US Refuses Visa for Chairman of Group-15 Nations

21 September 2007

Tehran-The US refused visa for chairman of the 'Group 15' member states Alireza Moayeri, a statement from the Geneva secretariat of the group said on Saturday.

Moayeri was supposed to attend meeting of foreign ministers of the 'Group 15' on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York next Friday and present an annual report on activities of the member states.

"The US administration, again, acted out of political motive about presence of international delegations and independent states representatives in the United Nations meeting. Unfortunately, instead of applying international policy and method, the US limited activities of the UN member states by taking such measures," said a statement in protest at the visa refusal.

In the past years, the US government failed to honor its undertakings as the UN host country in terms of granting visa for representatives of the UN member states citing visa refusal for Iran's Majlis speaker to attend world parliamentary speakers meeting and many others senior officials of the independent countries to attend the meetings of the different UN bodies in New York.

"Applying such unilateral methods would affect the UN independent and free activities. Now the time is appropriate to the UN General Assembly to take necessary step to specify another place to convene meetings of the United Nations," the statement added.

Band-Aiding SCHIP, Along With Iraq with Unavailable Monies?

the For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
September 22, 2007
Audio

(Enlarge Picture for better Viewing.)

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning.

In just eight days, the State Children's Health Insurance Program -- or "SCHIP" -- is set to expire. This important program helps children whose families cannot afford private health insurance, but who do not qualify for Medicaid, to get the coverage they need. I strongly supported SCHIP as a governor, and have strongly supported it as President. My 2008 budget proposed to increase SCHIP funding by $5 billion over five years, a 20 percent increase over current funding.

Instead of working with my Administration to enact this funding increase for children's health, Democrats in Congress have decided to pass a bill they know will be vetoed. One of their leaders has even said such a veto would be a "political victory." As if this weren't irresponsible enough, Congress is waiting until the SCHIP program is just about to expire before passing a final bill. In other words, Members of Congress are risking health coverage for poor children purely to make a political point.

The proposal congressional leaders are pushing would raise taxes on working Americans and would raise spending by $35 to $50 billion. Their proposal would result in taking a program meant to help poor children and turning it into one that covers children in some households with incomes of up to $83,000 a year. And their proposal would move millions of children who now have private health insurance into government-run health care. Our goal should be to move children who have no health insurance to private coverage -- not to move children who already have private health insurance to government coverage.

My Administration remains committed to working with Congress to pass a responsible SCHIP bill. In the meantime, I called this week for Congress to make sure health insurance for poor children does not lapse. If they fail to do so, more than a million children could lose health coverage. Health coverage for these children should not be held hostage while political ads are being made and new polls are being taken. Congress must pass a clean, temporary extension of the current SCHIP program that I can sign by September 30th, the date the program expires.

In addition to extending the SCHIP program, Congress needs to focus on passing fundamental spending bills -- especially the annual funding bill for the Department of Defense. Congress must also pass additional funding for our troops fighting the war on terror. We need these bills so we can get our men and women in uniform essential equipment -- like additional armored fighting vehicles that are resistant to mines and ambushes.

The American people expect their elected leaders in Washington to work together by passing responsible bills in a timely manner. I am confident that with good will on both sides, Democrats and Republicans can do this. We can meet our obligations to help poor children get health coverage. We can meet our responsibilities to the men and women keeping our Nation safe. And we can do our duty to spend the taxpayer's money wisely.

Thank you for listening.

END

Further Reading:

Bush vows to veto kids’ health insurance bill

Israeli Policies Target Palestinian Families

A demonstration against the Wall in Jayyus. (PENGON/Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign)

18 September 2007

by Ida Audeh

Israel's practice of denying family reunification permits and denying entry to foreign passport holders (many but not all of whom are of Palestinian origin) is part of a campaign of ridding the occupied territories (including East Jerusalem) of Palestinians and tightly controlling those it is obliged to retain. The practice takes aim at Palestinian families: it splits families apart, denies Palestinian communities access to foreign and expatriate talent, deprives the economically hard-hit territories of foreign currency, and further isolates the Palestinians under occupation.

The Campaign for the Right of Entry/Re-Entry to the Palestinian Occupied Territories (www.righttoenter.ps) estimates that more than 150,000 family reunification applications were submitted to the Israeli occupation authorities between 1973 and 1982 but that only 1,000 were approved each year. Between 1983 and 2000, the annual number of approved applications has fluctuated between 1,000 and 3,000. Since the second intifada began in September 2000, Israel has not processed about 120,000 family reunification applications. Multiply that by four or five (a conservative estimate; most Palestinian families are much larger), and the number of people affected by the Israeli refusal to grant residency rights to Palestinians with foreign passports becomes apparent. As applied to Palestinian residents in East Jerusalem, the policy is clearly designed to drive out as many indigenous Palestinians as possible, with the aim of maintaining a Jewish majority in the city.

Palestinian citizens in Israel are targeted by legislation that violates their rights in similar ways. In May 2002, the Israeli Knesset enacted Government Decision #1813, thereby freezing all unification applications for the West Bank or Gazan spouse of an Israeli citizen or permanent resident. The 2003 Law of Nationality and Entry into Israel (Temporary Order 2003) effectively denies Israeli citizens the right to marry Palestinians from the occupied territories and to live with their spouses in Israel. These laws violate international legal covenants which affirm the fundamental right to privacy and family life when Palestinian citizens of Israel are denied this on the basis of the ethnicity of their spouses.

The denial of legal residency has meant that foreign passport holders have had to leave the country when their visas expired and then re-enter in hopes of receiving another tourist visa, typically good for three months. These visas had been granted routinely, but in March 2006, Israel began to withhold them. Thousands of people whose families, businesses, and jobs -- in short, their lives -- were centered in the occupied territories have been turned back from the borders.

As a result, families live in a state of chronic uncertainty. Not only can they not make long-term plans, they can't even trust that they will be permitted to live together for more than a month (or two, but not more than three) at a time. Even those who manage to get a visa cannot be sure that they will be so lucky the next time they apply.

Israel's denial of entry to the occupied territories and its refusal to grant permanent residency to spouses of Palestinian residents -- Israeli officials insist that it is not a policy, although they have imposed this practice with increasing regularity since March 2006 -- is a violation of international humanitarian law and the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, which Israel, as occupying power, is obligated to respect. Third-party states have an obligation to insist that Israel respect the law, since it can do so easily; when they ignore Israel's violations, they violate their own obligations not to acquiesce to unlawful and deliberately harmful acts by other states.

