Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, August 28, 2004

Tunisian man downed U.S. Plane, CSIS told; officials insist it was accidental

National Post

A captured al-Qaeda operative has told Canadian intelligence investigators that a Montreal man who trained in Afghanistan alongside the 9/11 hijackers was responsible for the crash of an American Airlines flight in New York three years ago.

Canadian Security Intelligence Service agents were told during five days of interviews with the source that Abderraouf Jdey, a Canadian citizen also known as Farouk the Tunisian, had downed the plane with explosives on Nov. 12, 2001.

The source claimed Jdey had used his Canadian passport to board Flight 587 and 'conducted a suicide mission' with a small bomb similar to the one used by convicted shoe bomber Richard Reid, a 'Top Secret' Canadian government report says.

But officials said it was unlikely Jdey was actually involved in the crash, which killed 265 people and is considered accidental. The fact that al-Qaeda attributed the crash to Jdey, however, suggests they were expecting him to attack a plane.

'We have seen no evidence of anything other than an accident here,' said Ted Lopatkiewicz, spokesman for the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. 'There has been no evidence found, from what I can tell -- at least that's been relayed to us -- that there was any criminality involved here. It appears, at least the evidence we have, is that a vertical fin came off, not that there was any kind of event in the cabin.'"

2 Arrested in Alleged NYC Subway Bomb Plot

A U.S. citizen and a Pakistani national were arrested in an alleged plot to bomb a subway station in midtown Manhattan and possibly other locations around the city, police said Saturday.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the men were not thought to be connected to al-Qaida or any other international terrorist organization, although he said they expressed hatred for America. The arrests come two days before the start of the Republican National Convention, which is drawing tens of thousands of visitors into the city.

Though there was no clear tie to the convention, authorities moved to arrest the two men before it began, two law-enforcement sources told The Associated Press.

The men had been under police surveillance and had discussed placing explosives at the Herald Square subway station and stations at 42nd and 59th streets, Kelly said. The men never obtained explosives, he said.

"It was clear that they had the intention to cause damage, to kill people," Kelly said. "They did not immediately have the means to do it."

He identified the men as Shahawar Matin Siraj, 21, a Pakistani living in Queens, and James El Shafay, 19, a U.S. citizen living on Staten Island.

Kelly said the men visited the Herald Square 34th Street station — one block from Madison Square Garden, the site of the convention — on Aug. 21.

The men were being charged with conspiracy to blow up the station, which is central to a large commercial district, including Macy's flagship department store. They were to be arraigned Saturday in federal court.

The men also scouted three police stations on Staten Island and a jail there, Kelly said. They drew maps of those sites and a map of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which connects Brooklyn to Staten Island, he said.

"Their motive was generally hatred for America," Kelly said. He said one of the men had also made anti-Semitic statements.

Palestinian Prisoners Demands Presented to Israeli Prisons Service (IPS)

From the Addameer Prisoner's Support and Human Rights Assocation

If they'd get all of these demands it may be better than many hotels I've been at.

One: Family and/or Lawyers Visits

4. To allow all family members and relatives to visit
6. To allow private visits (without barriers)
7. To allow second and third degree relatives to visit
8. To relocate detainees/prisoners in areas close to their residential areas
9. To relocate prisoners who are immediate relatives in one prison
10. To allow personal belongings and clothes to be brought during visits
14. To allow visitors to bring with them bed-covers, watches, Palestinian head scarves, head wear, etc.

19. To allow prisoners to be in plain clothes during the visit and not restricted to uniforms of certain colors or design
20. To allow prisoners' handwork to be given out at the visit after coordination
21. To allow bringing in all kinds of cigarettes, audio-tapes, and video-tapes during the visit

Two: Phone Calls

1. To install pay phones in prison sections and/or yards and/or cells or allow mobile phones in every cell or for every prisoner
3. To remove all signal-distortion equipment - known to cause various health problems including cancer

Three: Food

3. To allow prisoners to buy vegetables, fruits, fish, and meats of all sorts on a monthly basis
4. To allow prisoners in all prisons to prepare their own food according to their customs and religions
5. To give back kitchen equipment that was taken away from prisoners in all "security" prisons
6. To change old kitchen utensils and replace them with new ones
7. To open bakeries and allow Palestinian prisoners to work at them; to allow bread to be brought in during visits

