Vision of Albion

Les 10 faux pas des hommes

2011-11-26T04:09:00.000-08:00

Les hommes veulent bien faire, mais en mode, malgré la bonne volonté globalement affichée, quelques fashion faux pas sont toujours à épingler. Voilàa les plus communs. Que les hommes prennent des notes, s'ils désirent être au top de la mode !

Les chaussettes dans les sandales : Certains vous diront que c'est parce qu'il fait froid. Mais s'il fait froid, autant mettre des chaussures. A ceux qui enfilent des chaussettes dans leurs sandales à la plage, qu'ils sachent que le sable dans les chaussettes est parfaitement inconfortable. Les voila punis par le bon Dieu pour ce terrible faux pas fashion.

Ne pas raser les zones difficiles : Les hommes qui sont perpétuellement en retard le matin laissent des poils dans les endroits difficiles. Ce n'est pas très sexy. Il faut prendre son temps pour atteindre tous les creux compliqués.

Afficher des marques : Certains hommes ressemblent à des publicités ambulantes tant ils portent de logos, de marques, des inscriptions sur leurs fringues.

Porter des chaussures de course hors de la salle de gym : Les tenues de sport ne devraient jamais être considérées comme une tenue acceptable pour la ville. Porter des baskets de course alors qu'on ne court pas n'est pas admis. On sait que vous avez sué dedans et ce n'est pas très ragoûtant. En plus, les baskets pour le sport sont loin d'être jolies. Efficaces, certes, mais jolies, non.

Le sac à dos : Quand l'homme est étudiant, le sac à dos est acceptable. Une fois qu'il a décroché un vrai job, celui qui garde son sac à dos est toujours considéré comme un gamin. Messieurs, si vous avez remplacé le T-shirt par une chemise, il s'agit de troquer votre accessoire d'ado contre une malette d'adulte. C'est comme ça que ça marche. Gardez le sac à dos pour le camping.

Ne pas assortir chaussures et vêtements : On évite les chaussures brunes avec le pantalon noir, merci.

Porter des vêtements trop amples : Pour une silhouette flatteuse, il faut porter des fringues à sa taille, c'est aussi simple que ça. Les T-shirt trop larges, les chemises mal coupées ne devraient pas se trouver dans votre garde-robe.

Le portefeuille dans la poche arrière du pantalon : Rien de tel pour déformer vos poches : le portefeuille à l'arrière, les clés devant, le téléphone portable de l'autre côté... Certains hommes ont assez de virilité pour porter un sac sans être ridicules. Les autres peuvent toujours porter une veste avec des poches à l'intérieur suffisamment grandes pour y caser tout ce qu'il faut.

Mal boutonner son veston : Un veston n'est pas une veste : on doit le boutonner correctement. Sur un veston avec deux boutons, fermer le bouton du haut, avec un vestion trois boutons, vous avez le choix : soit vous fermez les deux boutons du haut, soit vous fermez seulement celui du milieu. Peu importe le veston que vous portez : déboutonnez-le systématiquement quand vous vous asseyez.

Les chaussettes blanches dans des chaussures habillées : Les chaussettes blanches avaient la cote dans les années 90. Aujourd'hui, on se dit qu'elles devraient tout simplement être retirées de la vente. Les chaussures de ville se portent avec des chaussettes en coton fin, dans des teintes sombres. Sans discussion possible.

New Revelation about 9/11 - The Iranian and Hezbullah Connection

2011-09-11T06:42:00.000-07:00

In July of 2004, members of the National Commission established to look into the September 11 attacks were facing immense pressure. The target date for submitting the report the whole of America was waiting for had passed, and commission members were given a 60-day extension that was also about to expire. However, eight days before the final submission date, some commission members received word of new information; a real intelligence time bomb.

Commission members didn’t know what to do. On one hand, a whole new lead emerged; yet on the other hand, nobody could process this huge amount of information within days. At the end of the day, the commission chose a solution that turned out to be the worst of all: It crammed some of the information into three pages (pp. 240-242 in the report) written hectically, ignored most of the information, and in fact left the big question open.

As it turned out, the prominent building housing the National Security Agency’s headquarters in Fort Meade includes a particularly interesting room. In this room, the NSA accumulated tens of thousands of conversation records pertaining to one subject: The ties between Iran’s intelligence service and al-Qaeda from the 1990s to the eve of the 9/11 attacks. The piles of information included 75 intelligence documents characterized as critical to understanding the relationship between Tehran and al-Qaeda.

At the end of the day, the commission noted in its report that the issue deserves further scrutiny by the US Administration. However, such examination was not undertaken and may have never materialized. Indeed, this entire affair may have remained buried in the three abovementioned pages, had it not been for one brave woman: Ellen Saracini.

Saracini is not an intelligence analyst or counter-terrorism expert. She is the widow of pilot victor Saracini, the captain of the Boeing jet that took off from Boston aboard United flight 175, which was crashed into the southern tower. However, Ellen was unwilling to see the death of her husband and father of her two daughters end with yet another line in the commission’s report; she decided to seek justice on her own.

Saracini approached attorney Thomas Mellon, who specializes in lawsuits against large corporations. Mellon’s team members launched an investigation. They met potential witnesses, interviewed intelligence officials, CIA agents, Iranian defectors, a French judge and others. They even reached Israel in their search (in the interest of full disclosure, the writer of this article was also summoned to testify in the trial, as one of nine expert witnesses.)

The investigation kept progressing, diving deep into the dark corners of the global world of intelligence and terrorism. Ten years later, Mellon and his team are convinced that they possess the “smoking gun” that will tie Iran to the September 11 attacks.

The legal team drafted a huge lawsuit, recently submitted to the Manhattan District Court. What hides inside it is far from being routine. The lawsuit is premised on a dramatic charge: The responsibility for the 9/11 attacks lies not only with al-Qaeda, but also with Iran and Hezbollah, based on what attorneys say is clear, unequivocal evidence.

The case has far-reaching implications, which explain why the US government is not eager to look into the conversation records in the abovementioned NSA room. A ruling that Iran is linked to the attacks would pose a tough test to Administration officials: On the one hand, they would not be able to ignore such verdict. Yet on the other hand, what exactly will they do with it? Will they attack Iran, just as they invaded Afghanistan and Iraq?

The Sudan connection

The huge amount of evidence included in the lawsuit comes together to form a fascinating charge: Starting in the 1990s, Iran and Hezbollah helped Osama Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri create a new terror organization from scratch, to be headed by Afghanistan veterans and members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Iran trained group members, equipped them with advanced technological means, enabled them to move freely and provided them with plenty of terror-related expertise and experience accumulated by Hezbollah in its operations against Israel and the United States.

Later, according to the lawsuit, Iran assisted in the preparations ahead of September 11. Should Mellon and his team prove all of the above, everything we thought we knew about the terror offensive will change forever.

According to the lawsuit, the relationship between Iran and al-Qaeda was initiated in the early 1990s in Sudan. At the time, Sudan turned into the world’s second state, after Iran, to be ruled by radical Islam.

According to the testimonies of senior CIA officials, Iran’s President Rafsanjani, Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian and Revolutionary Guards Chief Mohsen Rezai visited Sudan. They were accompanied by a figure well-known to Israel’s intelligence services: Imad Mugniyah, the head of Hezbollah’s military wing (Mugniyah was assassinated in February of 2008 in an operation attributed to Israel.) All participants in the meeting pledged to assist the Sudanese regime and join forces with it in supporting other jihadist movements in the Middle East.

When it turned out that Sudan was emerging as a new terrorism theater, Israel’s intelligence agencies started to deploy human and electronic resources there. The file on developments in Sudan until 1996 is known in Israel as “Blue Smurfs” and contains a treasure trove of information about the seed that later became Global Jihad.

When Saracini’s attorneys sought the Israeli government’s assistance in receiving the Blue Smurfs file, they were told the information was acquired in cooperation with a foreign party, and that this information can only be shared with this party’s approval. Such authorization has not been given to this day.

What we are allowed to reveal here is that Israel’s intelligence officials identified at the time tight relations between radical Islamic terrorists in Egypt and Department 15 in Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. Notably, Department 15 is tasked with exporting the Islamic revolution to other Arab states.

Israel was also able to identify a prominent terror leader in Sudan. His name was Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian jihadist who served a prison term for his role in President Anwar Sadat’s assassination. Year later, Zawahiri’s name became known worldwide; he turned into al-Qaeda’s chief strategist, Bin Laden’s deputy and successor, and a man with a $25 million price tag on his head, courtesy of the FBI.

In April of 1991, Zawahiri secretly visited Iran and sought Iranian assistance for a Cairo revolution. The parties agreed on Iranian support for Zawahiri’s organization in the form of money and training. The terror leader sent many of his men to train in Iranian camps, mostly under the guidance of Lebanese Hezbollah members led by Imad Mugniyah.

During his visit to Iran, al-Zawahiri was convinced of the immense power of a suicide attack as an effective modus operandi. Years later he realized that if a suicide bomber is effective, a terrorist who crashes a Boeing aircraft into a tower would be much more effective.

Discovering Osama

Following further efforts, it turned out that an even bigger group of Muslim radicals was operating in Sudan alongside Zawahiri and his men. Some of them were veterans of the guerilla war initiated by America in Afghanistan against the Russian invasion in the 1980s.

Yet who was the leader of these Afghanistan veterans? How did he operate? Where was he getting his funding? Israel’s intelligence effort continued, and the name of a Saudi contractor who was expelled from his country started to surface, with his real estate work being used as cover for secret terror activity. The contractor’s name started to appear in intelligence reports: Osama Bin Laden. One of his construction companies was known as al-Qaeda (“The Base” in Arabic.)

Israel’s intelligence services discovered that Bin Laden joined forces with Zawahiri. During this period, the two grew much closer, with Zawahiri (a surgeon by training) also becoming Bin Laden’s personal physician. The new friendship prompted Bin Laden to send some of his senior aides for training in Tehran and in Hezbollah camps in Lebanon. The infrastructure for al-Qaeda’s establishment was now ready.

In 1998, an Egyptian-born US Marine called Ali Mohammed was detained on suspicion of involvement in blowing up America’s embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. In his testimony he confessed that in 1989 he traveled to Afghanistan and joined Islamic Jihad and Bin Laden. Mohammed said he trained al-Qaeda terrorists on using explosives as well as on intelligence-gathering techniques to be used in attacks on US targets.

Mohammed also testified that he personally handled security arrangements for a Sudan meeting between Hezbollah’s Mugniyah and Bin Laden. Following these meetings, Hezbollah provided al-Qaeda and Islamic Jihad with explosives training. Iran also used Hezbollah in order to provide explosive materials designed to resemble rocks. Israeli veterans of the Lebanon wars are well familiar with these bombs.

Mohammed testified that many of the training sessions were held in an Iranian camp run by the Intelligence Ministry. Based on information from the Blue Smurfs file, which was discovered in the NSA basement, the National Commission ruled that senior al-Qaeda members received training and advice from Hezbollah while in Sudan. These are important testimonies for Ellen Saracini. If Hezbollah equals Iran, and Bin Laden’s men were trained by Hezbollah, there is a basis to the charge about an Iran-al-Qaeda link.

The jihadist group identified in Sudan maintained close ties with Afghanistan veterans worldwide and tirelessly worked to form global networks and connections. “We felt that something very big was brewing there; something very different than anything we’ve seen before,” an Israeli intelligence official said. “This was not about a state dispatching terrorists, but rather, about an organization that seemingly created itself.” A short while later, a special intelligence desk was formed in Israel to deal with the subject. Indeed, the IDF Intelligence Branch and Mossad were the first to recognize the danger.

First burning tower

June 25, 1996. Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. A huge explosion shakes the Khobar Towers in this important oil city. Nineteen US troops are killed and some 500 are wounded. Perhaps this is where the 9/11 terrorists learned about the major effect of blowing up a tower. Officially, the perpetrators of this attack have not been identified to this day.

Yet the current trial includes testimony by then-FBI Director Louis Freeh, who asserts that the attack was an Iranian initiative carried out by Hezbollah in conjunction with al-Qaeda. Senior CIA officials said that the NSA possesses intercepted Bin Laden conversations that prove a direct link to the attack. Attorneys will be using this evidence in the trial to show that Iran was in the picture at the early stages of establishing al-Qaeda.

Mellon’s team elicited thousands of documents showing how Iran assisted al-Qaeda in becoming an effective, lethal terror group throughout the 1990s. According to US law, this would be enough to find Iranian authorities culpable and there would be no need to prove direct involvement in 9/11. However, Mellon’s team decided not to take any risks and to present the court with evidence which they say proves Tehran’s direct involvement in the terror attacks.

Early in the 9/11 commission’s work, it turned out that the issue of traveling and visas was a major component in the affair. According to the documents submitted to the court, an immense operation was managed prior to September 11 in order to facilitate the many trips required by the operation.

The reason is clear: Only a well-oiled arrangement of flights and secret border crossings could have enabled the terrorists to enter and exit the US and go to Afghanistan. Anyone who ever tried to get a US visa knows this is no simple matter. A passport stamp of a state on America’s list of terror-sponsors immediately turns one into a suspect.

So how did the 19 terrorists manage to enter the US after all? How could it be that US immigration officials in Germany and Saudi Arabia suspected nothing? The answer to these questions remained unknown, until the treasure trove was discovered at the NSA basement. As it turned out, many of the terrorists headed from Afghanistan to Iran, with Iranian officials ordering border control officers not to stamp these passports. The other terrorists passed through Beirut in their many trips, where Hezbollah officials similarly cared for them.

Mellon’s team hopes that this is where the “smoking gun” can be found, proving a direct link between Iran and 9/11. If Iran did not know about the attacks and was not involved in them, why did it keep its stamps off the terrorists’ passports?

Yet that’s not all. The intelligence information submitted to the court includes yet another “smoking gun”: In some of the flights, the terrorists were accompanied by figures whose names were identical to the aliases used by former Hezbollah “army chief” Imad Mugniyah and some of his close aides. This would be hard to dismiss as an “odd coincidence.”

The Iranian defectors

The materials gathered for the trial include three rare testimonies by three Iranian intelligence establishment defectors. They have been marked as witnesses X, Y and Z. Their videotaped testimonies offer a profound peek into the depths of the kingdom of evil. For long hours they recount their childhood and adolescence in Tehran and how they were hired for the prestigious posts in Iran’s spy agencies. Then, they start talking about the ties between Iran, Hezbollah and al-Qaeda.

Witness X testifies about Iran’s advance knowledge of the plan to crash passenger airliners into strategic targets in Washington and New York. He testifies that he was present at training facilities for Sunni terrorists in Iran and adds many details about the way Iran’s intelligence service utilizes legitimate Iranian organizations such as its airline and shipping company for terror aims.

Witness Y testifies about Imad Mugniyah’s personal involvement in training the September 11 hijackers and the shelter granted by Iran to al-Qaeda’s men after the attacks. Meanwhile, witness Z says that he was present in a series of meetings in Tehran involving senior al-Qaeda men, local intelligence officials and Mugniyah’s men in the months before the 9/11 attacks.

Following the attacks, many senior al-Qaeda men found shelter in Iran. Tehran denied their presence for some time and later admitted that hundreds of al-Qaeda members are in the country and are under “house arrest.” For the time being, Iranian authorities have not responded to the lawsuit, and as happened in many cases, the judges may hand down their decision in the presence of one side only. The court could order compensation funds to be taken from frozen Iranian accounts.

This month, Ellen Saracini marks the 10th anniversary of the 9/11attacks. Saracini, who is closely accompanied by two lawyers who invested a special effort in the investigation, Tom Mellon and Timothy Fleming, is working days and nights in promoting the lawsuit against Iran and in commemorating the 9/11 victims. She says that the families who filed the lawsuit have one objective in mind: “Preventing these barbarians from committing further attacks against the United States and further attacks against humanity.”

Source:

Ynet

The Foreign Policy Problem

2011-09-04T08:32:00.000-07:00

A famous Turkish proverb expresses similarities between relationship and a string – when a string is cut, it says, there is always a possibility to tie it again, but connecting both ends of the thread gives no option to avoid the knot. If that is the path Turkey chooses to take when it comes to Israel, Israel is in big trouble. But Turkey will not gain too much from the conflict either.

The Mavi Marmara affair was grasped as “The 9/11 of Israeli- Turkish relations,” a term used for manifesting the shock coming from Ankara after the incident. Despite all precautions, the Turks never dreamed the result of the flotilla would occur as they did.

The death of nine Turkish citizens from IDF-fire was taken as if it was a declaration of war. They were furious and made the Marmara incident a dead end for relations with Israel, unless the latter bowed down and apologized.

In addition, the Turks complained about extensive leaks of information in Israel (e.g. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s initial decision to apologize). Israel should have more carefully observed the importance the Turks attributed to the incident and its effect on bilateral ties. Israel should have also kept in mind two main things:

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and the AKP government are just part of the problem. Turkish society must be taken into consideration as well.

The responses following the Marmara raid were similar in all segments of Turkish society, creating a growing wave of criticism against Israel. True, AKP’s 2011 elections campaign was “Hedef 2023,” (Aim: 2023. Erdogan believes his government will still be ruling when the Turkish Republic celebrates its 100th anniversary) but no one can guarantee that of course. How can Israel bring back the Turks’ alliance as well as friendship on the day after Erdogan?

In the unusual diplomacy of the Middle East, especially when Israel can look at the great Turkish example, why does Jerusalem ignore the art of pragmatism? Why haven’t we learned from Erdogan how to negotiate and twist reality to satisfy our own needs and interests? Some believe that especially in this region, apologizing means humiliation, submission and a blow to “national pride.” But following the Turks, their famous pragmatism anchored in their days as an empire, did them only good. Why would Israel be interested in making it easier on Erdogan, who already called to lower the level of diplomatic relations in the past? Why should Israel give up on the staggering $2.6 billion the two nations exchange in trade every year? Why fall into the trap of Erdogan instead of learning from his tactic strategy? Israel must play a new, sharp, calculated game of diplomacy and let Turkey act first.

Israelmight emerge as the greater loser here, but Turkey will not carry the day either. Domestic criticism accompanied by heated rhetoric, coming especially from the opposition leading party CHP, on AKP’s decision, claiming that Erdogan’s “zero problem policy” does not prove itself on one hand, and the price, on the other hand, is just too high.

Turkey’s need for special military equipment required for combating the terrorist organization PKK, produced and made in Israel is a concern for Turkey, as well as losing trade and other options. Turkey’s current problems with Syria and the heated declarations against Turkey coming from Ahmadinejad, do not make the “zero problem policy” more relevant to this region.

Since AKP took control in Turkey, it has been trying to persuade the world, especially the West, that being at the same time a democratic and Muslim country is possible, Turkey has no tendencies of becoming “a second Iran” and that it can mediate between East and West. After downgrading the ties and threatening Israel with “extra measures,” Turkey will have to work harder on proving its “balanced policy” to us all.

Source:

Dr. Efrat Aviv

The Game Blame

2011-08-21T00:53:00.000-07:00

Egypt accuses Israel of not doing enough to keep the border safe; it hints at its intention to recall its ambassador from Tel Aviv to protest the casualties suffered in the course of Thursday’s terrorist attack on the road to Eilat.

Indeed a sorry attempt by the Supreme Military Council, which has been ruling Egypt since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, to cover its failure to keep the peace in Sinai by throwing the blame on someone else – Israel of course – in a time honored Egyptian practice. It would have been too much to expect from the country whence the terrorists who carried out the attack came to say: “We are sorry; let us jointly investigate what happened so that it never happens again.”

A bare week ago, retired Egyptian generals were accusing that same Supreme Military Council of dangerously neglecting the situation in the Sinai Peninsula. They told the press that Egypt no longer controlled the area and that a state of emergency had to be declared immediately in Sinai in order to impose a curfew and facilitate the necessary steps by the army. What is happening in Sinai, said one of them, has crossed a red line and is threatening the security of Egypt. They added that a number of extremist Islamic organizations were acting with complete impunity and that the peninsula was in a state of anarchy.

These harsh accusations came in the wake of an increasing number of attacks carried out by unidentified forces on state institutions such as police stations, as well as no less than five attacks on the pipeline carrying Egyptian natural gas to Jordan and to Israel. The fifth attempt stopped the flow indefinitely, causing heavy financial losses to Egypt. It had became obvious to all that with the fall of Mubarak the central government had lost its grip on Sinai, and that the void had immediately been filled by elements hostile to Egypt and to Israel.

It took two startling developments to force the Supreme Military Council to finally act: a disciplined attack mounted on the El-Arish police station by a group of Islamist extremists (it failed) and the proclamation by the Salafist organizations of northern Sinai of their intention to set up Islamic courts to supplant state courts, and to use their armed militias numbering some 6,000 young members to enforce their decisions.

Taking the measure of the danger, the Supreme Military Council first tightened security around the Suez Canal and then, in coordination with Israel, sent troops to the area to restore order.

What happened Thursday on the road to Eilat is yet another demonstration of the state of anarchy in the peninsula. A group of some 20 terrorists from Gaza, equipped with large quantities of weapons and explosives, made its way to Sinai, probably through the smuggling tunnels, and was able to circulate on sovereign Egyptian soil for a week or more. What is clear is that the terrorists must have had logistic support from one or more extremist organizations active in Sinai. They had to obtain vehicles, food and water as well as to set up observation points on the road to Eilat which they intended to attack.

One can well ask how it was possible for them to do so without being seen by the Egyptians. There are thousands of members of the Mukhabarat and of the other security services in Sinai; how come the movements of such an large terrorist group, having to cover some 240 kilometers over several days, escaped their notice? What about the soldiers manning positions all along the border? How come they saw nothing? Could it be that there were some who decided to close their eyes – and maybe others who decided to help? That there was a massive failure on the Egyptian side is glaringly obvious – but the Supreme Military Council is busy trying to shift the blame.

Unfortunately, as was to be expected, there were demonstrations against Israel in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez. Calls were heard to expel the ambassador of Israel and even to sever relations between the two countries. It does seem as these demonstrations were primarily organized by the Muslim Brothers, who are now a legitimate political force in Egypt. Their spokesmen called for the severing of relations.

