April 29, 2004

A new MidEastTruth PowerPoint presentatiom

A new MidEastTruth PowerPoint presentatiom

THE AGENDA OF ISLAM - A WAR BETWEEN CIVILIZATIONS by Professor Moshe Sharon

There is no Fundamental Islam

"Fundamentalism" is a word that came from the heart of the Christian religion. It means faith that goes by the word of the Bible. Fundamental Christianity, or going with the Bible, does not mean going around and killing people. There is no fundamental Islam. There is only Islam full stop. The question is how the Koran is interpreted.

All of a sudden we see that the greatest interpreters of Islam are politicians in the western world. They know better than all the speakers in the mosques, all those who deliver terrible sermons against anything that is either Christian or Jewish. These western politicians know that there is good Islam and bad Islam. They know even how to differentiate between the two, except that none of them know how to read a word of Arabic.

The Language of Islam

You see, so much is covered by politically correct language that, in fact, the truth has been lost. For example, when we speak about Islam in the west, we try to use our own language and terminology. We speak about Islam in terms of democracy and fundamentalism, in terms of parliamentarism and all kinds of terms, which we take from our own dictionary. One of my professors and one of the greatest orientalists in the world says that doing this is like a cricket reporter describing a cricket game in baseball terms. We cannot use for one culture or civilization the language of another. For Islam, you've got to use the language of Islam.

Driving Principles of Islam

Let me explain the principles that are driving the religion of Islam. Of course, every Moslem has to acknowledge the fact that there is only one God. But it's not enough to say that there is only one God. A Moslem has to acknowledge the fact that there is one God and Mohammed is his prophet. These are the fundamentals of the religion that without them, one cannot be a Moslem. But beyond that, Islam is a civilization. It is a religion that gave first and foremost a wide and unique legal system that engulfs the individual, society and nations with rules of behaviour. If you are Moslem, you have to behave according to the rules of Islam which are set down in the Koran and which are very different than the teachings of the Bible.

The Bible

Let me explain the difference. The Bible is the creation of the spirit of a nation over a very, very long period, if we talk from the point of view of the scholar, and let me remain scholarly. But there is one thing that is important in the Bible. It leads to salvation. It leads to salvation in two ways.

In Judaism, it leads to national salvation - not just a nation that wants to have a state, but a nation that wants to serve God. That's the idea behind the Hebrew text of the Bible.

The New Testament that took the Hebrew Bible moves us toward personal salvation. So we have got these two kinds of salvation, which, from time to time, meet each other.

But the key word is salvation. Personal salvation means that each individual is looked after by God, Himself, who leads a person through His word to salvation. This is the idea in the Bible, whether we are talking about the Old or the New Testament. All of the laws in the Bible, even to the minutest ones, are, in fact directed toward this fact of salvation.

Secondly, there is another point in the Bible, which is highly important. This is the idea that man was created in the image of God. Therefore, you don't just walk around and obliterate the image of God. Many people, of course, used Biblical rules and turned them upside down. History has seen a lot of massacres in the name of God and in the name of Jesus. But as religions, both Judaism and Christianity in their fundamentals speak about honouring the image of God and the hope of salvation. These are the two basic fundamentals.

The Essence of Islam

Now let's move to the essence of Islam. Islam was born with the idea that it should rule the world. Let's look, then, at the difference between these three religions. Judaism speaks about national salvation - namely that at the end of the story, when the world becomes a better place, Israel will be in its own land, ruled by its own king and serving God. Christianity speaks about the idea that every single person in the world can be saved from his sins, while Islam speaks about ruling the world. I can quote here in Arabic, but there is no point in quoting Arabic, so let me quote a verse in English. "Allah sent Mohammed with the true religion so that it should rule over all the religions."

The idea, then, is not that the whole world would become a Moslem world at this time, but that the whole world would be subdued under the rule of Islam.

When the Islamic empire was established in 634 AD, within seven years - 640 - the core of the empire was created. The rules that were taken from the Koran and from the tradition that was ascribed to the prophet Mohammed, were translated into a real legal system. Jews and Christians could live under Islam provided they paid poll tax and accepted Islamic superiority. Of course, they had to be humiliated. And Jews and Christians living under Islam are humiliated to this very day.

Mohammed Held That All the Biblical Prophets Were Moslems

Mohammed did accept the existence of all the Biblical prophets before him. However he also said that all these prophets were Moslems. Abraham was a Moslem. In fact, Adam himself was the first Moslem. Isaac and Jacob and David and Solomon and Moses and Jesus were all Moslems, and all of them had writings similar to the Koran. Therefore, world history is Islamic history because all the heroes of history were Moslems.

Furthermore, Moslems accept the fact that each of these prophets brought with him some kind of a revelation. Moses, brought the Taurat, which is the Torah, and Jesus brought the Ingeel, which is the Evangelion or Gospel - namely the New Testament.

The Bible versus the Koran

Why then is the Bible not similar to the Koran? Mohammed explains that the Jews and Christians forged their books. Had they not been changed and forged, they would have been identical to the Koran. But because Christians and Jews do have some truth, Islam concedes that they cannot be completely destroyed by war [for now]. Nevertheless, the laws are very clear - Jews and Christians have no rights whatsoever to independent existence. They can live under Islamic rule provided they keep to the rules that Islam promulgates for them.

Islamic Rule and Jihad

What happens if Jews and Christians don't want to live under the rules of Islam? Then Islam has to fight them and this fighting is called Jihad. Jihad means war against those people who don't want to accept the Islamic superior rule. That's jihad. They may be Jews; they may be Christians; they may be Polytheists. But since we don't have too many Polytheists left, at least not in the Middle East - their war is against the Jews and Christians.

A few days ago, I received a pamphlet that was distributed in the world by bin Laden. He calls for jihad against America as the leader of the Christian world, not because America is the supporter of Israel, but because Americans are desecrating Arabia with their filthy feet. There are Americans in Arabia where no Christians should be. In this pamphlet there is not a single word about Israel. Only that Americans are desecrating the home of the prophet.

Two Houses

The Koran sees the world as divided into two - one part which has come under Islamic rule and one part which is supposed to come under Islamic rule in the future. There is a division of the world which is very clear. Every single person who starts studying Islam knows it. The world is described as Dar al-Islam (the house of Islam) - that's the place where Islam rules - and the other part which is called Dar al-Harb - the house of war. Not the "house of non-Muslims," but the "house of war." It is this house of war which has to be, at the end of time, conquered. The world will continue to be in the house of war until it comes under Islamic rule. This is the norm. Why? Because Allah says it's so in the Koran. God has sent Mohammed with the true religion in order that the truth will overcome all other religions.

Islamic Law

Within the Islamic vision of this world, there are rules that govern the lives of the Moslems themselves, and these rules are very strict. In fundamentals, there are no differences between schools of law.

However, there are four streams of factions within Islam with differences between them concerning the minutiae of the laws. All over the Islamic world, countries have favored one or another of these schools of laws. The strictest school of law is called Hanbali, mainly coming out of Saudi Arabia. There are no games there, no playing around with the meanings of words. If the Koran speaks about war, then it's war.

There are various perspectives in Islam with different interpretations over the centuries. There were good people that were very enlightened in Islam that tried to understand things differently. They even brought traditions from the mouth of the prophet that women and children should not be killed in war.

These more liberal streams do exist, but there is one thing that is very important for us to remember. The Hanbali school of law is extremely strict, and today this is the school that is behind most of the terrorist powers. Even if we talk about the existence of other schools of Islamic law, when we're talking about fighting against the Jews, or fighting against the Christian world led by America, it is the Hanbali school of law that is being followed.

Islam and Territory

This civilization created one very important, fundamental rule about territory. Any territory that comes under Islamic rule cannot be de-Islamized. Even if at one time or another, the [non-Moslem] enemy takes over the territory that was under Islamic rule, it is considered to be perpetually Islamic.

This is why whenever you hear about the Arab/Israeli conflict, you hear - territory, territory, territory. There are other aspects to the conflict, but territory is highly important.

The Christian civilization has not only been seen as a religious opponent, but as a dam stopping Islam from achieving its final goal for which it was created.

Islam was created to be the army of God, the army of Allah. Every single Moslem is a soldier in this army. Every single Moslem that dies in fighting for the spread of Islam is a shaheed (martyr) no matter how he dies, because - and this is very important - this is an eternal war between the two civilizations. It's not a war that stops. This war is there because it was created by Allah. Islam must be the ruler. This is a war that will not end.

Islam and Peace

Peace in Islam can exist only within the Islamic world; peace can only be between Moslem and Moslem.

With the non-Moslem world or non-Moslem opponents, there can be only one solution - a cease fire until Moslems can gain more power. It is an eternal war until the end of days. Peace can only come if the Islamic side wins. The two civilizations can only have periods of cease-fires. And this idea of cease-fire is based on a very important historical precedent, which, incidentally, Yasser Arafat referred to when he spoke in Johannesburg after he signed the Oslo agreement with Israel.

Let me remind you that the document speaks of peace - you wouldn't believe that you are reading! You would think that you were reading some science fiction piece. I mean when you read it, you can't believe that this was signed by Israelis who are actually acquainted with Islamic policies and civilization.

A few weeks after the Oslo agreement was signed, Arafat went to Johannesburg, and in a mosque there he made a speech in which he apologized, saying, "Do you think I signed something with the Jews which is contrary to the rules of Islam?" (I have obtained a copy of Arafat's recorded speech so I heard it from his own mouth.) Arafat continued, "That's not so. I'm doing exactly what the prophet Mohammed did."