Five: Counting

1. To end all practices and policies accompanying counting the prisoners; allow all those prisoners in isolation back to regular sections

Six: Collective Punishment

1. To end all collective punishments
2. To end the policy of fines
3. To end the policy of confiscating personal belongings and punishing prisoners by denying them family visits
4. To return all money confiscated from prisoners accounts to be able to use them in enhancing the health care and the education of prisoners
5. To compensate prisoners for every item that was damaged intentionally through raids on cell-blocks
6. To define the maximum isolation period as a punishment to a week and to provide humane detention conditions in isolation cells: access to toilets, a washing sink, a two hour recreation period, to allow a fan, to allow books and radio and cantina, not to handcuff prisoners inside the cells, to end the policy of handcuffing prisoners while meeting prison administration

Seven: Education at Universities

1. To allow prisoners to study at Palestinian, Arab, and International Universities
2. To end the policy of punishing prisoners by denying them the right to continue their education
3. To allow newspapers, journals and magazines without any delay
4. To allow purchasing different electronic dictionaries not limited to one brand
5. To allow all cells to have access to a computer and not only students
6. To allocate study rooms and halls and to reopen all libraries
7. To allow stationary without limitation in type or quantities
8. To allow photocopying research material, educational material

Eight: Cantina

1. To allow buying from Arab sources and end the monopoly
2. To cancel the additional 17% tax
3. To unify the prices for all prisons
4. To end all restrictions on the items allowed
5. To form an investigation committee to check on the legality of the 17% additional tax and on the right of prisoners to benefit from the profit of the cantina

Nine: Movement within each section and the recreation area
1. To increase the recreation time to four hours a day as used to be the case
2. To restore visits between section and cells to day-long visits
3. To leave cell doors within each section open all day

5. To allow university students to choose recreation time suitable for them
7. To open the gate to the recreational area every half an hour to enable prisoners to get to the area or back to sections
8. To allow freedom of movement within each section without restricting the time
or period
9. To install water pipes in each section
12. To restore the recreation time from 15:00 to 17:00 and from 17:00 to 19:00
13. To allow working prisoners to stay at the recreation area until 20:00
14. Not to transfer a prisoner from any prison before spending 2 years in it unless the prisoner applies for a transfer
16. To allow Friday Imams to be able to move from one section to another
17. To allow having events, debates, celebrations in the recreation areas and yards as in the past
18. Freedom to transfer among cells within one section without any sort of restriction
19. To remove the ban on practicing Karate during the recreation period

Ten: Tools, Instruments, private and general equipment

1. To allow the following to be purchased at the cantina by every prisoner: a light-bulb for reading, electronic dictionary without restricting the brand, electric shaving-machine, and electric fan
2. To install air ventilation in the cells and section as well as air conditioning
3. To install air conditioning at the visiting area and waiting cells
4. To provide electric kettle
5. To provide an electric toaster for each cell
6. To provide a small refrigerator in each cell
7. A small photocopier in each section
8. To install an Antenna for the radio
9. To allow winter jackets
10. To allow waist belts
11. To allow sport ropes
12. To allow to have cameras in each section and to be able to take collective photos
13. To allow fruits knife in each cell
Eleven: Searching and Security Checks

1. To end the practice of body search by hand and to restrict it to electronic scanning
3. End totally strip search
4. End night searches and the practice of Matsada unit, dissolve it or end it's services
5. Not to handcuff prisoners during the search
6. Never to damage or confiscate personal belongings while searching
7. To stop searching prisoners each time they leave to the recreation area or to prayers
8. Security search be limited to only once a day maximum and not to force prisoners outside the section during the search
9. Security search to be conducted during the recreation period
10. To limit the overall general search to once every 6 months
Twelve: Working Facilities

1. To increase the number of working prisoners in the various facilities
2. To restore kitchens, laundries, and sewing and allow Palestinian prisoners to work at these facilities
3. To allow at least two prisoners to work in the section (corridor) outside the cells till 22:30 and extend their recreation time till 20:00
4. To re-allow a prisoner to work in yard and recreation area as in the past and to make available a storage room and a room for working and working tools
5. To allow a prisoner to work at the clinic
6. To restore the special recreation period for workers
7. To raise payment for workers
8. To allow an additional worker at the library
9. To allow a worker to fix electric equipment in each section as in the past
10. To allow all tools for hairdressing and to change them once every 6 months
Thirteen: Counting

