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I find the summary to be borderline trollish flaimbait. It seems to draw the conclusion that the U.S. committee that approved the ports deal supports Arabs but when it comes to Israelis, it rejects the deal. Many have already clearly pointed out in the comments that the security of our ports still must conform to U.S. standards and is open to surprise spotchecks whenever they are necessary. Our ports, our soil but the profits go to a foreign company--in this case the UAE--instead of a local American firm. Ports in Oakland, California are owned by the Danes as are many other such operations. The Arabs in the UAE have a vested interest in making sure that the port succeeds to the sake of profits. Another little cited but obvious fact is that when a foreign company puts money into a tangible asset such as a port or bonds, etc. then the United States can sieze that money if it suspects terrorism. To draw a Arab versus Israeli bias at this point is ludicrious. I'm actually surprised the summary didn't go as far as to call the U.S. committee anti-Semitic as so often happens when something doesn't go Israel's way. The problem is that an executive on Sourcefire's board happens to be the author of Snort. Snort is used to protect many computer systems within the government and military. Knowing how slow these beaurocracies move means that if the Israeli company were to find holes in snort, they could spy on U.S. systems. Would Israel spy on the United States? Yes, it has happened before. Links are available here and here (An Israeli mainstream paper!) and here and here (disappeared, linkrot? google cache of article.

When Arial Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel, openly bragged on October 3rd that, "We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it", why should I not find this statement objectionable, and anti-American? I whole-heartedly support this inquiry because the Israelis cannot be trusted with our (American) interests.

Israel has its own religious fanatics. The settlers in the West Bank (and formerly in Gaza) are religious fanatics bent on the creation of Greater Israel. Fortunately, the government of Israel is being far less indulgent to the settlers than they have in the past.

For the most part, there are no independent Israeli mass murders because their overwhelmingly powerful army does most of the killing. Their army kills and maims civilians near militant leaders by bombing apartment blocks and shooting missiles at cars on busy streets. The hatred is not one-way, though the despair and desperation that originates in collective punishment and leads people to conclude that blowing themselves up to take others with them is a good idea is truly uniquely Palestinian.

I'm not very fond of either side in the Israel-Palestine conflict, but the 3:1 Palestinians:Israelis body count ratio and the overwhelming difference in force strength really does leave Israel looking like the bully in the relationship.

Shut up, you cry baby - anything that could be construed as bad about Israel must be because the speaker is an "agent provocateur" or an "anti semite"

The company _says_ they got the instant msgs and called the boys in Israel and they called the FBI:

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtm l?itemNo=77744&contrassID=/has%5C

And did you know that certain organizations (*DL) paid the San Francisco Police to spy on Arab Americans in the 1980's and 1990's ?

Yeah, they do bad stuff and then say they have the moral high ground to justify it - get over it.

Um.. The Stern Gang weren't terrorists?

Fact: 122 Israeli children have been killed by Palestinians and 686 Palestinian children have been killed by Israelis since September 29, 2000

Fact: 1,063 Israelis and 3,652 Palestinians have been killed since September 29, 2000.

Fact: 7,361 Israelis and 29,000 Palestinians have been injured since September 29, 2000.

This does not excuse terrorism. But that's not the point either. The point is that the Palestinians are at least as much victims of the situation as the Israelis, and your painting of Israel as the sole victim is blatantly false. This is due to US media bias.

The US media consistently reports more on Israeli casualties than Palestinian ones. (There is plenty of research on this, example) Non-US media is more even-handed. (wheras Arab media is strongly biased towards the Palestinian side.)

The international community is also far more critical of Israel's actions than the USA is, evidenced by the over 60 UN resolutions passed against Israel, many of which were opposed only by Israel and the USA.

I'm not agitating against the Israelis here. Israel exists and isn't going to go away, and the israelis certainly have a right to security. But it is impossible to draw the conclusion that Israel is blameless if you look at the situation in an unbiased way.

And the USA needs this more now than ever. The #1 greivance with the USA among Arabs (as shown in opinon polls) is not our religion, or our culture, or our support of their regimes, and certainly not our freedom.

Their #1 greivance is that they feel the USA has no compassion for the sufferings of their Palestinian brethern. This isn't true. I'm American and I'll say the Americans are just as compassionate as any other people out there. The problem is simply that people in the US don't know. Please. Do some in-depth study of the subject (i.e. don't just follow news reports). If you're in the US, get some non-US news. Try the BBC. Try Haaretz (which is more even-handed than most US media, despite being a major Israeli paper). Talk to Israelis and Palestinians. Go there, if you get the chance. (And I mean to Palestine as well.)

I have never been there. But I know 5 people who have (2 arabs, 3 non-arabs, none muslim, although that shouldn't be relevant). None of them condone terrorism. And none of them consider Israel to have any kind of moral high-ground.

Free websites for the most part

Here are the sites in my News pull down
http://www.drudgereport.com/
http://www.slashdot.org/
http://www.jpost.com/
http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/
http://www.arabnews.com/
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/
http://news.google.com/
http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm
feed://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_world_ed it ion/front_page/rss.xml
http://www.globalsecurity.org/

I also hit CNN.com, some of the other British papers on the web, occasionally the local news TV station's websites.

