February 2007 Archives

"We are raping Jews because of what the IDF is doing to the Palestinians in the territories," one of the six suspects told investigators from the Northern District Central Investigative Unit (CIU) during questioning. During their questioning and their brief appearance at the Nazareth Magistrate's Court Tuesday, none of the four main suspects indicated that they felt remorse for their actions.

Police said they were aware of four attacks carried out by the gang, but they believed there were probably other incidents that had gone unreported by the victims...

In Milwaukee, I was asked, "How many Palestinian old men and women have you humiliated while serving in the Israeli police?" How can such a question be asked? Only if the truth were known, that Israeli soldiers have on many occasions helped Palestinians.

The situation I encountered on many of the campuses in North America and Canada was horrifying. I was not as shocked by the Arab questioners as I was with the personal threats, and the severe apathy of the majority of Jewish students.

In my years of speaking to people, I've never received threats or personal attacks like I did speaking on campuses. There were threatening incidents at both the University of Florida and at California State University. Both were chilling. The crowd in Florida was one full of anger and hatred, yet I had to stand before them unsure of the enemy who had sent threats earlier that day. In California I spoke facing a young student who wore a T-shirt with a swastika on it, chewing on a piece of paper as some sort of protest against my talk...

She wanted to know: Does Ken Livingstone's idea of multiculturalism acknowledge and condone segregation? It clearly does, but what made this vignette of ethnic politics in a European city worth noting is that commentators for the BBC and nearly every newspaper here describe Mr. Livingstone as one of the most left-wing politicians in British public life. Hardly any of them notices the weirdness of an apparent socialist pandering to a reactionary strain of Islam, pushing its arguments and accepting its dictates.

In order to bypass Hamas, Western governments simply redirected aid to the office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who at least in theory recognizes Israel. This leaves the Palestinians as the largest recipients per capita of charitable assistance in the world.

The decline in the Palestinian economy has occurred despite the increase in foreign support, and not because of any supposed decrease in aid...

However, I was immedietly distracted by the group masturbation session that followed those words as mr. Hersh started his speech. I was wowed by this man's ability to verbally give every single member of the audience a handjob. It was exactly everything they wanted to hear and nothing more. Simply amazing. This is a man who knows his audience and how exactly to bullshit them. For example, he mentioned- with the disclaimer that he has no proof of this- that the UN owed Iraq approx. 9 billion dollars for Oil sales in escrow, which was later on claimed by the US government when it took over Iraq and then simply dissappeared and vanished. He of course has no proof or sources to confirm this, but his audience is not one that needs proof in such matters. After all, we live for this shit...

I have wonderful news for all of you. Today, the ISB won the decision in the law suit brought against the ISB, Boston Redevelopment Authority, and Roxbury Community College by James Policastro and others in 2004. We issued the following press release, and I've attached the judge's decision for all who are interested. Congratulations and thanks to all who have stood by the ISB during this case. The defamation and civil rights case is still in litigation (and we remain willing to participate in mediation), but this victory of justice is an important step in putting these suits behind us and refocusing on our true mission, which is serving our community and all of you.

Salam, and God bless,

Jessica Masse
ISB Interfaith Coordinator

***

The Islamic Society of Boston is pleased to announce that today a Massachusetts superior court judge has ruled that the lawsuit brought against the Islamic Society of Boston, the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Roxbury Community College is without merit and has been dismissed. The Court ruled that the lawsuit was improperly brought by the plaintiff James Policastro and stated that if Mr. Policastro had any legitimate issue with the project, he should have participated in the multi-year public process which led to the project's approval.

"We are very pleased that the Court put an end to the legal campaign against the Islamic Society of Boston, which is part of a greater effort by those seeking to oppose area Muslims from building a place of worship.

Part of Mr. Policastro's suit demanded that the ISB return the land and the Mosque be torn down. Now this threat is gone. It is full steam ahead now - we will see our Mosque built to completion." said Jessica Masse, the ISB's inter-faith coordinator. "Even with this latest legal victory, the ISB remains committed to resolving all outstanding disputes, including the civil rights and defamation claims it has brought against the David Project and others through a mediation process which promotes reconciliation."

(WASHINGTON D.C., 2/22/07) - The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is calling on North American Muslims and other people of conscience to help protect religious sites in Jerusalem reportedly threatened by an Israeli archeological dig near Al-Aqsa Mosque. North American imams are also being asked to discuss the importance of Jerusalem to Muslims in their khutbas (sermons) this Friday.

Palestinians say the Israeli dig could damage Al-Aqsa's foundations and is another attempt by Israel to change the religious character of the holy city. Suspicion over Israeli intentions grew when Israeli officials revealed recently that they had hidden the 2004 discovery of an Islamic prayer area at the dig site.

...A senior Islamic Jihad member believed to be behind Tuesday’s foiled suicide terror attack in central Israel was killed by disguised Border Guard officers and Shin Bet operatives in Jenin.

Mahmoud Abu Abid was shot at close range Wednesday morning after the security establishment received intelligence information on his whereabouts. No injuries were reported among the soldiers.

Security establishment officials said Abu Abid recruited suicide bombers, manufactured high quality explosive devices, and was involved in dozens of bombing attacks against IDF forces in the Jenin area.

The killing came just hours after the arrest of a Palestinian suspect following intelligence information on a terrorist who had already infiltrated into Israel and was planning to carry out a suicide bombing attack in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area...

Yes, there are the obligatory, but sparse, condemnations of suicide bombings, but mainline leaders seem reluctant to talk about incitement on Palestinian television, or the manifold expressions of the Blood Libel (which seems to have gotten a lot more traction in the Middle East than the Gospel) that have taken root in the Middle East...

please rsvp on facebook if you intend on coming...the rabbi who went to iran's holocaust conference is speaking at MIT with an Imam from DC

-b

---- Original Message ----
Subject: Foreign Policy and Social Justice, 2/22 7-9PM 10-250
Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2007 15:20:54 -0500
From: Forum on American Progress Info
To: fap@mit.edu

*/The MIT Social Justice Cooperative and Forum on American Progress proudly present…/*

* *
*"Foreign Policy and Social Justice: A Jewish Perspective, A Muslim Perspective"*
* *

*What:* Join us for a dynamic discussion of foreign policy and social justice. Rabbi Dovid Weiss, Associate Director of the Netueri Karta, and Imam Mohammed Alasi, Elected Imam of Washington, D.C.'s Islamic Center, will speak on issues ranging from the history of the Arab and Jewish peoples to American foreign policy in the Middle East. Come with questions!...

[snip]

...*Sponsored by MIT's Office of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences*...

Police and security forces operated extensively to thwart the attack throughout Tuesday afternoon and evening following intelligence information of a terrorist who had already infiltrated into Israel and was planning to carry out a bombing in Israel's coastal plain.

The Tel Aviv District Police declared a heightened state of alert and roadblocks were set up in and around the cities in the region. Detailed Shin-Bet intelligence information led forces to an apartment in the city of Bat Yam, located south of Tel Aviv, where the cell was hiding.

Forces raided the apartment, capturing the bomber and several accomplices. While the men were being questioned the building was evacuated and police sappers combed the apartment for explosives but none were found.

The would-be bomber told interrogators that he had arrived in Rishon LeZion in the early afternoon with the explosive device concealed in a backpack – which he says he intended to detonate inside Tel Aviv - but for reasons that still remain unclear he decided to dump the backpack into a garbage dumpster and head back to Bat Yam, where his accomplices were waiting in the apartment. Investigators are now trying to determine whether he changed his mind about committing suicide at the last second or if the bomb was faulty...

...The would-be suicide bomber is a Palestinian resident of the village of Jalbun, located northeast of Jenin in the northern West Bank. The man is a member of the Islamic Jihad and part of a cell which has carried out a string of terror attacks, acting on Syrian orders.

This morning he left from Jenin and intelligence information alerted security forces to his intentions. The bomb he intended to detonate is confirmed to have been wired with a large amount of explosives. The Shin Bet is currently questioning all those arrested in connection to the attempted attack.

At present time security forces report eight specific terror alerts, half of which originate from terror groups in the northern West Bank...

Norman Finkelstein

Thursday, February 22, 7:30 pm

Weiner Auditorium, Taubman Building, Kennedy School of Government, JFK Street, Cambridge

Time: 7:00p–9:00p

Location: 10-250

Join us as we present views on social justice and foreign policy from two scholars from the Jewish and Muslim faiths. Rabbi Weiss and Imam Mohammed Alasi are slated to speak on a host of issues from the history of the Arab and Jewish peoples to US support of the State of Israel. Come with questions to this auspicious event.

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/american/progress/

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): Forum on American Progress (FAP), MIT Social Justice Cooperative, SHASS Dean's Office

For more information, contact:
Ali Wyne
mitfap@gmail.com

The Economist's website features a Cities Guide focusing on major international cities. Monthly news on each city includes briefs on generally non-controversial issues of cultural or politically benign events and municipal happenings. That is, until you see February's entry for Tel Aviv.

The lead news brief states that Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport "is facing criticism over its alleged mistreatment of Arab passengers. A report by the Arab Association for Human Rights and the Centre Against Racism has accused airport staff of discriminating against Arabs." The article is accompanied by a somewhat cynically captioned photo of an Israeli security guard at the airport...

Bridges is now in a bit of trouble for spilling the beans about evolution being the product of a Pharisee Jew conspiracy to bamboozle normal Americans and destroy Christianity.

