Levitt Letter Extra News

By Paul Sperry
www.frontpagemagazine.com

When a bewildered Iraqi woman named Sajida al-Rishawi confessed on Jordanian state television last week that she had been part of the team that tried to blow up the Radisson Hotel in Amman, she showed that Iraq has become a base from which al Qaeda launches attacks against its enemies and that suicide terrorism may be the one area in Mid-East culture where fundamentalist Muslim women are finally gaining equality with men.

Wearing her defused bomb belt, which failed to detonate when the three other members of her team blew themselves up along with members of a Jordanian wedding party, al-Rishawi called into question the idea that Muslim women are little more than veiled victims of a brutal misogynistic culture and that their only connection to terror is as bystanders. While no female Muslims here in the U.S. have blown up passenger jets as they have in Russia, or strapped on belts packed with TNT and ball bearings to blow up American hotels, as an older Iraqi woman has confessed to doing in Jordan, law enforcement has uncovered a disturbing number of cases in which they have helped Muslim men with terrorist plots or have planned to attack fellow Americans themselves.

Here are a few examples, some of which have never been revealed:

• Earlier this year, the FBI arrested two teenage Muslim girls in Manhattan on suspicion they planned to attack U.S. targets as suicide bombers. The 16-year-old girls wore veils and regularly attended mosques.
• Last year, a Pakistani woman who worked for years at EPA headquarters as a toxicologist was arrested after authorities learned she not only lied about being a U.S. citizen, but also ran a charitable front for al Qaeda back in Peshawar, Pakistan. A mother of four, Waheeda Tehseen lived comfortably in the same leafy neighborhood as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, according to law enforcement documents I’ve obtained. She was “very devout,” but fellow EPA scientists found her religious beliefs quaint and completely nonthreatening, and even unwittingly helped her raise money for Osama bin Laden.
• Authorities are still looking for another Pakistani woman who they believe to be a “fixer” for al-Qaida in the U.S. MIT-educated Aafia Siddiqui is said to have been involved in a plot to blow up underground gas tanks around Baltimore. The mother of three is known as a “good sister” who has memorized her Quran and is willing to help al Qaeda out when they need her. She was a hard-line Muslim activist on the MIT campus, where she wore head-to-toe traditional black gown and matching headscarf while raising money for jihadists around the world. The Bostonians she ran into outside that circle of hate, however, knew her only as a soft-spoken “philanthropist.”
• Two months ago, federal agents in Dallas accused three Muslim women of lying to the government to conceal their involvement in their husbands’ criminal support of outlawed terrorists. Fay Elashi, for one, allegedly tried to hide from investigators checks and financial records bearing the names of the terrorists.
• Last year, authorities in Baltimore spotted the wife of suspected Hamas operative Ismail Elbarasse videotaping the Chesapeake Bay Bridge from an SUV they were driving. The couple was taken into custody and their camcorder tape seized as evidence. On it, authorities found close-up shots of cables and supports “integral to the structural integrity of the bridge,” according to court documents. Six other tapes found in their car contained footage of four other bridges and other structures they believed to be targets. Authorities concluded Elbarasse’s wife was helping conduct “reconnaissance and surveillance” for a possible terrorist attack during rush hour.
• They are not the only potential targets Muslim women have been casing in the Washington area. Not long after it set up headquarters in Crystal City, Va., not far from the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security asked the Secret Service to conduct countersurveillance of suspicious Muslim women who were videotaping the building on a regular basis.

Prolonged static surveillance using operatives who look harmless and don’t attract police scrutiny is the hallmark of al Qaeda, which does painstaking pre-attack planning. Through its websites, al Qaeda regularly encourages the faithful who are “far from the fields of jihad” to research the soft spots and weaknesses “of the American infidel crusaders” and report back locations and images of vulnerable structures — from bridges and pipelines to military installations and financial buildings — which might be suitable for attack.

According to the Quran, jihad is not something a Muslim can opt out of. It demands able-bodied believers to join the fight. Those unable — largely women and the elderly — are not exempt; they must give “aid and asylum” to those who do fight the unbelievers in the cause of Allah. Such facilitators are promised the same reward of Paradise, although not the same status as jihadists who give their pound of flesh to Allah. And those who die in his cause — the shaheeds, or martyrs — are reserved the highest place in the Paradise hierarchy.

