President Shimon Peres Thursday called upon the Iranian people to topple the regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Speaking at the World Economic Summit in Davos, Switzerland, Peres blamed the Iranian president for harming the chances for peace in the Middle East. He urged the international community to encourage the Iranian people to bring down Ahmadinejad.

"The Iranians turned Gaza into a base for launching rockets against Israel, and Hizbullah almost destroyed Lebanon," Peres said. "The international community needs to cause people in Iran to believe that they can topple their government. Iran is the only nation in the world that openly calls for the destruction of another country – Israel."

An Israeli hacker team called "IDF Team" succeeded Thursday in temporarily disabling the website of the Iranian English language television station, and of the Teheran Health Ministry. The sites were hacked at about 4:30 p.m. Israel time and were operational again about one hour later.

The attack was in retaliation for Muslim hackers' attacks yesterday that hit the Ha’aretz news website, the Dan bus company, Assuta Hospital and the Cinematheque.

The team reportedly brought down the Saudi Arabian Stock Exchange website, and the United Arab Emirates stock exchange website, nine days ago. That attack was in retaliation for Muslim hackers' attacks that disabled the websites of Israeli banks and of El Al.

The team posted a warning that read: "If the lame attacks from Saudi Arabia will continue, we will move to the next level which will disable these sites longer term [sic] may come to weeks or even months. You have been warned."

Former IDF Chief: Israel Must Prepare for Possible Attack on Iran
By Ha’aretz

Former IDF chief Gabi Ashkenazi said Thursday that Israel must operate under the radar against Iran, but it should also prepare for a possible strike against the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities.

During a lecture at the Institute for National Security Studies, Ashkenazi stressed that Israel's strategy on Iran must be a combination of several approaches. "Israel must do all it can under the radar and combine that with paralyzing sanctions, but at the same time keep a reliable military option on the table with the willingness to use it if necessary," Ashkenazi said. "When the moment comes I don't know if we won't be alone, and for this reason Israel must also rely on itself," he said.

During his term as IDF chief, Ashkenazi was considered a supporter of a more moderate approach on Iran, in which all diplomatic options must be exhausted before any attack is launched.

Marwan Barghouti, a Fatah kingpin serving five consecutive life sentences for terror murders, was sent into isolation Wednesday as punishment for granting interviews to Israeli and foreign journalists when he appeared in a Jerusalem court.

Palestinian Authority minister of prisoners Kadura Fares informed an AFP reporter in Ramallah that Barghouti's lawyer was informed of the punishment when he tried to visit him in jail.

Barghouti appeared in court to testify in a lawsuit filed by the family of the late Esther Kleiman. Kleiman, 23, of Neve Tzuf, was killed in a March 2002 shooting attack northwest of Ramallah, while traveling to work in a reinforced Egged bus.

Kleiman's family turned to a U.S. court and asked it to make the PA pay millions of dollars in compensation for its responsibility for the murder. Bargouti was brought to court on Wednesday in order to testify over ties between the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Fatah and the PA. He refused to cooperate with the court and used the opportunity to communicate with the press.

Barghouti, who is likely to become the next Palestinian President, was convicted by the Israeli justice system of five counts of murder – four Israelis and a Greek monk - during the second intifada. There is no question he supported and encouraged violence.

Barghouti is considered a senior Tanzim member (Fatah's armed wing) and was in close contact with members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades through his assistant and nephew, Ahmad Barghouti (a French national).

Yet Barghouti's involvement in past terror attacks does not change the fact that in light of the political developments on the Palestinian side – the possible reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah and especially the lack of contenders against President Mahmoud Abbas – Barghouti remains the only Fatah member who could inherit Abbas' place when the time comes.

In the past, Barghouti spearheaded the Fatah faction that called for terrorist attacks against Israeli targets in the West Bank, and from January 2002 he even supported attacks within the Green Line. Like many Palestinians, Barghouti drew inspiration from Hizbullah, which forced Israel to retreat from southern Lebanon in May 2000, and thought that adopting the Shiite group's tactics will cause Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territories.

