solidarity with people of the city...

...The people aren't as hungry or suffering as you all claim: A Palestinian-american friend of mine just came back from visiting his grandparents in Gaza ( just jumped over the fence and back he said, no one is controlling the borders apparently), and he was telling me how the entire "they are hungry people looking for food" headline story is a crock of shit. He laughingly told me that they are buying motorcycles, mattresses and TV's and other such basic survival needs (the media is confirming it if you think I am lying you big morons), and how some of his family members after going to Al Areesh-on the first day of the "people power" event-for vacation mind you, were like "This is Areesh? This sucks! Gaza is better!" and then went back the next day. He also told me that the price of the AK 47 in Gaza has now dropped to a measly 400 JD's. There is apparently too much supply to the demand. Yay for Open Borders!...

When even Israel's far-left Rabbis for Human Rights warn that the 2009 UN Conference on Racism could turn into an anti-Israel hate fest like the 2001 Durban affair, then all of us should worry.

After my column on "Durban II," Joshua Rubenstein, head of New England's chapter of Amnesty International, berated me in the Advocate for criticizing his organization's role as enablers of anti-Israel campaigns. He said Amnesty really couldn't do much about the 2001 UN Durban Conference, where Jews and Jewish nationalism were targeted viciously and defamed. But that's just not true: Amnesty could have walked out - even if that meant following the lead of the U.S. State Department and, gasp, the Israeli delegation. Instead, Amnesty stayed and pretended that this was noble or courageous. But abandoning the Jews to the Durban mob was ignoble and cowardly.

The claims of Amnesty officials notwithstanding, none of the delegates who attended the NGO Forum at Durban provided any evidence that Amnesty officials actively opposed the anti-Israel agenda, which was adopted by consensus, in the first place. This time around, shouldn't they be asked to do more than meekly regret their failure to, in Rubenstein's words, "head off the ugly incidents that in fact did take place?" Here's what we should ask:

Will Amnesty work to ensure that the same defamation of Jews won't happen at the 2009 Conference? Will Amnesty see to it that its obsessive and one-sided reporting on Israel won't be used as a bludgeon in the planning for the next Durban conference? In the all-important preparatory committees, now in progress, will Amnesty try to ensure that all human rights issues will be discussed and not just the Arab-Muslim strategy of "boycott, divestment and sanctions" of "apartheid" Israel? Oh, and will Amnesty say publicly if it intends to abide by the UN Resolution (sponsored by the Islamic Conference - the most powerful UN voting bloc) that prohibits attributing to Islamism any abuse of human rights, even when the abusers are following Islamic law or custom (take, for just one small example, the murder of apostates)?

Would Amnesty go on record against anti-Jewish prejudice now by endorsing the petition that the very progressive Rabbis for Human Rights just signed? Would Amnesty publicly warn the UN not to let the human rights community's principles be hijacked by anti-Semites and anti-Zionists - again? Would Amnesty threaten to boycott any meeting that is a repeat of Durban? Would Amnesty pull out of the Durban process - and yes, give up all the junkets and consultations and meetings, the essence of the UN gravy train - and hold an alternative, real human rights conference instead? Amnesty could really do these things - and stand up for the principles it was established to uphold. Why would it not? And if it doesn't, why should anyone take Amnesty International seriously ever again? These are the questions that the Jewish community needs to put to Amnesty International.

Fatah, the largest Palestinian political movement and the mainstream faction of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), is planning to hold its sixth general congress in March. The last congress was held 18 years ago outside Palestine, before the creation of the Palestinian Authority (PA). Then, late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat dominated Fatah with his charismatic character and near absolute powers.

Fatah, which is often viewed as a "supermarket of ideas", is already beset by internal disagreements, contradictions and competing camps, which many observers contend will eventually lead to the postponement or even cancellation of the long-awaited congress. The congress is viewed as a key occasion since it will elect the local, regional and national leadership of the Fatah movement, including members of the Revolutionary Council, the more powerful Central Council, and Fatah's representatives in the PLO Executive Committee -- ostensibly the highest Palestinian decision- making body...

On December 1, 2007, two dozen heavily armed police staged a raid on a Jewish community center in Caracas where hundreds were celebrating a wedding. The police, the Venezuelan equivalent of the FBI, claimed to be seeking weapons and evidence of "subversive activity."

They found no weapons. As for subversive activity, well, in a proto-authoritarian state like Hugo Chavez's Venezuela, subversion is a very elastic concept. The mildest skepticism about Chavez's regime might easily qualify.

This bit of harassment theater was only the latest in a series of worrying moves by the Chavez government against its Jewish citizens. The same community center had been raided in 2004, in the morning hours when children were being bussed to school. The regime -- which boasts of cozy friendships with Ahmadinejad's Iran and Castro's Cuba -- has also engaged in steady anti-Semitic and anti-Israel propaganda. A little more than a year ago, Chavez declared in a Christmas Eve speech that "the world has wealth for all, but some minorities, the descendants of the same people that crucified Christ, have taken over all the wealth of the world."

During the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, Chavez became increasingly shrill, accusing the Israelis of behaving like Nazis. On a recent visit to Washington D.C., Gustavo Aristegui, the shadow foreign minister in Spain's opposition party, told a group at the Hudson Institute that Hamas and Hezbollah are now operating freely in Venezuela. Publications by the government's ministry of culture have featured titles like "The Jewish Question" with cover art showing a Star of David superimposed over a swastika. Jews were accused of complicity in the murder of a prosecutor. An article in a leading newspaper, El Diario de Caracas, asked whether it would become necessary "to expel [the Jews] from the country."...

...The bias of the op-ed speaks for itself, and I won't even dwell on it. But I do want to call attention to this sentence:

Although Gaza daily requires 680,000 tons of flour to feed its population, Israel had cut this to 90 tons per day by November 2007, a reduction of 99 percent.

You don't need to be a math genius to figure out that if Gaza has a population of 1.5 million, as the authors also note, then 680,000 tons of flour a day come out to almost half a ton of flour per Gazan, per day.

A typographical error at the Boston Globe? Hardly. The two authors used the same "statistic" in an earlier piece. They copied it from an article published in the Ahram Weekly last November, which reported that "the price of a bag of flour has risen 80 per cent, because of the 680,000 tonnes the Gaza Strip needs daily, only 90 tonnes are permitted to enter." Sarraj and Roy added the bit about this being "a reduction of 99 percent.

Note how an absurd and impossible "statistic" has made its way up the media feeding chain. It begins in an Egyptian newspaper, is cycled through a Palestinian activist, is submitted under the shared byline of a Harvard "research scholar," and finally appears in the Boston Globe, whose editors apparently can't do basic math. Now, in a viral contagion, this spreads across the Internet, where that "reduction of 99 percent" becomes a well-attested fact.

What's the truth? I see from a 2007 UN document that Gaza consumes 450 tons of flour daily. The Palestinian Ministry of Economy, according to another source, puts daily consumption at 350 tons. So the figure for total consumption retailed by Sarraj and Roy is off by more than three orders of magnitude, i.e. a factor of 1,000. No doubt, there's less flour shipped from Israel into Gaza--maybe it's those rocket barrages from Gaza into Israel?--but even if it's only the 90 tons claimed by Sarraj and Roy, it isn't anything near a "reduction of 99 percent." Unfortunately, if readers are going to remember one dramatic "statistic" from this op-ed, this one is it--and it's a lie...

...When NGO's claims (made it seems for political purposes) are not just wrong, but clearly absurd, they turn the important work of human rights into a farce...

In a lengthy and fiery debate at Oxford University over the weekend, the student union conceded Israel's "right to exist" by just over 100 votes.

Proposing the motion "This House believes that the State of Israel has a right to exist" were Norman Finkelstein, formally of De Paul University in Chicago, and Ted Honderich, professor of philosophy at University College London.

Questions about the seriousness of the event were raised ahead of the debate, since not only opposers of the motion, but also its proposers, were considered detractors of Israel.

Finkelstein, who had been supporting the motion, voted against it, while Honderich, who had crossed sides during the debate, voted for the motion, adding to accusations that the debate was a farce.

Supporting the motion, Jessica Prince from Oxford's University College spoke about the "absurdity" of the debate title. "I didn't think it was a question that we ask anymore," she said.

Opposing the motion, Lewis Turner from Oxford's New College said that if Israel is supposed to be a safe haven for Jewish people, "it's not working out because it's one of the most dangerous places for them to live."

"I was shocked to hear Honderich actually say that, 'Palestinians have a moral right to terrorism,'" said Olga Belogolova, a Jewish student from Boston University studying at Oxford for the semester...

...Meanwhile, Jewish and Israeli students at the London School of Economics (LSE) claimed victory after defeating a controversial motion calling for a boycott of Israel and calling Israel an apartheid state, raised at the university's union general meeting on Thursday.

The motion was defeated by seven votes following a mobilization of Jewish and Israeli students on campus.

The motion, proposed by LSE student Emiliano Huet-Vaughn, an International Solidarity Movement activist, branded Israel an apartheid state and called on the LSE student union to start a campaign to lobby the university and National Union of Students to divest from and boycott Israel.

Released 48 hours before the union meeting, the motion created a huge backlash and prompted Jewish and Israeli students to respond to what UJS called "extreme anti-Israel rhetoric on campus."...

... The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the government did not violate Al-Arian's "plea agreement by issuing a subpoena commanding Al-Arian to testify before a grand jury" in Virginia probing Muslim charities there. In April 2006, after a jury acquitted him on some counts and hung on others, Al-Arian pled guilty to one count of conspiracy "to make or receive contributions of funds, goods or services to or for the benefit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad...in violation of 18 U.S.C. §371." Then, "In May 2006, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia issued to Al-Arian a grand jury subpoena ad testificandum. The subpoena was served on Al-Arian in early October 2006, and he filed a motion to quash the subpoena in the Virginia district court. Al-Arian argued that his plea agreement in the Florida district court prevented the government from forcing him to testify before the grand jury in Virginia." Al-Arian refused to testify and was held in contempt; the contempt order was dropped in December 2007. The Virginia investigation reportedly involves a complex network of Islamic charities that allegedly funded terrorist groups, including Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). For example, in one letter entered into evidence in Al-Arian's trial, the Virginia-based International Institute for Islamic Thought is identified by PIJ leader Ramadan Abdullah Shallah as the "largest contributor" to Al-Arian's World and Islamic Studies Enterprise (WISE), which authorities alleged was a PIJ front group...

ATLANTA - A former Florida college professor who pleaded guilty to aiding a Palestinian terrorist group was not immune from a subpoena forcing him to testify in an unrelated probe of Muslim charities, an appeals court ruled Friday.

Sami Al-Arian, 50, had argued the terms of the plea agreement exempted him from testifying before a grand jury in an investigation of Islamic charities in Virginia.

A federal judge disagreed and found Al-Arian guilty of contempt when he refused to testify...

My favorite headline of the year so far comes from The Daily Mail in Britain: "Government Renames Islamic Terrorism As 'Anti-Islamic Activity' To Woo Muslims."...

...anyone minded to engage in an "anti-Islamic activity" will find quite a lot of support from leading Islamic scholars. Take, for example, the "moderate" imam Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who once observed that "we will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through the sword, but through dawa" - i.e., the non-incendiary form of Islamic outreach.

What could be more moderate than that? No wonder Mr al-Qaradawi is an associate of the Islamic Society of Boston, currently building the largest mosque in the northeast, and also a pal of the present mayor of London. The impeccably moderate mullah was invited to address a British conference sponsored by the police and the Department of Work and Pensions on "Our Children, Our Future." And, when it comes to the children, Imam Qaradawi certainly has their future all mapped out. "Israelis might have nuclear bombs," he said, "but we have the children bomb and these human bombs must continue until liberation." As Maurice Chevalier used to say, thank heaven for little girls, they blow up in the most delightful way...

...Two photographs of a reclining Arafat are credited to the AP's Adel Hana. Both photos ran with a caption that reads like a press release: "Arafat, along with hundreds of Palestinians, participated in a blood drive for the victims of the deadly airline hijackings in the United States, which he condemned as a 'horrible attack.'" We all know how much Arafat disliked horrible attacks by Arab terrorists.

In neither photo is a needle in evidence. In the first AP photo, Arafat is prostrate. His blood has not yet been drawn and no blood is in evidence. Rather, Arafat stares warily at the tourniquet placed around his bare arm. The donation is about to be made. A nurse with a head scarf is about to search for the chairman's vein, Arafat looking on at his arm.

In the other AP photo, Arafat has apparently given his blood. The nurse with the head scarf is nowhere to be seen. In her place, a kneeling male medical official with his back to the camera jointly holds a nearly bursting bag of blood together with a uniformed security officer. With Enderlin's gloss, the photo takes on a comic aspect. Heavy lifting is required; it takes two hands to hold all the blood donated by the chairman to the beloved American people!...

Once again, we few subversives burrowing furtively inside the Union for Reform Judaism-we call it the Union for Deformed Judaism- girded ourselves for the Big Cringe: The Biennial. And once again, the leaders of Reform didn't disappoint.

