MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• What's Iman Rauf doing in Jakarta Indonesia,preparing the presidents visit or speech?Indonesian President Urged to Help Islam Engage With the West.With just a few days to go until Barack Obama arrives in Indonesia, a prominent American Islamic scholar has called on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to show the Western world the true face of Islam.“The real battleground is between the moderates of all religions against the radicals of all religions,” Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, founder and chief executive of the American Society for Muslim Advancement and leader of the Al-Farah mosque in New York, said at the State Palace in Central Jakarta on Friday.Feisal said Muslims should be responsible to help change negative attitudes toward Islam by intensifying interfaith dialogue and fighting radicalism. “I am convinced that with the right behavior, the right ethics, we will change the hearts and minds of people in America toward Islam,” he said.Hmmm...Iman Rauf the Ground Zero Mosque founder laying the groundwork for the U.S. President his Indonesia visit?Read the full story here.

• Qantas says 2 mid-air engine problems unrelated.Dramatic mid-air engine problems on Qantas aircraft which forced two emergency landings in Singapore in as many days were unrelated incidents, a spokeswoman for the Australian airline said Saturday.A Qantas A380 superjumbo carrying 466 passengers and crew was forced to return to Singapore on Thursday after an engine exploded and failed during ascent, raining debris onto an Indonesian island.And a Sydney-bound Boeing 747 turned back to Singapore shortly after take-off on Friday after reporting engine trouble, with one passenger saying she saw the affected engine sparking like fireworks.Qantas spokeswoman Olivia Wirth said while both aircraft operated on Rolls Royce-manufactured engines, they were using different models and there was no apparent connection between the incidents."These are both unrelated incidents," Wirth told the Nine Network. "They are unrelated."Hmmm....both airplanes left from the same airport,both have almost similar engine problems..both are from the same compagny.....coincidence ...i don't think Israeli security would think so".Read the full story here.

• Palin 'favorites' photo that claims Obama is a 'Taliban Muslim'.Sarah Palin has used her Twitter account for a variety of things, including endorsements of key candidates during the 2010 midterm elections. But, and stay with us here, Palin's account features a retweet of an Ann Coulter tweet that links to this image.Read and see the full story here.

• HT:LogisticsMonster.Glenn Beck, 11.4.2010: George Soros, QE2 & The India Trip.My spidey-sense tells me that Obama does not plan to run for a second term if he can move up to ‘King of The World’. Considering what the global elite banksters are doing to our dollar, and the push for a global currency, why wouldn’t Obama go for the next brass ring as the ultimate citizen of the world? Think Mishy is going to sit still as First Lady when she can be Empress? Think about the Narcissist-in-Chief’s general demeanor; who else would look at the Presidency of the United States as a stepping stone to something else?"Hmmmm....After eliminating all other possibilities, the one remaining-no matter how unlikely-must be the truth"?Read the full story here.

• SPECIAL REPORT: The 'DIY jihadists' paid for by us... Roshonara Choudhry supporters are living on benefits.They refuse to apologise for their vile rant at the Old Bailey that made a mockery of our justice system.Nor are they repentant over ­supporting the radical Muslim woman on trial there for trying to kill an MP in a knife attack.Until now, they have been unidentified. But the Mail can reveal their names and that they operate at the centre of a dangerous organisation intent on bringing hard-line Islamic sharia law to Britain and flying the flag of Islam over Downing Street. They warned me that Choudhry is only one of hundreds of home-grown ‘DIY jihadists’ – many female and some recently converted to Islam – prepared to die as martyrs.When I meet Shamsuddin and Saleem they appear polite. But their conversation is littered with hatred of non-Muslims.So why, I ask, did they shout abuse in a British court room at a woman juror from their own community? ‘It is unacceptable for one Muslim sister to condemn another,’ says Shamsuddin.The white working class are ‘riff raff’, they say, and non-Muslim women flaunt themselves as sex objects by putting on make up in the morning to attract men. As for the moderate Muslim Council of Britain, that is the puppet of Government ministers.Hmmmm.....outreach to Muslims and interfaith dialog at it's best?Read the full story here.

