Putin's historic visit to Israel overshadowed by tensions

Is this the Spot in the Jordan River where Jesus was Baptized?

Have Jordanian archaeologists found the place Jesus was baptized?

Gleanings on Global News at the Time of the End

Reflections on the Time of the End

By Robert Mock MD

robertmock@biblesearchers.com

www.BibleSearchers.com

May 2005

“Israel and the Middle East”

Joel 2:1 - Blow the shofar in Zion, and sound an alarm on My holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of Hashem comes, for it is at hand.

Topics

Archeological and Historical News

The Jews and The Land

Laura Bush in Israel

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan in Israel

Russian President Vladimir Putin in Israel

Gaza Disengagement – Giving up the Land

Palestinians State, Terrorists and the Enemies of Israel

Lebanon and Israel

Sabbatean Jews and Globalist Israel

Globalist Jews Attack on the Chief Rabbis

Newsweek and Globalist News

Globalist Jews in the United States

Independence Day and Memorial Day – 2005

Anti-Semitism and the Jewish People

International Sports

Passover in Israel

Archeological and Historical News

Have Jordanian archaeologists found the place Jesus was baptized? – May 20, 2005

AMMAN, Jordan (Daily Star) - Substantial new evidence from archaeological excavations may have located where Jesus was baptized. Scholars long identified Jesus’ baptism as taking place at the lower reaches of the Jordan River, east of Jericho – prompted by a combination of bibslical references, Byzantine and other mediaeval texts, and the uninterrupted traditions of the Greek Orthodox Church, which has custody of the area. Following the 1994 Jordan-Israel peace agreement, archaeologists promptly resumed the search for the place the Bible called “Bethany beyond the Jordan.” That search had begun over a century earlier.

In a region of some 8 square kilometers on the east bank of the Jordan River, archaeologists have identified and examined over 30 different archaeological remains. Numerous artifacts confirm the area was inhabited in the Early Roman period, the time of Jesus and John the Baptist. Located some 11 kilometers north of the Dead Sea shore, about a 40-minute drive from Amman, Bethany beyond the Jordan is fast becoming a major new destination for Christian pilgrims.

The key discoveries are the Byzantine monastery and earlier Roman-era remains at Tell al-Kharrar; several smaller Byzantine churches, chapels, monks’ hermitages, caves, and hermit cells; a large Byzantine multi-church complex; a ceramic pipeline bringing water to the site from several kilometers east; a large plastered pool and adjacent khan halfway between Tell al-Kharrar and the Jordan; another pilgrims’ rest station and khan several kilometers east, on the ancient pilgrimage route to Mount Nebo. The discoveries have excited archaeologists and biblical geographers alike. This seems the only site where textual, archaeological and traditional evidence converge.

The puzzle about the precise site of Jesus’ baptism is complicated by several factors: the different ancient names used to designate the area, the imprecise narrative in the biblical text, and the different modern sites where pilgrims commemorate the baptism. John 1:28 explicitly names “Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing” as the location – though John is unclear as to whether the itinerant preacher was passing through, or lived there on a semi-permanent basis. John 10:40 mentions Jesus’ escaping Jerusalem and going “away again across the Jordan to the place where John at first baptized ...”

This place where Jesus found refuge on the east bank of the Jordan seems to be Bethany beyond the Jordan. The main mound at Tell al-Kharrar has long been called Elijah’s Hill, Tell Mar Elias in Arabic. This reflects its identification as the place from where the Prophet Elijah ascended to heaven (2 Kings 2:5-14). Today the area is called Al-Maghtas, “the place of baptism” or “of immersion.” Byzantine-era Christian testimony remains one of the strongest sources of evidence for placing Jesus’ baptism here. Starting in the 3^rd century, Christian writers and pilgrims associated this region with Elijah’s ascension and Jesus’ baptism. The anonymous Pilgrim of Bordeaux in 333 located the site of Jesus’ baptism at five Roman miles (7,400 meters) north of the Dead Sea shore – near where Wadi al-Kharrar joins the Jordan River.

According to the pilgrim Theodosius’ account (dated around 530), in the late-5^th century the Emperor Anastasius built the first church to commemorate Jesus’ baptism on the east bank of the Jordan. The Pilgrim of Piacenza (570) first specified that the baptism site was directly opposite the monastery of St. John, whose rebuilt remains still stand on a hilltop some 800 meters west of the river, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The Pilgrim of Piacenza was the first to mention the spring of John the Baptist at the site of Tell al-Kharrar, 3 kilometers east of the river. Writing between the 9^th and 11^th centuries, the monk Epiphanius mentioned a cave near a spring nearly 4.5 kilometers east of the river, where John the Baptist lived and baptized. The early 12^th-century traveler Abbot Daniel mentioned a grotto of St. John the Baptist east of the river.

The rich textual evidence from the 4^th through 12^th centuries reveals a consistent tradition locating John the Baptist’s settlement near the spring source of Wadi al-Kharrar, in an area characterized by springs and caves some two kilometers east of the Jordan River. The excavated main complex at Tell al-Kharrar comprises structures on and around the small hill adjacent the spring at the head of Wadi al-Kharrar. Artifact evidence shows that the site was inhabited from the Late Hellenistic/Herodian and Early Roman periods (2^nd century BC to 2^nd century AD), through the Late Byzantine and early Islamic periods (5^th to 8^th centuries AD), and again in late Ottoman centuries.

The strongest evidence for a Chrstian-era settlement here comes from the excavated remains of heavy stone jars, a distinctive feature of local Jewish communities. Father Michele Piccirillo of the Franciscan Archaeological Institute in Jerusalem and Mount Nebo, one of those who rediscovered the site in August 1995, identified these fragments. He believes that, along with remains of large ceramic storage jars, they are clear proof of a settled population, which he identifies as Bethany beyond the Jordan. According to Dr. Mohammad Waheeb, formerly of the Jordanian Department of Antiquities, the tell site was transformed into a walled monastery during the Byzantine period. Waheeb directed the first five years’ excavations at Tell al-Kharrar. His team identified at least four churches and chapels, a possible early Christian “prayer hall,” a sophisticated water conveyance and storage system, three pools, and a surrounding wall. One of the three churches, discovered in 1999 on the west side of the hill, was built around a natural cave used in John the Baptist’s days. This may be the cave Byzantine pilgrims called “the cave of John the Baptist.” A man-made water channel started at the front of the cave, and traveled for about 6 meters until it spilled its water into the south bank of the Wadi al-Kharrar.

Over 30 Byzantine-era sites identified from the Jordan River eastwards to Wadi al-Kharrar and Wadi al-Gharabah. They formed stations along the pilgrims’ route from Jerusalem to the Jordan River and Mount Nebo. Perhaps the key discovery related to the commemoration of the baptism tradition on the east bank of the river is the large multi-church Byzantine-era complex, about 100 meters east of the Jordan. It comprises the remains of four distinct churches from the 5^th-6^th century. Three are superimposed on each other, comprising the original church and two re-builds. The fourth is a smaller structure built about 30 meters east. The original church here was almost certainly the Church of St. John the Baptist, described by Byzantine texts as built by Emperor Anastasius. Byzantine-era accounts said the church was built on arched arcades on stone piers. These have been exposed by recent excavations.

Kabbalist Blesses Jones: Now´s the Time to Find Holy Lost Ark – May 19, 2005
Israel National News – An unnamed Kabbalist has granted blessing to famed archeologist Dr. Vendyl Jones to uncover the Holy Ark of the Covenant. Jones plans to excavate the Lost Ark by the Tisha B’Av Fast this summer.

The famed archaeologist, the inspiration for the “Indiana Jones” movie series, has spent most of his life searching for the Ark of the Covenant. The ark was the resting place of the Ten Commandments, given to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai, and was hidden just before the destruction of the First Temple.The Talmud says the Ark is hidden in a secret passage under the Temple Mount. Jones says that the tunnel actually continues 18 miles southward, and that the Ark was brought through the tunnel to its current resting place in the Judean Desert.

Throughout the many years of his quest, Jones has been in close contact and under the tutelage of numerous Rabbis and Kabbalists. Extremely knowledgeable in Torah, Talmud and Kabbalah sources dealing with Holy Temple issues, Jones has now received permission from both known and secret Kabbalists to finally uncover the lost ark. Dr. Jones, who divides his time between Texas and Israel, has been here since March 9^th ready to finally reveal the Ark. However, he has been waiting for both permission from the mysterious Kabbalist and for project funding to come through.

Jones’ daughter Sarah converted to Judaism many years ago, and currently lives in the Shomron. She has been in touch with a great unnamed Kabbalist from whom she requested a blessing that her father merit success in finding the ark. As recently as last month, the rabbi, who only communicates via messenger, told Jones that the time was not yet right to discover the Temple vessels. Last Thursday, however, Dr. Jones received a communication from the rabbi reading, “The time is right.” Armed with this and other blessings, Jones is now excited to uncover his life’s pursuit. He believes the ark will be discovered by Tisha B’Av (Aug. 14), a day of repeated tragedy in Jewish history. Most notably, it is the anniversary of the destruction of both the First and Second Holy Temples. Noahide guru Jones says that the State of Israel is passing through the same biblical straights as the generation that first entered Israel after the exodus from Egypt. “If history repeats itself, the history itself is prophecy,” Jones says. “Israel is different from all other nations in a lot of ways, but more than anything else, Israel is the only nation whose history was written before it happened.”

Once a Christian pastor, Jones left his post to become a leader of the growing Noahide movement. Noahides are G-d fearing non-Jews who observe the seven laws of Noah, which are obligatory upon all of humanity. The explorer and teacher published a book in 1959 predicting the precise outbreak of the Six Day War, based on his analysis of the period from the Exodus from Egypt up until the First Temple Period. He says that applying biblical analysis to modern times points to major events that will “turn the world right-side-up.” Jones calculated the war in 1967 by analyzing the sequence of events in the First Temple Period and transposing them onto the “Third Temple Period” – the period beginning with the Jews’ foundation of an independent State in the Land of Israel in 1948. “It fits just like tongue in groove,” he says. Jones analyzed the following passage from the book of Bamidbar (Numbers): “Every man from 20 years old and upward, all that are able to go to war...”. He said it could be read this way, “So from 20 years old and upward, all that are able to go, went to war in Israel.” “Well, ’67 was the 20^th year,” said Jones, who received acclaim for fighting as a non-listed soldier in the Six Day War. He was the only non-Jewish American to take part in the combat. “Two years at Mt. Sinai, and then the Jewish people went to Kadesh Barnea,” he says, referring to the time immediately following the Exodus. Transposing the Jewish people’s first entry into Israel via the Jericho region and the re-entry to those areas in 1967, one can find striking similarities. “At Kadesh Barnea, [the Jewish Nation] sent in those [twelve] spies who gave the evil report, and because they believed the evil report, they were sentenced to wander for 38 years before they could come into Gilgal” – an ancient city near Jericho.

“1967 was a repetition of Kadesh Barnea,” Jones says. “If Israel had come in and taken this place, the Arabs would have fled like they did in 1948. But no, because of the evil report of Golda Meir and Motta Gur and Moshe Dayan, who said ‘We cannot do that, world opinion will be against us.’ So Israel was sentenced to 38 years more – and June the 7^th [2005], Jerusalem Day, will be the 38^th year. Jones believes that the Jewish prophecies regarding the greatly anticipated redemption are ommited in front of our eyes.

Jones’ escapades and explorations were the inspiration for the blockbuster movie ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ of the ‘Indiana Jones’ trilogy. The man who wrote the first draft of the film, Randolph Fillmore, was one of the volunteers who worked with Jones in 1977. “I agreed to help him write the movie,” Jones said, “as long as – number one – he wouldn’t set it here (in Israel). Some people believe the ark is in Ethiopia or Egypt, some believe its in Constantinople or Rome. I just didn’t want it to be portrayed as being here. The second thing was, ‘Don’t use my name.’ So he didn’t. My name is Vendyl – V-E-N-D-Y-L. So he just dropped the first and last letters and it ended up Endy Jones.” Although at the time of the film, Jones was far from pinpointing the location of the Ark, he has come a long way since then. With the help of an ancient document found in Qumran together with the Dead Sea Scrolls, known as the “Copper Scroll”, Dr. Jones is convinced he has pinpointed the location of the Ark of the Covenant. “In the copper scroll, the first five lines say, ‘In the desolations of the Valley of Achur, in the opening under the ascent, which is a mountain facing eastward, covered by forty placed boulders – here is a tabernacle and all the golden fixtures,’” Jones says.”This is what we have been looking for all these years, and I’ve walked over those boulders thousands of times without really stepping back and looking – realizing ‘hey, those boulders have been brought in here, they’ve been placed in here, they didn’t come off a mountain. And they’re huge.’”

Jones recounts his early explorations into the tunnels which lead from the ancient Old City of Jerusalem, near Jaffa Gate, to the foot of the Dead Sea. “My son and I went an hour and 20 minutes into the tunnel. There were so many branches and we didn’t have anything to mark the route, so I said, ‘We better get out of here and come back with a roll of string.’ Then I made the mistake of asking permission to do it. That was before I learned that Israel is a lot like heaven – it is a lot easier to get forgiveness than it is permission.” Dr. Jones, wearing an orange anti-disengagement bracelet, dismisses the current Israeli government’s plan to uproot the Jews of Gaza and northern Samaria from their homes. “There will not be any disengagement, nor will there be any Palestinian State,” he says. Jones, who has a photographic memory, quotes: “Chapter One in Isaiah: ‘How has the holy city become a harlot? Righteousness filled the street, but now murderers. The ruler is a friend of thieves and the ministers desire bribes.’” “The prophet wasn’t talking about his day – he was talking about now. ‘Therefore, says the L-rd, I will restore them to their beginnings. I will set judges up as at first, and counselors as in the beginning.’” The Sharon government will soon be history, Jones asserts, and the Sanhedrin (the Jewish High Court of 71 judges) will take its place and lead the Jewish people. “The Sanhedrin was established October the 13^th of last year. Now all we have to do is have an election to elect counselors. The Sanhedrin is like a Senate and the elected counselors are like a House of Representatives.” Dr. Jones says the discovery of the lost ark will “flip the whole world right-side-up.” “I just gotta drill a bore-hole into the chamber, drop a pin-camera in and there it is. And everything is gonna change, believe me. The Jewish people are gonna come back.”

Listen to an exclusive interview with Dr. Jones on the Noahide Movement, on IsraelNationalRadio’s brand new show: ‘Light Unto the Nations.’
Learn more about Dr. Jones’ excavations online at www.vendyljones.org.il.

After 500 Years, first Kosher Olive Oil since the 15^th century – April 29, 2005

Lekevrev Report - For the first time since expelling its Jews in the 15th century, Portugal has once again begun producing kosher olive oil under strict rabbinical supervision. The product, which is being marketed under the name Ribeiro Sanches Kosher, is manufactured by Penazeites, one of the country's most important manufacturers of olive oil, in the central Portuguese town of Penamacor.

The oil bears a "triangle-K" kosher symbol and is under the supervision of Rabbi Elisha Salas, an emissary of the Jerusalem-based Shavei Israel organization (www.shavei.org),who serves as rabbi of the Jewish community of Oporto, Portugal's second-largest city. The olive oil is also certified kosher for Passover. "It was an honor for us to be able to make kosher olive oil for Jews in Portugal and abroad for the first time in 500 years," said Joao Manuel Rodrigues, Penazeites' commercial director. "In the past, our town was home to a large Jewish population, so we thought it only fitting that we undertake this project, which in some small way closes a historical circle."

Most of Portugal's Jews were either expelled or forced to convert en masse to Catholicism in 1497 after King Manuel I launched a brutal campaign to purge his realm of any Jewish presence. Nonetheless, many continued to practice Judaism covertly, while living outwardly as Catholics. At the time of the decree, Jews constituted nearly 20% of the population, such that many Portuguese today are believed to have at least some Jewish ancestry.

As a gesture of reconciliation, the design of the olive oil's label bears the motto, "For the return of the Jewish people", and even includes a quote from Tractate Menachot (53b) of the Talmud: "Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Why is Israel compared to an olive tree? Because just as the leaves of an olive tree do not fall off in either summer or winter, so too the Jewish people shall not be cast off."

Ancient Mosaic Uncovered in Caesarea – April 17, 2005

Lekerev Report - A 500-square-meter mosaic depicting an intricate design of flamingos, peacocks, ducks and other animals that adorned the floor of a fifth-century C.E. villa, was unearthed recently on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean near Caesarea. Parts of the floor were first discovered in the 1950s by archaeologist Shmuel Yeivin. However, it was not fully excavated at the time due to budgetary constraints.

This time, after an initial week-long excavation by Dr. Yosef Porat and Peter Gendelman of the Israel Antiquities Authority, the authority refused to continue the dig, citing a lack of funds. The Caesarea Development Corporation has agreed to pay for conservation so the floor can be put on display.

One expert, who is not connected with the dig but visited the site two weeks ago, told Haaretz the villa is "the most impressive ever discovered so far in Israel." The floor was apparently part of a central courtyard in the two-story villa, which covered 1.5 dunams and was destroyed during the Arab conquest in 640 C.E.

The Jews and The Land

Israeli Youth Wins Bible Competition – May 13, 2005

Lekerev Report – The winner of this year’s Independence Day International Bible Quiz is Shmuel Halpert of the Horev Yeshiva High School in Jerusalem. The student won the nationally televised contest yesterday afternoon after scoring the full 100 points. The runner-up was Moshe Mali, a student at the Maaleh Adumim yeshiva, while another Horev student, Sha’ul Fish, took third place.

Arutz-7’s Kobi Finkler reports that Jewish youth from around the world participated in the contest, as they do each year. The theme this year was, “For me, this is a beloved land.” Sixty-five Israeli youngsters, aged 14-18, were among the contestants. Forty others were from various Diaspora countries, including Belgium, Uzbekistan, Austria, Ukraine, Brazil, Germany, Panama, Venezuela, Bulgaria, and others.

Prime Minister Sharon said at the contest that the nation of Israel was commanded to “arise and walk about the land. I call on all the youngsters who have arrived here from around the world to make aliyah” and thus fulfill this commandment.

Tracing Jews Since the Exodus – April 29, 2005

Lekerev Report – Prime Minister Ariel Sharon likes to quote a theory developed by his close friend, attorney Dov Weissglas, that had the Jews not been expelled by the Romans and suffered nearly 2,000 years of persecution, there would be between 500-800 million Jews living in the world today. Prof. Sergio Della Pergola of Hebrew University, among the most prominent experts on Jewish demography, calls this estimate “back of an envelope arithmetic,” but admits that he too indulges in this occasionally. Della Pergola himself estimates that given the ideal hypothetical scenario, without anti-Semitism, persecution, and assimilation, there would be no more than 100-120 million Jews in the world today. This estimate is based on the assessment that at its height, on the eve of the great Jewish revolt against the Romans, the Jewish population totaled 2 percent of the ancient world’s population.

After 1000 Years...Finally! – More Jews live in Israel than even the United States – May 2, 2005

Lekerev Report – For the first time in 1,000 years, more Jews live in Israel than anywhere else in the world, including the United States. Israel’s Jewish population is now more than 5.5 million, surpassing the slightly more than 5.2 million in the U.S., according to official census statistics. If the number of American Jews continues to decline because of increasing intermarriage, Israel will become the undisputed largest Jewish center in the world, even according to non-traditional definitions of who is a Jew.

The Central Bureau of Statistics estimates that the population growth of Jews in Israel is slowly declining from 1.8 per cent, but these projections do not take into account the possible phenomenon of massive immigration. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last year instructed the Jewish Agency to work on a program to encourage hundreds of thousands of American Jews to move to Israel in the next few years.

Israel ceased being the center of world Jewry towards the 10^th century, when Jews fled the murderous Crusades. Experts estimate that the Jewish population in the world today would be more than 100 million if it were not for anti-Semitism and intermarriage.

New Pope’s Jewish Ties – April 20, 2005

Lekerev Report – Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was elected yesterday by the College of Cardinals as the new head of the Catholic Church and chose Benedict XVI as his papal name. The first German pope in a thousand years, Ratzinger served the recently deceased, Pope John Paul II, since 1981 as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In that position, he has disciplined church dissidents and upheld church policy against attempts by liberals for reforms. He turned 78 this past Saturday.

The choice of Ratzinger as the new pope yesterday, Jewish religious leaders say, is a sign that the warming ties initiated by Pope John Paul II between the Vatican and the Jews will continue.