Some eight-thousand aging hippies and their guitars met and hugged in San Diego in December, re-enacting, where canes and walkers permitted, the glory days of Woodstock. There, amid songs and nostalgic tales of the '60s, with the strains of "All the World Needs is Love" in the background, they held hands and unfolded their agenda: a scornful look at us miserable capitalist sinners, complemented by their utopian recipes for our redemption.

Many of the agenda items were warmed-over re-runs of resolutions from former biennials. The ever-green Resolution on the War in Iraq, replete with the same halachic lectures on torture, humiliation, and war itself, calling in 2005 for a "clear exit strategy," has now been updated. Inasmuch as "the situation continues to deteriorate" and we have failed "to pursue all reasonable alternatives to war," the URJ now insists on a "phased withdrawal of our troops from Iraq.." Footnotes to the gassy nine-page resolution indicate the Union's reliance on such patriotic standbys as the Baker-Hamilton report, various New York Times and Washington Post articles, and a Gallup poll...

...But most cringe-making of all was the camel in the tent: the Resolution on Jewish-Muslim Dialogue. Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, president of the Union, who prides himself on this initiative, said it this way...

It was the closure last June by the Egyptian authorities of the only crossing along the six mile border, a facility just outside Rafah, that allowed Israel to impose an economic blockade and put pressure on Hamas to stop rocket attacks by militants on neighbouring Israeli towns.

Methodist renewal advocate Mark Tooley says United Methodist Church officials are urging church agencies and members to divest their holdings in Caterpillar Incorporated, for doing business with Israel.

Tooley, who directs the United Methodist Committee at the Institute on Religion and Democracy, says the UMC has about $15 million of Caterpillar stock in its pension fund. But he says the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society has unveiled a proposal to divest from Caterpillar ahead of the church's governing General Conference in April. Several United Methodist regional conferences have endorsed anti-Israel divestment, according to Tooley.

"It's another example of the anti-Israel bias of the mainline churches," he argues. "[They] tend to turn a blind eye towards the human rights abuses and support of terrorism of Arab regimes, but yet are very critical of and hostile towards Israel."

Tooley says the Methodist recommendation only targets Caterpillar because of the controversy that stemmed from the Presbyterian Church USA's divestment policy in 2006. "That was rather disastrous. The Presbyterians fairly quickly revoked their policy," he says. "So I think the Methodist lobby office is trying to avoid that example by simply going after one company in a symbolic way. But nonetheless, the intent is the same -- which is to punish Israel."

The Methodist renewal advocate says he is fairly hopeful that most Methodists will not go along with this divestment plan...

From 10:45 to 11:00 a.m.: coffee/tea break

From 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.: statement from a representative of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations...

...Egypt has been trying to play a delicate game: keep Hamas in the game by allowing them to bring in weapons, cash, and terrorists, but not so conspicuously that it causes a serious American or Israeli backlash.

But today, Hamas just blew the border fence down. Suddenly, some of the pressure that has built up in Gaza over the past several months has been released, and it didn’t go toward Israel — it went into Egypt, and now the Egyptians are faced with a calamitous situation.

Egypt has been hoisted with its own petard, and it is really quite enjoyable to see from a strategic perspective. Hamas probably blew up the border fence with explosives that Egypt allowed it to smuggle into Gaza. Heh.

...The biggest problem with Gaza, from Israel’s perspective, is that Israel has withdrawn and yet the world still sees Gaza as occupied. An intolerable situation was created in which Israel sacrificed all the military and civilian advantages of being there but continued paying the price: Gaza remained dependent on the Jewish state for fuel and food. The only way to "end the occupation" was to cut itself off completely, which the world called a “seige” so long as Gazans had no way in or out...

...With the floodgates open, there is no siege. The occupation is over. Gaza is now Egypt’s problem.

On May 12, 1948, two days before the proclamation of the State of Israel, thousands of Arabs and Arab Legionnaires attacked the Etzion Bloc. The fighting went on for three long days, and 30 defenders were killed. On Friday, the day that the state was proclaimed, they could no longer hold out. They surrendered. In the massacre of Kfar Etzion, the Arabs murdered 127 men and women. Bodies lay in the fields for a year-and-a-half, until Transjordan allowed Israel to retrieve the corpses and bury them at Mount Herzl. The remainder were taken prisoner to Transjordan. The four kibbutzim were totally destroyed. Two hundred and forty settlers, Haganah and Palmah fighters were killed at the Etzion Bloc during five-and-a-half months of war.

The resignation of Arun Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, as president of the M.K. Gandhi Institute of Non-Violence he founded has been accepted following a furore over his critical remarks about Jews and Israel.

Arun Gandhi, 73, was in India when the controversy over his column in a Washington Post blog erupted.

What upset many Jew was his piece titled "Jewish identity can't depend on violence" Jan 7 on Post's blog, "On Faith".

He sent his resignation by email to Joel Seligman, president of the University of Rochester, which hosts the prestigious institute, in upstate New York. Seligman asked him to sort out the matter in person with the institute's board.

"I resigned to relieve pressure on the university and the institute. I met the institute's board Thursday on my return and they went by my decision," Gandhi told IANS.

He said the storm was mainly in the Jew-dominated Rochester community...

...Far away in Israel, The Jerusalem Post too took note of the controversy as "Gandhi's grandson blasts Israel, Jews".

Today, Gandhi feels sorry for the episode because he wanted people to see his opinion about the proliferation of violence in a better light. He is not apologetic about his apology on the blog, "which was not for the content".

"Now, my first task is to start the healing process in the Rochester community," he said. He lives in his house near the campus.

But he is not crestfallen that he has to leave the institution he set up 17 years ago to spread the Mahatma's message.

"I used to wonder whether the institute, which became dependent on me, will die with me. Now it is a test for the board and others whether they can run it," he said.

"In six months, this storm will blow over and I can get back to the institute, if necessary," he said.

He will continue as a panellist to write weekly on the Post blog and will continue to lecture in the US and elsewhere. His next book, he said, is on "my understanding of the Mahatma's non-violence".

...Finally came crowds and crowds of normal Gazans, men and women, old and young, some on bicycles, a few being pushed in wheelchairs, simply enjoying the rare sensation of freedom.

And somewhere in the teeming crowd, came people anxious to exploit the day for their own less innocent purposes.

Fertiliser, broken down into half bags for lugging through the many tunnels that arms smugglers normally use for delivery into Gaza, was to be seen as it was manhandled overland.

It was white, oily, crystalline and a dab on the tongue left a sharp, burning sensation.

In most countries fertiliser has a perfectly innocent function but in Gaza militants use it to make explosive.

"Hey, hey, hey," shouted a man as I took a photograph of a pile of fertiliser half bags.

His aggressive tone jarred with the mood the crowd as he grabbed my camera lens firmly...

As the United Nations Security Council debated a response to the situation in the Gaza Strip and Sderot, Israel's New York Consulate held a protest in front of UN headquarters on Thursday, in which they placed 4,200 red balloons on the UN's doorstep. The number of balloons signified the 4,200 Kassam rockets fired into Israel from Gaza since the 2005 disengagement from the Strip.

The display was meant to raise world awareness to the fact that Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip are part of an effort to end the rocket attacks, the consulate said in a statement...

The UN's top human rights body on Thursday passed a resolution condemning Israeli military action in Gaza and the West Bank.

The resolution, which also demands the lifting of the blockade on Gaza and calls for international action to protect Palestinian civilians, was proposed by Arab and Muslim countries and passed by 30 votes in favor, with 15 abstentions, during an emergency session of the 47-member UN Human Rights Council.

European countries abstained from the vote on the grounds that the resolution did not address the firing of rockets by Palestinian terrorists into Israel territory.

On Wednesday, the United Nations Security Council grappled for a response to the situation in the Gaza Strip and Israel's UN mission was busy lobbying UNSC member countries to amend the draft presidential statement to include condemnation of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, which the original neglects to mention.

Council experts met behind closed doors Wednesday morning to amend a Libyan draft statement that calls on Israel to end its siege of Gaza and ensure "unhindered access for humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people," but makes no mention of the rocket attacks that triggered the blockade...

The Jewish community in Brazil is up in arms after renowned Brazilian singer, Nana Caymmi, made blatantly ant-Semitic remarks during a recent interview. Caymmi is one of Brazil’s most popular singers, and daughter to Dorival Caymmi, one of the country’s foremost composers.

In an interview with British publication Queen Magazine, Caymmi was asked about her son’s long battle with drug addiction. The singer stated that "it is pure hell. You cannot imagine the drama I live with. I constantly ask myself why I need suffer so. I am not Jewish, I did not crucify Jesus."...

The singer’s contrition was viewed with marked suspicion amongst the Brazilian Jewish community...

..."Without meaning too, Caymmi expressed a very common philosophy among Catholic-raised Brazilians," said Aharon, a Ministry of Education employee who recently visited Brazil and remains in close contact with the country’s musicians. She, like Brazil’s Jewish community, remains unmoved by Caymmi’s apology...

"It is important to keep in mind that anti-racism legislation has been enacted in Brazil since 1988, which makes prejudiced remarks like Caymmi's punishable by time in prison, so I am not surprised that she recanted," said Aharon.

A politician has warned that a "fear of Islam" is governing Holland after he delayed the release of a short film attacking the Koran.

Geert Wilders, 44, the leader of the Dutch Freedom Party, who compares the Muslim holy book to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, sparked government panic after saying the anti-Islam film would be released tomorrow.

As Dutch police prepared for a weekend of riots and Mr Wilders was told by the authorities that he would have to leave country, he launched a new attack on "intolerant" Islam while announcing that his 10-minute film attacking the Muslim faith would be postponed for two weeks.

"If I had announced that I was going to make a film about the fascist character of the Bible would there have been a crisis meeting of Holland's security forces?" he wrote to the Volkskrant newspaper.

"Would I have received as many death threats as I have done since announcing I was making a film about the Koran? Of course not."

Iran's parliament, the Majlis, this week warned of "extensive repercussions from Muslims throughout the globe" if the film was broadcast.

In an attempt to defuse tensions, the Dutch government will tomorrow announce that it will not implement a ban on the Islamic burqa dress.

"My enemy, oh snake! Around the land, you are coiled. You have no choice, oh enemy, but to leave my country."
[Palestinian TV, January 2008, broadcast daily]
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

A hate video broadcast continuously on official (Fatah-controlled) Palestinian TV over the past several months calls Israel "my enemy" and spews out messages of hate and loathing. The song's refrain, "My enemy, oh enemy," is repeated over and over throughout the song. Israel is not even given the courtesy of a name, but is tagged with such labels as "treacherous," "imperialism" and a "coiled snake."

The Palestinian is portrayed as a heroic victim who courageously confronts the evil "enemy" Israel...

...The goal of this music video clip is to inculcate loathing of Israel and anticipation of its destruction. The repeated broadcast over recent months by Fatah-controlled television is consistent with other Arabic-language hate messages currently being disseminated -- in spite of the peace talks.

PA TV first aired this music video in 2004 and resumed its broadcast in October, 2007. It was broadcast throughout the Annapolis conference as well as during President Bush's visit to Israel. It continues to be aired on almost a daily basis...

Reporters Without Borders condemns the shots that were fired at an Israeli TV reporter and a cameraman on 15 January while in a kibbutz adjoining the border with the Gaza Strip, although they were clearly identifiable as journalists.

"Whatever their nationality, reporters are neutral observers and must not be regarded as a party to any conflict," the press freedom organisation said. "Targeting journalists is unacceptable and must be firmly condemned."

Reporter Nir Dvori and cameraman Meir Benharush of Channel Two went to the Ein Hashlosha kibbutz a few hours after an Ecuadorean volunteer was killed there by members of the Ezzedin Al-Qassem Brigades, the armed branch of Hamas.

"This was the first time someone was killed on the border," Dvori told Reporters Without Borders. "We wanted to accompany the farm workers who went back to the apple orchard where the young man was killed to recover their tractor. We thought the danger was over and that the Palestinian snipers had withdrawn. But when we started filming, shots began raining down on us. But there were no soldiers with us. We were just civilians."

Dvori said the shots coming from the Gaza Strip went on for half an hour. Benharush filmed the first few minutes...

Man in restaurant: I'll have the grilled chicken, please.

Voiceover: The preferred food for millions of chickens around the world is green soy beans. It is mainly imported from Brazil by ships like this one, which release tons of carbon dioxide, causing the ice at the poles to melt, and the sea level to rise, and as a result, the water floods some of these beautiful islands, whose inhabitants flee to refugee camps, where some of them might undergo terrorist training, and from time to time demonstrate their "fine arts" to the world.

Suicide bomber detonates a cell phone bomb.

These ordinary people are then compelled to change their clothes into military uniforms, ready to fight one of the new wars of the world - a war that might jeopardize the world's energy supply, forcing the ships that carry green soy beans to cancel their journeys. Thus, it is impossible to ship soy to feed the world's chickens.

