September 2006 Archives

Speaking to a crowd of hundreds at the Cooper Union, he was met mostly with support from two other professors, Tony Judt of New York University and Rashid Khalidi of Columbia.

"The Israel lobby was one of the principal driving forces behind the Iraq War, and in its absence we probably would not have had a war," said the University of Chicago professor, John Mearsheimer, at a forum organized by the London Review of Books.

Later, in response to a question from the audience, Mr. Mearsheimer claimed that the "animus to the United States" of Qaeda terrorist mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed "stemmed from U.S. foreign policy toward Israel."

This, Mr. Mearsheimer asserted, "Simply can't be discussed in the mainstream media." He appeared to have forgotten the article that ran on September 20, 2001, on the op-ed page of the largest circulation American newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, that began with the sentence: "Is American support of Israel behind the hatred of this country that pervades the Arab world and that literally exploded into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11?"...

'Yet: No one could leave the hall unconvinced that there is an Israel lobby.'

So? There's an Environmental lobby, a Womens lobby, a Muslim lobby, a Fat lobby. What's your point?

Ooooooohhhhhhh... I get it. When Jews lobby, they must be trying to manipulate government. When everyone else does it, it's a sign of a healthy democracy.

The same cannot be said for Lakoff's conception. "What I am calling progressive freedom," he writes, "is simply freedom in the American tradition--the understanding of freedom that I grew up with and have always loved about my country." Such an equation fails to acknowledge the possibility that Lakoff's preferences and the American tradition may not be the same thing. His understanding is pure positive freedom, while acknowledging none of its problems. It consists of appending the words "freedom to" in front of every item in a Berkeley-leftist wish list: freedom to live in a country with affirmative action, "ethical businesses," speech codes, not too many rich people, and pay in proportion to contributions to society. The list runs from the very specific--the freedom to eat "food that is pesticide free, hormone free, antibiotic free, free of genetically modified ingredients, healthy, and uncontaminated," to the very general, namely "the freedom to live in a country and a community governed by the traditional progressive values of empathy and responsibility."

"You give me a progressive issue," Lakoff boasts, "and I'll tell you how it comes down to a matter of freedom"--oblivious to the fact that he has just gutted the concept of freedom of all content. Actually, the damage is worse than that, because many of Lakoff's "freedoms" are demands that society conform to his personal vision of the good (right down to the ingredients of food), and thus are barely distinguishable from totalitarianism. How would he implement "pay in proportion to contributions to society through work"? Will a commissar decide that an opera singer deserves higher pay than a country singer, or that a seller of pork rinds should earn less than a seller of tiramisu? And his freedom not to be harmed by "hurtful language" is merely another name for the unlimited censorship of political speech. No doubt slaveholders found the speech of abolitionists to be "hurtful."...

The air force sees the need for a committed cadre of at least 300 for the Israeli-made Searcher Mark II and the Heron UAVs — the IAF’s “eyes in the sky” — that are also now being used for internal security operations with two deployed for surveillance in Naxalite territory in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. The cadre will increase with the expansion of the UAV fleet.

The acquisition of the Israeli-made UAVs is being done alongside dismal results that the IAF has reported with the Nishant Remotely Piloted Vehicle made by the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s Aeronautical Development Establishment in Bangalore.

So poor has the feedback on the Nishant been that the IAF has quietly been using it as only target aircraft. IAF fighters hone their shooting skills by firing at the target aircraft version of the Nishant — called the Lakshya...

Like the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate released this week, the survey for the UN Security Council made public yesterday concluded the Iraq war has "provided many recruits and an excellent training ground" for Al Qaeda.

It also said the war has increasingly exported deadly new tactics to Afghanistan.

"New explosive devices are now used in Afghanistan within a month of their first appearing in Iraq," the report said.

But the UN report was more upbeat than the National Intelligence Estimate.

It claimed Al Qaeda "may see more losses than gains" in Iraq.

The flow of foreign fighters into Iraq hasslowed to a trickle, and the slaying of Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may have confused the uprising, the UN revealed...

Representatives Steve Rothman (D-NJ) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) lambasted the United Nations Relief Works Agency for allegedly appropriating money to employ members of Hamas and for distributing funds to Palestinian refugees with connections to terrorist groups.

In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the congressman called for "stricter oversight" of the more than $100 million in U.S. foreign aid provided to United Nations humanitarian programs each year.

"We know that Hamas supports the indiscriminate killing of civilians. We know that UNRWA cannot account for large amounts of money it has spent. And we know that UNRWA does not check Palestinian beneficiaries against a list of known terrorists," said Rothman.

"With all of this information known, the United States must find out what is unknown: Are U.S. tax dollars funding terrorists through UNRWA?"...

In 2002, 16 Democratic Congressmen, including senior Judiciary Committee member John Conyers of Michigan, voiced their support for Chavez when they sent a letter to President Bush complaining that America was not protecting Chavez from internal opposition to his authoritarian and increasingly erratic rule.

In that same year, Representative William Delahunt of Massachusetts established a “Venezuelan Caucus” to show “friendship to President Chavez”.

More recently, Congressman Edward Markey (also of Massachusetts) joined with Delahunt to accept cheap heating oil for their constituents from Chavez under a program Chavez rolled out to curry favor with certain Congressmen in America. The program, awkwardly called “From the Venezuelan Hearts to the US hearths”, has several political aims. It is geared towards minority communities in America as a way to garner support for Chavez among these groups. By doling out oil at a 40% discount in liberal congressional districts and allowing the incumbent representatives to take credit for it, Chavez is hoping to influence the makeup and policies of Congress and place these Congressmen in his debt.

This same discount oil has lured a Kennedy, ex-Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy III (also of Massachusetts), to hook up with Hugo. Chavez supplies discount oil for Kennedy to run through his Citizens Energy Corporation. Jose Serrano (D-NY) is also a Representative who will benefit as his constituents receive this discount oil. While Chavez’s most recent rantings and ravings at the United Nations brought forth some expressions of disapproval from some Democrats (Congresswoman Pelosi and Congressman Rangel), others like Delahunt downplayed it, and Iowa’s Senator Harkin actually supported Chavez.

The discount oil program appears to be an end-run around the federal law prohibiting foreigners from financially contributing to political candidates. Chavez is clearly accepting these losses (in effect donating the “lost profits” to these districts) in order to help elect Congressmen who will support him.* It is reminiscent of the big city political machines which used to hand out turkeys to voters at Christmas...

In May 1934, the Harvard administration played host to Nazi Germany’s U.S. ambassador, Hans Luther. He visited Harvard’s Germanic Museum and Widener Library. The following month, Harvard president James Conant rolled out the red carpet for Hitler’s foreign press chief, Ernst “Putzi” Hanfstangl. A graduate of the class of 1909, Hanfstangl came for the June 1934 commencement and his 25-year class reunion. He had been a close ally of Hitler’s since the early 1920s, and in his new position was responsible for spreading Nazi propaganda abroad.

President Conant received the Nazi official at a tea for the Class of ‘09 in his home. The student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, even urged the administration to award Hanfstangl an honorary degree “as a mark of honor appropriate to his high position in the government of a friendly country.”

Later that year, the Harvard administration hosted Germany’s Boston consul-general, Baron Kurt von Tippelskirch, at a ceremony honoring Harvard graduates who had died while fighting in the German army in World War I. The consul’s wreath included the infamous Nazi swastika.

Meanwhile, at Columbia, president Nicholas Murray Butler in 1933 invited Nazi ambassador Hans Luther to speak on campus, and also hosted a reception for him. Luther represented “the government of a friendly people,” Butler insisted. He was “entitled to be received … with the greatest courtesy and respect.” Ambassador Luther’s speech focused on what he characterized as Hitler’s peaceful intentions.

Three years later, the Columbia administration announced it would send a delegate to Nazi Germany to take part in the 550th anniversary celebration of the University of Heidelberg. (Harvard did likewise.) This, despite the fact that Heidelberg already had been purged of Jewish faculty members, instituted a Nazi curriculum and hosted a burning of books by Jewish authors...

...Universities are uniquely positioned to shape public attitudes. As the pillars of America’s educational system, they are looked upon as exemplars for our society. But what example did they set in the 1930s, by hosting officials of the Hitler regime and expelling a student for the ‘crime’ of leading an anti-Nazi rally? What message do they send today by welcoming leaders of a regime that sponsors international terrorism and threatens to annihilate five million Israeli Jews?

This sad fact leaves us and most other liberals on campus in a bit of a bind. We support Israel. Israel is a liberal democracy in a part of the world that is decidedly illiberal and pointedly undemocratic. The groups attacking Israel are usually armed religious fundamentalists. Just like our opposition to the war in Iraq, our support of Israel flows naturally from our progressive values. And what CAWC told us is, "To work with us on Iraq, you have to work with us against Israel."

This isn't just wrong on a moral level (and boy, is it wrong there). It's wrong on a pragmatic political level. In order to accomplish anything politically, people have to form coalitions. Since everyone can't agree on everything, strong majorities can only be formed if people look past some of their differences. For the sake of an irrational ideological purity test, CAWC turned away people eager to help with their main cause. There are thousands of students on campus who oppose the war in Iraq. But because of their stance on Israel, CAWC will never get support from more than a few dozen people.

Today, CAWC is having its first major event of the year: a commemoration (read: celebration) of the second Intifada. For those who don't know, the Intifada is an organized movement to stop the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and destroy Israel through terrorist attacks and the murder of innocent civilians. To join CAWC in opposition to the War in Iraq you now not only have to oppose Israel, you have to support terrorism...

The race has tightened slightly since an Aug. 17 poll that showed Lieberman leading 53 percent to 41 percent...

Unaffiliated voters outnumber Democrats and Republicans in the state.

"Lamont wins among those who say Iraq is the most important issue to their vote, but that is only 35 percent of the electorate," Schwartz said. "Lieberman wins on all the other issues voters say matter most to them, including terrorism and the economy...

The blood price of the Muslims

From here on we must ask: How many Arabs and Muslims have been killed in those same years in other countries, for instance, in Russia or in France, and how many Arabs, Muslims and others, were killed in those same years by Arabs and Muslims. The information gathered here is based on various research institutes, academic bodies, international organizations (such as Amnesty and other bodies that follow human rights), the UN, and governmental agents...

Israelis are lying when they say they are the favored people of God; on the contrary, because they are always at war and without their own land, it seems that they are marked for having destroyed Jesus Christ...

According to the source, the observers from the European Union have complained about Palestinian Legislative Council (Hamas) member, Marwan Abu Ras, who they say 'smuggled' US $1 million into the Strip in the last 48 hours against the monitors' wishes.

The Palestinian presidency has placed the blame directly on all those who continue to 'smuggle' money through the crossings and not respect the agreed agreements. The presidency said that these people are taking the Palestinians "hostage to this illegal behaviour ".

Meanwhile, Israeli intelligence has warned that Palestinians 'smuggled' 19 tonnes of explosives through the border from Egypt into the Strip...

For years, said Zvi Mazel, a former Israeli ambassador to Stockholm, the Swedish Social Democratic government has promoted an unabashedly "pro-Arab, anti-Israeli" position.

Mazel said that the centerright parties, headed by 41-year-old prime minister designate Fredrik Reinfeld, who ousted Prime Minister Goran Persson, made supportive comments about Israel while in the opposition.

"We had good relations with them in the past, and hope it will continue," Mazel said.

Mazel - who in 2004 wrecked a display at the Museum of National Antiquities in Stockholm that glorified a suicide bomber - said that Sweden has for years been among the most critical countries in the EU towards Israel, along with Ireland and France.

He said that the new government was likely to bring Sweden's Middle East policy from the far left into the center in the EU, and that he believed the new government's public declarations about Israel and the Middle East would be far less critical.

Mazel's optimism was shared by Gunnar Hokmark, a Swedish member of the European parliament from one of the central-right Swedish parties. Hokmark, chairman of the Israel-Swedish Friendship League, said from Brussels that he thought the new government would "chart a more balanced policy," toward Israel...

