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It was more an embarrassment than a ship. Nearly 20 years old, its single tall funnel poked out above dilapidated decks and scarred paintwork. It was heading for the breaker’s yard until the Haganah, the Jewish underground, bought it. Now, loaded with more than 4,500 Jewish refugees, many of them Holocaust survivors, it was approaching the Palestinian port of Haifa and its moment of destiny. Its commander that July day in 1947 was Yossi Harel, who has died at 90. The ship was the USS President Warfield but Harel had renamed it Exodus 1947. Nearing Haifa it was pursued by...

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Israel was born not only into war, carnage and controversy but also into shortage. Shorn of cash and goods, it had to ration meat, eggs and cooking oil through a coupon system that soon generated undernourishment, bread lines and a thriving black market. Worse, lacking allies, trade partners and natural resources while swamped by poor immigrants, the Israeli economy was also burdened by its leaders' rigorous socialism. Central planning initially generated growth, but Israel's protectionist duties, sclerotic financial system, high labor costs, bloated public sector and exorbitant defense spending soon proved untenable. By the 1980s the...

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak on Sunday called the situation in Lebanon "a serious development" following a series of deadly clashes between government forces and Hezbollah militants, backed by Israel's arch-foe Iran. "Hezbollah's taking of control (in west Beirut) is a serious development," Barak said during the weekly cabinet meeting, public radio reported.

Israeli left-wing activists and Arabs commemorate 60 years since 'catastrophe' of Israel's inception with march in central Jerusalem Aviram Zino Published: 05.11.08, 23:28 / Israel News Two hundred left-wing activists and Israeli Arabs marched on Sunday from the Jerusalem Theater square to the Nature Museum on Emek Refaim Street in the capital marking 60 years since “Nakba Day", or “catastrophe” of Israel's inception in 1948. During the procession, protestors stood near houses they claimed once belonged to Palestinians, telling the proclaimed history of each house. Amongst the protestors was an elderly Palestinian woman accompanied by her family members who shared...

Heavy clashes erupted south of Beirut yesterday between mainly Shia and Druze militants, breaking a tense calm that had taken hold after feuding factions reached a tentative agreement to end four days of fighting. The crackle of machinegun fire and thump of exploding mortar rounds echoed through the town of Shwayfat on the lower slopes of the Chouf mountains overlooking southern Beirut as fighters from the Shia group Hezbollah and its allies fought Druze gunmen loyal to Walid Jumblatt, a key government ally.

A US warship, which was deployed off Lebanon in February amid concern over Beirut's political crisis, crossed Egypt's Suez Canal on Sunday on its way to the Mediterranean, an official with the canal authority told AFP. “The USS Cole has crossed the Suez Canal and is headed to the Mediterranean,” the official said, adding he did not know its exact destination. The United States sent the guided-missile destroyer to waters off the coast of Lebanon on February 28, in what US officials said was “a show of support for regional stability” amid concerns over Lebanon's protracted political crisis. US Secretary...

Israel, your people, as well as people of good will, are celebrating your sixtieth birthday. We, the children of Cyrus the Great, also would like to offer our heartfelt best wishes to you on this occasion. Yet, this, in fact, is your rebirth. Your birth occurred some 4,000 years ago. Regrettably, your journey from your early beginning to the present has been fraught with great suffering. It is a tribute to the indomitable spirit of your people that they persisted in their valiant struggle to re-gather again in the land of their birth. A noble and just Persian king, Cyrus...

On Israel 60th Birthday, Picnics And A Warning To Iran By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem ----- May 11, 2008 ....... Israel is celebrating her 60th birthday this week. From colorful fireworks, laser shows and Israel flag draped skyscrapers to country picnics, folk dancing and IDF parachute drops. The mood is upbeat. And Israel security forces deserve a loud applause for their Intel and field work in preventing Islamic terror attacks from interrupting this joyous and historic anniversary. But quietly inserted into Israel's 60th birthday celebrations was a highly lethal message for Iran. It was not articulated in the...

