When the security cabinet meets Sunday to finish its discussion on how to grapple with the Kassams from Gaza, one hopes that beyond dealing with the very acute problem of how to reduce the rocket attacks on Sderot, it will also take up the issue of how Israel will react if the Palestinian Authority collapses.
For the spiraling anarchy inside Gaza is not something Israel can watch from outside. A collapse of the PA as a government, something that the events of the last few days have shown is a real possibility, would have far-reaching strategic ramifications for Israel and could fundamentally change the two-state concept that has underpinned Israeli policy since 1993 and the Oslo Accords.
Since that time, successive governments have adhered to a strategic approach based on the idea that if Israel wished to remain a Jewish and democratic state, it was not in its long-term strategic interest to continue to control the 1.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, or the 2.5m. Palestinians in the West Bank.
But at the same time, said Gidi Grinstein, head of the Tel Aviv-based Reut think tank, certain factions inside Palestinian society were not interested in the two-state solution. They were, he ...   more »

Dispute over issue of Jews visiting Temple Mount escalates, as prominent Zionist Rabbi Avraham Shapira condemns Zionist rabbis' entry to holy site. Haredi paper accuses rabbis of defiling Mount because they worship 'Zionist Calf'
The dispute between haredi and Zionist rabbis over the issue of Jews' visitations to the Temple Mount has escalated recently, following a visit by a group of about 40 Zionist rabbis to the holy site this week.
 Visit  
Rabbis visiting Temple Mount 'hope for an awakening' / Neta Sela  
Thirty Zionist rabbis break taboo and visit Temple Mount as part of 40th anniversary celebrations of Jerusalem's unification    
Prominent rabbi Avraham Shapira spoke out Tuesday against Jews visiting the Temple Mount.  
Shapira, the head of the Merkaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem, stressed during a ceremony marking Jerusalem Day that the Halacha forbids Jews from entering the place. 
'Temple Mount desecrated'
Meanwhile, the haredi newspaper affiliated with the Lithuanian stream, Yated Ne'eman harshly criticized the rabbis' visit, "which goes against the Halacha," saying that the rabbis had violated a prohibition punishable with karet, death by heavenly decree.  
In two separate articles, the newspaper attacks the visit, accusing the Zionist rabbis of worshipping "the ...   more »

By Israel Harel  
A decade ago, at the start of the events marking the 30th anniversary of the liberation of Jerusalem, the city's mayor warned: "We are approaching the time of the decisive battle for the very heart of Jerusalem." And how did the mayor at the time, who went on to become acting prime minister and is now the prime minister, carry out that "decisive battle"?
At Sunday's special cabinet meting dedicated to the unification of Jerusalem, Mayor Uri Lupolianski summed up the results: "East Jerusalem is liable, God forbid, not to be under Jewish sovereignty ... Hamas will conquer Jerusalem within 12 years." In remarks reminiscent of the conclusions of a committee of inquiry into another decisive battle, Lupolianski said: "In order not to lose the city to Hamas ... a long-term strategic plan, not ad hoc solutions, is needed."
Lupolianski based his prediction on a study by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, the main points of which are: In the past 40 years, the city's Arab population has increased by 257 percent, compared with only 140 percent for Jews. Of the city's population of about 700,000, 34 percent is Arab. In 12 years this will ...   more »

It's time to send for George Smiley.
Russia’s covert foreign intelligence operations against America have reached Cold War levels under President Vladimir Putin, according to Washington officials.
White House intelligence advisers believe no other country is as aggressive as Russia in trying to obtain U.S. secrets, with the possible exception of China.
In particular the SVR, as the former KGB’s foreign intelligence arm is now known, is using a network of undercover agents in America to gather classified information about sensitive technologies, including military projects under development and high-tech research.
Yuri Shvets, a former KGB agent, said: “In the days of the Soviet Union, the number of spies was limited because they had to be based at the foreign ministry, the trade mission or the news agencies like Tass. Right now, virtually every successful private company in Russia is being used as a cover for Russian intelligence operations.”
Intelligence experts believe that since Putin became president in 2000, the Russians have rebuilt a network of agents in the United States that had been depleted during the country’s transition from communism.
Original Source
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Dave Eberhart, NewsMax.com
Pastor John Hagee says Armageddon will soon strike the nation of Israel, so he's enlisting Christians to help protect Israel against an attack from Iran.
Hagee, who has close ties to the Bush administration, has some in the Jewish community worried about his efforts to help Israel and his talk of a coming war with Iran.
The well-known pastor and author, who broadcasts nationwide from his mega Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, has been seeking to help Jewish groups raise money from Christians for Israel.
"The enemies of Israel are the enemies of America," Hagee said. "They are the enemies of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These enemies have drawn the battle line. If a line has to be drawn – then draw that line around both Christians and Jews! We are one; we are united!"
Such polemics from Hagee hail the fiery theme of the 2nd Annual Israel/Washington D.C. Summit slated for July 16-19 in the nation's capital.
As a warm up to the main July enclave, Washington area residents can attend a "Night to Honor Israel" in nearby Alexandria, Va., on May 20, also sponsored by Hagee.
Hagee, an unapologetic Christian Zionist, ...   more »

