December 2005 Archives

“It is vox populi. And just because the people have spoken doesn’t mean we should applaud what they say.”

Democracy – mere popular rule – should not be our primary objective for the Muslim world, but rather Muslim societies and governments who share our values, so we can safely share this planet.

Islamic Jihad activists in the West Bank village of Atil, near Tul Karm, announced on loudspeakers that their bomber, Sohieb Ibrahim Yassin, 19, carried out Thursday's attack.

Army sources said the suicide bomber who killed an Israel Defense Forces officer and two Palestinians at an army checkpoint near Tul Karm Thursday was apparently planning to blow himself up at one of the many children's events taking place in Tel Aviv during this week's Hanukkah holiday.

Had the bomber not been stopped at the checkpoint, the attack would have been far more deadly, said the sources...

..."For every suicide bomber that succeeds, we have stopped dozens who did not reach their targets," said Colonel Aharon Haliba, commander of the Ephraim Brigade. "We've hurt them [the Jihad network] badly, but it still has an active infrastructure. There is no decline in the volume of its attacks."

"I don't want to speak of a miracle," he continued, "but with all my sorrow over Ori, I have to tell the truth: He and his soldiers, with their bodies, prevented [a far more serious] attack. That is their job; that is our job."

Binamo, who was laid to rest in Haifa on Friday morning, was considered an outstanding platoon commander. On Wednesday evening, just a day before the attack, his battalion commander had been asked to name his best platoon commander and unhesitatingly chose Binamo. "We have to convince him to remain in the army and become a company commander," the battalion commander said that evening.

Haliba said that the Palestinian Authority was also partly to blame for Thursday's attack, because "its security services are simply doing nothing."

Due to warnings of other attacks, the high alert along the seam between the West Bank and Israel will remain in force.

“The world offers riches to all. However, minorities such as the descendants of those who crucified Christ” have become “the owners of the riches of the world,” Chavez said Dec. 24 on a visit to a rehabilitation center in the Venezuelan countryside.

I don't have control, and I don't want control. Period. They approached us with a proposal. Harvard, Georgetown, University of Chicago, University of Michigan and several of the Ivy Leagues.

But your investment company, Kingdom Holding, invited the schools to submit the proposal, didn't it?

Whom else did you approach? Please. Keep the other universities out. I'd rather not embarrass them. The two winners were Georgetown and Harvard.

Since you're said to be worth more than $20 billion, with major holdings in Four Seasons Hotels, Saks Fifth Avenue and Murdoch's News Corporation, why not give an unrestricted gift instead of such a narrowly focused one?

The gift is unrestricted!

No, it's not. It has to be spent on Islamic studies. Georgetown is renaming a center after you, and Harvard is naming a program after you.

Well, sure! The studies that concern me and fit my overall global vision - they're Islamic studies. As you know, ever since 9/11, we have been trying to bridge the gap between West and East.

Iyad Jamal Al-Din How come this country (Israel) has developed a democratic regime, although it too has been at war and is surrounded by enemies, whereas the Arabs have not developed democratic regimes, using the existence of Israel as a pretext? How come Israel is not using the Arabs as a pretext for delaying its democratic development, its free economy, and its free press? Are they better, smarter, or stronger than us? We have oil, we have water, we have land, we have great minds - we have it all. Nevertheless, we have backward, tyrannical, and dictatorial regimes - and the peoples readily accept this. There is no real demand for democracy in Arab countries...

...Of course, we are grateful to America for ridding us of school curricula which promote hatred and animosity. There are no indications of the reforms coming from within...

Is there really a conflict between American interests and our own interests - as individuals and as peoples? Some people whine about Iraq's natural resources and about its oil. They say that America has come to plunder Iraq's resources. I ask them: Were Iraq's resources ever yours? Did you ever benefit from these resources? We hear about this oil, but never see it. There has always been a gasoline shortage. Our countries are rich, yet our peoples are poor...

Al-Fayhaa TV, November 30, 2005:

Islam has various interpretations. Some of these interpretations are completely divorced from humanity, let alone from Islam itself. The well-known ideology of accusing others of heresy is an ideology of terrorism. Who turned Al-Zarqawi into a criminal murderer? Who? He was just a little boy crawling into his mother's arms, but then, out of his love for the religion and the mosque... He began to go to the mosque, and the imam got hold of him, and turned him into what he is. He didn't emerge from his mother's womb as a murderer, or as someone who makes car bombs, and so on.

We face a bloodthirsty religion, or rather, a bloodthirsty interpretation of the religion. This is the truth. Some people's interpretation of Islam is bloodthirsty, while others' interpretation of it is civilized and human. There is an abyss between the two...

There is no more appalling illustration of this phenomenon than recent announcements by the African Union and the Arab League that both groups will hold their upcoming summits in Khartoum. These summits will represent symbolic triumphs for Sudan's genocidaires. And they will reinforce in very public fashion what Khartoum already knows: that none of its neighbors really cares what it does in Darfur.

Of the two, the African Union summit is certainly the more disturbing, if only because it is the organization's own troops that are, in theory, supposed to be establishing security in Darfur. To be sure, this mission has been woefully ineffective from the start. The A.U. force has been deliberately undercut by Khartoum since it was first deployed in summer 2004, with Sudan denying fuel to the African Union for its essential helicopters, blocking A.U. deployments within Darfur, and refusing to allow critical equipment and personnel into the region. For its part, the African Union hasn't committed enough resources or manpower; and key African countries have either reneged on military commitments (South Africa) or deliberately obscured Darfur's terrible realities and Khartoum's responsibility (Nigeria).

PA TV program on Jaffa (Tel Aviv):

"It is time for you [Israelis] to be gone. Live wherever you like, but don't live among us. It is time for you to be gone. Die wherever you like, but don't die among us. We have the past here. We have the present, the present and the future. So leave our country, our land, our sea, our wheat, our salt, our wounds. Everything. And leave the memories."

These words of hate are the parting moments of yet another program on Palestinian Authority television calling for the destruction of Israel. The words, calling for the expulsion of every last Israeli from Israel, are spoken while the screen is showing Jaffa-Tel Aviv, Israelis and Israeli flags. Official PA TV has aired this twice in recent months.

To view this clip, click here

The program about Jaffa opens with a revision of history, by casting the ancient Canaanites as Arabs. By doing this, the more than 3,000 years of Jewish history in the area are pre-dated by a fabricated Arab history. (The Arab Conquest actually took place in the seventh century of the Common Era.)

Jaffa, a part of Tel Aviv, is defined as a Palestinian city, and all of Israel's coastal cities, Acre, Haifa, Caesarea, Ashdod, Ashkelon and Jaffa, are said to be situated in what is "known today as Palestine." According to this PA program, Israel is already non-existent.

The final words of this television program are those of Israeli-Arab poet, Mahmoud Darwish, calling for the expulsion of every Israeli: "Die wherever you like, but don't die among us."

In an interview with Karby Legget, published in the December 23-26 edition of “The Wall Street Journal,” Masalmeh, the leader of the Hamas contingent at the municipal council of Bethlehem, confirmed: “We in Hamas intend to implement this tax someday. We say it openly – we welcome everyone to Palestine but only if they agree to live under our rules.”

Batarseh, the mayor, doesn’t agree. He doesn’t want the tax, and says it will never be introduced.

He knows well that living with Hamas is difficult. But he says he is convinced that “the only way to make Hamas more moderate is to bring them inside the system.”...

Since, however, Ahmadinejad provided the world with such a stark reminder of the ideological foundations of the Mullah-dictatorship – Holocaust denial, anti-Semitism, and the destruction of Israel – Berlin is in a tight spot. On the one hand, Berlin would not like to put in danger Germany’s special relationship with Tehran. On the other hand, it does not look particularly good when the country from which came the Holocaust practitioners now collaborates with the regime of the Holocaust deniers. On 11 December, Germany’s new deputy Chancellor, Franz Müntefering of the SPD, indicated the way out of this dilemma: “Berlin Demands a ‘Reaction’ to Ahmadinejad” ran the headline in the following day’s edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (12 December 2005). This sounded surprisingly forceful. But whoever read the small type quickly understood the actual meaning of the headline: “ Berlin demands a ‘reaction’ to Ahmadinejad from everyone else”. The deputy Chancellor was cited as follows: “We cannot do it alone. Rather this has to be frankly discussed in the framework of the European Community and it must in the clearest possible terms be discussed in the framework of the United Nations”.

Excuse me? Germany can do nothing on its own? Only the German government can abrogate the 2002 investment agreement between German and Iran...

During 2006 Jewish communities throughout the country will be celebrating one of the most remarkable turning points in British history.

They will come together under the banner '3andahalf Centuries of British Jewish Life' for a stream of landmark events to celebrate Jewish life including exhibitions, concerts, plays, and dinners.

Expulsion

Britain became the first European country to expel Jews in 1290 after a long period of persecution.

Jews were accused by their Christian neighbours of ritual killings, desecrating the host, poisoning wells and spreading the plague. Each fresh claim gave rise to new massacres.

It wasn't until the 17th century after Oliver Cromwell came to power that Jews were allowed back to Britain...

One of the groups belongs to Fatah, the ruling party headed by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The two others are the Popular Resistance Committees, an alliance of various armed groups, and al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad.

PA officials in Ramallah expressed deep concern over the threats and said Israel was responsible for the latest cycle of violence...

Mohammed Daoud planned the Munich attack on behalf of PLO splinter group Black September, but did not take part and does not feature in the film.

He voiced outrage at not being consulted for the thriller and accused Spielberg of pandering to the Jewish state.

"If he really wanted to make it a prayer for peace he should have listened to both sides of the story and reflected reality, rather than serving the Zionist side alone," [IOW, he should have continued our work for us. -S] Daoud told Reuters by telephone from the Syrian capital, Damascus...

...Several Israeli historians have also complained about what they see as a moral symmetry in the film between slain Olympians and the Palestinians assassinated by the Mossad spy service [At your service!].

"Spielberg showed the movie to widows of the Israeli victims, but he neglected the families of Palestinian victims," said Daoud. [Always the victims, even of this.] "How many Palestinian civilians were killed before and after Munich?"

Although the reasons for undertaking the program were clearly articulated in the president's speech, it is important to reexamine why the moon is its cornerstone and what we hope to achieve by returning there.

The moon is important for three reasons: science, inspiration and resources. All three are directly served by the new lunar return architecture. This program has the potential to make significant contributions to our national economy and welfare...

But to the Armenians caught up in those horrific events and their descendants, the lawsuit dishonors the people who died in massacres and forced deportations committed by the Turks. They say presenting opposing views of those events is like denying the Holocaust or saying the earth is flat. And they say the case has reopened a battle many Armenians in Massachusetts thought they had already won...

Yet, despite American engagement, Darfur's humanitarian, security and political conditions are deteriorating. If the United States does not change its approach to Darfur, an already grim situation is likely to spiral out of control...

BG: It's a good question. In the beginning of the war,the media was accused by the left of a pro-war bias. When the war is new, there is excitement.There is a certain enthusiasm, the instinctive reaction to rally. But the real goal is to sustain this level of support long term. With time the adrenaline wears out. There is failure to find WMDs and it all becomes a political blood sport. In the beginning there was interesting media drama in how swiftly and certainly the Baathist regime was swept out of power. With time, other stories became more interesting, and the media started showing violence all the time. I don't begrudge anybody who disagrees with the war, but it would be nice if our accomplishments in Iraq got 10% of the media attention...

This commitment to religious teachings among the Palestinian population is consistent with recent findings. In a poll this year, 79.9% of Palestinians want the PA to follow the Shari'a - Islamic religious law (68.6% wanted only Shari'a, while 11.3% wanted both Shari'a and laws of the PA Legislature).
[Palestinian Center for Research and Cultural Dialogue, March 3, 2005]

What is striking, though, is the willingness of Palestinians to turn against even the Western countries upon whom they are so totally dependent in order to progress. The poll underscores what Palestinian Media Watch has been documenting for years - the profoundly negative impact hate education has had on PA society...

...I am asking a favor. The newsmedia for the most part has regulated the story of Mississippi to a footnote to New Orleans. Even the Weather Channel fails to name Mississippi in it's look back at the most devastating natural disasters for the past year.

My local newspaper published an editorial a couple of weeks ago entitled The Invisible Coast, pleading that the newsmedia stop relegating our story to a footnote...

If you could find some way to publish this editorial I would appreciate it. In my own little circle of acquaintances and friends, I know 20 people who had their homes destroyed outright and a further 10 whose homes had so much water damage, they still cannot live in them. The American people have not forgotten us but the newsmedia has with the exception of MSNBC's website which has a daily update on people from Waveland and Bay St. Louis.

I feel so strongly about this because the people in Mississippi who are still living in tents, those whose homes have been replaced by FEMA trailers, those who are unemployed, and those who died are not footnotes...

The story of the Ethiopians' struggle to reach Jerusalem and The Holy Land was so moving that you really had to have a heart of stone not to be moved by it. I decided that the Ethiopian issue would be at the top of our agenda...

Abbas is barely on speaking terms with some security officials, and when he succeeds in issuing an order it is not implemented, they said.

Abbas even said that the Qassam rockets being fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel are "Israel's problem" and that he does not intend to interfere. "Let the Israelis deal with it," he said.

