1. Most Americans Against Palestinian Arab State
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2004 11:16:52 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
Subject: ZOA: New Poll: Most Americans Against Palestinian Arab State

January 23, 2004 Contact: (212) 481-1500
Attn: NEWS EDITOR

NEW POLL: NEARLY 70% OF AMERICANS SAY "NO" TO PALESTINIAN ARAB STATE AND
EXPULSION OF JEWS FROM TERRITORIES

NEW YORK - A new poll has found that nearly 70% of Americans
believe that the Palestinian Arabs have not fulfilled the conditions
necessary to be given a state, and oppose the Arab demand for expulsion of
Jews from the territories.

The poll was sponsored by the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) and
carried out by the firm of McLaughlin & Associates during mid-January of
2004. The poll questioned 1,000 Americans from throughout the United States.
The Zionist Organization of America, founded in 1897, is the
oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States. The ZOA works to
strengthen U.S.-Israel relations, educates the American public and Congress
about the dangers that Israel faces, and combats anti-Israel bias in the
media and on college campuses. Its past presidents have included Supreme
Court Justice Louis Brandeis and Rabbi Dr. Abba Hillel Silver.

2. Benny Morris Replies to Critics
From: imra@netvision.net.il
Haaretz Magazine section 23 January 2004
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/386065.html
Extracts

A few days after the publication of the interview with me ("Survival of the
fittest," Haaretz Magazine, January 9), an angry Israeli-Arab student came
to my office at Ben-Gurion University. He suggested that the Holocaust never
happened (he cited what he called "an important and world-renowned Egyptian
historian"), and claimed that the Twin Towers in New York were destroyed at
the order of the CIA or the Mossad, and that Israeli soldiers and pilots in
the territories are deliberately targeting and murdering innocent civilians.
I mention this so that we all understand the kind of world we in the Middle
East are living in.

The war being waged against us since September 2000 is three-dimensional: On
one level, which is the one highlighted by Palestinian spokespersons, a
struggle is being waged for liberation from Israeli occupation in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip; on the second level, the Palestinians - according to
spokesmen for Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah militants - are waging a war to
eradicate the Zionist state and to restore their "rights" over all of
Palestine; on the third level, the Palestinians' struggle is part of the
global struggle being waged by jihadist Islam against the "Western Satan,"
with Israel being a vulnerable extension of Western culture in our region.

A central accusation in the letters to Haaretz Magazine ("The judgment of
history," January 16) concerned the issue of "ethnic cleansing." I will
repeat my words, which apparently did not register (perhaps because of the
misleading title on the cover): I do not support the expulsion of Arabs from
the territories or from the State of Israel! Such an expulsion would be
immoral, and is also unrealistic. What I said was, that if in the future,
these communities were to launch massive violence against the State of
Israel in combination with a broad assault on Israel by its neighbors, and
endanger its survival, expulsions would certainly be in the cards.

A general comment on the matter of ethnic cleansing: I am aware that "ethnic
cleansing" is not politically correct and is morally problematic. But, what
can we do - the history of the 20th century is replete with instances of
ethnic cleansing that occurred under catastrophic circumstances and were
ultimately beneficial for humanity, including for the expulsees themselves.
Was not the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans (after World War II) - who
contributed to the destruction of the Czechoslovak Republic - justified? And
didn't it contribute, in the end, to their happiness, and certainly to the
happiness of the Czech people? In the final analysis, didn't the ethnic
cleansing perpetrated by the Turks against their Greek minority and by the
Greeks against their Turkish minority after World War I contribute to the
welfare and happiness of the two peoples, and to the peace that has
prevailed between the two nations ever since?

One more thing: Among the biggest religio-ethnic cleansers in human history,
in the distant past and in our time, has been the Arab Islamic nation.
Mohammed and his men cleansed the Arabian Peninsula of its Jewish tribes, in
part through the mass slaughter of the men and the enslavement and forced
conversion of the young women. (According to the Koran, in one day,
Mohammed's men massacred 800-900 men of the Bani Qureiza tribe - a larger
number than all the Arab victims of Jewish massacres through the whole of
the 1948 war.) In the ensuing centuries, the Muslim empires and the Arab
states, with the help of the pogrom and the law, uprooted from their midst
or forcibly converted most of their Christian communities and ethnically
cleansed themselves of their Jewish communities.

(And, by the way, every Jewish
community that was conquered by the Arab armies in the course of the 1948
war, including the Jewish Quarter in the Old City, was ethnically cleansed
and every site was completely leveled.)

In the modern age, no one has been more racist and more intolerant of "the
other" - Kurd, Jew, Sudanese Christian and animist, Maronite Christian,
etc. - than the Arab states. The constitution of Jordan, one of the more
moderate Islamic Arab states, even includes a clause prohibiting Jews from
being Jordanian citizens. The Arabs' attempt to annihilate the Jewish Yishuv
[pre-state community in Palestine] in 1948 compelled Israel to uproot them
from the Jewish territory.

In any event, I will be the first to rejoice if my judgments and predictions
are proved wrong.

3. Arutz Sheva News Thursday
<http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Jan. 29, 2004 / Shvat 6, 5764
PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS KILL TEN IN JERUSALEM BUS EXPLOSION
Ten people were killed, and another 13 are in very critical or critical condition, after a suicide terrorist blew up on a public city bus in a central Jerusalem neighborhood this morning. Medics on the scene said that it was one of the worst sights they had ever seen; the explosives destroyed the bus almost totally, and caused the floor to collapse, trapping and burying victims underneath. The explosion took place only dozens of meters from the Prime Minister's residence.

The attack - the first one that Palestinian terrorists were able to perpetrate in over five months, due to intense intelligence and security work - took place only minutes before Elchanan Tenenbaum was transferred to Israeli hands in Germany as part of the prisoner/hostage deal. Some analysts say that the Palestinians thus wished to offstage Hizbullah in the competition between them regarding which terrorist group could make Israel bleed more. Others say that the Palestinian terrorists are miffed that "only" 400 of their number are being freed in the exchange. It has been repeatedly emphasized, however, that attempted Palestinian terrorist attacks of this nature are almost a daily occurrence.

Date: Thu, 05 Feb 2004 07:59:56 +0200
Jerusalem News-273
Contents:
1. Women Regret Abortions
2. The Demographic Problem by Prof. Paul Eidelberg
3. Pro-life laws reduce number of abortions, study says
4. Sow Statues in Germany
5. An Alternate Opinion Concerning THE DEMOGRAPHIC PROBLEM

1. Women Regret Abortions
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=36802

MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH
Poll: Women say abortion makes life worse
Researcher contends politicians misread their female constituents
A new national poll shows only 16 percent of women believe abortion generally makes women's lives better.

Furthermore, among women who describe themselves as "pro-choice," less than 30 percent believe abortion generally improves women's lives.

The poll results reflect a reality long misunderstood by politicians on both sides of the abortion debate, contends David C. Reardon, director of the Elliot Institute, a conservative research and education think tank that published the survey along with other study results.

"At least one of every four women voters has had an abortion, and most of these women consider it to be an ugly, painful memory," he said. "Most have many regrets about their abortions, even if they believe it to have been their 'only choice.' This is why they don't support the radical agenda of pro-abortion special interest groups. They've been there, done that, and hated it."

He says the national polling data and his studies of post-abortive women show most women would be glad to be rid of abortion, but only if it can be done in a way that helps women. They generally do not support easier access to abortion, federal funding for abortion, or the nomination of federal judges who will strike down abortion regulations.

But they do want politicians to show they understand the pressures women face, Reardon asserted.

2. The Demographic Problem
By Prof. Paul Eidelberg

The September 26, 2003 report of the Central Bureau of Statistics reports that Israel's population is 6.716 million. Of this number, 5.143 million are Jews, and the ID cards of another 282,000 state "other" in the nationality space. The latter are new immigrants and their families who are not registered as Jews by the Ministry of the Interior Population Registry.

The September 26 report indicates that a fifth or 19.2% of Israel's population 1.291 million are Arabs. This is not contradicted by the more recent Central Bureau of Statistics report of February 1, 2004 that the 16% of Israels population are Muslims, if the latter does not include the Bedouin and Druze population.

Now, it should be emphasized that a significant percentage of the 5,143 million Jews listed as such by the Ministry of Interior Population Registry are not halachically Jewish, that, like the 282,000 whose ID cards state other in the nationality space, they, too, came from the former Soviet Union under the grandfather clause of the Law of Return. However, there is no way to substantiate this from the Population Registry.

Unless I am mistaken, but based on conversations with a well-informed Russian, there are at least 400,000 non-Jewish Russians in Israel, in which case the Jewish majority in this country is diminishing and now stands at no more than 74.8%. This number will further decline given the permissive immigration and citizenship standards of the Interior Ministry headed by Avraham Poraz. Nor is this all.

Although the Muslim birthrate is declining, the February 2, 2004 report of the Central Bureau of Statistics indicates that it is 2.4 times that of Jews. The report also states that 450,000 Muslims are under the age of 15, one quarter of the countrys children, and that only 3% are over the age of 65, which is far below that of Jews. This portends an increasing Muslim voting power to say nothing of their fighting power compared to that of Jews.

3. Pro-life laws reduce number of abortions, study says
Feb 3, 2004
By Erin Curry
http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?Id=17559
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Parental involvement laws, bans on taxpayer-funded abortions, informed consent laws and partial-birth abortion bans reduce the number of abortions performed within the jurisdiction of such laws, according to a new study by a post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard-MIT Data Center.

"Those states that adopted pro-life legislation during the 1990s experienced larger reductions in abortion rates and ratios than those states that did not adopt such legislation," the study said, according to LifeNews.com.

The study, published by the Heritage Foundation, said pro-life legislation passed by state legislatures led to the decline in the number of abortions by 17.4 percent during the 1990s.

Laws prohibiting taxpayer-funded abortions with the use of Medicaid dollars reduced the abortion rate by about 30 percent, the study showed. States that passed Right to Know laws informing women of the consequences of an abortion saw the abortion rate drop by 22 percent.

Top-rated Louisiana's score of 36 out of a possible 42 indicates that elected officials in each state can still do more to safeguard women and the unborn, AUL said.

