By Robert Berger
Jerusalem is emerging as a major stumbling block in new peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.  As Robert Berger reports from VOA's Jerusalem bureau, both Jews and Muslims are claiming the city's holy sites as their own.
A senior Palestinian official has thrown a wrench into peace talks by saying that the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City, the holiest place in Judaism, belongs to Islam and the Palestinians.
Muslim worshippers pray during second Friday prayers of holy fasting month of Ramadan in al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, 21 Sep 2007
The Palestinian Minister for Jerusalem Affairs Adnan Husseini says the Western Wall is a "Wakf" or Islamic Trust that must be returned to Palestinian control.  He told Israel Radio that it is a supporting wall for the al-Aksa Mosque, the third holiest place in Islam.
For Israel, the wall is the last remnant of the biblical Temple, and turning it over to the Palestinians is unthinkable.
As Israel and the Palestinians try to hammer out a declaration of principles to be presented at an international peace conference this year, Jerusalem is back on the negotiating table.
In a compromise proposal earlier this week, ...   more »

By Cal Thomas  
Name one concession Israel has made in recent years that has been reciprocated by its sworn enemies. This is not a trick question. There are none.
That's why next month's announced "Middle East Summit" in Annapolis, Md., should be viewed as one more installment payment in the sellout of Israel and of American interests in the Middle East. While the United States continues to struggle to shore up democracy in Iraq, the Bush administration — like administrations before it — proceeds in undermining the likelihood that the region's first democracy will endure.
At every negotiating session, Israel is pressured into making concessions for "peace" and receives more war in response. Mostly this is because of the wishful thinking in the West that has replaced sound policy. Why should the Palestinians make concessions when they are drawing closer to their objective of eradicating Israel by throwing stones and bombs and stonewalling negotiations?
In an address to the Israeli Knesset, President Shimon Peres reaffirmed the flaw in Western thinking: "…even if there are some who express doubt at the ability of the Palestinians to achieve peace, the impression must not be created that Israel has doubts regarding the need ...   more »

Peace movement criticizes initiative to send 45,000 students on ‘In Fighters' Footsteps’ trips to Golan
Roee Nahmias
“A political provocation”, that is how members of the Peace with Syria movement defined plans by the Defense Ministry to take 45,000 high school on trips to the Golan Heights.
The trips are part of a project called “In Fighters' Footsteps”, which is meant to prepare the students for their military service.
Suspicious Neighbors 
Syria says Israel wants to make excuses for war
Former Foreign Ministry Director General Alon Liel, who heads the movement, sent a letter Wednesday to Education Minister Yuli Tamir, urging her to prevent the participation of high schools in the project.
Copies of the letter were also sent to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna'i.
“This type of operation creates a fundamental contradiction between the government’s foreign policy, which declares a desire for peace with Syria, and its education policy, which is actively undermining the foundation of peace,” the letter said.
The letter also said the tours of the Golan were being used as “political propaganda sponsored by the education ministry”.
“We believe that as the minister of education, who has so far been recognized ...   more »

The Hillary-Obama Faith Strategy for 2008
By Dr. Paul Kengor
I’m typically not prone to conspiracy theories. Yet, I have reason to suspect that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama may be coordinating their campaign strategies. This is especially apparent in their strikingly similar bids to win the religious “values voters” who twice elected George W. Bush.
Consider the most recent overture: Over the weekend, Senator Obama went into a huge church in Greenville, South Carolina and called himself an “instrument of God,” one who is “confident that we can create a Kingdom right here on earth.” His message was notably Hillary-like, as Senator Clinton is fond of quoting Methodist founder John Wesley, who stated, “The world is my parish.” Both Senators Clinton and Obama see themselves as doing the Lord’s work; or, as Mrs. Clinton’s husband said during a political rally at a Newark church in 1996: “God’s work must be our own.”
The secular press, which goes berserk anytime it asks George W. Bush if he prays and he answers yes, is, naturally, not offended by these grandiose statements. Likewise, ACLU lawyers are not dashing to courthouses to strip the non-profit status of the Greenville church, nor any of ...   more »

The Knights Templar, the medieval Christian military order accused of heresy and sexual misconduct, will soon be partly rehabilitated when the Vatican publishes trial documents it had closely guarded for 700 years.
A reproduction of the minutes of trials against the Templars, "'Processus Contra Templarios - Papal Inquiry into the Trial of the Templars'" is a massive work and much more than a book - with a 5,900 euros (£4,113) price tag.
"This is a milestone because it is the first time that these documents are being released by the Vatican, which gives a stamp of authority to the entire project," said Professor Barbara Frale, a medievalist at the Vatican's Secret Archives.
"Nothing before this offered scholars original documents of the trials of the Templars," she said in a telephone interview ahead of the official presentation of the work on October 25.
The epic comes in a soft leather case that includes a large-format book including scholarly commentary, reproductions of original parchments in Latin, and - to tantalise Templar buffs - replicas of the wax seals used by 14th-century inquisitors.
Pope Benedict will be given the first set of the work, which is co-published by the Vatican Secret Archives
Only ...   more »

Bolton sees blocking of death sentence for Mexican rapist-murderer 'ridiculous'
John Bolton
Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton says the Bush administration is caving in to global opinion by siding with Mexico and the International Court of Justice in their attempt to overturn the death penalty of an illegal alien convicted of raping and murdering two teenage girls.
It's "a bad mistake, but one of many mistakes, I'm sad to say, the administration has made recently," Bolton said in an interview with nationally syndicated radio host Laura Ingraham.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday in the case of Jose Medellin, who confessed in 1993 to participating in the rape and murder of Houston teenagers Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena. The girls were sodomized and strangled with their shoe laces. Medellin bragged about keeping one girl's Mickey Mouse watch as a souvenir of the crime.
Medellin and four others were convicted of capital murder and sent to Texas' death row. The intervention in the case by the Bush administration comes after the International Court of Justice in the Hague found Medellin was not informed of his right to contact the Mexican Consulate for legal assistance. The cases of some 50 other ...   more »

