by Rabbi Yaakov Salomon
My brush with anti-Semitism.
The request hardly seemed unreasonable.
"Pardon me, I seem to have run out of tissues. Can I please get some more?"
Larry was just one of 160 of us who journeyed to Eastern Europe for nine days this past August. It was Day Two and the group was gathered in the Conti Hotel in the city of Vilnius in Lithuania -- home of the sainted Vilna Gaon and other prominent Rabbis of yesteryear.
Larry stood politely at the front desk awaiting the box. It never came.
"There are no more tissues."
"You mean, there are no more tissues left in the whole hotel?" Larry asked, taken aback.
"There are no more tissues," was the robotic reply.
"Let me speak to the manager," said Larry.
A tall, blond stoic woman, in her 40's, appeared seconds later.
"Is it possible for me to get some more tissues? We seem to have run out of them in my room.
"Which floor are you on?" she asked.
"Why...er...the 5th."
"There are no more tissues for the 5th floor," she answered and walked away.
Larry stood there, puzzled. Was there something about the 5th floor that warranted ...   more »

Israel's Home Front Command is preparing the public for possible war scenarios.
The Home Front Command on Sunday launched a public information campaign, during which every Israeli household will receive a manual titled "Being Protected and Prepared." The manual, which is available in several languages, instructs the public on subjects such as the type of rockets that might be fired at Israel during a future war and where to seek shelter.
Home Front Command personnel have also been collecting the gas masks issued to the public during the 2003 Gulf war, with a view to issuing new and more advanced kits in the near future.
Despite recent tensions with Syria and Iran, Israeli officials have denied that the Home Front Command's actions have anything to do with concerns that a conflict could be imminent. They say the state is implementing one of the lessons of last year's Lebanon war, when many residents of northern Israel were caught unprepared for Hezbollah rocket salvoes.
Original Source   more »

Israeli scholar believes Christ's birth was in Galilee town with same name
As millions celebrate the birth of Jesus, a question has arisen about the actual location the Son of God came into the world.
The Bible mentions Bethlehem in both the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, but an Israeli archaeologist believes another Bethlehem, one situated in the region of Galilee and not Judea, is the likely place Christ was born.
"There is the fact that Jews were living here at the time of Jesus, that is absent in the other Bethlehem," archaeologist Aviram Oshri told Britain's Sky News.
The lesser known Bethlehem is mentioned in the Old Testament Book of Joshua, situated among towns of the tribe of Zebulun.
"We have a Christian community, a very large Christian community, living here and defending itself by building a fortification wall, signifying that the spot was very important for them," said Oshri. "We have a large church with a cave underneath which is exactly the same as the other Bethlehem."
Oshri reportedly found the remains of the strong fortification walls among olive trees on the edges of Bethlehem of Galilee, and he suggests early Christians built it to protect the real ...   more »

Israeli law forbids non-Muslim worship while Hamas broadcasting from Judaism's holiest site
By Aaron Klein
Temple Mount
JERUSALEM – Rabbinic leaders and Temple Mount activist groups here today demanded the Israeli government allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount – Judaism's holiest site.
Israeli restrictions forbid Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount and only allow Jews to ascend for certain hours on some days while the Mount is open to Muslims yearlong. Muslim prayer services take place throughout the day on the many mosques and Islamic religious schools situated on the holy site.
"We demand the Government of Israel allow the Jewish people to have freedom of religious expression on the Temple Mount. This will serve as a preliminary step in confirming the Jewish people's inexorable connection with the Temple Mount, location of the Holy Temple, under the sovereignty of the people of Israel," states a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert signed by the leaders of the New Jewish Congress, the Sanhedrin and the Holy Temple and Temple Mount movements.
The Congress is a group of religious Zionist leaders here while the Sanhedrin consists of prominent rabbinic leaders who in 2004 reformed the ancient group of Jewish judges ...   more »

