megan jacobs
Despite the recent ruling by the Chief Rabbinate that Jews may not participate in any Christian events, Rabbis Shlomo Riskin and Benny Elon spoke in support of the Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem (DPPJ) on Sunday night at the Haas Promenade.
Organized by Rev. Robert Stearns of the group Eagles' Wings and Dr. Jack Hayford of The Church on the Way, DPPJ united over 150 nations and more than 150,000 churches worldwide in prayer. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the event in Jerusalem, coinciding with the end of Succot.
"Our best friends in the United States are Christians, offering love, friendship, and partnership. We would be foolish not to take advantage of it, especially during these troubled times," said Riskin.
Both Riskin and Elon credited the Christian community with not only helping Israel survive, but also vanquishing the threat of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and of radical Islam.
MK Elhanan Glazer, representing the Christian Allies Caucus, also praised the mutual effort against external threats to Israel, saying that "Christians support Israel because we have the same Book, the same God, and we both love that God more than all the oil in the ...   more »

During the recently concluded third season of renews excavations at Kibbutz Ramat Rachel on the southern edge of Jerusalem, archeologists made finds that shed a great deal of light on the site's past as a major administrative center during the biblical and pre-Islamic periods.
The director of the excavation told The Jerusalem Post that the goal was to expand on digs done at the site during the 1950s, which successfully uncovered a Byzantine church.
Prior to the Byzantine period, a newly discovered garden and sophisticated water system connected to a large palace-like building indicate the site was an important administrative center.
The suggested history of Ramat Rachel is that the location served as the seat of the Assyrian governor of Judea during the seventh century BC. Successive Persian and Greek rulers used the site for similar purposes, before it was destroyed when the Jews regained full sovereignty over their country under the Hasmonean dynasty. The Romans later built a large military camp at the site, which was later embellished by the Byzantines.
The digs at Ramat Rachel are being carried out jointly by Tel Aviv University and the University of Heidelberg in Germany. Three more seasons of excavations are currently ...   more »

Khaled Abu Toameh ,
The body of a Christian official who was kidnapped over the weekend was discovered in Gaza City early Sunday, Palestinian sources said.
The man was identified as Rami Ayyad, 31, director of The Teacher's Bookshop, which is operated by the Palestinian Bible Society.
Although no group claimed responsibility for the murder, a number of Christians in Gaza City told The Jerusalem Post that Ayyad had received several death threats in the past from radical Muslims who accused him of missionary activity.
His bookshop and the Palestinian Bible Society have been the targets of repeated attacks over the past two years.
They noted that attacks on members of the 2,500-strong Christian community in the Gaza Strip have increased in recent months, especially since Hamas took full control of the area.
Two weeks ago, an elderly Christian woman living in Gaza City was beaten and robbed by a masked man who accused her of being an "infidel." In Bethlehem, Palestinian Authority police are still investigating last week's stabbing of a 27-year-old Christian man, who was seriously wounded in the attack.
Shortly after the Hamas takeover, a local Christian school and a monastery were looted and set on fire. ...   more »

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan is scheduled to arrive in Israel on Sunday following a brief visit to Damascus. High on his agenda in Jerusalem will be Israel's air strike on Syria last month and the American Jewish community's stand on whether the World War I killing of Armenians constituted genocide.
Babacan arrived in Damascus on Saturday, and was scheduled to hold talks during his visit there with President Bashar Assad and Foreign Minister Farouk Shara.
His visit to Damascus came as ABC News quoted American officials over the weekend as saying that the IAF raid on Syria was planned for several months and was postponed a number of times due to heavy US pressure.
According to the report, Israel presented US officials with satellite imagery which clearly showed North Korean nuclear technology in a Syrian facility.
According to a US source, Washington officials were astonished by the imagery and by the fact US intelligence had not picked up on the facility previously.
"Israel tends to be very thorough about its intelligence coverage, particularly when it takes a major military step, so they would not have acted without data from several sources," said ABC News military consultant Tony Cordesman.
A ...   more »

At the opening of the Knesset Winter Session, Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu lashed out at the government's policy, claiming that its strategy would eventually lead to an Iranian terrorist presence in Jerusalem and the rest of Israel.
"The unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon created an Iranian outpost - from which Israel is being attacked - in the North, and the unilateral pullout from Gaza created a second Iranian base in Gaza, 'Hamastan,'" Netanyahu said. "And now the government is planning a third withdrawal - from Judea and Samaria - that will lead to a third Iranian outpost."
Netanyahu quoted statements made by Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert before the withdrawals from Lebanon and Gaza, respectively, saying the two had promised security, while Israel was in actuality served with aggression and terror.
"Giving Hamas half of Jerusalem will make the rest of Jerusalem unlivable," Netanyahu said. "Giving up Judea and Samaria will transfer the areas controlling the coastal plain into the hands of Hamas, leading to Kassams…on Tel Aviv."
"According to the government's plans, Israel will pull back to the 67' borders. Obviously, this is the plan and any attempts to disguise it are futile," he said. "We ...   more »

