Featured this weekBard College Ben-Gurion Calvin College Columbia Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Georgetown Harvard Hebrew Indiana Kansas Massachusetts Northwestern Oklahoma State San Diego, UC Stanford Technion Toronto Tufts Villanova Washington | Sharon Undergoes Surgery; Not in Immediate Danger
by Efrat Weiss  Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's condition is critical but stable and at this time there is no immediate danger to his life, Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital Director Shlomo Mor Yosef told reporters Saturday afternoon. Sharon was rushed into surgery after his condition deteriorated overnight. During the operation, which lasted about four hours, doctors removed about one third of Sharon's large intestine.
Additional Headlines Iran's Ahmadinejad: Israel "Will Be Removed" Astronauts Attend Columbia Memorial in Israel Iranian Jewish Leader Protests Ahmadinejad Remarks | | Rice Urges Russians to Take Tough Stand on Hamas
by Ronny Sofer  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Friday to send a clear, strong message in any meetings with Hamas officials that the terror group must stop terror attacks on Israel. On Thursday Putin said that he intends on inviting the leaders of the Palestinian terror group to Moscow. Speaking before NATO heads and defense ministers from six Arab countries in Sicily on Friday, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said, "I call on the international community to refrain from holding talks with Hamas and adopt a unified stance that prevents any dialogue with terror organizations." (Ynet News)
Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad
by Matthew Levitt  The notion that Hamas' military, political, and social "wings" are distinct from one another is belied by ample evidence. Hamas meets in the mosques and hospitals it maintains to plan terror attacks, buries caches of arms and explosives under its own schoolyard playgrounds, and transfers and launders funds for terrorist activity through local charity committees. The real Hamas is an organization that threatens peace and security far beyond the borders of the West Bank and Gaza. (Washington Institute for Near East Policy)
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Calvin College: The Quartet Quandary, U.S. Aid to Hamas Contradicts Terrorism Policies
by Joel Smoot The European Union, United Nations, and United States have told Hamas that funding to Palestine could be reduced or removed if they increased hostilities with Israel. The almighty dollar does hold some sway here. Imagine if your parents had threatened to halve your allowance if you fought more intensely with your siblings. This analogy is unfortunately apt in this case, the immaturity of the whole situation is rather depressing. (Chimes)
Ford Foundation Will Pay for Parley Of Anti-Israel Scholars at Lake Como
by Alec Magnet  Less than three years after reports of Ford Foundation funding of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel activity prompted an international uproar, the Manhattan-based philanthropic giant is at it again, paying for at least eight scholars who favored a boycott of Israeli academics to attend a conference scheduled for Monday at a villa on the shore of Lake Como in Italy. (New York Sun)
| | Columbia: Massad Wins Promotion
by Alec Magnet  A Columbia University professor who emerged as the central figure in a series of student complaints over anti-Israel bias and classroom bullying, Joseph Massad, has been promoted to a position from which he can receive tenure. (New York Sun)
Motherhood Unites Israelis, Palestinians
by Ann Koppuzha   Nonie Darwish (left) spoke at an event dubbed "Mothers for Peace" alongside Miri Eisen (right), an Israeli woman. Both women have three children and spoke about prospects for peace in the region. It was co-sponsored by the Georgetown Israel Alliance, UNICEF and Georgetown Peace Action. (The Hoya)
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Point-Counterpoint - Is There a "Demographic Threat" to Israel and, If So, What Should Israel Do?
More Pullouts Needed to Preserve Jewish Country
by Arnon Sofer - Anyone who wants to live in a Jewish, democratic country must conclude that Israel must part with additional territory that is home to overcrowded Palestinian population.
- According to natural growth stats projected for the next 15 years, Arabs - including Israel's Arab citizens - are expected to be a majority in the areas currently controlled by Israel by the year 2020.
- Sooner or later, Jewish communities left on the east side of the fence - about 70,000 people, or 20 percent of the Jewish population of Judea and Samaria - will have to go.
