News and Events

University Suspends Staffer Over View of Homosexuality
The University of Toledo suspended an administrator for stating in a guest column in a local newspaper that choosing homosexual behavior is not the same as being black or handicapped.

Associate Vice President of Human Resources Crystal Dixon wrote in response to a newspaper editor's column criticizing a lack of equality for homosexuals that, "I take great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are 'civil rights victims.' Here's why. I cannot wake up tomorrow and not be a black woman.'"

Her piece in the Toledo Free Press quickly got her a suspension from officials at the University of Toledo, who condemned her beliefs, according to a report in the newspaper.

The newspaper said a spokesman for the college confirmed Dixon had been placed on paid leave but declined further comment. A WND request for comment elicited no response from the office of the president, Lloyd Jacobs.

The situation developed when Toledo Free Press Editor in Chief Michael S. Miller wrote a column boasting of his support for the "gay" community.

The University of Toledo suspended an administrator for stating in a guest column in a local newspaper that choosing homosexual behavior is not the same as being black or handicapped.

Her piece in the Toledo Free Press quickly got her a suspension from officials at the University of Toledo, who condemned her beliefs, according to a report in the newspaper.

The situation developed when Toledo Free Press Editor in Chief Michael S. Miller wrote a column boasting of his support for the "gay" community.

"I have been tangentially immersed in the gay culture for so long, it's a natural and common aspect of life. Three decades of loving these friends and family and sharing their successes in managing careers and raising families has jaded me to the hatred and prejudice many people had against the gay community. … As a middle-aged, overweight white guy with graying facial hair, I am America's ruling demographic, so the gay rights struggle is something I experience secondhand, like my black friends' struggles and my wheelchair-bound friends' struggles," he wrote.

He also claimed credit for contributing "to the community's growth."

"At least three women I dated in college subsequently declared themselves gay," he said.

"There are people who are so strongly anti-gay rights, they lust for legislation to limit the gay community's freedoms. That makes no intellectual or moral sense to me. Some of this prejudice is based in religion. I find it confusing that people who believe in a savior who opens his arms to everyone think he'll draw those same arms shut to keep gay people away," he continued. "And do not tell me you are 'tolerant' or 'tolerate' gay people. Stop for a moment and think about how condescending and evil that attitude is."

He drew the school into the conversation by mentioning he moderated a town hall meeting sponsored by two homosexual activists groups.

It dealt "with issues of employment discrimination against gay people," he said. Acccording to the panelists, he contined, "UT has offered domestic partner benefits since then-president Dan Johnson signed them into effect. The Medical University of Ohio did not offer those benefits. When the institutions merged, UT employees retained the domestic-partner benefits, but MUO employees were not offered them. So, people working for the same employer do not have access to the same benefits."

Dixon then responded.

"I respectfully submit a different perspective for Miller and Toledo Free Press readers to consider. … First, human beings, regardless of their choices in life, are of ultimate value to God and should be viewed the same by others. At the same time, one's personal choices lead to outcomes either positive or negative," she said.

"As a black woman who happens to be an alumnus of the University of Toledo's Graduate School, an employee and business owner, I take great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are 'civil rights victims.' Here's why. I cannot wake up tomorrow and not be a black woman. I am genetically and biologically a black woman and very pleased to be so as my Creator intended. Daily, thousands of homosexuals make a life decision to leave the gay lifestyle evidenced by the growing population of PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex Gays) and Exodus International just to name a few.

"Economic data is irrefutable: The normative statistics for a homosexual in the USA include a Bachelor's degree: For gay men, the median household income is $83,000/yr. (Gay singles $62,000; gay couples living together $130,000), almost 80% above the median U.S. household income of $46,326, per census data. For lesbians, the median household income is $80,000/yr. (Lesbian singles $52,000; Lesbian couples living together $96,000); 36% of lesbians reported household incomes in excess of $100,000/yr. Compare that to the median income of the non-college educated Black male of $30,539. The data speaks for itself," she said.

She said the alleged benefits disparity at the university, cited by Miller, came about simply because the employees of the two institutions were working under different contracts.

"The university is working diligently to address this issue in a reasonable and cost-efficient manner, for all employees, not just one segment," she said.

But she argued God created male and female, according to Genesis 1:27, and "there are consequences for each of our choices, including those who violate God's divine order."

"It is base human nature to revolt and become indignant when the world or even God Himself, disagrees with our choice that violates His divine order," Dixon said.

Then came the suspension announcement from the school, along with Jacobs' condemnation of Dixon's writings.

"Her comments do not accord with the values of the University of Toledo. It is necessary, therefore, for me to repudiate much of her writing," he said.

"Our Spectrum student group created the Safe Places Program to 'invite faculty, staff and graduate assistants and resident advisers to open their space as a Safe Place for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Questioning [LGBATQ] individuals.' I took this action because I believe it to be entirely consistent with the values system of the university. Indeed, there is a Safe Places sticker on the door of the president's office at the University of Toledo," Jacobs said.

"We will be taking certain internal actions in this instance to more fully align our utterances and actions with this value system," he said..

Miller said he disagreed with Dixon, but acknowledged she had the right to express her beliefs.

"The university operates in an atmosphere of idea exchange, and while I recognize the institution's desire to distance itself from her, this is a basic free speech issue and I am disappointed she has been punished for expressing her views,” he said.

An official with the pro-homosexual Equality Ohio said Dixon's ideas were "more appropriate for her place of worship" and didn't belong elsewhere.

The school's diversity program is set up "to attract and retain diverse faculty, staff, and students" by pledging "to respect and value personal uniqueness and differences."

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Jordanian Professor Recommends Nuclear Suicide Bombers

Jordanian University lecturer Ibrahim Alloush recommended on Al-Jazeera television this week that suicide bombers be equipped with small nuclear bombs.