by Hana Levi Julian
(IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will put Jerusalem on the negotiating table as he hurtles toward a “joint declaration” with the Palestinian Authority ahead of next month’s U.S.-sponsored Mideast summit. The prime minister says that a joint declaration with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas prior to the summit will lead to direct negotiations.
The Arabic Al Quds Al-Arabiya newspaper reported Monday morning that Olmert has now come to an agreement with Jordan that Arabs in eastern Jerusalem will be granted Jordanian citizenship. The plan would leave Jerusalem's Muslim holy sites under the control of the Hashemite kingdom, according to the report.
Olmert vehemently denied the report in a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office. "The idea never existed," said the statement.
Vice Prime Minister Chaim Ramon, the Prime Minister's close aide and friend, however, has been pushing for the division of Jerusalem.  Ramon has been promoting his own plan to hand half of the city over to the Palestinian Authority (PA), not to Jordan.
Ramon also publicly backed an arrangement for sovereignty over Jerusalem's Old City. Only regarding the Jewish Quarter did Ramon state it would remain under Israeli rule. But Monday morning he cautioned that ...   more »

JERUSALEM (AP) - Senior Israeli officials expressed support Monday for the transfer of Arab parts of Jerusalem to Palestinian control, offering a concession on one of the most contentious issues in the Mideast conflict. The offer appeared to fall short of Palestinian calls for a full Israeli withdrawal from key areas of the holy city.
The officials spoke as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were to begin talks in Jerusalem to work out a joint document they hope to issue at a U.S.-sponsored peace conference next month. The meetings were closed.
Ahead of the talks, a confidant of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he has proposed in recent talks with Palestinian officials to turn over areas of east Jerusalem to the Palestinians. The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war, as capital of a future independent state.
Deputy Vice Premier Haim Ramon's proposal marked a potentially significant Israeli concession. Israel has annexed east Jerusalem and claims all of the city as its undivided capital.
But the Israeli transfer would not include the Old City and surrounding neighborhoods, Ramon said. These are the key disputed areas, since the Old City contains the holiest site in Judaism, the ...   more »

JPost staff and Gil Hoffman
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office on Monday morning denied the report in Al-Quds al-Arabi that he and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had agreed to transfer the Temple Mount's holy sites to Jordanian custody.
The Prime Minister's Office said that no agreement had been reached on the holy sites in Jerusalem.
According to the report in the London-based newspaper, Olmert and Abbas had agreed that the Temple Mount sites would be under Jordanian jurisdiction in a final peace deal, and Jordanian citizenship would be granted to 90,000 east Jerusalem residents.
The report also said it was likely that a supreme supervisory commission would be established, which would include representatives from the UN, Egypt, Jordan, Israel and the PA.
The report drew strong criticism form the right-wing.
MK Uri Ariel (NU/NRP) said: "If the report is true, the Israeli government has stripped itself of any linkage to Zionism or its Jewish roots."
"The Olmert government is trying to destroy the dreams of thousands of generations who have dreamed and worked to return the Jewish people to its land, continued Ariel, vowing: "we wont let him succeed."
Ariel's party colleague MK Aryeh Eldad said that if Israel ...   more »

And Putin's alarming announcement.
By Joel C. Rosenberg
 (Washington, D.C., October 8, 2007) -- Lynn and the boys and I just got back from a week out of the country to find some big headlines. President Bush says he is "very optimistic" about forging peace in the Middle East at next month's summit in the U.S. We pray he's right, but the latest stories out of the epicenter suggest leaders there are steadfastly preparing for war.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is vowing to liberate "all of Palestine" and vows some sort of "final response" to Iran's enemies on October 12th, Qods (Jerusalem) Day. Here is the official story from the Iranian news service's website:
"Supporters of the Zionist regime will receive their response during the world Qods Day's rallies, government spokesman, Gholam-Hossein Elham, said Wednesday. The spokesman made the remarks during his weekly press conference while commenting on the current visit to the occupied Palestine of the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Qods Day is held each year on the last Friday of Muslims fasting month of Ramadan after it was nominated by the late Founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, as a day to voice the protest ...   more »

