By Steven Emerson In his June 19th piece titled, "Strengthening Extremists," New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof lambastes the American and Israeli policy of isolating the terror group Hamas, alleging that Hamas' international isolation and resulting pressure have only managed to empower the so-called Islamic Resistance Movement.
And to "prove" his point, Kristof interviews two Gazans who, unsurprisingly, hate Israel. In Kristof's world, the siege of Gaza has only made Hamas more popular. Never mind that Hamas won the Palestinian elections before the siege began and after the Israelis had unilaterally withdrawn from Gaza. A withdrawal, by the way, which Hamas seized upon as a "victory" which, in turn, made Hamas more popular - enough to defeat rival Fatah in the elections.
So the Israelis give the Palestinians land for nothing in return, and Hamas gains popularity. According to Kristof, the Israelis isolate and attack Hamas in Gaza, and Hamas gains popularity. So when does Hamas lose popularity? Kristof claims that the recently minted "truce" between Hamas and Israel will somehow do the trick. Again, never mind Hamas' history of breaking such truces. Even the deferential Reuters news service said of the arrangement, "Israel-Hamas truce begins but duration in doubt."...   more »

'Muslim countries vying for influence, expecting Israel to give up holy site'
By Aaron Klein
Temple Mount
JERUSALEM – A number of Arab states quietly have sent intelligence agents to infiltrate the Temple Mount to determine how they can obtain more influence over Judaism's holiest site, informed security sources told WND.
"It's possible in the coming two years a deal will be made that transfers the Temple Mount out from Israeli hands," said a security source. "The Arab countries are vying for influence, since they think controlling the site means big prestige in the Muslim world."
The security sources said the Arab agents mostly are attempting to infiltrate the Waqf, the Muslim custodians of the Temple Mount, securing all sorts of positions from Waqf garden workers through religious clerics inside the Mount's many mosques.
The Waqf is largely controlled by Jordan, which took over top positions from the Palestinian Authority in recent years.
The sources said the agents' primary job is to collect information on how to gain more influence on the site. The agents also are to report on which Waqf officials are paid by Jordan, through which clerics can be suspected of having good relations with Israel.
"The ...   more »

Under banner of 'Free Love,' Israel's GLBT community marches through Jerusalem despite protests of extreme Right
Despite numerous attempts to cancel it, the Jerusalem Pride Parade was held on Thursday. Thousands of participants gathered in Independence Park at 4:00 pm under the banner of 'Free Love', and marched to Liberty Bell Park, where a ceremony was held.
Jonathan Ger Liebovich, CEO of Jerusalem's Open House, spoke before the participants and said, "This year there was almost no violence, and almost no sedition. We are nearing the day when we will be part of the Jerusalem's routine and native scenery." 
As he spoke, Liebovich removed a black candle from his pocket and explained, "This candle is from the Pulsa Denura (Kabbalistic death curse) ceremony that was held against us last year. This candle will remind us that we are living in a Jewish and democratic country and we, too, are part of the democracy and part of the religion."
The event was uneventful, and participants relinquished the flamboyant mode of dress typical of the parade. "I believe most Jerusalemites don't have a problem with us, we don't bother anyone," said Lior Kiara Duple, a participant. "We hope the parade will go ...   more »

By MEL FRYKBERG
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (center) and his close adviser and cabinet secretary Massoud Zaribafan (right) peer into a metal container as bid by the president of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Reza Aghazadeh, at the Natanz uranium enrichment facilities some 200 miles south of Tehran in February 2006.
 JERUSALEM -- The Israeli government has been forced to acknowledge a top-secret meeting held last Friday between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Aviam Sela, the chief architect of Israel's 1981 attack on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor, after the media got wind of the details.
Unlike the recent ostentatious military exercise that the Israeli Air Force (IAF) carried out over eastern Greece - involving over 100 F15 and F16 fighter jets - which was meant to be picked up by Western intelligence agencies and thereby spread Israel's message to the Europeans, the Americans, and the Iranians in particular, that Israel meant business about halting Iran's nuclear program, Friday's tete-a-tete was not meant to hit the headlines.
The Mediterranean exercise also included Israeli helicopters that could be used to rescue downed pilots. The helicopters and refueling tankers flew more than 900 miles, which is about the same distance between Israel ...   more »

