by Yael Mermelstein
Docky had nine lives to play with; we've only got one.
Docky was a regular, grey and white feline fur-ball. Even though she wasn't the type that would stand out in a "cat-crowd," when I was two years old, I adored her.
"Dumb cat," my mother told my father. "I'm telling you she's not one hundred percent." My mother has this "thing," about cats
My father couldn't understand why she underestimated Docky's intelligence. Until that day we were all relaxing on the porch of our third floor Brussels apartment, and Docky took a running leap and jumped right off of the porch, falling three stories to the street.
My mother ran downstairs, and within minutes, we were on the way to the vet. Docky came home with two broken legs. We still have the old pictures of her, with her legs all splinted and bandaged.
For a few weeks, Docky wasn't very mobile. It was pitiful watching her hobble around, and we waited arduously for the day that she would return to her former vigorous self.
The day the splints were removed we were all thrilled, Docky the most tickled of all. We brought her home from ...   more »

Natan Sharansky,
Just over three years ago, at the first-ever global forum on anti-Semitism organized by the State of Israel, the essential task was to define the beast - the new anti-Semitism. Since then, as the fourth such global gathering meets this week, efforts to incorporate the "three-D" distinction between legitimate criticism of Israel and the new anti-Semitism - demonization, double standards and delegitimization - have become part of international documents and discourse.
These and other accomplishments, as important as they are, have been dwarfed by the quantum leap anti-Semitism itself has taken. It has leapfrogged from isolated attacks against Jews to incitement to genocide - the actual elimination of the Jewish state.
This shift has come in the form of a pincer movement. On one side, we have the Iranian regime, which is denying the Holocaust and calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map" while racing to develop the physical means of doing so. On the other side, we have what is, in effect, international silence in response, coupled with growing willingness to discuss Israel's existence as a mistake, an anachronism, or a provocation. We must recognize the fact that though sympathy for Iran's expressed goal of ...   more »

By Ayanawo Farada Sanbatu  
A representative was sent by the Interior Ministry on Saturday to Ethiopia, to distribute rejection letters to thousands of Ethiopians seeking to immigrate to Israel.
Following an in-depth investigation, the ministry concluded that the applicants had no linkage to the Ethiopian Falashmura tribe, who are eligible to immigrate to Israel.
The Falashmura claim Jewish ancestry, despite having converted to Christianity over the years. 
The letter distribution is slated to begin on Wednesday and be completed by next Saturday. Organizations that promote Falashmura aliyah to Israel predict that the letters will spark unrest.
Three weeks ago, members of the applicants' families, who are currently living in Israel, received letters from the interior ministry stating that a link between their relatives and the Falashmura could not be found.
The rejected applicants have been waiting in camps in Gundar and Addis Ababa for several years, in hopes of receiving consent to come to Israel. Many of them claim they have Jewish roots from hundreds of years ago, but they are often unable to provide documentation or testimonies to prove their claims.
Last week, Ethiopian rabbis and spiritual leaders (keisim) called on the government to halt the Falashmura aliyah ...   more »

By Gideon Alon, Haaretz Correspondent  
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday that peace with Syria would mean giving up the Golan Heights, seized by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed in 1981.
"The whole world knows that in any future negotiations, if they are renewed, we will have to give up on the entire Golan Heights," Olmert said during a heated exchange with oppposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud).
Netanyahu had reacted angrily to Olmert's assertion that three of his predeccessors, Netanyahu included, had held talks with Syria on a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights.    
Olmert told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that, according to documents, the prime ministers from 1993 to 2001 (a reference to Yitzhak Rabin, Netanyahu and Ehud Barak) - had all held negotiations with Syria during which it had been clear that any agreement would entail Israel completely ceding the Golan and withdrawing to the 1967 border.
But Netanyahu interrupted Olmert's remarks, saying, "You know that's not right."
"You know it's true," replied Olmert. "Don't try to hide the truth."
Later in the discussion, the prime minister reiterated his opposition to ...   more »

Controversial construction work near the holiest site for Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem is to be put off to allow public consultations, officials say.
Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupolianski said the decision was taken so the general public could express any opposition.
However, preparatory excavations are continuing, despite riots by Muslim worshippers last week.
Israeli authorities want to rebuild a collapsed walkway at the site. Muslims say the work endangers its foundations.
The location houses the al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest shrine in Islam, and is revered by Jews as the site of their Biblical temples.
Mr Lupolianski said late on Sunday that the building work on a new walkway to replace a damaged bridge will now be subjected to a full planning review.
The project could be delayed by months or result in its outright cancellation.
The decision would not affect work currently under way, officials said, in which archaeologists are carrying out an exploratory dig to ensure no important remains are damaged when the walkway is built.
 SACRED TO MUSLIMS
Site of Prophet Muhammad's first prayers and ascent into Heaven, home to al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock
 SACRED TO JEWS
Site of first and second Temples and ...   more »

