BPR Mailing List Digest: 03/12/01

Philologos
BPR Mailing List Digest
March 12, 2001

Digest Home | 2001 | March, 2001

To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [bprlist] Syrophoenicians and other nations
From: Sam O
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 15:43:22 -0500

Try the following website:
http://www.christiananswers.net/dictionary/phenicia.html

On Sun, 11 Mar 2001 03:28:03 -0800 rubyrock1@juno.com writes:
Can anyone recommend a good book or web site that discusses the culture
and location of the Syrophoenicians and the other nations that surrounded
the Jewish people?

I would like to study them all at some depth, but I am particularly
interested in the Syrophoenicians and the Gibeonites at the moment.

Thanks
In Jesus the Lord

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Spread the Word Ministry
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To: messynews@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Purim Fun
From: Stafford's Mail <simmonds@freeuk.com>
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 14:42:42 GMT

Shalom Friends,
The following was sent to me by a Israeli friend for Purim (Esther)
Blessings, Stafford.

The story of Purim is an international tale.

King Achashverosh was Finnish with his disobedient wife Vashti.
"You Congo now!" he ordered her. After she had Ghana way, the king's
messengers went Roman the land to find a new queen. And India end,
the beautiful Esther won the crown.

Meanwhile, Mordechai sat outside the palace, where the Chile Haman
would Czech up on him daily. "I Haiti you because you refuse to bow
to me!" Haman scolded Mordechai.

"USA very stubborn man. You Jews are such Bahamas! If you keep this
up, Denmark my words! I will have all your people killed! Just Kuwait
and see, you Turkey! " Mordechai went into mourning and tore his
clothes-a custom known as Korea. He urged Esther to plead with the
king. The Jews fasted for three days and grew very Hungary. Esther
approached the king and asked, 'Kenya Belize come to a banquet I've
prepared for you and Haman?" At the feast, she invited her guests to
a second banquet to eat Samoa.

The king asked, "Esther, why Jamaica big meal like this? Just tell
me what you want. Unto half my United Kingdom will I give you."
Esther replied, "Spain full for me to say this, but Haman is Russian
to kill my people." Haman's loud Wales could be heard as he carried
Honduran this scene. "Oman!" Haman cried bitterly. "Iraq my brains
in an effort to destroy the Jews. But that sneaky Mordechai - Egypt
me! " Haman and his ten sons were hanged and went immediately to the
Netherlands. And to Sweden the deal, the Jews were allowed to Polish
off the rest of their foes as well. "You lost your enemies and
Uganda friend," the king smiled.

And that is why the Purim story Israeli a miracle. God decided to
China light on His chosen people.

So now, let's celebrate! Forget all your Syria's business and just
he happy! Serb up some wine and Taiwan on! Happy Purim!!!

><> ><> ><> ><> ><> ><> ><> ><> ><> ><> ><>
Stafford's Mail <staffordsimmonds@ntlworld.com>

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To: "David Elphick" <elphick@gohip.com>, <bprlist@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] Re: antichrist
From: "John
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 10:47:00 +1300

Hi David,
The trinity idea and Satan is informative.

Just as there is a Divine Trinity so there is a satanic trinity - but
interpreters often make the wrong connections in my opinion.

Often the satanic trinity is identified as Satan (Rev 12), the
Antichrist/beast (Rev 13) and the False Prophet (Rev 13). I think this is
the wrong connection - at least the false prophet is.

I think the satanic trinity is the 3 seven headed beasts of Revelation 12,
13 &17. I.e satan, the antichrist/beast and the beast of ch 17 - which is
clearly distinguished from the beast of ch 13 in 17:8.
"the beast that was and is not...." refers to the beast of ch 13 (refers
back to 13:3).

The beast of ch 17 is different - it is the spirit of antichrist /
lawlessness that Paul says "is already at work" (2 Thess 2). It consists of
seven fallen angelic princes, each one of which has spawned a world empire,
or in biblical symbolism, seven mountains (Rev 17:9) - Babel, Assyria,
Babylon, MedoPersia, Greece ("5 have fallen") and Rome ("one is" - true at
the time of writing) and the Revival of the 10 horns at the end of the age
("one is to come"). Each of these empires were personified in their kings -
Nimrod, Sargon, Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Alexander, Caesar as was normal in
ancient times.
Thus John can write "the seven heads are seven mountains (i.e. empires) and
they are seven kings" i.e. the 7 heads are seven empires personified in
their kings.

The seventh head of the beast of Rev 17 has 10 horns but notice 17:16 which
indicates that the 10 horns/kings exist at the time of the beast of ch 13,
the antichrist, i.e. all the 10 horns are on the 7th head. This ties in with
Daniel 2 - the 10 toes and other prophecies relating to the end time
empire.

But Rev 17:11 indicates that the beast/antichrist is actually "an eighth"
that is his empire is not to be counted as one of the seven empires of this
beast. But "he is of the seven" this can only be taken to mean that the
seven evil spirits that make up the 7 headed spirit of Antichrist here
actually come together in the final manifestation of evil.

Now think on this. The empires listed above in history were horrendously
evil - but each one was only the result of one fallen angel driving it. What
then will be the evil of the 8th empire if it is driven by the whole seven
evil angels together?
It doesn't bear thinking about. But we should think.

Now Daniel 10 is interesting here as it tells us of the "Prince of Persia"
and the "Prince of Greece" which are apparently fallen angel princes which
were the driving forces behind those empires. It is permissable to suggest
that each of the seven empires I have listed will thus have a driving fallen
angel behind it. Thus in my view the 7 of them make up the spirit of
Antichrist /lawlessness. Which Paul says is "already at work" (2 Thess 2) as
it was and had been since Babel and before.

The story of Babel is fascinating as it is the original evil empire and sets
the model for those that follow. There is a principle of scriptural
interpretation called "the law of first mention" wherein the first mention
in scriptureof any theme or doctrine sets the apttern for that doctrine
throughout scripture. Thus Hislop's book "the Two Babylons" is required
reading for any student of prophecy and is availabel off the net. I do not
agree with ihs i.d. of babylon with the Roman Catholic church - that is too
simplisitic and I don't want to enter that debate, but his analysis of the
system of Babylon as originating at Babel is a monumental work or
scholarship.

Daniel 10 then has something else interesting to instruct us on.

In Dan 10 these fallen angel princes are being restrained by another
archangel who for a period is replaced by Michael (an archangel) so the 1st
archangel can proceed to Daniel, after which he was going to go back to
continue the fight so Michael could get on with other business. Careful
study of Daniel reveals this 1st archangel to be Gabriel.

This would lead me to suggest that when we look over into 2 Thess 2 where we
find the spirit behind the appearance of Antichrist, i.e. the spirit of
lawlessness/antichrist is being restrained by some unidentified force who is
obviously on Gods side and is personal, the Restrainer, we should take the
lead from Daniel 10 and identify the restrainer with Gabriel.

This has implications on other theories - namely that at the pretribulation
rapture (should there be such a thing) the Holy Spirit is removed from the
earth because he is the restrainer. If we i.d. the restrainer with Gabriel
this doctrine falls. And there is no reason to i.d. the restrainer with the
Holy Spirit. And there is no supporting evidence that the Holy Spirit will
be removed from the earth at any stage. But if the restrainer is to be i.d.
with the angel of Daniel 10, Gabriel, then the problems are solved.

Anyway have a happy think time.
Johninnz
----- Original Message -----
From: "David
To: <jmbrough@ihug.co.nz>
Cc: <norm_lists@bigfoot.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2001 12:20 PM
Subject: RE: antichrist

> Hello John,
>
> I agree with you. Satan appeared physically at the beginning and I think
therefore he will appear physically at the end in some form or other.
>
> On the Trinity, I see it clearly described in Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. We have
God said: and we know Jesus is the Word, so that is two of the three. In
Gen. 1:2 we have the holy spirit at work.
>
> I hope you don't mind my forwarding this email onto Norm.
>
> Cheers,
> David
>
> >From: "John
> >To: "David Elphick" <elphick@gohip.com>, <bprlist@yahoogroups.com>
> >Subject: antichrist
> >Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2001 09:38:16 +1300
> >
> >Hi again,
> >Your analysis of "antichrist" is good. Agreed that the use of it in Johns
epistles is general and means Someone who is against Christ" and refers to
many people - John says so - and not to an individual at the end of the age.
> >
> >It is difficult that the name is not directly applied in scripture to a
personage at the end of the age. This identification has been made by the
church - rightly or wrongly.
> >
> >But even if we abandon the title "antichrist" there is still strong
evidence for a person at the end of the age who will oppose Christ and will
in the fullest sense be "Antichrist". It is this evidence that has lead the
church to attribute the name "Antichrist" to the son of Perdition", "The
beast" and so on. I.e. there are many "antichrists" but at the end of the
age there will be "THE Antichrist". It would be hard to interpret 2 Thess or
Matt 24 in any other way but to acknowledge the existence of such a person
whether we want to call him Antichrist or not.
> >
> >For me it is a bit like the term "Trinity". Which is one step further
back than "Antichrist" because it has not actual scriptural usage. But the
elements that make up the doctrine of the Trinity are clearly in the Book so
I am happy to accept the title. In the same way the elements of the doctrine
of Antichrist are in the Book and so if we give it a title "Antichrist" like
we have given the Trinity the title "Trinity" then thats OK by me. It is
really helpful to have a shorthand way of referring to the doctrine of God
and it is just the same with the Antichrist.
> >
> >However whether or not there is an antichrist at the end of the age
really does not prove or disprove the existence of a millenium - they are
separate issues.
> >
> >As for "bound"
> >
> >Yes your dictionary definition is helpful - but there are degrees of
binding. The dictionary only tells us about the total effect not if there is
only a binding in a particular way. Satan is bound by the work of the
cross - but the question is "In what way?" "Is it in the same way that Rev
20 Means?" "The fact that Satan still works - what does that mean to the
idea of him now being bound?" "Is he bound hand and foot? or is he gagged as
well? or is he trussed up like a mummy?"
> >
> >The normal understanding is that Satan lost his legal rights over mankind
and the earth gained through sin because of the work of Christ on the cross.
But the redemption of the purchased possession cannot yet be reclaimed even
though the price has been paid because the original owner (mankind) have to
agree to the redemption by their kinsman Jesus. Thus we have the gospel age
where we are trying to tell men that the redemption has been paid and we can
accept it. This age comes to an end when every man, woman and child who
canunderstand who is alive at that point of time has heard the gospel and
either accepted or rejected it. Until the corporate fallen Adam has heard
Christ cannot return - it would be a legal wrong for him to do so. Satan
would have a legal argument for not being judged. While there are unreached
people groups and individuals in the world Christ will not come to bring an
end to this gospel age. The Gospel shall be preached to all men - and then
the end shall!
> come. Jesus said so.
> >
> >Johninnz
> >
> ><< msg2.html >>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Free Movies at http://www.gohip.com
>
>
>

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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Theme Park�s Anti- Charismatic Stand Criticized
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 17:15:35 -0500

March 11, 2001

Theme Park92s Anti- Charismatic Stand Criticized

(CHARISMA) -- A month after opening to criticism from Jewish leaders, a
multimillion-dollar Christian theme park is again embroiled in controversy
--
this time for its policy against hiring charismatic or Pentecostal Christia
ns.