My focus is on the Middle East, so I hit alot of Israeli papers. I go to about 1 blog everyother day, other than Fark.

Odigo - the same company that was forewarned of 9/11 - two hours before it happened. Info here.

> Ha'aretz is a fairly centrist viewpoint, defining center in terms of Israeli politics.

Of the Israeli mainstream media, Ha'aretz is usually considered to be "left of centre" and Jerusalem post - "right of centre".

But the French ambassador to the UK is not North African, and while at a cocktail party he reportedly described Israel as a "s***ty little country." While painting all Frenchmen with a broad brush doesn't accurately describe the situation (after all, what do you do about Jewish Frenchmen?), exonerating French natives en masse is equally broad--and equally inadequate.

It is not, after all, the fact that "Most Jews in France are emigrants from North Africa" that "creates the impression that anti-Semitism is on the rise" (disclaimer: English is not Mr. Avnery's first language; hence, this may be just semantic imprecision). Rather, it is the very real fact that anti-Jewish threats and acts have doubled this year (AP article in Ha'Aretz). One might also cite the ADL anti-semitism index, which uses four (or eleven, depending on the country) classic anti-Jewish statements to assess popular attitudes about Jewish people. It concluded that 25% of the French population harbors classically anti-Jewish attitudes. Surely 25% of the French population is not from North Africa.

Moreover, while Uri Avnery is a respected journalist, ex-soldier, and former Member of Knesset (Israeli parliament), quoting him as an objective source seems disingenuous. Mr. Avnery is a celebrated leader of the left fringe in Israeli politics; it would be roughly the equivalent of quoting Noam Chomsky's "expertise" on a polarizing issue, say, the US as "the world's biggest terrorist state" (from a Salon.com interview, as well as other places) or the Holocaust.

Avnery here presents an opinion, and fails to back it with facts. Deeper analysis at the very least suggests that he should perhaps provide further explanation.

-db

I guess I'm not following your point. I guess you are saying all of Israel's killing is justified, they only kill terrorists, never civilians, and its just the Palestinian's who are the indiscriminate killers? Anyone who says Isreal kills civilians is a Palastinian propagandist?

You are saying bombing an apartment building was justified because someone you don't like was in it. I don't remember exactly who the target was in the incident I'm thinking of. If it was such a noble act I doubt the U.S. would have condemned it as much as they did or not would 20 or so Israeli Air Force pilots would have forfeited their careers over it. There are so many civilians killed by both sides I lose track.

To make of for my bad memory here. is an article on another bombing that just happened, 17 dead, 15 civilians, 11 children. Is Haaretz Palastinian propaganda? Perhaps the children were body gaurds or relatives of some terrorist so maybe its OK they were killed too.

You see I don't think you should, with good conscience, try to pretend one side is always the right one in this particular situation. Its reached the point both sides are very wrong and they should both be very ashamed.

Israel to kill in U.S., allied nations Source: UPI / interviews with former Israeli intelligence agents and CIA agents.
Cite: " Gerald Bull, an Ontario-born U.S. citizen and designer of the Iraqi supergun -- a massive artillery system capable of launching satellites into orbit, and of delivering nuclear chemical or biological payloads from Baghdad to Israel -- was killed in Belgium in March 1990. The killing is still unsolved, but former CIA officials said a Mossad hit team is the most likely suspect."

New evidence of Mossad involvement in Belgium murder case Source: Haaretz Daily (an Israeli newspaper) / the Belgian government
Cite: "The Belgian State Prosecutor is considering reopening a probe into the murder of Canadian scientist Dr. Gerald Bull in Brussels 12 years ago, amid new suspicions that the Mossad was responsible. Belgian police say they have new information that the Mossad was directly involved in killing Bull."

Cool link, but it's the "old" Time Domain brand, not the newer Camero brand. The newer brand has better res according to the article. Here's a couple other news sites that popped out of Google:
Isreali press and an investor announcement.

Despite aggressive attacks by Israel on suspected Qassam manufacture workshops, they still have a supply of the rockets and launch them even now from the Gaza Strip. I won't claim to do a rigorous study of this, but here's my thoughts.

Hamas more or less is the effective Palestinian-side government of the Gaza Strip. They were able to manufacture some number of these rockets under the noses of the Israeli army, which is backed with a great intelligence service. So here's some observations. First, Hamas is a "terrorist group" with unusually serious resources and manpower. Second, Hamas chose to make and launch their own rockets rather than solely use military surplus. Perhaps they can't smuggle in much of the weaponry they want, or they're hoarding what they have.

Their workshops are vulnerable to Israeli raids and have been hit occasionally over the past few years (including recently due to the above attack). I thought earlier this year that perhaps the manufacture of these weapons had stopped (due to losses suffered from previous Israeli raids), but apparently that's not so. The requirements to manufacture these weapons seem very simple, namely a machine shop, explosives for the payload, and the fuel mixture above.

The current Qassams aren't particularly effective. The missiles are very inaccurate and unguided. Their range and payload are quite limited. But Hamas does have a ranged weapon which appears to have some value in psychological warfare. Future generations of Qassam rockets may be more effective.

The point here is that a group with sufficent resources should be able to manufacture a number of crude missiles without major investments, fancy technology, or purchases of equipment and chemicals that would draw law enforcement attention. Those missiles probably wouldn't be effective. However, in a similar fashion to missiles designed to damage ships, one could with a lot of experimentation devise a missile designed for penetrating and damaging hardened buildings.

