Etgar Lefkovits
Meretz MK Yossi Beilin on Thursday called on European countries to declare how many Palestinian refugees and their descendants they would be willing to absorb as part of any future peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
"It is important that we know now how many Palestinian refugees [third] countries are willing to absorb, so that when we get to the critical moment [of a peace agreement] we will be prepared for such an eventuality, and be able to carry it out," Beilin said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.
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by Jonathan S. Tobin
The Mufti of Jerusalem's Nazi ideology lives on among contemporary Islamists.
It is axiomatic that a knowledge of history is a prerequisite for understanding the present. But the question is: How much weight should we give to controversial figures from the past when deciding how to think about current conflicts?
According to the authors of a new book about Haj Amin al-Husseini (1893-1974), the grand mufti of Jerusalem, who played a key role in fomenting and exacerbating the struggle between Jews and Arabs during much of the 20th century, the answer is quite a lot.
The book, "Icon of Evil: Hitler's Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam," by David G. Dalin and John F. Rothman, makes the case that you can draw a direct line from al-Husseini to not only the Palestine Liberation Organization and Hamas -- groups that took up his battle against Zionism -- but to Iran, Al Qaeda and the 9/11 conspirators.
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by Rabbi Shraga Simmons
This day marks the beginning of the three weeks of mourning for the fall of Jerusalem and the loss of our holy Temple.
The 17th of Tammuz is a fast day commemorating the fall of Jerusalem, prior to the destruction of the Holy Temple. This also marks the beginning of a 3-week national period of mourning, leading up to Tisha B'Av.
The 17th of Tammuz is the first of four fast days mentioned in the prophets. The purpose of a fast day is to awaken our sense of loss over the destroyed Temple - and the subsequent Jewish journey into exile.
Agonizing over these events is meant to help us conquer those spiritual deficiencies which brought about these tragic events. Through the process of "Teshuva" - self-introspection and a commitment to improve - we have the power to transform tragedy into joy. In fact, the Talmud says that after the future redemption of Israel and the rebuilding of the Temple, these fast days will be re-dedicated as days of rejoicing and festivity. For as the prophet Zechariah says: the 17th of Tammuz will become a day of "joy to the House of Judah, and gladness and ...   more »

State rejects Christian education as valid for university admissions
Arguments were heard today in a federal district court case to determine whether a state university system can dictate that private Christian schools in the state teach their college prep courses from exclusively secular, Bible- and God-free textbooks.
As WND reported earlier, the University of California system adopted a policy last year that basic science, history, and literature textbooks by major Christian book publishers wouldn't qualify for core admissions requirements because of the inclusion of Christian perspectives.
Robert Tyler, who is representing Calvary Chapel Christian School and five students in the case against the University of California, told WND that the university's discriminatory policy creates an ultimatum for Christian schools. "If you want courses to be approved in private education, so your students are qualified to attend (UC) institutions, you must teach from a secular point of view," he said.
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City to vote on ballot measure D.A. calls 'welcome mat for prostitutes and pimps'
Petitioners have succeeded in moving a measure that would effectively decriminalize prostitution in the city of San Francisco to the Nov. 4 ballot.
While prostitution is unlawful under the California Penal Code, the measure – if passed by voters – would ban the San Francisco Police Department from allocating any financial resources for the investigation and prosecution of sex workers on prostitution charges.
Section four of the ballot measure – under the heading "Prostitution Shall Be Decriminalized" – further states that the city, county, and district attorney "shall not subject sex-workers to life long economic discrimination associated with having a criminal record."
San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris criticized the measure, unofficially titled "Enforcement of Laws Related to Prostitution and Sex Workers." Harris told the San Francisco Chronicle, "This measure is nothing more than a welcome mat for prostitutes and pimps to come and hang out in San Francisco."
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yaniv berman, the media line news agency , THE JERUSALEM POST
Iran and the United States are participating in a joint military exercise in Kyrgyzstan, along with several other regional militaries.
The computer command-post exercise codenamed Regional Cooperation 2008 began on July 15 and will end on July 24, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.
The drill takes place in line with bilateral military contacts between the Kyrgyz armed forces and the US Central Command, the Kyrgyz Defense Ministry's press service announced, according to Interfax.
"This latest development should be seen in two levels," Dr. N. Janardhan, a United Arab Emirates-based political analyst, told The Media Line.
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The political vision of a summer gas tax holiday died a quick death in Congress, losing to a view that federal excise taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel will have to go up if they go anywhere.
Despite calls from the presidential campaign trail for a Memorial Day-to-Labor Day tax freeze, lawmakers quickly concluded — with a prod from the construction industry — that having $9 billion less to spend on highways could create a pre-election specter of thousands of lost jobs.
Now, lawmakers quietly are talking about raising fuel taxes by a dime from the current 18.4 cents a gallon on gasoline and 24.3 cents on diesel fuel.
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By Ovetta Wiggins
Following the advice of their pastor, the men and women shuffled to the altar, cut up their credit cards and placed them near his feet.
"If we want to have victory, we have to come out of financial bondage," the Rev. John K. Jenkins of First Baptist Church of Glenarden shouted during a recent sermon.
Ordinarily Jenkins's sermons are about spiritual freedom and ridding one's self of sin. But his message has taken a different turn lately -- one that preaches the dangers of overspending and debt.
