By Stan Goodenough
Aug 20, 2007The Palestine Liberation Organization/Palestinian Authority will enter into no peace pact with Israel that does not award the Muslim Arabs who call themselves "Palestinians" full and irreversible control over the site most sacred to the Jewish people.This is according to a WorldNetDaily report published Friday detailing some of the issues being discussed in secret meetings between officials representing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Arabs negotiating on behalf of PLO/PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas.The meetings are meant to be setting the stage for the International Middle East Peace Conference called for by US President George W. Bush and scheduled to be held in November this year under the chairmanship of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.Headlined with the question, "Israel to give up the Temple Mount?" the report suggested that the Olmert government would be willing to consider such a demand, a suspicion fueled by the fact that three days have passed since its publication without an outright denial from the Prime Minister's Office.This "Palestinian" position, long held by the PLO leadership at the aggressive insistence of the entire Islamic world, remains as solid and unyielding today as it did when it helped scupper the talks at ...   more »

By Dion Nissenbaum  
Officials defend show, saying it's designed to help young connect with their country and their god GAZA CITY — Saraa Barhoum picked at the buttons on her pink bellbottom jeans as she twisted on a chair inside the bustling new Hamas television headquarters. The afternoon light bounced off the sparkly outlines of butterflies on her frilly top, and a colorful hijab framed her 11-year-old face. Saraa wants to be a doctor. If she can't, the young star of Hamas television's best-known children's show said, she'd be proud to become a martyr. Saraa says little Jewish girls should be forced from their homes in Israel so that Palestinians can return to their land. With the show's producer helpfully offering written tips during an interview, Saraa didn't get into how she hopes to die for her cause, be it suicide bombing, fighting the Israeli military or some other way. She carefully sidestepped any suggestion that she's subtly calling for the destruction of Israel. Saraa is the sweet face of "Tomorrow's Pioneers," a weekly, hour-long Hamas television children's show best known for bringing the world a militant Mickey Mouse look-alike and then having him killed off by an Israeli interrogator. With ...   more »

Hundreds of local children not enrolled in schools due to fear of Qassam rockets
Shmulik Hadad
Only four out of nine schools in Sderot have been completely fortified, despite an order by the High Court of Justice to complete the fortification of all schools in the town by the beginning of the school year. 
As a result, many of Sderot’s children have not enrolled in the town’s schools due to the threat of Qassam rockets.  
According to Miriam Sasi, head of the education department at the Sderot Municipality, hundreds of names have “disappeared” from the municipality’s student records since last year.  
“It’s two weeks before the beginning of the school year, and there are still many students that finished kindergarten but have not yet enrolled in first grade,” Sasi said. “We’re trying to locate them,” she added.  
At present, some 150 kindergarten graduates have not enrolled in the town’s elementary schools. Only 3,000 children are expected to enroll in Sderot’s schools, as opposed to 3,491 last year, according to data by the Education Ministry.  
Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal has refused to allow children to enroll in schools outside the town.  
In order to deal with the problem, schools maybe be ...   more »

By BEN FELLER 
(AP) Protesters hold signs during a gathering on Parliament Hill in Ottawa,Canada, OTTAWA (AP) - President Bush, tending to relations with two border nations, will try to give a boost Monday to his partnerships with the like-minded leaders of Canada and Mexico.Bush's two-day summit with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon is the third of its kind during his presidency. Each one has been meant to bolster an evolving compact - dubbed the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America - that serves as a way for the nations to team up on health, security and commerce.Yet for Bush, the event also allows him to show he does not take his neighbors for granted; they are both vital trading partners and energy providers for the U.S."The message for Canada and Mexico is that despite the ongoing emphasis on Iraq and terrorism in U.S. foreign policy ... the U.S. is investing time and attention on relationships with our own region," said Chris Sands, a scholar of North American studies and senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.The partnership of the countries is a framework for working out problems - not a deal ...   more »

On Aug. 3, DEBKA-Net-Weekly 312 carried an exclusive report on the Peace Mission 2007 exercise run simultaneously from command centers 3,000 kilometers apart in Russia and China. Friday, Aug. 17, President Vladimir Putin, while watching the exercise with China’s Hu Jintao, announced his order for the resumption of regular Russian long-range strategic bomber flights after 15 years.DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s military experts note that the Russian-Chinese exercise began in fact two weeks before the given date and that an important part of the drill was the transfer of large military forces across vast distances.
The war game practiced tight military cooperation between the Russian and Chinese armies – and not only in combating terror. Those sources pointed to four novel manifestations:1. Chinese Air Force and special units will enter Russian territory for the first time and be activated in conjunction with Russian units from Chelyabinsk in the Russian Urals and Urumchi, capital of the Chinese province of Xinjiang.2. Also for the first time, a Russian-Chinese-Central Asian military war game will be directed from two command centers 3,000 kilometers apart in Russia and China. 3. China has never drilled its air force over any foreign territory.
Original Source

   more »

