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Iranian leader says he opposes Israel, not Israelis

By Nazila Fathi
Published: September 18, 2008

TEHRAN: The Iranian president, Mohamoud Ahmadinejad, took the unusual step on Thursday of explaining that while he strongly opposed the state of Israel, his hostility did not extend to the Israeli people.

"We have no problem with people and nations," he said. "Of course we do not recognize a government or a nation for the Zionist regime."

Ahmadinejad has long been seen as a threat to Israel, especially since he angered the West and Jews worldwide in 2005 when he repeated a slogan from the early days of the revolution, saying "Israel should be wiped off the map."

But on Thursday, he defended his vice president for tourism, Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, who created a storm of protest among legislators and senior clerics over the summer when he said that Iran was a friend of the Israeli people.

Analysts viewed Ahmadinejad's public support for Mashai's remarks as a sign that Iran might be softening its position amid increasing pressure by the West over its nuclear program.

"It looks like the remarks are a policy," said Saeed Leylaz, a political analyst in Tehran. "Despite the opposition, they were repeated, no apology was made and the president supported it today," he added. "

In mid-July, Mashai, was quoted as saying that Iran was "a friend of Israeli people." He then repeated the comment in August, saying there was "no hostility toward the Israeli people."

Ahmadinejad backed up the comments at a press conference Thursday, arguing that what Mashai said was "the position of the government."

Ahmadinejad made clear his opposition to Israel, saying that while "some say the idea of Greater Israel has expired, I say the idea of lesser Israel has expired too." He also called the Holocaust a "fake" and accused Israel of perpetrating a holocaust on Palestinians.

But he added that the people who lived in Israel were tricked to move there, and that the Zionist government used them as a shield to protect itself.

"We are opposed to the idea that the people who live there should be thrown into the sea or be burnt," he said. "We believe that all the people who live there, the Jews, Muslims and Christians, should take part in a free referendum and choose their government," he said.

Mashai is a close political ally of Ahmadinejad and his daughter is married to Ahmadinejad's son.

Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final word on state matters, has maintained silence over Mashai's remarks despite the anger they have inspired. Several senior clerics and some 200 members of Parliament called on Ahmadinejad to dismiss Mashai.

Opposition to Israel is one of the founding principles of Iran's Islamic government. Iran does not recognize Israel and only refers to it as "the Zionist regime."

At the news conference, Ahmadinejad also restated his government's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, which the United States and other Western countries contend is intended for atomic weapons. Iran insists it has a right to develop nuclear power for civilian purposes.

Earlier this week, the International Atomic Energy Agency issued a report saying that Iran had substantially improved the efficiency of its centrifuges that produce enriched uranium. The agency also acknowledged that it had failed "to make any substantial progress" in its investigation of Iran's nuclear program. The report may bolster efforts by the United States, France and Britain in their push this fall in the Security Council for new set of sanctions against Iran.

Ahmadinejad's comments came ahead of his trip next week to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly. Jewish groups have said they would hold an anti-Ahmadinejad rally to coincide with his trip.

Charities unable to help in major disasters

By STEPHANIE STROM

Published: September 17, 2008

The major charities that respond to disasters would be unable to address fully the need for food, shelter and other services after a catastrophic event like Hurricane Katrina or a major earthquake, a report by the Government Accountability Office says.

“In a worst-case, large-scale disaster, the projected need for mass care services would far exceed the capabilities of these voluntary organizations without government or other assistance,” said the G.A.O., which does research and analysis for Congress.

The report is being released on the heels of news that the American Red Cross, the only relief organization with a legally mandated responsibility to help the government provide care in an emergency, is seeking $150 million in federal aid to cover the costs of assisting the victims of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

That is the largest amount the organization has ever sought from the government, and it underscores the report’s findings that the Red Cross and three other large charities — the Salvation Army, the Southern Baptist Convention and Catholic Charities — would lack the financial and other resources needed to address a Katrina-like event.

The report, commissioned by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, found that all four charities had taken steps to address problems arising after Katrina.

