When Is A Joke Not Really A Joke?

When it involves dressing up a toddler as a suicide bomber. Color me surprised, but this is for real ...
a family in Hebron told a British Sky reporter the photo was a joke. It's no secret that Palestinians take toddlers to hate rallies and teach extermination of Jews in school, what is surprising is that they consider dressing up their children to look like murderers is a joke.

Palestinian Labor Minister Ghassan Khatib accused the Israeli media of using the photo to "further distort" the Palestinian position.

"The Israelis are preventing the world from seeing the atrocities Israel is conducting in Palestine by preventing the media from covering the reality of the Palestinian side," Khatib said.

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Palestinian Baby Bomber Photo

It can't be ruled a hoax, of course, any more than its legitimacy can be confirmed. I don't think someone in the Israeli government created this thing for obvious progaganda but it's probable someone on the Israeli or Palestinian side created it for shock value. What Palestinians need to be concerned about is that the world is completely willing to consider this might be true.

When Arab parents love their children more than they hate Jews, there will be peace.

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Iraq accuses Iran of border violations

Clearly Hussein feels that his best times were when we hated Iran more than him. Perhaps he feels starting a new fight with them will prevent us from putting a stop to his terrorism efforts.

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Anti-semitism at San Francisco State U

Send your ideas for SFSU's Task Force on how to deal with anti-Semitism on campus to:

Task Force
Lakeview Center, Room 118
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94132,

or e-mail to taskforc@sfsu.edu.

Palestinians announce January elections While Bush Threatens To Reduce Aid

Palestinian Authority Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat announced parliamentary and presidential elections for mid-January 2003. Erekat also laid out a 100-day plan for reforms within the Palestinian Authority. He said the Authority had approved a 100-day plan for reforms in ministries, institutions and security apparatuses, as well as in the ministry of finance and the judiciary. New judges would be appointed under the new plan, and the new Palestinian Interior Ministry will be in charge of preventive security, civil police and courts.

Meanwhile, the United States said Wednesday it would use diplomatic pressure and the threat of cutting off aid to force reforms within the Palestinian Authority, warning there would be "consequences" if Yasser Arafat were re-elected as President in the election scheduled for next January. "If there are free and fair elections, we're not going to try and interfere in the election process. We are going to respect the democratic processes but there are consequences," said a senior administration official speaking to reporters at the Group of Eight summit meeting in Canada. The official declined to elaborate on what those consequences might be.

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Bush Calls for Arafat's Removal

"Peace requires a new and different Palestinian leadership so that a Palestinian state can be born," Bush said at the White House.

In his long-anticipated speech, Bush said "reform must be more than cosmetic changes or a veiled attempt to preserve the status quo" if the Palestinians are to fulfill their aspirations for a state alongside Israel.

Elections should be held by the end of the year for a legislature with normal authority and there also must be a constitution, Bush said as he set stiff conditions for a Palestinians state.

"When the Palestinian people have new leaders, new institutions and new security arrangements with their neighbors, the United States of America will support the creation of a Palestinian state, whose borders and certain aspects of its sovereignty will be provisional until resolved as part of a final settlement in the Middle East," Bush said.

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Saddam's Heir Escapes Assassination Attempt

Amidst rumors that Saddam may turn over power to escape American justice comes news that his son, Qusay Hussein, averted death in a booby-trapped car on June 9.

Like the attempt on Uday Hussein a few years ago, this attempt was blamed on Shi'ite insurgents. Anyone who thinks that these two sons of Hussein aren't trying to kill each other don't understand Iraq, the environment Saddam's children were raised in, or that Saddam probably likes that they're fighting each other.

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Text of President Bush's Statement

For too long, the citizens of the Middle East have lived in the midst of death and fear. The hatred of a few holds the hopes of many hostage. The forces of extremism and terror are attempting to kill progress and peace by killing the innocent. And this casts a dark shadow over an entire region.

