Last weekend, Maj.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan, head of the IDF Planning Directorate, traveled to Paris and met with military officials to explain why the IAF flies over Lebanon despite the UN-brokered cease-fire.

Nehushtan, new to his post and previously deputy commander of the air force, told his French counterparts that Israel was conducting the flights to collect intelligence on Hizbullah positions in southern Lebanon.

According to the French officer, Nehushtan apologized for an incident on October 31 when an IAF fighter carried out a mock bombing run over a French UNIFIL position in southern Lebanon, almost prompting troops to fire anti-aircraft missiles.

"There was a reality on the ground and it was important for us to reaffirm what we had seen and explain clearly what are the orders of the French soldiers to protect themselves," the French officer said.

The French told Nehushtan they would view further aggressive flyovers as a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

"No assurances were made to us that they [the IAF] would stop [the flights]," the French officer said. "The orders that the [French] soldiers have is that their weapons are for self-defense and if a commander will feel threatened, as it was about to happen on the 31st of October, he would have the right to use force."

Milos Strugar, spokesman for UNIFIL, supported the French position, saying that according to the UN resolution, UNIFIL had the right to use force in self-defense, even against Israeli aircraft.

"UNIFIL has the right to take all necessary action to protect UN personnel in self-defense," he said.

France's furor at the overflights was not divorced from French domestic political considerations, government officials in Jerusalem said Wednesday.

France is scheduled to hold the first round of presidential elections in April, and one of those reportedly considering tossing her hat into the ring is Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie.

According to these officials, taking a tough stance toward Israel on the issue - a position that grabs headlines in France - helps her raise her profile.

The officials said it didn't hurt Alliot-Marie politically to be seen as someone who needed to be "held back" from responding forcefully to the overflights.

France has said on a few occasions since the end of the war that it came close to firing at Israeli jets over Lebanon. In late October, Alliot-Marie told parliament that Israeli F-15's had dived close to French positions in southern Lebanon.

"Our troops barely avoided a catastrophe," Alliot-Marie told parliament. "Our troops find themselves in a position where they have to fire in legitimate self-defense."

Alliot-Marie is a close ally of French President Jacques Chirac, and if Chirac does not decide to run for a third term, he may back Alliot-Marie to thwart his rival, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.

The Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, has not - contrary to some press reports - asked the IDF to stop the overflights, diplomatic officials said. Rather, they have passed on to the IDF European concerns that the flights be performed more discreetly, and not in a way that could be interpreted by either the Lebanese or the Europeans as a provocation.

Nehushtan declined to be interviewed for this report and the IDF Spokesman's Office released a statement confirming that the IDF general had visited Paris.

The mid-term election losses of U.S. President George W. Bush's Republican Party were widely considered a repudiation of his decision to topple Iraq's Saddam Hussein as part of a vision of democratizing the region and bolstering allies like Israel.

Olmert avoided explicit comment on the Republicans' fortunes during Washington talks with Bush earlier this month. But in a speech to visiting American Jews, Olmert made clear he had few regrets about the changes wrought by the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

"I know all of his (Bush's) policies are controversial in America. There are some who support his policies in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq, and some who do not," he said.

"I stand with the president because I know that Iraq without Saddam Hussein is so much better for the security and safety of Israel, and all of the neighbors of Israel without any significance to us," added Olmert, who was speaking in English.

"Thank God for the power and the determination and leadership manifested by President Bush."

With U.S.-led forces mired in an Iraqi insurgency, political analysts have speculated that Bush may redirect his attentions toward solving an Israeli-Palestinian conflict that is a major grievance in the Arab and Muslim world.

That could prompt Olmert to reconsider his unilateral policies towards a Palestinian leadership that he has argued is incapable or unwilling to make peace with Israel.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a moderate who has been struggling to revive rapprochement efforts despite opposition from the Hamas Islamists with which he shares power, has said that Israel should seek peace as a key to wider regional calm.

Under Saddam, Iraq backed Palestinian militants and posed a menacing presence to Israel's east. During the 1991 Gulf war, Iraq rained missiles on Israel but Israel held its fire at the behest of Washington, which was wary of alienating Arab allies.

But Olmert's views on today's Iraq have not been shared by all Israeli experts.

Yuval Diskin, chief of the Shin Bet intelligence service, said in a leaked briefing earlier this year that Israel could come to rue Saddam's ouster if it deepens regional instability.

"When you take apart a system in which a dictator has been controlling his people by force, you have chaos," Diskin said in a recording broadcast by Israeli television. "I'm not sure we won't end up missing Saddam."

"All proof and evidence point clearly to the fact that the US and Zionists are behind the assassination because the US State Secretary Condoleezza Rice had earlier disclosed that many assassinations would take place in Lebanon; large amount of weapons have also been shipped to the US Embassy in Lebanon and Gemayel too was assassinated with the same arms," said Khatami in his second Friday prayers sermon.

At least three gunmen rammed their car into Gemayel's vehicle as it was traveling in Beirut's Christian neighborhood and then riddled it with bullets from their silencer-equipped automatic weapons at pointblank range, witnesses said.

Gemayel, 34, was rushed to hospital where he later died of his wounds.
Khatami went on to say, "The reality is that we are witnessing a plot in Lebanon."