Officials reverse policy after public outcry, Republican protest
U.S. Capitol
After public outcry and protest from House Republican leaders, officials at the U.S. Capitol reversed a policy that eliminated references to God from certificates for flags flown over the building.
Stephen T. Ayers, acting architect of the Capitol, said the change takes effect immediately.
"The Office of the Architect of the Capitol is a service organization," said a statement from Ayers. "Flying the flags over the Capitol is an important constituent service for members of Congress. When one of our services or policies doesn't effectively serve members of Congress or the American public, it needs to be changed immediately."
The old rule said: "Personalized dedications are permitted, but limited to three hundred (300) characters. Please keep in mind, political and/or religious expressions are not permitted on the flag certificate."
The new rule, posted today, includes only the first sentence limiting the length of the dedication.
Yesterday, House Republican Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to make a change in the policy being enforced by Ayers.
Ayers said the rule actually dates back to the 1970s, although it was not put in writing until recently. The ...   more »

Says 9/11 already used as pretext to kill 'hundreds of thousands' of people
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appearing at "The World Without Zionism" conference Oct. 26, 2005
The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks already have been used as the reason to attack and kill "hundreds of thousands" of people, according to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said he worries the attack will become another "false idol" like the Holocaust.
The comments came in a video statement on Iran's television news channel on Sept. 20, and were translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute's program to monitor television transmissions.
Ahmadinejad a year ago had been unable to visit the site where about 3,000 innocent Americans died when Islamic terrorists flew hijacked jets into the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
So during his recent visit to the United States to address the United Nations and accept a speaking invitation to Columbia University he asked for permission to visit the site of the terrorist attacks in 2001, but was denied permission.
Then Ahmadinejad, who has proclaimed the Holocaust a hoax in the past, was asked by the television interview: "You were supposed to visit the site of the Twin Towers, but this ...   more »

   New York's iconic Empire State Building is to be lit up green from Friday in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid, the biggest festival in the Muslim calendar marking the end of Ramadan, officials said.
"This is the first time that the Empire State Building will be illuminated for Eid, and the lighting will become an annual event in the same tradition of the yearly lightings for Christmas and Hannukah," according to a statement.
Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month, is expected to be celebrated in New York from Friday, depending on when the new moon is sighted, and the city's tallest skyscraper will remain green until Sunday.
Built in the early 1930s, the 443-meter-tall (1,454-feet-tall) Empire State Building was first lit up with colored lighting in 1976, when red, white and blue lights were used to mark the American Bicentennial.
An estimated seven million Muslims live in the United States.
Original Source

 
     more »

Otherwise, please add our e-mail address, feedblitz@mail.feedblitz.com, to your AOL address book. If this message is in your spam or bulk folder and you want to keep it, please click your "Not Spam" button now.
'Holocaust Fuels Modern Resentment of Jews & Israel' - Israeli Professor
Tel Aviv University Professor Dina Porat lays-out how the the Holocaust fuels anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism among leftist ideologues. Columnist Melanie Phillips' must-read interpretation:
"... the charge that Israeli Jews and Jews who support Israel have themselves turned into Nazis.
This deranged belief derives from a cocktail of ideology and prejudice. The victim culture championed by the left has created a large number of ‘victim’ groups all claiming primacy over each other. French thinkers such as Alain Finkielkraut and Bernard-Henri Levy have described this as a ‘competition of martyrdom’ in which groups such as American blacks, gays lesbians and other gender activists, American Indians and indigenous peoples everywhere, Muslims and so on, all compete to be considered the most victimised group on the planet. But the Holocaust, which although victimising others was specifically a Jewish genocide, made the Jews into the ultimate victims of a unique persecution. That uniqueness was considered a threat by ...   more »

Rabbi Amichai Gordin, Yeshivat Har Etzion and Shaalvim High School
Holy and Secular - "Did you see how studious Yankel is?" one of the students of the yeshiva said to another. "He never goes to sleep before three o'clock in the morning, and then he gets up only two hours later to pray with the earliest minyan. He is in the Beit Midrash almost twenty hours every day. As far as I can see, there is nobody else in the yeshiva as studious as he is."
"Well, really, there is somebody!" The students were surprised to hear a voice behind them. They turned around and saw the old "Mashgiach," the rabbi in charge of the students. "Yankel is indeed very dedicated, but Shimeleh is more studious than he is." But the students were very surprised to hear this. "Shimeleh? But he goes to bed every night at ten o'clock!" And the Mashgiach smiled. "Gentlemen! The most studios one is not the one who spends the most hours studying. The most studious one is he who spends the most time during every hour. It is true that Shimeleh spends less total time in the Beit Midrash, but whenever he is there ...   more »

The letter was believed to have been sent to The Pope and The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams (below)
 Prominent Muslim scholars are warning that the "survival of the world" is at stake if Muslims and Christians do not make peace with each other.
In an unprecedented open letter signed by 138 leading Muslim scholars from every sect of Islam, the Muslims plead with Christian leaders "to come together with us on the common essentials of our two religions."
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and Pope Benedict are believed to have been sent copies of the document which calls for greater understanding between the two faiths.
The letter also spells out the similarities between passages of the Bible and the Koran.
The Muslim scholars state: "As Muslims, we say to Christians that we are not against them and that Islam is not against them - so long as they do not wage war against Muslims on account of their religion, oppress them and drive them out of their homes."
The phrasing has similarities to the New Testament passage: "He that is not with me is against me" - a passage used by President George Bush when addressing ...   more »