4. Sow Statues in Germany
In a Hebrew newspaper (Makor Rishon 30.1.04, p.3) there was report
(from Yischak Hildesheimer quoting a Professor Mair Shwartz (?)
of "Beit Aschkenaz") that in the time of the Nazis, the Germans erected hundreds of statues of
a sow suckling Jews and that this was a popular theme of the Nazi Newspaper
Der Struemer (?).
According to the report 27 (28?) of these statues are still standing most of them besides churches
and on land belonging to these churches.
20 of the statues are in Germany in Nuremburg, Koln, Warburg, Erfurt, etc
7 of the statues are in Alsace (a French province bordering Germany that the Germans considered
belonged to them) in the cities of Strasburg, and Kolmer. And one is in Denmark (?).

5. An Alternate Opinion Concerning THE DEMOGRAPHIC PROBLEM
Arutz Sheva News Wednesday,
<http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Feb. 4, 2004 / Shvat 12, 5764
THE DEMOGRAPHIC PROBLEM
It was announced this week that one out of every four children in Israel is Moslem, and that the annual Moslem population growth in Israel is 3.4%, compared with only 1.4% for Israeli Jews.

Some say that "demographic scares" are nothing new and have never been borne out by the facts. Hatikvah Educational Foundation, in a recent full-page newspaper ad, noted the following:
*In 1900, the leading Jewish historian and demographer, Dubnov, cautioned Herzl against the establishment of a Jewish State: "By the year 2000 there will be only 500,000 Jews in the land of Israel." In 2000, there were 5 million Jews in Israel.
*In 1948, Israel's Chief Statistician, Prof. Bakki, lobbied Prime Minister Ben-Gurion to postpone the establishment of the Jewish State: "By 1968 there will be an Arab majority in Israel (Green Line)." In 1968, there was a 17% Arab minority.
*In 1967, Prime Minister Eshkol was pressured to give away Gaza, Judea & Samaria: "By 1987 there will be an Arab majority west of the Jordan River." In 1987, there was a 37% Arab minority west of the Jordan River [including Judea, Samaria and Gaza; and less than 14% within pre-'67 Israel].

Hatikvah wrote that similar "demographic scare tactics" are being used today to convince the public of the necessity of a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. The numbers ignore important factors, however, such as the artificial inflation of Arab population statistics and the decreasing gap between the Arab and Jewish birth rates.

It is now estimated, however, that the Arab population west of the Jordan River is nearing that of the Jewish population - 4.51 million Arabs to 5.16 million Jews. The Arab numbers are: 2 million in Judea and Samaria, slightly over 1 million in Gaza, 210,000 in eastern Jerusalem areas, and another 1.3 million Israeli-Arabs.

Segal notes that the demographic statistics are a source of satisfaction to the Palestinian Authority - "because the Arabs know that these numbers feed into our fear of being a minority, and therefore bring a Palestinian state closer." But in truth, he continues, the Arabs have a tradition of exaggerating the statistics. Joan Peters, in her book From Time Immemorial, notes this phenomenon, and more recently, the mathematician Yaakov Feitelson has noticed a peculiar phenomenon in this regard. Segal writes that Feitelson, formerly the Mayor of Ariel and demographic advisor to Binyamin Netanyahu, and now a Joint Distribution Committee emissary in St. Petersburg, "noticed that precisely during the 1990's, when a million Russian Jews immigrated to Israel, the Palestinians managed to reach new heights in their own population figures. Somehow, their figures and those of the UN show that they managed to double their numbers, from 1.6 mill! ion to 3.2 million in the same decade that the Jews, with their massive Aliyah from Russia, grew only by 80%. Their growth rate was 7% a year - an imaginary number by all accounts."

One encouraging statistic is that some 150,000 Arabs, according to rough estimates, have left the PA areas in the past several years. One IDF military source said that every day, dozens of PA Arabs arrive at Civil Administration offices requesting papers to be allowed to move abroad - although bureaucratic procedures often thwart them.

SEOUL - A US-based Jewish human rights group has urged the United Nations to investigate claims that North Korea conducted gas chamber experiments on political prisoners, comparing the alleged acts to those in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre made the appeal yesterday after the BBC aired a TV documentary in which a man, claiming to be a former North Korean agent, described seeing prisoners gassed to death.

There was no way to verify the claim.

'This brings to mind the imagery of Nazi gas chambers and the horrific experiments at Auschwitz and Imperial Japan's Unit 731,' the centre's associate dean, Mr Abraham Cooper, said in a statement.

Unit 731, the Japanese Imperial Army's germ warfare division, is believed to have killed as many as 250,000 people in their experiments during the 1930s and 1940s when Japanese troops occupied much of China.

'The crimes of the Nazi era are a stark reminder that silence is admittance and such state-sanctioned barbarities demand action,' Mr Cooper said.

'The civilised community must put the perpetrators of such crimes against humanity on notice that they will be held accountable.'

The BBC report said the North Korean man, identified as Kwon Hyok, was a former army intelligence officer who defected to South Korea in 1999.

It also said he was formerly chief guard at a North Korean prison camp, reportedly known as Prison Camp No 22.

Mr Kwon said the camp had a gas chamber made of glass so scientists could observe inmates as they were gassed.

'I witnessed a whole family being tested on suffocating gas and dying in the gas chamber,' he told the BBC.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre urged the UN to establish an international tribunal to investigate the allegations.

As many as 200,000 people are held in North Korean prison camps, from petty criminals to political dissidents and religious activists, according to a 2003 report by the US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. Prisoners are subjected to starvation and torture, it said.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre, based in Los Angeles, is an international organisation dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust by fostering tolerance and understanding. \-- AP

Jerusalem News-275
Contents:
1. Germany Frees a 9/11 Suspect
2. Earthquake Strikes Brit-Am Headquarters!
3. Arutz 7 on the Quake
4. Arutz -7 Arabs Prepared to leave
5. Jerusalem Post on the Quake

1. Germany Frees a 9/11 Suspect

NY TIMES
February 6, 2004

By DESMOND BUTLER
HAMBURG, Germany, Feb. 5 Citing a refusal by the United States to allow
testimony from a suspected member of Al Qaeda in its custody, a German
court on Thursday acquitted a former roommate of Mohamed Atta who was
accused of providing support to suicide pilots in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The court cleared Abdelghani Mzoudi, the second suspect to be tried for
involvement in the attacks, of accessory to murder and membership in Al Qaeda.

Hamburg officials have said they will seek to expel Mr. Mzoudi, who is not
a German citizen. His lawyers have said, however, that they will file for
his asylum in Germany on the grounds that he may face torture in Morocco.

In the early days of the trial, which began in August, a Qaeda informant
testified that he had seen the defendant and Mr. Motassadeq in a Qaeda
training camp in Afghanistan. Members of Mr. Mzoudi's defense team never
denied that their client had indeed been in Afghanistan.

The defense further acknowledged that Mr. Mzoudi knew Mr. Atta, who is
believed to have been the pilot who flew American Airlines Flight 11 into
the north tower of the World Trade Center, and had made financial
transactions for an alleged member of Al Qaeda.

Under German terrorism laws existing at the time of the attacks, specific
knowledge of terrorist activity must be proved in order to convict a
defendant of conspiracy.

2. Earthquake Strikes Brit-Am Headquarters!
On Wenesday, 11.2..04 at approximately 10:30 Yair Davidiy and Brit-Am
assistant, Shmuel James, were in the Brit-Am headquarters near the center
of New Jerusalem. They were studying 1-Kings chapter 22 which relates how
King Jehoshaphat of Judah and King Achab of "Israel" combined forces to
regain Ramat Gilead from the king of Aram. They were defeated and King
Achab (Ahab) was killed.
This chapter shows how the territory of one section of the Israelite
nation was considered to pertain to all of Israel and how the good of one
section was considered the good of the other. On the other hand it also
shows how this early attempt at combining forces between
Judah and Israel ended in disaster.
We had reached this "happy" note when the room started moving.
We are situated on the third floor of a relatively old building so what may
not be significant on the ground is felt
more by us. My first thought was that it must be a low-flying plane but the
moving continued and intensified
and the whole building seemed to sway to and fro underneath us and shake.
The whole thing lasted perhaps no more than less than minute but it
seemed longer.
Reports are now coming in from all over Jerusalem about this earthquake. It
seems that concerning Jerusalem no serious damage was caused but a lot of
people were frightened. Elsewhere in Israel there was some damage. See below:

3. Arutz 7 on the Quake
http://www.israelnn.com/print.php3?what=news&id=57682
Earthquake Hits Israel
An earthquake rocked most of Israel at 10:15 this morning, and was felt
from the north to the northern Negev. No casualties were reported, though
cracks were reported to have formed in the Knesset building.

The epicenter of the earthquake - first thought to be 4.5 on the Richter
scale, but later reported as a moderately-heavy 5 - is thought to be in the
northern Dead Sea. Popular weatherman Danny Ropp captured the feelings of
most Israelis when he said, "Actually, what does it matter whether it was 4
or 5? The main thing is that we all really felt it quite strongly."

Two buildings in the Tel Aviv area were reported to have partially
collapsed, but these reports were soon found to be based on false alarms.
Phone systems in the Tel Aviv area did collapse, however. In Ein Gedi,
close to the Dead Sea shore, nothing more serious than falling objects was
reported.

Officials in the Education Ministry, after consultation with Seismological
Institute personnel, decided shortly before 11 AM that, because of the fear
of aftershocks, all pupils must be kept outside the building until at least
12:30. Despite this, Infrastructures Minister Yosef Paritzky (Shinui),
speaking from the Geophysical Institute 45 minutes after the quake, said
that there appears to be no danger of aftershocks.

The US Geological Survey says that several thousand shocks with magnitudes
of about 4.5 or greater occur each year around the world.

The last major calamitous earthquake in Israel occurred in July 1927.
Centered in Jericho, it killed "some 670 persons--not one of these
reputedly a U S citizen nor Jew," according to a Time Magazine report at
the time. Thousands were left homeless. The last major earthquake to affect
Israel was in 1995; it was centered under the Red Sea, about 70 kilometers
south of Eilat, and caused only very minor structural damage.

The prophet Zechariah foretells a cataclysmic earthquake when the Messiah
comes to the Mount of Olives outside Jerusalem, in which the mountain shall
be split down the middle from east to west, forming an enormous valley.

4. Arutz -7 Arabs Prepared to leave
http://www.israelnn.com/print.php3?what=news&id=57362
P.A. Arabs Less Attached To Land Than Was Thought
A public opinion survey taken in the Palestinian Authority shows that fully
37% of the population would agree to leave their "homeland" in exchange for
material benefits.

