FBI to Investigate Israeli Diplomat in Pentagon Spy Case
Aluf Benn

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is demanding that Naor Gilon, head of the political department at the Israeli embassy in Washington, be interrogated in connection to the Pentagon spy case. It is possible the FBI will also want to interrogate other Israeli diplomats in connection with Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin, an Iran expert under investigation for allegedly passing classified documents to Israel via the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

US-Israel Crisis Deepens over Defense Exports to China
Ze'ev Schiff

The U.S. administration has refused to rescind sanctions against Israel until the latter proves it has increased its monitoring of security-related exports, deepening the crisis between the two countries. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who was about to leave for Washington for talks on the matter, canceled the trip following the increased U.S. demands. The crisis erupted over Israel's sale to China of replacement parts for Harpy attack drones. The draft referendum points to a lack of understanding on the part of the U.S. of domestic political affairs in Israel. It is a strange agreement, by which Israel agrees to the continued sanctions the Americans are imposing.

Is Iran Being Set Up?
Gary Leupp

The neocons' plans for a total reorganization of the "Greater Middle East" have been plain for some time now. Many have been warning against the prospect of an expansion of the Iraq War into Syria and Iran. You'd think that reality would smack these guys in the face and they'd call off anything so stupid. But they apparently think that by using conventional and nuclear weapons (first time any nation will do that since Nagasaki); by employing the Mujahadeen Khalq; by activating agents in place to organize demonstrations (as the CIA did so successfully in Iran in 1953); by attacking from Azerbaijan they can actually pull this off. Do they even realize that southern Iraq and Iran constitute the heartland of historical Shiism, and that an attack on Iran will negate any goodwill among Shiites U.S. forces have acquired in Iraq?

Teacher's 'Holocaust' Lessons Hit Students Hard
Karen Gutiérrez

Nancy Kersell changes people. She pulls them inside the Holocaust and makes them feel it the way she does. They are never the same again. Some students cry. Others leave Kersell's classroom in stunned silence. One woman, for her final project, gave herself an hour to fill a suitcase with her most treasured belongings, mimicking the experience of Jews sent to concentration camps. Then she shared the contents with classmates. "Everyone bawled," recalls Amy Fry, one of Kersell's Northern Kentucky University students. "That's the kind of emotion her class evokes."

Getting Lincoln Half Right and Half Wrong: Book Review
Thomas DiLorenzo

Furthermore, the labeling of Lincoln critics as "Confederate apologists" is not in the spirit of pursuing truth or accuracy but of character assassination and censorship ("they must secretly defend slavery"). It makes as much sense to label all Lincoln critics as "Confederate apologists" as it does to label all FDR critics as Nazis. Criticizing FDR does not make one a Nazi any more than criticizing Lincoln makes one a Confederate sympathizer. (This dishonest tactic was also employed by one John Majewski in a "review" of The Real Lincoln that appeared in Ideas on Liberty). On the other hand, Lind does a fine job of portraying the real Lincoln as a cold-hearted, ego-maniacal politician. "Lincoln did not invite any members of his family to his marriage to Mary Todd in 1842" and "He refused his dying father’s request for a final visit."

The 'Great Emancipator and the Issue of Race
Robert Morgan

Many Americans think of Abraham Lincoln, above all, as the president who freed the slaves. Immortalized as the "Great Emancipator," he is widely regarded as a champion of black freedom who supported social equality of the races, and who fought the American Civil War (1861-1865) to free the slaves. While it is true that Lincoln regarded slavery as an evil and harmful institution, it also true, as this paper will show, that he shared the conviction of most Americans of his time, and of many prominent statesmen before and after him, that blacks could not be assimilated into white society. He rejected the notion of social equality of the races, and held to the view that blacks should be resettled abroad. As President, he supported projects to remove blacks from the United States.

You Call This a War?
Joseph Sobran

The enemy is obscure, but can’t be fought or defeated as if he were a state. He has no vital secrets or single mastermind that can be found by, say, taking, questioning, and torturing captives. "He,” in fact, is a loose federation, not a centralized power. His numbers aren’t huge, but he has millions of sympathizers who share his hatred of us. He has no ambition to conquer us or destroy our freedoms; such talk is foolish. “Democracy,” if that’s what you want to call it, isn’t at stake. The enemy merely wants to harass and shock us until we stop irritating him. And our government has no intention of doing that. It will keep doing what it does, and he will keep retaliating. This will go on indefinitely, since neither side can force the other to do what it wants. What costs can random acts of terrorism against a few civilians impose on the politicians who make the decisions? Don’t such acts in fact reward and encourage them?