Increasingly, however, Muslim women are taking on the role of martyr, though no one is rethinking the profile just yet. To be sure, Muslim women are a long way from fitting the profile of the suicide bomber, which is still predominantly young, Muslim and male.

But the Department of Homeland Security issued warnings to law enforcement to be on the lookout for suspicious Muslim women after Chechen terrorists used young Muslim women as suicide bombers to attack Russian targets a couple of years ago. And they are on alert again after al Qaeda, in an effort to lower its male profile and bypass security, apparently enlisted an older Muslim woman to help carry out the recent bloody attacks on American hotels in Jordan.

According to Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir, who has interviewed bin Laden, there is a ready supply of female jihadists in his country alone who would be thrilled to help al Qaeda.

“Our women are more extremist than the men,” he said in a recent magazine interview. “There are hundreds here.”

By P. David Hornik
www.frontpagemagazine.com

The bad news is that Mohammad Al-Harbi, a high school teacher in the Saudi town of Ein Al-Juwa, has been sentenced to three years in jail and 750 lashes to be administered in a public market. His crime, as reported by the Saudi daily Al-Madina, is �mocking religion,� or, specifically, discussing the Bible and praising Jews. Al-Harbi was taken to court for these transgressions by students and colleagues at his school.

An article in Arab News, a Saudi English-language daily, fills in the details. Al-Harbi joined the staff of Al-Fowailiq High School as a chemistry teacher five years ago. The report, which is openly sympathetic to Al-Harbi, says he was �deeply disturbed by the explosions at the Al-Hamra Compound in Riyadh in 2003,� and �felt it his duty . . . to enlighten his students and warn them of terrorism and its consequences. He went to great lengths by talking to students, hanging anti-terrorism signs around the school and speaking against terrorism.�

That seems to have upset some Islamic studies teachers at the school. When al-Harbi went so far as to post an antiterrorism article by a Saudi columnist on the school bulletin board, it was �ripped off and torn to pieces.� Al-Harbi told Arab News that the Islamic teachers would �visit students in their homes, encouraging them to disobey [him] and calling him names.�

Al-Harbi also told the paper that the students who filed the lawsuit against him had failed the monthly chemistry test, and when he refused to give them the test again, they complained to the principal who backed him up. Some of the Islamic studies teachers then exploited the students� anger to convince them to file the lawsuit, which also included allegations that Al-Harbi prevented students from washing their hands for prayer and was himself a student of witchcraft.

According to details of the trial that Al-Harbi�s lawyer, Abdul Rahman Al-Lahem, gave Arab News, it was something less than exemplary. The judge listened to the complainants but refused to give the defendant the right to interrogate them, and refused to recognize Al-Lahem as his lawyer. He also declined to question anyone from the school except the students and teachers who filed the lawsuit, though some of Al-Harbi�s colleagues would undoubtedly have backed him.

What is not clear is the extent to which the �charges� were cooked, and whether Al-Harbi actually went so far as to say good things about Jews or the Bible. At the very least, he got himself in trouble by condemning terrorism, and some reports say he encouraged tolerance for all faiths.

The Saudi Education Ministry has meanwhile removed Al-Harbi from his teaching job and transferred him to an administrative post in a government education office. The lawyer, Al-Lahem, plans to appeal the horrendous verdict. A recent ominous precedent is that of a schoolteacher tried for apostasy in 2004 who was sentenced to three years in jail and 300 lashes.

The relatively good news is that the Al-Harbi affair seems to be sparking much controversy in Saudi Arabia. The Khaleej Times of the United Arab Emirates says Arab News further reported that:

�Al Harbi�s case has attracted attention in the press with both columnists and the public in general strongly attacking what is widely seen as a harsh and unjust sentence. . . . The case has been a prime topic on Saudi Internet forums with Saudis of both sexes from all over the country joining in the debate. The majority showed deep concern. . . . Many Saudis asked about the efficiency and fairness of the Saudi legal system. . . . �

Both skeptics and optimists about the Arab world can find ammunition in this case. On the one hand is the success of Islamists in framing a lone individual who stood up for decency, and the cruel, farcical �justice system� to which he was exposed. On the other hand is the popular ferment and open expression of anger at the establishment.

