'Jews Against Israel' Visit Iran

There are some Jews that don't believe that the state of Israel should exist. This was made clear when an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect called Neturei Karta attended a conference in Iran to discuss the Holocaust. The conference was hosted by the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for the destruction of the state of Israel.

Neturei Karta's Hasidic Jews oppose the Jewish state on religious grounds and believe Jews should live under Arab Muslim rule until the Messiah comes. They sent a delegation of six representatives to the conference. One of them, Rabbi Yisroel D. Weiss, gave a speech defending their position. Another representative, UK-based Rabbi Aharon Cohen prayed that:

"The underlying cause of strife and bloodshed in the Middle East, namely the state known as Israel, be totally and peacefully dissolved".In its place, Rabbi Cohen said, should be "a regime fully in accordance with the aspirations of the Palestinians when Arab and Jew will be able to live peacefully together as they did for centuries".

Neturei Karta believes the very idea of an Israeli state goes against the Jewish religion.

However Neturei Karta's views are regarded with abhorrence by most other Orthodox Jews, according to Rabbi Jeremy Rosen of the Yakar centre in London.

"And I think, frankly, even among the Hasidic world, by and large Neturei Karta are regarded as freaks," the Orthodox rabbi told the BBC News website.

Conference speakers included David Duke, a white supremacist and former Louisiana state representative who contends that Israel organized the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and Holocaust deniers such as French writer Georges Thiel, who has called the extermination of Jews an enormous lie and denies the gas chambers existed.

John Lang, a West Nyack resident who escaped the Nazis in 1938, called the conference an "abomination intended to further denigrate Israel and the Jewish religion."

Lang called Neturei Karta members an "embarrassment to the Jewish people just as much as David Duke is an embarrassment to Americans."

Click the following links for more information on Orthodox Judaism, Zionism, Anti-Zionism

Soybeans Can Make Kids Gay!

This is one of those things that makes you go HUH!? According to Jim Rutz soybean products are feminizing and can lead to homosexuality. Some highlights from this article:

• Soy contains estrogen, a female hormone
  
  If you're a woman, you're flooding your system with a substance it can't handle in surplus. If you're a man, you're suppressing your masculinity and stimulating your "female side," physically and mentally.
  
  

• Soy milk can be dangerous for babies
  
  If you're a grownup, you're already developed, and you're able to fight off some of the damaging effects of soy. Babies aren't so fortunate. Research is now showing that when you feed your baby soy formula, you're giving him or her the equivalent of five birth control pills a day. A baby's endocrine system just can't cope with that kind of massive assault, so some damage is inevitable. At the extreme, the damage can be fatal.
  
  

• Other Detrimental Effects of Soy
  
  Commonly leads to a decrease in the size of the penis, sexual confusion and homosexuality. Girls may reach puberty at a very early age (6-8). Boys may reach puberty much later than normal. Research in 2000 showed that a soy-based diet at any age can lead to a weak thyroid, which commonly produces heart problems and excess fat. Estrogen ingredients in soy products may be boosting the rapidly rising incidence of leukemia in children and cancer in adults.
  
  

After reading this article, I thought it was interesting but had very little in the way of verifiable facts. There were no references to back up any of his assertions. Where did all this come from? So I decided to look for some corroboration. I found one entitled: Soy:The Poison Seed by William Wong. Below are some exerts:

What's bad about Soy?

Contains Isoflavones (Genistein and Daidzein). In soy the isoflavones are built in insecticides. If they kill bugs are they good for humans?

Isoflavones are estrogen like substances which have the same effect as the bodies estrogen.

Kills testicular tissue. In men it permanently reduces testicular function and lowers Lutinizing Hormone production. LH is what signals your testicles to work. This increases the probability of estrogen dominance in men with its hair loss, swollen and cancerous prostates. (4,5). Male children fed soy formulas and soy products may not ever get to like girls. Dorris Rapp MD, the worlds leading pediatric allergist, asserts that environmental and food estrogens are responsible for the increase in male homosexuality and the worldwide reduction in male fertility. (6).

William Wong N.D., Ph.D. backs up his article with lots of references but seems to have a problem with: "Agribusiness giants Monsanto and Archer Daniels Midland and the FDA." and concludes his article with the following:

Any opinions to contradict the facts noted above have been paid for by the Agribusiness giants Monsanto and Archer Daniels Midland. Once public knowledge of their manipulation of public opinion and of the FDA becomes widely known, expect monster class action lawsuits against these folks. They'll deserve it in spades!

There is however one soy product that we don't have to worry about......Soy Sauce!!

Soy sauce is fine. Unlike soy milk, it's perfectly safe because it's fermented, which changes its molecular structure. Miso, natto and tempeh are also OK, but avoid tofu.

