Christian Orthodox Nuns Celebrate Palm Sunday

Christian Orthodox nuns carry palm branches and crosses during for Palm Sunday procession from Mt. Olives into Jerusalem's Old City on 19 April 2008.

In Christian belief, one can find the Bible passage that gives reference to this event in Matthew 21.

The ceremony is a landmark in the Orthodox Christian calendar, marking their belief in the triumphant return of Jesus to Jerusalem the week before his crucifixion, when a cheering crowd greeted him waving palm leaves.

Palm Sunday marks the start of the most solemn week in the Orthodox Christian calendar.

Trusting America Trade As Bush Rides Congress

President George W. Bush and Laura Bush welcome South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his wife, Kim Yoon-ok, Friday, April 18, 2008, to the Presidential retreat at Camp David, Md. (White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)

For Immediate Release

Office of the Press Secretary

April 19, 2008

Audio
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Next week, I will be hosting the North American Leaders' Summit in New Orleans. This event will give me an opportunity to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calder n to discuss some of the most significant issues facing our hemisphere and the world.

One of the issues that I'll be discussing with these leaders is the importance of expanding trade in our hemisphere. Recently I sent Congress an agreement that would expand America's access to markets in Colombia. Unfortunately, the Speaker of the House has chosen to block the Colombia free trade agreement instead of giving it an up or down vote that Congress committed to. Her action is unprecedented and extremely unfortunate. I hope that the Speaker will change her mind. If she does not, the agreement will be dead. And this will be bad for American workers and bad for America's national security.

And here is why: Today, almost all of Colombia's exports to the United States enter duty-free. But the 9,000 American businesses that export to Colombia, including nearly 8,000 small and mid-sized firms, face significant tariffs on their products. The situation is completely one-sided. Our markets are open to Colombian products, but barriers that make it harder to sell American goods in Colombia remain. If the free trade agreement were implemented, however, most of Colombia's tariffs on American goods would be eliminated immediately.

There is also a strategic imperative to approve the agreement. By obstructing this agreement, Congress is signaling to a watching hemisphere that America cannot be trusted to support its friends. Over the past six years, Colombia's President Uribe has been a steadfast ally of the United States. He's transformed his country from a near-failed state to a stable democracy with a growing economy. He has partnered with America in the fight against drugs and terror. And he has addressed virtually every one of Congress's concerns, including revising the free trade agreement to include some of the most rigorous labor and environmental protections in history.

He has done all this while his country is under violent assault from a terrorist organization and facing constant intimidation from anti-American regimes in the region. As Canada's Prime Minister Harper has said, "If the U.S. turns its back on its friends in Colombia, this will set back our cause far more than any Latin American dictator could hope to achieve."

Leaders in Congress have made a serious error, but it is not too late to get it right. This week, a long list of senior officials from Democratic administrations and Democrats from previous Congresses signed a letter urging Congress to approve the agreement this year. They wrote, "We feel that the treaty should be considered as soon as possible and that any obstacles should be quickly and amicably resolved." I strongly agree. I believe that if the Speaker allows a vote on the merits, a majority of the House of Representatives will approve the trade agreement. So I urge leaders in Congress to reconsider their position, recognize the stakes at hand, and approve the Colombia agreement as soon as possible.

Thank you for listening.

END

Holding Husband’s Accountable for Wives’ Welfare

Court hunts 'wanton husband'

18 April 2008
By RUTH EGLASH

For the first time ever the rabbinic court system in Israel has turned to the secular media in an attempt to track down a wanton husband who is refusing to grant his wife a divorce.

"From our experiences, we believe that refusing a get [divorce] is a social problem," said Rabbi Eliyah Ben-Dahan, director of the rabbinic courts. "If we reveal the identity in a public forum of those men who refuse to grant their wives a get‚ then he will stop being accepted in his immediate environment."

Ben-Dahan added that even if the man in question has gone into hiding, it is likely that his close family may know his whereabouts. Publishing the man's name will bring shame upon his family, he said, hopefully prompting them to come forward with information that will ultimately free the woman in question.

In the first case to be publicized in this way, the rabbinic court has turned exclusively to The Jerusalem Post to advertise the personal details of one Meir Briskman, 33.

Briskman, the son of Anglo immigrants, has refused to grant his wife a divorce for the past five years, a spokeswoman for the court said.

According to the information obtained by the Post, the couple had resided together in Jerusalem's Har Nof neighborhood until their separation. Later, Briskman moved into his parents' home on Rehov Hizkiyahu Hamelech and was seen more recently in the Geula neighborhood of the capital.

The court believes that he may have now fled the country, leaving his wife halachically unable to move on with her life.

While Briskman's wife refused to be interviewed for this article and asked not to be identified, she represents just one of hundreds of women known as agunot or "chained women" being held captive by their intransigent husbands.

Many times the men refuse to cooperate out of spite or in an attempt to secure a more favorable divorce settlement.

According to Jewish law, a woman cannot remarry until her husband agrees to give her a get. If agunot do marry without first receiving a get from their previous husbands, the children born of the second marriage are considered illegitimate, or mamzerim, and are forbidden to marry.

