McCain Disavows Ad, But Calls Obama ‘Bitter Comments ‘Elitist’
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/04/23/mccain-disavows-ad-but-calls-obama-bitter-comments-elitist/
In John McCain’s view, using Barack Obama’s former pastor against him in a campaign ad is hitting below the belt. But the presumptive Republican presidential nominee on Wednesday did not let Obama’s comments on ”bitter” Americans slide.
McCain has asked the North Carolina GOP not to run a television ad that brings up Obama’s controversial retiring pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The ad shows Obama and Wright together and features a clip of Wright cursing America. Earlier this year, Obama was forced to disavow some of Wright’s more incendiary comments about race and American “terrorism.”
But McCain welcomed a question Wednesday about Obama’s comments that some Americans ”cling” to guns and religion because they are ”bitter” and frustrated over their economic plight.
Asked to comment at a town hall meeting in Inez, Ky., McCain asked the state senator who questioned him whether the remarks reflected the views of his constituents. Sen. Brandon Smith said he believed it reflected the views of someone ”who doesn’t know this neck of the woods.” That drew the cheering crowd to its feet.
McCain said he finds Obama’s comments ”elitist,” to say the least. He noted that some of the people Obama was talking about lived through the Depression and fought in World War II.
This same group of Americans … went out and fought the Second World War and made the world a safer democracy. Those are the values that they had then and they have today. So yes, I think those are elitist remarks to say the least,” he said.
But McCain told voters that the ad running in North Carolina is not the message he wants for his campaign.
”I want to be the candidate of Republicans and Democrats and independents and people across the political spectrum and I think that by traveling America and listening and learning as well as portraying my vision for the future, I’m going to attract a large number of independents and Democrats into our cause because right now the cause is America and right now the cause is that Americans want us to work together to solve these enormous challenges that we face today,” McCain told reporters Wednesday.
North Carolina Republicans say they won’t pull the ad, arguing that it’s about a statewide race and not the national election. The ad actually targets Democratic gubernatorial candidates who have endorsed Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Responding to the comment, Obama said the Republican National Committee and McCain have both called the North Carolina ad inappropriate, and the presumptive GOP nominee should have the authority to get the ad pulled.
“I take them at their word and I assume that if John McCain thinks that it is an inappropriate ad then he can get them to pull it down since he is their nominee and standard bearer,” he said.
One day after his primary loss in Pennsylvania, Obama said he remains confident that he will win the Democratic nomination over Hillary Clinton and looked ahead to the North Carolina primary by announcing the endorsement of 49 prominent supporters of former candidate John Edwards. He argued that he is the better candidate to take on McCain.
Obama’s advisers also note that he handily won newly registered voters in Pennsylvania, which they say puts him in a good position to win former independents and even disaffected Republicans in the general election. The latest polls give Obama a slight edge over McCain in a head-to-head match-up but they are in a statistical dead heat.
“As far as these states I am not supposed to win if you look at the polling … I do I think if not as well (as) than better than Senator Clinton relative to Senator McCain,” Obama said while campaigning in Indiana.
Oprah's 'church' video draws over 5 million to YouTube
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/oprahs.church.video.draws.over.5.million.to.youtube/18288.htm
A YouTube video which features talk show host Oprah Winfrey denying Jesus as the only way to God and promoting New Age ideas has received over 5 million views and is still climbing.
The under seven-minute video montage, entitled "The Church of Oprah Exposed," was posted about month ago and has since claimed the Top Favorites spot in the Web site's News & Politics category.
According to statistics posted on YouTube, the latest streams of visitors are coming from PerezHilton.com, a Hollywood gossip blog. The author of the blog wrote that "crazy Christians" are behind the effort to demonise Oprah as a "conduit of evil".
But many Christians say New Age teachings espoused by Oprah in the video are a cause for concern. They believe the day-time host is distorting Christianity and leading many into spiritual confusion.
In a commentary posted on The Morning Call, one pastor likened Oprah's multi-way approach to God to telling a blind man standing at the edge of a cliff that whichever way he chooses to walk is equally safe.
"She holds the trendy idea that religions are essentially the same and that there are many paths that lead to God. She irrationally romanticizes the notion that God can be whatever you want him/her/it to be," writes Steven W. Cornell, pastor of a Pennsylvania-based church.
One clip in the video shows Oprah blatantly denying Jesus as the only way to God.
"How can there be only one way to heaven or to God?" Oprah asked her audience in a show taped years ago.
When one woman in the audience asked, "What about Jesus?" Oprah defiantly answered, "What about Jesus?...There couldn't possibly be one way."
Another part of the YouTube video shows Oprah hosting her recent Webinar class, in which she promotes New Age writer Eckhart Tolle and his "New Earth" book.
A guest caller asked her in the segment how she reconciled certain spirituality teachings with those of Christianity.
Oprah went on to explain how her view of God changed after hearing a charismatic preacher describe God as "jealous God" in her late 20s. She concluded that by opening her mind to the "hugeness" of God and accepting that He is love helped her to reconcile the two.
"God is a feeling experience and not a believing experience. If your religion is a believing experience…then that's not truly God," she continued to say during the webinar.
Frank Pastore, a Christian radio talk show host on KKLA, was among the many Christian leaders who criticised Oprah's views, saying the two worldviews she discusses are actually irreconcilable.
"If she’s a Christian, she’s an ignorant one, because Christianity is incompatible with New Age thought," Pastore wrote in his commentary on Crosswalk.com.
He went on to list key differences between Christianity and New Age worldviews. In one entry, Pastore said that the meaning of life for Christians is to glorify God while New Age thought showcases enlightenment.
Bill Keller, founder of LivePrayer.com, a internet-based programme on faith and values, said he believes Oprah is starting her own cult.
"She has an incredible amount of influence over people and an incredible following," Keller told Celebrity News Service.
"I believe these New Age teachings are like 'spiritual crack' because people are hungry, the teachings satisfy and then they are hungry again," he added.
Keller, who has responded with his YouTube video on the matter, told Celebrity News Service that while many at this point are afraid to challenge Oprah because of her power, he expects more people to begin questioning her teachings over the next six months.
Mike Baker: Subprime Crisis Explained
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352198,00.html
At last, in one simple phrase, one of the key players in the subprime crisis has explained how it all ended up in the toilet.
Regular readers of the PWB will know that we visit this issue from time to time in an effort to bury the myth that the crisis is a result of really difficult and complex problems that only financial big brains can understand. Here at the PWB, we hold to the theory that the crisis resulted from greedy and lazy individuals up and down the food chain who failed to do their damn jobs.
Reading through the New York Times earlier today, I stumbled upon a story with the following headline:
UBS Says Excess of Ambition Led to Its Miscues on Subprime Loans
And there you go. You can stop wondering now how everything got so screwed up. It was, simply, an Excess of Ambition. How we didn’t figure that out before is beyond me.
If you’re not up on your UBS trivia allow me to elaborate.
UBS is Switzerland’s largest bank. Since the relative beginning of the subprime crisis last summer, the bank has been forced to write off a bit more than $37 billion. This vaults them to the top of the list, meaning they’ve written off more debt than any other bank on the planet as a result of the subprime goat rope.
Now, if you’re like me, when you lose over $30 billion, you get a severe hankerin’ to investigate what happened. UBS did just that, with the help of government officials…they nosed about the corridors, poked in the bottom drawers and eventually issued a 50-page report announcing their findings.
For what it’s worth, let me point out that a 50-page report covering the writeoff of $37 billion comes to about $740 million per page. Frankly, I would have at least increased the font size, double spaced and pushed the margins in a bit to try to get in the range of $600 million a page. The shareholders like to see a little value now and then.
Speaking of which, an interesting note in the Times article pointed out that the $37 billion writeoff effectively erased all profits that the bank had made since 2004. Luckily, profits made by the senior executives of UBS since 2004 are safe and sound.
The bank’s report, entitled “Comment Nous Avons Rincé de l'argent en Bas la Toilette” (in English that is roughly translated into “UBS Findings on the Subprime Crisis”) provided the key findings, and I am not making this up:
1. Poor Risk Controls.
2. Overly aggressive growth of the bank’s investment banking activities.
3. A lack of clear management structures.
4. Too much emphasis on revenue growth.
5. What a load of crap.
These are the findings of the Swiss organization known as EBK, which is the banking watchdog in Switzerland. Let’s not spend too much time wondering what the watchdog was doing over the past few years while UBS was engaged in items number 1 through 4 above.
According to the report, other problems were that “… senior management apparently did not sufficiently challenge each other” and “… the oversight of investment banking lacked effectiveness.”
Well, you can see how that could lead to trouble when operating a really big bank.
And so, it turns out that they simply had too much ambition. In their rush to be ambitious and achieve ambitious growth, they took all the rules of sound banking and shoved them in the shredder. They weren’t being greedy, they were just ambitious. I had them pegged all wrong. I apologize for rushing to judgment.
