Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Hamas & Fatah "We want a new Schalit", Video
Hundreds of Palestinians gathered in the West Bank on Tuesday morning to celebrate the impending release of prisoners in the first stage of the Gilad Schalit deal, Channel 2 news reported.
Chants of "The people want a new Schalit," could be heard as Hamas and Fatah supporters waved flags together as part of large scale celebrations.
Chants of "The people want a new Schalit," could be heard as Hamas and Fatah supporters waved flags together as part of large scale celebrations.
Home Sweet Home! Shalit hopes his release will lead to Peace! Relatives of other missing soldiers furious and angry!
A chief Israeli military spokesman has reportedly confirmed the now 25-year-old is back on home soil, saying: "Gilad Shalit has returned home."
Meanwhile, the first buses carrying Palestinian prisoners being freed as part of the deal have been welcomed amid jubilant scenes in Gaza after crossing the border from Egypt.
And an interview with the freed Israeli soldier on Egyptian television appeared to show him looking thin and nervous, but well.
"You can't imagine how I felt when I heard I was going home," he said
"I received this news a week ago and I felt then that this would be my last chance to be free.
"They were long years. But I always thought the day would come when I finally get out of captivity."
An emotional Shalit speaks to his parents on the telephone
"Of course I miss my family very much. I also miss my friends.
"I hope this deal will lead to peace between Palestinians and Israelis and that it will support cooperation between both sides."
The exchange between Israel and its bitter enemy Hamas sees Israel freeing a total of 1,027 prisoners - hundreds of them from life sentences imposed for killing Israelis.
Gilad Shalit was a 19-year-old corporal when he was captured by three Gaza-based militant groups in a deadly cross-border raid on June 25, 2006.
Three days after he was snatched, Israel launched a huge military operation against Gaza to try to secure his release, which lasted five months and left more than 400 Palestinians dead.
But the operation was unsuccessful and in June 2007, Hamas seized power in Gaza, holding the young soldier at a secret location until now.
Very first video of Shalit's reception to Israel
Shalit reunites with parents
The Naked Marxist, Brzezinski, "Let's publish names of the rich" Limbaugh responds
Limbaugh response: Click on link to hear
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/10/17/limbaugh_on_brzezinski_wanting_to_publicly_name_the_rich.html
Transcript
RUSH: Zbigniew Brzezinski was on his daughter's TV show today. His daughter is Mika Brzezinski, and she cohosts Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough. Now, Zbigniew Brzezinski is the former national security advisor to Jimmy Carter. He's a frequent guest on his daughter's program on MSNBC and he said some really odd things today. He wants to publish the names of people who make a lot of money, says that would be very helpful in redistributing wealth. I expect Romney and Cantor to endorse this within five days. I wouldn't be surprised if one of them defecates on a cop car just to show solidarity with the protestors. But back to Brzezinski. Zbigniew Brzezinski wants anybody making a lot of money to be pointed out, and after saying that, then he said he didn't want Wall Street demonized. This is from the Blaze.com. Then he went to demonizing people who legally earn a lot of money and spend it in ways that apparently he would not.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/10/17/limbaugh_on_brzezinski_wanting_to_publicly_name_the_rich.html
Transcript
RUSH: Zbigniew Brzezinski was on his daughter's TV show today. His daughter is Mika Brzezinski, and she cohosts Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough. Now, Zbigniew Brzezinski is the former national security advisor to Jimmy Carter. He's a frequent guest on his daughter's program on MSNBC and he said some really odd things today. He wants to publish the names of people who make a lot of money, says that would be very helpful in redistributing wealth. I expect Romney and Cantor to endorse this within five days. I wouldn't be surprised if one of them defecates on a cop car just to show solidarity with the protestors. But back to Brzezinski. Zbigniew Brzezinski wants anybody making a lot of money to be pointed out, and after saying that, then he said he didn't want Wall Street demonized. This is from the Blaze.com. Then he went to demonizing people who legally earn a lot of money and spend it in ways that apparently he would not.
