None of these practices are common among the peoples of Zimbabwe or South Africa. The Lemba are also divided into 12 tribes, and among the Buba, the priestly class, was found the exact same DNA element as among those Jews of the priestly class elsewhere around the world.

A number of genetic studies have confirmed the findings. Initial research in 1996 indicated that more than half of the Lemba Y chromosomes (the male chromosome) are Semitic in origin. That study was followed by another in 2000, that reported more specifically that a significant group of Lemba males carry the “Cohen [Kohen] modal haplotype” (CHM) on the Y chromosome, which indicates the Y-DNA Haplogroup J found among Jews and some other populations across the Middle East.

The Buba clan carried most of the CMH markers among the Lemba, similar to other Jewish groups around the world where the males of the priestly class, the Kohenim, carry the CHM marker. Lemba tradition states that it was the Buba clan that had a “leadership role in bringing the Lemba out of Israel” and into southern Africa.

The oral tradition handed down among the Yemenite Jews is similar, stating that after the expulsion following the destruction of the First Temple, the Levi’im (assistant priests) and Kohenim fled towards Yemen; the group then split, with some continuing on towards the south, in the direction of Africa.

The University of London’s Professor Tudor Parfitt , who spent six months living with the tribe, and 20 years researching their people, expressed his amazement in an interview this week with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Parfitt stated that it appears that the Jewish priesthood continued in the West by people called Cohen, and in the same way it was continued by the priestly clan of the Lemba. They have a common ancestor who geneticists state lived about 3,000 years ago somewhere in north Arabia, which is the time of Moses and Aaron, when the Jewish priesthood started.

The Lemba tradition states that their ancestors fled the Holy Land some 2,500 years ago, traveling first to “Sen’a” and then south to Africa. Their sacred prayer language is comprised of a mixture of Hebrew and Arabic. The tribe, approximately 80,000 strong, lives in central Zimbabwe and the northern part of South Africa, and prizes above all its holiest object: the ngoma lungundu, “the drum that thunders.” According to tribal leaders, it is this, a wooden replica of the Biblical Ark of the Covenant, that connects the Lemba to their Jewish ancestry.

The oral traditions regarding the ngoma lungundu said it had been used in battles, and thus was rebuilt several times, possibly from original remnants, Parfitt explained. He added that the replica that recently went on display at the Harare museum, about 700 years old, is “the closest descendant of the Ark that we know of.”

The Lemba people of today, however, are Christians and Muslims, although many define their ties to Judaism as their “culture.”

Dr. Ofer Sion, director of the archaeological works at the site, stated that the newly-uncovered section is part of a waterway that was once some 13 kilometers long, leading from Solomon’s Pools. At the end of the 19th century, the Land of Israel archaeologist and architect Dr. Conrad Schick (designer of the Meah She’arim neighborhood) described the location of part of the waterway. “His work gave some clues that led to this discovery.” During the course of the excavation the wall of the waterway was exposed when some of the large stones were removed revealing a perfectly-designed waterway, with a flat stone roof on top. People can walk inside it, bent-over, for a length of 40 meters.”

Originally, water was supplied to Jerusalem chiefly from the Gichon Spring. Just over 2,000 years ago, however, with the population of the city growing, a new source was sought. King Herod began work on large projects bringing water from the Hevron Mountains, using the power of gravity, to Solomon’s Pools just south of the city. From there, two waterways channelled water to the city: The upper channel brought water to the King’s palace, Hezekiah’s Pool and other areas in the higher levels of the city, while water on the lower waterway went to the Holy Temple on the Temple Mount and the lower areas. The now-revealed section is part of the upper channel. The excavations are being conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority as part of a “rescue” operation, customary in Israel before major construction work, prior to the replacement of underground infrastructures there.

The Black Stone has been described variously as basalt lava, an agate, a piece of natural glass or most popularly a stony meteorite. A significant clue to its nature is provided by an account of the Stone’s recovery in 951 AD after it had been stolen 21 years earlier; according to a chronicler, the Stone was identified by its ability to float in water. If this account is accurate, it would rule out the Black Stone being an agate, basalt lava or stony meteorite, though it would be compatible with it being glass or pumice.

