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Vampire Skeleton

To stop the "vampires" supposedly chewing shrouds and spreading disease, grave-diggers put bricks in the mouths of plague victims (Image: Matteo Borrini)

A SKELETON exhumed from a grave in Venice is being claimed as the first known example of the "vampires" widely referred to in contemporary documents.
Matteo Borrini of the University of Florence in Italy found the skeleton of a woman with a small brick in her mouth (see right) while excavating mass graves of plague victims from the Middle Ages on Lazzaretto Nuovo Island in Venice (see second image here)।

At the time the woman died, many people believed that the plague was spread by "vampires" which, rather than drinking people's blood, spread disease by chewing on their shrouds after dying। Grave-diggers put bricks in the mouths of suspected vampires to stop them doing this, Borrini says.

The belief in vampires probably arose because blood is sometimes expelled from the mouths of the dead, causing the shroud to sink inwards and tear. Borrini, who presented his findings at a meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in Denver, Colorado, last week, claims this might be the first such vampire to have been forensically examined. The skeleton was removed from a mass grave of victims of the Venetian plague of 1576.
However, Peer Moore-Jansen of Wichita State University in Kansas says he has found similar skeletons in Poland and that while Borrini's finding is exciting, "claiming it as the first vampire is a little ridiculous"।

Borrini says his study details the earliest grave to show archaeological "exorcism evidence against vampires"।

by New Scientist

FADIHA فضيحة عربية

Laughing cow president Mubarak

Laughing cow president Mubarak

Gazans fear Israel using phosphorus

Human Rights Watch said it was clear Israel had fired shells containing white phopshorus[GALLO/GETTY]



Doctors in Gaza City have told Al Jazeera that people have been admitted suffering burns consistent with the use of the controversial chemical white phosphorus.Human rights campaigners say that Israeli forces have used the munition, which can burn away human flesh to the bone, over Gaza City and Jabaliya in recent days.
Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, said: "Doctors here say they are seeing unprecedented levels of deep burns."They cannot categorically say that white phosphorus is being used, they are saying that the munitions being dropped are unprecendented."
Residents in densely-packed Jabaliya have described Israeli forces exploding shells that drop scores of burning fragments and spread suffocating smoke.
"Its the first time we see this type of weapon, it must be new and its seems like its phosphorous," one resident told Al Jazeera.
"Its suffocating and has a deadly poisonous smell that I am sure will cause a lot of sickness and disease on all of the civilians here," he said.Another witness said she saw "... a bright flash and then all of these sparks fell on our area ... landing all around us and in our homes. Our mattresses caught on fire".
Law 'violated'
The use of the munition in densely-populated areas violates the requirement under international humanitarian law for all feasible precautions to be taken to avoid civilian injury and loss of life, Human Rights Watch said।


International law permits the use of white phosphorus in order to cover troop movements and prevent enemies from using certain guided weapons.Marc Garlasco, a senior military analyst at the human rights group told Al Jazeera on Saturday that he had watched Israeli ground forces using white phosphorus.
"Clearly it is [white phosphorus], we can tell by the explosions and the tendrils that go down [and] the fires that were burning," he said."Today there were massive attacks in Jabaliya when we were there. We saw that there were numerous fires once the white phosphorus had gone in."We went by Israeli artillery units that had white phosphorus rounds with the fuses in them."
Major Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokeswoman, told Al Jazeera that the Israeli army was "using munitions with accordance to international law".
"The policy of the IDF [Israeli Defence Force] is to not specify the types of munition, we have not done it before and we will not do it now."
Mark Regev, the Israeli government spokesman, said he was unable to confirm or deny whether the military was using the chemical, but that Israel did not use munitions that were banned under international law."I don't have the knowledge of the detail of what ammunition we are using. I can only know for a fact that Israel uses no ammunition that is outlawed under conventions and that Nato forces would not use in a similar combat situation," he told Al Jazeera.Israel used white phosphorus during its 34-day war against Lebanon's Hezbollah movement in 2006, while the United States used it during the controversial siege of the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2004.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies

Boycott Starbuck & McDonalds

Starbucks and McDonalds are donating their next two weeks of earned
revenue to Israel?

Your money created a Massacre in Gaza

NOW DID YOU SEE WHAT YOUR MONEY DID!!!!!!

Hundreds die in Israel raid on Gaza.

" Israel pounded Hamas-run Gaza on Thursday, killing 10 militants, five children and four civilians(…)The children, aged 8 to 12 were killed as they played in a field during an Israeli air strike around the northern town of Jabaliya, Palestinian medics said।Another 12-year-old boy died of wounds sustained in a Gaza raid the previous day, and a shepherd was killed in northern Gaza। “”" [ AFP ]

“”" Five boys playing football have been killed in Gaza by Israeli air strikes(…) At least 16 Palestinians – including the four children – were killed yesterday as Israel responded to the deadly attacks the previous day. “”" [ The Independent ]

“”" The air strikes brought the toll to more than 30 dead and more than 60 injured in two days of attacks. Israeli military continued to pound Gaza on Thursday, killing 20 Palestinians, including five children playing football. “”" [ AlJazeera ]

This the same old Israeli technique: just a few days from the inauguration of new US President, the Israelis create a new serious situation as they are sure that new US goverment will continue as their ally and ture friend.
The Palestinian helped the Jews after World War 2 and this is the return! The Israelis should find a dignity or at least focus on who killed them in the past instead? Israelis had been killed by European for years not by Palestinian।

There is an old American say"What goes around comes around"

So it's only matter of time, the Israelis will find them self alone in this world and cry for help, but God will revenge for all the Children and women were killed by the Isralis and their सेट