Now mind you, I don’t want to be seen as picking on UBS alone. I have nothing against the Swiss and have always admired the strong stance they take in any world conflict. In reality, all the institutions around the globe caught up in the crisis were just a tad ambitious. And not just the banking institutions. I’m talking individual homeowners, mortgage brokers, lenders, ratings companies and a host of others that make up the symbiotic environment of the housing industry.
We’ve talked about this before…we all get screwed because people in positions of responsibility up and down the chain couldn’t be bothered to do their jobs properly. But it’s okay… as we know now, it wasn’t greed, it was ambition. Ambition is a redeeming quality. Greed, well… greed just sucks.
Not to beat a dead horse, which would do nothing to improve the housing market, but simple due diligence and a sense of responsibility could have prevented the crap we’re now experiencing.
Imagine these scenarios (wavy lines as we signal a flashback)…
… A would be homeowner honestly evaluates their finances and only buys what they can reasonably afford…
… A realtor doesn’t try to sell up to a buyer that they know is already stretched…
…A mortgage broker carries out proper due diligence and doesn’t write a loan for someone who can’t afford it…
… A ratings agency properly investigates the loans and doesn’t inflate the standing of crap paper…
… An investment bank examines the ratings and what’s behind the numbers and doesn’t invest in a house of cards…
… Institutions take the time to analyze and understand what they’re buying in their portfolios…
None of this is rocket science. But apparently it’s all too much to ask in the face of blind ambition. Don’t get me wrong… I’m a big fan of capitalism, opportunity, income, competition and the rewards that come from working hard and doing well. There’s not a single hackeysack or patchouli stick in the PWB headquarters. One of the interns brought in a Frisbee the other day but we made her take it home.
So where does that leave us? Unlike some, I don’t look at the subprime crisis and immediately think how the “systems” have failed. I look at it as a failure of individuals.
Which leaves us with personal responsibility. It’s as simple as that. Do the right thing. Be responsible for you and your own. Saddle your own bronc and treat others fairly. However you want to put it.
We don’t need to legislate the crap out of society or regulate industries until they grind to a halt from lack of drive, creativity and free market forces. But we do need to do a better job of reinforcing the basic notions of personal responsibility, self discipline, fairness and respect for others. Strengthening these ideals throughout the community… in the family, schools, workplace and government, will do more to prevent future crisis of ambition than anything else.
Till next week, stay safe.
US Christians 'morally' support Israel
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1207649974559&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
More than 80 percent of American Christians say they have a "moral and biblical obligation" to support the State of Israel, and half say Jerusalem should remain its undivided capital, according to a survey released on Thursday.
While evangelical Christians are the strongest supporters of the Jewish state, strong pro-Israel convictions cut across all key Christian denominations in the US, according to the poll carried out on behalf of the Washington-based Joshua Fund, an evangelical organization.
Eight-two percent of respondents said they had a "moral and biblical obligation" to love and support Israel and pray for the peace of Jerusalem," 10% disagreed and 8% did not know.
Eighty-four percent of Protestants agreed with the statement (including 89% of Evangelicals), compared to 76% of Catholics.
Half of the American Christians surveyed opposed Israel dividing Jerusalem with the Palestinians in a peace agreement, 33% were unsure and 17% thought it should be divided.
Fifty-three percent of Protestants supported a united Jerusalem, as did 44% of Catholics.
Evangelical Christians were most supportive of a united Jerusalem, with 62% in favor and 11% against.
A plurality of the US Christians (44%) surveyed said they did not know whether a future Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip would be a peaceful moderate democracy or a terrorist state, 32% said that it would be a terrorist state and 24% said that it would be a peaceful democracy.
The survey found clear differences between Protestants and Catholics on the issue.
Protestants were more likely to say a Palestinian state would be a terror state by a 10-point margin; Catholics were evenly split. Evangelical Protestants said a such entity would be a terrorist state by a 20-point margin, but non-evangelical Protestants said it would be a peaceful and moderate democracy by six percentage points.
The belief that a Palestinian state would be a terrorist state was strongest among Republican and conservative Evangelicals.
Nearly half (49%) of American Christians surveyed were interested in visiting Israel, including about quarter of both Catholics and Protestants who were "strongly" interested.
Forty-seven percent of those polled were not interested in visiting.
There are 50 million-60 million evangelicals Christians in the US.
Two-thirds of respondents said that if Iran developed nuclear weapons, it would eventually try to use them to attack Israel, 23% were unsure and 13% said Iran would not attack.
Finally, 45% said they would be more likely to support a US presidential candidate who would protect America from Islamic terrorism, protect Israel from a nuclear attack from Iran, oppose the division of Jerusalem and refuse to pressure Israel to make concessions on issues of national security, compared to 29% who said such positions had no effect on their vote and 9% who would be less likely to support such a candidate.
The survey will be officially released on Thursday at a conference at the Jerusalem International Convention Center (Binyenei Ha'uma) organized by The Joshua Fund that is expected to be attended by 2,000 evangelical Christians from around the world.
The non-profit organization aims to raise more than $100 million over the next three years to help Israeli victims of terrorism, and to fund humanitarian projects in Israel in education, health, welfare and immigrant absorption, and $20m. for Christians in the West Bank, Gaza, Iraq and Sudan, said Joel C. Rosenberg, the group's founder and president.
"Our support for Israel is unwavering and unconditional," he said.
The survey, which was conducted by McLaughlin and Associates by a telephone sampling of 1,000 American Christians last month, had a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
Millions of Americans Expected to Gather on May 1st, 2008 to Pray for America
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07105.shtml
COLORADO SPRINGS -- Tens of thousands of prayer events are planned across the country on Thursday May 1, 2008 in recognition of the 57th Annual National Day of Prayer. In churches, parks and on courthouse steps, citizens will pray for our nation; government leaders, media, military, schools, churches, businesses and families.
New events are being added every day and can be found at www.nationaldayofprayer.org. To highlight a few:
Chapel Hill, N.C.: While the campus is still reeling from the murder of their student-body president, UNC will host a student-led community event on May 1.
Prayer Flight: Private pilots from around the country are banding together to fly over and pray for all 50 state capitols.
A first-time event will be held in Shanksville, Penn. at the 9/11 crash site of United Flight 93.
This year's theme, "Prayer! America's Strength and Shield" is based on Psalm 28:7: "The Lord is my strength and shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped." The Lord hears and responds to His children's cry for help. He is their strength, refuge, and courage in personal and national times of suffering, despair and loss.
"This is a critical time to be in prayer for our country. The biblical principles upon which America was founded are under attack in every segment of society," said Shirley Dobson, chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force. "We pray God will raise righteous leaders for our country."
Mrs. Dobson also announced Ravi Zacharias as the 2008 honorary chairman. On Thursday, May 1, he will address the National Observance at the Cannon House Office Bldg. and the Pentagon celebration, both in Washington, D.C. President of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, he is also an acclaimed Christian scholar, apologist, author and speaker. In honor of the National Day of Prayer, he has authored the book, "Is There Not a Cause", which links the story of Nehemiah rebuilding Jerusalem to the task that Christ has given us today to reach the lost.
About the National Day of Prayer: Recognizing that prayer has been and continues to be an integral part of our nation's history, Congress established the National Day of Prayer in 1952. This observance is currently held on the first Thursday each May, when all Americans are encouraged to exercise their religious freedom by gathering publicly to worship and pray for our land. Visit nationaldayofprayer.org to learn more.
'Basic Instinct' Director Paul Verhoeven: Jesus Was Son of Mary and Roman Rapist
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352277,00.html
In his upcoming biography of Jesus, "Basic Instinct" director Paul Verhoeven will make the shocking claim that Christ probably was the son of Mary and a Roman soldier who raped her during the Jewish uprising in Galilee.
An Amsterdam publishing house said Wednesday it will publish the Dutch filmmaker's biography of Jesus, "Jesus of Nazareth: A Realistic Portrait," in September.
It will be translated into English in 2009, Marianna Sterk of the publishing house J.M. Meulenhoff said. Verhoeven hopes it will be a springboard for him to raise interest in making a film along the same lines, she said.
The 69-year-old director, who also directed "Showgirls" — starring Elizabeth Berkley in one of the most panned films of the '90s — and sci-fi action hits like "Total Recall" and "RoboCop," as well as the sci-fi bust "Starship Troopers," claims he and co-biographer Rob van Scheers have written the most realistic portrayal of Jesus ever published.
In addition to suggesting that the Virgin Mary may have been a rape victim, the book will also say that Christ was not betrayed by Judas Iscariot, one of the 12 original apostles of Jesus, as the New Testament states.
Catholic League President Bill Donohue called Verhoeven's claim about Mary "laughable."
"Here we go again with idle speculation grounded in absolutely nothing," Donohue told FOXNews.com. "He has no empirical evidence to support his claim, which is why they say 'may have.'"
Donohue also mocked the fact that Verhoeven — best known for directing the famous Sharon Stone crotch scene in "Basic Instinct" — reportedly worked on the book for 20 years, only to come up with a "probably."
