September 2008 Archives

PA TV video:

There never has been a Jewish Temple - never will be! Defend the Al-Aqsa Mosque against Israel

"Oh [Sons of] Zion, no matter how much you dig
and no matter how much you destroy,
your imaginary Temple will not come into being"

by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

A music video currently broadcast on Palestinian Television denies any historical connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem: "Oh [Sons of] Zion, no matter how much you dig and no matter how much you destroy, your imaginary Temple will not come into being". The repeated refrain, "Al-Aqsa is ours," is meant to emphasize this statement, as the Al-Aqsa mosque is built on the site of the Temple, destroyed in the year 70 during Israel's revolt against the Roman Empire.

The video images focus on the Al-Aqsa Mosque and praying Muslims, and together with the lyrics repeat the Palestinian fabrication that Israel is planning to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and therefore it needs protection: "Oh God, protect Al-Aqsa, Oh Allah, Al-Aqsa is ours, [protect Al-Aqsa] from every thief and every oppressor."

TEHRAN (AFP) -- Iranians chanted "Death to Israel" on Friday as Islamist students unveiled a book mocking the Holocaust in an Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day annual parade to show solidarity with the Palestinians.

And in Gaza City, the Islamist Hamas movement that has ruled the impoverished Palestinian territory since June 2007 marked the day by calling for more suicide attacks on Israel.

The book "Holocaust," published by members of Iran's Islamist Basij militia, features dozens of cartoons and sarcastic commentary.

Education Minister Alireza Ali-Ahmadi attended the official launch of the book in Tehran's Palestine Square.

The cover shows a Jew with a crooked nose and dressed in traditional garb drawing outlines of dead bodies on the ground.

Inside, bearded Jews are shown leaving and re-entering a gas chamber with a counter that reads the number 5,999,999.

Another illustration depicts Jewish prisoners entering a furnace in a Nazi extermination camp and leaving from the other side as gun-wielding "terrorists."

Yet another shows a patient draped in an Israeli flag and on life support breathing Zyklon-B, the poisonous gas used in the extermination chambers...

**Dear Friends,**

After yesterday's CJP Israel Connection email, we heard from a number of people upset at Sarah Palin's presence at the upcoming Stop Iran rally in New York City and at the way that our email was worded.

While Hillary Clinton had originally been slated to speak, she withdrew after Palin was invited. Many people across the country felt the same way about the apparent politicization of this event, which has been organized by a consortium of national Jewish organizations. Without both sides represented, the rally became controversial.

Yesterday afternoon, the organizers of the rally did what was right. They decided that no American political figure should participate - exactly as many of you suggested. Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel and Israeli Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik will speak.

We regret if our email in any way appeared to be partisan. CJP has never been, nor will it ever be, tied to any political party. We thank all of you who contacted us and told us so honestly what you thought of our communication.

We also hope that you will still consider attending the rally and focusing on its goal - raising awareness about the threat of Iran's nuclear power and protesting the visit of Iranian President Ahmadinejad at the U.N. General Assembly. Seats are still available and can be reserved by visiting http://www.jcrcboston.org/ [They never did get enough people to get on that bus. -S].

Please don't hesitate to contact me with more feedback either now or in the future. We welcome it. We know we can always do better.

There is nothing similar in how this crisis came about, yet there is a lot that Ben Bernanke could learn from the way a much smaller scale crisis was resolved. I am referring to a crisis that took place not in Japan, and not in 1929, but one that very few people heard about:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_stock_crisis_(Israel_1983)

In a nut shell, most Israelis were for years led to believe that shares of the biggest 4 banks in Israel could not go down. Investment in those bank shares had become the main tenant of a conservative portfolio of every Israeli. My grandfather and grandmother -- at the time age 75 -- held all their savings in these stocks because they trusted the local bank manager who told them this was a safe investment that yielded slightly above inflation.

This went on for years but when the selling pressure became too high and the bank shares were about to collapse the government had to intervene. The way they did it is what the US should be looking at now. The government of Israel (in 1983) not only prevented an economic collapse and saved savers like my grandparents, but avoided inflation (which was already running high but the government prevented adding fuel to the fire and reduced it considerably in the following years) and eventually managed to get the tax payers profit from the way the crisis was resolved.

The way it was done included 3 basic principals:

1. Government took ownership of the banks and thus restored confidence but the tax payers now owned the banks.
2. They started an investigation, in some cases criminal probes, into the people responsible and they had to pay fines for their part of creating the crisis.
3. Debt restructuring: Holders of the failed financial instruments received a replacement specifically issued government bonds for 6-12 years. The elderly were given parts of their money within 1-3 years, younger people within 6 years and corporations within 12.

During the next 20 years the government slowly sold off 3 out of the 4 banks. It is still trying to sell the 4th one. Each of those banks was sold at profit for the tax payer on their initial investment. The Israeli economy -- which in 1982-1983 was on the brink of falling apart with high inflation, loss of confidence (people were literally taking their money in cash (US dollars) and keeping it at home), has thrived since the crisis was resolved in this way.

Now, what's more un-American? To temporarliy "nationalize" the banks, or to give bankers the break of their lives after years of abuse?

...Storing my souvenirs at the Amawi, I took a bus to our consulate. Its distance from the heart of the Syrian capital impressed me as being symbolic of the distance I felt our officials maintained from the soul of Syria. They were trying hard to do a thorough job of understanding the Arab and fostering good will,m but they were limited by many handicaps: (a) they were Anglo-Saxons from far-off America; (b) they were essentially transients in the land; (c) they counted a great deal on local Syrians for data and interpretation -- and every Syrian had his own axe to grind. Objective reporting is unknown among the highly emotional and partisan Arabs. The Americans I met were extremely friendly and hospitable. But I could not help feeling that officially we were far removed from the realities of Arab life and Arab psychology -- a feeling that I found equally applicable to our legations all over the Middle East.

Our American officials' general anti-Zionist, pro-Arab attitude that I met in the Arab world impressed me as not a conviction arrived at intellectually, but a matter of policy dictated by State Department dogma, resulting among other things from the fact that we had invested enormously in Middle East properties and depended on the good will of the Arab world for forty per cent of our oil. I felt that if substantial deposits were discovered in the Negev our State Department attitude would be modified overnight.

CNN reports on the Obama campaign's latest effort to hold the Jewish vote:

Rep. Alcee Hastings told an audience of Jewish Democrats Wednesday that they should be wary of Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin because "anybody toting guns and stripping moose don't care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks."

"If Sarah Palin isn't enough of a reason for you to get over whatever your problem is with Barack Obama, then you damn well had better pay attention," Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida said at a panel about the shared agenda of Jewish and African-American Democrats Wednesday.

At first this was a bit of a head-scratcher, but we figured it out when an email debate erupted among our Jewish colleagues over whether moose is kosher. Then it seemed obvious: Hastings is trying to turn Jewish voters against Palin by implying that her meat is unclean. This would also explain Barack Obama's porcine allusions, although the laws of Kashrut do not apply to facial cosmetics.

There's a lot of misinformation out there, so we did some research, and here's what we found: Moose have cloven hoofs and are ruminants. Therefore as a species they do meet the necessary conditions to be kosher.

In order for a particular animal to be kosher, however, it must be ritually slaughtered in accordance with Jewish law. This requires that it be killed with a long, sharp blade to the neck. Shooting a wild moose and eating it, therefore, is forbidden; the only way to keep it kosher would be to trap it alive and have a shochet do the honors.

But Hastings ignores one important point: Her aversion to pork notwithstanding, Palin is not Jewish. If Joe Lieberman were eating meat from improperly slaughtered game animals, he would be in violation of religious law. (Whether it would be appropriate to raise that in a political attack is another question.) But Judaism makes no claim that its dietary laws are universal. Unless she decides to become a giyoret, Palin is free to devour all the treif she wants.

Rep. Stephen Cohen of Tennessee spoke at the same event:

Cohen, who recently remarked that Jesus Christ was a community organizer, took his comments about the founder of the Christian faith further Wednesday. "A lot of what Jesus talks about is wonderful," Cohen said. "Talks about helping people and lifting them up and caring about people who are sick and all those things. He's a great Democrat."

In fact, the modern Democratic Party dates only to 1828; its predecessor, Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party, to 1792. Jesus was born within a few years of 1, so he could not have been a Democrat.

This might have been an honest mistake. But Cohen, who is not Christian, ought to be aware that those who are, regard Jesus as the Messiah. To disparage him as a mere "community organizer" or "Democrat" is a show of disrespect for other people's religion. Would Cohen describe the Prophet Muhammad as a "community organizer"?

Tenure-track Position in Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies at Brandeis University

Brandeis University announces an opening for a tenure-track open rank position in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (IMES) to begin in the 2009-10 academic year. Specialization and departmental affiliation are ope n, but applicants must possess thorough knowledge of the languages, literatures, and histories of the classical period, and must be familiar with Islam's social history, major sects, principal schools of thought and forms of practice. The successful candidate must be able to teach the core introductory course: "Islam: Civilization and Institutions," and should be able to teach courses that complement our current offerings, including those pertaining to medieval Islam and the relation of the classical tradition to modern and contemporary Islam. (The latter is a research focus of the University's Crown Center for Middle East Studies with which the candidate will be able to interact). Only applicants with the Ph.D., or who expect to have the Ph.D. by August 2009, will be considered.

First consideration will be given to applications that arrive by October 20, 2008. Applications must include: a letter expressing research and teaching interests, CV, a sample syllabus for a course on "Islam: Civilization and Institutions," teaching evaluations (if available), one brief writing sample and three confidential letters of reference. All materials should be sent to: Chair of the Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies Search, Brandeis University, MS 054, PO Box 549110, Waltham, MA 02454-9110. Brandeis University is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a culturally diverse intellectual community and strongly encourages applications from women and minorities.

Keepers of Protestantism's pacifist traditions will showcase just how far they've come from their humble roots in Europe's persecuted peasantry when they share an intimate dinner Thursday in New York with a world leader.

It's not just any world leader, however, but Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who's been labeled an international pariah for his nuclear ambitions, denial of the Holocaust, saber-rattling toward Israel and alleged support of terrorism.

But for Quakers and Mennonites who'll be at the table, breaking bread with this controversial man means drawing deeply on the same spiritual roots that sustained their embattled ancestors long ago.

"Jesus ate with lepers and with tax collectors, and in the United States right now, Iran would be in that category," says Arli Klassen, executive director of the Mennonite Central Committee, an outreach arm for Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches in the United States and Canada...

Despite the fact that the film Obsession contains no political content and was made well before the 2008 election cycle began, CAIR, those paragons of Islamic moderation and honesty, would now have you believe that the national distribution of the DVD was an Israeli plot to elect John McCain.

This is a very revealing action for CAIR to take. It reveals in particular two key aspects of CAIR's mindset:

1. It shows that CAIR is fully aware that the jihad against Israel is an integral part of the global jihad, and is not just a struggle to recover Palestinian "stolen land." Thus a film that reveals the nature and goals of that global jihad -- Obsession -- benefits Israel.

2. It also shows that CAIR believes that John McCain will fight against the global jihad in a way that Barack Obama will not -- and that it believes therefore the distribution of an anti-jihad film, which in a sane world would be welcomed by both the Left and the Right since the global jihad wishes to destroy and remake the West utterly, must be some partisan plot.

