by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) An unprecedented coalition of American Jewish groups has formed on short notice to ensure that united Jerusalem remains Jewish.
Among the member organizations are the National Council of Young Israel, the Orthodox Union, the Rabbinical Council of America, Emunah Women of America, AFSI, Hineni, AJOP (Outreach), NCSY, Poalei Agudath Israel of America, ZOA, and more.  More organizations are set to join in the coming days.
The formation of the coalition marks the first time since the establishment of the State of Israel that a significant group of American Jewish organizations has united in opposition to Israeli government policy; many of the member organizations are among Israel’s most loyal and active supporters.
The new coalition's founder, Rabbi Pesach Lerner, the Executive Vice President of the National Council of Young Israel, is concluding a six-day whirlwind trip to Israel during which he coordinated the group's activities with pro-Jerusalem forces here.
"I met with several Knesset Members," Rabbi Lerner told Arutz-7, "as well as Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, Rabbi Yosef Efrati - a top confidante of Rav Elyashiv, Rabbi Simcha Kook, Natan Sharansky, and Mayor Uri Lupoliansky. I also met with Tzafrir Ronen, Elyakim HaEtzni, the Rabbi of the Western ...   more »

By Stan Goodenough
"Palestinian" spokesmen have denounced as lies and deception Israeli claims that remains had been uncovered on Jerusalem's Temple Mount dating back to the period of Solomon's Temple.
According to the Associated Press, the Israel Antiquities Authority Sunday announced it had discovered fragments of ceramic table wares and animal bones dating back to the first Jewish temple - from the 6th to the 10th centuries BC. The finds also included fragments of bowl rims, bases and body sherds, the base and handle of a small jug and the rim of a storage jar.
But the Islamic Trust denied that any discovery was made, AP said.
AP got it right when it stated that "the site [Temple Mount] represents the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
For Muslims everywhere, and especially for the Arab nationalists out to appropriate part of the 3000-year-old City of David and turn it into the capital of a Palestinian state, denying any Jewish link to the most coveted sites has long been a central component of their strategy.
Now-deceased arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat and his Palestine Liberation Organization have spent a fortune in financial and political capital trying to "sever" the Jews' claim to the Temple ...   more »

Hilary leila kriegerTHE JERUSALEM POST
Israeli Ambassador to the US Sallai Meridor declared Monday that Israel should always be prepared "to preempt, to deter and to defeat if we can" when speaking about the threats facing the country.
Chief among those threats was Iran, said Meridor, who called for a unified international as well as domestic American front to counter the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions.
"This will take a united United States on this matter, that they would not have the illusion today that come January '09, they [Teheran] have it their own way," he said, referring to the inauguration of President George W. Bush's successor, who could potentially change US policy on Iran.
Meridor said "very little time" remained to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to avoid the worst-case scenarios, outlined by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, of an Iranian bomb or a war with Iran.
"There may be a third way still, but only if the diplomatic and economic steps could be dramatically - not incrementally - intensified," he said, adding that 33 percent of Iran's trade is with Europe.
Meridor's comments appeared to put Israel at odds with America's approach to UN Security Council sanctions, ...   more »

In a speech at flight school graduation, Syrian chief of staff tells new pilots 'we'll never relinquish our right to return occupied land'
Roee Nahmias
"Be prepared to fend off all external aggression that seeks to harm the homeland," General Ali Khabib, the Syrian chief of staff, instructed pilots at a ceremony marking their graduation from flight school Monday.
He also told the pilots to "maintain a high level of readiness and always be ready for the homeland's calling".
"Syria will never relinquish its right to return occupied land," the general continued. "As President Bashar al-Assad emphasized, Syria is interested in gaining back of all of its rights – including the return of all of its territory and sovereignty."
During his speech—a month-and-a-half after an IAF raid deep into Syria—Khabib also attacked the US: "The mask has been removed from the real intentions of the US and her allies in their invasion of Iraq. 
"This has allowed Arabs to understand the Zionist plans and plots in the region and has made clear that talks about peace and about a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are not genuine and are merely attempts to market what is being referred to as a ...   more »