He said, "We have to have disclosure of the rich and who they are. We have to have transparency. We have to have control." Now who is he anyway to be talking about -- I mean Zbigniew Brzezinski was the national security advisor, he's an historian. He knows why the Serbs don't like whoever they don't like, and he knows why the Turks don't like whoever they don't like, he knows that stuff. Yeah. (interruption) Well, he hasn't gone that far, but yeah, we'll tattoo the rich, give 'em armbands that they have to wear so everybody knows who they are, and if they refuse to play ball, if they refuse to start spending their money and hiring people and giving money away, then we'll identify 'em even further.
"We need more fair distribution of social responsibility through taxation and elimination of loopholes and pressure even on the rich to avoid flaunting their wealth." This from Doctor Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was the first guy every morning that Jimmy Carter met with, after he spoke to David Rockefeller. Brzezinski spoke to Rockefeller, then walked in and had his conference every morning with Carter. I'm just making that up. I'm trying to stir it up out there amongst the conspiracy, tinfoil hat crowd. "A list of the rich to pressure them to give back." How about tattooing a dollar sign on their foreheads or some other place where it can't be hidden? Where would you tattoo a dollar sign on the rich, Snerdley, that they couldn't cover it up? On their hand? You can wear a glove. Well, yeah, you can wear a hat, but the hat has to come off at some point, especially if you go to a church, you go to a building.
He went on to say, "Unfortunately there is an even larger number of people who massively enriched themselves over the last decade, incredibly so, to the degree that we now have this highly disproportionate social division between the rich and the poor, and I think they should be made known publicly. Public pressure, public condemnation, public shame can be very effective." By the way, there's news out today that Wells Fargo posted a profit, Citibank posted a profit. Now, in the old days that would have been good news. That meant that these places were financially healthy and that you could trust your money being there and maybe even go get a job there. Now they post a profit and they are suspects. Now they post a profit, and all of a sudden we gotta be suspicious, that's bad news out there. Something's wrong, they made a profit. (interruption) Well, that's an interesting question. That's the kind of question one of my used-to-be favorite comedians Irwin Corey would answer. What was it like when there were no rich people?
What was it like when everybody was the same? And of course that day never was. There never has been a day where there was total sameness. There's always been income inequality, and sometimes it's not from income. Some people steal theirs. But there's always been disparity in how much money people have. There's never been the day where everybody had the same amount of money. But I mean if you're a business and you're gonna announce a profit, you may as well do it Friday night at eight o'clock when nobody's gonna hear about it. You could make the rich wear yellow stars. You could tattoo the dollar sign on both of their faces. Anyway, that's Zbigniew Brzezinski. Now, the conventional pronunciation is Brzezinski, but I happen to know that the correct Polish pronunciation is Brzezinski, and I like to be correct.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Another Rebbi Picture with a Lulav? Ivanka Trump's Husband
Ivanka Trump, a convert to Judaism, walks with her husband, Jared Kushner to shul on second day of Yom Tov Sukkus.
This was first reported by the daily mail
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| Jared Kushner with his wife Ivanka with Lulav |
and they wrote that Jared was holding "some flowers in one hand - perhaps a gift for his wife."
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2048964/Ivanka-Trump-sports-jaunty-headgear-day-baby-Arabella-Rose.html#ixzz1b4a8K33V
DIN: Maybe it was a gift but either way we have a big Shailah whether she has to make a brocho. Lulav is a mitzvah sh'hazman grama, so really she would not have to make a brocho, this is actually a machlokas hapoiskim. I don't think she made a brocho, but on her hat she definitely has to make a brocho .. "sh'hecechayanu", but again, maybe she had her hat in mind when she lit candles.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2048964/Ivanka-Trump-sports-jaunty-headgear-day-baby-Arabella-Rose.html#ixzz1b4a8K33V
DIN: Maybe it was a gift but either way we have a big Shailah whether she has to make a brocho. Lulav is a mitzvah sh'hazman grama, so really she would not have to make a brocho, this is actually a machlokas hapoiskim. I don't think she made a brocho, but on her hat she definitely has to make a brocho .. "sh'hecechayanu", but again, maybe she had her hat in mind when she lit candles.