But two leading contenders for the presidency, former Arab League head Amr Moussa and former International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, jumped on the bandwagon. Moussa demanded a “fitting reaction” and Baradei called for a suspension of relations. The Supreme Council appeared to have been swayed by the protests.

On a more promising note, the same Egyptian military commentators cautioned against listening to the mob and suggested strongly a more responsible attitude to avoid an open crisis with Israel. Gen. (ret.) Abdelmoneim Kato called for an immediate inquiry into the events, and for a measured reaction limited to diplomatic protests. He added that the Egyptian Army had to pursue its fight against troublemakers and to restore order in Sinai.

Another military commentator, Mohamed Gamal Edin Mazloum, said that in the present situation Egypt had no interest whatsoever in a crisis with Israel, a country which had done nothing more than to defend itself against an attack on the road to Eilat.

Egypt today is facing a major hurdle in Sinai, where there are many more Islamist extremists than in the past. Some come from Gaza, but there is a strong Iranian influence. There are elaborate smuggling networks bringing weapons, explosives and missiles from Iran and from Hezbollah to Gaza via Sudan and Sinai. Now that the central government is so weak, there is talk of setting up a “free Islamic zone” – similar to what happened in Afghanistan with al- Qaida – which would be a base for attacks against Israel as well as against Egypt itself and other neighboring nations.

Neither Israel nor Egypt has an interest in escalating the present incident. What must be done now is to refrain from inflammatory statements and to thoroughly investigate what happened and how it happened through coordinated, efforts. More than ever in these troubled times, peace is of paramount importance both to Egypt and to Israel.

Zvi Mazel is a former ambassador to Egypt, and a fellow of The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

In Israel, diggers unearth the Bible's bad guys

2011-07-09T05:20:00.001-07:00

At the remains of an ancient metropolis in southern Israel, archaeologists are piecing together the history of a people remembered chiefly as the bad guys of the Hebrew Bible.

The city of Gath, where the annual digging season began this week, is helping scholars paint a more nuanced portrait of the Philistines, who appear in the biblical story as the perennial enemies of the Israelites.

Close to three millennia ago, Gath was on the frontier between the Philistines, who occupied the Mediterranean coastal plain, and the Israelites, who controlled the inland hills. The city's most famous resident, according to the Book of Samuel, was Goliath — the giant warrior improbably felled by the young shepherd David and his sling.

The Philistines "are the ultimate other, almost, in the biblical story," said Aren Maeir of Bar-Ilan University, the archaeologist in charge of the excavation.

The latest summer excavation season began this past week, with 100 diggers from Canada, South Korea, the United States and elsewhere, adding to the wealth of relics found at the site since Maier's project began in 1996.

In a square hole, several Philistine jugs nearly 3,000 years old were emerging from the soil. One painted shard just unearthed had a rust-red frame and a black spiral: a decoration common in ancient Greek art and a hint to the Philistines' origins in the Aegean.

The Philistines arrived by sea from the area of modern-day Greece around 1200 B.C. They went on to rule major ports at Ashkelon and Ashdod, now cities in Israel, and at Gaza, now part of the Palestinian territory known as the Gaza Strip.

At Gath, they settled on a site that had been inhabited since prehistoric times. Digs like this one have shown that though they adopted aspects of local culture, they did not forget their roots. Even five centuries after their arrival, for example, they were still worshipping gods with Greek names.

Archaeologists have found that the Philistine diet leaned heavily on grass pea lentils, an Aegean staple. Ancient bones discarded at the site show that they also ate pigs and dogs, unlike the neighboring Israelites, who deemed those animals unclean — restrictions that still exist in Jewish dietary law.

Diggers at Gath have also uncovered traces of a destruction of the city in the 9th century B.C., including a ditch and embankment built around the city by a besieging army — still visible as a dark line running across the surrounding hills.

The razing of Gath at that time appears to have been the work of the Aramean king Hazael in 830 B.C., an incident mentioned in the Book of Kings.

Gath's importance is that the "wonderful assemblage of material culture" uncovered there sheds light on how the Philistines lived in the 10th and 9th centuries B.C., said Seymour Gitin, director of the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem and an expert on the Philistines.

That would include the era of the kingdom ruled from Jerusalem by David and Solomon, if such a kingdom existed as described in the Bible. Other Philistine sites have provided archaeologists with information about earlier and later times but not much from that key period.

"Gath fills a very important gap in our understanding of Philistine history," Gitin said.

In 604 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded and put the Philistines' cities to the sword. There is no remnant of them after that.

Crusaders arriving from Europe in 1099 built a fortress on the remains of Gath, and later the site became home to an Arab village, Tel el-Safi, which emptied during the war surrounding Israel's creation in 1948. Today Gath is in a national park.

An Israeli town founded in 1955 several miles to the south, Kiryat Gat, was named after Gath based on a misidentification of a different ruin as the Philistine city.

The memory of the Philistines — or a somewhat one-sided version — was preserved in the Hebrew Bible.

The hero Samson, who married a Philistine woman, skirmished with them repeatedly before being betrayed and taken, blinded and bound, to their temple at Gaza. There, the story goes, he broke free and shattered two support pillars, bringing the temple down and killing everyone inside, including himself.

One intriguing find at Gath is the remains of a large structure, possibly a temple, with two pillars. Maeir has suggested that this might have been a known design element in Philistine temple architecture when it was written into the Samson story.

Diggers at Gath have also found shards preserving names similar to Goliath — an Indo-European name, not a Semitic one of the kind that would have been used by the local Canaanites or Israelites. These finds show the Philistines indeed used such names and suggest that this detail, too, might be drawn from an accurate picture of their society.

The findings at the site support the idea that the Goliath story faithfully reflects something of the geopolitical reality of the period, Maeir said — the often violent interaction of the powerful Philistines of Gath with the kings of Jerusalem in the frontier zone between them.

"It doesn't mean that we're one day going to find a skull with a hole in its head from the stone that David slung at him, but it nevertheless tells that this reflects a cultural milieu that was actually there at the time," Maeir said.

Rosslyn Chapel

2011-07-07T10:39:00.000-07:00

The Rosslyn Chapel or the Collegiate Chapel of St Mathew, as it was to have been, was founded in 1446 by Sir William St Clair, third and last St Clair Prince of Orkney. It is in fact only part of the choir of what was intended to be a larger cruciform building with a tower at its centre.

More than thirty-seven collegiate churches were built in Scotland between the reigns of James I and James IV (1406-1513). They were secular foundations intended to spread intellectual and spiritual knowledge, and the extravagance of their construction depended on the wealth of their founder.

After Sir William died in 1484, he was buried in the unfinished Chapel and the larger building he had planned was never completed. But the foundations of the nave have been excavated in the nineteenth century and found to extend ninety-one feet beyond the Chapel's original west door, under the existing baptistery and churchyard.

What was built however is extraordinary enough, 'This building, I believe, may be pronounced unique, and I am confident it will be found curious, elaborate and singularly interesting, impossible to designate by any given or familiar term' wrote Britton on his Architectural Antiquities of Britain (1812), adding somewhat despairingly that its 'variety and eccentricity are not to be defined by any words of common acceptation'.

The principal authority on the history of the Chapel and the Sinclair/ St Clair family is Father Richard Augustine Hay, Canon of St Genevieve in Paris and Prior of St Piermont. He examined historical records and charters of the St Clairs and completed a three-volume study in 1700, parts of which were published in 1835 as “A genealogy of the Sainte-claires of Rosslyn”. His research was timely, since the original documents subsequently disappeared.

Of the founder Father Hay said this: 'Prince William, his age creeping on him, came to consider how he had spent his times past, and how he was to spend his remaining days. Therefore, to the end, that he might not seem altogether unthankful to God for the benefices he received from Him, it came into his mind to build a house for God's service, of most curious work, that might be done with greater glory and splendour he caused artificers to be brought from other regions and foreign kingdoms and caused daily to be abundance of all kinds of workmen present as masons, carpenters, smiths, barrowmen and quarries... the foundation of this work he caused to be lain in the year of our Lord 1446, and to the end, the work might be more rare, first he caused draughts [plans] to be drawn upon Eastland boards [imported Baltic timber], and he made the carpenters carve them according to the draughts thereon and he gave them to for patterns to the masons, that they might cut the like in stone and because he thought the masons had not a convenient place to lodge in...He made them build the town of Rolsine, now Rosslyn- that is now extant and gave everyone a house and lands. He rewarded the masons according to their degree, as to the Master Mason; he gave nearly £40 yearly, and to everyone of the rest, £10...

Sir William's son and successor to the Barony of Rosslyn, Sir Oliver St Clair, roofed the choir with its stone vault but did no more to fulfil his father's original design.

The Chapel was generously endowed by the founder, with provision for a provost, six prebendaries and two choristers, and in 1523 by his grandson, also Sir William, with land for dwelling houses and gardens. On February 26th 1571, however, just forty-eight years after his last endowment, there is a record of the provost and prebendaries resigning because of the endowments being taken by 'force and violence' into secular hands as the effects of the Reformation took hold.

The Presbytery records of Dalkeith reveal that in 1589 William Knox, brother of John Knox and minister of Cockpen, was censured 'for baptising the Laird of Rosling's bairne' in Rosslyn Chapel, which was described as a 'house and monument of idolatrie, and not ane place appointit for teiching the word and ministratioun of ye sacrementis'.

The following year, the Presbytery forbade Mr George Ramsay, minister of Lasswade, from burying the wife of a later Oliver St Clair in the Chapel. The St Clairs had not yet succumbed to the Reformation.

This Oliver St Clair was repeatedly warned to destroy the altars in the Chapel and in1592 was summoned to appear before the General Assembly and threatened with excommunication if the altars remained standing after August 17th, 1592. On August 31st, the same George Ramsay reported that 'the altars of Roslene were haille demolishit'. From that time the Chapel ceased to be used as a house of prayer and soon fell into disrepair.

In 1650, during the Civil War, Cromwell's troops under General Monk attacked the castle and his horses were stabled in the Chapel. On December 11th, 1688, shortly after the protestant William of Orange had landed in England and displaced the Catholic James II, a mob from Edinburgh and some of the villagers from Roslin entered and damaged the Chapel. Their object was to destroy the furniture and vestments, which were now regarded as Popish and idolatrous.

The Chapel remained abandoned until 1736, when St James St Clair glazed the windows for the first time, repaired the roof, and re-laid the floor with flagstones. The boundary wall was also built at this time.

When Dorothy Wordsworth visited the Chapel on September 17th, 1807, she remarked: 'Went to view the inside of the Chapel of Rosslyn, which is kept locked up, and so preserved from the injuries it might otherwise receive from idle boys, but as nothing is done to keep it together, it must, in the end, fall. The architecture within is exquisitely beautiful.'

Further repairs to the Chapel were undertaken at the beginning of the nineteenth century and in 1861 it was agreed by James Alexander, 3rd Earl of Rosslyn, that Sunday services should begin again. He instructed the Edinburgh architect David Bryce to carry out restoration work. The carvings in the Lady Chapel were attended to; stones were re-laid in the crypt and an altar established there. The Bishop of Edinburgh rededicated the Chapel on Tuesday April 22nd, 1862, and the Bishop of Brechin preached from the text, 'Our Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth' (Psalms xxvi, v8).

The Reverend R. Cole, then resident military chaplain at Greenlaw Barracks near Penicuick, became private chaplain to the Earl. Lady Helen Wedderburn, daughter of the 7th Earl of Airlie, who lived nearby at Rosebank, organised a subscription from which some of the interior fittings were provided.

In 1880-1, Francis Robert, 4th Earl of Rosslyn, added the apse to serve as a baptistry with an organ loft above. The work is by Andrew Kerr. The Earl also filled the baptistry arch with the handsome oak tracery, which can be seen today, decorated with his crest. Together with the two Chapel doors, this is the only wood used in the construction of the building.

The cost of the work was seven hundred and fifty eight pounds, eight shillings and six pennies, with a further thirty four pounds and eighteen shillings to Andrew Kerr for fees. Kerr told the Earl that a party of visitors 'had remarked that it was wonderful that such young men should be entrusted to execute such carving,' to which the estate factor 'very coolly replied, that it was not wonderful here, as the finest pillar in the Chapel was the work of an apprentice boy.'

The Earl was happy with the work and in a letter to Kerr on November 16th, wrote: ' I must say that the author pronounces your building a complete success.'

In 1915, a report on the fabric by Sir Robert Lorimer observed: ' The stone work of the Chapel is in fairly good order and requires very little done to it... a few of the stones are crumbling but not to the extent to cause any alarm. The condition of the roof is not satisfactory... and there are a number of gaps and cracks all over.' He recommended that the exterior of the roof be covered with asphalt and this was carried out.

In 1942 the Chapel was almost closed for a second time when a government official called Robertson wrote to the Minister of Labour, Ernest Bevin MP, 'that the Episcopalian Church at Roslin was almost empty every Sunday... on a recent Sunday there was a congregation of only two, and apart from the Clergyman's labour there must be other workers employed in cleaning and looking after the church and I suggest that steps are taken to close it down.'

A copy of the letter was sent to Gwilym Lloyd George MP, the Minister of Fuel, who in turn wrote to the Secretary of State for Scotland in the following terms; 'I enclose a copy of a letter from David Robertson which causes me considerable embarrassment, who am I, a Welshman, that I should do anything that might imperil the eternal salvation of one Scottish Episcopalian. In any case, from the fuel point of view, I doubt whether I would be justified in securing a small economy of fuel in this world at the possible cost of a disproportionate expenditure of it on myself in the next.' The Chapel remained open.

Further work was carried out by Anthony 6th Earl of Rosslyn, in the 1950's when the crypt roof was repaired and the interior carvings cleaned by hand over a period of several years. He also added the stained glass windows in the baptistry. A report of May 1954 from the Ancient Monuments Branch of the Ministry of Works records that 'surfaces covered with green algae will be scrubbed down with stiff bristle brushes... using a solution of 880 ammonia and water. Water will then be used copiously until the surfaces are clean and free from dirt and vegetation. Flaky patches will be sealed off... Hollow areas in ornament will receive special treatment by grouting... and when the surfaces are thoroughly dry they will be hardened with silica fluoride of magnesium at a rate of 1lb per two gallons of water.'

This work was in accordance with the thinking of the time but not, unfortunately, with current conservation philosophy. The effect of the magnesium fluoride - a cementitious slurry - was to seal the internal surface of the masonry with an impermeable coating, so that the stone became saturated with water containing soluble pollutants. In addition, the coldness of the wet stone encouraged condensation. A report in 1995 confirmed that damage was occurring and that humidity in the Chapel was very high. It recommended that steps should be taken to dry out the saturated masonry, remove if possible the cementitious coating, and restore the permeability of the richly carved inner surfaces of the Chapel.

In March 1997, a freestanding steel structure was erected to cover the Chapel. It will enable the stone fabric of the roof vaults to dry outwards, away from the carved interior surfaces. In due course the bituminous felt, asphalt and concrete coverings of the stone roof vaults would be removed to assist this process. Stone and mortar repairs to the external walls, pinnacles, and buttresses, renewal of the rainwater disposal arrangements, repairs to the stained glass, and appropriate repair and conservation of the interior are all required. The coverings over the stone vaulted roofs will be renewed in lead and ways of removing the cementitious slurry are being investigated, in order that this magnificent building can be preserved for future generations to use and admire.

The year 2000 saw the Trust embark on a second phase of work. Funded jointly by The National Heritage Lottery Fund, The Eastern Scotland European Partnership, Historic Scotland and the Rosslyn Chapel Trust, this phase has a number of elements. Essential stabilisation works to the east boundary walls will protect the Chapel. A new roof of Caithness slate has been placed over the existing Crypt roof, and the Priest's Cell and two more modern buildings beside the Crypt have been made functional. The stairs to the Crypt have been repaired and the access to the Crypt is now both safer and more of an experience. Work has also been carried out to improve the electrical services in the Chapel, repairs to the wooden screen at the west end, and our interpretation of Rosslyn's story.

The Genealogical Part

William Sinclair of the St. Clair family, a Scottish noble family descended from Norman knights and linked to the Knights Templar, designed the chapel. Construction of the chapel began in 1440, and the chapel was officially founded in 1446. Construction lasted for forty years.

Some authors have theorised that the Chapel's west wall is actually a model of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and is part of the structure by design, rather than proof of another intended stage of building, which would have made the site about the size of a Cathedral.

In September 2005 a musical cipher hidden in mystical symbols carved into the stone ceiling of Rosslyn Chapel was reported as being unravelled by Scottish composer Stuart Mitchell. His feat was hailed by experts as a stroke of genius.

The codes were hidden in 213 cubes in the ceiling of the chapel, where parts of the film of Dan Brown's best-seller The Da Vinci Code were shot. Each cube contained different patterns to form an unusual 6ý-minute piece of music for 13 medieval players.

The unusual sound has been of great spiritual significance to those who built the chapel. The melody was unravelled after Mr Mitchell discovered the stones at the bottom of each of 12 pillars inside the chapel formed a cadence (three chords at the end of a piece of music) of which there were only three types in the 15th century.

Mr Mitchell said the music sounded like a nursery rhyme. "Everyone wants to hear something miraculous but William Sinclair, who designed the chapel, was an architect, not a musician," he said. "It is evident from the nursery rhyme style of the music that he could not play very well. It is in triple time, sounds childlike and is based on plain chant which was the common form of rhythm of the time." The strange combination of instruments in the piece includes bagpipes, whistles, trumpet, a medieval mouth piano, guitar and singers.

The chapel is famous for its connections to Freemasonry and its attendant rituals. This was first publicised by Knight and Lomas, but it is also found in works by Michael Baigent and Leigh and Tim Wallace Murphy (circa 1990), and the connections entered mainstream consciousness when named in the novel The Da Vinci Code for its links to the Holy Grail. I want to emphasise that the Holy Grail was never brought to the Chapel, but Her memories. The Sinclairs are hereditary lords of the Chapel and this truth cannot be denied.

The Scottish NGO The Friends of Rosslyn, which own the land surrounding the Chapel and the Rosslyn Chapel Trust which administers the Chapel, have both published a number of books and literature on the Chapel.

Certainly the Chapel is used by the modern Knights Templar for 'investiture' ceremonies, and because of its connection to one of the more famous freemasons (William Sinclair) and also due to the Masonic architecture and symbolism featured on the Chapel walls, many Freemasons from all over the world visit it. Certain points in its architecture are quite indicative of a Masonic, and Templar, connection.

In addition, the Chapel was used by Freemasons and Knights Templar and stationed at Rosslyn Chapel, journeyed to North America long before Columbus. This claim is based on several points:

1. Some of what appear to be the oldest graveyards in Nova Scotia (which means New Scotland) have Masonic symbols and Crusader crosses on them;

2. The Westford Knight is a rock engraving in Massachusetts showing a Scottish knight, linked to the Henry Sinclair party, with the Clan Gunn markings;

3. Most importantly, Rosslyn Chapel, although completed six years before Columbus' voyage, has stone carvings in it of plants unique to the Western hemisphere.

Because of its rumored connections with Freemasonry, the chapel has inevitably become listed as one of the possible final resting places of The Holy Grail. This is a possibility based on legends of 'Secret Vaults' and the possibility that the similarities between Rosslyn and the Temple of Jerusalem might be more than cosmetic.

The White Lady of Rosslyn Castle is said to hide a secret worth 'millions of pounds' - and some have suggested that this could be The Grail or instructions on how to find it.

St Clair legend suggests that there are three big medieval chests (probably the size of steamer trunks) buried somewhere on the property, and this has inevitably led to various theories as to the chests' contents. Past scanning and excavations in or near the Chapel have not yielded any such chests.

Sealed chambers under the basement of the chapel, however, have yet to be excavated for fear of collapse of the entire structure. These chambers are filled with pure white Arabic sand -- rumored to have been brought to the chapel by the Knights Templar from the Dome of the Rock -- and ultrasonic scans have revealed six leaden vaults within the sand.

It should be noted that it is only the Ruined Wall that is based on the Temple of Jerusalem - the chapel itself most closely resembles the East Quire of Glasgow Cathedral. The Chapel is famous for its two pillars: the Apprentice Pillar and the Master Pillar which, though next to each other, are carved differently. Masonic Architects believe these structures could signify the pillars of Boaz and Jachin.

Most interestingly are the (pictorial) references to the Key of Hiram, a significant piece of Masonic legend in the wall carvings, and in depictions of the New World, purportedly showing maize and aloe vera plants about a century before the discovery of North America, suggesting pre-Columbus travel there (the La Merika theory).

Israel trumps the Arab world

2011-06-28T10:57:00.000-07:00

DOHA: There is no doubt that Israel is superior to all Arab countries in the sphere of Information Technology, a comparative study between Arab nations and Israel on ‘Scientific Research and Patent Rights Compared’ conducted by Dr Khalid Said Rubaia, a Palestinian researcher at American Arab University in Palestine, says.

Israel spends 4.7 percent of its total GDP on scientific research, which is the highest in the world. However, Arab states are spending 0.2 percent of their total incomes and Asian Arab countries around 0.5 percent of their incomes on research, said
the report.

Regarding patent rights, Israel has registered 16,805 patents. However, Arab countries have only 836 patents which is 5 percent of what Israel has.

Israel spends 0.8-1 percent of the total expenditure of the world on research work and Arab states spend 0.4 percent. It means Israel spends more than double that spent by Arab countries in
this field.

Israel spends 4.7 percent of its income on research. However, Arab countries spend 0.2 percent of their total income on the same. United States spends about 2.7 percent of its income, UK 1.8 and Germany 2.6 percent on research work.

Asian Arab countries spend less than 0.1 percent of their total income on research work which is five times less than African countries which are spending 0.5 percent of their total income, according to a Unesco report. Arab countries spend about half of Israel though their GDP soared 11 times that of Israel and the area is more than 649 times.

Regarding per capita expenditure on scientific research, Israel stands at the number one position by spending $1272.8 per capita. United States ranks second with $1205.9 and Japan third by spending $1153.3. However, the Arab countries ranked hundred times less than Israel by spending an average of $14.7 annually per capita.

