Arrival feels more like a crash than a landing. Takeoff knocks the air out of you.
The US government has flown a group of Israeli dignitaries to the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier as part of this week's celebrations for Israel's 60th birthday.
Fighter jets swooped on and off the 330-meter, nuclear-powered carrier Sunday in a spectacular show of high-tech airpower some 160 kilometers off the coast of Israel.
The carrier's Jewish commander, Capt. Herm Shelansky, had the idea of inviting the Israelis when he realized the Truman would be passing near the Israeli coast just as Israel was commemorating its 60th. His ship is named after the US president who recognized the new Jewish state only moments after it declared its independence on May 14, 1948.
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THE WASHINGTON TIMES EDITORIAL - Make no mistake about it, the quick, brutal display of raw military power by Hezbollah in the past six days is a window into the grim future of Lebanon and the broader Middle East: a future in which Iran and Syria are ascendant and have lost much of their fear of the United States and Israel. It sends a message to President Bush, who arrives in Israel Wednesday to commemorate that nation's 60th birthday: that Tehran and Damascus can project power whenever they want in places like Lebanon, and the United States and it's allies can't do anything about it.
At least 44 people were killed and another 128 wounded in the fighting — the worst outbreak of sectarian violence inside Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war. Although domestic Lebanese issues played a role in the violence, they are inseparable from the larger geopolitical issues. Ever since the Feb. 14, 2005, assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which eventually forced Damascus to remove its occupation troops, Syrian President Bashar Assad has wanted to reclaim power in Lebanon. So, on Friday, after several days of street clashes between pro-government forces and opposition forces, all-out warfare ...   more »

By Joshua Mitnick - RAMALLAH, West Bank — Hezbollah's dramatic gains in Lebanon last week are just part of a regional process that began last year in the Gaza Strip and will continue in Jordan and Egypt, a Hamas official in the West Bank told The Washington Times.
Sheik Yazeeb Khader, a Ramallah-based Hamas political activist and editor, said militant groups across the Middle East are gaining power at the expense of U.S.-backed regimes, just as Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from forces loyal to U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
"What happened in Gaza in 2007 is an achievement; now it is happening in 2008 in Lebanon. It's going to happen in 2009 in Jordan and it's going to happen in 2010 in Egypt," Sheik Khader said in an interview.
"We are seeing a redrawing of the map of the Middle East where the forces of resistance and steadfastness are the ones moving the things on the ground."
His remarks highlight how a growing alliance linking Hamas, Iran and Hezbollah straddles the Shi'ite-Sunni rift.
The notion of new countries falling under Islamist influence reflects a goal of Hamas' parent group, the Muslim Brotherhood, of replacing secular Arab ...   more »

BEIJING — China's worst earthquake in nearly three decades killed nearly 9,000 people Monday. The Chinese government, sensitive to accusations it did not move quickly enough in previous disasters, immediately launched a massive relief effort.
The 7.8-magnitude quake trapped nearly 900 students under the rubble of their school and devastated a hilly region in Sichuan and nearby provinces. The official Xinhua News Agency said 8,533 people died in Sichuan and dozens of other deaths were reported elsewhere.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao boarded a plane within hours of the quake and later arrived in the provincial capital of Chengdu. Thousands of army troops and paramilitary People's Armed Police carrying medical supplies were also headed to the region, state television said.
WASHINGTON CONCERNS: U.S. worried aid won't get where it's needed
VIDEO: Death toll from China earthquake rising
"My fellow Chinese, facing such a severe disaster, we need calm, confidence, courage and efficient organization," Wen said while en route to the disaster. "I believe we can certainly overcome the disaster with the public and the military working together under the leadership of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the government."
"This is one of the most decisive responses you will ...   more »

By Jim R. Schwiesow
Time is fleeting and every second, minute, hour and day hurtles this nation closer to a time of retribution, a time so horrific that the mind cannot comprehend the magnitude of the fiery fury that will descend upon this nation and the people in it. The Eternal is moving against this country with purpose and terrible resolve, like small fingers of flame the preliminary pestilences signal a rapidly advancing holocaust.
The worst of heathen have come to possess the offices of our government, the halls of our institutions and the minds of our people. The land is in the terminal stages of a great spiritual disease. We are an adulterous people and a scarlet A has been emblazoned upon our land.
With regularity one hears it parroted that God’s blessings are upon this nation, those who give lip service only to the God of all creation continually wring their hands in despair over the removal of God from our coins, prayer from our schools and the Ten Commandments from our public institutions. One can only wonder where these same people were when sexual perversity and the teaching of social filthiness invaded our schools. Where were they ...   more »

Is $120 oil even real? Not if you ask the Saudis, or even Lehman Bros.
The investment bank’s oil expert said this week that the oil boom is due to bust. Economic growth across the globe will slow just as new refineries kick in, raising supply.
Recession or not, a U.S. slowdown will slacken demand sharply, right as new oil hits the market. "Supply is outpacing demand growth,” said Michael Waldron, Lehman’s oil strategist.
"Inventories have been building since the beginning of the year. We have pretty significant projects starting soon in Saudi Arabia, and large off-shore fields in Nigeria,” he said.
Lehman is now predicting prices at $83 a barrel in 2009 and as low as $70 in 2010.
Although some years off, Brazil too has found as much as 8 billion barrels of light oil and gas offshore. The South American giant’s president says his country might well join OPEC when the Tupi field begins to pump, in 2011.