By Stan Goodenough
A speech by the Syrian chief of staff was interpreted by Israeli journalists Tuesday as a call for that country's air force to prepare for war with Israel.
The Ynetnews website quoted General Ali Khabib telling graduating pilots they need to "be prepared to fend off all external aggression that seeks to harm the homeland."
"Syria is interested in gaining back of all of its rights – including the return of all of its territory and sovereignty," the general said, referring to the Golan Heights which Israel captured and extended sovereignty over four decades ago after the Syrians used it as a platform from which to attack the Jewish state.
Syria occupied the heights for just 19 years.
Tension between the two countries has ebbed and flowed since earlier this year when Israeli intelligence services first reported that Damascus dictator Bashar el-Assad was looking for a fight.
In the ensuing months, IDF tank units have on the Golan have been bolstered, and Israel has carried out a number of large-scale military exercises under the very noses of the Syrians.
For its part, Syria has reportedly been deploying SCUD surface-to-surface missiles –some reports say with non-conventional warheads - ...   more »

Israel’s wayward leadership is trying to cleverly minimize the damage done to their nation at the upcoming US-hosted peace summit in Annapolis by insisting that the faltering Middle East peace process remain tied to the Washington-backed Road Map peace plan.
The reason for hoisting the Road Map as the standard for peacemaking is that the plan is a performance-based one that if accurately followed would require the Palestinians to finally provide Israel with the peace, security and rest from aggression it has so long sought. Failure on the Palestinians’ part to do so is supposed to negate Israel’s obligation to turn over any additional territory.
So what do the Palestinians do? They naturally launch a campaign to convince the Bush Administration and other world leaders that they have already fulfilled all their obligations under the first phase of the Road Map, and are now awaiting Israel’s reciprocation. It is a laughable claim, but unfortunately for Israel it is probably enough to outflank Jerusalem’s diplomatic position since Washington and the world have never been much for fact-checking when it comes to Palestinian assertions, regardless of how wild they may be. The very fact that we are talking about a people group ...   more »

By Caroline B. Glick 
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Monday the verdict in the largest terror finance case in US history was read in a Texas courtroom. The case against the Holyland Foundation for Relief and Development and five of its principal leaders — which ended in a mistrial — was predicated on the interconnection between terrorism and international finance. The five men were accused of financing Hamas by transferring millions of dollars to organizations in Judea, Samaria and Gaza that served as distributors of charitable or zakat contributions to Hamas members and entities.
Perhaps the greatest problem with the term "war on terror" is that it confuses both the public and those charged with prosecuting the war on all levels about the nature of the enemy we face. The jihadists who seek to dominate the world in the name of Islam are not merely involved in violent activities. Organizations like Hamas, Hizbullah and al-Qaida devote the majority of their efforts to spreading the message of jihad by proselytizing fellow Muslims through propaganda, educational and welfare activities. These actions are vital for building popular support both for their terror activities and for their larger political goals.
Essential to the aims of the jihadists ...   more »

This is the message prime minister Ehud Olmert is carrying urgently to French President Nicolas Sarkozy Monday and British premier Gordon Brown Tuesday, according to DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources.
Last week, Olmert placed the Israeli intelligence warning of an Iranian nuclear breakthrough before Russian president Vladimir Putin, while Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barak presented the updated intelligence on the advances Iran has made towards its goal of a nuclear weapon to American officials in Washington, including President Bush.
Olmert will be telling Sarkozy and Brown that the moment for diplomacy or even tough sanctions has passed. Iran can only be stopped now from going all the way to its goal by direct, military action.
Information of the Iranian breakthrough prompted the latest spate of hard-hitting US statements. Sunday, Oct. 21, US vice president Cheney said: "Our country, and the entire international community, cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its grandest ambitions.''
Friday, the incoming Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen said US forces are capable of operations against Iran’s nuclear facilities or other targets. At his first news conference, he said: “I don’t think we’re stretched in that regard.”
It is worth noting ...   more »

