Israel's air strike inside Syria last month was directed at a site judged by Israeli and U.S. intelligence analysts to be a partly constructed nuclear reactor, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions.
Citing U.S. and foreign officials who had access to the analysts' intelligence reports, all who spoke under condition of anonymity, the Times said the reactor was apparently modeled on one in North Korea used for stockpiling nuclear weapons fuel.
The targeted Syrian facility appeared to have been much further from completion than an Iraqi reactor the Israelis destroyed in 1981 in an attack the September 6 incident echoed, according to the Times, again citing U.S. and foreign officials. It also said Bush administration officials had been divided over the attack, with some seeing it as premature.
Some officials said the facility was years away from being used to produce spent nuclear fuel that could eventually be used for weapons-grade plutonium. The internal Bush administration debate over a possible Israeli attack on the reactor began last summer, the Times said.
It remained unclear how far Syria had gotten with the plant before the attack, what role North Korea might have played and whether a case could be ...   more »

GII picks up two small earthquakes in Jordan rift valley area over past few days. Study shows major quake is pending
Roee Nahmias
A 3.0 magnitude earthquake struck the Jordan rift valley area. The Geophysical Institute of Israel noted the seismic activity around 6pm Saturday. The Jordan rift valley is in close proximity to the volatile Syrian-African Rift.
Rami Hofstetter, head of the Geophysical Institute of Israel told Ynet that "our instruments picked up two small quakes in the area over the last few days – the first one registering at 2.9 and the second of a 2.5 magnitude."      
Shmuel Marko of the Department of Environmental Sciences and Geophysics in Tel Aviv University and Oded Katz of the GII, have recently published a new study, saying a major earthquake is heading Israel's way.  
Past data, said the two, proves that such a quake is just a matter of time. "We know that the area between the Kinneret and the Dead Sea was subject to several large quakes, in 31BC, 362BC, 749BC and 1033AD. Another major one is coming soon."   
Hofstetter seemed unfazed by Marko and Katz's study. "Saying Israel will be subject to a major earthquake is ...   more »

Says she'll push Israel to divide capital, blame Olmert if he doesn't comply
By Aaron Klein
Condoleezza Rice
JERUSALEM – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in the region to prepare for an Israeli-Palestinian summit next month, told Palestinian officials yesterday she would pressure Israel against initiating any Jewish construction in eastern sections of Jerusalem, a senior Palestinian negotiator involved in talks with Rice told WND.
The Palestinian negotiator stated Rice singled out Jerusalem areas as becoming part of a future Palestinian state and told his negotiating team she would publicly blame Israel for the failure of next month's U.S.-sponsored summit slated to be held in Maryland if the Jewish state didn't agree to evacuate eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods.
The information follows a flurry of media reports last week Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was contemplating handing over sections of Jerusalem to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization.
Vice Premier Haim Ramon, a member of Olmert's ruling Kadima party, last week reportedly mapped out a future partition of Jerusalem under a deal with the Palestinians. Ramon was quoted by the popular Ynet Israeli website as writing in a letter to Jerusalem City Councilman Nir Barkat that under his plan, "The Jewish neighborhoods ...   more »

By Amira Hass
The state has recently agreed to grant West Bank resident status to some 5,000 people who seek family reunification with their Palestinian families, sources in the defense establishment told Haaretz.
The sources explained that the recipients had asked to be recognized as West Bank residents in the past. The decision to approve their request was part of a goodwill gesture toward the Palestinian Authority under Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the sources said.
Palestinian officials said Wednesday that Israel had granted official residency status to 3,500 Palestinians who in the last decade entered the West Bank on Israeli-issued visitors' visas but never left.
However, the approval is a one-off incident and does not represent a renewal of the family-reunification mechanism Israel halted in 2001, following the outbreak of the second intifada.
The Oslo Accords stipulated that Israel will grant resident status to 2,000 families every year as part of family reunification. In 2000, the Israeli government agreed to increase the number to 4,000 requests per year, before pulling the plug on the project one year later.
Human rights groups HaMoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual and B'Tselem told Haaretz that 120,000 first-degree relatives have sent requests to ...   more »