Tony
Tony1@newsclock.com

Terrorist attack on Gaza by Israelis war vampires

Israel in 'all-out war' with Hamas
Israel's military is in an "all-out war" with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Ehud Barak, the defence minister, says.Palestinian medical sources say at least 345 Gazans have been killed and another 1,450 wounded in three consecutive days of Israeli bombardment in the heavily-populated territory.
"We have nothing against Gaza residents, but we are engaged in an all-out war against Hamas and its proxies," Barak said on Monday.There were also growing fears that a ground offensive was being planned after Israel declared a "closed military zone" around the Gaza Strip.
Israel says the creation of a buffer zone along the border will help protect it from rocket attacks. Civilians, including journalists, could be banned from an area between 2km and 4km deep under the policy. On previous occasions, such a move has sometimes been followed by military operations. "This operation will expand and deepen as much as needed," Barak said. "We went to war to deal a heavy blow to Hamas, to change the situation in the south."
Trapped Palestinians
Tanks and troops have been massed in the area since the attacks, referred to by the Israeli military as Operation Cast Lead, was launched on Saturday।
Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Gaza City, said that there was little the residents of Gaza could do to prepare for any possible ground assault.
"In a city that is so densely-populated, a ground offensive would mean urban warfare, street-to-street fighting ... leaving many Palestinians in the crossfire," he said.
"Unlike other conflict zones where there is the possibility to flee the war zone, Gaza itself has become the war zone. There is nowhere for the population to go, they are in the middle of all these attacks."Israel said it began pounding the Gaza Strip with missiles fired from warplanes and helicopter gunships in order to halt the rocket and mortar attacks by Palestinian fighters."Military officials said yesterday that this operation will go on until Hamas stops firing missiles into southern Israel," Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel Hamid, reporting from southern Israel, said."They are also very much aware that they wouldn't really be able to stop that, but at least they will try to degrade the capability of Hamas."
Israeli justificationScores of rockets have hit southern Israel since the offensive got under way. On Monday, an Israeli Arab was killed and eight others wounded when one of the missiles hit a construction site in the city of Ashkelon.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, said the Israeli offensive was aimed at Hamas and not the Palestinian people.
"We tried to avoid this. You know that Israel accepted the truce that was initiated by the Egyptians in order to create peace and quiet. We adopted the truce. What we got in return? We got in return daily attacks, we got in return smuggling of weapons to Gaza Strip with long-range [capabilities]," she said.
Livni also appealed to Palestinian civilians to leave for safer places within the Gaza Strip and advised them against staying in places close to Hamas infrastructure.
Support for Israel came from the US, with the White House saying Hamas must halt cross-border rocket fire.
"In order for the violence to stop, Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israel and agree to respect a sustainable and durable ceasefire," Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman said.
Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary-general, meanwhile, urged Arab and world leaders to press for an end to the violence in the Gaza Strip।

Egyptian gesture
On Monday, Egyptian authorities allowed ambulances carrying several wounded Palestinians to cross into Egypt through the Rafah border crossing for medical treatment.
Hospitals in Gaza have been overwhelmed by casualties since Israel started its aerial blitz on the territory.
Egypt also allowed lorries loaded with humanitarian aid to enter its border crossing with the Gaza Strip। Lorries with food and medical supplies have been lining up outside the Egypt-Gaza border since early morning.The UN relief and works agency said on Monday that at least 51 Palestinian civilians, including women and children, were confirmed to be among those killed in the Gaza Strip.
An UNRWA spokesman said the figure, which was based on visits to hospitals and medical centres was "conservative" and "certainly rising"।Four young girls from the same family in the northern town of Jabaliya and two young boy from Rafah were among those killed in the latest raids, Palestinian medics said.Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros said the situation at the Shifa hospital in Gaza City was chaotic as the territory's health system struggled to cope with the more than 1,400 people injured."Hundreds of people are just waiting outside ... the problem is that there simply aren't enough beds to cope with the number of injured," she said."Medical sources here are telling us they are running out of everything, from gauzes to saline solutions, and critically now they are running out of almost every type of blood."A six-month truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip ended on December 19.
बी Aljazeera

Iraqi Journalist Throws Shoes at President Bush Over Iraq War

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQAI9fNWBD8

Fuel-starved Gaza faces blackouts

Israel repeatedly closes the crossings into Gaza in response to rocket attacks

Citizens in the Gaza Strip are bracing for more electricity blackouts after Israel cut off fuel shipments to the territory's only power plant.
Israel has closed crossings into Gaza, making it likely that electricity would be completely cut off in the territory from about 1600 GMT, Palestinian officials said.
Israel's defence ministry closed the crossings on Sunday after Palestinian fighters fired rockets into southern Israel. No one was hurt in the attack.
"More than 30 per cent of the electricity supply in the Gaza Strip could not be guaranteed this evening," Jamal al-Kudari, head of a committee campaigning to end Israeli sanctions, said on Sunday.
"Our fuel reserves are on the verge of being exhausted."
The Gaza City plant provides about a quarter of Gaza's electricity, while most of the rest comes over lines from Israel. Egypt also provides a small amount.
Fuel needed
"Right now about a third of the Gaza Strip is being effected by these [power] outages," Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reported from Gaza.
"The situation is getting worse by the hour ... The power generating plant here in the Gaza Strip powers about a third of the homes, business and factories in the northern part of the Strip. We're talking about five hundred thousand people that as of 6.30pm local time [16:30 GMT] will be without power."
A network of tunnel linking Gaza to Egypt is known to be used by Gazans to bypass Israel's blockade of the territory and bring products, including some fuel, into the Strip.
"That is one way the Palestinians in Gaza have been able to get by," Mohyeldin said.
"But none of the fuel that comes through the tunnels can be used to power the critical infrastructure of Gaza. There's two reasons for that - the Egyptian quality of petrol isn't high enough to power the generator, but at the same time the generator is monitored by EU observers and they will not allow any blackmarket fuel to be used to generate electricity for Gazans."
Palestinian appeal
Peter Lerner, the co-ordinator of Israeli activities in the Palestinian territories, said: "We received a request [from the Palestinians] for deliveries of fuel to resume and we forwarded the request to the defence ministry in Tel Aviv."
The Israeli defence ministry has given no indication of when fuel supplies will be renewed.
Most of the fuel and gas supplies needed by the Gaza Strip usually goes through the Nahal Oz terminal between Israel and the Palestinian territory.
Israel repeatedly closes the crossings into Gaza, derailing the Gazan economy and putting the territory's citizens under pressure, in response to rockets fired from the Strip by Palestinian fighters.
Even as the crossings were closed, there were fresh calls for the largely stagnant peace process between the Israelis and the Palestinians to be revived.
The Middle East Quartet - which groups the EU, Russia, the UN and the US - held a meeting in Egypt on Sunday and called for peace talks to be carried forward.