It further shows CAIR yet again on the wrong side of the jihad, as they are again and again...

... no one took the Soros-created J Street Project seriously, until Hoenlein gave them credibility. Hoenlein should have insisted that Palin appear and pushed back. He should have insisted that Obama send someone to represent him or suffer the consequences of an empty chair...

...The lives of 6 million Jews in Israel are today tied to the fortunes of those women, to the fortunes of American forces in Iraq, to the willingness of Americans across the political and ideological spectrum to recognize that there is more that unifies them than divides them and to act on that knowledge to defeat the forces of genocide, oppression, hatred and destruction that are led today by the Iranian regime and personified in the brutal personality of Ahmadinejad. But Jewish Democrats chose to ignore this basic truth in order to silence Palin...

The decision last week by organizers (the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations) of the anti-Iran rally in New York City to disinvite Governor Sarah Palin after Senator Hillary Clinton backed out in a huff has set off a torrent of negative reaction -- which the media, not surprisingly, has chosen largely to ignore. It also may have opened the door for the McCain-Palin ticket to attack Barack Obama for placing partisan politics above national security and support for Israel.

Many prominent American Jews and a number of media outlets are labeling the action disgraceful...

...No, those Democrats thought of themselves and their party first, the citizens of this country and the world later. When Republicans behave in a similar reprehensible manner, we should condemn them with all ferocity. But fellow Jews, stop being slaves to the Democratic Party. End this illicit love affair - not just for your own good, but for the good of humanity.

Ah yes, my people, my nation, my burden, my glory, my J Street. The Jews of J Street have named themselves after an imaginary street in Washington, DC, a suitable name for the kind of imaginary but dangerous human engineering projects they have in mind both for America and for the Middle East. The J Street Jews would rather die at Ahmadinejad's hands -- as long as a Democrat is voted into the White House-than live under a Republican administration...

...In fact, in addition to denouncing Ahmadinejad, Senator Hillary Clinton could have helped remind Americans of the many things that unite them, even during this campaign. Instead, Hillary Clinton played the partisan - and diminished her own moral standing in the process.

...Brinkley effectively backpedaled from a potential faculty revolt by putting off a final decision on Massad -- after a final decision had been reached. And if convening a second ad hoc committee and re-reviewing an apparently settled tenure case already seems a shade capitulatory, as well as a waste of the faculty's time and energy, consider the candidate involved. Joseph Massad's papers and articles addressing "Zionism as the new anti-Semitism" and encouraging the violent dismantling of "Jewish society in Israel" have appeared in respected outlets like New Politics and the Journal of Palestine Studies. Even if one discounts his reliably hysterical work for the Egyptian paper Al-Ahram, his output is that of a scholar who views the academy not as a venue for scholarship and inquiry, but as a mouthpiece. He does more than reduce this school's discourse on the Middle East to recrimination and innuendo. He jeopardizes Columbia's reputation as a serious place of study.

The only thing worse than this feckless treatment of the Massad question is getting the final answer wrong. If the provost and the University are as concerned about the school's academic integrity and intellectual environment as they apparently are about keeping up appearances, they should do now what they allegedly did 10 months ago: deny tenure to Joseph Massad.

The head of the state-owned France 2 television station has agreed to a demand from a Jewish community leader to establish a panel of experts to probe the controversial "Muhammad al-Dura broadcast," the European Jewish Press reported Friday...

...The Anti-Defamation League has expressed support for the call for an independent investigation into the report. The panel of experts is expected to be established in November, and will be headed by Patrick Gaubert, chairman of Licra, the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism, who is also an EU Parliament member.

Karsenty called the decision to set up a panel "good news" but said he would monitor who was selected as "experts" as well as what material was submitted for the panel's consideration...

WASHINGTON, DC - Marc R. Stanley, Chairman of the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC), released the following statement:

Monday's protest against Ahmadinejad is too important to be tainted by partisanship. Unfortunately, the campaign of Senator John McCain is much more interested in scoring political points than insuring there is bipartisan solidarity around the anti- Ahmadinejad efforts. Therefore, we call upon the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations to withdraw the invitation to Governor Sarah Palin and we applaud Senator Hillary Clinton's decision to not attend the rally after the attendance of Palin was announced...

CBS 2 HD Has Learned Democrats Threatened To Attack Jewish Groups' Tax Exempt Status Over VP Nominee Invite

...Sources tell CBS 2 HD that a decision to disinvite Palin from the high profile rally after Clinton pulled out in a huff came as the result of intense pressure from Democrats.

"This is insulting. This is embarrassing, especially to Gov. Palin, to me and I think it should be to every single New Yorker," Assemblyman Dov Hikind, D-Brooklyn, told CBS 2 HD.

Sources say the axes were out for Palin as soon as Sen. Clinton pulled out because she did not want to attend the same event as the Republican vice presidential candidate...

...The groups sponsoring the rally against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaking at the UN were reportedly told, "it could jeopardize their tax exempt status" if they had Palin and not Clinton or Democratic VP candidate Joe Biden on hand...

...As for Sen. Clinton, she brushed right past CBS 2 HD's Lou Young when he tried to ask her about the issue on Thursday night.

Lou Young: "Were the organizers of Monday's rally right to depoliticize it?"

Clinton walked past Young, said "Thank you all very much" and started hugging people...

...Patty Jacobson, CJP's VP of Marketing tells us that the organizers did not want to "politicize" the event. We have a question to Ms. Jacobson --- since when CJP is extra kosher when it comes to partisan political connections? Since when such modesty? Alan Solomont, during his time as CJP's chairman, used to use, absolutely openly, CJP's donors lists to raise money for the Democrats. He dismissed all the criticism at the time and explained that this was a difficult, but correct decision. Alan is a committed lefty working for socialist paradise for the rest of us -- whether we want it or not...

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits the United Nations in New York this week. Don't expect an honest update from him on his country's nuclear program. Iran is now edging closer to being armed with nuclear weapons, and it continues to develop a ballistic-missile capability.

Such developments may be overshadowed by our presidential election, but the challenge Iran poses is very real and not a partisan matter. We may have different political allegiances and worldviews, yet we share a common concern -- Iran's drive to be a nuclear state. We believe that Iran's desire for nuclear weapons is one of the most urgent issues facing America today, because even the most conservative estimates tell us that they could have nuclear weapons soon.

A nuclear-armed Iran would likely destabilize an already dangerous region that includes Israel, Turkey, Iraq, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan, and pose a direct threat to America's national security. For this reason, Iran's nuclear ambitions demand a response that will compel Iran's leaders to change their behavior and come to understand that they have more to lose than to gain by going nuclear...

Roy L. Pearson Jr., who sued a dry cleaners for $54 million over a missing pair of pants, is getting a chance to revive the case.

More than a year after his lawsuit was rejected by a judge in D.C. Superior Court, Pearson has persuaded an appellate panel to review the case. The D.C. Court of Appeals will hear arguments Oct. 22, officials said.

Pearson drew international attention with the suit against Custom Cleaners, a Northeast Washington shop he said lost his pants in spring 2005. Among other things, he claimed that he was defrauded by a "Satisfaction Guaranteed" sign posted by the owners, Soo and Jin Chung.

In a separate case, he is suing the District government, alleging that it broke the law when it decided against reappointing him last year to a 10-year term as an administrative law judge, a job that paid $100,000 a year. The commission that oversees administrative law judges challenged his judgment and temperament during two years on the bench...

...a man responsible for 300 Jewish organizations proposing to fund all his campaign on one condition which was to place the keys of foreign policy in his hands, and Kennedy refused such proposal. The result was the assassination of John Kennedy.

...I walked into the packed lecture hall, standing in the back with my laptop open ready to take notes. During the first half of the lecture, Professor Laurel Thatcher Ulrich discussed the answers she received from the first session of this class (which I did not attend), when she had asked those in the room to jot down a list of things that come to mind when she said the words "American Revolution."

Not surprisingly, the discussion centered on the names of the major founding fathers. But this, we were told by Professor Ulrich, was "Founding father chic." In other words: we possessed only an immature understanding of American Revolutionary history, clouded by the glorification of its main political players. A short discussion of the founding documents ensued, during which Professor Ulrich quoted the historian Pauline Maier on the issue of the founding documents having achieved a quasi-sacred status in the civic religion of American politics, in a way comparable to the way other religions revere their own holy texts.

Professor Ulrich then announced, with some disappointment, that only 3 students-out of a response pool of approximately 180-wrote down the word slavery. This comment began the second half of her lecture, which might well have been titled, "A Short Break From American History to Glorify, Not the Founding Fathers, But Barack Obama." Professor Ulrich, after mentioning the (real and disturbing) relationship between the founding fathers and slavery, proceeded to play, on two massive projector screens, the first few minutes of Barack Obama's famed speech on race in Philadelphia this past March...

The plot thickens but there is a bottom line; there always is. Obama is the one who decided not to send anyone of rank to stand with the Jews who are opposing Amadinejad's genocidal and nuclear policies. The Jews in charge did not lean on Obama to come himself, (which would have made sense) but instead, no doubt under some unimaginably heavy pressure, dis-invited Palin. What? Allow Palin to take on the Iranian Monster on prime-time TV and win even more votes? New York Jewish votes? Women's votes? Anything but that.

To cover themselves, the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations now claim to have dis-invited all politicians; too "partisan," too distracting from the matter at hand.

I'll say...

Democratic and GOP pollsters say that in at least one respect the Republican Jewish Coalition has received a bum wrap: Despite initial suggestions to the contrary, the RJC's recent survey testing negative messages about Barack Obama was not a "push poll."...

...Democrats now concede that the RJC did not conduct a push poll, though they continue to insist that the messages the organization was testing were filled with distortions and untruths. They have called on Brooks to release the full list of questions...

...Democratic pollster Mark Mellman, who was John Kerry's pollster during the 2004 presidential campaign, said the lengthy list of questions appears to indicate that the survey was designed to test messages and "did not meet the definition of a push poll," which usually lasts for a much shorter time than a regular survey, since the point is to spread the negative message to as many people as possible.

While clearing the RJC of the push poll claim, Mellman said it appears the organization was testing messages that wouldn't stand up to scrutiny -- and that he wouldn't test as a pollster...

The organizers of an anti-Iran rally Monday rescinded their invitation to Alaska Governor Sarah Palin after Democrats protested that her presence would turn the event into a political rally, McCain campaign and Jewish community sources said...

The Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations created a political tempest by inviting Palin to speak without clearing her invitation with another speaker, Senator Hillary Clinton. Clinton promptly dropped out of the event, saying it would be seen as unduly political. The McCain campaign then pressed Senator Barack Obama to join Palin on the stage in a show of unity against Iran.

The Obama campaign in turn offered to send Congressman Robert Wexler of Florida to the event, but the appearance that the non-partisan group was aligning with the Republican ticket put the group and its president, Malcolm Hoenlein, under heavy pressure from Jewish Democrats, including members of the conference, members of Congress, and the liberal group J Street, not to give Palin a platform, sources said. Hoenlein told the McCain campaign that he would have to rescind Palin's invitation or cancel the rally.

The organizers, I'm told, have formally disinvited all elected and political officials, but the move was about Palin.

