by Hillel Fendel(IsraelNN.com) A 4-page pamphlet distributed in synagogues around the country this past Sabbath is devoted to one topic: Getting Shas to quit the government. It warns that Olmert is using the continued presence of Shas in the government to formulate an agreement endangering Jerusalem, other areas of the land of Israel - and hundreds of thousands of Jews.
Shas chairman Eli Yeshai appeared to backtrack on previous promises to quit the government as soon as negotiations over Jerusalem begin.  On Monday, however, he changed "begin" to "continue."  Speaking before a Conference of Presidents audience in Jerusalem, Minister Yeshai said the final decision to quit or remain will be made by his party's rabbinical leaders, but "if negotiations on Jerusalem continue, Shas will immediately leave the government."
No address, organization or publisher is printed on the pamphlet calling upon Shas to leave.  However, it does feature a full-page article by Yossi Elituv, long-time Shas affairs commentator and writer for the weekly Mishpacha magazine.
The top article is headlined, "Israel has Secretly Agreed to Divide Jerusalem," and cites a PA source bragging that major progress has been made in "the secret talks, especially regarding Jerusalem."  The source said, "Today we ...   more »

In letter of condolence to Hizbullah secretary-general following Imad Mugniyah's assassination, Revolutionary Guards commander says, 'In the future we will bear witness to the disappearance of this cancerous bacterium, Israel'
Dudi Cohen
General Mohammad Ali Jaafari, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, has sent a letter of condolence to Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah following the assassination of the organization's senior commander Imad Mugniyah, saying he believed "the cancerous bacterium called Israel" would vanish soon, the Iranian news agency Fars reported Monday. 
According to Jaafari, "I am convinced that with every day that passes Hizbullah's power increases, and in the near future we will bear witness to the disappearance of this cancerous bacterium, Israel, by the Hizbullah's fighters." 
In the letter comforting Nasrallah over the death of the "shahid" (martyr) Mugniyah, Jaafari wrote, "There is no doubt that the death of this loyal fighter will strengthen the determination of all the revolutionary and warrior Muslims in their battle against the Zionist regime, and particularly the determination of those fighting alongside this shahid."  
Mugniyah was considered close to the Revolutionary Guards, and particularly to the Quds Force, which was recently designated by the United States as a supporter of terror. Together ...   more »

Israel has deployed a battery of US-made Patriot air defense missiles near the northern port city of Haifa as part of precautions against a possible attack by Lebanon's Hizbullah in response to the assassination last week of the group's top commander, Israeli security officials said Monday.
The officials said the battery was put on standby Sunday for the first time since Israel's monthlong war with Hizbullah in the summer of 2006, when the Lebanese guerrillas fired nearly 4,000 rockets into northern Israel. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Patriot batteries were first deployed in Israel during the 1991 Gulf War, but they failed to stop most of the 39 Scud missiles launched by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. They were originally designed to intercept aircraft, and Israeli media reported their role in the current situation would be to shoot down bomb-laden pilotless planes as well as rockets.
The IDF said it was not its policy to comment on what a spokesman called "operational readiness,"
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel is "prepared on all fronts" for an attack.
Hizbullah and its Iranian backers swiftly blamed Israel for last week's assassination of top Hizbullah commander ...   more »

Dan Izenberg
The state informed the High Court of Justice on Monday that the government will start building security rooms for 3,200 homes in a range of 4.5 kilometers from the Gaza Strip border pending cabinet approval.
The state's brief came in response to a petition by Sderot residents demanding that the state build security rooms for 800 housing units in the city that have tiled, instead of concrete, roofs.
According to the plan, which was approved on Sunday by a special ministerial committee, 2,100 security rooms will be build in Sderot and 1,100 in the surrounding rural communities including Nir Am, Kissufim, Miflasim, Carmiya, Gavyam, Erez, Zikim, Netiv Ha'asarah, Ivim and Nahal Oz.
The state told the court that the plan will be brought before the cabinet for approval no later than March 2.
Original Source
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By Ladane Nasseri and Ayesha Daya
 Iran, holder of the world's second- largest oil and gas reserves, opened an exchange for crude and petrochemicals as the government encourages private investment in the energy sector.
Trading began today in petroleum products such as light polyethylene, a plastic used for packaging. The Tehran-based Iran Mercantile Exchange is using ``spot'' rather than futures trading, requiring immediate payment and delivery of the physical product.
Iran, the second-largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, wants to encourage local investors to participate in the oil market as it tries to reduce the state's role in the country's energy industry. Political pressures and the exchange's use of spot contracts may reduce interest in the exchange, an analyst said.
``I don't expect there will be much liquidity on this market,'' said Dalton Garis, economics professor at the Abu Dhabi Petroleum Institute. ``Traders use such exchanges to hedge against price risk, rather than buy a commodity. Also, traders will be under pressure not to trade with Iran.''
Oil derivatives and petrochemical products will be traded initially on the exchange, Ali Akbar Hashemian, director general of Iran's Mercantile Exchange Co., said.
Behind Dubai
Crude oil contracts will be ...   more »

