MFS - The Other News

                      Morning Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.

• Libya Live Blog - March 22. Here .(Al-Jazeera)And here (BBC). Latest here.

US warplane crash-lands in Libya : Here.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world lots of seismic activity in Japan between 5.2 and 6.6 today. More info here.

• Updated : The wind directions over Japan. Here.

• Latest official Situation Update No. 52.On 21.03.2011 at 12:45 GMT+2

Efforts to restore electricity for the cooling systems of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant continued Monday as power at the No. 5 reactor was restored, while firefighters continued spraying tons of water to cool the spent fuel rod pools at reactors No. 3 and No. 4. But gray smoke rose from reactor No. 3 at around 3:55 p.m. Monday, prompting Tepco workers to temporarily evacuate the site as a precaution. The amount of smoke had decreased by around 5 p.m. and Tepco was trying to determine its cause. The focus of the on-site work is to restart the separate cooling systems at each reactor to keep their cores and spent fuel rod pools from melting down. The entire plant lost power after it was doused by the tsunami on March 11. Tokyo Electric Power Co. has been checking out the electrical system at the No. 2 reactor, which was the first of the six to be re-connected to the power center Sunday from cables Tepco laid outside the plant.

According to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, power to the air conditioning and monitoring equipment at reactor No. 2 may be recovered by the end of Monday. The power cables have already been connected to reactor No. 4. Workers were busy checking whether cooling pumps and other key safety equipment were damaged by the quake and tsunami. After the gray smoke spewed from reactor No. 3, NISA said no particular change was observed in radiation levels at the compound on Monday afternoon, and that the temperature and pressure within the reactor also remained unchanged. The cause of the smoke was not immediately known. The spent fuel pool at No. 3 contains highly dangerous MOX, earlier reports said. On Monday afternoon, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said slow but steady progress was being made to contain the crisis at the plant. "Thanks to the desperate efforts of related parties, progress is being made, although the pace is slow," Kan told the emergency headquarters at the prime minister's office. "Now we have started seeing some hope of getting out of this crisis situation," he said.

Two 74-type tanks from the Ground Self-Defense Force arrived at the plant shortly after 6 a.m. Monday tasked with clearing away contaminated debris blocking access to key installations. The tanks' heavy armor can block some radiation. NISA also said one worker at the plant had been exposed to more than 150 millisieverts of radiation in total but was not in need of medical attention.Source.

• HT:JIDF."Such a small nation, such a big impact": Israel First to Set Up Field Hospital in Japan.Source .

• HT:GatewayPundit.UNREAL. Obama Administration Announces Creation of Conservation Youth Corps of America.THEY NEVER STOP—Just when you thought this radical administration was ready to cut back on their socialist agenda they surprise you with another shockingly radical initiative.Team Obama announced this week the formation of their American Conservation Youth Corps.Team Obama announced this week the formation of their American Conservation Youth Corps.Indoctrinated and ready to fight for a socialist America.P/Oed Patriot described Obama’s latest socialist initiative.According to a Video released today by the White House, the Obama Administration is going to create the 21st Century Conservation Youth Service Core through the Great Outdoors Initiative. .In the Video the Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, says:

“Just about a month ago the President announced The America’s Great Outdoors Initiative. It is an effort to create the 21st Century Conservation Program for the United States of America. An absolute key component of that program is the engagement of young people in conservation across America. To that end we have included in the report the creation of a 21st Century Conservation Corps for America. We want young people to be involved with us..”