Following is an excerpt from an interview with Paul Sheldon Foote, professor of accounting at California State University, Fullerton, which aired on Press TV on September 11, 2008.

Interviewer: Do remarks by Israeli minister Rafi Eitan - indicating the use of force and resorting to violence against the officials of a sovereign country, a member of the United Nations - constitute a violation of international law?

Paul Sheldon Foote: This is the story of his life in all respects. It is very appropriate that we are talking about this on the anniversary of 9/11, because a year after September 11, 2001, this man was traveling around the United States for a year, using a false name on an Israeli passport, meeting with known drug dealers. The FBI monitored him very carefully, on the assumption that he might be plotting another 9/11-type attack on America that he could blame on the Islamic world. So it is beyond illegal... This guy makes the Mafia look like choir boys.

As the proud father of a member of the US Air Force, I am getting a bit tired of people like Steve Almond, a clone of Joel Stein. I wonder how many service men or women he actually knows. I wrote the following to introduce people to two of the heroes that I know...

To see him in a normal social setting, the casual observer would note only the college student, dressed in a plaid flannel shirt and blue jeans. Of average height, you might notice that he had an above average muscular build, but nothing to make him stand out in a crowd. The very slight limp, as he crossed the room, would be hard for most people to detect.

The other young man is certainly notable for his height. Standing almost 6'5", with the build of an athlete, he does stand out. But his youthful face and business casual attire would peg him as a young man just entering the business world.

These two young men, both well known to me, have several things in common. Both are Eagle Scouts from my very small central Iowa BSA district. Both are the same age as my youngest son, and served with him as summer camp counselors at our local Scout reservation. One is currently a college student, while the other graduated with my son from Iowa State. They have one more thing in common. Both are decorated combat veterans, and survivors of wounds received in Iraq.

The college student is Sgt Mike F. Mike joined the Army after attending our local Junior College. He was sent to Iraq with a Bradley Fighting Vehicle Unit. His leadership earned him an early trip back to the US, not to be excused from serving in combat, but to train with the first Stryker Brigade before they were deployed to Iraq. While in Iraq for the second time, he led a squad into a building to clear it of terrorists. Entering one room, he was bayoneted from behind by a terrorist hiding in a closet. After disposing of his attacker, Sgt. Mike returned to his Stryker, and put his Scout experience to work. He grabbed a roll of duck tape, wound it around his bleeding leg, and rejoined his squad. He was not seen by any medical personnel until his entire unit safely returned to their forward operating base. He was stitched up and kept overnight for observation, returning to his unit the next day. He completed his entire 15 month tour without any further interruption. He told me the limp can be fixed with some tendon repair, but that can wait until he finishes his graduate degree.

The tall young man joined the Army ROTC while in college. After graduation, he went through his initial training, and was accepted into Army Ranger training. Second Lieutenant Robert S. was sent to Iraq with his Rangers, and saw his first combat two days after arrival. In the first month, he learned about one disadvantage to his height. He was struck in the head by a snipers bullet. It pierced his helmet, and he describes how "it kind of rattled around doing some minor damage to my forehead, ear and hairline." Several months later, while on patrol, he was hit by a rocket propelled grenade. The warhead missed hitting a bone, and so did not detonate. However, the fin left a deep gash in his thigh. He finished his patrol before seeking medical care and multiple stitches. Asked how he completed his mission with the pain from his leg, Lt. Rob said he didn't really notice the pain. He was too busy looking for the second RPG that usually followed an initial attack. While Rob survived both wounds, neither the sniper nor the RPG shooter did. He has a month off, before returning to duty. He was offered a position with Army intelligence, but instead applied for Special Forces training. He is excited that he was accepted for this assignment, as he wants to remain with the guys who have boots on the ground.

So, two young Iowa sons, exceptional not in appearance, nor notable for athletic competition, or business success. Average in most respects, they would not be noticeable while in a mall, at church, or having a cold tall one with friends. They are among the thousands of quiet heroes that walk among us every day. Yet most of us do not know them, nor do we thank them. Two young men who do the things that most of us can't do, or won't do. Yet, everything we are able to do so freely are the result of the quiet courage of men and women like them.

I look at these young men, and the twenty-two other former Scouts and adult leaders (my Air Force son among them) serving in the military from my small District here in flyover country, and I am in awe of the character they show every day. We are indeed blessed that we have heroes that walk among us. Unknown, unrecognized, but there when we need them the most.

"She is a longtime member of the Assemblies of God. That's all you need to know."

That's how political blogger Andrew Sullivan recently summarized Governor Sarah Palin's faith background...

PERHAPS the most insidious byproduct of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has been a reflexive sanctification of the military. To put this in bumper stickerese: Support the Troops.

Well, I have an ugly confession to make: I don't support the troops - at least not unconditionally. When somebody tells me they serve in the military, my first impulse isn't to say, "Thank you for your service!" like those insufferable chickenhawks on talk radio.

My first impulse is to say, "I'm sorry to hear that." Because I am. I'm sorry to know that the person I'm talking to might someday be maimed or killed on the job, or might someday kill someone else. Or refuel a plane that drops bombs on buildings...

Let's see...

Loathing of the American military, check...

A Michelle Obama-like attitude about the United States, check...

A preening, over-bearing ego, check...

And an utter cluelessness about economic and political realities, check and check...

...UPDATE! I had forgotten that Steve Almond is the nitwit who resigned from his part-time job at Boston College because they dared to invite Condi Rice as a commencement speaker. Apparently he was lobbying for William Ayers instead...

FROM A LISTENER:

I had to laugh this morning about the Globe article and his "feelings" about the military. It reminded me of a conversation with my 10 year old who "feels" that it is wrong to kill animals but still wanted a hamburger for dinner.

...The new ad highlights an endorsement of Senator Barack Obama's Israel and Middle East views by commentator Pat Buchanan. Buchanan said on MSNBC:

Let me say about Israel here. My position on Israel is frankly awful. It is like Mika [Brzezinski]'s father's, it's a lot closer to Barack Obama's than it is John McCain. I think Barack is right, we ought to talk to the Iranians, he's right to oppose the war and, frankly, he's right to say the Palestinian people have got a terrible deal over there and their suffering ought to be recognized. That's Obama's position. It's my position. I don't think it is a Nazi position. (http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0908/Buchanan_hugs_Obama.html, 9/2/08)

"By no means does the RJC infer from this quote that Barack Obama supports the views of Patrick Buchanan. Rather, we are highlighting the fact that Buchanan believes that his views are in line with Obama's on the critical issues of Israel and Iran," said RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks. "Because Pat Buchanan shares Obama's views on Iran and Israel, how comfortable can the Jewish community be with those positions?" Brooks added.

..."The fact that the Republican Jewish Coalition is targeting Jewish Americans with these disgraceful and deceitful tactics fits in perfectly with the dishonorable campaign that John McCain has chosen to run. Peddling lies and hateful distortions to scare Jewish voters is reprehensible and deeply disrespectful to Jewish Americans," said Florida Congressman Robert Wexler, an Obama supporter...

Senator Clinton has canceled an appearance at a New York rally next week after organizers blindsided her by inviting the Republican vice presidential candidate, Governor Palin, aides to the senator said yesterday.

Several American Jewish groups plan a major rally outside the United Nations on September 22 to protest against President Ahmadinejad of Iran.

Organizers said yesterday that both Mrs. Clinton, who nearly won the Democratic nomination for president, and Palin, Republican candidate John McCain's running mate, are expected to attend...

...Clinton aides were furious. They first learned of the plan to have both Ms. Clinton and Mrs. Palin appear when informed by reporters.

"Her attendance was news to us, and this was never billed to us as a partisan political event," a Clinton spokesman, Philippe Reines, said. "Senator Clinton will therefore not be attending."...

Sure, the controversy has faded -- except the Muslim American Society is running this mosque. According to a 2004 Chicago Tribune exposé, the Muslim American Society is the name under which the Muslim Brotherhood operates in the United States. Nor does it mention that according to a 1991 Brotherhood memorandum about its strategy in the U.S., it is embarked upon a "grand Jihad" aimed at "eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah's religion is made victorious over all other religions."...

Jordan had no streetcars, horse-drawn or otherwise, less than three hundred miles of railroads, and only 360 miles of roads. And it was probably the only Arab State that had not a single Jew. Jews, by an unwritten law, were forbidden to take up residence. This explained in part Jordan's commercial and cultural lethargy. The King proved kind to the Armenians, many of whom settled in Jordan after fleeing from Palestine. Displaying energy and resourcefulness, they had already achieved some prominence in many fields of endeavor, adding materially to Jordan's progress.

The next day I met a group of English deserters who were living in the Royal Air Force barracks on Amman's outskirts. I knew most of them from Jerusalem, and took their pictures. One of the boys -- I prefer to identify him only as Sidney -- gave me a message to take to his parents in Birmingham if I should ever get back to England:

Dear Mum & All:

   I am still alive & having a wonderful time fighting the Jews in Palestine. I am joining the Arab Legion. As soon as it is possible I will send you my address. Your loving son always,

Sidney

Anthropology professor J. Lorand Matory '82, a leading scholar on the African diaspora who is known for his strong criticisms of Israel and his opposition to former University President Lawrence H. Summers, will leave Harvard next fall to chair Duke's African and African-American studies department.

Matory said that Harvard did not respond to Duke's offer with a comparable position or salary...

At least one professor welcomed the news of Matory's departure. The anthropologist's longtime antagonist, law professor Alan M. Dershowitz, a fierce defender of Israel, said that he was "thrilled" that Matory was leaving.

"I think it's the best thing that's happened to Harvard in a long time," he said in a phone interview yesterday. "Privately, there's a real sense of exhilaration and relief that this man is no longer a blot on our community."...

Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian-American writer Nonie Darwish, which aired on Al-Hayat TV on August 7, 2008.

Nonie Darwish: Jihad was the most important thing. Every day, at school in Gaza, we would sing songs or recite poems about killing ourselves, about waging Jihad, and dying as martyrs. I would recite these poems daily. We were always taught to love Jihad, to love the resistance, and to desire death...

Darwish: I grew up in the days of Gamal Abd Al-Nasser. All the radio stations would constantly play songs about Jihad for the sake of Allah, and the love of fighting. All Egypt's wealth was wasted on preparations for war. In many places in the Koran and the Hadith, the Muslims are instructed to fight, not just in wars. They are instructed to kill anyone who is not a Muslim. In other words, it is the Muslim's duty to kill the Jews. Even if...

Interviewer: Even if they are non-combatants?

Darwish: Yes, such things indeed happened. In the seventh century, there was no Israel or Palestine, or anything. How come we don't have any compassion or love for non-Muslims? This is what led me to feel that we... I used to think that this was a good thing. I used to think that the love of fighting and martyrdom was a good thing...

In Time, Bobby Ghosh, the magazine's world editor, has written perhaps the single most morally vacuous piece about the War on Terror since the attacks of September 11. Ghosh took a trip to Saudi Arabia and while there he decided not to dwell on 9/11 because "It seemed unfair to burden Riyadh with the legacy of its most notorious son -- especially since the city wants so badly to expurgate him from its self-image."...

