News for December 9, 2005

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UN Ceremony Includes Map of ‘Palestine’ in Place of Israel (December 7, 2005) - The United Nations held a “Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People” last week. A large map of “Palestine,” with Israel literally wiped off the map, featured prominently in the festivities.

During the festivities, a map labeled a “map of Palestine” was displayed prominently between UN and PLO flags. The map, with “Palestine” written in Arabic atop it, does not include Israel, a member of the UN for 56 years. The map does not even demarcate the partition lines of November 29, 1947, marking a Jewish state alongside an Arab state. The partition was dictated by the UN General Assembly itself.

With the map hanging behind him, Secretary-General Annan addressed the public meeting at UN Headquarters. At the start of the ceremony, the dignitaries present asked attendees to observe a moment of silence. “I invite everyone present to rise and observe a minute of silence in memory of all those who have given their lives for the cause of the Palestinian people,” the master of ceremonies said, “and the return of peace between Israel and Palestine.“ Anne Bayefsky, who reported on the event for the Eye on the UN organization, said that the ceremony’s wording was aimed at giving honor to the worst of Palestinian terrorists. “It was a moment ... crafted to include the commemoration of suicide-bombers,” she wrote. In response to the event, Bayefsky and her organization have once again asked the U.S. to withhold funding from the UN. more...

See how the Palestinian kids are taught > Relentless trailer

Excited Muslim Leader Closes Mosque to Allow 1,500 to Watch Jesus Film Breaking Christian News (December 9, 2005) - A new report on Mission Network News details an incredible divine appointment for one African village. According to the report, the time was nearing for a Muslim call to prayer in a northern Cameroon village. A team of Americans who had traveled to the town met with the village chief to help find a place to show the Jesus Film. The chief suggested a spot right outside a local mosque. As the team was setting up the screen, the evening call-to-prayer rang across the town's loudspeaker. Shortly after the team set up, the mosque prayer leader came out to see what they were doing. What could have been tension-filled moments changed when he got so excited about the film, he closed the mosque in order to watch the movie. That night, more than 1,500 people saw the “JESUS” Film. As a result, more than 400 trusted Christ outside the mosque. more...

Most Afghans Say Life is Better Now . . . Support US Troops - More than three-fourths of the people living in Afghanistan say living conditions, security from crime and freedom of expression have improved from the days when they were living under Taliban rule, an ABC News poll says. According to the AP report, almost nine in 10 - 87 percent - also say the US-led overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 was a good thing for the people of Afghanistan. The optimism comes despite the fact that people say by a 2-1 margin that their own economic situation is bad, medical care is limited and basic services like electricity are not available for many people. The poll likewise showed support for US troops in that six in 10 Afghans say attacks on US troops cannot be justified, while only three in 10 say they can be justified.

Troop Levels in Iraq May Drop, Rumsfeld Says (December 9, 2005) - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday he expects some 20,000 U.S. troops to return home from Iraq after next week’s elections, and he suggested that some of the remaining 137,000 forces could pull out next year. “If conditions permit, we could go below that,” he said in the latest administration hint of at least a modest reduction next year. The Pentagon chief also said he believed the White House and Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., would “end up working something out” during negotiations over legislation standardizing interrogation techniques and banning mistreatment of foreign terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. Congressional bargainers were nearing completion of a defense bill that is expected to include the McCain provisions, and aides said votes on the measure could come next week. Still, GOP leaders haven’t blessed the bill because they are waiting the result of the White House’s negotiations with McCain. Rumsfeld made his comments between closed-door meetings on Capitol Hill with House members, part of an effort by the Bush administration to communicate better with Congress about the war. Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also attended. Facing diminishing public support on Iraq and pressure from constituents, lawmakers from both parties have complained that the administration must give them more information on Iraq. more...

45 quakes rock Loihi over 12 hours (December 8, 2005) - Loihi seamount, the small underwater volcano off the southeastern coast of the Big Island, experienced a swarm of 45 small earthquakes Tuesday night and yesterday morning, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said. The most likely explanation is “structural adjustment” of the earth’s crust in response to the weight of the small mountain, said Steven Brantley, second in command at the observatory. The description refers to rocks breaking under stress, he said. Loihi has not been erupting, and there is nothing to indicate that the swarm represents an eruption, he said. The quakes started at 10 p.m. Tuesday and continued to 9:48 a.m. yesterday, according to the observatory Web site. The biggest, with a magnitude of 4.7, was also apparently the deepest at 17 miles. Another was magnitude 4.0. A third earthquake during that time had a magnitude of 4.2, but it was on the Big Island near the lava flow area, unrelated to the Loihi swarm. Brantley warned against relying on any of the preliminary numbers, which were posted on the Web site, since seismometers used to develop data are all on land at some distance from Loihi. The seismometers are also all on one side of the underwater mountain, so they provide no information from a different angle. For example, the 4.7 quake was first thought to be north of Loihi’s summit but was later calculated to be five miles east of the summit. more...

