May 2009 Archives

...Just days after the arrests, the mosque community is left grappling with the big questions: Why didn't we report Maqsood? How could we have been so sure he was up to no good but stayed silent?

"Maybe the mistake we made was that we didn't report him," Muhammad told his congregation in his sermon Friday. "But how are we going to report the government agent to the government?"

...Abbas reveals his "peace" strategy, which basically consists of him not doing anything to advance peace except to wait for Obama to get rid of Netanyahu. He also admits that he turned down Olmert's offer of 97% of the West Bank (although other press leaks put the number as 100%, including land swaps) and acknowledged that Olmert accepted the principle of the "right of return." If Abbas turned down this offer, which went beyond anything offered by Barak (it also supposedly included all of Arab East Jerusalem and the internationalization of the Old City of Jerusalem), how can any reasonable person in the US administration believe that pressuring Israel is the solution?

A Community Discussion

Obama and Netanyahu: Hopes for America and Israel

Thursday, June 18, 2009
7:30 p.m.
Temple Emanuel, 385 Ward Street, Newton Centre

As the new Obama and Netanyahu administrations work together to shape the U.S.-Israel relationship, many American Jews are examining their own connection to Israel and its importance to their lives. A panel of experts on American Jewish life and politics examine what the future holds, and the role American Jews should play.

• Moderator: Dr. Jonathan Sarna is the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History and the director of the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program at Brandeis University.
• Jeremy Ben-Ami is the executive director of J Street, a Washington-based Jewish political group. He is the former communications director for the New Israel Fund, and former deputy domestic policy adviser to President Bill Clinton.
• Steve Grossman is businessman, and political activist from Newton. He was formerly the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, president of AIPAC, and is currently a co-chair of the Israel Advocacy Committee for Combined Jewish Philanthropies.

Please join us for an interesting and informative program.

Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, a candidate for the top job at the United Nations culture agency UNESCO, apologised on Wednesday for calling for Israeli books to be burnt.

Hosni's bid for the post of UNESCO director-general provoked the anger of a group of intellectuals who accused him of anti-Semitism in a French newspaper column last week.

Writing in the same newspaper, Le Monde, Hosni said he regretted his words, adding that they had allowed detractors to associate him with things that he found hateful.

"Nothing is more distant to me than racism, the negation of others or the desire to hurt Jewish culture or any other culture," he wrote.

Philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, film director Claude Lanzmann and Nobel Peace Price laureate Elie Wiesel last week quoted Hosni as saying he would burn Israeli books and calling Israeli culture "inhuman".

"Let's burn these books; if there are any, I will burn them myself before you," they quoted Hosni as telling a member of parliament who had confronted him about the presence of Israeli books in Egyptian libraries last May.

Hosni told media at the time he had meant the comments as "hyperbole".

However, Levy, Lanzmann and Wiesel urged other countries to block his candidature, saying Hosni had a record of denigrating Israeli culture.

"Israeli culture is an inhuman culture; it's an aggressive, racist, pretentious culture that is based on a simple principle, stealing that which does not belong to it and then claiming it as its own," they quoted him as saying in 2001.

Hosni avoided any direct reference to this in his article, but said that if any of his remarks had appeared harsh, they should be placed in the context of the suffering of the Palestinian people...

In its June 2009 issue, National Geographic demonstrated just how far it is willing to go to scapegoat Israel for suffering in the Middle East. The magazine also showed how far it is willing to go to downplay the role Islam played in contributing to Christianity's decline in the region. In an article written by Don Belt, the magazine's senior editor for foreign affairs, National Geographic portrays the departure of Christians from the Holy Land as largely a consequence of Israeli (and American) policies in the region. The article offers no honest description of the well-documented mistreatment of Christians at the hands of Muslim majority populations in the Middle East...

Sri Lanka last night scored a major propaganda coup when the UN human rights council praised its victory over the Tamil Tigers and refused calls to investigate allegations of war crimes by both sides in the final chapter of a bloody 25-year conflict.

In a shock move, which dismayed western nations critical of Sri Lanka's approach, the island's diplomats succeeded in lobbying enough of its south Asian allies to pass a resolution describing the conflict as a "domestic matter that doesn't warrant outside interference".

The Geneva council session, called because of alarm over the high number of civilian casualties as well as the island's treatment of displaced Tamil civilians, also condemned the Tamil Tigers for using ordinary people as human shields.

In another controversial development, it supported the Sri Lankan government's decision to provide aid groups only with "access as may be appropriate" to refugee camps.

The Sri Lankan government denies it was responsible for the death of even one of the 7,000 civilians the UN estimates were killed in the first four months of the year...

...The Red Cross and other groups say they remain barred from visiting some camps despite repeated requests for access...

The Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement on Monday denied reports that it had decided to prevent any Palestinian groups from firing rockets into Israel from Gaza.

"We don't make such decision without agreeing with all the resistance factions in a national consensus," said Ihab al-Ghussein, spokesman for the Interior Ministry of the Hamas government, which holds sway in the Gaza Strip.

"The factions have the right to respond to any Zionist crime using any sort of resistance and there is no lull with the (Israeli) occupation until the moment," he added.

He explained that his ministry's forces can intervene and stop the rockets "only when there is a national decision to stop them."...

As US President Barack Obama prepares to welcome Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to Washington this week, and US lawmakers debate the proposed $900 million aid package to the PA, it is once again using its money to proclaim that killing Israeli woman and children is heroic.

The PA chose to name its latest computer center "after the martyr Dalal Mughrabi," who led the most deadly terror attack in the country's history. Her 1978 bus hijacking killed 37 civilians, 12 of them children, including American photographer Gail Rubin. The new center is funded by Abbas's office, which is bolstered by Western aid money. (Al-Ayyam, May 5).

US law prohibits the funding of Palestinian structures that use any portion of their budget to promote terror or honor terrorists. But $200 million of the US's proposed $900m. aid package is earmarked to go directly to the Abbas government, which regularly uses its budget to honor terrorists. In fact, this latest veneration of Mughrabi is not an isolated case, but part of a continuing pattern of honoring terrorists that targets children in particular.

Last summer the PA sponsored "the Dalal Mughrabi football championship" for kids, and a "summer camp named for martyr Dalal Mughrabi... out of honor and admiration for the martyr." It also held a party to honor exemplary students, also named "for the martyr Dalal Mughrabi," under the auspices of Abbas and at which Abbas's representative "reviewed the heroic life of the martyr [Mughrabi] (Al-Hayat al-Jadida, July 23, 24 and August 8, 2008). All these PA-funded activities were to teach kids that a killer of women and children is a role model.

TWO MONTHS AGO, 31 years to the day after the Mughrabi murders, PA TV broadcast a special program celebrating the terror attack, calling the killing of 37 civilians "one of the most important and most prominent special operations... carried out by a team of heroes and led by the heroic fighter Dalal Mughrabi" (PA TV March 11). And its not just Mughrabi who is a Palestinian hero. Despite professions in English by Abbas and other PA leaders that they reject terror, the PA has a long and odious history in Arabic of celebrating terrorists as role models and heroes, often involving US money.

USAID spent $400,000 in 2004 to build the Salakh Khalaf soccer field. After Palestinian Media Watch reported that Khalaf was the head of the Palestinian terror group that murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics and two American diplomats in Sudan, USAID publicly apologized and said it would demand that the PA change the name. The name was never changed...

...Most malarial deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, where chloroquine once worked but started failing in the 1970s as the parasite developed resistance. Even if the drugs were still effective in Africa, they're expensive and thus impractical for one of the world's poorest regions. That's not an argument against chloroquine, bed nets or other interventions. But it is an argument for continuing to make DDT spraying a key part of any effort to eradicate malaria, which kills about a million people -- mainly children -- every year. Nearly all of this spraying is done indoors, by the way, to block mosquito nesting at night. It is not sprayed willy-nilly in jungle habitat.

WHO is not saying that DDT shouldn't be used. But by revoking its stamp of approval, it sends a clear message to donors and afflicted countries that it prefers more politically correct interventions, even if they don't work as well. In recent years, countries like Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia have started or expanded DDT spraying, often with the help of outside aid groups. But these governments are also eager to remain in the U.N.'s good graces, and donors typically are less interested in funding interventions that WHO discourages.

"Sadly, WHO's about-face has nothing to do with science or health and everything to do with bending to the will of well-placed environmentalists," says Roger Bate of Africa Fighting Malaria. "Bed net manufacturers and sellers of less-effective insecticides also don't benefit when DDT is employed and therefore oppose it, often behind the scenes."

It's no coincidence that WHO officials were joined by the head of the U.N. Environment Program to announce the new policy. There's no evidence that spraying DDT in the amounts necessary to kill dangerous mosquitoes imperils crops, animals or human health. But that didn't stop green groups like the Pesticide Action Network from urging the public to celebrate World Malaria Day last month by telling "the U.S. to protect children and families from malaria without spraying pesticides like DDT inside people's homes."...

Dear Friends,

It is with deep regret and sadness that we have to announce a separation within the Free Gaza Movement.