So I can see legitimate scary scenarios for rockets killing people in terrorist attacks. But I don't see how current restrictions will keep this sort of development from occuring. Valuable information and experience will be withheld from lawful citizens while the villians will still break the law. It's another case where we impose restrictions on all citizens because someone could hypothetically do something dangerous.

Wow, their first installfest. It seems they are behind in the areas of reading books as well in the Arab world.

UN report gives failing grades to Arab states ... "One of the most alarming indicators in the UN report is the fact that the quantity of books translated into Arabic is low in comparison with the number of translated books in Western countries. Some 330 books are translated into Arabic per year in all Arab states - about one-fifth of the number translated in Greece alone. Another eye-opening figure - since the ninth century, only 100,000 books have been translated into Arabic." ...

If you want to see what the Middle Ages would have been like, go to a muslim country(preferably in a village) and live there, that is the closest you will get to the Middle Ages.

Did you know that more Jews from Eastern Europe want to come to Germany than to Israel?

though they do try.

Do they?

When Syria starts making moves towards peace negotiations, Israeli officials start talking about plans to expand civilian settlement in the occupied Golan Heights (Syrian territory, or if you'd like to get ultra-technical, part of it is Lebanese territory). Many agree that it's in violation of Article 49 of the Geneva Convention for a government to encourage civilians to move into an occupied territory, especially for the purpose of changing demographics (what Article 49 was designed to prevent).

While Iraq has been neutralized as a threat and Iran and Libya have taken steps towards WMD disclosure and disarmanment, Israel prepares to take steps to bar Vanunu from leaving the country upon his release, and rebuffs any suggestion that Israel should consider disarming as well.

When Palestinians suggest a two-state solution along 1967 lines if the late 70s, and this idea gains international recognition and acceptance, Israel invades Palestinian refugee camps and other areas that Palestnians were living in in Lebanon in the 1980s. There were no cross-border attacks leading up to the war, despite what some may try to tell you today, with the best provocation being an Israeli army jeep that hit a land mine in Lebanon; where the Israeli army had no legal business driving. In the war, Israel killed tens of thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians and set the Palestinians back decades from having any sort of united leadership.

In the 1990s, Yitzhak Rabin started the Oslo process, but reassured his constitutents that it would not lead to a Palestinian state- despite the fact that Israel led the Palestinians (and the world) to believe otherwise. The number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Gaza doubled in the Oslo years. Netanyahu ran, and won, on a campaign to foil the Oslo accords by doing only the bare minimum required to avoid international scrutinty and doing everything Israel could to undo the rest.

And 120,000 Israelis protested today against any sort of withdrawl from the settlements. take a look or just check out the crowd.

If that's trying to create peace, I'd hate to see Israel attempt to create war.

though they do try.

Do they?

When Syria starts making moves towards peace negotiations, Israeli officials start talking about plans to expand civilian settlement in the occupied Golan Heights (Syrian territory, or if you'd like to get ultra-technical, part of it is Lebanese territory). Many agree that it's in violation of Article 49 of the Geneva Convention for a government to encourage civilians to move into an occupied territory, especially for the purpose of changing demographics (what Article 49 was designed to prevent).

While Iraq has been neutralized as a threat and Iran and Libya have taken steps towards WMD disclosure and disarmanment, Israel prepares to take steps to bar Vanunu from leaving the country upon his release, and rebuffs any suggestion that Israel should consider disarming as well.

When Palestinians suggest a two-state solution along 1967 lines if the late 70s, and this idea gains international recognition and acceptance, Israel invades Palestinian refugee camps and other areas that Palestnians were living in in Lebanon in the 1980s. There were no cross-border attacks leading up to the war, despite what some may try to tell you today, with the best provocation being an Israeli army jeep that hit a land mine in Lebanon; where the Israeli army had no legal business driving. In the war, Israel killed tens of thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians and set the Palestinians back decades from having any sort of united leadership.

In the 1990s, Yitzhak Rabin started the Oslo process, but reassured his constitutents that it would not lead to a Palestinian state- despite the fact that Israel led the Palestinians (and the world) to believe otherwise. The number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Gaza doubled in the Oslo years. Netanyahu ran, and won, on a campaign to foil the Oslo accords by doing only the bare minimum required to avoid international scrutinty and doing everything Israel could to undo the rest.

And 120,000 Israelis protested today against any sort of withdrawl from the settlements. take a look or just check out the crowd.

If that's trying to create peace, I'd hate to see Israel attempt to create war.

Of course we have.

You have two people who got a non specific warning about something - they haven't told the press what they were warned about (that's what I'm trying to find out), and the kicker is that there was no reason to warn them.

It wasn't non-specific at all. Both the Washington Post and Haaretz report that the warning was that the WTC would be attacked.

They were not in any danger, because they were 6000 miles away when they were warned.

This is explained in a follow up story by the Post which observes that the Odigo software has "a feature called People Finder that allows users to seek out and contact others based on certain interests or demographics". The person issuing the warning could've send the message to Odigo employees, thinking it would arrive at their HQ in NY.

Why warn them, and not the Israelis who traveled on those planes?