The third annual Christian Government Leaders Luncheon hosted by the Knesset’s Christian Allies Caucus (KCAC) and sponsored by “All Nations Convocation” will take place Wednesday, September 27, 2006 at 13:00 in the Knesset Members’ Lunchroom.

Fifty Christian politicians from Europe, South America, Asia and Africa will join with Members of Knesset from the entire political spectrum to declare their solidarity with the Jewish State and her leadership.

KCAC issued a statement saying “In light of Israel’s recent war against Hizbullah, this international delegation of members of parliament, senators and ministers finds it especially important to support Israeli leadership in this forum. This event serves as an opportunity for Members of Knesset and Christian parliamentarians from around the world to break bread together, renew their spiritual ties and strengthen the common values and heritage that bind them together.

“Leaders from both faiths will discuss ways in which Christians and Jews can together face the ominous challenge of radical Islam and extremism in the 21st century,” the organization said...

The violence spread throughout the city: according to one historian, up to one-quarter of Kielce's adult population was actively involved. Anyone who appeared to be Jewish was in danger. There was no coordination; in many cases, people who banded together to carry out attacks did not even know each other. The incidents that Gross reports are unbearable to read. Regina Fisz, a mother with a newborn baby, was taken from her home, along with a male friend, by an impromptu gang of four men, among them a police corporal. The men had no plan for how to dispose of their victims, so they flagged down a truck driver to ask for a ride, telling him, in the corporal's words, "we had Jews whom we wanted to take out to kill. The driver agreed, he only asked for a thousand zloty, and I said, 'It's a deal.'" (It is worth remembering that the "Jews" in this case consisted of a man, a woman, and a baby.) The driver took them to a forest outside the city, where Fisz and her baby were shot, while the friend escaped. Afterward, the four men left the bodies for locals to bury and adjourned to a restaurant with the truck driver, where they enjoyed a meal together and split the proceeds from the sale of the two adults' valuables...

• The Iraq conflict has become the "cause celebre" for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement. Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight.

Take, for example, the Pepsi drink. Do you know what Pepsi stands for? "Pay Each Penny Save Israel."...

...Well-known companies worldwide have Zionist investors. Coca Cola - besides its clear, continuous support of the Israeli government - had announced its willingness to invest billions of dollars to topple the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Sara Lee, the manufacturer of Champion sportswear and L'eggs pantyhose - this company owns 30 percent of the shares of Delta Galil, the most important textile company in Israel...

`Atiyah instructs Zarqawi to follow orders from Usama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri on major strategic issues, such as initiating a war against Shiites; undertaking large-scale operations; or operating outside of Iraq. `Atiyah goes on to criticize Zarqawi’s board of advisors in Iraq for their lack of adequate political and religious expertise, and he warns Zarqawi against the sin of arrogance. Because al-Qa`ida is in what `Atiyah calls a “stage of weakness,” `Atiyah urges Zarqawi to seek counsel from wiser men in Iraq— implying that there might be someone more qualified than Zarqawi to command al-Qa`ida operations in Iraq.

`Atiyah closes with a request that Zarqawi send a messenger to “Waziristan” (likely, Waziristan, Pakistan) in order to establish a reliable line of communication with Bin Laden and Zawahiri. `Atiyah confirms in the letter that al-Qa`ida’s overall communications network has been severely disrupted and complains specifically that sending communications to Zarqawi from outside of Iraq remains difficult. Interestingly, he explains how Zarqawi might use jihadi discussion forums to communicate with al-Qa`ida leadership in Waziristan...

Peter Lowney and David Rolde out on the stump last Tuesday the 19th

The Somerville Divestment Project (SDP) announced this week they had gathered the required number of signatures to place two questions concerning Israeli and Palestinian relations on the ballot in state Rep. Denise Provost’s district...

The first question asks voters to call on Provost to support the state of Massachusetts issuing a statement in support of the right of return for Palestinian refugees. The second question asks voters if they support Massachusetts divesting from Israeli bonds and military companies tied to Israel’s occupation.

Provost said she felt a public discourse on United States policy in the Middle East could be useful but questioned the phrasing of the questions put forth by SDP.

“I don’t think these questions are particularly helpful,” Provost said...

...Somerville, through Caterpillar Tractor, profits off illegal attacks on Palestinian homes, schools, ambulances, and the destruction of millions of Palestinian olive trees – an economic mainstay of the Palestinian population, [Andover High School teacher Ron] Francis said [see photo - Francis is on right].

Maryna [sic - Marya] Axner is a Somerville resident who has worked to defeat SDP’s goal of local divestment. She said the resolution on the ballot divides people with common goals.

“The resolution gives people information that is erroneous in its facts and works against Middle East peace rather than bring people who have common areas of interest together towards a peaceful solution,” Axner said.

Alan Ronkin, President of the Jewish Community Relations Council, said SDP is an extreme, radical group and its proposal to divest Israeli bonds in Somerville will benefit no one...“It’s just a symbolic move to demonize Israel.”

Ronkin said Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone and U.S. Congressman Michael E. Capuano, D-Somerville, also oppose divestment...

A cartoon in the current issue of the official Hamas weekly "Al Risala" features Pope Benedict holding a Swastika while wearing a scarf of US and Danish flags. Meanwhile, on Fatah-controlled PA TV, a Hamas religious leader called the Pope "criminal and arrogant," "ignorant and stupid," and then warned the Pope to await his punishment. Allah doesn't necessarily punish the wicked immediately, but waits "until a day when eyes will stare (in terror)."

Text: "The Pope and those who live under his cloak"
[Al-Risala, September 18, 2006]

From the Friday sermon by Hamas religious leader, Dr. Osama Al-Mazini:

"The second message is for the criminal Benedict the 16th, the Vatican Pope. For this ignorant and stupid Pope, who has no one to attack besides Islam and the Prophet [Muhammad], may the Creator have mercy on him and protect him. He [the Pope] characterized Islam as a cruel religion, and characterized Muhammad, may the Creator have mercy on him and protect him, as a cruel man, spilling blood, who strove to kill. This hostile Pope refuses to apologize to Muslims; and, instead of apologizing he blames the Muslims for not understanding, thereby adding crime upon crime. This arrogant Pope sees the Muslims as too inferior that he should apologize to them. To this arrogant Pope - criminal and arrogant - this message is from Allah the Elevated and the Exalted, as it was said: 'Think not that Allah is unaware of what the wicked do. He but gives them a respite until a day when eyes will stare (in terror).' [Sura14:42]"
[Palestinian Authority TV, September 22, 2006]

The move marks the third attempt by European academics to shun their Israeli counterparts.

On September 12, the Irish Times published a letter signed by 61 academics urging academic institutions all over the world[?] to boycott Israeli institutions of higher education.

"There is widespread international condemnation of Israel's policy of violent repression against the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, and its aggression against the people of Lebanon,” the letter read.

"We feel it is time to heed the Palestinian call to take practical action to pressure Israel to comply with international law and basic human rights norms. Many national and European cultural and research institutions, including those funded by the EU regard Israel as a European state for the purposes of awarding grants and contracts," it continued.

"We call for a moratorium on any further such support to Israeli academic institutions, at both national and European levels. We urge our fellow academics to support this moratorium by refraining, where possible, from further joint collaborations with Israeli academic institutions. Such a moratorium should continue until Israel abides by UN resolutions and ends the occupation of Palestinian territories," the academics concluded...

A request to dismantle Hamas was submitted Monday morning to Jerusalem District Court. The request was submitted by the Gavish family, who lost four family members in a terror attack on their house in Alon Moreh, Passover 2002.

The district court ruled last February in favor of the Gavish family, who sued Hamas. The court ruled that Hamas must pay the family NIS 92 million (USD 21.2 million). Judge Aharon Farkash noted that he was convinced by the lawsuit's claims, according to which terror attacks must receive more compensation than other types of incidents. But, of course, the sum was not paid and Hamas didn't request to cancel the ruling.

The request to dismantle Hamas was submitted by Attorney Nitzana Darshan Leitner, head of the Israel Law Center. She claimed that Hamas showed insolvency: "A court in Israel can dismantle any unionized body, be it in or outside of Israel. Hamas is such a body, and therefore, the court has jurisdiction to dismantle it." In this manner, the Gavish family is asking to try and make Hamas bankrupt.

In the request it was noted that on March 28, 2002, Hamas murdered four members of the Gavish family. David and Rachel Gavish were killed, and with them, their son Avraham, and grandfather, Yitzhak Kanner.

The rest of the children were saved after they managed to escape from the house. "It cannot be that a body that caused the murder of four family members will continue to exist. If Hamas doesn't pay at its own initiative, it will be stripped of its assets. Such a body is not permitted to exist even one more moment," said Attorney Darshan Leitner.

...The third condition was that this action must cause no damage. I even said that it was entirely forbidden for someone to wear an explosives belt and blow himself up, and destroy a car in the street, just in order to kill an Israeli...

...The fourth condition I mentioned was that no innocent person be killed. If we apply these four conditions of the fatwa in order to kill an Israeli, one must make sure that he is a Jew, an Israeli, and that he is between 21 and 54, the age of the reserves, and if she is a woman, she must be between 21 and 34, which is the age of the reserves [for women], and even then, he must make sure that she has no children, because a woman of this age with children is no longer a soldier in the IDF...

Grace Ross showed up with a photographer to make sure to get the most bang and most spin out of this invitation and her being hosted by a respectable Temple

For the record, only those cars that stopped and rolled down their windows did we approach to alert them of GRP's anti-Israel record and ask if they wanted our materials. The vast majority of visitors to the shul that morning, as there were other events, were unaware of the GRP's hateful record on Israel and many thanked us for the info...

Somebody, a woman (the Exec Director?) would not let the good guys leave fliers at Emunah, leaflets that simply quoted some of the GRP's vile statements...

...Pacifism, human rights, and feminism are often co-opted to attack anti-colonial resistance and deny its legitimacy. Always bombarded by colonial propaganda, we sometimes echo that anti resistance language disguised as progressivism, as if it were some universally held truth.

In the case of Puerto Rico, the American "leftists" who swoon over the Cuban revolution, quote Che Guevara, and supported the Sandinistas, argue that armed struggle would be a bad option for us, because it would alienate the American "working class;" a working class that has always been complicit with the U.S.'s colonial projects.

In the case of Palestine, the "Israeli" and American left reject armed struggle, because they see the settlers as "innocent" "civilians;"...

...Who are the left Zionists? They're the people who fill books and give long speeches about the suffering of the Palestinians, and don't mention a word about the absolute legitimacy of armed resistance to the colonizers who caused this suffering...

A letter to the BRA, dated Wednesday, accuses the agency of violating the state public records law by withholding e-mails from the government account of Muhammad Ali-Salaam, the BRA’s deputy director of planning, who has been a private proponent of the Islamic Society of Boston’s mosque plan.

“These are public records,” said Jeffrey S. Robbins, an attorney for the David Project, a Jewish group being sued by the ISB for defamation. “What, did they just disappear?”

The Herald is also named in the society’s defamation suit.

“It’s distressing to see the multiple requests for public records going unanswered by the BRA,” said Allston-Brighton City Councilor Jerry McDermott, who has tried unsuccessfully to hold public hearings on the BRA land deal.

The BRA said it has turned over all materials requested by Robbins’ law firm, Mintz Levin, but declined to address the e-mails.

The Oct. 23 debate, co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters, also will include Republican candidate Alan Schlesinger. The debate will take place at the Garde Arts Center and will be broadcast live on WTNH-TV, Channel 8...

...George Stephanopoulos, chief Washington correspondent for ABC News, will moderate the debate. WTNH is an ABC affiliate.

Candidates will field questions from a three-member media panel that will include Ted Mann, political reporter for The Day; Mark Davis, state Capitol correspondent for WTNH; and a member of The Day's editorial page staff.

Police say Eric Milne was arrested last night at his home on charges that he wrote slurs aimed at the Jewish community each night as he made his security rounds.