Israel’s doom would be bad news for Europe. Almost everywhere I went last week — TV, radio, speeches — I was asked about the 60th anniversary of the Israeli state. I don’t recall being asked about Israel quite so much on its 50th anniversary, which as a general rule is a much bigger deal than the 60th. But these days friends and enemies alike smell weakness at the heart of the Zionist Entity. Assuming President Ahmadinejad’s apocalyptic fancies don’t come to pass, Israel will surely make it to its 70th birthday. But a lot of folks don’t fancy its prospects...

The establishment of the state of Israel on May 15, 1948 was the most significant event in the history of the Jewish people in modern times. After an exile of almost 2000 years, the Jewish people are returning to their ancient homeland, a tiny little piece of land in the Middle East of which they were dreaming, yearning and praying for, for many centuries all over the world. The millions who emigrated to Israel before and after the establishment of the state and those who come today are not just "colonial settlers" who arrived to a remote and unknown plot...

THE BIRTH of the state of Israel 60 years ago this week was an astonishment. It is not unheard of for a nation to vanish from the map and later reappear. Poland, for example, was partitioned out of existence in 1795 and regained its independence in 1918. But the restoration of Israel was unlike anything the world had ever seen. more stories like thisJews had been deprived of their homeland for nearly 2,000 years, ever since the Roman devastation of Judea in the first and second centuries A.D. That upheaval had been cataclysmic. By the time the fighting ended in...

An Iranian-born United States citizen was sentenced here yesterday in US District Court to two years in prison and six months of home confinement for illegaly exporting US military aircraft parts to Iran via associates in Germany and the United Arab Emirates. Reza Tabib, 52, of Irvine, CA, pleaded guilty in June 2006 to violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which prohibits the export and re-export to Iran of certain items of US origin. The prosecution is the result of a joint investigation by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS). In...

... Israel has reached a grudging peace with its immediate neighbors, Egypt and Jordan, and the Arab world at large seems willing to accept its permanent presence. Yet a relatively nearby Muslim nation, Iran, is pursuing nuclear weapons as its president publicly threatens Israel with "annihilation." Israel's neighbor, Syria, continues to give sanction to terrorist groups, accepts nuclear-weapons aid from North Korea and maintains close ties with Iran. Yet, at the same time, it's reportedly pursuing secret back-channel talks with Israel aimed at reaching a settlement. Despite its major inroads in amassing political support across the globe, Israel remains threatened...

ISSUE: Jewish state celebrates 60 years of existence. Sixty years after its birth, the state of Israel finds one thing hasn't changed much. It still has to fight, every day, for its very existence. It still has to be wary, it still has to battle enemies on all sides, it still has to take international criticism when it retaliates against those who want the nation destroyed. Indeed, it is that perseverance, that will to exist, that should be celebrated this month, as Israel marks 60 years of independence.

A Conservative deconstructs Michael Ignatieff 's views on the Middle East On Sunday, April 13, Michael Ignatieff gave a speech at Toronto's Holy Blossom Temple. It was supposed to clear the air with the Jewish community in regard to his negative comments about Israel during last summer's Israel-Hezbollah war. And one media headline from last month duly claimed "Ignatieff Apologizes for Israeli War Crime Comment." Being keenly interested in the matter, I secured a transcript of the speech and searched for the words, "I was wrong" or "I am sorry." I did not find them. Instead, the deputy Liberal leader...

The absurd cover line on Maclean's this week, "Why Israel can't survive," misrepresents the magazine's contents. The article it advertises, by Michael Petrou, doesn't say Israel can't survive. It says Israel can survive only if it accepts Petrou's advice. Rightly, Petrou considers Israel an astonishing success. It's flawed, like all democracies, and burdened by the worst leadership since its founding 60 years ago. Yet it remains a modern state, with free speech, good universities, sophisticated industry and low unemployment. But not for long, if you believe Petrou. Two factors make the future bleak. First, West Bank settlements enrage the Arabs....