The 705 respondents of the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (PCPO)
poll were asked, "If you were to receive a job offer, a home, and $250,000,
would you be willing to emigrate to a foreign country?" Just a tad over
half said no, while 37% said yes, they would be willing to leave under such
circumstances.

Of those who would leave, not even a quarter would choose an Arab nation,
while 60% would choose Europe or an English-speaking country.

5. Jerusalem Post on the Quake
Earthquake felt across Israel
By JPOST.COM STAFF
A strong tremor was felt in most major cities in Israel and parts of the
West Bank Wednesday morning at 10:16.
The quake lasted about 25 seconds.
Two people were hospitalized at the Hadassah Ein Karem hospital for
stress-related symptoms, and a further 17 people were treated for the same
symptoms countrywide, Magen David Adom reported.

An official at the Seismology Division of the Israeli Geophysical Institute
told the Jerusalem Post that the center of the earthquake was in the
Northern Dead Sea region and measured 5 on the Richter scale.

Magen David Adom reported that a construction worker in Netanya fell off
the fifth floor of a building because of the quake. He was evacuated to
Hillel Yaffe Hospital in a moderate condition.

The tremor was felt in Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Kiryat Shmona, Arad,
Kfar Sava, Hadera and the Dead Sea.

At the Knesset, lawmakers sitting in committee meetings feared a large bomb
had gone off, Israel Army radio reported.

A crack developed in the decorative ceiling above the minister's table, and
plenum meetings have been postponed pending engineering examinations.

The ceiling above the exit to the Prime Minister's office has developed a
crack, and an engineering crew inspected the glass partition at the
visitor's gallery.

The quake was felt for about 20 seconds in the Jordanian capital of Amman,
sending frightened residents out of their homes, AP reported.

It also was felt in Lebanon as well as the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Police report many calls from worried residents, but no injuries have been
reported.

Israel Radio reported that residents in various cities have called in
saying some buildings have collapsed, but these reportes have not been
confirmed.

Infrastructure Minister Yosef Paritzky said that institutes had been
waiting for an earthquake from the northern Dead Sea region, but added that
if this was "the one they have been waiting for, we have just witnessed a
miracle."

Paritzky said all communications and electricty centers are operating
normally.

Israel is located on the Syria-Africa great rift which stands over a
friction point between two tectonic plates, an area prone to earthquakes.

The rift runs for 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) between Syria and
Mozambique and passes through the Dead Sea, below Jerusalem's eastern hills.

About 35 miles (55 kilometers) to the north, another fault line cuts the
land east to west from the Mediterranean port of Haifa with the West Bank
towns of Jenin and Nablus before reaching the Jordan River.

Recent earthquakes include a 7.2 in 1967 epicentered in Eilat, and another
measuring 6.2 in 1927.

The last earthquake registered in the region was on December 31st 2003 at
10:44 PM, measured 3.7 and was epicentered at Kibbutz Ein Gedi, near the
Dead Sea.

In the 18th century, Israel was struck by a major earthquake, and again in
1837, destroying the northern city of Zefat.

Steve Leibowitz, IBA News: The television building shook fiercely sending
frightened workers into the hallways with many running out of the building.
Mabat Editor Uri Levy said there could be danger that the old building
would collapse, but after several minutes of nervous chatter, all returned
to their offices to work on the news. The first task...find an expert to
talk about earthquakes in Israel and building standards.

Jonny Gaon, Ben Gurion Airport:
Tremor felt at Ben Gurion Airport. Strong shaking of buildings and
accompanied by a low rumble. No reports of problems affecting aircraft,
takeoffs or landings.

Barry Lynn, Efrat: I would guess that you felt it too, but our whole
building just shook for about 5 seconds. Not terrible, but definetely.

Emanuel Reyzer: The Kiryat Atidim tower in North Tel Aviv, where I work,
shacked noticeably twice. Many people left the building.

Andre Cardon: I never felt such a thing in my whole life!!! I was already
used to
see the windows shaking due to the planes, but not everything inside home.
I think Mashiach is coming...

Aviva Noeth, Sefat: I felt the quake, too.

Yoel Fleisher: My apt, shook in Jerusalem for about 10 seconds. I thought
we were being attacked!!

Joyce Kligsberg, Tel Aviv: Our office building shook considerably for a few
seconds with furniture shifting causing many of us to run into the street...

Albert Robinson: On the 26th floor of the Diamond Tower in Ramat Gan we
really enjoyed
swaying around for 20 seconds or so.

David Furst, Herzliya Pituach: We are on the 3rd floor of a warehouse in HP
and we felt the whole building shake uncontrollably for about 5 seconds. We
also ran outside.

Rahel Jaskow, Jerusalem: Our whole building shook for what felt like quite
some time and there was a sound like low thunder. It was different from the
tremors I felt sometime in
the mid-1990s when there was an earthquake in Eilat and we felt some of the
shocks as far north as Jerusalem.

Liz Elsby, Jerusalem: Felt it very strong in our 5th floor flat in Q.Yovel.
My daughter called hysterical from school, please to say, all the kids knew
to get under the tables, they've been well trained.

Jon Shapiro, Petah Tikva: Even though I had experienced the 1989 San
Francisco earthquake and many others, one never really gets used to them.
And here, since they're so rare, it makes it even more frightening.
Yitzchok Berger: I felt it in Ramat Beit Shemesh, the whole apartment
building felt like it was swaying.

Gaila Cohen Morrison: Here in Mitzpeh Yericho, about 10 minutes from the
northern part of the Dead Sea, I heard a loud boom, and then several
smaller booms. I thought it was a sonic boom - but then the walls and
floors and everything started shaking. A few books fell off the shelves and
the pictures are crooked. It lasted (forever) but really only about 20
seconds.

Schelly Talalay Dardashti: I was sitting at my computer at home, 6th floor,
north Tel Aviv, when the motion began with just a flutter, seemed to stop
and began again more strongly. No noise, just vibration and gentle swaying
motion, but nonetheless extremely disconcerting - 25 seconds seemed like an
hour! I knew it was an earthquake from our Los Angeles days.

Michael Atkin (4th year medical student), Tel Aviv: While examining a
patient at an assisted living center in Tel Aviv, the temblor caused the
building to gently undulate as if it was resting on a bed of springs.

Eva Panska, Tel Aviv: It was like being on a boat on the high sea. My
office building was shaking fiercely for about 20 to 25 seconds. The
windows were vibrating and the vertical curtains were making a lot of
noise. Also a low rumble was heard and the furniture kept sliding on the
floor. I left the building as soon as I was able too.

1. Gas Chambers in Korea

UN urged to probe North Korea 'gas chamber'

SEOUL - A US-based Jewish human rights group has urged the United Nations to investigate claims that North Korea conducted gas chamber experiments on political prisoners, comparing the alleged acts to those in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre made the appeal yesterday after the BBC aired a TV documentary in which a man, claiming to be a former North Korean agent, described seeing prisoners gassed to death.

There was no way to verify the claim.

'This brings to mind the imagery of Nazi gas chambers and the horrific experiments at Auschwitz and Imperial Japan's Unit 731,' the centre's associate dean, Mr Abraham Cooper, said in a statement.

Unit 731, the Japanese Imperial Army's germ warfare division, is believed to have killed as many as 250,000 people in their experiments during the 1930s and 1940s when Japanese troops occupied much of China.

'The crimes of the Nazi era are a stark reminder that silence is admittance and such state-sanctioned barbarities demand action,' Mr Cooper said.

'The civilised community must put the perpetrators of such crimes against humanity on notice that they will be held accountable.'

The BBC report said the North Korean man, identified as Kwon Hyok, was a former army intelligence officer who defected to South Korea in 1999.

It also said he was formerly chief guard at a North Korean prison camp, reportedly known as Prison Camp No 22.

Mr Kwon said the camp had a gas chamber made of glass so scientists could observe inmates as they were gassed.

'I witnessed a whole family being tested on suffocating gas and dying in the gas chamber,' he told the BBC.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre urged the UN to establish an international tribunal to investigate the allegations.

As many as 200,000 people are held in North Korean prison camps, from petty criminals to political dissidents and religious activists, according to a 2003 report by the US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. Prisoners are subjected to starvation and torture, it said.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre, based in Los Angeles, is an international organisation dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust by fostering tolerance and understanding. \-- AP

2. Arutz Sheva Monday
<http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Feb. 16, 2004 / Shvat 24, 5764
WALL ADJACENT TO KOTEL PARTIALLY TAKEN DOWN
ANTI-SEMITISM IN GREAT BRITAIN
WALL ADJACENT TO KOTEL PARTIALLY TAKEN DOWN
Contrary to some panicky reports, the Western Wall has not collapsed - but the hill jutting out from it under the Mughrabim Gate is another story. Apparently due to the earthquake last week, together with the snow, seeping water and unstable mud, the hill - or its buttressing wall - began to collapse this past Saturday night during the snowstorm.

The women's section of the Western Wall plaza, just to the left and below the hill, has been closed until further notice. Another area of the Kotel has been "granted" to the women worshippers for the duration.

A large crane was at the site this morning, delicately taking apart the top part of the hill's supporting wall. Arutz-7, speaking with the crane operator at the site, learned that he had taken apart the wall to the left of the Mughrabim Gate, but could not continue taking down the lower levels of the wall, "because behind it is earth and the whole thing would collapse." The crane left the site around noon.

A photograph on Arutz-7's website <www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=57924> shows the Mughrabim Gate to the right and above the Western Wall plaza. The wall (at the left of the photo) was dismantled today. For an on-the-spot look at the Western Wall, see Arutz-7's Kotel Camera at
<http://www.jewishstreet.com/controlkotel/viewer/arutz/index.cfm>.

The Mughrabim Gate is located atop the Western Wall, to the right of the main worshipers' area. Visitors to the Temple Mount have traditionally entered through it, but Rabbi Yosef Elboim, a frequent visitor to the Western Wall and Temple Mount, told Arutz-7 today that the Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount are now being routed through the Shalshelet (Chain) Gate, located alongside the Kotel some 100 meters to the north (left) of the Western Wall plaza and not visible from there). "I am happy that the closing of the Mughrabim Gate was not used as an excuse to prevent Jews from visiting the Temple Mount," he said, but added that this is only a partial solution, and demands, for Halakhic [Jewish legal] reasons, that the Temple Mount's Tribes Gate, near Lions Gate, be opened to Jewish visitors.