Police say the 30-year-old Milne was employed to secure a West Hartford building that houses The Jewish Ledger, Israel Bonds and Hadassah, a women's organization.

Milne was arrested on charges of 17 counts of intimidation based on bigotry or bias, 17 counts of desecration of property, 17 counts of breach of peace and criminal mischief...

Not only will the public be able to see the entire collection for the first time, but dozens of Adams's books have been laid open in glass cases to display the notes, musings, and commentaries he wrote in the margins of nearly everything he read. The free exhibit will continue until April, but the library already has embarked on a years-long project to digitize the books for public study on the Internet.

``God bless the man," said Beth Prindle, curator of the John Adams collection. ``It seems that a thought never trickled through his mind that he didn't write down."

Scholarly and scathing, catty and conversational, Adams's writings show strong opinions on many of the great events, leaders, and debates of his day.

``Not one of the Projects of the Sage of La Mancha was more absurd, ridiculous or delirious than this of a Revolution in France," Adams wrote in 1812 in the margins of Mary Wollstonecraft's ``Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution." In that book, whose author Adams alternately called ``a Lady of a masculine masterly Understanding" and ``this foolish Woman," the former president penned 10,000 words of analysis.

There's a forensic map, drawn by Paul Revere, that Adams used at trial in his defense of British soldiers in the Boston Massacre. And there's his personal atlas, published in Paris in 1778, that shows his native Massachusetts in careful, stunning detail...

This is the first time the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) has identified a soldier unaccounted for from World War I.

He is Army Pvt. Francis Lupo of Cincinnati, Ohio. He will be buried on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2006, at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C...

...In 1918, Lupo participated in the combined French-American attack on the Germans near Soissons, France, in what came to be known as the Second Battle of the Marne. Despite heavy Allied losses, this battle has been regarded as a turning point in the war, halting and reversing the final German advances toward Paris.

Lupo, a member of Company E, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, was killed in action during the battle, but his remains were never recovered.

In 2003, while conducting a survey in preparation for a construction project, a French archaeological team discovered human remains and other items a short distance from Soissons. Among the items recovered were a military boot fragment and a wallet bearing Lupo’s name. The items were given by the French to U.S. officials for analysis.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA in the identification of Lupo’s remains...

“Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are times to reflect upon and take responsibility for our wrongs and chart a new and brighter course for the year to come. We call upon the Board of the CJP to support justice in Lebanon and Palestine instead of providing cover for war and occupation,” said action participant and Boston resident Marjorie Dove...

Isn't it time for people here to get real and start confronting racist supremisism where its strongest even if its on the front page of "indy media".

Lets all unite in calling for the total unconditional withdrawal and removal of all zionists from palestine wherever they have built their forts anywhere from the river to the sea. The whole world is waiting for us to do it.

Shouldn't all boston zionist property such as philanthropies, temples, banks and other safe houses be reclaimed for restitution and repatriations for the victims of the engineered genocide of arabs, muslims, and christians in palestine, iraq, and lebanon?

At a Pentagon news conference today, the commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan said the rules of engagement provide all the flexibility needed to take the fight to the enemy and to protect coalition forces, but the decision in this case was not as simple as it might appear to be.

Army Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry said the intelligence available to the coalition commander on the ground did, indeed, support the belief that the gathering was for the funeral of a mid-level Taliban operative. “It was also reasonable to believe that, as he looked down at that photograph or looked down at the video, that a number of the people that were standing there at that funeral were Taliban fighters,” the general added.

But it’s what the picture didn’t show that ultimately led to the decision not to strike, Eikenberry said. Just outside the frame, he said, was an Afghan village.

“And it also was reasonable for the commander to conclude from that village that there were probably innocents -- maybe sympathetic to Taliban, but innocents, noncombatants -- that had moved to participate in that funeral,” the general said. And the photo couldn’t rule out the possible presence of women and children, he added.

“So that commander made a decision, based upon our values as a people, based upon our values as a nation, that he would not strike,” Eikenberry said.

The general noted that the enemy has no such values...

In a court session on Tuesday in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, a state-appointed judge ruled that the government's case against Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury could proceed to trial and that the hearings would commence within 15 days.

As editor of The Weekly Blitz, an English-language newspaper published in Dhaka, Choudhury aroused the ire of Bangladeshi authorities after he printed articles favorable to Israel and critical of Muslim extremism.

Bangladesh does not recognize Israel's existence and refuses to establish diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.

In November 2003, Choudhury was arrested at Dhaka's international airport just prior to boarding a flight on his way to Israel, where he was scheduled to deliver an address on promoting understanding between Muslims and Jews. His visit to Israel would have been the first by a Bangladeshi journalist...

From her base camp atop Mount Uzia, she can see through binoculars where Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia intersect at the Gulf of Aqaba below, gleaming like an oasis in the desert landscape.

Schindler, 20, left her parents in Newton and moved to Israel two years ago, seeking spiritual rebirth after spending part of her childhood in Jerusalem. She quickly volunteered for the only infantry battalion in the Israel Defense Forces that includes women.

Now, while much of the world focuses on Israel's tense northern border with Lebanon, Schindler and her comrades in the Karkal, or ``Lynx," battalion -- about 70 percent of whom are female -- are attempting to choke off a sophisticated criminal and terrorist smuggling network that poses a growing threat to the Jewish state.

They are on the hunt not only for Palestinian terrorists from the Gaza Strip and other Islamic militants. The soldiers are also seeking to capture thousands of would-be illegal workers and a growing number of women from such countries as Turkey, Georgia, Russia, China, Sudan, and Colombia who are being smuggled into the country to meet the demands of a burgeoning sex industry.

Stopping the flow poses enormous challenges for Israel, which has relatively few troops to patrol this vast and dangerous mountainous terrain, where borders exist only on maps and remain largely unrecognized by local tribes. But it is also a new opportunity for Israeli women like Schindler, who are breaking their own barrier by serving on the front lines with men...

Israel was recently added to a United Nations list of problem nations where girls -- some as young as 12 -- are smuggled from Eastern Europe and Asia and often sold into prostitution rings in Tel Aviv, Haifa, and other cities.

Officials said that 3,000 Sudanese women have been intercepted on the border in the past several years. Because Israel has no diplomatic relations with Sudan, it cannot send them home and has tried to assimilate them into Israeli society, placing them in Arab villages or in women's centers...

...The problem is expected to worsen with the arrival in Lebanon of 15,000 UN peacekeeping troops. An Israeli government task force recently warned Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that this ``mass of solitary men" will likely take weekend leave in the north of Israel, an influx that ``will increase tenfold the demand for prostitutes."...

MRG: He has been quoted many times, including last evening, that the Holocaust needs to be explored as to whether or not it really occurred. And he says, "Well you know, every time somebody tries to do that, they get imprisoned." Well, the reason some have been imprisoned is because it's against the law in some places to deny that the Holocaust occurred.

Of course it occurred. And when he said that, I responded: "Listen, I went through Dachau during the war. To suggest it didn't occur is simply a lie." So he turned around and asked me how old I was, to determine if I was old enough to have been there. And then he changed the subject.

Q: So that was the extent of it?

MRG: Yes, but then there was a lot of follow up on that. He wanted to know why there was an objection to have professors and historians explore whether or not it had occurred. The fact of the matter, obviously we said, is that it's a recognized fact that it occurred; it was 6 million Jews that perished in the Holocaust and that any single individual that denies that is not only wrong but is also trying to be revisionist of history.

Q: Was it your sense that he truly doubts whether the Holocaust occurred or was he grandstanding? He was presumably playing just to that audience because there were no television cameras there.

MRG: No, no, but there were reporters there. Look, he has said this on many occasions, not just last evening. And it's offensive. I would say that this man, he's not only out of touch, he's very clever and I worry about what he's capable of doing. And I do believe that the administration's, and the president's in particular, view of Iran and the danger that it presents to the world, particularly our country and Israel, is not only real, it reflects a real and present danger. I do not think that we can take lightly what he stands for and is capable of, if he came into possession of nuclear weapons...

But Russell, an expert in Armenian studies, soon learned that other factors besides the quality of his scholarship were under consideration.

"Two senior professors in my department explained that I could not expect, as a Jew, to be kept as a tenured professor in the Middle East department," he said.

Now, three years later, Russell, a tenured professor at Harvard University, speaks brazenly against anti-Semitism in academia.

Addressing more than 100 people at the Gershman Y on a recent Sunday morning, he pointed to numerous examples of what some have referred to an "academic jihad."

He called Edward Said, the late Columbia University professor who espoused the Arab cause, the "academic apostle" of radical Islam. Russell blamed Said's "pseudo-scholarship" for painting Israel as a colonial tyrant and Arabs as hapless victims.

"It created an innocent and passive Arab population, raped by imperialists and colonized by Zionists," explained Russell. The scholar also said that Said's work engendered "a general sympathy for the Arabs as postcolonial revolutionaries, together with an easy antipathy towards Israel."

He added that such "scholarship" misrepresents the Middle East, and its history...

Linked to this issue is an article titled "The Racist Separation Wall in the West Bank." The article accuses the Israeli army of, among other things, "war crimes" in Jenin and Nablus, and calls Israel's protective security fence "the most comprehensive, colonial and racist project undertaken since the occupation of the West Bank in 1967".

Ahmadinejad, who has been criticized for promoting Islamic fundamentalist rule in Iran, is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly meeting.

University President Lee Bollinger, who learned of the invitation on Wednesday, said in a statement, "I happen to find many of President Ahmadinejad's stated beliefs to be repugnant, a view that I'm sure is widely shared within our university community."

David Stone, executive vice president of communications, said in an e-mail that he understands the invitation came from Lisa Anderson, dean of the School of International and Public Affairs, "as many such invitations to foreign leaders and government officials to speak at the university often do."...

Dean of the School of International and Public Affairs Lisa Anderson invited Ahmadinejad to speak Wednesday morning, and he accepted Wednesday afternoon, Robert Garris, SIPA director of communications told Spectator.

But SIPA and University officials decided Thursday morning that it was not possible to coordinate the security precautions necessary to accommodate such a high profile guest under short notice...

As Abbas was meeting with US President George W. Bush in New York on Wednesday, Haniyeh addressed supporters in Gaza City, saying the Hamas-led government would not accept the conditions set by America and the rest of the Quartet for resuming financial aid to the Palestinians.

"They are imposing unacceptable conditions on our people," Haniyeh said in statements that were seen as a warning to Abbas not to succumb to US pressure.

"They want us to condemn the heroic resistance and recognize the agreements [signed between Israel and the PLO]. But we will continue to abide by the national reconciliation document [drafted by Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails], which does not recognize the legitimacy of the occupation."

Haniyeh added that the document, which he believes should serve as the political program for a future unity government, clearly states that the Palestinians have the right to continue the "resistance" against Israel...

...For Palestinian politics, Haniyeh's remarks are yet another indication of the deepening crisis between Abbas and Hamas over the formation of a unity government. Moreover, his remarks contradict statements by Abbas aides to the effect that a unity government would recognize Israel and honor all agreements with Israel...

The full Cole quote provides but one more example:

The lazy conflation of Muslim fundamentalist movements with fascism cannot account for their increasing willingness to participate in elections and serve in parliamentary government. Hizbullah, for example, ran in the 2005 elections and had 12 members elected to parliament. Altogether, the Shiite parties of Hizbullah and Amal, who have a parliamentary alliance, have 29 members in the Lebanese parliament of 128 seats. Hizbullah and Amal both joined the national unity government, receiving cabinet posts. This is not the behavior of a fascist movement tout court.

Tout court? How about applying this to a certain Israeli party that has participated in elections, served in parliamentary government, joined parliamentary alliances and national unity governments, and received cabinet posts? A party that has even surrendered power to its opponents in free elections? This can't be the behavior of a fascist movement, right?...

And again, John Thomas misses the reason why the UCC's relationship with Jewish groups has soured.

While Thomas reflected positively on the UCC's history with Jewish groups (and our denomination's explicit recognition of God's covenant with Jews), Thomas failed to take any responsibility for the problems he personally, and completely unnecessarily, created in the last three years...