• 50 dead in Pakistan mosque bombing.Suicide bomb brought down the roof of a mosque packed with worshippers during Friday prayers.Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, Umarzai suggested the attack could have been retaliation for military operations in the Darra Adam Khel area targeting Islamist militants."An operation is going on by the army and Frontier Corps (paramilitary) in the Darra Adam Khel area. We had been expecting such attacks."Read the full story here and here.

• HT:JIDF.Britain Signs 'Treaty Between Nations' with Islamic Terrorists, Refers to Judea and Samaria as "Palestine".British Foreign Secretary William Hague signed a “treaty between nations” with Palestinian Authority leaders on Wednesday. “This agreement is the first ever bilateral treaty between the two nations,” the British Consulate-General site proclaimed. The treaty covers cooperation in the film industry. Hague signed a similar agreement with Israel. Aside from its reference to the “treaty between nations,” the UK Consulate site also referred to Hague's trip to visit PA leaders in Ramallah as “his first visit to Palestine,” apparently recognizing a new country of “Palestine” before even PA leaders have declared one to exist.Some leaders hold the view, disseminated in PA media, that all of Israel is rightfully “Palestine.”Read the full story here.

• HT:PajamasMedia.Egyptians and Saudis Simulate War with Iran.The Egyptians and Saudis are serious about the Iranian threat because they understand that they are the first on the chopping block and are the most vulnerable to Iran’s designs.Egypt and Saudi Arabia are preparing themselves for war with Iran. The two Arab countries just held their first joint military exercises called Tabuk-2 over a one-week period, simulating a scenario unofficially based on a potential conflict with the Iranians. The exercises took place in the northern Egyptian desert and included F-16 aircraft, helicopters, and artillery units. The forces practiced defending against an enemy offensive and counter-attacking with an invasion into the attacker’s territory.In July 2009, the Egyptians permitted two Israeli missile boats and a nuclear submarine to go through the Suez Canal, simulating a possible attack on Iran. In June, over a dozen American ships and one from Israel also traveled through the Suez Canal under Egyptian protection. It is now an open secret that Saudi Arabia has given Israel the green light to use its airspace to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities, reportedly even simulating such an event. A member of Israel’s parliament has said that a “wall-to-wall coalition” of Muslim countries have secretly assured Israel of their support for any action to stop a nuclear Iran from becoming a reality.The Egyptians and Saudis are serious about the Iranian threat because they understand that they are the first on the chopping block and are the most vulnerable to Iran’s designs, much more so than Israel. They are said to be planning more joint exercises for the near future. The Arabs believe a major regional war is a distinct possibility, if not a probability. And so should we.Read the full story here.

• HT:AbbuAmnon.The USA is working with Israel.Well, I guess the gloves are off now, huh? The USA is working with Israel. The sudden death of political correctness will probably push all of the Islamic lands into mourning.A missile fired from an American warship in the Mediterranean hit the car in which Muhammad Jamal A-Namnam, 27, was driving in the heart of Gaza City Wednesday, Nov. 3 and killed him, debkafile's exclusive counter-terror sources report. Namnam was an operational commander of the Army of Islam, Al-Qaeda's Palestinian cell in the Gaza Strip. He was on a mission on behalf of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula AQAP to plan, organize and execute the next wave of terrorist attacks on US targets after last week's air package bomb plot.Israeli intelligence tracked Namnam's movements in Gaza City. It is quite likely, said a high-ranking Western military source in the Middle East, Thursday, Nov. 4, that the Israelis pinpointed Namnam for targeting by the US ship-borne missile that killed him.Hamas security sources in Gaza now suspect that Israel had its own reasons for permitting new cars to be imported to the Gaza Strip for the first time in two years, knowing that they would be commandeered for the personal use of the chiefs of armed organizations, including Namnam. They believe Israel planted tracking devices in those vehicles.The Al Qaeda operative's death by a US missile is the first American targeted assassination in the Gaza Strip against an Al Qaeda target. Up until now, US missions of this kind took place in Iraq, Yemen and Somalia.Read the full story here.