By Daniel Pipes 
Mahmoud Abbas, Condoleezza Rice, and Ehud Olmert: Will they be celebrating at Annapolis?
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | The Bush administration's plans to convene a new round of Israeli-Arab diplomacy on Nov. 26 will, I predict, will do substantial damage to American and Israeli interests.
As a rule, successful negotiations require a common aim; in management-labor talks, for example, both sides want to get back to work. When a shared premise is lacking, not only do negotiations usually fail, but they usually do more harm than good. Such is the case in the forthcoming Annapolis, Maryland, talks. One side (Israel) seeks peaceful coexistence while the other (the Arabs) seeks to eliminate its negotiating partner, as evidenced by its violent actions, its voting patterns, replies to polls, political rhetoric, media messages, school textbooks, mosque sermons, wall graffiti, and much else.
Damage will be done should the Israeli government make "painful concessions" and get a cold peace or empty promises in return, as has consistently been the case since 1979. This lop-sided outcome would, once again, boost Arab exhilaration and determination to eliminate the Jewish state.
Contrarily, should the Israelis resist a joint U.S.-Palestinian position, I see a possible crisis in U.S.-Israel ...   more »

by Jerry Gordon
Salim Mansur is a member of the board of our Canadian ally of ACT: the Canadian Coalition for Democracies headed by Alastair Gordon and Naresh Rughubeer. Mansur is a Professor at Western Ontario University and a moderate Muslim. He is also a realist who knows a dumb move by our government when he sees one. In this Toronto Sun column he basically tells President Bush and Secretary of State Rice to stop imposing delusions of peace making on Israel with a non-existent Palestinian ‘peace partner’. If you were the Israeli PM Olmert, would you attend a ‘peace conference’ with PA President Abbas whose security detail is reportedly out to kill you? Would you sit down to discuss niceties of a peace deal with an antagonist - the Palestinians - if they had failed to comply with the basic provisions of the so-called “Road Map”? Those included dismantling of the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure and recognition of Israel’s right to exist. Israel certainly has a right to a capitol in an undivided Jerusalem. Professor Mansur has some bold suggestions in this column that should be put on the bargaining table, but probably won’t.Here are his bottom line suggestions, that ...   more »

A Christian political leader on the threat of a third party.
By Jeffrey Bartholet
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Updated: 4:06 PM ET Oct 22, 2007
Christian conservatives want more respect. They were instrumental in propelling George W. Bush to power—twice—and now they're feeling neglected. At a "Values Voters" summit in Washington last week, leading evangelicals gathered to speak out and take a straw poll. The survey showed how unhappy they are with the twice-divorced, pro-choice Republican frontrunner for the presidential nomination, Rudy Giuliani. He got less than two percent of the overall vote. (Some Christian activists have threatened to back a third-party candidate if Giuliani wins the GOP nomination.) Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won the straw poll of 5,775 conservatives, which included voters who were able to cast online ballots since August. But many evangelicals are uncomfortable with Romney's Mormon faith. That may have factored in the voting of people who actually attended the summit: Romney lost that tally by a wide margin to former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who is also an ordained Southern Baptist minister. To better understand the current thinking of Christian conservatives, Newsweek's Jeffrey Bartholet and Eve Conant spoke to Richard Land, a leading evangelical who ...   more »

By ALLISON HOFFMAN and GILLIAN FLACCUS
SAN DIEGO (AP) - Thousands more residents were ordered to evacuate their homes Tuesday, bringing the number of people chased away by the wind-whipped flames that have engulfed Southern California to at least 300,000.
By day three, the dozen wildfires had burned 1,200 homes and businesses and set 245,957 acres—384 square miles—ablaze, and the destruction may only be the start for the region. Tuesday's forecast called for hotter temperatures and more explosive Santa Ana gusts.
The blazes bedeviled firefighters as walls of flame whipped from mountain passes to the edges of the state's celebrated coastline, spreading so quickly that even hotels serving as temporary shelters for evacuees had to be evacuated.
Marilee Bishop of Running Springs and her 10 year-old-daughter Erica rubbed their red eyes Tuesday morning as they woke up in a Wal-Mart parking lot where they spent the night after being forced to leave their home. "No one ever expects something like this to happen to them," said Bishop, as thick smoke rose in the skies behind her.
As the fires spread, most out of control, smaller blazes were merging into larger, more fearsome ones. Evacuations were being announced in one community ...   more »

Schwarzenegger signs law outlawing terms perceived as negative to 'gays'
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger "Mom and Dad" as well as "husband and wife" effectively have been banned from California schools under a bill signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who with his signature also ordered public schools to allow boys to use girls restrooms and locker rooms, and vice versa, if they choose. "We are shocked and appalled that the governor has blatantly attacked traditional family values in California," said Karen England, executive director of Capitol Resource Institute. "With this decision, Gov. Schwarzenegger has told parents that their values are irrelevant. Many parents will have no choice but to pull their children out of the public schools that have now become sexualized indoctrination centers." "Arnold Schwarzenegger has delivered young children into the hands of those who will introduce them to alternative sexual lifestyles," said Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, which worked to defeat the plans. "This means children as young as five years old will be mentally molested in school classrooms. "Shame on Schwarzenegger and the Democrat politicians for ensuring that every California school becomes a homosexual-bisexual-transsexual indoctrination center," he said. Analysts have warned that schools across the ...   more »

