December 2006 Archives

According to the website, "Imam Mahdi (may God hasten his reappearance) will appear all of a sudden on the world scene with a voice from the skies announcing his reappearance at the holy Ka'ba in Mecca."

The Islamic Republic of Iran broadcasting (IRIB) website said in a program called 'The World Towards Illumination,' that the Mahdi will reappear in Mecca and form an army to defeat Islam's enemies in a series of apocalyptic battles, in which the Mahdi will overcome his archvillain in Jerusalem...

..."After his appearance the Imam would remain in Mecca for some time, and then go to Medina... a descendant of the Prophet's archenemy Abu Sofyan will seize Syria and attack Iraq and the Hejaz with the ferocity of a beast… finally Imam Mahdi sends troops who kill the Sofyani in Beit ol-Moqaddas (Jerusalem), the Islamic holy city in Palestine that is currently under occupation of the Zionists," the IRIB added.

'Jesus will be Mahdi's lieutenant' [I'm so disappointed, I expected better of you, Jesus. -S]

According to the Iranian series, the Mahdi will reappear on earth with Jesus: "We read in the book Tazkarat ol-Olia, 'the Mahdi will come with Jesus son of Mary accompanying him.' …Imam Mahdi will be the leader while Prophet Jesus will act as his lieutenant in the struggle against oppression and establishment of justice in the world. Jesus had himself given the tidings of the coming of God's last messenger and will see Mohammad's ideals materialize in the time of the Mahdi."...

The IRIB website is filled with details of the Mahdi's return, including descriptions of physical attributes of "the perfect human being."

"He will appear as a handsome young man, clad in neat clothes and exuding the fragrance of paradise… He has a radiant forehead, black piercing eyes and a broad chest. He very much resembles his ancestor Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

“Heavenly light and justice accompany him. He will overcome enemies and oppressors with the help of God, and as per the promise of the Almighty the Mahdi will eradicate all corruption and injustice from the face of the earth and establish the global government of peace, justice and equity."...

Indeed, since evacuating Gaza some 16 months ago, Israelis have been subjected to a nearly daily rain of rockets launched by Palestinians in Gaza. As always, the purpose of these rockets has been to kill or maim Israeli civilians. As always, the attacks are launched from Palestinian civilian centers, frequently from within or alongside homes.

The strategy is no less effective for its transparency: With any luck, not only will Israeli civilians die, but Israel will be forced to choose between doing nothing and attempting to retaliate against the attackers and thereby risking harm to Palestinian non-combatants. If, as is particularly likely in the densely populated Gaza Strip, the Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians also bring about Israeli reprisals that harm Palestinian civilians, the thinking goes, Palestinians will win a public relations victory at Israel’s expense.

One might imagine that the United Nations would either criticize the Palestinians’ deliberate targeting of the Israeli civilian population, or, at least criticize the Palestinians’ victimization of their own civilians by using them as human shields since both practices constitute egregious violations of international law.

Alas, one would have to be truly unfamiliar with the United Nations in order to expect that to occur. Keeping faith with an inviolate and astonishingly ill-hidden anti-Israel bias, the U.N. General Assembly and its new Human Rights Council have chosen not to criticize either the Palestinian targeting of Israeli civilians or the Palestinians’ use of their own civilians as human shields. Instead, they have criticized only the Israelis.

The fecklessness of the United Nations is nothing new, and it is barely worth bemoaning.

But we have a right to expect more of the human rights community which, like the United Nations, continues to ignore the obvious when it comes to the Middle East. In its zeal to criticize Israel, it has substituted political fashion for clear and honest thinking. The inhabitants of the Middle East suffer as a result, and the cause of human rights suffers as well.

Nick Carter , the president of Andover Newton Theological School, and David Gordis, president of Hebrew College, yesterday announced that they had sent a joint letter to leaders of the Islamic Society of Boston, which is building the mosque, and The David Project, a Jewish organization that has raised questions about the mosque's leadership, offering outlines for a resolution to the long-running and bitter dispute. Andover Newton and Hebrew College are located on the same hilltop in Newton Centre, and their jointly sponsored program, the Interreligious Center for Public Life, has met with both the Islamic Society and the David Project in an effort to find a solution.

The two presidents proposed not only that the two groups drop their suits, but that they issue a joint statement condemning terrorism, declare their shared support for the construction of houses of worship, support the creation of a new center for interfaith understanding, and that they hold a joint "celebratory event."

"We don't mind being called naive, but there's a simplicity about this that tries to say to each of them that we think this is something worthy of your consideration -- it's a chance for peace to break out," Carter said. "It has rarely produced productive results to try and go back and find out who was to blame. Sometimes it's easier to try and listen carefully to what each is trying to say."...

"The entire issue is going back to Israel," Awad adds. "If you love Israel, you're OK. If you question Israel, you're not. If that is the litmus test, no American Muslim and no freedom-loving person is going to pass that test."...

“We love America, but have doubts,” Jack said. “They let Syria come in here in 1991 for help in Iraq.” Jack was referring to former Secretary of State James Baker, who green-lighted Syria’s invasion and overlordship in Lebanon in exchange for “help” during the first Persian Gulf War. How Hafez Assad lent any meaningful assistance in ousting Saddam Hussein from Kuwait has never been clear. Lebanese were sold to the Syrian wolf for a cheap price indeed, and Aoun constantly harps on this point to his followers...

...“The US will hand us over to the Syrians again for help in Iraq,” Antonios said. “That is what Washington is speaking of doing right now.”

Actually, the Iraq Study Group (headed by none other than James Baker himself) explicitly said Lebanon is off the table, that Assad cannot expect any American support for his little imperialistic adventures. But this detail has been lost in the wash, and I can hardly blame Jack and Antonios for suspecting the worst now that Baker is back...

Pat Patterson is a Social Studies teacher who has been at AHS since September 2003 (and did his student teaching with Meyers years prior)...He, Meyers and Francis were the real invitors. There were 6 teachers who had permitted WOJ into their classrooms: Meyers, Patterson, Katie Pina, Chandler Parker, Mary Robb and Fred Hopkins...notice anyone missing? That's right, in spite of not have invited WOJ onto his Physics classes, Francis claims to have had his 1st amendment rights violated....

The 140+ other teachers in the building (and hundreds others district wide) are superlative and I am proud to be associated with them. There are a few bad apples who have forgotten the reason they are in the building - the kids of Andover. They are more concerned with 1) their ideology and 2) "the union".

I have been told by a colleague who has been at AHS for decades...that there is a not so subtle undercurrent of anti-semitism at the HS. I guess I chose not to see it, but it is very apparent to me now.

I have worked with [several principals] in my career - Peter Anderson is BY FAR the hardest working, best informed, most intelligent and most fair principal I have had the privilege of working for. He was disturbed when he found out [about the harassment among the teachers].

To prevent this kind of thing from happening again Anderson has tried to set up a speakers bureau that consisted of teachers and students. Meyers sent a missive to the members to not participate in any such panel at the risk of having a 1st amendment suit filed against any participants in said panel. Apparently Meyers' 1st amendment rights are more important than anyone else's...

Let me say this: the rank and file met with all of the union leadership on the Thursday after WOJ was initially scheduled to speak. Without exception the leadership was begged not to fight this battle in the press and to use existing channels (grievance process) to settle the dispute. In spite of what they were asked to do, the ACLU was called the same day and press releases with half truths were issued. Union leaders who were expressly asked NOT to fight a battle against the administration in the press or in the legal system - and then willfully and wantonly disregarded the desires of the people who elected them to union office is the primary topic of concern among 150+ teachers. The new Mass Teachers Association representative was at the HS last week and got an earful from the rank and file about Meyers' and other Andover Education Association leaders' misuse of their power.

According to Israeli intelligence information, Hizbullah is smuggling cash into the Gaza Strip and paying "a number of unknown local splinter groups" for each attack.

Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) sources said the Islamist organization paid several thousand dollars for each attack, with the amount dependent on the number of Israelis killed or wounded.

"We know that Hizbullah is involved in funding terrorist activity in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank," a security official said.

"Palestinian terrorists get thousands of dollars per attack. Sometimes they are paid before the attack and sometimes they submit a bill to Lebanon afterward and the money gets transferred a short while later."

According to the officials, while Islamic Jihad was behind most recent rocket attacks - including the one on Tuesday night that critically wounded 14-year-old Adir Basad in Sderot - several splinter terrorists groups are also involved and have received direct funding from Hizbullah.
According to security officials, Islamic Jihad gets the money via its headquarters in Damascus while Fatah's Tanzim terror group and the Popular Resistance Committees receive payment from Hizbullah in Lebanon.

All of the money originated in Iran, the officials said.

Government officials said Hamas was not currently involved in firing missiles, but was doing nothing to stop those who were...

...The next summer, they went back to Iran to visit with their families. We were afraid for our friends. We knew the country was in turmoil...They finally returned a week before school. The two seemed to pick up right where they had left off.