Cheney's Plan: Nuke Iran
Justin Raimondo

"The Pentagon, acting under instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney's office, has tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons." Two points leap out at the reader – or, at least, this reader – quite apart from the moral implications of dropping nukes on Iran. The first is the completely skewed logic: if Iran has nothing to do with 9/11-II, then why target Tehran? As in Iraq, it's all a pretext: only this time, the plan is to use nuclear weapons. We'll wipe out the entire population of Iran's capital city because, as Paul Wolfowitz said in another context, "it's doable." The other weird aspect of this "nuke Iran" story is the triggering mechanism: a terrorist attack in the U.S. on the scale of 9/11. While it is certain that our government has developed a number of scenarios for post-attack action, one has to wonder: why develop this plan at this particular moment? What aren't they telling us? I shudder to think about it.

Republican Opposition to Iraq War Growing
Kevin B. Zeese

First it was Walter Jones (R-NC) who began to speak out in favor of an exit strategy for Iraq. Now there are nine. This is still a trickle – but it is a growing one. And as the support for the war decreases, evidence of the failure of the occupation and the increased risk the occupation poses to security at home becomes more apparent, this trickle could develop into a pounding river. Rep. Jones has called for an exit strategy for two reasons. First, he recognizes that he was misled into supporting the war by misinformation about weapons of mass destruction. Second, he cares deeply for U.S. troops and after writing hundreds of letters to the families of soldiers who died in Iraq he thought it was time for them to begin to come home.

Zero Tolerance for 'Anti-Semitic Crimes' in France

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy vowed "zero tolerance" for anti-Semitic crimes during a visit on Monday to a Jewish school targeted in a weekend acid attack. "When someone threatens a Jew, they threaten the Republic," Sarkozy said at the Sinai school in northern Paris. Attackers on Saturday threw three bottles of hydrochloric acid at a part of the school that serves as a synagogue. Worshippers were meeting in the room when one of the bottles of acid landed inside. Two others landed in a courtyard. There were no injuries.

'Crystal Night' 1938: The Great Anti-German Spectacle
Ingrid Weckert

German National Socialism basically regarded the Jews as non-German aliens who had proven themselves destructive to any nation that permitted them to dominate. Therefore, the only way to prevent further problems was to separate the Jews from the Germans. In other words, they had to emigrate. On this point the National Socialists and the Zionists were in full agreement. Although the Jews made up less than one percent of the total German population in 1933, they had power and influence in finance, business, cultural affairs and scientific life far out of proportion to their small numbers. Jewish influence was very widely regarded as harmful to German recovery after the First World War. No legal measures were taken against the Jews in Germany until after the international Jewish "Declaration of War" against Germany, as announced, for example, on the front page of the London Daily Express of 24 March 1933.

The Evangelical-Jewish Alliance
Donald Wagner

The pro-Israel lobby, in coordination with the Christian right, mobilized over 100,000 e-mail messages, calls and visits urging the president to avoid restraining Israel. The tactic worked. The president uttered not another word of criticism or caution, and Sharon continued the offensive. As Christian televangelist Jerry Falwell commented during an October interview on 60 Minutes: "I think now we can count on President Bush to do the right thing for Israel every time. Falwell spoke for a large number of Christian Zionists in the U.S., Christians who believe that the modern state of Israel is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy and so deserves unconditional political, financial and religious support. Christian Zionists work closely with religious and secular Jewish Zionist organizations and the Israeli government, particularly during periods when the more conservative Likud Party is in control of the Israeli Knesset (parliament).

Kevin Alfred Strom of National Vanguard interviews historian Mark Weber on the recent developments in the case of Ernst Zündel, the German-American artist and writer who has been subjected to a decades-long persecution because of his views on German history, Jewish power, and the history of World War II. ...he has been charged under the notorious Paragraph 130 of the German criminal code, which makes it a crime to deny the Holocaust as a form of so-called "popular incitement."

