August 2007 Archives

I'm singing about old Joe, cruel Joe,
He ruled with an iron hand
He put an end to the dreams
Of so many in every land
He had a chance to make
A brand new start for the human race
Instead he set it back
Right in the same nasty place
I got the Big Joe Blues
(Keep your mouth shut or you will die fast)
I got the Big Joe Blues
(Do this job, no questions asked)
I got the Big Joe Blues.

According to a UN report, Rubinstein said that "Israel today was an apartheid State with four different Palestinian groups: those in Gaza, East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israeli Palestinians, each of which had a different status."

The report quoted Rubinstein as condemning the security fence, saying that "even if the wall followed strictly the line of the pre-1967 border, it would still not be justified. The two peoples needed cooperation rather than walls because they must be neighbors."

On Friday, the Zionist Federation released a press release, saying "Rubinstein's participation in this weekend's Zionist Federation conference in London has been cancelled by mutual agreement."

"The ZF regularly holds meetings where a wide variety of views are expressed, and while there is no question that Rubinstein has every right to express his views about Israel, it was mutually agreed that his participation in the Zionist Federation conference became untenable," the statement said.

Andrew Balcombe, Chairman of the ZF, said: "Criticism of Israeli policy is acceptable. However, by using the word 'apartheid' in a UN conference held at the European Parliament, Danny Rubinstein encourages the demonisation of Israel and the Jewish people. I believe he was naïve to attend the UN conference."...

"No other country in the world would allow such grave damage to its most precious archaeological treasures," Mazar said.

The Committee is planning to file a complaint with the police, and is considering submitting an appeal to the Supreme Court.

'Israelis can count on Poles'...

"The boycott worked for South Africa, it is time to do it again," Short was quoted as saying.

The security fence was also attacked by the European Parliament's vice president, Edward McMillan-Scott, who maintained that it would not bring peace to Israel. McMillan-Scott added that the European Parliament was committed to "a two state solution with safe borders," according to the Bnei Brith report of the conference.

Addressing the conference on behalf of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, Leila Shahid, Palestinian Representative to the EU, read out a statement in which Abbas expressed satisfaction that the conference was hosted by the European Parliament, and lamented the suffering of the Palestinian people.

Pierre Galand, European coordinator of the Committees and Associations for Palestine, claimed that the conference was taking place despite pressures to cancel it, and blamed the Fatah-Hamas conflict on "Israeli policy"...

Human Rights Watch had called the news conference to release “Civilians Under Assault: Hezbollah's Rocket Attacks on Israel in the 2006 War,” a new 128-page report criticizing Hezbollah for its conduct during the 2006 war with Israel, in particular Hezbollah’s practice of deliberately and indiscriminately firing rockets toward Israeli civilian areas.

“Hezbollah is trying to silence criticism of its conduct during the 2006 war,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division. “But the fairness and accuracy of our reporting will speak for themselves, whether we hold a press conference or not.”

This report is one of a series by Human Rights Watch examining compliance of parties to the 2006 war with international humanitarian law. On September 6, Human Rights Watch is releasing in Jerusalem a report critical of Israel’s conduct in its attacks on Lebanon, a comprehensive follow-up to a report released during the war, titled “Fatal Strikes: Israel's Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon”. [OK, that's more like it. -S]

“Our focus is on the protection of civilians wherever they may be, and not about taking sides in a conflict,” said Whitson.

In the course of preparing the report, Human Rights Watch repeatedly sought meetings with Hezbollah officials and solicited information in writing from them, with no substantive response. But starting on August 28, 2007 the Hezbollah-controlled al-Manar television station and website www.almanar.com.lb ran repeated stories criticizing Human Rights Watch for its planned news conference and reporting that Lebanese organizations were mobilizing to “prevent” the news conference...

Not that I'm trying to give anyone any ideas.

The Somerville Divestment Project (SDP), a self-described human rights group that refers to Israel as an “apartheid state,” has announced in a posting on its Web site that it is gearing up “for an ambitious project of expansion” into Cambridge and Jamaica Plain.

Ron Francis, a member of the SDP’s board, said his group is spreading into new communities because “more people than ever are aware of Israel’s ethnic cleansing project as an immoral, unconscionable and illegal act.”

In addition, the SDP has launched a fundraising campaign to support its latest efforts. Francis declined to comment on SDP’s donors and budgetary needs for the project, stating he will not discuss the group’s “internal operations.”...

...Upon learning that the SDP is planning on placing another Palestinian question onto the ballot in 2008, Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone said he wasn’t shocked about the group’s persistence in making its point.

“They have been pretty aggressive in their tactics,” Curtatone added. “But we have sent out a clear message as a government and community that we don’t agree with their position. These are very complex issues that cannot be solved or advocated clearly by a resolution via a municipal body.”

In addition to tackling the SDP’s latest initiatives, local Jewish groups are also preparing ways to peacefully counter a proposed Palestine Awareness Festival to be held at Edward Sennott Park in Cambridge in October. According to an employee of the City of Cambridge, the festival, organized by Rule 19, a local anti-Israel group, will feature an exhibit by Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al-Ali as well as a model Palestinian home destroyed by Israeli soldiers.

Hillel Stavis, community outreach manager at The David Project Center for Jewish Leadership, said it is unlikely that these “anti-Israel fringe groups” will succeed in promoting their causes.
Added Stavis: “It’s unfortunate that a lot of groups have to waste their time fighting these crazies.”

“Thus, the Muslim community in the U.S. in general, and in Boston in particular, has begun to trouble the Zionist lobby. The words of the Koran [3:113] on this matter are true: ‘They will be humiliated wherever they are found, unless they are protected under a covenant with Allah, or a covenant with another people. They have incurred Allah’s wrath and they have been afflicted with misery. That is because they continuously rejected the Signs of Allah and were after slaying the Prophets without just cause, and this resulted from their disobedience and their habit of transgression.’”

“The great Allah spoke words of truth. Their covenant with America is the strongest possible in the U.S., but it is weaker than they think, and one day their covenant with the [American] people will be cut off."

...We oppose the imposition of sanctions on the Sudanese government, particularly since U.S. sanctions since 1997 have selectively aided rebel groups who have exacerbated Sudan’s civil war. We oppose campaigns to divest from Sudan.

We oppose any military intervention in Sudan by Washington or any other foreign power. We note that African Union troops have been used as proxies for U.S. military operations in several countries in Africa, most recently for the US-Ethiopian invasion of Somalia...

...The United States should normalize relations with Sudan. Washington's hypocritical and false accusations against Sudan should be dropped. All sanctions against Sudan should be removed.

"Soon after the governor of New Jersey invested all of his state employees' 401K plans in Israel, it was revealed that the governor was being poked from behind by an Israeli agent."

For anyone unfamiliar with the reference, Friedemann was talking about the former governor of New Jersey, James McGreevey, who recently resigned due to a scandal involving his closeted homosexuality. The 401K accusation is total nonsense, and simply used as a hook for a homophobic slur directed at McGreevey's male lover (who was Israeli).

Lest anyone think Friedemann's anti-gay crack was an inadvertent slip of the tongue, here is what this outspoken woman and convert to Islam (under one of her many pseudonyms Maria Hussain) had to say about Islam, feminism and homosexuality in an article entitled "Observations on the Palestinian Solidarity Conference":

"Muslims ... are not seeking peace. We get peace from Allah. In Palestine, we will stop only at victory, which will be, inshaAllah, in the end, a just implementation of Islamic religion. We have to guard against the Palestine movement being represented primarily by homosexuals and feminists." ...

GRP open workshop SUDAN: What’s going on & what can we do about it?”

Speakers

Dr. Abdel-Rahman Mohamed, retired BU Professor and CEO of AIM International, Inc.

Loay Abdulkarim, president of Jamaica Plain Residents for Human Rights

Yousef Abdallah, operations manager of the Northeast office of Islamic Relief

Contact karima4483@aol.com

Free admission to non-GRP members...

Karin Friedemann for the Muslim Observer

The Green Rainbow Party of Massachusetts, which is affiliated with the national Green Party, held its annual State Convention at the Community Church of Boston on August 25, 2007. Ibrahim Hooper, director of CAIR, told organizers to tell all area Muslims to come to the convention to learn how a grassroots political party is organized. The convention drew about thirty active GRP members and fifteen observers.

After opening remarks, the groups split into three workshops: 2008 Elections Strategy, Using Technology to Promote the Party, and Sudan: What’s Going On and What Can We Do About It? Most of the Muslim observers attended the Sudan workshop, which was led by Dr. Abdul Rahman Mohamed, a retired BU professor, Loay Abdel Karim, who heads Jamaica Plain Residents for Human Rights, journalist Keith Harmon Snow, and Yousef Abdallah from Islamic Relief. The popular workshop received reviews of “phenomenal” and “illuminating” by those who attended...

Officials of the Moslem Waqf (religious body) on the Temple Mount are digging there illegally, likely destroying precious artifacts from as early as the First Temple period. So say eyewitnesses and representatives of the Committee for the Prevention of the Destruction of Temple Mount Antiquities.

Gideon Charlap, a top Jerusalem architect and Temple Mount expert, told Arutz-7 what he saw when he visited the Temple Mount on Tuesday: "The Arabs there are digging a deep north-to-south trench, up to a meter [1.1 yards] deep. It is being dug in the area that served during Holy Temple times as the Ezrat Nashim [the area known as the Women's Courtyard, though it was not reserved only for women -ed.]. The trench passes through three east-to-west walls, according to my calculations - walls that probably served as separations for the Temple's offices and the like. This means that the destruction is tremendous..."

"At one point during the digging," Charlap continued, "a policeman - apparently a Druze - tried to stop the work from going on, and actually entered the cabin of the tractor. A struggle ensued, and when the Arabs finally pushed him out, he actually stood in the trench and physically blocked the rest of the work!"

Charlap said that at that point, the chief officer of the Temple Mount police station, Shai Alali, arrived on the scene. "But instead of stopping the lawbreakers," Charlap related with incredulity, "he tried to 'calm down' the policeman!"

Charlap said he was unable to see how the story developed from there, "because our allotted time was over." Jews are permitted onto the site - Judaism's most sacred anywhere in the world - only four or fewer hours a day...

Why did CNN run the Jewish segment twice? Why did it leave that segment in a prime time slot despite switching the order of the other two segments?

Khaled Radi, spokesman for the Health Ministry in Gaza, said the private clinics were shut as a "punitive measure against doctors who incite others to strike and suspend services".