THE JERUSALEM POST
A ring-wing Israeli group hacked into websites of organizations and activist groups Thursday, including those of the armed wing of Hamas, Izzadin Kassam, and left-wing Israeli organizations. The group of hackers, calling themselves the 'Extremist Zealots,' boasted that they had broken into numerous sites.
Izzadin Kassam's site displayed a blank white screen and Hebrew text notifying of a technical error.
The websites of Arab Israeli political party Balad, and left-wing activist groups 'Hagada Hasmolanit' and 'Occupation' featured a black background with an Israeli flag, and the emblem of the 'Extremist Zealots' group, similar to that of Meir Kahane's Kach movement.
The lyrics from the Israeli national anthem 'Hatikva' were also posted on the sites in Hebrew, as well as pictures of Palestinian babies dressed as suicide bombers with the caption, 'Murderers from Birth.'
A short explanation, also in Hebrew, saying that the websites had been hacked into also appeared, however the sites all restored their original content within hours of being sabotaged.
Original Source   more »

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned the United States on Wednesday it would face a "tragedy" if it attacked the Islamic Republic.
"We advise U.S. officials to be careful not to face another tragedy," Mohammad Hejazi, a senior commander of the elite Guards, was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.
"Our last word is that if you want to move towards Iran make sure you bring walking sticks and artificial legs because if you came you will not have any legs to return on," he said.
Hejazi's comments followed market talk of a military strike against the country's nuclear sites.
The standoff between the West and Tehran has sparked fears of a military confrontation that would disrupt oil supplies. Last week a report said Israel had practiced for a possible strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.
Washington says it is focusing on diplomatic pressure to thwart Iranian nuclear work it suspects is aimed at making bombs but has not ruled out military action if that were to fail.
A senior Iranian official on Tuesday denied market rumors of an Israeli attack on one of Iran's nuclear facilities, which Tehran says are part of a peaceful drive to ...   more »

U.S. fighters ID bombers near Alaska
Rowan Scarborough
Russian bombers have stepped up provocative flight exercises off the Alaskan coast, reminiscent of Cold War incursions designed to rattle U.S. air defenses.
U.S. Northern Command, which protects North American airspace, told The Washington Times that TU-95 Bear bombers on 18 occasions the past year have skirted a 12-mile air defense identification zone that protects Alaska. The incursions prompted F-15s and F-22 Raptor fighters to scramble from Elmendorf Air Force Base and intercept the warplanes. The last incident happened in May.
The venerable propeller-driven TU-95 came to symbolize the Cold War, as did its counterpart, the U.S. B-52 Stratofortress.
"They have flown close enough to deem it necessary to ID and monitor them," said Maj. Allen Herritage, a base spokesman. "They come. We ID. We go back to our base. They go back to their base." Elmendorf is headquarters for the Alaskan region of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
Air defense identification zones are military boundaries designed to guard the U.S. and Canada against attack. To enter the zones legally, pilots must file flight plans with air controllers. Russian bombers do not file flight plans, so U.S. and Canadian jets ...   more »

By Richard Wolf and Paul Overberg, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — A decline in Americans' demand for gasoline is keeping record prices from skyrocketing even further, a USA TODAY analysis of gas and oil prices shows.
The price of crude oil has nearly doubled in the past year, while gas has risen in the U.S. by about one-third, according to statistics kept by the Energy Information Administration. Oil prices are being driven up by rising demand in developing nations. But U.S. drivers have cut back, causing a 1% drop in demand for gas this year compared with the same period in 2007. That has forced refiners and retailers in the U.S. to reduce their profit margins.
"Whenever you look at $4 gas, you feel to some degree that you're being taken advantage of," says Eric Wittenauer, a Wachovia Securities energy futures analyst. "Unfortunately, it could actually be worse."
If crude oil prices come down, refiners and retailers say they will seek to recoup their losses, and the price at the pump is likely to remain high. "When wholesale prices start to fall, retailers will try to expand margins to make up for what they lost on the way up," says Jeff ...   more »

by FOXNews.com
Evangelical leader James Dobson took issue Tuesday with a recent speech by Barack Obama, saying the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has distorted the Bible and pushed a “fruitcake interpretation” of the Constitution.
The criticism, aired Tuesday on Dobson’s Focus on the Family radio program, comes shortly after an Obama aide suggested a meeting at the organization’s headquarters here, said Tom Minnery, senior vice president for government and public policy at Focus on the Family.
In his remarks, which ran 18 minutes, Dobson pulled quotes from a speech given by Obama in June 2006 to the liberal Christian group Call to Renewal. Obama mentions Dobson and civil rights leader Al Sharpton in the speech.
Click here to hear James Dobson’s commentary on Barack Obama.
“Even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools?” Obama said. “Would we go with James Dobson’s or Al Sharpton’s?”
Dobson said Obama condemned pastors for their “diatribes” but “sat for 20 years under the tutelage” of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and suggested Obama couldn’t recognize the controversial pastor’s anti-Americanism.
Dobson took aim at examples Obama ...   more »