"Agunot are one of our main concerns, and we are making every effort to find those husbands who have deserted them," said Ben-Dahan, noting that the court currently runs a page on its web site entitled "Wanted," which features the names and faces of runaway husbands.

Asked whether the use of a public forum to shame husbands refusing divorces marks a permanent change in tactic of the rabbinic court, Ben-Dahan said the court has always made every effort to encourage husbands to cooperate.

"We already use private investigators to search for missing men, but in many cases it is very difficult to find them," he said. "We really believe that this kind of advertising and article will raise public awareness and help us find them."

Robyn Shames, director of the International Coalition of Agunah Rights, said she welcomed the move. "I think it's fantastic - any move by the rabbinic courts to find men in an unwanted marriage should be applauded. Efforts need to be made to encourage society to change how they relate to men who refuse to give divorces - they should be treated just like men who violently abuse their wives, because it is a form of abuse."

In January, figures published by the rabbinic courts showed that 9,765 couples had divorced in 2007. The rabbinic court claims it is now imposing more sanctions against husbands who refuse to give their wives a get, such as the cancellation of drivers' licenses and exit visas, or even prison sentences.

In 2007, 23 men were incarcerated for refusing to give a get, compared to nine in 2006.

The court asks that anyone with information on Briskman please make contact via its web site www.rbc.gov.il or call (02) 658 2822.

Tuvia Ribner's Song of Pesach

19 April 2008

Tuvia Ribner, the 2008 Jewish Prize laureate for literature and poetry, also dabbled in photography.

Tuvia was born in Czechoslovakia in 1924 and survived the Nazi era in Europe thanks to Henrietta Szold, who rescued Jewish children from the Nazis. He has been living in Kibbutz Merhavia from the day he immigrated to Palestine in 1941.

Since then, Tuvia has engaged in poetry, but photography has also been a significant part of his life.

Below are featured two photos he took at Kibbutz Merhavia in the 1950’s during Pesach (Passover).

Passover night service at the kibbutz

Fatah Female Terrorist Suspects impersonate the Former Hamas

Fatah Female terrorist suspects impersonate the Former Hamas, during an alleged protest against Jewish siege of the Gaza Strip near the Erez crossing in the north of the territory on 19 April 2008.

This looks like just another media photo-op and these women are insulting the former Hamas.

Their actually is no longer an organization known as Hamas in Palestine and furthermore, the people that was the former Hamas are living happy peaceful lives with their Jewish neighbors.

While Fatah continues to lie to the global public as well as the media, it apparently is not working for a U.S. breaking news report labeled Fatah was seen yesterday and the only link, had to do with an Arab man eating ice cream.

It is thought most people, would rather eat the ice cream then put up with Fatah's nonsense?

Fatah Disrupting Jewish Holiday?

Jewish soldiers operate a checkpoint near the Adam settlement in the occupied West Bank on 19 April 2008. Security restrictions where raised after the last Jewish holiday attacks by Fatah terrorist as a precaution, in the West Bank during the Jewish Passover holiday that for many began the evening of 19 April 2008 and lasts until April 27.

A Jewish soldier operates a checkpoint near the Adam Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank on 19 April 2008.

Jewish troops, seen through a net, prepare to cross into the Gaza Strip near the Kerem Shalom terminal on 19 April 2008. Three Fatah terrorist were killed and 12 Jewish soldiers wounded today when Fatah terrorist, including suicide bombers, stormed the southern Gaza border crossing with explosives-laden vehicles.

The Jewish arm of the Palestine military has been in the forefront of security also prior to the Jewish holiday for not just their protection, but also the protection of Arab Palestinians and Christians in Palestine, against Fatah terrorism. The majority of the Palestinian people are very grateful to them.
A Jewish armored vehicle is parked next to the spot where a mortar shell by Fatah terrorist, landed near an army base at the Sufa crossing, north of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on 19 April 2008.

Palestine Embassy Plaque in Pakistan

A Plaque in front of the Embassy of the State of Palestine, in Islamabad, Pakistan.

It is my understanding, that currently the embassies are being revamped to care for all the citizens of Palestine.

Palestinian in Iraq Attacked by Anti-Semitic U.S. Marine’s

A Palestinian businessman living in Basra, Iraq stands by the gate of his bullet riddled home on 18 April 2008.

19 April 2008

A Palestinian businessman, in celebration of Palestine Independence, which occurred 14 March 2008 and to show respect to the Jewish people painted a Jewish flag on the ground outside of his home in the southern city of Basra, Iraq.

On the 18 April 2008, a group of U.S. Marines on maneuver’s came by the front of the wall to his home and upon seeing the Jewish flag, apparently out of disgust, sprayed the front of the Palestinian mans wall causing it to be bullet riddled.

This incident because of the Jewish flag being shown and the type of aggression, is considered Anti-Semitism on the part of the U.S. Marine’s, by not just many of the Jewish people, but also Arab Palestinians.

Berlin Jews Prepare For Pesach (Passover)

Boxes of matzoh bread from Palestine stand on a cart during preparations for Passover dinner at the Intercontinental Hotel on 18 April 2008 in Berlin, Germany.

Gorelik was overseeing the preparations to ensure strict Passover kosher standards for the dinner, which will be served to 500 Jews on Sunday for the traditional seder meal.