"He's been working 20 years trying to sell this argument and hasn't come up with anything," Donohue said. "This won't make a dent with Christians, nor with scholars somewhat wary of the biblical account.
"It's a European version of Hollywood. He should go back to Sharon Stone's legs."
Kirk Bingaman, director of the pastoral counseling program at Fordham University's Graduate School of Religion, said the idea that Mary was raped and that the rapist was Jesus' father is not new.
"The idea goes back to ancient sources from the 1st or 2nd century; I personally don’t put a lot of stock in it. How would we ever know? We don’t have any empirical proof. I subscribe to the Apostles' Creed that Jesus was conceived of the Virgin Mary," he said.
Over the years, Verhoeven, who is Catholic and holds a doctorate in mathematics and physics from the University of Leiden, was a regular attendee of the Jesus Seminar, which was co-founded by the late religion scholar Robert W. Funk. The seminar called into question miracles and statements attributed to Jesus.
"The Jesus Seminar was big in the '80s and somewhat in the '90s," Donohue said. "They have been very controversial in challenging the accepted biblical account of Jesus. The goal is to question the divinity of Christ — to say he was nothing but a happy carpenter who worked at Lowe's or Home Depot."
Calls to Verhoeven's representatives were not immediately returned.
Police Investigate Church Vandalism
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/363048.aspx
Police in Port Arthur, Texas are trying to determine who vandalized a church that was recently remodeled after being damaged by Hurricane Rita.
The vandalism was discovered at Stonegate Missionary Baptist Church by a man who was mowing the lawn.
Inside the church, all pew cushions were slashed, ketchup was smeared everywhere and a large Bible was shredded. Doors were also broken and the vandals emptied fire extinguishers on a piano and other musical instruments. Sink drains were also blocked and parts of the church were flooded.
Messages of devil worship and the number "666" were also left behind in ketchup.
John R. Lott Jr.: Gun-Free Zones Are Not Safe
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352006,00.html
Americans' fears over the safety of schools continues.
Last Monday, three colleges and four K-to-12 schools were shut down by threats of violence.
This week over 25,000 college students at 300 chapters in 44 states belong to a group, Students for Concealed Carry on College Campuses, that will carry empty handgun holsters to protest their concerns about not being able to defend themselves.
With the first anniversary of the Virginia Tech attack last week and the discussions that it created, we clearly have not been able to put that and other attacks behind us. There are good reasons why the safety measures adopted over the last year to speed up response times or hiring more police haven't eliminated the fear people feel.
The attack earlier this year at Northern Illinois University proved that even six minutes was too long. It took six minutes before the police were able to enter the classroom, and in that short time five people were murdered. Compared to the Virginia Tech and other attacks, six minutes is actually record breaking speed, but it was simply not fast enough.
The Thursday before the NIU murders five people were killed in a city council chambers in Kirkwood, Mo. There was even a police officer already there when the attack occurred. But as happens time after time in these attacks, when uniformed police are there, the killers either wait for the police to leave the area or they are the first people killed. In Kirkwood, the police officer was killed immediately when the attack started. People cowered or were reduced to futilely throwing chairs at the killer.
There is a problem that people just are unwilling to recognize.
Just like attacks last year at the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Neb., or Trolley Square Mall in Salt Lake City or the recent attack at the Tinley Park Mall in Illinois or all the public schools attacks, all these cases had one thing in common: They took place in “gun free zones,” where private citizens were not allowed to carry their guns with them.
The malls in Omaha and Salt Lake City were in states that let people carry concealed handguns, but private property owners are allowed to post signs banning guns and those malls were among the few places in their states that chose to post such signs. In the Trolley Square attack an off-duty police officer fortunately violated the ban and stopped the attack. The attacks at Virginia Tech or the other public schools occured in some of the few areas within their states that people are not allowed to carry concealed handguns.
It is not just recent killings that are occurring in these gun-free zones. Multiple-victim public shootings keep on occurring in places where guns are banned. Nor are these horrible incidents limited to just gun-free zones in the US.
In 1996 Martin Bryant killed 35 people at Port Arthur in Tasmania, Australia. In the last half-dozen years, European countries including France, Germany and Switzerland have experienced multiple-victim shootings. The worst school attack in Germany claimed 17 deaths, another 14 deaths; one attack in Switzerland claimed the lives of 14 regional legislators.
At some point you would think that something is going on here, that these murderers aren’t just picking their targets at random. Yet, when one thinks about it, this pattern isn’t really too surprising.
Most people understand that guns deter criminals. The problem is that instead of gun-free zones making it safe for potential victims, they make it safe for criminals.
Criminals are less likely to run into those who might be able to stop them. Everyone wants to keep guns away from criminals, but the problem is who is more likely to obey the law.
A student expelled for violating a gun-free zone at a college is extremely unlikely ever to get into another college. A faculty member fired for a firearms violation will find it virtually impossible to get another academic position. But even if the killer at Virginia Tech had lived, the notion that the threat of expulsion would have deterred the attacker when he would have already faced 32 death penalties or at least 32 life sentences seems silly.
Letting civilians have permitted concealed handguns limits the damage from attacks. A major factor in determining how many people are harmed by these killers is the amount of time that elapses between when the attack starts and when someone with a gun is able to arrive on the scene.
In cases from the church shooting in Colorado Springs, Colo., last December, where a parishioner who was given permission by the minister to carry her concealed gun into the church quickly stopped the murderer, to an attack last year in downtown Memphis, to the Appalachian Law School, to high schools in such places as Pearl, Miss., concealed handgun permit holders have stopped attacks well before uniformed police could possibly have arrived.
Twice this year armed Israeli citizens have stopped terrorist attacks at schools (once by an armed teacher and another by an armed student). Indeed, despite the fears being discussed about the risks of concealed handgun permit holders, I haven’t found one multiple-victim public shooting where a permit holder has accidentally shot a bystander.
With about 5 million Americans currently with concealed handgun permits in the U.S. and states starting having right-to-carry laws for as long as 80 years, we have a lot of experience with these laws, and one thing is very clear: Concealed handgun permit holders are extremely law-abiding and lose their permits for any gun-related violation at hundredths or thousandths of one percentage point. We also have a lot of experience with permitted concealed handguns in schools.
Prior to the 1995 Safe School Zone Act, states with right-to-carry laws let teachers or others carry concealed handguns at school, and several states still allow this today. And there is not a single instance that I or others have found where this produced a single problem. There are today even some universities, including large public universities such as Colorado State University and the University of Utah, that let students carry concealed handguns on school property.
With all the news media coverage of the types of guns used and how the criminal obtained the gun, at some point the news media might begin to mention the one common feature of these attacks: they keep occurring in gun-free zones.
Gun-free zones are a magnet for these attacks. But, even without the media, considering that 15 more states this year debated legislation to let concealed handguns on school campuses, possibly the issue is becoming clear anyway.
Judge Orders La. School District to Stop Bible Giveaways
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352237,00.html
NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge ordered a public school system to stop allowing in-school Bible giveaways, saying the practice violates the First Amendment separation of church and state.
"Distribution of Bibles is a religious activity without a secular purpose" and amounts to school board promotion of Christianity, U.S. District Judge Carl J. Barbier ruled in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana against the Tangipahoa Parish School Board.
As requested by both sides, Barbier made a summary judgment based only on the written briefs — something judges may do only if the law is absolutely clear.
Defense attorney Christopher M. Moody said late Tuesday that the school board decided to appeal the ruling to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal.
"We think our chances on appeal are very good," he said.
The ACLU filed the lawsuit for an anonymous family whose daughter said she felt pressured into taking a Bible even though she doesn't believe in God. The girl was called Jane Roe and her father John Roe out of fear of retaliation by schoolmates and neighbors, the ACLU has said.
Jane Roe was a fifth-grader at Loranger Middle School when The Gideons International visited on May 9, 2007. Principal Andre Pellerin notified fifth-grade teachers that the group would be on campus all day, giving away Bibles outside his office. His e-mail said, "Please stress to students that they DO NOT have to get a bible," according to Barbier.
However, the judge wrote, even procedures upheld as neutral for secondary school students might be out of bounds for "an impressionable young elementary-age child."
He cited a ruling that upheld a West Virginia county's system of putting both religious and nonreligious material on a secondary school table where school students could walk past it. Grade-school children might not understand that the school board was not endorsing any of the materials, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal said in that case.
At Loranger, the table outside the principal's office also created the impression that the school was endorsing Christianity, Barbier wrote.
Moody said the school board was working on a policy along the lines of the one cited by Barbier, but it was still being developed. But, he said, the board believes the current policy is legal.
Priests Challenge Pro-Choice Politicians: Is This what You Mean
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07106.shtml
STATEN ISLAND, New York -- New videos illustrating the two most common types of abortion procedures have been released on You Tube by Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life.
The videos are part of a campaign the organization launched today called, "Is This What You Mean?"
