World Terrorism: News, History and Research Of A Changing World.

First in Europe and now in the United States, Muslim groups have petitioned to establish enclaves in which they can uphold and enforce greater compliance to Islamic law. While the U.S. Constitution enshrines the right to religious freedom and the prohibition against a state religion, when it comes to the rights of religious enclaves to impose communal rules, the dividing line is more nebulous. Can U.S. enclaves, homeowner associations, and other groups enforce Islamic law?

Such questions are no longer theoretical. While Muslim organizations first established enclaves in Europe,[1] the trend is now crossing the Atlantic. Some Islamist community leaders in the United States are challenging the principles of assimilation and equality once central to the civil rights movement, seeking instead to live according to a separate but equal philosophy. The Gwynnoaks Muslim Residential Development group, for example, has established an informal enclave in Baltimore because, according to John Yahya Cason, director of the Islamic Education and Community Development Initiative, a Baltimore-based Muslim advocacy group, "there was no community in the U.S. that showed the totality of the essential components of Muslim social, economic, and political structure."[2]

Baltimore is not alone. In August 2004, a local planning commission in Little Rock, Arkansas, granted The Islamic Center for Human Excellence authorization to build an internal Islamic enclave to include a mosque, a school, and twenty-two homes.[3] While the imam, Aquil Hamidullah, says his goal is to create "a clean community, free of alcohol, drugs, and free of gangs,"[4] the implications for U.S. jurisprudence of this and other internal enclaves are greater: while the Little Rock enclave might prevent the sale of alcohol, can it punish possession and in what manner? Can it force all women, be they residents or visitors, to don Islamic hijab (headscarf)? Such enclaves raise the fundamental questions of when, how, and to what extent religious practice may supersede the U.S. Constitution.

The Internal Muslim Enclave The internal Muslim enclave proposed by the Islamic Center for Human Excellence in Arkansas represents a new direction for Islam in the United States. The group seeks to transform a loosely organized Muslim population into a tangible community presence. The group has foreign financial support: it falls under the umbrella of a much larger Islamic group, "Islam 4 the World," an organization sponsored by Sharjah, one of the constituent emirates of the United Arab Emirates.[5] While the Islamic Center for Human Excellence has yet to articulate detailed plans for its Little Rock enclave, the group's reliance on foreign funding is troublesome. Past investments by the United Arab Emirates' rulers and institutions have promoted radical interpretations of Islam. [6]

The Islamic Center for Human Excellence may seek to segregate schools and offices by gender. The enclave might also exercise broad control upon commerce within its boundaries—provided the economic restrictions did not discriminate against out-of-state interests or create an undue burden upon interstate commerce. But most critically, the enclave could promulgate every internal law—from enforcing strict religious dress codes to banning alcohol possession and music; it could even enforce limits upon religious and political tolerance. Although such concepts are antithetical to a free society, U.S. democracy allows the internal enclave to function beyond the established boundaries of our constitutional framework. At the very least, the permissible parameters of an Islamist enclave are ill defined.

The greater American Muslim community's unapologetic and public manifestation of belief in a separate but equal ideology does not bode well. In September 2004, the New Jersey branch of the Islamic Circle of North America rented Six Flags Adventure Park in New Jersey for "The Great Muslim Adventure Day." The advertisement announcing the event stated: "The entire park for Muslims only." While legal—and perhaps analogous to corporate or other non-religious groups renting facilities, the advertisement expressly implied a mindset that a proof of faith was required for admission to the park. In his weblog, commentator Daniel Pipes raises a relevant and troubling question about the event: because it is designated for Muslims only, "Need one recite the shahada to enter the fairgrounds?"[7]

While U.S. law might give such Muslims-only events the benefit of the doubt, flexibility may not go both ways. There is precedent of Islamists taking advantage of liberal flexibility to more extreme ends. Canada provides a useful example into how Islamist groups can exploit liberal legal tolerance. In 1991, Ontario, Canada, passed a seemingly innocuous law called the "Arbitration Act."[8] This act permitted commercial, religious, or such other designated arbitrators to settle civil disputes outside the Canadian justice system so long as the result did not contradict Canadian law. Like U.S. authorities are beginning to do now, Canadian legislators decided to give religious groups the benefit of the doubt, assuming that they would still hold national law to be paramount.

