The Heart of Israel....

Israel Warns Terrorists

This terror must stop.
Experience has shown that Arabs respect only one thing...force.

ZIKIM, Israel (AFP) — Israel warned Gaza militants on Tuesday after a rocket smashed into an army base, wounding dozens of sleeping conscripts and piling pressure on the government to hit the Hamas-run area.
At least 69 soldiers sleeping in tents were wounded when the homemade rocket crashed in the dead of night into Zikim base in southern Israel not far from the border with Gaza, an army spokesman and medics said.
It was the bloodiest Palestinian rocket strike from Gaza in months and came ahead of the start of the Jewish New Year, increasing the pressure on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's cabinet to take action to stop such fire.
The premier met senior ministers and military chiefs to decide on a response to the attack which Hamas -- a group sworn to Israel's destruction -- called "legitimate resistance."
"Those who carry out these types of attacks, as well as those who support them, should know that they are not safe," Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin told AFP.
No formal announcement was made after the meeting, but Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told reporters that "we have not only military tools that we can use in the face of what's happening in Gaza."
This appeared to be an allusion to earlier calls by ministers for Israel to cut electricity, fuel and water supplies into the territory, measures that Olmert has so far rejected.
Many of the wounded troops were conscripts due to complete their basic training on Tuesday. Most of them received only light injuries, although the army said one was wounded critically and four seriously.
The military wing of the radical Islamic Jihad -- which is behind most rocket firings into Israel -- claimed the attack and dubbed it "The Dawn of Victory."

Petraeus Reports to Congress

There weren't any real suprises in today's testimony.
A sober assessment of the situation highlighted gains made since the surge began.
Petraeus said troop levels could return to pre-"surge" levels by next summer, allowing the withdrawal of some 30,000 combat forces, beginning with a Marine contingent later this month. That would leave roughly 130,000 troops still in Iraq. He also recommended further troop cuts eventually, though he didn't specify how deep those cuts might be.
Petraeus used a phalanx of charts and graphs to hammer his case home: Despite tactical setbacks, violence is down throughout Iraq, especially in key regions of the country such as Baghdad and Anbar province — where, he said, Iraqis are turning against terrorists. But he added that "civilian deaths remain at an unacceptable level."
"The security situation in Iraq is improving," Petraeus said, but "innumerable challenges lie ahead."
The general also said that the Iraqi military is assuming more responsibility for the country's security.
"I believe that we will be able to reduce our forces to the pre-surge level of brigade combat teams by next summer without jeopardizing the security gains that we have fought so hard to achieve," said Petraeus, who acknowledged that the situation in the country remains "complex, difficult and sometimes downright frustrating."

Bin Laden..Friend of the Jews?

As bits and pieces of the most recent Bin Laden exposition come out this is probably the most suprising.
Bin Laden attempts to portray himself and Islam as friends of the Jews.
Curiouser and curiouser.
Perhaps he is impressed with Adam Yahiye Gadahn an American-born English-language spokesman for the al-Qaeda organization. From 2004 to 2006 he appeared in a number of videos produced by the organization as "Azzam the American" ('Azzām al-Amrīki, عزام الأمريكي). In 2004, he was added to the FBI Seeking Information - War on Terrorism list.[1] On October 11, 2006 he was removed from that list, and placed on the Bureau of Diplomatic Security Rewards for Justice list of wanted terrorists.[2] On the same day, Gadahn was indicted in the Southern Division of the United States District Court for the Central District of California by a federal grand jury for treason. He is the first American charged with treason since 1952.[3]
He is currently believed to be in Pakistan and is being actively sought by the Bureau of Diplomatic Security.
This idea, while noteworthy, appears likely to fail since most Muslims consider Jews to be their main enemy.



DEBKAfile: Bin Laden uses Nazi Holocaust to slam Western culture

September 8, 2007, 4:34 PM (GMT+02:00)

In his first videotaped speech in three years, Osama bin Laden on Sept 7 addresses the Holocaust at length for the first time, branding “the Holocaust of the Jews as “your [American] culture, not our culture.” He says: “In fact, burning living beings is forbidden in our religion (sic!), even if they be small like the ant, so what of man!” [And what of New York?]
In another cynical distortion of the facts, al Qaeda’s leader praises on high the Muslim role in the Holocaust period.
“The holocaust of the Jews was carried out by your brethren in the middle of Europe. Had it been closer to our countries, most of the Jews would have been saved by taking refuge with us,” he said.
He expands further on his ideal of the Jews’ status in Muslim lands: “And my proof for that is in what your brothers, the Spanish, did when they set up the horrible courts of the Inquisition to try Muslims and Jews, when the Jews only found safe shelter by taking refuge in our countries.”
In fact, for thousands of years, the Jews of most Muslim countries were tolerated at best as second-class citizens who lived under the protection of sovereign.
As further proof of his contention, bin Laden declares: “…that is why the Jewish community in Morocco today is one of the largest communities in the world. They are alive with us and we have not incinerated them.”
Another fact: Only a few thousand Jews remain in Morocco from a vibrant community of 265,000 prior to 1948. In that year, entire Jewish communities were dispossessed and thrown out of Morocco and most other Arab Muslim countries. They found refuge in the fledgling State of Israel. And in 2003, he sent his suicide bombers to attack… Casablanca’s Jewish Quarter.
Al Qaeda’s leader opens his 30-minute tape marking the sixth anniversary of Sept. 11, with: “Praise to Allah” and his “law of retaliation” – “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and the killer is killed.” He says the US is vulnerable despite its economic strength and military might. Bin Laden urges Americans to convert to Islam to end the Iraq war.