Nadav Shragai
Between stretching plastic sheets over the windows and placing buckets exactly under the leaks in the roof, settlers at a contested house between Kiryat Arba and Hebron are trying to maintain some sort of normal routine.
For humanitarian reasons, the Israel Defense Forces were willing to allow them to renovate the house so as to make it more livable. But Defense Minister Ehud Barak decided that the building will remain unchanged as long as it is occupied by the 20 settler families and their dozens of children. 
Ten months have passed since the settlers entered the three-story building, which covers an area of over 3,000 square meters. The $700,000 to buy the house came from people in New York who originally wished to remain anonymous. But they are nurturing a grudge against Israeli bureaucracy, and this week, they decided to speak out: The buyer's son, a religious Jewish businessman from New York who agreed to be identified only as B., spoke with Haaretz about his plans for the house and his motives for buying it.
"My paternal great-grandfather lived in Hebron before the riots and the deportation of 1929," said B., referring to the murder of 67 Jews ...   more »

By Joshua Mitnick - TEL AVIV — About 40 Jews who left Iran in secret arrived in Israel yesterday — one of the largest such defections — and got a Christmas present of $10,000 per person from U.S. evangelicals.
The number of Iranian-Jewish emigrants to Israel more than tripled to 200 in 2007, according to officials from the Jewish Agency for Israel, the quasi-governmental organization that promotes immigration to Israel.
A Jewish Agency spokesman credited the increase to a stipend program financed by donations to the Christian Zionist group International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ).
"The money is a major consideration" to come to Israel, said Michael Jankelowitz, a spokesman for the agency. "These people come with the clothes on their back and their suitcase. Iranian money has no value."
Family members of the Iranian emigrants screamed in delight and threw candy at the newcomers as they emerged into the reception hall at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv after a long bureaucratic procedure, the Associated Press reported.
Officials from the Jewish Agency refused to divulge details of the immigrants' journey, such as the airline that brought them to Israel or stopover countries, and kept identities secret for ...   more »

By Joshua Mitnick - TEL AVIV — About 40 Jews who left Iran in secret arrived in Israel yesterday — one of the largest such defections — and got a Christmas present of $10,000 per person from U.S. evangelicals.
The number of Iranian-Jewish emigrants to Israel more than tripled to 200 in 2007, according to officials from the Jewish Agency for Israel, the quasi-governmental organization that promotes immigration to Israel.
A Jewish Agency spokesman credited the increase to a stipend program financed by donations to the Christian Zionist group International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ).
"The money is a major consideration" to come to Israel, said Michael Jankelowitz, a spokesman for the agency. "These people come with the clothes on their back and their suitcase. Iranian money has no value."
Family members of the Iranian emigrants screamed in delight and threw candy at the newcomers as they emerged into the reception hall at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv after a long bureaucratic procedure, the Associated Press reported.
Officials from the Jewish Agency refused to divulge details of the immigrants' journey, such as the airline that brought them to Israel or stopover countries, and kept identities secret for ...   more »

Iranian defense minister says Moscow to deliver state-of-the-art air defense missile system capable of intercepting ballistic missile warheads at range of over 90 miles
Russia is to supply Iran with new S-300 air defense systems, Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said Wednesday, a sign of growing military cooperation between Moscow and Tehran.
''The S-300 air defense system will be delivered to Iran on the basis of a contract signed with Russia in the past,'' state television quoted Najjar as saying.
Najjar didn't say when or how many of the S-300 anti-aircraft missile defense systems would be shipped to Iran.
Earlier this year, Russia delivered 29 Tor-M1 air defense missile systems to Iran under a $700 million contract signed in December 2005.
Russian officials wouldn't comment on the Iranian statement, but the Interfax news agency quoted an unidentified source in the Russian military-industrial complex as saying that a contract for the missiles delivery had been signed several years ago and envisaged the delivery of several dozen S-300 missile systems.
The S-300 is much more powerful and versatile weapon than the Tor-M1 missile systems supplied earlier which were capable of hitting aerial targets flying at up to 20,000 feet.
The S-300 is ...   more »

Russian police are hunting a "werewolf boy" - who snarls and bites - after he escaped from a Moscow clinic just a day after being rescued from the wild.
Doctors expressed shock saying he was found living with a pack of wolves in a remote forest in the Kaluga region of central Russia.
The 'werewolf boy' has escaped from a Moscow clinic just a day after he was found. It is thought he was raised by wolves and his toenails are like claws
"He's clearly dangerous to other people," said a police spokesman yesterday.
"He's got typical wolf-like habits and behaviour.
"He has very strong and sharp teeth, which could really endanger someone if he bites."
The boy looks about ten - but after tests conducted by Moscow medics, they believe he maybe much older.
They are puzzled because he appears intelligent but does not seem to speak Russian or any other language. It is suspected he has been running wild for many years. Such cases are not uncommon in Russia where there have been regular reports of 'Mowgli' children abandoned by their parents who are cared for by animals.
The boy moves around with his legs half bent, said ...   more »

