One third of Israelis "Strictly observant."

It may be bad for Middle East peace but it's great for the Rabbi business, a recent survey claims 80 % of Israelis say they observe "religious traditions."

CNN - Hamas founder sets Israel truce terms - October 7, 1997

Israel calls offer 'a positive change'
October 7, 1997
Web posted at: 10:43 a.m. EDT (1443 GMT) In this story:

* Offer to end suicide bombings
* Palestinian-Israeli peace talks resume
* Related stories and sites

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (CNN) -- Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of the Islamic fundamentalist movement Hamas, said Tuesday he would forge a truce with Israel that would end suicide bombings if Israel withdrew completely from the West Bank and Gaza Strip and removed all of its Jewish settlements.

"If Israel withdraws completely from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and it removes all of its settlements, I will make a truce with it. You have my word for it," he said.

David Bar-Illan, a senior aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the peace overture was "a positive change" despite the "unacceptable conditions."

In the past, militants within Hamas have never indicated a willingness to negotiate. Instead, they have spoken of a "holy war" to establish an Islamic state in all of what is now Israel. more

Are suicide bombers kamikazes?

By Marylou Barry

Japan's former ambassador to Lebanon, Naoto Amaki, had a telling conversation with Hezbollah's Sheik Hassan Nasrallah shortly following al-Qaida's September 2001 attack on America.

"He told me, 'We learned how to do suicide missions from the kamikazes,'" Amaki recounted. "Nasrallah said the Shiites all commend the Japanese 'samurai spirit.'" But the ambassador rejected Nasrallah's twisted tribute.

Are shahids kamikazes? No way, say the real kamikazes. Now octogenarian veterans, Japanese kamikaze survivors deeply resent being compared to terrorists and don't hesitate to explain why. more

Hamas: Ceasefire for return to 1967 border - Israel News, Ynetnews

Come on, how can ya not love a jihadi with a comb over? more

Mashaal okays state with 1967 borders | Jerusalem Post

Hamas politburo leader Khaled Mashaal reiterated Wednesday that his group would not recognize Israel. In an interview published Thursday in the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat and cited by Maariv, Mashaal said he was willing to accept a Palestinian state within 1967 borders, as well as a hudna [truce] with Israel but not to recognize the "occupation." More

Greenpeace Strippers Disrupt Peres

Protestors led away from conference on nuclear Middle East at Tel Aviv University

Greenpeace activists who arrived Thursday morning at a conference on the nuclear issue at Tel Aviv University stripped in protest a few moments before the start of a speech by President Shimon Peres.

The protestors carried leaflets bearing the messages "strip the Middle East of nuclear programs" and "a new Middle East = clean from nuclear programs." They were briskly removed from the hall by security guards. more

World Court Rules Israel's Wall Illegal

Oh yeah, I forgot, it's a "barrier."

Ron Paul v Mike Huckabee on Iraq

Iraq Credits Iran for Helping to Curb Attacks by Militias - New York Times

No, it can't be - Iraq Credits Iran for Helping to Curb Attacks by Militias - New York Times

FOX News Porn

How can you not love FOX News Porn?

Articles of Impeachment against VP Richard Bruce Cheney

Taliban stronghold, 7 November 2007

The Green Bomb

Russia test world's most powerful non-nuclear weapon.



MOSCOW - The Russian military has successfully tested what it described as the world’s most powerful non-nuclear air-delivered bomb, Russia’s state television reported Tuesday.

It was the latest show of Russia’s military muscle amid chilly relations with the United States.

Channel One television said the new weapon, nicknamed the “dad of all bombs,” is four times more powerful than the U.S. “mother of all bombs.” More

Omert and Peretz, not Israel's only boobs

Dirty Kuffer

More Jihadi hip-hop

Al Qaeda - To black Americans

Say what you want about their methods but this mashup of Ayman al Zawahiri and Malcolm X makes a whole lot more sense than anything Obama or Al Sharpton are saying.

Al Jazeera English - News - Israel And Hezbollah Agree Exchange

(Hassan Nasrallah said in September 2005 he wanted negotiate deals for the release of Lebanese citizens held by Israel. Looks like he is, slowly but surely, getting his wish. - a)



Lebanon's Hezbollah movement has agreed to hand over the remains of an Israeli in exchange for a Lebanese prisoner and the bodies of two of the group's fighters.

"An exchange of bodies and a prisoner swap could take place this afternoon at the Naqoura crossing between Israel and Lebanon," a Lebanese security source said on Monday.

The two dead Hezbollah fighters went missing last summer during the 34 day war between the Shia Muslim group and Israel in southern Lebanon.

The conflict began in July 2006 after the Lebanese movement captured Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, two Israeli soldiers, in a cross-border raid.

An army report released last December said that the two soldiers were wounded, one seriously and the other only moderately, during their capture.more

Why Al Gore got the Nobel Peace Prize

Al Gore reacts to his win

From the Nobel Committee award announcement

"Extensive climate changes may alter and threaten the living conditions of much of mankind. They may induce large-scale migration and lead to greater competition for the earth's resources. Such changes will place particularly heavy burdens on the world's most vulnerable countries. There may be increased danger of violent conflicts and wars, within and between states." more

Desmond Tutu, anti-Jew?

Critics claim this speech is anti-Semitic and compares Jews to Hitler. You decide. - a

Apartheid in the Holy Land

Desmond Tutu
Monday April 29, 2002 The Guardian

In our struggle against apartheid, the great supporters were Jewish people. They almost instinctively had to be on the side of the disenfranchised, of the voiceless ones, fighting injustice, oppression and evil. I have continued to feel strongly with the Jews. I am patron of a Holocaust centre in South Africa. I believe Israel has a right to secure borders.

What is not so understandable, not justified, is what it did to another people to guarantee its existence. I've been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about.

On one of my visits to the Holy Land I drove to a church with the Anglican bishop in Jerusalem. I could hear tears in his voice as he pointed to Jewish settlements. I thought of the desire of Israelis for security. But what of the Palestinians who have lost their land and homes? more

Ron Paul on CNN