Rabbi Nachman Kahana
Part One: Yalkut Shimoni - Iran will destroy the world
Part Two: Avraham's Disciples
Part Three: Building Walls, Closing Doors
Part One: Yalkut Shimoni, "Iran will destroy the world"
HaShem appoints strange messengers to do His bidding. At times it is a talking donkey or an arch-evil anti-semite, like Bilam, who knows the true value of the Jewish nation, yet desires to destroy us - the only link between humanity and its Creator.
Hashem speaks through the foul mouth and evil thoughts of Bilam as a way of letting the world know that they can never destroy Am Yisrael, despite their diabolical intentions and manipulative, misguided, hypocritical condemnations.
At one point Bilam calls out (Bamidbar 23:9):
From the rocky peaks I see them, from the heights I view them.
I see a people who live apart (am le’vadad yishkon)
and do not consider themselves one of the nations.
This week dictators and murderous regimes the world over are celebrating the adoption of the UN Human Rights Council’s reform package that dropped them all from a blacklist, while Israel is placed under permanent indictment.
Council President Luis Alfonso de Alba targeted Israel for permanent indictment under a special ...   more »

Early afternoon found me in one of my favorite places in Israel - a cab - returning from my very favorite place in Israel - the Western Wall. As we wove through Jerusalem's diverse neighborhoods, we passed ancient buildings with centuries of history adjacent to modern commercial buildings, yet, somehow, the scene was not incongruous at all. I sat in (a rare moment of) awed silence, absorbed in the surreal beauty of this timeless city.
Suddenly, I noticed a two-story, concrete, cylindrical building that had obviously been a guard tower during one of Israel's early wars, probably from '48 or '67. It was painted red, which forced a point into my head. "You know," I commented to my taxi driver, "Jewish soldiers could very well have died in this tower, in an effort to secure the Jewish homeland for the Jewish people. And now, politicians are giving away that very land to the same people who haven't stopped trying to annihilate us since it became our homeland."
Thus began our discussion of Israeli politics. As the conversation moved into that murky area between politics and religion, we stumbled upon a question, a contradiction that neither of us could answer. On ...   more »

Palestinians lack true national identity as theirs mostly characterized by hatred towards Israel
Ofir Haivry Published:
The growing political and cultural rift between the Arabs of the Gaza Strip and those residing in Judea and Samaria has stirred debate about the possibility of establishing two separate political entities and the future of Palestinian nationalism in general. Yet perhaps we should be asking whether there ever really was a Palestinian "nation"?
In many places in the world, arbitrary borders set by colonialist powers define a "nation" that do not exist in practice. Is there such thing as a Sudanese "nation" or Iraqi "nation"? Or are we talking about a collection of tribes, groups, and even nations possessing vastly different ways of life, religions, and values that has been gathered together by chance and who are paying a bloody price for this to this very day?    
many areas, the border was drawn in a rather random manner. Had it been performed a little differently, would the Arabs of Marjayoun in southern Lebanon become Palestinian? Would the Arabs of Tarshiha in the Galilee be Lebanese? Are residents of Trans-Jordan, which was initially part of Mandatory Palestine and a few years later became ...   more »

Following an inquiry from The Jerusalem Post, CNN has corrected a feature on its Web site that failed to identify Jerusalem as Israel's capital and which had instead listed it as "Jerusalem, null."
The change was made on Wednesday, after the Post contacted a CNN spokesman in Atlanta, where the company is based, and asked why Israel was referred to in this way by the Web site.
The feature in question appears on the CNN home page, which offers visitors the option of checking the weather at various locations around the world by typing in the name of the desired city.
The page returns a result containing the city name followed by the country in which it is located, such that someone who typed in "Moscow" would receive the weather report for "Moscow, Russia."
But visitors to the site who typed in "Jerusalem" received the weather forecast for "Jerusalem, null," with no mention made of the city's location in the State of Israel.
After being contacted by the Post on Wednesday, CNN spokeswoman Jennifer Martin said that the company had made "a clarification" to the Web site after having received "a few inquiries" on the issue.
The matter was first ...   more »

By Aluf Benn,
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is planning to initiate the evacuation of illegal outposts in the West Bank in the coming months, political sources in the capital said Wednesday.
"This year we will see the evacuation of outposts," the sources said, and the appointment of Ehud Barak to the Defense Ministry will bolster Olmert's ability to deal with this issue.
A short while after taking over from an ailing Ariel Sharon, Olmert ordered the evacuation of nine homes from the Amona outpost in January 2006. The evacuation deteriorated into a violent clash between settlers and security forces, and the prime minister has since avoided evacuating any other outposts in the West Bank.
Several months ago, then defense minister Amir Peretz, presented Olmert with a proposal for the evacuation of several small outposts, but the prime minister rejected the proposal, arguing that an "overall plan is necessary."
The sources pointed out two main reasons for Olmert's change of attitude:
1. A promise made to the United States. Israel promised the U.S. administration, while Ariel Sharon was prime minister, that it would evacuate outposts established after March 2001. This was not carried out despite strong American pressure on Sharon. On ...   more »

