One hour a week can transform your relationship with your child.
How do you show your child what's really important to you?For Michael Siegel of Atlanta, the answer lies in an innovative program called "Avot U'Banim" (Fathers and Sons). Every Saturday night between October and March, about 80 youngsters crowd Beth Jacob Synagogue's premises. The concept is simple: They come together with other fathers and sons who are also teaming up for a study session and lots of good, old-fashioned rabblerousing encouragement. There are prizes for good attendance, raffles, and refreshments.The pairs settle down to study something they've decided on together. "Kids come from all educational backgrounds," says organizer Rabbi Moshe Hiller. "They spend quality time with their fathers here.""It's great father-and-son time," says Michael. "It forces me to schedule time for my children, rather than leaving it to just 'happen' whenever."Programs have sprung up in many Jewish communities across the globe with the help of Avot U'Banim International. The group, which originated in Israel, now has over 1,300 affiliated locations in Israel, North America, England and France. "When I was 19 and living in the Bayit Vegan neighborhood in Israel," says Rabbi Dovid Hershkowitz of Jerusalem, founder and Director ...   more »

Following killing of Islamic Jihad commander, Qassam Brigades spokesman calls off 'ceasefire', calls factions to unite and 'retaliate' Yaakov Lappin Published:  Hamas's Qassam Brigades have declared an end to a ceasefire with Israel, according to a statement released on Wednesday evening. The call to end the truce appeared on Hamas's official website , in both English and Arabic, and is the first time in months that Palestinian armed forces directly under the control of the Hamas government openly threatened to attack Israel . Abu Obaida, spokesman for the Qassam Brigades, said in the statement that "the truce with the Israeli occupation is no longer valid," citing the "assassination of Islamic Jihad commander" Mahmoud Qassem as the reason. Qassem was shot dead in the West Bank by Israeli Border Police on Tuesday, after security forces traced a foiled suicide bomb attack planned for Tel Aviv back to him. In Hamas' statement, Abu Obaida said: "This crime falls in line with a plan to liquidate Palestinian resistance in the West Bank in particular." "The Zionist enemy continues to try to separate between the Bank and Gaza, and we will not accept that. The assassination in Jenin comes as part of an attempt to take out the Palestinian ...   more »

VIDEO) Prime minister tells foreign press corps realignment plan was lost due to 'change in circumstances', but stresses vision of Palestinian state is strong. Olmert also says Syria will find Israel ready and willing if it is serious about negotiations
Ronny SoferVIDEO - Speaking at the annual press conference hosted by the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem on Wednesday Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stressed that while the political platform he built his premiership campaign on – the realignment plan which would have seen the evacuation of most of the settlements in the West Bank - has faded due to 'changed circumstances', his vision for the near future included the formation of an independent Palestinian state living side-by-side in peace with Israel.
Addressing the newly agreed upon Palestinian unity government Olmert said: "I have made it clear that I will not cut my contacts with Abbas. I will continue to maintain the bilateral track, I will meet with Abbas and my staff will meet with his staff on a regular basis - hoping to create the necessary environment that will be helpful to the relations between us and them."Olmert said the talks with Abbas will be dedicated to improve the daily ...   more »

Survey commissioned by German foundation finds that most Israelis want to be part of EU, and 11 percent would leave country if granted European citizenship. Israelis' favorite EU nations are Britain and Germany, survey finds

Ronny Sofer
A full 75 percent of Israelis would like Israel to be part of the European Union, and 11 percent said they would leave Israel if they were granted EU citizenship, according to a survey examining Israelis' attitudes towards Europe. The study was commissioned by the Israeli offices of the German political foundation Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung . Half of Israelis visited Europe in the past three years, the study found. The most popular destinations were France, Italy, Britain, Spain and Germany. Eighty percent of the respondents said they liked Britain, making it the most popular European state among Israelis. Germany placed second with 67 percent support. Germany was followed by Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Turkey and Norway. France, however, was less popular than its neighbor states, with 61 percent of the subjects saying they disliked France.  The poll was carried out as Germany took up the rotating EU presidency – but only one-quarter of Israelis were aware of Germany’s leadership of the EU. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was among the most popular foreign ...   more »