According to "The Orlando Sentinel" today, Marvin Rosenthal, founder of The

Holy Land Experience (HLE) in Orlando, Fla., said charismatics need not
apply for any positions at the attraction, including selling hot dogs at it
s
restaurant. Prospective employees must sign a Christian "doctrinal
statement" of belief -- which excludes charismatics and Pentecostals - to
work at the $16 million, 15-acre "living biblical museum."

The attraction near Universal Studios hit the headlines last month, when
rabbinical leaders criticized HLE92s concept and plan to proselytize Jews.

Rosenthal, an independent Baptist minister, defended the park92s mission
then - and has now said that hiring charismatics would be "hypocritical."
"We are not charismatics," he told the "Sentinel." "We love them. We
appreciate them. But we would not offer them a job."

However Gregg Halteman, HLE92s director of marketing and public relations,

said the park already employs some charismatics. Rosenthal told the
Charisma News Service (CNS) that current charismatic employees will not
be terminated. "No one will lose his or her job," he said.

Clark Whitten, senior pastor of Calvary Assembly of God in the Orlando area
,
said he became concerned with HLE92s anti- charismatic hiring policy after
a
couple of people from his congregation told him they were refused jobs at t
he
park. "Anyone that holds to the stance that Rosenthal does about
charismatics, in my opinion, wouldn92t hire the Apostle Paul to work with
him
or work for him," Whitten told the "Sentinel." "Paul was a charismatic, as

were many others in the New Testament."

Whitten, however, told CNS that he was not planning to ask his 6,000
members not to visit the attraction, as had been reported. "What I said was
I
am not going to raise this issue to my people," Whitten said today. "I have

no plans to advocate a boycott of the theme park."

Despite the latest controversy, business at the park is booming. According

to the "Sentinel," HLE reaches its 1,200 capacity almost daily, often by
noon. Rosenthal said charismatics and any paying customers were
welcome. "We welcome everybody," Rosenthal told the newspaper.

HLE has a policy against "disruptive behavior" for the park92s visitors,
however, that Halteman said could include exuberant forms of worship, such

as speaking in tongues. "The policy is pretty standard for a public facilit
y,"
he said. "We92re not targeting people from exercising their spiritual gift
s. It
could just be a 5-year-old trying to climb up on top of a tomb. We want to

make sure folks don92t do things that make people wish they were
somewhere else."

Halteman said he thought Rosenthal92s remarks had been overemphasized. "I

don92t know if I would term this as a black eye for us," he said "Some
Christians just believe one way and some another. We serve the same God.
When you really boil it all down, that really is the important issue."

A9 2001 charismanews.com

http://www.mcjonline.com/news/01a/20010309a.shtml

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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Shelter Criticized For Turning Down Homosexual Donation
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 17:17:17 -0500

March 11, 2001

Shelter Criticized For Turning Down Homosexual Donation

(CHARISMA) -- A Christian-run homeless shelter in Albuquerque, N.M., has
been criticized for turning down a $1,200 donation from a local homosexual

group. Joy Junction declined the gift after being told that the money had b
een
raised at a drag show - and was 'blasted' for its stand, said executive dir
ector
Jeremy Reynalds.

He defended the decision, saying it had been made in the light of 93biblic
al
concerns about the homosexual lifestyle.94 An administrator for the minist
ry
had telephoned the group concerned to thank the members for the offer and
93respectfully94 decline the gift.

93Sadly, whenever a group such as ours makes a stand like this it becomes
a
very controversial issue,94 Reynalds said. Last year the Gospel Rescue
Mission in Tucson, Ariz., came under fire after refusing to allow a gay
Republican congressman to help serve Thanksgiving dinners on the grounds
that his views were in opposition to what the ministry stood for.

The Memphis Union Mission has recently declined further deliveries of free

meat from the U.S. Department of Agriculture after being told it would have
to
drop its compulsory chapel service before meals to continue receiving the
government help. Between January and July last year, the department had
given 10 tons of meat - worth $30,000 - to the program.

A9 2001 charismanews.com

http://www.mcjonline.com/news/01a/20010309b.shtml

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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Fetal cell implants yield `disastrous' side effects
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 17:19:26 -0500

Fetal cell implants yield `disastrous' side effects
Source: Times Union Albany, NY
Publication date: 2001-03-08
Arrival time: 2001-03-09

A carefully controlled study that attempted to treat Parkinson's disease by
implanting cells from aborted fetuses into patients' brains not only failed
to show an overall benefit but also revealed a disastrous side effect,
scientists report. In about 15 percent of patients, the cells apparently
grew too well, churning out so much of a chemical that controls movement
that the patients writhed and jerked uncontrollably.
The researchers say there is no way to remove or deactivate the transplante
d
cells.

On their advice, the six patients who enrolled in the study but who had not
yet had the operation have decided to forgo it.

The results, reported today in the New England Journal of Medicine, are a
severe blow to what had been considered a highly promising avenue of
research for treating Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and other
neurological ailments. The study indicates that the simple solution of
injecting fetal cells into a patient's brain may not be enough to treat
complex diseases involving nerve cells and connections that are poorly
understood. Some say it is time to go back to the laboratory and to animals
before doing any more operations on humans.

The findings also may fuel the debate over whether it is appropriate to use
fetal tissue from aborted fetuses to treat diseases. Despite their
disappointment, some researchers said they hoped that the results would not
bring fetal cell research to a grinding halt.

"This is still our one great hope for a cure," said Dr. J. William Langston
of The Parkinson's Institute in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Parkinson's disease occurs when cells of the substantia nigra in the base o
f
the brain die for unknown reasons. The hope was that fetal substantia nigra
cells might take over for them. But, the study showed, in older patients th
e
operation had no benefit and in some younger patients, the transplants
brought on nightmarish side effects.

"They chew constantly, their fingers go up and down, their wrists flex and
distend," said Dr. Paul E. Greene, a neurologist at Columbia University's
College of Physicians and Surgeons and a researcher in the study. "And the
patients writhe and twist, jerk their heads, fling their arms about. For
now, Greene said, his position is clear: "No more fetal transplants."

Publication date: 2001-03-08
A9 2000, YellowBrix, Inc.

http://newsreal.yellowbrix.com/pages/newsreal/Story.nsp?story_id3D18804307
&ID
3Dnewsreal&scategory3DInternet

via: isml@yahoogroups.com

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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Congress Questions FDA on Human Cloning
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 17:20:47 -0500

Friday March 9 5:41 PM ET
Congress Questions FDA on Human Cloning

By Kate Fodor

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Following a spate of high profile news reports
about research aimed at cloning human beings, Congressman James
Greenwood
(R-PA) has asked the US Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites)
(FDA) to outline its plans for regulating trials of the controversial
technology.

Greenwood, who is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce
Subcommittee on
Oversight and Investigations, sent a letter this week to Dr. Bernard
Schwetz, acting principal deputy commissioner of the FDA, informing him
that
``the subcommittee is examining the adequacy of federal oversight'' of human
cloning research.

The congressman cited recent news articles--including a Time magazine
cover
story published late last month--reporting that some scientists are nearly
ready to begin attempts at human cloning.

``The very fact that at this moment, the research is proceeding underground,
unaccountable, poses a real threat,'' his letter states.

In addition to safety concerns and the potential for scams aimed at bereaved
parents and infertile couples, ``the immediate risk is that a backlash
against renegade science might strike at responsible science as well,'' the
congressman maintained.

In 1998, the FDA issued a statement asserting its jurisdiction over human
cloning trials. The agency stressed that sponsors of such trials, like
sponsors of other medical research on humans, must receive FDA approval
before beginning their research.

To gain such approval, sponsors must convince the agency that the studies
are reasonably safe--a feat that seems unlikely in the near future, as it is
generally agreed that the current technology carries unacceptably high risks
of miscarriages and birth defects.

In his letter, Greenwood asked the FDA to elaborate on the ''full extent of
the agency's claimed legal authority,'' how it has exercised that authority
and whether it perceives ``gaps in statutory or regulatory authority'' that
could make human cloning difficult to control. The congressman also has
requested that the agency report on any human cloning research of which it
is aware and detail the contact it has had with the scientists involved.

The FDA has been asked to reply to the letter by March 19, as well as to
participate in a briefing to discuss the issues in depth with members of the
subcommittee.

Pete Sheffield, a spokesman for the House Energy and Commerce
Committee,
told Reuters Health that the committee has ''total jurisdiction over the
Food and Drug Administration'' and has followed the cloning issue closely
since the birth of the cloned sheep Dolly.

``We're trying to collect detailed information to get a better sense of how
the FDA has proceeded in this field,'' he said. ``At this point, it's kind
of a fact-finding mission--we want to get a sense of how things have
proceeded at FDA since their 1998 proclamation--and from there I think you
could expect an evaluation of the procedures and guidelines that FDA
follows.''

But while Congress seems intent on defining the agency's role in overseeing
human cloning research, the effort may have few practical effects.
Researchers are almost certain to conduct their human cloning projects
outside the US in countries where regulatory oversight tends to be more lax.

The Raelians, the Canadian cult at the center of the recent media frenzy,
has established a for-profit cloning company in the Bahamas, while a
scientific coalition founded by fertility experts Drs. Panos Zavos and
Severino Antinori plans to conduct its human cloning efforts in an unnamed
Mediterranean country.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010309/hl/cloning_1.html
via: isml@yahoogroups.com

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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Hundreds Volunteer for Clones, Scientists Say
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 17:22:38 -0500

WIRE: 03/09/2001 12:33 am ET
Hundreds Volunteer for Clones, Scientists Say

ROME (Reuters) - Hundreds of couples have volunteered for an experiment to
create the first cloned children despite strong religious and scientific
opposition, a team of scientists said Friday.