It has been suggested that the Black Stone may be a glass fragment from the impact of a fragmented meteorite some 6,000 years ago at Wabar, a site in the Rub’ al Khali desert some 1,100 km east of Mecca. The craters at Wabar are notable for the presence of blocks of silica glass, fused by the heat of the impact and impregnated by beads of nickel-iron alloy from the meteorite (most of which was destroyed in the impact). Some of the glass blocks are made of shiny black glass with a white or yellow interior and gas-filled hollows, which allow them to float on water. Although scientists did not become aware of the Wabar craters until 1932, they were located near a caravan route from Oman and were very likely known to the inhabitants of the desert. The wider area was certainly well-known; in ancient Arabic poetry, Wabar or Ubar (also known as “Iram of the Pillars” was the site of a fabulous city that was destroyed by fire from the heavens because of the wickedness of its king. If the estimated age of the crater is accurate, it would have been well within the period of human habitation in Arabia and the impact itself may have been witnessed. However, a recent (2004) scientific analysis of the Wabar site suggests that the impact event happened much more recently than first thought and might have occurred only within the last 200–300 years.

In addition to the major Biblical earthquakes, two major earthquakes occurred in Israel during the last two centuries. The first earthquake, in January 1837, killed some 5,000 people, destroyed the city of Tzfat and damaged nearby Arab villages, while the second one, in July 1927, killed over 500 people, and caused heavy damage in Jericho, Shechem (Nablus), Jerusalem and Hevron. An earthquake centered in Lebanon was felt in Israel and Syria.

Judea and Samaria were illegally occupied by the Hashemite Kingdom of Trans-Jordan for 19 years following its British-led invasion into the nascent Jewish state until being won back by Israel during the Six Day War of 1967.

Jordan is already the Arab Palestinian state and that the only factor allowing the international community to continue ignoring this reality is the lack of democratic elections in the Hashemite kingdom. The Western powers and Arab countries today are attempting to extort these lands now to be used for the creation of a new Arab state to be run by the Arab Fatah-led PA.

Hashemite King Abdullah of Jordan [trans-Jordan] assumes that the creation of another Palestinian Arab state in portions of Israel will ease pressure on his kingdom. However, analysts have pointed out that the Jordanian monarch has an interest in the speedy establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria as he fears a repeat of “Black September” led by Fatah, Hamas, Hezbollah and other factions with the same goal to succeed this time around.

The “Black September” group’s name derives from the Black September conflict which began on 16 September 1970, when King Hussein of Jordan declared military rule in response to a fedayeen coup d’état to seize his kingdom; resulting in the deaths or expulsion of the PLO to Lebanon and thousands of Arab Palestinians from Jordan in July 1971. The BSO began as a small cell of Fatah men determined to take revenge upon King Hussein and the Jordanian army. Recruits from the PFLP, as-Sa’iqa, and other groups also joined.

In his book Stateless, Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad), Yasser Arafat’s chief of security and a founding member of Fatah, wrote that: “Black September was an auxiliary unit of the resistance movement, at a time when the latter was unable to fully realize its military and political potential. Abu Iyad’s claim was contradicted by Mohammed Daoud Oudeh, also known as Abu Daoud, a BSO operative and former senior PLO member, who, according to a 1972 article in the Jordanian newspaper Al-Dustur, told Jordanian police: “There is no such organization as Black September. Fatah announces its own operations under this name so that Fatah will not appear as the direct executor of the operation.”

Other actions attributed to Black September include:

28 November 1971: the assassination of Jordan’s prime minister, Wasfi Tel, in retaliation for the expulsion of the PLO from Jordan in 1970-71;
December 1971: attempted assassination of Zeid al Rifai, Jordan’s ambassador to London and former chief of the Jordanian royal court;
6 February 1972: sabotage of a West German electrical installation and gas plants in Ravenstein and Ommen in the Netherlands and in Hamburg in West Germany;
8 May, 1972: hijacking of a Belgian aircraft, Sabena Flight 572, flying from Vienna to Lod.
September and October 1972: dozens of letter bombs were sent from Amsterdam to Israeli diplomatic posts around the world, killing Israeli Agricultural Counselor Ami Shachori in Britain.
1 March 1973: attack on the Saudi embassy in Khartoum, killing Cleo Noel, United States Chief of Mission to Sudan, George Curtis Moore, the US Deputy Chief of Mission to Sudan, and Guy Eid, the Belgian chargé d’affaires to Sudan
2 March 1973 1973 New York bomb plot
5 August 1973: two Palestinian militants claiming affiliation with Black September open fire on a passenger lounge in an Athens airport, killing 5 and wounding 55. A Lufthansa Boeing 737 is hijacked in December to demand that the gunmen be freed from Greek custody.
19 September 1972 letter bomb attacks and assassination of Ami Shachori. Dr. Ami Shachori was the agricultural counselor in the Israeli Embassy to the United Kingdom in the London district of Kensington.  At the age of 44 he was assassinated in a letter bomb attack on September 19, 1972, perpetrated by Black September.Eight bombs were addressed to embassy staffers. Four were intercepted at a post office sorting room in Earls Court, but the other four letters made it to the embassy. Three of the letters were detected in the consulate post room but Ami Shachori opened his, believing it contained Dutch flower seeds he had ordered. The resulting blast tore a hole in the desk and fatally wounded Shachori in the stomach and chest. In Shachori’s memory an annual memorial lecture on agriculture in London was established.
The Hashemite Kingdom, which is itself an artificially created state, has a majority population that defines itself as ethnically Palestinian.

