August 2008 Archives

That night the Jewish quarter was put to the torch, and burned from one end to the other, a huge conflagration consuming everything that had survived the other fires. I photographed the holocaust from the school rooftop. The unburied bodies under rubble and those buried since the Mandate's end were cremated once again. Homes and hospitals and synagogues and shops were burned to their foundations. And the city wherein Jews had lived almost continuously for some 3,500 years was destroyed as never before -- a job more thorough than when Titus leveled it, for the old-fashioned Roman general had no dynamite, and neither guns nor shells with the markings of His Majesty's Army.

The Exodus was over, the graveyard sealed. The Jew had no reason, now, to return to the holy site of his antecedents. It was as Allah -- and the British Foreign Office -- wished matters to be...

...THE next day King Abdullah of Jordan, conquerer and new master of the Old City, arrived. He visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I waited outside. He emerged -- a neat, graying man of sixty-six, with a short, trimmed beard, deep-set eyes and thick brows. He was dressed in a suit of army khaki, which was probably borrowed, for it fitted him badly, his shirt cuffs coming down to his fingertips. Anxious to get his picture, I called out:

"Will Your Majesty please stand still for a moment?"

While the king didn't know English, he understood, and obligingly posed for a rare photo that I took as he stood in front of the Holy Sepulchre surrounded by churchmen of the Latin, Greek, Armenian, Coptic, and Syrian churches.

At that precise moment, I heard a rumble, then another, louder. I had a hunch where it was coming from. I rushed to the roof of the Armenian school. The sun shone radiantly everywhere except on the Jewish quarter. Over it hung motionless a pall of ghastly purplish-gray haze, with fires still raging here and there, and black smoke spiraling through. Only one wall remained standing of the huge sextagonal Hurvath Synagogue Beth Jacob, a landmark of the Old City, whose foundation dated from about the twelfth century. I saw the wall dimly through the dust put that enveloped the area. And now the seventh dynamite charge went off, and the last wall of the ancient structure joined the others in the huge burial mound that was now the Jewish quarter. The great Nissim Back Synagogue had been destroyed earlier. The underground synagogue of Yohannan ben Zakkai (reputedly standing for two thousand years), and twenty-six other synagogues, were buried under the rubble...

...Accompanied by an English-speaking Legionnaire, I began my tramp through the desolation. A horde of looters, including numerous children, shuttled in and out of the Miscab Ladach Hospital carting booty on their heads, or loading it on donkey and homemade wagons...The ultra-orthodox Moslem women gathered the loot with their black veils religiously drawn over their features. Legion soldiers were everywhere -- not to prevent looting but to preserve law and order among the wild beggars and thieves of the Holy CIty.

Climbing over the mountains of stones, I looked upon the pitiful sight that was once the glory of the Hurvath Synagogue. A particularly thorough job of demolition had been done here. On one wall, left partially standing, was a plaque with the Ten Commandments. Only this remained to warn a reckless world and an impotent UN of the words of the Law: "Thou shalt not kill; Thou shalt not steal; Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain..." Sheets of the holy scrolls were strewn all over the rubble. I rescued a small roll of parchment, burnt and discolored from heat, and tucked it inside my shirt.

"I will take it to America as a souvenir of the great Arab victory," I said to my soldier companion.

I found a scorched circular that somehow had escaped the fire. I read in English:

The Grand Synagogue "Beth Jacob" in Hurvath Rabbi Yehuda Hachassid at Jerusalem Jewry, of great historical significance, where all official, religious and national festivals and ceremonies are celebrated..."

It is an ancient and generally accepted tradition for the Jewish tourist, visiting Jerusalem, to attend, at least once, the Services conducted in this Synagogue either on a Sabbath or on a holiday...

For the sake of Jewish Jerusalem, we respectfully request all Jewish tourists coming to our City to pay honour to this House of God, to visit it and worship therein on Sabbaths and Holidays and to please offer their mnaterial contributions for its maintenance and to thus enable its further existence.

May all donors be blessed with Zion's blessings.

Israel last Saturday permitted two boats of protesters to land on the shores of Gaza. This disappointed the more aggressive agitators in the party, as they hankered for a confrontation with the Israeli navy that never came. Yvonne Ridley, on board making a documentary for an Iranian state-funded broadcaster, must have been particularly frustrated.

Having thoroughly assessed the security risks, Israel granted the ships safe passage. The protesters came ashore with enough hot air to fill the 5,000 balloons they'd brought for the children of Gaza. They also delivered 200 hearing aids. Yet their silence regarding Hamas's abuse of its own people, let alone Israeli civilians, has been deafening.

Ironically, while the protesters tub-thumped their way to Gaza, just three weeks earlier, scores of Palestinians were at the Israeli border, fleeing for their lives. Eleven Palestinians died and more than a hundred were injured in fierce fighting between Hamas and its Fatah rivals. Facing slaughter by Hamas forces, nearly 200 Fatah members fled to Israel for refuge. Bilal Hilles, one of the wounded, described his fear at the prospect of returning to Hamas rule. "It would be like a death sentence for me," he told the Jerusalem Post.

Hamas's enslavement of Gaza continues, as does the silent complicity of the protesters.

Observers should be wary. The portrayal of Israel as pantomime villain and as sole cause of conflict in the Middle East is jeopardising the search for real solutions to complex problems. Sections of liberal society risk sleepwalking into the service of those who represent the antithesis of liberal values, namely Iran, Hizbullah and Hamas...

Let us hope that the Republicans avoid the teary-eyed, drippy stories that almost all these Democratic speakers insist on inflicting on us: in this Oprah world, one would think that there is mass starvation, depression, and general mayhem. In every introduction, we hear that the speaker to come was poor, deprived, and a multifaceted victim. Not since reading the Attic Orators has one heard how horrible life has been to such heroic figures, who nonetheless somehow ended up in such a cruel country with big salaries, enormous homes, and influential jobs.

On Satellite Radio's Potus station, they are playing clips of conventions long past, and one simply does not hear a Truman, Stevenson, or Eisenhower indulging us with tales of their own brushes with cruelty, illness, death, poverty, etc. and how only their own character allowed them to survive their absolutely singular experiences.

Eloquent Distortions

Did Clinton in his speech tonight really think that Reagan ending the Cold War was part of a 25-year long foreign-policy catastrophe, while his own record of doing nothing much about the World Trade Center bombing, Khobar Towers, the attacks on East African embassies, and the USS Cole in bin Laden's serial path to September 11 was inspired leadership?

I don't recall Clinton signing a Kyoto Treaty, or giving $15 billion for AIDs relief in Africa, or passing universal health care, or going to the UN or Congress to bomb Serbia, so why attack Bush on such similar topics?...

John,

In support to your link this may be a long but also an interesting reading:

http://www.davidduke.com/general/humanitarian-disaster_595.html

No comment necessary. The facts are speaking for themselves.

Jenna

JENNA DELICH

Following are excerpts from a TV report on female Palestinian suicide bombers, which aired on Al-Jadid/New TV on August 19, 2008.

Reporter: "This elderly Palestinian woman, named Fatima Al-Najjar, led women's demonstrations at the entrance to the town of Beit Hanoun in the winter of 2006, calling upon the occupation to leave her town and stop the killing and destruction. But despite her advanced age, she decided to take a different path."

Fatima Al-Najjar: "I sacrifice myself for the sake of Allah, the homeland, and Al-Aqsa. I ask Allah to accept my sacrifice."

Reporter: "Fatima Al-Najjar blew herself up near several soldiers of the occupation, thus joining the many Palestinian women before her who chose martyrdom over a life of humiliation - Ayat Al-Akhras, Hanadi Jaradat, and Rim Al-Riyashi, who left her two children behind and decided to blow herself up at the Beit Hanoun crossing in northern Gaza. She left her two children an unforgettable lesson on the struggle...

Reporter: "This young woman, who calls herself 'Lover of Al-Quds,' has set out more than once on combat operations, some of which were successful and others not. But she is determined to continue."

"Lover of Al-Quds": "This is the belt we wear around our waists, so that we can detonate ourselves at the push of a button. This is a safety button, and so is this. We won't explode unless we press this button. When God instills the will in our hearts... Our strength lies not in the body, but in the heart. If the heart so desires and we are inspired by God to set out... Every female martyrdom-seeker is inspired by Allah."...

That the New City was still in Israeli hands was due to default by the Arabs, no less than the prowess of the Jews; and to what I firmly believe was divine intervention on scores of occasions. If the Arabs had seized the initiative from the first day and captured the strategic buildings, the outcome would have been far different. The British contributed to the Arab fiasco. They thought that the Legion, boasting British generalship and superior armor, would not only overrun the New City, but push onward to link up with other Arab forces in a giant pincer movement aimed at Tel Aviv, ultimately pushing Israel into the sea. The determined resistance of the Kfar Etzion kibbutzim (controlling the road over which Egypt planned to bring reinforcements) was the first factor to upset the Arab timetable; then Jewish initiative and the unexpected stand of Jerusalem, as well as Israeli successes elsewhere, frustrated the Arab plan -- as well as British intentions of re-entering Palestine via the back door on the heels of the Arab Legion. Mainly, however, the plan boomeranged because both Arab and British wholly underestimated the fighting prowess of what I've called the "new" Jew fighting for his homeland with back to the wall.

There certainly were enough Arabs -- hundreds of Arab Legion soldiers milling around in British khaki and khaffiyas. They were uniformly young and looked like a genuine fighting army. They were all heavily armed, and ammunition was being brought up constantly in boxes with English markings. There was shortage of neither of men nor armaments.

I got permission from a junior officer to visit the defenses on Zion Gate. One of the massive portals hung crazily from one set of hinges, the other was blown off. The passageway, about twenty feet wide and thirty feet high, was now packed tight with barbed wire, rails, and rocks. Above it the walls were manned heavily by Legion troops. Here, also, I found a concentration of several dozen British deserters, fighting with the Arabs. Immediately beside the Gate three heavy British armored cars lay in waiting for the Palmach. The Jews would certainly get a scorching reception if they tried another breakthrough.

I walked back to the monastery grounds, to the School of the Holy Translators...Sitting in a classroom chair behind a desk was the commander of the Zion Gate Front, Captain Mahmoud Bey Mousa, soft spoken and scholarly-looking, swathed in layers of an oversized kaffiya that covered his face except for eye and mouth...

...He was sitting literally on the proverbial keg of gunpowder, for stacked behind and all around him, under his bed near by, and all the way to the farther end of the basement, which was being used as an emergency hospital, were cases upon cases of ammunition with the usual markings of His Majesty's Army. I squeezed my bag between cases of ammunition under his bed, and then went to the top floor of the school to take photographs of the Jewish quarter. They were to prove of historic value, for less than forty-eight hours later the ghetto was reduced to ruin and rubble.

...The focus of my attention naturally turned to Al Jazeera because, with its outreach of 50 million to 100 million viewers from Morocco to the Persian Gulf, this pan-Arab satellite channel is considered the conscience and future of the Arab world.

A chill went down my spine when British-accented announcers, who introduced Al Jazeera's English channel correspondent Rula Amin, translated the wisdom of Kuntar's words from the original Arabic. Imagine a voice cast in a perfect Oxford accent articulating in unmistaken empathy: "He has returned to a hero's welcome . . . After 29 years in [an] Israeli prison, Samir Kuntar spent his first day of freedom vowing to continue to fight against Israel. He says he hopes to see the enemy again very soon."

Then came Kuntar's birthday party, initiated by Al Jazeera's bureau in Beirut and aired on Al Jazeera TV July 19 (translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute). There was orchestral music, a huge birthday cake and infinite admiration by the Al Jazeera bureau chief announcing: "Brother Samir, we would like to celebrate your birthday with you. You deserve even more than this . . . Happy birthday, brother Samir."

How amateurish was the Coliseum in Rome compared with modern-day satellite rituals of death and brutality. Imagine millions of living rooms watching their new role model, child-killer Kuntar, lowering a huge butcher knife onto his birthday cake to the sound of fireworks and male chorus: "This is the sword of the Arabs, Samir."...