Since the international team said in January it would work to produce the
first human clone, between 600 and 700 couples have put themselves forward
and the number is rising rapidly, U.S. doctor Panayiotis Zavos said.

"Interest has come from all over, from Japan to Argentina, from Germany to
Britain," he told reporters after saying his team was ready to start cloning
in the next few weeks, principally to help infertile couples bear children.

"Being infertile is like a stop sign. You face the deficiency and ask God
'Why me? Why do I have to go and get sperm cells from someone else in
order
to have a child?"' he said after a cloning conference at a Rome university
hospital.

And he deflected mounting criticism of his plans, saying people would
eventually get over opposition to human cloning.

"Historically this is normal but once the first baby is born and it cries,
the world will embrace it," he said.

"Now that we have crossed into the third millennium, we have the technology
to break the rules of nature."

But the proposal has come under fire from mainstream scientists and
religious groups. Friday, Father Gino Concetti, a moral theologian whose
views are thought to reflect those of Pope John Paul, reiterated the
Vatican's stance.

"These proposals contradict the truth of mankind, man's dignity, man's
rights ... especially the right to be conceived in the human way," Concetti
told Reuters.

Italian team member Severino Antinori, who gained notoriety by helping a
62-year-old woman give birth, also sought to dispel the flood of
disapproval.

"Cloning may be considered as the last frontier to overcome male sterility
and give the possibility to infertile males to pass on their genetic
pattern," he told a packed auditorium of scientists and journalists.

"Some people say we are going to clone the world, but this isn't true... I'm
asking all of us to be prudent and calm. We're talking science, we're not
here to create a fuss."

WAVE OF OPPOSITION

Bishop Elio Sgreccia, head of the John Paul II Institute for Bioethics at
Rome's Gemelli hospital, said human cloning raised profoundly disturbing
ethical issues.

"Those who made the atomic bomb went ahead in spite of knowing about its
terrible destruction," he told Reuters Television before the cloning meeting
started. "But this doesn't mean that it was the best choice for humanity."

"The forecasts (about human cloning) sadden us but don't scare us," he said,
adding it would be a betrayal if the Roman Catholic Church's voice was not
heard in the debate.

Scientists have also slammed the plan. A director of Rome's La Sapienza
university wrote a letter disapproving of the cloning conference being held
in one of its halls.

"I consider it disgraceful... and I dissociate myself from the meeting,"
Professor Ermelando Cosmi wrote.

Scientists have warned that 97 percent of animal cloning attempts have been
unsuccessful and that those embryos which survive to birth are often
deformed.

Dr. Ian Wilmut, who created Dolly, the world's first cloned sheep, said it
had taken 277 attempts to get it right.

Zavos said that might not be the case with humans, firstly because they were
a different species and secondly because the embryos would be scrutinized
for any deformity.

The team said they would start work within weeks but would not say where
they will set up their cloning laboratory for security reasons. When the
team announced their plans in January, they said they would work in a
Mediterranean country.

Zanos added they had "unlimited funds" from private donors but again would
not elaborate.

"We have plenty of money, I can assure you. There are no financial
restrictions," he said.

GOVERNMENT IN OR OUT?

Zavos said he was determined governments should develop further legislation
on human cloning to keep it under control but at the same time said his
experiments should not be subject to government scrutiny.

"We don't want the government involved in this project," he said. "This is a
high-tech, serious project and we're not going to bring in the technocrats
if they are not needed."

Last year, Britain proposed allowing human cells to be cloned for research
purposes while other European countries including Spain and France have
banned human cloning altogether.

Predominantly Roman Catholic Italy has looked into the therapeutic cloning
of stem cells in order to combat degenerative diseases like Parkinson's and
Alzheimers.

"The genie is out of the bottle. We need to make sure it is bottled and
disseminated responsibly," Zavos said.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20010309_2155.html
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Invisible asteroids might endanger Earth
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 17:29:00 -0500

Invisible asteroids might endanger Earth
Friday, 9 March 2001 13:44 (ET)

Invisible asteroids might endanger Earth

MELBOURNE, Australia, March 9 (UPI) -- Invisible asteroids and other
cosmic bodies made of a new form of matter may pose a threat to Earth,
asserts a noted Australian physicist.

Robert Foot of the University of Melbourne claims a meteorite composed of
mirror matter -- a form of the invisible dark matter that many say makes up
over 95 percent of the universe -- could impact the Earth without leaving
any fragments.

Indeed, he told United Press International, asteroids made of mirror
matter may have been responsible for such cataclysmic events as the
so-called Tunguska blast, which destroyed acres of Siberian forest in 1908.

While scientists generally attribute this explosion to a meteorite, no
traces of such an object have ever been found.

However, "mirror matter would be undetectable in our ordinary matter
surroundings," Foot told UPI in a telephone interview.

Foot believes mirror-matter asteroids might be a greater danger than
normal asteroids.

"These objects may pose an overall greater risk than space bodies
composed
of ordinary matter," Foot said. "An approaching space body made of pure
mirror matter would not be detectable -- only after impact with the
atmosphere would its effects be observable, but then it would probably be to
late to do anything."

Mirror matter, Foot claims, arises naturally from two apparent symmetries
of nature. One says matter is unchanged whether it moves forward or
backward
in time; the other, that nature doesn't distinguish between right- and
left-handed orientations.

"These particles must exist if the symmetries exist," Foot said.

In the invisible universe of mirror matter, Foot explained, space and time
are reversed. Time moves backward and right-handed spatial coordinates
have
been interchanged with their left-handed counterparts.

Something in the visible universe that is sitting at 50 degrees north and
20 degrees west as the clock ticks toward the future would have an
invisible, identical counterpart at 50 degrees south and 20 degrees east as
the clock ticks toward the past, according to Foot's theory.

Invisible forms of matter that preserve symmetries are nothing new to
physicists. Nobel Laureate Paul Dirac predicted that anti-matter must exist
to preserve certain symmetries of matter. His prediction was borne out with
the discovery of positrons, the anti-matter form of electrons.

Princeton physicist Howard Georgi is skeptical of Foot's claims, however.

"Robert Foot's ideas are interesting," Georgi told UPI. "They are also, of
course, extremely speculative."

Georgi also believes that invisible asteroids are not a top priority of
physics research.

"Foot's ideas have not attracted a huge following in the community that
cares about these things, perhaps because the problems they solve, while
interesting, are not the most critical puzzles that we are wrestling with,"
Georgi said.

(Reported by UPI Science Writer Mike Martin from Columbia, Mo.)

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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Iraqis Start Military Training to Aid Palestinians
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 17:36:04 -0500

Saturday March 10 1:34 PM ET

Iraqis Start Military Training to Aid Palestinians

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Several thousand Iraqis began military training on
Saturday to enable them to fight alongside Palestinians in their uprising
against Israel, the Iraqi News Agency INA reported on Saturday.

President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), in an open letter to the Iraqi
people on February 17, ordered the formation of 21 military divisions.

``The first group of volunteers went on Saturday to training camps in
Baghdad and the provinces after an appeal by President Saddam Hussein to
fight for the liberation of Palestine and al- Quds from the racist Zionist
occupation,'' INA said.

According to official figures nearly seven million Iraqis have volunteered to
fight with the Palestinians against Israel.

INA also quoted Saddam as urging Arab leaders to ``render financial support
as quickly as possible to the Palestinian uprising.''

Saddam made his appeal during a meeting with top Iraqi leaders including
Vice-Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council Izzat Ibrahim,
Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan and Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz.
Saddam decided to set up the new army divisions a day after U.S. and
British
warplanes raided targets near Baghdad.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010310/ts/mideast_iraq_dc_1.html

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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Human clone lab is in Caesarea; Expert denies
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 17:42:33 -0500

2 Articles, Human clone lab is in Caesarea, from Ha'aretz News,
http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?mador14&datee03/11/01&
id
112970

Expert denies report Israel will produce cloned infants,
from The Jerusalem Post,
http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/03/11/News/News.22718.html
-
Sunday, March 11, 2001

Human clone lab is in Caesarea

The first cloned human baby is supposed to be born in Israel, says a Der
Spiegel report to be published tomorrow. Italian gynecologist Severino
Antinori, who has helped post-menopausal women conceive, is leading a
team
in Caesarea working on the human cloning project. Antinori has said a human
would be cloned within a year.

The Israeli member of the team, Dr. Avi Ben-Avraham, told the German news
magazine that, "Unlike Catholicism, Judaism does not rule out cloning." He
said, "It's time to set the laws of nature aside." He refused to name the
project's investors, according to the French News Agency (AFP).

Meanwhile, yesterday in Rome, a day after researchers met and vowed to
clone
babies, Giovanni Bianchi of Italy's Popular Party condemned the team as
"Frankenstein doctors" and urged Italy's parliament to ratify an
international pact banning human cloning. A prominent Catholic cardinal and
head of Italy's national committee on bioethics also condemned the team.

Italy has no law against human cloning. The international ban, ratified by
the Italian Senate, is part of a protocol to the European Council's
Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine. The Council calls the protocol
the first and only binding international pact on cloning. Five of the
council's 43 member nations have ratified it.

---------

Sunday, March 11 2001 07:43 16 Adar 5761

Expert denies report Israel will produce cloned infants
By Judy Siegel

JERUSALEM (March 11) - A senior Israeli fertility expert last night
dismissed a report in the German Der Spiegel weekly that Israel is likely to
be the first country in the world to produce cloned infants.

Italian Prof. Severino Antinori, who a few years ago made it possible for a
63-year-old woman to give birth, told the magazine that within two years he
will "start cloning babies in Israel," where the controversial project is
"legal." The article stated that a group of Israeli researchers at the
Abaclon company in Caesarea was already at work on the project, using
techniques developed to create the first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep.

But Prof. Neri Laufer, a senior obstetrician and fertility expert at
Hadassah-University Hospital in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem and former head of
the
Israel Fertility Society, denied the report, saying that a private member's
bill presented by Hagai Merom and passed in the Knesset set a
five-year-moratorium on the cloning of babies for procreation.

"Cloning is permitted in Israel only for therapeutic use," said Laufer. "We
must be very careful about human cloning, as Dolly and other cloned
animals - coming from adult cells - are showing signs that they are aging
faster than normal. Just because a technique may be technically possible
does not mean that it is biologically beneficial," he said.

The Der Spiegel article quoted Israeli scientist Dr. Avi Ben-Avraham as
saying "money played no role" when declining to name the program's
investors, and as stating that "Jewish belief does not oppose cloning in the
same way as the Catholic Church... [it is] "time to move beyond the laws of
nature."

