To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Venus: No Lightning, But a Strange Green Glow
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 08:22:18 -0500
Venus: No Lightning, But a Strange Green Glow
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/venus_lights_010122.html
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 07:00 am ET
22 January 2001
A new study of Venus reveals a strange and surprising green glow in
the night sky, while separate research seems to have solved a
20-year-old question about whether lightning strikes on the
cloud-shrouded planet.
For two decades, scientists have argued about whether the atmosphere
of Venus produces lightning. During two flybys, the Cassini spacecraft
detected no signatures of Earth-like electrical discharges.
"If lightning exists at Venus, it is either extremely rare, or much
different than terrestrial lightning," said University of Iowa
physicist Donald Gurnett.
On Earth, the crackle of lightning can be heard on an AM radio.
Cassini easily detected such signals on an Earth flyby, but heard
nothing as it looped around Venus in 1998 and again in 1999. The craft
used the planetary flybys to get gravity boosts that helped propel it
toward Jupiter and Saturn.
Gurnett told SPACE.com he was "very certain" of the results, which
appear in the Jan. 18 issue of the journal Nature.
Missions in the 1970s found low-frequency electrical activity in the
clouds of Venus, but Gurnett suspects the activity represents
something like "sprites," discovered recently above Earth's clouds.
Sprites are similar to lightning, but they travel upward from clouds
into the ionosphere, and they involve far less electricity.
Gurnett didn't zap all hopes for lightning on Venus. He said there
might be some cloud-to-cloud lightning, which is weaker than the
typical bolts that strike the ground in a terrestrial thunderstorm.
The green glow
While Venus may not have Earth-like thunderstorms, it does put on a
newly discovered show of nighttime lights similar to one that occurs
above Earth.
Using the Keck telescope on Hawaii's Mauna Kea, a team of researchers
led by Tom Slanger of SRI International, a research organization,
found a glow of green light on the night side of Venus.
The glow surprised Slanger and other scientists, who did not expect
Venus to have the right chemistry to produce the phenomenon. How it is
generated is not fully understood, but Slanger says it results when
pairs of oxygen atoms collide to form an oxygen molecule, the energy
of which is transferred to a third atom, which releases light energy
that is -- you guessed it -- green.
But there's a little problem with that theory. Venus has virtually no
molecular oxygen in its carbon dioxide choked atmosphere.
What little oxygen that is created -- when sunlight interacts with the
carbon dioxide -- develops on the dayside. That oxygen then
circulates. Venus' upper atmosphere rotates more rapidly than the
surface, transporting oxygen atoms swiftly around the planet. "Within
a few hours of formation, the oxygen atoms move to the dark side of
the planet," Slanger explains.
Thick clouds around Venus have long frustrated scientists trying to
understand the atmosphere of our nearest planetary neighbor.
"The new observations should help to unravel the unusual oxygen
chemistry and dynamics of the upper atmosphere of Venus," writes
NASA's David Crisp in the January 19 issue of the journal Science,
where the study is presented.
On Earth, a similar green glow exists in addition to a related
phenomenon, the multi-colored northern and southern lights known as
aurorae. These lights are created when charged particles from the
solar wind excite gas molecules in the upper atmosphere, mostly near
the poles.
Venus shows no evidence of aurorae, Slanger said. The main reason is
that Venus does not have a strong magnetic field, which on Earth traps
and concentrates the charged solar particles that fuel the colorful
lights.
The glow of life?
Observations of Venus in the 1970s showed no evidence of the nighttime
green glow, either, leading scientists to assume that it would only be
found on planets with Earth-like atmospheres -- those rich in oxygen
and having the potential to support life. It has therefore been
considered as a possible signature for potentially habitable places
outside the solar system.
But Slanger points out that the discovery of a green glow on Venus
means other planets that exhibit it might, like Venus, contain very
little oxygen.
"In this way, information gained from another planet enables us to say
more about our own, and will help us to interpret what we may see in
the future outside the solar system."
Slanger collaborated with David Huestis and Philip Cosby, also of SRI,
as well as the Keck Observatory's Thomas Bida, who is now at the
Lowell Observatory.
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Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) Ha'aretz: Palestinians have destroyed
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 08:32:27 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 02:03:52 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: Ha'aretz: Palestinians have destroyed
kilometers of Israel-Gaza fence in last 3
months, repair work to start soon
Ha'aretz: Palestinians have destroyed kilometers of Israel-Gaza fence in
last 3 months, repair work to start soon
By Amos Harel Ha'aretz Military Correspondent Ha'aretz 24 January 2001
The electronic border fence supposedly separating Israel from Gaza is full
of holes - Palestinians have destroyed several kilometers of it in the last
three months.
The government recently approved funds to rebuild the fence, and has signed
a contract to do so, saying work will begin soon.
The fence was erected in 1994-95, after Israel withdrew from most of the
Gaza Strip. It was built partly in response to complaints about "Palestinian
thieves" from residents of kibbutzim and moshavim on the Israeli side of the
border. The Israel Defense Forces invested hundreds of millions of shekels
in the new fence.
The fence enabled Israel to maintain fairly effective control over the flow
of Palestinian workers from Gaza to Israel. To enter Israel illegally Gaza
residents had to use the "safe passage" to the West Bank and slip into
Israel from there. (No fence separates Israel from the West Bank).
Over the last three months the effective separation of Gaza and Israel has
disintegrated. Whole sections of the fence have been uprooted, iron posts
have been removed and wires cut. In some cases Palestinians have torn the
fence down with bare hands, in others they brought tools. The destruction
appears to have been systematic and in central Gaza there are stretches of
several kilometers where the fence has ceased to exist.
Until it can be repaired, the IDF has erected a string of small outposts
along the border, backed up by observation posts. It has also destroyed
vegetation on both sides of the fence to create a broad field of vision. The
uprooted plants included hundreds of protected trees in the Be'eri Forest
south of Nahal Oz, an operation that outraged the Jewish National Fund.
With the fence wrecked, there have been several Palestinian attempts to
infiltrate from Gaza into Israel over the past few weeks, and the IDF has
changed its rules of engagement to make it easier to prevent such attempts.
Soldiers are allowed to shoot to kill at anyone trying to cross the fence at
night. During the day, they are required to fire warning shots at the
would-be infiltrators first.
IDF sources said the destruction of the fence has greatly increased the
danger of terrorist attacks. It also makes it easier for Palestinians to
smuggle arms from Gaza into the West Bank. There is an enormous stockpile of
arms in Gaza, IDF officers say, but in the West Bank there is a shortage of
arms and particularly of explosives.
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Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) Ha'aretz: Syria approved Iraqi troop maneuvers
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 08:33:02 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 02:04:49 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: Ha'aretz: Syria approved Iraqi troop
maneuvers near border
Ha'aretz: Syria approved Iraqi troop maneuvers near border
By Ze'ev Schiff Ha'aretz Military Editor Ha'aretz 24 January 2001
A large concentration of Iraqi troops was recently deployed on the Syrian
border under an agreement between Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and Syrian
President Bashar Assad. Saddam moved the troops into position after
consulting Assad and securing his permission.
Assad apparently seized this as an opportunity to warn Israel that if it
enacts its threat to attack Syria as a response to a strike by Hezbollah,
then Israel would have to face a much larger-scale threat of Syrian forces
backed-up by Iraqis.
The United States warned Damascus it was playing with fire and the Middle
East could take a dangerous turn for the worse. The Iraqis have concentrated
troops on the Syrian border twice in the past few weeks. The first time, the
Iraqi force was four to five divisions. A short while later the troops were
withdrawn deep into Iraqi territory and Baghdad said it was an exercise. A
similar maneuver took place a short time afterward with a smaller force.
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Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) Ha'aretz: Chief Rabbi demands state probe of digging
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 08:34:32 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 02:05:49 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: Ha'aretz: Chief Rabbi demands state
probe of digging on Mount
Ha'aretz: Chief Rabbi demands state probe of digging on Mount
By Nadav Shragai Ha'aretz Correspondent and Itim Ha'areetz 24 January 2001
Sephardi Chief Rabbi Eliahu Bakshi-Doron yesterday demanded that Prime
Minister Ehud Barak set up a commission of inquiry to investigate what kind
of digging is really being done on the Temple Mount.
All digging on the Mount should be frozen until the commission has completed
its work, he added.
Bakshi-Doron issued this call following an open meeting with the Committee
to Prevent the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount, which was
attended by several other rabbis.
At the meeting, Dr. Shmuel Berkowitz, a member of the committee, said the
committee has photographs taken in the last few days, showing a section of
the tunnel that the Waqf (Muslim religious trust) has started to build
between the ruins of the ancient Al Aqsa Mosque and Solomon's Stables.
However, he said, he cannot release the pictures lest this endangers the
life of the source who supplied them.
"The committee has pictures that incontrovertibly demonstrate activity under
the Al Aqsa Mosque, activity that is destroying archaeological remains,"
said another committee member, archaeologist Dr. Gabi Barkai. "I would be
happy to go to the site with the police, who are having trouble locating
these things, and show them what we are talking about."
Another committee member, Yisrael Caspi, charged that both Barak and Public
Security Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami are perfectly aware of the "troubling
reality on the Mount," but prefer to ignore it.
According to Barkai, the Waqf has paved thousands of square meters of the
mount. This in itself would have caused no harm, he said, except that "in
preparation, they lowered the level of the mount by many dozens of
centimeters, thereby damaging antiquities from the days of the First Temple,
the Hasmonean Kingdom, the Herodian period and the Roman, Christian and
Muslim periods."
In another area of the Mount - the "Ramah" region where the Dome of the Rock
is located, and where many believe the Temple formerly stood - the Waqf is
raising the floor, and this also damages antiquities, Barkai said.
Dr. Eilat Mazar, an archaeologist affiliated with the Hebrew University,
stressed that the committee is made up of people from all parts of the
political spectrum, whose one concern is preventing the destruction of
antiquities on the Mount. "For more than a year, we have been requesting a
meeting with Prime Minister Barak, without success," she added.
At the meeting, Bakshi-Doron was also asked about the rabbinical committee
set up to look into the possibility of establishing a synagogue on some part
of the Temple Mount. Bakshi-Doron replied that, in his opinion, and in that
of most members of the Chief Rabbinical Council, this is unfeasible, because
Jews are not allowed to set foot even on the margins of the Mount.
