By: –

New information from inside Iran reveals that the Islamic Republic is moving ahead with its ballistic missile production, much of it conducted from the confines of secret tunnels excavated around Tehran.

The same sources report that on Aug. 17, Iran test fired a missile named “Safir Omir,” or Messenger of Hope, saying it was a communication satellite.

Iran test fired a military missile, dubbed “Messenger of Hope,” saying it was a communications satellite, sources out of Iran have now revealed. The image shows Iranian missiles atop trucks during Iran’s Army Day in Tehran in April. (UPI via Newscom)

“It’s a military operation, it’s a military program, disguised as a civilian program,” said Alireza Jafarzadeh, an Iranian opposition figure in Washington who is close to the Mojahedin-e-Khalq, or MeK – an Iranian resistance group opposed to the regime of the mullahs in Iran. The MeK is also known as the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran.

Jafarzadeh called the August test “a very concerted effort to hide the military nature of the launch.”

The missile was fired from the Iranian desert, on a military base under the control of Iran’s Air & Space Organization. The site is situated 70 kilometers from Semnan in the direction of Kavir. The launch pad was previously used for testing the Shahab missiles. The facility consists of several large halls, a command room, and the missile launch pads. There is a prototype on display in the hall, which has been viewed by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The missile tested last month was a modified Shahab III. The intention was to improve range and accuracy.

“The goal is to fit a nuclear warhead on the missiles,” said Jafarzadeh. “This is in non-compliance with the United Nations,” he said.

The test was a failure, according to resistance sources inside Iran, and the missile did not reach the desired height.

Meanwhile, amid fears that the United States or possibly Israel could attempt to carry out air strikes against Iran to destroy as much as possible of its nuclear building program, the Islamic Republic has implemented a number of changes to its defense infrastructure.

Iran’s ministry of defense was relocated to a secretive place, according to resistance sources in the country. About a month ago the defense ministry transferred its operations from Shariati Street in the Seyyed Khandan area of Tehran, to Langari Street, north of No-Bonyad Square. The current address of the ministry is: Pasdaran Avenue, No-Bonyad Square, Shahid Langari Street.

The reports say the defense complex occupies a very large area and its office buildings are scattered. There is no central building; the facilities are spread sparsely throughout the site. The location has been kept secret by the regime and all personnel have been ordered not to give out the new address. The ministry’s Security Intelligence bureau has adopted tough measures hoping to prevent any leaks.

In further developments, the commander of Iran’s air and space program Ahmad Vahid Dastjerdi was replaced by Mohammad Farrahi who is close to Ahmadinejad.

There are also reports of changes affecting the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) missile unit. According to information from the MeK, the Iranian government has opted to turn the missile unit into a completely independent unit, reporting directly to the IRGC commander.

The plan, according the Iranian resistance, calls for increases in the number of ballistic missile units.

“The mullahs’ regime, ignoring the demands of the civilized world, continues its meddling in Iraq, its support of extremist and terrorist groups, and its export of terrorism and fundamentalism in the region,” said Jafarzadeh. “As a result, the world is faced with an unprecedented crisis.”

Jafarzadeh blamed the Western countries, whose “lack of a decisive position” over the past six years has only encouraged Tehran to accelerate its nuclear weapons program. Jafarzadeh called it a policy of offering only carrots.

“I emphasize that the mullahs’ atomic crisis has only one solution: democratic change in Iran,” said the Iranian opposition representative. Though, he added, the West remains convinced it can still introduce “behavior change” among the ruling mullahs. “This is a mirage and a delusion. This is the policy of appeasement disguised in a different form.”

Jafarzadeh said that “democratic change in Iran is quite accessible and means of achieving it readily available.” The West is either naïve about the depth of the hatred of the Iranian people for the ruling regime, or intentionally ignores the explosive potential of the Iranian society, added Jafarzadeh.

He asked that the West must recognize the right of the Iranian people for democratic change.

“The Iranian resistance can ignite the engine of massive movements in Iran. A large bi-partisan group of Members of Congress believe that keeping the main opposition movement, namely the People’s Mojahedin Organization on the terror list is a serious impediment to democratic change in Iran.

By: Elitsa Vucheva – EUObserver

Both France and Germany on Thursday (25 September) said the current financial crisis would leave important marks on the world economy, with French president Nicolas Sarkozy declaring that the under-regulated system we once knew is now “finished,” and German finance minister Peer Steinbruck saying the crisis marks the beginning of a multi-polar world, where the US is no longer a superpower.

