July 10 2007; 11:07AM
Principle Positions: It’s the Palestinian state, stupid!
Posted by Rabbi Benny Elon | Comments: 9
Israelis must learn from the mistakes of their leaders. Superficial solutions do not resolve our problems. Just as aspirin temporarily masks the pain of an infected tooth, the propagation of the false hope of a Palestinian state only prolongs the bloodshed and violence in our region. Israel has taken enough aspirin. We need a root canal to cure the infection that is causing us so much pain.
Our attention must be focused on solving the problem of the Palestinians, not the “Palestinian Problem”. Arab states do not want a resolution, which is why they refuse citizenship to Palestinians and why they pressure UNRWA to preserve the refugee problem. The only way to save the Palestinians, as well as the region, is to understand that the illusion of an independent Palestinian state will continue to fuel this conflict.
In order to have regional peace, Israel cannot enter into negotiations with Palestinian terrorists. Israel as a sovereign state must cooperate with other sovereign states such as Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria. Israel deserves to have sovereign states as neighbors. We definitely prefer Lebanon ...   more »

By Aaron Klein
Syrian President Bashar Assad
JERUSALEM – The Syrian government, preparing for a war with the Jewish state, has given its officials and top contacts alternative phone numbers to key government ministries in case the Damascus phone system is knocked out during an Israeli aerial bombardment, WND has learned.
An official from Syrian President Bashar Assad's Baath party, speaking to WND from Damascus on condition of anonymity, said the Syrian government distributed the alternative phone numbers earlier this month to ensure continued communication in what he said was the "likely" event of war.
He said Syria was worried that in the opening salvo of a possible confrontation with the Jewish state, the Israeli air force would bombard installations in Damascus, including telephone lines.  
Yesterday, WND quoted a top Baath official warning if Israel doesn't vacate the strategic Golan Heights by August-September, Syrian guerrillas will immediately launch "resistance operations" against the Golan's Jewish communities.
The Baath official said Damascus is preparing for anticipated Israeli retaliation following Syrian guerrilla attacks and for a larger war with the Jewish state in August or September. He said in the opening salvo of any conflict, Syria has the capabilities of firing "hundreds" ...   more »

By Stan Goodenough
The Geneva-based World Council of Churches Monday announced the launch of a planet-wide crusade to bring churches into alliance against the Jews’ “occupation” of Israel’s biblical lands
A statement issued from Jordan – where the organization is holding a conference attended by clerics from some of the 347 Protestant churches who make up the WCC – explained how the group would try apply to the Israel-“Palestinian” conflict lessons learned in South Africa, the Sudan, Columbia and Sri Lanka.
“The initiative aims at calling on all churches to work seriously for putting an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Arab lands,” the statement said.
WCC secretary-general Samuel Kobia of Kenya said they also planned to establish an international forum for peace in the Middle East.
According to an Associated Press report, the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum will be set up mainly in the areas under Palestinian Authority control.
Along with virtually all the national leaders in the world, the WCC supports the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the cradle of Israel’s nationhood, and the relinquishing of those lands to Muslim Arabs who have no prior national claim to them.
The WCC along with the Roman Catholic ...   more »

By Yossi Verter, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service  
Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu harshly criticized the 2000 Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, led by then prime minister Ehud Barak, saying the move was irresponsible, and that Barak's administration "brought [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasarllah to our fence."
The Likud leader, who also served a term as prime minister, spoke at a Likud Party conference marking the first anniversary of the Second Lebanon War, saying Barak was "amateur, rash and adventurous."
Barak won the Labor Party primary on June 12, and polls show the he poses the biggest threat to Netanyahu's likely bid for the position of prime minister in the next elections.    
"Barak is a dilettante and reckless politician who has a tendency to pursue political adventures," Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu called the 12 months that have passed since the Second Lebanon War broke out "a year of failure and treading in place. We believe we can pull this country out of the quagmire; we can walk down a different path."
The conference was attended by other senior Likud figures, who also chose to sling barbs at Barak. MK Gideon Sa'ar said that by not retaliating for Hezbollah's abduction of three Israel ...   more »

