June 2007 Archives

Many West Bank mosques are sympathetic to the Islamist movement and many religious leaders also have political connections to Hamas. "We won't allow them to be turned into places of incitement and intimidation," Mr Fayyad said. "It's the responsibility of men of religion to present religion as a way of tolerance, not as a cover for bloodshed."

The move is part of an ongoing campaign by the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, to crack down on Islamic militancy following his forces' defeat in Gaza...

...However, it's not yet clear whether Mr Abbas will be strong enough to enforce his decrees. Islamist clerics said yesterday they would continue to preach as before. "If they mean stopping people from expressing their political opinion, it will not work," Ismail Awawdeh, a Hamas activist from a village near Hebron, said after prayers yesterday. "Most people, whether they are Hamas or not, have high political awareness."...

In the West Bank city of Jenin, a pro-Hamas preacher was replaced by a clergyman who spoke of the need to support the new Palestinian government, headed by Fayad.

However, Hamas leader Maher Kharas railed against the U.S., Israel and Palestinian moderates in a sermon at a mosque in the old city of Nablus, an area raided by Israeli troops seeking Palestinian militants earlier in the day.

"Israel soldiers invaded Nablus for two days. Where is the government to defend the old city? Where is the government that demanded the dismantling of the armed brigades?" he said. "America will be defeated in Iraq and the believing Muslims will come here victorious."

In 1996, then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat cracked down on Hamas preachers after a series of Hamas suicide bombings in Israel. He monitored them closely and those considered too militant lost their jobs. Kharas lost his position at that time, and only returned to the pulpit last year after Hamas won parliamentary elections.

Kharas said he feared no one and would not change his ways even if it cost him his job. "All my life, I preached and talked about jihad [holy war]," he said...

The information comes from the companies’ most recent annual reports as filed with the SEC.

Chairman Cox said, “No investor should ever have to wonder whether his or her investments or retirement savings are indirectly subsidizing a terrorist haven or genocidal state. The law already requires companies to report on any material activities in a country the Secretary of State has formally designated a State Sponsor of Terrorism. Our role is to make that information readily accessible to the investing public. Making it easier to find significant information such as this by tapping the power of technology is central to the SEC’s mission.”

Five countries are currently on the U.S. State Department list: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria. (In addition to its support for terrorism, the Sudanese government has also been widely recognized as complicit in genocidal activities in Sudan’s Darfur region.)

The new software tool can be accessed on the Investor Information section of the SEC’s home page. Clicking the tab for “State Sponsors of Terrorism” will bring up a menu of each of the countries on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. Clicking on any of those countries will bring up a menu of the companies whose 2006 annual reports disclose business activities in that country. Clicking on the name of a company will, in turn, bring up the pertinent portions of that company’s annual report.

All of the disclosures are linked directly to the full text of the company’s annual report to insure proper context. The existence of a disclosure by a company concerning activities in one of the listed countries does not, in itself, mean that the company directly or indirectly supports terrorism or is otherwise engaged in any improper activity. The information will be continuously updated to reflect SEC filings as they are received, as well as any changes to the Department of State’s list.

In addition to this initiative, the SEC is complying with a provision in the recently enacted supplemental Appropriations Act requiring that the agency coordinate with the Department of the Treasury on the preparation of a report containing the names of companies which either directly, or through a parent or subsidiary, conduct significant business in Sudan relating to natural resource extraction (P.L. 110-28, The U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007).

Arrests like this happen frequently in Egypt, which receives $2 billion yearly in U.S. aid. Why Said? He works with the Quranists, a Muslim reform group, and is the half brother of the movement's leader, Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour. (Full disclosure: Mansour is my friend).

Being a progressive Muslim is a dangerous business, whether in Cairo or Tehran. Although he has not been officially charged, Said's "crime" appears to have been the form of Islam he promoted -- reformist, non-violent, and based exclusively on the Koran. The plot thickens: Said's cousin, Amr Tharwat, another Muslim reformer, worked for the Ibn Khaldun Center, headed by Egypt's most prominent democracy advocate, Saad Eddin Ibrahim.

The Quaranist movement was recently denounced as "non-Muslim" by a representative of Al-Azhar University, often referred to as "Islam's Vatican." Sheikh Mansour, once a faculty member at al-Azhar, was forced out because of his beliefs and imprisoned by the regime for the crime of wanting to reform Islam from within. He was eventually given asylum in the U.S., admitted to Harvard's "Scholars at Risk" program, and then sued by the Islamic Society of Boston when he complained about anti-Semitic and anti-Christian hate literature in the ISB's Cambridge mosque...

Had Mr. Marshall, the lawyer, made a mistake by insisting on racial integration instead of improvement in the quality of schools for black children?

His response was that seating black children next to white children in school had never been the point. It had been necessary only because all-white school boards were generously financing schools for white children while leaving black students in overcrowded, decrepit buildings with hand-me-down books and underpaid teachers. He had wanted black children to have the right to attend white schools as a point of leverage over the biased spending patterns of the segregationists who ran schools — both in the 17 states where racially separate schools were required by law and in other states where they were a matter of culture.

If black children had the right to be in schools with white children, Justice Marshall reasoned, then school board officials would have no choice but to equalize spending to protect the interests of their white children.

Racial malice is no longer the primary motive in shaping inferior schools for minority children. Many failing big city schools today are operated by black superintendents and mostly black school boards...

In Kentucky, Joshua McDonald was assigned to a kindergarten 10 miles from his house. His mother tried to have him transferred to a school nine miles closer. The school had space for him, but Joshua was not allowed to switch because of the "impact" his inclusion would have on the school's racial balance...

Everything had gone well: my 75-minute PowerPoint lecture to a class studying early Islamic history, subsequent interviews with the department chair and dean — I was on a roll.

Then I was outed. During a meeting with the search committee, a professor produced irrefutable evidence that I "appeared to be more conservative than others in my field."

Worse, the evidence gave him the weapon he needed to deliver the coup de grace: "You sounded like Daniel Pipes!"...

...The professor had in hand a two-year-old article, titled "7 Myths about Islam," that I wrote for the History News Network, a Web site run by George Mason University at which professional historians and history buffs read, write and debate myriad topics.

In the article, I argued against seven pious falsehoods about Islam that the mainstream media treat as historical facts: Islam is the world's fastest-growing religion; Islam was spread only through peaceful means; poverty produces Muslim terrorists; jihad does not mean holy war...

In the final skit, Farfour was beaten to death by an actor posing as an Israeli official trying to buy Farfour's land. At one point, Farfour called the Israeli a "terrorist."

"Farfour was martyred while defending his land," said Sara, the teen presenter. He was killed "by the killers of children," she added.

The weekly show, featuring a giant black-and-white rodent with a high-pitched voice, had attracted worldwide attention because the character urged Palestinian children to fight Israel. It was broadcast on Hamas-affiliated Al-Aksa TV.

Station officials said Friday that Farfour was taken off the air to make room for new programs.

Station manager Mohammed Bilal said he didn't know yet what would be shown instead.

Israeli officials have denounced the program, "Tomorrow's Pioneers," as incendiary and outrageous. The program was also opposed by the state-run Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, which is controlled by Fatah.

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor, and Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanks giving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many single favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the Service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks, for His kind care and protection of the People of this country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the single and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of His providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, of the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have to acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge and in general for all the great and various favors which He hath been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humble offering our prayers and supplications to the Great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all people, by constantly being a government of wise, just and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone know to be best.

The film is produced by HBO. So it's presumably HBO's publicity department that was responsible for creating and distributing a glamor-style photograph of a smiling, contented-looking young woman in her twenties to promote the movie.

That female is our child's murderer. She was sentenced to sixteen life sentences or 320 years which she is serving in an Israeli jail. Fifteen people were killed and more than a hundred maimed and injured by the actions of this attractive person and her associates. The background is here.

Neither the New York Times nor HBO are likely to give even a moment's attention to the victims of the barbarians who destroyed the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem and the lives of so many victims. So we would be grateful if you would pass along this link to some pictures of our daughter whose name was Malki. She was unable to reach her twenties - Hamas saw to that.

Though she was only fifteen years old when her life was stolen from her and from us, we think Malki was a beautiful young woman, living a beautiful life. We ask your help so that other people - far fewer than the number who will see the New York Times, of course - can know about her. Please ask your friends to look at the pictures - some of the very few we have - of our murdered daughter. They are at http://www.kerenmalki.org/photo.htm

And remind them of what the woman in the Israeli prison - the woman smiling so happily in the New York Times - said last year. "I'm not sorry for what I did. We'll become free from the occupation and then I will be free from prison."

With so many voices demanding that Israel release its terrorist prisoners, small wonder she's smiling.

With greetings from Jerusalem,
Frimet and Arnold Roth
On behalf of Keren Malki

The letter comes in response to statements by Carter which call into doubt his suitability as a representative of the United States abroad. Recently, he criticized the U.S. government for withholding direct aid to Hamas, describing this policy as "criminal."

The letter states:

As you probably know, in public comments made on June 21 after receiving a donation for his foundation from a group in Dublin, Ireland, the former President castigated our government and the governments of Israel and the European Union for withholding direct aid to Hamas leaders in the Palestinian Authority. Carter described this policy as "criminal."

It has been nearly a decade since the State Department under President Clinton designated Hamas as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. As you know, it is illegal for individuals in our country - much less the federal government itself - to knowingly provide material support or resources to an organization that has been so designated.

In light of these considerations, it is the course of action Carter is advocating - provision of direct aid to Hamas by the U.S. government - that would be "criminal." In light of Hamas' long record of murderous attacks on civilians in Israel and within the Palestinian territories, it would also be grossly immoral.

... You may recall that last November, a Hamas subsidiary issued a communiqué calling on sympathizers to attack American targets "all over the globe." It is difficult for us to understand how Carter can be deemed fit to serve as Honorary Chairman of Democrats Abroad after having urged support for Hamas.

When a prominent American such as a former U.S. President makes statements abroad so at odds with American policy and with good sense, they raise diplomatic and public diplomacy difficulties for our government and our official spokesmen abroad.

When Jimmy Carter published an anti-Israel book, the DNC issued a statement saying that "on this issue President Carter speaks for himself, the opinions in his book are his own, they are not the views or position of the Democratic Party." Given Carter's most recent statements, the former ambassadors call upon Chairman Dean to match action to words by removing Jimmy Carter from his official position with Democrats Abroad.

The full text of the letter is below, and can be found on the RJC website.

Nearly 1,000 leaders who help shape the mood of Britain were questioned in the poll conducted by the Populus network for the Stop the Boycott campaign, which is led by the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre and the Fair Play Campaign Group.

Only 14% of respondents support a boycott, while 84% of those from academia and NGOs believe it "flies in the face of academic freedom." In addition, 80% think that it is an "unreasonable" way to express disapproval with Israel's relationship with the Palestinians and 70% think a boycott would be bad for Britain.

The Populus network brought together senior opinion makers from business; government, including civil servants and political advisers; media professionals including journalists, commentators and public relations specialists; and officials from NGOs including trade unions and think tanks...

By LAWRENCE DOUGLAS and ALEXANDER GEORGE

Dear Academic Ethicist,

I am what you might call a "rising star" in the field of architectural history. Last year my book, Abstract Concrete, received the Rauschenberg Prize for best book on postcontemporary architecture. I was delighted — until I learned that the award was sponsored by the Hebrew University's School of Architecture, in Jerusalem. Needless to say, I immediately turned down the prize and the invitation to an award banquet at the university. Not only was I concerned that by accepting I would be imperiling relations with my colleagues and friends in the European architectural scene, but I was also worried that I might be sacrificing my chances of being published in Critical Inquiry and the London Review of Books. Compounding my ethical dilemma, I feared that by attending the dinner, I would be expressing moral support for, and deriving personal nutritional gain from, expansionist Zionist politics. To my shock, a couple of colleagues claimed I was behaving in an anti-Semitic fashion. Have I done anything wrong?