He hoped such plots would be defused through wise initiatives of the Lebanese popular officials.

The cleric said, "True, the plots have been masterminded by foreigners, notably the US, but the enemy is at home."

He recalled the 33-day of Lebanese resistance against the Zionist enemy and said there were some Lebanese statesmen who tried to harm the resistance.

"After the cold war, unilateral domination policy and efforts to misuse the opportunity in line with strengthening power fomented instability worldwide and the Middle East," he stated.

The VP went on to say that restoration of stability in the region depends on attention to crisis in Palestine, and noted that the nation's legitimate rights have been denied for 60 years, because the Zionist regime usurped their territories and made them baseless.

The US is to deprive Iran from its inalienable peaceful nuclear right based on NPT regulations, and is storming Tehran for its nuclear activities, he said.
He added that the US' skyrocketing debts have brought about instability on the international financial markets and it is issuing dollars to repay the debts which has decreased trust in the exchange unit.

Touching on energy as the most important resource in the region, he noted that energy management is considered as the base factor in regional development and cooperation.

The official stipulated that the total oil and gas reserves should be regarded as a supportive element to promote a great movement for cooperation in all fields particularly in regional and international trade, security and energy sectors.

Davoudi arrived in Turkey on an invitation by Turkish Prime nister Recep Teyyip Erdogan to participate in the Regional Conference of the World Economic Federation.

The two-day conference dubbed 'Joining Regional and Creating New Opportunities' is attended by 13 Turkish ministers including the economy, finance and foreign ministers.

The campaign included two and a half months of weekly full-page ads in Jewish newspapers (and even some Russian-language publications) around the country as well as a 500,000-piece direct mailing. Not surprisingly, the campaign gained a lot of attention, but not just for its size. It was also accused of misstating facts and intentionally quoting politicians out of context to make its own partisan points.

To gauge the effectiveness of past ad campaigns, the RJC used the National Election Pool's exit polls as their benchmark. The NEP is a non-partisan organization founded by a consortium of national media outlets, including Fox News, CNN, CBS, NBC and Associated Press. In 2004, the National Election Pool initially suggested that 24% of the Jewish vote was cast to reelect Pres. George W. Bush --- an increase over previous elections. Months later when state samples were available (boosting the total sample from 250 or 300 to about 1500) the Bush's Jewish support slipped to
22% about the same as the 21% Bush received when he was first elected in 2000.

What value did the RJC get on their investment in 2006?

This fall, the National Election Pool conducted a similar exit poll. The results indicate that the RJC's ad campaign was something less than effective. According that poll, Republicans received only 12% of the Jewish vote in the mid-term elections; nearly half of their support had evaporated. This loss of GOP support among Jews mirrored GOP losses in the general electorate where Democrats increased their backing from 46.6% in 2004 to 57.7% in 2006.

Will big RJC donors be asking for their money back?

How does the Republican Jewish Coalition react to this rout?

They are in a state of denial. After a landslide in which they are only left with half of the support they had carefully nurtured over twelve years, they conducted for the first time their own internal survey which purports to show Jewish GOP vote actually increasing to 26.4%.

So which numbers are right?

In effect, the Republican Jewish Coalition abandoned the National Election Pool's exit poll results which they had used in the past, in favor of a home-grown "poll" focusing on particular demographic groups and geographical regions which were likely to be less unfavorable to the RJC. Indeed, according to Matthew Brook's own numbers the RJC oversampled Republicans and undersampled Democrats compared to the most recent American Jewish Committee Survey.


In order to assess this claim we need to take a look at the methodology used in each poll. The RJC has been reluctant to discuss their methodologies, but certain facts are worth noting.

Is the poll non-partisan?

The RJC poll was conducted by Republican political operative
Arthur J. Finkelstein. Over the last twenty-five years, Finkelstein has directed campaigns to elect conservatives in the United States and Israel. On the other hand, the National Election Pool exit poll is conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International, two well-known survey companies whose reputations are based on their accuracy and non-partisanship.

Scholarly analysis of political polls usually ignores all polls commissioned by a group aligned with a particular party or candidate since such polls are usually
non-predictive outliers.

When is an exit poll an exit poll?

While described as an "exit poll," the RJC polls were actually conducted over the telephone. Instead of picking random voters, the RJC called people and asked them
if they had voted, and if so, for whom. According to University of Florida political science professor Kenneth Wald, "there is no assurance that those who say they voted
or would vote actually did; [that is why] exit polls are done [exclusively] at polling places." It is well understood that people tend to respond to polls with the answer
they feel they ought to have given. Perhaps Republicans insufficiently motivated to actually turn out at the polls were included as "voters" in the RJC survey.

Do Unaffiliated Jews Count?

The National Election Pool's exit poll asked voters to indicate their religion if any, and included as "Jewish" any voter who identified themselves as Jewish. In contrast, the RJC's phone survey asked if the "voter" attended an Orthodox, a Conservative or a Reform synagogue.

If the caller was Reconstructionist or unaffiliated,
the call was terminated.

Prof. Steven M. Cohen, sociologist studying the American Jewish community at the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion determined that if the Republican Jewish Coalition's "restrictions were in place on a national level, 54% of America's Jews would qualify and 46% would not."

How are respondants selected?