...When Mrs. Valladares was allowed to leave Cuba in 1972 with her father -- who had also been a political prisoner -- and began an international effort to bring attention to the Cuban prisoners, the brutality of the regime was already well established. But as she found out, the facts weren't much help. "It was very difficult," she tells me, slowly and deliberately with more than a touch of sadness.

As an example, she describes her encounter with Seán MacBride, who was the former Amnesty International Chairman, at a human-rights conference in Venezuela in 1977. "He was very nice to me at first because he didn't realize who I was. But when I tried to speak about the Cuban prisoners of conscience, he began banging on the microphone and screaming, 'Don't translate that! Don't translate that!' The journalists covering the event asked me, 'Why is this man telling you to shut up?'"

The next day in the Venezuelan press there was a story titled "Human rights violated in a human-rights conference." That same year MacBride was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize given by the Soviet Union.

Mr. Valladares says that as amazing as it sounds, it took Amnesty International until 1978 to "discover" that there were political prisoners in Cuba. "Eighteen years after I was jailed! There were already thousands murdered, tortured, Boitel had already died."

Still AI has been downright progressive compared to some European governments. Mr. Valladares says that in 1988 the Spanish government of Felipe González was especially disingenuous, when its foreign minister told Mr. Valladares that Spain had no evidence of human-rights violations in Cuba. Only weeks later, he says, the Spanish embassy in Havana produced a report documenting the atrocities of the Cuban regime, but opted to bury it so as to give cover to Fidel.

When the report was leaked to the press, Mr. Valladares says he brought dozens of the Spanish newspapers to the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva and distributed them. "I told the Spanish ambassador, 'Congratulations, your report is very good. It is as good as the CIA report.'"

Mr. Valladares was giving the Spaniard a dig, but not without provocation. Both he and Mrs. Valladares say that over the years European government officials (Spain and Sweden to name but two) repeatedly acknowledged privately the regime's unacceptable brutality. But the same officials also said that to come out against it publicly would be to admit that the U.S. was right about Castro. And nobody wanted to do that...

1. Over 100 million refugees have been created by wars since the end of WW2.

2. 79 million refugees were created during 1933-1945.

3. 15 Million Hindus, Sikhs (8.5MN) and Muslims (6.5MN) were displaced, in 1947, in order to reshape British India into India and Pakistan.

4. A Greek-Turk population exchange of 2 million refugees was codified by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, following the 1919-22 Greco-Turkish War.

5. Millions became refugees in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia - as a result of ruthless regimes - following US withdrawal.

6. A population transfer of millions occurred among USSR and Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania, Greece-Bulgaria, Denmark-Germany, etc.

7. 300,000 Palestinians were expelled from Kuwait, due to PLO's collaboration with the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

8. 800,000 Yemenites were expelled from Saudi Arabia, due to Yemen's support of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

9. Over 500,000 Christians fled Lebanon as a result of a series of civil war ignited by PLO and Syrian occupation.

10. 10,000 PLO members were killed and thousands of Palestinians expelled from Jordan, due to PLO terrorism and attempts to topple the Hashemite regime.

11. The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) handles all refugees, except Israeli-related Palestinians...

12. UNRWA - the largest UN agency (25,000 employees) - handles only Israel-related Palestinian refugees.

13. Unlike global refugees, Palestinian refugees are defined as any Arab who was in Palestine two years before the 1948/9 War...

14. Unlike UNHCR, UNRWA covers all descendants, without generational limitation.

15. Unlike UNHCR, UNRWA perpetuates - and does not resettle - Palestinian refugees. While UNHCR is rewarded for sharply reducing the number of global refugees, UNRWA has been rewarded for perpetuating the status - and significantly inflating the number - of Israel-related Palestinian refugees.

16. In contrast with the mega-million myth, the total number of 1948/9 Palestinian refugees was 320,000. 800,000 Arabs resided within the "Green Line" before the 1948/9 War. 170,000 Arabs remained in Israel following the war. An additional 100,000 were absorbed by Israel. Moreover, 100,000 middle and upper class Arabs were absorbed by neighboring Arab states. Also, 50,000 migrant laborers returned to their states. 50,000 Bedouins joined Jordan and Sinai tribes. 10,000-15,000 were war fatalities. Total refugees = 320,000.

17. 820,000 Jews were expelled from Arab countries, following the establishment of the Jewish State. 600,000 were absorbed by Israel and the rest resettled in other non-Arab countries.

For further data, please read "The Claim of Dispossession" by Arieh Avneri, Herzl Press, NY, 1980 and "From Time Immemorial" by Joan Peters, Harper & Row, NY, 1984.

Parliament members call on President Ahmadinejad to deal 'with severity' with his deputy who was quoted as saying Iranians are 'friends of all people in the world -- even Israelis'

More than 200 Iranian parliament members slammed Vice President Esfandiar Rahim Mashai for stating that Iranians are 'friends of all people in the world -- even Israelis.'

In a condemnation statement issued by the parliament members, they called on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to "deal with his deputy with severity" - in other words, to ensure that he is dismissed.

"Mr. Mashai has no right to make such shameful remarks, and is not at the position to take such responsibility," the statement said. "It appears that Mr. Mashai is unaware of the fact that those who he refers to as a people are the ones occupying the homes of millions of Palestinians."

The statement noted that "these people created the illegitimate Zionist regime. We do not recognize a country called Israel, let alone its people."...

...Speaking at a conference in Iran about a month ago, he deviated from the Tehran regime's official stance against Israel, saying that "no nation in the world is our enemy. Iran today is the friend of the people in the United States and in Israel."...

...Meanwhile, the Iranian president continued to give an example to his people by stating Wednesday that Western countries must stop supporting Israel and that "the life of the regime there has come to an end."...

The world should know that the Zionist regime is plundering and illegitimate. Its existence does not serve the interests of humanity. It is harmful to everybody. The plundering Zionist entity is close to its end. In my view, this regime is dead, and they are only postponing its funeral, while others believe that it is only in the process of dying. In any case, the era of the so-called Zionist entity has come to an end.

ON MAY 27th, 1942, the Deputy Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia, Reinhard Heydrich, was assassinated by the Czech underground as he drove to his office in Prague, writes SEÁN GANNON.

In an effort "to make up for his death", the SS rounded up the residents of the nearby village of Lidice. Some 200 men were immediately executed. The women were sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp where most subsequently died;80 per cent of their children were gassed at Chelmno in July.

Two years later, a partisan bomb killed 33 members of an SS police battalion as it marched through central Rome. In reprisal, the city's Gestapo chief, Herbert Kappler, ordered that 10 Italians be executed for every dead German. The following day, 335 people were taken down to the Ardeatine Caves and shot in the back of the neck.

Such were the type of atrocities that the framers of the Fourth Geneva Convention had in mind when they outlawed "collective punishment" in 1949. Article 33's stipulation that no person "be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed" refers to the active imposition of criminal penalties in reprisal for another party's guilt.

Therefore, its constant invocation by critics of Israel in the context of its lockdown of Gaza represents little more than a cynical exploitation of the language of international law, part of a well-established strategy which seeks to de-legitimise Israeli security detail by defining it in terms of policies properly opposed by all right-thinking people...

This month we are very happy to be sending you another exciting invitation!

As part of our series of calls to support the continuing development of grassroots activism, we are pleased to announce that former US Representative and current Green Party Presidential Candidate, the very courageous Cynthia McKinney will join us, Thursday evening, August 14, 9pmEastern/6pmPacific.

CALL-IN DETAILS:
Phone number: 712-432-1001 Access Code: 433027266#
Thursday, August 14, 2008 -- 9pm Eastern / 6pm Pacific

A panel made up of Carol Brouillet of Northern California 911Truth Alliance and CommunityCurrency.org, and Green Party candidate for US Congressional Rep, California 14th District;

Bruno Bruhwiler of WeAreChange-LA;

Jason King of Boston911Truth.org and 911Truth.org; and moderator Paul Deslauriers, Berkshire911truth.org and Grassroots Coordinator for 911Truth.org will ask questions submitted by our grassroots organizers, of interest to every American who wants to reclaim our government.

You are invited to listen in via phone (details below) or internet live at NoLiesRadio.org. After the call we'll post the audio, with a list of the questions and links to more information, as well as a full transcript as soon as possible, at 911truth.org.

Please forward this invitation to all of your contacts. (If you were forwarded this email and would like to sign up for occasional newsletters from 911truth.org, please do so here.)

If you value these kinds of supportive projects organized and offered by 911truth.org, please donate now to keep them coming...

...HonestReporting has highlighted how some mainstream media, including The New York Times, Washington Post and LA Times, have published op-eds by Hamas leaders. We asked the question as to whether these newspapers could be guilty of providing material support for a terrorist organization.

We also stated that American newspapers would not give Osama bin Laden op-ed space. So why would they give the oxygen of publicity to a Hamas terrorist whose organization is responsible for the murder of US citizens in Israel and whose charter calls for Israel's destruction and is filled with unadulterated anti-Semitism?

One counter-argument raised by those seeking to excuse this behavior is to attempt to separate Hamas's "political wing" from its "military wing", portraying Hamas as the "legitimate and democratically elected Palestinian government".

Irrespective of this, Hamas in its entirety is a proscribed terrorist group under UK terror legislation as well as a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization according to the US State Department.

The Guardian's online "Israel and the Palestinians" section, however, includes the "Hamas military wing" (circled) as one of a list of "Useful links". There is no grey area here - this website links directly to an English language site of "Ezedeen Al-Qassam Brigades", which describes itself as "the armed branch of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas)."

While some Hamas leaders may dubiously claim to be mere politicians (directing and inciting terror from above), the members of the Brigades are actively involved in terrorist acts and some have the blood of innocent Israeli civilians on their hands...

...His veiled messages were painted at a time when the Talmud and other Jewish sacred texts were being burned all over Europe, the Inquisition was operating at full strength and the Jewish people had just been expelled from Spain in 1492. Michelangelo had the courage to challenge the papal court, asking via the symbols of his painting, "Is this how you treat the very family of Our Lord?"

Michelangelo's contempt for the Church's treatment of Jews went further to insult the pope himself via an almost imperceptible gesture of Aminadab. Almost hidden in shadow, this surrogate for Jesus is subtly making "devil's horns" with his fingers, which point downward toward the very spot where Pope Julius' richly embroidered ceremonial canopy would have been, over the papal throne.

In somewhat similar manner, in another fresco placed over the original chapel portal through which Pope Julius entered, Michelangelo depicts the prophet Zechariah with the pope's own face. Over his shoulder one can see a little angel with his fingers curled in a way to make an obscene gesture known in Italy as "giving the fig."...

The Obama campaign's conference call yesterday on Republicans who back the presidential bid of the Democrat from Illinois showcased quite a crew. There was Rita Hauser, the PLO apologist whose law firm, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, racked up millions of dollars in legal fees over the years as a registered foreign agent of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority. Ms. Hauser met with Mr. Arafat as early as 1988, when America still considered him a terrorist and refused even to allow him access to the United Nations headquarters in New York. Though the meeting may have had the tacit approval of the State Department, Israel publicly objected at the time, though it too chose eventually to treat with Arafat.

Ms. Hauser helped fund the Edward Said chair at Columbia for Mr. Obama's pal Rashid Khalidi. "I made a contribution," Ms. Hauser told us back in 2003, describing the chair's namesake, Professor Edward Said, as "a friend of mine. I admire him." Ms. Hauser said she was happy with Mr. Khalidi's selection as a teacher there. "I like him very much. He's a splendid guy, a Palestinian intellectual, a first-class choice, and I think everybody's pleased," she said of the professor whose errors The Sun exposed in its August 5, 2004, editorial, "What the UAE Bought."

Mr. Obama also is boasting of Lincoln Chafee, who, as a senator representing Rhode Island, was responsible for blocking Secretary Bolton from being confirmed as the American ambassador at the United Nations on the grounds that the Bush administration had been too pro-Israel. He was one of two Republicans to vote against repeal of the estate tax, even though he gained his Senate seat in 1999 by being appointed to fill the remainder of his father's term. He voted against confirming Justice Alito. He was one of only three Republicans in 2006 who voted against an extension of the Bush tax cuts on dividends and capital gains.