• The daily "Obama India visit" madness.Girish Jain's sparklers at his fireworks stall in Colaba Market have lost a bit of their sparkle this Diwali. As part of a security sweep for US President Obama's visit, Colaba and most of South Mumbai is being sanitised of all Diwali colour."The fireworks stalls on the street have all been taken out," says shopkeeper.Other more unconventional measures include a ban on setting off ear-splitting firecrackers near the president’s hotel to celebrate Diwali.Hmmm....we don't want to upset the Presidents ears do we?read the full story here.

• Muslim Sues Oklahoma Over Anti-Shariah Ballot Measure.Just two days after Oklahoma voters approved a ballot measure banning state courts from considering Islamic or international law when ruling on cases, a local Muslim has filed a federal lawsuit saying the measure is unconstitutional.But Muneer Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Oklahoma who filed the lawsuit, said that the measure is unnecessary because there is no threat of an Islamic takeover of state courts. Muslims make up only 30,000 of the state's nearly 4 million residents – less than 1 percent.Shariah is the basis of law in most Islamic countries, though its implementation varies. It has been used in Iran and Somalia, among other places, to condone harsh punishments like amputations and stoning.Proponents of the Oklahoma ballot measure say the possibility of Shariah law coming to American isn't remote, pointing to Britain, where at least 85 Shariah courts are operating.Hmmm....isn't better to prevent cancer than to cure it?Read the full story here.

• Russian pilots kidnapped in Darfur.The UN World Food Programme, for which the pilots work, confirmed the news.The governor of South Darfur, Abdel Hamid Kasha, told Reuters that it was not known who the kidnappers were and that they were being pursued.This is the latest in a series of kidnappings of foreign aid workers in Darfur in recent months. Ransoms are usually demanded.Since President Omar al-Bashir was indicted in 2009 by the International Criminal Court for war crimes allegedly committed in Darfur, the situation for humanitarian workers has greatly deteriorated.Hmmm....somehow i don't think Putin and Medvedev will react as Obama would to such news.Read the full story here.

• Security bites: Maha CM Chavan may boycott Obama. Ahead of US President Barack Obama's India visit on Nov 6, the minute security scrutiny irritated several politicians like Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan and his deputy Chhagan Bhujbal and for that they may boycott Obama.The US Consul General Paul Folmsbee reportedly demanded personal details like birth date, nationality, passport number and PAN card number."How can they ask for such minute identity details," questioned Bhujbal and also stated that on Nov 5, he with CM Chavan would take decision on the meeting with Obama.Many top Maharashtra politicians and bureaucrats may also skip the high profile meet for the over security reason. Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil and Home Secretary have already declined to attend an event graced by President Obama.Hmmm.....i don't think India is asking the same thing from all the people who are with Obama?Read the full story here.

• U.S.-Pakistan Ties Overshadow Obama's Trip To India.President Obama is likely to get a friendly but subdued welcome when he begins his visit to India on Saturday.Many Indians feel that the United States has neglected India, while cultivating strategic relations with its military rival, Pakistan.That perception will be tough to overcome as Obama seeks India's help on a range of issues, from helping to balance the growing power of China to supporting the government of Afghanistan.It could also hamper the president's efforts to open some key U.S. business opportunities in India.It's pretty obvious to any one with half a brain what he's doing "Pakistan can work with us - India can work for us",a modern times colonialisme!Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Pakistani Academic Calls for Introducing Rationalism into Islamic Studies in Pakistan: 'The Idea about the New Role of Jihad as a Crusade for Peace, Knowledge, Creativity and Innovation … May be Elaborated'."This theme should be extended to embrace the growing need and relevance of secularism. The idea about the new role of jihad as a crusade for peace, knowledge, creativity, and innovation to defeat disease, hunger, thirst, and pollution, and improve human welfare may be elaborated. The epilogue and teachers' instructions should also emphasize how almost all great religions have evolved with time, and evolve they must to conform to the changing minds and needs."Human beings and societies have never moved back in time. It may be illustrated that the forces trying for the rigid interpretation of any anachronistic ideas sucked many societies in gore and gyre but never succeeded. The co-curricular literature similarly may expound the eclipsing significance of religion as an instrument of state policies and international relations…"A voice of reason in the desert?Read the full story here.