Academic institutions have been hard hit by this policy, too. A Birzeit University press release dated 6 January 2007 notes that 50 percent of foreign passport-holding staff have had to leave, which has put most departments at risk of dropping courses or losing specialists they cannot replace. One department may lose as much as 70 percent of its staff. Programs such as the Arabic language and cultural program were funded by foreign student tuitions; when foreign students are denied entry to the region and cannot study at Birzeit, the loss of tuition revenue means a loss of emergency funding that had helped the university cover its expenses. Because of the growing problem with denial of entry, applications to the program have dropped by 50 percent.

Since Oslo, Israel has speeded up implementation of the policy it has followed even before the state of Israel was established -- grab as much land as possible but as few indigenous Palestinians as possible. To establish a Jewish state in a part of the world that has not had a Jewish majority since biblical times, Zionist militias wiped off the map more than 400 Palestinian towns and villages and made around 700,000 Palestinians refugees. In the 40 years since the 1967 war, it has illegally established Jewish-only colonies in the occupied territories; it has established more than 400 checkpoints; it has built a monstrous separation barrier complete with patrol roads and watchtowers that seal off Palestinian towns from each other; it is building a separate road network to connect settlements in the West Bank with Israel to make sure they never come into contact with Palestinians; and it has sealed geographic districts for months on end, preventing the movement of people and goods, with predictably devastating effects on the Palestinian economy.

One of Israel's thorniest problems has always been the presence of an indigenous non-Jewish population (typically referred to in racist terms as a "demographic problem") residing within its (undeclared) borders as well as in the territories it occupies. Through a combination of laws and policies designed to make life in the occupied territories impossible, Israel has sealed all large Palestinian population centers, cutting them off from one another. For example, Qalqiliya, at one time referred to as the West Bank's bread basket, has been completely encircled by a wall since 2003, with a single gated road leading into and out of the city. Qalqiliya once had a population of 43,000, but by 2006, several thousand had moved. No doubt they left in search of work -- the wall has had that effect on many communities. But who can gauge the psychological pressure of living in a city where a monstrous concrete wall higher than the former Berlin wall blocks view of the sunset?

Israel's policies will ultimately fail. According to the US State Department's annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2004, the number of Muslim and Christian Palestinians in Mandate Palestine (including Israel proper, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip) slightly exceeds the number of Israeli Jews. With the higher Palestinian birth rate, these differences will only become more pronounced over time. A state narrowly defined in terms of a religion adhered to by a minority of the residents under its rule cannot indefinitely control the majority population or extinguish its demand for a life with dignity and political, civil, and human rights.

Ida Audeh is a Palestinian from the West Bank who works as a technical editor in Boulder, CO. She is the author of the five-part series, "Living in the Shadow of the Wall," published by Electronic Intifada on 16 November 2003; "Picking Olives and Removing Roadblocks as Acts of Resistance: An Interview with Ghassan Andoni," Counterpunch, 28 October 2002; and "Narratives of Siege: Eyewitness Testimonies from Jenin, Bethlehem, and Nablus," Journal of Palestine Studies, no. 124 (Summer 2002).

Israeli Under investigation in Murder Case and on Espionage Charges

22 September 2007

By Yoav Stern

An dual citizen of Israel and Germany has been arrested in Lebanon on charges of espionage, a Lebanese judicial source said on Saturday.

According to Lebanese publication Al-Akhbar Wa-Sapir, Daniel Sharon was arrested on Thursday during an investigation into the murder of a Lebanese citizen. During questioning, it emerged that Sharon had visited Lebanon 11 times over the last two years. He denied allegations he was on an espionage mission.

Media reports said that police in the Merje area, a hotbed of the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement in Beirut's southern suburbs, were investigating the killing of Moussa al-Shalaani when the probe led them to Sharon.

Al-Shalaani had been shot with a gun belonging to a security officer who had been his roommate. The roommate was summoned for questioning, and maintained that he had lost his gun.

The roommate also said that during the time of the murder, he had been with his German friend who was residing at the Four Points Sheraton hotel in Beirut's luxurious Verdun neighbourhood. A hotel employee told the police that Sharon had paid him a sum of money in exchange for not writing his full name on any documents.

"His conflicting testimonies led the authorities to arrest him, and further investigations are underway in a murder case and espionage," the source said.

Lebanon's General Prosecutor Saeed Mirza said investigations were underway into how the story was leaked to the press.

"He is denying charges of espionage and insists that he is gay and he likes to have sexual relations with Lebanese men and that is why his visits to Lebanon were frequent," the judicial source said.

"But further investigations into the case showed that Sharon had a friend in the Lebanese security offices who used to facilitate his entries to Lebanon and with the help of a hotel clerk he managed to hide his real name," the source added.

During questioning, it emerged that Sharon is well-versed regarding Lebanon, speaks Arabic well and knows how to use he language's many idioms. According to reports, Sharon learned Arabic in the United Arab Emirates from a teacher of Bahraini citizenship. The Lebanese media reported that Sharon kept his cool during questioning and denied accusations that he was a spy.

The media also reported that Sharon had visited Lebanon 11 times since 2005, once immediately prior to the Second Lebanon War with Israel last summer. His last visit was four days prior to his arrest, and he was scheduled to leave on the day of his arrest.

It later emerged that Sharon had sent his security officer friend on trips abroad on several occasions, and in exchange the man helped Sharon within Lebanon.

President Abbas to Meet George W. Bush Next Monday

22 September 2007

Bethlehem – Ma'an –United States President George Bush is scheduled to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas next Monday in New York, the White House announced on Friday night.

Spokesperson of the White House, Gordan Johndroe, said that President Bush will continue negotiations with Abbas regarding ways to achieve a two-state solution, with Palestinians and Israelis living side-by-side in peace and security.

UN report: “Israel increased the number of roadblocks in the West Bank”

21 September 2007

by Saed Bannoura

The United Nations issued a report revealing that Israel has increased the number of roadblocks in the occupied West Bank despite promises to reduce the number of roadblocks.