Two-Thirds Believe London Bombings Linked to Iraq War
Julian Glover

Two-thirds of Britons believe there is a link between Tony Blair's decision to invade Iraq and the London bombings despite government claims to the contrary, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today. The poll makes it clear that voters believe further attacks in Britain by suicide bombers are also inevitable, with 75% of those responding saying there will be more attacks. The research suggests the government is losing the battle to persuade people that terrorist attacks on the UK have not been made more likely by the invasion of Iraq.

US To Pay Israel a Quarter of a Million Dollars Per Settler
Charley Reese

The state of Israel – which, the last time I checked, was both a foreign and a sovereign nation – wants the American taxpayers to cough up $2.2 billion in addition to our regular $3 billion-or-so annual subsidy to pay for the withdrawal from Gaza.  Unless the American people raise hell about this, it's a done deal. In Washington, whatever Israel wants, Israel gets. Nevertheless, there are several reasons why the American people should rebel at the latest brazen attack on our treasury by Israel and its American supporters.  First, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided unilaterally to withdraw from Gaza. This was in lieu of following the president's peace plan, which Sharon has ignored from the very beginning. Where is it written, on stone or parchment or paper, that the head of a foreign government can decide to do something unilaterally and automatically send the bill to the American taxpayers? We will derive no benefits at all from the withdrawal.

Books Add to Demonization of Iran

Two new books in the US - Countdown to Terror and Countdown to Crisis - accuse an incompetent Central Intelligence Agency of failing to recognise the potentially catastrophic threat posed by Iran through what it alleges are close ties between Iran and the fugitive Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Serialised in the conservative media and popularised on talk-shows, the books have arrived in the midst of a rightwing campaign to demonise Iran - and expose the CIA - at the same time as the Bush administration is exploring ways of funding and backing Iranian opposition groups.In Countdown to Terror, Curt Weldon, a Pennsylvania republican congressman and vice-chairman of the House armed services committee, charges that Iran will carry out the next terror strike on the US, has a bomb that can kill more than 100,000 people, and is giving refuge to Mr bin Laden.

Wave of 'Anti-Semitic' Articles in Ukraine
Vladimir Matveyev

A new wave of anti-Semitic outbursts by public figures is surging in Ukraine. Last week, several newspapers of nationalist orientation published appeals by members of the Ukrainian Writers Union against the “Judaization” of the union and in favor of the expulsion of the group’s Jewish members. One of the newspapers published a call by the writers to convene an extraordinary congress of Ukrainian writers to destroy “the hotbed of the Elders of Zion” within the union. In a separate development, the head of the Ukrainian Book Chamber published an open letter calling for violence against Jews. The letter by Nikolai Senchenko was published by the newspaper...

Economic Treason
Paul Craig Roberts

What kind of country destroys the job market for its own citizens?  Readers have sent me employment listings from US software development firms. The listings are discriminatory against American citizens. One ad from a company in New Jersey that is a developer for many companies, including Oracle, specifies that the applicant must have a TN visa. A TN or Trade Nafta visa is what is given to Mexicans and Canadians, who are willing to work in the US at below prevailing wages. Another ad from a software consulting company based in Omaha, Nebraska, specifies it wants software engineers who are H-1B transferees. What this means is that the firm is advertising for foreigners already in the US who have H-1B work visas. The reason the US firms specify that they have employment opportunities only for foreigners who hold work visas is because the foreigners will work for less than the prevailing US salary.

Syrian Mosaic Inspired Image of England's Favorite Saint
Norman Hammond

The earliest known template for the image of St George slaying the dragon has been found in Syria, archaeologists believe. A mosaic floor dating from approximately AD260 depicting the figure who became the patron saint of England has been found in the city of Palmyra in the Syrian desert. Experts say that the portrait is one of the finest classical mosaics yet uncovered and may even be the source of the St George legend. George was reputedly a Roman soldier, martyred in Palestine some 1,700 years ago. The mosaic shows Bellerophon, a hero in Greek mythology, killing a chimera, and it was found in what appears to have been a dining room in Palmyra. The warrior is wearing a wide-rimmed Roman helmet with a red streamer and is flanked by two eagles bringing wreaths of victory.