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Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) Ha'aretz: Arab newspaper confirms Syrian army on full alert
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 08:34:32 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 02:06:39 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: Ha'aretz: Arab newspaper confirms
Syrian army on full alert
Ha'aretz: Arab newspaper confirms Syrian army on full alert
Daniel Sobelman Ha'aretz 24 January 2001
The Syrian army is indeed on high alert, as reported in Monday's Ha'aretz,
sources with links in Damascus confirmed yesterday in a report in the
London-based Al Hayat.
The Ha'aretz report stated that Syria is redeploying for fear of an Israeli
attack before the elections.
Washington has urged Israel to refrain from escalating the tension with
Syria while talks with the Palestinians are underway in Taba, Western
sources quoted by Al Hayat said. The U.S. has also made it clear that it
expects Syria to restrain anti-Israel activity by Hezbollah in southern
Lebanon.
According to Al Hayat, Syria promised former U.S. president Bill Clinton
that it would renew negotiations with Israel by the end of 2000, but the Al
Aqsa Intifada changed the situation. However, attempts are being made to
restart communication between Israel and Syria within the next few weeks,
the Arab daily maintained.
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Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) Ha'aretz: An Iraqi-Syrian signal to Israel
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 08:36:21 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 02:11:26 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: Ha'aretz: An Iraqi-Syrian
signal to Israel- threat of Iraqi
participation in future war is real
Ha'aretz: An Iraqi-Syrian signal to Israel- threat of Iraqi participation in
future war is real
By Ze'ev Schiff Ha'aretz 24 January 2001
The most important development in inter-Arab military affairs of direct
relevance to Israel emerged only recently. Iraq concentrated troops on its
border with Syria - and the maneuver was agreed and coordinated between
Iraq's Saddam Hussein and Syria's Bashar Assad.The Americans who discovered
this warned Damascus it was playing with fire and the entire region could
take a dangerous turn for the worse. The Iraqis have concentrated troops on
the Syrian border twice in the past few weeks. The first time, the Iraqi
force was four to five divisions. A short while later the troops were
withdrawn deep into Iraqi territory and Baghdad explained it all as an
exercise. It is not known if the movement included any surface-to-surface
missiles - military intelligence suggests Iraq still has several dozen.
However, the concentration of Iraqi troops in this way should be seen rather
as a strategic signal, preparing the ground for possible Iraqi military
involvement. If the Iraqis resume this policy of concentrating forces on
their border with Syria - or Jordan - that would further indicate their
intentions.
It was the same tactic Egypt used when it tried to "accustom" Israel to
seeing Egyptian troops move in the direction of the Suez Canal on the eve of
the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Ariel Sharon did the same when he was defense
minister - he transferred troops from the Negev to the border with Lebanon,
and then returned them, on the eve of the 1982 Lebanon invasion.
Saddam Hussein and Bashar Assad have different reasons for agreeing to move
Iraqi forces to their frontier. For Saddam Hussein, the Al Aqsa Intifada
offers a wonderful opportunity to re-emerge as the champion of the
Palestinians against Israel. He is the only Arab leader prepared to flex
some muscle while making menacing gestures toward Israel. Other Arab leaders
stress the need to avoid developments that plunge the Middle East into war.
Saddam repeatedly threatens the very survival of Israel.
To avoid having his Arab neighbors misinterpret his intentions, he announced
the movement of Iraqi troops well in advance, and the coordination of the
redeployment with Damascus.
The Palestinians would of course welcome Iraq's intervention. Many of them
believe Saddam is justified in claiming he defeated the United States and
its coalition in the Gulf War. (Naturally, the "heroic warriors" make no
mention of Iraq's heavy casualties or the extensive damage it sustained.)
To this day, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has never
apologized for supporting the Iraqi invasion and occupation of Kuwait. More
than any other leader, Saddam is lionized by Palestinians and posters
bearing his photograph appear at every one of their demonstrations.
A concentration of Iraqi troops near the Syrian or Jordanian border would be
a balm for Palestinians. When they threaten a regional "earthquake" they
actually are alluding to an intervention by Saddam Hussein in coordination
with Hezbollah setting Israel's northern border on fire.
From Assad's perspective, his consent to a concentration of Iraqi forces
adjacent to his country's border has served other purposes. It was Assad's
way of presenting a threat of his own to counter the Israeli threat to
Syria. Recently some key figures in Israel have begun to declare openly that
if Hezbollah heats up the Lebanon-Israel border again, or if northern
Israeli communities come under fire, Israel will - as Prime Minister Ehud
Barak has warned - come up with a very tough response.
According to one school of thought, that should take the form of Israeli
strikes against Lebanon and its infrastructure. Others, however, think a
major Israeli response should be directed first against Syria - or against
Lebanon and Syria simultaneously.
Talk of such tough action comes not only from the top brass of the IDF, but
from some political leaders.
Granted, neither the government nor the IDF are interested in a military
confrontation. Nonetheless, it cannot be denied that if such a showdown did
materialize, Israel is not thinking in terms of massive responses.
Assad's consent to the concentration of Iraqi troops on the Iraqi-Syrian
border could be interpreted as a Syrian signal to Israel. In effect, Assad
is saying to Israel: "If you are contemplating launching any strikes against
Syria, you should realize you will be getting more than you bargained for.
If you strike Syria, the war that develops will go beyond a military
confrontation between Syria and Israel."
In the event of a major clash between Israel and Syria, the military
involvement on behalf of Syria would be extensive, even if relations between
Damascus and Baghdad are presently far from idyllic.
During the Yom Kippur War, Iraq sent two divisions to the Golan Heights, and
the possibility of active Iraqi involvement should be taken into account in
any Israeli projections of a flareup in the Middle East. A massive clash
along Israel's northern frontier could go far beyond the limits of an armed
confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah, or between Israel and Lebanon,
or even between Israel and Syria
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Subject: [bprlist] 12 firms to grow human organs for transplant
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 08:39:07 -0500
12 firms to grow human organs for transplant
TOKYO Jan. 23 Kyodo - Twelve high-tech firms are planning to launch joint
research in fiscal 2001 to grow a range of human tissues and organs for
transplantation using human embryonic stem (ES) cells, industry sources
said
Monday.
The 12 -- including Mitsubishi Chemical Corp., Teijin Ltd. and Kyowa Hakko
Kogyo Co. -- are joining hands as the international race to cash in on
artificially grown organs gains speed. The project is aimed at growing skin,
cartilage, veins and internal organs by culturing human ES cells, the
sources said.
All tissues in the body are derived from ES cells, which could theoretically
be cultured and grown to replace tissues or organs lost to disease or
accident.
In 1998, a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin reported the
successful derivation and culturing of human ES cells, adding impetus to
international efforts to grow human tissues based on ES cells.
A semigovernmental organization affiliated with the Ministry of Economy,
Trade and Industry plans to help support the 12-company research with 1.8
billion yen set aside in the fiscal 2000 supplementary budget, they said.
The University of Tokyo, Kyoto University and Osaka University plan to tie
up with the 12, they added. Other participants include Terumo Corp. and
Toray Industries Inc.
In the United States, more than 60 venture businesses have been established
to cash in on ES cell technology to grow tissues for transplantation, they
said.
2000 Kyodo News (c) Established 1945.
All Rights Reserved
http://home.kyodo.co.jp/fullstory/display.jsp?newsnb=20010123013
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Subject: [bprlist] Canada one of few industrialized countries where it's legal to clone a human
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 08:40:23 -0500
Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2001
January 23, 2001
Canada one of few industrialized countries where it's legal to clone a human
OTTAWA (CP) -- Want to clone a human? Create a human-animal hybrid,
say a
human with pig-like qualities? An assembly line for designer babies? Come to
Canada.
This is one of the few industrialized countries, perhaps the only major
one, that has no laws or regulations to cover the new genetic and
reproductive technologies that science has made possible.
Any use of the new techniques is technically permitted in Canada, because
nothing has been legally prohibited.
A voluntary moratorium on certain practices, such as commercial
surrogate-mother deals, is being openly flouted. Canadian women are
advertising their availability for gestational contracts on the Internet.
There is no sign of any attempt to enforce or even monitor compliance with
the moratorium.
It is widely expected Health Minister Allan Rock will table legislation to
address the new genetic and reproductive technologies in the coming
Parliamentary session, but his officials won't confirm it.
Some observers say the government sees little political gain to be had from
introducing legislation that is bound to stir emotions.
"They just keep discussing and issuing papers," said Diane Allen, executive
director of the Toronto-based Infertility Awareness Network. "I know they've
been really lobbied by those who don't want regulations."
In its 1993 report, delivered after four years of study and consultations,
the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies recommended the
creation of a national agency to set standards and enforce regulations.
Since then the government has continued to consult with the public and the
provinces about the creation of such an agency. A bill was tabled in 1995
but died on the order paper prior to the 1997 federal election.
In that 1997 campaign, Rock promised a revised bill would be introduced but
it never materialized.
Science has continued to advance and fertility clinics using the new
techniques have sprung up across Canada. There is no way clients can be
sure
they're receiving the best scientific practices.
"Patients often ask, 'What clinic should I go to?' and we can't tell them,"
said Allen.
"There's no obligation to report statistics, the statistics aren't
verified, they're not inspected, they can and sometimes do tell people
anything."
Allen is also concerned about the rights of people born through donor
insemination to know the identity of their biological parents.
"Shouldn't it work, first and foremost, for them?" Allen asked. "Isn't that
the most important thing, rather than the convenience of the doctors, or the
donors, or even getting a baby for the parents?"
Patricia Baird, who headed the royal commission, can't understand what has
taken the government so long.
"For a nation like ours that's a developed country, that we don't have
regulation in place to deal with these new dilemmas is amazing."
Baird fears a scandal or tragedy involving new techniques could lead to a
backlash against important scientific work in the reproductive technology
field.
"If you have absolutely no regulation at all and it's totally
laissez-faire, then decision making is not a social process," says Baird.