Now what is the 21st Century Conservation Youth Service Corps?Well according to Youthgo.gov:“The 21st Century Conservation Service Corps (21CSC) builds upon and leverages the experience and expertise of existing federal, state and non-profit programs, including the United States Youth Conservation Corps, Corps programs through partnerships with the Corps Network, as well as many other federal and non-federal conservation and youth organizations. These corps facilitate conservation service work on public lands and encourage a new generation of natural resource managers and environmental scientists.Through the 21CSC America’s young people will be indoctrinatoed to play a key role in “reducing the impacts of climate change on our natural resources.” You may wonder why they want to include the bogus climate change information in the agenda to begin with? Well according to a speech given by Ken Salazar in 2009 in front of 12,000 young people he said:You gathered here with powershift 09 as young people from the ages of 18-30 you are the engines of change, you are the engines of change. I’m here tonight for Barack Obama because he is an agent of change.But we can not accomplish the change we need to accomplish for our world, for our country, for our communities, for all of you, for all of our families unless we have the young people of our country and the world involved.That’s the purpose of this new Obama initiative. To indoctrinate America’s youth so that they will push for more radical socialist anti-energy redistributive policies. Hmmmmmm......The Good old days of the 'HitlerJugend'are back?They too came from the union movement .Read the full story here.

• Obamacare’s first birthday commemorates twenty one new or higher taxes.One year ago this week, Obamacare was signed into law by President Obama. This jobs-killing law will certainly wreck America’s healthcare system, but what many don’t know is that Obamacare is also one of the largest tax increases in American history. Obamacare contains 21 new or higher taxes on American families and small businesses—seven of which fall on families making less than $250,000 per year (in direct violation of President Obama’s campaign promise). Below is the total list of all $500 billion-plus in tax hikes (over the next ten years) in Obamacare, where to find them in the bill, when they will take effect, and how much your taxes will go up.Read and see the full tax grab story here.

• In Official Notification Two Days Later, President Obama Alerts Congress the US Joined a War.Amidst claims by members of Congress that they were insufficiently consulted, and ensuing White House pushback, President Obama Monday officially notified congressional leaders that at “approximately 3:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, on March 19, 2011, at my direction, U.S. military forces commenced operations to assist an international effort authorized by the United Nations (U.N.) Security Council and undertaken with the support of European allies and Arab partners, to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe and address the threat posed to international peace and security by the crisis in Libya.”The notification was part of the president’s “efforts to keep the Congress fully informed, consistent with the War Powers Resolution,” but given complaints from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress, and the fact that the war started two days ago, it had the effect of a rather discomforting “While You Were Out…” note.Read the full 'story' here.

• Libya: US female war photographer sexually assaulted by pro-Gaddafi forces.Sexually assaulted and told 'You'll die tonight'... but spared as she's American: Female journalist's horror at the hands of Gaddafi's men.A female war photographer from the New York Times revealed tonight how she was repeatedly sexually assaulted during her nightmare hostage ordeal in Libya.Lynsey Addario was one of four Times journalists have now been released after being held captive by pro-Gaddafi forces.During their six-day detainment, the Americans were beaten and threatened with being decapitated and shot.Miss Addario, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, gave a harrowing account of her brutal treatment at the hands of their Libyan captors in an interview given just hours after her release.After she and her colleagues were hauled out of a car at a checkpoint near the eastern city of Ajdabiya, one of the Libyans punched her in the face and laughed at her.‘Then I started crying and he was laughing more,’ she told the Times.One man grabbed her breasts – the start of a pattern of sexual harassment she endured over the ensuing 48 hours.‘There was a lot of groping,’ she said. ‘Every man who came in contact with us basically felt every inch of my body short of what was under my clothes.’As she was being driven away from Ajdabiya, she said another of her captors stroked her head and told her repeatedly that she was going to be killed.‘He was caressing my head in this sick way, this tender way, saying, "You’re going to die tonight. You’re going to die tonight",‘ she added.Miss Addario was with Anthony Shadid, the paper’s Beirut bureau chief, photographer Tyler Hicks and reporter and videographer Stephen Farrell when they were seized while leaving the scene of fighting between rebels and Libyan government forces because they decided it had become too dangerous.Their driver inadvertently drove into a checkpoint manned by troops loyal to the Libyan dictator.‘I was yelling to the driver, "Keep driving! Don’t stop! Don’t stop!",' said Mr Hicks. ‘I knew that the consequences of being stopped would be very bad.'Read the full story here.