According to a transcript provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Dr. Alloush said, "Whoever managed to get a martyrdom-seeker into Dimona, should consider how to get martyrdom-seekers into Dimona and elsewhere armed with non-conventional explosives - and perhaps even small nuclear bombs," he stated. "We should think in this direction."

Alloush lived for 13 years in the United States, earning graduate degrees at Ohio University and Oklahoma State University, where he earned a doctorate in economics.

As the editor of the "Free Arab Voice", he was jailed by the Jordanian government in 2003 for incitement, after publishing an article saying there were American bases in Jordan "taking part in the aggression against Iraq."

Holocaust Denier, Al-Qaeda Supporter
Alloush also maintains that the Holocaust never took place. In 2005, Alloush said in an interview with Al-Jazeera television quoted by MEMRI, "The Holocaust is exploited to justify the Zionist policies and to justify the enemy state's right to exist. There is evidence and scientific research proving that the Holocaust is a lie."

The Jordanian professor also strongly supports Osama bin Laden's international al-Qaeda terrorist organization.

'America Got What it Deserved on 9/11'
Moreover, Alloush, said in the same 2005 interview that the US deserved the al-Qaeda attack on Washington and the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

"America brought the 9/11 attacks upon itself. Okay? This is a case of the chicken coming home to roost. In other words, you have brought this problem upon yourselves," he said. "As long as America occupies the Arab homeland and the Islamic world militarily, politically, economically, and culturally, and as long as it supports the Zionist entity, it should expect something."

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California Supreme Court Forces Homosexual Marriage on California

Activist Judges Defy Will of People and Overturn Proposition 22

Contact: Karen England, Executive Director, Capitol Resource Institute, 916-212-5607

SACRAMENTO, May 15 /Christian Newswire/ -- In a 4-3 decision, the California Supreme Court ruled today that homosexual marriage bans are unconstitutional. California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 22 in 2000, defining marriage as between one man and one woman. California's highest court decided the law was unconstitutional.

"This is a very sad day for our nation and the democratic process," stated Karen England, executive director for Capitol Resource Institute. "The people of California decided eight years ago that marriage in our state will be defined as between one man and one woman. Four arrogant, elitist, activist judges decided that they know better than the people how marriage should be defined."

"It is a blow to our government system that activist judges would use the judicial system and baseless constitutional arguments to push their radical political agenda on citizens," stated Meredith Turney, legislative liaison for Capitol Resource Institute.

Assemblyman Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar) commented, "Eight years ago with the passage of Proposition 22, the voters of California agreed that marriage is 'between a man and a woman.' PERIOD. The court's decision today is further proof that some activist judges value their own beliefs over the will of the people."

"We now must focus our energy on passing the Protect Marriage Initiative and place traditional marriage in the state constitution," stated England. "This outrageous decision will electrify voters and we are certain they will once again choose to protect traditional marriage."

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Athletes to share love of God at Olympics
Despite strict statements made by the Chinese government that it will not tolerate evangelism during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, many Christian athletes are planning to share the roles God has played in their lives.

Steve McConkey, president of 4 Winds Christian Athletics in Madison, Wis., has been in track and field ministries since 1981. He said China does not have the right to censor faith at the Olympic Games.

"As long as it is done in a peaceful way, and they proclaim the true Jesus Christ, no person should ever take it away, regardless of who they are, government or whatever," he told WND.

Section 51 of the Olympic Charter states, " … no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas."

McConkey said he spoke with the United States Olympic committee, and he asked if the athletes will be required to change their responses during press interviews to omit Christ from their statements.

"They told me no," he said. "In other words, they can witness."

Since summer 2006, 4 Winds has gathered Christian testimonies from candidates for the Olympic Games and has allowed them to be indirectly distributed to a church that is not sanctioned by the Chinese government, called the underground church. Its membership is estimated to be as large as 100 million to 130 million people.

McConkey said each testimony tells how the athlete came to Christ and what the Lord is doing in their life. The organization does not pay athletes and screens each person carefully to be sure they are positive Christian examples.

"We really make sure they serve the Lord," he said. "We don't promote people who are not grounded in their faith. They have to be growing. They can't be living with their girlfriends. They can't be out drinking. They can't be doing performance-enhancing drugs. We really screen them pretty heavily."

Athletes must train at least four to five hours every day. McConkey said they can't be out on an aggressive evangelistic circuit, and 4 Winds is encouraging athletes to concentrate on their performances at the Olympics. However, the organization encourages them to share their faith in post-game media interviews.

"These athletes will testify, win or lose, after gold, silver, bronze medals or lost performances," he said. "They will give glory like they do in all the championships each year. They're going to be witnessing for Christ."

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Marisa's Wish

Marisa gets her wish
What would you ask for if you were 10 years old and had one wish? A trip to Disney World? A chance to meet a celebrity hero?

Not Marisa Monbrod.

This little girl, who has leukemia in remission, wants to use her wish to help others.

As part of the Make-a-Wish Foundation, Marisa has asked to become something of a mini-missionary for a week. She and her Crystal Lake family plan to pack up a rented RV in July and journey to the Appalachian region of West Virginia, where they will share supplies and their faith with those less fortunate.

“I want to help people,” Marisa said. “They don’t get all the stuff that people get around here.”

The folks from Make-a-Wish are hoping the community will help the young fourth-grade student by providing supplies to be given out on the trip.

Marisa personally made a list of things she’d like to bring along, including items such as toys and books to share with other children.

When she first learned that she would have a wish, Marisa considered other options. She dreamed of staying at a castle in Ireland or heading to the ocean to swim with dolphins.