The menu will include gefilte fish, matzoh ball soup, braised beef with vegetables and fresh fruit.

Berlin has seen a strong influx of Jews from the former Soviet Union in recent years.

Obama's insult to Palestine

'Hamas is not a state, Hamas is a terrorist organisation.' -Barack Obama

(Obama said at a Philadelphia Synagogue on 16 April 2008.)

Fatah Holding Doctors in hospital death case

17 April 2008

A doctor and an anesthetist accused of causing a woman's death in a Nablus hospital had their appeal for bail refused by Fatah for the second time on Thursday.

They are accused of causing the death of 35-year-old Hana Khaleefa from the northern West Bank village of Ajja near Jenin, who died after being given an alleged overdose of adrenalin before an operation to remove her adenoids on April 12.

The Fatah hearing was adjourned until Sunday April 27.

Najat Abu Bakr told that international agencies are exerting pressure on Fatah to release the doctors.

US neo-Nazis gear up for Hitler's b'day

17 April 2008

By HAVIV RETTIG

America's neo-Nazis will be staging a series of events and rallies across the US next week to mark the 119th anniversary of the birth of Adolf Hitler on April 20, 1889.

The Anti-Defamation League said those organizing the events include the National Socialist Movement and its offshoots Volksfront and the American National Socialist Workers Party (ANSWP).

The events include on April 19 an anti-immigration march in Washington DC, a "family friendly" cookout in memory of Hitler in Morganton, North Carolina, for members of the white supremacist website Stormfront, and a meeting in Portland, Oregon, of the local chapter of Volksfront, which is seeking to purchase land in the Pacific Northwest in order to establish an autonomic whites-only region in the area.

The rally in Washington, organized by NSM, is expected to see marchers wearing Nazi uniforms and a former SS officer speaking.

On April 20, ANSWP will host an event in Chicago, while the National Socialist Order of America plans to launch its National Socialist Leadership Training School, a correspondence course for members, on that day.

On April 26, Crew 38, a group close to the violent neo-Nazi group Hammerskin Nation, will hold an "Adolf Hitler Memorial and BBQ" in Houston with a swastika lighting.

U.S. Air Cover

A US helicopter in Iraq in 2006.

Allegedly, the U.S. helicopter was suppose to be providing air cover as Iraqi police secure the Ministry of the Interior after an attack.

Houston-based KBR gets more U.S. military contracts

17 April 2008
by Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Army has awarded contracts to KBR, DynCorp International and Fluor to provide food and shelter to U.S. troops overseas.

Houston-based KBR, DynCorp and Fluor will get 1-year contracts worth up to five billion dollars per company. If all options are exercised over 10 years, the combined value of the pacts is $150 billion.

The Army originally picked the same three companies for the logistics deal last July.

But the military had to re-evaluate its decision after a federal watchdog agency backed protests filed by two private firms.

The Government Accountability Office in October supported the protests filed by IAP Worldwide Services and Contingency Management Group.

The companies will provide a range of support and logistics services -- such as delivering food, water and fuel, managing dining and laundry facilities and providing sanitation and waste management.

An Old Candle

A very lovely picture, apparently, taken during Eid in Damascus, Syria in 2007.

A Publicity Stunt

Jewish soldiers stand guard as Fatah and foreign activists have a so call protest in the village of Maasarah near the West Bank town of Bethlehem on 18 April 2008, which is nothing but a media publicity stunt on Fatah‘s and foreign activists part.

"Fellows while you’re leaning on your vehicles, you look as if you need a nice cup of coffee or tea."

A Jewish soldier removes a sheep stuck in some barbed wire, while Fatah and foreign activists stand by, just watching. A sheep caught in barbed wire such as this is helpless, unless someone like this kind soldier gives them a hand, otherwise, the sheep would have stood in the wire and died.

Pope to address United Nations General Assembly on peace, human rights

Pope Benedict XVI celebrates mass with some 48,000 people in Washington, DC

18 April 2008

WINNIPEG-Pope Benedict XVI will address the United Nations in New York Friday on the latest leg of his tour of the United States.

The Pope will make a speech to the General Assembly that officials say will be supportive of the goals and aims of the UN's humanitarian and human rights work around the world.

"He [the Pope] is a great believer in the United Nations," said the Vatican spokesman in New York, Brian Kennerty, "and he believes that relations between nations should be based on more than politics and trade, that there should be a moral and human basis."

The Pope will encourage countries to rise above self-interest, Kennerty said, and work together for the common good.

He is also expected to touch on the U.S. military mission in Iraq, of which he and his predecessor, the late John Paul II, have been implacable opponents, and the Israeli-Palestinian question.

A leading American academic who studies the papacy and the Vatican's role in the world, Jo Renee Formicola of Seton Hall University in New York, said the speech is a key moment for Pope Benedict XVI.

"This is his first real foray onto the world stage," Formicola said. "I think he recognizes this is a historic moment. I don't think it's going to be about divisive issues. It's going to be about all the things that unite us: themes of peace, opportunity, aid and assitance."

Dominated by sex abuse scandal so far

The UN speech was originally intended to be the highlight of a papal visit that has so far been dominated by the Pope addressing concerns about the sexual abuse by clergy in the U.S. Catholic church.

