 |
 |
|
|
||
Newsletter : 7fax0306.txt
Directory | Previous file | Next file
Dershowitz Defends Hamentashen vs. Latkes
By IsraelNationalNews.com
Civil rights activist Prof. Alan Dershowitz defended the Purim pastry Oznei Haman (Hamentashen) in a pre-Purim debate with a psychology professor who took the side of Chanukah potato pancakes (latkes).
The two professors debate once a week as part of their course on Morality and Taboo, and this week Dershowitz attacked the consumption of the latkes, which are cooked in oil. They are high in cholesterol and increase America's dependence on oil, he charged.
Prof. Steven Pinker derided the poppy-seed filled pastry as being supportive of the drug industry that is used by terrorists for financing attacks.
Report: U.S. Scholarships Supported Palestinian Terrorists
By Reuters
The Washington Times reported Monday that the United States has provided millions of dollars in financial support to two Palestinian universities, including one controlled by Hamas. According to the report, the institutions have participated in the advocacy, support or glorification of terrorism.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said however that U.S. officials concluded after a review that neither institution - the Islamic University of Gaza and Al Quds University - engages in terrorist activities.
McCormack acknowledged that some U.S. scholarship money has gone to Palestinian university students but only to those confirmed not to have links to terrorism.
The Times report said the funding - principally in scholarships to individual students - is being scrutinized by several members of Congress and their aides, who say it may violate U.S. law. According to the report, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has given funds in excess of $140,000 to the Islamic University in Gaza that is controlled by Hamas.
USAID was also said to have granted $2.3 million last year to Al Quds University, another institution with direct ties to terrorist organizations.
Hamas-Fatah Unity Deal on the Rocks
By IsraelNationalNews.com
The commitment by the Hamas and Fatah factions to form a PA unity government seemed to be fading fast Monday as new violence broke out in Gaza.
A Fatah member was wounded in a shootout between the two terrorist organizations as Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' security officers battled with members of a Hamas militia for control of a Gaza training base on Monday as new violence threatened to dissolve the ceasefire negotiated between the two groups in Mecca last month. Shots were also fired at a Fatah-controlled police headquarters and an attack on the house and car of a senior Fatah security officer.
The Hamas and Fatah factions are expanding their forces in spite of the public show of unity between Abbas and PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh after Saudi Arabian King Abdullah "persuaded" the two factions to agree on a unity government.
And the long-awaited PA coalition government uniting the two terrorist factions will be delayed by at least a week -- possibly two -- Haniyeh announced earlier Monday. The new government formally accepted a month ago at the Mecca summit, was to have been unveiled at the end of last week.
However, delays attributed to the composition of the new Cabinet have slowed down the process, Haniyeh told a cabinet meeting. He said he plans to meet with Abbas in two days but was not optimistic there would be any news in the next few days. "We did not conclude the consultations to form the government and we will not announce it before the end of next week," Haniyeh said bluntly.
Hamas reportedly agreed to keep Gaza-based members out of the Cabinet, but the names of nominees have not been released. According to the Reuters news service, Haniyeh and Abbas have yet to agree on who will take over the Interior Ministry, a key post which controls the security forces.
Although Haniyeh made it plain there still remained unresolved issues blocking the new government, Fatah spokesman Abdul Hakim Awad was more upbeat, vowing that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' movement would continue to champion the new deal regardless of international reactions.
"The siege is coming to an end," Awad told the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi. "If Israel continues to reject the unity government, Palestinians will have two options – to return to division, internal strife and violence, or to stand united to face external pressure. This is why Palestinians have chosen unity," he added.
Israeli Minister Postpones Egypt Visit over War Crimes Row
By Robert Berger (VOA-Jerusalem)
An Israeli cabinet minister has postponed a planned visit to Egypt amid fresh allegations that he was involved in war crimes during the Middle East war 40 years ago. The diplomatic row comes at a time when Egypt is trying to jump-start peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israeli cabinet minister and former general, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, put off a visit to Egypt, where there is public outrage over reports that a unit he led during the Six Day War in 1967 may have killed 250 captured Egyptian soldiers. The allegations are based on an Israeli TV documentary, which, according to Egyptian media, showed that the Israeli unit executed the POWs after the war was over.
The Israeli filmmaker categorically denied the allegations, saying the Egyptian media badly distorted his documentary. He said the incident did not involve unarmed Egyptian prisoners, but rather Palestinian guerrillas killed in battle during the war.
Professor Joseph Ginat is an Israeli expert on Egyptian affairs. "You know, this is like a blood libel. And that is not easy, you know, to correct it. And knowing the Arab culture, when something has been published once, or being said once, to change it, it might take generations."
Egypt's foreign ministry said it summoned the Israeli ambassador to Cairo to denounce what it called the "killing of 250 Egyptian POWs as revealed in the documentary." The reprimand was made at a delicate time, when Egypt is playing a mediating role between Israel and the Palestinians.
Ginat said the Egyptian government does not want a diplomatic row with Israel, but it is responding to public opinion. "Diplomatically it might be resolved, but I think that in the public it will take time, it will take, you know, weeks and months and maybe years to resolve it."
Israeli analysts said the dispute is symptomatic of what has long been described here as the "cold peace" with Egypt - a peace that the Egyptian public, media and government have been reluctant to embrace. But as Ginat put it: "A cold peace is better than a hot war."