"We will not allow those who deprive patients of public services in hospitals to suck the blood of patients in their private clinics," Radi told Reuters.

Doctors supporting the secular Fatah faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have been walking off the job at Gaza's public hospitals at 11 a.m. every day in protest at what they call Hamas Islamists' "takeover" of the Health Ministry in Gaza.

Many of the same doctors also run private clinics. Hamas took power in the Gaza Strip in June. Abbas dismissed a Hamas-led government and retains control in the West Bank.

A Fatah-affiliated physician, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said that he and fellow doctors were being punished for exercising their "right to strike"...

Newly formed Hollywood production company, CP Productions, is bringing a number of new and classic games to the big screen and comic books. In addition, the company will package its sci-fi, fantasy and horror movies with video games.

Hollywood Producers Christine Peters (Area 51, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days) and Michael Cerenzie (Blackout, Black Water Transit) created CP Productions to focus on the under-25 filmgoer. The first of many projects coming from the new production studio is a new imagining of Midway Games' classic Joust arcade game.

"Joust is an arcade game that's as old as Pac-Man and has global awareness," said Cerenzie. "We took one element of the game and the brand itself and built a whole new world around it for the film."

Cerenzie calls the new script by Marc Gottlieb "Gladiator meets Mad Max." The film is set 25 years in the future and includes a Las Vegas suspended in mid-air...

The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation committed to the grant, the largest in the organization's 20-year history, in June, according to a University press release.

The University will provide matching funds with the goal of establishing a $30 million endowment for the Center over the next eight years.

Prof. Selwyn Troen (NEJS) has been named director of the Center, which will work to broaden the scope of Israel studies by supporting scholarship in a variety of fields, including politics, anthropology and economics, John Hose, Reinharz' assistant, said.

The Center will serve as "a major center to focus scholarship on a serious study of Israel in the broadest possible dimensions," Hose said...

..."Our primary goal is to help train a new generation of scholars who can help teach about modern Israel," Eisen said. "Our sense from surveying the landscape is that there is a dearth of scholars who are trained to teach modern Israel."...

The move to rehire Andrew H. Tarsy as regional director marked the second time in a week that the human rights organization reversed course under pressure from the Jewish and Armenian-American communities.

But Abraham H. Foxman, the ADL's national director, said he did not rehire Tarsy to appease critics. What mattered, Foxman said, was that the two men now "see eye to eye."

Tarsy's reinstatement was effective immediately, and both men said they were happy to be moving forward together.

"Andy's back," Foxman said, sitting next to Tarsy yesterday in a waterfront office in Boston. "Andy and I talked, and, after our conversation, I decided to take him back, to reinstate him. And I'm delighted he's back."...

“The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” is not a good book, and it does no service to those who truly crave a more robust debate in this country. Still, if the Forward had been asked to participate in a debate with the professors, we would have done so happily. Helping them to market their book was a different story. But that’s the genius of the victimhood game: If you’ve been rejected, you’ve won in the court of public opinion.

• Dr. Akeel Bilgrami, Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy and Director of The Heyman Center, Columbia University
• Dr. Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor & Professor of Linguistics (Emeritus), Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Dr. Tony Judt, University Professor and Director of the Remarque Institute, New York University
• Dr. John Mearsheimer, R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago
• Dr. Neve Gordon, Professor, Department of Politics and Government, Ben-Gurion University
• Tariq Ali, Editor of the New Left Review and Verso Books (HOST)

For years consumers struggled to fit the large round fruit in their refrigerators.

And then there was the problem of trying to cut the fruit when it kept rolling around.

But 20 years ago a forward-thinking farmer on Japan's south-western island of Shikoku solved the problem.

The farmer, from Zentsuji in Kagawa prefecture, came up with the idea of making a cube-shaped watermelon which could easily be packed and stored.

Fashion food

To make it happen, farmers grew the melons in glass boxes and the fruit then naturally assumed the same shape. Today the cuboid watermelons are hand-picked and shipped all over Japan...

Now though, human rights groups and ordinary Gazans say Hamas is committing exactly the same crimes as its Fatah predecessors, whose corruption and brutality were one of the main reasons why support for Hamas grew. "We are receiving reports of political detentions every day," said Mahmoud Abu Rahma, of the Gaza City-based Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights. "Hamas is conducting wide sweeps and interrogations to collect information. The interrogations include harsh treatment, and in many cases, torture and beatings."...

..."Fatah arrested and tortured people too," said a senior official from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, an independent political faction. "But during Fatah's rule we could give our opinions, and say anything we wanted about the Fatah leadership. Today people are afraid of saying anything about Hamas."...

Durban's final declaration, after international interventions, toned down the language, but went on to single out Israel. The US delegation walked out.

Far worse, though, were the parallel proceedings held by the nongovernmental organizations. One widely distributed flyer showed a photograph of Hitler and the question, "What if I had won?" The answer: "There would be NO Israel." Goebbels-like caricatures of Jews circulated freely.

In his eyewitness account published in the Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, Democratic Representative Tom Lantos of California, a US delegate, remarked that "having experienced the horrors of the Holocaust firsthand, this was the most sickening and unabashed display of hate for Jews I had seen since the Nazi period."...

The party chosen to chair the entire process through 2009 indicates its seriousness of purpose: Moammar Khadafy's Libya. The same regime that, in 2002, gave its highest award to convicted French Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy, that routinely brutalizes black African migrants, and that tortures Bulgarian and Palestinian medics for the crime of being foreigners. This is the country that will now teach the world about racism -- all under the UN's imprimatur.

Second, on Thursday, while the Geneva session is underway, the European Parliament in Brussels will host a UN "International Conference of Civil Society in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace." Contrary to the noble-sounding title, the rapprochement is disingenuous at best.

Consider its idea of balance: On one side will be selected Palestinian presenters like Raji Sourani, who justifies Hamas attacks as "resistance," and Jamal Juma, who says Israel is a "colonial racist apartheid state." On the other side are selected Israeli presenters who couldn't agree more. These include Michel Warschawski, self-described as a "well-known anti-Zionist activist," and Nurit Peled-Elhanan, who recently pronounced that "the Jewish head has unceasingly been bowed in worship of racism, while the Jewish mind is devising the most creative ways to devastate and demolish and destroy this country." By citizenship, they are Israeli, but only a scoundrel or a fool would imagine either as representatives of Israel's point of view...

But by night, the growing number of supporters of Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Islamic fundamentalists who reject modern democracy in favour of a pan-Islamic religious caliphate, are gathering in the West Bank to recruit the thousands who have grown disillusioned with the vicious stand-off between the secular Fatah and Islamist Hamas.

"Any person living in Palestine now realises political parties, especially the Islamic ones, have not achieved anything for the individual," said Sheikh Abu Abdullah, a thin-framed man with a wiry beard.

His is the commanding voice behind weekly Hizb lessons at the al-Faruq mosque in the middle-class suburb of Kfar Aqab, past a crowded Israeli checkpoint where east Jerusalem melds into Ramallah.

About 50 men, young and old, stayed after evening prayers this week to listen to the sheikh's lesson entreating them to follow the Koran and stop infidels from profiting at the expense of the poor - one of an estimated hundreds or thousands of mosques in the West Bank and east Jerusalem where Hizb ut-Tahrir now teaches every week...

First, he's a former officer in the Israel Defense Forces, a physician who developed expertise in biological warfare. He lives in Miramar, Florida, runs a family practice in North Miami Beach, has become a legislative leader of the American Medical Association and is active in local Jewish causes.

Now, at 49, he has decided to tell "my coming-out story."

It is this: He was born the Christian son of a World War II German tank commander — a third-generation warrior who received Deutschland's highest military honor, the Iron Cross, which was pinned on his uniform by Adolf Hitler himself.

As a teenager, Bernd studied the Nazis and the Holocaust and was repelled by what he learned. Ultimately, he converted to Judaism and moved to Israel.

"This was, and is, very difficult to deal with, " he said. "I never saw my father again."...

Minister of Education Yuli Tamir arrived in Sderot Friday morning and will talk to representatives of the parents of Sderot's school children. She will present them with the alternatives for protection of their children, including busing.

A special Ministry of Education budget, estimated at hundreds of thousands of shekels, will be devoted to turning the shelters into classrooms by installing air conditioners, ventilation devices, acoustic ceilings, lighting, carpets and steel doors in all of them.

"The District Director has already asked me to order the air conditioners immediately," said Miriam Sasi, the director of education in Sderot municipality, according to NRG. "My estimate is that it will be possible to finish the refurbishing by the beginning of the new school year," she said...

Freund said that the "Aliyah" (Jewish immigration to Israel) operation had been coordinated with all relevant government authorities. The Bnei Menashe entered Israel on tourist visas and will undergo conversion to Judaism in Israel. Then they will receive permanent status as citizens. These details were worked out in an agreement with the former Interior Minister, Meir Sheetrit, who is now Minister of Construction and Housing.

Yigal Henshin, the Bnei Menashe community's president, said Friday: "This is a historical day for us. We have come home."

The Bnei Menashe claim descent from the tribe of Menashe, one of the ten tribes exiled from the Land of Israel by the Assyrian empire over 2,700 years ago. They reside primarily in the two Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, along the border with Burma and Bangladesh. In recent years alone, over 800 members of the community have made Aliyah, thanks largely to the efforts of Shavei Israel, a Jerusalem-based group that reaches out and assists “lost Jews” seeking to return to the Jewish people. They reside mainly in Kiryat Arba, south of Jerusalem, and Beit El and Ofrah, north of Jerusalem.

Shavei Israel locates and identifies long-lost Jewish communities. A total of more than 1,700 Bnei Menashe have immigrated to Israel and about 5,000 are still in India, waiting to come...

I am talking about scientific issues. If it is true, for example, that kerosene burns at 820C under optimum conditions, how come the steel beams of the twin towers – whose melting point is supposed to be about 1,480C – would snap through at the same time? (They collapsed in 8.1 and 10 seconds.) What about the third tower – the so-called World Trade Centre Building 7 (or the Salmon Brothers Building) – which collapsed in 6.6 seconds in its own footprint at 5.20pm on 11 September? Why did it so neatly fall to the ground when no aircraft had hit it? The American National Institute of Standards and Technology was instructed to analyse the cause of the destruction of all three buildings. They have not yet reported on WTC 7. Two prominent American professors of mechanical engineering – very definitely not in the "raver" bracket – are now legally challenging the terms of reference of this final report on the grounds that it could be "fraudulent or deceptive"...