And the oil rich Asian Arab countries spend $11.9 per capita which is equal to African poor countries whose per capita expenditure reached $9.4.

DETENTION OF THE BANGLADESHI JOURNALIST, CHOUDHURY

2011-06-03T08:45:00.001-07:00

PROF. PALAZZI ON THE DETENTION OF THE BANGLADESHI JOURNALIST, CHOUDHURY

Note: It has recently come to our attention that Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, who we thought shared our pro-Israel sentiments for noble reasons, has been opportunistically defrauding at least two of his devoted Jewish supporters.

He exploited their passion for Zionism. This has been going on for a year and a half, as far as we know. He borrowed large sums of money from these women that he never repaid. To get their funds, he made up a business that never existed, stated that he was working with businessmen who did not exist either but whose emails he fabricated, put up as collateral a business he claimed to have but did not have, and wrote a counterfeit check.

He has been formally charged by the New York Police Department with Grand Larceny via Fraud. The commerce ambassador of the Bangladesh embassy said that Shoaib Choudhury was known in Bangladesh as a "total fraudster, liar and cheat."

Root and Branch has disseminated (via e-mail) the following Proclamation in the matter of the journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, who was arrested in Bangladesh when he was about to travel to Israel.

The Proclamation was released by Prof. Palazzi, and is consistent with the statements made by Prof. Palazzi in his interview with IsraPundit.

PROCLAMATION OF THE ITALIAN MUSLIM ASSOCIATION
mailto:info@amislam.com
http://amislam.com
Tuesday, December 2, 2003

As-salamu `alaykum wa rahmat-Ullahi wa barakatuH

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Brother Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, a pro-dialogue anti-fundamentalist Muslim journalist from Bangladesh, was arrested at the airport while leaving for Israel and is presently detained.
We attach the text of a recent article of his and ask all of you to support our courageous brother Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury with your supplications.
The Board of Governors of the Italian Muslim Association asks the authorities of Bangladesh for the immediate liberation of our detained brother.

Wa-s-salamu `alaykum wa rahmat-Ullahi wa barakatuH

Sheikh Professor Abdul Hadi Palazzi

Director,
Cultural Institute of the Italian Islamic Community
http://amislam.com
mailto:info@amislam.com
Muslim Co-Chairman,
Islam-Israel Fellowship,
Root & Branch Association, Ltd.
www.rb.org.il

Prince Henry Sinclair travel to New Land almost 100 years before Columbus

2011-04-25T12:11:00.000-07:00

Preparations for the Voyage

Prince Henry commissioned Antonio and Nicolo Zeno, the brothers of Carlo Zeno "the Lion" of Venice, to draw a map of the north Atlantic region. The resulting "Zeno Map" was so accurate that sailors of all nations used it for the next 300 years. Recently the military aerial photographic maps have found thirty-seven points of identity with the Zeno Map! In addition, Henry Sinclair reassigned some of his land holdings to his brothers, in case he should not return from this dangerous voyage.

The Actual Expedition

In 1398, Prince Henry set sail with 200-300 men in twelve tiny ships. Antonio Zeno was the navigator and recorder of the fleet's log, which is called the "Zeno Narratives." The voyage took the explorers to Faeroes, Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and to New England. They had harmonious contacts with the Micmac Indians throughout at least one year. Several archaeological artifacts remain to validate their miraculous adventure. They are the Zeno Narratives and Zeno Map, a Venician cannon in Nova Scotia, the Micmac Indian legends, and a rock carving in Westford, Massachusetts. Some researchers believe that Sinclair and his group built the Newport Tower in Rhode Island and the extensive research by Mr. Scott have proved that this was the case. Antonio Zeno reported about Henry Sinclair, "If ever there was a man who is worthy of a mortal memory, it is this man [Henry Sinclair] because of his great bravery and goodness".

Accomplishments Were Not Announced to the World

Unfortunately, Henry returned and was soon slain in an ambush in Orkney. It is thought that his assassination was ordered by the Hanseatic League to rid itself of such a powerful rival. But it is quite possible that he never returned to Orkney and died in Nova Scotia as Niven Sinclair now believed. To make sure that Prince Henry Sinclair's trans-Atlantic achievements were not followed up, the Hansea arranged to have Sinclair's son, also named Henry, arrested at sea while escorting the Crown Prince of Scotland to France for safekeeping. Henry and the King's son were confined for the next fourteen years in an English prison. His other son, William grandson, was content to live in regal comfort in his Rosslyn Castle, where he designed and constructed Rosslyn Chapel. It was adorned with stone carvings, including corn and cactus, not here-to-for known in the Old World. Antonio Zeno also died immediately upon his return voyage. Only Prince Henry's daughter, Elizabeth is credited with passing the story of the epic voyage along to her son, John. He proudly told his in- laws, one of whom was the wife of Christopher Columbus! Later, the Zeno Narratives were discovered, providing the world with a more definitive report of Prince Henry's voyage.

Henry "the Holy" Sinclair

The Sinclairs remained “loyal” to the Roman Catholic faith until the late 17th century out of repression. Their commitment to defend the faith was expressed in their motto, "Commit thy work to God." So strong was their belief that they resisted the Reformation in 1517, long after most fellow Scots and many Europeans became Protestant. It was their strict loyalty to the Catholic Church and to the ruling Stuarts in Scotland, which caused the Sinclairs to lose favour with the succeeding Scottish Monarchs.

Was Prince Henry a Catholic? There was no such religion as Protestantism at that time. Certainly Henry was not Hindu, Muslim, or a pagan. We know Henry was a Templar and a Grand Master. Let us briefly review history during the earlier centuries. In 1118 AD the Templars were established to protect the Christian Pilgrims as they travelled to the Holy Land in Jerusalem. They served under the sole direction of the Pope! They remained in this capacity for two centuries, until Pope Clement V moved his seat from the Vatican to Avignon in France. Some say he was an impostor. There, he came under the strong influence of his nephew, King Philip "le Bel" of France. This was also the time when France had borrowed vast sums of money from the wealthy Templars. So huge was this indebtedness that King Philip chose to exterminate the Templars, rather than to pay back his obligations. This triggered the fateful Suppression Order, supported by the Pope. All nations were asked to capture the Templars. Scotland refused to obey the Suppression Order; because its King Robert the Bruce had been excommunicated from the Church for murdering John "the Red" Comyn in a church. Consequently, many Templars fled to safety with their treasures to Scotland. They went to Balantrodoch, their ancient outpost, located on the Sinclair estates near Edinburgh. The Sinclairs had been members of the Knights Templar ever since it’s founding in 1118. Were these Templars following the Catholic faith? Ritual used by the Templars today attests to their firm religious beliefs. Of course the division of the Papacy between Rome and Avignon, underscored by the Suppression Order, disrupted their lines of affiliation with the Avignonese Pope. Bear in mind, Protestantism had not yet been born. The Templars maintained their “Catholic” faith but just for the world’s show off.

During the 14th century, England under King Edward I (known as "the hammer of the Scots") was constantly attacking Scotland. It began with the Battle of Rosslyn in 1303 when the Scots beat the English decisively in three separate engagements. The English army had advanced in three columns, with 10,000 men in each. They were engaged and decisively defeated by the 6,000 strong Scottish army. This infuriated Edward I. In 1314 he marched North with a highly trained army, intent upon getting revenge in a battle at Bannockburn. The Scots won the battle, largely due to the intervention of the Knights Templar on the side of King Robert the Bruce, assisted by Sir William Sinclair and his two sons, William and Henry.

In appreciation of the role played by the Templars at the Battle of Bannockburn, and in an effort to disguise the presence of the Templars within his kingdom, he created the Royal Sovereign Order of Scotland. Robert the Bruce also appointed William Sinclair as the Grand Master of the Crafts and Guilds of Scotland. This became a hereditary position with the Sinclairs until another William Sinclair resigned the hereditary post of Grand Master for himself and his heirs. He was then immediately elected as the first Grand Master in the Scottish Grand Lodge of Speculative Masons in 1736.

In this hereditary chain, Prince Henry Sinclair became the Grand Master of the Crafts and Guilds of Scotland, as well as being a Knight Templar, pledged to protect the Christian ideals. He was known as Henry "the Holy" Sinclair. He was a true leader and was chosen as the Commander of a Templar inspired expedition to the New World in 1398. The Templars had found a temporary refuge in Scotland, but Scotland had neither the space nor the scope to accommodate them. They wanted a new land where their ideals could take root and flourish. They knew about the New World. Trade was already taking place. The New World beckoned.

His Venetian admiral, Antonio Zeno, said Prince Henry was a man "worthy of immortal memory because of his great bravery and goodness." He reached America 94 years before Columbus. He treated the indigenous people with respect, understanding, and consideration. He called them his "beloved sons", as he recognised they had the same underlying beliefs he had himself, namely that God and Nature was One. There is no doubt; Henry Sinclair practiced his faith in everything he did. Before he ended his stay in the New World, it is thought that he applied his experience and religious beliefs in building the Newport Tower, following the design lines of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

Henry was 13 years old at the time when he inherited the barony of Rosslyn. This youth was trained in martial arts with sword, spear, bow and arrow. Speaking Latin and French, he became a knight at the age of 21 years. His first wife, who died young, was the great-grand-daughter of King Magnus of Sweden and Norway. His second wife, Janet Halyburton of Dirleton Castle, bore him thirteen children. He was rewarded by Scotland's King David for a successful raid into England with the title of Lord Sinclair and the position of Lord Chief Justice of Scotland. Sinclair excelled in a furious time.

Henry Sinclair associated closely with the Scottish Masons. He was the Grand Master of Scottish Masons, an organisation that had evolved from the suppressed Templars. Many of its members lived in the area near Sinclair's Rosslyn Castle. Their meeting place was Balantrodoch, a distance of only 15 miles. Ever since their forefathers, seventy years earlier, were exiled from the Holy Land and Europe, they had hidden their Templar origins. They eagerly wanted to find a land that was free from suppression, free from the fear of being put to death.

Sinclair was installed as the Jarl of Orkney and Lord of Shetland when he was only 24 years old. The earldom included the Faeroes, the Orkneys, the Shetlands. Sinclair held his appointment at the pleasure of King Hakon VI of Norway. Norway had ruled the islands since the ninth century. But, as "Jarl", he was next to royalty; there was almost no supervision from the Norwegian throne. Thus, he was called "Prince". He had authority to stamp coins, to make laws, remit crimes, wear a crown, and have a sword carried before him.

Before he was 35 years old, he constructed Kirkwall Castle for his headquarters in Orkney. A fleet of ships was built, larger than Norway's navy. Henry set out to affirm his rule the Faeroe Isles in the name of the King of Norway. Norway was hard-pressed to defend itself from Baltic pirates without Sinclair's assistance. It is interesting to note that Prince Henry brooded over his lack of guns. This was a new technology, developed at that time by the naval powers in the Mediterranean area. Cannons had proven effective for Carlo "the Lion" Zeno in defending Venice.

Henry Sinclair employed the services of Nicolo and Antonio Zeno, brothers of the most famous admiral of the time, Carlo Zeno. Nicolo had been an elector of the Doge and was one of the twelve Orators sent by the Venetian Senate with five galleys to Marseilles to carry the Pope and his court to Rome. Nicolo had also been captain of a galley in the war to protect the Genoese, and he was the Venetian ambassador to Ferrara in 1382. The Zenos brought to Sinclair the design of the first cannon used on ships.

Nicolo died in 1395, and Antonio became captain and navigator of Henry's fleet. They maintained the ship's log, the "Zeno Narrative". It told about a survey to make a map of Greenland in about 1393 by Nicolo Zeno. This Zeno Map of the North proved to be the most accurate map in existence for the next 150 years! And this "Narrative" has helped to prove that Sinclair sailed to America.

Henry Sinclair, his trusted friend, Sir James Gunn, Antonio Zeno, and his Templar friends planned a voyage to find this rich new land. After fitting out their thirteen barks, they took to the sea around April 1, 1398. With 200 - 300 men. Day after day they sailed. The Zeno document suggests they saw land at Newfoundland, but natives drove them away. Sailing farther, they came to Chedabucto Bay in Nova Scotia. They dropped anchor on the first of June in Guysborough harbor.

The Zeno Narrative provides only a limited description of the party's exploration. A hundred soldiers were dispatched to explore the source of smoke they saw swirling above a distant hill. It came from a great fire in the bottom of a hill, where a spring from which issued a certain substance like pitch ran into the sea. They also saw many people, half-wild, and living in caves. This was their first contact with the Micmac Indians. Geographical detective work, archaeology, modern science and various documents have pinpointed the burning hill as the asphalt area at Stellarton, about 50 miles direct from the head of Guysborough harbour.

The Zeno brothers called Prince Henry by the name of "Zichmni". This is an ancient translation of "Orkney", a shortened form for Prince of Orkney. From the Zeno Narrative we read the following translation by Richard H. Major:

``So we brought our barks and our boats into land, and we entered an excellent harbour, and we saw in the distance a great mountain that poured out smoke. .... There were great multitudes of people, half-wild and living in caves. These were very small of stature and very timid; for when they saw our people, they fled into their holes. .... When Zichmni heard this and noticed that the place had a wholesome and pure atmosphere, a fertile soil and good rivers and so many other attractions, he conceived the idea of staying there and founding a city.''

Some men, led by Antonio Zeno, returned home to Europe. The rest chose to remain with Prince Henry with two oar-powered boats. It is thought they wanted to establish a settlement. At last the Templars might have a home, free of suppression!

Prince Henry persuaded the Micmac Indians to act as guides in his exploration of Nova Scotia. He first thought it to be an island. The narrow isthmus at Bair Verte changed his mind. It was navigable by canoe to Cumberland Basin with a portage of only three miles. The trip along River Herbert toward Parrsboro included only one portage of just 400 yards in its 22-mile length. Sinclair may then have travelled on to Annapolis Basin and across the Micmac canoe route to Liverpool. By October, he was back on Green Hill, southwest of Pictou harbour, to attend a gathering of the Micmacs. "It was the time for holding the great and yearly feast with dancing and merry games."

Next, he doubled back to Spencer Island, Minas Channel, and did some hunting. The meat of the animals was sliced and dried. The bones were chopped up and boiled in a big iron pot to extract the marrow.

Historians and investigators have discovered other sites in Nova Scotia, where Henry Sinclair visited. Evidence is not complete, but it is highly suggestive. A few locations include the Castle at the Cross-, Oak Island and its Money Pit, and the Cannon of Louisburg Harbour.

The Castle at the Cross is atop Cadbury Hill and Gastonbury Tor, 17 miles from Chester, Nova Scotia. Only a mound of earth and stone remains today of the suspected ancient structure. Researchers believe 14th Century Norsemen and Scots built it, based on designs in the rubblework masonry. Several items were found around these ruins, including a much-corroded pin, portion of a sword blade, wooden cones, and pieces of iron tools. From the scanty ruins, it is thought that the Castle had guard towers, main gate with pillars, and a dome or cone. Some historians believe this was a settlement by Prince Henry Sinclair, as shown in the lower left of the famous "Zeno Map" of the North. The Micmac legends describes Prince Henry's winter quarters in the vicinity of Advocate Harbour and Parrsboro. It was there, near Cape D'Or, that the explorers are thought to have built a new ship for their return voyage. The exact location is uncertain, however, mounds of dirt and stone formations have given archaeologists some clues. Here the Christian explorers would have celebrated Christmas, perhaps the first Christmas ever on American soil!

It is more than coincidence that a unique, primitive cannon was found about 1849 at Louisburg Harbour on Cape Breton Island. Presumably, this gun was from Prince Henry's fleet in 1398. It had eight rings around its barrel, and a detachable breech with a handle. Several very similar cannons are on display at the Naval Museum in Venice. These are the same type as those used by Carlo Zeno at the Battle of Chioggia. They became obsolete by the end of the 14th century. Later cannons were made in a single piece without that kind of barrel rings.

Oak Island in Mahone Bay of Golden River, Nova Scotia, is one of only two islands, in a group of 350, where oak trees can be found! These oaks are thought to have been planted by ancient mariners to serve as a navigational aid to find the Castle at the Cross. From Oak Island, looking toward the mainland of Nova Scotia, the river leading to the Castle is to the right. The Celtic word for "oak" also means both "right" and "door".

This island on the Atlantic side has captured much attention because of its Money Pit, which is shrouded by mystery. It is a deep hole at the centre of Oak Island. An elaborate security system was devised, whereby anyone exploring its depths would trigger the flood tunnels. Is this the hiding place for gold panned from Golden River? Or did Prince Henry deposit some Templar treasures in this hiding place? Was the Holy Grail placed there for safekeeping?

The Pit was discovered by three boys in 1795. At a depth of two feet there was a layer of stones. At 10 feet lay the first of many oak log platforms, set at 10-foot intervals as the depth increased. In 1802, Onslow Company discovered more log platforms, going down 93 feet. In 1849, the Truro Company drilled augur holes near the existing cavity. At the 154-foot level the drill went through a 5-inch oak platform and dropped another 12 inches farther until it struck another oak platform. Then it went through 22 inches of metal scrap, including an ancient watch chain! Oak timbers reappeared at a deeper depth, followed by another 22-inch layer of metal fragments. After the next layer of oak, they found 6 inches of spruce wood. Still other digs produced some scraps of parchment, with letters that looked like "vi" in hand script. At the 171-foot level an iron plate appeared. Coconut fibre, not native, was dated to be of 14th century origin! Then in 1909, the famous treasure hunter, Franklin D. Roosevelt many shares in Old Gold Salvage & Wrecking Company, which did more exploring at the Money Pit, but to no avail. More than $2 million has been expended on this Money Pit!

The Micmac Indians have a custom of preserving their history, and passing it along to the next generations, by their legends. This tradition continues today. Historians have studied these Legends. There are seventeen striking similarities between Glooscap and Prince Henry. Even the name "Glooscap" in Indian tongue, sounds like the combination of "Jarl Sinclair"! References to his personal features and qualities are too coincidental to be by accident. Until then, the Indians did not know how to fish with nets. Europeans were introduced to corn at this time in history. The Indians called the large sailboat of Prince Henry “floating island”. A quotation from the Micmac legends follows:

"Kuloskap was the first,First and greatest,

To come into our land -Into Nova Scotia, Canada,

Into Maine, into Wabanaki,The land of sunrise, or Light.

Thus it was Kuloskap the GreatMade man: He took his arrows

And shot a tree, the ash,Known as the basket-tree.

From the hole made by the arrowCame forth new forms, and these

Were the first of human kind.And so the Lord gave them a name

Meaning "those born from trees".Kuloskap the Lord of Light

Made all the animals. First he createdAll of giant size;

Such was the beginning."

( "Kuloskap the Master")

In the springtime, the European explorers loaded up in their ships and travelled southward, perhaps carried by a northeaster, to the New England Coast, just north of Boston. Perhaps their southward voyage was planned, seeking more evidence of the peacefulness of this "rich and populous land".

Evidence indicates they travelled up the Merrimack River to Stony Brook, which they followed as far as possible. The party landed and explored this new land, meeting peacefully with the Algonquin Indians. To the west they could see a hilltop, from which the Indians may have sent smoke signals.

In the springtime, the European explorers loaded their ships and travelled southward to the New England Coast, just north of Boston. Evidence indicates they travelled to the Merrimack River, then upstream to Stony Brook to its source. The party landed and spent the winter, living peacefully with the Algonquin Indians.

While hiking toward Prospect Hill, one of Prince Henry's companions by the name of Sir James Gunn died. In memory of their lost companion, the party carved a marker on the face of a horizontal stone ledge. Various sized holes were punched into the stone by a sharp tool, driven by a mallet. The image was that of a Scottish Knight, with a 39-inch long sword and shield, bearing the Gunn family insignia. Where glacial scratches or rock colorations existed, they were incorporated into the manmade picture.

Located beside this ancient rock carving are four stone posts with heavy iron chains. A recent granite monument was erected by Allister MacDougall, the Town Historian, to honour Prince Henry Sinclair's companion. The inscription on the granite stone reads;

"Prince Henry First Sinclair of Orkney born in Scotland made a voyage of discovery to North America in 1398. After wintering in Nova Scotia he sailed to Massachusetts and on an inland expedition in 1399 to Prospect Hill to view the surrounding countryside, one of the party died. The punch-hole armorial effigy that adorns this ledge is a Memorial to this Knight."

If you take a very close look at the rock ledge, you will see the punched holes. They are very weatherworn. Someone has painted a shield on the rock surface, and this painting helps you see the punched holes. Natives in this town of Westford are familiar with their Westford Knight. Historian Frederick J. Pohl heard of these revelations and visited Westford to see the discovery for himself. He reported, "The following are undeniably manmade workings: the pommel, handle, and guard of the sword; below the guard the break across the blade suggests the death of the sword's owner; the crest above the pommel; a few holes at the sword's point; the punch-hole jess lines attached to the legs of the falcon; the bell-shaped hollows; the corner of the shield touching the pommel; the crescent on the shield; and the holes that form a decorative pattern on the pommel." Archaeologist James P. Whittall, among many others, has also studied the Westford Carvings extensively and he confirms these findings.

Background

During the 1300s, a series of wars involving Scotland resulted in a decrease of its influence in the north.

In 1349, the Black Death had a catastrophic effect on Norway. Nearly half the population died and its economy lay in ruins. This weakening of the power-bases on both sides of the North Sea allowed the Orkney earls to regain some of their previous independence.

The earls of Orkney were now Scottish, rather than Scandinavian. This was due, in part, to marriage pacts between Orcadian and Scottish dynasties. From the 1330s, the line had passed to the Earls of Strathearn, of whom Henry Sinclair was descended.

Combined with the reinforced autonomy of the Orkney earls, his own wealth, power and influence were such that Henry was able to build, sometime around 1380, the stronghold of Kirkwall Castle. This was only a short period after his installation as earl and was in direct contravention of his charter from the Danish King of Norway.

