Somalia is also becoming a destination for British Muslims of Somali extraction who have started fighting alongside al-Qa'ida-backed Islamist forces. A 21-year-old Briton of Somali extraction, who had been brought up in Ealing, west London, recently blew himself up in the town of Baidoa, killing 20 people. The head of MI5, Jonathan Evans, has raised the worrying issue of British citizens being indoctrinated in Somalia, and Michael Hayden, the outgoing head of the CIA, warned that the conflict in the Horn of Africa had "catalysed" expatriate Somalis in the West.

But it is in Afghanistan that British forces are now directly facing fellow Britons on the other side. RAF Nimrod aircraft flying over Afghanistan at up to 40,000ft have been picking up Taliban electronic "chatter" in which voices can be heard in West Midlands and Yorkshire accents. Worryingly for the military, this has increased in the past few months, with communications picked up by both ground and air surveillance, showing the presence of more British voices in the Taliban front line.

The men involved are said to try to hide their British connections but sometimes "fall back" into speaking English. One senior military source said: "We have been hearing a lot more Punjabi, Urdu and Kashmiri Urdu rather than just Pashtu, so there appears to be more men from other parts of Pakistan fighting with the Taliban than just the Pashtuns who have tribal allegiances with the Afghan Pashtuns. It is this second group, the Urdu, Punjabi speakers etc, who fall back into English in, for example, Brummie accents. You get the impression that they have been told not to talk in English but sometimes simply can't help it."

Some of the British Muslims had originally trained in Pakistan to commit attacks in Kashmir. But security sources say the rising threat of Indian retribution, especially after the Mumbai attacks, had led to the Pakistani government curbing the activities of the Kashmiri separatist groups, so the fighters are being switched to Afghanistan. The numbers involved in Afghanistan, the intelligence document shows, are relatively few, dozens rather than hundreds, but the pattern of involvement is described as a cause for concern.

Last week, during a visit to Helmand, the Foreign Secretary, David Milliband, was shown Taliban explosive devices containing British-made electronic components. An explosives officer said the devices had either been sent from Britain, or brought over to the country. They ranged from remote-control units used to fly model airplanes to advanced components which could detonates bombs at a range of more than a mile.

Evidence of British Muslims fighting inside Afghanistan and training in insurgent camps in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas has been provided to the UK authorities by the Americans. The US has significantly stepped up its surveillance inside Pakistan as part of a more aggressive policy including cross-border raids by unmanned Predator aircraft.

The Americans are said to have raised the issue of the Pakistan connection, complaining that the UK is not doing enough to curb radical Muslims. The US pointed out that this threatens their own security because UK passport holders can get into the US under the visa waiver programme. The Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, the chairman of the Commons' sub-committee on anti-terrorism, which has been examining the activities of British Muslim extremists, said: "We know the problem we have with UK-based jihadists. We also know that a number of them have been arrested trying to leave the country. With the UK intelligence services at full stretch, it is not surprising some of these jihadists had ended up in Afghanistan."

Brigadier Ed Butler, the former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, said British Muslims were fighting his forces. "There are British passport holders who live in the UK who are being found in places such as Kandahar," he said. "There is a link between Kandahar and urban conurbations in the UK. This is something the military understands but the British public does not."

Robert Emerson, a security analyst who has worked in South Asia, said: "There is ample evidence that British Muslims had trained in camps in Pakistan. What is emerging now is a picture of them being more active in Afghanistan, either providing support and logistics or in active service. The numbers are not particularly large, but it is worrying."

Jonathan Evans, of MI5, said the number of extremists wanting to travel to Iraq had "tailed off significantly" as Britain begins the drawdown of its troops in the country. But there was "traffic" into Pakistan and Afghanistan. "What happens in Afghanistan is extremely important because what happens there has a direct impact on domestic security in the UK," he said. "Pre-2001, they were able to establish terrorist facilities and to draw hardened extremists and vulnerable recruits to indoctrinate and teach techniques. If the Taliban is able to establish control over significant areas, there is a real danger that such facilities will be re-established."

Last week, as Barack Obama ordered 17,000 extra US troops into Afghanistan, a confidential Nato report revealed that more than 30 per cent of the population believed the government of President Hamid Karzai had lost control of the areas in which they live and much of that has slipped back into Taliban control. The Independent

He forgot the contribution of his daddy towards the decline of education and called on the Government to abolish the vernacular school system as a means to enhance unity among people of various races. He also urged all parties to stop harping on issues that could create tension among Barisan component parties, including on the issue of Ketuanan Melayu or Malay supremacy.

Many do not think that the reason for disunity is vernacular schools. It is the special this special that. On the ISA he really does not get it does he? He says "When we allow people to hold demonstrations and protests without enforcing the laws, such as ISA, to control the situation, it will result in by-elections not going our way. " By that statement alone he exposes that he will be a dictator and a wannabe tyrant, indeed by-elections not going his way! The Star spins it by saying "Umno Youth Leaders want to meet demands of all races" Yeah right, 3 Malay ultras with their track record! Great Leader in the making? I will not be too long on Mukhriz.

Ha, the second candidate for the covetted post, the infamous SIL, the most recent incident being in Perak. This is a cut and paste job from The Malaysian Insider. You figure this rabble rouser. His defence of the practice of raising the keris at the Umno general assembly, which made Malaysians nervous and uneasy. This is what he did in Perak, just to get some brownie points with the rabble, for his bid to be the Umno Youth Goon-In-Chief.