Then she watched a film about Dr. Paul Carlson, a medical missionary who traveled to Africa in the early 1960s, at her church, Hope Covenant Church in Crystal Lake.

Young Marisa was inspired.

“I decided I liked this better because I don’t really need anything really bad and those people really do,” she said. “I figured this was nicer.”

She also was influenced by a project in her Sunday school to raise money to send sandals to those in need in Sudan.

“All the sudden she had this epiphany or revelation with [Marisa’s mother] Maggie in the church,” said Rich Monbrod, Marisa’s father.

An energetic little girl who loves to play the piano, swim and recently started golf lessons, Marisa was diagnosed with leukemia in January 2005.

She continues to undergo treatment and her health has been improving. The Make a Wish Foundation grants wishes for children with life-threatening diseases.

The plan is for Marisa and her family, which includes parents Rich and Maggie and little brother, Ricky, 8, to head out July 11 for the Appalachian Dream Center, a group dedicated to helping provide food, education, services and other basic needs to the Appalachian community.

The center is in Logan, W.Va., an area hit hard by the collapse of the area’s coal mining industry, according to the Appalachian Dream Center Web site. The population of the area is about 26,000. The average income is $7,900 annually and the poverty rate is about 27 percent, according to the Web site.

The Monbrod family hopes to provide a little help to the poverty-stricken region while also providing “a little bit of adventure” for the family, Rich Monbrod said.

Both Rich and Maggie Monbrod said they were surprised and a little skeptical when their daughter first brought up her wish.

Although it was unconventional, the parents quickly got behind the idea. In a way, the wish is a sort of thank you for all the support Marisa received during her fight with leukemia, Rich Monbrod said.

“She’s paying it forward for all the kindness done to her,” he said.

How to help

The Make a Wish Foundation wants help providing new items to be handed out during Marisa’s trip.

Marisa has requested the following new items: Toys, backpacks, school supplies, Bibles, notebooks, paper, pencils, diapers, nail clippers, toothpaste, other toiletries, copies of the “Adventures in Odyssey” compact disc series, low-tech or crank-powered radios and CD players, kids’ devotion books, bookmarks and things to decorate bookmarks with, arts and crafts supplies, shoes, socks and clothes. Cash donations and supplies not listed also will be accepted.

All items can be dropped off at American Community Bank, 381 S. Main St., Crystal Lake, or can be dropped of at the June 22 “send-off” party at the Dole Mansion, 401 Country Club Road.

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Story Continued......
While Washington’s political elites in both parties have debated and dithered, the price of crude oil has risen to $123 per barrel – nearly double what it was at this time last year. The cost of a gallon of gas at the pump is approaching $4 per gallon. Some analysts are now predicting that the price of a barrel of oil could approach $200 in the next two years – and that gasoline could be $6.00 a gallon. An equal amount of diesel may cost truckers as much as $7.50.

Meantime, Middle Eastern governments are raking in the petrodollars. At least one despotic regime is using its plentiful petrol profits to kill American troops, erect nuclear facilities, fund global terrorism, and strategize about new and creative ways to make Israel’s 60th birthday its last as a nation.

Iran, just named by the State Department as "the most active state sponsor of terrorism," and "a threat to regional stability and U.S. interests in the Middle East," this week hardened its position with respect to going nuclear. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who outranks the Persian Napoleon – Iranian president Mahmoud Amadinejad – said this week that Iran would not give up its nuclear program.

Last week, delegates from the UN Security Council nations plus Germany met to discuss incentives that might convince Iran to cease its program of uranium enrichment. But Mr. Khamenei would have none of it, baldly stating that, "it is a national duty not to fear any sanction." And just in case anyone might misunderstand, the Tehran theocrat added, "we should not allow anybody to deprive Iran of its legitimate rights," and declared, "no world power can make Iran retreat from its path."

Now you don’t need to have a degree in economics to see what’s happening. The cost of crude oil is out of sight and climbing. Petrodollars are funding a radical Islamic jihad being waged against us. Here at home the cost of everything from fuel to food is going up and we’re sending out of the country capital needed to resuscitate an economy that is at best, “sluggish” and at worst, foundering.

The majority in Congress has responded by proposing tax increases for domestic energy production, suggesting new mandates on producers, demanding that coal-fired electric plants be shut down and whining that foreign governments need to increase oil production – while opposing exploitation of reserves here at home. In a press conference two weeks ago, President Bush criticized Congress for blocking efforts to expand domestic oil production in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). And this week, in a noteworthy understatement, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel observed, "We have here, in this nation, resources that we are not utilizing."

No, really? The "newest" oil refinery in the United States was built by Marathon in Garyville, Louisiana in 1976. Since then, every effort to construct new facilities has been thwarted by protests and lawsuits from "environmental" groups and government red tape. It has been 12 years since the last nuclear reactor came "on line" to generate electrical power in the United States.

Time, and money, are wasting. Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has proposed a realistic solution: the Domestic Energy Production Act of 2008. Her bill would permit exploitation of more than a trillion barrels of U.S. territorial oil and nearly 600 trillion cubic feet of natural gas – more than the combined hydrocarbon reserves of Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Nigeria, Venezuela, Libya and Iran. The measure would also streamline the process for building new refineries and clean, safe nuclear power plants, as well as funding to develop alternative fuels.

But none of that – and the consequent reduction in energy costs will ever benefit American consumers unless Congress acts. Until they do, we will have to plan on spending our “tax refund” checks – and a whole lot more – at the pump.

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Chuck Norris tells Liberty University grads to follow God’s path
Saturday was the first time that television star Chuck Norris ever addressed a college graduation, but Liberty University Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. said it wouldn’t be his last.