For instance, the Red Cross, which came in for extensive criticism after that storm, has reorganized its chapters and worked to develop partnerships with local groups. Further, the report said, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and the Southern Baptist Convention have worked together to develop a system to manage supplies, and local Salvation Army units have upgraded their communications systems.

But the G.A.O. determined that in a major catastrophe, they would face shortages in shelter capacity and personnel, feeding capabilities and financial resources. The Red Cross, for instance, estimated that it currently could provide shelter for only a third of the estimated 150,000 people who would need it after a terrorist nuclear attack on Washington, D.C.

“The G.A.O. is pointing out the need for continual improvements,” said Maj. George Hood, a spokesman for the Salvation Army. “Some of them, without question, will take time, effort and funding.”

Among the report’s recommendations is that the Federal Emergency Management Agency develop an agreement with the Red Cross detailing that charity’s responsibilities in a major disaster.

IN MEMORY OF COUNT FOLKE BERNADOTEE , UN mediator, murdered on 17 September 1948.

On 20 May 1948, the United Nations appointed as first official mediator in its history Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg, of the noble Swedish family of Bernadotte. He was assigned to Palestine. Among his activities during the first Palestinian war of 1948 was to pave the way for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to assist Palestinian refugees in the Middle East. In negotiations with the Israelis he worked for recognition of the
Palestinian refugees' right of return.

In particular, on 17 June 1948 he requested that the Israelis enable the return of 300,000 refugees. On 17 September 1948, together with UN observer Colonel André Serot, he was shot by militant leaders of the Jewish terrorist group Lehi, the so-called Stern Gang. The reason for the murder was Bernadotte's public declaration that the Palestinian refugees must be allowed to return to their homeland. His proposals for the
solution of the refugee problem were the basis for Resolution 194, passed on 11 December 1948 by the United Nations General Assembly, in which the right of return of refugees on both sides was established.

A few months after the assassination, despite the overwhelming evidence of their guilt, the perpetrators were granted general amnesty by the Israeli government.
(from: Wikipedia)

International Jewish Solidarity Network will launch internationally on 29 September, 2008 with the release of our Charter and our Week of Action: Confront Zionism - Divest from Israel International Organizing Update September 2008

WE WELCOME YOUR PARTICIPATION AND PARTNERSHIP!

