* Clinton named secretary of state US President-elect Barack Obama has nominated his former rival Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state.

* Tension rises between India and Pakistan In a new sign of rising tensions between two nuclear-armed neighbors, Indian Foreign Ministry officials told Pakistan’s ambassador that Pakistanis were responsible and must be punished for last week’s terrorist attacks.

* Lebanese gov’t recognizes state of Palestine The Lebanese government has approved forming full diplomatic relations with what it calls the “state of Palestine,” and is elevating the office of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Beirut to the status of an embassy.

* Iran cuts Israeli military threats down to ‘psychological warfare’ Iran’s Foreign Ministry sought to downplay efforts by Israel to halt its nuclear program, saying that while Tehran does not take these threats seriously, it is fully prepared to respond in the event of an attack.

* Peace House Activists Preparing for Struggle Nationalist activists in Hevron have asked the public Monday to give them information regarding the government’s intention to expel the residents of Hevron’s Peace House.

* Crisis will help us regain power – Russia’s Communists Russia’s Communists expect the global financial crisis will cause social unrest and help them challenge for power, the party’s leader said.

* Iran proposes nuclear plants with Arab countries Teheran has proposed building joint light-water nuclear power plants with neighboring Arab countries, Iran’s official news agency said.

* Czechs unveil priorities for their turn at the EU presidency The economy, energy and external relations are the three priorities of the Czech EU presidency set to kick off on January 1.

* Britain closer to euro, Barroso says The global credit crunch has sparked a debate about joining the euro among “people who matter in Britain,” European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has said.

* Smart ID project underway in Israel Ministry of Interior awards HP with new contract, tasks company with manufacturing five million cards.

* Troops search Mumbai siege hotel Commandos said they had killed three militants inside the Taj Mahal Palace in an assault on the huge building.

* Foreign Ministry confirms deaths of eight Israelis in Mumbai An unspecified number of Israelis in Mumbai remain unaccounted for.

* Sarkozy calls for ‘inclusive’ G8 The G8 has become “obsolete” as emerging economies change the global economic order.

* Vilna’i: Large Gaza op approaching Following a mortar shell attack by Palestinian terrorists on an IDF base that left eight soldiers wounded, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna’i said on Saturday that a large-scale operation in the Gaza Strip was approaching.

* Ahmadinejad blames West for spreading economic crisis to world Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed the West for the global financial crisis on Saturday.

* Russia test-fires ballistic missile from submarine The Russian navy said Friday that a new-generation Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile was test-fired from a submerged submarine and hit its target – the second consecutive successful test of the troubled weapon.

* Two Palestinians, two settlers injured in clashes in Hebron “Settlers and Palestinians hurled stones at each other in the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday”.

* Oh, Mumbai! What happened in Mumbai was by any standard unprecedented and the shock at the sheer audacity of the attacks on India’s commercial capital continues to resonate.

* Iraq’s top Shiite cleric has concerns over US pact Iraq’s top Shiite cleric has expressed concern about the country’s security pact with the United States.

* Russia to complete Iran nuclear plant in 2009 -Tass Russia will complete Iran’s first nuclear power plant in 2009.

By: David Altman – The Jerusalem Post

The terror attack in Mumbai should serve as a sign to decision-makers and strategic analysts in recognizing that the accepted approach to terrorism has become anachronistic and mistaken.

The world largely deals with terror attacks as sporadic, sensationalistic, and singular events. The tragedy and pain involved in these events elicits a response of anger, fury, and sadness, but the terror attacks are not viewed as undercutting the authority and power of the state in which the terror attack takes place.

During the period in which Palestinian terror focused on airline attacks, a leader of one of the Palestinian terror organizations was asked in an interview, “What advantage does your organization gain from a shocking incident that results in the murder of hundreds of innocent civilians?” His answer was, “I receive attention. In the two minutes in which the entire world is giving me their attention, I can send a message about the injustice being done to me.”

Since this time, terrorism has gone through a series of changes. For a long period, terrorists attempted to harm the public, bringing attention to the message that they were trying to promote. The Vietnam War changed the terrorist organizations’ conception, and brought to the forefront the notion that a terrorist army is not meant only to “sting” the enemy, but that in the end, it has the ability to be victorious.