• U.S. Website used by woman who stabbed MP encourages further attacks.A radical U.S. website has praised the stabbing of the MP Stephen Timms and published a list of other MPs who voted for the war in Iraq, along with details of where to buy a knife. The website, Revolution Muslim, is hosted in Bellevue, Washington, and includes a disclaimer invoking the first amendment of the US constitution, protecting free speech. Dame Pauline Neville Jones, the security minister, has complained to the Americans that they are allowing radical websites to be run from the US.She told police she had visited the Revolution Muslim website and watched videos on Youtube by Anwar al-Awlaki, one of the leaders of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular. “We ask Allah to keep her safe and secure, to hasten her release and to reward this heroine immensely,” it said. “We ask Allah for her action to inspire Muslims to raise the knife of jihad against those who voted for the countless rapes, murders, pillages, and torture of Muslim civilians as a direct consequence of their vote.” The statement added: “If you want to track an MP, you can find out their personal website after typing their name in this website.On the other hand threatening to burn a Koran gets Presidential anger treatment!Read the full jihad story here.

• Disapproval of Islam Is No Indication of Bigotry.Does a negative opinion of Islam amount to conclusive evidence of bigotry?Those who warn of a raging frenzy of American “Islamophobia” base their case on the assumption that anything less than enthusiastic approval of The Religion of Peace automatically qualifies as hate-mongering and ignorance. On ABC News, Christiane Amanpour pointed to recent survey figures on public uneasiness with Islam to prove that Muslim Americans faced an unprecedented tsunami of hostility and discrimination. Actually, the Washington Post/ABC poll she repeatedly cited hardly indicated seething, volcanic anti-Muslim sentiment: less than half the public (49%) held generally “unfavorable” views of Islam, while fully 37% felt favorably disposed toward Koranic values.This observation isn’t an expression of bigotry; it’s a factual product of reading the newspaper, and regularly monitoring international news. The lame-brained insistence that all faith traditions deserve equal respect (or equal condemnation) doesn’t demonstrate tolerance or broad-mindedness; it expresses, rather, a refusal to take any religion seriously enough for honest evaluation of its virtues and flaws.Reservations about Islam, and even fears of the Muslim faith’s influence on the world at large, don’t constitute paranoia or intolerance. These concerns represent an honest and reasonable response on the part of a significant segment of the public to a serious global challenge to the values that Americans hold most dear.Read the full story here.

• HT:Elder of Zion.Report: Modern Arab anti-semitism not because of Israel.Prof. Shmuel Trigano has written a fascinating, and all too short, monograph on the expulsion of Jews from Arab countries in the 20th century.One of his theses is that the Jew-hatred that became endemic in Arab lands during this time was not a reaction to Zionism, but rather because of the new concept of Arab nationalism and the xenophobia that resulted. He documents that many of the anti-Jewish laws in Arab countries pre-date modern Israel.Read the full story here.

• HT:BacktoBasics.Feds Quantitative easing leads to a Global Dollar Dump.Obama and the Federal Reserve have unleashed Hyper-Inflation on the American People by devaluing the American dollar. Stock up in food and staple goods America. It is going to get nasty fast.Investors bolted the dollar for the euro, sterling and other higher-yielding currencies Thursday, believing the Federal Reserve’s bond-buying plan will do long-lasting damage to the greenback.Wiemar Republic here we come!Read and see the full story here.

• Russia can't live without genetically modified food?At the meeting of the International Club of agribusiness in Moscow, Gennady Onishchenko said that he considered genetically modified products were good for Russia. The Chief Medical Officer of Russia believes that the country is not able to provide all its citizens with organic food. Russia has already allowed 16 GMO varieties, including potatoes, corn, soybeans, beets, and rice.Now over one hundred lines of GM plants are allowed in the U.S. and approximately 60 in Europe. These lines can be imported to Russia, but they cannot be grown in Russia for commercial purposes. A significant number of GM products are not made for direct consumption. The most popular genetically modified soybeans, corn, rapeseed and cotton have been created for the pharmaceutical, biofuel and other industries.Read the full story here.

