NEW PETITION- No Tenure for Finkelstein



Urgent: NEW PETITION- No Tenure for Finkelstein Please sign this petition right away and forward to your lists Instead of engaging in reasonable and respectful debate, Dr. Finkelstein defames and demonizes scholars and others who disagree with him. In our opinion, Finkelstein's association with DePaul University will damage DePaul's reputation. DePaul will be seen as a school that fosters irresponsible scholarship, extremism and childish, hateful debate. Please Click Here to Sign the Petition StandWithUs email: info@standwithus.com phone: 310-836-6140 web: http://www.standwithus.com

 

Fears Mount for BBC Reporter Kidnapped in Gaza

The BBC reporter kidnapped a month ago in Gaza is still missing. This is the longest a foreign national has been held in the Gaza Strip. The Jerusalem Post reports:

Fears mounted Monday within the Israeli defense establishment regarding the fate of BBC reporter Alan Johnston, who was abducted a month ago by masked Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Security officials noted that a month was the longest a foreign national had been held in the Strip and did not rule out that the kidnapping had "gone wrong" and that Johnston had been injured.

Four gunmen snatched Johnston, 44, from his car on March 12 as he headed to his apartment in Gaza City.

The Jerusalem Post has also learned that the Defense Ministry recently allowed a delegation of Arab diplomats and security officials from countries that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel - including Saudi Arabia - to enter Gaza on behalf of the British government.

PA cabinet meeting convened in Gaza amid anarchy

"It is as if he was swallowed up by the ground," a defense official told the Post, noting that no Palestinian group had taken responsibility for the kidnapping. The official also raised the possibility that Johnston had been injured during his captivity.

"Something might have gone wrong and that is why we haven't heard anything," he said.

Remainder of the article is http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1173879275043&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
--Wendy in Washington

Doesn't Hizbollah Brake at Red Lights?

A Hizbollah Takeover of Lebanon

Another development that could occur in Lebanon as a result of a prolonged political crisis is the far-reaching possibility that Hizbollah might take over the country, almost certainly with the support of Syria and Iran. The term "takeover" may relate to two scenarios, first of all, a takeover by force. In terms of capabilities, Hizbollah is capable, with the assistance of partners inside or outside of Lebanon, to physically conquer large sections of the country (the south, the Bekaa valley). However, Hizbollah is saving this possibility for extreme scenarios, under which the Lebanese country alone, or with the assistance of foreign elements, would declare war against Hizbollah for the purpose of disarming it, or as a possible outcome of a civil war.

Full article: http://www.tau.ac.il/jcss/sa/9_4_02.html

 

Thomas Braun, Lima, Peru

The Arab Initiative: Peace Plan or Ploy?

Is the Arab peace initiative the real thing or a fancy gimmick?

Peace Plan or Political Ploy?

by Carlos

http://www.peacewithrealism.org/headline/saudiplan.htm

They have treated the wound of my people carelessly,
Saying "Peace, peace," when there is no peace.
(Jeremiah 6:14)

April 8, 2007 - The "new" Saudi peace initiative is being hailed as a breakthrough. But what is its real significance?

This "new" plan is identical to the plan the Saudis proposed at the Arab Summit in March 2002. Here are some of its key provisions, as stated in the actual text:

Full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights, to the June 4, 1967 lines as well as the remaining occupied Lebanese territories in the south of Lebanon.

Achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194.

The acceptance of the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The rejection of all forms of Palestinian patriation which conflict with the special circumstances of the Arab host countries.

In return for these Israeli concessions, the Arabs promise "normal relations with Israel in the context of this comprehensive peace."

This plan requires analysis. Looking at it closely, one can see that it would leave Israel in a worse position than it was in prior to 1967. Israel would have to withdraw from all areas occupied since 1967, which would mean once again a division of Jerusalem and the loss of Judaism's holiest site. In addition, Israel would have to accept a right of return for Palestinian refugees. The Arab interpretation of Resolution 194 always included this right of return. In addition, the Saudi plan rules out any resettlement ("patriation") of Palestinian refugees that Arab host countries may decide is against their interest. There is only one place remaining for the resettlement of the Palestinian refugees: Israel. Continued here

Secret Matza fans: Arabs

It's always a pleasure when cultures peacefully collide. I find the article below, from Ha'aretz, to be puzzling on two counts: first, that Arabs like matazah (why, why? I can't stand it, even in the modern fancy whole wheat or egg varieties) and that the English language edition of Ha'aretz capitalizes the word "matazah." Oh well. Here's to a peaceful end of Passover, and to peace generally.
--Wendy in Washington

06/04/2007
Matza's secret fans - Arabs
By Yoav Stern

....Gadaban Supermarket, located at the entrance to Umm al-Fahm, generally stocks up on Matza for Passover. Moreover, the supermarket has to replenish its stock before the end of the holiday, due to keen demand by locals. Apparently, the Arab public regularly consumes large quantities of Matza.

