Bassi Gruen
Somehow, while I slept (and did laundry and washed dishes and made dentist appointments), my kids began to grow up. The changes were so subtle that they were lost on me as the days slid by one another like dominos dropping in a row. No child is that different from one day to the next, so the changes since last year, or even last month, often went undetected as I only compared today with yesterday.
But there is only so long one can remain oblivious to the fact that her little chicks are fast growing wings and attempting to fly on their own. And that process is not so simple for the protective mother bird used to life the way it was, when her chicks simply sat in the nest and awaited her care.
My eight-year-old Shoshana started a cooking class a few months back. Unlike the baking class she took two years ago, this wasn’t about being handed a lump of dough, rolling it into cookies while eating half the dough, and then bringing the finished product home to a grateful family. This course was meant to give the girls the ability to cook on their own. ...   more »

Etgar Lefkovits
Israel has no better friends in the world than Christian Zionists, Likud opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
"This is a friendship of the heart, a friendship of common roots, and a friendship of common civilization," Netanyahu told a conference of American Evangelicals in Jerusalem.
The event, which was organized by the San Antonio, Texas-based Christians United for Israel, drew 1,000 Israel supporters led by the conservative evangelical Pastor John Hagee, who has been a stalwart supporter of Israel for the past three decades.
Hagee on Sunday announced donations of $6 million to a number of Israeli causes and declared that Israel must remain in control of all of Jerusalem.
"Turning part or all of Jerusalem over to the Palestinians would be tantamount to turning it over to the Taliban," Hagee said.
Among the 16 causes Hagee supported with the contributions he announced were Magen David Adom and a conference center in the West Bank settlement of Ariel.
Hagee has united evangelical Christian supporters of Israel in the US under one umbrella organization, dubbed the Christian Aipac, which focuses solely on support for Israel and does not work to convert Jews to Christianity.
Netanyahu's remarks come just ...   more »

Harsh warning as region
under general war alert
Benjamin Ben-Eliezer (Courtesy Haaretz)
JERUSALEM – Israel will "destroy" Iran if Tehran decided to launch a war against the Jewish state, Israeli Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said today.
The unusually harsh warning from Ben-Eliezer, a former defense minister, was delivered as the official visited his ministry's war room, which took part today in a massive, nationwide, weeklong drill that is set to include simulated chemical missile attacks on central Israel.
"The Iranians won't rush to attack Israel, because they understand the significance such action would have and are well aware of our strength," Ben-Eliezer told reporters. "However, Iran continues to aggravate the situation by supplying arms to Syria and Hezbollah, and we must deal with this."
The minister said this week's war drill "is not a meaningless spectacle or a fictional scenario. The future reality is likely to be a number of times harsher than that which we recognize now. We are confronted with a situation where the home front becomes the front line."
"In a future war, it will be much safer to live in (the northern towns of) Nahariya and Shlomi instead of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, since I expect ...   more »

In another sign that renewed armed conflict between Israel and Hizballah may be on the horizon, a major Arab satellite network reported Sunday that the Lebanese army had begun pulling the civilian population back from the Israeli border.
Later in the day, a military correspondent with Israel's Channel Two News said that Syria and Lebanon are on heightened alert because they know that Hizballah is about to attack Israel or an overseas Israeli asset.
Hizballah blames Israel for the February assassination of its operational commander Imad Mughniyah, and has vowed to strike back.
Israeli government sources confirmed to The Jerusalem Post that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sent a message to Syrian President Bashar Assad that Damascus will be held directly responsible for any Hizballah attack on Israel.
According to defense officials, Syria is readying itself to hit Israel following the Jewish state's initial response to the imminent Hizballah attack.
Original Source
   more »