For the sake of all humanity, things must change in th
e Middle East. It is untenable for Israeli citizens to live in terror. It is untenable for Palestinians to live in squalor and occupation. And the current situation offers no prospect that life will improve. Israeli citizens will continue to be victimized by terrorists, and so Israel will continue to defend herself, and the situation of the Palestinian people will grow more and more miserable.

My vision is two states, living side by side, in peace and security. There is simply no way to achieve that peace until all parties fight terror.

Yet at this critical moment, if all parties will break with the past and set out on a new path, we can overcome the darkness with the light of hope.

Peace requires a new and different Palestinian leadership, so that a Palestinian state can be born. I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror.

< a href='http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=24062002-042721-2616r'>Full transcript here

President Bush To Outline Mid-East Peace Plan Today

The expected points:
*An interim Palestinian state within a year
*A permanent state within three years, contingent on ending violence and reforming institutions
*Israel to halt incursions into Palestinian areas, freeze settlement activity and hold political negotiations with the Palestinians



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Muslims Plot Attack on Italian Church

They're protesting a painting depicting anti-Islam imagery. This is apparently offensive even though it is art -- left wing take note.

Unnoticed, the entire Muslim world has remained silent on anti-Semitic and anti-American imagery. No Muslim protested a poster reading "Canned Palestinian Children Meat, slaughtered according to Jewish rites under American license" at San Francisco State University.

Norwegian supermarkets put yellow stickers on Jewish products. No Muslim has a problem with it.

No Muslim protested when an Egyptian "scholar" wrote, A short while ago, "they are accursed, fundamentally, because they are the plague of the generation and the bacterium of all time. Their history always was and always will be stained with treachery, falseness, and lying. Historical documents prove it. Thus, the Jews are accursed - the Jews of our time, those who preceded them and those who will come after them, if any Jews come after them."

"Main Kampf" is a perennial best-seller in Arab states.
Art depicting Jewish massacres? No protests at all.



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al-Jazeera Broadcasts Al Qaeda Responsibility Claim For Synagogue Attack

al-Jazeera, apparent media outlet for al Qaeda, produced yet another piece of journalistic voodoo, this one from Sulaiman bu Ghaith, who stated al Qaeda was responsible for a deadly suicide attack at a Tunisian synagogue in April and warned of fresh attacks against the United States in "months."

In an undated broadcast, Bu Ghaith said 98 percent of al Qaeda leaders, including bin Laden and his deputy Ayman Zawahri, had survived the Afghanistan campaign and were "going about their work."

It was the first direct claim of al Qaeda involvement in the blast near El Ghriba synagogue on the resort island of Djerba in April which killed 21 people, including 14 Germans. German government ministers had earlier said there was evidence linking the blast to the militant network.

"This operation was carried out by al Qaeda network. A youth could not see his brothers in Palestine butchered and murdered...(while) he saw Jews cavorting in Djerba," Sulaiman bu Ghaith said in the undated recording broadcast by al-Jazeera.

"So this spirit of jihad surged and he (the al Qaeda member) carried out this successful operation, may God accept it," said bu Ghaith, who emerged as an al Qaeda spokesman after the September 11 attacks.

Funny, terrorist apologists keep telling me jihad is an internal struggle. Are they so consumed by this internal struggle they simply must blow themselves, and a lot of Jews, to smithereens, or is that definition of jihad just the one they give to liberals in the west?

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Arabian Government Says Arabia Not Targeted By Al-Qaeda

No kidding. Arabian media blitzes aside, did anyone actually believe they were at risk along with the rest of us? Not at all ... they simply said they were publicly so they could distance themselves from retaliation and then reassured their population quietly.

Prince Sultan, second deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, condemned the move by Western media to link Al-Qaeda terrorist network with the Kingdom. Arabia on Tuesday announced the arrest of seven Al- Qaeda members including six Saudis and a Sudanese on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks against vital installations in the country using explosives and SAM-7 missiles.

