July 2006 Archives

I lived until 2002 in a small southern village near Mardshajund that is inhabited by a majority of Shias like me. After Israel left Lebanon, it did not take long for Hezbollah to take have its say in other towns. Received as successful resistance fighters and armed to the teeth, they stored rockets in bunkers in our town as well. The social work of the Party of God consisted in building a school and a residence over these bunkers! A local sheikh explained to me laughing that the Jews would lose in any event because the rockets would either be fired at them or if they attacked the rockets depots, they would be condemned by world opinion on account of the dead civilians. These people do not care about the Lebanese population, they use them as shields, and, once dead, as propaganda. As long as they continue existing there, there will be no tranquility and peace.

Dr. Mounir Herzallah
Berlin-Wedding

Has nothing been learned from that experience?

Hezbollah's barbaric assault on Israel -- kidnapping soldiers who weren't engaged in hostilities, firing waves of missiles into cities and towns, packing rockets with ball bearings designed to maximize suffering by shredding human flesh -- is part and parcel of the radical Islamist jihad against the free world. Nothing to do with the United States? It has everything to do with the United States. Hezbollah hates Americans at least as implacably as Al Qaeda does, and rarely misses an opportunity to say so.

``We consider [America] to be an enemy because it wants to humiliate our governments, our regimes, and our peoples," railed Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, at an enormous rally in February 2005. (Video of Nasrallah's speech, which was broadcast on Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV, can be seen at www.memritv.org.) ``It is the greatest plunderer of our treasures, our oil, and our resources. . . . Our motto, which we are not afraid to repeat year after year, is: `Death to America!' "

And from tens of thousands of Hezbollah supporters came the answering cry: ``Death to America! Death to America! Death to America! Death to America!"

These are anything but empty threats. Prior to 9/11, Hezbollah was responsible for more American casualties than any other terrorist organization in the world. Among its victims was Army officer William F. Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut who was abducted by Hezbollah in March 1984 and who died after 15 months in captivity of torture and illness.

And the young Navy diver Robert Stethem, singled out during the 1985 Hezbollah hijacking of TWA Flight 847 and brutally beaten before being shot to death...

We are all receiving requests for donations to help Lebanon. I urge you to contribute.

Those who will not be receiving help are the Palestinian Refugee camps in Lebanon. They were “degraded” long before the present crisis, and their situation is now worse. NONETHELESS, THEY ARE TAKING IN LEBANESE REFUGEES FROM THE SOUTH AND OTHER HEAVILY BOMBED AREAS.

Naseer [A] and Elaine [H] are trying to get some funds to them immediately. We have no tax exempt organization that can receive these funds. Your contribution will not be tax deductible. However, we are assuming that this will not be a factor in this emergency situation. We are asking you all to send Elaine your checks in whatever amount – every dollar helps – payable to Elaine [H] who will coordinate the effort. She will cash the checks immediately, add them together, and try to do a bank transfer. Her bank – Cambridge Savings Bank – has informed her that they can try to do a bank transfer. It is still allowable apparently, but it may not get through on the other end. If it doesn’t work, the bank will return the funds. They would then be delivered by a wife/husband couple (Lebanese and Palestinian) who teach at AUB and who are waiting to get word as to when they can return. They are presently waiting it out in Boston area. They are a couple who have worked in the camps and know the heads of the programs in there. We have known them for years when they were both students at MIT. I would trust them with my life. Elaine’s address is: [redacted]. If you want to reach her by phone for any reason, call [redacted]. Please act now. Also send your email address with your check so Elaine can acknowledge your donation upon receipt. A final accounting will be sent to all donors.

Thank you in advance for responding to this urgent request.

Naseer [A] and Elaine [H]

A stream of images, obtained exclusively by the News Ltd, depicts how the extremists are using high-density residential areas as launch pads for rockets and heavy calibre weapons.

Dressed in civilian clothing so they can quickly melt back into suburbia, the fighters carrying automatic assault rifles ride in on trucks laden with cannons.

The photographs from the Christian area of Wadi Chahrour in the east of Beirut were snapped by a visiting journalist caught in the midst of the war, then smuggled out by a friend...

...Images and footage of Hezbollah activities taken by local newspapers and TV crews are routinely seized by the group's fighters at road blocks.

But in our images, taken clandestinely, a group of fighters are preparing to fire truck-mounted anti-aircraft gun just metres from an apartment block with sheets drying on the balcony.

Others show a Hezbollah fighter armed with nickel-plated AK47 rifle guarding no-go zones after Israeli blitzes.

Another depicts the remnants of a Hezbollah Katyusha rocket in the middle of residential block, blown up in an Israeli air attack.

The Melbourne man who smuggled the shots out of Beirut told yesterday how he was less than 400m from the block when it was obliterated.

``Hezbollah came in to launch their rockets, then within minutes the area was blasted by Israeli jets,'' he said.

``Until the Hezbollah fighters arrived, it had not been touched by the Israelis. Then it was totally devastated.

``After the attacks they didn't even allow the ambulances or the Lebanese Army to come in until they had cleaned the area, removing their rockets and hiding other evidence.

``Two innocent people died in that incident but it was so lucky it was not more.
`
`The people there were horrified and disgusted at what Hezbollah were doing.''

The fighters used trucks, driven into residential areas, as launch pads for the rockets, he said...

...For the last five years he has been finishing his theology studies in Tehran. A month ago, he was asked by Hizbullah to return to southern Lebanon. He arrived a week before the fighting began....

...All over the hills of south Lebanon hundreds of men like Sayed Ali and his comrades are waiting - some in bunkers, some in farm houses - for the Israeli troops to arrive. Sayed Ali and his men spend most of their time in the building where his apartment is, moving only at night.

"We stay put and we don't move till we get our orders, and this is why we are not like any other militia. A militiaman will fire whenever he likes at whatever he likes," explains one of the men, who says he has been involved in firing Katyusha rockets into northern Israel. "We have specific orders. Even when we fire rockets we know when and where [to fire] and each of the men manning the launchers runs to a specific hiding place after firing the rockets."

He says Hizbullah fighters expect the site of a rocket launch to be hit by an Israeli airstrike or shell within 10 to 15 minutes.

Another of the men, who says he is Sayed Ali's brother, explains how Hizbullah teaches its fighters patience: "During our training we spend days in empty buildings without talking to anyone or doing anything. They tell me go and sit in that building, and I go and sit there and wait."...

...The fighting force of the organisation is divided into two: the "active" group, whose task is to serve in Hizbullah, and the reserve, or Ta'abi'a, as it is known in Arabic. The active fighters get monthly pay. The reserves are called on only in time of war, and receive bonuses but no regular pay. A third section, the Ansar, comprises people who support or are supported by the organisation...

Then, from the corner of the closet, next to some shirts on hangers, he pulls out an American-made M-16 assault rifle and places it on the mattress in the room next to the ammo belt. He goes back to the closet and from the same corner reaches for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and two canvas shoulder bags. He places these on the bed as well.

I ask if nearly every house in the neighborhood has a stash of small arms like this.

"Some have more"...

Passengers on board an evacuation ship told medical doctor Boris Buck from the German city of Munich that they had seen members of the Lebanese Shi'ite Hezbollah group or their sympathisers killing 18 Lebanese people during the night.

The victims were suspected of helping the Israeli air force pick out targets...

But this is the clearest example, the most tragic and disturbing example, of what Hezbollah had in mind, and how it saw itself, the Lebanese government, and the Lebanese people. When stupid Hezbollah groupies in the West regurgitate the party's "romantic" line that it is akin to the French resistance, this is what they are justifying: extrajudicial martial law by a non-state actor, in the full presence of a state and its institutions!...

On one corner of the square there was a "Pro-Lebanon/Pro-Palestine/Pro-UN" rally with speakers and pamphlets etc... a mixed crowd but mainly but mainly left wing hippies and Americans with lots of time on their hands. About 50-100 people checking it out at that area.

By the time I parked and walked over the rally was over and the cops removed the barricades etc.. but there was still people around passing out materials sponsored by the "Int'l Answer Coalition"

The main pamphlet spoke about how Israel (of course only) murdered UN workers. And support "Palestine and Lebanon" and anti US and Israeli "Colonialist" Message...

* "Where do they get all their time from, after work, family etc.. we don't have anytime to waste on anything like making signs etc.."

They pretty much couldn't stand the "Peacenicks"

Maybe memories of the "Anti-war/Peace rallies" a few years back where the "peacenicks" smashed in store windows and punched and kicked cops... very "peaceful"

On the basis of his performance, I have become a Bolton supporter. He speaks with moral clarity. He is extremely well prepared. He is extraordinarily articulate. He places the best face on American policy, particularly in the Middle East during this crucial time...

...Were he not to be confirmed as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations at this crucial juncture it would send a powerful message to the international community that Senate Democrats do not stand behind our policy in the Middle East. It would be seen as undercutting American policy toward Israel. Even if that were a misunderstanding, it would have a devastating impact on the world's perception of America's solidarity with Israel.

...The senators have had a year to observe and evaluate Mr. Bolton directly on his performance as our ambassador. They can intelligently vote based on what he has done at the United Nations and not based on documents related to his role as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.

What remains of last year's nomination battle, though, is what I suspect to be the real reason that some Democrats oppose the Bolton nomination. That is, they felt uncomfortable with Mr. Bolton's oft-expressed and blunt skepticism over the United Nations' legal and moral authority. Mr. Bolton can even, at times, come off as "contemptuous of the U.N.," in Sen. Barbara Boxer's words.

But Mr. Bolton is right to be skeptical, and all the great U.S. ambassadors to the United Nations — from Adlai Stevenson to Arthur Goldberg to Pat Moynihan to Jeane Kirkpatrick — have shared that skepticism. Mr. Bolton is absolutely justified in pushing for reform of the notoriously corrupt and inefficient bureaucratic structure in Turtle Bay. As he once said, "If member countries want the United Nations to be respected ... they should begin by making sure it is worthy of respect."...

But they, and their allies the French and British, had not reckoned on the United States. President Eisenhower and his secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, were preoccupied with the Cold War. Like their Democratic predecessors, they were reluctant to support any move that smacked of "colonialism," no matter how justified. And Eisenhower, in Stephen Ambrose's words, was "uncomfortable with Jews" and never understood the threat Israel faced from its Arab neighbors. So the Americans refused to endorse the Suez invasion. "We do not want to meet violence with violence," Dulles said--words that have a disturbing echo today. Then the Americans went further. If the British and French attacked Egypt, Eden was told, the United States would not back them up in the United Nations.

Finally, in late October, after weeks of hesitation and prevaricating, the British, French, and Israelis struck. The British and French Operation Musketeer was a stunning success; in the face of the Israeli attack, Nasser's army collapsed. French paratroopers and tanks were poised to roll into Cairo. But then, with American encouragement, U.N. secretary general Dag Hammarskjöld became involved.

To this day in elite circles, his name is treated with pious reverence second only to Gandhi and Martin Luther King. After his death, his face even graced an American postage stamp. In fact, Hammarskjöld was arguably the worst secretary general in the history of the United Nations. He was certainly the most devious. He was the bleak prototype of another U.N. apparatchik, his fellow Swede Hans Blix...

The United States is not thinking about such a scheme, Mr. Jumblatt tells me. And that's why he plainly feels that American ambitions are likely to crash against the reality on the ground. If Hezbollah refuses to disarm (and it does), "then we enter a phase of all-out war, endless war, with the possibility that this will weaken the Lebanese state. Let us also remember that the Syrians a few days ago promised the Americans they would help them fight al Qaeda. This was, in fact, a backhanded warning that Syria could use al Qaeda to kill innocents in Lebanon."

(Mr. Jumblatt sounds even less confident a day later. I call him up for a reaction to the early-morning address by Hezbollah's secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, in which he promised to bomb deeper inside Israel. Our conversation takes place amid reports that the Israelis have suffered heavy losses in fighting for the town of Bint Jbail. "Even if Nasrallah loses positions, Hezbollah's fierce rearguard is making it increasingly difficult to set up something afterwards. I doubt we will see a multilateral force if this continues. If Nasrallah comes out victorious, he will dictate his conditions to the Lebanese state--if he still accepts the state.")...

Clark claimed that U.S. funding to Israel, which is battling Hizballah terrorists in southern Lebanon, is grounds for impeaching President Bush. "If we'd acted on impeachment before now, Lebanon wouldn't be subjected to this misery," said Clark at the National Press Club Thursday. "If we fail to act now, who is next?"

The National Council of Arab-Americans, Partnership for Civil Justice, Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, and the ANSWER Coalition are partnering to show their dissent of U.S.-Israeli policy in a march planned near the White House on Aug. 12...

Police spokesman Rich Pruitt said there was one shooter, who was apprehended without incident outside the Jewish Federation building at the corner of Third Avenue and Virginia Street.

"We believe it's a lone individual acting out his antagonism," said David Gomez, who heads the FBI's counterterrorism efforts in Seattle.

Authorities did not release many details, but the FBI said the alleged shooter was between 30 and 40 and agents were investigating the incident as a hate crime. When asked at a news conference if that meant the alleged shooter was Muslim, Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said: "You could infer that."

One woman was killed in the attack, police said.

Harborview Medical Center spokeswoman Pamela Steele said five victims were taken to the hospital, all women ranging in age from the 20s to the 40s. Each suffered gunshot wounds to the abdomen, knee, groin or arm. Three were in critical condition. Two were in satisfactory condition.

One of the women in satisfactory condition is about 20 weeks pregnant and was shot in the arm. Doctors believe she will be OK...

Three of the women were in critical condition late Friday.

A law-enforcement source identified the arrested suspect as Naveed Afzal Haq, 30, who until recently had lived in Everett, and said Haq apparently has a history of mental illness. Court records show Haq has a charge of lewd conduct pending against him in Benton County.

The shooting came a day after the FBI had warned Jewish organizations nationwide to be on alert after Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon and al-Qaida's second in command urged that the war raging in the Middle East be carried to the U.S. However, the law-enforcement source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there is no evidence Haq was involved with any group.

"He said he hates Israel," said the source, who is part of the Seattle Joint Terrorism Task Force, which was called in to help investigate the shootings...

For the past forty years we have been largely alone on this desert fighting a predator [how dehumanizing] that not only has robbed us of all but a small piece of our historic homeland, but threatens the traditions and holy sites of Christianity. We are tired, weary, sick, and wounded. We need your help.

We have seen and we have been the recipients of the generosity of our American and British friends. We cherish the support of everyone throughout the world who stands with us in solidarity. Daily, I hear from many of them who express outrage at the arrogant and aggressive positions of President Bush, Secretary Rice, Senator Clinton, and Prime Minister Blair. I am saddened to realise just how much the deserved prestige of the United States and Britain has declined as a result of politicians who seem to devalue human life and suffering. And, I am disturbed that the Zionist Christian community is damaging America’s image as never before. [Thank God for the Christian Zionists.]