"It would be tragic if it took some real disasters for the government to
take some leadership on this issue."
http://www.canoe.ca/NationalTicker/CANOE-wire.Genetic-Legislation.html
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Subject: [bprlist] Scientists poised to submit plans for cloning
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 08:42:06 -0500
ISSUE 2070 Wednesday 24 January 2001
Scientists poised to submit plans for cloning
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
THE first application to carry out cloning of human embryos is about to be
submitted by scientists.
Prof Peter Andrews of Sheffield University said yesterday that he and his
colleagues would "soon"submit an application to use spare IVF embryos and
hoped to clone early human embryos. A licence to conduct such work could
be
issued in as little as nine months.
The embryos would be used for research on stem cells, the parents of all
cell types which offer the means to repair damage caused by Alzheimer's,
Parkinson's disease, stroke, spinal cord injuries, heart disease and
diabetes. The BioIndustry Association said human trials of stem cell
treatments could start within three years.
But Prof Andrews emphasised that this was no quick fix. He said: "I find it
difficult to envisage routine use on other than selected volunteers in the
next 10 years." He said he also hoped to apply for permission to clone an
early human embryo from a patient's own cells. A vote on Monday night in the
Lords gave a large margin of support for an extension of research on human
embryos, to the surprise of Prof Andrews and other scientists who had been
told that defeat was likely.
Such embryos, left over from the creation of test-tube babies by in vitro
fertilisation, have been used for the past decade for strictly defined
studies on infertility, congenital disease or miscarriages, contraception
and screening embryos for genetic defects.
Now Prof Andrews's team is to apply to extend its studies. Early embryos,
consisting of 100 or so cells, would be dismantled to obtain their stem
cells to see how they could be used to create heart muscle, blood cells and
nerve cells. Animal experiments suggest that implanted embryonic stem cells
can diversify to replace missing types. But Prof Andrews said: "We need a
vast amount of research to get this right."
Other scientists who are expected to take advantage of the Lords vote
include Dr Austin Smith of the Centre for Genome Research, Edinburgh
University. Consent for embryo research would be required from the Human
Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. For embryo cloning, permission would
also be required from the egg donor and the person who donated a cell for
the experiment, said Ruth Deech, HFEA chairman
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To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) ISRAEL NEWS DIGEST - February 2001
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 08:46:13 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Send reply to: <news@cfijerusalem.org>
From: "Christian Friends of Israel" <news@cfijerusalem.org>
To: <cfi@cfijerusalem.org>
Subject: ISRAEL NEWS DIGEST - February 2001
Date sent: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 09:28:20 +0200
"=85It was a true report that I heard in my own land=85" (1 Kings 10:6)
ISRAEL NEWS DIGEST =96 FEBRUARY 2001
JEWISH YEAR 5761
"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my
mouth, if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy." Psalms 137:5-6
"SHALOM CHAVER"
Many Israelis breathed a colossal sigh of relief at 12:00 noon on
Saturday, January 20 as former U.S. President Bill Clinton stepped
down from his position as president and Middle East peacemaker,
without clinching that final deal between Israel and the Palestinian
Authority. But relief was short-lived as Israel announced that it
would enter a period of intensive negotiations with the Palestinians
to try to reach an agreement before Israeli elections on February 6.
Oddly enough, probably a majority of Israelis were sad to see the
departure of the man whom they regarded as the "best friend" the
country had ever had in the White House. For eight years, Clinton was
heavily involved in efforts to bring about "peace" in the region,
giving the impression that he was a great friend and supporter of the
Jewish State. However, because of his strong interest in the country
he was able to encourage the Jewish nation to turn over some 40
percent of her Biblical inheritance to the control of arch terrorist
PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, convince Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak
that dividing Jerusalem would bring peace and leave the country
strategically weakened, fighting a "low-intensity" war, in a position
of weakness that many say is worse than in 1948.
Among Clinton=92s broken pledges to Israel, was that of moving the U.S.
Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In 1995, Congress enacted the
Jerusalem Embassy Act requiring the U.S. Embassy to be moved to
Jerusalem by spring 1998. Clinton successfully bypassed the law by
signing special security waivers every six months to delay the move.
He also failed to come through with $800 million pledged to Israel
before it left Lebanon last May.
Clinton, who worked with four Israeli prime ministers =96 Yitzhak Rabin,
Shimon Peres, Binyamin Netanyahu and Barak =96 and came to power before
there was a Palestinian Authority, offered separate farewells to
Israelis and Palestinians, published in their respective newspapers,
the day before he left office. He encouraged them both not to waiver
in their quest for peace, which he said they were closer than ever
before to achieving. The overriding message was that the ONLY option
for the sides was sooner or later to agree to a peace deal along the
lines of the Oslo Accords.
The former president told Israelis that of all the problems he had
dealt with during his eight years in office, none had meant more to
him "than the future of your region and of your country=85The violence
does not demonstrate that the quest for peace has gone too far =96 but
that it has not gone far enough," Clinton said. Whenever Israel and
her Arab neighbors made peace, he said, the issues would be the same
and that compromise is "often difficult and always painful."
In a separate letter to the Palestinians, Clinton remembered his
historic trip as the first U.S. President to visit Gaza. He said that
it had taught him about Palestinian suffering, their "history of
dispossession and dispersal," but also about their "resilience and
courage=85Never have you been as close to achieving your goals =96
regaining your land, establishing a state, building a prosperous
future for your children." During his Gaza trip in 1998, Clinton
affirmed the "right" of the Palestinian people to achieve their
statehood aspirations.
The seven-year Oslo process marked a turning point for Israel. Never
had an American president been so intimately concerned with the
details of Israeli-Arab relations. Never had Israel been asked to
divide its capital, give up territory vital to its security interests,
sacrifice sovereign Israeli land for the privilege of keeping
settlements and possibly allow hundreds of thousands of Palestinian
refugees to return to the Jewish State. Never had Israel so fully
committed its security and strategic interests into the hands of
another nation.
As a parting gift to Israel, Clinton promised to recommend that the
U.S. sell the Jewish state its most advanced fighter plane, the F-22
Raptor, which has not yet been produced. It will be up to the new
administration, whether or not the radar-evading stealth aircraft will
be sold to Israel, which could result in another broken Clinton
promise. In one last good-bye, Clinton telephoned Barak and emphasized
the "warm and close relations" between them. He praised the Israeli
leader for his "political courage" which had led him to act to prevent
war in the Middle East.
Nevertheless in one of his final acts as president, Clinton pardoned
more than 100 Americans, including his former Whitewater business
partner, his brother and the former head of the Central Intelligence
Agency. Absent from the pardons, was Jonathon Pollard, a former Navy
analyst, who was convicted of spying for Israel. Clinton had secretly
pledged to release Pollard as part of the 1998 Wye Accord between
Israel and the Palestinians, but reneged on his promise. He reportedly
refused to release Pollard now because current CIA chief George Tenet
threatened to quit if he did.
A DIFFERENT POLICY
U.S. President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are
expected to pursue a different Middle East policy, with far less
concentration on Israeli-Arab relations. Exactly what that will mean
for Israel is unclear but it is certain that Bush will not be as
personally involved in negotiations as Clinton was. The new
administration is likely to focus more on the broader Middle East
picture and view Israel as America=92s strategic ally, which could be
very good for Israel.
Israelis really hated to see Clinton go and are very wary that the new
American leader will be a friend of Israel. But the Palestinians are
hopeful that the Bush administration will not be, as they see it, as
"pro-Israel" as Clinton was. They hope that Washington will now force
Israel to make further concessions. Damascus has also expressed its
hope that Washington will revive the Israeli-Syrian track with a more
pro-Arab stance.
BILL=92S LEGACY
However the specter of Oslo remains. What may turn out to be Clinton=92s
parting "legacy" is a set of proposals he placed on the table a month
before he left office. In a last-ditch attempt to broker a deal or at
least a framework agreement, he laid out a plan that he believed would
bridge the remaining chasms and lead to a final Israeli-Palestinian
peace pact. Among those proposals was the demand that Israel cede
sovereignty over the Temple Mount to the PA as well as hand over
eastern Jerusalem and more than 90 percent of Judea and Samaria and
the entire Gaza Strip. In exchange the Palestinians would agree to
give up the right of return for some four million so-called refugees
and their descendants.
Israel reluctantly accepted those proposals as a basis for future
negotiations with the Palestinians. Arafat delayed his response to the
proposals for 10 days. Although Clinton said that both sides had
accepted them, the Palestinians actually had submitted some two dozen
reservations, which effectively indicated a "no" to the proposals.
Several PA officials also rejected the ideas out of hand, refusing to
give up the "right of return" and demanding more details and maps.
Clinton and his peace team said those ideas would leave the White
House with him, but they must have known that once the proposals were
on the table they would not be retractable. Despite their reservations
both Israel and the PA adopted the plan as a starting point for
further negotiations, which once again had the effect of extracting
concessions from Israel prior to the bargaining.
Later, Israel agreed to Arafat=92s suggestion that the two sides meet
for 10 days of intensive negotiations in Taba, Egypt, to be overseen
by none other than Oslo architect Shimon Peres. Arafat suggested the
sides return to the Red Sea resort because of what had been achieved
there previously with Yitzhak Rabin and Peres. The two sides met in
Taba for marathon talks in 1995, which resulted in an interim accord.
Still analysts say that it=92s highly unlikely that an agreement can be
reached before Israeli elections. Arafat, some say, intends to
continue to negotiate as long as Barak=92s team is making concessions,
which he hopes will be Israel=92s opening position at future talks.
Others say that Barak agreed to the negotiations as a last-minute
election ploy. When the negotiations break off without an agreement,
he will steer to the right, pick up undecided voters and try to sell a
unilateral separation plan to the public.
Opposition Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon, has already said that he
will not honor any more agreements reached between Barak and the
Palestinians. Many on all sides of the political spectrum have argued
that it is not right for Barak to continue negotiations on such
serious issues that affect the future of the state when he is merely a
caretaker prime minister and has only a quarter of the Knesset behind
him. But Barak won=92t be stopped. Earlier he blasted Israel=92s attorney
general for issuing his legal opinion cautioning against the
continuation of talks in the run up to elections. Legally, he said,
Barak has every right to continue but he questioned whether or not the
prime minister had the "moral authority" to do so.
Barak also lost another member of his cabinet, Health Minister Ronni
Milo, who resigned over the plan to divide Jerusalem. Milo, who
attended the Camp David summit last summer, said he could not be part
of a government, which would give up the Temple Mount and divide the
city.