Canadian Jewish Groups 'Happy' About Zundel Charges, Await Conviction

German prosecutors said Tuesday they have charged white supremacist Ernst Zundel with inciting racial hatred, four months after he was deported from Canada. German authorities accuse Zundel of decades of anti-Semitic activities, including repeated denials of the Holocaust - a crime in Germany - in documents and on the Internet. Zundel is "known internationally as a leader of the right-wing scene," prosecutors in the southwestern city of Mannheim said Tuesday in a statement listing 14 examples of alleged incitement. It was unclear when he might face a trial, which Jewish leaders hope will spread awareness of the Holocaust. Zundel was arrested in March on his arrival in Germany after a long legal battle, and remains in jail. He had been detained in Toronto since 2003 under anti-terrorism laws and deported after a Canadian judge ruled his activities a threat to national and international security. The Canadian Jewish Congress said it was glad to hear Zundel had been charged, but said justice will not be served fully until he is convicted.

Israeli Official: Wall to Ensure Jewish Majority

Israel's separation barrier in and around Jerusalem is meant to ensure a Jewish majority in the disputed city, a Cabinet minister acknowledged Monday, contradicting government claims that the divider is solely a temporary security measure. Israel's Cabinet on Sunday approved final details of the 40-mile Jerusalem barrier, which is halfway built and will eventually cut off some 55,000 Arab residents in four neighborhoods from their city, while including some 30,000 Jewish West Bank settlers on the Jerusalem side. Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser Al Kidwa on Monday urged more street protests of the barrier, saying Palestinians should organize for a "higher level of daily confrontations against the wall." Visiting EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the Jerusalem barrier raises humanitarian problems for Palestinians.

Housing Development Threatens History of Redcoat PoWs
Francis Harris

Relics of British military history buried at America's last prison camp for Redcoats is at risk from a proposed housing development. Camp Security held up to 2,000 British troops and Canadian militiamen taken prisoner after Saratoga and the Battle of Yorktown four years later. Campaigners say there is also a lost graveyard for hundreds of soldiers somewhere beneath the rolling countryside. Many of the troops' wives and children, held in a neighbouring prisoner-of- war camp called Indulgence, were among the victims of an epidemic of typhus, or camp fever, that struck in the final winter of the war. America's National Trust regards the area as so important that this year it elevated Camp Security to its list of the 10 most endangered historic sites in the country.

High Frequency Delousing Facilities at Auschwitz
Mark Weber

Typhus or "spotted fever" (German: Fleckfieber) is transmitted from one diseased person to another by lice infected with a micro-organism (Rickettsia prowazeki). Epidemic typhus flourishes among people in crowded living quarters, including ships, prisons, camps and ghettos, where poor sanitary conditions and bad hygiene prevail. During the First World War (1914-1918), and even more in the years immediately following, some 25-30 million people in Poland, Ukraine, Russia and the Baltic suffered from typhus, or about 20-23 percent of the total population, of whom several million perished. "At the close of World War I," the Encyclopaedia Britannica has noted, "the disease was prevalent in Poland, Russia and Rumania, where estimates of cases and deaths between 1919 and 1923 ran into millions. In World War II from these areas it spread again into western Europe and caused devastating epidemics among refugees and displaced persons, particularly in the German concentration camps."

Chinese General Threatens Nuclear War if US Aids Taiwan
Joseph Kahn

China should use nuclear weapons against the United States if the American military intervenes in any conflict over Taiwan, a senior Chinese military official said Thursday. "If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition on to the target zone on China's territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons," the official, Maj. Gen. Zhu Chenghu, said at an official briefing. General Zhu, considered a hawk, stressed that his comments reflected his personal views and not official policy. Beijing has long insisted that it will not initiate the use of nuclear weapons in any conflict. But in extensive comments to a visiting delegation of correspondents based in Hong Kong, General Zhu said he believed that the Chinese government was under internal pressure to change its "no first use" policy and to make clear that it would employ the most powerful weapons at its disposal to defend its claim over Taiwan.