By Joshua Mitnick - JERUSALEM — The Bush administration hopes to get as close as possible to establishing a Palestinian state during its remaining months in office, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday at the start of a five-day Middle East shuttle mission.
Speaking to reporters en route to Israel, Miss Rice acknowledged "a lot of work" will be necessary before Palestinian statehood, but she promised a 100 percent effort and suggested that the chance for a peace deal has never been better.
"You've got the broadest possible Israeli agreement that a Palestinian state is in Israel's interest. I don't think we've ever been there before," she said. "And on that basis, you know, we have an opportunity to try to move this as far forward as we possibly can."
The secretary is trying to help Israelis and Palestinians negotiate a joint statement for a conference next month in Annapolis that is meant to prepare a framework for future negotiations toward a final peace treaty.
Administration officials have sought to dampen expectations about the talks after widespread speculation that the Israeli-Palestinian document will contain landmark compromises on the core issues — the status of Jerusalem, the future of Jewish ...   more »

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday raised questions about Israel's control of Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, the first time he has openly signaled readiness to share control of the city with the Palestinians.
In a speech dedicated to the memory of Rehavam Ze'evi, a prominent right-wing parliamentarian who was murdered by Palestinian terrorists, Olmert noted that Israel has built a series of thriving Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, but signaled that Israel's control of Arab areas was unnecessary.
"Was it necessary to also join the Shuafat refugee camp, Sawakra, Walaje and other villages and define them as part of Jerusalem?" he asked. "With that, I must confess it is possible to ask legitimate questions."
Original Source
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By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent    
Fearing possible developments in Israel's talks with the Palestinians over control in Jerusalem, ultra-Orthodox leaders have urged the Haredi public to stage a mass protest Thursday against dividing the capital.
The gathering is scheduled to take place at the Old City's Ramban Synagogue. It is being organized by the Chief Rabbi of the Old City, Rabbi Avigdor Nebenzahl, and Rabbi Eliyahu Medina.
The leader of the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community in Israel, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, joined the call for protest under the slogan "Over Jerusalem they cast lots," urging the public to rally at a demonstration against the government's diplomatic platform.  
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government is currently negotiating with the PA over final-status issues ahead of a peace conference scheduled for late November in the United States. Vice Premier Haim Ramon recently announced a plan to transfer the city's Arab neighborhoods to Palestinian control, effectively partitioning the capital.
On the eve of Sukkot earlier this month, just before his death, former chief rabbi Avraham Shapira protested the plan to transfer Jewish holy places to foreign control.
"The Land of Israel belongs to the Nation of Israel and was granted to us as ...   more »

RAMALLAH, West Bank -
Secretary of State Condoleezza said Monday it was "time for the establishment of a Palestinian state," and described Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts as the most serious in years.
An international peace conference expected to take place in Annapolis, Md., in November has to be substantive, Rice said at a news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
"We frankly have better things to do than invite people to Annapolis for a photo op," she said.
Israelis and Palestinians, Rice added, are making their "most serious effort" in years to resolve the conflict.
"Frankly, it's time for the establishment of a Palestinian state," she added.
Rice is on a four-day shuttle mission, trying to create some common ground ahead of the meeting. A State Department official hinted on Sunday that the conference might be postponed because of the gaps between the two sides.
The Israelis and Palestinians are trying to work out an outline for a final peace deal ahead of the Annapolis conference, but tensions arose on Sunday when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet that he did not regard that outline as a prerequisite for the meeting to take place.
The Palestinians said that without ...   more »

by Gary North  
The Christian Right gets more than its share of blame, usually by TV talking heads who are even more to blame. The obvious example is the commitment of the Christian Right to Bush's war in Iraq. These Establishment-based critics were in positions of influence to challenge Bush's war in 2003, yet they were on board with great fervency. So were liberal Democrats in Congress, who licked their index fingers, stuck them into the wind, and voted for the war.
The Christian Right does not control America's media. It does not control positions of leadership inside the Washington Beltway. Its leaders do not get invited to become members of the Council on Foreign Relations or the Trilateral Commission. It listens to Rush Limbaugh, who is not a Christian.
Responsibility accompanies power. Critics say that the Christian Right is responsible for . . . exactly what? It is all a bit vague. To answer this question, the critics must first identify the institutional basis of the Christian Right's supposed power. It must come to grips with this inescapable relationship: "No power = no responsibility."
What is the institutional basis of the political power that is supposedly possessed by the ...   more »

