By: David Bedein , The Evening Bulletin 
Jerusalem - Just one week ago, on Oct. 6, The Evening Bulletin broke the story that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, during her Middle East sojourn, had met with and encouraged the Fatah, which sponsors the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, defined by Rice's own U.S. State Department in its annual report as one of the "terrorist groups in this region", listed as: "The Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades (Fatah's militant wing)."
Now it can be confirmed that Rice not only met with and encouraged Fatah, which continues to operate the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade, but she offered to arm the Fatah.
The New York Times reported that the U.S. proposed expanding Abbas' Force 17 from 3,500 men to 6,000 as part of a $26-million plan to strengthen the Palestinian leader, while the Associated Press and Yediot Ahronot, Israel's leading daily newspaper, also reported that new training facilities for Force 17 are slated to be set up in the West Bank town of Jericho and in Gaza, at a cost of $2 million each, according to the U.S. proposal.
Abu Yousuf, an officer in the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade, said in an interview with ...   more »

The IDF released information Friday that indicated the pace of weapons smuggling into the Gaza Strip was increasing.
A senior army officer said terror groups were arming at an "unprecedented" pace, Channel 2 reported, and some officials were calling for a re-evaluation of the IDF's strategy in Gaza.
Despite intense IDF activity along the security fence in recent days and non-stop air strikes on Gaza weapons depots, terror groups have been importing more than two tons of TNT per month through tunnels burrowed under the Philadelphi corridor along the Egyptian border.
Aside from the usual merchandise of explosives, light weapons and ammunition, some 20 advanced anti-tank missiles have found their way into Gaza - a development the IDF has feared since the end of the war in Lebanon, officials said.
Several anti-tank missiles have been fired at troops and vehicles in the army's latest forays across the security fence. In two separate incidents Friday, Palestinians targeted tanks operating in Khan Yunis, but failed to inflict casualties.
Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin warned in July that the situation in Gaza could in two to three years be similar to what Israel faced in Lebanon if significant changes were not made on ...   more »

MARGARET WARNER: It's been three months since Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, leaving the Palestinians in charge of that desperately poor territory for the first time in nearly 40 years.
But withdrawal brought little improvement for Gaza's 1.3 million people because there was no provision to let them travel to or trade with the rest of the world through borders still controlled by Israel.
That changed on Tuesday with an agreement hammered out at an all-night session in Jerusalem, mediated by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Special Envoy James Wolfensohn.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE: This is agreement is intended to give the Palestinian people freedom to move, to trade, to live ordinary lives. For the first time since 1967, Palestinians will gain control over entry and exit from their territory.
MARGARET WARNER: The deal followed months of painstaking negotiations between top Israeli and Palestinian leaders brokered by former World Bank President Wolfensohn. He's the U.N. Special Envoy to help Gaza revive economically.
At one point he and some wealthy friends put up $14 million of their own money to buy money-making Gaza greenhouses from Israelis and give them to Palestinians.
But Wolfensohn quickly hit a logjam between the Palestinians' demands ...   more »

Genesis 12 : 3
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's speech at the American Task Force for Palestine's inaugural dinner in Washington on Wednesday evening was but the latest sign that America's alliance with Israel is weakening.
Rice's statement that "there could be no greater legacy for America than to help to bring into being a Palestinian state," just about says it all. The secretary of state of a president who was once friendlier to Israel than any of his predecessors now claims that the establishment of a state for a people who have distinguished themselves as the most overtly pro-jihad, terrorist society in the world would be the greatest thing American could ever do.
Unfortunately, unless concerted steps are taken by the Israeli government, Israeli citizens and the American Jewish community, the downward trend in relations with the US will only get worse. Perhaps most upsetting is the central role that a tiny minority of American Jews has played in souring ties between Jerusalem and Washington. That minority has undermined support for Israel in ...   more »

Military Intelligence officer tells Cabinet Assad continues to speak peace while preparing army for possible confrontation with Israel
Ronny Sofer
Brigadier-General Yossi Beyditz, head the Research Department in the IDF Directorate of Military Intelligence, told Cabinet Sunday that, “(Syrian President Bashar) Assad is preparing his army for a confrontation with Israel.”
“Assad has not returned the army to its pre-Lebanon war positions,” Beyditz said.  
However, he added that the Syrian army is not prepared to attack, but rather to defend the country against a possible Israeli offensive  
"These are artillery cannons, missiles and rockets positioned in forward positions. He is preparing for a defensive and not offensive response. He estimates that Israel would want to attack him," he said.
He added: "Assad continues to support Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hizbullah. We have unequivocal proof on his direct involvement in smuggling weapons to Lebanon. In the past there was no proof," he said.
"The Syrians continue to sabotage attempts to implement UN Resolution 1701 and also to harm (Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad) Siniora's sovereignty and create a majority block against him in the government," he added.
"Bashar Assad continues him wave of equivocal messages. Once he speaks about sticking ...   more »

By Aaron Klein

TEL AVIV – Syrian President Bashar Assad has fortified positions along his country's border with Israel and is preparing the Syrian army for war with the Jewish state, according to an Israeli Defense Forces assessment released today.
"Assad is preparing his army for a confrontation with Israel," Yossi Beyditz, head of research for the IDF's intelligence branch told the Israeli cabinet this morning.
"Assad has not returned the army to its pre-Lebanon war positions," Beyditz said.
Bayditz said the estimate so far is that Syria it not preparing to attack, but to defend itself against a possible Israeli offensive, which Assad believes is imminent.
"These are artillery cannons, missiles and rockets positioned in forward positions. He is preparing for a defensive and not offensive response. He estimates that Israel would want to attack him," Bayditz said.
He said Assad supports terrorism and the path of violence:
"Assad continues to support Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah. We have unequivocal proof on his direct involvement in smuggling weapons to Lebanon. In the past there was no proof," he said.
"Bashar Assad continues his wave of equivocal messages. Once he speaks about sticking with a peace strategy and simultaneously speaks ...   more »