The Israeli officials say that apart from deploying national security forces along the border with Israel in northern Gaza, no action has been taken against the Qassams. Even though there are nearly 30,000 men in arms under the PA's banner, they have not been able to enforce their will on the Islamic Jihad and the other militant groups involved in launching the rockets.

The Israeli officials attribute the continuing launches, including the recent focus on Ashkelon and environs, to specific directives from the headquarters of the Islamic Jihad in Damascus.

Accepting the theory also leads to other convictions. If terrorism is solely the result of injustice, then without the injustice there would be no terrorism. So the best response is to work for justice. Threats, vengeance, security strictures - anything other than the addressing of legitimate grievances is ultimately futile. In particular, since killing terrorists does nothing to alter injustice, it will do nothing to alter terror. Instead, it only leads to more injustice, turning the victims of terrorism into mirror images of the terrorists themselves...

The society's leaders have praised suicide bombers and called for attacks on Americans. A website in Qatar associated with society trustee Yousef al-Qaradawi, an internationally known leader of extremists, calls for gays to be executed by either stoning or burning. Al-Qaradawi has been barred from the United States. The society website praises as ''very good" a book that refers to the women's liberation movement as a ''Jewish plot" to corrupt society and argues that wife-beating is at times necessary. The library of the society's current Cambridge mosque contains literature containing vitriol directed against Christians, Jews, and Americans. While mosque spokesmen speak of ''dialogue" and tolerance, Qaradawi says ''there is no dialogue between us [and the Jews] except by the sword and the rifle.' "

As citizens, we were concerned. We wanted the society to answer simple questions, questions that it took pains to avoid answering. As a result, we have been sued by the society and forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars to defend ourselves. This is not a case about Boston bigots with discriminatory suspicions. It is a case of citizens rightfully worried that their city might be importing -- and subsidizing -- hatred and misogyny with links to terror.

CHARLES JACOBS
President
The David Project
Boston

I have a very long discussion of this truly ugly legacy here:

The Ayatollahs' Final Solution?

which concludes as follows:

Conclusion

An ethos of Jew-hatred, including paroxysms of annihilationist fanaticism, has pervaded Persian/Iranian society, almost without interruption (i.e., the two major exceptions being Sunni Afghan rule from 1725-1794, and Pahlavi reign, with its Pre-Islamic revivalist efforts, from 1925-1979), since the founding of the Shi'ite theocracy in 1502 under Shah Ismail, through its present Khomeini-inspired restoration. Having returned their small remnant Jewish community to a state of obsequious dhimmitude 61, Iran's current theocratic rulers focus their obsessive anti-Jewish animus on the free-living Jews of neighboring Israel.

Holocaust scholar Daniel Jonah Goldhagen has argued persuasively that the Nazis melded centuries of annihilationist Jew hatred to a state machinery capable of implementing the systematic, mass murder of Jews.62 Former Iranian President Rafsanjani's December 2001 "Al Quds Day" sermon threatened, explicitly, the nuclear annihilation of the largest concentration of autonomous Jews in history- the Jewish State of Israel. Four centuries of "najas-inspired" Jew hatred in Shi'ite Iran, accompanied by pogroms, forced conversions, and other less violent, but continuous forms of social and religious persecution, surely meets Goldhagen's Nazi standard of an established "annihilationist" mentality. Iran must not be permitted to acquire a nuclear weapons capability, certainly now, under the current mullahcracy, and into the foreseeable future.

The Dome Village, a center for the homeless here in LA, is being forced out of its current location because the landlord, a Democrat, discovered that Ted Hayes, the leader of Dome Village, is a Republican. Ted Hayes is one of LA's most prominent advocates for the homeless, and is also a ceaseless worker for African-American civil rights. He spoke at the Liberty Film Festival this fall. It is outrageous that the Dome Village would be forced out of its location simply because of Ted Hayes' conservative politics. Please read the press release below for full details.

Govindini Murty
The Liberty Film Festival
http://www.libertyfilmfestival.com
--
December 22, 2005

PRESS RELEASE

Dome Village Threatened With Closure

The hearing comes at the urging of the lawyer for the David Project, the pro-Israel group currently being sued by the ISB for defamation, who sent a letter to McDermott and local media earlier this month alleging that the ISB trustees’ current president had signed a petition in support of the pre-trial release of Abdulrahman Alamoudi. The founder of the ISB in 1982, Alamoudi is now in prison in Saudi Arabia on terrorism funding-related charges.

An official at the Commerce and Industry Ministry denied reports that the Kingdom had lifted the boycott. “The Kingdom has lifted only the second and third degree boycott of Israel in accordance with a decision taken by the GCC summit 10 years ago,” the official said, adding that the Saudi accession to WTO was not linked to the lifting of the boycott.

Didn't pay. They were giving out free preview tickets to Jews, probably to counter all the negative talk.

The shock was: this is a really boring movie. Really. Part way through, I was looking at my watch to see if it would be over soon. It's very tense, every few minutes I was holding my breath in terror. But it never went anywhere. Felt like it was four hours long - somewhat over two, actually.

The moral equivelance theme is there, overshadowed by the violence only generates more violence theme: When Israel takes out murderers, it causes more murderers to arise. But I would say more moral muddle than failure of morality. It wasn't clear what Spielberg was trying to say. except that death and murder are bad. Well, duh.

Washington, DC, December 23rd, 2005 – The Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM) announced today that its fifth annual conference will be held February 17th through 19th at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. The annual conference comes to Georgetown’s campus, which possesses a Catholic and Jesuit identity, on the heels of a series of bold initiatives taken by the decision-making bodies of various Christian denominations to consider the use of divestment as a tactic to non-violently influence a just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The event will be hosted by Georgetown University’s Students for Justice in Palestine (GU-SJP) on behalf of PSM, a coalition of North American organizations dedicated to implementing divestment and boycott strategies as a component of human rights activism in order to realize both equality and justice for all people residing within Israel/Palestine.

Four centuries later, the secret of the synagogue is out. The mystery began unravelling when Fr Agostinho Jardim Moreira, a Catholic priest, bought the four-storey house for use as an old people's home for his parish. When construction workers told him they had come across a false wall, he told them to pull it down - sensing a hidden tale.

He had studied the city's Jewish history and knew his parish had been a Jewish quarter in the 15th and 16th centuries. He also knew that, after they were forced to convert to Catholicism in 1496, many Jews privately kept their faith and worshipped in secret. "I suspected that false wall was hiding something," said Fr Moreira. "I knew there had to be some kind of Jewish symbol behind it."

A worker's sledgehammer proved his hunch right. Beyond the wall was a room with a medieval holy ark - a nook in the wall of a synagogue where Torah scrolls are kept. Only two other arks from the period have been found in Portugal...

But as for the Jews, Mr. al-Rauf grew up with many in his Cairo neighborhood before the Six-Day War. His father's jeweler was Jewish. In 1993, he met many more Jews, whom he claims to genuinely like, on an American government program to train foreign journalists in Boston. "I have even met some rabbis. I liked them," he said in an interview yesterday where he defended a recent column praising the Iranian president's recent remarks questioning the historical truth of the Holocaust...

"Western democracy has attacked everyone who does not share the vision of the sons of Zion as far as the myth of the Holocaust is concerned," Mohamed Mahdi Akef said in a statement.

Akef cited as evidence of Western intolerance the cases of French writer Roger Garoudy, who was convicted in France in 1998 of questioning the Holocaust, and British historian David Irving, who faces similar charges in Austria next month...

• There is no barrier (completely encircling) Bethlehem. There is only a fence where the Bethlehem area interfaces with Jerusalem and close to the 1949 armistice line. Only a very small segment of the fence is a concrete wall preventing terrorists from shooting at motorists.
• The economy has actually improved significantly. While 110,000 tourists visited the city during 2004, more than 218,000 have already visited Bethlehem during 2005 - an increase of around 100%. There have been corresponding increases in Bethlehem's main industries: Textiles 50%, Stone and marble export 40%, commercial transportation 20%. These increases have brought millions of dollars into the local economy.
• The IDF has decided to take a "calculated risk" to make access easier for tourists. According to IDF Lt. Col. Aviv Feigel in the Jerusalem Post, "The military will try to speed the process by not checking every tourist bus, but conducting spot checks of random buses instead."

Israel is taking these steps despite the fact that "Half of the Israeli terror fatalities in 2004 came from attackers who entered Jerusalem from Bethlehem."...

Prior to Israel's August withdrawal, the residents of Gaza's Gush Katif slate of Jewish communities ran greenhouses known for producing high-quality insect-free vegetables. The Gush Katif gardens featured some of the most technologically advanced agricultural equipment and accounted for more than $100 million per year in exports to Europe. The greenhouses also supplied Israel with 75 percent of its own produce.

The hothouses were passed to the Palestinians in September in a $14 million deal brokered by former World Bank President James Wolfenson and several wealthy Jewish Americans.

Earlier this month, the Palestinians now running the greenhouses reportedly told the Israeli-Palestinian Economic Cooperation Fund they failed in their efforts to grow bug-free produce.

Now the Palestinian owners have asked the United States Agency for International Development, which has been involved in reconstruction efforts in Gaza, to hire former Jewish Gaza greenhouse owners as consultants for their declining vegetable businesses...

...Asked if she [Tucker] would serve as a consultant for the new Palestinian owners of her former greenhouses, Tucker said, "Probably not. We see the terror coming out of Gaza, coming out of the neighborhood I used to live in, and it's just horrible. Hamas has taken over different parts of Gush Katif and are firing rockets into Israel. I am not saying the Palestinian farmers are involved, but it seems they are not doing enough to stop the terror."

Haderi, who says he already has been asked by U.S. AID to consult on greenhouse technology, said, "I am still thinking about it. It's a very difficult decision."

The Lebanese government criticized Washington's request to hand over Mohammad Ali Hamadi, saying the militant already had served a prison sentence for the 1985 murder of Robert Dean Stethem of Waldorf, Md.

Hamadi, a member of the Hezbollah guerrilla group, was taken into custody upon returning to Lebanon after his release from a German prison Thursday. He had served 18 years for hijacking a TWA plane to Beirut and fatally shooting Petty Officer 2nd Class Stethem, who was 23 when he was killed.

"What I can assure anybody who's listening, including Mr. Hamadi, is that we will track him down, we will find him, and we will bring him to justice in the United States for what he's done," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said...

The extent of the U.S. military's assistance, well-known to Pakistanis, barely registers on the radar screens of most Western news outlets. That's a pity, because it overlooks one of America's most significant hearts-and-minds successes so far in the Muslim world. The assistance also illustrates another frequently overlooked fact: When it comes to foreign aid, the Department of Defense is one of the biggest contributors, and what it provides is something no other country can replicate...

Around 30% of the Palestinian Authority budget comes from international donations, including a hefty amount from the European Union. If an Arab government funded stipends to the families of the London or Madrid bombers, it would probably be pretty big news. But this is the Palestinian Authority, and no matter how little it does to discourage terrorism, or to educate its people to coexist with Israel, it can rely on excuses being made on its behalf by an army of sympathizers throughout the West -- in the press, on college campuses and, most disturbingly, in foreign ministries.

For over a year now, since Mr. Abbas succeeded Yasser Arafat, his boss of 40 years, many in the West have done their utmost to "explain" or ignore Mr. Abbas's failings. But if Americans and Europeans are genuinely interested in promoting Palestinian-Israeli peace, it is time for them to take a realistic look at his record...

The senators in a letter to Bush said the United States "would have little choice but to reevaluate all aspects of our relations" with the Palestinian Authority if Hamas "or such groups" were brought into it.

The Senate letter follows a resolution passed overwhelmingly last week by the House of Representatives that also urged the exclusion of Hamas from the January 25 parliamentary ballot.

The House resolution said Hamas' participation could undermine the ability of the United States to provide assistance to the Palestinian Authority.

Senators said they were "deeply disappointed" that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas "has yet to do what the Palestinian Authority has committed to doing on numerous occasions -- asserting its control over the terrorist groups that operate freely within the West Bank and Gaza."...

The tradition of tracking Santa began in 1955, when a local Sears, Roebuck and Co. store ran a newspaper ad urging children to make a phone call on Christmas Eve and talk to Santa Claus. As fate would have it, the phone number was misprinted and, instead of reaching Santa, youngsters found themselves talking with Air Force Col. Harry Shoup of the Continental Air Defense Command at Cheyenne Mountain.

Rather than hanging up, Shoup and his troops answered every child's call that night with a report of Santa's location. CONAD personnel kept up the practice until 1958, when NORAD was formed and took over Santa-tracking duties. NORAD has continued the Santa tracking tradition for several reasons, according to Air Force Master Sgt. John Tomassi, co-director of Santa-tracking operations.

"I think in the initial stages, back in the '50s and '60s, it was just a novelty kind of thing," he said. "A lot of people - children and their families - do this tracking Santa as a tradition in their family. We've recognized now that people have taken this program as a tradition, and what we can do is educate them...

...Last Christmas Eve, volunteers at Cheyenne Mountain answered nearly 55,000 phone calls and 35,000 e-mails from children around the world. During December 2004, the NORAD Tracks Santa Web site had 912 million hits from 181 countries. This year, about 500 volunteers - most of them U.S. and Canadian military personnel and their families - will report for telephone-answering duty on Christmas Eve. But already, youngsters are sending messages to Santa via the NORAD Tracks Santa Web site.

"E-mails are arriving from India and Ireland and all over the world already from children with their wish lists who want to talk to Santa," Tomassi said. "We receive, on average, 200 e-mails a day."

