The absence of a Palestinian partner, a US "wink," and an increasingly radicalized region are prompting a number of policy makers in Jerusalem to show new interest in discreetly gauging the seriousness of recent Syrian overtures. "Syria is a stable and central player in the Middle East," one senior government official said Thursday. "It is worth checking out [Syrian President Bashar] Assad's outlook on peace." According to this official, it would be worthwhile for Israel to test the waters and see to what degree a peace agreement with Syria would break up the Iranian-Syrian alliance, end Syrian support for Hizbullah, and bring it into the "moderate" Arab camp. It is widely believed that this type of peace agreement would cost Israel the entire Golan
Heights. The return to Syria of the Golan Heights, according to the official, is important to Damascus, but not nearly as important as other goals it hoped to achieve through striking a deal with Israel: Removing threats to the Syrian regime by establishing normal relations with the US; ending any US desire to bring about regime change in Damascus; and retaining some kind of say in the developments inside Lebanon. The official said that Israel should, ...   more »

By Aaron Klein-
JERUSALEM – The United States last week sent diplomatic messages to the Palestinians that if aid were requested, America would bolster Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah organization in clashes against Hamas, including providing Fatah with U.S. weapons, according to senior Israeli and Palestinian diplomatic sources. The sources said Maj. Gen. Keith Dayton, the U.S. security coordinator for the Gaza Strip and West Bank, passed messages to Abbas that America would aid Fatah with assault rifles and ammunition if the assistance is needed. The sources also said Dayton urged Israel to provide assistance to bolster Abbas' security forces in Gaza, particularly Force 17, Abbas' security detail which also serve as de facto police officers.
Many members of Force 17 are openly members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group, Fatah's declared "military wing" which took responsibility for every suicide bombing in Israel the past two years. The Jewish state regularly arrests Force 17 members accused of carrying out shooting attacks against Israelis. After forging a unity government in February that ended several rounds of deadly factional Palestinian infighting, Fatah and Hamas last week engaged in heated gun battles killing 53 Palestinians in some of the deadliest ...   more »

American talk show queen accepts Elie Wiesel proposal to come to Israel, says she sympathizes with Israelis' suffering Itamar Eichner
Oprah Winfrey will be arriving in Israel for a solidarity visit in the near future, the queen of American talk shows announced Monday during an event at Manhattan's Waldorf Astoria Hotel. In the event, Winfrey was honored by the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity for her contribution to promoting humanitarian issues. Wiesel called on Winfrey to visit Israel, where "the major war against terror is currently taking place." in her speech, Winfrey said she sympathized with the suffering of the people of Israel, and that she intended to accept Wiesel's invitation and come with him to Israel. Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Gillerman, who attended the event, said that a visit of a figure with such influence on the international media could help bring an end to the indifference towards the terror threat face

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By Joel C. Rosenberg - (JERUSALEM, ISRAEL, May 24, 2007) -- I've been in Israel all week, including a day in Sderot, the southern town along the border of the Gaza Strip that has been hit with more than 170 rockets in the past ten days (6 rockets hit while we were there); and Kiryat Shmona, the northern town along the Lebanon border that was hit with more than 1,000 missiles and rockets during the war last summer....with me have been 43 members of an evangelical church from New Mexico to do a humanitarian relief project and deliver some $200,000 worth of aid through The Joshua Fund....we had the privilege of meeting local goverment leaders, emergency relief officials, and Israeli pastors....I also met in Jerusalem with Kay Arthur, the internationally renowned Bible teacher, and two staffers with Focus on the Family to discuss new ways to mobilize evangelicals to bless Israel as the violence in the south intensifies and a new war could be brewing this summer....for photos and a detailed report on our trip, please visit the weblog....in Sderot, I was interviewed by the Christian Broadcasting Network on who's behind these rocket attacks and why they could trigger a major ...   more »

Posted: May 23, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

Hank Hanegraff, also known as "the Bible Answer Man," may know more about theology than me.
He may have memorized more Scripture than me.
He may have a deeper understanding of some Bible passages than me.
But he sure doesn't know much about the Middle East.
Therefore, today, I am going to address some issues being raised by "the Bible Answer Man" – especially insofar as they apply to the suicidal policies he is advocating with regard to this explosive area of the world.
In a new novel he has written with fiction writer Sigmund Brouwer, "Fuse of Armageddon," he makes the amazingly false case that America's support of Israel causes, at least in part, terrorism directed against Americans.
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It is fitting that such a preposterous and wholly unsupportable thesis could only be marketed to the American people as a work of fiction – because that's what it is.
"Much of American Middle East policy is influenced by a huge voting bloc of evangelicals who are taught not to question Israel's divine right to the land," says Hanegraff. "God is not pro-Jew. He is pro-justice. He is not pro-Palestinian. ...   more »