WASHINGTON - Former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had a plan to suspend the rules against illegal detention and arrest up to 12,000 Americans he suspected of being disloyal, according to a newly declassified document. 
Hoover sent his plan to the White House on July 7, 1950, less than two weeks after the Korean War began. But there is no evidence to suggest that President Truman or any subsequent president approved any part of Hoover's proposal to house suspect Americans in military and federal prisons.
Hoover had wanted Truman to declare the mass arrests necessary to "protect the country against treason, espionage and sabotage," The New York Times reported Saturday in a story posted on its Web site.
The plan called for the FBI to apprehend all potentially dangerous individuals whose names were on a list Hoover had been compiling for years.
"The index now contains approximately twelve thousand individuals, of which approximately ninety-seven percent are citizens of the United States," Hoover wrote in the now-declassified document. "In order to make effective these apprehensions, the proclamation suspends the writ of habeas corpus."
Habeas corpus is the right to seek relief from illegal detention, and is a bedrock legal principle.
All ...   more »

By Sarah Thomsen
If you're ticketed by Green Bay police, you'll get more than a fine. You'll get fingerprinted, too. It's a new way police are cracking down on crime.
If you're caught speeding or playing your music too loud, or other crimes for which you might receive a citation, Green Bay police officers will ask for your drivers license and your finger. You'll be fingerprinted right there on the spot. The fingerprint appears right next to the amount of the fine.
Police say it's meant to protect you -- in case the person they're citing isn't who they claim to be. But not everyone is sold on that explanation.
"What we've seen happen for the last couple of years [is] increasing use of false or fraudulent identification documents," Captain Greg Urban said.
Police say they want to prevent the identity theft problem that Milwaukee has, where 13 percent of all violators give a false name.
But in Green Bay, where police say they only average about five cases in a year, drivers we talked with think the new policy is extreme.
"That's going too far," Ken Scherer from Oconto said. "You look at the ID, that's what they're there ...   more »

BY RODOLFO R. ROMAN
In Bal Harbour, the baby Jesus statue is back where it belongs.
And just to make sure the statue doesn't go missing again, Jesus, Mary and Joseph will be equipped with GPS tracking devices.
For six years, Dina Cellini has put up a Nativity display in Bal Harbour's Founders Circle. But earlier this month, someone took off with the statue of Jesus. Cincinnati resident Jeffrey Harris read a story about the crime online.
''I felt bad. How could someone steal a baby Jesus?'' said Harris, who celebrates Hanukkah, not Christmas.
''Even though I am Jewish, I like the Christmas spirit,'' said Harris, a civil attorney. So he offered to replace the figurine.
''He's a wonderful human being,'' Cellini said. ``It's so fitting that this negative act ended generously.''
But now, Cellini is taking no more chances. In perhaps the ultimate merger of old and new, she plans to add GPS tracking devices to the statues.
Cellini, using residents' contributions and her own money, bought the Italian-made, resin baby Jesus statue from Moroneys' Religious Art store in Fort Lauderdale. It was part of a larger stable scene that is lit up at night, next to a Christmas ...   more »

by Daniel Pipes
"If I were a Muslim I would let you know," Barack Obama has said, and I believe him. In fact, he is a practicing Christian, a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ. He is not now a Muslim.
But was he ever a Muslim or seen by others as a Muslim? More precisely, might Muslims consider him a murtadd (apostate), that is, a Muslim who converted to another religion and, therefore, someone whose blood may be shed? 
The candidate for president of the United States has delivered two principal statements in reply. His campaign website carries a statement dated Nov. 12 with the headline, "Barack Obama Is Not and Has Never Been a Muslim," followed by: "Obama never prayed in a mosque. He has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian." Then, on Dec. 22, in the unlikely setting of the Smoky Row Coffee Shop in Oskaloosa, Iowa, as he munched on pumpkin pie and drank tea with four locals, Obama provided more detail took on this topic than before. When asked to explain his Muslim heritage, he replied:
My father was from Kenya, and a lot of ...   more »