It is easier to ascertain where somebody works than it is on what flights they have reservations on. The latter is treated as confidential information by the airlines. Place of employment however is not, esp. if you have access to state records, passports, etc.

Cheering Israelis who appeared to be Mossad: To me, they appeared too stupid to be Mossad. Sorry - where I come from, undercover agents don't take pictures of each other and get arrested while dancing on their moving van. No way.

This is a stereotype in reverse, isn't it? You don't believe it's possible that Mossad could employ idiots? After all, they don't have a lot of people to choose from.

You do realize that everyone involved in that is either dead or in Depends by now, don't you?

Yes... but it establishes a precedent. That is to say, it isn't inconceivable that Israel would participate in an attack like this to gain sympathy/support/whatever. It's happened before.

1993: World Trade Center bombing
1996: Killing of 19 US soldiers in Saudi Arabia
1998: East African bombings
2000: Attack on USS Cole in Yemen

The complicity of Al Qaeda is an allegation only, at this point. Do I have to list the crimes committed by the U.S. against Arabs? Should I start with our staging the coup in Iran that overthrew a democratically elected gov't in order to install the Shah whose regime is widely regarded to be brutal? Or how about the shelling of civilians in Lebanon? Our attack on a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan which we've never apologized or made reparations for? Our unflinching support/defense of Israel as they steal Palestinian land, bulldoze their homes and torture and murder their citizens? How about those sanctions against Iraq, killing ~500,000, mostly children? Or our support of Hussein as he waged war against Iran? The bombing of Libya, killing Quaddafi's little baby girl, amongst others? Even the first Gulf War reeks, what with the lies about our giving a green light to Saddam, the lies about Kuwaiti babies being ripped from their incubators, the lies about Iraqi troops massing on the Saudi Arabia border. Afghanistan.

You're talking at best 100 deaths. I'm talking upwards of a million, maybe more.

This is nonesense, and insulting nonesense at that. As I tried to explain, media owners couldn't put a lid on this story if it were true. The truth comes out.

How do you know this? With all the media conglomeration that's taking place, don't you think there comes a point when the power over all these reporters becomes so great that they can be silenced? Reporters aren't stupid, they can see which way the wind is blowing. Moreover, the control from the top needn't be explicit... go read The New York Times sometime, they manage their news very well by assigning reporters they know can be t

Not true. Both the original Washington Post story and the Haaretz story both talk about the warning specifically referencing the WTC.

They start out crying conspiracy theory, but when presented with the facts, they do tend to grow quiet, don't they?

OK, then how about Haaretz?

Hmmm, well then why not read the Haaretz story that I also linked to, which does reference the WTC.

The number of Israelis killed was in the excerpt I included from The New York Times.

Israelis are a pretty paranoid group of people, perhaps justifiably so, and so if it were seen as jeopardizing their situation I could easily see their keeping their mouths shut about this. Besides, all 1,000 (if that's the number) wouldn't need to be in on it. A supervisor or two or three could summarily order everyone to stay home without mentioning why.

Again, as I've stressed elsewhere, I don't see this as conclusive evidence. I do however see that there is more evidence implicating Israel than there is bin Laden. That's all.

Independent verification of the Post story.

A NATION CHALLENGED: THE TALLY; Officials Say Number of Those Still Missing May Be Overstated

By ERIC LIPTON (NYT) 1217 words

It has become clear, though, that the question of foreign citizens has been the most problematic in efforts to keep the city's count accurate. Over the last several days, the city's list of the missing became inflated by what officials said were missing persons reports from consulates and embassies for countries including India and Israel.

But interviews with many consulate officials yesterday suggested that the lists of people they were collecting varied widely in their usefulness. For example, the city had somehow received reports of many Israelis feared missing at the site, and President Bush in his address to the country on Thursday night mentioned that about 130 Israelis had died in the attacks.

But today, Alon Pinkas, Israel's consul general here, said that lists of the missing included reports from people who had called in because, for instance, relatives in New York had not returned their phone calls from Israel. There were, in fact, only three Israelis who had been confirmed as dead: two on the planes and another who had been visiting the towers on business and who was identified and buried.

"Everybody see

Spain and Morocco to build train tunnel under sea

Spain and Morocco plan tunnel link

Tunnel to link Spain and Morocco agreed


Tunnel link for Africa and Europe


Spain, Morocco to build tunnel under Mediterranean Sea

Spain, Morocco plan undersea tunnel

DON'T MOD THIS UP. MY KARMA IS ALREADY EXCELLENT (has been for months!)

Some of which had no problem with 9/11.

I think the most compelling evidence is the Odigo story originally reported in the Washington Post. They've since taken it down, but Haaretz still carries it.

You can of course find the text of the article in the Washington Post through Google.

That an Israeli company received advance warning of the attacks is interesting, given that The New York Times reports that only one Israeli died in the WTC. This suggests that the Odigo workers may not have been the only ones warned. It's worth noting too that the one Israeli who died was only there visiting, that is, they may not have known he was even going to be there.

Then there's the Israeli spy ring that was uncovered shortly after 9/11... the biggest spy ring ever uncovered in fact. Fox News had this story, of course, they too later took the story down, but it's archived here. The presence of the spys was largely confirmed by the Jewish publication, even if they sought a more benign explanation, but both accounts link these spies with the alleged 9/11 terrorists.