"Baroness Tonge's comments could have been lifted from the parliamentary inquiry's report as a textbook example of the kind of discourse that so concerned them," said Jon Benjamin, chief executive of the Board of Deputies. "At a time when anti-Semitism is on the increase and everyone should be working to develop communal harmony, I find it despicable that she believed it was appropriate to make comments such as these at a major political conference." ...

Tonge’s words have sparked fury, coming just months after her colleague Chris Davies MEP, who was also at the meeting, was stripped of the leadership of the Liberal Democrats in Europe after he told a Jewish News reader that he would expose ‘Jewish influence over Western governments’.

The Liberal Democrats have now pledged to take action in response to calls for Tonge’s position in the party to be reviewed...

...A section in my book concerns Israel. It is supportive of some, and critical of others, of Israel's pre-emptive military actions. Christian focused on this section for the majority of her article. She characterized Preemption as an attempt to "justify the Iraq war and even the actions of the state of Israel (which the author, a Harvard law professor, obsessively admires)." First, notice the "even" before Israel, showing that the author assumes the actions of Israel to be particularly indefensible. Second, she misreads the fundamental point of this chapter. I do not try to justify Israel's actions. I analyze its actions, and I conclude that some of them were justified and beneficial, while others were wrongheaded and unnecessary. Finally, had Christian read the book, she would know that I opposed the war in Iraq. She apparently assumed that because I support Israel's right to exist, I also supported America's war in Iraq. It's a telling assumption. Liberalism and Zionism are not considered mutually exclusive in America. In fact, they are complementary. The prevailing view at the Guardian is to the contrary...

...Many trusty writers drew our attention that the Jewish Emperors of money are the main reason behind the wars broken out last century, it were them who ignited the flames of those wars. Consequently, much blood was shed, and millions of money were squandered. All of this was in order for the Jewish money to grow and their power to increase...

...the Jews insist on dealing through usury and spreading it among people. Moreover, they are keen on teaching such a “profession” to their children in order to take hold of the money and hoard it in their safes...

During a 45 minute meeting with Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, delegation member Shlomo Bohbot, the Mayor of the Jewish and Arab twin City of Maalot-Tarshiha, which lies 6 miles from the Lebanese border spoke of the devastation wrought by the over 680 Katyusha rockets that struck his municipality. Bohbot emphasized that there are no military installations anywhere in his region.

Western Galilee Hospital representative, Dr. Norman Loberant presented graphic images of the impact of the constant targeting of Nahariya and the specific damage done to the hospital during the war. Included were X-rays that depicted the catastrophic injuries caused by multiple ball bearings from Katyusha warheads that maimed and murdered both Jewish and Arab citizens of the Northern Galilee.

Clearly shocked by the photographic evidence, High Commissioner Arbour declared that “the deliberate Hezbollah attacks on primarily civilians targets were deliberate” and thus “violated international humanitarian law”...

The death toll is likely much higher, notes John Hagan, co-author of the report published in the September 15 Science. Their reported upper limit "likely increases to the 400,000 range if the further year of the conflict is estimated and if missing and presumed dead persons are included," he says. Other experts agree that the new tally is a low estimate. This study should "not in any way bill itself, or be billed as, a global mortality study of the Darfur genocide," says Sudan researcher Eric Reeves of Smith College. A major survey of violent mortality counted a death toll of 397,000 as of April 2005, he observes. Better counting of the dead will not be possible until investigators can safely enter the region.

Part of their ongoing PR campaign: "Muslims: Stop Calling Us 'Violent,' Or We'll Kill You."...

The warning, the first of its kind, came as many Christians in the West Bank expressed anger over a spate of attacks on churches in protest against remarks made by the pope about the Muslims and the Prophet Muhammad.

Two more churches in the West Bank were targeted on Sunday in protest against the pope's remarks, bringing to seven the number of churches that have been attacked over the past three days.

In Tulkarm, arsonists set fire to the only Orthodox church in the area, causing heavy damage to the 150-year-old structure. Local residents said the attack occurred shortly after 4 a.m, when a number of assailants forced their way into the church and tossed several fire bombs into the building.

Some Christian families said they were living in fear because of the attacks and called on the Palestinian Authority to do its utmost to protect churches and Christians.

At a press conference in Gaza City, a number of Muslim clerics said the pope's statements were "the result of his hatred for Islam and not the result of ignorance."

One of them, Dr. Imad Hamto, called on the pope to "repent and ask for forgiveness." He added: "We want to use the words of the Prophet Muhammad and tell the pope: 'Aslim Taslam'" Aslim Taslam is a phrase that was taken from the letters sent by the Prophet Muhammad to the chiefs of tribes in his times in which he reportedly urged them to convert to Islam to spare their lives.

Some Muslim scholars, however, have endorsed a more moderate interpretation of the term, arguing that its real meaning was that those who surrendered to the will of God would find peace.

Hamto and his colleagues accused Christians of "resorting to the power of the sword in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine."

They also called on the pope to direct his words to the Jews who, they claimed, were "spreading corruption and destruction."

Speaking at campuses, mosques, and the homes of Muslims, the Al Qasemi faculty said that it is time for Muslims to quit blaming others and examine their own responsibility for the troubles of Islamic civilization; time for Arab Israelis to call themselves Israelis, not Palestinians; and, above all, time for women to have full equality with men in the Muslim world.

All these assertions are considered radical, even incendiary, in much of the Arab Muslim world. But Mohammad Essawi , the president of the college, said such changes in thinking are needed to transform an education system in the Islamic world ``that is still in the 12th century and does not have an open mind."

``There is a huge opportunity to teach openness and pluralism in these societies," Essawi said yesterday.

Al Qasemi College was started as a school of Islamic law by members of Israel's Sufi community who, according to college director-general Muhamed Abu Much , were concerned that youths who were studying religion abroad were coming back with ideas that were ``not good for our community."

Al Qasemi primarily educates teachers for Arab schools in Israel. It also trains Arab women for technology-based careers such as engineering that are difficult for them to pursue because of the expectations of the traditional communities in which the women are raised.

Essawi and 10 members of the Al Qasemi faculty spoke with faculty at Hebrew College and at Harvard University. They met Boston-area Muslims at Friday prayers at the mosque of Islamic Center of Boston , in Wayland, and at an organized discussion Saturday night at the Westwood home of a Muslim participant in the region's oldest Muslim-Jewish dialogue group.

The American Jewish Committee, which is a sponsor of the dialogue group, arranged the visitors' trip to the United States, which also included stops in Washington and New York.

``Some of our members asked very pointed questions about how horrible it must be to live in such a closed, undemocratic society as Israel," said Mahmoud Jafri , a cochairman of the dialogue group who was moderator of the Saturday night discussion. But the Israeli Arab academics ``were very positive. It is the first time our community has heard from Israeli Arabs who said `This is our country.' "

``It was a wonderful evening," Jafri said in a telephone interview yesterday. ``There are some good things happening in that part of the world that are not known, or do not get enough attention." He said some Boston-area Muslims are considering inviting the Al Qasemi group back for a more extensive public program, and sending a local delegation to Baqa el Gharbiya, Israel, where the college is located.

Dahlia Fadila , who teaches English literature at Al Qasemi, said in an interview yesterday that men and women on the faculty share a conviction, heightened by their exposure to Jewish Israeli society, that ``unless women are active and empowered, our society will not develop."...

The fund-raiser — to be held on November 1 at Mr. Bloomberg's Upper East Side townhouse — comes with Mr. Lieberman attempting to win back his Connecticut seat as an Independent after losing the Democratic primary to anti-war challenger Ned Lamont.

Mr. Bloomberg, a lifelong Democrat who became a Republican just before running for mayor, has repeatedly said Mr. Lieberman's willingness to put his views before his party's is something that's sorely lacking in Washington...

Contrast that with Lieberman, a Democratic supporter of the Iraq war. He is running as an independent in Connecticut against anti-war Democrat Ned Lamont, who defeated him in the Democratic primary.

When Lieberman returned to Washington, most Senate Democrats treated him like a leper because he refused to withdraw.

Last week, even former President Jimmy Carter joined in the call for Lieberman to be ousted because of his stand on Iraq.

If Lieberman wins in Connecticut this fall, which now seems like a better-than-even chance, and the Senate ends up deadlocked, he could haunt the Democratic cloakroom...

The New England Committee to Defend Palestine and Jericho Boston Invite you to

A Benefit for Palestinian Political Prisoners

Featuring:

*Ahmad Kawash, Palestinian refugee from Lebanon, and other Palestinian speakers

*Myriam Ortiz, Puerto Rican independentista and member of Jericho Boston

*Kazi Toure, former political prisoner and National Co-Chair of the Jericho Movement

[snip]

When: Sunday, September 17, 6:00 p.m.
Where: Encuentro-5, 33 Harrison Ave. 5th Floor, Boston (near the Chinatown stop on the Orange Line T) Suggested Donations: $15 - $20

[snip]

In September, 1970, over 3000 Palestinian refugees in Jordan gave their lives in a revolutionary uprising against the repressive "US" and Zionist puppet government of the Jordanian monarchy. In September, 1982, "Israel," in an effort to crush Palestinian resistance in Lebanon, slaughtered over 2000 refugees in Sabra and Shatila. In September of 1993, the official signing of the Oslo Accords gave recognition to the theft of more than 78% of Palestine and created an infrastructure for settlement expansion in all the remaining land. In September 2000, "Israel" murdered 13 Palestinians, marking the beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada.

Zionist aggression over the past months in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, is a continuation of "Israel"'s 70 year assault on the people of Palestine and Lebanon. By late August, more than 200 Palestinians had been killed and hundreds wounded in this latest period of escalated attacks.

Although the Zionists have intensified their assault on Palestinians because of their defeat in Lebanon, 2006 marks an important turning point in the history of regional resistance to this aggression--the rise of a more and more united regional movement to reclaim sovereignty over Arab land by Palestinian, Lebanese, and Iraqi resistance fighters.

Over the past few months, resistance movements in Palestine and Lebanon have acted with extreme courage. The Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza captured an "Isreali" soldier in order to press for the release of Palestinian political prisoners, who number more than 10,000 and now include over 65 elected leaders. Hizbollah captured two "Israeli" soldiers to press for the release of Lebanese political prisoners.

Join us for an evening in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance.

All proceeds will go to Palestinian political prisoners and their families.

In 1993 I realized that human rights groups are not actually working for universal human rights. I read in the Economist that black women and children could be bought or sold for $15 in Sudan and Mauritania. I called Amnesty and Human Rights Watch to see if they knew. They knew. They sent me their reports on the issue.

Guardians of “human rights” knew that tens of thousands of blacks were being enslaved, yet they were not making a fuss. Why? Apart from guarding life itself, what is more central and sacred to human rights champions than guarding personal liberty – the freedom from being “owned” by another person?

So I went to Amnesty’s national convention and proposed that AI include emancipation of today’s slaves—numbering 27 million, mostly in the Third World—in their mandate. After a long floor debate, I lost.

AI won’t fight hard against Arab enslavement of blacks because their unstated, subconscious principles downplay non-Western crimes.

Why? The human rights community consists mostly of decent middle-class white people who, when they see—or think they see— evil done by Westerners like themselves, feel impelled to act. Think apartheid South Africa, Kosovo, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo.

But when these same folks see evil done by non-Westerners, they choke. They feel that real or imagined Western sin forfeits their right to criticize “others.” After all, they rationalize, we had slaves too. It’s prejudice, they feel, to criticize non-Westerners: they live in dread of being labeled racist, or worse, “Islamophobic.”

Human rights groups do not seek to bring justice to all people. They select cases to expiate Western guilt or scold white elites. In the Muslim world, millions desperately need their help: Blacks, women, gays, apostates, atheists, labor leaders, freedom fighters, and racial and religious minorities live without basic human rights. Yet Amnesty and others abandon them, ignoring non-Western totalitarianism so that they can narcissistically and theatrically define themselves in opposition to Western sins—imperialism, colonialism, and racism.

