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Israel's Missile Defense Gap
By Avi Davis
 Last week, the number of rocket propelled attacks on Israel initiated from Gaza and falling on Israeli territory passed the 10,000 mark. Someone, somewhere is obviously keeping score, despite the fact that the aggregate number of attacks seems to have little impact on governmental decision making. The milestone would, in fact, go largely unnoticed if it wasn’t for the fact that Hamas has called an end to its six month old ceasefire agreement with Israel and that Israeli intelligence had confirmed that the rockets’ range now allows them to penetrate up to 40 kms of Israeli airspace. This brings hundreds of thousands more Israeli citizens within range of Hamas’ Kassam rockets.
The Israeli government’s virtual accommodation of the Gaza attacks reflects one of the strangest anomalies in international relations today. A sovereign nation, possessing one of the strongest and most effective military capabilities in the world and aided by an unrivalled intelligence service, is either unable or unwilling to curtail terrorist attacks on its citizenry emanating from foreign soil. Reaction to direct hits on houses, schools, playgrounds and commercial centers vary from threats backed by inaction, to little more than a shrug. A prime ministerial candidate has even gone on record as describing the situation in Israel’s south as something the country “ must learn to live with.”
There is of course a certain torpid symmetry with what is happening in the country’s north. Since the August 2006 ceasefire with Hezbollah, that terrorist organization has continued to amass considerable armaments for a renewed attack on the Jewish state, with missiles that can reputedly cover almost the entire country. Given Hezbollah’s continued and unimpeded build up, a renewed Lebanon war, as almost everyone in Israel acknowledges, is simply a matter of time.
Given the inertia of the Israeli military and the complaisance of the government on the threats originating from enemy territory, you could be forgiven for believing that one of the prime matters over which the Israeli electorate would be asked to decide in its coming February election is the issue of missile defense. But you would be wrong. Missile defense is not seriously discussed or debated in Israel, despite the fact that the country has no effective short or medium range missile defense shield. While the Arrow defense system is capable of intercepting long range ballistic missiles, the short and medium range missiles, such as Kassams and Katyushas can be fired into Israel unimpeded. And in the north, Hizbullah has obtained 200 new Fatah missiles against which Israel has no effective defense.
To be fair, the Israeli government has spent millions on the development of two missile defense systems. David’s Sling would fill the medium range defense gap, in an estimated five to eight years. Iron Dome is designed to address short range katyushas and kassams, and could be deployed in three to four years, though it is generally acknowledged it will not be useable against mortars or the shorter range kassams being fired at Sderot.
But, even if these defenses arrive on schedule and do the job, Israel may not have the luxury of time. The July-August 2006 attacks by Hezbollah on the country’s north rained 4,000 rockets on the country within a 33 day period, at a cost to Israel of about $5.2 billion, taking with it 133 lives and forcing over one million people to evacuate their homes. The physical, economic and psychological devastation wrought by that conflict would be multiplied exponentially in a war in which missiles from both the south and north could collectively reach every major Israeli population center.
Simply put, in the next war, there will be nowhere to run.
Certain experts in Israel will tell you that no immediate solution exists to this existential threat and that the technology has yet to cope with the enormity of the issue. But that is patently untrue. For the shortest range threats, a working prototype of an active laser missile defense system exists and could be upgraded and deployed in Israel in approximately twelve months, with other installations to follow. Another system – the Phalanx Gun – is already in use in the Green Zone in Iraq against such threats. Although it has far less coverage than the laser, several systems could begin providing immediate capability. For medium range, the new PAC3 missile has been tested with outstanding performance, and is now deployed in Japan, South Korea, Europe and in Arab states throughout the Middle East.
Given the ongoing, severe problems Israel faces in the south, the existing Phalanx Gun and the demonstrated laser weapon system seem like obvious choices. The shorter range laser weapon, known as Nautilus, or the Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL) actually began life in 1996 as a joint project between the U.S. Army and the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Nautilus/THEL focuses a high-energy laser beam on flying threats such as rockets, missiles, mortars and artillery shells, destroying them in flight.
While planned for several years as the solution to Israel's problems with Katyusha fire and Kassam attacks, funding for Nautilus was reduced following Israel's May, 2000 pullout from Lebanon and, for a variety of reasons, Israeli and American funding for the program was cancelled in January 2006. In 2007, Northrup Grumman, the U.S. main contractor of Nautilus systems, offered to build and deploy in Israel a number of Skyguard systems - a special implementation of the THEL tailored for Israel's needs. Israel’s Ministry of Defense refused the offer, as they have refused to consider trying out the Phalanx Gun.
Why? The answers are multifold. The first is politics. The millions of dollars which have been made available in research funds for the development of missile defense systems have been managed almost exclusively by Israel’s Ministry of Defense. It jealously guards its own projects by apparently suppressing other, more mature systems. This reflects a fundamental compartmentalization of the problem – funding decisions for defense needs might be made at the highest levels of the government, yet decisions on allocations of these same funds are made by lower level officials who feel they must operate within existing budgets.
The second reason is one of constituency. Israel’s army and airforce possess extraordinary influence in the country and have advocates both in Israel and abroad capable of bringing pressure to bear on the political establishment. There is no comparable lobby or agency advocating for missile defense in Israel. To exemplify the lack of political clout, the operational office responsible for Israel’s missile defense is located in a back corner of the Israeli Ministry of Defense and must make do with a very small staff. With almost no one to approach for stories or information, the Israeli media has not adequately broached the issue of missile defense and no discussion or debate takes place regarding it on the country’s talk shows or news programs.
The third reason is an absence of leadership. Successive Ministers of Defense have not had adequate knowledge or felt the urgency to become extensively informed about the systems that could have effectively averted the last Lebanon War or made life immeasurably easier for the inhabitants of border towns such as Sderot. The current Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, a former chief of staff and a former prime minister to boot, has shown only minimal interest in building missile defense systems of any sort– short, medium or even long range.