Little more than a week ago, we were focused on the plight of the Palestinian people. In Gaza, four and five generations have been victims of Israeli racism, hate crimes, terror, violence, and murder. [ah, ah, ah...love thine enemy Bishop] Garbage and sewage have created a likely outbreak of cholera as Israeli strategies create the collapse of infrastructures. There is no milk. Drinking water, food, and medicine are in serious short supply. Innocents are being killed and dying from lack of available emergency care. [Except for all that humanitarian aid they've been letting in.] Children are paying the ultimate price. Even for those whose lives are spared, many of them are traumatised and will not grow to live useful lives. Commerce between the West Bank and Gaza has been halted and humanitarian aid barely trickles into some of the neediest in the world. [Stop shooting rockets and training the suicide bombers you think are such heroes...things will get better.]

...The strategy of ethnic cleansing on the part of the State of Israel continues [Fortunately, the strategy of ethnic cleansing promised by your friends in Hamas and Hizballah is held at bay for the moment.].

This week, war broke out on the Lebanon-Israeli border (near Banyas where Jesus gave St. Peter the keys to heaven and earth). The Israeli government’s disproportionate reaction to provocation was consistent with their opportunistic responses in which they destroy their perceived enemy. [see, viewed a different way, Hizballah rockets and kidnappers are your friends.]...

But for some of the Christians who had made it out in this convoy, it was not just privations they wanted to talk about, but their ordeal at the hands of Hezbollah — a contrast to the Shiites, who make up a vast majority of the population in southern Lebanon and broadly support the militia.

“Hezbollah came to Ain Ebel to shoot its rockets,” said Fayad Hanna Amar, a young Christian man, referring to his village. “They are shooting from between our houses.”

“Please,’’ he added, “write that in your newspaper.”...

...Many Christians from Ramesh and Ain Ebel considered Hezbollah’s fighting methods as much of an outrage as the Israeli strikes. Mr. Amar said Hezbollah fighters in groups of two and three had come into Ain Ebel, less than a mile from Bint Jbail, where most of the fighting has occurred. They were using it as a base to shoot rockets, he said, and the Israelis fired back.

One woman, who would not give her name because she had a government job and feared retribution, said Hezbollah fighters had killed a man who was trying to leave Bint Jbail.

“This is what’s happening, but no one wants to say it” for fear of Hezbollah, she said...

...a person affiliated with the United States Embassy arrived in Yaroun and shouted for everyone to join a convoy that the Israelis had promised safe passage...

U.S. Army Maj. Jennifer Bailey reads a book to Iraqi girls during a humanitarian mission near Contingency Operating Base Speicher, Tikrit, Iraq, July 23, 2006. Bailey is from the 402nd Civil Affairs Battalion.

...The Bint Jebail Cultural Center was founded in 1994. Incredibly, American taxpayers subsidize this "cultural center," since it has 501(c)(3) tax-deductible status. In 2004, the year of its last tax return on file, the club spent over $85,000 on "cultural and religious seminars and lectures," most of them extremist. The decor of the club is elaborate, if you like the Saddam Palace/Donald Trump Apartment style of gaud. The extremists who founded the club apparently think paradise looks like Liberace-land.

While it operates mostly as a banquet facility, the Bint Jebail Cultural Center is also used as a frequent meeting place for Hezbollah supporters and a locale for pro-Hezbollah rallies that frequently feature anti-American and anti-Christian hate, not just anti-Semitism...

...Among the many speakers, several things were in common: multiple statements about the Jews, cheers for the total destruction of and end to Israel, and support for Hezbollah, the Mujahideen, and the Martyrs.

A very religious Islamic event, I sat with the many bitter-looking, hijab-encrusted women in black (the women were relegated to separate seating in the back). Every imam of every Shi'ite mosque in town was there, white turban et al. That includes Imams Hassan Qazwini of the Islamic Center of America and Mohammed Ali Elahi of the Islamic House of Wisdom--heads of the two largest mosques in North America. (I've written extensively about Elahi's connections to Iran and Hezbollah.) Also there, Imam Husham Al-Hussainy of the Karbalaa Islamic Institute. At a Dearborn rally in memory of Yasser Arafat, he held a poster of his hero, Ayatollah Khomeini. Both Qazwini and Al-Hussainy were hugged by President Bush in media photo ops when he came to town upon Iraq's liberation.

Haj Mohammed Turfe (AP incorrectly called him Mohammed "Torfah"), Founding Chairman of the Bint Jebail Cultural Center, gleefully and repeatedly spoke of how "only a few thousand Jews will survive Armageddon." This mantra, repeated often throughout the event, got raucous, deafening applause and cheers. Well, for once--I thought--extremist Muslims have respect for Christianity...when they can twist it to suit their fascist hopes and dreams...

The following are excerpts from the article: [1]

"Is it Logical for the Survivors of the Holocaust and Their Descendants to Do What the Nazis had Done to Them?"

"Ehud Olmert's government perpetrates definite Nazi practices against the Palestinians and the Lebanese. He is a young Führer, and his generals, like Dan Halutz and Moshe Kaplinsky, are commando generals. The question now is: Is it logical for the survivors of the Holocaust and their descendants to do what the Nazis had done to them?

"There is a psychological explanation for this: the victim impersonates the torturer. However, I have another explanation.

"Historically, six million Jews died in the Holocaust, and 97.5 percent of the Polish Jews were killed in the gas chambers, and by other means. My explanation is that the number of the Jews who were killed might be higher. All the Polish Jews might have been killed, too, and the Nazi political and military leaders might have realized since 1944 that defeat was imminent and, therefore, assumed the identity of Jews and then fled to Palestine as Jews who had survived the Holocaust.

"If this explanation is true, Israel's present political and military leaders are the grandsons of Nazi killers rather than Jews persecuted for centuries at the hands of Western Christendom."

"I know that my explanation may be implausible, but I cannot find any other logical reason for Israel's Nazi-like practices. The phrase 'Israeli Nazism' is exactly an oxymoron, as if we say, for instance, 'Sharon is a man of peace.'"...

From the UN’s own press releases:

24 July 2006:

One unarmed UN military observer, a member of the Observer Group Lebanon (OGL), was seriously wounded by small arms fire in the patrol base in the Marun Al Ras area yesterday afternoon. According to preliminary reports, the fire originated from the Hezbollah side during an exchange with the IDF. He was evacuated by the UN to the Israeli side, from where he was taken by an IDF ambulance helicopter to a hospital in Haifa. He was operated on, and his condition is now reported as stable.

Notice: in this instance, the UN observer was injured badly enough to be evacuated to an Israeli hospital. Where they saved his life.

Not a word of condemnation from Kofi Annan for Hizballah. And not a word of gratitude for Israel, for saving a UN peacekeeper’s life...

Muhammad 'Abd Al-Sattar: "Jihad is now incumbent upon each and every Muslim, Arab, and Christian. The time has come for the duty of Jihad."

[...]

"Who occupied the Al-Aqsa Mosque? Who attacked the prophets? Who killed the prophets? Even the Koran depicts the people of Israel in a very sinister and dark way. Allah did not curse any people, not even the polytheists, not even the idol worshippers. The Koran did not curse any of these. The only ones who were cursed are those murderous criminals."

[...]

"The Koran used terms that are closer to animals than to humans only with regard to those people. Look at the bestiality they demonstrate in the destruction of the Arab, Lebanese, and Palestinian people. This is why the people who were given the Torah were likened to a donkey carrying books. They were also likened to apes and pigs, and they are, indeed, the descendants of apes and pigs, as the Koran teaches us."...

• An attempt to portray Israeli use of force solely as an overreaction to kidnappings (by themselves and act of war) without acknowledging the hundreds of rocket attacks against Israeli civilians launched by Hamas since Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and the rocket attacks that preceded the Hezbollah’s kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers;
• A failure to acknowledge that Hezbollah has, with Syrian and Iranian support, stockpiled weapons for use against Israel;
• A failure to acknowledge the fundamental difference between the motives of the warring parties. Israel uses force to protect its citizens; Hamas and Hezbollah use force in an effort to destroy the Jewish State;
• A failure to acknowledge the fundamental difference between the practices of the warring parties. Israel works to avoid civilian casualties by warning people to leave areas before attacks; Hamas and Hezbollah target civilians while hiding amongst their own civilians, guaranteeing civilian casualties. Hezbollah has also used checkpoints to prevent Lebanese civilians from fleeing combat areas; and
• A failure to acknowledge that Israel was attacked by territory from which it had previously withdrawn from in the pursuit of peace.

It is also important to note that the organizations that offered these statements offered little if any criticism of Hamas and Hezbollah’s provocative actions before Israel responded. Criticism of Hamas and Hezbollah’s misdeeds typically serves as an adjunct to statements primarily focused on condemning Israel...

But Downer, in Kuala Lumpur for a regional foreign ministers meeting, said that Australia would not withdraw its UN observers from the troubled region.

"Well I think there is no point in sending an international peacekeeping mission on a suicide mission," Downer said when asked about the prospects of UN peacekeepers going to Lebanon...

...Downer said a ceasefire could only happen when Hezbollah stops firing missiles into Israel and Lebanese government takes control over southern Lebanon from the militia.

"In the situation where Hezbollah are firing missiles from southern Lebanon into Israel, it is not realistic to accept that Israelis will just sit in their villages and towns and receive their missiles and die," he said...

After the search of three months she was found & separated by her forced husband. At that time due to interference of her father & few other tribes men she was been saved by killing, but her brothers & cousin were in search of a suitable time to kill her.

Her father placed her in a "madrasa" in Rawalpindi. On 6th or 7th of July she was brought back to her native home as she was not feeling well due to small pocks. Her uncle who is a milliner businessman in UAE forced his son Haroon age 20 to kill Ghazala age 18. He did so with the help of his local cousins on 19th July 2006 & left for UAE.

Now the parents & other family members with the help of police made this a suicide Case. No authorities are taking this as a cruel act. I on behalf of the people of town appeal the human rights activists to reopen this issue & make the justice to her poor mother & small sisters which are also threatened to be killed by the Cousin...

Jan Egeland spoke with reporters at the Larnaca airport in Cyprus late Monday after a visit to Lebanon on his mission to coordinate an international aid effort. On Sunday he had toured the rubble of Beirut's southern suburbs, a once-teeming Shi'ite district where Hizbullah had its headquarters.

During that visit he condemned the killing and wounding of civilians by both sides, and called Israel's offensive "disproportionate" and "a violation of international humanitarian law."

On Monday he had strong words for Hizbullah, which crossed into Israel and captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12, triggering fierce fighting from both sides.

"Consistently, from the Hizbullah heartland, my message was that Hizbullah must stop this cowardly blending ... among women and children," he said. "I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men."...

As coalition force advisers looked on, Iraqi forces raided an objective in southwest Baghdad consisting of four separate buildings and captured the cell leader and five other key members of an insurgent ‘punishment committee.’

Iraqi forces also seized two AK-47 assault rifles, one pistol, and one set of body armor.

The operation occurred without incident; there were no Iraqi or coalition force casualties.

The three were personal assistants and bodyguards to Dr. Rafa Hayid Chiad Al-Isaw, an Iraqi government official in Baghdad.

“We are extremely pleased we were able to recover these three Iraqi citizens,” said Col. Larry D. Nicholson, commanding officer for RCT-5. “The safety of Iraqi citizens to move freely about their own country without fear is a priority for U.S and Iraqi forces and we will continue to assist the Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police in ensuring their citizens have a future that is free of terrorism.”

The three were held captive by al-Qaeda insurgents in a spiderhole complex for 27 days. The hostages were beaten with electrical cords, bitten and threatened with their lives at gunpoint by their captors. They were treated by Coalition Forces medical personnel...

There were no Coalition casualties in the fight. The Coalition unit received small arms, rocket-propelled grenade, machine gun and sniper fire from a group of extremists. The Coalition force returned fire, killing five insurgents.

Later in the same area, insurgents fired small arms at an Afghan National Army mortar team, with a Coalition embedded tactical training team attached. The combined unit responded with machine gun fire and killed the remaining two insurgents.

“If enemy extremists fire upon Coalition forces, we will respond with deadly accuracy,” said Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, Combined Joint Task Force -76 spokesman. “If they attack Afghan civilians, we will respond just as forcefully. We remain committed to engaging any threats to the peaceful future of the Afghan people.”...

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) leads a formation of ships and submarines from the eight nations participating in exercise Rim of the Pacific 2006 July 25, 2006. The exercise includes ships and personnel from the United States, Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, Peru, the Republic of Korea, and the United Kingdom.

According to the sources, Shin Bet agents have contacted members of various armed organizations over the last few days and warned them that Israel plans to attack their houses. The houses in question are being targeted because Israel believes that they are being used to store or manufacture weapons, including Qassam rockets and rocket-propelled grenades.

Before dawn yesterday, the Israel Defense Forces bombed two such houses - one belonging to an Islamic Jihad operative in Gaza City and one belonging to a Hamas operative in Rafah, on the Gazan-Egyptian border. According to the army, both houses served as weapons factories.

In addition, the IDF has interrupted local radio broadcasts in several parts of Gaza in recent days, overriding the scheduled programing with warnings about planned attacks on houses that serve as arms caches. The interrupted broadcasts have included some by Hamas' Radio Al-Aqsa...

Kamal Saleem was born in Lebanon to a prominant Muslim clerical family, and out of sympathy to the Palestinian cause joined the PLO Fatah movement as a child. Later on he joined the PFLP. While being an active terrorist from the age of eleven years old Kamal was involved in rioting and open gun battles with the IDF on the Lebanese-Israeli border.

While in America Kamal participated in islamic missions work to convert young Americans to Islam, in order to then have them recruited for Jihad in America.

In 1985 Kamal went through a spiritual journey and converted to Christianity and has already spread his message of reconciliation to many Christians. Now he believes he needs to speak to a wider audiance and fulfill G-ds blessing on the Jewish people and Israel.

It is our honor and duty to promote Kamal in the media, because of his background can join us in the current fight for the rights of Israel to defend itself against the evil of Hezbollah terrorists and the media who holds Israel to a different standard.

..."Today, the Lebanese state has become a kind of Red Cross. If tomorrow a cease-fire is reached - even if the state is represented formally on the issue of the prisoners - the Lebanese state would still be incapable of [fulfilling] all its plans - to spread its sovereignty to South Lebanon and to the refugee camps, and especially with regard to the weapons outside the refugee camps."...

..."A cease-fire between who? [Israel] and the Lebanese state? Will Hizbullah recognize the Lebanese state?"...