During the meeting that took place at the end of the Vietnam War between representatives of the PLO and of the commander of the North Vietnamese army General Võ Nguyên Giáp, the PLO representatives congratulated the commander on the North Vietnamese victory over the American superpower. They asked General Giáp when he predicted terror organizations would be victorious over Israel. General Giáp answered in one word: Never! When asked the reason for this response, he stated, “You will never be victorious due to lack of determination.”

There are those who believe that this meeting represented a turning point in the development of Islamic terrorism, which began to educate its society of the sanctity of suicide and initiated the era of suicide terrorism. The initial implementation defined determination as self-sacrifice, believing that the more people willing to prove their readiness to die for a cause, the greater the determination and the closer the victory. The heads of terror organizations quickly understood that suicide terrorism caused great demoralization, damage, and shock to the governing authority. For example, the subway terror attack in Madrid in March, 2004 brought about an immediate change of government in Spain.

Since the period of suicide terror, terror organizations have upgraded to include paramilitary fighting units, as opposed to singular acts of terror. Hizbllah, a full-fledged terror organization, is not constructed on the notion of individual terror attacks, but upon a complete military arsenal: Today it has amassed 42,000 rockets to enable continuous military terror, causing victims on a large scale, and thus presenting a serious threat to the state of Israel. Hamas has long ago abandoned the use of suicide terror exclusively, but has built a military capability comprised of rockets (that are being slowly upgraded) and fighting units that operate wholly differently than terror cells. Hamas’s army of terror combines terror activities with military activities. This concept is also applied by the Iranian army, which, alongside fighting units includes the Revolutionary Guard, which cultivates a combination of paramilitary activities, terror activities, and propaganda campaigns, the secret weapon of fundamentalism’s ability to gain power in the West.

Al-Qaida has also undergone the transformation from sporadic terror attacks to a prolonged war of terror. This organization’s activities are more complex and integrated, exemplifying the future of terrorism that combines local attacks with broader strategies that include fighting units that operate in a completely different manner than the perpetrators of sporadic terror attacks, biological and chemical weapons, and a goal of achieving nuclear terror.

Mumbai, India does not constitute the ultimate battlefield, but serves as a site for broad strategic maneuvers, in which terror units have taken control of a major city through a war of terror. Unfortunately, this example will likely serve as a conceptual test case for future activities.

Without question, the approach towards fighting terrorism must undergo major rethinking. Times have changed since the main focus was the suicide bombers operating independently or in small groups, whose purpose was to injure the enemy and to draw attention to their cause.

Today, a new, different terror army, with several branches is being developed. This army includes all the elements of a military, but exploits the approach of the terrorist. The terror army enjoys the advantages of feeling exempt from any international law or convention, and of being exempt from international pressure or accountability. In addition, they handicap the power of their opponent through exploitation of the claims of internationally accepted values of human rights, correct treatment of prisoners of war, and prevention of harm to civilian populations – though none of these values apply to them, but only to their opponent.

Unfortunately, the world is slow to prepare for this growing threat. Every new terror attack illustrates that the danger to the stability of a range of governments and societies is much greater than we could have imagined.

The events taking place in Mumbai must act as a warning and turning point in the world’s treatment of the local terror armies that base themselves in various parts of the world, and threaten the world’s stability as a whole.

* Battles rage for Mumbai hostages Fresh explosions and gunfire have been heard at Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Palace hotel, one of several sites targeted in attacks that have killed at least 130.

* At least five Chabad House hostages have been killed Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said there is “no room for great optimism” about the fate of Israeli hostages inside a Jewish center in Mumbai.

* Iraqi parliament backs US pullout The Iraqi parliament has voted to accept a deal on the future presence of US troops in the country.

* Iran, Lebanon sign 5-year security pact Iran and Lebanon have signed a security agreement, according to which Iran will supply the Lebanese army with weapons and equipment over the next five years.

* Olmert refuses to take leave of absence Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Thursday he did not plan on submitting to an appeal made by Kadima Chairwoman Tzipi Livni.

* Terrorism has truly become war, and we need to rethink how we fight it The terror attack in Mumbai should serve as a sign to decision-makers and strategic analysts in recognizing that the accepted approach to terrorism has become anachronistic and mistaken.

* Al-Qaida No. 2 to US: Overcome meltdown with Islam Al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader appeared in a new video posted Friday calling on Americans to embrace Islam to overcome the financial meltdown.

* Pope Benedict may visit Holy Land next year Pope Benedict XVI may visit the Holy Land next year.