Lava and hot gas clouds have begun erupting from an Indonesian volcano, threatening hundreds of people living in nearby villages, an official said on Monday.Saut Simatupang, the head of Indonesia's Vulcanology Survey, said nearly 600 people had evacuated their homes in an area south-east of Mount Karangetang.Simatupang said the alert status for the volcano was raised to maximum at the weekend after hot clouds started moving eastwards, posing a threat to hundreds of people.The 1,827 meter (5,994 feet) peak, on the diving resort island of Siau off Sulawesi and 2,325 km (1,445 miles) north-east of the capital Jakarta, is one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes."At least hundreds of the 30,000 people living on the island are at grave risk," Simatupang said by telephone from his office in the city of Bandung."We have recommended evacuation for entire districts and we are pushing for the complete evacuation of at least two villages located 5 km (3 miles) from the volcano's crater."Simatupang said he received reports saying lava had already spread more than 1 km down the volcano's slopes.Another volcano 175 km south of Mount Karangetang has also been spewing ash and sending debris down its slopes.But Simatupang said that Mount Soputan, which ...   more »

By Joe Kaufman and Beila Rabinowitz
On September 9, 2007, a pre-9/11 celebration of sorts will be taking place in New York City, as Islamists from across the Tri-State area will congregate there for the 22nd Annual Muslim Day Parade. If past parades are any indication, law enforcement will need to be on high alert, as the participants have been amongst the most radical in the nation. Will the city allow this denigration of a very somber day to take place, or will it remember its many victims of terrorism and shut it down?
The parade is being run by the Muslim Foundation of America (MFA), an organization located in the Astoria section of Queens that was founded in 1983, around the time of the first annual parade. In actuality, both the MFA and the parade appear to be the same entity with different names, as the MFA’s website, since it was first created in October of 2003, has been devoted almost entirely to discussing the parade.
Thousands are expected to attend this year’s event. In the past, the number of parade-goers has varied. While some participants may be coming out to experience a day of fun with their fellow ...   more »

by Rebbetzin Tzipporah Heller
One of the most harrowing pictures I ever saw appeared in Newsweek. The camera caught a glimpse into a life that had, in many senses, vanished before it even began. A child, who could not have been more than three or four years old, was carrying building materials. We would call him a pre-schooler; in today's Sudan, he -- and his parents -- are slaves.
He can be purchased by just about anyone; someone looked at him and saw two arms that will grow larger and stronger. It is not likely that they saw a mind or a soul. In the Newsweek interview, the child had no idea of the name of his country or his village. Looking at him from my home in Jerusalem, I mourned for his childhood far more than he did. I silently wished that he would somehow be able to return to himself and learn that he is more than his two strong arms.
In the course of our lives, we close doors to higher and deeper selves and sometimes forget that we, too, are more than earners, spenders, and travelers through life. Our thoughtless enslavement to mindless routine can leave ...   more »

The upcoming release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final installment of the wildly popular series, has drawn indignation from ultra-Orthodox lawmakers such as Deputy prime minister and Industry, Trade, and Labor Minister Eli Yishai of Shas.
The book is set to be released simultaneously throughout the world on Saturday July 21. In Israel, the event falls at 2:01 a.m. on Shabbat, when it is illegal for most businesses to be open and functioning.
Yishai, who suggested that the book be sold either earlier on Friday or after the Sabbath is over, threatened to indict and fine any retailers who go through with plans to release the book as scheduled.
"We must put a limit on the desire to imitate other countries. It is inconceivable that numerous employees will be brought in to allow these events to take place and damage the spirit of Shabbat. I plan to file charges and fine anyone who violates the Hours of Work and Rest Law," Yishai said.
The two major book chains in Israel are both planning events to mark the launch. Steimatzky is planning a major event in Tel Aviv's port on Friday night. Tsomet Sfarim is also ...   more »