The outcome is:

Waiter: There is no chicken today.

On at least two occasions this week, Hamas staged scenes of darkness as part of its campaign to end the political and economic sanctions against the Gaza Strip, Palestinian journalists said Wednesday.

In the first case, journalists who were invited to cover the Hamas government meeting were surprised to see Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and his ministers sitting around a table with burning candles.

In the second case on Tuesday, journalists noticed that Hamas legislators who were meeting in Gaza City also sat in front of burning candles.

But some of the journalists noticed that there was actually no need for the candles because both meetings were being held in daylight.

"They had closed the curtains in the rooms to create the impression that Hamas leaders were also suffering as a result of the power stoppage," one journalist told The Jerusalem Post. "It was obvious that the whole thing was staged."

Another journalist said he and his colleagues were told to wait for a few minutes before entering the chamber of the Palestinian Legislative Council so that each legislator would have time to light his candle. He said that when he saw that the curtains had been closed to prevent the light from entering, he realized that Hamas was trying to manipulate the media for political gain.

CARACAS, Venezuela--After an extensive visit to the slums of this capital, I am convinced that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez lost the recent referendum that would have extended the time he could remain in office not because his countrymen value democracy so much, but because his social programs are crumbling. In the barrios of Petare, Catia, Baruta and other places, the nationalist/populist model is collapsing.

Through a network of "missions," the government has been using oil revenue to provide food, housing, cars, education and health care for millions of Venezuelans. In theory, Venezuelans are enjoying the "social justice" denied to them during decades of rule by the country's elites. In real life, the missions are plagued with corruption and inefficiency, and are severely hampered by the insecurity and the shortages that have become the hallmark of Venezuelan society.

The Barrio Adentro mission was originally run by about 30,000 Cuban doctors and medics. Many of those health centers are now closed; the rest are seriously understaffed. "The Cubans are leaving," explains Felix, a social worker from Baruta, "because they don't get paid, because they are the victims of rampant crime or simply because they have moved on--they only offered to serve in Venezuela as an excuse to get out of Cuba." In some cases, the government never provided the funds needed to finish the construction of clinics. In Baruta, a desolate construction site reminds the local neighborhood that there is, as Felix puts it, "a gulf separating reality from speeches." I was not surprised to learn that, according to Andres Bello University, 60 percent of the Barrio Adentro health centers are not functioning.

The Mercal mission, a series of supermarkets in which the poor can theoretically acquire food at extremely low prices, is not faring any better. Because of price controls, essential products are missing from the shelves. People stand in line for hours to buy food or milk. In some cases, as I was told in Petare, producers have been put off by price controls; in others, the people who manage the supermarkets sell essential products under the table to those able to pay more...

1. In the months that preceded the Annapolis meeting the Palestinian media carried larger amounts of anti-Israel incitement than usual, which continued and even increased afterwards. Often woven into it were anti-Semitic symbols and images which were irrelevant to the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

2. Anti-Israeli incitement is an integral part of the campaign Hamas directed against the Annapolis process, the United States and the PA. However, even the PA media itself, controlled by Abu Mazen and Fatah, were methodical in their propaganda policy of vicious anti-Israeli incitement, while expressing serious doubts regarding Annapolis. The hatred expressed by the media goes far beyond legitimate criticism, even severe criticism, of Israel's policies in the PA-administered territories.

3. The raw material for the PA's anti-Israeli propaganda comes from daily life in the PA-administered territories. However, the Palestinian media present a one-sided, extremist view of the situation. Israel is represented as ceaseless endeavoring to make the Palestinian populace miserable and is “killing” the peace process while the terrorist attacks to which the IDF responds are almost never condemned and no connection is ever made between them and Israel's counterterrorist activities in the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria.

4. However, in our assessment, in the background lies the enormous gulf in expectations which has accompanied the Annapolis process from its inception. It is based, perhaps unavoidably, on the maximalist demands presented by the PA since the beginning of the talks with Israel about the core issues, among them borders, refugees and Jerusalem . From the beginning, the PA demands were not accompanied by groundwork to alter Palestinian public opinion regarding the need to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and to make concessions and compromises as part of an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, but rather the opposite: Israel is consistently represented as responsible for the lack of process and for the anger channeled at it.

5. Paradoxically, anti-Israeli incitement has continually increased as the negotiations progress. That is in direct contravention of the Palestinian commitments to the first phase of the road map, which requires the PA to stop terrorism and violence and to put an end to anti-Israeli incitement, which serves to encourage terrorists and terrorism. Those two basic components of the road map have not been implemented so far by Abu Mazen's PA. While the PA cannot in fact put an end to Hamas's hate campaign (which is also aimed at the PA), it allows, and even encourages anti-Israeli incitement in all the media it controls...

UNITED NATIONS -- Canada is poised to become the first country to significantly distance itself from a major anti-racism conference the United Nations is planning for next year.

Maxime Bernier, the Foreign Minister, is expected to announce as early as Wednesday Canada is dropping out of planning for the Durban II Conference, which the UN is billing as a global follow-up to its 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa.

Insiders say the government feels the new conference is shaping up to be like the anti-West and anti-Israel free-for-all that critics said the initial gathering quickly turned into.

But the move is bound to spark accusations Ottawa is not serious about combatting racism around the world...

A former warlord known as General Butt Naked has confessed to Liberia's post-conflict reconciliation commission that his men killed 20,000 people during the country's civil war.

The feared rebel commander earned his nom de guerre for charging into battle dressed only in his boots, at the head of a gang of fighters known as the Butt Naked Battalion.

The nude gunmen became known for terrorising villagers and sacrificing children whose hearts they would eat before going into battle during Liberia's 14-year on-off civil war which ended in 2003.

"I have been looking for an opportunity to tell the true story about my life and every time I tell people my story, I feel relieved," General Butt Naked, whose real name is Milton Blayee, told The Associated Press.

Mr Blayee returned from exile in Ghana, where he is now an evangelical Christian preacher, to face Liberia's truth and reconciliation commission last week...

...Mr Blayee, 37, told the truth commission that he was initiated into the occult priesthood of the Krahn tribe at the age of 11, when he was first exposed to killing.

After the brutal videotaped torture and murder by rebels of Liberia's Krahn president, Samuel K Doe in 1990, Mr Blayee took up arms in revenge on behalf of his tribe.

"The political leaders and myself came to a term that if they wanted me to fight they should allow me make ... human sacrifices," he said.

The sacrifices included "the killing of an innocent child and plugging out the heart which was divided into pieces for us to eat. More than 20,000 people fell victim (to me and my men). They were killed."

Mr Blayee turned his back on war when, naked during a battle on a bridge outside Monrovia, he says God appeared to him and told him he was a slave to Satan and should repent...

Franco Frattini, European Commissioner for Justice Freedom and Security, says at Herzliya Conference that Israel has right to defend itself against Qassam rockets, expresses regret at EU treatment of Israel. John Bolton: Israel must consider military action against Iran

A change in EU attitudes towards Israel? In a briefing to Israeli reporters Tuesday, European commissioner for Justice Freedom and Security, Franco Frattini, said that the steps leading up to the Gaza blackout cannot be construed as a war crime and criticized the incessant Qassam rocket fire on Israeli civilian population centers.

In a lecture sponsored by the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center, Frattini also issued a massive mea culpa to the State of Israel on behalf of the European community for its treatment of Israel during the second Intifada.

"There has been a large misunderstanding in recent years between Europe and Israel. And Israel is justified in its concerns. For too long, Europe has put too much blame on Israel for lack of peace with the Palestinians. We, as Europeans, should have understood Israel's concerns sooner," said Frattini.

The European official also noted that "as friends, it was our duty to criticize when we felt criticism was needed, but we did it too often and unfairly. We asked you to take risks and often we didn’t provide you with assurances that you wouldn't stand alone if things went badly."

Frattini continued to say that, "Europe's attitude towards Israel is changing, and Europe better Today, Europe better understands the complexities of the Middle East landscape."

Commenting on the rising tide of Anti-Semitism throughout Europe, which has often led to marked tension between Israel and various European nations, Frattini maintained that "We are strongly fighting against Anti-Semitism in Europe. This kind of prejudice has no place in Europe today and never will. We will not tolerate Anti-Semitism and we take it very seriously."...

Although, as the Jerusalem Post reports, the so-called "Gaza blackout" was instigated by the Hamas terrorists who run the enclave as a sort of cynical publicity stunt, it has drawn the usual dire warnings of impending humanitarian crisis and protests from neighboring Arab countries and the European Union. What tends to be forgotten in moments like this is that, even if Israel, which supplies more than 75 percent of the terrorist enclave's power, did cut off the flow, it would not only be morally but also legally justified in doing so. As Prof. Michael Krauss of George Mason University Law School and I pointed out in a commentary last year when Gaza was designated "hostile territory" by the Israeli cabinet:

If Gaza is territory under the control of the enemy — as it manifestly is under Hamas — then the Israeli government is both within its rights and arguably obliged by its responsibilities to its citizens to treat the strip as "hostile territory." Siege and blockade of a hostile territory is a legitimate tactic of war, used in declared and undeclared (e.g., Cuban) conflicts and explicitly recognized by the 1949 Geneva Conventions. The Conventions' sole limitation is that there be "free passage of all consignments of food-stuffs, clothing and tonics intended for children under fifteen, expectant mothers, and maternity cases" (Fourth Convention, art. 23) — and even this exception was conditioned on there being "no reasons for fearing... [t]hat a definite advantage may accrue to the military efforts or economy of the enemy" (for example, if resources destined for humanitarian aid will be commandeered by the enemy). Israel has carefully respected this requirement.

An anti-Israel pundit will doubtless soon point to the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, which states that "starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited" (art. 54). But Israel is starving no one. No one responsible has suggested cutting off food supplies to Gaza — which, ironically, exported food (grown in Israeli-built greenhouses, which were demolished by Palestinians after Israel's withdrawal) before 2005. In addition, Israel is not a party to Additional Protocol I (neither is the United States). Even if that treaty bound Israel, the official commentary to the Protocol does not preclude the right to blockade a declared enemy. In cases of siege the Protocol provides for relief of besieged civilians "subject to the agreement of the parties" (art. 70) — does anyone think Hamas will sit down with Israel anytime soon? Similarly, the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court can be read to make it a war crime to deprive civilians of "objects indispensable to their survival" (art. 8 (2) (b) (xxv)). But Israel is not a party to the Statute and, in any event, the context of the provision makes it clear that it refers back to the Geneva Convention's "food-stuffs, clothing and tonics" for children and pregnant women, which Israel is not blockading but which, in any event, Israel is certainly not obligated to itself supply.

In short, notwithstanding the outraged houls from the external enablers of Hamas, there is no basis in international humanitarian law for claiming any belligerent is obliged to supply energy to territory occupied by the enemy, conventional or otherwise.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel eased its siege of Gaza for a day on Tuesday, allowing in shipments of fuel and medicine. But tensions erupted over Egypt's closure of its Gaza border, with Palestinian protesters breaking through the crossing and clashing with Egyptian guards.

Ten Egyptian police and about 60 protesters were hurt as protesters hurled stones at the Egyptians and Palestinian gunmen fired briefly in the air. Hundreds of protesters briefly broke through the border terminal, pushing back helmeted Egyptian riot police who fired in the air to try to contain the crowd.

The clash came at the end of a protest of several thousand women carrying Hamas flags and calling for a lifting of the full closure of Gaza imposed by Israel last week. The protesters hurled insults at Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

"Hosni Mubarak you are a coward, you are an agent for the Americans," they chanted. "Gaza women will not be humiliated."

Since Hamas violently took over Gaza in June, Egypt has joined Israel in severely restricting access to Gaza, largely keeping its border terminal closed. Egypt is concerned about a spillover of Hamas-style militancy into its territory...

...according to this top-secret map of the Middle East, Gaza shares a border with Egypt too! A call to Egypt to let humanitarian aid through the Egypt-Gaza border would have sufficed.

Hamas has now been waging a war against Israel for two years. As I asked six months ago, why should Israel supply them with anything or keep the border open, given that Israel is not the only country sharing a border with Gaza, though it is the only country bordering Gaza that Gaza’s rulers wish and work to destroy?

Egypt, on the other hand, has been turning a blind eye as weapons flow into Gaza. Clearly then, unless it is Ivorian illegal immigrants, Egypt keeps the border open enough for something to go through. How about UNRWA and UNDP food and drugs supplies, oil and gas, milk and flour, instead of weapons?

Given that the international community is powerless to stop Hamas from waging war against Israel, it should turn to Egypt to take responsibility for the suffering of ordinary Gazans. Israel’s decision to seal its borders is not only reasonable, it’s long overdue.

...When I was nine, I learned the following Koranic verse during one of our Arabic lessons: "But do not think of those that have been slain in God's cause as dead. Nay, they are alive! With their sustainer have they their sustenance. They are very happy with the reward they received from Allah [for dying as a shahid] and they rejoice for the sake of those who have not joined them [i.e., have not yet died for Allah]" (Koran 3:169-70).