Rabbi Israel Singer, chairman of the World Jewish Congress, called Ratzinger the architect of the policy that John Paul II fulfilled with regard to relations with the Jews. “He is the architect of the ideological policy to recognize, to have full relations with Israel,” Singer said. In one indication of his respect for Judaism, Ratzinger authorized in 2002 the publication of a report that stated that “the Jewish messianic wait is not in vain.” That document also expressed regret that certain passages in the Christian Bible condemning individual Jews have been used to justify anti-Semitism.

Rabbi David Rosen, international director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, said, “He has a deep commitment to this issue (full relations with Israel). And his own national background makes him sensitive to the dangers of anti-Semitism and the importance of Jewish-Catholic reconciliation,” said Rosen, the international director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee.

800^th Birthday of Maimonides – May 1, 2005

Lekerev Report – Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (affectionately called ‘the Rambam’) was born on this day in 1135 and died in 1204. He is known as the greatest Jewish philosopher and codifier of Jewish law in history. Born in Cordova, Spain, he was forced to flee from fanatical Moslems at the age of thirteen, where he traveled with his family to North Africa, and ten years later to Palestine. As a result of the devastation left by the Crusaders, Palestine was virtually uninhabitable, forcing the family to move to Fostat (current day Cairo).

Throughout these journeys, the young Maimonides had concentrated on Torah studies under the guidance of his father, and by the time he reached Fostat had become a famous scholar. Supported by his merchant brother, the Rambam was able to write copiously, gaining international acclaim in both Jewish and secular fields of knowledge. After the tragic death of his brother, the responsibility of supporting his family fell on the Rambam’s shoulders, and through his fame he was appointed chief physician of the Sultan.

Despite the immense workload that was required, not only with his responsibilities to the royal family, but to the entire Egyptian community as the official Nagid (royally appointed leader), and to the halachic questions of world Jewry, the Rambam was remarkably able to complete some of his greatest Jewish works, including his philosophical work “The Guide for the Perplexed” and his magnum opus the Mishna Torah – the great codification of all Jewish law.

His contribution to Jewish history is beyond calculation and we honor his memory and his work today. Maimonides is buried right here in Tiberias overlooking the Sea of Galilee and thousands of visitors will stream to his gravesite today to pay their respects.

Jews enjoy new religious freedom under Castro – May 8, 2005

Yahoo – At the Beth Shalom synagogue in Havana, the Cuban flag flies next to that of Israel, even though the two countries have had no diplomatic relations since 1973. A bust of Jose Marti, a hero of Cuban independence, stands near the candles lit for Sabbath prayers. Even Fidel Castro went to one of the Cuban capital’s three synagogues in 1999 in a sign of the emerging religious freedom in Castro’s communist state. The Jewish community of about 15,000 fell to about 1,000 after Castro’s 1959 revolution declared this Caribbean island an atheist state. Now there are more than 900 people from 403 families in Havana and a few dozen more in the provinces. There has been a Jewish community here since the Spanish conquest. Expelled from Spain by the Catholic Inquisition, some Jews even took part in Christopher Columbus’ expedition that discovered the New World.

But immigration took off toward the end of the 19^th century with the arrival of American Jews – after the end of the American-Spanish war, some fleeing pogroms in Eastern Europe and some coming from the Dutch West Indies. But after Castro’s revolution, about 90 percent of the island’s Jews fled. Jose Miller, president of the Jewish community council, known as the ‘Patronato’ told how Jews were mainly considered part of the rich middle classes whose land and goods were expropriated and ommitedon by the communist government. The Patronato has its headquarters in the Beth Shalom synagogue, the biggest of the three in Havana.

With the revolution, “came a style of life and thought that did not favour religious practices at all,” said Miller, a retired surgeon now in his 80s. By the end of the 1980s, the Jews who remained believed they had no future, according to Miller who called it a time of “agony.” But since the middle of the 1990s, there has been a new spirit of openness toward religion and the faithful have returned to churchs and synagogues. In 1999, Castro went to the Vedado synagogue in Havana where most of Cuba’s Jew still live. The Cuban and Israeli flags fly over the Patronato.

But help from the United States and Canada has been crucial for the community, particularly from B’nai Brith, the oldest of the Jewish non-government ommitedons, and the American Joint Distribution Committee, the main US group that helps Jews outside the United States. Thanks to funds from abroad, foreign religious teachers have also come to Cuba and the Shin Beth synagogue has been completely renovated. “Now we are in a position where we can strengthen this rebirth and try to guarantee our future,” said Miller, who insisted that none of the moves were political. In Cuba, he assured, “there is a social police that is not far from biblical.”

The aid is crucial in a country where daily conditions are so difficult. A meal, provided by the foreign ommitedons, is served each Saturday in the community centre at the main synagogue. There is also a special pharmacy, stocked by foreign Jews who take part in aid work ommited by B’nai Brith. Three teams arrive every month, each staying for eight days. Each person in the group must bring between six and 10 kilogrammes (13 and 22 pounds) of medicines, clothes or food

Laura Bush in Israel

Protesters Mob Laura Bush in Jerusalem – May 23, 2005

JERUSALEM (News Yahoo) – Protesters besieged Laura Bush during her visit Sunday to two of Jerusalem’s most sacred sites, with Israeli police locking arms to restrain the crowd and Secret Service agents packed tightly around America’s first lady. Stepping into the long-running Mideast conflict, she appealed for Israelis and Palestinians to commit to working for peace and said Americans “will do what they can in this process.” The demonstrations at the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock showed “what an emotional place this is as we go from each one of these very, very holy sites to the next,” Mrs. Bush said later in the West Bank town of Jericho as she stood at the ruins of the 8^th-century Hisham’s Palace. “We’re reminded again of what every one of us would want. ... What we all want is peace and the chance that we have right now to have peace, to have a Palestinian state living by a secure state of Israel, both living in democracy, is as close as we’ve been in a really long time,” she said at an ancient home of Islamic spiritual leaders.

Mrs. Laura Bush at the Western Wall in Jerusalem

Mrs. Bush, who is on a tour intended partly to help defuse anti-American sentiment in the region, placed a note in the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest shrine. She wrote the note on the flight Sunday from Jordan to Israel, but wanted to keep the contents private, a spokeswoman said. Dozens of protesters stood nearby, shouting, “Free Pollard now.” Jonathan Pollard, an American Jew who is serving life sentence in a U.S. prison for spying for Israel, was a civilian intelligence analyst for the U.S. Navy. The first lady was mobbed by protesters and local reporters, and Secret Service agents and Israeli police had to physically hold back the crowd as she approached the wall. She then went to the Dome of the Rock, a mosque on a hilltop compound known to Muslims as Haram as-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount. As she left the mosque, one heckler yelled, “How dare you come in here?” and “Why do you hassle our Muslims?” Mrs. Bush removed her shoes as she entered the mosque and walked barefoot on the red carpet. She held a black scarf tightly around her head as she gazed up at the gilded dome and the colorful mosaics on the marble walls.

Some of the women studying inside the mosque were clearly annoyed at the intrusion and waved their fingers at the U.S. entourage. Despite the chaos at both sites, Mrs. Bush kept smiling and said little. In Jericho, which is under Palestinian control, security was tight and no protesters were evident when Mrs. Bush visited the ruins and met at a hotel with leading Palestinian women. “As you can tell from our day here, this is a place of emotions everywhere we went, from the Dome of the Rock to the Western Wall” she told reporters at the palace ruins. As for the peace process, Mrs. Bush said the U.S. would do whatever it could, but that both sides share responsibility in helping achieve peace. “It will take a lot of baby steps and I’m sure that there will be a few steps backward on the way, but I want to encourage the people I met with earlier, the women I just met with, that the United States will do what they can in this process,” Mrs. Bush said. “It also requires the work of the people here, of the Palestinians and the Israelis, to come to the table obviously, and we’ll see,” she said.

The first lady met in Jericho with leading Palestinian women before visiting the palace. Earlier, she held talks with Gila Katsav, the wife of Israel’s president, and other leading Israeli women. Anti-American sentiment is running high in the Mideast because of a variety of factors, including a now-retracted report in Newsweek that Pentagon investigators had found evidence interrogators at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, placed copies of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, in washrooms to unsettle suspects and flushed a Quran down a toilet. “We in principle don’t reject anyone’s visit to the Al Aqsa Mosque (compound), but we see in the visit of Mrs. Bush an attempt to whitewash the face of the United States, after the crimes that the American interrogators had committed when they desecrated the Quran,” the militant Islamic Hamas group said in a statement on its Web site.

Adnan Husseini, director of the Islamic Trust that administers the mosque compound, said Mrs. Bush tried to play down the heckling, saying it could have happened anywhere. Husseini said he told her he hoped President Bush would exert pressure to achieve peace in the Holy Land. Bush is meeting on Thursday at the White House with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Later Sunday, Mrs. Bush laid a wreath at Yad Vashem, the Israeli memorial for the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis in the Holocaust of World War II. She wrote in the visitors’ book at the site: “Each life is precious. Each memory calls us to action to honor those lost. We ommit ourselves to reject hatred and to teach tolerance and live in peace. Thank you.”

First Lady Not Surprised by Israel Protests – May 23, 2005

ABU GHOSH, Israel (Fox News) — Laura Bush said Monday she was not surprised to be met by protesters during her tour of Mideast holy sites and pledged the United States will do all it can to help resolve age-old conflicts. “As we all know, this is a place of very high tensions and high emotions,” the first lady said while standing in the garden courtyard of the Church of the Resurrection (search). “And you can understand why when you see the people with a deep and sincere faith in their religion all living side by side.” Mrs. Bush said the protesters who heckled her during Sunday’s visits to the Dome of the Rock (search) and the Western Wall (search) did not surprise her and she denied that they overshadowed her goodwill visit. “I think the protests were very expected. If you didn’t expect them, you didn’t know what it would be like when you got here,” she said. “Everyone knows how the tensions are and, believe me, I was very, very welcomed by most people.”

Mrs. Bush was visiting sites sacred to all three major religions born in the region, winding up with a stop Monday at the Church of the Resurrection at Abu Ghosh (search), a predominantly Muslim town where some believe Jesus appeared on Easter. “I think that Abu Ghosh, as we leave Israel, can show us what it’s like when the people of three religions that have so many holy sites here in the Holy Land indeed can live in peace with each other,” she said. As Mrs. Bush toured the 12^th-century church, nuns and monks sang Psalm 150 in Hebrew as a symbol of the religious cultures coexisting in the region. President Bush talked with his wife by telephone Monday and she told him the trip was going well, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. McClellan dismissed the protests as “a little commotion” and said the demonstrators were few although they got a lot of coverage.

From Israel, Mrs. Bush traveled to Cairo, where she met with Egyptian first lady Suzanne Mubarak at Ittihadiyya Palace (search). The two women then taped a segment for “Alam Simsim,” the Egyptian version of “Sesame Street,” with a peach-colored puppet named Khokha. “Mama Suzanne” and “Auntie Laura,” as Khokha called the first ladies, talked about the importance of reading to children.

Mrs. Bush’s low-key travels Monday were in contrast to her stops Sunday at sites sacred to Muslims and Jews.

Asked about the protests during an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Mrs. Bush said she understands resentments that have been built up, in part because of reports and pictures of prisoner abuse. “I know from visiting Afghanistan ... that many, many people are glad our troops are there, that we are giving them a chance to rebuild their country,” she said. “All of us, everyone ... deplore the photographs that we’ve seen, the reports that we’ve heard of prisoner abuse, but that’s not really not what happens (with U.S. forces) ... This is a handful of people.” She said she feels that the American presence in the Middle East and Southwest Asia “is really wanted and is needed” to ensure nation-building and peacemaking.

Asked on NBC’s “Today” show if she had felt endangered during the tours in the Middle East, the first lady replied, “No, I did not at all. I think maybe the reports that you all have seen have been slightly exaggerated. ... I have never felt at all unsafe.” At the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest shrine, protesters demanded that the U.S. release Jonathan Pollard, a Jewish American imprisoned for spying for Israel. During a visit to the Dome of the Rock, Mrs. Bush faced heckling from angry Palestinians. One man yelled, “How dare you come in here! Why your husband kill Muslim?”

Mrs. Bush’s five-day visit was intended partly to help defuse anti-American sentiment in the region. Strains have arisen because of the U.S.-led war in Iraq and allegations that American interrogators have mistreated Muslim prisoners. Some visitors that Mrs. Bush encountered near the Dome of the Rock, a mosque on a hilltop compound known to Muslims as Haram as-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount, shouted at her in Arabic. “None of you belong in here!” one man yelled as Mrs. Bush and her entourage arrived. Mrs. Bush removed her shoes as she entered the mosque and walked barefoot on the red carpet. She held a black scarf tightly around her head as she gazed up at the gilded dome and the colorful mosaics.

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan in Israel

Turkish PM in Israel – May 1, 2005
Israel Report – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is on a two-day visit to Israel aimed at shoring up the strong military and trade relations between the two countries. A $400 million deal is in the works, in which Israel would upgrade 30 of Turkey’s F-4 Phantom jet fighters. Israel welcomes Erdogan’s visit because it shows that the Jewish state can enjoy warm ties with a Moslem country. Erdogan meets today with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and tomorrow he will travel to Ramallah for talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. “In our meetings with the sides, we will remind them of our readiness to mediate or host conferences in our country,” Erdogan said. “I hope our contacts will help carry our relations with both Palestine and Israel to new frontiers.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin in Israel

Russian President Putin Arrives Tonight – April 27, 2005

Lekerev Report - Despite tensions over missile sales to Syria, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives tonight on a historic visit to Israel, trailed by dozens of Russian business figures and government officials. His two day visit will include meetings with President Moshe Katsav and Prime Minister Ariel sharon and a visit to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum.

During his Thursday meeting with Sharon, the Russian president will be faced with Israeli concerns regarding Russian nuclear cooperation with Iran and the contentious missile sale to Syria, as well as the issue of growing anti-Semitism in Russia. As he did with President Bush, the prime minister is expected to present maps and intelligence reports on the Iranian nuclear program and the dangers inherent in Russian assistance to the project. The Russians, however, have failed to respond previously to Israeli and American demands on the matter and recently, Putin declared that Iran should not be prevented from benefiting from atomic energy. It is unlikely the upcoming visit will change that position.

Putin's historic visit to Israel overshadowed by tensions - April 27, 2005

Israel Insider - Russian President Vladimir Putin today meets with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to discuss a Middle East peace summit with the Palestinians that he had proposed to host this fall, an idea rejected by both Israel and the United States.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) speaks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during a meeting at the Kremlin in September 2002 (AP/File)

Putin arrived to Israel last night, marking the first visit by a Kremlin leader. He last visited the Jewish state 10 years ago before he was elected president. His first stop: the Kotel. Still, the fact that he is on an historic visit to Israel does not detract from the causes of increasing tension between the two countries. During that visit, Putin is likely to be faced with Israeli concerns regarding Russian nuclear cooperation with Iran and the contentious missile sale to Syria. Israel has also expressed its concern about Russian anti-Semitism. As was the case during Sharon's recent visit to the United States, the Prime Minister is again expected to present maps and intelligence reports on the Iranian nuclear program and the dangers inherent in Russian assistance to the project.

The Russians, however, have faced Israeli and American demands on the matter in the past, but have refrained from taking action. Recently, Putin declared that Iran should not be prevented from benefiting from atomic energy. It is therefore unlikely that his visit with Sharon will change the Russian stance. In an interview with Channel One's Ayala Hasson last week, Putin said that trying to put restraints on Iran -- a neighbor of Russia -- would not be helpful. Russia's view seems to be that engaging Iran, rather than confronting it, would be a more effective way to reduce the risk of an Iranian bomb.

Also on the agenda is the Russian sale of anti-aircraft missiles to Syria. Putin told Hasson that while the SA-18 missiles would not affect Israel's security because they could not reach Israel from where they will be positioned, "they will make it difficult for low-flying aircraft over the president's palace" in Syria, a clear reference to occasional Israeli air force flights over Bashar Assad's residences. Putin will argue that the missiles will be placed under Russian supervision, and that the only type being sent to Syria are jeep-launched so they won't end up in Hezbollah hands, Israel's major concern. Although Putin has indicated the deal has been signed, Israel believes that until the missiles are delivered, it is not too late to convince Russia not to go ahead with the sale.

Sharon is also expected to address the issue of Russian anti-Semitism. "We are following with concern the fact that only recently, 5,000 Russian intellectuals signed a petition against the Jewish religion," one official said. Last but not least is the issue of pensions. Yahad MK Roman Bronfman said Wednesday that Israel is abandoning the interests of new immigrants from Russia by refusing to raise the issue of pension payments during the Putin visit. In a letter addressed to Katsav, Sharon and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Bronfman wrote that Russia's refusal to honor immigrants' pension rights is unconstitutional and also contradicts the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Moscow is a signatory. Following the convention's enactment, a small number of immigrants who continue to hold Russian citizenship received pension payments. However, the vast majority of immigrants, among them veterans who served in the Red Army during World War II, have yet to receive their benefits. Although the Foreign Ministry took an interest in the matter, it made no effort to include it on the agenda for Putin's visit. Israel is morally obligated to ensure that the immigrants' rights are realized and are not to be discarded on account of the country's diplomatic interests, Bronfman said.

Tensions run both ways. Putin is expected to raise the issue of Russian "oligarchs" who live in Israel, particularly those wanted by Moscow over suspicion of criminal activity, dubious business deals, and large-scale tax evasion. The three are a billionaire oil executive, a publishing tycoon and a former Putin ally turned Kremlin critic, who have all taken up residence in Israel in recent years under the Jewish Law of Return as Russia sought their arrests, rankling officials in Moscow. "They are Israeli citizens and that's it," said Asaf Shariv, a spokesman for Sharon. There are conflicting assessments about whether Putin will seek extradition of those oligarchs living in Israel, but Sharon has made clear he is against any such extradition. "I do not intend to turn anyone over," Sharon said last week. "Since the days of my youth, I have been opposed to turning over Jews. I am saying this in the clearest manner possible." Still, as Putin is fond of pointing out, "the million Israeli citizens who speak Russian" create opportunities for cooperation between the two countries, ranging from a possible natural gas deal to counter-terrorist cooperation.

Once he completes his Israel visit -- over the next two days he is expected to visit sites including the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and the Russian Orthodox Church in Gethsemane -- Putin is scheduled to visit the Palestinian Authority.

Putin fails to keep his sarcasm veiled - Yossi Nelman – April 29, 2005

On To Ramallah – April 30, 2005

Lekerev Report - It appears that Russian President Vladimir Putin will announce during his visit to the West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday that he plans to provide the Palestinian Authority with armored troop carriers, despite Israel's opposition. PA Spokesman Nabil Sha'ath told Saudi newspaper Al Watan that Putin was determined to carry out his plan to give the Palestinians 50 armored vehicles and two helicopters.

Russia's decision to arm the PA "is a matter concerning the Palestinians, not Israel," the radio quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying. Lavrov, who is accompanying Putin on his 40- hour visit to Israel and the PA, said Russia is interested in strengthening the Palestinian leadership and restraining the extremists, according to the report.

A government source said this week that Israel would not allow the troop carriers into the country. "First let's see some steps toward peace and then it will be possible to strengthen the Palestinian security forces, which are meanwhile taking part in fighting against us," the source said. "The entry of any weapons to the territories requires our agreement and we do not want to see armored vehicles pitted against us."

Putin is due to meet PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian leaders in Ramallah today and is also expected to visit the grave of Abbas' predecessor, Yasser Arafat. Putin called on Israel to support Abbas, rather than pressuring him

Russian prosecutors plan new charges against oil tycoon Khodorkovsky - May 15, 2005

MOSCOW (Haaretz) - The Prosecutor-General's office said that it was planning to file new charges against oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, already awaiting a verdict on charges of tax evasion and fraud in a politically charged trial.Friday's statement that Khodorkovsky would face charges for money-laundering came just three days before the verdict is to be announced in the trial of the former head of the Yukos oil giant and business partner Platon Lebedev. Lawyers for Khodorkovsky said the timing of the announcement was aimed at pressuring the court to find him guilty.

Many observers say the case is the Kremlin's punishment for Khodorkovsky's funding opposition parties and to obstruct the power of the tycoon once ranked as Russia's richest man. Others contend that the parallel carve-up of Khodorkovsky's Yukos empire against a US $28 billion back tax bill was orchestrated by powerful Kremlin clans.Yukos' main production unit, Yuganskneftegaz, was sold off against the tax debts in a state-ordered auction in December. It was sold to a mysterious shell company that in turn was acquired by state oil company Rosneft. On Friday, a court hearing a suit filed by Rosneft said Yukos must pay US$2.3 billion for oil that Yukos received from Yuganskneftegaz but allegedly didn't pay for in 2005. The bill comes in addition to a US$11 billion lawsuit filed by Rosneft for lost profits and unpaid taxes at Yuganskneftegaz due to be heard this month and next. Analysts have suggested the claims could lead to Rosneft eventually acquiring Yukos' remaining production assets. Yury Schmidt, a lawyer for Khodorkovsky, said his client had been told months before that he and Lebedev were being investigated on money laundering claims and the list of charges against his client had been expected to grow. "The fact that this is done on the eve of the verdict is very strange and in my opinion is a form of pressuring the judge," Schmidt told The Associated Press. "There is no procedural necessity for the prosecutor's office to make this announcement now."

