by Larry Domnitch
200,000 Jews converged on the Western Wall that day.
Over the last two millennia, Jews have visited Jerusalem in honor of the festivals, in lieu of the biblically-ordained pilgrimages. On the holiday of Shavuot, there was also the custom to visit the purported grave of King David on Mount Zion, since the date of his death was on Shavuot.
When Shavuot arrived in 1948, it was a month after the establishment of the State of Israel, and Jews could no longer continue to make the pilgrimage to the Western Wall. The Jordanians, who occupied the eastern half of the city since the War of Independence, blocked all rights of passage to the Jews. However, the pilgrimage to King David's tomb on nearby Mount Zion, located on the Israeli side of divided Jerusalem, continued. Over the next 19 years, crowds made their way to Mount Zion, where across barbed wire they could view the Old City and the Temple Mount.
On the morning of Shavuot, June 15, 1967 -- just six days after the liberation of the Old City of Jerusalem in the Six Day War -- the Old City was officially opened to the Israeli public. (The ...   more »

When my brother, David, received the Emmy Award for his show, House, he stood in front of 35 million people and declared, "I thank my parents for making me happy and well-adjusted enough to enjoy this. But I also want to thank all the other people who have come into my life and made me miserable, cynical and angry because this character (Dr. House) wouldn't be the same without them."
Approaching Mother's Day, I started thinking about our Mom. What was this woman's secret? She raised three boys in London, Ontario, in a rather typical middle-class, not-so-observant Jewish home with expectations that we would all become lawyers, doctors or accountants (like Dad). Yet somehow all three of us broke the mold and have gone on to do some interesting things.
David, the eldest, was our best hope for "normalcy." He became a lawyer, a successful partner in a downtown Toronto firm. But he quickly dumped it to try his hand as another starving writer in Hollywood. And to everyone's surprise, except our mother's, he actually made it! After joining the writing teams for Law and Order and The Practice, he created and produced his own show, House. With 26 million ...   more »

Beirut & Damascus - Syrian President Bashar Assad has threatened to set the region on fire, from the Caspian to the Mediterranean, over differences with the United Nations regarding Lebanon's stability.
The independent daily newspaper an-Nahar quoted well informed diplomatic circles as saying Assad made the threat last Wednesday in a telephone discussion with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
The sources, according to the paper spoke of a "heated dialogue" between Assad and Ban, during which the Syrian President "threatened to set the region on fire, from the Caspian to the Mediterranean."
The focus of the telephone discussion was creation of the international tribunal that will try suspects in the 2005 assassination of Lebanese ex-Premier Rafik Hariri and related crimes, the report explained.
It stressed that the tribunal issue will be a topic of discussion within the U.N. Security Council as of Monday.
Following the tense discussion with Ban, Assad on Thursday announced that his country is not concerned with the international tribunal, stating that the court is "a special topic concerning Lebanon and the United Nations."
Lebanese MP Saad Hariri son of the slain premier, had announced that the tribunal will be created under chapter seven of the U.N. ...   more »

Israel should begin negotiations with Syria, Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Sunday evening in an interview to Channel 10.
IDF action against the continued Kassam rocket fire will be decisive, Defense Minister Amir Peretz told Channel 10 Sunday evening.
Turning to the continued Kassam rocket threat, Peretz said, "We need to act. We need to target the people who are causing the escalation. What we received today was more freedom to act."
"The moment we decide on harsh action, it will be a decisive action," he said.
Peretz also said that after the Labor party primaries were over, he intended to leave the Defense Ministry, and that he was rethinking his position in the government.
The defense minister's remarks came hours after the security cabinet concluded on Sunday a meeting on the Kassam rocket threat emanating from the Gaza Strip and Hamas's growing military strength there without deciding on any course of action.
During the meeting, government ministers were divided on whether the IDF should begin a large-scale operation in the Gaza Strip as a response to the ongoing Kassam attacks.
The majority of the ministers said during a government meeting on Sunday morning that they were against such an ...   more »

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet with Jordanian King Abdullah in Petra on Wednesday, at a gathering to honor Nobel laureates including Vice Premier Shimon Peres.
This will be the first meeting between the two leaders since last summer, and top of the agenda will be the planned visit to Israel by an Arab League delegation set to discuss the League's peace plan.
A date for the visit has still not been set. The delegation will be headed by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abdul Gheit and his Jordanian counterpart, Abdullah al-Khatib, and will mark the first time an Arab League team visits Israel.
Diplomatic sources in Jerusalem said Israel would welcome an expanded delegation including representatives from other Arab states but that this is a decision for the League.
After talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and her Egyptian and Jordanian counterparts in Cairo on Thursday, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni described the forthcoming visit as "historic."
The Arab League reaffirmed its peace initiative of 2002 at a meeting in Riyadh in March. It calls for full normalization in relations with Israel in return for a withdrawal to the pre-1967 Green Line and the return of Palestinian refugees and their descendents ...   more »