“Indisputable evidence — long hidden but now available to everyone — demonstrates conclusively that so-called ‘secular evolution science’ is the Big-Bang 15-billion-year alternate ‘creation scenario’ of the Pharisee Religion,” reads the letter that went out under Bridges' name. “This scenario is derived concept-for-concept from Rabbinic writings in the mystic ‘holy book’ Kabbala dating back at least two millennia.”

It seems that the actual author or analyst, I guess you might say, was a fellow named Marshall Hall, the husband of Bridges campaign manager, Bonnie Hall. Then they sent it out over Bridges' signature to state legislators in Texas, California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ohio. And they didn't stop by letting the cat out of the bag on evolution. They also blew the whistle on all this hokum about the earth revolving around the Sun...

Although much that Rosenfeld describes is familiar, his study has touched a raw nerve among its targets, especially following a Jan. 31 New York Times article about Rosenfeld's conclusions.

Hysterical denunciations of Rosenfeld quickly followed in major publications including the London Observer, the Jerusalem Post and the Forward.

One accusation against Rosenfeld was that he ripped quotations out of context. But just what context could perfume such utterances as Noam Chomsky's of 2002: "Anti-Semitism is no longer a problem. . . . It's raised, but it's raised because privileged people want to make sure they have total control, not just 98 percent control." Or Professor Michael Neumann's 2003 comments: "If an effective strategy [to help Palestinians] means encouraging reasonable anti-Semitism, or reasonable hostility to Jews, I . . . don't care. If it means encouraging vicious, racist anti-Semitism, or the destruction of the state of Israel, I still don't care."...

...It is not innuendo to note, as Rosenfeld does, that calling Israel a "Nazi state" and urging its dismantling is not unrelated to the attacks on Jews in Europe or to the verbal violence against Israel that is becoming bolder here. That anti-Zionism has established a beachhead among leftist intellectuals and academics in this country cannot be denied.

What is yet to be determined is whether more Jewish liberals and centrists are prepared to fight back and answer this insidious trend with the sort of plain talk it deserves or if, afraid of being branded as "intolerant" as was the case with Rosenfeld, they will back away from the fray. If the pasting Rosenfeld and AJComittee has taken does serve as a deterrent to frank discussions about the abandonment of Israel by the hard left and its impact on academia and our political culture, the consequences will not be inconsiderable.

Despite their braying about martyrdom, it takes no courage to run, as some " progressive" do, with the pack of media and academic jackals who defame Israel or whitewash its foes. But while these ideological zealots brazenly disavow the Jewish state, many other Jews have simply disengaged from the cause because they do not wish to be identified with an "illiberal" Israel. The result is an increasingly open field for the haters and a new growth for anti-Semitism just as Rosenfeld and others have asserted...

The list of examples of the ISB bullying and seeking to intimidate people who have concerns about it, while at the same time professing to be interested in interfaith relations, is growing:

• The ISB proclaims its "moderation" yet is suing a genuine Islamic moderate, Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Mansour, for "non-authoritative" views of Islam;
• The ISB promotes itself as devoted to civil rights, while it sues, subpoenas and otherwise seeks to intimidate journalists who dare to report about its leaders and its funding;
• The ISB keeps as its key Trustee, Walid Fitaihi, someone who solemnly pronounced himself committed to respect for other faiths while engaging in virulent anti-Semitic writings.

The ADL is a national and local leader in building and nurturing good relations among people of different faiths. It had the courage to publicly express concern about the ISB and its leadership in 2004. It was only a matter of time before the ISB would deploy some of the millions of dollars it has received from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East for the purpose of seeking to intimidate and burden the Anti-Defamation League.

The ISB. It talks “interfaith relations” while practicing intimidation.

Today the killer’s daughter—who works for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian “refugees” (UNRWA)—admitted that this story was a complete fraud. She wants the world to know that her father was “martyred for patriotic motivations.”

And the family was directly instructed to lie about it by the Palestinian Authority: Killer’s daughter admits it was political...

On March 3, 2002, Hamad stood atop a mountainside above the abandoned Haramiye police station, between Ofrah and Eli, and coolly fired towards soldiers and civilians over a period of 40 minutes, murdering ten and wounding another ten. He was not caught for over two years.

The ten victims of that attack were only a small portion of the 131 who were murdered by Palestinian terrorists that month. Just a few weeks later, Israel initiated Operation Defensive Shield, temporarily wiping out much of the terrorist infrastructure in Judea and Samaria.

Fatah spokesman Jamal Nazal said that on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the attack, activities will be held calling for Hamad's release. Nazal said that Israel should remember that Hamad "refrained from aiming his fire at an Israeli vehicle in which an Israeli woman and three children were traveling."

In fact, however, among the ten dead were three civilians...

...I knew in that moment that this was what the future of teaching about justice would include: teaching war criminals who sit glaring at me with hatred for daring to speak the truth of their atrocities and who, if paid to, would disappear, torture and kill me. I wondered that night how long I really have in this so called “free” country to teach my students and to be with my children and grandchildren.

The American military and mercenary soldiers who “sacrificed” their lives did not do so for the teacher’s freedom to teach the truth about the so-called war on terror, or any of US history for that matter. They sacrificed their lives, limbs and sanity for money, some education and the thrills of the violence for which they are socially bred...

Al-Arian began his hunger strike more than three weeks ago after being given a sentence of up to 18 months for refusing to testify before a grand jury in Virginia. His attorneys say an earlier plea agreement freed him from further cooperation with the government. Supporters say the government's actions amount to a form of harassment....

IDF troops arrived at the scene, west of Ramallah, and were conducting searches for the perpetrators.

Earlier, three IDF troops and one Palestinian were wounded during clashes between in and near the West Bank.

An IDF officer and soldier were wounded lightly during clashes in the Kalandiya refugee camp close to Jerusalem.

Palestinians opened fire on the troops during an attempt to disperse crowds of people. The troops suffered wounds after being hit by shrapnel following the shots.

Meanwhile, IDF soldiers shot a Palestinian who was in the process of throwing a Molotov cocktail at the troops operating in Hebron.

Forces shot at the legs of the Palestinian after they identified him making the attack...

Police dispersed the rioters with stun grenades, tear gas and water hoses.

At least one of the rioters was wounded and three were arrested, Israel Radio reported.

The protesters had been listening to a sermon delivered by Islamic Movement head Sheikh Raed Salah at a massive protest rally north of the Old City.

During the sermon, Salah urged supporters to start a third intifada in order to "save al-Aksa Mosque, free Jerusalem and end the occupation."

He went on to say that Israel's history was tainted with blood. "They want to build their temple at a time when our blood is on their clothes, on their doorsteps, in their food and in their drinks. Our blood has passed from one 'General Terrorist' to another 'General Terrorist,'" exclaimed the Islamic Movement chief...

...Following a violent protest 10 days ago, one of the most vocal opponents of the Mughrabi Gate project, Salah was barred by a court from coming within 60 meters of the Old City walls. On Monday, the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court agreed to a police request that he be barred from coming within 150 meters of the walls for 60 days.

Ariel Toaff, an Israeli-Italian professor at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv, said in a statement that he ordered the Italian publisher of his book to freeze distribution of his book so that he can "re-edit the passages which comprised the basis of the distortions and falsehoods that have been published in the media."

Earlier, Toaff issued an apology in which he promised to direct the Italian publishing house, El Molino, to stop distribution of his book, entitled Pasque di Sangue (Bloody Passover), and re-edit passages which "comprised the basis of the distortions and falsehoods that have been published in the media."

"I was astounded by the sheer force of these misrepresentations, which turned what is a research book into a vehicle used to harm Judaism and the Jewish people and, God forbid, as a justification for blood libel."...

What can I do?
If your rabbi or community is interested in supporting this endeavor, please have them sign

If you are a rabbi
Please consider devoting at least part of your sermon, either friday night March 2 or Shabbat morning March 3, to educating your congregation on the Iranian threat. See our list of talking points for some points of discussion. Please sign our petition to show your public support, and email your colleagues.

If you are not a rabbi
Please contact your rabbi and ask him/her to participate (see our sample email. Keep in mind that although your rabbi may have heard about this from other sources, there's nothing as effective as requests from (multiple) congregants. Also, spread the word to all your family and friends (see our sample email).

If you are a hillel director
Please consider a program to educate your students about the Iranian threat, with the goal of having them set up relevant activities on campus.

If you have contacts with the press/media
Media coverage to educate the public about the Iranian threat is vital. This is an issue for American Jews and non-Jews alike, as well as the entire world.

If you can find Iranian Jews in or near your community, consider inviting them to speak. They understand the danger posed by the current Iranian regime, often from firsthand experience.

Before Hafez al-Asad made a deal of political convenience with Imam Moussa al-Sadr to acknowledge the Alawis as real Shia Muslims, their blood was believed to be licit, by both Shia and Sunni. The fourteenth century jurist Ibn Taymiyya ruled that the Alawis were "more infidel than Jews or Christians, even more infidel than many pagans."

That fear of being swept along in a current of their own blood, as they themselves are letting Christian blood, is what keeps the Alawi regime from being able to negotiate or make peace with Israel, or indeed anyone, and it is why they embraced Arabism and became more "Arab" than even the Sunnis. It is also why they must be flexible enough to incorporate Islamism as well. As a minority sect running a Sunni majority state in a Sunni majority region, they have no choice but to follow regional trends. And they have no legitimacy except for what they can establish through violence. That is how things work in Syria. In Lebanon, there is an agreement between minorities, however difficult, to share power. It's not surprising that Syria's ally in Lebanon, Hezbollah, would prefer to play by Syrian rules.

