Wednesday, May 16, 2012
'Lost tribe' of Israel returning home
After a five-year immigration halt, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has given permission to a community of Indian citizens who believe they are one of the “lost tribes” of Israel to move to the Jewish state.
“We had a major breakthrough, and thank God, the Aliya [immigration to Israel] is set to resume this summer, and we hope and pray to bring the first batch of 50 families, or about 250-300 Bnei Menashe immigrants, to Israel by the end of August,” said Michael Freund, chairman of Shavei Israel, which is behind the initiative.
Shavei, based in Jerusalem, hopes to bring to the Jewish state the remaining 7,000 Indian citizens who believe they are the Bnei Menashe, the descendants of Manasseh, one of biblical patriarch Joseph’s two sons and a grandson of Jacob.
Already Freund’s group helped facilitate the immigration of over 1,700 Bnei Menashe, with successive Israeli governments allowing and then halting the process. In 2007, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s administration put the kibosh on the process, which is now being reopened.
Shavei plans to bring 50 Bnei Menashe families to Israel this summer with hopes of transplanting the remaining tribe members from India to Israel in the next few years.
The original batches of Bnei Menashe to arrive here came as tourists in an agreement with Israel’s Interior Ministry. Once in Israel, the Bnei Menashe converted officially to Judaism and became citizens.
But diplomatic wrangling halted the immigration process in 2003, with officials from some Israeli ministries refusing to grant the rest of the group still in India permission to travel here.
To smooth the process, Freund at the time enlisted the help of Israel’s chief rabbinate, who flew to India in 2005 to convert members of the Bnei Menashe, a process stopped last year by India.
Freund then coordinated with the Israeli government the arrival of batches of a few hundred Bnei Menashe as tourists who would later convert, but that process was halted in July 2007.
Tribe members live in the two Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, to which they say they were exiled from Israel more than 2,700 years ago by the Assyrian empire.
According to Bnei Menashe oral tradition, the tribe was exiled from Israel and pushed to the east, eventually settling in the border regions of China and India, where most remain today. Most kept customs similar to Jewish tradition, including observing Shabbat, keeping the laws of Kosher, practicing circumcision on the eighth day of a baby boy’s life and observing laws of family purity.
In the 1950s, several thousand Bnei Menashe say they set out on foot to Israel but were quickly halted by Indian authorities. Undeterred, many began practicing Orthodox Judaism and pledged to make it to Israel. They now attend community centers in India established by Shavei Israel to teach the Bnei Menashe Jewish tradition and modern Hebrew.
Freund sees the Bnei Menashe immigration as biblical, quoting from Isaiah 43:5, which states, “Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.”
“Those words,” Freund says, “are coming to life before our eyes.”
“I think this is a very historic project,” he added. “It is the closing of an historical circle. It is the return of a lost tribe of Israel after 27 centuries of exile, and it is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy.”
WND
Italy's banks shaken as economic slump deepens
With the world's third largest debt after the US and Japan at €1.9 trillion (£1.18 trillion), it is big enough to bring the global financial system to its knees. It is also in the front line of contagion as the Greek crisis metastasizes.
Yields on 10-year Italian debt jumped 16 points to 5.86pc on Tuesday after Italy's data agency said the country is sliding even into deeper recession, with GDP shrinking 0.8pc in the first quarter.
Output is now 6pc below its peak in 2008. Italy has been trapped in perma-slump for a decade, the only major state to suffer a fall in real per capita income since 2000.
Rising anger has led to a spate of violent attacks by terrorist groups over recent weeks, all too like the traumatic 'years of lead' in the late 1970s. The government is mulling use of troops to protect targets after anarchists shot the head of Ansaldo Nucleare last week and hurled petrol bombs at tax offices.
The unelected government of Mario Monti is carrying out net fiscal tightening of 3.5pc of GDP this year even though Italy's budget is near primary surplus. This is three times the International Monetary Fund's "therapeutic" pace. All key measures of Italy's money supply have been contracting at 1930s rates over the last six months.
Hans Redeker from Morgan Stanley said the EU's mishandling of Greece has put Italy in grave danger. "The irrevocability of the eurozone is a valuable asset, and they are throwing it away. Global investors are preparing for the day Greece leaves," he said.
The IMF said Italian bank exposure to the state is 32pc of GDP, including all forms of lending. "We are looking at this number very closely," said Mr Redeker. Almost half of this is owed to foreigners. Italy's central bank owes a further €278bn in 'Target2' claims to peers in Germany, Holland, Finland and Luxembourg, reflecting capital flight.
