Levitt Letter Extra News

By Hana Levi Julian, www.IsraelNationalNews.com

More than 100 children were among the 290 new “anglo” immigrants who landed at Ben Gurion International Airport one recent August morning.

An El Al plane, the fourth of five Nefesh B’Nefesh summer aliyah flights from New York, also carried Israel’s newest citizens from Canada, as it touched down just minutes after the seventh Nefesh B’Nefesh group flight from the UK.

Knesset Opposition leader and Likud party chairman Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu greeted the new arrivals, along with former Israeli Ambassador to the US and NBN Co-Chairman Danny Ayalon, as well as NBN co-founders Rabbi Yehoshua Fass and Tony Gelbart.
Among the 240 new Israelis arriving from New York were 100 children, 46 families, 18 singles and six IDF soldiers, with the immigrants ranging in age from one month old to 72.

Members of the North American group hailed from 17 different states in the US and two provinces of Canada, and are planning to live as far north as the Golan and as far south as Be’er Sheva, as well as in all points between.

Over the course of the summer, more than 2,000 North American and British Jews are expected to immigrate to the Jewish State through the organization on five specially-chartered flights, in addition to eight group aliyah flights.

By P. David Hornik,
The American Spectator, www.spectator.org

In August in Tel Aviv there are at last days when the heat and humidity slightly relent, a breeze blows in from the sea, and you can walk to the supermarket and back � at least in the morning � without breaking into a sweat. There’s a mood both of summer � which began quite some time ago � lengthening into endlessness and of intimations of its inevitable demise.

The seafront area seems to get more crowded than ever, and it would make sense with much of the world on vacation and particularly France. You hear so much French down there in August that I nickname the area “Little France.” Many of them are French Jews who have bought apartments in Tel Aviv and come to live in them only in August. It’s created a scarcity of apartments in the city and driven rentals sky-high, a reality I’m all too familiar with. Yet I’m happy to hear the French down at the seafront � it not only sounds nice but means that we who live here all year round have given French Jews an Israel they can be connected to and visit, and maybe even come to permanently if things get rough enough in France.

At night, though, the seafront becomes so enjoyable that it’s possible � for intervals � to remove even thoughts on that level of “ideology” from my head. Particularly charming are the cafes that spread chairs out on the beach next to red or orange cone-lights, so we can sit under the stars watching the waves and the airplane lights float in � it goes well with a glass of cabernet sauvignon. There’s trouble even in paradise: this summer these cafes have decided it’s most profitable for them to attract a youthful clientele and so they play awful music over their PA systems, brute rhythms and ugly electronic sounds; still, troubled paradise is not a bad place to be.

If someone were to come at these moments and ask me some of the questions that have been plaguing me for almost three decades � How successful is the Zionist experiment? How does a country of mostly secular Jews fit into Jewish history? Is it a break with the past or a continuation of it? � I’d probably answer: I don’t know, I’m having too much fun. That Israel could be this much fun was one of the discoveries of coming here � and there are certain more or less objective reasons for it. The Tel Aviv seafront, for instance, is crowded with hotels and cafes but without strip joints and the like, and it’s not at all unusual to see families with little kids here at midnight and beyond. This blend of nightlife and wholesomeness, the lack of menace, produces a sense of freedom � a sense almost of regained youth, being able to go where you want when you want; and in that there’s a lot of elation.

It can’t last too long, of course, the suspension of “ideology”; a different kind of menace hangs over this place, even more than in the past, and it takes on depths and dimensions beyond spontaneity and fun. With fall will come the High Holidays, the profound optimism of Rosh Hashanah and profound somberness of Yom Kippur, phenomena felt throughout the society from the most pious to the most liberated. I’ll keep reading ever-more-perturbing reports about weapons development and weapons smuggling, and I’ll stick with my questions � What is the meaning of the Jewish state? Does God care about it? Did it make Jews normal or even more different? � even though by now I’ve at least made enough progress to know I’m never going to answer them and they’re with me for good like a counterpoint, a tune.

Still I’ll take what August in Tel Aviv gives me � a sense of largesse (summer will last forever) and a sense of reassurance (it won’t last forever, it won’t always be this humid), a teeming seafront at night, a patter of French and Hebrew, airplane lights floating in, that sense of festive spontaneity I love without knowing what it means.

P. David Hornik is a writer and translator living in Tel Aviv. He blogs at pdavidhornik.typepad.com.

By Dr. Chuck Misler, Koinonia House,
The Jerusalem Connection International, support.tjci.org

Russia’s invasion of Georgia has caused a uproar in the international community and further strained Russia’s diplomatic relationship with the West. These events could help pave the way for the famed battle prophesied in Ezekiel 38 and 39. It is during this battle, that God will directly intercede to protect Israel from Magog and its allies:

And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him. . .And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horse-men, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: – Ezekiel 38:1-4Ezekiel 38:1-4
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38 ¹ The word of Yahweh came to me, saying, ² Son of man, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him, ³ and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal: ⁴ and I will turn you about, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you forth, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords;

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So begins this classic passage in which Gog and Magog, with their allies, are drawn into an invasion of Israel only to have the God of Israel use the occasion to show Himself strong by intervening on behalf of His people and destroying the invading forces. To understand this passage, it is essential to first determine who the players are. Despite the many controversies, these participants are surprisingly well identified. Just who are the people represented here by these ancient tribal names?

Why Such Weird Names?

Have you ever wondered why the Biblical prophets always seem to refer to various peoples by such strange names? It’s actually our fault! We keep changing the names of things. There once was a city known as Petrograd. For many years it was known as St. Petersburg. Then it was changed to Leningrad. Now it’s St. Petersburg again. What will it be named a few years from now? (My friends in Russia say that in Russia, even the past is uncertain!) The capital of the old world, Byzantium, was renamed Constantinople. Now that city is known as Istanbul. This occurs even in our own country. How many of you remember when “Cape Canaveral” was renamed “Cape Kennedy”? Ten years later it became “Cape Canaveral” again.

But we do not change the names of our ancestors! So, if you were the prophet Isaiah and were called upon to speak of the Persians over a century before they emerged as an empire, how could you refer to them? You would speak of them as the descendants of Elam, the forebears of the Persians.(2)

The Table of Nations

Did you realize that you and I are related? All of us are descendants, not only from Adam, but from Noah. Noah and his three sons repopulated the entire Earth after the flood. Thus, we are all descendants of Noah’s three sons: Ham, Shem, and Japheth. We are all relatives. (Perhaps that’s why we don’t get along any better!) The genealogical records of Noah and his three sons are listed in Genesis 10, and the 70 original tribal groups described there are often called by Biblical scholars, The Table of Nations. Specifically, to understand the prophecies of Ezekiel 38 – 39, we need some background on Magog and his allies.

Magog was one of the sons of Japheth (3) and his descendants are often referred to by their Greek name, the Scythians. (4) One of the earliest references to Magog was by Hesiod, “the father of Greek didactic poetry,” who identified Magog with the Scythians and southern Russia in the 7th century B.C. (5) Hesiod was, in effect, almost a contemporary of Ezekiel. Another of the major sources on the ancient history of the Middle East is, of course, Josephus Flavius, who clearly identified Magog:

Magog founded the Magogians, thus named after him, but who were by the Greeks called Scythians. (6)

Another first century writer was Philo, (7) who also identified Magog with southern Russia. But most of our information comes to us from Herodotus, who wrote extensively in the 5th century B.C.