"Our campaign is based on a simple challenge: We quote the words of the doctors who perform abortions, and then we ask supporters of legal abortion, 'Is this what you mean when you say the word abortion?'", Fr. Pavone explained. "People worldwide can use this approach with those who hold or seek public office and say they support the legality of abortion."
Fr. Pavone points out that this campaign applies to politicians of all political parties, at all levels of government, and on every continent. "This is definitely a bipartisan effort," he said.
Priests for Life, an international organization comprised of both priests and lay persons, will provide groups and individuals with quotes drawn from medical textbooks and court testimonies, and then encourage these individuals to use these quotes in editorials, on blogs, at town hall meetings, and in other encounters with "pro-choice" politicians.
"The word abortion has lost its meaning," explained Fr. Pavone, "and therefore many politicians get away with making themselves sound appealing to voters when they say they support the legality of abortion. But when people hear abortion doctors themselves describe how they tear the arms and legs off of babies and crush their heads, then 'a woman's right to choose' takes on a different feel."
In the You Tube videos, Fr. Pavone shows how suction and dismemberment abortions are performed. He uses fetal models and abortion instruments. At the end of the videos, he removes his collar to emphasize that these facts about the abortion procedure do not derive from religious beliefs, but rather from the descriptions given by the very doctors who perform the abortions.
For more information on this project, and sample quotes, see the details at www.priestsforlife.org.
Priests for Life is the largest organization devoted exclusively to ending abortion and euthanasia. It is international and consists of both clergy and laity.
United Methodist Bishop Defends 'Religious' Abortion Rights Coalition
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07107.shtml
WASHINGTON -- San Francisco-area United Methodist Bishop Beverly Shamana, President of the church's Washington lobby office, is urging continued United Methodist membership in the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC).
Washington-based RCRC defends unrestricted abortion rights in the name of its denominational members. The Washington-based United Methodist Board of Church and Society and the New York-based United Methodist Women's Division both belong to RCRC.
Bishop Shamana was responding to numerous anti- RCRC petitions, including three from regional Methodist bodies, submitted to the United Methodist General Conference, which meets April 23-May 2 in Ft. Worth, Texas.
UM Action Executive Director Mark Tooley commented,
"RCRC claims that no unborn child ever deserves legal protection. Why would any "religious" group wish to endorse such an outlandish perspective?
"Bishop Shamana claims that 'God offers the freedom of choice to the human family.' On what Scripture or Christian tradition do she and other pro-RCRC church officials base their draconian and absolutist claims that no abortion anywhere should ever be restricted?
"RCRC is not a faith organization. It is a radical political lobby that advocates limitless abortion on demand. It is funded primarily by left-wing foundations, while borrowing the credibility of mainline churches in order to slap a religious veneer on abortion rights extremism."
The Institute on Religion and Democracy, founded in 1981, is an ecumenical alliance of U.S. Christians working to reform their churches' social witness, in accord with biblical and historic Christian teachings, thereby contributing to the renewal of democratic society at home and abroad.
New Strategy to Reform Divorce
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07104.shtml
POTOMAC, Maryland -- Marriage Savers, which has worked with 10,000 clergy in 222 cities to cut divorce rates, announces the creation of www.ReformDivorce.org website to motivate those hurt by divorce - to fight for two Divorce Reforms that could slash America's divorce rate in half.
"There are 30 million adult children of divorce who were shattered by their parents divorce, and another 24 million who suffered a divorce they did not want. Most view divorce as a personal issue, but in a larger sense No Fault Divorce, a law first signed in California in 1969 by then Gov. Ronald Reagan, has been the biggest killer of marriage in America. It swept the nation in the 1970s, pushing divorces up from 708,000 in 1970 to 1,036,000 five years later.
"The major reason why America has the world's highest divorce rate is that one spouse can unilaterally divorce another," says Mike McManus, President and Co-Founder of Marriage Savers with his wife, Harriet. "Research reports that in four out of five cases, one spouse did not want the divorce, but had no choice. No-Fault Divorce should be called Unilateral Divorce. "
However, there are two reforms which state legislatures could pass that could spare 500,000 kids a year from seeing their parents divorce:
1. Replace No Fault Divorce with Mutual Consent. In cases involving children, and where no allegation is made of abuse, adultery, etc. -- states could require that any divorce be agreed to by both husband and wife. What was entered into by two people willingly would not be terminated unless both agree. This reform would reduce divorce rates by 30%, estimates John Crouch, Director of Americans for Divorce Reform.
2. Replace Sole Custody with Joint Custody or Shared Parenting in which both parents would have access to their children about a third of each week. Of six states which passed the strongest Joint Custody laws, five also enjoyed the largest drop in the divorce rate: Montana, Kansas, Connecticut, Idaho and Alaska. Why? "If a parent knows they will have to interact with the other child's parents while the child is growing up, there is less incentive to divorce," says David L. Levy, CEO of Children's Rights Council. He and Crouch estimate this reform could cut divorce by another 20%.
Marriage Savers hopes its new website, ReformDivorce.org, will mobilize thousands of those harmed by divorce to become activists, urging their state legislatures to pass these reforms that could prevent 500,000 children a year from the shattering experience of watching their parents divorce.
Church Holds Service in Bar
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/362914.aspx
Imagine going to church ... in a bar.
It may look like your typical bar with loud music and drinks, but this isn't your typical party.
It is a church service where you can ride a mechanical bull and sing along to country music while you worship.
The Country Rock Church drew about 100 people to Sunday night's meeting at the Pub Lounge in Sidney, 35 miles north of Dayton. The First United Methodist Church of Sidney, Ohio, came up with the idea.
The head pastor says he's been looking for creative ways to reach people in unconventional places.
"The idea here is to it's an outreach program to get to people who don't feel comfortable maybe coming to church, and who otherwise wouldn't go, and now probably will. And here's something, and hopefully it will be meaningful to them," said Clay Balyeat from the Country Rock Church.
The church's Web site for its new branch advertises "Top regional bands, pizza, wings, rowdy fun & a short message."
The Rev. Chris Heckaman says people really seemed to enjoy themselves so he expects the Country Rock Church will meet weekly.
Church leaders say the first service was a success.
Barnabas Fund welcomes media spotlight on apostasy
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/barnabas.fund.welcomes.media.spotlight.on.apostasy/18242.htm
The international director of Barnabas Fund, Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, has welcomed the British media’s focus in recent months on the issue of conversion from Islam and the persecution that many former Muslims face after choosing to leave the faith.
He urged Christians to tune in to the BBC Radio 4 programme to be broadcast on Tuesday night, “Could I stop being a Muslim?”, in which former Muslim radical Shiraz Maher asks whether the death penalty for apostasy is justified by the Koran and the example set by the Prophet Muhammad.
The programme tells the stories of Muslims who have suffered huge pressure and rejection from their families after leaving the Muslim faith, which Sookhdeo says is “all such a normal experience for those who convert from Islam”.
“As a convert from Islam myself, part of my life’s work has been to seek to see this most cruel of laws removed from Islam, and to see that Christians like myself are given freedom to choose and believe without facing persecution and possibly death,” he said.
He praised moderate Muslims like Dr Usama Hassan, imam of the Al-Tawhid Mosque in London, who have publicly denounced the death penalty for apostasy.
Dr Hassan previously stated, “I believe that the classical law of apostasy in Islam is wrong and based on a misunderstanding.”
Dr Sookhdeo said: “It is good to hear imams like Usama Hassan stating clearly that he believes the classical law of apostasy in Islam is wrong and denouncing those who advocate the death penalty.
Barnabas Fund has long campaigned against the death penalty for apostasy. In 2003, the organisation ran a successful petition and letter-writing campaign on the apostasy law.
“Finally the world is waking up to this outrage and injustice. The secular media is to be congratulated for taking up the issue,” said Dr Sookhdeo.
He asked Christians to pray that the issue would remain under the spotlight until freedom of conscience for all becomes a reality.
“Please pray with me that the issue, once raised, will not be forgotten again,” he said. “Pray that we shall see a real move towards ensuring freedom of conscience for all, even those who are born Muslims.”
Ex-Prosecutor: New Arrest Confirms Israelis Lied About 1980s Spy Ring
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352367,00.html
NEW YORK — New charges that an Army veteran passed military secrets to the same Israeli handler as convicted spy Jonathan Pollard confirms the espionage ring reached further than initially thought, and that the Israelis lied about it, a former prosecutor said Wednesday.
"The similarities are quite eerie," said Joseph E. diGenova, who as U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia oversaw the 1980s-era Pentagon spy scandal that ensnared Pollard, an ex-Navy analyst serving a life sentence for revealing defense secrets to Israel.
A criminal complaint filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court "clearly indicates there were other Americans being asked at other military installations to do the same things the same way," diGenova said. "This was a much larger espionage operation ... than we understood or could have known at the time."