...How did the Saudis do it? They used a combination of brute force and subtle persuasion. Few details are available on the crackdown on terrorist groups because the authorities here don't much like talking about it. So it's a fair guess that many of the means they used wouldn't pass any Western human-rights test. Riyadhis speak in whispers about midnight raids, arrests, torture and summary executions. The government also put the squeeze on al-Qaeda's sources of funding by imposing rules on previously unmonitored religious charities. In private, officials boast that bin Laden's organization receives no money from his homeland...

...Speaking of taxpayer screwjobs, the Boston Globe-Democrat has a story today about the opening of Menino's Mosque. Interestingly, this long and detailed article leaves out the two key facts about the Islamic Society of Boston's project:

The taxpayers of Boston subsidized the building of this mosque by "donating" a $2 million parcel of land to the ISB for less than $200,000- -- a deal arranged when a member of the Boston Redevelopment Board also just happened to be a fundraiser for the ISB.

The ISB is notorious for its support of terror advocates like Mullah Al-Qawadari, who was the first prominent mullah to urge women to become suicide bombers, too. The ISB has actually distributed the teachings of this sicko. And now, thanks to Mayor Menino, they've got a publicly-funded mosque to continue their work.

I made it high enough to report that there's a nice view to be had of the crescent-topped mosque dome silhouetted against the distant skyline, but not high enough to tell you what it would be like if you were the muezzin who had to go up there five times a day to chant the call to prayer. Of course, the muezzin can't tell you either -- he's no fool -- they're going to broadcast the prayer summons (which will only happen during the day out of respect for the neighbors) by loudspeaker.

...I saw Salma Kazmi, former ISB spokesman, interviewed on Emily Rooney's show a few years ago, and she was asked about if the ISB was going to broadcast the call to prayer. She said "We have no plans to do that, at this time." Wiggle words!...

At yesterday's Workmen's Circle event, I asked Jessica Maase about the timing and volume of calls to prayer from the minaret.

She said that there would be no public calls to prayer audible outside the mosque at all, and that they had to get a special 'entertainment permit' from the city for the topping-off ceremony.

When Jessica Maase [Masse] states that "no public calls to prayer audible outside the mosque at all" she is being disingenuous at best. This tactic of starting prayers at a low volume than slowly raising the volume until the sound of the Muslim prayers are even able to penetrate solid concrete has been used around the world since the late 1970's...

Holiness of Jerusalem to Islam has always been politically motivated

When the Prophet Mohammad established Islam, he introduced a minimum of innovations. He employed the hallowed personages, historic legends and sacred sites of Judaism and Christianity, and even paganism, by Islamizing them. Thus, according to Islam, Abraham was the first Muslim and Jesus and St. John (the sons of Miriam, sister of Moses and Aron) were prophets and guardians of the second heaven. Many Biblical legends ("asatir al-awwalin",) which were familiar to the pagan Arabs before the dawn of Islam, underwent an Islamic conversion, and the Koran as well as the Hadith (the Islamic oral tradition), are replete with them.

Islamization was practiced on places as well as persons: Mecca and the holy stone - al-Ka'bah - were holy sites of the pre-Islamic pagan Arabs. The Umayyad Mosque in Damascus and the Great Mosque of Istanbul were erected on the sites of Christian-Byzantine churches - two of the better known examples of how Islam treats sanctuaries of other faiths.

Jerusalem, too, underwent the process of Islamization: at first Muhammad attempted to convince the Jews near Medina to join his young community, and, by way of persuasion, established the direction of prayer (kiblah) to be to the north, towards Jerusalem, in keeping with Jewish practice; but after he failed in this attempt he turned against the Jews, killed many of them, and directed the kiblah southward, towards Mecca.

Muhammad's abandonment of Jerusalem explains the fact that this city is not mentioned even once in the Koran. After Palestine was occupied by the Muslims, its capital was Ramlah, 30 miles to the west of Jerusalem, signifying that Jerusalem meant nothing to them.

Rediscovering Jerusalem

Islam rediscovered Jerusalem 50 years after Mohammad's death....

More than 50 percent of Britons believe that polygamy is legal in the United States; in fact, it is illegal in all 50 states. Almost one-third of Britons believe that Americans who have not paid their hospital fees or insurance premiums are not entitled to emergency medical care; in fact, such treatment must be provided by law.

Seventy percent of Britons think the United States has done a worse job than the European Union in reducing carbon emissions since 2000; in fact, America's rate of growth of carbon emissions has decreased by almost ten percent since 2000, while that of the EU has increased by 2.3 percent.

Eighty percent of Britons believe that "from 1973 to 1990, the United States sold Saddam Hussein more than a quarter of his weapons." In fact, the United States sold just 0.46 percent of Saddam's arsenal to him; Russia, France, and China supplied 57 percent, 13 percent, and 12 percent, respectively.

The majority of Britons believe that since the Second World War, the United States has more often sided with non-Muslims than with Muslims. In fact, in 11 out of 12 major conflicts between Muslims and non-Muslims, Muslims and secular forces, or Arabs and non-Arabs, the United States has sided with Muslims and/or Arabs...

Iraq's parliament has punished a Sunni lawmaker who visited Israel.

The parliamentary immunity of Mithal al-Alousi was lifted, making him subject to prosecution. He also has been banned from traveling outside of Iraq and from attending parliamentary sessions.

Speaking Sept. 10 at a conference on terror in Herzliya, Alousi called for stronger cooperation between Iraq and Israel in fighting terror.

The Iraqi legislator visited Israel in 2004 to participate in a counterterrorism conference, after which his two grown sons were murdered by extremists in an apparent payback.

The movement to write-in Ron Paul instead of electing the two israeli/mormon candidates is picking up speed, and this is just something that is happening of its own accord, as the israeli media tries to push the unbelievable and despicable on Americans once again. People are waking up to the bush/israeli treason and, in fact, Americans are getting their noses shoved in it, even the idiot fundamentalists who put bush in and are now trying to deny they had anything to do with it.

Every time those lying fools go to the gas station they must now face their folly, and their own treason, whether they like it or not. These holier than thou twits put lords and kings above Americas well being and now we have a depression as well as a police state and ultra surveillance everywhere...

...As israels next dramatic charade nears (The elections) expect much more spying by the mormon church and their israeli counterparts here (Mossad/CIA/KGB/FBI/DHS/SUK/ASS). Also, watch israel do their best to start more wars and create false flag terrorism. Many sites are being harassed, passwords stolen, and worse. To understand the true measure of israels mind control police state here and now, read the book DEVILVISION...

What I don't understand is, if you write in Congressman Ron Paul (God bless him), won't the ballot be spoiled? It would be just like drawing in a happy face. Ron Paul (God bless him) is telling American voters to support their local independants...

An Islamic militant leader warned that former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney could be the target of suicide bombers unless he cancels his first concert in Israel, reported the British Sunday Express.

The celebrated rock star plans to arrive in Israel as part of a world tour, and give a single concert at Tel Aviv's Park Hayarkon on September 25.

Omar Bakri, an Islamic preacher, said McCartney's decision to perform as part of Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations made him the enemy of Muslims worldwide.

"If he values his life, Mr. McCartney must not come to Israel," Bakri was quoted as saying. "He will not be safe there. The sacrifice operatives will be waiting for him."

Bakri added, "Instead of supporting the people of Palestine in their suffering, McCartney is celebrating the atrocities of the occupiers," Bakri was quoted as saying...

McCartney was also been pressured by pro-Palestinian groups to cancel the show, but has resisted.

"I was approached by different groups and political bodies who asked me not to come here. I refused. I do what I think, and I have many friends who support Israel," McCartney said in an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth...

Following is an excerpt from a religious program featuring Saudi Cleric Muhammad Al-Munajid, which aired on Al-Majd TV on August 27, 2008:

...To view MEMRI TV's Page on Saudi Cleric Muhammad Al-Munajid visit here.

Muhammad Al-Munajid: What is the position of Islamic law with regard to mice? The Shari'a refers to the mouse as "little corrupter," and says it is permissible to kill it in all cases. It says that mice set fire to the house, and are steered by Satan. The mouse is one of Satan's soldiers and is steered by him. If a mouse falls into a pot of food - if the food is solid, you should chuck out the mouse and the food touching it, and if it is liquid - you should chuck out the whole thing. Because the mouse is i-m-p-u-r-e!

According to Islamic law, the mouse is a repulsive, corrupting creature. How do you think children view mice today - after Tom and Jerry? Even creatures that are repulsive by nature, by logic, and according to Islamic law have become wonderful and are loved by children. Even mice. Mickey Mouse has become an awesome character, even though according to Islamic law, Mickey Mouse should be killed in all cases.

The factional fighting in the Palestinian Territories may have died down, but a new political battleground has emerged - the hospitals of the Gaza Strip...

...two weeks ago, things got much worse for Dr Shatat, when more than half of his colleagues decided to go on strike.

"It's very hard to work during this strike," he says. "Of course, it affects the quality of our service, mortality rates have increased."

"Here, on the first day of the strike, a newborn baby died. He was very ill, but there were so few medical workers, that the constant supervision he needed could not be given."

At the end of the ward, 26-year-old Um Givara cradles her baby, waiting for the use of a ventilator.

"We're all worried about this strike because our sick children need doctors and nurses to look after them," she says. "I can tell, things are not like before."...

...The strike is being driven by the pro-Fatah Medical Workers Union.

Its director, Osama Najjar, in Ramallah, says scores of striking doctors in Gaza have been called in for interrogations, and had their private clinics closed down as punishment.

But he is adamant the strike will continue until Hamas backs down.

In fact, he is calling for much more pressure to be applied to Hamas in Gaza. Even asking that Mr Abbas hold on to the aid money he receives to pay for Gaza's electricity.

"It is like we are giving Hamas a furnished apartment in Gaza and paying for it, while Hamas humiliates our people. We should think hard about paying these bills for them, let Hamas be responsible."

These days, people may not be getting killed in the cross-fire of Fatah-Hamas gunfights on the streets of Gaza, as they used to, but the political wrangles are still hurting them...

A Seattle judge has thrown out a ballot proposal on divesting from companies that do business with Israel.

King County Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez ruled that Initiative 97, which would have compelled Seattle's retirement board to divest from some companies that do business with Israel, exceeds the scope of power for ballot initiatives.

"The funds in question are pension funds, not city funds. They belong to workers who will need them to retire," Gonzalez said. "Given that, [I-97] is beyond the scope of the initiative process."

The initiative, which supporters had been telling residents was a measure to divest from Iraq, had prompted opposition from several Jewish organizations, the mayor and most of Seattle's city council members...

...it shouldn't be a surprise that the Muslim Student Union chapter at the University of Southern California (USC) acts in accordance with its sister chapters, and until recently hosted a violent quote in the "compendium" of hadiths on the USC Muslim Students Association page. The quote advocates massacring Jews as a pathway of redemption for Muslims, and reads as follows:

Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him.

The David Horowitz Freedom Center worked with the Simon Wiesenthal Center to draft a letter to Alan Casden, a USC trustee, about the "hadith of hate," as it is often called. Disturbed that a call for genocide should be on the USC server, Casden contacted Provost Chrysostomos Nikias to express his concern. Nikias investigated the matter and sent Casden the following letter:

The passage you cited is truly despicable and I share your concerns about its being on the USC server. We did some investigations and I have ordered the passage removed.

The passage in the hadith that you brought to our attention violates the USC Principles of Community, and it has no place on a USC server.