Azmi Bishara, a once prominent Arab Knesset leader who has been on the run since June, made the comments during a tour of south Lebanon border villages, where he visited the graves of Lebanese war victims and met with their families.

"Everybody envies the Lebanese for their resistance (Hizbullah) and its leadership, but I envy the resistance for its people," said Bishara, according to comments carried by the state-run National News Agency.

Bishara also condemned Israeli attacks against Lebanese civilians during the fighting last year.

"The massacres that were carried out by Israel were not a coincidence but were a strategic policy to frighten people," he said.

He praised Hizbullah for its performance during the 34-day war last summer, which was triggered by Hizbullah's capture of two Israeli soldiers in a cross border guerrilla raid.

"I am convinced that Israel has become incapable of attacking Lebanon again, and that is a very big achievement for the resistance," he said...

...Bishara has antagonized many Jewish Israelis over the years by meeting with some of Israel's bitterest enemies, including the leaders of Syria and Hizbullah. A Christian from the town of Nazareth who joined parliament in 1996, he frequently speaks out in favor of Palestinian rights.

The 'Hell's Pizza' advertisement, featuring Hitler performing his infamous Sieg Heil salute while sporting a pizza, calls on customers to purchase its product with the words, "It is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell."

The billboard refers to a well-known statement the former Nazi dictator once made: "By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise."

The advertisement was "in bad taste" and "deeply offensive," the New Zealand Jewish Council wrote in a letter of complaint to the pizza firm...

Disproportionate reliance on partisan voices, some extreme figures, skews the message dramatically. Jimmy Carter and John Mearsheimer, chief proponents of the discredited canards about Jews subverting American national interests to those of Israel, are repeatedly and respectfully interviewed. Carter, for example, claims that no American politician could survive politically while calling for settlement-related aid cuts to Israel: "There's no way that a member of Congress would ever vote for that and hope to be re-elected."...

• Rev. Dr. Burge portrayed an essay by well-known commentator Daniel Pipes as offering a message exactly the opposite of what Daniel Pipes actually wrote.
• Rev. Dr. Burge attributed a quote to David Ben-Gurion that had been exposed as false and fabricated several years before publication of Whose Land? Whose Promise? (The book the author cites as the source for the quote in question – a work book intended for high school-age students – does not include the quote in question.)
• Rev. Dr. Burge falsely stated that Israeli-Arabs are denied membership in Israel’s labor movement, when in fact, one of the books he cites reports that Israeli-Arabs had been allowed full membership in Israel’s largest union – the Histadrut – since 1959.
• Rev. Dr. Burge falsely reported that Israeli-Arabs are barred from the service in Israel’s military.
• Rev. Dr. Burge falsely reported that Israeli-Arabs are prohibited from joining Israel’s major political parties.
• Rev. Dr. Burge mis-characterized UN Resolution 242 as requiring Israeli withdrawal to its “pre-1967 borders” when in fact it does not.
• Rev. Dr. Burge portrays Hezbollah as a “resistance organization” when in fact its political agenda and leaders clearly state the organization is dedicated to the destruction of Israel – a fact he omits in his description.
• Rev. Dr. Burge portrays the founding of the PLO as an attempt to resolve the problem of Palestinian refugees created by the 1948 war when in fact its founding was motivated by a desire for the destruction of Israel.

The internal audit of shifts worked in 2005 concluded that Lieutenants Haseeb Hosein, Timothy Kervin, and Ghassoub Frangie engaged in untruthful reporting of hours, performed details that conflicted with a scheduled tour of duty, and received details through unauthorized means. Hosein and Kervin were also cited with breaking the law, but officials did not provide details on the alleged infractions.

The charges were announced less than a week after police cited Sergeant Jacqueline Creaven with 119 disciplinary violations by allegedly abusing the same system.

In 2005, the lieutenants earned much more than their base salaries of about $75,000. Kervin earned $237,272.34, more than any other city official that year; Hosein made $228,807.33; and Frangie took home $171,916.94, according to city records. In the same year, Mayor Thomas M. Menino earned $150,000 and Kathleen M. O'Toole, then the police commissioner, made $160,000...

...Hosein, who is Muslim, has filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. Hosein declined to comment, and Parolin said neither he nor the other officers would answer questions.

On Tuesday, Creaven, a South End patrol supervisor accused of lying about the hours she worked and making side deals with outside vendors who hired her to monitor their premises and construction sites, filed a lawsuit against the Police Department in Suffolk Superior Court. The 16-year veteran contends she is a victim of gender discrimination and says she is being punished for airing internal grievances...

HLF also arranged conference calls in addition to bringing speakers in to the U.S. Some of the calls featured leaders of militant groups who praised Hamas actions and platform after the U.S. tagged it as a specially designated terrorist organization in 1995.

One conference call included 64 Islamic centers throughout the country and raised more than $18,000, Miranda said.

On another, a Pakistani named Qazi Hussein Ahmed said “the Muslim people stand by the people who are struggling [against occupation] …under the leadership of Hamas. We in Pakistan stand with the Palestinian people … stand with the Hamas.” They will never accept any recognition of Israel” by the unjust Muslim regimes.” Hussein said.

He is the leader of Jamaat-e Islami in Pakistan.

Caption: "A message to the criminal gangs in the occupied West Bank"

Voice of Muhammad Dahlan: "Snipers or no snipers – move back, and let Hamas shoot me."

"Charge, with the blessing of Allah."

Rat sprays graffiti on wall: The guard of buffoons was here."

Caption: "If you repeat [the crime], we shall repeat [the punishment]" [Koran 17:8]

Caption: Produced by the animated films division, Al-Aqsa TV.

"Hungry for Justice," a coalition established to speak out in support of the HLF through a Web site and a series of planned public events, claims the federal charges and ongoing trial in Dallas are part of a "politically driven" anti-Muslim witch-hunt and an attempt to single out Muslim charitable organizations in this country. The coalition includes the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim American Society (MAS) and the ANSWER Coalition.

"If you look at these three groups and their histories, it is ironic, but not surprising that they would come to the aid and defense of a charity accused of funneling funds to Hamas," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "These groups are tainted by their own murky associations with radical organizations and individuals and, in some cases, expressions of solidarity with terrorist groups targeting Israelis."...

"As an organization representing itself as America's largest Islamic civil liberties group with a mission to enhance understanding of Islam and encourage justice and mutual understanding, it is deeply troubling that CAIR simply refuses to issue a clear and unequivocal condemnation of terrorists and terrorism," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "If CAIR truly repudiates acts of terror and murder, we would welcome a simple declaratory statement that no cause, no matter how just it may be, justifies the use of suicide killers, rockets or other means to target civilians."...

The pattern of presenting biased opinions against Israel repeats itself over and over again in the mission study — as it does in the resources and links offered on the Web site of the General Board of Global Ministries.

Take, for example, the mission study’s bibliography, which is available for downloading from the board’s Web site. The first item listed is an article titled “Remember the Liberty.” Published by a group called Americans for Middle East Understanding, the article claims Israel deliberately attacked an American Navy ship during the Six-Day War in 1967. No countervailing view is included.

Indeed, in his book Goldstein describes the incident as having been “covered up for 30 years.” To get what he calls the “full story,” Goldstein directs readers to none other than the Web site of Americans for Middle East Understanding.

In both the bibliography and the book itself, some of Israel’s harshest critics — including Norman Finkelstein, Noam Chomsky, George Ball, Robert Fisk and Ilan Pappé — are given overwhelming representation. And the bibliography’s list of recommended videos, available from Americans for Middle East Understanding, feature titles like “Children of the Nakba,” “Palestine is Still the Issue” and “Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land.”...

Abe's comments came in an address to a joint session of India's parliament, at the start of a high-profile visit that aims to boost trade between Asia's largest and third-largest economies and counter China's growing strength.

About 200 businessmen are accompanying Abe on the visit.

"This partnership is an association in which we share fundamental values such as freedom, democracy and respect for basic human rights as well as strategic interests," Abe told lawmakers and diplomats in a speech that did not name China.

"By Japan and India coming together in this way, this 'broader Asia' will evolve into an immense network spanning the entirety of the Pacific Ocean, incorporating the United States of America and Australia."

While Abe has improved ties with China, which had frayed under his predecessor, he has also stressed the need to forge closer links with democracies in what analysts have said was a tacit criticism of Beijing...

In the early 1990s, I discovered that slavery still exists in Sudan and Mauritania. I also discovered that Amnesty (and Human Rights Watch) had detailed reports on this slave trade yet had launched no substantial campaign to rescue blacks owned by Arab masters.

Slaves are prisoners too. In 1995, I went to Amnesty’s national convention and launched a drive to add slavery to Amnesty’s mandate. A majority was persuaded and a resolution was forwarded to the international office in London – which in turn asked for more time to “study the issue” and then did nothing for more than a decade.

If Africans were being enslaved in Germany or Norway, we all know Amnesty would launch a massive emancipation campaign. But for blacks in Arab North Africa, the best Amnesty could do was an occasional report.

How could Amnesty abandon hundreds of thousands of black slaves, and why does it focus disproportionately on Western governments? Three core reasons:

This leads to the rather sad conclusion that in some cases, at least, it is wiser to acknowledge that the educated public has something to say about “professional” matters, and even to take it into account when pondering individual cases, than to fill the air with pompous resentment when such criticism arises. It seems to me, futher, that the el Haj case is a prime example of the situation.

That said, I admit to my own strong feeling about el Haj, all the more intense because I am, inter alia, a parent who has forked over plenty of dough for his daughter’s Barnard education (and his son’s Columbia degree), and who is therefore constantly importuned by those institutions for hard cash. At a visceral level, I feel that if they want my money, they have to take my opinions as well (as is also true of my own alma mater, Harvard—but that’s another story).

Eighty-two service women have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to the Pentagon.

In 1994 the U.S. military began allowing women to serve in posts other than front-line infantry, special operations and artillery units.

The highest monthly death toll -- four troops and a Defense Department civilian -- came in June 2005.

The Thursday death of Spc. Kamisha J. Block, 20, of Vidor, Texas, from a "nonbattle-related cause" was the fifth time that four female service members have been killed in a month, the Pentagon reported. It also happened in October 2003, November 2003, September 2006 and January 2007...

...Sixteen female service members have died in Iraq this year, which puts 2007 on track to top the previous record of 20, set in 2005...

Unfortunately, the end of the lawsuit did not mean the end of the story. The men who sued us are still in control of the ISB, and in the days after the lawsuit ended, they went public with their longstanding connection to the Muslim American Society, which is the American branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. The largest Islamic center in the northeast will thus continue to be what it was from the beginning: a center for the promotion of the intolerant religious ideology of the Wahabbi clerics, and the fascist political ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, right in the heart of Boston, with the assistance of the city’s taxpayers.