Man celebrates holiday with sorceress in noose, pagan worshipper likens it to lynching blacks
In the state made famous for persecuting witches in the late 17th century, a modern day sorceress in Massachusetts is burning mad about a neighbor's Halloween decoration depicting a witch hanging from a noose, calling it a hate crime against her religion.
Witch hanging from noose as part of Halloween decoration in Chicopee, Mass. (courtesy WSHM-TV)
"I want to seem him take it down," said Kelly Lynch of Chicopee, Mass. "Look at what's going on in Louisiana. That would be the same thing. If a black family had ... crosses outside of their house or nooses hanging from their trees, it's basically the same thing."
The witch is hanging from wooden gallows in front of a home on East Street, but Lynch finds the decor offensive.  
She told WSHM-TV she's been studying witchcraft since she was a child, and says it's her way of life.
"We're not casting spells against people, we're just worshipping the moon, the goddess, the Earth," she said. "Just like the Christians, Muslims, people have their own religion."
Kelly Lynch, a witch from Chicopee, Mass., calls the witch hanging from a ...   more »

By MIKE KELLY
PETER MONSEES / THE RECORD
Scott Nawrocki, who directs the task force’s special response squad, said it’s dangerous for counterterror agents to assume that future terrorists will try to duplicate the 9/11 attacks.  
Osama bin Laden may be hiding in the impenetrable mountains near the Afghanistan border, but FBI counterterror officials say they have identified several of his associates in a far more accessible spot -- northern New Jersey.
The FBI's elite Joint Terrorism Task Force in Newark says it is not only monitoring a number of North Jersey residents with ties to al-Qaida, but that agents have quietly "disrupted" their activities and even deported a few.
These glimpses into North Jersey's war on terrorism, from a series of interviews with task force leaders, come on the heels of revelations last summer that Bin Laden's terror network had regained strength. But that rebuilding was thought to have taken place overseas.
This is the first time since the 9/11 attacks that FBI counterterror officials have revealed an al-Qaida presence in North Jersey.
"There are definitely facilitators in this state," said Kevin Cruise, the veteran FBI counterterror agent who directs Newark's 100-member terrorism task force of FBI and ...   more »

Call your senators (202-224-3121) and ask each of them for their position on the Convention on the Law of the Sea. Ten-to-one says that a young, well- tutored voice will say something like: "We don't have a statement on that," or "the senator has not taken a position yet," or "the senator is still studying the issues."
What happened to: "He opposes it," or "he supports it"?
This Convention on the Law of the Sea has been kicking around since Ronald Reagan kicked it out of his administration. Bill Clinton had the treaty reworked, and asked the Senate to ratify it. The Republican Senate refused. George Bush asked the Senate to ratify it during his first term; the Senate refused. Now, the administration is again pushing for ratification. Any senator who has not yet decided whether to support or oppose this treaty should not be in Washington.
Senators refuse to take a public position as long as possible because every controversial decision makes at least as many enemies as friends. The mealy-mouth, wishy-washy, don't-take-a-position answer is a sure symptom of spinal-vacuous disorder – and Washington is awash in this disease.
The Convention on the Law of the Sea, also known ...   more »

Grim novel concludes that Jewish people have no future without State of Israel
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad didn't read the book entitled "The Yiddish Policeman's Union", a 400-page book authored by Michael Chabon, the most original and captivating author among the middle generation of Jewish American authors.  
"The Yiddish Policeman's Union" was published in the US in the spring of this year and immediately became a hit, not just among the Jewish community. This is a dark, depressing book that is difficult to read; it chokes the reader.  
Here is its essence: In 1940 – and this is the only historic fact in the book – American Interior Secretary Harold Ickes proposes that European Jews living under Nazi occupation be allowed to temporarily settle in Alaska. His proposal is brought to Congress and is rejected. However let's imagine, Chabon fantasizes, that Congress actually approved the proposal. Let's imagine that the gates of Alaska (or to be more precise, an island off the Alaska coast in a town called Sitka) opened up to two million Jewish refugees who arrived there during the war.  
And what happens next? From this point on nothing good happens to the Jews. In ...   more »

Dangerous staph infections are on the rise at schools across the nation, officials report.
Several students have been hospitalized.
Schools say the outbreaks of staph infections are occurring mostely among athletes, and the germs include an antibiotic-resistant strain that is sometimes associated with serious skin problems and blood disorders.
The infections have forced districts to call off classes, cancel sporting events and disinfect entire buildings.
Many of the infections are being spread in gyms and locker rooms, where athletes — perhaps suffering from cuts or abrasions — share sports equipment.
In Virginia, a Newport News high school closed its weight room Thursday to be disinfected after at least four students were infected — one with the drug-resistant strain. The drug-resistant patient, a football player, was hospitalized for three days.
On Friday, the high school in Galax, Va., postponed a football game because of an infection on its football team. School officials said they could not clean the equipment in time for the kickoff.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta does not track staph infections but confirmed that the cases seem to be more widespread than in the past.
"Most of these are mild infections," agency spokeswoman Nicole ...   more »

