Terrorists will participate in protecting Bush during his visit to Palestine

OK, this doesn't seem too smart:

Members of the most active West Bank terror organization are set to participate in security forces being deployed to protect President Bush during his visit to the Palestinian territories next month, WND has learned.

Bush is due in the region Jan. 9 as part of a follow-up to last month's U.S.-led Israeli-Palestinian Annapolis summit.

During his trip, the American president is scheduled to hold talks with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem, and meet quickly with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

According to Israeli security officials coordinating deployments of forces with the PA for Bush's Ramallah visit, members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah's declared military wing, have been called upon by the PA to participate in the protection of Bush's convoy and in securing the parameter during the meeting with Abbas.

The Brigades is listed as a terror organization by the U.S. State Department. The group took credit along with the Islamic Jihad terror organization for every suicide bombing in Israel between 2005 and 2006, and is responsible for thousands of shootings and rocket firings. Statistically, the Al Aqsa Brigades perpetuated more terrorism from the West Bank than Hamas, according to the Israeli Defense Forces.

(via)

Israel seized North Korean nuclear material in Syria raid

Axis of evil, anyone?

Israeli commandos seized nuclear material of North Korean origin during a daring raid on a secret military site in Syria before Israel bombed it this month, according to informed sources in Washington and Jerusalem.

The attack was launched with American approval on September 6 after Washington was shown evidence the material was nuclear related, the well-placed sources say.

They confirmed that samples taken from Syria for testing had been identified as North Korean. This raised fears that Syria might have joined North Korea and Iran in seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.

So much for the cooperation of North Korea in ending their nuclear program.

Shouldn't the "ambassador for Judaism" be Jewish?

I wonder if Madonna gets that Kabbalah really isn't Judaism.

Madonna toasted the Jewish new year with Israeli President Shimon Peres and declared herself an "ambassador for Judaism," local newspapers reported Sunday.

The singer, who is not Jewish, arrived in Israel Wednesday on the eve of Jewish new year to attend a conference on Kabbalah or Jewish mysticism.

Madonna met Peres at his official Jerusalem residence on Saturday evening and the two exchanged gifts, with Madonna receiving a lavishly bound copy of the Old Testament.

She gave Peres a volume of "The Book of Splendor," the guiding text of Kabbalah, inscribed "To Shimon Peres, the man I admire and love, Madonna," the Yediot Ahronot daily reported.

(via)

Israeli Soldiers Injured in Bomb Attack

Is Palestine ready for a fight with Israel?

At least 69 Israeli soldiers were injured when a rocket fired from Gaza exploded in an army camp in southern Israel, the military has said.

The rocket hit an equipment store at the Zikkim training base, sending shrapnel flying through surrounding tents where soldiers were sleeping.

Four of the wounded soldiers were in a serious condition, the military said.

It is the largest number of injuries sustained in a single rocket attack against Israel from Gaza.

And then there's this:

"We pulled out of the Gaza Strip two years ago, we took down all of the settlements, we pulled out all our military personnel, we ended the military occupation and these extremists who are shooting rockets really have no positive agenda. It's just nihilism."

No positive agenda? Of course they don't have a positive agenda, they're terrorists. And it's not nihilism it's a land grab. You gave them the land in which to launch attacks and you can't be surprised that they're launching them. Israel only has themselves to blame to think that the other side wants peace. All they want is the destruction of Israel and that should be evident from the attack (and their rhetoric and previous attacks, etc.).

Israeli neo-Nazi ring busted

In the bizarre news of the day Israeli police have arrested Israeli neo-Nazis who were targeting religious Jews, foreign workers, drug addicts and gays:

Eight immigrants from the former Soviet Union have been arrested in recent days in connection with at least 15 attacks, and a ninth fled the country, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, in the first such known cell to be discovered in Israel.

All the suspects are in their late teens or early 20s and have Israeli citizenship, Rosenfeld said.

[...]

The gang documented its activities on film and in photographs. Israeli TV stations showed grainy footage of people lying helpless on floors while several people kicked them, and of a man getting hit from behind on the head with an empty bottle.

