Israel news from within Israel

[HisDaughter]

Getting the World to Hate Israel
by Dr. Richard L. Cravatts - Israel National News

As part of evaluating the competitive landscape of the popularity of nations, in a process referred to in marketing circles as "place branding", Israel, to no one's great surprise, comes up short in brand likeability, ranking last out of 35 nations included in an August 2006 survey conducted by nation-branding expert Simon Anholt; even less attractive to respondents than Indonesia, Estonia and Turkey.

How could this have happened to a country that is the Middle East's only thriving democracy and that enjoys a remarkably robust economy which has spawned some 1,000 startup high-tech companies, for example, second only to the US? How, in short, would you go about making the world hate Israel?

This is how you would accomplish that objective if you were an enemy of Israel:

Even after 60 years of its existence, you question the fundamental right of Israel to even exist and regularly, though falsely, condemn it for being created "illegally" - through the "theft" of Palestinian lands and property - and thus decide, because of its original sin, that it has no "right to exist" and is merely a Zionist "regime."

You make 'Palestinianism' into a virtual cult whose members offer a world-wide reverence for the Palestinian cause and repeat without end that their nationalistic striving is inviolable, a basic human right. Of all the 100 million refugees who were dispersed around the globe and were re-assimilated since World War II, you chose only the Palestinians to languish, as if in amber, in barbaric refugee camps where their lives are used as political fodder to denounce the existence of an Israel that supposedly has deprived them of a home.

You have the United Nations set up an agency, the UNRWA, whose sole function is to make sure that this one group of refugees in the whole world are coddled, advocated for, and repeat, mantra-like, that a human "right of return" has been sanctified and assured by international law for the Palestinians. Give only this group of refugees a collective, as opposed to individual, right of return, and not only to those refugees who supposedly lived in and left what is now Israel, but all of their descendants, as well.

You use the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council of the United Nations to repeatedly demonize and delegitimize Israel, making it a pariah in the world community and issuing an edict that equates Zionism with racism. In 2006-07, if you are the Human Rights Council, you pass one hundred percent of your condemnatory resolutions against Israel.

You inculcate Palestinian children, nearly from birth, with seething, blind, unrelenting and obsessive hatred of Jews and the "Zionist regime," so that kindergarteners graduate with blood-soaked hands while toting plastic AK-47s and dedicate their lives to jihad, while older children are recruited to hide explosives on their bodies to transform themselves into ubgone19s - a new generation of kindling for radical Islam's cult of death.

When Israel launches a military strike against nests of terrorists or in response to ceaseless rocket barrages, you term their response "disproportionate," another escalation in the "cycle of violence," a violation of human rights, aggressive, militaristic, with Apache gunships "pounding" terrorist neighborhoods.

If you are the Palestinian media, and members of the world media who are either intentionally biased or willing to be duped by anti-Israel propaganda, you repeatedly report on supposed Israeli human rights violations, such as an alleged "massacre of the 21st century," a horrible war crime and example of "genocide" committed by Israel against Palestinians in the village of Jenin.

You talk about the Israeli security barrier as an "apartheid wall" and describe it as a massive, soaring, unbroken division through Palestinian neighborhoods and communities, overlooking the fact that the wall is towering and solid concrete only in those regions that have been repeatedly assaulted by terrorism, and that 90 percent of the hundreds of miles of barrier is comprised merely of wire fence.

You use the "apartheid wall" image to create a broader misconception about the Palestinians living under a South African-style apartheid regime, disingenuously equating race restrictions that blacks lived under in Soweto with the open society of Israel, in which Israeli Arabs have more rights than in any Arab state and are asked only not to murder Jews in their midst.

On campuses where a coddled and insulated professoriate often express antipathy for the perceived ills of capitalism, the usurpation of "Palestine" by Israel, and the denial of the civil and economic rights of the Palestinians, you contend that Israel's very existence is not at all about self-determination (something you deem appropriate only for the Palestinians) and all about greed, globalism, colonialism, exploitation, and undeserved political and economic might.

You fund Middle Eastern Studies centers on university campuses and use them as anti-Israel, anti-American "think tanks" where scholarship is tainted with ideology and singularly focused on the Palestinian cause. You fund the active and vocal Muslim Students Association on campuses across the US that hold "Israel Apartheid Week" and "Holocaust in the Holy Land" festivals at which propaganda, Jew-hatred, apologies for terrorism and further demonizing of Israel take place.

In the Arab world, you play fast and loose with history in your attempt to create a historical narrative conforming to your own political agenda, erasing any link between Palestine and the Jews. Though Jerusalem is mentioned not once in the Koran and over 669 times in the Jewish Bible, you claim that Jerusalem is now the "third holiest site to Muslims," that, as Yasser Arafat announced at Camp David in 2000, the Temple Mount was never a Jewish site, that Jews now "occupy" Muslim lands.