...USC's decision to remove the hadith from the school's server marks the first time that an American university has recognized that the Muslim Students Association's agenda involves the promotion of ethnic hatred. It is also the first time that an administrator has acted to remove "despicable" material.

A statement issued by the Muslim Student Union at USC suggested that the hadith was being taken out of context and called the school's decision to remove it from the website "unprecedented and unconscionable." The Muslim Student Union accused the USC administration of practicing unfair censorship...

A professor who signed a letter supporting the academic boycott of Israel is the most recent addition to Columbia's Middle Eastern studies department, which has come under scrutiny in the past over allegations of political bias.

Timothy Mitchell, who was a politics professor at New York University and a previous director of the center for Near Eastern studies there, is now a professor of Arab studies at Columbia and the head of the graduate studies program in the Middle Eastern studies department.

Mr. Mitchell, who specializes in modern Middle East politics, has authored several books on modern Egypt and postcolonial theory. A Hebrew and Arabic literature graduate student in the department, Suzanne Schneider, said Mr. Mitchell is "a big deal in the field."

In 2004, he signed an open letter, along with several hundred other academics calling themselves "defenders of Palestinian academic freedom and supporters of the academic boycott against Israel," demanding that Israeli academics take a stand on Israeli government policy towards Palestinians...

...Mr. Mitchell is married to Lila Abu-Lughod, a professor of anthropology and gender studies at Columbia. She also signed the letter in support of the Israeli academic boycott, along with other professors in the department, including Joseph Massad, Hamid Dabashi, George Saliba, and Gil Andijar. She is the daughter of Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, to whom the Columbia comparative literature professor, Edward Said, who has since died, dedicated his most famous book, "Orientalism."...

"A terrible stench - the smell of a rotting, dead animal," says left-wing activist Dr. David Nir in disgust. For over three years he has been participating in protests against the separation fence, but he wasn't prepared for this: Three weeks ago, at a demonstration in the West Bank village of Na'alin, he personally experienced the debut of Boash - the Skunk - a new method of dispersing demonstrations, developed by the Israel Police.

"We are very experienced, very familiar with the rubber bullets, the tear-gas grenades and the water hoses, but suddenly two Border Policemen arrived with strange packs on their backs and began to spray demonstrators with a liquid," says Nir. "It was terrible. Some people got completely drenched. Fortunately, I managed to stay out of range and did not get too much of it, but the smell stuck to me, too. It was absorbed into my skin. It was really unpleasant. I couldn't stand the stench; you deserve a gold medal for putting up with that smell.

"A week after the demonstration in Na'alin, a white truck arrived at a demonstration in Bil'in," Nir continues. "It began approaching and we tried to keep our distance." The truck stopped near the fence, "and then we heard the motor working harder in order to create condensed air for operating the Skunk cannon. And then it came: Strong bursts of a foul-smelling spray were showered on us, directly hitting those who didn't move away, at up to a 30- to 50-meter radius. Because the wind was with the cannon, most of us were enveloped in vapors of stench that penetrated our lungs. On the way to Tel Aviv we drove with open windows, but we were unable to get rid of the smell even when we sprayed ourselves with deodorant. There are no words to describe it; it's the worst odor imaginable. It's an experience equal to jumping headfirst into a sewer. The Palestinians simply call it 'shit.'"...

...Ben Harosh said he had an entirely different approach: "I created a liquid from only natural organic substances, which when combined produced the unique smell. I looked for a substance that came from 'green' agriculture, in particular. Along the way I smelled a large number of odors, and in the end I found a particular one and began to investigate it. I arrived at the lab that produces this substance and together we began to develop the basic ingredients of the Skunk. For two years we took apart the substance and in a process of trial and error, arrived at the new substance."...

...What is the liquid composed of?

"The formula is secret and unique, but I can say that the dominant components are yeast and protein."

A health drink?

"You can drink it, and you would definitely have a great protein drink. The only problem is that it has a very powerful stench."...

...I think the first order of business with Palin is to ask her to give the same kind of speech that was demanded of John F. Kennedy re his Catholicism. Kennedy said he would obey the Constitution over the Pope. Will Palin obey the Constitution over her husband?...

Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, the (thankfully) former President of the Chicago Theological Seminary, is promoting a religious litmus test for Presidential candidates and revealing her deep bigotry towards people who don't share the same faith as she does. Her latest post on the Washington Post's "On Faith" blog should put her comfortably in the company of other bigots like David Duke and Louis Farrakhan. Maybe that's overstating it a bit... Duke and Farakhan have an audience (however small) that takes them seriously while nearly no one knows who Thistlethwaite is or cares what she thinks...

Madam, - Philip O'Connor of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (Opinion, August 21st) defends the assertion that Israel's blockade of Gaza constitutes "collective punishment" and a violation of international law, but fails to engage with a single one of my arguments to the contrary (Opinion, August 21st).

He contents himself instead with quoting an assortment of statements by UN, EU and Irish Government officials in support of his position, an appeal to consensus which calls to mind the adage "100,000 lemmings can't be wrong."...

...Palestinians must, like electorates the world over, take responsibility for their democratic choices - in this case the handing of power to a jihadist terrorist organisation that has murdered over 500 innocent Israelis as part of its campaign to "liberate all historic Palestine from the impurity of the Jews." - Yours, etc,

SEÁN GANNON,

Irish Friends of Israel..

Criticizing the Boston Globe-Democrat for bad journalism is mocking the terrible fashion sense of teenage boys: Why would you expect any better?

But the hate-filled, fact-deficient scrawlings of failed political operative Dan Payne in the Boston Globe-Democrat today manages to break new ground -- quite an accomplishment for an op-ed page that regularly features the writings of James "I Can't Find My Meds" Carroll.

Today is -- if they haven't gotten the word at Morrissey Blvd -- the 7th anniversary of 9/11. And today -- when we remember the mass murder of Americans at the hands of Al Qaeda and the Taliban -- is the day that Dan Payne chooses to write:

[Sarah Palin]'s got a Taliban-like tolerance for beliefs unlike her own.

Stay classy, Boston Globe-Democrat! Hey, maybe on December 7th you can print that Gov. Palin is a "Conservative kamikaze who should never have made it past Hawaii!"

If I had the time and interest, or if I believed there was still a fact-checker on the payroll at the BG-D, I would take the time to point out the many glaring fact errors in Payne's pathetic tirade.

The obvious ones...

Palestinians set to prepare an official and popular ceremony to receive Egyptian campaigners who are traveling to Gaza Strip to break the closure of the territory, a Palestinian official said on Wednesday.

Jamal al-Khodary, an independent Palestinian lawmaker who leads a lobby against the Israeli blockade on Gaza Strip, representatives of Hamas government in Gaza and lawmakers will join the ceremony to receive the convoy.

The Egyptian convoy made up of parliamentarians, journalists, Islamic and leftist leaders. They will travel by land to Rafah crossing point between Egypt and Gaza and try to enter the Hamas-controlled territory.

But reports said that Egyptian security forces blocked the roads to Sinai before the convoy. The campaigners could pass some roadblocks but the road is still not cleared before the convoy which carry aid, according to the reports...

Egyptian authorities on Wednesday blocked an opposition convoy headed for the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip, a security official said. The group of judges, independent MPs, members of the main opposition Muslim Brotherhood and activists from other parties wanted to protest the continued closure of the Rafah crossing by Israel and Egypt.

Police set up checkpoints on the road between Ismailiya and the town of Al-Arish in northern Sinai, about 48 kilometers from Rafah, the security official said, asking not to be identified.

"The authorities have reinforced security measures on ferries crossing the Suez Canal into the Sinai Peninsula," he added...

...Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Fawzi Barhoum, said in a statement, emailed to press, "we have been looking forward that such a convoy would help break the Israeli blockade on Gaza"...

British left-wing activist Lauren Booth remains stuck in Strip after journey to 'break' Israeli naval blockade, equates situation to Holocaust, Darfur...

The film was an Egyptian tale about a Bedouin triangle in which a desert sheikh contrived to kidnap the fiancee of another sheikh the night before the wedding. The lover was killed and the girl murdered by her father for letting herself be kidnapped, and presumably kissed. As for the ending, nobody lived happily ever after. Thus Arab justice triumphed -- for there is no greater sin in the lexicon of Arab morals than feminine unchastity. No one cares about the morals of the male.

There are strange happenings in the world of international jurisprudence that do not bode well for the future of free speech. In an unprecedented case, a Jordanian court is prosecuting 12 Europeans in an extraterritorial attempt to silence the debate on radical Islam.

The prosecutor general in Amman charged the 12 with blasphemy, demeaning Islam and Muslim feelings, and slandering and insulting the prophet Muhammad in violation of the Jordanian Penal Code. The charges are especially unusual because the alleged violations were not committed on Jordanian soil.

Among the defendants is the Danish cartoonist whose alleged crime was to draw in 2005 one of the Muhammad illustrations that instigators then used to spark Muslim riots around the world. His co-defendants include 10 editors of Danish newspapers that published the images. The 12th accused man is Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders, who supposedly broke Jordanian law by releasing on the Web his recent film, "Fitna," which tries to examine how the Quran inspires Islamic terrorism.

Jordan's attempt at criminalizing free speech beyond its own borders wouldn't be so serious if it were an isolated case...

More worrying, the U.N. Human Rights Council in June said it would refrain from condemning human-rights abuses related to "a particular religion." The ban applies to all religions, but it was prompted by Muslim countries that complained about linking Islamic law, Shariah, to such outrages as female genital mutilation and death by stoning for adulterers. This kind of self-censorship could prove dangerous for people suffering abuse, and it follows the council's March decision to have its expert on free speech investigate individuals and the media for negative comments about Islam...

The war in Lebanon may have ended two years ago, but that hasn't stopped the UN from exploiting the conflict to besmirch Israel. In a move that harks back to the bad old days of UN hypocrisy and double standards vis-à-vis the Jewish state, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon is reportedly set to demand that Israel reimburse Lebanon and Syria for damage caused during the war against Hizbullah.

Yes, you read that correctly. The UN wants Israel to pay for having the gall to defend itself. According to the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, Ban has prepared a report that he will present to the upcoming General Assembly in New York. Based on calculations made by the World Bank, he will insist that Israel cough up approximately $1 billion in "compensation" for material and environmental harm to Lebanese society and infrastructure.

In addition, Ban will purportedly highlight the bombing of the Jiyeh power plant 30 kilometers south of Beirut in mid-July 2006. As a result of the attack, thousands of barrels of oil are said to have spilled into the Mediterranean, polluting parts of the Lebanese and Syrian coastlines and causing ecological damage to marine life.

The report is a sequel, of sorts, to one issued last fall by Ban, in which he called on Israel "to take the necessary actions toward assuming responsibility for prompt and adequate compensation to the government of Lebanon." Since Israel rightly ignored that preposterous request, Ban has now apparently decided to turn up the heat in the hopes of pressing Jerusalem to pay...

If the Lebanese authorities allow their sovereign territory to be used as a launching pad for attacks, as they did in the summer of 2006, they bear responsibility for what ensues, including any damage caused as a result of Israel's actions taken in self-defense.

You don't need to be a moral philosopher or international legal scholar to figure that one out...Why shouldn't Syria, Lebanon and Iran be made to pay for their sponsorship of Hizbullah and the damage it wrought?...