Italy's former premier Romano Prodi said the EU risks instant contagion to Spain, Italy, and France if Greece leaves. "The whole house of cards will come down", he said
Angelo Drusiani from Banca Albertini said the only way to avert catstrophe is to convert the European Central Bank into a lender of last resort. Otherwise Italy faces "massive devaluation, three to five years of hyperinflation, and unbearable unemployment."
The ECB's emergency lending may have made matters worse, encouraging banks to buy their own states' debt. It has led to an incestous inter-linkange of fragile banking systems and fragile sovereign states, each propping the other up. Many of the banks used ECB money to buy state bonds until they need to roll over their own debt. They are now nursing stiff losses.
Moody's downgraded 26 Italian lenders on Monday night saying the slump itself is the killer, joining a chorus of voices warning that too much austerity may be self-defeating. "Banks are vulnerable to the renewed recession in Italy, given their already elevated levels of problem loans and weakened profitability," it said. Moody's expects the economy to contract 1.9pc this year.
The Italian Banking Association ABI accused Moody's of an "irresponsible, incomprehensible, and unjustifiable" smear. "Moody's decision is an attack on Italy, its companies, its families and its citizens," it said, calling on the EU authorities to clamp down "severely" on rating agencies.
The agency said the "problem loans" of Italian banks have reached 9.3pc. The figure may be higher, given "concerns about the accuracy of reported non-performing loan measures." They depend on capital markets for 36pc of their funds. This source of finance has largely dried up.
The Telegraph
Greeks withdraw $894 million U.S. in cash out of bank accounts
ATHENS, May 15, 2012 (AFP) - Some 700 million euros, equivalent to US $894 million, were withdrawn from Greek banks on Monday, President Carolos Papoulias said, warning that the situation would worsen in coming days.
"During a telephone interview with the governor of the Bank of Greece, George Provopoulos, he informed me that the banks' situation was very difficult . . . and that the banking system was currently very weak," said the president in a transcript released Tuesday.
"Withdrawals reached 700 million euros at 4:00 p.m (1300 GMT) on Monday," he noted, warning that the situation "would worsen in the next two days."
"Provopoulos said there was nothing to panic about, but that there were a lot of fears that could turn into panic," said Papoulias.
Greece's failure to form a government after a splinter vote at May 6 elections has stoked fears about the country's future in the eurozone.
The country is expected to hold fresh elections in June.
In February, former finance minister Evangelos Venizelos said Greeks deposited 16 billion euros overseas, including "32 per cent in British banks and 10 per cent in Swiss banks."
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Greeks+withdraw+million+cash+bank+accounts/6625826/story.html#ixzz1v3aJXUZk
New US battle strategy against Iran in US movements and Israeli drill
A series of apparently unconnected military movements observed in Middle East seas and skies in the last tendays have a common factor: introduction of the new US Air Sea Battle (ASB) doctrine, which is designed to make the most of tightly coordinated operations by air, land, sea, undersea, space and cyberspace capabilities for defeating those of the enemy.
Monday, May 14, the day that Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal warned Iran not to meddle in the evolving Saudi-Bahraini union, large US Navy and Marine forces put into Jeddah port for first time in 11 years.
Last week, Israel’s Navy and Air Force and their special operations units - Shaldag, Shayetet 13 and 960 Task Force - carried out their largest combined exercise ever in the Mediterranean. It ended with Israeli surface ships and submarines arrayed in a dense defensive line against enemy vessels armed with unconventional weapons approaching the Israeli coast.
The Israeli exercise, which ended May 13, practiced the new American ABS doctrine of simultaneously massing large-scale sea and air strength against Iran on two seas, in this case, the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf. It also drilled operating in unison with their American counterparts under the same doctrine.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Washington timed the unveiling of the new battle strategy for May 10, two weeks before the Six Power nuclear talks with Iran resume in Baghdad.
US Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jon Greenert explained that the ASB concept was developed "to defeat A2AD (Anti-Access/Area Denial) strategies such as the closure of the (Hormuz) strait, cyber attack, mines, cruise and ballistic missiles and air defense systems, threats enhanced by technological advancements.”
Our military sources add: The concept is also closely applicable to American tactics for defending the Persian Gulf nations against possible Iranian aggression as the GCC takes its first unification steps to shore up its defenses against that threat.