By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent  
Dozens of rabbis from the national Zionist camp visited the Temple Mount on Sunday in order to increase awareness and emphasize Jewish linkage to the site.
A few days ago, the rabbis had released an announcement permitting Jews to enter the Temple Mount.
Sunday's visit marks the first time such a large group of rabbis, including the head rabbi of the Yesha Council Rabbi Dov Lior, Ma'ale Adumim Yeshiva head Rabbi Nahum Rabinowitz, and Rabbi Daniel Shaleh, have visited Temple Mount together. 
Last weekend, the religious media published a notice signed by Bnei Akiva Yehiva head Rabbi Chaim Druckman, his colleague Rabbi Avraham Zuckerman, and Kiryat Shmona Chief Rabbi Tzfania Drori. The rabbis called on "the entire holy public to ascend the Temple Mount in purity ... to arrive in coming days to the allowed sites near the entrance to the Temple Mount."
By publishing the announcement, rabbis Druckman, Zuckerman, and Drori joined dozens of other rabbis from the national Zionist camp who have recently decided to permit Jewish entry into the Temple Mount, subject to halakhic (Jewish law) restrictions.
Allowing the entry is a clear deviation from the general halakhic rabbinical consensus, including ...   more »

Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski warned Sunday of a demographic collapse that could cause the capital to lose its Jewish majority and transfer the city into the hands of Hamas.
Speaking at a special cabinet meeting at the Begin Heritage Center in Mishkenot Sha'ananim in honor of the 40th anniversary of the unification of Jerusalem, Lupolianski said that Hamas could gain demographic control of the capital within twelve years.
Burning Issues: Jerusalem demographics
Poll: Gush Etzion strengthens J'lem
Israel, he said, needs a long-term plan so that Jerusalem will forever remain Israel's
capital. "We will not be satisfied with crumbs," said the mayor.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised at the meeting to allocate NIS 5.75 billion to the city and to cancel Jerusalem's employers' tax.
Earlier, a poll conducted by the Zionist Council in Israel found that 31% of Jewish Israelis cited Jerusalem's dwindling Jewish majority as the city's main problem, while 26% said that its lack of jobs was the critical issue.
Jerusalem residents cited lack of work opportunities as the city's main problem.
Jerusalem's current population stands at 720,000, 66% Jewish, 34% Arab.
A recent study carried out by Hebrew University demographer Prof. Sergio Della Pergola predicted that ...   more »

(IsraelNN.com) Sheikh Raad Salah, the head of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement, has been working hard to ensure that thousands of Muslims will arrive in Jerusalem's Old City every day to pray in the Al-Aksa mosque, located on the Temple Mount. Salah has been talking with Arab clan leaders from Jerusalem and its environs in an effort to convince them to take turns bringing their entire extended families to the mosque.
Salah also said that he plans to see to it that Jerusalem mosques are closed on Friday, the Muslim day of rest, in order to force all those who wish to take part in group prayers to travel to the Al-Aksa mosque. He has talked to Muslim leaders in other parts of Israel, asking them to tell their followers to visit the Jerusalem mosque in order to demonstrate a strong Muslim presence there. Such a presence, Salah is telling local Muslims, is the best defense against "Israeli aggression."
Salah expressed his conviction that Jerusalem will fall into Muslim hands by "Heavenly promise." He also said that in such a conquest, no sign of a Jewish presence will remain.
Several months ago, Jerusalem police initiated an investigation of ...   more »

Poll for 40-year anniversary of capital's unification shows 58 of Israeli Jews willing to make concessions in Jerusalem in exchange for peace with Palestinians
Lilach Shoval  
Fifty-eight percent of the Jewish public in Israel is willing to make concessions in Jerusalem in the frame of a peace agreement with the Palestinians, a poll conducted by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies revealed on Sunday.
Capital  
Arab population in Jerusalem growing, study says / Lilach Shoval  
Growth rate of Arab population in city in past 40 years is double that of Jewish population, data published by Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies reveals. In 2020, Arabs expected to constitute 40 percent of capital's residents    
The poll, conducted toward the 40-year anniversary of the capital's unification, showed a 5 percent drop compared to 2006.  
A drop in the Israeli Jews' faith that real peace could be reached was also revealed in the poll. Only 16 percent of the public believes that peace with the Palestinians can be reached, as opposed to 20 percent in 2006.  
The shift in opinion was noted among the secular public, where 21 percent said they believed peace could be reached as opposed ...   more »