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Al-Ahram Weekly's Graham Usher Says Neither Tanks, Fences, Nor An Interim Palestinian State Plan Will Stop The Suicide Bombers

In other words, nothing will stop them? This flies in the face of history. In 100% of the cases where all of the enemy is killed, peace has ensued. It's only Palestinians and their supporters who contend that a fence is a bad idea. The rest of the world seems to recognize that these people need to be kept apart from each other. They're not the only places in the world with secure borders. Why would Palestinians think a fence is a bad idea, if they are interested in peace and it might prevent a small number of bombers from coming into Israel?

It certainly can't lead to more bombings, or the same number of bombings, so any improvement will help.

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Arafat Exile?

He's either in control of this, in which case he is responsible for the continued bombings, or he isn't in control, in which case he should be removed so the Palestinians can elect someone that will be able to take control and stop the violence.

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Harold Evans On Media Distortion

Among other things. The former editor of 'The Sunday Times' and author of "The American Century", also discusses anti-Semitism and the chilling paradoxes of the global village.

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CNN Admits Error In Mid-East Coverage

A coincidence they specifically state they are not involved in moral equivalence after Ted Turner makes yet another gaffe and clearly is?

CNN erred in giving more programming time to the family of a Palestinian suicide bomber than to his Israeli victims and tried to rectify the mistake, the network's top news executive said Sunday during a damage-control visit to Israel.

CNN's coverage of recent suicide bombings has provoked anger in Israel and led a local cable company to start carrying CNN's chief U.S. competitor, Fox News Channel. Fox said it expects others to follow suit. Recent comments from CNN founder Ted Turner describing both Israel and the Palestinians as terrorists have fueled Israeli anger.

Interviewed on Israel Television, Eason Jordan, CNN's president of newsgathering, said his company strives for fairness.

"On occasion we make mistakes but that's not because there's any bias,'' he said. "CNN is not pro-Palestinian or anti-Israeli. We're fair, we're responsible in our reporting, we try to be as accurate as we possibly can be.''

Told that a recent CNN interview with the family of a Palestinian suicide bomber received more prominence than one with a relative of his victims, 1-year-old Sinai Keinan and her grandmother, Jordan said: "That was a mistake, it should never have happened and I think we subsequently rectified that problem by airing extensively the interview with the Keinan family.''

CNN is airing a series of heavily promoted half-hour specials on Israeli victims of Palestinian terror attacks and Jordan says he has issued a directive ordering staff to "go to extremes'' to avoid any impression the company sees moral equivalence between terror victims and their attackers.

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Israeli Tanks Kill Three In Jenin, Says The Killings Are Accidental

Twenty others are injured. The Jenin incident came during Israeli incursions into major West Bank towns in response to two suicide bombings in Jerusalem this week.

Palestinian sources said four people were killed in Jenin, including three children.

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Americans In Arabia Warned To Check Cars Before Starting

In fact, check your brains before going.

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Arafat Now Says He Will Accept Clinton Peace Plan

Does anyone believe he didn't say the same thing before the details were ever floated? That old saying about if Caesar had been an Arab he would have crossed or not crossed the Rubicon depending on the conditions of the day and exactly where he had chosen to place the Rubicon for that situation certainly applies.

You can bet as soon as anyone agrees to this, he will say he was misquoted, some things were left out, or that he didn't agree to it in the first place -- all at the same time.

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Courtesy of NROs Jay Nordlinger

"... you may know that Saudi Arabia's King Fahd is in Geneva, to be medically cared for. There is a fine mosque there. He asked the city fathers for permission to build another one. They replied: Yes - when it is possible to build a church in Riyadh."

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Arafat Asks For Suicide Bomings To Stop

But does it through the Palestinian news agency Wafa? Funny, a TV appearance would reach a lot more people. If he wanted to reach his friends in the EU he would use TV ... so why would he use a press release to reach his own people? That is, if he really wants the bombings to stop?

Well, it's progress ...

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Israeli Arabs Increasingly Implicated In Plots To Overthrow Jewish State

Al-Ahram Weekly Online.
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Oliver Stone Gives His Informed Opinion On The Mid-East

No surprise who he's siding with ... what a day for idiot Americans who shouldn't have their opinions taken seriously at all to be making the news.