It was a sunny Sunday morning and Amy went out right after breakfast and met Amir in his backyard. We watched as they began to play and turned away to read the Sunday paper. ...We were surprised when Amy came back inside a short while later. She walked by us with her head down and started up the stairs to her room. We had expected to have to call her in for lunch so it was odd that she came back so early. I called after her and asked her what was wrong. She told me how little 5-year-old Amir had matter-of-factly informed my innocent 5-year-old daughter that because she is a Jew it is his duty to kill her.

I went right over to talk with my friend and neighbor. Hamid was deeply embarrassed. He hastened to explain that: “Over there, the radio and TV were full of that kind of thing - you simply couldn’t avoid it. He assumed that Amir had heard this kind of thing on the radio or TV because no one in his family believed such things. He was sure, he told me, that now that Amir was back here he would soon forget it. He assured me that he would talk with Amir and was sure that the boy didn’t even understand what he was saying.

I could see how distressed he was and told him that I understood and that I appreciated his concern. We looked at each other and shook hands and patted each other on the shoulder. I was sure that it would not change things between our families.

Remember that this was twenty years before September 11, 2001...

So Hezbollah waved the benign and patriotic cedar tree flag instead...

...But the “resistance” logo for the most part wasn’t in evidence.

Most Lebanese Christians, Sunnis, and Druze never visit Hezbollah's strongholds. "Why the hell would I want to go there?" a friend once asked me. "For some sight-seeing?"

I go to Hezbollah, though, and I did it again a few times on this trip. After having done so within days of the rally, the sheer cynicism of flying the Lebanese flag in front of the cameras is painfully obvious.

Lebanese flags are ubiquitous in the Christian, Sunni, and Druze regions of Lebanon. Lebanon is perhaps the most be-flagged country I’ve ever seen. But Lebanese flags scarcely exist in the areas under control by Hezbollah. (They have a state-within-a-state, after all, with parallel institutions, schools, military, police, and foreign policy. Why not flags, too?) The cedar tree flags downtown are mere props in a media battle. Hezbollah wants to look mainstream and patriotic. A road trip to the south shows this is a lie. (I’ll document my trip south in future articles.)...

A few comments from Naim Ateek, an Anglican priest and founder of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem, are indicative of this rhetoric. At Notre Dame in 2001, Ateek preached on "The Zionist Ideology of Domination Versus the Reign of God." He identified "Jesus Christ, living in our country as a Palestinian under occupation," and declared that "Israel has placed a large boulder, a big stone that has metaphorically shut off the Palestinians in a tomb. It is similar to the stone placed on the entrance of Jesus' tomb." That same year, for his Easter message, Ateek proclaimed: "In this season of Lent, it seems to many of us that Jesus is on the cross again with thousands of crucified Palestinians around Him. ... The Israeli government crucifixion system is operating daily."

At a worship service in Jerusalem in April 2002, he stated: "Palestinians have been condemned as a nation by Israel, and sentenced to destruction. The accusations of people in power are strikingly similar throughout history to the charges leveled against Jesus in this city—terrorist, evildoer, or rebel and a subversive person. Palestinians are being crucified today for refusing to succumb to Israel's demand for greater concession on land."

The rhetoric is overblown. Jesus did not advise his followers to blow up Romans (and Ateek is not advising his followers to blow up Jews, but by lumping all Palestinians into one category, he risks that impression); Palestinians have not been sentenced to destruction. Ateek is hardly silenced. On the contrary, he continues to hold international conferences at his center and give talks and sermons at Notre Dame, the Center for Jewish-Christian Relations at Cambridge University, the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and elsewhere.

Ateek's rhetoric is also slippery, since its anti-Jewish impact is often more a matter of perception. For a convocation at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he preached concerning Jesus' messages: "They reflect an inclusive commitment to one's fellow humanity and a ministry that has depth and breadth of scope—a commitment to the poor, a commitment to the ministry of healing, a commitment to justice and liberation of the oppressed, a commitment to jubilee which involves economic justice for all. I believe that these words constituted a paradigm shift at the time of Jesus, and they provide us with the basis of a paradigm shift for ministry in the twenty-first century." In making this claim, he erases Jesus' Judaism. If concern for the poor originated with Jesus, then the church might follow that ancient heretic Marcion and jettison the entire "Old Testament."...

Ziyad Al-Najdawi: I will tell you the way he told it. It was not as some people who want to hurt President Saddam claim - that he was found in a so-called hole. No. President Saddam Hussein was not captured at the place shown on TV. He was captured in a house, while he was praying...

...When President Saddam was captured – as somebody from the Al-Dour region told us - gas was used in that region, This gas affected animals and human beings alike, and no one could do anything...

I tried to remove myself from being confronted as a “goy,” but it kept getting thrown back in my face. The more I was identified as a “goy,” the less I wanted to a part of Brandeis and associate with the Jewish community. A few weeks ago, I saw on someone’s Facebook profile a typical chain message posted on their comment “wall” which stated, “If you break the chain, you’ll be cursed and become a GOY for the next 10 years...” Being a “goy” is now a curse? Needless to say, I was furious. I forwarded it on to my friends: “Look how racist these Jews are!” And I asked my Jewish friends, “What is wrong with Brandeis?”...

Restorationism became a major theme in antebellum religious thought and a mainstay of the Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian churches. In his 1844 bestseller, "The Valley of the Vision," New York University Bible scholar George Bush--a forebear of two presidents of the same name--called on the U.S. to devote its economic and military might toward re-creating a Jewish polity in Palestine. But merely envisioning such a state was insufficient for some Americans, who, in the decades before the Civil War, left home to build colonies in Palestine. Each of these settlements had the same goal: to teach the Jews, long disenfranchised from the land, to farm and so enable them to establish a modern agrarian society. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln said that "restoring the Jews to their homeland is a noble dream shared by many Americans," and that the U.S. could work to realize that goal once the Union prevailed.

Nineteenth-century restorationism reached its fullest expression in an 1891 petition submitted by Midwestern magnate William Blackstone to President Benjamin Harrison. The Blackstone Memorial, as it was called, urged the president to convene an international conference to discuss ways of reviving Jewish dominion in Palestine. Among the memorial's 400 signatories were some of America's most preeminent figures, including John D. Rockefeller, J. Pierpont Morgan, Charles Scribner and William McKinley. By the century's turn, those advocating restored Jewish sovereignty in Palestine had begun calling themselves Zionists, though the vast majority of the movement's members remained Christian rather than Jewish. "It seems to me that it is entirely proper to start a Zionist State around Jerusalem," wrote Teddy Roosevelt, "and [that] the Jews be given control of Palestine."...

...The question of whether or not to recognize that state fell to Harry S. Truman. Raised in a Baptist household where he learned much of the Bible by heart, Truman had been a member of the pro-Zionist American Christian Palestine Committee and an advocate of the right of Jews--particularly Holocaust survivors--to immigrate to Palestine. He was naturally inclined to acknowledge the nascent state but encountered fervid opposition from the entire foreign policy establishment. If America sided with the Zionists, officials in the State and Defense departments cautioned, the Arabs would cut off oil supplies to the West, undermine America's economy, and expose Europe to Soviet invasion. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops would have to be sent to Palestine to save its Jews from massacre.

Truman listened carefully to these warnings and then, at 6:11 on the evening of May 14, he announced that the U.S. would be the first nation to recognize the newly declared State of Israel. While the decision may have stemmed in part from domestic political considerations, it is difficult to conceive that any politician, much less one of Truman's character, would have risked global catastrophe by recognizing a frail and miniscule country. More likely, the dramatic démarche reflected Truman's religious background and his commitment to the restorationist creed. Introduced a few weeks later to an American Jewish delegation as the president who had helped create Israel, Truman took umbrage and snapped, "What you mean 'helped create'? I am Cyrus"--a reference to the Persian king who returned the Jews from exile--"I am Cyrus!"

The claims centred on a controversial July 23 attack in southern Lebanon in which two Red Cross ambulances were destroyed, either by artillery or missiles - injuring at least six Lebanese, including one man whose leg was later amputated.

Initial media reports claimed the Israeli Defence Force targeted the vehicles, firing a missile directly through the roof of one ambulance using the international Red Cross symbol as a target marker.

Others blamed Israeli artillery or armed unmanned drones.

An Israeli army spokesman has now gone closer than ever before to admitting responsibility.

"We (IDF) certainly do not target ambulances but in a combat zone, we cannot always co-ordinate their safety," Captain Benjamin Rutland said. "It (the ambulance) could have been struck by our mortar or artillery.

"There was (Israeli army) shelling in the vicinity of the ambulance, but we do not have UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) footage and we don't have access to the ambulance so we cannot tell for sure."

He made the comments during an Israeli army-hosted inspection of the South Lebanon border given to a group of Australian reporters earlier this month.

While admitting the possibility of a tragic mistake, Captain Rutland cited several incidents during the recent Lebanon conflict in which Hezbollah fighters had stage-managed or misrepresented evidence of civilian casualties.