..."Will the weapons of Hizbullah be incorporated into the defensive system of the Lebanese army, and I emphasize the word 'defensive?' Or will there be a cease-fire, and then the first article on the agenda will be that we should liberate the prisoners. Then he will say to you: 'We want to liberate the Shab'a Farms, and I need to keep my weapons in order to liberate Shab'a.' Then he will tell you that we should implement Resolution 194 - the return of the refugees to Palestine. In such a case, Lebanon will become an open battlefield for the Syrian and Iranian regimes."...

It is noteworthy that fewer than one-quarter of those with anti-Israel index scores of only 1 or 2 harbor anti-Semitic views (as defined by anti-Semitic index scores exceeding 5), which supports the contention that one certainly can be critical of Israeli policies without being anti-Semitic. However, among those with the most extreme anti-Israel sentiments in our survey (anti-Israel index scores of 4), 56% report anti-Semitic leanings. Based on this analysis, when an individual’s criticism of Israel becomes sufficiently severe, it does become reasonable to ask whether such criticism is a mask for underlying anti-Semitism...

Second, as the Israeli government rightly points out, no country operates on the principle of responding to aggression with no more force than was originally used against it. During World War II, Germany sunk a lot of American ships and declared war on us, and in return we flattened its cities, killed or captured hundreds of thousands of its solders and occupied its land. That was hardly a proportionate response.

Now, it is true that Israel's counteroffensive has taken the lives of several hundred Lebanese civilians (many entirely innocent, others who sheltered Hezbollah rockets) and displaced perhaps half a million more. Every innocent death is a tragedy.

But the brutal fact is that civilian deaths are Hezbollah's strongest weapon. As Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, once said: "We have discovered how to hit the Jews where they are the most vulnerable. The Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them. We are going to win because they love life and we love death."

Thus, Hezbollah places its rockets and other potential targets in homes, knowing that Israel cannot hit back without creating collateral damage. This does not relieve Israel of the burden of minimizing civilian casualties as best it can. The point is that if Israel has to operate under a code of ethics that renders civilian deaths unacceptable, then it automatically loses. The ramifications would be dire and ultimately aid the cause of Islamic radicals in such a way as to bring about many more innocent deaths over the long run.

The real question, then, is not whether Israel's counteroffensive is disproportionate but whether it's working...

Back on July 18, Hezbollah took Robertson and his crew on a tour of a heavily damaged south Beirut neighborhood. The Hezbollah “press officer” even instructed the CNN camera: “Just look. Shoot. Look at this building. Is it a military base? Is it a military base, or just civilians living in this building?”

In his original story, Robertson had no complaints about the journalistic limitations of a story put together under such tight controls, and Robertson himself at one point seemed to agree with the Hezbollah propaganda claim that Israeli jets had targeted a civilian area: “As we run past the rubble, we see much that points to civilian life, no evidence apparent of military equipment.”

Challenged by Reliable Sources host (and Washington Post media writer) Howard Kurtz on Sunday, Robertson suggested Hezbollah has “very, very sophisticated and slick media operations,” that the terrorist group “had control of the situation. They designated the places that we went to, and we certainly didn't have time to go into the houses or lift up the rubble to see what was underneath,” and he even contradicted Hezbollah’s self-serving spin: “There's no doubt that the [Israeli] bombs there are hitting Hezbollah facilities.”...

The list of those who have accused Israel of not being in harmony with its enemies is long and, alas, distinguished. It includes, of course, the United Nations and its secretary general, Kofi Annan. It also includes a whole bunch of European newspapers whose editorial pages call for Israel to respond, it seems, with only one missile for every one tossed its way. Such neat proportion is a recipe for doom...

...The dire consequences of proportionality are so clear that it makes you wonder if it is a fig leaf for anti-Israel sentiment in general. Anyone who knows anything about the Middle East knows that proportionality is madness. For Israel, a small country within reach, as we are finding out, of a missile launched from any enemy's back yard, proportionality is not only inapplicable, it is suicide. The last thing it needs is a war of attrition. It is not good enough to take out this or that missile battery. It is necessary to reestablish deterrence: You slap me, I will punch out your lights...

...I know Israel's imperfections, but I also exalt and admire its achievements. Lacking religious conviction, I fear for its future and note the ominous spread of European-style anti-Semitism throughout the Muslim world -- and its boomerang return to Europe as a mindless form of anti-Zionism...

...These calls for proportionality rankle. They fall on my ears not as genteel expressions of fairness, some ditsy Marquess of Queensberry idea of war, but as ugly sentiments pregnant with antipathy toward the only democratic state in the Middle East...

This is outrageous and what message does this say to our free society? That the courts in Canada would put into foster care a child of the victimized parent of intimidation, because of Islamic hatemongers. Surely, if the court was so fearful of harm to his child then the protection of Zak and his family by the law enforcement officers at the expense of the tax payer is a prequisite for a free society and not to imprison and separate the innocent because of evil Islamists. This is political correctness and appeasement gone mad...

(please be advised that some people may find the pictures disturbing)

Police Presentation

The second link is an IDF presentation containing information regarding humanitarian assistance in Lebanon.

IDF Presentation

George Gomez said his son, 44-year-old Cpl. Francisco Gomez, loved being in the military.

Gomez and Cpl. Jason Warren, 29, were killed Saturday by a suicide bomber driving a vehicle packed with explosives.

Gomez, 44, never married or had children. His father said he joined the army as soon as he graduated from high school.

"This is Francisco in the airborne," the father said, pointing at a picture in his Edmonton home. "And he really loved jumping out of a plane."

Francisco Gomez did several peacekeeping tours and had almost completed his six-month tour in Afghanistan.

"We expected him to be back in another week or so," George Gomez said.

"We were looking forward to him coming and visiting and so were the little grandchildren because he plays with them."

Gomez said his son died fighting for freedom, something he says is a worthy cause...

Israeli and Egyptian security officials confirmed the news, which follows a report that first appeared in The New York Sun, that Iranian forces posted to southern Lebanon have been aiding Hezbollah terrorists in their attacks against Israel, including helping to fire rockets into Israeli population centers.

The Lebanese sources said between six and nine dead Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers were brought in trucks last week into Syria for a flight back to Iran. They said the bodies were transported along with the tens of thousands of Lebanese civilians fleeing to Syria...

...Israeli officials said Iranian Revolutionary Guards directed the firing two weeks ago of a radar-guided C–802 missile that hit an Israeli navy vessel off the coast of Lebanon, killing four soldiers. Israel says Iran acquired the missile from China.

The officials said the Iranian soldiers' duties include keeping custody of long-range missiles within Hezbollah's arsenal, including Zalzal rockets that are said to have a range of 125 miles, placing Tel Aviv within firing range.

...Jordanian officials told the Sun they are "100% sure" Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers have fired rockets into Israel. They also said the Syrian army has provided Hezbollah with intelligence information on the locations of strategic Israeli targets to aid in Hezbollah rocket fire.

A Baath Party official operating out of the Golan Heights told the Sun he has information that Iranian soldiers have been firing rockets into Israel.

It would be "very logical" if Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers were helping Hezbollah fire the rockets, a senior Egyptian security official told the Sun...

...At times, Revolutionary Guard soldiers have been seen operating openly at Hezbollah outposts in plain view from the Israeli side, military officials say.

Earlier, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mark Regev, said Israel has information that Hezbollah was trying to transfer the two soldiers it kidnapped to Iran.

19 U.S Armed Forces personnel killed in a bombing. Government holds Hezbollah responsible.

It's not a headline from today-but from 1996-a little over 10 years ago to the day.

The bombing occurred at the Kobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. The U.S. held Hezbollah responsible. In fact, indictments against Hezbollah members were issued in U.S. Federal Court. Louis Freeh, the Director of the F.B.I. at the time of the bombing, wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal after he left the F.B. I., holding Hezbollah responsible for the Kobar Towers bombing. Director Freeh criticized the Clinton administration for not taking clear, decisive, action. (2)

It was not the first time Hezbollah killed U.S. forces directly. In 1983, 17 Americans were killed at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. A Hezbollah affiliated group claimed responsibility. (3)(4)

This short list doesn't even include other events; such as the kidnapping and torture of a C.I.A. station Chief, or the U.S. Marine bombing at the Beirut Airport-which Hezbollah probably had a role in. ( F.B.I. Director Freeh held Hezbollah responsibility for this bombing as well.)

Why should we forget this?

We should help Israel. If you kill or citizens or Servicemen you will be punished. Not forgotten. Would you exercise restraint if it was one of your family members that died?

Sources:

(1) (2) (3) (4)

In Lebanon, you must understan that Hizbollah is not a "faction" it is part of the government. As we have seen lately as the puppet Lebonese government has come out and declared itself as defenseless aganist Hizbollah. However, that is not the case. Civilians in Beirut are handing out cakes and cookies as a celebration of the 8 dead Israeli soldiers and the two kidnapped ones.

"I have never been physically attacked before. I've had slurs thrown at me, got into heated debates, but what was amazing was that I was actually physically attacked," Seva Brodsky said. "Since they were the majority, and felt invincible, they threatened to kill me!"

Brodsky, who recently returned from nearly six months in Israel, captured some of the confrontation on video, available at the weblog Solomonia.com.

The event Friday at Boston's City Hall Plaza was the Muslim American Society's "Justice for Palestine and Lebanon Protest." Participants brought signs, including one calling for "victory" for the terrorist group Hezbollah and the "Palestinian Resistance."...

Dear Mr. Secretary-General,

In light of the violence affecting the people of Israel and Lebanon, we respectfully ask that you join us in clearly and immediately reaffirming the right of Israel to defend its citizens and ensure its security in the face of relentless attacks, killings and kidnappings by Hezbollah.

We urge you to do everything in your power to help secure the release of Israel's abducted soldiers and to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which requires establishing Lebanon's sovereignty and the authority of its government throughout the country; the disbanding and disarmament of all militias; and the deployment of the Lebanese army along the border with Israel.

Thank you for your attention.

The Czech Hussites earned the condemnation of the Church in 1415 for adherence to doctrines that the Church called heresy, and which historians call proto-Protestant. They successfully defended an independent Czech Hussite state against large Catholic armies for twenty years, before agreeing to strike a compromise with the Church. Large numbers of devoted Hussites rejected the political compromise. Many were killed in battle with a combined Czech/Catholic army near Prague on May 30, 1434. Surviving “Warriors of God” were eliminated in a series of small battles, captures, and hangings.

On February 5, 1597, Shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi decided to crush Christianity in Japan. He considered the rapid increase, geographic concentration, and intense devotion of Christians to be threats to the state. The newly introduced religion had over 300,000 adherents, of whom between 5,000 and 6,000 were executed, many by crucifixion. Christianity as a movement was eliminated from Japan.

I could multiply examples of large populations united by intense religious commitment that have been crushed by the state power. Not obliterated – remnants of Japanese Christianity survived underground, for example – but crushed to the point where a movement no longer existed.

I am certainly not defending the morality of Hideyoshi’s actions, or the crushing of the Cathars, Hussites, or Zanj. I am simply pointing out that popular religious movements can be forcibly destroyed...

Participants carried signs such as ``Free All Palestinian and Lebanese Political Prisoners," ``End the Israeli Occupation," and ``Stop Aid and Weapons." At times during the nearly three-hour rally, which included a prayer service and was sponsored by the Muslim American Society, they chanted ``Free, Free Palestine," and then ``Free, Free Lebanon." A police officer at the scene estimated the crowd at 2 p.m. to be 500.

Around 1:30 p.m., hundreds gathered in tidy eastward-facing rows of about 50 people each, to pray to God. Most kneeled on prayer rugs. Others improvised with newspapers. Some took off their shoes. Usually, at that time of the week, they would have gathered in a mosque. Assam Omeish, president of the Muslim American Society, led the prayer.

Caline Jarudi, executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of Massachusetts, said that holding the rally was a big step among Muslims, who often are apprehensive about publicly vocalizing their views because they can face discrimination. ``The rally was about justice and hopefully there is no consequence," she said.

During the rally, many thought of loved ones in Lebanon or the disputed territories in Israel...

Having arrived from Israel several days ago, where I had just spent almost six months, I got right back into my regular Zionist activities. While riding the subway on Thursday, July 20, 2006, I read in the Metro that there was going to be a political rally the very next day (Friday the 21st) at Boston City Hall Plaza. That article, titled Lebanon/Israel cease-fire rally set for tomorrow, by Laura Dannen, could be found in the lower left hand corner of page 2. Following is a short snip:

BOSTON — Calling for an end to the “indiscriminate” loss of life in Lebanon, more than 1,000 members of Boston’s Muslim community are expected to rally on City Hall Plaza tomorrow afternoon.

The protest, organized by the Boston branch of the Muslim American Society’s Freedom Foundation, will call for an immediate cease-fire to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, now entering its second week, said Omar Abdala, the rally’s organizer.

“It’s unacceptable to indiscriminately kill innocent civilians,” Abdala, 25, said of the Israeli attack on Lebanon. “We’re calling for an immediate end to violence and for Israel to pull back.”

The demonstration, taking place from noon to 3 pm on City Hall Plaza, is part of a larger series of protests around the country this week. More than 2,000 Boston-area Jews and supporters of Israel gathered peacefully in Brookline on Tuesday, demanding peace and security for Israel, an end to terrorism and the safe return of two captured Israeli soldiers...

My interest was piqued, so I decided to check it out. I showed up at City Hall Plaza at about 2 pm, in black dress slacks and striped blue and white shirt, looking like a lawyer on a lunch break. I had a small backpack with the Canon digital photo/video camera in it. As I was approaching the crowd, which appeared to number several hundred people, I took it out and turned the video on.

As I approached the crowd I was confronted by Noah Cohen, [who's Marxist screeds are legend, and who feels Noam Chomsky isn't sufficiently anti-Zionist], who is the husband of Lana Habash [a physician who was quoted as stating that the bombing of Jerusalem Bus#19 was a justifiable act of resistance -- Together, Cohen and Habash run the New England Committee to Defend Palestine, whose goals we have gone over before and which boasts Andover High School's Ron Francis as a booster] and my old nemesis. He tried to harass and intimidate me, but I wouldn't give in. So he tried to impede my video recording by blocking me with his body. As I had a swivel monitor on the camera and was taller than him, I raised the camera above my head and continued filming that way.

[Cohen and Habash:]

However, he is not the type to give up too easily -- being resourceful, he raised a large white banner he had with him on a foam board, thereby creating a new, more formidable obstacle for my probing lens. This precipitated a cat-and-mouse game, which I did not mind engaging in. He was really annoyed by that and started calling for back up. A little crowd started gathering around me, threatening and verbally abusing me.