PLEDGING ALLEGIANCE TO JERUSALEM
As Barak moved to divide Jerusalem, at least 250,000 Israelis from all
over the country and Jews from around the world gathered at a rally in
Jerusalem to declare their support for a united Jerusalem under
Israeli sovereignty. Much of American Jewry, which normally supports
the Israeli government=92s policies no matter what they are, voiced the
opinion that Barak had gone too far.
The non-partisan rally drew youngsters and adults, who waved flags and
banners with the slogan "Jerusalem, We pledge to you." Images of
Jerusalem were projected on the Old City walls as lively music played
in the background, giving the feel of an Independence Day celebration.
Natan Sharansky, who initiated but did not speak at the rally, said
Jerusalem is not about security, borders or peace but about Jewish
identity. "While our leaders need to make hard decisions and even
sacrifices for peace, we cannot cut out our heart in the name of
peace. If we do, we are likely to lose our soul in the process," he
said.
Just hours before the rally, the Mufti of Jerusalem issued a fatwa
(religious edict) declaring that the entire Temple Mount, known to
Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, belonged to the Wakf (Islamic
religious authorities). Included in that, he said was the Western Wall
and the entire surrounding plaza. The Wakf has also continued to
excavate under the Temple Mount, reportedly in an area where there are
ruins from the second Temple period.
In separate incidents, a fanatic American tourist threw red paint on
the Western Wall, to symbolize Palestinian blood. The northern
neighborhood of Neve Ya=92akov came under gunfire for the first time;
there were no casualties. And it was revealed that Arafat drove from
Bethlehem through Jerusalem from south to north, past the Old City and
on to the Jordanian border north of Jericho after Christmas Eve
services in Bethlehem. Due to inclement weather, Israel had permitted
the Palestinian leader to drive through Jerusalem because it was too
windy for him to return to Jordan by helicopter. It makes one wonder
what he was thinking about.
PEACE AND ELECTIONEERING
If there was ever a one-issue election campaign, this is it. Israeli
campaign ads, shown each evening in a 20-25 minute bloc of prime time
television, have focused almost entirely on peace and security =96
understandably paramount on Israelis=92 minds at this time.
Barak let voters know exactly in which direction he is heading on the
third night of election broadcasts. Facing the nation in a direct
address, without music or jingles, Barak told Israelis that he knew
the subject of "concessions" was not a popular topic. Nevertheless, he
said, in order to reach an agreement with the Palestinians, whether
now or in the future after another war, Israel would have to cede more
than 90 percent of Judea and Samaria but 80 percent of settlers would
stay under Israeli sovereignty. Israel, he pledged, would never agree
to the right of return for some four million Palestinian refugees and
their descendants. "I don=92t intend to sign on any agreement that will
give sovereignty of the Temple Mount to the Palestinians=85The Western
Wall, the Jewish quarter and the Mount of Olives will be under our
sovereignty forever."
Many remember Barak=92s pledge less than two years ago, never to divide
the city at all. The fact that he didn=92t mention eastern Jerusalem
indicated that it would be turned over to the Palestinians.
Sharon, who has been presented by Barak to the public as warmonger,
has refused to chant the Clinton-Barak mantra that the direction of
the current diplomatic process and the proposed concessions are the
ONLY path to peace, whether it=92s now or later. Barak has continually
warned the people that a massive war will occur if Israel does not
make the concessions that the Palestinians are demanding.
Sharon has spelled out a more conservative plan, which he promises
will bring about peace and security, but of course has no way of
knowing whether or not that will be the case. His approach, at least
verbally, is very different from Barak=92s: no division of Jerusalem, no
evacuation of settlements (but no new ones either), no giving up the
Jordan Valley and no giving away sovereign Israeli territory in the
Negev desert, which Barak has proposed in exchange for the right to
annex Israeli settlement blocs. Sharon would say, "Yes" to a
Palestinian state, but only on 40 percent of Judea and Samaria as
opposed to more than 90 percent.
Sharon, a former major general, is having some trouble living the
legacy of Lebanon. He was defense minister in 1982 when Israel invaded
Lebanon, which led to its 18-year guerrilla war there. He is also
hated in the Arab world for what it sees as his complicity in the
massacres of Muslim Palestinians at the Lebanese refugee camps of
Sabra and Shatilla by Christian Phalanges militiamen, allied with
Israel. But some analysts believe that his "hawkish" image may act as
a deterrent factor in the Middle East. "Look at how Arafat treats
[Barak]," one analyst said. "He told him to =91go to h____.=92 I doubt he
=92d do that to Sharon." When Arafat met Sharon at Wye, he added, the
Palestinian leader saluted Sharon, who wouldn=92t even shake his hand.
Public opinion polls show Sharon consistently maintaining a
double-digit lead, as much as 20 percent, over Barak. There have been
calls for Barak to step down and be replaced by Peres, whom polls show
would run a much closer race with Sharon and could beat him by a few
percentage points. But Barak, for whatever his word is worth, has
pledged to stay in race. He can drop out in favor of Peres up until
four days before the election.
Both candidates are appealing to the Russian-speaking population,
subtitling their television ads in Russian. Neither of them has gone
out of their way to court the religious public.
DEATH BY CELL PHONE AND INTERNET
Barak was able to restart negotiations with the Palestinians and skirt
the issue of ongoing violence and terrorism by resuming security
cooperation with the Palestinians. Many Israelis have been very
disappointed and angry that Barak broke his pledge not to negotiate
under fire.
Israeli intelligence also revealed that Arafat=92s paramilitary Fatah
faction itself was directly involved in a bus bombing inside Israel,
in which 14 people were injured. A Jordanian national who worked in
Tel Aviv from time to time was recruited by Fatah Tanzim and received
the bomb from Palestinian Military Intelligence in Nablus, headed by
Moussa Arafat, Yasser=92s cousin.
The revelation was made public on the same day that Israel and the PA
resumed security cooperation at a meeting with the CIA chief Tenet.
Present at the meeting, was PA=92s Preventive Security Services Chief
Mohammed Dahlan, who just a few weeks earlier had been accused by
Israel of planning terrorist attacks. One analyst said that even now,
those who participate in security meetings with Israel at night are
those that give orders to carry out terror attacks during the day.
Dahlan=92s name has also been mentioned in connection with the use of
cellular telephones as detonating devices for bombs. Two Israeli
sappers from a bomb-disposal unit were killed in a Gaza Strip bombing
by a bomb detonated by cellular phone near a second explosive charge,
which they had just defused.
One of the sappers was 29-year-old Dutch Christian, Yonatan Vermeulen,
who had grown up in Israel. Although his parents had returned to
Holland when he was 19, Vermeulen returned a short time later,
enlisted in the army and joined the border police sapper=92s unit.
Hamas claimed responsibility for a car bomb explosion in the Israeli
coastal city of Netanya, which injured 34 and killed the bomber. But
experts say this could have been one of the new "cocktail operations"
in which terrorists from different factions work together to
perpetrate an attack.
In a bizarre terrorist attack, perpetrated and solved with the help of
the Internet, Israeli authorities arrested a 25-year-old Palestinian
woman in connection with the brutal murder of a 16-year-old Israeli.
Ofir Rahum was shot to death by Palestinian terrorists after he was
lured to PA-controlled Ramallah by the woman whom he had fallen in
love with through an Internet chat room. According to testimony from
his friends, Rahum, who was from Ashkelon, did not realize that the
woman was an Arab and may not have known that she was taking him to
Ramallah in her car. Witnesses said the teen was ambushed by
Palestinians, who shot him some 15 times from behind and from the
front.
His body was so badly mutilated when found by the side of the road
that it was believed to have been that of a Palestinian collaborator
and turned over to the PA. The IDF became suspicious that the lad was
actually an Israeli when it received a missing person=92s report
matching the "collaborator=92s" description. His body was returned to
Israel for burial.
Shooting attacks also took the lives of three Israelis. The son of the
late radical rightwing Meir Kahane, Benjamin Kahane, and his wife
Talia were killed in a shooting attack on their vehicle, leaving their
six children orphaned. An Israeli farmer, 32-year-old Roni Tsalah was
also shot to death near his greenhouse, prompting a handful of Gaza
settlers to go on a rampage, burning Palestinian crops and damaging
their watering devices. It is believed that at least one of Tsalah=92s
Palestinian workers was involved in his murder.
There was at least one miracle story. Moshe Bick, a 36-year-old Haredi
Jew and father of five pulled out the wires that connected a cell
phone to a huge bomb composed of two mortar shells, after his sister
alerted him that a man had thrown a large bag in a dumpster and fled,
in Jerusalem=92s ultra-Orthodox Mea She=92arim neighborhood. Shortly after
police sappers arrived on the scene, the cellular phone rang, which
would presumably have detonated the device.
WAR CRIMES OR A =91PRO-ACTIVE=92 POLICY
Fatah pledged again and again to continue its bloody uprising until
the PA gets what it wants and it seems to have public support for that
position. In a recent survey, a full 70 percent of Palestinians polled
said they believed that the uprising should continue. Some 66 percent
said that they believed suicide bombings are appropriate.
Israel came close to admitting that it had a policy of targeting
Palestinian militants as a way of combating the continued violence and
terrorism. Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz told lawmakers that "in
principle" security forces are permitted to kill "those people who
have been clearly identified" as those who plan or carry out terror
attacks. He indicated that it was preferable to try to arrest the
extremists but said if that was not possible and Israeli forces were
in "real danger" they could "act to remove the danger while attacking
the source of danger."
PA officials charged that Barak and other officials should be charged
with war crimes and tried in an international tribunal for this policy
which they described as an "assassination policy." The PA has accused
Israel of killing at least 12 and as many as 30 militant Palestinian
leaders. PA spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi said that the PA is "collecting
data, collecting the evidence [and] documenting what is happening" as
part of its campaign, and will coordinate its activities with Arab
States and the United Nations.
Israeli experts defended this measure as just one of many, which
Israel employs to deal with terrorists and said it is not an
"assassination policy." Israel has no "hit list" they argue and this
measure is both effective and more moral. They point to previous cases
where key men in terrorist organizations were eliminated, without
endangering the general Palestinian population, while at the same time
preventing the terrorists from killing innocent Israelis.