In August, Mr Downer slammed Australian and international media for not checking facts and branded reports of the alleged attack on the ambulance a hoax.

His comments were based on unverified evidence carried on an unattributed right-wing website, Zombietime.com...

The stewardess has been told by BMI that it is against the law of the insular Middle Eastern country to bring in religious books other than the Koran.

The woman, who is understood to be a committed Christian, takes her bible everywhere she goes and is now set to take the airline to an industrial tribunal claiming discrimination on religious grounds.

BMI, formerly British Midland Airways, said today it was merely following the Foreign Office advice that no non-Islamic materials or artefacts are allowed into the country...

Egyptian Copts, Iraqi Chaldeans and the Palestinian Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant communities have faced violence and even death at the hands of their Muslim neighbours.

Canon Andrew White, president of the Foundation for Reconciliation in the Middle East, told The Times that the Iraq war had had a dire effect on the lives of Christians in the region, particularly in Iraq, where he is the vicar of St George’s Church in Baghdad.

“All my staff at the church have been killed,” he said. “They disappeared about a year ago and we never saw them again. Of the rest of my congregation, most say they have been targeted in some way or have had letters delivered with bullets in them. People forget, or the Islamic groups don’t realise, that Christianity was in the Middle East before them and therefore they see Christians as being part of the Western coalition military presence. Things have got considerably worse since the Iraq war.”...

Many of us if not all were shocked at the behavior of church staff who came out to try and intimidate us into leaving the area (we were on a public sidewalk). They were aggressive, nasty and bullying...

The survey graded nations' economies in the years 2001-05 as compared with 20 years earlier. Israel, it was found, jumped 12 slots, raising it from the world’s 48th biggest economy in 1980-84 to the 36th largest in 2001-05. Globes reported that the Economist survey ranked economies on the basis of their five-year average GDP in current dollars.

The four fastest climbing national economies are all in Asia: Singapore rose 20 places to become the 39th largest economy, still three slots behind Israel; Taiwan rose 14 places to become #18; and both South Korea and Hong Kong rose 12 places, just like Israel, to become numbers 11 and 30, respectively.

China rose four notches to slot #6, while oil-producing Venezuela fell 12 places and is now #37. Iran plunged 16 places to 33, and Saudi Arabia fell from 15th place to 22nd.

"My son, Nazar, when he was just 13, used to come home from school and the Muslim boys of his age from the local refugee camp would run after him shouting 'Nazarene, Nazarene', which is a derogatory local term for Christian. Once they caught up and threatened to beat him unless he said Allah was his god and Mohammed his only prophet. We had to move house, but now my son has left university and cannot get a job, so every day he says we must leave."...

Incongruously, the Israeli Ministry of Tourism has hung a large banner on the wall next to the main crossing point with the message "Peace Be With You". Graffiti on the Palestinian side of the wall is more insulting about Israel...

"From Sunday morning, we will begin activities at Natanz – site of 3,000-centrifuge machines - and we will drive it with full speed. It will be our immediate response to the resolution," the Kayhan newspaper quoted Ali Larijani, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, as saying...

The interview was cited by the website of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an umbrella organization for Iranian opposition groups in exile...

Obviously, the actual number of detainees in Iran is much higher than the official figure since it does not take into account various unofficial penitentiaries and prisons. In particular, the regime has stepped up suppression to an unprecedented level and street arrests have increased in order to combat the rising number of popular demonstrations and uprisings.

Separately, the Chief of the State Security Forces, Brig. Gen. Ismail Ahmadi-Moqaddam, in an interview with the state-run news agency ISNA on December 20, asked for more judicial prosecutions to be put into place, saying, “Unfortunately, at present there are neither strong legal convictions nor adequate sentences for crimes committed.”...

Murmer, a popular high school art teacher, was suspended after objections were raised about his private abstract artwork, much of which includes smearing his posterior and genitals with paint and pressing them against canvas.

Murmer contacted the American Civil Liberties Union on Friday, saying school administrators had suspended him with pay for five days because of his work as a painter and that he could face further punishment, ACLU legal director Rebecca Glenberg said.

Murmer has been instructed by Monacan High School administrators not to speak with the media, Glenberg said. He did not return messages seeking comment Tuesday.

Schools spokeswoman Debra Marlow confirmed that a Monacan art teacher had been placed on administrative leave but declined to provide additional details because it is a personnel issue.

"In the school system, personnel regulations state that teachers are expected to set an example for students through their personal conduct," Marlow said. "Additionally, the Supreme Court has stated that schools must teach by example and that teachers, like parents, are role models."...

Hana F. Al Jader of Winchester was sentenced to two years of probation, the first six months of which must be served in home confinement, after which she'll be deported to Saudi Arabia, prosecutors said.

An after hours call to Samantha Martin, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office, was not returned. It was unclear if the six months' home confinement Al Jader received included time she has already served while on bail in home confinement.

U.S. District Judge Reginald J. Lindsay also sentenced Al Jader, 40, to pay $206,000 in restitution to three of her former domestic servants, pay a $40,000 fine, and perform 100 hours of community service.

In September, Al Jader pleaded guilty to two counts of visa fraud for lying on immigration forms, and two counts of harboring an alien for keeping the two women at her house though she knew their visas had expired.

In a deal with prosecutors, six counts of forced labor were dropped in exchange for guilty pleas on the other charges.

Prosecutors alleged that Al Jader forced two domestic servants from Indonesia to work long hours, while holding their passports in a safe.

Al Jader submitted fraudulent forms to the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia guaranteeing the women would work eight hours daily for $1,500 a month, they charged.

The women were actually paid just $300 per month after arriving in February 2003 to cook, clean and care for Al Jader's disabled husband and their children...

Dr Rowan Williams and other UK church leaders passed through the barrier on their way to Bethlehem while on a Christmas pilgrimage to the town.

There was a "fear of the other and the stranger which keeps all of us in one or another kind of prison", he said...

He has also said he is worried about an exodus of Christians from Bethlehem, changing its historic Christian nature.

"We are here to say, in this so troubled, complex land, that justice and security is never something which one person claims at the expense of another or one community at the expense of another," Dr Williams said.

"We are here to say that security for one is security for all. For one to live under threat, whether of occupation, or of terror, is a problem for all, and a pain for all."...

But inside, the nave is empty of visitors and the collection boxes depleted of coins.

In the candlelit grotto downstairs, a silver star marks the spot where Jesus is supposed to have been born.

It is one of the most sacred sites in Christendom, but there are no tourists queuing to see it.

Just 500 yards down the road, Joseph Canawati is not looking forward to Christmas.

The expansive lobby of his 77-room Hotel Alexander is empty and he says: "There is no hope for the future of the Christian community.

"We don't think things are going to get better. For us, it is finished."

Life for Palestinian Christians such as 50-year-old Joseph has become increasingly difficult in Bethlehem - and many of them are leaving.

The town's Christian population has dwindled from more than 85 per cent in 1948 to 12 per cent of its 60,000 inhabitants in 2006.

There are reports of religious persecution, in the form of murders, beatings and land grabs...

...The sense of a creeping Islamic fundamentalism is all around in Bethlehem.

A mosque on one side of Manger Square stands directly opposite the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, while in the evening the muezzin's call to prayer clashes with the peal of church bells.

Shops selling Santa Claus outfits and mother-of-pearl statuettes of the Virgin Mary have their shutters painted a sun-bleached green, the colour of Islam.

And in the Al-Jacir Palace, Bethlehem's only luxury hotel, there is a baubled Christmas tree in reception and a card showing the direction of Mecca in the rooms.

George Rabie, a 22-year-old taxi driver from the Bethlehem suburb of Beit Jala, is proud of his Christianity, even though it puts him in daily danger.

Two months ago, he was beaten up by a gang of Muslims who were visiting Bethlehem from nearby Hebron and who had spotted the crucifix hanging on his windscreen.

"Every day, I experience discrimination," he says."

"It is a type of racism. We are a minority so we are an easier target. Many extremists from the villages are coming into Bethlehem."

Jeriez Moussa Amaro, a 27-year-old aluminium craftsman from Beit Jala is another with first-hand experience of the appalling violence that Christians face.

Five years ago, his two sisters, Rada, 24, and Dunya, 18, were shot dead by Muslim gunmen in their own home.

Their crime was to be young, attractive Christian women who wore Western clothes and no veil. Rada had been sleeping with a Muslim man in the months before her death.

A terrorist organisation, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, issued a statement claiming responsibility, which said: "We wanted to clean the Palestinian house of prostitutes."

Jeriez says: "A Christian man is weak compared to a Muslim man.

"They have bigger, more powerful families and they know people high up in the Palestinian authority."...

...This isolation was heightened when, last year, Bethlehem found itself behind Israel's security wall, a 400-mile-long concrete barrier which separates Jewish and Palestinian areas and is designed to stop suicide bombers - in 2004, half the Israeli fatalities caused by such attacks were committed by extremists from Bethlehem...