1. To allow prisoners in the upper beds not to step down at the morning count and to limit to them just raising themselves up in their beds
2. To be content by showing the hands for those who are in toilets at the time of counting taking into consideration to avoid using the toilet around the time of count unless it's urgent or to pass the cell and return to it later
Fourteen: Transfer, Travel and waiting (passing) sections

1. To allow prisoners to have cantina with them while being transferred (canned food, etc.)
2. To be moved directly to the buses without being held and delayed in waiting rooms
3. To change seats in the buses to more comfortable ones
4. Each prisoner to be handcuffed separately from others and to stop using the plastic handcuffs and replace them with the metal ones
7. To remove the darkened windows of the buses
.....and on and on...

Lebanon Editorial: Engage American Jews, all else has failed the Arab world

Has the time not come for Arabs and Muslims to recognize the need for a dialogue with the American Jewish community in its capacity as an important policy-making force in the U.S., and one that influences all things Middle Eastern? Instead of insulting American Jews - as Arab editorialists and intellectuals have been doing for 50 years - why not show respect for their evident weight and engage them in a constructive dialogue?
Some Arab leaders continue to hang on to the myth that assistance can be sought from the largely irrelevant Arab-American community. This is not helped by the behavior of seedy characters, such as the so-called head of the Islamic community in the U.S., Abdel Rahman al-Amoudi, who recently confessed to collecting millions of dollars from Libyan leader Moammar al-Gadhafi to mount a conspiracy to kill Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. He is going to jail after soiling the name of all Arab-Americans.
Many Arabs and Muslims will say that talking to American Jews is tantamount to capitulating and admitting defeat in the 50-year-long war over Palestine. The fact is that this "war" has already been lost. Just look at the lamentable conditions in Palestinian society. American Jews are a diverse, powerful, and focused community. Many among them are fair and moderate and will not insist on crushing the other side, knowing they have already won. American Jews have made it repeatedly clear they agree on one thing: the need to assure the safety of Israel. There is nothing wrong with that, as Arabs and Muslims, similarly, claim that their main interest is the well-being of the Palestinians, and now that of their Iraqi brethren.
By showing respect and engaging American Jews, Anwar Sadat secured the return of the entire Sinai Peninsula and a grant program for Egypt that has paid a total of $50 billion in financial and military grants since 1979. (Beirut Daily Star)

Palestinians call for kidnapping soldiers

Frustrated by the failure of the hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners to attract worldwide attention, the armed wings of Fatah and Islamic Jihad on Thursday called for kidnapping IDF soldiers and settlers to boost the prisoners' campaign.

The threat was included in a joint statement issued in the Gaza Strip by the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades of Fatah and Al Quds Battalions of the Islamic Jihad.

Masked gunmen from the two groups read out the statement to journalists in Gaza City. They said their men have been instructed to kidnap IDF soldiers and settlers in order to use them as a bargaining chip with Israel.

The gunmen also criticized the 'apathy' in the Arab world towards the hunger strike, which entered its 12th day on Thursday.

The statement revealed that a joint Fatah-Islamic Jihad had tried to kidnap a soldier three months ago, but failed because of tough security measures."

Rocket Landed in Living Room But Didn't Explode

A Kassam rocket fired by Palestinians Thursday landed in the living room of a private home in Gush Katif in Gaza, but failed to explode. No one was injured but the house was heavily damaged. The father and a number of children were in the house at the time. (Yediot Ahronot-Hebrew)

'Little Israel' will not save world from Iran

With verbal tensions rising daily between Iran and Israel, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee head Yuval Steinitz said the West should not expect 'little Israel' to take pre-emptive action to save the world from Iranian nuclear weapons.

It is the free world, led by the United States, that must stand behind its pledge not to let Iran get the bomb, Steinitz said.

He warned that Iran aims at becoming a global nuclear power with long-range Shihab missiles that would put Europe and NATO forces in range.

'This is a problem of the leaders of the civilized world. One shouldn't expect little Israel to solve a global problem like this,' Steinitz said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.