From here, the fascinating mystery of ancient maps and charts, pirates, rivalries, royalty, secrets, plant carvings in Rosslyn Chapel, the forests of Nova Scotia, sites in Massachusetts, the City of Venice, Knights Templar and the Native American Micmac (Mi'kmaq) tribe, begins.

Symposium focused upon Prince Henry

A panel of seventeen experts in various phases of Henry Sinclair and his 1398 Voyage to North America was held in Kirkwall, Orkney, on September 5-7, 1997. Each made a 1-hour presentation on specific subjects. All told, they conveyed an impressive body of information about this Earl of Orkney.

The times were ready!

Dr. Peter Waddell, University of Strathclyde, author and inventor, told of the Hanseatic League from northern Germany during the 14th and 15th centuries. They monopolised trade between the Baltic seaports. The Danish and Norwegian kings became deeply in debt to the Hansea. Queen Margaret of Norway and Denmark sought to develop a "Northern Commonwealth" to compete. Meanwhile, the Venetian trading ships were venturing into the Baltic waters. This was the time when Prince Henry Sinclair was granted the earldom of Orkney. Nicolo Zeno from Venice is known to have been employed by Henry Sinclair.

Sinclair's castle in Orkney

Dr. Peter D. Anderson, the Deputy Keeper of the Records, described the Sinclair dynasty and its fortress. While no visible trace of Kirkwall Castle remains today, ancient records and pictures tell us that it was located on the shore of the harbour in Kirkwall, in the vicinity of the present Broad and Castle Streets. The Castle was rectangular, surrounded by a larger curtain wall 55-ft long by 11-ft thick. Built in the late 1300's by Prince Henry, it served the earldom until about 1470. Its final days were during the Battle of Somersdale, which was fought by two competing branches of the Sinclair family, fighting over control of portions of Orkney, Shetland, and Caithness.

The Knights Templar

Dr. Tim Wallace-Murphy, Templar Historian and author, spoke on the history, beliefs, and survival of the Knights Templar. He noted that Sinclairs are woven within the Templar web. Founded in Jerusalem in 1118 to guard the Christian pilgrimages, the Knights are believed to have found enormous treasure in the hidden vaults under the ancient Herod's Temple where they were quartered. In addition, they found the secrets of "sacred geometry". Membership rapidly grew and land was donated to them, forming a network stretching from the Holy Land to the far reaches of Europe. Using their power base wisely, they became the leading money brokers in the world. They built churches, fortifications, bridges, and castles, while operating the largest fleet the world had ever seen. Moreover, they lent vast sums to popes, princes, kings, and merchants. King Philip le Bel of France devised a simple method to cancel his enormous debt, and that was the Suppression Order. On Friday the 13th of October 1307, sixty senior Knights were arrested in Paris. Torture and death followed. Most Templars fled safely to Lombardy, Scotland, Portugal, and the Baltic states. Those finding refuge in Scotland fought as allies of Robert the Bruce and gained royal protection. All documentary evidence was suppressed, except for their symbolism and architecture. Rosslyn Chapel is a veritable encyclopedia in stone of Templar beliefs.

The Venetian Connection

Dr. Andrew Sinclair, historian and author, presented some ways that Venice was evidenced in Prince Henry's expedition. There is today a large Zeno villa at Canareggio in Venice. Documents by Marco Barbaro entitled, "Libro di nozzi", reveal that Nicolo, the younger brother of Admiral Carlo Zeno, was commander of the Zicni (or Zichmni) fleet between 1383 and 1388. In 1396 it is known that Nicolo Zeno was banned from office in Venice. Another brother, Antonio, remained with Zichmni for another 13 years, when he retired in 1400. The name of Zichmni is translated to be Sinclair. A cannon, found in Louisburg Harbour, is identical to one on display in Venice, made in the late 1300's; it was obsolete by the 1400's. The Zeno Map, made by Antonio and Nicolo, remained in use by mariners for 150 years because of its accuracy.

Shetland, a point of voyage departure?

Dr. Jonathan Wills, a writer and boatman, described the coastline and vantage points in Shetland. He noted that a logical route from Orkney to the New World would lead Prince Henry to the Shetland Islands. It could serve as an excellent "jumping- off" place. Several sheltered harbours were identified. Nearby, a lookout peak would be a necessity. Such a location was Vera Burton. Furthermore, an aerial reconnaissance by Niven Sinclair and Jon Wills found a site very likely to have been Prince Henry's "castle", sheltering him while on land.

The Voyage and the vision

Mark Finnan, a Canadian writer and broadcaster, described the vision of Prince Henry's voyage. Certainly, early explorers such as St. Brendon and Tim Severen, had unusual inspiration and faith in order to undertake their voyages. Paul Knutson's exploration in 1362 has led many people to believe he was responsible for the unique stones found in the Minnesota and Lake Superior regions. For Prince Henry there were the family legends of his Viking ancestors. More recently, he listened to the fishermen who returned from the north Atlantic seas with tales of population and vegetation. The Zeno Map is admittedly crude and even erroneous in certain areas. It is possible that part of the history of the crossing was made up in the Zeno Narratives. Nevertheless, much truth can be gleaned from these documents. True or not, John Cabot's voyage on the "Matthew" 100 years later has been heralded by the Queen of England, radio, television, and film makers. The Prince Henry saga is richer by far, for it contains a quest for the Holy Grail.

In the steps of Prince Henry

William F. Mann, author and urban planner in Nova Scotia, lead the audience through a labyrinth of clues, deep within the forests of Nova Scotia. He told his reasons for believing that Prince Henry followed those paths 600 years ago. Moral allegory and sacred geometry form a basis for Bill's theories. By identifying certain known locations, it is possible to lay out on a map other vitally important locations. The landing site, the smoking hills, the Money Pit, and the two islands where Oak trees exist. These, and many more identifiers, have led to the discovery of an ancient camp site, thought to have been Prince Henry Sinclair's.

The Legends of the Mi'kmaqs

Dr. Peter Christmas, head of Micmac Cultural Association of Nova Scotia, was assisted by Don Julien, chief executive of the Confederacy of Mainland Micmacs, and Kerry Prosper, chief of the Confederacy of Mainland Micmac Indians, gave the audience a clear view of the organization, beliefs, and feelings of the Native Americans who probably welcomed Prince Henry and his explorers. They found a number of Masonic symbols, which were similar to theirs; however, they feel that many questions as to the historical significance are left unanswered. Dr. Christmas said that in Mi'kmaq oral tradition a great white man with a beard had come from far away beyond recorded memory.

Newport Tower

James P. Whittall, Jr., Archaeological director of the Early Sites Research Center in Massachusetts, spoke on the studies and beliefs surrounding the round stone building in Newport, Rhode Island. It was constructed in the style of Norman Romanisk architecture inspired from the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The unique style of the Newport Tower was further influenced by the Templars round churches of Scandinavia. Local building traditions from whence the builders came also influenced its style. Determination of the date of original construction is usually based upon the study of features, such as arches, windows, niches, beam holes, keystones, mortar, and the orientation of openings. Those found within the Newport Tower have been dated in the broad range of 1150 - 1400. However, some specific features narrow the range to the late 1300's.

Is it possible that Prince Henry did not do it!

Brian Smith, Shetland Archives, offered a flamboyant array of reasons he feels cast a shadow upon the claim that Prince Henry Sinclair crossed the ocean to North America. Among them are a 500 year delay in making claims; the lack of contemporaneous claims by Sinclairs or Templars; numerous errors found in the Zeno Narratives; "Zichmni" referred to in the Zeno Narratives is thought to be really the Duke of Surrand; Nicolo Zeno was a political prisoner in Venice from 1360 to 1400; and the Zeno Narratives never mentioned Orkney.

Proofs that the Voyage occurred

Niven Sinclair presented a comprehensive set of "Proofs". These are the result of Niven's tireless efforts to re-trace Henry Sinclair's footsteps around the world. Facts were derived from many reliable references. Aspiring for greatness, Henry became a Baron in 1358, Ambassador to Copenhagen in 1363, Crusader in 1365, and Jarl of Orkney in 1379. While serving as Ambassador, Henry had contact with Carlo Zeno, Ivar Bardsson, Paul Knutson, and of course, Queen Margaret, at which time his planning for the voyage began. In 1392 he went to London to purchase some ships. The "Proofs" are as follows: Zeno Map: Having enlisted Nicolo Zeno as fleet commander several years earlier, four ships were dispatched by Henry to chart the northern seas during 1393 - 1395. The Treaty of Kalmer was signed in 1397. Contingency plans: Ten year prior to this, Prince Henry gave indication of his forthcoming Voyage, because he distributed much of his land; to his brother John he gave Pentland and Shetland, brother David received the lands of Aberdeen, and to his daughter Elizabeth, he directed that his lands in Norway would go to her if he died without a male heir. Accuracy of Zeno Map: For the next several centuries, the Zeno Map was used by mariners and recognised by such well-known cartographers as Ruscelli, Ortelius, and Cornielle. Professor Hapgood found 37 points of identity between the Zeno Map and recent aerial surveys by the US Air Force. Zeno Narrative: Many references in the Narrative could not have been fabricated by a writer two centuries later. These include the Spring of Pitch and name references to places. 14th Century Cannon: Found in the waters of Louisburg Harbour, this cannon is exactly the same as one on display in Venice, which is authenticated to be late 14th century in origin. Newport Tower: Many features in this Tower provide good evidence, though contested, that it was built by the Sinclair expedition. Legends of the Micmacs: There are many clues in the oral history of the Native Americans, which indicate the influence of Henry Sinclair in their land. Westford Knight Carving: Located in Westford, MA, there is a stone ledge onto which is carved a full sized armorial effigy of a 14th century knight, holding a shield bearing the crest of Clan Gunn. Boat Stone: An egg-shaped rock measuring about 18" diameter was found in Westford, MA, bearing a carved impression of a 14th century ship and the numerals "184" with an arrow. Scottish evidence in Rosslyn Chapel: Carved in stone about 1450 there are some Aloe and some Corn, both believed to have been unknown in Europe at the time, unless they were transported back from America by Prince Henry.

Convincing Proofs

Extensive research has been performed by Niven Sinclair. He offers several "proofs", which will help to convince the "doubters" about Prince Henry Sinclair's expedition. These are quoted in part below:

Contingency plans. Before Henry Sinclair left on his voyage, he made certain dispositions of his lands to his brothers, John and David. To his eldest daughter, Elizabeth, who married Sir John Drummond of Cargill, he left his lands in Norway, provided he died without a male heir.
The Zeno Map. In 1398, Prince Henry Sinclair sent Nicolo Zeno with four ships to carry out a survey of Greenland. Nicolo took John, the Bishop of Orkney, with him to Greenland, and on his return two years later, he took Henrik, Bishop of Greenland, to the Orkneys. This exchange of Bishops appears in the Vatican publication "Hierarchia Catholica" on page 283, covering the years 1198 to 1431. It is a powerful confirmation of the Zeno survey of Greenland. The verification of the "Zeno Narrative" and Map was given further corroboration by such renowned cartographers as Professors Hapgood, Taylor, and Hobbs; Professors Barry Fell and Roger McLeod; Lord John Julian Norwich (noted Venetian historian); J. H. Major (Secretary of the Royal Geographic Society), and many others.
Accuracy attested & confirmed. For the next several centuries the "Zeno Map" was used by such well-known cartographers as Ruscelli (in 1561), Mercator (in 1569), and Ortelius (in 1574).
The Zeno Narrative. In the words of Professor Taylor of London University, it appears to the present writer that it would be quite out of the question for any author to invent a story which in every detail reflects fact about which it would be quite impossible that he could have been aware.
Zeno had never been to Rosslyn. The "Zeno Narrative" speaks of the "spring of pitch" which the reconnaissance party of 100 soldiers found at Stellarton and which they reported back to Prince Henry at Guysborough, both places in Nova Scotia. On hearing this, Prince Henry considered it was a "good omen" because there was a similar "spring of pitch" at his home at Rosslyn in Scotland. The "pitch" had been used as a medicine against the Black Death. Now this story is faithfully recounted in the Zeno Narrative, although Antonio Zeno had never been to Rosslyn. In other words, he could only have heard of the "spring of pitch" of Rosslyn from Henry as they both stood listening to the report of the returning soldiers in Nova Scotia.
The Westford Knight in Massachusetts. The effigy of a medieval knight is described by Professor Lethbridge of Cambridge University; "The sword carved on the rock can hardly be anything but a medieval sword. The whole hilt looks about AD 1200-1300.
Opinion of noted expert on heraldry. Sir Iain Moncrieffe, the Albany Herald (one of Scotland's most noted authorities on heraldry) writes, "Henry Sinclair was related to the Gunns . . . so the discovery at Westford of what is apparently an effigy of a fourteenth century knight in bascinet, mail, and surcoat, with a heater-shaped shield bearing devices of a Norse-Scottish character as might have been expected of a knight in Jarl Henry Sinclair's entourage
Newport Tower. In Rhode Island the Newport Tower is constructed in a similar style to the Norse/Scottish buildings of the Western and Northern Isles. More important, every single measurement within Newport Tower is based on the Scottish ell, which equals three Norse feet.
Indian language. Professor Roger McLeod of Lowell University in Massachusetts compiled a huge dictionary of Norse and Gaelic words, which have been assimilated into the language of the tribes along the eastern seaboard of America. Reider T. Sherwin in his book "The Viking and the Red Man" also writes about the Norse origin of the Algonquin language.
Indian Legends. When Henry began to build a ship from local materials, the Micmacs tell of how "He built himself an island, planted trees on it, and sailed away in his stone canoe." When the Narragansett Indians were asked who built the Newport Tower, they replied, "They were fire- haired men with green eyes who sailed up river in a ship like a gull with a broken wing."
Rosslyn Chapel. Far across the ocean in Scotland at the Rosslyn Chapel there are stone carvings of Indian maize, the American aloe cactii and sassafras, carved before Columbus was born!
The Hakluyt Society. From the Boston Herald in 1892, one can read; "Leif came to the land of North America, built houses, made friends of the natives and explored the land, giving names to places some of which exist to the present day. These names were placed on the charts and are the same which Henry St. Clair used, affixed to his maps, now in possession of the Hakluyt Society."

Frequently Asked Questions about Prince Henry

· Are you sure that Prince Henry Sinclair really discovered America before Columbus?

Yes, I am! Historians are very correct in seeking conclusive evidence. Unfortunately, the documentation about Henry Sinclair is fragmentary. Thus many people have expressed doubts. Others have studied the saga of the Voyage of 1398, and they are willing to accept the basic premise that Prince Henry Sinclair explored America 94 years before the time of Columbus.

You may ask, "why do people doubt the story?" The answer is obvious when you think that there were no public relations agents and no media 600 years ago. (Unlike a century later, when Columbus benefited from the printing press to project his story.) The reports of the Sinclair Voyage reached very few ears, and just as important, the leading characters quickly vanished. In effect, the story was withheld!

Prince Henry died in battle in Orkney soon after his return from America. Some people believe he was assassinated by members of the Hanseatic League, who were threatened by his success in finding new trade routes.

The Navigator for Sinclair's fleet, Antonio Zeno, also died after his return to Venice. The Log of the Voyage, maintained by Antonio was placed in storage and not discovered for 160 years in 1558!

The son of Prince Henry, by the same name, was captured at sea, while he was escorting the young Crown Prince James from Scotland to France for safekeeping. Both were held in English prison for many years. (This Henry, married Egida, daughter of King Robert II)

· Is there any reason to believe that Christopher Columbus knew anything about Prince Henry Sinclair's voyage to America?

His daughter, Elizabeth, passed the story along to her son, who told his in-laws, who were the parents of Columbus's wife! (Elizabeth married Sir John Drummond, brother of King Robert III's wife. Their son married into the Perestrello family)

· What's the evidence of the Voyage?

The Zeno Map, was drawn by Nicolo & Antonio Zeno, in 1393 in Prince Henry's ships and under his orders. This Map is known to have been used by mariners for the next 150 years. It showed the North Atlantic Ocean, all the way to Nova Scotia, with incredible accuracy.

The Zeno Narrative, or ship's log, includes a number of references, which would have been impossible for others to fabricate. It describes the voyage and landing.

The Westford Knight carving in Massachusetts shows a Medieval Knight, bearing the Clan Gunn crest and a sword of unquestioned 14th century design. Many archaeologists agree it was carved in the late 1300's.

The contingency plans made by Prince Henry before this voyage indicate that he was embarking on an expedition from which he might never return. His lands were disbursed to his sons and daughters.

The Micmac Legends of the Native Americans have many references to a likeness of the Earl of Orkney, which in Indian language sounds like "Glooscap". The fishing net and reference to his "stone canoe" are examples.

Many words in the Micmac language have a great similarity with Norse words, as were spoken by the Sinclair explorers.

In Scotland there is a Rosslyn Chapel, in which there are hundreds of stone carvings, made in the mid 1400's. Some show American corn and Aloe Cactus, which was unknown in Europe at that time. It could only have been known if a Sinclair returned from travelling in America!

· The Scots love their heros. But, Prince Henry isn't as well known as William Wallace & Robert the Bruce. Does he belong in the front rank of Scots great?

Yes indeed. In time, it is certain that Henry Sinclair will gain the recognition he deserves in history.

· Did Prince Henry really precede Columbus?

Yes! The date of Prince Henry's appointment as Earl of Orkney on August 2, 1379, is unquestionably documented, well before 1492.

· The "Scotland on Sunday" newspaper quotes you as saying "Unfortunately Scots here in the USA for some reason don't seem to be able to pull together. There isn't enough cooperation between clans. Clan Gunn has stopped talking to us" Is that true?

The single greatest lesson that Prince Henry taught the world was Harmonious Diversity. He was NOT a conquestitor. He was welcomed by the Micmac Indians, and their Legends report harmony in their relations with Glooscap.

Every human being is different from others. Their likes and dislikes are not the same. However, the magic adhesive, which brings people together, is a feeling of Common Objectives. When individuals focus upon the same Goals, they are harmonious. That's when great achievements are made! Differences become unimportant.

All Scots, including the Sinclairs and the Gunns, and in fact, all Europeans, share the Common Objective of recognising and celebrating their earliest explorations of America. We also share the Goal of Peace and Harmony among mankind.

The Gunns and the Sinclairs will certainly celebrate the 600th anniversary together at the NH Highland Games this year! We expect a grand event, attended by 50,000 people!

A Medieval Hero For Today's World

A man of nobility, Prince Henry Sinclair was born about 1345 in Rosslyn, located near Edinburgh, Scotland. His grandfathers on his father's side had been Earls of Rosslyn, where his ancestors had lived for 400 years; likewise, his grandfathers on his mother's side had been Earls of Orkney. Seventeen generations earlier, Henry Sinclair's forefathers were Vikings. He was a man of vision and ideals, believing that God and Nature are one.

At the age of 13, Henry inherited the title of Baron of Rosslyn, when his father was slain while fighting with the Teutonic Knights in Lithuania. He was a Templar, having first hand acquaintance with older Templars who had escaped the Suppression thirty-seven years earlier. In addition, he was the Grand Master of Scottish Masons, a hereditary position granted to the Sinclairs by King Robert the Bruce in 1308.

By the age of 21, Henry was Knighted by the King of Scotland and he was granted the title of Lord Chief Justice of Scotland. As Ambassador to Denmark, he attended the marriage of Margaret to King Magnus of Denmark in Copenhagen. Soon thereafter, he married their daughter. Unfortunately, she died and Henry remarried to Janet Halyburton in Scotland.

While visiting other capitals in Europe, Henry Sinclair met Carlo Zeno of Venice. Then, Carlo was promoting support for another Crusade, this one called King Peter's Crusade. In Venice Henry Sinclair observed the Arsenale as it produced ships at the amazing rate of one per day! Henry Sinclair joined the Crusade, just as his ancestors had enlisted in previous Crusades. In 1365 their 400 ships attacked Alexandria and flattened the enemy. As a result, the Islamic nations banned trading for the Venetians, forcing them to search for more trading routes.

When the Earl of Orkney died, and there were no closer blood descendants, Henry became the premier Jarl of Norway and Prince of Orkney. He was also the Duke of Oldenburg in Denmark, as well as the Baron of Rosslyn. Henry Sinclair travelled to England to purchase several ships for his navy. In a short period of time, Henry had developed a fleet of ships larger than the navy of Denmark! He was successful in exerting control over his far-flung kingdom of Orkney with its 200 islands, which consisted of 5000 square miles.

When he was 53 years of age, an elder to many, Henry organised a voyage of twelve or thirteen ships. It was manned by a crew of 200-300 persons, and sailed on an epic voyage from Orkney to the Faeroe Islands & Iceland, on to Greenland, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and New England. During his visit to North America, he established peaceful rapport with the indigenous people, the Micmac Indians, whom he respectfully called "his beloved children."

For his effective manner of human relations among diverse cultures, combined with the courage and determination to achieve enormous objectives, Henry Sinclair has earned a place among our World's greatest heroes. While role models are difficult to find in the modern World, we can look to the Medieval Ages, where 600 years ago Prince Henry lived a life worthy of being held as an example for our youth and ourselves today.

The Rising Volcono

2011-01-27T21:16:00.000-08:00

As with Iran in ’79, Islamists, could hijack pro-democracy movements happening around the Arabs World especially in Yemen, Tunisia, Egypt and somehow in Jordan and other parts. It is as “We're on thick ice, but even that melts eventually."

Any expert on the matter will agree that we have to cast an uneasy eye at the civil unrest spreading through the region.

On Thursday, Yemen joined the list of Arab states experiencing unprecedented demonstrations calling for authoritarian leaders to step down, and Egypt braced for more civil unrest.

While no analysts here predict any immediate ramifications for democratic countries’ national security, some said mass protest movements that begin as pro-democracy uprisings could easily be hijacked by Islamists.

“We need to understand that we are living on a volcano,” said Maj.- Gen. (res.) Ya’acov Amidror, former head of the IDF’s Research and Assessment Directorate.

I certainly agree that conditions can change from today until tomorrow. We must ask ourselves, what is the worst case scenario, “We are on thick ice, but even that melts eventually."