by Staff Writers-Lockheed Martin opened the Biometric Experimentation and Advanced Concepts (BEACON) center in White Hall, WV, to serve as a collaborative center for the corporation, its customers, academia and other industry partners to develop integrated biometrics solutions for both current and future initiatives."Biometric technology offers great promise for the future, especially in initiatives that are important to the security of our nation," said Judy Marks, president, Lockheed Martin Transportation and Security Solutions. "Research and development are key to realizing this type of technology's full potential."The 6,000 square-foot facility, located in West Virginia's High Technology Corridor, will be staffed by operational domain experts and highly trained specialists in service-oriented architecture and biometric technology. The company is also actively soliciting vendors to bring solutions forward for integration into Lockheed Martin's service-oriented biometric framework and extensive testing."We're serious about making the BEACON a success," commented Marks. "With some of our best and brightest at the helm, we look forward to working with West Virginia businesses - and others nationwide - to develop leading edge biometric innovation."The BEACON will leverage two key networks as part of this development effort:The Global Vision Network - connects Lockheed Martin engineering and laboratory locations, including the Lockheed ...   more »

Rhonda Schwartz Reports: Al Qaeda has a new opening graphic for its propaganda tapes: the U.S. Capitol under "attack."  "The Islamic State of Iraq...March Toward Washington" reads the headline in English superimposed over a digitally created scene of the U.S. Capitol under attack in the introductory sequence of one tape released on the Internet this week.Another from al Qaeda's "as Sahab" production arm announces "Holocaust of the Americans in the Land of Khorasan" and shows an image of the U.S. Capitol to introduce a short clip of al Qaeda fighters. Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
"This is a disturbing new trend," says Laura Mansfield, an Arabic expert who monitors jihadi videos on the Internet."Recall that in January 2006, Osama Bin Laden said that plans for attacks in the U.S. were in progress," Mansfield told the Blotter on ABCNews.com. "It may be that this new imagery is designed to motivate terrorist activity in the U.S., but it is certainly intended as a recruiting tool and perhaps intended to reassure al Qaeda's jihadi followers they haven't forgotten their goal of an al Qaeda attack on Washington, D.C.," she said.
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Scientists have created a form of water which can zap hospital superbugs and speed up wound healing. Dermacyn – dubbed "miracle water" – is effective against infections ranging from MRSA to TB and has just been approved for sale in the UK.
A splash of Dermacyn can speed up the healing of woundsA splash can also speed up the healing of wounds by increasing the flow of blood to the area. Dan McFadden, of manufacturer Oculus, said: "People think it is too good to be true. Our challenge is to get beyond that disbelief. This is the real thing." The liquid is a chemically-altered version of salty water which is full of negatively-charged particles. These are capable of killing dangerous micro-organisms by punching holes in their cell walls. While bacteria and viruses are quickly dispatched, human cells are left intact because they are packed too tightly together to be attacked. The potion costs around £16 a bottle and has a shelf-life of two years, New Scientist magazine reported. Dermacyn is recommended for external use only and so should not be drunk. However, drinking it is not known to do any harm – and may even clear up bad breath, according ...   more »

On Monday, Bank of Canada Gov. David Dodge told the Chicago Council on Global Affairs that North America could one day move toward a euro-style currency.
Dodge's comments add to a growing list of comments from Canadian economists, academics and government officials supporting the idea of creating the amero as a North American common currency.
Dodge argued a common North American currency would help buffer the adverse effects of exchange rate fluctuations between the Canadian dollar and the U.S. dollar.
Currently, the Canadian dollar has surged to a 30-year high against the U.S. currency, a move Dodge noted makes Canadian products a lot less competitive for export to the U.S., Canada's major foreign market.
"In the past two months alone," Dodge told the group in Chicago, "the Canadian dollar is up about 8 percent against the U.S. dollar, and is now worth more than 91 cents (U.S.)."
In October 2006, El Universal, a Mexican newspaper published in Spanish, reported in a little-noticed article the then-president-elect of Mexico and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in their first meeting together shared a vision of a future North America united under a common currency.
El Universal reported Gilles Duceppe, the leader of the ...   more »

Leprosy, the contagious skin disease evoking thoughts of biblical and medieval times, is now making its mark in the United States, and many believe the influx of illegal aliens is a main factor.
"Americans should be told that diseases long eradicated in this country – tuberculosis, leprosy, polio, for example – and other extremely contagious diseases have been linked directly to illegals," Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., told the Business Journal of Phoenix. "For example, in 40 years, only 900 persons were afflicted by leprosy in the U.S.; in the past three years, more than 7,000 cases have been presented."
"This emerging crisis exposes the upside-down thinking of federal immigration policy," he continued. "While legal immigrants must undergo health screening prior to entering the U.S., illegal immigrants far more likely to be carrying contagious diseases are crawling under that safeguard and going undetected until they infect extraordinary numbers of American residents."
The number of cases of leprosy, now known as Hansen's disease, among immigrants to the U.S. has more than doubled since 2000, according to a news report from Columbia University.
While the overall figure is small compared to other countries, some researchers fear the trend could lead to the disease ...   more »