It appears, at this point, that the dominant reality is Mohammad Al-Harbi�s helplessness before the grim workings of the Saudi tyranny.

Oren Klass, The Jerusalem Post

A very small ceramic shard unearthed by Bar-Ilan University archaeologists digging at Tell es-Safi, the biblical city “Gath of the Philistines,” may hold a very large clue into the history of the well-known biblical figure Goliath.

The shard, which contains the earliest known Philistine inscription ever to be discovered, mentions two names that are remarkably similar to the name “Goliath”.

The discovery is of particular importance since the Bible attributes Gath as the home town of Goliath. “Gath of the Philistines,” was one of the major cities of the Philistines, the well-known arch-enemies of the Israelites in the biblical text.

Professor Aren Maeir, Chairman of Bar-Ilan University’s Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, told The Jerusalem Post that the odds of this being the actual Goliath referred to in the Bible are “small if non-existent.”

Professor Maeir explained that this find could chronologically be placed some 50 years after the story of David and Goliath was to have taken place.

Furthermore, according to Prof. Maeir, Goliath was a very popular type of name at the time.

Regardless of the low odds, the archaeological find may be seen as the first clear extra-biblical evidence that the story of the battle between David and Goliath may be more than just a legend.

Written in archaic “Proto-Canaanite” letters, the inscription found on the shard, dating to the 10th or early 9th century BCE, contains two non-Semitic names: Alwt and Wlt. Most scholars believe the name Goliath, of non-Semitic origin, is etymologically related to various Indo-European names, such as the Lydian name Aylattes.

Following intense examination of the inscription, Prof. Meir (along with his colleagues Prof. Aaron Demsky, an expert in epigraphy at Bar-Ilan University, and Dr. Stefan Wimmer, of Munich University) has concluded that the two names which appear in the inscription are remarkably similar to the etymological parallels of Goliath.

Associated Press

Community is mentally and physically prepared to get converted to Judaism and leave for promised land

GAUHATI, India — Thousands of people in a remote corner of India who claim to be members of a lost tribe of Israel are pressing ahead with their studies of Judaism in hopes of moving to the Jewish state, community leaders said.

Israel recently announced it would stop the conversions of the 6,000he 6,000
English: World English Bible - WEB
Štetje svetopisemskih vrstic se začne z ¹! Vrstica ⁰ ne obstaja!

WP-Bible plugin Bnei Menashe in the wake of complaints from the Indian government. Instead, Israel said it would allow them to emigrate and then perform the conversions.

Members of the group from the northeastern Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur call themselves the “Bnei Menashe,” or children of Menashe, and believe they are descendants of the Israelite tribe of Manasseh.

“We are aware of the Israeli government decision, but our people have not lost hope,” Jeremiah Hnamte, adviser of the Bnei Menashe Council, told The Associated Press from Aizawl, capital of Mizoram.

The community “are mentally and physically prepared to get converted to Judaism and leave for their promised land,” he said.

Earlier this year, an Israeli chief rabbi recognized the Bnei Menashe as one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel, ruling that they followed several Jewish traditions. The rabbi, Shlomo Amar, ordered their formal conversions to Orthodox Judaism, which would be crucial to their recognition as Jews by Israeli religious authorities.

Bnei Menashe members believe they are descendants of Jews who were banished from biblical Israel by the Assyrians in the eighth century B.C.E. and gradually worked their way eastward to India. In the 19th century, British missionaries to India converted the Bnei Menashe members — who were then animists — to Christianity.

In September, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s office sent six rabbis to India, who converted 600 members of the tribe to Judaism to ensure they could immigrate to Israel under state law.

But New Delhi expressed concerns after the mass conversions.

Hnamte said the rabbis returned to Israel after being turned away from Manipur state.

Instead of converting the Bnei Menashe in their home region of northeastern India, the rabbis will now wait to convert them after Israel brings them to the Jewish state, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.

The Bnei Menashe continue to prepare for their conversions with the help of community members who have already undergone the process.

“I am still carrying out my job as I have not received any fresh instructions from the Rabbinate,” said Rabbi Yahuda Gin, who originally hails from Mizoram and returned to Aizawl about four months ago to teach the Bnei Menashe the finer points of the religion.

