By Ann Goldberg  Submit a Comment  E-Mail This  Print This  RSS Feed
“We’re at Nezer Hazani,” the woman sitting next to me called into her cell-phone. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
Obviously someone was arguing with her at the other end.
“I said we’re in Nezer Hazani”, she insisted.
I tapped her on the shoulder.
“We’re not at Nezer Hazani,” I whispered. “We’re at Kibbutz Ein Zurim where the people expelled from Nezer Hazani, in Gush Katif, are now living.”
I could understand her confusion. The areas in this corner of Kibbutz Ein Zurim were each named for the settlement of Gush Katif where the residents came from.
And we were sitting in the home of a family from the former settlement of Nezer Hazani.
I had hesitated before going on this trip to visit the expellees of Gush Katif . Was I just being a voyeur, staring at other people’s suffering? Did they really want people to come and see them in their temporary, cramped, makeshift homes?
But I was assured that they did indeed want visitors. They desperately needed to know that they hadn’t been forgotten.
But the sad truth is that they have been ...   more »

Rachel Saperstein 
Traveling to the wedding in Susiya took over two hours. We dropped off our driver's daughter in Kiryat Arba, as she was attending a wedding in nearby Hebron. "My friend insisted that her wedding was to take place in the Tomb of the Patriarchs," she grinned.
Bringing the ancient past and the present together at joyous occasions of bar- or bat- mitzvahs, weddings and circumcisions has become popular among our religious youth.
Susiya, an ancient Biblical city recently excavated, is in the south Hebron Hills. The young couple had chosen the courtyard of the ancient synagogue of Susiya for their wedding celebration. The bride and her family are from Gush Katif. The groom and his family are from the new settlement of Susiya built adjacent to the archaeological site of the Jewish city created after the destruction of the Second Temple. One can still see the cisterns, the wine and olive presses.
The synagogue boasts a magnificent mosaic floor. A niche facing Jerusalem once held the Torah Ark. The wedding canopy was built in the courtyard of this ancient edifice. White satin curtains flowed from the roof of the canopy, with attached golden sunflowers giving a most poignant ...   more »

French President Nicolas Sarkozy plans to sit Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Syrian President Bashar Assad at the same table when the two attend a Mediterranean summit in Paris next month, according to media reports Wednesday.
While the seating arrangements may change before the July 13 gathering, Sarkozy's chief of staff, Claude Gueant said France is keen to facilitate a meeting between the two Middle East rivals. Ha'aretz reports that Olmert has offered to hold direct talks with Assad in Paris.
Israel and Syria have been holding indirect talks via Turkish mediators for weeks, and according to some reports, a peace deal that would see Israel surrender all or most of the Golan Heights is coming closer to reality.
In a blow to what many say is a dangerous ploy by Olmert to boost his own popularity at home by being seen as a peacemaker, Israel's Knesset on Wednesday passed the first reading of a bill that would require a national referendum or a special two-thirds parliamentary majority in order to withdraw from any sovereign Israeli territory as part of a peace agreement
The areas protected by the bill would include the Golan and the eastern half of Jerusalem, ...   more »

by Daniel Pipes
If you cannot name your enemy, how can you defeat it? Just as a physician must identify a disease before curing a patient, so a strategist must identify the foe before winning a war. Yet Westerners have proven reluctant to identify the opponent in the conflict the U.S. government variously (and euphemistically) calls the "global war on terror," the "long war," the "global struggle against violent extremism," or even the "global struggle for security and progress."
This timidity translates into an inability to define war goals. Two high-level U.S. statements from late 2001 typify the vague and ineffective declarations issued by Western governments. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld defined victory as establishing "an environment where we can in fact fulfill and live [our] freedoms." In contrast, George W. Bush announced a narrower goal, "the defeat of the global terror network" – whatever that undefined network might be.
"Defeating terrorism" has, indeed, remained the basic war goal. By implication, terrorists are the enemy and counterterrorism is the main response.
But observers have increasingly concluded that terrorism is just a tactic, not an enemy. Bush effectively admitted this much in mid-2004, acknowledging that "We actually misnamed the war on ...   more »

