Adina Hershberg
I knocked on the door of the "caravan" and was bade to enter. Nechemiah and Rafi were sitting in the kitchen. Nechemiah was reading a paper and Rafi was learning.They come in assorted shapes, sizes, and colors. Male and female. Jews and non-Jews. Young and middle-age. Quiet and talkative. Religious and non-religious. The common denominator is that they all come in military uniform and they are guests at our Shabbat table. Some of them wear their rifles on their shoulders during the meal; some place the rifles under their feet; and others place their weapons in our front coat closet.
When we left the city life (Jerusalem) and moved out to the country we knew that we would enjoy the quiet, the awe-inspiring views, and the slower pace of life. A great benefit, which we were unaware of before we moved, turned out to be the wonderful opportunity to host the soldiers stationed in Rosh Tzurim, for Shabbat and Yom Tov (holiday) meals. Their stint usually runs for one week, but there are times when the soldiers are stationed for three weeks.
The soldiers in the "budka", the guard house.The soldiers' accommodations, a small structure called a caravan ...   more »

According to a number of sources, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is planning to bring his first reactor on line sometime in September 2008, which is just about in line with what the Israeli Mossad had estimated back in 2003 when the full extent of Iran's secret nuclear program became known.
The Iranian announcement came on the heels of a surprise announcement by the government of Israel confirming it had entered into third-party peace talks with Syria's Bashar Assad. The surprising confirmation on Wednesday was the first acknowledged contact between the two parties in eight years, which will be mediated by Turkey. Equally surprising was a statement from the United States saying it had no objection to the talks. Previously, the U.S. had rejected any peace overtures toward Syria as long as it was sponsoring Hezbollah and Hamas. In fact, President Bush seemed to have been blindsided by the news. According to transcripts of an interview he granted to the Jerusalem Post, Bush responded to the news by stammering; "I expect an explanation, but I'm – he made a decision that he made – or no decisions have been made, except the idea of trying to get some dialogue moving, which is – ...   more »

Leading figure in Religious Zionist movement calls on prime minister to adhere to Jewish ethical code, resign from office. Furthermore, he says, anyone involved in or who has evidence of alleged corruption, must step forward or else they too are party to crime
Efrat Weiss
"The people Israel must rise as one and purge from within these leaders, and therefore in accordance with Toranic law, anyone with information regarding or who himself is involved in bribing the prime minister - and there are many of those in Jerusalem and throughout the country – it is a mizvah to share this information with the police authorities."
The aforementioned ruling is that of Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, a founding member of the 'Temple Institute' and one of Religious Zionism's most prominent leaders, following the recent corruption allegations against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
PM's lawyer says testimony given by American businessman proves he transferred cash envelopes 'because he believed in Olmert's way'. Adds: Staying in hotel suites and flying first class may be habits that public frowns upon, but they are not illegal 
"He who does not inform the police is part of the crime and strengthens the hands of felons," says Rabbi Ariel ...   more »

by Hillel Fendel(IsraelNN.com) Arrested two months ago during the violent dismantling of a Jewish settlement site, Rivka Meirchik is still in prison. She refuses to cooperate with the courts, and says the police beat her.
Ms. Meirchik, 29, was arrested on April 2 in Shvut Ami near Kedumim.  The neighborhood was first built by Jewish pioneers last September, together with several others in various parts of Judea and Samaria.  Shvut Ami was the last to be destroyed by police and army forces, remaining on the ground for over a week.  Several activists were arrested when police came to take it down, and two teenaged boys were beaten by police in the police station, according to the Yesha Civil Rights organization headed by Orit Strook.
Since then, Shvut Ami has been rebuilt and demolished some six times, and pioneer activists continue to vow to return and establish a permanent Jewish presence there.
Meirchik and the Land of Israel
Meirchik, jailed in the N'vei Tirza women's prison, is charged with trespassing, assaulting a police office and disobeying military orders after the area was proclaimed a closed military zone. She maintains that she was beaten by police, but refuses to recognize the authority ...   more »