Prosecutors have called for Khodorkovsky, 41, to receive the maximum 10-year sentence. Together with Lebedev, the tycoon is charged with rigging a privatization auction in 1994, stripping profits from a major fertilizer component maker, illegally using onshore tax havens to slash Yukos' tax bills as well as dodging millions in personal income tax. Khodorkovsky's defense team insists that not only has the prosecution has failed to show their clients broke the law in place at the time, in some cases lawyers argue they weren't even involved in the alleged crimes. With the trial and the dismantling of Yukos reinforcing wariness about Russia's business climate, a top economic adviser to President Vladimir Putin said the government intended to set clear rules on foreign investment, the Interfax news agency reported. Seeking to reassure investors after Putin called last month for rules defining strategic sectors where foreign investment would be restricted, adviser Igor Shuvalov said the rules would lead to "the softening of bans and formalization of existing restrictions," Interfax reported. "The main task here is not to delude potential investors but to establish clear and transparent rules of the game," he said.

Bone of contention in Russia-Israel relations
One of the thorniest topics surrounding Israeli-Russian relations is the issue of the "oligarchs," the wealthy Jewish tycoons who won their riches during the heyday of the breakup of the Soviet Union, now living in Israel. Israeli officials were fearful Putin would ask for the extradition of three oligarchs to Russia to face charges on various criminal offenses during his historic visit to Israel last month.

The three are a billionaire oil executive, a publishing tycoon and a former Putin ally turned Kremlin critic, who have all taken up residence in Israel in recent years under the Jewish Law of Return as Russia sought their arrests, rankling officials in Moscow. There were conflicting assessments about whether Putin will seek extradition of those oligarchs living in Israel, but Sharon has made clear he is against any such extradition. "I do not intend to turn anyone over," Sharon told Yedioth Ahronoth one week prior to Putin's visit. "Since the days of my youth, I have been opposed to turning over Jews. I am saying this in the clearest manner possible." The three oil executives living in Israel - Leonid Nevzlin, Mikhail Brudno and Vladimir Dubov - are former partners of Khodorkovsky, and all are wanted by Russia on fraud charges. The three men, all of whom appeared on the Forbes list of the world's billionaires in 2004, are now directors of Group Menatep, a holding company that owns 60 percent of what remains of the dismantled Yukos empire. Also holding Israeli citizenship are Vladimir Gusinsky, a media magnate who fled Russia after he was charged with financial misdeeds in a probe widely seen as punishment for his television station's critical coverage of Putin, and Boris Berezovsky, a one-time Kremlin insider who was charged with fraud after a falling-out with Putin. Both men, however, spend most of their time in Europe.

Gaza Disengagement - Giving up the Land

Sharon: Most of Yesha (Samaria) Negotiable – May 24, 2005

Lekerev Report - Most media reporting ignored a major implication of a statement made by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to American Jewish leaders: namely, that Maaleh Adumim, Gush Etzion and Ariel will stay in the hands of Israel forever, but that the rest of Yesha (biblical Judea and Samaria) is negotiable. At an Israel Bonds event in New York yesterday, Sharon said that the status of other areas of Judea and Samaria are subject to the "final phase of the permanent agreement negotiations and talks."

Sharon's statement casts doubt on the future of such 1,000 family communities such as Beit El, Ginot Shomron, and Kedumim. Sharon added that disarming terrorists is a condition for the talks on a land-for- peace accord. "It should be completely quiet [with] an end of terror, dismantling of terrorist organizations, collecting their weapons, stopping the smuggling that will enable us to enter the Road Map," the Prime Minister stated. One can't help but ask, "Then why are we leaving Gaza when the rockets keep falling? It is hardly 'completely quiet'."

Sharon won strong backing from American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who spoke Monday to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Sharon himself is to address AIPAC in Washington today. Rice criticized Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) for not destroying the terrorist infrastructure. Abu Mazen, successor to Yasser Arafat, is to meet with President George W. Bush on Thursday and it is public knowledge that Hamas in Gaza has backed away from its firing of rockets to make Abbas' talks with Bush easier on Thursday. However, Hamas is openly poised to resume the attacks immediately thereafter.

14 Year Old Protestor Tells Her Story – May 24, 2005

Lekerev Report - Rachel (not her real name) never doubted what she was about to do: "We knew from the start we had a goal: the Torah of Israel, the People of Israel, and the Land of Israel. We didn't break, even when they tried to break us. The officers were in shock, one even said it was the first time he'd seen a detainee laugh instead of cry," the 14-year- old told Ynet. Rachel and 26 young colleagues were released yesterday after a week in jail. She told Ynet: "The officers dragged us, when we asked for female officers they said 'no.' Today, she says she would do the same thing again: even if I sat in jail for two years," she said, "I believe that I'm right, and that we'll win." She also said she is unconcerned about affects her arrest will have on her future. "I am a link in the chain stretching back to Avraham Avinu (Biblical patriarch Avraham). I am protecting the Jewish people, and I am ready to pay a personal price." Remember, this is a 14 year old girl speaking. The girls have been provided legal help by the "Honenu ("have mercy on us") " organization. The group told Ynetnews, "The rights of dozens of minors have been violated, yet we haven't heard anything out of HaMoked, The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, or the media. Soon, we'll press charges for all the police mistreatment."

World Wide Protests Against Evacuation – May 15, 2005

Lekerev Report - Worldwide opposition to evacuating Jews from their homes is growing. Protests in the U.S. and Israel, a hunger strike and solidarity visits to Gaza and northern Samaria are planned this week. And it won't stop there. Students from 46 college campuses are to begin a strike Sunday and stage a hunger strike on Monday opposite the offices of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, while other groups are planning simultaneous acts of civil disobedience. The unilateral aspect of the surrender of Jewish Gaza has bolstered opposition from both religious and secular circles. "We understand the logic of peace for peace, and maybe even land for peace," said student organizer Ron Shoval. "But what is the logic of land for terror? The struggle for the future of the country is not only that of the settlers. We are secular and religious students from both sides of the Green Line against the disengagement program."

In the United States, protestors decked out in orange, the color that has become symbolic of support for Jewish life in Gaza and northern Samaria, are preparing a noisy reception for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit the U.S. next Sunday. The Coalition of Americans to Save Gush Katif/Gaza and the N. Shomron Communities is promoting a mass protest and prayer vigil in New York City on Sunday, May 22. While Prime Minister Sharon will be a visiting guest of the Conference of Presidents of American Jewish Organizations, the Jewish Federation and the Israeli Consulate, thousands of expected protestors will be standing outside at Baruch College at 17 Lexington Ave. & 23 St. The organizers are urging attendees to wear orange clothing or purchase orange t-shirts at the demonstration.

Sharon fears that opposition to his plan will make it difficult to win Congressional support for massive aid, including $1.6 billion to help fund the evacuation. A House Appropriations Committee member questioned whether Congress would approve more aid. "What's the rationale? Israel says it's taking a unilateral action in its own interest." ZOA president Klein said his group "should be telling people that any extra funding that is being considered to help facilitate the forced deportation of Jews is funding used to violate human rights."

Jewish Protests in New York City

The writing is in the Book, as well as on the wall – May 3, 2005
The Golden Report - With the Sharon Disengagement Plan drawling closer the anxiety and worries of the Jewish people rises to a fervor pitch. Parents of IDF soldiers are beginning to understand the tremendous physiological effect it will have on their sons and daughters who will be called on to rip Jews from their homes not knowing to what level the violence will rise to in order to satisfy Ariel Sharon. Already young Jewish kids in the Gaza Strip are throwing rocks as IDF soldiers and calling them traitors.

I recently read a story of a Holocaust survivor whose grandson is in the IDF and he called him from Europe asking him if it is true that Jews will be forcing Jews out of their home in Israel. When the grandson told him yes it is true, the old man broke down in tears, asking how can this happen.

The one thing that seems to be certain is there will occur in this land such a ugly violent resistant to the Sharon Disengagement Plan that it may be that this country will never recover from the harm it will do to the Jewish people here and around the world. For even as you read this plans are being made to be sure the IDF or the Israeli Police will not have an easy time of it. It will not be only in the Gaza Strip and the four Jewish Settlements in the North of the country, but all over Israel. From the heart of Israel “Jerusalem” to the highways and byways across the country there will be disturbances and social unrest and possibly things could get so bad that even the economy will be damaged in such a way that it may never recover. It is my prayer and the prayers of many others that the Islamic enemies will not take advantage of this civil war to attack and destroy Israel.

For those of us who have studied the Prophetic Word of God for many years can easily say this or that. But it can be summarized briefly that the stage is being set for the evil one to bring about such a spiritual condition here in Israel that the Jews and others will be more than ready to accept the one who will appear to be the one who can bring peace and stop the insanity that is about to befall us all, and many will call him messiah. The story doesn’t stop there for it is not only here in Israel but globally we will see total anarchy as the world’s economy has become dependant on Arab Oil and the Arab world is controlled by the Devil himself the one they call Allah. It is only a matter of when they will decide to pull the plug on the US and Europe. Their goal is to Islamize the entire world by force if necessary it is called global Jihad.

What I am about to say will not set will with most Christians but it is easy to see for anyone who has eyes to see. The most important event to the Arab Islamic world is the control of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. This is the only place on planet earth the Devil will accept as his seat. It is from this place he will rule the world that means the US and all of Europe as well. Europe has already given over to the Islamic threat and within the next ten years will have such a hold that no Prime Minster or President will be able to resist them. As for the US it will only take one or two major terrorist attacks where thousands are murdered by these bloodthirsty Islamic devils for the Government to openly demand the destruction of Israel. The Bush administration has already agreed to this destruction by means of the Road Map. He is unable to openly declare his intentions at this time because most evangelical Christians in the US support Israel and their elected representatives in the Government know that.

There are still things that must be accomplished in Israel and the main one is the completion of the re-gathering of the Jews from around the world. As I have written over the past few months, lost tribes have been located in different parts of the world and are slowly immigrating to Israel. European Jews are waking up that they have no future there and must make Aliyah. For God will bring them home either by the Fishermen or the Hunters, and I believe it is once again time for the Hunters.

And I must once again tell you that as this mass Aliyah begins the UN and the EU will do all they can to stop Jews from moving back to Israel for reasons of demographics. And the only way they will be able to arrive here is through the underground. This is why God has touched not only this messenger but many others to begin boat ministries to rescue Jews. But it seems He has put on us a responsibility to not only purchase the needed boat but to make arrangements for others, for to have a boat and have no plans would be worthless, so we must make plans to help them as well. This will all become clearer to many as time goes on.

At this time we are hurting for finances and I ask you once again to pray about your part in this ministry, if God is calling you to be a part of this ministry or any other who will be planning to rescue Jews, don’t hold back now, for time is very short. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, for our son Joel, and all the IDF soldiers. Pray for those who have come to fight the Islamic enemy. Pray for this Ministry and your part in it. Shalom, jerry golden

Tension at the Temple Mount – May 9, 2005
Israel Today - Fearing riots, Israel tightened security at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City, the site of the Biblical Temples and the holiest place in Judaism. Tension ran high following rumors that Israeli nationalists planned to march on the site, which is home to the Mosque of Al Aksa, the third holiest place in Islam. Palestinian Moslems vowed to protect it with thousands of people. In response, Israel barred all Palestinians under the age of 45 from the compound. Police scuffled with Palestinian stone throwers outside the Old City walls, but there was no serious violence. The Jewish protest did not materialize. But Israeli nationalists have vowed to stir up trouble at the Temple Mount, in an attempt to thwart the Gaza pullout.

Hundreds of American Jews Coming to Gaza – May 5, 2005

Lekerev Report - Hundreds of American Jews will arrive in Israel on June 5th in order to join the Jews of Gush Katif in opposing the expulsion from their homes. The organizer of the trip, Brooklyn assemblyman Dov Hikind, says he decided to put together the visit when he returned from his last visit to the threatened Jewish towns of Gaza, in which dozens of professionals and two New York State judges participated. "My office was inundated with calls from Americans who want to be there for 8,500 people who have done nothing wrong and are being threatened with expulsion," Hikind said.

The Democratic assemblyman said on Israel National Radio's Stutz & Fleisher Show that, "The people who live in Gush Katif are the most amazing people I have ever met in my life. Anyone who goes there realizes what a tragedy it would be to lose this place." Hikind says he, together with hundreds of ordinary Jews from the tri-state area who are taking a week out of their lives to spend with the men, women and children of Gush Katif, intends to give strength and support to the Jews living in Gaza's 22 communities. "It is the least we can do," Hikind said. "Last time we were here, the residents gave us much more than we gave them, but I know that our coming means something, not only to the residents, but to G-d. Outside of Israel we have faith in G-d, but what does that really mean? How often are we tested?" Hikind asks. "These people have been tested day in and day out for 30 years and their faith has not been shaken. Their devotion to the Land of Israel and the People of Israel is something to behold."

Asked whether he felt that as a Jew living outside Israel he had reservations about opposing the will of the Israeli government, Hikind responded, "The Land of Israel does not only belong to the people of Israel, but to the Jewish people. I would be negligent if I let it be abandoned without a response."

Kol haKavod to Assemblyman Hikind and those who are coming with him!

Sharon meets 'Jews for Jesus' follower – May 10, 2005

Jerusalem Post - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, interested in shoring up his standing in the influential US Evangelical Christian community, met eight leading Evangelical figures Tuesday, including Jay Sekulow, a high profile Messianic Jew. Sekulow, who runs a conservative civil liberties group called the American Center for Law & Justice that was set up by evangelist Pat Robertson, is considered close to US President George W. Bush and was one of three strategists charged by the White House with the task of getting Bush's controversial court nominees through the Senate.

An official in the Prime Minister's Office said Sharon was unaware of Sekulow's Jewish background. "These are hard-core Republicans very supportive of Israel," the official said. "When they come here, we don't ask what their religion is. The man is willing to do a lot for the state of Israel." Sekulow is also the host of a daily radio show aired on some 550 stations. Among the others in the delegation were Paul Crouch, the founder and President of the world's largest Christian television network, the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), Michael Little, the President and Chief Operating Officer of The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) and Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals.

Sekulow wrote an article that was published in January on the "Jews for Jesus" web site entitled, "How a Jewish Lawyer from Brooklyn Came to Believe in Jesus."

Sekulow served as lead counsel in the 1987 Airport Commissioners v. Jews for Jesus Supreme Court decision, where the court deemed unconstitutional a ban preventing the distribution of religious materials inside the Los Angeles airport. In his article, Sekulow described how he went from a Reform synagogue in Long Island, where he had a bar mitzvah, to a Baptist college in Atlanta and belief in Jesus.

Although Sharon was at first wary of meeting the group because of criticism of his disengagement plan being voiced from segments of the Evangelical community, officials in his office persuaded him that it was an important and influential delegation. The meeting was very friendly, the officials said, with the delegation coming to "show solidarity for Sharon." "We want you to know that we stand behind you in efforts to bring peace," an official in Sharon's office quoted Haggard as telling Sharon. Haggard told Sharon that the official policy of the organization he represents is "to support the state of Israel come hell or high water. We are staunch supporters. We believe that you were chosen by God to lead the people of Israel in this difficult period. We fully support you, because we believe it is God's will."

He said that Bush used those exact words – support for Israel 'come hell or high water' – during a meeting the President had with Evangelical leaders prior to November's elections. Haggard added that opposition to Sharon does not represent the grassroots opinion of the Evangelical community. When Sharon was in Crawford, Texas, last month, a group of Evangelicals protested against the disengagement plan. Likewise, Haggard mentioned the efforts of the Presbyterian Church to mount a campaign to divest from Israel, and said that the Evangelicals will launch a campaign against this move, saying it is against God's will.

The main purpose of the delegation's visit, according to officials in the Prime Minister's Office, was to help market Israel to the enormous Evangelical community abroad. These officials noted Evangelical tourists continued to visit Israel through the recent violence, just as they did even when scud missiles wee falling during the first Gulf war. Among the ideas d being discussed between the delegation and governmental bodies are the establishing an investment fund for the purpose of bringing tourists to Israel, and a joint enterprise whereby the Evangelical community will put up the money – and Israel will provide the expertise – to provide humanitarian aid, such as medical, agricultural or educational assistance, to a third country, possibly Ukraine. Sharon, according to a spokesman, told the delegation to "keep praying, it seems to help."

Saudi Oil and Backing for US Is Contingent on Israeli Concessions – May 15, 2005

Debkafiles - Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon is due in Washington Monday May 23 to address the pro-Israeli lobby AIPAC’s annual conference. So far, DEBKAfile’s political sources know of no appointments set up for him with any Bush administration officials. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is tentatively scheduled to arrive three days later on May 26. After telling his confidants “Nothing will come of the visit,” Abbas is making sure that something does. The first move he pulled off was to persuade the White House to make sure Sharon was out of the capital before he arrived.

The Palestinian leader is meanwhile spinning out a complicated globe-girdling itinerary. He went to Brazil last week for the first Latin-American Arab conference (where he worked hard on anti-American and anti-Israel resolutions that denounced the American occupation of Iraq and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.) This week he touches down in China, Japan and India. If for some reason, the prime minister prolongs his stay in the United States, Abbas will draw out his Far East travels until Sharon is gone. How was Abbas able to manipulate the Bush administration’s timetable and marginalize Sharon’s presence in the US capital? DEBKAfile reveals that it was the Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah who set the maneuver up for him when he visited US president George Bush at the presidential ranch in Texas on April 25.

DEBKAfile’s Washington sources report exclusively that the US and Saudi leaders ended their talks with understandings that restored the Saudis to a dominant role Washington’s Middle East policies. Bush agreed to enlarge US-Saudi arms deals – out in the open now, not under wraps as in the last three years; Saudi capital for investment and the purchase of US government bonds would flow back to the United States; and most of the post 9/11 restrictions would be lifted on the entry of Saudi businessmen and students to the United States. Abdullah promised to pump up oil production from 10 barrels per day to 12.5 million short term and 15 million long term. But he insisted his immediate priority for the royal purse was the promotion of reforms and better education, health and social welfare systems for his subjects. Therefore investment in expanding oil production would take some time, but it would come about. Abdullah then laid down his price for “opening a new chapter in US-Saudi strategic relations.”

One, Sharon must be pushed towards keeping step with Abbas and meeting his demands, to continue propping the Palestinian leader up and to do nothing that might hasten his downfall.
Two, Sharon must be urged into serious negotiations with Syria.
Three, The Bush administration must avoid any action that might topple Bashar Assad or bring about the demise of the Assad regime in Damascus. The Saudi prince put it this way: We did as much as you to force Syria to pull its troops out of Lebanon. It is now your turn to meet us halfway. Neither Assad nor Syria must be humiliated any further.

DEBKAfile’s sources have not discovered the US president’s response to these demands. More tellingly, neither has the Israeli prime minister’s office. The blackout Bush has ordered on the conversation is dense. But, upon his return from Washington, Abdullah lost no time in visiting neighbors to brief them on his achievements at Crawford. He saw Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, Assad and King Abdullah of Jordan. For Israel, these achievements are major setbacks:

If the Bush administration is not briefing, let alone consulting with, Jerusalem on key elements of its Middle East policy, then the special Israel-US strategic relations are far from being all the Sharon government has cracked them up to be.
If Bush accedes to Abdullah’s request on Abbas, then Sharon and defense minister Shaul Mofaz might as well abandon their efforts to achieve accords with the Palestinian Authority on the evacuations of the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank. All the Palestinians will need to do is make their demands known. For example, Israel will be required to demolish abandoned homes against its will because that is what Abbas wants. He is also demanding that the Gaza Strip be turned over complete with international border crossings to Egypt and full sovereignty over Gaza’s air space and sea waters – all this without spending a minute on the road map or peace talks.

Israel will also have to turn a blind eye Abu Mazen’s refusal to disarm the Islamist radical Hamas and Palestinian terrorist units at large. Instead, Abbas will be allowed to integrate them with their weapons into the Palestinian security forces. To get around Abbas’ pledge at Sharm el Sheikh in February to crack down on and dismantle terrorists, The Palestinian Authority from time to time reports some small group of other has handed in its weapons, describing as “the beginning” of its decommissioning operation. In fact, the operation stops there and the majority of terrorists have been left fully armed and with their structures intact.