The UN stated in its report that despite promises made by the Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, to the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, to remove 24 roadblocks and consider easing restrictions imposed on the movement of the Palestinians in the West Bank, the number of roadblocks has increased.

Barak’s promise followed a similar promise by Israel’s Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, during talks with the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas.

The UN report revealed that the number of roadblocks reached 572, which is a 52% increase compared to 376 roadblocks in August 2005, Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that Israel setup 40 new roadblocks in the past two months.

Also, the report added that the Israeli army did not remove a fence installed along road number 317 in the Southern Mount area in Hebron, Haaretz added.

OCHA said that additional 48 roadblocks are currently preventing access to various roads in that area.

The report also revealed that there are 476 roadblocks in the occupied West Bank, consisting of concrete blocks, earthen embankments and other barricades blocking roads leading to villages and towns, Haaretz added.

Haaretz also stated that since April this year, the Israeli army has refused to provide data regarding the number of roadblocks in the West Bank, and that the army installed additional roadblocks to “protect the settlers”, and not to “prevent attacks against Israel”.

Haaretz added that the UN figures on roadblocks did not include roadblocks installed along the Green Line separating Israel from the Palestinian territories.

Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

13 - 19 September 2007

IOF Prevent Muslim Worshippers from Reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Continue to Perpetrate War Crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)

· 5 Palestinians including 2 Children killed by IOF

o 1 victim killed in an extra-judicial execution.

· 19 Palestinians, including 6 children and 1 woman, were wounded by IOF gunfire in the OPT.

· IOF conducted 22 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

o IOF arrested 26 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and 3 in the Gaza Strip.

o IOF raze 12 Dunums of agricultural land in the northern Gaza Strip.

· IOF have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT, and continues to isolate the Gaza Strip from the outside world.

o Severe humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip due to the closure.

o IOF positioned at various checkpoints and border crossings in the West Bank arrested 6 Palestinian civilians, including a woman and a child.

o Palestinian dies at J’bara checkpoint south of Tulkarm.

o Child abused at Anata checkpoint.

o Muslim worshippers barred from entering the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron on the first and seventh days of Ramadan.

· Israeli settlement activity and attacks by Israeli settlers continue:

o Palestinian child hit by settler vehicle north of Salfit.

o 523 dunums confiscated in the towns of El-Khader and Artas near Bethlehem.

Summary

Mandela 'survives' Bush Gaffe

21 September 2007

Johannesburg: Nelson Mandela is still very much alive despite an embarrassing gaffe by US President George W. Bush, who alluded to the former South African leader's death in an attempt to explain sectarian violence in Iraq.

"It's out there. All we can do is reassure people, especially South Africans, that President Mandela is alive," Achmat Dangor, chief executive officer of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said as Bush's comments received worldwide coverage.

In a speech defending hi administration's Iraq policy, Bush said former Iraqi President Saddam Hussain's brutality had made it impossible for a unifying leader to emerge and stop the sectarian violence that has engulfed the Middle Eastern nation.

"I heard somebody say, Where's Mandela?' Well, Mandela's dead because Saddam Hussain killed all the Mandelas," Bush said in Washington on Thursday.

Spreading Democracy in the Middle East

'Enemy' Gaza: Israel Further Threatens Palestinian Populace

Palestinians inspect the rubble of a house, destroyed by Israeli military bulldozers during a military incursion September 21, 2007, at the Joher Al-Deek village near Al-Bureij refugee camp east of Gaza Strip. A 16-year-old Palestinian youth Mahmoud Al-Kfafi was killed after being run over by an Israeli army bulldozer. Three resistance fighter’s were also killed including Hamas military commander Emad Abu Hjer. The Israeli Army destroyed six houses and uprooting dozens of orange and olive trees. (Photo by Abid Katib/Getty Images)

20 September 2007

With Israel declaring Gaza an "enemy entity" just as the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, calls for upcoming peace talks to advance the cause of a Palestinian state, what next for the territory?

With presenter Sami Zeidan.

Part 1

Condoleezza Rice impartiality in Middle East affairs.

Part 2

The Story of the Shoplifting Seagull

I hope they like potato chips?

The Grain of Truth

Picture from, “MIKE, A PUBLIC SCHOOL STORY,” BY P. G. WODEHOUSE.

Search for the grain of truth in other opinions. If you enjoy learning as well as making other people happy, you'll love this idea. Almost everyone feels that their own opinions are good ones, otherwise they wouldn't be sharing them with you. One of the destructive things that many of us do, however, is compare someone else's opinion to our own. And, when it doesn't fall in line with our belief, we either dismiss it or find fault with it. We feel smug, the other person feels diminished, and we learn nothing.

Almost every opinion has some merit, especially if we are looking for merit, rather than looking for errors. The next time someone offers you an opinion, rather than judge or criticize it, see if you can find a grain of truth in what the person is saying. If you think about it, when you judge someone else or their opinion, it really doesn't say anything about the other person, but it says quite a bit about your need to be judgmental.

If you practice this simple strategy to find the grain of truth in other positions, some wonderful things will begin to happen: You'll begin to understand those who you interact with, others will be drawn to your accepting and loving energy, your learning curve will be enhanced, and, perhaps most important, you'll feel much better about yourself.

Ahmadinejad Dismisses Threats by French Officials

18 September 2007

Tehran-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here on Tuesday that Tehran "does not take seriously" recent threats by French officials.

His remarks came during his talks with reporters at the end of his address to the Majlis where he briefed the MPs on the performance of his government for implementation of the country's Fourth Development Plan (2005-2010).

"We do not take these statements seriously. Comments to the media are different from real statements," the president stressed.

How the Leopard Can’t Change Their Stripes

Israel’s Wiggle through Lying Deception

21 September 2007

by HRH Deborah

Israel is accusing the Palestinian people not wishing peace, when they are the occupier’s of our country and are still committing terrorist acts against the Palestinian people; along with an attempted illegal underhanded peace deal in November.

They not now nor ever have put a legitimate peace deal on the table that would satisfy all parties; this has never been their intention. They say they were not trying to broker a land deal and this has been in the forefront of their ideals since they first invaded Palestine about 106 years ago; as well as commit complete unwaving genocide to the whole population of Palestine.

They have done this very thing through land purchase trickery and then committed murder on these deals, bulldozing homes and olive trees. A very good example of their idea of this is walking into people’s homes sticking a gun to their head and tell them they do not live there anymore; then take possession. If the owner of these homes did resist, they was shot and the Zionist still took possession.