He asked for Datuk Nizar Jamaluddin to be banished. Provocative: Since when did Umno/Barisan Nasional politicians decide who should be banished from a state? Who gave Umno Youth politicians auxiliary police powers to provide a ring of security around the state government’s building? But instead of showing humility and some circumspection at having come to power through the defection of three Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers, Umno/BN politicians seem content to strut around the state, tossing threats and thumping chests. Read here more on Khairy.

I save the best for last, drum roll, rollllllllling, Khir Toyo! Khir Toyo is a fine example of true-to-form product manufactured by the beast, Mahathir’s factory. His favourite catch-phrase “I didn’t do it.” This being the latest, the Elizabeth Wong case , he might or not be the architect in this dastardly deed. By pressuring Elizabeth Wong to quit over the public circulation of her pictures taken by someone else in private without her knowledge and consent, Umno and Khir Toyo have postured themselves as 'moral guardians' of the nation.

Zero Illegal Squatters Mission
It was a mission set by Khir Toyo himself to make Selangor, a state of ‘zero squatters’. Toyo has been criticized for approving housing projects in squatter’ areas and forcing the residents to move out from their "illegal" homes. Some of the so called "illegal homes" had been built before independence in 1957, maybe even before Khir was born. Most squatters living in a prime area were left homeless and received very little compensation. The majority of the squatters are now forced to rent or live in low-cost flats.

Luxurious Exco Village
The Selangor State Government had spent an estimated RM40 million to build an “EXCO VILLAGE” which comprised 10 bungalows and a clubhouse in Section 7, Shah Alam exclusively for the use of Selangor executive councilors. State Opposition members questioned the rationale for the estimated RM40mil wastage of public funds.

Housing Project
Much of the land which belonged to state government was sold for housing projects during Khir Toyo’s administration. The land was meant for forest reserves or for a public parks. The land involved was the Batu Tiga Speedway Circuit in Shah Alam, which was built in the year 1968.

Corruption and bribery
Khir Toyo had been accused of corruption for approving a construction project which trespasses into the Bukit Cahaya Seri Alam in Shah Alam, a forest reserve. To prove his innocence, Toyo had asked Anti-Corruption Agency of Malaysia to investigate the incident. No answers have been forth coming since. One circus clown to another.

Money Politics
Khir Toyo could have been arrested by the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) and charged for corruption in connection with the Ijok by-election in Selangor if the ACA has been an independent and professional body. This is because even before the Ijok by-election nomination day, money politics to buy votes had started with the announcement by Khir Toyo of RM36 million for various development projects in the Ijok constituency. Instead, the ACA had acted “blind, deaf and mute” to such money politics and corrupt practices to buy votes in the by-election.

Zakaria Mat Deros illegal mansion
Zakaria Mat Deros, the Klang assemblyman (UMNO) in Selangor built his illegal mansion without any proper construction permit from the local government. He built the illegal mansion in an urban poor district in Klang which was supposed to be used for low-cost housing. Under Selangor law, his illegal mansion should have been seized and Zakaria should have be prosecuted. However, Toyo has been criticized for forgiving Zakaria’s mistake and did not take any action against Zakaria. Zakaria died of a heart attack in his home on 11 March 2008 at about 1.30 am Malaysian time.

Balkis Accounts Scandal
After the March 8 Malaysian General Elections, Wives of Selangor Assemblymen and MPs Welfare and Charity Organization (Balkis) transferred out the RM9.9mil from its coffers, a few days after the state fell to the Opposition. Khir Toyo said the money was “temporarily transferred” to the Association of Wives of Ministers and Deputy Ministers (Bakti) . Defending the money transfer, then president Zahrah Kechik said she had the legal right because her husband Mohd Khir Toyo was still the caretaker Selangor Menteri Besar at that time. The state government, however, is questioning the transfer of the money and seeking legal advice. It has also asked the Registrar of Societies to put on hold the dissolution of Balkis. Auditors for the Wives of Selangor Assemblymen and MPs Welfare and Charity Organization (Balkis) said the charity’s accounts for 2007 were never audited or finalised, contrary to claims by Mohd Khir Toyo.

Pig Rearing Project
When Khir Toyo was Menteri Besar of Selangor, he and his cabinet had made a study to build pig-rearing facility in Selangor. This pig-rearing facility would be a high-tech integrated pig-rearing project with cleaner techniques to reduce pollution. The new Menteri Besar, Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, announced that the RM100million integrated pig-rearing project, which was approved by the former Barisan state government led by Khir Toyo, would proceed. Khir Toyo denied it and said he had never approved the pig-rearing project. This led Khalid to show the picture of some of Toyo’s cabinet visiting a pig-rearing centre in Germany to the media.

Accused of Spreading Lies about a Petition to Ban Mosques from Airing Azan
Khir Toyo accused that a Pakatan Rakyat component party was trying to ban mosques from broadcasting the azan (Muslim call to prayer) on loudspeakers. On September 11, Kota Raja Member of Parliament MP, Siti Mariah Mahmood has lodged a police report against Khir Toyo in Dang Wangi Police Station. She lodged the police report against former Selangor Menteri Besar Khir Toyo together with the website pembelamelayu for spreading malicious slander and lies about certain quarters pressuring the state authorities to tone down the call to prayer at mosque and surau in the state. On September 12, 2008 DAP’s Seputeh MP Teresa Kok was arrested under ISA.

We created this crook. Wemust get rid of him. Let us pass the baton to the younger generation of Malaysians smoothly so that they can live in a peaceful Malaysia, devoid of crooks like Khir Toyo. Source: Sand Team-editted

So any takers for any of these three?