The Koran: A New Mein Kampf? (December 8, 2005) - Last week in New York Oriana Fallaci said that “the Koran is the Mein Kampf of this movement. The Koran demands the annihilation or subjugation of the other, and wants to substitute totalitarianism for democracy….You will find that all the evil that the sons of Allah commit against themselves and against others is in it.” This statement has caused considerable controversy. Some maintained: “There are moderate Moslems…Tarring the whole religion is counterproductive…If there are no moderate Muslims, as Fallaci says, then we are doomed.” But of course, Fallaci did not say that there were no moderate Muslims; she said that there was no moderate Islam. As Ibn Warraq has said, “There may be moderate Muslims, but Islam itself is not moderate.” There are peaceful Muslims who have no intention of working by violent or subversive means to impose Sharia on the West. This does not mitigate the fact that some high-profile moderates, such as Cleveland Imam Fawaz Damra, who signed the recent Fiqh Council of North America’s fatwa against terrorism, turned out to be deceivers. Still, to say that the Koran is the Mein Kampf of the jihad movement is not to deny the reality that many, if not most, people who identify themselves as Muslims are primarily interested in living ordinary lives. How could the Koran could be the Mein Kampf -- that is, the inspiration and guidebook, the motivating force -- of the jihad movement, and yet there could be peaceful Muslims? In the first place, because jihadists themselves routinely invoke it as the justification for their acts of violence, and as a means to recruit other Muslims into their movement. Any cursory glance at the statements of jihadists shows them to be filled with Koran quotes and appeals to other Muslims that they represent “pure Islam.” more...

Colima Volcano Erupts (December 9, 2005) - Short video of the eruption

“EUROPEANS SHOULD CREATE JEWISH STATE” (December 8, 2005) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continued his anti-Israel rhetoric Thursday afternoon, denying the Holocaust and calling on Germany and Austria to create a Jewish State within their borders, Israel Radio reported. “We do not believe that Hitler killed six million Jews, but even if this is true by some chance, then why should the Palestinians pay the price for it,” he asked, and suggested that the governments in Vienna and Berlin concede two or three provinces to the Zionists and settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once and for all. “If Germany and Austria feel responsible that the Jewish people suffered at their hands during the Second World War, then all they should do is create a Zionist State in their territory,” he said in a television interview in Teheran. Israeli officials condemned Ahmadinejad’s comments as “outrageous and even racist.” “Unfortunately, this is not the first time that the president of Iran has made outrageous and even racist remarks concerning Jews and Israel,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said. more...

ABBAS APPROVES PA ASSISTANCE TO FAMILIES OF SUICIDE BOMBERS By Jonathan D. Halevi, Daily Alert (December 8, 2005) - On December 5, the very day of a suicide bombing in Netanya, it has been reported that the chairman of the Palestinian Authority (PA) gave budgetary approval to assistance for the families of suicide bombers. Each martyr's family will receive a monthly stipend of at least US $250 from the PA. The budget for families of martyrs, prisoners, and the wounded could reach $100 million a year out of an annual budget of over $1 billion.

PA PARTY CAMPAIGN SLOGAN: “DESTROY THE ZIONIST ENTERPRISE” (December 6, 2005) - The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a veteran component of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), will be running in January’s Palestinian Authority election under the banner, “Destroy the Zionist Enterprise.” At the head of the PFLP’s list for the PA parliament is Ahmed Sa’adat, the organization’s chairman, who ordered the assassination of Israeli minister Rehavam Ze’evi in October 2003. Another prominent figure on the list is Mohammed Alrimawi, who led the hit men who shot Ze’evi. Sa’adat and Alrimawi are supposed to be serving time in a Jericho prison for that assassination. The PA agreed to imprison the two men under pressure from the United States and Great Britain. The terrorist group’s platform for the PA elections was composed by George Habash, who founded the Marxist-Leninist organization in 1968. Although the group’s ideology has become anachronistic in an era when most Arab terror groups base their terror on Islamic jihad, or holy war, the PFLP, which has strong ties to the ruling clique in Syria, remains a significant force in the PLO. more...

ROCKET ATTACKS CONTINUE DESPITE ISRAELI WARNINGS (December 5, 2005) - Palestinians fired two rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel on Sunday December 4, in the hours following a series of strikes by Israeli jets on targets in Gaza. Israel says six more were fired early Monday, December 5. The latest Palestinian attacks came fewer than 24 hours after Israel’s Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz issued a stern warning that rocket launches from Gaza will not be tolerated by Israel. The latest Palestinian strikes were the first missiles to land on the Israeli agricultural village Shuva. Palestinian rockets targeted Israeli civilians on December 2–3.

GAZA BECOMES THORN IN ISRAEL’S SIDE (December 2, 2005) - Israelis were promised that withdrawing from Gaza would result in being able to drop the area as a major security concern. But expected Palestinian Authority action against terror has not been forthcoming, the international community has not afforded Israel any meaningful understanding for its right to respond to and deter attacks on its citizens, and Gaza has instead become a thorn in Israel side. So said Brig.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi, commander of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Gaza Division, in a message to Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, explaining that the number of terrorist incidents emanating from Gaza since Israel left the area “is enormous.” The army has reported 75 incidents of small arms fire from Gaza, 130 Kassam rocket and mortar shell attacks, and at least 18 bombs planted along the border fence–the smallest one weighing some 40 kilograms (88 lbs.)–since Israel’s “disengagement” from the coastal strip, according to Ynet. “This isn’t the border we intended” when Israel decided to relinquish Gaza under the directives of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Kochavi said. Many security experts, including Likud party leadership candidate Binyamin Netanyahu, are warning this is just the beginning, and that Gaza is likely to become the gateway for an unprecedented wave of Islamic terrorism against Israel’s Jews. Meanwhile, Senior Likud Knesset (Parliament) Member Yuval Steinitz issued a blistering attack against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz December 1 for reneging on their commitment to protect Israel from any post-Gaza withdrawal violence by unleashing a most severe military response at the first sign of Palestinian aggression. Instead, the IDF has been reduced to lobbing a few shells into open fields in retaliation for recent terrorist artillery attacks. “I am sure the Gazans are laughing at us more than they are scared by our shooting at them,” Steinitz, who chairs the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, told Arutz 7. more...