Angry over local politicians' threats to rename "Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium" in protest of the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams, the governor promised the mayor of Graz a follow-up letter from his personal lawyer.

"I expect the lettering to be removed by the end of 2005," Schwarzenegger declared in the letter released by his office, "and in the future, the use of my name to advertise or promote the city of Graz in any way is no longer allowed."

Schwarzenegger, who makes regular trips back to Graz, told the mayor he's even returning his coveted Graz "Ring of Honor." The award was given him during an elaborate City Hall ceremony in 1999 for the "pride and recognition" he brought his hometown.

During the ceremony, which is on his Schwarzenegger.com personal Web site, he called the ring "the most precious award I ever got."

That was before he learned the Graz City Council was considering stripping Schwarzenegger of that honor, too.

"It was a beautiful day in 1999 when I received the ring at City Hall, and I assumed at the time that it would be a token of sincere friendship between my hometown and me," he wrote Mayor Siegfried Nagl.

"Since, however, the official Graz appears to no longer accept me as one of their own, this ring has lost its meaning and value to me. It is already in the mail."...

Ali-Reza Akbari: ..."Perhaps the reason... In my opinion, the people who say that the phenomenon of burning Jews on German soil during the World War II crisis is similar to a holocaust do so as a result of propaganda and due to psychological reasons.

"In any event, a case of burning people has been registered in history, when many human beings were burned because of their beliefs. The people who were burned then were, in fact, Christians. They were burned by the people who ruled Yemen, who were Jews. This event took place 400 years before the advent of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula. Since then, the burning of human beings has been termed 'holocaust.'"

Host: "Were there six million Jews at all at that time, who could have been annihilated in the crematoria?"

Hasan Hanizadeh: "First of all, this figure is greatly exaggerated. The number of Jews in the world does not exceed 12 million. Only now, 57 years later, has it reached this figure. Clearly, at that time, considering the dispersion of the Jews, there could not have been six million Jews in Europe alone. In any event, the Zionist lobby and the Jewish Agency use this issue as a club with which they beat and extort the West.

"Unfortunately, the West has forgotten two horrendous incidents, carried out by the Jews in 19th-century Europe – in Paris and London, to be precise. In 1883, about 150 French children were murdered in a horrible way in the suburbs of Paris, before the Jewish Passover holiday. Later research showed that the Jews had killed them and taken their blood. This event caused riots in Paris back then, and the French government found itself under pressure.

"A similar incident took place in London, when many English children were killed by Jewish rabbis. These two incidents still haunt the minds and souls of the Europeans, but due to the growing influence of the Zionist lobby in Europe – or to be precise, the influence of the Jews – these two incidents are, unfortunately, never mentioned."

The deniers in the Arab world often tacitly acknowledge this by adding the contradictory argument that if it happened then Israel should set up shop in Austria or Germany.

Of course, all of this doesn't take place in a vacuum. There are other arguments for why Israel should be where it is and there are other reasons why people deny the Holocaust. But a more logically consistent anti-Israel stance would simply accept that the Holocaust happened and, well, so what? But they understand they can't make that argument, at least not on the world stage. We all know that for internal consumption, the Nazis still get a lot of applause in the Middle East...

...In spite of all of the problems we see in the leadership in the UCC, we have never called for the resignation of anyone - until now. Veliko's comments are so wrong and so damaging that she must be called on to resign immediately and without hesitation. As Veliko notes in her article, charges of deicide have been used historically to harm Jews. No UCC leader has the right to promote a theology that can be used to harm others and rationalizing deicide this way does embolden those who would harm Jews. The UCC leadership, and specifically UCC President John Thomas, must repudiate Veliko's comments and immediately ask for her resignation...

On the contrary, Ateek has used crucifixion imagery to describe Israeli behavior, not Palestinian suffering. He has portrayed Israeli government officials trying to defend their citizens from terror attacks as modern day Herods, intent on destroying the innocent baby Jesus. He has written that the Israeli crucifixion machine operates daily in the disputed territories and has compared the occupation as the stone blocking Christ's tomb. Language like this is not about Palestinian suffering; it is about Jewish savagery...

...Churchill, who made news earlier this year for describing victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center as “little Eichmanns,” was scheduled to lecture and lead a workshop for student groups on October 20 and 21. In protest, DePaul’s College Republicans (CRs) printed flyers that quoted some of Churchill’s controversial remarks. DePaul’s Office of Student Life banned the CRs from posting the flyers, citing a remarkably vague policy prohibiting “propaganda.” The CRs, understandably confused as to how quoting a speaker’s own words could be “propaganda,” put up some flyers anyway, leading to a formal warning from DePaul.

DePaul’s Cultural Center went even further by actually changing the attendance requirements for the Churchill-led “Multicultural Human Rights Education Workshop” to exclude the CRs. Although the event was initially advertised as open to “student organizations,” after the CRs expressed interest in attending, the Cultural Center altered its website to limit the event to “Student Organizations which are supported by the Cultural Center’s Allocation Fund,” which the CRs are not.

On November 23, FIRE wrote to DePaul President Dennis Holtschneider to protest the university’s actions, urging the Catholic institution to reject “policies that place students’ individual rights and personal integrity at the mercy of university officials who are free to censor students at will.” Holtschneider replied on December 12, incorrectly claiming that the word “propaganda” is not part of any policy at DePaul. Nevertheless, he defended DePaul’s policy, insisting that it “is enforced equally for all topics and positions. Advertisements of speakers are posted. Denunciations of speakers are not posted.” Yet FIRE’s research shows that the policy was amended to reflect this only after the College Republicans’ flyers were denied approval...

...He also said that today Iran's nuclear aspirations constitute a real threat to western countries.

Ze'evi said that Iran had recently received 12 cruise missiles with a 3,000-km range, which are capable of carrying nuclear warheads. 18 such missiles were transported from Ukraine to Russia, of which 12 had somehow managed to end up in Iranian hands. The other six were received by China...

Google Earth allows users to zoom in on almost any location in the world to such close range that cars can be recognised. The site even provides latitude and longitude co-ordinates for buildings.

Bill Sweetman, a technological warfare expert with Jane's, the military and intelligence specialist publisher, said the images could enable terrorists in Iraq to pinpoint targets inside military bases...

Relatives of the victim -- Waldorf, Md., native Robert Dean Stethem -- said yesterday they were "devastated" to learn of the killer's release and urged the Bush administration to demand an explanation from Germany...

...The decision to free Hamadi came just before the reported release of a German hostage in Iraq, Susanne Osthoff, but Berlin rejected suggestions that the developments were related.

The Stethem family, however, was skeptical.

"We feel pretty strongly [the hostage-taking] made his release happen much faster," Richard Stethem said. "I think the new [German] government ... thought it was an easy out to give him back to Lebanon."

A U.S. official agreed privately that Hamadi "could have been held longer" and said Berlin's explanation was "not good enough."

"There was no reason for him to be tried in Germany in the first place," said Patrick Stethem, Petty Officer Stethem's other brother. "He should still be tried here for the crimes he committed against a U.S. service member."

The idea was recently launched by two London activists, and is already gaining support and sympathy elsewhere. Rome may soon follow, and so should other capitals of Europe and the Western world.

Since the free world's leaders remain unwilling to give a strong and decisive answer to Iran's tyranny, ordinary citizens should perform this simple gesture of defiance, which for centuries Jewish families and communities across the world have done. This is a reminder that in the end, despite the odds, the light of freedom must, and therefore can, triumph over the darkness of tyranny.

Interviewer: Why did they do that to Muhammad Al-Dura?

Palestinian Toddler: Because they are Jews, villains, dogs. You see? That's why. They shouldn't do that, because it's called killing. They shouldn't do this. We are not their friends. They shouldn't do this. We are Palestinians, and they are Jews. They should not shoot people.

Interviewer: Is it possible that we will reconcile with them one day, and there will be peace between us?

Toddler: No.

Interviewer: Don't we want peace with them?

Toddler: We don't want anything. We don't want anyone, not the Jews... We want to live in security, see? We don't want Jews, thieves, or villains.

I don't like hearing such news. It makes me very sad, because the martyrs die. It's no joke, they die for real, by live bullets or rubber bullets, see? Rubber bullets have iron inside them. If a rubber bullet hits somebody, like that, he might...

Interviewer: Do you want this war to continue or stop?

Toddler: I want it to stop. I don't want war or anything.

Interviewer: Why?

Toddler: Because if the war continues, and there is a big battle, the Jews... The Jews - we will drive them out of their homes. We will do it to the Jews. What they did to us we will do to them.

Often, from a distance, we encountered Iranian Naval vessels, what would commonly be called "gunboats." These gunboats, at least the ones we were concerned about, carried medium range surface-to-surface missiles which the Iranians used to target oil tankers.

Although a British warship would not have been a target for those missiles, they were still extremely dangerous. Quite a few times, while sailing in the vicinity of an Iranian gunboat and a merchant vessel, our crew was called to Action Stations, or what we American's call, General Quarters. It was never a drill.

The gunboats were not usually in tip-top fighting condition. It appears that the commanders were not technically savvy enough to make sure their systems were in proper working order. More than once, these calls to Action Stations were the result of our sensors detecting an Iranian fire-control radar had locked on to our ship... whether it was sad, humorous, or just plain stupidity is up to you...

At the time we predicted that he would survive. He did. And we were right. We just could not predict the price Larry would pay. First he agreed to lay $50 million dollars on the altar of political correctness to teach "diversity on campus". That is protection money was paid to the mob of cultural marxists. You would think that would be a high enough price, it was not.

Larry Summers has to learn tolerance from the Saudis. In order to be able to do that, he accepted $20 million from Prince Ali Walid Bin-Talal...

Maybe not wrong, but certainly different than the picture in my head.

I liken it to this; It was real struggle for me to choose to see the Harry Potter movies. I had read the books and loved the pictures I had in my mind of the details I read. I didn’t need to see a movie; I had a movie playing in my head of exactly how I perceived the stories.

I had similar notions about Iraq, Mosul, the war and what exactly soldiers do. And it was handily shattered like glass today by a group of soldiers, half of them younger than myself...

...I have a slight hesitation; I need to keep balanced. I can’t be a cheerleader, even if I have a soft spot for the hometown troops, especially after the welcome they’ve shown me. I still need to be truthful and walk the centerline and report the good or bad.

But then I realize it’s not a conflict of interest. If I am truly unbiased, then I need to get used to this one simple fact; that the untold story, might in fact, be a positive one...

Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, said during a tour of the region that European taxpayers would have a hard time supporting the Palestinian government if it included a party that supports violence and advocates Israel's destruction.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a similar declaration Friday. The Palestinian Authority counts on foreign aid for half its budget...

The bodies of New Orleans residents killed by Hurricane Katrina were almost as likely to be recovered from middle-class neighborhoods as from the city's poorer districts, such as the Lower 9th Ward, according to a Times analysis of data released by the state of Louisiana...

...New Orleans was the site of most of Katrina's fatalities; the state reported that 76% of storm deaths statewide occurred in the city. Of the 380 bodies from New Orleans that have been formally identified, a moderately disproportionate number are white. New Orleans' population was 28% white, yet 33% of the identified victims in the city are white and 67% black.

"The affected population is more multiracial, multiethnic and multicultural than one might discern from national media reports," said Richard Campanella, a Tulane University geographer who has studied which parts of the city were hit the worst by flooding. His research showed that predominantly white districts in the city were almost as likely to flood as predominantly black ones...

The following are excerpts:

"The Execution Chambers Were No More Than Rooms for Disinfecting Clothing"

..."We've had enough of the lies and the falsification of the facts with which the [Israeli] textbooks are replete. The most serious lie is the Jews' Holocaust, which they have exploited in order to extort global solidarity.

"When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad refutes this lie, the entire world is up in arms, and the Iranian president is inundated with accusations of madness, fanaticism, and falsification. [Ahmadinejad] was inundated with these accusations even though he did nothing more than state the truth, which a number of honest researchers have [also] reached.

"What this truth means is that these massacres, which Israel alleges that the Nazis perpetrated against the Jews, never happened. The famous execution chambers [i.e., the gas chambers] were no more than rooms for disinfecting clothing."...

The Chicago Tribune reported today that "two influential Chicago aldermen say they may oppose rezoning for the proposed tower" because of their anger over the delegation's meeting with Hezbollah.

The newspaper quoted Alderman Edward Burke as saying, "I don't know how willing I will be to vote in favor of the zoning change ... at the same their leader is out meeting with Hezbollah. I think we ought to reevaluate the whole relationship."

Burke was referring to the Rev. Bob Reynolds, the presbytery executive, who led the Presbyterian Church (USA) delegation on its trip to the Middle East. Since returning, Reynolds has expressed his regret over the trip and said Hezbollah used it for political purposes.

Another City Council member was also irate over the presbytery's role in damaging relationships with Jews in the city. The Tribune quoted Alderman Bernard Stone, one of the council's three Jewish members, as saying Reynolds "is not going to get any favors from me. I'll be damned if I'll [support] anything that would benefit someone who meets with terrorists opposed to peace in the Middle East." Stone is a member of the city's zoning committee...

In a sharply-worded speech, Al-Qaradhawi praised Palestinian suicide operations, encouraged terrorist movements such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and called on the Arab countries to aid the Palestinian resistance with funds and weapons...

