Condoleezza Rice Biggest Threat to Mideast

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6923430.stm

Iran 'biggest threat to Mid-East'

Ms Rice says Iran, not the US is the region's main problem

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has warned that Iran poses the biggest threat to US Middle East interests, as she begins a major regional tour.

Ms Rice and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates are meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Arab ministers at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The meeting comes after Washington confirmed plans for a massive arms deal for the region.

The tour is aimed at uniting US allies against Iran, Syria and Hezbollah.

Ms Rice denied Iranian claims that US policies were spreading fear in the Middle East.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini had accused the US of tarnishing good relations between countries of the region.

MIDDLE EAST TOUR Ms Rice is due to stop off in the following places: Egypt Tuesday: meeting ministers from the Gulf Co-operation Council, as well as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Saudi Arabia Tuesday: meeting King Abdullah to discuss Iraq and other issues Israel Wednesday: meeting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, President Shimon Peres and other senior ministers West Bank Wednesday-Thursday: talks with President Mahmoud Abbas

Iran's nuclear programme and influence among Shia Muslim militant groups have long been sources of US concern.

During a stop-over in Shannon, Ireland, Ms Rice told reporters: "There isn't a doubt, I think, that Iran constitutes the single most important, single-country challenge to... US interests in the Middle East and to the kind of Middle East that we want to see."

The trip is the two officials' first joint tour of the region.

They will visit Egypt and Saudi Arabia together, and other countries separately.

Mr Gates told reporters travelling with him that US officials wanted "to reassure all of the countries that the policies that (US President George W Bush) pursues in Iraq have had and will continue to have regional stability and security as a very high priority".

Congressional opposition

The main beneficiaries of the deals are Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

The $30bn aid to Israel over 10 years represents a 25% increase from present levels.

US ARMS DEAL BENEFICIARIES Israel - $30bn Egypt - $13bn Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and UAE - to share $20bn

The Jewish state said the package would allow it to maintain its military "qualitative edge" in the region.

The sale of satellite-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia, the first such sale to any Arab country, is thought to be part of the proposed $20bn arms deal with the kingdom and give other Gulf states - the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.

During their lobbying tour of the region, Ms Rice and Mr Gates are expected to ask Saudi King Abdullah to do more to support the Iraqi government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, has gone as far as accusing Saudi Arabia of undermining efforts to stabilise Iraq.

The weapons deals need to be approved by Congress, and appear set to encounter opposition.

Two Democratic congressmen, Anthony Weiner and Jerrold Nadler of New York, said at the weekend they would introduce legislation to block military aid to Saudi Arabia.

God help us! This is totally absurd. More money to Israel, antagonizing Iran, and calling for peace. Will someone please do something?!?!

Empathetic Evictee

As I glanced out the front window of our office yesterday, I was surprised to see several men carrying what appeared to be an entire household's worth of belongings outside and setting them in the busy street. It only took a few moments to gather that I was witnessing an eviction, though in my lifetime I had not seen one before. I don't live in the city.

My boss was sort of amused by my curiosity and astonishment, he having worked years with tenants to prevent them from losing their homes. Amused in a dark way, his shrug saying "there's nothing we can do, it happens all the time" but his eyes filled with the sorrow of the perpetual tragedy of homelessness. Then the human crows and vultures arrived, with their instinct to take that which can be taken, to feed their own need. Crowds gathered around the carcass of a family, the material things that sustained their life. Like ants they carried off the treasures that seemed too large for transport, leaving only the skeletal remains of the furnishings.

I wonder what happened when the family came 'home' to their empty locked apartment, to their possessions strewn across York Road.

Driving home past the free-for-all, I recalled the experience I had just weeks ago standing on the rubble of a home in the West Bank, another family destroyed by official decree. When I stepped into my comfortable suburbian residence, I was not prepared for the storm of emotional trauma that awaited me. Apparently my father was upset about something and I had once again triggered his wrath to be released on myself in a fit of fury. I could not do another thing until I had removed all signs of my existence from the lower half of the house, at my father's oh-so-gracious request. He wasn't the only one who had had a long day! I wept as I carried everything I owned to a "safe spot" in my room, now so full I can't walk in it.

This I coined "emotional eviction" because I was profoundly impacted with the realization that my dad wanted nothing to do with me anymore, that I have always been, in his eyes, a waste of good space. My naivety that suggested I could blithely carry on living with my parents as though all was well was shattered last evening, when I discovered that I am merely an annoyance to my family, and that our relationships have dissolved to nothing more than my parasitic use of their space. My mom was blessedly distraught and on my side, but also helpless to my plight of being removed from the premise, figuratively, and from the living area, physically.

So seven o' clock rolled around as I thankfully escaped the oppressive environment of my parents' house for a lecture by Arik Ascherman, founder/director of Rabbis for Human Rights in Jerusalem. He was speaking a lot about Palestinian home demolitions as a human rights violation, in which I concurred fully. I can easily see how anger, sorrow, and humiliation well up inside as you are evicted from your safe place and forced to watch your years of hard work turn to dust, until all you want is to destroy someone. It is dreadful and violent and I feel guilty for feeling angry and hateful, but it seems only natural sometimes. I empathize.