“I don’t do this very often,” Norris told a crowd of about 20,000 at Williams Stadium. “In fact, I don’t do this at all.”

Norris delivered the keynote address at Liberty’s 35th commencement, which featured the school’s largest graduating class yet of about 4,800 students.

“Chuck! Chuck! Chuck!” the graduates chanted as he walked on stage. They were the ones who convinced Falwell to request Norris as their speaker, Falwell said.

The six-time world karate champion, actor, Internet phenomenon and humanitarian offered a piece of his own life story and said that God brought happiness back into his life.

Norris was born into poverty in Oklahoma, he told the audience, and grew up “shy, introverted and non athletic.”
After graduating from high school, he joined the Air Force, went to Korea, and had his first introduction to martial arts.

He returned home with a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and carried that into more aspects of his life by starting a martial arts school in Los Angeles.

Not long later, he started racking up national and international martial arts titles, and then began acting.

He gained fame and fortune, he said, and became well known for his starring role in the long-running CBS television series “Walker, Texas Ranger.”

But other aspects of his life were lacking, he said.

“I got sucked into the entertainment world of Hollywood,” he said. “I didn’t have that joy and that happiness that I thought I should have in my life.”

That’s when a friend introduced Norris to the woman he later married, Gena, who read to him from the Bible.

“It’s like the Holy Spirit hit me and said, ‘Chuck it’s time to come home,’” he recalled. “I was hot for the Lord, and I still am to this day.”

He told the graduating class to allow God to lead their lives.

“I hope that you’ll let him direct your steps because if you do, you can’t go wrong,” he said.

In recent years, Norris has become an Internet phenomenon from a Web site called “Chuck Norris Facts,” which pokes fun at roles the actor has portrayed.

Norris also made news this year for endorsing former Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee, who spoke at Liberty during his campaign.

Falwell called Norris “one of the few positive role models left in the entertainment business today.”

Provost Boyd Rist recognized that role by awarding Norris an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from the school.

After Norris spoke, Falwell took note of the accomplishments of the class of 2008.

“The class of 2008 is the first to graduate from Liberty as a debt-free institution,” he said.

In August, the school announced that a portion of a $34 million life insurance payout on the late Rev. Jerry Falwell had paid off the school’s roughly $20 million debt and also started to build the school’s endowment.

Falwell Jr. said the school’s second generation would work to strengthen that endowment and continue the Christian school’s mission.

“You must be strong in what you do,” he said. “The sky is really the limit to all of you.”

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Israeli Public Doesn't Know Herzl
Today is Herzl Day, the 148th birthday of the visionary of the modern Jewish state. A survey of 500 university students in Israel shows incredible boorishness about his accomplishments.

The survey, in the form of a multiple-choice questionnaire, was conducted by statistician Dr. Hallel Cohen for the Herzl Council in the Prime Minister's Office. It shows a small improvement over what university students knew about Binyamin Ze'ev (Theodor) Herzl three years ago - yet still, a full 73% did not know what ideas he actually worked to promote.

Asked what was the most important idea he worked to convince the British to adopt, only 27% chose the correct answer, "promotion of the idea that later became the Balfour Declaration." The others either admitted they didn't know, chose answers that were historically inapplicable, or were otherwise wrong. Over a quarter said he worked to nullify the White Papers [the first one of which was written 18 years after his death]. Another 10% thought he tried to end the British Mandate - which, in actuality, did not even begin until 13 years after his death.

Nearly 50% could not identify Herzl as the author of Altneuland (Old New Land, translated into English as "The Jewish State"), one of the most important Zionist works. This is an improvement over three years ago, however, when 61% did not know this fact.

Some 17% thought that Herzl, a totally assimilated Jew, wanted Israel to be a state founded on Jewish Law. This finding matched those of three years ago. In fact, however, he believed that Israel should be secular , with some identifying characteristics of Jewish values.

Herzl "Founded the Jewish State" in 1898
Israel commemorated Herzl Day for the first time in 2005, after legislation was passed rendering the 10th day of the month of Iyar a national day of commemoration of the man who forged and worked for the idea of the modern State of Israel. After he headed the first Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897, he wrote in his diary, “In Basel, I founded the Jewish State... If I said this aloud today, I would be answered by universal laughter. Perhaps in five years, and certainly in fifty, everyone will agree.” On November 29, 1947, the United Nations voted to establish a Jewish state in Palestine.

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Queen of Sheba's Palace Discovered in Ethiopia, University Says
A team of archaeologists from the University of Hamburg said they discovered the Queen of Sheba's palace and an altar that may have once held the Ark of the Covenant in Axum, Ethiopia.

A Christian king built a new palace over the 10th-century B.C. structure, which probably didn't survive for very long, the university said in a statement. The altar, oriented toward the star Sirius, has two columns and may have been where the Ark of the Covenant, the holiest treasure of early Judaism, was kept until the first temple was built in Axum, the researchers said.

``The special significance of this altar must have been handed down over centuries,'' the statement said. ``This is shown by the many sacrifices found around this spot.''

The Ark of the Covenant, featured in the Indiana Jones movie ``Raiders of the Lost Ark,'' was kept in Jerusalem for centuries, according to the Old Testament. After Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonians in the 6th century B.C., the ark's fate isn't documented in the Bible and it entered the realm of legend.

Ethiopian Christians contend that the ark left Jerusalem much earlier -- during the realm of Solomon -- and was brought to Ethiopia, where it has long been enshrined in a church and is now accessible only to its guardian, a monk. This theory was explored by the British author Graham Hancock in ``The Sign and the Seal.''

The Hamburg team led by Helmut Ziegert has for nine years been investigating the origins of the Ethiopian state and the Ethiopian orthodox church. The central purpose of the field trip was to find out how Judaism arrived in Ethiopia in the 10th century B.C., and to seek clues to the present location of the Ark of the Covenant, the university said.