Free Gaza Movement was formed in the fall of 2006 by five individuals: Eliza Ernshire, Greta Berlin, Mary Hughes, Paul Larudee, and Sharon Lock. A year later, a non-profit called the Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees (AIPAC) was created in California as a means of accepting U.S. tax-deductible donations on behalf of Free Gaza. Both Greta Berlin and Mary Hughes were on the steering committee of that non-profit as founding members, and Mary Hughes was on the Board of Directors. With volunteers from AIPAC, and others, we were responsible for the first, successful voyage to Gaza in August 2008.

In November 2008, all of the original founders of Free Gaza met in London with 16 other organizers from the United States, Europe, and the Middle East in order to elect a board of directors for the Free Gaza Movement and discuss our future plans and organization. After considering several proposals for structure and several nominations for a board, we elected Huwaida Arraf, Greta Berlin, Eliza Ernshire, Derek Graham, Fathi Jaouadi, Ramzi Kysia, and Vaggelis Pissias as our interim board (iB) of directors.

Since then the International Free Gaza Movement has organized every other voyage without AIPAC's assistance either financial or through providing volunteers.

For the last, several months, we attempted to negotiate an affiliate and funding agreement with AIPAC. Unfortunately, this has not been successful, and we have decided to separate.

AIPAC has decided to call itself "The Free Gaza Movement." They have reserved the new URL "www.freegazamovement.org" for themselves, and have set up a new email address, "friendstogaza@gmail.com," for their use.

Our web address is the original "www.freegaza.org," and our existing email address is "friendofgaza@gmail.com." Please make a note of these distinctions.

Also, please note that we do not have a funding agreement with AIPAC. Any donations made to California since September 2008 have not and will not be sent to us in order to run boat missions out of Cyprus.

Anyone wishing to make U.S. tax-deductible donations to the Free Gaza Movement should do it through our U.S. fiscal sponsors by making a check out to: The American Educational Trust LE, (publishers of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs) and putting FOR FREE GAZA in the subject line. Please see our website for details.

We wish our sisters and brothers at AIPAC well, and hope that their unique efforts to break the siege of Gaza from California will be successful.

Thank you for your continued support for the people of Palestine.

Sincerely,
Huwaida Arraf
Greta Berlin
Eliza Ernshire
Derek Graham
Fathi Jaouadi
Ramzi Kysia
Board of Directors, Free Gaza Movement
www.FreeGaza.org

From May 31 to June 4, Israel will conduct its largest country-wide civil defense drill ever, code-named "Turning Point 3." At its height, on June 2, a siren will sound, and all Israelis will be expected to enter protected rooms and shelters for a few minutes. In advance of the drill, Israel's Home Front Command has distributed this color-coded map to all homes (click on image to enlarge), graphically depicting the amount of time residents of each part of the country have "to reach protected space." "Post this map on your refrigerator," the map says, "just to be on the safe side!" To lighten the message (for children?), the map includes playful figures such as a smiling camel and frolicking dolphins.

The photo is worthy of the name of the magazine whose cover it adorns: "Shock" or "Choc" in French. It shows a man whose head has been wrapped in duct tape. His face is completely covered except for a small space that has been left for his nose. The nose is bloodied. The man's hands are bound in front of him, likewise with tape. A key chain has been hung on his fingers: perhaps to help identify him or perhaps as a subtle threat to his family or friends. The man is seated in front of an orange and purple drape, evidently to hide his surroundings. A copy of the Parisian daily Le Parisien has been propped up on his arms in front of his chest, thus indicating the date. Emerging from off frame, a gloved-hand holds a gun pressed against the man's temple.

The man in the photo is Ilan Halimi: the 23-year-old French Jew who was kidnapped, tormented, and killed by a self-styled "gang of barbarians" in the Parisian banlieue in early 2006. Halimi went missing on January 20, 2006. When police found him bound and naked near train tracks south of Paris on February 13, he was barely still alive. He had two stab wounds to his throat, another on his side, and burns over 80% of his body. He would die the same day from his wounds and the combined effects of the abuse he had suffered over the previous three and a half weeks.

The 28-year-old Youssouf Fofana - nicknamed the "Brain of the Barbarians" - and twenty six of his presumed accomplices are currently on trial in Paris for the kidnapping, torture and murder of Ilan Halimi. But one would barely have known it. The trial, which began on April 29, has been closed to both the public and the press...

...The Paris district attorney's office has opened an investigation against Choc and the magazine's website has gone offline. Citing privacy concerns, Ruth Halimi's lawyer, Francis Szpiner, has seconded the district attorney's office. On Wednesday, following a joint complaint of the two parties, the magazine was withdrawn from newsstands...

The four men arrested Wednesday night in what the authorities said was a plot to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes at an Air National Guard base in Newburgh, N.Y. were petty criminals who appeared to be acting alone, not in concert with any terrorist organization, the New York City police commissioner said Thursday.

The men were arrested in an elaborate sting operation at around 9 p.m. on Wednesday after planting what they believed to be bombs in cars outside the Riverdale Temple, a Reform synagogue, and the nearby Riverdale Jewish Center, an Orthodox synagogue.

The men did not know that the bombs, obtained with the help of an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, were fake.

In a news conference at the Riverdale Jewish Center, one of the two synagogues said to be the targets of the plot, the commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, offered new details about the four defendants -- James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen -- all of whom are to arraigned in Federal District Court in White Plains, N.Y., later Thursday morning.

The men, all of whom live in Newburgh, about 60 miles north of New York City, had met in prison...

...The suspects - three U.S.-born citizens and one Haitian immigrant - at least three of whom were said to be jailhouse converts to Islam, were angry about the deaths of Muslims in Afghanistan, sources told The News.

"They wanted to make a statement," a law enforcement source said. "They were filled with rage and wanted to take it out on what they considered the source of all problems in America - the Jews."

The group's alleged ringleader, James Cromitie, according to the complaint, discussed targets with an undercover agent. "The best target [the World Trade Center] was hit already," he allegedly told the agent. Later, he rejoiced in a terrorist attack on a synagogue.

"I hate those motherf-----s, those f---ing Jewish bastards. . . . I would like to get [destroy] a synagogue."...

..."They stated that they wanted to commit jihad," Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Thursday morning during a news conference at the Riverdale Jewish Center, one of the targeted synagogues.

"More information about their motives I'm sure will be developed as the case progresses, but right now they stated they wanted to make jihad. They were disturbed about what was happening in Afghanistan and Pakistan, that Muslims were being killed," he said. "They were making statements that Jews were killed in this attack and that would be all right -- that sort of thing."...

While military camouflage patterns for vehicles have evolved, the application process has been stuck in the spray booth. Now, however, GI equivalents of Earl Scheib can apply a precut "wrap" of adhesive vinyl that will blend in on virtually any battlefield.

The process is similar to the advertising and decorative wraps commonly seen on cars and buses, except that this product from Military Wraps, called Photo Veil, is lightweight and incorporates images from cameras on drones, satellites, or lidar in the field and loops them back to be applied to vehicles or equipment as site-specific, high-resolution camouflage.

It combines "megapixel digital images, state-of-the-art inking systems and revolutionary lightweight and waterproof mesh material to duplicate precisely any operational environment," be it mountain, desert, jungle, forest, or urban terrain, according to Military Wraps...

...Here's what the article does: It essentially blames the Christian Crusaders, American Christians, and Israel (!) for the persecution and disappearance of Arab Christians from the Middle East. I could not make this up. The lies, omissions, biases, both subtle and overt are mind-boggling. For example, the article, written by Don Belt, does not explain why the Crusades ever took place--namely, to protect the Christian Arabs from being slaughtered and forcibly converted by Muslims. In any event, Belt writes that "ironically, it was during the Crusades (1095-1291) that Arab Christians, slaughtered along with Muslims by the crusaders and caught in the cross fire between Islam and the Christian West, began a long, steady retreat into the minority."

Just a minute. How has Belt managed to bypass the Arab Muslim conquest of the Christian and Jewish Middle East? For example, according to the pre-eminent scholar, Bat Ye'or, (and cited in Andrew Bostom's excellent The Legacy of Jihad),

"Abu Bakr organized the invasion of Syria (Syro-Palestine) which Mohammed had already envisioned...the whole Gaza region up to Casarea was sacked and devastated in the campaign of 634. Four thousand Jewish, Christian, and Samaritan peasants who defended their land were massacred. The villages of the Negev were pillaged by Amr b. al As...in his sermon on Christmas day, 634, the patriarch of Jerusalem, Sophronius, lamented over the impossibility of going on pilgrimage to Bethelehem...Sophronius, in his sermon on the day of Epiphany 636, bewailed the destruction of the churches and monasteries, the sacked towns, the fields laid waste...thousands of people perished in 639, victims of the famine that resulted from these destructions. According to the Muslim chronicler Baladhuri (d.892 C.E.), 40,000 Jews lived in Caesarea alone at the Arab conquest, after which all trace of them is lost."

Based on scholarly sources, Bostom carefully and comprehensively chronicles the systematic Arab Muslim pillaging of the entire Middle East which included their enslavement and murder of Christians and Jews. What Don Belt fails to note, even in passing, is that more than four centuries of such Arab Muslim persecution of Christians is precisely what led to the Christian Crusades...