Kabbalah Water Is All Wet As A Cure
Jeannette Walls

What do Madonna and Katherine Harris have in common? They both — it seems — have turned to the healing powers of Kabbalah water. Harris, Florida’s former Secretary of State, who sparked worldwide controversy when she stepped into the 2000 elections and helped George Bush win, oversaw a program in which some diseased trees in Florida were treated with water provided by associates of the trendy Kabbalah Centre. The cure didn’t take. Bottled Kabbalah water is a favorite of celebs such as Madonna, Ashton Kutcher and Britney Spears. Some leaders of the controversial Kabbalah Centre reportedly claim that the drink has the power to heal diseases such as cancer and AIDS, but skeptics say it’s simply bottled H20 that’s been blessed. Under a program promoted by Harris, a rabbi and a cardiologist worked with researchers to test “Celestial Drops” on canker-infested orange trees in 2001, according to the Orlando Sentinel, which went on to quote a state scientist as declaring that the “product is a hoax and not based on any credible science.” The product, it turned out, was merely water. What’s more, the scientist declared, “the traits attributed to so-called Kabbalah water — ‘elegant crystalline structures’ and ‘high energy and low entropy’ — are virtually identical to those of Celestial Drops.” When asked if the product was actually Kabbalah water, one of the suppliers told the paper. “I can't really give you that information.”

Why the Goyim?
L. A. Rollins

And the Bible is not the only Jewish source in which Jewish chosenness has meant superiority or privilege. In "Meta-Myth: The Diaspora and Israel," Rabbi Jacob B. Agus has written: It is axiomatic in Kabbalistic writings that the higher souls of Jewish people are derived from the divine pleroma -- the realm of Sefirot -- whereas the souls of all other nations are derived from the "shells." Before Adam sinned, he possessed the higher soul; after his sin, only his animal soul remained. Thereafter, the divine soul comes only to those who are preoccupied with Torah, entering the body of the Jewish male at age 13 (Zohar Hodosh, Bereshit 18b-19a, Midrash Hane'elam). (Etan Levine [ed.], Diaspora: Exile and the Jewish Condition [New York: Jason Aronson, 1983], p. 139.) So much for Prager and Telushkins' insistence (p. 203) that, historically, "The Jews saw their superiority as an existential fact, not a theological premise ..."

Billions for Israel
Lou Dobbs & Lisa Sylvester

Why is a nation of only six and a half million people receiving more US aid than any other country in the entire world? And why is that country asking for even more US cash? Two billion dollars, in fact. Even though it's one of the world's richest countries?  ... This is on top of the committment the United States made last week to help the G-8 fund a $3 billion dollar aid package to the Palestinians. A lot of promises as the United States faces a record budget deficit.

Downoad the Video clip of the CNN Broadcast here (9.07 MB)

Hitler's Drawings Up For Auction In Montreal

Montreal auctioneer has put four sketches by Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler up for sale, sparking outrage and condemnation in Canada's Jewish community. Iegor de Saint Hippolyte said the private auction, which also includes two Christmas messages from the Nazi leader, would take place on July 19 and last only for a few minutes. He said the current owner of the six pieces wishes to remain anonymous, and he declined to say how much he expected the sale to bring. Asked about the morality of selling articles by and from Hitler, he said: "I am simply doing my duty, which is to transmit history to other people and to preserve objects that are important for humanity."

Abramoff Associates Flee to Israel, Evading Possible Charges
Josephine Hearn

Two former associates of Jack Abramoff, the embattled lobbyist, left the country Monday night en route to a new life in Israel. The relocation comes as a Justice Department taskforce presses forward with an investigation into potential criminal wrongdoing stemming from Abramoff’s business dealings. Abramoff and public affairs consultant Michael Scanlon are the target of the Justice Department probe and two Senate investigations into allegations that they bilked tribes out of more than $60 million. A federal grand jury has been convened to consider possible criminal charges in the matter. Like Abramoff, Hook and Tesler are both Orthodox Jews. They have been planning for some time to move their family to Israel, said their attorney Alyza Lewin at Lewin & Lewin. “Pursuant to longstanding plans that predate any investigation, Shana Tesler and Sam Hook have relocated to Israel…One thing had nothing to do with the other,” Lewin said.

The West, War, and Islam
Ernst Zundel

The West's mainstream media are controlled by a small group of unscrupulous men who know exactly what they are doing, and who will stop at nothing in order to attain their often criminal and murderous ends. This same group of media manipulators and its predecessors broadcast and published anti-German propaganda in both world wars and included the Japanese as victims and targets of their hate campaigns in the Second World War. These men are brainwashing experts. On their account, millions of Westerners, who had never met a German or Japanese, were inflamed with murderous hatred - sufficiently so that they killed millions of persons who might otherwise have been their customers and friends. If it can be done against Germans and Japanese, it can be done against the Islamic peoples - and it is being done since 1947 against the Palestinians and Israel's neighbors.