When leadership roles were being clarified, the staff of Aaron sprouted almond buds to show that he was chosen by G-d in Numbers 17.  Jeremiah also was shown an almond branch by G-d in his first prophetic vision (Jeremiah 1). The beautifully-blossomed almond tree featured prominently in Israeli celebrations of Tu b’Shevat has a dark side.

Nectar of almond flowers contains 4-10 milligrams per litre of amygdalin, which yields the potent poison cyanide. While sweet almonds are safe for eating (though causing an allergic reaction in some people), wild bitter almonds also contain amounts of amygdalin and could be toxic, especially for young children.

A group of researchers at the Department of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology and the Department of Science Education at the University of Haifa-Oranim investigated why the almond tree produces poison, especially when the purpose of flower nectar is to attract bees, which will pollinate them. They discovered that the lethal substance is actually there to give the lushly-flowered tree an advantage over nearby competitors.

The research team exposed honey bees to plates of nectar that had varying concentrations of the toxin and a plate of nectar without the toxin. The team first monitored four different amygdalin concentrations in the range of the natural levels of toxin typically found in almond tree nectar. A second experiment monitored levels much higher than those found in the natural form. In all cases, the bees preferred nectar containing amygdalin over the amygdalin-free variety. While amygdalin is poisonous for mammals, it is not poisonous for insects, such as the honey bee. In fact, it may act as a stimulant which attracts them.

Another theory is that “expert” bees”, the ones who have been pollinating for some time – will have built up a tolerance to amygdalin, resulting in the arrival of only the most seasoned pollinators at the almond tree. There is a posibility that the nectar toxin prevents bacteria from harming the nectar and threatening the pollination of the tree. Honey made from these almond trees is known to have medicinal properties, such as natural anti-biotics

Armen Saginian, is an Iranian activist and is one of the leaders of the Iranian people’s revolution which, includes ex-Savak agents (Iranian National Intelligence and Security Organization agents) and other influential Iranians inside and outside of Iran.

Armen Saginian is also the Executive Director and founder of New Horizons, and is the author of the book, “Mission for Mohammed and Islam “. He made an exclusive news-breaking announcement of the Iranian People’s ‘declaration of war’ against the Ahmadinejad government, whom they say, illegally crowned himself the winner of the Iranian national elections held last June of 2009. The Center for Inquiry-West is pleased to announce the creation of an Iranian outreach program. New Horizons aims to promote the ideals of secularism, democracy, and rational inquiry to people of Iranian origin in Southern California and ultimately, throughout the world.

There are nearly one million people of Iranian origin in the Greater Los Angeles area. Many are refugees from the repressive Islamic regime in Iran. The new project–sponsored by the Council for Secular Humanism is run by volunteer Armen Saginian from the Los Angeles offices of the Center for Inquiry-West.

On December 10, 2003, in her acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize, Shirin Ebadi evoked Cyrus, saying:  “I am an Iranian, a descendant of Cyrus the Great. This emperor proclaimed at the pinnacle of power 2,500 years ago that he ‘would not reign over the people if they did not wish it.’ He promised not to force any person to change his religion and faith and guaranteed freedom for all. The Charter of Cyrus the Great should be studied in the history of human rights.”

The Persian domination and kingdom in the Iranian plateau started by an extension of the Achaemenid dynasty, who expanded their earlier domination possibly from the 9th century BC onward. The eponymous founder of this dynasty was Achaemenes (from Old Persian Haxāmaniš). Achaemenids are “descendants of Achaemenes” as Darius the Great, the ninth king of the dynasty, traces his genealogy to him and declares “for this reason we are called Achaemenids”.

IAA conservators working on the mosaic (Israel news photo: Niki Davidov / IAA)

As the conservation experts worked on the plaster bedding to be done before detaching the mosaic, they were surprised to notice there were ancient foot and sandal prints beneath it. Clearly, the builders that had worked on the floor sometimes wore their sandals, and sometimes worked in their bare feet.