Ahead for the Sharon government is a uniquely polarizing, painful and costly withdrawal from Palestinian territory. It is hard to see any Israeli leader being in any state soon to plunge into a peace process with Syria that would entail a pullback – be it even in stages – from the Golan. On the other hand, the Syrians, cheered on by the Saudis, will no doubt maintain that if Israel is capable of one unilateral withdrawal, why not another?

Israeli military experts believe that the three days of Hizballah rocket fire last week at Israeli positions guarding the disputed Shaaba Farms area were aimed more at pointing up Syria’s case for talks with Israel than jockeying for position in Lebanese politics. Syria will make full use of Hizballah and its belligerence to keep the heat on Israel before and during any talks. In the coming months, the Sharon government will therefore be faced with radical policy adjustments to the new reality generated by the Saudi ruler’s enhanced standing in the Bush White House.

Sharon meets 'Jews for Jesus' follower – May 10, 2005

Sekulow wrote an article that was published in January on the "Jews for Jesus" web site entitled, "How a Jewish Lawyer from Brooklyn Came to Believe in Jesus."

Massive Rally in Gush Katif Today – April 27, 2005

Lekerev Report - Tens of thousands of Israelis, taking advantage of the Pesach holiday week, will descend on Gush Katif today in a massive rally of support for the embattled Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip. Organizers are hoping as many as 100,000 demonstrators will attend.

An IDF spokesman said, "We are set to absorb thousands of visitors, and to let them tour around, demonstrate, and express their strong feelings. We will do everything in our power in order to protect them." He added, "But we will not tolerate any lawbreaking or public disturbances." Police are confident that community leaders have told the demonstrators to act appropriately.

IDF forces are prepared to secure the event in Gush Katif against terror attempts, particularly in light of the Qassam rockets and mortars that have pelted Gaza since the beginning of Pesach on Sunday. Thousands of people have visited Gush Katif during the Pesach holiday to show support for embattled residents, some even spending the seder night there.

Wednesday's demonstration is being held under the banner of "We will be there", meaning they will be in Gaza on the day IDF forces arrive to begin the withdrawal. 70 buses will come from Tel Aviv alone. Knesset Members Aryeh Eldad, Effi Eitam and Tzvi Hendel are also expected to participate, as well as rabbis and leaders of the Yesha Council.

Passover protest in Gaza – April 27, 2005

Israel Today - Thousands of Israelis poured into the Gaza Strip for a big demonstration protesting the government's plan to pull out of the area this summer and dismantle 21 settlements there. Mild weather and Passover vacation enabled many people to come to the demonstration from around the country. Some 1,500 buses brought in supporters showing solidarity with the 8,000 settlers slated for evacuation. Protesters described the pullout as a reward for terror that won't accomplish anything. "The Arabs want us dead, they don't want peace, they don't love us, they want to blow us up," said Michael Goldman. Cars, vans and buses are flying protest banners saying: "Jews should not expel Jews."

Israel Tells America: Full Scale War Coming to Mid East - April 22, 3005

Lekerev Report - Israel has reportedly expressed its belief to Washington that Iran and several of its Arab allies are preparing for a full-scale war against the Jewish state, possibly following the expected US withdrawal from Iraq in 2006. Unnamed US officials told Middle East Newsline this week that according to Israeli assessments, the departure of most American forces from the region would lead to increased tensions and provide an atmosphere ripe for an escalation of violence.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "has relayed repeated messages to the administration that Iran and its Arab allies were preparing for war," one official said. Sharon reportedly raised the issue with President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney during his recent visit to the US, telling the Americans that an Iran emboldened with the acquisition of nuclear weapons would seek to form a regional alliance against Israel. Israeli military intelligence reported earlier in the month that the Lebanese terrorist organization Hizballah is already planning a major offensive along Israel's northern border, likely at the behest of Tehran.

Netanyahu Escalates Opposition to Sharon's Disengagement – May 11, 2005

Lekerev Report - Escalating his criticism of the prime minister he aims to replace, Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has delivered a stinging assault on Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan, asserting that it helps fuel a Palestinian perception that Israel can ultimately be destroyed altogether under unrelenting terrorist assault.

"Anything that persuades the Palestinians that we are being pushed by their superior will and their acts of terror to vacate one position after another emboldens terror and pushes peace away," he told The Jerusalem Post in an interview. "This poses a great danger to us."

Netanyahu also acknowledged that there is little hope of thwarting the summer's scheduled withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria. It was basically a done deal, he said, adding that he believed the Knesset's approval of the withdrawal reflected the popular will of the Israeli public. What was at stake now, he said, was preventing further unilateral disengagements in the future.

Although he restated his opposition to a fully sovereign Palestinian state, he also said that "nobody in his right mind" would want to annex Palestinian population centers such as Ramallah and Nablus and that he had "no problem' with the Palestinians attaining "sovereignty over their lives." Elaborating, Netanyahu said he would "place no limitations on the Palestinians to govern themselves, but I would place any limitations necessary on the Palestinians so that they do not threaten Israel's vital security."

Dividing the Land – Secrets and Lies – May 19, 2005

Haaretz - I went to see Ehud Barak not because he has returned to politics. Not because he is running again for chairman of the Labor Party. And not because his comeback faltered and then recovered, and now his comeback has encountered a major challenge from Amir Peretz. The reason I went to Ehud Barak is that for the past year and a half he has been trying to tell us that the disengagement plan is flawed - but we haven't been listening. Ehud Barak is someone worth listening to. It's not certain that it's worth raising funds for his campaign, or that it's worth laying your body on the barbed-wire fence for him. Nor is it certain that it's worth supporting his renewed run for prime minister. But it is worth listening to him. There are few Israelis who see the historical situation in which we find ourselves with the same cruel clarity as Ehud Barak.

These days he is in Akirov Tower in north Tel Aviv. No longer a kibbutznik-warrior from Kochav Yair but a smug millionaire from a luxury high-rise. However, despite the doorman at the resplendent entrance and despite the aura of glory of the upper crust, the apartment itself is quite modest. In one corner of the living room stands a black grand piano. In another corner are two exercise bicycles: high for Ehud, low for Nili Priel, his companion.

Nili is very delicate. After a brief courtesy chat and after serving the coffee and the petits fours she slips out quietly, donning an elegant wide-brimmed straw hat. Barak himself shows up late, of course. Despite the efforts of his devoted assistant Dana, 10 A.M. is still hard for him. His eyes are still shrunk into their sockets and his voice is still sleep-stunned as he sits himself down in his Stanford executive chair and begins to say his piece. But within minutes his own words thrust him into wakefulness. His words enthrall and persuade him. And the more he is persuaded, the more enthusiastic he becomes. And grows passionate. He deeply enjoys the rational structure he has just built.

Ehud Barak, the disengagement plan is rapidly approaching. In the past you were critical of it. Have you changed your mind? - "The disengagement plan is an important step in the right direction. But it is a partial and hesitant step. One has to support it but also to understand that it will not bring deliverance. Disengagement is the first page in a book that will have a great many chapters, some of them very rough."

For months we have all been asking ourselves what will happen on the day after the withdrawal. Let me ask you the same question. - "On the day after the withdrawal we are liable to see the realization of some of the assessments that [outgoing Chief of Staff Moshe] `Bogey' Ya'alon and [just-retired Shin Bet security service chief] Avi Dichter described to us. I very much hope that we will find in [Palestinian leader] Abu Mazen a person who will muster the strength to dismantle the terrorist infrastructures and to conduct negotiations. But it is possible that we will see Hamas become even more powerful. It is possible that within a few months we will see terrorism resurgent in Judea and Samaria. Maybe in Gaza, too. That terrorism is liable to reach into Israel."

If so, if the right wing is correct, why do you not make your voice heard in warning? Why should you not stand at the gate and declare explicitly that we are on the brink of disaster? - "I think [Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon deserves credit for the decision he made to act contrary to what he did his whole life. After all, the disengagement plan is actually Sharon's admission of his life's error. It is better to advance in the right direction than to sit on our bottoms and do nothing. But it has to be said honestly that the right-wingers are speaking the truth. Some of the forecasts of [Likud MK] Uzi Landau have come true. The Palestinians will interpret the act of disengagement as a victory. They will say that Sharon capitulated. "After all, just three years ago he said that [the Gaza Strip settlements] Netzarim and Kfar Darom are like [Kibbutz] Negba and Tel Aviv. And what happened since then? Terrorism. Therefore, they will say, we have to go on using terrorism. We have to perpetrate terrorism in the West Bank and from the West Bank. The violence has to be renewed at a higher level. Because in the end, despite all his pronouncements, Sharon understands only the language of force. Sharon surrendered to terrorism."

Do you hold Sharon in high regard? Do you see in him qualities that you do not have? - "Sharon is an excellent tactician but he has no strategy."

And you are the exact opposite: 100 in strategy, 0 in tactics. - "Maybe. I don't think so, but there is an opinion to that effect. I will not be my own commentator."

Let us go back to Sharon. What is his outstanding quality as a statesman? - "Biting off more than he can chew. He's got big eyes but they lack all ability to see reality as it is. That's the reason for this whole shortcut. That's why every possible mistake is made before reaching the right conclusion, which could have been seen from the outset."

Give me an example, please. - "Take the Lebanon War. To enter Lebanon for 72 hours to deal the terrorists a blow is legitimate. To flex one's muscles at the Syrians once every 20 years is legitimate. But Sharon's grand plan was a fantasy. And just as is the case now, there was no discussion then on the goals of the move, either. The press was silent then, as it is now. But the people of Israel went into an adventure that cost the lives of 650 of our sons without any serious thought. Without a systematic strategy."

Another example. - "Take the original sin of the settlements. Have you ever asked yourself where they came from? At Camp David, [prime minister Menachem] Begin not only returned all of Sinai. He also recognized the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. The whole world understands that the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people include the right to self-determination. The right to self-determination means a state. Along came Begin and tried to undo the result of a document he himself had signed. That is why he sent [interior minister Yosef] Burg to mire the autonomy talks and sent Sharon to build `many Elon Morehs' [meaning many settlements].

"Sharon's plan was to scatter so many settlements at so many places in Judea and Samaria that a Palestinian state would never be able to be established. But the plan was an act of folly. Far from strengthening the large settlement blocs, which are truly essential, Sharon's isolated settlements weakened them. Those isolated settlements are a classic case of biting off more than one can chew. It's as I told you: There is no strategy. There is no true reading of the map. The tactics are amazing but they lead to a dead end."

And the disengagement plan - does it lead to a dead end as well? - "What will happen after the disengagement is that Abu Mazen will try to extract more Israeli concessions and to isolate Sharon. The Palestinians will say they are ready for immediate negotiations on the final-status settlement and that Sharon is refusing. To get out of that trap, Sharon will offer a few more settlements: maybe the Jordan Rift Valley settlements, maybe four or seven or ten isolated settlements. But that will not be enough for the Palestinians. So, after a time things will get bogged down. The violence will resume. "The violence will not lead the world to be on our side, but the opposite. At a certain stage we'll lose the support of the international community. Initially the United States will support us, but in time its support will also be eroded. Israel will find itself isolated. Internal cracks will appear within Israeli society. And only then, when there will be no choice, Israel will do what it should have done from the beginning. Having no alternative, Israel will do what it could have done by thinking ahead."

What should Israel do? If Ehud Barak were prime minister, what would Israel do? - "Five things. First, complete the separation fence in an emergency national project lasting a few months. After that, evacuate the isolated settlements to the east of the fence within the framework of a comprehensive evacuation plan to be implemented within two-three years. Concurrently, Israel wages an all-out war against terrorism across the fence, too. In parallel, Israel keeps the door open for the renewal of the political process. Israel proposes to the international community to give itself a mandate over the Palestinian territories to assist the Palestinian Authority in preparing itself for the establishment of a Palestinian state."

The main thing for you is the fence. You attribute vast importance to the fence, but aren't you exaggerating? - "I want to take you back three years. Three years ago, it would have been possible to build the fence along the present route not only with American support, but also with American funding. If we had built the fence then, it would have included Ariel and Ma'aleh Adumim and any other area essential to Israel. If we had built the fence then, we would still have the NIS 35 billion that we wasted on nothing in those three years. If we had built the fence then, we would not have buried the hundreds of people who were killed in those years.

"That is Sharon. That is exactly what I said to you about Sharon. Biting off more than he can chew. Not doing at the right time what has to be done and then doing it late and badly and at a terrible price. In my estimation, Sharon has already lost Ariel-Kedumim. He is about to lose Ma'aleh Adumim as well. And NIS 35 billion went down the tubes. Hundreds of people were buried."

You don't sound like yourself; you sound angry. - "I don't understand it. I just don't understand. The country's citizens don't know: 60 percent of the fence has not been built. And when terrorists strike again in Be'er Sheva and Kiryat Gat and Ashkelon and Tel Aviv, what will we tell ourselves? What honest answer will we give ourselves? After all, within a few months suicide bombers are liable to infiltrate Israel's cities through the sections that have not been built. What will we say then? What will the government say? Therefore I say now that a national emergency plan has to be implemented immediately. The fence has to be built 24 hours a day. It has to be built even at the price of a clash with the Europeans and even with the Americans. By Sukkot, the fence has to be built."

That's a very gloomy forecast. Aren't you being overly pessimistic? - "Israel is a very strong country. It is the strongest country within a radius of 1,500 kilometers from Jerusalem. And I believe that within 10 years, it can be in the forefront of the world's leading countries. If we carry out a full disengagement and arrive at clear borders, there will be a tremendous outburst of all the energy that is stored up here. "But for that to happen we have to behave like a mature nation that decides what it wants and takes a sober view of the prevailing reality. That is not the situation at present. Sharon is behaving as though we are an inferior nation that is incapable of coping with reality and incapable of making the right decision before making all the mistakes. So he is leading us in circles. He says the Arabs do not accept Israel's existence, and that is true. He says it is imperative to deal with the terror infrastructures, and that is also true. But he says that the facts on the ground will decide the reality, and that is not true. His own actions prove that it's not true. He says he obtained a commitment from the Americans to support the large settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria remaining in Israeli territory. That is not true. It is factually not the case. It is a deliberate misleading of the public."

Are you saying that Ariel Sharon is deceiving the Israeli public? - "A campaign is under way here whose gist is to mislead the nation about substantive issues in order to prevent it from asking what the quid pro quo for the disengagement is. Sharon's claim that he made painful decisions in Gaza and in return obtained an unprecedented achievement in Judea and Samaria is not correct. Such a claim could not be made in a country with a viable opposition and a vigilant press. After all, it is obvious that the U.S. administration is against the Ariel-Kedumim bloc and against Ma'aleh Adumim and is even against Efrat [in the Gush Etzion bloc]. But Sharon will not admit that. Sharon is not telling the people the truth. He is treating us all as though we are infantile and incapable of debating our own fate."

You cite a certain factual argument concerning the value of the Bush declaration. But going beyond that, what do you see as the stumbling block in Sharon's overall conception?

"The problem is that Sharon is trying to leap over the abyss in two jumps. It won't work. He is again biting off more than he can chew and so he will not chew anything. The truth is that there's no chance that the border of the country will pass east of the fence line. In the best case, we'll be able to hold the fence line. But Sharon is not capable of admitting this. He does not have the courage to go to the settlers in the isolated settlements and tell them the truth. He does not have the courage to admit that it was folly to establish the isolated settlements. And because of that, because he does not dare speak the truth about the isolated settlements, he is also losing the big blocs. Because he did not do what was true and consistent he is leading us into self-deception. He's saying that there is a quid pro quo even though there is not. Check it out for yourself: there is no quid pro quo, only manipulation."

Those are very harsh allegations.

"It is not my allegations that are harsh. The situation is harsh. But because there is no viable opposition and because the media are remaining mute, people are not talking about the situation as it really is. There is no true reporting and there is no true debate and there is no true discourse. Everything is being kept under wraps. Everything is being kept in a state of fogginess."

But maybe the fog is positive. We learned from Kissinger that ambiguity can be creative.

"Sometimes fogginess is justified. If it is intended to play out options and alternatives for Israel's benefit, that's fine. But Sharon's fog is different. Sharon's fogginess is intended to avoid speaking the truth and to avoid having to cope with the truth. It's like the fence. Why doesn't Sharon close the fence? Because the moment it's closed, there will be a line. And when there is a line, it will be clear what's inside the line and what's outside the line. And it will be clear that what's beyond the line will not remain. So as not to arrive at that, Sharon is not closing the fence. As such, he is making Israel pay a political, security and economic price. So his ambiguity is not creative; it is destructive. He is preventing us from defining things. He is preventing us from asking honestly where we are headed."

Then I will ask again: Where are we headed?

"The disengagement plan is a fragmented and partial unilateral move with no quid pro quo. But on the day after disengagement, Sharon will not hook up with Shimon Peres and Haim Ramon and create a `big bang.' He won't go to the left. On the contrary. He'll go to the right and say that the Gaza game is finished. I think I won, you think I lost. Fine. But let's talk about the next game. Let's join ranks. We'll protect Judea and Samaria against the lapdogs of the left who would give everything.

"What will happen then is that Sharon will truly find himself within the realization of the prophecies made by the Shin Bet and the IDF. Sharon is deceiving the public in Israel, but not the Palestinians. The Palestinians know that he did not get anything substantive from Bush. It is clear to them that he got no quid pro quo but capitulated to terrorism. Therefore they will go back to terrorism. There will be another round. We will bury hundreds of people in a third intifada."

And where will the third intifada lead?

"We'll find ourselves in a situation in which entire companies of troops protect constantly dwindling groups of settlers in the various Elon Morehs. But then it will be clear to everyone that the fate of the [Samaria] settlements of Bracha, Yitzhar and Tapuah will be no different from that of [the Gaza settlements] Morag and Ganei Tal. Therefore the mothers will ask what we are doing there. The mothers will ask why their sons are being killed.

"Only then, with Europe against us and America not with us and internal unity crumbling, will Sharon get it. Suddenly he will see the light. He will see what anyone with eyes in his head can see now. But then, after hundreds have been killed and billions of shekels lost and after an internal rift, we will no longer succeed in preserving all the large settlement blocs inside Israel. At the end of the great shortcut, we'll find ourselves withdrawing to a line that is worse than the line to which we could withdraw now. We will find ourselves on a line that is very close to the Green Line."

The conversation with Ehud Barak is the first in a series of articles that will accompany the disengagement process over the next half a year. The series title, "Dividing the Land," is also the title of Ari Shavit's book, which is scheduled for publication next month (in Hebrew) by Keter Books.

American Non-Profits Strongly Support Gaza Communities - May 10, 2005

Lekerev Report - The precise amount of money transferred from American based non-profit organizations to Jewish communities in Gaza is difficult to know exactly but one thing is clear: American non-profit organizations have raised more than USD 100 million over the past 10 years in order to assist settlements in the territories.

According to a YNet investigation, documents show that residents have enough financial means to live without government support, organize the "ultimate public relations battle" and motivate forces on the ground. The investigation is based on annual financial statements filed with the Internal Revenue Service up to the year 2003. Statements for 2004 were filed on April 15 and will only be published next year.

The immense financial support has primarily come from New York's ultra-Orthodox Jews and Christian Evangelicals.

Palestinian State, Terrorist and the Enemies of Israel

Intensity of Incitement Growing – May 25, 2005

Lekerev Report - In yet another sermon broadcast live on Palestinian TV, Hamas cleric, Sheikh Ibrahim Mudeiras, declared that Islam must rule over the U.S. and Great Britain, and exact revenge against the British. In a virulent sermon broadcast live Friday, May 13, the cleric, who has become a symbol of Palestinian hatred of Israel and the Western world, said the day will come when Islam "will rule Britain". (This is the same cleric whose sermon last week called for the extermination of Jews and the subjugation of Christians.)

"We hold this opportunity to hold Britain accountable and say there is revenge we can never forget. We cannot forego the revenge we want to exact from Britain. We hold Britain responsible for what happened in Palestine. Britain is the cause, till this very minute, of every drop of blood dripping in this land," Mudeiras told Arab viewers in the Palestinian Authority. Mudeiras set forth an Islamic program for world domination, claiming that Islam will ultimately prevail and rule both Britain and the United States.

"The day will come when we will rule the United States, the day will come when we will rule Britain, we will rule the whole world [and all will live in peace and comfort under our rule] except the Jews. The Jews will not live in peace and comfort under our rule. Treachery will keep being their nature throughout history. The day will come when the whole world will rid itself of the Jews." Mudeiras' speech was filled with anti-Semitic invective, rivaling some of the worst propaganda to come out of Nazi Germany.