The “Father of History”

Herodotus of Halicarnassus is known as the “Father of History.” He wrote the earliest important historical narrative, in which he described the background and the course of the great war between the Greeks and the Persians in the 5th century B.C. Numerous archeological discoveries have clearly confirmed Herodotus’ reports in general, and his Scythian accounts in particular. (8)

The tortuous path from the horseback archery of the early Scyths to the nuclear missiles of the Russian Federation includes many centuries of turbulent history. The various descendants of Magog terrorized the southern steppes of Russia from the Ukraine to the Great Wall of China.

The “Steppes of History”

The earliest origins of the area settled by the descendants of Magog, the extreme north and east, are clouded by the passage of time and war. Only faint traces remain, but enough to establish the critical identities. Our indebtedness extends from writers predating Ezekiel to the energies of the Russian archaeologists in more recent years. In the 9th century B.C. a number of nomadic tribes created a new state in the region of Lake Van in present-day Turkey, which immediately became a competitor of Assyria. The Assyrians called this state Urartu. The Urartean state quickly became powerful, and in the first half of the 8th century B.C. extended its rule over a wide area.

Assyria could not stand by indifferently as Urartu expanded and grew more powerful. During the reign of Argishti’s son, Sarduri II (764-735 B.C.), the Assyrians undertook two campaigns against Urartu, in 743 and 735 B.C. In the second, they reached and besieged the Urartean capital of Tushpa. Two groups are frequently referred to in Urartean and Assyrian texts: the Cimmerians and the Scythians. Both will figure prominently in subsequent identifications.

The Cimmerians

The Cimmerians are the oldest of the European tribes living north of the Black Sea and Danube, and whom we know by the name they used for themselves. The Cimmerian period in the history of southern Ukraine began in the late 11th century B.C. The Cimmerians were the first specialized horse-nomads to make their name in history. (9) The earliest osteological evidence of the domestication of the horse occurs south of Kiev about 2500 B.C. (10) Their nomadic lifestyle, including mounted warriors, fully developed between the 10th and 8th centuries. (11)

They are first mentioned in secular literature in The Odyssey and The Iliad of Homer (8th century B.C.), and in Assyrian cuneiform texts from the 8th century B.C. (before Ezekiel), and of course, in Herodotus (5th century B.C.). Herodotus indicates that the whole North Pontic steppe region, occupied in his time by the Scythians, belonged earlier to the Cimmerians. (12) Homer (13) associated the Cimmerians with a fog-bound land, perhaps the Crimean peninsula on the north shore of the Black Sea. Some scholars derive the name of “Crimea” from the Cimmerians. (14) The Cimmerians surged into Asia Minor in the late 7th century B.C. They annihilated the Phrygian kingdom after destroying and looting its capital, Gordium. In 652 B.C. they captured Sardis and plundered the Greek cities of the Aegean coast and Asia Minor. In the early 7th century, Cimmerian forces were checked and routed by the Assyrians who came to the aid of the Scythians. By the 6th century B.C. the name of the Cimmerians disappeared from the historical scene.

In the 5th century B.C., Herodotus (15) related that the Cimmerians were driven south over the Caucasus, probably through the central Dariel Pass, by the Scythians in a domino-like effect as the Scythians themselves were pushed westward by other tribes. This can be correlated with Chinese records. (16) The numerous references in the Talmud has left little doubt that these descendants of Gomer then moved northward and established themselves in the Rhine and Danube valleys. (17)

The Scythians

We know the descendants of Magog by their Greek designation as the Scythians (depicted in their legends as descending from Scythes, the youngest of the three sons of Heracles, from sleeping with a half viper and half woman). (18) The name Scythian designates a number of nomadic tribes from the Russian steppes, one group of which invaded the Near East in the 8th and 7th centuries B.C. After being repulsed from Media, many of the later Scyths settled in the fertile area of the Ukraine north of the Black Sea. Other related tribes occupied the area to the east of the Caspian Sea.

Herodotus describes them living in Scythia (i.e., the territory north of the Black Sea). He describes Scythia as a square, 20 days journey (360 miles) on a side. It encompassed the lower reaches of the Dniester, Bug, Dnieper, and Don Rivers where they flow into the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. (19)

The Scythian language belonged to the Iranian family of the Indo-European languages. (20) The Ossetian dialect of central Caucasus appears to be a survivor. (21) The original area in which Iranian was spoken extended from the mid-Volga and the Don regions to the northern Urals and beyond. From here, Iranian-speaking tribes colonized Media, Parthia, Persia, Central Asia, and as far as the Chinese border.

In the 7th century B.C. the Scythians swept across the area, displacing the Cimmerians from the steppes of the Ukraine east of Dnieper River, who fled from them across the Caucasus. (22) It is provocative that even the name “Caucasus” appears to have been derived from Gog-hasan, or “Gog’s Fort.” (23)

The hippomolgoi (“mare-milkers”) mentioned in Homer’s Iliad (24) were equestrian nomads of the northern steppes and several authorities also identified these with the Scythians. (25) [One of the delicacies I was presented with when I was being hosted by the Deputy Chairman of the Soviet Union was fermented horse milk! These traditions may have a deep history, indeed.]

Tombs That Tell Tales

The fact that the Scythian culture extended more than 2,000 miles east from the Ukraine was demonstrated by the sensational discovery of tombs in the Chilikta Valley of East Kazakhstan, published in Russian in 1965:

…prove that Scythian material culture had spread to the Mongolian border as early as the 6th century B.C. (26)

Countless Scythian burials, ranging from the 6th – 2nd century B.C., have been uncovered in the areas to the north and east of the Black Sea, in many cases beyond the limits of what Herodotus demarcated in his day as “Scythia” proper. Soviet scholars have, of course, worked broadly in this region. (27) More than 1,200 graves were investigated by A. Leskov in the Crimean area between 1961 and 1972. Aerial surveys also have been employed. (28) Hundreds of Scythian graves from the 4th and 3rd centuries have been discovered since the 1930s by B. Grakow, A. Trenoschkin, and E. Tschernenko, in the Ukraine. One of the many implications of the Soviet finds is the authentication of the reliability of Herodotus as a source of knowledge of the Scythians. The leading authorities on the Scythians, T. Rice, T. Sulimirski, and others, all regard Herodotus as thoroughly vindicated. (29)

Remarkable circumstances led to the preservation of otherwise perishable materials. The frozen conditions marvelously preserved textiles, remains of horses, human skin and hair, entrails, undigested food, etc., for more than 2,300 years! In July 1995, Russian archaeologists found a 2,500 year old Scythian horseman under more than seven feet of ice in Siberia near the Chinese and Mongolian borders. More than 6,500 feet above sea level, the Ukok Plateau is blanketed by a thick layer of rocks that keeps the ground frozen year round. The horseman had been given his ceremonial burial in his fur coat and high leather boots, alongside his horse in a log-lined chamber in the Altai Mountains. He also had his ax, quiver, and dagger. (30)

According to Herodotus and archaeological evidence, the Scythians occupied territory from the Danube to the Don. The northern boundary extended beyond the latitude of Kiev. Near Olbia lived the Callipidae and Graeco-Scythians, and farther north, the Alazones.