“The all-powerful market that always knows best is finished,” says France’s president (Photo: European Parliament – Audiovisual Unit)

Speaking to an audience of some 4,000 supporters in Toulon, France, Mr Sarkozy said the financial turmoil had highlighted the need to re-invent capitalism with a strong dose of morality, as well as to put in place a better regulatory system.

“The idea of the all-powerful market that must not be constrained by any rules, by any political intervention, was mad. The idea that markets were always right was mad,” Mr Sarkozy said.

“The present crisis must incite us to refound capitalism on the basis of ethics and work … Self-regulation as a way of solving all problems is finished. Laissez-faire is finished. The all-powerful market that always knows best is finished,” he added.

He accused “this system that allows the ones responsible for a disaster to leave with a golden parachute” of having “increased inequality, demoralised the middle classes and fed [market] speculation.”

A European response

The French president also criticised “the logic of short-term financial profit” and said risks were hidden “to obtain ever more exorbitant profits” – something which, he said, was not the true face of capitalism.

“The market economy is a regulated market … in the service of all. It is not the law of the jungle; it is not exorbitant profits for a few and sacrifices for all the others. The market economy is competition that lowers prices … that benefits all consumers.”

The speech by Mr Sarkozy, who is also the EU’s current president-in-office, echoes similar statements he made earlier this week, when he called for an international meeting to discuss the crisis before the end of the year.

On Thursday, he also called on Europe to “reflect on its capacity to act in case of an emergency, to re-consider its rules, its principles,” while learning the lessons from what is happening worldwide.

Mr Sarkozy said: “For all Europeans, it is understood that the response to the crisis should be a European one.”

“In my capacity of president of the Union, I will propose initiatives in that respect at the next European Council [15 October],” he added.

‘The world will never be the same again’

Meanwhile, German finance minister Peer Steinbruck criticised the US for failing to act in the wake of the crisis and said it would now lose its status of “superpower.”

“The US will lose its status as the superpower of the world financial system. This world will become multi-polar,” with the emergence of centres in Asia and Europe, he told the German parliament on Thursday.

“The world will never be as it was before the crisis,” he added.

Mr Steinbruck’s criticism of the US has been amongst the sharpest yet made since the beginning of the crisis.

He notably blamed Washington for resisting stricter regulation, even after the crisis started last summer, and said this free-market-above-all attitude and the argument “used by these ‘laissez-faire’ purveyors was as simple as it was dangerous,” the Associated Press reports.

He stressed that Germany had made recommendations last year for more rules, which Washington refused to consider.

They “elicited mockery at best or were seen as a typical example of Germans’ penchant for over-regulation,” Mr Steinbruck said.

Earlier this week, German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also said the US should have listened to the advice coming from Europe, notably from Germany, that more control was needed.

“It is a discussion that we have had for a long time in Europe, that the completely unregulated parts of the international financial market must be more closely monitored and that we must try to reach an agreement on common regulations,” he said during a visit to the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, according to Forbes.

By: The Jerusalem Post

The entire land of Palestine is holy and belongs solely to the Arabs, Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech delivered on Friday in honor of Al-Quds Day.

Iranian protesters attend an anti-Israel rally to commemorate the day of “al-Quds”, the Arabic name for Jerusalem, in Teheran, Friday.
Photo: AP

“Palestine, from the sea to the river, is the property of Arabs and Palestinians and no one has the right to give up even a single grain of earth or one stone, because every grain of the land is holy. The entire land must be returned to its rightful owners,” Nasrallah said.

He said Israel and the “Jewish lobby” ruled the world and influenced the US and its allies, and that jihad was the only way for Muslims to achieve results.

“Our lands will be liberated, not by begging the US or the West, but with will, determination, resistance and sacrifices made by the region’s peoples,” he said.

Hizbullah’s leader stressed the holiness of Palestine and the suffering of the Palestinians, saying “the Islamic nation has a historic commitment to Jerusalem, Palestine and the Palestinian people.”

Earlier on Friday, former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani warned the West – during a prayer ceremony in Teheran also marking Al-Quds Day – that its support for Israel would backfire.

Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah gestures during a news conference in the suburbs of Beirut.
Photo: AP [file]

Rafsanjani, who is still influential in Iranian politics, said the US, Britain and France backed Israel – and this was dangerous.

“They will put themselves in trouble, eventually,” Rafsanjani said.

Israel could “take tougher and more offensive action” than the United States against Iran and the Arab world, warned Rafsanjani, who is the head of the Assembly of Experts, a powerful clerical body that has the ability to appoint and dismiss the country’s supreme leader.

State-run television also aired clips on Friday featuring President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in New York. The president, who is in the US for the UN General Assembly meeting, said Israel did not have support among ordinary people in the United States.

He also chided hundreds of demonstrators who protested him during his trip.