'The United States itself has said that it won't hesitate to use any means at its disposal to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power. If, God forbid, the free world, led by the United States, doesn't stand behind these words, then a dark curtain will descend on the world raising the possibility of nuclear terror against us and Europe and NATO,' Steinitz said.

'Iran is a totally irresponsible and unpredictable totalitarian regime that is ready to sacrifice millions of its people for its crazy ideology,' Steinitz said."

Arrow-2 test not complete failure

Israel and United States defense ministries continue to investigate the causes for the failure of Arrow interceptor missile to hit its target in experiments in California Thursday.

Aryeh Herzog, head of the Arrow project in the Israel's Defense Ministry, said in an interview Friday morning that this definitely cannot be describes as a failed experiment, even though the Arrow missile did not succeed in hitting its target.

'This sort of mishap can happen to any interceptor missile, and could have happened in the previous experiment too. It has nothing to do with the abilities of the missile. But at the same time, we of course want every trial to be successful, and this trial did not succeed completely.'

The latest attempts to launch an Arrow 2 missile against a Scud D like missile with a warhead that separates in flight in order to confuse the defending interceptor that took place at Point Mugu off the US West coast on Thursday.

The failed attempt came after the two countries launched a successful Arrow 2 missile test that intercepted and destroyed a live Scud B missile over the Pacific Ocean at then end of July. The Scud D missile considered to be the most sophisticated missile of its kind is in Syria's hands. Thursday's failed attempt was the thirteenth operational testing of the system since it was built and the eighth time its weapons system was tested.

The Arrow-2 is geared to intercept an enemy missile as it reenters the earth's atmosphere, far from Israeli territory. On Thursday it failed to hit its target.

A statement issued by the Defense Ministry said the aim of the test was to intercept a dummy target and compile data essential for future development, and that this goal was achieved despite the fact that the missile failed to intercept. According to the statement the surrogate target used in Thursday's test was supplied by the MDA targets office and was air launched."

Palestinian Islamic Jihad Markets Terrorism on Internet Sites Supported from U.S.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad spreads its terrorist propaganda via three main and three subsidiary Internet sites.
The Internet service provider (ISP) for palestineway.com is VONOC, located in Englewood, Colorado.
The ISP for sarayaalquds.com - the site of the Jerusalem Battalions, Islamic Jihad's operational-terrorist wing - is Level3, located in Broomfield, Colorado.
The ISP for the subsidiary site jimail.com/abrar is Alabanza, based in Baltimore.
The ISP for rabdullah.com, dedicated to Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Abdallah Shalah, is Level3 of Broomfield, Colorado.

Report: Syria has acquired nuke centrifuges from Pakistani Khan

The United States believes that Syria has acquired centrifuges for the enrichment of uranium through the network of Pakistani nuclear chief Abdul Kader Khan, the Canadian news website Middle East Newsline reported Thursday.

According to the report, the US intelligence community has assessed that Syria became a costumer of smuggled Pakistani P1 nuclear centrifuges in 2001 through Firas Tlas, the son of Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlas.

Khan was arrested by Pakistani intelligence officers in January 2004 and admitted to secretly selling nuclear know-how to Iran.

Senior Muslim figures back Iraqi insurgents

Ninety-three prominent Muslim figures opposed to US troops in Iraq have called on Muslims around the world to support resistance to US forces and to the Iraqi government installed in June.

In the appeal received on Sunday from the offices of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, the Muslim figures from nearly 30 nations, from Germany to Indonesia, said the aim should be to 'purify the land of Islam from the filth of occupation'.

The statement came as US tanks rumbled to within 800 metres of a holy shrine in the Iraqi city of Najaf, after fierce clashes with Shiite rebels in a nearby town reportedly killed at least 40 Iraqis.
Talks to end a near three-week Shiite Muslim uprising led by rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr appeared to have stalled after negotiators failed to agree on how to surrender control of the Imam Ali shrine, where Mehdi militias remain holed up.

The signatories included senior members of the Brotherhood, leading Qatari-based moderate Youssef al-Qaradawi, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah of Lebanon, Khaled Mashal of the Palestinian group Hamas, two Egyptian opposition party leaders, Sheikh Abdeslam Yassine of Morocco's Justice and Charity Group and Yemeni Speaker of Parliament Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar.