Defense in Depth

One reason Herodotus gave so much detailed information about the Scythians was that he wanted to describe the people who had succeeded in defeating the Persian king, Darius. This was a most important element in the history of Scythians, and the memory of it remained with them for many years. In resisting the Persians, a provocative strategic tradition was born: Defense in Depth. This unique strategy also would characterize these descendants of Magog in more recent times against both Napoleon and Hitler.

Darius I crossed the Bosphorus and invaded Scythia. The Scythians, however, had devised an unusual tactic for conducting warfare. The Persians expected to crush the Scythians in a decisive engagement, but the Scythians avoided such a battle. They retreated deep into their own territory, laying waste the region and wearing down the enemy by means of small raids. In pursuing the Scythians, Darius soon came to appreciate the cunning of these “partisan” tactics. Reaching the Volga, Darius, acknowledging defeat, had to retreat from Scythia in shame.

As every student of military history knows, Napoleon and Hitler, each, in more modern times, encountered the same tactics from the Scythian descendants and yielding similar results. When Napoleon entered Russia in 1812, Field Marshall Kutuzov’s similar strategy, including the sacrifice of Moscow itself, resulted in reducing Napoleon’s Grande Arm�e from 453,000rom 453,000
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Izbrano poglavje ne obstaja! Štetje svetopisemskih vrstic se začne z ¹! Vrstica ⁰ ne obstaja!

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Decline

Greater Scythia disintegrated in the late 3rd century B.C., and the territory extended only from the Lower Dnieper to the Crimea. There were several causes; the main one was apparently ecological. Evidently the natural and climatic conditions of life on the steppe were changing. According to some experts there was a “desertification” of the steppe. (31) The population moved to more favorable areas, in particular southwards to the southern Dnieper. The Scythians finally succumbed to attacks from the Goths.

Scythians in the New Testament

The word Scythian occurs once in the New Testament. Paul stresses the fact that people from the most diverse backgrounds can be one in Christ:

Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
- Colossians 3:11Colossians 3:11
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11 where there can’t be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondservant, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all.

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These unsavory associations mean nothing to readers today but would have aroused a strong emotional response from Paul’s audience. According to this passage, not only were all classes of society, civilized and uncivilized, one in Christ, but even those cruel, barbaric Scythians – the epitome of savagery in the ancient world (32) – were eligible for redemption through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. [Even as you and I are. No matter how barbaric or cruel our own history is, His redemption is available for the asking.]

* * *

**NOTES**

1. Ezekiel 39:9-15Ezekiel 39:9-15
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9 Those who dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall make fires of the weapons and burn them, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the war clubs, and the spears, and they shall make fires of them seven years; ¹⁰ so that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall make fires of the weapons; and they shall plunder those who plundered them, and rob those who robbed them, says the Lord Yahweh. ¹¹ It shall happen in that day, that I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the valley of those who pass through on the east of the sea; and it shall stop those who pass through: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude; and they shall call it The valley of Hamon Gog. ¹² Seven months shall the house of Israel be burying them, that they may cleanse the land. ¹³ Yes, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown in the day that I shall be glorified, says the Lord Yahweh. ¹⁴ They shall set apart men of continual employment, who shall pass through the land, and, with those who pass through, those who bury those who remain on the surface of the land, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search. ¹⁵ Those who pass through the land shall pass through; and when any sees a man’s bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, until the undertakers have buried it in the valley of Hamon Gog.

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2. Isaiah 11:11; 21:2; 22:6Isaiah 11:11; 21:2; 22:6
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11 It will happen in that day that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. ² A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; attack! I have stopped all of Media's sighing. ⁶ Elam carried his quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield.

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3. Genesis 10:2Genesis 10:2
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2 The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.

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5 Why should you be beaten more, That you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, And the whole heart faint.

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4. Keil, C.F., & Delitzsch, F., Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel, T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1891, vol 2, p.157; Gesenius, Wilhelm, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Crocker & Brewster, Boston, 1872, pp.534, 626, 955, 1121; Scofield, C.I., ed., The Scofield Reference Bible, Oxford University, 1917, p.883; The New Scofield Reference Bible, English, E.S., 1967, p.881.
5. F. W. Gingrich & Frederich Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago & London, 1957.
6. Josephus, Antiquities, 1.123; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel 38:2Ezekiel 38:2
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2 Son of man, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him,

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7. F. H. Colson, G.H. Whitaker, & Ralph Marcus, Philo, Loeb Classical Library, London, 1929-1953.
8. W. Spiegelberg, The Credibility of Herodotus’ Account of Egypt in the Light of the Egyptian Monuments, Blackwell, Oxford, 1927; O. E. Ravn, Herodotus’ Description of Babylon, A. Busck, Copenhagen, 1942.
9. E. D. Phillips, “New Light on the Ancient History of the Eurasian Steppe,” American Journal of Archaeology 61, 1957, p. 274.
10. J. F. Downs, “The Origin and Spread of Riding in the Near East and Central Asia,” American Anthropologist 63, 1961st 63, 1961
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Izbrano poglavje ne obstaja!

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11. K. Jettmar, “Die Entstehung der Reiternomaden,” Saeculum 17, 1966, p. 1-11.; E.D. Phillips, “New Light on the Ancient History of the Eurasian Steppe,” American Journal of Archaelogy, 61, 1957.
12. Herodotus 4.11.
13. Odyssey, 11.13-19.
14. Strabo 7.4.3.
15. Herodotus 4.11-13.
16. T. Rice, The Scythians , 3rd ed., Praeger, NY, 1961, p. 43.
17. Targum Yonasan and the Midrash: identification with Germania.
18. It is interesting to notice how frequently a woman is linked with a serpent: Genesis 3; the legends surrounding the birth of Alexander the Great, etc.
19. B.A. Rybakov (Rus: Herodotus’s Scythia ), Nauka, Moscow, 1979, p. 19.
20. See R. G. Kent, Old Persian, 2nd ed., American Oriental Society, New Haven CT, 1953, p. 6; J. Potratz, Die Skythen in Sudrussland , Raggi, Basel, 1963, p.17.
21. See “Scythian”(Rus: Great Soviet Encylopedia ), 3rd ed., 1979, vol 23, pp.259-260. Also, Herodotus 4.117, 4.108, 4.106.
22. Herodotus 4.12.
23. Dr. John Gill, A Commentary on the Old Testament, 1748.
24. Iliad, 13.5.
25. B.N. Grakov, Die Skythen , Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin, 1980, p.4.
26. M. Van Loon, review of J. Potratz, Die Skythen in Sudrussland, in Journal of Near Eastern Studies , 29, 1970, p.71.
27. Rybakov, pp.104-168; T. Sulimirski, “The Scythian Age in the U.S.S.R.,” Bulletin of the Institute of Archaeology, London, 10, 1971, pp.114-131; V. S. Olkhovski, “The Scythian Catacombs in the Steppes of the Black Sea” Sovetskaia Arkheologiia, no. 4, 1977, pp. 108-128; “The Ancient Tombs of the Scyths According to Herodotus and the Archaeological Data,” Sovietskaia Arkheologiia, No. 4, 1978, pp. 83-97. A. M. Leskov, “Die skythischen Kurgane,” Antike Welt 5, Sondernummer; 1974.
28. A. M. Leskov, “Die skythischen Kurgane,” Antike Welt, 5, Sondernummer; 1974.
29. T. Rice, Scythians, p. 42; Rybakov, Gerodotova Skifiia, pp. 239-240; M. I. Artamonov, Treasures from Scythian Tombs in the Hermitage Museum, Thames and Hudson, London, 1969, p. 16; K. S. Rubinson, “Herodotus and the Scythians,” Expedition, 17, Summer, 1975, p. 20; T. Sulimirski, “Scythian Antiquities,” p. 294, citing works of C. F. Lehmann-Haupt, V. Struve, G. C. Cameron, and A. Baschmakoff in support of Herodotus. Also, J. Przyluski, “Noveaux aspects de l’histoire des Scythes,” Revue de l’Universite de Bruxelles, 42, 1936-1937, pp. 210ff.
30. “Experts struggle to preserve 2,500e 2,500
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31. Some believe that orbital perturbations may have altered the Earth’s ecological balance in ages past. See Signs in the Heavens, Koinonia House.
32. i.e., II Maccabees 4:47es 4:47
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5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have plotted evil against you, saying,