...International consensus or no, the two-state solution is a chimera. Peace will not be achieved by granting sovereignty to the Palestinians, because Palestinian sovereignty has never been the Arabs' goal. Time and time again, a two-state solution has been proposed. Time and time again, the Arabs have turned it down...

...As long as fewer than 2 in 10 Arabs, both Palestinian and all others, believe in Israel's right to exist as a nation with a Jewish majority, there can be no successful peace based on a two-state solution. That is the reality that no diplomacy can change.

The Edinburgh International Film Festival on Tuesday returned a 300-pound grant from the Israeli embassy, after bowing to pressure from director Ken Loach, the British Times reported on Wednesday.

The grant was intended to enable Tel Aviv University graduate Tali Shalom Ezer to travel to Scotland for a screening of her film, Surrogate.

According to the Times, Ezer's film is a romance set in a sex-therapy clinic, and makes no reference to war or politics. It recently won the award for best film at an international women's film festival in Israel.

Loach on Monday urged film goers to boycott the festival after pro-Palestinian activists protested the grant for the Israeli film...

...In light of an inaccurate and misleading press release issued by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, several points need to be clarified regarding Specter's actions, as well as the nature of the conference itself.

First, Senator Specter withdrew from the conference two days prior to the circulation of an online CAIR petition demanding he do so.

Second, Senator Specter remains one of the sponsors of the Free Speech Protection Act and, as such, remains a stalwart defender of free speech.

Third, the senator's office confirmed that the petition circulated by CAIR had nothing to do with his change in plans. As James Taranto wrote for the Wall Street Journal, "As for Specter, his backing out of the conference could not have been a direct response to the CAIR petition, since the former predated the latter."...

The Legal Project, in conjunction with the Federalist Society, the Center for National Security Law, and the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, is pleased to present a conference on Islamist Lawfare, to be held on May 19th in Washington, DC. For the invitation, RSVP details, and list of conference participants, please click here.

...We forwarded the email to our friend Brooke Goldstein, the conference organizer, and she told us Specter had already bowed out two days earlier, citing an unspecified scheduling conflict.

We do not have a strong opinion as to whether, as CAIR puts it, "American Muslims are involved in a concerted effort to suppress free speech on Islam." Running a petition to pressure an elected official not to participate in a conference on the subject would seem, however, to fit that description.

As for Specter, his backing out of the conference could not have been a direct response to the CAIR petition, since the former predated the latter...

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- The Dubai Tennis Championships will pay a record fine over its country's refusal to award a visa to an Israeli player.

The heads of the tournament agreed Sunday to pay the record $300,000 fine after the World Tennis Association turned down the Dubai appeal, The Associated Press reported.

The United Arab Emirates rejected Israeli tennis champion Shahar Pe'er's request for a visa to play in the Dubai tournament just days before the start of the competition and shortly before she planned to travel to the UAE in February.

The WTA also will require the organizers of the Dubai tournament to ensure that Israeli players who qualify for the event receive their visas at least eight weeks ahead of the 2010 tournament.

A street event jointly organized by the government of the city of Buenos Aires and the Israeli embassy to celebrate the 61st anniversary of Israel's foundation was yesterday disrupted by a gang of 15 or 20 people who emerged from a nearby subway station and laid into members of the public with clubs, chains and nunchakus.

Between blows they shouted slogans like "Death to the Zionist Jews!" and scattered leaflets bearing the name of the Revolutionary Action Front. Three people were taken to hospital for treatment, two of them are said to be in a serious condition. One police officer was also injured seriously enough to be kept overnight in hospital. Five arrests were made, the rest of the gang escaped. One of those detained is Leonardo Del Grosso, a prominent member of the far left Quebracho group; another was found to be carrying a sevillana, a kind of knife that's quite unsuitable for peeling apples or slicing bread...

..."In the middle of the cultural festival, the group attacked with complete impunity," Aldo Donzis, the DAIA Jewish local political umbrella institution president, told JTA. "Five police officers who were standing in a corner took a long time before acting. Two people from the public were hurt as well as a policeman. Many of the aggressors ran away, but five of them were caught by the policemen and others from the public who chased them."

DAIA officials said the group will take legal action against the five aggressors.

"It was really a very violent act," said Donzis.

The Israeli festival, held a block away from the central Plaza de Mayo, is part of a series of events "celebrating Buenos Aires' diversity and the pluralism that builds our identity," Claudio Avruj, the head of the city's Institutional Relations General Direction office, told JTA. A Greek festival was held in March and a Russian celebration is planned for June.

The demonstration lasted a few minutes and the celebration -- which included Israeli music, poetry, crafts and dance -- continued as scheduled...

...All the relationships in the world, of course, matter little when the product stinks. This is what "Israel lobby" devotees don't get: Americans support Israel. They don't support Israel because they're told to; if anything, many Americans who back the Jewish state consume a regular diet of anti-Israel messages, mostly from the likes of the New York Times and NPR.

In years past, support for Israel was typically broad, though not necessarily deep. Americans sensed that Israel was more like the United States than its neighbors, and domestic voices supporting the Jewish state obviously won supporters. Also, Evangelical Christians, such as Pastor John Hagee, have been successfully cultivating political backing for the Jewish state from the 1980s onward.

After 9/11, though, Americans felt a profound, almost visceral connection to Israel. The massive attack on U.S. soil occurred as Israelis already had been suffering a relentless suicide bombing campaign for almost a year. That the terrorism at both ends was being perpetrated in the name of Islam only strengthened the bond.

If Obama, as some are theorizing, plans to push Netanyahu to act much faster and grant more concessions than an understandably weary Israeli public is ready to support, he is likely to face significant resistance. While unhappy AIPAC activists will work their relationships and make impassioned pleas for their viewpoints, not everyone involved with the organization will act in lockstep.

Regardless, the greatest hurdle to ambitious action on the Middle East is the vast majority of Americans who believe in supporting Israel. While evangelical Christians are among the most vocal advocates of the Jewish state, plenty of non-evangelicals, whether religious or secular, passionately back Israel.

Though the strength of the pro-Israel position no doubt rankles those who desperately desire a different U.S. foreign policy, there is nothing nefarious or shadowy about the reasons why America supports Israel.

...If enacted, the new law will almost certainly be challenged in court. The Constitution does not grant the federal government any general police power -- prosecuting crime is primarily a state and local responsibility -- and it is far from clear that the Supreme Court would go along with a congressional attempt to federalize such a broad swath of criminal law.

Which is just as well, since the new law will not serve any legitimate criminal-justice end. Every crime that would be covered by the bill is already a felony under state law. Each one can already be prosecuted and punished. Its name notwithstanding, the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act will not prevent any hate crimes. Nor is there anything it could have added to the prosecution of Shepard's killers, both of whom were convicted of murder and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.

Supporters of hate-crime legislation often invoke the victims of such high-profile murders. After James Byrd Jr., a black man, was savagely dragged to his death in Jasper, Tex., by three white men, Senator Ted Kennedy introduced a federal hate-crime bill and brought Byrd's daughter to Washington to testify in its behalf. But Texas authorities needed no help from Washington to bring Byrd's murderers to justice. Two were executed and the third is behind bars for life. Last month, the National Center for Lesbian Rights declared that the murder of Angie Zapata -- a transgender person bludgeoned to death in Colorado last summer -- showed why an expanded federal hate-crime statute was "long overdue." Yet even without such a statute, Zapata's killer was readily convicted in state court of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole...

The number of threats against employees of the Swedish Social Insurance Office (Försäkringskassan) is growing, according to the authority's head of security, Berit Sjödin.

"This is totally unacceptable," Sjödin told Sveriges Radio (SR).

She said the growing number of threats might be connected to increasingly stringent rules governing the country's social insurance benefits.

Social Insurance Office staff have faced threats of violence against themselves as well as suicide. A third of the 181 incidents reported so far this year have involved an individual who has threatened to harm him- or herself...

According to the Yemeni news website www.yemenportal.net, a library and conference hall named after Palestinian suicide bomber Wafa Idris have been inaugurated at a children's hospital in the province of Ibb in southern Yemen. [1] The inauguration ceremony was attended by Yemeni officials, and launched by Samir Al-Kuntar, of the Palestinian Liberation Front, who carried out a deadly attack in Nahariyya in 1974, and was recently released from Israeli prison.

At the ceremony, speakers extolled the resistance and the perpetrators of suicide bombings, and little girls read out texts and poems.

Following are excerpts from the report: [2]

Samir Al-Kuntar: "The Enemy Is Weaker than Cobwebs"

"Freed prisoner Samir Al-Kuntar launched [the inauguration ceremony] of the hall and library named after Palestinian martyr Wafa Idris at the Mother and Child Hospital in Ibb. [The ceremony was] attended by the province's governor, Judge Ahmad Al-Hajri; by Dr. Balqis Abu Isba' of the Kan'an Association for Palestine, which sponsored the event; and by other politicians, prominent figures, and representatives of the health sector. They [all] stood up in honor of the heroine Wafa Idris, a volunteer nurse in the Palestinian Red Crescent, who blew herself up in an act of martyrdom in January 2002, killing one Israeli and wounding some 100 [others]."