VIDEO) IDF starts big scale war games due to Lebanon war lesson saying soldiers are insufficiently trained and prepared; 'They were good in the war. Next time they'll be excellent,' says officer Hanan Greenberg
VIDEO - For the first time in six years, an entire IDF brigade conducted full blown war games. During the last couple of weeks, battalions from the Paratroopers Brigade conducted military exercises in preparation for the brigade drill. They worked with full cooperation between the air force and the artillery, armor and engineering corps, implementing the lessons learned from last summer's war in Lebanon. The war games are tougher than the war," one officer told Ynet. "It is very hard on the troops, on junior officers as well as soldiers, who have never participated in such large scale exercises."Their conduct was good in the last war. Next time they will be exceptional," he added. Despite the soldiers' commendable performance during the war when they were face-to-face with Hizbullah, it was evident that they were not prepared for genuine combat. Consequently, the regular army brigades started preliminary exercises a few weeks ago and last week, the full blown brigade drill took place - the first such drill since 2000. The troops had ...   more »

  JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's reported decision to allow Muslims to construct a massive minaret on the Temple Mount will "serve to solidify Islam's take over of Judaism's holiest site," a leading Israeli archaeologist charged in a WND interview.
Temple Mount in Jerusalem
Hebrew University's Eilat Mazor said Muslims are turning the Temple Mount into a "giant mosque for Islam only," and that the new minaret will "serve as a prize to the Muslims, who have been erasing Jewish ties to the site by openly discarding Jewish artifacts they find." Mazor was referring to Muslim excavations near a new mosque constructed at the Temple Mount's Solomon's Stables. During the excavations, the Waqf, or Muslim custodians of the Temple Mount, reportedly disposed truckloads of dirt containing Jewish artifacts from the First and Second Temple periods. After the media reported this, Israeli authorities froze the construction permit given to the Waqf. Mazor, a third-generation Israeli Temple Mount archaeologist, is the discoverer and lead archaeologist of Israel's City of David, believed to be the palace of the biblical King David, the second leader of a united Kingdom of Israel, who ruled from around 1005 to 965 B.C. She is also ...   more »

LONDON: Proposals to re-unite the Anglicans with the Roman Catholic Church under the leadership of the Pope is
under consideration of the Vatican even as senior bishops of the two churches broadly agree to it, media reported on Monday. In a 42-page statement prepared by an international commission of both churches, Anglicans and Roman Catholics are urged to explore how they might reunite under the Pope. The statement, leaked to the Times, is being considered by the Vatican, where Catholic bishops are preparing a formal response. Titled 'Growing Together in Unity and Mission', the report notes that there is an "imperfect communion" between the two churches, but declares there is sufficient common ground to make its "call for action". "The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the ministry of the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) as universal primate is in accordance with Christ's will for the Church and an essential element of maintaining it in unity and truth," the report said. The proposals also address the need for special "protocols" to be put in place to deal with the movement of clergy from one church to another. It urges Anglicans to pray for the pope during inter-cessionary prayers while in church, ...   more »

 While researching this issue's Technology Report on RFID, I recalled the first article I'd written about "chipping" humans with RFID tags back in 1996. Implantable RFID chips for pets were making news back then, and it seemed inevitable to consider chips for kids as well. My article called for a discussion of the ethics of tagging people, and what a firestorm it started! I don't think I've ever received so many letters to the editor. Of course, I fully recognized the Big Brother scenarios facilitated by RFID. Many readers even considered the implantable RFID chip to be the "mark of the beast," as described in the Bible's Book of Revelations. It's a decade later and three years since the Food and Drug Administration approved VeriChip's implantable chips for human beings. In fact, more than 250 hospitals and more than 1000 doctors have adopted VeriMed tags. Some of these doctors have even been "chipped" themselves. When chipped people are brought to emergency rooms, the chip broadcasts their ID and provides access to their medical records.In December, the National Stroke Association recognized implantable RFID's potential to play "a critical role in assisting medical professionals" in responding to stroke-afflicted patients. But despite the ...   more »