We've been flooded for the past few days with queries about dubious Internet postings and mass e-mail messages making claims about McCain's running mate, Gov. Palin. We find that many are completely false, or misleading.

• Palin did not cut funding for special needs education in Alaska by 62 percent. She didn't cut it at all. In fact, she tripled per-pupil funding over just three years.
• She did not demand that books be banned from the Wasilla library. Some of the books on a widely circulated list were not even in print at the time. The librarian has said Palin asked a "What if?" question, but the librarian continued in her job through most of Palin's first term.
• She was never a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a group that wants Alaskans to vote on whether they wish to secede from the United States. She's been registered as a Republican since May 1982.
• Palin never endorsed or supported Pat Buchanan for president. She once wore a Buchanan button as a "courtesy" when he visited Wasilla, but shortly afterward she was appointed to co-chair of the campaign of Steve Forbes in the state.
• Palin has not pushed for teaching creationism in Alaska's schools. She has said that students should be allowed to "debate both sides" of the evolution question, but she also said creationism "doesn't have to be part of the curriculum."

We'll be looking into other charges in an e-mail by a woman named Anne Kilkenny for a future story. For more explanation of the bullet points above, please read the Analysis.

Fwd: ICAHD-USA: Urgent Message from Jeff Halper Posted by: "hassan fouda" hfouda@[snip] hfouda Mon Sep 8, 2008 10:22 am (PDT)

ICAHD-USA wrote: Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2008 12:15:08 -0400 (EDT)
From: ICAHD-USA
To: hfouda@yahoo.com
Subject: ICAHD-USA: Urgent Message from Jeff Halper

The S.S. Liberty arrives at port in Gaza

"What we've done shows that people can do what governments should have done. If people stand up against injustice, we can truly be the conscience of the world." --Jeff Halper

We write to you at this time to both CELEBRATE the historic voyage of 44 international activists to Gaza and, at the same time, inform you of some DIFFICULT NEWS about the future of ICAHD:

As you know, ICAHD Director Jeff Halper, our partner on numerous educational and Palestinian home rebuilding projects, was one of 44 activists from 17 nations who successfully sailed from Cyprus to Gaza aboard two fishing boats in defiance of Israel's blockade. The group was met by 40,000 "joyous Gazans." Jeff and the others brought with them 200 hearing aids; the main aim of the symbolic blockade-busting action was to publicize the plight of the people in this besieged territory. As the only Israeli Jew on this historic challenge to Israel's blockade, Jeff was arrested and spent the night in an Israeli jail upon his return, where he tells us he was protected from threatening Israeli right-wingers by his Palestinian cellmates. He still faces possible indictment. In his latest communication, he describes how "reaching Gaza and leaving has created a free and regular channel between Gaza and the outside world. It has ... forced the Israeli government to make a clear policy declaration that it is not occupying Gaza and therefore will not prevent the free movement of Palestinians in and out (at least by sea)."

To read more details about Jeff's experience and about the Free Gaza effort, go to our website at www.icahdusa.org or visit the ICAHD website at www.icahd.org.

Unfortunately, right before this historic boat ride, ICAHD was informed that they had lost their funding from the European Union, funding essential to their operations. Here is an excerpt from Jeff Halper's email to us:

That said, those who want us "gone" make a mistake in assuming that we will close if our funding is withdrawn. Our plan is to keep the office open and retain two staff; I will work on a voluntary basis until the financial picture improves.

We continue to be very grateful for the support we've received from the ICAHD-USA community; your contributions have been an important supplement to the EU funding, allowing us to launch the Constructing Peace Campaign. Now we are turning to you for help; we must work together to preserve ICAHD's position as a leader in the Israeli peace movement.

I promise you, no matter what, ICAHD will not be silenced.

We obviously want to help Jeff and ICAHD honor this critically important promise. As the board of ICAHD-USA, we have pledged to raise at least $30,000 in the next couple of months. Here is what we have planned.

First, we have invited Jeff to the States for a fall tour. As you know, Jeff's tours are one of the primary ways that we educate people in the U.S. and build support for our joint work. A tour at this critical time will both serve the educational mission of our two organizations and help raise desperately needed financial support for ICAHD's work.

Second, we are reaching out to you. Our plan is raise money with both this email appeal as well as a letter we are sending out through the regular mail. We will grant what we raise to ICAHD to support our joint educational and house building efforts. Individual board members have agreed to match what you give in response to this specific appeal dollar for dollar.

It is not our custom to send urgent appeals and we wish we didn't have to now. All of us appreciate how generous you have been with both your moral and financial support in the past. At this critical time, we're asking you to consider making another thoughtful and generous donation to get us to the $30,000 goal. If you have given ICAHD-USA $25 in the past, consider whether you might be able to double that amount. If you have given $50, or $100, or $250, please also consider doubling, increasing, or repeating that gift now. Whatever you can give, at whatever level, will be deeply appreciated. Keep in mind that your gift will have twice the punch, as we will match your giving dollar for dollar.

We, along with Jeff, promise you that ICAHD will not be silenced. Together, we will continue to be a loud and persistent voice for justice.

For a strong ICAHD supported by both a strong ICAHD-USA family and a strong will to carry on,
the ICAHD-USA Board

Betsy Barlow
Marc Braverman
Hassan Fouda
John Hickox
Jack Holtzman
Jennifer Loewenstein
Dave Neunuebel
Tom Stern
Wafa Shami
Mary Lou Smith

Between Sept. 10 and Sept. 14, 2008 the World Council of Churches, an ecumenical organization headquartered in Switzerland, is holding a "debate" regarding the issue of "promised land." The debate, which will be attended by approximately 65 theologians from WCC member churches, is billed as an effort to promote an "understanding of how theological issues may be related to the [Arab-Israeli] conflict."

The debate is designed to initiate the "process of developing a handbook for congregations and parishes, aimed at facilitating their reflection on issues like the Promised Land, the Church and Israel, justice and peace."

This may sound innocent enough, but publicity surrounding the event indicates that the debate will place Biblical claims to land under close scrutiny without making any effort to understand Muslim teachings about the land, or the Jewish people. In particular, the press release makes repeated references to Bible, but offers no mention of the Koranic theology regarding land and the Jewish people. The lack of any reference to this issue is troubling, because it suggests that a very important part of the Arab-Israeli conflict will not be addressed by the conference...

Following are excerpts from an interview with Mus'ab Hassan Yousef, the son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, which aired on Al-Hayat TV on August 19, 2008

B'Tselem has pulled it off again, duping the mainstream media into believing it has tallied civilian Palestinian casualties when it has done no such thing. The oft-cited organization bills itself as a human rights group devoted to rigorous documentation of Israeli conduct in the West Bank and Gaza aimed at educating the public and encouraging political action. Yet the so-called documentation continues to be marred by serious flaws that journalists routinely ignore while reporting the group's charges at face value.

B'Tselem, it should be noted, is heavily funded by European entities, including German, British, Irish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian and Swiss groups, as well as the Ford Foundation and the New Israel Fund.

Among the most deceptive claims by the group are those embedded in its yearly statistical summary of Palestinian fatalities. B'Tselem reported in a Dec. 31, 2007 press release that in 2007 Israeli security forced killed 373 Palestinians and that "about 35 percent of those killed were civilians who were not taking part in the hostilities when killed." These claims were reported without caveat in the New York Times, Voice of America, the Guardian, and the New York Jewish Week, among others.

Despite the press release's statement about the percentage of those killed who were civilians, B'Tselem's data do not actually break down Palestinian casualties according to civilians or combatants...

...But if this detailed analysis is too long or tedious for the time-strapped journalist or other skeptic to absorb, here's one quick fact which should raise serious question marks about B'Tselem's credibility on Palestinian casualties: the organization still lists Mohammad Al-Dura as killed by Israeli security forces.

Gaza, Asharq Al-Awsat - Shortly after nightfall, blinding heavy dust suddenly rises over the Al-Sikkah Street, which is adjacent from the western side to the Birkat al-Wazz, to the west of the Al-Maghazi Refugee Camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip.

At the same time, the sound of heavy fire can be heard, while minutes later, tens of men belonging to the al-Qassam Brigades, military wing of the Hamas Movement, are seen moving fast in columns in the street with their full military gear.

To the north of that neighborhood, lies the garrison of "Battalion 13", which is the main training location of the al-Qassam Brigades in the area. In the past, this site belonged to the security agencies of Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, but it was seized during the decisive military action that ended with Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip.

Since the calm agreement between Israel and Hamas came into play, it has been clearly evident that Palestinian resistance factions, without exception, have taken advantage of the ceasefire by conducting military training for their recruits...

When a Palestinian gunman burst into a bat mitzvah celebration in northern Israel in 2002, killing 6 people and wounding more than 30, the attack sparked anger and despair, and military retaliation by Israel. It also prompted a lawsuit in New York, which has taken an unusual turn.

The family of the sole American, Aharon Ellis, killed in the attack, charged the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority with orchestrating the shooting that killed him. The suit was brought under a law that allows American victims of international terrorism to sue for triple damages in federal court.

A federal judge awarded the family a default judgment of $192.7 million in damages after the P.L.O. and the Palestinian Authority refused to defend the suit on the merits.

But now the Palestinians, holding themselves out as a partner in the Middle East peace process, have changed lawyers, and asked the judge for a second chance. The judge, Victor Marrero of Federal District Court in Manhattan, has agreed to set aside the judgment and give them that chance.

But there's a catch. He is requiring the Palestinians to post a bond of $192.7 million so that if they lose again, the damages would be paid...

..."Civil litigation, even in normal circumstances, is time-consuming, expensive, and you certainly can't be certain of victory," said John F. Murphy, a Villanova University law professor. "That kind of problem is exacerbated in the terrorist context."

Professor Murphy estimated that there had been a few dozen cases under the law, which was passed in the early 1990s after the murder of Leon Klinghoffer in a Palestinian hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro. Another expert, Beth Van Schaack, an associate law professor at Santa Clara University, said that the legal process, if the Palestinians do participate fully, could allow an inquiry into Palestinian finances, and whether money went to support terrorism.

"The Abbas administration has gotten themselves in a little bit of a bind," Professor Van Schaack said. "If they are claiming, 'We can't put up the bond because we don't have the money,' " she said, "that opens the door to do some level of discovery about money."...

I see one after another of the mainstream media outlets which have made important contributions to the factual underpinnings of the counter-terrorism effort dropping off that beat. Editors in the print media are shifting terrorism experts on their staffs towards investigations of political candidates. At least three such reporters at three major papers are now chasing Sarah Palin stories (I haven't had time to chase down everybody in "the business"). The move away from terrorism investigations started over a year ago as the print media entered into a long-term decline in ad revenues, but the trend has been accelerated in this election year. It is an unfortunate coincidence that true experts, with some of the best contacts and intel in the private CT community, are being moved out of their chosen fields just as we approach the anniversary of the 9-11 attacks...

If you have five dollars and Chuck Norris has five dollars, Chuck Norris has more money than you.

There is no 'ctrl' button on Chuck Norris's computer. Chuck Norris is always in control.

Apple pays Chuck Norris 99 cents every time he listens to a song.