USA Today says Saudi Arabia is leading outreach campaign to Israel in bid to dent Iranian influence in Middle East
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have been sending overtures to Israel and US Jews in a campaign aimed at countering Iran 's rising sway in the region and denting its nuclear program, USA Today reported Monday.
Saudi Arabia is keen on shoring up its influence in the Middle East by brokering a unity deal between rival Palestinian factions and defusing tensions between the Hizbullah-led opposition and the western-backed government in Lebanon. Preventing Iraq from sliding into an all-out civil war is also on the agenda.  
The most evident sign of rapprochement came in the form of the attendance of Saudi Arabia's outgoing ambassador to the US to a ceremony in Washington held by American Jewish organizations in honor of a State Department official appointed to fight anti-Semitism.  
William Daroff of the United Jewish Communities told USA Today that Prince Turki al-Faisal's presence at the reception was "unprecedented."  
The paper reported that Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates have made similar outreach gestures towards Israel and American Jews.
The overtures have been blessed by the US Secretary ...   more »

Dr. Richard Benkin, a member of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East and director of www.Interfaithstrength.org is working feverishly hard to save the life of Bangladeshi Journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, who is being tried on charges of sedition, with the penalty of death, simply because he has pro-Israel leanings and has published them. We ask you to contact your representatives and to spread this appeal to everyone you know. This must be completed before Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Edward S. Beck Ed.D., CCMHC, NCC, LPC
President,
Scholars for Peace in the Middle East  
Promoting Academic Integrity and Honest Debate
SPME Action Alert: Please Write To Your US Representative Re: House Resolution 64 to the Bangladesh Government to Drop All Charges Against Pro-Israel Journalist Choudhury By Tuesday. Action Needed Now!!!!
By Richard L. Benkin, Ph.D
February 11, 2007 Mailing from Dr. Richard Benkin  
Dear Friends,
We might be getting close to freedom for Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury. The new Bangladeshi government has been responsive to our suggestions and communications, and has begun implementing an anti-radical agenda.
Next week, the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs will hear Mark Kirk’s House Resolution 64, which calls on the Bangladesh ...   more »

Czech president Vaclav Klaus has criticized the UN panel on global warming, claiming that it was a political authority without any scientific basis.
In an interview with "Hospodárské noviny", a Czech economics daily, Klaus answered a few questions:
Q: IPCC has released its report and you say that the global warming is a false myth. How did you get this idea, Mr President?•
A: It's not my idea. Global warming is a false myth and every serious person and scientist says so. It is not fair to refer to the U.N. panel. IPCC is not a scientific institution: it's a political body, a sort of non-government organization of green flavor. It's neither a forum of neutral scientists nor a balanced group of scientists. These people are politicized scientists who arrive there with a one-sided opinion and a one-sided assignment. Also, it's an undignified slapstick that people don't wait for the full report in May 2007 but instead respond, in such a serious way, to the summary for policymakers where all the "but's" are scratched, removed, and replaced by oversimplified theses.• This is clearly such an incredible failure of so many people, from journalists to politicians. If the European Commission is ...   more »

By KELLI KENNEDY
MIAMI (AP) - Isaac Daniel calls the tiny Global Positioning System chip he's embedded into a line of sneakers "peace of mind." He wishes his 8-year-old son had been wearing them when he got a call from his school in 2002 saying the boy was missing. The worried father hopped a flight to Atlanta from New York where he had been on business to find the incident had been a miscommunication and his son was safe.
Days later, the engineer started working on a prototype of Quantum Satellite Technology, a line of $325 to $350 adult sneakers that hit shelves next month. It promises to locate the wearer anywhere in the world with the press of a button. A children's line will be out this summer.
"We call it a second eye watching over you," Daniel said.
It's the latest implementation of satellite-based navigation into everyday life - technology that can be found in everything from cell phones that help keep kids away from sexual predators to fitness watches that track heart rate and distance. Shoes aren't as easy to lose, unlike phones, watches and bracelets. 
(AP) Issac Daniel shows sneakers he designed with a tiny Global ...   more »

By Kirsty Hughes
Writer on European affairs 
The agreement on a Palestinian national unity government coincides with a new push for peace in the Middle East by the European Union.
This week EU foreign ministers are looking for ways to expand funding to the Palestinian Authority.
Last week German Chancellor Angela Merkel went on a four-day tour of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and some of the gulf states.
Germany holds the EU's rotating presidency, and is hoping to harness Ms Merkel's growing stature as the EU's most influential leader, in the twilight days of both Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac.
Officials and politicians in Berlin say she is assiduously working on what she sees as the two big issues at the heart of the crisis in the Middle East - Iran, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
She has been particularly active, they say, since the war in Lebanon last summer, pursuing a relatively quiet but intensive diplomatic strategy and "working the phones" to all the key players.
Cautious but upbeat
A senior official says: "We have been involved in trying to calm things... and Merkel was pushing the US to have the quartet meeting, and we got that commitment in January, so ...   more »