Back in 2006, a New York Sun article quoted a longtime pro-Israel activist in Washington, Morris Amitay, as saying Mr. Chafee "has one of the worst records of anyone in the Senate, definitely in the bottom 10% of class as far as pro-Israel initiatives are concerned." The Sun article noted that in 2003, Mr. Chafee was one of only four senators to vote against the Syria Accountability Act, a sanctions measure. In 2002, Mr. Chafee was the only Republican senator to vote against giving President Bush the authority to take military action in Iraq. According to at least one press report, Mr. Chafee left the Republican party in 2007 after losing his 2006 campaign for re-election.

The third "Republican for Obama" after Ms. Hauser and Mr. Chafee -- and the only other one who participated in the call -- was a former congressman from Iowa, James Leach. Mr. Leach took to the House floor in 2004 to deliver a speech titled "The Case for Restraint in Iran," warning against American or Israeli attacks on the mullahs's nuclear facilities. "It is hard to believe that outside military intervention would lead to anything except greater ensconcement of authoritarian mullah rule," Mr. Leach said, calling instead for America to agree to a comprehensive nuclear test ban. In 2006, when the House voted 397 to 21 to pass the Iran Freedom Support Act that toughened sanctions on Tehran, Mr. Leach was one of the 21 congressmen who opposed it...

...We are now in Cyprus awaiting our boats' arrival from Crete. When they come in, we will fuel up (with very high-cost diesel) and stock necessary food and supplies. We hope to cast off for Gaza this weekend. We are told that hundreds of thousands of Gazans will greet us on arrival.

Many people thought we'd never come this far. But here we are and we firmly intend to set sail regardless of some recent staggering debts. Frankly, we have spent much more than we raised; here are just a few of our recent expenses:

•Two Sailor 250 FleetBroadband systems to allow us to stay in electronic contact and to send streaming video in real time, $16,000 each, or $32,000;
•Repairs required to make the boats seaworthy, $25,000-$30,000;
•Electronics, wiring, connections, satellite uplinks, SPOT Trackers to make the system work, $5000-$8000. (Most of the labor on the electronics and boats has been donated by the Greek crew and technicians.)
•Forty-four life jackets and two hand-held GPS units, $8000;
•Paint & banners for the boats, and balloons & toys for Gaza children, $2000
•Diesel fuel for both boats, both ways, $15,000 to $25,000.

Except for part of the diesel fuel, we have already paid these costs by running our personal credit cards to the limit, borrowing money, and asking some of the Greek crew to help. Frankly, we're tapped out...

We who are waiting in Cyprus are packing up our stuff in readiness for joining our fellow passengers already aboard. We expect the boats to receive a rousing welcome when they arrive here, and we will sail from here toward Gaza with an enthusiastic sendoff from press and well-wishers. After completing the ceremony of throwing 34 long stemmed red roses into the sea in memory of those American sailors who were murdered aboard the other LIBERTY, we will be escorted from the harbor by the local Coast Guard.

Ken O'Keefe, one of the several captains to skipper the SS liberty and SS Free Gaza, reckons that conditions in the Mediterranean would prove too risky to set sail from Crete for Cyprus until later in the week.

"Safety comes first," he said in his coffee smooth, American accent.

The irony was not lost on several of us who fully expect to be facing down Israeli gunships very soon.

I was absolutely crestfallen and being told to swab the decks, clean the heads (toilets) and empty the rubbish bags did nothing to lift my spirits this morning.

After carrying out my chores along with everyone else, I decided to have a word with Captain Ken and he turned out to be just as amazing as many of the passengers.

He is a striking man with an amazing array of politically inspired tattoos. He also insists he is an Irishman with a passport from the Emerald Isle to prove it.

However, I can reveal he was actually born a US citizen and periodically burns his American passport to symbolically disown his country of origin.

The good captain describes himself as a citizen of the world and has no time for such a war-mongering, imperialistic entity as the United States, hence the change of nationality - lucky man has an Irish granny...

Sheikh Muhammad Al-Munajid is a well-known Saudi Islamic lecturer and author. He frequently appears on Saudi TV channels and is known for issuing controversial fatwas. He previously worked in Washington, D.C. at the Saudi Embassy Islamic Affairs Department but was stripped of his diplomatic credentials.

In an August 10, 2008 interview with Al-Majd TV, Al-Munajid was highly critical of the Beijing Olympics, which he called the "bikini Olympics," referring to them as "satanic."...

A truckful of Portzim [stormers -- a unit of the Palmach] drove by the Pantiles, and from my rooftop I was able to get a good look at these amazing fellows. They were a rough-and-tumble bunch, uniformly young, averaging about nineteen years, grimy and disheveled, as though they had just come from a free-for-all campus tussle. They were dressed in half a dozen shades of khaki, in American and British uniforms, fatigue clothing, camouflage suits, overalls. Some wore helmets, others knitted stocking-caps. A short time ago they had been carrying books to school.

Fighting with the precision of a well-coached eleven, in small, well-drilled teams, they usually attacked at night for two reasons; first, to hide their small numbers; second, to add the element of surprise to that of terror. Frequently they added the illusion of greater strength by noise-making devices, one of which -- I saw the instrument -- simulated a rapid-firing machine-gun. By such ruses as these, adroit diversionary tactics, superb cunning born of necessity, extraordinary proficiency in the use of small arms, and a brand of courage rarely paralleled, the Palmach and its supercommando Portzim became the terror of Arabs from Dan to Beersheba. They were a symbol of the "new" Jew.

Neither the Haganah nor the Palmach "happened" overnight. Groundwork for Haganah's role in the war for independence was laid in World War II, when more than 120,000 Jews -- men and women -- out of 400,000 then in Palestine registered for service with the Allies⁴ [⁴Contrast this performance with that of about 9,000 Arabs (outside the Arab Legion) who at first enlisted with the British, but most of whom later deserted at the behest of the Mufti.] About 26,000 actually served as commandos, parachutists, intelligence agents, and in numerous other capacities. Especially trained Haganah units performed dangerous missions for the Allies behind the enemy lines. Hundreds received priceless training at British hands.⁵ [⁵The identical opportunity was open to all Arabs. The Mufti, however, was engaged in extensive Nazi propaganda and sabotage, and warned Arab youth against any aid to the Allied cause...] A typical instance was that of Moshe Dayan, who in 1939 was jailed for engaging in secret scouting work. He was released in order to fight for the Allies, and lost an eye on a mission to Syria. Later, as Colonel Dayan, he served as commander of the Israel army in Jerusalem.

The Portzim paused in front of the Pantiles for another truck to catch up. Like fighting gamecocks they now crowed in the song of victory -- Song of the Barricades:

On the barricades we will meet at the last
And lift freedom on high from the chains of the past;
Rifle on rifle our guns will salute
Bullet on bullet our guns will shoot...

What I saw on the night of the breaching of Zion Gate convinced me that I had witnessed an entirely new and regenerated species of Jew. Israeli is perhaps the better word. Here in the ancient homeland, the fighting, colonizing, and civilizing instincts were blossoming in full. No longer bound to the chains that linked them to the humiliation of the yellow badge and to the torments they endured in the Middle Ages, the Jews of Jerusalem emerged into the greatness inherent in every man -- every Arab, every fellah, everyone conceived in His image -- whenever man is fully liberated from the shackles of tyranny. Men were made greater than themselves, as during the period of our own War of Independence.

* * *

The next night I saw the Portzim at a Menorah Society social. Here I saw them play as hard as they had fought. They danced jigs and horas for hours. Among the girls there were no wallflowers. They were self-possessed and mature at fifteen. This was the new Israeli generation -- marked by a radical conception of woman's role in society. No longer the retiring, submissive woman of the Middle East -- nor the enslaved, bullied, chattel Arab woman -- but an equal partner of the man, whether at the front, at home, or at play. In this sorely besieged city, amid the rain of death and bombs, it was thrilling to see the linking of the hand of man with that of woman. Here was a partnership that energized both, and gave to each the fighting faith and strength to level mountains and work miracles on their native soil.

...history is the best measure of one's accomplishments at the games, and in this case the former Olympian worth talking about is Sam Balter.

An All-American at UCLA in 1929, Balter was 26--of prime basketball age--when the United States sent its best athletes to Berlin for the Nazi Olympics. That year was 1936, and the Olympics were best remembered for the heroics of Jesse Owens, an African America who won four medals in Hitler's stadium. "On the sacred soil of the Fatherland, the master athlete humiliated the master race," ESPN later wrote. But Balter too did his part in shaming the man who shamed humanity...

...There was some publicity in the Boston papers about my roommate and me, Norman Cahners. There was a picture of us winning six gold medals in the Harvard-Yale track meet. Rabbi Levy was the head of the Temple Israel in Boston, a Reform temple, and he was well respected all over the United States. And he had seen the publicity and knew that we were potential Olympic candidates, and said he'd like to talk to us. I was confirmed at Temple Israel and naturally when they asked us to come -- asked me and Norman Cahners -- we agreed to come.

I didn't know what they were going to talk about, except something about the Olympics. They told us about the terrible things that were going on in Germany and the Nazi regime. And it was a shock to me and Norman. They suggested that it might be a good idea for us not to go to the Olympics because of all these problems, and to sort of register our objections and sort of boycotting the Olympics. And we were quite taken aback about that thought. They tried to explain to us that we would never regret it if we did take that action to boycott the Olympics. And that meeting really turned us around, because we were horrified at the terrible things that were going on in Germany. Both Cahners and I decided that we would boycott the Olympics. We just felt it was the right thing to do.

I spoke to the track coach at Harvard. We told him about our intention. He tried to persuade us not to do it. He said he didn't think it would do much good, and we should try to go to the final tryouts and try to make the team. But we didn't want to do that.

After we boycotted the Olympics, no one came to speak to us or ask us if we'd make any statements about it. And I don't think anyone knew particularly that we did boycott it.

I think back on making that decision and whether I would have won [laughs] silver or gold or some sort of a medal, and every time I go to the Olympics -- I've been to three of them -- I particularly watch the high hurdles and the long jump, and I picture myself [laughs] as maybe having won a medal in it.

...I don't think either issue explains most cases, but rather a interesting combination. Most intimidated journalists don't have the courage to tell their readers/viewers that they've been intimidated: otherwise, how could they lay claim to such titles as "the most trusted source in news"? But their cowardice extends beyond that silence. Most people -- and here, I think Enderin is a good example -- want very much to think well of themselves. So not only can they not admit their cowardice to their readers, they can't admit it to themselves.

That's where advocacy comes in. If you're "helping the little guy" then the compromises you make with the facts, with an honest assessment of what's going on, with the silences and the loud indignations -- all of which favor the people you're afraid of -- then you can think most highly of yourself, curry their favor, and present yourself, in all good conscience, as a crusader for truth and justice.

And of course, if at the same time, you can take some swipes at that irritatingly morally superior Jews, a couple of dollops of moral Schadenfreude, maybe even an occasional sadistic comparison with Nazis or Apartheid racists, then who's going to complain but a bunch of whiney Jews...

Scientists say they are a step closer to developing materials that could render people and objects invisible.

Researchers have demonstrated for the first time they were able to cloak three-dimensional objects using artificially engineered materials that redirect light around the objects. Previously, they only have been able to cloak very thin two-dimensional objects.

The findings, by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, led by Xiang Zhang, are to be released later this week in the journals Nature and Science.

The new work moves scientists a step closer to hiding people and objects from visible light, which could have broad applications, including military ones...

The International Olympic Committee has accepted the explanation of an Iranian swimmer who pulled out of an event that included an Israeli competitor.

Mohammad Alirezaei withdrew from the heats of the men's 100-meter breaststroke on Saturday just before he was due to compete against a field that included Israel's Tom Beeri. He cited illness as the reason.

Iran could have faced sanctions from the IOC if Alirezaei pulled out deliberately because an Israeli was also racing, but IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said Monday that no violation had been found.