“These are matters of faith, not governmental affairs, and, therefore, our work should go on,” Gin told The Associated Press.

Gin said he was sent with the consent of Amar.

About 800 members of the Bnei Menashe have been brought to Israel — and formally converted — over the last decade by the private group Amishav, Hebrew for “my people returns.”

According to Amishav, there is ample evidence to show the Bnei Menashe are of Jewish descent. Their customs, including mourning rites, hygiene and the use of a lunar calendar, closely mirror Jewish traditions.

www.opinionjournal.com

“Thousands of Jordanians rallied in the capital and other cities shouting ‘Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!’ a day after three deadly hotel bombings that killed at least 59 people. Officials suspected Iraqi involvement in the attacks, which were claimed by al-Qaida’s Iraq branch,” the Associated Press reports:

As protesters in Jordan and elsewhere in the Arab world denounced the Jordanian-born leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, security forces snared a group of Iraqis for questioning and officials said one of the bombers spoke Iraqi-accented Arabic before he exploded his suicide belt in the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

The main demonstration in Amman lasted for more than an hour. But honking vehicles, decorated with Jordanian flags and posters of King Abdullah II, cruised Amman’s streets until late in the night, as passengers chanted “Death to al-Zarqawi, the villain and the traitor!” and anti-terrorism slogans.

Another AP dispatch reports on the reaction of Palestinian Arabs in Silet al-Thaher, in the disputed territories:

In this Palestinian village, the Akhras clan mourned 17 relatives killed by a suicide bomber in Jordan–the first time Palestinians have been a target in a suicide attack.

“Oh my God, oh my God. Is it possible that Arabs are killing Arabs, Muslims killing Muslims?” asked a weeping Najah Akhras, 35, who lost two nieces. . . .

“Palestinians have tasted the blind violence that does not differentiate between people–children, women, wedding parties, ordinary people,” said Palestinian newspaper commentator Hani al-Masri.

“I expect now a significant change in the Palestinian political culture,” he said. “For sure, this attack will push Palestinians to reconsider this way of suicide bombings, and I think it would reduce support for attacks that kill people without any differentiation.”

Let’s hope it also reduces support for attacks that kill Jews with “differentiation.” Anyway, this is further evidence of how al Qaeda has squandered the world’s goodwill since 9/11.

By Mohamad Bazzi
Newsday

Jordan attack indicates spread of Iraq violence

For a generation of Arabs, Moustapha Akkad’s historical epics became cultural icons the same way “Star Wars” did in the West.

Mr. Akkad was best-known in the United States as the executive producer and driving force behind the “Halloween” horror-movie series. But in the Arab world, he was known as the director of two much-admired films: a history of Islam and the story of a Libyan nationalist leader.

Mr. Akkad, 75, died Friday in a Jordanian hospital from injuries he sustained in one of the suicide bombings that struck three hotels Wednesday in Amman, the capital. The filmmaker and his daughter, Rima Akkad Monla, 34, were attending a wedding reception at the Radisson SAS hotel. She died Wednesday night, leaving behind a husband and two children. Mr. Akkad, who was divorced, also had three sons.

Hours after his death was announced, one Arab satellite channel broadcast his most famous movie, “The Message,” a sweeping history of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. Released in 1976, the three-hour film gained a wide audience in the Arab world because of its sophisticated production and cinematography. The movie cost $17 million, a huge investment for a film at that time.

“‘The Message’ came out at time when most Arab historical films were shoddy and had low budgets,” said Ali Abdullah, a Lebanese writer and critic. “Akkad made his film into an epic by using technology, large sets and thousands of extras.”

To reach Western audiences, Mr. Akkad refused to subtitle the Arabic film. Instead, he made a separate English version starring Anthony Quinn.

Religious leaders praised the movie for its positive portrayal of Islam. For example, Islamic tradition dictates that the prophet cannot be depicted on screen nor can his voice be heard. Throughout the film, actors who interact with Muhammad speak directly to the camera and then nod to unheard dialogue.

“I did this film because it was a personal thing for me,” Mr. Akkad told a newspaper in 1998. “Being a Muslim myself who lived in the West, I felt that it was my obligation, my duty, to tell the truth about Islam.”