This week, PA TV rebroadcast a particularly hateful segment of a Palestinian Authority television series showing Israelis as child murderers. This series depicts events before and during Israel's War of Independence in 1948. In one of the many historical distortions, actors portray Israeli soldiers murdering an infant in cold blood. This hate series was previously broadcast on Palestinian Authority TV in June 2005 and July 2006.

A backbone of PA ideology, and indeed of anti-Israel propagandists worldwide, is the myth that Israel expelled hundreds of thousands of Arabs from Israel and created the Palestinian "refugee" situation.

However, a regular writer for the official PA paper, Mahmud Al-Habbash, writes in a recent column that in 1948 the Arabs left their homes willingly under the instruction of their own Arab leaders and their false promises of a prompt return. He refers to these promises as “Arkuvian,” after Arkuv – a figure from Arab tradition - who was known for breaking his promises and for his lies – and states that the Arabs who left their homes, and became refugees did so believing their leaders’ deceptive promises. He places the blame and the responsibility on the shoulders of the Arab leaders and does not mention any so-called "Israeli expulsion."

Following is this most recent article, as well as earlier statements by Arab "refugees" that have appeared in the PA press, all of which corroborate Israel's historical narrative. The latter two testimonials are significant because they were corroborated by still other more public Palestinians, indicating that the responsibility of the Arab leaders is known in the Palestinian world. One was confirmed by Arab Member of Knesset, Ibraham Sarsur, who was then Head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, and the other by a Palestinian journalist, Fuad Abu Higla, in the official PA daily...

"They asked people in Salameh to leave, because a war was going to happen there," he said. "They said, 'Go for a week, or a month -- then come back.'

Attorney General Lord Goldsmith said the SFO was "discontinuing" its investigation into Britain's biggest defence company, BAE Systems.

The reversal follows reports that Saudi Arabia was considering pulling out of a deal to buy Eurofighter jets from BAE.

Lord Goldsmith said he thought that a prosecution "could not be brought".

He said the decision had been made in the wider public interest, which had to be balanced against the rule of law...

The corruption charges, the subject of a four-month internal church committee investigation, have prompted long-time opponents of the bishop to call for his immediate resignation.

The internal church inquiry committee examined the allegations. It concluded that El-Assal arranged to have a tender for the insurance policy of employees of the church's two schools here issued to a company that promised to give half the commission to his son-in-law.

The 35-page report, which was obtained by The Jerusalem Post, states that the bishop's actions constituted a "dramatic combination" of nepotism and violation of trust...

The binational idea in the West is thus far from a success story. Now there are calls to realize this idea in the Middle East, where, as we all know, the refreshing winds of binationality are blowing. It is obvious that this idea represents explicit abandonment of the principle of two states for two peoples - a principle whose application requires two separate nation-states, one Jewish-Israel and the other Palestinian-Arab.

However, when it is finally becoming clear that some of those who for decades spoke of "two states for two peoples" are not actually willing to have two states for two countries in Eretz Israel, it is difficult not to wonder whether now, when they are speaking about binationalism, their true intention is indeed a binational state.

I mean, what's the parallel? Apartheid had a philosophical component and a practical one, both quite bizarre. Philosophically, it was committed to the notion of racial superiority. No doubt many Israelis have racist attitudes toward Arabs, but the official philosophy of the government is quite the opposite, and sincere efforts are made to, for example, instill humanitarian and egalitarian attitudes in children. That is not true, of course, in Arab countries, where hatred of Jews is a standard part of the curriculum...

...There used to be Jews living in Arab nations, but they also fled, in 1948 and subsequent years -- in numbers roughly equivalent to the Arabs who fled Israel. Now there are virtually no Jews in Arab countries -- even in a moderate Arab country such as Jordan. How many Jews do you think there will be in the new state of Palestine when its flag flies over a sovereign nation?

And the most tragic difference: Apartheid ended peacefully. This is largely thanks to Nelson Mandela, who turned out to be miraculously forgiving. If Israel is white South Africa and the Palestinians are supposed to be the blacks, where is their Mandela?

FORWARD OPERATING BASE LOYALTY, Iraq – Private First Class Ross A. McGinnis packed only 136 pounds into his 6-foot frame, but few have ever matched his inner strength.

McGinnis sacrificed himself in an act of supreme bravery on Dec. 4, belying his status as the youngest Soldier in Company C, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, attached to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division.

The 19-year-old amateur mechanic from Knox, Pa., who enjoyed poker and loud music, likely saved the lives of four Soldiers riding with him on a mission in Baghdad.

McGinnis was manning the gunner’s hatch when an insurgent tossed a grenade from above. It flew past McGinnis and down through the hatch before lodging near the radio.

His platoon sergeant, Sgt. 1st Class Cedric Thomas of Longview, Texas, recalled what happened next.

“Pfc. McGinnis yelled ‘Grenade…It’s in the truck,’” Thomas said. “I looked out of the corner of my eye as I was crouching down and I saw him pin it down."

McGinnis did so even though he could have escaped.

“He had time to jump out of the truck,” Thomas said. “He chose not to.”

"I am not going to stand by and watch thousands more of our brave, young men and women killed in Iraq," Kucinich said to applause from a crowd gathered at City Hall. "We Democrats were put back in power to bring some sanity back to our nation.

"We were expected to do what we said we were going to do -- get out of Iraq."

Kucinich is a six-term, liberal congressman from Cleveland whose presidential candidacy in 2004 made headlines more for his bachelorhood than his policies. This time around Kucinich has a wife...

Ahmad Yousuf: All our meetings [with the IRA] were productive, and most of all the meeting held in Ireland, where we met the leaders of Sinn Fein, which is the political branch of the IRA. We had a long dialogue with them. We were hosted by their top leaders. We held this dialogue with them, and they tried to pass on their experience to us, because they have been struggling since 1920, when they began talking... After many years of armed resistance, they began a peaceful dialogue with the British.

Interviewer: There is some similarity...

Ahmad Yousuf: We wanted to learn from their experience. They tried to explain to us their circumstances, and how they succeeded in managing the conflict - through resistance, and later through political talks, and negotiations, which culminated in an understanding with the British. The Irish people accepted it, and thus, peace was realized between Britain and them. This experience was useful to us, and we drew many lessons from it. They explained everything, and expressed their willingness to maintain contact. They will pass on their experience in struggle and politics to the Palestinians, or else we will go there again to take in the atmosphere over there. They were very cooperative, because of the "historical affinity" between us, as they put it – or historical fondness or warm relations...

According to the Providence Journal, the staff at the Nationwide Tractor Trailer Driving School in Smithfield, RI, became suspicious and contacted federal officials.

It turned out the student, Mohammed Mullawala, was in the U.S. illegally, had driver’s licenses from three states and had falsified documents to get one of the licenses.

Mullawala now faces deportation.

“Maybe he’s not a terrorist,” an official with the Rhode Island State Police told Journal. “But there’s every indication he’s hiding something.”

Dr. Hossein Mozaffar: In 1987 [sic], Herzl, the founder of international Zionism, organized a conference in Basel, Switzerland. Speeches were delivered there. They collected the main themes of these speeches, and called each chapter a "protocol." These protocols were collated into a booklet, which was secret in the beginning. Later, as a result of natural disasters and floods, it was exposed and became available to the public.

Following World War II, [the Zionists] tried to penetrate the Middle East and the Islamic countries. Back then, Hitler and Herzl collaborated in this matter. Then England and America joined forces to support this cause. England agreed to support the emigration of the Jews, on condition that Palestine be placed under British mandate...

...Due to their Protocols and their principal ideas, the Zionists are influential in all the centers of power in England, America, as well as the global powers. It is also true with regard to the media. They control 80 percent of the international media. It is all part of their plan. If I had the book here with me, I would read to you from their Protocols, and show you that controlling the media, the economic centers, and the financial resources is among their main objectives.

Interviewer: Every economic company you hear of...

Dr. Hossein Mozaffar: has Jewish roots...

...The typhus disease infected the entire population during the war, and [the Germans] had no choice but to burn their clothes and their bodies. There were Muslims, Christians, and Jews - 600,000 altogether. Then, the [Jews] turned the 600,000 into six million. Then they set up exhibitions and built crematoria. All this was their own handiwork, in order to prove that they were oppressed, and to claim that they have a right to the land, because they were refugees...

Description: We’ll examine a few of the key events in the blogosphere’s coverage of the Lebanon War. We’ll take a look at how the blogs held the MSM to account – where they had success and failure – and most importantly, we’ll see how this relates to our using the alternative media to get at the information we need to force a more honest narrative, from exposing fauxtography to pressuring the paid data gatherers to release more of what they’ve been collecting.

Now Francis has struck again at his school. In a recent missive to an e-mail list of the Green-Rainbow Party, he revealed that he is quite pleased with his latest attempt to brainwash Andover students:

Last Month the Wheels of Justice human rights group was blocked from speaking at Andover High school because pro-apartheid (Jimmy Carter's words ! now) forces, including the ADL and other zionists, pressured the Andover Public Schools Administration to not allow the Wheels of Justice peace group to speak at Andover High School.