Others came from Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bosnia, the Comoros, Germany, India, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Malaysia, Mauritania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan and Tunisia.

The appeal said that Muslim rulers had been silent to the point of complicity in the face of what it called Anglo-American and Zionist aggression in Iraq and the Palestinian territories."

Arab League Slams Plans For a Wireless Jerusalem

In a bizarre move, the Arab League issued a condemnation Tuesday of the Jerusalem municipality’s project to turn Israel’s capital city into the world’s first city with complete wireless internet capability.

According to SANA, the official Syrian news agency, the Arab League says the project to make Jerusalem wireless fidelity-enabled (WiFi) accessible threatens the Arab identity of the city.

The Arab League issued a statement Tuesday saying, “the project aims at imposing a de facto [sic] on the city in a way that serves the Israeli interests under the pretext of encouraging the foreign investments.”

The statement added that the WiFi project, along with all of Israel’s policies, “contradicts not only the international law and resolutions but also reflect no desire in realizing the just and comprehensive peace in the region.”

The Municipality of Jerusalem, together with Intel and Compumat Computers, is embarking on a project to make Israel's capital the world's first WiFi accessible city, according to a Globes report. The organizers expect that within two years, users in most areas of the city will be able to surf the internet wirelessly. The WiFi connection will be free of charge throughout at least the first year. The unobtrusive WiFi transmitters installed throughout the city will enable an internet connection of up to 54 megabits per second (Mbps) at a distance of 1000-1600 feet.

Feiglin: If Not the Arrow, Then What?

By Moshe Feiglin

The Israel's weakness is not that it can't take casualties but that it can't inflict them on others.

The criticism we expressed of the Arrow project as well as of the separation fence causes people to ask: "What is your alternative?" Our criticism did not address the technical aspects of the project, but its basic concept.

The Arrow is a first-rate technological achievement and its technical developers deserve to be congratulated. But the basic concept lying behind the Arrow is a disastrous one that has led Israel to invest tremendous sums in white elephants that can never meet their strategic aims.

Consequently the alternative we seek does not lie in the field of technology. We shall not propose a more successful weapons system. The required alternative must be found in the overall defense concept of the country.

Last week an article appeared in Makor Rishon, describing in a comprehensive manner Israel's nuclear policy and the Iranian threat. The article included interviews were held with the heads of the organizations responsible for the subject, and all of them, without exception, agreed that an Israeli military attack on the Iranian nuclear industry was not possible. The reason was not Iranian military superiority, but the dispersion of the Iranian nuclear facilities and their proximity to concentrations of population. An Israeli attack would be liable to cause a great number of casualties amongst the Iranian civilian population, and official Israel does not believe that it can permit itself to do so.

In fact Israel, facing Shihab 3 missiles and the development of Iranian nuclear capability, lies in precisely the same dilemma as when facing the Kasam rockets fired from Beit Hanun. The obstacle is not military capability but moral considerations and international pressure. The Israeli leadership does not feel that it can justify to its own citizens a massive attack on others, nor does it feel capable of withstanding the international pressure that would result from such an attack.

Some people hold the view that Israel must come to terms with reality and deliberately enter the era of the balance of nuclear terror in the Middle East. One of the supporters, a professor from Tel Aviv University, even explained in a radio broadcast that this would be a desirable situation which would bring an end to conflicts and bloodshed. It seems that this terrible idea is gradually being absorbed (because of the lack of an alternative concept) by the heads of the defense establishment, and in the non too distant future we shall find ourselves facing extremist Moslem countries (followed by terrorist organizations) armed with nuclear weapons.

Any comparison made between the cold war waged between the East and the West, and a situation that could exist between Israel and its nuclear-armed neighbors, is totally unfounded. In order that a balance of terror can exist, it is necessary for there to be opponents having both rationale for survival, and an inability to achieve total destruction in a first strike. In contrast to the case of the former Soviet Union, Israel's nuclear neighbors will lack these two elements. (The Arab regimes have an instinct for survival, but the countries themselves do not. Can anyone name Mubarak's successor?)

A single nuclear-tipped missile cannot destroy ordinary countries. At most it is capable of destroying a large urban neighborhood, and of neutralizing broad circles in its proximity (depending on weather conditions and the dispersion of nuclear fall-out).