Finally, we have the Israelis who were dancing as the towers fell, and who appear to have been Mossad agents.

Is that enough? There's more you know. All of it sourced by mainstream/corporate media organizations, all of it far more damning than the largely imaginary case being made against al Qaeda and the 19 terrorists (seven of whom have been found to still be alive, BTW.

As today's FA in the Nation notes, this story was originally in Israel's Haaretz, and was covered here in February:

Posted by michael on Friday February 21, @12:50AM
from the info-for-the-lowest-bidder dept.
l2718 writes "Ha'aretz has a disquieting report on a presentation made by eBay's senior counsel to law-enforcement officials. Apparently eBay logs all user interaction with them, and will happily hand over all the information to any law-enforcement official without a warrant -- a fax is quite sufficient. He is actually proud of their 'flexible' privacy policy."

As today's FA in the Nation notes, this story was originally in Israel's Haaretz, and was covered here in February:

Posted by michael on Friday February 21, @12:50AM
from the info-for-the-lowest-bidder dept.
l2718 writes "Ha'aretz has a disquieting report on a presentation made by eBay's senior counsel to law-enforcement officials. Apparently eBay logs all user interaction with them, and will happily hand over all the information to any law-enforcement official without a warrant -- a fax is quite sufficient. He is actually proud of their 'flexible' privacy policy."

...this is totally consistent with the appointment of Daniel Pipes to the board of United States Institute of Peace. Recall that Pipes is the famous guy who initiated the Campus-Watch campaign not long ago, a campaign to blacklist professors who show sympathy for the Muslims. Kinda like appointing a wolf to herd the sheeps.

Beautiful, ain't it?

Cheers,
e.

--let them know WHY.

Kind of interesting to here about this when I heard on the Screen Savers that eBay is more than willing to hand over any user's information to the goverment without a supeona or court order. Here is a link to the original artical where the senior council for eBay had a close door meeting with cyber crimes divisions of goverment agencies.

It has become clear, though, that the question of foreign citizens has been the most problematic in efforts to keep the city's count accurate. Over the last several days, the city's list of the missing became inflated by what officials said were missing persons reports from consulates and embassies for countries including India and Israel.

But interviews with many consulate officials yesterday suggested that the lists of people they were collecting varied widely in their usefulness. For example, the city had somehow received reports of many Israelis feared missing at the site, and President Bush in his address to the country on Thursday night mentioned that about 130 Israelis had died in the attacks.

But today, Alon Pinkas, Israel's consul general here, said that lists of the missing included reports from people who had called in because, for instance, relatives in New York had not returned their phone calls from Israel. There were, in fact, only three Israelis who had been confirmed as dead: two on the planes and another who had been visiting the towers on business and who was identified and buried.

Fourteen hours after the disaster, Google News returns only one result for "missile defense" + columbia + shuttle -- ominously, Ha'aretz eulogizing Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon as the "first victim on this century's battlefield."

I am awfully sorry about the disaster, and I'd have prevented it if I could have. But I cannot help feeling consoled by the prospect that GW Bush now has one less space shuttle to aid in developing the "Star Wars" missile defense shield. That, plus a grounding delay for the rest of the fleet, could buy precious time for Americans to elect political leadership who will curtail this project.

However, I don't have any idea how dependent these efforts are on NASA's shuttles. How significant is the loss of the Columbia and a grounding period for the remaining shuttles for slowing development of the American military's space warfare programs?

--he was, I found this bio of him on ha-aretz just now:

Israeli astronaut

Saturday, February 01, 2003 Shvat 29, 5763 Israel Time: 19:18 (GMT+2)
Back Home
Israel's first astronaut - Ilan Ramon
By Ha'aretz Service
Israel's first spaceman, Ilan Ramon.
(Photo: AP)

Ilan Ramon, a former fighter pilot and weapons specialist, fought in the 1973 Yom Kippur War and in the 1982 war in Lebanon. In 1981, he was a member of the mission to bomb the Iraqi nuclear reactor before it became online.

In 1997, he was selected to be Israel's first astronaut, and began training at NASA a year later. He was promised a launch as early as 1999, but for several reasons, his flight - and the flight of an atmospheric dust-measuring experiment sponsored by Israel - was delayed.

The son of an Auschwitz death camp survivor, Ramon planned a tribute to those who endured the Holocaust - he carried up a small pencil drawing titled "Moon Landscape" by Peter Ginz, a 14-year-old Jewish boy who was killed at Auschwitz.

He also packed a credit-card sized microfiche of the Bible given to him by President Moshe Katsav and some mezuzahs - cases containing excerpts from the Bible that are affixed to the door in Jewish houses.

A large Israeli contingent was on hand to watch the country's first astronaut head into space. Among the dignitaries were former Israel Air Force commanders in chief Eitan Ben-Eliyahu and Avihu Ben-Nun.

Ramon indicated that his flight would provide a welcome diversion for fellow Israelis. "I think people are very happy to be distracted by my flight," he told a news conference.

On the Tuesday before take-off, the seven flight members had a pre-flight party at one of the NASA installations. Each astronaut-to-be was allowed to invite five guests, and Ramon selected his wife Rona, his father, brother, brother-in-law, and his close friend Roni Shalein from Nahalal. Shalein later said: "For me, this was really exciting - to come from the cow shed at Nahalal and spend time with seven astronauts on their way into space."