Ben-Avraham was in the 28th slot on the Likud list in 1999 under Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and was one of five on the list who felt they
had been placed in unfairly low slots and threatened to take their case to
court.

Antinori said at a Rome press conference that the procedure would involve
taking cells from an infertile father and injecting them into an egg, which
would then be implanted in the mother's uterus. The resulting offspring
would have the father's physical characteristics, he said. "Cloning is the
last frontier, giving [an infertile] man the chance to transmit his genes
and become a father," Antinori said.

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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Arutz-7 News (3/11/01)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 17:45:43 -0500

Arutz Sheva News Service
<http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Sunday, Mar. 11, 2001 / Adar 16, 5761

TODAY'S HEADLINES:
   1. ARAFAT REFUSES TO END INTIFADA
   2. CONTACTS CONTINUE, DESPITE P.A. ACTIONS AND INTENTIONS
   3. AND NOW THE DETAILS
   4. HEVRON VIOLENCE AND CELEBRATIONS
   5. ISRAEL WON'T CLONE PEOPLE
   6. TOUGH ISRAELI MEASURES SEND PALESTINIANS COMPLAINING
TO U.N.
   7. WATER DECREES
   8. THE PURIM SPIRIT
   9. IRAQ DRAFTS THOUSANDS INTO 'JERUSALEM ARMY'
***SPECIAL INSERT: The Sharon government

1. ARAFAT REFUSES TO END INTIFADA
Yasser Arafat's failure to call for an end to Palestinian violence last
night, during his speech at the opening session of the Palestinian
Legislative Council, was not a fluke; he told a Saudi Arabian newspaper
outright that he would not "give in" to Sharon's demands to stop the intifa
da.

During Arafat's address to the PLO Council in Gaza yesterday, he barely
mentioned the issue around which the entire Israeli-Palestinian
relationship has been revolving for the past half-year: the Palestinians'
mini-war against Israel. Arafat said, "We fully understand [Israel's] need

for security and stability85" - but did not call upon his people to stop
attacking and terrorizing Israeli citizens. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
has repeatedly emphasized that negotiations would not resume while the
violence continues.

Despite this, Arafat did not hesitate to call on Israel to resume
negotiations, and even said that the Clinton proposals must be the starting

point for such talks. Clinton himself, as well as ex-Prime Minister Ehud
Barak and Prime Minister Sharon, have all said that those proposals are no

longer relevant.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that Arafat's clear remarks to the Arab
media, to the effect that the intifada will continue, prove that Arafat
will not be able to achieve peace. "Arafat has total control over his
security agencies, and most of the terrorism is carried out by Arafat's
men, including his personal Force 17 guard," said Sharon today.

Even Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said today that negotiations cannot
proceed under the current state of violence. Peres said, however, that he

would suffice with a "continued decline" in aggression by terrorist groups

- and no violence at all by the PA. The Foreign Minister, who many suspect

is waiting for an opportunity to resume talks with Arafat behind Sharon's
back, said that "it would have been preferable" for Arafat to have called
for an end to violence. President Moshe Katzav, too, was disappointed with

Arafat's speech, saying, "Arafat will have to decide if he is a terrorist
or a partner."

Palestinian-affairs correspondent Roni Shaked of Israel's largest daily,
Yediot Acharonot, told Arutz-7 today:
"Arafat has not changed. His language yesterday was softer, his speech
was filled with words of peace - but there was absolutely no change in his

positions. He still has the same demands: the Camp David and Taba
concessions, etc. This was a speech directed to the U.S., as if laying the

blame on them, and to Israel, signaling that he would like to resume talks

- but only if based on Clinton's proposals. He did not say a word about
stopping the intifada. Why should he? From his point of view, he thinks
it's not terrorism, but a war of independence, etc. and he hasn't yet
gained one substantial thing from it. The truth is, he has made some small

gains from it: He sees how Holon called off its Purim celebrations in a
concession to terrorism - and I hope that you will give Holon's mayor a
black mark for this... Arafat has not lost control, as some people think,

and we should stop saying so; he is still Arafat, a very important symbol,

very popular, etc. It will be more difficult for him to control the
violence, and he may not be able to control every individual attack, but he

still has overall control..."

MK Gideon Ezra (Likud), formerly the Deputy Chief of the General Security
Service, agreed: "Arafat can end the violence, but he doesn't want to."

2. CONTACTS CONTINUE, DESPITE P.A. ACTIONS AND INTENTIONS
"Contacts," but not "negotiations," are continuing with the Palestinians,
despite the ongoing Palestinian violence against Israel. Uri Shani, head
of the Prime Minister's Bureau, clarified today that it is important to
keep up a continuous connection with the Palestinian Authority - but that,

in keeping with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's promise and policy, Israel
would not conduct negotiations with the PA until the violence ceases.

The PLO has disseminated a call to murder any Israeli journalist entering
Palestinian-controlled territories. PA Preventive Security Chief Jibril
Rajoub recently called up a Druze reporter for Israeli TV, Kaid Zahar, and

personally threatened to murder him. PLO terrorist Tanzim leader Marwan
Bargouti said on Friday that any Israeli journalist entering PLO-controlled

areas would not leave alive.

The Unified Intifada Leadership of the Intifada has decreed that this
coming Wednesday and Friday will be "Days of Rage." The first day will
express rage at the closure, and Friday will be a day of fury on behalf of

"Arab Jerusalem." The leadership calls on Arabs throughout Judea and
Samaria to arrive at the Temple Mount for Friday prayers.

An internal Fatah organization journal writes, "There is no alternative to

a long-term armed conflict between the Palestinian Authority and the Sharon

government." The paper states, "The two sides differ on all the issues,
the gaps are great, and there is no chance to bridge them85 Israel is
acting to liquidate all that which was achieved in Camp David and
Taba." Fatah proposes that the Palestinians support a long-term popular
war, which is the best option for us to fight Sharon. We must use the
intifada in the proper way in order to defeat the Sharon government."

3. AND NOW THE DETAILS
Palestinians shot this morning from Khan Yunis towards the Jewish town of
Gadid in Gush Katif. No one was hurt, and IDF soldiers returned
fire. Last night, Arab terrorists fired at an IDF post in Rafiach in
southern Gaza, while south of Shechem, others fired at the IDF base on Mt.

Gerizim. IDF forces returned fire in both incidents. Heavy fire between
IDF soldiers and Palestinian terrorists continued into the evening last
night at Ayosh Junction, between Ramallah and Beit El.

IDF forces destroyed a Palestinian Authority para-military outpost in the
northern Gaza Strip yesterday. The IDF Spokesman explained that the post
was used as an observation point and a site from which terrorists activated

explosive devices against IDF troops.09090909

IDF troops and General Security Service agents have apprehended Hamas
terrorist Muhammad Dirawi, 23, of the Nuseirat refugee camp. Dirawi
confessed to involvement in a series of shootings, roadside bombs, and
attacks against IDF soldiers and settlers in recent months. Members of
Dirawi's terror cell recorded their attacks with a video camera, and aired

the tapes on various Arab television stations.09
09090909
4. HEVRON VIOLENCE AND CELEBRATIONS
Leaders of the Jewish community of Hevron have called on Prime Minister
Sharon to keep his election promise and restore security to the area. They

were responding to the shooting of a Jewish man in the leg in Hevron's
Gross Square amidst heavy Palestinian shooting yesterday at the Jewish
neighborhood there. Eighteen-year-old El'ad Paas, a resident of Petach
Tikvah who was visiting his brother for Shabbat, was shot by Palestinian
terrorists in the Abu Sneineh Hills, overlooking the Avraham Avinu
neighborhood. Paas was standing with a group of Hevron youths near the
entrance to the neighborhood when the sniper began shooting. Many
children
reported bullets flying past them or hitting the street in front of
them. Paas was taken to Shaarei Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem, and is now
listed in satisfactory condition.

This morning, the Jews of Hevron sang, danced, and marched through the
streets, in the Purim "Adloyada" celebrations. Children and adults came
out in full costume, in accordance with Purim tradition. The army decided

to allow the march, and imposed a full curfew on the Arab residents of the

parts of Hevron that are under Israeli control. Hevron spokesman Noam
Arnon, who was dressed as Shimon Peres, later told Arutz-7,
"Thank G-d, it's never boring here in Hevron even for a minute. There
were several shootings at the Jewish Community yesterday, but only one
person was hurt - lightly, thank G-d. Yesterday's violence started the
same way it has many times over the past months - with murderous attacks
from Palestinian positions in Abu Sneineh towards us."

Arnon agreed that the pictures shown on television yesterday featuring Jews

breaking Arab car windshields were not positive, and explained,
"Some of the people got a bit out of hand, due to both the intoxication of

Purim and the pressure-cooker atmosphere in which they live, but this is
far from the norm of Jewish behavior here. The army commanders here have
all said that our restraint and behavior is most admirable. It's well
known that the photographers are Arab, and take pictures only of that which

is convenient to them. They never show the Jewish victims, but only the
Jewish reactions that finally come after nothing else works. Just like in

Netanya last week, after the terrorist bombing in which three Jews were
killed, the pictures concentrated on the angry reaction of a few people who

beat up an Arab... CNN is clearly a hostile network: when Jews are
killed, they barely pay it any attention, but if Arabs undergo some
suffering in response, they devote many minutes of coverage... Even on the

Voice of Israel I was cut off when I tried to say that the photographers
are in cahoots with the terrorists; they often have advance word of
attacks, and they themselves are a provocation, and this is why the Jewish

residents don't want them here..."

5. ISRAEL WON'T CLONE PEOPLE
In light of concern that genetic cloning might begin in Israel, the Health

Ministry has issued a comforting announcement. "The Health Ministry will
not permit genetic duplication on humans in Israel, as it is forbidden by
law," said Ministry Legal Counsel Miriam Hibner this morning. It was
reported earlier that a group of Israeli and Italian scientists were
planning a cloning in a Caesarea laboratory.

6. TOUGH ISRAELI MEASURES SEND PALESTINIANS COMPLAINING TO
U.N.
The PA is looking for more United Nations intervention. It announced today

that it would turn to the UN Security Council and ask it to intervene in
what the PA called the "siege that Israel has imposed on the villages in
the Ramallah and Jerusalem areas." The IDF has instituted a strong
encirclement around these areas, including dozens of new checkpoints and
groups of soldiers patrolling the exits from the villages. Similar means
have been in force along the Gush Etzion-Jerusalem highway for the past few

days. The Palestinians claim that such a level of encirclement has not
been seen since the days of the Six-Day War, but the army says that the
measures are necessary in light of the many terrorist attacks perpetrated
by terrorists from these areas.09

Furthermore, the PA recently turned to the UN with a demand that 2,000
armed international observers be sent to areas of conflict in Judea,
Samaria, and Gaza. Israel Radio reported that Israel's UN Ambassador
Yehuda Lankri believes that the demand is likely to be approved by the
Security Council, forcing the United States to veto the proposed resolution
.