Since Jews represent only 2% of the American population, the RJC did not call random people to see if they were Jewish. Doing so like the National Election Pool does would have been prohibitively expensive. Instead, they obtained "commercially available Jewish vote lists" which identify Jewish names. Matthew Brooks declined to provide
additional information about the organizations selling their lists to the RJC, but it is likely that the organizations and their mailing lists do not provide a random
cross-section of the Jewish community.

For example, in the RJC sample, 17 percent of respondents included identified themselves as Orthodox, as compared to 8 percent in the most recent American Jewish Committee Survey.
According to the RJC, 42 percent of Orthodox Jews vote Republican, so inflating the Orthodox Jewish vote inflates the overall Republican numbers. Matthew Brooks justified this practice saying, "We wanted to measure people who are practicing Jews [and] expressed some level of religious observance."

Is the survey national in scope?

The National Election Pool took great efforts to count every area of the country in proportion to their electorate. However, the RJC phone survey focused exclusively
on voters in Florida's 22nd district, Pennsylvania's 6th district, and the state of New Jersey.

According to the National Election Pool, Kean of New Jersey, though he lost, had the most Jewish support (28%) among all Republican Senate candidates. Meanwhile,Pennsylvania's 6th district is a gerrymandered marvel designed specifically to elect Jim Gerlach to Congress. Gerlach squeaked by with 50.6% of the vote. These districts are not indicative of the overall trend in 2006,where Democratic candidates for Congress won 57.7% of the vote.

Prof. Cohen concurred "The RJC-sponsored survey ... restricts its coverage to three areas with relatively high rates of Jewish residential density, where Republican
inclinations run a bit higher." In particular, the RJC neglected to survey the Jewish community in liberal bastions such as New York, California, and Illinois. Instead, former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer explained that they wanted to survey voters "where it mattered the most."

In 2004, the RJC had no trouble citing National Election Pool numbers when it served their interests. This fall, when those numbers showed a dramatic fall in Jewish support for the GOP, the RJC ignored them and relied instead on the results of its own dubious survey. What could have motivated such a maneuver? Could it be that the RJC was desperate to show its donors that the money they spent to fund the ad campaign wasnââ,¬â„¢t wasted? As mentioned above, the RJC ad campaign was severely criticized for misstating facts and misquoting politicians. It appears the RJC applied the same level of accuracy to its poll.


In retrospect, after hearing the administration praise FEMA Chief Michael Brown for doing a "heck of a job" and hearing the administrations claims of "Mission Accomplished"
in Iraq, is it surprising that the RJC is patting itself on the back for a job well-done?

© 2006. Permission is hereby granted to redistribute this issue of The Philadelphia Jewish Voice or (unless specified otherwise) any of the articles therein in their full original form provided these same rights are conveyed to the reader and subscription information to The Philadelphia Jewish Voice is provided. Subscribers should be directed to http://www.pjvoice.com/Subscribe.htm.

www.pjvoice.com

Daniel Elliott Loeb Ph.D. is a professional mathematician and publisher of the Philadelphia Jewish Voice www.pjvoice.com.

SAJR editor Geoff Sifrin initially approved Kasrils's request to reply to an article by Anthony Posner entitled "Some Pertinent Questions to Kasrils."

Posner had concluded the article with the challenge: "So Mr Kasrils... now is your chance to engage in 'civilized discussion.' But perhaps this 'kitchen' is too hot for you? I am sure that the readers of the SAJR will be interested to see whether you have the ability to respond in a rational manner to all the points I have raised in this letter."

Sifrin refused to print Kasrils's reply, arguing in an editorial that it would not contribute to constructive debate and would offend the SAJR's readers.

Kasrils told The Mail and Guardian newspaper he suspected Sifrin had been pressured not to publish his views.

Sifrin rejects that claim. In a telephone interview with The Jerusalem Post, Sifrin said he had initially agreed to publish Kasril's letter but that "what he sent, in my estimation, was too offensive to publish. It referred to an analogy to Nazi action in the Warsaw ghetto and Nazi action after [SS leader Reinhard] Heydrich's assassination after which the Nazis destroyed [the Czech village of] Lidice. He basically said the Israelis are doing the same, and that crossed a red line as far as we were concerned."

Sifrin said he had "agonized" over whether to publish Kasril's letter, and had consulted with the chair of the paper's editorial committee. He rejected, however, Kasril's claim that he had been pressured into not publishing the letter.

"It's not true that I came under pressure by the [South African Jewish] Board of Deputies; nobody called me to threaten me. There is an ethos of a newspaper that one operates with, there was no order from anyone not to publish it. We don't operate in a vacuum. We know our readership - some of which are Holocaust victims. The editorial committee head and I agreed we couldn't publish the letter. Its effect would be unfair to our readers, and we could not give him a platform for this view, which basically crossed a red line," Sifrin told the Post.

In an open letter to Sifrin, published by the the South African Jewish Report on November 17, Kasrils accused the paper of "stifling his words" and said the editorial and Posner's column had distorted what he had written.

"This is a shameful debasement of journalistic ethics, not to mention the questionable morality and crass intolerance that refuses to allow my right to reply to questions directly put to me in your columns," wrote Kasrils.

"You reneged on an undertaking to publish my reply and yet have the temerity to claim that 'the richness and creativity of Jewish life owes much to its acceptance of open debate, even if acrimonious.'