This is where they will turn around and tell the global community that the owner’s abandoned their homes, when the majority of Palestinians and I hope the global community knows this is not true.

The Palestinian people have attempted through the majority, to create a legal united peace deal at this time and Israel because they can not have “their cake and eat it too” attitude, refuse and what better way to change the public view, say it never happened.

Numerous times, the real spokesperson to make a peace deal, Israel refuses to speak to them in any manner.

Palestinian grandmother mourns during her grandson’s funeral on September 21, 2007 in Joher Al-Deek, Gaza Strip .

So I ask you, when will Israel and their allies actually make peace with the Palestinian people, instead of continued occupation, terrorism, murder and deception towards not only the Palestinian people; but Palestine herself?

Leopard Walking

2 Students Shot at Delaware State University

21 September 2007

By RANDALL CHASE

DOVER, Del. -Two students were shot and wounded, one seriously, at Delaware State University early Friday, and the campus was locked down as police searched for a gunman, officials said.

Classes were canceled for the day and students were being kept inside.

"They've been directed to stay in their dorms," university spokesman Carlos Holmes said. "We don't know where the shooter's at."

Gates at the university's main entrance prevented people from driving onto campus.

The students were shot near the Memorial Hall gymnasium around 1 a.m., according to the university.

Holmes said the female student appeared to have suffered serious wounds. "They could be potentially life-threatening," he said. The male student's wounds were not as serious and he was hospitalized in stable condition, Holmes said.

Police hoped to find out more information once the victims were able to talk.

"We haven't had a chance to talk to them yet, and that's probably a big reason why the suspect is still at large," Holmes told KYW-TV of Philadelphia.

Authorities did not know of a motive for the shootings, which were also being investigated by state police, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Holmes said.

He said he was not aware of any big parties on campus Thursday night, although there was a rally organized to honor the so-called Jena Six, six black teenagers charged in a high school fight in Louisiana.

"It was a very peaceful, very nice rally, very positive," Holmes said, adding there was no reason to believe the rally was connected to the shootings.

University officials informed students about the shooting with phone calls, a notice posted on the campus Web site and notifications in each dormitory. Holmes said Delaware State had improved the speed of its notifications following the shootings in April at Virginia Tech.

The Dover campus was surrounded Friday by groups of recreational vehicles belonging to NASCAR fans in town for weekend races at the Dover Downs Speedway.

A commuter student who arrived Friday morning was barred from campus. Eduardo Rivera, 25, of Milford, said he hadn't known about the shootings and was surprised by the media gathered outside the main gate.

"I thought it was about racing, or NASCAR, or something like that," he said. "I'm shocked. I don't expect to hear something like this when I'm trying to go to class — it's weird."

Rivera, a sophomore studying physical education and sports management, said he had felt the campus was safe.

At the start of the semester, the campus community held a memorial service for three students and an incoming student shot execution-style Aug. 4 as they hung out at an elementary school in their hometown of Newark, N.J. Natasha Aeriel, 19; her brother, Terrance Aeriel, 18, and Dashon Harvey, 20, were students. Iofemi Hightower, 20, had planned to attend Delaware State this fall. Natasha Aeriel, the only survivor, helped police identify six suspects who have been arrested.

One student said friends of hers were near the shooting Friday when it started. "They were pretty shook up," said Samantha Williams, from Orange, N.J., who is taking a leave from school.

She said students on campus were excited about an upcoming appearance by rappers during homecoming festivities, which begin in October.

Delaware State was established in 1891 as the State College for Colored Students. It had about 3,690 students last year. The 400-acre campus is in the northern section of Dover, across the street from the racetrack.

___

Associated Press writer Jeffrey Gold in Newark, N.J., contributed to this report.

___

On the Net:

Delaware State University: http://www.desu.edu

Related Video's:

DSU On Lockdown After Campus Shooting

Del. State Spokesperson Discusses Shooting CBS 3 Philadelphia

The shooter at this time is still at large, if anyone has any information; please contact: The Dover State University Police Department at (302) 857-6290.

Trademark of Resistance

No Suicide Attack's Planned by Hamas, Israel Lies

Israeli soldiers fire tear gas toward Palestinians before assaulting the Al-Ain refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday. (Reuters)

Israeli Army Raid Spreads Terror

21 September 2007

NABLUS, West Bank, 21 September 2007 — A fierce Israeli Army raid in a crowded West Bank refugee camp has spread terror and confined thousands of residents to their homes for a third straight day yesterday, and many said they’re running out of food and water.

There were indications that the operation was nearing its end, but the raid was especially painful for the 5,000 refugees, because it came during Ramadan, when Muslim families normally gather for large feasts at nightfall to end their daytime fast.

Israeli media reported before sundown yesterday that soldiers captured a cell of four militants from Hamas and the Popular Front groups who were planning a suicide attack. That was the stated goal of the raid, signaling that it was close to conclusion. The military said it arrested 35 suspects, including three Hamas militants accused of plotting to carry out a suicide bombing.

Also yesterday, Israeli forces moved into central Gaza to confront squads of militants who fire rockets at Israel almost every day. During that raid, a teenager died when he was hit by shrapnel and run over by an army bulldozer, hospital officials said. The left side of his face was crushed.

Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Health Ministry in Gaza identified the youth as 17-year-old Mahmoud Kassassi. No militant groups claimed him as a member. The Israeli Army said it was looking into the reports of the youth’s death.

During the raid, the army said aircraft attacked a vehicle carrying gunmen near its forces. Hamas said one of its fighters was killed. By yesterday afternoon, the operation was over and all forces had left Gaza, the army said.

The raid on the Ein Bet Ilmeh refugee camp next to the West Bank city of Nablus was one of the most extensive in the area in recent months. Damage was widespread, and smoke wafted over the camp, some of it from piles of tires set on fire by Palestinians trying to impede the Israeli forces.

In some cases, residents said, Israeli soldiers crashed through the walls of the flimsy concrete-block houses instead of confronting militants on the narrow streets. Residents said they were running out of food and water. The army said it was allowing food, medicine and ambulances into the camp, but with a tight curfew since Tuesday, some of the residents said they couldn’t leave their homes to buy food.