• Britain promises to change laws to protect Israelis.Britain has pledged to change its laws for Israelis to be able to visit the country without the risk of being legally pursued for their actions in the Middle East conflict areas.British Foreign Secretary William Hague promised Thursday to make it safe for Israeli leaders and military to land in London without risking detention based on complaints of war crimes, the Jerusalem Post reported."We are acting to correct [universal jurisdiction]... I was critical of the outgoing Labor government for not correcting it," Hague told Channel 10 in an interview taped during his two-day visit to the country."I would expect it to be in place next year, but we will continue to do it to our own timetable. We do not need any intervention by other foreign ministers in that process, including the Israeli one," he said.Read the full story here.

• Obama Set to Reveal $700m Indonesian Forest Funding.US President Barack Obama is expected to use his brief visit to Indonesia next week to announce hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to help the nation tackle climate change, a senior official said on Wednesday. Obama, who is scheduled to visit the country on November 9, is likely to announce $700 million for the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a development fund formed under the Bush administration.“Obama’s good intention should be appreciated; however, we still don’t have any clear mechanism to manage this money. It would be open to misuse,” Teguh said.Hmmmm....ain't it great playing Santa with American taxpayer money for Muslims,while Americans rely on foodstamps?Read the full story here.

• HT:NewsRealBlog.“Despite all our help, Muslims still hate us.” Here’s why.But let’s always remember: Islam has been at war with the West long before 9/11 or the establishment of the state of Israel. Alas, the Muslim predilection for absurd conspiracy theories (which are altered on the fly as current events demand) is abundantly and embarrassingly evident in the Pew study that inspired the IBD editorial.(In fact, I’ve finally solved the puzzle that has confounded so many since September 11, to whit: “Why is the Left allying itself with its supposed ideological opposite number, namely radical Islam?”Like all addicts, progressives will keep on chasing the “dialogue” dragon, to relive that exciting yet ultimately empty sensation.And we pay the price for their delusions, in terms of our sovereignty and security.By the way: Muslims hate us because we are helping them. Needing help implies weakness and inferiority. In an honor-based culture like Islam, accepting help from outsiders, particularly infidels, is humiliating.As an ancient saying from yet another culture has it: “Save a man’s life — and he’ll never forgive you.”Read and see the full story here.

• HT:BigPeace.Retired Lt. Colonel Allen West: The Future of American Leadership.Real hope. Real Change. Real national security and foreign policy competence. All are embodied in Congressman elect of Florida’s 22nd district and Retired Lt. Colonel of the United States Army, Allen West. He is a combat veteran who understands global strategy from fighting terrorism to the rise of hostile undemocratic competitors. He also understands American Exceptionalism and its role in facing the threats of today and tomorrow. West is a conservative and is in every way antithetical to the Democrat’s champion of ‘hope and change’ with his authenticity and competence as the most glaring points of contrast. Today on Frank Gaffney’s Secure Freedom Radio, Allen took time to discuss the future of American national security with Frank. Get to know this guy because he is the future of American leadership and things are looking up.Read and listen to this "real" American patriot here.

• Algeria to arm civilians against Islamist militants.The Algerian government has announced it will arm residents of remote areas to help them fight Islamist militants.A North African branch of al-Qaeda is active in Algeria and nearby countries, and has carried out a number of attacks and kidnappings recently."There are regions in which terrorism reigns where the citizens are asking for weapons to fight terrorism; to those people we will give back weapons," said Mr Kablia.A similar policy of arming citizens was pursued in the 1990s when Algeria was wracked by a bloody Islamist insurgency in which more than 150,000 people were killed.The regions in which civilians may be armed were not specified, but the BBC's Chloe Arnold in the capital, Algiers, says the interior minister may be referring to Tuareg tribespeople in the Saharan region.Read the full story here.