Source: Al Jazeera

Islamic Banking: Steady in Shaky Times

Islamic Banking: Steady in Shaky Times

Principles Based on Religious Law Insulate Industry From Worst of Financial Crisis

By Faiza Saleh AmbahWashington Post Foreign Service

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- As big Western financial institutions have teetered one after the other in the crisis of recent weeks, another financial sector is gaining new confidence: Islamic banking.
Proponents of the ancient practice, which looks to sharia law for guidance and bans interest and trading in debt, have been promoting Islamic finance as a cure for the global financial meltdown.
This week, Kuwait's commerce minister, Ahmad Baqer, was quoted as saying that the global crisis will prompt more countries to use Islamic principles in running their economies. U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert M. Kimmet, visiting Jiddah, said experts at his agency have been learning the features of Islamic banking.
Though the trillion-dollar Islamic banking industry faces challenges with the slump in real estate and stock prices, advocates say the system has built-in protection from the kind of runaway collapse that has afflicted so many institutions। For one thing, the use of financial instruments such as derivatives, blamed for the downfall of banking, insurance and investment giants, is banned. So is excessive risk-taking.

The beauty of Islamic banking and the reason it can be used as a replacement for the current market is that you only promise what you own. Islamic banks are not protected if the economy goes down -- they suffer -- but you don't lose your shirt," said Majed al-Refaie, who heads Bahrain-based Unicorn Investment Bank.
The theological underpinning of Islamic banking is scripture that declares that collection of interest is a form of usury, which is banned in Islam। In the modern world, that translates into an attitude toward money that is different from that found in the West: Money cannot just sit and generate more money. To grow, it must be invested in productive enterprises.

"In Islamic finance you cannot make money out of thin air," said Amr al-Faisal, a board member of Dar al-Mal al-Islami, a holding company that owns several Islamic banks and financial institutions. "Our dealings have to be tied to actual economic activity, like an asset or a service. You cannot make money off of money. You have to have a building that was actually purchased, a service actually rendered, or a good that was actually sold."
In the Western world, bankers designing investment instruments have to satisfy government regulators. In Islamic banking, there is another group to please -- religious regulators called a sharia board. Finance lawyers work closely with Islamic finance scholars, who study and review a product before issuing a fatwa, or ruling, on its compliance with sharia law.
Islamic bankers describe depositors as akin to partners -- their money is invested, and they share in the profits or, theoretically, the losses that result. (In interviews, bankers couldn't recall a case in which depositors actually lost money; this shows that banks put such funds only in very low-risk investments, they said.)
Rather than lend money to a home buyer and collect interest on it, an Islamic bank buys the property and then leases it to the buyer for the duration of the loan. The client pays a set amount each month to the bank, then at the end obtains full ownership. The payments are structured to include the cost of the house, plus a predetermined profit margin for the bank.
Sharia-compliant institutions also cannot invest in alcohol, pornography, weapons, gambling, tobacco or pork.
Computer engineer Tarek al-Bassam said the crisis made him glad that he had chosen an Islamic bank to take his money। His Islamic savings account has made about 4 percent profit, he said. "Usually it's a very low risk or a very low gain. But I'm happy with it," Bassam said.

He has also borrowed from an Islamic bank, to buy a building. Even if he's late in his payments, he said, he will not have to pay cumulative interest or a larger sum than the one agreed upon. But he notes that under this system, it can be harder to get a loan than from a conventional bank. Islamic banks have stricter lending rules and require that their borrowers provide more collateral and have higher income.
Islamic banking has grown by about 15 percent a year since its modern inception in the 1970s, fueled by the Middle East oil boom of that decade. "There was a lot of hostility when we first started out. We were regarded with suspicion, especially by the regulatory authorities. We were an odd fish. Authorities only acquiesced when they saw the huge demand," said Dar al-Mal al-Islami's Faisal, who has been in Islamic finance since the late 1970s.
Islamic finance now accounts for about 1 percent of the global market, according to Majid Dawood, chief executive of Yasaar, a Dubai-based sharia financing consultancy. "We had expected to be at 12 percent of the global market by 2025, but now with this financial crisis, we expect to get there much faster," he said in a telephone interview from New York, where he was speaking at a conference on Islamic banking.
Growth in Islamic banking picked up even before the current financial crisis, mainly because of strong client demand for safe, religiously acceptable investments and a recent explosion in new and innovative financial instruments, said Jane Kinninmont, an analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, a research and advisory company।

Islamic banks now offer credit cards in which the full balance must be paid off at month's end. They have devised a kind of commercial paper known as sukuk, which generates a predetermined return that is called a profit, not interest. It is tied to a specific asset and conveys ownership of it. A sukuk might be issued by a government or a company that is building a hospital or a bridge, for example.
Work in Islamic banking by the King & Spalding law firm has grown roughly 40-fold in the past four years, according to Jawad Ali, a Dubai-based partner at the firm. The firm has 35 lawyers "who do nothing but structure sharia-compliant investment and financing on a daily basis," he said.
Islamic finance first sparked interest in the United States in the late 1990s. The Dow Jones Islamic Index was established in 1999, and the Dow Jones Islamic Fund, which invests in sharia-compliant companies, the following year.
But interest cooled after some Islamic banks were accused of financing terrorism in a lawsuit filed by family members of Sept. 11, 2001, victims, and a lot of Persian Gulf money left the United States for Europe.
In 2004, the German state of Saxony-Anhalt issued a 100 million-euro sovereign Islamic bond. That same year, the first Islamic bank opened in Britain, which now has six Islamic financial institutions, including a retail bank.
Although the biggest Islamic banks are in the Persian Gulf -- Dubai Islamic Bank, Kuwait Finance House and Saudi Arabia's al-Rajhi Bank -- Malaysia and London are growing as major centers of Islamic banking as well.
Islamic institutions are not immune to ills plaguing other banks, such as corruption charges and bad investments. Differences of interpretation between sharia scholars about what is permissible and what isn't also create confusion. The sukuk market, which had doubled each year since 2004, growing to a total of about $90 billion in bonds issued, fell 50 percent this year after a Bahrain-based group of Islamic scholars decreed that most of the bonds were not compatible with sharia law.
But as banks turn borrowers away in these times of economic turmoil, Islamic institutions continue to close deals in Europe, the Gulf and the United States, bankers said. "Banks feel safer and more comfortable with us because we put down more money, more equity. We are not allowed to borrow with very little down," said Tariq Malhance, a former chief financial officer for the city of Chicago who now heads Unicorn Investment Bank's U.S. office.
And those who have been in Islamic banking for a long time now feel vindicated.
"The current financial collapse is an opportunity. The ugly side of Wall Street is exposed; it's always been there but covered by a layer of glamour that is now stripped away," Faisal said. "We are more conservative and sober in our investments. That used to be considered a handicap. Now it's considered the height of wisdom."