..."We Stand by Our Brothers in Hamas and Islamic Jihad"

"We stand by our brothers in Hamas, our brothers in [Islamic] Jihad, our brothers in [the Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs] Brigades, our brothers in the Popular [Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)] and in the Democratic [Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP)]. We stand by them all. We want them to stand in a single trench, and never let a Palestinian fight a Palestinian.

"We will not let the hand of a Palestinian aim at the chest of another Palestinian. All efforts and weapons must be directed against the common enemy, who is still acting with trickery and does not want to give us anything but talk. This is false talk, and to date we have seen nothing on the ground.

"We Will Not Abandon the Resistance as Long as One Inch of Palestine is Occupied"

"Oh brothers, our weapons must remain in our hands. We will not lay down our weapons. We will not abandon the resistance as long as one inch of Palestine is occupied...

"If the enemy has usurped a piece [of land], whether narrow or broad, whether it be small or large, the people living in it must resist this enemy. The Islamic jurists treat this as a commandment incumbent upon the residents of the land. If the residents of this land cannot resist [the enemy], then it is incumbent upon their neighbors, and then their neighbors help them with funds, weapons, and men. When all the neighbors are not enough, it is a duty incumbent upon the entire Muslim nation."...

Why did he do that? Because he thinks we're winning, and he wants credit. By November 2006, and especially November 2008, he thinks that'll be obvious, and he wants to lay down his marker now on what he believed -- and what the other side did...

Outsiders are rarely aware of how intense the Muslim world's Jew-hatred is. ''What has surprised me is the virulence of this new anti-Semitism throughout all the Muslim countries," the distinguished journalist and editor Harold Evans wrote in 2002. ''It is frenzied, vociferous, paranoid, vicious, and prolific, and is only incidentally connected to the Palestinian conflict." Obsessive anti-Semitism almost always characterizes the most dangerous threats to America and the West. Nazism, Communism, Islamofascism -- all have been intensely anti-Semitic. Which is why Ahmadinejad's strident rhetoric should be setting off urgent alarms. Dictators who talk about wiping nations from the face of the earth generally mean what they say. We should know by now that it isn't only Jews who are endangered by the mullahs and their threats. All of us are. And time is wasting.

Conceived before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and blessed by the city, the mosque has been beset by challenges. A Mission Hill man is suing the city, alleging that the land deal that got the project underway was unfair. Others have accused officials of the Cambridge-based Islamic Society of Boston, which is building the mosque, of sympathizing with Islamic extremists.

The accusations have battered the project. Donations have slowed to a trickle and Islamic society officials blame the allegations of extremism, which they have vehemently denied, for deterring benefactors. The funding difficulties have all but halted construction and forced the society to seek bank loans to complete the project, a step they had long hoped to avoid, given Islam's prohibition on charging and paying interest. However, those loans were denied, society officials said...

The notion was filed by a member of the Red Coalition (Communist Factions) and was supported by members of the Christian Progressive Party.

The support provided by the Christian progressive Party is considered huge shift in positions, especially since it is known of ideology which does not support the Palestinians, and in took several positions which were considered by some countries as anti-Arab and anti-Muslim.

Also, the Labor parties, leftist and central parties supported the proposal.

The approved decision binds all municipalities in the county not to buy or sell Israeli products, which are widely spread there.

This development was considered a dramatic shift in Norway, especially after the County council considered the Israeli occupation similar to the apartheid regime which existed in South Africa.

Recently, campaigns to boycott Israeli products in Norway have showed effective presence after it was scaled down in the last period. It started to develop again after the Left regained control over the country...

Yet, other than perhaps Halliburton, it is the single business most despised by the American left.

The company in question is Wal-Mart, and a Nov. 28 report by New York University economist Jason Furman concludes that the mammoth retailer is getting a bad rap from his fellow liberals. Wal-Mart, argues Mr. Furman, is a "progressive success story"—a business with razor-thin profit margins that nonetheless brings high productivity, low prices, and coveted jobs to the masses.

He brings together several different studies to make his case, and the numbers he cites are staggering. Just considering food, Mr. Furman shows that big-box retailers like Wal-Mart save a typical family in the poorest fifth of U.S. incomes 25.8 percent on their grocery bills—or about 6.5 percent of their incomes. When all products are taken into account, Wal-Mart by itself saves American families about $263 billion, or about $895 per person and $2,329 per household. These savings mostly help poor and middle-class families, since the average Wal-Mart shopper earns about $35,000...

...Shamloun: "Don't you fear that curses and torments will befall you for working on the Sabbath, Habakkuk?"

Habakkuk: "It seems that working on the Sabbath is permitted to us, and was prohibited to our ancestors, because they killed their prophets. [Laughs]"...

...Pinhas: "Step right up and buy your Sabbath goods. We trade on the day that the Lord once forbade, and get rich. Come, step right up, all you who do not believe in curses."

Shamloun: "Shamloun is inviting you. Check out my merchandise, and don't be afraid of anyone. You won't be punished - not from the earth nor from the skies."

Habakkuk: "Step right up. It is me, Habakkuk. I am, as you can see, safe and sound. The only illness that has struck me is wealth. Come here. How nice it is to work on the Sabbath. How nice it is to work on the Sabbath. I am working on the Sabbath, and I challenge the will of the heavens."

[While jumping up and down, Pinhas, Shamloun, Habakkuk, and others in the marketplace turn into apes. The boy and his grandfather open a door in the wall and step to the other side with some other villagers.]

Grandfather: "Look, my child, the young among them have turned into apes, and their elderly have become pigs."

Boy: "They should know that the Lord speaks the truth and punishes severely."

Grandfather: "Praise the Lord, who has saved us. They remained in this condition for three days, and then were annihilated. The wind has cast them into the sea."

[Music plays as the apes and pigs are cast into the sea.]

Narrator: "In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. When they disregarded the warning that had been given to them, We rescued those who forbade Evil; but We visited the wrong-doers with a grievous punishment because they were given to transgression. When in their insolence they transgressed prohibitions, We said the them: 'Be ye apes, despised and rejected.' Behold - thy Lord did declare that He would send against them, to the Day of Judgment those who would afflict them with grievous penalty. The Lord is quick in retribution, but he is also oft-forgiving, most Merciful."

IF I were a Muslim, I would be grateful that Canada's support is unwavering:

- On Jerusalem, Canada holds that any actions taken by Israel to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the Holy City are illegal. It believes Israel has no jurisdiction over any part of Jerusalem. Earlier this year, Canada withdrew all passports that had "Jerusalem, Israel" as a place of birth.

- In April 2002 Canada endorsed the "Jenin massacre" hoax and has yet to apologize.

- Canada has called upon Israel "to cease obstructing the movement of the staff, vehicles and supplies of [UNRWA]." Canada endorsed this "free movement" after wire service videos showed UNRWA ambulances being used to transport terrorists, and an admission by UNRWA's secretary-general that some of their paid employees may be Hamas members. There has never been a call for UNRWA to end its involvement in terror...[snip]

- Canada endorses the idea that Palestinians have a right to their own state without obligating the PA to end terror.

...Canada should not legitimize the perversion of UN resolutions which has transformed a tool for even-handed criticism of all member nations into a crude mechanism for bullying just one of them.

So the next time Canada's prime minister makes a speech, check the facts before jumping for joy.

Except that there were no such camps, indeed no Holocaust at all, says Ahmadinejad. Nothing but "myth," a "legend" that was "fabricated . . . under the name 'Massacre of the Jews.' " This brought the usual reaction from European and American officials, who, with Churchillian rage and power, called these statements unacceptable. That something serious might accrue to Iran for this -- say, expulsion from the United Nations for violating its most basic principle by advocating the outright eradication of a member state -- is, of course, out of the question.

To be sure, Holocaust denial and calls for Israel's destruction are commonplace in the Middle East. They can be seen every day on Hezbollah TV, in Syrian media, in Egyptian editorials appearing in semiofficial newspapers. But none of these aspiring mass murderers are on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons that could do in one afternoon what it took Hitler six years to do: destroy an entire Jewish civilization and extinguish 6 million souls.

Everyone knows where Iran's nuclear weapons will be aimed. Everyone knows they will be put on Shahab rockets, which have been modified so that they can reach Israel. And everyone knows that if the button is ever pushed, it will be the end of Israel...

Hezobollah is a terrorist organization which has attacked American embassies, hijacked an American airliner, kidnapped American hostages and is responsible for "innumerable assaults on innocent people," the resolution noted.

The meeting took place last month with Hezobollah terror chief Hassan Nasrallah, and has ignited widespread outrage among the Chicago Jewish community and religious leaders of all faiths. While Reverend Reynolds said the purpose of the meeting was to hear from the terrorists about their "own reality in their own words," Alderman Burke reacted in disbelief.

"I cannot fathom why a top Chicago religious leader would lend legitimacy to a terror organization which has committed so many atrocities against innocent people," Alderman Burke said...

..."All of Chicago should be aghast that Reverend Reynolds would display such a total lack of judgment," Alderman Stone added. "Perhaps he should have taken the time instead to talk to the families of those many innocent people who have been killed by Hezbollah in terror attacks so that he could hear firsthand about the pain and loss that Hezbollah’s actions have brought to their families."

Alderman Smith urged fellow council members to adopt the measure which also calls for the City of Chicago to examine "any programs of the City which provide service or financial support to the Chicago Presbytery and to reevaluate the propriety of continuing such services or financial support."

Conflict, lack of economic opportunities and the pull of the West have been driving a steady haemorrhaging of Christians for several decades, while low birth rates ensure that those who stay live as ever-shrinking minorities...

The causes of emigration are complex.

"Christians here are between two fires. We are between the fire of occupation and discrimination by the state of Israel - and the fire of living in a community where the majority are Muslims," said Mr Fellemon...

"The belief of Islamic extremists that Westerners sympathize more with Christian suffering has led some militants to initiate shooting from Christian areas like Beit Jala, in order to force an Israeli reprisal," the group wrote in a 2004 report.

For Mr Eid, a Muslim, the root of the problem is "the lack of a culture of minority rights" in the Palestinian territories.

"Muslims believe in resistance - and Christians also do, but in a non-violent way. We know they are less violent than the Muslims. It seems we are not giving the Christians the opportunity to express their opinion," he says.

"It makes me sad that they are suffering from their Palestinian brothers, as well as from the occupation."...

Seaman 2nd Class Dee Hall, of Syra, Okla. He is to be buried at the Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio.

Hall was one of seven crewmen aboard a U.S. Navy PBY-5 Catalina that took off from Kodiak Island, Alaska on June 14, 1942, to attack Japanese targets in Kiska Harbor, Alaska...

Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said his government sees no need to react to Ahmadinejad’s statements because they are irrelevant to its close ties with Tehran.

“We have always refrained from evaluating this issue,” Oskanian said. “We view our relations with Iran only within a bilateral framework. Such issues have never been discussed in our bilateral relations.”...

...Official Yerevan is apparently anxious not to damage its political and economic relations with the Islamic Republic. They are currently being cemented by joint multimillion-dollar energy projects implemented by the two neighboring nations. Ahmadinejad reportedly called for an intensification of the Armenian-Iranian ties “in all areas” when he received President Robert Kocharian’s chief of staff last month.

The obvious reluctance to publicly deplore a high-level denial of the Holocaust contrasts with Armenia’s regular condemnation of another neighboring state, Turkey, for its refusal to recognize the 1915-1918 massacres of Armenians as genocide. Armenian leaders have drawn parallels between the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust.

Oskanian, for example, delivered an emotional speech last January at a special session of the UN General Assembly dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the biggest death camp set up by Nazi Germany to exterminate Jews and other "inferior" peoples. “After Auschwitz one would expect that no one any longer has a right to turn a blind eye or a deaf ear,” he said. “As an Armenian, I know that a blind eye, a deaf ear and a muted tongue perpetuate the wounds.”

"Wal-Mart, instead of letting in what we’re telling them, they’re not listening," said Newton 10-year-old Owen Weitzman. "We’re not going to stop until they listen."

Armed with colorful balloons, the fifth-graders from the Workmen’s Circle Jewish Sunday school in Brookline protested the superstore’s wage and employee practices...

...After students gave speeches on low Wal-Mart employee wages and the history of Jewish sweatshop labor in the United States, about a dozen fifth-graders marched into the store, accompanied by adults and photographers. They asked the store manager to give a letter they wrote to company CEO Lee Scott.

The store manager Nicky, who wouldn’t give her last name, asked the group to leave the store, and spoke with them outside the main entrance. She said she couldn’t accept the letter due to company policy, but gave the group an address where they could mail it.

She asked the group to leave store property. A second store manager came outside and told the kids she would call the police if she had to.

The children refused to leave the property until their letter was accepted, and young Weitzman read the letter despite the warning. The letter called the company’s use of sweatshops overseas "outrageous," and made six requests of the company, including, adhering to living wages and allowing "workers to go to the bathroom whenever they need."...

A few minutes later, a Framingham Police car pulled up, and the officer asked the protesters to move along. They walked back to the shopping plaza entranceway, with the adults and students grumbling, and rejoined the rest of the group...

...Sunday schooler Lucian Cascino said the youngsters will protest until they see results. "We’ll hammer Wal-Mart until they give in and start listening to us," the 10-year-old Boston student said...

