by Andre Oboler   
The influence of the Internet on our lives is increasing. News, advertising, employment, education, and networking are being affected. Israel's security is especially vulnerable to the manipulation of geography. The online world allows the creation of a virtual reality that at times bears only passing resemblance to facts on the ground. The gap between reality and virtual reality is further exploited by political activists promoting what we term "replacement geography," a means of controlling the virtual representation of land in place of controlling the land itself. In an information age, control on the common map may be worth more in negotiations than control on the ground.
Google Earth
With a user base of 400 million,1 Google Earth uses satellite imagery combined with maps, terrain, and 3D buildings to present the earth at various levels of magnification. Key features (geography, place details, pictures, etc.) are included with the download of Google Earth in what is known as a "core layer." Users can also download "custom layers" created by other users, which provide educational, historical, or special interest information to be accessed by those wishing to take the Google Earth experience further
The Google Earth website was the ...   more »

By Rabbi Leibel Reznick
The historicity of Balaam, the non-Jewish prophet.
One of the more enigmatic Biblical figures is the prophet Balaam. The Bible first introduced him to us as the Israelite nation was encamped in the Plains of Moab, on their way to the Promised Land. The Moabite king, fearing an attack by the Israelites, summoned Balaam to come and curse the Children of Israel. In the end, Balaam does not curse the Israelites but bestows blessings upon them. [1]
The Talmud [2] tells us that earlier Balaam had been an adviser to the pharaoh who enslaved the Children of Israel and sought to destroy their male children. In fact, the plan to destroy the Israelites was masterminded by Balaam. The third century BCE Greco-Egyptian historian, Manetho, also mentions that it was the prophet-adviser to the pharaoh who instigated the enslavement of the Jewish People.[3] (Do I mean to say that there is an ancient extra-Biblical source that refers to the enslavement of the Israelites? Yes, but that issue deserves an article all by itself.)
Not only did Balaam reside near the land of Moab and in Egypt, but Midrashic sources also place him in Aram[4], modern-day Syria, and ...   more »

Uzi Mahnaimi in Tel Aviv
Iran has moved ballistic missiles into launch positions, with Israel’s Dimona nuclear plant among the possible targets, defence sources said last week.
The movement of Shahab-3B missiles, which have an estimated range of more than 1,250 miles, followed a large-scale exercise earlier this month in which the Israeli air force flew en masse over the Mediterranean in an apparent rehearsal for a threatened attack on Iran’s nuclear installations. Israel believes Iran’s nuclear programme is aimed at acquiring nuclear weapons.
The sources said Iran was preparing to retaliate for any onslaught by firing missiles at Dimona, where Israel’s own nuclear weapons are believed to be made.
Major-General Mohammad Jafari, the commander of the Revolutionary Guard, told a Tehran daily: “This country [Israel] is completely within the range of the Islamic Republic’s missiles. Our missile power and capability are such that the Zionist regime – despite all its abilities – cannot confront it.”
An editorial in a government newspaper, Jomhouri Eslami, said: “Our response will hit right at their temple.”
The sabre-rattling coincided with a visit to Israel yesterday by the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, for talks with his Israeli ...   more »

Top negotiator for Palestinian Authority says solutions at hand for all core issues, now is time for decision-making. Speaking at conference organized by Peres Center for Peace, Erekat says 'Israeli and Palestinian leaders who reach an agreement will be more important to region's history than Jesus'
Roee Nahmias
"If we want a peace agreement – there are only six months left. This is the time to make decisions," Saeb Erekat said on Thursday evening.  
Speaking at a conference organized by the 'Peres Center for Peace' at Tel Aviv University, the top negotiator for the Palestinian Authority was joined for a discussion on the recent renewal of Israeli negotiations with Syria by MK Yossi Beilin (Meretz) and former director-general of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Dr. Alon Liel.
"Our goal is to reach an agreement. Regarding the core issues: Jerusalem, the refugees and the borders – all these have solutions. This is the time for decisiveness. We will not go back to talks over temporary arrangements or temporary border, we intend to reach an agreement and this is possible for all the core issues. We need to make decisions, and (Prime Minister) Olmert and (Palestinian President) Abbas are capable of making ...   more »