The palace built over the Queen of Sheba's home was also aligned with the star Sirius, the statement said. The researchers conjecture that the second palace was built by Menelik, who, legend has it, was the son of Sheba and King Solomon.

The results of the Hamburg field trip suggest that together with Judaism and the Ark of the Covenant, a cult worshipping Sirius came to Ethiopia and practiced its religion until about 600 A.D., the university said.

According to the Old Testament, God ordered Moses to build the Ark of the Covenant, a box made of acacia wood and plated with gold. It is believed to have contained the tablets listing the Ten Commandments.

Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama says Israel is a "constant wound" and a "constant sore" that infects "all of our foreign policy."

Obama, under fire for attracting praise and support for his presidential run from the terrorist group Hamas, spoke to Atlantic Monthly at length about his views of the Middle East.

Asked if he thought Israel represented a drag on America's reputation overseas, Obama said: "No, no, no. But what I think is that this constant wound, that this constant sore, does infect all of our foreign policy. The lack of a resolution to this problem provides an excuse for anti-American militant jihadists to engage in inexcusable actions, and so we have a national-security interest in solving this, and I also believe that Israel has a security interest in solving this because I believe that the status quo is unsustainable. I am absolutely convinced of that, and some of the tensions that might arise between me and some of the more hawkish elements in the Jewish community in the United States might stem from the fact that I’m not going to blindly adhere to whatever the most hawkish position is just because that’s the safest ground politically."

"I want to solve the problem, and so my job in being a friend to Israel is partly to hold up a mirror and tell the truth and say if Israel is building settlements without any regard to the effects that this has on the peace process, then we’re going to be stuck in the same status quo that we’ve been stuck in for decades now," he said.

The interview was set up by the now famous quote from Hamas leader Ahmed Yousef to WND's Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein, author of "Schmoozing With Terrorists," and WABC radio host John Batchelor: "We like Mr. Obama and we hope that he will win the election."

The controversy unfolded last month when Hamas political adviser Ahmed Yousef told WND's Aaron Klein, author of "Schmoozing with Terrorists," and WABC radio his group hopes Obama will win the presidential election and change America's foreign policy.

McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, responded, prompting sharp exchanges between the two candidates and their campaigns.

"If Sen. Obama is favored by Hamas, I think people can make judgments accordingly," McCain said.

Last week, Obama severed ties with a Middle East policy adviser who acknowledged holding private meetings with Hamas. Robert Malley, who had advocated negotiations with Hamas, was sacked after disclosing to the Times of London he had been in regular contact with the group in conjunction with his work for a conflict resolution think tank.

Israel's Northern Border Turns Iranian, as Arab League Arrives
Foreign Ministers of the Arab League countries arrived in Beirut Wednesday, planning to hold meetings designed to find a solution to the latest civil war in Lebanon. Meanwhile, however, Israel fears that Iran, via its proxy Hizbullah, is settling in on its northern border.

Some 80 Lebanese have been killed in the recent spate of violence between Hizbullah and the Lebanese government. Backed by Iran and Syria, Hizbullah has a strong grasp over southern Lebanon, and has long represented a threat to the western-backed Lebanese government headed by Prime Minister Fouad Seniora.

Meanwhile, a top Iranian diplomat and former ambassador to Syria who now serves as an advisor to Iran's supreme spiritual leader, told an Arab newspaper, "The sons of the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance [Hamas and Hizbullah -ed.] are the legitimate sons of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

Iranian Presence on Israel's Northern Border
Hizbullah's strengthening in Lebanon means that Israel's mortal enemy, Iran, has a stronger presence on Israel's northern border. Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Gillerman explained, "Weapons are flowing to Hizbullah, Lebanon is being torn apart and is bleeding... Iran is on our northern border, and, to some extent, on our southern border as well."

Gillerman said that the international community had better take action "for the benefit of Lebanon and the entire region."

The ceasefire that ended the Second Lebanon War - in which Prime Minister Olmert took great pride - has not been fully implemented, Gillerman charged: "The captive soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser have not been released, the embargo on weapons to Hizbullah and the other militias is not in effect, and Hizbullah has not been disarmed."

Hizbullah Has No Interest in Taking Over the Country
Ron Ben-Yishai, the military commentator for the daily Yediot Acharonot, says that Hizbullah chieftain Nasrallah currently has no interest in taking over Lebanon.

"The events of the past few days in Lebanon have not worsened the situation," Ben-Yishai wrote, "but merely reveal to all the current situation. Nasrallah simply did us all a favor by revealing to all that the Lebanese government is just one of several forces operating in Lebanon - and not the most important of them. It is now clear to everyone that Hizbullah is running a state within a state, and that the Seniora government is serving Hizbullah and Iran by giving them a cover of international legitimacy."

That is why Hizbullah did not complete its takeover of Lebanon, Ben-Yishai feels: "Both Nasrallah and Iran know that it was only the cries for help by Seniora that saved the Shiite population in Lebanon from massive infrastructure attacks by the Israel Air Force during the war. They also see what happened to Gaza after Hamas took over there, and they fear similar international sanctions if they officially take over Lebanon. In addition, Hizbullah does not now want a full-scale war in Lebanon, which would weaken [Hizbullah] and would hamper the efforts by Syria and Iran to rebuild its rocket arsenals."

In light of this, Ben-Yishai predicts, Israel need not fear an imminent attack by Hizbullah against Israel, as the terrorists have no current interest in shaking up the status-quo.