It was the first time I was exposed to the concept of shahid (martyr), and naturally, I began to dream of becoming one. The thought of entering paradise very much appealed to me. There I could eat all the lollipops and chocolates I wanted, or play all day without anyone telling me to study.

What made the concept of shahid even more attractive was its power to quell the fear I experienced as a young boy - for we were taught that if we were not good Muslims (especially if we did not pray five times a day), a "bald snake" would attack us in the grave. The idea of dying as a martyr provided a perfect escape from the frightening anguish of eternal punishment. Dying as a shahid, in fact, was the only deed that fully guaranteed paradise after death.

In secondary school I watched films about the early Islamic conquest. These films promoted the notion that "true" Muslims were devoted to aggressive jihad...

...Manal Hassan, the managing director of the Awda biscuit factory, says that her plant is one of the last still operating in the territory.

But she says that they will be forced to close in two weeks as they have run out of supplies to make the biscuit wrappers.

Like many other companies in Gaza, Awda's managers are looking to relocate abroad in neighbouring Egypt or in Jordan...

In the wake of two recent highly publicized libel cases against American authors in the U.K., New York State legislators last week introduced a bill that would help protect authors from "libel tourist" cases in plaintiff-friendly foreign courts. Senate deputy majority leader Dean Skelos and assemblyman Rory Lancman announced legislation that they say will make it harder for "libel tourists" to threaten American authors and publishers in New York by bringing meritless defamation actions in overseas courts.

The proposed legislation would amend New York's code of civil practice to prohibit enforcement of a foreign libel judgment unless a New York court determines that it satisfies the free speech and press protections guaranteed by the U.S. and the New York State constitutions. The legislation would also amend New York's "long-arm" statute to allow courts, under certain circumstances, to exercise personal jurisdiction over nonresidents who win foreign libel judgments against New York residents in order to grant resident writers declaratory relief in those cases.

The legislation was introduced in response to a Dec. 20, 2007, ruling that New York courts lacked jurisdiction to hear American author Rachel Ehrenfeld's lawsuit seeking to have a British default libel judgment against her declared unenforceable in the U.S. Ehrenfeld, author of Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed and How to Stop It (Bonus Books), was sued by Saudi billionaire Khalid bin Mahfouz in a London court under U.K. libel laws. In her book, Ehrenfeld identified bin Mahfouz as a financial supporter of terrorist organizations. Bin Mahfouz sued Ehrenfeld even though the book was never published in Great Britain and neither he nor Ehrenfeld resides there. Ehrenfeld refused to participate in the suit, but was nonetheless hit with a default judgment of $225,000 in damages and legal fees to bin Mahfouz, as well as a “declaration of falsity” against Funding Evil and a promise to destroy existing copies of the book, a demand for a public apology and an injunction against U.K. publication...

The media leaves the false impression that Israel has completely cut Gaza's electricity...

...Despite ongoing Qassam attacks from the territory, Israel has not switched off the electricity. In fact, Hamas itself shut down Gaza's only power station after inviting the media to watch it do so...

...While Gazans are undoubtedly suffering, the dark picture painted by the mainstream media is different from the reality. As the Israel's Foreign Ministry notes, the supply of electricity to Gaza from the Israel and the Egyptian power grids (124 Megawatts and 17 Megawatts respectively) has continued uninterrupted. These 141 Megawatts of power represents about three quarters of Gaza's electricity needs...

..."Palestinians in Gaza will be forced to live without electricity eight hours a day, beginning Sunday, because Israel has sharply reduced fuel supplies to the territory’s only electric plant, the head of Gaza’s energy authority said," began the Barzak article.

Likewise, his colleague El Deeb wrote: "Gaza electricity cuts caused by Israel’s reduction in fuel supplies mean an especially hard winter for impoverished Palestinians, Gaza’s top energy official warned, and human rights groups asked Israel’s Supreme Court to stop the cutbacks."

In contrast, an Israeli decision less than a week later to restore fuel supplies to its earlier levels was met by an AP news blackout. In a news brief Jan. 11, Ha’aretz reported:

Defense Minister Ehud Barak has decided to cancel planned cuts in the supply of industrial-use diesel fuel to the Gaza Strip, and bring the supply back up from 1.75 million liters per week to 2.2 million liters per week, according to a statement given to the High Court of Justice by the state prosecution. The industrial-use diesel fuel is used to Gaza’s power plant [sic]. The High Court met Thursday to debate a petition filed by several human rights organizations against the cuts in Israeli-supplied fuel and electricity to the Gaza Strip, in response to the ongoing Qassam rocket fire. Israel decided a few days ago to cancel planned cuts in the supply of diesel intended for use in cars. The court will hold a hearing next month on the electricity cuts.

The AP did not report on this development, despite their reporters’ intensive coverage on Gaza’s power shortages just a few days earlier. Moreover, the correspondents’ original articles were riddled with factual errors and falsehoods...

The supply of electricity to Gaza from the Israel and the Egyptian power grids (124 Megawatts and 17 Megawatts respectively) has continued uninterrupted. These 141 Megawatts of power represents about three quarters of Gaza's electricity needs.

While the fuel supply from Israel into Gaza has indeed been reduced, due to the Hamas rocket attacks, the diversion of this fuel from domestic power generators to other uses is wholly a Hamas decision - apparently taken due to media and propaganda considerations.

Noteworthy is the fact that while the Gaza population remains in the dark, the fuel generating power to the Hamas rocket manufacturing industry continues to flow unabated.

The Hamas claim of humanitarian crisis in Gaza is also greatly exaggerated. There is no shortage of basic foodstuffs, and Gaza patients who need treatment in Israeli hospitals continue to travel into Israel for care.

France 2 TV journalist Charles Enderlin told a small audience at Harvard's Center for European Studies today that Yasser Arafat had faked his blood donation to the victims of the September 11th attacks. Enderlin said the event had been staged for the media to counteract the embarrassing television images of Palestinians celebrating in the streets after the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.

The blood donation story made headlines around the world. It was reported by esteemed news agencies like the BBC, and photographs of Arafat lying with an outstretched arm ran on many front pages. But the whole scene was staged, Enderlin said. Arafat didn't like needles, and so the doctor put a needle near his arm and agitated a bag of blood. The reporters took the requisite photographs...

Hizbullah leader appears in public for first time in more than a year to attend Shiite religious event in Lebanese capital. In fiery speech he says his group has 'heads' and 'body parts' of Israeli soldiers, as well as 'nearly intact cadaver'

Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said in a fiery speech on Saturday that his group had the "heads" and "body parts" of Israeli soldiers, as well as "a nearly intact cadaver".

Nasrallah, one of Israel's most wanted men, appeared in public for the first time in more than a year to attend a Shiite religious event in the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Saturday.

"We have the heads, the hands, the feet and even a nearly intact cadaver from the head down to the pelvis," he said.

"The Israeli army left behind the remains of the bodies of a large number of soldiers," said Nasrallah...

...Turning to the Israeli public, the Hizbullah leader said, "Oh, Zionists your army is lying to you... Your army has left the body parts of your soldiers in our villages and fields.

"Our mujahideen used to fight these Zionists, killing them and collecting their body parts. I am not talking about regular body parts. I tell the Israelis, we have the heads of your soldiers, we have hands, we have legs."

Surrounded by dozens of bodyguards, Nasrallah walked through the Hizbullah stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut toward a stadium where he was to deliver a speech commemorating Ashura, Shiite Islam's holiest day...

Israel's war with Hizbullah, which followed Hizbullah's capture of two Israeli soldiers, resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 civilians in Lebanon, a third of them children, as well as 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

...Had I been less lucky, second number three would have found me on the ground, dead. Even the clap as I lost consciousness would have been lost, as I believe that one is only cognizant of it to the extent that there is a beginning and an end-a leaving and a returning. I would have died and never known it. There would have been no goodbyes, no final thoughts of my loved ones, nothing. Everything that was in my mind, all of my loves and hates and hopes and dreams, everything that makes up who is Me, would have been instantly and completely wiped out.

But this is too terrifying and you cannot accept it. You want to believe that, when this happens to you, you will be on notice. You will be able to fight for your life. If you see the terrorist, you can dodge. If you feel the heat of the explosion you can turn away. If you feel the shrapnel entering me, you can declare to yourself: "I will not die" and force the breath in and out of your body. Knowledge is power.

How can you possibly accept a vision of yourself as without power, as powerless? How can you accept a picture of yourself knowing nothing, and having absolutely no option or opportunity to fight? How can you just die, without even realizing that anything hit you. One moment you exist. The next you do not...

I recently gave a talk at a conference on Media and Ethics in Jerusalem, where I presented the case against Enderlin’s version of the Muhammad al Durah story. Apparently, the presentation was relatively convincing since one of the first criticisms I immediately received from a prominent Israeli professor of communications was: "So what? According to reliable statistics, the Israeli army has killed over 800 Palestinian children since the second Intifada. So what difference does it make if this case is staged or not?" His intervention was followed by a round of applause from about a third of the 200-some person audience...

...These conceptual remarks shed a fierce light on the significance of al Durah since this icon was a spectacular and unprecedented event in the history of TV: not only the first "live TV-recorded" death of a child in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, but perhaps any conflict, and it was presented to the world as a murder. It thus carried an emotional impact equivalent to a nuclear blast, and became a symbolic matrix that defined the second Intifada and redefined Zionism. The "martyr" Muhammad al Durah became not only the "icon" for the Arab and Muslim world, he became the touchstone of Western perception about the nature of the conflict and the nature of Israel...

...This defenseless 12-year old murdered by Israelis became the symbol of all Palestinian "children" killed in the Intifada, whether they were 18 years old and fighting Israel, or 10 years old carrying a bomb pack, whether, even when killed by Israelis, it was unintentional or not. Muhammad "explained" the terror against Israelis – "What do you expect when you kill their children in cold blood?" – and rendered every Israeli victim guilty. So symbolically speaking, this "one case" not only stands out from all others, but redefines the meaning of the others.

The media – purveyors of this pivotal tale – subsequently remained loyal to the framework they had helped shape, reporting virtually every and any Palestinian claim of Israeli brutality, piling up statistics of Palestinian civilians, children, and non-combatants casualties that made Israeli soldiers look like ruthless mass-murderers, despite the fact that there are no documented cases of the IDF deliberately murdering innocent children. When the real mass-murderers of children, the suicide bombers and struck Israeli domestic sites, the media found few problems empathizing both with the victim and the terrorist. Moral equivalence and the politics of pity had obliterated the difference between firemen and arsonists; indeed for many it had inverted the moral universe: the arsonists were rebel heroes and the firemen hegemonic oppressors.

But his symbolic potency went well beyond even the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For Muslims around the world the al Durah story became a wake-up call: his image became perhaps this single most recognizable global Muslim icon until (and even after) 9-11. Within months, Osama bin Laden had given his tale a central place in his recruiting video for global Jihad...

...The big losers in this process were the forces of moderation on all sides: many Palestinians eagerly threw themselves into as total a war with Israel as they could muster; moderates could not brake their momentum; they could not even talk with their Israeli partners in dialogue without appearing to betray their people...

...In the history of information warfare, al Durah – the blood libel – was a nuclear blast, strengthening the war-mongering demonizers and paralyzing those working for a consensual peace. And if, as it looks, the MSM, starting with Enderlin, played a key role in detonating the blast rather than playing their proper role of filtering out false news and war-mongering propaganda, then we may have an important insight into the systemic weaknesses of societies committed to freedom in this era of growing authoritarianism and violence. One of the news media’s main tasks is to keep poisons out of the information system like a dialysis machine; with al Durah it pumped – and continues to pump – toxic poisons...

The Board of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence has received Mr. Arun Gandhi's offer of resignation as president of our organization. We take this very seriously and have begun appropriate deliberations. In accord with the Institute's mission – to educate for nonviolence and to inspire and support efforts that promote harmony in our communities – we believe that a face-to-face meeting with Mr. Gandhi is essential. We are scheduling a board meeting with him upon his return from India next week. Our intention is to review the facts and history, and to resolve this matter with all due speed.

...In his final moments Danny told his captors on camera: "My father is Jewish, My mother is Jewish, I am Jewish," and, as President Bush said in the White House last month: "These words have become a source of inspiration to Americans of all faiths."

My son Daniel died mighty proud of his Jewish identity. He, like the millions of decent and peace-seeking Israelis, and Americans who proudly carry on their Jewish heritage, did not see his identity as "dependent on violence" as the title of Gandhi's article implies.

Mr. Graham, the article your editors have allowed to be posted is a painful insult to everything Daniel stood for, to everything America stands for, and to every decent person inspired by Daniel's words.

Too many people were killed, abused or dispossessed in the past century by words of irresponsible authors, often disguised as scholars or humanitarians, who pointed fingers at, and blamed one segment of society for the ills and maladies in the world.

Arun Gandhi did just that...