Iyad Sharbaji, the manager of Gadaban, told Haaretz yesterday that his Matza is consumed entirely by local Arabs. "The Jews passing by here already have enough Matza. The customers are all from the local Arab community," he said.

His competitor down the road, The Market, opened this year. The demand for Matza therefore caught the store by surprise. "People told us ahead of time that they wanted Matza, so we bought five crates. Now we have only two left," he said.

It turns out the avid consumption of Matza is not a new trend in Arab towns and villages, whose inhabitants view the traditional Jewish food as a welcome and refreshing change in the menu. "It's not a religious issue, and certainly not a political one," Sharbaji explains.

A journalist associated with the Islamic Movement in Israel told Haaretz that he also bought Matza. "The kids can't get enough of it," he gleefully reported. "They eat it like crackers. But it also represents a sense of folklore for us. Maybe we like it more than Jews do because no one's forcing us to eat nothing but Matza all day long," he said in explanation.

Another happy customer from Baka al-Garbiyeh said his children and wife were "packing the Matza away," adding that they preferred to eat their Matza with a spread of jam or chocolate.

In fact, it seems Matza is particularly popular with Arab children, and most consumers report their sons and daughters especially relish the seasonal offering.

[snippet]
This article is from Ha'aretz, at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=846011

Iran: Unclear nuclear announcement.

How many centrifuges did Iran add? One guess was 3,000, another guess was 1,000. And now that the nuclear announcement is made, this article is unclear too:

 

Iran, which according to diplomats has set up almost 1,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges at Natanz, has said it plans to install 3,000 there as the first stage towards "industrial-scale" nuclear fuel production.

 

With 3,000 machines, Iran could make enough material for a bomb in one year, if it wanted, Western experts say.

 

Who says they have 1,000 centrifuges, and when will they have 3,000?

 

Ami Isseroff

---

 

Iran announces "industrial" nuclear fuel work
Mon Apr 9, 2007 9:05AM EDT

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSBLA82551420070409?src=040907_0937_TOPSTORY_iran_ups_nuclear_plan

By Parisa Hafezi

 

NATANZ, Iran (Reuters) - Iran announced on Monday it had begun the "industrial stage" of nuclear fuel production, in a fresh snub to the U.N. Security Council which has demanded Tehran halt such work.

...

 

Iran, which according to diplomats has set up almost 1,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges at Natanz, has said it plans to install 3,000 there as the first stage towards "industrial-scale" nuclear fuel production.

 

With 3,000 machines, Iran could make enough material for a bomb in one year, if it wanted, Western experts say.

...

Empathy For Suicide Bombers

Empathy For Suicide Bombers

http://drinksoakedtrotsforwar.blogspot.com/2007/04/empathy-for-suicide-bombers.html 

Commandante Will fired the first shot. I took it in with Herself and Mira, and here's the result:

You have to hand it to Capet, the Victoria Philharmonic's new artistic director. He's managed to do something with the story of the mythical Hebrew superman that nobody has ever attempted.

Samson has shown up in 1960s-era Italian muscleman movies, in Grateful Dead lyrics, in Christian bedtime stories, and in Marvel comic books. Peter Paul Rubens painted him. Michelangelo sculpted him. And since September 11, 2001, there has also been a great deal of highbrow hand-wringing in literary circles about how the Samson story must now be read, in light of everything that has happened.

But until Capet, nobody had figured out a way to use the Samson story to so completely turn things upside down as to reconstruct an important work of art to portray a Jew as a suicide bomber.

It's a long piece, and it ends up here:

"Capet's Samson is just another eruption of that fatally naïve misconception among a certain class of artist and intellectual -- and most pathetically, among the much of the left -- that Paul Berman calls 'a faith in the rationalism of all things.'

"Its real-world consequence has been a crippling incapacity to recognize the mass pathology at work in the phenomenon of suicide bombings. It's the failure to see it for what it is: a death cult. It's an irrationalist, anti-modern savagery that has rather noticeably singled out Jews for the construction of its corpse-heaps, just as it singles out Palestinian children for the work of executing its grisly business.

"We'd all like to think that we can reason with suicide bombers. In the real world, we can't, and we simply cannot go on 'expecting the world to act in sensible ways,' as Berman writes, 'without mystery, self-contradiction, murk or madness.'

"Suicide bombers aren't asking for our empathy, they don't particularly care if we understand them, and they don't want to be reasoned with. They want to kill the Jews. They want to kill Simon Capet. They'd be pleased to kill pretty well any of us."