If you are in the Muslim world or the netherworld of Jew-haters, you question the actual extent and truthfulness of the Holocaust, first complaining that the Palestinians should not have been made to suffer the loss of their homeland because of the German's extermination of European Jewry - leading in some part to the creation of Israel - and then at other times questioning whether the Holocaust even occurred and accusing Zionists of using the fictitious event as a way to falsely extract sympathy from the world community and force them into giving Palestine away to the Jews.

You write academic books questioning the strength of the "Israel Lobby," and wonder out loud if Jewish influence and wealth forces us to lose credibility and threatens America's national security on behalf of Israel.

You do all of these things as part of a concerted effort and also as random, independent efforts on the part of Israel's enemies, and you do it for the 60 years of Israel's existence, and then you are shocked - shocked! - when Israel is shown to rank unfavorably in surveys which measure the public perception of nations and how they compare to one another in the world community. But you are pleased, because you know that if Israel cannot be annihilated with armaments and rockets, perhaps you can make it cease to exist simply by making the entire world loathe it for being what it is.

[Shammu]

Who will speak for Israel at the UN?
Aug. 28, 2008
ALLISON HOFFMAN, Jerusalem Post correspondent , THE JERUSALEM POST

When the United Nations' 63rd General Assembly session opens on September 23, President Bush will certainly be there for the United States.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to speak for Iran.

And leading the Israeli delegation? It's a mystery.

The timing of next month's Kadima primary - a week before the annual UN powwow - has created a perfect storm for Israel's delegation, which was supposed to have been led by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

President Shimon Peres would be a logical stand-in, but he may be required in Israel to oversee the formation of a new government after the September 17 primary, when Olmert plans to step down.

Instead, leadership candidate Tzipi Livni has given a tentative RSVP in her capacity as foreign minister, and is scheduled to give the delegation's 15-minute floor speech on September 29.

Yet diplomatic sources tell The Jerusalem Post they aren't scheduling any meetings for Livni just yet: If a new government is formed immediately after the September 17 primary, the winner may be eligible to appear in New York the following week, with other heads of state. If the campaign goes to a September 25 runoff election, then Olmert or Peres may wind up making the trip at the last minute.

"It's not a question of whether whoever goes is really representing Israel, it's a question of how effective they can be if the domestic political contest in Israel is still an open question," said Tamara Cofman Wittes, a senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institute in Washington. "They have to fill in the gaps, and there's no real way they can."

The situation is another example of domestic political volatility impairing Israel's ability to corral international support, Wittes said.

This year's General Assembly, while less high-profile than others in recent years, nonetheless comes as fragile coalitions are shifting in the wake of Russia's invasion of Georgia.

"This General Assembly is of particular importance to Israel because of the confluence of the Russian and the Iranian issues," said Michael Oren, a visiting professor at Georgetown University who has advised Israel's UN delegation in the past. "This is really the last chance to galvanize any united Western front against Iran."

While the uncertainty over who will be head of state may rob Israel of the valuable opportunity to make a public statement to the world's leaders, the greater cost may be in the lost opportunity for face-to-face diplomacy at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel: As much as it is a forum for political theater, the General Assembly is also at its heart a very specialized sort of trade convention.

"The kind of one-stop shopping that's possible during a General Assembly is important," said Ruth Wedgwood, a professor of international law and diplomacy at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. "It's important just being there."

The Israeli mission to the UN is in a period of unaccustomed flux following the departure of former UN ambassador Dan Gillerman in July, after six years in the post. His replacement, Gabriela Shalev, hasn't yet arrived in New York.

UN protocol experts said it's not uncommon for countries to make last-minute changes in their representation lists, or in some cases to miss the General Assembly altogether: Delegates from newly-admitted Burundi missed the plenary session altogether in 1962 because of airline scheduling problems.

Who will speak for Israel at the UN?

[Shammu]

Israel unlikely to berate Russia
Aug. 28, 2008
Herb Keinon , THE JERUSALEM POST

As the US and Russia sent military vessels to dock at different Georgian ports on Wednesday, Israel continued to tread carefully, issuing no statement regarding Russia's recognition of the breakaway Georgian provinces and - in an apparent show of balance - is planning to send humanitarian aid not only to Georgia, but to North Ossetia as well.

Anatoly Yurkov, the charge d'affaires at Russia's embassy in Tel Aviv, told The Jerusalem Post in an interview that Moscow appreciated the balanced position Israel had taken throughout the crisis, as well as its "low profile."

A first meeting was held in the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday to discuss Russia's recognition a day earlier of the breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The Post has learned that while Israel would most likely decide to continue to recognize Georgia's "territorial integrity," it was unlikely to join the chorus of condemnations of Russia coming from the US, Germany and Britain. It would also certainly not recognize the breakaway republics.

The dominant position in Jerusalem is that this is not Israel's fight, that it has critical strategic interests in the relationship with Moscow, and that it is not a superpower that needs to sound off on every issue around the globe. No formal decision, however, on how or even whether to react to Russia's recognition of the breakaway republics has been made.

Government sources pointed out that Israel had yet to recognize Kosovo's independence from Serbia.

