65th Anniversary of Ghetto

Aging Holocaust survivors gather to commemorate last deportations from ghetto to Nazi death camps. Poland's president recalls their suffering, praises heroism of Poles who risked their lives to save Jews. Aging Holocaust survivors gathered Thursday to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the last deportations from the Lodz ghetto to Nazi death camps, while Poland's president recalled their suffering and praised the heroism of Poles who risked their lives to save Jews.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski dedicated a memorial – incorporating a Polish eagle into a Star of David – that his office said is the first in the world to commemorate those Polish Christians who rescued their Jewish neighbours during the more than five years of Nazi Germany's occupation of Poland.

Lodz was the second-largest city in prewar Poland, after Warsaw, and home to the second-largest Jewish population, with 231,000 Jews representing more than one-third of the city's population. "The liquidation of the Lodz ghetto, the murder of some 70,000 people, was the last act in the annihilation of Poland's Jews, who have lived here at least since the 12th century," Kaczynski told a crowd of hundreds, many who had come from as far as Los Angeles, California, and Haifa, Israel.

"Today we honour those who were killed and those who survived and those who - showing the greatest courage - saved their fellow citizens." Thursday's commemorations began at the ageing brown wooden Radegast train station, where about 145,000 Jews began their final journey to Nazi death camps. Wooden cattle cars with flaking rust-colored paint, still stamped with the Nazi-era "Deutsche Reichsbahn," sit in the station as grim reminders of the death trains.

Kasimira Rosmarinowsky, 86, a survivor who lives in Germany, said she attended the ceremonies to honour her parents and 142 other relatives killed in the Holocaust because she has no graves to visit.

The survivors, many accompanied by their grown children, and then marched 1.5 kilometers (one mile) to Survivor's Park, where the president unveiled the memorial: a concrete eagle, Poland's national symbol, on a pedestal that forms one corner in a giant Star of David. The star's edges are inscribed with the names of the Poles who saved Jews from extermination.

'Poland must acknowledge shameful episodes' Lodz Mayor Jerzy Kropiwnicki stressed the role played by non-Jewish Poles who hid Jews or smuggled them to safety. He noted that it was not only those caught directly aiding Jews who faced death, but their families as well. In recent years, Polish officials have sought to commemorate such people as part of an effort led by Kaczynski to dispel the stereotype that Poland was a deeply anti-Semitic country.

Thomas Blatt, 82, a survivor of the Sobibor death camp, said he welcomed efforts to honour such Poles, and considers any person who rescued Jews during the war a "holy man." "It was really dangerous to do something for Jews, and those who did it are heroes," he said. However, Blatt said he would also like to see Poland do more to acknowledge its shameful episodes in the war.

"Unfortunately a lot of Poles collaborated in the case of capturing Jews," he said. "The Germans didn't know who was a Jew or not, but the helpers did know – and that's what killed us."

The Nazis invaded Poland in September 1939. In April of the following year, the Germans sealed the Lodz ghetto with barbed wire, concentrating Jews in a tightly packed section cut off from the outside world. About 45,000 Jews from other parts of Nazi-occupied Europe, including Luxembourg, Austria and Germany, as well as about 5,000 Gypsies, were forced into the Lodz ghetto. Used as forced labour, many ghetto residents died from the horrific conditions. The Nazis decided to kill those remaining in August 1944.

Iran's dilemma

US appears ready to hold the Islamic Republic to a September deadline for negotiations. However, recent comments coming out of Teheran show that at least for now, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei is not interested in including the nuclear programme as part of any bilateral negotiations.

One important reason for this refusal is that recent demonstrations have increased security concerns inside the regime. The nuclear programme is seen by both Khamenei and Ahmadinejad as an insurance policy against the possibility of the Islamic Republic falling apart. The West already has enough problems with instability in places such as nuclear Pakistan. Washington does not want chaos to create an opportunity for Pakistan's nuclear arsenal to go missing, or worse, fall into the hands of extremists. As a result, Washington decided to deal with Pakistani administrations, even though the White House knows the Pakistani intelligence service has aided America's enemies in Afghanistan.

Khamenei may believe that once he gets his hands on a bomb, the United States will come knocking on Teheran's door for the same reasons - stability and security. Fearing that instability in Iran might result in Iran's bombs falling into the hands of extremists; the US may actually decide to prop the current regime up. This may not be the preferred option for America, but it's certainly one that Washington may be compelled to adopt were Iran to go nuclear.
Another reason Iran is refusing to negotiate with the US over its nuclear programme could be regional influence. Khamenei may fear that an agreement would eventually erode Iran's other spheres of influence in the Middle East. This could include Iran having to reduce its support for asymmetric groups such as Hamas and Hizbullah, as well as Shi'ite groups in Iraq, and Persian-speaking and Shi'ite groups in Afghanistan.

With instability increasing at home, Iran needs its influence in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon more than it needs good relations with the US. Such influence provides Teheran with pillars of power, just as Syria's involvement in Lebanon has provided the Assad dynasty with levers which it uses for its economic and political ambitions.

There is also the question of timing. No one wants to enter negotiations with a weak hand. Prior to the June 12 elections, Iran's bargaining hand was much stronger. Many Iran observers, including the White House, believed that Khamenei was captaining a stable ship; that they were dealing with a sophisticated chess player who applied an intricate system of checks and balances to maintain stability at home and abroad. The recent events in Iran have severely damaged this perception. Should Khamenei enter negotiations now, the regime's chipped facade could prove detrimental in negotiations. Therefore, it may be a better policy for the supreme leader to wait until the situation stabilises.

At the same time, the Iranian government faces a dilemma. Refusal to enter negotiations with the US could lead to tougher sanctions. This is a possibility that Iran would like to avoid. The best way to do this would be to create a rift in the UN Security Council between the United States, France and the United Kingdom on one hand, and Russia and China on the other.