Every story teaches a lesson; this story teaches several. I am convinced that these lessons will be useful in the near future, to others who might find themselves in a situation like ours. There are Islamic centers all over the United States that have the same pedigree: Saudi money, Wahabi theology, and Muslim Brotherhood politics. Conflicts like the one in Boston will be with us for a long time to come. So here are some things to think about when raising questions about the Islamists in your backyard...

On Jan. 3, 1971, these men crewed an F-4E Phantom II aircraft departing Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base on a nighttime strike mission of enemy targets in Savannakhet Province, Laos. Shortly after Ayres initiated a target run, the crew of other aircraft in the flight observed a large explosion. No one witnessed an ejection or heard beeper signals, and communication was lost with the aircraft. Hostile activity in the area prevented search and rescue attempts...

...On Jan. 5, 1968, these men crewed a UH-1D helicopter that was inserting a patrol into Savannakhet Province, Laos. As the aircraft approached the landing zone, it was struck by enemy ground fire, causing it to nose over and crash. There were no survivors. All attempts to reach the site over the next several days were repulsed by enemy fire...

...In November 1950, Bunchuk was assigned to Company L, 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division then occupying a defensive position southwest of Unsan, North Korea near a bend in the Kuryong River known as the Camel’s Head. On Nov. 1, parts of two Chinese Communist Divisions struck the 1st Cavalry Division’s lines, collapsing the perimeter and forcing a withdrawal. In the process, the 3rd Battalion was surrounded and effectively ceased to exist as a fighting unit. Bunchuk was one of the more than 350 servicemen unaccounted-for from the battle at Unsan...

On June 2, 1967, Rockett and his co-pilot, Capt. Daniel L. Carrier, crewed the number two aircraft in a flight of two F-4Cs flying an armed reconnaissance mission over Quang Binh Province, North Vietnam. During their bomb run, anti-aircraft ground fire was observed, but Rockett reported that his aircraft was not hit. When the lead aircraft completed its bomb run, the flight leader told Rockett to return to base, but moments later, he saw a large fireball in his rear-view mirror. He made several radio calls to Rockett, but did not hear or see anything from the aircraft. Due to the dangerous location, there were no further search and rescue attempts...

The BBC's default position on Israeli-Palestinian issues regularly places the blame solely on Israel, even in the face of conflicting evidence. But would "Return to Gaza" be able to resist holding Israel responsible for the dire state of the Gaza economy and the suffering of the Palestinians?

In fact, while we did not have great expectations of the BBC, Jane Corbin's documentary avoided demonising Israel and sanitising Palestinian terror groups as has frequently been the case. Hamas was held responsible for human rights violations and brutality against its political opponents, while Qassam rocket attacks on Israel and the smuggling of weaponry through tunnels from Egypt were also featured.

Disappointingly, the programme failed to mention kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who continues to be held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. The number of Israeli victims of Hamas terror acts and suicide bombings was also understated along with the organisation's extremist ideology that calls not only for an Islamic state but also for the total destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews.

Overall, however, this edition of Panorama is a marked improvement over much BBC content concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The BBC should be encouraged to produce more balanced material so that programmes such as Panorama become the rule rather than the exception...

ACTION ALERT--FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE--

CAIR-NY NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR INTERNSHIPS

(New York, N.Y. 8/17/07) – The New York Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) today announced that it is accepting applications for its Fall 2007 internship program.

CAIR-NY interns receive practical training in civil rights, public and media relations, community outreach, and research and leadership training. Interns work with skilled and dedicated mentors to gain first-hand experiences in these fields...

The Middle East Forum requested that it be sent out on April 22, 2005. Noting the announcement had not gone out, the Forum sent a follow-up inquiry on May 5. In reply, Astrid Benedek, MEI's associate administrator, explained that she would not do so until the Forum made changes on its Campus Watch website. She also indicated she would not reply again to the MEF ("I think we best end our communication right here").

This refusal contradicts an earlier statement by Benedek about the institute's policy of semi-automatically forwarding information for "countless other … outside organizations."

The Middle East Institute is directed by former PLO advisor Rashid Khalidi...

In an extraordinary visit to Israel, organized by the American Jewish Committee's (AJC) India office, Ilaysi arrived as part of a delegation of Indian Muslim leaders and journalists.

Asked to address Hamas's call for jihad to destroy Israel, Ilaysi said, "I believe in peace and this is the message I take. I don't believe in anything that destroys another country."

The religious leader also said the time had come for Pakistan to establish official relations with Israel. "This is the right thing to do," he added.

Ilaysi's arrival was not trouble-free, however, as a number of protests held by Indian Muslims were held in opposition to the visit.

"Indian Muslims do not have a very good impression of the Israelis. The protesters were saying, you are going to Israel, a country which humiliates the Muslims. That's the impression that they have," Ilaysi explained. He said the protests symbolized the natural opposition which arises to positive acts. "When you do good deeds, you are bound to have challenges and hurdles," he added.

"My impression was initially that the Israelis are certainly dominating Muslims out here. Once I came here, that impression completely changed," Ilaysi said. "I saw the reality on the ground, the mutual respect Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews have for each other. Constant conflict is not the reality here," Ilaysi said, describing his visit to the Israeli-Arab village of Abu Gosh, frequented by Israeli Jews...

.. the sole intention to fulfill and please Allah(swt), first and foremost, by continously thinking of Allah(swt)'s preferences in every decision you make. That is, try to minimize having our personal desires driving our religious decisions somehow. Sub7an Allah, sometimes we ignore some quranic rules and focus on other rules because we purposely (or subconsiously) want to satisfy our personal desires. This could be in many ways like pleasing our friends, tribes, organizations and even getting back our holy land, Palestine. We need to stop this if we ever want Islam to flourish once again in the entire world, including Palestine. One possible way is to give-up Palestine for some time to be able to reunite muslims again like the way Prophet (pbuh) gave-up Mekkah for 10 years till he was ready to march in and get it back. I don't know .What we have to realize that the Prophet's priority was always perserving Islam, even if it meant giving up his most dearest city, Makkah! Same with Palestine, we only have to stick to our quran and sunnah purely for the sake of Allah (swt) and I swear Palestine will be back to us very soon, INSHALLAH!

Anyway, with the above in mind, please renew your intentions and go to the following link to sign-up for MAS associate membership (if you aren't in yet) :

http://youth.masboston.org/index.php?section=31

Please sign-up to any available activity feeling responsible and passionate about it, inshallah.

My favorites are Outreach, Freedom Foundation and MAS Youth. I'll explain why in another email, inshallah.

Jazaakum Allahu Kheiran!!!
Zaki

In a school in Tulkarem (West Bank) this week, a soccer tournament was named after Ziyad Da’as. Da’as planned the attack in which a gunman opened fire with an M-16 rifle at a Bat Mitzvah in Hadera in January 2002, killing six and wounding 30. He was also behind the kidnapping and murder of two Israelis in Tulkarem in 2001. Da’as, a Fatah-Tanzim city commander, was killed by Israel in August 2002.

Significantly, the article indicated that the tournament took place in a Palestinian school and that the school administration was thanked "for providing the means for its success." Some Western governments have recently renewed funding of the Palestinian Authority, including its educational infrastructures, based on the assumption that schools are involved in positive education.

It should also be noted that in reporting the story, the PA daily glorified the terrorist as “one of the brave people of the Palestinian resistance." The daily Al Hayat Al Jadida is owned by the Palestinian Authority, and is therefore indirectly funded by Western money.

The following is an excerpt from the article:

Headline: "The team named after the Shahids (Martyrs) of the Southern Quarter wins the tournament cup named after the Shahid Ziyad Da’as.

This tournament…commemorates one of the brave people of the Palestinian resistance, whom the Israeli occupation forces assassinated in cold blood…

The committee that organized the tournament thanked the administration of the school... for hosting the tournament in the school yard and for providing the means for its success...

At the end of the tournament, the viewers indicated that the tournament was in a level to suitably commemorate the brave Shahid (Martyr), the mercy of Allah be upon him, Ziyad Da’as, and that an annual tournament should take place on the anniversary of his death." [Al Hayat Al Jadida, August 15, 2007]

A CAIR statement issued today in reaction to the ADL's allegations said:

"It is regrettable that the Anti-Defamation League, which claims to defend American civil liberties, would seek to exploit the growing level of Islamophobia in our society by using the same smears and exclusionary tactics that have in the past been used by anti-Semites to target the Jewish community.

"Unfortunately, the ADL has a history of seeking to marginalize and disenfranchise American Muslims in an attempt to stifle an alternative viewpoint on U.S. policy in the Middle East...

Mayor Menino, can you comment on the fact that the most recent ISB trustee is reportedly on the Board of Directors of the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S.? Now will you pay attention to the leadership of the Roxbury mosque?

Tell me again why this Egyptian scholar who is a professor from a Canadian college is one of only three trustees of the ISB, an organization which purports to represent local Muslims. Why isn't the Roxbury mosque being run by Muslims from Massachusetts, who've been here for decades?...

Jamal Badawi's name comes up again in the MB's master plan, the grand Jihad to eliminate and destroy Western civilization (puh-leeze!). The Dr. Jamal Badawi Foundation is listed, along with ISNA, as "providing the seed of the comprehensive dawa organization."...

Child host Saraa : How, Nahoul?

Nahoul: How? By means of morning prayers, blood, sacrifice, and pain, by means of martyrs, and with endurance. This is the key. I am so sad, Saraa.

[...]

Saraa: Don't be sad, Nahoul. I, you, the dear children, even the older ones – the generation of the "Pioneers of Tomorrow"... Allah willing, we will regain the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and cleanse it of the impurity of the Zionists.

Nahoul: Allah willing.

Saraa: On a different subject, Nahoul, let's see what you got up to this week.

Nahoul: Nothing, Saraa.

Saraa: Let's see for ourselves.

Nahoul enters the cats' cage in the Gaza Zoo

Nahoul: Meow! Meow! I'm opening the door and going in. I opened the door and got into the cage, and the guy didn't see me. I am now standing in the cats' cage. The cats here are asleep – the poor, wretched, imprisoned cats. I feel like abusing them. This cat is asleep. I feel like attacking it...

The firing of Andrew H. Tarsy, who had served as regional director for about two years and as civil rights counsel for about five years before that, prompted an immediate backlash among prominent local Jewish leaders against the ADL's national leadership and its national director, Abraham H. Foxman.

