by Diane Faber Veitzer
Having just turned 43, never married, no kids, I was having a tough time getting up the enthusiasm to pray for these same things once again
Two years ago, I approached the High Holidays with a certain sense of "here we go again." Having just turned 43, never married, no kids, I was having a tough time getting up the enthusiasm to pray for these same things. How many times can you ask for the same thing, and get the same answer?
In shul Rosh Hashanah morning, I saw that two of the young women in our community were standing up throughout the repetition of the Musaf service. These two girls, Sara and Tova, were the daughters of close friends my age. Both about 18 or 19, they were each just back from a post-high-school year studying in Jerusalem, and now, according to our community's custom, "ready to get married." I knew that these girls would be praying fervently to find their basherts (soul mates) quickly and easily.
I had some understanding of why they stood through Musaf. It is an especially long prayer service, and one is not required to stand throughout, but it is ...   more »

by Baruch Gordon(IsraelNN.com) In the upcoming days, billboards all over Jerusalem will be plastered with a new poster on the eve of U.S. President Bush’s visit to Israel. Pictured in the poster is a gigantic Bible, towering over the walls of the Old City.
The caption says: “Bush, read your Bible. God gave Israel to the Jews.”
Tzvi Fishman, of the Am K’Lavee organization, and an Arutz 7 blogger, says “The poster is designed to refocus Israel’s opposition to further withdrawals back to our Divine claim to the Land of Israel, as documented again and again in the Bible.”
Am K’Lavee organizes the annual mass parade to the Kotel on Jerusalem Day, which is attended by tens of thousands. It is joining a broad spectrum of grassroots organizations that are planning protests during Bush’s three-day visit to Jerusalem.%ad%
“The Biblical claim of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel was recognized by the British in the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which called for the establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine,” Fishman states. “The British believed in the Bible and what was written in it, and that was what guided Lord Balfour in winning the support of the British ...   more »

By Yossi Verter and Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz Correspondents
United States President George W. Bush has changed the itinerary of his trip to Israel in order to fit in a visit to Capernaum, the Christian holy site.
The U.S. president has specifically requested that his January 9 trip to Israel include a stop at the place in which, according to the New Testament, Jesus chose his 12 apostles.
Bush is likely to arrive there in his presidential helicopter under heavy protection. White House security personnel have already visited the Galilee site and have planned the security arrangements in coordination with the Israel Police.
Church officials in Capernaum are preparing for the visit, which might also include a stop at the nearby Church of the Beatitudes. Seven years ago, Pope John Paul II visited the church and gave a sermon there.
Officials at the Prime Minister's Office are preparing for Bush's visit to Israel, and have established a special task force dedicated only to his vist. The task force will be headed by Amnon Ben-Ami, deputy director of the PMO.
At least 8,000 police officers will provide security for the visit.
An official reception will be held at Ben-Gurion International Airport, with ...   more »

Some times the most interesting information comes from people on the ground in the Middle East.  It seems that each person has a friend, a brother, a cousin or an uncle who is personally linked to a high level official in the government, on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides.  During our recent back to back tours, I traveled from coast to coast throughout Israel for 16 consecutive days. Several things I observed made me think that this idea of a Palestinian state along side of Israel was already a “done deal,” and the politicians gathering in Maryland were simply actors on the stage, speaking out a pre-written script for the world to hear. After hearing a friend who is linked with the Palestinian democracy moment, I realized what I was observing and feeling was not far from the truth.
He said, “Perry, much of what is happening in Israel has already been decided by Europe and the United States as far back as 14 years ago.”  I knew that the huge concrete wall dividing the West Bank from Israel was pre-planned back in the time of Arafat. It is now complete and the land has already been divided by ...   more »

Herb Keinon and David Horovitz
Israel needs to internalize that even its supportive friends on the international stage conceive of the country's future on the basis of the 1967 borders and with Jerusalem divided, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has declared to The Jerusalem Post.
At the same time, he made clear that he did not envisage a permanent accord along the '67 lines, describing Ma'aleh Adumim as an "indivisible" part of Jerusalem and Israel.
In an interview at the start of a year that he hopes will yield a permanent Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, the prime minister said many rival Israeli political parties remain "detached from the reality" that requires Israel to compromise "on parts of Eretz Yisrael" in order to maintain its Jewish, democratic nature.
If Israel "will have to deal with a reality of one state for two peoples," he said, this "could bring about the end of the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. That is a danger one cannot deny; it exists, and is even realistic."
Indeed, his primary responsibility as prime minister, Olmert said, lay in ensuring a separation from the Palestinians.
"What will be if we don't want to separate?" he asked rhetorically. "Will ...   more »