Yurkov said that Russia "will take into account" Jerusalem's "balance" and "low profile" during the crisis, and these would likely have a positive impact on Israeli-Russian relations.

He said that in recent months Israel had stopped selling any offensive weapons to Georgia, and had ceased all arms sales to Tbilisi since the fighting began.

Yurkov also claimed that Georgia was trying to drive a wedge between Moscow and Jerusalem in talking about Israeli arms sales and the effectiveness of Israeli weaponry against Russian troops, an assessment not dismissed in Jerusalem.

One indication of the balance Israel is trying to maintain on the conflict is that Jerusalem, which has already sent humanitarian aid to Georgia, has offered to send humanitarian aid to North Ossetia in Russia to help it deal with the influx of refugees there.

Yurkov said the aid being discussed consisted of medicine and medical equipment, while Israeli sources said the details were still being worked out. The ambassador said that the symbolism of the aid was more important than the content. No date for sending it has been set.

Yurkov said that the tension over Georgia would not impact on Russia's position regarding the Iranian nuclear program, and that Russia was not going to give Teheran any assistance now in order to damage US interests. He repeated Moscow's position that a nuclear Iran was not in Russia's strategic interests.

"Our position on Iran will stay the way it is now," he said.

When asked whether Russia would support another round of measures against Iran, Yurkov said it "depended on the sanctions."

He also reiterated Russia's position that it would not introduce offensive weapons to the Middle East that would change the region's strategic balance. He stressed that Syrian President Bashar Assad's comments during his visit to Moscow last week about placing Russian missiles in Syria as a counterbalance to the agreement to place US missiles in Poland were Assad's comments alone, not Russia's.

Yurkov downplayed any crisis in Israeli-Russian ties over Assad's arms requests, and added that the Syrians had been requesting state-of-the-art weaponry for years.

Regarding the Middle East diplomatic process, Yurkov said Russia would still like to host an international Middle East peace conference in November as a follow-up to last November's Annapolis meeting. He said, however, that Israel's agreement to such a meeting was essential.

Israeli officials have said that Jerusalem has not yet made a decision on the matter.

Yurkov dismissed the notion that the conflict in the Caucasus would lead to Russia's ouster from the Middle East Quartet, which in addition to Russia consists of the US, EU and the UN, and that Moscow intended to take part in the Quartet meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in mid-September.

Israel unlikely to berate Russia

[HisDaughter]

2 Hizbullah kidnapping attempts foiled
By YAAKOV KATZ AND JPOST STAFF
Sept 1, 2008

Security forces have recently thwarted two attempts by Hizbullah to kidnap Israelis abroad, Channel 2 reported on Monday.

Slideshow: Pictures of the week Although details about the operation - such as the location of the intended Hizbullah attack or the time frame of when it aimed to take place - were not revealed, the report stated that the purpose of the kidnappings were to avenge the death of Hizbullah terror chief Imad Mughniyeh.

Mughniyeh was killed in February when his car was destroyed by a bomb in Damascus. Although Israel denied any involvement in the attack, Hizbullah has insisted that Jerusalem was to blame and has vowed revenge.

As recently as Friday, the group reasserted its claim that revenge was both legitimate, and inevitable.

"[It willl come as a] surprise to the Israelis" when it happens, Hizbullah deputy secretary-general Sheikh Na'im Kassem warned.

"Revenge is the legitimate right," Kassem told the Hizbullah-affiliated Al-Manar television station during an interview. "Why is Israel allowed to murder and to assassinate and the world looks away?"

"For everything there is a time, God willing," he continued. "We won't get into details, but the Israelis will be surprised."

In August, the Prime Minister's Office issued a cautionary travel advisory warning of Hizbullah's intention to abduct or attack Israeli citizens traveling or working around the world.

The PMO's recommendations as they were published on the office's Web site urged Israelis abroad to pay more attention to unusual conduct around them, reject tempting and unexpected business and recreation offers, and avoid taking in or hosting unexpected or suspicious guests in their hotel rooms or homes.

The recommendations suggested further to avoid remote areas, especially after dark, and to insist on being around familiar and reliable people. Finally, it is recommended to change one's daily routine every once in a while, including hotels, walking paths, restaurants and recreation sites.

[HisDaughter]

Egypt-Israel gas deal taken to court
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAIRO, Egypt
Sept 1, 2008

An Egyptian court is reviewing a petition by a group of lawyers to halt Egypt's natural gas exports to Israel, one of the attorneys said Monday.

Lawyer Ibrahim Yousri said the petitioners want to stop the deal because it involves below market gas prices of only US$1.5 per British thermal unit, a measure of energy. The market price is almost nine times higher and Yousri said Egypt has been losing about US$9 million a day over it.

"If this not theft what else could it be," Yousri told The Associated Press. "Egyptians are in a dire need of every penny, so why does the government squander these resources?"

According to Yousri, Judge Ahmed el-Shazli on Monday asked the petitioners to present documents supporting their case and adjourned the hearings till October 17.