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33. The notorious exploits of Ivan The Terrible are hardly more shocking than the Massacre of St. Bartholemew’s Day or the methods of the Roman Catholic Inquisition. See Dave Hunt’s A Woman Rides the Beast, Harvest House, 1994.

Workers get Muslim day off this year but not in future
By Bob Unruh, www.WorldNetDaily.com

Workers at the Shelbyville, Tenn., plant for Tyson Foods � which boasts on its corporate website that it strives “to honor God” � will get the Muslim Eid al-Fitr as a holiday this year, but not in the future unless they choose to give up their birthday as a day off, the company announced.

The company recently had agreed to a request from the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union to replace the traditional American workers’ holiday Labor Day with the Muslim holiday that closes the fasting month of Ramadan.

But officials for Tyson said Labor Day has been reinstated and Eid al-Fitr dropped after it acquired permission from the union to change the contract.

“Tyson made this request on behalf of its Shelbyville plant employees, some of whom had expressed concern about the new contract provisions relative to paid holidays,” the company told WND. “In an effort to be responsive, Tyson asked the union to reopen the contract to address the holiday issue, and the union agreed to do so. The union membership voted overwhelmingly to reinstate Labor Day as one of the plant’s paid holidays, while keeping Eid al-Fitr as an additional paid holiday for this year only. This means that in 2008 only, Shelbyville employees will have nine paid holidays.”

The company said that for the remainder of the five-year contract period, the eight paid holidays will include: New Year�s Day, Martin Luther King Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and a “personal holiday,” which could either be the employee�s birthday, Eid al-Fitr, or another day requested and approved by their supervisor.

“This issue concerns only the plant at Shelbyville, Tenn. Labor Day has always been celebrated, and continues to be, at the other 118 Tyson plants across the country,” officials said.

WND reported Tyson had agreed to the request from the RWDSU for the change in holidays because about 700 immigrants from Somalia who largely are Muslim are among the 1,200he 1,200
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Union officials had boasted of the new contract creating “an additional paid holiday, a Muslim holiday that occurs toward the end of Ramadan.”

Union officials did not respond to WND requests for a comment.

But Gary Mickelson, Tyson’s media chief, clarified that there was no “additional” holiday, the company had just agreed to discontinue Labor Day and implement Eid al-Fitr.

“Union leadership did request and receive Eid al-Fitr … as a paid holiday in place of Labor Day,” Mickelson told a local newspaper at the time. “Since all Team Members will still have eight paid holidays, the change will not affect production,” he said.
On a local newspaper’s forum page, readers were outraged.

“If this holiday is that important to them, make them take it off instead of Christmas Day and allow ALL workers to be off Labor Day. Most AMERICAN families have some type of function on Labor Day,” wrote one participant.

“It says union leadership made this request, makes you wonder who runs the union. I guess they are already working on a plan to replace Memorial Day, that means nothing to the Muslims so why should we have the right to celebrate it. Labor Day commemorates the plight of workers and the struggle of labor unions to improve working conditions for American workers. The Muslims will not stop until all of our rights and laws are changed to accommodate their beliefs. This will be a new America but it will be their America,” said another.

The union boasts on its website, “Diversity is one of the strengths of our union. � We may come from different countries and speak different languages. But what unites us is the belief that by standing together we can better advance our interests.”

Union spokesman Randy Hadley told the newspaper, “The negotiating committee felt this was extremely crucial, since this holiday is as important to Muslims as Christmas is to Christians.”

The union also reported “two prayer rooms have been created to allow Muslim workers to pray twice a day and return to work without leaving the plant.”

Ironically, the company on its website also promotes a variety of traditional and customary Christian and secular blessings for food � its primary product.

Another forum participant said immigrants should adjust to American culture, not the other way around.

“This is America, founded by the blood of our forefathers and should not be challenged by Somalians [sic], Hispanics, or any other immigrants. If they come to America, they need to learn our language and our ways. They can practice their culture in private if they so please, but not shove it down our throats. Would they let us go there and change there country? I have banned Tyson’s products from my home for years because of the illegals they were hiring. I am sorry for the producers that are supplying them, but Tyson’s has once again crossed the line with the American people. Labor Day was here long before Tyson’s. What holiday will be next to be taken away and replaced to accommodate an immigrant. This stinks worse than the plant,” the forum participant said.

A Muslim website says the holiday is a “joyous three-day celebration” that concludes Ramadan, during which Muslims fast during the day.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the Labor Day national holiday dates from Sept. 5, 1882, and is “dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.”

Sonya Gagloeva, right, in a photo from February 2008, was one of the few remaining Jews left in Tskhinvali, the disputed capital of South Ossetia.

By Grant Slater, ww.jta.org

MOSCOW � Russian and Georgian troops continued to fight a pitched battle on Monday that has spilled beyond the borders of South Ossetia and toward the Georgian city of Gori, where Jewish relief organizations continued to make contact with local Jews.

More than 200 Jewish residents fled the Russian bombardment over the weekend and more have decided to leave amid fears that the Russian army is advancing toward them.

Jews on either side of the conflict zone expressed starkly contrasting impressions of the battle as the war-weary Caucuses region weathered its latest conflagration � Russia’s largest use of force outside its borders since 1989.

On Friday, Russian tanks and soldiers poured into South Ossetia, a breakaway republic that fought a war for independence from Georgia in the early 1990s. Russia said its move was meant to protect its citizens and peacekeepers from a Georgian attempt to secure the capital, Tskhinvali.

Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili, had made reunification of Georgia with its breakaway republics a central plank of his campaigns as he cultivated close ties with the West, sending soldiers to U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as seeking entry to NATO.

Saakashvili’s distance from Russia chafed at then-President Vladimir Putin of Russia and Moscow holds little love for the poster child of democracy in the former Soviet sphere.

Jews are caught on both sides of the conflict.

Alex Katz, the Jewish Agency for Israel’s liason to the former Soviet Union, visited Gori on Monday and met with the few holdouts in the city closest to the Ossetian border. He said that Russian troops were nine miles north of the city.