This tale of woe has its mirror, to a certain extent, in the United States. While short range rocket fire is not an issue (providing Mexico’s drug cartels do not gain hold of missile technology) the country is very exposed to a short range ballistic missile attack launched by a terrorist commanded vessel beyond U.S. territorial waters. To the country’s detriment, Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, known derisively as “ Stars Wars”, by which rockets launched at the United States could be detected and eliminated from space, was cancelled by the Clinton government. This was a significant blow to missile defense in the United States and parallels, for many of the same reasons, the problems in Israel.
Both countries must come to grips now with the accelerated need for effective missile defense. There is no excuse for countries as technologically sophisticated and financially capable as Israel and the United States in not exploring every avenue possible for full protection of their hinterlands. Without question it must be a high priority for the Obama Administration as well as the incoming Israeli prime minister, whoever he or she might be.
Want to comment on this article? See Avi Davis’ new blog
Avi Davis is the Executive Director and Senior Fellow of the American Freedom Alliance in Los Angeles. He can be contacted at isdev@ix.netcom.com
NEWS: EUROPE AND AMERICA
Fort Dix five guilty of conspiracy to kill soldiers-John P. Martin
Five Muslim immigrants from South Jersey were convicted today of plotting to kill American soldiers, a crime that prosecutors said demonstrated how Al Qaeda was using the Internet to recruit, train and incite supporters for attacks in the United States and around the world. Jurors at federal district court in Camden deliberated into a sixth day before declaring the men guilty of conspiracy. The jurors, however, acquitted the men of an additional charge of attempted murder. Four of the five men were also convicted of related weapons counts. Along with the verdict, the jurors sent U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler a note explaining the serious nature of their deliberations. "The burden imposed on us has been heavy, but we are confident our verdict has been reached fairly and impartially," according to the jurors' note Kugler read aloud in court. The Fort Dix five include brothers Eljvir, Dritan and Shain Duka, ethnic Albanians who worked at a family roofing business; Mohamad Shnewer, a Jordanian who drove a cab and worked at his family's market in Pennsauken, and Serdar Tatar, a native of Turkey who was an assistant manager at a Philadelphia 7-Eleven. Each faces up to life in prison on the conspiracy charge. Under terrorism laws, prosecutors may seek an enhanced sentence of life without parole. Sentencing was set for April 22 and 23. After the verdict, family members of the five men gave tearful addresses to the assembled media. (TheStarLedger)
 Shilling for the Ft. Dix Six-Robert Spencer
The Fort Dix jihad plotters are guilty, and Muslim spokesmen in America are outraged – not at the plotters who have ostensibly "hijacked" their religion, but at the officials who secured the convictions. They wanted to burst into Fort Dix and murder as many American soldiers as they could, but it was all a joke, you see: so said Mohamed Younes, president of the American Muslim Union. "I don’t think they actually mean to do anything," he asserted. "I think they were acting stupid, like they thought the whole thing was a joke. They don’t look like the type of people to do something like this." Unfortunately, Associated Press reporter Wayne Parry doesn’t seem to have followed this up by asking Younes exactly what "the type of people to do something like this" actually do look like. It might have been interesting to see a Muslim leader in the United States engage in what could be regarded as "racial profiling," but it would, of course, have been far too politically incorrect for AP to print. In any case, when one of the Fort Dix jihadists, Mohamad Shnewer, was in a particularly joking mood back in 2006, he showed a fellow plotter who turned out to be a government informant some DVD files: some featured Osama bin Laden calling Muslims to wage jihad warfare, and others contained the last will and testaments of some of the 9/11 hijackers. Oh, Shnewer, you kidder! Shnewer was ready to lay them in the aisles but good, saying of American soldiers at Fort Dix, "They are the ones, we are going to put bullets in their heads, Allah willing." Riotous! One of the other plotters, Serdar Tatar, displayed a sense of comic timing that rivaled the side-splitting Shnewer’s when he told an FBI informant that he was ready to commit mass murder at Fort Dix: "I’m gonna do it….It doesn’t matter to me, whether I get locked up, arrested, or get taken away, it doesn’t matter. Or I die, doesn’t matter, I’m doing it in the name of Allah." (Frontpagemag)
The Defamation of Human Rights-Hillel Neuer
For the fourth straight year, the UN General Assembly last week ignored pleas by human rights defenders and passed a resolution condemning the "defamation of religion", especially Islam. [See vote beakdown below.] Optimists hailed the move by citing the shift of several "yes" votes to abstentions, but the reality is that this totalitarian initiative is spreading throughout UN bodies -- and now threatens to rewrite a core human rights treaty of the post-war era. The campaign by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), a bloc of 56 states at the UN, began in 1999 with annual resolutions at the discredited and now-defunct Human Rights Commission. In the wake of the post-9/11 war on Islamist terror, and especially after the 2005 controversy sparked when a Danish newspaper printed cartoons of their prophet, Islamic states pursued the diplomatic battle with a vengeance. Proponents of the latest resolution argue that its intent is to protect religious believers from discrimination, particularly Muslims living in Western countries. In reality, the resolutions pose a major threat to the premises and principles of international human rights law and harm Muslims as much as non-Muslims. International law already protects victims of religious discrimination, with guarantees under the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The resolution is silent, though, on Saudi Arabia's prohibition of any religious practice other than Islam; on Iran's oppression of Baha'is; on the persecution of Christians in Egypt, Iraq, and Pakistan Indeed, according to the UN's own designated defender of freedom of religion, Asma Jahangir of Pakistan, existing international agreements protect against "imminent acts of violence or discrimination against a specific individual or group," including on the basis of religion. In other words, the OIC is not really trying to protect individuals from harm, but rather to shield a set of beliefs from question or debate and to ban any discussion of Islam that may challenge state orthodoxies or offend Islamic sensibilities. The very term "defamation of religion" is a distortion. The legal concept of