Lara Kanan, 23, said water was running out in some houses because rooftop water tanks had been hit by bullets. There were complaints by Palestinians that Israeli troops were using them to enter places where armed militants might be holed up —a practice outlawed by Israel’s Supreme Court.

Hussam Hamdan, 30, said troops marched him out of his own apartment early yesterday and forced him to enter a neighbor’s apartment to bring them out. The army said it was looking into Hamdan’s charge that soldiers used him as a shield as they moved from house to house.

Israeli troops backed by tanks and bulldozers launched the raid on Tuesday. Two Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed in the first two days of the fighting. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday called for a halt to the operation, which he said was the most recent example of Israel’s “policy of invasion.”

Abbas spoke at a joint press conference with visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Troops fired rubber-coated bullets to disperse a protest by residents calling for an end to the raid, residents said. Two were wounded.

Hamas Media Spokesman Contacts Israeli Deputy Defence Minister to Discuss Ceasefire, Israel Refuses

21 September 2007

Bethlehem – Ma'an – Ma'an news agency has learnt from unofficial Israeli sources that contact between the offices of the de facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and that of the Israeli Defence Minister, Ehud Barak was made last week.

The contact occurred before the Israeli cabinet meeting declared the Gaza Strip an "enemy entity" and threatened to cut off electricity and water supplies.

The Israeli radio station, the Voice of Israel, mentioned that a prominent member of Haniyeh's office contacted a prominent Israeli in the Defence Ministry, through an intermediary, to negotiate the ceasing of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into Israel.

However, Ma'an can reveal that some form of communication took place between Ghazi Hamad, media spokesman for Haniyeh's office and Matan Falna'i, deputy defence minister.

The sources told Ma'an that Hamad asked to talk to Falna'i directly and that Falna'i promised he would consider it.

But after the Israeli cabinet's declaration of Hamas as an enemy organization Falna'i said he would not be able to communicate directly with Hamad.

The sources also told Ma'an that Hamas will not back down or stop firing rockets from the Gaza Strip before the siege on the crossings into the Gaza Strip is lifted.

The Israeli government refused to negotiate with Haniyeh to reach a truce in the Gaza Strip because the Knesset Member (MK), Yossi Beilin considered the Israeli decision irresponsible, saying that Israel is indifferent to the plight of the residents of Sderot, the Negev, the Gaza Strip and to the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Beilin added that the Israeli government does not have any other solution and they should accept the Hamas offer of a truce.

Israel can negotiate with Hamas through a third party, but official negotiations would be with the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO).

Hamad completely denied trying to communicate with the Israeli deputy defence minister. He told Ma'an, "I did not communicate or implement any communication with any Israeli party."

Israeli officials were unavailable for comment.

Jerusalem Still a Closed City

Israeli border policemen stand guard while Muslim worshippers pray at the entrance of the Al-Aqsa Mosque

Israel imposes complete closure on West Bank and Gaza
21 September 2007

Bethlehem – Ma'an – Israel imposed a complete 'security' closure starting from Thursday evening on the whole of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip which will last until Sunday morning.

The reason given for this measure is the Jewish Festival of Yom Kippur.

Israel said that they would not permit anyone to enter Jerusalem, except for emergency health care and then only with the coordination of the Israeli District Co-ordination Office (DCO). Muslim worshippers will also not be allowed to enter Jerusalem for Friday prayers even if they have a special permit to do so.

Israeli border police officers control Palestinian worshippers at Qalandiya checkpoint on the outskirts of Jerusalem September 21, 2007. (Loay Abu Haykel/Reuters)

The Israeli authorities also said they will deploy thousands of police in the streets of East Jerusalem especially in the Old City to ensure the safety of both Muslim and Jewish worshippers.

Tens of thousands of Jewish worshippers on Thursday night gathered in the square opposite the Wailing Wall.

Israel's Idea of Peace?

21 September 2007

Bethlehem – Ma'an – Israeli transport minister, Shaul Mofaz announced on Friday that expected Israeli military attacks on the Gaza Strip "will come sooner or later."

He also said there will never be a lasting solution with the Palestinians.

Israeli media sources reported that Mofaz said, "The day will come when Fatah and Hamas embrace each other at the same time as rockets still land on Sderot and the Kibbutzes neighbouring the Gaza Strip and the soldier Gilad Shalit is still a prisoner in Gaza. It has today become clear that a large-scale military operation will happen sooner or later."

In response to Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon's plan for withdrawing from parts of the West Bank and dividing Jerusalem, Mofaz said, "Jerusalem is not a real estate deal, and no one regardless of his position has the right to divide Jerusalem. We have to know that a lasting resolution with the Palestinians means that Israel gives concessions to the Palestinians but Israel shouldn't seek a lasting resolution with the Palestinians now as the time is not suitable and we have no guarantees that Palestinians will be committed to their promises in any agreement that would be signed with them."

Types of Hearts

From the spiritual and moral point of view there are different types of hearts. These types are related to their awareness and consciousness. In this respect, the Prophet is reported to have said,

"There are four types of hearts: a pure heart that shines like a lamp, the covered up and closed heart, the upside down heart and the mixed up heart. The pure heart is that of the believer. The covered up heart is that of the non-believer. The upside down heart is that of the hypocrite who knows and then denies. The mixed up heart is that in which there is both faith and hypocrisy. The example of faith in it is like a small plant that grows with good water and the example of hypocrisy in it is like a wound that grows with pus and blood. So whichever grows bigger takes over the heart." (Ahmad)

UN Warns Israel Over 'enemy' Gaza

Ban said cutting vital supplies to Gaza would violate international laws [EPA]

19 September 2007

"Under no circumstances can Israel view it as an 'enemy entity'. Gaza is not an independent state, Gaza is under occupation"-Saeb Erekat, senior Palestinian negotiator

The UN has urged Israel to reconsider its decision to declare the Gaza Strip as an "enemy entity", warning that cutting vital services would violate international law.

The Israeli move to cut off the power, water and fuel supplies on which Gaza is almost entirely dependent was backed by the United States on Wednesday.

The Israeli prime minister's office said Ehud Olmert's security cabinet had approved the "enemy entity" classification and there would be "limitations on imports to the Gaza Strip and a reduction in the supply of fuel and electricity".

The move is seen as retaliation for Palestinian rocket fire.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said Wednesday's declaration intended to interrupt essential services could exacerbate the Palestinians' difficult conditions.