The European Union, for its part, is exerting heavy pressure on the
Palestinian Authority to cease its violence upon Israeli targets from the
areas under its control. The Union has made it clear that it will not
transfer monetary aid if the violence continues.

Israel, in turn, rejects the PA's claims that it has no money to pay
salaries. Prime Minister Sharon told Newsweek that for the time being - in

light of the continued Palestinian Authority violence and its debts to
Israel - Israel has no intention of remitting designated tax-monies to the

PA. Sharon rejected the United States request on the matter, saying "They

have property worth over a billion dollars all over the world."

7. WATER DECREES
In light of the severe water shortage, the National Infrastructures
Ministry is planning to publicize a new series of water-conservation
decrees. The use of hoses will be forbidden for the washing of cars and
floors, and no new public gardens will be planted; what to do with existing

public gardens has not yet been decided. A new system of enforcement and
fines is under consideration, said Ministry Dir.-Gen. Yaakov Efrati.

8. THE PURIM SPIRIT
Several organizations worked together on Friday in a joint project to
distribute some 300 Mishloach Manot [food packages for Purim] to needy
families throughout Jerusalem. The Welfare Offices in the Jerusalem
neighborhoods of Bucharim, Shmuel HaNavi, Reches Shuafat, Mekor
Baruch, and
N'vei Yaakov helped organize the project. Students of the Ra'yah Girls
High School and Bnei Binyamin Boys High School - both in Beit El - packed
and distributed the cheery packages. HaTzofeh's Chani Luz reports that
soldiers stationed nearby were scheduled to help out as well, but were
unable to because of the heavy security demands placed upon them.

9. IRAQ DRAFTS THOUSANDS INTO 'JERUSALEM ARMY'
In response to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's call for volunteers to
liberate Jerusalem, thousands of Iraqis enlisted in the so-called
"Jerusalem Army" yesterday and today. Crowds of volunteers chanted,
"With
our blood and souls ... we sacrifice for Saddam" as they left for military

training with their wives and children cheering them on. The official
Iraqi News Agency says that more than seven million men and women -
nearly
a third of Iraq's population - have vowed to "liberate all of Palestine."
0909090909
***SPECIAL INSERT:
The Ministers of the Sharon Government - the 29th Government of the State
of Israel

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (Likud)
Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres (One Israel-Labor)
Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer (One Israel-Labor)
Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom
Justice Minister Meir Shetreet (Likud)
Communications Minister Ruby Rivlin (Likud)
Education Minister Limor Livnat (Likud)
Public Security Minister Uzi Landau (Likud)
Environment Minister Tzachi HaNegbi (Likud)
Transportation Minister Ephraim Sneh (One Israel-Labor)
Industry and Trade Minister Dalia Itzik (One Israel-Labor)
Science, Culture, and Sport Matan Vilnai (One Israel-Labor)
Agriculture Minister Shalom Simchon (One Israel-Labor)
Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yeshai (Shas)
Labor and Welfare Minister Shlomo Benizri (Shas)
Health Minister Nissim Dahan (Shas)
Religious Affairs Minister Asher Ochana (Shas)
Jerusalem Affairs Minister Eli Suissa (Shas)
National Infrastructures Minister Avigdor Lieberman (National Union -
Yisrael Beiteinu)
Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi (National Union - Yisrael Beiteinu)
Housing Minister Natan Sharansky (Yisrael B'Aliyah)
Social Coordination Minister Shmuel Avitan (One Nation)

Ministers Without Portfolio:
Danny Naveh (Likud)
Tzippy Livni (Likud)
Salah Tarif (One Israel-Labor)
Raanan Cohen (One Israel-Labor)

Hebrew News Editor: Haggai Seri
English News Editor: Hillel Fendel

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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] BNI.Priority News 1,1 (3/10,11/01)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 17:51:24 -0500

1. Hebron residents calling upon PM Sharon to keep his word
(BNI-MAR.10) Following the injuring of an Israeli by gunfire over the
weekend in Hebron, community leaders on Saturday night issued a
statement
calling upon Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to keep his campaign promise to
94restore security94 to the area. Hebron leaders pointed out that the
shooting attack and subsequent injury was the first in the city since
Sharon assumed office last week and they were now holding him to his word.

The statement released called upon Sharon to make good on his promise to
restore security to Israel in all area, including Hebron and to bring an
end to 93ineffective IDF responses94 seen to date in dealing with the dai
ly
PA warfare and attacks.

An Israeli was shot in his leg and lightly wounded on the Sabbath at
Hebron92s Gross Square. He was transported to the Shaare Zedek Medical
Center in Jerusalem. Eyewitnesses to the shooting explained it was a
miracle that others in the area were not injured by the PA gunfire.

****
2. UNRWA calls upon international community to assist PA residents
(BNI-MAR.10) The United Nations UNRWA relief agency on Saturday issued
a
call for assistance to the international community to come to the aid of
residents of PA autonomous areas in light of closures placed on those
communities by Israel.

Following a meeting in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak,
UNRWA
leader Peter Hansen called for a total of $37 million in urgent aid,
pointing out the increase in PA unemployment, placing the blame of
prolonged closures of PA areas by Israeli security forces.

****
3. Body of possible bomber found near Erez
(BNI-MAR.10) The body of a dead Arab male was found on Saturday morning
near the Erez Crossing in northern Gaza. According to conflicting reports
originating within the PA, the man was killed when a bomb he was placing
in the area exploded, destroying his face and killing him. Other reports
stated he was killed by IDF gunfire.

****
4. Arab motorist injured by IDF gunfire in Samaria on Friday
(BNI-MAR.10) An Arab motorist who failed to slow down at a military
checkpoint near the PA autonomous city of Ramallah was shot and injured
according to PA officials.

According to the PA report, the injured motorist, was shot on Friday by
IDF forces and transported to a local PA hospital. The extent of his
injuries is unknown.

****
5. Tanzim terrorist leader threatens Israeli journalists
(BNI-MAR.10) Marwan Barghouti, the leader of the PA92s Tanzim terrorist
force, on Friday issued a statement that any Israeli journalist entering
into PA autonomous area would not leave alive.

The terror leader also called upon PA residents not to cooperate with
members of the Israeli press, threatening they faced harm if they opted to
ignore the warning.

****
6. Arab motorist injured by IDF gunfire near Ramallah
(BNI-MAR.10) IDF soldiers shot at an Arab motorist who failed to slow down
near a checkpoint in the Ramallah area on Friday afternoon.

According to PA sources, a wounded man was taken to a hospital in the PA
autonomous city of Ramallah. The condition of the wounded motorist is
unknown.

-----------------

1. No injuries in Gaza shooting attack
(BNI-MAR.11) PA gunfire was directed at IDF soldiers at the Erez
Industrial area in northern Gaza. There were no casualties. Soldiers
returned fire.

****
2. Sharon: IDF will not enter into PA autonomous areas
(BNI-MAR.11) Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stated that IDF forces would not
enter into PA autonomous areas; areas designated as 93A94 under the Oslo
Accord, adding the situation was 93irreversible,94 Israel Radio reported.

Some thought that Sharon might send Israeli forces into areas under total
PA control in an effort to bring an end to the daily warfare and terrorist
attacks.

****
3. Hod HaSharon man dies in diving accident
(BNI-MAR.11) A 24-year-old diver from the Hod HaSharon area died of
injuries from a Saturday diving accident. The diver was in critical
condition as a result of an accident off the Village Coast, and was
transported to Eilat92s Yossef-Tal Hospital where he died several hours
later.

The cause of the fatal accident is under investigation.

****
4. IDF position attacked by PA gunfire Saturday night
(BNI-MAR.11) IDF soldiers in northern Samaria near Mount Eval were
attacked twice by PA gunfire on Saturday night. There were no reports of
casualties. Soldiers returned fire towards the PA city of Nablus, the
source of the gunfire.

****

5. IDF closes PA areas of Hebron
(BNI-MAR.11) IDF commanders in Hebron during the night placed a curfew
over areas of the city under Israeli control, limiting the movement of the
area92s Arab community. The move come following shooting attacks during th
e
night which followed a Sabbath shooting attack that left one Israeli
wounded in his leg near Gross Square.

PA officials insist that area Jewish residents attacked local Arabs
without provocation and the violence was a result of the attacks. One PA
official stated that the local Arabs are no longer able or willing to
endure the actions of the area92s Jewish community, describing some of the
m
as 93hoodlums94.

IDF officials destroyed orchards used for cover by Arabs to launch
attacks, setting off the renewed violence on Saturday night. There were no
reported injuries to IDF forces in late-night gun battles with PA forces.

****
6. Attacks in southern Gaza
(BNI-MAR.11) IDF forces in southern Gaza were attacked by PA gunfire on
Saturday night. There were no reported injuries. Soldiers returned fire.

****
7. Soldiers attacked by PA gunfire on Mount Greizim
(BNI-MAR.11) IDF forces in northern Samaria were attacked by PA gunfire
near Mount Greizim on Saturday night. There were no reports of injuries.

****
8. PA position near Netzarim destroyed by IDF forces
(BNI-MAR.11) IDF forces on Saturday afternoon destroyed a PA military
outpost near the Gaza Jewish community of Netzarim. The decision to
demolish the outpost came after a bomb was detonated in the area near the
PA position earlier in the day. There were no reported injuries in the
blast.

****

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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Daily World Affairs Report items (3/10/01)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 18:02:28 -0500

VATICAN REACTION TO INVITATION TO POPE TO VISIT
GREECE

The Holy See has responded with satisfaction to the news that the Greek
Orthodox Church has cleared the way for a visit by Pope John Paul II to
Greece. "The dates for a trip by John Paul II to Greece are still uncertain
,"
said papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls. But the Vatican official
indicated that the Pope's visit would be a step in "the pilgrimage that wil
l
also take the Pope to Syria and Malta." Plans are already in place for a
papal trip to Syria in May.