* Medvedev in Cuba to improve ties Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is in Cuba for the final stop in a tour of Latin America intended to strengthen Russian influence in the region.

* Arab League FMs urge Abbas to stay in office The Arab League foreign ministers on Thursday called on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose term expires on January 9, to stay in office until the dispute between Fatah and Hamas is resolved.

By: Paul Taylor – Thomson Reuters

Not content with a temporary role as first consul, Nicolas Sarkozy wants to be emperor of Europe. That, at least, is the way it looks to many of his EU partners.

The energetic French president has relished his term in the European Union’s rotating presidency so much — playing fireman during the Georgia war and the global financial crisis — that he is loath to cast off the mantle at midnight on December 31.

His aides are working actively on ways to perpetuate his European leadership into 2009 and beyond, using the euro zone, NATO, the new Mediterranean Union, Middle East diplomacy and a continuing mediation role with Russia and Georgia as levers.

The fact that Paris hands over the six-month presidency to the Czech Republic, an EU newcomer with a divided government, a Eurosceptical president and no seat in the euro zone, may help Sarkozy’s bid to extend his influence.

But apart from the implicit challenge to EU institutions, the problem is the economic policy direction in which he wants to lead Europe, taking advantage of the credit crisis and recession to push old-fashioned French “dirigisme” (state direction of the economy).

The main obstacle is the reluctance of Germany, the EU’s biggest economy and France’s traditional partner in leadership.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is deeply suspicious of Sarkozy’s efforts to build greater euro zone economic governance and irked by his effort to position himself as the “go to” man in Europe for incoming U.S. President Barack Obama.

She sees his calls for an “economic government of Europe” as a challenge to the independence of the European Central Bank and a recipe for protectionism and government meddling in industry.

“Merkel is always polite and the Germans don’t like to be troublemakers. But at some point soon, they are going to say: ‘Enough!’,” says Ulrike Guerot, head of the Berlin office of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

“SUPER SARKO”

“Super Sarko” has called a record number of summits during his hyper-active EU presidency, traveling twice to Moscow to broker a ceasefire and a Russian pullback in Georgia, and twice to Washington to press for a global financial summit and more international regulation in the credit crisis.

He has set ambitious economic agendas for the EU and the G20 grouping of industrialized and emerging powers, although the results have been far more modest.

“Sarkozy has shaken things up, not just out of personal ambition but out of a belief that Europe needs strong political leadership to overcome its complex routine and face up to the challenges of our times,” says Jean-Dominique Giuliani, president of the Robert Schuman Foundation think-tank.

Giuliani described the French leader in a recent book as “a European in a big hurry,” determined to put France back in the pilot’s seat of EU integration and willing to use unorthodox methods to achieve his objective.

Sarkozy broke the straitjacket of EU institutions by holding meetings of the leaders of the four biggest European economies — France, Germany, Britain and Italy — and of the 15-nation Eurogroup of countries that share the euro single currency.

He formed a pragmatic alliance with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, not an EU enthusiast, to promote bold steps to rescue banks, revive interbank lending and respond to recession.

And he has displayed a ruthless streak in undermining those he perceives as standing in the way of his leadership.

Blaming tax havens for part of the financial crisis, Sarkozy dared to snipe at Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, Europe’s longest serving leader and chairman of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, over his country’s banking secrecy.

He also signaled that the financial crisis was likely to require more euro zone summits in 2009, which he wants to chair.

Juncker, a critic of French budget deficits, speaks on behalf of the Eurogroup and is a contender for the post of president of the European Council of EU leaders if and when the Lisbon Treaty reforming the bloc’s institutions takes effect.

French Secretary of State for European Affairs Jean-Pierre Jouyet, Sarkozy’s key fixer during the EU presidency, openly criticized Germany for resisting French proposals for a coordinated European economic recovery program.

“Why don’t you think the Germans are making a profound mistake?” he asked a radio interviewer. “All we are saying is that it is better to have an economic union and economic coordination than to have disorderly national responses.”

DIPLOMATIC CALENDAR

Next year’s diplomatic calendar offers Sarkozy plenty of opportunities to flex his leadership muscles while Germany will be inwardly focused in an election year and Britain mired in a deeper and more painful recession than the rest of Europe.

One showcase will be an April 3-4 NATO summit, jointly hosted by France and Germany in Strasbourg and Kehl, which will be the centerpiece of Obama’s first presidential visit to Europe and mark France’s return to the alliance’s military wing.

