Update and Commentary
Bush and Abbas Make Alarming
Statements - Bill Koenig

By Bill Koenig

                                                                                  


President George W. Bush is rapidly moving himself and our nation on a collision course with God over Israel’s covenant land. His peace efforts and personal commitments on the surface sound good but they are biblically wrong. He is calling for a contiguous Palestinian state from Ramallah to Gaza, which will divide Israel. Additionally, his plan to put a Palestinian state on God’s covenant land and replace Jews with Palestinian terrorists is incomprehensible. The whole peace process is built on lies, deception, misperceptions and unfairness.
President Bush’s efforts could very well lead Israel into a civil war and further division. He will be responsible for the forceful evacuation of Jews by Jews off the land God gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants. If his policies are implemented, Israel will be living with indefensible borders.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stated, "We must then immediately move to permanent status negotiations to deal with the issues of Al-Quds, East Jerusalem as a capital of the future state of Palestine, the issues of refugees, settlements, borders, security, and water, on the basis of President Bush's vision, and on the basis of U.N. resolutions, and the basis of the Arab Initiative."

Read More
 

[The Sanhedrin, Israel]
Since its meeting on 28th Shvat 5765, the Sanhedrin has deliberated the initiative of the Prime Minister of Israel, the decisions of the government, and legislation enacted by the Knesset regarding the plan known as "The Disengagement," henceforth referred to in this document as "the uprooting."
This plan involves the uprooting of Jewish communities in the Gaza strip and northern Samaria, the forced expulsion of Jews from their homes, and the willful transfer of these lands to a foreign power.
Following an intensive study which took place regarding the halachic (authentic Jewish law) questions that arise from the government's decision, the Sanhedrin hereby brings its conclusions and decisions to the public's attention.

Read More

A paragraph scrawled on a piece of hotel stationery by a young British civil servant in July 1917 will be sold next month by Sotheby's for hundreds of thousands of dollars. But its value goes far beyond money, as Donald Macintyre explains
26 May 2005
The term "living history" is a cliché that slips as easily from the lips of museum curators as it does from the makers of documentary films.
But it may actually help to explain why a single paragraph of roughly abbreviated handwriting scrawled on a piece of a Bloomsbury hotel's stationery by a young British civil servant in the summer of 1917 should attract such attention ­ and such a price-tag. It is easily the most valuable item in a batch of papers estimated by Sotheby's to be worth between $500,000 (£273,000) and $800,000 when it goes on sale at its New York auction house next month.

Read More

U.S. criticisms provoke angry reaction
Thursday, May 26, 2005 Posted: 11:38 AM EDT (1538 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Syrian government has halted all cooperation with the United States in sharing information about the war on terror, Syria's ambassador said Tuesday.
Imad Moustapha told CNN that Syria's decision came in the wake of recent "unfair and inaccurate" statements by U.S. officials that Damascus was allowing foreign fighters to cross Syria's border to aid in the insurgency in Iraq.

Read More

Scientists Create 18 Scenarios
POSTED: 1:35 pm PDT May 25, 2005
UPDATED: 3:39 pm PDT May 25, 2005
LOS ANGELES -- If the Puente Hills fault -- which was not recognized as a major active fault until 1999 -- ruptures, the resulting earthquake could devastate a large area of the Southland, scientists said Wednesday.
Seismologists now know that the fault has ruptured at least four times in the last 11,000 years, resulting in earthquakes with magnitudes ranging from 7.2 to 7.5, according to the U.S. Geological Survey and USC-based Southern California Earthquake Center.
A similar earthquake there today could cause 3,000 to 18,000 deaths, 60,000 to 260,000 injuries and $250 billion in total damages, according to Tom Jordan, director of the SCEC and co-author of a study on the fault published in the May issue of Earthquake Spectra.
Between 142,000 and 735,000 people could be displaced if such a temblor hits.
"There are a lot of uncertainties in these predictions," said Jordan, explaining the wide range in possible deaths, injuries and displacements.
The Puente Hills fault largely runs in an east-west direction. On the western end, it is a couple miles underground, almost directly under USC, said Jordan. The fault continues eastward, dipping under the San Gabriel Mountains.