"This is a historic moment for the Catholic Church and the Orthodox
Church, because for the first time a Pope is visiting a Hellenic land," sai
d
Archbishop Paul Fouad Tabet, the papal nuncio in Athens. Speaking on
Vatican Radio, he added: "This is the choice of the Orthodox Holy Synod in

favor of ecumenism and Christian unity." He stressed that the decision by
the Orthodox body was made possible by the fact that the papal visit would

"have the character of a pilgrimage, and a purely spiritual significance."

The Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church, which on Wednesday announced
that the Pope would be welcome in Greece, revealed that the decision to
accept a papal visit had been unanimous. The Synod called upon the faithful

of the Orthodox Church to "have confidence in your hierarchy," and greet
the Pope's visit "with affability, serenity, and a calm spirit." The Synod

added that the Orthodox bishops are discussing how, "in accordance with
our sacred laws and traditions," the Orthodox Church can participate in the

events associated with the Pope's trip.

The decision by the Holy Synod represents a distinct change in the public
attitudes of the Greek Orthodox hierarchy. In September 1999, the same
body rejected the prospect of a papal visit, explaining that the decision w
as
a reaction against "the imperial tendencies shown by the Pope toward other

Christians," and the Vatican's alleged strategy of aggressive proselytism i
n
traditionally Orthodox lands. In 1981, the Holy Synod had said that the Pop
e
should not be allowed to "contaminate Greek soil" by his presence.

In light of such rejections, Archbishop Nikolaos Foscolos had told the Pope
,
in October 1999, that there was little likelihood he could travel to Greece
.
"We will hope against hope," he said at that time. As recently as November

of last year, Archbishop Foscolos had said that there would be "many
difficulties" standing in the way of a papal visit. (Catholic World News)
0E

ZHIRINOVSKY OBJECTS TO "CATHOLIC EXPANSION," PAPAL
VISIT

Vladimir Zhirinovsky of the Liberal Democrat party and vice speaker of the

Russian Duma has announced plans to investigate Catholic activity in the
country and Pope John Paul II's visit to Ukraine. The RIA Novosti agency
said that the Duma, the Russian parliament -- pressured by Zhirinovsky --
has charged a Committee on International Affairs to request information
about measures being taken to prevent the expansion of Catholicism in the
territory of Russia and other primarily Orthodox states, to sound out
Moscow's reaction to the Pope's planned visit to Kiev, as well as to
discover the reasons for the meeting between Prime Minister Mikhail
Kasjanov and the Pope during a visit to Italy in February.

Zhirinovsky also prepared formal authorization for the Duma Committee of
Culture and Tourism to request information from the Ministry of Culture of

Russia about measures being taken to return the icon of Kazan Mother of
God, now located in the Vatican, to its native city. Catholic priests in Ru
ssia
say Zhirinovsky's instructions are not surprising. Although it is easy to
suspect that he has some secondary personal interests or that he is
concerned with his own political reputation, his actions are in keeping wit
h
the state doctrine which sees nationalism and the Orthodox religion as a
glue for a disintegrating society.

In February, Zhirinovsky met with the chairman of the Department of
External Church Relations of Moscow, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and
Kalingrad. They discussed a wide range of questions including the Pope's
visit to Ukraine and the situation of the Ukrainian Orthodox schism. The
Duma vice-speaker suggested the organization in Ukraine of a unique
"agitation train" to explain to the Orthodox faithful the error of the
autocephalous schism and the importance of fidelity to the canonical
hierarchy of the Moscow Patriarchate. (Catholic World News)

VATICAN OFFICIAL HOPEFUL AT DIALOGUE WITH IRAN

After a 4 day visit to Teheran, the Vatican's top foreign-policy official h
as
indicated that the climate is ripe for dialogue between the Holy See and th
e
Islamic government of Iran. Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican's
Secretary for Relations with States, returned on Wednesday from a visit
during which he spoke with officials of the Iranian government about "the
participation of the Catholic Church and her institutions in the society of

Iran."

The archbishop said that his visit had no particular object, other than "to
get
to know today's Iran better, and to observe the conditions that face the
Catholic Church there." But he returned impressed with the prospects for
"dialogue between civilizations and cultures," saying that the Islamic
government itself is committed to that process.

Archbishop Tauran traveled to Iran at the invitation of the country's
government and the Catholic bishops' conference. He was following in the
footsteps of Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Vienna, Austria, who visited

Teheran for a Christian-Muslim theological seminar in February. In
speaking to reporters about Archbishop Tauran's trip, Joaquin Navarro-
Valls -- the head of the Vatican press office -- said that the Vatican offi
cial
would also study the possibility of a papal visit to Iran.

Diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the Iranian government
have remained intact for the past 20 years, despite the Islamic revolution

that brought a new regime to power in Teheran in 1979. In March 1999,
Iran's President Mohammad Khatami met privately with Pope John Paul II
at the Vatican, in the first visit by a leader of the Islamic republic to t
he
Holy See. At the time the Pope had described that meeting as both
"important" and "promising." There are only about 160,000 Christians in
Iran, among a population of 65mn. The majority of those Christians are
Orthodox; only 23,000 are Catholic. (Catholic World News)0E

THE HISTORY OF MOTHER'S DAY

Modern Mother's Day started in America but its roots are British
Mother92s Day as we know it started at the beginning of the last century i
n
America, Susan MacDonald writes. The death of her mother in 1907
affected Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia so deeply that she launched a
campaign to convince the church, business people and politicians that a day

should be set aside to honour all mothers.

In the UK, Mother92s Day in mid-Lent has evolved from Mothering Sunday,
although the mothering, it seems, originally referred to churches rather th
an
women. It was the day when local churches honoured their mother church
and also an excuse for a little spree during the long period of abstinence

running up to Easter. By the 17th century this had evolved into a holiday f
or
young people in domestic service to return home to their mothers, bearing
small gifts 97 perhaps flowers picked along the way.

Around that time the day was also known as Wafering Sunday, after the
wafer cakes offered by children to their mothers, and Furmety or Frumenty
Sunday after a dish of hulled wheat, milk and cinnamon which should not,
according to custom, be eaten until some words of wisdom have been
uttered. This is also when simnel cakes, the treat most associated with
Mothering Sunday, became popular.

And so to the 20th century. The US President of the time, Woodrow
Wilson, finally agreed to Jarvis92s idea of a special day for mothers in 1
914
with the words: 93The flag is never used in a more beautiful and sacred
cause than when flying above that tender, gentle army 97 the mothers of
America.94 It was this attitude towards mothers, often associating them
purely with fecundity and cooking and housework abilities, plus the growing

commercialism of Mother92s Day, that caused a '70s rebellion by women.

The leader of the National Housewives Association said it had become a
festival for shopkeepers and manufacturers to sell rubbishy gifts to small

children. In France women took to the streets to protest against a day that

they said concealed the exploitation of women in the family. The role of
mothers has certainly moved on since then 97 but the need to honour them
with a special day continues. (The London Times)

HOLY LAND FRANCISCAN WELCOMES NEW ISRAELI
GOVERNMENT

A leading Franciscan expert on Israeli-Holy See relations pronounced the
new Israeli government announced on Wednesday as opening the door to
progress in the pursuit of peace. Father David Jaeger, an Israeli Francisca
n
said of the opening speech made by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the
Knesset in Tel Aviv: "Moderate, open, possible. Gen. Sharon seems to have
put aside former rhetoric. Let us hope words will be followed by facts."
Father Jaeger hailed the new Israeli executive with the Jewish greeting,
"Shalom, Peace!", hoping for concrete policies to achieve a just and lastin
g
peace between Israel and its neighbors, Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon.

The Franciscan said the best path is through the Madrid Conference for
Peace in the Middle East region. "To re-launch the peace process, the new
government will need massive encouragement by both Europe and the
United Sates. Ten years after the inauguration of the Madrid Conference,
seeing attempts to sidestep it have failed, the most promising path is to
return to Madrid." The Conference, he said, should also resume the double
presidency of Russia and the US, with the participation of Europe and the
UN, for coordinated progress on 2 fronts: Israel-Palestine and Israel-Syria
-
Lebanon. "There is no time to lose. Any delay in resuming the peace
process will only intensify armed conflict and terrorism."

From the Christian point of view, he said it is to be hoped that the new
government will be committed to guaranteeing religious freedom. "Everyone
in Israel was shocked when General Stern, head of the army education
service, voiced doubts about the patriotism of Israeli Christian solders,
urging them to change their faith. Further progress must also be made in
Holy See-Israel relations. The Church is anxious to provide spiritual
assistance for Israeli Christian soldiers."

Another delicate point, Father Jaeger said, is the question of the mosque a
t
Nazareth. "We are waiting for the new government to cancel the previous
decision to allow the building of a mosque on the door step of the
Annunciation Basilica in Nazareth. This step is decisive for Christian-
Jewish relations, and for relations between Israel and the Holy See."
(Catholic World News)

GAZA SNIPER TARGETS ISRAELI DEFENCE MINISTER

A Palestinian sniper opened fire on the new Israeli defence minister,
Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, yesterday amid renewed clashes in the Middle East.
Army radio said that a shot was fired at Mr Ben-Eliezer as he surveyed
Palestinian areas from the roof of the Israeli divisional headquarters in t
he
Gaza Strip. Officers hustled him away, but as he was walked to his car,
shielded by security agents, another shot rang out. He was not hit. Contrar
y
to standing regulations, the minister - a former commander of Israeli force
s
on the West Bank - was wearing neither a flak jacket nor helmet. Shootings

in Gaza are a daily occurrence but this is the first time in the 5 months o
f
the Palestinian Intifada that such a senior figure has come under fire. (Th
e
London Telegraph)0E

MICHAEL TURNER 0F
(mykelturner@airmail.net)

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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Sharon set to legalise torture
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 18:06:19 -0500

[No url was provided with this story.]

Sharon set to legalise torture
Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv

THE government of Ariel Sharon, meeting today for the first time, is to urge
Israel's parliament to approve a law that would allow the security service to
torture Arab detainees.

The use of "moderate physical pressure" during interrogation has been
oulawed by the high court and Yossi Beilin, the former Labour justice
minister, resisted demands by Shin Bet, the domestic security service, for
its reintroduction.

Political sources said Sharon's administration, which was sworn in on
Wednesday, was sympathetic to the demand and had enough support to
push the measure through the Knesset.

Shin Bet officers say force is justified in "time bomb" cases when a prisoner
is thought to have knowledge of a terrorist act that is about to be carried out.

"We interrogate hundreds of Palestinians every day, all supected of
terrorism," said one Shin Bet source. "Last month we arrested a girl who
lured an Israeli boy via the internet to Ramallah, where he was brutally
murdered. It took us 30 days to get a confession out of her.