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The U.S. Senate made a grave error by failing to pass legislation that would have led to the legalization of millions of unlawful immigrants, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said Thursday.
The bill’s collapse will close the door to legal immigration, encourage continued illegal immigration and human rights violations and decrease security on both sides of the border, Calderon said.
He added that the measure would have been a “sensible, rational, legal solution to the immigration problem,” and its failure will hurt the competitiveness of both the U.S. and Mexico.
The U.S. “economy could not prosper and advance without the labor of Mexican and Central American immigrants,” he told a news conference held with visiting Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.
Calderon has pushed hard for immigration reform while strongly criticizing a 700-mile (1,100-kilometer) border-security fence approved by Congress and President Bush.
Salvadoran President Tony Saca also lamented the measure’s failure, saying, “What a shame. What a shame.”
Original Source
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Russian President Vladimir Putin is making an astonishing bid to grab a vast chunk of the Arctic - so he can tap its vast potential oil, gas and mineral wealth.
His scientists claim an underwater ridge near the North Pole is really part of Russia's continental shelf.
One newspaper printed a map of the "new addition", a triangle five times the size of Britain with twice as much oil as Saudi Arabia.
Muscle-flexing: Putin has his sights on Arctic oil and gas
The dramatic move provoked an international outcry. The U.S. and Canada expressed shock and environment campaigners said it would be a disaster.
Observers say the move is typical of Putin's muscle-flexing as he tries to increase Russian power.
Under current international law, the countries ringing the Arctic - -Russia, Canada, the U.S., Norway, and Denmark (which owns Greenland) - are limited to a 200-mile economic zone around their coasts.
Putin claims that an underwater Russian ridge is linked to the North Pole
A UN convention says none can claim jurisdiction over the Arctic seabed because the geological structure does not match the surrounding continental shelves.
But Russian scientists have returned from a six-week mission on a nuclear ice-breaker ...   more »

An "in depth" study by a core globalist body and also funded in part by all manner of elitist groups and corporations, including the Rockefellers and the Ford Foundation, has found that the people of the world want a global government with a standing army to police the planet.
The study (PDF link) has been jointly released by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and WorldPublicOpinion.org who say that based on a survey conducted in 18 countries, the majority of people approve of strengthening the UN while rejecting the idea that the US should continue to be the preeminent world leader.
According to the two globalist think tanks, the results show that most people believe the UN should have the right to authorize military force and to usurp the national sovereignty of nations should it be necessary where cases of aggression, terrorism, and genocide are concerned.
“In general, there was recognition that many problems now transcend borders and require strengthened multilateral institutions and approaches to dealing with them,” Christopher Whitney, executive director for studies at The Chicago Council said.
Original Source
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By Klaus Marre  
June 28, 2007  
The comprehensive immigration reform bill that has dodged attacks from the left and right for weeks, survived “poison pill” amendments, and was once pulled from the Senate schedule failed its most important test Thursday. Passage of the legislation now appears unlikely.
The bipartisan coalition that had shepherded the measure through so many obstacles failed to get the 60 votes necessary to end debate. The final vote was 46-53
Until Thursday morning, it was unclear whether the bill would survive the cloture vote. But in the end, opponents of the measure from both sides of the political spectrum gained enough support to derail the legislation. Liberals felt it did not go far enough in protecting illegal immigrants, while conservatives rejected the bill because they felt it would grant amnesty to the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the country.
Republican foes of the measure argued that the American public was broadly united in opposition to the bill and had made its views known by flooding Congress with phone calls and e-mails.
“What part of ‘no’ don’t we understand?,” asked Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), who said the immigration fight had “reengaged the American people.”...   more »

History will be created when a Hindu prayer will be recited at the opening of the US Senate in Washington DC on July 12.
Rajan Zed, a Hindu chaplain, said that he had been officially asked to say the prayer. He said he believes this may be the first time any Hindu prayer is delivered in the Senate since its formation in 1789.
Zed is likely to choose the prayer from the Rig Veda, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. He said he plans to start and end the prayer with 'Om', the mystical Hindu syllable. The full text of the prayer will be included in the Congressional Record.
There are an estimated two million Indian Americans in the US. Followers of Hindu groups like ISKCON may add up to another one million.
"July 12 will be an illustrious day for all Americans and a memorable day for Indian Americans when prayers from ancient Hindu scriptures will be read in the great hall of democracy," Zed said.
Usually, the Senate chaplain delivers the opening prayer but sometimes guest chaplains are invited from all over the country to read the prayer
Original; Source
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