Arson suspects apprehended rekindling forest fire in Israel

Coastal District Police Commander Roni Attia said Friday that two arson suspects were apprehended in the North, near Kiryat Bialik.

The suspects were allegedly attempting to rekindle a fire in the forest with the use of Molotov cocktails. Police are not connecting the arsonists at this stage to the massive fires in the Carmel and Atlit but rather to the fire which broke out earlier at the Tzur Shalom area of Kiryat Bialik


Attia added that arson is suspected in a number of separate fires, including Kiryat Bialik and Kiryat Tivon.

Earlier on Friday, police found a bike, a bag, and a wig inside near a fire center in Tzur Shalom, leading them to believe that the fire was caused by an arsonist or arsonists.

Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told the Post that there are 3 fire centers - Tzur Shalom, the Atlit - Tirat Hacarmel area, and the Carmel hillsides. In one, Tzur Shalom, north of Haifa, "we located suspicious items pointing to arson. As for the other two major fires, it is too early and the incidents are to large in scale to know their causes at this stage." The death toll in the fires rose to 42 on Friday, according to Army Radio.

Galillee police were spread out over the area searching for suspects.

 

Source: Jerusalem Post,  12.3.2010   http://www.jpost.com/VideoArticles/Article.aspx?id=197845

Anniversary of U.N.'s authorization of a Jewish state and an Arab state

On November 29, 1947, the United Nations voted to fulfill part of the promise made by the League of Nations: to authorize the creation of a Jewish homeland in the ancestral home of the Jewish people.

As U.N. Resolution 181, the U.N. accepted the majority plan to partition the land. AS part of the Partition Plan, the U.N. also authorized an Arab state in Palestine, in addition to a Jewish state in Palestine, both states within the boundaries of the truncated territory, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Dead Sea.  ( The territory now known as Jordan was severed off unilaterally by Britain from what was originally the entirety of Mandatory Palestine.  No Jewish settlement was permitted in Jordan. But Jewish settlement anywhere within the truncated Palestine -- including the West Bank -- was authorized by the League of Nations.)

U.N. Resolution 181, which used the term "Jewish state" about 30 times in the text,  was passed.   The Jews accepted the Partition Plan.  The Arabs rejected the Partition Plan and immediately set out to prevent the Jewish state from coming into existence.  Had the Arabs of Palestine accepted the plan, or had accepted plans offered them since, there would already be a State of Palestine next to the State of Israel.  Had the Arabs of Palestine accepted U.N. Resolution 181, there would have been either no Palestinian refugee problem or a far less severe refugee problem, for all concerned.  But the Palestinian Arabs, because they were unable to accept anything less than total sovereignty over all of  Mandatory Palestine, because they refused -- and still refuse -- to accept the reality of a Jewish state in Palestine,  have perpetuated the suffering of their own people. // Mark Finkelstein jcrc@dmjfed.org

Here, now, is a brief video that provides insight into the U.N. vote on November 29, 1947... the vote that paved the way for the proclamation of Israel's independence on May 14, 1948.



Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrIjzUK0FKg&feature=player_embedded#!

Red Crescent ran weapons

@davidhazony: WikiLeaks: Red Crescent ambulances smuggled weapons for Iran. http://bit.ly/g5Vn0v


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Arab leaders pushed U.S. to attack Iran

@frontporchlight: Iran 'must be stopped': Arab leaders pushed U.S. to attack, WikiLeaks disclosures show http://ow.ly/1acAIG

Link to LA Times article
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Open message to Rev. Chet Guinn about Iranian hatred of U.S.

An open message to Rev. Chet Guinn. 

Just what about "Death to America" don't you understand?

 ( In reply to his DMR letter in which Rev. Guinn belittles US concern about the Iranian government's hegemonic, abusive intentions.) (http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20101128/OPINION04/11280312/1038/A-lesson-in-D.M.-executives-adventure)

Nov. 4, 2010. Anti-US students chanted 'death to America' and predicted the fall of the 'great Satan' to mark the seizure 31 years ago of the US Embassy. Iran and Western powers are slated to resume nuclear talks later this month.