When prime minister Ariel Sharon, reacting to anti-Semitic attacks in France, said in summer 2004 that French aliya is "a must and they have to move immediately," the French Jewish establishment, led by CRIF, was embarrassed.
French officials were scandalized; President Jacques Chirac even suggested that Sharon wasn't welcome in France, a spat that ended after Sharon lauded the French government for its vigilance against anti-Semitism.
But to Orthodox, generally rightward-leaning French Jews, who make up 30% of the community, and who fill most of the pool of potential immigrants to Israel, Sharon's call "was aimed at the right place at the right time," said Avi Zana, director in Israel of the French aliya organization AMI.
Since the intifada broke out six years ago, the number of French Jews making aliya to Israel has tripled - from about 1,000 a year before the violence began to 3,000 a year now, the highest figure since the Six Day War. Another 20,000 or so French Jews have made the final decision to immigrate to Israel, and are expected to arrive here in the coming years, said Zana, citing polls conducted for the organization three years ago. France is home to 600,000 Jews, ...   more »

A police force is considering using unmanned aerial surveillance drones to fly over troubled local council housing estates to help tackle anti-social behaviour in respective areas.
The police force for Merseyside, in western England, has formed a new Anti-Social Behaviour Task Force which will have a budget of one million pounds (1.85 million dollars, 1.5 million euros), and a staff of 137, drawn from both the local police and fire services, The Sunday Telegraph reported.
"It's a cheap way of doing aerial surveillance, it's a cheap way of doing intelligence and evidence gathering. Put over an anti-social behaviour hotspot, it is quite a significant percentage cheaper than the force helicopter," said Superintendent John Myles, the joint-head of the task force.
"There may be some hurdles. The Civil Aviation Authority may say that it is a no-no, but I don't think it is at the moment," he said.
The newspaper reported that police forces in the United States have used similar drones, which cost about 16,000 pounds each, and circle areas at a height of 250 feet (76 metres), flying at about 30 miles (50 kilometres) per hour.
Original Source

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One of the most significant phenomena in current Canadian politics – i.e. the growing shift of Canada's Jewish community from the Liberal to the Conservative Party – took a major stride last week when the top contender for the Liberal leadership accused Israel of committing a war crime.
Michael Ignatieff, a longtime Harvard authority on human rights and international law who came back to Canada two years ago to seek the Liberal leadership, seemed to stumble into the accusation.
In an interview with the Toronto Star last August, he was asked about the Israeli bombing of the Lebanese town of Qana during the Israel-Lebanon war. He replied that it was a "dirty war," and he wasn't "losing sleep" over Qana. But when this remark was condemned in Quebec as heartless, Ignatieff backtracked, saying he had erred in making it. Asked last Sunday on Quebec's top-rated talk show for further explanation, he landed himself in hotter water:
"I demonstrated a lack of compassion. It was a mistake. And when you make a mistake like that you have to admit it. And I admit it because I was a human rights professor, and I'm a professor of the laws of war, and ...   more »

Sacramento's large enclave of immigrant Slavic evangelicals is becoming a force on social issues. Their actions shock many.
By Rone Tempest
Times Staff Writer

October 13, 2006
SACRAMENTO — Organizers of the annual Rainbow Festival were prepared for trouble.
The Q Crew, a local "queer/straight alliance," distributed cards telling people what to do if approached by hostile demonstrators. Sympathetic local church groups formed a protective buffer along the festival ground's cyclone fence. Mounted police were on patrol.
Jerry Sloan manned a table for Stand Up for Sacramento, a recently formed gay self-defense organization."So far, so good," he said. "No Russians."
The festival, held last month amid the gay bars, restaurants and shops of midtown's "Lavender Heights" neighborhood, went off without conflict. But the elaborate security preparations reflected growing tensions between Sacramento gays and the city's large and vociferous community of fundamentalist Christians from the former Soviet Union.
Over the last 18 months, Sacramento Russian-language church members have picketed gay pride events, jammed into legislative committee meetings when gay issues were on the agenda and demonstrated at school board meetings.
Incited by firebrand Russian Pentacostal pastors and polemical Russian-language newspapers, the fundamentalists turn out en masse for state Capitol protest rallies....   more »

Liberty Counsel, the nonprofit litigation, education and policy organization that has been at the center of the religious freedom wars in our nation, and Jerry Falwell Ministries are again joining together this year to promote the national "Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign."
This is the fourth year of the endeavor, which is designed to educate Americans – primarily retailers, school administrators and city officials who have attempted to eradicate celebrations of Christmas – of the legalities of religious expression during the Christmas season.
Last year's operation was our most successful ever, and we are hoping more pastors and citizens will join in this effort this year.
The primary way in which people are getting involved is by placing ads in their local newspapers that spell out the rights of individuals to participate in public Christmas functions.
Liberty Counsel, which has offices in Orlando, Fla., and on the campus of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., has hundreds of affiliate attorneys in all 50 states who are pledged to be the "friends" to those individuals which do not censor Christmas and a "foe" to those that do. Last December, ABC's "Good Morning America" assessed Liberty Counsel's Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign during ...   more »