Nuggets

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"The European Union and Iran struck a bargain: Iran would temporarily suspend uranium enrichment, and in return Europe would provide assurances that the United States and Israel would not attack Iran. Under US pressure, (from where, I wonder?-tj) Europe backed off, and Iran renewed its enrichment processes." /Noam Chomsky/

Episcopal Convention Condemns Bible as 'Anti-Jewish'
By Hans Zeiger -- www.virtueonline.org
Columbus, OHIO (6/15/06) -The 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church today passed a resolution essentially condemning the Bible as an "anti-Jewish" document. Not only does the resolution aim to address perceptions of anti-Jewish prejudice in the Bible and Episcopal liturgy, but it suggests that such prejudice is actually "expressed in...Christian Scriptures and liturgical texts." +++
::: In all fairness, please read "little gems" from the Talmud.
http://www.come-and-hear.com/dilling/index.html
http://www.come-and-hear.com/dilling/dcontents.html

Why American and British Soldiers are Deserting
Neil Makay – Sunday Herald (Scotland) -- More than 6,000 men and women have deserted from the US army since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. In the British forces, the figure stands at around 1,000. The soldiers are leaving because they are sickened by the bloodshed in Iraq; because they believe the war is illegal; because they are on the verge of nervous breakdown; and because they are having to buy their own boots or are not being given enough food and water. Labour MP John McDonnell says that troops are now “questioning the morality and legality of the occupation”.

Zionism and the Third Reich
Mark Weber
A little-known chapter of history is the wide-ranging collaboration between Zionism and Hitler's Third Reich. During the 1930s, Jewish Zionists and German National Socialists shared similar views on how to deal with the “Jewish Question.” They agreed that Jews and Germans were distinctly different nationalities, and that Jews did not belong in Germany. ...In January 1939, Hitler's new Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, likewise warned in another circular bulletin that "Germany must regard the formation of a Jewish state as dangerous" because it "would bring an international increase in power to world Jewry."

Lost in Translation
Jonathan Steele – The Guardian (Britain) -- Experts confirm that Iran's president did not call for Israel to be “wiped off the map.” Reports that he did serve to strengthen western hawks. ...My recent comment piece explaining how Iran's president was badly misquoted when he allegedly called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" has caused a welcome little storm. The phrase has been seized on by western and Israeli hawks to re-double suspicions of the Iranian government's intentions, so it is important to get the truth of what he really said. ...Does this quibbling over phrases matter? Yes, of course. Within days of the Ahmadinejad speech the then Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, was calling for Iran to be expelled from the United Nations. >>>

Rabbis, New York Agree on Ritual Circumcision Rules
Times-Union (Albany, New York) -- It was one of the more unusual public policy negotiations: Yiddish-speaking rabbis venturing to Albany for months on Sunday nights to talk with the state's Catholic health commissioner about a controversial circumcision ritual. ...The protocols are aimed at preventing the spread of herpes through the practice of metzizah b'peh, in which the circumcision wound is ritually cleaned by sucking out the blood and spitting it out. The policies stem from seven cases of neonatal herpes connected to the ritual. They included one child who suffered severe brain injury from the virus and another who died. >>>

Microsoft Helped Israel Police in Vanunu Probe
YnetNews -- Human rights group says company complied with request by Israel police to hand over information on nuclear whistleblower. ...Amnesty International's British branch chief, Keith Allen, said Microsoft helped Israeli Police interrogate Mordechai Vanunu, who leaked nuclear secrets to the foreign press. Allen, writing in the British Sunday newspaper, the Observer, wrote:"Amnesty is concerned about its co- operation with the Israeli authorities in prosecuting nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu for communicating with foreign journalists. Vanunu was imprisoned for more than 18 years after disclosing Israel's nuclear capabilities to the UK media. >>> /Job well done Bill!/

A War of Religions? God Forbid!
Uri Avnery
I am increasingly worried that the Israeli-Palestinian struggle, which dominates our entire life, is assuming a more and more religious character. The historical conflict began as a clash between two national movements, which used religious motifs only as a decoration. The Zionist movement was non-religious from the start, if not anti-religious. Almost all the Founding Fathers were self-declared atheists. In his book "Der Judenstaat", the original charter of Zionism, Theodor Herzl said that "we shall know how to keep (our clergymen) in their temples." Chaim Weitzman was an agnostic scientist. David Ben-Gurion refused to cover his head even at funerals. >>>

Menachem Begin Plotted in 1952 to Kill the German Chancellor
Amiram Barkat -- Haaretz (Israel)
Former prime minister Menachem Begin played a central role in a failed attempt to assassinate then-West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, with the objective of sabotaging the reparations agreement in the works with Israel, according to the journal of Eliezer Sudit, one of the men who carried out the attempted hit. Sudit's journal, which was published in a limited number of copies only, came into the possession of the Israel correspondent for the German daily, the Frankfurter Allgemeine. Excerpts from the diary passed on to Haaretz reveal that Begin knew of the plans to assassinate Adenauer, and even initiated meetings to promote the operation. >>>

Former Israeli Leader Tried to Kill German Chancellor Adenauer
ArabicNews -- The late Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, before he became prime minister, tried to kill former West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer in 1952, DPA quoted a report in the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ... Begin who formerly led the extremist Zionist "Etzel" group, ordered, organized and made the arrangements for the funding of the assassination bid, added the Frankfurt-based newspaper, citing an unidentified man involved in the plot as its main source. A parcel bomb addressed to Adenauer exploded at a Munich post office, killing a police munitions disposal expert on March 27, 1952. As a Zionist leader, Begin was responsible for a series of horrific terrorist attacks throughout the 1940s and 50s, among them the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem which killed 91 people. >>>

Global Military Spending Hits $1.12 Trillion
Reuters -- US spending in Iraq and Afghanistan helped push up global 2005 military expenditure by 3.5 percent to $1.12 trillion, a research body said on Monday. "The USA is responsible for 48 percent of the world total, distantly followed by the UK, France, Japan and China with four to five percent each," the Swedish government-funded institute added. It said U.S. spending was behind about 80 percent of the gain in 2005. >>>