"Your utterances fly in the face of a cowardly action last personally experienced when anything I said or wrote was silenced by an apartheid government banning order in 1962," Kasrils wrote.

He accused the newspaper of misleading readers into believing that he was calling for the annihilation of Israel and that he was a Holocaust denier.

"On the question of my invoking the Nazi parallel with Israel, you fail to acknowledge that I have consistently and pointedly referred to certain comparable measures being employed against the people of Palestine and Lebanon," he said. "I am clearly referring to certain actions and not a total genocidal system such as the Holocaust," Kasrils wrote.

"Mr. Editor, you and the cowardly cabal behind you can ban and vilify me, but as long as I have breath I will continue to protest against Israel's fascist-style brutality and declare 'Not in my name' in the interest of the true values of Judaism and humanity and in support of justice and security for all Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Middle East and further afield."

Kasrils said it was "absolutely dishonest" of the paper to publish Posner's piece without his reply.

Despite his anti-Israel stance, it is thought that Kasrils has been providing protection from terrorist threats to South Africa's Jewish community, several Jewish leaders, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, told the Post.

"I can't comment on that, because I don't know, but it is certainly possible he uses his office to provide protection. Nobody is accusing him of being anti-Jewish. I wouldn't be surprised if he was behind the scenes doing something like that," Sifrin said.

Regarding the decision not to publish Kasril's letter, Safrin said the minister's words had the potential to promote anti-Jewish feelings in South Africa. "The general atmosphere here is pretty anti-Israel. Comments like these rub off on the Jewish community here. All the comparisons that are being made between apartheid and Israel are all over the place, and Kasrils is adding to this. But I wouldn't accuse him of being anti-Jewish in any way," Sifrin said.

"We are not excluding Kasrils from the paper, just his letter, which we couldn't publish," Sifrin said.

Kasrils, in an e-mail exchange with the Post, confirmed that he does use his office to protect South Africa's 80,000-strong Jewish community, but would not go into specifics. Asked if he thought his comments could inflame anti-Jewish sentiment, he replied in the negative.

"No, not anti-Jewish sentiment. The black population in general and the Muslim population in particular congratulate me on demonstrating that not all Jews support Israel's inhumane treatment of the Palestinian and Lebanese people. My actions help them to understand that there is a distinction between Judaism, on the one hand, and Zionism and the Israeli government on the other," Kasrils told the Post.

"I oppose the brutal treatment of the Palestinian people by successive Israeli goverments, and like your first agriculture minister, Aharon Cizling, who in 1948 said to the cabinet, 'Now we too have behaved like Nazis,' I do compare methods such as the indiscriminate bombings of civilians, collective punishment and ethnic cleansing as measures utilized by the Nazis and other fascist regimes.

"I feel it is necessary to remind your government, your military, and Jews everywhere what is being done by a people who should have learnt the dreadful lessons of the Holocaust," Kasrils said.

The South African Jewish Report is also going head-to-head with the South African Freedom of Expression Institute. In a statement released to the media this week condemning the SAJR's decision not to publish Kasril's letter, Jane Duncan, director of the institute, wrote, "The newspaper is engaging in contradictory behavior by publishing an opinion piece posing questions and then denying the person to whom the questions are being put the right to answer them. The SAJR had the right to editorial independence, but this was qualified by normal editorial ethics, which included 'the sacrosanct principle of the right to reply.'"

Duncan further wrote, "Likening certain policing or military measures that the Israeli state uses to Nazi measures does not meet the objective test [of hate speech]."

What really bothered Sifrin, however, were the following words in Duncan's press release: The Jewish Report "comes out of this incident looking like a mere extension of Zionism's repressive project... We wonder what chance ordinary members of the Jewish community have to be heard if they voice dissent against the Israeli state's policies of forced colonial occupation of Palestinian land."

Sifrin said he was writing an editorial for the SAJR's Thursday edition calling into question the institute's claim to be an independent, objective watchdog of freedom of information in South Africa, in light of Duncan's statement.

"This is supposed to be an impartial organization set up for the freedom of information. What is this doing in their media release: "Extension of Zionism's repressive project, and Israeli state's policies of forced colonial occupation of Palestinian land," Sifrin asked. "The FXI was set up several years ago by respected and well-intentioned editors, and this has what became of the organization. This is the organization that is tearing us to pieces. And I have to ask what their agenda is."

Sifrin said he was never contacted by the FXI for comment before the institute published its statement.

"The first I knew was when I read the media release on the Internet. Which again calls into question their credentials. How can they, as a respected watchdog, insert words like that? It shows their bias. They have the audacity to then tear us apart for our editorial policy. Those two phrases are damning, they state it as fact. An impartial organization would never write anything like that," Sifrin said.

Duncan sent a lengthy response to the Post outlining why, in her words, "The FXI has a bias towards poor people resisting colonial occupation."

"We recognize that freedom of expression is heavily mediated by power and politics. So in interpreting this mandate, we have taken a strategic decision to adopt a pro-poor bias, prioritizing marginalized communities who are resisting censorship, repression, colonial occupation, racism and sexism. This is because it is in these communities or sections of our populations where the bulk of freedom of expression problems generally lie. Struggling for freedom of expression in South African in the past meant taking a principled position against apartheid, because it was apartheid that gave rise to the censorship of the media, the banning of gatherings, etc. Similarly, we cannot take a pro-freedom of expression position without taking a position against any ideology or power structure that is used to justify the denial of rights (including the right to freedom of expression) of people.