He took time from editing his film on Fidel Castro to talk about his documentary on Yasser Arafat. No, I am not kidding ... these are the only two people in the world that he can find to talk about.

Israel is concerned about Stone's documentary, says an article in the Jerusalem Post by Herb Keinon, which noted, "If (the) documentary on Yasser Arafat is as close to reality as were his movies on John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, Israel has real reason for concern."

But Stone says, "I take no position on (Israel-Palestine). People think I'm pro one or the other."

I wonder why??

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Israeli TV Considers Pulling CNN Because of Ted Turner Remarks

When will this man, who considers himself a great American, realize he is just an idiot? After calling 9/11 hijackers brave earlier this year and having to apologize, he now equated Israeli soldiers defending themselves with the suicide bombers they are defending themselves against.

A source close to Ram Belinkov, who will be chief executive of a merged company of the three cable providers -- Matav Cable Systems Media, Tevel and Golden Channels -- said the firms were "dissatisfied with CNN's political coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian situation."

"Turner's comments were the latest in a long line of biased coverage (against Israel)," the source said. "We are very dissatisfied with CNN's coverage. It's very problematic."

They are discussing replacing CNN with Fox News. Because Fox is biased toward Israel? No, because CNN is biased against Israel, and it would also send a message to that doddering old fool Turner.

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Interim Palestinian state rejected by Jordan and Egypt

Ever get the feeling the Palestinian people might say otherwise? After all, these are the two countries who have consistently refused to grant Palestinian independence since 1948 ... yet keep saying it is the fundamental issue. The problem is this 'fundamental issue' is a moving target ... and the goal line changes depending on what kind of response they get. When they had Israel close to a peace plan they invented a 'Palestinian right of return' which would have established an Arab majority in Israel ... now they just say they want the west bank and all of Jerusalem.

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U.S. prevented major Israeli attack on Syria?

The World Tribune says so ...

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Kuwait Newspaper Says Arafat Put $5.1M Into His Personal Account

On June 7, 2002, the Kuwaiti Al-Watan daily published the following report:

"Yesterday, Al-Watan received documents from private sources in the Cairo branch of an Arab bank showing that Yasser Arafat had deposited in his name $5.1 million into a personal account. According to sources, this is theft of Arab aid funds allocated to the Palestinians through an arrangement between Arafat and his Cairo office head Ramzi Khouri."

"The sources added that according to the documents, these funds were deposited in the personal accounts of President Arafat to cover some of the president's personal expenses, including the costs of his wife Suha and their daughter who live in Paris and Switzerland."

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Hezbollah: Israeli settlers next target

"These blocks and fences may obstruct those (militant) operations partly, but ... (it) will surely force the Palestinian combatants and strugglers to focus their efforts on the (Jewish) settlers and soldiers in the 1967 territories," Nasrallah said. "This cement fence will be the 'wall of hell' for the soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip."

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Naima al-Obeid, "This is the best day of my life" as she sends son off to die in suicide attack

"God willing you will succeed," she says.

"May every bullet hit its target, and may God give you martyrdom. This is the best day of my life."

Naima got her wish -- well, about him being dead anyway. You can't be a martyr for a political death. Unless, of course, these Muslims hate Jews after all and aren't simply fighting for independence.

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Palestinians Assert Their Right To Independence By Killing Office Workers and High School Students

19 dead this time ( 20, counting the suicide bomber) and 40 injured. Lots of soldiers on city buses.

Hamas claimed responsibility and identified the assailant as Mohammed al-Ghoul, 22, from the Al Faraa refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus.

Hazaa al-Ghoul, father of Mohammed, told Reuters Reuters from his home in the al-Fara refugee camp, near Nablus, that he was "very happy" to hear that his son was the bomber.

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Ted Turner Says Israelis Are The Terrorists

Whatever. In other news, Turner insisted cows can whinny, upside down is back and forth, and that he should be running Time-Warner.

His last effort to rekindle Hanoi Jane's affection for him involved him calling the September 11 hijackers "brave" in a speech in Rhode Island.

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On The Other Hand, The General Secretary of the Palestinian Authority Had This To Say ...