By Neil Mackay
IT is a chilling, dystopian account of what Britain will look like 10 years from now: a world in which Fortress Britain uses fleets of tiny spy-planes to watch its citizens, of Minority Report-style pre-emptive justice, of an underclass trapped in sink-estate ghettos under constant state surveillance, of worker drones forced to take on the lifestyle and values of the mega-corporation they work for, and of the super-rich hiding out in gated communities constantly monitored by cameras and private security guards.
This Orwellian vision of the future was compiled on the orders of the UK's information commissioner - the independent watchdog meant to guard against government and private companies invading the privacy of British citizens and exploiting the masses of information currently held on each and every one of us - by the Surveillance Studies Network, a group of academics.
On Friday, this study, entitled A Report on the Surveillance Society, was picked over by a select group of government mandarins, politicians, police officers and academics in Edinburgh. It is unequivocal in its findings, with its first sentence reading simply: "We live in a surveillance society." The information commissioner, Richard Thomas, endorses the report. He says: "Today, ...   more »

'That's what I believe. I believe Islam is a great religion that preaches peace' 
President George Bush has repeated his belief all religions, "whether they be Muslim, Christian, or any other religion, prays to the same God" – an assertion that caused outrage among evangelical leaders when he said it in November 2003.
Bush made the statement Friday in an interview with Al Arabiya reporter Elie Nakouzi.
Al Arabiya is Al Jazeerah's top competitor in the Mideast.
As the president and Nakouzi walked from the Oval Office to the Map Room in the White House residence, Nazouki asked, "But I want to tell you – and I hope this doesn't bother you at all – that in the Islamic world they think that President Bush is an enemy of Islam – that he wants to destroy their religion, what they believe in. Is that in any way true, Mr. President?"
"No, it's not," said Bush. "I've heard that, and it just shows [sic] to show a couple of things: One, that the radicals have done a good job of propagandizing. In other words, they've spread the word that this really isn't peaceful people versus radical people or terrorists, this is ...   more »

By NANCY ZUCKERBROD,AP
NEW YORK (Oct. 4) - It's not your typical "Sesame Street" episode. There are no lessons in letters or numbers, but there are plenty of hugs and lots of talk about feelings.
Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization that produces the hit kids' show, is working on a DVD that will be distributed to military families. It's designed to help injured veterans talk about their disabilities with their children.  
Gary E. Knell, president and CEO of Sesame Workshop, said some of those veterans and their families are looking for help from Sesame Street because the workshop produced a popular DVD last year aimed at helping military families discuss the strain of deployments.
More than a million children have parents who are in the military and have been deployed in the last six years. And roughly 18,000 military personnel in Iraq  or Afghanistan  have been wounded or injured seriously enough to be evacuated.
In the new production, Rosita, a fluffy blue mop-headed muppet, is upset because her father has returned home in a wheelchair. Rosita angrily refers to the wheelchair as "that thing" and reminisces about the days when she could dance to salsa music and kick a ...   more »

Strategist expects currency changes as Canadian dollar matches greenback
By Jerome R. Corsi
A commemorative amero coin
BankIntroductions.com, a Canadian company that specializes in global banking strategies and currency consulting, is advising clients that the amero may be the currency of North America within the next 10 years.
"The amero would compete against other regional currency blocks," BankIntroductions.com says. "At present, with the Canadian dollar approaching par, more talk for an amero currency unit will become popular in Canada."
The company says that with the successful implementation of NAFTA, "the one dragging component for the amero will be Mexico, but in time this will change."
"Implementation of the amero currency may actually give Mexico an economic boost, thus helping to alleviate Mexican immigration pressures into the United States for those Mexicans seeking financial gain," BankIntroductions.com advises.  
"The amero one day may well be circulating throughout North America."
Matt Bell, president of BankIntroductions.com, told WND in an e-mail to "feel free to quote our currency research on Canada. Our general opinion on the amero stands as stated."
As WND reported, coin designer Daniel Carr has issued for sale a series of private-issue fantasy pattern amero coins that have drawn attention ...   more »

Minarets tower over two of the tallest roller coasters in the world, on the flyer announcing today’s big event at Six Flags’ Great Adventure & Wild Safari.  On this day, the park will be “transformed,” as thousands of Islamists from across the northeast come together in Jackson, New Jersey for "The Great Muslim Adventure Day."  Regrettably, Muslims will be the only ones having fun, as non-Muslims have been told that they are not welcome.
The event, which also goes by the name "Muslim Youth Day," is being sponsored by the New Jersey chapter of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), a militant organization tethered to the Muslim Brotherhood of Pakistan, Jamaat-e-Islami.  "Muslim Youth Day" has been celebrated since September of 2000, when the first one took place.  At the time, it was heralded a huge success.  As one paper put it, “More than 8,000 Muslims, both orthodox and non-practicing, jammed into the amusement park…”
Speaking at the 2000 event were officials from numerous radical Islamist organizations. This included Yusuf Islahi, a high-ranking Jamaat-e-Islami leader.  During his speech, he stated to the crowd, “The owner of the Six Flags Great Adventure never imagined even in his wildest dreams that a ...   more »