Egypt began pumping gas to Israel in February, following an energy deal under which Cairo-based East Mediterranean Gas (EMG) is to sell 1.7 billion cubic meters of gas annually to state-run Israel Electric Corporation for the next 15 years.

But after heavy criticism by the opposition, Egypt's minister of petroleum, Sameh Fahmy, told parliament in June that the government would review the price of gas exports to Israel. EMG is a private energy consortium co-owned by Egyptian businessman Hussein Salem and the Israeli Merhav Group.

The government says the deal provides Egypt with million of dollars annually. Egypt has reserves of 3 trillion cubic meters, according to ministry figures. Last year it produced some 62 billion cubic meters, a a quarter of which was sold on the international market.

Egypt is one of the few Arab states - along with Jordan and Mauritania - that officially recognize Israel, but ties remain taxed by Arab resentment of Israeli policies toward the Palestinians.

On Monday, the influential Middle East Economic Survey said Egypt is mired in a political debate on its gas policy, with the government under pressure to limit exports in order to be able to meet soaring local demand at the expense of much-needed revenue.

According to the Cyprus-based publication, Egypt's Ministry of Petroleum announced in June a moratorium on further export projects until 2010, and there are signs that gas exports have already been affected by this policy shift.

[HisDaughter]

'J'lem worried over Biden's Iran stance'
By JPOST.COM STAFF
Sept 1, 2008

Security officials expressed concern Monday over statements reportedly made by US Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Biden regarding Iran's nuclear program.

Army Radio reported that the Delaware senator was heard saying in closed conversations with Jerusalem officials three years ago that he was firmly opposed to an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.

Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, reportedly claimed that Israel would likely have to come to terms with a nuclear Iran. He reportedly expressed doubt over the effectiveness of economic sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic and said he was against the opening of an additional military and diplomatic front, saying that the US had more pressing problems, such as North Korea and Iraq.

The Jerusalem Post could not confirm the report.

Dutch intel: US to strike Iran in coming weeks
Biden has a solid 36-year Senate record of pro-Israel leadership. He has called Israel "the single greatest strength America has in the Middle East" and declared himself a Zionist in an interview with a US Jewish television channel last year, saying that "you don't have to be a Jew to be a Zionist."

Army Radio said that Jerusalem officials expressed amazement at the comments and were wondering which position to take seriously, that of Biden or Obama, who declared last Monday that the world must press Iran through sanctions and diplomacy to stop its nuclear program, so that Israel does not feel its "back is against the wall" and that it therefore has no choice but to attack.

The officials said that they had believed Biden's nomination would give a feeling of security to the Israeli government, which was concerned that the US would give Israel the cold shoulder regarding the Iranian threat following the end of the Bush Administration's term.

Nevertheless, reports of Biden's comments have now cast doubt over this sentiment and officials said that "this feeling of security has been undermined."

"The position of the vice presidential candidate puts a huge question mark over the degree of empathy the Obama administration would display concerning one of the greatest threats Israel faces," they said.

[Shammu]

Israel, woman within reach of premiership

By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer Thu Sep 4, 5:06 PM ET

JERUSALEM - For the first time since Golda Meir more than three decades ago, a woman is within reach of becoming the prime minister of Israel, a nation dominated by macho military men and a religious establishment with strict views on the role of women.

But unlike Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin, Israel's Tzipi Livni doesn't talk about cracking glass ceilings, even as she leads the field in the ruling Kadima Party's Sept. 17 primary to choose the likely successor to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Yet the tough-minded foreign minister's gender is popping up.

Top male rivals have branded Livni with words like "weak" and "that woman." And there is talk about ultra-Orthodox Jewish lawmakers who might be kingmakers in the next government being uncomfortable with the idea of a female leader.

Livni hasn't commented about the gender issue, and adviser Gil Messing said the foreign minister would not agree to be interviewed on the subject, but others have complained about the allusions to her gender.

Former lawmaker Naomi Chazan says the jabs at Livni are built on "deep chauvinistic foundations."

"Livni, it is hinted, exhibits signs of weakness (or is it femininity?), and so is unworthy of taking over the reins of power," she wrote in an op-ed piece in the Jerusalem Post.

The soft-spoken, 50-year-old Livni was an army captain and had a brief career in the Mossad spy agency. She traded that in for a life as corporate lawyer, wife and mother of two sons. Nine years ago she entered politics as a protege of then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. She has earned a reputation as a pragmatic straight talker who disdains backroom politics.

Her father, Eitan Livni, was a Zionist underground hero who battled the British in pre-state Palestine and thought Israel should expand its borders into Arab lands.

She initially shared that dream. But Livni eventually concluded it clashed irreconcilably with the reality of living among a fast-growing Palestinian population.

During her relatively short tenure in politics, she has held six Cabinet posts, including minister of foreign affairs, justice and immigrant absorption. As foreign minister and vice premier, she has led Israel's negotiations with the Palestinians on ending decades of conflict and establishing a Palestinian state.

