By Elitsa Vucheva
UK foreign secretary David Miliband called for a strengthening of the EU's military capacities during his first major speech on EU policy on Thursday (15 November) - an idea that has also been recently raised by France.
"It's frankly embarrassing that when European nations - with almost two million men and women under arms - are only able, at a stretch, to deploy around 100,000 at any one time", Mr Miliband said during a speech at the College of Europe in the Belgian city of Bruges on Thursday.
"European countries have around 1,200 transport helicopters, yet only 35 are deployed in Afghanistan. And EU member states haven't provided any helicopters in Darfur despite the desperate need there", he went on.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy has also called for more efforts to build an independent European defence capability as well as to modernise NATO, while French defence minister Herve Morin told German newspaper FAZ earlier this week that Paris would put defence high on its EU presidency agenda during the second half of 2008.
So far France and the UK have been the main EU member states to touch upon the EU defence issue, but while their positions ...   more »

City program depends on parental consent
By Maria Cramer,
Boston police are launching a program that will call upon parents in high-crime neighborhoods to allow detectives into their homes, without a warrant, to search for guns in their children's bedrooms.
The program, which is already raising questions about civil liberties, is based on the premise that parents are so fearful of gun violence and the possibility that their own teenagers will be caught up in it that they will turn to police for help, even in their own households.
In the next two weeks, Boston police officers who are assigned to schools will begin going to homes where they believe teenagers might have guns. The officers will travel in groups of three, dress in plainclothes to avoid attracting negative attention, and ask the teenager's parent or legal guardian for permission to search. If the parents say no, police said, the officers will leave.
If officers find a gun, police said, they will not charge the teenager with unlawful gun possession, unless the firearm is linked to a shooting or homicide.
The program was unveiled yesterday by Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis in a meeting with several community leaders.
"I just ...   more »

1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, 3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. 4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. 5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex  them in his sore displeasure. 6 Yet have I set  my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
   more »

 She still believes she can pull it off
 In an communique released to the media Sunday, Nov. 18, the US President and Secretary of State announced they would host a Middle East conference with the support of prime minister of Israel Ehud Olmert and President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas later this fall. There was no mention of invitations or when they would be sent out. The date and the time of the meeting will be announced subsequently. Therefore, the state department would like the accreditation process to begin. When the date is finalized, arrangements for collecting accreditation will be announced. A senior US official told DEBKAfile Sunday night that, even if the meeting does take place - on Tues. Nov. 27 as presumed in the Middle East - it will be no better than a “Potiomkin village-type” façade behind which a sham peace conference performs.
Our Washington sources report that in recent conversations, Rice confessed to overrating the chances of bringing the Israelis and Palestinians together on joint statements and that, at best, they would agree to carry on talking.
The Secretary had no solution for the Gaza situation and the Hamas takeover of government there. The administration ...   more »

Olmert, Abbas to meet in Jerusalem in last-minute attempt to bridge differences as negotiations for joint statement remain deadlocked. Government stands to authorize release of 500 Palestinian prisoners as goodwill gesture to Abbas before conference
Roni Sofer
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet in Jerusalem on Monday for an eleventh-hour push in negotiations ahead of the steadily approaching US-led conference in Annapolis, Maryland. 
Empty vision is back / Uri Orbach  
Despite leftist claims, pursuit of two-state solution only led to death, suffering     
The meeting will take place after an Israeli cabinet meeting during which Olmert is expected to lead a discussion on Israel's obligation to freeze the expansion of settlement blocs in the West Bank and dismantle illegal outposts.  
The cabinet will not hold a vote on the implementation of the measures on Monday but only reiterate the government's commitment to them.  
Olmert is scheduled to meet with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband earlier in the day.  
The meeting follows a stalemate in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The talks, intended to iron out various differences on key issues ahead of the summit, failed to produce the much ...   more »

Calev Ben-David ,
There's an old medical joke, in which a doctor emerges from the operating room to announce: "The operation was a success, but the patient died."
Sometimes, though, it's the operation that fails, but the patient still pulls through.
Increasingly, as next week's scheduled Annapolis meeting looms ever closer, it looks like the operation isn't looking very hopeful - if one can stretch the metaphor to view the US-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian meeting as a diplomatic medical procedure to revive a moribund peace process.
The good news though, at least for those who view ongoing, substantive negotiations between Jerusalem and Ramallah as essential to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is that the patient is already showing new signs of life. Some promising concrete steps are starting to take, some serious issues are being raised, and the prognosis is at least more encouraging than it was a few months ago.
To start with, nothing is going to move forward, especially in the road map framework, unless the Palestinian Authority gets serious about controlling the terrorists in its own camp. There are now signs that the training and deployment of new PA security forces being carried out in the framework of the Dayton ...   more »