• Our World: America’s descent into strategic dementia .By Caroline B.Glick.What the US foreign policy fights regarding Egypt and Libya indicate is that currently, a discussion about how events impact core US regional interests is completely absent from the discussion.The US’s new war against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi is the latest sign of its steady regional decline. In media interviews over the weekend, US military chief Adm. Michael Mullen was hard-pressed to explain either the goal of the military strikes in Libya or their strategic rationale.Mullen’s difficulty explaining the purpose of this new war was indicative of the increasing irrationality of US foreign policy.Traditionally, states have crafted their foreign policy to expand their wealth and bolster their national security. In this context, US foreign policy in the Middle East has traditionally been directed towards advancing three goals: Guaranteeing the free flow of inexpensive petroleum products from the Middle East to global market; strengthening regimes and governments that are in a position to advance this core US goal at the expense of US enemies; and fighting against regional forces like the pan-Arabists and the jihadists that advance a political program inherently hostile to US power.Under the Obama administration, these competing interests have not merely influenced US policy in the Middle East. They have dominated it. Core American interests have been thrown to the wayside.BEFORE CONSIDERING the deleterious impact this descent into strategic dementia has had on US interests, it is necessary to consider the motivations of the various sides to the foreign policy debate in the US today.All of the sides have contributed to the fact that US Middle East policy is now firmly submerged in a morass of strategic insanity.The first side in the debate is the anti-imperialist camp, represented by President Barack Obama himself. Since taking office, Obama has made clear that he views the US as an imperialist power on the world stage. As a result, the overarching goal of Obama’s foreign policy has been to end US global hegemony.Obama looks to the UN as a vehicle for tethering the US superpower. He views US allies in the Middle East and around the world with suspicion because he feels that as US allies, they are complicit with US imperialism.Given his view, Obama’s instincts dictate that he do nothing to advance the US’s core interests in the Middle East. Consider his policies towards Iran. The Iranian regime threatens all of the US’s core regional interests.And yet, Obama has refused to lift a finger against the mullahs.Operating under the assumption that US enemies are right to hate America due to its global hegemony, when the mullahs stole the 2009 presidential elections for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and then violently repressed the pro-Western opposition Green Movement, Obama sided with the mullahs.Aside from its imperative to lash out at Israel, Obama’s ideological predisposition would permit him to happily sit on the sidelines and do nothing against US foe or friend alike. But given Obama’s basic suspicion of US allies, to the extent he has bowed to pressure to take action in the Middle East, he has always done so to the detriment of US allies.Obama’s treatment of ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak is case in point.When the Muslim Brotherhood-backed opposition protests began in late January, Obama was perfectly happy to do nothing despite the US’s overwhelming national interest in preserving Mubarak in power. But when faced with domestic pressure to intervene against Mubarak, he did so with a vengeance.Not only did Obama force Mubarak to resign. He prevented Mubarak from resigning in September and so ensured that the Brotherhood would dominate the transition period to the new regime.One of the most astounding aspects of the US debate on Libya in recent weeks has been the scant attention paid to the nature of the rebels.The rebels are reportedly represented by the so-called National Transitional Council led by several of Gaddafi’s former ministers.But while these men – who are themselves competing for the leadership mantle – are the face of the NTC, it is unclear who stands behind them. Only nine of the NTC’s 31 members have been identified.Unfortunately, available data suggest that the rebels championed as freedom fighters by the neoconservatives, the opportunists, the Europeans and the Western media alike are not exactly liberal democrats. Indeed, the data indicate that Gaddafi’s opponents are more aligned with al-Qaida than with the US.Under jihadist commander Abu Yahya Al- Libi, Libyan jihadists staged anti-regime uprisings in the mid-1990s. Like today, those uprisings’ central hubs were Benghazi and Darnah.In 2007 Al-Libi merged his forces into al- Qaida. On March 18, while denouncing the US, France and Britain, Al-Libi called on his forces to overthrow Gaddafi.A 2007 US Military Academy study of information on al-Qaida forces in Iraq indicate that by far, Eastern Libya made the largest per capita contribution to al-Qaida forces in Iraq.None of this proves that the US is now assisting an al-Qaida takeover of Libya. But it certainly indicates that the forces being assisted by the US in Libya are probably no more sympathetic to US interests than Gaddafi is. At a minimum, the data indicate the US has no compelling national interest in helping the rebels in overthrow Gaddafi.Hmmmm.....If he wanted to destroy America would he do anything different.Read the full story here.