Last year Time magazine included her in its list of the world's 100 most influential people, and she was No. 52 in Forbes magazine's recent ranking of the planet's 100 most powerful women.

But this resume apparently doesn't impress political rivals in a nation at war that values toughness over sensitivity.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, a former prime minister with an eye on his old job, recently played on an ad from Hillary Clinton's failed presidential bid that suggested rival Barack Obama was not the man to handle a 3 a.m. crisis call.

"The foreign minister, her background being what it is, is not cut out to make decisions, not at three in the morning and not at three in the afternoon," said Barak, who also served as commander of the military and is Israel's most-decorated soldier.

His comment was widely regarded in the media as veiled sexism, as was his pointed reference to Livni by her full name, Tzipora — Hebrew for "bird" and a name that aides say she despises.

Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, a former defense minister and military chief, is Livni's chief rival to become Kadima's new leader. His staffers have been quoted as saying Livni has a "a weak personality."

Some lawmakers dispute that Barak and Mofaz are being sexist.

"I am strong and you are weak" is part of Israel's political discourse, said Michael Eitan, a veteran lawmaker in a parliament that has only 17 women among its 120 members. Male candidates without security experience would also be criticized, he said.

During a recent appearance before foreign reporters in Jerusalem, Livni insisted she had plenty of security experience, including a key role as foreign minister during Israel's 2006 war against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. That war has been the target of intense criticism in Israel, but Livni emerged largely unscathed because of her calls to end the fighting quickly.

There are also ultra-Orthodox parties to consider.

They could be crucial to Livni's efforts to form a new government, but are uneasy with a woman at the helm because "it's not modest" in their world view, said Menachem Friedman, an expert on religious society in Israel.

But Friedman, a professor at Bar Ilan University outside Tel Aviv, thinks practical politics would trump those concerns. The religious parties would join a Livni-led government if it promised them more money for pet causes and no territorial concessions to the Palestinians on Jerusalem, he said.

"If she gives them what they want, then they'll accept her," he said.

Spokesman Roi Lachmanovich of the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, parliament's largest religious faction, said that "Shas has no problem with Tzipi Livni as prime minister of Israel."

For its part, the Israeli public appears to have little problem with having a woman leader.

Polls put Livni ahead of Mofaz in the Kadima primary and indicate she would fare better than him in a general election. She's also significantly ahead of Barak in national polls, though a general election race against her other key rival, hawkish former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would be tighter.

Back in 1969, Israel took the extraordinary step of choosing a woman as prime minister: Golda Meir. But in the four decades since, women have remained significantly underrepresented in Israel's government and business, though they have made strides in other areas.

Meir resigned in disgrace after Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel in October 1973. Israel repelled the attackers but took heavy casualties in a war that many Israelis still see as their country's most humiliating military episode.

Since then, no woman until Livni has come close to holding the reins of power. But her reputation for honesty, in a country where a series of high-ranking officials, including Olmert, have been convicted or accused of corruption, is an asset for Livni.

"She has a clean-hands image, and this is a time when we're looking for decent, honest people," Chazan told The Associated Press. "She meets this criterion, and it's very, very important."

Israel, woman within reach of premiership

[Soldier4Christ]

Muslims desecrate, urinate in Judaism's 2nd holiest site
Hamas flags found on burial chambers of Abraham, Jacob, Sarah

Muslim worshipers at Judaism's second holiest site this past weekend reportedly urinated next to Torah scrolls and strew Hamas flags throughout the structure.

The desecration occurred at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, which is believed to be home to the resting place of the biblical patriarchs and matriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah. The tomb is located in the West Bank city of Hebron, site of the oldest Jewish community in the world.

The tombs of Abraham, Jacob, Sarah and Leah are open to Jews year round, whereas the tombs of Isaac and Rebecca are designated for Muslim worship only. Once a year for 10 days, usually on the Islamic Ramadan holiday, the Jewish sections are opened exclusively for Muslims. The Muslim sections are also opened for Jews once a year for 10 days, which usually includes the Jewish Passover holiday.

Muslims last week had exclusive access to the tombs of Abraham, Jacob, Sarah and Leah. Jewish worshipers who returned to the site this weekend reported a foul smell in a synagogue on the Jewish side coming from the area of an Ark containing Torah scrolls.

"They had desecrated one of the holy arks. They had urinated right next to it. One of the men went in and found a big puddle of urine there next to the Ark," Hebron spokesman David Wilder told Israel National News.

Wilder and other Jewish witnesses said when they reentered the tomb they found Hamas flags in the markers of the burial chambers of Abraham, Jacob, Sarah and Leah.

Noam Arnon, another spokesman Hebron, said there is always some sort of damage discovered after Muslims get exclusive rights to worship at the Jewish areas of the tomb.

"It is not all the Muslims," he said. "But there always are a few who in the past have ripped mezuzot off the entrances to the rooms of worship or simply leave behind vandalism. Complaints have been filed with the police in the past, but no one ever has been arrested."