Schwarzenegger signs law outlawing terms perceived as negative to 'gays'
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
"Mom and Dad" as well as "husband and wife" have been banned from California schools under a bill signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who with his signature also ordered public schools to allow boys to use girls restrooms and locker rooms, and vice versa, if they choose.
"We are shocked and appalled that the governor has blatantly attacked traditional family values in California," said Karen England, executive director of Capitol Resource Institute.
"With this decision, Gov. Schwarzenegger has told parents that their values are irrelevant. Many parents will have no choice but to pull their children out of the public schools that have now become sexualized indoctrination centers."
"Arnold Schwarzenegger has delivered young children into the hands of those who will introduce them to alternative sexual lifestyles," said Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, which worked to defeat the plans. "This means children as young as five years old will be mentally molested in school classrooms.
"Shame on Schwarzenegger and the Democrat politicians for ensuring that every California school becomes a homosexual-bisexual-transsexual indoctrination center," he said.
(Story continues below)
Analysts have warned that schools ...   more »

By Cal Thomas 
Whatever else his critics say of him, no one can fault President Bush for failing to go the extra mile in his efforts to show that neither he nor the United States is opposed to the Islamic faith, or to Muslim nations.  
Last week, the president and first lady hosted their seventh Iftaar Dinner, the celebration that breaks the Muslim fast during Ramadan. Immediately after 9-11, the president visited a Washington mosque and proclaimed Islam a "religion of peace." He has frequently said that terrorists are not real Muslims, any more than people who proclaim to be Christian and engage in violence are genuine Christians. 
The president is the most openly evangelical Christian and faithful churchgoer since Jimmy Carter. And the evangelical community has mostly embraced him and twice voted for him in overwhelming numbers. But that constituency is likely to be troubled about something the president said in an interview with Al Arabiya television. 
In an official transcript released by the White House, the president said: "I believe in an almighty God, and I believe that all the world, whether they be Muslim, Christian, or any other religion, prays to the same God." Later in ...   more »

nathan burstein ,
It's a list of "the world's most powerful people," 100 of the bankers and media moguls, publishers and image makers who shape the lives of billions. It's an exclusive, insular club, one whose influence stretches around the globe but is concentrated strategically in the highest corridors of power.
More than half its members, at least by one count, are Jewish.
It's a list, in other words, that would have made earlier generations of Jews jump out of their skins, calling attention, as it does, to their disproportionate influence in finance and the media. Making matters worse, in the eyes of many, would no doubt be the identity of the group behind the list - not a pack of fringe anti-Semites but one of the most mainstream, glamorous publications on the newsstands.
Yet the list doesn't appear to have generated concern so far, instead drawing expressions of satisfaction and pride from the lone Jewish commentator who's responded in writing.
Published between ads for Chanel and Prada, Dior and Yves Saint Laurent, it's the 2007 version of "The Vanity Fair 100," the glossy American magazine's annual October ranking of the planet's most important people. Populated by a Cohen and ...   more »

Secret MI6 files reveal, for 1st time, leader's agonizing deception of Nazis
LONDON – With Nazi "flying bombs" raining down on the nation's capital and largest population center, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a fateful and agonizing decision to use a double agent to redirect the missiles toward the Jewish sector of the city, secret MI6 files reveal for the first time.
The exclusive report is detailed in the latest issue of Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
On June 14, 1944, Churchill gathered his top military advisers, including John Cecil Masterman, who ran the double-agents – spies recruited by the Nazis and sent to England only to be "turned" by the intelligence service to work for Britain.
Among the most daring recruits was Eddie Chapman, a Londoner who before the war had led a devil-may-care life as a safe cracker. He had fled to Jersey to avoid arrest for his latest crime – only to arrive there at the time the Germans invaded the island.
On that June night, the Air Ministry analysts had calculated the flying bombs, or doodlebugs, as they would be called, would continue to be aimed at Central London – at the Air Ministry headquarters in ...   more »