By Ted Belman
Saul Singer advises How to pressure for peace.
I go further and suggest that the peace process has it ass-backwards.
Rather than arm and train the terrorists (Fatah) it should force their disarmament.
Rather than finance them to the tune of $7.4 billion thereby enabling them to continue the “resistance”, they should be left to fend for themselves.
Rather than force Israel to freeze settlement activity thereby removing time as an issue it should allow Israel to build to its heart’s content thereby forcing the Palestinians to compromise quickly rather than to allow an erosion of their position in a final settlement.
Rather than force Israel to make goodwill gestures which merely encourages intransigence, it should force the Palestinians to make goodwill gestures. Whatever resistance Israelis have to the “peace process”, it will be reduced with such real gestures.
This is so obvious that one must conclude that the peace process is designed to continue the conflict rather than end it.
I should point out that no one is demanding peace at the end of the process. You will recall that one of the things Arafat balked at at Camp David, was signing an “end of conflict ...   more »

by Daniel Pipes
January 2, 2008
Palestinians have a hidden history of appreciating Israel that contrasts with their better-known narrative of vilification and irredentism.
The former has been particularly evident of late, especially since Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, floated a trial balloon in October about transferring some Arab-dominated areas of eastern Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority. As he rhetorically asked about Israeli actions in 1967, "Was it necessary to annex the Shuafat refugee camp, al-Sawahra, Walajeh, and other villages, and then to state that these are part of Jerusalem? One can ask, I admit, some legitimate questions about this."
In one swoop, this statement transformed pro-Israel statements by Palestinians (for a sampling, see my 2005 article, "The Hell of Israel Is Better than the Paradise of Arafat") from the mostly theoretical into the active and political.
Indeed, Olmert's musings prompted some belligerent responses. As the title of a Globe and Mail news item puts it, "Some Palestinians prefer life in Israel: In East Jerusalem, residents say they would fight a handover to Abbas regime." The article offers the example of Nabil Gheit, who, with two stints in Israeli prisons and posters of "the martyr Saddam Hussein" over the cash ...   more »

"[Ali] Dandis worked as a clerk at the Sharia courts in Hebron. Both are residents of the West Bank city, security officials said. They noted that Friday's attack was not the first time that Palestinian security officials or policemen were involved in terror attacks. Last month, Ido Zoldan was gunned down in the West Bank by Palestinian terrorists that turned out to be members of the PA security forces."
Act of war. Imagine the outrage if Israeli soldiers had killed two Fatah men under the same circumstances; indeed, there is an appalling double standard, but it also underscores the fact that the forces of any legitimate state are expected to conduct themselves with order and discipline. (Then again, it also begs the question: were they following orders?) Is "Palestine," in any form, at any point in time, to be exempt from that expectation? "'Killers were from Fatah, one was Palestinian police'," by Yaakov Katz for the Jerusalem Post:
As first published in The Jerusalem Post on Sunday , one of the terrorists who killed two Israeli hikers on Friday near Hebron is a policeman in the Palestinian National Security Force, and the other is a known Fatah operative and a ...   more »

“O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up on a high mountain; O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, “Behold, your God!” (Isaiah 40:9 ASV)
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” (Isaiah 52:7 NKJV)
In 2008, Israel will celebrate the 60th Anniversary of its miraculous rebirth. That it has survived to reach this year must really stick in the craw of the devil and of all those who have sought to be useful to him in trying to bring about the destruction of the Jewish state.
Some people think Israel is spelled I-S-R-A-E-L and Jew is spelled J-E-W.
They’d be wrong on both counts. Both “Israel” and “Jew” are spelled: M-I-R-A-C-L-E.
There is no getting away from it. That the Jews still exist as a nation; that Israel still exists as a state flies in the face of all probability.
They survive against all the odds.
Take the Jews:
Egypt, ...   more »