Adm. Greenert wrote: “There’s been attention recently about closing an international strait using, among other means, mines, fast boats, cruise missiles and mini-subs.”
DEBKAfile: Those are precisely the systems Iran’s Revolutionary Guards hold ready for a decision to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz to international oil traffic.
ABS concepts include “submarines hitting air defense and cruise missiles in support of Air Force bombers: F-22 Air Force stealth fighters taking out enemy cruise missile threats to Navy ships.”
Adm. Greenert was the first senior American commander to put on public record the measures for repelling Iranian cruise missile attacks on US aircraft carriers deployed in the Persian Gulf. He also spelled out the mission for which a squadron of F-22 jets was stationed at the Al Dhafra air base in late April.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly 539 revealed on May 4 that a second squadron was due to land soon in the Gulf region.
On May 16, Adm. Greenert and US Air Force chief Gen. Norton Schwartz are to discuss the ABS in a public event at the Brookings Institute in Washington.
US and Israeli air, sea and special forces have meanwhile begun operating under the new doctrine in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Monday, the US Amphibious Ready Group, 24th MEU, led by the USS Iwo Jima put into Jeddah, the Saudi Navy’s Red Sea command port, with 2,200 Marines aboard.
It was the first time since the 2001 Gulf War that the Saudis had permitted US naval and air units of this size to anchor in one of their ports and, moreover, allowed American military personnel to show themselves in its streets.
Adm. Greenert was the first senior American commander to put on public record the measures for repelling Iranian cruise missile attacks on US aircraft carriers deployed in the Persian Gulf. He also spelled out the mission for which a squadron of F-22 jets was stationed at the Al Dhafra air base in late April.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly 539 revealed on May 4 that a second squadron was due to land soon in the Gulf region.
On May 16, Adm. Greenert and US Air Force chief Gen. Norton Schwartz are to discuss the ABS in a public event at the Brookings Institute in Washington.
US and Israeli air, sea and special forces have meanwhile begun operating under the new doctrine in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Monday, the US Amphibious Ready Group, 24th MEU, led by the USS Iwo Jima put into Jeddah, the Saudi Navy’s Red Sea command port, with 2,200 Marines aboard.
It was the first time since the 2001 Gulf War that the Saudis had permitted US naval and air units of this size to anchor in one of their ports and, moreover, allowed American military personnel to show themselves in its streets.
The GCC summit which began in Riyadh on the same day had three key items on its agenda: Iran’s military, political and covert threat to the region’s stability; the Syrian crisis; and unification steps between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to ward off Iranian interference in the Shiite-led unrest.
Defka file
How Many Libyan Civilians Were Killed in NATO’s Air Campaign?
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has finally decided to contribute its weighty word in the dramatic disputes over how many civilians were killed in NATO’s air campaign in Libya. HRW experts worked on the report “Unacknowledged Deaths” for a year and published it on May 14. It will probably disappoint some Russian analysts, at any rate, those who talk about thousands of Libyan civilians who were killed. HRW experts who personally visited the regions hit by NATO bombing cite a much smaller figure: 72 people.
This figure is accompanied by the qualification, “at least.” In other words, it's possible that not all victims have been accounted for. But the tragic list will not become much longer in any event. NATO representatives told Human Rights Watch that their organization “did everything possible to minimize risks to civilians,” including the exclusive use of precision-guided munitions. This is sometimes possible in modern wars but God forbid anyone strays into the margin of error.
The NATO summit as a pretext for admitting hard facts
HRW mentions an internal NATO inquiry into the Libya campaign last February 2012 that reportedly failed to mention civilian deaths. HRW is urging NATO to give up this attitude of denial and start an inquiry into each tragic case. Moreover, NATO executives will have a good pretext for their public statements in the near future – the NATO summit in Chicago on May 20 and 21.
HRW believes that “NATO is also obligated to investigate credible allegations of laws-of-war violations, appropriately punish those responsible, and provide compensation to victims of unlawful attacks.” One of HRW’s recommendations for NATO is to “conduct a general investigation into NATO strikes that resulted in civilian casualties with the aim of minimizing civilian casualties in future armed conflicts.” If a war cannot be avoided, it is essential to at least minimize civilian casualties.
Every life is priceless, and it is impossible to read calmly the report’s quotations of the testimony of eye-witnesses and relatives of how 72 people (more than 20 of whom were children) were killed. There is only one conclusion: a war is the worst large-scale disaster.
“I’m wondering why they did this, why just our houses?”