Some rather short and skinny woman, screaming hysterically at me, grabbed my camera and left arm:

In the ensuing commotion, I suddenly noticed that Noah Cohen grabbed my camera and was quietly trying to break off its swivel monitor. This really stunned me -- I didn't expect he would go to such length and engage in criminally punishable behavior, but I guess, he figured he could afford to do so and get away with it, being surrounded by his comrades-in-arms with no police in sight. At this point, indignant and even outraged, realizing that I was entirely on my own and no help was forthcoming, I yanked the camera from his grip and a scuffle ensued which seemed to cool off his zeal substantially.

More people joined the melee, shouting and threatening me. Unfortunately, by this point my camera was off, so I did not capture what had transpired then. One man told me that the police would not help me, as they were going to hunt me down and kill me (he can be heard on the video repeatedly commanding me not to take pictures):

Eventually the police, a man and a woman, showed up and questioned me, asking me if I wanted to press charges since I knew the name of the perpetrator. I said that I did and they told me where the nearest police station was, so I eventually did proceed there, but not before the Arab "witnesses" were screaming to the cops that I had attacked an innocent woman.

"In the Arab world it is understood that hospitality is given freely to friend and foe alike, that the blessings of family and religion are to be cherished above all else, except possibly money, that what is said is not necessarily what is meant at all because, in the richness and imagery of the Arabic language, style counts more than substance." Pp. xii-xiii of the Introduction to "The Arabs, Journeys Beyond the Mirage"; Vintage, 1988, by David Lamb, an American journalist and author, who is quite sympathetic to the Arabs.

The female officer went to talk to someone, returning several minutes later and telling the male officer that my version of the story got corroborated and checked out in the end.

[Here is the short video, from the time when Seva approached the rally to the point where his camera was grabbed and he stopped filming -- "He's a Zionist! He's profiling people!":]

Upon return from the police station, I continued my video recording activities. More insults and threats followed, and another conversation with the same two police officers, who then suggested I also go to a particular courthouse, as there was still enough time left in the day to also file my complaint there. I got into an interesting discussion with them, and the male cop suggested that I write about the incident to a paper, such as Boston Phoenix, and I replied that I intended to.

[David Rolde, Secretary and Administrative Committee member of the Green-Rainbow Party of Massachusetts:]

[Say, remember micro-Larry Bird? Well he and friend were back, and had a few choice words for Mr. Brodsky (that's his voice -- more of him later -- WARNING: contains profanity):]

[Another encounter with Noah Cohen, another guy who threatens to smash Mr. Brodsky's camera, and a beleaguered -- though it must be said, well-meaning -- Rally Marshall, who informs Mr. Brodsky that he can't guarantee his safety:]

I continued recording the event, moving across the street and observing it from a distance:

[Chanting: "When people are occupied, resistance is justified..."]

[Another encounter: "The Zionists must hate this"...and again with our basketball friend, or as perhaps we should call him, "Gorgeous"...note the Palestine water-bottle accessory:]

All this commotion begs several questions:

1. Why is it that I was the only pro-Israel person who was there out in the open? Where were others? If they were there, did they take notes, pictures, and videos?

2. Was the FBI there? Their field office could have had a field day, and I hope they did -- the proportion of Muslim clerics and Arab as well as hard-core leftist extremists there was quite staggering.

3. Why did the police not come to my rescue right away, and why were there so few of them? I only saw one parked wagon with two cops in it, and the two officers that I talked to. Given the size of the crowd, and the content of speeches, slogans, and banners, I would expect a battalion of security forces there. [This is remarkable. At every pro-Israel event, even family-oriented events, there has been an extensive police presence along with private security. At this event...almost nothing. Draw your own conclusions. -S]

4. Why is it that when we Jews have our demonstrations and rallies, we behave overwhelmingly in a civilized manner in the face of the opposition, and if one of us steps over the line of propriety, the rest admonish such a person? Why do we see such a drastic difference between our behavior and that of our opponents and enemies?

In a statement, CAIR Board Chairman Parvez Ahmed said:

"It is unconscionable that our government would rush weapons to a state engaged in vicious and indiscriminate attacks on the civilians and civilian infrastructure of a friendly nation. Thousands of our nation's citizens also remain in Lebanon facing death or injury from these American taxpayer-supplied weapons.

"The baffling decision to assist in the destruction of a nation that has been held up as a model of democratic reform can only serve to harm our long-term interests in the region. Aiding attacks on civilian targets in Lebanon also calls into question our nation's commitment to fighting terrorism in all its forms.

"America must disengage its Middle East policy from the self-serving dictates of the pro-Israel lobby. Failure to do so will allow Israel to once again drag our nation into its self-perpetuating cycle of hatred and conflict."

Was it disproportionate? Well, no. The Nazis had bombed our allies, the British, in terror raids for years. They had started a world war. They had created a genocide unspeakable in human history. So, yes, there was horrible killing, but is anyone now saying it was disproportionate? Maybe a few, but not many.

The Japanese bombed exactly zero U.S. cities except for a few stray bombs on Honolulu. We firebombed every city we could find and used the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Was this disproportionate? No, because the Japanese had started a world war and caused unspeakable suffering through Asia and the Pacific. Bombing was what it took to end the war in both Europe and the Pacific.

Now, Israel is bombing Beirut. The Lebanese have been sheltering Hezbollah killers who have been rocketing and bombing Israel for ten years almost every day. The Lebanese have admitted the terrorists into dominant positions in their government. In every way, Lebanon has made itself a haven for terrorists bombing civilians day in and day out in Israel. Is Israel finally standing up and saying enough "disproportionate"? Yes, if you think Israel and Jews should be permanent victims who suffer, bleed, and die in silence the way the Nazis preferred. No, if you believe Jews have the same rights as other people to defend themselves...

But I digress. I really wanted to say that, for all those who accuse the likes of myself and the birthday girl of being unpatriotic, or hating America first, the feeling I've had watching Israel defend herself and a US president defend Israel (a country that is held to a standard for "restraint" that no other country ever is asked to meet, but that's another story) just reminds me how wrong that is. I LOVE being on the side of my president, and mouthing "You go, boy" when he gets it right. He just, outside of this, almost never does...

Rev. Peter Pettit, Director of the Institute for Jewish Christian Understanding at Muhlenberg College says, "In light of the amount of collateral damage, especially in Lebanon, Christians will understandably raise questions regarding proportionate response. This is not fundamentally anti-Israel, but grows out of the 'just war' tradition. Legitimate military objectives must be pursued with every effort to limit collateral damage and cannot include actions that in any way amount to collective punishment."

"Coming to a reasoned conclusion to this question requires an understanding of the history and nature of Hezbollah," says Sr. Ruth Lautt, National Director of Fair Witness.

"Hezbollah, which operates with Syrian and especially Iranian backing, supports the destruction of the state of Israel and co- operates with other militant Islamic organizations such as Hamas in order to promote this goal," says Sr. Lautt. "It has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and the European Parliament, and has repeatedly taken credit for attacks against Israeli military and civilian targets. Hezbollah also presents a serious threat to legitimate Christian interests in Lebanon."...

..."A distinction must be made as to how the different armies are dealing with civilian populations. There has not been a single report of damage done to an Israeli army base, airport, power station, bus station, refinery or factory. With two exceptions, every Hezbollah rocket has been aimed at civilian targets. On the other hand, while Hezbollah operates from civilian areas, making it impossible to avoid civilians entirely, Israel has specifically targeted legitimate military objectives, and has leafleted areas prior to bombing, warning civilians to get out of harm's way."

All of these "on the ground" realities must be considered in determining a proportionate and morally acceptable response by both the Lebanese government and Israel to Hezbollah at this time...

Bishop Shaw previously made news on the international front less than one month after the September 11th terrorist attacks, when he last caused a furor here by protesting in front of the Israel's consulate. Since then, he has come out against the move to get the Episcopal Church to divest itself from companies doing business with Israel – a position praised by the local Jewish community – shuttled himself back and forth to Israel and the West Bank more than a half dozen times, and attempted, to an extent, to stay out of the headlines.

Until last week. In a case of what may be extraordinarily bad timing, Bishop Shaw chose Wednesday afternoon as the moment to publicly protest Israel's strike on Gaza in the wake of the Hamas kidnapping of Corporal Gilad Shalit. That was after hostilities with Gaza had begun but before Hezbollah's Katyushah rockets began raining down on Israel's North...

"They were considering bad resolutions," says Dennis Hale, a Medford, Mass.-based Episcopalian who traveled to Columbus with Sister Lautt's group. "We testified against these resolutions, and they were amended."

Even so, Sister Lautt and Mr. Hale, an associate professor in political science at Boston College tell a disturbing story of their treatment while manning a booth for the group at the convention's exhibition hall."We were at first treated like pariahs," says Hale, who began to reconsider his Episcopalian affiliation given the negative reception he received.

Yet along with the criticism and sharp words came quiet expressions of support, and Hale's moment of spiritual doubt passed. Now Mr. Hale and Sister Lautt believe they can reach the middle of the moderate churches, if they can just get their message out...

The suit alleges that the Boston Herald, Fox25, The David Project, Citizens for Peace and Tolerance, and others orchestrated a media campaign to stop the Islamic Society's attempts to build a mosque in Roxbury. The suit alleges that stories in the Boston Herald and on Fox Television in 2004, which asserted links between society officials and terrorist groups, were aimed at halting the project.

The nonmedia defendants, who have continually denied those assertions, argued the suit should be dismissed under a 1994 statute designed to protect private citizens who bring suits against developers.

Judge Janet L. Sanders ruled that the statute does not apply to the defendants in the defamation lawsuit. The ruling is a major victory, said Howard Cooper, attorney for the Islamic Society.

``For many months since my clients simply sought to file a lawsuit and redress their rights in court, all we heard was that we were attempting to intimidate people and we would end up having to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorneys' fees," he said. ``The court has now rejected the defendants' arguments in their entirety and ruled that the ISB filed its lawsuit appropriately."

Jeff Robbins , attorney for some of the nonmedia defendants, said the denial of his request to dismiss the case was not a setback. He said he will appeal the judge's decision, but that if the case proceeds, his clients will welcome the opportunity to call the Islamic Society of Boston to answer their allegations in court...

The grassroots South Area Israel Action Team (SAIAT), organized the event which was originally intended to be a smaller vigil. Remarked the groups co-founder Andrew Warren: "We were really not expecting this kind of turnout. We came prepared with placards and tributes to all the Israeli (Jewish & Arab) victims of the Hezbollah and Hamas missles, but people really wanted to be much more vocal." Warren later indicated: "I think part of the motivation is the sense that most major media outlets are not telling the full story. We don't here anything about the devastation of Israeli's northern towns and their victims. Over a half-million (500,000) people have had to flee their homes and another half-million (500,000) are in bomb shelters. Since Israel left southern Lebanon (it’s buffer zone) in 2000, the U.N. has turned a blind-eye to the Hizbollah build up of 13,000 rockets and past firings on northern Israeli communities. People feel the Hizbollah attack and kidnapping of two Israel Defense Force (IDF) soldiers, from the Israeli side of the border (UN acknowledged), was the last straw. We are are now seeing the unfortunate results for the whole region ultimately from Hizbollah's utter rejection of the Jewish State." -- Shirley Miller Stein

By the moment the Benarroch couple had left the table to express their regrets, Zapatero was explaining his lack of surprise about the Holocaust: according to the people present, Zapatero claimed to understand the Nazis...

The most important Israeli goal in both the north and the south is to prevent rocket attacks on its civilian population, and, here, its response clearly meets the requirements of necessity. The first purpose of any state is to defend the lives of its citizens; no state can tolerate random rocket attacks on its cities and towns. Some 700 rockets have been fired from northern Gaza since the Israeli withdrawal a year ago--imagine the U.S. response if a similar number were fired at Buffalo and Detroit from some Canadian no-man's-land. It doesn't matter that, so far, the Gazan rockets have done minimal damage; the intention every time one is fired is to hit a home or a school, and, sooner or later, that intention will be realized. Israel has waited a long time for the Palestinian Authority and the Lebanese government to deal with the rocket fire from Gaza and the rocket build-up on the Lebanese border. In the latter case, it has also waited for the United Nations, which has a force in southern Lebanon that is mandated to "restore international peace and security" but has nonetheless watched the positioning of thousands of rockets and has done nothing. A couple of years ago, the Security Council passed a resolution calling for the disarming of Hezbollah; its troops, presumably, have noticed that this didn't happen. Now Israel has rightly decided that it has no choice except to take out the rockets itself. But, again, how can it do that?...

...When Palestinian militants launch rocket attacks from civilian areas, they are themselves responsible--and no one else is--for the civilian deaths caused by Israeli counterfire. But (the dialectical argument continues) Israeli soldiers are required to aim as precisely as they can at the militants, to take risks in order to do that, and to call off counterattacks that would kill large numbers of civilians. That last requirement means that, sometimes, the Palestinian use of civilian shields, though it is a cruel and immoral way of fighting, is also an effective way of fighting. It works, because it is both morally right and politically intelligent for the Israelis to minimize--and to be seen trying to minimize--civilian casualties. Still, minimizing does not mean avoiding entirely: Civilians will suffer so long as no one on the Palestinian side (or the Lebanese side) takes action to stop rocket attacks. From that side, though not from the Israeli side, what needs to be done could probably be done without harm to civilians...

Kaplan and Small ask whether individuals expressing strong anti-Israel sentiments, such as the statement by Ted Honderich, Emeritus Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic at University College London, that “those Palestinians who have resorted to necessary killing have been right to try to free their people, and those who have killed themselves in the cause of their people have indeed sanctified themselves,” are more likely than the general population to also support in such old-style anti-Semitic slurs as “Jews have too much power in our country today.”

The correlation was almost perfect. In a survey of 5,000 Europeans in ten countries, people who believed that the Israeli soldiers “intentionally target Palestinian civilians,” and that “Palestinian suicide bombers who target Israeli civilians” are justified, also believed that “Jews don’t care what happens to anyone but their own kind,” “Jews have a lot of irritating faults,” and “Jews are more willing than others to use shady practices to get what they want.”

The study’s other interesting finding was that only a small fraction of Europeans believe any of these things. Anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism flourish among the few, but those few are over-represented in Europe’s newspapers, its universities, and its left-wing political parties.

For Americans who do not read the European press, the level of raw anti-Semitism in European intellectual circles can be shocking...

The Hizbullah leader offered his condolences to the family of the two brothers in an interview with Al-Jazeera television...

We appreciate the clarity of your “Pastoral Letter to Palestinian Friends and Partners.” You have made the sides abundantly clear. On one side are Israel, the United States, the G8, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. All of these faulted the unprovoked murderous cross-border attacks and kidnappings by Hezbollah that have led to suffering of the citizens of both Israel and Lebanon. On the other side are Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, the UCC and John Thomas, who see things differently. We also understand why your remarks during this week of death and misery addresses only the suffering of your Palestinian friends. History teaches that silence is admittance and your silence over innocent Jewish victims speaks volumes...