Samir Al-Kuntar said at the ceremony: "The Yemenis embody the [ideal] of united resistance, which takes place [everywhere], from Palestine to Yemen, and which emphasizes that the way is long and requires numerous sacrifices like those that have been made in the past. The Yemeni people are expressing their pride in [Wafa Idris] by opening a hall named after her...[snip]

...Dr. Balqis Abu Isba' praised Samir Al-Kuntar and Wafa Idris, calling them "emblems of Arab steadfastness," and said: "It is these emblems of martyrdom and courageous steadfastness who will restore to us our occupied lands. What has been taken by force will be restored only by force. It is this approach that will enable the Arabs to hold their heads up [in pride].

"The Palestinian cause was and continues to be the primary Arab cause. A true and just peace in the Middle East will come only with the disappearance of the oppressive Zionist entity, which has violated the sacred and perpetrated the most heinous crimes, and with the restoration of the stolen Arab lands [to their rightful owners]."

...In 2007 the loathing of Israel and America was brought home to me at a particularly rancorous meeting of the union, which had called a special gathering to discuss the Israel boycott motion that had been passed on April 15 at their national delegates' meeting. The hatred of me, of Israel, of Zionists, and of Holocaust remembrance will last a lifetime. Am I overreacting? Here is what happened:

I went along armed with a book by Hillel Halkin, Letters to an American Jewish Friend: A Zionist's Polemic, written after the Yom Kippur War and chronicling daily life as a long-suffering reservist in Israel. I never had a chance to read from the book because the meeting degenerated into a series of furious diatribes by NUJ members.

Each member who spoke made sure to tell us that they had "been boycotting absolutely anything and everything from Israel for years and years," and the editor of the union's Journalist magazine spat out the comment I hear almost every day in London about rich American Zionists funding and driving Israel's disgraceful policies. I was refused the floor when I wanted to correct the calumnies being articulated. Later I escaped to a nearby pub but the angry members piled in to continue their assault. One said, "You need to get the Holocaust out of your system and get that chip off your shoulder because slavery was a much worse genocide," whilst yet another said, "Israel is plain thievery -- you nicked their land in '48 and Zionism is out-and-out racism." This barely contained venom was something that left me paralyzed with -- yes -- fear. What is the difference between a tattooed BNP (neo-Nazi) member screaming at a Jew and these so-called anti-war activists? In fact, the BNP is more even in its analysis of the issues than the NUJ!

As so many Israel boycotters shrilly proclaim, criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitism. They use as their protective shield the fact that many prominent Anglo-Jews, including rabbis, actors, academics, and scientists, deplore Israel's policies to defend her shores. The purple-faced British journalists who lambasted me could barely contain their hatred not just of Israel but of everything I am.

There will, no doubt, be a good turnout at the May 16, 2009, rally in Trafalgar Square. But as thousands die and are made homeless in Sudan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Zimbabwe, why do non-Jews in Britain obsess, boycott, and march only about Israel? This is Groundhog Day...

...When the Europeans killed and expelled the Jews during the Holocaust, it marked a watershed in their history, from which they never recovered, just as the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 marked the beginning of the end of that great Empire. For the Jews, with their remarkable wit, energy and creativity, had truly transformed the old continent. As Yuri Slezkine writes in his great book, The Jewish Century, the creation of modern banking, to take just one example among many, was largely a Jewish enterprise.

In the early nineteenth century, thirty of the fifty-two private banks in Berlin were owned by Jewish families; a hundred years later, many of these banks became shareholding companies with Jewish managers...In fin de siecle Vienna, 40 percent of the directors of public banks were Jews or of Jewish descent, and all banks but one were administered by Jews (some of them members of old banking clans)...Between 1873 and 1910, at the height of political liberalism, the Jewish share of the Vienna stock exchange council remained steady at about 70 percent, and in 1921 Budapest, 87.8 percent of the members of the stock exchange and 91 percent of the currency brokers association were Jews...

Ditto for education, where the Jews inverted the normal sequence (get educated, then make money, whereas the Jews made money first, then sent their kids to school), and of course science, medicine, fashion (did you know that the pushup bra is a Jewish invention?) and...war.

After the Second World War, some of the old families-the Rothschilds are the most celebrated case-remained in Europe, and have continued to flourish. But the two countries in which Jewish genius has made its greatest post-Holocaust contribution are not in Europe. They are Israel and the United States. It is accordingly no accident that so many of the world's Jew-haters focus their bile on those two countries (the Iranian rulers call them "the great Satan" and "the little Satan")...

See the Old City of Jerusalem as never before - without hiring a tour guide!

This thorough, easy-to-use, remarkable book gives you the tour of a lifetime through ten complete study tours that will expand your heart and soul even as you drink in the treasures of Jewish history. The words of Scripture will accompany you as the book takes you in the footsteps of Avraham and the Akeidah, down to the camp of David and the building of the Temple with King Solomon. Replete with beautiful, full-color photographs, maps, detailed snapshots of the history that surrounds each tour, and drawings that keep you right on track, this book is the best tour guide you'll ever meet!

Originally published in 2000 in a large hardcover format, it has now been revised and reissued in this handy size that allows you to easily take it with you as you tour the Old City.

President Barack Obama on Friday restarted a Bush-era military trial system for a small number of Guantanamo detainees, reviving a method of prosecution he once assailed as flawed but with new legal protections for terror suspects.

In a three-paragraph White House statement, Obama announced the decision that already has drawn criticism from liberal groups, arguing that it will ensure a legitimate forum to prosecute alleged terrorists being held at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"This is the best way to protect our country, while upholding our deeply held values," the president said in a statement.

Obama had criticized the system established by President George W. Bush, and in his statement, he said it had only succeeded in prosecuting three suspected terrorist in more than seven years.

Answering liberal complaints, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters: "First and foremost, the president does what is in the best security interest of the United States."...

A U.S. judge will not rescind his decision ordering the PLO to pay $116 million to the family of victims of a terrorist attack.

Ronald Lagueux, a federal judge in Providence, R.I., said Wednesday that the Palestine Liberation Organization was liable because of its refusal during the trial early in this decade to mount a defense; PLO leader Yasser Arafat refused to recognize U.S. sovereignty in the matter.

Yaron Ungar, a U.S. citizen, and his wife Efrat were shot dead as they traveled with their infant son near Beit Shemesh, a town near Jerusalem that also adjoins the West Bank...

Earlier this month, I wrote a column outlining two exceptions to the no-torture rule: the ticking time bomb scenario and its less extreme variant in which a high-value terrorist refuses to divulge crucial information that could save innocent lives. The column elicited protest and opposition that were, shall we say, spirited...

...My critics say: So what if Pelosi is a hypocrite? Her behavior doesn't change the truth about torture.

But it does. The fact that Pelosi (and her intelligence aide) and then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss and dozens of other members of Congress knew about the enhanced interrogation and said nothing, and did nothing to cut off the funding, tells us something very important.

Our jurisprudence has the "reasonable man" standard. A jury is asked to consider what a reasonable person would do under certain urgent circumstances.

On the morality of waterboarding and other "torture," Pelosi and other senior and expert members of Congress represented their colleagues, and indeed the entire American people, in rendering the reasonable person verdict. What did they do? They gave tacit approval. In fact, according to Goss, they offered encouragement. Given the existing circumstances, they clearly deemed the interrogations warranted.

Moreover, the circle of approval was wider than that. As Slate's Jacob Weisberg points out, those favoring harsh interrogation at the time included Alan Dershowitz, Mark Bowden and Newsweek's Jonathan Alter. In November 2001, Alter suggested we consider "transferring some suspects to our less squeamish allies" (i.e. those that torture). And, as Weisberg notes, these were just the liberals.

So what happened? The reason Pelosi raised no objection to waterboarding at the time, the reason the American people (who by 2004 knew what was going on) strongly re-elected the man who ordered these interrogations, is not because she and the rest of the American people suffered a years-long moral psychosis from which they have just now awoken. It is because at that time they were aware of the existing conditions -- our blindness to al-Qaeda's plans, the urgency of the threat, the magnitude of the suffering that might be caused by a second 9/11, the likelihood that the interrogation would extract intelligence that President Obama's own director of national intelligence now tells us was indeed "high-value information" -- and concluded that on balance it was a reasonable response to a terrible threat.

And they were right...

All pigs must die because they descend from Jews: According to Egyptian Islamic scholar
by Itamar Marcus & Barbara Crook

All pigs alive today are descendants of the Jews who were turned into pigs by Allah, according to a senior Egyptian religious leader. Since all pigs are descendants of Jews, it is obligatory to kill all pigs, says Sheikh Ahmed Ali Othman.

Presumably if pigs were merely animals, they would not face destruction. It is their Jewish ancestry that condemns them to death.

The Jordanian newspaper Al-Hakika al-Dawliya adds that this is not the only opinion. It cites Sheikh Ali Abu Al-Hassan, head of the Fatwa Committee at Al-Azhar [Sunni Islamic university], who believes that all the Jews who were turned into pigs by Allah died out without reproducing, and therefore there is no relationship between today's pigs and Jews.