The village of Majer 160 km east of Tripoli was hit during the Muslim fast of Ramadan at about 11 p.m. on August 8, 2011. Contrary to the assertions of the allied command about strikes at exclusively military targets, NATO aircraft dropped bombs on four houses in this village.
Carroll Bogert, deputy executive director for external relations at HRW, told me that Fred Abrahams, an HRW employee, visited the village on August 9, the day of the funeral. She said they were in Libya at that time and the local authorities were very helpful when they wanted to visit some of the NATO-bombed sites.
The surviving residents of the destroyed houses testified that refugees from other parts of Libya had been there at that time. They had visited their relatives in a village that was considered safe because it had no Gaddafi troops or military equipment. However, no place is safe in a country that is engulfed by war. Mohamed El Raqeeq lost three of his children in the attack, Hana, Abdu Allah and Ahmed, as well as his wife Salima, not to mention his other relatives.
The owner of another house, Muammar al-Jarud, lost four family members: his wife Hanan al-Fargani, 30, his mother Salma, 53, his sister Fatima, 29, and his eight-month old daughter Salma. He was in the street at the time, but rushed over when he heard the explosion and was wounded in the leg by a splinter from the bomb that hit outside the compound. His neighbors rushed to clear the ruins, and the second strike came about 20 minutes after the first, killing 18 men and wounding another 15. “I’m wondering why they did this, why just our houses?” said Muammar al-Jarud.
The authors of the report ask a different question: Why did the pilots strike again if they had infrared guiding systems that must have detected a crowd of people around the wreckage. This question remains unanswered.
The village of Majer lost 34 people on that day, all ordinary civilians without exception. More people died in this tragedy than in seven other cases during NATO’s air attacks registered by HRW. NATO’s operation ran from March 19 to October 31, 2011.
10,000 euros for every dead person
HRW admits that at the time Libyan government representative Musa Ibrahim spoke about 85 deaths in this village, but they could not confirm this figure over the course of several visits there. The report mentions that the Gaddafi government claimed that over a thousand civilians died but HRW considers this figure to be exaggerated.
In some cases NATO struck houses of senior Libyan military or officials and sometimes their relatives, but they cannot be regarded as military targets. Nevertheless, on September 25, 2011 NATO bombed a housing compound in Sirte on Libya’s northern coast, killing three women and four children. The house belonged to Brig. Gen. Musbah Dyab’s brother. The civilians who were killed were his relatives.
The house of another military figure, Ret. Gen. El Khweldi El Hamedi, was destroyed by bombs three months before. Thirteen people staying in his house, including five children from eight months to eight years, were killed. The general himself was unharmed. Now his family is suing NATO. His son Haled filed a lawsuit in Brussels, where the NATO headquarters is located. He demands 10,000 euros for every dead person. The trial was launched last October. The next hearings are scheduled for September 17, 2012.
Russian diplomats are incredulous
It will be recalled in connection with these new figures on civilian casualties in Libya that the Russian Foreign Ministry repeatedly demanded an investigation into this. They were not satisfied with the data of the UN commission that was published in March 2012.
The UN International Commission of Inquiry on Libya included reputable lawyers: Asma Khader from Jordan, Cherif Bassiouni from Egypt and Philippe Kirsch from Canada (head of the commission). They established that 60 civilians lost their lives in Libya during NATO bombings. In the report to the UN Human Rights Council, they mentioned 55 wounded persons.
The Russian Foreign Ministry’s ombudsman for human rights, Konstantin Dolgov, advised them to “be more persistent in receiving information from NATO and the new Libyan government.”
The figures quoted by HRW in the new report almost align with those of the UN – fewer than 100 deaths in more than eight months of the military campaign. Is this a big number?
Let’s just point out that these are not Libyan military losses, including those in which rebels were killed by “friendly fire.” These losses show that it is hardly possible to live a calm life in Libya today. This is just one side of the multi-faceted tragedy that is war.
RIA Novosti
Grant Jeffrey Called to Eternal Glory
This is the information posted on Grant's website....
May 12th, 2012 Update: Grant has gone to be with His Lord!
Friday evening, May 11th at 11:09 pm Grant had a cardiac arrest and the angels escorted his spirit to his heavenly home. He is now without pain, he is healed and now with his Heavenly Father. He will be missed sorely!!!!
Funeral arrangements will be posted here on Tuesday May 15th, 2012 and will be held in Toronto, ON, Canada
May God bless you as you remember Kaye and the family in your prayers!
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