Chuck Norris can sneeze with his eyes open.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday that the government must begin preparing at once for the evacuation of settlers from the West Bank.

At the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting, Olmert said that Israel would likely have to uproot West Bank settlers as part of a future peace agreement with the Palestinians.

In light of Israel's continuing peace talks with the Palestinians, he added, it would be proper to think about providing cash incentives for settlers to leave voluntarily.

Olmert said it was important to learn from the mistakes of Israel's last evacuation of settlers - the 2005 pullout from the Gaza Strip - and it was important to plan ahead.

"Since it is possible we will need to make decisions in the future that will involve the evacuation of residents, we should already prepare for this now and think about its consequences, especially while serious [peace] negotiations are being held," said Olmert.

The prime minister made the comments at the beginning of a debate on Vice Premier Haim Ramon's evacuation-compensation bill at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. The bill would enable settlers who live beyond the security fence to receive financial compensation for relocating west of it...

...When I arrived at the marketplace it was already teeming with traqffic, pedestrians, and idlers as taxis, trucks, and other traffic from Amman and Jerusalem passed through. Trucks were arriving with scrap lumber, metal, pipes, and assorted machinery from the direction of the Dead Sea. I decided to investigate.

In an Armenian barbershop on Jericho's main street, I met a young refugee from Jerusalem named Torkom. Together we got into a bus going in the direction of the Dead Seam then walked the remaining distance over the semi-arid backed earth. Vast brine evaporation-beds, dazzling white under the sun, met the eye in all directions, connected by miles of pipelines. Beyond them was the huge plant of Palestine Potash, Ltd. (a once highly profitable British corporation owned jointly by English and Jewish capital), which converted the fabulous mineral wealth of the Dead Sea into common salt, bromides, and chlorides of magnesium, potassium, and calcium.

Photographing as I went along, I saw, with Torkom, a sight that sickened me. The huge plant, stretching over many acres, with its generators, transformers, pumps, and a thousand and one irreplaceable items of machinery -- transported at tremendous cost from England and the United States was systematically being looted and destroyed: building by building, machine by machine, board by board. Hundreds of Arab scavengers, working with teams of donkeys, mules, and trucks, had already stripped away most of the vital working parts, and were now tearing at the corrugated tin, pipes, wire, boards, and small machines. What they could not take apart they smashed with sledge hammers. Instead of utilizing the giant plant, or at least expropriating some of the equipment for constructive purposes -- in a land so desperately in need of lumber, glass, ironwork and all else that was in such abundance here -- they were destroying everything, ruthlessly, cold-bloodedly, insanely.

The plant already looked like a miniature Hiroshima, minus the ravages of fire. And this wanton destruction was more or less officially sanctioned by the Trans-Jordan officials. A dozen Arab Legion guards were on hand to keep law and order among the looters.

Further on, I saw the remains of Hotel Kallia, a noted winter resort on the shores of the Dead Sea. Near by were the ruins of the cottages built by the Palestine Potash Corporation to house not only officials, engineers and laborers, but scientists and achaeologists. About a mile away I saw what was left of Beth Harava, a settlement founded by the Jews, who had brought water there to make the desert bloom, so that trees and flowers grew 1,300 feet below sea level.

When the war broke out the isolated colonists packed away their belongings, automobiles and all, and set sail during the night for the southern shore, site of a smaller potash concession. I found their homes stripped to the ground, with only the framework of a few houses remaining. I walked through one ruined home, where sash, doors, and flooring were all gone. Unable to rip off the toilet bowl, the Arabs had broken it in half. Overwhelmed by this destruction all about us, Torkom and I walked on to the shores of the Dead Sea itself. It was a silent lake, forty-seven miles long and ten miles wide. For thousands of years the Jordan had poured mineral sediment into it. I found wrecked boats; pilfered wreckage dotted the shore as far as the eye could reach.

Torkom and I silently hitch-hiked back to Jericho on a huge truck laden with plunder. Our scavenger friends drove straight to the bazaar and began to sell their loot as junk -- which was what they had made out of the once valuable machinery and equipment.

...According to several Wellesley Muslim students, there was strong peer pressure in the Wellesley Muslim student group to wear headscarves and cover up. Otherwise, you were not considered a "real Muslim." Another student reported being told "not to run and not to laugh too loudly" at an Al-Muslimat weekend retreat. At Wellesley, Hillary Clinton's college, imagine a woman being told this!...not all Muslims are happy about the "Muslim mafia" and their monopoly on leadership in local Islamic organizations...

A South Florida man is working to get a presidential pardon for his father, who helped smuggle weapons to Jews fighting in what was then Palestine in the late 1940s

Weapons for sale, prison time and secret air missions halfway around the world.

All made up the hidden life of Charles Winters, an average guy, quiet, who never spoke with his children about those years just after World War II.

His son, Jimmy Winters of Miami, discovered the details of his father's adventures only after Charles Winters died in 1984. Before then, there were just some small clues.

As when teenage Jimmy asked his father to buy him a gun so he could go hunting with his buddies in the Everglades. His dad said no, that he wasn't allowed to buy guns.

He didn't add that it was because he was a convicted felon.

''That was the first hint I had that something had happened,'' said Jimmy Winters, 44.

In the late 1940s, nearly everyone in this area's large Jewish community, in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, wanted to help in the struggle to create Israel.

But Charles Winters was a Protestant from Boston. When it was all over, he was the only man to serve time. He served 18 months in prison for his help flying weapons to the Jews in Palestine, fighting for what would later become Israel...

...Kerry has been in the Senate for 24 undistinguished years, occasionally popping up in Massachusetts news for wind-surfing and bar hopping in Nantucket. Kerry fatigue is working in Beatty's favor and the idea that Massachusetts would benefit from two-party representation in Washington could be catching on.

...Beatty gives us his card, which lists on its reverse an impressive list of credentials: Delta Force, Purple Heart, FBI hostage rescue, CIA counterterrorism, "safe schools expert," small businessman. (Actually, he wasn't that small.)

Kerry has held that seat for 24 years, and Massachusetts last elected a Republican to the Senate in 1972, when Sen.-elect Joe Biden was a scant 29. Beatty has an uphill climb.

More than 37.2 million people tuned in for coverage of the third night of the 2008 Republican National Convention, which featured Sarah Palin's much anticipated national debut.

Wednesday night's RNC broadcasts attracted just a 1.1 million fewer viewers than Barack Obama's record-breaking speech on day four of the Democratic convention.

Coverage of day three of the GOP convention drew a large female audience (19.5 million) -- 5.2 million more women than tuned in for day two of the Democratic convention, when Hillary Clinton addressed the delegates, and 6.9 million more women than watched Joe Biden accept the Democrats' vice presidential nomination last Wednesday night...

On Thursday night, John McCain's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention bested Barack Obama's record-breaking viewership numbers from last week by 500,000 viewers.

More than 38.9 million people tuned in to coverage of the final night of the GOP convention. In comparison, Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic convention drew 38.4 million viewers.

For the third night in a row, more women (19.2 million) than men (17.9 million) watched the RNC coverage...

The Chabad envoy to Alaska on Thursday praised State Governor and recently nominated Republican candidate for Vice President Sarah Palin for her steadfast support for Israel.

"Based on my personal acquaintance with Governor Palin, I can confidently say that if she is elected, the Jewish people and the State of Israel will have a great friend and admirer in the White House," Rabbi Yosef Greenberg told Haaretz.

Greenberg has lived in Alaska for the past 17 years and he is coordinating Chabad activities in the state, where some 6,000 Jews live. He said that he meets the governor for friendly chats on a regular basis and that he has almost free access to her office.

Even in her previous role as the mayor of Wasilla, Greenberg continued, she maintained very good relations with the local Jewish community.

He said that when the Wasilla Conservative congregation inaugurated a new synagogue a few years ago, they were pleasantly surprised by her decision to attend the ceremony, even though she had not been invited.

She said at the event that she felt it was right to attend in order to express her satisfaction with the fact that people of the Jewish faith have a house of worship.

For Israel's 60th anniversary in May, Palin passed a resolution recognizing Alaska's relationship with Israel...

The official Palestine Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) has cancelled the airing scheduled for this week of a new soap series, Matabb (Arabic for "speed bump").

Producer Fareed Majari confirmed Friday the cancellation, which members of the production team said came as a complete surprise.

They said no grounds were given, but speculated political reasons may be behind it, with some of the topics being dealt with in the series seen as too liberal for official Palestinian "state" television.

Officials at the PBC told Deutsche Presse-Agentur Friday that the German-funded series - the first homemade Palestinian soap opera - was not cancelled, but postponed until certain scenes were changed...

...They said some scenes were found offensive to the general Palestinian public and therefore could not be aired on Palestine TV, an official and nationalist institution.

Among others, certain scenes failed to show the Israeli occupation in a negative enough light, they charged. The officials mentioned one scene in which a Palestinian gives a flower to Israeli soldiers at an army checkpoint in the West Bank.

They insinuated the series was influenced by the fact that it was funded by Germany's Goethe Institute and the European Commission, which would not back programs that do not encourage coexistence between Israel and the Palestinians.

Observers said Palestine TV, owned by the West Bank administration of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of the secular Fatah party, is already struggling with claims by the rival radical Hamas.

Palestinian children are taught through formal and informal education to see a world in which the state of "Palestine" exists and replaces all of Israel. A children's quiz broadcast this week on Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority television shows how thoroughly Palestinian children have absorbed this message.

Children on the TV program routinely identified every Israeli city and landmark as part of the State of "Palestine." Haifa, Ashdod and Eilat are described as Palestinian ports, the Sea of Galilee is said to be a Palestinian lake, and the area of the Palestinian state is said to be 27,000 square kilometers. In fact, the total area of Gaza and the West Bank totals 6,200 square kilometers, so the only way to come up with the larger measurement is to include undisputed Israeli territory in the calculation. The "State of Palestine" is said to border Lebanon and the Red Sea; in fact, these are Israel's borders.

In an unsettling reminder of the 2007 Hamas children's TV program that used a Mickey Mouse character to preach hatred and world Islamic domination, the child host of this week's PATV (Fatah) program is sitting in front of a photo of Mickey Mouse...

A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today called on John McCain and Sarah Palin to 'avoid divisive Islamophobic rhetoric' and instead offer 'inclusive' addresses at this week's GOP convention in Minnesota.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said Sen. McCain and his supporters have in the past used rhetoric that many American Muslims believe serves to marginalize religious minorities, particularly Muslims...

Not until the first streaks of gray showed on the horizon did I realize that I was in totally strange territory. I was lost -- on a narrow road dug into the side of a scrubby mountain. Not even the famous Tower of the Russian Church on the Mount of Olives, highest landmark outside the Old City, was visible. Before me spread range after range of Judean hills. Below me -- at the bottom of a chasm some five hundred feet deep -- was an Arab mud village. Behind me an escarpment rose to the height of fifty feet. From my left a husky young Arab came down the trail, prodding his laden donkey before him.

"Sabah il-kher," I said. "Good morning."

"Sabah il-kher," he replied, and moved on.

A moment later another Arab came down the road. He was an oldish man with close-set eyes, no brighter facially than the donkey on which he was mounted. He rode on it with his stubby legs astride, his sandaled feet sticking out on each side, keeping step with the donkey's hopping stride.