In a dramatic turn-around, that decision has been reversed today thanks to the intervention of the ACLU and several social studies teachers who were prepared to go to court over the matter. Negotiations between the School Committee lawyer and the ACLU led to the school administration agreeing to have the Wheels of Justice speak at the high school and also paying the expenses to bring the Wheels of Justice back.

Typically for Francis, he refuses to capitalize the word “Zionism,” and insists that all supporters of Israel are “pro-Apartheid.” For those unfamiliar with the Palestinian propaganda group Wheels of Justice (WoJ), it sufficiently demonstrates its political agenda, noting that one WoJ speaker has described the U.S. media as a “campaign of misinformation by Zionist-leaning news editors,” while another has called Zionism “a disease.”

It was Francis who originally contacted the WoJ to speak at his high school’s social studies conference. Despite the impropriety of a teacher turning a school-sponsored conference into a de facto political rally, Francis has never been publicly reprimanded by the school’s administration...

Thanks to the efforts of Mr. Francis, who also is an informal adviser to Students for Middle East Justice, an unofficial after school group, students will have the opportunity of listening to the anti-American, anti- Israel view of the Wheels of Justice organization. Wheels of Justice preaches a one-sided message that all the woes of the Palestinians are singularly the result of Israel's "colonization, occupation, displacement, apartheid and the denial of the right of Palestinian refugees."...

Mohammad Abd al-Hamid Srour moved missiles across southern Lebanon under cover of a white flag. Hussein Ali Mahmoud Suleiman used the porch of a private home to fire rockets. Maher Hassan Mahmoud Kourani dressed in civilian clothes, hid his Kalashnikov in a tote bag and stored anti-aircraft missiles in the back of a green unmarked Volvo. The three men, all members of Hezbollah, were captured by Israel during last summer's war.

Now their videotaped interviews form part of a remarkable report by retired Lieutenant Colonel Reuven Erlich of Israel's Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. Relying heavily on captured Hezbollah documents, onsite and aerial photography and other first-hand evidence, the report shows how the Shiite group put innocent civilians at risk by deliberately deploying its forces in cities, towns and often private homes.

Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, has accused Israel's military of "indiscriminate warfare" and "a disturbing disregard for the lives of Lebanese civilians." Mr. Erlich demolishes that claim, and in the process shows the asymmetric strategy of Islamist radicals.

The most persuasive evidence here is photographic, so we urge readers to access the report itself on the Web site of the American Jewish Congress (ajcongress.org). Hezbollah's headquarters in Aita al-Shaab, for instance, sits in the heart of the village. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's office and home are in a densely built neighborhood of Beirut. In the town of Qana--site of an Israeli bombing on July 30 that killed 28 and that Hezbollah's apologists were quick to label a "massacre"--an arms warehouse can be seen adjacent to a mosque. There are photographs of rockets in the back seats of cars, missile launchers adjacent to farm houses, storage bunkers hidden beneath homes. There is also a trove of before-and-after photography demonstrating the precision of most Israeli bombing.

The report also shows how the use of civilian cover was explicitly part of Hezbollah's strategy...

Security officials said the incident is part of the ongoing power struggle between Hamas and Fatah, especially as three of the victims are the children of a senior Palestinian Authority intelligence officer.

The children were said to be aged between six and nine. The officer was identified as Baha Ba'alousha, who escaped an attempt on his life in September.

Hamas gunmen were the main suspects.

On Sunday, gunmen opened fire on the motorcade of Palestinian Minister of the Interior, Said Sayyam.

Officials fear the incidents could be the beginning of a new wave of street confrontations between Hamas and Fatah...

The Jewish High School in Berlin's central Mitte district resembles a high-security ward. Those who want to access the imposing old building on Grosse Hamburger Strasse have to pass through a meticulous security check. The building is surrounded by a fence several meters high and video cameras register every move. Policemen stand guard in front of the building.

"We're no ghetto," school director Barbara Wittig clarifies. "We offer those children protection who have to fear discrimination at other schools," she adds. And such cases have increased dramatically in the past two years. "I always though Jews were integrated into German society," says Wittig. "I would never have thought it possible for anti-Semitism to express itself as virulently as it has recently."

As of this week, Wittig's students have included two girls who previously attended the public, non-confessional Lina-Morgenstern High School in Berlin's Kreuzberg neighborhood. Their woes attracted considerable public attention. For months, one of the two girls, who is 14 years old, suffered anti-Semitic insults from adolescents with an Arab background. They also beat her and spat on her. Walking to school became like running the gauntlet for her. Her tormentors would hide in wait for her and chase her through the streets. In the end the girl had to be given police protection on her way to school.

Anti-Semitism on the rise

These events in Kreuzberg represent an especially drastic example, but they're not the exception. Berlin's state parliament lists 62 reported cases under the category "(right-wing) extremism" in its study "Indicators of Violence at Berlin's Schools, 2004/2005." That's a steep increase in comparison with the previous year, when only 39 cases were registered...

For what is happening in Palestine, we never use the expression "suicide bombing."

What do you call it then?

In English, I would describe it as "bombings."

And in Arabic?

Literally translated, we would speak of "commando attacks." In our culture, it is precisely not suicide.

But instead a praiseworthy act?

When the country is occupied and the people are being killed by the enemy, everyone must take action, even if he sacrifices himself in so doing.

Even if in so doing he kills innocent civilians?

That is not a Palestinian problem, but a problem of the Israelis...

...Who is responsible for the situation?

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most important reasons why these crises and problems continue to simmer. The day when Israel was founded created the basis for our problems. The West should finally come to understand this. Everything would be much calmer if the Palestinians were given their rights.

Do you mean to say that if Israel did not exist, there would suddenly be democracy in Egypt, that the schools in Morocco would be better, that the public clinics in Jordan would function better?

I think so.

Can you please explain to me what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has to do with these problems?

The Palestinian cause is central for Arab thinking.

In the end, is it a matter of feelings of self-esteem?

Exactly. It's because we always lose to Israel. It gnaws at the people in the Middle East that such a small country as Israel, with only about 7 million inhabitants, can defeat the Arab nation with its 350 million. That hurts our collective ego. The Palestinian problem is in the genes of every Arab. The West's problem is that it does not understand this.

These reports suggest that at a minimum, roughly half the casualties in the war were combatants. It is more likely the figure approaches 60 percent, which would mean the majority of dead were terrorists. This reinforces the Israeli position that it did indeed inflict heavy losses on Hizballah and that the civilian casualties were not a result of deliberate or indiscriminate attacks. Tragically, many civilians were killed, but as Israel has also shown, many of them died because they were used as human shields. Of course, there would have been zero casualties if Hizballah had not attacked Israel and kidnaped its soldiers (who have still not been returned or visited by the Red Cross).

In a letter to the Journal last week, Maria Leza of the Somerville Divestment Project wrote that the city’s Human Rights Commission had essentially absolved the group’s Web site of anti-Jewish rhetoric.

Susan Goldstein, a commissioner, told the Journal this week Leza’s comments were inaccurate. Goldstein said the commission never absolved the group of being anti-Jewish on its site. At the very least, Goldstein said, some statements and content on the site are inaccurate.

The group will come to Andover High for one in a series of three forums, each featuring a different perspective on Middle East conflicts, Principal Peter Anderson said in a statement released yesterday.

Anderson canceled the first planned visit by Wheels of Justice after the Anti-Defamation League, Rabbi Robert Goldstein of Temple Emanuel and others called the group "extremist" and "anti-Israel."

Anderson's two-paragraph statement yesterday marked his first comments on the controversy.

"It was never my intent to stifle the educational process," [This is education?] he said. "My goal has been to ensure that the presentation of the information resulted in a positive learning experience for our students."

Anderson changed his mind because of a combination of legal and educational issues, School Committee lawyer Naomi Stonberg said.

"We thought this would be in the best interests of all parties involved," she said.

Goldstein said he was not happy about Anderson's decision because he would have preferred one forum where speakers on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could have debated and asked questions of each other. He called the Wheels of Justice visit "worthless" and said the group has "questionable educational merit."

But, he added, "I'm glad to hear that there will be an opposing view offered, one that is more supportive of Israel. [Not supportive of Israel, Rabbi, supportive of the truth. You don't counter propaganda with propaganda, you counter it with reliable sources and facts.] I hope it will not be someone who will do to the Palestinians what Wheels of Justice does to Israel." [Should be: Do to the truth what Wheels of Justice does to the truth!]

Teachers union President Tom Meyers was one of six social studies teachers who organized the first planned Wheels of Justice visit. When Anderson canceled that event, Meyers enlisted help from the American Civil Liberties Union and threatened a First Amendment lawsuit against the school...