EXECUTING COLLABORATORS
Nevertheless, the PA blamed Israel=92s "pro-active" policy for forcing
it to execute so-called Palestinian collaborators. Two Palestinian men
were executed before a firing squad, accused of passing information on
to Israel that led to the slaying of top Palestinian militants.
The men, blindfolded and bound, were shot before a cheering crowd
after being tried by security courts, without defense or a chance to
appeal the verdict. Forbidden in the Oslo Accords, the executions
marked the first time that alleged traitors were officially executed
by the PA. (Scores of Palestinians were gunned down during the first
intifada from 1987-93 accused of collaborating with Israel and others
were shot even after the Oslo accords for allegedly selling land to
the Jewish State.) As one Palestinian human rights activist put it,
the executions are a sign that Arafat is "acting completely
independently of any agreement with Israel."
According to an Israeli report, there is a list of some 20,000
so-called "collaborators." Allegedly, among those on the list are
dissidents who oppose Arafat, human rights activists and journalists.
Some say that outspoken Christians or converts to Christianity are
also among those who could be targeted by the PA. International
condemnation of the executions, particularly from the European Union,
which is a major donor to the PA, prompted the Palestinian leaders to
encourage the public to do away with the collaborators themselves,
according to reports from the PA-controlled areas.
Two more Palestinians were killed in gangland style murders, following
the executions, allegedly for collaborating. The head of Palestinian
Broadcasting Corporation was also gunned down in a mob-style killing,
as he sat in a restaurant in a seaside hotel in Gaza. Initially blamed
on Israel, a Palestinian group, calling itself the Brigade of the
Al-Aqsa Martyrs claimed responsibility for the killing, accusing PBC
head Hisham Mikki of corruption and sexual misconduct. Arafat has
refused to take action against allegations of widespread corruption at
the highest levels in the PA. Mikki, a close associate of Arafat=92s,
was rumored to have embezzled millions of dollars. His killing was
seen as a warning to those in Arafat=92s inner circle who are involved
in corrupt activities.
More than that, there is a growing concern that Arafat may be losing
control over the street. Ten years ago during the first intifada most
Palestinians didn=92t have guns. Today, most are armed and more apt to
use their weapons to take personal revenge or take the law into their
own hands.
10 YEARS LATER
Ten years after the Gulf War, many Palestinians are still backing
Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Hundreds of Palestinians rallied in favor
of the Iraqi president on the10th anniversary of the start of the
allied attack on his country. In his address, marking the day, Saddam
touted his "victory" in the war and praised Palestinians for their
uprising. In a newspaper interview published the same day he called
for Arab support for a six-month artillery barrage against Israel to
"liberate Palestine" from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
Israel may very well be in for a rough ride in the coming weeks and
months. But one thing is certain, no matter from which direction
opposition comes or in what form, the plans of God for her will
prevail over the plans of man.
"Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces;
and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall
be broken in pieces=85Take counsel together, and it shall come to
nought; speak the word and it shall not stand; for God is with us."
Isaiah 8:9-10
Julie Stahl
CNS News.com, Jerusalem Bureau Chief
The Israel News Digest is published and distributed by Christian
Friends of Israel, PO Box 1813, Jerusalem, 91015, Israel. It is
written monthly by David Dolan, our Contributing Correspondent who is
a journalist, author and speaker. David has written the Israel News
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To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Houston Meningitis Count Hits 18
From: owner-bpr@philologos.org
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 13:49:49 -0000
Houston Meningitis Count Hits 18
Low Vaccination Rate Creates Fears of Epidemic
By Mary Lee Grant
The Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/meningitis010122.html
H O U S T O N, Jan. 22 - Two more cases of spinal meningitis were
confirmed in suburban Houston, bringing to at least 18 the number of
cases in the area since Oct. 9, health officials said. Two have died
of the disease this month.
The meningitis outbreak has added to concerns raised late last year
about Houston's potential for epidemic as the city with the lowest
vaccination rate in the nation. Officials say the city is already
vulnerable to disease because of its role as a major port and airline
hub.
Meningitis is a bacterial illness that attacks the brain and spinal
cord. Symptoms include the sudden onset of fever, intense headache,
stiff neck and nausea.
On Thursday, the CDC declared a meningitis outbreak in Montgomery
County, just north of Houston, where 11 cases have been reported. The
two new cases reported during the weekend were in Fort Bend County,
in suburban southwest Houston.
One case involved an eighth-grade student at Lamar Junior High School
who was taken to the emergency room after developing symptoms of the
disease.
A 13-year-old boy and a 56-year-old woman in the Houston area have
died of the disease in the past two weeks.
More than 8,000 people lined up Saturday outside New Caney Middle
School in Porter, 25 miles north of Houston, for vaccinations.
The Texas Department of Health recommended vaccines for students from
that school district, where three cases had been confirmed. The state
is vaccinating only those aged 2 to 24.
Residents in the New Caney district can still receive vaccine at
local clinics today, officials said. The Montgomery County Health
Department in Conroe will also be administering the vaccine.
Another immunization program is set this week for the 3,600 students
in the Humble school district in northeast Harris County, where five
cases have been reported.
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To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] God, Stephen Wolfram, and Everything Else
From: "Moza"
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 09:32:42 -0500
God, Stephen Wolfram, and Everything Else
THE TASK IS SIMPLE but impossible. You are standing on the
50-yard line inside the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans,
and your job is to tile the field with 1-inch-square
bathroom floor tiles, half of them black, the other half
white.
Billions of tiles await you on wooden pallets in each end
zone.
And so you begin. One tile. Fifty tiles. Ten thousand tiles
barely cover the insignia at the center of the field. So far
to go. It hits you that if you are ever going to finish with
your sanity intact, you'd better start making this job more
interesting. So you start devising rules-say, that no two
black tiles can touch another unless they are on a diagonal
or are surrounded by six white tiles; or that white tiles
can line up to make an L shape but not a T. You come up with
a half dozen of these arbitrary rules, and because the work
is otherwise so relentlessly boring, you stick with them.
The work lasts for years. Then one day you find yourself
putting the last tiles down in a small patch by the
groundskeeper's entrance. Three tiles. Two. One. Catching
your breath, you kneel at the last open spot. There, it is
done. Four billion tiles. A life's work.
Stiffly, on worn-out knees, you shuffle toward the exit
ramp. Passing the locker rooms, you decide to look at your
work one more time but from a different vantage point.
Slowly, you make the long climb up the ramp, from field
seats to upper deck, and finally to the top of the dome. You
look down, expecting a sight like sand on a beach, or the
surface of polished marble...
Instead, you see a flower.
Not just the shape of a flower. Not just the idea of a
flower. But the very embodiment of a flower: a rose in
bloom, every feather of its petals, the odd twists of its
pistil, all as perfect as if you were kneeling down beside
it in the sunny corner of a garden. That it is black and
white and two-dimensional and 100 yards long doesn't
diminish the flower that displays itself beneath you. Nor
does it keep the hairs on the back of your neck from
standing up.
Your work suddenly has meaning. Your life has meaning. In
some inexplicable way, the universe has meaning.
The secret of how simple tiles could create a rose has
hidden in plain sight for 5,000 years. The Egyptians, while
stacking more than 2 million giant stone blocks to build the
Great Pyramid, almost looked it in the eye. The Arabs, great
pattern makers and mathematicians that they were, should
have seen the secret. Mandated by the strictures of their
faith, discouraged from using anything but abstract,
repeating forms in their decoration, the clues were right
before them every day on tile walls and copper trays and in
the backgrounds of their miniatures. But their eyes were on
Allah, as the eyes of Irish monks were on God the Father, as
they painted intricate repeating patterns to illuminate the
Book of Kells.
Then, in the Middle Ages, Roman mosaicists, whose art is
known as "cosmatesque," found the pattern within a pattern.
They left their designs in floors, stairs, columns, and
porticos all over Italy, and in two marble floors in
London's Westminster Abbey. But they were craftsmen, not
scientists or mathematicians. So for generations, they
pieced together large designs made up of identical, smaller
designs and saw only the beauty of the resulting symmetry,
not a window to a new world. For 800 or 900 years, millions
passed by these designs, marveled at their complex
beauty-and walked on.
[...]
His work contributed to a scientific field called cellular
automata-"cellular" because it deals with units on a larger
grid, "automata" because they automatically followed a
simple rule.
[...]
"Is there any other evidence," I ask, "that this
process takes place in the real world?" Wolfram makes a
small smile. He takes me over to a bank of printers and
terminals and pulls out a large sheet of paper. On it are
the results of a rule that creates great triangles within
triangles. "Now," he says, "look at this." He pulls open a
drawer, takes out one of those odd seashells, and hands it
to me.
A chill runs down my back. On the cold, shiny surface of the
conical shell, in light brown, is etched the exact same
pattern as in the printout. "It's called a Textile Cone
Shell," whispers Wolfram. "Extremely poisonous. It mostly
lives deep in the mud, so there may be no adaptive reason
for it to have developed this pattern."
For Wolfram, this is his equivalent of Darwin's finch,
Mendel's sweet pea-that shocking piece of evidence from the
natural world that makes a radical, all-encompassing theory
seem intuitively true. Rule 30 set Wolfram on his search;
the Textile Cone Shell told him he was on the right path.
[...]
The more sciences he probes, the more Wolfram senses a
deeper pattern-an underlying force that defines not only the
cosmos but living things as well: "Biologists," he says,
"have never been able to really explain how things get made,
how they develop, and where complicated forms come from.
This is my answer." He points at the shell, "This mollusk is
essentially running a biological software program. That
program appears to be very complex. But once you understand
it, it's actually very simple."
[...]
Wolfram won't describe all of his discoveries, but he does
toss out a few extraordinary examples:
A challenge to natural selection as the defining force in
evolution
Why time goes only one way
How to grow artificial organisms
An explanation of stock market behavior
How complex systems, from thunderstorms to galaxies, exhibit
intelligence
New ways to design and build integrated circuits and
computers at the atomic level
Why leaves, trees, seashells, snowflakes (and almost
everything else) take the shapes they do
Wolfram confidently predicts, "Within 50 years, more pieces
of technology will be created on the basis of my science
than on the basis of traditional science. People will learn
about cellular automata before they learn about algebra."