In 2002, the New Statesman, a British left-wing journal, gave us an infamous front cover entitled "Kosher conspiracy" featuring a Star of David standing on top of a Union Jack, for which the editor was forced to apologize following widespread condemnation.

So perhaps it is unsurprising that the New Statesman's latest edition compares Israeli actions to those of the Nazis during Kristallnacht, the destruction of mosques by Bosnian Serbs, and the eradication of entire villages by Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the Sudanese regime in Darfur...

From a legal perspective, the departure of the British in May 1948 left Jerusalem's status undetermined. The end of the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli war found the western part of the city in Israeli hands, and the eastern part (including the Old City) controlled by Jordan. In 1949, Israel and Jordan signed an armistice, dividing Jerusalem into two demarcated zones. These lines, however, were seen by both sides to be temporary -- until a peace treaty could be concluded; neither party viewed the cease-fire lines as permanent borders.

As late as 31 May 1967, Ambassador Al-Farrah of Jordan told the United Nations Security Council:

There is an Armistice Agreement. The Agreement did not fix boundaries; it fixed the demarcation line. The Agreement did not pass judgment on rights -- political, military or otherwise. Thus, I know of no boundary; I know of a situation frozen by an Armistice Agreement.

Under the armistice agreement, Jordan promised to allow "free access to the Holy Places... and use of the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives." It further guaranteed Israel free access to Hadassah Hospital and the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus. These rights, however, were denied.

Despite the commitments under the armistice agreement, no Jew, from any country, was allowed to pray at the Western Wall. In fact, no Israelis -- of any religious persuasion -- were allowed to pray at the sites sacred to them. The Jewish Quarter of the Old City was systematically destroyed. The Jewish cemetery was desecrated and its tombstones were used to pave a path to the latrine of a Jordanian military installation. Christian education was restricted in the part of the city controlled by Jordan; Christian schools were forced to close on Friday, the Muslim day of rest. Christians were also forbidden to acquire land in or near Jerusalem. The economy of eastern Jerusalem was devastated and political expression was severely limited; no Palestinian Arab newspaper was allowed to publish...

As part of the development, the complex will undergo a series of renovations and a number of projects will be established, including a modern visitors' center, a new police station, information center and new entrance to the site.

The government is to be presented with a police report showing an all-time high of 5 million people who visited the site in 2005. The Prime Minister's Office is hoping the renovation will bring about an even greater increase of traffic to the site...

"It could be never called into question that the Israeli establishment poses the even greater threat against Al-Aqsa mosque, especially, given its history which is riddled with canny attempts to undermine the holy mosque," the statement mentioned.

It also added that mosque is not only targeted by the extremist Jewish groups, but also by the Israeli government. "The real danger of destroying Al-Aqsa mosque is directed by Sharon's office."...

Also, an Israeli government statement mentioned that Al-Buraq wall which is allegedly called by the Israelis as the "Wailing wall" would be part and parcel of the Jewish religious and historical heritage...

The Mayor of London was cleared of a misconduct charge on the grounds he was speaking as a private individual rather than in his official capacity.

Mr Livingstone still faces a second misconduct charge, of bringing his post into disrepute, which will be heard by the Adjudication Panel for England tomorrow. If found guilty he could be disqualified from office...

...The Adjudication Panel decided that because Mr Livingstone had left the reception and was on his way home he could no longer be said to be working in his official capacity.

Under the terms of the conduct rules, Mr Livingstone would have to be speaking as Mayor to justify the charge of failing to "treat others with respect".

However, the charge of bringing the Mayor or Greater London Authority into disrepute can be made irrespective of whether an elected official is on duty or off duty.

...Hisham Sham'as: "There is no such thing as unrealistic. Just as Israel... Just like Hitler fought the Jews – We are a great Islamic nation of Jihad, and we too should fight the Jews and burn them."...

Student 2: "Avian flu hit the entire world, and they are trying to find a cure for it now. As for Israel – the only cure for it is to wipe it off the map."...

Mediator: "What's your name?"

Student 3: "Mahmoud Fakhri. I hope what I have to say is not too inciting."

Mediator: "Go ahead and incite. This is what we're looking for. We want some action."

Mahmoud Fakhri: "In all honesty, the Arab people should overturn the disappointing regimes."

Mediator: "Now you are really inciting..."

Fakhri: "In all honesty, any disappointing government that wants to normalize relations with the Zionist enemy and to sell out the Arab cause, and especially Jerusalem – the people must topple this regime and have its say."

Up to now, he said, the center has not had enough resources "to respond to the tremendous demand that is out there, from the government, church and religious groups, the media and corporations to address and answer issues like, 'What is the actual relationship between the West and the Muslim world? Is Islam compatible with modernization?' Now we can run workshops and conferences [on these subjects] both here and overseas."...

...I'm always incredibly impressed by the U.S. service members I meet here. They are not all as optimistic and supportive of the mission as the captain I spent time with today, but they are all dedicated to their units, devoted to their fellow troops. I think a lot of us in the states forget how difficult it is for the families of these soldiers and marines, airmen and sailors.

They are away for so long. Multiple tours in Iraq are not uncommon.

Every soldier I talked to today said the media hasn't done a good job of telling the full story from Iraq. It's a complaint I've heard before, and certainly understand. I do think television tends to focus on the bombs and the bullets, the most dramatic headlines. So much of what happens here never makes the nightly news....

In two letters -- one sent to local Presbyterian congregations and a second, more biting missive sent to the Rev. Robert Reynolds, executive presbyter of the Presbytery of Chicago -- Rabbis Victor Mirelman and Ira Youdovin, president and executive vice president respectively of the board of rabbis, said they are outraged by the meeting Reynolds had with a Hezbollah commander while on a fact-finding trip to the Middle East with a delegation of other Presbyterians.

The Jewish leaders' ire has been further raised by Reynolds' statements to the media indicating he might consider meeting with Hezbollah again.

"Our outrage is by no means a manifestation of 'Jewish hypersensitivity,' " Youdovin and Mirelman wrote in their letter to Reynolds. "Your meeting last October has done serious damage to an 18-month-long process of Jewish-Presbyterian healing in Chicago. ... How can Chicago's Jewish community continue to seek strong relations with the Chicago Presbytery when its chief executive meets with terrorists bent on murdering Jews and annihilating the Jewish state?"...

Thaer Omran Ismail Asaifi, 35, admitted in U.S. District Court to participating in a conspiracy in which about 200 Iraqis and Jordanians paid as much as $20,000 each to enter the United States.

Authorities said they were given false documents and traveled from Amman through Peru and Ecuador to Washington's Dulles International Airport. Officials said they found no link to terrorism.

The smuggling operation began months before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and continued through 2004, authorities said. After the attacks the smugglers more than doubled their price.

Under the plea agreement, Asaifi faces a sentence of six to eight years in prison, and then will be deported...

Nevertheless, not all Muslims are as interested in this spiritual quest, and some of the more radical adherents of the faith are convinced that nonviolence is not an option. Andrew Bostom’s book shows comprehensively the historical roots of this school of thought, and its continuity over the centuries to the present day. It helps one understand jihad operationally; its use, its claims to legitimacy, its perceived inevitability. Whether this is or is not the way most Muslims view the concept of jihad in its totality is not particularly relevant because people sincerely engaged in “greater jihad” are not a national-security threat. Likewise, those terrorists who have made “lesser jihad” their avocation have no use for fellow Muslims who are seeking only to bring themselves closer to God’s ideal as they understand it. As the Ayatollah Khomeini said of those who argued that Islam was a religion of peace that prevents men from waging war, “I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim.”...

The Organization of the Islamic Conference — 56 Islamic states, almost 30 per cent of the UN membership — ensures that a mountain of resolutions and resources are devoted every year to demonizing Israel.

Take, for example, the UN Commission on Human Rights. In the past two years, Israel has had 101 human rights resolutions passed against it...

...in 2003, the UN called three emergency sessions to condemn Israel. In addition, in the same year, the General Assembly passed 18 resolutions that singled out Israel for criticism. The entire rest of mankind — 190 countries, about 6 billion people — drew only four resolutions.

Last year was similar. The assembly, once again, looked at abuses around the globe. If you recall, both Darfur and Zimbabwe were in the news a lot. Nevertheless, proposed resolutions relating to Sudan/Darfur and Zimbabwe couldn't make it; they were defeated.

However, simultaneously, UN delegates, without too much trouble, were able to adopt nine resolutions condemning Israel.

Israel's policies are, of course, fair game for legitimate criticism; but the UN seems to be highly selective with its outrage.

You would think, however, that when it comes to children, the situation changes, and the UN would agree that the death of a child — any child — is a tragedy. Evidently not.

A resolution was adopted in November 2003, calling for the protection of Palestinian children from "Israeli aggression."

Israel, too, sought a resolution of its own, calling for the protection of Israeli children from terrorism. The Israeli resolution was not defeated; it could not even gain enough support from the assembly to come to a vote...

For its part, the Bush administration deserves only censure. No one expected a miraculous conversion. But given the steadily mounting evidence of the consequences of climate change, one would surely have expected America's negotiators to arrive in Montreal willing to discuss alternatives...

“The boy Muhammed al Durah didn’t die at all, he is living in Gaza,” so claims the physicist and right-winger Nahum Shahaf, who presented his findings recently before the head of the National Security Council, General (res.) Giora Eiland. The investigation claims that the photos documenting the death of al Durah were staged by the Palestinians for propaganda purposes.

The head of the National Security Council said to Maariv that after reviewing the findings, he did not rule them out. The right-wing physicist also tried to convince Eiland that Israel take the official position that the child did not die. However, in the words of Eiland, “It is difficult to remain indifferent in light of Shahaf’s findings, however, there is no ablsolute proof that the findings of the investigation are correct.”...

Bayefsky has a photo of Kofi Annan on the dais with the map in the background. The Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a press release Friday in which it "condemns the participation" of the secretary-general in a conference that denies the existence of a U.N. member state.

We would like to know where the 43 senators--42 Democrats plus the lachrymose George Voinovich--who blocked a vote on Bolton's confirmation, forcing President Bush into a recess appointment--stand on all this. One could wave away such outrages, and indeed we're inclined to do so, on the ground that the U.N. is a hopelessly corrupt and worthless institution whose expressions count for nothing. But that is an awkward position for Bolton's detractors to take, since they claim to believe in the U.N.

They don't really believe in the U.N., of course. As we noted in April, in 1991 many of them voted to defy the U.N.'s request for troops to liberate Kuwait from Saddam Hussein's Iraq. They are "pro-U.N.," it seems clear, only when the U.N. is anti-U.S. But again, if the U.N. has "moral authority" when it takes Saddam Hussein's side over ours, how about when it seeks the obliteration of Israel?

The secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, provided an example of both ways in recent weeks. When the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, stated on October 26 that "the regime occupying Jerusalem must be eliminated from the pages of history," Mr. Annan replied by expressing "dismay." Again on December 8, when Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be moved to Europe, Annan responded with "shock."

But dismay and shock at Ahmadinejad's statements did not prevent Annan from participating on November 29, just between the Iranian's outbursts, in a U.N.-sponsored "International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People."...

When asked what would be the best thing that could happen to Iraq in the next 12 months, only 5.7% chose American forces leaving Iraq.

One thing is sure, American media fails to reflect the reality reflected in this poll.

Richard McBee writes Hyman Bloom's Journey: "In 1950 he is one of seven artists, including Arshile Gorky, John Marin, Jackson Pollack and Willem de Kooning to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale."...

...when the trio arrived in Amman, they were told there was a problem with the application. They met with Eyad Alarfi, assistant to consul general in Amman, who could provide no information about what was holding up the visa. Later, Alarfi said approval for visas were granted for Batchelor and Mason, but not for Klein.

By telephone, Klein spoke to an official from the Ministry of Information in Damascus who declined to provide his name. At first he refused to suggest why Klein had been singled out and prevented from entering the country. Later, however, he asked: "What religion are you?"

Klein said he refused to answer.

"You know what you are," said the official.

Mason, who made the initial arrangements for visas with Syrian media representative al-Arsan, said a red flag was immediately raised when Klein's name was mentioned.

He reportedly told her it would be better if Klein did not go. She asked if it was because he is Jewish. Al-Arsan replied: "Yes, it is."

Batchelor and Mason decided to leave the Syrian embassy without their visas...

The Hamas election video calling for Israel’s destruction

The release of the new video on the Hamas website, reiterating its goal of destroying Israel, coincides with two polls this week showing Hamas turning into a major political force, with between 32% - 45% of Palestinians saying they will vote for Hamas in January’s parliamentary elections. What are the implications for peace, should nearly 50% of the Palestinian Authority parliament be open supporters of Israel’s destruction?

It will be interesting to see if the continuing Hamas election campaign calling for Israel’s destruction will prompt a change in United States or European Union policy. Presently the US State Department has made clear that while it continues to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars of support to the PA, it will make no demands on it to prevent the Hamas from participating in the upcoming elections. The EU and United Nations have also agreed that Hamas can participate in the elections.

The following are the words on the new Hamas video:

"We succeeded, with Allah's grace, to raise an ideological generation that loves death like our enemies love life. We will not abandon the way of Jihad and Shahada [Martyrdom] as long as one inch of our holy land is in the hands of the Jews.