It's white guilt – not anti-Semitism -- that explains Amnesty's disproportionate attacks on Israel. "Rights" groups frame Israelis as “white, Western, colonialists,” and Palestinians as “indigenous, dark-skinned, and poor.” In other words, as classic victims of Western sin.

It is horribly wrong for “rights” activists to project their white guilt onto Israel, but that may not be their worst crime. In order to pound Israel (and America), Amnesty and other groups must look away, and stay out of the path of non-Western despots, who then oppress millions with impunity. Amnesty’s greatest sin is against these they have abandoned in order to, they think, make themselves clean.

Article (1) Palestine is part of the Arab World, and the Palestinian people are part of the Arab Nation, and their struggle is part of its struggle...

Article (4) The Palestinian struggle is part and parcel of the world-wide struggle against Zionism, colonialism and international imperialism...

Article (6) UN projects, accords and reso, or those of any individual cowhich undermine the Palestinian people's right in their homeland are illegal and rejected.

Article (7) The Zionist Movement is racial, colonial and aggressive in ideology, goals, organisation and method.

Article (8) The Israeli existence in Palestine is a Zionist invasion with a colonial expansive base, and it is a natural ally to colonialism and international imperialism...

Goals:

Article (12) Complete liberation of Palestine, and eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence.

Article (13) Establishing an independent democratic state with complete sovereignty on all Palestinian lands, and Jerusalem is its capital city, and protecting the citizens' legal and equal rights without any racial or religious discrimination...

Article (15) Active participation in achieving the Arab Nation's goals in liberation and building an independent, progressive and united Arab society...

Method:

Article (17) Armed public revolution is the inevitable method to liberating Palestine...

Article (19) Armed struggle is a strategy and not a tactic, and the Palestinian Arab People's armed revolution is a decisive factor in the liberation fight and in uprooting the Zionist existence, and this struggle will not cease unless the Zionist state is demolished and Palestine is completely liberated...

Article (22) Opposing any political solution offered as an alternative to demolishing the Zionist occupation in Palestine, as well as any project intended to liquidate the Palestinian case or impose any international mandate on its people...

Article (24) Maintaining relations with all liberal forces supporting our just struggle in order to resist together Zionism and imperialism.

Article (25) Convincing concerned countries in the world to prevent Jewish immigration to Palestine as a method of solving the problem...

Add to that another poll, an independent survey of likely voters released last week, that suggests 57 percent of those supporting Lamont are doing so only so they can vote against Lieberman.

Those numbers are seen as advantages the Lieberman campaign is trying to exploit. The objective is to keep the unfavorable ratings as high as possible and chip away at the other 43 percent of his support by portraying Lamont as running a negative campaign. The more you say it, the more believable it might become...

"He was someone that results mattered to more than partisan politics," said Pryce, an Upper Arlington congresswoman. "And because of that, the left wing of his party kicked him off. And the more that happens, you lose the reasonable people in the middle" — people, she made clear to her audience, like herself...

As one of my colleagues put it at the time, if 9/11 was the Kristallnacht of terror, Durban was the Mein Kampf. Those of us who personally witnessed the Durban festival of hate -- with its hateful declarations, incantations, pamphlets and marches -- have forever been transformed. For us, Durban is part of our everyday lexicon as a byword for racism and anti-Semitism, just as 9/11 is a byword for terrorist mass murder...

...what happened at Durban was truly Orwellian: A conference purportedly organized to fight racism was turned into a festival of racism against Israel and the Jewish people. A conference intended to commemorate the dismantling of South Africa as an apartheid state resonated with spurious calls for the dismantling of Israel's alleged apartheid state. A conference dedicated to the promotion of human rights as the new secular religion of our time increasingly singled out Israel as a sort of modern-day geopolitical Anti-Christ.

How did this happen?

The World Conference Against Racism was organized around four regional conferences -- in Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Each regional conference was to formulate a declaration against racism and a plan of action. Then the four regional declarations and plans of action were to be collated in Durban into a composite draft declaration against racism.

The problem originated with the Asian regional conference, held in Tehran in February, 2001. Although Israel belonged to the Asian group, the conference organizers excluded Israel and Jewish non-governmental organizations from participation: Contrary to the United Nations' own principles with respect to universality and equality, a member state was made a pariah. The Tehran conference also supported a country-specific indictment of Israel, yet another breach of international human-rights principles and the UN's own procedures in this regard.

The six-point indictment emanating from the Tehran regional conference, which became a dominant blueprint for Durban, has emerged as one of the more scurrilous documents relating to Israel and the Jewish people to appear since the Second World War...

I assume this means Ned Lamont will be quickly praising George Allen (0.3% missed), Mike DeWine (0.3% missed), Jim Talent (0.3% missed) and John Kyl, (0.7% missed).

Then again, putting yourself in a television commercial with of a group of enthusiastic young urban high school types, ostensibly your students, takes political license to the edge of the abyss would work here, but we've been in that hole for too long a time.

When it comes to who is and who is not a teacher, Lieberman's spinmeisters are strict constructionists.

In Lieberman-land, teachers are people who have been specifically trained, often at prestigious institutions of higher learning, to, well, teach. They are people who get paid to set up bulletin boards using colored paper, doilies and thumbtacks, most which they bought with their own money.

Are the people who assist elementary teachers with their classes teachers? No, they are teachers' aides. If they were teachers, they would be getting a living wage (though still not enough)...

The Rev David Hart’s diocese renewed his licence this summer even though he had moved to India, changed his name to Ananda and daily blesses a congregation of Hindus with fire previously offered up to Nagar, the snake god. He also “recites Gayatri Mantram with the same devotion with which he celebrates the Eucharist”, according to The Hindu, India’s national newspaper.

The Hindu this week pictures him offering prayers to an idol of the elephant god Ganesh in front of his house. However, he still believes he is fit to celebrate as an Anglican priest and plans to do so when he returns to Britain.

Mr Hart, a former chairman of Christian Aid in Loughborough and chaplain at Loughborough University, now serves in the Hindu temple in Thiruvananthapuram, a village in Kerala, southern India...

...He also said that he would continue to celebrate as an Anglican priest when he visited England, but he would also visit a Hindu temple while there. “My philosophical position is that all religions are cultural constructs,” he said. “I am acting out God’s story in local terms.”...

Come hear Ambassador AFIF SAFIEH , the Ambassador of the PLO to the USA , who is visiting Boston !

When: Wednesday, September 27 , 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Where: Cathedral Church of St. Paul-Episcopal , 138 Tremont Street (across from Park Street Station and the Boston Common in downtown Boston )
Theme: "Palestine/Israel: Peace Process from Breakthrough to Breakdown - What Next?

"Afif Safieh is considered the most articulate Palestinian diplomat in Europe and the world. The most experienced speakers the foreign ministry can muster have been sent to face off against him in international conferences and on BBC talk shows, and have run into difficulty opposite the Jerusalem-born Palestinian with the rich vocabulary and smooth delivery." - Akiva Eldar in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, July 22, 2002

Sponsored by : American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee - Massachusetts , American Diaspora Alliance for Israeli Palestinian Peace, American Friends Service Committee - New England Regional Office, Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights, Boston to Palestine [local International Solidarity Movement chapter], Friends of Sabeel - New England, Jewish Voice for Peace - Boston .
For more information, contact: hilary_rantisi@ksg.harvard.edu [yes, that's a Kennedy School address]

Ambassador AFIF SAFIEH will also be the honored guest and speaker at a Ramadan Iftar (dinner to break the fast on-going during the holy month of Ramadan)

When: Thursday, September 28 , 6:30 PM
Where: The Irish American Club [!], 177 West St. , Malden , MA
Tickets: Adults $20, Children $10

Sponsored by : Palestinian American Congress - Massachusetts and American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee - Massachusetts

For more information and to purchase tickets, contact...

When Stone later challenged him on that, Safieh —who assumed his post on Nov. 1 — said he saw no difference between Palestinian suicide bombers and Israelis, all of whom must serve in the military. “I found that truly horrifying,” Stone told The Jewish Week. “If this is the way he feels — that a soldier in the line of duty is the same as a guy who blows up in a nightclub — he is not the one we want to sit down to have lunch with...

The campaign by the Kifaya group is a sign of how the war in Lebanon knocked momentum from democracy efforts and left many reform activists deeply resentful of the United States.

Over the past two years, Washington has made promoting democracy a key part of its Middle East policy. But now reformists accuse Washington of supporting Israel in its offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas, which wreaked widespread destruction in Lebanon.

Edward S. Walker, a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt and Israel, believes Kifaya's new campaign showcases Washington's dilemma as it strives to sell the values of democracy and freedom in a region galvanized for decades by the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"One of the costs of pressing for democracy in the Middle East is the fact that most democratically based Arab parties ... will be hostile to Israel," said Walker, now with the Middle East Institute, a Washington-based think tank.

The Kifaya movement has launched a campaign to collect 1 million signatures on a petition calling for the annulment of Egypt's U.S.-sponsored 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

The move is mainly symbolic, but it highlights the extent of resentment felt by Egyptians toward Israel _ and by association, the United States, its main backer...

...In his time St. Paul had to confront the Judaizers, certain Jewish Christians who wanted to impose Jewish customs including circumcision on all new converts. We are facing the New Judaizers, who want to turn the Catholic Church into a servile religion, subservient to the new false Jewish religion of the Talmud. We could turn like cowards and simply walk away, but we have to stand up and fight for our holy Catholic Faith...

When night fell, the twin brothers Saligman and Samuel, with Tobias, Vitalis (Veitel), Moses, Israel and Mayr, undressed the little boy and unmercifully butchered him. While Moses strangled him with a handkerchief as he lay across Samuel’s knee, pieces of flesh from his neck were cut with a knife and the blood collected in a bowl. At the same time, they punctured the naked offering with needles and murmured Hebrew curses. They then cut pieces of flesh from the boy’s arm and legs and collected the blood in pots...

I can’t save this anecdote for tomorrow: a journalist from Le Figaro said to a photographer sitting near him in the press box—the prosecutor looked at the case that way because she’s Jewish. I’ll find out his name tomorrow and tell you a bit more about him.

There were not many journalists in the courtroom, not many people in the audience…they don’t know what they missed.

It was a beautiful trial. It was held in an atmosphere of respect for justice...

Oh, and did I mention that she made numerous references to the testimony, that witnesses had come from far away to testify, that this was not just a French issue, but an international issue, and that many had suffered a great deal because of these images...

In a speech at the Yale Law School, Lamont said America is on the wrong path and will not be truly safe until it is out of Iraq.

"Today we have five times more troops in Iraq than we do in Afghanistan," he said. "We spend more in eight weeks in Iraq than we do in an entire year in Afghanistan. These decisions are wrong and they have left us less safe."...

Carter, who appeared on CNN's "Larry King Live," criticized Lieberman's support of the war and his decision to run as an independent. Carter did not mention Ned Lamont, the Democratic nominee who defeated Lieberman in last month's part primary.

The ex-president says he's lost confidence in Lieberman and doesn't wish to see him re-elected.

Joe Lieberman responded in a statement, saying he has disagreed with Carter on foreign policy for a long time. The senator says the former president's comments are not a surprise...

Lamont dipped into his personal fortune again, writing checks totaling $1.5 million for his general election bid, his campaign confirmed Wednesday. Lamont gave his campaign $1 million on Sept. 11. He wrote a $500,000 check on Aug. 22...

Well, we did some checking, and guess what? Joe Lieberman’s career voting record through this year is 93 percent. And Ned Lamont’s career voting record during his six years on the Greenwich Board of Estimate and Taxation? 93 percent...

Unfortunately, neither U.S. Homeland Security nor the Israeli security agencies have to date regarded the ISM as a serious threat. Some of these ISM people in these photos managed to escape; nevertheless, arrests have been made, and more are forthcoming...

Some 100 Israeli Arabs held a rally Wednesday outside the Egyptian embassy in Tel Aviv in protest of what they perceive as the country's failed handling of the traffic accident in Sinai which left 12 Israelis dead.