defamation protects the reputations of individuals, not beliefs. It also requires an examination of the truth or falsity of the challenged remarks -- a determination that no one, especially not the UN, is capable of undertaking concerning any religion. What is at stake? Potentially, a great deal. If the defamation resolutions are implemented worldwide, it would become impossible to legally protest violence perpetrated in the name of religion because of the risk of offending believers. "Accusations of defamation," Jahangir wrote recently, "might stifle legitimate criticism or even research on practices and laws appearing to be in violation of human rights but which are, or are at least perceived to be, sanctioned by religion." Protecting Muslims In too many countries, religion is invoked to persecute minorities, women, and homosexuals, or to justify acts of violence and terrorism. International laws should protect those who protest such crimes, and not those who justify the crimes and suppress dissent. In addition, the resolution's focus on the Islamic faith is discriminatory as well as misleading. The initial Pakistani draft in 1999 was actually titled "Defamation of Islam." Despite the broadened title, the resolution singles out "Islam and Muslims in particular" as the primary victims in need of protection, specifying no other religious faith or community. Similarly, another of its chief concerns is that "Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism." The resolution is silent, though, on Saudi Arabia's prohibition of any religious practice other than Islam; on Iran's oppression of Baha'is; on the persecution of Christians in Egypt, Iraq, and Pakistan; on the death penalty for conversion from Islam in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan; and on the incitement to hatred against Jews in textbooks and on television screens throughout the Arab world, including anti-Semitic images of religious-looking Jews. The greatest victims of blasphemy laws are reform-minded Muslims, especially women. For example, 23-year-old Sayed Pevek Lambaksh languishes in an Afghan prison because he "defamed" Islam by circulating an article that criticized the status of Muslim women. Similarly, Pakistan persecutes Ahmadi Muslims by claiming that their interpretation of the faith is an invalid affront to "true" Islam. Muslims -- not Danes -- are the first victims of this campaign. All of this is taking place not just at the General Assembly, but throughout the UN. Consider the past year: In March, the Islamic-controlled Human Rights Council rewrote the mandate of the monitor on freedom of expression. Instead of scrutinizing government restrictions on free speech, he is now required to police individuals' "abuse" of that freedom -- i.e., defamation of Islam. In June, after a NGO representative spoke in the council about the use of shari'a to justify violations of women's rights, the council president ruled that any negative mention of shari'a law was forbidden. The activist was interrupted 16 times, with Egypt saying that Islam should not be "crucified in this council." In October, the UN released a draft declaration for its upcoming Durban II racism conference, replete with provisions that decry the "defamation of Muslims, their faith, and beliefs." What most shocked Western states, though, was last week's proposal by a Durban II subcommittee, chaired by Algeria, to revise the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, by introducing a ban on defamation of religion. Unlike declaratory resolutions, this would alter hard treaty law, directly affecting legal systems worldwide. Last week the world celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. At the UN, however, its core principles are now under assault. Hillel Neuer is executive director of UN Watch, a human rights organization in Geneva, Switzerland (www.unwatch.org). The views expressed in this commentary are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL. (UNwatch)
 Pakistan says al-Qaeda group behind Marriot bombing in Islamabad- Rhys Blakely in Mumbai
Pakistan said an outlawed terrorist group believed to be linked to al-Qaeda was behind the bombing of the Marriot hotel in Islamabad in September. Rehman Malik, Pakistan's Interior Minister, told the country's National Assembly that Lashkar-e-Jhangvi had played a part in organising the attack, in which a truck packed with 600kg of explosives rammed the gates of the luxury hotel, killing more than 50 people, including the Czech ambassador and two US Marines. Experts said that the attack, on a building just a few blocks from Pakistan's Parliament, underscored both the growing reach of al-Qaeda and affiliated groups in Pakistan and the new-found confidence with which they operate in the country. Al-Qaeda and other militant groups now seem to be operating in Pakistan's capital and other major cities with impunity, security analysts said. Mr Malik said that the truck was loaded with explosives in the town of Jhang in Punjab province, south of the capital Islamabad. He said the plot was "assisted" by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni Muslim militant group accused of killing hundreds of minority Shiites across Pakistan. The move came as India urged Pakistan to take urgent action to hunt down the terrorist network responsible for last month's attacks on Mumbai. (Timesonline.co.uk)
 NY man admits he helped air Hizbullah TV-AP
The Pakistan-born owner of a satellite TV company has pleaded guilty to providing material aid to a terrorist organization by letting customers receive broadcasts from Hizbullah's television station.
Javed Iqbal entered the plea in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday. He declined comment afterward. As part of the plea, Iqbal agreed to serve a prison term of up to six and a half years. Sentencing was set for March 24. Prosecutors said Iqbal used satellite dishes on his Staten Island home to distribute broadcasts of Al Manar, the television station of the Lebanon-based organization that has been fighting Israel since the early 1980s. Israel and the US consider Hizbullah a terrorist organization and accuse it of being behind deadly attacks in Lebanon and abroad. Iqbal, 45, was born in Pakistan but has lived in the United States for more than 20 years. He is a permanent resident with five children. A former New York Police Department officer was among those who signed his $250,000 bail package. Although Americans are granted freedom of speech under the First Amendment to the Constitution, the government contended in this case that Iqbal was not entitled to arrange the satellite broadcast of an organization designated as a terrorist group, regardless of the message. Lebanon's information minister, Ghazi Aridi, had criticized Iqbal's arrest, calling it an "attack against freedoms (that) robs a large section of people from watching a specific channel." (JPost)
Death penalty for Bangladesh militants who attacked British envoy with grenade
Three Islamic militants have been sentenced to death in Bangladesh for a grenade attack on Britain's high commissioner.