Ben-Ami Kadish, an 84-year-old from New Jersey, was arrested Tuesday and charged with four conspiracy counts. Prosecutors said he confessed to FBI agents that in order to help Israel, he gave his Israeli contact 50 to 100 classified documents between 1979 and 1985, including information about America's nuclear weapons, fighter jets and missiles.
Kadish worked then as a mechanical engineer at the Army's Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center in Dover, N.J.
Kadish, released Tuesday on $300,000 bail, could face a death sentence if convicted on the top conspiracy charge. He and his lawyer, Bruce Goldstein, declined to comment Wednesday.
Alon Pinkas, Israel's former New York consul, said the charges against Kadish might have been announced to prevent the release of Pollard, whose case remains a blot on otherwise close relations between the countries.
The link between Pollard and Kadish is a now-defunct Israeli intelligence agency known as the Scientific Relations Office, Israeli intelligence expert Yossi Melman said Wednesday. The office was run by Rafi Eitan, a former agent with Israel's Mossad spy agency who is now an Israeli Cabinet minister.
According to court documents, Kadish and Pollard shared the same handler — Yosef Yagur, who Melman said is now retired and living in Tel Aviv. His telephone number is unlisted.
During the period outlined in the complaint against Kadish, Yagur was working in the Israeli consulate in Manhattan.
"For years, Israel was involved in technological espionage in the U.S.," Melman said. "Kadish and Pollard were not the only ones."
Israel offered its first response Wednesday to the new arrest, a vague statement that did not deny the charges.
"The events in question date to the early 1980s," Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said. "To remove any doubt, since 1985 there has been much care taken to observe the directives of the prime ministers not to engage in any activities of this type in the U.S."
Citing court papers, diGenova said Yagur used the same methods with Kadish that he did with Pollard, finding a U.S. citizen with security clearance to take classified materials from the workplace and letting him copy them.
DiGenova said his own probe was stymied by the Israelis when at least four individuals, including Yagur, were flown out of the country despite assurances by Israel that they would remain in the United States during the investigation.
"The Israelis, of course, lied to us. They said there were no other spies and they had destroyed all the documents they got at the time," he said.
DiGenova, now in private practice in Washington, said he and other investigators in the 1980s were so convinced there were other Americans involved in the espionage that they nicknamed the phantom individuals "Mr. X." He noted that Yagur knew exactly what documents he was seeking from Pollard and Kadish.
"It was obvious they had other people supplying the information so they could target the finds," he said. "You want to protect your ultimate source. You don't want someone who deals with these documents every day being your source."
Charles S. Leeper, who was the lead prosecutor under diGenova in the Pollard case, called the Kadish case fascinating.
"I am not aware of any other case where the government has brought espionage charges more than 25 years after the conduct in question," he said.
Leeper and diGenova agreed that it did not matter that classified materials were provided to a U.S. ally. Investigators in the Pollard case suspected his information was traded by the Israelis to South Africa, which then provided it to the Soviet Union in return for helping Israel get Jews out of the then-Communist superpower, diGenova said.
"I would say espionage is a zero-tolerance offense," Leeper said. "It's irrelevant that the recipient of the offense is an ally rather than an enemy."
Israel Braces for Fallout From U.S. Spy Case
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/Israel_Braces_for_Fallout/2008/04/23/90248.html
Israel was tightlipped on Wednesday over the arrest in the United States of an 84-year-old American suspected of providing it with U.S. military secrets in the 1980s, a new case that has opened old wounds.
"We received an official update from the Americans. We are following the developments," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said, a day after suspect Ben-Ami Kadish made an initial appearance in a federal court in New York.
The case, linked to the Jonathan Pollard spy scandal that has been an irritant in the U.S.-Israel alliance, raised fears in Israel it would cast a pall over President George W. Bush's visit next month to celebrate the Jewish state's 60th birthday.
Officials with inside knowledge in Israel of the country's intelligence services were not denying it may have had a second spy operating in the United States in parallel with Pollard -- but they were insisting such espionage ceased long ago.
"The Americans know ... that since Pollard was exposed in 1985, Israel doesn't recruit agents or receive classified material (in) the United States," said Yuval Steinitz, a former chairman of the Israeli parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee.
But Danny Yatom, a legislator and a former head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, said the current affair had touched a nerve with Washington.
"I think what primarily bothers the Americans is the feeling that Israel didn't tell them the whole truth two decades ago, in 1985, when the Pollard affair exploded," Yatom told Israeli Army Radio.
"The Americans asked if there are additional people that Israel ran or are running in the United States. The answer, to the best of my knowledge, was always no," Yatom said.
SECRETS
Ben-Ami, who was released on $300,000 bail, is a Connecticut-born U.S. citizen who worked as a mechanical engineer at the Army's Picatinny Arsenal in Dover, New Jersey.
He was accused of giving Israel, from 1979 to 1985, secrets about nuclear weapons, fighter jets and missiles.
According to a federal complaint, Ben-Ami reported to the same Israeli handler who was also a main contact for Pollard, a U.S. naval intelligence analyst arrested in 1985 and sentenced in 1987 to life imprisonment for spying for Israel.
Israel has said Pollard was recruited in a rogue operation by the since-disbanded Bureau of Scientific Relations, then headed by Rafi Eitan, who now serves as pensioners minister.
U.S. authorities did not disclose what led to their discovery of Ben-Ami's suspected espionage.
But they said he had remained in contact with his alleged handler, who left the United States when Pollard was detained and has not returned.
"If what has been reported is true, and it appears it is true, and Ben-Ami Kadish kept in touch with what the Americans described as his old handler in Israel, I can call it unnecessary stupidity," Yatom said.
Petraeus Picked to Lead Mideast Command
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/362755.aspx
Gen. David Petraeus will be nominated to be the next commander of U.S. Central Command, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday.
Petraeus is the four-star Army general who has led coalition troops in Iraq for the past year. He is expected to make the shift in late summer or early fall.
The Pentagon chief also said that Bush will tap Army Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno to replace Petraus in Baghdad.
The U.S. Central Command is based in Tampa, Fla. The center is responsible for all U.S. military operations throughout the Middle East, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa.
"I am honored to be nominated for this position and to have an opportunity to continue to serve with America's soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen and civilians," Petraeus said.
"No One More Qualified"
At the Pentagon, Gates said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and other problems, demand knowledge of how to fight counter-insurgencies as well as other unconventional conflicts.
"I don't know anybody in the U.S. military better qualified to lead that effort," he said, referring to Petraeus.
Petraeus, 55, is recognized by the Bush administration and members of Congress for implementing a new strategy in Iraq that dramatically improved security. For the plan to work, some 30,000 additional troops were sent to the Iraqi republic.
When asked if moving the general from Iraq could interrupt the present momentum, Gates said they they would wait to "ensure plenty of time to prepare for a good handoff."
He said it also would help that Odierno has had experience as "Petraeus' right-hand man" over the last year.
His current assignment is commander of the Army's 3rd Corps based at Fort Hood, Texas. He finished a 15-month tour two months ago as Petraeus's top deputy.
If the Senate confirms Petraeus, he will replace Navy Adm. William Fallon. Fallon abruptly resigned in March after a magazine reported that he was at odds with Bush over Iran policy. Fallon said the report, while not true, had become a distraction.
Faces No Obstacles on the Hill
Gates said he had consulted with senior lawmakers about the nominations, and anticipated no Capitol Hill obstacles to confirmation.
He said he expects Petraeus will make an initial recommendation in late summer on when to resume pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq.
Two More Years of Fighting in Iraq
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352358,00.html
While bantering with someone for whom I have great respect, who also happens to be much smarter than I am, I began to think of the consequences of what happened in Washington, D.C. last week.
We were just treated to one of the great pasttimes of our nation's capital; I mean of course political theater. Useless, time wasting and uninteresting statements by senators whose positions on the Iraq War have not, and will not, change, no matter who sits in front of them.
The hearing was filled with pre-approved statements by a general and an ambassador, with hardly a surprise comma, let alone a statement in them. At the end of the two days we know the following, no more soldiers are coming out of Iraq until this summer and probably until this president leaves office. We know that the president curtailed the tour lengths of soldiers from 15 months to 12.
BUT NOT FOR THOSE SERVING IN IRAQ NOW! NOTHING CHANGED, IS WHAT WE LEARNED.
It must be said again and again, the military aspects of the “surge” worked. Al Qaeda in Al Anbar was defeated. Less soldiers died and less Iraq civilians died. There has been some progress in Iraq government, some laws have finally been passed but not implemented, police and military are beginning to get better, the police less , but not nearly enough. Americans are still dying at an alarming rate, 19 since last Sunday. We just witnessed a short unsuccessful fight in Basra, this time Iraq Government Forces (Shia) against Sadr’s Militia all Shia. The fighting stopped and as I said last week, it stopped because Iran stepped in and helped make the peace; that would be IRAN, not the United States of America or Iraq.