In October 2003, under the auspices of the Ontario legislation, the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice created Muslim arbitration boards and stated its intent to arbitrate on the basis of Islamic law.[9] A national furor erupted, particularly among Canadian Muslim women's groups that opposed the application of traditional Islamic (Shari‘a) laws that would supersede their far more liberal and egalitarian democratic rights. After nearly two years of legal wrangling, the premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty, held that religious-based arbitrations "threaten our common ground," and announced, "There will be no Shari‘a law in Ontario. There will be no religious arbitration in Ontario. There will be one law for all Ontarians."[10] On November 15, 2005, McGuinty's provincial government submitted legislation to amend the arbitration act to abrogate, in effect, all religious arbitration.[11] Requests for Muslim enclaves within larger U.S. communities may signal that U.S. jurisprudence will soon be faced with a similar conundrum. Islamist exceptionalism can abuse the tolerance liberal societies have traditionally extended to interface between religious and secular law.

Prior to the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice demands to impose Shari‘a, the Arbitration Act worked well. Unfortunately for Canadian Jews, the repeal ended state-enforcement of agreements reached by the use of a millennia-old rabbinical court system called beit din (house of law) that had for decades quietly settled marriage, custody, and business disputes. Joel Richler, Ontario region chairman of the Canadian Jewish Congress, expressed his lament: "If there have been any problems flowing from any rabbinical court decisions, I'm not aware of them."[12] Canadian Catholics likewise were stopped from being able to annul marriages according to Canon Law and avoid undue entanglement in civil courts. Abuse of the spirit of the law, though, ended up curtailing local liberty. Rather than soften the edge between religion and state, the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice threatened to eliminate it with the imposition of Shari‘a. The Canadian experience demonstrates how flexibility can backfire when all parties do not seek to uphold basic precepts of tolerance. The Little Rock application raises the specter of a parallel situation. While The Islamic Center for Human Excellence may state it wants to create a clean-living community, might the community's extreme interpretation of Shari‘a force a reconsideration of just how much leeway the U.S. government gives religious communities?

As the Muslim community in the United States grows, an increasingly active Islamist lobby has submitted numerous white papers and amicus briefs to legislators and courts arguing for the religious right of Muslims to apply Shari‘a law, particularly in relation to family law disputes.[13] This looming jurisprudential conflict is significant for it raises issues about the rights of community members to marry outside the community, forced marriages, and the minimum age of brides, and whether wives and daughters may enjoy equal inheritance. In cases of non-family law, it raises the question about whether the testimony of women will be considered on par with that of men.

No previous enclave in U.S. history has ever been so vigorously protected by agents of group identity politics or so adamantly defended by legal watchdogs; nor has any previous religious enclave possessed the potency of more than one billion believers around the world. Islamic-only communities may also benefit from the largess provided by billions of petrol dollars to finance growth. The track record of Saudi and other wealthy Persian Gulf donations and charitable efforts are worrisome. There is a direct correlation between Saudi money received and the spread of intolerant practices. In 2004, for example, the U.S. Treasury Department froze the assets of Al-Haramein Foundation, one of Saudi Arabia's largest nongovernmental organizations, because of its financial links to Al-Qaeda.[14] Additionally, American graduates of Saudi academies advance Wahhabist interpretations of Islam inside the U.S. prison system,[15] and Saudi-subsidized publications promote intolerance inside U.S. mosques.[16]

A Muslim enclave is uniquely perilous because there are few if any internal enclaves that adhere to a polity dedicated to the active abrogation of secular law and the imposition of a supreme religious law. The concept of Shari‘a is so fundamental to Islam, that even today, prominent Muslim jurists argue over whether a Muslim can fully discharge Shari‘a obligations while residing in a non-Muslim territory.[17] Yet, in spite of this apparent conundrum, Muslims have resided peacefully in non-Muslim lands since the seventh century. In the greater context, there may be a breach in the dike for Islamist groups residing in the United States because the Baltimore and Little Rock enclaves must acknowledge the U.S. Constitution as the paramount basis of civil law.