Hezbollah represents much of Lebanon's Shia minority, and that minority's large population and rage have led much of the Western press corps to believe that the huddled masses camping out in downtown Beirut are the long suffering wretched of the earth--and thus entitled to bring down the government, and with it the international tribunal investigating Hariri's murder. It was the particularism of Shia suffering this past summer that made them the darlings of the international community, even though the fanatical Islamic resistance made use of an entire nation, Christians, Sunnis, and Druze alike, to shield them and abet their anti-Semitic eliminationist fantasies. Yes, Shia civilians were killed, but only when Hezbollah took them to war against Israel. Christians are being killed because they won't submit to the will of Hezbollah's patron in Damascus...

A government source said Chirac's position is controversial in Paris, with the French Foreign Ministry continuing to support a hard line with regard to the Iranian nuclear program, a position also expressed Wednesday by the French ambassador to Israel, Jean-Michel Casa, in an interview with Haaretz.

Chirac told reporters at the end of January that it would not be terrible if Iran had a nuclear bomb or two, but quickly reversed himself following protests from officials at home. Israeli experts said that the link Chirac is making between French presence in Lebanon and the closing down of Iran's nuclear program shows the shortcomings of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the second Lebanon war. According to one expert, Israel "begged the French to send soldiers to Lebanon" and end up paying for it by damaging its strategic interests...

While the vast majority of societies that practice cousin marriage favor the marriage of cross cousins, the relatively small number of societies that encourage parallel-cousin marriage can be found in the Islamic cultures of North Africa and west and central Asia. Russian anthropologist Andrey Korotayev has shown that, while the region that practices parallel-cousin marriage does not map perfectly onto the Islamic world as a whole, it does (with some exceptions) closely resemble the territory of the eighth-century Islamic Caliphate — the original Islamic empire. So there is one great exception to the claim that human society — and even human nature itself — are built around the principle of extra-familial marriage. Almost every known contemporary case of preferential parallel-cousin marriage is the result of diffusion from a single source: the original Islamic Caliphate...

Erdogan said Olmert had shown him photographs of the construction work near the Temple Mount during the prime minister's two-day trip to Turkey. However, the Turkish prime minister said Olmert had failed to convince him that the work would not harm the holy sites there. Olmert agreed to a Turkish suggestion for a technical team from Turkey to inspect the site, Erdogan said...Despite some disagreements, Olmert said Israel considered Turkey as a "bridge between Israel and the Islamic countries" and he reiterated Israeli positions at a joint news conference with Erdogan...

But Abbas made clear it was only intra-Palestinian bloodshed he opposed. Attacking Jews was still OK.

"We should put our internal fighting aside and raise our rifles only against the Israeli occupation," he said, according to a WorldNetDaily report. He praised archterrorist Ahmed Yassin, the co-founder of Hamas who was killed by Israel in 2004. For good measure, he threw in some anti-Semitic boilerplate: "The sons of Israel are mentioned as those who are corrupting humanity on earth."

Most media accounts of the Fatah rally mentioned only Abbas's "unity" remarks, leaving out the gamier stuff about raising rifles against the humanity-corrupters (AP headline: "Abbas calls for respect at Fatah rally"). In similar fashion, news reports have rarely pointed out that in the Gaza Strip, where the Fatah-Hamas street battles have taken place, the "occupation" ended in August 2005, when Israel razed 21 Jewish settlements and expelled every Jew from the territory. For all intents and purposes, there has been a sovereign Palestinian state in Gaza for the past 18 months. The anarchy and violence, the kidnappings, the myriad of armed gangs -- that is the authentic face of Palestinian statehood. Take a good look...

"The [Jews are] evil souls, a thousand evil ones [Jews] are in my home!”

by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook- Feb. 14, 2007

The lyrics in a new video clip broadcast on official Palestinian Authority Television refer to Jews as "evil souls, a thousand evil ones. . . in my home." The lyrics are sung to images of a religious Jew walking in Jerusalem and Jews praying at the Western Wall of the Temple.

This overtly anti-Semitic message not only defines Jews as “evil souls,” but likewise tells Palestinians to see Jews as outsiders in Jerusalem. Even Jews at the Western Wall are portrayed as intruders.

Click here to view the clip

The following is an excerpt from the song:

“I am Palestinian, and my home is my home. The evil souls [Visual: Jew walking in Jerusalem], A thousand evil ones are in my home!” [Visual: Jew walking in Jerusalem] But I am Palestinian and my home is my home, The evil souls [Visual: Jews praying at Western Wall], A thousand evil ones are in my home!” [Visual: Jews praying at Western Wall] [PA TV, February 13, 2007]

The rest of the video, named “Palestinian Unity,” features a teenage boy singing about Palestinian unity, over background images of dead bodies, funerals and military parades of the rival Palestinian terror groups, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, the Popular Front and the Democratic Front. The background images also include scenes of violence against Israel, including Israeli tanks and jeeps being hit by stones and Molotov cocktails.

The lyrics include:

“We are all Palestinians in blood and identity, Fatah, Hamas, and the Jihad, the Popular [Front] and the Democratic [Front]... We want to liberate the land through the national unity..."

The words, "We are a sword which is not drawn, except towards the occupier,” are sung to the images of a gun firing, followed by that of falling Israeli soldier.

Walid Jumblatt thought for a very long time before he answered that question. I could see his mind working cautiously, calibrating his response as he always does. The fiercest liberal in Lebanon said the following very carefully:

“It would be bad for Lebanon and for the Middle East if the US withdraws from the Middle East. Because we will face a different Arab and Muslim world. It is very strange and ironic that even the pro-Iranians in Iraq are asking the Americans to stay. You could write a theater about it. Making the Americans totally withdraw from the Arab world would be a mistake, would be a disaster for the moderates in the Arab world. The radicals and the Iranians would win.”

"When anti-Semitism marches under the banner of anti-racism, as in the Durban conference, human rights are corrupted," he told The Jerusalem Post on Monday evening after his speech to the Forum.

"Israel is delegitimized, if not demonized, by the ascription to it of the two most scurrilous indictments of twentieth-century racism, Nazism and apartheid the embodiment of all evil," according to Cotler. This has the disingenuous effect of turning an antisemitic indictment calling for Israel's dismantlement into a moral imperative; and to seek to give it the imprimatur of the United Nations and international law...

...Prof. Richard Landes of Boston University spoke of the ways in which anti-Semitism is easily spread by mainstream Western media. "Muslim political culture uses the media as a theater of war," he told the Post on Monday evening, echoing his speech to the 160 delegates from Israel and the Diaspora who participated in the Forum. "The western media is inexcusably credulous and therefore allows this sacred public trust to be exploited."

Landes urged Israel to "stand up [for itself]. In the same way the media behaves in a submissive way [in the face of] Muslim political culture, the Israelis behave in a submissive way toward the mainstream media. They don't want to confront them.

"So you have a death-lock in which the Muslims present vicious propaganda and get the media to present this as real news. As it is, Western Europe is not resisting the onslaught of Islamism. Part of the reason is that they don't know how to defend themselves. Israel could provide an example for this [defense]."...

The excavations, which aim to salvage artefacts before construction of a pedestrian bridge leading to the complex also sacred to Jews, have angered many Muslims who fear the work will harm the foundations of al-Aqsa mosque. Israel says the holy places will not be harmed.

"That cursed Israel is trying to destroy al-Aqsa mosque," Mohammed el-Katatny of President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP) told a heated parliament session held to discuss the Israeli digging.

"Nothing will work with Israel except for a nuclear bomb that wipes it out of existence," he said...

The chief US negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill, qualified the draft accord as "excellent" but declined to provide details. He said it was being submitted to all six governments and, pending their formal approval, would be ratified at a meeting scheduled for today in Beijing.

"We would like to think that we can all agree on this," Hill said at a briefing. "We feel it is an excellent draft, so I don't think we would be the problem."...

The pig had run into the communal wash room of a house in Ketzerbachtal in Saxony, and started shredding sheets and clothing.

Attempts to drive it out of the house failed and hunter Walter Kopinger, 57 was called to kill the animal.

Because of the confined space he used a Magnum 357 rather than his rifle but still only managed to hit the animal after several shots.

BEFORE THESE internal debates were resolved the Soviet Jewry effort could not be regarded as a movement, capable of attracting allies and moving governments. Nor were such debates easily, or ever fully, put to rest.

As late as 1987, when the by then mature and powerful movement organized the largest-ever Soviet Jewry rally on Washington's mall to coincide with Mikhail Gorbachev's visit, some Jewish leaders wondered if the community could be mobilized, and if such a rally would be counterproductive. They warned that only a few thousand souls would brave the winter weather, and that the Jewish community would be considered "warmongers" who were spoiling the recent warming of US-Soviet relations.

In actuality, over 250,000 people came to a rally that was pivotal in opening the floodgates, not just to 10,000 or 20,000 Jews, which seemed like a dream at the time, but to a million Jews who came to Israel over the following decade.

Since it has been a while, a reminder is in order of what full mobilization looks like...

The following are excerpts from the article:

Hamas movement spokesman, Mushir Al-Masri, said: “Hamas remains as it is: following its principles. It did not retreat, but advanced forward.” He confirmed that it will not recognize Israel, will not abandon the resistance [i.e. terror] and will not discard its principles.” He further said: “The Hamas [that existed] prior to the government, is Hamas of the government. Hamas prior to the unity [government] is Hamas after the unity.”