The following is the transcript from Al-Moheet Arab News Network:

"CAIRO -- Sheikh Ahmed Ali Othman, supervisor of the Da'awa [Islamic Indoctrination] of the Egyptian Waqf [Islamic Holy places], has issued a Religious Ruling (Fatwa) that pigs in our time have their origins in Jews who angered Allah, such that He turned them into monkeys, pigs, and Satan-worshippers, and it is obligatory to kill and slaughter them [the pigs].

Othman based his ruling on the respected Quranic verse, 'Say [to the People of the Book - Jews and Christians], Come and I shall make known to you who receives the worst retribution of all from Allah: those whom Allah has cursed and upon whom He has poured His wrath, whom He has made into monkeys and pigs, and who have served abominations. Their place is worst of all, and their deviation is the greatest of all...' (Quran, sura 5, verse 60)

Sheikh Othman noted that this verse concerning the nation of the prophet Moses descended [from Allah to the Quran], and the books of commentary confirm this. There are two opinions among the Ulama [Islamic scholars] in this regard: The first is that the Jews, whom Allah transformed and turned into pigs, remained in that state until they died, without producing descendants. The other opinion is that the Jews who turned into pigs multiplied and produced descendants, and their line continues to this day. Sheikh Othman also cited Hadiths (traditions attributed to Muhammad) as support...

The Jordanian newspaper Al-Hakika al-Dawliya quoted Othman: "I personally tend towards the view that the pigs that exist now have their origins with the Jews, and therefore their consumption is forbidden in the words of Allah: 'A carcass, and blood, and the flesh of a pig are forbidden to you....' Moreover, our master Jesus, peace be unto him - one of the tasks that he will fulfill when he descends to earth is the killing of the pigs, and this is proof that their source is Jewish.

Sheikh Othman said that whoever eats pig, it's as if he ate meat of an impure person, and stressed that this Religious Ruling is backed by the Islamic Sages of Al Azhar, but they are afraid to say this publically... so the Sages won't be accused of Anti-Semitism.

Sheikh Ali Abu Al-Hassan, head of the Fatwa Committee at Al-Azhar [Sunni Islamic university], said that the first view is accurate, because when Allah punishes a group of people he punishes only them. When Allah grew angry with the nation of Moses, He turned them into pigs and monkeys as an extraordinary punishment... but they died out without leaving descendants." [Al-Moheet Arab News Network, May 10, 2009] [Al-Hakika al-Dawliya, May 9, 2009]

A leading Palestinian cleric commandeered an evening devoted to interfaith dialogue with Pope Benedict XVI on Monday to rant against Israel for "killing Gaza's children," "bulldozing Palestinian homes" and "destroying mosques."

In an impromptu speech, delivered in Arabic at the Notre Dame Pontifical Institute in Jerusalem, Sheikh Tayseer Tamimi, chief Islamic judge in the Palestinian Authority, launched a 10-minute tirade against the State of Israel for confiscating Palestinians' land and carrying out war crimes against the residents of Gaza.

He also called for the immediate return of all Palestinian refugees, and called on Christians and Muslims to unite against Israel.

Tamimi invoked the name of Saladin, the Muslim sultan who recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187. Tamimi said that unlike Israel, Saladin upheld the religious freedoms of all faiths.

Following the diatribe and before the meeting was officially over, the pope exited the premises. However, he shook Tamimi's hand before walking out.

The pope, speaking before Tamimi, discussed the importance of religion and truth for the advancement of humanity's mutual understanding.

He was visibly uncomfortable with the tone of Tamimi's discourse. Even those who did not understand his Arabic quickly understood that the Muslim cleric was giving a militant speech.

Several attempts were made by Latin Patriarch in the Holy Land Fouad Twal, a Palestinian, to politely stop Tamimi. But Tamimi would not be deterred from reading his written speech, apparently prepared in advance without the knowledge of the organizers.

When Tamimi finished, applause could be heard from a few dozen in an audience of a few hundred...

... Israel has the right, indeed the obligation, to take this threat seriously and to consider it as a first priority. It will be far easier for Israel to make peace with the Palestinians if it did not have to worry about the threat of a nuclear attack or a dirty bomb. It will also be easier for Israel to end its occupation of the West Bank if Iran were not arming and inciting Hamas, Hezbollah and other enemies of Israel to terrorize Israel with rockets and suicide bombers.

In this respect, Emanuel has it exactly backwards: if there is any linkage, it goes the other way - defanging Iran will promote the end of the occupation and the two-state solution. Threatening not to help Israel in relation to Iran unless it moves toward a two-state solution first is likely to backfire...

IMAGINE an election where the results are largely preordained and a number of candidates are widely recognized as unqualified. Any supposedly democratic ballot conducted in this way would be considered a farce. Yet tomorrow the United Nations General Assembly will engage in just such an "election" when it votes to fill the vacancies on the 47-member Human Rights Council.

Only 20 countries are running for 18 open seats. The seats are divided among the world's five geographic regions and three of the five regions have presented the same number of candidates as there are seats, thus ensuring there is no opportunity to choose the best proponents of human rights each region has to offer.

Governments seem to have forgotten the commitment made only three short years ago to create an organization able to protect victims and confront human rights abuses wherever they occur.

An essential precondition was better membership. The council's precursor, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, was folded in 2006 mainly because it had, for too long, allowed gross violators of human rights like Sudan and Zimbabwe to block action on their own abuses.

The council was supposed to be different. For the first time, countries agreed to take human rights records into account when voting for the council's members, and those member-states that failed to, in the words of the founding resolution, "uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights" would find themselves up for review and their seats endangered. For victims of human rights abuses and advocates for human rights worldwide, the reforms offered the hope of a credible and effective body.

Now, it seems, principle has given way to expediency. Governments have resumed trading votes for membership in various other United Nations bodies, putting political considerations ahead of human rights. The absence of competition suggests that states that care about human rights simply don't care enough. Latin America, a region of flourishing democracies, has allowed Cuba to bid to renew its membership. Asian countries have unconditionally endorsed the five candidates running for their region's five seats -- among them, China and Saudi Arabia...

TORONTO -- A leading Toronto Jewish community-funded art gallery severed its ties to an exhibit over the artist's political associations concerning Israel.

The Koffler Centre of the Arts announced Friday that it was disassociating itself from an art installation titled "Each hand as they are called," about life in the one-time Toronto Jewish neighborhood of Kensington Market, because of artist Reena Katz's politics.

A statement on the UJA-funded Koffler Centre's Web site said it recently learned of Katz's "public support for and association with Israel Apartheid Week, which rejects the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state and promotes historically inaccurate comparisons between contemporary Israel and apartheid South Africa in order to delegitimize Israel."

The center "will not associate with an artist who publicly advocates the extinction of Israel as a Jewish state. The Koffler considers the existence and well-being of Israel as a Jewish state to be one of its core values."

"Therefore, the Koffler Centre of the Arts is disassociating itself from the artist and will not promote the exhibition on its Web site or through any other advertising from this point forward."

Katz, 33, told the Toronto Star that she was "shocked. I'm disgusted" with the decision.

"What they claim that I have said is not at all what I've said. I have said that I'm an anti-Zionist Jew. So they are conflating the State of Israel with Zionism [sic: Judaism -S]," she said. "I'm speaking to an ideology when I speak about Zionism. They're speaking about a Jewish state."...

A European rabbinical group is boycotting a gathering of religious leaders in Brussels to protest the involvement of Islamist organizations.

The Conference of European Rabbis did not send any representatives to the annual conference, which is Monday. It marked the first time that Jewish leaders declined to attend.

The conference is being hosted by the presidents of the European Commission and the European Parliament.

"We do not consider it appropriate that organizations such as the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe, or individuals who in the past made, or endorsed, anti-Semitic statements and who are clearly linked to the radical Islamist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood should be present at such gatherings," said Rabbi Aba Duner, the conference's executive director...

...CAMERA's analysis of several Huffington articles and their corresponding comment threads dealing with Israel indicates that the Huffington Post is not living up to its founder's enunciated standards. These articles generated a torrent of unsubstantiated accusations and ad-hominem (attacking the person, not the argument) attacks by what appears to be a dedicated crowd of anti-Israel commenters who seem to be on permanent alert for articles dealing with Israel. These commenters dominate the talk-back threads, using them as a forum for promoting polarizing sentiments. Name-calling and personal attacks against commenters who dissent with their views appear all too often. Accusations against Jews and Israel, popular among political fringe groups, routinely are given voice. By opening the floodgates to readership response without providing sufficient editorial oversight, the Huffington Post has allowed -- and possibly encouraged -- commenters to disseminate falsehoods and express their prejudices.

Controversy over the Huffington Post's treatment of news related to Israel is not new. CAMERA reviewed copies of comment threads appearing on the site as far back as 2006 containing crude and often vile slanders against Jews and Israel. For example, a series of comments on one thread dated March 2, 2008 began with the charge "the murdering Zionist is still too blood thirsty. They are in the middle of a genocide and they are not going to stop... they consider non-jews as sub-humans." This was followed by another commenter who asserted "I think the Zionazis need to be set back 60 years...it seems its in their blood to steal and pillage countries everywhere they go." A third commenter suggested poisoning the water supply in Israel...

