by Daniel Pipes
Two religiously-identified new states emerged from the shards of the British empire in the aftermath of World War II. Israel, of course, was one; the other was Pakistan.
They make an interesting, if infrequently-compared pair. Pakistan's experience with widespread poverty, near-constant internal turmoil, and external tensions, culminating in its current status as near-rogue state, suggests the perils that Israel avoided, with its stable, liberal political culture, dynamic economy, cutting-edge high-tech sector, lively culture, and impressive social cohesion.
But for all its achievements, the Jewish state lives under a curse that Pakistan and most other polities never face: the threat of elimination. Its remarkable progress over the decades has not liberated it from a multi-pronged peril that includes nearly every means imaginable: weapons of mass destruction, conventional military attack, terrorism, internal subversion, economic blockade, demographic assault, and ideological undermining. No other contemporary state faces such an array of threats; indeed, probably none in history ever has.
The enemies of Israel divide into two main camps: the Left and the Muslims, with the far Right a minor third element. The Left includes a rabid edge (International ANSWER, Noam Chomsky) and a more polite centre (United Nations General Assembly, Canada's ...   more »

By Stan Goodenough
Israeli lawmakers and others across the political spectrum are demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert after police revealed Thursday he is under investigation for allegedly receiving large amounts of cash in bribes.
Responses have ranged from outrage at the fact that Olmert is undergoing yet another criminal probe - his fifth since taking office - to the conviction that he is paying the price for pushing ahead with plans to divide the Land of Israel and give half to the Palestinian Arabs.
The Labor Party, the largest coalition partner after Olmert's Kadima Party, has said it will remain in the government for now and "see what happens."
While a number of Kadima officials have indicated that it will be difficult for them to remain supportive of Olmert, they were not jumping ship just yet.
A Knesset Member in the opposition Likud Party, MK Gideon Sa'ar, described Olmert as "unworthy" and not fit to continue as prime minister. "The Kadima government is up to their necks in investigations of corruptions and is failing to run the state properly," he charged. Israel is demanding that elections be held, so that the people can "choose a different leadership." ...   more »

By Stan Goodenough
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, appearing
increasingly desperate to see an Israeli-Palestinian
Arab agreement signed before her president leaves
office at the end of the year, reportedly used less
than diplomatic language speaking to a reporter last
Monday.
Both sides "need to draw a map [showing their
agreed-upon borders of Israel and "Palestine"] and get
it done," she said tersely, according to a report in
The Jerusalem Post Friday.
Rice was on her way back to Washington from a two-day
visit to Israel when she let her irritation show.
She appears to have failed in her quest on that visit,
where her brief was supposedly to try and get
something substantial for President George W. Bush to
work with when he arrives in Jerusalem next week.
Instead, after meeting with a newly-scandal-plagued
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and ineffectual PLO
terror chief Mahmoud Abbas, Rice was forced to leave
empty-handed.
Bush is due to arrive Wednesday on a 60-hour visit.
His schedule has him addressing the Knesset, meeting
with Olmert and Israeli President Shimon Peres, taking
a tour of Masada, hosting a reception in honor of
Israel's 60th Anniversary, which on the Gregorian
Calendar falls on ...   more »

By Stan Goodenough
Lebanon appeared to be sliding into chaos Friday as the Iranian-backed, Syrian-supplied Hizb'allah moved to dramatically upgrade its role in the running of Israel's sorely-troubled northern neighbor.
At least 11 people were reportedly killed and dozens wounded in three days of clashes which saw armed Hizb'allah fighters - who are Shia Muslims - clash with Sunni Muslim and other government-supporting Lebanese and take over most the Muslim western part of Beirut.
Government-run media outlets were seized and the Lebanese army - reportedly wanting to remain "neutral" - handed control of its offices over to Hizb'allah forces.
Some analysts said the terrorist organization would not try to directly install itself as the new government - a step that could easily ignite a new civil war - but instead was likely to ask the military to assume control.
From his new position of strength Hizb'allah terror chief Hassan Nasrallah dismissed calls by other Lebanese political leaders to quell his belligerence, and demanded the US-backed government of Prime Minister Fuoad Siniora agree to sit down to "talks" with his organization.
But while the immediate ramifications of what seemed undeniably to be a violent putsch attempt were not clear, the quickly-forming ...   more »

