Free Republic

He has a host of relatives in exotic locations from Hawaii to Kenya, and during his run for the American presidency he discovered that he had an aunt living in Boston. Now Barack Obama is being claimed by not one but as many as 8,000 Beduin tribesmen in northern Israel. Although the spokesman for the lost tribe of Obama has yet to reveal the documentary evidence that he says he possesses to support his claim, people are flocking from across the region to pay their respects to the “Beduin Obama”, whose social standing has gone through the roof.

In the first appeal of its kind, Hamas on Thursday called on Israeli Beduins to prevent their sons from serving in the IDF. The call followed last Sunday's attack on an IDF outpost near Rafah, in which five Beduin soldiers were killed and six others injured. "We were very shocked to learn that a number of Beduin soldiers are serving in the Zionist occupation army, especially at the border area between the Gaza Strip and Egypt," Hamas said in a message to the heads of the Beduin community. "Similarly, we were shocked that these soldiers are carrying out the orders...

Dec. 13, 2004 21:56 | Updated Dec. 13, 2004 22:32 Sgt. Sayid Jaja laid to rest in 'Arara By DANIEL BEN-TAL The first family in 'Arara whose sons serve in the IDF buried their youngest boy in a brief, somber military funeral in this Muslim village in central Israel Monday. Fewer than 200 men attended the funeral of Sgt. Sayid Jaja, 19, one of five soldiers from the Beduin Desert Reconnaissance Battalion killed in Sunday evening's attack on an IDF post in the southern Gaza Strip. Local restaurant owner Younis Wal, whose wife is related to the Jaja family, explained...

Muhammad, a lieutenant serving in the Jewish army, peers into the Bible-black night, matching his rival's wits against his own. Having guided the police to this spot, the Beduin tracker squats on his haunches out of sight watching two smugglers, both Beduin like himself, quietly coax an old and toothless camel across the fenceless border. Its curly back is laden with two huge burlap sacks, each containing 70 kilos of dried marijuana. Each sack is worth the price of a new car in Israel, but for his fee, the Beduin smuggler is promised just 1,000 Egyptian pounds, about $160. For...