U.S. congressional leaders agreed late last year to President George W. Bush's funding request for a major escalation of covert operations against Iran aimed at destabilizing its leadership, according to a report in The New Yorker magazine published online on Sunday.
The article by reporter Seymour Hersh, from the magazine's July 7 and 14 issue, centers on a highly classified Presidential Finding signed by Bush which by U.S. law must be made known to Democratic and Republican House and Senate leaders and ranking members of the intelligence committees.
"The Finding was focused on undermining Iran's nuclear ambitions and trying to undermine the government through regime change," the article cited a person familiar with its contents as saying, and involved "working with opposition groups and passing money."
Hersh has written previously about possible administration plans to go to war to stop Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons, including an April 2006 article in the New Yorker that suggested regime change in Iran, whether by diplomatic or military means, was Bush's ultimate goal.
Funding for the covert escalation, for which Bush requested up to $400 million, was approved by congressional leaders, according to the article, citing current and former military, intelligence and congressional ...   more »

By Charlie Savage
WASHINGTON: The United States and the European Union are nearing completion of an agreement that would allow law enforcement and security agencies to obtain private information - including credit card transactions, travel histories and Internet browsing habits - about people on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Seeking to improve information-sharing to fight crime and terrorism, government officials have been meeting since February 2007 to reach a pact. Europe generally has more-stringent laws restricting how governments and businesses can collect and transfer personal data, which have led to high-profile disputes over American demands for such information.
Negotiators have largely agreed on draft language for 12 major issues that are central to a "binding international agreement" making clear that it is lawful for European governments and companies to transfer personal information to the United States, and vice-versa, according to an internal report obtained by The New York Times.
But the two sides are still at odds on several other matters, including whether European citizens should be able to sue the United States government over its handling of their personal data, the report said.
The talks grew out of two conflicts over information-sharing after the September 2001 terrorist ...   more »

  Iran is to dig 320,000 graves in border districts to allow for the burial of enemy soldiers in the event of any attack on its territory, a top commander said on Sunday.
"In implementation of the Geneva Conventions... the necessary measures are being taken to provide for the burial of enemy soldiers," the Mehr news agency quoted General Mir-Faisal Bagherzadeh as saying.
"We have plans to dig 15,000 to 20,000 graves in each of the border provinces or a total of 320,000," the general said, some of them mass graves if necessary.
Bagherzadeh said Iran was keen to "reduce the suffering of the families of the fallen in any attack against our country... and prevent any repetition of the long and bitter experience of the Vietnam War."
His comments came as the United States continued to refuse to rule out an eventual resort to force against Iran over its contested nuclear programme, which the West fears is cover for a drive to build an atomic weapon.
They also came as Israeli officials spoke of their determination to prevent Iran developing a nuclear capability at all costs.
A former head of Israel's Mossad foreign intelligence agency said in comments published ...   more »

Jewish paper: 'Sirhan was not just anti-Zionist, he was anti-Semitic'
Sirhan Sirhan
An editorial in The Jewish Week is charging that the 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy by Sirhan Sirhan was the beginning of Palestinian terrorism for Americans.
The report by Associate Editor Jonathan Mark, prompted by the 40th anniversary of the assassination this month, decries the absence of media publicity over the fact that Sirhan was a "West Bank immigrant" who wanted "fair play" for Palestinians and was infuriated over Kennedy's cozying up to the Jewish community during the election campaign campaign.
"Go through The New York Times archives, even the archives of most Jewish newspapers, and you'll find more references to Yigal Amir (convicted of the assassination of Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin) being Orthodox than you will to Sirhan being Palestinian," he wrote.
"Sirhan killed Kennedy on June 5, 1968, exactly the first anniversary of the Six-Day War, because Sirhan thought Kennedy was unsympathetic to the Final Solution plotted by eight Arab nations one June earlier," Mark said. "And so, this Palestinian terrorist arranged a Final Solution for Kennedy."
Kennedy was shot while going through the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles to leave ...   more »