"My reaction is that this was a vindictive, intolerant, and destructive act, ironically by an organization and leader whose mission -- fundamental mission -- is to promote tolerance," Newton businessman Steve Grossman, a former ADL regional board member, said yesterday.

"I predict that Foxman's actions will precipitate wholesale resignations from the regional board, a meaningful reduction in ADL's regional fund-raising, and will further exacerbate the ADL's relationship with the non-Jewish community coming out of this crisis around the Armenian genocide."

Tarsy, 38, said he had been struggling with the national position for weeks and finally told Foxman in a phone conversation Thursday that he found the ADL's stance "morally indefensible."...

We believe that the Turkish government must do more than it has to confront its history and to seek reconciliation with the Armenian people. We have said that to the Turkish government and its officials, we will continue to do so, and we take this opportunity to repeat it publicly. We will continue to work to convince Turkey to pursue recognition and reconciliation, and we will seek ways to encourage this process.

We believe that legislative efforts outside of Turkey are counterproductive to the goal of having Turkey itself come to grips with its past. We take no position on what action Congress should take on House Resolution 106. The Jewish community in Turkey has clearly expressed to us and other major American Jewish organizations its concerns about the impact of Congressional action on them, and we cannot ignore those concerns. We are also keenly aware that Turkey is a key strategic ally and friend of the United States and a staunch friend of Israel, and that in the struggle between Islamic extremists and moderate Islam, Turkey is the most critical country in the world...

Interviewer: "In other words, there were no Palestinian Jews?"

Osama Hamdan: "No, there were no Palestinian Jews. When the British Mandate began in 1917, there was only one settlement on Palestinian land, which included several dozen Jews, who were living there in violation of the law at the time. I would like to mention that under the Ottoman state – regardless of the many reservations we have about it – there was a law that prohibited the Jews from staying in Palestine for over a month.

"Their passports and personal documents were taken away from them, and they were given an Ottoman permit at the border, which allowed them to stay for a month on Palestinian land. The only group that can be called Jewish was the one in Nablus. They still live there to this day. The Palestinians regard them as part of the makeup of Palestinian society, and they number no more than several hundred. As for those who immigrated from various countries – they are not Jews.

"Anyone who comes to live in a war zone is a combatant, regardless of whether he wears a uniform. That's one thing. Secondly, neither Hamas nor the Palestinian resistance force intentionally killed civilians. You mentioned the buses. What's an easier target – a bus, which is protected by various security measures, or a school [or] a theater, or a stadium, for example? These civilian targets – in which the killing of women and children is intentional – were not targeted by "Why were buses targeted? Because they are the means of transport used by the soldiers as well. The Zionist soldiers, who go from their homes to their bases and back, use public transportation, because it is free or almost free. In my opinion, the occupation soldiers also have a security motive in using public transport: They shield themselves behind the so-called 'civilians' within the Zionist entity...

..."We are making the preparations for a confrontation. This is not because we need to be prepared for an Israeli act of aggression – after all, aggression is intrinsic to this entity – but because the final goal of the resistance is to wipe this entity off the face of the Earth. This goal necessitates the development of the capabilities of the resistance, until this entity is wiped out."...

It's time that academia started to take its role seriously again. It's time for consequences to ensue if it does not.

Outlining his foreign policy views in the September/October issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, Giuliani said "too much emphasis" has been placed on brokering negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians - an apparent swipe at President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who have been pushing both sides for final status negotiations despite Hamas's takeover of Gaza in June...

..."It is not in the interest of the United States, at a time when it is being threatened by Islamist terrorists, to assist the creation of another state that will support terrorism," the former New York City mayor said.

"Palestinian statehood will have to be earned through sustained good governance, a clear commitment to fighting terrorism, and a willingness to live in peace with Israel," Giuliani said. "America's commitment to Israel's security is a permanent feature of our foreign policy."...

Nadia Abu El-Haj, an assistant professor of anthropology at Barnard, is the author of "Facts on the Ground," a 2001 book that questions archaeological claims regarding the ancient Jewish presence in Israel and argues that Israeli archaeologists legitimize the Jewish state's "origin myth."

An online petition against Abu El-Haj had garnered nearly 1,000 signatures as of Tuesday, the bulk of them from students and graduates of Barnard or Columbia University, its institutional parent.

"This woman has written and made statements that are not based in fact and refused to recognize fact," said Elaine Bloom, a Barnard graduate and former Democratic member of the Florida House of Representatives who said she would reconsider her support for the college if the tenure decision goes forward. "And I think it's a very harmful direction from somebody who is in a professorial position."

The Bush administration has chosen to move against the Revolutionary Guard Corps because of what U.S. officials have described as its growing involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as its support for extremists throughout the Middle East, the sources said. The decision follows congressional pressure on the administration to toughen its stance against Tehran, as well as U.S. frustration with the ineffectiveness of U.N. resolutions against Iran's nuclear program, officials said...

...The order allows the United States to block the assets of terrorists and to disrupt operations by foreign businesses that "provide support, services or assistance to, or otherwise associate with, terrorists."...

..The main goal of the new designation is to clamp down on the Revolutionary Guard's vast business network, as well as on foreign companies conducting business linked to the military unit and its personnel. The administration plans to list many of the Revolutionary Guard's financial operations.

"Anyone doing business with these people will have to reevaluate their actions immediately," said a U.S. official familiar with the plan who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the decision has not been announced. "It increases the risks of people who have until now ignored the growing list of sanctions against the Iranians. It makes clear to everyone who the IRGC and their related businesses really are. It removes the excuses for doing business with these people."...

China's actions reverse a cycle during which Russia was the most reluctant among the veto-wielding members of the Security Council. "China used to hide behind Russia, but Russia is now hiding behind China," said a U.S. official familiar with negotiations...

The vote tonight was 9-1, with third generation San Franciscan Ed Jew turning in the veto vote, after getting up and affirming Savage's First Amendment right to express his opinion.

Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval had introduced a resolution condemning the radio talker. After the vote, he called for the tally to be rescinded and the proposal sent to committee, which essentially is a polite way of letting the issue die.

"For the record, I do not agree with comments allegedly made by Mr. Savage, but the First Amendment gives him the right to make those comments," Jew said...

...Michael Savage, on his show tonight, said he wants people to urge authorities to arrest illegal immigrants, because he is being targeted in a "dry run" to see how far illegal aliens can go in silencing free speech.

"This is a dry run against free speech in America by the Islamists and the illegal aliens who are now becoming one and the same," he said. "It's the same organizational structure. … I am the target of this dry run. They want to see how far they can get in silencing a voice of freedom in the United States of America. They want to see which, if any, governmental agencies will stop them."

"Guess what they learned so far?" he continued. "That not only will no governmental agency stop them in their attempts to kill free speech, they will aid them in their attempts to kill free speech. We have lost our freedoms already.

"Lady Liberty has been hog tied. She is being raped by the illegal aliens. She is being raped by the landlords who are using the illegal aliens. Lady Liberty is there in bindings screaming for us to release her," he said.

Savage noted another protest is scheduled tomorrow by illegal aliens...

"You have a strong federal civil rights action that you can file against Supervisor Sandoval and the city of San Francisco," he advised. "You have a constitutional right to state your political opinions and no city official has the right to lie about what you said or to call for a mob to come to your door to threaten you and to try to have you fired."...

The Consumer Product Safety Commission warned consumers to check at home and make sure their children were not playing with any of the recalled toys.

Government officials say no injuries have been reported with any of the products involved in the latest recalls and that the scope of the recalls was intentionally broad, to prevent injuries from occurring...

With the show's producer helpfully offering written tips during an interview, Saraa didn't get into how she hopes to die for her cause, be it suicide bombing, fighting the Israeli military or some other way. She carefully sidestepped any suggestion that she's subtly calling for the destruction of Israel

"Israel says that we are terrorists," Saraa said minutes before an interview with her was interrupted by an errant Israeli airstrike that slammed into an apartment building on the adjacent block. "But they are the ones that must stop their attacks against us and our kids."

Saraa is the sweet face of "Tomorrow's Pioneers," a weekly, hour-long Hamas television children's show best known for bringing the world a militant Mickey Mouse look-alike and then having him killed off by an Israeli interrogator...

..."A lot of people in Palestine have died as martyrs, and lots of Palestinians hope to be martyrs," Saraa said of Farfour's demise. "This is one of the ends."

Asked if she hoped one day to be a martyr, Saraa instinctively nodded her head.

"Of course," Saraa said. "It's something to be proud of. Every Palestinian citizen hopes to be a martyr."

Saraa helps deliver similar messages to Palestinian children from a Hamas TV set filled with colorful numbers and pictures of kittens. During the show, Saraa fields calls from Palestinian children who warble songs about Islam, liberating Jerusalem and finding answers in the barrel of a machine gun...

...On the show, Saraa offers moral lessons to viewers and urges them to do what they can to fight Israeli occupation. After some prodding in an interview, Saraa offered a personal message for Israeli girls her age.

"They have to leave," she said...

As a long-time observer of the publication, my first reaction to reading this on SPIEGEL ONLINE was: Are they on drugs?! - this directly contradicts everything they've reported for the past four years! My second reaction was: Have they finally gotten off the drugs?! Maybe reality is finally starting to sink in!...

Bishop G. Knoche moved an amendment “Examination of investment would exclude the option of divestiture.” Amendment is ruled consistent with fiduciary responsibility and ELCA policy. Question called for all matters before the house. Voted to end debate on B3 695-35. Amendment passed 472-261. B3 (twice amended) passed 637-105.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center deplores a resolution passed this weekend at the 10th biennial Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to ‘study’ the feasibility of a boycott against goods produced in Israeli 'settlements.' "This marks the first time a mainline American Protestant church has moved toward a possible boycott of Israel," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the leading Jewish human rights group. "While we note that the ELCA delegates have now joined the Presbyterian Church (USA) in explicitly rejecting divesting from companies doing business with Israel, they have decided to embrace one of the anti-Israel tactics adopted by United Kingdom trade unions and others in Europe."

“ELCA delegates would have made a stronger contribution to the quest for peace and justice in the Holy Land had they also raised the ransacking of Christian places of worship and recent forced conversion of a Christian professor in Gaza, as well as the unrelenting targeting of Israeli civilian communities by Palestinian Kassam rockets,” Cooper concluded.