By Annette Young
in Jerusalem
AS ISRAEL pursues peace talks with Syria, speculation is growing that the Jewish state will seriously consider unilateral military action against Iran within the next year.
Israeli intelligence is now estimating that Iran will master centrifuge technology and be able to begin enriching uranium by the end of this year, 12 months ahead of schedule.
As a result, Israeli military officials believe the Islamic republic coADVERTISEMENTuld have a nuclear weapon by the middle of 2009.
"Within a year, the Israeli government will have to decide between two options: either not do anything and reconcile itself to the fact that Iran is now nuclear, or take unilateral military action," Giora Eiland, Israel's former national security adviser, told Scotland on Sunday.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Israel is also worried that Tehran is developing a cruise missile that can evade interception by the Arrow, Israel's anti-ballistic missile defences.
Iran is suspected of using smuggled Ukrainian X-55 cruise missiles as a model for its own project. A cruise missile, which flies low to dodge radar and interception, could be used to carry a nuclear warhead.
With US President George Bush nearing the end of his term, the likelihood ...   more »

By GIL HOFFMAN
Following consultations late Tuesday night, Defense Minister Ehud Barak is seriously considering presenting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with an ultimatum on Wednesday: Either the premier resign, or Barak will pull Labor out of the coalition, thus forcing new elections.
Slideshow: Pictures of the week Channel 1 first reported on the matter late on Tuesday, saying that Barak made his decision after consulting with advisers at his house. However, the Labor chairman issued a statement soon after which denied that such consultations took place at his home, and that only after holding a meeting with Labor ministers and MKs early Wednesday morning would he actually make any decisions.
Barak is expected to convene a Labor faction meeting on Wednesday, during which the issue of an ultimatum will be brought up. Following that meeting, the defense minister is reportedly leaning towards holding a press conference, at which time he will present his decision.
The reports on Barak's decision comes after a day in which New York financier Morris Talansky testified in court to giving Prime Minister Ehud Olmert envelopes of cash amounting to no less than $150,000. Since details of the police investigation into Talansky's relationship with Olmert became ...   more »

The FBI issued a bulletin to 18,000 law enforcement agencies this week warning that al-Qaida has made new threats to use weapons of mass destruction against U.S. targets.
ABC News reported late Tuesday that intelligence sources have confirmed that al-Qaida plans to release a new video on the web sometime tomorrow. U.S. intelligence believes the terror group will advise its "jihadists to use biological, chemical and nuclear weapons to attack the West."
An FBI spokesman confirmed the threat "calling for the use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against civilians." The U.S. has no "intelligence of any specific plot or indication of a threat to the U.S.," the Bureau spokesman said. Still, the FBI has taken the precautionary step of alerting other agencies of the potential threat.
Such threats are not unusual for the Bureau. Earlier this year, Dr. Vahid Majidi, the bureau’s assistant director in charge of the WMD Directorate, told Newsmax that the FBI gets at least several dozen cases a year involving weapons of mass destruction.
The Bureau takes such threats seriously.
In a separate interview with Newsmax's Ronald Kessler last year, FBI Director Robert Mueller said Osama bin Laden and his terrorist group were actively seeking ...   more »

A new report published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies shows that global interest in developing nuclear technology has risen significantly in recent years. Rising oil prices and other factors have prompted more than 40 countries worldwide to announce that they are either starting new or expanding existing nuclear energy programs. Included in this list is almost every country in the Middle East. In the space of less than a year, 13 nations in the Middle East have announced plans to explore atomic energy. Each of these countries has abundant oil and gas reserves, which is why some experts fear that Iran's nuclear ambitions may have triggered the start of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, some Arab countries might be developing nuclear energy now so they will have the option of building a bomb in the future. Nuclear technology is complex and costly, and developing nuclear weapons is not something that can be done overnight. It takes time to build the necessary infrastructure. However once built, the same nuclear technology used to generate electricity can also be used to develop weapons. It would not be the first time ...   more »