A court ruled that the three men will be hanged for the attack, which killed three people and wounded the former British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury four years ago. The three men were convicted in a fast-track court in the northeastern city of Sylhet. They are members of Harkat-ul Jihad al Islami (Huji), an Islamist group based in Bangladesh, and include the group's leader Mufti Abdul Hannan. Two other men were sentenced to life imprisonment for their involvement. At the time of the attack police said that it was designed "to avenge the deaths of Muslims in Iraq and across the world by America and Britain". The three men were convicted of murder, the use of explosives and masterminding the attack on Mr Choudhury, then the British envoy in Dhaka. Mr Choudhury, who is now in Britain, was only slightly injured. A British High Commission spokesman said it welcomed a resolution to the case. "For all the victims of the heinous attack of 2004 and for their families, we are pleased that a verdict has finally been reached," he said. But he added that Britain opposed the use of the death penalty "in all of its forms". Mufti Hannan said: "Justice has not been delivered and we will appeal these verdicts to a higher court." (Telegraph.co.uk)
Scotland Institute on Mission to Foster Better Understanding of Islam-Preeti Kannan
DUBAI – Senior officials from Al-Maktoum Institute in Scotland, who are in Dubai, are hoping to foster better understanding of Islam among non-Muslims and Muslims through the university’s different programmes, including its Ph. D on multicultural studies and globalisation. The seven-year-old institute, run under the patronage and sponsorship of Shaikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and UAE’s Minister of Finance, is also keen to boost the number of Emiratis studying at the institute. “Understanding Islam and the Muslim world is one of the key challenges for the West in the 21st century. “We teach the study of Muslims and how they have tried to understand Islam and also about Muslim societies like the UAE,” said Professor Malory Nye, Principal of the Al-Maktoum Institute. Prof. Nye said, “We see education in the field of Islam, understanding of the Muslim world and also understanding and living together as the key to dialogue between civilisations.” Emphasising the need to break down barriers between civilisations, Mirza Al-Sayegh, Chairman of Al-Maktoum Foundation, Scotland and Director of the Office of Shaikh Hamdan, said, “Multiculturalism is not yet well understood today. The principle of every religion is the same and there is a correlation between cultures. Teaching students how to actually apply multiculturalism in practical life is a big challenge but also a step forward.” Al-Maktoum Institute, a research-led institution that offers postgraduate programmes of study, including Masters and MPhil/PhD, encourages research in the study of Islam and Muslims. It is an independent institution, with its degree programmes validated by the University of Aberdeen.
“The fact that we also award PhD on Islamic studies to non Muslims and PhD in Multicultural Studies to Muslims shows there is a correlation between different people and cultures. (Khaleejtimes)
Academic freedom
Free Speech and “Libel Tourism”-Rudi Stettner
The Libel Tourist” is a short-form documentary film produced by the Moving Picture Institute. It focuses on an author, Rachel Ehrenfeld, who wrote a book on the funding network for terror. Her book focuses in part upon Khalid bin Mahfouz, a Saudi billionaire banker and reports upon his bank’s part in the trail of terror money. The book derives its odd title from an anomaly in British law, which is very hard upon publishers and biased against them. It is being used by foreign nationals who would not stand a chance in other venues. They travel to Britain to exploit its legal code to repress free speech Although Ms. Ehrenfeld’s book, Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed — And How to Stop It, was published in the United States, she was sued in British court by Khalid bin Mahfouz. How was he able to involve the British legal system? Bin Mahfouz arranged to buy twenty three copies of Ms. Ehrenfeld’s book in Britain. This was enough under British law to make her liable to that country’s courts. Bin Mahfouz was expecting to trumpet yet another victory. Many writers and publishers before Ehrenfeld had settled with him. This case proved to be different. Ms. Ehrenfeld did not even bother to show up in court. Bin Mahfouz was awarded a default judgment of a quarter of a million dollars. Instead of fighting him in British court, she counter sued Bin Mahfouz in American court saying that the judgment should not be enforced. Her reason was that her book was not defamatory according to American law. Ehrenfeld suffered a setback when her case was thrown out. The grounds were that New York State courts had no jurisdiction over bin Mahfouz. In response, the New York state legislature signed into law a bill protecting residents of New York from similar lawsuits. In May of 2008, Governor Patterson of New York signed the Libel Terrorism Protection Act into law. Upon signing the bill he noted as follows: “New Yorkers must be able to speak out on issues of public concern without living in fear that they will be sued outside the United States, under legal standards inconsistent with our First Amendment rights. This legislation will help ensure the freedoms enjoyed by New York authors.” (Americansentinel)
 BLANKLEY: Teaching religion-Tony Blankley
I recently read a book that deserves the widest possible readership. The book is "The Trouble with Textbooks - Distorting History and Religion" by Gary A. Tobin and Dennis R. Ybarra. I have never met or talked with either of these gentlemen, but I can't say enough good things about this book. For all who believe that there is a fairly objective rendition of history that we are obliged to teach our children, this book reveals how shockingly far from that objective American education-and particularly school textbooks-have fallen. In their conclusion, the authors quote the great historian of Islam, Bernard Lewis' observation concerning the willful bending of history: "We live in a time when great efforts have been made, and continue to be made, to falsify the record of the past and to make history a tool of propaganda; when governments, religious movements, political parties, and sectional groups of every kind are busy rewriting history as they wish it to have been, as they would like their followers to believe that it was." I discuss some of the findings of Mr. Tobin's and Mr. Ybarra's study in my latest book ("American Grit - What It Will Take to Survive and Win in the 21st Century," which will be released in January). "The Trouble with Textbooks" identifies a system of self-censorship and cultural equivalence that celebrates everybody and omits many unpleasant historic facts. The grievance group that has become particularly adept at influencing textbook publishing is the organized Muslim lobby. The founder of the Council on Islamic Education, the chief Islamic group for vetting textbooks in the United States, refers to his work as a "bloodless revolution … inside American junior high and high school classrooms." He is, regrettably, right. While these days one may expect "sensitive deference" to Muslim sensitivities, the authors show how American textbooks have gone so far as to outright proselytize Islam. As "The Trouble with Textbooks" shows, textbooks relate Christian and Jewish religious traditions as stories attributed to some source (for example, "According to the New Testament…"), while Islamic traditions are related as indisputable historic facts. The authors cite the textbook "Holt's World History," where one can read that Moses claimed to receive the Ten Commandments from God, but Muhammad simply "received" the Koran from God. In the textbook "Pearson's World Civilizations," the book instructs that Jesus of Nazareth is "believed by Christians to be the Messiah"- which would be a fine comparative religion study observation if the book didn't also disclose that Muhammad "received revelations from Allah." (Washingtontimes)
Media Bias
Any Muslim killed fighting Israel goes to paradise, says MPAC spokesman-Damian Thompsan
The Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC) is one of the media's favourite Muslim organisations - radical and outspoken but not extremist, we're led to believe. One of its spokesmen, Asghar Bukhari, is a particular favourite of the BBC, whose Asian Network describes how he has "set up Media response workshops to educate and engage Muslims about dealing with the media" . So I was interested to see how Bukhari would "deal" with me when I rang him to ask about an interesting discovery by The Centre for Social Cohesion, in my opinion the most formidable of the think-tanks monitoring Islamic extremism, which has been rooting around Facebook discussions. In one recent thread, Bukhari says: "Muslims who fight against the occupation of their lands are 'Mujahadeen' and are blessed by Allah. And any Muslim who fights and dies against Israel and dies is a martyr and will be granted paradise ... There is no greater oppressor on this earth than the Zionists, who murder little children for sport." Well, Bukhari didn't evade the question. He confirmed that the Facebook discussion was authentic, and said: "I stand by that [his comments], and I think any Muslim in the world stands by that ... if you think I'm going to tap dance for you and say 'These Muslims are really bad and should sort their own house out', then I'm not going to." Indeed, he added, if that was my view then I could "p--- off". Hmm. Is that the technique that Bukhari recommends in his media workshops? He also said that he was prepared to repeat his Facebook comments to any TV station that wanted to interview him. But, you know, I'm not so sure that the references to paradise for anti-Israel "fighters" and the description of Zionists as casual child-killers were intended for public consumption. Which is why he lost his cool when I rang. Asghar, mate, let me give you a media tip: Facebook rants aren't private. (Blogs.telegraph.co.uk)
Freedom of Speech
The U.N. Silences Free Speech-Rachel Ehrenfeld
Today the Arab lobby won a great victory against the infidels. It finally facilitated silencing of opposition to Islam at the UN.