Whatever the prophet is supposed have done becomes a precedent. What Arafat was saying was, "Remember the story of Hodaybiya." The prophet had made an agreement there with the tribe of Kuraish for 10 years. But then he trained 10,000 soldiers and within two years marched on their city of Mecca. He, of course, found some kind of pretext.

Thus, in Islamic jurisdiction, it became a legal precedent which states that you are only allowed to make peace for a maximum of 10 years. Secondly, at the first instance that you are able, you must renew the jihad [thus breaking the "peace" agreement].

In Israel, it has taken over 50 years in this country for our people to understand that they cannot speak about [permanent] peace with Moslems. It will take another 50 years for the western world to understand that they have got a state of war with the Islamic civilization that is virile and strong. This should be understood: When we talk about war and peace, we are not talking in Belgium, French, English, or German terms. We are talking about war and peace in Islamic terms.

Cease-fire as a Tactical Choice

What makes Islam accept cease-fire? Only one thing - when the enemy is too strong. It is a tactical choice.

Sometimes, he may have to agree to a cease-fire in the most humiliating conditions. It's allowed because Mohammed accepted a cease-fire under humiliating conditions. That's what Arafat said to them in Johannesburg. When western policy makers hear these things, they answer, "What are you talking about? You are in the Middle Ages. You don't understand the mechanisms of politics."

Which mechanisms of politics? There are no mechanisms of politics where power is. And I want to tell you one thing - we haven't seen the end of it, because the minute a radical Moslem power has atomic, chemical or biological weapons, they will use it. I have no doubt about that.

Now, since we face war and we know that we cannot get more than an impermanent cease-fire, one has to ask himself what is the major component of an Israeli/Arab cease-fire. It is that the Islamic side is weak and your side is strong. The relations between Israel and the Arab world in the last 50 years since the establishment of our State has been based only on this idea, the deterrent power.

Wherever You Have Islam, You Will Have War

The reason that we have what we have in Yugoslavia and other places is because Islam succeeded into entering these countries. Wherever you have Islam, you will have war. It grows out of the attitude of Islamic civilization.

What are the poor people in the Philippines being killed for? What's happening between Pakistan and India?

Islamic Infiltration

Furthermore, there is another fact that must be remembered. The Islamic world has not only the attitude of open war, but there's also war by infiltration.

One of the things which the western world is not paying enough attention to is the tremendous growth of Islamic power in the western world. What happened in America and the Twin Towers is not something that came from the outside. And if America doesn't wake up, one day the Americans will find themselves in a chemical war and most likely in an atomic war - inside the U.S.

End of Days

It is highly important to understand how a civilization sees the end of days. In Christianity and in Judaism, we know exactly what is the vision of the end of days.

In Judaism, it is going to be as in Isaiah - peace between nations, not just one nation, but between all nations. People will not have any more need for weapons and nature will be changed - a beautiful end of days and the kingdom of God on earth.

Christianity goes as far as Revelation to see a day that Satan himself is obliterated. There are no more powers of evil. That's the vision.

I'm speaking now as a historian. I try to understand how Islam sees the end of days. In the end of days, Islam sees a world that is totally Moslem, completely Moslem under the rule of Islam. Complete and final victory.

Christians will not exist, because according to many Islamic traditions, the Moslems who are in hell will have to be replaced by somebody and they'll be replaced by the Christians.

The Jews will no longer exist, because before the coming of the end of days, there is going to be a war against the Jews where all Jews should be killed. I'm quoting now from the heart of Islamic tradition, from the books that are read by every child in school. The Jews will all be killed. They'll be running away and they'll be hiding behind trees and rocks, and on that day Allah will give mouths to the rocks and trees and they will say, "Oh Moslem come here, there is a Jew behind me, kill him." Without this, the end of days cannot come. This is a fundamental of Islam.

Is There a Possibility to End This Dance of War?

The question which we in Israel are asking ourselves is what will happen to our country? Is there a possibility to end this dance of war?

The answer is, "No. Not in the foreseeable future." What we can do is reach a situation where for a few years we may have relative quiet.

But for Islam, the establishment of the state of Israel was a reverse of Islamic history. First, Islamic territory was taken away from Islam by Jews. You know by now that this can never be accepted, not even one meter. So everyone who thinks Tel Aviv is safe is making a grave mistake. Territory, which at one time was dominated by Islamic rule, now has become non-Moslem. Non-Moslems are independent of Islamic rule; Jews have created their own independent state. It is anathema.

And (this is the worst) Israel, a non-Moslem state, is ruling over Moslems. It is unthinkable that non-Moslems should rule over Moslems.

I believe that Western civilization should hold together and support each other. Whether this will happen or not, I don't know. Israel finds itself on the front lines of this war. It needs the help of its sister civilization. It needs the help of America and Europe. It needs the help of the Christian world. One thing I am sure about, this help can be given by individual Christians who see this as the road to salvation.

Court Rules in Favor of Bereaved Family

(IsraelNN.com) The Tel Aviv District Court this week handed down a ruling on behalf of the bereaved family of terror victims, against the PA. Ruth Peled, 56, of Herzliya and her infant granddaughter Sinai Keinan, aged 14 months, of Petah Tikvah were killed when a suicide bomber detonated himself near an ice cream parlor outside a shopping mall in Petah Tikvah on 27 May 2002. The court ruled in favor of the victims' bereaved family.

The court ruled the PA was directly linked to the fatal attack and as such, must make a compensatory payment in the sum of NIS 12 million to each of the relatives, totally NIS 72 million.

Jewish delegation to Libya soon for talks on property compensation

A delegation of Jews will be visiting Libya soon to further efforts to seek redress, including property compensation, for the 38,000 former Libyan Jews who left the country following the establishment of the State of Israel, The Jerusalem Report has learned.

Both Libya's President Col. Muamar Qadhafi and his son, Seif al-Islam al-Qadhafi, have made statements supporting the rights to compensation of former Libyan Jews. As a result of secret meetings in Rome between Jewish community heads and Libyan intelligence officials in recent weeks, amid Qadhafi's rapprochement with the West over weapons of mass destruction, the Libyan leader is already committed to a partial solution: providing compensation for a list of 623 Jewish families now living in Italy, Israel and the U.S, whose properties were expropriated by the Libyan government when Qadhafi came to power in 1969. Still at issue is redress relating to the previous regime of King Idris.

Jewish delegation to Libya soon for talks on property compensation

What will be destroyed

Click here to watch a film put together by those that stand to lose their homes and communities once the kleptocracy, known as "palestine", is hatched.

Burned alive in honor killing

More than 6,000 "honor" killings are committed every year - in the West Bank, Jordan, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, India and Pakistan. In Pakistan the custom is an accepted part of national culture. In Jordan, a man who has killed his wife in a state of rage is entitled to the judge's clemency; the same law applies to a man who kills his wife simply because he suspects her of adultery. It is increasingly common for "disgraced" families to hire bounty hunters, so women who manage to escape to other countries are forced into hiding.

Yet, human rights groups condemn Israel. What a freakin' joke.

Click here to read one woman's story about her "palestinian" culture, her survival after her family attempts to "honor kill" her, pyromania and hatred to find all the ingredients for the stew-slop known as the "religion of peace".

Selected Translations of Video Message of Al-Qaeda's Abu Hajer

From Site Institute:

On April 27, 2004, the number one wanted man chased by the security forces in Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz Bin Issa Al Mukarran known as Abu Hajer, broadcast an internet video message on al-Qaeda’s online mouthpiece, “The Center for Islamic Studies and Research,” in which Abu Hajer called upon the mujahideen to fight the Americans wherever they are.

He said, “The Mujahideen’s first target is the Crusaders. As for their agents, the apostate Governors, their time will come soon, after we have finished with their masters. The martyrs convoys are continuing.”

He also stated, “Let the world know, and let America and its allies know that, with the help of God, we are on our way. When we strike, it is God who is striking. We are here to complete the mission started by our Prophet Mohammad (Peace be on him and his company) when they conquered the world and freed it from adoring slaves to adoring their Master. Let them know that our Jihad shall continue until they run out of strength, and God is stronger…”

“Let America know that those who forced it out of Somalia, struck it in Kenya and Tanzania, drowned its battleship in Eden, and made an example to the world out of it in Manhattan, those are thankfully still strong and are getting stronger in their determination and Jihad for the way of God and victory. Let America know that those who are fighting it in Afghanistan and are rubbing its nose in the mud in Iraq, will not accept the occupation of the Al Haramain territory. They will not accept establishing Crusaders’ military bases in it. Americans, since you dared Islam and Muslims, and planted your bases in the Arab Peninsula, the peninsula of Mohammad (Peace be on him). You ate its wealth and graces, and planted your agents in its. You went further in daring the Muslims by striking them in Afghanistan and Iraq using Al Haramain country for your operations. Because of all the above, we are everywhere watching you, planning our strikes. What you have seen so far, was nothing but small challenges. You have not had yet the real battle. It just started today.”

He continued in his address to the Mujahideen saying: “Mujahideen for the sake of God, your day has come. This is your enemy occupying your land, controlling its agents the apostates, using it as a base to fight Islam and Muslims. Fight them until you see their blood and their pieces as they did to your brothers in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq. Now they are fighting their battles in the Arab Peninsula. Mujahideen, fight the Americans everywhere, with all of your power. Fight them as they fought you. Scare them as they scared your brothers. Make them cry as they made the widows and orphans cry. Fight whoever comes between you and the Americans, and agreed to fight the Mujahideen in defense of the assaulting Crusaders. Purify your path from them.”
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Folks, I thought the widows and orphans cry because it was Islam which joyfully mutilates the widow's clitoris and honor kills the daughters, sisters, and mothers. Sheesh, talk about transference. Who woulda thunk it?