The Axis of Idiots’ by J. D. Pendry - Sergeant Major, USMC, Retired
May 5, 2008 · Print This Article
Jimmy Carter, you are the father of the Islamic Nazi movement.  You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home, and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage.  You’re the runner-in-chief.  
Bill Clinton, you played ring around the Lewinsky while the terrorists were at war with us.  You got us into a fight with them in Somalia and then you ran from it.  Your weak-willed responses to the U.S.S. Cole and the First Trade Center Bombing and Our Embassy Bombings emboldened the killers.  Each time you failed to respond adequately, they grew bolder, until 9/11/2001.  
John Kerry, dishonesty is your most prominent attribute.  You lied about American Soldiers in Vietnam ..  Your military service, like your life, is more fiction than fact.  You’ve accused our military of terrorizing women and children in  Iraq ..  You called Iraq   the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, the same words you used to describe Vietnam ..  You’re a fake.  You want to run from Iraq and abandon the Iraqis ...   more »

"Do not make idols" is a really hard commandment to follow.
by Jason Lawrenz 
I'm a movie guy, and one of my all-time favorites is Raiders of the Lost Ark. The boulder scene, the fistfight around the Nazi bomber, the car chase where Indy climbs underneath a moving truck. … I could go on and on. But there is an early scene in Raiders that seems weird every time I watch it:
An army of South American natives surrounds Indiana Jones. Belloq (the bad guy) takes a small golden idol from Indy's hand and thrusts it into the air. Immediately, all the natives bow down.
I know it's just a movie, but I can't help thinking: Do they really take a little golden statue that seriously? Why would they bow to something like that?
Of course, idolatry isn't a "Made in Hollywood" idea. Idol worship exists all over the world, and we see it taking place throughout the Bible. In response to this popular form of worship, God gave Israel a very strict commandment:
"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ...   more »

By James Howard Kunstler
Everywhere I go these days, talking about the global energy predicament on the college lecture circuit or at environmental conferences, I hear an increasingly shrill cry for "solutions." This is just another symptom of the delusional thinking that now grips the nation, especially among the educated and well-intentioned.
I say this because I detect in this strident plea the desperate wish to keep our "Happy Motoring" utopia running by means other than oil and its byproducts. But the truth is that no combination of solar, wind and nuclear power, ethanol, biodiesel, tar sands and used French-fry oil will allow us to power Wal-Mart, Disney World and the interstate highway system -- or even a fraction of these things -- in the future. We have to make other arrangements.
The public, and especially the mainstream media, misunderstands the "peak oil" story. It's not about running out of oil. It's about the instabilities that will shake the complex systems of daily life as soon as the global demand for oil exceeds the global supply. These systems can be listed concisely:
The way we produce food
The way we conduct commerce and trade
The way we travel
The way ...   more »

Posted by John Berlau
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Fingerprints are considered to be among the most personal of information, and fingerprint databases created and proposed in the name of national security have generated much debate. Recently, “Server in the Sky” — a proposed international database of the fingerprints of suspected criminals and terrorists to be shared among the U.S., U.K. and Canada — has ignited a firestorm of controversy. As have cavalier comments by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that fingerprints aren’t “personal data.”
Yet earlier this week, a measure creating a federal fingerprint registry totally unrelated to national security passed a U.S. Senate committee almost without notice. The legislation would require thousands of individuals working even tangentially in the mortgage and real estate industries — and not suspected of anything — to send their prints to the feds. The database and fingerprint mandates were tucked into housing and foreclosure assistance bills that on Tuesday passed the Senate Banking Committee by a vote of 19-2.
The measure the committee passed states that “an indvidual may not engage ...   more »

Six-year-olds sexually abused by UN peacekeepers
By Mike Pflanz in Man, Ivory Coast
Last updated: 1:18 PM BST 27/05/2008
Sexual abuse of children as young as six by aid workers and United Nations peacekeepers has continued unchecked despite repeated promises to stamp it out, according to a 12-month investigation.
More than half of the children interviewed in three countries, Ivory Coast, South Sudan and Haiti, knew of cases of forced sex with aid staff or peacekeepers.

The assaults were often in return for the very food or protection supposed to be provided to the vulnerable in a crisis.

Similar allegations have dogged UN missions since the organisation sent peacekeepers to Cambodia in the 1990s. However, today's report, from Save The Children, is the first to point the finger at civilian aid staff, including those working for British charities, as well as soldiers.

Its findings suggest a continuing lack of action despite promises to tackle alleged abuse made at a conference of UN officials and aid agencies in December 2006.

"There were men there who called my little brother over and gave him biscuits," she haltingly told The Daily Telegraph last week in a village close to the town of Man. ...   more »