This was said during a rally organized yesterday by the Islamic University student council, as part of a series of activities of identification with the university. Thousands of university students and a group of representatives from the Legislative Council and ministers participated in the rally…Al-Masri added: “Hamas received national legitimization through the gathering of masses around it and around the option of resistance [i.e., terror] and received legislative legitimization through its victory in the Legislative Council elections. It now received Arab and Islamic legitimization and will receive international legitimization.” [Al-Ayyam, February 12, 2007]

The officials , who refused to be identified at the press conference, said the Iranian-supplied munitions had killed more than 170 coalition troops and wounded more than 620 others.

They said the weapons were brought into Iraq under the direction of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which reports to Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The officials said they found no concrete military links to Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"The supreme leader's side of the government is the side of the government that we are most concerned about, because they are the policy making side of the government," a US military analyst said in Baghdad. "The Quds Force basically takes directions from the supreme leader."...

Border Guard sappers dispatched to the scene conducted a controlled-detonation of the devices, and the 16-year-old Palestinian was taken in for interrogation by Israeli security forces.

It remains unclear whether the teen was supposed to transfer the devices to someone else or carry out a terror attack on his own.

Palestinian sources said he is a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Fatah’s armed wing...

Israel successfully tested the Arrow anti-missile system Sunday night, in its first nighttime trial, intercepting a test target that simulated the warhead of a long-range Iranian surface-to-surface Shihab-3 missile.

"The test yesterday was exceptional," said MK Yuval Steinitz, a former head of the committee. "It proved it can bring down any kind of ballistic missile, a capability no power in the world possesses."...

The letter issued on February 9, 2007 reads in part: "Unless Israel quickly stops the excavation work, and the planned construction, we fear that violent protests will break out in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza and far beyond."...

The excavation and building work at the Mugrabi Ascent, some 60 meters away from the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount, has sparked demonstrations and criticism across the Muslim world.

Majadele, speaking at a stormy meeting of the Knesset Interior and Environment Committee, accused the mayor of agreeing to the work without first obtaining the correct authorization required by law.

The minister said that several days he had told the head of the Antiquities Authority that the dig was illegal, and had tried in vain to set up a meeting with Lupolianski.

The mayor announced late Sunday night that he had decided to postpone construction of the walkway at the Mugrabi Ascent until zoning authorities complete plans for the area.

"The Mayor of Jerusalem, Uri Lupolianski, together with Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, Rabbi for the Kotel and Holy Places, decided last night to allow public discussion of the plans to construct the Mugrabi Bridge at the planning and construction committees," city spokesman Gideon Schmerling said in a statement.

"This is due to the sensitivity of the plan and following meetings and discussions with representatives from eastern Jerusalem who requested to look over the plans and voice their opinions."...

Darwish discussed topics ranging from women's rights in the Middle East, the threat of radical Islamic terrorism, and the need to empower the moderate Arab voice. She staunchly supports Israel and its fight against the "unending war" waged against it by its Arab neighbors, despite her Arab upbringing.

"[Israel] is a country that deserves our respect, and not our hatred," she said, calling it the "scapegoat" of the Middle East's rage.

Darwish grew up in Gaza City and Cairo in the 1950s and '60s, where she was surrounded by images and sounds of jihad, she said.

Childhood songs, classroom lessons and life lessons all referenced death and martyrdom.

Her father, Mustafa Hafez, was a general in the Egyptian army in Gaza in the 1950s, where he founded the fedayeen, which launched raids across the border into Israel. Around 400 Israelis were killed as a result of the fedayeen's actions.

In 1956, when she was a child, the Israeli Defense Force assassinated Darwish's father in response to his actions in Israel.

Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser immortalized him in a speech in which he called him a martyr in the struggle against Israel.

It was Sept. 11, 2001, Darwish said, that resolved her to speak out in the name of Arabs in support of the war on terror, America and Israel...

The first-term U.S. senator announced Saturday that he will run for the White House in 2008, saying the country's first priority should be to end the war in Iraq.

Obama has also introduced a bill to prevent U.S. President George W. Bush from increasing American troop levels in Iraq, and to remove U.S. combat forces from the country by March 31, 2008...

...Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who will face his own re-election bid later this year, said Obama's policy would spell disaster for the Middle East.

"I think that will just encourage those who want to completely destabilize and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and a victory for the terrorists to hang on and hope for an Obama victory," Howard said on Nine Network television.

"If I were running al Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory, not only for Obama but also for the Democrats."...

I happen to be a Jewish-heritage daughter of two Holocaust survivor parents.

I also happen to have a well-informed, actively thinking and aware brain. Therefore, it is blatantly
obvious that the supposed recent hotel incident (from one week ago) involving Elie Wiesel is clearly a STAGED Zionist disinfo. media/P.R. stunt.

Here's the general modus operandi:
The ADL and/or affiliated groups set up/
essentially fabricate a fake hate-spewing website
(ie. a counterintelligence/'agent provocateur' operation). Then a shill associated with this hoax operation stages a media/P.R.-generating
incident with the underlying purpose of discrediting anyone who questions any aspect of the rabidly ethnocentric Zionist agenda or the 'Holocaust Industry' deluge of propaganda.

Khomeini's anti-Semitic attacks found favor with the opponents of the shah, both leftists and Islamists. His anti-Semitism ran along the same lines as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the turn-of-the-century hoax beloved of the Nazis that purports to expose a Jewish conspiracy to rule the world. The Protocols was published in Persian in the summer of 1978 and was widely disseminated as a weapon against the shah, Israel, and the Jews. In 1984, the newspaper Imam, published by the Iranian embassy in London, printed excerpts from The Protocols. In 1985, Iranian state authorities did a mass printing of a new edition. Somewhat later, the periodical Eslami serialized The Protocols under the title "The Smell of Blood: Jewish Conspiracies."

Just two years ago, in 2005, at the Iranian booth at the Frankfurt Book Fair, I was readily able to buy an English edition of The Protocols published by the Islamic Propagation Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Other anti-Semitic classics were also available, such as Henry Ford's The International Jew and Mohammad Taqi Taqipour's screed Tale of the "Chosen People" and the Legend of "Historical Right." The cover of the latter volume caught my eye: a red Star of David superimposed over a grey skull and a yellow map of the world. Obviously, even after the death of Khomeini in 1989, the worldwide dissemination of anti-Semitism by Iran continued.

The fact that 25,000 Jews now live in Iran, making it the largest Jewish community in a Muslim country, is not incompatible with the foregoing. The Jews in Iran are made clearly to feel their subordinate Dhimmi status. Thus, they are not allowed to occupy higher positions than Muslims and so are disqualified from the leading ranks in politics and the military. They are not allowed to serve as witnesses in court, and Jewish schools must be managed by Muslims and stay open on the Sabbath. Books in the Hebrew language are forbidden...

To prohibit the use of funds to carry out any covert action for the purpose of causing regime change in Iran or to carry out any military action against Iran in the absence of an imminent threat, in accordance with international law and constitutional and statutory requirements for congressional authorization.

Who among us knows, for example, that the al-Aqsa Mosque, which according to contemporary studies was built some 1,400 years ago, is now claimed to have been built at the time of the world's creation, during the days of Adam or Abraham? And who is aware of the fact that increasing numbers of Muslim academics and religious leaders claim it existed even before Jesus and Moses and that Islam preceded Judaism in Jerusalem?

Today, thousands of Islamic rulings, publications and sources deny the Jewish roots in Jerusalem and its holy places. They claim that the Temple didn't even exist in Jerusalem but was located in Nablus or Yemen. An Islamic legal pronouncement (fatwa) on the Jerusalem Waqf (Muslim religious trust) Web site says King Solomon and King Herod did not build the Temple at all, but merely refurbished an existing structure that had been there from the days of Adam. Today, many Muslims call the Temple "the greatest fraud crime in history" and many Muslim adjudicators attach the world "so-called" to the word "temple."

On the southern Islamic movement's Web site, Mohamed Khalaikah cites Israeli archaeologists in support of his theory that there is no trace of the Jews' Temple. He distorts the writings of these archaeologists, whose studies provided findings from Biblical sources corroborating the Temple's existence...

Samuel's Tomb, called Kever Shmuel by Jews and Nebi Samwil by Muslims, is located just north of Jerusalem's Ramot neighborhood and can clearly be seen from many areas of the capital. The main prayer hall in the tomb was smashed and phones and fax machines from an adjacent office were stolen. Police say Arabs are behind the attack and are investigating the incident to identify the perpetrators.

There is also a mosque in the tomb complex.

Hevron's ancient cemetery is located near the Admot Yishai (Tel Romeida) neighborhood. It also has a new section, which was targeted by the attackers.

"There are plans to change the features of the city," Amr Moussa said in a statement distributed to the Arab representatives at an emergency League meeting in Cairo.

Moussa said, without elaborating, that the dig reflects "Israeli attempts" to tighten control over Jerusalem...

...Protests against the construction have spread, with demonstrators accusing Israel of plotting to harm Islamic shrines.

Moussa, the Arab League secretary-general, said he also sent letters to the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and UNESCO, warning of repercussions the Israeli work could have on peace in the region.

"The Israeli violations are provoking anger and condemnation in Palestine, Arab and Islamic world, which is threatening the security and stability in the region," Moussa's statement read.

Israeli authorities have promised the dig to replace a centuries-old ramp damaged in a 2004 snowstorm would not damage the compound, about 60 meters (yards) away. But as work started this week, it drew fierce protests and accusations that Israel was plotting to harm Muslim holy sites...