A dissident Islamic sub-community is filled with dichotomous propositions: from the presumed supremacy of Shari‘a-based law over secular law; the melding of religion and polity versus the constitutionally mandated separation of same; to the politics of group and factionalism, versus assimilation and pluralism. To deny the settlement of a Muslim-only community based solely upon prejudices formed after September 11 would be illiberal. But the alternative, opening the door to Islamic enclaves without scrutiny, is as dubious.

The Enclave under U.S. Law Existing U.S. legal precedent, though, may provide some grounds for handling expansive demands for Islamic enclaves. U.S. legal views of internal enclaves derive from the famous 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled the concept of separate but equal to be unconstitutional.[18] While the case revolved around the right of black children to attend white schools, it promulgated a concept that is anathema in today's world of multiculturalism: neither the state nor any constituent group could claim equality through separation.

Enclaves can exist, though. As courts have ruled on issues relating to equality under the law and upon the autonomy of religious practice, two distinctive features of internal U.S. enclaves have taken shape: first, the boundaries of the enclave should be recognized by local inhabitants. Second, the enclave cannot supersede the constitutionally protected rights of the citizens of a state.

Because most rights secured by the constitution are protected only against infringement by government action, the Supreme Court has avoided establishing a bright-line test as to the limits of religious liberty. Any religious group or individual seeking to establish an internal enclave has the right to limit residency, promulgate local rules, and perhaps even collect fees or taxes to support nominal community services.

Such enclaves do not hold final sway over the rights of non-residents, however. In Jackson v. Metropolitan Edison Company[19] and Flagg Brothers v. Brooks,[20] the court outlined constitutional protections for private citizens in which any entity, religious or otherwise, exercising governmental authority over private citizens remains subject to the provisions of the First and Fourteenth amendments. In both cases, the court affirmed that citizens of a state retain their right to "due process of law" under the Fourteenth Amendment, even when inside an enclave. These holdings, however, do not prevent enclaves from restricting the individual freedoms of their inhabitants.

The Supreme Court has ruled upon the limits of religious liberty. In Cantwell v. Connecticut, the court outlined the circumstances in which the government could act to restrict religious independence. The court held that the free exercise clause "embraces two concepts—freedom to believe and freedom to act. The first is absolute, but in the nature of things, the second cannot be. Conduct remains subject to regulation for the protection of society."[21]

Christopher L. Eisgruber, professor of law at New York University, explained. He argued that, "the Constitution permits government to nurture ideological sub-communities founded upon premises inconsistent with the constitution's own commitments."[22] He maintained that such dissident sub-communities can provide important "sources of dissent"[23] and asserted that even if an enclave embraced ideals contrary to constitutional ideals, it should still be granted the right to pursue its own vision of good. For example, he wrote:

[Though] it is regrettable that young women in Kiryas Joel [a Satmar Hasidic enclave] will grow up in a starkly sexist culture, and it is regrettable that the Amish children of Yoder will find it very hard to become astronomers or lawyers … it would also be regrettable if the United States were not home to any sub-communities which, like the Satmars or the Amish, rejected principles of justice fundamental to the American regime.[24]

According to Eisgruber, tolerance of the intolerant is fundamental to the freedoms espoused by Western liberal democracy. While Islamists might use such logic to argue for the permissibility of Shari‘a communities, such tolerance has limits. Enclaves do not have carte blanche to act. Both the state and national legislatures must retain control over the extent of accommodation, and there should be no subsidization of the enclave by the government.[25] Such limits ensure that the government can constrain those sub-communities that might espouse more radical, violent, or racist views.[26]

It is usually when the U.S. government moves to uphold the rule of law that most Americans first learn of an internal enclave. Few Americans knew of the philosophy espoused by anti-government activist Randy Weaver until 1992 when the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol and Firearms raided his compound at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, killing Vicki Weaver, their infant son, Sam, and the family dog.[27] Nor did many Americans know about David Koresh and his religious views until a raid the following year on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in which a resulting fire killed fifty adults and twenty-five children under the age of fifteen.[28] While tragic, such events involved cults or political splinter groups. The growth of Muslim enclaves raises the specter of such conflicts occurring on a much larger scale.