The swine flu epidemic has provided new fodder for newspapers in the Muslim and Arab world to continue their broadsides against Israel, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which monitors anti-Semitism in the Arab media.

Large-circulation daily newspapers are exploiting the swine flu epidemic with editorial cartoons that demonize the Jewish state and its leaders. One theme of the anti-Israel cartoons related to the swine flu is ironically picturing Israeli leaders with faces of pigs, reflecting the disdain for the pig in Islamic culture.

"Once again, the Arab press is not just content with reporting the news of a serious and potentially deadly global epidemic," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "They are exploiting the swine flu epidemic in an effort to rile up anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment in the Arab street. And they are using the most powerful tool in their arsenal - the visual, the cartoon - to incite hatred for the Jewish state and its people."...

ANTWERP, Belgium -- From where I stood it seemed touch and go whether the Jewish businessman was actually going to slug the chief of the Flanders Opera, Aviel Cahn, a young Swiss-born Jew (a glass-jawed bantamweight, by the looks of him) in an ascot and important glasses.

The face-off started after a public round table at the opera house the other night about politics and art. Saint-Saëns's "Samson et Dalila," directed by an Israeli, Omri Nitzan, and a Palestinian, Amir Nizar Zuabi, was to have its premiere the next evening.

For the round table the two directors joined a Belgian director, Guy Cassiers; Annemie Neyts, a Flemish politician with the European Parliament; Jan Leyers, a local television host; and me, who somehow ended up stuck among the antagonists, desperate to get out of the way, like the referee during the boxing scene in Chaplin's "City Lights."

A handful of agitated Antwerp Jews, part of the round table audience, took umbrage, the businessman among them, at the production. They felt they had an inkling of what was in store (not altogether wrongly, as it turned out) from advertisements plastered around town showing a stone-throwing Palestinian boy...

...Finding parables for today's Middle East doesn't take much imagination. Savvy directors don't belabor the point. Mr. Nitzan and Mr. Zuabi, however, turn the Hebrews into Palestinians, the Philistines into Israelis, and Samson into a suicide bomber, donning a dynamite-loaded vest when the curtain falls.

That comes after Jews, in fancy dress, dance atop a shiny, black, two-tiered set, oblivious to the swarm of robed Palestinians under their feet. In another scene Dalila's Jewish handmaidens, in red underpants, sprawl on their backs, legs spread in the air, helping to seduce Samson. Samson and Dalila court by pointing a pistol at each other. Young Israeli soldiers clad in black humiliate blindfolded Palestinians and shoot a Palestinian child, who reappears as a kind of leitmotif during the opera like the holy spear in "Parsifal." Then, for the appalling bacchanal in the last act, a disaster in most productions, Israeli soldiers dance orgiastically with their phallic rifles.

That scene was too much even for the polite Belgian crowd on opening night. A smattering of boos sprinkled down on the dancers. Otherwise the performance, dully sung, received several rounds of generous applause. This is Western Europe...

...a panel discussion apropos of a 19th-century French opera devolved into a shouting match about life-and-death matters, with warnings from that irate businessman, who identified himself as a Jewish entrepreneur with family going back generations in Antwerp. When the round table ended, he made a beeline for Mr. Cahn, at the moment arguing gamely with me on behalf of the opera. I tried vainly to evaporate. Red faced, spewing insults and standing nose to nose with the Flanders Opera's general director, the businessman predicted the production would stir up anti-Semitism, which festers just below the surface here, he said, to which the flustered impresario blurted out that if the situation for Jews were really so precarious here, they should leave.

Oy.

He would have done better to thank the man for believing that opera matters so much.

And for not punching his lights out.

Israel's ultra-nationalist [oooooh!] Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman will be put in charge of "strategic dialogue" with the United States, sources in the prime minister's office said on Thursday.

Lieberman, who has stirred controversy over his hardline stance [oooooh!] towards Arab-Israelis, will be given the key job -- which is separate from the foreign ministry portfolio -- on Sunday, the sources said.

The United States and Israel have been engaged since 1999 in a "strategic dialogue" which notably covers the three billion dollars Washington sends annually in aid to its staunch ally...

On Holocaust Memorial Day 2008, a group of just under 100 people -- Londoners and a few visitors -- took a guided tour of the old Jewish East End. They visited, among other sites of interest, the birthplace of my old chum Lionel Bart, the author of Oliver! Three generations of schoolchildren have grown up singing Bart's lyric:

Consider yourself
At 'ome!
Consider yourself
One of the family!

Those few dozen London Jews considered themselves at 'ome. But they weren't. Not any more. The tour was abruptly terminated when the group was pelted with stones, thrown by "youths" -- or to be slightly less evasive, in the current euphemism of Fleet Street, "Asian" youths. "If you go any further, you'll die," they shouted, in between the flying rubble.

A New Yorker who had just moved to Britain to start a job at the Metropolitan University had her head cut open and had to be taken to the Royal London Hospital at Whitechapel, causing her to miss the Holocaust Day "interfaith memorial service" at the East London Central Synagogue. Her friend, Eric Litwack from Canada, was also struck but did not require stitches. But if you hadn't recently landed at Heathrow, it wasn't that big a deal, not these days: Nobody was killed or permanently disfigured. And given the number of Jewish community events that now require security, perhaps Her Majesty's Constabulary was right and these Londoners walking the streets of their own city would have been better advised to do so behind a police escort...

...That's not a legitimate act of political protest; it's thuggery. The most ironic part of this video is the frequent references to Israel's "criminality" while the groups steals everything that they can grab ... and while their fellow countrymen don't lift a finger to stop them.

It's not Krystallnacht, but it's in the same league.

Hereunder you will find details of a very disturbing news from Egypt regarding my brother, companion, and fellow scholar Abdellatif Saied. He invited to speak at a conference, organized by the Center for Study of Islam and Democracy, in the U.S. about the future of relations between Egypt and the U.S. After having his passport stamped for leaving at the airport, Abdellatif was called upon by security officers. He was interrogated for a while, and was finally prohibited from leaving the country, although there are no judicial rulings against his travel. His name, however; was on the not to travel list just because the state security does not want him to leave!

Abdellatif, is a part of the Quranist movement, a worldwide network of moderate Muslims who are waging a war of ideas against radical Muslims around the globe. We are working on promoting a progressive understanding of Islam that advocates peace, tolerance, freedom, and Universal Human Rights. Quranists have been in this struggle for more than three decades now, before the idea of Islamic reformation and fighting terrorism became popular after 9/11. For more information, please read those two articles:

Anti-al Qaeda base envisioned

Egypt persecutes Muslim moderates

Quranists have always been under attack because of their advocacy. From one side, they are peacefully fighting against extremism, launched by Theocrats, and from another they are peacefully fighting against tyranny, lead by Autocrats, who both monopolize the Middle East region. The Quranists have suffered four waves of arrest since 1987. In the third wave of arrests, Abdellatif with others in Egypt were arbitrarily detained, tortured, and charged with flexible accusations like "insulting" or "denying" "established facts" of Islam. To name a few examples, you can view the religious freedom reports on Egypt over the past year or this article in the New York Times about Abdellatif's arrest.

Also, you can read the Reporters Without Borders press release on my nephew, Reda Abdelarahman [here].

I always feel powerless when I receive this news, but I trust there is something you can do. You can write to Omar Youssef the Human Rights officer at the Egyptian embassy in Washington DC protesting the event and asking them to help my brother get his right to travel at: omaryoussef@hotmail.com

You can forward this message to journalists, media personnels, and International Human Rights organizations and ask them to get in touch with me.

Finally, I thank you for your attention and willingness to help with this urgent matter.

God Bless,

Ahmed

Violating of the law, the Egyptian state security of prevented the Islamic writer Mr. Abdul Latif Said, the representative of the International Quranic Center in Egypt, from attending a conference in America on "the future of relations between the US and the Muslim world." The conference is to be held in Washington on May 5, 2009. Others attending the conference are U.S. Secretary of State, the Muslim member of the U.S. Congress recognized Keith Allison, with a group of Muslim politicians, intellectuals, and activists of democracy and human rights. Mr. Abdul Latif Said was to give speech on (the future of peace in the Middle East).

It should be noted that the organizer of this conference is the Center of Studies of Islam and Democracy "CSID" who prepared the document which calls for U.S. President Obama to strengthen the democracy in the Middle East. More than 150 Muslim scholars and activists for democracy, including the International Quranic Center, have signed this document.

Between May to October 2007, Abdul Latif was detained and tortured, among four of his relatives, because of his writings at the Islamic reformation website Ahl Alquran. The state security harassment have continued after his release.

The right to travel and freedom of opinion and belief are among the most important items in the international conventions signed by Egypt. The Egyptian judiciary has not issued any ban on his travel. This accident serves in a series of continuous harassments to the Quranists, Bahai's and many others in Egypt. Egypt has turned into a big prison under the state emergency Law...

Members of the outdoor goods retailer Mountain Equipment Co-Op voted down a controversial resolution to boycott Israeli-made products at the chain's annual general meeting Wednesday night.

Jubilant participants leaving the meeting said the motion wasn't even close to being passed. MEC spokesman Tim Southam was more restrained, saying that while he couldn't release the exact margin by which the motion was defeated, it was definitely "by more than half."