Katz visited the city with a community leader, Vissarion Manasherov, with the intent of convincing the stragglers to leave the area, and offered them a chance to emigrate the Israel. One family agreed, and another decided to remain in Gori, he said. A third family could not be found.

“The situation is tense now; very, very tense,” Katz told JTA. “We are used to this as Israelis but it is a very complicated situation now.”

During his conversation with JTA, Katz’s vehicle was quickly fleeing Gori with a convoy of Georgian soldiers that, on the way back to the Geogian capital of Tbilisi, passed a hospital with long lists of wounded soldiers, Katz said.

Gori had been used as a staging ground for Georgian troops during their initial offensive on the Ossetian capital.

Of the more than 200 Jewish refugees who have made their way to Tbilisi, most of them are staying with relatives and friends in the capital. Between 10,000 and 12,000 Jews live in Georgia, mostly in Tbilisi.

Speaking from a central planning room in Israel, Jewish Agency spokesman Alex Selsky said more than 200 people had applied to make aliyah [return to Israel]at the agency’s behest. A group of eight �migr�s arrived Sunday night in Israel from Georgia, but their relocation had been previously planned, he said.

The government of Israel is also sending two consular representatives to Tbilisi, according to the agency.

Arkia Israel Airlines said Monday it could not fly out 100 Israeli nationals waiting to leave Georgia because the airport radar had been bombed beyond function, Ha’aretz (Israeli daily newspaper) reported.

The airline is working to reroute passengers through Azerbaijan.

Georgian troops withdrew Sunday from South Ossetia, a pro-Russian de facto state since 1992. Russia has issued passports to South Ossetian citizens for years and served as a peacekeeping force in the region.

Before wave after wave of ethnic conflict shook the foundations of Tskhinvali starting in 1992, there was a growing Jewish community of more than 2000 people in the city of 30,000.

Presently, that number has dwindled to close to 15 people, said Mark Petrushansky, the chairman of the Jewish community for Vladikavkaz, the closest Russian population center to the conflict zone.

Petrushansky said he visited Tskhinvali last month and spoke with community leaders. He has not been able to find any members of the community since the fighting broke out Friday, though he said that at least one prominent member was currently in Moscow with family.

Leaders from South Ossetia and from Abkhazia, another pro-Russian breakaway republic on Georgia’s border with the Black Sea, have sought recognition of the initial assault on Tskhinvali as genocide.

According to estimates from the Georgian and Russian governments, the death toll for the conflict is near 2,000r 2,000
English: World English Bible - WEB
Štetje svetopisemskih vrstic se začne z ¹! Vrstica ⁰ ne obstaja!

WP-Bible plugin, though there is no independent confirmation of the numbers.

Russian television has broadcast near-constant footage of wounded Ossetians while Prime Minister Vladimir Putin flew from the Olympic Games in Beijing directly to Vladikavkaz to meet with refugees.

Petrushansky said he had seen footage on television of a Jewish child he knew from a local school fleeing Tskhinvali with her grandmother to Russia. Incensed, he placed the blame at the feet of Georgia and President Mikheil Saakashvili.

“Unfortunately, they began this horrible massacre on Friday,” he said by telephone on Monday. “The American agencies are broadcasting and we’re watching these lies meant to manipulate people.”

Russian media have portrayed Saakashvili, the Columbia University-educated president who has courted U.S. favor and sought Georgia’s membership in NATO, as a puppet of the West. They have broadcast a loop of his interviews with Western news organizations like CNN and pronouncements from his presidential desk in English.

Petrushansky also had heard reports that Israel had provided weapons and military training to Georgia, which he likened to Germany under Hitler.

“Why is Israel helping Georgia? I’m so embarrassed about this. This is a war against Jews and they don’t even understand it,” he said.

Ha’aretz cited an anonymous senior defense official who said Israel feared that further aid to Georgia would provoke Russia into providing more advanced weaponry to Iran and Syria. Israel has sought to distance itself from Georgia since the conflict began.

Israel has a longstanding defense relationship with Georgia and over the years has sold rockets, night vision, and aerial drones to the former Soviet republic. A drone that was shot down by Russian forces in the breakaway republic of Abkhazia earlier this year came from Israel.

In contrast, soldiers and citizens in the midst of the fighting in northern Georgia have expressed a sense that the United States betrayed them by not providing more support as the conflict unfolded.

They see Russia’s actions as heavy-handed, a return to the Soviet mentality in which neighbors are either puppets or enemies.

“Russia is in the middle of an act of aggression against Georgia. The attempt to take Abkhazia and Ossetia is obvious to the whole world as an attempt to create anew the Russian empire,” said Gregory Brodsky, the Jewish Agency’s emissary to Tbilisi.

Russian planes bombed targets across Georgia on Monday, including bridges, roadways, and military facilities on the outskirts of Tbilisi, Brodsky said.

In Abkhazia, Russian forces have demanded that soldiers in the Georgian-controlled regions lay down their weapons, a sign that Russia may be ready to open a second front in the war.

The Abkhazian capital Sukhumi is home to some 120 Jews who are no stranger to tanks and rebel armies prowling across the hilly seaside region, though the capital is on the coast far from where border skirmishes would take place.

Alexander Glusker, the chairman of Sukhumi’s Jewish community, told JTA that he and his fellow Jews are “Abkhazian patriots,” though he shrugged at the possibility of Abkhazian independence in the near future. He said he had seen too many wars� three or four at last count�to get too excited.

“Russia will never let Georgia join NATO and this is why we have the conflicts and the bombs in our south,” he said. “We know there is tension in the mood, but we’re used to it. It’s nothing. I think that everything will be civil before too long.”

By Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post

The corruption case against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has earned Israel tremendous respect throughout the Arab world, where many have called on their leaders to benefit from Israel’s democratic system and independent judicial system.

Words of praise for Israel are a rare phenomenon in the Arab media. But judging from the reactions of many Arabs to the corruption case, the trend appears to have changed.

Even some Arabs who describe themselves as “sworn enemies of the Zionist entity” have begun singing praise for Israel.

The corruption case against Olmert received wide coverage in the mainstream Arab media, prompting an outcry about the need for transparency and accountability in the Arab world.

“Show me one Arab or Islamic country where a prime minister or a senior government official was ever questioned for financial corruption or bribery,” said a reader who identified himself only as Majed.

Majed, like many others, was responding to a news story on an Arab website about the testimony in court of American philanthropist Morris Talansky, who told police he had given Olmert more than $150,000 in cash over the course of some 14 years.

Another reader, Sami, commented: “The Israeli regime with all its defects is better than all the Arab ‘democracies’ and still changes ministers and governments every few years.”

A Saudi national named Abdel Karim urged his Arab brethren to stop criticizing Israel and learn something about its democracy. “Before we curse Israel, we must learn from the democratic and judicial system in Israel, where no one is above the law,” he wrote.

Khaled, another Saudi national, chimed in: “Although we are talking about Israel, which I have always hated very much, there is still no one above the law there.”

Mahmoud al-Bakili of Yemen posted the following response on one of the websites: “We want this kind of accountability and transparency in the Arab and Islamic world.”

And there was this comment from an Arab who described himself as a Syrian Voice: “Despite my strong hatred for the Zionist regime, I have a lot of admiration and respect for this entity because there is no one above the law. In the Arab world, laws are broken every day and no one seems to care.”

