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Teen pleads guilty to Jewish school firebombing CTV.ca News Staff One of the main suspects in the firebombing of a Jewish school in Montreal has pleaded guilty to arson. In exchange, the conspiracy charge against him has been dropped. Sleiman Elmerhebi, now 19, made the plea in a Quebec courtroom on Thursday. The arson "was an emotional response," Elmerhebi told the court. "I was reacting to acts of violence in the Middle East that I saw on television." Three people were originally charged in connection with the April attack on the United Talmud Torahs school. Charges were dropped against one...

Salam al-Marayati, the executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), represents himself and his organization as stalwart opponents of terrorism who are actively working with the FBI and California law enforcement agencies to combat it. At a joint press conference with representatives of the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department on October 14 of this year, Marayati waxed expansive and almost poetic in his glowing account of his organization’s cooperation with law enforcement agencies in the war against terrorism. MPAC has announced a “National Anti-Terrorism Campaign,” and is holding its 4th annual conference (see its poster here)...

May 27, 2004 | Filmmaker Michael Moore filmed an interview with American Nicholas Berg in the course of producing his documentary film "Fahrenheit 9/11" before Berg left for Iraq, where he was taken hostage and killed, Moore confirmed to Salon in a statement Thursday. The 20 minutes of footage does not appear in the final version of "Fahrenheit 911," according to the statement. Word of the footage reached Salon through a source unaffiliated with Moore or his film "Fahrenheit 9/11," which is reported to feature stark images of U.S. civilians and soldiers grappling with conditions in war-torn Iraq, as well...

Dear Maariv Newspaper Editor, Please Publish... The following is a translation of a letter written in the Online Forum of one of Israel's major newspapers, Maariv, by a female reader named  Rachel. The letter was in response to the major online headline about The Bodies of the Six Soldiers that had died in a Gaza security offensive and how their remains had been defiled by the Palestinian terror groups. See: Palestinians Parade Israeli Soldiers’ Remains (DEBKAfile) (05/11/04) http://www.debka.com/article_print.php?aid=843 This letter  may be one of the most popular letters ever written in this widely read forum receiving unanimous and unequivocal...

<p>In the last few weeks, CNN has suffered a series of embarrassing incidents calling into question its news judgment and ability to meet the most basic standards of fairness in reporting on Israel. CNN boss Ted Turner made the following statement about the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. "I would make the case that both sides are engaged in terrorism," he told the Guardian newspaper. Although Mr. Turner subsequently apologized for suggesting that Israel was behaving this way, the damage had been done.</p>

Arafat's $Billions in Assets and Investments (Mideast Newswire Archive) Arafat's Wife's Spends Millions While Palestinian Children Starve (Irish Blog Via FR Forum) (02/11/04) ------------------------------------------------------------- On the eve of the famous "hand shake" on the White House lawn which rewarded Rabin and Arafat with the Nobel Prize for Peace, the PLO made Britain's most dangerous terrorist/criminal organizations list. The British National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) also reported that the PLO had world-wide assets approaching $10 billion and an additional annual income of about $1.5 to 2 billion, generated from illegal activities. Surprisingly, the report was not picked up by the media....

ALSO SEE: Arafat's Wife on a Luxury Trip NY DAILY NEWS (11/06/03)---------------------------------------------Last week we were told that "Malnutrition in the Gaza Strip and West Bank is as bad as in sub-Saharan Africa because the Palestinian economy has all but collapsed under Israeli restrictions." (Irish Times February 6, 2004) A report by the cross-party International Development Select Committee also called on Britain to press the European Union to impose trade sanctions on Israel until it lifts its restrictions on Palestinian trade. The World Bank said last year that the Palestinian economy was in steep decline after the Israeli army blockaded and...

CommentsTHE UNITED STATES SHOULD NOT TRY to play a "neutral arbiter" in the Israeli/Palestinian dispute. We should, in fact, be doing our best to make the Palestinians suffer until they change their ways, because, to put it bluntly, they are our enemies. Read this to see how they feel about America. And read this piece by Amir Taheri on the Iraqi "resistance," which notes Palestinian terror connections by the Iraqi insurgents, and features a Palestinian "journalist" egging them on. These folks are our enemies, and deserve to be treated as such. They don't deserve a state of their own. It's...

The author is a professor of law and director of the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. With the simple press of a button, the pilot of an Israeli helicopter gunship unleashed three missiles, instantly killing Sheik Ahmed Yassin, founder of Hamas, as he was being driven home from prayers at his local mosque in the Gaza Strip. Yassin had not been sentenced to death by any court, nor was he on a battlefield in any conventional sense. Seven others died in the attack. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made no apologies,...

JERUSALEM — Israel's response to Palestinian violence after a pullout from the Gaza Strip would be even harsher than it is now, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Tuesday. Interviewed on Israel's Channel 10 television for Israel's independence day, Sharon defended his "unilateral disengagement" plan, including a pullout from the Gaza Strip. Members of his Likud Party vote on the plan in a referendum Sunday. After a pullout, Palestinians could no longer explain violence by saying that Israel was occupying their land, Sharon said, "and Israel's responses (to violence) would be much harsher." He refused to give specifics beyond noting...

