Lebanese Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri's December 19 visit to Damascus is the latest marker in the return of the coercive Syrian presence in Lebanon. It is also an indication of Syria's successful defiance of the west.

Hariri's ritual gesture of supplication to Bashar al-Assad in Damascus was the inevitable adjustment of the leader of a small state to a changing regional balance of power. Hariri and his supporters have little reason to take pride in the gesture. But the real responsibility for it lies not in Beirut, but further afield.

Biriya today is now a communial settlement, with about 600 residents.

The First Temple Period (1000 BCE – 587 BCE)

The is no information about an Israeli settlement on the Biriya site during the First Temple Period. But, an ancient tomb was found on the site, and according to an old tradition this is the tomb of Beniahu Ben Yehoyada, chief stuff of King David.

The Second Temple, the Roman and the Byzantine Periods (538 BCE – 640 CE)

Israel should do more to be reflected properly in the world mirror

Israel is not an isolated country any more although it is surrounded by enemies in the north and to a certain extent in the center. Presently it is not only America that is backing us since independence, but European countries as well. The fact that they are critical of some issues of our policy, regarding the dispute with the Palestinians and the issue of the occupied territories, does not mean that they turned against us.

In the West there is a growing trend to view Hamas as separate from al-Qaeda in order to open a political dialogue with Hamas, but is this view correct?
In its annual survey of terrorist threats to Israel during 2009, the Israel Security Agency noted the spread and buildup of "global jihadi" organizations in Gaza. In recent years a number of these jihadi groups have emerged that openly identify with al-Qaeda, such as Jaish al-Islam (the Army of Islam), Jaish al-Umma (the Army of the Nation), and Fatah al-Islam.

world-iran
The ongoing demonstrations in Iran are testimony to the continued strength and resilience of Iranian civil society. They make a mockery of the Islamic Republic's ambition of offering a model for successful Muslim governance to the world.

The next major manifestation of the protests is likely to be February 11 - the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution. The seventh and 40th days following the deaths of those killed this week are also likely to witness dramatic scenes.

With the onset of a new year of President Obama’s term in the White House it is only natural to summarize the first year of Obama’s Presidency. I’ll leave it to the professional pundits, the maivins of the main stream media, and other spin meisters to fill the air with their wisdom. This article will focus on one subject - what happens or, to be precise, what’s new in the terror front.

While Israel has shown in the past year a greater willingness to meet the Palestinians half way as exemplified by Netanyahu's Bar Ilan speech the Palestinian Authority has chosen the opposite course and adopted a rigid position which prevented the resumption of the peace process, launching an all out diplomatic, media and legal war against the Jewish state the world over.

The recent declassification of millions of documents from the period of the British Mandate (1920-1948) and Israel’s early days, documents untapped by earlier generations of writers and ignored or distorted by the “new historians,” paint a much more definitive picture of the historical record. They reveal that the claim of dispossession is not only completely unfounded but the inverse of the truth. What follows is based on fresh research into these documents, which contain many facts and data hitherto unreported.

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Israel is one of the leading countries in agriculture, high-tech, medicine and science. Maybe the world needs to be reminded of this.

Anyone who reads newspapers could be forgiven for thinking that Israel is a dangerous place ruled by violence and corruption. The celebration of Israel's 60th anniversary provides an opportunity to take stock of our achievements. The facts speak for themselves.

The Contribution to Humanity Index

Mahmoud Abbas' new precondition that the international community recognize the 1967 lines in the West Bank as the new Palestinian border bolsters the assessment that the Palestinians have largely abandoned a negotiated settlement and instead are actively pursuing a unilateral approach to statehood.

Shaik Munnes was an Arabic village. The Northern neighborhoods of Tel Aviv, including Tel Aviv University, were built on the site of this village.

The Village was established, according to the Nakba web site, sometime during the 18th century. The country was ruled, at that time, by the Ottomans (1516 – 1918). The borders were unprotected and Arabs and Muslims settled with no interruption. In 1831, Muhammad Ali's son, Ibrahim Pasha, from Egypt, conquered the country and settled about 100,000 Egyptian peasants in the country, including Shaik Munnes.

WASHINGTON – Angry Arabs, riled by the violence in Gaza, throw shoes at the Prime Minister’s office in London, and Egypt’s embassy in Washington. But not everyone in that community wants Israel to take the pressure off Islamist extremists who have been showering southern Israel with rockets.

The second part of this two-part article explores two main themes: 1) How journalists and human rights NGOs created the body of information Goldstone largely replicated, and 2) the role of intimidation and advocacy on journalists, NGO workers, witnesses, and judges. It concludes with an analysis of how such a systematic misrepresentation of events repeatedly occurred and the dangerous results for the very cause Goldstone espouses--the protection of civilians and the human rights culture.

PART II: WHY? GENEALOGY OF THE “GOLDSTONE REPORT”

Each year, the Palestinians mark Nakba Day, the catastrophe that befell them with the establishment of the State of Israel. But the Jews in Arab countries also suffered catastrophe and it was many times worse.

They say that she was stunningly beautiful. Sol (Suleika) Hatuel was 17 years old when she was beheaded. A Muslim friend claimed that she had succeeded in converting her. When Sol denied the claim, she was accused of renouncing Islam and was condemned to death. Her case reached the sultan.

In contrast to its refusal to change course on Iran, the Obama administration has learned something about Israel-Palestinian peacemaking, conclusions clearly expressed in the government’s new talking points.

First, President Barack Obama stated recently that his administration had overestimated its ability to get the two sides into meaningful peace talks. Blaming both parties equally, Obama said the problem is that neither Israel nor the Palestinians were ready to take the bold steps necessary to succeed.

Right at the outset of Israel's recent operation in Gaza, French pro-Palestinian organizations filed a lawsuit against the Israeli president, foreign minister and defense minister. Turkish prosecutors said in February 2009 that they were investigating whether Israeli leaders should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity over Israel's offensive in Gaza, after Mazlum-Der, an Islamic-oriented human rights organization, filed an official complaint in Turkey. At the same time, a Spanish judge is currently investigating the role of Israeli soldiers and security officials in a bombing in Gaza in 2002 in which a top Hamas suicide bombing planner, Salah Shehada, and 14 other people were killed.

The compatibility between Islam and democracy has been a controversial topic. While empirical studies since 2000 confirm the prevailing notion that Muslim majority states offer fewer political rights than non-Muslim countries, the question as to why such a phenomenon exists remains unsatisfactorily answered. One key element is how the interpretation of Islam itself has been so effectively used by Arab regimes to indoctrinate subjects into believing that blind obedience to their absolute rule is a form of Islamic piety.