Sidewalk adviser knocked unconscious, police let suspect flee
Pro-life activists are calling for an investigation into – and possibly prosecution of – police officers who responded to a severely injured abortion clinic sidewalk counselor, but then allowed his suspected attacker to leave the scene.
"It is unbelievable that an officer would allow an attacker to go free after inflicting life-threatening injuries on an elderly gentleman, then threaten to arrest the witness to the crime," said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue.
"That was not only unprofessional conduct, but it showed a fundamental lack of respect for Mr. Snell's life and beliefs. She should face serious discipline."
The attack happened just before Christmas, as Ed Snell, 69, was trying to counsel women entering the Hillcrest Abortion Center in Harrisburg, Pa., according to witnesses at the scene.
According to a report by the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, the work of counselors such as Snell had been so effective at Hillcrest that the abortion business had built a 7-foot-tall privacy fence to prevent counselors from speaking to women entering the business.
So counselors started bringing ladders to see over the fence. Snell, however, built a platform on ...   more »

By Dr. Patrick Jonston
January 1, 2008
Physicians have been writing letters and lobbying Congress and the Senate this week to urge our representatives to put a halt to the 10.1% cut in Medicare disbursements that was scheduled to go into effect on January 1. That rate cut would be devastating to physicians practices and subsequently, to their patients. We were relieved to discover on 12-20 that our lobbying was successful, and the rate decrease has been postponed. If Medicare disbursements decrease as Medicaid's has done, you may find more and more physicians refusing to take Medicare just as many have refused to take Medicaid.
However, why do I feel like we're putting a bandaid on a festering skin cancer? My town of Zanesville, Ohio, has recently erected a brand new spacious Social Security Administration office - a very elegant bandaid on this cancer indeed. Despite the appearance, Medicare and Social Security are inevitably headed for a cliff of economic bankruptcy. The General Accounting Office of the U.S. government has warned of the coming fiscal collapse if we continue with the status quo. Some taxpayer groups are fearful of Medicare bankrupting as early as 2019. Social Security will start running ...   more »

As I explained in yesterday’s post, the second phase of liberalism, egalitarian-liberalism, focused on inequities other than rich against poor, the traditional Marxist inequity. One such inequity that has been a frequent target of egalitarian-liberalism is that of privileged Christianity over other underprivileged religions.
Because liberals have often championed atheism, which of course is certainly an underdog philosophy in the United States when compared to Christianity, some people have gotten the false idea that liberals are pro-atheist, but this is not the case. Liberals are merely anti-Christian because it’s the most powerful religion.
Liberals will often take positions just to spite Christianity and for no other reason. For example, liberals are in favor of teaching evolution in the schools, and of course evolution should be taught, but this has given liberals an unfair characterization as being in favor of free scientific inquiry. But nothing could be further from the truth, liberals are only in favor of scientific inquiry that disproves Christianity. Liberals are dead set against any inquiry into evolutionary psychology, which is a natural consequence of evolution. Evolutionary psychology attacks the very egalitarian principles of liberalism, so liberals, quite ironically, attack evolutionary psychology with the same fervor that William ...   more »

BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
Unfed bugs are 1/4 to 3/8 inch long. They are brown or red-brown in color and the upper surface of the body appears crinkled. Recently fed, they are engorged with blood, dull red in color.
A bedbug epidemic has exploded in every corner of New York City - striking even upper East Side luxury apartments owned by Gov. Spitzer's father, the Daily News has learned.
The blood-sucking nocturnal creatures have infested a Park Ave. penthouse, an artist's colony in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a $25 million Central Park West duplex and a theater on Broadway, according to victims, exterminators and elected officials.
Once linked to flophouses and fleabags, bedbug outbreaks victimize the rich and poor alike and are spreading panic in some of the city's hottest neighborhoods.
"In the last six months, I've treated maternity wards, five-star hotels, movie theaters, taxi garages, investment banks, private schools, white-shoe law firms, Brooklyn apartments in Greenpoint, DUMBO and Cobble Hill, even the chambers of a federal judge," said Jeff Eisenberg, owner of Pest Away Exterminating on the upper West Side.
The numbers are off the charts: In 2004, New Yorkers placed 537 calls to 311 about bedbugs in their homes; the city ...   more »