But why are the Washington Post and Newsweek escaping all responsibility? What happened to their much-vaunted editorial review processes? Didn’t anyone who read that disgusting article before publication see anything wrong with it? How could it be published in a section supposedly dedicated to “interfaith dialog?” And why have they allowed dozens—if not hundreds—of foul antisemitic comments to remain posted in the reader comments for Gandhi’s article?

And what does this say about their judgment in publishing numerous articles from smooth-talking Islamist apologists for jihad?

The controversial former world chess champion, Bobby Fischer, has died in Iceland at the age of 64.

The US-born player, who became famous for beating Cold War Soviet rival Boris Spassky in 1972, died of an unspecified illness, his spokesman said.

He was granted Icelandic citizenship in 2005 as a way to avoid being deported to the US.

Mr Fischer was wanted for breaking international sanctions by playing a match in the former Yugoslavia in 1992.

He also had alienated many in his homeland by broadcasting anti-Semitic diatribes and expressing support for the 11 September 2001 attacks in New York.

The reclusive player - who had renounced his US citizenship - had lived undetected in Japan for a number of years before moving to Iceland...

An Islamic "jihad" is an effort by Muslims to convince "others to take up worthy causes, such as funding medical research," according to a middle school textbook used in California and other states.

And even at its most violent, "jihad" simply is Muslims fighting "to protect themselves from those who would do them harm," says the "History Alive! The Medieval World and " book published by Teachers' Curriculum Institute.

But a parent whose child has been handed the text in a Sacramento district is accusing the publisher of a pro-Muslim bias to the point that Islamic theology has been incorporated into the public school teachings.

"It makes an attempt to seem like an egalitarian world history book, but on closer inspection you find that seven (not all are titled so) of the chapters deal with Islam or Muslim subjects," wrote the parent, whose name was being withheld, in a letter to WND...

...Bert Bower, founder of TCI, said not only did his company have experts review the book, but the state of California also reviewed it, and has approved it for use in public schools.

He said the company tries to move history out from between the covers of a textbook and into students' minds, and that is how the book was developed.

"Keep in mind when looking at this particular book scholars from all over California (reviewed it)," he said. "We have our own scholars who created the program, California scholars look at the program and makes sure [it] is accurate."...

"Al-Qazzaz is a Muslim apologist, a frequent speaker in Northern California school districts promoting Islam and Arab causes," the ATC review said. "Al-Qazzaz also co-wrote AWAIR's 'Arab World Notebook.' AWAIR stands for Arab World and Islamic Resources, an opaque, proselytizing 'non-profit organization' that conducts teacher workshops and sells supplementary materials to schools."...

...The parent said she just wanted people to know of the agenda being taught.

"After seeing Al-Qazzaz as one of the main contributors I began to put two and two together … about the extra book coming home only in this class and I questioned where this book's money source came from – I still do not know," she said.

"I am very troubled that in the name of tolerance and educating American children about the Muslim empire in history they get away with giving beginning Islamic teaching which may cause many to perhaps one day become Muslims," she said. "My son tells me that the students will even be using calligraphy to copy parts of the Quran in Arabic as an enrichment activity."...

...To begin with, Iran was (as certified even by the doves of the State Department) the leading sponsor of terrorism in the world, and it was therefore reasonable to fear that it would transfer nuclear technology to terrorists who would be only too happy to use it against us. Moreover, since Iran evidently aspired to become the hegemon of the Middle East, its drive for a nuclear capability could result (as, according to the New York Times, no fewer than 21 governments in and around the region were warning) in "a grave and destructive nuclear-arms race." This meant a nightmarish increase in the chances of a nuclear war. An even greater increase in those chances would result from the power that nuclear weapons—and the missiles capable of delivering them, which Iran was also developing and/or buying—would give the mullahs to realize their evil dream of (in the words of Ahmadinejad) "wiping Israel off the map."

Nor, as almost everyone also agreed, were the dangers of a nuclear Iran confined to the Middle East. Dedicated as the mullahs clearly were to furthering the transformation of Europe into a continent where Muslim law and practice would more and more prevail, they were bound to use nuclear intimidation and blackmail in pursuit of this goal as well. Beyond that, nuclear weapons would even serve the purposes of a far more ambitious aim: the creation of what Ahmadinejad called "a world without America." Although, to be sure, no one imagined that Iran would acquire the capability to destroy the United States, it was easy to imagine that the United States would be deterred from standing in Iran’s way by the fear of triggering a nuclear war...

...It was in the course of a public debate with one of the younger members of the foreign-policy establishment that I first chanced upon the change in view. Knowing that he never deviated by so much as an inch from the conventional wisdom of the moment within places like the Council on Foreign Relations and the Brookings Institution, I had expected him to defend the carrot-and-stick approach and to attack me as a warmonger for contending that bombing was the only way to stop the mullahs from getting the bomb. Instead, to my great surprise, he took the position that there was really no need to stop them in the first place, since even if they had the bomb they could be deterred from using it, just as effectively as the Soviets and the Chinese had been deterred during the cold war.

Without saying so in so many words, then, my opponent was acknowledging that diplomacy and sanctions had proved to be a failure, and that there was no point in pursuing them any further. But so as to avoid drawing the logical conclusion—namely, that military action had now become necessary—he simply abandoned the old establishment assumption that Iran must at all costs be prevented from developing nuclear weapons, adopting in its place the complacent idea that we could learn to live with an Iranian bomb...

The Palestinians of Gaza send their rockets non-stop into Israel. Day in, day out. With pretense and without. The fact is that we do not know what percentage of the Gaza population is not rabid. Probably not many. So this war of rockets will go on and on...and on. In Gaza, there is no war between moderates and fanatics.

Israel has displayed remarkable restraint until it doesn't. Like yesterday and today. And then the Palestinians cry foul, and even Mahmoud Abbas screams "massacre." Hamas says the killing of 19 in Gaza, 15 of them Hamas warriors, one of them a son of a Hamas commander, will prevent the return of Gilad Shalit whose life it has been toying with cynically for more than a year and a half.

For more than a thousand years Jewish blood was cheap, very cheap. It is no more. That is one of the meanings of Zionism and of sovereignty. Anyone who sheds Jewish blood will pay and pay dearly. That is also the only possible alternative to a settlement. But Gaza doesn't want a settlement. It has made its choice.

A stone seal bearing the name of one of the families who acted as servants in the First Temple and then returned to Jerusalem after being exiled to Babylonia has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said Wednesday.

The 2,500-year-old black stone seal, which has the name "Temech" engraved on it, was found earlier this week amid stratified debris in the excavation under way just outside the Old City walls near the Dung Gate, said archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, who is leading the dig.

According to the Book of Nehemiah, the Temech family were servants of the First Temple and were sent into exile to Babylon following its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.

The family was among those who later returned to Jerusalem, the Bible recounts.

The seal, which was bought in Babylon and dates to 538-445 BCE, portrays a common and popular cultic scene, Mazar said.

The 2.1 x 1.8-cm. elliptical seal is engraved with two bearded priests standing on either side of an incense altar with their hands raised forward in a position of worship.

A crescent moon, the symbol of the chief Babylonian god Sin, appears on the top of the altar.

Under this scene are three Hebrew letters spelling Temech, Mazar said.

The Bible refers to the Temech family: "These are the children of the province, that went up out of the captivity, of those that had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and came again to Jerusalem and to Judah, every one unto his city." [Nehemiah 7:6]... "The Nethinim [7:46]"... The children of Temech." [7:55].

The fact that this cultic scene relates to the Babylonian chief god seemed not to have disturbed the Jews who used it on their own seal, she added.

The seal of one of the members of the Temech family was discovered just dozens of meters away from the Opel area, where the servants of the Temple, or "Nethinim," lived in the time of Nehemiah, Mazar said...

So then you look at Saudi Arabia. The fact that we tolerate a country saying no Christian and no Jew can go to Mecca, and we start with the presumption that that's true while they attack Israel for being a religious state is a sign of our timidity, our confusion, our cowardice that is stunning.

It's not complicated. We're inviting Saudi Arabia to come to Annapolis to talk about rights for Palestinians when nobody is saying, "Let's talk about rights for Christians and Jews in Saudi Arabia. Let's talk about rights for women in Saudi Arabia."

So we accept this totally one-sided definition of the world in which our enemies can cheerfully lie on television every day, and we don't even have the nerve to insist on the truth. We pretend their lies are reasonable. This is a very fundamental problem. And if you look at who some of the largest owners of some of our largest banks are today, they're Saudis.

You keep pumping billions of dollars a year into countries like Venezuela, Iran and Saudi Arabia, and Russia, and you are presently going to have created people who oppose you who have lots of money. And they're then going to come back to your own country and finance, for example, Arab study institutes whose only requirement is that they never tell the truth. So you have all sorts of Ph.D.s who now show up quite cheerfully prepared to say whatever it is that makes their funders happy – in the name, of course, of academic freedom. So why wouldn't Columbia host a genocidal madman? It's just part of political correctness. I mean, Ahmadinejad may say terrible things, he may lock up students, he may kill journalists, he may say, "We should wipe out Israel," he may say, "We should defeat the United States," but after all, what has he done that's inappropriate? What has he done that wouldn't be repeated at a Hollywood cocktail party or a nice gathering in Europe?

And nobody says this is totally, utterly, absolutely unacceptable. Why is it that the number one threat in intelligence movies is the CIA?...

Jerusalem's district planning and construction committee has approved a controversial plan to restore the Mughrabi bridge leading to one of the entrances to the Temple Mount, construction that caused an outcry among Muslims and generated protest from the Jordanian and Turkish governments in June.

The plan, approved two weeks ago, also includes expansion of the women's section of the Western Wall plaza.

A ministerial committee established after the summer's protests and headed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided two months ago to approve the construction, pending approval by the district planning and construction committee. The cabinet approved the ministerial committee decision after Science and Culture Minister Raleb Majadele withdrew his objection in response to Olmert's request.

Representatives from the Jerusalem municipality, Israel Antiquities Authority, Waqf (Muslim religious trust) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization met Sunday to discuss the Mughrabi bridge.

The Jordanian information minister announced progress in talks on restoring the bridge, but a Jordanian official told Haaretz Tuesday that Jordanian authorities are not aware of any change to the status quo, including expansion of the Western Wall plaza...

On the night of April 24, 1944, British air force bombers hammered a former Jesuit college here housing the Bavarian Academy of Science. The 16th-century building crumpled in the inferno. Among the treasures lost, later lamented Anton Spitaler, an Arabic scholar at the academy, was a unique photo archive of ancient manuscripts of the Quran.

The 450 rolls of film had been assembled before the war for a bold venture: a study of the evolution of the Quran, the text Muslims view as the verbatim transcript of God's word. The wartime destruction made the project "outright impossible," Mr. Spitaler wrote in the 1970s.

Mr. Spitaler was lying. The cache of photos survived, and he was sitting on it all along. The truth is only now dribbling out to scholars -- and a Quran research project buried for more than 60 years has risen from the grave...

The Middle East Studies Association has finally met its match. In a move long overdue, the doyen of Middle East Studies—Bernard Lewis—and its laureate poet—Fouad Ajami—have just joined forces to launch the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa.

One hopes that this new professional association will rejuvenate and mop clean a field that has long since shirked its obligation to academic objectivity to transform Middle Eastern studies into platforms for agitprop and partisanship. The complex and richly textured Middle East deserves far more than the bromides and reductionist commentary that have of late become the hallmark of some of our day's most influential scholars in the field. ASMEA promises to provide such critically needed diversity of perspective...

...The pathologies of the Middle East are largely homegrown, and Middle Easterners, as Ajami has noted, are quite proficient at cracking their whips at their own without the benefit of American assistance and Western interference. Still, MESA, the scholars it props up, and the specialists they churn out would tell us otherwise. Their narrative dictates that the our only concern should be the Arab-Israeli conflict: all else is ancillary.

Yet the Middle East is rife with endemic problems that not only predate the Arab-Israeli conflict, but will outlast it if specialists in the region continue to ignore them. The academy has an ethical and intellectual obligation to study the region in all its complexity, including its warts and blemishes, rather than forgo accuracy for pursuit of a single issue that is the obsession of too many scholars.

The Middle East is a hotbed of rivalries above and beyond that of Arabs and Israelis. To name only the most important: Iranian vs. Arab; Sunni vs. Shiite; Turkish vs. Kurdish; Arab vs. Kurdish; Islamist zealots vs. modernist secularists; nationalists vs. Islamist; dictators vs. democrats; pan-Arabists vs. sundry localisms.

Yet MESA's leadership would have students of the Middle East ignore complex historical data and adhere to approved lines of group-think. The treatment of historical information, be it flouted, suppressed, fabricated, or dismissed in classrooms and faculty lounges, depends entirely on the whims and ideological predilections of the academy's keepers and the dictates of their favorite narratives. They have ruled that the region can be interpreted meaningfully and equitably without reference to histories other than those of Muslims and Arabs...