"The athlete has withdrawn because of sickness," she said. "He confirmed this in writing to the swimming federation. We've also spoken with the national Olympic committee and they have underlined to us that all their athletes compete here in the right spirit against athletes from any nationality.

"We take both the athlete and the national Olympic committee at their word on this," she said...

A 50-year-old Muslim man, who allegedly made a blasphemous statement against Prophet Muhammad, was beaten to death in Kano on Saturday.

The man was killed at Sheka Aci Lafiya quarters when some angry Muslim youths besieged his house and beat him to a state of coma.

He died shortly after a team of police and Hisbah officials rescued him from the mob, the police said. The man died as he was being rushed to the Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital.

Witnesses told Daily Trust that the man, though a Muslim, made a statement residents considered as blasphemous against the Holy Prophet after his relatives denied him his share of the estate left by their deceased father.

He was beaten and left unconscious before the police intervened and dispersed the crowd...

As all-star comic-book team-ups go, this one beats the first meeting of Superman and Spider-Man. Three of the elder statesmen of comic books -- Neal Adams, Joe Kubert and Stan Lee -- have joined forces to combat what they see as a real-world injustice.

The men are lending their talents to tell the tale of Dina Gottliebova Babbitt, who survived two years at the Auschwitz concentration camp by painting watercolor portraits for the infamous Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele. Some of the artwork also survived, but it is in the possession of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland. Now 85 and living in California, Mrs. Babbitt wants the artwork back, but the museum has steadfastly refused to return it.

"I'm at a total loss," Mrs. Babbitt wrote in an e-mail message. "I feel just as helpless as I did when I was at camp. Totally disempowered."

Now Mrs. Babbitt's story has been captured in a six-page comic-book story illustrated by Mr. Adams, who helped take Batman back to his dark roots after the '60s television show made him seem campy; inked partly by Mr. Kubert, whose comics career stretches back to the 1940s and who has drawn everyone from Hawkman to Sergeant Rock; and featuring an introduction by Mr. Lee, a co-creator of the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and many other Marvel heroes.

The text was written by Rafael Medoff, director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, which has championed Mrs. Babbitt's cause...

NO ONE knows just how many Muslim girls and women are murdered each year in the name of family "honor," since their deaths frequently go unreported and unpunished. The cases that do come to light are ghastly. "Women and young girls are set ablaze, strangled, shot at, clubbed, stabbed, tortured, axed, or stoned to death," a United Nations report noted in 2004. "Their bodies are found mutilated with their throat slit, or they are chopped into pieces and thrown in a ditch."

The report singled out as especially horrifying the honor killing in Pakistan of "a 16-year-old girl who was reportedly electrocuted to death after being drugged with sleeping pills and being tied to a wooden bed with iron chains." Her offense: marrying a boy from the wrong community. Countless others have lost their lives for refusing an arranged marriage, wearing Western-style clothing, having a boyfriend, or even being raped...

...According to an anonymous tip I received this morning, Masood's brother Hamid (former imam of the Islamic Society of Greater Worcester) has been busy travelling from Pakistan to Dubai, where he purchased two luxury condos, one for himself and one for his brother Masood.

Can you even imagine how over-the-top a luxury condo in Dubai would be?? Wowee.

So did any of that money to buy condos in Dubai come from the Muslim American Society (MAS) fundraisers for Masood?...

The Hate Ship

The Hamas regime in Gaza decided recently to show the world what it knows what to do. Not that we did not know, but the timing was important. Let's remember how it all began. During the violent and brutal [takeover] of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Hamas hooligans forced their prisoners to lie down and massacred them. If someone raised his head they shot him again to make sure he was dead. Most of the leading television channels in the world did not screen these pictures. Wonder why. The sequel was in the same vein. Hamas turned out to be an exact copy of the Taliban. Women were forced, under threat, to wear the burka, more men are bearded. Christian institutions were attacked.

If there are still pockets of resistance, Hamas knows how to deal with them. The last wave of violence included gas treatment. Pipes were thrust into intimate parts of the body, and gas was pumped in through the pipes. Nine people were killed, some undoubtedly in cold blood. [Note: This refers to the recent fighting involving the Hilles Clan. The gas treatment was related by members of the clan and reported in the Hebrew press, but not elsewhere AFAIK. -S] It can be assumed that there were many more, but under the oppressive control of the Hamas, no one can know for sure. Massacre for its own sake -- for that is what Islamic extremism knows what to do. That is what happened in Algeria, where 100,000 people were slaughtered. That is what is happening in Darfur, where 400,000 people have already been killed. That is what is happening in Somalia, where the number of victims is unknown. That is what happened under the Taliban regime. Hamas is acting according to the same rules. That is what political Islam knows. That is what Hamas is doing.

This murderous regime is becoming the darling of the "forces of progress." The same people, from the same school of mind, who in the past supported Stalin, who murdered 20 million of his own people, Mao, who murdered 70 million of his people, the Khmer Rouge, and to a certain extent Khomeini, too (Michel Foucault for example) -- and also Saddam Hussein. And the parade goes on. The philosopher Zizek Slavoj, a rock star on many campuses, including in Israel, is a fervent supporter of revolutionary murderers, with sympathetic insights into radical Islam. And of course he loathes Israel.

The alliance between the forces of progress with mass murderers has now found another expression. They will not support the Palestinian side which is perceived as supporting reconciliation and agreement. They are with Hamas. They are partners on the ship of hatred which is due to set out from Cyprus for the Hamas kingdom in the Gaza Strip. Of course. So the regime of murder will not be confined only to the Gaza Strip. It has to be nurtured. Once again we have the link between the world Left and the kingdom of evil. They pump gas into the anus of human beings and representatives of the forces of progress respond with a ship that will come to help their regime.

If we were talking about the tiniest extremist fringe--it might not matter so much. But at a certain stage it was reported on a Palestinian website that the Jimmy Carter Center supports the ship which supports the murderous regime. The list of supporters of the hate regime also includes a holder of the Nobel Peace Prize, Mairead Corrigan-Maguire from Ireland. Desmond Tutu from South Africa, Clare Short, a former minister in the government of Tony Blair (in the past she accused Israel of being responsible for global warming), Attorney Lauren Booth, Blair's sister-in-law, and others. There is also a token Jew: Hedi Epstein, an 84 year-old Holocaust survivor. Her family perished. She herself left Germany in 1939. It is odd. She was saved from the gas chambers in order to support a regime which kills its own people by means of gas.

What exactly leads such people, who speak in the name of peace and human rights, to support one of the darkest regimes in the world? When it comes to the Palestinians -- not all of them of course -- it is clear that hatred of Israel is more important to them than concern for themselves. That seems to be the problem of most of the people on the ship as well. Their hatred of Israel is much more important than concern for peace and human rights. They prefer the pact with the devil, they will cooperate with the terror regime, because the main thing is hatred of Israel.

These apologists of fanatic regime, these members of the satanic cult, these hypocrites, are in no position to preach to anybody about peace and human rights.

Following are excerpts from a symposium featuring Syrian actor Bassam Al-Kossa and 'Uweid Al-Mash'an, head of the psychology department at the University of Kuwait. The symposium aired on Al-Jazeera TV on June 20, 2008.

...Bassam Al-Kossa: "The first thing [Western] societies did was to separate religion and state. This was the first thing. Why? Because even when the Church ruled Europe, it was, in fact, ruled by the Inquisition, and they would kill any innovative person, any scholar, and any doctor. So they separated religion and state...

"From the age of three or four, the killings of girls begin: 'Cover your knees.' 'Don't speak in a loud voice.' 'Bring your brother his food.' 'Get up, put this there.' 'Take this down.' All the while, the 'emperor' just sits there... 'This is disgraceful,' and 'that is prohibited'... Then comes her wedding day, and the mother demands that this oppressed and shackled girl be the epitome of womanhood, seduction, and temptation. You constantly make her fear men and society, yet on her wedding night, at the drop of a hat, she is supposed to be transformed into a seductive beauty queen, to understand the husband, cooperate with him, and so on. These are double standards. Like my colleague said, this is like a man who beats his son for lying, but when someone calls, he says to his son: 'Tell him I'm not home.'"...

...'Uweid Al-Mash'an: "We do not want a secular state. The Arab countries are not secular states. We have our religion and the shari'a, and we have values that we must preserve. Modernity is desirable. We all want modernity, but when it runs counter to our values, customs, and traditions, it must be rejected. Every person in this world lives according to the social values that he absorbs. We must reject the erasing of our identity."

Female panel member: "Nobody said that we are against..."

'Uweid Al-Mash'an: "Allow me... We must reject the erasing of our identity. We do not want our identity to be erased. We refuse to be subservient and do not want a secular state. Our religion has a constitution - the Islamic Shari'a...

A brain-dead Palestinian woman who suffered a stroke is being kept on life support at an Israeli hospital so doctors can deliver her unborn child, news24.com reported Thursday.

Doctors said it is too early to know if the unborn baby was affected by the stroke.

The woman, whose name is not being released, is in her sixth month of pregnancy at Barzilia Hospital in Asheklon, which is about 7 miles from the Gaza Strip.

The baby may have to remain in his mother's womb for next three months, said hospital spokeswoman Leah Malul.

The woman, said to be in her 30s, and her husband were at a café when she suffered the stroke. Since the nearest Gaza hospital was unable to treat her, she was transferred to Barzilia, and her husband requested that doctors keep her on life support...

Israel will hold Lebanon responsible for any attacks against Israel, in particular for any Hezbollah efforts to avenge the death of its military leader Imad Mughniyeh. This decision on Wednesday by the security cabinet represents a change in Israeli policy, after always firmly separating Hezbollah and the Lebanese government.

According to defense establishment recommendations adopted by the security cabinet, Israel will treat the Lebanese unity government, which is headed by Fouad Siniora and includes Hezbollah, as responsible for any event that takes place in its sovereign territory or events for which Lebanese nationals are responsible.

A senior Jerusalem source said if Hezbollah attacks Israel from inside Lebanese territory, shoots at Israel Air Force aircraft or carries out a terror attack abroad as revenge for the Mughniyeh assassination (which it attributes to Israel), then Israel will hold Lebanon responsible and respond appropriately. In the coming weeks, Israel plans to start transmitting this message to the United Nations, United States, Russia and European nations, and primarily to Syria and Hezbollah itself...

...Defense officials noted in the cabinet meeting that two developments supported a change in policy. The first is the fact Hezbollah is now a partner in a Lebanese unity government and holds veto rights. The second is that the guidelines of the new Lebanese government guidelines, approved by President Michel Suleiman, allow Hezbollah to continue its military activity against Israel...

...Where is the money that was supposedly spent on reforming the judicial system? Where is the international outrage as Palestinian leaders drag their own society further into the abyss?

When one of us [Bassem Eid] worked for Israel's Betselem cataloging Israel's human-rights violations, the international community embraced every report. But when intellectual honesty demanded that he monitor Palestinian human-rights violations according to the same standards, no one was interested. Those reports were dismissed as undermining the Palestinian leaders -- first Arafat and now Mr. Abbas -- who would make peace with Israel...

The monkeys and lions were drugged, tossed into cloth sacks and pulled through smuggling tunnels under the border between Egypt and the besieged Gaza Strip before ending up in their new homes in a dusty Gaza zoo.

Stocked almost entirely with smuggled animals, the zoo is a sign of the territory's ever-expanding tunnel industry. Gaza's commercial trade was literally forced underground after the Islamic militant Hamas seized the coastal territory last summer, prompting neighboring Israel and Egypt to restrict the flow of goods through commercial passages.

Smugglers say a new effort by Egypt to blow the passages up will have little effect, allowing the flow of products like cigarettes, weapons and lion cubs to continue unhindered.

After successfully defending a defamation case brought by one of France's premier television networks, Philippe Karsenty is going on the offensive.

Karsenty, who runs an online media watchdog organization, has launched two suits against some of France's most prominent news outlets, alleging they have libelled him by comparing him to a "nut case."

The first suit names Canal+, a pay TV company owned by Vivendi SA, and alleges the network aired a documentary "depicting me as a manipulative liar. They said I was the same as those who say 9/11 was an inside job."