Read More

By LARA SUKHTIAN, Associated Press Writer
Wed May 25, 7:37 PM ET
WASHINGTON - The     Palestinian Authority could receive more direct aid from the United States, a Bush administration official and congressional aides said Wednesday ahead of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' meeting with     President Bush.
Abbas is hoping Bush will reaffirm his commitment to the internationally backed road map peace plan for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and creating a Palestinian state. Abbas is concerned that U.S. support for Israel's unilateral plan to withdraw from Gaza has diverted attention from the road map.
On Wednesday, the Palestinian leader sought support on Capitol Hill, hoping to convince lawmakers that he was serious about democracy, peace, and reform.



Read More

By Kim Sengupta
27 May 2005
The United States wants Britain's proposed identity cards to have the same microchip and technology as the ones used on American documents.
The aim of getting the same microchip is to ensure compatability in screening terrorist suspects. But it will also mean that information contained in the British cards can be accessed across the Atlantic.
Michael Chertoff, the newly appointed US Secretary for Homeland Security, has already had talks with the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, and the Transport Secretary, Alistair Darling, to discuss the matter.
Mr Chertoff said yesterday that it was vital to seek compatibility, holding up the example of the "video war" of 25 years ago, when VHS and Betamax were in fierce competition to win the status of industry standard for video recording systems

Read More.

By Associated Press  May 27, 2005

President George W. Bush embraced Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday as a courageous democratic reformer and bolstered his standing at home with $50 million in assistance to improve the quality of life in Gaza.

Abbas, the first top Palestinian leader to visit the White House during Bush's presidency, said Palestinians were "in dire need to have freedom" from Israeli control and that the need for U.S. help was urgent. He spoke just weeks before scheduled parliamentary elections in which his supporters are vying against the militant group Hamas.

"Time is becoming our greatest enemy," Abbas said toward the end of a three-day visit during which he projected himself as the peaceful successor to Yasser Arafat and depicted the Palestinians as long suffering at the hands of Israel. Arafat, who died last November, was never invited to the White House by Bush.

Read More

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you all very much for your hospitality.  We've just had a -- wide-ranging discussions on the matter at hand.  Like the good folks standing with me, the American people were appalled and outraged at last Tuesday's attacks.  And so were Muslims all across the world.  Both Americans and Muslim friends and citizens, tax-paying citizens, and Muslims in nations were just appalled and could not believe what we saw on our TV screens.

     These acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith.  And it's important for my fellow Americans to understand that.

     The English translation is not as eloquent as the original Arabic, but let me quote from the Koran, itself:  In the long run, evil in the extreme will be the end of those who do evil.  For that they rejected the signs of Allah and held them up to ridicule.

Listen To Pres. Remarks

Read More

The Mystery of Lag Ba'Omer

Rabbi Pinchas Stolper

Thirty-three days following the first day of Passover, Jews celebrate a "minor" holiday called Lag Ba'Omer, the thirty third day of the Omer. It is an oasis of joy in the midst of the sad Sefirah period which is almost unnoticed by most contemporary Jews. Yet it contains historic lessons of such great severity -- that this generation must not only unravel the mystery of Lag Ba'Omer but will discover that its own fate is wrapped in the crevices of its secrets.

The seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot are the days of the "Counting of the Omer," the harvest festivities which were observed in Eretz-Israel when the Temple stood on Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem.

This fifty day period should have been a time of joyful anticipation. Having
experienced the Exodus from Egypt on Pesach, every Jew literally "counts the days" from the first night of Passover until Mattan Torah - the revelation of Torah at Mt. Sinai which took place on Shavuot, exactly fifty days after the Exodus. While the Exodus marks the physical birth of the Jewish nation -- the Giving of Torah completes the process through the spiritual birth of the Jewish nation.
Read More