JERUSALEM, ZAGREB -- The Simon Wiesenthal Center has asked Croatia to stop the distribution of sugar packets featuring Hitler’s image. 
The Center has called on Croatian authorities to put an end to the production and distribution of sugar packets with Hitler’s image and printed anti-Semitic jokes.The Center has issued a statement signed by its director Ephraim Zuroff, expressing its “disgust at the fact such a product could have been made at this day and age, in a country where the Holocaust was for the most part perpetrated by the local Nazi collaborators.” Žarko Puhovski of the Croatian Helsinki Committee told B92 the most worrying aspect of the scandal was a lack of reaction in the Croatian society. “This is not about someone spraying graffiti, this was printed in several thousand copies, for weeks, perhaps months, and no one reacted. Then Novi List journalists reacted.  Then there was silence again, and then the Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a statement”, Puhovski said. Puhovski said he hoped the company producing the sugar packets as well as those distributing them would be punished, adding that the main problem still remained with the public that “accepts anti-Semitism”. For her part, owner of the Požega-based company ...   more »

US contingency plans for air strikes on Iran extend beyond nuclear sites and include most of the country's military infrastructure, the BBC has learned.
It is understood that any such attack - if ordered - would target Iranian air bases, naval bases, missile facilities and command-and-control centres. The US insists it is not planning to attack, and is trying to persuade Tehran to stop uranium enrichment. The UN has urged Iran to stop the programme or face economic anctions. But diplomatic sources have told the BBC that as a fallback plan, senior officials at Central Command in Florida have already selected their target sets inside Iran. That list includes Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. Facilities at Isfahan, Arak and Bushehr are also on the target list, the sources say. Two triggers BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says the trigger for such an attack reportedly includes any confirmation that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon - which it denies.
Alternatively, our correspondent adds, a high-casualty attack on US forces in neighbouring Iraq could also trigger a bombing campaign if it were traced directly back to Tehran.
Long range B2 stealth bombers would drop so-called "bunker-busting" bombs in an effort to ...   more »

Current Hate Crimes Law-The Hate Crimes Statistics Act was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1990.  This law mandates the attorney general to acquire data and publish an annual report on crimes committed based on prejudice of “race, religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity.” The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act was signed into law by President Clinton in 1994.  Based on this legislation, enhanced sentencing for hate crimes is permitted – after a person is found guilty of a violent crime, a judge may increase his/her sentence if the judge determines that it was motivated by “hate”.  For purposes of this law, “hate crime” is defined as: A crime in which the defendant intentionally selects a victim, or in the case of a property crime, the property that is the object of the crime, because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of any person. Recent Hate Crimes Action-The Senate last voted on hate crimes in the 108th Congress as an amendment to the defense authorization bill.  It passed by a vote of 65-33 but did not become law.  The House last voted on and passed hate crimes ...   more »

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The minister has the number 666 tattooed on his arm.
But Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda is not your typical minister. De Jesus, or "Daddy" as his thousands of followers call him, does not merely pray to God: He says he is God.
"The spirit that is in me is the same spirit that was in Jesus of Nazareth," de Jesus says.
De Jesus' claims of divinity have angered Christian leaders, who say he is a fake. Religious experts say he may be something much more dangerous, a cult leader who really believes he is God. (Watch followers get 666 tattoos for their leader )
"He's in their heads, he's inside the heads of those people," says Prof. Daniel Alvarez, a religion expert at Florida International University who has debated some of de Jesus' followers.
"De Jesus speaks with a kind of conviction that makes me consider him more like David Koresh or Jim Jones."
Is de Jesus really a cult leader like David Koresh, who died with more than 70 of his Branch Davidian followers in a fiery end to a standoff with federal authorities, or Jim Jones, the founder of the Peoples Temple who ...   more »