"Congratulations to our people of 1948 [Israeli Arabs] on the liberation of Gaza. You wish to destroy them [the Israelis] from their interior. We will never forget you, and never leave you. A day will come when our flag will fly above all the quarters of our land. Our flag will fly on the minarets of Jerusalem, and the walls of Acre, and the quarters of Haifa".
[Hamas website, December 12, 2005]

It was not long before he became the recognized head of the Zionist right, and the increasingly maligned rival of the World Zionist Organization's two great leaders, David Ben-Gurion in Palestine and Chaim Weizmann in London. (Although the charges of fascism hurled against him were baseless, some Revisionists were indeed attracted to the model of Mussolini's corporate state. Nor did the hero worship of many of Jabotinsky's followers, or the brown-shirted uniforms and military-style parades of the Revisionist youth movement Betar, help him to defend himself against the accusations.) Barred by the British from Palestine in 1930, he spent the last decade of his life headquartered in Paris, and traveling constantly to Jewish communities all over Europe, and as far as South Africa and the United States, to preach his message. He was a masterful orator who could address his audiences in a half-dozen languages.

Jabotinsky was now possessed by a growing sense of urgency: he was certain that Europe's Jews were faced with an unprecedented conflagration, and that only the emigration of millions of them to Palestine, which was opposed by the British and viewed as impractical by the Zionist left, could save them. At the time of his death from a heart attack in 1940, the outbreak of war having scuttled his hopes that anti-Semitic governments in Central and Eastern Europe might pressure the Mandate into accepting the wholesale evacuation of their Jewish populations, he was seeking to repeat the success of the Jewish Legion by obtaining British agreement to raise an international force of a quarter of a million Jews to take part in the battle against Hitler. For his admirers, he died a heroic figure, a martyr to the petty politics of a socialist Zionist establishment blind to the sweep of his vision and the prescience of his warnings. For his enemies, he was at best a quixotic dreamer, at worst a dangerous demagogue ready to make common cause with darkly reactionary forces...

In August of 2005 Michael Graham was fired from WMAL-AM because he refused to apologize for saying on-air "We are at war with a terrorist organization named Islam”. Recently WTKK FM radio in Boston has hired Graham as their new afternoon drive host. Grahams comments are a blatent example of bigotry that has been able to creep into the American Society after September 11th which has been mainly fueled by racist talk radio.

MAS Freedom Foundation is looking for volunteers to monitor WTKK FM 96.9
Monday -Friday 3-7pm.
If you can contribute a few hours a week please contact us in order to coordinate our efforts...

However, the available evidence suggests that MAS has not moved away from the Brotherhood's extremist principles. MAS has an internal educational curriculum consisting of literature that Muslims must read in order to advance to a higher membership class – a syllabus that gives the group's game away...

A total of 89 percent of respondents to the poll indicated they want to vote in the election of a permanent democratic government.

The intent to vote is strong across ethnic and religious lines. The Kurds have the highest percentage, with 95 percent telling pollsters that they want to vote. Sunni Arabs have the lowest percentage, but that is still pegged at 87 percent. A total of 91 percent of Shiite Arabs, the largest religious group in the country, said they will vote...

SHOEBAT: Absolutely. You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. The media -- I don't see anything in the media. I stopped watching the media.

The media is the streets of what's happening over in the West Bank. Can I go to Ramallah, stand in the street corner, and have a pamphlet saying suicide bombing is wrong. I will be executed within seconds.

They don't show in the media the killings galore that happens in Manger Square, the dragging of other Palestinian bodies.

O'REILLY: Right.

SHOEBAT: .in the streets. They don't show these things...

I had heard talks against Israel before: I was a student at Concordia University in Montreal, where Jews and Israel supporters were harassed on a daily basis, sometimes physically. It never ceases to amaze me how new allegations against Israel seem to emerge out of thin air, as if someone woke up in the morning and devoted all of their time to finding another way to demonize the Jewish state. But this time I was to hear something I had not heard before: Reverend Naim Ateek, founder of Sabeel did not hide his hatred for Jews under the veil of criticizing Israel.

I knew that Ateek wrote things about Israel that were straightforwardly anti-Semitic. In 2001 he wrote “Jesus is on the Cross again with thousands of crucified Palestinians around him…The Israeli government crucifixion system is operating daily.” But most Churches have dismissed the use of anti-Semitic, deicide imagery after the Holocaust, and I wondered what Ateek would do here.

As I sat in the chapel of the Bloor Street United Church, waiting for Ateek to speak, the crowd grew to roughly three hundred people. Ateek’s topic was “morally responsible investment” -- his euphemism for divestment from Israel.

Reverend Ateek began his presentation by labeling Israel as an apartheid state, whose policy is to “oppress the Palestinians through occupation.” His language for Israel was harsh. I’ve heard it all before. He rehearsed the Palestinianist line, effectively. But his contempt for modern Judaism shocked me. He seemed proud to point out the “flaws” in Judaism.

(I remember vividly a session in an Arab-Israeli dialogue group I was in during the worst of the suicide terrorism. I was looking to the Arabs to condemn it simply and clearly, and not excuse it or explain it. In vain. And when I voiced my opinion that encouraging children to blow themselves up in the midst of civilians was a moral abyss that linked child-abuse to mass murder, one of the nicer participants got vehemently indignant, and accused me of de-humanizing the Palestinians. I thought I was pointing our how the Palestinian leadership was dehumanizing its people; the Israeli/Jewish participants jumped on me for being so critical, for not validating our Arab interlocutors.)...

Bolt asked whether any of the Jews in the audience in hindsight consider their original support of that legislation to have been a mistake. He suggested that Jews should rethink their support for these laws and work to have them repealed as they (Jews) have nothing to fear from open debate based on facts. He said that the contribution of Jews in Australia is unparalleled. He went so far as to say that unofficially he has heard that Jewish peak body support for the legislation is an important factor preventing its repeal.

Bolt then turned to the official topic of the talk, giving his analysis of the reasons Israel is cast as the villain by the media today...

I said, “What are you doing, they’ve just hit the car with a house brick!”

The young constable said, “Oh, they always do that when we drive past.”

The police were either too scared or too lazy to do anything about it. The damage bill on police cars became costly and these street terrorists grew stronger and the police became purely defensive. You see, the Police Royal Commission was about to start and the police retreated inside themselves knowing that the judicial system considered them easy targets. The police did not want to get hurt or attract Internal Affairs complaints.

Call me stupid, call me a dinosaur, but I made sure that day that at least one person in the group that threw the brick was arrested. I began by approaching the group just as that magistrate had lectured me and the other police involved in the Croydon search warrant. I simply asked who threw the brick. I was greeted with abuse and threats. I then reverted to the old ways of policing. I grabbed the nearest male and convinced him that it was he who had thrown the brick. His brave mates did nothing. By the time we arrived at the police station, this young fool had become compliant, apologetic and so afraid that he kept crying.

You may not agree with what I did, but I paraded this goose around the police station for all the young police to see what they had become frightened of. For some months after that, police routinely rounded up the family whenever it was warranted...

I was informed my first day there by the Foundation that Princeton was not allowing the event to go forward on campus. Furthermore, pressure had been placed on the PIPAC students to toe the party line for Princeton—or else. While PIPAC students have tried to deny this, one of them finally broke ranks and admitted this was the case. The students were intimidated by Princeton’s administration. And Princeton, in order to spin the situation more, stated the event was not really cancelled just a few days from occurring, but only “postponed.” When asked if the college had received threats from Arab interest groups, Ms. Liatt replied that she had received “some calls.” She also made clear she did not want national media attention for the event...

Whenever and wherever there is a self-governing community of free men, gangsters find no place. If gangsters rule -- free men are homeless.

Take up your choice -- violence and repression, or constitutional liberties...let us rise up against terror and its agencies, and smite them. The time for words are past.

Callie Crossley said (paraphrasing) "This story demonstrates the depth of black anger. No reporter can really know if it did happen or not. The sources a reporter would go to for information are federal agencies, and they obviously can't be trusted. After all, black men in a Tennessee prison in the 1920's were given syphilis, and that was by the federal government." Pause. I expected some "Oh come on, Callie" from somebody, anybody, but it was not forthcoming. Instead John Carroll said (something like) "Well, it could be true, but if it was, it would have been for urban renewal, not for ethnic cleansing." I'm still shaking my head, thinking he COULDN'T have said that, but he really did say something that bizarre.

Not one person on the show tonight said "Of course our federal govenment didn't bomb the levees." Not one!

That's it, I'm done with that show! PBS hasn't gotten any money from me lately, and this seals the deal. Not one dime. Not a frickin' penny. What is wrong with these people????

Arghhhh!!!

"But we will be victorious, Allah willing - despite the traps set by Judaism and the Crusaders, and despite the deeds of those who set traps and who deceive...

..."The Prophet besieged them for 25 days until they surrendered and agreed to accept his reign. The Prophet called upon them to choose a judge, and they chose Sa'd bin Mu'az, who had been their ally in the Jahiliyya [the pre-Islamic era]...

..."He decided that the only treatment they merited was to have their fighters killed, their women taken captive, and their property seized as booty...

..."Some Orientalists claim that Muhammad was cruel to the Jews, but this is how determination should be. One must be firm when firmness is warranted, and gentle when gentleness is warranted...

..."I pray for Allah to open our brothers' eyes, to make the present in Iraq better than the past, and the future better than the present. I pray for Allah to protect Iraq from overt and covert civil strife, to protect it from the evils of divisiveness and racism, and to protect it from the whispers of all satans, the human satans, the satans among the djinn, the American satans, and other satans."

Signed by factions belonging to followers of Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Ja’afari, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the Sunni Iraqi Consensus Front, the code brings together Shi’ite and Sunni factions. It also demands a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S.-led occupation troops and condemns terrorism while upholding the legitimacy of “resistance.”

Elections are next week, and the code suggests how the various parties might align. Al-Sadr was the driving force behind the code, The Associated Press reported.

Amir Khalaf Fanus -- listed third on a "high-value individuals" list of terrorists wanted by the 28th Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team -- was wanted for criminal activities including murder and kidnapping. Ramadi citizens brought him to an Iraqi and U.S. forces military base in Ramadi, where he was taken into custody.

Fanus was well known for his crimes against the local populace. He is the highest-ranking al Qaeda in Iraq member to be turned in to Iraqi and U.S. officials by local citizens...

Germany's Schroeder Joins Russian-German Gas Pipeline Project

Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will lead the shareholders committee for a German- Russian gas-pipeline project to pump gas under the Baltic Sea, OAO Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller said today.

State-controlled Gazprom began building the more than 4- billion-euro ($4.7 billion) North European gas pipeline project today in the town of Babaeyvo in Russia's Volodga region, north of Moscow.[snip]

On September 8, 2005, Schroeder - then still German chancellor - attended the signing of the contract for the pipeline, together with Putin. The pipeline had a clear political background - the contract needed the approval of the German as well as the Russian government. The deal increased Germany's already dangerous reliance on Russian gas deliveries...

American officials here said Iraqi officials have asked by them to stop calling groups opposed to the coalition "Sunni insurgents." The idea is that a great many Sunni Arabs are moderate and want democracy for Iraq, officials explained.

Coalition officials have hit on the term "Iraqi rejectionists" to refer to those people who want to participate in the election process, but still launch attacks on coalition forces.

Coalition officials also said many Iraqis want to change the perception that all Baath Party members are evil people. Saddam Hussein, of course, ruled through the Baath Party. Iraqi officials maintain that millions of their countrymen and women joined the party simply to get or keep a job.

Coalition officials now are using the term "Saddamists" to refer to die-hard Baathists who want a return to the bad old days of Saddam's rule, officials said.

Here, for example, is what prosecutors said was Al-Arian's response to an e-mail from the PIJ office in Damascus reporting results of a Nov. 11, 1994, suicide bombing in which three Israeli soldiers were killed and 15 others injured: "Pride and glory overwhelmed us. May God bless your efforts and accept our martyrs."

Notice the use of pronouns: "us" and "our." Al-Arian, who founded the think tank at USF that was a cover for anti-Israel activities and whose one-time director became head of the PIJ, was one with the terrorist organization...

Then Abdel-Hafiz met, unexpectedly, with al-Arian at an American Muslim Council conference in Washington and wrote a summary of their conversation, which he had not coordinated with Tampa. The report he filed was not well received by Carmody and his team of investigators in Tampa -- or by FBI agents John Vincent and Robert Wright, whose Chicago investigation dovetailed with the al-Arian case.

"After Gamal had a conversation with Sami al-Arian, he made a lot of self-serving statements for al-Arian and denigrated the FBI agent (Carmody) who was investigating the case," says Vincent, who also had a run-in with Abdel-Hafiz over his refusal to wear a wire to record another Muslim under terror investigation -- Soliman Biheiri, who is tied to al-Arian (investigators found the his phone number in Biheiri's computer address book). Abdel-Hafiz tried to explain to Vincent that a "Muslim does not record another Muslim."...

Jeffrey Robbins, the lawyer representing a research group and a Boston College associate professor who oppose the project, asked Councilor Jerry P. McDermott to order hearings based on a US Treasury Department document issued in July that indicates that a man who helped found the society in 1982 raised about $1 million for two groups associated with Al Qaeda.

In the statement issued July 14, the Treasury Department stated that Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was sentenced to federal prison in 2004 for involvement in a plot to assassinate the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, had raised the money in the United States for the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, which provides material support for Al Qaeda, as well as Saal Al Faqih, a group that controls the Movement...