Egyptian writer Abdel Aziz Mahmoud said he doesn’t believe the day will ever come when an Arab leader will be put on trial for sexual harassment or financial corruption.

“I don’t think we will live to see the day when the police interrogate an Arab leader for sexually harassing his secretary or receiving bribes,” he wrote. “Nor will our children and grandchildren live to see that day. What happened in Israel can never happen in any Arab country.”

Some Arabs went as far as condemning the Arab people for failing to rise against their corrupt dictators.

“There is corruption in Israel and the Arab world,” wrote Abu Hadi from Iraq. “But the difference is that the Israelis hold their leaders accountable, while we the Arabs remain silent about corruption.”

Jamal, who described himself as the Madman, wrote that “the reason why Israel has lasted for so long is because of its independent and fair judicial system. I challenge the Arabs to have such an independent judicial system.”

Many of the readers found it quite ironic that Olmert was being questioned because of “only” tens of thousands of dollars he allegedly received from Talansky.

“They say he received something like $3,000 a year,” said Abu Atab from Morocco inaccurately. “This shows that Olmert is a decent man. This is a small sum that any Arab government official would receive on a daily basis as a bribe. Our leaders steal millions of dollars and no one dares to hold them accountable.”

Touching on the same issue, a reader from Algeria posted this comment: “In the Arab world, our leaders don’t accept less than $1 million in bribes; the money must be deposited in secret bank accounts in Switzerland. Olmert is a fool if he took only a small sum.”

Another comment, this time from Ahmed in Jordan, also referred to the alleged amount: “Only a few thousand dollars? What a fool! This is what an Egyptian minister gets in a day or what a Saudi CEO gets in 45 minutes, or a Kuwaiti government official in five minutes. This is what the physician of the emir of Qatar gets every 30 seconds.”

One Arab commentator who identified himself as Jasser Abdel Hamid advised Olmert to seek citizenship of one of the Arab countries. “Why don’t you seek Arab citizenship?” he asked sarcastically. “There you can take as much money as you want. Even if they discover the theft, they will erect a statue for you in a public square.”

The following are more comments that appeared in recent days in the Arab media:

Mohammed in Lebanon: “Can you imagine if there was an investigation against an Arab or Muslim leader? Do you know how much money they would discover?”

Abu Yusef in Egypt: “Unfortunately, this is the real democracy. Our enemies are very good in practicing democracy. In the Arab world, our leaders steal everything and no one ever dares to ask a question.”

Rashid in Saudi Arabia: “Despite all our problems with the Jews, they are much better than us in fighting corruption and revealing the truth.”

Israel Lover in Saudi Arabia: “Israel is a state that deserves to exist. It deserves our profound respect. I wish I were a citizen of this state.”

Hani in Ramallah: “This is democracy at its best! Enough of dictatorship in the Arab world! Let’s learn from the Israeli example. Let’s benefit from Israel’s democracy.”

Rashid Bohairi in Kuwait: “I swear Israel is a state that will succeed. They are prosecuting their prime minister because of tens of thousands of dollars. What about the millions of dollars that Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority stole? How come the Palestinian people are still hungry?”

Check out the News video from June 2008 to hear Jeff’s response to the following article.

By Christine Wicker, www.DallasNews.com

What Baptist leaders have known for years is finally public: The Southern Baptist Convention is a denomination in decline. Half of the SBC’s 43,000 churches will have shut their doors by 2030 if current trends continue.

And unless God provides a miracle, the trends will continue. They are longstanding and deeply rooted. The denomination’s growth rate has been declining since the 1950s. The conservative/fundamentalist takeover 30 years ago was supposed to turn the trend around; it didn’t make a bit of difference.
Leaders said it did. Reporters and politicians believed it did. But the numbers kept going down until, finally, they have become obvious to everyone.

Evangelical faith has been dropping since 1900, when 42 percent of the U.S. claimed that distinction. Every year, Religious Right Evangelicals, such as those who lead the Southern Baptists, are a smaller proportion of the country. Every year, their core values are violated more flagrantly by the media, scientific discovery, and mainstream behavior. Every election, politicians promise to serve them and then don’t because Evangelicals lack the power to make them.

What all this means is that we were duped. All the hype proclaiming an Evangelical resurgence was merely that � hype, a furious shout from a faith losing its grip, manipulation by a relatively small group of dedicated, focused, political power-seekers.

The long decline of Southern Baptist faith is critical to the entire Evangelical movement because the Southern Baptist Convention, which claims 16 million members, is the biggest Evangelical denomination in the country, almost six times as large as the next biggest predominately-white Evangelical denomination.

The second-largest Evangelical group, the National Association of Evangelicals, has claimed 30 million members. Their churches actually have 7.6 million, tops. Most of those are having the same problems the Baptists are having.

As the true picture of Evangelicals’ problems has developed, panicked leaders are splitting into camps. Some say that the church is lax, soft, sold out. That what’s needed is an even bigger dose of the medicine that the SBC fundamentalist takeover delivered. More authority, more strict interpretations of the Bible, more sermons about sin and suffering and sacrifice, more rigor about who is and who isn’t getting to go to heaven. They argue that Christianity-lite is the problem. Get back to the Bible, they say, which means proclaiming more confidently that the only interpretation is Truth, and anyone who doesn’t agree with it will surely go to hell.

A growing number of dedicated Southern Baptists believe the Bible’s truth is a Calvinist one. They reject the traditional Baptist idea that any human can choose to be saved in favor of predestination, the idea that only those whose names are already written in the Book of the Lamb will go to heaven. Kick out the unregenerates, they say. That will fix the problem.

Still others say the problem is image. Evangelicals have been seen as mean-spirited and narrow. Caring about the environment and giving more attention to the poor and needy will turn it around. Get out of politics, they say. Play down abortion and gay rights. That will fix the problem.

But none of these ideas will halt the increasing irrelevance of evangelical faith to the great majority of the U.S. population. Evangelical faith is being attacked inside and outside its churches by forces that won’t be stopped by new biblical rigor or an image makeover.

I’ll give you just three of those many forces.

One is Alcoholics Anonymous and all its 12-step offspring � the creation of two Christian men who wanted to help alcoholics. They modeled AA on the teachings of Jesus and the ideas of philosopher William James. Instead of asking alcoholics to be saved, they asked them to call on a god of their own understanding. Sometimes leaders illustrated the freedom of that definition by saying, “That door knob over there might be your god.”

They included 12 steps based on Christian principles that are never identified as Christian and include no Bible verses. They eschewed guilt and any talk of sinfulness. Repentance was directed at specific people who had been harmed. There was no doctrine, no institution, no demand for monetary support.
Tens of millions of addicts and other troubled people used this “door knob god” to build new lives. They learned that they didn’t have to read the Bible, attend church or follow a preacher’s rules to engage a divine power that could heal them.

Nothing like that kind of open-ended faith had ever been experienced before. And so the role of the church as interpreter of God’s truth and the Bible as its sole repository lost power with millions.