— Just Baffled

The complaint had accused the defendants of despicable behavior -- lying about the Islamic Society, vilifying innocent people, conspiring to deprive Boston-area Muslims of their civil rights. If even some of the charges were true, the defendants deserved to face harsh legal penalties and be shunned by the entire community. Instead, the Islamic Society dropped its suit without collecting a penny. Why?

Because the charges were false, that's why. And pretrial discovery -- the evidence being gathered through subpoenas and depositions -- was proving it...

It also came out that a society leader, Abdurahman Alamoudi, pled guilty to a 2003 indictment for his role in a terrorism financing scheme and is serving a 23-year prison term...

The journalist wrote:

“We knew that they would do it, especially in Gaza, where a mother brushes her young son's hair at 7:00, so that he will be killed at 7:30, and where the children learn that death is preferable to life! We knew that they would do this, it was clear to us: with language overflowing with the rhetoric of death and the norms of killing, in the religious rulings [Fatwas] and in Friday and holiday sermons.”[Ghassan Zaqtan, Al-Ayyam, June18, 2007]

The journalist's critical mistake is that he seems to attribute the death culture only to Hamas, whereas it has been the Fatah leadership and education that initiated and still actively teach that death is preferable to life.

For example, a Palestinian Authority schoolbook written by Fatah educators teaches 13- and 14-year-olds literally to prefer death over life, while it is the "enemies" who cherish life:

“O heroes, Allah has promised you victory ... Do not talk yourselves into flight…Your enemies seek life while you seek death. They seek spoils to fill their empty stomachs while you seek a Garden [Paradise] as wide as are the heavens and the earth. Do not be anxious to meet them [enemies], for death is not bitter in the mouth of the believers. These drops of blood that gush from your bodies will be transformed tomorrow into blazing red meteors that will fall down upon the heads of your enemies." [Reading and Texts Part II, Grade 8 (2002), p. 16]

The words introducing this poem are: "Read and enjoy."...

The second Caliph - Omar (Umar, died 644 AD) - was a close friend of Mohammed. He is said to have only cried once. This happened when he recollected that in the time of jahilayah he buried his infant daughter alive, and as he did so, she brushed away the dust from his beard. Under the first Caliphs, Islam was spread by the sword, and within three centuries it had expanded to Spain in the West and to Afghanistan and parts of India in the east. Yet it is true that in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country, honor killing is almost unheard of. In Malaysia too, honor killings are apparently nonexistent. Islam did not arrive in South-East Asia until the 13th century, which may explain why honor-killing is not common in this region...

On the first day at the hospital, the doctors said Alex could not be saved. We prayed for a miracle for 19 days; and we fought to undo what Mr. Salazar had done to him. But doctors, in the US and in Japan, my husband’s native country, confirmed our son was not viable. Alex’s spinal cord was completely transected, and he had a severe brain injury. Alex was in a coma and his body could no longer regulate his breathing or any other bodily function; it was a matter of time and how much suffering, we could not know. No doctor or medical technology could be found to save him. In the end, we, his parents, had to name the date and time of Alex’s death...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Two or three months ago, in order to intimidate the Iranian people, the [Americans] began psychological warfare and propaganda, using military threats. One time they said that at 5 AM on a specific morning, 100 sites in Iran would be bombed. Another time they said that the Zionist regime was planning to target the Natanz nuclear facilities. Some people came to me and said: "Sir, we must do something. At the very least, we must take some action." I said: Rest assured that they will not dare to do this. They don't understand anything. They think they can intimidate the Iranian people with this talk.

If your nonsense had had any effect, it would have been evident here. When you declared that you were planning to attack here, the little children in the streets of Natanz laughed at you, and made jokes about you. Some people said to me: "This is impossible. We find it difficult to believe what you say. What shall we do if they attack us?" I said to them: Don't worry, my dears. If it helps you calm down, ask them just when they are planning to attack, and I myself will go to the people of Natanz, and we will sit down together in the nuclear facilities, and if they want to attack, they will have to attack us first.

According to a news story in today’s Chicago Sun-Times, a report filed against his tenure by three members of the Political Science faculty “claims that Finkelstein allegedly called a female staff member a ‘bitch.’” The report also claimed that Finkelstein “shunned” colleagues who disagreed with him and that his boorish conduct extended to “dramatically closing his office door when his colleague arrives.” In addition to describing his abusive sexist behavior toward a subordinate, the report characterized Finkelstein as “mean spirit” and as “unprofessional.”

This negative report was suppressed by Finkelstein supporters who leaked other, more favorable assessments.

Finkelstein refused to comment on the newly disclosed report, just as he refused to confirm or deny that he had arranged for a neo-Nazi cartoonist to draw a picture of me masturbating in ecstatic joy at dead Lebanese civilians. He did apparently demand that the authors of the negative report provide “proof” of his use of the b-word against a subordinate, but that is his usual way of issuing a non-denial denial.

So in addition to being a Jewish anti-Semite, Finkelstein now emerges as a left wing sexist bigot who is willing to use abusive words to a subordinate. Will he still remain the darling of the hard Left now that this darker sexist side has emerged?

Ebrahimi has spent the last 11 years in Choubin prison in Ghazvin, and is very distressed, according to Meydaan, the official site of the "Stop Stoning Forever Campaign." An informed source has commented that "the pits are dug and prepared in Behesht Zahra cemetery to implement the sentence." The Judge of Branch 1 will be the first to throw a stone, and the public has been invited to join in the stoning.

Although there had been no witnesses to the crime of adultery, or having a child out of wedlock, the sentence is being based on the judge's "knowledge." There have been numerous rumors about her past, but none could actually be proved. Iran's Islamic Penal code allows stoning as the method of execution for adultery.

Amnesty International is appealing against the scheduled stonings, to the Head of the Judiciary, Ayatollah Shahroudi. Amnesty International is asking that the execution by stoning of the two be stopped and that their sentences be commuted to life imprisonment. They are also asking that all executions by stoning be abolished, according to their public statement...

International humanitarian law absolutely prohibits taking and holding a person by force in order to compel the enemy to meet certain demands, while threatening to harm or kill the person if the demands are not met. Furthermore, hostage-taking is considered a war crime and all those involved bear individual criminal liability.

Hamas, which de-facto controls the security apparatus in the Gaza Strip, bears the responsibility to act to release Shalit immediately and unconditionally. Until he is released, those holding him must grant him humane treatment and allow representatives of the ICRC to visit him. The fact that Shalit's right to these visits has been denied constitutes a blatant violation of international law, says B'Tselem.

A police source said that vehicle involved in the attack was "most
likely" driven by a suicide bomber.

It was the first deadly attack on the 13,000-strong United Nations force since last year's Israel-Hezbollah war and drew swift condemnation from the United States, France as well as Lebanese guerilla group Hezbollah.

Spanish Defense Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said the five included three
Colombians and three Spanish peacekeepers. The two injured troops were also from Spain, he told reporters in Madrid.

Security sources in Lebanon reported that UN troops hit a roadside bomb while on patrol. The explosion was said to have completely burned an armored troop carrier and to have severely damaged another vehicle, near the southeastern town of Khiyam.

The bomb had exploded between the towns of Marjayoun and Khiam, about six kilometers north of the Israeli border town of Metulla. Security sources said the bomb had been operated by remote control.

A police source said a suicide car bomber was "most likely" to blame for the deadly explosion. The source said a mangled car was found at the scene with human remains inside.

There was no immediate claim for the attack...

But what's revolutionary about the prototype Airborne Laser aircraft, which arrived last night after its first nonstop cross-country flight, is that it won't use bullets to take out its target, explained Air Force Col. John Daniels, program director.

It will use light.

"What makes this revolutionary is that you can engage targets at the speed of light - 186,000 miles per second," Daniels said. "So we can go from New York to Los Angeles before you can blink your eye. Think about that. You can't blink your eye faster than this weapon system or a beam of light goes across the country."

The Airborne Laser is being developed as an integral part of the ballistic missile defense system to protect the United States, its allies and its deployed troops against a ballistic missile attack, he explained. An advanced detection-and-tracking system, state-of-the-art optics and a high-energy laser would detect a missile launch and track it during the boost phase.

The world's largest turret assembly, encased in the glass-enclosed aircraft nose, would track the missile and determine a precise aim point. A laser would measure disturbances in the atmosphere and adjust the on-board optics to account for them.

Another laser would fire a beam - technically, a "megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser beam" - to zap the missile until it breaks apart...

The prohibition, reflecting persistent tensions with the kingdom after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, was attached to a foreign aid funding bill for next year that has not yet been debated by the Senate.

It also faces a veto threat from the White House because of an unrelated provision.

A spokesman for the Saudi embassy in Washington declined to comment on the legislation.

In the past three years, Congress has passed bills to stop the relatively small amount of U.S. aid to Saudi Arabia, only to see the Bush administration circumvent the prohibitions.

Now, lawmakers are trying to close loopholes so that no more U.S. aid can be sent to the world`s leading petroleum exporter.

"By cutting off aid and closing the loophole we send a clear message to the Saudi Arabian government that they must be a true ally in advancing peace in the Middle East," said Rep. Anthony Weiner, a New York Democrat.

According to supporters of the legislation, the United States provided $2.5 million to Riyadh in 2005 and 2006.

The money has been used to train Saudis in counter-terrorism and border security and to pay for Saudi military officers to attend U.S. military school...

...The U.S. State Department has routinely criticized Saudi Arabia for religious intolerance, disenfranchisement of women and arbitrary justice.

Riyadh tends to dismiss the criticism by saying it follows the traditions of Islamic law...

But looking around my neighbourhood, I noticed that most of the new business signs featured Asian languages: Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Punjabi and plenty of Urdu. Not Hebrew. Urdu, which is spoken throughout Pakistan.

That reality check made me ask: What if my religious school is not educating me? What if it is indoctrinating me?...

...As a Muslim, you better believe I am offended – by these absurd reactions...

...I am offended that in April, mullahs at an extreme mosque in Pakistan issued a fatwa against hugging. The country’s female tourism minister had embraced – or, depending on the account you follow, accepted a congratulatory pat from – her skydiving instructor after she successfully jumped in a French fundraiser for the victims of the 2005 Pakistan earthquake. Clerics announced her act of touching another man to be “a great sin.” They demanded she be fired.

I am offended by their fatwa proclaiming that women should stay at home and remain covered at all times. I am offended that they have bullied music store owners and video vendors into closing shop. I am offended that the government tiptoes around their craziness because these clerics threaten suicide attacks if confronted...

This discriminatory treatment is not only prejudicial to Israel, but it is a breach of the United Nations Charter's foundational principle of "equality for all nations, large and small," and it concluded a week -- and year -- of unprecedented discriminatory conduct.

The week began with Archbishop Desmond Tutu reporting to the UN Human Rights Council on the fact-finding mission to investigate the Israeli "willful killing of Palestinian civilians" in Beit Hanoun, Gaza, in November 2006. He received a standing ovation, an extraordinary reaction by a body that frowns even upon applause.

I suspect the appreciation was as much for the man as anything else. For the mandate that authorized the mission was a sham. It made a mockery of the council's own founding principles and procedures. Accordingly, when I addressed the council that same morning, I made public that I had been invited by the council president last November to join the mission but declined to do so, and I explained why.

I could not accept the mandate because its terms of reference made a mockery of Kofi Annan's vision for the new council and of its founding principles of universality, equality, and fairness...

The resolution was endorsed by the UCC’s executive committee, bypassed committee review, and sent to the General Synod. It was adopted without opposition and sent directly to an implementation committee.