The Department of Homeland Security secretary, Michael Chertoff, announced on April Fool's Day that the Bush administration would waive all federal environmental and land management laws that open-border activists had vowed to use to hold up construction of the congressionally mandated fence on the border with Mexico. Seemingly good news – however there is more to the story.
Congress passed the Secure Fence Act two years ago requiring nearly 800 miles of double fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border, and Congress further appropriated (on a bi-partisan vote) the money to build it. Benchmarks in the Act required 670 miles of the double fence to be completed by now. To date, less than 10 miles of the double fence have been built.
Another smuggler's tunnel was discovered this week at the San Diego-Tijuana border, the busiest legal and illegal border crossing in the world. A dozen such tunnels have been discovered since 2000 along this particular stretch of the border. The double fence (thank you Duncan Hunter) is in place there and is working to deter illegal border crossers.
These tunnels are witness to the effectiveness of the fence – they are elaborate and expensive smuggler construction projects. The smugglers have to ...   more »

by Ezra HaLevi
(IsraelNN.com) The State of Israel is under attack from Syria, Lebanon and Gaza according to the practice exercise starting Sunday.
The IDF Home Front Command, in cooperation with the recently-established National Emergency Authority, called "Rachel" for its Hebrew acronym, local authorities, different governmental offices, security and rescue teams and the educational system will participate in a comprehensive national training exercise which will take place across the country beginning Sunday.
Israelis awoke to radio announcers describing the scenario being practiced for: It is the fourth day of the war. Israel is under missile attack from the Hizbullah in Lebanon and from Syria. Kassam rockets and Grad-type Katyusha missiles are being launched at Netivot and Ashkelon from Gaza.
The IDF dispatched a statement assuring citizens that the drill has been planned "as part of the IDF 2008 work plan," and emphasizing: The exercise was not planned in relation to any current events.
Syria and Lebanon are reportedly on high alert, nonetheless. Army Radio reported that while the practice exercizes are being held, Hizbullah terrorists and Syria will be deployed and readied for an all-out confrontation - something Syria is claiming is a result of the fear that Israel will ...   more »

by Hana Levi Julian
(IsraelNN.com) The Tourism Ministry will invest NIS 90 million (US $25 million) in tourism projects around the capital, announced Director General Sha'ul Tzemach on Monday.
“The Ministry of Tourism will continue to work to provide an answer for the shortage of hotel rooms in sought-after tourism and commercial areas,” he said.
The ministry’s Investments Committee approved funding for 11 projects, including support for construction of new hotel rooms. Money also will be earmarked for hotels in Ashdod and in the Galilee. 
While the Tourism Ministry is working on beefing up facilities to accommodate the flood of tourists visiting the capital, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has quietly been working on ways to reduce the bottom line. 
Livni’s Bottom Line - 'Red Lines' for Jerusalem
In her recent talks with Palestinian Authority negotiators, Livni has reportedly drawn the line only at three major points. The status of Jerusalem itself has not been discussed definitely.
The discussions are apparently focusing on the issue of retaining control over holy sites, maintaining security and refusing to allow immigration to Jerusalem by Arabs who fled during the 1948 War and millions of other foreign Arabs who claim to be their descendants under ...   more »

While politicians draw up plans to divide Israel’s capital city, archaeologists are busily digging up Jerusalem’s celebrated past. By Stephen Flurry  
Given the media exposure Jerusalem archaeology is beginning to receive, it is possible that this city’s past could spark more than just archaeological fervor.
In the Arab village of Silwan, archaeologists are hard at work excavating the original Jerusalem—the City of David. An Associated Press story on February 10 outlined how Silwan is “hard-wired into the politics of modern-day Arab-Israeli strife” and that new digs are cutting to the heart of who owns the Holy City today. “Palestinians and Israelis are trying again to negotiate a peace deal, one which must include an agreement to share Jerusalem,” the report said. “The collision in this neighborhood—between Silwan and the City of David—encapsulates the complexities ahead.”
AP explained that in recent years, the Elad Foundation, an organization associated with the religious settlement movement, has funded archaeological digs in the City of David, which is just outside the walled Old City. The area has expanded to become one of Jerusalem’s most popular tourist attractions, drawing 350,000 visitors a year, most of them Israelis. The archaeological park hosts numerous ongoing excavations both ...   more »