“It was a big failure for them,” Ahmadinejad said.

The latest anti-Israel remarks made by Iranian leaders come as hundreds of thousands rallied in cities across the country to protest Israel’s hold on Jerusalem.

In Teheran, demonstrators chanted, “Death to America,” and, “Death to Israel.” Some protesters also burned American and Israeli flags.

Teheran’s Jewish community participated in the rally according to a statement by the Teheran Central Jewish Committee, a copy of which was made available to The Associated Press.

State television reported similar large rallies in all provincial capitals and in smaller towns across the country.

Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iran has observed the last Friday of Ramadan as Al-Quds Day.

Rallies were also held in Damascus. More than 3,000 people gathered at the Yarmouk refugee camp carrying Palestinian flags and anti-Israeli banners. The event was attended by several officials from Syria-based Palestinian terrorist organizations such as Ahmed Jibril, the secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General-Command.

“This day is a day of popular anger in the Arab and Islamic nations. It is directed toward all those who are colluding against Palestine and Jerusalem,” Jibril said in an apparent reference to Arab nations that have relations with Israel. “Jerusalem is being destroyed and Judaized every day while Israeli flags fly in their capitals.”

Another official, Ziad Nakhale of Islamic Jihad, said Jerusalem was holy for Muslims and “we call all Muslims around the world to liberate it.”

Twelve-year-old Muhammad Kheir, who took part in the rally while wearing a camouflage uniform, said he would never forget Jerusalem.

“Palestine is ours and it is the most valuable thing for me. We will never forget it. This is what my father taught us,” the boy said.

By: Sana Abdallah – Middle East Times

AMMAN — A leading Muslim Arab cleric has raised a political and religious storm across the region by speaking out audaciously on a subject that many Islamic scholars refuse to discuss because of political considerations – the “Shiite invasion” of Muslim societies.

Al-Jazeera’s star preacher, Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi (shown here), described Shiites as “heretics” and charged them with spreading their beliefs in Sunni countries in a concealed way by “not reveal[ing] what they believe in.” His harsh words have ignited a firestorm of counter-attacks. (Newscom)

Prominent Egyptian-born scholar, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, told Egypt’s independent Al-Masry al-Youm daily on Sept. 10 there existed Shiite “attempts to invade the Sunni community with their money and cadres trained to do missionary work in the Sunni world.”

Qaradawi’s bold words unleashed days of counter-attacks among religious, political and sectarian leaders over the very foundations that have underlined the Sunni-Shiite politico-religious schism dating back centuries. The seeds of such strife, however, were revived in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein‘s secular regime, leading to sectarian strife.

Qaradawi charged the Shiites with spreading their belief in predominantly Sunni countries, from Indonesia to Algeria, and said “they practice the tradition of takia [concealing their intentions] and do not reveal what they believe in.” And he described them as “mubtadi’oun” (heretics).

The Iranian state media quickly labeled Qaradawi a “spokesman for international Freemasonry and Jewish rabbis.”

Shiite spiritual leader, Lebanon’s Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, responded to Qaradawi in an interview in Kuwait’s Al-Rai newspaper by accusing him of inciting sectarian strife and challenged him to criticize Christian missionary work in Muslim countries.

Shiite activists in Qatar filed a lawsuit to take away his Qatari nationality and deport him from the country, where he is based.

The 82-year-old Qaradawi, often described as moderate but staunchly anti-Israeli and against U.S. policies, is the Doha-based Al-Jazeera channel’s star preacher and appears regularly on a weekly religious talk show.

Though he is chairman of the International Union of Islamic Scholars, the organization says his statements represent only his personal views and the Shiite members of the union reportedly threatened to resign en masse.

On Sept. 26 – the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan when Muslims are supposed unite in worship – the verbal confrontations continued between supporters of Qaradawi and his critics from both sects.

Al-Masry al-Youm reported that many religious organizations had condemned the “fierce Shiite attack” against the scholar, who continued to defend his remarks in follow-up interviews with other Arab newspapers.

In an interview with the anti-Iranian Ash-Sharq al-Awsat daily on Thursday, Qaradawi said the Shiites “have managed to infiltrate Egypt, which I know well that 20 years ago did not include a single Shiite.”

The Saudi-owned paper quoted him as saying that silence toward such a trend would ignite a potential clash.

“You will get a Shiite minority demanding minority rights and clashing with the Sunni majority. Here fires are lit and wars happen,” the cleric said.

He also implied an Iranian financial role in what he saw as the spread of Shiism, but was careful in choosing his words: “Money definitely plays a role, but I cannot say that every person who backs Iran has been paid by them and I cannot accuse everyone of this. There are people who were paid and continue to be paid, and there is shuttling between them and Iran. This is known.”