"Such a step would be contrary to Israel's obligations towards the civilian population under international humanitarian and human rights law," he said on Wednesday.

Ban said 1.4 million people in Gaza, including the old, the very young and the sick were already suffering and "should not be punished for the unacceptable actions of militants and extremists".

At the same time he said continued rocket fire from Gaza into Israel was unacceptable, calling "for it to stop immediately".

"I understand Israel's security concerns over this matter,'' he added.

US backing

Israel's move on Gaza was backed by the US on Wednesday, with Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, saying the Hamas was "a hostile entity to the US as well".

Speaking in a joint press conference with Livni in occupied Jerusalem, she said the US, however, would not "abandon the innocent Palestinians".

"We will not abandon the innocent Palestinians in Gaza and indeed will make every effort to deal with their humanitarian needs," she said.

Rice is on a visit to the Middle East in preparation for a US-led peace conference between Israelis and Palestinians.

The Israelis and Palestinians, however, have very different expectations of the talks.

Israeli leaders are seeking a softer joint declaration rather than a binding deal while the Palestinians are pushing for a firmer "framework agreement" on core issues of borders, the status of Jerusalem and refugees.

'Declaration of war'

Tensions have been on the rise in the area since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in mid-June. Hamas responded to the Israeli government's announcement saying the move amounted to a "declaration of war".

Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister, said the Israeli cabinet "made this decision according to our legal advisers, so it is according to international law".

But Saeb Erekat, the senior Palestinian negotiator and spokesman for the West Bank-based government, told Al Jazeera the Israeli move was "illegal and null and void".

"I believe Gaza and West Bank are still under Israeli occupation. Under no circumstances can Israel view it as an 'enemy entity'. Gaza is not an independent state, Gaza is under occupation," he said.

Erekat said Israel was in "total violation of international law" and described the move as "a collective punishment and a preparation for further military escalation against the 1.5 million people of Gaza".

"At the end of the day, it will not end the cycle of violence but complicate matters and breed more violence," he added.

Source

Demonstrating Against Racism: The "Jena 6"

Carwin Jones talks to his father, John Jenkins, outside the LaSalle Parish Courthouse in Jena, La. Jones is one of five black students still facing attempted second-degree murder charges for beating Justin Barker, who is white, last December. A sixth black student has already been convicted on lesser charges.

The Jena 6 Case is History Written in Lightning

19/21 September 2007

by Trey Ellis

If you don't know who the Jena 6 are, you are not alone. The first I heard about the black high school teens being railroaded through the Louisiana criminal justice system was last week when I received an email urging me to wear black Thursday the 20th in their support.

The first Sean Hannity heard about it was last night when Reverend Al was trying to bring it up and Hannity assumed he was talking about Megan Williams, the young black woman who was tortured and sexually assaulted by those crazy hillbillies in West Virginia. Cryptkeeper Colmes tried to explain but as usual Hannity didn't hear a word he said.

The Jena 6 case began last fall when a new black student to the mostly white, rural Louisiana town of Jena sat under the "white tree," so called because it was the place where the white kids at school congregated.

The next day three white boys on the rodeo team hung three nooses from the tree.

The white boys were only given an in-school suspension, their act deemed no more than a "prank."

The day after that several of the school's black high school football stars organized a peaceful silent protest under the tree. The school freaked, called in the police and the next day Reed Walters, the local D.A., addressed the school. There, he is reported to have looked at the black kids in the audience, waved his pen in the air and said, "With a stroke of this pen, I can make your life disappear."

The football season was a good one for Jena and for a few months there was relative quiet in the town. Then on November 30th, a wing of the high school was burned down. Whites thought it was blacks and the blacks assumed it was the whites.

The always excellent Wade Goodman of NPR reported what happened next:

"The next night, 16-year-old Robert Bailey and a few black friends tried to enter a party attended mostly by whites. When Bailey got inside, he was attacked and beaten. The next day, tensions escalated at a local convenience store. Bailey exchanged words with a white student who had been at the party. The white boy ran back to his truck and pulled out a pistol grip shotgun. Bailey ran after him and wrestled him for the gun.

After some scuffling, Bailey and his friends took the gun away and brought it home. Bailey was eventually charged with theft of a firearm, second-degree robbery and disturbing the peace. The white student who pulled the weapon was not charged at all.

The following Monday, Dec. 4, a white student named Justin Barker was loudly bragging to friends in the school hallway that Robert Bailey had been whipped by a white man on Friday night. When Barker walked into the courtyard, he was attacked by a group of black students. The first punch knocked Barker out and he was kicked several times in the head. But the injuries turned out to be superficial. Barker was examined by doctors and released; he went out to a social function later that evening.

Six black students were arrested and charged with aggravated assault. But District Attorney Reed Walters increased the charges to attempted second-degree murder."

The first black kid to go to court, Mychal Bell, then 16, was tried as an adult and convicted by an all-white jury. He faced 22 years in prison. After an outcry the charges were reduced; however, tomorrow Mychal Bell is to be sentenced on the lesser charges.

The white kids who attacked Bailey the night before have not been charged with anything.

As always happens in these cases, the blacks say of course there has always been racism in this little town, and the whites say their little town is just like any other small town full of good, churchgoing folk.

What white Southerners still fail to realize is their complicity in some of the most vicious and effective terrorism the world has ever seen. Lynchings were only the most visible and brutal embodiments of a system to terrorize the black minority. A noose is a symbol the way a swastika is a symbol. A noose hanging from a tree in that context is an almost unimaginably vicious act. Those white teens, instead of being ashamed of their terrorist ancestry, reveled in the evil. The adults who are charged with the education of all the students deemed it merely a prank.

The scariest part of this ordeal is that you know these boys are the relatively lucky ones for whom publicity might spare them. How many other black lives are still thrown away at the whim of our broken justice system?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Demonstrators March Supporting the Jena 6

Thousands of demonstrators have marched through a town in the southern United States in support of six black teenagers initially charged with attempted murder in the beating of a white youth.

The march on Thursday through Jena, Louisiana, was led by Reverend Al Sharpton, a civil rights campaigner.

Teresa Bo reports from Jena.