In a dramatic turn-around, that decision has been reversed today thanks to the intervention of the ACLU and several social studies teachers who were prepared to go to court over the matter. Negotiations between the School Committee lawyer and the ACLU led to the school administration agreeing to have the Wheels of Justice speak at the high school and also paying the expenses to bring the Wheels of Justice back.

One of the strategies of the pro-apartheid forces is to avoid discussion about the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by trying to block public discussion about the forced displacement of 750,000 Palestinian refugees in 1948 and the subsequent denial of the right of return of those refugees. Apparently that strategy is not working in Andover...

Interviewer: Do you have any popular or official mandate to establish the Sudanese-Israeli Friendship Association, or is this your own personal initiative?

Taraji Mustafa: First of all, I do not need a mandate to talk about my personal beliefs, or those of some of the Sudanese people. None of the Sudanese friendship associations, like the Sudanese-Indian or the Sudanese-Swedish associations, and many others, needed a popular mandate. Why do I need a mandate to establish a friendship [association] with that part of the Israeli people that believes in friendship?

Interviewer: Would you agree that your comparison with the Sudanese-Indian friendship association and others is not appropriate in the case of Israel, in light of the Israeli-Arab conflict?

Taraji Mustafa: This question takes us back to another issue: Are the Sudanese Arab or not? Does membership in the Arab League mean Arab identity? In my opinion, despite all the years that have passed since we joined the Arab League and since we gained independence, we have failed, or rather, the Arab brothers have failed in making us feel we are Arab brothers. There has always been a stereotypical view of the Sudanese people... yes?...

Professor Stein is apparently terminating his association with the Carter Center, solely as a result of Carter's new book, Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid. The reaction of Professor Stein -- a formerly close associate and collaborator of Carter -- to Carter's new book is, as our reader thought it would be, of great interest to us...

The EU said its contribution to the Palestinians has increased by 27 percent from last year, to €651 million (US$865 million), though the EU, United States and Israel have banned direct aid to the Palestinian government.

One tool is a temporary funding mechanism that funnels money directly to the people and projects, bypassing the government. The EU and its member states have contributed €200 million (US$266 million) to the temporary mechanism, administered by the World Bank...

The huge aid request comes as poverty and unemployment have exploded throughout Gaza and the West Bank, and the Palestinian health and education systems have been badly weakened by the shortage of funds, the U.N. said.

About three-quarters of the $453 million being requested is earmarked for job creation, cash assistance and food aid, said David Shearer, head of the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The U.N., which plans to officially launch its appeal Thursday, is also asking for money to support the Palestinian's health and education system...

Sharansky will join a list of past recipients that includes Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman, Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ambassador Jean Kirkpatrick, Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Vaclav Havel, Lady Margaret Thatcher, President Ronald Reagan, Mr. Whittaker Chambers, Rev. Billy Graham, Mother Teresa, and William F. Buckley Jr.

The award is presented to people who have made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”...

...The two imams, Hafiz Muhammad Hannan and Hafiz Muhammad Masood are relations of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Masood being his brother and Hannan being his brother in law. Masood is an imam at the Islamic Centre of New England, Sharon, Massachusetts, while Hannan is an imam at the Islamic Society of Greater Lowell, Massachusetts. Hamid is an imam at the Islamic Society of Greater Worcester, Massachusetts. Masood’s son, Hassan was also arrested. Another member of the family, Imam Hafiz Mahmood Hamid is the brother of both Hafiz Saeed and Hafiz Masood...

Do we really believe that Iran and Syria fear chaos in the region, when chaos alone gives them a reprieve from U.S., U.N., and European scrutiny about serial assassination, terrorist promotion, and nuclear acquisition? For all the Arabist solidarity rhetoric, compared to the frightening specter of a democratic and prosperous Iraq on their borders, a returned Golan Heights, or Israeli-free West Bank means little to Syria or Iran. Did we learn after the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon and Gaza, or the pre-9/11 American sudden flight from Lebanon and Somalia, that perceptions are far more important in the Middle East than even land?...

"The public integrity and conflict-of-interest concerns raised by Mr. Ali-Salaam's apparent dual role in this transaction are obvious," said Charles Jacobs, President of The David Project. "At least one of Mr. Ali-Salaam's trips for the Islamic Society came shortly before the Islamic Society was permitted to acquire public land from the BRA at a 91 percent discount from market value. The refusal by either the BRA or the Islamic Society to address these concerns is extremely disturbing to anyone who cares about good government and the accountability of public servants and public agencies."

Public records show that in December 1999 the Islamic Society of Boston paid Mr. Ali-Salaam's airfare for a 10-day trip to the United Arab Emirates to help it raise money to purchase the public property from the BRA and to develop the mosque on the property. However, the BRA and the Islamic Society have refused to disclose who paid for the other costs of the trip, including hotels, restaurants, entertainment and other expenses. The BRA and Islamic Society have also refused to identify who hosted the BRA official during this trip and the Middle Eastern donors with whom he met for the purpose of soliciting funds on behalf of the Islamic Society.

"A 10-day stay in the United Arab Emirates is not inexpensive," said Jacobs of the David Project. "The costs of hotels, restaurants and other expenses were likely in the thousands of dollars. The public is entitled to know who paid for the BRA Deputy Director to travel to the Middle East to raise money for the Islamic Society. The public is also entitled to know who the Middle Eastern donors are from whom the BRA Deputy Director solicited money on behalf of the Islamic Society while on the public payroll."...

Here are my comments regarding the observations of Nadia el-Haj about the Jezreel excavations. I don’t know the book, and I rely on your quotations.

1. I don’t remember meeting Nadia el-Haj during the excavations. All her accusations are based on talks with anonymous participants after the excavations. She did not study the excavation reports nor approached the directors of the project to ask their views. This is not a proper and serious way of research.

2. The main interest in Tel Jezreel is the Iron Age enclosure, which turns it into a site of prime importance. Beyond that the site is of minimal interest especially as most remains in most periods are badly preserved and hardly stratified. I initiated the excavation project as monumental Iron Age remains were exposed in development works. As an archaeologist I am specializing in the ancient historical periods and hence my interest in Jezreel.

3. Although the focus of the project was on the Iron Age enclosure the study of other periods was not neglected. Wherever there were remains later than the Iron Age they were properly excavated and studied. One large excavation field – the medieval church and the underlying levels did not have any Iron Age remains at all. Proper summaries of all later-in-date unstratified remains, particularly of the Byzantine period, were published.

4. There are legitimate discussions of excavation methods in each site and of course such discussions took place at Jezreel, and different opinions have been expressed. I believe we adopted balanced excavation methods there; in any case, the Iron Age levels and the later levels were all excavated in a similar fashion.

5. I believe the use of a JCB to determine the line of the rock-cut Iron Age moat was justified. It was essential to establish the size of the Iron Age enclosure in order to understand properly the site. In most of the area to the south of the site where this work took place bulldozers had removed and disturbed the debris during development works which had taken place here prior to the beginning of the excavation project. In view of the nature of the debris here it would have been impossible to accomplish the work with the aid of students/volunteers. A JCB with a long arm working delicately under archaeological supervision was the right solution: it can do useful work without damaging ancient remains, and I believe that this was the case here. Some later wall remains were exposed and recorded but were mostly left unexcavated – they probably belong to Byzantine domestic remains in the Iron Age moat or along its inner side. They all remain buried for future excavations.

With all best wishes,

David Ussishkin

The chief archiologist (and his armed body guard) are Israelis, the rest of the people who work on the site are Palestinians from Nablus.

According to the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant, which contained the two tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, was kept by the Israelites at Shiloh for several hundred years...

Religious figures who participated in the conference cautioned that one of Israel's aims is to damage the Palestinians by spreading promiscuous norms that are likely to negatively affect residents of the PA.

"Israel is trying to hurt the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people also by means of exporting AIDS, drug trafficking, promiscuous norms, and making prostitution legal," warned president of the sharia religious court in the PA, Sheikh Taissir Tamimi, and spokesman of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop Atalla Hanna...

Rachel Corrie is portrayed as selfless by her advocates, and as a naïve dupe by others. Yet after some fleeting hesitation--"I'm really new to talking about Israel-Palestine, so I don't always know the political implications of my words"--by the time she is placed in Gaza she is a complicit enthusiast. Arriving in Tel Aviv, coached beforehand on how to elude security, she records "very little problem at the airport"; she has come forearmed by her recruiters with a referral to an "Israeli friend,"...

...Her training--she accepts the term willingly--takes place in Jerusalem. Escorted by Palestinians while waiting "to get to Rafah to join the other internationals trying to prevent the demolition of civilian homes," she observes "blue stars of David spray-painted on doors in the Arab section of the old city." She concludes, "I am used to seeing the cross used in a colonialist way." Once in Rafah, she is under military orders. "The neighborhoods that have asked us for some form of presence are Yibna, Tel El Sultan, Hi Salaam, Brazil, Block J, Zorob, and Block O." The new recruits are called on to stand as human shields before arms caches or shooter hideouts. If through some mishap a young foreigner should be hit, all the better: fuel for international outrage. She imagines "the difficulties the Israeli army would face if they shot an unarmed US citizen."

