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ANNAPOLIS (AP) — The all-day physical exercises that mark the end of a midshipman's first year at the Naval Academy were never exactly fun. But this year, they've gotten even more serious. Dodgeball is no longer on the program. Parents aren't allowed to gather on bleachers anymore to cheer. And each stop of the exhausting day is dedicated to a fallen service member. The academy has put greater emphasis on wartime sacrifices, hoping to inspire plebes — the term the academy uses for freshmen — to think about what they are doing behind the academy's walls on the picturesque Severn...

It is standard practice for athletes and magicians to fake us out. They distract our attention to mislead us as to their intentions. Politicians do to. It used to be Israel's policy to put facts on the ground to strengthen Israel's hold on Judea and Samaria and to make time work against Palestinians. That was when we considered such lands "disputed territories", when we sought to get agreement on "defensible borders" and believed that Jerusalem would be Israel's undivided capital forever. No more. As a result of this activity, the US declared war on the settlements. The Mitchel Report in...

PM Olmert announced that he expects to reach an agreement with the PA (whatever and whoever that is) by the end of the year, and went on to say it won't be implemented for many years. "We will insist on all the terms of the Road Map, first and foremost among them a cessation of terrorism, as a precondition for implementation of any understanding. But the first step creating a horizon of hope for us and for the Palestinians can be taken, it must be taken, and we will make every effort in order to successfully do so this year."...

Norman Podhoretz, as you will recall, was a staunch supporter of GW Bush, and is staying the course, and was in support of Sharon's Disengagement. He now replies to his critics of both these positions, in his Commentary article, Israel and the Palestinians:Has Bush Reneged?. Anyone interested in the peace process from its beginning in Madrid should read this very informative article. He begins, On June 24, 2002, George W. Bush, having already become the first American President to come out openly and officially for the establishment of a Palestinian state, attached two stern conditions to that new policy. The...

Often our efforts are to no avail and unfortunately we must be reminded of that time and again. American Friends of Likud just held a worldwide conference on "Israel at the Crossroads: The Palestinians and Gaza in the Shadow of Iran" featuring MK Yuval Steinitz, Maj. - Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror and Dan Diker. Their remarks were recorded and available HERE.In essence they advise the current government on its pursuit of peace through the peace process, that "Es vet dir gournisht helphen.". More importantly, they argue it will hurt you/us. Iran, through its proxies Hamas and Hezballah is intent on...

On June 24, 2002, George W. Bush, having already become the first American President to come out openly and officially for the establishment of a Palestinian state, attached two stern conditions to that new policy. The United States, he declared, “will not support the establishment of a Palestinian state until its leaders engage in a sustained fight against the terrorists and dismantle their infrastructure.” This commitment constitutes what I have called the “Fourth Pillar” of the Bush Doctrine, and many friends of Israel now believe that Bush has reneged on it. Paul Mirengoff of the influential “Power Line” blog puts...

The American fight for liberty was not only the domain of John Adams and his fellow Boston patriots — although HBO's miniseries might lead us to believe that. The fight also took place much closer to home in places like Annapolis, where a recently opened archaeological exhibit at the Banneker-Douglass Museum shows how an 18th-century printmaker protested the British Stamp Act tax and how mid-19th-century freed slaves fought discrimination by purchasing brand-name canned goods and bottled libations. "They preferred national brands because of the predictability of price and guarantee of quality," says Mark Leone, founder and director of Archaeology in...

In reality, there is no fundamental difference between the ultimate goals of Hamas and the PLO vis-à-vis Israel: Neither accepts the Jewish state's right to exist and both are committed to its eventual destruction. The only difference between the two groups lies in their preferred strategies for the attainment of this goal. Whereas Hamas concentrates exclusively on "armed struggle," the PLO has adopted since the early 1990s a more subtle strategy, combining intricate political and diplomatic maneuvering with sustained terror attacks. In the candid words of Farouq Qaddoumi, the PLO's perpetual foreign minister: "We were never different from Hamas. Hamas...

For years, countless synagogues and other Jewish institutions in the United States have flown the banner declaring "We Support Israel in Her Quest for Peace." For most American Jews, these words have given voice to a shared love and concern for Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people, and to a hope that the conflict that has raged on and off since even before Israel's founding in 1948, will finally end. For some, this devotion to Israel has been embodied in unwavering support for the policies and actions of her government. For others, it has included criticism of that...

Will the real George W. please stand up? After seven years of fearlessly confronting evil, both rhetorically and militarily, the Bush Administration in Washington seems to have faded away, replaced instead by a meek shadow of its former self. Firm resolve has given way to disappointing frailty, as the shape and direction of US foreign policy increasingly resembles something taken straight out of Bill Clinton's playbook. Across the board, on nearly every major issue of the day, from Iran to Syria to North Korea, the Bush administration is in retreat, abandoning the principled stands of yesteryear and replacing them with...