Advice we have heard from certain countries in Western Europe [suggesting that the uprisings could lead to a wave of democratic revolutions] should not be followed. There’s no immediate fear of any security escalation. The main question is: In the long term, will we be ready for all scenarios. There’s a reasonable chance that if a revolution takes place in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood would rise to power. That would be bad for all democracies.

The true struggle in Egypt was not between “Mubarak and pro-democracy elements, but between Mubarak and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Casting his eye on Lebanon, the recent confrontation between the pro-Western March 8 alliance and the Hizbullah-led March 14 bloc was not as severe as met the eye.

It’s true that the two camps have been in a political confrontation that became sharper. But there is a clear interest for both sides to continue to cooperate – not only to prevent a civil war, but to enjoy the best of both worlds.

“So long as there is a unity government, then pro-Western camp can ask the West for economic and military aid, while pointing to democracy in Lebanon, a free economy, and a functioning parliament. The role of Hizbullah is to continue to be the most powerful military force in Lebanon, and to have strategic control.

It’s true that pro-democracy voices are being expressed – and that is positive – but we don’t know how it will end. Even in Tunisia, where the Islamists are weak, we don’t know how it will end. We can’t forget that in Iran, at the end of the 1970s, the uprising against the shah was led by [pro-democracy] youths who took the streets – but this was taken over by Islamists in the end.

Was Israel the Birthplace of Modern Humans?

2011-01-17T09:19:00.000-08:00

It has long been believed that modern humans emerged from the continent of Africa 200,000 years ago. Now Tel Aviv University archaeologists have uncovered evidence that Homo sapiens roamed the land now called Israel as early as 400,000 years ago -- the earliest evidence for the existence of modern humans anywhere in the world.

The findings were discovered in the Qesem Cave, a pre-historic site located near Rosh Ha'ayin that was first excavated in 2000. Prof. Avi Gopher and Dr. Ran Barkai of Tel Aviv University's Department of Archaeology, who run the excavations, and Prof. Israel Hershkowitz of the university's Department of Anatomy and Anthropology and Sackler School of Medicine, together with an international team of scientists, performed a morphological analysis on eight human teeth found in the Qesem Cave.

This analysis, which included CT scans and X-rays, indicates that the size and shape of the teeth are very similar to those of modern humans. The teeth found in the Qesem Cave are very similar to other evidence of modern humans from Israel, dated to around 100,000 years ago, discovered in the Skhul Cave in the Carmel and Qafzeh Cave in the Lower Galilee near Nazareth. The results of the researchers' findings are being published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

Reading the past

Qesem Cave is dated to a period between 400,000 and 200,000 years ago, and archaeologists working there believe that the findings indicate significant evolution in the behavior of ancient humans. This period of time was crucial in the history of humankind from cultural and biological perspectives. The teeth that are being studied indicate that these changes are apparently related to evolutionary changes taking place at that time.

Prof. Gopher and Dr. Barkai noted that the findings related to the culture of those who dwelled in the Qesem Cave -- including the systematic production of flint blades; the regular use of fire; evidence of hunting, cutting and sharing of animal meat; mining raw materials to produce flint tools from subsurface sources -- reinforce the hypothesis that this was, in fact, innovative and pioneering behavior that may correspond with the appearance of modern humans.

An unprecedented discovery

According to researchers, the discoveries made in the Qesem Cave may overturn the theory that modern humans originated on the continent of Africa. In recent years, archaeological evidence and human skeletons found in Spain and China also undermined this proposition, but the Qesem Cave findings because of their early age is an unprecedented discovery.

Excavations at Qesem Cave continue and the researchers hope to uncover additional finds that will enable them to confirm the findings published up to now and to enhance our understanding of the evolution of humankind -- especially the emergence of modern man.

Netanyahu losing control

2010-12-12T09:03:00.000-08:00

The prime minister has sustained numerous blows in recent days and weeks. None of them is supposed to surprise him or his associates, as he is the main party responsible for them. As a result, at this time the almost official countdown to the demise of the second Netanyahu government is underway.

Within fewer than 20 months, Netanyahu managed to do the impossible – that is, to repeat all his past mistakes.

He ruined Israel’s foreign relations with many countries, headed by the United States, zigzagged himself to death with a series of puzzling decisions and counter-decisions, messed up the diplomatic process vis-à-vis the Palestinians because he capitulated to the Right, made secular and centrist voters sick and tired of his government because of the liquidation sale to the haredim, and turned his office into a hornets’ nest that is almost impossible to work at.

Yet the prime minister did not manage to do one thing – to keep his wife from getting involved in matters out of her jurisdiction.

Netanyahu also managed to be perceived as the major culprit, along with Interior Minister Eli Yishai, behind the horrifying neglect of Israel’s firefighting and rescue services. And we haven’t even mentioned the controversial laws passed by his government, and his hesitation and inability to take decisions which manifested itself through the establishment of infinite needless committees that keep on putting off important decisions.

Barak out of excuses

On the diplomatic front, the prime minister just got another reminder that time does not stand still. The American Administration’s announcement that the talks failed conveyed a sense of losing its patience with the bargaining vis-à-vis Netanyahu in recent weeks. Officials in Washington decided to put an end to the virtual reality that helped Netanyahu maintain his coalition; a reality that painted a distorted picture as though the diplomatic process was still alive and well.

The American decision to declare that contacts with Israel over the freeze issue failed has dramatic political implications. The Labor Party, which as it is had been reaching boiling point in recent months, may find itself out of the government within a short period of time should we not see rapid progress on the diplomatic front. Ehud Barak no longer has any excuses left to keep his crumbling party in the coalition.

Now, the pressure shall grow and senior Labor officials are talking about the beginning of the end and full recognition that “everything is stuck.” And when this is the case, Labor has no reason to stay in Netanyahu’s government, and the prime minister may end up with the coalition he most feared: A narrow rightist coalition.

The second Netanyahu government can be likened to a car that is about to run out of fuel. It’s going on vapors at this time; the remnants of shady political deals and the personal fears of politicians who are clinging to their government seats like a drowning man hanging on to straw. Yet any rookie parliamentary aide knows that one cannot drive for long on vapors. The car is indeed moving, yet it’s only make-belief; it won’t be making it far.

Source: Ynet

Lost Civilization

2010-12-11T09:53:00.000-08:00

Veiled beneath the Persian Gulf, a once-fertile landmass may have supported some of the earliest humans outside Africa some 75,000 to 100,000 years ago, a new review of research suggests.

At its peak, the floodplain now below the Gulf would have been about the size of Great Britain, and then shrank as water began to flood the area. Then, about 8,000 years ago, the land would have been swallowed up by the Indian Ocean, the review scientist said.

The study, which is detailed in the December issue of the journal Current Anthropology, has broad implications for aspects of human history. For instance, scientists have debated over when early modern humans exited Africa, with dates as early as 125,000 years ago and as recent as 60,000 years ago (the more recent date is the currently accepted paradigm), according to study researcher Jeffrey Rose, an archaeologist at the University of Birmingham in the U.K.

"I think Jeff's theory is bold and imaginative, and hopefully will shake things up," Robert Carter of Oxford Brookes University in the U.K. told LiveScience. "It would completely rewrite our understanding of the out-of-Africa migration. It is far from proven, but Jeff and others will be developing research programs to test the theory."

Viktor Cerny of the Archaeogenetics Laboratory, the Institute of Archaeology, in Prague, called Rose's finding an "excellent theory," in an e-mail to LiveScience, though he also points out the need for more research to confirm it.

The findings have sparked discussion among researchers, including Carter and Cerny, who were allowed to provide comments within the research paper, about who exactly the humans were who occupied the Gulf basin.

"Given the presence of Neanderthal communities in the upper reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates River, as well as in the eastern Mediterranean region, this may very well have been the contact zone between moderns and Neanderthals," Rose told LiveScience. In fact, recent evidence from the sequencing of the Neanderthal genome suggests interbreeding, meaning we are part caveman.

The Gulf Oasis would have been a shallow inland basin exposed from about 75,000 years ago until 8,000 years ago, forming the southern tip of the Fertile Crescent, according to historical sea-level records.

And it would have been an ideal refuge from the harsh deserts surrounding it, with fresh water supplied by the Tigris, Euphrates, Karun and Wadi Baton Rivers, as well as by upwelling springs, Rose said. And during the last ice age when conditions were at their driest, this basin would've been at its largest.

In fact, in recent years, archaeologists have turned up evidence of a wave of human settlements along the shores of the Gulf dating to about 7,500 years ago.

Saudi Arabia funding terror

2010-12-06T19:03:00.000-08:00

Even US allies in the Arab world continue to fund terror organizations, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed in a cable posted Monday by WikiLeaks. The document, written last December, said that citizens in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE are the main funders of various organizations including al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Hamas, Lashkar e-Taiba and others.

Saudi Arabia, a principal US ally on both military and diplomatic levels, is presented in the cables as a particularly troubling problem. A cable from February this year said Saudi funding of terrorists remains a serious problem, and that Saudi Arabia does little to prevent such activity, relying mainly on tips from the CIA.

In a memo, Clinton notes that terror groups raise millions of dollars each year from Saudi sources, often during the hajj pilgrimage and the month of Ramadan. It is an ongoing challenge to persuade the authorities to make prevention of such activity a top priority, Clinton wrote. She added that Saudi contributors were the main source of funding for terror groups around the world.

In the leaked cables, Clinton and other senior sources note the "strategic gap" between the US and the UAE, which is exploited by terror groups. Qatar, which defeated the US in its bid to host the 2022 World Cup, is described as the "worst" in the region in its struggle against terror, while Kuwait is noted as a key point in the transfer of funds.

Clinton emphasized in a State Department internal memo that political will must be formed in those states in order to block terror funding networks, which threaten the stability in Pakistan and Afghanistan and threaten the lives of coalition soldiers.

Kuwait: US taking draconian measures

However, while the US may be frustrated by the failure of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states to prevent the flow of funds, Arab states claim the US is "jumping to conclusions." According to cables from various US diplomats published in the New York Times and other papers, these states hold that the US has insufficient evidence that Islamic charitable groups and individuals fund terror.

A cable sent to Washington reports that senior figures in Kuwait oppose what they call America's "draconian measures" against important charitable organizations. US sources repeatedly expressed their concern regarding such organizations which are not under the supervision of state authorities, and are used to fund groups abroad.

However, another document details a meeting between a Kuwaiti minister and the US ambassador, during which the minister was "honest and pessimistic" about abilities to stop those funding terror in the framework of the law and political climate in Kuwait.

In another cable, the US embassy in Riyadh reports that the finance minister told the Saudi intelligence services about a visit of three senior Taliban members who were coming to the country to raise funds. The Saudis said they knew nothing of the visit. Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, who managed affairs during the absence of King Abdullah who went to the US for an operation, said it was a case of poor judgment and not support for terror.

Former Catholic theologian says much of the clergy is gay

2010-11-22T09:42:00.000-08:00

Theologian David Berger, was correspondent professor for the Pontifical Academy of St Thomas Aquinas in the Vatican, where he said his academic work was watched and censored where it concerned homosexuality.

As a gay man himself, he told Der Spiegel in an interview that living among the Catholic homophobia was a nightmare.

“It must be acknowledged that a large number of Catholic clerics and trainee priests in Europe and the United States are homosexually-inclined,” he said.

He said when he was writing for theological magazines, he had to use phrases such as fornication-partner rather than life-partner, and that the neutral word homosexual could not be used, but gay men were described as perverse sodomites.

“The worst homophobia in the Catholic Church comes from homophile priests, who are desperately fighting their own sexuality,” he said.

“Obviously, those who follow their urges are repudiated more fiercely when one is so painfully repressing that disposition oneself.”

Now working as a teacher in Cologne, Berger outed himself as gay this April after the Bishop of Essen Franz-Josepf Overbeck described homosexuality as perverse and a sin during an appearance on a television chat show.

Berger’s book about his experiences within the Church The holy illusion – a gay theologian in the Catholic Church which is published this week.

The Local/hc

Kidnapping Plot Thwarted

2010-11-13T10:20:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago, the world woke up with the eminent threat of courier bombs through DHL and Fedex located in Dubai, Greece and UK from provenance of Yemen to United States, France and Germany. New tentacles of terror cells are on the rise using modern technology like Facebook, Skype, msn and others, to kidnap people who bear surnames of famous families and professional in the free-world. Their target is mainly high profile Israelis, Jews in the Diaspora and business related people.

Several months ago, a certain Xhemajedlin Mustafi also known as Xhemo, age 22 years, contacted me and presented himself as the Former Advisor and Friend of the Vice Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia. At first, I was hesitant to continue conversation but his attitude was very Pro-Western and Zionist which was intriguing for a young Macedonian of Albanian origin.

Over few weeks, he held discussion over how to improve collaboration between Muslims, Christians and Jews in Macedonia and how they can integrate the society as a united force for making the country as a vehicle of development for social upliftment.

The alleged “Advisor” had something else in his mind; he wanted to be in contact with Israeli Diplomats and wanted to meet them for holding bilateral talks to enhance cooperation between The State of Israel and the Republic of Macedonia. I told him that for such things, I can only advise which diplomatic channels to use as I do not get involved in state matters of countries. He was advised that the Macedonian Foreign Ministry to contact its embassy if any in Israel for holding an official preparation for the travel with the Israeli counterpart using all established protocols. Nevertheless, his plan was, inviting the Former Foreign Minister MK Tzipi Livni, the Head of the Opposition Party Kadima to Macedonia. I was clear to him that I cannot help him in such matters.

There were some doubts regarding the state of the continuous change in his plans and hence for coming few weeks he remained quiet. He surprisingly gave me his MSN live and Skype address and wanted to introduce his Advisor friends and also business circles which he did and I was perplexed that he was well conversant in English but his other colleagues could not speak English . At the same time he would use to call from France, Turkey and other European countries to inform that he is travelling on state matters.

He was quietly laying his traps for other professional and he contacted Ms Bat-Zion Susskind-Sacks who is ardent support of Israel and Friend. She is a professional in the Health Sector. The “Advisor” was not aware that Batzi is also a correspondent for Weekly Blitz. He held direct talks with Batzi and apparently, there was disagreement between them and Xhemo again contacted me to intervene as Batzi wrongly understood him and wanted to reaffirm that he is a very pro-Israel Muslim. I just conveyed the message to Batzi and they both resumed their talks to sign a proposal for health care reform in Macedonia and in last phone call, he announced the great news that the contract was signed.

The articles below are extracts of the investigation carried out by Ms. Bat-Zion and Shoaib Choudhury of Weekly Blitz.

Israel correspondent of Weekly Blitz, Bat Zion Susskind has successfully busted a huge crime racket inside the ministry of a member state of European Union. She spent several months in investigating the matter and finally was able to get the specific evidence of crime inside the Ministry of Health in Macedonia.

According to information, Xhemajledin Mustafi, introducing himself to be the advisor to the Ministry, offered job to many people in the ministry. Dr. Bujar Osmani is the minister in charge of the ministry. In an email to Blitz correspondent [Blitz correspondent did not disclose her real identity], Xhemajledin Mustafi wrote:

"We are looking for a foreign advisor with experience in the field of public health administration because now we are going to apply for EU funds on some certain important projects and we need your expertise. If you agree to work with us I will send you the contract of work and organize you a meeting with the Minister in Skopje, Macedonia."

According to Ms. Susskind, Mustafi, who also introduced himself as Jemo stressed that his government insisted on hiring an Israeli consultant with a "Western education" as they were interested in privatizing their health care system in the fashion of Israel and other developed countries. Mustafi also stressed that though he was a Muslim, he was a supporter of the State of Israel and the US.

Xhemajledin Mustafi would generally conduct the negotiations on Skype as he claimed to be travelling over Europe, as part of his Macedonian government business.

Subsequently, our correspondent continued to communicate with Xhemajledin Mustafi. Without knowing the identity of Weekly Blitz correspondent, Mustafi was continuing his fraudulent communications and were giving false statements related to the activities inside the Ministry of Health.

On October 24, 2010, Xhemajledin Mustafi wrote in an email:

"Today 24th of October 2010 the Government of the Republic of Macedonia in the session opened for the public has decided or saying more professionally has taken responsibility to implement the health care reform and engaging international consultants.

And according to this Governmental decision there will be a budget of 70.000.000 EUR for the implementation of the first stage of this national and top priority project!"

On November 1, 2010, Xhemajledin Mustafi sent a contract to Ms. Susskind by fax. On receiving the contract copy, which is made on the official stationary of the Ministry of Health of Macedonia, with signatures of the minister Dr. Osmani and so-called advisor to the ministry, Xhemajledin Mustafi, our Israel correspondent contacted the ministry and got it confirmed from the ministry that the document was forged one. The so-called contract came from fax number 02-322-8220, which is owned by MANERA COMMERCE, Macedonia.

It is learn from various sources that Xhemajledin Mustafi was continuing such fraudulent activities using the name of the ministry of health as well as other high officials and ministers of Macedonia. It is apprehended that, Xhemajledin Mustafi is a member of fraud racket in Macedonia, who was using ministry's stationary and minister's forged signature in befooling people.

Latest bust into the huge scam inside the ministry of health in Macedonia surely leaves alarming signal for the government of that country.

Ms. Bat Zion Susskind is continuing her investigation on unearthing the mystery behind suspicious involvement of Xhemajledin Mustafi, who claimed to be the advisor to the Ministry of Health in Macedonia. Meanwhile, Weekly Blitz is also investigating the issue through numerous channels.

The background of the story in brief is Xhemajledin Mustafi, introducing himself to be the advisor to the Ministry, offered job to many people in the ministry. Dr. Bujar Osmani is the minister in charge of the ministry of Health. Xhemajledin Mustafi would generally conduct the negotiations on Skype as he claimed to be travelling over Europe, as part of his Macedonian government business. He was frequently changing his cell phone numbers and skype addresses while contacting various Israeli nationals.

Xhemajledin Mustafi also introduced himself as the family friend of Musa Xhaferi, Albanian born Deputy Prime Minister of Macedonia, who earlier was the overseas representative of the National Liberation Army. The National Liberation Army [NLA] also known as the Macedonian UÇK, was a militant organization that operated in the Republic of Macedonia in 2001 and was closely associated with the Kosovo Liberation Army [KLA].

The NLA was founded in the fall of 1999, and was led by former KLA Commander Ali Ahmeti, nephew of one of the founders of the KLA. Ahmeti is known to Slav-Macedonian nationalists as the Macedonian version of Osama Bin laden. The Macedonian government claimed the NLA were an extremist terrorist organization seeking to separate Albanian majority areas and unites those territories with Albania. Beginning on January 22, 2001 the NLA began to carry out attacks on Macedonian security forces, using light weapons. The conflict soon escalated and by the start of March 2001, the NLA had taken effective control of a large swathe of northern and western Macedonia and came within 12 miles of the capital Skopje. In March 2001, NLA members failed to take the city of Tetovo in an open attack, but controlled the hills and mountains between Tetovo and Kosovo. On May 3, 2001 a Macedonian government counter offensive failed in the Kumanovo area. By June 8, the rebels took Aracinovo, a village outside of Skopje. On August 16, the two sides signed a peace deal ending the open conflict.

Although the conflict in Macedonia was brief, it was not scant of war crimes. According to Human Rights Watch, "Ethnic Albanian rebels in Macedonia tortured, sexually abused road workers after abducting them from the Skopje-Tetovo highway. Dozens of ethnic Macedonians were kidnapped. While many were released after a short time, 12 people apparently remained missing after the NLA released 14 others in late September. In October, reports suggested that the 12 may have been killed and buried in mass graves near Neproshteno. The case was referred by the Macedonian government to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for investigation.

The KLA was regarded by the US as a terrorist group until 1998 when it was de-listed, and then the UK and the US lobbied France to do the same. The US then cultivated diplomatic relationships with the KLA leaders. In 1999 the KLA was officially disbanded and their members entered other armed groups such as various Albanian Macedonian rebels, the UCPMB in the Preševo Valley region and UNMIK instituted NGOs within Kosovo such as the Kosovo Protection Corps [in accordance with UNSC resolution 1244 which required the establishment of a civilian emergency protection body to replace the former KLA] and Kosovo Police Force. Some of the Kosovo Liberation Army leadership opted to enter politics, and by taking advantage of the 1999 confusion they still lead the Albanian faction of the partially recognized Kosovar government.

Xhemajledin Mustafi [22] and his 'family friend' Musa Xhaferi are 'former Mujahedins'. And most importantly, though National Liberation Army of Macedonia are disbanded, in reality, the terror outfits remains at the deep cover level enjoying silent support from various important and influential people in the Macedonian government. It may be mentioned here that, National Liberation Army is no exception than Revolutionary Guards in Iran or mega-terrorist outfits like Hamas and Hezbollah. Importantly, leaders in NLA, KLA and others are fanatic Muslims with Wahhabi indoctrinations of waging Jihad [Holy War] against non-Muslims.

According to our own findings, current and former leaders of NLA were planning to allure a number of Israeli nationals with job offers and ultimately make them captive in Macedonia with the target of using them as 'pawn' in getting released reveral Al Qaeda, Hamas and other Islamist militants in Israel and United States.

With this goal in mind, deep cover Jihadist of NLA, Xhemajledin Mustafi was communicating with Israeli nationals and offered them jobs with Health Ministry in Macedonia.

But, Weekly Blitz's Israel correspondent very effectively foiled the entire plot when she started getting several documents and information in hand from Mustafi. One of the documents was the official agreement letter issued by the Macedonian Health Ministry, where the emblem used in official stationary was not current one. It is understood that the plotters intentionally used the old emblem with the ulterior motive of denying any involvement of Macedonian government, once several Israelis were made captive by Islamist terror groups in that country.

Since publication of the first report in Weekly Blitz, Xhemajledin Mustafi went into hiding. It is believed that, Mustafi is sheltered by several influential people in the Macedonian government.