Timor Goksel, a former spokesman for United Nations Interim Forces (UNIFIL), similarly told the San Francisco Chronicle that Hizbullah has the wherewithal to take over if it wanted: "There is no civil authority in the country now. If they [Hizbullah] had used their weapons during the clashes, tomorrow there would be no army and no country."

Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker who organized the rescue of some 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazis and was later honored by Israel's Yad Vashem memorial, has died.

Sendler's daughter, Janina Zgrzembska, told The Associated Press her mother died at a Warsaw hospital Monday morning. She was 98.

Sendler had lived at a Warsaw nursing home run by the Catholic Brothers of St. John of God since 2003, but had been in the hospital since last month with pneumonia.

Sendler was born Irena Krzyzanowska in Warsaw on Feb. 15, 1910. As a social worker with Warsaw's welfare department, Sendler masterminded risky rescue operations of Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto during Nazi Germany's brutal World War II occupation.

Records show Sendler's team of some 20 people saved almost 2,500 children from the Warsaw Ghetto between October 1940 and April 1943, when the Nazis burned the ghetto, shooting the residents or sending them to death camps.

Under the pretext of inspecting the ghetto's sanitary conditions during a typhoid outbreak, Sendler and her assistants entered in search of children who could be smuggled out and be given a chance to survive by living as Catholics.

Babies and small children were smuggled out in ambulances and in trams, sometimes wrapped up as packages. Teenagers escaped by joining teams of workers forced to labor outside the ghetto. They were placed in families, orphanages, hospitals or convents.

In hopes of one day uniting the children with their families — most of whom perished in the Nazis' death camps — Sendler wrote the children's real names on slips of paper that she kept at home.

When German police came to arrest her in 1943, an assistant managed to hide the slips — which Sendler later buried in a jar under an apple tree in an associate's yard. Some 2,500 names were recorded.

"It took a true miracle to save a Jewish child," Elzbieta Ficowska, who was saved by Sendler's team as a baby in 1942, recalled in an interview with The Associated Press in 2007. "Mrs. Sendler saved not only us, but also our children and grandchildren and the generations to come."

After World War II, Sendler worked as a social welfare official and director of vocational schools, continuing to assist some of the children she rescued.

In 1965, Sendler became one of the first so-called Righteous Gentiles that the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem honored for wartime heroics. Poland's communist leaders at that time would not allow her to travel to Israel, and she collected the award only in 1983.

Despite the Yad Vashem honor, Sendler largely remained forgotten in her homeland. Only in her final years, confined to a nursing home, did she finally become one of Poland's most respected figures, with President Lech Kaczynski and other politicians backing a campaign that put her name forward for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Ex-Obama adviser's pro-Hamas views 'well known'
An adviser to Sen. Barack Obama who quit after it was reported he held talks with Hamas was a well-known supporter of negotiations with Hamas and providing international assistance to the terrorist group.

Robert Malley, an employee of the International Crisis Group, said he served as an "informal" Middle East advisor to Obama. He told NBC News this past weekend he decided to step down after the Times of London inquired about whether he had contacts with Hamas.

"I decided based on the fact that this was becoming a distraction that it was best that I remove myself from any association with the campaign," Malley told NBC.

Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt issued a statement to the Times: "Malley has, like hundreds of other experts, provided informal advice to the campaign in the past. He has no formal role in the campaign and he will not play any role in the future."

Malley's pro-Hamas views, though, were no secret.

WND reported in January Malley has penned numerous opinion articles, many of them co-written with a former adviser to the late Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, petitioning for dialogue with Hamas and blasting Israel for numerous policies he says harm the Palestinian cause.

In February 2006, after Hamas won a majority of seats in the Palestinian parliament and amid a U.S. and Israeli attempt to isolate the Hamas-run Palestinian Authority, Malley wrote an op-ed for the Baltimore Sun advocating international aid to the terror group's newly formed government.

"The Islamists (Hamas) ran on a campaign of effective government and promised to improve Palestinians' lives; they cannot do that if the international community turns its back," wrote Malley in a piece entitled, "Making the Best of Hamas' Victory."

Malley contended the election of Hamas expressed Palestinian "anger at years of humiliation and loss of self-respect because of Israeli settlement expansion, Arafat's imprisonment, Israel's incursions, Western lecturing and, most recently and tellingly, the threat of an aid cut off in the event of an Islamist success."

Malley said the U.S. should not "discourage third-party unofficial contacts with [Hamas] in an attempt to moderate it."

In an op-ed in the Washington Post in January coauthored by Arafat adviser Hussein Agha, Malley – using could be perceived as anti-Israel language – urged Israel's negotiating partner Abbas to reunite with Hamas.

"A renewed national compact and the return of Hamas to the political fold would upset Israel's strategy of perpetuating Palestinian geographic and political division," wrote Malley.

He further petitioned Israel to hold talks with Hamas.

"An arrangement between Israel and Hamas could advance both sides' interests," he wrote.

In numerous other op-eds, Malley advocates a policy of engagement with Hamas.

Hamas is responsible for scores of deadly shootings, suicide bombings and rocket attacks aimed at Jewish civilian population centers. The past few weeks alone, Hamas militants took credit for firing more than 200 rockets into Israel.

Hamas' official charter calls for the murder of Jews and destruction of Israel.

Hamas maintained a national unity government with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas until the Palestinian leader dissolved the agreement and deposed the Hamas prime minister last year.

Hamas in recent days has become a campaign issue for Obama, who has repeatedly called Hamas a terror group that should be isolated.

Last week, Obama and Sen. John McCain traded barbs about a Hamas endorsement that came during an interview with WND and with WABC Radio.

Ahmed Yousuf, Hamas' top political adviser in the Gaza Strip, expressed "hope" Obama will win the presidential elections and he compared the Illinois senator to John F. Kennedy.