EU president Germany informs Foreign Ministry that ambassadors of European countries will not show up for events marking 40-year anniversary of capital's reunification; US ambassador to follow suit
Ronen Bodoni
European Union countries will not take part in the celebrations marking the 40-year anniversary of Jerusalem's reunification, EU president Germany said Thursday in a diplomatic letter sent to the Foreign Ministry and the Knesset.  
US Ambassador to Israel Richard Jones will also not participate in the events. Diplomatic sources told Ynet that the event was not on the ambassador’s timetable. 
Ambassadors of all EU countries will not show up for the special Knesset session which will be on Jerusalem Day on Wednesday.  
European countries do not recognize Jerusalem's reunification. As far as they are concerned, east Jerusalem, which was occupied during the Six Day War, is an occupied territory.  
Among the EU countries there is a difference of opinion regarding the participation in the Jerusalem Day celebrations. Germany decided to send the letter to the official bodies in Israel, but a number of EU countries are considering violating the boycott and taking part in the celebrations.  
The Egyptian and Jordanian ambassadors were also invited to take ...   more »

By Bob Unruh
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Despite widespread condemnation for performing abortions on underage girls while protecting the statutory rapists involved by not reporting them to authorities, Planned Parenthood is continuing the practice big-time – with many new cases of underage girls – according to an investigation of violations of state criminal reporting laws.
Critics of Planned Parenthood characterize the practice as a "pedophile protection racket."
In Michigan, activists have discovered two 11-year-olds given abortions by Planned Parenthood and no investigation has been launched; in Ohio, a 16-year-old complained during an abortion at Planned Parenthood her father was assaulting her, but she was returned to his custody and the assaults continued, and in California, a reporter posing as a pregnant 15-year-old is told by Planned Parenthood to lie and say she's 16, activists have told WND.
"Local research has shown that two 11-year-old females have had abortions at this facility, and [the cases] have not been reported [to authorities] as required by [the Michigan Child Protection Law of 1975]," according to a statement released at a news conference in front of a Michigan Planned Parenthood business by Ann Norton of Operation Red Sea and others.
(Story continues below)
 
"We ...   more »

FARMERS BRANCH, Texas - Voters in this Dallas suburb became the first in the nation Saturday to prohibit landlords from renting to most illegal immigrants.
The ban was approved by a vote of 68 percent to 32 percent in final, unofficial returns.
The balloting marked the first public vote on a local government measure to crack down on illegal immigration.
“It says especially to Congress that we’re tired of the out-of-control illegal immigration problem. That if Congress doesn’t do something about it, cities will,” said Tim O’Hare, a City Council member who was the ordinance’s lead proponent.
Council members approved the ordinance in November, then revised it in January to include exemptions for minors, seniors and some families with a mix of legal residents and illegal immigrants.
Opponents forced referendum
Farmers Branch has become the site of protests and angry confrontations, and opponents of the regulation gathered enough signatures to force the city to put the measure on the municipal election ballot.
With Saturday’s approval of the ban, opponents plan to fight it in court, and will seek a restraining order to stop the city from enforcing it.
The city was already facing four lawsuits brought by civil rights groups, ...   more »

The Pakistani terrorist group Jamaat ul Fuqra is using Islamic schools in the United States as training facilities, confirms a joint investigative report by an intelligence think tank and an independent reporter.
A covert visit to an encampment in the Catskill Mountains near Hancock, N.Y., called "Islamberg" found neighboring residents deeply concerned about military-style training taking place there but frustrated by the lack of attention from federal authorities, said the report by the Northeast Intelligence Network, which worked with an Internet blogger, "CP," to publish an interim report.
The neighbors interviewed, who asked not to be identified, said they feared retaliation if they were to make a report to law enforcement officials.
"We see children – small children run around over there when they should be in school," one neighbor said. "We hear bursts of gunfire all of the time, and we know that there is military-like training going on there. Those people are armed and dangerous."
The resident said his household gets "nothing but menacing looks from the people who go in and out of the camp, and sometimes they yell at us to mind our own business when we are just driving by."
"We don't even dare to ...   more »