Sheera Claire Frenkel ,
Responding to the furor over her comments Sunday morning that Israeli Arabs would have a place in a future Palestinian state, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni clarified that "wherever Israeli Arabs choose to live, they will get full rights, whether it is here or in a Palestinian state."
Earlier, Arab Knesset members accused Livni of trying to undermine the rights of Arabs, following an incident in which she said the establishment of a Palestinian state would be a solution for all Palestinians, whether in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank or Israel.
"Livni is looking for ways to continue to undermine Arabs living in this land and relegate them to 'B'-class citizens," said Balad Party chairman Jamal Zahalka. "Her words show her true colors."
Hadash Chairman Muhammad Barakei called the foreign minister's words "an escalation in Livni's and her government's arrogance."
"The moderate right is becoming more and more extreme," added Barakei. "Apparently over 20 years ago, Livni the child did not learn that the Arab Palestinians in Israel are natives, living in their homeland, and did not immigrate from anywhere else as Israel did."
Livni, who made the comments following a meeting with French Foreign Minister ...   more »

Yaakov Katz ,
The IDF is in a heightened state of alert ahead of the Annapolis summit next week, out of fear that Hamas and Islamic Jihad will try to perpetrate a large-scale terror attack to derail the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, defense officials said Sunday.
The officials said there were currently 10 specific warnings concerning Palestinian plans to launch a terror attack before the summit.
The officials said that while there was no concrete intelligence that the warnings were connected to the peace summit, which is scheduled to be held at the Annapolis Naval Academy next Monday, the assumption was that terror groups - particularly Islamic Jihad and Hamas - would try to perpetrate an attack to spoil the peace efforts.
"There is a concerted effort today by Hamas and other terror groups to derail the talks," a defense official said. "One of the ways to do that is to carry out a large-scale attack inside Israel."
Meanwhile, Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razak Al-Yahya said on Sunday that PA security forces had busted a number of Hamas cells in the West Bank. Yahya told the Kuwaiti newspaper A-Rai that the cell members had armed themselves and had been training to ...   more »

Shoah references often infuriating, but there’s no room for law that enforces politeness
Guy Carmi
The Holocaust is an integral part of our Jewish and Israeli identity. It does not belong to any sector and references to it are common within the Israeli public discourse to a much larger extent than we’re willing to admit – starting with soccer stadiums (and not necessary in Jerusalem,) and ranging from disengagement opponents on the Right to Arab Knesset members on the Left and to Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz’s well-known “Judeo-Nazis” reference.  
Even Holocaust survivors made use of the Shoah recently as part of their protest over government allowances, when they marched to the Prime Minister’s Office wearing Yellow Stars.  
Knesset Member Colette Avital’s bill, which forbids references to the Holocaust (or more accurately, Nazi symbols and nicknames,) was approved last week by the Knesset Law Committee. Should the bill be approved by parliament, it will apply to all the abovementioned sectors. This bill would not hurt a specific community, but rather, affect the entire population. The bill’s objective is educational, and the proposed means of enforcement – a three-year prison term – is draconian and may serve to cool off and ...   more »

National emergency exercises emphasize real-world experience
Gen. Gene Renuart, commander of NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, and USNORTHCOM, the United States Northern Command, invited WND staff reporter Jerome R. Corsi to visit Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., to observe Day Three of the NORAD-USNORTHCOM exercise Vigilant Shield 2008.
Corsi was the first outside news reporter allowed inside the Joint Interagency Coordination Group, or JIACG, to observe command center operations during a real-time national training exercise.
This fifth part in the series is based on an interview WND conducted Oct 18 with Renuart.
By Jerome R. Corsi
Joint Interagency Coordination Group responds to simulated attacks
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – It was Day 3 of NORAD-USNORTHCOM's exercise, Vigilant Shield 08 and Top Officers 4, and the "reports" were coming in of the explosion of "dirty bombs" in Guam, at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix and at the Steel Bridge in Portland, Ore.
The Joint Interactive Agency Coordination Group staging the exercise to test the national response to the detonation of radiological dispersal devices was on duty.
"This is an exercise designed to look at the national response if we would have a terrorist attack," explained Michael B. ...   more »