Why the West attacking Muslims

I am not a terrorist, I am not a criminal, I am not rapist, neither a racist.
I am a Muslim with an Arabic name.

There are terrorists in all communities, including Jewish, Christian, Hindu, and Muslim. On the other hand, like other religious communities, Islam also has artists, intellectuals, athletes, entertainers, and rebels.

I asked my self WHY? Why the western media and specifically the American media do want to destroy the Muslims image and make their citizens think that Muslims are terrorists and they are the bad people as they see it in the movies.

I can answer this question for you, but I want you to answer it for yourself, after reading what people think, and what I think.

1) The western media brain washed their viewers by associating the Islamic religion with terrorism, so every time the average viewer sees a headline that talks about terrorists they think about Muslims and every time they see a headline that talks about Muslims they think about terrorists.
My comment:
The western countries are very concerned about the Muslim religion, after seeing lots of reports that there more people are converting to Islam from Christianity, especially after Kosovo got their independence as a Muslim country in the heart of Europe. The European countries decided to fight Islam by the media or let’s call it the new 21st century war.
The western countries were hoping that the Serbs will wipe out all Muslims in Kosovo, and let the Serbs kill and massacre women and children for 4 month till the whole world start looking at the European countries to do something and end it. Since they are not able to kill all Muslims in Kosovo, United Stated decided to lead the attack on the Serbs and called it a victory.

And let’s not forget why are the European countries are against Turkey joining the European Union because it will be another Muslim country in Europe. So I can see why the western countries are fighting Islam.

2) Some people think that Zionists got hold of the western media and churches and played a big role in destroying and fabricating stories against Muslims and the Islamic religion, and unfortunately lots of people believe their lies.
My comment:
The Zionism movement is a very dangerous movement and their goal is to destroy who ever stand in their way even if you saved their lives in the past. They see them self between two strong religions the Christianity and Islam, the Muslim religion is very close to Christianity; the Zionists decided to get closer to the Christian extremists and have them fight the Muslims hoping they kill each other.
The Muslims saved the Jews when the Crusaders attacked the Muslims countries and rolled them. The Zionists want to revenge from what the Crusaders did to them by having them fight the Muslims and let the Muslims fight their war. Very smart move both Christians and Muslims don’t know that they are fighting someone else’s war.

3) Some people think that Arabs are primarily responsible for their tarnished image in Western media since they don’t have people who write in Western newspapers on this issue and they don’t’ have English channels that can reach the Western people and present their programs so they can get a real picture of Arabs and Islam.
My comment:
That’s true as well, the Arabs and Muslims failed big time in reaching out to the west and explain their religion and left the Zionists and the Christian extremist like Pat Robertson do their work for them by giving lies and fabricated stories.


Tony
NewsClock.com

Al-Buraq Wall Not Wailing Wall

Inside of Al-Buraq mosque
Posted by www.jerusalemites.org




This study is released in line with the Centre’s message to serve Arab causes and refute

the false Zionist allegations in regard to Palestine.

The study highlights the cultural and religious importance of the City of Al Quds (Jerusalem) and shows the falsehood of the Zionist religious claims and anthropological fabrications.

The study gives a historical account of the Jews from the days of the Temple of Solomon, which was destroyed in 586 B.C. through their persecution under the Roman rule to the and the occupation of Al Quds in the 20th century and the immergence of the Guardians of Temple Mount Movement.

The study also underlines that Al Aqsa Mosque was built over more than a thousand years before Solomon, giving evidences that refutes the Zionist allegations that the Mosque was constructed on the ruins of Solomon’s Temple. It also shows that Al Buraq Wall, at the Western boundary of Al Haram Al Sharif (the holy Sanctuary), is sacred to Muslims because they believe that it was the place that Messenger of Allah Muhammad (may peace be upon him) had honoured and blessed by tying Al Buraq (a riding animal) to the wall, during Night Journey and Nocturnal Ascent (Isra Wa Al Mi'raj) and this Wall is an integral part of Al Haram Al Sharif.

The study explained in detail the stages of the conflict over the Wall, supported by the

documents that shows the falsity of the Zionist allegations. It also gives an account of the

court proceedings that reconfirmed that the Wall is Arab property and part of Al Aqsa

Mosque.

Annexed to the study are historical documents that shows the history of Al Quds in general

and Al Aqsa Mosque and Al Buraq Wall in particular, all of which demonstrate that the

Zionist alleged rights to the Wall are simply baseless.

Crimes against Christianity

For the Zionists the Palestinian Christians represent an obstacle to their plan to create a Jewish State in Palestine that would be 100% Jewish.
In 1948, the Zionists expelled from Palestine 100,000 Christians. During the 1948 war, Zionists destroyed desecrated and profaned Christian churches, convents and institutions throughout the Occupied area of Palestine.
During the June the June war of 1967 Israeli forces shelled and damaged many churches in the old city of Jerusalem and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
Israeli forces opened the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to Jews who poured into the holiest place in Christendom indecently dressed behaving disrespectfully joking, singing and pouring pharisaic hate and insults against Christianity and against Jesus Christ inside the Holy Sepulchre and next to the tomb of Jesus Christ.
Israeli Authorities censor all films and plays to prevent mentioning the name of Jesus Christ.
The Zionist reflected with their action the deep-felt hatred of everything Christian embedded in the Zionist ideology. Testimony shows that this hatred went so deep that the Zionist authorities removed the international “+” sign from mathematics textbooks because of the resemblance of the plus sign to the Christian Cross.