To write a letter to Ernst Zundel, he can be reached at:

London: Not Exactly the Blitz

During the whole of World War II, about 30,000 Londoners were killed by German bombs and three-quarters of a million lost their homes. Then, between 1971 and 2001, London was the target of 116 bombs set by various factions of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), although they only killed 50 people and injured around 1,000. And not once during all those bombs did people in London think that they were being attacked because of their values and their way of life. It was quite clear to them that they were being attacked because of British policies abroad, or the policies of Britain's friends and allies. The people who organised the bombs wanted Britain out of World War II, or British troops out of Northern Ireland, or the British army out of the Middle East (or maybe, in this instance, the whole G-8 to leave the rest of the world alone). Nasty things, bombs, but those who send them your way are usually rational people with rational goals, and they almost never care about your values or your way of life.

Canadian 'Justice' Minister Claims Racist Websites Promote Terrorism, Cites Zundel
Sue Bailey

Mr. Cotler says the new protocol means law enforcers can pool efforts internationally to prosecute Internet racists and shut down their sites. He cites a connection between terrorist attacks and an increase in the past decade of sites used to swap tips on everything from exterminating whole ethnic groups to building bombs. "Incitement to hatred can itself be a connecting link to terrorism," he said. "And in some instances, it's the most proximate cause of terrorism itself." Canada, which signed the Convention on Cybercrime in November of 2001, joins 28 other countries in supporting its first additional protocol to fight Internet racism.

Israel Requests Additional $2.2 Billion

One third of the sum, officials say, will go towards the relocation of Israeli military bases. Washington has already agreed to provide the aid in principle. But reports say that the amount is much bigger than previous estimates of about $500m. An Israeli delegation led by the head of the Israeli prime minister's office, Ilan Cohen, is in Washington for meetings with US officials. The US team is expected to be led by Elliot Abrams, the deputy National Security Adviser. Israel is the world's largest recipient of American aid, receiving an estimated $3bn annually.

Lithuanian Paper Fined For Saying Jews Rule America, World
Joshua Ellison

In an editorial published last year, entitled "Who Rules the World?," Tomkus warned readers to be suspicious of America, because it, "is ruled by Jews." He added that "Jews use the issue of the Holocaust to conceal their own crimes." In a letter to the Lithuanian ambassador from New Jersey Senator Steve Rothman, signed by 19 other congressman, the Senator warns: "[P]rejudice against Jews and gays will only threaten the stability of trans-Atlantic relations between Lithuania and the United States and potentially slow the progress of the Republic of Lithuania's integration into European institutions."

Holocaust Revisionists Take on Mideast Policy
Jennifer Spiegel

The leading Holocaust revisionist group in America is set to go on the offensive this month with a meeting in New York to discuss the "Jewish-Zionist role in fomenting war in the Middle East" and a protest in Los Angeles at the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The protest at the Wiesenthal Center, slated for July 29, is being billed on the group's Web site as a "rally for justice and peace." The group is charging the Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish organization dedicated to Holocaust education and human rights work, with a "record of deceit and lies in support of war, Zionist oppression and Jewish supremacism." In recent years, the Newport Beach, Calif.-based institute has applied its vehement criticism of Jews to current debates over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and America's Middle East policy. In the spring of 2004, the organization placed an ad for Roger Garaudy's book, "The Founding Myths of Modern Israel," in the liberal weekly The Nation, which then rejected the rest of the ordered ads after criticism from Jewish communal leaders.

The Reality Of This Barbaric Bombing
Robert Fisk

...it's no use Mr Blair telling us yesterday that "they will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear". "They" are not trying to destroy "what we hold dear". They are trying to get public opinion to force Blair to withdraw from Iraq, from his alliance with the United States, and from his adherence to Bush's policies in the Middle East. The Spanish paid the price for their support for Bush - and Spain's subsequent retreat from Iraq proved that the Madrid bombings achieved their objectives - while the Australians were made to suffer in Bali. It is easy for Tony Blair to call yesterdays bombings "barbaric" - of course they were - but what were the civilian deaths of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq in 2003, the children torn apart by cluster bombs, the countless innocent Iraqis gunned down at American military checkpoints? When they die, it is "collateral damage"; when "we" die, it is "barbaric terrorism". If we are fighting insurgency in Iraq, what makes us believe insurgency won't come to us? One thing is certain: if Tony Blair really believes that by "fighting terrorism" in Iraq we could more efficiently protect Britain - fight them there rather than let them come here, as Bush constantly says - this argument is no longer valid.