However, in recent years Barghouti admitted that the Palestinians made a grave mistake by turning to terrorism. In countless interviews he said he supports "popular resistance" – that is, unarmed resistance.

Some of the people close to Barghouti have no doubt he intends to run for president, even if it means being elected while still behind bars. He also understands that after the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap – in which he was not included – his only chance of being released is to be elected president. Israel will have a hard time dealing with the international pressure to release an imprisoned president.

There is still no date for elections in the Palestinian territories. There is also no guarantee Abbas will not run again, despite his statements. But if nothing unexpected happens, "prisoner number one" will become "citizen number one" of the Palestinian Authority.

Survey: Record Number of Israeli Jews Believe in God
By Ha’aretz

Fully 80% of Israeli Jews believe that God exists - the highest figure found by the Guttman-Avi Chai survey since this review of Israeli-Jewish beliefs began two decades ago.

The latest survey of the "Beliefs, Observance and Values among Israeli Jews" was conducted in 2009 but the results were released Thursday, after a detailed analysis had been completed. The two previous surveys were in 1999 and 1991.

The study also found that 70% of respondents believe the Jews are the "Chosen People," 65% believe the Torah and mitzvot (religious commandments ) are God-given, and 56% believe in life after death.

Overall, the survey found an increase in attachment to Jewish religion and tradition from 1999 to 2009, following a decrease from 1991 to 1999, which was the decade of mass immigration from the former Soviet Union. Among other things, it found that less than half of Israeli Jews think that, in a clash between Jewish law and democracy, democratic values should always prevail.

The study, conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute's Guttman Center for Surveys and the Avi Chai Foundation, is based on interviews with 2,803 Israeli Jews. It found that only 46% of Israeli Jews now define themselves as secular, down from 52% in 1999, while 22% define themselves as either Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox, up from 16% in 1999. The remaining 32% term themselves traditional, virtually unchanged from 1999.

This change in self-identification was also reflected in the proportion of those subscribing to traditional Jewish beliefs. For instance, 55% said they believe in the coming of the Messiah, up from 45% in 1999 but similar to 53% in 1991, while 37% said that "a Jew who does not observe the religious precepts endangers the entire Jewish people," up from 30% in 1999 but again similar to the 1991 figure of 35%.

The study's authors cited two reasons for the rise in religiosity. One is that immigrants from the former Soviet Union, who contributed to the drop in religiosity from 1991 to 1999, have now assimilated into Israeli society. Various studies have found that this process of assimilation has resulted in Soviet immigrants becoming more traditional. The second reason is the demographic change caused by the higher Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox birthrates.

The survey found that, even when individuals were asked about how their own attitudes had changed over the previous decade, the number of those that said they felt more religious and were more careful about observing the Sabbath and kashrut was higher than the number of those who said they had become more secular.

The rise in religiosity was also reflected in attitudes toward other issues. For instance, only 44% said that if Jewish law and democratic values clashed, the latter should always be preferred, while 20% said Jewish law should always be preferred and 36% said "sometimes one and sometimes the other."

The study also found an upswing in religious practice. For instance, 85% of respondents said that "celebrating the Jewish holidays as prescribed by religious tradition" was "important" or "very important," up from 63% in 1999, while 70% said they "always" or "frequently" refrained from eating hametz (leavened bread ) on Passover, up from 67% in 1999.

Fully 61% of respondents said the state should "ensure that public life is conducted according to Jewish religious tradition," up dramatically from 44 percent in 1991. But respondents also insisted on preserving their freedom of choice. For instance, between 58 and 68% said that shopping centers, public transportation, sporting events, cafes, restaurants and movie theaters should be allowed to operate on Shabbat (exact figures ranged from 58% for shopping centers to 68% for cafes, restaurants and movie theaters).

Moreover, 51% responded "yes," "absolutely yes" or "perhaps yes" when asked if they favored the introduction of civil marriage in Israel. Those in the first two categories, at 48%, were down from 54% in 1999 but up from 39% in 1991.