On the other hand, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, Rabbi of the Western Wall, told Arutz-7 today that the Halakhic ban on entry to the Temple Mount remains in effect. "There are some rabbis who feel that the southern portion of the Mount is not forbidden," he explained, "but over the years many great rabbis have banned, and continue to ban, all entry - for fear that many Jews will not know where they may walk and will thus violate a very grave Biblical prohibition."

Rabbi Elboim explained that the hill to the right of the women's section is an old one, "built of layer upon layer of old buildings. Of late, the authorities have tried to refurbish the entrance to the Temple Mount, but apparently the construction, together with the earthquake and the snow, rocked the foundations and it began to fall apart."

ANTI-SEMITISM IN GREAT BRITAIN
The Daily Telegraph reports that a wave of anti-Semitic harassment by far-right and Islamic fundamentalist organizations in Great Britain has targeted several prominent Jews. The home of Lord Triesman, ex-general secretary of the Labour party, has been attacked no fewer than 12 times by the Combat 18 neo-Nazi group, while former Labour minister Barbara Roche and Uri Geller, an Israeli celebrity living in London, have been the victims of hate mail and graffiti. In general, a significant rise in anti-Semitic incidents was noted in Britain in 2003.

Mike Whine of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, who works closely with the police to monitor anti-Semitic attacks, told the Telegraph that extremist Islamic groups are behind many anti-Semitic incidents. "There is reliable evidence from the police," Whine said, "to prove that an increasing number of incidents are committed by sympathizers of the Palestinians and Islamists. The promotion of anti-Semitism by the Arab media and by Islamist organizations worldwide is having a significant effect on the attitudes of Muslim communities around the world towards the Jews."

An ICM poll last month in Britain found that one in five Britons would oppose a Jewish prime minister, while one in seven believed that the Holocaust was exaggerated.

The Telegraph reported that a police complaint was filed this week against prominent Sheikh Abu Hamza for preaching alleged anti-Semitic comments about the Holocaust. He is one of a number of extremist Islamic clerics who have been accused of encouraging anti-Semitic views among young Muslims.

3. Pluses and Minuses about Israel
There follows another list of Israeli achievements that are all valid but it should also be stated that Israel also has negative features
including: All the plagues of western society plus A bad primary and secondary education system, exaggerated wage inequality for a developed nation, a bureaucratic mentality that also finds its expression in the private sphere and several other faults.
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 11:54:30 -0600
From: scollins@ll.net
Subject: Fwd: Israeli accomplishments
Shalom Yair,
This item is being passed around in the USA among Israel's friends here. You should have a look at this. It is quite a list of Israeli accomplishments!
Steve

Subject: Land of Promise
As you read of Israel's accomplishments below, keep in mind that have managed all of these and more while engaged in regular wars with an implacable enemy that seeks its destruction, and an economy continuously under strain by having to spend more per capita on its own protection than any other country on earth
============================
Israel, the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's population, can lay claim to the following:

The cell phone was developed in Israel by Israelis working in the Israeli branch of Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel.

Most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel.

The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel. Both the Pentium-4 microprocessor and the Centrino processor were entirely designed, developed and produced in Israel.

The Pentium microprocessor in your computer was most likely made in Israel.

Voice mail technology was developed in Israel. Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel.

The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was developed in 1996 by four high-school age Israelis.

Israel has the fourth largest air force in the world (after the U.S., Russia and China). In addition to a large variety of other aircraft, Israel's air force has an aerial arsenal of over 250 F-16's. This is the largest fleet of F-16 aircraft outside of the US.

According to industry officials, Israel designed the airline industry's most impenetrable flight security. U. S. officials now look to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threats.

Israel's $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined.

Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita.

Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world.

Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin - 109 per 10,000 people -- as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.

In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the largest number of startup companies than any other country in the world, except the US (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).

With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and startups, Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world -- apart from the Silicon Valley, US. Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds right behind the US.

Outside the United States and Canada, Israel has the largest number of NASDAQ listed companies.

On a per capita basis, Israel has the largest number of biotech startups.

Twenty-four per cent of Israel's work force holds university degrees -- ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland - and 12 per cent hold advanced degrees.

Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship -- and the highest rate among women and among people over 55 - in the world.

Relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity.

Israel has the world's second highest per capita of new books. Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees, made more remarkable because this was achieved in an area considered mainly desert.

Israel has more museums per capita than any other country. Medicine... Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.

An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment. Every year in U. S. hospitals 7,000 patients die from treatment mistakes.

Israel's Givun imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small intestine from the inside, the camera helps doctors diagnose cancer and digestive disorders.

Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the work force, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U.S., over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of its work force employed in technical professions. Israel places first in this category as well.

An Israeli company was the first to develop and install a large-scale solar-powered and fully functional electricity generating plant, in southern California's Mojave desert.

1. New Russian Oil Presence via Israel?
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 08:08:51 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
Subject: The odd couple: Israel and Russia challenge OPEC [Within

The odd couple: Israel and Russia challenge OPEC [Within Palestinian Range]
Pipeline becomes vital artery for shipments to far east markets
Moscow seeks to supplant Riyadh as world's top supplier and 'Tipline'
across Jewish state fits into that plan
Ed Blanche Special to The Daily Star 18 February 2004
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/business/18_02_04_g.asp

[IMRA: The loading point of the pipeline is already within range of the
Qassam rockets that the Palestinians have developed. If and when Prime
Minister Sharon's retreat is executed, the Palestinians will be able to
easily import longer range missiles to put the Ashdod port under the same
threat that Israel's other main port, Haifa, faces from the 12,000 missiles
in South Lebanon - all formidable threats that will deter Israel from taking
action to prevent an IDF-free Gaza Strip from developing even greater
threats against the Jewish state (and even preventing Israel from responding
to attacks).]

BEIRUT: Israel's vice-premier and trade minister, Ehud Olmert, was in Moscow
last week with a particular message: "We want more Russian oil."

Moscow is only happy to oblige, because a 250-kilometer pipeline running
from Ashkelon on the Mediterranean to Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba has become
a vital artery for Russian oil exports to the Far East, the fastest-growing
energy market in the world and one Moscow wants to dominate. By sidestepping
the Suez Canal, the Trans-Israel Pipeline, known as the Tipline, opens up a
shorter and cheaper route for Russian oil exports to Asia and thereby
threatens Arab exports from the Gulf.

The first tanker to sail from Israel with a cargo of Russian crude pumped
through the Tipline left Eilat, bound for Asia, in November. According to
British energy analyst Simon Henderson, an expert on the Gulf, that event
"has the potential to greatly impact the international oil market. Russian
oil exports are unconstrained by the quotas of the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries, and a steady stream of expanded Russian shipments via
the Tipline could . lower prices worldwide."

The new route also puts Israel firmly on the oil industry map, but more
importantly it will strengthen Russia's position in the global energy
market, challenging Saudi Arabia's as the pre-eminent oil producer. These
days, Russia and Saudi Arabia are jockeying for the No. 1 spot as a world
oil supplier with around 8 million barrels per day (bpd). A confrontation
between Saudi-dominated OPEC and Moscow seems inevitable.

With oil hovering around $30 a barrel, the Russians have little interest in
aiding OPEC dampen prices, and it is expected to push up production this
year. According to French energy analyst Francis Perrin: "Russia has no
interest in collaborating with OPEC."

The Americans have long wanted to undermine OPEC and US control of Iraq's
oil, wealth could go far to achieve that. But the Russians seem to be ones
making the running right now, and want to overtake Saudi production levels
within five years. According to Simon Kukes, chief executive officer of
Russia's giant Yukos oil company, Russian output could reach 11 million bpd
by 2009.

The Tipline connection also cements Israel's relations with Russia, a mortal
enemy throughout the Cold War, at a time when many oil-consuming states are
growing nervous about the security of energy supplies from the Arab world
and are seeking ways to reduce their dependence on countries like Saudi
Arabia. The Japanese, for instance, get 85 percent of their oil from the
Gulf but want to cut that back to 65 percent.

The Tipline was built in 1968 to carry oil shipped up the Red Sea from Iran,
then still ruled by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, to Eilat and on to the
Mediterranean for transshipment to Europe. At that time, the Suez Canal was
still closed following the 1967 war, with the Israelis holding the eastern
bank and the Egyptians the western bank, so the Tipline saved tankers having
to make the long and costly haul around Africa to reach markets in Europe
and the US.

Israel took what it needed of the Iranian oil for its own consumption. But
the 1979 revolution in Iran changed all that. The new regime cut off all
links to Israel. The surge in Russian oil exports following the collapse of
the Soviet Union in 1991 gave the Tipline a new lease on life. By reversing
the flow, with Eilat instead of Ashkelon as the loading terminal, the
Russians found a new outlet as they drove to develop new markets.

So now tankers from the Black Sea carry the oil to Ashkelon. These are of
necessity not large supertankers because Turkey prohibits ships of that size
using the Bosphorus Straits. But big tankers can be used to carry shipments
from Eilat. The Tipline has the capacity to handle 55 million tons of oil a
year.

Henderson noted that Russian oil shipped through Israel is made more
attractive to Asian buyers because it eliminates the so-called "Asian
premium," the extra $1 per barrel arbitrarily imposed on Asian consumers by
Gulf producers. This has caused considerable resentment against the Gulf
exporters, and provides another incentive to reduce their dependence on Arab
oil.
Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdel-Aziz of Saudi Arabia, the country's de facto
ruler since King Fahd fell ill six years ago, made a landmark visit to
Moscow in September 2003 hoping to improve relations, in large part because
of the strains in Riyadh's relations with the US since Sept. 11, 2001. The
Saudis signed a five-year oil and gas cooperation agreement, but the
Russians, while cordial enough, were not inclined to curtail their campaign
to boost oil exports that are the main driver of Russia's economic boom or
to see prices cut back.

The Russians have not forgotten how in 1985 the Saudis used their excess
production capacity to flood the market and drive down oil prices to $12 a
barrel, which wrecked any hopes that the then-Soviet Union had of an
economic revival and contributed to the collapse of communism soon after.

