At long last, somebody from the U.S. Senate has taken notice of the new U.N. Human Rights Council and concluded it is no different than the inept and corrupt organization that it was designed to replace.
The U.N. Human Rights Council has spent the full period of its existence investigating Israeli "violations" of human rights, to the exclusion of all other nations. Of all the nations in the world, Israel is the only one to earn the special status of being permanently placed on the UNHRC's monthly agenda. First, the UNHRC examines Israel, and then, if there is any time left, they go to new business. To date, there's been no time left.
Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota has had enough: "You've got countries like North Korea, Burma, Zimbabwe where you have state-sponsored brutality, and what we have is deafening silence," he told Haaretz. Last month, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved legislation advanced by Coleman aimed at cutting off funding to the UNHRC.
The UNHRC is getting a bit of attention among the Washington establishment, as well.
Assistant Secretary of State Kristen Silverberg called the council's first year a serious disappointment. She reproached member states for abandoning their responsibility ...   more »

L. A. Marzulli
July 29, 2007 -- RaidersNewsNetwork.com -- Recently Mahmood Amedihijahd, the president of Iran has hinted that there will be a summer war in the region to rid the area of its enemies, think Israel here. For those who have followed his ongoing vitriol against Israel this is nothing new except that he’s announced a definitive time frame, this summer.
In the recent past Ahmedinejhad has declared that, the holocaust didn’t exist, that Israel is a withered tree soon to be plucked by it’s roots and that the tiny nation should be wiped off the map. There’s not much wiggle room in those statements. It’s not like Israel and the Iranians are going to sit down and chat about their political differences soon. Facts are that Iran has backed the terror organization Hezbollah, who’s leader Hasan Nesrallah has sworn to destroy Israel and has recently boasted that the new rockets that he received – thanks again to the Iranians – can reach everywhere in Israel.
You may remember last summer when Hezbollah attacked Israel resulting in a war that Israel clearly won, having knocked Hezbollah from its position in southern Lebanon. Nesrallah, who probably holed up in Iran ...   more »

By Barbara Opall-Rome

   
BALADIA CITY, Israel — In a new, elaborate training center in the Negev desert, Israeli troops — and someday, U.S. Marines and soldiers — are preparing for the wide range of urban scenarios they may confront.
Here, at Israel’s new National Urban Training Center, the Israeli Defense Force’s Ground Forces Command is preparing forces to fight in four theaters: Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank and Syria.
Built by the Army Corps of Engineers and funded largely from U.S. military aid, the 7.4-square-mile generic city — balad, in Arabic, means village — consists of 1,100 basic modules that can be reconfigured by mission planners to represent specific towns.
It’s a much smaller, IDF-tailored version of the Army’s Joint Readiness Training Center, the sprawling 100,000-acre simulated microcosm of the Middle East used to train infantry brigade task forces deployed in the region. And while Baladia City won’t feature all the pyrotechnic bells and whistles of the Fort Polk, La., facility, it will offer the same high-fidelity simulated battlefield technologies, force identification and location systems, and debriefing capabilities, officers here said.
“Combat units from platoon up to brigade level will train in an environment that simulates the real ...   more »

By Joseph Farah
Over the years, I've noticed a schism develop between many law enforcement people and ordinary "civilians" – you know, the poor schlemiels who pay their taxes, empower the high mighty and employ the cops.
This division takes many shapes and forms, but nowhere is it more obvious than on the issue of firearms.
Many police officers have come to believe guns are only safe in their hands – that they cannot be entrusted into the custody of untrained, unqualified citizens.
Obviously, this is a non-starter from a constitutional, freedom-oriented perspective. But there's a practical new reason for cops to begin rethinking where this anti-gun hysteria is leading our country.
I don't know how many of us thought to question passage of law 18 U.S. Code section 924(c)(1)(a), which calls for a mandatory 10-year sentence for using or carrying a firearm in the commission of a crime of violence.
Off hand, it sounds pretty good.
Who could argue with a law that says, "Hey, if you commit a violence crime with a gun, you go to jail for at least 10 years"?
I could live with that. It sounds just. I like to see bad guys put away ...   more »

In an open letter published in the Sunday edition of the New York Times, dozens of prominent Evangelical Christians from across the United States expressed their support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The letter urged President George W. Bush to “not grow weary” in his efforts to facilitate a final status agreement between Israel, the Palestinian Arabs and the wider Arab world.
The authors also took at fellow Christians who oppose the creation of an Arab state on Israel's biblical heartland, insisting that it is a “serious misperception” that all Evangelicals support Israel's right to all the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
Christians United for Israel (CUFI) director Pastor John Hagee told The Jerusalem Post that the letter was a misrepresentation of mainstream Evangelical beliefs.
“The authors of this letter do not represent the views of the vast majority of Bible-believing mainstream Evangelicals in America,” said Hagee, who blasted as “absolutely incorrect” the assertion that the Palestinian Arabs have a historic right to the land equal to that of the Jews.
Original Source

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