These are questions that were, or should have been, asked with respect to the "cartoon riots," in which Muslims in many countries violently demonstrated against cartoons depicting Muhammad in a Danish newspaper. In the same vein, a German opera that depicted a number of religious figures was cancelled for fear that it might offend Muslim sensibilities.

Numerous smaller incidents of Western self-censorship with respect Muslim sensibilities abound, while Christian and Jewish societies continue to subject themselves and their religions to withering criticism, parody, and self-doubt.

Violence and bullying, in other words, has worked. The more violent the Muslim world becomes, the more likely the West is to see the side of the "offended" party and question its own actions.

The Muslim world's tactic of combining claims of offense, followed by intimidation through violence is not new to Israelis. We have been victims of it for years, and we are seeing it again right now...

He wants officials to look into the King Fahad Academy which uses books that brand other faiths as worthless.

An ex-teacher at the London school says parts of the books describe Jews as "repugnant" and Christians as "pigs".

The school denies teaching pupils from these texts, but says the passages will be removed from the books in question...

Even as the conflict has raised the American public's awareness of the subtle differences between Sunni and Shi'a Islam, Boston University Islamic studies professor Kecia Ali said most Muslims in America do not strongly advertise an affiliation with either sect.

"If anything, the conflict in Iraq has united American Muslims across sectarian lines in opposition to American policy in the region," she said...

Would the vast majority of Arab Israeli citizens turn out to vote in national elections, as they've usually done? Would an apartheid state have several Arab political parties, as Israel does? In recent Israeli elections, two Arab parties found themselves disqualified for expressly supporting terrorism against the Jewish state. However, Israel's Supreme Court, exercising its independence, overturned both disqualifications. Under any system of apartheid, would the judiciary be free of political interference?...

Considering the behaviors expressed by MSU members, it’s hard to believe that these students are simply affirming their faith. MSU’s activities constantly reveal support for violence and anti-Semitism. MSU members have made their positions clear: they support Hamas, they support “freedom fighting” and they have publicly declared that Zionists have no future and Israel will soon be wiped off the map. The MSU at UC Irvine are cheerleaders for terrorists and their garb clearly reflects this...

What Lipstadt does not say is that Israel's manner of pursuing its "ideal of Jewish refuge" has brought enormous suffering to the Palestinian people...

...Brandeis officials had said they would figure out how to cover the cost, and some faculty had proposed chipping in $100 donations [BWAHAHAHAHA!]. Nealon said yesterday that the university's position was that it would help pay for the event.

But when Carter accepted the invitation last month, the campus community had less than two weeks to plan and no concrete estimate of the cost. One faculty organizer said an original estimate was $25,000, and a student organizer said the estimate was closer to $60,000 as the event neared...

Brian Salzer, the Principal of South, kicked them off the property. Go Brian! He might be new, but I'm loving this guy.

Anti-Sudan? The Zionist war against Sudan. They're blaming the JEWS (and the US, of course) for what's happening in Darfur? How fricking nuts ARE these people? This is how nuts...

The complaint is this: "Accusations of antisemitism are stifling an honest debate on Israel."

The issue is where the boundary lies between criticizing Israel's policy and promoting (even inadvertently) antisemitism of the newish kind.

As for the complaint, there is very little evidence to support it. The volume and tone of anti-Israeli activism is remarkable by any standard, and I can see no sign of restraint...

“I would not be surprised to learn that some branch of our government conspired either actively to promote or passively to allow the attack on 9/11,” Lerner wrote in an essay published in the new book, “9/11 and American Empire: Christians, Jews, and Muslims Speak Out.” Lerner added that he would also not be surprised if it turned out that the attacks were not the result of a government conspiracy.

“I am agnostic on the question of what happened on 9/11,” he wrote in his essay for the book, which includes articles by other contributors arguing that a government conspiracy was behind the September 11 attacks. “As other authors in this collection have shown, there are huge holes in the official story and contradictions that suggest that we do not know the whole story.”

Contacted by the Forward, Lerner repeatedly insisted that he was, in fact, “skeptical” — a word that did not appear in his essay — toward claims advanced by the book’s other contributors of a government conspiracy...

...The book in which Lerner’s essay appears is billed as having been “inspired by” David Ray Griffin’s “The New Pearl Harbor,” a seminal text of the so-called “9/11 Truth” movement. The new book includes an essay by Griffin in which he makes the case that the September 11 attacks were likely “orchestrated, like many previous false-flag attacks, by U.S. agents as a pretext for a war to expand the American empire.”...

...“I salute the people in this collection of articles who are doing an amazing job of examining what may prove to be one of the most perverse conspiracies in the history of democratic governments,” Lerner wrote...

...Lerner said that Tikkun is planning to publish an article by Griffin in its March issue, which would be accompanied by “a little note saying if you go to our Web site, you’ll see why we don’t agree with this.” Although he says he does not agree with all of Griffin’s conclusions, Lerner said that Griffin — who has suggested that the Twin Towers were brought down by “controlled demolition” — draws attention to important unexplained facts about the attacks...

...“Anything about Israel and the relationship to 9/11,” Lerner said, “I think is total baloney.”

The details were revealed in yesterday's Corriere Della Sera newspaper which published extracts of the book by Professor Ariel Toaff, Easter of Blood. European Jews and ritual homicides.

Last night his claims were denied by leading Jewish figures including his father Elio, once chief rabbi of Rome.

In the book, Prof Toaff describes the multilation and crucification of a two-year-old boy to recreate Christ's execution at Pesach, the Jewish Easter. The festival marks the fleeing of the Jews from Egypt and Prof Toaff says Christian blood was used for "magic and therapeutic practices."

In some cases the blood was mixed with dough to make the azzimo, unleavened bread, eaten at Pesach.

He says the acts took place in northern Italy, around the city of Trento in German-speaking areas that border modern-day Austria.

Prof Toaff bases his book on confessions he says came from Jews captured and put on trial for the practice, which took place from 1100 and 1500.

He writes that several confessed to the crucifixion of Christian children and that they were executed.

However, the claims were condemned by Jewish leaders in Rome. Their declaration read: "There has never existed in the Jewish tradition any ritual involving human blood. It is improper to use the declarations extracted under torture hundreds of years ago to construct theories as original as they are aberrant.

"The only blood split in these stories was that of many innocent Jews killed for unjust accusations."

However, Prof Toaff, who teaches at the Bar Illan University near Tel Aviv, responded: "This declaration is a disgrace, before judging they should have read my book and then saved themselves the bother."

Luzzatto describes Toaff's work as a "magnificent book of history...Toaff holds that from 1100 to about 1500...several crucifixions of Christian children really happened, bringing about retaliations against entire Jewish communities - punitive massacres of men, women, children. Neither in Trent in 1475 nor in other areas of Europe in the late Middle Ages were Jews always innocent victims."

"A minority of fundamentalist Ashkenazis...carried out human sacrifices," Luzzatto continued.

Toaff offers as an example the case of Saint Simonino of Trent. In March 1475, shortly after a child's body was found in a canal near the Jewish area of Trent, the city's Jews were accused of murdering Simonino and using his blood to make matzot...

Virgin No. 9: It was a garlic-and-onion pizza. Why?

Virgin No. 14: I’m eighty-four. So what?

Virgin No. 16: Even I know that’s tiny.

Virgin No. 18: I’m saving myself for Jesus.

Virgin No. 20: Don’t touch my hair!

Virgin No. 21: I hope you’re not going to sleep with me and then go sleep with seventy-one others.

Virgin No. 24: Would you mind saying, “Could I see you in my office, Miss Witherspoon?”?

Virgin No. 28: It’s so romantic here, dead.

Virgin No. 30: You are in?

Virgin No. 36: Sure, I like you, but as a friend.

Virgin No. 45: When you’re done, you should really check out how cool this ceiling is.

Virgin No. 49: I really enjoyed that. Thank you very much. Gee, it’s late.

Virgin No. 51: What do you mean, “move a little”?

Virgin No. 55: That was terrible. I should have listened to the other virgins.

Virgin No. 58: Those are my testicles.

Virgin No. 64: Tonight, I become a woman. But until then you can call me Bob.

Virgin No. 65: They’re called “adult diapers.” Why?

Virgin No. 67: I’m just Virgin No. 67 to you, right?

The report; “From Nationalist Battle to Religious Conflict: New 12th Grade Palestinian Textbooks Present a World Without Israel”, was written by PMW Director Itamar Marcus and Associate Director Barbara Crook, and analyzes eight textbooks released at the end of 2006...

Most Lebanese think the American and Israeli “realists” who want to negotiate with the Syrians are painfully naïve at best, and downright sinister at worst. There’s an old saying about the Damascus regime in Beirut: Assad starts the fire, sells the water, and never delivers. And Lebanese will never forget that Secretary of State James Baker green-lighted Syrian domination of Lebanon for completely unneeded “help” in ousting Saddam Hussein from Kuwait...

Archaeologists have unearthed two skeletons from the Neolithic period locked in a tender embrace and buried outside Mantua, just 25 miles south of Verona, the romantic city where Shakespeare set the star-crossed tale of "Romeo and Juliet."

Buried between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago, the prehistoric pair are believed to have been a man and a woman and are thought to have died young, as their teeth were found intact, said Elena Menotti, the archaeologist who led the dig.

"As far as we know, it's unique," Menotti told The Associated Press by telephone from Milan. "Double burials from the Neolithic are unheard of, and these are even hugging."