The investigation is still being carried and bits and pieces of the puzzle is being unearthed and it is apparently clear that the plan of the so called Advisor Xhemo was to invite High Profile Israelis (VIPs) and People belonging to famous families to Macedonia and hence kidnap them. It can also be assumed that he is being used and brainwashed by them for carrying out their operations or he might be a jihadist himself. In a conversation with a friend from Italy, whose parents lived in Macedonia during the Gulf war, confirmed that the Terror cells are hiding in Macedonia and said not to forget what happened in Kurdistan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Macedonia was made aware of all these and apparently, this could an embarrassment for them as they have not still released any official statement regarding this issue. Had, Batzi not carried out this investigation in time, I could have been kidnapped during my travel there as I had accepted to visit Macedonia in March 2011 and had asked to be sent a detail list of programme where I would intervene.

Thankful to Ms Bat-Zion Susskind-Sacks and Shoaib Choudhurry for their investigation for exposing this plot.

Iran fails to get seat on UN Women board

2010-11-12T10:11:00.000-08:00

Iran failed to secure a seat on a key board running the new UN super agency to improve women's rights as fierce lobbying by western nations and rights groups swayed an election Wednesday. Saudi Arabia, whose candidacy was also criticized, got an automatic seat and rights groups said they will now seek to put the spotlight on the kingdom's record.

Iran was beaten to an Asian seat on the executive board by East Timor, a late entrant to the contest, in a vote at the UN General Assembly. Four UN agencies were merged this year to set up UN Women under the leadership of former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet.

Iran had originally been guaranteed a place as the Asia region had put forward 10 candidates for 10 seats. Iran and Pakistan were on the agreed list. East Timor risked the wrath of its Asian neighbors by putting itself forward as a spoiler late last week, as controversy mounted over Iran's rights record, diplomats said. It won 36 votes against 19 for Iran.

The United States, European Union, Australia and Canada carried out an intensive diplomatic campaign to thwart Iran, diplomats said."It was an expression of disapproval of Iran's rights record," Norway's UN ambassador Morten Wetland told AFP, explaining his country's decision to back East Timor.

"They lost and they lost handily," commented US ambassador Susan Rice on Iran's defeat."We have made no secret of our concern that Iran joining the board of UN Women would have been an inauspicious start to that board," she told reporters.

'Shocking system of male guardianship'

Campaigners had highlighted Iran's treatment of women, including the case of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani who was sentenced to be stoned to death for adultery. Though Iran has said this will not be carried out, reports say she could now be hanged after being found guilty of the murder of her husband.

"We are extremely relieved," said Philippe Bolopion, UN specialist for the Human Rights Watch group. "Iran has a catastrophic record on rights," he said."It is a country which has distinguished itself by actively repressing women's rights activists, they have harassed many and imprisoned some," he told AFP.

A resolution on Iran's human rights is to be voted at the UN General Assembly next week and is already the subject of intense new lobbying, diplomats said. Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi had said before the vote that having either Iran or Saudi Arabia on the board of UN Women would "a joke".Ebadi said that Saudi Arabia's record on women is worse than Iran.

In Saudi Arabia women are forbidden to drive and cannot take major decisions without the permission of a male relative. "They have one of the worst records in the world when it comes to women's rights. But by being on the board they have essentially put the spotlight on their own record," said Bolopion.

"We want to use this spotlight to push them to start making some significant progress. By working to put an end to the shocking system of male guardianship, by which women in Saudi Arabia cannot make any important decisions in their lives," he said. It secured an automatic seat from a group of donor countries for which there was no vote.

The US ambassador said that UN Women is "a vitally important institution", and questioned about the Saudi presence she added: "I am not going to deny that there were several countries that are going to join the board of UN Women that have less than stellar records on women's rights and indeed human rights."

The HRW specialist said that Saudi Arabia had "bought" a seat on the UN Women board. "They have one of the worst records in the world when it comes to women's rights. But by being on the board they have essentially put the spotlight on their own record," said Bolopion.

Livni: Government suffers from political schizophrenia

2010-11-12T10:06:00.000-08:00

"I heard (Foreign Minister Avigdor) Lieberman say that whoever thinks peace with Syria can be achieved is a political hypochondriac. If we're already talking in psychiatric terms, I think a government that says this one day and then talks of peace with Syria and the Palestinians the next day – this is a government of political schizophrenia," Opposition Chairperson Tzipi Livni said Friday.

During a meeting with residents of the Menashe Regional Council, the leader of the Kadima party said the government "is not being truthful with the public or with itself."

Addressing the bill granting yeshiva students millions in state funds, Livni blamed "the bad system of government and weak politicians" for creating a situation whereby haredi parties "have a monopoly on the issue of Judaism.

"The younger generation does not want to be connected to very problematic politics that take advantage of the ruling party's (Likud) weakness. The haredi parties must not be given a monopoly on the Jewish state," she says.

Crime inside EU ministry busted!

2010-11-06T01:21:00.000-07:00

According to information, Xhemajledin Mustafi, introducing himself to be the advisor to the Ministry, offered job to many people in the ministry. Dr. Osmani is the minister in charge of the ministry. In an email to Blitz correspondent [Blitz correspondent did not disclose her real identity], Xhemajledin Mustafi wrote:

Xhemajledin Mustafi would generally conduct the negotiations on Skype as he claimed to be travelling over Europe, as part of his Macedonian government business.

On October 24, 2010, Xhemajledin Mustafi wrote in an email:

And according to this Governmental decision there will be a budget of 70.000.000 EUR for the implementation of the first stage of this national and top priority project!"

Latest bust into the huge scam inside the ministry of health in Macedonia surely leaves alarming signal for the government of that country.

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury

November 6, 2010

Multiculturalism failed miserably in Germany

2010-10-17T00:03:00.000-07:00

German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced Saturday that the multicultural model for integration in Germany has "miserably failed." For the first time, Merkel expressed a clear position in an ongoing debate over the integration of immigrants – especially Muslims – into German society, stressing that the current situation must be changed.

According to Merkel, immigrants should be required to integrate in society, by committing to learn the German language – and not only be allowed to do so voluntarily, as has been the policy up until now.

Despite her criticism, however, Merkel stressed that Islam was an "integral" part of modern Germany.

The chancellor's comment were said during a speech in front of the Christian-Democratic Union party youth congress (CDU-CSU), and came in the midst of a stormy debate ranging across the country's political spectrum, with CSU Chairman Horst Seehofer calling to stop Muslim immigration to Germany on the one hand, and President Christian Wolff declaring that Islam is part of Germany, just like Judaism and Christianity, on the other.

Merkel's remarks reinforced Seehofer's declaration on Friday, saying "multiculturalism is dead," and indicate a swerve to the right in the ruling party's policies – at least on matters pertaining to immigration.

Seehofer, who stirred a storm last week after declaring in a magazine interview that immigration from Turkey and the Arab countries – which he defined "foreign cultures" – must be stopped, added on Friday that Germany draws its values only from "Judeo-Christian tradition and humanistic values."

Although Seehofer's comments were strongly condemned by German officials including his own party members, Chancellor Merkel abstained from issuing a response.

Media war

In the past few weeks media outlets have been extensively covering various stories relating to immigrants in Germany, including a report about German students who were regularly harassed by children of immigrants, who call them names such as "pig eaters."

A popular German tabloid reported that a real estate company in one of the Gulf states conditioned signing rental contracts for apartments in the center of Berlin with adherence to "Islamic values," such as prohibition on drinking alcohol and gambling.

A comprehensive survey published this week indicated that more than a third of Germans supported sending immigrants back to their original homelands – even though some have been living in Germany for over 40 years.

According to the poll, 55% of Germans believed that Muslims are "unpleasant people," compared with 44% who held the same sentiments seven years ago.

Fifty eight percent claimed that the practice of Islam should be restricted in Germany, while one-in-ten Germans said they yearned for a "fuehrer" – a term affiliated with the Third Reich, meaning a "strong leader."

Commentators raised the possibility that public sentiments and declining coalitional approval rates prompted the Right to associate with the populist camp in an effort to garner support.

The prevalent feeling in the country is that the dam has been breached, and that it is suddenly permissible to speak against immigrants in Germany, said an integration expert from the Free University of Berlin in an interview with the New York Times.

The trial of Galileo

2010-10-10T09:31:00.000-07:00

Italian scientist convicted of heresy and confined by the Pope to house arrest in 1633 for teaching that the Earth orbits the sun. On September 20, 1633, the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei is tried by the Church for teaching that the Earth orbits the sun. As a result, on the Pope’s order, he was confined to house arrest for the remainder of his life until his death in 1642, at the age of 77.

One century earlier, Nicolaus Copernicus had published On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, the first book to outline a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology. This revolutionary theory placed the sun at center of the universe, rather than the Earth.

Geocentricism, the theory placing the Earth at the center of the Universe, had been vastly accepted since the 2^nd century AD, when firmly established by Claudius Ptolemy.

What is known as the “Galileo affair” began in 1610 when he came out against the Ptolemaic scientific view in his book Starry Messenger. Using the new telescope he had developed, he made observations supporting Copernican astronomy.

In reaction, many scientific and theological scholars attacked the theory because it seemingly contradicted Ptolemy's model of the universe, as well as several passages of Holy Scripture.

Galilei responded to that criticism in his letter to Kepler in August 1610 saying “My dear Kepler, I wish that we might laugh at the remarkable stupidity of the common herd. What do you have to say about the principal philosophers of this academy who are filled with the stubbornness of an asp and do not want to look at either the planets, the moon or the telescope, even though I have freely and deliberately offered them the opportunity a thousand times? Truly, just as the asp stops its ears, so do these philosophers shut their eyes to the light of truth.”

While Church officials were willing to let heliocentrism be taught as a hypothesis and discussed in scientific circles, the faith of the ordinary people was to be safeguarded. However, Galilei argued that his telescopic observations favored the Copernican heliocentric theory as a physical truth.

As the Inquisition started taking serious notice of Galilei’s work in 1615, he sent a letter to Grand Duchess Christina, which was an essay on the relation between the revelations of the Bible and the new discoveries then being made in science. His general stance was that the relevant passages of the Bible, which he was accused of contradicting, should not be interpreted literally, especially when taken from poetic or allegorical texts.

By 1616, the attacks on Copernicus’ ideas had reached a peak, to which Galilei responded by going to Rome in order to persuade the Catholic Church authorities not to ban heliocentrism. Ultimately, the Inquisition delivered him with an order not to "hold or defend" the idea that the Earth moves and the Sun stands still at the centre. The decree did not prevent Galileo from discussing the controversial subject.

Pope Urban VIII, elected in 1623, was a friend and supporter of Galilei who opposed his condemnation in 1616. And thus, with the Pope’s formal authorization along with that of the Inquisition, Galilei published Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems in 1632. Previously, the Pope had personally asked Galilei to give arguments for and against heliocentrism in the book, and to be careful not to advocate the controversial theory. He also requested that his own views on the matter be included in Galileo's book. Only the latter of those requests was fulfilled by Galilei.

Whether unknowingly or deliberately, Simplicio, the defender of the Geocentric view in the book, was often caught in his own errors and sometimes came across as a fool. Indeed, although Galileo states in the preface of his book that the character is named after a famous Aristotelian philosopher, the name "Simplicio" in Italian also has the connotation of "simpleton.” This portrayal of Simplicio made it appear as an advocacy book: an attack on Aristotelian geocentrism and defence of the Copernican theory.

Unfortunately for his relationship with the Pope, Galileo put the words of Urban VIII into the mouth of Simplicio. Most historians agree Galilei did not act out of malice and felt blindsided by the reaction to his book.

However, the Pope did not take the suspected public ridicule lightly, nor the Copernican advocacy. Galileo had alienated one of his biggest and most powerful supporters, the Pope, and was called to Rome to defend his writings.

With the loss of many of his defenders in Rome because of Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Galilei was ordered to stand trial on suspicion of heresy in 1633.

As a result, Galilei was found “vehemently suspect of heresy” and was required to "abjure, curse and detest" those opinions. He was sentenced to formal imprisonment at the pleasure of the Inquisition. On the following day, this was commuted to house arrest, which he remained under for the rest of his life.

Aside from his theoretical works, Galilei made several contributions to “technology” such as an improved telescope, a thermometer, a military compass and many many others. So great was his legacy that he was called by Einstein the “father of modern science.”

HRC grants legitimacy to “murderous” Gadaffi regime

2010-09-19T09:27:00.001-07:00

A UN Watch-led coalition of 27 NGO’s has appealed for Libya to be expelled from the UN Human Rights Council. Libya and other rights abusers are influencing the “dictator-dominated” council’s resolutions, UN Watch director Hillel Neuer says. “But given the high quantity as well as quality of Libya’s oil, we fear most countries will choose silence.”

Libya took its seat in the 47-member UN Human Rights Council (HRC) this week for the first time since its May election. A three-week council session began on Monday, triggering the rights coalition’s appeal.

In a petition signed by 27 NGO’s on Thursday, they called on the UN’s 192 members to expel Libya from the council unless Kadhafi significantly improves its human rights situation. Several victims of Libyan human rights abuses were present during the coalition’s press conference on Friday.

Given its “notorious record as one of the world’s worst violators of human rights,” the NGO’s argue Libya’s membership contradicts the UN’s promise to elect member states based on their commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights.

Libyan oil

Under the resolution that created the HRC, the General Assembly may suspend any council member that commits “gross and systematic” human rights violations. A two-thirds vote is required.

But UN Watch director Hillel Neuer told Radio Netherlands it is highly unlikely that Libya will be suspended. “Given the high quantity as well as quality of Libya’s oil, we fear that most countries will choose silence,” he told Radio Netherlands Worldwide.

He added that meanwhile, Libya’s influence continues. “As a voting member, Libya has the power to support or oppose any resolution, and as a result to influence its drafting. What may be even more damaging is that Libya’s presence in the world’s highest human rights body grants legitimacy to a murderous dictatorship - a crushing blow to Libya’s dissidents and ordinary citizens.”

World’s worst abusers

Neuer said the UN HRC, which he referred to as “the dictator-dominated council”, actively undermines and twists basic principles of human rights. He added that it has failed to take any action against “the world’s worst abusers” including Iran, China, Zimbabwe, Syria and Venezuela.

“And, far worse than that: there is a faction of 30 out of 47 seats, including China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Cuba, that actively promote measures to weaken the protection of freedom of speech and to erode the council’s few remaining mechanisms for independent scrutiny of country conduct,” Neuer said.

He added that after its creation in 2006, the new council gradually eliminated the country investigators for human rights in Belarus, Cuba, Liberia and DR Congo.

Freedom House report

In a damning report published this week, democracy watchdog Freedom House noted that countries which violated human rights have a far-reaching negative influence on the UN HRC.

Since its establishment in 2006, the number of members deemed “free” by Freedom House has dropped from 25 to 20. The number of “not free” members, on the other hand, has risen from 9 to 13. The remaining country members are rated “partly free”. Freedom House said that as a result, the HRC is unable to tackle the most serious human rights violations and even covers some of them up.

The original UN human rights body, the Human Rights Commission, was disbanded following years of criticism. Ironically, the final straw for many was the appointment of Libya to the chairmanship of the body.

The council is made up of 47 member nations, each elected for three years. The seats are apportioned by region, and every year a third of the body's seats are up for renewal.

In May 2010, Libya and 13 other nations ran unopposed for 14 of the council's seats. Regional groups for the first time put forward the same number of candidates as the number of seats available to them, meaning they were elected without competition.

Cracks in the Iranian Monolith

2010-09-19T09:04:00.000-07:00

The Iranian regime loves to boast of its military strength, international clout and hold on domestic power. Much of this is accepted by outside experts, but in fact the regime is in trouble. Iran's leaders have lost legitimacy in the eyes of the people, are unable to manage the country's many problems, face a growing opposition, and are openly fighting with one another.

A few weeks ago, according to official and private reports, the Iranian air force shot down three drones near the southwestern city of Bushehr, where a Russian-supplied nuclear reactor has just started up. When the Revolutionary Guards inspected the debris, they expected to find proof of high-altitude spying. Instead, the Guards had to report to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that the air force had blasted Iran's own unmanned aircraft out of the sky.

Apparently, according to official Iranian press accounts, the Iranian military had created a special unit to deploy the drones—some for surveillance and others, as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad bragged on Sunday, to carry bombs—but hadn't informed the air force.

These incidents have taken place against a general backdrop of internal conflict within the regime. In late July, Mohammad Ali Jaffari, commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, the regime's Praetorian Guard, admitted publicly that many top officers were supporters of the opposition Green Movement. Shortly thereafter, according to official government announcements, some 250 officers suddenly resigned. In the past weeks, several journalists from the Guards' FARS news agency have defected, some to France and others to the United States.

Meanwhile, Iran has suffered a series of attacks against its petroleum industry. As Iranian media reported (detailed in the London Telegraph), a pipeline to Turkey was blown up last month, most likely by Kurdish oppositionists. Soon afterwards there was an explosion in a natural gas pipeline near Tabriz.

That was followed by a spectacular blast at the Pardis petrochemical plant in Assalouye, which—being a major facility for converting natural gas to fuel for vehicles—is central to Iranian efforts to cope with the new United Nations, U.S. and European Union sanctions against refined petroleum products.

The same plant was similarly sabotaged six months ago. No one has taken responsibility for that attack, but it suggests an activist opposition with considerable "inside" assistance.

That opposition is fed by enduring social and economic crises. Unemployment last month reached 15% and is as high as 45% in some regions. In Tehran, health officials warned pregnant women and mothers of young children not to drink the water. Electrical failures are widespread. Taxi drivers have been striking around the country this summer, some because of the long lines at gas stations and others because of a shortage of compressed natural gas. The sanctions seem to be having an effect.

As these pressures have mounted, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei—against whom Iranians chant "Death to the Dictator!" at public gatherings and nightly from their rooftops—has sought to reaffirm his authority. Late last month he issued a fatwa declaring that his opinions had a status equal to those of the prophet Mohammed. The fatwa caused such consternation that it was removed from his website, then quietly returned a few days later.

Shortly thereafter, the country celebrated the funeral of Iran's most cherished performer, the singer Mohammed Nouri. Nouri was no dissident and was often praised by clerics as a "pious" man. But Mr. Khamenei chose the moment to issue a broad fatwa against music. "It's better that our dear youth spend their valuable time in learning science and essential and useful skills and fill their time with sport and healthy recreations instead of music," he declared.

Only "Western music" had previously been banned by Mr. Khamenei, and Iranian youth reacted with predictable hostility. In the days that followed, a Canadian-made remix of the 1979 Pink Floyd song "Another Brick in the Wall" went viral on the Internet with the new chorus, "Hey Ayatollah, leave those kids alone."

President Ahmadinejad has also tried to buttress his popular support, first by claiming that "stupid Zionists" were trying to kill him, and then by putting out a story—which few in Iran took seriously—of an assassination attempt on his motorcade. As usual, the "report" went through various iterations: first it was a grenade, then a firecracker, then nothing at all.

Even the government's campaign of repression seems increasingly sloppy. Recently the Judiciary Minister, in an extraordinary case of buck-passing, asked Mr. Khamenei for permission to execute 1,120 prisoners—as if the minister could imagine being prosecuted himself some day, and he wanted to be able to say it was Mr. Khamenei's fault.

These various debacles have strengthened the Green Movement, and opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi continue to launch serious verbal attacks on the regime. When the head of the powerful Guardian Council recently accused the Greens of receiving money from the Saudis and the Americans, Mr. Karroubi gave him the back of his hand: "If I am a conspirator because I object [to the rigged presidential election], then you are a partner of those who stole this nation's vote and are disloyal to the nation."

To add insult, Zahra Rahnavard, Mr. Mousavi's firebrand wife, wryly commented that the accusation would "make a cooked chicken laugh." Mr. Mousavi himself said that the Islamic Republic has become worse than the shah's regime, because "religious tyranny is the worst form of tyranny."

Challenges to the regime now come even from prisoners. When Mr. Ahmadinejad challenged Barack Obama to a debate this month, a Green Movement website reported with grim admiration that five journalists in Tehran's infamous Evin Prison had invited Mr. Ahmadinejad to come to jail and debate them.

Very little of this news reaches a mass Western audience, and one wonders to what extent Western governments understand what's going on. If they do, their failure to support the democratic revolutionaries is all the more lamentable.

Source:Michael Ledeen

2,000 year-old intact carving of Cupid found in Jerusalem

2010-09-11T09:23:00.000-07:00

An intact carving of Cupid made of blue onyx dating from the Roman period was unearthed in the parking lot near the City of David, the Antiquities Authority announced on Monday.

The 2,000-year-old Cupid, about a centimeter long, was probably from a piece of jewelry. The announcement was made ahead of the 11th annual City of David Archeology Conference, which will take place on Wednesday at the City of David complex and include a presentation of recent finds. The cupid discovery was made by Dr.

Doron Ben-Ami and Yana Tchekhanovets, both of the Antiquities Authority, and funded by the City of David Foundation.

“This discovery, together with other important finds that we uncovered from this unusual, large Roman structure at the City of David, contribute significantly to our understanding of the nature of Jerusalem’s Roman Period,” Ben-Ami said in a statement.

The inlaid stone features cupid holding an upsidedown torch, which was used to symbolize the cessation of life. The piece is part of a series of archeological finds in the area that deal with images of mourning.

The conference will feature a host of archeologists and professors exploring topics such as mapping the Mount of Olives cemetery, discoveries in the Givati parking lot (in addition to the carving), and excavations of the Shiloah pool. The confab is expected to attract 1,400 people, making it one of the largest archeological conferences in Israel, according to Udi Ragones, the spokesman for the City of David and Elad, the private organization that runs the park.

Elad has drawn condemnation from activists who say that the organization’s efforts to move Jews into Silwan make it a bad choice to privately administer a park located in the east Jerusalem neighborhood. The Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity Movement, known for organizing weekly protests in the neighborhood following the eviction of two Arab families in August 2009, is organizing a demonstration outside Wednesday’s conference.

“We want to come and bring up the point that it is a political conference, that their goals are political and that anyone taking part in this conference is in actuality supporting the actions of the settlers in Silwan, which is throwing people out of their homes, taking their land and deeply harming the residents of Silwan,” said Avner Inbar, a spokesman for the Solidarity Movement.