Poll: Cain 43% Obama 41%
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| Herman Cain |
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters shows Cain attracting 43% support, while Obama earns 41%. Given such a matchup, eight percent (8%) prefer some other candidate, and another eight percent (8%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Cain is tied with Romney for the lead in the race for the GOP presidential nomination. Nobody else is even close at the moment.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
ADL Silent on "Occupy Wall Street" Antisemitism
The Anti-Defamation League is one of the most powerful and authoritative voices against bigotry of all kinds–not just in the United States, but throughout the world.
Yet the ADL’s message has been compromised by left-wing political bias, most recently in its failure to denounce the evident antisemitism of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement.
By contrast, the ADL was quick to accuse the Tea Party movement of antisemitism when it began.
In May 2009, shortly after the first Tea Party rallies in April, the ADL warned: “White Supremacists and Anti-Semites Plan to Recruit at July 4 Tea Parties.”
In November, the ADL issued a “special report” on the Tea Party and “anti-government conspiracies.” The ADL noted that “extremists were a tiny minority of Tea Party protesters,” but claimed Tea Party members were filled with “rage” and held ideas that “fall outside the mainstream.”
As of this writing, the ADL has said nothing about the “rage” and bigotry on display at several “Occupy” rallies. Instead, it is minimizing the antisemitism on display, effectively helping “Occupy” do damage control.
One ADL analyst told the Daily Caller:
“We have seen instances of individuals promoting these [antisemitic] views. We do not think that it is or has been institutionalized in the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movements,” she said. “But I think the bigger issue is sort of that when there is a heightened focus economic strife and the financial industry it is not surprising to see these messages. Yet, we will continue to be diligent, looking for them and combating the promotion of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories should they arise.”
Todd Gutnick, ADL’s media relations director, confirmed this morning: “Aside from the story in the Daily Caller in which we were quoted, ADL has made no statements on the Occupy movement.”
That is alarming, given the explicit anti-Jewish hatred on display at Occupy rallies across the country.
For example, on October 12, Reason.tv posted an interview with Patricia McAllister, a self-described employee of the Los Angeles Unified School District, and a demonstrator at Occupy LA. She stated: “I think that, uh, the Zionist Jews who are running these big banks, and our Federal Reserve, which is not run by the federal government–they need to be run out of this country.”
"Someone who agrees to release 1,000 prisoners will agree to release 8,000 in the future...This is a promise, this is our oath." Hamas Leader Khaled Mashal
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| Khaled Mashal |
Hamas leader Khaled Mashal addressed the Palestinian people Tuesday evening saying: "We should be proud. We are bringing this news to the fathers, the mothers, the children, the families of the prisoners. All who have cried a tear for the prisoners...This is a great achievement. But our happiness is full of pain that we were unable to release all (8,000) of the prisoners."
Mashal said it was a "great achievement" to get so many prisoners in exchange for one man. He then sent a message to the remaining prisoners saying, "We will continue our efforts until we release all of you. Someone who agrees to release 1,000 prisoners will agree to release 8,000 in the future...This is a promise, this is our oath."
Ramallah Lynch Butcher to be Freed Video
The government is freeing the terrorist who gleefully waved his bloody hands after the lynch of two Israeli soldiers. No one told the soldiers families that the terrorist is being released.
WARNING: The video of the lynch is not suitable for young children
The shocking picture that remains in the memories of Jews around the world depicts Abdel - Aziz Saleh waving his bloody hands from his Ramallah window after the October 2000 lynching of Vadim Nurzhitz and Yossi Avrahami, who were murdered and their bodies mutilated after they inadvertently entered Ramallah.
Aziz Saleh was arrested in 2001. He admitted to being one of those who broke in to the police station and choking one of the soldiers
He and other terrorists threw Nurzhitz upside down through a second-floor window and tossed Avrahami out the door for an angry crowd to trample their bodies, drag them to a town square and mutilate them.