Mr. Akkad’s other epic was “Lion of the Desert,” released in 1981. It recounted the story of Omar Mukhtar, a Bedouin leader who fought a guerrilla war against the Italian invaders of Libya from 1911 until his execution by Benito Mussolini’s forces 20 years later. The movie also starred Quinn, who portrayed Mukhtar’s transformation from schoolteacher to guerrilla leader.

Born in Syria, Mr. Akkad moved to Los Angeles at 20 to study filmmaking. He worked as a producer at various studios before starting his own production company in the early 1970s. After he spent years raising money to make “The Message,” he turned to horror films to help finance his other interests.

In 1978, he produced the first of eight “Halloween” movies, directed by John Carpenter and starring a then-unknown Jamie Lee Curtis. The first movie featuring the masked killer Michael Myers inspired a cult following and seven sequels.

Carpenter recalled Mr. Akkad as a “very, very nice man” who gave him creative control of the first “Halloween” movie.

“‘Halloween’ put me on the map, and I’m very sad to hear of his death,” Carpenter said.

When he died, Mr. Akkad was working on an epic about Salahuddin, the 12th-century Muslim warrior who recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders. He reportedly had persuaded Sean Connery to play Salahuddin.

www.memri.org

Saudi author Badriyya Al-Bishr, a lecturer in social sciences at King Saud University, recently published an article titled “Imagine You’re a Woman” in the London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.

The following are excerpts from her article: [1]

“Imagine you’re a woman. When your brother is born, people say: ‘It’s a boy, how wonderful,’ and when you are born they say: ‘How wonderful, it’s a little girl’ � using the diminutive form. [2] Your arrival is welcome if [you are] the first or second girl, but it’s best if there are no more than two, so that nothing undesirable happens to the mother. On the other hand, your brothers’ arrivals are welcomed � the more the merrier.

“Imagine you’re a woman. You always need your guardian’s approval, not only regarding your first marriage, as maintained by the Islamic legal scholars, but regarding each and every matter. You cannot study without your guardian’s approval, even if you reach a doctorate level. You cannot get a job and earn a living without your guardian’s approval. Moreover, there are people who are not ashamed to say that a woman must have permission to work even in the private sector.

“Imagine you’re a woman, and the guardian who must accompany you wherever [you go] is your 15-year-old son or your brother, who scratches his chin before giving his approval, saying: ‘What do you think, guys, should I give her my permission?’ Sometimes he asks for… a bribe [in return], heaven forbid! [But] your brother avoids taking such a bribe in ‘cash’ because his self-respect prevents him from touching a woman’s money. So he prefers the bribe to be a car, a fridge, or an assurance of money that you will pay in installments [for him], until Allah gets him out of his financial straits…

“Imagine you’re a woman, and you are subject to assault, beatings, or murder. When the press publishes your photo [together with] the photo of the criminals and [descriptions] of their brutality, there are people who ask: ‘Was the victim covered [by a veil] or not?’ If she was covered up, [the question arises:] ‘Who let her go out of the house at such an hour?’ In the event that your husband is the one who broke your ribs, [people will say] that no doubt there was good reason for it.

“Imagine you’re a woman whose husband breaks her nose, arm, or leg, and you go to the Qadi to lodge a complaint. When the Qadi asks you about your complaint, and you say, ‘He beat me,’ he responds reproachfully ‘That’s all?!’ In other words, [for the Qadi], beating is a technical situation that exists among all couples and lovers, [as the saying goes]: ‘Beating the beloved is like eating raisins.’

“Imagine you’re a woman, and in order to manage your affairs you must ride in a ‘limousine’ with an Indian or Sri Lankan driver… or that you [must] wait for a younger brother to take you to work, or that you [must] bring a man who will learn to drive in your car, and will practice at your expense… because you yourself are not permitted to drive.

“Imagine you’re a woman in the 21st century, and you see fatwas [issued] by some contemporary experts in Islamic law dealing with the rules regarding taking the women of the enemy prisoner and having sexual intercourse with them. Moreover, you find someone issuing a fatwa about the rules of taking the women of the enemy prisoner even in times of peace, and you don’t know to which enemy women it refers.

“Imagine you’re a woman who writes in a newspaper, and every time you write about your [women's] concerns, problems, poverty, unemployment, and legal status, they say about you: ‘Never mind her, it’s all women’s talk.’”