2. "David Dan: Pawns in the Game" (Adapted and Summarized):
Yitzhak Rabin was born in Jerusalem in 1922; He served in the Palmach (an elitist left-wing oriented branch of the Hagana: the Jewish Defence Forces before the establishment of the State) and after that in the IDF.
He commanded the IDF during the Six-Day War. At the outbreak of the war he suffered from a breakdon that was later described as
"nicotine poisoning". In 1968 he was appointed ambassador to the United States.
In the spring of 1973, Rabin returned to Israel and became active in the Labour Party. He was elected Member of the Knesset in December 1973 . In June 2, 1974, he became Prime Minister.
In June 1976, Rabin's government issued the order for "Operation Entebbe", liberating the hijacked Air France passengers.
After 1977 he was in opposition.
Later he served as Minister of Defense (1984-1990)
In July 1992, Rabin formed Israel's 25th government and became its 11th Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, and acting Minister of Religious Affairs and Labour and Social Affairs.
Reports claimed his party won the lection due to a massive infusion of funds from the CIA. Later, his successor Shimeon Peres, would receive
monies from he European Union.
Rabin and Arafat received the Nobel Peace prize for having signed the 1993 Oslo peace accords.
These accords allowed the arming of pathological murderers whose openly declared aim was to kill as many Jews as possible.
Since then Israel has had not one day of peace but many good innocent people have been murdered.
In 1995 Rabin was assassinated.
Yigal Amir a young religious student of Yemenite extraction who had served with distinction as a soldier received the blame.
Did he do it? This question has received some significance recently
and has importance.
Rabin's mother had been a famous Communist inclined radical nick-named "Rosa the Red".
Rabin himself was erratic in his outlook. At time he considered joining the anti-Zionist ultra Orthodox fringe
of Judaism and at other times he went in the opposite direction. He veered from one extreme to another
but always kept his wavering and weaknesses away from public view. Politically he had been taking steps towards
an Israeli retreat from its liberated lands while encouraging the Defence Forces to treat the Arabs with unnecessary
and UNCHARACTERISTIC physical brutality ("break their arms") thus giving cause for those few amongst them who did not already hate us
to do so.
Rabin allegedly had a problem with alcohol
and personality in general as well as medical limitations. He was an instrument of Billy Clinton who then reigned in
Washington and had antisemituc and anti-Israeli leanings.
Towards the end of his term Rabin had begun preparing the way for a Civil War that was liable to lead to the destruction of Israel.
He was constantly vulgarily inciting against the National Religious segment of Israeli society especially the settlers and had underestimated
just how much support this element possessed in Israeli society.
In his period the Israeli General Secret Services (GSS) infiltrated numerous agents into the ranks of the Jewish religious right wing.
Underground organizations were founded and seriously provocative acts carried out by GSS agents
or by gullible youngsters who had been enticed by them. The intention was to blacked the image of the Zionist Religious
in the eyes of the rest of the population and to justify the employment of force against them.
Two factors came into play:
a. Elements in the Israeli establishment and Secret Services wanted Rabin out of the way since he was endangering the nation
yet could not be removed by conventional means.
b. A Maverick section of the Secret Services had decided to use GSS agent Avishai Raviv and others to send Yigal Amir on an attempted assassination attempt of the Prime Minister. He was supposed to believe in his mission but to be given a weapon with blank bullets.
It was planned to be an unsuccessful attempt that would be used for further incitement against the religious
right. This now looks somewhat silly from our perspective but a similar scam had been used successfully employed
against the Kahalani brothers who had been given a non-operative rifle, persuaded to shoot an Arab with it,
and then arrested and convicted for attempting to do so. And no-body said a thing.
In the atmosphere of the time logic and fairness were not guiding lights.
The GSS agent Raviv (as reported by the Jerusalem Post) had befriended Yigal Amir who was a brilliant University student,
a former elite combat soldier, a voracious reader of religious literature, and an organizer of tour and study groups.
A group of girls in one of these study groups reported:
"Raviv was real macho. He kept saying to Yigal: 'You keep talking about killing Rabin. Why don't you do it? Are you frightened? You say you want to do it. Show us that you're a man! Show us what you're made of!' "

Yigal Amir however was not stupid and it was widely known in Kiryat Araba (where Raviv lived) that Raviv worked
for the GSS. The brother of Yigal Amir prepared special dum dum bullets and at the last minute he switched clips.
Rabin was speaking at a demonstration on behalf of Peace and against the Religious Zionists
at the Kings of Israel Square (since renamed Rabin Square) in the center of Tel Aviv.
Yigal Amir was allowed to enter the restricted security zone, walk right past all the security people and bodyguards,
right up to Rabin and put two bullets in his back from less than a meter away.
Immediately afterwards a voice (assumedly from amongst the security personnel) started shouting:
"Don't shoot! Don't shoot. They are only blanks."
The rest is history.
The question remains: Did Yigal Amir act alone or were elements in the GSS in complicity with him?
About 10 books have been written in Israel claiming that Yigal Amir did not murder Prime Minister
Rabin. The most popular of these books are those written by Barry Chamish who once claimed that
Lead Rabin (Rabin's wife) was responsible for the murder of her husband and had planned it all. Barry Chamish also wrote a book about (Return of the Giants) Aliens from Outer Space plotting to take over the world, and about the wicked British Freemasons
and Zionist leaders (including Rabbi Avraham HaCohen Kook) who had gotten together to work against the Jewish people.

[[On a deeper level maybe he is right to an extent since despite their differences in a de facto sense both Rabbi Kook
and the British at that time were working together to lay the foundations of a Jewish State, not against the Jews but for them.]]

He made numerous other claims that would all be laughable were it not for the fact that many believe these fictions
and some good people have been maligned by this person.
His attitude verges on being anti-semitic but since he is Jewish he gets away with it and several right-wing Jews
may be found amongst his fan club.
Mr Chamish (and some of the other writers) however does appear to have been given "inside" information (possibly doctored)
on some matters to help sell his works and GSS elements do appear to be directing his steps.
Could it be that this is all diversionary? Since BC arrived on the scene no-one any longer seriously
expects a public inquiry into GSS activities at the time.
For many of us the whole period was like a bad dream and we would not like to go back there.

3. Arutz Sheva Thursday
<http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Feb. 19, 2004 / Shvat 27, 5764
TERRORIST CONFERENCE: "HUGE" ATTACKS ON ISRAEL PLANNED
The Arab news portal Albawaba.com reported today that Muslim terrorist groups - including Hamas, Hizbullah, Al-Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, Ansar Al-Islam and others - decided on a renewed offensive of attacks on Israelis and Israeli interests abroad. The attacks will include suicide bombings and assassinations of Israeli officials.

HONORING THE RIGHTEOUS CHINESE
Boys Town Jerusalem, a religious technical high school in Jerusalem, held a special reception this morning for the daughter of a Righteous Gentile whose efforts saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust.

Dr. Feng Shan Ho, who served as the Chinese Consul-General in Vienna in 1938-9, used his position to provide visas for Austrian Jews fleeing the Nazis - one of the first diplomats to do so. The title of Righteous Among the Nations was bestowed upon him in October 2000 for his humanitarian courage in issuing Chinese visas to Jews. Nazi policy at the time was not to deport Jews who could show they had visas to foreign countries, and Dr. Ho, disregarding instructions from his superior, the Chinese Ambassador in Berlin, issued visas to Shanghai to all requesting them. At the time, the Viennese consulates of England, France, Switzerland and others refused to do so. Ho died in San Francisco in 1997 at the age of 96.

Boys Town Jerusalem, emphasizing the concept of Hakarat Hatov - acknowledgment and gratefulness - honored Dr. Ho's daughter, Manli, in the presence of the Ambassador of the People's Republic of China, other Chinese diplomats, and representatives from Yad Vashem. In 1996, the school created a special garden to honor Dutch diplomat Jan Zwartendijk, who provided 2,300 visas to Jews during the Holocaust, and a memorial for Dr. Shan Ho has now been added to the garden.

BRIT-AM DOES NOT OFFER A SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEMS OF THE WORLD
BUT WE COULD BE A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

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ISRAEL AGREES TO DELAY GAZA PULLOUT
160e232.jpg
JERUSALEM [MENL] -- Israel has agreed to a U.S. request to delay a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Israeli officials said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has agreed to a request by the Bush administration to postpone any plan for unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip until after the U.S. presidential elections in November 2004. The officials said this would mean that the start of any withdrawal would take place in 2005.

Sharon plans to continue to proceed with preparations for a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. But officials said there would be no dismantling of settlements or withdrawal from military bases in 2004.

On Thursday, Sharon was scheduled to meet three senior administration officials to discuss his withdrawal plan. They are Assistant Secretary of State William Burns and National Security Council members Elliot Abrams and Stephen Hadley who intend to urge Israel to cooperate with the PA in any withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

2. Most Common Jewish Family Names in Israel
* Cohen 2.52%
* Levi 1.48%
* Mizrachi 0.47%
* Peretz 0.42%
* Biton 0.40%
* Dahan
* Avraham
* Friedman
* Azulai
* Malcah
* Katz
* David
* Gabai
* Amar
* Ochion
* Chadad (Hadad)
* Yosef
* Ben-David
* Adrei
* Levin
* Moshe
* Aschkenazi
* Tal
* Segel
* Chazan
* Shapira
* Yitschak
* Klein
* Golan
* Chen
YA 23.2.04 (Yediot Acharonot)

3. The Mother is Most Important
Jewish Children of parents of European origin (Aschkenazim) do progressively better in school than Jewish children of Eastern origin (Sephardim). The differences are most discernible when the children get older and at infancy are almost inexistent.

The reason for this gap are 80% due to the education levels of the parents especially that of the mother. The educational level of the mother influences the child about 1.4 times that of the father which is however also important.

YA 23.2.04

4. Coming Disasters May Hit Western Europe Very Soon
Following our recent note concerning impending ecological changes the British Observerpublished more details yesterday: Within 15 years Britain and Norway and other regions may freeze over. Holland may be flooded. Drinking water and food supplies may be scarce in all Europe causing friction and possibly wars and the migration of peoples.

Bengladesh and China may also suffer from disastrous flooding.

In areas of Europe and in the USA the temperature may rise extremely.

On the whole the USA may be in a favorable position but find itself under siege from the rest of the world.

The world will suffer from droughts.

The Nile, Danubre, Amzaon, may dry up.

Lack of drinking water and food may cause riots and wars.

The trouble may begin within three years.

An Israeli expert, Dr Dov Chanin, was asked his opinion of the report. He replied that it seems reliable only he disagrees with the timetable.

YA 23.2.04

5. Arutz Sheva News Monday,
<http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Feb. 23, 2004 / Rosh Chodesh Adar 5764
REMEMBERING THE RAMBAM
The State of Israel will be marking 800 years since the death of Maimonides, known as the Rambam, with an official ceremony this afternoon. The special Knesset session will open at 5:30 in the presence of President Moshe Katzav and his wife, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, Cabinet ministers, Knesset Members, and other invited guests.