• Libya: Obama's 'coalition of the unwilling' asks does the West have the right to kill Gaddafi?An extraordinary war of words over the West's role in Libya has erupted after Barack Obama was accused of forming a 'coalition of the unwilling' and the push to remove Colonel Muammar Gaddafi from power floundered dangerously.Barack Obama has insisted that America will not continue to lead the operation to enforce a no-fly zone over the country. But days after the military strike began it became terrifyingly clear that no one else is willing to take the lead either.The military operation is suddenly rudderless this morning, with Germany and European allies unwilling to have Nato take on a military operation that theoretically has nothing to do with the defence of Europe, and UK officials in an astonishing row over the legality of a strike to kill Gaddafi.In the U.S. Mr Obama has made it clear he wants no part of any leadership role in Libya.The President has already been criticised for continuing with a tour of Latin America as the military operation over Libya began. And yesterday he insisted again that while Gaddafi must go, the U.S. is not prepared to remove him by force, but merely to enforce the no-fly zone. Even that hesitant stance, which has already earned him the title of the Great Vacillator, left him criticised for not seeking proper approval from Congress before sending the American military in. And after reports emerged that Gaddafi's son had been killed in a kamikaze strike yesterday, fresh questions over what exactly the U.S. intends to achieve in Libya emerged.With Turkey digging its heels in and the Arab League suspicious, Fox News pointed out that Mr Obama has fewer coalition partners in Libya than George Bush did at the start of the Iraq war.He was criticised by both Republicans and Democrats over his decision to commit the U.S. military before going to Congress.Hmmmmmm........'coalition of the unwilling' Read the full story here.

• Report: Turkey discovers weapons in Iran plane.Turkish media reports plane forced to land in southeast Turkey carried rocket launchers, mortars, rifles and explosive materials.Weapons were found on an Iranian cargo plane forced to land in southeast Turkey on Saturday, Turkish media reported Tuesday. According to reports, the arms plane left Tehran with military ammunition for Syria. Several crates containing weapons and ammunition were removed from the aircraft. Turkish media reported that the plane was forced to land in a military airfield at the United Nations' request following information indicating it was carrying nuclear materials. It was further reported that rocket launchers, mortars, rifles and explosive materials were found in one of the main cabinets on the plane.Turkish newspapers stated this was the first time that a plane was forced to land in such circumstances since 2006.Hmmmm....As i said yesterday one checked ...two hundred unchecked....hoorays?Read the full story here.