NOTE: Please do not dismiss such sermons as the rantings of a solitary "fanatic" with no influence. This man is very influential within Hamas and the Islamic world. Such inflammatory sermons are not to be ignored. It must also be noted that despite a significant outcry of disgust at his sermon last week, Palestinian television has kept him on the air and this week's sermon was as bad if not worse than last week's. What will next week bring???

PA Elections Keep Fatah in the Majority – May 8, 2005

Lekerev Report - Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' ruling Fatah movement appears to have held on to a small majority in the Palestinian municipal election despite a strong showing by the Hamas, according to unofficial results published today. It had been feared that the terrorist group Hamas might gain a majority in yesterday's elections.

The Palestinian Election Committee said Fatah won control of 52 of 84 municipal councils across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with Hamas winning 24. Smaller factions took four councils, with four municipalities undecided. Senior Fatah figures stressed that the results show the movement enjoys wide popular support and is still the most important and powerful faction among Palestinians.

Hamas is objecting to the published results. Senior Hamas figure Hassan Yousef said the group does not believe the initial results and claims various polls reflect the true picture, charging the available data is deceiving and false. "The data we received from our representatives in the various areas do not match the reports," he said, and pointed to reports of illegal armed gang activity, including what he said was the theft of a ballot box by Fatah members in the Ramallah region.

Fatah takes most councils; Hamas wins larger towns - Haaretz – May 8, 2005

Weapons Smuggling Tunnel Uncovered by IDF – May 9, 2005

Lekerev Report - During an engineering operation conducted near the Israeli- Egyptian border, south of Rafah, a tunnel 8 meters deep with an assumed length of several hundred meters was uncovered this past Friday. The tunnel was apparently meant for smuggling weaponry and highlights again the concern that if this border is "patrolled" by Egyptian forces, who will stop the smuggling of weapons? No one.

Eight weaponry smuggling tunnels were uncovered along the Israeli-Egyptian border by IDF forces since the beginning of 2005.

In Iran, 400 Volunteer for Homicide Attacks Against Israelis, Americans – April 21, 2005

Lekerev Report - More than 400 men, women, and children gathered at a meeting in Tehran yesterday to pledge their commitment to carry out suicide bomb attacks against both Israelis and Americans in Iraq. Several thousand other volunteers have already been selected for training.

"Some 440 volunteers, most of them women, signed up today," said Mohammad Ali Samadi, spokesperson for the Headquarters for Commemorating Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement, which organized the meeting. According to Samadi, members of his group - which has sought volunteers for attaks in Iraq and Israel since last June - have already carried out suicide attacks inside Israel against Israeli military targets. He added that "a few" of his fighters had been killed in the attacks, but his claims could not be confirmed since the group is not among those which have claimed responsibility for suicide bombings inside Israel.

Each of the group's 400-plus new recruits - some of whom donned headbands with the inscription 'there is no God but Allah' - were confronted with a difficult choice: to train for suicide attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq; to train for suicide attacks against Israelis; or to assassinate British author Salman Rushdie, the author forced into hiding after the late Ayatollah Khomeini ordered Muslims to kill him.

Samadi said his group saw "no limits" to carrying out suicide operations in Israel, but refused to discuss details because "revelation of our activities will create tremendous problems for Iran's foreign policy." He was even more reluctant to discuss his group's planned operations in Iraq.

Lebanon and Israel

Hizbollah: '12,000 of Our Rockets Can Reach Israel – May 27, 2005

Lekerev Report - Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged publicly yesterday that his organization had over 12,000 rockets capable of hitting northern Israel. Nasrallah's statement marks the first time an official Hizbullah source has disclosed specific information regarding the organization's arsenal. Under mounting international pressure to disarm, Nasrallah said Hizbullah would fight anyone who tried to take away its weapons. "Any hand that reaches out to our weapons is an Israeli hand that will be cut off," he told supporters on the fifth anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon. "We do not want to attack anyone and will not allow anyone to attack Lebanon; but if anyone, anyone, thinks of disarming the resistance we will fight them like the martyrs of Kerbala," Nasrallah said, referring to a battle in Islamic history central to Shiites. The largely Shiite Muslim residents of the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hizbullah stronghold, celebrated Nasrallah's words with fireworks and cheering, witnesses said.

With dozens of mortars falling on Gush Katif yesterday, Israeli officials believe Hamas rules the Gaza street. "Israel cannot stand idly by," Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told Ynet. "We will do everything possible to protect our citizens." Mofaz is expected to spend most of his briefing session Thursday discussing Hamas activities in Gaza, as well as what Israel calls Palestinian refusal to combat the organization's terror activities. The minister is expected to instruct the defense establishment to act strongly against those responsible for more than 30 mortars and Qassam rockets that have been fired at Jewish communities in Gaza and into sovereign Israel since Wednesday afternoon. Officers in the IDF Southern Command say the army is ready for a "massive reaction" to the attacks, and said the Palestinians have crossed a red line by allowing Hamas to operate openly.

Hamas Rules the Gaza Streets – May 19, 2005

The army may be ready, but is the government? Is political expediency going to take precedence over the security of Jewish Israeli citizens? In the wake of the mortar shelling in Gaza, Chairman of the Knesset Foreign and Defense Committee MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud) called on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today to hold a military operation modeled on the large-scale Defensive Shield operation held in the West Bank a few years ago. "Israel should now embark on a Defensive Shield 2 operation in Gaza, in order to derail the Hamas' rise to power and the rehabilitation of terror infrastructures," said Steinitz in response to the shelling that lasted almost 24 hours. "Why aren't Gush Katif residents worthy of protection and an IDF response like the residents of the rest of the country?" Ariel asked. MK Shaul Yahalom (National Religious Party) called on the prime minister to be true to his own policy, after Sharon declared there would be no disengagement under fire. "Since the fire only increases with each day that passes, the disengagement plan must be cancelled straight away," Yahalom said.

Israel-Hezbollah Fighting Intensifies – May 14, 2005

(LA Times) - Shells and rockets are exchanged across the Lebanese border in the worst clash in months.

BEIRUT (LA Times) - Hezbollah militants and Israeli forces exchanged barrages of shells and rockets across the Lebanese border Friday and Israeli warplanes destroyed guerrilla positions in the heaviest clash between the two sides in months.There were no reports of casualties in the fighting, which abated less than two hours after it began. In the clash, Hezbollah fighters fired a volley of shells and rockets at Israeli positions in the disputed border area of Shabaa Farms. Israeli forces fired artillery at the apparent source of the attack in the village of Kfar Chouba. Both sides claimed that the other began firing first.

Witnesses counted at least 45 Israeli shells, and Israel said the barrage hit a Hezbollah position. Warplanes and helicopter gunships then struck three guerrilla posts, the Israeli military said. An Israeli tank also fired at a Hezbollah observation point near the village of Rmeish,witnesses said. It was the most serious clash between Israel and Hezbollah since January, when guerrillas blew up an Israeli bulldozer in Shabaa Farms and Israel retaliated with airstrikes that wounded two Lebanese women.Friday's exchange occurred after days of sporadic shelling by both sides, which began when Israel mistakenly fired an artillery shell into Lebanon this week while clearing explosives the guerrillas had planted near the border.

Lebanese leader: No peace with Israel - Opposition's Jumblatt also doesn't favor disarming Hezbollah – May 10, 2005
WorldNetDaily - With leaders in Israel celebrating Syria's reported withdrawal of troops from Lebanon last month, hoping for future relations with the neighboring country, Lebanese opposition leader Walid Jumblatt told WND in an exclusive interview yesterday there will be no peace with the Jewish state anytime soon. "I'm not in favor of peace with Israel as long as the Palestinian problem is not settled and as long as the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights is not returned back to Syria," said Jumblatt, the Druze leader who commands a large following and was responsible for many of the mass anti-Damascus demonstrations in March that urged for the removal of Syrian forces from Lebanon.

Syria withdrew the last of its troops April 26, ending nearly 30 years of direct military occupation and fueling hopes here that a new era of cooperation between Israel and Lebanon could begin. "This is an historic process," Maj. Gen. Yisrael Ziv, the Israel Defense Forces' outgoing chief of operations, said in response to the Syrian withdrawal, adding events could eventually lead to a regional peace. Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said, "The whole world is crossing its fingers. After the Syrian occupation of Lebanon comes to an end, we hope to see the Hezbollah occupation end as well, and that we will see a free and democratic Lebanon living in peace and prosperity next to us."

Jumblatt told WND in spite of U.N. resolutions demanding the dismantlement of all Lebanese militia groups, he will not immediately call for the disarming of Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia backed by Syria and Iran that Israel has blamed for recent terror attacks. "Maybe later we can incorporate Hezbollah's weapons inside the Lebanese army. For now, though, we are focused on the political process," said Jumblatt. "If you are to speak about disarming Hezbollah in the future, it must be through dialogue, not force."

Hezbollah recently vowed it would not give up its weapons, and said it would continue "resistance" against Israel. "[Hezbollah] will not disarm," the party's political bureau spokesman, Ghaleb Abu Zeinab, said last month. "Hezbollah's arms are here to protect Lebanon from any Israeli attack and create a balance of terror in the face of Israel." Senior Lebanese political sources told WND Jumblatt recently pledged to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nesrallah full support for the continued arming of Hezbollah in exchange for the group's backing of Jumblatt's party in the upcoming Lebanese elections. Jumblatt declined to comment on the subject.

The political dynamics in Lebanon are such that the Parliament is almost evenly split between the pro-Syrian camp and the opposition, with Syria-backed Hezbollah holding the deciding votes. If the Lebanese militia group backs the opposition, it would likely tilt governing power in the opposition's direction. Parliamentary elections currently are scheduled to be held May 29. The opposition hopes to win a majority of seats in the assembly. But Jumblatt said as long as pro-Syrian Lebanese President Emile Lahoud remains in office, May's elections will not free Lebanon of Damascus' grip. "How can we move forward toward independence as long as we have the same president controlling us for the old regime? Lahoud must go," Jumblatt said.

Opposition leaders have accused Lahoud of attempting to stall the Lebanese political process. He was blamed for facilitating the resignation, twice in two months, of Prime Minister-designate Omar Karami, nearly deepening the worst political crisis in Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war. Former Lebanese Prime Minister Michel Aoun, seen by many in Lebanon as a symbol of resistance against Syria, returned to Beirut Saturday and has been jockeying for Lahoud's position. Aoun was exiled to France in 1991 after he led an unsuccessful military coup to force Syria out of Lebanon. Aoun blasted Jumblatt's call for the continued arming of Hezbollah.

"Hezbollah needs to be disarmed. Period. We don't need any more resistance groups in Lebanon. Israelis are not occupying anymore. Syria removed its troops. It's time now to start building a country," Aoun told WND. Jumblatt's reluctance to formalize relations with Israel has disappointed some here.

Sabbatean Jews and Globalist Israel

Fischer Sworn In as Governor of Bank of Israel – May 2, 2005

Lekerev Report - Stanley Fischer, one of the world's leading economists and former deputy chairman of the Citigroup banking and insurance corporation, was sworn in Sunday afternoon as governor of the Bank of Israel by President Moshe Katsav. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others attended the ceremony.

"When I look at the history of the Israeli market I see a significant success story," Fischer said in his acceptance speech. Several parameters proved this success, he said; an average annual growth of 6.5 percent, the populaiton growth to over six million, the yearly increase in export and the percapita income, which today stand at a level close to leading industrialized countries.

Although Israel has made considerable macroeconomic progress, Fischer said, much work remains to be done. The flexibility, efficiency and competitiveness of the economy, and of the financial markets, are not sufficient, he said. The government must pursue the reforms, including the reform of the banks and capital market designed by treasury director-general Joseph Bachar and his team, Fischer recommended.

Fischer, an American citizen, officially became an Israeli citizen Sunday morning, when he received his national identification card at the Interior Ministry in Jerusalem. He will serve as central bank governor for the next five years, having been chosen for the post by Sharon and Netanyahu four months ago.

Stanley Fischer – A Monster in the Bank of Israel – Barry Chamish Report

Corrupt Government - Upon the personal recommendation of Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, The Bank Of Israel has appointed a new governor, Dr. Stanley Fischer, and he is a monster. Have a look at his bio: http://www.iie.com/fischer/cv.html Dr. Fischer arrives in Israel from his positions of Vice-Chairman of Citigroup, the money launderer of choice of the PLO in America, and Chief Economist of The International Monetary Fund (IMF). It goes without saying that he is also a prominent member of the Bilderberg Group and the Council On Foreign Relations (CFR). The membership lists of both are hereby provided: http://www.apfn.net/CFR.htm ; http://www.bilderberg.org/2001.htm

To put Fischer's role in global mischief in perspective, we turn to the incisive American analyst, William Jasper:
http://www.preteristcentral.com/articles-nwo-un_politics.htm ECOSOC, the UN's mammoth globocracy, oversees an alphabet soup of dozens of agencies, commissions, committees, and ad hoc bodies (UNESCO, UNIDO, FAO, UNEP, WHO, IMF, UNCTAD, UNFPA, etc.) employing tens of thousands and dispensing billions of dollars worldwide. The globalists have placed their operatives in all the key posts. The World Bank, one of the UN system's pivotal power centers, is headed up by James Wolfensohn (president) and Jeffrey A. Goldstein (managing director), both CFR members and full-blown internationalists. Over at the IMF, globalist economic objectives were managed through most of the turbulent 1990s (and up to 2002) by Stanley Fischer (CFR). Mr Fischer was assisted during that time by Anne O. Krueger (CFR), who retains the No. 2 slot at IMF. The IMF and World Bank closely coordinate their lending policies with USAID, the U.S. State Department agency that handles U.S. foreign aid. At that agency, Constance B. Newman (CFR) is helping to maintain the same destructive programs promoted by earlier CFR apparatchiks like J. Brian Atwood.

The Makor Rishon report continued:

In an IMF internal memo dated the 23rd of June 2004, and titled, "The Disengagement, The Palestinian Economy and the Settlements, it is written, among other things that, "The goal of the program is to develop the Palestinian economy and strengthen its leadership." The report notes that, "The value of assets that will be left by the Israeli government is impressive and will be of great benefit to the Palestinians of Gaza." Finally, the report recommends that the Israeli government transfer, "all deeds to the properties to the IMF," and that the Palestinians build "the proper infrastructure to absorb the largesse."

And now, the Chief Economist of the IMF, Stanley Fischer will take over The Bank Of Israel to make certain that this is done. But, asks the dazed Israeli, why would Netanyahu have recommended him knowing all this? My book Save Israel offers an explanation which I will only summarize here. The great patriot Netanyahu sold his soul to the CFR when he was a young student in Boston. His career was pushed by the likes of George Bush Sr., Richard Perle and George Shultz. He was appointed deputy ambassador to Washington by Moshe Arens, of the CFR's International Advisory Board, upon the recommendation of the CFR. He was later named Israeli Finance Minister to alter the country's economy according to the dictate of the CFR/IMF globalists.

Fischer is far from the first plant in the Bank of Israel. In the 1980s, Michael Bruno, later of the World Bank in Switzerland, was used to remove Menachem Begin by promoting policies which sent inflation soaring over 450%. After the Oslo Accord, Yaacov Frenkel of the World Bank/IMF was shipped from Washington to make sure that "peace" proceeded, or Israel would face economic disaster.

The CFR now has a one-two punch planted in Israel. Daniel Kurtzer will continue applying CFR diplomatic pressure as American ambassador, while Stan the Man Fischer will apply the threat of economic collapse should the Gaza withdrawal be delayed in any way. In the end, the Sabbataian anti-Jews of the CFR, with their allies in Labor Zionism, will defeat Jewish religion and morality because the God-fearing and/or moral Jews of Israel were too arrogant, obstinate and dumb to figure out who exactly they were fighting.

Sharansky resigns over Gaza pullout – May 2, 2005

Israel Report - Former Prisoner of Zion and author Natan Sharansky has resigned from the Cabinet of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in protest over the government's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip this summer. Sharansky, a former dissident who spent 10 years in Soviet prisons, is a heroic figure among world Jewry, and President Bush once described him as an inspiration. "The Gaza pullout.is a tragic mistake for which we are paying a heavy price," Sharansky told Army Radio, adding that it's a reward for Palestinian terror. Sharon expressed regret over the decision, saying Sharansky has done a lot to combat anti-Semitism. "I want to express my appreciation to Natan," Sharon said. "I would be very happy if he continued in his post."

Sharansky to Lobby Washington Against Disengagement – May 3, 2005

Lekerev Report - Natan Sharansky, who resigned as Diaspora affairs minister on Monday, will lobby against the disengagement plan next month when he travels to Washington for a series of speaking engagements, public appearances and meetings with senior American officials, sources close to him told The Jerusalem Post last night.

Sharansky's resignation, which was reported exclusively in the Post, was intended to send a message to US President George W. Bush, who has taken on Sharansky as a guru since reading his book, The Case for Democracy. Sharansky explained his reservations about the plan to Bush in the White House six months ago, and he is likely to receive an invitation to meet next month with Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney or Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "While we cannot expect Bush to be more Zionist than the prime minister of Israel, disengagement is [Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon's plan, not Bush's," Sharansky said in an interview on Monday. "Bush asked me why I voted against disengagement and I said that Palestinian democratization won't happen by itself and disengagement must be conditioned on it. If the two were linked, there is no doubt that Bush would support disengagement even more."

Disengagement opponents hope that Sharansky's resignation will give the American administration new reservations about disengagement. Sharansky, Sharon, and Rice will be the featured speakers at next month's AIPAC Washington policy conference, where disengagement is expected to be the hot topic.

The Future of Natan Sharansky – A Barry Chamish Report

Corrupt Government - On Independence Day, Sharansky addressed the 80,000 Jews who had gathered in Gush Katif for the holiday. I cringed at his presence but they lapped up his every word. After all, didn't he just resign from the government in protest over the Gush Katif pullout? It occurred to no one that as a member of Sharon's cabinet, he had given the government his approval of the surrender. Once he had done his damage, he made his meaningless gesture.

Now he was on to new adventures. He had received a pile of money to be a "thinker" for the Shalem Center, founded by Binyamin Netanyahu's longtime aide, Yoram Hazony. Of Netanyahu, he granted interviews this week to the Jerusalem Post and Makor Rishon with the same self-serving, lying message. He was opposed to the pullout but gave into popular will. And what popular will is that? The latest Maariv poll, blasted on the front page of its Shabbat edition, shows support for the surrender down to half the country and falling? Worse even, Sharansky is the leading candidate to take over the chairmanship of the Jewish Agency, Israel's diaspora shadow government. It's a perfect ploy. This two-faced midget wears a kippah, just like Avraham Burg before him, so it appears he is representing the religious communities of Israel. But he is not. They were rid of through blackmail, threats, police abuse and Shabak frame-ups.

Now the proof of who Sharansky serves. The Bilderberg Group is the international headquarters of Israel's demise and eventual break-up. And guess who's coming to their latest wing-ding? The midget in person……ISR, Sharansky, Natan, Former Minister for Jerusalem & Diaspora Affairs

I, Siniscalco, Domenico, Minister for Economy and Finance
GB, Skidelsky, Robert, Professor of Political Economy, Warwick University
E, Spain, H.M. the Queen of

Sunday, May 08, 2005 09:18:50 PM EDT

Natan Sharansky the Liar – A Barry Chamish Report

Army Radio Journalist Admits 'Conspiracy of Silence' – May 13, 2005
Corrupt Government - A leading Army Radio journalist has confessed that the media and political systems have turned a blind eye in allowing/encouraging the disengagement at the price of democracy. "I have failed. We have failed," wrote Kaveh Shafran, political affairs correspondent for Israel Army Radio (Galei Tzahal) in a recent article for the Israeli Institute for Democracy. "As a diplomatic correspondent, I was among those who in the past year were supposed to tell the public exactly what is the disengagement plan, why it was created, how it will be implemented, and to discuss its various aspects, as well as how the Prime Minister functions." He explained that one of the reasons for the failure is the feeling of closeness of the media with the Prime Minister when they fly together. The media and senior government officials have "become a part of the [Sharon] family who fly together [on press trips] and do not truthfully openly protest for fear of being demoted," Shafran wrote.

The media kept silent, he added, when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "lied" by saying he would accept the results of a Likud referendum on disengagement. "The media's conspiracy of silence protected Sharon when he fired cabinet ministers who did not support disengagement," he wrote, noting that the media also ignored the High Court's criticism of the dismissals.