Independent Arab analysts criticized Qaradawi for raising the issue at a time of Muslim divisions, widely seen as having been ignited by the U.S. occupation of Iraq that brought Shiite rule and Iranian influence, which most American-allied Arab regimes dread.

They argue that bringing up such a sensitive issue undermines, in political terms, the role of Shiite groups, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, in confronting the so-called “American-Zionist colonialist expansion” in the region and the U.S.-led campaign against Iran.

Ironically, Qaradawi is known to be a firm supporter of Hezbollah and resistance against Israel, and has been barred entry into the United States and Britain for his views.

His warning against the “spread of Shiism” must be music to the ears of some Arab leaders who had previously voiced similar fears, but were quickly stifled following fierce reactions.

When Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned, in 2004, against the threat of a “Shiite crescent” spreading from Iran to the Mediterranean, Iraqi Shiites held widespread protests and stormed the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad.

When Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, two years later, remarked that Arab Shiites were more loyal to Iran than to their own countries, the post-Saddam Iraqi government boycotted an Arab League meeting and its religious leaders demanded an apology. Lebanon’s Fadlallah also accused Mubarak of inflaming sectarian tension and fueling prejudice against the Shiites.

Some analysts say that coming from such a highly-respected Islamic scholar, Qaradawi’s words may put to rest fears by Western-backed regimes that their Islamic movements would seek to emulate the model of the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran.

However, ringing an alarm over the spread of Shiism comes as the followers of the sect in the Arab world are seeking to gain political and social rights in their predominantly Sunni countries.

While there are no official estimates on the number of Shiites in this part of the world, unofficial statistics say they represent between 15 and 20 percent of Muslims. The number constitutes a majority or large minorities in Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and Bahrain, with fewer in other Arab Gulf countries, such as Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

It was not until 1956 that the Shiite sect was formally accepted as a legitimate Islamic group, when Egypt’s al-Azhar – the main center of Islamic scholarship in the world – issued a fatwa (religious edict) that the “Shia is a school of thought that is religiously correct to follow in worship as other Sunni schools of thought.”

Qaradawi, nonetheless, raised a centuries-old ideological dispute by referring to the Shiites as “heretics,” because they believe the study of Islamic scriptures is a continual process necessary for identifying God’s laws and that the door to “ijtihad,” or interpretation of the Koran, and the “hadith” (Prophet’s sayings) was never closed. The Sunnis claim they cannot be interpreted with the same authority as their predecessors.

The Sunni-Shiite split dates back as far as Prophet Mohammed‘s death, following disagreement on who was qualified to lead as the Prophet’s successors. Those who later became Shiites believed only members of Mohammed’s clan, specifically the descendants of his daughter Fatima and her husband Ali, were the legitimate successors. For hundreds of years, wars and invasions spawned from the Sunni-Shiite conflict.

But that is history. The question now is how far historical events may be repeated by Muslims in this modern-day power struggle.

* Tradition Today: Reclaiming Rosh Hashana We are on the eve of the celebration of the Yamim Nora’im, the Days of Awe, which begin with Rosh Hashana.

* Assad: Relations with Iran to continue even if peace with Israel achieved The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that senior American and Syrian diplomats held a series of meetings in New York over the past week.

* ‘Rice expresses satisfaction over Syria-Israel indirect talks’ In what may be a sign that the recent hardline American position towards Syria is softening, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem met with US Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice.

* Olmert: Israel should quit most occupied land Israel should withdraw from nearly all territory captured in the 1967 Middle East war in return for peace with the Palestinians and Syria.

* Europe scrambles to save banking system European authorities in Brussels, Frankfurt and at EU member state level are scrambling to save the continent’s financial system after bank stocks plunged.

* Holiday poll finds negative national views Just before Rosh Hashana gives us cause to rejoice in the new year, the War and Peach Index may give us cause to pause before ushering in the holiday cheer.

* Karzai Seeks Saudi Help With Taliban As the Afghan war intensifies and American commanders call for increased troop levels, President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday that he had sought the intercession of the Saudi royal family.

* Hamas, Fatah leaders pledge Palestinian unity bid Leaders of the rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas marked the end of the holy month of Ramadan on Tuesday.

* Nuclear Terrorism Is No. 1 Threat, ElBaradei Says The likelihood that terrorists will detonate a nuclear weapon poses the greatest risk to world security.

* Iraqi police: Car bomb in Baghdad kills 3 A parked car bomb targeted a restaurant in a mostly Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad.

* Teheran: Enrichment will continue, despite UN resolution Iran said it will continue its disputed uranium enrichment activity despite a new UN resolution seeking suspension of the process.