The burial site was located Monday during construction work for a factory building in the outskirts of Mantua. Alongside the couple, archaeologists found flint tools, including arrowheads and a knife, Menotti said.

Experts will now study the artifacts and the skeletons to determine the burial site's age and how old the two were when they died, she said...

The present conflict in the Middle East is not between Arab and Jew, but between Arabs and Jews who seek their way in the modern world on the one hand, and Arabs and Persians who reject the modern world on the other...

Although the works are not taking place on the Temple Mount , the Hamas website accused "the Israeli occupation government of conspiring to finally destroy the Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest Muslim shrine world-wide, and to install the alleged Third Temple on its ruins."

"The Aqsa Mosque is in real danger and needs Muslim support to defend and spare it the rancorous Israeli conspiracies", Palestinian Chief Justice Tayseer al-Tamimi declared, calling on Muslim masses to assemble to "protect" the site.

And the Head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Sheikh Raed Salah, claims to have "documents and photos" proving that "the demolition of the pathway and the two rooms under the Buraq Mosque will expose both the Aqsa Mosque and Buraq Mosque inside Al-Haram Al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) to extreme danger as Israeli settlers will easily access both of them," the Hamas website added on Tuesday.

Calls have been issued for Palestinians to "unite their guns in defense of al-Aqsa," while the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades have threatened terrorist attacks if the work continue...

United for Peace and Justice, the convener of the January 27 march, is joining with the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation to co-sponsor a two-day “mobilization” in June, titled “The World Says No to Israeli Occupation.” The event will include a mass rally, a “teach-in” and lobbying. It will mark the 40th year since Israel’s capture of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in June 1967.

“The purpose of the event is to hopefully call greater attention both to the ongoing Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, but also to call attention to the role that the U.S. plays in supporting that, and specifically the financial role, of course,” said UFPJ’s national coordinator, Leslie Cagan...

...But not all Iraq War critics are pleased by UFPJ’s activism on the Palestinian issue. Informed of the group’s plans for a rally criticizing Israel, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who appeared onstage at this weekend’s demonstration along with several other members of Congress, said he was “very upset.”

“I totally disagree with them on their view,” the New York Democrat said. “I obviously don’t think the major problem is the Israeli occupation, which would have ended long ago if it weren’t for the major problem, which is the refusal of Hamas and the Palestinian leadership generally to agree with the existence of Israel.”

Nadler said that most of those who participated in this past weekend’s rally showed up because they oppose the Iraq War, not because of UFPJ’s other political agendas.

“This group is a group with its own opinions, and they have one opinion that a lot of people share, and they’ve done a good job in mobilizing and getting out front,” he said, referring to UFPJ’s opposition to the Iraq War. “One can wish that someone else had done it, but nobody else did. They did the organizing, etc. Now they are going to try to exploit that for their other points. They will not have much success with that.”...

...Unfortunately Sadeniemi's type of animosity that is directed towards the state of Israel, is not an uncommon occurrence in the Finnish news media.

This is in part due to the lack of discourse which stems from the "culture of consensus" that is apparent in Finnish society. It directly effects debate which usually results in the lack thereof. Anyways, my response/rebuttal intended for the op-ed section of the same paper appears below...

The project would be based on Walt Disney Co.'s (Charts) theme parks and could be called "Disney Bahrain," Bahrain's al-Waqt newspaper said, citing an unnamed source.

The report did not make clear whether the U.S. company was directly involved in talks to build the first Disney theme park in the Gulf, where incomes have surged after a tripling of oil prices in the five years to last July.

Alwaleed, the world's eighth-richest man, is talking to investors including Kuwait Finance House, the Gulf's second-largest Islamic bank by market value, and Bahraini institutions, the newspaper said.

Alwaleed indirectly owns 10 percent of Disneyland Paris operator Euro Disney, and his Rotana Audio Visual Co. signed a deal in November to distribute Walt Disney products across the Middle East and North Africa...

..."The founding committee has undertaken a study... and has found the region is in great need of a project for family entertainment," the paper said, citing the source...

The title of the sermon, "The Only Way to Destroy the Jewish Race," appeared in an advertisement for the First Baptist in the church announcements section of Saturday's Portland Press Herald.

The advertisement included references to two books of the Bible but offered no explanation about the content of the sermon other than the title.

"It's offensive, it was done in poor taste," said Rose Wohl , president of Congregation Bet Ha'am, a reform synagogue in South Portland.

However, the sermon by the Rev. Philip C. Andrukaitis, pastor of the First Baptist Church, carried a pro-Jewish and pro-Israel theme, according to a copy of the sermon provided by the pastor.

Andrukaitis said he had hoped the title of the sermon would prompt people who oppose Jews and Israel to call him or stop by the service so he could offer them another viewpoint.

"I hoped to generate dialogue, but not dialogue of this nature," Andrukaitis said.

He apologized for upsetting the Jewish community and said he would write letters conveying his regrets to local papers and area synagogues.

Andrew Tarsy, regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, called the pastor a friend of the Jewish community.

"The ad was alarming and insensitive," Tarsy said, "but his intentions were to educate people about anti-Semitism."

There should be no reason for anyone in the west to have to ask Al Qeada, Hamas or Hizbolla, “What do you expect of us? The answer will be the same. They would like to distract us by encouraging us to worry about why they hate us- If we want to survive we have to focus on what we can do to thwart their intentions...

“Yeah,” he said. “This started a long time ago. Now he’s attacking me personally even on TV.”

“So he feels threatened by you,” I said.

“Of course,” he said. “Well, not by me as a person. If they felt threatened by me as a person they could kill me. It’s easy. It’s very easy, you know. They are afraid of who I represent in Lebanon – the international lobby, the guys in the States, people everywhere in Lebanon – they are afraid of what we are doing. But they think by pushing me to leave or maybe killing me, I don’t know the plans but, by eliminating a person having the power of the Diaspora Lebanese who is also very well connected with the international community and who can go on TV…I’ve been fives times on TV here and no one is able to put me on the screen anymore.” He laughed darkly. “Because of the influence of Hezbollah.”

“Wait a minute,” I said. “You mean Hezbollah is pressuring TV channels here to not talk to you?”

“Yes, of course,” he said. “Of course.”

“And they are complying?” I said.

“They call any reporter and tell him if you make an interview with Toni we’re going to kill you,” he said...

[...]

"[Former Syrian] Minister Mustafa Tlass wrote a voluminous book about this, in which he included all the documents written by the French diplomats and consul in Lebanon."

[...]

"The world loves the Jews. The 'ruler' is Christianity - the Christian West. Arabs, Muslims - why don't you take advantage of something like this? A priest was slaughtered in the presence of two rabbis in the heart of Damascus, in the home of a close friend of this priest, Daud Al-Harari, the head of the Jewish community of Damascus. After he was slaughtered, his blood was collected, and the two rabbis took it. Why? So they could worship their god, because by drinking human blood, they can get closer to God. Where are our diplomats and politicians? Why don't we profit from these historical matters, which are presented to us on a simple, eternal, golden platter?

"As I've said, these books can be found on the streets of Beirut. There are approximately 20 to 30 such books. I must have bought about 2,000 copies since they were published, maybe more. I'd like to say 20,000 copies, but I don't know. When somebody gets married, instead of chocolates, I give him one of these books. Whoever reads this for the first time feels a chill of horror and disbelief. He cannot believe it."

[Crowd: Takbir! Allahu akbar!]

Justice will be restored then. Those people who are there legitimately ... the people there will, will rule. There will be no injustice any more there.

So just keep on doing what we’re doing. Our weapon, our jihad, our way of struggling in this country is with our tongues. We speak out, and we deflate their morale, and this is the best we can do right now...

...Some believe that Yasser Arafat did concede the point in order to buy his ticket out of the wilderness of demonization and earn the right to be lectured directly by the Americans. But in fact, in his famous 1988 statement in Stockholm, he accepted "Israel's right to exist in peace and security." This language, significantly, addresses the conditions of existence of a state which, as a matter of fact, exists. It does not address the existential question of the "rightness" of the dispossession and dispersal of the Palestinian people from their homeland to make way for another people coming from abroad.

The original conception of the phrase "Israel's right to exist" and of its use as an excuse for not talking with any Palestinian leaders who still stood up for the rights of their people are attributed to former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. It is highly likely that those countries that still employ this phrase do so in full awareness of what it entails, morally and psychologically, for the Palestinian people.

However, many people of goodwill and decent values may well be taken in by the surface simplicity of the words, "Israel's right to exist," and believe that they constitute a reasonable demand. And if the "right to exist" is reasonable, then refusing to accept it must represent perversity, rather than Palestinians' deeply felt need to cling to their self-respect and dignity as full-fledged human beings. That this need is deeply felt is evidenced by polls showing that the percentage of the Palestinian population that approves of Hamas's refusal to bow to this demand substantially exceeds the percentage that voted for Hamas in January 2006...

No, you are not seeing things. He said de-Nazification. He is not saying, in the traditional manner of liberal alarmists, that the United States is now where Weimar Germany was. He is saying that the United States is now where Germany after Weimar was. Even for Davos, this was stupid. Actually, worse than stupid. There is a historical analysis, a moral claim, in Soros's word. He believes that the United States is now a Nazi country. Why else would we have to go through a "certain de-Nazification process"? I defy anybody to interpret the remark differently. The analogy between Bush's America and Hitler's Germany is not fleshed out, and one is left wondering how far he would take it. Is Bush like Hitler? If it is "de-Nazification" that we need, then in some sense Bush must be like Hitler. Was the invasion of Iraq like the invasion of Poland? Perhaps. The more one lingers over Soros's word, the more one's eyes pop from one's head...