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were only two of countless cities systematically destroyed by Allied carpet bombing. The psychological effect was tremendous, but the immediate real effect did not differ greatly from the bombing of Dresden.

The major difference between Israel and an ordinary country lies in the fact that most of Israel's population, economy, and reservist soldiers are concentrated in a single city called the Dan Metropolitan Region. Israel is a single soft target that if destroyed means the end of the Israeli story. The proliferation of nuclear arms in the Middle East will not lead to a balance of terror but to the end of the balance currently existing and to terror for Israel only. In the Second World War cities were destroyed one after another. The Arab world can sustain such things, but Israel can't.

Let's not forget that the most important consideration for the Arabs is not human life but the survival of the regime. Anwar Sadat, referred to "moderate", announced that he was ready to sacrifice a million soldiers in a war against Israel.

Any Arab leader who defeats Israel at the price of a few of his cities which evaporate in a nuclear mushroom cloud will become a modern Saladin, the leader of the Arab world. This presents a serious temptation.

In the light of the threat to survival, and of our vanishing military superiority, why don't we say to hell with the world, the lives of our children are more important than those of the enemy population, and remove the threat at any price?

Isn't it logical that we should prefer our lives to those of a hostile population?

At this stage we inevitably go over to a debate about values. We are no longer
discussing atomic piles and nuclear warheads. We are now talking about fundamental values, about the basic ethos of the State of Israel. This discussion will indicate that the defense concept must be based primarily on ethical values and only subsequently on technical considerations.

Israel was established on a basis of Western/ Christian ethical values. This concept does not recognize absolute truth, and consequently justice, that serves the truth, is subject to compromise. How therefore does the Christian/ Western system of values differentiate between the good and bad elements in the issue? It's very simple - the weak one is the good guy and the strong one is the bad guy. The cross and the icons forming the basis of Western culture (even in its secular form) represents weakness, suffering, the underdog. (By the way, in Islam the strong and cruel person is in the right. See the life of their prophet. But Israel acts according to the Western code and we shall therefore concentrate on this culture.) As long as the Auschwitz crematoria were still warm, and as long as Israel, up to the Six Day War, appeared as the weak side in the story, we managed somehow to make the Zionist ethos match Western culture. We continue to drag every poor VIP who lands in Ben-Gurion Airport to Yad Vashem, but we've squeezed the last drop of juice out of the Holocaust lemon, and we can no longer justify by our suffering that of the Palestinian nation.

IDF soldiers in checkpoints do not give the impression of being the weak party and we have remained with a fundamental contradiction between the Western/Christian system of values on which the Zionist State has been based, and the basic capability of guaranteeing our survival.

The average Israeli tends to believe that that which is permissible for an Arab (terror, murder of civilians, etc.) is forbidden for a Jew, simply because the Western world is afraid of the numbers and strength of the Arabs. This is not at all accurate. The Western world accepts any behavior, even that of remote tribes, if such behavior forms part of the culture of those acting in that manner.

For example, even in Israel lenient punishments are meted out to Bedouins who murder their sisters for reasons of family honor.

In other words, it is not that Western strength constrains Israel's capability of retaliation to the cultural norms customary in the West, but, on the contrary, Israel's cultural dependence on the West chains its to its conditions.

Totalitarian countries, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, that scorn the concept of human rights, receive far greater military and economic aid than Israel. (Not many people are aware of this, but of every six American dollars invested in arms for the Middle East, only one dollar reaches Israel. If the US were to impose an embargo on arms shipments to the Middle East, this would greatly improve our security situation.)

The cultural dependence obligates Israel to adopt hopeless defensive strategies, such as the Arrow, the separation fence, and the justification of a nuclear balance of terror. Analysis of this situation indicates that because of the current Israeli consciousness, Israel has no chance for long term survival.

If some form of passive action is self-evidently essential, this should primarily be dispersion of the Israeli population and accelerated rural construction in the Negev, Yesha, Galilee, and the Golan. Israel should simply prohibit further construction in the Dan Metropolitan Region, and develop the periphery and its infrastructures as a top-priority national assignment.