Saleh was sentenced to life in prison, but the government did not abide by the law requiring that the survivors be informed of his release, along with 1,026 other terrorists and security prisoners for the return of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.
The brutality of the event, captured in the photo, sparked international outrage. Palestinian Authority police had taken the two soldiers a police station, but 1,000 rioters, hearing of the report they the soldiers were detained, stormed the building.
British photographer Mark Seager tried to photograph the event, but the mob assaulted him and destroyed his camera. He later stated, "It was the most horrible thing that I have ever seen and I have reported from Congo, Kosovo, many bad places…. It was murder of the most barbaric kind.”
Arutz Sheva
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| Vadim Nurzhutz & Yossi Avrahami |
Arab Cops arrest Jews for bowing on Temple Mount
Arab policemen arrested two Jews, including a prominent spokesman in Samaria, for allegedly bowing down and praying on the Temple Mount Sunday morning.
Shomron (Samaria) Liaison Spokesman David Ha’Ivri told Arutz Sheva, “We were in a group of 25 men performing the mitzvah of being seen on the Temple Mount during the Sukkot holiday.
“Suddenly, two policemen said a friend and I were bowing down, which they say is forbidden.” Ha’Ivri said the policemen were non-Jews and, responding to Arutz Sheva, identified them as Arabs.
“I told the policemen, ‘Look, there are Arab watch guards here, and they are not making a fuss about it.’ The policemen replied, 'It is forbidden to bow down, and we are just doing our job.'”
He added, “Can you imagine being indicted for bowing down?”
Ha’Ivri said he has ascended the Temple Mount several times a year for the past 20 years and was arrested only once, many years ago.
Abiding by known rules issued by Muslim clerics, Ha’Ivri and the other members of the group did not carry with them any prayer books or religious items, which are forbidden by Jews to being with them when going up to the Temple Mount.
Terrorist Who Murdered More than 100 Jews on Release List
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| Hussam Badran |
The Ministry of Justice is set to publishthe list of names of terror prisoners who will be released in the first part of the Shalit deal.
Families of people murdered by the terrorists will have 48 hours to file motions against the release. The High Court is expected to reject the appeals, however.Among the murderers that will be released is Hussam Badran, former commander of Hamas in Samaria. He was responsible for massacres at the Tel Aviv Dolphinarium, Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem, Matza Restaurant in Haifa and the ParkHotel in Netanya.
Badran has as much Jewish blood on his hands as some of the Nazi criminals who were put on trial after the Holocaust.Another terrorist on the list was in charge of attacks in which a total of 22 Israelis were murdered. A terrorist who caused the number 405 Egged bus to veer off course and plunge into a deep ravine next to Highway 1, killing 16, is to be liberated. The driver of a bus who purposely ran down a group of soldiers at Azour, killing seven soldiers and a civilian woman and maiming others, will be freed. Also on the list is one of the terrorists who murdered Yossi Shok near Beit Haggai, and a terrorist who admitted to murdering youths Ronen Kermani and Lior Tubul as well as taxi driver Rafi Doron. He was also involved in the murder of a soldier, Yehoshua Friedberg.
Another terrorist to gain freedom murdered yeshiva student Haim Kerman. One of the terrorists involved in capturing and murdering soldier Nachshon Waxman will go free as well.Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Gilad Shalit Deal Reached with Hamas, Israel will release 1,000 terrorists
Israeli and Hamas have reached a deal to free a captured Israeli soldier held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, officials from both sides said Tuesday, capping five years of painful negotiations that have repeatedly collapsed in fingerpointing and violence.
The deal would bring home Sgt. Gilad Schalit, who was captured in a cross-border raid in June 2006 by Palestinian militants who burrowed into Israel and dragged him into Gaza. Little has been known about his fate since then.
Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, convened an urgent meeting Tuesday night with his Cabinet to approve the deal, said an Israeli official, who spoke on condition pending a formal announcement. Hamas officials and media outlets also confirmed the deal.