Militants in Europe Openly Call for Jihad and the Rule of Islam

Folks, this article is about Islam's true nature to terrorize, to land grab, to imperialize and to take over the West.
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The call to jihad is rising in the streets of Europe, and is being answered, counterterrorism officials say. In this former industrial town north of London, a small group of young Britons whose parents emigrated from Pakistan after World War II have turned against their families' new home. They say they would like to see Prime Minister Tony Blair dead or deposed and an Islamic flag hanging outside No. 10 Downing Street. They swear allegiance to Osama bin Laden and his goal of toppling Western democracies to establish an Islamic superstate under Shariah law, like Afghanistan under the Taliban. They call the Sept. 11 hijackers the "Magnificent 19" and regard the Madrid train bombings as a clever way to drive a wedge into Europe.

On Thursday evening, at a tennis center community hall in Slough, west of London, their leader, Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammad, spoke of his adherence to Osama bin Laden. If Europe fails to heed Mr. bin Laden's offer of a truce - provided that all foreign troops are withdrawn from Iraq in three months - Muslims will no longer be restrained from attacking the Western countries that play host to them, the sheik said. "All Muslims of the West will be obliged," he said, to "become his sword" in a new battle. Europeans take heed, he added, saying, "It is foolish to fight people who want death - that is what they are looking for."

Click here to read the rest of the article:
New York Times, Patrick E. Tyler reported from Luton, Slough and London and Don Van Natta Jr. from London. Souad Mekhennet contributed reporting from Germany.

Global Terror and Islam

Folks, wake up and smell the stink of global Islamic fascism and imperialism. Read this and brace yourselves:
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Four young British Muslims in their twenties - a social worker, an IT specialist, a security guard and a financial adviser - occupy a table at a fast-food chicken restaurant in Luton. Perched on their plastic chairs, wolfing down their dinner, they seem just ordinary young men. Yet out of their mouths pour heated words of revolution.

"As far as I'm concerned, when they bomb London, the bigger the better," says Abdul Haq, the social worker. "I know it's going to happen because Sheikh bin Laden said so. Like Bali, like Turkey, like Madrid - I pray for it, I look forward to the day."

"Pass the brown sauce, brother," says Abu Malaahim, the IT specialist, devouring his chicken and chips.

"I agree with you, brother," says Abu Yusuf, the earnest-looking financial adviser sitting opposite. "I would like to see the Mujahideen coming into London and killing thousands, whether with nuclear weapons or germ warfare. And if they need a safehouse, they can stay in mine - and if they need some fertiliser [for a bomb], I'll tell them where to get it."

His friend, Abu Musa, the security guard, smiles radiantly. "It will be a day of joy for me," he adds, speaking with a slight lisp.

Click here to read more about Islam: Terror on the dole

April 28, 2004

Crush Kerry - Drumbeat to Replace Kerry Begins

As a Bush supporter, I want Kerry in, because he will guarantee Bush's victory. But this is important to read anyway:

From Crush Kerry:

It was only a matter of time, we suppose, before the Democrats woke up and spelled the Kerry. To be honest, we don’t understand what they saw in the lanky, aloof, unpopular Senator from Massachusetts in the first place.

Nonetheless, now they, too, have caught on. And that thud you hear in the distance is the beginning of the drumbeat to replace John Kerry as the democrat nominee before or at the Democrat National Convention.

Click here to read more.

Islam, once at forefront of science, fell by wayside

Islamic medicine and science once led the world for centuries while Europe stagnated in the Dark Ages.

From 800 AD to 1500, Arabic was the language of science, as English is today. Muslims occupied Spain, and Europeans flocked to Toledo and other Spanish cities, or traveled great distances to Baghdad or Damascus, to translate Islamic science and medical books into Latin.

The United Nations Development Program, in a report published last year, described in often painful detail some of the factors that have contributed to the decline of science and the rise of extremism in Arab societies.

Among them are:

Increases in average income have been lower in the Arab world than anywhere else for 20 years, except for the poorest African countries. "If such trends continue...it will take the average Arab citizen 140 years to double his or her income, whole other regions are set to achieve that level in a matter of less than 10 years," the report noted. One in 5 Arabs lives on less than $2 a day.

Arab unemployment is the highest in the developing world.

Surveys show more than half of young Arabs want to leave their countries and live in the United States or other industrialized countries where opportunities are better.

The Arab brain drain is the world's worst, with about 25 percent of new graduates in science, medicine and engineering emigrating each year.

About 1 in 4 Arab adults can neither read nor write. This is a particular problem among Arab women, 50 per cent of whom are illiterate. Many children do not attend school.

The quality of education has declined, with many schools teaching mainly interpretations of the Koran, rather than other knowledge or skills.

Less than 0.6 per cent of Arabs use the Internet and barely 1.2 percent have access to a personal computer. There are 18 computers per 1,000 Arabs, compared to the global average of 78.3.

During the entire 20th century, fewer than 10,000 books were translated into Arabic -- equivalent to the number translated into Spanish in a single year. Religious books account for 17 per cent of new publications in Arab countries, compared to a world average of 5 per cent.

Censorship stifles ideas, information and innovation. Numerous censors review book manuscripts, each with the power to edit text or demand revisions.

Islam, once at forefront of science, fell by wayside

Lab Tests Could Link Saddam's Missing WMDs to Jordan Plot

Laboratory tests on the poison gas smuggled from Syria into Jordan by al Qaeda terrorists earlier this month could determine whether their weapons came from Iraq, intelligence expert John Loftus said Monday.

"What they captured was a poison gas that consisted of several chemicals to be mixed together," Loftus told nationally syndicated radio host John Batchelor. "This has to be a poison gas of what they call the G-series; Sarin, Somin, Taubin and VX."

The terrorism expert noted that, "VX is the only kind of nerve gas where the chemicals could be safely mixed together in the field."

On Saturday, Jordanian officials announced that they had seized WMD components from the cars of the al Qaeda terror plotters, which had been intercepted just 75 miles from the Syrian border. Experts said that had the WMD plot succeeded, it could have killed 20,000.

Jordan's King Abdullah confirmed that the al Qaeda vehicles had come from Syria,

Noted Loftus:

"Syria does not make VX nerve gas - only Saddam Hussein did. So it looks as if now that Israeli intelligence and British intelligence were right - that Syria did indeed get a hold of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction just before the war."

Loftus said lab tests of the al Qaeda weapons would be key to establishing a link between the WMDs found in Jordan and Saddam's missing stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons.

Lab Tests Could Link Saddam's Missing WMDs to Jordan Plot

The Unevolved in Fallujah Distribute Fliers with Prices On U.S. Military Officials Heads

Folks, the unevolved, no longer content with mutilating corpses, summarizing their cult's decadence and depravity, now have distributed a flier in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, putting a hefty price on the heads of top U.S military officials, according to a Local 6 News report.

The flier offers $15 million for the death of each American pictured, Local 6 News reported.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are pictured on the paper.

Fallujah Flier Puts Price On U.S. Military Officials

Suspected Madrid Bomber Indicted for Sept. 11

A Moroccan fugitive sought in connection with last month's Madrid train bombings was indicted Wednesday on charges of helping plan the Sept. 11 attacks.

Amer Azizi helped organize a meeting in northeast Spain in July 2001 that key plotters in the U.S. attacks, including suspect suicide pilot Mohamed Atta, used to finalize details, Judge Baltasar Garzon said.

Azizi was initially included in an indictment Garzon handed down in September against Usama bin Laden and 34 other terror suspects. Azizi was charged then with belonging to a terrorist organization.

The new indictment charges Azizi with actually helping plan the Sept. 11 attacks. Garzon accused Azizi of multiple counts of murder — "as many deaths and injuries as were committed" on Sept. 11.

Suspected Madrid Bomber Indicted for Sept. 11

Fair Targets by Alan M. Dershowitz

No reasonable argument can be made that the decision to target terrorist commanders is unlawful under the laws of war or under international law.

The U.S. Army was recently given a specific military order. According to the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez, the mission is to kill the radical Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr.

This order to target al-Sadr for extra-judicial killing is perfectly legitimate and lawful under the laws of war. Al-Sadr is a combatant, and it is proper to kill a combatant during a war unless he surrenders first. It does not matter whether the combatant is a cook or bombmaker, a private or a general. Nor does it matter whether he wears an army uniform, a three-piece suit or a kaffiyeh. So long as he is in the chain of command, he is an appropriate target regardless of whether he is actually engaged in combat at the time that he is killed or is fast asleep. Of course, his killing would be extra-judicial. Military attacks against combatants are not preceded by jury trials or judicial warrants.

How then to explain the world's very different reaction to Israel's decision to target terrorist leaders, such as Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel-Aziz al Rantisi, the former leaders of Hamas? Surely there is no legal or moral difference between Yassin and al-Rantisi, on the one hand, and al-Sadr on the other. Yassin and al-Rantisi both ordered terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, and praised them when they succeeded. Each was responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths and was involved in ordering and planning more terrorist attacks at the time of his death. They were terrorist commanders, just as al-Sadr is. They were both killed, along with their military bodyguards, in a manner that minimized civilian casualties, even though they generally -- and unlawfully -- hid among civilians, using them as human shields. Israel waited until they and their guards were alone and then targeted them successfully. There was no realistic possibility of capturing them alive since they had sworn to die fighting, and any attempt to extirpate them from the civilians among whom they were hiding would have resulted in numerous civilian casualties.

The Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, was simply wrong when he declared that targeted assassinations of this kind -- specifically referring to the killings of Yassin and al-Rantisi -- are unlawful and in violation of international law. And he knows it, because his own Government has authorized the killing of terrorist leaders who threaten British interests. I challenge Mr. Straw to distinguish Israel's killing of Yassin and Rantisi from the coalition's targeting of al-Sadr, Saddam Hussein and his sons, bin Laden, and Mullah Omar. He could not do so. Any claims that Hamas is divided into military and political (or religious) wings is belied by the fact that Yassin and al-Rantisi both ordered the military wing of Hamas to engage in acts of terrorism and approved specific murderous acts in advance.

If Mr. Straw cannot distinguish between these situations, then does he disapprove of the American policy of killing al-Sadr? If British troops were to have al-Sadr - or for that matter bin Laden - in their sights, would they hold their fire because Mr. Straw has told them it would be illegal to pull the trigger? We have a right to know the answers to these questions, since American and British troops are supposedly operating under the same rules of engagement. Or would the Foreign Secretary simply (and honestly) say he is not applying the same rules to Israel as he is to his own nation and its military allies?

Click here to read the rest of Dershowitz's excellent argument.

Jack Straw, you're a shill.

Yemen Arrests Suspect in USS Cole Bombing

Folks, why has it taken so long for someone to get arrested for this act of war against America? Oh, I forgot, it occurred under Clinton's watch and Jamie Gorelick's.

Security forces have arrested a Yemeni man suspected of involvement in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors, a security official said Thursday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the man played a major role in the attack that saw two homicide bombers ram an explosives-laden boat into the destroyer in the harbor of Aden.

The man was identified only by his surname, al-Nagar. It was not immediately clear what his exact role was in the Oct. 12, 2000, attack, which has been blamed on Usama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.

Precautions Raised for Preelection Terrorism

The U.S. intelligence community believes al Qaeda is intent on launching terrorist attacks in this country sometime before the November elections, a conclusion that yesterday prompted the Department of Homeland Security to announce that it is increasing precautions in a number of areas.

Al Qaeda's new game plan, officials said, is to show its clout by disrupting the upcoming U.S. elections or another large event scheduled in coming months. These include the dedication of Washington's new World War II memorial on the Mall, the Memorial Day and July 4 holidays, the Group of Eight meeting of industrialized nations in Georgia in June, the two parties' political conventions in Boston and New York, and the Olympics in Greece.

"We soon enter a season that is rich with symbolic opportunities for the terrorists to try to shake our will," Ridge said in a speech yesterday to the Radio-Television News Directors Association at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas. "With so many symbolic gatherings in the next few months, we must be aggressive."

May G-d protect us from the unevolved islamofascists.

Oxon Hill Development Has Ties to Terror; Hamas Leader, Man Accused of Al Qaeda Link Invested in Barnaby Knolls

It is a neighborhood of green lawns and brick colonials just 10 miles from the White House, a place where bumper stickers proclaim: "Proud to Be An American." Residents of the Prince George's County development call it Barnaby Knolls.

U.S. law enforcement officials have coined another name for it: Hamas Heights.

Documents filed in a recent court case show that a leader of the Palestinian group Hamas, which is formally known as the Islamic Resistance Movement and has been declared a terrorist group by the U.S. government, invested about $1 million to develop the neighborhood in Oxon Hill in the early 1990s. Among the other investors named in the project: relatives of Osama bin Laden and a Saudi businessman now accused of ties to al Qaeda.

No one faces criminal charges in connection with the modest homes, bought mainly by African American, middle-class families. At the time the investors got involved in the project, none had been publicly linked to terrorism by the U.S. government. Bin Laden's family disowned him in the 1990s and faces no terrorist accusations.

Still, U.S. officials have argued in court that the Oxon Hill development was intended, in part, to make money for Hamas and the leader, Mousa Abu Marzook, at a time when neither was on the terrorist list in the United States. Abu Marzook's attorney denies his client was investing money for Hamas.

What drew such an unusual cast of investors to a sleepy development of cul-de-sacs and broad streets, flanked by homes decorated with flowerpots and concrete birdbaths? Abu Marzook's attorney, Stanley Cohen, said the Hamas leader wanted "to make a profit," like any normal, free-enterprise-loving businessman. He disputes the government's allegations that his client continued to benefit from it after he was placed on the U.S. terrorist list.

Residents who were told about the investors were stunned.

Source: Washington Post

Documentary: "They Were Not Silent"

THEY WERE NOT SILENT: THE JEWISH LABOR MOVEMENT & THE HOLOCAUST

This half-hour documentary examines the highly-contentious subject of U.S. response to the rise of Nazism from a new perspective -- focusing on the efforts of the Jewish Labor Committee, founded in 1934 as an anti-Nazi umbrella group of Jewish trade unions and cultural/fraternal organizations. It tells the story of the Committee's anti-Nazi and rescue
activities, including their aid to the underground fighters of the ghettos of East Europe and their assistance to Holocaust survivors in refugee camps across the globe.

The video features rare archival footage and photos plus interviews with labor veterans, Holocaust survivors and scholars, including historians Jack Jacobs, Hanna Papanek, and Kenneth Waltzer, Gus Tyler of UNITE, Bernard Bellush of the N.Y. Labor History Association, and Vladka Meed, a courier in the Warsaw Ghetto Underground, among many others.

In contrast to the Oskar Schindler - Anne Frank approach to Holocaust dramatization, THEY WERE NOT SILENT concentrates on collective response. The video raises complex historical issues, including the intersection of ethnicity and politics, the nature of immigrants' ties to the lands they had left, the impact of the Depression, xenophobia and isolationism in the labor movement and foreign policy, the priorities of the Roosevelt Administration, and the nature of
"victory."

NOTE: If you are interested in this video, please contact Arieh Lebowitz, www.jewishlabor.org, jlcexec@aol.com for more information.

IMRA - Monday, April 26, 2004 Mt. Herzl 5764 - Torch of the Speaker of the Knesset - Text

[Translation provided by the Israel Government Press Office]

I, Reuven Rivlin,
son of my father and teacher, Professor Yosef-Yoel Rivlin,
may he rest in peace,
researcher of Semitic languages,
and translator of the Koran into Hebrew,
and - may she live long - my mother and teacher, Rachel,
who today, 6th Iyar, is exactly one hundred years old;

seventh generation in Jerusalem;

descendent of the Aliyah to Jerusalem,
one hundred years before the vision of Herzl,
by the disciples of the Gaon, Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna;

Speaker of the Sixteenth Knesset;

am honoured to light this torch,
of the fifty-sixth Independence Day of the State of Israel.

In honour of -
The Knesset, the legislature of Israel,
and the temple of democracy!

In honour of -
the pioneers, the vanguard of those who came to
settle the Land of our Fathers, who redeemed the land -
from Hanita - to Kfar Darom;
from Negba - to Kiryat Arba, that is Hebron!

In honour of -
The heroes of all branches of the security forces.

In honour of -
Jerusalem, our holy city, our eternal capital and the heart of the nation.

And for the glory of the State of Israel!

IMRA - Monday, April 26, 2004 Mt. Herzl 5764 - Torch of the Speaker of the Knesset - Text

IN MEMORIAM by Dovid Ben-Gurion.

"Let us stand silent in memory of our dearly beloved sons and daughters who gave their lives for the liberation of our homeland and the security of our people. They gave all they had. They poured out their lifeblood for the freedom of Israel, even as the living waters quench the thirst of the arid soil. Not in monuments of stone or wood shall their memory be preserved but in the reverence and pride which will fill the hearts of our people till the end of time when their memory is recalled.

Our hearts are filled to overflowing with praise and thanksgiving to the Rock of Israel. But let us not delude ourselves that our work is finished. We are still at the beginning. The road stretching ahead is long and hard, and there are still many obstacles in our way ...... The sword is still girded round our loins; let us not boast as men who have taken it off.

On our festive day let us review in joy and thanksgiving the mighty deeds of the past, and let us resolve to apply ourselves with all our might and all our heart to the new efforts of the future."

Spoken on Israel's Independence Day , 1949.

Proclamation of the State of Israel

...Accordingly, we, the members of the National Council,
representing the Jewish people in Palestine and the
Zionist movement of the world, met together in solemn
assembly today, the day of the termination of the British
Mandate for Palestine, and by virtue of the natural and
historic right of the Jewish people and of the resolution
of the General Assembly of the United Nations, hereby
proclaim the establishment of the Jewish State in
Palestine, to be called Israel...

Proclamation of the State of Israel
Palestine Post, May 16, 1948

Ditto: The "religion of peace" displays their true vicious side

Dozens of people have died in gunbattles between police and suspected Islamic militants in southern Thailand.

Latest reports say the death toll has risen to at least 93 in the worst day of violence in Thailand's Muslim-dominated south in recent months.

The clashes were sparked by groups of militants launching near simultaneous attacks on police bases and checkpoints in several districts of Yala and Pattini provinces.

State-run Radio Thailand said the militants had first tried to rob weapons from storehouses at the outposts.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra confirrmed: "The purpose of the raid was to steal weapons from government security forces which would then have been sold.

"The attackers had only machetes and a few guns."

He praised government forces which he said were well prepared for the attack.

The incident is the latest in a series of almost daily attacks by gunmen that have left a number of people dead this year. The government blames Islamic separatists.

Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat are the only Muslim majority provinces in predominantly Buddhist Thailand. Muslims have long complained of discrimination in jobs and education.

Source: Sky News

The "religion of peace" displays their true vicious side

Updating this story, Muslim militants in eastern Indonesia burned down several hundred homes in an overnight attack on a mainly Christian area where 26 people were killed in three days of fighting.

The attacks on Christians in Maluku province, once known as the Spice Islands, continues with no end in sight, according to the Washington, D.C.-based human rights group International Christian Concern.

Maluku, which has been about half Christian and half Muslim, came under attack between 1999 and 2002 from a radical Islamic group called Laskar Jihad, or Army of Holy Warriors, which aimed to make Indonesia an Islamic state.

Many of its members have joined the al-Qaida-linked terror network Jemaah Islamiah, blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings and last year's suicide attack on the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta.

Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, with more than 180 million.

The Dutch ban Islam book

In reaction to this story, Dutch Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner and Immigration and Integration Minister Rita Verdonk informed a special Parliament meeting in Amsterdam of their actions to remove from the shelves a Muslim book distributed by the Dutch Lel Tawheed mosque promoting the stoning of homosexuals and female circumcision. The book is titled in Dutch "De Weg van de Muslim" – "The Way of the Muslim".

The book contains shocking instructions in support of female circumcision, beating of wives and the murder of homosexuals.

A Dutch parliamentarian, Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former Muslim, demanded the closure of the mosque and any other facility offering the book.

Dutch ban Islam book

April 27, 2004

Slain Army Ranger, Pat Tillman, called 'dumb jock'

Folks, there's nothing lower than making fun of the dead, and celebrating and publicizing your joy over the death of someone.

It's an abhorrent social act that we see many times when "palestinians" hand out candies after Jews and Americans die, or when we read articles like this one, about an anti-globalist website posting a story on the ex-NFL player who became an Army Ranger, Pat Tillman, with the title "Dumb Jock Killed in Afghanistan."

I want to point out that these comments are from a branch of the notoriously Jew-bashing Independent Media Center, Indymedia.org. I also want to point out that Teresa Heinz Kerry's nonprofit Tides Center contributed $5,000, from its 9-11 Fund, to the Washington, D.C. branch of the Independent Media Center, according to the Tides Center's 2001 annual report [pdf].

The Tides Center, a spinoff of the Tides Foundation, also funds an ostensibly independent group of relatives of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, "Peaceful Tomorrows," which recently expressed outrage over campaign ads by President Bush.

The group also has given grants totaling $489,000 to the Iraq Peace Fund, which used the money to fund anti-war marches and groups such as MoveOn.org, which aims to defeat Bush in November.

The center reportedly gave $200,000 to The Ruckus Society, which trains anti-globalist activists and was responsible for destroying property in the World Trade Organization riots in Seattle in 1999.

The Independent Media Center (http://www.indymedia.org/en/index.shtml) said it was formed as an outgrowth of the violent Seattle protests.

Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi is emerging as an unlikely voice of moderation in Islam

A few years back, Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi, the secretary-general of the Italian Muslim Association, imam at the Shafi School of Islamic Jurisprudence, and the co-chair of Islam-Israel Fellowship at the Root and Branch Association, addressed a group of conservative-leaning Jews in Manhattan. After hearing him cite a Koranic passage endorsing Zionism (The Night Journey, 17:104), deriding terror groups for misinterpreting religious texts to advance their "pseudo-Islamic radicalist" agenda, and endorsing a "Jordan is Palestine" solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, the invited guests were taken aback. Was the bearded sheikh really a hawkish rabbi? One participant asked Palazzi if he received death threats, to which he shook his head. On the way out, the participant sighed, and said: "If the terrorists don't want to kill him, he's probably not that important."

Today, Palazzi, 43, is emerging as an unlikely voice of moderation in a religion whose leaders are viewed by many as apathetic, if not sympathetic, to terror abroad and oppression at home. A student of Sheikh Muhammad Shaarawi (an Egyptian cleric who promoted Jewish-Muslim relations and backed Anwar Sadat's decision to make peace with Israel), Palazzi is a harsh critic of the anti-Semitism that has come to pervade Islam.

A proponent of Israeli Tourism Minister Benny Elon's voluntary transfer plan, Palazzi opposes the US-backed road map on the grounds that it rewards Palestinian terror. His most vocal criticism, however, is reserved for the Saudis, whom he sees as the main force behind the rise of extremism in Islam.

Click here to read the rest of the interview.

More violence between Muslims and Christians, this time in Ambon, Indonesia

From Radio Rote:
=====
At least 22 people have been killed in clashes between Muslims and Christians in the Indonesian city of Ambon.

The violence is reminiscent of the bloody chaos that engulfed the Mollucan five years ago and is seen as a major setback to the reconciliation process under way since 2002.

The fighting began after Christian separatists raised their banned flag to mark the 54th anniversary of their self-proclaimed independence day. They also raised the flag of the United Nations. After police ordered them to remove the flags, the clashes began, says Father Bohm, a Catholic priest in Ambon.

Source: Wereldomroep (Radio Netherlands)

Hirsi Ali demands the closure of anti-woman, anti-gay Dutch mosque

From Radio Rote:
=====
Somali-born MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, demanded on Thursday the closure of an Amsterdam mosque that sells books supporting female circumcision, beating wives and the murder of gay people.

The Dutch Parliament is to hold an emergency debate about the El Tawheed mosque next week. MPs want Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner and Immigration and Integration Minister Rita Verdonk to explain what they intend to do about the book "De weg van de moslim".

The publication — translated as The Way of the Muslim in English — is said to advocate violence against women and killing gay people.

Gay people should be thrown head first off high buildings. If not killed on hitting the ground, they should then be stoned to death, the book allegedly suggests.

In her column in newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, Hirsi Ali — who was raised as a Muslim — went one step further and called on the government to close the mosque. The MP has been a strident opponent of Islamic teachings on women and gay people.

Source: (Expatica/Novum Nieuws)

Mahmoud Zahar, new Hamas Leader

Mahmoud Zahar, a 53-year-old Egyptian-trained physician whose son was killed in an Israeli airstrike, has been identified by Israel as the new Hamas leader.

"Doc", keep your eyes open for the Hellfire that has your name on it.

April 26, 2004

A must-read folks: Up against fanaticism by Phil Lucas, executive editor

A must-read, folks. This is the grit, this is the language with which we must all speak, this is the hard line. It's time to get tough.
=====
If straight talk of savagery offends you, if you believe in ethnic and gender diversity but not diversity of thought or if you think there is an acceptable gray area between good and evil, then turn to the funny pages, and take the children, too.

This piece is not for you.

We published pictures Thursday of burnt American corpses hanging from an Iraqi bridge behind a mob of grinning Muslims.

Some readers didn’t like it.

Mothers said it frightened their children. A woman who works with Muslim physicians thought it might offend or endanger them.

Well, we sure don’t want to frighten, offend or endanger anybody, do we? That’s just too much diversity to handle. I mean, somebody might get hurt.

We could fill the newspaper every morning with mobs of fanatical Muslims. They can’t get along with their neighbors on much of the planet: France, Chechnya, Bosnia, Indonesia, Spain, Morocco, India, Tunisia, Somalia, etc. etc. etc. Can anybody name three ongoing world conflicts in which Muslims are not involved? Today, where there is war, there are fanatical Muslims. We might quibble about who started what conflicts, but look at the sheer number of them.

One thing is sure. Muslim killers started the one we are in now when they slaughtered more than 3,000 people, including fellow Muslims, in New York City.

Madeline Albright, the former secretary of state and feckless appeaser who helped get us into this mess, said last week Muslims still resented the Crusades. Well, Madame Albright, if Westerners were not such a forgiving people, we might resent them too.

Let’s recap the Crusades. Muslims invaded Europe and when they reached sufficient numbers they imposed their intolerant religion upon Westerners by force. Christian monarchs drove them back and took the battle to their homeland. The fight lasted a couple of centuries, and we bottled them up for 1,000 years.

Now, a millennium later, Muslims have expanded forth again. Ask France. Ask England. Ask Manhattan. Two-and-a-half years ago fanatical Muslims laid siege to
us. We woke up to the obvious. Our president announced it would be a very long war, then took the battle to the Islamic homeland. Sound familiar?

Let’s consider the concept of a “long war.” Last time it was 200 years, give or take.

Anybody catch Lord of the Rings? You know, the good part, the part that wasn’t fiction, the part that drew us to the books and movies because it was the truest part: the titanic struggle between good and evil, between freedom and enslavement, between the individual and the state, between the celebration of life and the worshipping of death.

That’s the fight we are in, and it never ends. It just has peaks and valleys.

There may be a silent majority of peaceful Muslims – some live here – but that did not save 3,000 people in the World Trade Centers, the millions gassed and butchered in the Middle East, the tens of thousands slain in Eastern Europe and Asia, the hundreds blown to bits in the West Bank and Spain, or the four Americans shot, burned and hung like sausage over the Euphrates as a fanatical minority of Muslims did the joyful dance of death.

Maybe we are so tolerant, we are so bent on “diversity,” we are so nonjudgmental, we are so wrapped up in our six-packs and ballgames that our brains have drained to our bulbous behinds. Maybe we’re so addled on Ritalin we wouldn’t know which end of a gun to hold. Maybe we need a new drug advertised on TV every three minutes, one that would help us grow a backbone.

It doesn’t take a Darwin to figure out that in this world the smartest, the fastest, the strongest, and the most committed always win. No exceptions.