...Because the “Tear Down the Wall” resolution focused solely on the actions of Israel, we also have a responsibility to more fully understand and name the ways other nations and forces have contributed to the situation. Further study of the causes and history of the conflict would bring forth a balanced response that holds all parties accountable in appropriate ways, supports mutual understanding and dialog with people of various perspectives, and contributes in a positive way to the wider community that is committed to justice and peace in the Mideast.

In recent months, we have seen a dramatic increase in violence in the Palestinian territories bordering at times on civil war, including in the Gaza Strip, from which Israel completely disengaged in 2005. This tragic violence reveals underlying tensions between the Palestinian political groups of Hamas and Fatah that threaten the welfare of the Palestinian people and diminish prospects of a viable Palestinian state. In the first five months of 2007, more than 200 Palestinians were killed and 1,065 injured as a result of internal fighting. Fifty-five of these deaths occurred during the week of May 13 alone. The potential for Palestinian civil war has never before been so real. If civil war comes to pass, it would be disastrous for everyone in the region. [oops]

As the possibility for a brighter future for Palestinians is diminished not only by actions of Israel but also by violent internal battles being waged between Palestinian political parties and militias, members of the United Church of Christ must develop a broader understanding of the violence that plagues this part of the world. We cannot raise our voices only to point out the transgressions of one side. Rather, when innocent lives are being shattered by an atmosphere of intolerance, incitement and internal strife, we are called to an honest and searching critique of all of the forces in conflict...

A spread in the upcoming July issue of Maxim features a roster of Israeli models, all ex-soldiers, photographed wearing very little in the cause of their country. Headlined "Women of the Israel Defense Forces," the campaign has already been criticized as inappropriate in Israel.

The Maxim shoot presents Israeli models including Nivit Bash, who served in military intelligence — though the only remnant of an army career evident in her photograph on the magazine's Web site is a military-style black cap that matches a minimal swimsuit.

Gal Gadot, a former Miss Israel and army fitness instructor, appears in a bikini and high heels sprawled provocatively on the ledge of a Tel Aviv high-rise. The photo also landed her on the cover of the New York Post below an equally provocative headline, "Piece in the Mideast."

The idea originated in the media office at Israel's consulate in New York, where research showed that Israel meant little to young American men...

"We definitely have public relations problems, and I'm all for creative solutions," Avital told The Associated Press. "But there are enough beautiful and interesting things we can use to tap this demographic than to show a half-naked woman in a magazine of this kind, considered pornographic...

Prize-winning Rushdie was forced into hiding for ten years when Iran issued a fatwa against him in 1989.

Lord Ahmed added: “Honouring a man who has blood on his hands goes too far.”

“Two weeks ago Tony Blair spoke about constructing bridges with Muslims. What hypocrisy.

“What would one say if the Saudi or Afghan governments honoured the martyrs of the September 11 attacks on the United States?”

Aside from assassinating Fatah officials, Hamas also killed innocent Palestinians, with the intention of deterring the large clans from confronting the organization. Thus it was that 10 days ago, after an hours-long gun battle that ended with Hamas overpowering the Bakr clan from the Shati refugee camp - known as a large, well-armed and dangerous family that supports Fatah - the Hamas military wing removed all the family members from their compound and lined them up against a wall. Militants selected a 14-year-old girl, two women aged 19 and 75, and two elderly men, and shot them to death in cold blood to send a message to all the armed clans of Gaza.

All that was needed for this identity to shift was a single generation severed from Jordanian power, influence and institutions. (Acknowledging that his ostensible subjects would never again view themselves as Jordanians, King Hussein renounced all claims to the West Bank in 1988.) A similar division has existed for some time between Gaza and the West Bank. As a result of Israeli travel restrictions, an entire generation of Gazans has never set foot in the West Bank, and vice versa.

In light of the current political schism between the West Bank and Gaza, Yasser Arafat's vision of a united Palestine seems more remote than ever. It is finally time to seriously consider a three-state solution...

To avert this catastrophe, the U.S. has joined with the Israelis and the Europeans in resuming the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars in financial aid to the Palestinian Authority under the leadership of its Fatah president, Mahmoud Abbas, and accelerating talks for the establishment of a West Bank Palestinian state. The goal is to provide Palestinians with an affluent, secular and peaceful alternative to Hamas, and persuade Gazans to return to the Fatah fold. But the policy ignores every lesson of the abortive peace process to date as well as Fatah's monumental corruption, jihadism and militancy. Indeed, any sovereign edifice built on the rotten foundations of the Palestinian Authority is doomed to implode, enhancing, rather than diminishing, Hamas's influence.

Since its creation by the so-called Oslo Accords of 1993, the PA has garnered more international aid than any entity in modern history -- more, per capita, than the European states under the Marshall Plan. The lion's share of this fortune has been siphoned into the private accounts of Fatah leaders or used to pay off the commanders of some 16 semi-autonomous militias. The PA also maintains an estimated 60,000 uniformed gunmen on its payroll, giving the West Bank the world's highest percentage of policemen-to-population.

The Palestinian people, meanwhile, languish in ever-deepening poverty and unemployment, while lawlessness plagues Palestinian streets. The unbridled corruption of the PA and its Fatah headmen served as a principal cause of Hamas's electoral victory in 2006, as well its takeover of Gaza. Viewers of Hamas television have recently been treated to tours of the lavish villas maintained by Fatah officials in the Strip, and video clips showing PA policemen, more abundantly armed and more numerous than Hamas's troops, fleeing at the first sign of battle.

...Unfortunately, too many people do not understand the consequences of their misplaced respect for insulted religious feelings: this respect is being used by tyrants and fanatics around the world to justify suicide attacks and to silence criticism and to crush dissenting points of view...

...Again: insult, blasphemy, respect for religion, those words are being repeated over and over again as justification for violent attacks and death threats. By the Iranian government, by the chairman of the Muslim Council of Britain, and by leading politicians and opinion makers in the West.

And they have made their way into the United Nation’s Human Rights Council, the highest ranking international body with the mission of protecting human rights. On March 30 it passed a scandalous resolution condoning state punishment of speech that governments deems as insulting for religion...

Yunis Al-Astal: The most exalted form of Jihad is fighting for the sake of Allah, which means sacrificing one's soul by fighting the enemies head-on, even if it leads to martyrdom. Martyrdom means life next to Allah...

...When Jihad becomes an individual duty, it applies to women too, because women do not differ from men, when it comes to individual duties.

"Conference believes that ending the occupation demands concerted and sustained pressure upon Israel including an economic, cultural, academic and sporting boycott."

It also says, using the usual code, that it is for the dismantling of Israel and it opposes a two state solution:

"Conference continues to consider that a just solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict must be based upon international law and Israel should:...

2) allow the refugees of 1948 to return home;...

Abd Al-Aziz Al-Fawzan: The Prophet Muhammad said about women: "I have not seen anyone more deficient in intelligence and religion than you. A cautious sensible man could be led astray by some of you," and so on. This hadith and others like it were misunderstood by the ignorant. Corrupt people interpreted it in a way that differs from its original intent. Because of their ignorance, their insolence, their stupidity, and because of their enmity towards Islam and Muslims, they turned this hadith into evidence that Islam disgraces women, diminishing her value, and describes her in inadequate terms...

...These hadiths provide some of the most decisive evidence that Islam protects women and guarantees their rights. Islam has surrounded the woman with a fence of compassion and mercy. It has shown that the twisted nature of women stems from their very creation. This is how Allah wanted woman to be. Therefore, the husband must adapt himself to her and be patient with her. He should not give her too many things to do, or things that she is incapable of doing. He should not make her do anything that is contrary to her nature, and to the way she was created by Allah. In addition, he should turn a blind eye to her mistakes, he should tolerate her slips and errors, and [he should] put up with all the silly ignorant things she might say, because this constitutes part of the nature of her creation. In addition, women have surging emotions, which in some cases, might overpower their minds. The weakness with which women were created is the secret behind their attractiveness and appeal to their husbands. It is the source of women's seduction of men, and one of the elements strengthening the bond between husband and wife. This is one of the wondrous miracles of Allah: The strength of a woman lies in her weakness. Her power of seduction and appeal lie in her emotions, which might overpower her mind at times.

The militant leader said Christians in Gaza who engage in "missionary activity" will be "dealt with harshly."

The threats come two days after a church and Christian school in Gaza was attacked following the seizure of power in the territory by the Hamas terror group.

"I expect our Christian neighbors to understand the new Hamas rule means real changes. They must be ready for Islamic rule if they want to live in peace in Gaza," said Sheik Abu Saqer, leader of Jihadia Salafiya, an Islamic outreach movement that recently announced the opening of a "military wing" to enforce Muslim law in Gaza.

Jihadia Salafiya is suspected of attacking a United Nations school in Gaza last month, after the school allowed boys and girls to participate in the same sporting event. One person was killed in that attack.

"The situation has now changed 180 degrees in Gaza," said Abu Saqer, speaking from Gaza yesterday.

"Jihadia Salafiya and other Islamic movements will ensure Christian schools and institutions show publicly what they are teaching to be sure they are not carrying out missionary activity. No more alcohol on the streets. All women, including non-Muslims, need to understand they must be covered at all times while in public," Abu Asqer told WND.

"Also the activities of Internet cafes, pool halls and bars must be stopped," he said. "If it goes on, we'll attack these things very harshly."...

In the short time since Petraeus took charge here, Anbar Province – “Anbar the Impossible” – seems to have made a remarkable turnaround. I just spent about a month out there and saw no combat. I have never gone that long in Iraq without seeing combat. Clearly, some areas of Anbar remain dangerous—there is fighting in Fallujah today—but there is also something in Anbar today that hasn’t been seen in recent memory: possibilities. There are also larger realities lurking up on the Turkish borders, but the reality today is that the patient called Iraq will die and become a home for Al Qaeda if we leave now...

This movement is an international nonviolent resistance project to challenge Israel’s siege of Gaza. Israel claims that Gaza is no longer occupied, yet Israeli forces control Gaza by land, sea and air. We’ll enter Gaza from international waters at the invitation of Palestinian NGOs but without Israeli authorization, thereby recognizing Palestinian control over their own borders.

The Mission

1. To open Gaza to unrestricted international access, i.e. Palestinian sovereignty
2. To demonstrate that Israel still occupies Gaza, despite its claims to the contrary
3. To show international solidarity with the people of Gaza and the rest of Palestine
4. To demonstrate the potential of nonviolent resistance methods

The Plan

Up to 100 international volunteers will sail from Cyprus to Gaza in 2 to 6 seagoing vessels of 12 to 60 passengers each. The prospective date is August 15, but will depend upon funding, logistics, weather and other factors. The journey will take approximately 24 hours.

Contingencies

If Israel respects Palestinian sovereignty, we’ll arrive without incident. Some of us will fish at sea with Palestinian fishermen, while others will travel back and forth to test the passage for as long as permitted. If stopped, we’ll nonviolently resist. We are prepared to stay at sea if necessary, and/or resist arrest and confiscation of our vessels. We doubt that Israel will attack, but we will be equipped with medical personnel and equipment, life rafts and flotation vests. More likely, Israel will prefer sabotage. We’re prepared with alternate vessels and plans...

...The Organizers

We are experienced human rights volunteers and organizers, including Huwaida Arraf, Greta Berlin, Sylvia Cattori, Uri Davis, Hedy Epstein, Kathy Kelly, Paul Larudee, Alison Weir, and more than 30 others from 13 countries. We have consulted with other organizations such as Greenpeace, who have experience with such projects, especially with encounters at sea...

"He's American?" one of the militants growled. "Let's kidnap and kill him."