So, what does all the political talk by the“Iraq Leadership Team” that briefed Congress combined with speeches given by Clinton, McCain and Obama on Iraq mean? It means TWO MORE YEARS, in Iraq, at least. If we pulled out now, which we should not, that is all Americans out of Iraq, all soldiers, contractors, spies, diplomats, every body out; it would take about a year. If you stay through January '09 — which we are, because the president has said we are — then it will take about 22 months, again if we say everybody out.
If you just play around, delay, have bad day or two you will add days, weeks and months to this two year window. Moving people and gear around, closing bases, turning over areas of responsibility to the Iraq government takes time. While this is going on, the enemy does not stop, they still plan, they still blow things up, they still fight. This all means more Americans will die and many more will lose body parts and families will be devastated. Moreover, the Army and Marine Corps will approach the do not pass go line of being broken; they are close to that line right now.
So when you hear those wanting to talk to the president about what they are planning for Iraq, remember that right now it will be two years before we come out, if we decide to do it at all. Right now we are going to see two more years of death and frustration in Iraq, if we do not change they way we fight and deal with Iraq. If we do not change how we are doing things, like not dealing with Iran and the rest of the region, what we are doing in Iraq may not matter anyway.
Right now Iran has become the real super power in the Middle East, destabilizing Palestine, through Hamas, causing real trouble in Lebanon through Hezbollah and flat out killing Americans and destabilizing Iraq through the use of its Kuds Force and other sinister organizations.
When it comes to Iraq, how about we demand that the three amigos running for the highest office in the land, start their conversations with the American people, on Iraq with, at the end of two years then maybe we can really get at a success in Iraq, but not a success for the United States of America the success has to be for Iraq.
Now that will be an interesting bit of political conversation indeed. My bet is that we will never hear it. What we will see is the death toll continue to rise and more soldiers will come home with broken bodies, while those running for office continue to make speeches.
I wonder if the rest of us are even noticing?
Ross Issues Urgent Warning on Iran
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Ross_Warning_iran/2008/04/23/90322.html
The U.S. and its allies probably have no more than a year to take action against Iran before that nation acquires nuclear weapons, warns Dennis Ross, an architect of the Mideast peace process.
By 2009, Iran “could be a nuclear power, if not a nuclear weapon state, said Ross, who served as the director for policy planning in the State Department under President George H.W. Bush and special Middle East envoy under President Bill Clinton.
If not stopped by next year, Iran will have “crossed the threshold of stockpiling fissionable material,” Ross said in remarks to Toronto’s Shaarei Shomayim Congregation that were reported by the Canadian Jewish News.
“Once they cross that threshold, we’re going to be in a different ball game. We have to approach this with a high degree or urgency. We’re running out of time.”
Not only did Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vow to “wipe Israel off the map,” but former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami has stated that it would “take only one bomb” to annihilate Israel, Ross told the gathering.
“Is that their intention?” he asked. “Can you ignore what they say?”
Ross helped the Israelis and Palestinians reach the 1995 Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, facilitated the peace treaty between Israel and Jordan, and also worked on talks between Israel and Syria.
Regarding Iran, he said the country is vulnerable to economic pressure because it derives 85 percent of its export revenue from oil, and squeezing Iran’s oil revenue can push the “not very popular” regime into abandoning its nuclear weapons efforts, according to the Jewish News.
But there are clear signs that the Bush administration will not wait that long and military action is imminent.
As Newsmax reported in mid-April, a leading member of America’s Jewish community disclosed that a military strike on Iran was likely, and said Vice President Dick Cheney’s recent trip through the Middle East should be seen as preparation for the U.S. attack.
The source also told Newsmax that Israel “is preparing for heavy casualties,” expecting to be the target of Iranian retribution following a U.S. strike.
And Saudi Arabia is reportedly taking emergency steps in preparing to counter any radioactive hazards that may result from an American attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
US, Britain, France protest Libya comment on Nazis
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080424/ap_on_re_mi_ea/un_israel_palestinians;_ylt=ArC8Y2bjxHSq9BsqWM8q7iGs0NUE
UNITED NATIONS - Envoys from the U.S. and several nations walked out of a U.N. Security Council meeting Wednesday after Libya compared the situation in Gaza to Nazi concentration camps, council diplomats said.
The walkout was a rare protest by diplomats on the U.N.'s most powerful body against one of their own members. Libya is the only Arab representative on the council.
Council members held a closed meeting to discuss the possibility of issuing a press statement following a briefing on the situation in the Middle East. Assistant Secretary-General Angela Kane had reported on the escalation in violence and growing humanitarian plight in Gaza as well as rocket attacks against Israel.
According to several diplomats, Libya's deputy U.N. Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi ended a long speech about the plight of the Palestinians by comparing the situation in Gaza to the German concentration camps in World War II. Some 6 million Jews and up to a half million Gypsies were killed during the Nazi Holocaust.
Immediately after Dabbashi mentioned the concentration camps, diplomats said, French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, U.S. deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff, Britain's deputy ambassador Karen Pierce, Belgian Ambassador Johan Verbeke and Costa Rica's deputy ambassador walked out of the council's consultation room.
South Africa's U.N. Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, the current council president, then ended the meeting.
"We support the South African presidency's decision to close the meeting," Britain's Pierce said in a statement. "A number of council members were dismayed by the approach taken by Libya and do not believe that such language helps advance the peace process."
Kumalo would not confirm the walkout, saying "ambassadors always walk in and out" of council meetings.
A call to Israel's U.N. mission was not immediately returned.
Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari, who is not a Security Council member, told reporters afterwards that he agreed with Libya's characterization of the situation in Gaza.
"We have many times compared this situation — I mean the one prevailing in the occupied Palestinian territories — to the situation in Europe during World War II," he said.
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the situation in Gaza, accused the Israeli military of perpetrating "atrocious crimes against humanity."
"There is no doubt that the continuation of this genocide and actual holocaust will bring about dangerous ramifications for the peace, stability, tranquility and security," Mottaki warned in the letter obtained Wednesday by the Associated Press,.
Israel has greatly restricted the flow of goods into Gaza since Hamas seized control last June. It has further tightened the blockade in recent weeks in response to heavy fighting. Israel considers Hamas, an Islamic group committed to destruction of the Jewish state, a terrorist group.
In her briefing, the U.N.'s Kane said Gaza has witnessed "heightened humanitarian distress," citing closed crossings and fuel shortages which impact transportation, water supplies, sanitation and the provision of humanitarian aid.
"We are deeply alarmed at the prospect of a further intensification of violence," she said, "given the terrible implications for civilians and the threat such conflict would pose to the security of all parties — the Palestinians, Israel and Egypt."
The U.N. supports and encourages Egypt "to continue its efforts to achieve calm in Gaza leading to a reopening of crossings," Kane said.
Europe's role in the Middle East: Model or mediator?
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1208870473869&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, is the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the Secretary-General of both the Council of the European Union (EU) and the Western European Union (WEU). He was named Secretary General of the 10 permanent members of the Western European Union in November 1999. Solana is a physicist who later became a politician, serving as a minister in Spain for 13 years under Felipe González before serving as Secretary General of NATO from 1995 to 1999.
Since October 1999, Javier Solana has served as the EU's High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy. In 2004, Solana had been designated to become the EU's Minister for Foreign Affairs for when the European Constitution was to come into force in 2009, but it was not ratified and his position has been renamed under the Treaty of Lisbon.
Here are Solana's e-mail responses to questions sent to him by this columnist:
The EU (in its early version as a common market) came about as an attempt to bring a halt to hostilities among European countries, especially France and Germany. How relevant is this experience for the current Middle East situation, and what role could the EU play in facilitating similar developments?
It is true that the driving force behind European integration from its very beginning was a clear desire of the then European leaders to overcome old differences and assure a peaceful development of Europe for future generations of our continent. This idea of peace is still very much relevant today - but not only for us, Europeans - it represents a condition sine qua non for the development and a successful future of all the peoples of the Middle Eastern region.
As The High Representative of the European Union for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, both in my EU capacity and within the framework of the international Quartet, I strongly and consistently keep advocating a comprehensive and peaceful solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict in general and Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular. It is indeed a strategic priority for the European Union. I continue to be convinced that despite all difficulties we can achieve the goals set most recently at the Annapolis meeting and the Paris donors' conference organized at the end of 2007.
How could the EU help Israeli and Arab companies pursue business joint ventures through the auspices of the European Union?
Any effort, any initiative to promote economic cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians and conducive to building trust between them is to be supported. But we cannot forget that peace and security are fundamental for economic development and in order to create the conditions for such initiatives to be viable. I think that it is evident to everybody that economic normalization goes hand-in-hand with desirable normalization of political relations.
The EU will continue relentlessly to help Israelis and Palestinians in finding a lasting solution to their conflict - through political and diplomatic efforts but also through economic cooperation. Within this context, I recognize the crucial role that Arab states play in support of the Middle East peace process and I stress in this respect the importance of the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002.
We also hope very much that the access and movement agreement will be implemented without delay since this will allow Palestinians to rebuild their economy and be an important step on the path of normalization. Overcoming old antagonisms and resolving current disputes is necessary to confront the new challenges we are all facing today.