This is why Iran recently agreed to grant the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors access to the Arak heavy water reactor, after a year of refusing any such visits. This is in addition to allowing the IAEA to upgrade its monitoring equipment at the Natanz enrichment plant. Iran's hope is that once the September deadline passes, such actions will make it difficult for the US to garner support from China and Russia in the Security Council.

However, Khamenei may find such cooperation to be insufficient. Even if Iran can convince Russia and China to back it, any refusal to negotiate could strengthen Washington's stance in the European Union. This could mean much tougher EU sanctions; with countries such as Germany being one of Iran's biggest source of industrial equipment, and the UK hosting bank accounts of numerous Iranian officials, such action could still be very harmful to Iran's economy. There is also the question of Switzerland, which provides a portion of Iran's gasoline. It's unlikely that the Swiss would go against their European neighbours, thus making EU sanctions even more painful.

This puts Khamenei in a bind. If he cooperates with the West, it would come at a cost, but so would ignore it. But for now, the latter burden appears to be the lesser of two evils for Iran's supreme leader. This of course could change, especially if troubles at home continue to reach a crescendo.

Ref: Meir

How people describe me?

Being generations younger, I am told to be an unemotional peace seeker, curt, cerebral and dry. Hailed from secular, liberal, Zionist stock that has by now overcome many of its old political divisions. My legacy for renewing is rule of law and I drew my inspiration from the Jabotinsky-Begin school of old political liberalism.

Wanted man named Defense in Iran

The man Iran's president has named to be defense minister is wanted in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural centre in Buenos Aires, and his nomination drew an outcry from Argentina and Jewish groups on Friday. Ahmad Vahidi, who commanded a unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guard known as the Quds Force at the time of the attack, was nominated by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Wednesday along with others named to fill Cabinet positions. The Quds Force is involved in operations abroad, including working with Lebanon's Hizbullah militant group, which is accused to carrying out the Buenos Aires attack. Argentine officials claim that Iran orchestrated the attack and that the Iranian-backed Hizbullah carried it out. The United States and Israel also say Iran is behind the bombing, but Iran has denied it.

Huckabee says 2 states in Holy Land 'unrealistic'

Former U.S. presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said that there should be no Palestinian state in the West Bank and endorsed Israeli settlements there, sharply disagreeing with Washington and much of the world.

A three-day tour of Israel, hosted by a far-right group of religious nationalists, is taking Huckabee to some of the most contentious hotspots in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict including a West Bank settlement outpost that even Israel's hard-line government considers illegal and an east Jerusalem housing project that the Obama administration has demanded be halted.Huckabee's opposition to a Palestinian state puts him at odds with the accepted wisdom of both Democrats and Republicans — and to some degree even with conservative Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has come out in favour of some form of Palestinian independence (a demilitarise state)

Speaking to a small group of foreign reporters in Jerusalem, Huckabee said the international community should consider establishing a Palestinian state some place else.
"The question is should the Palestinians have a place to call their own? Yes, I have no problem with that. Should it be in the middle of the Jewish homeland? That's what I think has to be honestly assessed as virtually unrealistic."

The politician, a Southern Baptist preacher and a two-time former governor of Arkansas, praised Israel for giving Muslims access to Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock — also once the site of the ancient Jewish temples — even though the presence of a mosque there "could be considered an affront."

"Israel is a place where they're going to allow other cultures and religions, but don't ask the Jewish people whose homeland it is to completely yield over their ability to live within the context of their country," Huckabee is being hosted by the Jerusalem Reclamation Project, a pro-settler group seeking to bolster the Jewish presence in traditionally Arab east Jerusalem, where Palestinians hope will serve as their future capital.Their activities, some of them funded by American millionaire Irving Moskowitz, are aimed at blocking the division of the city as part of any future peace deal.

During his tour, Huckabee visited the site of a planned neighbourhood near Jerusalem that has also drawn U.S. ire and which Palestinians say will slice their future state in half. He also travelled to Hebron, the traditional burial place of the Biblical patriarch Abraham and the focus of particularly acute tensions between Muslims and Jews.

Right tries to stop judges' appointment

As Friday's scheduled meeting of the Judicial Election Committee draws near, right-wing organisations and individuals are applying pressure to prevent the appointments of Beersheba District Court Judge Yosef "Sefi" Elon and Tel Aviv District Court Judge Uzi Fogelman on the grounds that they are "leftists." These forces are pinning their hopes on the fact that the bloc of three right-wing politicians including Environment Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) and MKs David Rotem (Yisrael Beiteinu Party) and Uri Ariel (National Union Party) will prevent the appointment of the two candidates.

By law, a candidate for the Supreme Court must be chosen by at least seven of the nine committee members. Elon is the son of former Deputy Supreme Court President Menahem Elon and the brother of Benny Elon, former head of the Moledet Party, and Mordechai Elon, both of whom are right-wing religious nationalists.

But Mattot Arim, a right-wing organisation, recently issued a "warning" not to mistake their brother for them, despite his lineage. "Mr. Elon is being misrepresented as a right-wing candidate because two of his brothers are both National Religious and right-wing," warned Mattot Arim. "However his brothers are not the candidates. Sefi Elon himself is the candidate and he is left-wing, both in his outlook and in his previous judicial behaviour in his temporary appointment as a justice."

As an example of Elon's allegedly left-wing leanings, Mattot Arim referred to a ruling in which he agreed to allow the wholesale detention of Kfar Darom protesters who were brought to court before the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. Mattot Arim charged that Elon should have studied each case individually or in small groups to determine which of the protesters should be detained.

"There is absolutely no reason to tolerate Sefi Elon's presence in the court [he served as a temporary Supreme Court justice for nine months - DI] any longer. This is why the right-wing candidates were elected to the Judicial Election Committee to begin with. If the three right-wing members of the committee stick together as a group, Sefi Elon simply cannot become a judge and neither can other, better known, radical judges like Uzi Fogelman."

