by Hillel Fendel(IsraelNN.com) Jordan is in an uproar over the revival of the "Jordanian option" - the thesis that Jordan is the true home to the "Palestinians."  Reports that a top advisor to US Presidential candidate John McCain is promoting this idea have led to a flurry of press reports in the Arab media, as well as a denial from Jordan's King Abdullah himself.
Some officials in Israel and the United States, however, feel it's the only way to prevent the formation of a Palestinian state.
The King responded defensively to the option, declaring in an interview with a Lebanese newspaper last week, “This country was made to stay. Jordan is Jordan and Palestine is Palestine."
"Palestinian Homeland" = Jordan
However, he also added another sentence that has given observers pause, wondering if he meant something else. 
"The Palestinian nation has the right to a state and independent identity on the areas of Palestine," said King Abdullah II. "The Palestinians will not accept any substitute for their homeland Palestine."
Though Arabs today call Israel "Palestine," MK Benny Elon (National Union) told IsraelNationalNews that in this case, "the words 'Palestinian homeland' can mean Jordan as well... Certainly Abdullah himself remembers that ...   more »

By Yossi Verter 
The agreement between the prime minister and the defense minister that prevented a vote this week on dissolving the Knesset and advanced primaries in the Kadima Party neither calmed tempers nor soothed the tense relations between Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak.
On Wednesday, after the fact, Olmert's associates claimed that Labor Party chairman Barak initiated the compromise because he feared Olmert would fire him immediately, and that on Friday "the sun will be in the meridian, and he'll be a civilian." Barak, the prime minister's confidants added, "ran away like a battered dog."
In conversations with several associates late this week, Olmert said he could work in concert with Barak, because of the serious issues on the agenda, and that he does not intend to settle scores with those who stabbed him in the back. 
Olmert also said in those closed forums that he will not forget that while he was sitting with the French president and, the next day, with the Egyptian president, discussing the issues most critical things to Israel, several of his rivals were plotting against him.
In preparation for the primaries in Kadima, slated to wrap up by September 25, Olmert is considering ...   more »

Tour guide to be buried at 11 p.m. Sat.
Gad Sharvit, the 33-year-old tour guide who died early Friday after falling down a 12-meter pit in the Luzit caves near Beit Shemesh, will be laid to rest at 11 p.m. Saturday at the Givat Shaul cemetery in Jerusalem.
Sharvit, from Mevaseret Zion, had been leading a group of employees from the Tiv Ta'am supermarket chain on an unmarked trail, police reported.
Magen David Adom and the IAF's elite 669 search and rescue unit were called to the scene.
MDA paramedic Hanan Meir told Israel Radio that Sharvit had fallen a distance of about 12 meters. He said that when he saw the height of the fall and Sharvit's condition, he told his team to stop its resuscitation efforts. A doctor from the 669 unit then pronounced Sharvit dead, said Meir.
The Luzit caves are a network of man-made hidden caves similar to those at the nearby Beit Guvrin.
The spot is frequented by hikers wishing to see the caves that were used as dwellings, cisterns, storage spaces, quarries and tombs in the Hellenistic period. They also visit the site to see the impressive Arabic inscriptions of the early Islamic period ...   more »

By Amos Harel and Yoav Stern
Shin Bet security service chief Yuval Diskin has somewhat softened his position regarding the prisoners who could be released in return for Shalit. Diskin is now prepared to release some prisoners "who have the blood of Israelis on their hands," so long as the risk they pose is lessened.
The government's coordinator for hostage negotiations, Ofer Dekel, left for Cairo on Thursday, where talks have resumed over a deal to secure the release of kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit.
Shalit was abducted two years ago in a cross-border raid by Palestinian militants, and has since remained in captivity in the Gaza Strip. 
Sources in the defense establishment expressed satisfaction at the renewed effort to advance the deal, and in particular at the increased Egyptian role in mediating between the parties.
The resumption of the talks is part of the agreements Israel and Egypt reached in connection with the cease-fire (tahadiyeh) between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Dekel held meetings in Cairo with Egyptian intelligence officials, headed by Egypt's intelligence chief, General Omar Suleiman. Simultaneously, talks are taking place between Egypt and Hamas. Dekel was supposed to talk to his hosts ...   more »