Saudi Arabia supports Iraqi Sunnis

There is evidence that Saudi Arabia is supporting its Sunni brethren against the majority Shiite sect now controlling Iraq. As mentioned before in a previous article, both Saudi Arabia and Iran have competing interests in Iraq. While the world waits to see how President Bush will react to the Iraq Study Group report, there are indications that if US troops are pulled out of Iraq, Saudi Arabia may find it necessary to protect the minority Sunni population against Shiite domination.

In most Muslim countries the Sunnis are the dominant sect. However in both Iran and Iraq the Shiites are the majority. The continued sectarian violence in Iraq has many Muslim countries worried about the fate of the Iraqi Sunni population. This has led to much speculation about the role Saudi Arabia has been playing in supporting the Sunnis in their struggle against the Shiites.

Officially the Saudis have denied reports that it is supplying or intends to supply any weaponry or financial aid to the Sunnis in Iraq. Nawaf Obaid, a security advisor to the Saudi government was fired over remarks he made in the Washington Post suggesting that Saudi Arabia would back the Sunnis in Iraq if the US troops were to pull out.

Nawaf Obaid made it clear in the article that he was expressing his own views and not that of the Saudi government. The Saudi ambassador to the US, and former Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Turki al-Faisal said of his dismissal: "We felt that we could add more credibility to his claims as an independent contractor by terminating our consultancy agreement with him."

Prince Turki al-Faisal also said in an interview that: "it would not be Saudi Arabia's interests to have a "perpetually disturbed" Iraq on its border."

"The violence in Iraq today is driven by political ambition, not by sectarian or ethnic reasons," he added, "and the political ambition used sectarian and ethnicity for their purposes. So that is why I said a political solution from inside Iraq is the only way we can solve this problem, not military, and definitely not one whereby one sect or another can be described as becoming dominant in Iraq."

However, The Herald Tribune also reports that: "private Saudi citizens are providing millions of dollars in funding to Sunni insurgents in Iraq. Much of the money is used to buy weapons."

Saudi government officials deny that any money from their country is being sent to Iraq. But the U.S. Iraq Study Group report released Wednesday also cited Saudi individuals as a source of Sunni insurgent funding. Two high-ranking Iraqi officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity, told The Associated Press recently that most of the Saudi money comes from private Islamic donations inside Saudi Arabia, known as zakat. Some Saudis appear aware the money is headed to Iraq but others merely give it to clerics who then send it on, they said.

It also appears that not only is Saudi money going to Iraq but many Saudi youths have been crossing the border to help in the fight against US and coalition forces. Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif Ibn Abdul Aziz said Iraq had become a threat to the entire region, and that it was the main base for terrorism.

The minister also said Saudi youth were being lured to fight in Iraq. US and Iraqi officials have long complained about Saudi extremists crossing into Iraq to join the battle against American and coalition forces. US officials announced last April that Saudis were one of the top five nationalities among foreign fighters captured by coalition forces in Iraq.

Rumsfeld's Farewell

Donald Rumsfeld, outgoing secretary of Defense, took his 15th and final trip to Iraq, to say farewell to the troops that he has been responsible for since the US led invasion in 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Rumsfeld leaves behind a legacy of almost 3,000 dead American troops and ten of thousands of Iraqis killed in the more than three years since "liberating" Iraq from Saddam. His leadership had been under attack for years and many had called for his resignation. However President Bush loyally refused to force Rumsfeld out, even after the scandal of Abu Ghraib.

It was the 2006 election results that seemed to push President Bush to replace Rumsfeld. One day after the elections, when it was clear that Democrats would control both the House and the Senate, the President finally announced that Rumsfeld would leave office on Dec 18, 2006. Rumsfeld was just 9 days short of becoming the longest serving Secretary of Defense. He does however have the distinction of being the only person to serve as Secretary of Defense twice in 1975-1977 under President Ford and 2001-2006 under President Bush. He was also the youngest and the oldest person to hold that office.

On his farewell tour of Iraq, Rumsfeld tried to encourage the troops:

"For the past six years, I have had the opportunity and, I would say, the privilege, to serve with the greatest military on the face of the Earth," Rumsfeld said to more than 1,200 soldiers and Marines at al-Asad, a sprawling air base in western Anbar province, an insurgent stronghold.

"We feel great urgency to protect the American people from another 9/11 or a 9/11 times two or three. At the same time, we need to have the patience to see this task through to success. The consequences of failure are unacceptable," Rumsfeld said at al-Asad air base in western Iraq. "The enemy must be defeated."

The Wrong President Bush?

The first President Bush (George Herbert Walker) was in Florida giving a speech about his other son Jeb Bush when he broke down and cried in public. The audience was very supportive and tried to encourage him by clapping, but in the end he was unable to finish the speech.

The first President Bush must be very proud to have two sons serving in high public office (The President and the Governor of Florida), but it seems as if he had a special spot for Jeb. This led to some speculation as to whether the wrong Bush son became President. Keith Olbermann explores the relationship between the ex-President and his two sons:
[youtube="http://youtube.com/watch?v=IzPwUKwqRSM"]