[...]
Wolfram says
"there's no place for God" in his new science. But what
about just outside? What will theologians say when they see
a theory that proposes that the entire universe-with its
perplexing combination of good and evil, order and chaos,
light and dark-could have been started by a First Mover
using a dozen rules?
http://www.forbes.com/asap/2000/1127/162.html
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========
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) Jewish Leadership
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 09:34:58 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 07:30:39 -0700 (MST)
From: The Temple Institute <opt-in@templeinstitute.org>
Subject: Jewish Leadership=20
Tonight the Jewish people mark Rosh Chodesh, the New Moon, and we begin the=
Hebrew month of Shvat. It was on this day, the first day of Shvat, that Mo=
ses began to recite the book of Deuteronomy to the people of Israel =96 "on=
the other side of the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain=
=20
this Torah=85"
This process continued for 37 days, until his death on the seventh day of t=
he month of Adar. Moses rebuked the Children of Israel for their acts of re=
bellion against G-d during their forty- year desert sojourn. He taught them=
once again about many of the commandments that had already been stated=20
at Mount Sinai and at the Tent of Meeting, as well as new commandments. He =
also presented Israel with the blessings and curses, and prepared them to i=
nherit the land of Canaan, blessing them before his death.=20
Our sages have taught that the first day of Shvat =96 tomorrow =96 is a day=
equal in greatness to the day that the Torah was given on Mount Sinai; eve=
ry year, this day is especially conducive for the hearts of our people to b=
e opened to the word of G-d.=20
For the people of Israel, the selfless leadership of Moses is the benchmark=
of what it means to be a leader, for all subsequent generations. The true =
Jewish leadership that he exemplified was based on his unique mixture of un=
surpassed humility tempered by unsurpassed greatness; above all, every=20
fiber of his being vibrated with total compassion for his people. He lived =
his life for Israel, and it was this quality of compassion that made him re=
ady to give up his life for Israel: "And now, if you will forgive their sin=
=96 and if not, blot me out of the book which You have written" (Ex.=20
32:32).=20=20
But politicians are the opposite of leaders. Today, leadership is a concept=
unfamiliar to us, and it would be profane to even mention the word in the =
same context as above.=20
Ehud Barak must have a very low opinion of his people, not to mention their=
intelligence: He has broken every promise he made to the people of Israel,=
and he has crossed every red line he established for himself. Despite cont=
inuing violence against Israelis, and in a bid purely orchestrated to=20
improve his chances in the February 6th elections, his "peace team" has bee=
n engaged in marathon talks in Taba, with the fervent hope of achieving som=
e sort of agreement that he can wave before the public. According to report=
s emerging yesterday from the negotiations, senior Palestinian sources=20
were "expressing much optimism." This in itself should be a reason for conc=
ern for every Jew that cares about the future, for the Palestinians have on=
ly expressed optimism when Israel is ready to concede to all their demands.=
And so yesterday, the Prime Minister=92s bureau sought to smooth over=20
reports that Israel was proposing a type of joint or international sovereig=
nty over the holy places in Jer!
usalem. In a statement, the bureau said that the Jewish holy places will re=
main under Israeli sovereignty, the connection between the Jewish people an=
d these places will be protected, and freedom of access will be guaranteed =
for everyone to the holy places.=20=20
But we cannot be expected to believe this, and it could be only the most cy=
nical of politicians who would be arrogant enough to think that we would. F=
or the holiest of all Jewish holy places, the Temple Mount, is today the mo=
st unprotected site in the State of Israel=85and under the watchful eyes=20
of Ehud Barak, its connection to the Jewish people has been torn asunder. M=
oreover, Jews have no freedom of access, whatsoever, to this, their holiest=
place.
=20
Yesterday, archeologists met with the Chief Rabbinate in an effort to coord=
inate activities to stop the Temple Mount excavations. Sephardic Chief Rabb=
i Bakshi-Doron asked Prime Minister Barak to establish a national committee=
of inquiry to investigate the desecration.=20=20
According to the archeologists=92 view of the controversy over the Wakf=92s=
activities on the Temple Mount, Ehud Barak has not only turned a blind eye=
, but given his tacit approval=85thus he bears ultimate responsibility for =
this destruction. These activities include not only unsupervised digging an=
d=20
construction, and the destruction of antiquities hailing from the Holy Temp=
le, but also, according to archeologist Elat Mazar, plans to construct the =
world=92s largest mosque, underneath the Temple Mount complex. Professor Ma=
zar, and other members of the Committee Against the Destruction of=20
Antiquities, say that a tunnel is being dug in the southern section of the =
Mount, underneath the Al Aksa Mosque in the direction of Solomon=92s Stable=
s. After this was reported on Israel Radio, police officials visited the Mo=
unt and inspected the area, and Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben Ruby=
=20
sought to put the matter to rest by stating "I can categorically say that t=
here is no tunnel being dug on t!
he Temple Mount." But archeologists from the Committee, unimpressed by offi=
cial Police denial, say that the police are professionally unqualified to m=
ake the inspection. These archeologists say that they possess "irrefutable =
evidence" that this tunnel exists=85photographs made secretly. This writer=
=20
can verify that this is the truth.=20
Last night, just as reports indicated that the Taba peace negotiations were=
making real progress (read: far-reaching Israeli concessions), it was disc=
overed that two Israelis had been murdered, in cold blood, in the center of=
the Palestinian-controlled town of Tulkarm. Ehud Barak, desperate as he=20
is for an agreement, knew that the people of Israel would not tolerate the =
talks=92 continuation, and so they were temporarily suspended=85at least un=
til the victims are buried. At this hour, it is unknown when the talks will=
be reconvened, but senior Palestinian officials report that the Israelis=20
have assured them that the talks will resume immediately.=20
As we reflect during this period on the singular leadership of Moses, we ca=
n find another message, this one regarding our own contemporary style of "l=
eadership:"=20
"Wherefore hear the word of the L-rd, scornful men, that rule this people w=
hich is in Jerusalem. Because you have said, =91We have made a covenant wit=
h death, and we have made a contract with the pit; when the overflowing sco=
urge shall pass through, it shall not come to us: for we have made lies=20
our refuge, and under falsehood we have hid ourselves=92." (Is. 28:14).
Rabbi Chaim Richman
THE TEMPLE INSTITUTE
PO Box 31876
Jerusalem, Israel
www.templeinstitute.org
An archive of all past newsletters is available at our website
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========
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Longevity: Centenarians' Secret: It's in the blood
From: research-bpr@philologos.org
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 18:07:48 -0000
From NY Times, 1/23/01:
Longevity: Centenarians' Secret: It's in
the Blood
By ERIC NAGOURNEY
Want to live to be 100?=20=20
No problem, a new study suggests. Just find a mother or father who=20
already has.=20=20
There is no guarantee, of course. But Dr. Nir Y. Barzilai of the=20
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, writing in the current issue of=20
The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, said he had found=20
that centenarians had unusually healthy cholesterol levels, and so=20
did their children.=20=20
The centenarians' "lipid profile" =97 higher good (H.D.L.) cholesterol=20
and lower bad (L.D.L.) ones =97 is believed to have made them less=20
susceptible to heart disease and hardening of the arteries. Since=20
their children share the trait, the study said, they may enjoy the=20
same longevity.
via: transhumantech@egroups.com
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========
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Researchers test adhesive tape as storage medium
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 13:20:37 -0500
Researchers test adhesive tape as storage medium
by Rick Perera, IDG News Service\Berlin Bureau
January 23, 2001, 05:50
BERLIN - German and American scientists are working to develop a
new information storage technology using ordinary commercial
adhesive tape as a medium. Private European Media Laboratory GmbH
(EML) and Stanford University have signed a three-year cooperation
contract, the EML announced in a statement Monday. A chief goal will
be to work together on the storage development and EML expects
the project to take about five years to develop.
EML researcher Steffen Noehte discovered some three years ago that
the polymer structure of "tesa Multi-Film" brand adhesive tape is
well suited as a holographic data medium, the laboratory said. The
technique, similar to that used to burn a CD, modifies the optical
properties of the tape using a laser. It can store data on any
individual layer of the tape without unwinding the roll or disturbing
other layers, meaning as much as 10G bytes of data can be written on
a single roll.
The laboratory said the new technology is superior to current CD
drives, for example, because it is the laser beam that rotates,
rather than the storage medium, helping avoid potential balance
problems. This technique enables high-speed rotation and thus the
high data-transfer rates which are required to record and play back
video films, for example.
EML scientists are working with Stanford electrical engineering
professor Lambertus Hesselink, an expert on optical and holographic
data storage, to further the project, titled "OptiMem." The partners
in the project hope to develop a "compact and affordable" storage
medium for applications such as pocket computers and digital video
cameras. They even envision a data-storage sticker, a modified
adhesive film onto which tiny individual holograms are written. It
holds about 250 times as much information as a standard bar code, the
researchers said, and could be used as secure identification for
products.
EML, in Heidelberg, Germany, can be reached at http://www.eml.org/.
The Stanford electrical engineering department, in Stanford,
California, is at http://ee.stanford.edu/.
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========
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] BNI.Priority News 1,2,3,4 (1/24/01)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 13:23:46 -0500
1. Terror victims to be laid to rest on Thursday in Haifa=09
2. PA cop involved in attempted kidnapping on Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Hwy
3. US not intending to replace Ambassador Dennis Ross=09
4. Histadrut sanctions =96 Day 3=09
5. Soldiers fire at armed terrorists in Gaza on Tuesday night=09
6. Closure placed on Tul Qarem=09
7. PA working to reopen Jericho casino=09
*****************************
24-JAN-01 =96 11:00am
*****************************
1. Terror victims to be laid to rest on Thursday in Haifa
(BNI-JAN.24) Terror victims Mordehai Dayan, 27, and Etgar Zeitouny, 34,
will be laid to rest in Haifa on Thursday morning at 11:00am. The two were
killed in Tul Qarem on Tuesday by masked gunmen.
The two were owners of a sushi restaurant on Sheinkin Street in Tel Aviv.