While the court has interpreted the establishment clause to empower the government to constrain dissident sub-communities when necessary to protect public safety, it has been wary of addressing legal issues requiring intrusion upon the religious polity. Because the First Amendment provides for religious freedom, the court has confined itself to ruling upon three basic issues: property disputes between national religious hierarchical organizations with affiliated breakaway entities; accommodations under the free exercise clause; and the prohibition against the establishment of a state religion. New challenges, though, may lead to new interpretations.

The Antithesis to Democracy Is concern over internal Muslim enclaves justified? On their face, the fundamental principles of the internal Muslim enclave are no more invidious than any other religious enclave. But ideology matters. Many proponents of an Islamic polity promote an ideology at odds with U.S. constitutional jurisprudence and the prohibition against the establishment of a state-sponsored religion. The refusal to recognize federal law makes Islamist enclaves more akin to Ruby Ridge than to the Hasidic and Amish cases cited by Eisgruber.

Muslim theologians describe Islam not only as a religion but also as a system of state. The Qur'an—viewed by Muslims as the word of God—is replete with instructions about governance. An enclave promoting Islamic mores does not necessarily restrict itself to a social atmosphere but also one of governance. Traditional Islamic law controls the most basic aspects of everyday life and may make any Islamic enclave irreconcilable with the basic presumptions of Western liberal democracy and secular law.

While many American Muslims practice Islam and embrace the fundamental principles of the U.S. Constitution, others do not. There are consistent attempts by Islamist elements overseas to strengthen their own radical interpretation of Islam at the expense of moderation and tolerance. Saudi donors, for example, have propagated the ideology of Islamism, which seeks to interweave a narrow and often intolerant interpretation of religion into an all-encompassing political ideology. The number of imams and jihadists who have been outspoken in identifying the supremacy of Shari‘a to democracy underlines the incompatibility of Islamism and democracy. The late Saudi theologian, Sheikh Muhammad bin Ibrahim al-Jubair, for example, stated,

Only one ambition is worthy of Islam, to save the world from the curse of democracy: to teach men that they cannot rule themselves on the basis of man-made laws. Mankind has strayed from the path of God, we must return to that path or face certain annihilation.[29]

Prior to Iraq's January 30, 2005 elections, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, released an audiotape in which he declared war upon democracy and denounced its tenets as "the very essence of heresy, polytheism, and error."[30] Nor is Islamist antipathy for democracy limited to popular elections. According to a Saudi publication distributed at a San Diego mosque, "[Democracy is] responsible for all the horrible wars … more than 130 wars with more than 120 million people dead [in the twentieth century alone]; not counting victims of poverty, hunger and disease."[31] Such sentiments reflect a common theme among Islamists: democracy is the antithesis to everything pious and pure in Islam; and, in truth, democracy is the direct and substantial causal effect of Muslim suffering and injustice in the world today.

This does not mean that Islamists are unwilling to use democracy for their ends. But while they accept the trappings of democracy, they continue to reject its principles because the Shari‘a, to them the perfect rule of law, cannot be abrogated or altered by the shifting moods of a secular electorate. Mohamed Elhachmi Hamdi, editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab weekly Al-Mustakillah, explained,

The heart of the matter is that no Islamic state can be legitimate in the eyes of its subjects without obeying the main teachings of the Shari‘a. A secular government might coerce obedience, but Muslims will not abandon their belief that state affairs should be supervised by the just teachings of the holy law.[32]

He could draw from plenty of examples. In 1992, for example, Ali Balhadj, a leader of the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria, declared, "When we are in power, there will be no more elections because God will be ruling."[33] While mayor of Istanbul, Islamist Turkish politician Recep Tayyip Erdoðan quipped, "For us, democracy is a streetcar. We would go as far as we could, and then get off."[34] As he eviscerates the judiciary, many Turks wonder about his sincerity.[35]

Experience abroad is relevant, as it goes to the heart of the sincerity of proponents of the Little Rock and Baltimore enclaves, an issue compounded by the willingness to accept donations from Persian Gulf financiers.