But defense and military officials supportive of Mr. Coughlin said the real reason is that critics, like Mr. Islam. want him sidelined because they oppose his hard-to-refute views on the relationship between Islamic law and Islamist jihad doctrine. Those views have triggered a harsh debate challenging the widespread and politically correct view of Islam as a religion of peace hijacked by extremists.

Major Coughlin's "hard to refute views" are elaborated in his 333 pp. thesis, To Our Great Detriment: Ignoring What Extremists Say About Jihad, which was accepted recently by the National Defense Intelligence College, and made available online (here)...

...He is currently seeking funding for a fifth Billy Jack film in two parts. When originally announced in 2004, it was entitled Billy Jack's Crusade to End the War in Iraq and Restore America to Its Moral Purpose; this was shortened to Billy Jack's Moral Revolution in 2006. The film's new title is Billy Jack for President. Laughlin promises it will be a "new genre of film": a great deal of social commentary on politics, religion, psychology, etc. will be discussed, and a debate will take place between Billy Jack and President Bush via computer manipulation of archived speeches...

...The organization couched its solicitations in the context of the Muslim obligation to donate alms (zakat), instructing donors that they were under religious obligation to make sure at least some of the alms went to finance jihad. In response, the organization received checks from donors with directions to support various jihad causes, including comments on the memo line of checks such as "Bosnia mujahedin," "for jihad only," and "Chechen Muslim Fighters."

Indeed, while terrorist fundraisers frequently frame their fundraising pitch in terms of their groups' humanitarian activities, Care specifically called for funding violent jihad. Employing the concept of "economic jihad" (jihad bil-mal), a tool that features prominently in the fundraising techniques of radical Islamist groups, Care successfully raised approximately $1.7 million from 1993 to 2003. The concept is simple in practice: radical leaders tell their followers they have a religious duty to engage in jihad, either by physically fighting or by supporting those who do. Proponents of this logic ground their position in the Quran, surah 9 (al-Tawbah) Verse 41: "Fight with your possessions and your souls in the way of Allah."

Highlighting the concept of economic jihad, a speaker on one of Care's audiotapes explicitly calls on his listeners "to commit jihad with their wealth as well as their souls." The lecturer went on to state that "weapons training is open to all and that all should take advantage of this opportunity to receive training."...

Despite all of the above evidence tying Care to terrorism, the organization -- like Al Capone -- was ultimately held accountable for mundane charges on which the government could secure criminal convictions. In fact, the judge barred the word "terrorism" throughout the trial in an effort to keep the jury focused on the specific charges at hand. But the ultimate effect of the tax law conviction was to expose and hold accountable a fundraising network that raised significant amounts of money for al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups. Detractors may say the lack of a specific terrorism charge proves this was not a terrorism case, but the evidence belies such claims. Sometimes the best strategy for a terrorism prosecution is to focus on the underlying and mundane criminal activity.

Foreign volunteer killed by Palestinian sniper gunfire from within Gaza; man was shot as he was working in the fields of Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha. Hamas claims responsibility

Carlos Andres Chavez, a 20-year-old volunteer from Ecuador, was killed after he was shot by a Palestinian sniper from within the Gaza Strip as he was working in the fields of the Ein Hashlosha kibbutz located near the coastal territory.

The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, took responsibility for the shooting.

Magen David Adom paramedics arrived to the scene while the man was still alive but seriously injured. They tried to save his life but were unsuccessful and were forced to pronounce him dead.

Yochai (Yochi) Kopler, a kibbutz resident who was out in the field when the shooting began, described the incident. "We started fleeing from the gunfire and, on the way, I heard the volunteer scream in Spanish: 'The bastards shot me from behind!'

"I saw that he has hit in the lower back and was bleeding, I pulled him halfway inside the vehicle and quickly hurried to the infirmary," he said.

Kopler added that the evacuation was carried out under heavy fire. "I pulled him inside the car and started to drive all the while they were shooting at us with light machine guns and (firing) mortars -- the bullets were literally whizzing by our heads."

The woman in charge of kibbutz volunteers at Ein Hashlosha, Annie Rotman, said that Chavez had arrived to the kibbutz a few months ago with a group of volunteers from South America in order to work and travel around the country. She said he had fallen in love with Israel and wanted to serve in the IDF...

Israel killed at least 18 Palestinians, nearly all Hamas militants, in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, in violence the Palestinian Authority said was a "slap in the face" to President George W. Bush's peace efforts.

A volunteer from Ecuador, working on an Israeli kibbutz, or farming community, bordering the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, was killed by a Palestinian sniper near the frontier fence. Hamas claimed responsibility for shooting the man...

..."There was a massacre today against our people, and we say to the world that our people will not remain silent against such crimes," said Abbas.

In a statement, the West Bank-based Palestinian government said Israel's "ugly crimes were a slap in the face" to efforts by Bush and the international community to resume peacemaking that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state...

...I'm embarrassed at how thrilled I am about our banal finds. I'm the first person to touch this potsherd in 100 generations! Though we've found nothing exciting, the Diggers for a Day routinely unearth genuine treasures. They've uncovered an ancient marriage contract (not Jewish!), coins, gold earrings, seals of kings, a stone phallus, and literally thousands of complete pottery vessels...

Iran is planning on submerging the tomb of King Cyrus (Coresh), the Persian King known for authorizing the Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Holy Temple.

According to a report by Omedia, an Iranian organization is demanding that the International Criminal Court take action against those responsible.

The Iranian ayatollahs are planning on destroying the tomb as part of a general campaign to sever the Persian people from their non-Islamic heritage; Cyrus was thought to be a Zoroastrian and was one of the first rulers to enforce a policy of religious tolerance on his huge kingdom. Journalist Ran Porat quoted a young Iranian who said that the measures being taken by the Islamic Republic’s regime include the destruction of archaeological sites significant to this heritage.

"The government is in the final stages of constructing a dam in southern Iran that will submerge the archaeological sites of Pasargad and Persopolis – the ancient capital of the Persian Empire," the report states. "The site, which is considered exceptional in terms of its archaeological wealth and historical importance, houses the tomb of the Persian King Cyrus."...

...A group of Iranian academics opposed to the regime’s policies founded a group called the Pasargad Heritage Foundation with hopes of getting the United Nations involved in protecting the historical site. Most recently, the foundation filed a petition with the International Criminal Court against the Iranian official in charge of maintaining the sites, charging him and his bureau with "crimes against humanity, due to the systematic state-sanctioned destruction of the culture of the ancient Iranian world and its historical heritage."...

Terror groups take advantage of Israeli permit allowing humanitarian goods into impoverished Gaza Strip, attempt to smuggle two tons of fertilizer in truck transporting aid in second such incident this week

Security workers employed by the Israel Airport Authority uncovered two tons of fertilizer used in the manufacturing of Qassam rockets on Monday afternoon, the substantial amount of explosive material was concealed in a truck allegedly transporting humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

The security officials manning the Kerem Shalom border crossing discovered the smuggling attempt during a random inspection of vehicles carrying humanitarian equipment and goods.

This is the second such incident to occur this week.

At present time defense officials are still investigating the incident and the origin and destination of the explosives remain unknown. Security forces estimate terror organizations have recently increased smuggling efforts. "As we have seen in the past, terror groups will stop at nothing to carry out their plans. We have seen a number of attacks against the crossings themselves, the Karni goods crossing has been closed for several months because of this – and it is the Palestinians who ultimately suffer from this," they said.

Despite the security restrictions and economic siege of Gaza, Israel allows the transfer of medical equipment and drugs into Gaza at the insistence of the World Health Organization.

* The BBC virtually ceased reporting on Palestinian rocket attacks while detailing numerous Israeli military operations against Gaza. In 2007, there were almost 1,500 rocket and mortar attacks targeting Israeli civilian populations, resulting in on average, one strike every ten hours. The BBC chose to publish only six articles focused on the attacks during the entire year. During the same period, fifty-six articles concerning Israeli military operations against Gaza were published.

* The BBC's headline selection for stories focused on combat and terrorist attacks was inconsistent and favored the Palestinian side. This trend continued and even worsened. Stories about Palestinian attacks never directly named the aggressors. Instead, headlines such as "Rocket injures dozens in Israel" were used. On the other hand, in 63% of articles addressing Israeli military operations, the headline was much more clear and direct, regardless of whether the action was a responsive or defensive measure. (e.g.: "Israel strikes kill six in Gaza").

* Images accompanying articles of combat or terrorist attacks were heavily sympathetic to the Palestinian perspective by a ratio of three to one. Images of Israelis tended to be of soldiers and attacking armored units. Images of Palestinians were mostly wounded civilians, funerals, or debris from an Israeli strike...

Statement by President Joel Seligman

January 11, 2008

I was surprised and deeply disappointed by Arun Gandhi's recent opinion piece in the Washington Post blog, "On Faith." I believe that his subsequent apology inadequately explains his stated views, which seem fundamentally inconsistent with the core values of the University of Rochester.

In particular I vehemently disagree with his singling out of Israel and the Jewish people as to blame for the "Culture of Violence" that he believes is eventually going to destroy humanity. This kind of stereotyping is inconsistent with our core values and would be inappropriate when applied to any race, any religion, any nationality, or either gender.

Among the University of Rochester’s values are a commitment to promoting diversity and being a welcoming and inclusive community. We respect the religious and cultural heritages of all people, and indeed our Interfaith Chapel is an institutional expression of our commitment to support religious diversity, to encourage free and open dialogue among diverse religions in a civil manner.

We are also committed to the right of every person to address complaints or allegations personally and directly. Arun Gandhi currently is in India. I will discuss this matter with him in person as soon as he returns to Rochester later this month.

Three former leaders of an Islamic charity were convicted Friday of duping the U.S. government into getting tax-exempt status by hiding the group's pro-jihad activities.

Care International Inc., which is now defunct, described its mission as helping war orphans, widows and refugees in Muslim nations. But prosecutors said the organization also distributed a newsletter promoting jihad and supported Muslim militants involved in armed conflicts around the world.

Emadeddin Muntasser, the founder of Care International; Muhammed Mubayyid, the group's former treasurer; and Samir Al-Monla, the president of Care from 1996 to 1998, were charged with tax code violations, making false statements and conspiracy to defraud the United States.

The federal jury found them guilty on all counts, except a false statements count on which Al-Monla was acquitted.

"Today's verdict is a milestone in our efforts against those who conceal their support for extremist causes behind the veil of humanitarianism. For years, these defendants used an allegedly charitable organization as a front for the collection of donations that they converted for the purpose of supporting violent jihadists," Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein in Washington said in a statement.

Defense attorneys, who did not immediately return calls for comment Friday, had accused prosecutors of trying to sensationalize the charges into a terrorism case by highlighting the newsletter.

Muntasser, 42, owner of the Logan Furniture Co., was born in Libya and now lives in Braintree. Mubayyid, 42, was born in Lebanon and now lives in Shrewsbury. Al-Monla, 50, was born in Kuwait, now lives in Boston and is a U.S. citizen.

Four Major Arab Dailies Refuse to Run Ad

...The ad, which leads with a photo of the late Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, and the headline "What More Will it Take for the World to Act" say, in part: ‘The General Assembly has held Special Sessions on Disarmament, Apartheid, Environment, Drug Abuse, Gender Equality and Children. Unless we put suicide bombing on top of the international community’s agenda, the virulent cancer of terrorism could engulf us all. The looming threat of WMDs in the hands of suicide bombers will dwarf the casualties already suffered in 30 countries.’

The ad goes on to urge religious leaders to acknowledge that, "Suicide terrorists believe they act in God’s name and enter paradise as holy martyrs. Religious leaders must use every sermon and every publication to denounce this belief as nothing less than an abomination of faith and a perversion of all that is godly."...

Jewish leaders are reeling after what they say was a decision by Ms. magazine to refuse to accept a full-page advertisement featuring three prominent Israeli women. The advertisement, submitted to the feminist publication by the American Jewish Congress, featured photographs of three women who hold leadership positions in Israel, including the president of the Israeli Supreme Court, Dorit Beinisch; Israel's foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, and speaker of the Knesset, Dalia Itzik. Underneath the photographs, the advertisement included the text, "This is Israel."

Officials from the American Jewish Congress said they were shocked by the magazine's decision, which they said amounted to anti-Israel sentiment.

"For a magazine that I believe has stood for empowerment and supporting women in high positions of society, it was just stunning," the group's president, Richard Gordon, said. "Clearly, there is an anti-Israel sentiment here that is being exhibited, because there is no other possible rationale for making a decision like this."

The magazine's executive editor, Kathy Spillar, offered a different reason in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. She said that because two of the women photographed belong to the same political party, the advertisement showed favoritism. She added that an upcoming issue would feature a two-page profile of Ms. Livni. Officials at the American Jewish Congress said they conceived of the advertisement this past fall, when a member of its board suggested the group publicize the accomplishments of the three women. They first contacted the magazine in October about placing the advertisement, and they were working on its final details in mid-November when the magazine decided against running it...