Look at your spouse and children. Look at yourself in the mirror. Then look at the pictures from the paper last Thursday. You better look at them. Those are the people out to kill you.

Who do you think will win? You? Or them? Think you can take your ball and go home and they will leave you alone? Read a little history. Start with last week, last month, last year, and every other year back for half a century.

Then go back a thousand years. Nobody hides from this fight.

Like it or not, that’s the way it was and that’s the way it is.

But many Americans don’t get it.

That’s why we published those pictures.

If they jarred you off the sofa, if they offended you, if they scared your children and sent you into a rage at mass murderers or heartless editors, then I say, it’s a start.

Panama City (Florida) News Herald

A terrifying thought

"The Palestinians will, in fact, get their de facto state, though one that may be now cut off entirely from Israeli commerce and cultural intercourse. This is an apparently terrifying thought: Palestinian men can no longer blow up Jews on Monday, seek dialysis from them on Tuesday, get an Israeli paycheck on Wednesday, demonstrate to CNN cameras about the injustice of it all on Thursday — and then go back to tunneling under Gaza and three-hour, all-male, conspiracy-mongering sessions in coffee-houses on Friday."

From Victor Hanson at National Review

How to fight evil by Ben Shapiro

This week marks Yom HaShoah, the day of remembrance for the Holocaust. But it also marks another Jewish date even more important: the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. While many Jews find their Jewish identity only through the death of the 6 million, they ought to look to a far more inspiring event as a source of Jewish identity.

Click here to read the rest of this article.

Happy Birthday Israel

God Bless the Jewish people, the People of Israel, the legitimate and sovereign holy Nation of Israel.

Relentless

The film, "Relentless: The Struggle for Peace in the Middle East", reveals a side of the Middle East story that most people are unaware of due to a lack of exposure by traditional media outlets. "Relentless" is a powerful one-hour documentary using primary source video clips to examine the history of the Mideast conflict and how the Peace Process unraveled in a surge of violence.

April 25, 2004

Mario, the Jew Hating and "There's no such thing as a Mafia" Cuomo

Mary E. O'Leary , Register Topics Editor 04/16/2004

Mario Cuomo, the Democrats' philosopher king, has some advice for the party's presumed nominee for president: Get tough with Israel.

"You can't ever make serious progress against terrorism unless you deal with Israel," Cuomo said in a telephone interview this week, when asked for his thoughts on U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and the November presidential election.

"We are not dealing with Israel. We've backed away. We're afraid of the political consequences," he said.

Cuomo, the former governor of New York, and the party's conscience at pivotal times in its recent history, will be at Southern Connecticut State University at 7 p.m. Wednesday to deliver the sixth-annual Mary and Louis Fusco Distinguished Lecture. His topic will be "The Leadership We Need."

As a private citizen, Cuomo talked about a number of things that were important subjects for public discussion in the next seven months, from the Iraq war to the economy.

He said it is incumbent upon the United States to go to Israeli officials and tell them: "Up until now it was just you and the Palestinians killing one another - now you are killing us." Cuomo, 70, said everything is different since 9/11 and the Iraq war.

"Now there are people out there who are taking Israel as the provocation to terrorize us all over the globe - in the United States and elsewhere."

Cuomo said Israel must be told clearly that "you have a responsibility to all of us (and) we are going to be more assertive in dealing with you. .. So let's sit down and talk."

Cuomo, who did not support the Iraq war, said we are now "in a no-win position. You cannot retreat altogether and turn the place over to the Sunnis and the Shiites, because the next thing you know they will have a civil war."

"We have to stay in place for the time being, but we've got to replace ourselves as the perceived occupying force," Cuomo said, by convincing the United Nations and NATO it is in their best interest to get involved in the transition.

He didn't fault the Kerry campaign for continuing to talk about the economy as the casualties mount in Iraq. He said all this talk about financial growth is accurate, but it only affects corporate profits.

"Never in history has labor profited as little from corporate earnings as it does now," Cuomo said of executive pay, which is 537 times what workers get. "It wasn't long ago, the number was 12 times what workers get." The social responsibility themes of Cuomo's message were the same as those he delivered 20 years ago when his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention boosted his political career to the national level.

The 12-year governor bemoaned the $1 trillion in tax cuts due out in the next decade for the top income earners, many of them his clients, which represent less than 2 percent of the population.

Cuomo, who is a lawyer in New York with Willkie Farr & Gallagher, said the average wage, at $43,000, is down from two years ago, with only one in five Americans holding high- skill jobs and 15 million unemployed or underemployed.

He supported Kerry's position to not use public money to outsource jobs overseas, but he said losing jobs is part of a regular economic cycle that can only be countered by educating people for new skills and moving closer to fair trade.

The only governor to not support the North American Free Trade Agreement, Cuomo said he told then-President Clinton that by not demanding better wages and conditions in Mexico for its workers, the treaty would be a bad one.

"Their labor is so cheap. Their workers are so oppressed and abused. Their environmental requirements are so minimal. You are just encouraging all of that pain and damage," Cuomo said he told Clinton.

"Once you sign the bill you lose all your leverage. ... And that's exactly what happened," Cuomo said.
-------------------------------------
Mary E. O'Leary can be reached at moleary@nhregister.com.

Arafat, Don't Sleep With Your Eyes Closed

Border Police head Cmdr. David Zur, said Saturday that "Israel has people in the leadership of the Hamas."

Zur was responding to a question posed to him regarding Israel's success in finding and killing top terrorist leaders, Ynet reported.

Zur was speaking at a cultural event in Beer Sheba.

"We are excelling in everything connected to human intelligence. We're investing in agents. Israel has excelled beyond belief in this field," Zur said.

Arafat, Don't Sleep With Your Eyes Closed

Muslims Surveyed

Almost 50 per cent of UK Muslims would consider becoming a suicide bomber if they lived in the Palestinian territories, according to a new poll released this week.

The survey, carried out for the Guardian newspaper, also revealed that 13 per cent of those questioned believed that further attacks on the US by terrorist groups would be justified.

Forty-seven per cent said they agreed with the Liberal Democrat MP Jenny Tonge’s statement that she could imagine becoming a suicide terrorist if forced to live under the same conditions as Palestinians.

Only 15 per cent of a sample of non-Muslim Britons agreed with the same statement, with 78 per cent disagreeing.

The poll also found that 80 per cent of UK Muslims believed the military campaign against Iraq had been unjustified, and 55 per cent believe their community’s relations with non-Muslims had deteriorated since the war began.

Muslims Surveyed

April 24, 2004

If you love goodness and hate evil, this is a tough time to stay sane.

A great piece by Dennis Prager.

If you love goodness and hate evil, this is a tough time to stay sane.

Israel has killed Abdel Aziz Rantisi, the Hamas terror leader, and almost every nation in the world and the nations' theoretical embodiment, the United Nations, have condemned Israel for doing so.

World leaders and the world organization have said almost nothing about Communist China's ongoing destruction of one of the world's oldest civilizations, Tibet. World leaders have said almost nothing about the Arab enslavement and genocide of non-Arab blacks in Sudan. But they convene world conferences to label Israel, one of the most humane and decent democracies on earth, a pariah.

In order to retain my sanity, I ask the reader's indulgence as I use this column to express personal thoughts.

I have contempt for "the world." I cherish and admire countless individuals, but I have contempt for "the world" and "world opinion." "The world" has never cared about evils inflicted on human beings. The Communist genocides meant nothing to humanity. The Holocaust meant nothing. With almost no exception, the mass atrocities since World War II have likewise absorbed humanity less than the Olympics or the Miss World Contest.

I have contempt for the United Nations. It is one of the great obstacles to goodness and decency on this planet. Its moral record -- outside of a few specialized agencies such as the World Health Organization -- is almost entirely supportive of evil and condemnatory of good. It is dominated by the most morally backward governments in the world -- those from the Arab and Muslim worlds, the Communists during their heyday and African despots. It appointed Libya, a despotic, primitive state, to head its Human Rights Commission, whose members include China, Saudi Arabia and Sudan. Neither the United States nor Israel sits on the Commission.

I regard the European Union with similar revulsion. With little opposition, Europe murdered nearly every Jewish man, woman and child in its midst, and a half-century later provides cover for those in the Middle East who seek to do to the Middle East's Jews exactly what the Nazis did to the European Jews. For the European Union to condemn Israel's killing of a Hamas leader, when Hamas's avowed aim is another Jewish genocide, is so loathsome as to board the incredible. For Germany and France (who, unlike America, have almost never shed blood for the liberty of others) to do everything they can to undermine America's attempt to liberate Iraq is similarly repugnant.

As for the international news media and journalists, I regard most of them as aides to evil.

This is not new. The 1932 Pulitzer Prize, American journalism's highest award, was given to Walter Duranty of the New York Times for reporting from the Soviet Union. In his reports, Duranty repeatedly denied Stalin's forced starvation of Ukrainians that led to the murder of more than 6 million of them. The same "newspaper of record" deliberately toned down reporting on the Nazi annihilation of Jews 10 years later so as not to appear "too Jewish."

The Soviet decimation of Afghanistan was so little reported in the international media -- especially radio and television -- that when I talked about its scope and horror on my radio show in the 1980s, listeners kept wondering if I was telling the truth -- they had never heard anything about it.

In the last years of the Saddam Hussein regime, according to John Burns of the New York Times, major news reporters refused to write stories about Iraqi mass murder and atrocities lest the Saddam regime remove their press credentials. For most journalists, and their newspapers and television stations, it was better to lie for Saddam and have a bureau in Baghdad than to tell the truth but have no Baghdad bureau.

