Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, visiting Moscow during the last two days to further "nuclear cooperation" between his country and Russia, unleashed a vituperative attack on Israel's nuclear capability, which he likened to "Iran's nuclear project."
In some respects this is old news. Mubarak has long been in the habit of turning Israel's alleged A-bomb into his punching bag. His tone in the interviews to the Russian press didn't deviate from his norm.
Mubarak's customary hostility to Israel's reputed nuclear capability has always presented a jarring contrast with Egypt's role as Israel's most veteran peace-partner in the Arab world. His unconcealed antagonism hardly becomes a friendly neighbor.
Mubarak also knows that Israel's nuclear activity dates back nearly half a century, during which it has conducted itself with the utmost responsibility expected of the Western democracy that it is. In other words, Mubarak knows there's no risk of nuclear aggression by Israel, a fact that renders his analogy between Israel and Iran particularly galling.
While Israel is a liberal and transparent society, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blatantly threatens to annihilate the Jewish state, sponsors terrorism and tramples human rights. Iran answers all the criteria of a rogue state whose possession of nukes ...   more »

Our leaders' tendency to focus on threats leads to missed opportunities
Gavri Bargil
In the framework of the regular annual ritual, we saw the publication of the yearly intelligence assessment. Unsurprisingly, this assessment is starker and more threatening than the one that came before it. Iran? Approaching the production of nuclear weapons. Hamas? Preparing for escalation. Syria? Looking for revenge for the attack on its reactor and Mugniyah killing, and its missiles cover Israel's entire territory. Israeli Arabs? Increasingly radicalizing.
The bottom line: We are threatened by terrible dangers on all fronts. Only the West is not aiming missiles at us for the time being.
The reactions to the intelligence assessment have also become part of a regular ritual. Ministers are sent to television studios in order to explain how worrisome the situation is; senior officers submit proposals for boosting the defense budget; rightist speakers issue announcements urging the government to take action (military action of course, what else?) 
Our intelligence bodies are very strict about identifying dangers and describing them as an understandable lesson from the Yom Kippur War trauma, and for good reason. Israel indeed faces a harsh geopolitical reality and genuine threats. Yet what should we do ...   more »

Herb Keinon
Russia is determined to go ahead with an international Middle East conference in Moscow in June whether Israel likes it or not, government sources told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday, summing up Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's visit here last week.
The sources characterized Lavrov's one-day visit last Thursday as "nasty," saying the Russian minister was agitated throughout his meetings with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and President Shimon Peres. He was, the sources said, in a slightly better mood during his talks with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
According to the sources, Russia's determination to go ahead with the conference - despite a decidedly cool, though officially noncommittal, reception to the idea from both Israel and the US - stemmed from Moscow's assessment that it desperately needed to increase its involvement in the Middle East and "make its mark" in the region. The reason the Kremlin wanted to get more involved right now, according to the officials in Jerusalem, was not because of a fear they were being outmaneuvered in the region by the US, but rather because Moscow felt it was losing ground to Iran.
According to the government sources, Moscow viewed Hamas's takeover of Gaza as benefiting ...   more »

By AP/KATHERINE CORCORAN
(MEXICO CITY) — If you're seeing your grocery bill go up, you're not alone.
From subsistence farmers eating rice in Ecuador to gourmets feasting on escargot in France, consumers worldwide face rising food prices in what analysts call a perfect storm of conditions. Freak weather is a factor. But so are dramatic changes in the global economy, including higher oil prices, lower food reserves and growing consumer demand in China and India.
The world's poorest nations still harbor the greatest hunger risk. Clashes over bread in Egypt killed at least two people last week, and similar food riots broke out in Burkina Faso and Cameroon this month.
But food protests now crop up even in Italy. And while the price of spaghetti has doubled in Haiti, the cost of miso is packing a hit in Japan.
"It's not likely that prices will go back to as low as we're used to," said Abdolreza Abbassian, economist and secretary of the Intergovernmental Group for Grains for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. "Currently if you're in Haiti, unless the government is subsidizing consumers, consumers hav no choice but to cut consumption. It's a very brutal scenario, but that's what ...   more »