Despite pleas urging them not to travel to the PA autonomous city of Tul
Qarem to shop for earthenware vessels for their restaurant, the two made
the trip, accompanied by an employee, an Israeli Arab citizen of Baka
el-Gharbiya. The Arab man was released by the terrorists and subsequently
notified Israeli authorities of what had taken place. He was interrogated
and released by agents of the General Security Service (GSS/Shin Bet).=20=20
++++
2. PA cop involved in attempted kidnapping on Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Hwy
(BNI-JAN.24) A PA policeman, who is in Israeli custody, was one of three
Islamic terrorists who on Tuesday night attempted to kidnap an Israeli
taxi driver on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway.
Taxi driver Benny Buzaglo picked up the three fares from Shar HaGuy
Interchange area and headed towards the capital. At about 10:00pm, the
terrorists brandished a gun and tried to kidnap the driver and make off
with his vehicle.
Benny fought off his attackers who eventually fled empty handed and then
notified police. A helicopter was ordered into the air and other steps
were taken to apprehend the terrorists. One of the two in custody, a PA
policeman, admitted to taking part in the attempted kidnapping carjacking.
++++
3. US not intending to replace Ambassador Dennis Ross
(BNI-JAN.24) United States Secretary of State Colin Powel has decided not
to replace outgoing Middle East envoy Ambassador Dennis Ross, sending a
clear sign to Jerusalem and the PA that the new Bush administration does
not plan to place the same emphasis on US involvement in the Oslo process
as did the Clinton administration.=20=20=20
++++
4. Histadrut sanctions =96 Day 3
(BNI-JAN.24) The partial shutdown of the public sector ordered by the
Histadrut national labor union is in its third day on Wednesday. Union
officials are demanding a 16 percent wage increase over a three-year
period but Finance Minister Avraham Shohat insists that the union demand
is unreasonable and an unattainable one.=20
Government offices remain closed to the public, including the Ministry of
the Interior and the National Insurance Institute (Bituach Leumi). Sea
ports remain closed and cargo will not be loaded and unloaded. Trash
collection remains partial and airport departures at Ben-Gurion
International Airport will be running off schedule. Outpatient clinics in
government health facilities remain closed.=20=20=20=20=20
++++
5. Soldiers fire at armed terrorists in Gaza on Tuesday night
(BNI-JAN.24) IDF forces late last night fired at armed gunmen in Gaza,
near the Jewish community of Netzarim. Soldiers report hitting several of
them.
The soldiers spotted the gunmen as they were approaching an Israeli
vehicular convoy in the area.=20=20
++++
6. Closure placed on Tul Qarem
(BNI-JAN.24) Following the double murder of two Israelis in the PA
autonomous city of Tul Qarem on Tuesday, the IDF has placed a closure on
the city, barring anyone from entering or leaving with the exception of
humanitarian needs.
Senior security establishment officials stressed that the ban on Israelis
entering PA autonomous cities remains in effect and they called upon all
Israelis to realize the potentially fatal outcome of entering areas
designated as areas =93A=94, under total PA control.=20=20
++++
7. PA working to reopen Jericho casino
(BNI-JAN.24) Renovations are underway to repair damages to the Oasis
Casino in the PA autonomous city of Jericho, in preparation for its grand
reopening in the coming days. The casino was damaged by Israeli tank and
weapons fire in retaliation for attacks launched from the building over
past weeks and months.
Israeli officials reissued the ban on Israelis entering PA autonomous
areas in anticipation of the announced reopening of the popular casino in
the coming week. PA officials have announced that Israelis would not be
permitted in the casino when it reopens.=20=20
--------------
1. PA condemns Tul Qarem terror attack=09
2. Firebomb attack in southern Jerusalem on Tuesday night=09
3. Woman attacked on Jerusalem=92s Neviim Street Tuesday night=09
4. Gunfire attack at Netzarim hothouses=09
5. IDF tractor attacked with gunfire in southern Gaza=09
6. MK Sarid calls for criminal investigation against Rabbi Yosef=09
*****************************
24-JAN-01 =96 3:30pm
*****************************
1. PA condemns Tul Qarem terror attack
(BNI-JAN.24) Officials in the PA issued a statement of condemnation
following the murder of two Israelis in the autonomous city of Tul Qarem,
under total PA control.
The two, restraint owners from Tel Aviv, were taken by the terrorists from
the Abu Nidal restraint in the heart of the city and executed by gunfire
to their heads.=20=20=20
++++
2. Firebomb attack in southern Jerusalem on Tuesday night
(BNI-JAN.24) Two firebombs were hurled at the southern Jerusalem Givat
Hamatos caravan neighborhood on Tuesday night. There were no reports of
injuries. Police are investigating.=20=20
++++
3. Woman attacked on Jerusalem=92s Neviim Street Tuesday night
(BNI-JAN.24) A 25-year-old resident of Jerusalem=92s Pisgat Ze=92ev
neighborhood was lightly injured in a Tuesday night attack on Neviim
Street in the center of the city.=20
The woman was struck with a metal bar by the Arab attackers who were
apprehended by police. The remand of the two minors were extended for
seven-days by the court on Wednesday.=20=20
++++
4. Gunfire attack at Netzarim hothouses=20
(BNI-JAN.24) Gunfire was directed at the hothouses of the Gaza community
of Netzarim early Wednesday afternoon at a time when persons were working
in the area.
There were no reports of casualties to Israeli soldiers or civilians.
Soldiers returned fire.=20=20
++++
5. IDF tractor attacked with gunfire in southern Gaza
(BNI-JAN.24) Shots were fired at an IDF tractor operating near the
southern District Coordinating Office in Gaza near the community of Neve
Dekalim. There were no reports of casualties. Soldiers returned fire.=20=20
++++
6. MK Sarid calls for criminal investigation against Rabbi Yosef
(BNI-JAN.24) MK Yossi Sarid of the Meretz Party has called upon State
Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein to order a criminal investigation be
launched against Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of the
ultra-Orthodox Shas Party following the rabbi=92s remarks at an assembly
kicking off the party=92s election campaign.
Rabbi Yosef labeled Barak as =93an enemy of the Jewish people and religion.
In order to keep his position, he is selling out all of the Land of
Israel.=94
Sarid called for the investigation based on the laws against incitement.
The Meretz leader added that the government would have been outraged if a
religious leader outside of Israel had uttered the same words.=20=20
--------------
1. P=92sagot attacked by gunfire=09
2. No injuries in drive-by shooting attack=09
3. Two Ranaana residents arrested for conspiracy to attack Arabs=20
4. Taba talks to resume following burial of terror victims=09
5. Memorial service for Rabbi & Mrs. Binyamin Ze=92ev Kahane=09
************************
24-JAN-01 =96 5:42pm
************************
1. P=92sagot attacked by gunfire
(BNI-JAN.24) The community of P=92sagot, in the Benjamin Regional Council
region of Samaria, was attacked by gunfire from the neighboring PA
autonomous city of el-Bireh a short time ago. There were no reported
injuries. Soldiers did not return fire.=20=20
++++
2. No injuries in drive-by shooting attack
(BNI-JAN.24) An Israeli motorist escaped injury on Wednesday afternoon
when his car was fired upon by a passing vehicle near the entrance to the
community of Ateret, in the Benjamin Regional Council region of Samaria.
No additional details are available at the time of this report.=20=20
++++
3. Two Ranaana residents arrested for conspiracy to attack Arabs
(BNI-JAN.24) Police on Tuesday arrested two Ranaana resident who were
planning to attack Arab laborers in the city with firebombs in retaliation
for the =93Al Aqsa Intifada=94. One of the two in custody is an IDF soldier=
,
serving in a combat unit.
About two months ago, four firebombs were found in an orchard of Kfar
Nachman, near Ranaana. The investigation that followed led to the early
morning arrests of Yishai Suissa, 19, a soldier, and his friend Igor
Nikufirof, 20. The two are alleged to have prepared the incendiary devices
to be used against Arab laborers in Ranaana. The two were remanded to
house arrest for three days by a Magistrate=92s Court judge on Tuesday. =
=20
++++
4. Taba talks to resume following burial of terror victims
(BNI-JAN.24) The negotiations between Israeli and PA negotiators in the
Red Sea resort city of Taba will most likely resume on Thursday following
the funeral services for two Israelis killed in a terrorist attack in Tul
Qarem on Tuesday. The attack resulted in the suspension of the talks aimed
at reaching some type of agreement between Israel and the PA prior to the
Feb. 6 elections for a new prime minister.=20=20
++++
5. Memorial service for Rabbi & Mrs. Binyamin Ze=92ev Kahane
(BNI-JAN.24) On Monday, January 30, 2001, at 3:30pm, there will be a
graveside memorial service marking thirty days since the murders of Rabbi
Binyamin Ze=92ev Kahane and his wife Talia. Participants in the event will
gather at the graves in Jerusalem=92s Har Menuhot Cemetery.
On Saturday, a special memorial Sabbath will be held in Kfar Tapuach,
where the young couple lived with their six children. Persons interested
in participating are urged to call Shmuel Herzlich 03-772-2722 or
050-515-933. Transportation to Tapuach is available.=20=20
---------------
1. Delay at IDF checkpoint blamed for death of Arab woman=09
2. Police chief calls violence =93war=94=09
3. No injuries in shooting attack against Israeli vehicle near P=92sagot
4. Large anti Barak protest opposite Nazareth hotel=09
5. JM Beilin attacks Rabbi Yosef at election rally=09
6. MVA summary for the past 24 hours=09
7. Israeli, US officials: money being funneled to Hamas through Citibank=09
*****************************
24-JAN-01 =96 6:47pm
*****************************
1. Delay at IDF checkpoint blamed for death of Arab woman
(BNI-JAN.24) According to a report by the LAW human rights organization,
Aisha Nassr, 28, died of a heart attack while forced to wait for
inspection at an IDF checkpoint in the Ramallah area. The report confirmed
the allegations based on information provided by hospital personnel.=20=20
The report stated that Nassr was detained for routine inspection at the
checkpoint and the family called for a Red Crescent ambulance but by the
time they had arrived, she was in cardiac arrest.=20=20
++++
2. Police chief calls violence =93war=94
(BNI-JAN.24) Police Chief Shlomo Aaronishky on Wednesday stated that the
ongoing violence and daily attacks against Israeli targets is a =93state of
war=94 and Israel Police are preparing accordingly, including an ordered
increase in manpower deployment in the capital, as well the formation of a
reserve duty unit made up of former border police forces.=20
Aaronishky added that police are also prepared for the eventuality that
the violence will escalate.=20
++++
3. No injuries in shooting attack against Israeli vehicle near P=92sagot
(BNI-JAN.24) An Israeli motorist escaped injury on Wednesday evening when
a car was fired upon on the P=92sagot approach road in Samaria near the are=
a
sewage treatment plant. Bullets did strike the target vehicle but there
were no casualties.=20=20
++++
4. Large anti Barak protest opposite Nazareth hotel
(BNI-JAN.24) In anticipation of the arrival of Prime Minister Ehud Barak
at an election rally, hundreds of Israeli Arab citizens protested outside
the Ganei Nazareth Hotel, shouting slogans against Mr. Barak while
displaying photos of 13 Israeli Arabs killed in violent clashes with
Israel police in October 2000.