On Thursday night in Washington, the Pope met with victims of clergy sex abuse and prayed with them in scenes fraught with emotion and tension.

Victims' rights advocates in the Catholic church had been harshly critical of the Vatican's handling of the sex abuse scandal and had been demanding such a meeting, as well as punishment for pedophile priests and higher clergy who covered up for them.

The Pope made several pointed references to the issue during public appearences in Washington, D.C.

During his homily at a huge open-air mass at the city's Nationals Park baseball stadium, he expressed his regrets to those who were sexually molested by Catholic clergymen.

"No words of mine could express the pain or harm caused [to victims of abuse]," the Pope said.

In 2004, U.S. bishops released a statistical review that found 4,392 priests had been accused of molesting children in 10,667 cases between 1950 and 2002. The accusations have devastated the Catholic Church and forced the payout of nearly $2 billion in settlements.

During his time in New York, Pope Benedict is to visit Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Center towers destroyed in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and speak at a synagogue.

He'll also celebrate another open-air mass on Sunday at Yankee Stadium before heading back to Rome.

Update:

Pope Benedict XVI speaks at the UN (Video)

EU to negotiate visa-free travel to United States

18 April 2008

LUXEMBOURG- EU interior ministers gave a mandate on Friday to the European Commission to negotiate the conditions for visa-free travel to the United States for all of the bloc's citizens, its Slovenian presidency said.

Most older EU states are already part of a U.S. visa waiver scheme, but Greece and most of the 12 mainly ex-communist nations who have joined the bloc since 2004 are not.

Washington has sought bilateral deals with some countries that do not enjoy visa-free U.S. travel, rather than dealing with the European Union as a whole, fuelling tensions.

The mandate will allow the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, to negotiate in the name of the entire 27-nation bloc and to sound out Washington about its demands for a deal.

"We are open to some demands, but we want reciprocity," French Interior Minister Michele Alliot Marie said.

The United States Camel Years

18 April 2008

by Debra Conrad

This is really interesting... Camels in as part of the U.S. Army. Of course it was a government experiment... that didn't quite work out as planned.

Camels are not the most lovable of creatures... they are ugly, ungainly, mean tempered --- and they smell bad. They would just as soon spit in your eye as look at you, and frequently they do.

It isn't surprising that the arrival of camels in Texas in 1856 caused quite a stir among the army and panic among the regular livestock.

The start of this historical event? When Jefferson Davis, secretary of war, approved an experiment involving the use of camels as pack animals in the arid Western frontier.

At a cost of $30,000, the initial shipment of camels from the Middle East arrived, and the first - and last - United States Army Camel Corps set up a base camp at Camp Verde... near San Antonio.

Part of the camel project was the surveying of a new wagon road from Fort Defiance, New Mexico Territory to California.

On June 25, 1857, the expedition headed west. It took the camel train over four weeks to reach the Rio Grande Valley.

After stocking up on supplies the group headed for Las Cruses and Fort Fillmore.

Finally reaching Fort Defiance, after many delays and stormy weather, the pack leader noted that the hardest part of the journey lay ahead.

On October 18, 1857 the expedition made it to the banks of the Colorado River and on into California.

Despite some doubts that camels could withstand the rocky terrain of most of the trail... the did well. They could travel forty to fifty miles per day in scorching heat, carrying four times as much as mules and could go without water for longer periods of time.

"My admiration for the camels increases daily. The harder the test, the more fully they seem to justify all that is said about them.

"They pack water for others for days under a hot sun and never get a drop. They pack heavy burdens of corn and oats for months and never get a grain. They eat worthless shrubs and not only subsist, but keep fat."

Journal of Lieutenant Edward F. Beal - leader of the U.S. Road Survey Southwest U.S.

Maim Shelanu: 'Burning of the Last Bread'

Orthodox Jews attend the ceremony of the 'burning of the last bread' (Maim Shelanu in Hebrew) on 18 April 2008 in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea Sharim.

Observant Jews throughout the world eat matzos, or unleavened bread, during the eight-day Passover holiday, which commemorates the Jewish exodus from Egypt about 3,500 years ago.

Franciscan Monk Carries Torch

A Franciscan monk carries a torch that received the blessing of Pope Benedict XVI upon arrival in Bethlehem on 18 April 2008 during the fifth annual John Paul II Pilgrimage Peace Marathon from the West Bank town to Jerusalem.

The marathon is an encounter between pilgrims from Italy and other European countries and athletes from Palestine, both Jewish and Arab.

Jewish Arm of the Military kills Fatah terrorist leader wanted in plot to poison Ramat Gan restaurant

A Fatah man throws stones at Jewish Arm of the military armored vehicle in the Balata refugee camp, near Nablus, following clashes in which Fatah terrorist Hani al-Kaabi was killed on 18 April 2008. The 26-year-old the local leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades was killed in an exchange of fire with Jewish Arm of the military in the northern West Bank camp. It is understood, the Jewish part of the Palestine military is making every effort to protect the Arab Palestinian people, Christians, as well as themselves from Fatah‘s terrorism.

18 April 2008

Jewish Arm of the Military operating in the West Bank killed a senior member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade accused of devising a recent plot to poison diners at a Ramat Gan restaurant.