• US demanding gay rights support at UN body.WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration will introduce its first statement calling for the United Nations' top human rights body to combat discrimination against gays and lesbians around the world, completing a U.S. reversal from years of ambiguity on the subject during the presidency of George W. Bush.The U.S. declaration will be made Tuesday at the Geneva-based Human Rights Council and has the support of more than 80 countries. Although it is not in the form of binding resolution, the American push for U.N.action has helped win over a handful of new countries to the cause. A resolution could be brought to a vote later this year.The issue of gay rights has polarized nations at the U.N. for years. And despite growing acceptance for homosexuality in Western nations and parts of Latin America, lawyers say there is still a gap in human rights treaties for the protection of gays against discrimination and mistreatment."We are very concerned that individuals continue to be killed, arrested and harassed around the world because of their sexual orientation or gender identity," said Suzanne Nossel, deputy assistant secretary of state for international organizations. "This statement sends a strong message from across the globe that such abuses should not be tolerated."In December, even the Obama administration held back from voting for a U.N. resolution condemning killings of vulnerable people around the world after specifically proposing an amendment to protect people based on their sexual orientation. At issue was a separate, arcane legal dispute over international human rights law.U.N. General Assembly and Human Rights Council resolutions aren't legally binding; they reflect only the view of the majority of the world's nations.In 2003, the council's predecessor body, the Human Rights Commission held a heated dispute after a proposal made by Brazil and backed by European nations. Muslim countries balked, saying they couldn't accept any reference to the term "sexual orientation." Pakistan's ambassador went further, telling diplomats he preferred the term "sexual disorientation."Hmmmm.....I wonder how Barrack 'Hussein' Obama will make this acceptable for his 'Muslim Brothers'?My guess it's just about getting the gay community their votes!"You can't fool all the people ,all of the time"!Read the full story here.

• HT:AllAmericanBlogger.Five Of The World’s Most Dangerous Places to Be a Christian.A new study has found there is one religion in the world that is far more persecuted than any other. As a reader in the western world, it might come as a surprise to learn that Christians face persecution at a far higher rate than any other religion in the world. In fact, 75 percent of religious persecution is against followers of Jesus.Examining 33 countries, the British branch of Aid to the Church in Need reported that most of the persecution was occurring in the Middle East, Africa and Asia in its 2011 “Persecuted and Forgotten? A Report on Christians oppressed for their faith.”Besides the usual suspects – China, Iran, North Korea, and Saudi Arabia – the report also reveals that countries such as Venezuela, Zimbabwe and even the Holy Land are guilty of religious persecution. The report also finds that Christians face increased persecution in 22 countries among those examined, with Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, andPakistan being among the worst countries for believers to live in. The report also says that now 100 million Christians worldwide are facing persecution.“The proportion of countries with a worsening track-record of anti-Christian violence and intimidation would be higher were it not for the fact that in many cases the situation could scarcely have been worse in the first place,” the report stated.It is estimated that 150,000 Christians are killed each year because of their faith, one every three minutes.The worst “persecution” Christians face in America is the occasional Leftist attempt to get Christmas decorations removed from a public setting, or stores substituting “Happy Holidays” for “Merry Christmas.”It isn’t as simple for followers in other countries.China continues to imprison Christians. There are some whacked out Hindus in India that have killed followers of Christ.But none of these countries match the level of evil that goes into the atrocities listed above. By and large, the Christian population world-wide faces some of the most brutal and bloody treatment at the hands of those we are supposed to believe follow the Religion of Peace.Pardon me if I question the validity of that label.And remember these stories the next time a leftist tries to use moral equivalence to compare Christianity and Islam. Ask them for examples.The cold fact is, Muslims persecute Christians in far greater numbers than the reverse. The biggest killer of Muslims isn’t Christians. It’s other Muslims.Hmmmm.....Obama "Islam is a great religion".Read the full story here.

• NATO "Member" Turkey criticizes France's role in Libya intervention.Ankara clearly expressed on Monday its uneasiness regarding fellow NATO member France's “prominent role” in the UN-mandated intervention in Libya, signaling further disagreements within the alliance. “It seems impossible for us to understand France being so prominent in this process. We are having difficulty in understanding it acting like the enforcer of United Nations decisions,” Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül told reporters at his office as he met with visiting Macedonian Defense Minister Zoran Konjanovski and the accompanying delegation.“But afterwards it was understood that the United States is in command,” he said.Turkey, which has spoken against intervention in Libya and has called for an immediate cease-fire, wants careful planning on the planned NATO involvement due to concerns over protecting the alliance's prestige in an operation to be launched on a Muslim country.Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was in Mecca on Monday on the final day of a visit to Saudi Arabia, was due to chair a meeting later that day to discuss the situation in Libya. Officials from the Foreign Ministry, the General Staff and the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) were due to participate in the meeting which would be held upon Erdoğan’s return to Ankara after Today’s Zaman went into print.In Brussels, NATO officials were to meet Monday to debate enforcement of the no-fly zone.Constant meetings are being held in Ankara in order to assess the situation in Libya, diplomatic sources told the Anatolia news agency late on Sunday, underlining that “Turkey is not out of the process and is closely following every stage.”Hmmmm.....NATO MUST realise Turkey can no longer be part of NATO, it's alliances lay with the Muslim world and they must remove Turkey as a member.Turkey only causes problems witin NATO's command.Read the full story here.