A bloodbath just south of the Mexican border has alarmed neighboring Arizona towns that have nervously monitored a rise in violence in the Mexican state of Sonora the past two months.
Mexican police killed 15 armed assailants in a fierce gun battle Wednesday after tracking a group that killed four policemen, leading to fears this morning that an armed outlaw convoy was headed to the U.S. border.
About 40 assailants apparently related to Mexico's powerful drug gangs, drove in a convoy of up to 15 vehicles into the town of Cananea, 20 miles south of the U.S. border, to seize the policemen Wednesday. Mexican state police confronted the gunmen in the mountains 60 miles south of Cananea and reportedly killed 15 of the gunmen.
Today, meanwhile, rumors spread to Naco, Ariz., that its sister city of Naco, Sonora, was threatened with a possible imminent attack from outlaw gunmen who were headed their way.
The Mexican town reportedly closed schools, businesses and city hall.
Jesus Rodriguez, spokesman for the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector told WND the report turned out to be "bogus." He said border agents have been informed of the attacks in Mexico but have not been under any special ...   more »

Zilia Castrillón
BOSTON, United States, May 17 (IPS/IFEJ) - The U.S. government and Boston University are facing protests and lawsuits for building a laboratory to research potential biological weapons in a neighbourhood whose residents are mostly African-American and Latinos. Approved by the federal government in February 2006, the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory is better known locally as the BSL-4, for biosafety level 4, the highest risk, determined by the type of material the scientists are working with. Construction began in March and the lab is scheduled for completion in 2008.
"They sell us the idea of the laboratory in our neighbourhood because it would provide jobs for the families. The work in reality is not for us, but for the high-level researchers that will move here," says social worker Carmen Nazario, of Puerto Rican origin, and a resident of Villa Victoria, a community of predominantly Latin American immigrants in Boston's South End.
Within about a one-kilometre radius of the site live some 50,000 people. Boston, in the north-eastern U.S. state of Massachusetts, is home to more than 600,000 people.
Nazario is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the federal government and Boston University, accused of violating national ...   more »

A leader in the United Methodist Church equated the U.S. flag to the Nazi swastika, drawing the criticism of a watchdog organization that calls it an example of the church's "contemptuous" attitude towards the nation and its heritage.
The comments came from Rev. Clayton Childers, of the Washington-based United Methodist Board of Church and Society, who said, "The presence of a national flag in worship can imply endorsement of national policies which often run counter to the teachings of Jesus Christ and our Christian faith. … One need only recall the way the swastika flag was displayed prominently in German churches during the Nazi era."

Mark Tooley
He was discussing on the organization's website the propriety of having Old Glory in Christian churches, but his condemnation drew the ire of Mark Tooley, the executive director of UMAction, which monitors the eight-million member church and its activities.
"The United Methodist Church, under its liberal leadership, is losing over 50,000 members a year, and this church lobby official is oddly worried about getting American flags out of our churches," Tooley said.
"Unlike the blood-soaked swastika flags that the Nazis forced upon German churches, American churches voluntarily display their country's flag as a ...   more »

IT LOOKS deceptively familiar. The patient rolls up his sleeve, the doctor sticks a needle into his arm, and soon it's all over. But this is no routine vaccination. Instead, the patient has been injected with a fleck of silicon that will uniquely identify him when zapped with radio waves. Now, nearly three years after their use was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, implantable radio frequency identification (RFID) chips are the focus of a new controversy.
The battle lines are being drawn in a quiet corner of West Palm Beach, Florida. On 12 May, some 30 protesters held an inter-faith prayer vigil (pictured above) outside Alzheimer's Community Care, a day-care facility for people with dementia. At issue is the facility's plan to implant 200 patients with microchips manufactured and donated by VeriChip of nearby Delray Beach. When scanned, the chip reveals a unique ID number, which when entered into a password-protected database gives access to medical information about its owner.
If the plan goes ahead, it will be the first time the technology has been tried on a group of people with a specific mental impairment. The forgetfulness that comes with Alzheimer's can make it impossible for ...   more »