• Ht:Redskins.Redskins Cheerleaders In Afghanistan !An absolutely terrific video covering The Washington Redskins Cheerleaders' visit to the X Bowl at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan. After a Madden Football tournament presented by the Adopt-A-Soldier Platoon, the USO, and several other partners, the First Ladies Of Football put on a lengthy show, including singing, dancing, a push-up contest, and more. It's really worth just watching the video.The video also does a heck of a job clearing up any doubts about how important something like this is. It may seem frivolous on the surface, but, as the narrator says, "Those attending the X Bowl said it was a great morale booster in the midst of deployment," and you can see that in the response the ladies get.Read and see the full story here.

• HT:TheAmericanDream.The Price Of Oil Is Going Up, The Price Of Food Is Going Up And Now Here Comes Quantitative Easing.Millions of American families are about to be broadsided by rising gas and food prices and most of them don't even realize it. You see, most Americans stop listening when terms such as "quantitative easing" and "agricultural commodities" are brought up, but when millions more Americans are faced with a choice of either feeding their families or heating their homes this winter, maybe then they will start listening. Even before the Federal Reserve announced the latest round of quantitative easing, the price of oil has been going up and the price of food has been going up. Now that the Federal Reserve has announced plans to flood the economy with hundreds of billions more dollars, the inflation monster is going to get even hungrier. The household budgets of scores of American families are going to be stretched beyond the breaking point as prices rise. Meanwhile, the vast majority of U.S. employers will not be giving their workers raises to keep up with inflation. After all, why should they? If someone wants to quit there are hordes of unemployed Americans out there who would just love to take that job in a second.Quantitative easing is being heralded as the solution to America's economic problems, but for hard working middle class Americans it is only going to make things worse. Inflation is going to soar while wages are going to stagnate at best. This will mean a lower standard of living for average Americans.Expect hordes of companies to announce price increases over the coming months. But with millions of Americans still unemployed, don't expect wage increases to follow. In fact, total wages, median wages, and average wages all declined in the United States in 2009.We are entering a time that is going to be very difficult on most American families. Many are going to really have to tighten their belts to make it through this. Many others are simply not going to make it and will need our help.The "good times" that we have been experiencing in America for decades are about to come to an end. All of the debt and all of the greed are catching up with us. A devastating financial collapse is coming and you had better get ready.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Shine on forever: Man and his shoe-cleaning boy on the streets of Paris are THE first humans ever photographed.Going about his daily business, he paused for just a few minutes in the middle of a Parisian street. But unbeknown to him, this man could have inadvertently made history as the first human ever to be photographed. The picture was taken by photography pioneer Louis Daguerre in 1838 on the Boulevard du Temple in the French capital. Its existence has been known for many years but it has sparked a frenzy of Internet speculation recently after claims by University of Rochester academics that a photo taken in Cincinnati in 1848 was the oldest existing photo of a human being.Hmmmm....cleanliness is no longer next to Godliness but also to immortality?Read and see the full story here.

• New footage of WW1 shows war-torn battlefields.Extraordinary pictures of the aftermath of WW1, which have been hidden away for nearly a century, have been discovered in a vault in Paris.The film is a part of a special BBC One programme that includes unique aerial photographs of the battlefield taken by British pilots.Read and see the full story here.

• Schoolboy, 13, lands giant catfish weighing 200lbs on half-term trip.A 13-year old schoolboy caught a fish twice his size on his half-term holiday.The giant catfish weighing in at 201lbs fought so hard that a tour guide had to hold onto Jake North in case it pulled him into the river.But after a 25 minute tussle the monster of the deep was landed by seven stone Jake.His proud father, builder Russell North, 40, said: 'It is very rare for someone of Jake's age to catch a catfish weighing more than 200lbs. Some fisherman have been trying to catch one that size for years.'Mr North had taken Jake and his other son Kieran, 15, to the River Ebro near Mequinenza, Spain, during half-term.Their stout rods were baited with golf-ball sized halibut pellets and line and weights were taken around 100 metres out into the river before being dropped from a boat.Then a rattle alarm on Jake's rod signalled that the monster catfish had taken the bait.Read the full story here.