In addition, Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds have pushed up the oil price by investing billions of their oil gains, ironically, in commodities index funds.
Now they could be looking to get out, warns Waldron. He figures the money ...   more »

By: Phil Brennan   A full-scale civil war is raging in Mexico -- and few are paying attention.
Drug cartels seeking to keep control over huge swathes of Mexico have been on a rampage. In the past two weeks alone, at least 10 police officials have been murdered -- including the chief of Mexico's federal police, Edgar Millan.
Millan was gunned down outside his home Thursday morning. On Friday, the killings continued with the the shooting death of Esteban Robles Espinosa, commander of Mexico City's police detectives. His body was riddled with eight bullets.
President Felipe Calderon began taking on the cartels last year, deploying the nation's military to bolster police activities. So far, estimates say more than 3,000 Mexicans have been killed, with almost 1,000 deaths this year alone in a brutal struggle by the civilian government to reassert authority.
The engagements between cartels and the authoritied are getting more grisly by the day.
Earlier this month, dozens of armed gunmen dressed as police showed up at the home of a powerful political boss in Petatlan, a pacific coastal town. His name is Rogaciano Alba. Alba was not home, but the drug combatants decided to line up 10 of Alba's ...   more »

An Israeli technology firm established in 2003 with the express purpose of developing a system to identify individuals intent on causing mayhem is close to releasing a deployable product.
WeCu (text messaging lingo for "we see you") was set up by leading Israeli researchers at the height of the Palestinian suicide bombing campaign in order to find a technological solution to Israel's growing security problems.
The company's new system, as reported by Ha'retz, can be set up in public areas where it would quietly and quickly scan people without their knowledge. The system uses biometric sensors to determine if an individual is planning to carry out a terror attack, even if the suspect is not carrying a bomb or other weapons at that time. Many terrorists case their targets at least once before carrying out an attack.
If successful, the system would greatly ease the pressure on Israel's security forces and private security firms hired to protect public and private establishments from schools to cafes.
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Safed's chief rabbi: Turns out that Olmert is more corrupt than we thought, PM with values needed
Efrat Weiss
The State of Israel needs a kippa-wearing prime minister, Safed's Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu wrote in an article titled "A religious prime minister – it's possible" distributed at synagogues over the weekend.  
Rabbi Eliyahu's article also addressed the latest investigation against the prime minister, noting that "it turns out that Olmert is more corrupt than we thought."  
"So what shall we do? Elect another prime minister without faith? Another one without credibility? Another one without values?…when will we wake up and realize that we need a prime minister with a kippa?"  
"We need a prime minister who acts based on genuine faith and values. We've had enough of prime ministers who bought us by just saying 'God willing' and sold out the Sinai…we certainly don't need a prime minister who establishes and then razes communities with the same determination and sensitivity," Eliyahu wrote.  "The last prime ministers proved that even if they have good intentions, they are able to sell off the country and Jerusalem in one deal, and they are able to put all of us in ...   more »

Olmert has faced quite a few tough moments, but latest probe may be the toughest
Sima Kadmon
We will likely never forget Thursday evening, the end of the State of Israel’s 60th Independence Day. And it’s a good thing that we won’t forget it.  
Even a cynical and sober public, which in the past few years has become accustomed to acts of corruption by its leaders, found it difficult to hear the suspicions pertaining to the prime minister. It is indeed true that the public treats all politicians as if they are in one boat: All are corrupt, self-interested, and take care of themselves first. Yet the offence Olmert is suspected of belongs to a whole new ballgame and completely changes the way we address this affair.       
if he is suspected of accepting a bribe, he won’t be able to rely on the well-known Olmertian technique: A combination of law and spins, arguments and delays. He knows that suspicions of having received large sums of money that went into his pocket, in cash, inside envelopes, for years, are a whole new story, and Olmert made an effort to disprove it Thursday night.  
I never accepted a ...   more »

Israel will eventually have to act, as Lebanon turns into Iranian colony
Alex Fishman Pu
The weekend’s events in Lebanon are a painful reminder that in a year Iran will be officially situated on our northern border. We need to get used to it.  
Barring any surprises, in the next parliamentary elections Lebanon will fall into the hands of Hizbullah and turn into an Iranian colony. We are only minor players in this story. This isn’t 1982, and we have no desire or ability to intervene. We also don’t have powerful allies in Lebanon, so we can’t do anything.  
Chaos  
Fighting in northern Lebanon as Hizbullah ends Beirut takeover     
Siniora and Hariri, who head the coalition that pushed Syria out of Lebanon, are currently breathing their last breaths in regional history – and they know it. They reached this situation, among other reasons, thanks to the twisted foreign policy led by Condoleezza Rice.  
On one hand, during the months of the presidential crisis the American Administration forbade Siniora to agree to a compromise, which he could have reached, with Hizbullah. On the other hand, the US did not provide Lebanon’s prime minister with the military ...   more »