"Zionism is one such ideology in that it denies various rights of Palestinians and Arabs in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory," the FXI statement said.

"Needless to say, the definition of Zionism is contested, but one constant thread is the assertion that Jews constitute a nation, and therefore have a right to national self-determination on what was Palestinian land.

"The Israeli nation is therefore not constituted by all those who live in that particular geographic area, or who have historic claim to the land in spite of the fact that they may have been rendered stateless. Israel, not being a state of its citizens but a Jewish state, is thus an exclusive, not an inclusive, form of nationalism, and therein lies the problem. In Israel, this has translated into policies that have denied many people the right to coexist and enjoy equal rights on the basis that they fall outside the definition of who should constitute the nation.

An anti-Semitic pharmacy in Beverly Hills?

The notion may sound unlikely, but a widely circulated e-mail bearing the subject heading "Druggist won't do business with 'Jews or Jew Doctors'" sparked concern and outrage in recent weeks as it landed in hundreds of computer mailboxes across the country. After all, the source -- a Jewish woman in Florida -- appeared to be without hostile intent, and the allegation, targeting the Wilshire Roxbury Medical Pharmacy at 436 North Roxbury Drive, allegedly had been vetted.

"I verified this information," one woman wrote as she passed the e-mail on. "Please forward this."

Many recipients took the request to heart, forwarding the e-mail to friends, family and contacts at Jewish organizations. Others phoned the pharmacy themselves. A local rabbi asked his orthodontist, who works across the street, to investigate. A formal complaint was lodged with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

First, to put rumors to rest, the charge is definitely false. The pharmacist/owner, who preferred not to have his name published, is Jewish, as is his assistant. They cater to Jewish customers as well as Jewish doctors.

But almost as problematic as the allegation itself is the absence of a plausible explanation. What brought this about? Was it, perhaps, the result of a misunderstanding, a vendetta or a joke gone awry? The genesis remains a mystery.

"It's like something out of Kafka," said Aaron Breitbart, a senior researcher for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who investigated the allegation.

Here are the known facts:

On Wednesday, Nov. 1, Sue Hazan, a pharmaceutical representative in Boca Raton, Fla., was making cold-calls to promote a particular medication with a new co-pay plan. The contact information for the Wilshire Roxbury Medical Pharmacy appeared randomly on her computer screen, and she placed a call at 12:21 p.m. Pacific time.

Hazan explained the new plan to the pharmacist, who had answered the phone with the pharmacy's name and who later identified himself as "Jed Shoohed." She then mentioned that two doctors in his building had signed on to use the co-pay plan.

"Is that a Jew doctor?" "Shoohed" asked. "We don't take kindly to Jews around here, and we don't fill Jew doctors' prescriptions."

"But I'm a Jew," Hazan said.

"That's good for you, but don't call my store again if you're one of them," he said.

Hazan reported the incident to her boss and also called her daughter, Helene Abramson, in Princeton, N. J. Abramson, who is active in the Jewish community, then contacted people in her Israel support network for advice. On Monday, Nov. 6, she sent out an e-mail to her Israel support network detailing the incident, and that e-mail was quickly forwarded to hundreds of others.

The following Thursday morning, Nov. 9, a Jewish Journal reporter visited the pharmacy and met the pharmacist, who appeared agitated. The pharmacy is a small operation tucked in the corner of a medical building's wood-paneled lobby. On repeated visits that same afternoon it was virtually empty, except for one customer, the postman, the pharmacist and his assistant. The telephone was ringing almost non-stop.

The pharmacist said he has no idea how or why his pharmacy has come under attack. He confirmed that no one named Jed Shoohed works there, and he denied ever receiving a phone call from Hazan.

"We have no knowledge of this phone call," he said, refusing to say whether or not he was manning the pharmacy on Nov. 1, when Hazan made the call. He also refused to go on record with any further questions, threatening to sue if a story were to be published. He said he had been referring all inquiries to the Beverly Hills Police Department, where he has filed a report.

According to the pharmacist's attorney, Grant Carlson, of Beverly Hills, the pharmacist believes he is the target of an unfair and unwarranted attack by someone who doesn't even know him.

"The person clearly is hysterical and is making things up," Carlson said. But Hazan was not the only person on the receiving end of an anti-Semitic comment after calling this pharmacy. Jami Gan, who lives in Tucson, Ariz. and is part of the Israel support network, phoned the pharmacy at 3 p.m. Pacific time on Monday, Nov. 6. She wanted to confirm the e-mail allegation before forwarding it.

Gan asked for "Jed" and was told he was on another line. She explained she was calling to verify the e-mail. The person who answered assured her he knew what she was talking about and told her to go ahead and pass it along, saying that one day she would understand why people like him felt the way they did about people like her.

He also asked, "Are you familiar with Borat?" referring to the anti-Semitic fictional Sacha Baron Cohen character.

Many people in the building report having a cordial relationship with the pharmacist.