Conclusion How Muslims reconcile Islamic polity within the confines of Western liberal democracy is an unresolved issue. This process will take years to evolve and is likely to convulse in further violent episodes. Presently, many Muslims reject wholesale the notion of a dominant secular law and instead seek the imposition of a pan-Islamist state under the guidance of Shari‘a. These Islamists view secular modernity and the democratic practices of radical egalitarianism, individual rights, and free exercise of religion as a direct and substantial threat to their belief system, and they are intent on employing violence against the West for the foreseeable future. The remainder and majority of the Muslim world must reject nihilism and engage in widespread debate regarding Islam's role within the world community.

The local planning commission in Little Rock, Arkansas, might proceed with the proposed Muslim enclave, but the Arkansas courts and its legislature should not abdicate its responsibilities to ensure that Western liberal rights and protections remain supreme. The government should monitor both the rhetoric and behavior of these communities. As the Supreme Court stated in Cantwell: the freedom to believe is absolute, but the freedom to act, in the nature of things, cannot be, especially as to the safety and preservation of the American democracy.[36]

David Kennedy Houck is an attorney at Houck O'Brien LLC, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The RoPers bring peace to Austrailia:

Israeli killed by Bondi gang

Two men are wanted by police over the stabbing murder of a former Israeli soldier outside a Bondi shop, in an attack which lasted only seconds.

The victim was attacked by at least two men whom witnesses say jumped out of a car, bashed him with a pole or similar object, and left him with multiple stab wounds to the back and stomach.

Witnesses said a carload of men bashed the 36-year-old victim, named by Network Ten as Arnon Gelman, at about 9.45pm (AEST) yesterday, although police were uncertain how many were involved.

When police arrived at the scene, outside the Glenayr Convenience Store at the intersection of Glenayr Avenue and Curlewis Street, Mr Gelman was slumped on the footpath in deep pools of blood.

At least six passers-by tried to tend to his wounds. He was treated at the scene by ambulance officers, but died just after 4am, following emergency surgery at St Vincent's Hospital.

Police are trying to contact Mr Gelman's family in Israel.

It is believed he had lived in Australia for three years and had applied for permanent residency.

"He was a very, very nice guy, he was a bit of a go-getter, he knew what he wanted," friend Gary Levine told Ten News.

"I think he was going to go far, this is a total shock."

Witnesses say they heard shouting on the footpath before the attack.

Superintendent Mark Walton said detectives were trying to establish a motive but said it was not connected with the conflict in Lebanon between Israel and Hizbollah.

Superintendent Walton said the attack would have been over in an instant.
"These attacks last seconds rather than minutes," he said.

One of the men wanted by police is described as 178cm tall, of medium build with shoulder length dark hair and clean shaven, wearing jeans and a black top.

A second man is 170cm tall, of medium build with short, dark hair.

"We are trying to determine how many people were involved but at this stage we are focused on those two men," Superintendent Walton told reporters outside Bondi Police Station.

"We have neither recovered or have a good description of the weapon."

Detectives are hunting for a green Mitsubishi Pajero with NSW registration SVJ 201 that was seen driving in Glenayr Avenue immediately after the attack.

"The motivation in relation to this incident is unknown at this stage," Superintendent Walton said.

"We are very open-minded but there is nothing in relation to information or evidence that it is connected to this man's nationality or religious background."

The attack comes six months after six people were taken to hospital after being stabbed in Bondi.

"There are always grave concerns about incidents like this but I don't believe it's indicative of what happens in Bondi on a weekend," Superintendent Walton said.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/israeli-killed-by-bondi-gang/2006/08/06/1154802736025.html#

3 Palestinian Arab kids killed. Oops!

Last Thursday, 3 Palestinian Arab kids were shot to death in Jenin.