Obviously Israel must destroy the Iranian nuclear enterprise, even if this means civilian casualties. Obviously Israel must immediately demand an insufferable price from any Islamic Arab regime that deploys strategic missiles within range of Israel. This is the sole possible defense concept, and it will inevitably lead to the strengthening of Israel's international status, as happened after the "slaughter" of the Egyptian Army by the IDF in the Six Day War. However, there's no point in discussing what we should do, before we replace the cultural basis of the country. As long as we fail to understand that we are the just people in the story, not because we are weak, but because we are Jews, we cannot act from internal conviction, and we will certainly fail to convince the world of this.

It transpires that the strategic solution must first be based on culture and only afterwards on the technology of the military industry.

Darfur exposes trait of Arab politics

: After Rwanda, the world learned once more the peril of genocide in rogue states.

Yet the world, or the United Nations as its representative body, is seemingly a reluctant learner with flawed memory.

Over the past 18 months, nearly 50,000 Darfurians have been killed and more than a million made refugees by Arab Janjaweed militias, allegedly supplied with military support by the Sudanese government of strongman Gen. Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum.

For more than two decades, Sudan, with an estimated population of 35 million, has been torn apart in a bitter civil war between a predominantly Arab-Muslim north, and a Christian-black south. This conflict has resulted in an estimated two million dead and another four million made homeless in their own country.

Darfur, however, exposes another dimension of the internal conflict in Sudan.

Here, the victims are Muslim, black and non-Arab. Those perpetrating the brutalities are Muslims of Arab origin.

The tragedy unfolding in Darfur has been well-documented by reputable international human rights agencies such as Human Rights Watch. There is no disputing in this instance the facts of a state-supported ethnic cleansing being repeated in the heart of Africa.

But Sudan is a member of the Arab League, an organization representing 22 Arab countries of the Middle East and North Africa. Hence, the Arab League immediately rallied around Sudan at the UN to ease pressures being placed on Bashir's regime.

The diplomatic manoeuvres of the Arab League are predictable. It exists to defend the interests of Arab states -- meaning regimes in power -- and not the Arab people.

The one constant in the history of Arab states over the past five decades is the abuse of people by power-holders in a part of the world -- between the Atlantic Ocean and the Persian Gulf -- where regimes rule without popular legitimacy.

It is understandable, though inexcusable, that there are no demonstrations in the streets of Cairo, Damascus, Beirut, Tunis, Algiers or elsewhere in the wider Arab-Muslim world, denouncing the Khartoum regime for its crimes in Darfur.

Freedom and democracy are sorely lacking among the Arab League members, and popular condemnation of an Arab regime would not be tolerated.

Arabs and Muslims, however, now live in growing numbers in cosmopolitan centres of the West, and enjoy freedoms denied their people elsewhere.

Here they came out in unprecedented numbers, protesting American-led wars to liberate Afghans and Iraqis from despots. But in their unconscionable silence over Darfur, they disclose how selective is their outrage.

This silence is also revealing of culturally entrenched bigotry among Arabs, and Muslims from adjoining areas of the Middle East.

Blacks are viewed by Arabs as racially inferior, and Arab violence against blacks has a long, turbulent record. The Arabic word for blacks ('abed) is a derivative of the word slave ('abd), and the role of Arabs in the history of slavery is a subject rarely discussed publicly.

Here, the contrast between the Arab treatment of blacks, irrespective of whether they are Muslims or not, and the Israeli assimilation of black Jews of Ethiopia, known as Falashas, cannot go unnoticed.

The tragedy of Darfurians ironically has exposed to the world the racial dimension of Arab-Muslim culture and the hollowness of rhetoric proclaiming the brotherhood of Muslims.

Large stash of weapons, explosives found in van in Montreal

MONTREAL—Police found a large stash of weapons and explosives yesterday after an investigation of a suspicious minivan tied up traffic through downtown streets for several hours.

Montreal police sent in a robot to examine several pieces of luggage after SWAT team members in full protective gear investigated the vehicle.

They seized about 15 firearms, including automatic weapons like machine guns, and also found 90-135 kilograms of explosives.

"The only good news is that the explosives and the detonators were not connected so it could not explode," said police spokesman Miguel Alston.

Police couldn't say what type of explosives were involved, or who they belonged to. "We cannot confirm any organization at this point," said Alston.

Police had been warned about the vehicle carrying commercial Quebec licence plates from a source, but didn't receive a call through 911.