"We denounced [former Minister] Benny Elon (National Union) for not immediately making himself available to receive the letter of dismissal, but we ignored the criticism of the High Court" on the firings, Shafran wrote. "We stayed silent when Sharon formed government [policies] with an Arab majority and when he distributed bribes to the hareidim and Shinui. We said nothing when he pressured, threatened and bribed MKs with jobs so that they would support him... Where were we when the allegations of Sharon-family corruption came to light?" "Are the media who support disengagement allowed to turn a blind eye to inappropriate [procedures] just to execute the program? Does this mean that it is possible for Sharon to fire any cabinet minister, the Chief of Staff and General Security Services chief who do not agree with his position?"

He said that the following questions should have been asked by the media, but were not: "What happens the day after the disengagement from Gaza? Who will rule there? What's the next stage in Judea and Samaria? What will be the status of the territories that will be evacuated? Does evacuation mean the 'end of conquest'? What will happen if the GSS Chief's warnings about Kassams fired at Ashkelon come true? Why are there no housing solutions for the evacuees? What does Sharon want and what is he planning?" Shafran also accused Finance Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom of not being true to their conscience and refraining from criticizing the plan for fear of being fired.

Shafran is the second journalist in the last two months to admit to journalistic incompetence over disengagement. Yediot Acharonot's Nachum Barnea, considered one of the country's top journalists, recently wrote that the media "supported disengagement more than they supported democracy."

Esther Luzzatto: Israel is shooting itself in the foot – Luzzatto and Luzzatto partner Esther Luzzatto: “The Patents Law will lead to sanctions by the US.” Luzzatto and Luzzatto specializes in patents and intellectual property - May 5, 2005

(Globes) - “The new amendment to the Patents Law on the Knesset agenda will lead to US sanctions against Israel, because the US is very aggressive on this issue,” Luzzatto and Luzzatto partner Esther Luzzatto said, after the US put Israel back on its priority watch list of countries violating intellectual property rights last Friday. Luzzatto and Luzzatto specializes in patents and intellectual property.

In justification of its action, the Office of the US Trade Representative also cited its concern of the new amendment to the Patents Law (1967) (amended 1998), in addition to its objections concerning the data exclusivity bill. If the amendment passes, it will be very difficult for international pharmaceutical manufacturers to extend their patents in Israel beyond the original period.

Following the 1998 amendment to the law, which international pharmaceutical firms call “the Teva amendment,” generic drug manufacturers can now conduct clinical drug trials in Israel during the original patent period of ethical drugs for purposes of putting generic drugs on the market. As compensation, it was decided to grant patent extensions of up to five years for ethical drugs. In practice, such extensions were granted for up to two and a half years. If the new amendment is passed, Israeli generic drug companies, especially Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA), will be able to manufacture and export generic drugs after the original patent period expires. This will enable them to export drugs, mostly generic, to the US market, at an earlier stage.

Esther Luzzatto claimed, “One of Israel’s most important assets is exports of intellectual property, mostly in high tech. Israel therefore has a strong interest in preserving intellectual property. ”We’re shooting ourselves in the foot by putting ourselves in the position of being considered violators of intellectual property rights. Always bear in mind that this is a two-way street. Just like we violate others’ rights, the rights of Israelis will be violated.”

Globalist Attack on the Chief Rabbis

Chief rabbi's family embroiled in scandal – May 8, 2005
Israel Today - The wife, daughter and son of Israel's chief rabbi Shlomo Amar have been arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and assault! Police say they abducted and beat a 17-year-old Orthodox youth because they objected to his relationship with the rabbi's 18-year-old daughter, Ayala. Dating is forbidden in ultra-Orthodox circles, and the suspects say they were defending the family's honor. Police say Ayala lured the unidentified youth to a car and her brother Meir grabbed him at knifepoint and took him to a house, where he was beaten for several hours. Rabbi Amar says he was not involved but expressed anger that police made the matter public. Ayala and her friend met over the Internet.

Family of Israel’s Chief Rabbi Arrested over Kidnapping – May 6, 2005

The Scotsman - The wife, daughter and son of Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi were arrested in the kidnapping and beating of a 17-year-old youth, Israeli media reported today. The family of the rabbi, Shlomo Amar, reportedly objected to a romantic relationship the youth, who is ultra-Orthodox, had with the rabbi’s 18-year-old daughter, the reports said. The rabbi is not a suspect in the case, the reports said.

One police inspector, Moshe Mualem, told Israel Radio that the investigation was still in the early stages. The three suspects appeared before a Tel Aviv court today, and were remanded into custody, the reports said. Amar is one of Israel’s two chief rabbis, the most senior position in the ultra-Orthodox establishment. According to the reports, the rabbi’s daughter had met the youth through the internet. In the ultra-Orthodox world, social contact between unmarried men and women is frowned upon. The Haaretz daily said the key suspect is Amar’s son, Meir, who has been leading a secular life for years. He and two accomplices allegedly beat the youth for several hours in the presence of his sister, the report said. The young woman was arrested because she did not try to stop the beating, the report said.

Out with the Old, In with the Jew – The Case Against Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar - A Barry Chamish Report
In March, 05, the firebrand rabbi, Shlomo Aviner of Jerusalem's Meir Institute, until then the most vocal spokesman in the battle against the Gush Katif surrender, switched horses. He now advised his followers not to interfere with soldiers in their duty of evacuating the Jewish residents from their homes. Last Passover, I was approached by someone while selling books in Gush Katif. The message, quickly rendered was, "I can't say what, it's against the sin of slander, but Harav Aviner has a secret and they found out about it." For those religious leaders without obvious vulnerabilities, the sins will be supplied to them. That is how the Israeli mafia leadership got rid of its two Chief Rabbis. Their crime was openly providing moral leadership:

Chief rabbis say they oppose disengagement - April 25, 2005

Israel's chief rabbis, Yonah Metzger and Shlomo Amar, said on Sunday that they are against the disengagement plan, but insisted that soldiers must obey orders to evacuate settlements.

Chief rabbis Yonah Metzger and Shlomo Amar (Archive)

Several prominent rabbis, including Avraham Shapira, a leader of the religious Zionist movement, have called for soldiers to refuse evacuation orders. Some have even advised soldiers not to return to their posts after their Passover leave. In an interview with Channel 2, the chief rabbis said that soldiers must not refuse evacuation orders and that any encouragement to do so "crossed the line". Still, the rabbis avoided criticizing the rabbis that had issued such calls.

Rabbi Metzger said that "the rabbis need to explain their words in such a way that believers do not take from them what it is forbidden to take. All in all, Israel's rabbis - almost one hundred percent, with exceptions here and there - understand the responsibility they possess."

In response to a question about whether it was possible to understand from their words that they were opposed to disengagement plan, Rabbi Metzger replied: "What Jew is in favor? Nobody can be for it, but there is a bald reality, after a decision by the government and Kneset the law is set. The law binds us all."

Rabbi Amar said that: "There is not a day that I do not pray the Holy One, blessed be He, will work miracles and not require the Land of Israel to be divided again. We will strive that there will not be a disengagement or this uprooting, but if this thing comes from the Lord, we will accept it in silence."

Rabbi Metzger was defamed last January using a time-tested method. A year before, Knesset Member Nomi Blumenthal demanded that the secret clauses of the Oslo "peace" Accord be revealed to the public. Within days she was in police custody on charges of giving supporters free hotel accommodations. Metzger was framed the same way. He was charged with the heinous crime of staying in hotels for free. Much more trouble was taken with Rabbi Amar. It took the authorities months to cook up his framing.

How it all began. Last Thursday Rabbi Amar's son and wife were arrested on suspicions of kidnapping a religious youth who had dated the rabbi's daughter.

The rabbi's 18-year-old daughter, Ayala, met the 17-year-old ultra-Orthodox youngster three months ago through an Internet chat. However, the Amar family did not approve of the relationship. After failed attempts to convince the couple to end their relationship, the rabbi's son, Meir Amar, contacted two acquaintances, brothers Ahmed and Abdullah Sawalma from the Israeli Arab town of Kalansua, and together they planned the kidnapping.

Reminiscent of 'A Clockwork Orange'

According to police officials, the rabbi’s daughter coaxed the youngster into meeting her at a street in the religious town of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv, where he was pushed into a car and kidnapped at knifepoint by the rabbi’s son. The officials said the youth was beaten and threatened during the drive to an apartment in Kalansua. “When they took him up to the apartment I stayed in the car the whole time, and did not see what they were doing to him,” the rabbi’s daughter said during questioning. Police suspect the youngster was beaten for four hours, as if from a “Clockwork Orange" scene, unaware that his kidnapper was the brother of his girlfriend. The youth was taken to Jerusalem the following morning where his kidnappers continued to beat him in the rabbi’s home. Meir Amar claimed he wanted to “reeducate” his sister and her suitor, as the ultra-Orthodox are not permitted to meet prior to their wedding.

Rabbi Shlomo Amar's wife, kids to be charged (Jewish "honor" crime?) - May 8, 2005

Sources close to Amar placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of Meir, who left home some 15 years ago. Of Amar's 12 children – four boys and eight girls – Meir is the only one who abandoned religion. So let's figure it out, shall we? Rabbi Amar's son Meir, has been estranged from the family for 15 years. But as soon as he hears his baby sister is in boyfriend trouble, he rushes home. So noble is he, that he kidnaps the suitor and takes him to a house in an Arab village where he is beaten all night by Meir and his two Arab pals.

We would assume that the starry-eyed lover would have gotten the message to stay away from the girl, but apparently not so. After a night of beating, he was driven to Rabbi Amar's apartment in Jerusalem for even more assaults next to the Rabbi's bedroom. Based on the dirty deeds of the Jewish Department of the Shabak, Meir was another Avishai Raviv, a screwed-up kid who got in trouble with the law, and was offered a way out by betraying his family. That's how they've done it hundreds of times before, and that's how they did it this time. Once the religious-political leaders, opposed to the crimes of the government, are removed, naturally a new religious-political leader will emerge to replace the loss. And Natan Sharansky was groomed for the part. Please read the following before continuing with this most devious of plots:

Arab Arrested Over Plot to Kill Rabbi Yosef – April 19, 2005

Lekerev Report - Three Israeli-Arabs from north Jerusalem, members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization, have been arrested for plotting to murder Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, spiritual mentor of the Shas Party and one of the great Torah scholars of this generation. One of the conspirators, Mussa Darwish, 22, a resident of the northern Jerusalem Arab neighborhood of Issawiya, learned the location of the rabbi's home while working as a delivery boy for a grocery store in the Jewish neighborhood of Givat Sha'ul. Security sources say that Darwish then shared his idea of killing the elderly rabbi with two other PFLP terrorists: Salah Hamuri, 20, a French citizen from Dahyat Al- B'rid, near N'vei Yaakov in Jerusalem, and Mutsan Mohammed Yavsha, 25, from Anatah. All there are Jerusalem residents who carry Israeli identification cards.

Shortly after Hamuri's release from jail a year ago on charges relating to terrorist activity, the three began to rebuild the PFLP's infrastructure among the Israeli- Arab community in northern Jerusalem. Darwish and Hamuri planned out the attack in January, carrying out surveillance of the rabbi's home and planning their arrival and escape from the area. The two terrorists planned to murder the rabbi outside his home in the Har Nof neighborhood, and then escape on motorcycles. The PFLP terrorists were arrested just before carrying out the attack. They had been awaiting orders from more senior officials in the organization regarding the method to be used for executing the murder.

Newsweek and Globalist News

White House - Newsweek-Washington Post Deal on Koran Story - May 17, 2005

AOReport - Word has it that the Bush White House put Newsweek and Washington Post executives through the wringer over the Newsweek article which referenced American torture of Muslims at Guantanamo to include flushing the Koran down the toilet. That article sparked riots and bloodshed across the Muslim world. Sensing that the Muslim world was ready to declare a 'holy war' on America (something that Team-Bush does not want nor need - but the Illuminati wants) the upper ranking Bush administration officials held a private meeting with the hierarchy of the magazine-newspaper. The news executives, allegedly, were given in no uncertain terms no other option but to retract their story. The implications of such a failure might include criminal charges of "high treason" thanks to the new Patriot Act 2 legislation. None of these editors cared for the idea of swinging from the end of a rope (as opposed to the more humane 'lethal-injection'. Also there are reports that in exchange for not being prosecuted for treason (implied but not stated) there would be a reward - the opportunity to get a huge scoop on a huge breaking story to take place this summer - likely in June, perhaps? Now, what could that be, what could that be? Hmmm. Could it be -- attacking Satan, err we mean, Iran? We'll have to stay tuned.

Are World Wars Orchestrated? - "The Suicide of Europe" - By Henry Makow, PhD
Jewish Virtual Library - Muslims are rioting in Afghanistan because US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay flushed copies of the Koran down the toilet. How do the rioters know this? It was reported in Newsweek, a publication owned by the family of Eugene Meyer, a past Director of the War Finance Board (WW1), Governor of the Federal Reserve and President of the World Bank. Nothing appears in the mass media without an ulterior purpose. The Illuminati is promoting a clash of "civilizations" between Islam and the US.

In the present run-up to World War Three, it is worth asking if this sinister cabal also orchestrated World War Two, which saw the genocide of 70 million human beings. A detail in Prince Michel Sturdza's aptly titled "The Suicide of Europe" (1968) set off my alarm bells. Sturdza was Romanian Foreign Minister from Sept.-Dec. 1940. He was a leader in the pro-Nazi, anti-Communist, nationalist Christian "Legionary" movement. The Nazis like their Communist counterparts were NWO, and opposed to all nationalist movements. They soon overthrew the Legionaries and put these patriots in concentration camps.

Before assuming his post in 1940, Sturdza was visiting Berlin. No one wanted to speak to him with the exception of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, the wily chief of the Abwehr, German Army Intelligence. Canaris had a request that both surprised and shocked Sturdza. He asked him to cooperate with Canaris' counterpart in Bucharest; a certain Moruzov who Sturdza suspected was a Communist agent. Pressed on this, Canaris said Moruzov was providing the "best information concerning Soviet Russia's military preparations." Before leaving Berlin, Sturdza received a visit from Canaris' deputy, a Captain Muller, "bearer once more of his chief's insistences, which left my wife and me perplexed." "Captain Muller informed us that Great Britain had never been and would never be defeated. He added: "What I am about to tell you, coming from a Prussian officer, might perhaps be considered as an act of high treason. Pay attention however. Don't under any circumstances take the responsibility as Minister of Foreign Affairs in your country, of pushing it into a war where you have Great Britain as an adversary. You will be crushed. Great Britain is always victorious."

Considering that Germany had just routed England and France a few months ago, and ruled supreme over Europe, this was a peculiar thing for German Army Intelligence official to say. Sturdza thought he was being tested and was non-committal. "I had not the faintest idea that I had been in contact with the greatest spy ring and traitors known to the military history of any country." (Page 162) Indeed Canaris, who may have been of Greek-Jewish origin, sabotaged the Nazi war effort. Sturdza believes his ring was the main cause of the Nazi defeat. After a failed attempt to assassinate Hitler, Canaris and his associates were brutally murdered by the Gestapo. Naturally, they are portrayed as courageous heroes: principled humanists who resisted fascist tyranny. I respect this and hope it is the case.

Yet, the statement, "You will be crushed. Great Britain is always victorious," suggests a different agenda, a larger design. The headquarters of the "Communist-Capitalist International" is in the City of London. The Bank of England network financed the Nazi war machine just as it financed the Bolshevik revolution. The bankers orchestrated World War Two to concentrate wealth in their hands, destroy the great nation states of Europe and wipe out the cream of the new generation. For example, the Soviets slaughtered 15,000 Polish officers in the Katyn forest even though the Poles could have helped resist the Nazis onslaught.

Was Canaris Illuminati or an illuminati dupe? Apparently he wanted to overthrow Hitler and end the war early, but the Allies insisted on "unconditional surrender," i.e. maximum slaughter. Thus the German army had no choice but fight to the end. I don't see the Second World War as "the good war." It was fabricated to further degrade and demoralize humanity; both sides were guilty of unspeakable atrocities.

The two great wars, and the upcoming third are designed to bring about Illuminati one-world dictatorship and mind control. Mankind is in the grip of a multigenerational diabolical conspiracy, and is too mesmerized by money and sex to realize it.

-------------------------

"Lifting the Curtain on the Invisible Government" - By Henry Makow, PhD

"Is the New World Order Jewish?" – by Henry Makow, PhD

"Countdown to World War Three" – by Henry Makow, PhD

Globalist Jews in the United States

The Defense Department has been quietly suspending joint military projects with Israel.

WASHINGTON (MENL) -- U.S. government sources said several key projects with Israel have been suspended or significantly slowed down in 2005. They said the slowdown has been gradual and could soon affect major projects, such as the Arrow-2 missile defense program. "It's all about China," a government source said. "The Pentagon, with full support of the administration, does not want to deal with Israeli products or technology that could be sent to China." One casualty of the Pentagon decision has been the Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser project. The U.S. Army has refused to request funding for the joint Israeli-U.S. program for fiscal 2006 despite high interest in a laser system to defend against missiles, rockets and mortars.

FBI Charges Franklin in AIPAC Affair – May 5, 2005

Lekerev Report - Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin was formally charged Wednesday with passing classified military information about Iraq to two individuals, believed to be former officials of the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC. Franklin, 58, an analyst on the Iranian desk in the Pentagon, turned himself in to the FBI on Wednesday morning and was placed under arrest. He made a brief appearance in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., and was released on $100,000 bond on condition he surrender his firearms and passport. A preliminary hearing was set for May 27. Franklin's lawyer, John Richards, said he expects his client will plead innocent. If convicted he faces up to 10 years in prison.

The charges made no mention of suspected espionage; that Franklin knowingly helped a foreign government, as originally reported when the scandal was revealed last summer; nor of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee or the state of Israel. Nonetheless, sources involved in the inquiry say that AIPAC officials are suspected of receiving the secret information. The Justice Department said that the investigation continues, which presumably means focusing on the two former AIPAC officials, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, who allegedly received the information, as well as on the activities of the lobbying group. That kind of probe could end with indictments against the two or a plea bargain. Rosen and Weissman were fired by AIPAC last month.

FBI questions ex-Mossad official in AIPAC probe - May 2, 2005

Jerusalem Post - FBI agents questioned former Mossad senior official Uzi Arad, he said Monday, as part of the ongoing investigation into whether classified US material about Iran was improperly passed on to Israel. Arad said that during a recent trip to the US he was asked about his connections to Defense Department analyst Larry Franklin, who is suspected of passing information on Iran to AIPAC, the main pro-Israel lobbying organization in the United States. The FBI "wanted to clear up a number of questions. I was traveling through the US and I agreed to come and talk to them," Arad told Israel TV.

Arad said the FBI questioned him because his name had come up three times in connection with Franklin, who works on issues involving Iran and the Middle East. Both Israel and AIPAC have denied any wrongdoing, and Franklin has not commented on the reports. Arad said he asked the FBI agents whether charges would be brought against Franklin and was told only that "he has legal troubles."

Israel withdraws its ambassador to the U.S. - May 16, 2005

AlJazeera - Locked in a battle of wills with his ambassador to the U.S., Danny Ayalon, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom has decided recall Ayalon immediately after the current investigation by the Civil Service Commission, public radio reported on Monday.

Sources close to Shalom told Israel Radio that the Israeli FM will not wait untill Ayalon’s tenure ends this summer, but he’ll exercise his authority to recall him immediately after the end of current investigation into the behaviour of Ayalon’s wife Anne towards embassy staff. A special investigator from the Commission will begin work Monday in Washington to probe Ayalon and his wife Ann for mismanagement of the official ambassador's residence in the city. The move comes as Israel’s embassy in the United States prepares for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit to the U.S. capital next week.

Israeli ambassador to the United States Daniel Ayalon

Ayalon has recently filed a complaint against Shalom and his wife Judith, owner of the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot, for trying to have the ambassador’s secretary dismissed. Attorney General Menachem Mazuz will begin considering how to handle a letter from Ambassador Ayalon charging that Judy Nir Mozes Shalom was behind the firing of Ayalon's secretary because he failed to arrange for her to meet U.S. Pop Star Madonna. It is no secret that the Israeli FM and Ayalon do not get along. Ayalon was a Foreign Ministry staffer loaned to the prime minister's bureau after Ariel Sharon became prime minister, and after winning Sharon's trust, he was hired as the country’s ambassador to the United States. And over the past few years the ambassador has become the prime minister's man there more than the foreign minister's. It is also no secret that the Israeli Prime minister has increasingly bypassed Shalom, especially over the selling of his Gaza Withdrawal plan, which the foreign minister has never backed.