The room fell silent. But before anyone could act on this impulse, the rules of jihadi etiquette kicked in. You can't just slaughter a visitor, militants are taught by sympathetic Islamic scholars. You need permission from whoever arranges the meeting. And in this case, the arranger who helped us to meet this pair declined to sign off.

"He's my guest," Marwan Shehadeh, a Jordanian researcher, told the militants.

With Islamist violence brewing in various parts of the world, the set of rules to guide and justify the killing that militants do is growing more complex...

...Some of these rules have deep roots in the Middle East, where, for example, the Egyptian Islamic scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi has argued it is fine to kill Israeli citizens because their compulsory military service means they are not truly civilians...

The Koran, as translated by the University of Southern California Muslim Student Association's Compendium of Muslim Texts, generally prohibits the slaying of innocents, as in Verse 33 in Chapter 17 (Isra', The Night Journey, Children of Israel): "Nor take life, which Allah has made sacred, except for just cause."

But the Koran also orders Muslims to resist oppression, as Verses 190 and 191 of Chapter 2 (The Cow) instruct: "Fight in the cause of Allah with those who fight with you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah loveth not transgressors. And slay them wherever ye catch them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out, for tumult and oppression are worse than slaughter."

In the typical car bombing, some Islamists say, God will identify those who deserved to die - for example, anyone helping the enemy - and send them to hell. The other victims will go to paradise.

Rule No. 2: You can kill children, too, without needing to feel distress...

Their calculation is that economic sanctions will convince Palestinians that supporting Fatah is the only way to achieve something resembling economic normality. But they are taking a huge risk.

Palestinians are already the largest per capita recipients of foreign aid in the world, but this has not stopped them voting for Hamas before.

Revolutionary violence is not, as Marx thought, the product of economic despair; more often, revolutions happen at times of rising prosperity and rising aspirations.

By lavishly funding the Fatah administration, the international community might recreate the resentment against a corrupt elite that drove many Palestinians into voting Hamas in the first place...

Some of their offspring have even served in the Israeli army, the force responsible for decades of Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank, an occupation that the Islamist movement, Hamas, was founded to fight.

The Daily Telegraph tracked down the Haniyeh sisters, Kholidia, Laila and Sabah, to a town in southern Israel. That they live in Israel is a closely guarded secret and nowhere is it guarded more secretly than Tel Sheva, a town inhabited mainly by Israeli Bedouin on the edge of the Negev desert.

"There is no reason to speak to my wife,'' said Salameh Abu Rukayek, 53, who married Kholidia. "It is private business and you are not welcome asking questions about my wife.''

Blind since birth, Mr Abu Rukayek sat on a thin floor cushion and said he was happy living in Israel. "Our life is normal here and we want it to continue,'' he said.

Perhaps he felt discussion of his wife's family links might jeopardise his relatively comfortable lifestyle...

The appeal came following a series of attacks on a Christian school and church in Gaza City over the past few days.

Father Manuel Musalam, leader of the small Latin community in the Gaza Strip, said masked gunmen torched and looted the Rosary Sisters School and the Latin Church.

"The masked gunmen used rocket-propelled grenades to storm the main entrances of the school and church," he said. "Then they destroyed almost everything inside, including the Cross, the Holy Book, computers and other equipment."

Musalam expressed outrage over the burning of copies of the Bible, noting that the gunmen destroyed all the Crosses inside the church and school. "Those who did these awful things have no respect for Christian-Muslim relations," he said...

His book The Satanic Verses offended Muslims worldwide and led to Iran issuing a fatwa in 1989, ordering Sir Salman's execution.

Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the decision to praise the "apostate" showed Islamophobia among British officials.

The UK Foreign Office said Sir Salman's honour was "richly deserved"...

U.S. military officials have underscored that Taliban fighters hide among civilians, deliberately using them as human shields.

But Gen. Craddock said close air support is inherently risky because decisions are made as a situation unfolds in the heat of battle.

"This is imperfect science. So when you see six bad guys who are attacking your forces go into a building, do you lay off or do you go after?...

"We haven't seen Fatah al-Islam. They're probably hiding in the alleyways."

The fighting has killed at least 22 militants and 32 soldiers. Camp residents have spoken of dozens of civilians dead, with bodies in the streets and buried under rubble...

... Human Rights Watch said: "The Lebanese army must take better precautions to prevent needless civilian deaths".

"Fatah al-Islam militants must not hide among civilians," said Joe Stork, the organisation's deputy Middle East director.

...As he prepared for a showdown, Mr Hassan explained what went wrong. "Hamas doesn't have fixed bases we can attack. They are in houses and civilian places and in the streets. We try to run after them and they hide among the civilians. This is our weakness."

Hamas had other advantages: every officer in every branch of the official Palestinian security forces was known to it. The Islamist movement at the helm of the Palestinian unity government simply obtained the salary rolls from the finance ministry. It was then able systematically to target, threaten, and often execute hundreds of key security officers, sowing discord and fear among the Fatah leadership.

As a special forces officer, Mr Hassan was singled out for such abuse. On Monday, Hamas stormed his home and burnt it down. They roughed up his mother-in-law and beat his brother, he said...

But what if the plaintiff in my case hadn't been so plainly bonkers? What if he had been a lawyer, or even a judge ? What if he had been another Roy L. Pearson Jr.?

As everyone this side of Mazar-e-Sharif must know by now, Pearson is the administrative law judge in Washington, D.C., who sued his dry cleaners for $67.3 million over a missing pair of pants. He later reduced his claim to $54 million, and the case was tried in D.C. Superior Court last week.

Pearson, representing himself before Judge Judith Bartnoff, declared grandiosely that "never before in recorded history have a group of defendants engaged in such misleading and unfair business practices. " Bartnoff let him argue his case "for hour upon hour," The Washington Post reported, though he wasn't permitted to call all 63 of the witnesses he had hoped to put on the stand. Nor did Bartnoff allow him to rehash the saga of his 2004 divorce, which he insists the Virginia courts mishandled.

On the other hand, Pearson did testify that he has between 40 and 60 pairs of pants hanging in his closet, none of which, he emphasized, has cuffs. At one point he broke down in tears and had to ask for a recess. That happened as he was recounting the moment when the dry cleaner handed him what he says were the wrong trousers. (They were cuffed)...

BROOKLINE -- So you are the owner of a restaurant whose very existence celebrates a life well-lived, and well-fed, with iconic paintings of corpulent figures festooning the walls, and potato pancakes filling the plates. And now your town has voted to ban a whole category of fat.

What do you do?

If you are Bob Shuman , who opened Zaftigs Delicatessen in Coolidge Corner a decade ago, you act before the town does.

Weeks ahead of the May 31 Town Meeting that adopted the state's first prohibition on artificial trans fats, Shuman saw the writing on the menu and drained trans-fat oil from his Frialator , replacing it with a healthier brew of canola, grape seed, and safflower oils. The switch costs him $400 extra a month, he said...

The woman started wearing the burqa in the summer of 2005, and decided to apply for benefit a year later. In March, the Diemen local authority stopped the benefit payment for three months because of "culpable actions" by the woman that formed an obstruction to finding work.

The woman applied for work at call centre company Telfort, the Bedrijven Vereniging Amsterdam Zuidoost and at Aurora, a telework centre. All three rejected her because the burqa represented a safety risk, gave insufficient scope for normal communication and for other practical reasons.

The court judged that it was not the woman's fault that she was rejected. Also, it would be "disproportional" for the local authority to insist that she should remove the burqa to improve her chances of finding a job. In the verdict, the court took into account the fact that the chances of the woman finding suitable work were by no means exhausted.

The Muslim woman was offered a job at call centre Annie Connect, selling lottery tickets by phone. But she justifiably refused this, said the judges. Although every welfare benefit recipient is obliged by law to agree to generally accepted work, it is "a generally known fact that Muslims are not allowed to gamble", the court stated. The job at Annie Connect was therefore not generally accepted work.

This domination led inexorably to complacency, most notoriously displayed in the financial corruption of Arafat and his cronies, siphoning off millions from aid grants meant to alleviate Palestinian hardship...

Israel's continued military operations against Palestinian militants in the late 1990s, which inevitably led to Palestinian civilian deaths and hardship, played straight into the hands of Hamas which won a comfortable parliamentary majority in the 2006 general election...

Hamas is not a jihadist movement such as al-Qa'eda. It is a militant Islamic movement predicated on one thing - winning control of Palestinian land lost to Israel in 1948. The central issue is how much land. Israel insists Hamas will not be happy until it gets "all" the land. Skilful diplomats will seek to persuade Hamas to accept "some".

The creation of a mini Islamic state in Gaza now appears the most likely outcome as the militant Palestinian group Hamas strikes against the more secular-minded government of President Mahmoud Abbas...

...Even before this week's violence, activists had been busy attacking cafés, video shops and restaurants that serve alcohol or sell what are regarded as subversive Western films.

An internet café at the Jabaliyah refugee camp was bombed because zealots believed its customers might be exposed to pornography or pop music. The desire to enforce a strict interpretation of Islamic law even resulted in a gunman attacking a UN primary school because it allowed young boys and girls to mix together in the playground...

...Hamas makes no secret of the fact that it now receives most of its financial and military support from Iran. The Iranian government signed a memorandum of understanding with the Hamas leadership in June last year, in which it agreed to fund the militant group to the tune of £400 million...

...Ordinary Palestinians, it is true, in both Gaza and the West Bank, are suffering hardship. But this is not because of a lack of funds entering the Palestinian territories: it is because successive Palestinian administrations have made no effort to distribute the resources available equably among the population.

Hamas, on the other hand, sees economic deprivation as a form of political oppression. The World Bank reported that donors contributed about £375 million to the Palestinian territories in 2006, twice the amount they received in 2005. But since taking power, Hamas ensures any funds are spent on Islamic causes and its 6,000-strong militia, leaving the majority to fend for themselves...

He is Pvt. Lawrence P. Burkett, U.S. Army, of Jefferson, N.C. He will be buried Saturday in Jefferson.

Representatives from the Army met with Burkett’s next-of-kin in their hometown to explain the recovery and identification process and to coordinate interment with military honors on behalf of the secretary of the Army.

In early December 1944, Burkett was a member of Company A, 357th Infantry Regiment, 90th Infantry Division. The 90th ID had been assigned the task of breaching the southern portion of the enemy's “West Wall” near the German city of Saarbrücken. The 357th was occupying a bridgehead in the Dillingen Forest near the Saar River when the Germans launched a strong counterattack. The 357th suffered many casualties and on Dec. 11, Burkett was among those listed as missing in action.

In May 2006, U.S. officials were notified that a German citizen had found and dug up the remains of a possible American soldier in a wartime fighting trench in the Dillingen Forest near Saarbrüken. The U.S. officials traveled to the site and collected the remains and associated evidence, including Burkett’s identification tags and his social security card...

...After the rout at the security headquarters, some of the Hamas fighters knelt outside, touching their foreheads to the ground in prayer. Others led Fatah gunmen out of the building, some shirtless or in their underwear, holding their arms in the air. Several of the Fatah men flinched as the crack of gunfire split the air.

A witness, who identified himself only as Amjad, said men were killed as their wives and children watched.

"They are executing them one by one," Amjad, who lives in a building overlooking the Preventive Security complex, said by telephone. "They are carrying one of them on their shoulders, putting him on a sand dune, turning him around and shooting."

The killers ignored appeals from residents to spare the men's lives, said Amjad, who declined to give his full name, fearing reprisal...

..."We are telling our people that the past era has ended and will not return," Islam Shahawan, a spokesman for Hamas' militia, told Hamas radio. "The era of justice and Islamic rule have arrived."...

The Jewish Community Relations Council Supports Equal Marriage!

Tell your legislators to vote NO!!

On June 14th, the Legislature will consider a discriminatory Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. If the amendment gets 50 or more votes, it will go before voters on the 2008 ballot.

We need all supporters of marriage equality to urge their legislators to STOP this anti-marriage amendment in the legislature now.

Please take a moment to call your state legislator explaining why you support marriage equality. Ask them to do everything they can to keep the discriminatory, anti-gay amendment off the ballot.

To find contact information for your legislators please visit: www.wheredoivotema.com

My source also noted that the cloture vote to end debate will be the "real" vote on the bill because if debate is closed off, the bill is sure to pass. Then, what will happen is that the votes for the bill will be counted, and a few Senators who are afraid that their election prospects will be jeopardized by a "yes" vote, will be allowed to vote against the bill. This enables those Senators to tell their constituents that they voted against the bill, but it will still allow them to collect campaign contributions from lobbyists who have a better understanding of how things work, and know that the bill couldn't have been passed without their support. Put another way, they get to reap the rewards of supporting amnesty while telling the voters in their home states that they opposed the bill...

Jawad Hassan Nasrallah: The Prophet said: The most honorable death is to die for the sake of Allah... or something to that effect. The most honorable death is when one gets martyred for the sake of Allah, especially if it is at the hands of the Zionists, the murderers of the prophets, the violators of the covenants, with all their evil characteristics.

[...]

Interviewer: People get the impression that many of those who join Hizbullah are children. The West criticizes this phenomenon. Is it recommended to raise children on a certain ideology, which some claim resembles that of the Nazi Party?

Jawad Hassan Nasrallah: First of all, can 15 or 18 year olds be called children? Besides, when you talk to these people about Israel – what would you say about it? That it loves us? We saw pictures of [Israeli] children writing "gifts to the children of Lebanon" on missiles and shells. They teach their children that they are the "Chosen People," that no other people are human beings, and that the whole world is enslaved to them. It wasn't us who came and attacked others. They attacked us.

Are we supposed to tell the [children] they should surrender to the Israelis? What are we supposed to tell them about the people who were killed – that they were electrocuted? That their death was due to force majeure? What are we supposed to say? You should be dealing with them, rather than asking what we tell our children and what our parents told us. We have seen with our own eyes that what our parents told us was true. We will tell our children the same thing, and, Allah willing, when they grow up, they will not have to see it with their own eyes, because [the Israelis] will be gone, eradicated.

Fatma Yunes Hassan Zak, 39, a resident of Gaza, mother of eight children and pregnant with her ninth, had been responsible for an Islamic Jihad Gaza women's labor office for four years. She had been in contact with Islamic Jihad terrorists and coordinated contacts on their behalf with women who had volunteered to be suicide bombers.

Approximately three months ago, her niece, Ruda Ibrahim Yunes Haviv, 30, a resident of Gaza and mother of four children, sought her assistance in perpetrating a suicide attack. Zak, who decided to participate in the attack as well, contacted her Islamic Jihad liaison, who aided the two women in putting their plan into operation.

The two women attended several of their meetings with Islamic Jihad terrorists accompanied by several of their children. Zak's 19-year-old son, also an Islamic Jihad terrorist, was present as the two women were photographed – holding copies of the Quran and weapons – before setting out.

In order for Zak and Haviv to enter Israel, an Islamic Jihad terrorist obtained an authentic entry permit which indicated that Haviv was due to undergo medical tests at a Ramallah hospital, with Zak as her attending relative. The terrorist also instructed the two to go to the hospital and actually undergo the test in order to cover their story. The two women were then instructed to inform Islamic Jihad in Gaza. They were told that an operative would meet them in Ramallah, provide them with explosive belts, and accompany them into Israel. Before leaving Gaza, Zak and Haviv trained in operating explosive belts and in firing an AK-47. They were also instructed on what clothing to wear in order to allay suspicions.

“As I am talking to you, bullets are flying over our houses. My house is besieged by Hamas,” said Mahar Miqdad, a Fatah spokesman in Gaza. “There is no chance for any unity with Hamas. They are conducting a cleansing of Fatah,” he said. On Monday, Hamas militants killed Jamal Abu al-Jediyan, the most senior Fatah official in northern Gaza. Mr Miqdad said that he had been shot 40 times in a streetside execution. He was buried yesterday...

In internal Palestinian fighting over the last three days, both Fatah and Hamas military forces have summarily executed captives, killed people not involved in hostilities, and engaged in gun battles with one another inside and near Palestinian hospitals. On Saturday, armed Palestinians from Islamic Jihad and the Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade used a vehicle with a "TV" insignia to attack an Israeli military position on the border with Gaza.

"These attacks by both Hamas and Fatah constitute brutal assaults on the most fundamental humanitarian principles," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director for Human Rights Watch. "The murder of civilians not engaged in hostilities and the willful killing of captives are war crimes, pure and simple."

On Sunday, Hamas military forces captured 28-year-old Muhammad Swairki, a cook for President Mahmoud Abbas's presidential guard, and executed him by throwing him to his death, with his hands and legs tied, from a 15-story apartment building in Gaza City. Later that night, Fatah military forces shot and captured Muhammad al-Ra'fati, a Hamas supporter and mosque preacher, and threw him from a Gaza City high-rise apartment building. On Monday, Hamas military forces attacked the home in Beit Lahiya of Jamal Abu al-Jadiyan, a senior Fatah official, captured him, and executed him on the street with multiple gunshots. On Tuesday, there were reports of additional killings of individuals not involved in hostilities...

But in the two weeks since the vote, it is the US that has had the biggest surge of activity among the anti-boycott camp. About 2,000 American scholars - including at least nine Nobel laureates - have vowed to stay away from any event from which Israelis are excluded. A Democrat from suburban Philadelphia, Patrick Murphy, has moved a resolution in the House of Representatives, condemning the vote and calling on members of the UCU to reject the boycott. Thirty other members of Congress have signed on as co-sponsors.

Alan Dershowitz, the prominent lawyer and Harvard law professor, says he has mustered a team of 100 high-profile lawyers on both sides of the Atlantic to "devastate and bankrupt" anyone acting against Israeli universities.

"If the union goes ahead with this immoral petition, it will destroy British academia," Dershowitz told the Guardian last night. "We will isolate them from the rest of the world. They will end up being the objects of the boycott because we will get tens of thousands of the most prominent academics from around the world to refuse to cooperate and refuse to participate in any events from which Israeli academics are excluded. It will totally backfire."...

The United States has sharply criticized the detentions, but Iran insists America has no right to interfere.

Mohammad Ali Hosseini, the spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry, confirmed at his weekly news briefing that Iranian-American Ali Shakeri had been detained.

It was the first official confirmation, although the student-run ISNA news agency on Friday reported that Shakeri, of Lake Forest, California, was being held and investigated by the security department of the Tehran prosecutor's office.

Shakeri, founding board member of the University of California, Irvine, Center for Citizen Peacebuilding, is the fourth dual citizen detained in Iran in recent months.

Iranian officials previously confirmed the detentions of three other Iranian-Americans: scholar Haleh Esfandiari, who is the director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planning consultant with George Soros' Open Society Institute; and journalist Parnaz Azima, who works for U.S. funded-Radio Farda...

...The United States has also expressed concern about former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who the United States says has been missing since March after traveling to an Iranian resort island on private business.

Hosseini reiterated Sunday that Iran has no information about Levinson...

Ron Francis said he is leaving his job for personal reasons, but also said he is unsure whether he will continue his teaching career.

"I want to be closer to my family on the other side of the country," he said yesterday. "It's a personal situation."

Francis has defended the militant Islamic resistance group Hamas and was instrumental in getting Wheels of Justice, a Palestinian human rights organization [Ha! -S], to come to high-school social studies classes. The move angered the local Jewish community, who called the group "viciously anti-Israel." [And anti-American, and it wasn't just the Jewish community, but the press always leaves that part out.]

Francis would not say how much the backlash from the Wheels of Justice visit had to do with his leaving.

"I've looked over a variety of features," Francis said. "It was a totality of different things. I wanted to move on to a different situation."

Pam Lebowitz, a local lawyer who led the opposition to the group, said she was happy to see Francis leave.

"He clearly had an agenda that he was trying to push on the students," she said. "Teachers are there to teach, not to pursue their own agenda in the classroom."...

..."I applaud teachers who get students to think, and I respect that everyone has their own political beliefs," Lebowitz said. "But I don't like when teachers try to recruit kids to a cause. He was very manipulative."

Hamas controlled the roof of the European Hospital and Fatah-allied security forces took up positions nearby. The two sides traded fire. About 15 children attending a kindergarten in the compound were rushed into the main building, hospital officials said.

On Monday, gun battles also raged at a hospital in northern Gaza and the strip's main health facility, Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

A Fatah security official confirmed the building had been fallen.

About 200 Hamas gunmen surrounded the compound, where some 500 Fatah fighters were holed up. Hamas fired mortars and rocket-propelled grenades at the building...

The warning said that any security official seen in the streets would be “suspected of participating in the injury of the Palestinian people” and will be at risk of injury themselves.

The killing was ordered and carried out by her father and uncle and their associates. Her crime was to have fallen in love with another man after her arranged marriage fell apart because her husband had been violent.

Mahmod's murder was a so-called "honor killing", carried out by families or communities who believe girls have brought disgrace, for example by refusing a forced marriage.

The United Nations estimate there are 5,000 honor killings worldwide every year but the issue was almost unheard of in Britain until a 2004 Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) conference.

Nazir Afzal, the CPS director who organized that conference, said the situation in Britain was worse than they had thought and a growth in religious fundamentalism had helped make it worse.

"Even I had no idea quite frankly how serious a problem it was, how many communities were affected, how many people were affected," Afzal told Reuters.

"Murder is just the tip of the iceberg. You have a substantial number of kidnappings, false imprisonments, serious assaults, which are also carried out in the name of honor."

The CPS prosecutes about a dozen "honor" murders a year but Afzal believes the true number of killings is much higher.

"We have cases of murders that take place abroad -- people who are taken and killed abroad -- so they obviously don't come into our figures," he said.

"We also have a substantial number of missing persons."

In the wake of the 2004 conference, police launched a review of about 120 cases where women had disappeared or appeared to have committed suicide. Afzal said about 20 were now suspected of being honor-related crimes...

The number of reported members spiraled down from more than 29,000 in 2000 to fewer than 1,700 in 2006. As a result, the Muslim rights group's annual income from dues dropped from $732,765 in 2000, when yearly dues cost $25, to $58,750 last year, when the group charged $35.

The organization instead is relying on about two dozen donors a year to contribute the majority of the money for CAIR's budget, which reached nearly $3 million last year.

Asked about the decline, Parvez Ahmed, CAIR's board chairman, pointed to the number of donors.

"We are proud that our grass-roots support in the American Muslim community has allowed CAIR to grow from having eight chapters and offices in 2001 to having 33 today," Mr. Ahmed said.

The self-described civil liberties organization for Muslims seeks to portray "a positive image of Islam" through public relations and the press, but instead has alienated some by defending questionable accusations of discrimination.

Critics of the organization say they are not surprised that membership is sagging, and that a recent decision by the Justice Department to name CAIR as "unindicted co-conspirators" in a federal case against another foundation charged with providing funds to a terrorist group could discourage new members.

M. Zuhdi Jasser, director of American Islamic Forum for Democracy, says the sharp decline in membership calls into question whether the organization speaks for American Muslims, as the group has claimed.

"This is the untold story in the myth that CAIR represents the American Muslim population. They only represent their membership and donors," Mr. Jasser said...

Since 2000, the Chinese government’s campaign to move Tibetan herders to urban areas has put traditional lifestyles and livelihoods at risk for the approximately 700,000 people who have been resettled in western China. Many herders have been required to slaughter their livestock and move into newly built housing colonies without consultation or compensation...