The agreement would exchange Schalit, 25, for around 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israel had previously balked at Hamas' demands because some of the prisoners are serving lengthy sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis.
Its only days after Yom Kippur and Seminary refuse to admit Sephardic girls
These are the schools that are supposed to educate our precious daughters in Torah and Middos. What kind of example do these schools give when they violate on a daily basis the mitzvah M"deorisah of V'ahavta Lerachu Kumoicha (Love your friend like yourself)?
Stop sending your daughters to these institutions and stop funding them, nothing good will ever come out of these schools.
Here read and weep ...
The discrimination between Sephardic and Ashkenazi students in the ultra-Orthodox public has been going on for years, reaching its peak with the Emmanuel affair, in which fathers were arrested for refusing to send their daughters to seminaries without segregation.
Throughout the years, the haredim have claimed that the segregation has to do with religious devoutness, but reality proves otherwise.
Kol Hai Radio on Sunday aired a recording of a principal of a haredi high school for girls in Beitar Illit, complaining about the number of Sephardic students he must deal with.
Read more ynetnews.com
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Arab Countries that overthrow their dictators make sure to throw out Jews too
It is just another sign that the Arab Spring is turning into an autumn of Muslim religious persecution. While the world media is currently focused on the latest Christian murders at a demonstration in Cairo, a much smaller, but equally telling, incident of religious intolerance played itself out in Libya today.
David Gerbi, a Libyan Jew who fled his country for Italy in 1967 to escape the recently deposed Muammar Gaddafi’s persecution, was forced to leave Libya again Tuesday after unsuccessfully attempting to reopen the Dar Bishi Synagogue in Tripoli. Dar Bishi, closed 41 years ago, was to be Libya’s first functioning synagogue in decades. In an indication of the devastation visited on Libya’s Jewish community, in 1941 there were 44 synagogues in Tripoli alone and Jews formed 25 percent of the city’s population.
Gerbi’s desire to re-establish the more than 2,000-year-old Jewish presence in his native land ended in failure when several hundred angry protesters showed up last Thursday to oppose his initial efforts to clean out the abandoned building for prayer. Granted official permission, he broke down the synagogue’s bricked-up entrance.
But a peaceful protest wasn’t sufficient for the citizens of the “new” Libya. Holding signs that read, “There is no place for Jews in Libya” and “We don’t have a place for Zionism,” the demonstrators also demanded Gerbi’s expulsion from the country and tried to storm his Tripoli hotel. After speaking with Libyan and Italian authorities, Gerbi agreed to leave the country “to ease the tensions.”
“This incident has served to expose the dangerous reality simmering beneath the surface,” Gerbi noted. “I want to contribute to, not obstruct, the building of a new, democratic and pluralistic Libya. It is sad and absurd that my mere presence in Libya should set off so much hostility and I regret this.”
But a peaceful protest wasn’t sufficient for the citizens of the “new” Libya. Holding signs that read, “There is no place for Jews in Libya” and “We don’t have a place for Zionism,” the demonstrators also demanded Gerbi’s expulsion from the country and tried to storm his Tripoli hotel. After speaking with Libyan and Italian authorities, Gerbi agreed to leave the country “to ease the tensions.”
“This incident has served to expose the dangerous reality simmering beneath the surface,” Gerbi noted. “I want to contribute to, not obstruct, the building of a new, democratic and pluralistic Libya. It is sad and absurd that my mere presence in Libya should set off so much hostility and I regret this.”
The fact some of the protesters’ signs were in Hebrew, and a demonstration against the synagogue re-opening also took place in Benghazi indicates the hostility Gerbi “set off” was not necessarily spontaneous or entirely local. Most likely the product of Islamist forces with international connections, the anti-Semitic protesters may also have wanted Gerbi expelled from the country because he is seeking the position as the rebel National Transition Council’s (NTC) representative for Libyan Jewry.