London Telegraph
By Toby Harnden, Chief Foreign Correspondent

Iranian state television has broadcast a cartoon that glorifies suicide bombings against Israelis, depicting a young boy blowing himself up after being told: “Go and show the Zionists how brave and heroic are the children of Palestine.”

The cartoon, one of a series shown by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting on “Jerusalem Day” nine days ago, presents the actions of a boy who kills himself to strike back against Israelis as a noble example for children to follow.

The cartoon follows the story of Abd who dies in a suicide attack
More professionally produced and graphic than previous Iranian propaganda aimed at children, the cartoon appears to be part of a campaign led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to elevate the issue of the destruction of Israel. The day before the cartoon was shown, he declared at a World Without Zionism conference: “This stain of disgrace [Israel] will be wiped off the face of the world — and this is attainable.”

His comments were greeted with outrage in the West and prompted Tony Blair to suggest that military action might be required against Iran if progress towards a nuclear bomb continued.

At the start of the 10-minute animated film, translated into English by the Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri), Abd al-Rahman, a Palestinian youth, watches as Israeli soldiers murder his family.

They are depicted laughing as they strike his mother in the face with a rifle butt and then shoot his father, whose blood splashes the oranges on the trees he cultivated.

Abd comforts his sister and weeps, declaring: “Oh God, I must take revenge upon these bloodthirsty aggressors, who murdered my father, mother and brother.” His cousin Karim introduces him to a neighbour’s son, Jassem, who is a member of a “resistance group”.

Jassem instructs the boys to take part in an attack against Israeli soldiers, applauding their “deep faith” and telling them that they “may become martyrs”. Abd’s aunt bids the boys a tearful farewell. “God willing, you’ll be successful,” she says. “Go, my children. Go and show the Zionists how brave and heroic are the children of Palestine.”

As he lies in wait, Abd ties a string of grenades around his waist. The convoy approaches and the cartoon shows satanic-faced Israeli soldiers sitting in a lorry around an ammunition box decorated with a Star of David.

Abd shouts, “I place my trust in God. Allah Akbar”, pulls the grenade pins and leaps onto the lorry. When the smoke clears, the bodies of Abd, the Israeli troops and the attackers are strewn around the road.

A young Palestinian boy then walks over to Abd’s body, takes his bloodstained keffiyeh head-dress, drapes it over his own shoulders and walks off into the sunset.

Dan Shaham, a spokesman for the Israeli embassy in London, said: “This phenomenon of inciting children to commit suicide attacks is revolting. It corrupts young minds and makes sure conflict continues. President Ahmadinejad is not only dangerous in the here-and-now but the Iranian extremist ideology is affecting future generations. Something needs to be done today.”

The Iranian embassy declined to comment. Last week, it emerged that Mohammad Hossein Adeli, Iran’s ambassador to Britain, was being recalled to Teheran in a worldwide purge of about 40 Iranian diplomats ordered by Mr Ahmadinejad.

Ali Ansari, an Iranian analyst at St Andrew’s University, said the cartoon was “gory stuff” and different from previous anti-Israeli propaganda. “It’s interesting they’ve gone to these lengths to develop a cartoon like this that is obviously directed towards kids.

“Anti-Zionism is one of the ideological pillars of the Islamic republic. But Ahmadinejad’s comments went beyond the standard ideological diet, because by implication they applauded suicide bombers and condemned anyone who makes peace with Israel.”

This was the equivalent of trying to be “more Catholic than the Pope”, he said, because the Palestinians now accepted that there must be a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict — in contrast to President Ahmadinejad’s policy of destroying Israel and replacing it with a new Palestinian state.

A spokesman for Memri said that the cartoon was one of 10 being translated. In another, Palestinian children throw aubergines at Israeli soldiers who think they are being attacked with grenades and flee.

Such naive propaganda fits in with Mr Ahmadinejad’s simplistic world view and is likely to alienate most ordinary Iranians who, as Shia Persians, rather than Sunni Arabs, are far from fixated on the Palestinian issue.

“Ahmadinejad is not a shrewd political operator,” said Dr Ansari. “Most Iranians want to focus on domestic problems and this [his anti-Israeli stance] is alarming the international community and creating huge anxiety in Iran.”