In an attempt to block Fogelman from joining the Supreme Court, right-wing activist Shabtai Azriel wrote to Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz, demanding that he disqualify Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch from voting in the committee on Fogelman's candidacy.

Azriel charged that Fogelman and Beinisch are involved in a conflict of interests that is tantamount to bribery. As a temporary Supreme Court justice, Fogelman wrote the decision rejecting a petition filed by investigative reporter Yoav Yitzhak against Beinisch. Azriel charged that Fogelman wrote the decision knowing that he needed Beinisch's support to be elected to the Supreme Court. Azriel added that extreme right-wing MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union Party) had asked Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman to disqualify Beinisch but that he refused to do so.

Source: JP

Mystery of Stonehenge

The megalithic ruin known as Stonehenge stands on the open downland of Salisbury Plain two miles (three kilometres) west of the town of Amesbury, Wiltshire, in Southern England. It is not a single structure but consists of a series of earth, timber, and stone structures that were revised and re-modelled over a period of more than 1400 years. In the 1940s and 1950s, Richard Atkinson proposed that construction occurred in three phases, which he labelled Stonehenge I, II, IIIa, IIIb, and IIIc. This sequence has recently been revised in Archaeological Report (10) published by English Heritage.

The earliest portion of the complex dates to approximately 2950-2900 BCE (Middle Neolithic). It is comprised a circular bank, ditch, and counterscarp bank of about 330 feet (100 metres) in diameter. Just inside the earth bank is a circle of the 56 Aubrey holes that held wooden posts.

After 2900 BCE and for approximately the next 500 years (until 2400 BCE), post holes indicate timber settings in the centre of the monument and at the north-eastern entrance. The Aubrey Holes no longer held posts but were partially filled, some with cremation deposits added to the fill. The numerous post holes indicate timber structures but no clear patterns or configurations are discernible that would suggest their shape, form, or function.

During Phase III the monument underwent a complicated sequence of settings of large stones. The first stone setting comprised a series of Bluestones placed in what are known as the Q and R Holes. These were subsequently dismantled and a circle of Sarsens and a horseshoe-shaped arrangement of Trilithons erected.

The Sarsen Circle, about 108 feet (33 metres) in diameter, was originally comprised of 30 neatly trimmed upright sandstone blocks of which only 17 are now standing. The stones are evenly spaced approximately 1.0 to 1.4 metres apart, and stand on average 13 feet (4 metres) above the ground. They are about 6.5 feet (2 metres) wide and 3 feet (1 metre) thick and taper towards the top. They originally supported sarsen lintels forming a continuous circle around the top. Each lintel block has been shaped to the curve of the circle. The average length of the rectangular lintels is 3.2 metres (10' 6"). The lintels were fitted end-to end using tongue-and-groove joints, and fitted on top of the standing sarsen with mortice and tenon joints. The Sarsen Circle with its lintels is perhaps the most remarkable feature of Stonehenge in terms of design, precision stonework, and engineering.

Sarsen stones are hard-grained sandstone with a silaceous cement. They were probably brought to the site from the Marlborough Downs, about 30 kilometres to the north of Stonehenge.

The Trilithons are ten upright stones arranged as five freestanding pairs each with a single horizontal lintel. They were erected within the Sarsen Circle in the form of a horseshoe with the open side facing north-east towards the main entrance of the monument. They were arranged symmetrically and graded in height; the tallest is in the central position. Only three of the five Trilithons are now complete with their lintels. The other two both have only one standing stone with the second stone and lintel lying on the ground.

The term "Bluestone" refers to various types of mostly igneous rocks including dolerites, rhyolites, and volcanic ash. It also includes some sandstones. The Bluestones at Stonehenge are believed to have originated from various outcrops in the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire in Wales. How they were transported to the site at Stonehenge has been the subject of much speculation.

In the final sub-phase, two circles, one inside the other, known as the Y and Z Holes were dug for the placement of stones but were never filled.

Probably also dating to Phase III are the four Station Stones (only two of which survive, and one of them has fallen). These sarsen stones stood just inside the Bank on more or less the same line as the Aubrey Holes. Two of the Station Stones were surrounded by circular ditches 10 to 12 metres in diameter. These have caused the area enclosed by the ditch to appear mound-like and have lead to the erroneous identification of each mound as a burial barrow.

Assigned to Phase III are also Stoneholes D and E and the recumbent sarsen known as the Slaughter Stone located on the north-east side in a break in the bank-and-ditch in what is regarded as the main entrance of the monument.

At this time was also laid out an earthwork known as the Avenue that extends north-east from the break in the bank-and-ditch.

Located further along the Avenue , and most likely dating to this period, is the so-called Heel Stone (Stone 96). The sarsen Heel Stone is approximately 16 feet high (4.88 metres), with another 4 feet (1.22 metres) buried below ground. The Heel Stone is surrounded by a circular ditch of approximately the same dimensions as the ditch surrounding each of the two Station Stones. The stone now leans out of vertical but most likely once stood upright. Originally, the Heel Stone may have been paired with another stone now missing (Stonehole 97).

Finally, mention should be made of the so-called Altar Stone, a large dressed block of sandstone that lies embedded in the ground within the Trilithon Horseshoe and "in front of" of the central and largest Trilithon pair. Two fallen stones now lie across it. The stone is believed to be Cosheston Beds Sandstone from south Wales, and is the only example of this type of stone at Stonehenge. It is 16 feet long (4.9 metres), 3 feet 6 inches wide (1 metre), and 1 foot 9 inches thick (0.5 metres).

Source:Dr. Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe

Ridiculous Assumptions

It is ridiculous sometimes to hear the arguments and ideas of people especially from the Arabs world. The Mullahs continue to spread their stupid ideas to fool their population and continue to incite hatred towards the Jews. These unintelligent and bogus ideas are that Jews are responsible for Global Warming, Swine flu, H1N1 flu, the terrorist attacks of 911 in USA, the recent violence in Iran after the fraudulent election, the Air crashes, the cyclones and typhoons, the HIV Aids virus and the Economic turmoil. They called it the Zionist agenda. I wonder how permanent head damage these people are.