And not one international news organization calls Hamas or any of the other Palestinian terror organizations "terrorists."

I love learning and revere the title of "professor," but with few exceptions, universities, too, merit contempt. The vast majority of professors who take positions on social issues are moral fools. They teach millions of students that America and Israel are villains and that the enemies of those decent societies are merely misunderstood victims who are often justified in their hatred. And they loathe the American Judeo-Christian value system that has made the United States the world's land of opportunity and beacon of liberty.

In sum, I feel that I am living in a world that is morally sick. Good is called bad, and bad is called "militant," "victimized," "misunderstood" and "the product of hopelessness," but rarely bad. Only those who fight the bad are called bad.

I am kept sane by the knowledge that there are hundreds of millions of individuals who can still tell the difference between good and evil; by the knowledge that there was never a time that humanity was particularly decent; and by a strong belief that a good God governs the universe even though He allows evil many triumphs. And I believe this God will judge Osama bin Laden and Jacques Chirac appropriately.

©2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/dp20040420.shtml

News Alert: Jews blamed for all world terrorism

Oh, here's a shocker:

Egypt's government newspaper has accused Jews of carrying out all terrorism throughout the world, including the Madrid bombings.

Click here to read more about typical Arab bigotry and racism towards Jews and Israel: Jews blamed for all world terrorism

U.N. Moves to Disassociate Itself From Remarks by Envoy to Iraq

Even the U.N. is embarassed by remarks made by a racist from Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, and moved today to disassociate the organization from damning remarks about Israel and American policy in the Middle East made by this "special envoy" to Iraq

I'm stunned. Not at Arab racism towards Jews and Israel, because that's a known fact; I'm stunned at the U.N. for behaving like a civilized entity, composed of humans.

The action was prompted by a radio interview in Paris Wednesday in which Mr. Brahimi said that Israel's repressive policy and Washington's support for it were poisoning the Middle East and aggravating the situation in Iraq.

Secretary General Kofi Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said that Mr. Brahimi was speaking as a private individual, not as a United Nations official.

Arye Mekel, Israel's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said he questioned the explanation that Mr. Brahimi was speaking just for himself. "We don't think that when senior U.N. officials speak publicly, anyone will accept it as a private opinion," he said.

"Such statements put into question the objectivity of the U.N.," he said.

Mr. Mekel said that Israel had not yet decided on its official reaction to Mr. Brahimi's action, but he said that the mission was being encouraged to mount a formal protest by Jewish organizations and members of Congress.

U.N. Moves to Disassociate Itself From Remarks by Envoy to Iraq

Folks, Remember this:

Why are Bill Clinton and Al Gore not being required to testify in public as National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was?

Under Clinton-Gore, two US embassies and the USS Cole were bombed. Clinton had three chances to get Osama bin Laden and refused. He has to answer to the families of 9/11 and the rest of us in the United States.

We should never forget 9/11 or how President Bush took action. Remember this in this year's election.

Did you know?

From Radio Rote:
=====
Folks, did you know that former counterterrorism official Richard Clarke, Bush-basher elite, approved the order for the bin Laden family and other Saudi nationals to flee U.S. jurisdiction in the days following Sept. 11, 2001?

In fact, a government document obtained by a Washington, D.C., watchdog group reveals that 160 people from Saudi Arabia were allowed to fly home immediately after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The flights occurred between Sept. 11-15, 2001, when most other air travel remained grounded. They departed from airports all over the country, including New York, Washington, Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Boston, Denver, Detroit, San Francisco, Newark and Cincinnati.

The information, obtained by the public interest organization Judicial Watch, is the most detailed yet on the White House-sanctioned evacuations. Judicial Watch obtained the document after filing a Freedom of Information request with the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection.

The document did not contain the names of any evacuees, but Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-New York, previously has said the Saudi group included two relatives of Osama bin Laden. Though the mastermind of the terrorist attacks is estranged from his family, Schumer has suggested the family members may have been able to provide some information on bin Laden.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. "We hope this list does not turn out to be a terrorist 'most wanted' list."

The largest number of Saudis who left on a single flight was 46. The flight left New York's JFK International Airport on Sept. 13, 2001.

Word of the flights first surfaced last year, when former counterterrorism official Richard Clarke confirmed he approved them. According to Clarke, advisers to President Bush were concerned the Saudis could face possible retribution for the attacks if they remained in the country.

Clarke said he signed off on the plan only after being assured by the FBI that the evacuees did not have links to terrorists.

Clarke has been at the center of controversy recently for alleging that Bush was more concerned with ousting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein than fully focusing on the war on terrorism.

The Bureau of Customs & Border Protection is the only federal agency to date that has responded substantively to Judicial Watch's request for information regarding the flights. Also receiving the request were the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Justice and the Department of Transportation. (Pittsburgh Tribune Review -- US/03-30-04)

A Viable State by Mike Levine

From Radio Rote - an excellent article:
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A Viable State by Mike Levine

Every newspaper article mentions a viable Palestinian state. Every TV news show speaks of a viable Palestinian state. Last week the magic word was ‘contiguous’, this week it’s ‘viable’.

Just what is meant by a viable state? The dictionary says the word viable pertains to a fetus that is sufficiently developed to be able to survive after birth.

So if we apply this word to the birth of a new state we are talking about a state which has the necessary infrastructure to survive and prosper; water, telephone, power, financial, transportation, industry, health and social welfare programs, a society which has educated and trained people to operate these assets efficiently and productively.

Is the Palestinian Authority ready? Are they prepared for statehood? Are they viable?

Are you kidding?

How could they be when for more than three years all their efforts have been expended in terrorism against Israel, and billions of donated dollars have been spent buying weapons, building bombs, brainwashing their children, creating and glorifying a death cult, and making the elite few rich, including Arafat who has secret bank accounts all over the world containing billions.

We keep hearing that Israel must provide the Palestinians with a viable state. Come again?

Who provided Israel with a viable state?

It was mainly worldwide Jewry who supplied most of the funds with which to develop the new state, and it was the ragged remnant of immigrants from the ovens of Europe plus the Jewish refugees from Arab states who turned sand dunes to orange groves, drained the swamps, built towns and cities, factories, a national water and electrical system, roads, bridges, railroad, hotels, schools and universities, and the second most powerful hi-tech industry on earth. All this while at the same time absorbing millions of newcomers, fighting five Arab wars, and suffering constant terrorism.

If the Palestinians want a viable state let them stop teaching their children to hate and kill. Let them use the billions of donated dollars for infrastructure and education. Let them tear down their miserable refugee camps and build decent housing for their people. The Saudis just had a fund raising campaign that raised 96 million dollars for Palestinian martyrs, a pleasant sounding euphemism for murderers and terrorists. Instead let them use this money to begin building the state they say they want instead of trying to destroy the state of Israel.

How many countries can you count that were handed a viable state on a silver platter?

None, that’s how many!

What makes Arafat think the world owes him a ready made fully developed state? Let him work for it like everyone else. If he’d rather spend his money, energy, and time looking for new and more horrific ways to murder Jews, he doesn’t deserve any sort of state, let alone a viable one.

And he certainly doesn’t deserve and shouldn’t expect any help from his victims! (Mike Levine is an American writer currently living in Israel)

April 23, 2004

Another Hero Lost to IslamoFascists: Pat Tillman, Ex-NFL player killed in action

An NFL player who walked away from a $3.6 million contract in the prime of his career to become an Army Ranger was killed in Afghanistan, according to U.S. officials.

Pat Tillman, 27, a former defensive back for the Arizona Cardinals, died last night at 7:30 local time in a firefight with militia forces in the village of Sperah, about 25 miles southwest of a U.S. military base at Khost.

Former Cardinals head coach Dave McGinnis said he felt both overwhelming sorrow and tremendous pride in Tillman, who "represented all that was good in sports."

"Pat knew his purpose in life," McGinnis said. "He proudly walked away from a career in football to a greater calling."

Several of Tillman's friends have said the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks influenced his decision to enlist.

Folks, Tillman's decision to serve his country rather than himself is the most noble action I have ever seen a celebrity undertake. The effete leftist snobs in Hollywood should only hope to be able to live up to Pat Tillman. Perhaps this will shame some of them into doing something righteous and moral, for a change.

Our deepest heartfelt condolences to Pat Hillman's widow, Marie, and to his entire family.

Thank you, Pat Tillman, for defending our country.

Ex-NFL player killed in action

Short Arms, Deep Pockets - John Kerry's Lack of Charitable Giving

From Crush Kerry:

It's often said that "charity begins at home". A review of John Kerry's donations to charity and personal history shows that he takes that saying very literally.

We always knew that liberals like John Kerry treated our taxes as charity to fund their big government programs. We are also well aware of their constant whining about heartless conservatives whose policies break the back of the poor.

In fact, in a January 2004 interview Sen. Kerry lamented the fact that as a nation "we have proven incapable of summoning enough charitable effort...to guarantee that we're doing what we need to do for our children in America"

Thus, we were, to paraphrase a line from Claude Raines in Casablanca, - "shocked, shocked I say" - to learn that when it came to charitable giving, the children of America were let down by - John Kerry and his alligator arms.

In 1991 and 1995 (the year of the OK City Bombing when donations to the Red Cross poured in) Kerry had incomes of $113,857 and 126,179 respectively. In those two years, Kerry donated a whopping total of, drum roll please - $0 total to charity.