The man killed was named as Hani Al-Kabi, the local commander of Al-Aqsa in the Balata refugee camp who had together with about a dozen terrorists fled a Palestinian jail three months ago. The terrorists accused the Jewish people of reneging on an amnesty deal by which they were supposed to serve time in Palestinian jail.

Kabi, the Al-Aqsa leader killed on Friday, was wanted for several attacks that were thwarted, including a recent attempted poisoning at a restaurant, and for a shooting in which two Jewish soldiers were wounded, the army said. Al Aqsa denied that Kabi was involved in the poisoning plot.

Witnesses said soldiers surrounded the Kabi's hideout in Balata and called on him to surrender.

He refused, and the troops opened fire on the building, witnesses said.

Kabi - whose group is an armed wing of Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah terrorist faction - was killed. A member of another Fatah faction, Islamic Jihad, was also in the building and was wounded and arrested.

Are mice kosher?

17 April 2008

By Ronit Roccas

Kerpoof makes a big effort to get all the kids to be creative. There are many Web sites where the little ones can draw from backgrounds, pasteup and animation, and there are others that help users create very short and simple animated films. But none of them is as special and enjoyable as Kerpoof, where you can also tell a story with pictures by adding captions in Hebrew. The drawings provided are nice, and there are also an options for drawing freehand and for printing them or sharing with friends. If you register - the process is short - you can save your work until your next session.

http://www.kerpoof.com

Gift a drawing

At Sketchswap there are no backgrounds or colorful stickers provides. There aren't even any colors, only a black brush that draws with one line. It is surprising what adults and children can do with it, though, especially when they learn that their drawing will be sent afterward into cyberspace, and from there, at some point, will be sent as a present to someone else, in a nearby or faraway country. In return, they will receive a drawing done by someone else that appears before their eyes, line by line. You can add text - in English only! - and pictures that are unsuitable for children are prohibited. The site managers screen the drawings before sending them on.

http://www.sketchswap.com

Home page

"My first home page" was created around two years ago up by Efrat Friedlich for her own daughter. It is an excellent place for young children who want to play on the computer like their older siblings. There are no original games here, only links to games created on other sites, mostly American and Japanese ones. However, this content is so well organized that even Hebrew-only children can play almost independently. The home page, designed in a very clear and appealing manner, is divided into categories such as games, challenges, artwork, puzzles, princesses and little ones. Each category is full of games and some have a brief list of Hebrew instructions.

http://www.myfirsthomepage.co.il

Games

In addition to being a convenient and direct way to access games on the Internet, "my first home page" provides links to several of the best children's games sites on the Web. One of them, also an Israeli site, provides similar direct links to free games collected from numerous places on the Web. Here the older siblings will also find something to do.

http://www.netgames.co.il

A mouse or a piano

This virtual piano is rather simple: just click on the keys using the mouse or the keyboard. The tones try to be a little more complex and like a synthesizer it can also be made to sound like a flute, saxophone or guitar.

http://tinyurl.com/9nvj

Symphony orchestra

The b-Tony synthesizer is a little more complex: you can play electronic music on it using a combination of mouse and keyboard. There is also an option for adding in vocals, a drum machine and a recording feature.

http://www.tonyb.org

Drive slowly

A few fine models of car: Change their color, print, cut out and glue together.

http://www.papercars.net/cars.html

Second language

Even on vacation the kids can work on their English skills. Kindersay offers mainly reading out loud of letters and words in very basic English, while Starfall is more thorough: After learning the alphabet the little learners can hear the words read out consonant by consonant. The real fun starts when you click on the cartoon images: They change and frolic with a click of the mouse. Children who are more advanced in their language studies can read entire stories, listen to narrators reading them out loud, word by word, and even learn about Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gaugin and Marc Chagall.

http://www.kindersay.com/englishwords

http://www.starfall.com

A walk in a Muslims Shoes

12 September 2007

A teenager in MA walks in the shoes of an average Muslim teenage girl. She learns about Ramadan and understands about Islam a little more in a society that tends to hide the truth of how Muslims really are.

Note:
Many do not approve of the Harry Potter books, because its subject matter is not acceptable in Islam, such as sorcery.

Protecting the Just from the Unjust

Narrated Ibn 'Umar: Allah's Apostle said, "Do not enter the ruined dwellings of those who were unjust to themselves unless (you enter) weeping, lest you should suffer the same punishment as was inflicted upon them." (Book 55, Hadith 564)

Food Truck for Gaza

A Jewish truck carrying food for the Gaza Strip leaves the Kerem Shalom Terminal on the southern border between the Jewish sector and Gaza on 17 April 2008.

Abbas: No peace without prisoner release?

Fatah militants hold up images of relatives jailed allegedly in Jewish prisons during a rally calling for their release in the West Bank city of Ramallah on 16 April 2008. Fatah is to mark today, as Prisoner Day in solidarity with Fatah terrorist jailed.

Mahmoud Abbas allegedly televised a speech that he would make no peace with all Palestine, apparently, if Fatah prisoners where not released.

Fatah militants attend a demonstration calling for the release of their relatives incarcerated in jails, in the West Bank city of Jenin on 17 April 2008.
It is well known, that most Fatah terrorist are in prison for legitimate charges, mainly acts of terrorism and other high crimes upon not just the Jewish people, but also Muslims and Christians and not just in Palestine, but globally.