Expect Sarkozy to put on an impressive show to highlight Paris’ role as Washington’s new indispensable ally, perhaps offering more troops for Afghanistan and proposing a European peacekeeping role in any Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement.

The French have secured two years as co-president of the Mediterranean Union grouping the EU and its southern neighbors, giving Paris opportunities for high-profile initiatives with North Africa and in the Middle East.

Sarkozy’s gambit of bringing Syria in from the cold in exchange for cooperation in Lebanon could bear fruit in 2009 as Obama looks for an exit from Iraq and breathes new life into Middle East peacemaking.

His good relations with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, which enabled him to broker the Georgia ceasefire, could pay off if Obama opts for detente rather than confrontation with Moscow.

But his coziness with the Kremlin worries EU governments in central and eastern Europe.

The risk is that Sarkozy, whose restless energy sometimes gets the better of diplomatic calculation, overplays his hand, offending European partners and irritating Washington.

By: Maj. W. Thomas Smith Jr – News World Communications Inc.

They are hardly the bejeweled, Jolly Roger flying buccaneers we’ve come to associate with of the Golden Age of Piracy (1692-1725). But 21st century pirates operating on the high seas are every bit as dangerous as their romanticized forebears. They are far more tech savvy. And experts contend they may be increasingly coordinating efforts with Islamist terrorists, particularly those pirates operating in the Indian Ocean off the East African coast of Somalia and in the heavily trafficked Gulf of Aden.

In the December 2008 issue of Armed Forces Journal, Peter Brookes, a former CIA operations officer who also served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs, writes: “While maritime terrorism and piracy aren’t the same, they could overlap, especially when it comes to targets and techniques, providing opportunities for collaboration.”

Dominick Donald, chief analyst for London-based Aegis Defense Services, agrees. “Al-Shabaab [a Somalia-based, al-Qaeda-linked terrorist organization so-designated by the U.S. state department] is at least tolerating piracy, and may be doing more,” Donald said Monday during a panel discussion on piracy hosted by the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation.

J. Peter Pham – also on the panel, but in an exclusive conversation with Middle East Times – says that, to date, Islamists in Somalia like al-Shabaab may not yet be “directly involved” in acts of piracy. “But we do know they [the Islamists] have received money from the pirates in exchange for looking the other way when it comes to pirate activities, and for allowing the pirates to bring hijacked vessels into ports like Kismayo which the Islamists control.”

Pham, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, adds, pirates have “done favors for the terrorists like bringing in weapons and materiel and foreign jihadists into Somalia.” And evidence cited by more than one analyst indicates the Islamists in Somalia have been paid to provide training in both weapons and tactics to the pirates.

“Both pirates and Islamists are clearly benefiting from one another,” Pham says. “Not only is money changing hands, but the Islamists are piggy-backing on the pirates’ ability to travel at sea.”

Pham refers to this collaboration as “a tactical alliance,” and says “an operational alliance” may be forthcoming. At the very least, the Islamists – with pirate assistance – may be developing a maritime capability.

“Some analysts point to credible intelligence indicating al-Shabaab is developing a maritime capacity similar to the maritime capacity that the Tamil Tigers had off Sri Lanka,” says Pham. “If that happens, it will be a major deterioration of the situation.”

The most recent statistics (released October 2008) by the International Maritime Bureau indicate nearly 200 reported incidents of piracy worldwide – with Somalia, Nigeria, and Indonesia being the top-three hotspots respectively – from January through September 2008. Those same statistics show 63 attacks off Somalia. Attacks since increase the numbers to nearly 100 ships attacked off Somalia this year, including 39 ships hijacked and at least 17 still in the hands of pirates.

The problem for naval forces tasked with combating pirates is three-fold. First: counter piracy efforts often take a back seat to more pressing concerns on the high seas. Navies in 2008 already have their hands full with global counterterrorism operations and – in the case of the U.S. Navy – ongoing sealift ops, as well as the monitoring of the exercises and operations of other navies.

Second: the oceans cover over 70 percent of the earth. Sixty percent of those oceans are the vast free-to-roam international waters, and pirates are extending their reach farther out into those waters.

Third: modern-day pirates – operating in speedboats launched from remote bases or mother ships (seized and converted freighters) – are almost always well-equipped with GPS receivers, computers, satellite phones, rangefinders and powerful telescopes, light and heavy machineguns, and rocket-propelled grenades; basically the same technology available to terrorists.