Still Fighting the Same War

By Jonathan Tobin


 
 
 
 

 

 



 In the course of a lengthy essay in The Atlantic, writer Jeffrey Goldberg quotes an encounter he had with a Gazan imam named Ibrahim Mudeiris, who had just delivered a sermon in which he had described the Jews as "the sons of apes and pigs."
Mudeiris summed up the current standoff between Israel and the Hamas movement which currently runs Gaza by saying, "It does not matter what the Jews do. We will not let them have peace."
He went on to describe the futility with which generations of Israelis have sought to deal with the Palestinians succinctly: "They can be nice to us or they can kill us, it doesn't matter. If we have a cease-fire with the Jews, it is only so that we can prepare ourselves for the final battle."
What can the Israelis do when faced with such intransigence?
ARE THEY FINISHED?
Goldberg's lengthy and disquieting ruminations on this question provide no easy answers, but the question in the title of the piece, "Is Israel Finished?" provides the decided noncelebratory feel to a piece published to coincide with Israel's 60th birthday.
Prime ...   more »

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad chooses to mark Israel's 60th Independence Day by warning Zionist regime of its 'impending doom'
AFP
"Israel is nothing but a stinking corpse," said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Thursday, speaking with the Iranian news agency IRNA.
Unlike other world leaders who sent Israel their congratulations on its 60th Independence Day, Ahmadinejad chose to convey a radically different message.  
"Those who think they can resuscitate the stinking corpse of the Zionist regime on its birthday are sorely mistaken… the very existence of the Zionist entity is questioned. It is heading for destruction.
"Israel has come to its end like the dead rat it became after it was beaten in the (Second) Lebanon War," added Ahmadinejad.
The small Jewish community in Iran did not celebrate Israel's independence. Siamak Morsedah, head of the Jewish community in Iran told AFP that the community saw no need to celebrate, especially since Israel was "killing innocent Palestinians" in theGaza Strip.   
The Jewish community in Iran, he added, does not agree with Israel's conduct in the Strip since it constituted what he called "inhumane behavior"; nor does the community feel the need to mark the Jewish State's independence – "We are ...   more »

Some point to anti-gun politics as applications rise 39 percent and swamp the state
By JANET ELLIOTT
ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACK
During the week that ended Friday, DPS said, it processed 1,043 original and renewal applications but received 1,871 requests.
AUSTIN — Demand for concealed handgun licenses has risen nearly 40 percent in Texas in a year, an increase being attributed to many factors, even presidential politics.
Though the exact cause may be unclear, what's certain is that the spike in applications has caught the Department of Public Safety unprepared.
The state is taking a month longer than the 60 days allowed by law to process original applications and 80 days longer on renewals, which are supposed to be handled within 45 days.
"We're trying really hard, but there have been delays because of the tremendous increase in applications," said Tela Mange, a DPS spokeswoman.
She said the department is paying overtime and hiring temporary workers to reduce the backlog. Mange said she doesn't know why applications last month were 39 percent higher than they were in April 2007.
But Ross Bransford, who trains 1,000 Texans a year to qualify for a concealed handgun license, said he believes ...   more »

By Roland Gribben
An extinct volcano in the US may hold the key to extending the life of North Sea oilfields and squeezing an extra 17pc of untapped reserves out of them.   
Artist's impression of the volcano near Jackson City
Malcolm Wicks, the energy minister, is visiting the site near Jackson City in Mississippi to see how carbon dioxide is extracted deep underground before being piped 60 miles to force out oil from an old field.
With an estimated 25bn barrels of oil equivalent left to exploit in the North Sea, Mr Wicks said it would be increasingly challenging and would need innovative technologies to tap the remaining reserves.
More on oil
Denbury Resources homepage
He added: "This project uses pressurised carbon dioxide which could also be captured from industrial plants so it would mean a plus for the environment too."
advertisementDenbury Resources, the biggest oil and gas operator in the state, has successfully exploited carbon injection techniques in Mississippi and elsewhere to recover significant quantities of reserves from mature reservoirs, and it believes the technology can be successfully developed in the North Sea.
The Government is anxious to see Britain break into the carbon market to squeeze oil ...   more »