Yemen's President Assists Jews Fleeing Persecution
By IsraelNationalNews.com
According to the Yemen Observer, every home in the Jewish community of Sa'ada received a letter in January from a Shi'ite fundamentalist group known as Believers Youth threatening the Jews with death if they did not leave their homes within 10 days.
The Believers Youth (Shabab Al-Moumineen) is part of an anti-government, Shi'ite insurgency that was led by Hussein Al-Houthi until his death in 2004. Since that time, Al-Houthi-inspired groups, some led by Al-Houthi relatives, have periodically carried out anti-government actions.
The group, whose ranks are filled with members of the Zaidi Shi'ite minority, is critical of what it sees as the pro-Israel and pro-US nature of the central Yemenite government's policies. Dozens of rebels and soldiers, as well as innocent bystanders were killed in clashes with government forces in February.
After receiving the death threats, the Jews of Sa'ada moved into a local hotel, "under the patronage and protection of a local sheikh," according to the Yemen Observer. Jewish leaders of the community said that they approached local leaders for help based on tribal traditions mandating their protection from such an outside threat. However, increasingly violent clashes between Al-Houthi rebels and government forces last month in and around northern Yemen's Sa'ada, led the Jews to seek refuge outside the region.
Last week, Yemenite officials instructed that the small Jewish community be transferred out of Sa'ada and brought to Tourist City, a hotel and entertainment complex in Yemen's capital, Sana'a. There, they are receiving shelter, food and medical attention.
The Yemen Observer quoted Yahya David, identified as the son of Sa'ada's rabbi: "We feel safer here [in Sana'a]; we and our children could not even sleep when we were in Sa'ada, hearing the explosions everywhere, especially after we had been threatened." A member of the Sa'ada Jewish community explained to the Yemen Observer that all 45 of his neighbors, seven families in all, are now in Tourist City.
Speaking with reporters, several of the Jewish refugees from the Al-Houthi-led violence expressed their thanks and voiced loyalty to Yemen and to its president, Ali Abdullah Salih. They also said that they are anxious to return to their homes in Sa'ada as soon as possible.
The Jewish population of Yemen numbers approximately 200 people, according to the latest estimates. In 1948, there were approximately 63,000 Jews in Yemen, the vast majority of whom left or were forced to flee Muslim violence against them shortly after the State of Israel was established. Most of Yemen's Jews were brought to Israel during Operation Magic Carpet in 1949-1950.
Missing Iran Intelligence Official May Have Defected
By Ha'aretz
A former Iranian deputy defense minister whose reported disappearance in Turkey has sparked allegations of a Mossad and CIA-linked kidnapping, may have defected, Ha'aretz has learned.
Intelligence official Ali Reza Azkari, 63, served in the senior defense post under former Defense Minister Gen. Ali Samahani. Israeli media have said that for many years, Azkari was the most senior Iranian intelligence official in Lebanon, with responsibility for Iran's ties with Hizbullah.
Unidentified Arab diplomats have been quoted in Israeli media as charging that the Israeli Mossad and the CIA kidnapped Azkari, who reportedly disappeared under mysterious circumstances from Istanbul, Turkey a month ago.
Israel Channel 10 television said late on Sunday that Azkari was kidnapped on February 7, after arriving in Istanbul from Damascus. There has been no official Iranian statement on the reported affair.
According to one report, Azkari was to have stayed at a luxury hotel in the city, but disappeared before his planned arrival there. Another report held that he had checked into the hotel and was staying there at the time of his disappearance. The second account said that he left the hotel at one point and never returned. His baggage was still in his room.
Iran reportedly sent a delegation of defense officials to Turkey last week to investigate the incident. It has also been reported that Iran has asked Interpol to open an investigation into the disappearance.
Holy Land Earth Arrives in USA
By Israel Faxx News Services
Holy Land Earth, which packages and makes available portions of soil from the Holy Land of Israel, has received its first shipment of genuine Israeli soil.
The white gloves, tuxedoes, and black coats suggested something important was arriving. The rabbi and photographers who were present hinted the arrival was spiritual in nature. The anticipation grew as the doors of the ship's hold opened. From the darkness, a well dressed man emerged, carrying a silver tray with packages of… dirt?
Dirt indeed! This ceremony is exactly what took place at Port Newark, NJ last week when Holy Land Earth received its first shipment of genuine soil from Israel. The rich, fertile soil - which is meant to be used in burial ceremonies, gravesite visits, or for any other use that the purchaser feels appropriate - has been declared authentic by a certifying rabbi, and is packaged in attractive, 16-ounce resealable pouches that retail for $20.
Holy Land Earth's president, Steven Friedman, was excited at the arrival of his product: "This is the culmination of many years of hard work," he stated. "It took quite a bit of effort to not only satisfy import regulations, but to make sure our product had the endorsement of recognized Jewish religious leaders. But now that the soil is here, it was all worth it."
It's Friedman's hope that people of all religions embrace the concept of having actual soil from the Holy Land of Israel. "The very ground of Israel is considered sacred by several major religions" he said "Holy Land Earth brings that sacred soil to anyone who wants a little piece of the Holy Land."
Friedman went on to list several possible uses for the product, ranging from sprinkling it during burial or on a gravesite to using it as a good luck gesture when buying a home. "The list of uses is endless." stated Friedman "Obviously, burial is an important one. But we've priced and packaged Holy Land Earth so anyone can use it for any reason at all."
| Home My Account Search Contact Us |
by Electronic World Communications, Inc.)