"Suicide missions are heroic and their arena is the conquered territories of '67."

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New Palestinian security chief Gen. Abdel Razak Yehiyeh says he wants to `put an end to' militias

The new Palestinian security chief said Friday he wants to "put an end" to militias involved in shooting and bombing attacks on Israelis, warning that the Palestinians' image must not be soiled by terrorism.

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EU Adds PFLP and Al Aqsa Brigades To Blacklist

Islamic Jihad and Hamas are already included in the list.

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Article on Racial Name Calling In The Mid-East, Europe and America

By Fawaz Turki writing for the Arab News. He's against the name-calling, as you can imagine most normal people are, but stresses that many of the name callers in the mid-east are drawing anti-semitism commentary from European sources and have no ingrained anti-semitic literature of their own. He affirms his feeling that many in the mid-east are fighting Israel but not Jews.

I agree with his take that anti-semitism in whatever form should be called out and unmasked for what it is ... what needs more investigation is his claim that anti-semitism is hurled at anyone in the US who disagrees with Israeli policy ... namely the American left wing. Sorry Fawaz, left-wing radicals aren't throwing garbage at Synagogues because they don't like Israeli politics.

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Israelis Capture 10 Bombs at Arafat Location

Euorpeans frantically search for a better argument than the teenage "You searched through his stuff??? How dare you invade his privacy!"

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Iran Launches Hebrew Radio Broadcasts ...

...but makes sure Iranians can't hear them. Media reports said the radio program -- known as "Voice of David" -- aims to "correctly disseminate information and confront a one-sided news monopoly."

Iran does not recognize Israel and calls for its destruction but is home to a 25,000-strong Jewish community, the largest in the Middle East apart from Israel.

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Poll: Majority Of Palestinians See Israel's Elimination as Goal

This would be a surprise to Susan Sarandon, of course, but not to just about anyone else.

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We'll Always Have Susan Sarandon

Though she'll never keep her yap shut ... this time she's insisting we 'show sympathy' to suicide bombers. Why? Welll, she feels like if they're willing to blow up civilians it must be really, really important to them, and therefore no one should ever fight back ... in other news, she demonstrated her keen grasp of the political landscape by insisting that weeds would stop growing if we simply left them alone.

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Indian Boy In Gaza Earns Microsoft Certificate

Well, I had to write about something ...

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Saudi Arabia Privatizes Post Office ... US ... errr ... raises stamp prices again?

Isn't anyone the slightest bit concerned that the Saud flavor of Arabia sees the wisdom of mail delivery by someone other than the government and the US does not? That's a country that has had 11 people die and 22 hospitalized for drinking cologne ...

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Israeli Tanks Fire on Arafat Compound

Israeli tanks firing heavy machine guns rumbled into the West Bank city of Ramallah early on Thursday and opened fire on the headquarters of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said.

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Car Suicide Bomb Kills 18

At least 18 people were killed, some of them burned alive, when a bomb ripped through a packed bus in the north of Israel today.

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And The PA Responds ...

No. The Palestinian cabinet's announcement expressed "respect for the High Court of Justice's decision" but said its ruling to release Saadat "cannot be implemented under these circumstances because of Israeli threats."

Since the IDF siege of Arafat was relieved only after he agreed to imprison the six men the Israelis want, suspected in the October 17 assassination of tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi, it would seem a wise move.

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Palestinian Court Orders Arafat To Release A Suspected Terrorist

Well, the only reason Ahmed Saadat, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) jailed in Jericho under international supervision, isn't held by the Israelis is that he is being held by international guards.

So either Arafat has set this up to free Saadat and say "the courts made me do it" or they have set him up to fail and lose even more credibility.

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Iran Leader Cools On U.S.

The United States is losing its few friends in the Islamic republic, with President Mohammed Khatami the latest to join the camp of adversaries.

"When a big power uses a militant, humiliating and threatening tone to speak to us, our nation will refuse to negotiate or show any flexibility," he said.

Why would a big power do such a thing? Well, it might help to stop exporting arms to terrorists ...

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