By Daniel Pipes      
 Westerners opposed to the application of the Islamic law (the Shari'a) watch with dismay as it goes from strength to strength in their countries — harems increasingly accepted, a church leader endorsing Islamic law, a judge referring to the Koran, clandestine Muslim courts meting out justice. What can be done to stop the progress of this medieval legal system so deeply at odds with modern life, one that oppresses women and turns non-Muslims into second-class citizens?
A first step is for Westerners to mount a united front against the Shari'a. Facing near-unanimous hostility, Islamists back down. For one example, note the retreat last week by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in a dispute concerning guide dogs used by the blind.
Muslims traditionally consider dogs impure animals to be avoided, creating an aversion that becomes problematic when Muslim store-owners or taxi drivers deny service to blind Westerners relying on service dogs. I have collected fifteen such cases on my weblog, at "Muslim Taxi Drivers vs. Seeing-Eye Dogs": five from the United States (New Orleans, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Brooksville, Fl.; Everett, Wash.); four from Canada (Vancouver, twice in Edmonton, Fort McMurray, Alberta); three from the United Kingdom (Cambridge, twice ...   more »

By ANITA SNOW    
  HAVANA (AP) - Ailing leader Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba's president early Tuesday after nearly a half-century in power, saying in a letter published in online official media that he would not accept a new term when the newly elected parliament meets on Sunday.
"I will not aspire nor accept—I repeat I will not aspire or accept—the post of President of the Council of State and Commander in Chief," read the letter signed by Castro and published quietly overnight without advance warning in the online edition of the Communist Party daily Granma.
The new National Assembly is meeting Sunday for first time since January elections to pick the governing Council of State, including the presidency Castro holds. There had been wide speculation about whether he would accept a nomination for re-election to that post or retire.
The 81-year-old Castro's overnight announcement effectively ends his rule of almost 50 years over Cuba, positioning his 76-year-old brother Raul for permanent succession to the presidency.
Over the decades, the fiery guerrilla leader reshaped Cuba into a communist state 90 miles from U.S. shores and survived assassination attempts, a CIA-backed invasion and a missile crisis that brought the world ...   more »

A total eclipse of the Moon occurs during the night of Wednesday, February 20/21, 2008. The entire event is visible from South America and most of North America (on Feb. 20) as well as Western Europe, Africa, and western Asia (on Feb. 21). During a total lunar eclipse, the Moon's disk can take on a dramatically colorful appearance from bright orange to blood red to dark brown and (rarely) very dark gray.
An eclipse of the Moon can only take place at Full Moon, and only if the Moon passes through some portion of Earth's shadow. The shadow is actually composed of two cone-shaped parts, one nested inside the other. The outer shadow or penumbra is a zone where Earth blocks some (but not all) of the Sun's rays. In contrast, the inner shadow or umbra is a region where Earth blocks all direct sunlight from reaching the Moon.
If only part of the Moon passes through the umbra, a partial eclipse is seen. However, if the entire Moon passes through the umbral shadow, then a total eclipse of the Moon occurs. For more information on how, what, why, where and when of lunar eclipses, see the special web page ...   more »

Professional association warns doing otherwise may be unethical 
A ruling by the American Counseling Association that members must not help homosexual clients change their sexual orientation is not sitting well with some in the professional organization who are seeking clarification to avoid “future legal actions.”
The official policy of the ACA is that counselors asked by clients for help in changing their sexual orientation must offer only "gay affirmative" arguments. If the client persists, counselors must explore the "religious influences that underpin homophobia that may be harming the client."
At issue is a ruling from the association concerning clients who seek help in clarifying their sexual orientation as that matching their physical characteristics.
Such questions from clients need to be met with that "gay affirmative" response, the organization's leaders have stated, and if a client insists on seeking such treatment, a counselor who even refers a client to anyone offering reparative counseling could be violating the association's ethical guidelines.
(Story continues below)
Dr. Warren Throckmorton, an educator from Grove City College in Pennsylvania, assembled a coalition of about 400 counselors who are having difficulties with the pro-homosexual mandate from the association and have written to tell its chief, Brian Canfield, ...   more »

Norman Thomas, American socialist  
"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened."
 – Norman Thomas, American socialist
I've been thinking deeply about those famously prophetic words spoken by America's premier socialist thinker and leader.
They didn't resonate in the 1940s when Franklin Roosevelt, in the name of ending the Depression, exceeded all constitutional authority by approving new federal assistance programs.
They seemed a bit far-fetched to most of us in the 1960s when Lyndon Johnson vastly expanded the welfare state in his failed bid to end poverty in America.
They still didn't connect in the 1970s when Richard Nixon, in a bid to ingratiate himself with Democrats in Congress and stave off an impeachment, greatly increased spending on wealth-redistribution schemes.
And by the 1980s, with Ronald Reagan in power, it seemed this 40-year trend had finally been reversed.
But with the initiatives being proposed by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential campaign, it appears Norman Thomas was right all along. Americans will, indeed, embrace every fragment ...   more »

When George Bush abandoned his promised "humble foreign policy" in favor of bringing truth, justice and the American way to an ancient land that has been ruled by great conquerors for more than 3,000 years, from Shalmaneser and Sargon II to Abu Ja'far Abdallah ibn Muhammad al-Mansur and Hulagu Khan, the media was rife with references to the Crusades of medieval fame. Unfortunately, five years after the most recent fall of Baghdad, it is increasingly obvious that John McCain's promise of 100 years of occupation notwithstanding, this American Outremer is unlikely to last half as long as its nominal predecessor did.
Because the media is almost completely ignorant of military matters, it has quite understandably escaped the greater part of the American public that the short-term success of the minor reinforcing operation known dramatically as "the surge" is almost completely irrelevant. Most news analyses are day to day, and most opinion writers think only in terms of their next column, so the chances of any media figure looking beyond the next election is an exotic outlier approaching Black Swan probabilities. All the same, it's worth noting that there are distinct lessons from a previous military occupation of the Middle East ...   more »