The second attack came within the Church as American Evangelicals themselves became less willing to proclaim that they are the only ones saved. That idea had seemed reasonable when people lived in fairly homogeneous groups. “The other” was unknown, seemed inferior, and appeared unlikely to have God’s blessing. Since few people had much to do with foreigners � except in times of war, when they were trying to kill them; or from behind a tourist’s camera, when they were making souvenirs of them � “our way is the only way” seemed reasonable.

But international travel, business, and communication have changed that. So have huge waves of immigration. Now “the other” is likely to be your son-in-law or grandchild.

The idea that only one little part of one kind of religion has the only way to God has begun to seem more and more unlikely. It has begun to seem rude. Un-Christian, even. And Evangelicals, who don’t like being boorish any more than anyone else, have become less and less willing to relegate their neighbors to hell.

So we have a completely formless god of great power and instant accessibility romping around, rescuing millions whom everyone else had given up on. Then we have more Christians getting squeamish about proclaiming hegemony over heaven.

And along comes The Pill. It’s merely one of the insidious attacks science has launched against traditional religious faith, but it is surely the most successful. Nothing in history has changed human relations as much as that little white pill.

The curse God laid on Eve wasn’t quite so ironclad anymore. Skip forward a few decades, and couples started delaying marriage until their late 20s, 30s, or even 40s. But that pill meant there was less pressure to abstain from sex until the wedding.

So hardly anyone did. Some single couples who slept together or lived together and simply kept quiet about it kept coming to church, but millions of others slept in Sunday mornings. Evangelical leaders resolutely hewed to the abstinence standard at least formally, resulting in little more than extra hypocrisy.

That didn’t matter much. Hypocrisy has always flourished, and it hasn’t killed the Church yet. But Evangelicals’ failure to grapple with change meant the Church was no help in a world where people were expected to sleep together long before marriage and desperately sought guidance about when and with whom.

Evangelical leaders defend their stance by claiming that God doesn’t change and that neither does sin. But sin does change. Slavery wasn’t sin once. Now it is. Taking a wife and a concubine wasn’t sin once. Now it is.

And God � or our understanding of what God is, which is all we actually have � changes, too. When societies change, their interpretations of God change. Their readings of the Scripture shift. Human understandings are remolded so that faith can remain vital and effective during new times.
Whether Evangelical intransigence is pleasing to God isn’t anything that humans can ever be absolutely sure of. If it is pleasing to him, God may send a great revival that will sweep the country and restore them to their place of predominance.

Such revivals have happened before. They could happen again.

But I’ve named only three of the ways that evangelical faith has come to seem less useful, necessary, and vital to those who might benefit from its teachings. Evangelical faith is failing in so many other ways that a growing number of Christians believe a New Reformation is needed.

If they are correct, the Southern Baptist Convention is unlikely to lead that reformation. Let’s hope it is at least around to participate.

Christine Wicker is the author of “The Fall of the Evangelical Nation: The Surprising Crisis Inside the Church.”

By Ezra HaLevi, www.IsraelNN.com

Violent attacks against Jews in recent weeks have taken place in Los Angeles, England, and New York City. In Ireland, a Jewish man had graffiti daubed on his home reading: “Go Home, Jew.”

A visibly Jewish man was attacked in Los Angeles by two men with shaved heads �who spoke a language not English or Spanish,� according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which is publicizing a $30,000 reward offered by the L.A. City Council for information leading to the apprehension of the attackers.

The victim, a 58-year-old, was wearing a yarmulke when he was attacked by the two men, who called him �dirty Jew� and hit him on the side of the head before punching and kicking him once he was down.

L.A. Police report a steep rise in anti-Jewish attacks in the San Fernando Valley, with anti-Semitic vandalism and improvised bombs targeting the Bernard Milken Jewish Community Campus and a private home in West Hills.

German Arab Terrorist Sentenced For Stabbing Rabbi
A German court has sentenced a German Arab Muslim terrorist to three and a half years in prison for trying to murder a local rabbi with a knife.

The court found 23-year-old Sajed Aziz guilty of causing serious injuries in the September attack on Rabbi Zalman Gurevitch. CNN reported that Aziz claimed in court that he had acted in self-defense; that the rabbi had approached him in a �threatening manner.� Aziz was born in Germany to parents from Afghanistan.

The German prosecutors said there was not enough evidence that Aziz intended to murder the rabbi for a manslaughter charge. According to the European Jewish News, two key witnesses in the case, a Jewish man and the woman who had been walking with Rabbi Gurevitch, refused to testify at the trial because they feared for their safety.

Local Jewish officials criticized the light sentence. “After a verdict like this Frankfurt has become more unsafe for Jews,” Moshe Mendelzon, who attended the trial with other Orthodox Jews living in Germany, told the European Jewish News.

Frankfurt Jewish community President Salomon Korn said the sentence �has given a clear message to potential stabbers. I wonder if this would have been the sentence if there had been a religiously tinged attack on a Christian clergyman.�

Aziz was freed on bail until the end of all possible appeal proceedings.

British Jews Targeted by Attacks
Anti-Jewish graffiti covered shops, sidewalks and walls outside four synagogues in the northeast London Clapton Common and Stamford Hill neighborhoods recently.

The 40 slogans said things like “Jihad to Israel” and “Jihad to Tel Aviv.”

David Greenwald, a young member of the Belz synagogue, one of those targeted, told This Is London: “This morning I went to synagogue to pray and saw the writing all over everywhere — walls, shops, traffic lights. Everyone feels scared. Here we do not have any problem with Arabs — there has never been anything like this before, but now we are worried.”
The report quoted another member: “It makes us feel that we are in exile. It could be kids doing it, but even so, it shows something.” The other synagogues were Satmar Beth Hamedrash Yetev Lev, Atereth Zvi Beth Hamedrash, and the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations. A day later more graffiti appeared in Bethnal Green.

Crown Heights (NY) Tensions Simmering After Attack
The Crown Heights Jewish community is still reeling following the attack on 16-year-old Jewish boy Alon Sherman, who was victim of a severe beating followed by the stealing of his bike, wallet, and cell phone.

“We’re having an uptick in anti-Semitism and racism in our community that’s unconscionable and it’s inexcusable,” Barry Sugar of the Jewish Leadership Council told the media. “We are being assaulted and city government is doing little to address our concerns.”

Terrorist Trial in Seattle Federation Attack Continues
The trial of Muslim terrorist Naveed Haq, who killed one woman and injured five others at a local Jewish Federation building, continues as the Pakistani Muslim shooter attempts to convince the jury of an insanity plea.

Dayna Klein, a pregnant Jewish woman who worked at the Federation at the time, took the witness stand and described bring shot in the arm by the terrorist after she called 911. The terrorist shot toward the four-month-pregnant woman�s stomach, but she shielded herself with her arm and the bullet miraculously lodged in her arm, sparing the unborn child.

Klein recalled crawling out of the room she was hiding in once she felt the coast was clear and finding co-worker Layla Bush �lying on her stomach, bleeding from her abdomen.� Klein recalled Bush trying to stop the bleeding from her wound using the baby clothes a fellow worker had bought Klein as a baby gift.

On her way out of the building she passed co-worker Pamela Waechter, shot dead from behind as she tried to escape the terrorist, who was ranting about Jews and Israel.