Learning from the September 11 Attacks
Mark Weber

President George W. Bush said on national television that "America was targeted for attack because we're the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world." The next day he said that "freedom and democracy are under attack," and that the perpetrators had struck against "all freedom-loving people everywhere in the world." But if "democracy" and "freedom-loving people" are the targets, why isn't anyone attacking Switzerland, Japan or Norway? Bush's claims are just as untrue as President Wilson's World War I declaration that the United States was fighting to "make the world safe for democracy," and President Roosevelt's World War II assurances that the U.S. was fighting for "freedom" and "democracy." In the wake of the September 11 attacks, speculation has been rife about who the perpetrators may have been. That itself is an acknowledgment that so many people hate this country so intensely that one cannot easily determine just who may have mounted these well-organized attacks of suicidal desperation.

Italy to Pull Troops Out of Iraq

"We will begin withdrawing 300 men in the month of September," Mr. Berlusconi said at the G-8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. But he added the decision would depend on security conditions on the ground and could change. In recent months, Italian officials have gone back and forth on when a withdrawal might begin. Berlusconi said September was a possibility, but Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini then talked of early 2006. Relations between Washington and Rome have been strained in recent months — first by the killing of an Italian agent by American soldiers in Iraq and then arrest warrants issued by an Italian court accusing 13 purported CIA operatives of kidnapping a militant Egyptian cleric from Italy and sending him to Egypt, where he was reportedly tortured.

Teachers Learn How to Teach the 'Holocaust'
David B. Caruso

To become better versed in her subject matter, Watkin joined about 30 other educators from 11 states, plus Croatia, Lithuania and Poland, at a five-day program on the Holocaust at Columbia University last week. It was sponsored by the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, which began in 2000 to bring schoolteachers from around the country to seminars with top historians as part of a campaign to improve teaching about Holocaust. "More often than not, you'll find that students are introduced to the Holocaust by an English teacher who wants them to read Anne Frank's diary," said the foundation's executive vice president, Stanlee J. Stahl. "We did this because we discovered that teachers did not know the history," she said. Established in 1986, the foundation's primary mission is to provide financial aid to non-Jews who risked arrest and possible execution to rescue Jews during World War II. It offers care to about 1,500 surviving rescuers around the globe. But last week, it offered teachers lectures on the development of the Nazi regime, refugee policies, life under German occupation, the role of industry in the Holocaust, the efforts of rescuers and the machinery of the system that killed 6 million Jews.

German Garbage Collectors Receive 'Art Appreciation' Training After Trashing Sculpture

A German museum is offering art appreciation lessons to Frankfurt's sanitation workers, after garbage collectors lugged away a public art sculpture recently and sent it to the incinerator. Peter Postleb, head of the city's Clean Frankfurt initiative, claimed responsibility Monday for the case of mistaken identity, after garbage collectors picked up and disposed of what they thought to be construction rubbish. Though indeed made from yellow plastic sheeting used to encase cement, the item was actually a sculpture by Berlin artist Michael Beutler. Starting Sunday, the Städel Museum, at which Beutler studied, will begin monthly Check Your Art Sense! classes, at which the city's garbage collectors can learn about understanding and appreciating art.

Will the US Continue Letting Israel Sell Its Weapon Technology?
Mounzer Sleiman

The ability to counter these American systems came from the Israelis, who had access to the technologies of these systems. And, these technology transfers were in direct contradiction of the Missile Technology Control Regime. The Chinese YJ-9 is not the only missile to benefit from Israeli sales. The Chinese HQ-9 Medium Range Surface to Air Missile also has technology from the American Patriot Missile System. The technology came to the Chinese via the Israelis who received it supposedly for development of their Arrow Anti-ballistic Missile. It not only makes Chinese SAMs more effective, but renders Chinese ballistic missiles harder to intercept since they know the strengths and weaknesses of a major anti-ballistic missile system. Israeli missile technology sales are not limited to these. Tel Aviv has purportedly licensed the production of its short range Python air-to-air missile. As a result of this help, China's missile industry is commonly known as, "an island of excellence". This is a dramatic development considering that just 30 years ago China did not have any indigenous missile technology base to speak of. Now they are a major supplier of missiles around the world. But, sales alone are not the only threat posed by China. The country is rapidly gaining the ability to project power far beyond its borders and much of that technology is coming from Israel. 