The building manager, Kia Saidnia, has known the pharmacist for about six years, since NIC Real Estate Group took over management of the property. He reported that the pharmacist has been renting the same space for at least 15 years, and he said he has never received any complaints about him.

"He gets along with everyone in the building, as far as I know," Saidnia said. NIC's owner confirmed that.

"He's really nice," said Hamid Shoohed, who himself is Jewish and whose last name is the same as that used by the mythical pharmacist "Jed."

Others in the building report a less amicable association. Dr. Larry Kozek, a dentist on the ground floor of the building, confirmed reports that jokes are frequently posted in the pharmacy's windows, which he described as "weird signs," although none were in sight on Nov. 9.

The Wiesenthal Center's Breitbart, who spent about 25 minutes talking with the pharmacist in person, believes the pharmacist is being victimized.

The ADL is also attempting to evaluate the situation, according to the organization's senior associate director Alison Mayersohn.

But when Mayersohn telephoned the pharmacy on Nov. 9, identifying her ADL affiliation, the speaker, who said his name was "Fred," referred her to the Beverly Hills Police Department.

"ADL's tendency is to be very careful," she said. "Things are not always as they appear."

In a statement released by the IDF Spokesman's Office, "the use of cluster munitions against built-up areas was done only against military targets where rocket launches against Israel were identified and after taking steps to warn the civilian population."

The statements released by the minister's office contradict Israel Defense Forces' claims - made both during and after the war - regarding the use of cluster munitions.

One IDF version, which remained unchanged until earlier this week, held that the firing of cluster munitions was done in accordance with international law.

On Sunday it was announced that an investigating officer, Brigadier General Michel Ben-Baruch, who was appointed to examine the issue, found that in some cases cluster munitions were used contrary to the orders of Chief of Staff Dan Halutz.

On the basis of these findings, also brought before the Military Advocate General, Brigadier General Avihai Mandelblit, a decision was made to appoint an investigating general to carry out an examination of the circumstances under which the use of cluster munitions was made.

Meanwhile, there is growing evidence that the IDF leadership, including the chief of staff's office, authorized the firing of cluster munitions against the areas in southern Lebanon struck by these weapons.

A commander of a Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) battery said they had fired many rockets against targets north of the Litani river, and that those targets had been described as "General Staff targets." This description was given to targets authorized by the chief of staff's office. Furthermore, the chief of staff's office also authorized the types of munitions that would be used.

The United Nations bomb dismantling teams have located many sites north of the Litani that were struck by cluster bombs, including populated areas.

Sources in the defense minister's office said that during the fighting, Peretz had been informed that the IDF used cluster bombs. "The defense minister demanded explanations and he was told that [the IDF] is abiding by international agreements and treaties," a statement from Peretz' office said.

A request made in September by Meretz MK Zahava Gal-On for clarifications regarding the use of cluster munitions has gone unanswered.

MK Ran Cohen (Meretz), a reservist colonel who commanded an artillery battalion during the first Lebanon war, said, according to his experience, the use of cluster munitions is "very unusual." As far as he was aware, he said, any use of such munitions requires authorization by the division commander or higher.

"This is a very serious matter," MK Cohen said. "If cluster bombs were used in populated areas, this constitutes an indescribable crime. There is no target that cannot be hit without cluster bombs. The massive use by the IDF of cluster bombs during the war suggests an absolute loss of control and hysteria."

Halutz orders probe into cluster bomb use
On Monday, Halutz named Major General Gershon Hacohen to head a probe into the use of the bombs. Hacohen was one of the commanders of the summer 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip.

"There is no question that one of the things that must be investigated is the way in which the orders were given and implemented."

"Were the orders explicit? I believe that they were."

Asked if he was surprised by the use of the bombs contrary to his orders, Halutz told reporters "I don't know if this is surprising - it is more disappointing."

Following reports first published in Haaretz regarding the scale of cluster bomb use, Halutz appointed Brigadier General Mishel Ben Baruch to head a probe into the use of the weapons.

The inquiry's findings were handed over to Halutz and IDF Advocate General Avichai Mendelblit, who will determine whether the case merits court-martial proceedings.

Based on the findings, Halutz decided to appoint Hacohen to investigate why field commanders blatantly disobeyed his orders.

The chief of staff's decision to appoint an inquiry was first reported Sunday evening by Channel 1.

Each rocket or shell can contain as many as several hundred bomblets, which are meant to disperse over an area of hundreds of square meters, exploding as they hit the ground.

Since the cease-fire went into effect on August 14, at least 22 civilians, including many children, have been killed and 134 others injured by unexploded bomblets.

To date, roughly 58,000 unexploded bomblets have been discovered at about 800 different sites in southern Lebanon. Most are near populated areas.

The United Nations demining unit believes that as much as 30 to 40 percent of bomblets may be duds. This translates into hundreds of thousands of unexploded bomblets throughout southern Lebanon, which endanger the lives of residents and block farmers from working their land.

According to testimony of an MLRS battery commander published in Haaretz, MLRS rockets were heavily used, even though they are known to be very inaccurate - the rockets may deviate up to 1,200 meters from their target - and a substantial percentage of the bomblets are known not to explode, thus becoming mines. In light of this, most experts view cluster ammunitions to be "non-discerning" weapons prohibited for use in a civilian environment.