By Paula Horton, Herald staff writer
Emergency sirens sounded just after 9 a.m. after a mock fire and explosion at the Umatilla Chemical Depot sent a plume of toxic smoke toward Benton County.
Residents around the depot were evacuated, along with Benton County residents north of the Columbia River in the Paterson and Plymouth areas.
Evacuation shelters were opened in Kennewick and Prosser.
 About 30 minutes after the disaster drill, Benton County's Emergency Operations Center in Richland activated to coordinate evacuation plans and set up decontamination shelters so officials would be prepared for whatever happened next.
Monday's emergency drill was the first scenario for emergency responders to deal with during a three-day disaster preparedness drill.
Benton, Umatilla and Morrow county officials, along with officials from both states, are participating in the annual Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program drill.
The local drill is being done as part of a national training exercise coordinating local, state and federal agencies.
At Benton County's Emergency Operations Center on Monday, everyone appeared calm as they answered phones, received weather updates and monitored events online at other regional emergency centers and the state's emergency center.
"A lot of information used to be on telephones and there'd ...   more »

Tornado-safe rooms shielded students in Carlisle, Arkansas, from storm last week
Gov. Mike Beebe urges schools statewide to use funds to build safe rooms
State law does not require schools to install safe tornado-safe rooms
CARLISLE, Arkansas (AP) -- Just before the tornado sirens sounded, school superintendent Floyd Marshall got the warning from police -- a twister was coming right for the town's elementary and high school.
But Marshall had a weapon of his own: Unlike most other schools in Arkansas, the two Carlisle schools have specially designed interior hallways -- dubbed tornado-safe rooms -- where 750 students cowered until the storms passed by Friday.
"You may never need it, but that one time that you do that you don't have it, it's something you can't recover from," Marshall said.
The tornado eventually veered away from the shared campus of the schools at the last moment, but Gov. Mike Beebe acknowledged the importance of the rooms on a visit to the city Monday.
"I'd like to see them everywhere. I'd like to see them as much as possible," Beebe said. "But at this juncture, we're not in a position to mandate them everywhere, unless you have the money to be ...   more »

Archaeologists believe they have found the Queen of Sheba's palace at Axum, Ethiopia and an altar which held the most precious treasure of ancient Judaism, the Ark of the Covenant, the University of Hamburg said Wednesday. Scientists from the German city made the startling find during their spring excavation of the site over the past three months. The Ethiopian queen was the bride of King Solomon of Israel in the 10th century before the Christian era. The royal match is among the memorable events in the Bible. Ethiopian tradition claims the Ark, which allegedly contained Moses' stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written, was smuggled to Ethiopia by their son Menelek and is still in that country. The University said scientists led by Helmut Ziegert had found remains of a 10th-century-BC palace at Axum-Dungur under the palace of a later Christian king. There was evidence the early palace had been torn down and realigned to the path of the star Sirius. The team hypothesized that Menelek had changed religion and become a worshipper of Sirius while keeping the Ark, described in the Bible as an acacia-wood chest covered with gold. Remains of sacrifices of bullocks were evident around ...   more »

Dirty bomb ingredients: They're radioactive, and
they're missing


--WND Exclusive--
================================


http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=63749
Editor's Note: The following report is excerpted from
Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium online
newsletter published by the founder of WND.
Subscriptions are $99 a year or, for monthly trials,
just $9.95 per month for credit card users, and
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Harwell Atomic Energy Center
LONDON -- Britain's intelligence service MI5 has
launched a high priority search for more than 1,000
pieces of missing radioactive medical equipment used
in the treatment of cancers and other illnesses in
British hospitals, says a report in Joseph Farah's G2
Bulletin.
The loss was discovered after Britain's understaffed
National Health Service hospitals made their quarterly
inventory returns to the government Environmental
Agency -- responsible for the safety of all medical
radioactive materials.

In all, some 10,000 items -- mostly used in nuclear
medicine -- were accounted for. Those past their
use-by date were destroyed at one of Britain's nuclear
reactors.
But the missing 1,000, all of which the last inventory
check show contained radioactive material, remain
unaccounted for.
"So far nine items are definitely believed to have
been stolen or lost. But theft is the most ...   more »