The former Federal Reserve chief now admits there is a housing bubble, yet he still refuses to take the blame he so richly deserves.
By Bill Fleckenstein
A debate is beginning to rage about where to lay blame for the mortgage mess: the lenders or the borrowers. In some cases, I'd point to the lenders; in others, the borrowers; and beyond that, a combination of both.
But I think that where absolutely ridiculous mortgages were issued to folks who didn't make much money and could be considered somewhat naive, the blame ought to fall more on the lenders. Of course, the lenders didn't worry about their own exposure to risk, as they passed these mortgages on to financial companies. The latter sliced and diced them into derivatives -- products that, in turn, got peddled to the next bag holder.
Claiming innocence abroad
Alan Greenspan
That brings me to the champion-in-chief of derivatives and the man responsible for the lion's share of this debacle: Alan Greenspan. (He has been on my mind the past couple of months, as I have been writing a book about him, slated to be published around the turn of the year.) And yet, in a recent ...   more »

'Most Americans know the forces of terrorism will not rest'
Fred Thompson
GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson is warning the biggest threat facing America isn't economic or social or even political: It's the danger from nuclear terrorism.
"That the years ahead will be dangerous needs no elaboration from me," Thompson, a former U.S. senator from Tennessee, says in a new video prepared for Iowa voters who will caucus later this week.
"Most Americans know the forces of terrorism will not rest until a mushroom cloud hangs over one of our cities," he said.
Thompson, who is trailing several other candidates in Iowa, said those other issues, such as "economy, taxes, protecting our borders, and protecting the right to life," are important but are not the biggest concern this nation faces.
Rasmussen Reports, considered one of the most accurate polling services, says Arizona Sen. John McCain held support from 17 percent of likely Republican primary voters, former Massachussetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee are at 16 percent, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is at 15 percent and Thompson is at 12 percent heading into the new year.
Thompson's 17-minute video notes there is no "frontrunner," and ...   more »

By OLIVER HARVEY
Chief Feature Writer
in Kahuta, Pakistan  
A FANATICAL Pakistani cleric told The Sun yesterday of his chilling dream to turn the world Muslim – by force if necessary.
Qari Hifzur Rehamn, 60, spoke openly of imposing Islamic law’s stoning and beheading on Britain – as Pakistan was rocked by unrest over the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
He warned: “We want Islamic law for all Pakistan and then the world.
“We would like to do this by preaching. But if not then we would use force.”
Rehamn, 60, spoke in the Pakistani town of Kahuta as the call to prayer echoed over the dusty streets.
He is Imam of the town’s fundamentalist religious school or madrassa, where classes for kids as young as nine include Jihad or Holy War and barbaric punishments.
His teachings are frightening enough. But his mosque lies in the shadow of the secret bunker where Pakistan produces nuclear weapons.
And when asked if it would be right to nuke British infidels, he laughed and answered: “Probably.”
Army
Rehamn, in a flowing grey beard and turban, explained Islamic, or Sharia Law as we sat surrounded by some of his 250 students.
He said: “Adulterers ...   more »

Etgar Lefkovits
The Knesset's Christian Allies Caucus is marking its fourth anniversary next week, at a time of burgeoning ties between Israel and the predominantly supportive evangelical Christian community around the world.
But as the relationship flourishes, the lobby also faces growing challenges from opponents of Israel's ties with the evangelical world, both in Israel and abroad.
The increasingly influential parliamentary lobby, currently made up of 13 Knesset members from seven political parties across the political spectrum, has come to epitomize Israel's newfound interest in garnering the support of the Christian world, especially the largely pro-Israel evangelical community, at a time when radical Islam is on the rise.
"Evangelical Christians are the most strategic ally the state of Israel has and we have to be stupid not to understand this," said caucus chairman MK Benny Elon (NU-NRP), who spearheaded Israel's campaign to court evangelical Christian support during his tenure as tourism minister.
"This is not just friendship as a means to an end but true friendship," Elon said, negating ongoing concerns in certain streams of Judaism over ulterior motives evangelicals may have in their relations with Israel.
Established in January 2004 amid a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings, the parliamentary ...   more »