Do you believe there is interest from Arab business sectors in different countries to strengthen economic ties with Israel?
I strongly believe that not only the business community, but all people in the Middle East are tired of a decades-long Israeli-Arab conflict, and deserve to have normal relations including, of course, ever stronger and mutually profitable economic relations.
Do you as EU High Representative see it as part of your agenda to promote a Free Trade Area or other economic cooperation between Israel and its Arab neighbors?
It was our own European experience which led us to launching the Barcelona process in 1995 and offering our Mediterranean partners, including Israel, a much needed multilateral approach. The European Neighborhood Policy was designed later to develop the Barcelona process and assists us further in this effort. I can just confirm that Israel plays a very important role in this Partnership, where our main objective is to create a common area of peace, stability and prosperity, including the creation of a Free Trade Area by 2010.
The EU could afford to concentrate on first economic matters and then deeper integration thanks to the defense umbrella provided by the US during the cold war. Could the EU play a similar role today for the Middle East?
In my view, any historical comparison or simplification is very risky. The situation in Europe after the Second World War was very complex and definitely influenced by the antagonism of the two major superpowers. Today we are trying to build a new world, where a multilateral approach to our common problems and challenges would be predominant.
It is absolutely clear that Europe should play a significant role in this process and match its major economic potential with an adequate political role. We can witness that the European Union is taking this responsibility seriously, for instance through our many European Security and Defense Policy missions, of which the first two operate in the Middle East.
Temple rebuilt
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3534579,00.html
A grandiose museum featuring an elaborated massive replica of the Temple is currently being erected opposite the Western Wall.
The three-storey museum, whose construction is valued at nearly $20 million will be erected in the Aish HaTorah ("Fire of the Torah") Yeshiva complex. The museum will feature a journey through Jewish history, from the days of Abraham to the present, emphasizing the message and significance of the Jewish people’s presence in the Land of Israel and their degree of accomplishment in world improvement.
Rabbi Yehuda Weinberg, in charge of the project’s establishment, told Yedioth Ahronoth Wednesday: "We are not taking a political stance," and added that the museum is also being sponsored by Canadian tycoon, Leslie Dan, a shareholder in Teva pharmaceutical Industries.
In addition to the great lavish interior, the museum’s crowning glory is no doubt the massive amphitheater, whose cost is being sponsored by veteran Hollywood star Kirk Douglas, and his no less famous son, Michael.
The amphitheater will feature a three-dimensional film depicting the history of the Jewish nation over a huge glass screen through which one can see the Western Wall. The museum will also include a learning center with a VIP wing to host movie stars, politicians and other celebrities from Israel and abroad.
The company in charge of the museum’s construction is the same international company that built visitor sites such as the Tower of London Museum and the World Museum Liverpool. The Aloni Company will provide special technology that handles marble polishing for reproducing historical ornamentation.
Ephraim Shor, in charge of the museum curation on behalf of the Yeshiva, commented that "this will be an audio-visual experience incorporating scents, so that the act of entering the Temple will be done with awe of God."
Hamas 'Peace Deal' in Question
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/362617.aspx
JERUSALEM, Israel - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter angered leaders in both the U.S. and Israel when he met this week with members of the terrorist group Hamas.
At the end of his visit, Carter claimed that Hamas will agree to accept Israel's right to exist. But Hamas leaders are saying no such thing.
Although he's been out of office for 27 years, the former President believes his strategy of talking with terrorists and terrorist sponsors is a formula for a Middle East breakthrough.
"The present strategy of excluding Hamas and excluding Syria is just not working; it only exacerbates a cycle of violence of misunderstanding and of animosity between the two and among all those I have mentioned," Carter said.
Most Israeli leaders refused to meet with Carter, and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned him not to talk with Hamas. But after his discussions, Carter said Hamas leaders would recognize Israel's right to exist, if Israel would pull back to its 1967 borders.
Hamas Chief Khaled Mashaal later denied that his group would recognize Israel.
Hamas Charter: No Israeli State
Israeli intelligence sources say Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, is in the midst of the biggest military buildup in its history.
If Hamas were to recognize Israel, it would be in direct violation of the group's charter.
The charter declares, "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it has obliterated others before it."
Still, Hamas would like a cease-fire with Israel to rearm itself and to recover from Israel's targeted assassination campaign against its terrorist leaders.
Meanwhile, the U.S. will continue its efforts to prop up Hamas's rival, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas when he visits the White House Thursday.
The latest polls show that Hamas leaders are more popular among Palestinians than Abbas. But the U.S. is committed to supporting a leader who doesn't publicly advocate terrorism.
CIA to disclose Israeli September raid destroyed Syrian plutonium reactor
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5210
The Los Angeles Times reports that the CIA plans to brief key lawmakers in a closed-door session April 24 about the mysterious Syrian site that was targeted by an Israeli air raid last September. DEBKA-Net-Weekly 320 was first to report on Oct. 6, 2007 that the target of the Israeli raid on Sept. 6, 2007, was a plutonium reactor in a remote part of Syria..
The CIA officials will tell lawmakers they believe the reactor would have been capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons but was destroyed before it could do so. They will also say that though US officials had had concerns for years about ties between North Korea and Syria, it was not until last year that the new intelligence [gathered in the Israeli raid] provided them with the evidence.
Exclusive: Pyongyang scrambles to offset impending Syrian plutonium reactor revelations in Congress
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5211
The CIA plans to reveal to a closed-door congressional panel session Thursday April 24 that the Syrian site targeted by Israel’s air raid last September was a reactor capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons, thereby offering final proof of North Korea’s nuclear ties with Syria. This is reported by the LA Times.
DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources reveal that Pyongyang took the unusual step Wed. April 23 his week of ordering its Damascus embassy to gather Arab correspondents in the Syrian capital for an extraordinary briefing: The first secretary told them that North Korea had nothing to do with the destroyed reactor. However, he did not deny that Pyongyang maintained extensive military ties of cooperation with Damascus.
This week, a US delegation arrived in the North Korean capital to discuss Pyongyang’s failure to meet its December deadline for dismantling its nuclear program.
Syria Says Israel Ready to Return Golan for Peace Accord
http://www.newsmax.com/international/syria_israel/2008/04/23/90407.html
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- A Cabinet minister said Wednesday that Israel has passed a message to Syria saying it is prepared to return the Golan Heights in exchange for a peace treaty.
Israeli officials declined to comment on the report, but the message could be a sign of progress in back-channel contacts that the two nations have reported in recent days.
Syrian Emigrant Affairs Minister Buthaina Shaaban told satellite television al-Jazeera that the message from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was relayed to Syrian President Bashar Assad by Turkey's leader.
The message said Olmert "is ready for peace with Syria based on international conditions and the full return of the Golan Heights," Shaaban said.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyiop Erdogan is due in Damascus on Saturday for talks with Assad and Shaaban said more details about the message would be disclosed during that visit.
Olmert told Israeli newspapers last week that the two nations had exchange messages clarifying what each would expect from a peace deal.
"They know what we want from them, and I know full well what they want from us," Olmert told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot. "Israel is open to peace with Syria," he told another paper, Maariv.
On Sunday, Assad told officials of Syria's ruling Baath party that the exchange explored the possibility of resuming peace talks. Israel "knows well what is accepted and not accepted by Syria," he said.
Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations broke down in 2000 over the extent of an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, which was seized from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war. Syria demands a full return of the territory, but Israel wanted to keep a small strip along the Sea of Galilee to ensure its control of its vital water supplies.
Israel has demanded Syria agree to a full peace and halt its support for militant groups, including Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The peace contacts are taking place despite high tensions between the two countries in recent months, largely stemming from an Israeli air attack on a Syrian military facility in September. Some foreign reports have said the target was a nuclear installation Syria was building with North Korean assistance, a claim Damascus denies.
In Jerusalem, Olmert's office said it had nothing to say on the report beyond what Olmert disclosed in his interviews last week. Government spokesman David Baker also would not comment on whether Erdogan was a conduit between the two countries.
Syria has had poor relations with the U.S. and its regional allies, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and moving the peace process with Israel forward could help break Damascus' isolation.
For Olmert, who has been politically weakened over the past year, progress could boost his standing at home, although Wednesday's reported stirred up hard-line Israeli politicians.
Lawmaker Yuval Steinitz of the hawkish Likud Party accused Olmert of "unprecedented recklessness" with the message exchange.
"Without the Golan, Israel will be hard-pressed to defend its existence, and protect the Sea of Galilee and water sources," said Steinitz, former chairman of the Israeli parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
Dovish lawmaker Yossi Beilin of the Meretz Party urged the prime minister to take advantage ___
CIA Briefs Hill on NKorea Nuke Aid to Syria
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/CIA_Briefs_Hill_on_NKorea/2008/04/23/90293.html
CIA officials scheduled a Thursday briefing with members of Congress to disclose that North Korea had been helping Syria build a plutonium-based nuclear reactor before the site was destroyed by an Israeli air raid last September.