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni called Thursday for an immediate military response to Qassam fire by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
Her remarks came hours after a rocket hit the Negev area earlier in the day, the fifth after the Egyptian-brokered truce went into effect last Thursday.
"There was a similar breach of the truce several days ago," Livni was quoted by the website of local daily Ha'aretz as saying at the start of her meeting with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere. "I don't care who fired. Every breach must be met with an immediate military response. I made my opinion clear to both the prime minister and the defense minister following the first infraction, and I will make clear to my foreign counterparts too."
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that "only deterrent military strength and superior excellence lead to a swift victory, and they are what will lead to peace. And when achieved, it will be stable and long-lasting."
Earlier, a rocket hit an open area of the industrial zone outside the city. There were no reports of injuries or damage, according to army sources.
The Fatah-affiliated Aksa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. ...   more »

Governor glad for new law to punish sex offenders on same day as 'atrocious ruling'
Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal
Shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court announced it struck down the death penalty for child rape in his state, Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal signed a bill authorizing castration of sexual offenders.
Jindal – frequently mentioned as a potential vice-presidential nominee – said he was "especially glad" to sign the Sex Offender Chemical Castration Bill "on the same day the Supreme Court has made an atrocious ruling against our state's ability to sentence those who sexually assault our children to the fullest extent."
"Those who prey on our children are among the very worst criminals imaginable," Jindal said in a statement.
In a 5-4 vote announced yesterday, the Supreme Court's majority said imposing the death penalty in child rape cases violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
"The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote.
Hailing the new state castration law, Jindal said that as a father of three children, as well as a governor, he believes "sexually assaulting a child is one of the very worst crimes, ...   more »

BY BILL KACZOR
    A new Florida law intended to prohibit public and private employers alike from banning guns locked inside cars in their parking lots is so badly written it's "stupid," a federal judge declared Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle declined, however, to rule on a request for a preliminary injunction before the law takes effect next Tuesday.
Hinkle said he needed more time to study the issue and doubted two business groups challenging the law would suffer irreparable harm before he makes a decision, probably in mid-July.
The law bars employers from prohibiting workers, customers and other visitors from keeping a legally possessed firearm locked in their cars parked on the employers' property.
It says an employer is a business or public-sector entity that has "employees," who are defined as people with valid licenses to carry concealed weapons.
The law, thus, doesn't apply to a business that doesn't have any workers with a concealed weapon permit, Hinkle said. He said that means one business may have to comply, while another next door is exempt.
"Stupid isn't it?" he asked while questioning an attorney for the state.
A lawyer for the National Rifle Association, Christopher Kise, later told ...   more »

By JOSH GERSTEIN, Staff Reporter of the Sun
June 25, 2008
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Presbyterian Church is hearing impassioned pleas to declare its solidarity with the Palestinian Arabs by adopting a series of anti-Israel measures, including proposals for divestment and for backing a suspension of American military aid to the Jewish state.
KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty
The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church at Washington, DC in April 2005.
At a session that began yesterday afternoon and stretched into the night, a church committee on peacemaking heard a range of public testimony on the measures, which may be referred on to the American church's general assembly holding its biannual meeting here this week.
"The situation in Palestine is dire. The call from our Palestinian brothers and sisters has fallen on deaf ears," a Presbyterian minister, Reverend William McGarvey of San Francisco, told the committee. "The American Christian church has largely watched this catastrophe continue as if we did not care."
In the first round of votes, the Presbyterian committee seemed to signal a reluctance to trigger a new round of recriminations by re-embracing a divestment initiative that the church adopted in 2004, but shied away from two years later. Last night, ...   more »