"Sabah il-kher," he said.

"Sabah il-kher," I answered.

A talkative old man, he stopped the animal and jabbered...

"Ana Inglisi. Muta'asif la ahki Arabie," I said. "Assalamu aleikum. Peace be upon you."

He looked at me a moment, his eyes narrowing into slits.

"Yahoodi! Anta Yahoodi! You are a Jew! You are a Jew!" he screamed.

I whipped out an identification card, the one issued by the Mufti's Arab Higher Committee in Jerusalem. He held it upside down.

It dawned on me that the old man was illiterate.

"Yahoodi! Yahoodi!" he screamed like a siren, in a voice that carried deep into the mountain crags and the village below. He jumped off the donkey, snatched at his dagger and, still yelling Yahoodi, Yahoodi, roared down at me.

I took to my heels down the trail. He was easy to out distance, but racing toward me was the young Arab I had met a minute ago. He was brandishing his dagger above his head; the sun's glare made it dazzle like a fiery sword. I felt for a moment as though Damocles' blade was about to fall on me. There was absolutely no escape! Below me was the chasm, with precipitous sides. I'd roll to the bottom without stopping. Above me was the escarpment. I'd be overtaken easily if I tried to flee. Flee where? The old man would have awakened the countryside -- racing through it like Paul Revere on a donkey souynding the alarm against the Yahoodi. A hundred daggers would have sought me out.

As I ran toward the young man I kept yelling: "Armani, Inglisi! Ana mish Yahoodi!" I girded myself for the inevitable hand-to-hand encounter on the mountaintop, for I had no notion of letting myself be stabbed in the throat. I noted the Arab's guard was open. I would try to knock him down the cliff with a quick right uppercut before the old man reached us, then push the latter down and flee. I have no idea what made me address the young Arab in English, for he was the last man on earth I'd expect to understand me, but I screamed just before closing in: "Hold back your knife till you've seen my papers!"

"You are English, or Armenian, which?" my incredulous ears heard him say.

"Read this quick. It's from the Mufti. Read this, and this. I'm a friend of all Arabs. I love the Arabs. I'm no Jew."

The old man was upon us, his dagger all set, the blood lust hot in his eyes. At his age he wanted to make sure of getting into Allah's heaven and there was no easier way than by killing either a Yahoodi or a Gentile. The young Arab grabbed him and held him back. The two struggled briefly on the mountain trail, a dagger in the hands of each. "Yahoodi! Yahood! the old man kept yelling, trying to get at me. Up the trail two more Arabs came into view and prodded their donkeys as they saw the struggle. The young man won out in the nick of time, for the newcomers had dismounted and were coming down upon us with their daggers out.

My benefactor began to argue vigorously with the old man; he showed my papers to the newcomers, and they, too, agreed I was a pro-Arab Christian and that every courtesy should be shown me. The old man kept muttering "Yahoodi!" At last he was quieted down and put his dagger away...

...We walked on for a while, then the Arab pointed to a fork in the road.

"That way is Jerusalem."

They all wished me peace and a safe journey, except the old man whom I had cheated of his place in heaven, for which he'd never forgive me.

Scientists have known since 2004 that wind farms kill bats, just as they kill birds, even though the flying mammals should be able to avoid them. Many biologists thought that the bats, like their avian counterparts, might be falling victim to the fast-spinning turbine blades. But an examination of 188 hoary and silver-haired bats killed at a wind farm in southwestern Alberta in Canada between July and September in 2007 showed that nearly half showed no external injuries--as would be expected if the giant blades had smashed the flying mammals to the ground.

Instead, 90 percent of the 75 bats the researchers ultimately dissected had been killed by burst blood vessels in their lungs, according to results presented in Current Biology -- suggesting that the air pressure difference created by the spinning windmills had terminated them, not contact with the blades.

"As turbine height increases, bat deaths increase exponentially," says ecologist Erin Baerwald of the University of Calgary in Alberta, who led research into the deaths as part of her master's project. "What we found is a lot of internal hemorrhaging."...

...Still, the EU's generosity with our money - it has paid the Palestinian Authority €256 million so far this year - creates two problems. First, the PA is run by Hamas, which is on the EU's list of designated terrorist operations. Under Brussels rules, funding such an organisation is a criminal offence. Euro-lawyers have sought to circumvent the letter of the law by funnelling aid money through NGOs, but this is sheer sophistry. Many of the PA's officials are Hamas militants, whose salaries are being paid while they serve their sentences in Israeli jails.

Second, it is becoming increasingly clear that overseas aid is arresting a political settlement in the region. (This goes equally for American subventions to Israel which, as Ron Paul argues, have sapped the enterprise of the Jewish state; but that's another story.) Palestinians receive more assistance, per capita, than any other people on Earth, and live in one of its most violent spaces. The two facts are connected.

The idea that aggression can be buried under a landslide of euros sounds reasonable, but it is based on a false premise, namely that political violence is caused by economic deprivation. This notion derives ultimately from Marx and, like many of his ideas, it looks plausible on the page, but turns out to be specious...

The widely-disseminated Arab Moslem position that the Temple Mount is not Jewish has been debunked - by the Supreme Moslem Council (Waqf) of Jerusalem, in a Temple Mount guide published in 1925.

In 1997, the chief Moslem cleric of the Palestinian Authority, Mufti Ikrama Sabri, stated, "The claim of the Jews to the right over [Jerusalem] is false, and we recognize nothing but an entirely Islamic Jerusalem under Islamic supervision..."

Thus began a campaign to convince the world that the millennia-old natural association between Jerusalem and Jews was untrue. As Islamic Movement chief Raed Salah stated in 2006, "We remind, for the 1,000th time, that the entire Al-Aqsa mosque [on the Temple Mount], including all of its area and alleys above the ground and under it, is exclusive and absolute Moslem property, and no one else has any rights to even one grain of earth in it."

However, it is now known that this "absolute" Moslem claim is actually not as absolute as claimed. In fact, back in 1925, the Supreme Moslem Council - also known as the Waqf, which has overseen Temple Mount activities on behalf of the Moslem religion for hundreds of years - boasted proudly that the site was none other than that of Solomon's Temple.

The Jerusalem-based Temple Institute reports that it has acquired a copy of the official 1925 Supreme Moslem Council Guide Book to Al-Haram Al-Sharif (the Moslem name for the Temple Mount). On page 4, the Waqf states, "Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which 'David built there an altar unto the L-rd...', citing the source in 2 Samuel XXIV,25...

PROTESTERS who interrupted a concert by Israeli musicians five times yesterday sparked outrage - but the audience for the recital, by the Jerusalem Quartet as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, responded with a standing ovation.

The Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign claimed to have struck a blow against a group they claimed were "cultural ambassadors for Israel".

Five Scottish protesters stood up, one after another, at the concert in the Queen's Hall to disrupt the performance, denouncing "Israeli army musicians", before being bundled out and arrested. The group campaigns for a cultural boycott of Israeli.

But the audience yesterday rallied to the musicians - two of whom are members of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, established to promote harmony between Israeli and Arab musicians and cultures. Some tried to silence the protesters or drown them out with clapping.

Hugh Kerr, formerly the MEP overseeing the European Parliament's music policy, was at the concert. He said: "I am a long-time supporter of Palestinian rights, as I suspect were many in the Queen's Hall this morning. However, the effect was totally counterproductive."...

A Jerusalem judge Sunday said a U.S. court ruling that the Palestinian Authority must compensate the family of a U.S. citizen killed by Palestinian militants is enforceable in Israel too.

The judgment means the family's lawyers can claim around $117 million from Palestinian Authority assets in Israel.

The Palestinians are expected to appeal.

Sunday's court ruling was the latest development in a long-running lawsuit filed by relatives of Yaron Ungar, who also holds Israeli citizenship, and his wife Efrat, who were killed by Hamas gunmen in June 1996.

His family filed a claim with a federal court in Rhode Island, saying the gunmen acted under orders from the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization, making them responsible.

"I'm Captain Moustafa Kamal Sidki, in charge of Intelligence in this area...I understand you are a reporter for Al Misri. May I see your credentials -- all of them?" Under the gaslight he examined each minutely, including those given me by Major Abdullah el Tel.

"The Arab Legion is no friend of Egypt," he said, heatedly.

"What's wrong with the Arab Legion?" I asked innocently.

"Everything," he snapped, eyes blazaing. "They're not Arab. They're British agents, British tools...I am a strong Arab nationalist. I was released from prison only four months ago with seventeen other officer."

"The charge must have been serious," I said, surprised at his candor.

"Yes. Plotting against the government. We were all nationalists -- the nucleus of something much bigger to come. We want to build the future of the Arab world on a military basis. We are in a coma now. It will take us at least ten years to awaken. Only military regimes can accomplish this, and at the same time protect us from our enemies -- England and the Jews."

"What is your program?" I asked.

"To rid Palestine of the Jew though it takes a hundred years. Out motto is: 'God and Nation, Egypt First!' We trust no one except the military. We have learned much from the Germans. All Egyptian officers respect German militarism and admire the way the Germans were able to fight against the whole world. The other Arab countries will follow our example -- when they see that we have the solution of the Jewish problem, the British problem, the home problem."

"You are speaking very frankly with me," I said. "I appreciate that."

"It's because I think you are one American who is sympathetic to us." His black eyes were fastened on me. "You are, aren't you?"

"Oh, yes, yes," I said...

"Will he listen to his inner voice? But it is said that this voice is only formed by the habit of judging and feeling in the bosom of society and according to the laws; it cannot, then, serve to establish them."

GAZA CITY -- Mahmoud Zahar doesn't believe in evolution. And he has not evolved.

For Gaza, this could be a problem.

The fierce co-founder of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, a surgeon by training, spent 20 minutes after a recent interview with CBC News insisting that evolution is false.

After all, said Zahar, a donkey can eat shrubbery and survive, but a human cannot.

"So, a donkey is more evolved than a human? No," scoffs Zahar, seemingly satisfied that he has demonstrated the absurdity of Charles Darwin's theory. Allah, not evolution, made man, he says, and Allah has made Gaza Islamic.

"We are already an Islamic society," Zahar declares. "We are controlled by Islam in every quarter, every inch of our life."...

A Pakistani lawmaker defended a decision by southwestern tribesmen to bury five women alive because they wanted to choose their own husbands, telling stunned members of Parliament this week to spare him their outrage.

"These are centuries-old traditions and I will continue to defend them," Israr Ullah Zehri, who represents Baluchistan province, said Saturday. "Only those who indulge in immoral acts should be afraid." The women, three of whom were teenagers, were first shot and then thrown into a ditch.

They were still breathing as their bodies were covered with rocks and mud, according media reports and human rights activists, who said their only "crime" was that they wished to marry men of their own choosing Zehri told a packed and flabbergasted parliament on Friday that Baluch tribal traditions helped stop obscenity and then asked fellow lawmakers not to make a big fuss about it.

Many stood up in protest, saying the executions were "barbaric" and demanding that discussions continue Monday. But a handful said it was an internal matter of the deeply conservative province.

"I was shocked," said lawmaker Nilofar Bakhtiar, who pushed for legislation calling for perpetrators of so-called honor killings to be punished when she served as minister of women's affairs under the last government. "I feel that we've gone back to the starting point again," she said. "It's really sad for me."