For reasons that are unclear, there was no international outcry. Their deaths were barely mentioned in the newspapers. There were no UN condemnations, no shows of anguish from the EU, no peace protesters demonstrating, no pictures of crying mothers in the Reuters wire photos,, no huge funerals demanding justice.

Here's why:
Last Thursday, three children were killed in a wedding celebration during which gunshots were fired in celebration. PCHR's preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately 21:15 on Thursday, 3 August 2006, three children were killed in a wedding ceremony when a gunman lost control of his assault rifle as he was shooting in the air in celebration. The killed children are Naser Salim El-Asmar (13), Ahmad Samir Abu Jilda (15), and Ala Adel Faris Hardan (17). The wedding ceremony was in El-Marah Quarter in the eastern part of Jenin. Several gunmen were firing in the air during the wedding.
Ah, I forgot. People only care about dead Palestinian kids when they can blame Jews for their deaths.

Even when one tries to explain to these moral midgets that Israel is never aiming at the civilians and that their deaths are accidental, they always retort with "Every human life is precious! They are just as dead! How could you be so inhuman!"

But for some reason, dead Palestinian Arab kids who are killed by Palestinian men with assault rifles are not worth anything. Their blood isn't just cheap - it is worthless, based on how much the world ignores the phenomenon of Palestinian Arabs killing their own. After all...who in their right mind would demand that Arabs stop firing rifles at weddings? That would be imposing Western values on them!

So, these kids plus two more PalArabs who were killed in a "clan clash" means the PalArab self-death count since the end of June is now at ...46.

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/

6:15PM: Introducing PA President Mahmoud Abbas, so-called peace partner:

Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas praised Hizbullah terrorist shortly after the lethal Katyusha rocket attack on northern Israel that killed 11 soldiers.

He told reporters after arriving in Yemen that the Hizbullah war has re-wakened the Arab world with honor and is an example for others to follow.

6:13PM: Quote of the day:

"Where do they get the right to preach to Israel? European countries attacked Kosovo and killed ten thousand civilians. Ten thousand! And none of these countries had to suffer before that from a single rocket...I'm not saying it was wrong to intervene in Kosovo. But please: Don't preach to us about the treatment of civilians."

- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, referring to European leaders' criticism of Israel's actions in this conflict.<<<

From your Israellycool.com link.

I think it says it all.

You are correct it is a good link, thanks and thanks for the article on the knife killing, I have my suspicions about all the knife attacks here in the U.S. as well, but there is no way that I can read any more in a day.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1678905/posts

British volunteers answer army's call
times online ^ | August 07, 2006 | By Stephen Farrell

Posted on 08/06/2006 5:35:12 PM PDT by Flavius

AT FIRST sight Ben and his mates could be at a wedding party on the lawns of an hotel in his native Yorkshire.

Except that this hotel is a short drive from the Israel-Lebanon border and, despite his Leeds accent, Ben is an Israeli soldier. He is also cradling an Israeli-army issue Colt AR15 semi-automatic rifle stamped “Property of US Govt”.

Ben, 26, who arrived in Israel last year, is one of thousands of those serving in the Israeli military either as newly arrived citizens or on army programmes for Zionists who want to defend Israel while deciding whether to emigrate.

Earlier in the day he was ducking Hezbollah mortars in the Lebanese village of Adessa, just across the border. Now he sits chatting in two languages about two lives — as a would-be medical student in Britain and as an Israeli soldier known among his colleagues for his stamina and ability to carry a heavy machinegun over long distances.

“My father is very supportive,” he tells The Times. “My mum is a bit anxious.”

Ben arrived in Israel 15 months ago and serves in the Nahal Brigade, an infantry unit with a tradition of absorbing new immigrants.

He did not have to join — compulsory military service would not have come for a few years — but volunteered because he sees the Army as Israel’s “melting pot” without which integration is harder.

He knows that the Israeli Army is being excoriated around the world but robustly defends the country.