The motion was proposed by BC Teachers for Peace and Global Action (PAGE), a group affiliated with the B.C. Teachers' Federation...

New York University reports student received permission to host event on climate change, then hung flyers for conference on 'Hidden History of Zionism: The Road to Gaza's Killing Fields'

An anti-Israel student event was planned, and then canceled Monday, at New York University (NYU). The student, who has asked to hold an event unrelated to Israel, was actually planning an event to explore Israeli "brutality" against the Palestinians.

After receiving permission to host an event at NYU on May 4, based on a proposal for a forum on climate change, the student responsible then hung flyers for a conference on "The Hidden History of Zionism: The Road to Gaza's Killing Fields," to be hosted by the International Socialist Organization, an anti-war Marxist group...

...In response, the university confirmed that the event had been canceled but emphasized that this was because of the fraudulent manner in which it was undertaken.

They added that they had originally thought the flyer was not real because "there is no official, recognized group at NYU called the International Socialist Organization, and because the space was not reserved for the event listed on the flyer (but rather) for a forum on climate change... being conducted in conjunction with an academic department.

Upon being contacted about the event, the university they "called in the student who reserved the space (who) acknowledged that the forum was not going to be about climate change but, instead, about the topic on the flyer, and that the academic department listed on the reservation had nothing to do with the event...

KIFL, Iraq (AFP) - Nearly everyone who could read the Hebrew verses carved into the walls of Ezekiel's tomb left Iraq almost 60 years ago, but their memory is preserved in what is today a revered Muslim shrine.

Between 1948 and 1951 nearly all of Iraq's 2,500-year-old Jewish community fled amid a region-wide outbreak of nationalist violence, but today Iraq's Muslims and Christians still visit its most important holy sites.

In the little town of Kifl, south of Baghdad, the shrine of Ezekiel -- the prophet who followed the Jews into Babylonian exile in the 6th century BC -- has long been a part of Iraq's millennia-old religious mosaic.

A 14th-century brick minaret tilts outside the entrance to the shrine, but inside the mosque is shaped like a synagogue, with old wooden cabinets that used to hold Torah scrolls and balustrades that once separated men and women.

Inside the shrine, block-like Hebrew script runs along the old stone walls beneath a Turkish-style dome with medieval Islamic floral designs.

The government has launched a project to renovate the interior of the shrine, and the state ministry for tourism and antiquities says it hopes to eventually repair and renovate other Jewish sites across the country.

"The ministry is concerned with all Iraqi heritage, whether it is Christian or Jewish or from any other religion," ministry spokesman Abdelzahra al-Talaqani told AFP...

..."Iraq should be a tourist destination. If any delegation comes with permission from the government they are most welcome," Abdelhadi said with a smile. "As long as they are only coming to visit."

Hamas: The Mosque is a "factory educating Jihad fighters" - even the Muslim fetus seeks Jihad
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

While the mosque is perceived by many as simply the Muslim house of worship, a Hamas religious leader explains that it is actually "the prime factory educating Jihad Fighters." Furthermore, he asserts, Jihad - the war to spread Islam over the entire earth - is so integral to Islam that every Muslim fetus in the world calls for unity through Jihad.

The following is the transcript:

"True foundation and education start in the mosques... Do you realize what the mosque is? It is a prime factory educating men to fear and please Allah; [it is] the prime factory educating Jihad fighters...

The mosque is the life of Muslims, and the symbol of their courage and honor... The Palestinian fetus in its mother's womb, the Muslim fetus throughout the world in its mother's womb, call [on Muslims] to unite through fear of Allah, through pleasing Him, and through choosing Jihad and Resistance [terror]." [Al-Aqsa (Hamas) TV, April 24, 2009]

The Middle East Forum has established the Legal Project to protect researchers and analysts who work on the topics of terrorism, terrorist funding, and radical Islam from lawsuits designed to silence their exercise of free speech...

...In particular, Rev. Kutzmark, who has preached on how Christian anti-Semitism laid the groundwork for the Holocaust in Europe, ignores altogether the role Muslim attitudes toward Jews play in fomenting violence against Israel. He portrays Israeli policies as a delayed and misplaced response to the Holocaust and not a response to the threats currently faced by the Israeli people. He also portrays Zionism as a racist and colonialist cause whose leaders are intent on perpetrating a genocide against the Palestinian people.

One hint of how far Rev. Kutzmark is willing to go to denigrate Israel is his decision to show his congregation Occupation 101, a dishonest, propagandistic film that distorts essential facts of history and depicts the Arab-Israeli conflict as solely the fault of Israel.

Additionally, the pastor has portrayed Palestinian leaders - who have routinely trafficked in anti-Semitic propaganda and have repeatedly called for Israel's destruction - as if they are the Middle East's answer to Martin Luther King, a man who engaged in non-violent protest to achieve civil rights for African Americans in the United States.

The overall effect of Rev. Kutzmark's narrative is to depict anti-Zionism, or hostility toward Jewish sovereignty and self-determination, as a legitimate and progressive cause in the U.S...

1. Lieberman's attitude to an Israel-Palestinian two-state solution

Lieberman's views on a two-state solution cannot be separated from those of the Government, and at the time of writing this Briefing, the Government is formulating a new foreign policy. Nevertheless, there have already been various indicators of what he actually believes on this issue:-

• On taking office as Foreign Minister on 31 March 2009, Lieberman immediately declared the Annapolis negotiating process with the Palestinians to be "invalid". Lieberman has been widely criticised internationally for that statement. In fact, in the same breath, Lieberman freshly committed Israel to the 'Road Map' diplomatic process which is designed to achieve a two-state solution (for more see Beyond Images Briefing 238, 5 April 2009)
• At the beginning of May, Daniel Ayalon, who is the deputy Foreign Minister, and Lieberman's right-hand man in Israel Beiteinu, confirmed this when he stated that the Israeli Government "accepts the 'Road Map' for peace which will lead to a two-state solution...." (interview in the Jerusalem Post, 3 May 2009)
• In February 2009, Lieberman told the New York Jewish Week: "I advocate the creation of a viable Palestinian state....." (reported by the Jerusalem Post, 27 February 2009)
• In February Lieberman stated in an interview with the Washington Post online that he would be willing to vacate the West Bank settlement in which he lives - called Nokdim - for a peace agreement with the Palestinians (reported by Haaretz, 1 March 2009). He has made that statement publicly on previous occasions
• In April 2009, in an interview with the Jerusalem Post, Lieberman was asked for his views on the statement by Prime Minister Netanyahu, made during Netanyahu's acceptance speech as Prime Minister in the Israeli Parliament, that Israel "does not want to rule over any Palestinians". Lieberman responded: "I agree absolutely" (Jerusalem Post, 28 April 2009)

Lieberman's diplomatic approach is certainly different from that of his predecessor. And he considers that too much diplomacy is filled with slogans, rather than addressing the real, core issues of the conflict (see his Jerusalem Post interview of 28 April 2009). Nonetheless, as the above statements indicate, Lieberman does not reject a two-state solution. He advocates a different way of achieving it. These are not the views of a diehard ultra-nationalist, but of a tough-talking pragmatist...

...if liberal media bias is the explanation, why are undeniably left-of-center papers like the Globe, The New York Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle attracting more readers than ever when visitors to their websites are taken into account? How does liberal bias explain the shutdown of Denver's more conservative Rocky Mountain News, but not the more liberal Denver Post? How does it explain the collapse of newspapers in lefty enclaves like Seattle and San Francisco? How does it explain why the great majority of Americans -- 60 percent, according to a recent CBS/New York Times poll -- get most of their news from television?

Newspapers are in extremis not because of their political agenda, but because the world around them has been transformed. The growth of the Internet has left the traditional newspaper business model, with its vast physical plant and armies of writers, editors, photographers, pressmen, mailers, truck drivers, and salesmen, in a shambles. Craigslist and its ilk have vaporized what used to be the top profit center at most newspapers: classified advertising. A decades-long trend of falling readership, brought on by the rise of television, has been accelerated to warp speed by the explosion of websites and blogs offering news and opinion on every conceivable subject, 24 hours a day -- and usually for free...

...Is Alan Wolfe correct? I think not. First, he confuses the concept of free speech- guaranteed by the First Amendment of our Constitution, with the concept of academic freedom. As a political philosopher and sociologist, Wolfe should know this. A David Duke may have ideas we despise and detest; that does not give Duke to teach a course, let us say, on English literature, and send out his anti-Semitic hate material to students by e-mail. It does guarantee Duke the right to spout his bile in public, and for us to denounce him in return.

No one has made the distinction better than Stanley Fish, writing in The New York Times on July 23, 2006. Fish wrote: "Academic freedom is the freedom of academics to study anything they like; the freedom, that is, to subject any body of material, however unpromising it may seem, to academic interrogation and analysis...Any idea can be brought into the classroom if the point is to inquire into its structure, history, influence and so forth. But no idea belongs in the classroom if the point of introducing it is to recruit your students for the political agenda it may be thought to imply."