The top figures in the militant group Hamas after the assassination Sunday of its leader, Abdel Aziz Rantisi. _Mahmoud Zahar: A Hamas spokesman, the 53-year-old Zahar is considered a hard-liner. Zahar was the personal physician of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, who was killed by the Israelis on March 22. Zahar served as Hamas' liaison with the PLO in the mid-1990s but now opposes compromise with the Palestinian Authority. Zahar has been imprisoned by Israel and has been jailed repeatedly by the Palestinian Authority. _Ismail Hanieh: A top aide to Yassin and like Zahar he is a member of Hamas'...

Translation from Hebrew to English by me Even though the leaders of Hamas, the Sheik Ahmed Yassin and Avad Al-Aziz Al-Rantisi, have moved on to a new world their popularity continues. Take for example Mazen Al-Natzar, a Hamas man (36) from Schem. Al-Natzar decided to call his twins that were born two days ago on the name of the Hamas leaders who were eliminated by Israel. Al-Natzar, who works as a communications clerk in the Palestinian Communications Company (PalTel), told the French Agency Press that he decided to call his two kids Yassin and Rantisi as a sign of his...

TEL AVIV - Even though he had been targeted for death since last fall, Israeli defense officials say the assassination of Abdel Aziz Rantisi became an urgent priority only in the last month, after he became the head of Hamas and began upgrading Iranian involvement in the organization. Rantisi, 54, was killed April 17 by an Israeli helicopter gunship near his Gaza home, just 26 days after he took over Hamas following the assassination of his predecessor, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. During the few weeks that he headed the organization, defense officials say Rantisi invited the Iranians and their Lebanese...

<p>April 19, 2004 -- JERUSALEM -  Defiant Hamas leaders yesterday said they've already picked a new chief to replace assassinated Gaza Strip head Abdel Aziz Rantisi - but refused to publicly identify him.</p> <p>The move came as hundreds of thousands of frenzied Palestinians rampaged through Gaza, vowing to start a bloody "earthquake" against Israel for killing Rantisi less than a month after assassinating his predecessor, Sheik Ahmed Yassin.</p>

Just about every world leader one can count on to be sanctimonious has condemned Israel's killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder and "spiritual" leader of Hamas. (Why were they never as outraged when Yassin's minions slaughtered Jewish civilians?) Kofi Annan, the pope, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana--they all sang more or less the same trope: Israel's missile strike was a criminal act. So did Syria's President Bashar Assad and every shade of theocrat competing for power in Tehran. Yasir Arafat, a man who knows something about the...

Military retaliation from Baghdad was the main administration concern following Saturday's strike on Iraq. Yet U.S. officials should start thinking seriously about the question of retaliation through terror. It is quite possible, for example, that there was a connection between Saddam and recent attempts to blow up Manhattan. It is quite possible that New York's terror is Saddam's revenge. Speculation about the responsibility for last week's bombing plot and the earlier World Trade Center bombing has focused on Iran, Sudan, and the fundamentalist Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman. Much energy has been spent linking the terror to Islamic fundamentalism. Yet Saddam,...

"This is what I wished to advise you as our prophet, peace be upon him, taught us that advising one another is a religious duty.." Following is the letter sent to the Arab summit meeting in Tunis by late Sheikh Ahmed Yasin shortly before he was extra-judicially assassinated by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on Monday March 22, 2004: “Your majesties and highnesses, Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Baraktuh The statement saying that glory of Islam is dependent on powerful Arabs places a great responsibility on your shoulders for you are the ones entrusted by Almighty Allah to cater for...

Unacceptable. Unjust. By Daniel Gordis A couple of years ago, our office started using a new driver. The previous one, it turns out, couldn't make a living when the tourists abandoned the country, and left for the States. My secretary told me about Shlomo, the new driver, right before I was to get picked up for a drive to a meeting, and I didn't think much of the news. I got in the cab, sat in the back, introduced myself to Shlomo (who appeared to be in his mid-fifties) and told him where I was going. We set out on...

Unacceptable. Unjust. Extraordinary offering from Rabbi Danny Gordis A couple of years ago, our office started using a new driver. The previous one, it turns out, couldn't make a living when the tourists abandoned the country, and left for the States. My secretary told me about Shlomo, the new driver, right before I was to get picked up for a drive to a meeting, and I didn't think much of the news. I got in the cab, sat in the back, introduced myself to Shlomo (who appeared to be in his mid-fifties) and told him where I was going. We...

"We knew that Bush is the enemy of God, the enemy of Islam and Muslims. America declared war against God. Sharon declared war against God, and God declared war against America, Bush and Sharon." -- Widely reported remarks from Abdel Aziz Rantisi addressing a rally at the Islamic University in Gaza City, March 28, concerning HAMAS founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin’s ‘targeted killing’ by the IDF on March 22. "The three martyrs were on a holy mission when the Zionist U.S.-made helicopters fired two missiles toward their vehicle." -- HAMAS statement on its website concerning a March 3 IDF attack near...