Who is the International Jewish Solidarity Network? This a growing international network of Jews whose identities are not based on Jewish nationalism but on long histories of Jewish participation in liberation struggles from Eastern Europe and Iraq to Brooklyn and Mississippi. In this year of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the colonial State of Israel, we pledge to struggle against both the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the designation of Israel as a Jewish State. For the past two years, the network has been building an international network of anti-Zionist Jews to support existing and seed new Jewish anti-Zionist organizing in solidarity with Palestinian resistance. As with any other struggle for justice, working locally or even nationally is not enough. The enemy we face is international, and what we can do is limited unless we find ways to work together across boundaries and regions. We are building an international voice which challenges Zionism and its claim to speak on behalf of Jews worldwide. As an international force, we can contribute to the movement to defeat US-backed Israeli imperialism. We do this through the following strategies: 1) solidarity with the struggle for Palestinian self-determination, 2) participation in broader anti-imperialist movements, and 3) the extrication of Jewish history, politics, community, and culture from Zionism. To read more about the network, go to www.ijsn.net. International building From July 31 to August 3, 2008, in Berkeley, California, IJSN gathered anti-Zionist activists from continental Europe and the UK, India, Israel, the US and Canada. This first international organizing meeting was preparation for the public launch of the network over the 2008 Jewish high holidays. To read more about the meeting, go to www.ijsn.net/en/ijsn/first_international/M36. Since the international meeting we have engaged activists in Morocco and Argentina. The network seeks to expand its work to other parts of the US, Europe, Canada, South and West Asia, South America, South Africa, Australia, and Eastern Europe. If you are interested in building the work of the network in your city or region, please email us at ijsn@ijsn.net. We hope you will join us in the following activities moving forward... To join us in any of this work, or if you have other ideas for the role and work of the network, please email ijsn@ijsn.net to share your interest, input and thoughts. Charter release and Week of Action: On 29 September, 2008, the network will put out its founding Charter with a clear anti-Zionist Jewish analysis and a call for a Week of Action. See sidebar for more information and click here to read more about the Week of Action and add your ideas. Popular Tribunals: Over the next 2-3 years the network will organize tribunals that gather testimony in order to expose the tactics of and demand accountability from Zionist institutions and individuals. Visit www.ijsn.net/en/ijsn/popular_tribunals/M36 to read more. Consciousness Raising: We will continue to engage in public education including forums, art exhibits, digital stories and workshops to the increase visibility of anti-Zionist narratives. Cross-movement building: Through supporting an anti-Zionist politic in the movements our members already participate in for racial, economic and gender justice, IJSN seeks to broaden support for the Palestinian struggle for justice. North American Organizing Meeting: At this gathering, activists from the US and Canada will develop long-term strategy, campaigns, and programs for partnership with broader Palestine solidarity work in the region. Education and Leadership Development: Through Unlearning Zionism workshops, Organizing Institutes, mentorship systems, and our Study to Action curriculum, study group program and educational resource website, the network will build the collective analysis, strategy and capacity of anti-Zionist Jewish participation in Palestine solidarity organizing. Read more about the Study to Action program at www.ijsn.net/en/ijsn/study_to_action/M16. Participation in existing Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) campaigns and other efforts to challenge Zionism: The network will not lead BDS efforts, but will encourage and support participation of its members in local, national and international campaigns. Supporting joint struggle between Jews of Arab, Persian and Asian descent and Palestinians: IJSN activists in Israel are developing relationships of joint struggle against Zionism and Israeli apartheid. Building of Academic, Jews of Color and Jews of Arab descent, Student, Cultural/Artist, Youth, Spiritual/Religious Sector Networks. Participate and partner with us as we launch! We need your participation and partnership in launching and evolving the programs and infrastructure of the network Give input into the charter, week of action, symbolic name, logo and structure by clicking on the following links: Charter Week of Action Symbolic name and logo Structure Visit www.ijsn.net/en/ijsn/C15/ to sign up for updates on the Charter release and Week of Action. Previous Work To read about the network's previous activities - including the Study to Action program, Nakba at 60 organizing, and participation in the Palestinian Popular Conference, the Cairo Conference and Liberation Forum and the US Social Forum - please visit www.ijsn.net/en/ijsn/C31/. "International Resistance to Zionism" Leading up to our first international meeting, IJSN held forums in London, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. These events were very well received, with 120, 100 and 40 attendees respectively. Watch footage of the forum in London. Read and view photos from the forum in San Francisco. Listen to radio broadcasts from Los Angeles. In This Newsletter + Who is the International Jewish Solidarity Network? + International building + Activities moving forward + GET INVOLVED + Work-to-Date + "International Resistance to Zionism" + The LAUNCH - Give input and join us! + Developing a new structure + Finding a symbolic name and logo + Contact Information Join us in launching the network! IJSN will officially launch over the 2008 High Holidays: 1 - 7 October Launch will begin with the release of our founding Charter and week of actions in support of Boycott, Divestment and Sanction against Israel and confronting Zionism. Please click here to see an excerpt of the Charter and join us from 10 - 17 September to give your input. Please join us in a week of action from 1 - 7 October: Confront Zionism - Divest from Israel Confront Zionism: Support the Palestinian call for boycotting Zionist and Israeli cultural, educational, sporting and political events and the academic boycott. Confront Zionist organizations that support Israeli Apartheid, censor and target individuals and organizations for criticism of Israel, and collaborate in US-European Islamophobia. Expose Jewish organizations that confuse support of Israel with defense of Jews and disguise economic and political support for Israel and Zionism as Jewish cultural and community work. Divest from Israel: Support the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israelthrough actions that target Israeli goods. Put the Charter out into the World: Use the founding Charter as an opportunity to voice and bring visibility to anti-Zionist politics through educational, cultural and spiritual events and creative action. Please click here to see a full description of the Week of Action. Help us develop a new structure Toward preparing for broader participation in the network, IJSN is developing a representative structure for coordination, consultation and communication across and between local, regional and international organizing. Over the next year we hope to evolve and practice this representative structure to support and increase the connections across local and regional self-organizing, while continuing to grow our capacity for internationally coordinated actions and campaigns (initiated at any level of the network). We need your help as we figure out how to do this. Finding a symbolic name and logo for the network In the coming month we will be searching for a symbolic name and logo for the network. Join us in an online brainstorm and discussion of possible symbolic names and logos for the network. Contact Information You can reach the network at: Email - ijsn@ijsn.net, Web - www.ijsn.net. Thank you for your contributions and support in building this network!