Poland and the United States may sign an agreement within the week on installing a U.S. anti-missile base in Poland, a senior Polish official said on Sunday.
"The negotiations are winding down and everything points to an agreement being signed this week," PAP news agency reported Zbigniew Chlebowski as saying.
Chlebowski, head of the ruling Civic Platform party's parliamentary caucus and mouthpiece for Prime Minister Donald Tusk, declined to give details.
But speaking on a public-affairs radio show earlier on Sunday, Chlebowski criticized presidential aide and former foreign minister Anna Fotyga for paying an unannounced visit to Washington at the end of the negotiating process.
"Whenever talks are in their final phase, only negotiators should take part in them, and Madam Minister Fotyga is not one of them," he said.
His criticism reflected rivalry over foreign policy between the liberal government and conservative President Lech Kaczynski.
Fotyga on Sunday defended her U.S. visit whose purpose she said had been "to sound out the other side's intentions."
"That mission has been accomplished. I am convinced the Bush administration wants to bring the matter to its successful conclusion," she said on news channel TVN24.
Washington wants to install 10 land-based interceptors in ...   more »

AMMAN (AFP) — Canada has signed a nuclear energy cooperation memorandum with Jordan, the official Petra news agency said on Saturday, as Amman struggles to find alternate power sources.
"Canada will help Jordan prepare economic feasibility studies to examine the possibility of introducing the CANDU energy reactor into Jordan," Khaled Tukan, head of the Jordanian atomic energy commission, was quoted as saying.
The CANDU nuclear reactor is a pressurised heavy water reactor that uses non-enriched uranium as fuel.
Tukan said Jordan was in talks with three international firms that produce uranium and hopes to produce nuclear power by 2016.
The kingdom, which imports 95 percent of its energy needs, will sign a full agreement on nuclear cooperation with Canada by the end of the year.
Parliament adopted a law in 2007 endorsing the use of nuclear power to produce electricity and desalinate water.Jordan has already reached nuclear deals with the United States and France and hopes for nuclear power to constitute 30 percent of energy production by 2030.
The announcement comes as the chairwoman of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, Lady Barbara Thomas Judge, arrives in Amman on a two-day visit to sign a nuclear cooperation agreement.
Amman has ...   more »

8-year-old never even had been left with babysitter
A newspaper columnist has revealed the startling case of an 8-year-old boy who was taken while he was playing outside his Colorado home by police and social workers who then informed his parents what they had done.
The report comes from Denver Post columnist Susan Greene who documented the case of Josh Raykin, who eventually was returned to his parents after being held in county custody for a week with no communication with his parents. At the resolution, Greene reported, a judge simply decided there no reason to believe the allegations of abuse.
The nightmare-inducing experience for the child began when authorities in Arapahoe County "snatched" him following an abuse allegation made by cousins whom the family had not seen for months, since they were placed into foster care because of abuse allegations in their own immediate family.
"The ordeal began while Josh was playing outside one day before dinner in April. A neighbor knocked on the door to tell his dad that police had come to take Josh away," Greene reported.
His parents, Michael, a courier, and Melanie Raykin, a hairstylist, work extra hours to send him to Montclair Academy and ...   more »

By Ahmed Rouaba
June 28 (Bloomberg) -- OPEC President Chakib Khelil predicted that the price of oil will climb to $170 a barrel before the end of the year, citing the dollar's decline and political conflicts.
``Oil prices are expected to reach $170 as demand for fuel is growing in the U.S. during the summer period and the dollar continues to weaken against the euro,'' Khelil said today in a telephone interview. The leader of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries also serves as Algeria's oil minister.
Political pressure on Iran and the depreciation of the U.S. currency have caused a surge in oil prices, Khelil said. New York- traded crude has more than doubled in a year and touched a record $142.99 a barrel yesterday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
OPEC ministers generally say that oil output is sufficient, even as Saudi Arabia, the biggest producer, pledged to pump an extra 200,000 barrels a day next month to calm the market. ``The market is completely supplied,'' Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said yesterday. Libya announced possible production cuts, calling the market oversupplied.
The rising cost of crude is not linked to supply, Khelil said today. ``There is more ...   more »