Alamoudi - who is serving a 23-year sentence in federal prison after having pleaded guilty in 2004 to participating in a Libyan plot to assassinate Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah - is also a founder of the Islamic Society of Boston. The society is now embroiled in a bitter legal dispute over the society's efforts to build a mosque with the aid of public subsidies.

That lawsuit, according to journalists and terrorism investigators, is part of a larger trend of litigation by Muslim groups that, they say, is having a "chilling effect" on the ability to report domestic ties to terrorism.

Each of the panelists agree that recruitment by terrorist organizations was not significant to their having become terrorists. Rather, terror is part of the "fiber of the culture" and joining terror organizations was organic and natural. They agreed that terror indoctrination permeates Muslim society. Fortunately, they were all able to deprogram themselves, primarily through conversion to Christianity.

Here are some quotes from the panelists:

Walid Shoebat: "There is no wall in the area where I grew up that was not filled with grafitti, with slogans such as 'we knock on the gates of heaven with the skulls of Jews.'"

Zak Anani: "The problem is not land. It is generations of hatred passed from one generation to the next."

Ibrahim Abadallah: "My hatred for the Jews permeated my heart. I hated the Jews with all my heart, my soul and my passions. Anything I could do to harm the Jewish state, the Jewish people, I would do."

[Ironically, Abadallah had attended a Quaker school in Dearborn.]...

'Tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes run through a country. . . . Yet panics, in some cases, have their uses . . . . [T]heir peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstones of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which might otherwise have lain for ever undiscovered.

Thus, he explained, "Many a disguised Tory has lately shown his head," emboldened by the circumstances of the moment to reveal an opposition to the break with Britain that it had previously seemed prudent to conceal.

The similarities to our situation today are uncanny. We, too, are in the midst of a rapidly spreading panic. We, too, have our sunshine patriots and summer soldiers, in the form of people who initially supported the invasion of Iraq-and the Bush Doctrine from which it followed-but who are now abandoning what they have decided is a sinking ship. And we, too, are seeing formerly disguised opponents of the war coming more and more out into the open, and in ever greater numbers...

A: I would like to ask the Iraqi people to please not forget Steven, and what he was trying to do for them. Steven loved Iraq, and he loved the people he met there, and he wanted more than anything for that country to finally know peace and prosperity in a democratic state. I would like them to remember that, and to also remember that he gave his life in an effort, as small as it may have been in the overall picture, to try and make it happen. I would hope someday he would be written about in Iraqi history books, so the children of Iraq can learn about him and about the difference one person can make.

He is Tech. Sgt. Patrick L. Shannon of Owasso, Okla. Funeral arrangements are yet to be set by his family.

Shannon and 18 other servicemen operated a radar installation atop Pha Thi Mountain in Houaphan Province, Laos, approximately 13 miles south of the border with North Vietnam. The site, known at Lima Site 85, directed U.S. bombing missions toward key targets in North Vietnam.

In the early morning of March 11, 1968, the site came under attack by a force of North Vietnamese commandos. The enemy force had scaled the sheer mountainsides in the hours before the attack and overran the site. During the attack, some Americans made their way down to ledges, but survivors reported that several were killed...

Moreover, "Arbour told reporters she chose the theme of "terrorists and torturers" to mark Saturday's annual commemoration of the U.N.'s adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 because of concerns that the absolute ban on torture, once believed to be unassailable, is under attack." If you think her concern is with the kidnapping of "peace advocates' in Iraq or with concentration camps in North Korea, you will be mistaken. Her theme is designed to support the charge hurled by Islamists and their enablers that there is a moral equivalency between terror and the American led war on terror between rendition and torture...

Bolton has it right. This demonstrates the lack of serious thought for reform at the UN. Arbour should have spoken out of humility about the UN's proven track record of abusing those under its protection and what the organization intended to do to correct it...

One such agent was the Mossad's legendary blonde femme fatale Sylvia Rafael, who took direct part in the most undeniably tragic episode of that mission - the 1974 killing in Lillehammer, Norway, of an innocent Moroccan waiter mistaken for Ali Hassan Salameh, the Black September's operations chief in Europe. Even though Rafael expressed deep regret for that error after she and five others were subsequently caught and jailed in Norway, she went to her grave last year in her native South Africa never having expressed any doubts, public or private (according to her husband, the Norwegian lawyer who represented her in the Lillehammer case), about the overall worth of her mission...

In a prerecorded lecture presented at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm on Wednesday, the British playwright said Bush and Blair should be arraigned before the International Criminal Court...

If you assume or come to believe that that nation will not enforce its own laws for reasons that are essentially cynical, that have to do with the needs of big business or the needs of politicians, will that assumption or belief make you more or less likely to be moved by that country, proud of that country, eager to ally yourself with it emotionally, psychologically and spiritually?

When you don't earn something or suffer to get it, do you value it less highly? If you value it less highly, will you bother to know it, understand it, study it? Will you bother truly to become part of it? When you are allowed to join a nation for free, as it were, and without the commitment of years of above-board effort, do you experience your joining that country as a blessing or as a successful con? If the latter, what was the first lesson America taught you?

These are questions that I think are behind a lot of the more passionate opposition to illegal immigration...

The envoy singled out Algeria for blocking a U.S. drafted statement.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton issued a statement Tuesday unequivocally condemning the bomb attack in the Israeli town of Netanya that killed at least five people. The unusual action came after a U.S. attempt to have the statement issued by the Security Council was rejected.

Diplomats attending the meeting say several Council members raised concerns about language in the U.S.-drafted document. Ambassador Bolton, however, blamed Algeria for quashing the measure by objecting to a passage urging Syria to close offices of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which claims responsibility for the attack. "Other governments had questions about particular language. We were perfectly prepared to engage in discussions about constructive suggestions, but Algeria categorically refused to name Syria and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad," he said.

The U.S. envoy later read the text of the statement to reporters, and lashed out at the Council for what he called "failing to speak the truth".

He said "you have to speak up in response to these terrorist attacks. It's a great shame that the Security Council couldn't speak to this terrorist attack in Netanya, but if the Council won't speak, the United States will."

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has spoken forcefully about our conviction that there was no justification for the U.S. Government’s invasion of Iraq. Presbyterians pray daily for the innocent Iraqi civilians, U.S. soldiers, and all others whose lives are at risk at this time. Further, we have spoken clearly about our grave concern for those who have been detained by U.S. forces, and for their families...

The PCUSA leaders' statement was unusually harsh in condemning U.S. involvement in Iraq – even when compared with pleas for the release of the hostages by the National Council of Churches and Islamic groups...

The NCC and Faithful Americans did not, like the PCUSA, blame the plight of the CPT members on the U.S. involvement in Iraq...

The Presbyterian leaders alone blamed the "United States' war against Iraq" for endangering the hostages. Currently, there is no "war against Iraq." The U.S. involvement, whether supported or denounced, is focused on protecting a fragile Iraqi democracy against Iraqis and insurgents who oppose democracy.

The four peace activists were kidnapped by a heretofore unknown group, the Swords of Righteousness. The group has said it will kill the four on Thursday if all prisoners in Iraq are not released by then.

The Presbyterian leaders, after emphasizing their opposition to the U.S. role in Iraq, did mildly state their opposition to the kidnappings by the Swords of Righteousness. "We believe that all violence is wrong, and that the action of kidnapping cannot be justified under any circumstance," they said.

A 'Peace Team' of Israeli and Palestinian players lost 2-1 to Barcelona at the Nou Camp last week in front of 31,820 spectators, including many dignitaries.

"The Palestinian FA will form a committee to investigate the players who participated in the match ... everyone involved will be punished," senior FA official Jamal Zaqout told Reuters.

"We act in accordance with the attitude of our people who are against normalization (of relations with Israel) before the end of the occupation," Zaqout said, referring to Israel's hold over lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Fifteen Israelis, including many internationals and 12 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank joined up for the match sponsored by Israeli statesman Shimon Peres' Center for Peace foundation...

The IDF identified the target as Mahmoud Arkan, a 29-year-old commander of the PRC in the Rafah area behind most of the attacks there in the past months...

Eyewitnesses said scores of Fatah and Islamic Jihad gunmen, backed by many civilians, foiled the attempt to apprehend the terrorist and take him to a prison in Jericho.

Local members of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah's armed wing, voiced support for the suicide attack, pledging to use force to thwart any attempt by the PA to detain Islamic Jihad officials. The group's commander, Zakariya Zubeidi, was among those who welcomed the attack, saying it was "a natural response to Israeli violations of the truce."

Another attempt to detain Jihad activists in the Balata and Askar refugee camps near Nablus also failed after dozens of gunmen drove back the PA security forces after pelting them with stones...

According to the daily Danish newspaper B.T., Ole Poulsen, head of the public food consumer department said that the Muslim refusal to buy the cookies could have an effect on sales...

..Jewish cookies, which are made with cinnamon and hazelnuts and actually have nothing particularly Jewish about them, are very popular in Denmark during the pre-Christmas period.

Denmark’s chief rabbi, Bent Lexner, said that he did not see any problem in a name change.

“There is nothing Jewish in it and I wouldn’t mind another name, but I think that it would be better to educate Muslims to respect the culture of the majority in Denmark, if they want the majority to respect their culture".

Most of Denmark’s “Jewish” cookies are not kosher and they are therefore not consumed by a large part of the Jewish population.

"We have today charged the organization and two of its members, and seized some of its funds," Henning Thiesen, special prosecutor for serious economic crime, told Reuters.

The Justice Ministry said an investigation launched in 2002 showed the two Al-Aqsa members had collected money in Denmark and transferred it to "Middle Eastern organizations which are part of or have connections to the terror organization Hamas."...

The Danish Al-Aqsa Association was founded in 1999, taking its name from Jerusalem's most important mosque. It has in the past denied it has links to militant organizations in the Middle East, saying it supports orphans in Palestine...

"Rabia, an Egyptian in his 30s, was responsible for external planning of terrorism, including terror strikes against the United States. ... he replaced Abu Faraj al-Libbi, a top al-Qaeda leader, who was captured earlier this year.

"I can hear people saying: "But they'll just replace him with someone else!"

Sure they will. But when you eliminate the vice president in charge of planning attacks against the U.S., then eliminate his successor, the chances are that whoever is next in line for this position may not have the education, maturity and experience necessary to achieve al-Qaeda's corporate goals.

Do you think Microsoft's stock wouldn't sink if Bill Gates and his top deputy suddenly disappeared? Why would it be different for an enterprise producing death and destruction for export?

Meanwhile, in Iraq, it is vital that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, CEO of al-Qaeda's Mesopotamian branch, be eliminated, along with whoever replaces him. And so on and so on...

Mr. Kim, known to his countrymen as "the Dear Leader," recently paid a visit to North Korea's Pyongyang Film Studio to give auteurs the benefit of his "on-the-spot guidance."

His message was combative.

"He said we are not competing with U.S. and European films. We have to beat U.S. films," Kim Man-sok, the head of the studio's foreign sales division, told foreign reporters.

In North Korea, what the Dear Leader wants, the Dear Leader gets. So the first potential international blockbuster already is in the pipeline...

Al-Agha was killed when carrying out an attack at the Rafah crossing, in which five Israelis were killed, in December 2004. The PA's ruling party Fatah features Al-Agha in a clip that glorifies violence and terror, and still shows the murderous attacks on its Fatah Falcons website a year after the attack.

The American news network CNN's coverage of the crossing's reopening last month showed footage of a giant sign erected over the site, which declares the crossing's name to be in honor of the Shahid (martyr) Al-Agha, and refers to his murderous attack with the thrilling name, "Volcanoes of Rage."

That the PA allowed such a sign to be erected at the site is a powerful message to Palestinians, emphasizing once again that terrorists are heroes...

What remains constant is that, as in both pre- and post-Enlightenment Europe, today’s European elite has its good Jews and its bad Jews. There are the Jews whom it embraces, encourages, and celebrates; and then there are the Jews whom it chastises and condemns. For the former, there will always be a place of honor in the European sun. On the latter, today’s officially pluralist and tolerant Europe has turned its back. Is it any wonder, then, that some "good Jews" have chosen to live in the light, stopping only to burnish their qualifications by noisily joining the chorus that has consigned their fellow Jews to the dark?

Some Presbyterian leaders have attempted to characterize these meetings as efforts to promote peace in the Middle East. In fact these meetings legitimize a group that murders Israeli civilians and which seeks to turn Lebanon into a radical Islamist state.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) is not the only church whose officials have met with Hezbollah, but it is by far the worst offender. Despite Hezbollah’s undeniable efforts to kill Israeli civilians, officials from the Presbyterian Church (USA) have continued to meet with this group...

This new budget to support the families of suicide bombers comes on the heels of the recent approval of another new law providing more than $50 million per year to support Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons and Palestinian terrorists wounded while attacking Israel.

According to the latest figures from the Palestinian Authority, 3,746 Palestinians were killed to date during the second Intifada (September 2000 - December 2005). Many of them were killed while engaging in terrorist attacks against Israel. The budget for this group alone is more than $11 million per year.

Add the financial support now enacted by law to the families, spouses, children and siblings and the budget will increase by at least $20 million annually. This new law is not limited only to the suicide bombers of the second Intifada, but includes all the Palestinian suicide bombers since this practice began – thereby, adding many more millions of dollars to the budget for more terrorists. For example, covering the basic monthly grant for the 1,533 Palestinian terrorists who participated in the first Intifada (1987 - 1993), will total more than $4.5 million per year.