By Aaron Klein
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday pledged to study a Palestinian proposal for the U.S. to guarantee eastern sections of Jerusalem will become part of a future Palestinian state, WND has learned.
“[Rice] was in total solidarity with us on the issue of stopping Israeli building in (eastern) Jerusalem,” a senior Palestinian Authority official who met with Rice yesterday told WND. The official said Rice promised to “seriously” look into the offering of a formal U.S. letter guaranteeing that new Israeli construction in eastern Jerusalem would be disregarded and that the areas of construction would be included in the final borders of a Palestinian state.
While Rice met with Israeli and Palestinian officials, Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski announced yesterday the approval of 40,000 new residential units in various Jewish neighborhoods, including about 1,300 new units in eastern Jerusalem.
About 231,000 Arabs live in Jerusalem, mostly in eastern neighborhoods. Many reside in illegally constructed complexes on property owned by the Jewish National Fund, a Jewish nonprofit that purchases land for the purported goal of Jewish settlement. Jerusalem has an estimated total population of 724,000.
Rice yesterday strongly lashed out against the new Israeli construction projects planned for eastern ...   more »

Official condemns 'scorpion-cobra' Condi Rice as 'murderer'
Hamas official on Al-Aqsa television
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, who has worked diligently over recent years to advance the agenda of a two-state Middle East that would include a new homeland for Palestinians, now is being condemned as a murderer by officials there.
"Every proud Palestinian views you as a murderer, and sees the blood of the children of Palestine between your lips and on your fangs. I pray to Allah that you will soon slither away," said Hamas Minister of Culture Atallah Abu Al-Subh in a statement televised on Al-Aqsa Television.
The broadcast was recorded and interpreted by the Middle East Media Research Institute, which monitors and reports on media broadcasts and publications in the Middle East.
The group earlier reported a children's television program announced that Tel Aviv doesn't exist, another program featured President George W. Bush being "killed," and yet another had a children's Mickey Mouse-lookalike being "martyred" for the Palestinian cause.
The MEMRI report said Al-Subh's condemnation aired on June 15, launching with a description of the U.S. secretary of state as "satan."
"May Allah give us the strength to confront all the satans, and first and ...   more »

By Stan Goodenough
The television clip shows the Israeli tank moving slowly forward and suddenly being attacked by Hamas gunmen.
As it bursts into flame one f the Arabs runs out with an Israeli soldier on his back. Could he be saving a Jewish life?
Of course not. He is kidnapping another IDF member to use as an effective bargaining chip.
The terror group has learned that abducting IDF soldiers really works for them.
And in the week leading up to the start of its ceasefire with Israel, it was acting out for its Gaza Strip TV audience - especially targeting the Arab youth - the way it will carry out another such kidnapping as soon as that truce collapses - as most observers and Israeli officials believe it will.
The video was recorded from Al-Aqsa Television and circulated by the Palestinian Media Watch.
Original Source
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By Natasha Courtenay-Smith
It seems too lunatic to be true. But here a hair salon boss reveals how she was driven to the brink of ruin - and forced to pay £4,000 for 'hurt feelings' - after refusing to hire a Muslim stylist who wouldn't show her hair at work
For Sarah Desrosiers, meeting Bushra Noah was not a moment in her life that she would describe as especially memorable.
Not only was it brief  -  lasting little more than ten minutes  -  but it was rapidly obvious to Sarah that Bushra was not the person for the junior stylist position she was trying to fill at her hairdressing salon.
Sarah's reasoning? Quite simply that Bushra, a Muslim who wears a headscarf for religions reasons, had made it clear she would not be removing the garment even while at work.
Enlarge    Sarah Desrosiers says she did nothing wrong by not employing Bushra Noah and would have done the same if an employee refused to remove a baseball cap
Sarah felt that a job requirement of any hairdresser was that the stylist's hair would provide clients with a showcase of different looks. Especially one working in a salon such as hers, ...   more »

Woman uses search engine to find ways to kill husband
To paraphrase an old Paul Simon song, there must be 50 ways to kill your husband.
Kate Knight found them all and then some, using the search engine Google. After researching methods of murder involving the drug ecstasy and iron overdoses, the 28-year-old from Staffordshire, England, settled on lacing Lee Knight's food and wine with antifreeze.
On the night of their seventh anniversary, Kate laced Lee's food with the deadly substance. However, Lee survived, suffering brain damage, kidney failure, permanently losing his sight as well as his hearing.
While on trial, a neighbor of Kate's mentioned that she had mentioned hiring a hit man but found other means with Google.
The prosecution explained that Kate's motives were financial. She believed she could obtain life insurance upon her husband's death.
In another murder trial, a detective testified in a U.S. court that a laptop of Neil Entwistle, a British man accused of killing his wife and 9-month-old daughter, revealed a Google search on "knife in neck kill," four days before the murder.
The victims, however, were shot to death, not stabbed. But further searches revealed that Entwistle searched "quick suicide method" ...   more »