Destruction of a Christian Site on Mount Abu Ghniem

Occupied Jerusalem- Palestinian archaeologists said on Sunday that Israeli bulldozers destroyed the ruins of an important Christian church on mount Abu Ghniem known as Al-Istiraha (resting place) church constructed in the fifth century on the road from Jerusalem to Bethlehem.
The Palestinian archaeological department issued a report on the dangers of constructing a Jewish settlement on mount Abu Ghniem since it threatens archaeological and historical sites in the area.
The report contained an account of the archaeological sites on Abu Ghniem, indicating that this hill is a religious site where there is a water well that is known Al-Istiraha and was later named Virgin Mary’s well. It is situated 500 meters away from Mar Elias monastery on the road to Jerusalem, and filled with rainfall water. Historic findings indicate that the well was dug 3000 years ago like many other wells of this commercial road. The Israeli occupation authorities closed the well with concrete in 1968-1970 and switched the water to the illegal Jewish settlement of Gilo. According to some religious accounts, Virgin Mary and Joseph rested near the well when they were on their way to Bethlehem when the Virgin was feeling tired from the pregnancy. Another legend says that the Wise Men on their way to see the new born Jesus in Bethlehem rested near the well, where they saw the star again which led them to the place of Jesus. A third legend says that this well was suddenly discovered with an explosion so virgin Mary can drink while she passed from the area and the well was therefore named Virgin Mary’s well.
According to the report, there are many other religious sites in the area; for example, there are the ruins of a church that has a large ground of mosaics.
Another place is the Seir Al-Qalam, a traditional location for the Shepherds Field in Bethlehem, and Mar Elias Monastery that was maintained by the Byzantine Emperor Manuel Komeinous in the twelfth century A.D. This is in addition to the Al-Istiraha church ( Resting place) constructed in the fifth century to revive the memory of the Holy Family resting in this occupied Palestinian spot.

In reality, the Christian Holy Places were targeted by the Zionists as early as 1948.
During the Palestine war of 1948-49, Zionist forces desecrated, profaned, destroyed and looted Christian Holy Places in Palestine.
On May 31, 1948, the Committee of the Christian Union of Palestine issued an important statement in Jerusalem denouncing the raids mounted by the Zionist gangs against the Christian Holy Places of Palestine.
The statement said, “…The Jews took advantage of this opportunity [the cease fire for eight days on May 14, 1948] and immediately occupied the main strategical points from where they tried to attack the Arabs and to launch their attack on the Holy city. We immediately informed the Consular committee of Armistice and the representative of the International Red Cross of this infringement of agreement by the Jews. The reply received was that the Jewish Agency declared that the Stern Gang, which is working separately, broke the ceasefire agreement and that the Jewish Agency had no control over this group. We then realized that the terrorists are controlling the Jewish movement…”
The statement enumerated some of the damage sustained by the Christian Convents and Institutions at the hands of the Zionists.

During the June war of 1967 Israeli forces shelled and damaged many churches in the old city of Jerusalem and the church of Nativity in Bethlehem. Israeli forces opened the church of the Holy Sepulchre to Jews who poured into the holiest place in Christendom indecently dressed, behaving disrespectfully, joking singing and pouring pharisaic hate and insults against Christianity and against Jesus Christ inside the Holy Sepulchre and next to the tomb of Jesus Christ.
posted by www.jerusalemites.org

The Russian empire strikes back

By Adi Schwartz, Haaretz Correspondent
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1011861.html
Tags: Georgia, Russia

Exactly 40 years ago, on a hot August day in 1968, Alexander Dubcek stood looking out his office window as thousands of Soviet soldiers poured into his city, Prague. The First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the architect of the "Prague Spring" knew it was only a matter of time until he heard a knock on the door.

In his memoir, "Hope Dies Last," Dubcek wrote, "The main door flew open again, and in walked some higher officers of the KGB, including a highly decorated, very short colonel. The little colonel quickly reeled off a list of all Czechoslovak Communist Party officials present and told us that he was taking us 'under his protection.' Indeed we were protected, sitting around that table - each of us had a tommy gun pointed at the back of his head."

Two days later, Dubcek was taken to the Kremlin, where then Soviet president Leonid Brezhnev explained the prevailing reality to him and cut short the democratic reforms by thumping his fist on the table. Dubcek was sent back to his country, where he spent the next 20 years as a forester in a remote region of Slovakia.
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At least for now, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is being spared that fate. He is still the ruler of the small Caucasian state. The outcome of this week's events, however, could prove quite similar to the drama of 40 years ago. The Soviet oppression of Czechoslovakia showed the whole world that the U.S.S.R. would not tolerate democratic adventures within its sphere of influence. The Soviet Union made it clear to Eastern Europe that the West, including the United States, would not lift a finger as Soviet tanks crushed a small sovereign state. The defeat of the Prague Spring truncated a wave of openness and democratization that had washed over both Eastern and Western Europe in the late 1960s.

The two decades that have passed since the fall of the Iron Curtain can now be divided in two. The first 10 years, dubbed the "end of history" by U.S. political philosopher Francis Fukuyama, lasted from 1989 until September 11, 2001, and were characterized by unflappable optimism. The cold war made way for globalization. The Western model trumped all available alternatives. The U.S. became the world's sole superpower, with unchallenged military, diplomatic and economic hegemony. China was taking baby steps toward a free-market economy and Russia was getting its first tastes of democracy.

Then came the terror attack against New York's World Trade Center. Suddenly it turned out that not everyone wanted to join the McDonald's and laptop festivals. The failed U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq caused a deep rift in the Western camp. Russia, which felt severely humiliated over the loss of Eastern Europe and the 15 republics that had made up the Soviet Union, switched gears. Under the scepter of former KGB officer Vladimir Putin, Russia reverted to tricks that were thought forgotten, such as poisoning the Ukrainian president or eliminating journalists and potential political rivals. Instead of human rights, a free-market economy and democracy, we got nationalizations, the imprisoning of rebellious oligarchs and tight supervision of the press.