A journalist from Holland who linked Jews to the recent outbreak of flu pandemics drew heavy criticism from a prominent Dutch Jewish organization earlier this week that claimed her words were tantamount to anti-Semitic blood libels. Holland's largest daily, De Telegraf last week printed an interview with Désirée Röver, 61, who proposed the bird flu pandemic, caused by the virus H5N1, was part of an international conspiracy to reduce the world's population.

Röver is quoted as saying the conspiracy can be traced back to a group of descendants of the Khazars, a nation from the Caucasus believed to have converted to Judaism 1,200 years ago. De Telegraaf quotes her as saying that these descendants are now "praying to another god; Lucifer, Satan, or however you want to call him" and "are called Rockefeller, Rothschild, Brezinski and Kissinger."

Ronny Naftaniel, who heads the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI) - a local anti-Semitism watchdog - said that this is the first time he has heard such claims from Rover, and added that based on her words, "she does not seem to be right in her head."

Tales of Jews spreading disease "is nothing new and stories of Jews poisoning the water wells are known from many centuries ago and her words are giving rise to that anti-Semitism." CIDI, he added, will look into the possibility of lodging a formal complaint against Rover, though no such decision has been made as of yet. Dutch law stipulates that only people with malicious intent can be convicted of inciting hatred or anti-Semitism

Obama Sizzler Drama

Here are two versions of the summer sizzler "President Obama and the Exploding Deficit," playing in a Cineplex: In Version One, Obama pronounces himself ready to make hard political choices to tame the federal debt. But after spending a trillion dollars to extinguish the economic crisis, he proceeds to insist -- as if nothing had happened -- on the biggest expansion of federal government spending since Medicare: guaranteed health insurance for all.

He claims to want a bipartisan bill but refuses to consider any component that might offend a Democratic constituency, no matter how essential to a coherent plan: no malpractice reform (trial lawyers), no taxing of employer-provided health-care benefits (unions), no means-testing of Medicare benefits (middle-class seniors).

The president says this new entitlement will be "deficit-neutral." But he proposes to pay for it in part with "Medicare savings" that will be so unpopular that Congress will never let them kick in, and in part with a tax on the wealthy that might have been used for deficit reduction -- thereby reducing the prospects for real deficit reduction from dim to dismal.

Only after health care is in place -- as well as, oh yes, a second unprecedented expansion of federal power into the economy on behalf of energy reform -- will he put deficit reduction on the table. And when he does that, he will support, at best, an apolitical commission that will remove any need for Obama himself to put forth any unpopular proposals.

Plausible? Does this scenario mesh with the facts? Well, but consider Version Two:

Obama cares deeply about controlling the federal debt, appreciating the existential risk it poses to America's future, and is ready to make hard political choices to deal with it. But he also understands a couple of fundamental truths: First, that rising health-care costs are one of two basic drivers of that debt (the other being the aging of the population), so no solution to the federal quandary is imaginable without getting a handle on those costs. Second, that America's political system simply will not swallow, even from a popular, persuasive president, a reform plan built exclusively on cost control -- a diet of spinach with no dessert.

So Obama sets out to marry cost control to a prize long sought by his party -- universal health care. He recognises that controlling health-care costs will require constant adjustments, so he seeks to put decisions in the hands of a Fed-like board of experts insulated from politics. He knows reform will fail if it is forced upon the system, so from the start he enlists key players who in the past would have opposed reform automatically: insurers, the drug industry, hospitals, the American Medical Association.

Finally, he calculates that a win on health-care reform will give him the political momentum he needs to tackle the federal debt. But understanding that Congress, with its earmarks and appropriations barons, will never deliver fundamental fiscal reform, he will take the power away from the Pelosis and the Reids by means of a commission that can take the heat for the hard decisions he knows must be made.

This version is also consistent with the facts -- so which is the real movie? We may get some sense when the story reaches its exciting climax -- when a health bill gets to conference, that is -- and we see how hard Obama will fight for the cost-control, deficit-controlling side of reform.

But, as with other Obama dualities that have vexed observers from the start (centrist or liberal? conciliator or partisan?), the real answer may be: both. Obama wants universal health care for its own sake -- what president would want his legacy defined by the crabbed, thankless task of balancing the budget? -- but he also believes it can pave the way to fiscal reform. It's an audacious gamble. But, then, it wouldn't be an Obama movie without one.

The lies perpetuated on Humanity

The greatest hoax perpetuated on humanity has created wars, murders, subterfuge and an enslavement of a large majority of the masses. Having researched Rennes le Chateau extensively, there are vast number of treasure seekers upon the Knights Templar and Mary Magdalene. The figure of a demon or devil called Asmodeus was at the entrance of the church of Mary Magdalene at Rennes le Chateau and why there was a sign over the church entrance stating “Terribilis est locus iste” and generally translated as This place is terrible. The most correct documentary made was Bloodline.

Even though there have been many interpretations of the paintings and decorations of this church, none of the researchers gave a valid translation or found Saunière's treasure. Ben Hammott had a dedicated tenacity to search and find the secret. This led him to the discovery of bottles containing these clues, which he had to decipher. In his book, Lost Tomb of the Knights Templar: A Tomb; A Treasure; A Great Secret, Hammott deciphered the clues Saunière had left in the bottles. On page 316 of Hammott's book begins the deciphered statements of Saunière.

Saunière found a tomb with a mummified body covered by a tattered shroud with the Knights Templar symbol of a red cross. Saunière realised that this was the body of Jesus Christ from the crucifixion marks on the body. He realized that the Catholic Church knew the story and that Christianity was based on a lie. This is explosive information.