One of the religious Buddhist cloth paintings displayed in Bloomington city hall
The city attorney in Bloomington, Ind., has accused a group of Christians of using their beliefs as a "political tool" for next month's city elections.
City attorney Kevin Robling told WRTV in Indianapolis he thought it was a "shame" for the Christians, who objected to the city's promotion of Buddhist religious articles without any balancing Christian items, to act this way.
"We've got an election in 18 days," he told the station. "I think what you've got is a group of people who are using their religion as a political tool."
However, he did not explain how such beliefs could be converted into a "political tool" or create a political impact, nor did he get agreement from the Christians, who have objected to the city's promotion of the Buddhist display as part of its publicity for a coming visit from the Dali Lama.
The group of Christians last week, as WND reported, took a stone sculpture of the 10 Commandments to city hall and placed them there in order to include Christianity with Buddhism in the religious beliefs being promoted by the city.
City officials took them down ...   more »

The U.S. has been arming, training, funding and coordinating security with known terrorists, including much of the senior leadership of the most active Palestinian terrorist organization, charges a new book.
In "Schmoozing with Terrorists," author and WND Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein also documents how terrorists, including a terror chief, are among the official team that receives and distributes American weapons shipped to Palestinians.
"It's scandalous," writes Klein. "In the midst of America's war on terror, the U.S. is perpetuating terrorism to the point where the most active Palestinian jihad group is carrying out regular attacks, including shootings and bombings, using American-provided weapons, funding and training."
(Story continues below)
The U.S. since the late 1990s has been running bases in the West Bank City of Jericho to train militias from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization, including the Preventative Security Services, which serve as police officers, and Force 17, Abbas' presidential guard units which previously protected Yasser Arafat. Force 17 serve as de facto police and security officers, as well.
Over the years, the U.S. also has provided Fatah militias with arms, reportedly including thousands of high-powered assault rifles during the past year alone.
This past August, the State ...   more »

But mayor says consular card won't stop arrests of suspects 
The Mexican Consulate in Texas, which has been at war with Irving city officials over their crackdown on illegal aliens, says it now wants to send mobile units into the city to deliver identification cards to try to save the illegals from arrest.
"If they have the card, their chances of not being arrested would improve dramatically," Consul Enrique Hubbard Urrea told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
He said if police are provided information about a person's identification, they often can just issue a citation, but if there's no ID, suspects more likely are arrested.
Irving Mayor Herbert Gears told the newspaper the ID cards probably wouldn't make that much difference in the city's crackdown. But he did say he would meet periodically with Urrea to review any complaints over the city's Criminal Alien Program.
"Nothing has been changed in regards to police policy and procedure," he told the newspaper.
City residents have been raising complaints about illegal aliens in their city for some time. At the beginning of 2007, a petition with 800 signatures was submitted to the city in support of citizen demands that illegal immigrants who commit crimes ...   more »

Trilateral trade association becomes chief inspector
By Jerome R. Corsi
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has delegated key inspection requirements for Mexican trucks to a non-governmental trilateral trade association, whose goal is to impose North American standards on all commercial motor vehicles operating in Mexico, Canada, and the United States.  
Since the early 1980s, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, or CVSA, operating as a non-governmental organization, has quietly knit together the motor-vehicle agencies in the three countries, building a common regulatory continental structure below the radar of public opinion, available now to function as the backbone of the FMCSA effort to allow approved Mexican trucking companies to run their long-haul rigs throughout the United States.
According to a Colorado law enforcement document obtained by WND, the FMCSA has made arrangements for the CVSA to provide inspection decals to all Mexican trucks who pass inspection in the Department of Transportation's Mexican truck NAFTA demonstration project.
The CVSA is a non-profit association composed of "state, provincial, and federal officials responsible for the administration and enforcement of motor carrier safety laws in the United States, Canada and Mexico."
CVSA membership includes all 50 states, the District of Columbia, all 13 Canadian ...   more »