'History is returning'

This week's events in Georgia are the most obvious manifestation of that shift. On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, with inelegant tardiness, that Washington will not allow Georgia to fall, as it did with Czechoslovakia in 1968. President George W. Bush, for his part, promised humanitarian aid and even delayed his vacation "for a day or two, at least," but for now the American response looks hesitant and anemic.

For the first time in 30 years, Russia has initiated a war beyond its borders. For the first time in 20 years, an elected democratic regime is being threatened by force. For the first time in 20 years, the West is standing exposed and helpless, with its stock exchanges, galloping euro, flourishing economy and highfalutin talk of human rights. The planes and tanks in Georgia have returned to Russia its status of superpower.

In a twist on Fukuyama's "end of history" hypothesis, former Israeli ambassador to Washington Itamar Rabinovich asserted that this week it seemed as though "history is returning in a big way, and America has to cope with a new reality." According to Rabinovich, "The Russians' power play succeeded and is likely to have a great many implications."

The most immediate change will be felt in the Caucasus, a region of utmost strategic and economic importance for both Russia and the West. Dr. Brenda Shaffer, an expert on the Caucasus from Haifa University, explains that the region's natural gas reserves are even more important than its oil. "It is too late to be talking about oil as a global weapon," she says. "In Israel and around the world people still think in terms of the energy crisis of the 1970s, but oil is a fluid that can be transported relatively easily. Oil can be purchased from Russia today, from Norway tomorrow and from Saudi Arabia next week. Gas, on the other hand, must be supplied via pipelines that cost billions of dollars to build. Gas pipelines must pass through several countries and are extremely dependent on local political conditions."

Shaffer notes that in the past few years, European countries have been trying to develop direct supply lines from Central Asian states holding large natural gas reserves. Europe's growing dependency on Russian oil and gas spurred the continent's efforts to find alternatives, which is irritating Russia. "Natural gas, which the Europeans find very attractive because it is more environmentally friendly than oil, has so far traveled from Central Asia to Europe only via Russia," continues Shaffer. "Of course oil also has its problems: The fact that a Sukhoi SU-25 fighter jet 'almost' hit the oil pipeline running from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea is interesting. The SU-25 is a very sophisticated plane that could easily have bombed the pipeline. Indeed, this doesn't seem like a miss but more like a message to the West: Don't mess with us."

This means that Europe is becoming increasingly dependent on Russia for energy. "Massive projects have been planned in recent years," says Shaffer, "such as the Nabucco Pipeline, to bring Central Asia's natural gas by way of the Caspian Sea and Georgia to the Mediterranean. We can forget about that project now. Russia has made that very clear. Russia did not invade Kazakhstan, but rather a small country that is a bottleneck between Central Asia and the West. No one will want to take the risk of angering the Russians again."

Beginnings of a new world order?

But Russia's message is not merely economic. "Several regimes in this region are wondering about where they are headed," says Shaffer. "America's blatant abandonment of its best friend in the region, President Saakashvili, will certainly prompt a policy reevaluation in countries like Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. If until now these states were certain that it was in their best interest to befriend the Americans - and we saw how they responded to the war in Afghanistan - now they may think it more worthwhile to befriend Iran or Russia. Maybe these two states can protect them where the Americans have failed. From the point of view of U.S. foreign policy, this conclusion has very negative repercussions. The Russian invasion of Georgia exposed the Europeans and Americans' bluff, and left the Georgians on their own. I would even go so far as to say that maybe the presidents of Afghanistan and Iraq are already considering their next steps." This week's unprecedented support for Saakashvili by the presidents of Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania and Estonia indicates that the picture extends beyond the Caucasus. Alexander Rahr, a member of Germany's Council on Foreign Relations and author of a biography of Vladimir Putin, believes this marks the beginning of a new world order. "Bush's legacy is a foreign policy disaster," says Rahr. "The dream of democratizing the Middle East has been shattered. As his final months in office approached, he was at least trying to bring Ukraine and Georgia closer to NATO, and now that won't happen. He tried to install missiles in the Czech Republic and in Poland, and that won't happen either. It turns out that American influence has its limits, and that Russia has regained a sphere of influence. This is no longer the Russia of the 1990s, beaten and bruised, unable to act on behalf of its own interests. Russia is now in a position to respond, and that is exactly what it did.

"A very similar crisis could develop in the Crimean peninsula, which now belongs to Ukraine, but used to belong to Russia, and has a large Russian population. Now everyone realizes that the Russians are serious. The same thing could also happen in Azerbaijan. Public opinion in those countries could change - from pro-Western to not wanting to rankle the Russian neighbor." Rahr also feels this week's events could affect a possible military campaign against Iran, too. "America's space for maneuver has shrunk," he says, "both strategically and logistically. Now it will be much harder for America to operate in Russia's southern part. Diplomatically, too, Russia's voice will increasingly be heard."

Twilight of U.S. hegemony

The roaring of the Russian artillery near Tbilisi, which clearly revealed that the issue was not South Ossetia but rather Russia's status in the world, also prompted a reevaluation by Sovietologists and Russian historians.

"This is without a doubt a founding moment," says Anne Applebaum, a historian and author of the international best-seller "Gulag: A History." "This week the Russians set an example. Just like when they killed journalist Anna Politkovskaya. There is no need to kill all the country's journalists. One is enough, and all the rest get the message. That's what [Russia] did this week: There is no need to invade all the countries in the region, but they will all get the message.

"In recent years we have seen a deterioration in the human rights situation in Russia," Applebaum continues. "Now it is clear that rising Russian nationalism will extend beyond the country's borders. This week's events also made it clear that the belief that only the U.S. can flex its muscles is mistaken. They marked the end of an era in which the U.S. behaved like the only superpower. It was interesting to follow the events on a split-screen television, showing both the amazing spectacle China organized for the opening of the Olympic Games and pictures from Georgia. We saw two new superpowers, evincing different behavior, of course, but which completely undermine America's global hegemony. We saw history in the making, right before our eyes."

Historian Simon Sebag-Montefiore, author of two biographies of Josef Stalin, believes this is "the start of the twilight of America's sole world hegemony.