The second suit charges L'Express, a weekly magazine, with running an article that described him as a"obsessive nut case and manipulative," Karsenty said.

"We defended against the al-Dura lie. Now it's time to go on the offensive and get the French media to pay the price for supporting an anti-Semitic lie," Karsenty said in a telephone interview from Paris.

Karsenty, a financial consultant who operates Media Ratings (www.m-r.fr), won a historic legal victory in May when a French court dismissed a charge of defamation against him. Karsenty had repeatedly asserted that France2, which has been dubbed "a flagship and establishment channel," aired a news report in September 2000 that was a hoax and an anti-Semitic lie...

SUNDAY morning was even more radiant than the Shabbat -- and even more frightful! The British Broadcasting Company had reported "restrained joyfulness" in Egypt. "This is like the Crusades all over again. Only this time the Arabs have gone out to save the Holy Land," it said. Cairo boasted: "This war will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongol massacres and the Crusades."

Tel Aviv had been bombed by Egyptian planes, and Egyptian and Arab Legion forces were marching upon both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, bound on their mission of "extermination and momentous massacre." The Jewish sector of the Old City, which had survived for centuries, had a night of terror as Arab gangs attacked its few hundred Haganah fighters, who defended some two thousand civilians, most of whom were elderly orthodox men and women who had refused to leave their homes.

We climbed to the roof. Cozy sandbag shelters had been erected and a canopy furnished shade for the half dozen young men and two Haganah girls -- both buxom, and pleasing to the eye. One was dressed in khaki trousers, the other in shorts. The latter who had just turned eighteen, was married to the dark, curly-haired leader of the group, a Jew from Poland. She showed the Auschwitz concentration camp number tatooed above her wrist. Her parents and her husband's parents, as well as most of their families, had been liquidated.

"With Europe we are finish. In Israel we begin new life."

Her husband spoke to her in Hebrew. She turned to me and said gayly: "Moshe wants you know he will be father in six months."

We all laughed. "Congratulations. I wish I could give you a gift. Wait. For you, Moshe, I have cigarettes. For the baby I will bring something later."

Morale here was high. Many couples in the Haganah fought side by side as friends, fiances, and not infrequently as man and wife. I guessed that roughly one out of twenty of the front-line fighters was a girl. The presence of women, sharing risks with the men, was one of the greatest morale-boosting factors in the Army of Israel, in contrast to the Arabs who did not even use women for desk work. Most of the girls were either native-born -- sabras -- or had been in Israel long enough to get over their European experiences and imbibe the invigorating spirit that the New Land bred. I asked the married girl about her companion, who seemed a few years older.

"She sharpshooter. Verry verry good sharpshooter soldier."

...On the whole, we led a comfortable life in Iraq in the 1960s. By that time the Iraqi Jewish community has dwindled to some 2,500 - 3,000 from the original 150,000. To survive in Iraq, we learned to keep ourselves to ourselves and stayed away from any contentious issues. Throughout the Sixties we tried to keep a semblance of normal life, even though there were many restrictions placed on us. For example, with the exception of a very limited period in 1963, Iraqi Jews were denied passports or an exit visa. Even then, any Iraqi Jew who stayed outside Iraq for more than three months automatically lost their nationality and the Iraqi government confiscated their assets. Since the 1950s, Iraqi Jews were issued with a special yellow identity card to prove that they have not lost their Iraqi nationality. I still have mine to-date...

...I remember that we went to bed on the night of the ruling not knowing what was going to happen and whether the death sentences would be carried out. Little did we realise what was in store for us, because the following day and early morning, the nine innocent Jews were hanged and their bodies put on public display in the main squares of Baghdad and Basra. The Iraqi TV and Radio called on the masses to come out and bring their children to witness the death of the Jewish spies. To this day, I have never forgotten the scenes that I watched on TV of ordinary Iraqis dancing, playing joyful music, having picnics and mutilating the bodies of nine innocents Jews...

...On Monday, a movement known as FreeGaza.org held a press conference in Nicosia which announced that a group of 40 people from all over the world would board two small boats to travel by sea to Gaza, to "break the siege" that Israel has placed upon Gaza.

The boats will probably leave on Friday, on the day designated by Hamas as "international Palestine solidarity day."

The press conference led with an opening statement by an Israeli American [Candian? -S] Jerusalem resident, Jeff Halper, who alleged that Israel was behaving in defiance of international law by closing shipping lanes to Gaza.

Mr. Monir Deeb, a native of Gaza who lives in Los Angeles, explained to the media that he was getting aboard these boats in order to reunite with his siblings in Gaza.

Mr. Deeb described Gaza as a "peaceful community under Israeli military siege" and said that this small convoy was meant to deliver a message to Israel to stop the siege of Gaza.

The Bulletin asked Mr. Deeb about tens of armed Gaza militias which have fired thousands of missiles over the past eight years against Israeli civilian communities that surround Gaza and that the Hamas government is using this period of a cease-fire to regroup and to train for the next attack on Israel.

Mr. Deeb said that he "could not relate to this question," since it was "political," and since his concern was "only humanitarian" in nature...

...Ms. Berlin reported that the operation to bring two boats into Gaza as fully independent of any unknown of foreign entities. Ms. Berlin mentioned that FreeGaza.org had already raised $210,000 of the total budget needed more than $300,000 for the boats.

However, on July 31, the Palestine Information Center issued a press release in which it stated that a member of the Lebanese Parliament had confirmed to Hamas leader Abu Marzook in Cairo that the boats had been provided by Palestinian popular committees by the Hamas. That would mean, in effect, that FreeGaza.org received two sources of support for its work - from American Jewish groups and from the Palestinian popular committees, which are run by Hamas.

Starting in 2002, Spokane, Wash., journalist Sherry Jones toiled weekends on a racy historical novel about Aisha, the young wife of the prophet Muhammad. Ms. Jones learned Arabic, studied scholarly works about Aisha's life, and came to admire her protagonist as a woman of courage. When Random House bought her novel last year in a $100,000, two-book deal, she was ecstatic. This past spring, she began plans for an eight-city book tour after the Aug. 12 publication date of "The Jewel of Medina" -- a tale of lust, love and intrigue in the prophet's harem.

It's not going to happen: In May, Random House abruptly called off publication of the book. The series of events that torpedoed this novel are a window into how quickly fear stunts intelligent discourse about the Muslim world.

Random House feared the book would become a new "Satanic Verses," the Salman Rushdie novel of 1988 that led to death threats, riots and the murder of the book's Japanese translator, among other horrors. In an interview about Ms. Jones's novel, Thomas Perry, deputy publisher at Random House Publishing Group, said that it "disturbs us that we feel we cannot publish it right now." He said that after sending out advance copies of the novel, the company received "from credible and unrelated sources, cautionary advice not only that the publication of this book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community, but also that it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment."

After consulting security experts and Islam scholars, Mr. Perry said the company decided "to postpone publication for the safety of the author, employees of Random House, booksellers and anyone else who would be involved in distribution and sale of the novel."

This saga upsets me as a Muslim -- and as a writer who believes that fiction can bring Islamic history to life in a uniquely captivating and humanizing way. "I'm devastated," Ms. Jones told me after the book got spiked, adding, "I wanted to honor Aisha and all the wives of Muhammad by giving voice to them, remarkable women whose crucial roles in the shaping of Islam have so often been ignored -- silenced -- by historians." Last month, Ms. Jones signed a termination agreement with Random House, so her literary agent could shop the book to other publishers...

...they took turns talking -- and talking. It was apparent that they were not going to let me speak any more. They had decided to take over my lecture.

The Palestinian was shouting something about how the Israelis kill five Palestinians a day. Some audience members had heard enough.

"Be quiet and let the author continue with his lecture; he has the right to give his lecture," said one audience member.

"He has no right to lecture if he is going to say things in support of Israel," said the Palestinian. His words cut me like a knife.

Then the Iraqi started in. Again someone pleaded with him to be quiet so I could lecture. Then came the words that still ring in my ears: "He's a f****** Jew."...

They took the boy to the operating room. For the next hour I looked for him in the crowded wards. Finally they brought him out. The color had left his face. His brown eyes were closed. He was whimpering, still under the anesthesia. They laid him on a bed that had been used, the sheeting soiled. (Two patients were often placed in one bed.) Gently the nurse rolled him over on his left side, and I saw that his arm was gone. In its place was a thick, round bandaged stump. He lay quietly on his side, consumed by fever and pain. I moved closer to take his picture, and I heard him cry softly: "Ima...Ima...Ima..." -- the plaintive cry of a boy for his mother. I took five photographs, and a strange thing happened with the, All came out blurred. It was I who had moved. I must have been too moved to hold still. Moved and angry. Angry is not the word. Enraged is more apt. Enraged that a boy of eleven should have to go through life without his right arm. What had he done? Whom had he hurt?

Above the groaning in the wards I heard another Arab shell land near by. It struck near St. Joseph's Convent, whose upper floors were later damaged by shells. I ascertained that the shelling came from a hilltop a quarter of a mile beyong the Garden of Gethsemane. The guns were British guns.² [²On my way to Jericho some time later, I drove past the Garden of Gethsemane, and saw these British guns firing from their emplacements on a promontory on the Mount of Offence.] The shells bore British markings. The hands firing the artillery were those of the Arab Legion -- British trained. The conception of terrorizing the New City with indiscriminate round-the-clock bombing was British-inspired. It was planned by Glubb Pasha, British commander of the Arab Legion. The beleaguered Jews were fighting not only the Arabs, but in effect, the English as well. Not Arab shrapnel, but actually an English-made, English-directed shell-splinter had smashed that boy's arm. The cruelty of it, and the unfairness of blaming only the Arabs for a policy instigated by His Majesty's Government! The voice was Jacob's but the hands were those of Esau!

ONLY a few days now remained until the British mandate over Palestine expired. Tension had reached the exploding point. The United Nations Trusteeship Council showed marked impotence. First, it proposed a truce, which neither side obeyed. Then it tried to postpone partition. There was a proposal to send United States Marines to enforce-no one was sure what. The Council suggested a special British High Commissioner to rule over Jerusalem. Later it thought a Red Cross official might do better. A dozen last-minute schemes and a hundred speeches were delivered in an atmosphere of great theatrical importance-but far removed from the reality in Palestine.

At Lake Success, Sir Alexander Cadogan, the British delegate, read a telegram to the Security Council stating that "all units of the Arab Legion had left Palestine for Trans-Jordan prior to the end of the Mandate." I smiled when I read this. For I had seen the Arab Legion in Gaza, in Hebron and in Katamon.

Far better than I, the defenders of Kfar Etzion had tasted the sting of Legion guns. They, too, knew the truth. . . . For weeks these settlers in their hilltop kibbutzim had beaten back assaults by the Arab Legion and guerrilla bands. At four a.m. on May 12 -- two days before the Mandate's end -- guerrillas joined with Arabs from Hebron and the Arab Legion to launch an all-out attack on Kfar Etzion with two battalions and two thousand irregulars. They hammered at the isolated community and its 164 men and women defenders, with cannon, mortars, and heavy machine-guns. The tanks charged sixteen times, followed by wave after wave of howling fanatics. Kfar Etzion sent desperate calls: "Tanks penetrated our rear into the farmyard. . . . Overrunning the dining-room and children's house. . . . Swarming in from all sides." Ferocious hand-to-hand fighting followed. When Kfar Etzion fell, the Arabs found sixty-two dead, forty-two gravely wounded, and three survivors. The rest had fled to the three adjoining kibbutzim -- making a combined defensive force of about 350 Jews.

In the next few days these kibbutzim, too, underwent Kfar Etzion's fate. After their surrender they were plundered and burned. Thus ended the tragic saga of Kfar Etzion, the first major triumph of the British-trained, British-armed, British-led, so-called Arab Legion -- while at Lake Success and in London, British spokesmen soberly repeated that the English and the Legion had pulled out of Palestine.