New political scandal involves Madonna – May 15, 2005
Israel Today - The Israeli Foreign Ministry and the ambassador to Washington are in a public spat over Madonna that is making headlines. The foreign minister's wife, Judy Shalom Nir-Moses, promised revenge after the ambassador's top aide failed to arrange a meeting between her and Madonna when the pop star visited Israel last year. The aide was recently dismissed, and now the ambassador, Danny Ayalon, is blaming Nir-Moses and demanding an investigation from the attorney general. "THE AMBASSADOR VS. JUDY," read the front-page headline in the "Ma'ariv" daily. The headline in Israel's biggest newspaper "Yediot Ahronot" said: "THE SPAT."

Top American Panel Admits Catastrophic Mistakes and Bias to Israel – May 5, 2005

GAZA, Palestine, May3,2005 , (International Press Center +Agencies)--Top US negotiators responsible for US policy toward the peace process under the Clinton Administration admitted making a catastrophic mistakes and failures in American decisions- making as regards the Israeli -Palestinian peace process either in former American president Bill Clinton era or the current Bush's Administrations. The flawed policy in Israeli -Palestinian negotiations came from that the USA diplomacy did not work enough or even be serious on this issue. "We did not do enough, in my judgment, to combat what I would call bad behavior on the part of Israelis and Palestinians on the ground during the Oslo period, nor did we understand the catastrophic correlation between the "interim" and permanent status," Aaron David Miller, former Deputy Special Middle East Coordinator stated.

The criticism over USA failures and mistakes were drawn by a panel of Martin Indyk, former US Ambassador to Israel and Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, Robert Malley, former NSC Advisor for Arab-Israeli Affairs to President Clinton, Aaron David Miller, former Deputy Special Middle East Coordinator and Dennis Ross, former US Ambassador and Special Middle East Coordinator and moderated by MEI President Edward S. Walker, former US Ambassador to Israel and Egypt and Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs , all were hosted in conference commissioned by the middle east institute in Washington DC. " I don't think in the years that I was in government, which were almost 25, we really ever had an honest conversation at a strategic enough level, with enough Israeli ministry representatives in attendance, that I would describe as an honest conversation about what the Israelis were actually doing on the ground, " Miller made clear. Miller went onto saying "Nor were we prepared to impose, at least in the last seven or eight years, a cost on the Israelis for their actions."

On his part, Dennis Ross, former US Ambassador and Special Middle East Coordinator stressed in two measures that the Bush's administration should work on to "approach producing success for Abu Mazen, some of which, of course, he has to do on his own, a lot of which has to come as help from elsewhere, and making sure that the disengagement is coordinated in a way that ensures that it vindicates the logic of this ? it has to be approached with a high degree of urgency. We are running out of time. The clock is ticking. If we miss
This moment, we're not going to have another one for another five or ten year."

The second lesson is that, according to the panelists, they went far too early and far too. Uncritically surrendered to the Israeli attitudes and the pro Israeli lobbies in Washington as regards the final status settlement. Miller speaking about the Camp David Summit, he said "But far too often, we functioned in this process, for want of a better word, as Israel's lawyer."

Meanwhile, Daniss Ross agreed Miller , he said "There's another reason, in a sense, we adopted Israeli positions and then tried to build on them, and this began not ? by the way, Aaron ? with the Clinton Administration in 1999 and 2000. Go back to 1989. We adopted the Israeli positions then." He said this is because Arabs "they were operating on very general principle. They would all say, "Accept my principle and we'll see what we can negotiate." They were not prepared to make proposals.

Martin Indyk, former US Ambassador to Israel and Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs said "we do much better as the American superpower, and for much of the period the dominant power in the Middle East, when we use our power to shape the strategic context for peacemaking rather than get dragged down into the weeds of process by Israelis and Arabs, and in particular Palestinians. " He added about the lack of leadership "Abu Mazen is a potential Palestinian Sadat, in terms of his understanding of what needs to be done to make peace and his commitment to doing that. He lacks the capability. So point number one is, we've got to help ? if we want him to emerge as one of the leaders necessary to making the deal, we need to build his capacity.

Speaking of the mistakes by the Clinton administration, Robert Malley, former NSC Advisor for Arab-Israeli Affairs to President Clinton said I think it is infinitely better to be engaged than not to beengaged. Yes, it's true, we did become to some extent part of the furniture in the room. We were always there. The Israelis and the Palestinians learned to devalue our role because they knew they could count on us coming back the next day no matter what they did. But it's better to become the furniture in the room than not to be in the room at all."

Pollard claims he was tortured – May 8, 2005
Israel Today - The lawyer for American Jonathan Pollard, who was sentenced to life in prison in 1985 for spying for Israel, says he experienced "cruel and extreme" forms of torture in US prisons. A petition filed with Israel's Supreme Court said Pollard has been subjected to electric shock and sleep deprivation and was kept naked for a year in solitary confinement in freezing temperatures. The petition demands that Pollard be declared a Prisoner of Zion--a status that would require the Israeli government to do all it can to get him released.

Pollard: I was tortured in U.S. prisons - New suit describes electrocution with cattle prod, chemicals sprayed in cell – May 8, 2005
Jerusalem (WorldNetDaily) – Convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard has petitioned Israel's Supreme Court to grant him special prisoner status, which he had been previously denied, and to investigate years of abuse and torture he says he suffered in American imprisonment, details of which have shocked many here.

Pollard is demanding Israel's highest court recognize him as a Prisoner of Zion, a status that affords him and his family certain legal rights, including financial benefits, and that obligates the Jewish state to do everything in its power to seek his release.

Several former Prisoners of Zion in the past, including Soviet Refusnik and former Israeli minister Natan Sharansky, requested Israel grant Pollard the special status, but those petitions were denied. Pollard, who was convicted in 1985 of one count of passing classified information to an ally, Israel, and sentenced to life in spite of a plea agreement that was to spare the Israeli agent a life sentence, is taking a more proactive approach. The legal appeal, filed in Hebrew and obtained by WND, includes graphic descriptions of abuse Pollard says he suffered in U.S. jails. "A unique aspect of this case which testifies to its anti-Semitic nature includes the use of cruel and unusual punishment," states the brief. Pollard relates conditions surrounding the first prison to which he was transferred, during cold winter months: "The petitioner [Pollard] was thrown into an unheated dungeon cell in the basement of the prison. His clothes and his glasses were taken away. He remained naked and without glasses for the 5 weeks [he was at the prison]. In his cell, he was given no bedding, no blankets, just a hard metal slab to sleep on ... ." Pollard says he was subject to torture treatments in which he was repeatedly chained to an iron chair, bolted to the floor of a shower stall and blasted with torrents of ice water for long periods of time. "The petitioner recalls that the water was so cold, that it felt like it was burning his skin. The petitioner further recalls that it took all of his strength to will himself to stay alive."

Pollard was then transferred to a facility for the criminally insane, even though he was not a patient. There, he says he was electrocuted with a cattle prod, and repeatedly singled out to be physically abused and publicly humiliated, as the only prisoner to be subject to "painful anal exams in a public visiting room." The petition states Pollard was held naked, in solitary confinement in a 9-x-6 foot cell for the duration of his incarceration at the facility – over a year. Pollard explains guards at the prison facility "sought to break [him] by zapping him with a cattle prod as a 'warning.' The electrical voltage of a cattle prod is intended for a large animal, not for a human being. The petitioner collapsed on the floor, lost control of his bladder, was unable to speak or to move. His body convulsed in unstoppable contractions, causing him to shiver and shake for hours on end. He suffered severe physical repercussions for months afterwards. To this day it is not known if permanent damage was done."

Pollard was later transferred to USP Marion, termed by many the harshest prison in the federal system, where, upon arrival, Pollard says, "a guard put a loaded shotgun to the petitioner’s head, cocked the trigger, and ordered him to turn around and face the outside. When he did so, the guard intoned: 'Now have a good long look. This is the last time you will ever see the outside. When they take you out of here it will be in a wooden box, feet first.'" He was held in Marion for seven years in solitary confinement in a small dungeon cell, where Pollard says he was repeatedly told he would die in the facility – a theme he says permeated his incarceration. He also says he was subject to anti-Semitic humiliation. In one scenario, which was witnessed and retold to the Israeli media by a prominent Jewish leader who came to visit Pollard, "a guard tore the petitioner's yarmulke (Jewish skull cap) off his head and threw it to the ground. When the petitioner bent over to retrieve it, he was attacked by the guard who slammed him up against a wall. As the petitioner was trying to recover his balance, the guard grabbed the petitioner’s testicles and crushed them; the petitioner doubled over in pain, unable to defend himself. The guard continued to mock the petitioner, asking him if he still wants his yarmulke. The incident was reported to the prison authorities; the guard was not punished. It was also reported in Israel's press and to the Israeli government, but again there was no protest."

Pollard lists another instance of abuse he says he suffered at Marion in which he was sprayed with chemicals: "The petitioner was held in a sealed underground cell, with no windows and no way to escape the poison chemicals that were pumped into his cell (ostensibly to kill cockroaches.) The petitioner's throat swelled up from the chemicals; he could not breathe. He began to choke. He vomited. His eyes swelled shut. He began shaking and was in great pain. His head began to throb. He lost consciousness. Before he passed out, he pleaded with the guards to remove him from his cell but they refused. The petitioner suffered from severe headaches, nausea and dizziness for weeks after this episode. It is not clear if there has been permanent damage to his respiratory system." Pollard includes descriptions of episodes of severe sensory deprivation that he says he was subjected to for prolonged periods of time. The appeal concludes that the extensive and repeated episodes of abuse Pollard allegedly suffered have damaged his health and resulted in numerous medical conditions that require specific medication and intervention which Pollard says is currently being denied. "The petitioner has been diagnosed with growths in his sinus cavities. These growths have never been biopsied and it is unknown if they are malignant or benign. As a result he suffers from dizziness, nausea and severe sinus headaches as well as difficulty in breathing. The petitioner also suffers from high blood pressure, migraine headaches, chronic arthritis, glaucoma, diabetes, back problems, constant respiratory infections and a number of other health problems. ... The petitioner is not able to receive treatment from the appropriate medical specialists."

Esther Pollard, Jonathan's wife, told WND, "Many of the episodes of cruel and unusual punishment to which my husband has been subjected to over the years have previously been publicly disclosed, but unfortunately received little attention. Even when government officials were apprised, there was little response. Until the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal in Iraq was exposed, conventional wisdom was that the U.S. did not torture or abuse prisoners. Now all this has changed, and finally people are waking up to the reality of how badly Jonathan has been abused, for so very long." Esther Pollard says the petition is part of what she calls a "three-staged approach to compel the government of Israel to do what it is legally and morally obligated to do, but which it has been ducking." "Jonathan's previous petitions to the High Court resulted in the government of Israel first recognizing him in 1995 nationally, as a citizen; and then in 1998, recognizing him militarily, as an agent who served the security services of the state under the auspices of the Ministry of Defense. The current petition completes the circle by forcing the government of Israel to recognize him morally, as a Prisoner of Zion," said Pollard. "Jonathan meets or exceeds all criteria according to Israeli law for Prisoner of Zion status. ...

Once Jonathan has official recognition, Israel can no longer turn a blind eye to America's judicial misconduct in the case, or their physical mistreatment of my husband." She said the petition also asks Israel to "investigate the United States' violation of Pollard's plea agreement and his unprecedented life-sentence."

Pollard's sentence is considered by many to be disproportionate to the crime for which he was convicted – he is the only person in the history of the United States to receive a life sentence for spying for an ally. The median sentence for this particular offense is two to four years. The verdict was largely thought to have been driven by a last-minute secret memorandum from Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, in which he accused Pollard of treason – a crime for which he was never indicted – and claimed Pollard harmed America's national security.

But even Weinberger now says the sentence may be about something else. Weinberger said in a recent interview that the Pollard issue "is a very minor matter, but made very important. ... It was made far bigger than its actual importance." Pollard previously told WND the information he passed to Israel forewarned the Jewish state about the buildup of unconventional weapons of war in neighboring Arab countries, including the buildup of arms by Saddam Hussein for use against Israel.

In an interview last month with Caroline Glick, a Jerusalem Post columnist, former CIA director James Woolsey said it may be time to commute Pollard's sentence.

"Pollard," Woolsey said, "may not have been a prime candidate for commutation, but twenty years is a very long time. At a certain point, it is time to ask if enough is enough. ... There is an obligation to have a different approach to spies for friendly countries."

Some have claimed information Pollard passed to Israel may have been leaked to enemy countries, which could have penetrated Israel's security establishment. But Glick says Woolsey told her claims that information Pollard gave Israel were leaked to other countries such as China or the Soviet Union are not true. Pollard's description of physical abuse as the hands of the American prison system has set off a flurry of fiery rhetoric here. Israeli Knesset member Gila Fiklenstein said, "I am shocked and outraged. The U.S. is supposed to be an ally. This kind of treatment reminds me of the evil regimes of Old Europe." Azzam Azzam, who was released this year from a maximum security Egyptian prison where he served after being accused of spying for Israel, said, "Compared to what Pollard went through, my own abuse was nothing." Human-rights activist and former Israeli Prisoner of Zion Ida Nudel said Pollard's case "reminds me of descriptions of abuse from the worst totalitarian governments in the world." Many have also been commenting on the Internet. On Ynet, a new website for Israel's Yediot Aharonot newspaper, reader Linda Rivera writes, "U.S. owes Pollard, Israel, and every Jew and every American an apology for their evil Jew-hating abuse of Jonathan."

Israel raises alert level at embassies around the world – May 13, 2005

Jerusalem, May. 13 (The Hindu News) - Israel today raised the level of alert at its embassies around the world, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said, after security guards shot dead a man carrying a fake bomb outside the Israeli Embassy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Shalom told Israel Radio that the high alert - entailing stepped up patrols at each embassy - was in place until further notice. "There are many groups always trying to attack Israeli missions ... We have to always be prepared," Shalom said. "The alert will be continued as long as the situation warrants it."

Also, the Foreign Ministry cancelled a trade delegation of Israeli businessmen to Uzbekistan, fearing for their safety, Shalom said.

Independence Day and Memorial Day – 2005

Israel At 57 – May 12, 2005

Lekerev Report - Independence Day celebrations are being held across the country, beginning last night with an official ceremony at Mt. Herzl. The theme this year: "Covenant of Life: Bridging Hearts" Fireworks erupted throughout the country last night and in every town and city, large gatherings of Israelis danced and celebrated. Today many will gather with families for festive meals and hundreds are making their way to Gaza in solidarity visits with the Jewish communities there.

At the President's House today, President Katzav will receive IDF generals from all time, as well as 120 top soldiers. Later in the day, foreign ambassadors will come to congratulate the President on Israel's birthday. The annual Bible Quiz for students from Israel and all over the world will be held tomorrow in the Jerusalem Theater. Ben (Chaim) Kandel from St. Louis won this week's Diaspora Bible Quiz, which took place in Sderot. Joshua Gutenberg, 17, from Canada came in second, followed by Tzviya Cohen, 16, of France.

57th Year Statistics: Israel now has 6.9 million residents, 8.5 times more than in 1948. 76% are Jews, and 20% are Arabs. 26,000 new immigrants arrived in the past year, and 149,000 babies were born.

60,000 pour into Gush Katif to celebrate Independence Day - May 12, 2005

Haaretz - Israelis celebrated the state's 57th year of independence Thursday, flocking to parks and beaches as ceremonies marked the day more formally. Some 60,000 people came to Gush Katif on Thursday to celebrate Independence Day and to rally against the disengagement plan. Central arteries through the Gaza Strip were shut down to vehicular traffic and buses shuttled visitors from the Kissufim crossing to the central events in Gush Katif. Settler leaders and right-wing Knesset members addressed the crowd on Thursday evening.

IDF soldiers standing in formation Thursday at the President's Residence in Jerusalem. (AP)

Speaking at a ceremony honoring outstanding soldiers at the President's Residence in Jerusalem on Thursday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he has made up his mind to lead Israel towards change. "It will be good to have people working on this task who have seen Israel at its glorious moments" the prime minister added. At the opening of the ceremony Sharon, President Moshe Katsav and IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon reviewed the formation of the 120 outstanding soldiers invited to participate in the annual ceremony. Among the soldiers was Yuval Arad, daughter of Ron Arad, an air force navigator missing in action for 19 years. Yuval Arad servers in the intelligence corps. Arad's wife, Tami, did not attend the ceremony. Ya'alon said at the ceremony that Israel is committed to bring back its soldiers missing in action. The president and his wife also hosted a reception for IDF officers from the state's early days in 1948 to the present, including past and present army generals.

Protesters disrupted an Independence Day event, the world youth Bible quiz. When Sharon was called on to ask a question, several youths held up a sign with the slogan, "Jews do not expel Jews," and shouted at Sharon. Security guards ushered the demonstrators out of the hall. Shmuel David Halper, 13, of Jerusalem won the quiz. The prize was a scholarship to Tel Aviv University.

Thousands visited settlements in the Gaza Strip on the holiday in a show of solidarity with the settlers and to protest the planned evacuation. Several hundred marched to the four West Bank settlements slated for removal. Hundreds of thousands of visitors set out to hold picnics and hikes across the country, causing heavy traffic on the roads leading to the country's north. Some 29 thousand passengers will pass through Ben Gurion Airport on Thursday, doubling the number of passengers recorded last year on independence day. Some IDF and Israel Police bases are open for visitors as part of independence celebrations. Defense Ministry museums are open to the public free of charge until 16:00. The Court System Heritage Museum was opened Thursday in Jerusalem. On Thursday evening, 17 recipients of this year's Israel Prize, including Haaretz photographer Alex Levac, will receive their citations at a special ceremony at the Jerusalem Theater.

Rivlin: I fear a civil war

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin warned Wednesday night of a rift in the nation as a result of the disengagement plan, and called on all Israelis - "from Tel Aviv to Neveh Dekalim" - to sympathize with fears over the impending evacuation from the Gaza Strip in an attempt to prevent a civil war in Israel's 58th year. "More than anything, I am very fearful that this year will be one of civil conflict," Rivlin said at Mount Herzl ceremony. The event signals the end of Memorial Day and the beginning of Israel's 57th Independence Day. Speaking at the transition ceremony on Independence Day eve, Rivlin said he is concerned both the joy some left-wingers have expressed at the evacuation and by the calls by some on the right to refuse military orders to participate in the pullout. If blood is spilled over the disengagement plan, said Rivlin, "How will we be able to fly the blue and white flag here next year?" But, he said, it was possible to prevent the situation from deteriorating. "If all of us agree to share in the concern, to participate in the pain, the frustration [of the evacuation], then we will be able to share in the hope as well," said Rivlin.

After Rivlin's speech, Canadian Jewish businessman and philanthropist Charles Bronfman, who co-founded the birthright israel program providing free trips to Israel, lit one of 16 torches in the ceremony. One of the other torches was lit by Azzam Azzam, an Israeli Druze who spent eight years in an Egyptian prison on charges of spying for Israel. He was released in December 2004.

World leaders send greetings

World leaders sent Israel messages of hope and peace Wednesday, in honor of Independence Day. In U.S. President George W. Bush's message, he wrote that his country is forever committed to Israel's security. Bush also said U.S. support is based in a deep friendship, shared values and the hope for peace in the Middle East. The British queen also conveyed a message, wishing prosperity and well being to Israelis. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 had helped New Yorkers to understand the challenges Israelis face. "The experience of 9/11 brought out in us the courage to prevail that we admire so much in the Israeli people," Bloomberg said on Wednesday at a combined Independence Day-Memorial Day ceremony in New York City. "In every corner of that small country - where the threat of violence is a constant - Israelis are determined not only to defend their lives, but to live them to the fullest."

Israel Mourns Its Fallen Soldiers – May 11 2005

Lekerev Report - A two-minute siren will blare across the country at 11 a.m. today, as Israelis mark Memorial Day in honor of the country's fallen soldiers and terror victims. The siren will be followed by memorial ceremonies in military cemeteries across the nation. Later Wednesday, Israelis will experience the sharp turn from sorrow to joy, as Independence Day festivities get under way after sundown. A memorial ceremony attended by the president, prime minister, IDF chief-of-staff, and other dignitaries will take place at the military cemetery at Mount Herzl at 11 a.m. Two hours later, a memorial service for terror victims will be held at the same location.

A minute-long siren was heard all across the country at precisely 8 p.m. Tuesday, marking the opening of Memorial Day events commemorating the 21,954 killed in Israel's wars. I attended a memorial service last night at our local synagogue in which the mother of a fallen soldier lit the torch and one of Israel's generals, brother-in-law to a fallen soldier, gave a very moving speech. When the entire congregation ended the service by singing Israel's national anthemn, the Hatikva, the emotion was palpable, almost overwhelming. There is a very personal and familial aspect to Israel's Memorial Day that is unique to this country. Nowhere else is there such an intense national sense of loss and connection to fallen soldiers. Perhaps it is because we are such a small country; perhaps it is because we have fought so many wars in our 57 short years. Whatever the reason, Israel is one today - in a very real and genuine way. It's an awesome experience.