Most significantly, the king replaced the minister of education with his son-in-law Prince Faisal bin Abdullah, a former assistant director of intelligence. The prince reportedly has been working on education reform behind the scenes, and his prior intelligence work certainly well positions him to know how Saudi education has directly fed jihadi ideology.

The ousted minister, Abdullah al-Obaid, had come to education in 2005 from the post of secretary general of the Muslim World League, the multibillion dollar Saudi operation created to spread hard-core Wahhabism around the world.

The ministry imposes a curriculum indoctrinating students in an ideology of hatred and violence against the religious other. It teaches as a religious imperative the cultivation of hatred for Jews, Christians, Westerners, and other infidels, polytheists (such as Shiites and Hindus), apostates, and homosexuals. It licenses the murder with impunity of members of most of these groups.

Saudi representatives and their agents constantly claim that the ministry of education’s textbooks have been reformed. As our July 2008 report demonstrates, this is mendacious: The culture of hatred against the non-Wahhabi is alive and well in the Saudi government’s Islamic studies textbooks. These textbooks are required for all Saudi pubic schools and dominate the Saudi curriculum in the upper grades. The ministry posts these texts in full on its website and the government’s Wahhabi establishment ships them free to mosques and Muslim schools and libraries throughout the world.

According to Saudi human-rights expert Ali Al Ahmed, president of the Washington-based Institute for Gulf Affairs: “This could be a watershed for Saudi education. Prince Faisal is known to be effective and have the king’s trust. He is someone capable of overhauling the curriculum.”

This is not to say that Saudi Arabia is moving toward a separation of mosque and state. That would require, for example, not merely a shift in personnel of the religious police, whose raison d’etre is to coerce religious observance, but its complete abolition. Nor is there any sign of a greater political opening, much less a democratic revolution. Shiites lost ground in the now expanded Consultative Council. And, only in Saudi Arabia could replacing officials with royal family members be celebrated as reform. Nevertheless, these changes bring hope for the modernizing of Saudi education. Such decisive action by the monarch, who financially underwrites and politically empowers those who’ve shaped Saudi culture, has been long overdue. Whether cultural change will finally now come to the Kingdom bears close watching. National Review

— Nina Shea is director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute

"Israel has shown no hesitation in assassinating weapons scientists for hostile regimes in the past," said a European intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity. They did it with Iraq and they will do it with Iran when they can."

Mossad's covert operations cover a range of activities. The former CIA operative revealed how Israeli and US intelligence co-operated with European companies working in Iran to obtain photographs and other confidential material about Iranian nuclear and missile sites.

"It was a real company that operated from time to time in Iran and in the nature of their legitimate business came across information on various suspect Iranian facilities," he said.

Israel has also used front companies to infiltrate the Iranian purchasing network that the clerical regime uses to circumvent United Nations sanctions and obtain so-called "dual use" items – metals, valves, electronics, machinery – for its nuclear programme.

The businesses initially supply Iran with legitimate material, winning Tehran's trust, and then start to deliver faulty or defective items that "poison" the country's atomic activities.

"Without military strikes, there is still considerable scope for disrupting and damaging the Iranian programme and this has been done with some success," said Yossi Melman, a prominent Israeli journalist who covers security and intelligence issues for the Haaretz newspaper.

Mossad and Western intelligence operations have also infiltrated the Iranian nuclear programme and "bought" information from prominent atomic scientists. Israel has later selectively leaked some details to its allies, the media and United Nations atomic agency inspectors.

On one occasion, Iran itself is understood to have destroyed a nuclear facility near Tehran, bulldozing over the remains and replacing it with a football pitch, after its existence was revealed to UN inspectors. The regime feared that the discovery by inspectors of an undeclared nuclear facility would result in overwhelming pressure at the UN for tougher action against Iran.

The Iranian government has become so concerned about penetration of its programme that it has announced arrests of alleged spies in an attempt to discourage double agents. "Israel is part of a detailed and elaborate international effort to slow down the Iranian programme," said Mr Melman.

But Vince Canastraro, the former CIA counter-terrorism chief, expressed doubts about the efficacy of secret Israeli operations against Iran. "You cannot carry out foreign policy objectives via covert operations," he said. "You can't get rid of a couple of people and hope to affect Iran's nuclear capability."

Iran has consistently asserted that it is pursuing a nuclear capability for civilian energy generation purposes. But Israeli and Western intelligence agencies believe the 20-year-old programme, which was a secret until 2002, is designed to give the ruling mullahs an atom bomb. Telegraph

But if marijuana use is so horrid as to warrant criminalization, why are we wasting time discussing whether Phelps will be able to keep his endorsement deals? Shouldn’t he be prosecuted—just like millions of other Americans, whose lives have been ruined by criminal convictions for smoking pot?

In 2007, 872,721 Americans were arrested for marijuana violations, 775,138 of them for possession. Some number of the latter undoubtedly were caught growing or selling and were charged with lesser offenses, but, in any case, hundreds of thousands of Americans ended up in jail for doing precisely what Michael Phelps did: lighting up. Roughly three-quarters of those arrested for marijuana offenses were, like Phelps, under 30. With most of their lives ahead of them, they face the greatest harm from prosecution under the drug laws.

So why shouldn’t Phelps go to jail?