Now, more than ever, we need the Free Speech Protection Act.
The International Religious Freedom News repots:
The “defamation of religions” resolution passed the General Assembly today with a vote of 86 in favor, 53 against, and 42 abstentions. Although the passage of this resolution continues a 9-year tradition at the UN, it marks a significant backlash against a resolution that passed with an overwhelming 108 votes in favor, 51 against, and 25 abstentions last year at the General Assembly. “With the passage of this resolution, the United Nations has once again failed to live up to its promise. Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that ‘everyone has the right to freedom of thought conscience and religion.’ Article 19 expands on this freedom by guaranteeing “the right to freedom of opinion and expression.’ The ‘defamation of religions’ resolution is a direct violation of this mandate, as peaceful religious speech – a manifestation of belief – will be silenced as a result of it,” said Angela C. Wu, International Law Director of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. We are deeply disappointed that the UN has given cover to oppressive governments to persecute dissenters. Governments have no place determining what is and is not blasphemy. Although it is disappointing that religious freedom takes another step backwards today, we are extremely encouraged that the majority of countries in the world did not vote in favor of banning peaceful religious speech.” Soon, new lawsuits will be filed against Americans overseas, especially against reporters documenting Islamic "charities" terrorists' ties. To protect the First Amendment, Congress should pass the Free Speech Protection Act as soon as it reconvenes. (Terrorfinanceblog)
A Fatwah for Fitna-Paul Belien
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have the right to use the premises of the parliament for their own activities. They can reserve conference rooms to give press conferences, invite speakers or show documentaries. So far the Parliament has never forbidden anyone from doing so. Until last week Gerard Batten, a British MEP, invited the Dutch politician Geert Wilders to show his movie Fitna to Batten’s colleagues. Mr. Wilders’ documentary Fitna (which can be seen here) shows what is being done in the name of Islam. It ends with an exhortation to Muslims to remove from the Qur’an those parts which are used as a source of inspiration for, and justification of, hatred, violence and terrorism. Last September Mr. Wilders visited New York to show his movie here at Hudson New York. None of the spectators walked out of the room suddenly “hating” Muslims. On the contrary, those who have watched the movie feel a deep respect for the honesty and courage of those Muslim-raised individuals who combat the aspects of Islam which incite to hatred, violence and terrorism. Yet, three years ago, when Mr. Wilders announced his intention to make the movie, and even more vehemently after he released it, attempts were made to ban the movie and kill its maker. Jordan, though considered to be a “moderate” Muslim country, wants to prosecute him. The Duch politician needs constant police protection, lives in hiding and has not slept in his own house for four years. The Dutch television refused to air Fitna for fear of terror attacks. Youtube has refused it. Various Islamists, but also non-Islamist leftist organizations, have called for a ban of the movie. As a consequence the Fitna affair has become a matter of free speech. Are there things, which for fear of terrorist retaliation, Westerners are no longer allowed to say? Are there issues we are no longer allowed to discuss? As Mr. Wilders himself said, here in New York, “Freedom of speech is the most important of all civil rights. We are obliged to defend our freedom of speech […] for freedom of speech is the keystone of our modern, free societies. (Brusselsjournal)
ANTISEMITISM
UK NGOs use Christmas to attack Israel-Herb Keinon and JPost
In time for Christmas, several British NGOs have returned to past theological offensives against Israel by combining emphasis on Bethlehem, stories of Palestinian suffering, and false allegations of Israeli cruelty, NGO Monitor said in a report issued Tuesday. Through Christmas cards, carols and charity fund-raising, War on Want, Amos Trust, Pax Christi and others condemn the West Bank security barrier and ignore the Palestinian terror campaign that necessitates it, according to the report. As in previous years, when NGOs used London Underground station advertisements and greeting cards, these campaigns capitalize on holiday sentiment and Christian religious symbols to declare: "The wall must fall," and present a biased view of the conflict, NGO Monitor said. War on Want and Amos Trust are marketing Christmas cards depicting the security barrier and conflating Jesus with the Palestinians - a familiar theme among British NGOs. The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign is selling similar items to protest the "illegal structure" of the "apartheid wall," thereby also appealing to religious prejudices. War on Want's cards feature "the three wise men trying to get to Bethlehem but being forced to dig underneath Israel's separation wall." A second card shows Mary and Joseph encountering a Bethlehem that is "effectively sealed off from the outside world by Israel's Separation Wall," and "Mary and Joseph being frisked on their way to find an inn for the night." Similarly, Amos Trust advertises cards that portray Santa Claus walking along the security barrier with a bag of gifts, ringing a bell. The inside text ends, "As we celebrate the child born in Bethlehem - let us not forget God's children living in Bethlehem today." Additionally, as in previous years, Amos Trust offers the "Wall Nativity," which comes with a prayer guide and "complete with separation wall [and] depicts the current situation in Bethlehem." This project has been criticized for its anti-Semitic undertones. (Jpost)
WorldVision’s Deceptive Plea for Support-CAMERA