American Journalist Criticizes American Media Coverage of Palestinian Issues

20 September 2007

In a lecture organized by the Al Najah University of Nablus on Wednesday, Alison Weir, founder of the ‘If Americans knew’ organization, criticized the biased American Media coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Alison Weir the founder of founder of If Americans knew

The ‘If Americans Knew’ organization was founded to inform and educate the American public on issues of major significance that are unreported, underreported, or misreported in the American media.

In the course of the speech, Weir spoke about the activities her organization and analyzed American media coverage of the conflict, arguing that it misrepresents what is, in essence, a brutal war of oppression against the Palestinians.

A study conducted by her organization revealed that US media reported on Israeli victims of the conflict 15% more than Palestinian children victims, despite the fact that many more Palestinians have been killed – a fact supported by the research of various human rights groups in Israel and abroad.

Weir urged Palestinians to improve the quality and frequency of information regarding Israeli attacks, stating that "Israel controls the American Media’s coverage of stories from this region,” and called on Palestinian journalists to use terminology that the West could understand.

Weir concluded her speech by highlighting that the American government gives Israel 8 to 10 million USD per year from the tax money of the American people, arguing that most American people are unaware of this fact.

The ‘If Americans Knew’ website is host to a wealth of information and statistics on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, all of which are offered free of use to local and international journalists.

Translated

Haniyeh in Negotiations to Bring an End to Home-made Shell Fire

20 September 2007

by John Smith

Ismail Haniyeh, the deposed Palestinian Prime Minister, on Thursday met with the leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in a bid to a bring an end to the firing of home-made shells from the Gaza Strip.

Haniyeh had previously met with the leaders of Islamic Jihad on Wednesday in the hope of securing a guarantee that the group would refrain from firing shells.

Despite the efforts of the deposed Prime Minister, the armed wing of the organisation, the al-Quds Brigades, vowed to continue their operations.

“Rockets are an affirmation of our option of continuing holy war and resistance against the occupation […] resistance will only stop if the occupation ends,” an Islamic Jihad spokesperson stated Thursday.

The series of meetings came hours after the Israeli government branded the coastal region a “hostile entity,” and threatened that it would soon begin to starve the Strip of much-needed fuel and electricity supplies.

Two Killed in Israeli Incursions in Gaza, One Crushed by Bulldozer

20 September 2007

Gaza – Ma'an – A Palestinian youth was crushed by an invading bulldozer and another was killed by gunfire during an Israeli incursion east of Al-Bureij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday.

The corpse of seventeen-year-old Mahmoud Al-Kafafi has been transferred to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah, in central Gaza.
A number of local young men aiding the crushed boy in aL-Buraij refugee camp Thursday (Photo: Iyad Albaba - IMEMC News)

The other young man, twenty two year old Muhammad Abu Hujair died from a gunshot wound in his head.

Medical sources said Hujair succumbed to his wounds after he was transferred to the intensive care unit of a Gaza hospital.

Under fire

Two other Palestinians were injured when Israeli helicopters opened fire at Palestinian citizens east of Al-Bureij, Palestinian medical sources reported.

Director of the ambulance and emergency department in the Palestinian ministry of health, Dr. Muawiya Hassanein, said that the injuries were serious.

One Palestinian was transferred to a clinic in An Nuseirat refugee camp and the other was sent to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

The two Palestinians are in a critical condition.

Twin incursions

Israeli military vehicles and undercover forces penetrated the area east of Al-Bureij refugee camp, under cover of fighter jets and helicopters.

Another undercover force entered the Shweika neighbourhood, southern Rafah, simultaneously with the incursion into eastern Al-Bureij.

The Israeli forces in Rafah seized twenty Palestinians.

Media Focus on Maddie

Madeleine's parents have been named as suspects by the Portuguese police[EPA]

17 September 2007

By Laurence Lee

The search for a four-year-old British girl who went missing from her parents' holiday apartment in Portugal in May has gripped the British media throughout the summer.

Her parents have fought to keep the case in the public eye with frequent media appearances and a poster campaign that has stretched across the world, and now they are fighting to prove their innocence after being named as suspects by the Portuguese police.

But Madeleine is just one of thousands of children who go missing every year and most of them receive nowhere near the same level of media coverage.

Katrice Lee disappeared from under her mother's nose at a supermarket in Germany when she was two-years old. She has not been seen for 26 years.

Missing People: UK charity working with runaways, missing and unidentified people

Natasha Lee, Katrice's sister who was seven-years old at the time, told Al Jazeera: "I remember seeing my mum stood outside the car just screaming and screaming and screaming. And suddenly it hit me, this was something really, really bad, something really, really bad had happened,"

She has never given up hope of finding her sister, but the British media have never taken much interest in the case

"I can't recall immediately that when Katrice went missing that we had any press interest. It was only about, I think, a year afterwards that we got the British media interested in Katrice's case."

Exhaustive coverage

Which is all a bit strange as the story bears a striking similarity to that of Madeleine McCann's.

If you spent this summer in Britain you would think nothing else had been happening in the world so exhaustive has been the media coverage of a pretty girl and her well-spoken middle class parents who are both doctors.

The McCanns appeared on television reading statements or answering questions from journalists almost every day during the early days of the inquiry. Later, they travelled across the continent urging people to keep their eyes open for "Maddie".

Two-year-old Katrice Lee went missing froma supermarket in Germany 26 years ago

Newspapers joined the campaign publishing missing posters of the girl, while family members in the UK appeared on television and launched email and internet campaigns.

News programmes sent reporters and presenters to front their extensive coverage from the Portuguese resort where she disappeared.

England footballer David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo, Manchester United's Portuguese star, both made televised appeals for information, while Everton football club wore Madeleine T-shirts before a match.

There are just a few voices prepared to make the controversial point that there is something wrong with the entire state of affairs.

Matthew Parris, a columnist for the London-based The Times newspaper, said: "The parents were white, they were middle class, they were articulate, they were well-spoken. There didn't seem to be any sort of problem in their family which would have invited a disaster like this.

"I would like to believe that if the family had been, say, black or working class, that the press or the public would have been just as interested, but I'm afraid I'm not absolutely sure of that."

Charity 'strapped'

Other people whose children go missing and do not have the entire British media behind them rely on a charity to help them. It says that since Madeleine McCann went missing it has received more than 4,000 reports of other missing children in Britain. Most turn up, but that is not the point, it seems some people's stories are more important than others.