Amy soberano
The Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Chicago recently removed a controversial exhibit from its gallery in response to accusations of housing an anti-Israel display.
"Imaginary Coordinates," a collaboration of artwork and cartography, has been a point of contention since its inauguration in May of 2008.
The collection was designed to portray the Middle Eastern struggle through artifacts, videos, historical Holy Land maps and contemporary artwork. The display also included postcards depicting everyday Palestinian life in an effort to humanize territorial disputes.
As the city's lone Jewish museum, Spertus exhibitions are central to Chicago Jewry and many expressed great outrage in response to this one's depiction of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The critics charged the presentation portrayed Israel in a negative light, and were especially disturbed by pieces that challenged Israeli borders.
Championed by the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, patrons have applied intense pressure on the Spertus Institute and "Imaginary Coordinates" has since been shut down.
However, critics of the move maintain that withdrawing the exhibit is a reflection of a desire to repress meaningful discourse about the Middle East.
In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Spertus President Howard Sulkin explained his rationale in launching the presentation. ...   more »

    BEIJING, June 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Several monstrous volcanoes, spreading ridges and rift zones have been found on the seafloor northeast of Fiji by a team of American and Australian scientists.
    On the hunt for subsea volcanic and hot-spring activity, the team of geologists located the volcanoes while mapping previously uncharted areas aboard the Marine National Facility Research Vessel Southern Surveyor. Using high-tech multi-beam sonar mapping equipment, digital images of the seafloor revealed the formerly unknown features.
    The summits of two of the volcanoes, named 'Dugong,' and 'Lobster,' are dominated by large calderas at depths of 1,100 meters (3,600 feet) and 1,500 meters (4,900 feet).
    During the six-week research expedition in the Pacific Ocean, scientists from The Australian National University (ANU), CSIRO Exploration & Mining and the United States, collaborated to survey the topography of the seafloor, analyzing rock types and formation, and monitoring deep-sea hot spring activity around an area known as the North Lau Basin, 400 km (250 miles) northeast of Fiji.
    Chief Scientist, ANU Professor Richard Arculus describes the terrain as spectacular.
    "Some of the features look like the volcanic blisters seen on the surface of Venus," he said. "These active volcanoes ...   more »

Windsor Genova
College Station, PA (AHN) - Baseball-size hail has damaged tens of thousands of acres of cotton and corn fields in Texas this week.
In Lubbock Country, 60,000 acres of crops, mostly cotton, were damaged or destroyed, according to a report of the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, a community-based education provider.
The report also puts corn field damage in Bailey County at about 50,000 acres.
Parmer, Gaines, Cochran, Yoakum, Dickens, Garza, Hall, Hardeman, Mitchell, Nolan, Scurry, Hudspeth, Pecos, and Floyd also reported damaged crops from the hail.
The devastation came when cotton plants in Fisher, Jones, Mitchell, Nolan, and Scurry Counties in the Southern Rolling Plains of Texas are reeling from severe heat and dry weather.
High temperature and lack of rain also stressed corn fields in Hale and Swisher Counties.
Original Source
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Crude oil prices could rise to as high as $170 per barrel in the coming months but are unlikely to hit $200 and should ease towards the end of the year, OPEC President Chakib Khelil said in an interview on Thursday.
"I forecast prices probably between $150-170 during this summer. That will perhaps ease towards the end of the year," he told France 24 television, according to a text of the interview released by the station.
The comments came as crude prices neared $135 per barrel, after rising about 40 percent this year.
Khelil said he doubted prices would climb as high as $200.
"I think that the devaluation of the dollar against the euro, if everything goes as I think it will, will be of the order of perhaps 1-2 percent and this will probably generate an $8 rise in the price of oil," he said.
The head of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, said it had been clearly established that speculation was affecting markets.
"It's not a question, but a certainty. The problem is the extent of that speculation on the market," he said, adding that the effect of the subprime crisis in the United States ...   more »