"The retaking of Ossetia is a minor part of the Russian campaign," says Montefiore, who has visited Georgia many times and is personally acquainted with the three presidents who have headed the country since the Soviet Union's disintegration. "More significant is the attack on Georgia proper, which reasserts Russia's hegemony over the Caucasus and defies American superpowerdom.

"The prospect of encirclement by triumphant America infuriated Russia," he continues. "Imagine if newly independent Wales joined the Warsaw Pact. This war is really a celebration of ferocious force in the realm of international power, a dangerous precedent. Russia has demonstrated the limits of U.S. power and Moscow's historic destiny as regional and world superpower. The Empire has struck back and shaken the order of the world."

Israel and the US behind the Georgian aggression?

There is an obvious Israeli involvement in the present conflict between Georgia and Russia. There are hundreds of Israeli military advisers in Georgia and this is not just the claim of the rather unreliable DebkaFile but also the more respected Ha'aretz expert Yossi Melman, the daily Ma'ariv and also the rather reliable website "News First Class" (NFC).

Melman wrote on 25.6.2008 that Georgia became a real El Dorado for Israeli arms dealers and numerous representatives of the army and intelligence services. Some former generals like Israel Ziv and Gal Hirsh (with his company Defensive Shield) are very active there.

"Gal Hirsh and Israel Ziv are mainly training and consulting Georgian arm units. They are using the "chain" method common among Israeli arm dealers: a main contractor wins a tender and employs then sub-contractors – in this case Israeli officers and former Shin Beth employees," wrote Melman.

According to him there was a project to sell Merkava tanks to Georgia, but allegedly the Israeli foreign ministry prevented the deal and a policy was outlined that only defensive weapons are allowed to be sold.

Just the same Russia protested agains the Israeli military support to Georgia after an Israeli produced UAV was shot down. On August 5 Israel reiterated its official policy that it allegedly sells only defensive and not offensive weapon systems to Georgia. This is the version published e.g. in the Jerusalem Post; other sources, like the Israeli daily Ma'ariv on 8.8, claim that Israel decided to stop altogether the military support to Georgia. Just the same Ma’ariv points out that the Georgian defense minister, David Kezerashvili, lived for a while in Israel and speaks Hebrew. In a lengthy article the military exports to Georgia are described. Ma’ariv estimates them to be of a value of at least USD 300 million. An Israeli marketing expert told Ma'ariv: "To every Israeli agent representing an Israeli defense company is attached a cousin of the defense minister, who opens the doors for him."

Also NFC confirms the massive presence of Israeli advisers in Georgia and writes: "The Israeli military industries upgraded in recent years the Georgian air force, sold unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), advanced artillery systems and trained infantry units." (9.8) The NFC claims that according to sources in Washington in Moscow the war started because Georgia wants to reverse Israel’s decision and achieve the continuation of the support. Israel, according to NFC, conceded to the Russian threatening that it would otherwise go through with the sale of its most advanced anti-aircraft missile system S-300 to Iran and Syria.

Actually the opposite conclusion is also possible, namely that Israel wants to pressure Russia not to sell the S-300 and stop its support to Iran.

The Israeli website DebkaFile, that is known to publish mainly conspiracy theories, believes that up to 1,000 Israeli advisors are active in planning and implementing the present Georgian military action (8.8). This conclusion sounds plausible.

Actually it has to be taken into consideration that also U.S. "consultants" are helping the Georgian army, as according to Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, there are 127 U.S. military trainers there, of whom about 35 are civilian contractors.

In addition to the trainers, 1,000 soldiers from the Vicenza, Italy-based Southern European Task Force (Airborne) and the Kaiserslautern-based 21st Theater Sustainment Command, along with Marine reservists with the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines out of Ohio, and the state of Georgia’s Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry participated in "Immediate Response 2008."

Operation Immediate Response 2008 was held from July 15-July 30, with U.S. personnel training about 600 troops at a former Soviet base near Tbilisi, the largest city and capital of Georgia. The goal of this operation was allegedly teaching combat skills for missions in Iraq. The Marines left already the country, but not the airmen.

It is obvious that there are numerous Israeli and U.S. interests in Georgia and it is highly likely that they are behind the dangerous Georgian move.



Posted by uruknet.info
:: Article nr. 46326 sent on 10-aug-2008 12:31 ECT


www.uruknet.info?p=46326

Israel returns Lebanese prisoners

Sameer Alqantar free from prison






Five Lebanese prisoners have been handed over to the Hezbollah movement by Israel, as part of a swap for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers.

The freed men arrived to a heroes' welcome at the Naqoura border crossing on Wednesday, just hours after Israel received coffins containing the remains of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, two Israeli army reservists captured in 2006.

The prisoners released were Samir Kuntar, who was jailed for three murders in Israel in 1979, and four men captured during the 34-day war sparked by the capture of Goldwasser and Regev.

They were the last remaining Lebanese in Israeli custody.

Hezbollah also received the bodies of almost 200 people, including the body of Dalal al-Maghrebi, a female fighter with the Palestinian Fatah movement.

Cheering supporters

The prisoners were brought across the border in a convoy of four International Committee of the Red Cross vehicles before changing in military fatigues to greet crowds of well-wishers.

Kuntar wiped away tears as he stood in front of the cheering crowd.

"We knew that you were waiting for the resistance and it reached you. You came back free and heroes," Ibrahim Amin al-Sayed, head of Hezbollah's political bureau, said.

The five men then boarded Lebanese army helicopters for a flight to Beirut, to be received by the country's president, prime minister and other officials.

"Your return is a new victory and the future with you will only be a shinning march in which we achieve the sovereignty of our land and the freedom of people," Michel Sleiman, the president, said at the airport.

"I tell Samir and his companions that they have a right to be proud of their country, their army and their resistance."

In south Beirut, tens of thousands of people, many of them waving Hezbollah's green and yellow flag, waited for the men to arrive at a huge rally during which Hassan Nasrallah, the group's leader, was expected to speak.

Hezbollah named the exchange "Operation Radwan", in honour of Imad Moughniyah, known as "Hajj Radwan", the group's military commander who was assassinated in Syria in February.