Christian non-governmental organizations such as the Christian Peacemaker Teams, the Mennonite Central Committee, Pax Christi, the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) are regular providers of anti-Israel propaganda to Western audiences. These groups provide de-contextualized stories and images of Israelis behaving badly to “peace” activists and church leaders in Europe and North America who repackage this material into a narrative in which Israel is entirely responsible for Palestinian suffering and in which unilateral concessions and withdrawals will bring an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Seemingly intent on providing the raw material for an anti-Israel campaigns in the public institutions of the West, Christian NGOs provide little if any information about Arab and Muslim hostility and violence toward Jews and Israel in the Middle East and fail to describe the hostile agenda that fuels violence against the Jewish state in the region. One group which engages in this type of behavior is WorldVision, a humanitarian agency that promotes the welfare of children throughout the world. WorldVision’s activists in the Middle East unfairly portray Israel in villainous terms to raise money for its operations in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. WorldVision’s anti-Israel narrative is readily apparent on its website which offers a distorted chronology of the Arab-Israeli conflict, portrays Palestinian suffering solely as a consequence of Israeli (and not Palestinian) misdeeds and offers little acknowledgement that Israelis also suffer as a consequence of the violence. (Camera)
Carter laments: Terrorists lack 'defense' against Israel-Aaron Klein
Recounts last week's 'peacemaking' trip to Middle East
TEL AVIV – The Lebanese Hezbollah terrorist organization lacks missiles to "defend" itself from Israeli aircraft, former President Jimmy Carter claimed upon returning from a trip last week to Lebanon. "The general showed us a graph of the many flights of Israeli planes over all parts of Lebanon, averaging about a dozen each day. Neither Hezbollah nor the Lebanese Armed Forces have any anti-aircraft weapons for defense," wrote Carter in a first-person report posted on his Carter Center website. Carter was recounting how upon his trip to the region, Italian General Claudio Graziano, chief of the UNIFIL international forces deployed in southern Lebanon, brought him on a tour of the Israeli-Lebanese border. "At one site near the border, two different Israeli tanks came about 70 yards from us to observe our group," Carter wrote, before claiming Hezbollah lacks anti-aircraft weapons for "defense" against Israeli over flights. The information may not be accurate. Israel has some intelligence indicating Hezbollah may have smuggled anti-aircraft missile batteries along the Syrian-Lebanese border. Also, the London Sunday Times reported in August in an unconfirmed report that Brigadier-General Muhammad Suleiman had been supplying Hezbollah with advanced Syrian SA-8 anti-aircraft missiles. Suleiman was a key aide to Syrian President Bashar Assad and was assassinated that month under mysterious circumstances. Regardless of whether Hezbollah possesses anti-aircraft missiles, Israeli overflights, which have been ongoing since the end of the Second Lebanon War, have not targeted or endangered any Hezbollah operatives. Israel says the overflights are crucial to collect intelligence on the continued smuggling of mass quantities of weaponry to Hezbollah across the Syria-Lebanon border – an area that is supposed to be patrolled by UNIFIL. Israeli security officials complain the Israel Air Force routinely provides UNIFIL with exact smuggling routes backed up with photographic evidence but that the international force has done almost nothing to stop the regular smuggling. (Worldnetdaily)
Calls for protest gathering in Paris against resurgence of anti-Semitism and Nazism
PARIS (EJP)---French Jewish organizations have called for a protest gathering on Tuesday against the resurgence of anti-Semitism and Nazism after a swastika was discovered painted on the door of the offices of a Jewish association in Paris.
The Nazi sign was discovered last Thursday in Paris’s 10th district by the secretary of the “Union des Juifs pour la Résistance et l’Entraide”, an association working to keep the memory of Jewish resistance against Nazis during WWII alive. The association lodged a complaint for “voluntary deterioration with racist character.” The “Movement against racism and for friendship between people” (Mrap) and CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish organizations, joined the call to protest against the “targeted and repetitive racist acts which need a greater mobilization from the authorities.” CRIF denounced this act which, it said, aimed both Jewish resistance to the Nazis and Holocaust survivors. (EJP)
'I warned Jews to convert to Islam or leave'-JPost Staff
The suspected murderer of Yemeni Jew Moshe Yaish Nahari told a court on Monday that he had warned Jews to convert to Islam or leave the country and that if they didn't, he would kill them. The court ordered the suspect, Abdel Aziz Yehia Hamoud al-Abdi, to go for a psychiatric examination to determine if he is competent to stand trial. The lawyers for the accused had appealed that he was mentally unfit and that he had no understanding of what he had done. They claimed that he had recently also killed his wife. Judge Abdel Bari Oqba adjourned the trial until a report about al-Abdi's mental health is made. Al-Abdi allegedly gunned down Nahari, a teacher at the yeshiva in Raydah, on Dec. 11. Nahari was one of the roughly 400 remaining Jews still living in Yemen, mostly in Raydah, a small town north of the capital San'a. Yemen was once home to about 50,000 Jews in the early 1950s, but most emigrated to Israel. (JPost)
TERRORISM, INTERNET, JIHAD
Heaton Park used as terror cell training camp for Al-Qaida-Denise Evans
A FAMILY park has been revealed as the venue for a potential death squad member to carry out his preparations for terrorist training in Pakistan. During a trial at Manchester Crown Court the jury heard how taxi driver Habib Ahmed would run through Heaton Park in Higher Blackley with a heavy rucksack on his back. Habib was convicted of being a member of al-Qaida and acting as ring-leader and senior figure within the terrorist organisation, Rangzieb Ahmed's, willing accomplice. Rangzieb became the first person in Britain to be convicted of directing terrorism and the jury also found that the 33-year-old, who is from Rochdale, had plotted to build a terrorist cell here. Habib, from Cheetham Hill, and Rangzieb were part of a group who planned to use their British base as a springboard for attacks in America. Rangzieb had direct links with al Qaida's third-in-command. During a visit to Pakistan Habib had learned how to make bombs and use firearms. The gang's plans were scuppered when they were caught after a massive surveillance operation by police and the Security Service involving hours of phone tapping, computer monitoring and 24-hour surveillance. It is understood that police did not wait for the pair to get further in their planning because as ‘committed terrorists intent on attacking British targets’ they were considered far too dangerous.