The demonstrators also protested the lenient sentence handed to the bus driver involved in the accident, who will serve only one year in prison.

"Learn from Israel what human dignity means. Human dignity is a primary value in Israel," the protesters shouted.

Participants in the rally held up signs saying, "12 killed, 12 months in jail – justice Egypt-style," and "State of Israel – don't abandon injured and killed citizens."

One of the protesters was a woman whose son was wounded in the accident and who died later because he was not evacuated to the hospital in time. Assad Gaban from the community of Mazra'a lost his brother Najub in the accident. His daughter was seriously injured and is still hospitalized. Gaban called on President Hosni Mubarak to come to Israel and "learn from the Israelis what value for life means."

"I tell the Egyptians that they should be ashamed of themselves. They didn't send any letter of condolences. We want Israelis to learn from this not to go to Egypt or to Sinai. If anything happens to them there, they will not receive any treatment," he stated...

Ooooooo! I am risen from the grave to haunt and torment those who used my family's grief for their own petty political gain! Ooooooo! But not you, Joe, not just yet. I'll be back--right now I'm off to give Bill Frist a wedgie. A wedgie FROM BEYOND. Terri Schiavo | Homepage | 09.08.06 - 5:09 pm | #

joe is a neo liberal fascist. ILOVEJOE | 09.09.06 - 4:51 pm | #

I'm just tired of watching Joe Lieberman publicly fellating George Bush, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. Is that so wrong? joebituary | 09.09.06 - 7:30 pm | #

Perhaps it’s the public’s love affair with the macabre, and their lust for the sensational which enticed France 2 Television to recklessly release footage reportedly depicting the shooting to death of a young boy, and the wounding of his father - at the hand of the Israelis (at least that’s what the voiceover said). In the rush to air 55 seconds of exclusive footage, which was rushed to France 2 by their Palestinian cameraman who filmed the scene; 27 minutes of rushes (unedited footage) were deliberately left on the editing room floor. France 2’s Charles Enderlin was so anxious to get the news out, that he generously distributed the 55 second clip free of charge to the global media.

Despite the incredible questions surrounding the case, France 2 has persistently refused to release the unseen footage to the general public. However, those few who have seen the footage report that it’s rather embarrassing, as it essentially records 24 minutes of youths feigning injuries, and ambulances evacuating the uninjured...

In a 30-minute speech given under tight security at Harvard University, Khatami repeatedly praised the concept of democracy but said American politicians since World War II have been infatuated with "world domination."...

Last night I watched Iran's 'moderate' mullah and godfather of Hezbollah, Sheik Khatami, speak to the Tolerant and the Enlightened at Harvard.

At the end of the speech during the Q & A session, a young man asked Iraq's Holy Man about the Islamic Law that calls for the death penalty for homosexuals. The young questioner wanted to know if Khatami approved of this particular Islamic Law. The 'moderate' Holy Man from Teheran artfully dodged, pivoted and twirled around the issue, but in the final analysis said that every country has its laws and...well...in some cases putting the homosexual to death may indeed be called for. In some cultures, he said, the death sentence for gays may be appropriate.

There were no boos. There were no catcalls. There were no protests, angry slurs, no rotten tomatoes, no obscene placards, no cursing, no contorted red faces or shaking fists held high. There was only polite and tolerant silence from the entranced crowd seated in the presence of Allah's calm, serene spokesperson from Persia.

At the end of the evening as Khatami left the stage, there was grateful and appreciative applause...even some standing ovations. Teheran's Holy Man who just moments before had in effect condoned capital punishment for the homosexual was given a big symbolic hug from the tolerant, adoring and scholarly crowd from Harvard.

Now, just for fun, let's pretend that ...say...the Rev. Jerry Falwell had been invited to the Harvard campus to address The Tolerant and The Enlightened at Cambridge.

(I know, I know...that would never happen, but...hey!...let's pretend!)

Let's pretend that while speaking at Harvard, Rev. Falwell claimed that the homosexual act is a sin in the eyes of God. Let us also pretend that Rev. Falwell explained to his audience that through faith, repentance and God's Mercy and Grace the homosexual could receive God's forgiveness, spiritual and emotional healing and rich blessings in Christ...Eternal life in Glory from the God of Love.

Can you picture the reaction?

God bless,
Tom Graffagnino

Al-Asi has a history of making accusatory statements against the U.S., Israel, and Jews. In remarks he made prior to the Gulf War in 1990, that were aired in the November 1994 PBS documentary Jihad in America with terrorism expert Steve Emerson, Al-Asi said: "If Americans are placing their forces in the Persian Gulf, we should be creating another war front for the Americans in the Muslim world – specifically where American interests are concentrated."...

...Muhammad Al-'Asi, former head of the Islamic Center, Washington, D.C.: "The events of 9/11 were planned by the American administration, to be used as a pretext and justification to fight terrorism."...

The Islamic Society of Boston issued subpoenas to Tamar Morad, a Waltham-based writer for The New Republic, and the Cambridge-based Christian Broadcasting Corp. as a part of its defamation case against the Boston Herald, WFXT-TV (Fox 25) and other, non-media groups.

The subpoena asks Morad, who declined to comment, to turn over any communications between her and the lawsuit’s defendants concerning the ISB and Osama Kandil and Yousef Abou-Allaban. The Christian Broadcasting Corp. is being asked to submit any of its broadcasts on the ISB, Kandil and Abou-Allaban, documents show.

ISB attorney Howard Cooper could not be reached yesterday.

...The debate -- lasting nearly four hours while horse lover Bo Derek watched from the gallery -- quickly degenerated into dueling expressions of equestrian love...

...Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), meeting privately with colleagues in the morning, referred to the legislation as "the horse [expletive] bill," according to someone present at the meeting...

"I was interested to hear what he had to say," Mr. Bush responds without hesitation. "I'm interested in learning more about the Iranian government, how they think, what people think within the government. My hope is that diplomacy will work in convincing the Iranians to give up their nuclear weapons ambitions. And in order for diplomacy to work, it's important to hear voices other than [current President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad's."

One thing Mr. Khatami has said this week is that because the U.S. is bogged down in Iraq it will never have the will to stop Iran's nuclear program. Is he right? "Well, he also said it's very important for the [coalition] troops to stay in Iraq so that there is a stable government on the Iranian border," Mr. Bush replies, rather forgivingly.

On other hand, Mr. Bush remains as blunt as ever about the nature of the Iranian regime when I ask if one lesson of North Korea is that Iran must be stopped before it acquires a bomb. "North Korea doesn't teach us that lesson. The current government [in Iran] teaches that lesson," Mr. Bush says. "Their declared policies of destruction and their support for terror makes it clear they should not have a nuclear weapon."

The impression Mr. Bush leaves is of a man deeply engaged on the Iran problem and, like several presidents before him, trying to understand what kind of diplomatic or economic pressure short of military means will change the regime's behavior. One way or another, Iran will be the major dilemma of the rest of his presidency, and Mr. Bush knows it...

He was really pleasant, and as is usually the case, the conversation turned to world affairs and politics. Being a Brit, he was seriously concerned about the problem of Muslim immigrants in Britain with their failure to assimilate and their tendency to murderous hatred towards their fellow countrymen. When the conversation turned to negative European attitudes towards the US, I told him I believed those attitudes were mainly informed by a European media that spins the news to manipulate those views, and gave an example of BBC's anti-US bias.

He then said that he was surprised, because "...the BBC, just like Hollywood, is controlled by the Jews". Now, here was an otherwise perfectly reasonable, thoughtful man repeating the "Jews control the media" meme.

In order to keep things civil and not have our conversation descend into a shouting match, I just said "Huh...that's odd. For Jews, they were awfully critical of and biased against Israel during the war against Hizballah". He had no response...

...Scattered and few, they have still brought with them schools and industry and scientific knowledge, and here and there have in truth made the waste places blossom as the rose. But for all this there was no security...

...The return of the Turk in victorious power would spell ruin; the rescue of this and the neighbouring lands from Turkish mis-rule was the first condition of security and hope. The British victories in Palestine and in the more distant eastern bounds of the ancient Arab Empire are the presage of the downfall of Turkish power; the declaration of policy by the British Government to-day is the security for a new, perhaps a very wonderful, future for Zionism and for the Jewish race.

...As the first finalist to visit, according to school officials, Cole's presentation was well attended. Most professors had high hopes for the lecture, which focused on Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and the Shiite democratic tradition. After all, as Malachi Hacohen, an associate professor of history, religion, and political science at Duke who attended Cole's lecture, explained, "Cole's earlier work was solid."

But according to several professors familiar with the proceedings, Cole's presentation was unimpressive. According to Hacohen, "It was one of the worst job talks I have heard in my life," "[it was] logically faulty," and "the talk seemed as if it were directed more to CNN viewers than to an academic audience." Michael Munger, chair of Duke's department of political science, explained that Cole's lecture "was just not at a level we were expecting…it was more like an undergraduate lecture."

...he eventually sank at Duke because his limited interest in academic life was so blatant. As Munger explained, "We wanted someone who had a clear commitment to internal institution building. We wanted someone who was going to build the Islamic Studies Center. And…he was honest that he wasn't that interested in that."

According to others, even Cole's supporters were eventually put off by this ambition. He was forthright about wanting to come to Duke because it's closer to Washington than is Ann Arbor, an attitude that led many of Cole's proponents to believe they were being used...

And it has revived growing questions about whether the university itself is falling under the sway of anti-Israel sentiment.

“I’ve been getting e-mails and calls from alumni and students from all parts of the world,” university rabbi Hirschy Zrachi said yesterday. “People are shocked and offended. This man has no place speaking at a place like Harvard.”

He added: “It is unfortunate that some people don’t have the moral compass to condemn evil.”...

...This is the same Khatami who has advocated violence against Israel and said he “loves” the terrorist organization Hezbollah, which he calls “a shining sun that illuminates and warms the hearts of all Muslims and supporters of freedom in the world.”

Some are starting to see a pattern in recent events at Harvard.

“The Arab lobby is at work here,” said one prominent faculty member, who did not wish to be named. “The Arab lobby is in full flight.”

The critics blame Larry Summers’ downfall last winter, at least in part, on his staunch defense of Israel and his refusal to withdraw Harvard investment from that country.

They also wonder about the role of the Belfer Center for Science and International Relations at the Kennedy School of Government.

It is only five months since a faculty member there co-authored a research paper that said a pro-Israel conspiracy had hijacked American politics and the media for its own ends.

Sample quote: “Other ethnic lobbies can only dream of having the political muscle that pro-Israel organizations possess.”...

...Sources confirmed yesterday that the idea of inviting Khatami also started . . . within the Belfer Center. Stephen Walt, the paper’s co-author, also recently spoke about the “pro-Israel Lobby” to an Arabic organization involved in inviting Khatami to the United States.

Walt yesterday denied any role in Harvard’s invitation. “I have no information on that at all,” he said. “I’m telling you the absolute truth. I’ve been out of town for most of the summer.”

The question now being asked at Harvard: Who did invite Khatami?

Sources say the key players must have been Belfer Center director Graham Allison and research director Xenia Dormandy, and Kennedy School dean David Ellwood. None could be reached for comment yesterday.

A spokesperson defended the school yesterday, noting that other recent speakers included the Israeli ambassador Daniel Ayalon and deputy prime minister Silvan Shalom...

What does "the Cause" mean to you? And what does it mean to your children?... How much do they know about these tragedies? Did we mention to them that the Children of Zion over there cut open the wombs of mothers. As Khalid M. Khalid mentioned in 1992 when he visited Shamir and saw on his desk a strange ashtray. He asked him, "What strange ashtray is this?" Shamir told him that this was the skull of an embryo. The skull of an embryo? An Israeli soldier opened the womb of a Palestinian mother, took out the embryo, cut off his head, and gave it to him as a present. He gave it to him as a present! This is the method of the Jews. Killing a Muslim or any other non-Jew does not matter to them. Because their motto is, "The gentiles mean nothing to us." This is what the text of the Talmud says: "If you come across a non-Jew kill him!"...