"If we had been allowed to apply physical pressure she would have
confessed after a couple of hours. Physical pressure saves time and
sometimes life." Force was routinely used by the security services until
1984, when two Palestinians were murdered during a Shin Bet investigation.
A commission of inquiry forbade further torture, but the continued use of
"moderate physical pressure" was permitted until September 1999.

Political sources say the nation's mood has been changed by the tense
military situation and the government would probably succeed in pushing the
measure through. At least 343 Palestinians, 65 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs
have been killed since the beginning of the Palestinian uprising five months
ago. The move has come despite signs that the first meeting will soon take
place between Sharon and Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader. Sharon's
son, Omri, met one of Arafat's senior advisers secretly in Tel Aviv last week,
apparently to discuss the violence. The Palestinian cabinet later said it was
extending the hand of peace to the new Israeli government - but also called
for an end to what it called Israel's policy of "siege and destruction".

In a concession, the Israelis yesterday allowed the Palestinian parliament to
hold its first full session since the beginning of the uprising. Two members
were barred from attending on the grounds that they had incited violence
against Israel.

In a speech to the parliament, Arafat called for renewed peace talks - but
only on the basis of "existing agreements and understandings".

via: End_Times_News@yahoogroups.com

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To: messynews@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Jerry Golden's new web site
From: Stafford's Mail <simmonds@freeuk.com>
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 09:35:29 GMT

Shalom to all

Many have appreciated Jerry Golden's reports from Israel. His new
website is worth looking at as it contains many items of interest as
well as some special articles and pictures of his family.

There are even some recipes as well as the archives of recent reports.
You will also have the opportunity to place a note for prayer in the
Wall and Jerry promises to deliver this for you.

I commend Jerry's website to you.
You will find it at: http://thegoldenreport.com/

Blessings Stafford
><> ><> ><> ><> ><> ><> ><> ><> ><> ><> ><>
Stafford's Mail <staffordsimmonds@ntlworld.com>

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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) Ha'aretz: Assad may be ready to meet Arafat
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 09:02:18 -0500

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 01:37:40 -0500
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: imra@imra.org.il
Subject: Ha'aretz: Assad may be ready to meet Arafat

Ha'aretz: Assad may be ready to meet Arafat

By Daniel Sobelman Ha'aretz Correspondent Ha'aretz 12 March 2001

The Arab Monitoring Committee established after the recent summit of Arab
leaders in Cairo to discuss the situation in the Palestinian Authority,
convened yesterday, and is expected to recommend a $40 million transfer to
the PA to help prop up the Palestinian government. Meanwhile, Syria
indicated that President Bashar Assad may be ready to meet with PA Chairman
Yasser Arafat.

The committee, including the foreign ministers of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan,
Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Morocco and the Palestinian Authority, met to
discuss the upcoming Arab summit on March 27 in Amman. They drew up a draft
proposal for the summit calling for an international court to judge Israeli
"war crimes," and a call for a United Nations investigative committee to
look into the events involving Israel and the Palestinians.

Concerning Syria and Lebanon, the committee will recommend that Arab leaders
express their support of the two Arab countries, in view of the "threats" by
Israel against them. The threats, they will say, are "an attack on the Arab
nation" as well as to the stability of the region.

Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq Shara said yesterday that a summit between
Syrian President Bashar Assad and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser
Arafat might be held even before the upcoming Amman summit. He added that
such a summit could also be held during the Amman summit, on condition that
the results are favorable to the interests of the Palestinian and Syrian
nations. The Palestinian leader has been trying in recent years to warm
relations with the Syrian leadership, but without success. If Arafat
succeeds in this effort, it will be a notable achievement for him, because
it will be interpreted as the formation of a united Palestinian-Syrian front
against Israel.

--------------------------------------------
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To: bprlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Daily World Affairs Report (3/11/01)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 09:02:18 -0500

CROWN PRINCE RECEIVES YUGOSLAV CITIZENSHIP

In the suite of rooms in Claridge's where he was born into exile in 1945,
Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia will tomorrow be presented with
the birthright he was denied then: the citizenship of his homeland. The
emotional ceremony follows the repeal by the Yugoslav parliament of a
communist decree that stripped the royal family of its citizenship and its

palaces. Prince Alexander and his Greek wife, Princess Katherine, intend
to move permanently to Belgrade within a few months, swapping their
home in Knightsbridge for the splendours of the 19th-century Old Palace.
The younger White Palace, which stands in the same compound, was the
official residence of Slobodan Milosevic until he was toppled 5 months ago.

Their imminent return reflects the remarkable transformation in Belgrade
since the overthrow of Milosevic, of whom Prince Alexander was an
outspoken critic. The prince and his wife cannot disguise their excitement

about the chance to help rebuild their shattered country. He intends to dra
w
on his royal name and experience in the financial world in London, New
York and Chicago to attract investment for his impoverished homeland; she
will continue her role as the new government's co-ordinator for
humanitarian aid as she works to resurrect the stricken public health servi
ce.

President Vojislav Kostunica, Milosevic's successor, is a royalistand his
government is anxious to cast off relics of the communist past, so it may n
ot
be long before Crown Prince Alexander becomes King Alexander II. In the
process, Yugoslavia would become the first country in eastern Europe to
restore the monarchy. For now, however, his thoughts are focused on
tomorrow's presentation when Zoran Zivkovic, the Yugoslav interior
minister, hands certificates of citizenship to Prince Alexander and his
family.

The crown prince and Princess Katherine, 57, will be joined by Philip and
Alexander, his 19-year-old twin sons by his first marriage to Princess Mari
a
da Gloria of Orleans Braganza. His third child, Peter, 21, is studying in t
he
United States. The ceremony will be staged, with an appropriate nod to
history, in Suite 212 where the crown prince was born on July 17, 1945. His

parents, King Peter II and Queen Alexandra, who fled German forces in
1941 and subsequently led their government-in-exile from Greece, Palestine

and Egypt, were living in the hotel at the end of the war. Winston Churchil
l
declared the suite Yugoslav territory for the day so that the heir to the
throne would be born in his own country.

Although the prince intends to move to Belgrade as soon as feasible, he
handles questions about the possible restoration of the monarchy with a
diplomat's tact. "I think a constitutional monarchy is a fine system and th
ere
is no better example than Britain. I also respect republics. It is up to th
e
people and politicians to choose. Our immediate goal is to restore prosperi
ty
not monarchy. The priorities are jobs, services and investment."

His previous visits to the country have attracted huge crowds, and
supporters of the monarchy cite the precedent of Spain, where King Juan
Carlos's return played a key role in unifying the country after Franco's
dictatorship. Should he find himself as the head of a constitutional
monarchy, he knows that he can turn to Buckingham Palace for advice -
the Queen is his godmother. Indeed, he has already sought her guidance.

The Sandhurst-educated Prince Alexander will maintain his position "on a
few boards" to fund his family and their homes as he knows there is no
question of the equivalent of a civil list. English is his mother tongue bu
t he
says his Serbian is "coming on well". He may face a dispute with his cousin
,
Princess Elizabeth (mother of the Hollywood actress Catherine Oxenberg),
over the White Palace, although the prince says the property clearly
belongs to his line of the family. (The London Telegraph)0E

SHARON SET TO LEGALISE TORTURE

The government of Ariel Sharon, meeting today for the first time, is to urg
e
Israel's parliament to approve a law that would allow the security service
to
torture Arab detainees. The use of "moderate physical pressure" during
interrogation has been oulawed by the high court and Yossi Beilin, the
former Labour justice minister, resisted demands by Shin Bet, the domestic

security service, for its reintroduction. Political sources said Sharon's
administration, which was sworn in on Wednesday, was sympathetic to the
demand and had enough support to push the measure through the Knesset.

Force was routinely used by the security services until 1984, when 2
Palestinians were murdered during a Shin Bet investigation. A commission
of inquiry forbade further torture, but the continued use of "moderate
physical pressure" was permitted until September 1999. Political sources
say the nation's mood has been changed by the tense military situation and

the government would probably succeed in pushing the measure through.
(The London Times)0E

ISRAEL FORGES CRUCIAL ALLIANCE WITH GERMANY

Half a century after the Holocaust, Germany has become Israel's largest
trading partner after the United States and its prime ally in its drive to

strengthen economic and political ties with Europe. Israeli officials see
German support as vital to efforts to win a formal European Union
declaration of their nation's "special status" - particularly at a time whe
n the
Jewish state's human rights record is under fire in other European capitals
.

Since the German presidency of the EU in 1994, Israel has enjoyed special
status in its relations with the Union. The aim now is to have that
declaration, which was merely an agreement in principle, formalised. If
successful, Israel would be granted important privileges for free movement

of capital, goods, people and services on a par with countries such as
Switzerland and Norway.

The project is being pursued by the Israel-EU Forum, comprised of Israeli
politicians, economists and academics. The forum - its members include
Shimon Peres and David Klein, the governor of the Bank of Israel - has
drawn up plans and is seeking early talks with the EU. The forum's
chairman, Avi Primor, a past ambassador to Germany, said that Helmut
Kohl had defined Germany as "Israel's locomotive" in the project. "We've
been told personally by the current German chancellor and foreign minister

that they will lead the initiative on our behalf. Who can convince the Fren
ch
or British of our cause better than the Germans?"

Close German support for Israel in this initiative is a natural development

for a country that has forged ahead of its EU counterparts in nurturing
closer economic, political and security co-operation with Israel. Germany
has overtaken Britain in the past 2 years to become Israel's 2nd-largest
trading partner. Bilateral annual trade is now worth more than
£2.9bn, while Israeli firms are investing increasingly in Germany.

Noam Katz, an Israel foreign ministry official, said: "My mother was born i
n
Berlin and, for many years, she refused to use German products. This is
understandable from people who survived the Holocaust. But today things
are different. We have come together with the Germans to work as
partners in building our country. There are only a few minor sections of th
e
population who resist this closer relationship."

While Jews of the Diaspora may still harbour hostile feelings towards
Germany, these are not always shared by all Israelis - many of whom
regard the country as having atoned for past sins. Today, Germans and
Israelis talk effusively about a "special relationship" which, paradoxicall
y, is
rooted in the Holocaust.