To ask the question is to answer it. While smoking pot may be a stupid thing to do for many reasons—risking adverse health effects, endangering endorsements, undermining Phelps’s status as a celebrity role model—he hurt no one but himself. He could have been photographed while drunk and stumbling out of a party, and it would have been no different. Bad press and angry sponsors would have forced an abject apology, and everyone would have moved on. Just like with his marijuana hit.

Of course, advocates of prohibition argue that illicit drugs are different. And so they are—mostly because their use is illegal, a situation that creates the most serious problems usually associated with drug use.

The arguments are old but clear. Whatever the law might say, the people have voted with their lungs: 95 million Americans over the age of 21 have smoked pot, 20 million have smoked in the last year, and 11 million use the drug regularly. It’s hard to believe that all of them, almost one-third of the U.S. population, are criminals who deserve jail time.

Moreover, the violence associated with drugs is principally from prohibition rather than use. Drunks are far more likely to commit (and be victims of) violent crimes than are users of marijuana. Prohibition-era Chicago offered a dramatic lesson in the impact of banning a widely used drug. That city’s violent era is being played out on a larger scale in Colombia and Mexico, where urban and rural communities have been overwhelmed with drug-gang violence.

The health arguments remain disputed, but the basic question is whether we live in a free society in which people can choose to engage in risky behavior. Cigarette smokers, hang gliders, and rock climbers all take risks that many others view as unacceptable. That’s no reason for arresting them.

And it’s pretty hard to argue that marijuana use will prevent Phelps from being productive. Most all of us probably remember pothead classmates who ended up wildly successful in their chosen careers. Will some people use to excess? Yes, just as some people drink too much, gamble too much, spend too much, and act irresponsibly in a multitude of other ways. Criminal law is not the answer.

Is Michael Phelps likely to go to jail? No, and for good reason. But for the same reason, the rest of us should not be arrested for smoking pot, either. Whether marijuana use is good or bad is not the issue. Short of engaging in behavior that directly threatens others, people should be left alone. That’s what a society grounded in individual liberty is—or at least should be—all about. National Review

—Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. A former special assistant to Pres. Ronald Reagan, he is the author of the forthcoming Leviathan Unchained: Washington’s Bipartisan Big Government Consensus.

5) No foreign 'students' over age 21. The older ones are the bombers. If they don't attend classes, they get a 'D' and it's back home baby.

6) The US will make a strong effort to become self-sufficient energy wise. This will include developing nonpolluting sources of energy but will require a temporary drilling of oil in the Alaskan wilderness. The caribou will have to cope for a while

7) Offer Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries $10 a barrel for their oil. If they don't like it, we go someplace else. They can go somewhere else to sell their production. (About a week of the wells filling up the storage sites would be enough.)

8) If there is a famine or other natural catastrophe in the world, we will not 'interfere.' They can pray to Allah or whomever, for seeds, rain, cement or whatever they need. Besides most of what we give them is stolen or given to the army. The people who need it most get very little, if anything.

9) Ship the UN Headquarters to an isolated island someplace. We don't need the spies and fair weather friends here. Besides, the building would make a good homeless shelter or lockup for illegal aliens.

10) All Americans must go to charm and beauty school. That way, no one can call us 'Ugly Americans' any longer. The Language we speak is ENGLISH..learn it...or LEAVE...Now, isn't that a winner of a plan?

'The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying 'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.' She's got a baseball bat and she's yelling, 'you want a piece of me?' '

The playgrounds in Sderot come equipped with bomb shelters, decorated with kid-friendly art. When the alarms sound, the youngsters have 15 seconds to dash, tumble or waddle into a shelter before impact, or risk being torn asunder.

Earsplitting detonations, spewing searing hot steel, must be terrifying for the kids. It is truly sad to imagine that a ten year-old can have more experience diving for cover than many combat experienced soldiers.

In Sderot, I met up with the American-Israeli writer and Pajamas Media editor Allison Kaplan Sommer, who has lived in Israel for some 15 years, has three children and lives with her husband outside Tel Aviv. Together we went into the police station where the Israeli officers have saved hundreds of the rockets that have been fired from Gaza. Every journalist in Israel should see those rockets. The officer explained that the peak times for launch are when the kids are going or coming from school, and shoppers are in the open, for the greatest odds of casualties.

Looking through the rocket collection revealed more than I had gleaned from the news reports. From the media, one might gather that there is only one sort of “Kassam” rocket. In fact there must be at least dozens of types. Some of the rockets had graffiti scrawled on the casings before they were fired into Sderot.

Mostly the rockets are crude, homemade devices that look like they are put together by a bunch of low-skilled thugs with welding torches, and too much time on their hands. But other rockets are factory made, and the policeman said they come from Iran. The latest models carry a knockout punch. Enough to destroy a home.

Allison and I set off to find some impacts, and we went to a neighborhood where a number of houses had been walloped with direct hits. Two neighboring homes on one street had been hit. The inhabitant of one home, a friendly older man originally from Morocco, explained that his home had been hit but is now repaired. His neighbor had been an elderly lady in her seventies, who lived alone with a Philippina caregiver. Her home looked as devastated as if a small asteroid had found her roof. When Allison and I walked into the house, glass crunching under foot, I was astonished at the level of destruction caused by these so-called ‘nuisance’ attacks. The destruction to this woman’s home seemed to be about what a Hellfire missile would have delivered. The roof was destroyed and the ceiling caved in. Luckily, she had not been home during the strike or likely she would have been killed. Still, imagine a 70 year-old woman returning to find her home destroyed. Many of her belongings still were in the house. And so now the home of this woman was destroyed, but I was assured that the Israelis had taken her immediately into care at a nursing home in Netanya, deeper into the country, out of range, until her home could be repaired.