* US bases powerful radar in Israel The US has deployed long-range radar in Israel to give early warning of any missile strike by Iran.

* Olmert: We must leave most of West Bank Israel will have to give up virtually all of the West Bank and east Jerusalem if it wants peace with the Palestinians, Ehud Olmert said in a farewell interview.

* Warships surround Somali pirates Somali pirates aboard a ship carrying tanks and weapons that they have seized say they are surrounded by at least three foreign warships.

* Police: Jewish underground may be emerging A new Jewish underground could have been responsible for Thursday morning’s attack on left-wing professor Ze’ev Sternhell.

* U.S. Textbooks claim Jesus was Palestinian “Christianity was started by a young Palestinian named Jesus.”

* Jews in Judea, Samaria Increased by 20 Percent in Olmert’s Term The number of Jews in Judea and Samaria grew by 20 percent from 250,000 when Ehud Olmert began his term as Prime Minister to more than 300,000.

* Rosh HaShanah Holiday, Monday Night thru Wednesday Night The Jewish People begin nearly a month of holidays Monday evening.

* Jerusalem to Host Ant-Jihad Convention in December Dutch legislator Geert Wilders, producer of the movie Fitna exposing the Koran’s incitement to violence, announced that a “Facing Jihad Conference” will take place in Jerusalem in December.

* Is Iran Readying for War? The Islamic Republic is moving ahead with its ballistic missile production, much of it conducted from the confines of secret tunnels excavated around Tehran.

* IAEA chief: Iran on path to build nukes The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog has warned that Iran is one of several countries on the path to possessing the ingredients for making a nuclear weapon, according to a German newspaper report Friday.

* ‘Palestine must be returned to Arabs’ Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah stated the entire land of Palestine was holy and belonged solely to the Arabs, in a speech held on Friday in honor of “al-Quds Day.”

* ‘Settlements aren’t the biggest problem’ During a Friday UN Security Council meeting called at the request of Arab states to deal with the sole issue of Israeli settlement-building in Palestinian territory, Saudi Arabia, the Arab League and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas asked the Security Council to save the faltering Middle East peace process by demanding an end to Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory.

* Iranians mock Holocaust on annual Jerusalem Day Iranians chanted “Death to Israel” on Friday as Islamist students unveiled a book mocking the Holocaust in an Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day annual parade to show solidarity with the Palestinians.

* Quartet’s gap between words and deeds In the last few years, in various elegant rooms in some of the world’s major cities, a small group of people have met periodically to talk about the Middle East.

* Chinese astronaut walks in space A Chinese astronaut has become the first in his country’s history to take a walk in space.

* Medvedev and Chavez sign $1 billion military loan Russia stepped up efforts to project its increased might on the world stage on Friday, welcoming President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela by signing a $1 billion military loan to the country and announcing wide-ranging plans to modernize Russia’s nuclear deterrence.

* Cleric Reignites Age-Old Sunni-Shiite Disputes A leading Muslim Arab cleric has raised a political and religious storm across the region by speaking out audaciously on a subject that many Islamic scholars refuse to discuss because of political considerations – the “Shiite invasion” of Muslim societies.

* ‘Laissez-faire’ capitalism is finished, says France Both France and Germany on Thursday (25 September) said the current financial crisis would leave important marks on the world economy, with French president Nicolas Sarkozy declaring that the under-regulated system we once knew is now “finished,” and German finance minister Peer Steinbruck saying the crisis marks the beginning of a multi-polar world, where the US is no longer a superpower.

* McCain: We can’t allow second Holocaust The need to protect Israel from the vitriolic threats of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad formed the crux of a central argument between US presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain in their first debate Friday night.

By: Nissan Ratzlav-Katz – Arutz Sheva

The Palestinian Authority, run by PLO Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas, is again making efforts to popularize Muslim denial of the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, especially to the site of the two Jewish Temples. The PA claims fly in the face of the archaeological evidence, as well as the history of Jerusalem as endorsed by the most authoritative Muslim sources.

As translated by PMW, the video clip that appeared on PA TV on September 23, 2008, includes the lyrics, “Oh [Sons of] Zion, no matter how much you dig and no matter how much you destroy, your imaginary Temple will not come into being, Al-Aqsa is ours. Al-Aqsa is ours, Oh Muslims, Al-Aqsa is ours.” It goes on to call for another Saladin, the Muslim conqueror of Jerusalem in 1187, according to PMW.

Marcus and Crook explain that the clip has appeared on both Fatah and Hamas TV “intermittently during the last 18 months, and it constitutes part of a prolonged hate campaign against Israel. The campaign denies the historical fact of the connection between the Jewish people, Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, while infusing hatred and fear by pretending that Islam’s holy site, as well as its adherents, are in great danger.”