But in fact the "civilian homes" are weapons depots; or else they are outlets, sometimes with complicit families still in them, concealing tunnels dug from Egypt to Gaza. The tunnels smuggle guns, rocket launchers, explosives; and the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) is there to stop the flow of arms intended for assaults on Israeli citizens, and to uncover the launchers secreted in olive groves and farms, where the gunmen also hide, or in the houses, where the gunmen hide among women and children. Rachel Corrie is in a war zone. She cannot not know that she lives and acts among guns and gunmen, or that the children who are everywhere live and play among guns and gunmen...

In a rare alliance, they argued that if their campus supported one political position over another, the university's ideal of diversity would be damaged.

British universities have become increasingly known for taking action against Israel, either in student unions or through academic boycotts, and it seemed last week that Kingston would become yet another school on the growing list of anti-Israel institutions.

When the freshly-founded Friends of Palestine (FOP) set out a package of six anti-Israel resolutions for the student union to adopt, the 15 members of the university's Jewish society thought they had no chance at fighting the legislation on a campus with thousands of Muslim students.

"I heard that the motions were put forward only 36 hours before the vote," Sammy Kalmanowicz, an International Law student and president of the Kingston Jewish Society, told The Jerusalem Post...

...Help also came from a less expected quarter. Shermarke Salah, Kalmanowicz's Somali-born, Iraqi-raised Muslim flatmate decided to join in the struggle.

"It was the underlying principle of the proposals which I opposed," said the soft-spoken Salah.

"Me and my flatmate Sammy have political differences, but we didn't feel that the student union was the right forum to discuss them. The SU is there to serve the student body in a neutral position," he said.

Salah characterized Friends of Palestine's initiative as "a campaign from people outside of the university to impose politics on the campus."

Salah, whose family left Somalia for Iraq, and then fled Iraq immediately prior to the first Gulf War, said he had strong views about diversity.

"Right now we have a good university. It's tolerant and it's calm, but it just takes one spark to set off an explosion. We must make it clear that we won't accept such attitudes on campus," he said, adding that his father had frequently reminded him that "the difference between tolerance and intolerance is just two letters."

Salah's message eventually carried the day. In the end, even the head of the university's Islamic Society opposed the propositions because of the possibility that they would divide the student body...

In contrast, only Muslims can undertake the second step, the formulation and spread of an Islam that is modern, moderate, democratic, liberal, good-neighborly, humane, and respectful of women. Here, non-Muslims can help by distancing themselves from Islamists and supporting moderate Muslims.

Although theoretically possible, the weakness of its advocates at present makes moderate Islam appear impossibly remote. But however dim its current prospects, the success of moderate Islam ultimately represents the only effective form of counterterrorism. Terrorism, begun by bad ideas, can only be ended by good ones.

Frequently Palestinians farmers complain that settlers cut their trees and hurt them and their livelihoods. At times even IDF soldiers and police had to protect the Palestinians farmers in the territories during the olive harvest season. But the police suspect now that in some cases the Palestinians themselves are those cutting the trees and then blamed the settlers and demanded compensation from the Civil Authority.

Foresters of the JNF patrolling the Shaar Efraim area today noticed to their surprise a number of Palestinians cutting olive trees in violation of the law as they were damaging scores of olive trees. The foresters hurried to call the police who arrived and held four of them for questioning...

...Sources in the police said that over the years the police have experienced a phenomenon of the filing of complaints to the Civil Authority regarding the destruction of olive trees, along with a claim for financial compensation. In the last year alone the Palestinians in the area of Judea and Samaria filed claims for 350 thousand shekels for the destruction of olive trees.

The police now intend to check the complaints in detail. A senior source in the police told Maariv NRG that "most of the complaints for damage to olive trees were filed in recent years at the end of the harvest season or towards the end, something that increase the suspicion that this is a cooked deal."

The latest and gravest escalation in the struggle between Jews and Arabs in the mixed city of Acco, between Haifa and the Lebanese border on the Mediterranean coast, occurred this past Friday night. Rabbi Avraham Shushan, a rabbi at the school at which the vandalism occurred, told Arutz-7's Shimon Cohen that a worshiper who arrived for early Sabbath morning prayers was the first to discover the destruction:

"He saw the lights on and the windows broken. He went in and the sight shocked him. All the walls had swastikas, and the Arabic words 'Hamas' and 'Allahu Akbar' [Allah is great]. Destruction all over - it looked like Sodom and Gomorrah. The vandals went into the classrooms, dumped out the equipment, turned over the principal's office, and threw the Torah books in all directions. They took expensive equipment worth thousands of shekels. The worshiper went by foot to the police and called them to come, which they did... He told me about it on Saturday night, and I called Rabbi Yashar, the rabbi of Akko. He came and cried out, 'What is this, Nazi Germany here?'"

Rabbi Shushan said that in his 30 years in the city, he had "never experienced an Arab pogrom like this one... I don't know what's going on here."...

..."We know what the Arabs are trying to do. They have composed a new Declaration of Independence, and they want to change the [Israeli] flag and anthem. The Arab citizens understand the trend, and they go out and paint swastikas in yeshivot."

In another city with a large Arab population, Ramle (near Tel Aviv), an Arab organization is renewing its activities for more say in city affairs - and is hoping to similarly encourage Arab populations in other mixed cities such as Jaffa and Lod as well...

Imam Hannan admitted that he had worked for Muhammed Khalil for three and a half years, but said that he didn't do anything wrong, so why was he arrested? My source further relates that Imam Hassan was visibly agitated about being arrested, held for several days in jail, and for being treated disrespectfully by the prison employees. He said that his jailers "don't know who they are dealing with." Imam Hannan also spoke about conducting "dawah" (missionary work) from the minute he got to jail. In fact, Hannan said he converted two people in jail to Islam, which very much pleased and excited the crowd...

U.S. HOLOCAUST MUSEUM URGED TO DROP ISLAM-BASHER
Presidential appointee says Quran oath 'undermines American civilization'

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 12/4/06) - A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today called for the removal of a presidential appointee to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council because of his intolerant views toward Islam in American society.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) urged that talk show host and columnist Dennis Prager be removed from the taxpayer-supported museum's council because of a recent syndicated column in which he wrote that Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, should be prevented from taking his oath of office using the Quran.

(President Bush recently appointed Prager to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, the governing board of the Holocaust Memorial Museum, for the remainder of a five year term expiring January 15, 2011.)

In his column, headlined "America, Not Keith Ellison, Decides What Book a Congressman Takes His Oath On," Prager wrote that swearing an oath on the Quran "undermines American civilization." "Insofar as a member of Congress taking an oath to serve America and uphold its values is concerned, America is interested in only one book, the Bible," wrote Prager. "If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book, don't serve in Congress."

Prager also wrote that Ellison's swearing on a Quran would "be doing more damage to the unity of America and to the value system that has formed this country than the terrorists of 9-11."

(The U.S. Constitution states that "no religious test shall ever be required" to hold public office. No books of any kind are used in the actual swearing-in ceremony. Representatives may use any book they choose, or no book at all, during later ceremonial events.)...

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) applauds the people of Jabalya for their courageous and effective use of nonviolent resistance, and we express our full solidarity with their actions, which are positive initiatives in the struggle to defend Palestinian rights. We encourage international volunteers to participate in these actions, as did Father Peter Dougherty and Sister Mary Ellen Gundeck of the Michigan Peace Team.

We note with disappointment that Human Rights Watch (HRW) chose to condemn these actions, suggesting that they could constitute a "war crime." In a November 22, 2006 press release entitled, "OPT: Civilians Must Not Be Used to Shield Homes Against Military Attacks" HRW Middle East Director Sarah Leah Whitson said, "There is no excuse for calling civilians to the scene of a planned attack. Whether or not the home is a legitimate military target, knowingly asking civilians to stand in harm's way is unlawful."...

Al-Nabit said he would watch the bikini-clad women, but he certainly wouldn't want his wife to do so. He was there, he added, because it was a matter of national honor.

"We don't see this a lot in Qatar," Al-Nabit said. "I think most people think it is outrageous. But we accept it because it is important for our country. We want others to see us as a generous and hospitable people, willing to accept their ways, even if we don't agree."

Beach volleyball's penchant for bikinis has touched off a bit of a cultural clash in this conservative Muslim city, which by hosting the Asian Games, a regional sports extravaganza, is trying to bolster its bid to bring the 2016 Summer Olympics to the Middle East...

...Though 16 Muslim nations are represented at the Asian Games, only one, Iraq, is competing in women's beach volleyball. And its team, sisters Lisa and Lida Agasi, are Christians.

Do they feel uncomfortable?

"No, not at all," Lida said after her first game on Saturday. But their coach noted they seemed a bit overwhelmed because "all eyes were upon them."