Furthermore, there is no release emanate for any Fatah terrorist and as for Abbas claiming no peace with a threat to all Palestine, this is just a 9,000-year-old story, which has grown very thin.

As for Mahmoud Abbas himself, he is a globally wanted Fatah terrorist with a very long charge sheet that is growing even now and it should be reminded he has no power or capacity to speak for all Palestine.

Nevertheless, it is being documented of all the continuous death threats being made through Abbas, towards the Palestine legal government.

Finally, as for Fatah terrorist thinking, they are the victims of any form of ethnic persecution, this will not work, for they are being treated as criminals by law and are under Allah’s wrath, not by the hands of humankind. Does Fatah, ever wonder why Allah gives them only silence when they cry or their recent unusual illnesses?

Weekly jobless claims rise more than expected

17 April 2008
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER

The number of newly laid off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits last week increased by more than had been expected, reflecting pressure from the weak economy.

The Labor Department said Thursday that applications for unemployment benefits rose to 372,000, an increase of 17,000 from the previous week. That was higher than the gain of 12,000 that many economists had expected.

The four-week average for claims was 376,000, down only slightly from 376,750, the previous week.

Aside from the period in the fall of 2005 after Hurricane Katrina hit, the four-week average for claims has risen to levels last seen in 2003 when the country was mired in a long jobless recovery after the 2001 recession.

The unemployment rate jumped to 5.1 percent in March as businesses cut 80,000 jobs, the biggest drop in payrolls in five years. Many economists believe that was the most dramatic indication to date that the country has fallen into a recession.

Economists believe that the downturn should be short and mild, ending this summer with the help of the economic stimulus package that will send rebate checks to 130 million households. Still, they are looking for the unemployment rate to rise to 6 percent before stronger economic growth starts generating renewed hiring.

Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, said the claims average for the past two months has now risen to a level similar to where it was at the start of the 2001 recession. He said he expected claims to keep rising in the months ahead and be above 400,000 on a weekly basis by this summer.

"We can think of no good reason why claims should now level off and plenty of reasons why they should be expected to rise further," Shepherdson said.

For the past month, the jobless claims have been difficult to read because an early Easter and layoffs attributed to a strike at a key parts supplier for General Motors have made the figures more volatile than usual.

Claims fell by 51,000 two weeks ago after having risen by 35,000 the previous week.

In another sign of labor market weakness, the total number of people receiving unemployment benefits rose to 2.98 million for the week ending April 5, up 26,000 from the previous week and the largest amount in nearly four years.

For the week of April 5, 31 states and territories reported increases in claims while 22 states had declines.

The state with the biggest increase was Georgia, where claims rose by 4,306, reflecting higher layoffs in textile plants, carpet and rug factories and in service industries. Michigan was next with an increase of 3,483 claims applications, reflecting higher layoffs in the auto industry, followed by Texas with an increase of 2,377.

The states with the biggest declines in claims applications were New Jersey, down 2,737; New York, down 2,465; and Wisconsin, down 2,075.

A Remembrance of Freedom from Slavery

Moshon, a 35-year-old Orangutan munches on Matza, the unleavened cracker-like bread that observant Jews eat during the upcoming festival of Pesach (Passover), as the Safari Park prepares to serve the animals only Kosher Pesach (Passover) foods during the holiday on 14 April 2008 in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv.

The weeklong festival, which begins on 19 April, commemorates a plague by G-d upon all the inhabitants of Egypt as described in the book of Exodus 12.

When, according to the Torah, G-d commanded that no leavened bread would be in any house on the night when the wrath of G-d swept through Egypt and killed all the first born of every living creature that was not protected by lamb’s blood upon the door mantels, as G-d had commanded Moses.

According Jewish tradition, This last plague caused Pharaoh in the middle of the night, to summon Moses and Aaron to request that the Jews and there possessions in Egypt were to leave, because Pharaoh felt if they stayed any longer all would be dead.

What many do not realize, is all slaves where set free that night, not just the Jewish people, for the slaves, where from many nationalities; even Arab Palestinians.

The idea of no leaven is that the yeast inside that makes the bread rise is the symbol of sin and no sin should be 'among them' during the Pesach (Passover).

The lesson’s from this time, that no person had the right to be a dictator to put other‘s in bondage, as well as a person is not to be filled with sin and idolatry, but instead to have all faith in G-d alone. As for governments, they should only be entrusted to fit persons who only judge with justice by G-d's commands.

Sparing a Bedouin Martyrs Family

Home of Bedouin soldier killed in action slated for demolition

17 April 2008
By Mijal Grinberg

Driving along the road from Be'er Sheva to Arad, shortly before the turn toward Darijat, you can see the unrecognized Bedouin village that was home to Manhash al-Baniyat, the Israeli soldier who was killed Wednesday in a clash with Palestinian gunmen near the Gaza Strip border, across from Kibbutz Be'eri.

