Quick Takes: News From Israel You May Have Missed

Sen. Barack Obama’s Chicago church published an open letter from a Palestinian activist that labels Israel as a “racist” and “apartheid” country and claims the Jewish state worked on an “ethnic bomb” that kills “blacks and Arabs.” The letter, discovered by the Sweetness and Light blog, was published on the “Pastor’s Page” of the Trinity United Church of Christ newsletter reserved for Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., whose anti-American, anti-Israel remarks landed Obama in hot water, prompting the presidential candidate to deliver a major race speech last week.

“I must tell you that Israel was the closest ally to the white supremacists of South Africa. In fact, South Africa allowed Israel to test its nuclear weapons in the ocean off South Africa. The Israelis were given a blank check: they could test whenever they desired and did not even have to ask permission. Both worked on an ethnic bomb that kills Blacks and Arabs,” wrote the letter’s author, Ali Baghdadi.

The June 10, 2007, newsletter, which is still available on Obama’s church’s website, identifies Baghdadi as an Arab-American activist, writer, and columnist who “acted as a Middle East advisor to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the founder of the Nation of Islam, as well as Minister Louis Farrakhan.”

The piece is titled “An open letter to Oprah,” referring to the talk show giant Oprah Winfrey, who last year accepted an invitation to visit Israel offered to her by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. Winfrey had been a member of Obama’s church but left in 1986.

Referring to Israel, Baghdadi writes, “Arabs have always supported the dismantling of this racist government” and states that Palestinians face “genocide and ethnic cleansing . . . every hour of the day.”

Baghdadi states, “For many centuries, Jews escaped the discrimination and death they were subjected to in Europe, and found safety and refuge among us.”

He doesn’t mention the more than 800,000 Jews who were expelled or left Arab countries under threat of violence after Israel was founded in 1948.

Just days after it was announced that the U.S. would transfer $150 million directly to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s government, members of the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of Abbas’s Fatah party, were told they would receive cash grants, WorldNetDaily has learned.

According to Palestinian militant sources familiar with the issue, earlier this month 20 members of the Brigades leadership in Ramallah complained to PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad that they did not have enough money to pay their bills, including, for many of them, rent for their apartments.

Last week, according to the sources, Fayyad told the complaining Brigades leaders he would provide them with a one-time grant of $3,000 each, or $60,000 to the Ramallah-based Brigades leadership.

The sources said that after Brigades leaders in other West Bank cities, including Hebron and Nablus, heard of the grants, they also demanded pay increases.

The sources estimate that at least $350,000 in grants to Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades leaders were pledged by Fayyad since last week. Some of the Brigades leaders serve in Fatah security forces while others only work in the Brigades.

Fayyad’s purported grants to the Brigades came after the U.S. announced that it would transfer $150 million directly to accounts controlled by Fayyad, marking the first time in eight months America has transferred money directly to the PA rather than to nongovernmental agencies.

Israeli security officials fear the possibility of a massive revenge attack in Israel, abroad or both, following the assassination last month of Hizbullah’s arch-terrorist, Imad Mughniyah.

The terror leader was at the top of Israel’s most wanted list and was responsible for a series of deadly attacks against the U.S. and Israel, including involvement in the 1983 bombing of U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert denied that Israel was involved in the assassination, but Hizbullah has directly blamed the Jewish state and threatened retaliation.

Aaron Klein is Jerusalem bureau chief for WorldNetDaily.com. He appears throughout the week on leading U.S. radio programs and is the author of the recently published book “Schmoozing with Terrorists.”