I do not think Professor Robinson and his supporters could provide evidence that these anti-Israel e-mails meet that criterion, or Wolfe's criterion that they provoke thought. Robinson did not e-mail counter arguments with his e-mail. He sought instead to indoctrinate students with his own political agenda, using his power over them via the course he is teaching to make them pay attention to his own political views.

The second document I cite is the famous "1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure," passed by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) when the group had clout and influence in the academy. Written at a moment when our country was at war, the AAUP statement says: "Teachers are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subject, but they should be careful not to introduce into their teaching controversial matter which has no relation to their subject....When they speak or write as citizens, they should be free from institutional censorship or discipline, but their special position in the community imposes special obligations. As scholars and educational officers, they should remember that the public may judge their profession and their institution by their utterances. Hence they should at all times be accurate, should exercise appropriate restraint...and should make every effort to indicate that they are not speaking for the institution."

In 1970, the AAUP printed an addendum, in which they said the intent was not to discourage what is controversial, since controversy is "at the heart of the free academic inquiry." It was only meant to "underscore the need for teachers to avoid persistently intruding material which has no relation to the subject."...

PLEASE JOIN US AT AN ISRAEL INDEPENDENCE DAY RALLY

WITH CONSUL GENERAL OF ISRAEL NADAV TAMIR ADDRESS AT 5:00 PM

Consulate of Israel, 20 Park Plaza, Boston

Marching to Copley Square

**Musical Program and speakers at Copley at 5:30 pm**

Thursday, April 30
4:45 PM - 6:00 PM

Come celebrate Yom Ha'Atzmaut and show support for the newly elected
Government of Israel

Sponsors (in formation): Ahavath Torah Congregation of Stoughton, Boston Israel Action Committee, Christians and Jews United for Israel, Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston, The David Project, Temple Emeth of Chestnut Hill, Jewish Community Relations Council of Boston, Bostonspatriots.com, Congregation Kehillath Israel of Brookline, Temple Reyim of Newton, South Area Israel Action Team, The Shaloh House of Brighton, Congregation Shaari Tefillah in Newton, Students for Israel at Northeastern, Young Israel of Brookline.

The iconic image of Che Guevara found adorning students' walls and t-shirts across the world could be banned in Poland under a government proposal to outlaw materials that incite "fascism and totalitarian systems".

Poland's equality minister, Elzbieta Radziszewska, wants to expand a Polish law prohibiting the production of fascist and totalitarian propaganda so that it includes clothing and anything else that could carry an image related to an authoritarian system.

Anybody found guilty could face a two-year prison sentence.

Radziszewska said that the proposed amendment to current legislation "would help organisations fighting racism".

The proposal, which could see the faces of some of the leading lights of communist history such as Lenin and Trotsky removed from t-shirts and flags, reflects a Polish view on communism far different from the rose-tinted and romantic images often found in the West.

After experiencing 40 hard years of communism, as well as the horrors of Nazi occupation, few Poles have qualms equating under law the inequities of Nazism and communism.

"Communism was a terrible, murderous system that claimed millions of lives," said Professor Wojciech Roszkowski, a leading Polish historian and member of the European parliament.

"It was very similar to National Socialism, and there is no reason to treat those two systems, and their symbols, differently. Their glorification should be prohibited."

He added communism had accounted for the slaughter of thousands of Poles in the Katyn Massacre while its gulags had consumed countless millions of victims...

Torture is an impermissible evil. Except under two circumstances. The first is the ticking time bomb. An innocent's life is at stake. The bad guy you have captured possesses information that could save this life. He refuses to divulge. In such a case, the choice is easy. Even John McCain, the most admirable and estimable torture opponent, says openly that in such circumstances, "You do what you have to do." And then take the responsibility.

Some people, however, believe you never torture. Ever. They are akin to conscientious objectors who will never fight in any war under any circumstances, and for whom we correctly show respect by exempting from war duty. But we would never make one of them Centcom commander. Private principles are fine, but you don't entrust such a person with the military decisions upon which hinges the safety of the nation. It is similarly imprudent to have a person who would abjure torture in all circumstances making national security decisions upon which depends the protection of 300 million countrymen...

...Today Pelosi protests "we were not -- I repeat -- were not told that waterboarding or any other of these other enhanced interrogation methods were used." She imagines that this distinction between past and present, Clintonian in its parsing, is exonerating.

On the contrary. It is self-indicting. If you are told about torture that has already occurred, you might justify silence on the grounds that what's done is done and you are simply being used in a post-facto exercise to cover the CIA's rear end. The time to protest torture, if you really are as outraged as you now pretend to be, is when the CIA tells you what it is planning to do "in the future."

But Pelosi did nothing. No protest. No move to cut off funding. No letter to the president or the CIA chief or anyone else saying "Don't do it."...

...It is one thing to have disagreed at the time and said so. It is utterly contemptible, however, to have been silent then and to rise now "on a bright, sunny, safe day in April 2009" (the words are Blair's) to excoriate those who kept us safe these harrowing last eight years.

Convicted terrorist Yousef Majed al-Molqui, the ringleader of the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro, has been freed from an Italian prison. Molqui served 23 years of his 30-year jail sentence for his role in the hijacking and murder of a wheelchair-bound Jewish passenger.

Italian officials announced Molqui's release on Thursday. He is currently staying in a holding center, where he is fighting an expulsion order. He has married an Italian citizen, and claims that his marriage should grant him citizenship as well. In addition, Molqui argues that he has no citizenship. As a descendant of Arabs who fled pre-state Israel, Molqui is not eligible for citizenship in Israel, nor is he eligible for citizenship in his state of birth...

A professor at the American University here recently ordered copies of "The Diary of Anne Frank" for his classes, only to learn that the book is banned. Inquiring further, he discovered a long list of prohibited books, films and music.

This is perplexing -- and deeply ironic -- because Beirut has been named UNESCO's 2009 "World Book Capital City." Just last week "World Book and Copyright Day" was kicked off with a variety of readings and exhibits that honor "conformity to the principles of freedom of expression [and] freedom to publish," as stated by the UNESCO Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the UNESCO's "Florence Agreement." The catch is that Lebanon has not signed the Florence Agreement, which focuses on the free circulation of print and audio-visual material.

Even a partial list of books banned in Lebanon gives pause: William Styron's "Sophie's Choice"; Thomas Keneally's "Schindler's List"; Thomas Friedman's "From Beirut to Jerusalem"; books by Philip Roth, Saul Bellow and Isaac Bashevis Singer. In fact, all books that portray Jews, Israel or Zionism favorably are banned...

...Censorship is a problem throughout the Arabic-speaking world. Though a signatory of the Florence Agreement, the Academy of Islamic Research in Egypt, through its censorship board al-Azhar, decides what may not be printed: Nobel Prize winner Naghib Mahfouz's "Awlad Haratina" (The Sons of the Medina) was found sacrilegious and only printed in bowdlerized form in Egypt in 2006. Saudi Arabia sponsors international book fairs in Riyadh, but Katia Ghosn reported in L'Orient that it sends undercover agents into book stores regularly...

Yemen's Jews, here and elsewhere in the country, are thought to have roots dating back nearly 3,000 years to King Solomon. The community used to number 60,000 but shrank dramatically when most left for the newborn state of Israel.

Those remaining, variously estimated to number 250 to 400, are feeling new and sometimes violent pressure from Yemeni Muslims, lately inflamed by Israel's fierce offensive against Hamas militants in Gaza that cost over 1,000 Palestinian lives.

They face a Yemeni government that is ambivalent _ publicly supportive but also lax in keeping its promises _ in an Arab world where Islamic extremism and hostility to minorities are generally on the rise.

"There is hardly a mosque sermon that's free of bigotry. The government's own political rhetoric marginalizes the Jews, and civil society is too weak to protect them," says Mansour Hayel, a Muslim Yemeni and human rights activist who is an expert on Yemen's Jewry.

"The government's policies are to blame for the suffering of the Jews," he says.

The pressures have long existed. But an Associated Press reporter who traveled recently to the rarely visited north and interviewed Jews, Muslim tribal sheiks, rights activists and lawyers in Yemen's capital of San'a, heard complaints that the frequency of harassment _ including a murder and the pelting of homes with rocks _ has markedly increased.

The testimony was particularly striking because Jews in Arab lands often refrain from airing grievances, lest they antagonize the government and provoke Muslim militants.

Yemen's government says it is trying to stop the harassment. President Ali Abdullah Saleh has proposed that the 45 Jewish families in the farming communities of Kharif and the nearby town of Raydah in Omran province be moved 50 miles southeast to San'a, where they can be better protected. He has offered them free plots of land to build homes.

But the government has taken no concrete steps since presidential aides first spoke of the offer late last year.

For 18 Jewish families who moved to San'a in 2007 from Saada, another northern province, things have not gone well...

...Moussa, while the cameras are on, lavishly praised the president as a "loving father" and a leader. "We are ready to sacrifice our lives for him," he said.

Compared with the fighting they fled, "This is a place where we feel completely safe," said Moussa. "We can never return."

When the cameras were off, however, Moussa had grievances to air: The government wasn't giving the community money to rent stores and buy craftsmen's tools; the evacuees hadn't been compensated for property they left behind in Saada; they were crammed into six small apartments, sometimes 18 to an apartment...