Mass Expulsion of Germans Recalled

Since Poland joined the EU last year such encounters between elderly Germans and elderly Poles are increasingly common. They are mainly about nostalgia, but also about politics. Mrs Witzke is one of about 15 million ethnic Germans who were forced to flee at the end of the second world war as the Third Reich crumbled. The Vertriebene, or the expelled, were driven out of swaths of eastern and central Europe - east and west Prussia, Sudetenland, Königsberg, Memel - now in Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia and Lithuania respectively. Not everybody returned to the new, smaller Germany. Three million died on the way. Ever since, many Vertriebene have nurtured a resentment that their suffering has never been fully recognised in contrast, so the unspoken argument runs, to the postwar Germany's atonement for the Holocaust.

China Aims Spy Network At Trade Secrets in Europe

A network of Chinese industrial spies has been established across Europe as the Communist government's intelligence agencies shift their resources and attention from traditional Cold War espionage towards new forms of subterfuge aimed at achieving global commercial dominance. The extent of the spying was laid bare after a leading Chinese agent "defected" in Belgium. The agent, who has worked in European universities and companies for more than 10 years, has given the Sûreté de l'Etat, the Belgian equivalent of MI5, detailed information on hundreds of Chinese spies working at various levels of European industry.

A Defeat Bred in Deceit

General Casey’s and Secretary Rumsfeld’s remarks make it clear that the Defense Department has given up the prospect of military victory: The situation in Iraq, Gen. Casey said, “will ultimately be settled by negotiation and inclusion in the political process.” Rumsfeld says the US troops are being killed and maimed in order to “create an environment that the Iraqi people and the Iraqi security forces can win against that insurgency.” After three years of fighting, Rumsfeld still doesn’t understand that the Iraqi people are the insurgency. Is Rumsfeld still clinging to the myth that the insurgency is an outside element injected into Iraq? When will the moronic Bush administration realize that it is creating the environment in which the insurgency is prevailing?

Evangelical Christians Review Middle East Policy

In recent weeks, key members of the National Association of Evangelicals, a loose federation of 52 denominations with 30 million followers, have been pushing for an internal process that would culminate with an official position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Those behind the push favor a resolution that would, in addition to strongly supporting Israel and its well-being, recognize the rights of Palestinians and call for a two-state solution. Those evangelicals pushing for an official policy say that they are responding to unconditionally pro-Israel comments attributed to the association's president, the Rev. Ted Haggard, during his recent trip to Israel. After a May 10 meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Sharon, Haggard was quoted in The Jerusalem Post as saying that his organization's official policy was to support Israel "come hell or high water" and that he and his fellow evangelicals believe that Sharon was chosen by God to lead Israel in this difficult time in history.

Why Do Mass-Murdering Commies Get Good Press?
Boris Johnson

Cycling through London, I check out the words on people's T-shirts, and I was amused the other day to see the letters CCCP on someone's chest. Yup, folks, that's what the fashion-conscious British youth is wearing, a celebration of the great doomed Soviet experiment of 1917-90. Remind me: who was the greater mass murderer, Stalin or Hitler? Well, Stalin is thought to have been responsible for about 50 million deaths, and Hitler for a mere 25 million. What Hitler did in his concentration camps was equalled if not exceeded in foulness by the Soviet gulags, forced starvation and pogroms. What makes the achievements of communist Russia so special and different, that you can simper around in a CCCP T-shirt, while anyone demented enough to wear anything commemorating the Third Reich would be speedily banged away under the 1986 Public Order Act?

First Amendment Furor - Dershowitz vs. Finkelstein

Some books are destined to set off controversy. The University of California Press has such a volume in Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History, slated for release in August. The book argues that supporters of Israel prevent human rights abuses by that country from getting the attention they deserve, in part by calling those who raise such issues anti-Semites. That thesis would be controversial from most authors, but the book in question is by Norman G. Finkelstein, a political scientist at DePaul University who has enraged Jewish groups by questioning the role of the Holocaust and with consistently harsh criticism of Israel.