Ramon's immediate family, who had spent the past four years with him in the U.S., confessed to being tense and nervous. Rona Ramon said: "This is definitely exciting, and we're approaching the big moment. It seems like a dream." At the bon voyage party Tuesday, Rona gave her husband four poems and some personal effects to take with him.

For his part, Ramon stressed that his years of training in the U.S. were enhanced by the close friendship he has cultivated with the other flight members. The other astronauts also mentioned their close relationship with Ramon at Houston training center.

Ramon's father, Eliezer Wolferman, 79, who was also on hand for his son's flight into space, said the media blitz in Israel about the Columbia mission is excessive. Ramon's father called for "a little more modesty" about an Israeli's first space mission.

Ilan's brother Gadi left a sealed letter aboard the Columbia - his brother would only be able to read it after the space shuttle went into space. The astronaut's 15-year-old son Assaf, also left his father a note to be opened only in space. Assaf had said that he would also like to be a pilot or astronaut and said he misses life in Israel.

The crew that flew into space on January 16, whose code name is STS-107, was the first one in three years to concentrate exclusively on research and did not work on the space station.

"Kikes should be killed, the holocaust is a myth, and niggers smell bad." will I be arrested in Germany?

Actually, it's illegal to say a thing like "I think the number of Jewish fatalities in Germany and German-occupied territories in 1933 - 1945 should be investigated."

Germany is a Western civilisation, a democracy and a secularized society. Yet it is illegal to suggest or start scientific research on a specific historic event, because that suggests questioning of the only allowed scientific research results.

If a German reads this comment, then I (if I hadn't posted this as AC) and Slashdot will have commited a crime. Because I'm vehemently opposing the perverted law we're talking about, this could be grounds for prosecution since I by questioning the law can be accused of doubting the "legally defined truth".

"Why would I otherwise question the law?", right?

If there was a comment containg the words "six million" in the Linux source code to be read, and the speech synthesizer sounded "happy" while reading that, then this could lead to legal action as well, and not only in Germany. The wife of the EU Central Bank director Wim Duisenberg laughed after having uttered the words "six million" (in an interview on a totally unrelated matter) and now she's being sued.

Ha'aretz (Israeli newspaper) has written about this before Cnet. More info available there (In English!).
Hebrew version is also available.

No, I'm not trolling.
Where do you take those things? 97 percent on west bank under PA control? Gimme a break. There are areas A, B and C and only area A is under full PA control.
For some reason Kofi Annan thinks different, btw. he's UN chief (maybe you need some citation or proof?)

As for 3 million people living in west bank and 1,2 million living in Gaza strip, they are NOT citizens of Israel and they have basically no rights.

This crime of being jewish on PA lands is some new kind of blood libel? Are you aware that such knowing lies can be punishable crimes? What about Ha'aretz reporter Amira Haas, who lives in occupied West bank?
Here you find last childs killed by israelis, you can search for more yourself.

The ratio of israeli vs palestinian children killed is similiar - about 1:3. For totals check Btselem.

The problem with this discussion is that one of us is underinformed or maybe just hostile. The facts I have brought are widely available and easily confirmed, but you just don't care. So if you think ignorance is strength then there's no point in discussion.

No, I'm not trolling.
Where do you take those things? 97 percent on west bank under PA control? Gimme a break. There are areas A, B and C and only area A is under full PA control.
For some reason Kofi Annan thinks different, btw. he's UN chief (maybe you need some citation or proof?)

As for 3 million people living in west bank and 1,2 million living in Gaza strip, they are NOT citizens of Israel and they have basically no rights.

This crime of being jewish on PA lands is some new kind of blood libel? Are you aware that such knowing lies can be punishable crimes? What about Ha'aretz reporter Amira Haas, who lives in occupied West bank?
Here you find last childs killed by israelis, you can search for more yourself.

The ratio of israeli vs palestinian children killed is similiar - about 1:3. For totals check Btselem.

The problem with this discussion is that one of us is underinformed or maybe just hostile. The facts I have brought are widely available and easily confirmed, but you just don't care. So if you think ignorance is strength then there's no point in discussion.

You're trolling, right?

The only article about `three Palestinians dead' on the page you link to is this one, about two Palestinian gunmen and a passerby who died after they opened fire on Israeli troops. Other articles on the site include a piece twelve Jews who were shot yesterday while walking home from prayer. Another article discusses the two Jewish children, ages four and five, who were shot with their mother a few days ago while sitting down for bedtime stories.

Needless to say, there is nothing like the absurd statistic about deaths you cite -- care to provide a cite, or are you just blowing hot air?

As for `two states in Israel', if you haven't noticed, the Israelis have been trying to give the Palestinians their own state since the Oslo peace accords of 1991 (and 97% of the West Bank has been under PA control since that time, asking only for an end to the murder-suicide bombings in return. The y never got that end.

As for democracy, I would remind you that all citizens of Israel, Jewish, Christian, or Palestinian, enjoy exactly the same rights -- indeed there were 17 Palestinian members of the Knesset (Israel's parliament) the last time I checked. This makes a marked contrast to the PA lands, where it is a crime punishable by death to be even suspected of being Jewish.