McCain mentioned Hamas' praise of Obama during several national interviews.

Obama claimed McCain's statements were a "smear."

Obama also came under fire after it was reported his Trinity United Church of Christ newsletter reprinted an opinion piece by a top Hamas official that defended terrorism as legitimate resistance, refused to recognize the right of Israel to exist and compared the terror group's official charter – which calls for the murder of Jews – to America's Declaration of Independence.

The Hamas piece was published on Rev. Jeremiah Wright's "Pastor's Page," which later printed an open letter by a pro-Palestinian activist that labeled Israel an "apartheid" regime and claimed the Jewish state worked on an "ethnic bomb" that kills "blacks and Arabs."

With the end of another school year approaching, college sophomore Moshe Kai Cavalin is cramming for final exams in classes such as advanced mathematics, foreign languages and music.
But Cavalin is only 10 years old. And at 4-foot-7, his shoes don't quite touch the floor as he puts down a schoolbook and swivels around in his chair to greet a visitor.

"I'm studying statistics," says the alternately precocious and shy Cavalin, his textbook lying open on the living room desk of his parents' apartment in this quiet suburb east of Los Angeles.

Within a year, if he keeps up his grades and completes the rest of his requirements, he hopes to transfer from his two-year program at East Los Angeles College to a prestigious four-year school and study astrophysics.

One of his primary interests is "wormholes," a hypothetical scientific phenomenon connected to Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. It has been theorized that if such holes do exist in space, they could — in tandem with black holes — allow for the kind of space-age time travel seen in science fiction.

"Just like black holes, they suck in particulate objects, and also like black holes, they also travel at escape velocity, which is, the speed to get out of there is faster than the speed of light," Cavalin says. "I'd like to prove that wormholes are really there and prove all the theories are correct."

First, he has statistics homework to finish. Later, he'll work with his mother, Shu Chen Chien, to brush up on his Mandarin for his Chinese class. Then it's over to the piano to prepare for his recital in music class.

His father, Yosef Cavalin, frets about the piano-playing, noting that his only child recently broke his arm pursuing another passion, martial arts. He has won several trophies for his age group.

"Finals are coming and everything and he cannot play with both hands. He'll just try to play with the right hand," he says. "I don't know how his grade's going to be in piano. It worries me a bit."

If past success is any indication, his son will find a way to compensate. Cavalin, who enrolled in college more than a year ago, has maintained an A-plus average in such subjects as algebra, history, astronomy and physical education.

College officials couldn't immediately say whether he is the youngest student in the school's 63-year history. Among child prodigies, Michael Kearney, now 24, is often cited as the world's youngest college graduate, having earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of South Alabama at age 10.

"He is the youngest college student I've ever taught and one of the hardest working," says Daniel Judge, his statistics professor. "He's actually a pleasure to have in class. He's a well- adjusted, nice little boy."

Cavalin was an 8-year-old freshman when he enrolled in Guajao Liao's intermediate algebra class in 2006. By the end of the term, Liao recalls, he was tutoring some of his 19- and 20-year-old classmates.

"I told his parents that his ability was much higher than that level, that he should take a higher-level course," Liao says. "But his parents didn't want to push him."

Cavalin's parents avoid calling their son a genius. They say he's just an average kid who enjoys studying as much as he likes playing soccer, watching Jackie Chan movies, and collecting toy cars and baseball caps with tiger emblems on them. He was born during the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese zodiac.

Cavalin has a general idea what his IQ is, but doesn't like to discuss it. He says other students can achieve his success if they study hard and stay focused on their work.

His parents say they never planned to enroll their son in college at age 8, and sought to put him in a private elementary school when he was 6.

"They didn't want to accept me because I knew more than the teacher there and they said I looked too bored," the youngster recalls.

His parents home-schooled him instead, but after two years decided college was the best place for him. East L.A. officials agreed to accept him if he enrolled initially in just two classes, math and physical education. After he earned A-pluses in both, he was allowed to expand his studies.

"He sees things very simply," says Judge, his statistics teacher. "Most students think that things should be harder than they are and they put these mental blocks in front of them and they make things harder than they should be. In the case of Moshe, he sees right through the complications. ... It's not really mystical in any way, but at the same time it's amazing."

A primer on propaganda
Over the past few years, the term nakba (also spelled naqba) has become the favorite nonsense word of the Anti-Israel Lobby. Meaning "catastrophe" or "tragedy" in Arabic, it has been embraced by anti-Semites all over the planet to refer to Israel's creation, which supposedly imposed a "catastrophe" upon the "disenfranchised Palestinian Arabs."

Of course, the real catastrophe that befell the Arabs in 1948-49 was that they failed in their attempt to annihilate Israel and exterminate its population, and for that they paid a price.

Meanwhile, nakba Nonsense has been spreading. Google finds over 85,000 web pages referring to Israel's creation as a "nakba," and a Yahoo search finds even more than that. The anti-Israel web magazine Counterpunch cannot mention Israel without using the term. Even Israel's leftist minister of education, Yuli Tamir, has orderedthat the nakba be taught as partof the curriculum in Israeli schools, where Israel's schoolchildren can be taught to mourn their own country's existence.

(Tamir, who was previously a professor of education at Tel Aviv University, is so bizarre that in the summer of 1996 she published an article in the Boston Review defending female circumcision in the Third World and denouncing those who expressed disgust at the practice — see http://bostonreview.net/BR21.3/Tamir.html.)

Nakba ceremonies are now held each year by leftist professors at Israeli universities who mourn the very creation and existence of their country.

The nakba of the late 1940's and 1950's that befell large numbers of Jews living in Arab countries who were suddenly expelled, persecuted, and stripped of their property does not interest such people. Those Jewish refugees made new homes in Israel and actually outnumbered the Palestinians who fled.