Governor Deval Patrick said yesterday he is studying whether he can bypass the Legislature to clear the way for illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at state colleges and universities, triggering criticism from Beacon Hill Republicans on an explosive issue that has reverberated nationally.

Speaking before a group of business and civic leaders, Patrick said his legal team is weighing whether the state could grant the lower rate by passing a regulation, which would require approval by the 11-member Board of Higher Education. Patrick's comments, in response to a question from an audience member, came two years after an in-state tuition bill failed in the Legislature, and amid a debate over illegal immigration in the presidential race.

Paying in-state tuition would save illegal immigrant students thousands of dollars. At the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, out-of-state tuition is close to $10,000 a year, compared with about $1,700 a year for residents. Out-of-state tuition runs as high as $8,430 a year at a community college compared to about $700 a year for residents...

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Thursday launched a rocket attack on the local American International School in protest against US President George W. Bush's visit to the Palestinian territories.

No one was hurt in the pre-dawn attack, but eyewitnesses said large parts of the school were damaged by an RPG mortar, as well as other explosive devices.

This is the second time that the school has come under attack in the past few months. The previous attack occurred in April, when arsonists set fire to the school building in the northern Gaza Strip.

No group claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack, which came only hours after several Palestinian groups called on Palestinians to kill Bush. The attack also followed demonstrations in the Gaza Strip condemning Bush and calling on the PA leadership to boycott his visit.

...So let’s move on to the CAIR story. What happened?

Steel: I met with CAIR leaders before I became chairman [of the California Republican Party]. They appeared to me to be a polished interest group, simply trying to empower Muslims in the US into the political process. I had hoped they were leaning Republican. Later it became clear to me they have little interest in the US or our traditions. Instead CAIR is financed outside the US which promotes a virulent extreme form of Islamic radicalism. I wrote a piece in NRO entitled "Who CAIRS?" which documented CAIR’s vitriolic attack against me for a speech I gave at USC promoting the US attack against Saddam Hussein.

In my speech I stated that there is a cancer "within" Islam that is anti-Western and anti-American. The very next day CAIR sent out an email blast to one of their lists attacking me. In short order, I received hundreds of angry emails. It was quite intimidating. I was amazed with the writers’ hostility to the land they immigrated to. I had no idea that many people who call themselves Muslims and live here, hate being here.

I still stand by my comments.

FP: And there was a law suit?

Steel: Yes, without any notice, one of the leaders in CAIR sued me for my remarks. He sued me in Orange County . His case was shortly dismissed for transgressing my First Amendment rights. I was awarded attorney fees. No one likes to get sued. Particularly for punitive damages, where not even your liability insurance can pay a potential judgment against you. I’ve discovered that CAIR regularly uses our legal system to try to quash dissent. CAIR has sued David Frum [National Review], Congressman Ballenger, Andrew Whitehead [leader of Anti-CAIR] and others. I believe most of the lawsuits were dismissed.

I am an eager campaigner and fully understand that politics is a full contact sport. CAIR is a group of highly paid and ruthless strategists. I would not have paid much attention to them at all. However, when they entered my world, I realized their ambitions are the advancement of an extreme form of Islamic dogmatic groupthink. CAIR is unhealthy for the body politic. It is an integral part of the cancer within Islam...

1.The main objective of this study is to analyze the terrorist organizations' use of rocket and mortar shell fire between 2000 and 2007, the years of the terrorist campaign initiated by the Palestinians (called the Al-Aqsa intifada). The study examines the extent of the fire, the policies employed by the various organizations, the factors influencing those policies, trends of escalation or lulls in the attacks, the impact on the residents of the western Negev settlements.

2. Rocket fire began in 2001 2 and during the confrontation gradually became one of primary threats coming from the Palestinian terrorist organizations. As of the end of November 2007, there has been a total of 2,383 identified rocket hits in and around the western Negev settlements, with the southern city of Sderot as a priority and drawing 45% of the rockets which landed on inhabited areas...

This document summarizes the data and major trends that characterized Palestinian terror in 2007, broken down by areas, Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip, and general trends that were prominent this year, such as the activities of the Palestinian security apparatus, the growing strength of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and exploitation of humanitarian allowances. This past year brought significant changes that affect the entire region. The most conspicuous was Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip, which altered the reality in the Palestinian arena by creating de facto two separate Palestinian entities in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip.

Despite the changes in the Palestinian arena and Hamas's takeover, we were witness in 2007 to a continuation of the substantial reduction in the number of suicide attacks, and as a result, in the number of persons killed. This reduction resulted primarily from the combined efforts of the Israeli Security Agency, the Israel Defense Forces, and the Israel Police...

..."Fifty years ago, a great Egyptian, [the leader of a] generation that sowed the seeds of freedom that we enjoy today in our land, declared: "Religion belongs to Allah, and the homeland belongs to all." [1] This momentous declaration was a great beacon of hope to millions of marginalized members of religious minorities, who had for years been seared in the flames of withering Ottoman oppression and of injustices of ancient times and of the Middle Ages. This declaration came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their degrading marginalization.

"But 100 years later, we must face the sad truth! The Copts, the Baha'i, the Shi'ites, the Koranists, [2] and members of other religious minorities are still sadly crippled by the manacles of sectarian isolation and chains of religious fundamentalism. One hundred years later, [they] still live on an island within the vast Egyptian mainland, yet isolated from it, [although Egypt] could also welcome, alongside the Sunni Muslims, the Copts, the Shi'ites, the Baha'i, the Mormons, the Jews, the atheists, the Buddhists and the Hindus - if the souls [of the people] expelled [the idea of] segregation and instead became filled with justice. One hundred years later, the member of a religious minority still languishes in the corners of Egyptian society, and finds himself an exile in his own land - unless, through a divine or natural intervention, he is delivered from this fate."...

In recent articles in the Arab print and electronic press, Egyptian liberal authors wrote that it is up to the Arabs to take steps to advance peace with Israel. On January 7, 2008 in the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, prominent Egyptian intellectual Dr. Mamoun Fandy proposed that the Arabs use President Bush's visit to the Middle East to demonstrate that they are serious about resolving the conflict. On December 5, 2007 in the liberal Arab e-journal Elaph, Egyptian author and researcher Kamal Gabriel wrote that the promise of normalization is the only card the Arabs have left to play at the negotiationing table, but that until they take steps to replace a culture of hatred with a culture of peace, this promise will not be taken seriously.

Following are excerpts from the two articles...

...Every mosque in the Fallujah area – and there are more than 200 of them – broadcast pro-American messages from minaret loudspeakers. The messages inside the walls are as pro-American as the ones outside. The Marines have fluent Arabic-speakers listening in so they can keep their ears close to the ground of public opinion. If the mosques turn against Americans again, the Marines need to know...

Jewish identity in the past has been locked into the holocaust experience -- a German burden that the Jews have not been able to shed. It is a very good example of a community can overplay a historic experience to the point that it begins to repulse friends. The holocaust was the result of the warped mind of an individual who was able to influence his followers into doing something dreadful. But, it seems to me the Jews today not only want the Germans to feel guilty but the whole world must regret what happened to the Jews. The world did feel sorry for the episode but when an individual or a nation refuses to forgive and move on the regret turns into anger.

The Jewish identity in the future appears bleak. Any nation that remains anchored to the past is unable to move ahead and, especially a nation that believes its survival can only be ensured by weapons and bombs. In Tel Aviv in 2004 I had the opportunity to speak to some Members of Parliament and Peace activists all of whom argued that the wall and the military build-up was necessary to protect the nation and the people. In other words, I asked, you believe that you can create a snake pit -- with many deadly snakes in it -- and expect to live in the pit secure and alive? What do you mean? they countered. Well, with your superior weapons and armaments and your attitude towards your neighbors would it not be right to say that you are creating a snake pit? How can anyone live peacefully in such an atmosphere? Would it not be better to befriend those who hate you? Can you not reach out and share your technological advancement with your neighbors and build a relationship?

Apparently, in the modern world, so determined to live by the bomb, this is an alien concept. You don't befriend anyone, you dominate them. We have created a culture of violence (and Israel and the Jews are the prime instigators) and that Culture of Violence is eventually going to destroy humanity.

Start Date: 24th Jan 2008 8:30pm

Description: This House Believes That The State of Israel has a Right to Exist

In Proposition -

* Norman Finkelstein ['Hezbollah represents the hope']
* Prof Ted Honderich ['...the Palestinians have had a moral right to their terrorism as certain as was the moral right, say, of the African people of South Africa against their white captors and the apartheid state']

In Opposition -

* Ghada Karmi [One State Solution]
* Ilan Pappe ['Indeed the struggle is about ideology, not about facts.']

A vocal American critic of Israel met Monday with a senior official from the militant Hezbollah group and visited villages in southern Lebanon that witnessed heavy fighting in the 2006 war between the guerrillas and the Jewish state.

Norman Finkelstein, who resigned last year as a political science professor at DePaul University in Chicago, met Hezbollah's commander in south Lebanon, Nabil Kaouk, in his office in the coastal city of Tyre.

He visited the border village of Maroun el-Rass where heavy fighting between Hezbollah guerrillas and Israeli troops took place during the two side's 34-day war in the summer 2006, according to the state-run National News Agency and Hezbollah's Al-Manar television...

..."After the horror and after the shame and after the anger there still remain a hope, and I know that I can get in a lot of trouble for what I am about to say, but I think that the Hezbollah represents the hope. They are fighting to defend their homeland," the Brooklyn-born Finkelstein told reporters. The U.S. government has labeled Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

Finkelstein is on a one-week visit to Lebanon where he is scheduled to hold lectures and visit Palestinian refugee camps...

NEW YORK (MNA) – An academic delegation of Columbia University professors and deans of faculties plans to visit Tehran to officially apologize to Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.

The delegation plans to express regret for the insulting remarks Columbia University President Lee Bollinger directed at Ahmadinejad on September 24 in his introductory speech, the Mehr News Agency correspondent in New York reported.

Since the incident, the deans and professors from the faculties of history, anthropology, Middle Eastern studies, philosophy, and Islamic studies have criticized Bollinger’s behavior toward Ahmadinejad.

A member of the delegation, who requested anonymity [I should say. -S], said the main goal of the visit is to meet the Iranian president and officially apologize to him.

"The delegation has also prepared its itinerary," he noted.

He went on to say that the delegation also plans to visit Iranian universities in various cities and to hold talks with professors and students, and may even sign memoranda of understanding with some universities. He also said the delegation is interested in visiting seminaries and the shrine city of Qom.

However, Bollinger has warned the delegation that their trip to Iran should be a private visit and should not be undertaken as an official visit endorsed by the university.

Bollinger has so far refused to meet the Mehr News Agency correspondent to explain his disrespectful behavior toward Ahmadinejad when introducing him to the students and professors at Columbia.

Ten families from Sderot are planning to sue Egypt in the Be’er Sheva District Court on Monday for its role in attacks by Gaza terrorists on their city.

All 10 families have loved ones who were murdered or seriously wounded in Kassam rocket attacks launched by terrorists from Gaza.

The petitioners argue that Egypt has deliberately assisted the terrorists in smuggling weapons into Gaza and that those weapons have been used in the production and launching of rockets that exploded in Sderot.

The lawsuit also accuses Egypt of deliberately allowing Gaza terrorists to cross the border in order to participate in advanced terror training camps held in Iran, Syria and elsewhere.

Egypt further facilitated the terrorists’ activities by allowing them to cross the border back into Gaza with their deadly newfound knowledge, often with huge amounts of cash as well.

According to a year-end report by the General Security Service (Shin Bet), Gaza has become the leading source of terrorism in recent years. Not only does the area serve as a launch site for attacks on the western Negev, but it has also become the leading exporter of terrorist technology and training to Palestinian Authority terrorists in Judea and Samaria...

When donors met in Paris last month and awarded $7.4 billion in aid to the Palestinians, a larger-than-expected package to be distributed over the next three years, many in the international community showed a new readiness to support the new Israeli-Palestinian peace push and provide a safety net for it in the form of economic stability.

Now Palestinian and foreign observers alike are keen to see how and where the money is spent, putting senior officials on the spot with questions of how they intend to avoid the corruption and mismanagement that characterized the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the past...

...Samir Barghouthi, an economist who runs a Ramallah investment firm, says that of the amount of aid pledged, approximately 70 percent of the amount will go to public salaries and 30 percent will go to development projects, food relief, and assistance – especially to Gazans.

The biggest problem, he says, is indeed the bloated PA payroll. "There are many thousands of public sector employees who are not working. Some are living in Jordan or Egypt, some work from home, some work in the private sector but still take a salary from the government. There are people who are not even showing up in work because there isn't something to do," says Mr. Barghouthi.

He suggests the PA needs to push ahead with offering a retirement program, perhaps giving incentives by offering highly subsidized loans for people to start businesses.

"The Paris aid is just a mechanism to help people survive, which means after three years, when those monies are spent, we have to face the problem again, and in another three years," he says. "We should use this commitment to push for deep restructuring."