by Gerald A. Honigman
Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof…
Leviticus 25:10, Hebrew Bible
I'm a proud Philadelphia boy.
My great grandfather, Benjamin, eloped with his fourteen year old bride, Esther, married in Elkton, Maryland, and proceeded to sire my grandfather and over a dozen of my grand uncles and aunts…Philly's Esther and Benjamin Honigman Family Circle.
My Grandfather served in WWI and my Dad in WWII. Dad later put in almost three decades with the Philadelphia Police Department, retiring as a lieutenant.
Now, let's begin…
I often hear folks complaining about all that aid we give the Jews "over there."
True, Israel has received two to three billion dollars in aid each year from us for some time now. That aid is much appreciated, is largely returned to us via purchases in America, and comes with a big down side as well--as is most recently being manifested in the suicidal concessions Dubya, Condi, and the State Department expect Israel to make in Annapolis to alleged Abbas "good cop" Fatah terrorists who still refuse to recognize the Jewish State. It's fine for Arabs to have almost two dozen of their own (most forcibly Arabized from ...   more »

Government eyes, voice coming to shore to deter people from amorous relations
JENSEN BEACH, Fla. – Imagine going for a romantic stroll on the beach with your loved one, perhaps even giving a kiss, when suddenly you're blasted with a bright light and a voice from above warning against having sex on the beach.
Such a scenario is a strong possibility in one South Florida county where officials are looking to install "talking" video cameras to warn and/or catch people engaged in amorous relations.
Camera already in use at Jensen Beach Park in Martin County, Fla. The county is considering voice warnings to deter people from having sex on the its beaches
"I'm all for it," Martin County Commission Chairman Michael DiTerlizzi told the Palm Beach Post.
DiTerlizzi first proposed putting Web cams at beaches after several recent arrests of men soliciting men for sex at county beaches.
"Anything that deters that kind of activity is going to be good," he said.  
David Graham, the assistant to the county administrator, says FlashCAM devices sense motion and then flash a bright light.
He said once activated, the cameras issue a pre-recorded verbal warning to let people know they are under ...   more »

Gives 2 kids to government, castigates social workers for letting family flee
A court decision that categorized homeschooling as "child welfare endangerment" has assigned custody of two children to the government and criticized a social services agency for allowing a family to flee Germany, where homeschooling remains illegal.
The decision from the Federal High Court in Karlsruhe, Germany's highest court, was reported by the German edition of Agence France-Presse, as well as Netwerk Bildungsfreiheit, an organization that advocates for homeschoolers against the repression in Germany.
The report did not directly identify the family involved, but described the case of two children from a homeschooling family from Paderborn.
The court found the city and its social services agencies were "obviously unsuited" to the task of enforcing mandatory public school attendance and rather than protecting against "child welfare endangerment," the city allowed the family to move to Austria where the two children now are being educated by an "uncertified" mother.
An internet blogger's site, Principle Discovery, which monitors some such situations, also translated the report and said the Paderborn case specifically involved issues of religious belief, but the decision also could impact another homeschooling case, from Bremen, on which WND has been ...   more »

The dollar could collapse if Opec officially admits considering changing the pricing of oil into alternative currencies such as the euro, the Saudi Arabian foreign minister has warned.
Prince Saud Al-Faisal was overheard ruling out a proposal from Iran and Venezuela to discuss pricing crude in a private meeting at the oil cartel's conference.
In an embarrassing blunder at the meeting in Riyadh, ministers' microphones were not cut off during a key closed meeting, and Prince Al-Faisal was heard saying: "My feeling is that the mere mention that the Opec countries are studying the issue of the dollar is itself going to have an impact that endangers the interests of the countries. "There will be journalists who will seize on this point and we don't want the dollar to collapse instead of doing something good for Opec."
After around 40 minutes press officials cut off the feed, which had been accidentally broadcast to the press room.
Prince Al-Faisal added: "This is not new. We have done this in the past: decide to study something without putting down on paper that we are going to study it so that we avoid any implication that will bring adverse effects on our countries' ...   more »