The Rambam (1135-1204) was a religious scholar, physician, philosopher and writer. Born in Cordoba, Spain, he soon fled to Morocco after the Almohads conquered the area. He later lived in Morocco, the Land of Israel, and Egypt, where he served as Sultan Saladin's doctor. One of the most influential leaders and scholars in the history of the Jewish people, he wrote prolifically, including most notably Mishneh Torah, a comprehensive code of Jewish Law; a commentary on the Mishna; and Guide for the Perplexed, on Jewish philosophy. His incredible stature is best summed up in the popular saying, "From Moshe [the Biblical Moses] to Moshe [Rambam], there arose none like Moshe."

1. Arutz Sheva News Tuesday
<http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Mar. 9, 2004 / Adar 16, 5764
FIGHTING TERRORISM ON ALL FRONTS
A particularly frightening terrorist attack was recently averted, thanks to the last-minute cold feet of one of the participants. A female Palestinian terrorist gave herself up to Israeli security forces, saying that she was part of a plan to perpetrate a two-stage attack. Two terrorists were to blow themselves up on a bus in central Israel, and then she - dressed as a Magen David Adom emergency medical volunteer - was to blow herself up amidst the rescue personnel who were to arrive on the scene. She was indicted this week in an IDF Military Court.

WATER FROM THE AIR
A new solution for Israel's water problems may have been found - at least on a very reduced scale. The Tadiran-Ampa company is marketing, for the first time in Israel, a relatively new gadget that produces water from thin air! The AquaMaker, manufactured by the American company Sky Spring, takes the moisture that is normally found in the air, and turns it into high-quality drinking water. A filter system is employed, minerals are added, and the water can be heated to boiling or chilled to near-freezing temperatures. The cost per unit is currently 6,950 shekels (just over $1,540), and a pair of filters - which must be replaced annually, is another $100. Tadiran representatives assured Arutz-7 that the unit does not cause "dry air" problems. They say that a liter of air-produced water costs only 30 agorot (6.7 cents).

2. How the EU Funds PA Terror
Date: Tue, 09 Mar 2004 04:46:21 +0200
From: ISRAEL RESOURCE NEWS AGENCY <media@actcom.co.il>

How the EU Funds PA Terror
By David Frankfurter
FrontPageMagazine.com | March 8, 2004
Whatever his other failings, European Commissioner for External Relations, Mr. Christopher Patten cannot be accused of beating around the bush. He evidently means what he says.
Take the stance he adopted on the repeated allegations of financial impropriety, relating to European funding of the Palestinians. On June 19, 2002, Patten stated: "I repeat. The documents presented to us by Israel do not prove that EU funds have been misused(nor) has financed terrorism"

Things look much less clear today. Officials from the EU?s anti-fraud OLAF office were in Jerusalem recently, reviewing evidence. Has EU financial aid for the Palestinian Authority (PA) been diverted?

However, OLAF is not the only inquiry in progress. French authorities have announced an investigation into mysterious transfers to Mrs. Arafat's personal bank balance. This might account for some $9 million. Where is the rest?

The scale of the alleged fraud is immense. Brussels has handed around ? 4 billion to the PA since 1993, directly and via non-government organisations like UNRWA. This excludes significant contributions from individual European countries, from the USA, Canada, and from Arab League states. In 2003, EU transfers reached ? 245m. Some suggest that total foreign aid to the PA has finally exceeded the level of funding provided to Israel by the United States.

It's an open secret that the flow of money to the Palestinians has often lacked appropriate controls. This inherent weakness in the EU's budget structure is waiting to be tapped by the unscrupulous. At least some of that cash has funded terrorists and gunrunning, even through the misuse of ambulances.

But let's ask this: How in the name of everything decent in Europe is it that a veritable library of verbal, written and circumstantial evidence, all pointing to the same conclusion:
Massive misappropriation of vast amounts of money intended for the Palestinian Arab people has been ignored and denied for years

Some plain answers are urgently needed.

3. Nighttime: Barry Who and the Witches

Since sending out criticisms concerning Barry Chamish it has become apparent that several people on this list including
some of our best supporters are sympathizers of Mr Chamish whose name in Hebrew incidentally means "Fifth"
which is most appropriate for a de facto fifth columnist like himself.
He and his friends sent us threatening letters and appear to have been somewhat perturbed by the attention we were giving them.
Just for the record in around 1990 Barry Chamish gave an interview to the pro-Nazi journal Spotlight that has favorable article
about him. Other anti-semitic groups frequently republish his writings especially those that attack the State of Israel.
We do not mind Barry writing "Return of the Giants" about aliens trying to take over the earth in cahoots with the powers that be.
Nor do we mind him becoming the darling of the Jew-hating infantiles that inhabit the Conspiracy ranks. He is not all bad and he could even become a humanizing element amongst those simian eaters of their own flesh.
Chamish says that the Queen of England, the Rothschilds, and a host of other people including many Jews are all part of a diabolical plot to take over the world and oppress humanity. These people do not know we exist and even if they did would probably be less than interested in us and they certainly do not need our support and we have better things to do than go around protecting their interests.
We do not like Barry saying that certain Jewish leaders and activists murdered their parents in law, or were guilty of homosexual rape, or are GSS agents etc when such things are not true and the people in question are not in a position to defend themselves but rather at that very moment need public support because they are being unjustly persecuted and discriminated against. Why should Barry make such filthy falsehoods at such moments unless he himself is serving those with an agenda?
And he does it all the time in numerous instances.
Even claiming (as Barry did) that Shimon Peres had an Arab or Polish mother without being able to prove it
is questionable from an ethical point of view despite the fact the "Shimon P" may not exactly be a friend of ours.
All these lies are serious matters But we could look the other way. We do not necessarily have to go around fighting
the battles of other people even though in some cases perhaps we should.
Barry Who also claimed that in effect the State of Israel is the creation of a devil-worshipping cult
that has committed horrible crimes against the Jews and the world. This is a lie. It is antisemitic
no matter what you say and we object to such lies being uttered.

When he attacks the Jewish State of Israel and Zionism and tells lies he attacks the Jewish people
and attacks Brit-Am.

Here is what Barry Who said about us. He refers to "Brit-Am" as British-Israel.
This is news for both "Brit-Am" and for British-Israel
Maybe someone should inform British-Israel as to where their dues should be addressed in future?

Barry Chamish says:
From: Barry Chamish <chamish@netvision.net.il>
Subject: attack
UNDER ATTACK FROM THE RIGHT by Barry Chamish

The past few weeks have seen a concerted attack against me from the Jewish Right. It is a planned campaign with a snowball effect. Here are the four forces which entered the fray:

1. Kach.....

2. The Free Pollard Organization......

3. The "Intellectuals"......

4. British Israel

I saved this group for last since they appear to be marginal. The British Israelites believe the British are a lost Israelite tribe and are ticked at me for pointing out such uncomfortable facts like the British founded a Jewish Home in Israel, reneged on most of the agreement and then banned immigration when millions of lives could have been saved. So angry are they, that they hint I must be a Nazi. Look at this slander:

"Barry Chamish does not speak the truth on many points. He made unfounded
wicked allegations about Rav Kook and other good people. He is anti-British
and in my opinion (despite being Jewish and living in Israel and having
provided some service
in the field of information) a de facto anti-Semite and a friend of those
representing the forces of darkness. He says horrible things about
basically good people who are not in a position to defend themselves. He is
in fact a de facto agent of negative elements
in the establishment.
It was not for nothing that a few years ago that the leading pro-Nazi
magazine in the USA published an interview
with Barry."

I never was interviewed by any pro-Nazi magazine, but I did a search of 750 Google and Yahoo sites where I appear. There was a collection of Jewish, Christian and political sites but no such pro-Nazi magazine. But this is the latest line since I agreed to fly to Sacramento.

Comment:
In around 1990 Barry Chamish gave an interview to the pro-Nazi journal Spotlight.
All of his sources concerning the Conspiracy are written by anti-semitic writers.
Not one or two out of the hundreds of sources he digs into but all of them.
His diatribes against the state of Israel are being spread by anti-semitic groups.
He tells lies about Jewish individuals and about Jews in general.

1. Anti-semitism and anti Anglo-Saxon powers go
together
From: surfer1 <surfer1@tpg.com.au>
Subject: [origin of nations] Anti-semitism and anti Anglo-Saxon powers go
together

Eurabia and Euro-Arab Antisemitism

By Bat <http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/authors.asp?ID=1388> Ye'or
FrontPageMagazine.com | April 5, 2004

Although the vast majority of Europeans today are not Antisemitic or
anti-Israeli, they are immersed in a culture of demonization of Israel,
fomented by a European political entity in which nearly everything that is
written and said on the Middle East conveys this anti-Israeli mentality. We
can recognize in this contemporary phenomenon some aspects of the system of
political, cultural, and moral conditioning that led to the Shoah [Holocaust].
Reactivated during the past four decades, this Judeophobic conditioning,
indirectly, and almost subliminally, is being implemented by the willing
heirs of the genocidal fathers. They transmit and spread this Antisemitism
in a new political and ideological construction, different from Nazism: the
Euro-Arab war for the delegitimization and destruction of Israel.

Herein, I will give a brief outline of the Euro-Arab anti-Israeli policy: 1)
the Project, 2) its institutional structure, 3) its modes of operation, and
4) its themes. The new forms of global Judeophobia that grow and develop
within this system, also have anti-Christian, anti-European, and
anti-Western ramifications.

The Project
The Project is articulated around two entities: European and Arab.

The European policy
The Project is an enlarged vision of the anti-American Gaullist policy
dependent upon the formation of a Euro-Arab Mediterranean rim hostile to
American influence and penetration. The project facilitated European
ambitions to:

[1] play a defining political role in international relations in competition
with the United States, and independent of its influence;

[2] maintain important spheres of influence in the former European Arab
colonies;

[3] open huge markets for the European Economic Community's products in the
Arab world, especially in oil-producing countries;

[4] secure supplies of petroleum and natural gas to Europe;

[5] make the Mediterranean a Euro-Arab inland sea by encouraging massive
Arab immigration into Europe, and favoring Muslim immigrants, mixing
Euro-Arab populations by promoting multiculturalism with a strong Islamic
presence in Europe;

[6] develop a powerful Islamo-Christian symbiosis against Israel, orienting
Europe toward Islam, and liberating Christianity from Judaism, which is
viewed by some Antisemitic factions as the embodiment of evil

To achieve these ambitions European countries had to operate as one entity.
Therefore, the first step was the construction of a common foreign policy.
Each nation would abandon its autonomous foreign policies and forge a joint
Euro-Arab policy. France was a driving force in this unification, which had
already been envisaged by General de Gaulle's inner circle and Arab
politicians, including the former Mufti of Jerusalem, and Nazi-collaborator,
Haj Amin al-Husseini.1

In the 1960s, nostalgic Nazi and fascist Antisemitic groups began
strengthening ties with Arab countries engaged in bellicose actions to
eliminate Israel. This pan-European and anti-American movement formed the
nucleus of a European solidarity with Palestinian Arabs that became more
assertive after 1967. It included fascist movements such as Jeune Europe,
EuropaFront and Europe R elle, the National Socialist Movement in England,
the C. E. Carlberg Foundation in Stockholm, as well as centers in Malm ,
Sweden, and other European cities, such as Strasbourg, Vienna, and Lausanne.