Only a few weeks ago our erratic Prime Minister was still assuring the nation that for the time being no further unilateral withdrawals were under consideration.
Yet a recent report in the daily Haaretz outlined a comprehensive new "peace" formula virtually indistinguishable from the 2002 Saudi plan, incorporating wide ranging concessions to the Palestinians which President Peres had submitted to Prime Minister Olmert immediately upon assuming office.
Of course, in line with standard procedures related to such trial balloons, the Prime Minister's office ritualistically denied that any such plan had ever been considered. However the office of the President not only confirmed the existence of the plan, but even expressed confidence that it would be endorsed by the Americans and Europeans.
Peres was the principal architect of the disastrous Oslo Accords, but his new proposal extends far beyond his original failed plan. It recommends that Israel forego the Israeli interpretation of UN Resolution 242 and accept the bitterly contested Arab-Soviet- French interpretation which demanded Israel's total withdrawal from all the territories beyond the green line, effectively ceding to the Palestinians one hundred percent of the territories conquered in 1967.
The major settlement blocs amounting up to 5% of the area ...   more »

Researchers find way to erase long-term memory in rats without damaging their brains in study that could lead to targeted drugs for people suffering from dementia
Israeli and American researchers have found a way to erase long-term memory in rats without damaging their brains in a study that could lead to targeted drugs for people suffering from dementia. 
The findings show long-term memories are not as secure as thought and challenge the idea they stabilize after maturing from short-term memories, said Yadin Dudai, who led the study.
"Memory can be erased by applying a drug into a specific part of the brain that stores that memory," he said in a telephone interview. "Long-term memory can be erased."  
In the study, published on Thursday in the journal Science, the researchers fed the rats saccharine, which made them sick and taught them to associate the taste with feeling unwell.
They then injected an enzyme inhibitor called ZIP into the rats' brains that blocked a protein, PKMzeta, which controls the flow of information involving memory between brain cells.  
After the injection, the rats did not remember the association with saccharine, no matter how long the researchers had trained them to do ...   more »

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. diplomatic security officials will begin training the Palestinian presidential guard this year in an effort to support the government of President Mahmoud Abbas, the State Department said on Sunday.  
Under an agreement signed this month by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, presidential guard officers would take course work and conduct VIP protection exercises under the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security.
Rice visited the West Bank in early August, six weeks after Hamas Islamists took over the Gaza strip, in order to bolster Abbas and his Fatah government and promote a U.S.-backed Middle East peace conference to be held later this year.
The guards' training will run from autumn into early 2008 and is part of U.S. and international efforts to bolster the Palestinian security sector and improve law and order, the State Department said in a statement.
The program aims to help the Palestinian Authority "deliver security for the Palestinian people and fight terrorism, build confidence between the parties, and ultimately help to meet the security needs of Palestinians and Israelis alike," it said.
Security training funds were part of about $80 million the Bush administration has promised ...   more »

By R.G. RATCLIFFE
North American Union, Bilderberg & Perry AUSTIN — Black helicopters, the Illuminati, Gov. Rick Perry and the Trans-Texas Corridor are all now part of the vernacular of the global domination conspiracy theorists.
Perry's push for the Trans-Texas Corridor super highway is part of a secret plan, the conspiracy theorists say, to create the North American Union — a single nation consisting of Canada, Mexico and the United States with a currency called the Amero.
Government denials of the North American Union and descriptions of it as a myth seem to add fuel to the fire. A Google search for "North American Union" and "Rick Perry" returns about 13,400 Web page results.
"Conspiracy theories abound, and some people have an awful lot of time on their hands to come up with such far-fetched notions," said Perry spokesman Robert Black.
Perry enhanced the conspiracy buzz earlier this summer by traveling to Turkey to attend the secretive Bilderberg conference, which conspiracy theorists believe is a cabal of international monied interests and power brokers pressing for globalization.
And the conspiracy rhetoric is likely to ratchet up this week as President Bush meets with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister ...   more »

NEW YORK (AP) - The Federal Reserve may have thrown Wall Street a bone Friday by lowering the rate it charges banks, but if this week's housing market data and corporate headlines portend more gloom, it may have to toss another.
So far, Wall Street, beset by fears that credit problems in mortgage and corporate lending will cripple the economy, has been stubbornly signaling to the central bank that it wants a bailout—ideally, by way of a cut in the benchmark fed funds rate.
With the Fed's next meeting not scheduled until Sept. 18, investors may stay jittery over the coming weeks as they watch the central bank to see if it will lower rates before that point.
Stocks got a boost Friday, thanks to the cut in Fed's discount rate, but few market participants are breathing a sigh of relief yet. Many on Wall Street are still in panic mode; even when the Fed started injecting large amounts of cash into the banking system through repurchase agreements two weeks ago, the Dow Jones industrial average continued on its steep downward slope, sliding 812 points over six trading days.
Last week, the Dow finished down 1.21 percent; the Standard & ...   more »