Inbar said Silwan residents had asked for their help in organizing a protest, and he expected anywhere from 100 to 150 demonstrators.

“Silwan is a really tense place, and Elad is just showing this off to tourists as an amusement park of archeology, saying, ‘Look how great this is, we found something here, something else here,’” he said. “They have ads in all the papers in Jerusalem, saying you should come on Succot with your kids for a fun day the City of David. It’s really nice that you can come with your kids and have a fun day, but there are 30,000 residents in Silwan and it’s not fun for them at all.”

“The attendees looked at [the protesters] with contempt.

They understood that these people are just trying to stop the excavations in Jerusalem, but the people who come to this conference want just the opposite,” Elad’s Ragones said.

He dismissed the planned protest, saying they tried the same tactic last year and only five protesters showed up.

Rosh Hashanah

2010-09-11T08:28:00.000-07:00

...In the seventh month, on the first of the month, there shall be a sabbath for you, a remembrance with shofar blasts, a holy convocation. -Leviticus 16:24

Rosh Hashanah occurs on the first and second days of Tishri. In Hebrew, Rosh Hashanah means, literally, "head of the year" or "first of the year." Rosh Hashanah is commonly known as the Jewish New Year. This name is somewhat deceptive, because there is little similarity between Rosh Hashanah, one of the holiest days of the year, and the American midnight drinking bash and daytime football game.

There is, however, one important similarity between the Jewish New Year and the American one: Many Americans use the New Year as a time to plan a better life, making "resolutions." Likewise, the Jewish New Year is a time to begin introspection, looking back at the mistakes of the past year and planning the changes to make in the new year. More on this concept at Days of Awe.

The name "Rosh Hashanah" is not used in the Bible to discuss this holiday. The Bible refers to the holiday as Yom Ha-Zikkaron (the day of remembrance) or Yom Teruah (the day of the sounding of the shofar). The holiday is instituted in Leviticus 23:24-25.

The shofar is a ram's horn which is blown somewhat like a trumpet. One of the most important observances of this holiday is hearing the sounding of the shofar in the synagogue. A total of 100 notes are sounded each day. There are four different types of shofar notes: tekiah, a 3 second sustained note; shevarim, three 1-second notes rising in tone, teruah, a series of short, staccato notes extending over a period of about 3 seconds; and tekiah gedolah (literally, "big tekiah"), the final blast in a set, which lasts (I think) 10 seconds minimum. Click the shofar above to hear an approximation of the sound of Tekiah Shevarim-Teruah Tekiah. The Bible gives no specific reason for this practice. One that has been suggested is that the shofar's sound is a call to repentance. The shofar is not blown if the holiday falls on Shabbat.

No work is permitted on Rosh Hashanah. Much of the day is spent in synagogue, where the regular daily liturgy is somewhat expanded. In fact, there is a special prayerbook called the machzor used for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur because of the extensive liturgical changes for these holidays.

Another popular observance during this holiday is eating apples dipped in honey, a symbol of our wish for a sweet new year. This was the second Jewish religious practice I was ever exposed to (the first one: lighting Chanukkah candles), and I highly recommend it. It's yummy. We also dip bread in honey (instead of the usual practice of sprinkling salt on it) at this time of year for the same reason.

Another popular practice of the holiday is Tashlikh ("casting off"). We walk to flowing water, such as a creek or river, on the afternoon of the first day and empty our pockets into the river, symbolically casting off our sins. Small pieces of bread are commonly put in the pocket to cast off. This practice is not discussed in the Bible, but is a long-standing custom. Tashlikh is normally observed on the afternoon of the first day, before afternoon services. When the first day occurs on Shabbat, many synagogues observe Tashlikh on Sunday afternoon, to avoid carrying (the bread) on Shabbat.

Religious services for the holiday focus on the concept of G-d's sovereignty.

The common greeting at this time is L'shanah tovah ("for a good year"). This is a shortening of "L'shanah tovah tikatev v'taihatem" (or to women, "L'shanah tovah tikatevi v'taihatemi"), which means "May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year." More on that concept at Days of Awe.

You may notice that the Bible speaks of Rosh Hashanah as occurring on the first day of the seventh month. The first month of the Jewish calendar is Nissan, occurring in March and April. Why, then, does the Jewish "new year" occur in Tishri, the seventh month?

Judaism has several different "new years," a concept which may seem strange at first, but think of it this way: the American "new year" starts in January, but the new "school year" starts in September, and many businesses have "fiscal years" that start at various times of the year. In Judaism, Nissan 1 is the new year for the purpose of counting the reign of kings and months on the calendar, Elul 1 (in August) is the new year for the tithing of animals, Shevat 15 (in February) is the new year for trees (determining when first fruits can be eaten, etc.), and Tishri 1 (Rosh Hashanah) is the new year for years (when we increase the year number. Sabbatical and Jubilee years begin at this time).

Jewish Year 5772: sunset September 28, 2011 - nightfall September 30, 2011

Jewish Year 5773: sunset September 16, 2012 - nightfall September 18, 2012

Livni: We will stand by PM if he pursues direct talks

2010-08-24T08:34:00.000-07:00

Leader of the opposition Tzipi Livni on Tuesday made comments regarding Israel's participation in direct talks with the Palestinians at the Inter-Disciplinary Center in Herzliya where she gave a talk at a conference regarding the "delegitimization of Israel" in the international sphere.

"Direct talks are especially important and I hope that the prime minister will proceed into them with an understanding that they are not just a favor done for the Palestinians or the US, but in our [Israel's] interests," Livni said

She added, "The prime minister's success [in the direct talks] is a success for all of us, and if he succeeds [in the talks], we won't attack him for making a move in the right direction."

Blair: De-legitimizers against all who share Israel's values

Quartet envoy Tony Blair also spoke at the conference at the IDC in Herzliya and gave a speech stating that those in the world who want to de-legitimize Israel are also de-legitimizing those around the world who share Israel’s values and admire its free spirit.

Blair said that the “best answer to the de-legitimization of Israel lies in the character of Israel and in the openness and creativity of Israelis."

Blair continued saying it was important not only for Israelis to fight against attempts to de-legitimize it, but also people around the world who share its values. He said that there were two kinds of de-legimization.

The first, he said, was practiced by Iranian Presdient Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who talks about wiping Israel off the map. That version, he said, is easier to deal with, because it is so open and blatant.

The other, perhaps more pernicious kind, is those who either consciously or not, resist or refuse to accept the idea “that Israel has a legitimate point of view."

Blair, in a very warm speech, said that a consistent conversation he has had with European colleagues is “not to apply rules to the government of Israel that you would never dream of applying to your own government or country."

Barak welcomes Blair to Israel

Earlier on Tuesday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak met with Blair and told him that Israel hopes for a breakthrough in negotiations with the Palestinians.

Barak was referring to the recent announcement that direct negotiations will resume by telling Blair that Israel cordially welcomes him on his visit to Israel as part of the Quartet's efforts, along with the United States and others, to bring about a breakthrough in negotiations.

"Israel and the Palestinians will need to make courageous decisions during the negotiations," Barak said.

The Piercing of the Eye

2010-08-14T01:22:00.000-07:00

There have been many instances, albeit widely separated by the span of time, whereby high-profile historical figures have died as a result of a piercing of the eye. Delving further into the authenticated circumstances surrounding these events, I wanted to bring clarity to what I have come to refer to as “The Piercing of the Eye”. One such example is symbolized here, courtesy of the Bayeux Tapestry, commissioned by Odo, the Bishop of Bayeux. The Bayeux Tapestry is a long embroidered cloth that illustrates the events leading up to, and including, the Norman invasion of England in 1066. What may not be known to some is that the Bishop of Bayeux was a half-brother to William, Duke of Normandy, a major player in this 1066 drama.

Not only was I taken aback by these happenings, but I also found myself quite surprised that they had been over looked for such a long time. Extensive research proved most illuminating in that I was quick to identify that many of these high-profile figures shared a common bond, besides the manner in which they died, of course. This bond, I was to discover, was the connection of a shared bloodline. One key family in particular seems to have had a direct lineal line of descent from the very individuals involved in these events; namely, the Sinclair family. Given the sensational success of Dan Brown and The Da Vinci Code, the name Sinclair, in direct association with Rosslyn Chapel, is continuing to garner attention on a world-wide level.

It needs to be shared here that the Sinclair family is currently active in the area of DNA research, and, as a result, we are beginning to further our lineal descent based on actual DNA findings. A few of the historical names related to this family are Hugh De Payens, the first Grand Master of the Knights Templar, and Godfroi (Godfrey) de Boullion, the first ruler of Jerusalem.

Other affiliated surnames have been Valois, Vermandois, Anjou, deBrus (later became Bruce), Beauchamp, de Clare and Montgomery, to name but a few. In addition, there are a multitude of others, all able to trace their ancestry back to Charlemagne, with some even to the Davidic line itself.

In dealing with the Sinclair family and its lineage to the Ulvungar Dynasty, it makes sense to understand the origins of the family. More on Ulvungar later.

The delivery of Hugh Montgomery’s The God-King’s of Europe is said to be a gold mine of truths. Upon reading, you will find that these truths are easily displacing the history that was written by the conquerors of the day. It has been stated that the Sinclair’s were mere players during these bygone days. In actuality, this has never been the case for the Sinclair family; a family that has been involved in the very making of the history we have come to know. It has even been suggested, by contemporary authors, that the Sinclair family is directly connected to the House of David, direct descendants of the Davidic lineage of Jeshua and Mary of Bethany. In following this same vein, Montgomery shares the existence of a version of a well-known French manuscript, dating from 412-420 AD, hereafter referenced as Document 4, from which the following words come.

“Now it came to pass in those days that a Priestess of the Goddess from the village of Bethany of the Tribe of Benjamin and a keeper of the Sacred Doves was affianced to a man called Jeshua for she had served her six years. Now Jeshua was of the House of David the King and they were married.

And Jeshua rebelled against the oppressors against Rome and was defeated, but many Romans were devotees of the Mother and were unwilling to kill her priestess who was with child. So Miriam took ship and was secretly smuggled into Gaul where she was delivered and there she abode many years. Now she bore a daughter who was exceedingly fair and the king of that place looked upon her and demanded that she be his wife but she was promised to the Goddess. But the king would not have it so and made her his wife and she bore him a son and a daughter.

But the Goddess was exceeding wrath for his rape of her daughter and cursed him saying, “Thy seed shall be estranged from me and thine inheritance taken from thee. Thy seed shall end by the piercing of an eye and so shall thine inheritance cease. Yet for the sake of my priestess whom thou ravished shall I forgive thee and thy seed if they fulfill those labors which I shall give them.

They must fight and capture that which was lost to the oppressors of thy wife though they shall not hold it for they shall suffer betrayal (as thou betrayed me). Unless one of thy seed shall end the House of their betrayers by piercing the eye of its Liege. To this family shall I award greatness if they return to me and from this time to that shall be four and one hundred generations” ”.

In continuing to focus on the “eye” of the story, we are better able to note a recognizable understanding of the very families involved in the crusades and why, perhaps, it was felt that Jerusalem had to be rescued from the infidels. In keeping with the aforementioned

Document 4, might there have been a certain destiny to fulfill? Might this also explain why we find these families within the Templar Order? Likewise, for the purpose for the Order having been created in the first place?

Montgomery also speaks about an Abdias Manuscript dating to 120 AD. Abdias was the first Bishop of Babylonia in the 1^st century. The Catholic Church, however, has claimed that the document was written by a French Monk from the 6^th century. Montgomery provides three reasons as to why this cannot possibly be true; namely,

(1) He is mentioned by Eusebius, the Church historian, in his book written in 306 AD.

(2) Eusebius mentions the Latin text of Julius Africanos and says that it was produced prior to 200 AD.

(3) The Latin is the rather better Latin of the first and second century AD and not the far more clumsy Latin of later dates when Latin was no longer a spoken language.

Currently held at Dickson College, as part of the Norris Collection, Abdias “wrote 10 sermons, one on each of the Apostles, in Hebrew. These were translated into Greek and then later into Latin by Julius Africanos. There is some indication that Abdias may have been a member of Jesus’ family” in that he claimed to know various members of this family. Montgomery tells us that this Abdias Manuscript is about the Early Church Apostles, particularly Jesus’ brothers and half brothers.

Looking back throughout history, as depicted through the prophesied words of Mary of Bethany, we can identify many corroborated references, which, to my mind, further substantiates the validity of Document 4.

It is important to note that both the “eye piercing” as well as the meaning behind the action had a significant connection with the beginning of the decline of the Merovingian House in the 750’s. Having been in power for more than 300 years, the Merovingians belonged to one of the early Gaulish Houses, assuming the throne after the fall of the Roman Empire in the 4^th century. Merovingian, named after Merovée, was an Ulvungar through Atualf, the King of the Visigoths in the 3^rdcentury. The last of the Merovingian line was Dagobert II. Itis said that his death was brought about in the following manner. He was sleeping in the forest and, whilst there, “pierced” in the left eye, ending the Merovingian dynasty. The immediate successors, the Mayors of the Palace, had served under the Merovingian kings. As a result of their marrying into the Merovingian dynasty, they claimed the right to rule, becoming the Carolingians.

Earlier in the article I made mention of the Sinclair family and its related lineage to the Ulvungar Dynasty. What is the Ulvungar Dynasty? Ulvungar is another name for a Scandinavian family of Royals that some may know as Ylinnlingeatt (Yngling). They ruled over vast domains, and, depending on who was in charge, the kingship bounced from Sweden to Norway to Denmark. Likewise for the nobles that supported them. They held land in most of the northern countries such as Scotland, Orkney, Shetland, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, as well as Frisia and the Ukraine. They not only wanted to seize the Western Empire, but also the Eastern, with the eventual prize being Jerusalem itself.

Montgomery describes the Ulvungar Dynasty, saying that “... the Odinpeople (Kassites) had fled from somewhere (Mesopotamia), finished up in Sweden, and ultimately called the Goths. Later a second migration, now mixed with the Benjamite and Elchasaite peoples, had fled north again and founded the Ulvungar dynasty of Scandinavia. These two events had been telescoped into one legend, as often happens, and memory of the persecutions of the Goths by the Roman Army in the 3rd century was now remembered as the reason for their fleeing north. Of small things are great events remembered”.

Another reference to this migration comes from The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail as written by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln. In discussing the Grandmasters of the Priory of Sion, these authors reference Nicholas Flamel, saying that:

“Around 1361 Flamel, according to his own account, happened upon the alchemical text that was to transform his life. Its complete title is both puzzling and interesting -- The Sacred Book of Abraham the Jew, Prince, Priest, Levite, Astrologer, and Philosopher to That Tribe of Jews who by the Wrath of God were Dispersed amongst the Gauls”.

As one can see, herein lies additional proof that a certain group of Jews left modern day Israel and migrated to France. Flamel is said to have found his “transmutation” after he left Spain, for it was there that he spoke to a Jewish man who had converted. He returns home to France, applies what the Jewish man has shown him, becoming very wealthy, owning and building many things.

Once again, we return to the piercing.

With Dagobert II out of the way, we see another great figure arise from the Ulvungar Dynasty by the name of Harald Hardrada (Harald III of Norway). Most historians would say he was a mighty warrior, himself an Ulvungar through lineal descent from Harald Fair-Haired. As a child, he was said to have spent time in the court of his cousin, or rather second uncle, Robert II (called both The Magnificent as well as The Devil), Duke of Normandy, who died on his way back from a pilgrimage in 1035. Interestingly enough, one is left to wonder if he had even been on a pilgrimage. It is quite possible that Robert may have been laying the groundwork for an invasion, instead!

While journeying about the Byzantine Empire, Harald kills Michael V by “piercing” his eye. He returns just in time to invade England, a full two to three weeks before William, Duke of Normandy. Harald lands and is killed in the Battle at Stamford Bridge by King Harold Godwinson of England. Harold is also a member of the Ulvungar Dynasty as well as a distant relative to William. Interestingly enough, William had been forced to remain along the French coast for six weeks due to bad weather.

William, the son of Robert II, Duke of Normandy, shared an affiliation to the St. Clair’s of St. Clair-sur-Epte, courtesy of his great grandfather Rollo the Viking (also known as Hrólf the Ganger) who signed a treaty with the Carolingian king, Charles the Simple, in 911 AD. The duchy of Normandy was established and ceded to Rollo, who became the first Duke of Normandy. What many do not know is that the descendants of Rollo took the name St. Clair. In essence, therefore, the Conqueror was William de St. Clair.

At the battle that changed history, that being the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William was said to have fought for a large part of the day, against Godwinson, almost coming to a standstill due to the Godwinson camp being unable to move its front line forward. In the end, however, it is William that wins the day. Godwinson is supposed to have fallen in this battle, due to his injury, and it is this very part of the story that gives further credence to my theory; namely, that the Bayeux Tapestry vividly shows the fall of Harold Godwinson as depicted by the arrow “piercing” his right eye! Many historians have said that Godwinson did not fall by the arrow, which only serves to make one pause just long enough to pose the pertinent question – if he did not die in this fashion, why has it been depicted in such a manner? In accordance with words of Document 4, we know why.

Another “piercing” that comes to mind, although deemed accidental, was that of Henri II of France. What interests me is that Michel de Nostradame, better known throughout history as Nostradamus, foretold the king of his death and how it would occur … by “his eye being pierced”. In this instance, the Scottish Guard’s captain, Gabriel de Montgomery, was responsible for the piercing. It is important to note that Henri was a Valois, a line that is also related to the St. Clair’s.

Informed of a fifth event, which provides as much clarity as the other events mentioned to date, such involves William the Conqueror’s son, William II (Rufus), who succeeded his father to the throne. He met his end by a piercing of the eye, giving way to a younger brother Henri who becomes known as Henri I of England. William the Conqueror’s son Richard tries to usurp the throne, with the help of the Montgomery’s and the de Clare’s, direct descendants of the illegitimate son of Richard I, Duke of Normandy, Godfrey, Count d’Eu.

Does this, then, give further credence to the fact that Nostradamus knew of a plot to kill Henri II of France? Baigent, Lincoln and Leigh think it possible, as do I, for one has to consider the underlying theme. It has been acknowledged that the Mayors of the Palace were responsible for the demise of the Merovingian kings, themselves becoming known as the Carolingians. In keeping with what the fact that the Montgomery’s and the de Clare’s were actively assisting Richard, son of William the Conqueror, in his attempt to commandeer the throne of England, albeit much later and within the same bloodline, is this not similar?

As has been shared here, we have several instances that have occurred chiefly within the Ulvungar lineage -- Dagobert, Harald Hardrada, William the Conqueror and William II (Rufus) were all related. In addition, all were connected to the same ritual killing as prophesied by Mary of Bethany in accordance with Document 4.

In perusing Roland Saint Clair’s book, The Saint Clair’s of the Isles, I tried to locate pieces of information that I may have overlooked. Sure enough, I was to find another piece of the puzzle. This time, I found myself armed with certain patterns and events.

I had been telling everyone that I was seeing a historical repeat with certain events as first described in Montgomery’s book, namely Document 4.

The ritual of killing the Liege, with the piercing of his eye, was both uppermost and very obvious in my mind. As stated in The Saint Clair’s of the Isles on page 269, Roland Saint Clair makes mention of another related event. Involving the usual suspects, this time it is King Canmore (Malcolm III) who is pierced through the left eye, by a person that is not named. As a result of further delving, I was able to conclude that the children of the person responsible for this particular eye piercing took the last name Percy. Eureka! We have the de Percy family!

During a siege with the Saint Clair’s, the people of Alnwick Castle are starved and at their last, an armed man come forth with the keys to the castle. He goes directly to the king, through all the men, with a lance. At the end of that lance are the keys to the castle.

The Scottish army let him through in order to present the keys to their king, perceiving this to be an act of final submission. To the horror of all, the armed man with the lance pierces the Scottish king in the left eye, and he dies. A cross near Broomhouse Hill, across the river from the castle, marks the spot where Malcolm III was killed in 1093.

The Percy’s were descended from a Danish raider by the name of Mainfred. I believe Mainfred may have been of rank in Rollo’s army, possibly even related to him, as Rollo brought many family members with him to Normandy. It suddenly makes sense when we see that the Percy’s received lands from William the Conqueror.

Quite possibly, William was wanting to lay all others to rest, with this ritual killing. Might this have been why Odo gave him the Bayeux Tapestry? Whether Harold actually died by the piercing of his eye, as depicted on the Tapestry, one may never know. One does, however, see William making an attempt at trying to clean house, making sure of his duty to the prophecy of Mary of Bethany.

In the search for proof in the recounting of these eye piercing events, I only have to look at these historical happenings to see what has been hidden. There are no coincidences.

When the Ulvungar and Davidic families seized Jerusalem, they were acting on the prophecy of Mary in association with the “inheritance of that which was lost”. Involved in the brutal killing of Jew, Muslim, and Christian alike, blood ran as high as a horse’s knee. It was their intent to take the city at all costs, an interesting side note being that the Pope did not react to this information in a negative sense at all.

In attempting to better understand the connection to all of these families, one begins to wonder what they may have had access to. Did they know of Document 4? Might there have been other manuscripts known to these key players?

It bears saying that with all of the nobility found in Europe, there is only one lineage that demonstrates a clear link to the words of Mary of Bethany; that of the Ulvungars. In so doing, it appears as if they attempted to fulfill her prophesied destiny. No other family in history has such a unique past that directly connects them to Document 4 as does the Ulvungar (Yinling) conquest of so many lands, places, and religions.

In conclusion, Document 4 has clearly been a significant find, perhaps serving to shed much light on events that shaped both families and history

Giving way to what many believe to be of the realm of mythology for a brief moment, the earliest recorded reference to a piercing of the eye has come to be associated with Horus, the Egyptian God of the sky. In Cracking the Symbol Code, Tim Wallace-Murphy states, “Then there is the all seeing ‘Eye of Horus’, a representation of the eye that Horus lost in his battle with Seth”.