No, that's not a misprint - its zip, zero, zilch, nil, nada, no mas, the big donut, the collar (to use a baseball term).

This is especially puzzling given Kerry's website claim trumpeting his "active membership" in the Catholic faith. Funny, last time we were there we seem to recall a collection plate being passed. Apparently at Kerry's church they missed doing that during the 104 Sundays in 1991 and 1995. Either that or Sen. Kerry has terrible aim, as his envelope seemed to have somehow missed going into the plate or basket.

Also, it's not as if his charitable giving record in the interim was all that much to write home about. From 1992-1994 he gave a whopping total of $3,044. Which means that from 1991-1995 John Kerry gave a paltry total of $11.66 per month (or 40 cents a day - the price of a cup of coffee) to charity, for which the "children" of America will be ever grateful. Perhaps Senator Kerry was so busy dating Hollywood Starlets and trying to pay child support that he missed those commercials with Sally Struthers and the guy from Trapper John MD begging us to help starving children.

However in 1996 his fortunes changed. You see that was the year that he himself was a beneficiary of charity - that being his nuptials to the $500 million dollar woman Ter-ez-zaa Heinz. What's more he didn't have to go on "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire" to do it. We don't know how much Mrs. Heinz-Kerry gives to charity because she still refuses to release her tax records. We do know however that the "charitable" foundation she runs funds some rather loony radical left-wing causes.

The happy couple really needs to sit down and decide how to help the children of America. Perhaps they could sell one of their 5 mansions valued at over $20 million, which you can see pictured HERE . Sadly they already missed the chance to pay all 4 years of tuition at Yale or Harvard for about 48 poor children when the villa in Italy, also pictured HERE , was sold for $7.8 million a short time ago to left-wing radical George Clooney.

So what have we learned here today fellow Kerry Crushers? First, that when it comes to charity, John Kerry's wallet is tighter than gnat's a$$, and he probably still has his kindergarten milk money in his pocket. Second, he is a raving hypocrite (but we knew that already didn't we). Finally, that if not for marrying rich women, little kids with empty gruel plates would be coming up to him and asking "Please Senator Kerry, may I have some more?"

Crush Kerry

From Crush Kerry
=====
As many Kerry Crushers know, the Culture of Death will descend on Washington, DC this weekend for an event dubbed the "March for Women's Lives." This crass title assumes none of the three million fetuses aborted this year will be female, of course.

John Kerry will be there, no doubt, although he once was less a slave to the pro-abortion movement.

Also in attendance will be the many liberal, airheaded libertines from Hollywood who routinely push their moral relativism on the rest of us out here in middle America. This year, we figured we'd out this liberals.

Shame on them for using their celebrity status to promote the snuffing of life from the innocent unborn.

Sadly, you'll recognize many of the names:

List of Pro-Abortion celebrities who will attend "pro-choice" March along with John Kerry:

Margie Adam
Christina Aguilera
Jennifer Aniston
Curtis Armstrong
Elaine Aronson
Bea Arthur
Ed Asner
Kevin Bacon
Alec Baldwin
William Baldwin
Meredith Baxter
Shari Belafonte
Maria Bello
Polly Bergen
Thora Birch
Amy Brenneman
Betty Buckley
Jessica Capshaw
Lynda Carter
Stockard Channing
Jill Clayburgh
Kate Clinton
Glenn Close
Cindy Crawford
Sheryl Crow
Alan Cumming
Tyne Daly
Blythe Danner
Kristin Davis
Ossie Davis
Dana Delany
Laura Dern
Ellen DeGeneres
Ani DiFranco
Illeana Douglas
Denise Dowse
Fran Drescher
Kirsten Dunst
David Eigenberg
Hector Elizondo
Emme
Eve Ensler
Giancarlo Esposito
Melissa Etheridge
Morgan Fairchild
Edie Falco
Frances Fisher
Calista Flockhart
Jane Fonda
Bonnie Franklin
Janeane Garofalo
Ana Gasteyer
Indigo Girls
Annabeth Gish
Whoopi Goldberg
Lauren Graham
Maggie Gyllenhaal
LisaGay Hamilton
Ben Harper
Ed Harris
Salma Hayek
Marg Helgenberger
Isabella Hofmann
Helen Hunt
Amy Jo Johnson
Kathryn Joosten
Ashley Judd
Catherine Keener
Carole King
Swoosie Kurt
Christine Lahti
Sanaa Lathan
Sharon Lawrence
Lisa Loeb
Amy Madigan
Natalie Maines
Wendie Malick
Joshua Malina
Camryn Manheim
Frances McDormand
Ewan McGregor
Marilyn McIntyre
Sarah McLachlan
Moby
Demi Moore
Julianne Moore
Alanis Morissette
Kathy Najimy
Alyson Palmer
Joe Pantoliano
Mary-Louise Parker
Adrian Pasdar
Pink
Martha Plimpton
Doris Roberts
Paul Rudd
Susan Sarandon
Campbell Scott
Kyra Sedgwick
Martin Sheen
Cybill Shepherd
SONiA
Fisher Stevens
Gloria Steinem
Julia Stiles
Corky and Mike Stoller
Sharon Stone
Amber Tamblyn
Mary Testa
Charlize Theron
Uma Thurman
Heather Tom
Stanley Tucci
Kathleen Turner
Ted Turner
Sarah Weddington
Audrey Wells
Bradley Whitford
Alfre Woodard
Thom Yorke
Amy Ziff
Elizabeth Ziff

April 22, 2004

Faith in the Depths of Hell

Some Jews fought the Nazis with guns and sabotage; others fought by persisting in Jewish life.

This article is about Rabbi Oshry who was called upon to decide the spiritual and halachal answers that desperate but faithful Jews needed during the Nazi occupation of Kovno, Lithuania's second-largest city.

Rabbi Oshry recorded the heart-rending questions that were brought to him in brief notes on scraps of paper, then buried the scraps in tin cans. Someday, he hoped, those scraps might be found - evidence that even in the midst of the Nazi inferno there were Jews who clung to their God and His law, refusing to abandon Him even as they must have wondered whether He had abandoned them.

Rabbi Oshry survived the Holocaust and after the war he retrieved his notes and began writing them out as full-length rabbinical rulings, or responsa. These were ultimately published in five Hebrew volumes; in 1983 a book of excerpts in English - Responsa from the Holocaust - was published by Judaica Press.

Faith in the Depths of Hell

Sudan 'atrocity' report withheld

Human rights campaigners are outraged that a United Nations report alleging grave abuses in western Sudan is being withheld from a UN debate on the issue.

The report, seen by the BBC, details claims of rape, looting and killing by militias with government help.

Folks, we're not surprised, considering the UN is nothing more than a third world cesspool whose key players and decision makers include 22 arab theocracies who collectively hate western civilization, especially Israel and the US.

It is these 22 nations who have already hoodwinked Eurabia because these 22 have already merged into a singular, throbbing, pulsating, political monster whose only mission is hatred for and hate speech directed towards and hateful rhetoric reserved for Israel and Jews only.

Sudan 'atrocity' report withheld

56 Excellent Articles to Mark the 56th Anniversary of Israel Independence Day

Yom Haatzmaut

Columbia U. Releases Edward Said Chair Donors: Names Arab Government

The recently established Edward Said Chair at Columbia has caused much controversy, in part because it is held by former PLO spokesman Rashid Khalidi and in part because the donors of the chair's estimated $4 million endowment have until now been kept secret.

As Campus Watch has reported, it is highly irregular for the identity of academic chair donors to be concealed. It is all the more alarming that a university, naming a chair for one political activist and then awarding it to another political activist, would then prevent the public from knowing who had funded the chair. Columbia University continued to refuse disclosure.On Friday, March 12, 2004, Columbia's Office of Public Affairs finally released in print (not on its website) the full list of donors:

Yusef Abu Khadra
Abdel Muhsen Al-Qattan
Ramzi A. Dalloul
Richard and Barbara Debs
Richard B. Fisher
Gordon Gray, Jr.
Daoud Hanania
Rita E. Hauser
Walid H. Kattan
Said T. Khory Munib R. Masri
Morgan Capital & Energy
Olayan Charitable Trust
Hasib Sabbagh
Kamal A. Shair
Abdul Shakashir
Abdul Majeed Shoman
Jean Stein
United Arab Emirates

With the list now public, it is clear why Columbia University preferred not to disclose the donors' identities. Columbia is already known for the lack of balance in Middle East studies. The list of donors to the Edward Said chair only confirms the problem.

Particularly worrisome is the presence of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) among the donors. As Martin Kramer has pointed out, the incumbent of the Said Chair has also been named the director of Columbia's Middle East Institute, a federally-subsidized National Resource Center for the Middle East, and as such administers over $1 million in U.S. government subsidies intended to improve national security. The conflict of interest is obvious.

Jonathan Calt Harris, managing editor of Campus Watch points out, "In brief, at Columbia right now, a political activist professor, paid in part by an Arab state, currently administers funds from the U.S. taxpayer, in part for the purpose of ‘outreach' to the public. Both Columbia alumni and taxpayers should find this shocking."

A previous UAE government donation to an American university has come under fire – the gift of $2.5 million in 2000 from Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan for a professorship at Harvard Divinity School (HDS). Rachel Fish, then a student at the Harvard Divinity School, showed the antisemitic activities of the UAE's Zayed Center for Coordination and Follow-Up. HDS President William Graham has promised an investigation. (Campus Watch/ Columbia University/New York/03.19.04)
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Smooth Stone gratefully acknowledges Radio Rote (radiorote@hotmail.com ) for this report.

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