...“Some Chinese authorities claim that their forced urbanization of Tibetan herders is an enlightened form of modernization,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “But those same authorities didn’t bother to find out what Tibetans want, and have been heavy handed with those who have complained.”...

Bandar explained: “This is smart evil, because if you take the evil out of it, it makes sense. If I want to trust you with my life, I want to make sure nowhere else you are safe except with me.”

At another time Saddam pointed to the people around him – high and low – and told Fahd: “They are the most loyal to me.”

“It is nice to be surrounded by the most loyal people,” Fahd replied.

“Oh, no, no, I didn’t say that, Your Majesty,” Saddam corrected. “I told you they are very loyal to me because every one of them, his hand is bloody. Every one of them knows that when I die, you will never find a piece this big from my body.” Saddam indicated the smallest piece of flesh between his fingers. “I’ll be cut to pieces, and if that happens to me, they’re all finished.”...

The pair were evacuating civilians when they were hit by either machine gun or shell fire from the Nahr al-Bared camp...

...Earlier, the army fired artillery shells at militants from Fatah al-Islam entrenched in the camp near Tripoli...

The state-run National News Agency named the workers as Boulos Maamari and Haitham Suleiman. A third Red Cross worker was critically injured, the agency said...

...In a separate incident, a member of a Muslim clerics' delegation trying to broker a deal between Lebanon's government and Fatah al-Islam was injured.

Sheikh Mohammed al-Hajj was shot in the leg by a sniper after entering Nahr al-Bared to hold talks with the group...

The incident began when a Hamas supporter was killed in a firefight near Beit Hanoun Hospital, witnesses said. The fighting continued and moved into the hospital, where three people were killed and 10 wounded.

The dead were identified as a father and two sons from the al-Masri clan, which has ties to the Fatah movement of President Mahmoud Abbas. Mohammed Odeh, a volunteer for the Red Crescent rescue service, asid one of the dead had been shot at close range.

Also Monday, fighting erupted at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital between Hamas gunmen and the powerful Bakr clan, which is affiliated with Fatah. Bakr gunmen fired mortars and rocket-propelled grenades at the hospital, Gaza's largest, drawing Hamas fire from inside the building, hospital officials said.

Mohammed Suwerki was kidnapped near the seafront in Gaza moments before he was flung to his death from the roof of a building by fighters loyal to the Islamist Hamas movement, which has been locked for months in a power struggle with President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement...

But the most telling omission relates not to the Israelis or to any foreign power but rather to the Arabs. Segev's book is all but devoid of Arab calls for Israel's destruction and the slaughter of its citizens. There is no mention of pro-war demonstrations, of Egypt's willingness to use poison gas against its enemies, or of the detailed Arab plans for conquering Israel. Segev even ignores the Khartoum resolution after the war, in which the Arab states refused to negotiate with Israel and to grant it peace and recognition. These omissions inflict an injustice on the Arabs by treating them as two-dimensional props in a solipsistic Israeli drama...

This is sickening stuff. Lies. Blood libel. Treason. The suicide of civilization. No guesses what some future specialist in whatever passes for archaeology in the Thousand Year Umma will have to say about the remains of Broadcasting House...

The sources named two of the suspected kidnappers as Muhammad Azmi Farawneh and Majdi Tayseer Hammad. The two were killed by Israel in separate attacks over the past year.

Farawneh is believed to have played a key role in the abduction of Schalit. Hammad was the commander of the Nasser Salah Eddin Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees - one of the groups that claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.

The two were killed a few weeks after the abduction in air strikes launched by the IAF in the Gaza Strip.

The fact that they have been on the payroll of the PA was disclosed after their families protested against the low pension that the PA has decided to allocate them. Farawneh's family is now receiving a monthly payment of NIS 38 (less than $10), while Hammad's family is getting only NIS 79 (just under $20).

A Palestinian pension law approved in 2005 grants the families of PA pensioners and the deceased monthly salaries constituting 7.5% of the basic salary.

The families have sought the assistance of a Palestinian legal group in exerting pressure on the PA to change the pension law so that they would receive larger sums of money.

The group wrote over the weekend to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas protesting against the "injustice" done to the families of Palestinian "martyrs" and pensioners...

On the BBC website, for example, Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen's retrospective on the war begins by noting that "it took only six days for Israel to smash the armed forces of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria." It goes on to emphasize that "the Israeli Air Force destroyed the Egyptian air force on the ground on the morning of 5 June 1967 in a surprise attack."

But the BBC makes no reference to anything the Arabs might have done to provoke Israel's attack, other than broadcasting "bloodcurdling threats" on the radio. The vast buildup of Arab armies along Israel's border, the expulsion of UN peacekeepers from the Sinai Peninsula by Egyptian ruler Gamal Abdel Nasser, the closing of the Straits of Tiran, an illegal blockade cutting Israel off from its main supply of oil -- none of this is mentioned by the BBC.

Instead, Bowen claims that Israel's "hugely self-confident" generals couldn't wait to go to war because they knew they couldn't lose. (In reality, Israel's military and political leaders were deeply anxious; so severe was the stress that Yitzhak Rabin, the chief of staff, suffered a nervous breakdown.) "The myth of the 1967 Middle East war," declares Bowen, turning history on its head, "was that the Israeli David slew the Arab Goliath."...

...Considering how often the "occupation" is identified as the chief impediment to Arab-Israeli peace, you might expect 40th-anniversary discussions of the war to grapple with the fact that there was no occupation in 1967, when the Arabs were massing for war on Israel's borders. But that would mean acknowledging that Arab hatred and violence caused the occupation -- not, as current fashion has it, the other way around...

"This is the moment we have been waiting for for two decades," yelled Yousef Abou-Allaban , chairman of the Islamic Society of Boston .

In the crowd of several thousand, many people held up cellphones and cameras to snap pictures of the topping-off.

Traffic on nearby Malcolm X Boule vard came to a stop. The top, adorned with an American flag waving in the cool breeze, was finally set in place at 1 p.m.

The capping of a mosque's minaret has special significance in Islam, signaling that the building is completed, said Abou-Allaban. But the capping of the 140-foot tower at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center had even more significance for local Muslims because of the controversies that had dogged the project...

...As boys passed out green and yellow fliers with information on the day's events to onlookers, men in flowing robes were followed by women pushing strollers or hand-in-hand with children. All chanted, "Allahu akbar" [God is great].

About a half-hour after it started, the parade reached the 70,000-square-foot mosque, where organizers estimated about 2,500 people were waiting...

The American University in Cairo, seen as a bastion of Western liberal education in Egypt, had revoked the woman's longstanding library privileges after she donned the niqab, a face veil that leaves only the wearer's eyes uncovered.

In its ruling, a special chamber of the High Administrative Court upheld a 2001 court ruling that the school could not bar Iman al-Zainy from its campus over the niqab because her decision to veil was a matter of personal and religious freedom.

Hossam Bahgat, a human rights lawyer who was part of Zainy's legal team, described the ruling as a precedent-setting victory for "women's autonomy over their body and dress code."

"The court said in the strongest of terms that it is up to women to decide about their clothing, and that women should not be discriminated against because of the clothes that they choose to wear," he told Reuters. "A complete ban on the niqab is now outlawed as a matter of principle."

The American University in Cairo said it was consulting with lawyers following the decision, but that some of the principles mentioned by the court appeared to support its position.

Court sources said Saturday's ruling does allow the university some leeway in placing restrictions on the niqab due to public necessity. Female students, for example, could be required to reveal their faces at the university gate to a designated male security guard or female staff...

Palestinian gunmen broke through Israel's border fortifications around Gaza on early Saturday afternoon and exchanged fire with Israeli troops inside Israel, the military said. The attack took place after the gunmen entered an unmanned IDF outpost at Kissufim crossing between central Gaza and Israel.

Army officials believe that the gunmen intended to kidnap an Israeli soldier, and that this was why they came so close to the army outpost. The terror cell was well-equipped and armed, a fact indicating it has thoroughly prepared for the operation.

Four gunmen, from the al-Quds Brigades - the military wing of Islamic Jihad - and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades - Fatah's military wing, were responsible for the attack. According to the Palestinians, some of the gunmen escaped during the gunbattle, and two were still inside the post, one of them dead.

However, according to military sources, three gunmen were killed before and during the gunfight, and the fourth escaped.

Abu Ahmed, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, told local radio stations that the four gunmen were meant to snatch a soldier but the attempt was foiled when Israeli helicopter gunships arrived on the scene.

“The aim of the operation was to withdraw with the soldier in captivity,” he said, “but the participation of Israeli helicopters prevented that.”

IDF sources reported that look-outs identified a vehicle marked with "TV" insignia approaching the crossing from the Palestinian side of the fence. According to the sources, the Palestinians made an opening in the fence and infiltrated Israeli territory...

Switzerland secretly approached Iran offering to hold a conference regarding "various perceptions of the Holocaust" in Geneva, the Swiss magazine Weltwoche reported earlier this week.

The proposal was made via confidential memorandum from Switzerland's President, Micheline Calmy-Rey, to Iranian deputy foreign minister Saaid Jalili, during his visit in Switzerland last December.

The Swiss foreign ministry objected to the idea, annulling it. Calmy-Rey's proposal, which would have voiced anew the Iranian doubts over the very existence of the Holocaust, outraged many Jewish organizations, which demanded she apologize.

Calmy-Rey was subject to her own party's criticism as well, as her accusers said that should her proposal be realized she would have compromised Switzerland's international diplomatic status.

Western diplomats described the proposal as a "clumsy, dangerous idea, intended to help Iran out of its seclusion." The Weltwoche magazine, which broke the story, called the idea "a stupid, naïve notion" saying the Iranians would have clearly used the conference for their own agenda.

The Swiss president, the magazine assumed, hoped the proposal would push the Swiss initiative for alternative negotiations between Tehran and the West over the Iranian nuclear plan...

Here's a brief excerpt from Kirstein's blog, which was posted this afternoon:

I have learned that Norman G. Finkelstein on June 8, 2007 has been denied tenure at DePaul University. Professor Finkelstein, assistant professor of political science, had been recommended for tenure by his department and by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences personnel commitee. According to A.A.U.P. guidelines, Dr Finkelstein will be given a year's notice and so can return under contract to DePaul for the 2007-2008 academic year. A professor may appeal a tenure denial and seek A.A.U.P. support. My hope is such will be the case and that there will be a Committee A investigation which could lead to a censure of DePaul University. This is speculation and is not a prediction of future course of events.

We'll be hearing a great deal about this in coming days...

But does the Constitution authorize birthright citizenship to illegal aliens?

The relevant constitutional clause concerning birthright is found in the 14th Amendment, one of three “reconstruction amendments” proposed after the War Between the States. The 13th Amendment banned slavery, the 14th ensured Due Process and Equal Protection under the law for former slaves and their children, and the 15th banned race-based qualification for voting rights.

Section 1 of the 14th Amendment (as proposed in 1866 and ratified in 1868) reads, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” It explicitly referred to children born to U.S. citizens and those born to aliens lawfully in the U.S.

Why did the amendment’s sponsors insist on adding, “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof”?

For insight, consider the words of Sen. Jacob Howard, co-author of the amendment’s citizenship clause. In 1866, he wrote that the amendment “will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, or who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the Government of the United States...”

By extension, then, it is fair to conclude that, in addition to the children of those legally in the U.S. under the above exclusion, this would apply to the children of those illegally in the U.S. —until the Supreme Court took up the question of the rights of illegal aliens to taxpayer services in 1982. In Plyler v. Doe, the judicial activists concluded that “no plausible distinction with respect to Fourteenth Amendment ‘jurisdiction’ can be drawn between resident aliens whose entry into the United States was lawful, and resident aliens whose entry was unlawful.”