Wilder added that in the past, Muslim worshipers tore up Psalm booklets and Jewish prayer books.

The book of Genesis relates Abraham purchased the field where the Tomb of the Patriarchs is located as a burial place for his wife, Sarah. It later became a plot for the rest of the family, except for Jacob's wife, Rachel, who died when she gave birth while traveling and was buried on a road in Bethlehem.

Muslims trace their lineage through Abraham, as well. Palestinian leaders deny there is any Jewish claim to the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

"The Torah was falsified by the Jews. We don’t believe in all your versions," stated Chief Palestinian Justice Taysir Tamimi in a recent WND interview.

Hebron is the oldest Jewish community in the world, with Jews having lived there almost continuously for over 2,500 years. There are accounts of the trials of the city's Jewish community throughout the Byzantine, Arab, Mameluke and Ottoman periods.

In 1929, as a result of an Arab pogrom in which 67 Jews were murdered, the entire Jewish community fled the city, with Hebron becoming temporarily devoid of Jews. Jews returned when Israel recaptured the area in 1967.

King David was anointed in Hebron, where he reigned for seven years. A thousand years later, during the first Jewish revolt against the Romans, the city was the scene of extensive fighting in which many Jews were killed.

[Soldier4Christ]

Terrorist TV – live from Temple Mount!
Hamas broadcasts all week exclusively from Judaism's holiest site

For the past week, Hamas' official television network exclusively broadcast Islamic prayer services live from Jerusalem's Temple Mount.

Nightly, Hamas' Al Aqsa TV has broadcast the Tarawih prayers from the Mount's Al Aqsa Mosque or additional nightly prayers recited during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which began last week. Tawawih prayers include recitation of parts of the Quran and takes about an hour.

The Hamas broadcasts serve as somewhat of a coup for the terror group, since it's the only Palestinian television network that is featuring the Tarawih from the Al Aqsa Mosque, giving Hamas the ability to share Temple Mount services with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Hamas' Al Aqsa television routinely calls for jihad against Israel and broadcasts extreme anti-Semitic and anti-American propaganda.

Jerusalem Police Spokesman Shmulik Ben Ruby did not immediately return a request seeking comment about whether Hamas' broadcasts were coordinated with Israel, which officially controls the Temple Mount while the Wafq - the Mount's Islamic custodians - administer the site.

Palestinian sources familiar with Hamas' Temple Mount coverage told WND the broadcasts were not coordinated with Israel.

The sources strongly doubted Israeli authorities were aware of the broadcasts, which they said were transmitted from the Al Aqsa Mosque not by Hamas officials by an Israeli Arab television crew with a license to broadcast from the site. The sources would not name the purported Israeli-Arab television crew facilitating the broadcasts.

Hamas has broadcast from the Temple Mount in the past. WND broke the story of the terror group's official radio network broadcasting services live from the Al Aqsa Mosque for three weeks last December. At the time, Israeli police authorities immediately claimed they would halt the broadcasts, but the transmissions continued uninterrupted for several weeks.

WND also first reported last year the Islamic Jihad terror group broadcasting the Tarawih prayers for two weeks from the Al Aqsa Mosque. Israeli police authorities told WND then they would halt the broadcasts, which continued unabated.

The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. The First Jewish Temple was built by King Solomon in the tenth century B.C. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in A.D. 70. Each temple stood for a period of about four centuries.

The Jewish Temple was the center of religious Jewish worship. It housed the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and was said to be the area upon which God’s shechina or "presence" dwelt. All Jewish holidays centered on worship at the Temple. The Jewish Temple served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices and was the main gathering place for the Jewish people.

According to the Talmud, the world was created from the foundation stone of the Temple Mount. The site is believed to be the Biblical Mount Moriah, the location where Abraham fulfilled God’s test to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Jewish tradition holds Mashiach, or the Jewish Messiah, will return and rebuild the third and final Temple on the Mount in Jerusalem.

The Kotel, or Western Wall, is the one part of the Temple Mount that survived the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans and stands today in Jerusalem.

The Temple Mount has remained a focal point for Jewish services for thousands of years. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple have been uttered by Jews since the Second Temple was destroyed, according to Jewish tradition.

Throughout all notorious Jewish exiles, thorough documentation shows the Jews never gave up their hope of returning to Jerusalem and reestablishing their Temple. To this day Jews worldwide pray facing the Western Wall, while Muslims turn their backs away from the Temple Mount and pray toward Mecca.

The Al Aqsa Mosque was constructed around A.D. 709 to serve as a shrine near another shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which was built by an Islamic caliph.

About 100 years ago, Al Aqsa in Jerusalem became associated with the place Muslims came to believe Muhammad ascended to heaven. Jerusalem, however, is not mentioned in the Quran.

Islamic tradition states Muhammad took a journey in a single night from "a sacred mosque" – believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia – to "the farthest mosque," and from a rock there ascended to heaven to receive revelations from Allah that became part of the Quran.