The lecture, entitled “Middle East Peace: Illusion or Reality,” was to address “policy and steps that all sides could take in achieving peace in the Middle East,” said fourth-year Jonathan Hirsch, president of the Chicago Friends of Israel.

An e-mail sent to Hirsch on behalf of Oriental Institute director Gil Stein cited the lecture as conflicting with the Institute’s Facilities Rental Agreement Policy, which prohibits “events of a religious or political nature.”

“Please understand that this is not an attempt to pass judgment on your group’s activities but instead to maintain the impartiality of the Oriental Institute as a scholarly research institution and museum,” the e-mail read.

“I reviewed the request with senior staff members of the Oriental Institute and concluded that, as a politically charged event sponsored by a political advocacy group, it was not in keeping with the University approved rental regulations for Breasted Hall,” Stein said in an e-mail interview with the Maroon...

...In recent years, the Oriental Institute’s Breasted Hall has been used to host a variety of speakers and events that Hirsch contends took a decidedly political tilt.

In 2005, the Harris School of Public Policy rented Breasted Hall for an event featuring King Abdullah of Jordan, and last year hosted Prince Turki Al-Faisal, the Saudi Ambassador to the United States.

Other past events at Breasted Hall include an event hosted by the group Campaign to End the Death Penalty and a screening of the film No War in Iraq...

...An article published in November by historian Diana Muir accused the Oriental Institute of an anti-Semitic bias after plaques at an exhibition claimed that the religion of Islam developed in the Southern Levant. The Institute dismissed the allegations as being politically influenced.

A lawsuit filed by several Jewish-American citizens last year demanded that the Oriental Institute hand over several Iranian artifacts in its possession as restitution for injuries suffered by a 1997 terrorist attack in Israel, which was later found to have been funded by Iran. Decision on the case is pending...

While there has been much attention given to challenges Israel faces on college campuses, in the media, and increasingly in the halls of Congress, the historically solid and vitally important support given by Evangelical Christians towards Israel is now being threatened. How is this happening and who are the actors?...

...However, the core reason that Evangelicals have an affection for the Jewish people and a strong desire to protect Israel is found, unsurprisingly, in the Bible.

What may surprise people is that the foundation of this support has nothing to do with end-of-days scenarios or the desire to convert the Jews. Instead, there is a belief that God has a covenant with the Jewish people and with Israel. Christians have a religious mandate to support Israel. Throughout the Bible there is language that calls upon Christians to honor and cherish the Jewish people. A key section is found in the very first book of the Bible: Genesis. The promise of Genesis 12:3 regarding the Jewish people is

"I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse".

The Bible also commands Christians to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6), to speak out for Zion's sake (Isaiah 62:1), and to be watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem (Isaiah 62:6)

To people who interpret Israel to mean the Jews - such as evangelical Christians - Genesis becomes an exhortation to both Zionism and philo-Semitism. (see this Q and A with author David Brog for a further explanation of the basis of Christian Zionism). There is also a feeling of sympathy for the Jews-given the tragic history of Christian anti-Semitism in Europe...

The kingdom's religious police arrested 433 foreigners, including more than 240 women, for attending the "impudent" party in Jiddah, the state-guided newspaper Okaz reported. It did not identify the foreigners, give their nationalities or say when the party took place.

Judge Saud al-Boushi sentenced the 20 to three to four month in prison and ordered them to receive an unspecified number of lashes. They have the right to appeal, the newspaper said.

The prosecutor general charged the 20 with "drinking, arranging for impudent party, mixed dancing and shooting a video for the party," Okaz said.

The newspaper said because of the large number of detainees, several judges were assigned to try them in groups. The rest of the detainees are awaiting trial...

Record-breaking actor Emma Thompson revealed today why she is helping to make political history by supporting Britain's first broad-based alliance for a just peace in the Middle East...

...The ENOUGH! coalition, representing over three million people in charities, trade unions, faith and campaign groups has come together to mark this year's 40th anniversary of the Israeli military occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem...

"He'd wanted to be martyred," she said on the show, aired to mark the current season of Ashura, when the world's Shi'ite Muslims commemorate the killing in battle more than 13 centuries ago of the Prophet Mohammad's grandson, Imam Hussein.

This year Ashura has taken on a new dimension for Hezbollah. The Shi'ite group is not just remembering Hussein and its own guerrillas who died fighting in the July-August war but, with Lebanon in political crisis, has its domestic foes to rail at as well as its regular targets Israel and the United States...

If Israelis had been invited, they might have challenged Batarseh about his political obligations to Hamas and Islamic Jihad—two groups dedicated to Israel’s destruction and which have perpetrated many of the terror attacks the barrier was built to prevent.

Moreover, if Israelis were present, they could have also challenged Batarseh about his affiliation with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a group responsible for numerous murderous attacks and designated by the United States and Europe as a terrorist organization...

...With no Israelis present, apparently nobody suggested that that Palestinians might actually be paying the price for terrorism by groups with which Batarseh is affiliated—the PFLP, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It was suicide bombings and other murderous attacks by these and other Palestinian groups that led to Israel's decision to build the security barrier...

...Also noteworthy is that Germans from both sides of the Berlin Wall and the residents on both sides of the Mexican-American border were present at the conference...

The Florida-based group claims U.S. dollars used to purchase gas made from Middle East oil funds terrorism. It urges Americans to only buy oil products that originate from countries that do not support terrorism.

The Terror-Free Oil station in west Omaha will sell gas from oil companies that do not do business in the Middle East. Signs calling for the use of non-Middle Eastern oil were up at the station today.

And the API's John Bisney pointed out another problem, saying the initiative is "an interesting concept but the economic reality means it can't be terribly effective because that oil will find other markets and oil that went to those markets is displaced and goes to the U.S."

Porter argues that since Sinclair does not seek to buy oil from overseas, it meets TFOI standards.

"We can guarantee that we are not going to work with a company that imports Middle Eastern oil," he said.

Tony Judt will be speaking at BC next Tuesday night (2/6) as part of the Lowell Humanities series (7:30, Devlin 101). His formal title is "Disturbing the Peace: Intellectuals and Universities in an Illiberal Age" -- and it is expected that this will be a call for intellectuals to "disturb the peace" in the face of the behavior of Israel and its supporters.

If you know people who would want to go to the talk and be prepared to ask questions, I welcome it. Be forewarned: I have heard that he is a very polished speaker and used to responding to pro-Israel critics

...This event is free and open to the public.

The ZOA said that Breaking the Silence contradicts the ICC mission to "foster support for Israel," "cultivate an Israel-friendly university environment" and "reduce anti-Israel intimidation and harassment on campus."

On January 19, the ICC's steering committee, which is made up of Aish Hatorah, the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, AIPAC, the Jewish National Fund, Hillel, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and the Shusterman Foundation voted unanimously to keep UPZ in the ICC. Aish Hatorah later backtracked and voted to remove UPZ.

In a statement circulated to Jewish organizations, Aish Hatorah apologized for "not clearly stating our position during the official vote on the proposal. We should have known all the facts at that time. But since we didn't, we now are stating that our official viewpoint is that programs and organizations that support such programs that demonize and cause hatred for Israel should not have a place on the Israel on Campus Coalition. For that reason, we vote to remove the UPZ from the Coalition for its support of the 'Breaking the Silence' program."...

Dr. Al-Arian Still on Hunger Strike

WASHINGTON, DC - Jan. 30, 2007 (MASNET) Dr. Sami Al-Arian is currently on the 9th day of his hunger strike at Northern Neck Regional County Jail in Warsaw, Virginia, to protest continued government harassment. He recently received an 18 month sentence for his ethical stand against testifying before a grand jury. The 18 month sentence was given to Dr. Al-Arian despite a plea agreement he had with the government, which included a no-cooperation clause. (See: http://www.masnet.org/takeaction.asp?id=3987)

Many in the legal community insist that Dr. Al-Arian's additional prison sentence is tantamount to double jeopardy. Despite the government's spending of millions of dollars to convict Dr. Al-Arian, a jury in South Florida was unable to deliver a guilty verdict on any of the charges in Dr. Al-Arian's initial case. The conditions under which Dr. Al-Arian has been incarcerated; and the continued efforts by the government to keep him incarcerated, despite a previous agreement for his release and exit from the United States, has raised serious concerns within the Human Rights and legal community, included Amnesty International.

JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED!

FREE DR. AL-ARIAN NOW!

ACTION TO BE TAKEN

Please write to the following individuals to ask for an immediate end to Dr. Al-Arian's suffering:...etc...

"I'd like to greet all of you, whichever way you are facing or whatever T-shirt you are wearing," Zarif said.

When a protester asked about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments about wiping Israel off the map, Zarif said Iran "will not use force against any other member of the U.N."

While Zarif said in his opening words that he expected inquiries about Iran's nuclear policy, only a few audience members questioned the issue.

"[Iran] wants nuclear energy for peaceful purposes," Zarif said. "We do not see that our security is helped by nuclear weapons."

Also offering comments were International Students Consortium President Bilal Bilici, Provost David Campbell and international relations professor Charles Dunbar, who rebutted Zarif's nuclear policy comments, saying, "Iran simply has not been credible on the nuclear question."

Bilici, who planned the event last fall, said he hoped discussion with Zarif would "emphasize the importance of dialogue" between nations...