• Ukrainian-Born Female Rabbi Ordained In Berlin, First Since Before War.The ceremony -- attended by German President Christian Wulff and leading rabbis worldwide -- hearkened back to the ordination of the world's first-ever female rabbi, Regina Jonas, also ordained in Germany, who died in Auschwitz in 1944. Back in the 1930s, Regina Jonas fought for her ordination by penning an 88-page thesis arguing that female rabbis are in accordance with Jewish religious law. Even after her 1935 ordination, however, she was not allowed to preach and served mainly as a religious teacher in liberal Jewish communities. She died in Auschwitz in 1944, the last female rabbi ordained in the German capital -- until Treiger.On November 4, Treiger was vested with the same religious authority as a male rabbi. She will serve at a community in the western city of Oldenberg, most of whose members come from the former Soviet Union -- like the rabbi herself.Read the full story here.

• HT:JIDaily.The Warrior Rabbi.Praise of military virtue, prominent in the Bible, is almost non-existent in the Talmud, which, in the aftermath of the destruction of the Temple and the exile of the Jews by the Romans, either ignores wartime feats or re-interprets them as allegories of intellectual or spiritual prowess. The Talmud's relative silence on the subject would prove enduring. Until the second half of the 20th century, with few exceptions, military virtue was consistently depreciated in traditional Jewish thought.The traditionalist who reversed that trend was Shlomo Goren (1917-1994), the anniversary of whose death was marked earlier this week. As the first chief rabbi of the Israel Defense Forces and later the third chief rabbi of the state of Israel, Goren issued several innovative halakhic rulings dealing with military life and composed the first code of Jewish military law since Maimonides. In so doing, he brought the Jewish conception of war into the modern era.Read the full story here.

• The Next UN Security Council.Israelis are not alone in rolling their eyes at the mere mention of the United Nations. Thanks to blocs of like-minded nations with interlocking leaderships and overlapping interests—the 53-member African Union, the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, the 118-member "non-aligned" movement—an anti-Western and anti-Zionist tyranny of the majority has long been assured.That's in the General Assembly. But, of the 192-member UN, only the Jewish state is ineligible to serve on the Council—because the Arabs will not allow it to join the regional group that is a steppingstone to Council membership. Article 1 of the Human Rights :"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."Only not the Jews??? Read the full story here.

• The United Nations and Anti-Semitism. A Report by UN Watch.Finally, the report examines the annual onslaught of one-sided UN resolutions in the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council that contribute—whether by intent or in their effect—to an atmosphere that demonizes the Jewish state and promotes hostility toward Jews as a whole. in the past year at the General Assembly, only a handful of countries were criticized, in no case by more than one resolution. Israel, by contrast, was targeted in no less than twenty-two resolutions, all of them one-sided. Worse, in 2006-07, the Human Rights Council passed one hundred percent of its condemnatory resolutions against Israel, ignoring the other 191 UN member states, including the world’s worst abusers. All of this amounts to an irrational obsession by key UN bodies with singling out Israel for censure, turning the organization into Ground Zero for the international campaign to delegitimize and demonize the Jewish state.Read the full story here.

• HT:JIDF.Next 'James Bond' to be filmed in Israel?(YNET) Israel and Britain signed a cooperation agreement in the field of cinema on Wednesday after 10 years of intense negotiations. According to the agreement, Israel will become a favorite filming location for British films while production companies will get financial incentives and tax benefits from Israel to shoot in the country.The deal was signed by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and his British counterpart William Hague, who is currently visiting Israel.Read the full story here.

• Great balls of fire over Canada: NASA investigates.Great balls of fire have been reported swooping over Eastern Canada and several U.S. states. Even NASA's on the case. There are different theories about what was behind the sighting of those fireballs. A NASA spacecraft got a closer look at one of the possible sources today. But one expert is skeptical of reports that any fireballs came from Hartley -- which is roughly 1.2 kilometres wide and spews deadly cyanide gas.Read the full story here.