Another home, a couple blocks down the road, showed a similar level of destruction, the inhabitants gone, workers inside.

The victims of these attacks gave us free access to their houses and I felt welcome and at home in Sderot. It looks like a very safe place to be - except for the constant rocket strikes.

The economy of Sderot has been badly damaged because of the attacks, adding to the problems that all of Israel is facing due to the global economic crash. To support Sderot not just in word but in reality, people from around the country have been regularly loading up in buses to drive all the way to Sderot, braving attacks themselves, just to do their weekly shopping in the town to boost its economy.

Thousands of blue and white Israeli flags line the roads or hang from windows and wave in the warm breeze. We saw an older man in wheel chair, rolling down a road. He had two large Israeli flags attached to the chair, and they billowed behind him as he rolled ahead. When Allison asked him for a photo he grinned very big. Brave people. Instantly likeable.

As Allison and I drove around, lost at times, we came across Chinese laborers. She said the Palestinians are angry because the Chinese and other foreign laborers imported from abroad have taken the construction jobs that once belonged to the Palestinians. After all of the suicide bombings and other attacks, Gaza has been essentially sealed to stem the violence, a tactic which has been effective except for the rocket strikes.

Yet world sympathy seems to rest with the terrorists, and Israel is condemned for ‘trapping’ the Palestinians inside Gaza and for any retaliation for the missile attacks.

Europe, for instance, was nearly unanimous in its condemnation of Israel after the Israeli Defense Forces finally counter-attacked in Operation Cast Lead.

I considered going to Gaza, to hear the other side of the story, but after having seen so many terrorists attacks up close, there seemed little value in taking such a chance with my life, just to hear ramble from a leadership that condones and executes terrorism and launches thousands of rockets at school kids. Stories like this from April 2007 Times Online make it clear enough:

“The family of a BBC journalist kidnapped in Gaza appealed for his immediate release yesterday, as it emerged that Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, had informed the corporation that the journalist was alive and well.

This was the first sign from the Palestinian authorities that they had received any information on the welfare of Alan Johnston, the BBC Gaza correspondent who has now been held longer than any other Western hostage in Gaza.”

The story goes on:

“Mr Johnston, 44, the BBC Gaza correspondent for the past three years, was seized in Gaza City on March 12. About 20 foreign journalists and aid workers have been abducted in Gaza in the past year. However, the kidnappings have typically ended shortly after the capture of the victim.”

It makes no sense to risk life and limb only to allow people who intentionally target children to talk through my pen. Not until they stop the terrorism. Those members of the press who transmute Hamas’s crocodile tears into ink only exacerbate the disease.

Recently, I traveled about a thousand miles around Afghanistan, without military, to learn more about the country. Taking chances for good people is one thing, but taking chances to talk with Hamas terrorist leaders, whom I would not believe anyway, is just not smart. Their propaganda is widely available.

One can roam Israel at will, write as one wishes, without reprisal. The choice is easy: the Israelis won’t kill the messenger, even when journalists mercilessly rip into them.

In Sderot, Allison and I had the pleasure of having lunch with Noam Bedein, the Director of the Sderot Information Center, a privately funded organization. According to the “Kassam counter” on http://www.sderotmedia.com/, as of February 1, 10,046 Kassam rockets have hit Sderot and the Western Negev since 2001. During a single two-week period, 293 rockets rained in on Sderot. According to a pamphlet from the Sderot Information Center, a kindergarten teacher asked her pupils, “Why does the snail have a shell?” The Children answered in chorus, “So it can be protected from the Kassam rockets.”

Yet the Kassams and other attacks cause even worse harm to Palestinian children. The Israelis and Egyptians have isolated Gaza. Hamas and those who support them, thanks to their own terrorist ways, are consigning themselves to lives of squalor and war.

Allison believes that Gaza could be as prosperous as Singapore if their leaders would stop fighting, move forward, and focus on developing their economy.

The idea of a two-state solution, once popular with many Israelis, is evaporating. More and more Israelis are coming to believe that any appeasement with the Palestinians is merely a reward for terrorism. And so it is. The Palestinians have become prisoners by their own hand. The hand that builds the bombs, wields the guns, and welds the rockets, has caused a fence to be built around them.

They are isolated and imprisoned. But it’s not only Israel who’s done this. The Gaza Strip borders Egypt, and Egypt has done the same. The terrorists are tunneling like rats and the Egyptians and Israelis are trying to locate and destroy the tunnels under their respective fence lines. Who wants the Palestinians? If the Palestinians truly were a peaceful lot, victims only of Israel, one might think that they would have free entry into Egypt. But they do not.

Meanwhile Operation Cast Lead is threatening to unravel international relations.

The previously cozy relations between Turkey and Israel has gone frigid. A British official told me that the British are investigating war crimes charges against Israel, while Israelis tell me that if the British charge Israelis with war crimes, they will charge British officers with war crimes for their actions in Basra, Iraq. A Spanish judge is also talking war crimes. The situation only gets worse from there. Just as we have seen U.S. relations crash after our responses to the 9/11 attacks, important relations between responsible nations are fraying due to responses to terrorist attacks.

Many of us remember those long security lines in the airports, and the billions we must invest in security that could go elsewhere, and all because of a relatively tiny number of people. Many of us remember the people raining from the buildings, choosing the falling death to the burning death, and reports of certain Palestinians celebrating those deaths. How much veracity and weight to assign reports of Palestinians celebrating is unknown to me, but there seems to have been at least some basis in truth.