In recent years, factions in some U.S. mainline Protestant churches like the Presbyterian Church USA and the United Church of Christ have proposed and even passed measures such as divestment and boycotts to punish Israel for implementing what they call “apartheid” conditions on the Palestinians. The Simon Wiesenthal Center has launched efforts to show members of these various congregations that such measures are one-sided in that Israel is singled out and held to a standard to which no other country is held.

The episode of Tomorrow’s Pioneers features a costumed adult playing Nahool the Bee at the zoo, tormenting domestic cats and lions. The lions become so enraged by the abuse that one of them repeatedly tries to attack Nahool.

Every time Nahool swings a cat by the tail, an act that can cause permanent physical and behavior problems for the animal, children can be heard bursting into laughter.

Ironically, the decision to terrorize and inflict physical pain on real animals in the episode is an attempt to teach children not to abuse animals. When the program returns to the studio, the children in the audience criticize Nahool for his behavior, and he is told never to do it again.

NOTE: Nahool is the character that replaced Farfur, the Mickey Mouse clone that was killed off in response to widespread international outrage that a knockoff of the lovable Walt Disney character was teaching children about hatred and world Islamic domination.

Khatib grabbed a weapon from a guard of the Ateret Kohanim yeshiva and then set off through the Old City's street shooting back wildly at another yeshiva guard who pursued him. Ten bystanders and one of the guards were injured in the crossfire before the shooter was killed.

When the incident was first broadcast, some witnesses claimed that the guard had shot and killed Khatib once he was already down. This allegation was later repeated by Arab Knesset member Ahmed Tibi, but as can be seen, is not evident from the video.

Khatib's acquaintances and relatives of the shooter expressed disbelief that he had been involved in the incident at all, saying he "was a quiet and introverted person… simply a person who is incapable of doing such a thing".

Some acquaintances went as far as to say that incident was made up by the two security guards in order to avoid murder charges, claiming that "there is no evidence" that Khatib had tried to snatch the gun and that the incident constituted "first-degree murder" in which the man was "killed for nothing".

Meanwhile, over the weekend, three Palestinian organizations – the military wings of Fatah, the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – claimed responsibility for the attempted terror attack which they referred to as "a military operation" in Jerusalem...

"Today there's no problem to edit tapes however you want," he said during a memorial for his son.

“The reported brutality of these killings is all the more shocking as it comes at a time when Egypt and Israel are discussing the issue of asylum seekers crossing into Israel,” said Bill Frelick, refugee policy director for Human Rights Watch.

In the June Sharm el-Sheik summit, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reportedly spoke with President Hosni Mubarak about the issue of the increasing flow of Sudanese migrants crossing the border into Israel...

...Egypt is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which prohibits arbitrary killings, including those resulting from unlawful or excessive use of force, and obligates states to investigate any such alleged killings. It is also a party to the UN Convention Against Torture, which prohibits resort to force amounting to inhuman and degrading treatment or torture, and requires states to investigate and prosecute any alleged incidents...

“Who sent you?” they asked. “What are you doing here.”

“Our mistake,” we said, and hurried out of there before they thought to stop us.

The sign is new since last summer’s war, a 19 year old from Rihane told us.

“We used to run around and play in that valley, but now no one can go there,” he said. “There are a lot more areas like that today than there used to be. There is more security everywhere now. The resistance is preparing itself. They’re much more curious than ever before.”...

All these villages are poor, in a state of general decline, and were thus unable to resist when a wealthy Shiite businessman named Ali Tajeddine offered to buy their land for two and four times its estimated value. Tajeddine is originally from the village of Hanaouay outside Tyre. He made his money trading diamonds in Sierra Leone before moving back to Lebanon and starting a successful contracting business. It’s said he’s funded by Iran and he’s widely believed to have strong ties to Hezbollah. He is reportedly a key player in Jihad al Binna (the Building Jihad), Hezbollah’s post-war reconstruction outfit.

Qotrani has sold off some 200 to 300 acres to Tajeddine, including just about all of Shbayl, which is technically part of Qotrani.

“They are trying to make demographic changes here. There are new people coming,” Qotrani’s mayor told us. “Shiites have moved here from the south and are living in apartments belonging to Ali Tajeddin, but we’re poor. What can we do?”...

The ACLU says it was "clear" even ex ante that Jarrar was not a security threat. According to the news story, their basis for this is that Jarrar is "a U.S. resident since 2005 and the husband of an American citizen." The complaint adds that Jarrar had already passed through TSA security checkpoints as further evidence that he was not a threat. More on that in a bit.

Now, who is Jarrar? He is a full-time NGO activist...

Abbas proposed that the corridor, currently a land barrier under which terror groups dig tunnels in order to move weapons and ammunition, be turned into a trench and flooded with sea water.

Once the corridor was flooded, any tunnels dug beneath it would collapse.

During the conference, Sultan gave a moving tribute to his mentor Qaradawi, describing himself as a "friend and pupil". Sultan's speech appears (in Arabic) on Qaradawi's own personal website, "Pupils do not forget their teachers". Interestingly, Sultan begins his speech by describing how he has been attacked for his association with Qaradawi in "Boston, Chicago, and Ohio" and the campaign to deny him US citizenship (a story I broke last year, "Hometown Jihad: Our Newest Citizen?") and brazenly saying that "I endorse Qaradawi; especially on the position of Israel, and support of the Palestinian cause." Another paper he delivered on the "scientific and intellectual development of Qaradawi" - again, posted on Qaradawi's own website...

...It is interesting that he mentions the "Palestinian cause", because another important speaker at the conference, HAMAS leader Khaled Mash'al also praised Qaradawi for his contribution to the "Palestinian cause"...

On Friday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg accepted the resignation of Debbie Almontaser, principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, an English-Arabic school set to open next month in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Almontaser had come under fire for comments she made to the New York Post about an "Intifada NYC" T-shirt that is sold by an activist group that shares an office with the Yemeni-American association that Almontaser represents.

The day before she condemned the T-shirt message's connection to Palestinian terrorism, Almontaser told the Post that "intifada" means "shaking off" and the shirts represented women "shaking off" oppression.

The comments infuriated the city's United Federation of Teachers president, Randi Weingarten, who called the message "war-mongering."

“That’s something that ought to be denounced, not be explained away,” she told the paper...

Just six Arabic speakers and one English-language learner out of 44 registered students have enrolled at the Brooklyn public academy that critics fear will become a city-funded Islamic school...

Thankfully, the Internet blew up the MSM monopoly – and the competition is deadly. To see the power of the Web, just take a look at the New York Times circulation figures and stock prices: dropping like stones. The young hardly consult newspapers anymore. The Internet, with all its faults, is their primary source thanks to its zero cost, speed, global coverage, multiplicity of voices, and – there’s video clips. Why read the biased, predictable, flat, uninformed Times?

If you haven’t tried it, go to the Web. Anyone interested in Jewish and Israeli issues, for example, has to be reading the Jerusalem Post and Haaretz on line every day, seeing the stories covered from different, often fresh perspectives. Anyone even remotely concerned about the ongoing jihadi war against Jews, Christians and other infidels has to be reading Web sites like Little Green Footballs, Solomonia, Atlas Shrugs and the Jawa Report.

If you get news from the Internet, you’d be able to see how papers like the Times and The Washington Post cover up and marginalize the jihad, “explaining” brutality and murder with “root causes,” i.e. poverty, “occupation” and “humiliation.” You’d look in vain for the latest body count from Thailand, the latest plot uncovered in Italy, or the latest Islamic “charity” group indicted in the U.S. Maybe on page C32, if it is covered at all.

So Americans are turning to the Web for news collated and analyzed by fellow citizen bloggers. The best bloggers write better than the columnists you read, and the video-bloggers are much smarter and more entertaining than the talking heads on CNN, etc. And it’s fun. Try it: go to Little Green Footballs and watch the delicious video clip of Christopher Hitchens devouring the spokesman from CAIR (Committee on American-Islamic Relations). Go to Miss Kelly’s blog and read about Imam Muhammad Masood of Sharon now fighting deportation. Solomonia covers the Boston mosque trial with details you won’t find in the press. You can go to Jihad Watch and learn the daily results of jihadi attacks around the globe. You would likely know none of this from The Boston Globe, the Times, the Post. You’d be ignorant.

The blogosphere is not all good and healthy. There’s the so-called Democratic “net-roots,” centered around Daily Kos, which posts thousands of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic messages. Not to mention all the straightforward anti-Semitism that floods the Web.

But more information is better than less. If you’re not spending time on the Web, you’re blind to the world we inhabit.

Today, in most places in the world, Jews have never had it so good. There is unprecedented freedom and security, prosperity and mobility. There is a Jewish state, not without problems but wealthy and strong. Anti-Semitic attacks are present but still thankfully rare. True, the atmosphere in Europe is decaying, but in the world’s truly dangerous places, there aren’t any Jews.

The real canary these days are the Christians, especially – but not only – in Muslim countries. We may be unaccustomed to thinking of Christians as victims, but they are under siege across the globe. In South Sudan, hundreds of thousands of Christians were killed, and tens of thousands enslaved in an Islamic jihad. Churches are burned by Muslims today. In Indonesia and Pakistan Christians are murdered in the streets. The most basic human right – freedom of religion – is denied upon penalty of death to Muslims who convert to Christianity. In Iraq, where there were Christians before there were Muslims or Arabs, Christians are kidnapped and ransomed, and driven out with bullets and beheadings.

In an open letter to Columbia University and its Barnard College affiliate, Stern charged that anthropology Prof. Nadia Abu El Haj is unqualified for tenure at the institutions. Her book Facts on the Ground alleges that archaeologists have "created the fact of an ancient Israelite/Jewish nation" and that the ancient Israelite kingdoms are a "pure political fabrication."

Stern argued that El Haj's evidence is not professional and ignores evidence pointing to the existence of the Biblical kingdoms and that many statements are made without sources.

A few weeks later, a task force of New England Methodists seeks to punish Israel by issuing a blacklist of companies that do business with Israel’s defense establishment. The supporting material accompanying the blacklist makes little, if any mention whatsoever of the recent violence in the Gaza Strip. Instead the documents focus entirely on the Israeli occupation as a source of Palestinian suffering and violence...

Yet take away the obnoxious, and at times silly, Israel bashing, and the report is actually a very useful briefing on those (mostly) military contractors that reinforce the military infrastructure of Israel.

So if you’ve ever wanted to know which companies are the lifeline of Israel’s security, look no further than the United Methodist Church divestment list. It details everything from which company sells Israel what type of plane, to the necessity of modern night vision goggles for pilots. It even elaborates on the cement company that built Israel’s long security wall.
And thanks to the diligent research of the Methodists, we now know the top 20 companies that deserve our financial support...