Hammott writes that Saunière decided to preserve his information and thus we have a renovated church created by Saunière with his clues for future seekers. Hammott's discovery of another message is apparently documents of the Knights Templar giving information that they discovered the body of Jesus under the Temple in Jerusalem and brought it back to France (Gaul) and reburied in this tomb.

Ben Hammott discovered a tomb; however the mummified corpse in it was not covered by a tattered shroud, but a seemingly intact shroud. This body has no crucifixion scars. Are there two tombs? Is one of Jesus and the second the body of Mary Magdalene? Ah mystery! In the tomb, Hammott found a possibly anointing jar and a cup that could be the wedding cup of Mary Magdalene and Jesus.

If this is so, then it does indicate the duplicity of the Vatican—the cover-up and lies over the centuries. The demon Asmodeus represents the Catholic Church and the phrase This place is terrible refers to religion.

Ben Hammott's book of 680 pages is never boring. Writing with humour and with photos, he has documented his journey of discovery and the DNA testing of the body in addition to the artifacts found in the tomb. From Andre Douzet's book Saunière's Model and the Secret of Rennes-le-Chateau, he writes There is very little difference between Galilee, Galicia and 'Gaule', the area of France and England. Douzett writes that one could say that "Gallile" can be read as "en galles il est," in Gallie (Gaule) he is." This indicates that there are those who think Jesus came to France.

Can the general public accept this? Probably not. The Church has over the centuries coerced, plundered, murdered, burned at the stake, tortured, warred, and above all lied. Was there ever a Paul, formerly called Saul? What else is to be uncovered? An interesting quote that Pope Leo X (1475-1521) supposedly said: It has served us well, this myth of Christ. I have often wondered why there are no factual historical documents that include Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Too many researchers depend on the Bible as true documentation and nothing could be further from the truth.

Josephus is quoted widely by scholars writing about Jesus and his life. In the translation there was no mention of Jesus or Mary Magdalene. Is it odd? The version of Jewish Antiquities 18.3.3 there is a short paragraph regarding Jesus. It is possible that this paragraph was added later.

Ralph Ellis has done extensive research into the Bible and ancient history, especially that of ancient Egypt. In Ellis' book Jesus, Last of the Pharaohs, chapter VII, titled The Evangelist, pages 220-221, he writes about the evangelist named Paul formerly called Saul—the author of the Book of Acts, which is his autobiography. Ellis also researched Josephus' own autobiography and found amazing coincidences between Josephus and Paul/Saul. The events of their lives are primarily identical, so much so that it is obvious that Josephus and Paul/Saul is the same person. It was the writings of Paul/Saul that named Jesus as Christ. It could be that Josephus admired Jesus whom he would have heard of in Jerusalem and created the character of Paul.

Josephus was a turncoat as an undercover spy for the Romans. When the Romans conquered Jerusalem and destroyed its temple, Josephus, a Jew was taken to Rome and given Roman citizenship. While living in Rome, he began his writing. Even though Josephus' creation was a hoax, it is not the greatest one—or perhaps his was the beginning of the greatest hoax perpetuated by the Vatican in order to control the people and their minds. Today the Vatican is extremely wealthy and the papal palace filled with priceless objects. It is all about power. It is time the truth be revealed to those who have the eyes to see and the ears to hear. We are living in the era of revelations.

Livni: respond to every rocket attack

Gaza gunmen fired two mortar shells towards the Erez border crossing on Sunday while a Palestinian heart patient was being transferred by ambulance into Israel to receive medical care. The shells landed on the Palestinian side of the perimeter fence. On Sunday morning, a Kassam rocket fired from Gaza landed in the Sdot Negev region. There were no reports of casualties or damage in either incident.

Following Sunday morning's Kassam attack, opposition leader Tzipi Livni said that Israel must respond to every rocket. Speaking on a tour of Beersheba with Kadima faction members on Sunday afternoon, Livni said Israel must not "collect Kassams" before embarking on a military operation. The last time a Kassam was fired from Gaza was in mid-July, when a rocket struck the Sdot Negev region. There were no casualties or damage in that incident either.
Rocket attacks have been rare since Operation Cast Lead in January and have not caused any casualties.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has vowed to respond to any rocket fire from the Strip, saying in late July, "Our policy is that we are not prepared to accept rocket and missile fire on Israeli territory. For every rocket, before the elections [in February] there may not have been a response, but that has not been the case since the elections. This was and will remain our policy."
Israel has recently conducted successful tests of the Iron Dome missile defense system. The system, under development by Rafael Defense Systems, is slated to become operational sometime in 2010 and is reportedly capable of intercepting short-range Kassam and Katyusha rockets fired by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hizbullah in southern Lebanon.

Iran Police chief acknowledged abuses of detainees

Iran's police chief acknowledged Sunday that protesters detained in postelection unrest were abused in custody but said the deaths of prisoners were caused by illness, not torture.Iran's opposition has seized on claims of abuse at Kahrizak detention center, saying young people protesting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's June 12 re-election were tortured to death there.

More troubling for the government, however, is that some prominent figures in its own conservative support base also say murders were committed in the prison and that those responsible should be brought to trial.The issue has come to the fore as Iran presses forward with a mass trial of more than 100 prominent reformist figures, opposition activists and others accused of offenses ranging from rioting to spying and seeking to topple the country's Islamic rulers.

The trial, which has included televised confessions that rights groups say are likely extracted through pressure, is the government's latest attempt to crush the opposition.A senior commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard on Sunday called for the arrest and trial of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, his ally former President Mohammad Khatami and another reformist who ran for president, Mahdi Karroubi.