KURDS VS ARAB 'PALESTINIANS' IT PAYS TO BE ILLEGITIMATE & MURDEROUS "PALESTINIAN" THAN TO BE A LIGITIMATE PEACEFUL KURD   Dec. 2007   As the world's about to give yet another state [Jordan ain't enough?] for the [group of immigrant Arabs into Israel that call themselves as] "Palestinians", that have never behaved and do not merely fight for a 'homeland' which Israel was never theirs anyhow, but have their goal of eliminating Israel, ethnic cleansing and racist genocide, the poor Kurds still sink under oppression by Turkey, by Arab racism in: Syria, Iraq, and by Islamic fascists regime of Iran.   __________________________________________________________________________   THE KURDS REAL...

CAIRO, Egypt — Al-Qaida's deputy leader denounced last month's Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Md., as a "betrayal" of Palestinians in a new audio message posted Friday on an Islamic militant Web site. It was the first reaction by the terrorist network to the Mideast conference, sponsored by President Bush and attended by key Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Syria and Egypt, as well as Palestinian and Israeli leaders. The conference relaunched Palestinian-Israeli peace talks after a seven year hiatus — a key breakthrough in the region's core conflict. "The Annapolis meeting was held to turn Palestine into a Jewish...

Quiz yourself on the Israeli Arab ["Palestinian"] conflict       1) When was the Arab immigration to [the historic Jewish land of] Israel -"Palestine" boosted?   A When they wanted to see Jewish holy sites. B When [anti French and anti British] Arab nationalism spread across the middle east. C When the Zionists Jews came and cultivated the deserted land.     2) What's [Arab "Palestinian" highest "national" icon] Yasser Arafat's country of origin?   A Israel ["Palestine"]. B Jordan. C Egypt.     3) Why were there --initially-- more Arab immigrants ["residents"] than Jewish immigrants (Arab majority)?   A Because...

No message to the Palestinian people is more genuine than the one delivered in Arabic language by the official Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation (PBC). Based in the Ramallah headquarters of Palestinian Authority leader Machmud Abbas, and operating under Abbas's direct control and supervision, the PBC might fairly be described as the voice of the Palestinian government. This past Friday, this reporter recorded the pre-Annapolis sermon that was broadcast on the PBC radio network from the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, and asked an Arabic language expert to translate that sermon. Here is that sermon, in translation. It speaks for itself as a...

Israelis, Palestinians Doubtful Peace Can Be Achieved In a Year By Julie Stahl CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief November 28, 2007 Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Despite optimism in Washington and Annapolis over the re-launch of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Israelis and Palestinians voiced skepticism about the possibility of achieving a final agreement by the end of next year. President Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas are meeting on Wednesday kick off the renewed talks that are supposed to resolve the most difficult issues -- Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, final borders and the fate of Israeli settlements in the West...

Last week, a line was crossed. A terrible line was crossed at Annapolis. With the world looking on, the President of the United States sponsored Judeophobia. Jew-hatred was okay, understandable even. Under the auspices of a global "peace" conference, the White House sanctioned Jew-hatred. The Jew is contemptible, inferior, ignorant, politically and socially disenfranchised: separate entrance ways, service entrances for the Jews, refusal to touch or shake hands with a Jew, refusal of audience members to wear the translation earphones when Ehud Olmert spoke. "Saud Al-Faisel's ears, underneath his red keffiyah, were left bare. And no, it wasn't because he...

For the longest time we were told that the US was working to form a coalition of the moderates against the radicals. A week ago in my articles Everyone is switching to the radicals, US included and Of "Moderates" and Radicals I argued the opposite. Now the truth comes out Bush Embarks on Saudi-Brokered Deal with Tehranat Israel's expense, I might add.

At the Annapolis peace talks last month, the Israeli team — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak — didn't have high expectations for making headway on the Palestinian issue, but they were confident of pressing their case on Iran to a receptive White House. Instead, Barak was taken aside by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and told that new intelligence persuaded the Americans that Iran wasn't such a big threat after all.

Washington - Looking to the post-Bush era in American politics, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is attempting to enlist leading presidential candidates to support his renewed push for a settlement with the Palestinians. When Olmert was in the United States for the Annapolis, Md., peace summit, he took the opportunity to call each of the leading presidential candidates to brief them on the plans for engaging in final-status talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. “I found that all the candidates had a lot of good will toward Israel,” Olmert said later in a press briefing. “They were all very friendly...

Israel readies for Gaza invasion The army has completed plans for a large offensive in the Gaza Strip, now controlled by Hamas, and is waiting only for gov't approval, the military said. Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said Israel in the meantime would continue with its policy of airstrikes and brief ground incursions to halt Palestinian rocket attacks. Defense Minister Ehud Barak has repeatedly said the time for a ground invasion of Gaza is drawing closer, if not yet imminent.