But Plyler v. Doe is historically and legally inaccurate. In the context of original intent, children born to those who have entered the U.S. illegally—those who are not citizens—are not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” One would hope, in the course of the current debate about immigration, that Congress and the courts would actually pay homage to the plain language of our Constitution.

Not much chance of that, though, especially when it’s not politically expedient...

"It is inconceivable that it is anyone other than the Iranian government that's doing it," said former White House counterterrorism official Richard Clarke, an ABC News consultant.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stopped short earlier this week of blaming Iran, saying the U.S. did not have evidence "of the involvement of the Iranian government in support of the Taliban."

But an analysis by a senior coalition official, obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com, concludes there is clear evidence of Iran's involvement...

To: Academics and Professionals Standing In Solidarity With Our Israeli Academic Colleagues Against All Boycott Proposals and Actions

Please Join Us By Signing and Circulating The Following Solidarity Statement With Our Israeli Academic and Professional Colleagues

We are academics, scholars, researchers and professionals of differing religious and political perspectives. We all agree that singling out Israelis for an academic boycott is wrong. To show our solidarity with our Israeli academics in this matter, we, the undersigned, hereby declare ourselves to be Israeli academics for purposes of any academic boycott. We will regard ourselves as Israeli academics and decline to participate in any activity from which Israeli academics are excluded...

..."As people of God, how can you justify ignoring that Israelis, young and old, women and children, have suffered from decades of suicide bombings -- suicide bombings on public transportation as they commute to school and work, in the middle of their cities -- at shopping malls and restaurants?" Mr. Foxman asked. "How can you discount the events that led to the Six-Day War and the unsuccessful attempts by the State of Israel to negotiate a peace treaty after the war that would have meant the return of Gaza and the much of the West Bank decades ago?"

Mr. Foxman added that, "At a time when Israeli citizens are targeted by rockets and the elected Palestinian leadership supports the eradication of the State of Israel and the use of terrorism to this end, it is particularly unfortunate that a religious organization which says it is committed to a resolution to this conflict has abandoned the course of objective, credible advocacy for the protection of all parties, which is so essential to a constructive and lasting path to peace."...

Stand With US, based in California, has described a protest scheduled to be held against "the occupation" as in fact being "a rally for the dissolution of the State of Israel."

The anti-Israel protest, which is expected to attract thousands, has been organized by the United for Peace and Justice group, the Muslims American Society Freedom Foundation, the Communist Party USA, and "other extremist organizations," according to a Stand With US press release.

"We will gather on the North side of Constitution Avenue, just west of the Capitol Reflecting Pool. We are organizing this literally one week before the event, with almost no resources or time.

"This counter-rally truly is the product of a few citizens who are deeply outraged that Israel's opponents might have demonstrated in our nation's capitol without any patriotic opposing voices who will tell truth to counter these lies," Stand With Us told its supporters in an email.

It advised its followers to come to the rally with signs which read: "Israel, we stand with you," "free the Palestinians from Hamas," and "suicide bombing is mass murder."...

Israel's desire for peace is earnest and genuine. It withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula, Southern Lebanon, and most recently, Gaza, only to face increased hostilities and extreme and ominous threats on its northern and southern borders. Land for peace has proven to be a chimera. It's time to try peace for peace. If the Arabs want peace, they must understand that Israel's final borders will not be those of before 1967, and that Jerusalem will not be redivided. If the Arabs put down their arms, there would be no more war; if the Israelis put down their arms, there would be no more Israel.

"Hafiz Hamid was imam at the Islamic Centre of Greater Worcester in Worcester, Massachusetts and had been fighting immigration regulation infringements for the last several months..."

Uh-huh. Sure. Yew betcha. Why would anyone think anything else? You silly, silly Islamophobes!

In a move billed as the most significant event since London beat Paris in 2005 in the race to host the Games, the organising committee unveiled a striking, jagged emblem as the official symbol for the Olympics.

Aimed at the younger, "internet generation", it will will also be used as the logo for the Paralympics and will be crucial to hopes of raising private sponsorship for both events.

Based roughly on the figures 2012 and apparently inspired by graffiti artists, the image - which replaces an earlier logo devised for London's bid to host the Games - was hailed as "dynamic" and "vibrant" by organisers...

...But the logo, which cost £400,000 and took the best part of a year to be devised by brand consultants Wolff Olins, came up against widespread disapproval yesterday, with one Jewish person even ringing the BBC to complain that it was reminiscent of the infamous Nazi SS symbol...

The daily An Nahar on Wednesday said Lebanese authorities also discovered a depot containing more than 200 kilograms of explosives in house raids on suspected Fatah al-Islam militants in the northern Akkar province.

Meanwhile, Lebanese troops maintained their siege of Nahr al-Bared for a 17th day, fighting on-again off-again gunbattles with militants on Wednesday.

Security officials told the Associated Press the arms belonged to Hizbullah.

They said the shipment of Grad rockets and ammunition for automatic rifles and machine guns was seized late Tuesday at a random army checkpoint at Douriss near Baalbek, a Hizbullah stronghold in east Lebanon's Bekaa valley...

The resolution marked the 40th anniversary of the Six-Day War, when Israel won the West Bank, Sinai, Gaza, and the Golan Heights from Arab armies. It passed the House just four days after the White House exercised — for the 14th time — the Jerusalem Embassy Act waiver, which allows the president to ignore Congress. Since the act's passage, Presidents Clinton and Bush have exercised the waiver without fail every six months, as required.

The new resolution "commends Israel for its administration of the undivided city for the past 40 years, during which Israel has respected the rights of all religious groups." It also urges Arabs and Palestinian Arabs to take steps to seek peace but does not include similar language for Israel...

Somewhere along the way, I stopped believing that a scientific consensus exists on climate change. Certainly there is no consensus at the very top echelons of scientists—the ranks from which I have been drawing my subjects—and certainly there is no consensus among astrophysicists and other solar scientists, several of whom I have profiled. If anything, the majority view among these subsets of the scientific community may run in the opposite direction.

When Patrick Leigh Fermor, on his journey across Europe in 1933, was questioned in some bierstube on the result of the Oxford Union vote that ‘under no circumstances would they fight for King and country’ he described the atmosphere thus:

‘I was surrounded by glaring eyeballs and teeth. Someone would shrug and let out a staccato laugh like three notches on a watchman’s rattle. I could detect a kindling glint of scornful pity and triumph in the surrounding eyes which declared quite plainly their certainty that, were I right, England was too far gone in degeneracy and frivolity to present a problem. But the distress I could detect on the face of a silent opponent of the régime was still harder to bear: it hinted that the will or the capacity to save civilization was lacking where it might have been hoped for.’

The Islamic Society nonetheless sued, claiming both libel and civil-rights violations. Motions to dismiss the case were denied, and the litigants began to compel third parties to turn over documents bearing on the case. In short order, one after another of the allegations made by the Islamic Society collapsed.

Their complaint asserted that the defendants had falsely stated that monies had been sent to the Islamic Society from "Saudi/Middle Eastern sources," and that such statements and others had devastated its fund-raising efforts. But documents obtained in discovery demonstrated without ambiguity that fund-raising was (as one representative of the Islamic Society had put it) "robust," with at least $7.2 million having been wired to the Islamic Society from Middle Eastern sources, mostly from Saudi Arabia...

The second lesson is that in one way (and perhaps no other) we should learn from the English system and award counsel fees to the winning side in cases like this, which are brought to inhibit speech on matters of serious public import. Because all the defendants in this case were steadfast and refused to settle, they were eventually vindicated. But the real way to avoid meritless cases such as this is to have a body of law that makes clear that plaintiffs who bring them will be held financially responsible for doing so.

Why should this dispute matter to anyone beyond the litigants?

The Islamist movement has two wings, one violent and one lawful, which operate apart but often reinforce each other. Their effective coordination was on display in Britain last August, when the Islamist establishment seized on the Heathrow airport plot to destroy planes over the Atlantic Ocean as an opening for it to press the Blair government for changes in policy...

The prospectus at www.MEForum.org/legal-project.php provides further details on this project. To join our efforts, please contact the Forum at LegalProject@MEForum.org.

2. Who is the imam that Nehela reportedly used to introduce to his disciples as the "Kashmir Jihadist"? (I assumed that would be Muhammed Masood, but maybe it was the recently deported Imam Muhammad Hamid of Worcester!)...

3. Does Imam Nehela conduct mixed marriages, say between an Arab Muslim and a non-Arab Muslim? From this narrative by a local female Muslim convert, I suspect that the person she is talking about is Nehela:

"The conversation turned to cultural conflict. "The Imam of our mosque does not condone marriages between Arabs and other Muslims," he (taxi driver) said. My heart turned over in my stomach like a stone. "Why is that?" I asked him. I cautioned myself against taking him too literally; better to hear what the Imam thinks from his own mouth, than through someone else's filter. 'Because the marriages do not work out well,' he answered me. 'The cultures are too different. Too much must be sacrificed.' "

"When I tried to pay him that day, the driver refused my money. Instead he gave me a slip with his number printed on it. As I walked into the masjid, I felt an air of sadness over me which did not drift away for several days. What if the taxi driver were right? What if the the Imam really and truly does not approve of mixing?"

4. Does Imam Nehela conduct mixed marriages, say between a Muslim and a Christian or Jew? Or does he refuse to perform interfaith marriages?

5. Imam Nehela apparently makes Hajj trips to Mecca. Can Imam Nehela tell us about the literature he distributes to pilgrims while in Saudi Arabia? Does the ICE or FBI know what kind of literature he reportedly gave out?...

He is Lt. Michael T. Newell, U.S. Navy, of Ellenville, N.Y. He will be buried today in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C.

On Dec. 14, 1966, Newell was flying an F-8E Crusader aircraft as wingman in a flight of two on a combat air patrol over North Vietnam. During the mission, the flight leader saw a surface-to-air missile explode between the two aircraft. Although Newell initially reported that he had survived the blast, his aircraft gradually lost power and crashed near the border between Nghe An and Thanh Hoa provinces in south central North Vietnam. The flight leader did not see a parachute nor did he hear an emergency beacon signal. He stayed in the area and determined that Newell did not escape from the aircraft prior to the crash.

Between 1993 and 2002, joint U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) teams, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), visited the area of the incident five times to conduct investigations and survey the crash site. They found pilot-related artifacts and aircraft wreckage consistent to an F-8 Crusader...

Lieberman said his plan includes a complete closure of all crossings between Gaza and Israel through which PA Arab workers currently cross into Israel and through which aid passes to Gaza. His plan also calls for bombing Gaza neighborhood in response to rocket-fire, ending visitation rights for PA terrorists until kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit is released, severing Gaza from Judea and Samaria and stopping diplomatic contacts with any and all PA officials, including Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas.

NATO troops would be called upon to provide security and the European Union would be invited to provide infrastructure and jobs for PA Arabs.

Lieberman said the plan would come into effect in 2008 and be modeled after how Israel related to the Sinai after withdrawal. "Just as Israel did not continue to provide anything to Sinai after it withdrew, there is no reason why it should act any differently toward Gaza, especially in the current situation," he said. The Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel is Our Home) chairman said he would present his plan to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the rest of the government Thursday...

Yet the striking fact is that all of Israel's peace agreements--with Egypt in 1979, with the Palestinians in 1993, with Jordan and Morocco in 1994--were achieved in the wake of the war. The Jewish state had gained territory; the Arab states wanted it back. Whatever else might be said for the land-for-peace formula, it's odd that the people who are its strongest advocates are usually the same ones who bemoan the apparent completeness of Israel's victory in 1967...

...It is said that the Palestinian movement was born from Israel's occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. Yet the Palestine Liberation Organization was already in its third year of operations when the war began. It is said that Israel enjoyed international legitimacy so long as it lived behind recognized frontiers. Yet those frontiers were no less provisional before 1967 than they were after. Only after the Six Day War did the Green Line come to be seen as the "real" border.