Police found knives, spiked balls, explosives and other weapons in the suspects' possession, Rosenfeld said. One photo that was seized showed one suspect holding an M16 rifle in one hand and in the other, a sign reading "Heil Hitler," he added.

[...]

Police discovered the skinhead ring after investigating the desecration of two synagogues that were sprayed with swastikas in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva more than a year ago, Rosenfeld said.

Why align yourself with a group that considers you subhuman? Just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Update: Evidently, we shouldn't be surprised by this story since this is not the first neo-Nazi group discovered in Israel.

Israel turns away Darfur refugees

It may seem harsh but in the long run it will probably benefit the immigrants. If they know they can't get in, maybe they will stop trying to cross the border. It is a very dangerous border to cross. Yesterday the Washington Post had a story of a young mother who was killed crossing with her family. The Egyptian border guards shoot those crossing the border. They started shooting after they heard a baby cry.

Israel will in future turn away all illegal entrants from Sudan's war-torn region of Darfur, a top official says.

The policy applies to new arrivals only, while some 500 people from Darfur already in Israel will be permitted to stay for "humanitarian reasons".

Israel is struggling to stem the flow of Africans entering the country via its southern border with Egypt.

Overnight, Israel handed 48 Sudanese people back to Egypt, according to Egyptian security officials.

(via)

The fruit of negotiating with terrorists

Those of you who support an end to conflict in the Middle East and who think it can be obtained by peace treaties might want to read this story and remember that Hamas and Fatah had a peace deal. Here is the fruit of that deal:

Hamas fighters overran one of the rival Fatah movement's most important security installations in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, and witnesses said the victors dragged vanquished gunmen from the building and killed them in the street.

[...]

Fatah officials said seven of their fighters were shot to death in the street outside Preventive Security. A witness, Jihad Abu Ayad, said the men were being killed in front of their wives and children.

"They are executing them one by one," Abu Ayad said. "They are carrying one of them on their shoulders, putting him on a sand dune, turning him around and shooting."

[...]

"We are telling our people that the past era has ended and will not return, " Islam Shahawan, a spokesman for Hamas' militia, told Hamas radio. "The era of justice and Islamic rule have arrived."

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, heralded what he called "Gaza's second liberation," after Israel's 2005 evacuation of the coastal strip.

I think they've demonstrated why Hamas can't be trusted to uphold their end of a peace deal and why Israel would be stupid to trust them.

And then there's this:

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he discussed the possible deployment of a multinational force in Gaza with the Security Council on Wednesday.

"We have always asked for international forces to come to the West Bank and Gaza," Abbas confidant Saeb Erekat told Israel's Army Radio. But, he added, "Honestly, on the personal level, I believe that if we don't help ourselves as Palestinians, nobody can."

What? Sending in troops in the middle of a civil war? I thought we didn't do that.

Tags: Hamas

"Even the Jews did not do such cruel things to us."

Guess who said that? A Palestinian:

Hassan al-Bazam, 20, who works as a bodyguard for [Ismail] Haniyeh [the prime minister and a member of the Hamas terrorist group], was kidnapped Monday night by Fatah gunmen. He said the kidnappers tortured him and forced him to curse God and the prophet Muhammad.

"I was on my way to the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood [in Gaza City] when I was kidnapped by Fatah gunmen who were in two cars," Bazam said. "They took me to a building next to the beach, where they beat me severely with clubs and rifles.

"They extinguished cigarettes on my body and melted candles on my back. They also hung me from my hands and started shooting between my legs."

He said the kidnappers demanded a list of Hamas activists in his neighborhood and questioned him about the killing last month of a senior Fatah militiaman.

Bazam said he was released seven hours later, but only after he agreed to curse God and Muhammad. Bazam said the kidnappers also shaved his eyebrows, beard and part of his head, which was then marked with a Force 17 [Presidential Guard] sign.

"These people are real murderers," Bazam said. "Even the Jews did not do such cruel things to us."

An archaeologist has discovered King Herod's tomb

Hmmm, I'm not sure I'm buying it. First it was Jesus' brother James and then it was the tomb of Jesus himself and now they're saying that Herod's tomb has been discovered. Where's the proof that it's Herod and not just one of his kids?