Palestinians today claim exclusivity over the Temple Mount and Palestinian leaders routinely deny Jewish historic connection to the site, but historically, Muslims did not claim the Al Aqsa Mosque as their third holiest site and admitted the Jewish Temples existed.

According to research by Israeli author Shmuel Berkovits, Islam previously disregarded Jerusalem. He points out in his book "How Dreadful Is this Place!" that Muhammad was said to loathe Jerusalem and what it stood for. Berkovits wrote that Muhammad made a point of eliminating pagan sites of worship, and sanctifying only one place – the Kaaba in Mecca – to signify the unity of God.

As late as the fourteenth century, Islamic scholar Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya, whose writings influenced the Wahhabi movement in Arabia, ruled that sacred Islamic sites are to be found only in the Arabian Peninsula, and that "in Jerusalem, there is not a place one calls sacred, and the same holds true for the tombs of Hebron."

It wasn't until the late nineteenth century – incidentally when Jews started immigrating to Palestine – that some Muslim scholars began claiming Muhammad tied his horse to the Western Wall and associated Muhammad's purported night journey with the Temple Mount.

A guide to the Temple Mount by the Supreme Muslim Council in Jerusalem published in 1925 listed the Mount as the site of Solomon's Temple. The Temple Institute acquired a copy of the official 1925 "Guide Book to Al-Haram Al-Sharif," which states on page 4, "Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which 'David built there an altar unto the Lord.'"

[Shammu]

Muslims desecrate, urinate in Judaism's 2nd holiest site
Hamas flags found on burial chambers of Abraham, Jacob, Sarah

Muslim worshipers at Judaism's second holiest site this past weekend reportedly urinated next to Torah scrolls and strew Hamas flags throughout the structure.

Muslims don't care who they shock.

To let this incident go unpunished might give the impression that it's okay. I think it is TIME TO STOP muslim immigration. They care nothing for the laws of this country. All they care about is the shock value, they can cause. Idea............. They want to urinate on things, I wonder how well they would like being urinated on.......... (Yes I know, I'm bad)

This is just like a parent NOT disciplining a child, you end up with a lawless child.

[Soldier4Christ]

U.S. to 'guarantee'
Palestinian state
Letter intended to bind Israel, PA,
next administration in Washington

The U.S. is planning to issue a letter guaranteeing the country will back agreements reached during current Israeli-Palestinian negotiations aimed at creating a Palestinian state before President Bush leaves office in January, WND has learned.

The move is intended to ensure any agreements reached by the Israelis and the Palestinian Authority, and spelled out in a joint document, will be recognized by the next U.S. administration and binding for Israel and the PA.

The information comes as Jacob Walles, the U.S. consul-general, stated in an interview with a major Palestinian newspaper yesterday that Israel and the PA agreed to negotiate Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley area leading to the Dead Sea.

In response to the report, the State Department issued a statement claiming the U.S. government has not taken a position on the borders of a future Palestinian state and denying Jerusalem is being discussed.

But Israeli and Palestinian sources intimately familiar with the current talks tell WND Jerusalem is being negotiated, with Palestinian officials claiming the talks are in advance stages.

The sources also said the U.S. recently floated a plan to divide Jerusalem.

According to informed Israeli and Palestinian sources, officials from the State Department this year presented both negotiating sides with several proposals for consideration regarding the future status of Jerusalem. It was unclear whether the U.S. proposals were accepted.

One U.S. plan for Jerusalem obtained by WND was divided into timed phases and, among other things, called for Israel eventually to consider forfeiting parts of the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site.

According to the first stage of the U.S. proposal, Israel initially would give the PA some municipal and security sovereignty over key Arab neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem. The PA would be allowed to open some official institutions in Jerusalem, could elect a mayor for the Palestinian side of the city and would deploy some kind of so-called basic security force to maintain law and order. The specifics of the force were not detailed in the plan.

The initial stage also calls for the PA to operate Jerusalem municipal institutions, such as offices to oversee trash collection and maintenance of roads.

After five years, if both sides keep specific commitments called for in a larger principal agreement, according to the U.S. plan, the PA would be given full sovereignty over agreed-upon eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods and discussions would be held regarding an arrangement for the Temple Mount. The plan doesn't specify which parts of the Temple Mount could be forfeited to the Palestinians or whether an international force may be involved.

The PA also could deploy official security forces in Jerusalem separate from a non-defined basic force after the five-year period and also could open major governmental institutions, such as a president's office, and offices for the finance and foreign ministries.

The U.S. plan leaves Israel and the PA to negotiate which Jerusalem neighborhoods would become Palestinian.

According to top diplomatic sources, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who visited the region last month, pressed Israel to sign a document by the end of the year that would include Jerusalem by offering the Palestinians a state in Israel's capital city as well as in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Israeli team rather would conclude an agreement on paper by the end of the year that would give the Palestinians a state in the West Bank, Gaza and some Israeli territory, leaving conclusions on Jerusalem for a later date, the informed diplomatic sources told WND.