I think too about the sounds that came from within the buildings and within the planes--the phone calls and messages left on answering machines, all the last things said to whoever was home and picked up the phone. They awe me, those messages.

Something terrible had happened. Life was reduced to its essentials. Time was short. People said what counted, what mattered. It has been noted that there is no record of anyone calling to say, "I never liked you," or, "You hurt my feelings." No one negotiated past grievances or said, "Vote for Smith." Amazingly --or not--there is no record of anyone damning the terrorists or saying "I hate them."

No one said anything unneeded, extraneous or small. Crisis is a great editor. When you read the transcripts that have been released over the years it's all so clear...

The man was a passenger on a Sept. 1 flight from Montreal to New York City when the incident happened.

The airplane was heading toward the runway at the Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport when eyewitnesses said the Orthodox man began to pray.

"He was clearly a Hasidic Jew," said Yves Faguy, a passenger seated nearby. "He had some sort of cover over his head. He was reading from a book.

"He wasn't exactly praying out loud but he was lurching back and forth," Faguy added.

The action didn't seem to bother anyone, Faguy said, but a flight attendant approached the man and told him his praying was making other passengers nervous...

President Khatami called the Hezbollah terrorist group, a “shining sun that illuminates and warms the hearts of all Muslims and supporters of freedom in the world.”

A coalition of student groups will gather to counter the Iranian support for terror and drive for nuclear weapons.

Our messages will be:

Stop Supporting Terror

No Iranian Nukes

Please bring American flags, and signs (do not attach them to sticks). Feel free to make your own but please no signs or graphics offensive to any racial or ethnic group including but not limited to Iranians or Islam. We will ask that such signs be taken down. Ours is not a message of intolerance, but of peace.

Of course, we are a pro-Israel organization, but this will not be a rally for Israel or by Jews, but rather against a state sponsor of terror by a coalition of concerned groups and citizens. It is critical that we maintain a coherent peaceful message as a contrast to the extremist positions of Iran.

For more information click here and here

Both international law and accepted practice do not prohibit the use of the family of weapons popularly as 'cluster bombs'. Consequently, the main issue in a discussion of Israel's use of such weaponry should the method of their use, rather than their legality.

A 2002 report by Human Rights Watch on explosive sub-munitions - the category of weapons to which cluster bombs belong - states that these weapons are stocked by 56 countries and have been used by at least nine (including the US, Britain, Russia, and Israel). There are 208 types of sub-munitions, which are manufactured by 33 countries. The US used cluster bombs during the Gulf War, as did NATO forces in Serbia and Kosovo...

“…phoned the family on several occasions and made them listen to the recitation of verses from the Koran, while Ilan’s tortured screams could be heard in the background.”

Ilan Halimi’s torturers/murderers did not invoke any non-Islamic sources of anti-Jewish hate, only the Koran.

For the Muslim masses, basic Islamic education in the Koran, hadith (the putative words and deeds of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, as recorded by pious transmitters), and sira (earliest Muslim biographies of Muhammad) may create an immutable superstructure of Jew hatred, onto which non-Muslim sources of Jew hatred are easily grafted. Examples of this archetypal Jew hatred from the sacred Islamic texts, sira, and main early Sunni historiographical accounts, include:

- Koranic verses labeling Jews as malevolent enemies of Islam (5:82), and

- disobedient slayers of their own prophets who suffered justifiable abasement (2:61),

- including, for some, transformation into apes and swine (5:60); or

- the more profoundly hateful narratives (in the hadith, sira, and early histories, for example by Tabari) which maintain that the perfidious Jews fomented sectarian strife in early Islam by promoting heresies—including Shi’ism itself—that threatened the unity of the Muslim community (umma), and

- the canonical hadith (Sahih Muslim Book 026, Number 5431) that the Jews caused Muhammad’s protracted, excruciating death from poisoning...

The panel of 14 MPs said the "disturbing" rise had been exacerbated by the situation in the Middle East.

It also said a minority of UK Islamist extremists had incited Jewish hatred.

Labour backbencher Denis McShane said abuse took "classic forms" such as synagogues being vandalised and school children being spat at and insulted...

...The former Conservative leader, Iain Duncan Smith, who was one of the members of the panel, said the situation regarding anti-Semitic attacks was worse than he had previously believed.

"A combination of complacency and ignorance seems to be the name of the game here," he said.

"Many police forces simply keep no record of these attacks at all and therefore are unable to understand the depth or the strength of the nature of the problem...

Speaking after the report's delivery, Mr McShane said many British Jews were the butt of some people's anger about Israeli and American policies.

"British citizens who happen to be born Jews have to accept responsibility for the anger there is against Israel or America," he said...

• If “moderate” is to describe a country in which Christians are openly discriminated against, persecuted, threatened and even killed, how much further do these “moderates” have to go before their apologists in Australia will cease describing them as such?

• As a recent Jakarta Post editorial has noted, sharia law is steadily gaining a wider foothold in Indonesia notwithstanding that country’s formally secular and pluralist Constitution. The province of Aceh is now “under a sharia regime, and today more than 20 regencies and municipalities across Indonesia proclaim themselves to be ruled by sharia or have introduced sharia-inspired legislation”.

• Have we forgotten that, in the wake of the Bali bombings of October 12, 2002, when eighty-eight Australians were killed and many others injured (not to mention all those of other nationalities, including the Balinese, who suffered similar fates), a reputable opinion poll in Indonesia recorded that some 16 per cent of Indonesian Muslims (almost 30 million people) supported those bombings, while a further 25 per cent declined to proffer an opinion? More recently, the highly regarded Pew Research Group, in its Pew Global Attitudes Project, showed a reduction in that 16 per cent figure to “only” 10 per cent (18 million people).

• The same survey showed, however, that 65 per cent of Indonesia’s Muslims today do not believe that the September 11 attacks on the United States were carried out by Arabs!

• Did nobody else notice the rapturous reception given recently to the Mad Iranian Bomber, President Ahmedinajad, when he visited Indonesia to attend a conference of non-Arab Muslim leaders? At a joint press conference with President Yudhoyono, this major threat to world peace and stability raved on for thirty minutes, denouncing the West’s well-justified distrust of his nuclear program and predicting that Israel will “be destroyed”. Politeness to one’s guest is of course important, but I cannot help feeling that at some point President Yudhoyono might have intervened to divert this rabid flow. What does the fact that he didn’t, tell us about the nature of Islam in Indonesia’s “democracy” today?

On Monday night, the paper reported that Shalit had already been transferred to Egypt as part of a deal to secure his release. According to the article, Shalit was handed over to Egypt days before in exchange for Israel's guarantee to release 800 Palestinian prisoners in three stages.

In an interview with Palestinian-Israeli radio station, Voice of Peace, Mahar Othman admitted that the report on Shalit's whereabouts had been an error, and that their source in Gaza had apparently made a mistake.

Gilad's father Noam Shalit immediately denied the report, saying unequivocally that Gilad was not in Egypt.

Meanwhile, official sources in Cairo said that Egypt had given Israel concrete evidence Tuesday that Shalit was alive. According to the sources, he was being held in a hidden location in Gaza...

If you read the CAIR report that's posted on their website today you will find that all references to these hate crime hoaxes have been scrubbed, but CAIR has never changed the 2004 statistics in the report to account for these fraudulent incidents. Those statistics remain completely unchanged since the original publication of the report, and these are the very same stats parroted by AFP in the article from this weekend.

CAIR was clearly aware enough of this problematic information to scrub any mention of these incidents from the current version of the report available on their website, but careless or deceptive enough not to change the statistics. Regardless, CAIR nowhere indicates that the report has been corrected. And they are still peddling this fraudulent information to their old media allies, who appear to take any information received from CAIR at face value...

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 9/5/06) - A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group said today's address by President Bush on the status of America's war on terrorism "grants undeserved legitimacy to extremists."

SEE: Political Season Opens With Focus on Security (NY Times)

In a statement responding to the president's speech before the Military Officers Association of America, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said:

"By focusing almost exclusively on the views of groups like Al-Qaeda and failing to address the concerns of the vast majority of Muslims worldwide who reject terrorism, President Bush grants undeserved legitimacy to extremists and marginalizes true moderates.

"Rather than focus on the negative messages of Al-Qaeda, the President ought to work with mainstream Muslims at home and abroad to isolate terrorists and promote a positive vision of hope, mutual respect and diplomacy.

"CAIR and other national American Muslim groups stand ready to help build bridges of understanding between America and the Islamic world."

Last year, CAIR coordinated a fatwa, or Islamic religious ruling, against terrorism and religious extremism issued by the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) and endorsed by hundreds of U.S. Muslim groups, leaders and institutions.

In 2004, CAIR launched an online petition drive, called " Not in the Name of Islam," designed to disassociate Islam from the violent acts of a few Muslims...

“State taxpayers should not be providing special treatment to an individual who supports violent jihad and the destruction of Israel,” said Romney.

Romney’s action means that Khatami will be denied an official police escort and other VIP treatment when he is in town. The federal government provides security through the U.S. State Department.

Romney criticized Harvard for honoring Khatami by inviting him to speak, calling it “a disgrace to the memory of all Americans who have lost their lives at the hands of extremists, especially on the eve of the five-year anniversary of 9/11.”

Said Romney: “The U.S. State Department listed Khatami’s Iran as the number one state sponsor of terrorism. Within his own country, Khatami oversaw the torture and murder of dissidents who spoke out for freedom and democracy. For him to lecture Americans about tolerance and violence is propaganda, pure and simple.”...

The bitter inter-Christian tiff followed an August 22 "Jerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism" signed by the outgoing Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, Archbishop Swerios Malki Mourad of the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate, Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal of the Episcopal Church and Bishop Munib Younan of the Lutheran Church, was indicative of the deep discord and resentment within the Christian Church over the Evangelicals' support for Israel.

The declaration lambasted Christian Zionism as a "false teaching" that "condemn[s] the world to the doom of Armageddon."

"It is with concern that we note the negative opinions about Christian Zionism voiced by certain church clerics in Jerusalem... using inflammatory language they have expressed views that are far from the truth," read a joint response by the heads of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, Bridges for Peace and Christian Friends of Israel.

"We find the paper unbalanced and notably one-sided. It totally ignores the jihadist goals of the Hamas Government and turns a blind eye to terrorism perpetrated by this regime," the statement read.

The unusually-harsh statement by the Latin Patriarch, who is a Palestinian, comes at a time of burgeoning ties between Israel and the Christian Evangelical community around the world...

Abbas told Bahrain-based newspaper El-Halij that Shalit would be transferred to Egypt and held there until Israel fulfilled its part of the bargain...

...According to Al-Hayat, Shalit was handed over to Egypt "a short time ago" in exchange for Israel's guarantee to release 800 Palestinian prisoners in three stages.

Gilad's father Noam Shalit denied the report, saying unequivocally that Gilad was not in Egypt.

Israel Radio reported that Hamas had retracted its demand that Shalit be freed simultaneously with the Palestinian prisoners.

Al-Hayat said that Israel had stipulated that no prisoners with blood on their hands, as well as Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Sadat, the PFLP head involved in the murder of former tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi, should be freed as part of the deal. Channel 10 News reported that Hamas had agreed to Israel's conditions...

Mr. Irwin was swimming off the northeastern Australian coastline, 60 miles north of Cairns, when the ray's whip-like tail struck him and the poisonous barb apparently punctured his heart. He was taken by his boat, Croc One, to a rescue helicopter that flew to the community of Low Isle. Despite attempts at resuscitation, he was pronounced dead.

Mr. Irwin was known for getting melodramatically near claws and jaws of land and sea creatures. This was the allure of his television franchise, mostly seen by American audiences on the Animal Planet cable channel during the past decade.