So many people in the world have no home or have had theirs taken from them by force. So many people who have roofs over their heads do not feel secure and safe where they live. It is a crime. I had a friend who took me in for the night, many are not so fortunate to have such connections. It seems so hopeless, how can humans do this to one another?

Letty Russell, feminist theologian, dies

New York, July 16, 2007 (Yale Divinity School News) – Letty Mandeville Russell, one of the world's foremost feminist theologians and longtime member of the Yale Divinity School faculty, died Thursday, July 12 at her home in Guilford, Conn. She was 77.

"Letty Russell served a whole generation of women who were ordained in the 1970s in a special way," said the Rev. Dr. Eileen W. Lindner, deputy general secretary of the National Council of Churches for Research and Planning. "Mentor and friend, she set the bar high and enabled many women to acquire the skills and depth to take up their vocations and to sustain them."

She was one of the first women ordained in the United Presbyterian Church and served the East Harlem Protestant Parish in New York City from 1952-68, including 10 years as pastor of the Presbyterian Church of the Ascension. She joined the faculty of Yale Divinity School in 1974 as an assistant professor of theology, rose to the rank of professor in 1985 and retired in 2001. In retirement, she continued to teach some courses at Yale Divinity School as a visiting professor.

"There is perhaps no other feminist theologian who has been more dedicated to ecumenical, interfaith, and international theological dialogue. Hers has been the influence not of imposition but of partnership. Yet her work has challenged everyone, not only because of its substance but because of her own commitment to making the world both more just and more hospitable."

Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, the Krister Stendahl Professor at Harvard Divinity School, said, "She pioneered feminist theology not only in theology and ethics but also in biblical studies....Letty was not only a great liberation theologian but also a great church-woman. She knew how to utilize the resources of church and university for nurturing a feminist movement around the world....As a skilled organizer she worked tirelessly for wo/men and feminist liberation theology."

Russell graduated with a B.A. in biblical history and philosophy in 1951 from Wellesley College, and she was among the first women to receive an S.T.B. from Harvard Divinity School, in theology and ethics, in 1958. She earned an S.T.M. from Union Theological Seminary in New York in Christian education and theology in 1967 and two years later received a Th.D. in mission theology and ecumenics from Union.

A global advocate for women, Russell was a member of the Yale Divinity School Women's Initiative on Gender, Faith, and Responses to HIV/AIDS in Africa and was co-coordinator of the International Feminist Doctor of Ministry Program at San Francisco Theological Seminary. The author or editor of over 17 books, her book Church in the Round: Feminist Interpretations of the Church and her co-edited work, Dictionary of Feminist Theologies, characterized her commitment to feminist/liberation theologies and to the renewal of the church. In 2006, she co-edited a book with Phyllis Trible of Wake Forest University entitled, Hagar, Sarah and Their Children: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Perspectives.

Letty Mandeville Russell was born in Westfield, NJ in 1929. She was predeceased by her sister, Jean Berry of New Jersey and former husband, the late Prof. Hans Hoekendijk. She is survived by her partner, Shannon Clarkson; her sister, Elizabeth Collins of Salem, OR.

BBC "Israeli textbook states Arab view"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6910859.stm

Ms Tamir (right) says both viewpoints need to be shown

The Israeli government has approved a school textbook that for the first time presents the Palestinian denunciation of the creation of Israel in 1948.

The book, to be used only in Israeli Arab schools, notes that Palestinians describe the event as a "catastrophe".

"Both the Israeli and Palestinian versions have to be presented," education minister Yuli Tamir said.

The book was condemned by right-wing politicians but hailed by Arab Israelis who say all schools should use it.

The new textbook notes that "some of the Palestinians were expelled following the War of Independence and that many Arab-owned lands were confiscated", the education ministry said.

Palestinians refer to Israel's creation in 1948 - in which hundreds of thousands of Arabs fled in the wake of the independence war - as "al nakba", or the catastrophe.

They blame the Jewish state for usurping their land.

The new textbook also says Arab leaders rejected a UN partition plan for Palestine to be split into Israeli and Palestinian states, and that Jewish leaders accepted it.

Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman denounced the book on army radio, blaming "the masochism and defeatism of the Israeli left, which constantly seeks to apologise, while we did what we had to".

Former Education Minister Limor Livnat of the right-wing Likud party said it would encourage Arabs to take up arms against Israel.

I assure you that Arab Israelis do not need these facts told to them by Israeli textbooks, though some indication that Israel is creeping out of its denial is always appreciated. If only Jewish AND Palestinian school children learned "two sides" of every story or God forbid, three or four!

Welcome!

Sensing a personal need to share my discoveries of an intellectual and contemporary nature with an anonymous public, I have finally established a blog. Admittedly, it will be a tempting outlet from study and assignments, which may threaten to destabilize my delicately balanced motivation...and it also will separate me further from the natural world in which I ought to be residing. While I am not so arrogant as to believe that anything I post will matter much, I still feel compelled to take this step in order to bring to light that on which I internally dwell. In spite of the risk to my relational well-being (that is, the amount of time I spend in the company of real human beings), I hope that this will in fact be a beneficial medium through which to express myself more fully.

So welcome to the musings of my bleeding heart--full of sorrow and full of hope!