A security source said: "This was a very significant trial. Greater Manchester is regarded as very important in the fight against terrorism." Det Chief Supt Tony Porter, head of GMP’s Counter Terrorism Unit, said of Rangzieb: "The result was of the utmost significance. "This man was directly associated with the core of al-Qaida. He had direct contact with bombmakers and operational players. This result means people are safer." today." (Middletongaurdian.co.uk)
Somalia Revisited: Everything is not all right-Eliza Griswold
When the mortars began to explode overhead, the mental patients scattered like crows. On this brilliant afternoon last April, they’d been lining up in the courtyard of Mogadishu’s only functioning mental hospital, waiting for their anti-psychotics. “Doctor” Habeb—a man with six weeks of volunteer training—reached into a wooden trunk and handed out blister packs and syringes marked Phenobarbital, Risperidone, Chlorpromazine. But by the thud in their guts, the patients could tell how close the shells were falling; the mortars’ high whine and crackle made the drugs suddenly seem secondary. “Everything will be alright!” they shouted to each other as they ran for a concrete overhang. As the explosions drew nearer, the patients moaned and cowered in the compound’s corners. Dr. Habeb shouted their names over the din. (His real name is Abdu Rahman Ali Awaale, but he talks so much that everyone calls him Habeb, which means “hoarse.”) With his orange-hennaed goatee and manic gesticulations, he could easily be mistaken for one of his charges. The hospital’s 150 beds were full and the bald courtyard overflowed with people: the shell-shocked, former insurgents, failed suicides. Habeb’s was really a warehouse for suffering people. One of them was Nima Mohammad Hasan, 35, who pulled back a thin cloth covering her chest to reveal exposed bone. She’d tipped over a lantern to set herself on fire, burning third degree holes into her sternum. Until a few years ago, suicide in Somalia was taboo; now it is fairly common. A sign on the wall read Chain free. Four months earlier, the World Health Organization had given Dr. Habeb $8,000 and convinced him to unlock his patients’ leg irons. Before that, they had been chained to their beds. That afternoon a few miles away, a young man dressed in fatigues had rammed his maroon Toyota pick-up truck laden with explosives into a base that housed African peacekeepers recently arrived from Burundi. In addition to killing several soldiers, this attack took the lives of two local women, and blew the leg off a third, Murto Abdi, a mother of four; the women had been collecting free water at the base. (TheAtlantic)
 Online Jihadists Plan for 'Invading Facebook'- Noah Shachtman
Online jihadists have already used YouTube, blogs and other social media to spread their propaganda. Now, a group of internet Islamic extremists is putting together a plan for "invading Facebook." "We can use Facebook to fight the media," notes a recent posting on the extremist al-Faloja forum, translated by Jihadica.com. "We can post media on Facebook that shows the Crusader losses." "We have already had great success in raiding YouTube," the poster adds. "American politicians have used Facebook to get votes, like the house slave Obama." Groups like al-Qaida were pioneering users of the internet — to train, share ideas and organize. But some observers, like George Washington University professor Marc Lynch, see a reluctance to embrace Web 2.0 tools like Facebook. "One of the biggest problems for a virtual network like AQ today is that it needs to build connections between its members while protecting itself from its enemies. That's a filtering problem: How do you get your people in, and keep intelligence agents out?" he asks.
But as Jihadica.com author and West Point Combating Terrorism Center fellow William McCants notes, the proposed Facebook invasion "is not an attempt to replicate [existing] social networks." Instead, "the members of the campaign want to exploit existing networks of people who are hostile to them and presumably they will adopt new identities once they have posted their material."The al-Faloja poster suggests seven "brigades" work together within Facebook. One will distribute videos and writing of so-called "martyrs." Another will spread military training material. Most of them will work in Arabic, presumably. But one of the units will focus just on spread English-language propaganda through Facebook. (Blogwirednetwork)
ENVIRONMENTALISM and Science
 Animal rights activists convicted of six-year blackmail campaign-Richard Edwards
Seven animals rights activists have been convicted of a "violent and relentless" campaign of blackmail against a laboratory's suppliers in which they branded directors "paedophiles" and attacked their families.
The militants, who included three women, targeted scores of victims over a six year period and attempted to force the closure of animal testing firm Huntington Life Sciences. Hoax bombs and sanitary towels allegedly contaminated with HIV were sent to companies that did business with the Cambridgeshire based research laboratory in an attempt to create a "climate of fear". One individual and his family were "persistently targeted" over nearly four years, with letters sent to his neighbours telling them that he was a paedophile, a threatening letter sent to him saying that someone would stab him with an HIV-infected needle, and the word "murderer" daubed on the entrance of his village railway station.The managing director of another company received a letter in December 2006 that threatened: "We will attack your property, your family or you, whichever we see fit . . . The screams of the animals are in our heads. We will not fail them. You will pay for their agony."The campaign was run with "military precision" across Europe by an organisation called Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty (Shac), who also operated under the banner of the Animal Liberation Front. The activists had links with extremists in the US and Europe allowing them to target HLS and its suppliers, both in the UK and abroad. (Telegraph.co.uk)
A Mysterious Link Between Sleeplessness and Heart Disease-Roni Caryn Rabin
People who don’t get much sleep are more likely than those who do to develop calcifications in their coronary arteries, possibly raising their risk for heart disease, a new study has found. The 495 participants in the study filled out sleep questionnaires and kept a log of their hours in bed. At night they also wore motion-sensing devices around their wrists that estimate the number of hours of actual sleep. At the beginning, none of the participants, who were ages 35 to 47, had evidence of coronary artery calcification. Five years later, 27 percent of those who were sleeping less than five hours a night on average had developed coronary artery calcification for the first time, while only 6 percent of those who were sleeping seven hours or more had developed it. Among those who were sleeping between five and seven hours a night, 11 percent had developed coronary artery calcification, the study found. After accounting for various other causes, the researchers concluded that one hour more of sleep per night was associated with a 33 percent decrease in the odds of calcification, comparable to the heart benefit gained by lowering one’s systolic blood pressure by 17 millimeters of mercury. The study was published on Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The data were drawn from the ongoing Coronary Artery Risk Development In Young Adults study.Senior author Diane S. Lauderdale cautioned that the new report does not prove a cause-and-effect relationship between a lack of sleep and heart disease. (NYT)
Half glass of wine a day could boost memory and reduce chances of dementia
Revellers this Christmas could receive a memory boost by drinking wine, a study has revealed.