• Erdoğan: NATO’s Libya move must not be for its wealth.Turkey said on Sunday that it wanted several conditions to be met for NATO to begin operations in Libya and warned that military intervention should avoid ending in an occupation of the North African country, rich in oil and gas. “Now the issue is NATO going into operation. If NATO is going into operation we have some conditions,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said at a university in Riyadh. “NATO should go in [Libya] with the recognition and acknowledgement that Libya belongs to the Libyans, not for the distribution of its underground resources and wealth,” he added.Erdoğan was due to chair a meeting in Ankara later on Monday to discuss the situation in Libya with Turkish ministers and military commanders, diplomatic sources said, Reuters reported. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu also said on Monday that Erdoğan also planned to speak with US President Barack Obama about the Libyan crisis.The Turkish prime minister said during his speech in Mecca that he had spoken with Gaddafi three times during the crisis, once with his son and twice with the country’s prime minister and that he is one of the few world leaders to keep talking with the Libyan leader, although he has called for Gaddafi to hand power to someone with greater legitimacy. Erdoğan said NATO’s only Muslim member nation has held an “intense diplomacy” to stave off the brewing crisis, and had talks with opposition members. “Sadly, our warnings were not listened to, promises were not kept. First came massacre followed by an international operation,” Erdoğan lamented. Turkey had business ties amounting to some $15.3 billion with Libya before the uprising against Gaddafi began a month ago, mostly in construction. Erdoğan also had talks with Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Secretary-General Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu on Monday and discussed regional developments, particularly the operation against Libya.Hmmmm.......Erdogan .....NATO's worst enemy?Read the full story here.

• 22 March Al -Jazeera. 9:16am China isn't backing down on its opposition to the no-fly zone. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu used a regular news briefing today to say that China had "deep concern" about civilian casualties and the possibility of a "humanitarian disaster" and wanted an end to the fighting. Though Gaddafi's regime claims dozens of people have died in the air strikes, there's no way of knowing for sure, and the coalition has completely denied any civilian casualties.Source.

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• HT:SHTF.A First: Fully Armed Chinese Missile Frigate Spotted Off Libyan Coast.Though China abstained from a UN Security Council vote authorizing a no-fly-zone in Libya, and are not among the 16 nation coalition involved in Operation Odyssey Dawn, for the first time in modern day naval history, a Chinese warship sailed in the Mediterranean Sea. The 4000 ton Xuzhou missile frigate sailed to Libya after having been deployed of the coast of Yemen, on the other side of the Red Sea, a few days ago.The missile frigate’s role is not exactly clear, but based on China’s position thus far it is not likely that the ship is part of the US, UK and French led attack. The People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s newspaper, earlier pointed to Iraq and Afghanistan, and criticized the US for launching a third attack “on a sovereign nation,” so the chances that China is providing assistance are slim. While China may be flexing some of its military might, they are more than likely in the area strictly to observe operations – for the time being.Read and see the full story here.