Leaders of the Israeli Arab community insist that they will make good on
threats to boycott the upcoming elections in protest of the deaths of the
Israeli Arab citizens during the stormy protest demonstrations that
coincided with the PA-orchestrated Intifada which began on September 29,
2000.=20=20
++++
5. JM Beilin attacks Rabbi Yosef at election rally
(BNI-JAN.24) Speaking at a Barak for prime minister election rally for the
Israeli Arab community in Nazareth on Wednesday evening, Justice Minister
Yossi Beilin stated that Rabbi Ovadia Yosef was =93not a rabbi among Israel=
.
I guess he will not be charged with incitement and he speaks nonsense. I
am embarrassed by his words and apologize.=94
Beilin was referring to statements made by the former chief rabbi at an
election assembly, stating Prime Minister Ehud Barak was evil and working
against the Jewish people and Land of Israel.=20=20
Meretz leader MK Yossi Sarid has called upon State Attorney General
Elyakim Rubinstein to order an investigation against Rabbi Yosef for
violating laws prohibiting incitement.
++++
6. MVA summary for the past 24 hours
(BNI-JAN.24) Following is a summary of injuries and fatalities that
resulted from motor vehicle accidents during the 24-hour period ending on
Wednesday, January 24, 2001, at 6:00pm.
One person was killed in motor vehicle accidents over the past day. Three
persons sustained serious injuries, six moderate and 210 light. MDA
emergency medical service teams treated 220 injured persons and responded
to 145 accidents.=20=20
++++
7. Israeli, US officials: money being funneled to Hamas through Citibank
(BNI-JAN.24) Israeli counter-terrorism officials are concerned that Hamas
supporters are funneling money to cells in Judea, Samaria and Gaza through
Citibank, The Jerusalem Post reported.
According to Israeli and US sources, three Israeli counter-terrorism
officials held talks at Citibank headquarters in New York last Friday to
discuss the matter. The counter-terrorism officials, who also met with
their counterparts in Washington last week to discuss joint projects aimed
at boosting Israel=92s counter-terrorism capabilities, were granted
permission from the US State Department for the meeting with Citibank.=20
A Citibank spokesman would neither confirm nor deny that a meeting took
place. =93As a matter of policy we do not discuss who may or may not be a
client. We always work closely with US and local authorities to ensure
that we never do business with an entity known to be a terrorist
organization,=94 Richard Howe, Vice President of Corporate Affairs for
Citigroup, Citibank=92s parent company, said.
=20=20
Several sources familiar with the transactions said an institution known
as Al-Aqsa Bank was collecting money from various NGO=92s and individuals i=
n
the United States and making the transfers via Citibank in Israel. Among
the top contributors is the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and
Development, a US-based, non-profit organization. It was removed from a
list of USAID-recognized NGO=92s last year after the State Department
claimed it had ties to Hamas. The core of its efforts are focused on
Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and the West Bank and Gaza.
=20
Israel estimates that approximately $100 million per year is channeled to
Hamas from around the world, with roughly 90 percent of the total going to
social service programs and 10 percent to the Hamas military wing,
responsible for attacks which have killed scores of Israelis.
In April 1996, the US Government passed a law making it illegal for
Americans to send money to terrorist groups, including Hamas. (Israel
Consulate- NY)=20=20
++++
=20
++++
News items published by BNI (=93BreakingNews-Israel=94) and/or =93BNI.Elect=
ion=94
lists, may be distributed, copied, posted providing the websites and other
forums carrying the stories display the footer below instructing readers
how to subscribe in plain view on the same page with the news.=20=20
++++
1. To subscribe to the BreakingNews-Israel list, send a blank email
message to 44828-subscribe@listbot.com=20=20=20
2. To subscribe to the BNI.Election list, providing election coverage,
send a blank email message to=20
BNI.Election-subscribe@listbot.com=20
3. To subscribe to the BNI.PriorityNews list, providing news of
importance, send a blank email message to=20
BNI.PriorityNews-subscribe@listbot.com
4. To contact the owner of BNI lists, send an email to
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To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
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URL: http://philologos.org/bpr
========
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) The PA Mufti: Jews from Germany Should Return There
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 17:45:22 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 17:05:31 -0800
To: memri@erols.com
From: MEMRI <memri@erols.com>
Subject: The PA Mufti: Jews from Germany Should Return There
Special Dispatch - PA
January 25, 2001
No. 182
Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)
P.O. Box 7837, Washington DC, 20038-7837=20
Phone: (202) 955-9070=20
Fax: (202) 955-9077=20
E-mail: MEMRI@erols.com=20
Website: www.memri.org
The PA Mufti: Jews from Germany Should Return There
The PA Mufti, 'Ikrima Sabri, was interviewed by the German Die Welt on the=
=20
issues of Jerusalem, the Jews and the Arab-Israeli conflict. (1) Following=
=20
is the interview:
Die Welt: The new Intifada is named after the Al-Aqsa Mosque which is on th=
e=20
Temple Mount. On January 4, the Chief Rabbinate declared that Jewish Halach=
a=20
(Religious Law) prohibits "the transfer of sovereignty over the Temple Moun=
t=20
to foreigners, whether directly or indirectly", for it is the holiest place=
=20
for the Jewish people. Four days later, you declared in a Fatwa that the=20
place is Muslim in its entirety. Is this an unsolvable contradiction?
Sabri: There is not [even] the smallest indication of the existence of a=20
Jewish temple on this place in the past. In the whole city, there is not=20
even a single stone indicating Jewish History. Our right, on the other hand=
,=20
is very clear. This place belongs to us for 1500 years. Even when it was=20
conquered by the Crusaders, it remained Al-Aqsa, and we got it back soon=20
afterwards. The Jews do not even know exactly where their temple stood.=20
Therefore, we do not accept that they have any rights, underneath the=20
surface or above it.
Die Welt: It is agreed among archeologists that the Wailing-Wall is part of=
=20
the foundation of Herod's temple. The Bible and other antique sources repor=
t=20
about this place in detail. Why can't you respect the Jewish connection to=
=20
this place?
Sabri: It is the art of the Jews to deceive the world. But they can't do it=
=20
to us. There is not a single stone in the Wailing-Wall relating to Jewish=20
History. The Jews cannot legitimately claim this wall, neither religiously=
=20
nor historically. The Committee of the League of Nations recommended in=20
1930, to allow the Jews to pray there, in order to keep them quiet. But by=
=20
no means did it acknowledge that the wall belongs to them.
Die Welt: Why don't you allow Israeli scientists to dig there to look for=20
possible remnants and proofs for or against the existence of the Jewish=20
temple?=20
Sabri: We categorically reject all excavations under the Al-Aqsa mosque,=20
because they would endanger the historical buildings on the site. Besides,=
=20
they have already dug everywhere. All they could find were remnants of=20
buildings from the Omayyad-period. Everything they excavated was related to=
=20
Arabs and Muslims.=20
Die Welt: King Hussein once proposed "Divine Sovereignty" over Temple Mount=
,=20
in order to reduce the tensions between peoples and religions there=85
Sabri: We accept God's sovereignty. That is why this mosque is called=20
Al-Aqsa. Allah himself gave it this name. Allah wants the place to belong t=
o=20
the Muslims and to no one else. This is acceptable to us.=20
Die Welt: Would you agree, if necessary, to the internationalization of the=
=20
city, in order to manage these unsolvable problems?
Sabri: An internationalized Jerusalem would be worse for us than a Zionist=
=20
Jerusalem. In such a case, the entire world, and not only one state, would=
=20
be against us. This would be a regression to colonial times.
Die Welt: On March 23, the Pope said in Jerusalem: "Religion must never be=
=20
an excuse for the use of force especially when religious identity overlaps=
=20
with cultural and national identity." How would you answer him?
Sabri: Any religious man would agree with that. We also believe that=20
religion is not the reason for the hatred between peoples. Only those=20
without religion ignore that. But who are they? Who occupies and destroys=20
other peoples and their property?
Die Welt: The Intifada is also violent. Wasn't the peaceful resistance with=
=20
which Gandhi ended British colonialism in India, more successful?
Sabri: We have fought for peace without using violence since 1967. But no=20
one listened to us. We won resolutions in the UN, but no one lifted a finge=
r=20
for us.
Die Welt: In your July 2000 Fatwa you declared: "We insist on the Right of=
=20
Return for all the 1948 refugees and prohibit them from getting=20
compensations for [the loss] of the Holy Land, for it has no price. What ar=
e=20
the borders of this Holy Land that you refer to?
Sabri: From an Islamic point of view, it stretches from the Mediterranean t=
o=20
the Jordan [River]. It is Palestine in its entirety.=20
Die Welt: And there is no place for the Israelis?
Sabri: For the Jews who lived here before, there will be a place, of course=
.=20
But all those Jews who came here from all over the world, must return to th=
e=20
places from where they came. The Jews from Germany should return to Germany=
.=20
(laughs) After all, you like them so much, don't you?
Die Welt: Does this mean, that there is no place here for a Jewish state?
Sabri: I didn't address this issue in my Fatwa. All I said was that the=20
refugees must return. I didn't say anything about the borders.=20
Endnotes:
(1) Die Welt (Germany) January, 17, 20001.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent,
non-profit organization providing translations of the media of the Middle=20
East and original analysis and research on developments in the region.=20=20
Copies of articles and documents cited, as well as background information,=
=20
are available upon request.
------- End of forwarded message -------
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