Haq�s defense lawyers are trying to plead insanity despite evidence of calculated premeditation. Haq bought guns and researched Jewish organizations ahead of the attack. He also, according to Klein, made a statement to the 911 operator when he took the phone away from her. “He began to state that…he would like to talk to [television talk-show host] Larry King and the Jews… [who] need to get out of Lebanon and Iraq,” she said.

Forensic psychologist J. Robert Wheeler testified, for the prosecution, that Haq told him in their interview. �I just got it in my mind to do some political activism, so I just hopped in my truck. I got in my head to do a mission. On my way to the federation I decided I was going to take hostages.�

Haq searched for his target on Google, first searching “AIPAC in Sacramento,” then “future AIPAC events,” “evangelists,” “national evangelical events” and “AIPAC in Seattle,” which brought him eventually to the web site of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. He then searched “current Jewish Federation events,” seemingly seeking to carry out a mass-casualty attack. Seeing none in the immediate future, he decided to embark on a three-hour trip to the Federation office.

In Ireland: Go Home, Jew
A Jewish man living in Ireland complained to police of Nazi graffiti on his home.

According to the Irish Independent, Herb Meyer’s home on the Dublin Road in Tuam was spray-painted with swastikas and slogans such as �Go Home, Jew.�

Meyer said he wasn�t aware of many people who even knew he was Jewish, as he does not dress identifiably like a Jew.

According to the Independent, Meyer �and his partner Armida Walsh, a Tuam native,� were intending to move to London to be near relatives, but they may revise their plans due to the attack.

The paper did not elaborate whether the revised plans may involve going to Israel.

By Rami G. Khouri, www.Middle-East-Online.com

The Arab World is fast becoming two Worlds due to oil wealth and other factors largely effected by that distinction.

As oil prices and income to some Arab producers continue to rise, we can witness sharper polarization between the wealthy energy-producing, small population states of the Gulf, and the more populous, energy-importing Arab countries all around it in the Levant region, the Nile Valley, and farther west into North Africa. Any person who travels to such places as Dubai, Doha, Bahrain, Amman, Cairo, Casablanca, and Beirut moves between two very different worlds that are united by investment and labor flows, but are being pushed farther apart in most other spheres of life.

A set of polarizations defining the Arab world today lie along fault lines largely drawn by way of income levels, but also comprising other criteria. The Arab world is steadily disaggregating into two very different sub-worlds, characterized by the following polarizations:

1. Wealth vs. poverty: The continued rise in oil and gas prices has seen the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) amass enormous sums of cash income — trillions of dollars in the past decade — which they cannot spend, and may increasingly have trouble investing safely. Per capita real incomes and real purchasing power in the rest of the Arab world remain flat and, in some cases, are even in decline.

2. Growth vs. stagnation: Wealth in the hands of the public and private sectors in the GCC has translated into increasingly ambitious projects in real estate, entertainment, public works, education — even entire new cities conceived and designed from scratch. Some of these novel lifestyle ventures and real estate developments are now being exported to other countries in the form of gated communities and massive shopping complexes that cater primarily to the rich.

Most of the rest of the Arab world finds itself in a situation where macroeconomic growth often registers impressive levels of five to seven percent, yet the fruits of this growth rarely filter down beyond a small elite segment of the population. The vast majority of citizens continues to see family budgets squeezed, as government budgets are pared down and inflation rises steadily.

Demonstrations protesting retail prices and the availability of basic foodstuffs and services are on the rise again throughout the Arab world outside the Gulf.

3. National cohesion vs. fragmentation: Security and material development are fostering a growing sense of national identity and social cohesion in the GCC states, while the rest of the Arab world suffers varying degrees of social fragmentation and national fraying. Countries like Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, and Algeria already experience varying degrees of national dysfunction.

In some cases, these countries find themselves ruled by multiple authorities and armed forces that coexist uneasily.

4. Pluralism vs. insularity: One of the striking aspects of the GCC states — check out any airport, shopping mall, restaurant, or other prevalent form of public space — is the very rich variety of nationalities that live and work there. Most of the individuals do not mix with each other beyond commercial or service encounters, making a sense of community elusive; yet the sheer variety of nationalities is impressive. The trend in many parts of the rest of the Arab world is in the opposite direction, towards slow separation of diverse populations that traditionally lived together peacefully. In the most extreme cases, ethnic cleansing is practiced.

Vibrant cosmopolitan quarters with a variety of faiths, ethnicities, and nationalities are now restricted to just a few pockets of the Arab world.

5. Order vs. disorder: Wealth and developmental strategies have seen the Gulf countries place a high premium on order and security, with only occasional acts of violence. In many other parts of the Arab world, violence is an increasingly common norm, intermittently expressing itself in recurring warfare.

Militias, private armies, and commercial security firms are among the fastest growing sectors in that part of the Arab world where the state is unable to provide the basic security that citizens expect from it.

6. The rule of law vs. lawlessness: One level below the dichotomy of order vs. disorder is the deeper fact that some Arab societies are governed by the rule of law, while others are sliding into greater lawlessness. This transcends security and warfare, and is reflected in two common phenomena: ordinary citizens� growing need to pay bribes, commissions, and generous tips to complete basic public sector transactions where these are available; and, growing delinquency in the state�s provision of basic services — security, water, education, telephones, and health care — to all its citizens.

7. Religiosity vs. secularism: Some quarters of the Arab world that enjoy material wellbeing and basic security tend to become more secular; other large segments of the Arab population increasingly turn to religion for the sense of hope and dignity that they do not receive in their status as citizens of a state.

Rami G. Khouri is Editor-at-large of The Daily Star, and Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, in Beirut, Lebanon.

By Avi Issacharoff, www.haaretz.com

A moment before beginning his supper, Masab, son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, glances at the friend who has accompanied him to the restaurant where we met. They whisper a few words and then say grace, thanking God and Jesus for putting food on their plates.

It takes a few seconds to digest this sight: The son of a Hamas MP who is also the most popular figure in that extremist Islamic organization, a young man who assisted his father for years in his political activities, has become a rank-and-file Christian. “I’m now called Joseph,” he says at the outset.

Masab knows that he has little hope of returning to visit the Holy Land in this lifetime.

“I know that I’m endangering my life and am even liable to lose my father, but I hope that he’ll understand this and that God will give him and my family patience and willingness to open their eyes to Jesus and to Christianity. Maybe one day I’ll be able to return to Palestine and to Ramallah with Jesus, in the Kingdom of God.”

Nor does he attempt to hide his affection for Israel, or his abhorrence of everything representing the surroundings in which he grew up: the nation, the religion, the organization.

“Send regards to Israel, I miss it. I respect Israel and admire it as a country,” he says.

“You Jews should be aware: You will never, but never have peace with Hamas. Islam, as the ideology that guides them, will not allow them to achieve a peace agreement with the Jews. They believe that tradition says that the Prophet Mohammed fought against the Jews and that therefore they must continue to fight them to the death.”

Is that the justification for the suicide attacks?

“More than that. An entire society sanctifies death and the suicide terrorists. In Palestinian culture a suicide terrorist becomes a hero, a martyr. Sheikhs tell their students about the ‘heroism of the shaheeds.’”

And yet, in spite of the criticism of the place he left, California can’t make the longings disappear.

“I miss Ramallah,” he says. “People with an open mind. … I mainly miss my mother, my brothers and sisters, but I know that it will be very difficult for me to return to Ramallah soon.”