Zionist Crusade Watch

'Chosen' Jewish Zionist Settlers steal more Palestinian Land

2008-09-11T18:45:00.001-07:00

Well their Talmud does permit stealing, so why not? From Gulf News:

Israeli authorities and colonists have seized large tracts of land in the occupied West Bank for security zones around Jewish colonies beyond an Israeli-built barrier, a human rights group said on Thursday.

In a new report, the Israeli B'Tselem group said some 12 colonies east of the barrier had been fenced off under an official "Special Security Area" (SSA) plan, blocking Palestinian farmers from reaching their fields.

B'Tselem, which opposes Israeli colonies on territory occupied in the 1967 Middle East war, estimated that the overall area of some colonies in the plan had more than doubled.
Supreme court

Some 70,000 colonists live beyond the barrier of barbed wire-tipped fences and cement walls Israel is constructing in the West Bank, and security authorities view their colonies as particularly vulnerable to attack.

Asked about the B'Tselem report, the Israeli army said it had established security zones around colonies after they had been attacked repeatedly by Palestinians resulting in the deaths of dozens of Israeli civilians.

"The use of these zones has been approved a number of times by the Israeli Supreme Court.
Any building in these zones is illegal," the army said.

B'Tselem said it could give only a rough estimate of the total territory closed to Palestinians but that at least 456 hectares had been "unofficially annexed" outside the 12 colonies. It said half of the closed-off land was privately owned by Palestinians.

Control of the land, the report said, was achieved by fencing it off or through attacks by colonists and sometimes soldiers against Palestinians who ventured near it.

A spokesman for the Yesha Settler's Council, an umbrella group for Israelis living in the West Bank, said taking control of the areas was a necessary security measure.

"It must be clear to B'Tselem that if their demands are heeded, it will be easier to murder Jews," Yishai Hollander said.

Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon has proposed offering compensation to colonists living beyond the West Bank barrier who agree to move to Israel or to major colony enclaves it intends to keep in any peace deal with the Palestinians.

Israel says the barrier, deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice because it is being built on occupied territory, keeps Palestinian suicide bombers out of its cities.

The Palestinians call the project a land grab and say colony expansion could deny them a viable and contiguous state in the West Bank.

US Sanction Iran's shipping sector

2008-09-11T18:42:00.000-07:00

More provocative acts by the Hawkish crusading American Goverment, from Gulf News:

The United States sought to increase pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme on Wednesday by imposing sanctions against its national maritime carrier and 18 affiliates, targeting much of its shipping sector.

The US Treasury Department said the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), Iran's national maritime carrier, and the affiliates provided logistical support for Iran's Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics and that they lied about their activities.

The department said it was banning any transactions between US citizens and IRISL and its affiliates and would try to freeze any assets the companies have under US jurisdiction.

The sanctions are the latest US step to raise pressure against Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, a process that can produce fuel for atomic power plants or for nuclear weapons.

"Not only does IRISL facilitate the transfer of cargo for UN-designated proliferators, it also falsifies documents and uses deceptive schemes to shroud its involvement in illicit commerce," Stuart Levey, Treasury's under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.

He accused Iran of a broad pattern of lies and deception to advance its nuclear and missile programmes.

Iran's UN Mission said the new sanctions were another display of US hostility toward Iran based on false claims about Tehran's nuclear programme.

"Such actions on the part of the United States are counterproductive, will not help in finding a solution to resolving any issues, and would only make the situation more complicated," the mission said in a statement.

IRISL is a global operator with a worldwide network of subsidiaries and connects Iranian exporters and importers with South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Insurers under pressure

Washington and its allies are urging international insurance companies to make sure that they are implementing UN sanctions against Iran, a senior US Treasury Department official said on Wednesday.

Daniel Glaser, the Treasury Department's deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, said it was important for insurers to be "as vigilant as possible, both in the area of maritime insurance and in the area of reinsurance".

The United States has been interpreting three UN Security Council sanctions resolutions as broadly as possible and has long been pushing global financial institutions to sever ties with Iran due to suspicions it has a covert nuclear weapons programme, diplomats and government officials have said.

In recent months, diplomats in say, Washington and its European allies have turned their attention on the insurance industry so that the world's top insurers would refrain from providing coverage to Iranian companies or firms doing business with Iran.

'Wipe Out the Muslim Race' The New Game on the Block.

2008-09-11T18:35:00.000-07:00

Yet again the west shows its ugly double standard face, from Islamonline:

A computer game featuring an American hero sent to "wipe out the Muslim race" is sparking outrage among British Muslims.

"Encouraging children and young people in a game to kill Muslims is unacceptable, tasteless and deeply offensive," Mohammed Shafiq, Chief Executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, said in a statement on the group's website.

The "Muslim Massacre" game features players controlling an American Hero, armed with a machine gun and a rocket launcher, parachuted into the Middle East.

"The United States of America has declared war on Islam! Take control of the American hero and wipe out the Muslim race with an arsenal of the world's most destructive weapons," reads the game's website.

Users progress through levels, first killing Muslims who appear on screen and later taking on Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him) and finally Allah.

"If it was the other way around, with a game featuring Muslims killing Israelis or Americans, there would be uproar and rightly so," said Shafiq.

First released in January, the game has recently become popular after being linked to by several prominent blogs.

Its creator, a US-born programmer Eric Vaughn, aka Sigvatr, describes it as "fun and funny".
Glorifying Violence

Britain's leading Muslim youth organization said the game is inciting violence and racial hatred.

"There is an increase in violence in this country and some of it comes from video games," said Shafiq.

"When kids spend six hours a day on violent games they are more likely to go outside and commit violence."

The Ramadhan Foundation called on authorities and internet service providers to act against such games.

"We have written to the British Government to urge an inquiry into this game and take action to shut down the site," said Shafiq.

"We urge ISP providers to take action to remove this site from their services as it incites
violence towards Muslims and is trying to justify the killing of innocent Muslims," he added.

"This game is glorifying the killing of Muslims in the Middle East….This is not satire but a deliberate attempt to demonize Muslims.

"If it was the other way around, with a game featuring Muslims killing Israelis or Americans, there would be uproar and rightly so.

If this were the other way round the Islamophobes would be screaming. In fact this is nothing new, there are several games, comics, and movies that demonize and call for Muslims to be destroyed. Yet Islamophobes like to ignore this and always point the finger at the Muslims, offcourse when they do things like this its only 'fun' and 'funny' and its not a big deal. Indeed when dozens of Muslims are killed by their armies its not a big deal at all, but simply collateral damage, as if we Muslims are worth nothing but collateral damage.

Israeli Minister Apologizes over Athletes racist Chinease slures

2008-09-10T13:04:00.000-07:00

Do you really believe that the minister or the athlete are actually sorry? Just imagine someone said this about the Israelis or Jews. From the Associated Press:

Israeli Cabinet minister called the Chinese ambassador Wednesday to apologize after Israel's only Beijing Olympics medalist used a curse to describe the Chinese in a newspaper interview.

Israeli windsurfing bronze medalist Shahar Zubari used a scatological expletive to describe the Chinese in an interview with the Yediot Ahronot daily on Friday. "After a month and a half I couldn't look at Chinese people any more," Zubari said.

"Their traditions are bizarre and even their speech is weird," he said, adding, "I also don't like their food." He later apologized.

Sport and Culture Minister Galeb Majadle called Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jun to condemn Zubari's comments, which he called "despicable."

Majadle, who attended the Olympics, told the ambassador that they "do not reflect the views of the Israeli people toward the Chinese people," and praised the Chinese for their hospitality during the Games, according to a statement from Majadle's office.

Zubari published an apology in Yediot on Tuesday. "I want to apologize from the bottom of my heart" for the comments, he said, explaining they were made "without thinking."

Officials from the Chinese Embassy were not available for comment on Wednesday.

Something for Islamophobes to cry about

2008-09-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

From Islamonline:

Chechnya's once war-shattered capital Grozny is set to finally receive a grand mosque that is going to be the largest not only in the Muslim-majority country but Europe as well.

"Ceremony of opening is planned for October 17," President Ramzan Kadyrov told the Russian news agency Interfax on Wednesday, September 10.

The inauguration will mark the first day of the International Peacemakers' Conference, titled "Islam - Religion of Peace and Progress," Kadyrov added.

The mosque will be able to accommodate over 10,000 worshipers and has minarets that soar 180 feet into the air.

It will be surrounding be Chechnya's Islamic administration, a religious school, an Islamic university, a hotel and a religious library.

The mosque is tipped as the biggest not only in the mountainous republic in the North Caucasus region but in Europe as well.

The construction began more than three years ago at an estimated coast of some $20 million.
The mosque is named after the incumbent president's father Ahmad Kadyrov, who was killed in 2004.

Long Awaited

President Kadyrov noted that the first grand mosque came after a long wait.

"People of the Chechen Republic first time in sixty years will have a possibility to have a grand mosque in Grozny and conduct Islamic religious rites there."

He noted that under the Soviet regime, there was not a single main mosque in Chechnya.

"All the mosques were closed, destroyed and robbed in the Chechen Republic more than 60 years ago," Kadyrov recalled.

"Up to now residents of the republican capital didn't have an opportunity to pray in one, main mosque, though it is usual for all Islamic states and regions where Islam is practiced."

The mosque's foundation rests on the grounds of the former headquarters of the Communist Party's regional committee.

It is situated beside the ruins of another, much smaller mosque that was being constructed by Chechen fighters in the 1990's.

Chechnya has been ravaged by conflict since 1994, with just three years of relative peace after the first war between Russian forces and Chechen fighters ended in August 1996 and the second broke out in October 1999.

At least 100,000 civilians -- about 10 percent of the population -- are estimated to have been killed in both wars.

Human rights groups, however, say the real numbers are much higher.

Israeli Prime Minister should be Indicted

2008-09-07T11:11:00.000-07:00

From the BBC:

Israeli police have recommended to prosecutors that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert be indicted in a corruption investigation, Israeli media report.

The decision about whether to indict Mr Olmert now rests with Attorney General Meni Mazuz.
Mr Olmert has already announced that he will resign later this month because of the multiple corruption investigations he is facing.

He has consistently denied all the accusations against him.

The ruling Kadima party is to hold a leadership vote on 17 September.

Fabled Enemies

2008-09-06T16:43:00.000-07:00

A very interesting documentary concerning 9-11 has just come out and is availible on the net. I recommend people to watch this documentary:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2144933190875239407&ei=7QrDSNmLGIiuiALup7y-BQ&q=fabled+enemies

This documentary shot up to number one on Google video.

Unmarked Police Vans abduct Peaceful Protesters

2008-09-05T09:59:00.000-07:00

Those damn IslamoFascist's are trying to stop freedom of speech again! Errr. From the RawStory:

A half-dozen representatives of the so-called Republican National Convention Welcoming Committee met with the media in a St. Paul, MN press conference on Thursday to condemn the widescale police raids and arrests that have targeted protesters in that city this week.

The strongest accusations were made by RNC Welcoming Committee co-founder William Gillis, who has been among those planning the protests for the last two years. "Police kicked down doors with guns drawn on families with their children at dinnertime," Gillis charged. "Reporters and the media at large have been repeatedly targeted for repression. Activists have been abducted off the street in unmarked vans and political prisoners held without access to medical attention.

"The allegation about police use of unmarked vans was apparently first made on August 31 by RAW STORY contributor Lindsay Beyerstein, who was reporting on the convention for FireDogLake. She wrote that "ColdSnap is reporting 9 arrests downtown near the Excel center" and then added in an update, "One of the 9 protesters arrested was a nun, seen being loaded into an unmarked blue van. The 9 were apparently trying to climb a fence near a church.

" All nine were released later that day.Other representatives of the protesters used the press conference to affirm that they were not terrorists. Betsy Raash-Gilman, a twenty-year veteran (doc) of non-violent activism, stated, "There are no terrorists up here. There are no terrorists in the Ramsey County jail. There are terrorists in the Xcel Center. There are terrorists in the White House."

US spied on Iraqi Prime Minister

2008-09-05T09:53:00.000-07:00

This highlights why the Quran made it clear that one must not be allies with none-Muslims, especially Neocon Christians, from the RawStory:

Bob Woodward, the journalist partly responsible for bringing about President Nixon's resignation during the Watergate scandal, will see his new book on the Bush Administration published Monday. And while the volume is a lengthy study of the administration's failures, even Sen. John McCain, now the GOP nominee to the presidency, does not escape the light of his pen.

"Everything is f*cking spin," says McCain in the new book, "The War Within," of the Bush Administration. Fox News, which secured a copy of Woodward's book ahead of its release, brought the details to light in a Thursday report.

Coming on the eve of McCain's acceptance speech to the GOP, the report appears as little more than spin itself. Fox reported the quote without context.Spin or none, it will be difficult for the administration to step back from some of Woodward's other revelations.

"Groundbreaking" new covert techniques, and not the troop "surge," was behind the drop in violence in Iraq, he writes. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, along with his staff, were these techniques' guinea pigs, and were wrapped tightly in a web of next-generation spying.

Employing these unspecified techniques against Maliki and aides allowed US forces to "hear every word he says," states a Thursday night report from the Washington Post."Overall, Woodward writes, four factors combined to reduce the violence: the covert operations; the influx of troops; the agreement by militant cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to rein in his powerful Mahdi Army; and the so-called Anbar Awakening, in which tens of thousands of Sunnis turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq and allied with U.S. forces," reports the Post.

"The War Within" is Woodward's fourth book on the Bush Administration, but only the second to veer into criticism of the president. "The book portrays an administration riven by dissension, either unwilling or slow to confront the deterioration of its strategy in Iraq during the summer and early fall of 2006," says the Post.

"Publicly, Bush maintained that U.S. forces were 'winning'; privately, he came to believe that the military's long-term strategy of training Iraq security forces and handing over responsibility to the new Iraqi government was failing. Eventually, Woodward writes, the president lost confidence in the two military commanders overseeing the war: Gen. George W. Casey Jr., then commander of coalition forces in Iraq, and Gen. John P. Abizaid, then head of U.S. Central Command.

""Calling Bush 'the nation’s most divisive figure,' Woodward criticized the president for failing to fulfill what some might view as impossible expectations."'He had not rooted out terror wherever it existed,' Woodward scolded," said Fox. "'He had not achieved world peace.

He had not attained victory in his two wars.'"The Washington Post, where Woodward currently serves as an associate editor, will run excerpts on Sept. 7. That night, Woodward will be interviewed on CBS television's "60 Minutes."Woodward's literary representative, Washington attorney Robert Barnett, declined comment when asked whether President Bush, who spoke with Woodward for the first two volumes, had been interviewed for the current book.

"There has not been such an authoritative and intimate account of presidential decision making since the Nixon tapes and the Pentagon Papers," Woodward's longtime editor, Alice Mayhew, said. "This is the declassification of what went on in secret, behind the scenes."

Sarah Palin: Iraq War "A Task from God'

2008-09-04T06:05:00.000-07:00

More proof that this war in Iraq was and is being instigated by these crazy evangelical right wing neocon crusaders in the Republican party who should simply be called the Crusader party, from the Associated Press:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a "task that is from God."

In an address last June, the Republican vice presidential candidate also urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state, calling it "God's will."

Palin asked the students to pray for the troops in Iraq, and noted that her eldest son, Track, was expected to be deployed there.

"Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God," she said. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God's plan."

A video of the speech was posted at the Wasilla Assembly of God's Web site before finding its way on to other sites on the Internet.

Palin told graduating students of the church's School of Ministry, "What I need to do is strike a deal with you guys." As they preached the love of Jesus throughout Alaska, she said, she'd work to implement God's will from the governor's office, including creating jobs by building a pipeline to bring North Slope natural gas to North American markets.

"God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that," she said.

"I can do my job there in developing our natural resources and doing things like getting the roads paved and making sure our troopers have their cop cars and their uniforms and their guns, and making sure our public schools are funded," she added. "But really all of that stuff doesn't do any good if the people of Alaska's heart isn't right with God."

Palin attended the evangelical church from the time she was a teenager until 2002, the church said in a statement posted on its Web site. She has continued to attend special conferences and meetings there. Religious conservatives have welcomed her selection as John McCain's running mate.

Rob Boston, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, lamented Palin's comments.

"I miss the days when pastors delivered sermons and politicians delivered political speeches," he said. "The United States is increasingly diverse religiously. The job of a president is to unify all those different people and bring them together around policy goals, not to act as a kind of national pastor and bring people to God."

The section of the church's Web site where videos of past sermons were posted was shut down Wednesday, and a message was posted saying that the site "was never intended to handle the traffic it has received in the last few days."

Thanks to Christians there wont be peace in the Philippines

2008-09-03T09:51:00.001-07:00

It seems they are more happy to continue with their oppression, From IslamOnline:

The Philippine government has ended peace talks with the country's largest Muslim group, junking an 11-year peace process to solve the conflict in the Muslim-majority south.

"There are no more talks," presidential spokesman Jesus Dureza told Reuters on Wednesday, September 3.

"We're dissolving the peace panel. You don't need it when you're ending talks with an armed group.

"We'll start consulting with the people on the ground and find out how can we resolve the Muslim problem."

Manila and the MILF were supposed to sign a peace deal last month to end the four-decade conflict in the south.

But the Supreme Court froze the deal over protests from Christian groups, angering some MILF commanders to launch attacks in the south.

The deal had called for the establishment of a Muslim ancestral homeland in the south with its own "basic law," police and internal security force.

The region would have been allowed to run its own banking and finance system, civil service, education and legislative and electoral institutions.

It would also have been given full authority to develop and dispose of minerals and other natural resources within its territory.

No Peace Deal

Manila also said it would no longer sign a draft peace deal with the MILF to establish a Muslim homeland in the south.

"In light of recent violent incidents committed by lawless violent groups, the government will not sign the MOA-AD (memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain)," President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said in a statement.

"There will be no peace gained through violence, no peace agreement can and will be reached through intimidation or the barrel of a gun."

The move signals a dramatic change in Arroyo's long-standing policy of continuing a peace process with the MILF to end the conflict in the south before her presidential term expires in 2010.

Manila has been in on-off talks with the MILF since 1997 to end the four-decade conflict that has
killed 120,000 people.

The MILF said the government decision shows intention to step up military attacks in the Muslim-majority region.

"I don't want to imagine that happening, but the MILF is prepared for any offensive," MILF's chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"We have to invoke our right to self-defense."

Mineral-rich Mindanao, Islam's birthplace in the Philippines, is home to ore than 5 million Muslims.

Muslims make up nearly 8 percent of the total populace in Catholic Philippines, which Islam reached in the 13th century about 200 years before Christianity.

Christian Reverend admits to owning 56,000 child pornographic pictures

2008-09-03T09:43:00.000-07:00

What can you say? From ITN:

A vicar is behind bars after admitting possessing more than 56,000 indecent images of children.The Rev Richard Hart, 59, also pleaded guilty to taking, and making, indecent photographs of children.

The images possessed by Hart ranged from category one to category five, the most serious on the scale, Cardiff Crown Court heard.

The vicar admitted 12 charges of making indecent photographs between 1999 and 2007, and four of taking such images in July 1991.

He also admitted possessing 52,240 photographs under category one, 2,419 under category two, 684 under category three, 1,445 under category four and 44 under category five - a total of 56,832.

Hart, of Whopshott Avenue, Horsell, Woking, was remanded in custody by Judge John Curran, and did not apply for bail. He will be sentenced later this month.

Hart became vicar of the rural parish of Beguildy, near Knighton, Mid Wales, in 2001, and was suspended when the allegations came to light in January.

Speaking outside court, a Church in Wales spokesman said he was "saddened" by the offences.
Canon Robert Jones, diocesan child protection officer for Swansea and Brecon, said: "The Church

in Wales is deeply saddened and shocked that one of its clerics has pleaded guilty to such very serious offences involving the use of indecent images of children.

"To us, it is of particular concern that these offences should have occurred at a time when he held a very responsible and privileged position in one of our church communities.

The matter is being referred to the Church in Wales disciplinary tribunal, which will decide if he can continue as a priest. No date has yet been set.

Former Priest faces 90 sex charges

2008-09-03T07:59:00.000-07:00

I guess these preachers do really love! From the AFP:

A former Catholic priest has been charged with 60 fresh offences relating to sex assaults on boys while he was working at a prestigious boarding school in the 1970s and 80s, reports said

Wednesday. Police would not confirm the identity of the man, saying only that they had arrested a 65-year-old on Tuesday in southwestern Sydney and that he has since been released on bail.

"He was taken to Hurstville police station where he was charged with 60 matters relating to historic sexual assault," a New South Wales police spokeswoman told AFP.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation said the suspect was a former Catholic priest who taught at St Stanislaus' College in Bathurst, west of Sydney, in the 1970s and 80s.

The college made headlines last month after former students came forward alleging they were molested during late-night prayer sessions.

The former priest has already appeared in Bathurst Local Court in August on 33 other charges relating to sexual assault and gross acts of indecency on juveniles aged between 10 and 18.

Reports said his court appearance prompted eight more alleged victims to make further allegations against the former cleric.

The man's lawyer, Greg Walsh, said his client had emphatically denied the allegations and he was concerned that the latest complaints had emerged only "as a result of gross contamination" in the media.

"The real concern here is whether someone such as my client can obtain a fair trial in these circumstances," he told Sydney's Daily Telegraph.

Police have said that no current teachers at St Stanislaus' are under suspicion but have refused to reveal whether other former staff were involved in the alleged abuse.

College principal John Edwards has said that police had previously served him with a search warrant which listed the names of three former staff members.

In July, Pope Benedict XVI publicly expressed his "shame" over the "evils" of clerical child abuse during a visit to Australia, saying he was "deeply sorry" for the abuse of children by predatory priests.

NATO forces kill several innocent civillians

2008-09-03T07:50:00.000-07:00

The lovely respect for humanity is displayed yet again, From the Associated Press:

Pakistan's government says a cross-border raid involving U.S.-led or NATO forces killed several civilians in a village near the Afghan border.

A statement from the Foreign Ministry described the raid in the South Waziristan region as a ground attack supported by air assets based in Afghanistan.

It said the attack caused "immense loss of civilian life" and called it a "gross violation" of Pakistani territory.

The statement said such strikes undermine joint efforts to fight terrorism.

South Waziristan is considered a militant stronghold, and the U.S. has pushed Pakistan to crackdown on insurgents who use it as a base to stage attacks inside Afghanistan.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — Women and children were among 15 people killed in an attack Wednesday involving U.S.-led forces in a Pakistani village near the border with Afghanistan, officials and a resident said.

1st Lt. Nathan Perry, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, said it had "no information to give" about the alleged operation, while a spokesman for NATO troops there denied any involvement.

The United States and Pakistan, allies in the war on terror, have had tensions over cross-border attacks, including a series of suspected American missile strikes which have killed two senior al-Qaida operatives in Pakistani territory this year.

Officials gave differing accounts of the pre-dawn raid in the South Waziristan region, part of the tribal belt where officials suspect Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri are hiding. It was unclear whether any militant leaders had been killed or captured.

The governor of North West Frontier Province, the chief administrator for the tribal belt, said three coalition helicopter gunships and commandos carried out an "outrageous" attack on a village.

"At least 20 innocent civilians of Pakistan including women and children were martyred," Gov.
Owais Ahmed Ghani said in a statement.

However, Defense Minister Ahmad Mukhtar told reporters in Lahore that homes near the border had been attacked by NATO aircraft and made no mention of ground forces.

Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Murad Khan said it also had reports that 15 people, including women and children, died in the attack near Angoor Ada, a town in South Waziristan.
Officials said both the army and the Foreign Ministry were investigating.

Habib Khan Wazir, an area resident, said the incident occurred in a village called Musa Nikow. Wazir said he heard the sound of helicopters and then an exchange of fire between the assailants and other residents.

"Later, I saw 15 bodies inside and outside two homes. They had been shot in the head," Wazir told an AP reporter by telephone.

He said the dead included women and children and that all were civilians. He claimed that the attackers were American and Afghan troops, and didn't know if any of them had been wounded.

"There was darkness at the time when the Americans came and killed our innocent people," Wazir said. "We would have not allowed them to go back alive if they had come to our village in daylight."

He said the funerals of the slain people would be held in the village later Wednesday.
The U.S. embassy in Islamabad declined to comment.

American officials say Pakistan's tribal regions along the Afghan border have turned into havens for al-Qaida and Taliban-linked militants involved in attacks on U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. South Waziristan is the base for Pakistan's top Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud.

The U.S. has pushed Pakistan to crack down on the militancy inside its territory, and there have been debates in Washington over how far the U.S. can go in carrying out its own strikes.

AP reported last year that U.S. rules of engagement allowed ground forces to go a little over six miles into Pakistan when in hot pursuit, and when forces were targeted or fired on by the enemy. U.S. rules allow aircraft to go 10 miles into Pakistan air space.

Pakistani officials protest that cross-border strikes are a violation of their sovereignty. They plead with U.S. and NATO commanders to share intelligence and allow Pakistani troops to carry out all raids on their territory.

Relations took a hit earlier this year when Pakistan said coalition aircraft bombed one of its border posts, killing 11 troops.

However, the civilian government has also taken a tough line against militants, and sought to persuade a skeptical public that security forces are fighting Islamic extremists for Pakistan's sake, not for Washington.

Ghani, who was appointed governor under ousted ex-President Pervez Musharraf and is expected to be replaced shortly, said Wednesday's incident was a "direct assault" on Pakistan.

"The people of Pakistan expect that the armed forces of Pakistan would rise to defend the sovereignty of the country and give a befitting reply," he said in a statement.

2 Israeli Officers convicted of Murder

2008-09-03T07:46:00.000-07:00

Why are Palestinians angry? Why do Palestinians hate Israeli Zionists? Here's why, From the Associated Press:

Two Israeli border policemen were convicted Wednesday of manslaughter in the 2002 kidnapping and death of a Palestinian teenager on their last day of service in a West Bank city. The men face up to 20 years in prison, the Justice Ministry said.

According to prosecutors, Shachar Botbeka, Denis Alhazov and two other officers spent their last day of service in the West Bank city of Hebron by going on a rampage, throwing tear gas and stun grenades, and abducting Palestinians off the street.

In all, they seized four Palestinians, hustled them into a jeep and beat them with truncheons and rifles, prosecutors said. Two of the Palestinians were hurled from the vehicle as it moved at a high speed.

One of them, 17-year-old Amran Abu Hamadiya, struck his head on the road and died, court documents said. He was tossed out of the jeep after he resisted his tormentors' order to jump, the two policemen have said.

Botbeka "pried the deceased's hands" from the straps of the jeep as it traveled 45- to 50 mph, and helped to throw him out of the vehicle, Judge Orit Efal-Gabbai of Jerusalem District Court wrote in her ruling.

One of the officers shouted, "He's dead, he's dead," but the police officers "abandoned the deceased and continued on their way," while Alzahov videotaped the incident, she said.

Botbeka and Alhazov initially denied the allegations against them, then acknowledged varying degrees of culpability, according to the ruling.

No date for the sentencing has been set.

The two other border policemen in the case have reached separate plea bargains.

Make no mistake people, this happens on a regular basis, which fuels the Palestinian hatred. This verdict and trial is a once in a blue moon episode.

The Lovely Western Family values

2008-09-02T12:21:00.000-07:00

I guess this is the example of lovely family values that westerners keep preaching to us Muslims, from Reuters:

Millionaire businessman Christopher Foster killed his wife and daughter before setting his country mansion alight and taking his own life, police said on Tuesday.They said they were not seeking anyone else in their week-long investigation into the blaze which gutted the family's detached house in Maesbrook, Shropshire.

Foster, his 49-year-old wife Jill and daughter Kirstie, 15, had been missing since a fire tore through Osbaston House early last Tuesday.

The bodies of 50-year-old Foster and his wife were found in the charred ruins of the house on Friday, although Foster's body was not positively identified from dental records till Tuesday, police said.

The location of a third body, found on Sunday, suggested that it was that of the couple's daughter, although further tests were required for a positive identification.

Police said Jill Foster died from a shotgun wound to the head before the fire was started. Causes of death for her husband and their daughter had yet to be established.

"We believe that Mr Foster killed his wife and daughter before setting the fires which destroyed his home ...," Detective Superintendent Jon Groves told a briefing.

He said a rifle discovered near the couple's bodies had been positively identified as belonging to Foster.

"We believe Mr Foster took his own life after setting the house alight."

Police said CCTV footage showed a man they strongly believed to be Foster in the grounds of the mansion in the early hours of last Tuesday with what appeared to be a rifle.

It also showed outbuildings going up in flames around the same time and a large horse box being driven down the driveway, blocking the main gates.

"A man, again believed to be Mr Foster, is seen to get out of the vehicle and apparently shoot out two of the tyres," said Groves.

Detectives have said three horses and four dogs were shot before the fire broke out.

Groves said he had decided to release the latest findings in an attempt to end media speculation about the "complex and unusual" case.

Newspapers said Foster's main company Ulva Ltd, which supplied insulation for oil rigs, went into liquidation last year with debts of nearly one million pounds.

God told me to kill my daughter!

2008-01-29T09:05:00.000-08:00

Just like God told Bush to bomb Iraq! I wonder who this God is? With thanks to brother Noor Adeen who emailed me the article from CBC news:

A B.C. man pleaded not guilty Monday to a second-degree murder charge in the death of his teenage daughter in Kitimat in November 2006, with the accused's lawyer arguing the father was not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder.

In a statement of fact agreed to by the defence and the prosecution, the Terrace court heard that Blair Donnelly was under a lot of stress at the time, and believed God wished him to kill both his wife and daughter.His 16-year-old daughter, Stephanie Joy Donnelly, was found stabbed to death in the family home by her mother on Nov. 23, 2006.

The father was found praying outside a local church with blood on his hands, the court was told.
Until now, few details of the case — which shocked the small B.C. North Coast town — had been released to the public.

Stephanie Donnelly, an accomplished figure skater who coached many younger children, was killed the day before a local figure skating competition.

The trial is scheduled to last three days.

Opposition leader killed in Kenya

2008-01-29T09:01:00.000-08:00

Love your enemy! From the Associated Press:

Gunmen killed an opposition lawmaker in Nairobi and government helicopters fired on crowds in the Rift Valley on Tuesday, the latest flare-up of the ethnic fighting that has gripped Kenya since its disputed presidential election. Under increasing pressure to share power, President Mwai Kibaki and the opposition leader, Raila Odinga, formally opened negotiations but the two remained far apart on the vote outcome — an issue each indicates is not negotiable.

Odinga insisted what needed "the most urgent attention" was the resolution of the flawed election results. Kibaki deplored the fact that some Kenyans "have been incited to hate one another and view each other as enemies."

Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is helping mediate the dispute and Tuesday's meeting.

"The people need you," he told them. "They want you to take charge of the situation and do whatever possible to prevent the downward slide into chaos that is threatening this country."

Mugabe Were, who was shot to death as he drove home, was among a slew of opposition members who won seats in the legislative vote held at the same time as the presidential election. The opposition, which won the most seats in parliament, accuses Kibaki of stealing the presidential vote.

After Were's death, groups of armed youths began gathering in two Nairobi slums. Sabat Abdullah, a slum resident, said a gang hefting machetes dragged a doctor from the president's Kikuyu tribe from his clinic "and then cut and cut until his head was off."

Similar scenes have convulsed western Kenya, where police in helicopters fired on crowds on Tuesday. Since the Dec. 27 election, the death toll across a country once among the most stable in Africa has soared to over 800. Much of the violence has pitted other tribes against Kikuyu, long resented for their dominance of Kenyan politics and business.

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential hopeful whose father was Kenyan, appealed for peace on Nairobi's Capital FM radio station.

"Now is the time for all parties to renounce violence. Now is the time for Kenyan leaders to rise above party affiliations and past ambitions for the sake of peace," Obama said. "Most troubling are new indications that the violence is being organized, planned and coordinated."

In Washington, the State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the ongoing violence underscored the importance of negotiations.

"This is a political dispute and it requires a political solution. The two leaders have to come to some agreement on how that is done," Casey said.

Police said Were's death was being treated "as a murder but we are not ruling out anything, including political motives."

"We suspect the foul hands of our adversaries," Odinga said as he made his way Tuesday to Were's home, where dozens of protesters manned burning barricades of tires and uprooted telephone posts.
Kibaki condemned the killing, appealed for calm and promised police would act swiftly to ensure the perpetrators were dealt with severely.

In the Mathare slum, armed Luo men at a roadblock dragged a Kikuyu man from his car and attacked him with machetes, volunteer aid worker Fospeter Ouma said. "They slashed him so much. I think he must have died," he said.

Angry supporters of Were in the slum area of Dandora, the murdered politician's constituency, set fire to homes and shops owned by Kikuyus and brandished axes and machetes.

Police fired tear gas, and later live bullets, to disperse them, and beat them with clubs. An AP Television cameraman saw a policeman pursue protesters down a mud road, shooting at them with a pistol.

In Western Kenya's Rift Valley, about 5,000 people set fire to homes and smashed shop windows in Naivasha, dragging away goods. Five police officers fired into the air but were unable to control the turmoil. Naivasha's police chief tried to calm the crowd but was pelted with stones and fled in his car.

A police helicopter and two military helicopters then flew over the crowd and officers began shooting, sending people running in panic. A reporter saw two bodies with bullet wounds, but it was unclear whether they were shot by officers in the air or on the ground.

Reporters also watched the helicopters swoop down, with officers firing on a mob of armed Kikuyus pinning down hundreds of Luos outside the Naivasha Country Club. Kikuyus, armed with machetes and clubs inset with nails, had prevented the Luos from escaping for two days.

On Tuesday, police began evacuating them, and police chief Grace Kakai said the helicopters helped.
"There were very big crowds gathering and we had to disperse them so we used helicopter patrols. They were not firing at the crowd. We were trying to scare them, not hurt them," she said. Some 300 Luos were
evacuated, she said.

The Rift Valley has seen some of the worst of the postelection violence. At least 90 people were killed there over the weekend.

Kibaki and Odinga blame each other for the violence, which has driven 255,000 people from their homes. The two men have traded accusations of "ethnic cleansing." Human rights groups and officials charge the violence has become organized.
___

Congo Ceasefire Broken

2008-01-28T13:26:00.000-08:00

I thought Christians dont kill and fight fellow Christians? From Reuters:

Congolese Tutsi rebels and Mai Mai militia clashed on Monday in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, breaking a ceasefire signed last week aimed at ending a long-running conflict, the two factions said.

Tutsi fighters loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda and Pareco Mai Mai militia, who both signed a peace accord on Wednesday, blamed each other for the fighting around villages 70 km (44 miles) west of the town of Goma.

No details of casualties were immediately available and the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo said it could not confirm who had attacked first.

Nkunda's rebel National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) and the Pareco Mai Mai faction were among 25 armed groups that agreed to an immediate ceasefire in

Wednesday's accord, which was also signed by the Congolese government.

The United Nations and Western governments were hoping the pact, which followed more the two weeks of talks, would end conflict in eastern North and South Kivu provinces which has persisted despite the formal end of Congo's 1998-2003 war.

The latest fighting broke out near the villages of Lusirandaka and Kasake at dawn on Monday.
"This is a serious violation of the ceasefire that we've just signed," Seraphin Mirindi, a military spokesman for Nkunda, told Reuters.

"Pareco and FDLR (Rwandan Hutu rebels) tried to attack our soldiers. They even took some positions before we pushed them back."

Pareco Mai Mai spokesman Theophile Museveni blamed the attack on Nkunda's CNDP.

"We signed (Wednesday's accord), and we respect our commitment. But if the CNDP do not respect what they signed, if they say they do not want peace, and if (the U.N.) does not want to react, we will have to defend ourselves," he said.

BUFFER ZONES

As part of the ceasefire, peacekeepers of the 17,000-strong U.N. contingent in Congo have been deployed to create buffer zones between the rival eastern factions.

Long after the wider 1998-2003 war ended, fighting has raged on in the east, adding to a humanitarian catastrophe that has caused more deaths -- 5.4 million since 1998 -- than any other conflict since World War Two, relief experts say.

Although Wednesday's deal raised peace hopes, political analysts said its implementation, including the creation of a military technical commission to monitor the ceasefire, could still create problems.

"Getting the technical commission up and running is essential to the success of the peace agreement," Anneke Van Woudenberg, a senior researcher in Congo for New York-based Human Rights Watch, told Reuters.

"Without it, the deal is just a piece of paper with no ability to monitor the ceasefire."
The accord offers a limited amnesty covering acts of war and insurgency to the rebel and militia fighters involved. It does not cover war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide.

Officials said last week Nkunda could win amnesty under the accord and Congo's government had not renewed an arrest warrant against him for war crimes.

5 Children killed in Guyana

2008-01-27T10:00:00.001-08:00

More peace and love from Christian countries. From the Associated Press:

Gunmen stormed into a coastal village Saturday and killed 11 people, including five children, in violence blamed on a gang leader who has threatened widespread attacks. The assault sparked angry protests over rising crime in this impoverished country.

The killings in Lusignan came hours after gunmen attacked police headquarters in the capital, firing indiscriminately and wounding two guards.

Police and government officials say they suspect a criminal gang led by Rondell Rawlins is behind the violence. Rawlins accused security forces of kidnapping his pregnant 18-year-old girlfriend earlier this week and authorities said he threatened to carry out attacks until she is found.

Guyana, an English-speaking South American country, has struggled with violent crime fueled by drugs and gun trafficking, and is known as the site of the 1978 Jonestown mass-suicide and killings led by the American cult leader Jim Jones.

It was unclear why the gunmen chose Lusignan, a town 7 miles east of the capital where many of the men are usually away working to support their families.

Raj Harrylall, whose two sons and wife were among the dead, sat in stunned silence in his bloodstained living room. He had returned to his village from working in Trinidad only hours after the assault on the town.

"I don't know how he's going to make out," said Rickey Gurudat, his brother-in-law. "There's no one left in the house. Everyone got killed."

Elsewhere in Lusignan, a town of whitewashed wooden homes, people gathered quietly in small groups, surveying bullet-scarred walls and kicked-in doors. Some erected tents for wakes.

In the neighboring town of Mon Repos, the slayings prompted angry protests over the government's seeming inability to suppress gang violence in the country. At least 300 people flooded into the streets, burning tires, refrigerators and other debris and blocking the main roads.

Some of the protesters vowed to form vigilante groups and avenge the killings. "We want justice!" they cried. "Government can't protect us! We want more police!"

Mon Repos is usually a bustling marketplace on Saturdays, but everything was closed as irate villagers yelled at soldiers that began to arrive.

"It is unthinkable that gunmen will break into your house with your family, put everyone to sit in a chair and kill them," said 50-year-old Karamchand Sukhu.

There were no reports of arrests, and President Bharrat Jagdeo urged neighborhood watch groups to report any leads to police.

"(This) could not have been done by human beings but rather by animals," Jagdeo said ahead of meetings with security officials and the military.

Police offered a $150,000 reward for information that could lead to Rawlins.

Authorities say Rawlins has been the leader of a gang associated with armed robberies since 2002. He is suspected of involvement in the April 2006 slaying of Agriculture Minister Satyadeo Sawh — a murder that authorities said was aimed at destabilizing this former Dutch and British colony.

On Wednesday night, suspected members of Rawlins' gang killed a Guyanese soldier during a gunbattle in Buxton, a village 2 miles from Lusignan.

There were just over 100 people killed last year in the nation of about 770,000.

Authorities blame much of the crime on the growing drug trade and gun smuggling. Drug trafficking accounts for an estimated 20 percent of Guyana's gross domestic product, according to the U.S. State Department.

Guyana, on the northern coast of South America, is known to many abroad as the site of Jonestown, where American cult leader Jim Jones exhorted his followers to drink cyanide-laced grape punch in 1978. Most adults were poisoned, some forcibly. Some were shot by cult security guards. Hours later, Jones and 912 of his followers were dead.

Clashes in Kenya leaves 69 dead

2008-01-27T09:56:00.000-08:00

As we all know all hell has broken loose in the mainly Christian nation of Kenya amongst Kenyan Christians, today the violence continued. From the Associated Press:

Gangs armed with machetes and bows and arrows burned and hacked to death members of a rival tribe in western Kenya Sunday, as the number of dead from the latest explosion of violence over disputed presidential elections rose to 69.

Houses were blazing in the tourist gateway town of Naivasha, torched by members of President Mwai Kibaki's tribe exacting revenge on their Luo rivals. Police, apparently overwhelmed, did not intervene.

Some 55 bodies were counted Sunday at the morgue in Nakuru, the provincial capital where ethnic clashes erupted Thursday night and continued until Saturday. Bodies continued arriving Sunday, said a morgue attendant who spoke on condition of anonmyity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The latest deaths raise the toll to nearly 800 killed in ethnic violence and clashes with police since Kibaki was declared winner of Dec. 27 balloting that international and local observers say had a rigged tally. Some 255,000 people have been forced from their homes.

In Naivasha, 55 miles northwest of Nairobi, at least nine people were killed, according to the count of an Associated Press reporter. Looters used iron bars to smash the windows of shops belonging to non-Kikuyus, and made off with television sets, groceries and clothing.

"We have moved out to revenge the deaths of our brothers and sisters who have been killed, and nothing will stop us," said Anthony Mwangi, hefting a club threateningly. "For every one Kikuyu killed, we shall avenge their killing with three."

One woman came screaming down the road from a blazing house. "They set it on fire, they are killing my brother and sister," said Alice Okoth.

Soldiers and police reinforcements arrived late Sunday afternoon, firing tear gas and live bullets. Downtown Naivasha quickly became deserted, but on the outskirts, gangs of youths armed with machetes and clubs fought running battles with police.

Elsewhere in the same region, a local newspaper reporter saw five bodies Sunday in two slums on the outskirts of Nakuru.

Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, who claims he won the election, remain far apart on how to resolve the crisis, the worst the country has suffered since its 1963 independence from Britain.

Kibaki has said he is open to direct talks with Odinga, but that his position as president is not negotiable. Odinga says Kibaki must step down and new elections are the only way to bring peace.

On Sunday, Odinga was meeting with former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the latest international mediator attempting to bring the two sides together.

Opposition spokesman Salim Lone said they were asked to name three negotiators for the talks, which he said he would hopefully start "within a week."

Annan toured trouble spots Saturday in the western Rift Valley, which includes Naivasha, and alluded to underlying causes of the conflict, including decades-old resentment of Kikuyus' domination of politics and the economy, and old grudges over land between different ethnic groups.

"We cannot accept the pattern every five years these sorts of incidents take place and no one is held to account," Annan said. "Let's not kid ourselves this is an electoral problem. This is much broader."

While ethnic clashes have accompanied past Kenyan elections, the scale of the violence this year has been far worse. It has mainly pitted other ethnic groups, which support the opposition because they feel marginalized, against Kibaki's Kikuyu people.

Kikuyus were the main victims in the initial eruption of violence, with hundreds killed and more than half of those driven from their homes belonging to Kibaki's tribe. Now it appears they are on the war path.

The crisis has destroyed the East African nation's image as a peaceful haven in a region rife with conflict.

Christians want Zionists to stop spitting at them

2007-12-13T09:35:00.001-08:00

So much for the loving alliance and freind-ship between the two. You can call it an un-holy alliance, the Crusaders and Zionists do help each other, but hate each other. From Haaretz:

A few weeks ago, a senior Greek Orthodox clergyman in Israel attended a meeting at a government office in Jerusalem's Givat Shaul quarter. When he returned to his car, an elderly man wearing a skullcap came and knocked on the window.

When the clergyman let the window down, the passerby spat in his face.The clergyman prefered not to lodge a complaint with the police and told an acquaintance that he was used to being spat at by Jews. Many Jerusalem clergy have been subjected to abuse of this kind.

For the most part, they ignore it but sometimes they cannot. On Sunday, a fracas developed when a yeshiva student spat at the cross being carried by the Armenian Archbishop during a procession near the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City.

The archbishop's 17th-century cross was broken during the brawl and he slapped the yeshiva student. Both were questioned by police and the yeshiva student will be brought to trial. The Jerusalem District Court has meanwhile banned the student from approaching the Old City for 75 days.

But the Armenians are far from satisfied by the police action and say this sort of thing has been going on for years. Archbishop Nourhan Manougian says he expects the education minister to say something. "When there is an attack against Jews anywhere in the world, the Israeli government is incensed, so why when our religion and pride are hurt, don't they take harsher measures?" he asks.

According to Daniel Rossing, former adviser to the Religious Affairs Ministry on Christian affairs and director of a Jerusalem center for Christian-Jewish dialogue, there has been an increase in the number of such incidents recently, "as part of a general atmosphere of lack of tolerance in the country."

Rossing says there are certain common characeristics from the point of view of time and location to the incidents. He points to the fact that there are more incidents in areas where Jews and Christians mingle, such as the Jewish and Armenian quarters of the Old City and the Jaffa Gate. There are an increased number at certain times of year, such as during the Purim holiday."I know Christians who lock themselves indoors during the entire Purim holiday," he says.

Former adviser to the mayor on Christian affairs, Shmuel Evyatar, describes the situation as "a huge disgrace." He says most of the instigators are yeshiva students studying in the Old City who view the Christian religion with disdain.

"I'm sure the phenomenon would end as soon as rabbis and well-known educators denounce it. In practice, rabbis of yeshivas ignore or even encourage it," he says. Evyatar says he himself was spat at while walking with a Serbian bishop in the Jewish quarter, near his home. "A group of yeshiva students spat at us and their teacher just stood by and watched." Jerusalem municipal officials said they are aware of the problem but it has to be dealt with by the police. Shmuel Ben-Ruby, the police spokesman, said they had only two complaints from Christians in the past two years. He said that, in both cases, the culprits were caught and punished. He said the police deploy an inordinately high number of patrols and special technology in the Old City and its surroundings in an attempt to keep order.

Another Church attack

2007-12-09T15:53:00.000-08:00

Well just an hour after a missionary center got attacked, a Church is now attacked in Colorado. From the Associated Press:

A gunman opened fire in the parking lot of a Colorado Springs church on Sunday, striking four people, the church's pastor said. The conditions of the people shot outside the New Life Church were not known, El Paso County Sheriff's Lt. Lari Sevene said.
Lance Coles, a pastor at New Life Church, told The Associated Press he received a report that a man was shooting at people in the church parking lot and that the gunman may have entered the church.
It was not immediately known whether the shootings were related to an earlier shooting about 70 miles away in the Denver suburb of Arvada. There, two people died and two were wounded early Sunday when a gunman opened fire in a dormitory at a missionary training center on the campus of Faith Bible Chapel.
New Life was founded by the Rev. Ted Haggard, who was fired last year after a former male prostitute alleged he had a three-year cash-for-sex relationship with him.
Haggard, then the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, admitted committing undisclosed "sexual immorality."
The church is one of Colorado's largest with about 10,000 members.

Anti-Arab Racism in the rise in Israel

2007-12-09T12:02:00.000-08:00

The Zionist is always complaining that Arabs are racists and hateful, let us see who really is the racist, from islamonline:

Racism against Israeli Arabs has alarmingly increased in Israeli society amid a systematic state discrimination which makes the matter worse, the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) said in its annual report cited Sunday, December 9, by Haaretz newspaper.

"Israeli society is reaching new heights of racism that damages freedom of expression and privacy," ACRI President Sami Michael said upon the release of the report on civil rights in Israel.

Michael said the towering racism undermines Israel as a real democracy in the Middle East.

"We are a society under supervision under a democratic regime whose institutions are being undermined and which confers a different status to residents in the center of the country and in the periphery."

The ACRI report found that racist incidents against Israeli Arabs increased in 2006 by 26 percent.

The number of Jews publicly expressing feelings of hatred toward Arabs has also doubled.
The report also found that over two-thirds Israeli teens believed Arabs to be less intelligent, uncultured and violent, and over a third of the age group feared Arabs all together.

The report cited a March ACRI poll, which showed that 50 percent of the Israelis neither accepted living in the same building with Arabs nor having Arab friends, nor even letting their children befriend Arabs.

The respondents said that they would not also let Arabs into their homes.
Nearly half of the Israelis further want the state to encourage Arab citizens to emigrate elsewhere, according to the survey.

According to a June 2007 Democracy Index of the Israel Democracy Institute, also cited in the report, only half the Israeli people believes that Jews and Arabs must have full equal rights, and 78 percent oppose the inclusion of Arab political parties in the government.

And a recent Haifa University study found that 74 percent of Jewish youths in Israel think that Arabs are "unclean," the report says.

According to statistics released by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics in 2006, Arabs in Israel are estimated at 1,413,500 or 19.8% of the Israeli 6.5 million populace.The report further said that there is a systematic state discrimination against Israeli Arabs, which added insult to injury.

It says that Arab citizens "are subject to 'racial profiling' that classifies them as a security threat. "

The government also threatens the freedom of expression of Arab journalists by "brandishing the whip of economic boycott and ending the publication of government announcements in newspapers that criticize its policy."

Arab citizens are harassed and singled out at airports.

"Arab citizens are frequently subject to ridicule at the airports," the report stated.

More and more, in the last year's Isralie-Lebanon war, some 40% of the citizens killed were Israeli-Arabs, mostly due to a severe lack of shelters in Israeli Arab towns, according to the report.

The report further criticized a set of Knesset draft laws discriminating against Israeli Arabs like one that would link the Arab citizen's right to vote and receive state allowances to military or national service.

Under Israel's draft system, Arabs are not allowed to join the army.

The bills also include one that requires ministers and MKs to swear allegiance to the "Jewish state."

Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that the starting point for all negotiations with the Palestinians will be the "recognition of Israel as a state for the Jewish people."

Recognizing Israel as a "Jewish state" and a homeland for the Jewish people would kill stone dead any hopes for them to return to homes in what is now Israel.

Though legally considered as Israeli citizens, many of Israeli Arabs have been complaining about discrimination in all walks of life. Poverty rate among Arabs in Israel is almost twice that of the Jewish population.

Norm

Arab Members of Knesset said the report underlined the fact that racism in Israel against Israeli Arabs is deeply-rooted.

"This report doesn’t come as a surprise," Mohammad Barakeh, the chairman of the left-wing Hadash party, told the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot on Sunday.

"These findings are a natural outcome of the racial slurs by political leaders and the racial policy that have been implemented by the Israeli governments towards the Arab population for the past 60 years."

Ahmad Tibi, of the United Arab List-Ta'al, agreed.

"Racism has become the norm in Israeli society," he said. "Israel is ridden with discrimination through and thought."

Barakeh said the Israeli government should change what he called its anti-Arab mentality to lay racism to rest.

"Such racism can only be cured by changing the Israeli government's racial mentality," he said.

Gunman kills 2 at Missionary Training Center

2007-12-09T11:55:00.001-08:00

More terrorism from the Judeo-Christian society. From the Associated Press:

A gunman walked into a training center dormitory for young Christian missionaries early Sunday and opened fire, killing two of the center's staff members and wounding two others.

No arrests had been made by late morning. The shooting happened at about 12:30 a.m. at the Youth With a Mission center, police spokeswoman Susan Medina said. About 45 people were evacuated from the dormitory in this Denver suburb and moved to an undisclosed location.
A man and a woman were killed and two men were wounded, Medina said.

All four victims were staff members, said Paul Filidis, a Colorado Springs-based spokesman with Youth With a Mission.

Brady White, who attends Faith Bible Chapel, where the center is located, said he spoke to some students there, who were unhurt but called the experience "terrifying."

"They're just wonderful people," White said of the center's students. "Their mission is to know God and to make him known."

Police identified the victims as Tiffany Johnson, 26, and Philip Crouse, 23. Youth With a Mission said Johnson was from Minnesota and Crouse was from Alaska. Their hometowns weren't immediately available.

Cheril Morrison, wife of chapel pastor George Morrison, said Crouse had just hung up Christmas lights at her home and Johnson was "an amazingly beautiful person."

One of the injured men was hospitalized in critical condition and the other was in stable condition, police said. Both are in their 20s.

Witnesses told police that the gunman was a 20-year-old white male, wearing a dark jacket and skull cap, who left on foot. He may have glasses or a beard.

"There's no blueprint for this, we're just going to be honest and pray for one another, cry with one another," center director Peter Warren told KUSA-TV. "Who knows what was going on in this young man's life."