At least you are honest. You used to rail about the pressure from the “pro-Israel lobby.” You’ve dropped the code language. It’s Jews you’re talking about, as you admit in your current letter. Your irritation is puzzling, though. You have done a near perfect job keeping those pesky Jews from your offices, and from your convention floor when resolutions about the fate of Israelis came up. If we didn’t know better, we would think you simply don’t like outside interference and pressure. But you have no problem with the pressure from organizations like Sabeel and Al-Awda, both of whom reject the legitimacy of a Jewish state, and both of whom have either partnered with the UCC, or have been listed as a resource. And you don’t mind twisting a few arms yourself, do you? Remember the infamous “midnight meeting” at your General Synod in 2005, when you didn’t like the committee recommendation to the floor, so you substituted your own language, without anyone realizing it and had delegates adopt a resolution different from what they thought they were approving?...

In a letter to Kurt Vollebaek, Norway’s Ambassador to the United States, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center, acknowledged Norway’s right to free speech, but called on their government to publicly denounce this “antisemitic attack that manages simultaneously to denigrate the victims of the Nazi Holocaust and incite hatred against Israel and her supporters in your country.”

Rabbi Cooper also protested the timing of the cartoon’s publication citing that “hundreds of Israelis have been killed and injured by unprovoked cross-border attacks by terrorist organizations.”

Cooper expressed hope that in light of this controversy, the Norwegian government will support UN Security Council Resolution 1559 which would end the “Hezbollah threat that has wreaked such suffering on innocents on both sides of the Israeli/Lebanese border.”...

It's hard to know what accounts for this Israeli restraint, for which, of course, it gets no thanks. It may just be a matter of time before the gloves come off. Or Olmert may be afraid of upsetting the regional status quo. The American neocon agenda of regime change is not one that finds favor with most Israelis (ironic, considering how often the rest of the world has denounced neocons as Mossad agents). The Israeli attitude toward neighboring dictators is "better the devil you know." That may make sense with Jordan and Egypt, which have made peace with Israel, but not with Syria, which serves as a vital conduit between Tehran and Hamas and Hezbollah.

Iran may be too far away for much Israeli retaliation beyond a single strike on its nuclear weapons complex. (Now wouldn't be a bad time.) But Syria is weak and next door. To secure its borders, Israel needs to hit the Assad regime. Hard. If it does, it will be doing Washington's dirty work. Our best response is exactly what Bush has done so far — reject premature calls for a cease-fire and let Israel finish the job.

While Israel does everything reasonable to minimize civilian casualties — not always with success — Hezbollah and Hamas want to maximize civilian casualties on both sides. Islamic terrorists, a diplomat commented years ago, "have mastered the harsh arithmetic of pain. . . . Palestinian casualties play in their favor and Israeli casualties play in their favor." These are groups that send children to die as suicide bombers, sometimes without the child knowing that he is being sacrificed. Two years ago, an 11-year-old was paid to take a parcel through Israeli security. Unbeknownst to him, it contained a bomb that was to be detonated remotely. (Fortunately the plot was foiled.)

This misuse of civilians as shields and swords requires a reassessment of the laws of war. The distinction between combatants and civilians — easy when combatants were uniformed members of armies that fought on battlefields distant from civilian centers — is more difficult in the present context. Now, there is a continuum of "civilianality": Near the most civilian end of this continuum are the pure innocents — babies, hostages and others completely uninvolved; at the more combatant end are civilians who willingly harbor terrorists, provide material resources and serve as human shields; in the middle are those who support the terrorists politically, or spiritually...

The day after Hezbollah abducted two Israeli soldiers on July 12, Sheik Hamid al-Ali issued an informal statement titled "The Sharia position on what is going on." In it, the Kuwaiti based cleric condemned the imperial ambitions of Iran regarding Hezbollah's cross border raid.

The surprising move demonstrates that Sunni Muslim fundamentalists in the Middle East are deeply divided over whether Moslems should support Hezbollah, Iran's Shiite proxies in the war raging in Lebanon.

While the Gulf's ascetic Wahhabi sects, who are closer to the ethnic fighting between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq, have opposed Hezbollah in its stand against Israel's forces, other Sunni fundamentalist groups, such as the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, have pledged their solidarity. On Friday, the brothers will host a rally in support of Hezbollah at Cairo's most influential mosque, Al-Azhar.

The profound division between the most violent Muslim enemies of America and Israel may be one reason Arab capitals have not yet exploded in rage about Israel's bombardment of Lebanon. The White House has already pointed to Jordanian, Egyptian, and Saudi government condemnation of Hezbollah.

The latest Arab Israeli war presents a conundrum for many Sunni Jihadists. On the one hand, a chance to join in the resistance against the Jewish state presents a rare opportunity for zealots who revere the Palestinian Arab martyrs that have sacrificed their lives to kill Jewish civilians. But the main group doing the fighting, and instigating the war this time in Lebanon, are supported by the same Shiite state that supplies and funds the militias killing Sunni civilians in Iraq...

Mimi Miyagi: I am an avid supporter of bearing arms since 2001....I love the people in the (Republican Party). I have been to some of the Democratic parties here and there, but the positivity, the upbeat attitude of the Republicans was more for me.

John Hawkins: So, you kind of thought the Democrats were pessimistic and negative?

Mimi Miyagi: ...I don't like all the mudslinging and a lot of the things they say about the Republicans really (aren't) true. The Republican Party is about individualism, it's about freedom, it's about lowering taxes. That is something I truly believe in...

If we, as Americans, had any sense of loyalty to our own dead and crippled, we would be cheering Israel for taking this long overdue action, while offering any assistance they may request...

Making this situation even more burdensome is the recognition that there are many in the United States, including many Christians, who see only Israel's need for security, who focus only on a few terrorist acts which you yourselves condemn. In doing so, they largely ignore the systemic oppression of an entire people in what increasingly amounts to a virtual prison in which almost every aspect of Palestinian life is controlled by Israel. Many in our own churches are subject to intense lobbying by Jewish groups demonizing the Palestinian community in general, and many of you in particular. Even some of our denominational gatherings of ecumenical partners here in the United States sound what may seem to you to be an uncertain voice.

In the face of such suffering and the temptation for despair, I write to assure you of the prayers and solidarity of the United Church of Christ. I am grateful that this is being signified personally by Peter Makari's presence in the region this summer, accompanied by several of my colleagues...

...It is sincerely sad to see the leader of our denomination implode in such an irrational and public way. We can only feel sorry for him.

- A complete cease fire.

- Deployment of the Lebanese army in all of Southern Lebanon.

-Expulsion of Hizballah from the area, and fulfillment of United Nations Resolution 1559.

We will not suspend our actions.

But one Arab state did not want peace. Syria, then as now under the rule of the belligerent Baath Party, wanted war. Having tried and failed in 1964 to divert the Jordan River before it crossed the Israeli border--IDF jets and artillery blasted the dams--the Syrians began supporting a little-known Palestinian guerrilla group called Al Fatah under the leadership of Yasir Arafat. Using Lebanon as its principal base, Al Fatah commenced operations against Israel in 1965 and rapidly escalated its attacks. Finally, at the end of 1966, Israeli officials felt compelled to retaliate. But, fearing the repercussions of attacking Soviet-backed Syria, they decided to strike at an Al Fatah stronghold in the Jordanian-controlled West Bank...

The answer lies in delivering an unequivocal blow to Syrian ground forces deployed near the Lebanese border. By eliminating 500 Syrian tanks--tanks that Syrian President Bashar Al Assad needs to preserve his regime--Israel could signal its refusal to return to the status quo in Lebanon. Supporting Hezbollah carries a prohibitive price, the action would say. Of course, Syria could respond with missile attacks against Israeli cities, but given the dilapidated state of Syria's army, the chances are greater that Assad will simply internalize the message. Presented with a choice between saving Hezbollah and staying alive, Syria's dictator will probably choose the latter. And the message of Israel's determination will also be received in Tehran...

...Without mentioning Hezbollah by name Saudi Arabia blamed certain “elements” inside Lebanon for the violence with Israel and said “it is necessary to make a distinction between legitimate resistance and uncalculated adventures adopted by certain elements within Lebanon without the knowledge of legal Lebanese authorities.” While reiterating its support for Palestinian and Lebanese resistance against Israeli occupation, Saudi Arabia has clearly said it is against irresponsible adventures undertaken by certain elements in the region without consulting the legal authorities putting all Arab nations at risk. The Kingdom has also said “these elements must take responsibility for their irresponsible actions and they alone should end the crisis created by them.”

This angry response from Saudi Arabia has politically isolated Hezbollah and Hamas besides holding them responsible for their actions...

They are secretly being held at the Embassy of Iran in Beirut, under direct Iranian security guards supervision.

The concern is we have only three and a half weeks (8 weekend days) left to collect signatures. Rain could easily cut petitioning days by 25-50%. A major commitment all around is needed if we are to securely qualify all four candidates for statewide office. The repercussions for the party will be very serious if we do not qualify. If we do not pull out all the stops starting now, we fear there is a real risk we will not...

...truth to tell, having our campaigns stop because we do not get on the ballot is a drop in the bucket compared to the incredible leap backwards - and loss of credibility - this would mean for the party and what we are fighting for!...

Having the bigger picture in mind, Starbucks have donated a store to the US army to help in the “War on Terror”. I cannot emphasise enough, how vital the “War on Terror” is for the continued viability and prospering of the Jewish State...

Rice also said during the interview that this is not the time for it, and there is need to impose UN resolution 1559 that calls for disarming all the militias in southern Lebanon. (Yitzhak Benhorin, Washington)

Since 9/11, Americans have increasingly come to accept the idea that Israel and the United States share not just values but enemies. A Gallup Poll in February reported 68 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of Israel with 23 percent unfavorable, and that Americans support Israelis over Palestinians by 59 percent to 15 percent.

Recent electoral victories by Islamic radicals in Iran and the Palestinian territories have only heightened the sense of us vs. them. With his sweeping condemnations and threats against the United States and Israel, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's radical new president, has quickly joined the pantheon of bad guys, alongside Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. "Ahmadinejad is worth every penny," says Morris Amitay. "He says amazing things, and the scary part is he really means it."...

Four days later, Hezbollah terrorists staged a raid across Israel's northern border, kidnapping two Israeli soldiers and killing eight more. Over the next day, more than 120 rockets rained down across northern Israel. Among the communities struck was Haifa, Israel's third-largest city and home to its busiest port and a large oil refinery. It was the first time rockets fired from Lebanon had penetrated so far into Israel; Haifa was thought to be out of Hezbollah's range.

Israel replied to Hezbollah's artillery barrages and hostage-taking with a military invasion, much as it did in Gaza last month in response to incessant rocket fire and the Hamas kidnapping of Gilad Shalit. In short order, Israel's warplanes struck Beirut's international airport, Hezbollah's offices, and two Lebanese army bases; the Israeli navy put Lebanon under a blockade.

And so Israel finds itself at war again, this time on two fronts against two of the most lethal terrorist forces in the world. Except that the real enemy confronting it is not Hamas and Hezbollah. Terrorist organizations cannot function without state sponsorship, and no state anywhere sponsors more Islamist terrorism than Iran...

"We have ministers, we have members of parliament, we have municipal council members, leaders of unions and syndicates," he boasted as we sat on faux French brocade furniture at his now-bombed headquarters. "If we are maintaining our arms until now, this is due to the fact that the need for it is still there, due to the permanent or constant Israeli threats against Lebanon. Whether we keep on with the resistance or stop the resistance, we are effectively now a full-fledged political party."

The outskirts of Beirut are known as the dahiya , Arabic for "suburbs." It has come to mean the poor, dense and sometimes dangerous maze of slums that is also Hezbollah-land. Its dirty alleys are crammed with concrete-block shanties. Gnarled masses of wire run from one building to the next, illegally tapping into electrical, phone and television lines. While lights burn brightly in trendy downtown Beirut, the dahiya is often eerily dark because of sporadic electricity.

Hezbollah has become an enterprise in the dahiya, often outperforming the state. It runs a major hospital as well as schools, discount pharmacies, groceries and an orphanage. It runs a garbage service and a reconstruction program for homes damaged during Israel's invasion. It supports families of the young men it sent off to their deaths. Altogether, it benefits an estimated 250,000 Lebanese and is the country's second-largest employer.

In the dahiya, Nasrallah is an icon, famed for his oratory and revered as a champion of Lebanon's long-dispossessed Shiite minority...

A barrage of rockets pounded the northern Israeli city of Haifa in the worst strike on Israel since violence broke out along the border with Lebanon last week. One of the rockets hit a storage room at the train station, killing eight people, Israeli police said. Many more people were wounded.

Some of the rockets landed near an oil refinery and gas storage tanks. Rockets also hit the northern towns of Acco and Nahariya, and residents were told to head to bomb shelters...

"One may well ask if there isn't today a kind of wish to destroy Lebanon -- its infrastructure, its roads, its communications, its energy, its airport. And for what?

"I find honestly -- as all Europeans do -- that the current reactions are totally disproportionate," he said in a live television interview on France's national Bastille Day...

Over the past six years, Hezbollah has launched periodic raids and rocket attacks into Israel. Israeli retaliation has led to the cessation of these provocations — until the next time convenient for Hezbollah. Wednesday was such a time. One terror base located in fully unoccupied Arab territory (South Lebanon) attacks Israel in support of another terror base in another fully unoccupied Arab territory (Gaza).

Why? Because occupation was a mere excuse to persuade gullible and historically ignorant Westerners to support the Arab cause against Israel. The issue is, and has always been, Israel's existence. That is what is at stake.

It was Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization that convinced the world that the issue was occupation. Yet, through all those years of pretense, Arafat's own group celebrated its annual Fatah Day on the anniversary of its first attack on Israel, the bombing of Israel's National Water Carrier — on Jan. 1, 1965.

Note: 1965. Two years before the 1967 war. Two years before Gaza and the West Bank fell into Israeli hands. Two years before there were any "occupied territories."...

The case against the City of Boston and a Muslim group over a controversial mosque project in Roxbury could get stronger, after a judge admitted new documents raising questions about the city’s conduct in the deal.

“This is a significant step forward,” said Evan Slavitt, the lawyer representing James Policastro, the Mission Hill resident who originally filed a lawsuit against the city and the Islamic Society of Boston in October 2004. The suit charges that the city’s sale of public land at a significant discount for the construction of a mosque in exchange for a package of benefits, including an Islamic lecture series, violated the separation of church and state...

...In issuing her decision late last month, Judge Regina Quinlan rejected the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s claim that only materials it submitted as part of an administrative record of the deal could be reviewed. Policastro’s claims, the judge wrote, were of “constitutional dimension” and other documents that have recently come to light could be used to support the case.