Yadollah Javani said the three men have led what he called a "velvet coup" aimed at toppling Iran's clerical rulers."If Mousavi, Khatami ... and Karroubi are the main elements of a velvet coup in Iran, which they are, it is expected that judicial bodies and intelligence officials go to them to put out the fire of sedition, arrest, try and punish them," he was quoted as saying by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

source:AP

9 killed as helicopter and small plane collide over Huston River

A small plane collided with a tourist helicopter over the Hudson River on Saturday 8th on a crystal-clear summer afternoon, ripping the rotor blades from the helicopter and severing one of the plane's wings, sending both aircraft plunging into the murky water and killing all nine people on board. Witnesses to the crash described how debris from the two aircraft disappeared within seconds beneath the water's surface, and rescue workers soon determined that there were no survivors, officials said.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) said the plane, which had just left Teterboro, N.J., was carrying a pilot and two passengers, including a child. The helicopter, which had just taken off from Manhattan's West 30th Street heliport, carried a pilot and five Italian tourists. The crash occurred about noon. "It would appear that the airplane ran into the backside of the helicopter," Bloomberg said, saying the precise cause of the collision may not be known for days or weeks, pending an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.

"It is a great tragedy," Bloomberg said, calling this one of "the largest accidents resulting in death in the New York area in modern days." The last large-scale deadly plane crash in New York was Nov. 12, 2001 -- two months after the Sept. 11 attacks -- when American Airlines Flight 587 taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport crashed into a residential area of Queens, killing 260 people on the plane and five on the ground.

The crash Saturday also recalled a mishap Jan. 15, when a US Airways jet lost power in both engines and the pilot safely ditched the plane in the same river, saving the lives of all 155 people on board. "This is not going to have a happy ending, like when the Airbus went down on the river and everyone survived," Bloomberg said. "This has changed from a rescue to a recovery mission," the mayor said. "Sadly, there's not a lot of rescue to be done."

The river in that area is about 30-feet deep, and visibility was said to be poor -- just two feet. About three hours after the crash, at 3 p.m., divers had found the wreckage of the helicopter. "There are some bodies in the wreckage that we found," Bloomberg said. "They're studying now how to get them out safely."

By the time conditions forced the search to be halted for the night, three bodies had been recovered and six remained missing, as did the wreckage of the plane. Investigators have one particularly good witness to the collision, a fellow pilot from the helicopter sightseeing company, Liberty Helicopters. He saw the plane approaching and tried to radio the pilot of the helicopter but got no response.

That corridor of the Hudson River is normally crowded, with tourist helicopters and planes sharing a narrow stretch. The helicopters have a common frequency used only for navigating the Hudson -- there is a separate frequency just for the East River on the opposite side of Manhattan -- and plane pilots are able, but are not required, to listen in to hear where other aircraft are located. Bloomberg said using that system is voluntary.

The Teterboro airport in New Jersey is popular with small private planes. Authorities could not immediately say who was aboard the plane that crashed. New Yorkers out enjoying the clear, sunny day were horrified at the scene, which some said resembled something out of a Hollywood movie. Interviewed on NY1, the local cable television station, a parade of eyewitnesses, some from Hoboken, on the New Jersey side of the river, described how the plane seemed to hit the helicopter, which was beneath it, from behind Most said there was little sound -- a "pop" -- and no explosion. And several said they saw debris flying, including the rotor blades of the helicopter.

"The plane rolled into the side of the helicopter," said one young man interviewed, who said he happened to be looking up when he noticed that the two aircraft seemed to be too close. "The rotors of the helicopter just kind of splintered off in every direction." Bloomberg said: "There is some evidence from eyewitnesses that one of the wings of the airplane was severed."

source: W.P

Hackers threaten Livni on Kadima site

Access to the Kadima party Web site was temporarily blocked late on Wednesday night, after hackers posted violent photos and anti-Israel slogans on the site, and made apparent threats to the life of party head and Opposition leader Tzipi Livni. The hackers, possibly Arabs, posted a horrific photograph of a man lying in a hospital bed, with the caption "This is [former prime minister Ariel] Sharon's case." Underneath, the hackers displayed a photo of Livni, with the threatening caption "We promise you - we're coming." A photo depicting the aftermath of a terror attack, as well as a photo of a beheaded child were posted on the site, with the caption "Israel will continue to defeat our women and children." On the site's homepage the hackers wrote 'Gaza hacker,' along with slogans in Arabic. After several minutes, the violent images and threats were removed from the site. However, a sentence in Arabic and the words 'Gaza hacker' still appeared on-line

The Merovingians

The Visigoths were adherents of the Aryan, which denied the divinity of Jesus but simply viewed him as human. Their descendants founded the Merovingian dynasty, which ruled Gaul until the death of king Dagobert II.

The Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris contains a facsimile produced by the monk Lucerius of the highly reputed Fredegar's Chronicle - an exhaustive 7th-century historical work of which the original took 35 years to compile. A special edition of Fredegar's manuscript was presented to the illustrious Nebelungen court and was recognised by the state authorities as a comprehensive, official history. Fredegar, who died in the year 660, was a Burgundian scribe, and his Chronicle covered the period from the earliest days of the Hebrew patriarchs to the era of the Merovingian kings. It cited numerous sources of information of cross-reference, including the writings of St Jerome (translator of the Old Testament into Latin), Archbishop Isidore of Seville and Bishop Gregory of Tours

Christ’s descendent intermarried with the Royal Franks to found what eventually became the mystical Merovingian Dynasty. Ergo, the real mission of the Templars and Priory of Sion: to safeguard not just the treasure of the Crusades, but to preserve the Grail and the dynastic legacy of Christ.

"'Sang réal' has been traditionally interpreted as the 'Holy Grail’, that, Mary Magdalene carried to the Jewish kingdom of southern Gaul including Rennes-le-Château. Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus and that what she brought was not a vessel but the royal seed of David in her womb.

The Merovingians were considered in their day to be quasi-mystical warrior-kings vested with supernatural powers.