On the night of May 13, the last night of the British mandate -- the night before the Jews would proclaim the establishment of the first independent Jewish State in two thousand years -- I stood watching the burning buildings of Kfar Etzion glowering against the sky. The ravished settlement was symbolic of the Holy Land, a Holy City set afire by the torches of colonialism. I watched far into the night, then went downstairs and prepared for bed. Moustafa and I slept on adjoining cots. I lay on my cot. Moustafa was removing his jacket.

"I feel suddenly frightened, Moustafa. I cannot explain why."

"It is because you are afraid of the future. You will see that the Arabs will win. Allah is on our side."

"Do you still believe what you said about Tel Aviv?"

"Of course. Every Arab believes it. Every Arab knows that we will be in Tel Aviv one month from tomorrow. We will sit in the cafes by the sea, drink coffee . . . eat baklawa and enjoy the Jewish girls!"

"And hang all the Haganah from the trees?"

"Yes, I am sure of it."

He paused for a moment, and grew confidential.

"Artour, I can now tell you our big plans, since they are not secret any more. The Egyptian armies have already crossed into Palestine, and beginning tomorrow will march on Jerusalem and on Tel Aviv. The Arab Legion will march on Tel Aviv from the east and meet the Egyptians coming from the south. The Syrians and Lebanese armies will attack from the north and northwest, and march on Tel Aviv also. The Iraqi regulars will support the Syrians and Arab Legion. You can see" -- and here Moustafa, quite excited, drew out a piece of paper and traced the plan roughly -- "how the Arabs will come all together at one time on Tel Aviv!" He looked at me triumphantly. "Are you frightened now, Artour?" he said, blowing out the candle, and thumping into bed.

In the darkness I said: "No, Moustafa, I believe you."...

...Could 650,000 Jews defy the might of forty-five million Arabs, the massed might of the Arab armies?...

Following are excerpts from an interview with members of the Egyptian Unique Moustache Association, which aired on Egyptian TV on July 11, 2008

Interviewer: Do you respect all types of moustaches - regardless of their size, length, or width?

Allam Muhammad Abdel Al-Halim: Of course.

Interviewer: Even Hitler's moustache?

Captain Sayyed Shahada: By the way, I respect the moustache of this Hitler, because he humiliated the most despicable sect in the world. He subdued the people who subdued the whole world - him with his "11" moustache. By the way, that kind of moustache is called "11." The generation of this Hitler... When I was little, my father, may he rest in peace, grew that kind of moustache, and so did all his class members. They all had this "11" moustache. That was in the days of Hitler... My father...

Interviewer: That was the fashion back then.

Captain Sayyed Shahada: Exactly. I should know - my father was a barber...

Following is an excerpt of an Al-Manar TV report on Palestinian militants training in Gaza, which aired on July 30, 2008.

Reporter: Within moments, the military camps in Gaza become a battle scene, missiles, the whistling of bullets, and men preparing for the day that their enemy will shed the blood of the tahdiya on the altar of its confidence. Since the goal is to fight the Israeli enemy, the Palestinian resistance had to rise to the occasion. While Hamas is busy with field training, the Salah Al-Din Brigades prepare for the battle that has continued for 60 years, but in their own special way.

Masked militant: With our modest means, we are manufacturing these missiles, so that we can crush the Zionist aggression, which plunders this land, and destroys, wounds, and kills on a daily basis. We will continue our work, despite the tahdiya and these harsh conditions.

Masked missile engineer: Allah be praised, we have succeeded in developing the "Nasser 4" missile, which has a range of 25-27 kilometers. This is all thanks to Allah, and thanks to the Salah Al-Din Brigades' engineering and manufacturing unit.

Reporter: "Prepare for them whatever you can" - this is the motto shared by the Palestinian factions, which despite their different names, have a common goal - resistance against the occupation until complete liberation.

Another masked missile engineer: We address our message to all the people of the Zionist entity. They should leave not only Sderot, but all of Palestine, because our missiles, martyrdom-seekers, explosive devices, and mujahideen are coming, Allah willing, until every inch of the blessed land of Palestine is liberated.

Reporter: Between training and the manufacturing of missiles, their eyes remain fixed on Palestine - a free Arab country, without any restrictions.

Activists who plan to break the blockade of the poverty-stricken Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip from the sea said on Monday they fear Israel may try to scupper the venture.

Two sailing boats carrying 40 activists are set to sail from Cyprus 370 kilometres (230 miles) to the north in a bid to break the Israeli siege, but organisers are keeping the logistics to themselves for security reasons.

"We have a fear that Israel will do something here to sabotage the trip," Greta Berlin, a spokeswoman for the US-based Free Gaza Movement, told reporters in Cyprus.

"The only thing being kept a secret is the location of the boats because of what Israel has done in the past -- they don't want us to go."...

...Berlin said the group hopes that the vessels, due to sail in "four or five days," will draw attention to the plight of 1.5 million Palestinians suffering chronic shortages...

...Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but tightened the noose on the territory after the Hamas takeover...

On or about July 18, 2008, in an offense begun and committed outside of the jurisdiction of any particular State or District of the United States, AAFIA SIDDIQUI, the defendant, who will be first brought to and arrested in the Southern District of New York, unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly did use a deadly and dangerous weapon and did forcibly assault, resist, oppose, impede, intimidate, and interfere with a person designated in Title 18, United States Code, Section 1114, namely, officers and employees of the FBI and the United States armed services, while engaged in and on account of the performance of official duties, to wit, SIDDIQUI obtained a United States Army Officer's M-4 rifle and fired it at officers and employees of the FBI and the United States armed services...

Arab media around the Middle East this week reacted hysterically after learning that a Jewish professor at Haifa University is using verses from the Koran to teach Arab Muslim psychology students how to treat their future Muslim patients.

Professor Ofer Grosbard developed the Quranet course using specially chosen verses from the Muslim holy book to help students reinforce in their patients concepts like respect, responsibility, honesty, dignity and kindness.

Grosbard realized the need for the special course after one of his Muslim students complained that traditional Western psychology would be ineffective on Muslim patients who hold tightly to superstitious beliefs.

Despite the fact that the Quranet course was developed together with 15 Muslim students and was reviewed by three Islamic clerical figures, Muslim authorities around the Middle East denounced the project because it was overseen by a Jew.

Speaking to Gulf News, Dr. Abdullah Al Mutlaq of the Senior Ulema Board in Saudi Arabia insisted that all Jews hate Islam, and that Prof. Grosbard's efforts to emphasize the Koran's few lessons in human dignity and kindness would give Muslims the wrong impression of their religion.

Dr. Manae Abdel-Halim Mahmoud, professor of Koranic sciences at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, told an Egyptian newspaper that the Israeli project "aims to tarnish the image of Islam by giving wrong interpretation of the noble Koran."...

...Shaikh Dr Abdullah Al Mutlaq, member of the Senior Ulema Board in Saudi Arabia, denounced the project, which was developed by 15 Muslim bedouin academics in Israel as part of their Masters programme in educational counselling, supervised by Jewish professor Dr Ofer Grosbard and reviewed by three Islamic preachers. The project was also published in book form by Ben Gurion University Publishing House...

...The referendum may seem the longest of long shots in a state represented by some of Congress's biggest spenders. But the same initiative was on the ballot in 2002, and though the political establishment roared with laughter through Election Day, the measure got 45% of the vote. This time pro-tax forces such as the Massachusetts Teachers Association are planning to spend millions of dollars warning of Armageddon.

They have cause to be worried. A Fabrizio poll for Citizens for Limited Taxation discovered that the average Massachusetts voter believes that 41 cents of every state tax dollar are wasted. Coincidentally, that's the share of the state budget funded by the income tax. One big drain is a pension program that doles out billions each year to double-dipping pensioners and state workers retiring at taxpayer expense in their late 40s or 50s.

Nine U.S. states have no income tax, including such economic climbers as Florida, Nevada, Tennessee and Texas. These states are doing fine funding schools, hospitals and police without the income levy. Over the past decade 330,000 Massachusetts residents have packed U-Haul trailers and left -- more than have even fled Michigan -- and many have gone to no-income-tax New Hampshire...

A few friends of mine went to a party in Jerusalem that was primarily made up Anglophone reporters, people who work for NGOs and UN agencies. What amazed them was the pervasive sense of the people they met and spoke with that Israel was the greatest human rights violator in the world and that the dismantling of Israel would be a great step forward for global human rights.

Now the idiocy of this position, the suicidal nature of this strategy to advance human rights is nothing short of breathtaking...

The United States has revoked the visas of three Fulbright scholars from Gaza who received them in the face of Israeli resistance.

Visas for the three Hamas Authority scholars, as well as a fourth who was planning to go to the US under a different program, were revoked last week after "additional information" was received, according to State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos.

One of the four students was already in Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C. when the decision was reached, forcing him to board another plane back to Jordan without ever having left Dulles Airport...

...The three were part of an original group of seven who were blocked by the Israeli government from leaving Gaza to travel to Jerusalem for interviews with US officials in May. At the time Israel cited security concerns.

"We decided that we needed to take a closer and harder look at them," said Gallegos, adding that the revocation "does not preclude the applicants from reapplying for visas in the future."

The State Department spokesman would not discuss the nature of the information that had prompted US officials to revoke the PA scholars' visas after having gone to so much trouble to issue them...

...According to a source quoted by the Associated Press, the information that led to the revocation related to the same security problems cited by Israel as reasons to deny the students security clearance to leave Gaza.

Many PA residents from the region are granted such security clearance for medical and other purposes. The Erez Crossing is used daily by those who enter and leave Gaza with the assent of the Israeli government.

IN THE midst of this growing turmoil, I had a personal problem. If, despite Moustafa's confidence in Allah, the forces of war should turn against us, what would I do with my suitcase, packed with my precious notes and the invaluable film record of my experiences so far? My suitcase was stored in our arsenal, where my bloodthirsty friend kept vigil; if the Jews forced us to flee, it would be lost. I decided the safest place for it would be the Vank, the Armenian monastery in the Old City, which was built like a fortress, and whose sanctity had always been respected.

One morning, therefore, I trudged over with it, gave it into the keeping of an Armenian family, and took the opportunity to pay my respects to the Patriarch, spiritual shepherd of some ten thousand Armenians in Palestine. I was ushered up a narrow flight of steps to his reception-room. It was large, rectangular, thickly carpeted, lined with upholstered chairs. On the walls were stately paintings and photographs of the princes of my church. Here one seemed to rise above the tumult outside and step into a calm and reverential world.

I faced Guregh II Israelian. He was a short man, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, with a long, patriarchal beard that was black in the upper portion, graying toward the tip, and completely white at the end. A large, pyramid-shaped black hood rose above his head, and at times seemed to overshadow him. It magnified both his face and stature, so that even while sitting he seemed a towering figure. His deep brown eyes, seemingly calm, glowed with dormant fire. Beloved by Jew, Arab, and Christian alike, he was one of the last of the old-time shepherds of the Church who guarded his flock with a paternal hand...

...I heard a sudden commotion outside the door. A scout rushed in, breathless: a group of Arabs were trying to force their way into the monastery! Hurrying with the Patriarch to the window, we saw the Arab gang milling about the entrance, wild disorderly hoodlums armed to the bursting point. They were banging away at the iron door of the monastery with their rifles, screaming to be allowed entrance.

"They say they will shoot their way in," the scout reported.

"Asdvadzim, Asdvadzim!" My God, my God!" The Patriarch
raised his hands in supplication. "Assor vertchu tchika? Amen orr, Amen orr gookan!" Is there no end to this? Every day, every day they come!"

I heard the crack of a rifle shot, another, then a third. The Arabs were attempting to shoot out the lock.

From the posture of supplication, his arms raised heavenward, the Patriarch suddenly brought his hands together. He clenched them tight into two massive fists, then in a mighty rage of wrath he shook his fists at the hoodlums. And in that act of defiance he symbolized the defiance of the entire Armenian people toward the brutality of the Turk, the tyranny of the Nazis, the intrigues and betrayal of those who regarded us as weak and spineless because we were not of the Anglo-Saxon race and did not sit in the councils of the chosen. In the Patriarch I saw an Armenian people fighting its oppressors, its betrayers, it tormenters.