• Canada- University downplays student's Jihad threat.Montreal police are investigating a student who made threats against a conservative club at McGill University, even though university officials determined the student’s threats about jihad and wanting to “shoot everyone in the room” were harmless.A spokesman for the Montreal Police Service told the Toronto Star they take the threat allegedly made by Haaris Khan seriously.Khan attended a viewing of the documentary “Indoctrinate-U,” sponsored by Conservative McGill, a student organization affiliated with Canada’s Conservative Party. During the viewing, Khan is accused of making death treats using his Twitter account.“I should have brought an M16,” he allegedly wrote. “I’m watching a Zionist/Conservative propaganda film at a secret Zionist convention, in case anyone’s confused.”“Indoctrinate-U” is a documentary exposing political correctness on university and college campuses. It explores free speech issues on campuses and how schools sometimes punish people for what the filmmaker calls “mild speech.”“My blood is boiling,” Khan allegedly tweeted. “I want to shoot everyone in this room.”The following day, he allegedly tweeted, “The jihad begins today.”“It’s not only nationwide, it seems to be affected a lot of western countries in general,” Maloney told Fox News Radio. “Its ironic that tame, political speech can get you in trouble and yet when you issue death threats against a group of right-of-center students, that’s not something a university is going to punish.”“It underscores the central premise of the film that students today are being taught that it’s okay to go out of your way to punish political speech and shut up speech you don’t agree with,” Maloney told Fox News Radio. “That’s essentially what this student was doing. He was watching a film he didn’t like and his first inclination was to start issuing death threats and wishing for the elimination of students who shared political views that differed from his own.”Hmmmm......Read the full story here.

• Video : Palin Visits Netanyahu's Residence.Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin concluded her visit to Israel on Monday by visiting Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his family. The Palin couple arrived at the Prime Minister’s official residence for a dinner which was defined as personal rather than political and was based on the Israeli cuisine.Palin, who is known for her uncompromising support for the State of Israel, told Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, that she was received warmly by the Israelis and also told them all about her tour of the country, which included seeing sites in Jerusalem (such as the Kotel)and the Dead Sea. In most places, Palin saw firsthand the atmosphere of the holiday of Purim, and the Netanyahu couple told the potential candidate for President of the United States all about the Book of Esther and the traditions of Purim.Before leaving, Palin signed the Prime Minister’s residence guestbook and wrote: “Such an amazing country! G-d bless you. May our connection continue to grow and strengthen.”Hmmmm......No problem with her middle name or her intentions.Read and see the full story here.

• Hamas Protests U.N. Plans to Teach Holocaust in Gaza Schools.Gaza City, Gaza Strip (AP) - The United Nations has launched a new plan to teach the Holocaust in Gaza schools, drawing fierce condemnation from Gaza's militant Hamas rulers, school teachers -- and even the body tasked with peace negotiations with Israel.If implemented, it would be the first time most Palestinian children learn about Jewish suffering. But the outcry underscores how sensitive the issue is to Palestinians."Playing with the education of our children in the Gaza Strip is a red line," Hamas Education Minister, Mohammed Asqoul told a website of the group. He said Hamas will block attempts to teach the Holocaust "regardless of the price."The uproar erupted after a U.N. official told a Jordanian daily in February that UNRWA, the main U.N. agency serving Palestinian refugees, would introduce a short case study about the Holocaust to Gaza students as part of its human rights curriculum.UNRWA representatives refused to comment on the record, but one official said the agency was committed to introducing the curriculum for the next school year, beginning in September.He added that officials were hesitating because they feared Hamas would incite loyalists to damage U.N. schools or harm their teachers if they introduce the materials. He requested anonymity because he was barred from discussing the matter with the media."Teaching the Holocaust to Palestinian students in U.N. schools is unacceptable," said Zakaria al-Agha, a member of the PLO's executive committee.Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev called the Palestinian responses "obscene." Israelis consider the Holocaust a central event in modern Jewish history.Yet even if the U.N. moves ahead with the plan this year, it could face another obstacle: its own schoolteachers.In about a dozen interviews, they said they did not want to teach the materials and warned of rebellion."The agency will open the gates of hell with this step," said one schoolteacher, Sami. "This will not work."Hmmmm.....'Palestinians' the people Obama supports.Denial of the Holocaust is a criminal offence in a number of countries!Read the full story here.