In all the commentary on Israel's 60th anniversary that has appeared on these pages over the last week, little has been said about what may be the most remarkable and important attribute of the Jewish state: the rule of law. Noting, as so many have, that Israel is a democracy in a region awash with totalitarianism is important, but that broad concept has many specific attributes. At the core of democracy is a method by which undemocratic or illegal behaviour by government can be challenged by citizens. If such challenges are successful, government must then be bound to change its...

DEBKAfile’s military sources report: Hizballah’s advance on two key Lebanese locations Saturday, May 10 had immediate effect on the strategic balance between the Iran-backed Shiite group and Israel. Sidon in the south, Lebanon’s second largest city, which provides Hizballah with control of a continuous coastal strip from its southern Beirut district all the way to Tyre. The second point is on the northern slopes of the Hermon range. After Hizballah seizes control of this enclave and the Syrian 10th and 14th armored divisions step over the border into Lebanon, the two forces can join to form a strong military line...

The system Bush may offer is known as a forward-based X-band radar. Transportable by air, it uses high-powered pulsed beams for extremely high-resolution tracking of objects in space such as a missile that could be tipped with a chemical, germ or nuclear warhead. Built by Raytheon Co, the system has been described by U.S. officials as capable of tracking an object the size of a baseball from about 2,900 miles (4,700 km) away. It would let Israel's Arrow missile defences engage a Shahab-3 ballistic missile about halfway through what would be its 11-minute flight to Israel from Iran, or six...

U.S. President George Bush heads to the Middle East Tuesday for a five-day trip to Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns looks at what the president hopes to accomplish. President Bush, 29 Apr 2008 President Bush returns to the region hoping to build on the latest round of Israel-Palestinian peace efforts that he began last year with a conference outside Washington."Today, Palestinians and Israelis each understand that helping the other to realize their aspirations is key to realizing their own aspirations.  Both require an independent, democratic, viable Palestinian state," he said.This two-state solution is the...

On a pleasant Thursday in December 1948, Emilio Traubner, a correspondent for The Palestine Post, found himself near Abu Kabir, not far from Jaffa. Trenches and expended cartridges were strewn about, reminders of the fighting between units of the Irgun and local Arab forces that had taken place there seven months previously. There was a large Arab villa from where Traubner recovered a diary. It turned out to be the daily record of Yusuf Begovic of Pale, a town near Sarajevo in modern-day Bosnia-Herzegovina. In it Begovic had described his activities as a cook for the "Arab Army of Liberation."...

Almost everywhere I went last week — TV, radio, speeches — I was asked about the 60th anniversary of the Israeli state. I don’t recall being asked about Israel quite so much on its 50th anniversary, which as a general rule is a much bigger deal than the 60th. But these days friends and enemies alike smell weakness at the heart of the Zionist Entity. Assuming President Ahmadinejad’s apocalyptic fancies don’t come to pass, Israel will surely make it to its 70th birthday. But a lot of folks don’t fancy its prospects for its 80th and beyond. See the Atlantic...

JERUSALEM — The overwhelming view in Israel on Friday, just hours after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared his innocence in a bribery investigation involving a Long Island businessman, was that the post-Olmert political era had already begun. Skip to next paragraph Multimedia Calls for his resignation came from left, right and center, although all acknowledged that Mr. Olmert had won himself time by vowing, as he did Thursday night, to resign if charged. The investigation is likely to take another month or two.

Almost everywhere I went last week – TV, radio, speeches – I was asked about the 60th anniversary of the Israeli state. I don't recall being asked about Israel quite so much on its 50th anniversary, which, as a general rule, is a much bigger deal than the 60th. But these days friends and enemies alike smell weakness at the heart of the Zionist Entity. Assuming Iranian President Ahmadinejad's apocalyptic fancies don't come to pass, Israel will surely make it to its 70th birthday. But a lot of folks don't fancy its prospects for its 80th and beyond. See the...