And today, where is the equity? Why haven’t Hamas leadership been charged with war crimes for indiscriminate attacks on Sderot and other towns? They, along with other terrorist organizations, launched about 7,000 missiles since 2005, and about 10,000 since 2001. It would be impossible to know exactly how much explosives were contained in those rockets because the Kassams include a great mix of types and sizes. Yet to make a ballpark guess, there might be an average of 20lbs of explosives per rocket since 2005. Since 2005, that would be about 140,000lbs of explosives, not to mention the metal mass of the powerful rocket tubes. Imagine about 140,000lbs of explosives raining down at random times, but particularly when the kids are going to school.

There are many types of fragmentation hand grenades that are designed to kill people. One of the most widely used, the deadly American M67, contains a little more than 1/3lb of explosives per grenade. (The entire M67 grenade including fuse and casing weighs 1lb.) This means that 140,000lbs of explosives would be roughly equal the “net explosives weight” of about 350,000 grenades launched randomly against civilians. So far, Kassams have killed few people, but it seems just a matter of time before a school gets wiped out, not to mention the general psychological trauma inflicted.

It simply does not make sense for us to support a Palestinian state, when at every turn they demonstrate that they will simply become more powerful, richer terrorists, with longer range rockets.

UPDATE: Reader Robert Burch comments:


As a non-Jewish Knoxvillain who recently moved away from Ashkelon, Israel (in order to no longer be in range of the Kassams and the heavier-duty Grad rockets which afflict our former city) I agree with Michael Yon’s assessment. I like his descriptions of the lethality of the rockets, but that is really beside the point. Who cares if the lethal radius of shrapnel is 5, 10, or 25 meters? Thank God that, of all the rockets that hit our town, I never encountered a strike up close. But just hearing the ongoing explosions on a regular basis of projectiles that have the hope and intention of shredding anyone and everyone possible is simply maddening and makes daily life impossible.

My family is half-Arab, but as far as we’re concerned Israel has done too little much too late, and after this operation in Gaza I feel doubly convinced that my decision to leave the vicinity was the right one. Don’t get me wrong, I love Arabs so much I married one. Israel, however, has the righteous responsibility and duty (for the sake of all things decent) to eliminate this threat of unrepentant terror without mercy, not just for the good of Israel, but also for the good of Palestinian Arabs.

It’s not as if Hamas has the best interests of the Arabs at heart. That’s been made abundantly clear. (Bumped). Michael Yon in Instapundit

Well before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised to destroy Israel, Saddam said the same thing. And well before Saddam, Nasser promised destruction of the “Zionist entity.” And so on with almost every Middle East strongman dating back to Israel’s creation.

The current “benchmarks” and “roadmap” toward peace in the region simply follow earlier failed formulas with similarly catchy names.

Remember all those brilliant American statesmen, like the current George Mitchell, who were sent over to find the “missing peace” but came home empty-handed—James Baker, Philip Habib, Gen. James Jones, Henry Kissinger, Sol Linowitz, Condoleezza Rice, Dennis Ross, and Gen. Anthony Zinni?

And then there’s former president Jimmy Carter, who always seems to be loudly advising everyone to read his latest book to learn how they can solve the crisis.

In the early 2000s, we were told that peace would come when the old calcified rivals—Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat—vacated the scene. Their passing would allow a new generation of leaders on both sides to negotiate without the ghosts of the 1967 or 1973 wars. Instead, new leaders gave us new wars in Lebanon and Gaza.

While the names of Palestinian terrorist organizations multiply over the years, the agenda of destroying Israel remains mostly unchanged.

There has been no resolution to the last 40 years of fighting between Israel and the Palestinians, because Israel after 1967 has decided not to return all of its battle-won territories on the West Bank until the Palestinians there accept Israel’s right to exist.

Israel has felt that if it gives all the conquered territory back, too many Palestinians will see that not as magnanimity, but as a sign of weakness, and we would be back to square one before 1967: Israel inside its 1948 borders—with yet another new generation of Palestinians promising to finish the job and push the Jews into the sea.

Most everywhere else in the world, wars lead to defeat for one side and victory for the other. The issue, brutally or not, is resolved on the battlefield. Look at the fate of a Saddam Hussein or a Slobodan Milosevic.

But in the Middle East nearly alone, war breaks out and immediately hysteria follows before one side can win and the other lose. “Peace” is imposed, and then we are back to the same old unresolved hatred, terrorism—and the next war.In such a bleak landscape, what will Barack Obama do?

Probably what Presidents Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and the two Bushes tried to do—the same old so-called “land for peace” deal: Israel is supposed to go back to something approaching the pre-1967 borders, and the Palestinians, with their brand-new state on the West Bank, must promise that this time they will really let Israel be.

Good luck.

So, for now we watch for a new “Mitchell Plan,” another conference somewhere, more billions in aid, new names for old terrorist organizations, and more pious speechmaking at the U.N. Then soon the next administration will come in to power, with the next peace plan, the next new envoy—and the next new war. National Review

— Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a recipient of the 2007 National Humanities Medal.

They are as despicable as Barclays Premier League footballers who kiss the badge of their club before adoring thousands only to demand a transfer 24 hours later for a bigger pay packet. According to Nasharudin, he took the decision to switch from Umno to PKR after serious consideration of the country's political situation and in the interest of his supporters and voters in Bota. Sure he did.