According to the officer, in order to compensate for the rockets' lack of precision, they were told to "flood" the area with them. "We have no option of striking an isolated target, and the commanders know this very well," he said.

The Israeli army had vowed to end the firing of home-made rockets towards southern Israel. Many Palestinians disagree with the use of these makeshift rockets, but regard Israeli offensives as flagrantly disproportionate. Beit Hanoun was left with no men between the ages of 16 and 45 in the wake of a massive forced round-up by the Israeli army last Thursday night amid helicopter gunfire, tanks and artillery shelling. Women and children in the city sent urgent calls for help through Gaza's radio stations. To these jobless women, losing their men meant breakdown in their households.

On Friday morning, scores of women marched through Beit Hanoun in a spontaneous rush to aid friends and loved ones after hearing their pleas. Unarmed, they were shot at by Israeli soldiers from their tanks; two women were left dead and others severely injured. These women were said to have been heading to a mosque to free armed men who took refuge there. Television footage and interviews with witnesses show these women posed no military threat, but they were treated as such by the Israeli army without warning.

Meanwhile, Lieberman's party, Yisrael Beiteinu ("Israel is Our Home"), envisages expelling Palestinians or subjecting them to such misery that they are forced to leave. The party's spin doctors state it more mildly, saying that it proposes to relocate Palestinians to areas under the Palestinian Authority's control. The Beit Hanoun offensive offers an example of what lies in store for them.

Today, the Palestinian Authority tries to govern a besieged Gaza Strip and a West Bank with disconnected cities and villages. The 1.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are imprisoned by closure policies, impoverished and without any hope of a dignified life or economic development. The 1.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank are quickly catching up in a collapse created by the dozens of Israeli military checkpoints and the separation wall which make their lives impossible. Israeli restrictions on movement have made the Palestinians of East Jerusalem look as though they live in a faraway country, from the point of view of West Bankers and Gazans.

The present subjugation of Palestinians to siege, poverty and confinement - in addition to continuing Israeli military attacks - can only make it easier for our people to slip into infighting and tragedy. Both the international community and peace-loving Israelis and Palestinians will inevitably face ever more criticism for their failure to stem this tide of misery. Even to those who never supported Hamas, it is impossible to ignore such a huge double standard: the outside world accepts Lieberman's appointment as deputy prime minister, despite his extreme views, while it boycotts the Palestinian Authority's elected Hamas administration.

One can only wonder at Olmert's insistence that his deputy will not diminish whatever prospects remain of peace. Israel's offensives against Gaza punish an entire population. Bulldozing the area's water and sewage systems, including those built with international donor funding, killing civilians and subjecting tens of thousands of residents to oppressive military measures represent the reality of Israel's policy, whatever its stated objectives.

Sami Abdel-Shafi is senior partner at Emerge Consulting Group, in Gaza City

The soldiers, all of whom will have dual nationality, are part of a wave of migration to Israel from western countries including Britain, France and the US, as fewer Jews arrive from regions such as the former Soviet Union.

The British recruits, who arrived in the summer when the war with Hizbullah was at its height, believe the Jewish state needs a show of solidarity.

Training began in September, when they spent a week sleeping in tents, learning to obey orders and doing endless press-ups. A two-day test involving running uphill while carrying sandbags decided who was fit for combat roles.

Mr Wainer, who grew up in Barnet, was selected to join Nahal, a reconnaissance unit currently deployed in the West Bank. Nahal soldiers shot dead three Palestinians last month in what the Israeli army said were counter-terrorist operations. Some Israelis have refused to serve in the West Bank or Gaza but he does not share their doubts.

"If it's a job that we have to do, then I have to do it," Mr Wainer said. "Israel has always been under attack. Without the army, there would be no Israel."

For now, the six young men and three women, who are all taking Israeli citizenship under the Garin Tsabar programme, which recruits foreign Jews, live in Sasa, a kibbutz on the border with Lebanon. The hilltop settlement of low-rise concrete buildings became a rear base for the army during the recent war. "We were shooting missiles from the foot of this kibbutz," said Danny Young, 19, another British recruit, pointing from the crest of a hill down to a line of yellow scrub marking the border. "We were also receiving Katyushas [rockets]. Some of them landed in the fields over here."

To the right of the slope is a reminder of another war, the cloud-capped peak of Mount Hermon, part of the Golan Heights that Israel annexed from Syria in the Yom Kippur war of 1973.

Mr Young grew up in Southgate, a north London suburb, and misses the pub, his mates and the 24-hour Asda.

His new home remains geared up for battle. In the evenings, armoured cars clatter along the pathways and there is a constant buzz from a factory making bulletproof vests and vehicle armour.

On Tuesday nights, a bomb shelter is converted into a nightclub, where Israel's foreign legion drink lager and sing karaoke to a soundtrack which includes Bob Marley's Buffalo Soldier.

Mr Young, whose grandfather fought in the British army in the second world war, will serve in the paratroopers. He left Britain because he felt he had to hide his identity, quitting a job at an Essex bus garage because of anti-semitism. "They would be Nazi saluting. On toolboxes, they had written stuff like 'Essex Nazis'. It was done as a laugh, making fun, they'd be saying 'Jew' in German. They didn't know I was Jewish at first, but I didn't like being in a community where I felt I had to put things away."