The Druze people of Israel are a genetic sanctuary of ancient lineages of DNA, researchers reported on Wednesday... The researchers looked at mitochondrial DNA, a type of genetic material that is passed down virtually unchanged from mother to daughter. It can provide a kind of snapshot of the ancestry of a person... The mitochondrial DNA backed up the legendary origin of this close-knit religious group, believed to number 1 million or fewer. For instance, Skorecki's team discovered an unusually high frequency of a haplogroup, or a distinct collection of genetic markers, called haplogroup X. Haplogroup X is rare but is...

US POLICY on the Middle East suffered a major blow yesterday as Hezbollah fighters seized control of Muslim west Beirut, tightening their grip on the city after routing supporters of the western-backed government. At least 13 people have been killed and 30 wounded in three days of battles between pro-government gunmen and fighters loyal to Hezbollah. The fighting was the worst since the 1975-90 civil war, and brought familiar scenes of young men with ADVERTISEMENT assault rifles roaming the streets amid smashed cars and smouldering buildings. The White House said it was "very troubled" by Hezbollah's move and urged Iran...

WASHINGTON, (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reiterated his warning that the Jewish state will not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran, but expressed hope the international community would be successful in checking Tehran's nuclear ambitions. "Yes, Israel will not tolerate a nuclear weapon in the hands of people who say openly, explicitly and publicly that they want to wipe Israel off the map. Why should we?" Olmert asked in an interview with The Washington Post.

Sana Elbaz, the daughter of a Bedouin family from Tel Sheva who lit a celebratory torch at Israel's 60th anniversary ceremony in Jerusalem, saw her car set ablaze by unknown persons outside of her house on Thursday night. A molotov cocktail was also thrown at her door, but her house remained undamaged. Elbaz was watching TV late on Thursday when she heard the sound of glass breaking outside of her home. She alerted her neighbors, who helped to put out her blazing car, and called the police and her husband. "The first thing that had crossed my mind when I...

In this earlier thread I commented on the incredible ignorant statement by Obama that FDR and Truman talked to our enemies: The other side can label and name-call all they want, but I trust the American people to recognize that it’s not surrender to end the war in Iraq so that we can rebuild our military and go after al Qaeda’s leaders. I trust the American people to understand that it’s not weakness, but wisdom to talk not just to our friends, but our enemies – like Roosevelt did, and Kennedy did, and Truman did. Its a breathtaking quote and...

When President Bush visits Israel next week, he should offer to bring that ally fully into the U.S. missile defense network - a step that might forestall an Israeli attack on Iran this year. Two of the most strategically minded Members of Congress I know - Reps. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Jane Harman (D-Calif.) - have enlisted 63 colleagues to urge the move as Bush prepares to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Israel's founding. Specifically, the bipartisan group is calling on Bush to give Israel the advanced X-band radar system that would enable Israel to knock down Iranian missiles early...

Two mortar shells fired by Palestinians from northern Gaza Strip land in Kibbutz Kfar Aza Friday evening, killing one man, 48, and injuring three others. Mortars land near house, local community hall. Hamas claims responsibility for attack Shmulik Hadad Published: 05.09.08, 19:14 / Israel News Jimmy Kdoshim, a 48-year-old father of three, was killed in Kibbutz Kfar Aaza Friday evening after a mortar shell fired from Gaza hit his house in the kibbutz. Two mortars fired by Palestinian gunmen landed in the kibbutz, one fell close to the local community hall and the other landed on a house. Three people...

A 40 year-old man was killed late Friday afternoon when four mortar shells fired from the Gaza Strip landed on Kibbutz Kfar Aza in the western Negev. The victim, a father of four and resident of the kibbutz, was killed in the front of his house. Three others were wounded in the attack, one moderately and two lightly... ................ Hamas radio said Friday evening that the group was responsible for the mortar attack. Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas' military wing, said the terrorists had targeted a military position.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, appearing increasingly desperate to see an Israeli-Palestinian Arab agreement signed before her president leaves office at the end of the year, reportedly used less than diplomatic language speaking to a reporter last Monday. Both sides “need to draw a map [showing their agreed-upon borders of Israel and “Palestine”] and get it done,” she said tersely, according to a report in The Jerusalem Post Friday.