The Justice Department this summer abruptly cancelled a high-profile “Muslim outreach” event featuring Attorney General Alberto Gonzales after discovering that one of the invited guests was an officer of an organization just named as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in a major terrorism case.

The scheduled event was slated to take place in the main department auditorium known as the Great Hall of Justice on June 27—with Gonzales billed as the keynote speaker. The program was titled “Securing America: Law Enforcement Partnerships with American Muslim, Arab, Middle Eastern and South Asian Communities,” according to the official invitation, which went out to scores of groups and individuals last spring.

But after the invites went out, aides to Gonzales suddenly became alarmed that it could create a new embarrassment for the embattled attorney general. The reason: one of the featured speakers was a prominent Northern Virginia imam who serves as vice president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which had just been branded by federal prosecutors in court papers as a U.S. branch of the Muslim Brotherhood—the international movement, based in Egypt, dedicated to the creation of a worldwide Islamic caliphate. ISNA, which has not been charged with any crime, was among more than a hundred organizations and individuals who were listed in late May as “unindicted co-conspirators” in the prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation—the Texas-based group now on trial in Dallas for allegedly conspiring to funnel funds to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas...

Choudhury notes the vast amounts of money that Saudi Arabia, especially, is pouring into Bangladesh to establish madrassas that teach hatred without restriction. 64,000 madrassas. 3,780 kindergarten madrassas. While other schools require licenses to operate in his country, he says, the madrassas do not and are not subject to supervision. With the high incidence of poverty, unemployment and illiteracy in Bangladesh, these incubators of what he calls criminal ideas have a captive audience. But he believes he can combat their influence with good information and good ideas. He's here to ask us to help in whatever way we can...

In "Facts on the Ground. Archeological Practice and Territorial Self Fashioning in Israeli Society," Abu El Haj alleges that archaeologists have “created the fact of an ancient Israelite/Jewish nation,” where none actually existed. She asserts that the ancient Israelite kingdoms are a “pure political fabrication.”

We are submitting this petition because the use of evidence in "Facts on the Ground" fails to meet the standards of scholarship that are expected of Columbia and Barnard undergraduates...

This group, Hamas, believe they are the leaders of Islam. The violin, piano, flute, all these instruments are banned. Only the drum is allowed. They say any other instrument is not mentioned in the Koran.

[…] Hamas have already beaten one of my singers for singing for Fatah. He was attacked at the wedding where he went to perform.

We had to send him to Israel for hospital treatment...

Hammer: Rivers of blood everywhere. Syria and Iran will take pieces of Iraq. Anti-American governments will laugh. You will be a joke of a country that no one will take seriously.

I will kill myself if it happens. I am completely serious. The militias will hunt down and kill me and my family. I will beat them to it by killing myself.

I worked for the U.S. government for four years. Everyone who works as an interpreter for four years and gets a signature from a General or a Senator gets a Green Card. My hope is to get this somehow. I will do anything for this.

I am doing this for my son. Everything for my son. I don’t want my son living here getting into religion and militias and Al Qaeda. I want my son to be free, to have a girlfriend, to get married, and to be a good citizen...

...MJT: Why is there peace in Kurdistan but not in this part of Iraq?

Hammer: The Kurds got rid of Saddam earlier. They fought against Saddam just like the Shia fought against Saddam, but the Kurds won their war and the Shia lost. In 1991 the Americans were heroes to the Kurds, but they disappointed the Shia and left them to Saddam. They were not reliable. So the next time, in 2003, some Shia thought they should get help from Iran. They know Iran is not going anywhere. Iran is a more reliable ally than the Americans...

Here is the situation regarding the enterprise known as Your Black Muslim Bakery, located on San Pablo Avenue in Oakland, Calif. Its founder, a man named Yusuf Bey, was arrested in 2002 and charged with forcing an underage girl to have sex. Subsequent investigation suggested that he had a long history of rape and abuse of his followers and had by this means fathered numerous children out of wedlock. Bey died in September 2003 before his case could come to trial. His son Yusuf Bey IV has since been arrested twice, first on suspicion of leading a gang that had trashed two Oakland liquor stores and intimidated their owners, and second (and perhaps less Islamically) for running over a San Francisco bouncer with his car. Nedir Bey, one of Yusuf Bey's "spiritually adopted" sons, is also alleged to have beaten a possible business rival with a flashlight, while another member of the gang tortured the victim with a heated knife.

These and several other crimes of violence were investigated by the East Bay Express, a local community weekly. Reporter Chris Thompson was subjected to threats and to aggressive stalking, and, for his own safety, worked in a different county for several months after his series about YBMB ran. The paper's editor, Stephen Buel, has been quoted as saying that his office and staff were deluged with threats and haunted by unpleasant characters and that the threats indicated that they originated with Your Black Muslim Bakery. "We have several threats left on voice mail that we obviously had a record of. One of the threats featured a taped quotation of a speech from Yusuf Bey the elder," said Buel. At a certain point, Buel admits, it became more trouble than it was worth to write about YBMB...

...Now, I'm just asking, but: rape, polygamy, intimidation, torture, murder, all these actions emanating from one address and some of them performed in the name of a fanatical ideology. What does it take before the police decide to raid the premises? Should we wait until unveiled women are attacked on the street or until honor killings or female circumcision take hold? (There is no official connection between YBMB and Louis Farrakhan's racist and cultish Nation of Islam, though it seems that Yusuf Bey Sr. did convert to some form of Islam under that sinister organization's auspices.)

My question was answered last Friday, when the Oakland Police Department finally did storm the premises, along with three neighboring homes, and arrested seven people, including Yusuf Bey IV. This, however, was too late to save the life of Chauncey Bailey, the well-liked editor of the black-owned Oakland Post, who had decided to take up where the East Bay Express had left off and to investigate the finances of YBMB. He was shot dead last Thursday in broad daylight on an Oakland street. A young handyman from YBMB named Devaughndre Broussard has been charged in the Bailey case, and other members of the group are being investigated for involvement in the earlier crimes. The "bakery" itself owes more than $200,000 in back taxes and filed for bankruptcy protection last October.

Now, again, I am just asking, but what if this racket had been named the White Christian or Aryan Nations Cookie Parlor? (Motto and mission statement: "Don't F*** With Us.") I think that Oakland's mayor, Ron Dellums—who I was startled to find was still alive—would have joined a picket line around the store (as would I). The same would doubtless have been true of Rep. Barbara Lee, in whose district the YBMB was situated. But instead, in its role as a "community business," the YBMB enjoyed warm support and endorsement from both the mayor and the congresswoman. And the guns for past and future slayings were inside the store...

For the first time since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Russia plans to re-operate the Tartus and Latakia ports in Syria as permanent bases for the Russian Navy in the Mediterranean basin, according to recent western media reports.

Rumors on the growing Russian activity in the Mediterranean began spreading following a statement by Russian Navy commander, Admiral Vladimir Masorin, as he visited the Russian Navy base in the Sebastopol port in Ukraine.

"Being present in the Mediterranean is very important for our Navy in the Black Sea," the admiral said...

Sources in the IDF Central Command said they had received reports about a Palestinian planning an attack against an IDF checkpoint or a nearby settlement.

A Palestinian who was subsequently arrested led the troops to a 10-kilogram explosive device that was hidden inside a dead lamb near Hawara and Eilon Moreh.

It was unclear whether the Palestinian planned to detonate the bomb while it was inside the lamb or if he was merely using the animal to hide the explosives while he transported them...

Visitors to the cemetery in the southern city of Czestochowa discovered the damage on Sunday and police have not yet found the culprits, said Silesia regional police spokesman Andrzej Gaska.

"This is one of the biggest acts of destruction in years," said Jan Gebert, spokesman for the Jewish community in Warsaw. "In fact, I can't think of any other cases in Europe that have been this big." ...

...This country was home to about 3.5 million Jews - Europe's largest Jewish community - until the Holocaust, when most were killed by Nazi Germany. Today there are an estimated 30,000 Jews in Poland.

But he was stopped in his tracks when Gahr-Store told him that Norway had now severed the contacts it had opened with Hamas during the period of the Palestinian unity government...

The officials said the president of the university, Dr. Zaher Khail, had assisted Hamas in kidnapping the professor.

They added that senior officials in the office of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh played a major role in forcing her to convert to Islam.

"She was forced to convert to Islam against her will," the Fatah officials said. "She was kidnapped and held for two weeks during which time she was not allowed to contact her family." Sayegh is the dean of the Science and Technology Faculty at Palestine University. She has represented the university at numerous conferences around the world over the past few years and is considered one of the most prominent experts in her field.

According to the Fatah officials, she went missing in late June. When her family's attempts to find her failed, they sought the help of Haniyeh's office.

Two weeks later the family was summoned to a meeting with some of Haniyeh's aides, who were accompanied by the professor.

At the meeting, which was held at the home of Hamas official Rafik Makki, the family was told that the professor had converted to Islam and married a Muslim man...

Max Grunberg is a founding member of the Raoul Wallenberg Honorary Citizen Committee, based in Ra'anana. Grunberg has pressed efforts toward "immediately clarifying the fate of Raoul Wallenberg" in recent letters to Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

...Wallenberg was arrested by the Soviets in January, 1945. Under diplomatic pressure in 1957, the Soviet authorities claimed he had died of a heart attack a decade earlier in Moscow's Lubyanka Prison, but this assertion remains widely doubted...

The current owner of the home, Marcial Peredo, took the witness stand and explained that he was leveling the yard at his new Falls Church home when he stumbled onto a stash of videotapes buried in the ground. Peredo testified that he also discovered burned videotape cases, cellular telephones, money, and maps in his backyard barbeque pit.

The video features one of the defendants in the trial, Mufid Abdulqader – an HLF fundraiser, a member of the musical troupe Al-Sakra, and half-brother to HAMAS Supreme Commander in Exile, Khalid Mishal. In the recording, Abdulqader acts as a HAMAS fighter singing “I am HAMAS” and “I protect my land Palestine.”

Later in the skit the audience repeats a line sung by Mufid, “The people of Palestine do not die. No matter how many you kill, O pimp.” Mufid then responds, “I will make your casket, and dig your grave in Jenin.”

The skit ends as Mufid Abdulqader pulls out a gun and shoots the “Jew,” killing him. He then concludes: “God forbid that we put down our weapons; for sake of the country death will become easy.”