Meanwhile, an urban legend has been fabricated about the origin of the term "nakba" — a fairy tale that claims the word was a banner waved by Palestinians starting in 1948, and that its very use shows how deep the roots of "Palestinian nationality" go.

So here is a little current events quiz: What is the real origin of the term "nakba" and what is its original meaning?

If you get the answer to the quiz wrong — in other words, if you say it refers to the events of 1948 — you are in very good company. I myself would have flunked the quiz up until a few days ago, when I stumbled on the correct answer. Not only does the bandying about of the "nakba" nonsense word not point to any "depths of roots of Palestinian nationality," it proves the very opposite: namely, that there is no such thing as a Palestinian nation or nationality at all.

The authoritative source on the origin of "nakba" is none other than George Antonius, supposedly the first "official historian of Palestinian nationalism." Like so many "Palestinians," he actually wasn't — Palestinian, that is. He was a Christian Lebanese-Egyptian who lived for a while in Jerusalem, where he composed his official advocacy/history of Arab nationalism. The Arab Awakening, a highly biased book, was published in 1938 and for years afterward was the official text used at British universities.

Antonius was an "official Palestinian representative" to Britain, trying to argue the cause for creating an Arab state in place of any prospective homeland promised the Jews under the Balfour Declaration of 1917. By the 1930's Antonius was an active anti-Zionist propagandist, and as such was offered a job at Columbia University (where some things don't seem to change much).

He served as an academic fig leaf for xenophobic Arab nationalists seeking to deny Jews any right to self-determination in or migration to the Land of Israel. And he was closely associated with the Grand Mufti, Hitler's main Islamic ally, and also with the pro-German regime in Iraq in the early 1940's.

Antonius was so passionately anti-Zionist that he continues to serve as the hero and mentor of Jewish leftist anti-Zionists everywhere. For example, the late Hebrew University sociology professor Baruch Kimmerling relied on Antonius at length in his own pseudo-history, Palestinians: The Making of a People (Free Press, 1993).

So how does Antonius provide us with the answer to the current-events quiz concerning the origin of "nakba"? The term was not invented in 1948 but rather in 1920. And it was coined not because of Palestinians suddenly getting nationalistic but because Arabs living in Palestine regarded themselves as Syrian and were enraged at being cut off from their Syrian homeland.

Before World War I, the entire Levant — including what is now Israel, the "occupied territories," Jordan, Lebanon and Syria — was comprised of Ottoman Turkish colonies. When Allied forces drove the Turks out of the Levant, the two main powers, Britain and France, divided the spoils between them. Britain got Palestine, including what is now Jordan, while France got Lebanon and Syria.

The problem was that the Palestinian Arabs saw themselves as Syrians and were seen as such by other Syrians. The Palestinian Arabs were enraged that an artificial barrier was being erected within their Syrian homeland by the infidel colonial powers — one that would divide northern Syrian Arabs from southern Syrian Arabs, the latter being those who were later misnamed "Palestinians."

The bulk of the Palestinian Arabs had in fact migrated to Palestine from Syria and Lebanon during the previous two generations, largely to benefit from the improving conditions and job opportunities afforded by Zionist immigration and capital flowing into the area. In 1920, both sets of Syrian Arabs, those in Syria and those in Palestine, rioted violently and murderously.

On page 312 of The Arab Awakening, Antonius writes, "The year 1920 has an evil name in Arab annals: it is referred to as the Year of the Catastrophe (Am al-nakba). It saw the first armed risings that occurred in protest against the post-War settlement imposed by the Allies on the Arab countries. In that year, serious outbreaks took place in Syria, Palestine, and Iraq."

Yes, the answer to our little quiz is 1920, not 1948. That's 1920 — when there was no Zionist state, no Jewish sovereignty, no "settlements" in "occupied territories," no Israel Defense Forces, no Israeli missiles and choppers targeting terror leaders, and no Jewish control over Jerusalem (which had a Jewish demographic majority going back at least to 1850).

The original "nakba" had nothing to do with Jews, and nothing to do with demands by Palestinian Arabs for self-determination, independence and statehood. To the contrary, it had everything to do with the fact that the Palestinian Arabs saw themselves as Syrians. They rioted at this nakba — at this catastrophe— because they found deeply offensive the very idea that they should be independent from Syria and Syrians.

In the 1920's, the very suggestion that Palestinian Arabs constituted a separate ethnic nationality was enough to send those same Arabs out into the streets to murder and plunder violently in outrage. If they themselves insisted they were simply Syrians who had migrated to the Land of Israel, by what logic are the Palestinian Arabs deemed entitled to their own state today?

Palestinian Arabs are no more a nation and no more entitled to their own state than are the Arabs of Detroit or of Paris. They certainly are not entitled to four different states: Jordan, Hamastan in Gaza, a PLO state in the West Bank, and Israel converted into yet another Arab state via the granting of a "right of return" to Arab refugees.

Speaking of Palestinians as Syrians, it is worth noting what one of the early Syrian nationalists had to say. The following quote comes from the great-grandfather of the current Syrian dictator, Bashar Assad:

"Those good Jews brought civilization and peace to the Arab Muslims, and they dispersed gold and prosperity over Palestine without damage to anyone or taking anything by force. Despite this, the Muslims declared holy war against them and did not hesitate to massacre their children and women…. Thus a black fate awaits the Jews and other minorities in case the Mandates are cancelled and Muslim Syria is united with Muslim Palestine."

That statement is from a letter sent to the French prime minister in June 1936 by six Syrian Alawi notables (the Alawis are the ruling class in Syria today) in support of Zionism. Bashar's great-grandfather was one of them.