• 

A head-to-toe veiled Iranian woman walks past a satirized drawing of the Statue of Liberty, painted on the wall of the former US Embassy in Tehran, on Nov. 4, in an annual state-backed rally, marking the anniversary of the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979.

Vahid Salemi/AP

PA endorses study denying Jewish claims to the Western Wall. Israel is stunned at falsification of history

Israel to PA: Reject ‘findings’ on claims to Kotel
By BY HERB KEINON,  GIL HOFFMAN AND KHALED ABU TOAM
11/24/2010 03:29

Israeli peace activist [Gershon Baskin] calls Palestinian Authority’s denial of Jewish ties to site a "stain" and a "serious mistake."


Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s spokesman Mark Regev called on the Palestinian leadership Tuesday to publicly disassociate itself from the Palestinian Authority “study” denying Jewish claims to the Western Wall, saying “this is not the sort of statement to be expected from a partner in peace.”

“Denying the Jewish connection to the Western Wall is to deny reality. If you deny the Jewish connection to the Western Wall you are in fact denying the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and the land of Israel itself,” Regev said. “When they deny the Jewish connection, they are unfortunately raising very serious questions as to their true commitment to reconciliation.”

Regev said this type of statement was to be expected from “Ahmadinejad’s Iran, Hizbullah or Hamas, but to deny the Jewish connection to the Western Wall is something that we wouldn’t expect from a partner in peace, and I call upon the Palestinian leadership – President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad – to publicly disassociate themselves from it.”

Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely said the government must fight to prevent the world from adopting the libels spread by the PA against the Jewish people. She warned that the “study” could be endorsed by UNESCO, which recently declared that Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem was a Muslim holy site and not a Jewish one.

“We must declare war on the culture of lies circulated by the Palestinians before the world starts believing them,” she said. “One can only hope that the more the Palestinians talk about the lack of a connection between the Jewish people to their land, the less people will take seriously whatever claims they make.”

Meanwhile, the PA officially endorsed the “study.”

The PA’s Ministry of Information posted the results on its official website, and these findings were first published in The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

The project was prepared by al-Mutawakel Taha, a senior official with the PA Ministry of Information. He is also a prominent Palestinian poet and writer.

Taha’s “study” concluded that the Western Wall was never a Jewish site, but had always belonged to Muslims. He wrote that the Western Wall, known to Muslims as Al-Buraq Wall, is actually the western wall of the Al-Aksa Mosque.

Gershon Baskin, the joint CEO of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, sent a letter to the Palestinian leadership in the wake of the Post article, calling the findings “a serious mistake” and “a stain on the Palestinian Authority.”

“If the content of the article is correct, you should take immediate action against the author of the report in question (if he is in fact employed by the PA or by the PLO) because his baseless claims are a serious blow to the legitimacy of Palestinian claims and make a mockery of the idea of peace between the Palestinians and the Jews,” Baskin wrote. “This is a most serious mistake, similar to the one of the late President Arafat when he denied any Jewish connection to the Holy Temple Mount (Haram Al-Sharif) in Jerusalem.

“Any observer, even a non-professional archeologist, can discern that the stones used to construct the Western Wall (the Kotel) are from the era of Solomon’s Temple and the Temple rebuilt by King Herod which was hundreds of years before Islam appeared on the world stage.

“The falsification of history, as done in the report by the Palestinian poet Al- Mutawakel Taha, a senior official with the Ministry of Information, is a serious stain on the Palestinian Authority.”

Condolences on the passing of Harold Goldman

The Jewish Federation conveys with sadness and with its condolences the news as reported by Rabbi David Kaufman of Temple B'nai Jeshurun

Harold Goldman, beloved father and grandfather, passed away this morning. May his name be forever remembered for a blessing. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time. May his soul be bound up in the bond of eternal life.

In fulfillment of Harold's often repeated requests, there will be no funeral or memorial service.