You're trolling, right?

The only article about `three Palestinians dead' on the page you link to is this one, about two Palestinian gunmen and a passerby who died after they opened fire on Israeli troops. Other articles on the site include a piece twelve Jews who were shot yesterday while walking home from prayer. Another article discusses the two Jewish children, ages four and five, who were shot with their mother a few days ago while sitting down for bedtime stories.

Needless to say, there is nothing like the absurd statistic about deaths you cite -- care to provide a cite, or are you just blowing hot air?

As for `two states in Israel', if you haven't noticed, the Israelis have been trying to give the Palestinians their own state since the Oslo peace accords of 1991 (and 97% of the West Bank has been under PA control since that time, asking only for an end to the murder-suicide bombings in return. The y never got that end.

As for democracy, I would remind you that all citizens of Israel, Jewish, Christian, or Palestinian, enjoy exactly the same rights -- indeed there were 17 Palestinian members of the Knesset (Israel's parliament) the last time I checked. This makes a marked contrast to the PA lands, where it is a crime punishable by death to be even suspected of being Jewish.

I don't believe that you can be so stupid?
Take a look at Ha'aretz and you get most facts straight. Yes, the ratio of jews to palestinians killed in last intifada is 1 to 3. In last week Israelis have murdered 3 palestinian children, again read it at haaretzdaily.com which is Tel Aviv newspaper, in case you don't know its the UN recognized capital of Israel.
UN resolution mandated 2 separate states in Palestine, but due to political and military hooplaa the palestinians are just left out in the cold. And don't dare to name Israel democracy, a country with no constitution and 1/3 of people derived of most rights including citizenship.

Sorry -- hope it works this time.

The US government is not willing to tell anyone what it knows about Iraq. It cannot reveal certain information for security purposes. It might reveal more than it can afford to reveal.

Riiiight. Can you think of any information they'd have about Iraq that they couldn't release to the American people? What exactly could be wrong with them saying "We have confirmed intelligence that says Iraq currently has fully operational ICBMs" or even suitcase nukes? There is no such information. They've never even made that claim. The most he's done is refer to some British and European reports speculating that given the right materials, Sadaam could produce a weapon in six months. He's never established ANY kind of connection between terrorists and Iraq whatsoever.

The funny thing is, even a German Marxist can make a better case for war against Iraq than the Bush Administration. Why is that? Could be a number of things. It could be the administration is inept when it comes to communications. Worse, it could be that they're deft at it, and they realize that the sort of waterd-down content-free soundbites they've been feeding the population actually work. But it also could be hidden motives on their part. Sometimes you have a hard time making a case when there's a case to be made, because the reasons for doing things have little to do with the easily made case.

Finally, I hope we both get modded offtopic (but maybe informative).

I totally agree with you here, it's important to get a variety of viewpoints, on BOTH or ALL sides of the issue. If you don't like Israel, it's at least important to read Israeli news to get their viewpoint, try here for a relatively unbiased Israeli news source.

About 2 years ago (note - before 9/11) I was consistently reading both Western news sources, as well as Israeli and Arab news sources. (Try this for example). But the discrepencies were overwhelming. Comparing to what I consider a mostly unbiased site (BBC), the US and Israeli sources did have biases, but they almost always mentioned the other sides of the issues, and quoted people on the other side (Yes, Israeli papers often quote Palestinians). Recently, I've heard Saudi Arabia being really miffed at aljazeera for interviewing an occasional Israeli every now and then to get the Israeli point of view.

However, I was both disgusted and horrified at the reporting of the Arab news. If you do find relatively unbiased Arab news site, please let me know. The above site, and also www.arabnews.com, would typically only report crimes committed against Arabs or Muslims, and barely mention similar crimes committed by Muslims. Suicide bombings in Israel and attacks of India's Hindus were not mentioned, although corresponding attacks against Muslims by Israelis or Hindus were reported daily. It really made US news look totally unbiased and factual.

I am frankly sick of watching Israel do some very fucked up things "in retaliation" of the bombings. Why don't they just move their people out of occupied territories and quit fucking with Palestine? Seems like that would be a start.

Firstly, I'm a Jew that doesn't think you're an anti-Semite for the views you've expressed.

Secondly, I agree with Israel responding with too much force for bombings, and not following diplomatic paths to peace instead.

However, there are several dozen other countries doing things far worse than Israel (Sudan for instance, 2 million dead in ongoing civil war, slavery of black Christians, etc), but nobody seems to give a shit about these atrocities. Why is Israel singled out by nearly all countries for most of the evil going on in the world? I think it's because it provides an easy scapegoat. The problems within the entire Arab League can be blamed on Israel, even 9/11 is being blamed on Israel because bin laden claimed he was fighting for the oppressed Palestinians, etc. Of course there are far more oppressed peoples within the Arab Leaque itself, but since they're not oppressed by Israel their story doesn't make it out (Iraqi Kurds, Sudanese Christians, etc).

Secondly, you are either too young or have only a short-term memory. Before there was any occupied territories, there was terror, attacks, and outright war launched at the state of Israel. And even before Israel was a country, there was terror and attacks on the Jews living in the land now called Israel/Palestine. I think Israeli's hearts have hardened, after having fallen prey to Russian pogroms, the Holocaust, and centuries of other European anti-semitism. Golda Meir basically summed it up by saying (rougly) "We'd rather have people not be happy with us than be pitied and dead."