A British diplomat in London said: “The increase in anti-Israeli propaganda and Ahmadinejad’s dangerous rhetoric will only serve to alienate him from his people and further isolate Iran. For the West, as well as Israel, the prospect of this man having his finger on a nuclear button is truly horrifying.”

By Steven Plaut
FrontPageMagazine.com

There are very few things as amusing these days as watching the French grapple with their backyard intifada. The suburbs of Paris are now more dangerous than Jenin, and the French are getting their comeuppance for decades of snootiness, anti-American and anti-Israel agitprop, and decades of cowardice.

Paris is now being targeted by violent rioting hordes. For years the French accused American racism of having produced the race riots of the 60s and 70s in the US, as well as the Los Angeles riots after the Rodney King business. And the French are sure that only Jewish cussedness and just plain Israeli evil lie behind the behavior of the Palestinian pogromchiki. The Gall of Dem Gauls!

Well, now that the French are experiencing their own intifada, we suggest that they resolve the problem using the very same plan that they have been trying for decades to impose upon Israel.

Yes, comrades, it is time to implement the Land for Peace Plan, Paris style. Here it is:

The French Solution: Land for Peace

So after leading the Solidarity-with-the-Baathists movement in Europe during the recent Gulf War, France now enjoys its own intifada by urban Moslem resistance fighters in suburban Paris! Of course, this is all on top of France’s long history of supporting Islamist fascism and Palestinian terrorism.

A few years back during a trip to Israel, French prime minister Lionel Jospin urged Israel to make concessions for peace. More interesting yet, in documents relating to his visit, Jerusalem was called the ”capital of the Palestinian Authority.” And what do the French consider to be the capital of Israel? Tel Aviv, of course. A few years later, French President Jacques Chirac used the occasion of his visit in 1996 to announce that ”Syria has a moral right to demand return of the Golan Heights.”

These French politicians may be on to something important. Never one to back down from a challenge, I have prepared a set of proposals for consideration by the French people, so that they not only can preserve peace in Parisian suburbia, but also can achieve a full, lasting, and just peace with their urban resistance opponents.

First, until this plan is implemented in full, we must insist that the French government acknowledge that there is no military or police solution to the problems of violence in its suburbs and only through recognizing the legitimacy of the demands of the murderers and rioters outside Paris can the problems be resolved.

Second, we all agree that territory must not be annexed by force. Therefore, we can also agree that Germany has a moral right to demand the return of Alsace-Lorraine, for the French aggression in 1945 and its consequent occupation must not be rewarded. ”A full withdrawal for full peace” should operate here. Further, France must agree to the return and rehabilitation of all ethnic Germans expelled from Alsace-Lorraine after World Wars I and II, as well as all those they define as their descendents.

But this, of course, is just the first step toward a solution, as no aggression can be rewarded and France has much other stolen territory to return. It took Corsica from Genoa, Nice and Savoy from Piedmont; as the successor state, Italy must get back all these lands. By similar token, territories grabbed from the Habsburgs go back to Austria, including Franche-Comte, Artois, and historical Burgundy. The Roussillon area (along the Pyrenees) must be returned to Spain, its rightful owner. And Normandy, Anjou, Aquitaine, and Gascony must be returned to their rightful owners, the British royal family.

Not even this is enough for the sake of peace. Brittany and Languedoc must be granted autonomy at once, recognizing the Breton and Occitan Liberation organizations as their legal rulers. This leaves the French government in control over the Ile de France (the area around Paris).

That, however, still does not solve the problem of the Holy City of Paris, sacred to artists, gourmets, and adulterers. The Corsicans obviously have a historical claim to the Tomb of the Emperor Napoleon, their famed son, as well as the Invalides complex and beyond. For the sake of peace, is it not too much to ask that Paris be the capital for two peoples? The French authorities must agree to prevent French Parisians from even entering the sacred tomb area, lest this upset the Corsicans.

The Saint Chapelle and the Church of Notre Dame, of course, will be internationalized, under joint Vatican-art historical auspices. Indeed, the French should consider it a compliment of the highest order that so many people see Paris as an international city.

The French have nothing to complain about. They will enjoy the benefits of peace and retain control of the Champs Elysees.