Jerusalem Muslim Council: Temples in Jerusalem ‘Beyond Dispute’
In complete opposition to the claims promoted by the PA today, as reported by Israel National News earlier this year, a tourist guide published by the Supreme Muslim Council (the Waqf) of Jerusalem in 1925 declares of the Temple Mount, “Its identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which ‘David built there an altar unto the L-rd….’ “

In addition, on page 16 the pamphlet makes reference to the underground area in the south-east corner of the Mount, which it refers to as Solomon’s Stables. “Little is known for certain of the history of the chamber itself,” the guide reads. “It dates probably as far back as the construction of Solomon’s Temple. According to Josephus, it was in existence and was used as a place of refuge by the Jews at the time of the conquest of Jerusalem by Titus in the year 70 A.D.”

Islam’s Founder Muhammad: The Temple is in Jerusalem
Throughout the religious, behavioral and doctrinal codebooks Muslims believe were transmitted from Muhammad or his immediate associates, known as Hadith, Jerusalem is primarily called Bayt al-Makdis in Arabic. The term is an Arabic translation of the Hebrew Bait HaMikdash, which means “the Temple” in English.

Jerusalem, however, is not mentioned by name in the primary Islamic scripture, the Koran. However, Muslim apologists often point to a description in the Koran of a mystical journey Muhammad made to “the furthest mosque,” which they claim is al-Aqsa mosque currently located on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

However, the Hadith that provide more details of the mystical journey also refer to Jerusalem as the location of the Jewish Temple. As the Hadith collection Sahih Muslim states: “[The] Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: I was brought al-Buraq who is an animal white and long, larger than a donkey but smaller than a mule, who would place his hoof a distance equal to the range of vision. I mounted it and came to the Temple (Bait al-Maqdis in Jerusalem), then tethered it to the ring used by the prophets.” To this day, the Muslims refer to the Western Wall as “Al-Buraq Wall”.

Archaeological Evidence: The Temples Were in Jerusalem
Archaeological finds in recent years in and around Jerusalem have been providing physical evidence for the history as presented by the earliest Jewish, Christian and Muslim sources. Some examples follow:

* In 2005, following painstaking archaeological work carried out in a dump from an illegal Wakf construction project on the Temple Mount, researchers discovered: a coin from the period of the First Revolt against the Romans, which preceded the destruction of the Second Temple, bearing the phrase “For the Redemption of Zion”; an inscription chiseled on a jar fragment of the First Temple period, with the ancient Hebrew letters heh, ayin and kof; A seal with five-pointed star with ancient Hebrew letters spelling “Jerusalem” spaced between the points; a Hasmonean coin bearing inscription “Yehonathan High Priest, friend of the Jews”; a coin of Alexander Jannaeus; a Scytho-Iranian arrowhead, of the type used by the Babylonian army of Nebuchadnezzar that destroyed the First Temple in 586 BCE; and more.

* In 2005, a Hebrew University archaeologist uncovered a clay seal dated from about 580 BCE bearing the name Yehuchal Ben-Sheleimiya, who is identified as a royal envoy and court minister sent by King Zedekiah to the prophet Jeremiah (in chapters 37 and 38 of the Bible’s Book of Jeremiah).

Several years earlier, another circa-580 BCE royal seal was found at the same site. It had the name of Gemaryahu, son of Shafan, who is also mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah as a top official in the court of King Zedekiah’s predecessor, King Yehoyachim. Another seal found among dozens of others bears the name of Azaryahu Ben-Hilkiyahu, a member of a priestly family, who served in the Temple before Jerusalem’s destruction, according to I Chronicles, 9:10.

* In May 2007 archaeologists revealed a number of seals and signet rings from the time of the Biblical Kings David and Solomon, unearthed in the City of David, below Jerusalem’s Old City.

* In July 2007 an expert in ancient Babylon discovered a small clay tablet that records a donation of gold by “the chief eunuch of King Nebuchadnezzar,” a man named Nabu-sharrussu-ukin. In Jeremiah 39, the researcher noted, the man’s name is listed as one of Nebuchadnezzar’s top ministers, who took part in the destruction of the First Holy Temple 2,500 years ago.

* In January 2008 archaeologists discovered a stone seal that includes the name of a family, Temech, whose members were servants during the First Temple, were exiled to Babylonia and then returned to Jerusalem. The seal was found near the Dung Gate walls of the Old City. The Book of Nehemiah (Chapter 7) refers to the Temech family by name.