“Can you imagine if the Isle of Wight started bombing London? How long would it be left standing? There’s no other country that is asked to show as much restraint as Israel,” he declares, as the bus arrives to take his unit back to the border. “I feel we absolutely have the right to defend ourselves because there is nobody else who seems willing to do it.”

He says he feels more relaxed as a devout, skull cap-wearing Jew walking around Israel than in Leeds where he has been “spat at and called a dirty Jew” by Muslim youths. “Here I can walk around at 2am without looking over my shoulder.”

However, he has not yet decided to emigrate, and concedes that it may take time to process experiences beyond the imagination of his British peers. “I don’t know how I will feel in the long term. In the near term, everyone has a task. The time for dilemmas will come later.

“It’s not an attitude of shoot first, ask questions later. It’s an attitude of ‘rockets are falling on our citizens and country and it’s our job to defend them’.”

Ben’s is by no means the only British accent amid the Hebrew and the American-accented chatter of off-duty soldiers meeting parents and girlfriends.

Strolling past chairs set up for a concert that she helped to organise, Neta, 19, wears an Arsenal shirt emblazoned ‘Henry’. She emigrated to Israel a year ago and serves in the Nahal’s educational and recreational unit.

She teaches soldiers about “values, morals, civilian suffering and the importance of human life”, and — like Ben — bridles at the idea that Israel is bringing unwarranted destruction on Lebanon. “I do understand why people are angry. But why is everybody concentrating so much anger at us?” she asks.

“OK, Israel is not perfect. I’m not a right-wing Zionist fanatic. But there are loads of other conflicts going on that the world doesn’t seem to care as much about. Why is there less outrage about a dictator or a warlord killing thousands of people, or about what is happening in Darfur?”
~~~~~~~~~

I found this interesting, and in my mind compared it to the mexicans living in America, will they join and become good Americans, if we need them in our Military?

We already have many of them serving today, as fine Military members.

>>>>He did not have to join — compulsory military service would not have come for a few years — but volunteered because he sees the Army as Israel’s “melting pot” without which integration is harder.
<<<<<<

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1678881/posts

Vandals Smash Menorah, Damage Jewish Chapel (California)
NBC4 ^ | August 6, 2006

Posted on 08/06/2006 4:28:46 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative

Vandalism at a Jewish chapel in a Sylmar cemetery is being investigated as a hate crime, a sheriff's sergeant said.

A groundskeeper contacted authorities at about 9 a.m. Saturday after discovering the vandalism at Glen Haven Memorial Park and Mortuary at 13017 Lopez Canyon Road in Sylmar, said Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Don Bee.

A menorah in the chapel of the Sholom Memorial Park section of the cemetery was smashed, pews were knocked over, and several caskets were pulled from a storage area and vandalized.

A casket containing a body was not disturbed, police said.

The vandals also emptied several fire extinguishers into the chapel.

Graffiti was scrawled on the sidewalk and curb outside the Christian area of the cemetery, and empty beer bottles and fire extinguishers were left there, Bee said.

The incident is being investigated as a hate crime because the vandals did not damage the Christian chapel, Bee said.

{I find the last statement a sample of the idiots who do not want to face facts, amazing that the Christian Chapel was untouched..........granny}

A society that accepts beheading people simply because they do no like them is a prime candidate society for forced extinction. Since they have no toleration of others why should civilised societies put up with their wanton butcherism of others. Since islamofascists have no respect for other peoples lives, islamofascists need to be exterminated.

If I may jump in Great post.

One more thing I would like to ask is what is "civilian casualty"?

If the US was invaded by islamofascists and came toward me,
you can bet I am going to try and kill them. If I am sitting in my home and they send a bomb right at my house and killed me, am I a "civilian Casualty" for sure if I knew they were to do me harm I would try and kill them first.

Israel has already dropped leaflets to get out, now carpet bomb the boarder 12 miles in. For a day or two it is over, show power which is all the islamofascist understand and I bet Syria, Iran and N Korea will sit down and shut up for a day or two anyway. If they don't we got something for them too. Rant over I will go back to my corner now.

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