I don't agree with Israel's heavy response to terror, and I don't agree with the occupation. But when people claim that the terror would magically stop when Israel pulls out of the territories, they're disillusional. Hint, hamas and hizbollah do not accept any Jewish state in the region, and only refer to Israel as "the zionist entity". Luckily, most Palestinians don't share these views.

Finally, people like to criticise Israel and read off a memorized list of some dozen-odd UN security resolutions against Israel. Firstly, nearly all of these have provisions that the Palestinians too must adhere too, which they aren't. So it's BOTH Israel and Palestine in violation. Secondly, the entire Arab League is unilaterally unified against Israel (it was created strictly in opposition to the creation of Israel, but now it seems to be a valid entity), and have a significant block of power at the UN. To a lesser extent, the OIC (Organization of Islamic Countries) is nearly organized against Israel, and this is a block of about 50 votes in the 200-odd votes at the UN. So when people complain about Israel not following UN resolutions, it's important to keep in mind that a good block of the UN is specifically biased against Israel itself.

this was puglished yesterday in haaretzdaily.com. It has some interesting details like, for example, the track record of Junior, to this date, and that the competition will have a peace-builing slant to it, too.

Microsoft Israel fired man for being gay, court told

Since January, Tel Aviv District Labor Court has been sitting in camera on a lawsuit filed by a man who claims he was fired from Microsoft Israel because he is homosexual.

The company adamantly rejects the man's contention, saying that his dismissal had nothing to do with his sexual orientation but was due to his poor professional performance.

It is the first lawsuit filed in Israel on such grounds.

The dismissed employee is demanding his job back and financial compensation, and is citing the Law for the Prevention of Sexual Harassment, the Law for Equal Opportunities in the Workplace, and the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Freedom.

Until now, the court proceedings have been in camera and under a gag order on the names of the claimant and respondent.

At the request of Ha'aretz, the National Labor Court permitted publication this week of additional details from the court proceedings, including the name of the respondent, Microsoft Israel.

The gag order on the names of the claimant, witnesses and company employees remains in place.

The man says that until his dismissal in November last year he had done his work in a professional manner and had won recognition and financial reward for his contribution to the company.

He charges that since his sexual orientation became public during a company conference in the United States (when employees traveled with their partners), a number of the company's employees, including some of his superiors, changed their attitude and behavior toward him.

He says his sexual orientation became the talk of the day at the company's offices in Herzliya Pituah, and he became the object of jokes, e-mail messages, gossip, contempt, insults and taunting.

Microsoft Israel rejects the man's allegations outright, saying he was fired following repeated complaints about his work, and after a crisis of confidence between him and his superior. He also was inattentive to criticism of his work performance, the company claims.

1. The Palestinians are where they are because they believed their Arab "allies" and left home on their own in 1948. It was the Arabs who stuck them in camps, and (except for Jordan) still won't give them a home. The 600k who stayed in Israel were made full citizens, and they and their descendants live there to this day.

2. The Israelis are far from perfect, but they have a very hard problem to handle: they are locally strong and globally weak. There are only 12 million Jews in the world. A significant of the U.S. population's traditional support for Israel is a desire to protect the weak from the strong; after all, this whole Zionist state thing only really got rolling after the Holocaust.

3. See this website for an example of 'media' that don't sugar coat the Israeli side of this war--and it's an Israeli paper.

In Fact, many governments since WWII and before have incorporated features of fascist and communist government into their structure, although this has been done on a much slower time table than a war or revolution. There is much in both of the philosophiea to attract the petty autocract, the aspiring master of men. And over the years, these have been incorporated into laws.

heck, for decades, you had nazis, for example, acting as advisor to many governments. The most benign of these was a character like Von Braun in the Space Program, former scientist of the V-2 program.

There were many from many fields who lived and breathed and believed the original fascist philosophy, and who continued on in their fields. Some areas would be more problematic than others. Jobs like farmers and dentisits would be one thing, probably benign. Business managers would be another. Law enforcement, lawyers, doctors, and mental health specialists yet another, because of the influence on society. The vast majority were never arrested or put on trial.

The end result is that elements of these philosophies have been incorporated into laws around the world, through the influence of these, their sympathisers, and the children they raised, who probably did not know what the philosophy really meant, and absorbed the ideas under the guise of parental instruction.

and so the monitoring of private communications like email, while at the same time passing laws that make the majority of citizens criminals is commonplace.

As a Side Note: Heck you worry about Napster. Did you know that there is a whole online community of older women trading sewing patterns, sewing geeks who trade their files (sewing and knitting patterns) just like any other geeks do? and they are running into the same issues of trading that Napster did, but with the pattern publishers? a much smaller scale issue, of course. But involves people like the fabled Aunt Minnie. Go ahead, piss off grandma. see what happens ;-)

yet another example of an industry trying to achieve too much control over their customers, with all of the usual arguments in both directions.

• Times of India
• South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
• Tehran Times opinion piece on the whole shebang Ha'aretz Daily (Isreal)
• Khaleej Times (Dubai, UAE)

  More to come..