Paul Tuohy, chief executive of the Missing People charity, told Al Jazeera: "We've got about 2,000 cases that we are working on at the moment.

"We're pretty strapped with our case workers and staff supporting these families, and we try as hard as we can to get enough publicity to reunite families. You do wonder about the level and the scale."

Which makes you wonder how many children would be found if they all got the same amount of support as the McCanns.

The publicity generated by the McCann story has led to more than $2m being donated to help find her. That is more than the British government has ever given the Missing People organisation in a single year, in fact, recently they even cut the charity's budget.

Missing People currently has more than 6,000 cases on its books.

Madeleine McCann's story may be tragic, but she is not the only missing child from Britain and her parents are not the only ones living a nightmare every day.

A Double Standard on Academic Freedom

Palestinian schoolboys sitting on the steps of their school in Gaza City, September 2007. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages)

18 September 2007

by George Bisharat

Two hundred thousand Palestinian children began school in the Gaza Strip this month without a full complement of textbooks. Why? Because Israel, which maintains a stranglehold over this small strip of land along the Mediterranean even after withdrawing its settlers from there in 2005, considers paper, ink and binding materials not to be "fundamental humanitarian needs."

Israel, attempting to throttle the democratically elected Hamas government, generally permits only food, medicine and fuel to enter Gaza, and allows virtually no Palestinian exports to leave. Lately, it held up delivery of materials needed for printing textbooks. As a result, Gaza students began the year facing a 30 percent shortage of texts.

No full-page advertisements in major American newspapers have publicized Israel's violations of Palestinian children's right to an education. No editors, syndicated columnists or presidents of major universities in this country have denounced this callous measure. Our politicians have demanded no remedial action. Instead, they continue, verbally and materially, to support Israel in its near-total blockade of 1.5 million Palestinians, kids and all.

Israel's trampling of Palestinian students' right to education -- the key to a lifetime of opportunity -- has rarely evoked official protest from American leaders. The Israeli army has closed Palestinian universities for years at a time. Israeli military authorities have barred Palestinian occupational therapy students from traveling from Gaza to the West Bank to obtain vital clinical training.

Hundreds of Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks can turn a routine trip to a local school into a harrowing ordeal. Israeli gunfire has even killed Palestinian schoolchildren sitting in their classrooms. None of these offenses has merited so much as a congressional resolution, let alone more serious efforts to curb Israeli behavior, such as government-imposed sanctions.

In response to this policy double standard -- complete indulgence of Israel on the one hand, and indifference to violations of Palestinian rights on the other hand -- a movement has emerged for a citizens' boycott of Israel. Churches, unions and professional associations in the United States, Canada, Europe and South Africa have urged a variety of nonviolent measures to compel Israel's compliance with international law.

American Presbyterians have studied divesting church funds from firms that profit from continuing Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. Unison, the United Kingdom's 1.3 million-member union of public servants, voted in June to boycott Israeli goods. In May, a British union of professors opened a yearlong debate over a possible boycott of Israeli academic institutions.

The latter action provoked particularly indignant protest by Israel's US supporters as an offense against "academic freedom." Yet many Israeli academic institutions either benefit from or participate in Israeli government actions that violate Palestinian rights.

Tel Aviv University sits in part over land belonging to Sheikh Muwannis, a Palestinian village whose residents were expelled by Jewish militias or fled in fear in March 1948. These and other Palestinian refugees have been denied their right to return to their homes or to receive compensation for their seized properties.

Hebrew University in Jerusalem uses more than 800 acres of land illegally expropriated from Palestinian private owners in the West Bank after the 1967 war. Bar-Ilan University has established a branch in an illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

The threatened boycott would target Israeli institutions, not individuals. Thus, formal research and other agreements with Israeli universities would be suspended. But invitations to Israeli professors to join conferences or to publish in foreign journals would continue.

Nonetheless, it is likely that the boycott would impose limitations on freedom for some Israeli academics. Is this fair?

Boycotts are always somewhat blunt tools, and they inevitably impose costs on some who are undeserving of them. That was true of the boycott of apartheid South Africa, which applied to all academics -- as well as athletes, businesspeople, artists and others. At the time, the international community weighed the cost to academic freedom against the advancement of justice and equal rights for black South Africans, and the choice was clear.

Two hundred thousand Palestinian schoolchildren are wondering how the world will respond faced with a similar choice today.

George Bisharat is a professor of law at Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, and writes frequently on law and politics in the Middle East.

Congressman Faces Heat for Comments on Jewish Lobby

19 September 2007

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Rep. Jim Moran, D-Virginia, is under fire from members of his own party for recent comments claiming a major Jewish public action committee was behind the push to invade Iraq in 2003.

In the September issue of the Jewish magazine Tikkun, Moran is sharply critical of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), saying "AIPAC is the most powerful lobby and has pushed this war from the beginning. I don't think they represent the mainstream of American Jewish thinking at all, but because they are so well organized… they have been able to exert power."

AIPAC tells CNN it has taken no position on the Iraq war.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, was quick to dispute Moran's charge.

"I think he certainly ought to retract the remarks, and indicate he believes that he was inaccurate on the facts," Hoyer said Tuesday.

“His remarks…recall an old canard that is not true, that the Jewish community controls the media and the Congress," Hoyer added.

A spokesman for Moran told CNN Tuesday, "It is not the Jewish people, but an organization aligned with the Bush Administration… that he critiqued."

In 2003, Moran apologized for saying Iraq would not have been invaded without the Jewish community's support. He survived a primary and got re-elected in 2004, but his latest remarks could prompt another challenge.

The Moran controversy takes place following the publication of a new book called "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" by two political scientists, John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen Walt of Harvard.

They argue that AIPAC, along with a loose network of lobbyists, political professionals and members of the media, holds an unduly powerful sway over over the U.S. government when it comes to policy towards Israel. That pressure, in part, led to the war in Iraq.

When the two first published their ideas in the London Review of Books in 2006, they set of a firestorm of criticism in the academic and foreign policy community, drawing accusations of anti-Semitism from some.

The two have argued since then that their critique is not anti-Semitic or aimed specifically at Jews, but rather that the government's policy towards Israel is becoming detrimental to greater American goals abroad.

UPDATE: Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, is circulating a letter Wednesday among Jewish House members that formally calls on Moran to repudiate his comments.