An Israeli archaeologist has found the tomb of King Herod, the legendary builder of ancient Jerusalem and the Holy Land, Hebrew University said late Monday.

The tomb is at a site called Herodium, a flattened hilltop in the Judean Desert, clearly visible from southern Jerusalem. Herod built a palace on the hill, and researchers discovered his burial site there, the university said.

[...]

It has long been assumed Herod was buried at Herodium, but decades of excavations had failed to turn up the site. The 1st century historian Josephus Flavius described the tomb and Herod's funeral procession.

Haaretz said the tomb was found by archaeologist Ehud Netzer, a Hebrew University professor who has been working at Herodium since 1972. The paper said the tomb was in a previously unexplored area between the two palaces Herod built on the site. Herod died in 4 B.C. in Jericho.

Herodium was one of the last strong points held by Jewish rebels fighting against the Romans, and it was conquered and destroyed by Roman troops in A.D. 71, a year after they destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

Updated: I was kind of kidding here, I'm not sure if you guys got that. I'll use a :-) next time.

Updated again: It turns on that the tomb was empty and had been desecrated shortly after Herod's death (which is not surprising when you realize that he was pretty much despised by most Israelites).

(via)

Tags: King Herod, tomb, archeology

Egypt Threatens Hamas

It is amazing that Egypt is siding with Israel in the latest conflict with Palestine:

Egypt has threatened to cut off its relations with Hamas unless the movement halts its rocket attacks on Israel, Palestinian Authority officials said Wednesday.

The officials said Egyptian Intelligence Chief Gen. Omar Suleiman sent a "tough" message to Hamas leaders, warning them against the continued rocket attacks. The message was delivered to PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas by Burhan Hammad, a senior Egyptian intelligence officer based in the Gaza Strip, the officials added.

They said that Suleiman also warned that Egypt would not side with the Palestinians if Israel launched a military operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

"We hope that the Hamas leaders will listen carefully to what the Egyptians are telling them," said one official here. "Hamas must return to the period of calm so as not to give Israel an excuse to invade the Gaza Strip."

Another senior PA official accused Hamas of trying to "extort" PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on the eve of his meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Cairo this coming weekend.

"The firing of the rockets and the resignation of Interior Minister Hani Kawassmeh [earlier this week] are part of an attempt by Hamas to extract concessions from President Abbas ahead of his meeting with Mashaal," he told The Jerusalem Post. "The meeting is supposed to focus on the possibility of including Hamas in the PLO. Mashaal wants to be deputy chairman of the PLO. At the meeting, Hamas will agree to a cease-fire with Israel on condition that Mashaal is appointed to a senior position in the PLO. This is extortion."

(via)

Tags: Egypt, Hamas

Giuliani has strong support in Israel

I don't think they will garner enough support in Israel for a Giuliani victory in the primaries. There aren't enough Jewish Republicans to push him over the top:

Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani already had presidential campaign organizations set up in all 50 US states; now he also has one in the State of Israel.

The thousands of eligible absentee voters in Israel could have a significant impact on who will win the Republican and Democratic nominations. Giuliani is running first in a close Republican race.

Giuliani Supporters in Israel is a grass-roots effort to mobilize the support of Israelis with US citizenship that was set up by Mordechai Twersky, a former Bronx, New York, communal leader and candidate for the New York State Assembly and the Knesset who was cited by Giuliani for his communal work.

Although the organization was not officially authorized by Giuliani, his campaign staff has already made contact with Twersky and endorsed his effort.

The Republicans and Democrats Abroad organizations have long been active here ahead of presidential elections but Twersky said this was the first time a campaign has been set up in Israel to help a candidate ahead of party primaries.

How many of those thousands are Republican and what states are they from? I don't see this making a difference.

And then there's this:

"On the Israel issue, it turns out to be a wash. Giuliani and top democratic candidates Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama are all strong supporters of Israel and I am sure the voters will see that as well."

I don't think that this guy is really thinking this through, if he did he would realize that it's in Israel's best interest for us to stay in Iraq and try to stabilize the region. Clinton and Obama want us out whether conditions on the ground have improved or not. How does that help Israel?