An encounter between a snake and a baby ended in a surprising outcome Thursday, when the infant's mother walked into his room to find him chewing on the dead reptile. The infant, Imad Gadir, whose family resides in Shfaram, was not hurt when he bit the unlucky coin snake, but was taken to Haifa's Ramabam Medical Center just in case.

According to Imad's grandfather, Shaheen Shaheen, who recalled the family's tumultuous morning, the boy woke up when his father left for work at 6:30 a.m. The 1-year-old left his parents' bed and headed to his room, where he found the 35-centimeter (13-inch) snake. He then grabbed it and bit its head off. "It wasn't a pretty sight," Shaheen said. "He's a baby; he didn't know what he was doing. He thought it was a game. I don't wish this kind of thing on anyone."

When Imad's mother realized what had happened she began screaming, until a neighbor jumped the house's fence, entered the room and snatched the snake out of the boy's hand. "I went to the kitchen to get him some milk, and when I came back I saw he was already eating," the mother, Alain, said. "I screamed until the neighbors came. I still can't believe what I saw."

Veteran snake-catcher Eli Cohen said he has never come across a case of this kind. "I guess the kid acted out of a childish instinct when he put the snake in his mouth," he said. "Luckily for him, the coin snake isn't poisonous; otherwise it could have ended in a tragedy."

Cohen, the owner of a pest control company, estimated that the snake was three years old, and said that his bite often hurts but is not dangerous to anyone who isn't allergic to it. He said that this type of reptile chokes his prey. "If it was a bigger snake, the boy could have been strangled."

The horrors of history, the highs of humanity, they can all be found embedded in the Torah (Bible) Codes. Bible codes are Hebrew letters making up words which are found in equidistant sequences encoded in the Torah. The words they form can appear in horizontal, vertical, diagonal or even backwards directions and sometimes intersect each other, giving greater connective strength to a code..

On April 3rd, I interview(ed) Rabbi Matityahu Glazerson, an Israeli who is an expert in the Torah codes, and has authored over 25 books on different Torah topics, Jewish Mysticism, and other Judaic topics.

If you check out his website and videos at: www.glazerson.com you will see some of the various historic or other news-shaking events that he has found in the Torah such as the following topics:

*Gadaffi's Defeat In Bible Codess
*Syrian Dictator, Bashar al-Assad's Downfall
*The Japan Tsunami and Redemption
*The Slaughter of the Fogel Family in Itamar last month

Those are just a few, as visiting his website will show you codes which show dozens of other events, including the Gaza Flotilla, U.S. president Obama, and even a threat to the world by Korea.

Will the Moshiach (Messiah) come next year in 2012?

Torah code proponents know that one cannot predict the future with Bible codes because every future possibility is already encoded into the Torah. It is up to the free will of Mankind as to which future will materialize, therefore one may find a code that could portend an upcoming event, but it may or may not happen, and therefore, Torah codes should NOT be sed to foretell events. However, it can be used to show when events could be RIPE to happen. Below is such a venue.

There is one event that most all of Mankind is waiting for, and that is the arrival of the Moshiach (Messiah). I will be asking Rav Glazerman about a video he put up showing the possibility of the Moshaich coming in almost exactly one year's time from now, next Passover, 2012. In this video below, he shows the time could be ripe for just such an event.

Will it happen? No one knows. We'll have to wait until next year to either laugh or cry. For more topics and videos showing recent events coded in the Torah, see his additional website here which focuses more intensely on these matters. http://torahcode.us/

Why Jews don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah

YOU SAY YOU WANT CHANGE?

By Frances Bernay-Cohen

I can't speak for you, but my grandparents came to the United States to find a refuge from "change." They came to The United States where their basic freedoms were guaranteed by the Constitution; where they could build a future on this solid ground.

Whether our forefathers and forI'm sure you will find some truth in this song.

Click Below to View Film

Air France flew from the U.S. to Israel during the early 1950s. They flew Lockheed Constellations and the flying time was 20 hours.

This promotional film - in English for an American audience - shows Israel as it was three years after the War of Independence .

Please click photo

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