Israelis sombre

In contrast to the upbeat mood in Lebanon, the scene across the border in Israel was sombre.

At the family home of reservist Regev, a crowd of about 50 mourners gathered and his family wept, seeing their son's coffin displayed on television for the first time.

"It was hard to see one coffin being lowered to the ground and then another one. It was awful to see it. I asked them to turn off the television because I didn't want to see it," Regev's father Zvi told public radio.

"We always hoped that Eldad and Udi would return home alive and that we would be able to hug them."

Before the exchange there had been speculation that at least one of the Israeli soldiers had been alive, but Hezbollah TV confirmed that both were dead.

"The Lebanese people sacrificed almost 800 soldiers, its entire economy," he said. "For what? For the killer of a three-year-old girl? Is that a hero? For me he is nothing more than a little bigot."

'Difficult decision'

Miri Eisin, a former aide to Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, said Israel found the release of Kuntar an "incredibly difficult decision".

"Today in Israel we are mainly reflecting on the price we pay in our country to defend our borders," she told Al Jazeera.

David Chater, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Rosh Hanikra on the Israeli side of the border, said that the Israeli cabinet had "agonised" over the exchange.

"[They] voted in favour of it against the advice of the Israeli intelligence service ... which thinks it will only encourage kidnappings," he said. "But the bulk of Israeli public opinion is behind this deal".

Robert Fisk, a Middle East expert and journalist with the Independent newspaper, told Al Jazeera: "It's regarded as being the final chapter of the 2006 war."

"The Israelis certainly lost that war, they did not get their prisoners back - not until now and they're getting them back dead. So more than 1,000 Lebanese civilians and more than 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers, all died for absolutely nothing and that's what today's prisoner exchanges prove."

Lebanon has declared a national holiday to celebrate the prisoner swap.

"This is a big day because it's the day we [Lebanon] have the liberation of four or five heroes," Wassim Manssouri, a professor in constitutional law at Beirut's Lebanese University, told Al Jazeera from the capital.

Palestinian reaction

Celebrations were also under way in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.

"The exchange is seen as a victory for Arab resistance," Nour Odeh, Al Jazeera's correspondent, in the West Bank, said.

Kuntar is a member of Lebanon's Druze population.

Walid Jumblatt, Lebanon's Druze leader, told Al Jazeera: "My father was the founder of a Lebanese-Palestinian coalition to fight Israel and recover the Palestinians' rights. My father would be happy."

"I am happy [too], but we should not forget the Palestinians who are detained in their own land," he said.

The Hezbollah exchange has prompted the public in Arab countries such as Jordan and Egypt - which have both signed peace deals with Israel - to question why their governments have not been able to repatriate the bodies of their soldiers.
Posted By Aljazeer.net

Trauma prosecute Israeli soldiers anniversary of the war in Lebanon

On the second anniversary of the war in Lebanon, which coincides with the second today, Saturday, the channel revealed that one third of the Jewish tenth soldiers participants infected with the psychological shock of Israeli views differ on the impact of war on Israel strategically.

The channel According to army figures that about 800 Israeli soldiers are still scenes and sounds of war and pursued a nightmare, and that they are infected with "shock of war" and that the army is mostly "disabled" psychologically.

The channel by a competent bodies in the army that the number of soldiers infected with anguish after the shock result of the horrors of the Second Lebanon war and viciousness of resistance, far exceeds the number mentioned because of a tendency not to permit people living with suspected shocked.

Mentally disabled

And the channel added that the proportion of Canal reservist soldiers traumatized by the whole amount to 60% infected, pointing out that given the magnitude of the numbers fighting traumatized psychological effects of the war in Lebanon is the second highest in the history of the wars of Israel.

Manifested symptoms of traumatized soldiers not to focus at work, insomnia and tension and lasting decline in the post injured husband and father.

The President of the Assembly of service "in the war traumatized" Brigadier General Uri Segl in a statement on radio today, wounding the soldier to be reported in the absence of processing including shield them beforehand.

He disclosed that Israel Segl morally city of its soldiers injured psychologically, considering them "disabled" and that there are about 5000 troops suffered shock today enrolled in the Department of Mental Health's army, stressing the presence of tens of thousands of others are not receiving the recognition or fear of detection as they are exposed.

Erase memory

According to local commentators are preoccupied Israelis investigating the new developments with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on issues Filsad has dominated the political scene and media for the second anniversary of the war on Lebanon, perhaps reflecting the desire of Israelis popular and officially erase those from the collective memory.

For his part, Olmert said in statements to local Arabic newspapers yesterday that calm continued, "unfamiliar" by the northern border is a significant achievement for the war, while the Defense Minister Ehud Barak told reporters yesterday that Hezbollah will regain strength in the south under the "erosion of the resolution Volitional "1701

Deterrence force

In return for warnings that the loss of the war deterrent force struck the Israeli, Dror is Dr. Zeev specialist in the history of the Middle East, told Army Radio that Israel did not lose power deterred even after the war in Lebanon, but stressed that this force has shown limited.

From the military point of view finds commander in the army Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, Israel will triumph in the coming war, though not updated draw lessons from the Lebanon War II and military exercises, also said the military correspondent in the "Yediot Ahronot" Alex Ashman Friday.

Ashman said that the army afflicts hundreds of lessons to learn the lessons of Lebanon War II but preferred Pivoting in three of them: Facing the crisis of confidence in Israeli society toward the army after losing in Lebanon, and updating professional deficiencies, and put the right man in the right place.

Winning and loosing

In the opinion specialist in Arab-Israeli conflict Shlomo Prum, the balance of the Lebanon War II was still negative for Israel, shows that there is almost unanimous agreement that Israel has paid a heavy price in war the result of "lack of military exercises."

On the other hand, refers Prum in a statement to the island today to the Net difference in opinion about the state of Israel's deterrent power after the war, and says it is not possible to ignore the tranquillity in the northern front, in an allusion "to Artdaa Hezbollah for provocation and playing with fire" as he put it.

According to that excluding the Secretary General of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah, appearing publicly until today, but it also refers to "crash resolution 1701, and doubled the smuggling of arms and military infrastructure renewal of the resistance in the south."
Posted by Aljazeera and translated by NewsClock.com