And the consensus among experts like Pham is that “it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

* Iran: More than 5,000 centrifuges are now up and running Iran now has more than 5,000 centrifuges operating at its uranium enrichment plant.

* Iraqi parliament delays vote on US pact Intense dealmaking among Iraq’s political factions on Wednesday delayed by one day a parliamentary vote on a security pact that would allow American forces to stay in the country through 2011 under tight Iraqi supervision.

* Olmert, in Washington: Israel-PA peace still possible this year Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has asked U.S. President George W. Bush to convince Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to accept Olmert’s suggestion to establish a Palestinian state and sign a peace deal with Israel by the end of the year.

* High-Seas Pirates Increasingly Working With Jihadis They are hardly the bejeweled, Jolly Roger flying buccaneers we’ve come to associate with of the Golden Age of Piracy (1692-1725).

* Arab foreign ministers meet on Palestinian rift Arab foreign ministers met in Cairo Wednesday to work out how to deal with Hamas after the militant group rejected reconciliation talks aimed at ending the division between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

* Europe announces 200bn-euro plan The European Commission has unveiled an economic recovery plan worth 200bn euros (£170bn) which it hopes will save millions of European jobs.

* Experts call for global network to prevent asteroid disasters Between 500 and 1,000 massive asteroids cross the Earth’s path regularly and any one of them could cause a global catastrophe.

* Oil rises as Russia threatens cut Oil prices have risen after Russia said it might join producers’ cartel Opec in cutting output, and following a fall in the US dollar.

* Sarkozy forever? EU uneasy on leadership bid: Paul Taylor Not content with a temporary role as first consul, Nicolas Sarkozy wants to be emperor of Europe.

* ‘Libyan aid boat en route to Gaza Strip’ A Palestinian lawmaker in Gaza says a boat loaded with humanitarian aid has left Libya and will attempt to reach Gaza despite an Israeli naval blockade.

By: David Shamah – The Jerusalem Post

I almost hate to do this – after my last round with Wikipedia, they’re going to think I’m picking on them. Last June, I wrote about accusations that pro-Israel organizations were somehow trying to manipulate the on-line encyclopedia’s entries to make Israel “look good”; the truth, it seemed to me, was that much of the information on Wikipedia regarding Israel is skewed, with terms and descriptions weighted against Israel taken as “fact” and legions of pages containing built-in prejudices that virtually no one questions.

The Galilee as it appears in an Arabic-language map from Wikicommons Media.

Unfortunately, that goes double for Wikipedia’s Arabic-language version. What an opportunity to break down stereotypes and promote understanding between strangers, even enemies – and they’re blowing it!

If we are counting on the “brand name” of Wikipedia to help break down barriers and stereotypes, the site has a lot of work to do, it seems. Wikipedia, with its more than 10 million articles (there are only 500,000 in the Encyclopedia Britannica), is quickly becoming the de facto place to look for information, almost anywhere there is an Internet; increasingly, the Wikipedia entry comes up first when you Google for information about almost anything these days.

How does Wikipedia make sure it stays more or less accurate? Through “peer-editing”; it is assumed that when inaccurate information is listed in an article, someone will come in and correct it, or at least present an opposing point of view (https://tinyurl.com/fccjr). According to the site, thousands of articles have been amended or rewritten since Wikipedia came into being in 2001, thus proving the validity of the system.

But what happens when you have a society that has a very definite set of “everybody knows” beliefs – where inaccuracies and outright lies plague Wikipedia articles, but no one does anything about it, because everyone believes them? If somebody writes that the earth is flat in an article, and all the peers believe that the earth is flat, then readers who are counting on the information in Wikipedia are going to read that the earth is flat, and that’s all they’re going to hear. So the system isn’t foolproof.

Unfortunately, this “what if” scenario is not theoretical; it actually happens on pages I checked out in the Arabic-language version of Wikipedia (https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki). Many Westerners get nervous when they see Arabic writing, like there must be some terrorist-oriented message embedded in the text. But thanks to the miracle of Google Translations (https://translate.google.com/translate-t#), Arabic and dozens of other languages no longer need be a mystery. While clearly not professional translations, Google returns a satisfactory rendering of a page that (usually) gives you a pretty clear picture of what the site in question is trying to say.