Up until recently, little was known about these longhaired kings, as they inhabited that historical epoch derided as the 'Dark Ages'. The founder of the royal line, Merovech, was said to be of two fathers - his mother, already pregnant by King Chlodio, was seduced while swimming in the ocean by a 'Quinotaur,' whatever that was, and Merovech was formed somehow by the commingling of Frankish blood and that of the mysterious aquatic creature. Like the Nazoreans of old, the Merovingian monarchs never cut their hair, and bore a distinctive birthmark - said to be a red cross over the shoulder blades or even in their belly or both. Their robes were fringed with tassels, which were said to carry magical curative powers. They were known as occult adepts, and in one Merovingian tomb was found such items as a golden bull's head, a crystal ball, and several golden miniature bees. And strangely, many skulls of these monarchs appear to have been ritually incised.

The Merovingians were 'sacred kings' who reigned but did not rule, leaving the secular governing function to chancellors known as the Mayors of the Palace. It was the one of the Mayors, Pepin the Fat, who founded the dynasty that came to supplant them - the Carolingians."

The Merovingians traced their ancestry back to the Benjamites who, according to legend, has fled from Israel to Arcadia in Greece.

One of the more mysterious footnotes in history is the story of the Principality of Septimania. Granted by Peppin III to the large Jewish population in the south of France, its first king, Theodoric, claimed descent not only from the Merovingian Kings, but lineal descent from King David himself. Both the king and the Pope acknowledged this pedigree. His son, Guillem de Gellone, was a great, almost legendary hero about whom no less than six medieval epics were written. He is closely linked with the Grail family. . His descendant, 17 generations later, was Godefroi de Bouillon, leader of the First Crusade who was, by the Pope, made King of Jerusalem."

Plague outbreak in China

Medical staff raced to disinfect a sealed-off town in northwestern China on Tuesday after a third person died within four days in a pneumonic plague outbreak in the farming community of 10,000, local authorities said.Police set up checkpoints around Ziketan in Qinghai province after the outbreak was first detected last Thursday. The lung infection is highly contagious can kill a human in 24 hours if left untreat.

Medical staffs are disinfecting the area and killing rats, insects and fleas that can be carriers for the bacteria, a notice on the provincial health department Web site said. Authorities are keeping close track of people who came into contact with those infected.
Authorities urged anyone who had visited the town since mid-July and has developed a cough or fever to seek hospital treatment. Pneumonic plague is spread through the air and can be passed from person to person through coughing.

The latest victim was a 64-year-old man named Danzhi, the official Xinhua News Agency said.He was a neighbour of a 32-year-old herdsman in Ziketan and a 37-year-old man who died earlier. A further nine people — mainly relatives of the herdsman — are infected and in a hospital, according to the local health bureau.Of those, one is in an extremely serious condition and one other has developed symptoms of coughing and chest pain, but the rest are in stable condition and there have been no reports of new infections, Xinhua and the health department said.

Police checkpoints were set up in a 17-mile (28-kilometer) radius around Ziketan and people were not allowed to leave, a resident said. Many shops remained closed Tuesday, residents said, although more vehicles were out on the street.Some people tried to leave the quarantined area on Monday evening after the third death was reported.

"A lot of people ran off last night when they heard that another person died of this plague. They are mostly from other provinces," said a foodseller surnamed Han who runs a stall at the Crystal Alley Market. "They headed back home with food, mineral water and their donkeys."It was unclear if the people who headed out of the town made it past the police checkpoints. Officials at the local and provincial level were unavailable to comment.According to the World Health Organization; pneumonic plague is one of the deadliest infectious diseases, capable of killing humans within 24 hours of infection.

A 2006 WHO report from an international meeting on plague cited a Chinese government disease expert as saying that most cases of the plague in China's northwest occur when hunters are contaminated while skinning infected animals. Pneumonic plague is caused by the same bacteria that causes bubonic plague — the Black Death that killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe in the Middle Ages. However, bubonic plague is usually transmitted by flea bites and can be easily treated with antibiotics.

"כאן היתה שנאה, אהבה לא הורגת"

דבריה של יו"ר האופוזיציה, ח"כ ציפי לבני, הערב בעצרת ההזדהות עם הקהילה הגאה בת"א:"באתי היום להזדהות. באתי להזדהות לא רק עם הפצועים, לא רק עם משפחות המתים אלא באתי להזדהות איתכם החיים. חברי הקהילה הגאה שבוכים היום על מתיהם ומכאן ממשיכים הלאה וביום הזה לצד הבכי על המתים יש גם מי שבוכה קצת על עצמו. ואני מקווה שהיום הזה הנורא כל כך לכולם, לכל החברה בישראל, היום הזה גם ייתן כוח.

"אני מאמינה שהיום הזה הוא היום שאולי בצד הדבר הנורא הזה, שקרה אתמול והלוואי והאירוע הזה לא היה קורה. אולי האירוע הזה יהיה גם נקודת מפנה. וזה נכון שאנחנו עדין לא יודעים את המניעים ואת זהות הרוצח. אבל שנאה הייתה כאן. כי אהבה לא הורגת. ופשע השנאה הזה צריך להיות נקודת מפנה ולתת כוח. צריך לתת כוח לילד לבוא להורים ולומר "אני הומו", או "אני לסבית", והיום הזה צריך לתת כוח לכל הורה לקבל את הילד שלו כפי שהוא ולאהוב אותו כפי שהוא. והיום הזה צריך לתת כוח לכל אחד מחברי הקהילה הגאה לחיות את חייו. לפי רצונו, ולהיות שלם עם עצמו, ולהיות גאה עם עצמו, ולתת כוח לחברה הישראלית לעשות את השינוי, כדי שגם היא תהיה גאה בקהילה החיה בקרבה.