Actually, come to think of it, even the Champs Elysees may be too much. Recalling the French position that Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel, perhaps the true French capital is not Paris at all, but Vichy.

By Hal Lindsey
� 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

This week, Hamas announced it had no intention of keeping the informal truce with Israel it has maintained for the last nine months. The truce was informal” because Hamas reserved the right to attack — and did — but for the most part laid low and regrouped.

Having gained their second wind, they are ready to resume the war. “In the ace of this Zionist aggression, no one should dream about the renewal of his truce,” said a Hamas spokesman, Mushir al-Masri.

Israel rejected a Palestinian Authority proposal that Israel stop targeting militants if they would lay down their arms. Israel insists on the dismantling of violent groups.

Raanan Gissin, an aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said, “We’re not going to pay with Israeli lives while they are experimenting in trying to reach understandings with terror organizations and they continue to carry out terror attacks against us.”

Israel’s rejection of the proposal did not sit well with Washington, which continues to urge Israel to show “restraint” in the face of unrelenting and unapologetic aggression linked back to most of the capitals of the Arab world.

It is important in understanding Israel’s true peril to recall the words of former Prime Minister Golda Meir, who famously (and accurately) observed: “The Arabs can fight, and lose, and return to fight another day. Israel can only lose once.”

While the rest of the world experiments with Israel’s security, if the experiment fails, the only loser will be Israel. Israel is as literally in a fight for her survival as America was in World War II, or — although the liberals don’t seem to care — as America’s current war against terror.

Iran’s president recently called for Israel to be wiped from the face of the earth in a public speech. Since Iran is developing nuclear weapons capable of fulfilling the threat, urging Israel to show “restraint” is like urging it to commit suicide.

What would Washington do in Israel’s place? During World War II, in order to defeat the Nazi enemy, Washington ordered the firebombing of civilian cities, killing hundreds of thousands (possibly millions) of civilian men, women and children in an effort to break the enemy’s will.

To defeat Japan and avoid the necessity of a costly invasion, Washington ordered a nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, both civilian targets, following months of intensive conventional firebombing, also aimed at civilians, and intended to break the civilian population’s will to continue to fight.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, Washington ordered the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, the suppression of civilian rule (at least for a time), an ongoing military occupation of both nations with the permission of the (now) friendly governments, and a policy of unrestricted warfare against enemy combatants, wherever they may be found on earth. Washington justified its post-Sept. 11 actions by pointing to the existential threat posed to America’s continued existence should al-Qaida get their hands on weapons of mass destruction.

The identical justification exists (in spades) for an Israeli occupation of both Gaza and the West Bank, including unrestricted warfare against enemy civilians in an effort to break the Palestinians’ continued will to fight. If America’s existence is threatened by Islamic jihadists, Israel’s existence is threatened by every Arab government on earth — in addition to the Islamic jihadists who threaten America.

If America is justified in invading Afghanistan and Iraq, removing the existing governments, and setting up more U.S. friendly governments in their places, then Israel has the identical justification for invading Syria, Iran or Saudi Arabia, deposing the existing rulers, and replacing them with more Israel-friendly regimes.

During World War II, nothing less than unconditional surrender of the Axis powers was acceptable. They were disarmed, occupied and re-educated. Their systems of government were replaced with U.S.-imposed democracies. Washington has proclaimed the same objectives regarding its Islamic enemies.

Nothing less than total surrender and disarmament, or the total destruction of al-Qaida is acceptable. President Bush has made it clear that there is no room for negotiation with terrorists. Until the terrorists disarm and disband, American forces will continue to hunt them down and kill them wherever they find them.

But when it comes to Israel, Washington urges restraint and negotiation by the Israeli side.

According to Bible prophecy, the world is divided into four main spheres of power in the last days — all of which are already in existence today. The Russian-Islamic bloc, the Asian “Kings of the East” the Organization of African Nation’s “Kings of the South” and the European Union’s revived Roman Empire, out of which Daniel says the antichrist will rise to power.

Israel is the main player in the Last Days’ drama, the preferred enemy and ultimate target of all four of these global power players. Israel is in place and in character for the role she was predicted to play.

Missing from the overall Big Picture is any mention of a fifth, overarching superpower resembling the United States. Where did it go?

Perhaps Washington took some of the advice it is now offering Israel.