By Humberto Fontova
While Sen. Obama worked a warm audience at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Miami last weekend, protesting Bush and McCain's "tax cuts for the wealthy" and promising billions in federal handouts, a small group of Cuban-Americans stood outside the Intercontinental Hotel protesting Obama himself.
More specifically, they protested some of Obama's top advisers: Gregory Craig, who serves as Obama's chief adviser on Latin America, and Eric Holder, who heads Obama's vice-presidential selection team. Both of these gentlemen had key roles in "legally" perfuming the shanghaiing of Elian Gonzalez. At the time, Craig served as lawyer for Elain's father (i.e., Fidel Castro), and Holder served as deputy attorney general under Janet Reno.
"That was eight years ago," Obama responded when plans for the Cuban-American protest were announced last week. "Obviously, it was a wrenching situation for the families, but I'm running for president in 2008 and my focus is: How do we create a Cuba policy that will create political freedom on that island and allow the people who live there to prosper?"
Florida holds 27 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. New Jersey holds 15 electoral votes and the largest Cuban-American community ...   more »

By Ali Sina
Political mistakes can be costly, but when they are made by the president of the United States of America, they can be deadly.
When in 1979 the unrest in Iran escalated, President Carter's national secretary adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, advised him to encourage the shah to crack down on the revolution. The more cautious State Department suggested that Carter reach out to democratic opposition elements in order to smooth the transition to a new government. Carter did neither, and the worst possible outcome ensued.
Muslim youths from all over the world were dazzled by the unexpected success of the Islamic revolution. Nothing is more roborant to Islamists than victory. Victory gives them the confirmation that they are right. It is an elixir that invigorates them. Thus, after centuries of lying in its grave, jihad was resurrected.
Who would have thought Carter's lack of political acumen would cause the carnage of 9/11, so many wars and the death of millions of people across the world? Carter is history, but history is the best teacher.
America is about to elect a new president. Barak Hussein Obama, an unknown political figure, has emerged as the candidate of the Democrats with a ...   more »

2nd Amendment lawsuits take aim at firearms limits
U.S. Supreme Court
The National Rifle Association, with today's U.S. Supreme Court opinion rejecting the District of Columbia's handgun ban, has launched plans for further legal challenges in cities like Chicago and San Francisco where other bans now exist.
In its first conclusive interpretation of the Second Amendment, the high court affirmed it includes an individual right to own firearms, not merely a right for states to form armed militias.
The Constitution does not permit "the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home," Justice Antonin Scalia said in the majority opinion.
"We are very pleased with the Supreme Court's ruling today. This is a win for all Americans, and it vindicates the individual's right to keep and bear arms," Rachel Parsons, a spokeswoman for the NRA, told WND. "We are now going to go after other cities' laws that unlawfully ban gun ownership by law-abiding people."
The bull's-eyes will be on Chicago and San Francisco first. "We will be going into those cities looking to overturn their bans," she said. "We're going to be filing lawsuits."
NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre told Fox News the lawsuits ...   more »

'Muhammad is model we follow. He took 'Aisha to be his wife when she was 6'
Age, or lack thereof, is no hindrance to marriage under Islam, according to Ahmad Al-Mu'bi, an officiant for marriages from Saudi Arabia who says sex at 9 is fine.
According to a video of the Saudi official recorded and translated by MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute, Al-Mu'bi has confirmed that marriage contracts are appropriate for girls as young as age 1.
And he said the model for marriage continues to be Muhammad, who married one of his wives when she was but 6.
The video comes from a broadcast on LBC Television on June 19, according to the MEMRI report.
Al-Mu'bi said, "Marriage is actually two things: First we are talking about the marriage contract itself. This is one thing, while consummating the marriage – having sex with the wife for the first time – is another thing.
"There is no minimal age for entering marriage. You can have a marriage contract even with a 1-year-old girl, not to mention a girl of 9, 7, or 8. This is merely a contract [indicating] consent. The guardian in such a case must be ...   more »