This law provides legitimacy to the “armed struggle” and elevates terrorists to the status of “national heroes.” [But we knew that already, didn't we? -S]

According to official Palestinian sources, the PA is transferring $4 million every month to Palestinian terrorists held in Israeli prisons. In total, support for the “martyr families,” prisoners and the wounded could reach more than 10 percent ($100 million) of the PA’s national $1 billion budget...

So I suggest -- and I take for granted the good intentions of the people in the media -- I suggest that we ask: how will history judge -- if it does -- the reporting some decades from now when Iraq’s path is settled?...

Worse still, Barsky told The Jerusalem Post last week, these "extremist organizations continue to claim the mantle of leadership" over American Islam.

The power of the extremist Wahhabi form of Islam in the United States was created with generous Saudi financing of American Muslim communities over the past few decades. Over 80 percent of the mosques in the United States "have been radicalized by Saudi money and influence," Barsky said.

Before the 1970s, she explained, "Muslim immigrants who came to the United States would build a store-front mosque somewhere. Then, since the 1970s, the Saudis have been approaching these mosques and telling them it wasn't proper for the glory of Islam to build such small mosques."

The minister was asked about Finkielkraut because several reporters saw similarities between the conservative views the philosopher expressed about the recent riots in France and the tough stance the minister took in dealing with the agitators who took to the street night after night...

...Sarkozy appeared ready to take on the media. He had been following the attacks on Finkielkraut for two weeks and was waiting for a suitable opportunity. "What do you want of him?" he asked the media representatives. "M. Finkielkraut does not consider himself obliged to follow the monolithic thinking of many intellectuals, which led to Le Pen winning 24 percent in the elections. The philosophers who frequent the salons and live between Cafe de Flor and Boulevard St. Germain suddenly find that France no longer bears a resemblance to them."

This is an unprecedented attack on the left wing by the very person who is seen by many French as being the only one capable of preventing the disintegration of the republic. The cafes and bistros of Boulevard St. Germain and the narrow alleyways of St. Germain-des-Pres were traditionally frequented by members of the left, led by Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, who would take their morning coffee and read the newspapers there. When the socialists came to power under Francois Mitterand in 1981, the celebrations there were legendary. But of late, the area has lost some of its left-wing color...

Here in France, where no accusation against America or Israel is too scurrilous for official dissemination and mass consumption, Finkielkraut was beaten almost senseless for developing, with utmost precaution, a thoughtful analysis of the riots...

PRINCETON, NJ: In clear violation of free speech, Princeton University has cancelled a speaking event by three former Middle East terrorists because it says that the use of the word "terrorist" in the promotion for the event is "too inflammatory."

The speakers will hold a press conference near the campus on Thursday, Dec. 8, at 6:00 p.m. The location will be announced in an updated media release the morning of the press conference.

"We believe Princeton is using red tape to stop the event," said Keith Davies, the executive director of the Walid Shoebat Foundation.

The event organizers planned to bring Walid Shoebat, Ibrahim Abdallah and Zak Anani to the Ivy League school to lecture on the terrorist mindset and how they were indoctrinated into terrorism.

Walid Shoebat is from a prominent family in Bethlehem. After joining the PLO, he took part in numerous acts of violence against Israel including the bombing of a bank. He was also involved in the attempted lynching of an Israeli soldier. Feature stories on Mr. Shoebat have aired on the BBC, FOX News, MSNBC, CBS and have been published in the Telegraph and Calgary Sun.

Zak Anani was a leader of the most notorious Arab gangs prior to Lebanese civil war. Before he age 16, he killed numerous Arabs in gang warfare and hated the West.

Ibrahim Abadallah was born and raised in Dearborn Michigan to a Jordanian father. At 17 he emigrated to Israel, where he joined the PLO. He injured many Israelis while rioting and throwing Molotov cocktails at them.

MDA chairman Dr. Noam Yifrach said Monday that he hopes the international organization approves the new symbol, because no organization can become a member without an official symbol. MDA, he said, has already carried out a long series of organization changes including a change in its constitution, in order to meet its requirements.

Yifrach added that with its expected membership in the international organization, MDA will receive various grants and allocations that will make possible the improvement of its rescue services in Israel. Thus Israeli residents will gain from the long-awaited step...

...In 2000, a compromise was reached in which the International Red Cross agreed to adopt a third, neutral red symbol shaped liked a diamond but called a crystal. Any national society - not only Israel but also Eritrea and Kazakhstan - could accept it and become members with full rights...

If Teheran indeed resumed its uranium enrichment in other plants, as threatened, it will take it only "a few months" to produce a nuclear bomb, El-Baradei told The Independent.

On the other hand, he warned, any attempt to resolve the crisis by non-diplomatic means would "open a Pandora's box. There would be efforts to isolate Iran; Iran would retaliate; and at the end of the day you have to go back to the negotiating table to find the solution."

The suicide attack was the first in Israel [successfully carried out -S] since late October, when a bomber killed six Israelis at an outdoor market in the nearby city of Hadera, and the second to strike Netanya's Hasharon Mall this year...

...Witnesses described a huge blast that shook the walls of the glass-and-steel mall and left bodies scattered in the intersection at the eastern entrance to the city, which sits about 10 miles from the West Bank border marked by Israel's separation barrier.

"An enormous mushroom cloud of smoke rose from the place," Zion Vatouri, the owner of the Auto Plus car dealership across from the mall, told the Israeli news Web site Ynet. "The injured were screaming. The image etched in my mind was of a man wearing a light-blue shirt lying there, not moving. Only after they covered him with a blanket did I know he was dead."

It was initially unclear who was responsible for the attack, which occurred around 11:30 a.m. local time. But it appeared to be the work of Islamic Jihad, a small radical Palestinian faction that rejects Israel's right to exist.

An official for the group asserted responsibility for the bombing in a telephone call to the al-Manar satellite television channel. The station is owned by Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite Muslim movement at war with Israel, which like Islamic Jihad receives a portion of its funding from Iran...

But among the Democratic foreign-policy elite, dominated by people who previously served in the top ranks of government, there are stark differences -- and significant vagueness -- about a viable alternative...

Led by Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the private meeting is set for today, said an assistant to Mr. Yoffie.

Both men were unavailable for comment Friday, and neither organization would divulge details of the meeting, including who else is attending and where it is being held.

But the meeting is the culmination of a month of attacks by Mr. Foxman and Mr. Yoffie on conservative Christian groups, starting with Mr. Foxman's speech Nov. 3 at an ADL function in New York.

"We face a better-financed, more sophisticated, coordinated, unified, energized and organized coalition of groups in opposition to our policy positions on church-state separation than ever before," he said. "Their goal is to implement their Christian worldview. To Christianize America. To save us."

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will sign the accord in a brief visit to Bucharest during a European trip which also includes stops in Germany and Brussels.

"Signing the Access Agreement is an essential step in consolidating the strategic partnership between Romania and the United States," the ministry said in a statement Friday...

...Romania, which joined NATO in 2004, is grateful to Washington for supporting its bid to enter the Atlantic alliance, and has been a staunch ally of U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The ministry did not give the exact location of the bases, but President Traian Basescu has said possible sites included Babadag, close to the Danube delta, Mihail Kogalniceanu near the Black Sea and Fetesti, 200 km (125 miles) east of Bucharest...

...Washington aims to pull about 70,000 troops out of Europe and Asia during the next decade. It will shift its European focus eastwards and will close Cold War bases in favor of small, flexible facilities closer to hot spots such as the Middle East...

..Hezbollah's reign of terror continues today. Just last week, Hezbollah attacked northern Israel in an attempt to capture Israelis. Hezbollah's satellite TV station, al-Manar ("The Beacon"), continues to broadcast messages of hate and violence, including raw anti-Semitic charges like the blood libel – the charge that Jews murder non-Jews to use their blood in religious ceremonies.

Hezbollah is interested in murder, not co-existence. It is an obstacle to peace that must be opposed at every opportunity. As America wages a war on terror, we cannot understand why Presbyterian leaders would meet with terrorists who have the blood of innocent people on their hands.

The Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies cited unidentified sources in the Russian military-industrial complex as saying that Russian and Iranian officials had signed contracts in November that would send up to 30 Tor-M1 missile systems to Iran over the next two years.

Interfax said the Tor-M1 system could identify up to 48 targets and fire at two targets simultaneously at a height of up to 20,000 feet.

The news agency quoted its source as saying the two countries had reached a deal on modernizing Iran's air force inventory, as well.

Ironically, if you go to AP's home page and click on "Iraq" for latest stories, you find this, but nothing about APTV having possibly passed off a hoax to their subscribers.

Interesting, no? Whether or not paying for the placement of accurate stories should be a scandal, two things are true: first, it is now a scandal, and no one is questioning the stories' accuracy. Here we have a situation where one of the two wire services that all six American news networks rely on overwhelmingly for their footage, and therefore for their reporting (television being, indeed, a visual medium) and therefore one of the primary sources shaping the perception of the American people of the war in Iraq may well have just passed on a hoax, and not just any hoax but an enemy information operation.

The General Assembly, consisting of all 191 member governments, passed resolutions very similar to measures introduced annually by Arab nations for at least 30 years. The U.S. was joined by no more than seven other nations in rejecting the resolutions, which won up to 160 votes.

``These resolutions are purely symbolic,'' Bolton told reporters at the UN. ``It is one reason why many people say the UN is not really useful in solving actual problems. We have been making enormous progress toward solutions in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and that progress has benefited from UN participation, but it does not benefit from needless repetition of meaningless resolutions in the General Assembly.''

Bolton, who has pressed UN member governments to reduce the number of General Assembly resolutions, said it was up to them to ``decide they want to do things that are relevant.''...

...In a speech in the General Assembly yesterday, Gilbert Laurin, Canada's second-in-command at the UN, said Ottawa is unhappy with the body's tradition of passing numerous resolutions that only add to the rancour in the region.

The language of the resolutions "creates a sense of imbalance, and seems to suggest that it is only Israel that has obligations," said Mr. Laurin, who spoke because Ambassador Allan Rock was travelling.

"The responsibilities of other actors, including Palestinians, are often not sufficiently emphasized, nor are references to Israeli security needs. Canada will not support resolutions that use emotive and provocative language in place of the straight facts."

“Explain to me what the Israeli occupation has to do with the total absence of a free Palestinian press;

“Explain to me what the occupation has to do with the Palestinian Authority funneling off $6.5 billion in international aid to their own personal bank accounts?

“Explain to me why, after years of misery and billions of dollars of aid money made available, not one hospital, not one housing project, has been built in the Palestinian refugee camps?

But hasn’t there been a dramatic change in the Palestinian Authority following Arafat’s death? The way Abu Toameh sees it, Mahmoud Abbas is probably a decent man, one who would like there to be real change and movement toward peace. But the problem is that although Arafat is dead, Arafatism lives...

... In mid-November U.S. Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice spoke at a press conference in Israel and praised Abbas for reducing incitement in the Arab media, Abu Toameh said he laughed. In his hands he was holding three different Palestinian papers, all of which had as their headlines, “Israel setting free wild pigs to drive Arabs from their land.”...

Then the "National-Socialists" (AKA NaZis) came and proved these Jews wrong.

Now the final "substitute Judaism" - liberalism - is turning in on the Jews who first framed its modern agenda of "human rights",
"standing up for the underdog" and "social justice".

All these slogans are now turned against the Jews.

How about trying Judaism?

I would say my feeling that religion functions in our society as a sort of Constitution of moral behavior, and the consequent great distaste I have for the various and gratuitous attacks on religion I've been seeing going on in American (and European) society is my way of actualizing this realization.

This would all be fodder for another post or two, but in short, I can't practice rituals I don't feel, but I can at least respect them when others practice them. (As far as practicing formal Judaism goes.)

You've expressed your point very well, though, and I'm with you in spirit.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and the Division of Palestinian Rights within the Secretariat “perpetuate a skewed and biased approach to the Middle East conflict,” said Robert O’Brien, senior U.S. adviser to the 60th session of the General Assembly.

O’Brien made his remarks Wednesday, a day before the General Assembly was scheduled to vote on extending the mandates of three so-called Palestinian committees and on other resolutions regarding Israel and the Middle East. “Endorsing resolutions that condemn Israeli actions but that fail to address Palestinian actions or inactions have real consequences,” he said. “One-sided resolutions such as these before us today undermine the ability of the United Nations to play a constructive role in furthering peace.”

But Jews are different because everyone expects them to be good little Jews. They were once told to wear that symbol as a humiliation and mark them as different and lower than anyone else. Then it was fine for everyone to see a Jew walking around with that badge on their coat or arm, and no fuss was ever raised. And now, they are told not to wear it, because it is offensive to see Jews as free people with a land of their own...

• Ali publicly turned his back on his press secretary, Leon 4X Ameer, which led to Ameer's death.
• When Nation of Islam activists executed five friends and family of the Hanafi sect—four of them children—Ali did not quit the Nation or even publicly protest. Nor did the media ask him to.
• For at least four years running Ali publicly degraded Joe Frazier, often along the crudest racial lines. "There's a great honor about Joe," says baseball great Reggie Jackson. "That was evident in the way he fought. And Muhammad ridiculed Joe; he humiliated him in front of the world."
• Ali also verbally and physically abused Floyd Patterson and Ernie Terrell, two men who did not deserve it...