A sandal print shows that sometimes the builders wore their shoes (Israel news photo: Niki Davidov / IAA)

“It’s exciting. This is the first time I have ever encountered personal evidence such as this under a mosaic,” said Jacques Neguer, head of the IAA Art Conservation Branch, who referred to it as “a real archaeological gem that is extraordinarily well-preserved.” When removing a section of mosaic, it is customary to clean its bedding, and that way study the material from which it is made, and the construction stages, Neguer explained. “We look for drawings and sketches that the artists made in the plaster and marked where each of the tesserae will be placed.”

Neguer said this is also what happened with the Lod mosaic. “Beneath a piece on which vine leaves are depicted, we discovered that the mosaic’s builders incised lines that indicate where the tesserae should be set, and afterwards, while cleaning the layer, we found the imprints of the feet and sandals, sizes 34, 37, 42 and 44.” At least one imprint of a sole resembled a modern sandal, he added. Based on the concentration of foot and sandal prints, “it seems that the group of builders tamped the mortar in place with their feet.”

Bare foot prints were also found beneath the Lod mosaic (Israel news photo: Niki Davidov / IAA)

The mosaic is one of the largest and most magnificent ever seen in Israel, but although it was discovered in 1996, it was covered over again when no resources could be found for its conservation. Thirteen years later, the IAA received a contribution from the Leon Levy Foundation specifically earmarked for the preservation and development of the Lod site. The mosaic was re-excavated, exhibited to the public, and then conservators began the delicate process of removing it from the area for treatment in the IAA conservation laboratories in Jerusalem.

Measuring approximately 180 square meters, the mosaic is composed of colorful carpets that depict in exquisite detail mammals, birds, fish, floral species and sailing and merchant vessels that were in use at the time. It is believed that the mosaic floor was part of a villa that belonged to a wealthy man who lived during the Roman period.

The Lod mosaic is one of the largest and most magnificent ever discovered in Israel (Israel news photo: Niki Davidov / IAA)

The site, which is located in the eastern section of Lod, next to the entrance at Ginnaton Junction, is intended to become a springboard for tourism to the city. It is situated between HeHalutz and Struma Streets, which lead to the open air market and to the city’s center.

“It is fascinating to discover a 1,700 year old personal mark of people who are actually like us, who worked right here on the same mosaic,” Neguer remarked. “We feel the continuity of generations here.”

Unlike the Hubble Space Telescope, which is a general instrument, Kepler is a specialized telescope just for planet-hunting. Its sole instrument is a light meter that measures the brightness of more than 100,000 stars simultaneously, watching for anything that causes a star to dim. That dimming is often a planet passing in front of the star. Any planet that could support life would need to be rocky rather than gaseous. And it would need to be in just the right location. Planets that are too close to their star will be too hot, and those too far away are too cold.

Planets are being found on almost a daily basis, thanks to the Kepler telescope. The number of discovered exoplanets is now well past 400. But none of those has the right components for life. Most of the early exoplanet candidates found by Kepler are turning out to be something other than a planet, such as another star crossing the telescope’s point of view, when double-and triple-checked. Kepler is concentrating on about one-four hundredth of the nighttime sky, scanning more than 100,000 stars, ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand light years away. A light year is about 5.9 trillion miles. So such planets are too far to travel to, and they cannot be viewed directly like the planets in our solar system.

If there were an Earth-like body in the area Kepler is searching, the telescope would find it, but it can take three years to confirm a planet’s orbital path. What Kepler has confirmed so far keeps pointing to the idea that there are many other Earths. Before Kepler, those bodies were too small to be seen. But all those planets were too large and in the wrong place to be like Earth. When Kepler looked at 43,000 stars that are about the same size as our sun, it found that about two-thirds of them appeared to be as life-friendly and nonviolent as our nearest star.

Excited astronomers say they could find Earth-like planets in just a few years and state they are on the verge of finding NASA officials and other leading scientists state that within four or five years they should discover the first Earth-like planet where life could develop, or may have already. A planet close to the size of Earth could even be found sometime this year if preliminary hints from a new space telescope pan out. Planets like Earth orbiting other stars, a key step in determining if we are alone in the universe. A massive space telescope to scan Earth-like planets for oxygen, water, carbon dioxide - and even faint signs of industrial emissions from civilization - would cost about $5 billion. Once an Earth-like planet is found in the right place, determining if there are the ingredients for life there will pose another hurdle.

Even the Roman Catholic Church has held scientific conferences about the prospect of extraterrestrial life, including a meeting last November. The director of the Vatican Observatory, the Rev. Jose Funes stated these are big questions that reflect upon the meaning of the human race in the universe.

Further inforamtion can be found on the web: NASA’s Kepler Telescope: http://kepler.nasa.gov/ ; NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program: http://exep.jpl.nasa.gov/ ; The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia: http://www.exoplanet.eu/ ; and American Astronomical Society: http://aas.org/