"הלוואי ויהיה זה יום של חשבון נפש של כל אחד מאיתנו, גם בהנהגת המדינה. חשבון נפש אמיתי, נוקב וכואב. האם עשינו די על מנת למנוע דעות קדומות והסתה, ולגלוג, וזה חשבון נפש אישי שכל אחד מאיתנו צריך לעשות, וכפי שכל אחד בהנהגת המדינה צריך לעשות את חשבון הנפש הזה, כך כל אדם במדינה צריך לעשות את החשבון נפש הזה גם כלפי עצמו.
"האירוע הזה בלי קשר למניעיו, מעיד על פניה של החברה בישראל, ואתמול נחשף כאב שהוא יותר מזה של הבודדים שזה קרה להם. הכאב היומיומי של ציבור החי בקרבנו, וחלקינו עוצמים עין וממשיכים הלאה, וזה במקרה הטוב.

"לפני כמה חודשים נפגשתי עם נציגי הקהילה הגאה בישראל והם ביקשו ממני דבר אחד, לבוא פעם לאירוע על מנת להוכיח שאפשר לבוא ולהזדהות ולתת לגיטימיות לבני אדם. וזה נראה לי אז מובן מאליו וטבעי. ולפני מספר שבועות חנכנו ביחד את המבנה המשותף. וזה כל כך עצוב שרק היום אתם מקבלים לגיטימיות. אבל זה לא יכול לקרות רק היום ולהיגמר מחר. הדגל שלכם מכיל כמעט את כל צבעי הקשת וקיבלתם היום הזדהות כמעט מכל קצוות הקשת הפוליטית בישראל. אך ההזדהות הזאת לא יכולה להסתיים היום, ואנחנו לא יכולים להרשות לעצמינו לסיים בהזדהות הזאת. נקודת המפנה צריכה להתחיל כאן, ולצאת ולהתפרץ ולשנות את פניה של החברה בישראל. מדובר בנו, בעצמינו ובעתיד שלנו".

Shooting in Tel Aviv Club

Hundreds of police officers were scouring the streets of Tel Aviv on Sunday in a door-to-door manhunt for a gunman who opened fire on a gay youth club. A masked man entered a club for gay teens late Saturday, pulled out a pistol and shot in all directions, killing 3 and injuring 34 according to latest reports, four seriously, police said. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the man then holstered his pistol and fled the scene by foot to the busy streets of Tel Aviv.

Nitzan Horowitz, Israel's only openly gay lawmaker, said the attack had all the symptoms of a "hate crime." "This is the worst attack ever against the gay community in Israel," he said. "This act was a blind attack against innocent youths, and I expect the authorities to exercise all means in apprehending the shooter."

Gays and lesbians enjoy great freedom and liberties in Israel. Soldiers serve openly in the military, and openly gay musicians and actors are among the most popular in the country.
Tel Aviv in particular is one of the more liberal cities in the world — it holds a festive annual gay parade, rainbow flags are often seen waved from apartment windows and the there is even a city-sponsored open house for the community.

However, ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders often incite against the community. In conservative Jerusalem, clashes have been frequent between religious and gay activists. In 2005, for instance, an ultra-Orthodox protester stabbed three marchers at a Jerusalem gay parade.The ultra-Orthodox Shas party, a frequent critic of gays in Israel, issued a statement condemning Saturday's attack.The attack sparked other swift political reactions. The mayor of Tel Aviv, Ron Huldai, pledged that Tel Aviv would continue to maintain its pluralistic nature.

Opposition leader Tzipi Livni expressed shock and sorrow from the attack. "The difficult event should awaken society to rid itself from prejudice," Livni said. "We must accept and recognize the right of every person to live safely and with respect."

Thousands took to the street in an impromptu march after Saturday night's attack to mourn for the victims and call for tolerance.The covers of Sunday's newspapers all featured photos of the bloodstained floors of the youth club and headlines such as "Massacre of the Proud Youth" and "Terror Against the Proud Community." Gay celebrities also penned guest columns. The names of the victims have yet to be released.

Significance Behind the "Lost Symbol" of Dan Brown

Symbols are prevalent all over the world and that the majority of people have no idea of what ancient symbolism is. There is much hope about Dan Brown's soon to be released "The Lost Symbol." It sounds enticing and the cover of the book is available for anyone to view. Supposedly, Brown has said that the symbol is buried in the cover of the book. On July 7, 2009, this cover was released on MSNBC and according to Jen Brown who wrote for MSNBC, the symbol on the cover is: "The jacket also prominently features a wax seal, inside of which is a double-headed Phoenix, the No. 33 (The highest mason degree), and the Latin phrase, "Ordo ae Chao," which translates to "Order from Chaos." These elements are tied to secret societies throughout history. The seal is set against a background of symbols -- among them characters from the zodiac and alchemy -- all suggesting ancient time and beliefs." What Brown does not mention is that the No. 33 is set within a triad. Of them all, the triad is the most important symbol.

Triad is really is not a secret. One only has to go to his book "A Beginner's Guide to Creating Reality," and in the back of the book is a drawing of the ancient triad with its meanings. The triad is a symbol of the journey from our origin into mass. This book is excellent for anyone who is curious about the triad, the brain and much, much more. It could be said that it is a book about discovery of self, or the purpose of self.

The triad or triangle has been passed down over the eons. Christianity adopted it as the symbol for the Father/Son and Holy Ghost with the Son being Jesus, which is a mis-interpretation with the original intent obscured.

Getting back to the cover of Brown's book, I have not delved too much into the Masonic meaning of 33 however there are 33 degrees or levels of Masonry and the human spine has 33 segments. The rise of one's spiritual energy has to move through all 33 segments to reach the Crown seal also called chakra and thus move into Christhood.

The two-headed phoenix represents the two-sided aspect of the human, i.e. the personality versus the spiritual. The phoenix rising out of the ashes is a symbol of the death of the personality and a rebirth. It could also represent reincarnation. The phoenix was used by the U.S. Founding Fathers instead of the eagle. The U.S. dollar bill is filled with ancient symbolism representing the spiritual side of the human. Too many people, including religions attribute this to Satan, the Devil or Lucifer when these symbols refer to the God within for the purpose of awakening the God-self of the human.