I don’t read or speak Arabic, but thanks to Google Translations, I’m able to get a much better insight into the point of view of Arabic speakers on-line. My method: Type in a search term at the translation site, then copy the resulting Arabic characters and do a Google search for them, then click on the “translate this page” link on results.

Using this method to Google for “hot-button” items like Israel, Jew, Zionism, etc., returns results like you would unfortunately expect, in many cases. Which is what led me to Wikipedia. Interestingly, in Arabic-language Google searches, Wikipedia entries were usually at the top of the list, too. That’s good, I thought; wouldn’t Arabic-language Wikipedia pages be translations of English-language pages on the same subject? Not that I’m such a fan of Wikipedia’s point of view on Israel and Jewish-oriented issues, but it’s a lot more palatable than what many of the “native” Arabic sites present.

But it turns out that Arabic Wikipedia (AW) is not necessarily a translation of English-language Wikipedia (EW). While, as I mentioned, the Google Translation rendering of these pages is clearly not totally accurate, the discrepancies between AW and EW were so great that you quickly realize that the two versions have very little to do with each other, at least on the hot-button issues.

I think that is a major problem. Wikipedia is such an authority today that if a Wikipedia page says, for example, that the Haganah’s fighting against Arab villages in Palestine before the establishment of Israel is a “genocide,” akin to the Holocaust or genocide in Rwanda, how can we be surprised when kids in Ramallah, Jenin or Gaza rally behind suicide bombers who wantonly kill Israeli women and children? Wouldn’t we have been happy if Polish Jews had conducted an “intifada” against the Nazis? (Note that there is a separate AW page titled “Gaza Holocaust,” referring to a battle in Gaza last March, in which Hamas said 116 Gaza residents were killed).

You won’t find a hint on AW of what was well-documented by the Haganah during the War of Independence: how residents of these Arab villages actively took part in the war, giving themselves the status of combatants, or how the vast majority ran away when told to do so by the Arab armies invading the newly established State of Israel, the better to clear out and give the Arab Legion a clear field to perpetrate a genocide of their own, against the Jews. Of course, one man’s terrorist attack is another’s “freedom fight,” but you have to really be out there in anti-Israel land to claim that the Haganah conducted a near-genocide against anyone, especially given the well-known historical facts.

Among the historic genocides listed on the AW page are the Cambodian genocide, the Rwanda genocide, “French massacres in Algeria from 1830 to 1962,” the “Armenian genocide” and others. The next paragraph on this page reads: “Human history has witnessed several cases of mass murder, but the debate is the use of the term genocide by around the intent to destroy [sic], in whole or in part, because this group is the core purpose of genocide, but difficult to demonstrate.” Listed here is “Mongol invasion of Baghdad,” “Annihilation of Native Americans (Indians)” and “Massacres against the Palestinians by gangs Haganah Jewish [sic] at the beginning of the Zionist occupation of Palestine.”

Politics plays heavily on anything having to do with Jerusalem, and the AW page on the city makes for interesting reading. Prominent on the AW page, for example, are references to “the Judaization of Jerusalem.” The introductory line says: “Jerusalem is the largest city of historic Palestine under Israeli control today”; the city’s status “as the capital of a Palestinian state within a Palestinian declaration of independence” is the second sentence. Security Council Resolutions 476 and 478 are the context for the mention of the city as Israel’s capital (the resolutions condemned Israel’s unification of the city). Interestingly, the history of Jerusalem on the AW and EW pages are quite different, with Canaanites and Egyptians stressed far more strongly on the AW page (the “debate” link on this page makes clear why).

As far as the entry for Jews goes, the article seemed pretty balanced, except for a comparison of Purim to Halloween (wearing costumes and getting drunk), and of Hanukka to Christmas (gift giving) – false stereotypes Western Jews worked hard to debunk. That, and a discussion as to how the Jews and the Children of Israel are not the same entity (not very clear, but it appears to be not very complimentary). Plus, a reference to “Aerosmith: Crazy,” which I always thought was a song by that rock group, but turns out to be, when you click on the link, a discussion of a heavy Koranic concept!

The entry on Israel recited the country’s familiar history, but key elements (“In 1947, the world witnessed the partition of Palestine, which gave the Jews living in Palestine 55% of the land, when they accounted for 30% of the population”) are just plain wrong.

Besides issues that concern us, Wikipedia gives us an insight into how Arabs see their own history. There is no reference to a century of French genocide in Algeria in EW, but there is a page dedicated to the Sétif massacre, in which French troops shot and killed Algerian rioters (as few as 1,100, or as many as 45,000, depending on who you believe).