New research from Oxford university shows half a glass a day improves cognitive performance in the old.
The team looked at how chocolate, wine, and tea affected 2,031 people aged between 70 and 74.
Incredibly the report showed that wine gave the most pronounced effect on those tested - with a small amount of alcohol improving people's memory. It has been previously researched that people who consume a lot of flavonoids - which are found in the three food and drinks studied - show lower cases of dementia.
And while these latest findings support this theory, researchers said it could be another aspect of the foods studied that made the difference. Professor of pharmacology emeritus David Smith said results improved only up a certain amount per day. He said: 'What we looked at was the consumption of various foods over their previous year. 'We extracted from those chocolate, wine and tea and at the end of that period carried out cognitive tests. 'Depending on how much they had consumed they got better results, although it did plateau with 4 squares of dark chocolate a day. 'The plateau was about half a glass a day for wine and with tea it went up to about four or five cups. 'The observation was that those that had all three did the best and had least likelihood of being cognitively impaired. (Dailymail.co.uk)
Society and CULTURE
 Why the wealthy young elite are switching from cocaine to the deadlier drug ketamine, the horse tranquillisers used on injured soldiers in Vietnam-Laura Topham
The grandfather clock in Max Ellis-Wood's Mayfair maisonette is chiming 8 pm. It's a gloomy Tuesday evening in early December and, as seasonal festivities kick off across the country, people pour through Max's front door. Ostensibly, they are here for a Christmas party - but there's not a mince pie or glass of mulled wine in sight. There are two wealthy City traders in Prada suits, several open-shirted men who have been invited on the strength of their aristocratic heritage, and three wannabe 'It' girls clopping through in Jimmy Choo spikes. In place of party food, the beautiful antique table in the dining room is covered in lines of fine white powder. Within an hour, all the guests have sauntered over, champagne glass in hand, snorted an inch-long line, then slunk off to recline on a plush sofa. They need to sit down because the substance will soon affect their balance, leaving them wobbly, incoherent and, at times, near collapse. For the powder they are consuming isn't the chatter-inducing cocaine often expected of such circles, it is the new drug of choice among high society - ketamine, a horse tranquilliser. Previously the sole preserve of hardcore clubbers, consumption of this chemical has tripled over the past decade and this year became hugely popular with Britain's upper classes. Its place as their drug du jour is as unlikely as it is incomprehensible, for ketamine's anaesthetising effect is the very antithesis of the casual chic these people work so hard to cultivate.
While mild doses invoke euphoria and boost energy, greater amounts bring on an altered reality - hallucinations and delusions. Sometimes users fall into a 'K-hole' - a semi-conscious state in which they are completely cut off from the external world, virtually paralysed and unable to speak. Yet, incredibly, these disturbing results are precisely what users want, as I discover when I go undercover to investigate the ketamine phenomenon at a series of social events across the country. My first experience of seeing the drug's effects for myself comes at the party in Mayfair. One of the guests is Sienna, a 32-year-old hedge fund manager from Surrey, who was introduced to ketamine three months ago. 'I'd been doing cocaine for years and needed a new buzz,' she tells me unashamedly, 'so I didn't need much persuasion to try K. 'It was love at first snort. It's great fun and a completely different high to anything else. It's like an out-of-body experience that sends you a little bit crazy. Now I always keep a spare bag at home with a bottle of Rioja.'
She laughs dismissively when I mention the shaming prospect of a criminal record. Two years ago, in recognition of its growing use as a recreational drug, ketamine was categorised as a Class C drug, so a conviction for possession carries a two-year prison sentence and an unlimited fine.(Dailymail.co.uk)
Jordanian Students Rebel, Embracing Conservative Islam-Michael Slackman
AMMAN, Jordan — Muhammad Fawaz is a very serious college junior with a stern gaze and a reluctant smile that barely cloaks suppressed anger. He never wanted to attend Jordan University. He hates spending hours each day commuting. As a high school student, Mr. Fawaz, 20, had dreamed of earning a scholarship to study abroad. But that was impossible, he said, because he did not have a “wasta,” or connection. In Jordan, connections are seen as essential for advancement and the wasta system is routinely cited by young people as their primary grievance with their country. So Mr. Fawaz decided to rebel. He adopted the serene, disciplined demeanor of an Islamic activist. In his sophomore year he was accepted into the student group affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, Jordan’s largest, most influential religious, social and political movement, one that would ultimately like to see the state governed by Islamic law, or Shariah. Now he works to recruit other students to the cause. “I find there is justice in the Islamic movement,” Mr. Fawaz said one day as he walked beneath the towering cypress trees at Jordan University. “I can express myself. There is no wasta needed.” Across the Middle East, young people like Mr. Fawaz, angry, alienated and deprived of opportunity, have accepted Islam as an agent of change and rebellion. It is their rock ’n’ roll, their long hair and love beads. Through Islam, they defy the status quo and challenge governments seen as corrupt and incompetent. These young people — 60 percent of those in the region are under 25 — are propelling a worldwide Islamic revival, driven by a thirst for political change and social justice. That fervor has popularized a more conservative interpretation of the faith. (NYT)
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