The sources said the Palestinian team has been pushing to conclude a deal by January on all core issues, including Jerusalem, and has been petitioning the U.S. to pressure Israel into signing an agreement on paper that offers the Palestinians eastern Jerusalem.

Rice, the sources said, has asked Israeli leaders to bend to what the U.S. refers to as a "compromise position," concluding an Israeli-Palestinian agreement by the end of the year that guarantees sections of Jerusalem to the Palestinians. But Israel would not be required to withdraw from Jerusalem for a period of one to five years.

[Soldier4Christ]

Mass U.S. student protest against Palestinian state
Organizers frustrated with Jewish groups 'failing to mount any opposition'

A grassroots coalition of U.S. Jewish students is planning a nationwide protest next week against the Israeli government's ongoing negotiations with the Palestinian Authority – talks aimed at creating a Palestinian state, at least on paper, before President Bush leaves office in January.

The demonstration, scheduled for Sept. 18, also opposes what organizers state is the "failure" of mainstream American Jewish groups, including Orthodox-oriented organizations, to mount any opposition to the Israeli government's negotiations and its purported willingness to forfeit strategic territory.

"The religious Jewish establishment will not speak out about the planned division of the land of Israel. They are remaining silent just as they did three years ago, before the Gaza retreat," Yosef Rabin, director of the United Jewish Student Council, told WND.

Rabin's group has sent flyers to U.S. Jewish schools calling for students to protest on the 18th, starting 10 minutes before the first class, comprising the first lesson of the day.

The suggested format of the protest includes reading of Psalms and other prayers for Israel. Demonstrators are urged to invite the local media and bring cameras and video recorders to later post the protests on YouTube.

Rabin said so far students and parents in Pennsylvania, California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Ohio have signed onto the protest and are working to organize students from their schools.

Israel has been negotiating with the PA in line with talks initiated at last November's U.S.-backed Annapolis summit.

Media reports say Israel is willing to cede the majority of the strategic West Bank to the Palestinians and that the Jewish state is negotiating Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has denied Jerusalem is up for negotiation. But Israeli and Palestinian sources intimately familiar with the current talks tell WND Jerusalem is being negotiated, with Palestinian officials claiming the talks are in advance stages.

[Shammu]

U.S. to 'guarantee' Palestinian state

Man can NOT give away what belongs to God!!

[Soldier4Christ]

Man can NOT give away what belongs to God!!

Nope but they will try and may do so for a brief time but in the end they will lose.

Isa 11:14  But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.

[Shammu]

U.S. to sell Israel Air Force new bunker-buster bombs
14/09/2008
By Aluf Benn and Amos Harel

Despite reservations in Washington regarding a possible Israeli strike on Iran, the American administration will supply Israel with sophisticated weapons for heavily fortified targets, the U.S. administration announced.

The U.S. Department of Defense announced it would sell the Israel Air Force 1,000 new smart bombs, rumored to significantly enhance the IAF's military capabilities. The deal was approved amid public and secret messages from Washington, with the Americans expressing their reservations about a possible Israeli strike against the Islamic Republic's suspected nuclear sites.

The Pentagon's announcement, which came on Friday, said the U.S. will provide Israel with 1,000 units of Guided Bomb Unit-39 (GBU-39) - a special weapon developed for penetrating fortified facilities located deep underground.
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The $77 million shipment, which includes launchers and appurtenances, will allow the IAF to hit many more bunkers than currently possible. Although each bomb weighs 113 kilograms, its penetration capabilities equal those of a one ton bomb, according to professional literature.

Most U.S. Air Force aircraft are able to carry a pack of four of these bombs in place of a single one-ton bomb. The bomb's small size allows a single-strike aircraft to carry more of the munitions than is possible utilizing currently available bomb units, thus increasing firepower, or, alternatively, allowing the aircraft to fly longer distances to deliver a single bomb.

During demonstrations, the GBU-39 - labeled by the manufacturer, Boeing, as a Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) - has successfully penetrated more than 1.8 meters of thick reinforced concrete with a 23-kilogram warhead. The GPS-guided weapon is said to have a 50-percent probability of hitting its intended target within 5-8 meters, which should minimize collateral damage.

The estimated value for the bomb's GPS version, which military experts have called the latest development in the bunker-buster line, is around $70,000 to $90,000 for each individual bomb.

The U.S. has already supplied Israel with earlier versions of bunker busters. In 2005, the Pentagon authorized the sale of GBU-28 to Israel, in a move that commentators construed as a hinted threat aimed at Iran. Haaretz reported earlier this month that the U.S. was hesitant about selling Israel heavier busters.

The Pentagon's announcement also said that the U.S. would help upgrade the Israel Defense Forces' patriot anti-aircraft missiles - which Israel uses as part of its missile-interception array. Israel will also receive 28,000 LAW (Light Anti-Tank Weapon) tube launchers for land forces.

U.S. to sell Israel Air Force new bunker-buster bombs