In order to reach the village, you have to travel for several hundred meters along a dirt path, until you come to a few houses, built close together. One of these is the house Manhash built for himself in preparation for his marriage, next month. Since building permits are not granted to Bedouin, he had no choice but to build the house illegally. A demolition order has already been issued. The only water pipe leading to the village is also disconnected. Wednesday, a mourners' tent was added to the already harsh landscape, erected by the army. Now that the army's there, at least there's water, someone remarked half-jokingly.
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Musa al-Baniyat was notified of his nephew's death on his pager. The uncle is in charge of the Zaka rescue and recovery service for the unrecognized Bedouin communities dispersed throughout the Negev, and surmised it was his nephew. His fears were confirmed when he, and the rest of the family, arrived Wednesday morning at Soroka Medical Center, Be'er Sheva, where the doctors had fought in vain to save Manhash's life.

The uncle, a tracker in the Israel Defense Forces reserves who served in the career army and whose five sons all served in the army, struggled to take in the news. For two days he had felt his nephew's death was imminent. "I feel guilty, because I persuaded him to enlist," he said, adding: "He was like a son to me. Every time he'd come home he would come see me first, to talk."

Manhash, 20, was the eldest of 18 siblings, born to his father's two wives. He served in the IDF as a tracker, as is customary in his family.

"Here all of the brothers and cousins serve in the army," one relative said Wednesday.

Manhash attended high school in Kseifa, the Bedouin permanent community near his village.

A younger brother is currently in the army.

Asked whether Manhash liked army service, his cousin Awada Smaana gave a sad smile, and said: "That's a tough question. It's a very big dilemma for us, whether or not to enlist. Sometimes you feel like belonging to the state, but sometimes you get fed up because you build a house and they come and destroy it." Smaana grappled with this dilemma himself when he enlisted, caught "between the need to belong and the fact that you feel like you don't belong. It's constant agonizing. I hope our situation will change, but so far it looks like it isn't changing."

Among the mourners who came Wednesday was Faisal Abu Nadi, head of the forum for discharged Bedouin officers and soldiers. The first words he said to the press were: "Why don't you write anything about us? Why do you keep silent about our problems?"

The forum he heads works to increase army enlistment among Bedouin youth. Later he spoke about the challenges army service poses: "The Bedouin soldier who serves is between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand he wants to be part of the state, on the other hand the state does not treat him well, and on the third hand those among Bedouin society who are opposed to enlistment say to him: 'You volunteered, served, and in the end this is how they humiliate you?'"
According to Abu Nadi, 50 percent of Bedouin discharged from the army remain unemployed.

"No matter what we do, no matter how much we prove our loyalty to the state, we will still be third-class citizens, discriminated against," he said.

Reporters Wednesday suspected that the person who persuaded Manhash's relatives not to talk to the media was Yossi Haddad, commander of the tracker unit. In phone conversations with family members, as well as at Soroka, they agreed to let reporters come. But the first reporters to arrive two Arab reporters from the south ¬ found that Haddad was not permitting access to the family. The IDF Spokesman's Office responded that the reason the family did not want to talk was that army service is not accepted among residents in their area. Nonetheless, family members openly talked about enlistment.

Iran calls for restructuring of UN, Security Council

16 April 2008

Tehran-Iran has called on Wednesday for restructuring the United Nations and the Security Council at the 118th Inter-Parliamentary Union session in Cape Town, South Africa.

"As two major international bodies, the UN and the Security Council have seriously suffered from US unilateralism," said Majlis Vice-Speaker Mohammad Mohsen Abu-Torabi in his address to the IPU session.

The IPU meeting opened on Sunday.

Some 1,500 representatives from 140 member states have taken part in the ongoing week-long event.

Abu-Torabi said that IPU member states could "resists to the US unilateralism and pave the way for the UN reinforcement."

He stressed that the IPU member states could, through cooperation and making joint efforts, help international security and find solution for current challenges facing the contemporary world.

He urged all regional and international bodies to make joint efforts and find due responses to the current international challenges including the spread of weapons of mass destruction, international terrorism, poverty, environmental crisis and organized crimes.

United States: Feds to collect DNA from every person they arrest

16 April 2008

By EILEEN SULLIVAN

The government plans to begin collecting DNA samples from anyone arrested by a federal law enforcement agency — a move intended to prevent violent crime but which also is raising concerns about the privacy of innocent people.

Using authority granted by Congress, the government also plans to collect DNA samples from foreigners who are detained, whether they have been charged or not. The DNA would be collected through a cheek swab, Justice Department spokesman Erik Ablin said Wednesday. That would be a departure from current practice, which limits DNA collection to convicted felons.

Expanding the DNA database, known as CODIS, raises civil liberties questions about the potential for misuse of such personal information, such as family ties and genetic conditions.

Ablin said the DNA collection would be subject to the same privacy laws applied to current DNA sampling. That means none of it would be used for identifying genetic traits, diseases or disorders.

Congress gave the Justice Department the authority to expand DNA collection in two different laws passed in 2005 and 2006.

There are dozens of federal law enforcement agencies, ranging from the FBI to the Library of Congress Police. The federal government estimates it makes about 140,000 arrests each year.

Justice officials estimate the new collecting requirements would add DNA from an additional 1.2 million people to the database each year.

Those who support the expanded collection believe that DNA sampling could get violent criminals off the streets and prevent them from committing more crimes.