The fact that he had been forced to give up his parliamentary seat and the chairmanship of Felcra to Datuk Tajudin Rahman did not factor at all in his thinking to switch camps. Why he did a pirouette today is anybody's guess? But rest assured it was not because he had a higher calling.

At a press conference in Putrajaya today, he rambled on: The situation in the state is critical. I have to make sacrifices. Sure he did. Then there is the case of Mohd Osman and Jamaluddin. Hard to believe that two individuals as slippery as these two managed to persuade the voters of Changkat Jering and Behrang that they were worthy of support in March.

That's what happens when the political wave comes in, it brings in deadwood, sludge and flotsam. The fact is that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and PKR were challenged to field a decent crop of candidates in Election 2008. So they left the bar low. The result: a motley crew of elected representatives.

For months Mohd Osman and Jamaluddin have been planning and scheming to leave PKR, no doubt prodded by Umno/BN officials who were seeking to narrow the three-seat majority which Pakatan Rakyat enjoyed in the state assembly. Those who believe in conspiracy theories say that the duo are hoping that by going independent and backing the BN, the corruption charges against them will disappear.

No one knows their motivation except that they put their interest above everybody else's. Worse yet, they behaved like fugitives, hiding from their families, friends and constituents like common criminals and then offering insulting excuses. Jamaluddin said that he was incommunicado because he was having back problems and was seeking treatment in Pahang. He also said that loyal to PKR. A day later, he resigned from PKR.

Should anyone trust a lawmaker like him? Should any voter trust him or Hee the next time they stump for votes?

In life, we usually treat the unprincipled and dishonest people shabbily. Why should politicians be given a free pass? Malaysian Insider

In the Book of Maccabees: 1:15, it says:

"Not a strange land have we conquered, and not over the possessions of strangers have we ruled, but of the inheritance of our Fathers that was in the hands of the enemy and conquered by them unlawfully. And as for us, when we had the chance, we returned to ourselves the inheritance of our Fathers."

The Roman general, Pompey, conquered Judea in the First century BC and made Gaza a free "polis" but in 61 AD the Roman Governor, Gavinius, evicted the Jews. In the subsequent war against Roman occupation of Judea, between 67 and 70 AD, Jewish forces again liberated the town and its environs before suffering defeat at the hands of Rome's legions.

Continuing Roman excesses against the Jews led to the Second Jewish Revolt under the command of the charismatic Bar Kochba, known in Aramaic as Son of a Star. The Emperor Hadrian's legions destroyed the Jewish state in 135 AD, decimating the Jewish population in an enormous slaughter, and sending thousands into slavery and exile from the Roman slave markets of Gaza.

Under the subsequent harsh Byzantine rule, Gaza's restored Jewish community nevertheless managed to flourish and during the 4th century Gaza served as the primary port of commerce for the Jews of the Holy Land.

It is interesting to note that in 1967, archaeologists discovered the beautiful mosaic floor of a 6th century synagogue situated on the Gaza seashore, attesting to the size and prominence of the Jewish community of the time.

The great medieval kabbalist Rabbi Avraham Azoulai lived in Gaza where he authored his famed work, Hesed L'Avraham, along with a commentary on the Torah (the first five books of the bible). The Jewish inhabitants made Gaza a great center of study and towns and villages from Rafah to Yavne sprung up as centers of Talmudic learning.

Many Jews fled to Gaza at the end of the 15th century where they joined the Jewish community by working in various trades after escaping from the ravages of the Catholic Inquisition.

During the 17th century, Gaza was again home to a thriving Jewish community, which boasted its share of prominent rabbis, including Rabbi Israel Najara, author of Kah Ribbon Olam, the popular hymn sung in Jewish homes around the world every Sabbath. He served as Gaza's Chief Rabbi until his death in 1625. This century also saw the rise in Gaza of Shabbetai Zvi's pseudo messianic movement.

The great scholar, Rabbi Yaakov Emden, ruled centuries ago that Gaza is an intrinsic part of the Jewish people's national heritage. "Gaza and its environs are absolutely considered part of the Land of Israel," he wrote in his work, Mor U'ketziyah, adding, "there is no doubt that it is a mitzvah (commandment and blessing) to live there, as in any other part of the Land of Israel."

Over the millennia Jews have been expelled from Gaza by many different conquerors but have always managed to return. The Crusaders killed many Gazan Jews, leaving few survivors. Ottoman Turks ruled a vast empire from 1517 to 1917, including the geographical backwater known as Palestine. They also frequently expelled the Jewish residents but then allowed them to return. This pattern has continued for centuries.

Napoleon, marching through Gaza from Egypt in 1799 failed to restrain many of his French soldiers who were joined by local Arabs in abusing the Jewish residents. As a result of Arab persecution, the ancient Jewish presence in Gaza and the near by villages died out in the first years of the 19th century only to return yet again in the 1870s.

In August 1929, when Arab rioters threatened to slaughter Gaza's Jews -- as they had in Hebron -- the British army under the Palestine Mandate forced the community to evacuate their homes. In October 1946, on the night following Yom Kippur, the Gaza Jewish community of Kfar Darom was established on land corresponding to the biblical Jewish village of Darom. It lasted just a year and a half until the outbreak of Israel's War of Independence in 1948, when Egypt overran the Gaza Strip and occupied it.

In June 1967, in a war of self-defense, Israel liberated Gaza from Egyptian occupation, making it possible once again for Jews to reside there. In 2001, during Palestinian Authority control under Yasser Arafat and his Fatah organization, Kassam rocket attacks began to pound the restored Jewish communities in Gaza.