The 1973 oil crisis gave France and Germany a pretext to base the integrated
Euro-Arab policy on the danger of an energy shortage, which they used to 1)
forge a shared European energy policy on petroleum and 2) cement the
European Community's alliance with the Arab League countries in a common
anti-American, anti-Israeli policy. Thus, the French-German duo used the
1973 oil crisis to justify their political reversal. The most tangible and
immediate consequence of this alliance between the nine European Community
countries and the 22 Arab League countries was the isolation and
demonization of Israel.

Themes

The themes of hatred that flourish in the fusion of Euro-Arab cultures on
both shores of the Mediterranean were probably studied within these EAD
committees and disseminated worldwide, since they are founded in Europe as
well as the Arab world, and particularly among the Palestinians who cement
this Christian-Muslim symbiosis against Israel. They are enunciated in
common EAD declarations issued jointly by the European and the Arab parties
associated at the highest state level in the EAD. The committees function
under the strict authority of European Foreign Affairs ministers and heads
of state, and European Council delegates, together with their colleagues on
the Arab side.

The political themes include:

1. recognition of the Palestinians as a people; up to 1973 they had been
known as Arab refugees;

2. recognition of the PLO and its leader Arafat as unique representative of
the Palestinians;

3. obligation for Israel to negotiate exclusively with Arafat;

4. a global and not a separate peace;

5. retreat of Israel to the1949 armistice lines;

6. Arab-Islamic sovereignty in Jerusalem;

7. European pressure on the United States to align with their Arab policy;

8. demonization of Israel, a danger for world peace;

9. moralization of the Palestinian jihad as a just war against the injustice
of Israel's existence;

10. placing the Palestinian problem at the center of international politics.

11. delegitimization of Israel with all the negative characteristics that
follow.

All of these themes, none of which are found in the 1967 UN Security Council
Resolution Number 242, were developed by the European Community in crescendo
from 1973 to 1980.

On January 31, 2001, with the recrudescence of Palestinian terrorist jihad,
European Foreign Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten declared to the European
Parliament that Europe's foreign policy should give special attention to its
southern flank (the Arab countries, in EU jargon), adding that he was
delighted by the general agreement to give greater visibility to the
Mediterranean Partnership. How should his words be interpreted? Suddenly
the diffuse Israelophobia in the media, the universities, and policy
declarations reached a paroxysm in harmony with the Arab world. Europe was
inflamed with the cult of Palestinity and its frantic hatred of Israel in
the press, media, and universities. This Judeophobic prejudice reminiscent
of the 1930s, encouraged Palestinian terrorism in Israel and attacks against
Jews in Europe, revealing that Antisemitic networks exist which can be
activated or repressed by governments. The aim of this paroxysm of
Judeophobia was to use terror and intimidation to detach Diaspora Jews from
the State of Israel, leaving Israel even more isolated.

Bat Ye'or ( <http://www.dhimmitude.org/> is the author
most recently of Islam
and Dhimmitude: Where
Civilizations Collide, and the forthcoming Eurabia.

2.Fifth Column in USA?
From: Johnstembridge1@aol.com
Subject: Fw: Fifth Column in USA? Is Homeland Security Fully Aware?

This is very scary.

This past Fri eve Phyllis and I attended services at Temple Bethel in Palm Beach. We went there specifically to listen to a lecture by Dr. Kahleel Mohammed. Dr. M is a professor of Islamic Studies at Univ. of San Diego. He rcvd his Ph.D. at the Univ. of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and is an Imam schooled in the Wahabi-Sunni tradition of Islam. The title of the lecture was "Can Militant Islam Co-exist with the State Of Israel?" What we heard was blood chilling, but not at all surprising to me.

His opening statement was, "the people of the U.S. worry about Osama . He is nothing but a tiny offshoot of the problem. The main problem is (and I quote) " EVERY SINGLE MOSQUE IN THE USA ESPOUSES FROM THE PULPIT THAT EVERY SINGLE JEW (not just Israel) IN THE WORLD MUST BE ANNIHILATED. No ifs ands or buts!! And these mosques don't even consider themselves militant.

3. Psalms 1
[Psalms 1:1] BLESSED IS THE MAN THAT WALKETH NOT IN THE COUNSEL OF THE UNGODLY, NOR STANDETH IN THE WAY OF SINNERS, NOR SITTETH IN THE SEAT OF THE SCORNFUL.
Keep away from bad company and avoid being caught up in negative influences.
The sages said that someone who abstains from sinning is considered as having fulfilled a commandment.
SCORNFUL: those who mock people who do good or the Bible are to be avoided.

[Psalms 1:2] BUT HIS DELIGHT IS IN THE LAW OF THE LORD; AND IN HIS LAW DOTH HE MEDITATE DAY AND NIGHT.
It is not enough just to do good and avoid sin. God also wants you to study his word.

[Psalms 1:3] AND HE SHALL BE LIKE A TREE PLANTED BY THE RIVERS OF WATER, THAT BRINGETH FORTH HIS FRUIT IN HIS SEASON; HIS LEAF ALSO SHALL NOT WITHER; AND WHATSOEVER HE DOETH SHALL PROSPER.
Commentary of "Malbim": This tree will prosper and be succesful and so too seed that is sewn from it will be like it. Likewise the righteous man will have succesfukl children due to his virtue. His seed will be mighty in the land. A generation of upright persons will be blessed.

[Psalms 1:4] THE UNGODLY ARE NOT SO: BUT ARE LIKE THE CHAFF WHICH THE WIND DRIVETH AWAY.

[Psalms 1:5] THEREFORE THE UNGODLY SHALL NOT STAND IN THE JUDGMENT, NOR SINNERS IN THE CONGREGATION OF THE RIGHTEOUS.

[Psalms 1:6] FOR THE LORD KNOWETH THE WAY OF THE RIGHTEOUS: BUT THE WAY OF THE UNGODLY SHALL PERISH.

1.
From: David Ben-Ariel <davidbenariel@famvid.com>

Christian Zionism: Israel's Best Weapon?

by Daniel Pipes - July 15, 2003

Middle Easterners were widely puzzled in early 1994 when some leading American politicians, including Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), forwarded more assertive, tougher positions vis- -vis the Palestinians than did the government of Israel. They were, for example, more reluctant than Jerusalem to let U.S. funds go to the PLO and they displayed more eagerness to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

One Arabic newspaper, Ash-Sharq al-Awsat, captured the general bafflement when it observed that Likud, Israel's more nationalist party, had "lost in Israel but it still rules supreme in Washington."

The same pattern is again visible these days, as Christian leaders such as Gary Bauer, Jerry Falwell and Richard Land more vocally oppose the "road map" for Palestinian-Israeli diplomacy than nearly all their Jewish counterparts. But this bold Christian solidarity with Israel should not be surprising, as it manifests a Christian form of Zionism that is nearly two centuries old.

Christian support for the creation of a Jewish state originated in England, becoming a significant movement in the Victorian period. In 1840, the British foreign secretary, Lord Palmerston, "strongly" recommended that the Ottoman government then ruling Palestine "hold out every just encouragement to the Jews of Europe to return to Palestine." Lord Shaftesbury in 1853 coined the phrase "A land without a people for a people without a land."

George Eliot put these ideas in novel form with Daniel Deronda in 1876. In 1891, Sir George Adam Smith wrote in his authoritative Historical Geography of the Holy Land that the Ottomans had to be pushed out of Palestine and replaced by the Jews, "who have given to Palestine everything it has ever had of value to the world."

That same year, 1891, saw perhaps the greatest early Christian support in the United States for a Jewish state - the "Blackstone Memorial," a petition that carried the signatures of 413 prominentAmericans, including the chief justice of the Supreme Court, the speaker of the House, the greatest industrialists of the age (Rockefeller, Morgan, McCormick), famous clergymen, writers and journalists.

Addressed to the president of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, and the secretary of state, James G. Blaine, the memorial asked them to "use their good offices and influence . . . to secure the holding at an early date of an international conference to consider the condition of the Israelites and their claims to Palestine as their ancient home." According to one historian, Paul Charles Merkley, the Blackstone Memorial had the effect of "firmly planting in many minds" the "notion of American sponsorship of a Jewish return to Palestine."

The Balfour Declaration of November 1917, whereby the British government announced that it favored "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people," was perhaps the single most important act premised in Christian Zionism. Harry S. Truman's recognition of Israel, against the nearly total opposition of his administration, was probably second. His biographer, Michael T. Benson, finds that Truman's pro-Israel outlook "was based primarily on humanitarian, moral, and sentimental grounds, many of which were an outgrowth of the president's religious upbringing and his familiarity with the Bible." (Truman's just-discovered diary, with its petulant remarks about Jews, makes his Zionist stance the more noteworthy.)

The media has recently focused on Christian Zionism as though it were something new ("How Israel Became a Favorite Cause of the Conservative Christian Right" runs a typical title, this one a front-page article in The Wall Street Journal). The real story is how Christian Zionists are increasingly the bedrock of Israel's support in the United States, more solidly pro-Israel and more robustly Zionist than many in the Jewish community.

To those who wonder why Washington follows policies so different from the European states, a large part of the answer these days has to do with the clout of Christian Zionists, who are especially powerful when a conservative Republican like George W. Bush is president. (In contrast, Christian Zionism has nearly died out in Great Britain.)

One anti-Israel writer, Grace Halsell, recognizes this fact and deems Christian Zionists a "more dangerous" influence in Washington than are the Jewish Zionists. Put positively: other than the Israel Defense Forces, America's Christian Zionists may be the Jewish state's ultimate strategic asset.