DEBKAfile’s Gulf sources disclose that US Vice President Dick Cheney persuaded Saudi leaders to raise production in order to curb rocketing world oil prices, during their talks in Riyadh on Saturday, March 22.
King Abdullah thereupon convened the Supreme Council for Petroleum and Mineral Affairs Sunday, to underline the kingdom’s commitment to stabilizing the international oil market “by ensuring adequate supply.”
The Saudi Supreme Oil Council’s statement emphasized OPEC’s role in “stabilizing the world energy market and realizing global progress and prosperity.”
It also “emphasized the Kingdom’s desire for oil market stability, and ensuring supplies to different regions at all times to maintain world economic growth.”
The council expressed its satisfaction with the progress in new investment projects for expanding oil production and refine capacity; and, finally, committed the kingdom to working with OPEC countries, other producers and consuming countries toward oil market stability and avoidance of the effect of harmful speculation.”
These decisions, as DEBKAfile’s Gulf oil sources disclose, add up to the Saudi King’s compliance with Cheney’s request to act for stable world oil prices - by speeding up the expansion of production and refining projects both inside OPEC and in cooperation with other world producers, such as ...   more »

Wafa Sultan shocks Islamic TV audience again, Al Jazeera apologizes
Wafa Sultan – the Syria-born psychiatrist whose Al Jazeera interview two years ago sent shockwaves throughout the Islamic world – reportedly is the target of a serious tacit death threat from an influential Muslim scholar in the wake of a second interview with the Arab satellite television network.
Al Jazeera issued an apology after Sultan's interview earlier this month, pointing to "offensive remarks" but never specifying anything she said. Since then, however, the prominent Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi of Egypt "has directed his rage against Sultan," writes author and Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer in FrontPage Magazine
Qaradawi said Sultan, a former Muslim, uttered "unbearable, ghastly things that made my hair stand on end." Specifically, "she had the audacity to publicly curse Allah, his prophet, the Quran, the history of Islam and the Islamic nation."
Spencer concludes, "These are serious charges, and Qaradawi states them in terms that his jihadist minions will understand as meaning that she must be killed.
"Given that Qaradawi has justified suicide attacks against Israeli civilians and American soldiers in Iraq, it is clear that he has no distaste for violence, and thus law enforcement officials should ...   more »

'Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence' hold 'hunky Jesus' competition
By Bob Unruh
A San Francisco-based homosexual organization that has run "Revival Bingo" and whose members have taken communion in a Catholic church in full costume regalia chose Resurrection Sunday to stage its 2008 "hunky Jesus" competition.
"This behavior is shameful," said a commentator on the Roman Catholic blog, which has monitor the activities of the "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" in prior events.
"Hula Jesus" at San Francisco's "Hunky Jesus" competition
"It's meant to scandalize and offend people, and those responsible certainly succeed in that regard," the blog said. "The blasphemy you see is one of the ways these people seek to reinforce their fantasy that God is either a myth or indifferent to their lifestyle choices, no matter how obviously unnatural (at least to anyone who is not bereft of what should be common sense). Those who insist that acts of blasphemy and indecency, and shameless acts of perversion are harmless – or even acts of virtue – do so because of moral blindness resulting from obstinacy in evil…"
(Story continues below)
The "hunky Jesus" event features scantily clad men dressing up as theme Jesus characters, such as "hula Jesus," or ...   more »

Americans may be surprised to learn that Planned Parenthood has plenty of money, and taxpayers are contributing a large part of it. In 2005-06 it took in nearly $1 billion and boasted a surplus of $55 million. More than one-third of its income — $305 million — came from government subsidies. Its president receives an annual compensation of almost $1 million.
In a time when abortions nationwide are declining, Planned Parenthood is performing more abortions than ever — 264,943 in 2005-06. These abortions bring in at least a third of its $345 million in clinic income.
Because Planned Parenthood is America's biggest chain of abortion clinics, it is unsettling to learn that of the six American women who have died after taking the abortion pill RU-486, four got the pill from a Planned Parenthood clinic. Yet Planned Parenthood refuses to comply with FDA guidelines, permitting women to take the drug at home rather than at a clinic as the FDA advises.
There are also disturbing racial disparities. National numbers from the Alan Guttmacher Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveal that the overwhelming majority of abortion clinics are located in metropolitan areas, and some analysts have ...   more »