Militant leader claims Israeli residents recruited to carry out bombings
By Aaron Klein
JERUSALEM – The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization, has formed a terrorist cell living in the vicinity of Jerusalem consisting of Israeli residents ready to carry out attacks within the Jewish state, according to a top Brigades leader speaking to WND.
"We have Israeli Arab brothers who are members of the Brigades who live in Israel and will make in the coming days and weeks shootings and suicide bombings," said the Brigades leader, who spoke on the condition his name be withheld.
"Even in the case that there will be a cease-fire in Gaza, will keep attacking Israel. They will see the importance of our cells in Jerusalem with more attacks in the near future," the Brigades leader said.
The claim follows a shooting attack this weekend in an eastern Jerusalem neighborhood targeting Israeli policemen and carried out by two Arab men who were permanent Israeli residents living in the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood on Jerusalem's periphery. On Saturday, the two opened fire at close range on an Israeli border policeman and a security guard. The policeman ...   more »

The Chief Rabbinate has had a 59-year monopoly on many aspects of the religious life of the State of Israel. It controls marriages, divorces and conversions to Judaism; it regulates public kashrut as well as offering kosher supervision to private establishments.
It operates a network of rabbinic courts. It has a visible, public platform for teaching the ideas and ideals of Judaism to Israeli society, and for serving as a religious beacon of inspiration to world Jewry.
One would think that after these 59 years, then, the Chief Rabbinate would be one of the most beloved and revered institutions in Israeli society. The rabbis have had daily opportunity to interact with all Israelis - religious and otherwise - and to show them the beauty of Judaism, the kindness of Torah, the pleasantness of the Orthodox message.
Yet, amazingly and tragically, the Chief Rabbinate seems to be one of the least beloved and revered institutions in Israeli society. It has little or no authority in the haredi community; it generates little or no enthusiasm among religious Zionists; it is of little positive significance to the remainder of Israelis.
Although the Chief Rabbinate and its many functionaries include some fine, sincere and ...   more »

Ministerial committee wants Knesset to pass bill giving Jerusalem city council power to ban gay pride parade in city Neta Sela
The Ministers Committee for Legislation voted Sunday in favor of a bill that would prevent gay groups from holding pride parades in Jerusalem.  
The draft bill will be put up for a vote in the Knesset on Wednesday and if approved will effectively render next month's gay pride parade in the capital illegal.  
Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann said he would lobby MKs to reject the bill.  
Religious parties are pushing for legislation that would make it more difficult for gay groups to hold the annual gay pride parade in Jerusalem by investing the city's municipal council with enough power to reject public gatherings it deems a danger to public security or harmful to the feelings of the religious public.  
Four ministers voted in favor of a Knesset vote on the bill while three opposed the move.  
Friedmann threatened to bring the draft bill for a cabinet vote.  
National Union-NRP MK Eliahu Gabbay who presented the bill wrote that the new law was meant "to strengthen Jerusalem's status through the elected officials in the ...   more »

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Witnesses and jurors being sworn in at state courthouses can take their oath using any religious text, not just the Bible, a judge ruled Thursday.
Judge Paul Ridgeway said both common law and state Supreme Court precedent allow witnesses and jurors to use the text "most sacred and obligatory upon their conscience."
The ruling came after the American Civil Liberties Union argued that limiting that text to the Bible was unconstitutional because it favored Christianity over other religions.
The issue surfaced when Muslims tried to donate copies of the Quran to Guilford County's two courthouses. Two judges declined to accept the texts, saying that taking an oath on the Quran was illegal under state law.
State law allows witnesses preparing to testify in court to take their oath by laying a hand over "the Holy Scriptures," by saying "so help me God" without the use of a religious book or by an affirmation using no religious symbols.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Thursday | North Carolina | American Civil Liberties Union | Bible | Quran
The group sought a court order declaring the statute unconstitutional or clarifying that it was broad enough to allow the use of ...   more »

by Hannah Nordhaus 
The perilous existence of a migratory beekeeper amid a great bee die-off
By the time John Miller realized just how many of his bees were dying, the almonds were in bloom and there was nothing to be done. It was February 2005, and the hives should have been singing with activity, plump brown honeybees working doggedly to carry pollen from blossom to blossom. Instead they were wandering in drunken circles at the base of the hive doors, wingless, desiccated, sluggish, blasé. Miller is accustomed to death on a large scale. “The insect kingdom enjoys little cell repair,” he will often remind you. Even when things are going well, a hive can lose 1,000 bees a day. But the extent of his losses that winter defied even his insect-borne realism. In a matter of weeks, Miller lost almost half of his 13,000 hives — around 300 million bees.
When it happened, Miller was in California’s Central Valley, where each February, when the almond trees burst into extravagant pink-and-white bloom, hundreds of beekeepers descend with billions of bees. More than 580,000 acres of almonds flower simultaneously there, and wild pollinators such as bumblebees, beetles, bats and wasps simply cannot ...   more »