Israel21C, Yael Naim Produce Powerful, Creative Video for Israel 60th Birthday By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem ----- May 9, 2008 ....... Israel21C, a non-profit, non-political Website which creates, aggregates and broadly disseminates high-quality information to the American public, has produced a truly colorful and uplifting video in celebration of Israel's 60th birthday. Israel21C's which describes her mission as delivering news to the global public which transcends the pervasive imagery of conflict that characterizes so much of western media reporting. "Our goal is to strengthen the vibrant and enduring partnership between the United States and Israel, and between Americans...

In the poll of Jewish voters (conducted April 1-30), it showed Obama getting 61% of the Jewish vote against John McCain (32%). Yet in the same poll Hillary Clinton beat Obama among Jewish voters 62% - 38%. So obviously Jews are lifelong democrats who would vote for Obama, whom they rejected in the primaries, rather than vote for McCain. Thus, for them, party loyalty is preferable to Israel loyalty. Recently I posted two articles by Yarom Ettinger, former Israeli Ambassador to the US, The Prospects of a Palestinian State and National Interests of the United States and It’s American interests,...

On Monday, Iran’s Ali Asghar Soltanieh said Tehran would not submit to extensive U.N. inspections of its nuclear program while Israel refuses to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Iran is a signatory to the NPT, as the global pact is called, and, as such, is not permitted to build or hold nuclear weapons. Israel, which maintains a small arsenal of nukes, has not joined the NPT. Citing “nuclear apartheid,” the Iranian diplomat said The existing double standard shall not be tolerated anymore by non-nuclear-weapon states.

Israel and the Palestinians need to "draw a map and get it done," according to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, using language conveying a degree of impatience a week before President George W. Bush is scheduled to visit the region. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Photo: AP [file] Rice, en route to Washington from Israel on Monday, was asked by a reporter on her plane about Bush's April 2004 letter to then-prime minister Ariel Sharon, which stated that "in light of new realties on the ground," a full withdrawal to the 1949 Armistice Lines is "unrealistic." Any final-status...

Ever since the Trojans welcomed the Wooden Horse, full of armed Greeks, into their city, rulers and regimes have unintentionally defeated themselves. But as the last month has made obvious, with the rule of Hamas in Gaza we have something else entirely: not folly, but a strategy designed to inflict self-harm. The clearest, but by no means the only example of this is the fuel crisis that has brought transportation in Gaza to a virtual standstill. Even as it harshly condemned the Israeli "siege" of the Gaza Strip, Hamas acted to exacerbate the problem by repeatedly confiscating fuel trucks and...

The world is witnessing a terrible human rights crime in Gaza, where a million and a half human beings are being imprisoned with almost no access to the outside world. An entire population is being brutally punished. This gross mistreatment of the Palestinians in Gaza was escalated dramatically by Israel, with United States backing, after political candidates representing Hamas won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Authority parliament in 2006. The election was unanimously judged to be honest and fair by all international observers. Israel and the US refused to accept the right of Palestinians to form a unity...

I keep trying to get onto the site and asked for a password. Has it been been hacked into? What say FReepers?

Jordanian authorities have banned all events marking the "Nakba," or Catastrophe, as Arabs refer to the creation of Israel 60 years ago. Several pro-Palestinian groups and Jordanian opposition parties has been planning to hold a rally in Amman on Friday. But the authorities informed the organizers of the decision to ban the event, as well as other "illegal public gatherings." The Islamic Labor Front, which was planning a major rally in the capital, condemned the ban as unconstitutional. The party expressed outrage over the decision, noting that the Jordanian government had allowed the Israeli Embassy in Amman to celebrate Israeli...

Some of the anti-Israel, anti-Zionist rhetoric in the San Francisco Bay Area is simple anti-Semitism, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post Sunday. Newsom, in the country for four days as part of a large San Francisco Jewish Community Federation delegation, said he expected to see some people protesting against his trip here when he gives a commencement address next week at San Francisco State University. The university was the site of some of the ugliest anti-Israel protests in the US during the second intifada, with some pro-Palestinian protesters chanting "Hitler didn't finish the...