Mr Wainer fell in love with Israel during a gap year. "There's something very mystical about it," he said. "It's the ancient Jewish homeland. It's where it all started. This is where Abraham was and where Moses fled to.

"There's a feeling of togetherness that England really lacks. There's a lot of different groups in England and they're all at each other's throats."

This British contribution to Israel's defence is tiny in scale, but provides a morale boost. "It's not about the number of people, its about the intention," said Dafna Brenkel, an Israeli soldier who mentors the British group. "The idea of people from overseas showing support and love for Israel, giving up their daily comfort, their home and their usual way of life, is an amazing thing."

Joining the army is a rite of passage in Israel, a formative experience in which friendships are made. For foreign Jews, it can be a shortcut to integration. Mr Young said: "When you join the British army, you're joining just to be in the army - it's a profession. Here it's part of the way of life."

In their spare time they watch DVDs of the US mini-series Band of Brothers on a laptop. Mr Wainer said: "I haven't quite experienced the part where somebody's leg is blown off. Hopefully we never will. But they really are a band of brothers, and that's what we are."

During the recent Lebanon War, Hezbollah fired some 4,000 short-range rockets that led an estimated 350,000 Israelis to leave their homes. The Israeli military failed to stop those attacks and realized the rockets have become a strategic weapon.

Palestinians maintain Israel is still occupying Gaza, albeit differently than the way it had occupied it before last year's withdrawal.

The head of the Palestinian president's press office, Mohamed Edwan, said Israeli troops surround Gaza, its aircraft fly over it, and it has closed the crossing to Egypt stranding thousands of people.

"Some of those who shelled these Qassam rockets are ... provoking Israel, but Israel is very much provoking them because of all kinds of occupation and terror actions against Palestinian civilians. Do not forget the Beit Hanoun massacre," he said. Edwan was referring to the shelling of that town a fortnight ago. Israel said it wanted to hit a Qasam rocket launching area but that a faulty circuit board caused the cannon to hit the town. Twenty people were killed.

The Palestinian Maan news agency Wednesday quoted medical sources as saying 105 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of November. That brought the Palestinian death toll, since June, to 400. In June, Palestinian militants crossed into Israel and kidnapped Cpl. Gilad Shalit sparking intensified fighting.

Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Sunday told the Cabinet that in the past three and a half months Israel killed some 370 armed Palestinians.

The Israelis insist they pulled out from Gaza, completely. Gaza is not under occupation and there is no justification for continued attacks from there.

They note that they regretted attacks in which innocent civilians were hit but that Palestinian attackers deliberately target Israeli civilians.

"No state would have put up with a situation...whereby crossing a road in one of its cities, or going to the grocery store, would become a bloody poker (move)," wrote Ha'aretz columnist Yoel Markus.

The Israelis retaliated with raids into Beit Hanoun and other areas. It controls a sand dune area that is closest to Ashkelon and strategic Israeli sites including a power plant and a fuel dumps.

Tank and infantry battalions are now inside the Strip clearing vegetation and structures. Then it would easier to monitor movements there. One force Wednesday killed a Palestinian militant and arrested another who tried to launch a rocket. The arrest and interrogation could produce intelligence Israel would need for further operations.

Nevertheless Israel's major concern in the military buildup going on in Gaza. It says arms are smuggled there in tunnels from the Sinai, and by sea.

The head of the Shabak security service, Yuval Diskin, last week told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that in the past year the Palestinians have smuggled into the Gaza Strip some 33 tons of military grade TNT, 20,000 assault rifles, 12 anti-aircraft shoulder fired missiles, 410 anti tank rockets with 95 anti tank rocket launches. They also smuggled Grad rockets, he said.

The Israelis remember all too well that their failure to stop Hezbollah's buildup in southern Lebanon led suddenly made them face thousands of rockets and well-entrenched fortified bunkers. They do not want a repetition in Gaza.

Military Chief of General Staff, Lt. Gen. Dani Halutz Sunday told the cabinet the buildup was more disconcerting than the rocket attacks.

And so, for the time being, the Political-Security Cabinet instructed the army, "To continue countermeasures against all stages of missile launching activity, including know-how, production, storage and firing."

In what seemed be a reference to more targeted killings the Cabinet talked of "Specific countermeasures against those actively involved in terrorist operations." Sunday Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer noted that when he had been defense minister, "Targeted killings of all Hamas leaders and not just the activists in the field produced results ... such activity should be resumed."

Israel might also hit "Hamas institutions in the Gaza Strip," but Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz would first have to specifically approve that.

Meanwhile Israel will try to persuade Egypt to increase its efforts to stop the arms smuggling. According to Diskin the Egyptians know the "smuggling barons'" identities but do not do enough to stop them.

It is also expected to discuss the money smuggling, sometimes in suitcases, through the Rafah Crossing under the eyes of European Union monitors. Diskin estimated that $50 million to $70 million have been smuggled into the Gaza Strip to finance Hamas activities.

Militants reportedly went to Syria and Iran for training then returned to Gaza.

The cabinet statement thus said Israel would "continue diplomatic efforts and cooperation with Egypt and the international community to confront the strengthening of terrorist forces in the Gaza Strip...as well as the transfer of know-how and resources into the Strip."