By Joe Kaufman and Beila Rabinowitz
On September 9, 2007, a pre-9/11 celebration of sorts will be taking place in New York City, as Islamists from across the Tri-State area will congregate there for the 22nd Annual Muslim Day Parade. If past parades are any indication, law enforcement will need to be on high alert, as the participants have been amongst the most radical in the nation. Will the city allow this denigration of a very somber day to take place, or will it remember its many victims of terrorism and shut it down?
The parade is being run by the Muslim Foundation of America (MFA), an organization located in the Astoria section of Queens that was founded in 1983, around the time of the first annual parade. In actuality, both the MFA and the parade appear to be the same entity with different names, as the MFA’s website, since it was first created in October of 2003, has been devoted almost entirely to discussing the parade.
Thousands are expected to attend this year’s event. In the past, the number of parade-goers has varied. While some participants may be coming out to experience a day of fun with their fellow ...   more »

by Rebbetzin Tzipporah Heller
One of the most harrowing pictures I ever saw appeared in Newsweek. The camera caught a glimpse into a life that had, in many senses, vanished before it even began. A child, who could not have been more than three or four years old, was carrying building materials. We would call him a pre-schooler; in today's Sudan, he -- and his parents -- are slaves.
He can be purchased by just about anyone; someone looked at him and saw two arms that will grow larger and stronger. It is not likely that they saw a mind or a soul. In the Newsweek interview, the child had no idea of the name of his country or his village. Looking at him from my home in Jerusalem, I mourned for his childhood far more than he did. I silently wished that he would somehow be able to return to himself and learn that he is more than his two strong arms.
In the course of our lives, we close doors to higher and deeper selves and sometimes forget that we, too, are more than earners, spenders, and travelers through life. Our thoughtless enslavement to mindless routine can leave ...   more »

The upcoming release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final installment of the wildly popular series, has drawn indignation from ultra-Orthodox lawmakers such as Deputy prime minister and Industry, Trade, and Labor Minister Eli Yishai of Shas.
The book is set to be released simultaneously throughout the world on Saturday July 21. In Israel, the event falls at 2:01 a.m. on Shabbat, when it is illegal for most businesses to be open and functioning.
Yishai, who suggested that the book be sold either earlier on Friday or after the Sabbath is over, threatened to indict and fine any retailers who go through with plans to release the book as scheduled.
"We must put a limit on the desire to imitate other countries. It is inconceivable that numerous employees will be brought in to allow these events to take place and damage the spirit of Shabbat. I plan to file charges and fine anyone who violates the Hours of Work and Rest Law," Yishai said.
The two major book chains in Israel are both planning events to mark the launch. Steimatzky is planning a major event in Tel Aviv's port on Friday night. Tsomet Sfarim is also ...   more »

Only a few weeks ago our erratic Prime Minister was still assuring the nation that for the time being no further unilateral withdrawals were under consideration.
Yet a recent report in the daily Haaretz outlined a comprehensive new "peace" formula virtually indistinguishable from the 2002 Saudi plan, incorporating wide ranging concessions to the Palestinians which President Peres had submitted to Prime Minister Olmert immediately upon assuming office.
Of course, in line with standard procedures related to such trial balloons, the Prime Minister's office ritualistically denied that any such plan had ever been considered. However the office of the President not only confirmed the existence of the plan, but even expressed confidence that it would be endorsed by the Americans and Europeans.
Peres was the principal architect of the disastrous Oslo Accords, but his new proposal extends far beyond his original failed plan. It recommends that Israel forego the Israeli interpretation of UN Resolution 242 and accept the bitterly contested Arab-Soviet- French interpretation which demanded Israel's total withdrawal from all the territories beyond the green line, effectively ceding to the Palestinians one hundred percent of the territories conquered in 1967.
The major settlement blocs amounting up to 5% of the area ...   more »

Researchers find way to erase long-term memory in rats without damaging their brains in study that could lead to targeted drugs for people suffering from dementia
Israeli and American researchers have found a way to erase long-term memory in rats without damaging their brains in a study that could lead to targeted drugs for people suffering from dementia. 
The findings show long-term memories are not as secure as thought and challenge the idea they stabilize after maturing from short-term memories, said Yadin Dudai, who led the study.
"Memory can be erased by applying a drug into a specific part of the brain that stores that memory," he said in a telephone interview. "Long-term memory can be erased."  
In the study, published on Thursday in the journal Science, the researchers fed the rats saccharine, which made them sick and taught them to associate the taste with feeling unwell.
They then injected an enzyme inhibitor called ZIP into the rats' brains that blocked a protein, PKMzeta, which controls the flow of information involving memory between brain cells.  
After the injection, the rats did not remember the association with saccharine, no matter how long the researchers had trained them to do ...   more »

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. diplomatic security officials will begin training the Palestinian presidential guard this year in an effort to support the government of President Mahmoud Abbas, the State Department said on Sunday.  
Under an agreement signed this month by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, presidential guard officers would take course work and conduct VIP protection exercises under the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security.
Rice visited the West Bank in early August, six weeks after Hamas Islamists took over the Gaza strip, in order to bolster Abbas and his Fatah government and promote a U.S.-backed Middle East peace conference to be held later this year.
The guards' training will run from autumn into early 2008 and is part of U.S. and international efforts to bolster the Palestinian security sector and improve law and order, the State Department said in a statement.
The program aims to help the Palestinian Authority "deliver security for the Palestinian people and fight terrorism, build confidence between the parties, and ultimately help to meet the security needs of Palestinians and Israelis alike," it said.
Security training funds were part of about $80 million the Bush administration has promised ...   more »

By R.G. RATCLIFFE
North American Union, Bilderberg & Perry AUSTIN — Black helicopters, the Illuminati, Gov. Rick Perry and the Trans-Texas Corridor are all now part of the vernacular of the global domination conspiracy theorists.
Perry's push for the Trans-Texas Corridor super highway is part of a secret plan, the conspiracy theorists say, to create the North American Union — a single nation consisting of Canada, Mexico and the United States with a currency called the Amero.
Government denials of the North American Union and descriptions of it as a myth seem to add fuel to the fire. A Google search for "North American Union" and "Rick Perry" returns about 13,400 Web page results.
"Conspiracy theories abound, and some people have an awful lot of time on their hands to come up with such far-fetched notions," said Perry spokesman Robert Black.
Perry enhanced the conspiracy buzz earlier this summer by traveling to Turkey to attend the secretive Bilderberg conference, which conspiracy theorists believe is a cabal of international monied interests and power brokers pressing for globalization.
And the conspiracy rhetoric is likely to ratchet up this week as President Bush meets with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister ...   more »

NEW YORK (AP) - The Federal Reserve may have thrown Wall Street a bone Friday by lowering the rate it charges banks, but if this week's housing market data and corporate headlines portend more gloom, it may have to toss another.
So far, Wall Street, beset by fears that credit problems in mortgage and corporate lending will cripple the economy, has been stubbornly signaling to the central bank that it wants a bailout—ideally, by way of a cut in the benchmark fed funds rate.
With the Fed's next meeting not scheduled until Sept. 18, investors may stay jittery over the coming weeks as they watch the central bank to see if it will lower rates before that point.
Stocks got a boost Friday, thanks to the cut in Fed's discount rate, but few market participants are breathing a sigh of relief yet. Many on Wall Street are still in panic mode; even when the Fed started injecting large amounts of cash into the banking system through repurchase agreements two weeks ago, the Dow Jones industrial average continued on its steep downward slope, sliding 812 points over six trading days.
Last week, the Dow finished down 1.21 percent; the Standard & ...   more »