* In March 2008 a coin from the Second Temple used during the turbulent Second Temple period to pay the Biblical half-shekel head-tax was found in excavations in the City of David.

* In August of 2008 archaeologists unearthed a completely intact seal impression bearing the name of another minister to King Zedekiah, Gedaliahu son of Pashur, a few meters away from the site where a the seal of Yehuchal Ben-Sheleimiya was found three years earlier.

By: Barak Ravid – Haaretz

Thirty years after prime minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat signed their historic peace agreement, few are interested in representing Israel in Cairo.

The term of Israel’s current ambassador to Egypt, Shalom Cohen, was extended for three months last week because no senior diplomat or other qualified public figure has so far been willing to take the post. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and ministry director general Aharon Abramovitz decided to lengthen Cohen’s term after ruling out the two leading candidates for his replacement.

Livni nixed the candidacies of seven mid-level diplomats because of doubts over their qualifications. She also considered appointing a caretaker ambassador, but ruled out that option for fear of harming relations with Egypt.

In recent years, the Defense Ministry has taken the lead in nurturing ties between the two governments, mainly through Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman. The Prime Minister’s Office has also played a dominant role. The Israeli embassy in Cairo has served as little more than a symbol, and has recently been left out of much of the communication between Jerusalem and Cairo.

However, Egypt has recently taken various steps to strengthen its relationship with the Foreign Ministry, due in part to its assessment that Livni was likely to replace Ehud Olmert as prime minister. Abramovitz even visited the Egyptian capital several weeks ago for a rare meeting with Suleiman, and Livni’s election as Kadima’s new leader is expected to aid in warming relations.

Livni had hoped to replace Cohen with another prominent senior diplomat, or barring that, a well-known public figure or politician. She had also hoped the selection process would send a message to Egypt that its relationship with Israel was a priority for Jerusalem.

However, she soon discovered that eligible candidates were hardly jumping at the vacancy. She and Abramovitz offered the position to four of the ministry’s deputy directors general, and all four turned it down.

Several diplomats said that while they would like to see the position of ambassador given more responsibility, they saw no chance of this actually happening, as the ambassador, however senior he may be, will remain isolated and overlooked by the Egyptian leadership.

Livni also searched for a recognizable public figure or academic, but all the candidates she considered were eliminated due to either lack of experience or their own refusal to take the job. Veteran diplomat Oded Eran, who represented Israel for years to the European Union before his recent retirement, also refused the foreign minister’s offer.

The daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported recently that the ambassadorship was offered to journalist Ehud Ya’ari. Livni’s office denied this report.

The post of Egypt’s ambassador to Israel is hardly a picnic either. In August, a furor erupted in Israel after the Egyptian media reported that former ambassador Mohammad Bassiouni had actually been a spy, a charge Bassiouni vehemently denied.

The former ambassador says he still has many personal friends in Israel, and is cautious in voicing opinions as to which politicians would best advance the peace process. He does say he believes that Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman is a “radical right-winger.” However, he added, “we made peace with a right-wing party, with Menachem Begin. We believed then and we believe now that peace can be made only with a strong leader.”

By: Anand Giridharadas – International Herald Tribune

MUMBAI, India: The Mumbai, an Indian warship, was slicing through choppy monsoon seas one recent morning when a helicopter swooped in overhead. Commandos slithered down a rope, seizing control of the destroyer.

It was a drill, Indian soldiers taking over an Indian ship. But the purpose was to train them to seize other countries’ ships in distant oceans, a sign of a new military assertiveness for the world’s second-most-populous nation.

India, which gave the world the idea of Gandhian nonviolence, has long derided the force-projecting ways of the great powers. It focused its own military on self-defense against two neighbors, Pakistan and China.

But in recent years, while world attention has focused on China’s military, India has begun to refashion itself as an armed power with global reach: a power willing and able to dispatch troops thousands of miles from the subcontinent to protect its oil shipments and trade routes, to defend its large expatriate population in the Middle East and to shoulder international peacekeeping duties.

“India sees itself in a different light — not looking so much inward and looking at Pakistan, but globally,” said William Cohen, a secretary of defense in the Clinton administration who in his new role as a lobbyist represents American firms seeking weapons contracts in India. “It’s sending a signal that it’s going to be a big player.”

India is buying armaments that major powers like the United States use to operate far from home: aircraft carriers, giant C-130J transport planes and airborne refueling tankers. Meanwhile, India has helped to build a small air base in Tajikistan that it will share with its host country. It is modern India’s first military outpost on foreign soil.

India also appears to be positioning itself as a caretaker and patroller of the Indian Ocean region, which stretches from Africa’s coast to Australia’s and from the subcontinent southward to Antarctica.