Palestinians to mourn Israel's founding - Siren, protests to mark 'catastrophe' of Jewish state – May 12, 2005
JERUSALEM (WorldNetDaily) – Although many leaders in the U.S. and Israel have praised Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas as a reformer willing to make peace, the PA yesterday announced it will mark the "catastrophe" of the Jewish state's founding with a siren and anti-Israel demonstrations. The move follows continued Palestinian violations of a cease-fire agreement reached in February between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The head of the PA's Refugee Department announced it will mourn Israel's Independence Day, which falls on Sunday according to the secular calendar, with protests and the sounding of a siren to mourn what Palestinians call the "Nakba," or catastrophe of the formation of Israel on May 15, 1948. "We will sound a siren for one minute in all our areas to express our grief on this painful occasion," PA official Zakariya al-Agha said.

Israel uses a siren to mourn fallen soldiers and victims of the Holocaust and celebrates its Independence Day today, the date upon which it falls on the Jewish, lunar calendar. Al-Agha added the Palestinians are planning a day filled with anti-Israel rallies in the West Bank and Gaza, including ceremonies demanding that any Israeli-Palestinian settlement include the "right of return for Palestinian refugees," a formula Israel says is code for its destruction by flooding the Jewish state with millions of Arabs thereby changing its population demographics. Abbas' Fatah party, together with Hamas and other Palestinian factions and terror groups, issued a statement yesterday rejecting peace with Israel unless it included the "return" of Palestinian "refugees." "We call on our masses in the homeland and the diaspora to mark this painful occasion by making it clear to the world and the occupation that the issue of the refugees is the core of the conflict and that there would be no solution without their return home in line with United Nations resolution 194," said the statement.

The moves come as Palestinian groups continue to violate a cease fire agreement signed in Egypt Feb. 8. Palestinian violations the past two weeks include eight Qassam rockets fired into Jewish communities in Gaza and Sderot, several dozen mortars targeting Gaza's Gush Katif Jewish neighborhood, 43 shooting incidents and five attempted bombings against Israeli Defense Forces outposts, one suicide bombing and 40 Molotov cocktails thrown at Israeli citizens. Security sources also report Palestinians have been smuggling heavy weaponry from Egypt into Gaza's Rafah region with the assistance of Hamas and Palestinian intelligence.

Since February, there have been approximately 30 incidents of smuggling from Egypt's Sinai region, some to the Gaza Strip and some to the Negev, sources say. In that time, weapons brought into Gaza include approximately 1,000 rifles, dozens of RPG launchers, about 150 handguns, five anti-aircraft shoulder missiles and tens of thousands of bullets. "The weapons are being smuggled with the help of Hamas and Palestinian forces through tunnels in Rafah," Reuven Erlich, director of Israel's Center for Special Studies, told WND. "The Palestinian Authority claims to have shut down the tunnels, and they did close some, but others are open, and they are actively helping the smugglers." In spite of the continued violence and incitement, both Israeli and American leaders have hailed Abbas as a reformist they can work with. U.S. President George Bush called Abbas' election last January a "historic" step toward a Palestinian state, adding, "The United States stands ready to help the Palestinian people realize their aspirations." Last week, U.S. State Department Spokesman Adam Ereli praised Abbas for bringing "energy and activism" to the Middle East peace process. Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel is prepared to make "all the necessary adjustments" to work with Abbas, who he called a "strong leader."

Holocaust Memorial Day – May 5- 2005

Holocaust Memorial Sculpture

Lekerev Report - Moments ago here in Israel, sirens blared throughout the country for 2 minutes as the nation came to a complete standstill to honor the memory of all who perished in the Holocaust. This is Holocaust Memorial Day and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is in Poland to participate in "The March of the Living".

Sharon will be joined by Poland's President Alexander Kwasniewski, ministers Yitzhak Herzog and Limor Livnat, Holocaust survivors and 18,000 participants, who will march 10 kilometers (about 6 miles) from Auschwitz to Birkenau, where a ceremony will be held. Sharon announced he would take part in the march during the official ceremony at Yad Vashem last night in which survivors, pictured here, lit the memorial torches in the Hall of Remembrance.

"I'm traveling with Holocaust survivors that survived the horrors and chose to make Aliyah to Israel and build their homes here," he said. "I requested they bring their grandchildren, IDF soldiers, along with them to The March of the living. Tomorrow they will stand at Birkenau with uniformed soldiers, however this time they will not be enemy soldiers; they will be the grandchildren of survivors who are IDF soldiers today, Israel's protective shield," he said. "The Jews will never be homeless again. Never again will we be unprepared, never again."

I would like to suggest that each of you light a candle in your home today in memory of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. If you have children, it would be a wonderful way of explaining to them in simple terms what the Holocaust was, why it was so evil and how important it is to fight against the principles that allowed it to happen.

Secondly, I think you would find the article linked below interesting. It tells the story of stunning sculptures which commemorate the Holocaust.

Israel observes Holocaust Remembrance Day - May 5, 2005
Israel Today - The sirens wailed across Israel, and people everywhere observed two minutes of silence for the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis during World War II. Traffic came to a standstill, and people got out of their cars and stood at attention on the streets. Places of entertainment were closed. Radio and TV stations cancelled regular programming and focused on Holocaust Remembrance Day with documentaries, interviews and discussions. Six torches were lit by Holocaust survivors at the main ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, in memory of the 6 million victims. After lighting the torch, each survivor gave a personal testimony.

Anti-Sharon graffiti mars Holocaust Day – May 5, 2005
Vandals smeared swastikas and slogans comparing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to Adolf Hitler on the Central Zionist Archives building on the road to Yad Vashem. "Sharon is following in Hitler's footsteps," said one slogan; another read, "Sharon, Hitler would have been proud of you." Police believe right-wing Jewish militants opposed to Sharon's plan to pull out of the Gaza Strip this summer are responsible for the graffiti. Some Sharon opponents have compared his plan to evacuate 8,000 Gaza settlers from their homes to the "ethnic cleansing" carried out by the Nazis. Asked about the analogy, Sharon said: "Anyone who attempts to compare these things is making a serious mistake." Sharon made the remarks aboard a plane to Poland, where he attended the annual "March of the Living" between the Auschwitz and Birkenau death camps.

Anti-Semitism and the Jewish People

“The Catastrophe” – Arab internet publishes “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” - May 17, 2005

Lekerev Report - Despite PA promises to reduce anti-Semitic incitement, an internet site run by the Palestinian Authority called "El-Nakba," meaning "The Catastrophe," referring to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, has been publishing a version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the infamous, forged anti-Semitic diatribe.

The site, published in Arabic and English, is replete with anti-Semitic and anti-Israel invective, though the English site, geared to a Western audience, presents a more watered-down, gentler version of the PA's literary tripe. The Protocols, for example, do not appear on the English web site. According to INN reporter Haggai Huberman, the PA Elnakba web site is under the auspices of the president of the PA, the position formerly occupied by Yasser Arafat, and currently filled by Mahmoud Abbas. The site informs the Arabic reader that the establishment of the State of Israel and the problem of the Palestinian "refugees" is the direct outcome of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Anti-Semitism Hits 15 Year High – May 4, 2005

Lekerev Report - The year 2004 saw a drastic increase in anti-Semitic incidents according to a Tel Aviv university study revealed on Wednesday, saying the number of violent incidents last year marked the highest recorded since 1989. Anti-Semitic violence had risen by dozens of percent, especially in physical assaults, the report said. The highest number of such incidents was recorded in France, Britain, Canada and Russia, mainly due to immigrant absorption problems, financial or social difficulties, and prejudice.

Physical attacks on Jews occurred mainly on streets and in educational institutions. About 180 people, including children and teenagers, reported such assaults, saying they were mainly attacked b Muslims. Anti-Semitic desecration and vandalism also rose, mainly of statues and monuments, cemeteries and private property. The assailants, reported to be mainly extreme rightists, had allegedly struck about 40 schools, 140 statues and cemeteries, 60 synagogues and 60 businesses around the world.

German Neo-Nazism Reaching Alarming Highs – May 1, 2005

Lekerev Report - The number of far-right crimes in Germany climbed by 12 percent in 2004, while the number of known neo- Nazis rose from 3,000 to 3,800, according to figures released by the government Wednesday.

Police nationwide registered 12,051 offenses with far- right connections, the highest level since 2000, with violent crimes rising from 759 in 2003 to 776 in 2004, according to the new report from the Lower Saxony agency that tracks extremism. Germany's police union called the numbers alarming, and said they required a concerted legal fight by the government against neo-Nazism.

"The increase of violent offenses shows that right- wing extremism has let its civil facade drop," the group's head Konrad Freiburg said. "The police can't put on the emergency brakes and be the only repair service in the fight against right-wing extremism and other criminal developments."

Report: Anti-Muslim Crimes Spike – May 11, 2005

Newark, NJ (CBS) A new report finds that the number of reported bias crimes and civil rights violations against Muslims in the United States soared to its highest level last year since the period immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, which did the study, attributed the increase to lingering animosity toward Muslims and a growing use of anti-Muslim rhetoric by some political, religious and media figures.

Hate Crimes against Islam (Photo: CBS/AP)

Notable bias or discrimination cases cited in the report include the barring of singer Cat Stevens and Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan from entering the United States and the arrest of a Muslim lawyer from Oregon jailed as a "material witness" in the terrorist bombing of Madrid trains based on a fingerprint that turned out to belong to someone else. The study, involving cases that were reported to the council by both individuals and organizations, was being released Wednesday at a news conference in Washington. A copy was obtained in advance by The Associated Press. "We believe the disturbing rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes and in the total number of civil rights cases, both of which will be outlined in our news conference, can be attributed at least in part to rising Islamophobic rhetoric in American society," said Arsalan Iftikhar, the council's legal director.

The council counted 1,522 incidents in which Muslims reported their civil rights had been violated in 2004, a 49 percent increase over 2003. Another 141 incidents of confirmed or suspected bias crimes were committed against Muslims, a 52 percent rise. The most recent FBI report on hate crimes, issued in November and covering 2003, found that anti-Islamic crimes remained about same level — 149 — as the year before. The FBI report was drawn from information submitted by more than 11,900 law enforcement agencies nationwide.

Some Muslim leaders were surprised by the council's findings. "I thought we were through with the high point after 9/11," said Yaser El-Menshawy, chairman of New Jersey's council of mosques. "My gut feeling is it may be a combination of the war in Iraq and mounting casualties, and that we're getting better at collecting this kind of data." The report did contain some good news. Workplace discrimination complaints — 23 percent of all 2003 complaints — fell to less than 18 percent last year. Complaints involving government agencies fell from 29 percent in 2003 to 19 percent last year.

Brits Boycott Israeli Universities - April 25, 2005

Lekerev Report - Delegates of the 40,000-member United Kingdom Association of University Teachers, meeting in Eastbourne England, voted Friday to boycott two of Israel's prestigous institutions, Haifa University and Bar Ilan University, a decision that the Israeli Foreign Ministry described as "scandalous".

The report states that although the executive opposed the move, delegates belonging to the leading union of British lecturers voted for an immediate boycott of Haifa University, which they claim restricts the academic freedom of staff members who criticize the government. Bar Ilan University will also be boycotted, as it has a branch in the West Bank settlement of Ariel. A boycott against Hebrew University in Jerusalem was dropped.

The Foreign Ministry accused the union of hypocrisy. "The fact that AUT chose to target Israel, the only country in the Middle East that has complete academic freedom for all segments of the population and all political streams is scandalous," the ministry said in a statement, noting that countries such as Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia are known for suppressing academic freedom. The statement urged British academics to distance themselves from the boycott.

Israeli soldier arrested for neo-Nazi links – May 5, 2005

JERUSALEM, May 5 (Reuters) - An Israeli soldier was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of links to neo-Nazi groups abroad, the first case of its kind in the Jewish state, which was founded as a haven for victims of the Holocaust. A police spokesman said the suspect, a 20-year-old army conscript who recently immigrated from the former Soviet Union although he does not identify himself as Jewish, was first taken into custody on drug charges. Under interrogation, he told police he was a Nazi. "The probe deepened from there. We found correspondence with foreign neo-Nazi groups on the suspect's computer. He also has a swastika tattoo," the police spokesman said. "This is a serious crime, one we have not had before. We are in touch with the Justice Ministry and Interior Ministry to see how to proceed with the case," he said.

The arrest came as Israel marked Holocaust Remembrance Day, on the 60th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War Two. "It is pure coincidence," the police official said. Israel has taken in hundreds of thousands of Russian-speaking immigrants under laws admitting those who have at least one Jewish grandparent or are married to Jews -- criteria the Nazis applied during their World War Two genocide. The police spokesman said the soldier told investigators he was Christian. Media reports said the Interior Ministry had launched an inquiry to determine whether he had immigrated fraudulently, and that he could be stripped of his citizenship.

International Sports

We Won! – Israel 90 – Spain 78 – May 9, 2005

Lekerev Report - It's great to have some exciting and joyful news to report as the lead story. Israel's basketball team, Maccabi Tel Aviv, played a brilliant game last night in Moscow over Spain's TAU team and won the European Basketball Championship with a 90-78 victory.

It was the team's second Euroleague title in a row and the fifth in the history of the basketball team. The Israeli powerhouse did not quite trounce its Spanish rival, as it did the Italian Skipper Bologna in last year's final in Tel Aviv. Still, Maccabi played strong throughout the game and the victory never appeared in doubt, with the exception of some tense moments in the third quarter.

The win prompted wild celebrations in Tel Aviv, with fans of all ages flocking to the city's Rabin Square, at one point prompting police to block Ibn Gvirol Street to traffic. Ecstactic fans waved yellow Maccabi flags and the blue-and-white Israeli flags, honking their horns, and dancing on the streets into the night. Bus and cab drivers, too, joined the celebration, making their presence loud and clear with their horns.

For a nation like Israel, bereaved hundreds and hundreds of times in the last four and a half years, the sports achievement is a welcome breath of joy. "It's the second time in a row that Maccabi Tel Aviv is the European champion," said Shai Shabbah, 33, of Hod Hasharon. "This is history. Israel is on the map."

All Eyes on the Game – European Championship Cup – May 8, 2005

Lekerev Report - Israel's Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball team will try to take the European Championship Cup for the second straight time this evening, at the Euroleague Finals in Moscow against Tau Vitoria of Spain. In Friday's semifinal, Pini Gershon's team beat the Panathinaikos of Greece, 91-82. But the big upset took place in the other semifinal, where Tau beat host CSKA Moscow, 85-78.

The most amazing thing Friday at Moscow's Olympiysky Arena wasn't Tau Vitoria's victory over CSKA Moscow, and it certainly wasn't Maccabi's win. It was the thousands of yellow shirts in the stands, what the Spanish were calling the "yellow wave." In spite of the cost, visa problems and a hotel room shortage, there were close to 8,000 Israelis in Moscow, and that was with the home team calling on its fans to fill the stands and Maccabi not receiving the extra tickets it requested.

The Russians, of course, were not celebrating. They came to win, not to celebrate basketball. They were well-organized, fresh from CSKA's great soccer win that brought them to the finals of the UEFA cup the day before. After their loss, they dispersed meekly through the city.

Passover in Israel

Priestly Blessing at the Western Wall - April 26, 2005
Israel Today - About 20,000 Israelis gathered at the Western Wall here in Jerusalem for the Priestly Blessing during the weeklong Passover holiday. The Kohanim (the priestly descendants of Aaron) put prayer shawls over their heads and extended their hands toward the huge congregation saying: "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace" (Numbers 6:24-26). Security was tight. Some 2,000 police deployed in and around Jerusalem's Old City, amid concerns that Palestinians could attempt a terrorist attack to mar the holiday.

Happy Passover! – April 21, 2005
Israel Today - The weeklong Biblical holiday of Passover begins at sundown Saturday evening. Religious and secular Israelis alike will gather around the table for the festive "seder" meal and recount the story of the exodus from Egypt. "For the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out," says the "Haggadah" prayer book. Israel has sealed off the Palestinians territories in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, and security is tight. Everyone still remembers the Palestinian suicide bombing at a Passover seder three years ago that killed 29 people in the coastal city of Netanya. We wish all our subscribers a happy and safe Passover, celebrating our deliverance by the blood of the Lamb! (There will be no "israel today" update on Sunday due to the holiday).

Passover solidarity with the Gaza settlers
Thousands of Israelis from around the country are spending Passover in Gaza to show solidarity with the 8,000 settlers slated for expulsion from their homes. They believe that if God brought the Jews out of Egypt, He can stop the Gaza pullout. However, a poll in Israel's biggest newspaper, "Yediot Ahronot," shows that 64 percent of the settlers won't resist evacuation. But Gaza resident Rachel Sapperstein does not believe it. "We are going to resist up until the end," she said. (We'll have an in-depth report on the struggle facing the Jews of Gaza in the upcoming edition of "israel today" magazine.)

Tourism picking up
Passover marks the beginning of the tourist season in Israel. Tourism has been in the doldrums over the past four and a half years because of the Palestinian terror war, but in the wake of the cease-fire, visitors and pilgrims are coming back. "The hotels have started hiring people, tour guides have already talked about being booked for this Passover and for this summer," travel agent Mark Feldman told Israel Television. "It should be a great, great year." Tourism is vital to the economy because it is traditionally the biggest earner of foreign currency.

First Pesach Seder in Kathmandu – April 20, 2005

Passover in Kathmandu

Lekerev Report - Shula Kopf of the Jerusalem Post remembers her first seder for Passover in the remote hills of Kathmandu. She writes in today's Post, "The legend of Seder in Kathmandu, like Himalayan treks and Yeti sightings, has taken on an almost mystical aura. Every year, thousands of young Israelis backpacking through Nepal - located between China and India - converge on the capital, Kathmandu, to participate in what is billed as "the largest Seder in the world."

It is a far cry from the Seder's modest beginnings 22 years ago, when I found myself there with Pesach two days away and no place to go, says Kopf. This year, Chabad-Lubavitch says it will airlift 7,000 pieces of gefilte fish, 7,600 bottles of wine, 1,000 chickens and four tons of other Pesach necessities.

You'll find the full story fascinating. The link is below. Shalom and blessings, Leah

Passover in Kathmandu

1000 Bar/Bat Mitzvahs Held at Western Wall - April 19, 2005

Lekerev Report - One thousand Bar and Bat Mitzvahs were held yesterday morning at the Western Wall in Jerusalem in honor of the birthday of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. A Bar/Bat Mitzvah is the celebration of a child reaching the age of accepting the Torah's commandments upon themselves - 12 for a girl, 13 for a boy. The event, sponsored by Chabad-Lubavitch, brought together children of Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union living across Israel. The children involved in the program attend public schools, but have learned Torah several times a week with Chabad emissaries since the beginning of the school year. They learn the basic laws and teachings of Judaism, with many of the boys studying the weekly Torah portion on which their 13th birthday falls.

Rabbi Shalom Duchman, the director of Kollel Chabad, the umbrella organizations behind the event, spoke with Israel National Radio's Eli Stutz about the event. "The idea is," he said, "that we teach children whose parents emigrated from the former Soviet Union, came to Israel and unfortunately did not have the chance to expose them to their Jewish heritage. We have taught them from the beginning of the school year until now, followed by a massive celebration where all the boys and girls gather from all over Israel together at the Kotel", the Western Wall of the Temple Mount. Each one of the Bar Mitzvah boys received a pair of tefillin, worn on the arm and head in accordance with Exodus 13,9 and Deut. 6,8, and each of the Bat Mitzvah girls received watches and candlesticks. All of the children were given special festive outfits. After the ceremony, which featured Israel's current and former Chief Rabbis and many members of the government, the children were treated to an afternoon at an amusement park in Tel Aviv.

Orthodox Easter – May 1, 2005

Israel Today - Orthodox Christians are observing Easter today. In Jerusalem, festivities took place at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Orthodox priests in festive robes chanted the Easter liturgy as a cloud of incense rose above the ancient stone tomb where tradition says that Jesus rose from the dead. Pilgrims from around the world joined the celebration; a lull in Israeli-Palestinian fighting brought the best turnout in five years. The Orthodox Easter has been overshadowed by Palestinian protests against the Greek Orthodox patriarch, who leased prime property in East Jerusalem to Jews. Palestinians accused the patriarch of treason and demanded his resignation.

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml