For Israel

Major Military Weapons for Palestinians

2005-02-26T20:33:00.000-05:00

"....Instead of cracking down on terrorists, Abu Mazen and his sidekick Mohammed Dahlan have secretly applied to more than 20 world governments with urgent requests for large quantities of heavy weapons. ....According to our sources, the countries solicited for arms are primarily in Europe – Britain, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden as well as Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, China, India and Pakistan. The list of countries not addressed is much shorter: United States and Japan. Palestinian Authority leaders calculated that however many or few respond in the affirmative – which several have – Israel cannot afford to get into a fight with them all.
The list of Palestinian requirements is attached to an innocent-sounding request signed by Mahmoud Abbas for combat equipment to restore and build up Palestinian security forces with all possible speed. He asks the recipients to contribute to the creation of the Palestinian state by allocating outdated items no longer in the use of their armies.
.... It includes all types of armored personnel carriers with fixed mortars, jeeps fitted with 107 mm recoilless guns, telescopic rifles, pistols, ammunition, communications and engineering gear, helmets and medical equipment.
The army Abbas is building is designed to absorb the disassembled Palestinian terrorist organizations. For the first time, they will be equipped with heavy arms.
Asked how the shipments would be delivered over Israel’s objections, Abbas and Dahlan pointed out that once the Israelis had pulled back the Gaza Strip and Egyptian border, there would be no one to stop the hardware being unloaded at the reopened Gaza port or coming through northern Sinai past Egyptian patrols.
Shopping for heavy arms is in total contravention of every international accord the Palestinians, including Abu Mazen in person, have ever signed with Israel and every pledge Abbas has made to the Bush administration and other world leaders. ...."

The Bear is Back

2005-02-25T21:24:00.000-05:00

"....Telltale indicators of Russia's activism are everywhere. In late January, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad embarked upon a diplomatic visit to Moscow designed to upgrade the historic strategic ties between the two countries. Assad's consultations with Putin yielded a mutual commitment to closer cooperation between the Russian government and its "most important partner" in the Middle East. As part of this public reengagement, the Kremlin gave Damascus a much-needed economic shot in the arm, agreeing to write off almost three-quarters of Syria's $13.4 billion Cold War-era debt. The two leaders also began negotiations regarding the sale of an array of advanced missiles to the Baathist state in a deal that officials in Israel have warned could significantly alter the regional military balance in Syria's favor.
Russia is also dipping its toe into post-Arafat politics in the Palestinian Authority. In late January, on the heels of Assad's visit, the Kremlin played host to new Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. During his two-and-a-half-day visit to Russia, Abbas was warmly received by a slew of government officials, including President Putin, foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, and Boris Gryzlov, the speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament. The new Palestinian leader, for his part, brought with him a consistent message: that Russia should increase its involvement in Palestinian politics, and in the mediation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Most recently, the Kremlin has formulated plans to break into the Saudi arms market. The Russian government is said to be finalizing its first major defense accord with the House of Saud — one that, if implemented, would mark "a landmark event in Russian arms exporting," according to Russian defense industry experts. News of the impending deal comes on the heels of a recent arms agreement between Russia and Morocco, the first between the two nations since the fall of the Soviet Union....."

Upcoming Events, SW Ohio

2005-02-23T06:52:00.000-05:00

Sun. 3/6/05 - Day-long conference on Women in Judaism, CJCE - several sessions on Torah and daily living, and Torah and women's activism. Small fee. Call 937-854-4150 x 106 for more information.

Sun. 3/13/05, 10AM - Ryterbrand Brunch at Temple Israel. Dr. Adam Kamesar of HUC, "Jewish Nationalism from the Maccabees to the Destruction of the Temple", $5. Call 937-496-0500 for more information.

Scholar in Residence, Temple Israel, Monday evenings 3/21, 3/28 and 4/4/04, 6:30-8:45PM - a series on the Da Vinci Codes and Jewish Art - $60. Call 937-854-4150 x 300 for more information.

Sun., 4/10/05, 10AM - Ryterbrand Brunch at Temple Israel. Dr. Eric Friedland, WSU, "Maimonides' Views Concerning Islam and Christianity", $5. Call 937-496-0500 for more information.

Anxious Times in Lebanon - the Syrian Presence

2005-02-23T06:34:00.000-05:00

"....The 14,000 Syrians referred to are the ones in uniform. But there are more than 100,000 OTHER Syrians in Lebanon, contributing to the occupation in ways both legal and illegal.Some are simply working at jobs that don't exist at home. Lebanon has a productive, free-market economy and Syria has a leftover 1960s militaristic socialism that sucks the economy dry – particularly now that the coalition has cut off the illegal oil that was flowing through Syria from Iraq. Syria needs that safety valve of sending workers outside the country to help ensure domestic tranquility. Some of the Syrians are related to the drug and counterfeiting trades in the Bekka Valley that provide hard currency earnings to Damascus. Some are intelligence officers and plainclothes security forces, the undercover eyes and ears of the Syrians and liaison for the Iranians and their Hizballah protégé troops in Lebanon....."

As usual, the headlines in Debka are worth following -

Change in the Wind?

2005-02-15T06:23:00.000-05:00

From 2/7/05 www.jcpa.org/daily: “· Abbas Orders Palestinian Television to Clean Up Its Act - Inigo GilmoreOn Palestinian television, eulogies to suicide bombers, or ''martyrs,'' have given way to ''feel-good'' nature programs and romantic films. Instead of referring to ''martyr operations,'' suicide bombings are described more neutrally as ''explosions." Abu Mazen told the directors that "he does not want a screen full of blood,'' said Radwan Abu Ayash, head of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation. Now "we have passionate Egyptian love films replacing war films, we have soft geography programs for the kids, films with cute animals roaming in the wild....We are broadcasting more traditional music, rather than martial music." (Telegraph-UK) See also Israel: PA TV Incitement Down, Wider Change Needed - Gideon AlonForeign Minister Silvan Shalom told the Israeli Cabinet Sunday that there has been a substantial change in the content of Palestinian television broadcasts in the past few days. "This is evident in the end of inciting broadcasts," he said. However, "the change must be deeper and include public awareness, starting with the education system, universities and so on, where the change in content is not yet evident." (Ha'aretz)

From www.bicom.org.uk daily brief for 2/8/05: Israel exports to Arab states rose by 48 percent in 2004; Syria to import Golan apples
According to Israel’s Manufacturing Association (IMA), Israeli exports to the Arab world rose by 48 percent in 2004 to a total of $180 million USD, with another $12 million sold indirectly in Arab countries. Closer diplomatic ties with Egypt and Jordan, the lessening of political tension in the region and increased cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority were all seen as factors for the increase in trade and the economy. The total number of exports to Jordan, consisting mostly of textiles, clothing, leather goods, wood products, furniture, paper and printed material, rose by 55 percent in 2004. Meanwhile, exports to Egypt rose 11 percent last year to approximately $29.2 million and included mainly chemical and petroleum goods, textiles and clothing. The Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZ) trilateral trade agreement with Egypt and the United States, which was signed on 14 December 2004 and ratified by the Knesset on Sunday, is also expected to increase significant trade with Egypt. IMA President Shraga Brosh, who acknowledged that great progress had been made between the neighbouring countries, predicted even stronger and better results for 2005. He predicted that the $800 million in foreign investment during 2004 could potentially triple in 2005.
In related developments, Syria has announced that it will buy 10,000 tons of apples from Druze farmers in the Golan Heights in Israel. This will be the first time Syria has traded with the Golan area, which Israel captured during the Six Day War of 1967.
From 2/8/05 www.jcpa.org/daily: Bedouins Lead Egypt's Hunt for Militants - Sarah El Deeb (AP/Washington Post) Bedouins in Sinai are leading the hunt for militants wanted in last year's Egyptian beach resort car bombings, guiding police through mountains and deserts to find the suspected culprits. Bedouin tribes signed a "pledge document" with Egyptian security forces to help them track down wanted militants after the detention of many Bedouins during the post-bombings police crackdown. "We were the most hurt from the attacks. Our camps were destroyed and people lost their jobs," said Sheik Attiyah al-Kebriti, a local Bedouin leader.
· Arabs Finally Face Terror - Amir TaheriThose in the West who see Arabs as exporters of terrorism forget that Arabs are also its biggest victims, including the 11,000-plus lives lost in Iraq over the past 18 months, 150,000 killings over the years in Algeria, and at least 25,000 in Egypt since 1980. At least some Arab states seem prepared to admit that terrorism is threatening their very existence as organized societies. That understanding is the driving force behind the Riyadh conference on counter-terrorism. (New York Post)

End of the Kibbutz Era?

2004-12-08T06:42:00.000-05:00

In my other weblog, I've noted the shift toward successful free-market or "ownership society" practices in mainland China and Russia - the same has happened in Israel's legendary kibbutz movement. From a 2/04 article in Israel Today:

"....Of the 267 kibbutzim (collective farms) in Israel, 165 already operate according to the new capitalist model. About 120,000 people live in kibbutzim— just 2 percent of the population. When the state was founded in 1948, the kibbutzim made up about half of the settlements in Israel and were home to 8 percent of the Jewish population....

At the kibbutz, the principles of communism were far more successfully implemented than in communist countries. To enable mothers to work, the kibbutz ran children’s houses. The kibbutz took care of all its members’ daily needs, so for example, meals were eaten together in the dining hall. But as Israel advanced economically, the second and third generations of kibbutzniks did not want to live this way ....During the 1980s, many kibbutzim encountered serious financial difficulties and faced debt and bankruptcy. The reasons were runaway inflation, the Israeli bank shares crash of 1983 and poor management of the kibbutzim themselves. The crisis forced the government to bail out the kibbutzim in 1989 and broker a deal for debt restructuring with the banks. This led to a fundamental reorganization of the kibbutzim in which they turned away from agriculture and toward more profitable industry, including high-tech.

Many of my comrades in the army in the 1980s, who were second-generation kibbutzniks, wanted to leave the kibbutz after three years of military service. They wanted to earn their own money like people in the cities and not toil day-in, day-out like their parents, without any assets to show for it. In those days, if one wanted to visit friends for example, one had to order a car two weeks in advance from the kibbutz secretary. Young kibbutzniks were jealous of the freedom of city dwellers who had their own car...."

I believe that if you looked at the history of many utopian groups, you'd find that they disappeared within 2-3 generations, and rarely represented large groups when such alleged utopias were voluntary. Trying to fulfill an absolute ideal that we're all alike, and should all share identically, violates the reality that we're actually different, with different skills, abilities, interests, and that groups value those skills, abilities and interests differently at any moment in time. Currently, the more financially successful kibbutzim in Israel incorporate some wealth accumulation and for-profit businesses, and that trend is likely to continue.

the Hebrew Bible and the Birth of the United States

2004-12-05T08:15:00.000-05:00

We visited the Library of Congress exhibit about the 350 year history of Jews in America and found it good and scholarly. Though some children were there, taking notes from the exhibit's opening timeline for an obvious class project, the exhibit generally did not cater to children. There's too much to read and look at, and other than some fun TV clips, not much for children to do. I encourage adults to see it, then teach it.

From David Gelernter's related article, "Telling the Story of America's Jews," Commentary magazine, p. 46:

"....the Hebrew Bible furnished a template for democracy. In 1780, for example, while the fighting was still under way, Pastor Simeon Howard of Boston was already pondering the new nation's government. He decided - on the basis of the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Jewish historian Josephus - that it must be a democratic republic. Howard's advice was a radical as it was straightforward, as avant-garde as it was Bible-centered and godly. 'In compliance with the advice of Jethro,' he preached in May 1780, 'Moses chose able men, and made them rulers[ over hte Israelites in the desert]; but it is generally supposed that they were chosen by the people. This is asserted by Josephus, and plainly intimated by Moses in his recapitulary discourse, recorded in the first chapter of Deuteronomy' (emphasis added). William Lecky, the eminent 19th-century Irish historian (and no Judeophile), knew well what today's historians have largelly forgotten: 'Hebraic mortar cemented the foundations of American democracy.' Freedom and democracy are basic to America. The connection between freedom and the Exodus is obvious; to the mind of America, infatuated with the Bible ('the best book in the world,' John Adams called it), democracy, too, was rooted in ancient Israel...."

Yes, I include this snippet in part to express my disdain for any extreme position about the separation of church and state, any position that says that all mention of God in any public venue, including American history classes, is bad. The Bible is fundamental to understanding this country, and that underlying philosophy should and can be discussed in public, in schools, and the Ten Commandments can even be used as the ethical basis for decisions, without turning this country into a theocracy.

Tehran Times Says Al-Jazeera is Zionist Plot to Damage Image of Islam

2004-12-02T20:45:00.000-05:00

Click on the headline for this link to Jihadwatch. The follow-up comments of the readers are as much fun as the article itself.

Happy Hanukkah!

Summary of American Jewish Organizations

2004-11-28T13:51:00.000-05:00

After the Cleveland General Assembly concluded 11/17/04, Uriel Heilman wrote:

"It's not easy making sense of the American Jewish organizational superstructure - largely because there is none. ....There are at least as many Israel advocacy groups in America as there are positions on the Israeli political spectrum. Any attempt to provide a comprehensive list or picture of American Jewish organizations is necessarily folly, because hardly a day goes by without a new one being born. The question of which ones are relevant to the bulk of American Jews changes with each generation. The only certainty is that few ever die. "

Here's some good news: for financial efficiency, www.charitynavigator.com still gives top rankings to the Jewish Federations of Cincinnati and Dayton.

Let's Concentrate on Real Issues, Please

2004-11-28T13:33:00.000-05:00

From Commentary, October 2004, "Jewish Security & Jewish Interests" by Jack Wertheimer, p. 58-59:

"....the other-worldly quality that continues to affect the work of those Jewish community-relations organizations that remain committed to fighting yesterday's wars whatever the consequences. Synagogues and other Jewish institutions around the globe have already been targeted by terrorists, at a terrible cost in human life. More attacks are hardly inconceivable. In what sense is the physical safety of real people - Jews and others who happen to be in the vicinity - less important to Jews than an intractable belief in the separationist faith? France separated church and state nearly a centruy ago. That did nothing to protect the Jews of France from the Vichy government, any more than it has shielded young French Jewish children from Arab hooligans today. How long can American Jewish organizations continue to place their obsession with an impermeable wall of separation above the physical security of the Jews for whom they claim to speak?....

In the quieter decades of the late 20th century, mandates and ambitions began expanding as Jewish organizations embraced the causes of non-sectarian groups, often with greater fervor than those groups themselves and sometime to the detriment of palpable Jewish interest. Now, as threats to Jewish security have multiplied, the time for business as usual has long passed, and the time to reconsider is urgently at hand."

The Death of Arafat by George Friedman

2004-11-27T19:15:00.000-05:00

Interesting analysis, emailed in full to me, but available only to subscribers. Selection below:

"....And this was Arafat's fatal crisis. He had established the principle of Palestine, but what he had failed to define was what that Palestinian nation meant and what it wanted. The latter was the critical point. Arafat's strategy was to appear the statesman restraining uncontrollable radicals. He understood that he needed Western support to get a state, and he used this role superbly. He appeared moderate and malleable in English, radical and intractable in Arabic. This was his insoluble dilemma.

Arafat led a nation that had no common understanding of their goal. There were those who wanted to recover a part of Palestine and be content. There were those who wanted to recover part of Palestine and use it as a base of operations to retake the rest. There were those who would accept no intermediate deal but wanted to destroy Israel. Arafat's fatal problem was that in the course of creating the Palestinian nation, he had convinced all three factions that he stood with them.

Like many politicians, Arafat had made too many deals. He had successfully persuaded the West that (a) he genuinely wanted a compromise and (b) that he could restrain terrorism. But he had also persuaded Palestinians that any deal was merely temporary, and others that he wouldn't accept any deal. By the time of the Oslo accords, Arafat was so tied up in knots that he could no longer speak for the nation he created. More precisely, the Palestinians were so divided that no one could negotiate on their behalf, confident in his authority. Arafat kept his position bysacrificing his power.

By the 1990s, the space left by the demise of pan-Arabism had been taken by the rise of Islamist religiosity. Hamas, representing the view that there is a Palestinian nation but that it should be understood as part of the Islamic world under Islamic law, had become the most vibrant part of the Palestinian polity. Nothing was more alien from Arafat's thinking than Hamas. It ran counter to everything he had learned from Nasser....As Hamas rose, Arafat became entirely tactical. His goal was to retain position if not power, and toward that end, he would do what was needed. A lifetime of tactics had destroyed all strategy.....The chaos and failure that marked Black September became emblematic of his life...."

Briefing: EU Funding of PA Terrorism

2004-11-27T18:59:00.000-05:00

"Key Facts
· There have been persistent reports that the Palestinians have used foreign aid, in particular from the European Union (EU), to finance terrorism. The EU has provided the Palestinian Authority (PA) with €2 billion ($2.5 billion) since 1993 and it is the largest single contributor of direct budgetary assistance, giving €112 million ($142 million) between January 2003 and June 2004.
· The EU vehemently denies that EU funds have been used by terrorists but has launched an internal investigation into the claims.
· Previous investigations into the diversion of foreign funds by the PA towards terrorist activities have been inconclusive and have not exonerated the PA of wrongdoing. PA accounting practices are opaque. Palestinians acknowledge that corruption is widespread. The PA routinely uses cash payments to buy loyalty from its staff and the population.

Additional Facts & Analysis
· There is indisputable evidence that PA money has been used to fund terrorist activities. The capture of the PA owned and operated ship, the “Karine A”, demonstrated PA efforts to smuggle weapons into the territories for use by Palestinian terrorists. Later Israeli investigations turned up documents directly linking PA officials with the al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade, the suicide terrorism subsidiary of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.
· The PA finances the al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade. According to Abdel Fattah Hamayel, who was minister for sports and youth in the PA administration of Abu Mazen, the PA sends $50,000 a month to al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade members. The current Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qurei, has stated that "We have clearly declared that the Aksa Martyrs Brigades are part of Fatah," and that "Fatah bears full responsibility for the group." The EU has declared the al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade a terrorist group.
· The lack of PA financial accountability means that foreign aid is easily abused. While demonstrating that any specific foreign funds have been directly used for terrorism is difficult, the PA system has operated as a slush fund for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Investigations have proven that PA payrolls were artificially inflated to provide cash that Arafat could use and avoid any foreign or local oversight. The PA payrolls include 7,000 employees that cannot be identified (so-called “PA ghosts”). The salaries of these fictitious employees are a major part of the PA slush fund that supports terrorism. Members of Yasser Arafat's PLO faction, Fatah, who are directly involved in terrorism are, according to the Israeli Defense Forces, on the PA payroll. Fatah receives additional funds by levying a compulsory tax on all PA employees.
· Arafat personally approved payments to terrorists. A report by Human Rights Watch documents and criticizes Arafat's involvement in PA funding of terrorism. Given the control that Arafat had over the entire functioning of the PA, it is disingenuous for any foreign donor to feign ignorance as to whether its money could end up with terrorist groups.
· The EU encourages PA corruption by using a system of Direct Budgetary Support to the PA, essentially a cash handout. Direct Budgetary Support means that the EU has limited ability to properly monitor how its aid is being used. Once EU money is in the PA, with its bloated payrolls and “ghost” employees, tracking the end use is difficult. The EU had previously given the PA aid on a project by project basis which made monitoring the spending of funds easier.
· The EU is not alone in providing indirect financial support to Palestinian terrorists. Many governments and aid organizations have been lax in their oversight of funds provided to the PA. Recent reports have revealed that active members of HAMAS are employed by UNRWA.
...."

EU Support for Syria

2004-11-27T18:42:00.000-05:00

The last paragraph is the most interesting, and is another suggestion that much of what's happening with the EU may be the EU's way of trying to build a contest of egos with the US, rather than to really explore what's best for humanity:

"Observations:
EU Support for Assad Bolsters Syrian Dictatorship - Nir Boms and Erick Stakelbeck (Dow Jones/Australian Financial Review)
With Arafat's death, Europe has lost its oldest and dearest Arab despot. But the race to replace him as the EU's favored Middle East tyrant has already begun. On October 19, the European Commission and Syria signed an "association agreement" that strengthened Syrian dictator Bashar Assad's iron grip on power.
The EU cited Syria's supposedly newfound commitment to fight terrorism and promote human rights to justify the deal. However, Syria's record in these two areas is abysmal. American troops stationed along Iraq's border with Syria have complained of mortar attacks from within Syrian territory, presumably by Islamist terrorists. These attacks certainly could not take place without the tacit support of the Syrian military.
Syria is a tightly controlled police state based on the same Ba'ath ideology of Saddam Hussein's Iraq - nothing happens there without approval from Damascus. On the human rights front, despite the rhetoric, Syria remains a bastion of repression.
The EU - in its push to become a global counterweight to the U.S. - has proved more than willing to embrace tyrants and terrorists. In helping to revitalize the Assad regime, the EU has not only let down all the courageous pro-democracy activists who are risking their lives in Syria - it has also made the world less safe."

Petition Available About 2005 Univ. of Wisconsin PSM Conference

2004-11-27T17:45:00.000-05:00

At the end of the Duke University PSM Conference, participants agreed to hold the next one at the University of Wisconsin. The Jewish Action Taskforce already responded with a petition (almost 2,900 signatures to date) to the University administrators to rethink their willingness to host such a conference:

Sign up at http://www.petitiononline.com/stopPSM/petition.html, but remember that alumni may have more powerful voices than others, and that the 58,000+ signatures on a similar petition aimed at Duke University leadership did not achieve their goal.

A few words from Mayor Guiliani

2004-10-24T13:23:00.000-04:00

From p. 16-17 of Fall 2004 issue of Rising Tide magazine: "....The cause of a lot of the distortion in the Middle East comes from the fact that many of the governments there are not addressing the problems of their people; instead, they are exploiting their people - they deflect the attention to the United States, to Israel, to other things that are irrelevant to the purpose of solving the problems that their people have...."

Global Jihad

2004-10-24T13:16:00.000-04:00

A couple of lines from their Terrorism Update: "....The success of the decapitation strategy is that is appears to have affected al Qaeda's ability to attack distant, hardened target - such as those in the United States - but has far from eneded bloodshed altogether....countering this threat would require a major departure from the war on terrorism's current decapitation strategy. In this new case, fighting al Qaeda will require undermining its worldview and dissuading local groups from taking up arms against local and foreign targets...."

I remember hearing a news report that indicated that one successful approach has been to point out that jihadists demand loyalty to individuals, like bin Laden, in violation of many precepts of Islam.

Cyber-threats from Islamists

2004-10-22T06:58:00.000-04:00

From a report released 10/20/04: "....The phenomenon of Islamic hacking for political purposes did not exist in any significant measure prior to the 9/11 events in 2001, save India-Pakistan and Israel-Palestine localised cyber skirmishes. International Islamic hacking accelerated throughout 2002 as did global criminal syndicate activity on the internet to reach a new crescendo immediately after the start of war with Iraq in March 2003. The last one year has seen further increases. The targets have included assets belonging to the US, UK, Australia and other coalition partners on the one hand and within the domestic environments of Russia, Turkey, Indonesia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Malaysia and Kuwait on the other.

There is mounting evidence that politically motivated hackers from amongst Islamic countries are collaborating with each other and with criminal syndicates from Russia, Latin America and China. They are devising and implementing new strategies for carrying out simultaneous attacks; subtle reconnaissance and surveillance missions including identity theft; organised crime activities to raise funds through phishing scams, spam and malware proliferation; as well as mount globally noticeable yet untraceable distributed denial of service (DDoS) business interruptions against publicly quoted household name corporations within the financial services, information technology and consumer goods sectors.

The key indicators highlighted by the study published by the mi2g Intelligence Unit are as follows:
1. The economic damage from DDoS attacks in 2004 has crossed $34 billion worldwide. The comparable for 2003 was less than $1bn.
2. The number of phishing scams - elaborate online financial fraud and identity theft - carried out against customers of major brand names in 2004 has crossed 117. The comparable for 2003 was 54; and in 2002 the phenomenon hardly existed. The economic damage from phishing scams is estimated to exceed $44 billion worldwide in 2004. The comparable for 2003 was $14 billion.
3. Spam - unsolicited email messages - volume in 2004 has crossed over 3.3 trillion messages worldwide. The comparable for 2003 was 1.6 trillion messages. The economic damage from spam in 2003 is estimated to have crossed $119 billion worldwide. The comparable for 2003 was $58 billion.
4. Major viruses, worms and trojans - malware - in 2004 have caused upwards of $165 billion in damages worldwide. The comparable for 2003 was $83 billion.
5. The economic damage from all forms of digital risk manifestation - covert attacks, spam, phishing scams, DDoS, major malware, overt attacks - in 2004 has crossed $411 billion worldwide. The comparable figure for 2003 was $215 billion...."

Lowlights about some Duke PSM Conference workshop "leaders"

2004-10-09T18:32:00.000-04:00

They've earned their arrest "rap" sheets at various anti-everything demonstrations, and several boast of their activities as human shields in Palestinian areas. To those I say - be a human shield; hop on a bus in Jerusalem; stand at a hitchhiking post in Tel Aviv; or now, go to a resort hotel in Taba.

Some low-lights: Abe Greenhouse, famous only for throwing a pie at Natan Sharansky at Rutgers – see the following, written by him, for insight into his personality: http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22abe+greenhouse%22+zionist&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=E3XWa.130005%24Io.11030947%40newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net&rnum=3 -
It includes the following:
“….We saw all the standard tourist spots - Masada, Yad Vashem, Independence Hall, the Dead Sea, the Western Wall (where I inserted a note reading "End the motherfuckin' occupation!!!" into the cracks),….” This statement was widely publicized, and perhaps this article and photographs at http://www.masada2000.org/Abe_Greenhouse.html has one of the best reactions….

from http://www.smoothnews.us/texts/no_protest.html: “….Student, Ora Wise is definitely an activist. .... She was arrested during the World Economic Forum in 2002 and spent a weekend in a Brooklyn jail. Then she was arrested again on April 19, 2003 during a protest over the death of Rachel Corrie.... She–along with 17 others, locked themselves together as a human-barricade across Fifth Avenue at Israel’s Bank Leumi…..”

Rima Mutreja, in concluding her letter to the editor of the Washington Times, http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20040112-091549-7683r.htm: “The Palestinians have a right to "resist" the Israeli occupation and fight for their nation and sovereignty. Unfortunately, Israel's brutal policies against the Palestinians have given birth to a radical form of resistance.”

Fadi Kiblawi: from http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2003%20Opinion%20Editorials/July/9o/I%20Saw%20Palestine,%20By%20Fadi%20Kiblawi.htm: “….My hatred for the State [Israel] that sent my ancestors to Lebanon’s camps scattered in the Diaspora of gods and flies, as Mourid Barghouti would say, and sealed our fate into exile….” And the opening of http://palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=2002112218411467: “Today I am remembering my eldest elders, those who initiated the long struggle of resistance against the arrogance of ultra-nationalism and the violence of exclusion….”And his response to his arrest and release http://www.al-awda.org/frompalestine/: “….The condition of my release was that I no longer enter the Occupied Territories for the duration of my stay in Palestine. Furthermore, I was informed by the immigration intelligence officer that I would never be allowed entry into the country again. This is a foolish delusion of Israel to believe that I, a Palestinian, a U.S. taxpayer and a student of the law, would accept the dictates of an illegal occupying power. Three days and two checkpoints later I was in Ramallah,….”

Yoshie Furuhashi, along with Ora Wise, 2 of the primary organizers of the OSU PSM conference, from http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2003w41/msg00032.htm : “We have and will continue to speak about the beginning and how to right the original wrong (that is to say, the refugees' right to return), but we also need to think about the future. If the future that Palestinians envision includes living in historic Palestine with Jews, Palestinian military strategies and tactics for liberation must be in keeping with such a future. What means make sense in part depends on what ends are desired.-- Yoshie

and to help them learn how to protest, Satya from the Ruckus Society, an offshoot from the eco-terrorist group Earth Liberation Front, leads a workshop. Ruckus Society – probably far more than anyone wants to know at http://www.activistcash.com/organization_quotes.cfm/oid/188. Search for it at David Horowitz’s Frontpage Magazine, too. “Ruckus’s primary contributions to the activist agenda are its “action camps”: weeklong boot camps [they seek $100-$500 donations per attendee] for leftist protesters, usually held a few weeks prior to a major organized demonstration. A few hundred young Ruckus recruits typically attend each camp, where they are trained in the finer points of “police confrontation strategies,” “street blockades,” “urban climbing & rappelling,” “using the media to your advantage,” and “learning to lock your head to something” (among other things).”

Is it any wonder that Duke University, at its own expense, is increasing security for the Oct. 14-17 long weekend of the conference?

Duke Univ. Hillel Response - Events 10/14-16

2004-09-28T22:09:00.000-04:00

Looks like Duke's Hillel will parallel the generally successful effort that the Columbus, OH area anti-terrorist community had in 2003:

"Sister Hazel will headline the Students Against Terror Concert and Rally on Thursday, October 14, 2004. The event, featuring politicians, professors, and victims speaking against worldwide terrorism, will take place on Keohane Quad from 7pm - 11pm. It will open with Quitter John and close with a candle light vigil. " and

"Shabbaton Events Registration
There are many events from Planned During Shabbat on October 15th and 16th. We are dividing the events into three different sections:
1. Friday Night: Reform and Conservative services at 6pm, a FREE Shabbat dinner at 7:30pm, and a post-dinner lecture by Avraham Burg (former speaker of the Knesset).
2. Saturday Morning: Reform and Conservative services at 9:30am, Shabbat lunch at 12:30pm, and a panel discussion with Avraham Burg and national Jewish leaders.
3. Saturday Afternoon: Israel-Palestine teach-in from 3:30-6:30pm, Seudah Shlishit/ Dinner at 6:30pm, and Havdallah with Rabbi Friedman at 7:30pm."

Duke PSM Speakers - How Funded?

2004-09-28T07:03:00.000-04:00

Who's funding these people? Dennis Brutus made the ADL watchlist as far back as 1993, and shows up with Rania Masri at various socialist conferences and demonstrations. Rebecca Stein goes from UC-Berkeley to Univ of Minnesota and oh, is named as one of the people to contact in 2002 in Ramallah. Nasser Abufarha doesn't think that even the Geneva "Accords", an aborted initiative that would once again have Israel give all and the Palestinians respond with - words, went far enough. Somehow, these folk seem to literally travel the globe with little obvious source of income. Brutus, Stein, and Qumsiyeh may teach a little and publish a little, but nothing enough to pay for world travel. Birzeit University asked North Carolina Muslims to donate for the Duke PSM conference - who responded?

Other Information about the Duke PSM host and speakers

2004-09-27T20:23:00.000-04:00

Same ol', same ol' types of speakers for Duke as were found at OSU - looks like this conference will put special emphasis on the "right of return", with lots of repetition from the Durban Conference calling Israel colonists and worse:

A bit of name-calling from Rann Bar-on, "local spokesperson for PSM" and a Duke Univ. grad student in mathematics, from his attendance at the 2003 PSM Conference at Ohio State Univ., per http://www.amchacjc.org/news/news42.cfm: "....About 50 protesters waving Israeli flags also shouted "anti-Semites" at those arriving at the three-day event. 'I was born in Israel,' replied Rann Bar-On, who is among 500 students and activists from the United States and Canada attending the Palestine Solidarity Movement gathering. Mr. Bar-On, who said he was born in Jerusalem, said the taunts were an example of "rampant Zionism." 'They have the same blindness and loyalty that many white South Africans had to the apartheid regime or many Germans had to the Nazi regime,' said Mr. Bar-On, 23, a graduate student in mathematics at Duke University in North Carolina."

This world traveler may also be the same as the Israeli named in http://www.imemc.org/headlines/2004/june/week2/061404/al-zawiya-protest.htm: "Local sources reported that one Israeli, one Palestinian have been arrested and at least 40 wounded most of them as a result of inhaling gas, in an anti-wall demonstration in the village of Al-Zawiya near Salfit in the West Bank. Rann Bar-On 24, Israeli was detained by border police and put in a police van. The van was seen leaving the scene but to an unknown destination...."

A better biography on Diana Buttu, from http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=66050: "Diana Buttu is a Canadian / Palestinian lawyer and peace activist. She is the daughter of Palestinian refugees, holds a doctorate from Stanford University on 'refugee issues' ....Based in Ramallah, she advises the PLO Negotiation Team on peace negotiations with Israel with special emphasis on the issue of refugees and compensation. "
Part of her analysis of the recent ICJ decision about the security fence, per http://www.world-crisis.com/analysis_comments/475_0_15_0_C36/: "....With these staggering facts, the ICJ could only conclude that the wall built in occupied Palestinian territory is not there for military necessity; it is there to consolidate Israel’s hold on the colonies. Though “security” is the proffered excuse, coveting Palestinian land (and water) is the real reason behind the wall. Because the colonies are illegal, so too is the very structure that is designed to ensure Israel’s hold on them--the wall. ....Israel has, for 56 years, viewed itself as above the law and the Palestinians beneath it. That will not change. Israel will continue to trample on the Palestinians’ rights. It will continue to build Jewish-only colonies on Palestinian land, and it will continue to build the wall--unless it is stopped. ..."

Brian Avery remains active in ISM - http://indybay.org/news/2004/03/1674722.php has a photo of his arrest in San Francisco, a day after he spoke to a group at a college in northern California. That month he was reporting on behalf of New Mexico Indymedia, according to http://www.freespeech.org/fsitv/fscm2/contentviewer.php?content_id=796.

Mazin Qumsiyeh just published a book on the "right of return". A "fact sheet" at http://www.palestinemonitor.org/factsheet/Refugee_Primer.htm includes this conclusion: "An overwhelming body of data now clearly demonstrate how and why the catastrophic situation of Palestinian refugees was created and perpetuated by Zionist colonization and expansion."

Rania Masri is a veteran of the OSU PSM conference. She advocates boycotts - quoted in http://www.socialistworker.org/2002-2/412/412_06_DivestInterview.shtml: “Rania - There’s a reason that boycotting Caterpillar can work….
When we simply talk about apartheid in Palestine….If we can get them to divest, that would be huge. ….
The AFL-CIO has a 50-year history of ties to Israeli unions. ….”

Durham and Duke area Jewish groups have received some funding for alternative events to this conference. More on those as news appears -

Energy for Israel Program for MD, NJ, NY readers

2004-09-26T20:26:00.000-04:00

ECONergy will donate funds to a top-rated charity for Israel, the One Israel Fund, for people who sign up to receive their electricity and natural gas through this company. Available in MD, NY and NJ only. The program began in 2003; I suggest that someone check with the charity or with the energy company to make sure that it continues today. The Farmers Almanac, per http://www.farmersalmanac.com/forthepress/uspressrelease.html, says, “'The Farmers’ Almanac’s long-range weather predictions are pointing towards a very variable winter, featuring alternating periods of unseasonably cold conditions, then unseasonable warmth, as well as an active storm track along the eastern seaboard that ensures plentiful precipitation,'” reveals Farmers’ Almanac Editor and Philom., Peter Geiger. For example, in the Northeast, the Farmers’ Almanac is calling for a snowstorm in time for Christmas, and for possible blizzard conditions in mid-February, with a "wintermission" in January, when unusually mild weather takes hold.“We believe that the two most noteworthy storms of the winter season will come in December 2004 and in February 2005. The first, coming during the period of December 24 to 27, could deliver an old-fashioned White Christmas to much of the Northeast. The other, coming during the second week of February, has the potential to bring blizzard conditions in both the Midwest and Northeast regions of the country,” states Geiger."

I recently received an email requesting that people donate platelets for a child hospitalized at NYU hospital. The email came from people already active in One Israel Fund. It's quite a wide-ranging, beneficial organization.

Website to explore and Excellent Summary of Jihad Groups

2004-09-26T18:34:00.000-04:00

If you haven't signed up for the daily updates on www.jcpa.org, do so. They are better than anything I could develop for the snippets, so I will try to find items for this blog that JCPA doesn't have. However, the PRISM organization mentioned in this 9/24/04 JCPA update looks like it deserves special mention (summarized by JCPA from http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=22159) :

The Impact of the War in Iraq on Islamist Groups and the Culture of Global Jihad by Reuven Paz: Post-Saddam Iraq presented to predominantly Sunni Arab Jihadist groups a golden opportunity to reinforce their struggle by viewing the struggle in Iraq as a return to the heart of the Arab world after years of struggle in "exile," including in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Central Asia. They have seized the opportunity to recruit a growing number of Islamic youth to support their political aspirations and Islamist interpretations. Islamist groups supplied new interpretations of Jihad that altered previous "red lines," including non-discriminatory killings of both "infidel" foreigners and Muslims. The war has also broadened opportunities for recruitment among Muslim communities in the West. The entire process of radicalization that followed the war in Iraq is accompanied by a massive indoctrination by Islamist scholars, clerics, and intellectuals, who promote the building of a new system based on Jihad.

The Palestinians have remained entirely unaffected by the war in Iraq. There is a constant decrease in Saudi support for Hamas, especially in the financial realm, as a result of American pressure. The killing of Hamas leaders Yasin and Rantisi in Gaza decreased the solidarity of Hamas with the global Muslim Brotherhood and shifted the leadership outside of Palestine, to people such as Khaled Mish'al and Mousa Abu Marzouq. The anarchy in the PA enables Hizballah and its Iranian backer to become influential in the territories. Neither of these Shi'ite elements are part of the radical Sunni global Jihad, and have a different agenda. The writer is director of the Project for the Research of Islamist Movements - PRISM, part of the GLORIA Center in the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya. (IMRA/International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism)

Point-Counterpoint - Abuse of Women and Children

2004-09-22T06:55:00.000-04:00

From today's daily briefing - also check out www.operationsick.com

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan (21/9, Secretary-General, Office of the Spokesman): "In Israel we see civilians, including children, deliberately targeted by Palestinian suicide bombers."

Terrorists are recruiting more women and minors - www.jpost.com article by Margot Dudkevitch
According to the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, terrorist organisations are recruiting more women and minors to carry out terror attacks against Israelis. The organisations continue to believe that women and minors are less susceptible to security checks, and therefore are more likely to pass into Israel without raising suspicions. So far, 33 females who planned to carry out terror attacks have been caught, whilst seven have succeeded in carrying out their attacks. These women represent a cross-section of Palestinian society, and range from being single to being married with children. They also range from well-educated to poor backgrounds.
Children are also being exploited more frequently by terrorist organisations. They are used to transfer explosive belts and bombs, and are also employed as information gatherers to watch troop movements. So far this year, a total of 109 Palestinian minors have been arrested for their involvement in terrorist activities, compared to a total of 102 in 2003, 54 in 2002, and 27 in 2001. The youngest children sent by terrorists to launch an attack were two boys arrested in January 2003 by security forces in the Gaza Strip. Both carried knives and said they had been sent to place bombs in the area. One was eight years old and the other was 13."

New Water Desalinization Plant

2004-09-20T21:10:00.000-04:00

“A private desalination plant began operating last Monday and will supply an annual 2 million cubic meters of drinking water. The Hof Hacarmel water desalinations plant, in Atlit on the Mediterranean coast south of Haifa, removed the salt from brackish water and cost $1.5 million to build. After the plant is connected to the country’s water system in 2 months’ time, most of the output will supply Carmel coast communities and Haifa. The remainder will go to other areas in the country….”