The Palestinian health ministry of the Ramallah-based caretaker government said on Thursday that "Hamas militias" have looted the fuel stores destined for hospital vehicles in the Gaza Strip.

A statement released by the health ministry said that fuel from the European hospital in the Gaza Strip had been stolen by the director of the hospital drivers to supply the Hamas-affiliated Executive Force...

The massive IDF operation in Nablus has shown that, contrary to claims by the Palestinian Authority, Fatah's armed wing has not been dismantled.

It has also proven that dozens of Fatah gunmen and activists in the West Bank have not surrendered their weapons and are continuing to plan attacks against Israel.

During the operation, which began on Thursday, the IDF arrested 19 gunmen belonging to Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades.

The IDF has also arrested two security officers working for the PA's Military Intelligence Force: Shadi al-Sakhel and Ahmed Hisham. The two officers are suspected of helping the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in the city.

IDF soldiers discovered a workshop in Nablus's Old City where the group was said to have manufactured two rockets.

The raid came days after PA Interior Minister Abdel Razak Yahya announced that the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank had ceased to exist.

It also came against a backdrop of media reports suggesting that the PA security forces had succeeded in imposing law and order in Nablus.

The Aksa Martyrs Brigades has openly scoffed at Yahya's declaration, dubbing him a "collaborator" with Israel and calling for his dismissal.

The group continues to issue daily statements about its members' activities both in the West Bank and in Gaza. And in the Strip, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades are continuing to take credit for many of the rocket attacks on Israel...

Israeli security officials said Sunday that a rocket with a longer range than usual fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza into the coastal city of Ashkelon on Thursday had been made in Iran. It was the first such rocket to land in Israel, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would intensify its response to the firing of such longer-range rockets...

The Palestinian authority has deployed hundreds of extra troops in Nablus and Bethlehem as the start of a crackdown on militant groups, and Mr Dichter's Palestinian counterpart, the interior minister Abdel-Razek al-Yahya, said last week it had dismantled the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a violent Fatah offshoot.

Palestinians also argue, however, that their efforts to crack down on militant groups are hampered by Israel's refusal to permit them to be properly equipped.

...On the one hand, the British were losing confidence in the Christian vision which underlay most of the achievements and values of the culture and, on the other, they sought to accommodate the newer arrivals on the basis of a novel philosophy of "multiculturalism".

This required that people should be facilitated in living as separate communities, continuing to communicate in their own languages and having minimum need for building healthy relationships with the majority.

Alongside these developments, there has been a worldwide resurgence of the ideology of Islamic extremism. One of the results of this has been to further alienate the young from the nation in which they were growing up and also to turn already separate communities into "no-go" areas where adherence to this ideology has become a mark of acceptability.

Those of a different faith or race may find it difficult to live or work there because of hostility to them. In many ways, this is but the other side of the coin to far-Right intimidation. Attempts have been made to impose an "Islamic" character on certain areas, for example, by insisting on artificial amplification for the Adhan, the call to prayer.

Such amplification was, of course, unknown throughout most of history and its use raises all sorts of questions about noise levels and whether non-Muslims wish to be told the creed of a particular faith five times a day on the loudspeaker...

...The Muslim Council of Britain today described his comments as "frantic scaremongering", while William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, said the bishop had "probably put it too strongly".

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said the idea of no-go areas was "a gross caricature of reality"...

...His comments come as a poll of the General Synod - the Church's parliament - shows that its senior leaders, including bishops, also believe that Britain is being damaged by large-scale immigration.

Bishop Nazir-Ali, who was born in Pakistan, gives warning that attempts are being made to give Britain an increasingly Islamic character by introducing the call to prayer and wider use of sharia law, a legal system based on the Koran...

...Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "Bishop Nazir-Ali appears to be exercised by what he perceives as the decline in the influence of Christianity upon this country, but trying to frantically scaremonger about Islam and Muslims seems to us to be a rather unethical way of trying to reverse this.

"He talks about the rise of 'Islamic extremism' but fails to mention how some of the policies of our government and especially that of the United States in the Middle East over several decades now has clearly contributed to this phenomenon."

Saw a comment somewhere discussing how the crowd importing sulphur rich oil from Chavez are getting around having to reduce the sulphur content by putting it on the market as heating oil which is not subject to the same regulations.

So, if correct, Joe is getting +ve propaganda and screwing the environment to boot. Acid rain is not the same as CO2 apparently.

George Soros funded the survey. The U.S. authors played no role in data-collection, and did not apply standard anti-fraud measures. The chief Iraqi data-collector had earlier produced medical articles to help Saddam’s anti-sanctions campaign in the 1990s, and said Allah guided the prior 2004 Lancet/Johns Hopkins death-survey. Some of the field surveyors were employed by Moqtada Sadr’s Ministry of Health. The Iraqis’ numbers contain evidence of fakery, and the Lancet did not check for fakery.

...The struggle we are engaged in is a struggle of moderates versus extremists. Most of the challenges confronting Israel are challenges faced by the entire free world. The regional conflict is not the source of this dichotomy, nor the values for which Israel is fighting and which are shared by the free world. The fight against terror, against dangerous regimes that strive to acquire weapons of mass destruction, such as Iran, the fight against the spread of hatred and incitement - Israel stands on the frontlines of this fight. The international community must uphold the principles and values for which we are fighting, in the face of those who would exploit them in order to hurt all of us.

This is not a story of David and Goliath. Our values teach us not to use all of the power at our disposal. Civilians are hurt on both sides, but the chasmal difference between us is that the Israeli soldier would never deliberately harm an innocent civilian and would never receive an order to do so. Terrorism, in contrast, looks for the queue at a discotheque, or a pizzeria or a bus stop in order to harm as many civilians as possible. Talking in one breath about victims on both sides implies an equation, as it were, between them which does not exist. We expect world leaders to acknowledge the facts and to judge Israel as they would judge themselves...

Russia has admitted that customs officials thwarted more than 120 attempts to smuggle "highly radioactive" material out of the country last year.

The disclosure is likely to fuel concern about how many illegal exports were not halted. It will also lead to new fears that Moscow has failed to stop material becoming available on the black market that could be used by terrorists to make radioactive "dirty" bombs.

A further 722 cases of illegal importing of highly radio-active material into Russia were detected - possible evidence of a dangerous trade between ex-Soviet states.

The figures come as Britain continues to demand the extradition of the Russian MP Andrei Lugovoi for allegedly poisoning the former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium-210 in London in November 2006.

British sources indicate that this polonium originated at a Russian state facility. But Nikolai Kravchenko, of the Russian customs service, said: "Industrial shipments of this substance are being exported from Russia legally."

Following is an excerpt from a report on the Italian "Zassbollah" soccer team, which aired on Al-Manar TV on December 30, 2007.

Voice of reporter: Yes, this is the Hizbullah logo. But what is it doing on the jerseys of these players? Italian soccer player Davide Volponi knows the answer. Volponi and his friends form a soccer team, which for 15 years has been participating in the Carioca amateur league. The team changes its name every year. In an attempt to boost the morale of his comrades, Volponi suggested naming the team "Zassbollah" this year – combining the name of the team captain, Zasso, with the word "Hizbullah." Where did this idea come from, and what is its purpose?

Davide Volponi, on phone: The idea to name the team "Zassbollah" came from the situation in Lebanon. We chose this name not as an expression of any political position, but because we were influenced by the strong fighting spirit, and by the spirit of resistance. Therefore, this is not a political matter, because we observe things from afar, but on the field, we must put up resistance and fight the opponents.

Voice of reporter: The Zassbollah team was in need of this boost to their morale, because the rival team included international player Gianfranco Zola, who used to play on the Italian national team and now coaches Italy’s national youth team. Last Saturday at noon, at the Amiscora stadium in Sardinia, Italy – although in a different language and a different style – the Hizbullah resistance scored yet another goal into the net of those who doubt its morality, having become a source of inspiration for soccer players admired by millions throughout the world.

Following are excerpts from a speech delivered by Hamas MP Yunis Al-Astal, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on December 27, 2007.

Yunis Al-Astal: The offerings slaughtered by the pilgrims teach us how fathers should sacrifice their sons by encouraging them to wage jihad for the sake of Allah. They also teach us how young people should sacrifice themselves. Our forefather Ismail, who was also a prophet, said: "Oh father, do what you are commanded," and he sacrificed himself. The holiday and the offerings remind us of the need for fathers to sacrifice their sons and the need for sons to sacrifice themselves.

HALHUL, West Bank (AFP) - Some 700 Palestinians observed a minute's silence on Monday as they marked the first anniversary of the hanging of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The demonstration in this southern town in the occupied West Bank opened with the silent tribute for the former Iraqi president who was one of the most popular Arab leaders among Palestinians.

Holding Saddam portraits and gripping Iraqi and Palestinian flags, rally participants recited poems praising the dictator who was hanged on December 30, 2006 in Iraq after a court sentenced him to death for his role in the slaughter of tens of thousands of ethnic Kurds in 1988.

After a sketch parodying Saddam's trial by an Iraqi court, the demonstrators burned Israeli and American flags.

Saddam remains popular among Palestinians due in part to his payments of millions of dollars to the families of suicide bombers and anti-Israel fighters, as well as his missile attacks on Israel during the 1991 Gulf War.

...I have a patient in my medical practice, a very gentle and polite Muslim Egyptian. We became friendly over the years, and he brought in his wife as a new patient. She was a Coptic Christian from a well-to-do family. She had a "liberal" upbringing and she even attended university in Cairo. Before moving to the US, she lived in Gaza and visited Tel-Aviv many times. She told me about her relatives living in London, South America, and the US. She seemed to come from a truly modern, cosmopolitan family. She had a nephew, also a Christian, who moved to Gaza. I asked her if her nephew felt intimidated by the Hamas government in Gaza. She answered that there are only 5,000 Christians in Gaza today, and they have all learned to keep a low profile. When I asked her why her nephew stayed in Gaza despite discrimination against Christians, she replied that he wanted to "fight the Zionists." I asked her why Gazans were still fighting after the Israelis had already left Gaza? She replied that Gazans are defending themselves from the Zionists, who threaten to "shoot every Arab and throw them into the sea!" I told her this is utter nonsense. I reminded her that this quote came from Egyptian president Gamal Nasser in 1967, and originally referred to Arab intentions toward the Jews. I then asked her why the good people of Gaza don't stop the few radical terrorists in their midst from firing rockets into Sderot? She replied that everyone in Gaza supports the rocket attacks. "Why?" I asked incredulously, to which she replied that it was a part of the struggle against the "Zionist occupation." I reminded her that Sderot was over a mile from the border of Gaza and well within the 1949 Armistice Lines that defined the State of Israel until the 1967 War. I also pointed out that Sderot has no military bases, and that the rockets are hurting innocent civilians. She replied melodramatically: "When the people of Gaza look out across the border to Sderot, they see their former homes. They yearn for their land! They just want their homes back!" Her impassioned pleas were worthy of an Oscar®. But this critic doesn't buy such nonsense. Gaza residents would need super-human vision to see their homes from over a mile away, past security barriers and walls. More importantly, if they wanted their homes back so badly, then why are they destroying them with rockets and mortars? Perhaps I was taking her too literally. English is her second language, after all. Perhaps she was speaking metaphorically. So I re-stated the question: "If, for the sake of argument, Sderot was built on the site of a previous Arab village, why then should innocent people living in Sderot today have to suffer for a 60 year old battle they had nothing to do with? If an Arab really had proof of ownership of any land in Israel, then I am certain there are dozens of Israeli lawyers willing to represent them in front of the Israeli Supreme Court. These disputes can be resolved without a single rocket fired." She completely ignored my appeal to judicial conflict resolution, and repeated the hackneyed phrase that "Palestinians are desperate! They have nothing left to loose!" She was clearly unwilling to address the moral implications of terrorism. From her perspective, the displacement of Arabs 60 years ago was a crime that deserves eternal worldwide media attention, and justifies bloody vigilante retribution against innocent bystanders today. In stark contrast, the present-day suffering, displacement, and deaths of completely innocent Israeli civilians is not criminal, and barely deserves acknowledgment in any media reports. If hers was the voice of liberal, educated, and affluent Arabs, then I, too, have felt the breath of the beast.

I eventually told her that I was born in Tel-Aviv, that my father was Ben-Gurion's bodyguard, and that I strongly support preserving Israel as a Jewish state. She was immediately embarrassed for having spoken so ill of Israelis. She realized I had caught her in the act of spreading false propaganda. I had exposed her anti-Semitism. When her husband returned to see me, he brought a box of halvah as a present, and he apologized, not for anything she said specifically, but for her "getting carried away." They both still see me, and they even referred their children as patients. The lesson I learned is that political correctness is not the answer to conflict resolution. Political correctness creates a false veneer of civility that hides deep seated hatred. If the source of the hatred is never addressed, it will never be resolved, especially if the source is misinformation...