©2003 - Daniel Pipes

2. Brit-Am on the radio
Within the next few days (if everything goes well, God willing)
Brit-Am representatives (Rabbi Avraham Feld and Yair Davidiy) will be interviewed
at length in English on what may well be the most important media medium
in the state of Israel. Details later.

3. Psalms 2
This Psalm is speaking mainly about the coming Messiah descendant of David who will eventually rule over the entire world. The heathen non-Israelite nations will be reluctant to accept the authority of the Messiah and therefore will be dealt with. That is according to our understanding. Some Commentators (Radak, Iben Ezra) say it refers to David at the time he became king and the Philistines decided to attack him.

[Psalms 2:1] WHY DO THE HEATHEN RAGE, AND THE PEOPLE IMAGINE A VAIN THING?

[Psalms 2:2] THE KINGS OF THE EARTH SET THEMSELVES, AND THE RULERS TAKE COUNSEL TOGETHER, AGAINST THE LORD, AND AGAINST HIS ANOINTED, SAYING,
Those who set themselves against the people of God (Israel and Judah) or against the anointed of God are considered as setting themselves against God Himself.

[Psalms 2:3] LET US BREAK THEIR BANDS ASUNDER, AND CAST AWAY THEIR CORDS FROM US.
Israel under the messiah shall gain dominion over the nations but they shall attempt to rebel.

[Psalms 2:4] HE THAT SITTETH IN THE HEAVENS SHALL LAUGH: THE LORD SHALL HAVE THEM IN DERISION.

[Psalms 2:5] THEN SHALL HE SPEAK UNTO THEM IN HIS WRATH, AND VEX THEM IN HIS SORE DISPLEASURE.

[Psalms 2:6] YET HAVE I SET MY KING UPON MY HOLY HILL OF ZION.
"Zion" is in Jerusalem just north of the Jewish Quarter. Zion in the Bible is synonymous with Jerusalem and with Judah though in some contexts it can refer to Joseph (Midrash Tanchuma).

[Psalms 2:7] I WILL DECLARE THE DECREE: THE LORD HATH SAID UNTO ME, THOU ART MY SON; THIS DAY HAVE I BEGOTTEN THEE.
On the day that the Messiah is appointed it is as if he becomes the son of the Almighty and the Divine Spirit enters him. The Radak applies this verse to David:
"THEN SAMUEL TOOK THE HORN OF OIL, AND ANOINTED HIM IN THE MIDST OF HIS BRETHREN: AND THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD CAME UPON DAVID FROM THAT DAY FORWARD" [1-Samuel 16:13]

[Psalms 2:8] ASK OF ME, AND I SHALL GIVE THEE THE HEATHEN FOR THINE INHERITANCE, AND THE UTTERMOST PARTS OF THE EARTH FOR THY POSSESSION.

[Psalms 2:9] THOU SHALT BREAK THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON; THOU SHALT DASH THEM IN PIECES LIKE A POTTER'S VESSEL.

[Psalms 2:10] BE WISE NOW THEREFORE, O YE KINGS: BE INSTRUCTED, YE JUDGES OF THE EARTH.

[Psalms 2:11] SERVE THE LORD WITH FEAR, AND REJOICE WITH TREMBLING.

[Psalms 2:12] KISS THE SON, LEST HE BE ANGRY, AND YE PERISH FROM THE WAY, WHEN HIS WRATH IS KINDLED BUT A LITTLE. BLESSED ARE ALL THEY THAT PUT THEIR TRUST IN HIM.
<<KISS THE SON>>: Hebrew, "Nashku Bar".
"Nashku" means "kiss" (plural) or cling to or join with. Rashi quotes a source that derives the word from the same root as "Teshuka" meaning "desire
"bar" in Aramaic means "son" but in Hebrew it means grain (from which we have the English word "barley") or "righteousness, purity".
Cf. HE THAT HATH CLEAN HANDS, AND A PURE [Hebrew: "bar"] HEART [Psalms 24:4]
"Nashku Bar" could therefore mean "cleave to righteousness" or "desire purity".
<< LEST HE BE ANGRY>>: i.e. lest God be angry. God rewards us and punishes us according to our deeds.
The Malbim seems to suggest that "BAR" can also mean "chosen one" from the root "Barar". It could therefore be rendered, "Join the Chosen One (Messiah), Lest He (God) be angry".
There is (as the Malbim mentions) one source where "bar" may mean "son":
<<WHAT, MY SON [Hebrew: beri] ? AND WHAT, THE SON ["bar"] OF MY WOMB? AND WHAT, THE SON OF MY VOWS?>> [Proverbs 31:2]. Here too "bar" may actually mean something else (like "chosen") or it may actually mean "son" since it does mean "son" in Aramaic. Very often the wood roots of Aramaic and Hebrew interchange and they are related languages.
Therefore it could mean, "Cleave to the son" [the Messiah who on the day of his anointment becomes "borne" of God] so that that Almighty will not be angry with you.
Israel is also considered a son of the Almighty and so is Ephraim:
<< I AM A FATHER TO ISRAEL, AND EPHRAIM IS MY FIRSTBORN>> [Jeremiah 31:9].

1. Climate Change Approaching?
November 27, 2002
THE ARCTIC PERENNIAL SEA ICE COULD BE GONE BY END OF THE CENTURY

A NASA study finds that perennial sea ice in the Arctic is melting faster than previously thoughtat a rate of 9 percent per decade. If these melting rates continue for a few more decades, the perennial sea ice will likely disappear entirely within this century, due to rising temperatures and interactions between ice, ocean and the atmosphere that accelerate the melting process.

Perennial sea ice floats in the polar oceans and remains at the end of the summer, when the ice cover is at its minimum and seasonal sea ice has melted. This year-round ice averages about 3 meters (9.8 feet) in depth, but can be as thick as 7 meters (23 feet).

The study also finds that temperatures in the Arctic are increasing at the rate of 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 Fahrenheit) per decade.

Melting sea ice would not affect sea levels, but it could profoundly impact summer shipping lanes, plankton blooms, ocean circulation systems, and global climate.

“If the perennial ice cover, which consists mainly of thick multi-year ice floes, disappears, the entire Arctic Ocean climate and ecology would become very different,” said Josefino Comiso, a researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., who authored the study.

Comiso used satellite data to track trends in minimum Arctic sea ice cover and temperature over the Arctic from 1978 to 2000. Since sea ice does not change uniformly in terms of time or space, Comiso sectioned off portions of the Arctic data and carefully analyzed these sections to determine when ice had reached the minimum for that area each year. The results were compiled to obtain overall annual values of perennial sea ice.

Prior to the complete data provided by satellites, most records came from sparsely located ocean buoys, weather stations, and research vessels.

The rate of decline is expected to accelerate due to positive feedback systems between the ice, oceans and atmosphere. As temperatures in the Arctic rise, the summer ice cover retreats, more solar heat gets absorbed by the ocean, and more ice gets melted by a warmer upper water layer. Warmer water may delay freezing in the fall, leading to a thinner ice cover in the winter and spring, which makes the sea ice more vulnerable to melting in the subsequent summer.

Also, the rise in summer ice temperatures by about 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 Fahrenheit) each decade could lengthen the summers, allowing earlier spring thaws and later freeze dates in the fall, causing further thinning and retreat of perennial ice.

Comparing the differences between Arctic sea ice data from 1979 to 1989 and data from 1990 to 2000, Comiso found the biggest melting occurred in the western area (Beaufort and Chukchi Seas) while considerable losses were also apparent in the eastern region (Siberian, Laptev and Kara Seas). Also, perennial ice actually advanced in relatively small areas near Greenland.

In the short term, reduced ice cover would open shipping lanes through the Arctic. Also, massive melts could increase biological productivity, since melt water floats and provides a stable layer conducive to plankton blooms.

Also, both regional and global climate would be impacted, since summer sea ice currently reflects sunlight out to space, cooling the planet’s surface, and warming the atmosphere.

While the latest data came too late to be included in the paper, Comiso recently analyzed the ice cover data up to the present and discovered that this year’s perennial ice cover is the least extensive observed during the satellite era.

The study appears in the late October issue of Geophysical Research Letters, and was funded by NASA’s Cryospheric Sciences Program and the NASA Earth Science Enterprise/Earth Observing System Project.

This text derived from http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2002/1122seaice.html

2. Arutz Sheva News Friday,
<http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Apr. 23, 2004 / Iyar 2, 5764
SPECIAL SABBATH PRAYER FOR YESHA
Leading Israeli rabbis have agreed that a special prayer on behalf of the Jewish settlement enterprise in Judea, Samaria and Gaza should be recited every Sabbath, following the public Torah reading. The prayer was composed by Rabbi Chanan Porat of Kfar Etzion, and has received the blessing of Rabbis Chaim Druckman, Yaakov Ariel, Shlomo Aviner, Tzfaniah Drori, Dov Lior and others.

The Hebrew text of the prayer can be seen at <http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=60961>.

An abridged English translation of the prayer:
"Our Father in Heaven, Rock of Israel and its Redeemer, bless your beloved children who dwell throughout Your holy land, from the Negev to the Golan, and from the Jordan to the Mediterranean - including your precious children who cling with dedication and perseverance to the lands of Judea, Samaria and Gaza.
"Please strengthen their spirit and fortify their hearts to stand strong in the face of our enemies who wish to destroy us. All those who wish to harm them and try to uproot children from their borders, speedily incapacitate their counsel and impair their plan.
"Master of the Universe, make it known that You have loved ones in Your world! Let Your promise spoken by Your prophet Amos be fulfilled: 'I will plant them on their Land and they will never be uprooted.'"

Rabbi Porat explained that the prayer is designed primarily to express the Jewish tradition that "Repentance, Prayer and Charity will cancel the evil decree," but also to "help us internalize that the struggle for the settlement enterprise in the Land of Israel is not only a diplomatic and military one, but chiefly a spiritual effort for that which is sacred to our People and the fundamentals of our faith."

"It's possible," Rabbi Porat said, "that the public recitation of this prayer will help imbue the recognition that uprooting Jewish communities from their Land harms not only those who live there, but also Jewish tradition and the longings of generations for the fulfillment of the Biblical promise, 'the sons will return to their borders.'"

Physician's Prayer - A Wonderful print by Raphael Abecassis - Press or call +1-347-427-9042

*** QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"One hears a great deal these days, from people whose vision is shorter even than their memories, about the wisdom of international guarantees as a means of assuring Israeli security. I can't imagine a more misdirected policy than to ask Israe