Israel's Knesset on Wednesday voted in favor of two bills that would severely curtail the homosexual community's ability to flaunt their perverse lifestyle before the rest of the country.
The first bill would provide the Jerusalem City Council the authority to ban any public event that would offend public sensitivities in the holy city. Israel's homosexual community has been trying for more than a year to hold a gay “pride” parade in the capital.
The second bill calls for banning mass homosexual public events anywhere in Israel.
Both bills passed their first reading by a large margin, but must now go through two additional readings before passing into law.
Gay community leaders called the bills an assault on democracy in Israel.
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Yedioth Ahronoth report says prime minister relayed secret message to Damascus saying Israel would return Golan to Syria in exchange for comprehensive peace, severing of all ties to Iran, regional terror groups. Right-wing MKs: Olmert trying to save his own skin, has no legitimacy to give up disputed region
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently relayed a secret message to Syrian President Bashar Assad saying Israel knew what the price of peace was and would be willing to pay it, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Friday.
Damascus' Response  
Syria 'ready' for Israel peace talks / AFP  
We would like to resume peace negotiations with Israel, Syrian official says day after Olmert said he did not want to go to war with Damascus. 'Our position is the same; we're closely following (Israeli) statements,' official adds    
According to the report, Olmert told the Syrian leader Israel would return the Golan in exchange for a comprehensive peace agreement and the severing of Damascus’ alliance with Iran and terror groups in the region.  
A senior official in Jerusalem was quoted by the newspaper as saying that Assad has yet to respond to Israel’s offer.  
It was further reported that during a phone ...   more »

Britain's London Telegraph reports that Israeli officials believe that Syria is preparing for a major war against the Jewish state.
"Israeli intelligence officials have been warning for weeks that Syria is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in anti-tank weapons, antiaircraft rockets, and other missiles, and bolstering its presence along the Israeli border," the paper reports.
Also unsettling was comments from Mohammad al Habash, a Syrian parliament member, made during an appearance on the Al Jazeera satellite channel this week.
 Al Habash said Syrian was "actively preparing for war with Israel, which he said he expected to break out this summer."
This past Tuesday Israel's military engaged in war games in preparation for a Syrian attack.
"Israel seeks peace with Syria," Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said. But he cautioned "miscalculations that could cause the security situation to worsen".
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By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS,
A Democratic architect of a bipartisan compromise to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants predicted an "exceedingly close" test vote that could seal the measure's fate.
"It's touch and go. It's extremely close," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., as negotiators worked to salvage the measure, a top priority for President Bush that's under attack from the right and left.
The vote slated for Thursday night was designed to measure senators' appetite for the "grand bargain" between liberals and conservatives on immigration.
The legislation failed a similar hurdle earlier in the day, and Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record), D-Nev., threatened that if it fell short again, "the bill's over with."
Still, Kennedy vowed the immigration debate would continue regardless of the vote's outcome. "This issue isn't going to go away no matter what happens here," he said.
The bill would tighten borders, institute a new system to prevent employers from hiring undocumented workers and give many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants a pathway to legal status. Conceived by an improbable coalition, it is exposing deep rifts within both parties and is loathed by most GOP conservatives.
Republicans were working to break an ...   more »

Pro-Israel group scrambling to organize last-minute counter-demonstration in Washington DC
Yaakov Lappin
A pro-Israel group is scrambling to organize a last-minute response to a large anti-Israel rally being organized in Washington DC for June 10, Ynetnews has learned.  
Stand With US, based in California, has described a protest scheduled to be held against "the occupation" as in fact being "a rally for the dissolution of the State of Israel."  
On the Rise  
Attacks against Jews double in 2006 report reveals  / Vered Luvitch   
Report prepared by Tel Aviv University reveals anti-Semitic acts increased in 2006; physical attacks doubled    
The anti-Israel protest, which is expected to attract thousands, has been organized by the United for Peace and Justice group, the Muslims American Society Freedom Foundation, the Communist Party USA, and "other extremist organizations," according to a Stand With US press release.  
"We will gather on the North side of Constitution Avenue, just west of the Capitol Reflecting Pool. We are organizing this literally one week before the event, with almost no resources or time.  
"This counter-rally truly is the product of a few citizens who are deeply outraged that Israel's opponents might have demonstrated ...   more »

By Ann Coulter
Republicans' defense of President Bush's immigration bill is more enraging than their defense of Harriet Miers. Back then, Bush's conservative base was accused of being sexist for opposing an unqualified woman's nomination to the highest court in the land. Now we're racists for not wanting to grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens.
I don't know why conservatives like Linda Chavez have to argue like liberals by smearing their opponents as racists. Oh wait, now I remember! Their arguments are as strong as liberals' arguments usually are.
Apart from abortion, no subject produces so much disingenuousness as America's immigration policy, both legal and illegal. For nearly 50 years, Americans have been intentionally lied to about our immigration laws.
In 1965, Teddy Kennedy overhauled immigration law with the specific purpose of effecting a dramatic change in the nation's demographics. Bobby Kennedy had civil rights, so Teddy needed something big: He would preside over a civil rights bill for the entire Third World! My word, but that man could drink in those days.
With his 1965 immigration act, Kennedy embarked on entirely transforming American culture for no good reason. (You know how people always say the same arguments against ...   more »

By Bob Unruh
Anantanand Rambachan, a Hindu who will lead the religion department at St. Olaf College
A college affiliated with a Christian denomination has appointed to head its religion department a practicing Hindu who believes that some forms of Christian ministry produce violence.
Anantanand Rambachan, who has taught religion and philosophy at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., since 1985, now will become the first non-Christian to head the religion department in the school's 133-year history.
"It's a great honor," Rambachan, a leading figure in Minnesota's Hindu community, told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
But in an interview with Hinduism Today, he wrote of participating in the Pontifical Council in Rome in 2006.
"Last year we met in Rome in a joint consultation with the World Council of Churches to discuss conversion. This was the first meeting of a three-year project to study the issue and to develop an acceptable code of conduct. Certain forms of Christian proselytization have given rise to tension and even violence between some religious communities," he said. "We gathered to share our perspectives on this matter and to consider acceptable and unacceptable ways of sharing our faiths in communities.
"Our discussion was frank and at times ...   more »