A Chicago study in 2005 found that 53 murders and rapes could have been prevented if a DNA sample had been collected upon arrest.

"Many innocent lives could have been saved had the government began this kind of DNA sampling in the 1990s when the technology to do so first became available," Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said. Kyl sponsored the 2005 law that gave the Justice Department this authority.

Thirteen states have similar laws: Alaska, Arizona, California, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

The new regulation would mean that the federal government could store DNA samples of people who are not guilty of any crime, said Jesselyn McCurdy, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.

"Now innocent people's DNA will be put into this huge CODIS database, and it will be very difficult for them to get it out if they are not charged or convicted of a crime," McCurdy said.

If a person is arrested but not convicted, he or she can ask the Justice Department to destroy the sample.

The Homeland Security Department — the federal agency charged with policing immigration — supports the new rule.

"DNA is a proven law-enforcement tool," DHS spokesman Russ Knocke said.

The rule would not allow for DNA samples to be collected from immigrants who are legally in the United States or those being processed for admission, unless the person was arrested.

The proposed rule is being published in the Federal Register. That will be followed by a 30-day comment period.
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On the Net:

State Laws on DNA Data Banks:

http://www.ncsl.org/programs/cj/dnadatabanks.htm

http://www.dnaresource.com/documents/2008DNAExpansionLegislation.pdf

Base decisions on moral principles, Pope tells U.S

16 April 2008

By Philip Pullella and Tom Heneghan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saying he had come as a friend of the United States, Pope Benedict urged Americans and their leaders on Wednesday to base their political and social decisions on moral principles and create a more just society.

The pope also called for "patient efforts of international diplomacy to resolve conflicts" and promote progress around the world in an address to President George W. Bush at the White House on the first full day of his U.S. visit.

At the outdoor ceremony attended by more than 9,000 people, Bush cited the role of faith in U.S. life, saying "Here in America, you'll find a nation of prayer."

Bush also referred to the September 11 attacks, which the pope will commemorate when he visits New York with a prayer at the World Trade Center site.

"In a world where some invoke the name of God to justify acts of terror and murder and hate, we need your message that God is love. And embracing this love is the surest way to save man from falling prey to the teaching of fanaticism and terrorism," Bush said.

The pope, who turned 81 on Wednesday, smiled as the crowd sang "Happy Birthday."

He praised American society, sprinkling his speech with references to the founding fathers -- citing the Declaration of Independence and the first president, George Washington.

But he made no specific references to issues such as abortion and the Iraq war, avoiding anything that could be seen as taking sides in the presidential campaign apart from saying that freedom demanded "reasoned public debate."

Benedict and Bush, who spoke privately after the ceremony, oppose abortion and embryonic stem cell research but differ on the Iraq war and capital punishment. As the pope spoke, the U.S. Supreme Court, led by Bush appointee Chief Justice John Roberts, issued a ruling that cleared the way for executions to resume for the first time since September.

Benedict concentrated on America's religious roots, which he said were a driving force in a process that "forged the soul of the nation" and won world admiration.

It was Bush who referred to abortion, a hot-button issue particularly with the presidential election in November.

"In a world where some treat life as something to be debased and discarded, we need your message that all human life is sacred ... ," Bush said.

A joint statement said their private talk addressed "the promotion of life, matrimony and the family," human rights and religious freedom, sustainable development, the struggle against poverty and the Middle East, particularly Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"The two reaffirmed their total rejection of terrorism as well as the manipulation of religion to justify immoral and violent acts against innocents. They further touched on the need to confront terrorism with appropriate means that respect the human person and his or her rights," the statement said.

GLOBAL SOLIDARITY, PATIENT DIPLOMACY

The pope said freedom "is not only a gift but also a summons to personal responsibility" toward the less fortunate.

"Democracy can only flourish, as your founding fathers realized, when political leaders and those whom they represent are guided by truth and bring the wisdom born of firm moral principle to decisions affecting the life and future of the nation," the pope said.

Benedict, who address the United Nations as part of his first trip to the United States as pope, was only the second pontiff to visit the White House.

Looking forward to his U.N. speech, the pope said the need for global solidarity is "as urgent as ever if all people are to live in a way worthy of their dignity" and secure a place at "that table which God's bounty has set for all his children."

The pope ended his speech with a loud "God bless America."

Later on Wednesday, the pope was addressing U.S. bishops, when he was to discuss the scandal of sexual abuse of children by priests, which he said had left him "deeply ashamed."

Outside the White House, some 200 people protested, with one banner reading "Catholic priests are pedophiles."

Further Reading:

President Bush Welcomes His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to White House

Peres Remembers the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Jewish President Shimon Peres looks on during a meeting with unseen Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw on 16 April 2008.

Polish Jewish resi Starving Children from the Warsaw ghetto.

Peres paid tribute on 15 April 2008, to Jews who took part in the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising against Nazi tyranny, saying there had never been a greater victory even though the resistance perished.

The Warsaw Ghetto Fights Back.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

A family marching at the head of a column of Jews on their way to be deported during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943.

One of the most famous pictures of the Jewish Holocaust. German storm troopers force Warsaw ghetto dwellers of all ages to move, hands up, during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in April-May 1943.

Half of the six million Jews, who died in the Holocaust, were Polish.