There are, however, those within the EU who have expressed misgivings
about some aspects of the special relationship - particularly the way
Germany has taken an uncritical approach towards Israel's handling of the
Palestinian uprising. The Germans appear unabashed by the criticism.
Reinhard Wiemer, the press attache at the German embassy in Tel Aviv,
said: "We are the closest advocate of Israel within the EU. We are seen as

the moderating influence and important in keeping the Israeli point of view

in mind within the EU." (The London Telegraph)0E

ISRAEL ACCEPTS GERMANY AS ITS FRIEND & ALLY

Avi Primor, a former Israeli ambassador to Germany, travels regularly to
the United States to tell American Jewish groups how good Israeli-German
ties have become. "Their reaction," he said, "is often one of shock, pain a
nd
indignation. They want to preserve Germany in their minds as a negative
nation." From the ashes of the Holocaust, a curious friendship has been
born: 56 years after the fall of Hitler's Reich, and 36 years after the
establishment of diplomatic relations, Germany has become Israel's most
important ally outside the US, providing critical support in the military,

intelligence, political and economic fields.

But this rapprochement, not widely advertised, but growing, has largely
eluded the relationship between Germany and American Jews. Indeed, as
memory of the Holocaust looms large in American life, and wrangles
persist over compensation for Jewish victims of the Nazis, the American
Jewish view of Germany often seems mired in the Nazi past alone.
"American Jews have always been a step or 2 behind Israel in
understanding Germany's postwar evolution," said David Harris, executive
director of the American Jewish Committee. The result is an odd disparity.

In recent years, Germany has intensified its ties with Israel, quietly
providing 3 submarines, as the difficulties between American Jews and
Germany have multiplied and the feeling has spread among Germans that
they are the objects of a "Holocaust industry."

The first Israeli passports, issued after the state's creation in 1948, dec
lared
themselves valid "for all states except Germany." But, long before
diplomatic relations were established in 1965, the first rapprochement
occurred with the 1952 accord on German reparations reached between
David Ben-Gurion, the Israeli prime minister, and Chancellor Konrad
Adenauer of Germany. The reparations would involve the payment of more
than $50bn, to individual Israelis and to the state of Israel.

Because some reparations were paid in kind - machinery, industrial
investment, spare parts, ships, locomotives - they brought postwar Germans

and Israelis together in a way that has scant equivalent with American
Jews. Israelis had to learn from Germans how to use the machinery and
ships - and friendships were formed. Most Israelis gained the feeling that

the financial consequences of the Holocaust were settled, hence their
indifference, even irritation, at the recent American Jewish push for
compensation from German industry.

By contrast, Germany's relationship with American Jews has often suffered
from distance, bitterness and what sometimes looks to Germans like an
American Jewish fixation on a traumatic past. With the Cold War over, the
last generation of Holocaust survivors dying, and other sources of Jewish
identity weakening, the Holocaust has become a crucial touchstone.
American Jews used to identify with Israel as a plucky, isolated Jewish
state, and with the plight of Soviet Jewry. But now Israel has become a
regional power whose policies in the occupied territories are, for some at

least, hard to defend, and the Soviet issue has disappeared.

Today, an investigation in Germany and Israel suggests, German support is
central to Israel's security, even if it is kept quiet partly because of Ge
rman
concerns about the reactions of the Arab world and domestic public
opinion. Relations between theit countries' intelligence services are
particularly intense, officials said.

Germany provides Israel with extensive information on the Arab world, and
Israel reciprocates with intelligence on Eastern Europe and Russia where,
in the words of one informed Israeli, "we have people with a lot of
understanding." Germany, for example, is acting quietly to secure the
release of 3 Israeli soldiers kidnapped last October by Hezbollah, the Shii
te
Muslim militant group based in Lebanon. Germany is also Israel's 2nd-most-
important military partner, after the US, working together on development
of some weapons, providing technology and giving Israel 2 highly
sophisticated submarines (while splitting the cost of a 3rd) as a gesture
after the Gulf War.

Germany has become Israel's 2nd-largest trading partner, after the US, and

sends more tourists to Israel than any country except America. As for
politics, Germany "is now our mainstay and chief advocate in Europe," said

Reuven Merhav, a former director-general at the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
In effect, European Middle East policy is largely determined by Germany's
role in counterbalancing France's stance as the most forthright supporter i
n
Europe of the Palestinian cause.

The annual human rights report of the German Foreign Ministry contains no
reference to Israeli actions in the occupied territories, in contrast to th
e
criticism of extrajudicial Israeli killings of Palestinians in the equivale
nt
American report. "Relations between Germany and Israel are special and
must never normalize themselves in the sense that we have normal relations

with Holland or the United States," said Rudolf Dressler, the German
ambassador to Israel. "We feel co-responsible that the existence of Israel

be guaranteed, and the political consequence is that, when in doubt, we sid
e
with Israel, because that is our unique duty."

Born in 1940, the son of a German who resisted Hitler, Mr. Dressler said
he felt that he could legitimately ask himself what responsibility he bears
for
the Holocaust and for safeguarding the Jewish state. "Of course I ask, how

could the Nazis do this, and what do I have to do with what they did? But
they did it, and we have to live with it. There is no time limit for what t
he
Germans did. And so we help Israel."

Bernhard Steubing is 21, a volunteer who has shunned military service to
work for Aktion Suhnezeichen - literally, Action Sign of Atonement - a
group that has brought hundreds of young Germans to Israel since the '50s.

He helps handicapped people and Holocaust survivors. "I felt it was
important to do something because of the past, and while Holocaust
survivors are still alive. I feel close to Israelis, although sometimes it
is
strange to find myself in this very nationalistic country, having refused t
o go
to the German Army because I am against nationalism."

Germany and Israel are indeed an odd couple in this sense - the most
postnational of European states allied with one of the most nationalistic
states anywhere. But their closeness has grown steadily past what once
seemed the impenetrable wall of Hitler's annihilation of European Jewry. In

Germany, the immediate postwar years were marked by an attempt to bury
the past, to find the elusive closure on the Holocaust for which many
Germans still quest today.

In Israel, the initial reaction was also evasive because the Holocaust
provoked a sense of humiliation on which the country preferred to turn its

back. "We were raised as the better, proud Jews who could fight back,
unlike our brothers who went like sheep to the slaughter," Mr. Primor said.

"We thought, wrongly, that the victims humiliated us. They were insulted as

the 'Sabonim' - the Jews gassed and turned into soap by the Nazis."

Over decades, Germany came to terms with its Nazi past and Israel
adopted the view that Hitler's victims were lured and coerced to their fate
.
"The coming-together was a long and painful process," said Mr. Merhav,
the retired senior diplomat who is himself the son of German immigrants to

Israel. "But postwar Germany won over the body politic of Israel through a

constant policy of friendship. American Jews, of course, were never
exposed to this sort of practical friendship, and I suspect their anger at

Germany is also anger at themselves, for they were very late to realize
what was going on in Europe." (Int'l Herald Tribune)

ITALY'S RIGHT-WING CHALLENGES E.U.

The head of Italy's populist Northern League (NL), Umberto Bossi,
threatened last week to "shut down" the European Unionif sanctions were
imposed on the country following a right-wing victory in the May elections.

Louis Michel, the Belgian foreign minister, has called for EU sanctions if

the league comes to power in a conservative coalition led by Silvio
Berlusconi, the flamboyant media baron and former prime minister.

European commission sources said Chancellor SchrF6der and Lionel Jospin,
the French prime minister, had both privately expressed concern about
Bossi. They have likened his views on immigration to those of JF6rg Haider
,
leader of Austria's far-right Freedom party. In an interview after a torch-
lit
anti-immigration rally in the northeastern town of Conegliano, however,
Bossi said Italy's importance meant that the EU could not treat it in the
same way as Austria. "You cannot touch a member country with such
powers (as Italy). Italy has great power in Europe. They are afraid of that

power."

Bossi rejected claims that his movement had embraced racist views. The
league, he insisted, merely wanted to introduce strict controls against ill
egal
immigration. Asked why immigrants stayed away from rallies, he said:
"That is not true. Last night at a rally in Bergamo there was a group of li
ttle
negroes who are members." Victory for Berlusconi is regarded as almost
certain. However, Jonathan Faull, an EC spokesman, played down the
prospect of conflict between Brussels and Rome. He said he had "no
reason to believe a democratically elected Italian government would not
want to respect the fundamental values of human rights and the protection
of minorities". (The London Times)0E

YUGOSLAVIA GIVEN GREEN LIGHT TO FIGHT ALBANIANS

Yugoslavia is preparing to use forces from the Kosovo war against ethnic
Albanian radicals inside a NATO buffer zone - threatening to escalate the
conflict spreading across the Balkans. The move emerged as Albanian
militants intensified raids on 2 fronts despite ceasefire talks sponsored b
y
the alliance. The guerrillas snubbed the talks and launched attacks on
Serbian forces in the Presevo Valley from the haven of the security zone
along the Kosovan frontier. Another Albanian faction clashed with
Macedonian troops on Kosovo's southern border.

Against this backdrop, a specially-created Yugoslav task force will soon be

sent into the buffer strip at the Serbian-Macedonian border. A senior
Yugoslav official has told The Telegraph that the force will contain units

from the anti-terrorist police force, members of the old Pristina army corp
s
and sections of the infamous 7th battalion formerly based in Montenegro. It

could be deployed within days.

A pan-Slavic coalition force involving Yugoslavia, Macedonia and Bulgaria -
possibly backed by Greece - may also be formedto combat a co-ordinated
Albanian guerrilla campaign. Bulgaria last week sent 10 truckloads of
weapons to Macedonia and offered troops. Milovan Coguric, Yugoslavia's
assistant secretary of defence, said: "These terrorist actions have gone wa
y
overboard. I see two options: either KFOR will take the responsibility to
handle the situation or, together, Yugoslavia, Macedonia and Greece will
finish the job."

Intensified attacks by the Albanians have brought the region to the brink o
f
another Balkan war. NATO's senior commander in Kosovo, the Italian Gen
Carlo Cabigiosu, flew to the area to meet the Serb deputy prime minister,
Nebjosa Covic, to discuss ceasefire proposals. The Albanian rebel leader
Shefket Musliu told Gen Cabigiosu on Friday, however, that his rebels
"would fight to the last man" against Serb forces. International officials
in
Kosovo fear that NATO's efforts to clamp down on the Albanians might
lead to the West's worst-case scenario in the province: Albanian weapons
trained on KFOR, their former saviours. (The London Telegraph)

MICHAEL TURNER 0F
(mykelturner@airmail.net)
.

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Subject: [bprlist] Couples "adopting" frozen embryos
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 09:07:00 -0500

COUPLES "ADOPTING" FROZEN EMBRYOS
Agency in California Aims to Save Lives in Limbo

NEW YORK, MAR. 11, 2001 (Zenit.org).- A Chri