"While most shows use long lenses, we get right up close so the audience feels like they're smack in the middle of the bush," Mr. Irwin told Entertainment Weekly magazine. "One time, a 10-foot saltwater croc grabbed me on the hand and -- whap! -- pulled me into the water. Luckily, I swung around and landed on his head, which gave him a bit of a shock and gave me just enough time to get away."...

Errki Tuomioja, Finnish foreign minister, told FT Deutschland, the Financial Times' sister paper, that the EU would have to make an important shift in policy and be prepared to enter discussions with all "relevant" parties if it were to revive the stricken Middle East peace process.

"Hamas is not the same party it was before the elections," he said, referring to what he said were the group's encouraging but insufficient steps to moderate its stance after it won control of the Palestinian Authority this year.

"We have to be able to talk to anyone who is relevant," he added. "There are many ways of having contact . . . nobody will start with press conferences and photo opportunities."...

...Hamas remains on the EU's official list of proscribed terrorist organisations and the 25-nation bloc has repeatedly declaredit would only establish political contacts with the Islamist group if it honoured past agreements, ceased violence and recognised Israel.

Any attempt to shift towards more normal relations with the group could infuriate Israel and the US and provide a dilemma for the EU's big powers - Germany, France and the UK.

The EU only added Hamas to its terrorist list after pressure from Washington and Tel Aviv and some top-level officials have held discreet consultations with people linked to the organisation in the past.

Mr Tuomioja has also already clashed with some of his colleagues - most notably at the start of August when a Finnish draft declaration calling for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and criticising Israel was watered down by other EU ministers.

He subsequently complained in a weblog that "for a long time it has been known that, within an hour after being distributed to the member states, all EU documents have already reached Tel Aviv, and probably Washington and Moscow"...

Let us go back to 539 BC, when Cyrus the Great, King of Persia, went to Babylonia and liberated Jews. One can ask why Jews were enslaved by Babylonians. Also, one can ask why Jews had problem with Egyptians, with Jesus, with Europeans, and in modern times with Germans? The answer, among other things, is their racist attitude that they are the “Chosen People.” Because of this attitude, they do wrong to other people to the point that others turn against them, namely, become anti-Semite if you will. Since they think they are the Chosen People they can murder Lebanese and Palestinian children at will. Do you not remember the scene where a Palestinian father was screaming to stop Israeli soldiers shooting his son? But, the soldiers killed the boy mercilessly. Perhaps, Americans are so busy to amuse themselves with their iPods, lap-top computers, or cell phones. They do not have time to see the murders committed by the Chosen People. The Chosen People have become the Chosen Murderers. So long as the Zionists have no regard for the lives of others, people around the world will turn into anti-Semites, regardless of their religions. Even some Jews are condemning the atrocities of the Zionist regime...

The letter described the author's words as "a racist attack on all people of Jewish descent when he asserted that Jews have been the cause of every tragedy that has befallen them -- from slavery in Egypt to the Holocaust.

"We are not surprised when hate-mongers make such statements or when neo-Nazi publications print them. Vulgar and hate-filled statements are written all the time -- editors choose whether or not to publish them. We were, however, surprised, to find them in a Berkeley 'community' newspaper since racism of any kind violates all that our city and region stands for," it read...

A U.N. armoured personnel carrier patrols in the disputed Shebaa Farms area as seen from south Lebanon August 31, 2006. The Israeli encampments, heavily defended and topped with aerials, loom over the villages bordering the disputed Shebaa Farms area, reminding the Lebanese they are under constant surveillance. Picture taken August 31, 2006. REUTERS/Ammar Awad (LEBANON)

A Lebanese soldier observes an Israeli position in the Shebaa hill while sitting in an armoured personnel carrier in the frontier Majidiyah village in the eastern sector of south Lebanon September 1, 2006. REUTERS/Karamallah Daher (LEBANON)

It may be that the Lebanon crisis will breathe new life into the struggling divestment movement. But at the time of this writing, even the most vocal institutional critics of Israel (such as the mainline Protestant churches) show no immediate interest in revisiting the campaign, no interest, that is, in inviting the vampire back across the threshold.

On Thursday an all-party parliamentary inquiry will state that anti-Semitic violence has become endemic in Britain, both on the streets and university campuses. The report will call for urgent action from the Government, the police and educational establishments.

Mark Gardner, of the Community Security Trust, said: "In July, when the conflict in Lebanon began, we received reports of 92 incidents, which was the third-worst month since records began in 1984." In 2000 the monthly average was between 10 and 30 incidents.

The former minister Denis MacShane, who chaired the parliamentary inquiry, said: "These figures confirm the evidence given to us that anti-Semitic attacks are a very real problem."

The Board of Deputies of British Jews submitted evidence to the inquiry that anti-Semitism in Britain was at its worst level.

The July incidents "were more dispersed than usual", Mr Gardner said. "It is usually a small number responsible for a large number of attacks, but these were very widespread across the country and included graffiti attacks on synagogues in Edinburgh and Glasgow."

The attackers, when visible, are from across society, he said. "When it's verbal abuse, it's just ordinary people in the street, from middle-class women to working-class men. All colours and backgrounds. We hardly ever see incidents involving the classic neo-Nazi skinhead. Muslims are over-represented."

In hate-mail to senior Jewish figures, ordinary Jewish people were being blamed for the deaths of Lebanese civilians. "There are also references to the Holocaust, saying that Hitler should have wiped out the Jews."

Mr Gardner said that the rise in attacks reflected increased hostility to Israel and Jews in the media and across society: "The number of anti-Semitic attacks reflects the mood music around Jews and Israel."...

The statement, posted in the name of the Holy Jihad Brigades on a Web site frequently used by militants, said the group would kill any hostages it takes unless they converted to Islam, paid a ransom or Muslim prisoners were exchanged for their release.

"Any infidel blood will have no sanctity," the group said in the statement.

It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the statement, which was dated August 27 — the day militants released American journalist Steve Centanni, 60, and New Zealand cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36. They were seized Aug. 14 in Gaza City.

The militant group had demanded the release of Muslim prisoners held by the United States in exchange for freeing the journalists.

During their captivity, the journalists were forced at gunpoint to declare that they had converted to Islam, Centanni told Fox News after he was released. The group said in its statement that the journalists' declaration saved their lives.

"Nothing but Islam gave their blood sanctity and prevented their slaughter," the group said.

It added, "We are not the sort of people who are fooled ... but only God knows intentions."...

It follows that one of the most sensational charges leveled against the Bush White House -- that it orchestrated the leak of Ms. Plame's identity to ruin her career and thus punish Mr. Wilson -- is untrue. The partisan clamor that followed the raising of that allegation by Mr. Wilson in the summer of 2003 led to the appointment of a special prosecutor, a costly and prolonged investigation, and the indictment of Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, on charges of perjury. All of that might have been avoided had Mr. Armitage's identity been known three years ago...

[snip boiler-plate Libby and White House made mistakes prose]

...it now appears that the person most responsible for the end of Ms. Plame's CIA career is Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson chose to go public with an explosive charge, claiming -- falsely, as it turned out -- that he had debunked reports of Iraqi uranium-shopping in Niger and that his report had circulated to senior administration officials. He ought to have expected that both those officials and journalists such as Mr. Novak would ask why a retired ambassador would have been sent on such a mission and that the answer would point to his wife. He diverted responsibility from himself and his false charges by claiming that President Bush's closest aides had engaged in an illegal conspiracy. It's unfortunate that so many people took him seriously.

Somebody has laid the items out neatly on the cement driveway in front of a garage. A fence made from two rows of string is designed to keep people from getting too close.

A yellow flag of the Hezbollah Shiite militia flies over one corner of the display, and Hezbollah posters are stuck to a wall above a collection of seized Israeli food: cans of tuna and corn stacked with small packets of strawberry jam resting on top. There are large plastic bottles of Aqua Nova water, candy bars and packages of what looks like meat.

The rest of the display is not as appetizing.

A burned helmet contains a lock of hair. A second helmet cradles unidentifiable ashes while a third is attached to a radio set, apparently from a tank.

At least 119 Israeli soldiers died in their 34-day war with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The militia called it a victory but the war also killed 1,287 Lebanese, mostly civilians. A ceasefire has been in effect since August 14.

Much of the display consists of burned pieces of clothing. Three pairs of boots are still intact.

"Look this," a young man says in broken English after approaching from a nearby mosque. He holds up a pair of uniform trousers. One leg has been severed...

I am embarrassed when I read the names of the terrorists in the newspaper. What must non-Muslims think when some criminal claiming to act in the name of Islam and bearing the same name as the Prophet Muhammad is arrested?

I am also embarrassed that not all American Muslims do all they can to expose those in our community who would commit mayhem or would give succor in any way to those who would cause harm. Too many American Muslims hold back from publicly speaking out against extremist ideologies that threaten us all because they fear being stigmatized by their coreligionists for cooperating with security agencies.

Why is this? In part it is because some Muslim immigrants are relatively recent arrivals from nations in which security forces were corrupt and could not be trusted. Some shy from cooperation because of their immigration status or the status of those around them. Still others hold back because they disagree strongly with American foreign policy. They truly believe that the current administration is fighting a war against Islam under the guise of fighting terrorism. Regrettably, this sentiment is widespread among Muslims, more so abroad but to a substantial degree in America as well.

Our government may act incompetently and unwisely. But I'm confident that it holds no animosity toward Muslims simply because they are Muslims. Sadly, it is Muslims who perpetrate most of the worst terrorist attacks today. As we approach the fifth anniversary of September 11, this reality must be acknowledged by all Muslims...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(CHICAGO, IL, 9/1/06) - The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today announced the launch of a new brand identity and logo. The new identity focuses on openness, professionalism and the pursuit of mutual understanding and justice.

CAIR made its announcement at the convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) in Chicago, North America's largest annual gathering of Muslims...

...In a letter to the American Muslim community announcing the new brand, CAIR Board Chairman Parvez Ahmed stated: "After 12 years of dedicated service to the community, we are reaffirming our core values and recommitting ourselves to three central aspects of CAIR's mission - enhancing understanding of Islam, protecting civil liberties and empowering American Muslims."

He also wrote about the need to transform CAIR in ways that better reflect the group's core commitment to justice, education, diversity, and dialogue...

Sheik Yousef Al-Qaradhawi: In this film ["The Passion of the Christ"], there is an important positive aspect. The positive aspect lies in its exposing the Jews' crime of bringing Jesus to the crucifixion. Even though we [Muslims] believe that Jesus was not crucified, a crime was committed, and the people who paved the way for this crime, who helped to commit it, who brought Jesus to the crucifixion, and kept pursuing the issue, until the governor on behalf of the Romans in Jerusalem at that time sentenced him to death...

More than 30 years ago, the Vatican issued a document, exonerating the Jews of [spilling] the blood of Jesus. Not all Christians accepted this document. The Pope in the Vatican and the Catholics are the ones who exonerated them. They exonerated them under political pressure. But the Protestants did not exonerate them, the Orthodox did not exonerate them, and Patriarch Shinoda in Egypt did not exonerate them, and kept saying that they bear the responsibility...

Do the Jews of yesterday [sic] bear responsibility for the crimes committed by the Jews of the past? The principle is that they indeed bear responsibility for these crimes, as long as they do not renounce them. If they glorify and take pride in what their forefathers did, if they write about it, quote it, record it, and teach it to their children, and if they consider it to be part of their religion and heritage, they bear the responsibility. As we can see, the Koran held the Jews of the Prophet Muhammad's time responsible for what their forefathers did. It addressed them, saying: "We made Moses a promise extending over forty nights, then you took the calf for worship, wrongfully." It says, "you took," but it was their forefathers, not them. But they adopt the deeds of their forefathers, and so they bear responsibility for them - unless they renounce them...

They adopt the deeds of their forefathers, and they take pride in them. Therefore, I say that the Jews of the 21st century adopt what the Jews of the first century did. They adopt what [their forefathers] did to Jesus, and so they bear responsibility for it, unless they renounce it, saying: This was a crime, and we ask Allah to absolve us of it. But they have not said this, and therefore, the Jews of today bear responsibility for the deeds of the Jews of yesterday.