Scientists get death threats over Large Hadron Collider

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor

Last Updated: 12:01am BST 05/09/2008

Scientists working on the world's biggest machine are being besieged by phone calls and emails from people who fear the world will end next Wednesday, when the gigantic atom smasher starts up.

The Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, where particles will begin to circulate around its 17 mile circumference tunnel next week, will recreate energies not seen since the universe was very young, when particles smash together at near the speed of light. Hadron Collider: The final pieces slot into place Such is the angst that the American Nobel prize winning physicist Frank Wilczek of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has even had death threats, said Prof Brian Cox of Manchester University, adding: "Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a t---." The head of public relations, James Gillies, says he gets tearful phone calls, pleading for the £4.5 billion machine to stop. "They phone me and say: "I am seriously worried. Please tell me that my children are safe," said Gillies. Emails also arrive every day that beg for reassurance that the world will not end, he explained. Others are more aggressive. "There are a number who say: "You are evil and dangerous and you are going to destroy the world." "I find myself getting slightly angry, not because people are getting in touch but the fact they have been driven to do that by what is nonsense. What we are doing is enriching humanity, not putting it at risk." There have also been legal attempts to halt the start up. The remarkable outpouring of concern about turning on the experiment, the most ambitious in history, comes as a new report concludes that it poses no threat to mankind. Since 1994, when the collider was first mooted by the multi-national European nuclear research organisation (CERN), dogged doomsayers have claimed that there would be a small but real risk that an unstoppable cataclysm would take place. Many of the emails received by Gillies cite a gloomy book - Our Final Century?: Will the Human Race Survive the Twenty-first Century? - written by Lord Rees, astronomer royal and president of the Royal Society. "My book has been misquoted in one or two places," Lord Rees said yesterday. "I would refer you to the up-to-date safety study." The new report published today provides the most comprehensive evidence available to confirm that nature's own cosmic rays regularly produce more powerful particle collisions than those planned within the LHC. The LHC Safety Assessment Group has reviewed and updated a study first completed in 2003, which dispels fears of universe-gobbling black holes and of other possibly dangerous new forms of matter, and confirms that the switch-on will be safe. The report, 'Review of the Safety of LHC Collisions', published in the Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics, proves that if particle collisions at the LHC had the power to destroy the Earth, we would never have been given the chance to worry about the LHC, because regular interactions with more energetic cosmic rays would already have destroyed the Earth. The Safety Assessment Group writes, "Nature has already conducted the equivalent of about a hundred thousand LHC experimental programmes on Earth - and the planet still exists." The Group compares the rates of cosmic rays that bombard Earth to show that hypothetical black holes or strangelets, that have raised fears in some, will pose no threat. As the Group writes, "Each collision of a pair of protons in the LHC will release an amount of energy comparable to that of two colliding mosquitoes, so any black hole produced would be much smaller than those known to astrophysicists." They also say that such microscopic black holes could not grow dangerously. As for the equally hypothetical strangelets, the review uses recent experimental measurements at the Brookhaven National Laboratory's Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider, New York, to prove that they will not be produced in the LHC. The collider is designed to seek out new particles including the long-awaited Higgs boson responsible for making things weigh what they do, the possible source of gravity called dark matter, as well as probe the differences between matter and antimatter.