The officials will also say they believe the reactor would have been capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons, according to the Los Angeles Times.
New intelligence gathered last year convinced the CIA that a suspicious facility being constructed in a remote part of Syria was a reactor, the officials will divulge at the classified briefing for members of several congressional committees.
The disclosure of the relationship between Syria and North Korea to the committees “is likely to bring criticism from conservative lawmakers who already believe that U.S. overtures to North Korea have offered the government in Pyongyang too many benefits without assurances that it will disclose the extent of its nuclear arms effort or ultimately surrender its weapons,” the Times reported.
The administration had previously briefed only senior members of the House and Senate intelligence committees about the Syria-North Korea connection.
A Senate aide speaking on the condition of anonymity surmised that the purpose of the new briefing is to inform lawmakers about the connection before releasing some of the information publicly.
Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, complained earlier that the administration had “thrown an unprecedented veil of secrecy around the Israeli airstrike.”
Uygur Christians on Trial in China
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07108.shtml
Two Uygur Christians are currently on trial for their faith, according to an April 14 report from China Aid Association.
In September, Wusiman Yiming was sentenced to criminal detention for "divulging State secrets" by the State Security Bureau of Southern Xinjiang in the city of Hetian. Last November, he was sentenced to two years "re-education through labour." His family hired an attorney to file an appeal, which was approved on March 20. His appeal trial is scheduled for April 16 at Kashi People's Court. There is considerable concern for Yiming's health as he suffers from malnutrition and a serious hand injury.
Also in September, Alimujiang Yimiti, a married father of two, was charged with "illegal religious activities" and taken into custody on accusations of "subversion of the National Government and endangering national security." Officials are expected to announce Yimiti's sentence by the end of April. If convicted, he is subject to capital punishment.
Pray that Yiming's appeal will be successful. Pray that Yimiti will not be convicted. Pray that these believers and their families will remain faithful and entrust the final outcome to the Supreme Judge (Romans 12:9-21).
For more information on the persecution facing Christians in China, go to www.persecution.net/country/china.htm.
China Passes U.S. in Internet Users
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/362946.aspx
The world's biggest country now has the most people online.
China now has 233 million internet users, surpassing the 220 million in U.S.
Everyday China has 200,000 new internet users.
Critics have blasted China's controversial firewall that monitors internet use, and blocks certain content, like news websites from the U.S.
In one month, police arrested nearly 900 people because of "unhealthy content online."
Advocates say the firewall protects against pornography, viruses and spam.
UN food chief urges crisis action
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7360485.stm
The head of the UN World Food Programme has said urgent action is required to stimulate food production and help the poor cope with soaring food prices.
Josette Sheeran told the BBC that an additional 100 million people, who did not need assistance six months ago, could not now afford to purchase food.
Her warning came ahead of a meeting in London to discuss the rise in prices and an EU policy encouraging biofuels.
Biofuels are intended to tackle climate change but can take away farm land.
Earlier, Latin American leaders had warned about the growth in production of biofuels, which are derived from plant crops.
'Clock ticking'
In an interview with the BBC, Ms Sheeran said she would be stressing the urgent need to tackle the global rise in food and commodity prices when she attended the meeting hosted by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Tuesday afternoon.
"We find that people are being thrown into the urgent category and we really want to make the point that the clock is ticking and we need to help people now meet their nutritional needs," she said.
"We're seeing about 100 million people... who maybe didn't need assistance six months ago but today simply can't afford enough food for their family."
Ms Sheeran said the price of rice in Asia had soared from $460 a ton on 3 March to more than $1,000 seven weeks later. The global prices of wheat, rice and maize have nearly doubled in the past year.
Ms Sheeran said the crisis required large-scale, high-level action by the international community, focused on both emergency and longer-term solutions.
In the short term, she said the WFP needed increased donations to make sure it could meet the needs of those who already relied on it, because its budget requirements were rising by several millions of dollars a week in line with the cost of food.
"We can purchase less food than we could in June - in fact, 40% less," she said.
Ms Sheeran said the international community needed to pay attention to the food supply system and look at all the factors that have increased demand.
"Certainly, biofuel is one of those things that is impacting it and we need the experts to sit down and look at how much food is needed and to make sure people can get it at an affordable price," she said.
Latin American concern
Writing ahead of Tuesday's meeting, Mr Brown said rising food prices posed as great a threat to world prosperity as the global credit crisis and warned that they threatened to reverse progress made to alleviate poverty in the developing world.
"Tackling hunger is a moral challenge to each of us and it is also a threat to the political and economic stability of nations," he said in a statement.
Food riots earlier this month in Haiti, which is highly reliant on imports of food and fuel, led to the deaths of at least six people, including a UN peacekeeper.
There has also been unrest in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal.
Mr Brown said he feared the use of agricultural land to produce biofuels, which he said were known to be "frequently energy-inefficient", might have been a factor in driving up food prices.
"We need to look closely at the impact on food prices and the environment of different production methods and to ensure we are more selective in our support," he added.
"If our UK review shows that we need to change our approach, we will also push for change in EU biofuels targets."
The EU has come under criticism for its target of getting 10% of road transport fuel from crops by 2020, while ethanol production is on course to account for some 30% of the US maize crop by 2010.
Biofuels are being developed in many countries as an alternative to fossil fuels, on the basis that they absorb carbon dioxide while growing and therefore contribute less to climate change.
But there are concerns that forests, which also absorb large amounts of carbon, are being cleared to make way for biofuel crop plantations, as well as that their cultivation is taking land out of food production.
Speaking at the UN in New York, Bolivian President Evo Morales attacked those who put luxury cars ahead of human lives. His Peruvian counterpart, Alan Garcia, said using land for biofuels was putting food out of reach for poor people.
The comments came after one of the world's major producers, Brazil, announced a venture in Ghana to grow sugar cane for bio-ethanol.
Euro Breaks Through $1.60 As Dollar Slumps to Record Low
http://www.newsmax.com/money/dollar/2008/04/22/90085.html
NEW YORK -- The dollar sunk to a record low Tuesday against the euro, which crossed $1.60 after a pair of European Central Bank governors said high inflation may cause the bank to raise interest rates. The U.S. currency also fell against the Japanese yen and the British pound.
The euro rose as high as $1.6018, more than a penny above the $1.5916 it bought late Monday. The euro has risen 20 cents against the dollar in just five months and 10 cents in just two months.
The 15-nation currency hit its last record of $1.5982 Thursday. It dropped back Friday after a Wall Street rally generated optimism that the worst of the U.S. credit crunch may be over, but the euro rose again Monday when Bank of America's first-quarter earnings fell short of expectations.
The dollar's slump is a boon for U.S. companies that rely heavily on exports, but it's the bane of travelers as worldwide inflation rises, air fares climb and prices rise in dollar terms for everything from beer in Munich to fine wine in Paris to gondola rides in Venice.
Tuesday's remarks by Yves Mersch in the Financial Times Deutschland and comments made by Christian Noyer to France's RTL radio showed the governing council of the ECB is committed get euro zone inflation back around 2 percent, below the current 3.6 percent it is at now.
It effectively threw water on any hopes of a rate cut by the bank, which has kept its benchmark rate unchanged at 4 percent since June even as the U.S. Federal Reserve, Bank of England and Bank of Canada have consistently lowered their own rates.
The Bank of Canada on Tuesday slashed its interest rate by half a percentage point to 3 percent. It also hinted another cut may be coming as it feels the effects of a slumping economy at its largest trading partner. The dollar edged up to 1.0084 Canadian dollars in late New York trading, from 1.0072 Canadian dollars Monday.
The dollar has been weighed down by a combination of gloomy U.S. economic data and high European inflation _ fueling expectations that the Fed will cut interest rates yet again while the European Central Bank will leave rates unchanged.
Lower interest rates can weigh on a nation's currency as traders transfer funds to countries where they can earn better returns, while higher rates are used to curb inflation.
The British pound had been hit by a cautious reception for the Bank of England's announcement Monday of a 50 billion pound ($100 billion) plan to allow banks to swap mortgage-backed securities for Treasury bills. The pound reversed its declines Tuesday, however, rising to $1.9952 from $1.9798. The dollar was down against the Japanese currency, dropping to 103.09 yen from 104.17 yen.
The high euro is bound to cause more pain for European manufacturers who export cars, food, wine and other products to the United States because it means their goods are more expensive.
Airbus, a unit of European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. announced a general price increase for its aircraft of an additional $2 million per single-aisle aircraft and $4 million per wide-body long range and A380 family aircraft as of May 1, citing the high euro and the cost for raw materials.
German automaker BMW AG has said it will start producing more cars in South Carolina in a bid to take advantage of the cheaper dollar. Volkswagen AG has said it is likely to build a new production plant in the United States, too.
In other late New York trading, the dollar bought 1.0028 Swiss francs, down from 1.0072 francs.
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