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By Adam Goodman
Sure, times are tough for Republican incumbents all over the country, but you wouldn't want to be running Scott Garrett's congressional reelection campaign. Sure, he holds a seat in New Jersey's solidly Republican 5th district that has been GOP property for decades, and there are almost twice as many registered Republicans as Democrats in the affluent district. But who'd want to run for the party of an epically unpopular president when the opponent is a blind rabbi?
Blind since his childhood, Dennis Shulman graduated from Brandeis with honors, has a Ph.D. from Harvard, is a nationally-recognized psychologist, a published author, and was ordained as a Reform rabbi in 2003. Not exactly an underachiever, but Shulman has set himself the challenge of becoming the first Rabbi ever to serve in Congress — and the first blind congressman since 1935.
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By Robert Hutton
 July 16 (Bloomberg) -- Gordon Brown says he wants the brightest people in the world to come live in Britain. Unless they are Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Michael Dell, all of whom would be excluded under the government's new immigration rules.
The founders of Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc. and Dell Inc. are ineligible for the top tier of the U.K. visa system, the one aimed at attracting highly skilled people, because they lack college degrees. The rules, which didn't require Parliament's approval, are under attack by lawyers and lawmakers who say the country risks excluding the kinds of people it needs.
``It's a dumbing-down,'' said Sophie Barrett-Brown, head of the Immigration Law Practitioners Association. ``If you're a 20- something American with a bachelor's degree and you earn 26,000 pounds ($52,000) a year, you're a high-skilled migrant. You can come in, but Bill Gates can't.''
The prime minister is trying to reduce the inflow of immigrants after the arrival of more than 500,000 a year for the past five years. The record numbers since the Labour government took office 11 years ago have put a strain on schools, police and hospitals.
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We need patience, ideology, and endurance to survive in Middle East Mordechai Kedar
Our enemies read us, hear us, and understand us better than we understand our own self-liquidation process, which we are engaging in with our very own hands.  
Our enemies see before them a people that is panic-stricken, emotional, prone to tears, corrupt, hedonistic, reckless, and individualistic; a people subscribing to a grab-what-you can mentality, lacking historical roots, lacking ideology, devoid of values, lacking a sense of solidarity, wanting everything now, and willing to pay any price without taking into account the results of its reckless behavior.
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Israel's decision to conduct a prisoner exchange with Hizballah, just like any other bargain with terrorists, is destined to encourage more violence against the Jewish state, cautioned a top American Christian Zionist leader on Wednesday.
Gary Bauer, who serves on the board of John Hagee's Christian United for Israel, told Christian news agency OneNewsNow that while he sympathizes with the Israeli families who only wanted to get their sons back, he feels that Israel has unfortunately "made a move here that will guarantee more suffering and more deaths and more kidnappings by Israel's enemies."
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By Nathan Jeffay
 Haifa, Israel - Of all the stops on Barack Obama’s upcoming swing through Europe and the Middle East, it is his visit to Israel that has received the most attention, but not because of his popularity here.
Polls indicate that Israelis evince some of the lowest levels of support for Obama of any country in the world. In France and Germany, both stops on Obama’s tour, respectively 65% and 67% of the population has said that they would vote for him if they could. By contrast, in Israel, where he is due for 24 hours on July 22 to July 23, only 27% of the respondents said that they would like to see him become president, with John McCain being the preferred choice of 36%, according to a poll published at the end of June in the right-leaning Makor Rishon newspaper.
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Israeli Arabs planned to shoot down helicopter on behalf of terror network
By Aaron Klein
President Bush at news conference Tuesday (White House)
JERUSALEM – On the heels of a visit here next week by Sen. Barack Obama, Israel today announced it arrested six Arabs who allegedly were plotting to assassinate President Bush on behalf of al-Qaida.
Israel's Shin Bet Security Services released for publication that it had arrested six Arabs – two of them Israeli citizens and the other four Palestinian residents of eastern Jerusalem – for attempting to set up an al-Qaida cell with plans to shoot down Bush's helicopter during the president's recent visit to Israel.
According to a police indictment, an Israeli Arab student – Nazareth resident Mohammed Nijam – lived in a college dormitory at Jerusalem's Hebrew University that overlooks the landing pad used by Bush's helicopter while he was here in May and also in January. Nijam and another Hebrew University student, Ibrahim Naashaf, are accused of sending messages to al-Qaida-linked websites asking for instructions on how to shoot down the helicopter.
Nijam and Naashaf are said to have formed a closed terrorist cell with four other Arabs here, all in their early 20s. ...   more »

By George Thomas
CBNNews.com - QOM, Iran -- Iran's president believes Allah has chosen him to prepare the world for the coming of an Islamic 'savior' called the Mahdi.
But before the Mahdi's return, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad believes there must be global chaos - even if he has to create it himself.
Whether it's his belief that Israel should be wiped off the map, denials of the Holocaust, obsession with going nuclear, or support for radical Islamic terrorist groups, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a man on a divine mission.
To understand him, and that mission, you have travel to the small dusty village of Jamkaran tucked in a corner of Iran's holy city of Qom.
On a recent Tuesday afternoon, CBN News made that journey heading south out of Iran's capital, Tehran. Some 95 miles, and a couple of wrong turns later, we arrived at the Jamkaran mosque on the outskirts of Qom.
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A two-state solution is the only way to solve the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, Quartet Middle East envoy Tony Blair said Friday.
The former British prime minister urged both sides to use the opportunity of the cease-fire which took effect June 19 to try to reach a peace agreement.
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