The new security in Gaza partly explains why there were so many journalists on this tour. After the kidnapping of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, Gaza was a no-go area for us. Now Alan is free and a banner hangs in front of the main press building in Gaza city: "No more threat to our foreign visitors and guests -- Hamas." There is a new sheriff in Gaza.

“I’m the chief police detective for the Tel Aviv area,” the man explained. “Lots of people know me. But when I leave this world, no one will remember that I was ever alive. But you will be remembered forever.”

“I’m going to die just like everyone else,” Yifat said.

“Don’t make fun,” said the detective, mistaking Yifat’s modesty for contempt. “You should appreciate the gift. I’d give anything to be in that picture.”...

My guess is that this is the one area where the BBC is genuinely alarmed by the consequences of its actions. Its reporting of the Middle East has been so relentlessly pro-Palestinian for so long, and that coverage is so influential, that it finds itself an actual player in the conflict, as opposed to an impartial observer.

The BBC is now regarded by Palestinian factions as a sympathetic but naive middleman to be manipulated at will, rather as the Catholic Church in Ireland was manipulated by the IRA during the Troubles. I certainly wouldn’t go so far as to call Johnston a friend of Hamas; but it is possible that he was a victim of this dynamic.

At any rate, don’t expect the Balen Report to be published any time soon.

This is of course especially true when your life literally depends on the good graces of your primary sources...

When asked to estimate the value of the cosmic jewel, Ronald Winston, chief executive officer (CEO) of Harry Winston, Inc., indicated that such a large diamond probably would depress the value of the market, stating, “Who knows? It may be a self-deflating prophecy because there is so much of it.”

The diamond is actually the crystallized interior of a white dwarf – or the hot core of a star that is left over after the star uses up its nuclear fuel and dies. It is made mostly of carbon and is coated by a thin layer of hydrogen and helium gasses...

"Chirac has deliberately kept his information secret in order to protect Palestinian interests," Bassam Abu Sharief, Arafat's media advisor, told a news conference in Ramallah.

The Palestinian leader died in a French hospital in 2004 after months of an undisclosed illness believed to be the result of poison.

Abu Sharief accused Israel of killing Arafat by a poison that stops the production of red blood cells. Arafat's three doctors also knew how Arafat died and the sort of poison used, he said.

He refused to give more details which he said "would be helpful to arrest the criminal in the future."

After winning the 2006 parliamentary elections, the Islamic Hamas movement has demanded the file of its rival Fatah chief's death be opened for investigation.

I am sending this email because I listened to your interview with Dr. Ehrenfeld this morning. First, kudos to her. My prayers will be with her. I want to make one thing very clear to you from my perspective as a librarian, and I have been working in public libraries since Aug 01: You will never find this book on most public library shelves in America. Libraries–and this is a sad, sad thing that almost stopped me from becoming a librarian–are unabashadly and radically progressive. Simply go to ALA’s website and read some of their politics, especially issues surrounding the Patriot Act. Not hidden, not fair, not balanced. They preach fair access to all ideas without bias with one hand and bash all aspects of any Republican administration with the other. Michael Moore and Al Franken get top billing while Tammy Bruce and Michelle Malkin are not to be found. The bias is inescapable and pernicious. There I times I feel vaguely dirty because I work in such an environment.

So don’t expect public libraries in the US to stand behind Dr. Ehrenfeld and don’t expect them to stand for free speech. She is not bashing Bush, she is not talking diplomacy with the ‘poor misguided jihadists who are only fighting back against our evil imperialistic ways’, and she is telling the truth. All things abhored by the progressive public libraries of the United States...

The statement, which was approved unanimously by 15 nations, also expressed concern that Hizbullah has not thus far released any information regarding the soldiers' condition...

...Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has consistently refused to confirm whether Goldwasser and Regev were alive...

The worldwide recall being announced Thursday involves 967,000 plastic preschool toys made by a Chinese vendor and sold in the United States between May and August. It is the latest in a wave of recalls that has heightened global concern about the safety of Chinese-made products.

Until now, he had been identified only as Nihad LNU (last name unknown) in FBI reports and analyses. The meeting occurred in a Philadelphia hotel in the wake of a White House ceremony formalizing the Oslo Accords, a peace deal with the potential to end the decades-old conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

CAIR, which touts itself as America’s premier Muslim civil rights organization, was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the terror support trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development and five of its officials. Omar Ahmad, who founded CAIR with Awad in 1994 and was previously identified as attending the Philadelphia meeting, also was named as an unindicted co-conspirator...

Spencer, a well-respected author and the director of www.jihadwatch.org, spoke today for YAF on "The Truth about CAIR" on the campus of George Washington University. As a consequence of this invitation, YAF's president Ron Robinson received a threatening and possibly defamatory letter written by CAIR's acting attorney, Joseph E. Sandler, of the law firm Sandler, Reiff & Young, P.C.

Sandler's letter (available in pdf format here) accuses Mr. Spencer, without offering any factual support, of being a "well-known purveyor of hatred and bigotry against Muslims," with "a history of false and defamatory statements." Sandler goes on to "demand that YAF cancel the subject session or else take steps to ensure that false and defamatory statements are not disseminated," and states an intention to pursue a "legal remedy" against YAF, should CAIR deem statements made by Spencer at the session "false and defamatory."

CAIR's letter appears to be aimed at maliciously harming Spencer's reputation, interfering in his lawful employment, and aimed to discourage both Spencer and YAF from exercising their fundamental rights to free speech and assembly. Furthermore, the letter wrongfully implies that YAF has an independent duty to censor Spencer, and that it may be subject to suit for allowing Spencer to speak on private property. It is our opinion that CAIR's pre-emptive accusations are without merit, without any legal basis, and that CAIR has yet to prove any of its statements as true.

Therefore, the Legal Project hereby gives CAIR and its attorneys notice that it, too, will pursue "every available and appropriate legal remedy to redress any false or defamatory statements that are made" or have been made by CAIR and its attorneys against Spencer. We advise CAIR's staff to govern themselves accordingly.

The Legal Project, established by the Middle East Forum in June 2007, is dedicated to safeguarding the democratic liberties afforded by the Constitution to U.S. citizens, namely the rights to free speech and free assembly. The Legal Project protects researchers and analysts working on the topics of terrorism, terrorist funding, Islam, and Islamism against those who seek to silence them through intimidation, defamation, and predatory lawsuits.

According to the soldier, female IDF troops operating night vision devices identified several refugees approaching the border in an attempt to infiltrate Israel and alerted other soldiers who arrived after a few minutes in an army jeep.

However, Egyptian troops who also discovered the refugees, fired upon them, immediately killing two and wounding a third. A fourth refugee ran towards the fence and an IDF soldier stretched out his hands, trying to help him cross.

At that point, the soldier recalled, two Egyptian soldiers arrived and started pulling at the refugee's legs.

"It was literally like we were playing 'tug of war' with this man," the soldier said. The soldier eventually loosened his grip on the man, fearing the Egyptians would shoot him.

The clash resulted from an incident the night before, when Islamic Jihad gunmen fired in the air in celebration during a wedding, both sides said. Hamas, which overran the Gaza Strip in a lightning operation last month, has banned firing weapons in public.

On Wednesday, the Hamas militia fired a rocket at a house in Gaza City and traded fire with Islamic Jihad militants inside. Gunfire could be heard for several hours.

Islamic Jihad leader Khader Habib said the raid was unnecessary. "I solved the situation at the wedding yesterday," he said.

Hamas said in a statement that the Islamic Jihad militants were ordered to hand over their weapons but failed to do so, and we implemented the law...

Nuradin Abdi...agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to providing material support for terrorists, 10TV's Kevin Landers reported.

He was indicted on four counts but only pleaded guilty to the conspiracy to provide material support charge, Landers reported...

...Abdi's attorney spoke with reporters following his client's hearing.

"It's better to minimize your losses," said Mahir Sharif. "He has a life ahead of him. Let's face it, with all due respect to America and Americans, the jury he was going to face are not his peers."...

"He said, 'I am a Muslim I'm not going to go in front of the government and testify against any other Muslims,'" Sharif said...

...Abdi will most likely be sentenced to 10 years in prison, Landers reported. He will also face deportation after being released...

An affluent lawyer in Damascus drives his car every other day for about 50 kilometers to buy his fruits and vegetables even though he can buy them easily in Damascus. One can find the largest lettuce heads and the biggest tomatoes in Damascus but he would not buy them for anything in the world. It turned out that the Syrian government uses its sewer water, without any recycling or possibly poor recycling, to water the farms surrounding Damascus. Untreated sewer water contains lots of fertilizers, which explains the size of the lettuce and tomatoes. The lawyer tells me they taste awful. I am ashamed of telling this story about my beloved Syria but the reality is that Assad spends billions on arms and missiles and the people eat sewer-laden food. If our leaders in Syria were accountable the way the Israeli leaders are accountable to their people, Syria would become a trading partner with Israel instead of lobbing its missiles, via Hezbollah, against Israelis.

But not everything is bad. There is something unique about Syria that I hope Israelis will get to see for themselves...

In the interview, the unnamed officer said Hizbullah gunmen would have surrendered if the fighting last summer had continued for another 10 days...

...The officer shown on Channel 10 said the organization's gunmen had been running low on food and water and facing rapidly diminishing arms supplies.

The officer also said that many Hizbullah commanders were ordered to hide before the war started, and that the gunmen who remained were forced to fire Katyusha rockets from inside urban populations because of the IDF's efficiency in destroying launchers minutes after a launch had been detected.

He said that when the gunmen relocated to cities and villages, they knew innocent civilians would be hurt as a consequence.

The quick arrival of IAF jets at rocket-launch sites, sometimes only four to five minutes after a Katyusha was fired, "surprised" Hizbullah, the officer said.

The deliberate pace of the attack, the systematic and thorough process of clearing the city house by house, street by street, and block by block, were factors in this; but the civilian and military casualties were also kept low by the unexpected and overwhelming cooperation of ordinary Iraqi citizens, who pointed out the enemy and many of the bombs set to ambush troops.

There were interesting dynamics unfolding. For instance, our soldiers were much more reluctant to use force when civilians were helping. I saw numerous occasions where soldiers cleared out all the civilians in areas before attacking known targets that civilians had pointed out. For instance, in the more than two dozen houses and buildings rigged as giant bombs, civilians pointed out many of those bombs. Our soldiers and Iraqi soldiers simply stopped, cleared out the people, and then destroyed the buildings, but each time they worked harder to mitigate damage to surrounding houses, and paid people for the unavoidable damages when they occurred...