On the eve of Israel's 60th Independence Day, President Shimon Peres cites the country's achievements but he is also aware of the public's sense of cautious joy, and how that feeling exists despite the government, not because of it. "So what?" he says in an interview this week at the President's Residence. "It's not terrible that there is no rejoicing at the government. Governments all over the world are losing their strength. Besides, the Jews gave the world dissatisfaction. Celebration is not a Jewish thing. Still, I'm optimistic, though I'm not satisfied." Such an expression uses the plays on words...

JERUSALEM — As Israel toasts its 60th anniversary in the coming weeks, rejoicing in Jewish national rebirth and democratic values, the Arabs who make up 20 percent of its citizens will not be celebrating. Better off and better integrated than ever in their history, freer than a vast majority of other Arabs, Israel’s 1.3 million Arab citizens are still far less well off than Israeli Jews and feel increasingly unwanted. On Thursday, which is Independence Day, thousands will gather in their former villages to protest what they have come to call the “nakba,” or catastrophe, meaning Israel’s birth. For most...

TWO religiously identified new states emerged from the shards of the British Empire in the aftermath of World War II. Israel, of course, was one; the other was Pakistan. They make an interesting, if little compared pair. Pakistan's experience with widespread poverty, near-constant internal turmoil, and external tensions, culminating in its present status asnear-rogue state, suggests the perils that Israel avoided, with its stable, liberal political culture, dynamic economy, cutting-edge, hi-tech sector, lively culture and impressive social cohesion. But for all its achievements, the Jewish state lives under a curse that Pakistan and most other polities never face: the threat...

When Israel was born in 1948, the government of Iraq decided things looked safe enough to go to war. A small war. And I was there to watch it happen. Protected from the newborn Zionist enemy to the west by an expanse of wild, roadless desert, the Iraqis looked around for closer, more convenient, foes to fight. They found them behind the commercial counters of Iraq's financial institutions, administration offices and other places of business -- the harmless, peaceful, Jewish business clerks who kept the wheels of Iraq's national commerce turning in efficient fashion. In a gesture of pan-Arab solidarity,...

A Dutch-Canadian Holocaust survivor explains what Israel means to him This week marks Israel's 60th birthday. It also happens to mark the 63rd anniversary of the liberation of Holland -- and my personal liberation after nearly three years in hiding with my Dutch saviours, Albert and Violette Munnik and their daughter, Nora. As I reflect on my life as a Jew, these historical events are linked in a powerful way. The 1945 liberation was not so liberating for many Jewish children: The majority of Holland's successfully hidden boys and girls were orphaned. But in my case, my parents miraculously returned...

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert admitted on Thursday that he accepted campaign donations from an American businessman, but denied that they were bribes and said he would only resign if he were indicted. Olmert is suspected of illicitly receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from Morris (Moshe) Talansky, according to the details of an investigation currently being carried out against him. At the request of police and judicial officials, the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court on Thursday relaxed a sweeping media gag order that has prevented the reporting of details on the probe. Olmert was questioned under caution last Friday and the...

Why should Christians care about Israel? Amid the National Post's extensive coverage of Israel's 60th anniversary, it is a question worth asking. In particular, it was a question I had to think seriously about a few years ago when I was invited to join the board of directors of the Canada-Israel Committee, the branch of organized Jewry in Canada that defends the cause of Israel, works to enhance Canada-Israel relations and promotes Israel in Canadian public opinion. Before accepting, I wanted be sure that there were theological reasons for joining. I did accept, for three reasons which I think answer...

On Sept. 10, 1945, I landed in Palestine. Why was I there? The truth is, I didn't really have any other place to go. I'd lost my entire family to the Nazis so it was unthinkable to go back to Germany. I'd found safety in Switzerland, but once the war was over, all the refuges there had to find a different homeland. The United States was a place I dreamed of, but getting there was an impossibility. But the Jews were founding a new state in Palestine where I was not only wanted, but needed. I went to a kibbutz,...