Unfortunately, I'm afraid we were all sorely (and surprisingly!) outnumbered by supporters of the very eloquent Iranian ambassador. Every one of the Ambassadors responses and statements was greeted with a hearty applause by audience. Some of the questions to the ambassador were clearly designed to make the current regime look good or to put down the Bush administration. More awkwardly, however, the moderator decided to attack the BU Hillel rabbi publicly in his opening remarks (over an unspecified e-mail) - my best bet was that it was an attempt to demonstrate "neutrality" to the audience.

The essence of the Ambassador Zarif's well-designed point was a clear attempt to avert a US attack on Iran. He spoke at length about the failure of the US intervention in Iraq and suggested quite clearly his belief that the US cannot afford a similar quagmire in Iran. He insisted that Iran does not intend to attack any country, and deftly parried questions of Iran seeking Israel's destruction or Ahmedinijad's Holocaust denial by changing the discussion to Israel's "human rights abuses" against the Palestinians. Finally, he insisted on the need for more dialog and understanding as a means of avoiding further conflict in the region.

And of course it was not anything like a panel (like it was supposed to be) - it was clearly a podium for the Iranian spokesman. And what was supposed to be the US side of the panel decided to unanimously invoke the Baker recommendations as Gospel and to attack their own government, even if occasionally sighting a point of disagreement with the Iranian regime. The most depressing was the eagerness with which this demagoguery seemed to have been eaten up.

I could just imagine thing shifted back 70 years and a similarly masterful demagogue getting a similarly warm reception...

[Also,] I do not think that anyone thinks or says that everyone in Iran "hates Jews and wants to nuke Israel", and this is completely irrelevant in a country like that what everyone wants. It is however obvious that the antisemitic rhetoric is enthusiastically supported. One can also recall that this is no more than a quarter of a century thing - Iran did not participate in any of the past wars against Israel. Also, just as in the case of Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany, the people will be made to think and feel what the leaders find convenient at the moment. And these analogies do not have to be taken too literally to be seen that they are obviously true...

Apropos my Germany analogy, here is a pretty randomly selected speech of Hitler in April, 1939 (this is inspired in particular by one claim of the ambassador - that Iran wants peace and is in fact the only country that has pledge not to attack any other countries):

Some excerpts:

"I decided three weeks ago to name the coming party rally the 'Party Convention of Peace. For Germany has no intention of attacking other people. What we, however, do not want to renounce is the building up of our economic relations. We have a right thereto and I do not accept any condition from a European or a non-European statesman."

" We are not thinking about making war on other peoples. However, our precondition is that they leave us in peace."

"This people's State wants to live in peace and friendship with any other State but it will never again let itself be forced down by another State."

"We have given Central Europe a great piece of good fortune, namely, peace - peace that will be protected by German might."

Other quotations in this and other speeches are aplenty...

...King David is a strictly Jewish school. Judaism is the only religion taught. There's a synagogue on site. The children learn modern Hebrew - Ivrit - the language of Israel. And they celebrate Israeli independence day.

But half the 247 pupils at the 40-year-old local authority-supported school are Muslim, and apparently the Muslim parents go through all sorts of hoops, including moving into the school's catchment area, to get their children into King David to learn Hebrew, wave Israeli flags on independence day and hang out with the people some would have us believe that they hate more than anyone in the world.

The Muslim parents, mostly devout and many of the women wearing the hijab, say they love the ethos of the school, and even the kosher school lunches, which are suitable because halal and kosher dietary rules are virtually identical. The school is also respectful to Islam, setting aside a prayer room for the children and supplying Muslim teachers during Ramadan. At Eid, the Muslim children are wished Eid Mubarak in assembly, and all year round, if they wish, can wear a kufi (hat). Amazingly, dozens of the Muslim children choose instead to wear the Jewish kipah.

At the prize morning Carol Cooper, the RE teacher, says: "Boker tov," (Ivrit for "Good morning").

"Good morning Mrs Cooper," the children chant in reply. The entire school, Muslims, Jews, plus the handful of Christians and Sikhs then say the Shema, the holiest Jewish prayer, all together...

The country, of course, is Israel (what other nation’s destruction is considered an acceptable political objective on a university campus?). The cult itself bears no title, but its acolytes populate the ranks of student groups on our campus such as the Muslim Student Awareness Network (MSAN), the ironically named Coalition for Justice in the Middle East (CJME) and Students Confronting Apartheid in Israel (SCAI). On Thursday, two of these groups hosted a lecture by Norman Finkelstein here at Stanford...

...Throughout his whole talk, this same, totalitarian message persisted: all of us are already with the program, except for you. Despite furious note scribbling, I literally lost count of the number of times he used turns of phrase that asserted the total impossibility of thinking differently than he does about Jews holding sovereignty in the land of their ancestors. To list only a few: “there’s no dissent, no debate, no dispute,” “they all agree,” “complete and total unanimity,” “no controversy whatsoever,” “no legitimate disagreement” etc. Many members of the audience helped to reinforce this message by providing the example of how one should behave if one is, indeed, already on board. One should laugh knowingly when Norman points out the “extraordinary coincidence that each new Arab leader who threatens Israel is compared to Hitler,” never wondering whether people might have made those comparisons because of something an Arab leader said about wanting to pave Arab roads with Jewish skulls, or something he did to help organize Muslim SS divisions in Bosnia during World War II. One should tsk disgustedly when some bigoted fool is quoted making the outlandish claim that European Muslims are anti-Semites, never asking why it is that French and Belgian Jews fear to wear their skullcaps on the streets of Paris and Antwerp. One should boo derisively at the mere utterance of the name of Alan Dershowitz, never doubting the unredeemable evil of the youngest professor to ever be tenured at Harvard Law School. And, most important of all, one should applaud vehemently at the suggestion from one audience member that all of Israel is an illegal Zionist occupation that should be dismantled, never once questioning the morality of such an appealingly final solution to the problem of Zionism...

The London Review of Books is an egregious instance of this one-sidedness. Almost every issue contains several articles devoted to attacks on Israel, and the target is not simply the governing party, but the whole spectrum of Israeli political life. Absent from the columns of the Review are the injustices and cruelties of political Islam. In an article by Charles Glass, Lebanon’s Hezbollah is eulogized for its capacity to learn from mistakes, its decency in treating prisoners, “its refusal to murder collaborators,” its intelligent use of “car bombs, ambushes, small rockets and suicide bombers.” Glass speaks of Hezbollah’s uncompromising political program, of which he apparently approves, without mentioning that at its core is the destruction of Israel. Any two-state solution requires a capacity and willingness to compromise, but compromise is anathema to Hezbollah. He claims that the movement had “jettisoned its early rhetoric about making Lebanon an Islamic republic, and [now] spoke of Christians, Muslims and Druze living in harmony.” Missing from this article (in the August 17, 2006, issue) is any reference to its anti-Semitism. In a letter to LRB printed in the September 7, 2006, issue, I pointed out that Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, is not simply a resistance fighter, he is also an anti-Semite with genocidal fantasies. I cited the following statements attributed to him: “If they [the Jews] all gather in Israel it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.” “They [the Jews] are a cancer which is liable to spread at any moment.” I also noted that the name “Party of God,” should worry anyone of enlightened, democratic persuasion, but does not seem to bother Glass. (Would he be equally indulgent of the religious fanatics in Israel who assert their divine right to Greater Israel?) Parties of God, wherever they are to be found, mean tyranny should they ever acquire power. In the article, Glass mentions the fact that he had been kidnapped by Hezbollah at a Syrian checkpoint. Wanting to prove that the movement was independent of Syrian control, he writes that when “Syria insisted that I be released to show that Syrian control of Lebanon could not be flouted [,] Hezbollah, unfortunately, ignored the request.” What virtue! In my letter, I wondered whether he had not succumbed to Stockholm syndrome...

Chirac - who made the comments during a Monday interview with The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune and Le Nouvel Observateur, a weekly magazine - called reporters back the next day to try to have his quotes retracted.

In an article posted on its Web site Wednesday night, the New York Times said the Monday interview was tape recorded and on the record.

Chirac’s initial remarks would mark a big departure from France’s official policy of deterrence and work in preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

“I should rather have paid attention to what I was saying and understood that perhaps I was on the record,” Chirac said in the second interview on Tuesday, according to the New York Times.

On Monday, Chirac said of Iran and its nuclear program, “I would say that what is dangerous about this situation is not the fact of having a nuclear bomb. Having one or perhaps a second bomb a little later, well, that’s not very dangerous.”

Instead, Chirac said, the danger lies in the chances of proliferation or an arms race in the Middle East should Iran build a nuclear bomb. Possessing the weapon would be useless for Iran - whose leader has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map” - as using it would mean an instant counterattack.

"Where will it drop it, this bomb? On Israel?” Chirac asked. “It would not have gone 200 meters into the atmosphere before Tehran would be razed.”

In the second interview with the same newspapers, Chirac retracted his comment about Tehran being razed. “I retract it, of course, when I said, ‘One is going to raze Tehran,”’ he said.

Chirac also said other countries would stop any bomb launched by Iran from reaching its target. “It is obvious that this bomb, at the moment it was launched, obviously would be destroyed immediately,” he said. “We have the means - several countries have the means to destroy a bomb.”

Regarding his comments that Israel could be a target of an Iranian weapon and that Israel would retaliate, Chirac said, “I don’t think I spoke about Israel yesterday. Maybe I did so but I don’t think so. I have no recollection of that."