Even so, the Iraqis wore considerably more conservative outfits than their opponents, the Japanese. While the Agasis were clad in yellow, two-piece tights that went down to mid thigh and covered most of their shoulders, the Japanese pair's uniforms were so small that the country name had to be abbreviated on their bikini bottoms...

The paper, written in close coordination with the Israel Higher Arab Monitoring Committee, was presented as part of the week-long Second Annual Days of Mossawa Festival and Nazareth Film Festival, which ended yesterday.

"Our goal is to achieve a historic compromise with the Jewish community in Israel," Mossawa Center director Jafar Farah told the conference. "The move by refugees of 1948 to their villages will not change the demographic balance or endanger the Jews. Unlike the refugees in Arab states, we are [already] here," Farah said. "The internal refugees [residents forced to leave their villages in 1948 who moved to other Arab communities within Israel] represent about one-fourth of the Arab population in Israel today."...

Another participant, Dr. Raef Zreik, said the position paper does not refer to the Israeli Arabs' position regarding the Jewish majority in the country. He said the Israeli Arabs can officially recognize the right of the Jewish public to a state only as part of an overall peace agreement with the Palestinian people.

Another Qassam rocket landed Sunday morning near a kibbutz in the western Negev. It exploded in an open field and no one was injured nor was any damage done.

This was the seventh rocket to be fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip, since the ceasefire was declared, just one week ago. Israel continues to restrain itself and is not responding to the shooting, and this has indeed been one of the more quiet weeks to pass on the southern residents in the recent months.

The security cabinet is set to convene Sunday to discuss the fragile calm, and to discuss Israel's responses to further firing.

Also on the agenda is the possible expansion of the ceasefire to include the West Bank. It has not yet been officially announced, but the Israel Defense Force has reduced activity in the West Bank.

Nonetheless, the IDF continues to arrest wanted suspects from time to time...

That’s when the customers, en masse, need to raise a stink. That’s when someone else with the resources needs to seriously consider whether the time is ripe to compete.

The Associated Press is embroiled in a scandal. Conservative bloggers, the new media watchdogs, lifted a rock at the AP...

...It has to do with the AP’s Iraqi stringers and an oft-quoted Iraqi police captain named Jamil Hussein. Problem is, the Iraqi police say Capt. Hussein does not exist. The Iraqi police and U.S. military say an incident described in an AP report - Iraqi soldiers standing by as people were burned alive in a mosque - didn’t happen. Another AP-reported incident, U.S. soldiers shooting 11 civilians, also never happened, the military says.

When the AP was forced to acknowledge this situation, it did so in a story about a new Interior Ministry policy regarding false reports. The AP buried the fact that its own false report prompted this new policy.

The AP stands by its reporting.. The AP has cast “Capt. Jamil Hussein” simply as someone not authorized to speak, and AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll has sniffed morally: “Good reporting relies on more than government-approved sources.”

The AP has another Iraqi stringer problem. Photographer Bilal Hussein is in U.S. custody, and the AP has been clamoring indignantly for his release. AP reports have buried the U.S. explanation that Hussein is being held without charge because - quite aside from producing photos that showed him to be overly intimate with terrorists in Fallujah - he was in an al-Qaeda bomb factory, with an al-Qaeda bombmaker, with traces of explosives on his person when he was arrested.

The AP, of course, has been delivering unbalanced reports about U.S. national politics for some time, as when President Bush, whom AP reporters despise, is barely allowed to state his case on an issue before his critics are given twice as much space to pummel him. The AP, once a just-the-facts news delivery service, has lost its rudder. It has become a partisan, anti-American news agency that seeks to undercut a wartime president and American soldiers in the field. It is providing fraudulent, shoddy goods. It doesn’t even recognize it has a problem...

Chirac's comments come a day after U.S. National Security Adviser Steven Hadley said that there was no point in Israel holding negotiations with Syria as long as Damascus continues to support and facilitate terrorism.

U.S. President George W. Bush is under strong domestic pressure to talk to Syria and Iran in an effort to reduce sectarian violence and avert civil war in Iraq.

Speaking after a NATO summit in Latvia, Chirac said he was always in favour of dialogue in principle provided it led to results and was based on honesty and a commitment to carry out what was agreed.

"In the current state of affairs, this is not exactly the characteristic of the dialogue which some European countries have started with Syria. I deplore that," Chirac said.

"I understand that the American president's position is exactly the same as France's," Chirac said...

The contract supports up to 50,000 British jobs and there are now fears that the deal may go to France.

The Saudi government is on the verge of cancelling the contract - an extension of one brokered by Margaret Thatcher 20 year ago - because of a Serious Fraud Office investigation into allegations of a slush fund for members of the Saudi royal family, according to authoritative sources.

Tony Blair has been told that the deal faces the axe in 10 days unless he intervenes to bring the two-year investigation to a close.

The Saudis are said to be "outraged" by the probe into the activities of companies linked to BAE Systems. The investigation concerns alleged illegal payments made to members of the Saudi royal family and their agents.

The country's advisers have made clear through diplomatic channels that unless the inquiry is closed, the kingdom's arms business will be taken elsewhere.

The Saudis are understood to have already opened negotiations with the French about buying 36 rival Rafale jets.

The Daily Telegraph has learned that President Jacques Chirac has been to Saudi Arabia twice in recent months to offer full French co-operation on such a deal...

As well as local Belgians, many of the supporters came from France as well as other European countries including Germany, Holland and Italy. They gathered and shouted slogans such as “Free our soldiers”, “Bring them home” and “Save the hostages”.

Chanting “Am Yisrael Chai” (The people of Israel lives), they appealed to the European Union for its help in securing the release of Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.

So far the three young men are still held by Hamas and Hezbollah and the families have not received any sign of life until now...

...Red Cross criticised

Several speakers criticized the fact the International Red Cross was unable to give the families any information about the whereabouts of their sons as “unacceptable”.

Roger Cukierman, head of CRIF, the umbrella group of French secular Jewish organizations, denounced the use of European money to help “bloodthirsty people for whom the human being is a bargaining chip”...

But 1938 may be relevant in more ways than as a rhetorical device. Revisiting that year, through Winston Churchill’s compelling account in “The Gathering Storm,” is an instructive exercise, and one the Iraq Study Group might consider as it completes its deliberations.

* * *

February 20, 1938: Churchill spent the entire night without sleep, “consumed by emotions of sorrow and fear” -- the only time he went sleepless even after he became Prime Minister. He had received a call late that evening informing him that Anthony Eden had resigned as Foreign Secretary.

Eden, who shared Churchill’s views about Germany and Italy, had found himself almost isolated in the Cabinet, opposed by the Chiefs of Staff who “enjoined caution and dwelt upon the dangers of the situation.” Churchill was despondent over the resignation:

I must confess that my heart sank, and for a while the ark waters of despair overwhelmed me. . . . I watched the daylight slowly creep in through the windows, and saw before me in mental gaze the vision of Death.

A precipitating factor in Eden’s resignation had been Neville Chamberlain’s decision to enter into direct negotiations with Italy. Chamberlain’s position was that:

His Majesty’s Government would be prepared . . . to recognize de jure the Italian occupation of Abyssinia, if they found that the Italian Government on their side were ready to give evidence of their desire to contribute to the restoration of confidence and friendly relations.

For Churchill, it was evidence that “in the dawn of 1938 decisive changes in European groupings and values had taken place.” The Western democracies had “seemed to give repeated proofs that they would bow to violence so long as they were not themselves directly assailed.”...

The arch, a remnant of the synagogue bombed by the Jordanians in 1948, was removed due to the renovation and reconstruction of the synagogue now in progress...

...The Hurva's renovation ended a prolonged architectural argument about how to reconstruct the synagogue, which was the center of cultural and spiritual life in Israel and the Jewish Quarter in the second half of the 19th Century and first half of the 20th. Ultimately, architect Nahum Meltzer's plan to reconstruct the original synagogue was adopted.

The courtyard was purchased 306 years ago by Rabbi Yehuda he-Hasid (Segal), who arrived from Poland with 300 of his students. It sat adjacent to the Ramban Synagogue, built some 430 years earlier and was closed by the Ottomans in 1589. The Ashkenazi community in the Old City numbered a mere few hundred people in those days and Rabbi Yehuda he-Hasid and his students' coming caused much commotion. He died five days later.

His followers began building a yeshiva and synagogue in the courtyard, but the construction was not completed. The Jews were late returning the loan to the Arabs for the project and in 1721 the Arabs burned the uncompleted synagogue and the 40 Torah books it housed. The site remained desolate for 140 years, thus acquiring the name "hurva" (the wreck). A new synagogue was built there by the disciples of the Vilna Gaon in 1864.

The Hurva then became the most splendid synagogue in Israel and hosted important Jewish events until the 1930s. Two days after conquering the quarter in 1948, the Jordanians bombed the synagogue and the Jordanian commander reported to headquarters: "For the first time in 1,000 years not a single Jew remains in the Jewish Quarter. Not a single building remains intact. This makes the Jews' return here impossible."