The Patriarch was no longer the disturbed cleric of a few minutes ago. He was a fighting man, in full command, the leader of his people, the guardian of his church. He wheeled around to the scout: "Go tell them that I forbid anybody to enter. They may try to shoot down the door if they wish, but as long as I am here they will not desecrate our holy Vank, they will not spill Armenian blood. They will not enter!"

I have seldom seen anyone, let alone a Patriarch, so enraged. There was little for me to do but stand by, fascinated, and watch the bolt of lightning smite the Arab. How could one help but admire this man of courage and fortitude? Surely our commanders at Musa Dagh must have been fighters of equal rank. . . . The storm was over. Into the palatial reception room there came again the calm of a sanctuary. "It's the lawless brigands who are the troublemakers," the Patriarch said to me. "The decent Arabs fear them, and that is one reason why most of them have fled from Jerusalem. If I let in one, a hundred will follow, then a thousand. They would plunder our Vank. . . ."

On that bitter note, I left him and returned to Deir Aboutor.

Following are excerpts from an Al-Manar TV program, featuring Fatah terrorists reminiscing about their 1978 attack on an Israeli bus. The program aired on July 19, 2008.

...Sister Dalal Al-Maghrabi had a conversation with the American journalist [Gail Rubin]. Before killing her, Dalal asked: "How did you enter Palestine?" [Rubin] answered: "They gave me a visa." Dalal said: "Did you get your visa from me, or from Israel? I have the right to this land. Why didn't you come to me?" Then Dalal opened fire on her. We must recall these issues as cases... as human experience...

A former Bostonian who was on the FBI's "Most Wanted List" and "People Wanted for Questioning" is being held in custody in Afghanistan. It's not yet known who is holding her of where her three children are. People who follow the actions of  Islamic radicals in Boston have heard of Aafia Siddiqui, a former MIT and Brandeis student, and mother of three.  Siddiqui was the subject of a Vogue magazine feature article in March 2005, written by Deborah Scroggins, who's currently writing a book on women and the war on terrorism.  More on Siddiqui at Wikipedia here and from a 2004 article in the Pakistan Daily Times here...

Local media report one woman, three men to receive death sentences for involvement in Shiraz mosque blast, 'connections with Zionist regime'

An Iranian woman accused of involvement in the blast at a Shiraz mosque a few months ago will be executed, a local news agency reported, saying she received a life sentence for a connection she had with Israeli intelligence organizations.

Aside from this woman, whose name was not released, three other Shiraz residents arrested in this case will be executed.

According to the report in Iran, 25 people were arrested for alleged involvement in a blast that took place at a Shiraz mosque on April 12, while a religious ceremony was being conducted by a local sermonizer.

The explosion took 14 lives, and dozens of other worshippers were injured.

A month after the incident, the Iranian president blamed Israel, the United States and Britain for involvement in the blast.

"These three countries announced that they plan on attempting to kill Iranian elements and a short time afterwards, the blast occurred in Shiraz," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying in the Iranian official news agency, IRNA.

According to him, "due to the calculated effort made by Iranian intelligence officials, the people who caused this blast were arrested quickly and admitted their connection to the Zionist regime, America and England."...

Barack Obama directly intervened in last December's presidential election in Kenya, supporting fellow Luo tribesman Raila Odinga's candidacy, despite an agreement Odinga signed to back radical Muslims, according to an explosive new book written by WND senior staff reporter Jerome R. Corsi.

In "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality," Corsi footnotes and discusses two television news videos that fully document his charges...

Never apologetic for his actions or bitter for being punished for the "crime" he never committed, he left his military career "with a sense of pride and honor." "I sacrificed my career for my soldiers and that's the bottom line," he said. "Nobody likes a whiner. You make the decision, you stand by it and take responsibility for it and you accept the consequences and you move on with your life."

My 22 years of service in the U.S. Army have taught me that America is a country unlike any other, and that our way of life is worth protecting. In Congress, I will put my experience to work for our national security and honor my oath to the US Constitution by protecting our borders and enforcing our immigration laws. I will fight to lower taxes and reduce the size of federal government. I will be an advocate for policies that spur our economy and job creation, and will protect small business by cutting senseless regulations that cost jobs and increase overhead. And I will be a champion for reducing our dependence on foreign sources of oil, promoting energy independence while preserving our coastlines and farmland.

This is not journalism, it is defamation wrapped in the mantle of religiously inspired journalism.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Soviet dissident writer and Nobel literature prize winner, has died aged 89, the Interfax news agency reported on Sunday.

He died of a stroke, the agency said, quoting literary sources in Moscow.

Gaza brigade commander says forces waited till dark to complete rescue of fleeing Fatah members following surrender to Hamas; operation authorized by Barak at Abbas' request

IDF forces rescued dozens of Fatah members who were fleeing Gaza City under heavy machine gun, sniper and mortar fire, Northern Gaza Brigade Commander Colonel Ron Ashrov told Ynet Saturday night.

At around 5 pm, following the surrender of the Fatah-affiliated Hilles clan to Hamas security forces in Gaza City, dozens of fleeing clan members began making their way toward the Gaza-Israel border, where they were rescued by IDF forces and taken into Israel.

A total of 188 Palestinians were allowed entry into the country following the fierce clashes with Hamas, which left nine people dead and more than 80 wounded...

...According to Hilles, after realizing that the Hamas men plan to kill all the clan members, he and his family members decided to flee towards Israel. "Instead of evacuating our injured, they used the ambulances in order to lead additional soldiers to the area."...

...Amegdat Hilles, 31, the father of three, was moderately injured in the clashes. He says Hamas members began attacking the clan's closed and partly fortified compound at around 5 pm on Saturday.

"They fired at us with guns, mortar shells and RPG. I was injured during the first hour and began bleeding, but prevented the ambulances from reaching us...

...Atef Hilles, the father of three who was also moderately injured, said, "I was injured when the clashes began. I tried to reach the hospital in Gaza, but they told us the road was closed and prevented our ambulances from travelling there. My brother drove me to the terminal, where I waited until they let us in.

"I don't think I'll return to Gaza. If they tell us, we'll return of course. But that would be a death sentence for me."...

To everyone's astonishment the Arabs were losing on nearly every front. Haifa, the leading port in the Middle East, with an Arab population of seventy thousand and a priceless oil refinery, had fallen to the Jews within thirty hours. Palestine's second port, Jaffa, an all-Arab city adjoining Tel Aviv, had crumbled into Jewish hands. Some fifty thousand Arabs had fled Jaffa.² Farther north, Safad, Tiberius, and the fortress city of Acre -- which even Napoleon could not capture from the Turks -- had all been seized by the Haganah in a series of brilliant maneuvers. What innate power motivated these sons of David? I didn't yet have the answer from the Jewish side. But with the Arabs I had been learning some of the reasons why the Jehad was daily proving such a failure.

Moustafa, however, seemed to have no worries. Toward evening one day I found him sitting on a rock. I walked up quietly and say beside him.

"Things are not going so well with us, Moustafa," I said.

"The Jews haven't tasted real Arab steel and lead yet," Moustafa said confidently. "Artour, you have seen only the work of untrained volunteers. You are making a mistake if you judge the power of the regular Arab armies from these Holy Warriors. What we are doing here is tiring the Jew, worrying him, keeping him running here and there until the armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and fighters from Yemen and Saudi Arabia and the Moslem countries of North Africa join the Jehad." He paused. "Then you will see slaughter, Artour. Then you will see us march to Tel Aviv."

"How long will it take us, Moustafa?"

"Thirty days -- not thirty-one -- but thirty days to conquer Tel Aviv!"

I wasn't too sure of this, but I said insh'allah anyway.

Arab leaders -- particularly in the Mufti's Arab Higher Committee -- urged residents to clear the fighting areas, promising them that Palestine would be cleared of Jews within thirty days after the Mandate ended. After the Jews had been pushed into the seam Arab leaders said, Palestinians could return to their homes and at the same time share in the Jewish booty. They implied that those who refused to leave were pro-Zionist; such people were threatened with reprisals.

In contrast, I know of instances where the Jews begged the Arabs, particularly the Christian elements, to remain, guaranteeing their safety and full respect for property. These Christians, however, joined the fleeing Moslems, fearing the promised retribution following the promised Arab victory. As an instance, the Armenians, who had always got along well with Arab and Jew alike, joined the panicky Moslems, horror-stricken by the memory of the Turkish massacres.

Wealthy merchants, physicians, bankers, politicians, and other leaders were the first to leave. Later came the poorer elements until, by the time the Mandate expired, those remaining were largely only the ill and aged, the looters, and the innocents.

The exodus figure of 750,000 or more Arabs is sheer propaganda, a fictional number that cannot be supported by the facts. The populace in the country from Jerusalem north to Jericho was not disturbed by the fighting, nor were the Arabs and Christians resident in the congested areas within the quadrangle formed by Ramallah, Tulkarm, Jenin, and Nablus -- Palestinian territory now annexed by Jordan. It must also be pointed out that many of the Moslem so-called refugees were homeless, nomadic wanderers in the first place. Poor, nonrefugee Arabs, such as those in Gaza, have claimed refugee status in order to qualify for American aid.

The Somerville Divestment Project is back. The polarizing group that has brought hundreds to City Hall to protest and support Israeli policies in the Middle East, is pushing another non-binding ballot question to city voters in November.

The resolution would direct State Rep. Denise provost, D-Somerville, to "vote in favor of a non-binding resolution calling on the federal government to support the right of all people, including non-Jewish Palestinians of Israel, to live free from laws that give more rights to people of one religion than another." Provost's district covers roughly two-thirds of the city.

A similar measure calling for the "right of all refugees, including Palestinian refugees to return to their land of origin," failed with 45 percent of the vote in 2006, according to SDP organizer Ron Francis. Another 2006 question called provost to support "all governmental entities of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to sell any investments they hold either in Israel Bonds or in companies that supply Military equipment to Israel." That measure failed with 31 percent of the vote...

Last night the Somerville Divestment Project, a group I belong to, had its annual meeting, and announced that it will have two questions on the ballot in November this year. One question asks, "Shall the state representative from this district be instructed to vote in favor of a non-binding resolution calling on the federal government to support the right of all people, including non-Jewish Palestinian citizens of Israel, to live free from laws that give more rights to people of one religion than another?"

The other question asks if the representative should "vote in favor of a proposal to amend the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to replace the state Legislature with 100 randomly selected adult residents of the Commonwealth each serving just a one year term, designated the Commonwealth Jury, that will have all the legislative and other powers of the current state Legislature?"

I gave a short speech about why we were behind the second question as well as the first, even though it seems on the surface to have nothing to do with fighting Zionism. Here's what I said...

Allah Almighty wanted to establish and emphasize the significance and sacredness of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Muslims' hearts so that they do not cede it for anything. They are to hold it as sacred as both Allah's Sacred House and His Prophet's Mosque."

"...Allah Almighty wills that we remember the importance of Al-Aqsa Mosque when we celebrate the anniversary of Al-Israa' and Al-Mi`raj."

"This is to remind us of the gravity of the circumstances in which Al-Aqsa Mosque is in this age. We must not give up our responsibility in defending Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem. This is a sacred issue to fight for. We should not, under any circumstances, give up our role in that regard."

"The Jews dreamed of establishing a state (in the land of Palestine) and managed to achieve that dream. That being so, we at least must not give up hope that one day we will again have Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem under our control. We should not lose hope of that at all, even if we see surrender embodied everywhere in our status quo."

Is this really a spiritual issue for American Muslims, who controls Jerusalem? Imagine where Palestinians could be if they spent one-tenth of the energy that they spend on trying to destroy Israel and spent it on building a civil society? They might get somewhere. But, no, they'd rather that their kids learn about Scud missiles and blowing themselves up. With encouragement from Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradawi and the Muslim American Society.

ONE OF THE IDEOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTS which underpins left-wing anti-Zionism depicts a unified Afro-Arab bloc in direct confrontation with the State of Israel. And while it is a construct, there have been times when it has appeared all too real. For example, in 1973, after the Yom Kippur war, the majority of African states sided with the Arab world and agreed to sever diplomatic relations with Israel. In 1973 and 1975, at meetings of the Organization of African Unity (now the African Union) and United Nations General Assembly respectively, African governments also supported Arab-instigated resolutions that demonized Zionism, equating it with colonialism and racism. More recently, the NGO Forum at the UN's infamous anti-racism conference in Durban in 2001 again conjured the specter of a unified bloc embracing Arabs and Africans, emanating, on this occasion, from civil society.