By Vox Day
We're fighting a war on terror because the enemy attacked us first and hit us hard. Scarcely 50 miles from this place, we saw thousands of our fellow citizens murdered, and 16 acres of a great city turned to ashes. ... These are events we can never forget. And they are scenes the enemy would like to see played out in this country over and over again, on a larger and larger scale. Al-Qaida's leadership has said they have the right to "kill four million Americans, two million of them children, and to exile twice as many and to wound and cripple thousands." We know they are looking for ways of doing just that – by plotting in secret, by slipping into the country and exploiting any vulnerability they can find.
And that's why the president of the United States is encouraging both houses of Congress to pass an immigration amnesty that will grant them Z-visas and probationary U.S. citizen status, because if we can't beat them, we might as well let them join us.
– Dick Cheney's commencement address at West Point, May 26, 2007
OK, so I may have added that last bit.
Nevertheless, that's ...   more »

My 15-year-old son played in the Home School World Series held in Pensacola, Florida this past week. Unfortunately, his team, the Dallas Angels, suffered a heartbreaking eighth-inning loss in the semi-final game to finish third in the tournament. Culled from regional tournaments--eight home school varsity teams competed in Florida for the championship. Begun in 2000, the Home School World series boasts an impressive alumnus. Many former players have gone on to play at the collegiate level and some have even gone on to play in the Majors. However, there is one young man, in particular, who has risen above them all: Ryan Adam Miller from Pearland, Texas, a suburb of Houston.
Ryan played in the 2004 Home School World Series with the Houston Eagles. Unlike many former players, Ryan was unable to continue his baseball career because on his 18th birthday he entered the United States Marine Corps. Despite the fact that Ryan was eligible to play another year of High School baseball, he felt a strong need to graduate early so he could enlist in the Marines like his father and grandfather before him.
On September 14, 2006, Lance Corporal Ryan Adam Miller, age 19, was killed in action ...   more »

By Dianne Matthews
Memorial Day, formerly known as Decoration Day, was instituted to honor Civil War dead. Local observances were held as early as 1866, many of them in the South where most of the war dead were buried. The first official and large observance took place on May 30, 1868, at Arlington National Cemetary, which held the remains of twenty thousand Union soldiers and several Confederate dead. Five thousand people attended the ceremony.
New York was the first state to declare the holiday, in 1873; other states quickly followed. After World War I, citizens expanded the observances to honor those who died in all Americans wars. In 1971, Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday and changed the date to the last Monday in May. In recent years, many use the occasion to decorate the graves of loved ones.
Under God's direction, the Israelites had "Memorial Day" celebrations to help them remember major events in their history. They celebrated Passover each year to commemorate their miraculous deliverance from slavery in Egypt. When Jesus ate his last Passover meal, he instituted a new memorial to commemorate the deliverance from slavery to sin that he would accomplish for all believers through ...   more »

by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) The International Atomic Energy Commission (IAEA) released a report on Wednesday showing that not only has Iran not fulfilled its international demands, but it has also expanded the scope of its uranium enrichment.
"Iran is speeding towards a nuclear bomb," lamented an unnamed senior Israeli diplomatic figure, "and no one is stopping her." So reported Maariv.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni responded to the report with a show of diplomatic concern: "The international community must concentrate on preventing Iran from attaining nuclear weapons. The report shows that the time element is critical, and the entire world must be united in understanding that we must not stray from this goal."
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert assumed a more undaunted pose. "Iran's continued uranium enrichment is a source of concern," according to a statement from Prime Minister Olmert's Bureau, "even though it is insufficient to indicate that Iran has already achieved an industrial-level enrichment capability."
The statement expressed Israel's regret at "Iran's systematic and open violation of the resolutions of the UN Security Council and the IAEA... We view with utmost gravity the continuing deterioration in the level of Iranian cooperation with the IAEA's inspectors."
IRNA, the Iranian press agency, ...   more »