Attorneys argue 10th Circuit ruling also would permit 'Hitler memorial'
Could some wealthy private party force the U.S. to allow a "Statue of Tyranny" in New York harbor alongside the famed Statue of Liberty? Yes, unless the U.S. Supreme Court reverses a confused free speech decision from a split 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, according to a law firm advocating for constitutional rights.
Adolf Hitler could be honored alongside World War II heroes, should an appeals court decision ont be reverses, a law firm says
"The court of appeals' approach would make the government's display of the Statue of Liberty the speech of France, not the United States, entitling others to erect counter-monuments," said a brief filed with the high court by the American Center for Law and Justice, which represents the city of Pleasant Grove, Utah, in the dispute.
"Likewise, the Vietnam, Korean, World War II, and upcoming Martin Luther King, Jr., monuments in the nation's capital would likely be deemed private speech, not government speech, entitling Summum and everyone else with a monument to occupy their own corner of the National Mall," the brief said.
The case arose from a demand by the group Summum ...   more »

Attorney warns water group to preserve legal evidence
By Chelsea Schilling
Concerns about fluoridation are quickly surfacing as the National Kidney Foundation withdrew its support of the chemical additive at the same time the largest association of water professionals in the world was warned not to destroy evidence that may be required in legal actions filed by individuals harmed by drinking fluoridated water.
Following reports of the NKF's acknowledgement that patients with kidney disease "should be notified of the potential risk" to their health from drinking fluoridated water, the American Water Works Association has been given notice that it must not eliminate or tamper with documents or recordings, indicating lawsuits could be filed in the near future.
Attorney Robert Reeves delivered a fluoride evidence preservation notice to the 60,000-member water association last week. The document named AWWA's Denver headquarters, regional offices and national and regional officers as "potentially responsible parties" who might be named in lawsuits filed on behalf of kidney patients and other individuals injured by ingesting fluoride.
Daniel Stockin of the Lillie Center Inc., a public health training firm that works to end fluoridation, said organizations should immediately withdraw support for use of the water additive.
"The letter ...   more »

Benedict issues statement asserting that Jesus established ‘only one church’
LORENZAGO DI CADORE, Italy - Pope Benedict XVI has reasserted the universal primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document released Tuesday that says Orthodox churches were defective and that other Christian denominations were not true churches.
Benedict approved a document from his old offices at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that restates church teaching on relations with other Christians. It was the second time in a week the pope has corrected what he says are erroneous interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meetings that modernized the church.
On Saturday, Benedict revisited another key aspect of Vatican II by reviving the old Latin Mass. Traditional Catholics cheered the move, but more liberal ones called it a step back from Vatican II.
Benedict, who attended Vatican II as a young theologian, has long complained about what he considers the erroneous interpretation of the council by liberals, saying it was not a break from the past but rather a renewal of church tradition.
In the latest document — formulated as five questions and answers — the Vatican seeks to set the record straight on Vatican II’s ...   more »

By Chris Christoff  
Was told that because of a sensitive political environment, Dem presidential candidate should not be photographed with Muslims wearing head scarves
ETROIT — One of two Muslim women who were denied visible seats behind Barack Obama's stage at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit on Monday because they wore head scarves said they deserve a personal apology from Obama and close-up seats at a future campaign rally.
Hebba Aref, 25, and her friend, Shimaa Abdelfadeel, received apologies from the campaign Tuesday after they complained that they were not allowed to sit near the podium when campaign volunteers learned that they wear the traditional Muslim head garb called a hijab.
Aref said a group of her friends and friends of Abdelfadeel were approached separately by two different campaign volunteers at Joe Louis Arena. In each case, she said, the friends were told Aref and Abdelfadeel would not be allowed near the stage because of their head scarves.
Aref said one aide told her friends that because of a sensitive political environment, Obama should not be photographed with Muslims wearing head scarves.
Aref said she was especially disappointe because she was attracted to Obama's message of unity and inclusion. She ...   more »

Nuke detectors being tested on private jets
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 Enlarge Department of Homeland Security
 
Homeland Security agents scan planes at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., this month during a test of radiation-detection equipment. Critics say scanning in the USA isn't the answer.
 

 


Yahoo! Buzz Digg Newsvine Reddit FacebookWhat's this?By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY
ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Md. — In between two hangars, near planes used to transport heads of state and military cargo, agents from the Homeland Security Department are searching every cranny of a DC-9 and a Gulf Stream jet.
They are looking for what security officials say could be the components of terrorists' deadliest weapon yet: radioactive and nuclear material that could be used to make bombs.

The agents' work is part of a four-month, $4 million test to see if the government's radiation-detection equipment can pick up depleted uranium and other radioactive material hidden aboard passenger planes.

Vayl Oxford, who runs the department's Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO), says agents began radiation screening of private planes at the start of the year amid concerns ...   more »