Lisa Alcalay Klug
As afternoon arrives in Jerusalem, the sun gently infuses the city walls with their legendary golden color. Among a group of 40 English speakers on a lookout platform in the ancient City of David, it suddenly became clear to me that this is exactly where Jerusalem began and the Bible comes alive. True to the biblical verse harim saviv la, hills surround the holy city. The Mount of Olives stands to the east. The Armon Hanatsiv ridge lies to the south. To the west is Mount Zion and to the north, the Temple Mount.
According to tradition, this is Mount Moriah, where Abraham was told to sacrifice Isaac and where all blessing flows from heaven.
The city’s history begins around 1000 BCE, when King David captured the Jebusite city south of the Temple Mount, established his capital and relocated the Ark of the Covenant. Over the next 500 years, Jerusalem expanded despite many political and religious upheavals until the Babylonians conquered the city and destroyed the First Temple in 586 BCE.
There was plenty more to explore on our three-hour tour, so we quickly descended toward Warren’s shaft, an underground tunnel hewn long before David’s arrival. In ...   more »

Yehoshua Halevi
While Jerusalem is in the midst of a year-long celebration marking the 40th anniversary of reunification, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert acknowledged recently that his government was prepared to divide the city as part of a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
The difficulties presented by this issue are highly complex and emotional and there has yet to be published any official government plan detailing just how such a division would occur.
Conventional thought holds that the city would be divided roughly between east and west, between Arab and Jewish neighborhoods. But that won't be so simple in modern Jerusalem, a city of 750,000 residents, where neighborhoods often intertwine. And then there is the question of the old city, where suggestions range from giving the area international status to granting security control to the Palestinian Authority.
Even where such physical division of Jerusalem might be practical, the idea raises the specter of pre-1967 Jerusalem, when Jewish neighborhoods were regularly targeted by cross-border sniper fire. Indeed one doesn't have to go back to 1967, but only to 2002, when terrorists fired repeatedly at homes in Gilo from nearby Beit Jalla. Or to this week, as rocket fire continues unabated from Gaza. ...   more »

State sources say Olmert orders top cabinet officials to draft proposals for dealing with potential nuclear Iran. Minister Ayalon: 'We must prepare for scenario where all alternatives fail'
Israel is quietly preparing for the possibility of a nuclear-armed Iran despite public pledges to deny its arch-foe the means to pose an "existential threat", political and defense sources said on Thursday.
Diplomatic Efforts 
They said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has instructed cabinet officials to draft proposals on how Israel, which according to foreign media reports retains the only atomic arsenal in the Middle East, might deal with losing that monopoly.  
Israel predicts that Iran's nuclear program could produce warheads by 2009. Western intelligence services say it may take several more years.  
Olmert has endorsed US-led efforts to curb Iran's atomic ambitions through sanctions. He has also hinted that Israel, which bombed Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981 and is believed to have carried out a similar raid against Syria in September, could hit Iran too if it deems diplomatic pressure a dead end.
But two senior Israeli sources with knowledge of the Olmert government's defense planning said a memorandum was being prepared for "the day after", in case Iran attains ...   more »

By Sarah Shapiro    
What have we done?
This morning marked the first weekday in three decades that I wasn't confronted by beggars when approaching the Western Wall. After a long history of complaints from tourists and residents, a front-page article in the Friday (November 9) Jerusalem Post reported, "Praying, Yes — but Begging, No," — beggars have at last been banned from Judaism's holiest site. So their absence today didn't come as a complete surprise.
But it felt a little odd, even vaguely disorienting, to descend from the bus, make my way across the Western Wall Plaza, then turn right onto the walkway down toward the Wall — all without being accosted by those supplicant eyes and outstretched hands. Gone were Malka and Tzipora, Shoshana and Ilana, and all the others, whose names I never knew. Apparently, somewhere along the line, I'd gotten used to them. The persistent annoyance of their presence had become an integral feature of my Western Wall experience, perhaps as much as the huge, eternal stones themselves.
And annoyance it often was. Except for violence and outright acts of aggression (which in 30 years I myself never witnessed; perhaps behavior of that sort occurred over ...   more »