Although we may not be related by blood to a God of Ancient Egypt, could it be that we mortals have come to make a philosophical and/or symbolic connection with this Eye of Horus? As a matter of interest, it is important to share that Odin, the chief god in Norse mythology, is said to also have lost an eye to gain wisdom. Thereafter, he was known as one-eyed Odin.

When one takes the time to pry further into the historical accuracy of certain events, a much truer picture of history starts to emerge. In my observation, it is clear that the Sinclair family has much to learn about their own history. Knowing that the mode of death was written in such a fashion, as shared within this article, lends more credence to the importance of the tale(s) being spun, for those with ears to hear, whether or not they actually happened as written.

What one has to wonder about the Sinclair family, in light of what has been shared here by this author, is what might their inheritance have been?

Author: Shawn Sinclair

The war on de-legitimisation

2010-08-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

The political war aimed at delegitimising Israel, and at preventing the IDF from acting to stop terror attacks, is now recognised as a major threat. These are not the sentiments of alarmists; this is the conclusion drawn by Eitan Haber, a close advisor to prime ministers, including Yitzhak Rabin (“IDF isn’t enough in face of global de-legitimisation campaign faced by Israel.”)

Haber’s analysis only scratches the surface of the de-legitimisation campaign waged against Israel. These efforts are not new; since the 2001 UN “World Conference Against Racism” in Durban, South Africa – international NGOs and some within Israel have introduced into the public lexicon slogans referring to Israel as an “apartheid state” guilty of “war crimes” that does not have the right to exist.

The campaign is gaining strength, and as Haber notes the importance of mobilising the Jewish people “to fight back against the ubiquitous de-legitimisation process, against the indifference, and possibly also against the despair among us.”

Examples of NGO campaigns are, unfortunately, plentiful. The recent “Free Gaza” flotilla incident demonstrated the sophisticated use of the “humanitarian,” “peace” and “non-governmental” labels to cover a preplanned attack on IDF soldiers, resulting in injuries and deaths. Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation) – a Turkish “charity” with close links to Hamas, jihadist groups, and the Turkish government – led the efforts in this instance.

Working with European and American anti-Israel campaigners, including the confrontational International Solidarity Movement (ISM), they tapped into a wider diplomatic and political campaign driven by the false charges of “war crimes” and “collective punishment.”

NGOs orchestrate these incidents, stripping away the context of terror and hate, and placing Israel and its supporters on the defensive. This strategy is coupled with ongoing efforts, such as the boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, to single out and isolate Israel.

A parallel tactic, promulgated by Israeli-Arab NGO Adalah (funded by the New Israel Fund -NIF and the European Union) portrays “Israel as an inherent undemocratic state.” Similarly, NGO “lawfare” cases against Israeli officials in foreign courts attempt to delegitimise the Israeli justice system.

Detailed research reports published by NGO Monitor document the damage caused by powerful NGOs that use the façade of liberal agendas, and the funders that enable these campaigns. European governments provide tens of millions of dollars annually, without the necessary transparency, to many of these NGOs.

‘Soft power’ war

Many of these groups, including the NIF, are attempting to prevent the Knesset from adopting legislation that would provide transparency regarding how and where NGOs receive their funding. These groups fear that they too would lose their funding and impact, and placed their private agendas and interests above the right of the public to know who is paying for the de-legitimisation efforts.

Haber's is a welcomed voice, joining the growing mainstream chorus that has highlighted the power of NGOs in the “soft power” war against Israel. Other prominent liberals in the US - including NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who echoed the criticism of Human Rights Watch by founder Robert Bernstein -have criticized the “foul… trend, both deliberate and inadvertent, to delegitimize Israel - to turn it into a pariah state, particularly in the wake of the Gaza war.”

Criticism and debate on particular policies is an appropriate part of all democratic societies. Blanket de-legitimisation is not. The fact that Friedman, Bernstein, Haber, and others are calling attention to this danger shows that the mainstream Left and Right in Israel and the Diaspora have found an issue around which they can unify.

It also means those who care about Israel should follow their lead and take action. This includes demanding the implementation of NGO funding guidelines based on transparency and assurance that their donations will not be used for de-legitimisation. Other guidelines reject the BDS campaign and international “lawfare” cases in all forms and arenas; offer criticisms of Israel in proper context; and use the vast resources available to assist those whose human rights truly are being infringed upon, in Iran, Sudan, Europe, and elsewhere, but are overshadowed by the obsessive emphasis on Israel

Haber’s call for a military-type effort and a “huge body” to “fight back” against the de-legitimisation process is understandable. But size is less important than intelligence, in both senses of the word. Israel and the Jewish people, working in partnership, need to think and act strategically, to name and shame the hardcore anti-Israel activists who use the façade of morality to promote their racism.

The funders and enablers, particularly the anonymous officials in European governments, need to be similarly exposed. In parallel, we need alliance with those who agree on the wider principles of Israel’s place among the nations, despite polity differences, including on settlements and other issues.

The alternative to this war strategy would consign us to watching from the sidelines as Israel’s place among the nations erodes further, and our ability to defend citizens against mass terror becomes more difficult. This alternative, as Eitan Haber has discovered, is unacceptable.

Prof. Gerald Steinberg is president of NGO Monitor and professor of Political Science at Bar Ilan University

Palestinian Authority has neither desire nor ability to finalize agreement with Israel

2010-08-07T06:16:00.000-07:00

While the Palestinians debate whether to enter direct negotiations with Israel, we would do well to again ask the following question: Are their peace intentions genuine?

The State of Israel had a golden opportunity to scrutinize the frankness of their intentions to finalize a future peace agreement during Operation Fortress in 2002. Security forces uncovered the most guarded secrets of Arafat and his men in the PLO’s Ramallah archive, which contained thousands of security and political documents of unprecedented quality.

However, one document was conspicuously absent; a document that could have shed genuine light on the Palestinian Authority’s attitude to a future peace deal with Israel.

In the few historical junctions where the Palestinian national movement was called upon to make a decision regarding a possible historic compromise with the Zionist movement, the Palestinian leadership’s reply was unequivocally firm and determined: There would be no compromise because we, the Arabs, view the entire territory as belonging to the Arab Palestinian people.

The passing years have turned Palestinian rejectionism into a sanctified notion, one which current-day Palestinians address with the kind of reverence reserved for things that are greater than life.

Today we clearly know that Arafat, too, resorted to manipulation via the Oslo Accords. Even the greatest leader to rise within Palestinian society in the past 100 years froze in place when facing the dilemma of whether to shun the value of rejectionism. “Those who preach for compromise put their lives on the line,” is a commonly used dictum across the Palestinian Authority.

Those holding their breath ahead of Ramallah’s next moves should be aware of another important detail. Even the formulation of an agreed-upon Palestinian agenda is an impossible mission over there. The PA cannot close ranks even ahead of the possibility of make-belief direct talks.

We’ve seen that movie before

The Israeli side is insufficiently familiar with one of the main reasons for this: The deepening rift between the two main population groups comprising Palestinian society - the rural “mountain community” that never left the area, and the “coastal plain community” comprising the “1948 refugees.” Both groups realize that should talks get underway, a more “lenient” Israeli position could be elicited on only one of the four “core issues.”

And so, the group of 1948 refugees presses for focus on the “right of return” and the arrival of as many refugees to the area, while the first group clings to the notion of holding on to the land – that is, the removal of as many settlements as possible.

What our troops did find in the PLO archive, in large quantities, were numerous documents showing that the Palestinians are drawing immense benefits from the transitional status of “being less than a state” – which explains why they fell in love with the “peace process.” A peace activist recently told me that he tried to voluntarily bring hundreds of donated computers to PA children. “How much do I get for mediating this?” wondered a senior Fatah figure asked to offer his assistance.

Over the years, the PA’s leadership adopted techniques and skills that enable it to fully exploit its situation to its economic benefit. This transitional political situation, a twilight-zone government facing no scrutiny, is a political heaven for them made up of bottomless barrels of money. Who needs an actual state that would get into trouble sooner or later and be declared a failed state?

Palestinian society is not ripe for the great change planned for it by Barack Obama and heads of the European Union. A historical compromise is off-limits. In the wake of the last photo opportunity it will turn out again - for the umpteenth time - that Abbas can at most commit to “upgraded security arrangements,” in exchange asking for a high price in terms of settlements, prisoners, roadblocks, and so on. Regrettably, we’ve seen that movie before.

Beware Palestinian apartheid

2010-08-05T01:29:00.000-07:00

The Palestinian Authority is under heavy international pressure, mostly American, aimed at facilitating the transition from proximity talks to direct negotiations with Israel.

The written message recently sent by President Obama to Palestinian Chairman Mahmud Abbas indicated that the American administration is not content, to say the least, with the Palestinian foot-dragging in the peace process, or with what is perceived to be a lack of appreciation for American pressure on Israel (which led PM Netanyahu to accept the two-state solution and to temporarily freeze settlement activity in the West Bank and Jerusalem.)

However, there is no obvious fundamental change in the Palestinian stance. The PA hesitates and refrains from explicit commitment to direct negotiations without any pre-conditions. Instead, it tries to weather the American demands by raising a new proposal to convene a three-way meeting of Palestine, Israel, and America to discuss the agenda of the negotiations, its legitimacy, and the settlement cessation.

While briefing the Egyptian media in Cairo, Abbas divulged last week his version of the failure of the peace talks with former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and his positions regarding the political settlement of the conflict. Abbas noted that he almost reached an agreement with Olmert, but the negotiations failed at the final stretch because of disagreement on the discussed land swap.

Olmert proposed 6.5% but Abbas accepted to no more than 1.9%. Abbas said that he demanded to divide Jerusalem, with the city’s eastern section handed over to the Palestinians and the western part remaining in Israeli hands, and insisted that the refugee problem must be settled in accordance with an Arab peace initiative from March 2002, and UN resolution 194. He also stressed that he will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

"I'm willing to agree to a third party that would supervise the agreement, such as NATO forces, but I would not agree to having Jews among the NATO forces, or that there will live among us even a single Israeli on Palestinian land,” he was quoted by Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency.

A state without Jews

The Palestinians intend to demand the implementation of the UN resolution regarding refugees, from a Palestinian perspective, which gives the 5.5 million refugees and their descendants the right of return and to settle in the State of Israel. In his briefing to the Egyptian media, Abbas presented this strategy and denied the Jewish character of Israel. He maintains that Israel should, in fact, become a bi-national state, but on the other hand that Palestine must become a state “clean” of Jews.

The term “Israeli” used by Abbas means “Jew,” as the PA sees Israeli Arabs, Muslims and Christians alike as an integral part of the Palestinian people. The future State of Palestine, according Abbas, must resist any Jewish presence in its territory. In other words, the PA embraces a racist policy – Palestinian apartheid – directed at Jews, based on denial of Jewish history and the cultural and religious linkage of the Jewish people to the land.

The anti-Semitism embodied in Abbas’ words refers also to his position towards the NATO observers’ force that may be deployed in the West Bank to monitor the implementation of the peace agreement with Israel. He is opposed to Jews being included in this force; meaning, he will ask Germany and all other partner countries in NATO to use their own forces in the West Bank, in an effort to the exclude any Jewish soldiers.

He didn’t explain how these countries would determine who is a Jew, whether according to orthodox Jewish laws or just if one of the parents or grandparents was a Jew. But even Saudi Arabia didn’t dare oppose the deployment of American Jewish soldiers on its land during operation Desert Storm (1990-1), and no one in Israel ever demanded to disqualify Muslim soldiers from serving in the international observers’ forces in Lebanon, the Golan Heights and Sinai.

The racist language used by Abbas is particularly despicable as it doubts the loyalty of the Jews to their country. It is for this reason that his comments call for a firm Israeli and European response.

Source:

Jonathan Dahoah Halevi is a senior researcher and fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and Director of Research at the Orient Research Group

US boosts Israeli missile funding

2010-08-01T06:53:00.001-07:00

US House appropriators have pushed funding for Israeli missile defense programs to its highest level ever, with $422.7 million now slated for 2011. Last week, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense added $95.7m. to the original White House funding request for the long-range Arrow programs and medium-range David’s Sling, according to sources close to the panel. The lion’s share – $108.8m. – will go to the Arrow 3 system, which the US signed off on after some initial hesitation.

In addition, the monies include $205m pledged this spring by US President Barack Obama to the short-range Iron Dome project.The package is more than twice as much as last year’s total, and adds up to nearly $1 billion in aid to joint US-Israel missile defense programs in the past four years.

“Chairman [Norm] Dicks, myself and all the members of the Defense Subcommittee understand how important it is to be at the cutting edge of anti-missile technology, both to safeguard our own citizens and troops, but also those citizens and troops of our allies and friends such as the people of the Jewish state of Israel,” Rep. Steve Rothman (D-New Jersey) told The Jerusalem Post on Friday.

Rothman has pushed for greater funding of joint US-Israel missile defense programs during his tenure on the committee.“It would be political suicide for the Senate to come in with a lower number”The funding will need to be voted on by the full House when it reconvenes in the fall, as well as approved by the Senate in its own defense appropriations bill.

That bill could be “marked up” next week but is more likely to be reviewed after the August recess. In the “mark-up session,” amendments may be offered to the bill, and the committee members would vote to accept or reject those changes.

“It would be political suicide for the Senate to come in with a lower number,” said one source close to the issue of his expectation that the Senate will agree to the totals set by the House last week. “There’s virtually zero chance that these [projects] don’t get funded at these levels.”The funding comes at a time when the US has been under pressure to tighten its belt given the recession, with the defense budget no exception.

“Given the concern and attention that we are focusing now on every dollar we are expending on behalf of the US taxpayer for all purposes, including the defense of the United States and its allies, it is a mark of the importance of these projects that they were all funded so robustly and fully by our subcommittee,” Rothman said.

There were also concerns among some elements of the pro-Israel community that the new money for the Iron Dome project announced by Obama would come at the expense of the funding for the Arrow and David’s Sling projects, so that overall missile defense aid would not significantly increase.The Israeli government is among those pleased by the outcome.

“The embassy of Israel deeply appreciates this latest expression of the congressional commitment to Israel’s security and to the development of systems that will enhance the defense of both Israel and the United States,” Ambassador to the US Michael Oren said.

Livni meets Ramon amid report he tried to derail talks

2010-08-01T06:45:00.000-07:00

With international pressure growing on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to negotiate directly with Israel, Kadima council chairman Haim Ramon met on Friday with the Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni to discuss allegations he tried to convince the PA to reject such talks.Sources close to the two confirmed that in the course of the conversation, Ramon reiterated his denials of last week’s report that he told the PA’s chief negotiator Saeb Erekat not to enter into direct talks.

A man who allegedly heard the July 8 conversation between the two in the capital’s American Colony Hotel said Ramon told Erekat: “There is no point in starting direct talks, because Bibi won’t agree to anything.”Israel Radio’s Ayala Hasson described the witness as reliable and not politically motivated.

When the story of Ramon’s alleged comments broke, Livni said that she would meet with him on Friday, after he returned from a visit overseas.The meeting with Erekat, he told her on Friday, had been public and not hidden, and he never encouraged the Palestinians to avoid direct talks.He told Livni that the comments that he made in such meetings were no different than those that he has made in numerous public venues.

Ramon also denied reports that he told Erekat that he was speaking to him as an emissary of President Shimon Peres, telling Livni that he does not hold such meetings as a messenger from anyone.Livni’s office emphasized over the weekend that Kadima as a matter of principle is not trying to run any alternative peace process in place of the elected government, and that Livni herself is not an alternative channel.

Her office said, following the Ramon-Livni meeting, that “meetings by Kadima members, including Ramon, with Palestinian Authority officials who oppose terror and work to advance peace arrangements with Israel – [meetings] of which Livni is aware – are designed to maintain a missing link today between the [two] nations and to advance cooperation and understanding in a way that will aid in reaching a peace arrangement.”

Kadima, her office said, calls on the prime minister “to take responsibility for Israel’s state today instead of placing the blame on others for Israel’s decline to one of the worst diplomatic states in its history and making capital out of an open meeting between an Israeli and a Palestinian.” Calling to return to the “negotiations that Livni and Abu Ala [former PA prime minister Ahmed Qurei] held only a year-and-a-half ago,” Kadima officials said that picking up the talks where they left off then would bring a speedy end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel to UN: Rocket firing hurting peace efforts

2010-08-01T02:48:00.000-07:00

Israel's UN envoy in Geneva Aharon Leshno Yaar sent a letter to the Human Rights Council over the weekend following the recent rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip. State officials claim the council has a "peculiar obsession" against Israel. In an official complaint letter sent at the Foreign Ministry's request it was noted that "The indiscriminate launching of rockets at civilians and civilian objects amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity."

The letter also stated that the attacks hurt the peace process and the resumption of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians. "The people of Israel have the right to live in peace and security. The recent attacks on southern Israel from the Gaza Strip seriously violate international law and undermine the peace process and the efforts to renew the direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority," it was stated.

A Qassam rocket fired from northern Gaza on Saturday night hit the roof of a building in an educational institution located in the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council, outside of Sderot. There were no reports of injuries. Israel's Air Force responded by targeting a weapons smuggling tunnel on the Egyptian border and a tunnel below the border fence meant to serve terrorists in attacks inside Israeli territory. A mortar shell fired from the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday morning exploded near a kibbutz in the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council. There were no reports of injuries or damage.

The current round of violence along Israel's border with Gaza began Friday morning, when a Grad rocket fired from the Hamas-ruled territory landed near an apartment building in central Ashkelon. A few hours later two mortars landed within the limits of the Eshkol Regional Council. There were no reports of injury in either attack, but eight people suffered from shock in Ashkelon.

State officials postulated Friday that the Grad rocket fire was an attempt by terror groups in Gaza to strike up conflict in the region ahead of negotiations between Israel and the PA.

In response to the firing, the IAF bombed various targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday night killing a Hamas militant and injuring 12 people.

Peres says English are anti-Semitic draws fury

2010-08-01T02:17:00.000-07:00

President Shimon Peres evoked the anger of Jewish parliament members and leaders in Britain when he said in an interview last week that England is "deeply pro-Arab and anti-Israel", adding that "they always worked against us". Still there were some groups that backed the Israeli president and noted that the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the UK had risen dramatically in recent years.

In an interview to a Jewish website, Peres said, "There is in England a saying that an anti-Semite is someone who hates the Jews more than is necessary." His remarks came days after British Prime Minister David Cameron called Gaza a "prison camp".

Peres said England's attitude towards Jews is Israel's "next big problem". "There are several million Muslim voters, and for many members of parliament, that's the difference between getting elected and not getting elected," he said. "And in England there has always been something deeply pro-Arab, of course, not among all Englishmen, and anti-Israeli, in the establishment," he added, noting that in contrast, ties with Germany, France and Italy are "pretty good".

Peres' comments were made in an interview with historian Professor Benny Morris, and were published on the Jewish website "Tablet". 'Britain among best countries to live in'

Following Peres' comments, Conservative MP James Clappison, who is also the vice-chairman of Conservative Friends of Israel, said: "Mr Peres has got this wrong. There are pro- and anti-Israel views in all European countries. Things are certainly no worse, as far as Israel is concerned, in this country than other European countries."

Clappison told the British Telegraph that he understands the "frustration" that people in Israel feel with "certain elements of the British broadcast media" which present an unbalanced view of Israel.

While Clappison said he understands Peres' concerns, he added he does not "recognize what he is saying about England."

Dr. Jonathan Romain, a writer, broadcaster and minister of Maidenhead synagogue, did not agree with the president's statements, and said, "I am surprised at Peres. It is a sweeping statement that is far too one-sided.

"Britain has supported both Israel and Arab causes at different periods over the last 50 years. There are elements of anti-Semitism but it is not endemic to British society. The tolerance and pluralism here make Britain one of the best countries in the world in which to live."

According to Vince, the director of Christian Friends of Israel, the Cameron government is trying to appease the Arabs. "Peres' comments have serious connotations and I am sure would not be said lightly,"

New sanctions against Iran

2010-07-26T07:52:00.000-07:00

The European Union formally adopted new energy sanctions against Iran Monday which target the country's energy, banking, and foreign trade sectors.

The move comes on the heels of the unilateral US sanctions passed last month by the Senate. The EU sanctions were agreed to in principle by European leaders in June, and are the latest in a series of measures taken by the international community in an effort to halt Iran's nuclear program.

EU foreign ministers adopted a decision "on a package of restrictive measures" in the areas of trade, financial services, energy and transport, said a diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity under standing rules.

The new measures will come into force in the next few weeks, after they are published in the bloc's official gazette, officials said.

"We have a comprehensive set of sanctions. This is something where we have all 27 countries working together," EU foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton said ahead of the meeting.

According to the decision reached in June, the sanctions will target dual-use items that could be used as part of a nuclear program, and Iran's oil and gas industry — including the "prohibition of new investment, technical assistance and transfers of technologies."

Iran's shipping and air cargo companies will be blacklisted and banned from operating in EU territory, and new visa bans and asset freezes will be imposed on Iran's Revolutionary Guard. The sanctions also encompass trade insurance and financial transactions.

EU exports to Iran — mainly machinery, transport equipment and chemicals — amounted to euro 14.1 billion in 2008.

Imports from Iran, the EU's sixth largest energy provider, amounted to euro 11.3 billion, with energy being 90 percent of the total.

The new European restrictions will come on top of a fourth round of sanctions imposed last month by the UN Security Council to curtail Iran's nuclear program over fears it is developing weapons. The council endorsed those sanctions after Iran rebuffed a plan to suspend uranium enrichment and swap its stockpiles of low-enriched uranium for fuel rods.

The new restrictions are similar to measures adopted by US President Barack Obama's administration, which has imposed penalties against additional individuals and institutions it says are helping Iran develop its nuclear and missile programs, and evade international sanctions.

Iran denies that it is working on a nuclear weapon, saying its program is intended solely for peaceful purposes such as energy-generation, and that it has the right to enrich uranium under the international non-proliferation treaty.

EU foreign ministers also are expected reaffirm the bloc's invitation to Tehran to hold talks on the issue.

"Our aim is to bring Iran back to the negotiating table," said German State Secretary Werner Hoyer. "We're offering our hand, and all they have to do is to take it