Among the documents the BRA did not include in its administrative record was an opinion from the BRA’s legal counsel in the early stages of the project warning that discounting the sale price of the land for a religious group could pose constitutional problems. An Ethics Commission opinion also noted that the close involvement of a Muslim BRA official, Muhammad Ali Salaam, could create the appearance that decisions were “unduly influenced by personal loyalties.”
Other documents indicate that Ali Salaam was intimately involved in many aspects of the deal, traveling to the Middle East on a fund-raising trip with ISB officials and writing letters on behalf of the ISB on BRA stationary.

Slavitt said that he now plans to file a motion that would compel BRA and ISB officials to provide testimony. So far they have refused to comply.

Citing the litigation, BRA officials also refused to participate in a public hearing on the deal called by a Boston city councilor in May.

Slavitt said that it’s too early to say what the outcome of the lawsuit will be but, he said, it could ultimately invalidate the transaction, meaning that the ISB would “have to tear down the establishment.”...

Over 30 containers and 140 trucks containing:
- 1080 tons of various grains
- 800 tons of sugar
- 140 tons of dairy products
- 520 tons of flour
- 420 tons of fruit
- 169 tons of oil
- 120 tons of salt
- 160 tons of rice
- 40 tons of eggs
- 100 tons of meat and fish products
- 7 trucks containing medicines and medical equipment
- several heavy duty generators
- 25,000 liters of chloride
- 350,000 liters of diesel
- 50,000 liters of petrol
- 100 tons of cooking gas

It is important to note that the water and electricity supply from Israel to the Gaza Strip remains uninterrupted.

On June 29, 1938 Ben Yosef was hanged on the gallows by the British authorities. His last words in a conversation with friends were, "Havlagah" (self-restraint) is fatal."...

The goals of the war should be the destruction of the Hamas regime and the dismantling of the Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon. Israel cannot coexist with Iranian proxies pressing in on its borders. In particular, allowing Hamas to remain in power--and to run the Palestinian educational system--will mean the end of hopes for Arab-Israeli reconciliation not only in this generation but in the next one too.

For the Israeli right, this is the moment of "We told you so." The fact that the kidnappings and missile attacks have come from southern Lebanon and Gaza--precisely the areas from which Israel has unilaterally withdrawn--is proof, for right-wingers, of the bankruptcy of unilateralism. Yet the right has always misunderstood the meaning of unilateral withdrawal. Those of us who have supported unilateralism didn't expect a quiet border in return for our withdrawal but simply the creation of a border from which we could more vigorously defend ourselves, with greater domestic consensus and international understanding. The anticipated outcome, then, wasn't an illusory peace but a more effective way to fight the war. The question wasn't whether Hamas or Hezbollah would forswear aggression but whether Israel would act with appropriate vigor to their continued aggression.

So it wasn't the rocket attacks that were a blow to the unilateralist camp, but rather Israel's tepid responses to those attacks. If unilateralists made a mistake, it was in believing our political leaders--including Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert--when they promised a policy of zero tolerance against any attacks emanating from Gaza after Israel's withdrawal. That policy was not implemented--until two weeks ago. Now, belatedly, the Olmert government is trying to regain something of its lost credibility, and that is the real meaning of this initial phase of the war, both in Gaza and in Lebanon.

Still, many in Israel believe that, even now, the government is acting with excessive restraint. One centrist friend of mine, an Olmert voter, said to me, "If we had assassinated [Hamas leader] Haniyeh after the first kidnapping, [Hezbollah leader] Nasrallah would have thought twice about ordering another kidnapping." Israel, then, isn't paying for the failure of unilateral withdrawal, but for the failure to fulfill its promise to seriously respond to provocations after withdrawal...

``We pray for Israeli soldier Corporal Gilad Shalit and for an immediate and peaceful halt to the hostilities raging for the past two weeks in the Gaza Strip and for the peaceful coexistence of Israel and Palestine," Shaw said. He called for the end to the Gaza occupation and to terrorism against Israel.

About 50 pro-Israel demonstrators held blue-and-white Israeli flags and signs reading ``We Support Israel" and ``End the Missiles." Nancy K. Kaufman , the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, asked why the protesters hadn't demonstrated when Israelis were killed, and said: ``There needs to be an end to terror. That is what we pray for."

At several points, protesters started shouting at one another. While Shaw was speaking, an Israel supporter stopped his Toyota Camry in the street, jumped out, and started shouting ``Israel! Israel!" A pro-Palestinian protester shouted ``Fascist!" in response.

The two sides began arguing vociferously at the entrance to the building housing the consulate, and the police officers called for backup.

The police asked the two groups -- who were standing on both sides of Park Plaza, separated by Hadassah Way and by the entryway to the Statler building -- to stop using bullhorns to communicate, saying that such action requires a permit. The arguments then quieted down.

On both sides, passions were running deep. Susan Allen , a protester from Brookline, accused Israel of ``bulldozing the homes of innocent children," and an organizer of the protest, Sharif Fam, said, ``if you support war crimes, you unfortunately will become a target."

A counterdemonstrator, Dexter Van Zile , accused the Episcopal Church of ``defamation of the Jewish homeland" and said ``Episcopalians should be ashamed of Bishop Shaw's presence here," while Andrew Tarsy , the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said ``it's a sad day when legitimate social action merges with the extremist fringe, and that's what's happening here."

Eventually, heavy rain began to fall, and the demonstrators dispersed...

"This was phenomenal," said U.S. Army Col. Charles Driessnack, the project manager for the Missile Defense Agency's THAAD program. "It performed as expected."

The test demonstrated the THAAD's ability to "completely destroy that warhead so that no chemical or nuclear residue would contaminate areas" below the explosion, Driessnack said.

During the test firing, the airspace above the 3,200-square-mile missile range was cleared, including orbiting satellites, said Jim Eckles, a spokesman for the missile range.

Also, roughly 80 to 90 families were evacuated from surrounding ranch land during the test and traffic was halted on area highways.

The target — a Hera missile that closely mimics the characteristics of the more infamous SCUD missiles — was launched shortly after 5:17 a.m. Wednesday. It took to the skies from a location on the far northern reaches of the bombing range's territory, about 100 miles north of the Organ Mountains, 25 miles north of Highway 380.

It carried a canister of inert material to simulate chemical or biological elements that could be mounted on an enemy missile, Driessnack said. The target missile rose roughly 200 miles above the Earth before beginning the final stage descent toward land.

The THAAD was launched close to the southern end, on the east side of the Organ Mountains. The object of the THAAD missile is to provide a weapon to intercept incoming missiles during the "terminal" phase, when only seconds remain before it would strike an intended target...

Well, if Matt Amorello can't take a hint, then it's up to us to send him a clear message: "It's Time To Bolt!"

That's why I'm asking you to grab a bolt out of your toolbox or utility closet--perhaps like the one in this photo from the Big Dig--drop it in an envelope, write "Matt, It's Time To Bolt!" and send it to The Chairman's office at the Turnpike Authority...

... Outside, we could hear the men storming about. Desperately, we sought to hide. Danny helped our neighbor climb into a crawl space above our bedroom; I went in behind her with Yael in my arms. Then Danny grabbed Einat and was dashing out the front door to take refuge in an underground shelter when the terrorists came crashing into our flat. They held Danny and Einat while they searched for me and Yael, knowing there were more people in the apartment. I will never forget the joy and the hatred in their voices as they swaggered about hunting for us, firing their guns and throwing grenades. I knew that if Yael cried out, the terrorists would toss a grenade into the crawl space and we would be killed. So I kept my hand over her mouth, hoping she could breathe. As I lay there, I remembered my mother telling me how she had hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust. "This is just like what happened to my mother," I thought.

As police began to arrive, the terrorists took Danny and Einat down to the beach. There, according to eyewitnesses, one of them shot Danny in front of Einat so that his death would be the last sight she would ever see. Then he smashed my little girl's skull in against a rock with his rifle butt. That terrorist was Samir Kuntar.

By the time we were rescued from the crawl space, hours later, Yael, too, was dead. In trying to save all our lives, I had smothered her...

Japanese officials said Monday they believe negotiations may not be the answer to the Korean problem. Dawn over Tokyo.

"If we accept that there is no other option to prevent an attack ... there is the view that attacking the launch base of the guided missiles is within the constitutional right of self-defense. We need to deepen discussion," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said.

"It's irresponsible to do nothing when we know North Korea could riddle us with missiles," said Tsutomu Takebe, secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. To legally allow such an attack, he said, "We should consider measures, including legal changes."

Japan's military currently remains on a defensive footing, and would at best be strained by the execution of such a plan. A Japanese ramp-up to offensive capability probably could be achieved in relatively short order, once legal issues are resolved. Japan may then also have to tackle the issue of whether to go nuclear, as an added defensive measure in a bad neighborhood that includes two aggressive nuclear players -- China and North Korea. These are not only reasonable steps for a mature democracy to consider in that kind of environment, they are vital to stabilizing a region where the United States has not only had to provide security but is regularly blamed for creating tensions it is there to defend against...

Dear Palestinian Arab brethren:

The war with Israel is over.

You have lost. Surrender and negotiate to secure a future for your children.

We, your Arab brothers, may say until we are blue in the face that we stand by you, but the wise among you and most of us know that we are moving on, away from the tired old idea of the Palestinian Arab cause and the "eternal struggle" with Israel.

Dear friends, you and your leaders have wasted three generations trying to fight for Palestine, but the truth is the Palestine you could have had in 1948 is much bigger than the one you could have had in 1967, which in turn is much bigger than what you may have to settle for now or in another 10 years. Struggle means less land and more misery and utter loneliness...

The objective of the operation is to determine the whereabouts of our abducted soldier, Gilad Shalit, to bring about his release, and to ensure the safety of Israel citizens.

For your safety, and as we want to prevent any harm to civilians, who are not involved in attacking our forces, you should stay clear of areas where the IDF is operating and adhere [sic] to IDF forces.

People who try to disrupt the IDF's activities, which are meant to ensure the safe return of our soldier, are doing so at their own risk.

So it goes in Putin's Russia, where the stifling of independent media voices is now routine. Since coming to power in 1999, Putin has seized control of the country's major TV channels, all of which are now under the thumb of the government or its allies. Local media outlets rarely challenge local governors, most of whom are Kremlin loyalists -- especially since Putin abolished the popular election of regional officials two years ago.

A bill now before the Russian Parliament would broaden the crime of "extremism" to include media criticism of public officials. If convicted, journalists could be imprisoned for three years and their publications closed. Yet crimes already on the books are not always prosecuted zealously: Since Putin became president, 12 journalists have been murdered in contract-style killings, including American Paul Klebnikov, the 41-year-old editor of Forbes Russia. To date, no one has been brought to justice in any of the murders.

The rollback of press freedoms is of a piece with Putin's deepening authoritarianism. Nearly all serious opposition to Putin has been broken or marginalized. Prominent businessmen unwise enough to oppose him have been prosecuted and imprisoned, or forced to flee the country. Neighboring countries have been outrageously bullied. Putin has even gone out of his way to defend Soviet-era crimes like the occupation of the Baltic states in 1941.

"Just as in the old days," Garry Kasparov, the chess champion and Russian democracy activist, wrote in a New York Times column on Monday, "Moscow has become an ally for troublemakers and anti-democratic rulers around the world. Nuclear aid to Iran, missile technology to North Korea, military aircraft to Sudan, Myanmar and Venezuela, and a budding friendship with Hamas: These are the West's rewards for keeping its mouth shut about human rights in Russia."...

However, buried below the furious, raging surface, a different sort of commentary flowed through the Internet.

In Arab blogs and deep inside the Web comment pages of some major news organizations, a few people dared to disagree. In fact, some Arab advocates of political and social reform saw recent events in the Palestinian territories as ammunition with which to criticize the dictatorial regimes they want to change in their own countries...

...Many -- though not all -- in the Arab blogosphere sharply criticized Israeli actions as excessive, but they saw in the fury of the Israeli government something lacking in their own: concern for the life of a single citizen. "They will turn the world upside down to get that soldier back," wrote Sandmonkey, who describes himself as 25-year-old Egyptian living in Cairo. "I kind of envy how much they care about their own." The sentiment was echoed by Isis, at BigPharaoh.com, wishing that "our government had half the respect" for its citizens' lives "that the Israelis have for theirs."

Lebanese bloggers found bitter irony in the failure of their leaders to accomplish very much and yet find the time to rhetorically blast Israel. Lebanonesque (lebanonesque.blogspot.com) printed a local news item about a meeting of the country's National Dialogue, which "failed to solve any of their own country's problems ... but they did manage to agree that the international community should step in to halt Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip." A contributor noted sadly that "Arab 'leaders' are following in the grand tradition of posturing and emitting hot air while unable/unwilling to deliver bread to their own people."...

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared the attack as an "act of war" and not terror. During a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi Wednesday afternoon, he called it an unprovoked assault by a sovereign nation and held Lebanon, where Hizbullah has a minister in the government, fully responsible.

"Israel's response will be restrained but very, very, very painful," Olmert added.

The Defense Ministry confirmed early Wednesday afternoon that two IDF soldiers had been kidnapped by Hizbullah. IDF ground troops had been sent into Lebanon to search for the two. IAF jets, helicopters and UAVs were also flying above Lebanon searching for the soldiers. Several jets were flying patterns above Beirut, Channel 10 reported. Simultaneously, Navy gunboats and artillery along the border were shelling Hizbullah targets in Lebanon.

The army has destroyed 17 targets as well as Hizbullah outposts and three bridges since the beginning of the operation.

Hizbullah's Al Manar TV broadcast earlier Wednesday that the organization had kidnapped the two soldiers. A senior Hizbullah official said that at least one of the allegedly kidnapped soldiers was still alive. A senior IDF officer landed Wednesday afternoon in the northern Druse village of Kfar Yanuh apparently to inform a family there that their son had been kidnapped.

Hizbullah launched a heavy barrage of Katyusha rockets and mortar shells at IDF positions and communities along the northern frontier on Wednesday morning starting about 9:15 a.m. One rocket scored a direct hit on a house in Shtula. Magen David Adom said they had treated six people so far. Both soldiers and civilians have been wounded. The wounded were being evacuated to Nahariya hospital...

Earlier, Israel rejected a cease-fire request made by the Lebanese government via the UN after IDF troops entered its territory to rescue two soldiers captured by Hizbullah earlier Wednesday.

A very high ranking military officer said that if the soldiers were not returned in good condition, Israel would turn Lebanon back 20 years by striking its vital infrastructure...

He hopes to add to that list when his traveling show reaches Boston later this month.

``Think of it as an alternative to being eaten by worms or going up in smoke," von Hagens said by phone from his Institute for Plastination in Heidelberg, Germany.

A donor might wind up as an exotic medical specimen (sliced, for example, into 1-millimeter-thick translucent body ``sheets") or as a featured whole-body exhibit in his occasionally condemned but wildly popular road show, Body Worlds 2, which opens July 30 at the Museum of Science in Boston.