By Jeff Jacoby  
In advance of the upcoming diplomatic conference in Annapolis, Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced the other day that he expects the Palestinian Authority to finally acknowledge Israel's existence as a Jewish state. A newly arrived visitor from Mars might wonder why this should even be an issue — after all, Israel is a Jewish state. If the more than 55 countries that make up the Organization of the Islamic Conference are entitled to recognition as Muslim states, and if the 22 members of the Arab League are universally accepted as Arab states, why should anyone balk at acknowledging Israel as the world's lone Jewish state?
Yet Olmert's demand was rebuffed. Saeb Erekat, the senior Palestinian Authority negotiator, said on Monday that Palestinians would refuse to recognize Israel's Jewish identity on the grounds that "it is not acceptable for a country to link its national character to a specific religion."
In fact, there are many countries in which national identity and religion are linked. Argentinian law mandates government support for the Roman Catholic faith. Queen Elizabeth II is the supreme governor of the Church of England. In the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, the constitution proclaims Buddhism the ...   more »

JERUSALEM (AFP) - The Israeli army said on Tuesday it is to launch a major military exercise across the occupied West Bank simulating its response to an outbreak of Palestinian violence.
"The army will undertake a current exercise on November 18 to prepare it to better face all eventualities," an army spokesman told AFP.
The manouevres will take place shortly before an expected US-sponsored international peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, but according to Israel's Haaretz newspaper the exercises had been planned back in July.
"The exercise is not an official preparation in case talks at Annapolis fail, though senior IDF (army) officers have been predicting for weeks that the conference has little chance of succeeding," Haaretz said.
The drills will simulate a scenario whereby Palestinian militants carry out a wave of attacks across the West Bank amid widespread demonstrations and heightened tensions in the Gaza Strip and along the Syrian border.
Haaretz cautioned however that such war games are often deliberately exaggerated and do not reflect what the military brass actually expects will happen on the ground. 
Israel and the Palestinians have been locked in intense negotiations over the past few weeks in an attempt to prepare a joint declaration ...   more »

By Shahar Ilan,
tags: Jerusalem, Israel  
The Knesset plenum passed in a preliminary vote Wednesday a bill that would make it far more difficult to divide Jerusalem in the context of a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
54 MKs voted in favor of the bill, with 24 against. The Knesset holds preliminary votes on private bills, presented by individual MKs. Before being enacted into law, however, the bill must still be approved in committee and then pass three more plenum votes.
The bill, which was authored by Likud faction whip Gideon Sa'ar and 25 other rightist and religious MKs, would require the support of 80 MKs for any changes to the Basic Law: Jerusalem.  
An absolute majority of 61 MKs is currently needed to change the basic law, and raising the bar to 80 MKs would make it nearly impossible to gain Knesset approval for concessions on Jerusalem.
The timing of the bill is also significant, and is designed to warn the government that it cannot make concessions on the capital a few weeks before the U.S.-sponsored Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland.
The coalition apparently does not intend to try to scuttle the bill at this time, ...   more »

By Deborah Charles
A picturesque waterfront city, once the capital of the United States, has a chance of making Middle East history this month when Israelis and Palestinians meet to talk peace.
"We wonder 'Why here?"' said a Main Street shop employee in Annapolis, a city of 36,000 people best known as home to the 162-year-old U.S. Naval Academy. "I think it's security -- they can lock the gates at the academy."
All over town, people said they were bracing for the tight security likely to accompany Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the U.S.-brokered meeting in the city.
"It's going to close everything up," said the employee of the upscale boutique, who asked not to be identified, as she contemplated the potential damage to the start of the Christmas shopping season. "This is our best season of the year and they're going to take it away from us."
"Parking is always hard and it will get even worse," said a woman who wanted to be identified only as Patty. As she stood in her antiques and housewares shop on brick-lined Main Street, she said business already seemed unusually slow this year in the historic ...   more »