- At that point, it will be possible to say the demographic threat to a Jewish, democratic state has been removed, on condition the wall is effective and prevents Palestinian migration back into Israel.
- The time has come to stop thinking in theoretical terms and to take ethical decisions and provide real answers to ensure Israel continues to have a clear, overwhelming Jewish majority. (Ynet News)
Israel's Demographic Timebomb
by Jonathan Spyer - The maintenance of the strong Jewish state structure with its western and liberal democratic system may now be endangered by the insistence on maintaining national heritage in the desired dimensions.
- As Ehud Olmert himself expresses it: "It's only a matter of time before the Palestinians demand 'one man, one vote' - and then, what will we do?"
- There are growing voices on the Palestinian side calling for the abandonment of the two-state solution and the adoption of a strategy of demanding a single state, based on an imminent Arab majority, between the river and the sea.
- To rule out the possibility of an imposed, unilateral arrangement would effectively make the future of Israel hostage to the Palestinian Authority.
- As such, unilateral disengagement will and should remain an option for Israel, should it become clear that the Palestinian national movement has decisively and finally abandoned the path of partition. (Guardian-UK)
Death of the Demographic Demon
by Uri Elitzur - That is the number of eligible Palestinian Authority voters in Samaria, Judea, Gaza and Jerusalem. All together, including everyone - 1.3 million.
- In Israel, in contrast, the number of eligible voters is more than five million. In short, we've been fooled. We were presented a demographic demon that never existed.
- For two years, a dispute has been underway between the creators of the demographic demon, chief among them Professor Arnon Sofer, and between a group of Israeli and American researchers, whose chief spokesperson is Yoram Ettinger.
- Excuse me, but how is it "known" that there is a giant natural population growth? First, you determined that there are nearly four million Palestinians, when it is known that in 1967 there were 1.1 million.
- The conclusion from this is that there is a tremendous natural population increase; and the conclusion from this is that there are nearly four million Palestinians. That is circular logic.
- It is equally possible to do the reverse calculation: to assume that the total number is less than two million. The conclusion from this is that there is a small natural increase, and the conclusion from this is that there are less than two million. (Israel National News)
| | Demographic Threat a Myth
by Yoram Ettinger - Here's an earthshaking fact: Now that Israel has pulled out of Gaza, there is a clear, firm Jewish majority in the territory west of the Jordan River. 67 percent, in fact.
- Hamas' victory will spur on Arab emigration (especially amongst PA employees and their families), and growing anti-Semitism in France and the former Soviet Union will spur aliya (Jewish immigration).
- [The claim of a demographic threat] is based on predictions released by the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics in 1997, according to which there are currently 2.4 million Palestinian residents of Judea and Samaria. In reality, there are 1.4 million.
- A new American-Israeli study presented at last month's Herzliya Conference by California researcher Bennet Zimmerman proves that the Palestinian predictions bore no semblance to the facts on the ground.
- Fateful policy decisions must be based on facts, not on statistics provided by the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, and certainly not on superficial assumptions about demography that bear no relation to reality. (Ynet News)
A Question of Numbers
by Sergio Della Pergola - Recently there has been a disturbing opinion that expresses doubt as to the data's correctness. It claims the Jewish majority in Israel is not in danger, and that there has been an exaggeration in the estimated number of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
- This claim is based on several additional assumptions, such as a drastic decline in the fertility rate of the Palestinians, which has no basis in reality, and the anticipation of a large positive balance of Jewish immigration, which is not in sight in the present circumstances.
- Even if the number of Palestinians in the territories is significantly reduced (by about one-third), and even if their fertility rate declines to the level among the Jewish public, the demographic momentum will not stop.
- After the exit from Gaza, the situation changed. But we can expect the quantitative ratio that existed between Jews and Palestinians before the disengagement to return about 20 years later.
- Neither a difference of 1 percent or 5 percent, nor advancing or deferring the date of the tie by one year or by five years, is the main thing. The main concern relates to the nature of the Israeli society, which, while ensuring the security of its inhabitants, must consolidate its historical and civil identity. (Ha'aretz)
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