Ecowpots inventor makes haste with bovine waste

Rick Storre, owner of Freshwater Farms and Ecowpots said his name derived from a desire to sell them possibly one day on the Internet. Tyson Ritter/The Eureka Reporter

By VIVIAN TRACY, The Eureka Reporter
Published: Sep 4 2008, 11:41 PM · Updated: Sep 5 2008, 12:42 AM

It’s a clever product — started from a by-product, that once was a food product and will someday likely be a household product on the potting benches of every green thumb in America. They are known as Ecowpots; and they are the brainchild of Eureka resident and owner of Freshwater Farms, Rick Storre.

Storre said he came up with the idea about six years ago after noticing the “huge amount of dairy waste” in farm-rich Humboldt County. Himself a seasoned cultivator of native plants who often utilizes such waste for fertilizer, Storre said the idea came to him as a better way to package potted plants.

Rather than the usual recycled cardboard or plastic pots that are often used, Storre came up with a way to manufacture dairy waste into a biodegradeable and nutrient-infused pot that can be planted in the ground along with the bulb, flower or plant it holds.

“The whole thing is about raising your success level,” Storre said, and added that a part of his business is to “reveg” a building site that has had its plant life decimated during the construction process — the perfect job for one of his pots. “The hardest time for a young plant is the first three to six months,” he explained. With his Ecowpots, “I can provide not only a plant, but basically a pile of (manure) that can decompose and have micro-nutrients in it.”

Storre is all too familiar with the process of making something good out of a pile of manure that is delivered to him, not only as a longtime landscaper, gardener, farmer and nursery owner, but also as a man who once was given a 30 percent chance to live.

In March of 2004 Storre had a brain abscess rupture, which led to more than a month in intensive care, five brain surgeries in five months, and the doctor’s expectation for him to live the rest of his life in a vegetative state. It was after his fifth and final surgery, Storre remembers opening his eyes and casually saying “hi” to his sister who was keeping watch by his bedside.

After months of battling life-threatening brain swelling and multiple surgeries, “It was the ‘old Rick.’ Just like that.”

Storre said he “just instantly came out of it as quickly as I came into it,” although it “took a lot of physical therapy,” and with a new lease on life, the project he started before he went into the hospital, was the first one he wanted to resume when he got out — Ecowpots.

Since then he has partnered with machinist and dairyman Darrel Harnden, which has resulted in the Ecowpots being produced seven at a time from a press “the size of a U-haul trailer,” Storre said. The success of the pots has been tested and proven multiple times by Storre himself, as well as several of his nursery clients — who Storre said all called him to say that they loved it.

He also decided to test his product at an industry trade show in San Mateo, by submitting 30 of his Ecowpots on the “new products table.” The result? “We got best of show,” he said, along with national attention from media covering the event at the time.

Industry kudos for ingenuity and client success-tested, now all Storre says he needs are a few investors to help take his product to the top of the heap. Storre said he has already approached Headwaters Fund managers as well as a non-profit organization that deals with dairy waste called National Resource Conservation Service.

“It’s really phenomenal,” he said of how his idea has grown, and feels that the sky is the limit for the many ways in which Ecowpots can be customized. “We add all these really cool modern micro-organisms to the pots — things that native plants need to really start to take off,” he said. “Once you get the base thing figured out, there’s a lot of other things we can do. There are so many things we can do to adjust this for different pH-level plants and species.”

While he can’t patent his idea, since “you can’t trademark cow manure,” Storre said he plans to continue to “aggressively try to get the word out” and search for investors. And, for anyone who wants to see how a pile of waste can be transformed into a nutrient-rich planting pot, Storre said he’s always ready to show his invention off. “There’s always one at the front desk to show people.”

(Vivian Tracy can be reached at vtracy@eurekareporter.com or 707-269-7449.)

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