``My aim is to illuminate and educate through the beautiful arrangement" of bodies, he said. The 61-year-old physician, university lecturer, and anatomist-cum-artist's exhibitions of plasticized, partially dissected bodies -- an expectant mother cross-sectioned to reveal her unborn child, a man peeled to his musculature, carrying his skin like an old raincoat -- hover somewhere between the sublime and the unspeakable.

The Body Worlds exhibitions have attracted more than 18 million visitors on three continents and grossed an estimated $200 million, according to organizers. They also have been controversial: Police and prosecutors in at least four countries have investigated allegations -- none proven -- that von Hagens has purchased cadavers from grave robbers, prison wardens, bribed medical examiners, and other unsavory purveyors...

In response, Nestle issued its own press release the next day on July 5, saying that it had no intention of capitulating to the Arab boycott. The company added that has 253,000 employees in over 100 countries, was not involved in politics, but in business, and also invested heavily in Arab countries.

Nestle stated, “Nestlé is regularly attacked by various Arab and Islamic circles for doing business in Israel. In the latest such moves, on 4 July 2006, the Damascus-based Arab League Central Boycott Office (CBO) added Nestlé to the list of companies to be boycotted because of links with Israel, although it seems likely that the decision will be ignored by most Arab League member states...

...Radical pro-Arab organizations in the UK, including an organization called “Friends of al-Aqsa” are calling for a boycott of Nestle products in the UK because of the company’s activity in Israel. This organization is also calling for boycotts of other international companies active in Israel. No company, including Nestle and L’Oreal Paris, have suspended their activities in Israel, either because of previous calls for a boycott or the present call.

Osem managing director Gad Propper told “Globes” today, “Nestle does not capitulate to boycotts. The fact that somebody in Syria decided to boycott Nestle does not mean that he has any influence on the company. I’m sure that it will not surrender, which is seen in the company’s official response.”

“Agence France Press” (AFP) reports that many Arab countries, including “most members of the Arab League” will probably ignore the call for a boycott.

Regardless, the Arab League Central Boycott Office has added Nestle to its blacklist of companies trading with Israel, and issued an ultimatum to the company to halt trade with Israel...

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the evening rush hour attacks, the worst in the city for more than a decade.

But suspicion was likely to center on Muslim militants fighting New Delhi's rule in disputed Kashmir, who have been blamed for several bomb attacks in India in the past.

City Police Commissioner A.N. Roy told Reuters 135 people were killed while Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, the state's top elected official, said 300 people were injured in the blasts, which took place in the space of around 10 minutes...

The current Gaza invasion is only the latest effort to destroy the results of fair and free elections held early this year. It is the explosive follow-up to a five-month campaign of economic and diplomatic warfare directed by the United States and Israel. The stated intention of that strategy was to force the average Palestinian to "reconsider" her vote when faced with deepening hardship; its failure was predictable, and the new overt military aggression and collective punishment are its logical fulfillment. The "kidnapped" Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit is only a pretext for a job scheduled months ago...

In this thicket of deceit, Islamists present Muslims always as victims, never as perpetrators. (When has there ever been a community with such a litany of grievances?) And they have read the West well, especially Western Europe, with its gnawing discontents, its guilty conscience over a colonial past, its burgeoning Muslim populations, its thirst for oil, its distaste for war, and, yes, its anti-Semitism. The Islamists, perhaps accurately, see the West as weak--and they exploit every fissure and crevice, every greed and appetite, every self-flagellating impulse. And as they privately snicker in their back rooms, they are busy taking the West for a ride: they laugh as the West beats itself over every dead Iraqi (the vast majority of the killings in Iraq are committed by Muslims against fellow Muslims, not by Westerners), and over every impoverished Afghan or Palestinian child (impoverished because their societies and economies have failed to develop, largely for internal reasons, beyond opium production and living on U.N. handouts), and over every human rights abuse to which some Muslims are subject in Guantánamo and Britain and the United States (when these pale in comparison with those perpetrated in every hour of every day in Sudan, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Iran, and Saudi Arabia)...

...the dawa's terrorism-related activities are not limited to indoctrination and propaganda, though these have been crucial in raising a generation of Palestinian suicide-murderers. In his interrogation by Israeli security men in summer 2002, Mustafa Amjad, a doctor at al-Razi Hospital in Jenin, confessed to helping terrorists enter Israel. He was recruited by Hamas and worked for a hospital affiliated with a Hamas charity. In a Hamas kindergarten in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza, Palestinian security men found hidden thirty-two kilograms of explosives, according to Palestinian security chief Jibril Rajoub. Two members of a Jenin charity organization board, Jamal Abd al-Shamal Abu Hija and Ibrahim Hassan Ali Jaber, helped to plan terrorist attacks and to transport terrorists into Israel, according to Israeli authorities cited by Levitt. Another man, Nahed Rashid Ahmed Attalah, the director of food supplies for Gaza refugees with UNRWA, confessed to using U.N. vehicles to transport arms and terrorists. The Hamas-linked Charity and Contribution Committee of Ramallah-al-Bireh regularly provided funds for the families of suicide bombers, while Abd al-Khaliq al Natsheh, who headed the Hebron Islamic Charitable Society, was jailed for recruiting terrorists. The Hamas-affiliated Jihad Mosque in Hebron had a soccer team that carried out five terrorist operations in the first half of 2003, before the scorers (shooters?) were apprehended.

A similar duplicity informs much of Hamas's overseas fund-raising, which is ostensibly earmarked for good works among a needy population but is in fact also a channel for funding Izz al-Din al-Qassam operations. Terrorist attacks, as Levitt notes, are often expensive. An M-16 A2 assault rifle costs $6,642; bullets for an AK-47 cost $2.20 apiece; a stolen vehicle costs $656 to $1,550. Salah Shehadeh once estimated that operations cost $3,500 to $50,000 each. The bombing at the Hebrew University cafeteria in July 2002 was said by a Jordanian Islamist to have cost $50,000. So a parallel "economic jihad" was necessary to provide the funds. Levitt provides many details of the charitable organizations that raised the money, mainly in the West, and the mechanisms through which it was moved to the occupied territories. He also details the contributions of and from the various Arab states (mainly Iraq, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia).

A great deal of this charity-bound money reached Hamas fighters' families (those of Fatah seem to have done rather poorly), thus helping to motivate young Palestinians from poor families to carry out attacks. The Ramallah-al-Bireh branch of the Islah Charitable Society, a Hamas front, in November and December 2000 paid out $4,990 to martyrs' families, $16,257 to prisoners, and $17,275 to prisoners' families, according to documents captured by Israel and cited by Levitt. Follow-up monthly stipends for the families are also standard practice, apparently. And there are special one-time dispensations on holidays...

MK Zevulun Orlev (National Religious Party), who last week submitted a bill to negate Knesset membership to MKs who support terrorists, said that Taha's "traitorous" remarks are further proof that Israeli democracy must protect itself.

According to a report in Maariv newspaper on Sunday, Taha told surfers on Thursday that he repeatedly advised the PA Arabs to stop shooting and targeting civilians, and to concentrate on IDF targets. An English translation of Maariv's Hebrew translation of Taha's Arabic words:
"We told them more than once that the Palestinians, who are subjected to murder and ongoing crimes on the part of the Israeli army, have two options: One is to explode and kill civilians - and these are much easier operations. The second option is the military option, in the framework of which a military unit from the resistance [i.e., terrorist infrastructures - ed.] is established in order to break into a military camp, clash with the soldiers and battle them and take them and the conquest into captivity."

Taha also had words of advice for the PA on the publicity front, saying that the kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit should not be called "kidnapped" but rather "imprisoned" or "captive." Taha said, "Kidnapping is an act carried out by gangs, terrorists, and the like. But 'captive' means that [it is carried out by] an organized, legitimate group that makes decisions. Israel is trying to present our resistance as something less - as terrorism, murder, and kidnapping - in order that the diplomatic circle will be closed to it."

Asked by Arutz-7's Uzi Baruch if Taha condemns the abduction of Corp. Gilad Shalit, the MK's aide said, "We do not condemn actions against IDF soldiers, we condemn actions only against innocent civilians."...

With the expiration of the statute, prosecutors technically is no longer able to indict the killer of Hitoshi Igarashi in July 1991, but the police said they will continue to investigate the case. On July 12, 1991, Igarashi, 44, a researcher of Islamic studies and an assistant professor at the University of Tsukuba, was found dead with multiple stab wounds to his neck and face in a hallway of a building in the university's complex in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture.

A woman who identified herself as Um al-Abed told reporters in Gaza City that so far about 100 women had expressed their desire to carry out suicide attacks against Israel. She claimed that she was a spokeswoman for the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah.

The Aksa Martyrs Brigades, she added, recently established a secret military unit for female suicide bombers from the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem. "We have so far recruited 100 women for the new unit," Um al-Abed said as she sat next to several masked women who identified themselves as members of Fatah.

"We are expecting more female suicide bombers. The new unit is now preparing to launch attacks against Israel in response to the Israeli aggression and crimes against our people in the Gaza Strip."

Since September 2000, Palestinian women have carried out seven suicide bombings inside Israel in which 37 people were killed and more than 250 injured. The most serious attack was launched in October 2003 by Hanadi Jaradat, an Islamic Jihad woman from Jenin, who detonated herself at the Maxim Restaurant in Haifa. The attack left 21 civilians dead and 48 wounded.

Four of the female suicide bombers belonged to Fatah, one to Hamas and two to Islamic Jihad.

Um al-Abed also hinted that the group was planning to target Hamas members who are responsible for attacks on Fatah activists. She pointed out that a senior Fatah militiaman, Haitham Rai, was killed over the weekend in Gaza City apparently by Hamas gunmen...

I am already starting to lose track of days and nights, of how many bombs have dropped. Since the main power plant was destroyed, we have had to live with no electricity. What we do get is patchy, and barely enough to recharge our mobile phones and our laptops so that we do not lose all touch with each other and with the outside world...

In the comic, Hart shows his turtle character asking: "What makes a bite that's shaped like a crescent moon?" The bird standing on the turtle's shell answers: "A lunatic." A star is drawn near the turtle's "finger" to illustrate the location of the bite.

A star/crescent moon is a symbol of Islam. There's also the possibility that Hart was making a "luna tick" pun instead of, or in addition to, making a negative reference to Islam.

An executive at Creators Syndicate, which distributes "B.C.," could not be immediately reached for comment today...

Only one person emailed a disconcerting message. A gentleman named Norman Finkelstein wrote to say, "Is there a petition supporting the death threats?" Maybe he's just a researcher.

[Al Quds July 6, 2006]

Palestinian historical revisionism

Historical revision is a backbone of Palestinian political and academic behavior, as the leaders attempt to create a separate "Palestinian Arab" history and identity for themselves, distinct from the general Arab and Islamic history. "Palestinian" Arabs are a very recent creation, and did not exist before the advent of PLO terror in 1965. Note, for example, that under UN resolution 194 in 1948, refugees were not called "Palestinian Refugees," relating to a national identity, but were called "Palestine Refugees," referring to geography - from where they came.

Jesus was Palestinian, the Palestinians are Jesus

One aspect of this attempt to create a Palestinian history is to present Jesus, who according to Christian scriptures was a Jew (Judean) living in the land of Judea-Israel, as a Palestinian. (In fact the name was changed to Palestine 136 years after Jesus' s death as part of Rome's plan to cut the Jews' ties to their Land of Israel.)

Jesus has even been presented by Palestinians as the "the first Palestinian Shahid – Martyr for Allah," [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, January 17, 2005] applying to Jesus Islamic theology that evolved centuries later. On a culture program on Palestinian TV, a Palestinian artist depicted Israeli soldiers arresting Jesus, and explains that Jesus symbolizes the Palestinians...

One question would direct the state representative for 27th Middlesex District to vote for any resolution calling for the selling of “investments [the state holds] either in Israel bonds or in companies that supply military equipment to Israel.”
The other would instruct the representative “to vote in favor of a nonbinding resolution calling on the federal government to support the right of all refugees, including Palestinian refugees, to return to their land of origin.”

The number of signatures required to get the question on the state ballot, 200, represents a much lower barrier than the roughly 4,000 petitions required to get a referendum on the municipal ballot. The SDP’s effort to do so last fall failed after a judge ruled that the petition forms it had used were invalid. To get on the state ballot, the SDP must submit the 200 signatures for each question by July 5.

Of nine proposed public policy questions for the November ballot, the SDP’s are the only two that address foreign policy, according to Election Commissioner Nicholas Salerno...

...Ken Brociner, a member of the Somerville Coalition for Middle East Peace, which took to the streets last year to counter the SDP’s anti-Israel message, said that he wasn’t surprised that the SDP was making another go of it.

“Due to SDP’s ideological fanaticism, it was entirely predictable that they would, once again, do everything they can to delegitimize Israel’s very right to exist,” he said, adding that the group “will have a very hard time fooling people into believing their rhetoric about being concerned about universal human rights.”...

Rabbi Yitzchak Adlerstein was one of two representatives of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Birmingham lobbying for rescission. He had expected a large Palestinian presence there as well, given the importance of the issue.

The Palestinians, however, were largely absent. They were not needed. In their place were dozens of Jews lobbying in favor of retaining the divestment resolution: Tikkun, Machsom Watch (the organization in which Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s daughter Dana is active), Jewish Voice for Peace. Norman Finkelstein, who has been dubbed the Jewish David Irving, and whose book The Holocaust Industry was called by a New York Times reviewer a new variation on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, was there as well, generously offering his latest screed against Israel to every delegate.

Dr. Yehuda Pearl, father of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who identifies himself as a man of the Left, was stunned by the vitriol heaped on Israel by these Jews. His voice quivering with passion, he asked them: If you consider Israel’s behavior too harsh, why don’t you go to Israel and demonstrate at IDF headquarters, where you might have some effect. But the only beneficiaries of retaining the divestment resolution here will be those who killed my son.

Fortunately, the Jewish haters of Israel did not prevail. A new resolution passed, which not only apologized to the Jewish community [Not exactly, but close enough. There is, BTW, a very useful FAQ on the divestment issue in the PC(USA) here (PDF).] for the hurt caused by the earlier resolution and termed the process by which it was adopted deeply flawed, but removed any mention of divestment. (To be sure the new resolution was far from perfect; it called for Israel to dismantle the security fence beyond the 1967 borders, which it called Palestinian land.)

THE LEAD ROLE PLAYED BY JEWS in the attack on Israel was part of a larger pattern...

“Ron Francis’ politics, statements and actions are anti-Semitic,” says Eric Danis, a graduate of Andover High School. “Both his Somerville Divestment Project and the Green-Rainbow Party are suggesting boycotting and divesting from only one country in the entire world - the Jewish state of Israel,” adds Danis.