Hilary Leila Krieger ,
A former Bush administration stalwart who has become a vocal critic told The Jerusalem Post this week that the planned meeting in Annapolis later this month to push for Israeli-Palestinian peace is "a mistake."
John Bolton, a leading neoconservative who served as the US ambassador to the UN before leaving the administration last winter, spoke to the Post following a lecture Tuesday night on his new book, which takes issue with aspects of American policy toward Iran, North Korea and Lebanon, among others.
"It's a mistake to push ahead with the Annapolis peace conference in November or December," he said, noting that the date hasn't been finalized.
"I just don't see this as the moment to make progress on Israeli-Palestinian matters. And I don't think that a failed conference will simply leave us at the status quo. I think it will set us back, so I think the effort is perhaps well-intentioned but misconceived."
In his talk he referred to an Israeli government with "internal political difficulties" and a Palestinian Authority that's "broken perhaps beyond repair," so any attempt at an "unnatural" reconciliation could leave US influence diminished.
Bolton, who spoke to an audience at the ...   more »

By Will Dunham,Reuters
WASHINGTON (Nov. 15) - A new and virulent strain of adenovirus, which frequently causes the common cold, has spread in parts of the United States, killing 10 people and putting dozens into hospitals, U.S. health officials said on Thursday.
A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report detailed cases of people ill since May 2006 with a strain of the virus called adenovirus 14 in New York, Oregon, Washington state and Texas.
"Whether you're a healthy young adult, an infant or an elderly person, this virus can cause severe respiratory disease at any age," said John Su, who investigates infectious diseases for the CDC and contributed to the report.
Two of the 10 people who have died from the new strain were infants, Su said. The CDC report said about 140 people have been sickened by the virus and more than 50 hospitalized, including 24 admitted to intensive care units.
Adenoviruses frequently cause acute upper respiratory tract infections like the common cold, but also can cause other illnesses including inflammation of the stomach and intestines, pink eye, bladder infection and rashes.
Colds caused by adenoviruses can be very severe in the very young and the very ...   more »

Used condoms are being recycled into hair bands in southern China, threatening to spread sexually-transmittable diseases they were originally meant to prevent, state media reported Tuesday.
In the latest example of potentially harmful Chinese-made products, rubber hair bands have been found in local markets and beauty salons in Dongguan and Guangzhou cities in southern Guangdong province, China Daily newspaper said.
"These cheap and colourful rubber bands and hair ties sell well ... threatening the health of local people," it said.
Despite being recycled, the hair bands could still contain bacteria and viruses, it said.
"People could be infected with AIDS, (genital) warts or other diseases if they hold the rubber bands or strings in their mouths while waving their hair into plaits or buns," the paper quoted a local dermatologist who gave only his surname, Dong, as saying.
A bag of ten of the recycled bands sells for just 25 fen (three cents), much cheaper than others on the market, accounting for their popularity, the paper said.
A government official was quoted as saying recycling condoms was illegal.
China's manufacturing industry has been repeatedly tarnished this year by a string of scandals involving shoddy or dangerous goods made for both ...   more »

For every removal of public prayer or a Ten Commandments display it is easy to despair in the face of what appears "inevitable" – to chalk it up as yet another "unavoidable" win for the secularists and ACLU-types. These atheistic organizations have systematically eliminated one public acknowledgment of God after another, even convincing federal courts and various government agencies to participate in their agenda.
The religious shield of the First Amendment has been hammered into a sword of religious oppression for decades. Some have even come to expect them to get their way. But as several recent news stories suggest, the tide may be turning back in favor of religious freedom after all. We have seen that the ACLU & Co. do not always win.
Just two weeks ago, a federal appeals court reversed a ban on prayers offered in the name of Jesus at the Indiana House of Representatives. The ACLU had again persuaded the lower court that such prayers were unconstitutional, but the higher court dismissed the case, stating that the ACLU's clients did not even have legal standing to bring the suit. Instead of just giving up, as so many have done in the past, the Indiana ...   more »