Most interesting was the AW entry on the Armenian genocide, compared to the EW entry. On the AW page, it appears as if the Armenians were in league with the Russians to fight the Ottoman Turks, and the Armenians died in the general starvation of World War I, like everyone else (i.e. there was no “genocide,” and even if there was, the Armenians had it coming because they acted like “a fifth column” in Turkey, armed by the Russians). The EW page on this subject has the more familiar version of an organized extermination of the Armenians.

The disparity between the two versions is really wide, which means that one of the Wikipedias isn’t getting the story right. I could go on, but you get the idea. Like a Tower of Babel, Wikipedia aims to build a body of knowledge that all humanity can benefit from. But if we’re not speaking the same language – figuratively and intellectually, not just literally – what chance do we have of making that happen? And should Wikipedia be lending its authoritative name to the process?

* Khamenei for Lebanese unity vs. Israel Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday called on the disparate Lebanese ethnic groups to unite against their common enemy – Israel.

* US Told Olmert Not to Attack Iran or Invade Gaza The Bush administration warned outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert not to stage an attack on Iran or stage an all-out assault on Hamas in Gaza.

* Russian Warships Dock in Venezuela Russian warships have sailed into port in Venezuela for a series of joint military exercises that mark Russia’s first deployment in the Caribbean since the Cold War.

* Russian Analyst Predicts Decline and Breakup of USA A leading Russian political analyst has said the economic turmoil in the United States has confirmed his long-held view that the country is heading for collapse, and will divide into separate parts.

* Jordan seals nuclear deal with China Jordan signed a civilian nuclear cooperation deal with China on Monday, as part of its efforts to develop its nuclear energy capabilities.

* Abbas aide: Palestinian elections will be in April whether Hamas agrees or not Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas plans to hold presidential and parliamentary elections in April despite opposition from Hamas.

* Wikipedia’s Arabic version skews ME Last June, I wrote about accusations that pro-Israel organizations were somehow trying to manipulate the on-line encyclopedia’s entries to make Israel “look good”; the truth, it seemed to me, was that much of the information on Wikipedia regarding Israel is skewed.

* Brussels to recognise ‘European aspirations’ of post-Soviet states The European Commission is to propose pulling the EU’s six post-Soviet neighbours closer to the West by recognising their “European aspirations”.

* Hizbullah pays Palestinians to attack Fearing a harsh military response if it attacks Israel directly, Hizbullah has paid Palestinian terrorist cells to avenge the assassination of the group’s military commander.

* Russia’s Medvedev’s Tough Guy Act Appearances can be deceiving. Six months ago, when Dmitry Medvedev was inaugurated as Russia’s new president, many hoped there would be a thaw in U.S.-Russia relation.

* Abbas made Palestinian state head The Palestinian Authority’s central council has voted to appoint Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian state president.

* Hebron evacuation will be met with force greater than Amona A prominent settler leader said activists would resist attempts to evacuate Hebron’s House of Contention with force much greater than ever used in the past.

* Barak: Hezbollah has 42,000 missiles Defense Minister Ehud Barak cautioned that Hezbollah had greatly improved its capabilities since the Second Lebanon War.

* Peace deal delayed due to political situation in Israel Bush, Olmert to meet in Washington Monday to discuss Iranian nuclear program.

* Iran “unhurt” by oil price fall Iran’s President Ahmadinejad has said his country will not be damaged by falling oil prices.

* Iraq’s Rocky Future The Status of Forces Agreement is a significant move toward the restoration of Iraq’s sovereignty, but many hurdles remain.

* Syria confers highest medal on Kuntar Syrian President Bashar Assad has awarded murderer Samir Kuntar the country’s highest medal for spending nearly three decades in an Israeli jail.

* Bethlehem: 900 PA troops for Christmas About 900 Palestinian Authority troops will be sent to Bethlehem to maintain order during Christmas celebrations.

* Most Consider The Web Most Reliable Source of News A Zogby Poll, commissioned by IFC, found 37.6% of those asked consider the Internets the most reliable source of news. 20.3% consider national TV news most reliable and 16% say radio is the most reliable source.

* Putin hopes for better ties with US under Obama Russia’s leaders they hope the US will scrap its missile defense system in Europe and negotiate a nuclear arms control deal once President-elect Barack Obama takes office.