“Ten years from now, India could be a real provider of security to all the ocean islands in the Indian Ocean,” said Ashley Tellis, an Indian-born scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington who has also been an adviser to the Bush administration. “It could become a provider of security in the Gulf in collaboration with the U.S. I would think of the same being true with the Central Asian states.”

“India,” he added, “is slowly maturing into a conventional great power.”

Middle-aged Indians remember a time when their country would watch thousands of Indians in jeopardy in a foreign land and know that there was nothing their military could do.

But in 2006, when conflict between Israel and Hezbollah threatened Indian expatriates in Lebanon, four Indian warships happened to be in the Mediterranean. The navy rushed the vessels to Lebanon and brought more than 2,000 people on board, not only Indians, but Sri Lankans, Nepalese and Lebanese eager to escape the fighting.

Two years earlier, when a tsunami throttled Asia, including this country’s own southern coast, the Indian Navy dispatched 16,000 troops, 32 warships, 41 planes and a floating hospital for rescue operations, according to news accounts.

Such changes bring pride to many Indians. But some also fear that India may become the kind of swaggering power it has opposed since it became independent from Britain in 1947.

“Immediately after independence, true, we had to engage ourselves for developing our country — economically, politically — because we were exploited under colonial rule for more than 200 years,” Pranab Mukherjee, India’s foreign minister, said in an interview.

Now, he said, things have changed: “Naturally, a country of this size, a population of this size — we will be required to strengthen our security forces, modernize them, update them, upgrade our technology.”

“We are ready to play a more responsible role,” he added, “but we don’t want to impose ourselves on others.”

Indian military planning is still heavily focused on China and Pakistan, against both of which the country has fought wars. China, whose own military expansion outstrips India’s, has not sounded public warnings about India’s military modernization. But Pakistan is more critical.

Pakistani officials “are paying attention to Indian plans to project India outside the South Asian region,” said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a leading Pakistani expert on that country’s military.

India’s buildup has several overlapping motivations. It now trades vigorously with the world, most critically in oil. It has bought oil fields or engaged in exploration in Iran, Iraq, Libya, Russia, Sudan, Syria, Vietnam and beyond. Not coincidentally, it has demonstrated a new interest in keeping the sea lanes through which that oil and other wares sail free of pirates and militants.

A more robust military is also vital for protecting millions of Indian workers in the Gulf, who are from time to time threatened by political volatility. But the most pressing motivation may be the fast-moving Chinese.

China has sought to develop a powerful air force and navy that can extend far beyond its shores. It has been increasing its military budget rapidly and plans to spend $60 billion on its armed forces in 2008, according to the government budget. The Pentagon estimates that China’s actual military spending is much higher, perhaps twice the officially budgeted amount, as much as seven times India’s defense outlay.

Beijing has alarmed Indian commanders by courting allies in India’s neighborhood. Indians are particularly upset by what they say are Chinese-built military bases in Gwadar, Pakistan; Chittagong, Bangladesh; and Yangon, Myanmar.

“There seems to be an emerging long-term competition between India and China for pre-eminence in the region,” said Jacqueline Newmyer, president of the Long Term Strategy Group, a research institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a security consultant to the United States government. “India is preparing slowly to claim its place as a pre-eminent power, and in the meantime China is working to complicate that for India.”

India has worked to close the gap with China by spending heavily on modern arms. Analysts estimate that India could spend as much as $40 billion on military modernization in the next five years. What is most striking is how many of the weapons are designed for operations far from home.

Among the more notable purchases are six IL-78 airborne tankers, which can refuel three jets simultaneously and allow the air force to fly as far as Alaska.

Other armaments recently acquired or in the pipeline include naval destroyers, nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers and the C-130J transport planes that are a staple of long-range conflicts.

“You don’t need C-130s for Pakistan,” said Tellis, the Bush administration adviser.

A telling sign of India’s plans lies in Tajikistan, a nation between Afghanistan and China in Central Asia. Not far from Dushanbe, the capital, India has worked with Tajik authorities to build an air base and has stationed helicopters there.

Newmyer, of Long Term Strategy Group, called the arrangement “a big deal,” not least because of the change of mindset it reflects. “Having overseas bases is a marker of an imperial kind of capability,” she said. “India is thought of as a power that was colonized, not a power that puts its own boots on the ground in permanent bases in other countries.”

In a speech in India’s Parliament this summer, a rising political star spoke of a change in civilian thinking that helps explain the change in military strategy.

“What is important,” said Rahul Gandhi, the heir to the family dynasty that controls the governing Congress Party, “is that we stop worrying about how the world will impact us, we stop being scared about how the world will impact us, and we step out and worry about how we will impact the world.”