Santas in Australia's largest city have been told not to use Father Christmas's traditional "ho ho ho" greeting because it may be offensive to women, it was reported Thursday.
Sydney's Santa Clauses have instead been instructed to say "ha ha ha" instead, the Daily Telegraph reported.
One disgruntled Santa told the newspaper a recruitment firm warned him not to use "ho ho ho" because it could frighten children and was too close to "ho", a US slang term for prostitute.
"Gimme a break," said Julie Gale, who runs the campaign against sexualising children called Kids Free 2B Kids.
"We are talking about little kids who do not understand that "ho, ho, ho" has any other connotation and nor should they," she told the Telegraph.
"Leave Santa alone."
A local spokesman for the US-based Westaff recruitment firm said it was "misleading" to say the company had banned Santa's traditional greeting and it was being left up to the discretion of the individual Santa himself.
Original Source

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Hamas: Hillary ticket to Palestinian victory
Top terror group adviser: Clinton would end 'unlimited military, political support' for Israel
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., speaking during recent Democratic presidential candidate debate in Philadelphia
Hamas believes Sen. Hillary Clinton, if elected president in 2008, will end President Bush's "unlimited military and diplomatic support for Israel" and adapt a more "evenhanded" approach toward the Palestinians, says the group's top political adviser.
Speaking yesterday with WND Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein, Ahmed Yousuf, the top aide to Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader in Gaza and deposed prime minister of the Hamas-led Palestinian government, said in recorded comments the group heard from "many Americans" that if the Democrats take the White House next year they will implement "drastic changes" to U.S. foreign policy and relations with the Palestinians.
"I do believe Miss Clinton will have a more balanced policy when it comes to how to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict," Yousuf told Klein. "And I don't think she is going to give to the Israelis this unlimited military and diplomatic support that they are actually enjoying now; so … the future politics in the region will [see] a very drastic change when it comes to how ...   more »

The) foreign policy advisers he has signed up make the Vulcans of Bush look like Howard Zinn and Ramsey Clark."
That's conservative commentator and former Republican presidential contender Pat Buchanan talking about the team that is telling current Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani how to think about international affairs in general and the war on terror in particular.
And here's the interesting part: Buchanan is suggesting that historian Zinn and former Attorney General Clark, as much men of the left as the former adviser to Presidents Nixon and Reagan is a man of the right, are a good deal more rational in their world views than the people advising Giuliani.
The neoconservative "Vulcans" -- as the circle around Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice refer to themselves -- got Bush and the U.S. into the military misadventure that is Iraq. Now, an even more dangerous crew of Giuliani advisers looks to war with Iran.
Buchanan notes that the "team leader" of the group counseling the former mayor of New York on how to deal with global threats is Charles Hill, who the conservative columnist recalls is "a co-signer of the Sept. 20, 2001, neocon ultimatum to Bush, ...   more »

Statute allows people to 'choose a gender'
By Bob Unruh
The Montgomery County Council, left to right, bottom row: George L. Leventhal, Marilyn J. Praisner (president), Phil Andrews. Top row: Marc Elrich, Valerie Ervin, Roger Berliner, Duchy Trachtenberg, Nancy Floreen, and Mike Knapp (vice president)
Coed locker rooms could be a reality now that a new statute to allow people to "choose a gender" has been approved in Maryland.
But the measure, given the green light by elected officials in Montgomery County will soon be the subject of a court challenge, according to a spokesman for a non-profit public interest law firm.
"The definition for 'gender identity' is so vague that no individual of ordinary intelligence can possibly know when they are violating Chapter 27," Robert Tyler, general counsel for the Advocates for Faith & Freedom, told county officials in a letter.
"Pursuant to the definition of 'gender identity,' an individual can choose a gender without limitation whatsoever," he said.
Tyler's comments referred to the newly approved county law 27-03, which creates a protected class of citizenry for those individuals who claim a "gender identity" issue.
As WND reported, the proposal generated a groundswell of opposition when it became known. ...   more »