After Arafat's death, rocket fire continued under his Fatah successor, Mahmoud Abbas. But in 2005, Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon forcefully evicted from their homes the nearly 10,000 Jewish villagers and farmers from Gaza as part of the Disengagement Plan. At the time, Sharon explained the purpose of the Israeli pull-out:

"These steps will increase security for the residents of Israel and relieve the pressure on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and security forces in fulfilling the difficult tasks they are faced with. The Disengagement Plan is meant to grant maximum security and minimize friction between Israelis and Palestinians."

Sharon had believed that by removing the flourishing Jewish villages and farms from Gaza, the Arab residents would build a civilized and peaceful society, thus proving to both Israel and the world that they could live in peace with the Jewish state. It was not to be and Sharon's hopes now lie shattered.

In an election pushed by Condoleezza Rice, the Palestinian Arabs in Gaza voted eagerly for Hamas and against Fatah knowing full well that Hamas fundamentalist ideology calls for the destruction of Israel or any non-Muslim state existing in territory previously conquered in the name of Allah. Hamas will thus never live in peace with Israel, a Jewish state, even though the Jews are the indigenous and native people of the region and predate Islam by millennia.

Will the pattern that has existed for thousands of years continue; a sequence of Jewish exile from Gaza, followed by inevitable restoration? Those Jews who were driven out by the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon and his successor, Ehud Olmert, now wait as refugees for the opportunity to again return.

One such Israeli refugee from Gaza, Rachel Saperstein, addressed the Jerusalem Conference recently held in Israel. Now 68 years of age, she lives with her husband, a disabled terror victim, in a run down camp along with five hundred other Jewish families driven from their homes located throughout the Gaza Strip.

In her speech, she lamented that not a thing now grows in the village she was forced to abandon during the Disengagement Plan. The greenhouses that were given freely to the Palestinian Arabs have largely been trashed but those still in use yield nothing.

"We know the reason why," she suggests. "Only when the Jews return to their land will the land bring forth its bounty. No Israeli government is to give away any of our land ever again ... This is my message."

Despite Gaza's rich Jewish history little is known of it to most people. The events unfolding today in Gaza now take preeminence, clouding perceptions that might otherwise be better shaped through the historical perspective of millennia. American Thinker

Victor Sharpe is a freelance writer and author of Politicide: The attempted murder of the Jewish state.

There is hardly a leader in the Muslim world, apart from the Iranian president, who has spoken out so harshly on this issue. And while Turkey has never seen so many people out on the streets in support of the Palestinians, now suddenly demonstrators cross the Arab world are also carrying images of Erdogan.

It is likely that the popularity of the "Hero of Gaza," as some Turkish newspapers are describing Erdogan, will now grow after his Davos appearance. His supporters greeted him as the "Hero of Davos" and the "Conquerer of Davos" on his return to the Atatürk Airport in Istanbul. So many people had gathered here during the night to welcome back Erdogan and his wife Emine that the traffic around the airport ground to a halt.

The Islamic newspaper Vakit described Erdogan's fit of rage as an "Ottoman slap in the face for Israel," but even the moderate Yeni Safak was describing the event as "historic." The Takvim newspaper was happy that "Davos is over," while the CNN Türk network passed on the good wishes of the Palestinian ambassador in Ankara.

"I did not target at all in any way the Israeli people, President Peres, or the Jewish people," Erdogan told a news conference later on Thursday. "We had an exchange of views, and the views are views," Israeli President Shimon Peres said on Friday.

Nevertheless, observers in both countries believe the incident has brought relations between Ankara and Jerusalem to a low point. The countries are displeased with each other -- and it didn't just start with Erdogan's latest failures, said one high-ranking Israeli government official. The main issue is the entire political line of Erdogan's AKP government, which has no qualms about taking up contact with Iran as well as Hamas, which Turkey views as a "legitimate dialogue partner."

Did Erdogan unleash a genie in a bottle that he can't get back in?

Not long ago, American Jewish organizations warned Erdogan about growing anti-Semitism in Turkey, which is a popular holiday destination for Israelis. "Hatred against Jews has been expressed in front of the Israeli embassy. Our Jewish friends in Turkey feel threatened," they wrote in an open letter to Erdogan.

"Turkey is already risking its position as a neutral mediator," says the former Turkish Ambassador to the US Inal Batu. And Onur Öymen, vice chairman of the left-wing Kemalist opposition party CHP, goes even further. He claims Erdogan "acted like a spokesman for an organization that is classed as terrorist" and that he has "ruined the international prestige of Turkey."

Critics claim Erdogan may have been motivated by upcoming municipal elections in Turkey in March. Sharp words against Israel are always popular with AKP's deeply religious core voters. In fact, the only group that swears by the elite project of a "strategic partnership" with the Jewish state is the secular Turkish army and the circles that support it.

This cooperation is set to continue despite Thursday's outburst. "We need one another," says Ozgur Hisarcikli of the German Marshall Fund in Ankara. "The Israelis are far too pragmatic to lose their most important Muslim allies," he says. "And the Turks need Israeli weapons."

It was a pity, therefore, that Erdogan could not have made his criticism in slightly more diplomatic tones. For Hisarcikli it is regrettable that he used the "spirit of Kasimpasa." "Many of us are ashamed of him." But that's not how his supporters feel. They even set up a Web site for him on Friday called "Conquerer of Davos," ( www.davosfatihi.com), in which he is depicted with his hand on his heart and his gaze looking toward the Turkish flag. That is just how they love him. Spiegel