The narrative of an ahistoric, uniform, "Third World" anti-Zionism doesn't only undermine Israel's legitimacy. It also presents anti-Zionism as undefeatable. It elides the struggles that play out in creating shared conceptual meanings and coalitions around anti-Zionism. As a result, opportunities are missed to understand who is a racist enemy and who is vulnerable to persuasion, argument, and dialogue

A politics that defends Israel's legitimacy has to take into account the existence of various anti-Zionist discourses and movements and explore the connections between them. In this essay, I disrupt the narrative of a timeless Arab-African anti-Zionism by examining the origins and evolution of anti-Zionist discourses in post-colonial Africa. I show that anti-Zionist discourse in post-colonial Africa was not natural or inevitable. In what was clearly a political project, Arab nationalist leaders incorporated African nationalists into anti-Zionist discourses by skillfully framing Israel in ways that resonated with the cognitive frames used by these leaders to interpret the world...

The following are excerpts from an interview with Iraqi MP Mithal Al-Alousi, which aired on Al-Salam TV on July 17, 2008.

..."I want a strategic agreement [with the U.S.], which would guarantee the building of an army, as well as Iraqi universities, which would guarantee that American universities be open to Iraqis, and which would guarantee financial ties between Iraqi and American banks. With all due respect to the employees of Al-Rafidein Bank - this is not a bank. It is a meeting place for the unemployed. It is banking hocus-pocus...

..."Non-Iraqi elements, like Al-Jazeera TV and the regimes of Syria and Tehran, want to cast doubt upon the heart of our political process - the parliament. The heart and mind of this political process is the parliament. If you destroy the heart and mind - you destroy the entire body...

..."By Allah, we will build a strong Iraq, which will be an ally of the West. Let Iran and all those foolish Arab countries listen carefully. Iraq will be the ally of the West, and will progress more than the Emirates and Singapore, and all the rest will come looking for work in Iraq."

The political and military group's senior commander in southern Lebanon said in a rare interview that Hizbollah was far stronger now than when it fought the Israeli army in a conflict in 2006.

Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, who leads Hizbollah's forces on Lebanon's border with Israel - the crucial battlefront of any future war, was speaking in the port city of Tyre. "The resistance is now stronger than before and this keeps the option of war awake. If we were weak, Israel would not hesitate to start another war," he said. "We are stronger than before and when Hizbollah is strong, our strength stops Israel from starting a new war... We don't seek war, but we must be ready."...

...Other sources say Hizbollah has trebled its arsenal in the last two years - from 10,000 missiles to about 30,000. These new weapons have longer ranges and heavier warheads. They include the Zelzal missile, which could strike as far south as Tel Aviv, and the C802 anti-shipping missile, capable of sinking Israeli warships.

Any American strike on Iran, for example, could be the trigger for a Hizbollah attack on Israel...

...Mr Kaouk did not deny that Hizbollah was reliant on Iran for military hardware and support. "We are proud of our friendship with Iran and with Syria and every country which helps us to gain our rights," he said. His remarks will be examined closely in Washington as Iran presses ahead with its nuclear programme...

John McCain would move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem if he were elected president, the presumptive Republican nominee for president told CNN Friday.

In what many considered an indirect attempt to expose Sen. Barack Obama's apparent fluctuation on the issue, McCain suggested the relocation of the American embassy from Tel Aviv as an affirmation of his own commitment to an "undivided Jerusalem."

"Right away," McCain said in the interview. "I've been committed to that proposition for years."

Nevertheless, McCain has emphasized that the city's final status is subject to negotiation despite his own position on the matter. It remains to be determined whether his promise to act in accordance with the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital would come to fruition were he elected...

A seal impression belonging to a minister of the Biblical King Zedekiah which dates back 2,600 years has been uncovered completely intact during an archeological dig in Jerusalem's ancient City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said on Thursday.

The seal impression, or bulla, with the name Gedalyahu ben Pashur, who served as minister to King Zedekiah (597-586 BCE) according to the Book of Jeremiah, was found just meters away from a separate seal impression of another of Zedekia's ministers, Yehukual ben Shelemyahu, which was uncovered three years ago, said Prof. Eilat Mazar who is leading the dig at the site.

The excavation at the history-rich City of David, which is located just outside the walls of the Old City near Dung Gate, has proven, in recent years, to be a treasure trove for archeologists.

"On the one hand it is so unexpected to find such a fragile bulla in such harsh conditions of excavation, while on the other hand it was logical to find precisely here the bulla of Gedalyahu ben Pashur - only meters away from the place where we found the bulla of Yehukhal ben Shelemyahu - since these two ministers are mentioned side by side in the Bible as having served together in the kingdom of King Zedekiah," Mazar said.

The first bulla was uncovered inside an impressive stone structure, which Mazar believes is the Palace of David, while the second bulla was found at the foot of the external wall of the same structure, under a tower that was built in the days of Nehemiah.

Both of the bullae with the names of the two ministers, measuring 1 cm. in diameter each, were found among the debris of the destruction of the First Temple period.

The letters are in ancient Hebrew and are very clearly preserved, Mazar said.

Both ministers are mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 38 1-4) along with two other ministers when they came to King Zedekiah demanding the death of the prophet Jeremiah for preaching to the besieged city to surrender...

The Israeli civil rights group, Shurat HaDin, has sent an urgent letter to United States Attorney General Michael Mukasey, warning him that the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), and others, have conspired to violate the U.S. Neutrality Act, 18 U.S.C. section 960, in their efforts to organize a boatlift to the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip.

In the letter sent by Shurat HaDin director, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, it is alleged that the organizers of the "Gaza Ship" illegally solicited and raised donations in California to fund the purchase of several boats, which they plan to sail into Gaza on August 5th. The boats are reportedly set to travel from Greece with ISM members on August 1st.

Since the Hamas terrorist organization seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, Israel has initiated a blockade to prevent the smuggling of illegal weapons to the terrorists. The letter expresses concern that the boats will be carrying weapons, explosives and other contraband to Hamas officials...

...This should not be a issue in the 2008 election, the GOP should make it THE ISSUE of the 2008 elections.

Even with gas prices as high as they are, the Democrats want to keep a drilling ban in place while Republicans want to take action that will help reduce prices, in the short and long term. What do you think the American people are going to think about that news if the GOP has the guts to make it a centerpiece of their electoral strategy?...

...With so many Americans skipping vacation this summer because of the high cost of gas, should Congress get to go on a five week vacation without doing anything about it?..

Hell -- otherwise known as Congress -- has officially frozen over. For the first time since the 1950s, Members will skip town today for the August recess without either chamber having passed a single appropriations bill. Then again, Democrats appear ready to sacrifice their whole agenda, even spending, rather than allow new domestic energy production.

Or even a mere debate about energy. The Democratic leadership is stonewalling any measure that might possibly relax the Congressional ban on offshore drilling. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid know that they would lose if a vote ever came to the floor, and they're desperate to suppress an insurrection among those Democrats who are pragmatic about one of the top economic issues. Behind this whatever-it-takes obstructionism is an ideological commitment to high energy prices. The rulers of the Democratic Party want prices to keep rising...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi opposes lifting the moratorium on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and on the Outer Continental Shelf. She won't even allow it to come to a vote. With $4 gas having massively shifted public opinion in favor of domestic production, she wants to protect her Democratic members from having to cast an anti-drilling election-year vote. Moreover, given the public mood, she might even lose. This cannot be permitted. Why? Because as she explained to Politico: "I'm trying to save the planet; I'm trying to save the planet."

A lovely sentiment. But has Pelosi actually thought through the moratorium's actual effects on the planet?...

Hamas has resumed its policy of shaving mustaches of political opponents to humiliate them, Fatah officials said Wednesday.

Hamas resorted to this form of punishment in the past after arresting senior Fatah representatives in the Gaza Strip, the officials said.

Hamas, for its part, accused the Palestinian Authority security forces of shaving the beards of detained Hamas officials in the West Bank.

The latest victim of the mustache-shaving policy is Nafez al-Namnam, a top Fatah operative in the Strip.

Namnam, 51, is one of the commanders of Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, in Gaza City.

He and his son Rami were arrested by Hamas policemen shortly after the mysterious explosion that killed five Hamas men on the beach in Gaza City last Friday.

The father and son were among more than 150 Fatah members who were rounded up by Hamas in the aftermath of the bombing.

Namnam wore an unusually large mustache for more than 30 years. But while in prison, his Hamas interrogators shaved it off before finally releasing him.

The Aksa Martyrs Brigades issued a statement strongly condemning the shaving of Namnam's mustache and threatening retaliation. It said that Namnam and his son were also tortured while in detention...

Laboratory tests aboard NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander have identified water in a soil sample. The lander's robotic arm delivered the sample Wednesday to an instrument that identifies vapors produced by the heating of samples.

"We have water," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. "We've seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted."...

...The soil sample came from a trench approximately 2 inches deep. When the robotic arm first reached that depth, it hit a hard layer of frozen soil. Two attempts to deliver samples of icy soil on days when fresh material was exposed were foiled when the samples became stuck inside the scoop. Most of the material in Wednesday's sample had been exposed to the air for two days, letting some of the water in the sample vaporize away and making the soil easier to handle...

Following are excerpts from an interview with Iranian Vice President Esfandyar Rahim Mashai, which aired on Al-Manar TV on July 28, 2008. Mashai reportedly said earlier this week that Iran is the friend of the citizens in Israel and the U.S. The translation is based on the Arabic voiceover.

Esfandyar Rahim Mashai: The Islamic Republic of Iran did not, does not, and will not accept the legitimacy of this Zionist entity. No Iranian citizen or party will ever accept this...

...The world should know that the Zionist regime is plundering and illegitimate. Its existence does not serve the interests of humanity. It is harmful to everybody. The plundering Zionist entity is close to its end. In my view, this regime is dead, and they are only postponing its funeral, while others believe that it is only in the process of dying. In any case, the era of the so-called Zionist entity has come to an end. This entity cannot confront the believing men of Hizbullah. We have seen how it admitted defeat after 33 days of aggression. Following that defeat, it is now among the dead. Therefore, we now witness consecutive victories by our brothers, the resistance fighters.

..."Clearly Himes went to Israel for a standard one-sided AIPAC propaganda visit. He wasn't there long enough to do much else (only 48 hours). I would never have made such a pilgrimage. With the mistake of Iraq still going on, I believe it is best to keep all allies, and especially Israel, at arms length."

Whitnum felt that Himes was motivated by money.

"According to Senator James Abourezk (D-SD) in an article in the Christian Science Monitor, the propaganda trip usually follows a written pledge by the candidate to support Israel. If they agree to sign, the money flows in from thousands of AIPAC members individual donation worldwide. Basically candidates who refuse to sign allegiance risk being "Percyized" which is a well-known Washington term used to describe former Senator Charles Percy of Illinois who felt he lost his reelection because AIPAC funded his pro-Israel democratic rival...

I went to bed a congressional candidate and I woke up to find myself in Jim Himes' version of Nazi, Germany; the powerful Himes has completely sown up the Internet media in my state. How did he do it? He wined and dined bloggers and reporters in his big Greenwich house. Your campaign donations at work?...

Mike you may not be on Jim Himes' payroll now, but you were, or you are, on someone's payroll. You are a hired gun - a hatchet man. You will recall that I met you in front of the Civic Center. You were flashily dressed for a picnic and I knew as soon as I looked into your cold eyes that you were hired gun. The next day an article appeared on the DailyKos and I knew instantly that it was posted by you. Only a hired gun would make up such ugliness (see 10 below) and post it on a national website. No one else, none of us local folk, would have done that. So now you are moving on to some other congressional district, in Wisconsin or somewhere, and recapping to justify your time here. Hey Mike, guess what - you have no soul...