Fog also surrounds memories of the immediate aftermath of the war. To read some recent accounts, a more sagacious Israel could have followed up its historic victory with peace overtures that would have spared everyone the bloody entanglements of its occupation of the Sinai, Gaza, the West Bank and the Golan Heights. Or, failing that, it could have resisted the lure of building settlements in the territories in order not to complicate a land-for-peace transaction.

In fact, the Israeli cabinet agreed on June 19 to offer the Sinai to Egypt and the Golan to Syria in exchange for peace deals. In Khartoum that September, the Arab League declared "no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it." As for Jewish settlements, hardly any were built for years after the war: In 1972, for instance, only about 800 settlers had moved to the West Bank...

Previous NGO Monitor reports have noted the prevalence of one-sided attacks on Israel from AI, and the organization's latest publication confirms this long-standing bias. "Enduring Occupation" begins by placing full responsibility for the conflict on Israel, with minimal reference to Palestinian terror. The emotive language employed in the report is more appropriate for a propaganda communiqué, such as the highly charged opening implication that Israel deliberately kills Palestinian children. Once again, Amnesty has invented and ignored evidence in order to demonize Israel.

The report also falsely implies that Israel arbitrarily imposes restrictions on Palestinians, commits "war crimes," and calls for Israelis to be prosecuted in the world's courts. AI's report barely acknowledges Palestinian terror and the extensive support it receives from neighboring regimes. Nor is there substantial recognition of Israel's right, according to international law, to defend itself against such terror.

Furthermore, the report deliberately misrepresents Israel's separation barrier, ignoring the precipitous decline in terror attacks following the barrier's construction. There is no mention of widespread corruption within the Palestinian economic and social systems, the international boycott of Hamas as a terror organization, and the continued mismanagement of funds by the Palestinians. AI's report is explicit in laying the blame squarely on Israel and indicative of a clear political agenda.

Gerald Steinberg, Executive Director of NGO Monitor, remarked that "This Amnesty report, following tendentious condemnations of Israel, demonstrates the moral bankruptcy of this organization. We call on the members of Amnesty International, including Amnon Vidan who heads the Israeli branch to submit their resignations in protest."

Click here to view other NGO Monitor analyses of Amnesty International.

Click here for report on Amnesty's 2006 activities.

But they make an exception of this rule for one nation. What nation could that be?...

Prosecutors applied the label of "unindicted co-conspirator" to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America, and the North American Islamic Trust in connection with a trial planned in Texas next month for five officials of a defunct charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.

While the foundation was charged in the case, which was filed in 2004, none of the other groups was. However, the co-conspirator designation could be a blow to the credibility of the national Islamic organizations, which often work hand-in-hand with government officials engaged in outreach to the Muslim community.

A court filing by the government last week listed the three prominent groups among about 300 individuals or entities named as co-conspirators. The document gave scant details, but prosecutors described CAIR as a present or past member of "the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee and/or its organizations." The government listed the Islamic Society of North America and the North American Islamic Trust as "entities who are and/or were members of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood."...

"The brother of Hafiz Saeed who was an Imam at Islamic Center of Greater Worcester, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, Imam Hafiz Muhammad Hamid , along with his family has been deported from the United States of America today and will reach Pakistan early Tuesday morning."

According to my sources, there was a fund raiser on Friday, June 1, 2007 to collect money for Hamid at the ICGW. Hamid came to USA to attend a finance conference at Harvard (thru the Harvard Program for Islamic Finance) in 2000, and he stayed on to become the Imam of Worcester mosque. He has worked closely with the Islamic Society of Boston and ISB Imam Nehela Basyouny. He became a permanent U.S. resident but now he has been deported. Before coming to the USA he was reportedly in charge of the Lashkar e Taiyba (LeT) safe house in Lahore, Pakistan, situated at Moon Chowk (now disbanded)...

Although academic apologists for Islamists strangely praise al-Qaradawi as a moderate, he is a well-known figure in the global jihad who has famously vowed that Islam will conquer both Europe and the United States. According to Lebanese-born terror expert Walid Phares, "al-Qaradawi produced most of the doctrinal foundations for Jihadi radicalism since the mid-1990s, including the incitement for Jihadists to defeat the Africans in southern Sudan, the Middle East minorities, and women's movements. Al-Qaradawi [calls for the] further Talibanization of the Muslim world."

Sapers kept digging. He contacted famed terror expert Steve Emerson, who, as it turned out, had long been documenting the ISB's ties with supporters and enablers of extremism. Shortly thereafter, Charles Jacobs, another Boston resident, warmed to the scent as well. Jacobs is perhaps America's foremost activist in the fight against the human slave trade and the head of the David Project, an organization dedicated to honest reporting on the Middle East.

In 2003, this crew reached out to local media outlets. That October, the Boston Herald began publishing a withering series of articles documenting the ISB's unsavory ties. Challenged about al-Qaradawi, the ISB denied he'd been a trustee and explained his listing on the IRS forms as a clerical oversight. But then it emerged that the ISB had used a taped appearance by al-Qaradawi (by this time barred from entering the United States) as a fundraising tool in 2002...

The first point is that it would never happen. There are no Israeli organisations - governmental or freelance - that would contemplate such a thing. That fact is itself significant.

But just suppose that some fanatical Jews had grabbed Mr Johnston and forced him to spout their message, abusing his own country as he did so. What would the world have said?...

...Loud would have been the denunciations of the extremist doctrines of Zionism which had given rise to this vile act. The world isolation of Israel, if it failed to get Mr Johnston freed, would have been complete.

If Mr Johnston had been forced to broadcast saying, for example, that Israel was entitled to all the territories held since the Six-Day War, and calling on the release of all Israeli soldiers held by Arab powers in return for his own release, his words would have been scorned. The cause of Israel in the world would have been irreparably damaged by thus torturing him on television. No one would have been shy of saying so.

But of course in real life it is Arabs holding Mr Johnston, and so everyone treads on tip-toe. Bridget Kendall of the BBC opined that Mr Johnston had been "asked" to say what he said in his video. Asked! If it were merely an "ask", why did he not say no?

Throughout Mr Johnston's captivity, the BBC has continually emphasised that he gave "a voice" to the Palestinian people, the implication being that he supported their cause, and should therefore be let out. One cannot imagine the equivalent being said if he had been held by Israelis.

Well, he is certainly giving a voice to the Palestinian people now. And the truth is that, although it is under horrible duress, what he says is not all that different from what the BBC says every day through the mouths of reporters who are not kidnapped and threatened, but are merely collecting their wages...

Host: We will now take a short break to present the Palestinian childhood, and some scenes from the celebration in the kindergartens of the Islamic Association. We followed this ceremony of the graduation of the 29th class of the Islamic Association's kindergartens. Let's watch the report, and then we'll be back to complete the discussion.

Girls’ show
[...]

Host:All the best. Stay with us to watch this performance by the children of Palestine.

Boys’ show

Boys: Allah Akbar. Praise be to Allah. Allah Akbar. Praise be to Allah. Allah Akbar. Praise be to Allah. Allah Akbar. Praise be to Allah. Who is your role model? The Prophet. Who is your role model? The Prophet. What is your path? Jihad. What is your path? Jihad. What is your most lofty aspiration? Death for the sake of Allah. What is your most lofty aspiration? Death for the sake of Allah.

But I had heard that they were reinforcing a defensive line north of the Litani, just outside of the UN zone. From here, they could launch longer range rockets into Israel, over the heads of the peacekeepers.

As we drove into the misty mountains, my trusty driver Dawoud - himself a Hezbollah supporter from south Beirut - regaled me with stories about how "The Party of God" dealt with espionage during last summer's war.

"I don't know what equipment they had. But they caught these spies red-handed, put 'em up against a wall and shot the three," Dawoud said.

We drove on in silence.

"Killed 'em dead," he added...

...All around, the Lebanese Army was manning roadblocks with an unusual alacrity, but leaving the final decision as to who they should let through to a number of other bearded gentlemen, also dressed in black and who carried Motorola walkie-talkies.

Most locals were too apprehensive to do interviews, but one told us to be careful. "Hezbollah are everywhere," he said. "But you will not see them, they will see you."

Another recounted how Hezbollah had restricted her family's movements on their own farmland.

"The Boys", as she called them, had dumped several hundred tonnes of sand at the bottom of her garden and were shipping it out by truck. She had no idea where they were taking it or what they were doing.

Sand is a vital ingredient for mixing concrete. And concrete is a vital ingredient if you are building underground bunkers...

...The Hezbollah men told me that we were in a restricted military security zone, but admitted that Hezbollah had indeed been taking over the land in the area.

"We are not forcing Christian or Druze off their land," one Hezbollahi insisted. "We're offering them a good price. They're moving of their own free will. Anyone can buy land here," he added, seemingly forgetting that it was a strict military zone...

Hezbollah were not building new bunker networks, missile bases or anything military, he said. They were, in fact, moving into fruit production.

"We are going to import nectarine plants from Italy," he said. "Then we will sell our fruits on the world market. It is most important you tell the world what we are doing."

I told him absolutely, yes, of course, I would tell everyone all about the nectarines if I could just go now. Please?

It was completely unprofessional of me. But I was in such a hurry to get home safely, that I forgot to ask him whether or not Hezbollah's nectarines were going to be grown organically.

First, demonstrating his ignorance about Israel and the Palestinian areas, Nammar absurdly claimed that Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth are becoming "Jewish" cities. In Bethlehem, there are few if any Jews. Israeli law prohibits Israeli citizens from entering Palestinian Authority-controlled territory including Bethlehem.

The city is populated mostly by Muslims and a significantly smaller, declining number of Christians. In a piece titled "O, Muslim Town of Bethlehem," published on Dec. 16, 2006, the British Daily Mail reported that the town's Christian population "has dwindled from more than 85 percent in 1948 to 12 percent of its 60,000 inhabitants in 2006." The remainder of the inhabitants are Muslim.

Nammar's claim that Nazareth is becoming a "Jewish" city is likewise nonsense. According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, the total population for Nazareth in 2005 was 64,800, of which 64,100 were Arab, including 20,000 Christian Arabs. The number of Jews is unavailable, underscoring the small number of Jews in this city. Jews live in a nearby town called Nazareth Illit (Upper Nazareth). This city, adjacent to Nazareth, numbers 43,700 inhabitants - 33,400 Jews and 5,200 Arabs. Approximately 4,300 Christians (mostly Arab) live in Nazareth Illit as well.

Jerusalem is indeed a Jewish-majority city, but it is becoming more Arab and less Jewish. As the Arab's population is growing at a faster rate than its Jewish population, the Jewish share of the city's total population is decreasing, not increasing...

On the first day of the war, at a quarter to five sharp, we heard a knock at the door. We opened. Two policemen in civilian clothes wanted my brother Sami for 10 minutes at the station. He followed them...

...It took a month until we learned of my brother's whereabouts. The authorities arrested nearly all Jewish males between the ages of 17 and 60. Those who held foreign citizenship were taken to Alexandria and thrown on a boat, to be disgorged somewhere in southern Europe. They were the fortunate ones.

The others, Egyptians and stateless (Jews as a rule were denied citizenship), were taken to the notorious detention camps of Abu Zabaal, near Cairo. On the third day of the war, as a substitute for Israeli POWs, the authorities decided to parade instead the Jews from Alexandria, who were taken by train to Abu Zabaal by way of Cairo. The spectacle took place in Ramses Square in front of local mobs, who abused the Jews as they were thrown into open trucks.

A Christian friend of my mother, Ang le, lived near the station, and saw the spectacle. She only told me a year later how young and old were throwing stones at the men in the trucks, while shouting "Yahud."...