By Stan Goodenough
Ten European Union foreign ministers Monday messaged newly-appointed Middle East envoy Tony Blair to increase the pressure on Israel to make more "concessions for peace."
And they let the former British prime minister know that they want to see an international conference on the Arab-Israeli conflict convened, one at which Israel would stand decidedly alone against the pro-"Palestinian" world.
Ynetnews reported that, in an open letter to the new big-power envoy, "the foreign ministers of the EU's Mediterranean states – Bulgaria, Cyprus, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Malta, Romania and Slovenia – welcomed Arab states' efforts for peace following the stalled US-backed 'road map.'"
"The Road Map has failed," the ministers reportedly said in the letter that appeared in the newspaper Le Monde.
There was therefore a need to "redefine our objectives."
Europe and the Quartet of Middle East mediators should firmly tell Israel to make more concessions in support of Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, they continued.
One of their new objectives was "to obtain from Israel concrete and immediate measures in favor of Mahmoud Abbas.
"Among these, the transfer of all taxes due, the release of the thousands of prisoners who do not have blood ...   more »

(CBS) This segment was originally broadcast on March 4, 2007. It was updated on July 8, 2007.
When the stock market soars or plunges, everyone pays attention. But short term results aren't that important to the man you're about to meet. David Walker thinks the biggest economic peril facing the nation is being ignored, and for nearly two years now he has been traveling the country like an Old Testament prophet, urging people to wake up before its too late. Who is David Walker and why should we care?
As correspondent Steve Kroft first reported earlier this year, he is the nation's top accountant, the comptroller general of the United States. He's totaled up our government's income, liabilities, and future obligations and concluded that our current standard of living is unsustainable unless some drastic action is taken. And he's not alone. It's been called the "dirty little secret everyone in Washington knows" – a set of financial truths so inconvenient that most elected officials don't even want to talk about them, which is exactly why David Walker does.
"I would argue that the most serious threat to the United States is not someone hiding in a cave in Afghanistan or ...   more »

LORENZAGO DI CADORE, Italy  —
For the second time in a week, Pope Benedict XVI has corrected what he says are erroneous interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, reasserting the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church and saying other Christian communities were either defective or not true churches.
Benedict approved a document released Tuesday from his old office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which repeated church teaching on Catholic relations with other Christians.
While there was nothing doctrinally new in the document, it nevertheless prompted swift criticism from Protestants, Lutherans and other Christian denominations spawned by the 16th century reformation.
"It makes us question the seriousness with which the Roman Catholic Church takes its dialogues with the Reformed family and other families of the church," said the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, which groups 75 million Reformed Christians in 214 churches in 107 countries.
"It makes us question whether we are indeed praying together for Christian unity," the alliance said in a letter to the Vatican's key ecumenical official, Cardinal Walter Kasper, charging that the document took ecumenical dialogue back to the pre-Vatican II era.
One of the key developments from Vatican II, the 1962-65 meetings that ...   more »

Over 2,200 Jewish immigrants from North America, UK are expected to land in Israel this summer, former ambassador Danny Ayalon says the numbers will continue to grow significantly over coming years
Ynet
A specially chartered El-Al flight carrying 220 new immigrants from North America landed Tuesday morning in Tel Aviv. The group was greeted by 800 Israelis in a festive ceremony held at the airport with Foreign Affairs Minister Tzipi Livni in attendance. The flight was organized by Nefesh B'Nefesh, which is dedicated to increasing aliyah from North America and the United Kingdom.
Among the new arrivals is the Jordan family of New Jersey, whose maternal grandfather was a Holocaust survivor who fought in the Israeli Independence War before moving to the United States in the mid-50's.  
When he passed away two years ago the family decided they would immigrate to Israel in his honor. His grandson, Ben Jordan, wore his grandfather's army jacket from the war and held a sign saying 'We're coming back to what you fought for!'
Photos: Sasson Tiram 
Nefesh B'Nefesh chairman, former Israeli ambassador to the US Danny Ayalon, said he believed immigration from North America would only increase over the next few years: ...   more »