The controversy behind Francis began when he posted a letter on the Web site of the Somerville Divestment Project, defending the terrorist group Hamas and stating that Israel commits far more terrorist activities than the Palestinians. The letter was titled “Media Bias on Hamas,” where Francis says that the silver lining was with Hamas’ electoral victory. Francis also calls for “One Palestine.”

The divestment project was intended to convince the city of Somerville to stop investing in Israeli bonds. The project failed, but Francis continues to place himself in leadership positions like becoming co-chair of the Green-Rainbow Party, to continue his fight against Jews and Israel.

INVESTIGATE FRANCIS/Classroom Credit for Spreading Hatred

A letter written June 20th to David Driscoll, Commissioner of Education, by Concerned Citizens from Somerville, asked that an investigation be held. They specifically refer to literature from Francis’ Somerville Divestment Project and the Green-Rainbow Party’s “anti-Jewish articles and event notices which are shocking in their blatant incitement to Jew-hatred.” The letter and a packet of information were also sent to the Andover School Committee and Andover school administrators.

The letter begins: “As residents of Somerville, we are all too familiar with the hate-filled anti-Semitic propaganda that Mr. Francis and his organization (the Somerville Divestment Project) injected into our community.”

Francis recently sent an e-mail to members of the Green-Rainbow Party Administrative Committee to arrange for Andover High School students to receive academic credit for serving as interns with the Green-Rainbow Party. So far, the Andover School Committee is not investigating this matter. Not surprisingly, the Andover Teachers’ Union president, Tom Meyers, is defending Francis.

Francis admitted in another Andover Townsman article that he paid four Andover students to canvas in Somerville for the Somerville Divestment Project...

Interviewed in 2003 on the French Jewish radio RJC about Eyal Sivan’s film, “Route 181, fragments d’un voyage en Palestine-Israel” (Road 181, Extracts from a Palestinian-Israeli journey), which was broadcast on a TV station, Finkielkraut called the film maker “one of the actors of today’s particularly hard and frightening Jewish anti-Semitism”.

The philosopher criticised Sivan for having made a link between the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians and the Holocaust.

“But those who are sewing a Star of David on our chest want to claim the yellow star for themselves,” Finkielkraut said at the time.

Eyal Sivan, a leftwing militant, decided to sue Finkielkraut for his “slanderous words which constitute an infringement to my honour and consideration”.

In the past, Eyal Sivan has supported actively the boycott of Israeli products in order to denounce Israeli policies towards the Palestinians.

Israeli professor and former ambassador to France Eli Barnavi testified in court for Alain Finkielkraut while two other Israeli professors, among them Haim Bresheeth, testified in favour of Sivan...

...Finkielkraut, who also received the support of Claude Lanzmann, director of the famous film “Shoah”, said that he reacted to the “violent unilateral character” of Sivan’s movie which represents the history of Israeli-Palestinian relations “as the aggression of one people crazed by the Shoah against a profoundly peaceful people.”

“I don’t know why this man is indignant about being called anti-Semitic, that’s what he is,” Lanzmann said when he testified in favour of FInkielkraut...

The council did not pass specific resolutions on the deteriorating situation in Sudan or violations of rights in any other country. On the last day of its inaugural session, however, it voted to condemn alleged Israeli violations. It also decided to extend indefinitely the mandate of the special rapporteur there. And as soon as the session ended, the council immediately decided, with the support of more than the required third of its membership, to convene the emergency session that will begin today.

"The council's singling out the Occupied Palestinian Territories for special attention is a cause for concern," Human Rights Watch's Peggy Hicks said in a statement. "The human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories deserves attention, but the new council must bring the same vigor to its consideration of other pressing situations."

On the other hand, Amnesty International, according to a statement on its Web site, "welcomes the Council's decision to convene a Special Session on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and calls for concrete action to address the gross human rights abuses currently taking place there."...

...The emergency session's resolution proposal is sponsored by mostly Arab and Islamic countries, including Sudan. A draft, seen by The New York Sun, is presented by Tunisia, which currently holds the presidency of the Arab group, and is co-sponsored by 13 Islamic and Arab countries, as well as Cuba. In addition to Sudan, the signatories include Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Egypt. The proposal is widely expected to pass by a sizable margin...

In the 1985 exchange with Ahmed Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, for example, Israel swapped 1150 convicted terrorists for three of its soldiers. In the 2004 exchange with Hezbollah for kidnapped Israeli businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum, 460 Lebanese and Palestinians were let go. In both of these cases, a large number of those released returned to a life of anti-Israel violence. Gilad Shalit's captors have publicly declared their intention of freeing similar numbers of their brethren from Israeli prisons.

For Israel to give in to such demands now could have catastrophic consequences for the future. There would not be an Israeli at home or abroad who would not be the next potential victim of an abduction. The only way to reduce the price of extortion is not to pay it.

Does this mean that, if Israel is to behave responsibly toward itself and its own citizens, Gilad Shalit's life may have to be forfeit? The awful answer is: Yes. Corporal Shalit was a soldier, two of whose comrades were killed in the same action he was taken prisoner in. If their lives, like that of all combat soldiers, were considered to be riskable in the service of their country, his may have to be also.

Not to be cowed by Palestinian extortion - to put an end to the rocketing of Israeli settlements - to make Hamas realize its limits: These are all legitimate aims of Israel's current incursion into Gaza. Any one of them may have a better chance of succeeding than does freeing Gilad Shalit.

We started our final phase of training and started off with TCP, or Traffic Control Point Operations. The purpose of a TCP is to, obviously, control traffic, but it is used more as a check point. The task was to establish this check point and control the flow of contraband in and out of not only our check point, but also the nearby village that was populated with role players. The training lasted for 3 days with the last day consisting of a practical exercise. From the moment we established the check point the scenarios started. I was assigned as the NCO in charge of the entry point nearest the village, and I loved it. It gave me a chance to use my brain, which the Army doesn’t always allow you to do. It was our mission to handle the “villagers” as they approached asking for assistance, taking photographs, trying to steal our supplies, and smuggle weapons or explosives through our point. Luckily, we were able to stop the influx of all contraband, much to the dismay of our instructors. Finally, they “killed” me by sniper fire in an attempt to disrupt our operation, but it didn’t work. Another member of our detachment, who is also a cop, took over and we moved right along.

At the conclusion of our training the instructors advised us that they had been trying to “kill” us all day long, but we weren’t giving them the opportunity. All in all it was good training and I enjoyed it very much. I especially enjoyed the chance to interact with the role players and have to think on my feet and adapt to the situation...

The 40-member panel of ministers, priests, rabbis, and laymen has talked with both sides in the battle: a Jewish group that accuses the mosque's developers of anti-Semitic views and terrorist sympathies, and the Muslim group building the mosque, which has sued the Jewish group and several of its allies for defamation and conspiracy.

Each side presented its case to the panel and was told that court was not the place to resolve the dispute, according to participants in the reconciliation effort.

The religious leaders fear that the acrimony and public posturing that have accompanied complex legal maneuvers will poison interreligious relations in the wider community and create resentment that will endure even if the disagreements are resolved in the courts.

A subcommittee met Thursday to plan further steps. Members of the panel include the Rev. Raymond G. Helmick, who has been involved in high-level mediation efforts in Northern Ireland, the Balkans, and the Middle East, and Rabbi Harold S. Kushner, author of the bestseller, ``Why Bad Things Happen to Good People."

Panel members say they hope to create a more civil environment around the mosque issue and to encourage direct communication between the two sides.

``They are very angry," said Helmick, a Jesuit priest on the theology faculty of Boston College. ``Anger is not a very good basis for conduct or for policy. . . . We are really anxious that this [mosque project] not become a community-destroying thing. There are a lot of people on both sides anxious to see some reconciliation."

Kushner said the mediators would suggest to the two sides that, if they continue their court fight, ``this will not be a matter of somebody winning and somebody losing, but of everybody losing. . . . Victory for one side will just leave the other side aggrieved."

The Islamic Society of Boston, the Cambridge-based organization designated by the Boston Redevelopment Authority to build New England's largest mosque on a 1.9-acre site in Roxbury Crossing, presented its view of the conflict to members of the interreligious center May 11. The David Project, a Jewish leadership center, made its presentation on June 12...

Now, after nearly three years, the PA has suddenly started rebroadcasting the Al Dura in Paradise video. The clip features a child actor playing Muhammad Al Dura, whose death in a crossfire in 2000 was broadcast to the entire world, calling on children to join him in Paradise. In Child-Martyr Paradise, Al Dura is playing with kites and Ferris wheels, presenting an ideal children's world that is designed to attract young naive children. And it opens with the words from Al Dura to the living children: "I am waving not to part but to say: 'Follow me'."

There are numerous reasons for the sudden encouragement now of children to seek heroic death. The PA, has its image blackened by the kidnapping of soldier Gilad Shalit, the killings of soldiers and the continuous missile barrage on southern Israel. Certainly the PA wants to reposition itself as the victim, something that they successfully achieved in the past by sending children to combat zones, and achieving their goal through dead and injured Palestinian children to report to the media.

As Israel re-enters the Gaza Strip to search for terrorists and the kidnapped Israeli soldier, the sudden encouragement of children to seek death indicates the PA is in all likelihood returning to this previously successful tactic of using children as human shields for terrorists. It makes it more difficult for Israeli soldiers to fight terrorist, and it creates ideal photo opportunities of children armed only with stones, "bravely" confronting heavily-armed soldiers.

Children are taught that the short cut to both glory and fun is to follow Al Dura to heaven. Some of these children inevitably will be caught in the crossfire, PA leaders will rush to the media to publicly mourn the children they have so deceitfully sent to their deaths, and Israel will once again be condemned...

The following is the text of the Al Dura in Paradise clip:
"How sweet is the fragrance of the martyrs,
how sweet is the fragrance of the earth,
its thirst quenched by the gush of blood
flowing from the youthful body."
Caption: "And so he went..."
Choir: "Goodbye to the boy Muhammad"...

Sounds like something Osama bin Laden would urge, doesn't it? Actually, this quote was uttered long before bin Laden was even born, by Amin al-Husseini, (1895-1974) Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. The biography of Husseini reminds us that the term 'Islamofascism' is no mere neologism aimed at extreme Muslims in the wake of 9/11 - it is also a reminder of the Nazi roots of extreme Muslim anti-semitism that still rages today...

So more terrorism followed. ``In just the past two weeks," I wrote last September, ``a Palestinian knifed a Jewish student to death in Jerusalem's Old City, an Israeli policemen was stabbed in the throat by an Arab in Hebron, Kassam rockets were fired from Gaza into the southern Israeli town of Sderot, a suicide bomber blew himself up in Beersheba's crowded bus station, a Katyusha missile launched from Lebanon exploded in the Israeli village of Margaliot, a firebomb was thrown at an Israeli vehicle on a highway outside Jerusalem, and a 14-year-old boy from Nablus was caught with three bombs."

In the months since then, the Palestinian war against Israel has continued without letup. All that changed was the frontline -- with the Jewish settlements and soldiers gone, it moved right up to the border, making it easier than ever for attacks to penetrate Israeli territory. The Gaza security fence has been no panacea. Sderot and other towns in southern Israel have been bombarded by hundreds of rockets fired over the fence. The gunmen who abducted Shalit and killed two of his comrades entered Israel by tunneling under the fence...

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Israel has accused the political office of Hamas of organizing the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Was this kidnapping ordered by Damascus?

Abu Marzook: No, that is not true. Israel has often falsely accused us in similar instances. It is not our task to make such decisions: They are made by the military wing. The military and political wings work independently of each other.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: That means that the political leaders are not consulted prior to an action?

Abu Marzook: We are no experts here on military issues. We never know in advance about military actions, when or how they take place.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: That would indicate that there is no coordination between the wings of Hamas.

Abu Marzook: But of course there is, because our actions relate to the same strategy, under which everything is organized. And that strategy is to resist the occupation of Palestine. A part of Hamas pursues this goal politically, and another pursues it militarily.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Now, Hamas has approved the so-called "Prisoners' Paper," which recommends a two-state solution. Does that mean that Hamas is now prepared to recognize the state of Israel?

Abu Marzook: With this agreement, we have primarily agreed to strengthen the resistance in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Aside from that, we have agreed on the goal of establishing a Palestinian state in these areas.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Doesn't that mean that Hamas inevitably accepts the Israeli state in the rest of that area?

Abu Marzook: The paper does not say that at all. It is purely about the future of our people and about how a government uniting all Palestinian factions can work on building their independent state.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: And does Hamas also believe that an Israeli state can exist alongside a Palestinian state?

Abu Marzook: Hamas has always said clearly: We will never accept the occupation, because it is not legal, not correct and not just...

...SPIEGEL ONLINE: It is hard to imagine that approach would ever bring an end to reciprocal violence.

Abu Marzook: No matter what, the violence will not stop. We are on the weaker side and we do whatever we can. The Palestinians have no other choice.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The Palestinian head of government Ismail Haniyeh, also from Hamas, recently showed himself to be more diplomatic than the political leadership in Damascus. That suggests a certain lack of unity in Hamas.

Abu Marzook: No, there is no split, just various approaches. The government, the military wing and the political office all follow the same strategy, but each one works in a manner appropriate to his tasks...

Henry Herskovitz, a member of Jewish Witnesses For Peace And Friends, said he is considering running for the City Council in the 5th Ward and his platform will be divestment from Israel. His group has been protesting outside Beth Israel Congregation synagogue before Saturday services every week for the past several years.

"If I have to run for City Council office to get that message out, I will do that,'' Herskovitz said...

... Herskovitz said he joined the Green Party in April. He said four others from his group are members of the Green Party. The Huron Valley Greens caucus is July 12. At that time, the party would have to announce its candidates for the Nov. 7 general election. The deadline has already passed for major party candidates to file, but so-called minor political parties have until July 20.

Marc Reichardt had been the face of the local Green Party for several years, as well as the former state chairman of the political organization, but he said he is no longer active in the party. He blamed a combination of burnout and frustration with the "tunnel vision'' of the pro-Palestinian activists.

"Anyone not helping them with their single issue is some kind of heretic,'' Reichardt said.

Pete Schermerhorn, the Michigan organizer for the Green Party, said it's partially true that the pro-Palestinian activists have taken over the party.

"Some joined recently,'' he said. "Some have been members for years. They've definitely perked up the energy level and, to some degree, redirected it.''...

"We deal with issues such as water and sewer rates, parks and street maintenance and downtown development,'' Lowenstein said. "Relations with foreign countries doesn't fit it to what our charter says we should do.''...

Smith moved to Ann Arbor 1 1/2 years ago. She said she joined the Jewish Witnesses For Peace And Friends shortly after arriving in town and has attended the protests at the synagogue...