There had been a thriving Jewish presence in Libya for 2,300 years. When Libya became an Italian colony in 1911, Jews lived mostly in Tripoli and Benghazi. Italian occupation was a fairly positive experience for Libya’s Jews until Italy’s fascist regime grew more anti-Semitic in the 1930s. And as the anti-Semitism intensified, “anti-Jewish incidents increased in Libya” and Rome “privileged Libya’s Arabs over its Jews.” Worse, however, was yet to come.
“As the Axis solidified in the late 1930s, Rome imposed anti-Semitic race laws on both Italy and Libya,” writes Michael Rubin in a review of Maurice Roumani’s book, The Jews of Libya. “Libyan Jews were interned in local labor camps, deported, and, in some cases, transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.”
During the war, German troops also plundered the Jewish quarter in Benghazi and deported more than 2,000 Jews, including women and children, across the desert to an Italian work camp in western Libya that Gerbi visited. Gerbi “sat shiva” for the 600 prisoners who died there during a typhoid epidemic and visited the cemetery where they are now buried.
After the war, the plight of Libya’s Jews only got worse. One pogrom alone in 1945 cost 100 Jews their lives in Tripoli and other towns. Five synagogues were also destroyed. And as Israel’s independence neared in 1948, members of Libya’s 36,000-strong Jewish community began to leave the land where they had lived for more than two millennia. Between 1948 and 1951, 30,792 of their number emigrated to Israel. The son of one these immigrants, Moshe Kahlon, later rose to become Israel’s Minister of Communication.
The remaining 6,000-7,000 Libyan Jews were forced out of the country after the 1967 Six Day War, Gerbi being one of them. The war saw more anti-Jewish pogroms, in which 18 Jews were murdered. The Italian Navy evacuated all but 100 Libyan Jews, of whom 4,000 went to Israel or the United States. Two thousand stayed in Italy.
But even being reduced to such a tiny, insignificant and powerless number provided no protection for the remaining 100, when Muammar Gaddafi came to power in 1969. The Libyan dictator had their property confiscated, causing more Libyan Jews to leave until their number had dwindled to a mere 20. The last Libyan Jew, an 80-year old woman, left the country in 2003, making Libya a “Judenrein” state that would have made Hitler proud.
It was this rich, centuries-old heritage, decimated in such a short time span, that Gerbi wanted to revive with his mission to Libya. A psychoanalyst and member of the World Organization of Libyan Jews, he had visited Libya several times in the past decade before he returned last spring to help the rebels against Gaddafi. He worked at a hospital in Benghazi before travelling to the former internment camp in western Libya where he met anti-Gaddafi Berber rebels. The Berbers, whose members sit on the NTC, were also oppressed under Gaddafi’s dictatorship and want to see a Jewish presence in Libya again.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Egyptian Muslim fanatics burn churches, kill Christians ...Jimmy Carter must be happy with these developments..Obama calls for restraint from the Christians (Video)
Jimmy Carter the worst President of the US advocated the toppling of Mubarak, so he must be gloating as he and the whole wide world watches as the Muslems burn the churches down and kill the Christians.. and notice how the mainstream media reports this atrocity....reading the article you would never know that the Christians were the ones being killed..Meanwhile our brilliant President, the Harvard Grad, asks restraint from the Christians..
Flames lit up downtown Cairo, where massive clashes raged Sunday, drawing Christians angry over a recent church attack, Muslims and Egyptian security forces. At least 24 people were killed and more than 200 injured in the worst sectarian violence since the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak in February.
The rioting lasted late into the night, bringing out a deployment of more than 1,000 security forces and armored vehicles to defend thestate television building along the Nile, where the trouble began. The military clamped a curfew on the area until 7 a.m.
The clashes spread to nearby Tahrir Square, drawing thousands of people to the vast plaza that served as the epicenter of the protests that ousted Mubarak. On Sunday night, they battled each other with rocks and firebombs, some tearing up pavement for ammunition and others collecting stones in boxes.
At one point, an armored security van sped into the crowd, striking a half-dozen protesters and throwing some into the air. Protesters retaliated by setting fire to military vehicles, a bus and private cars, sending flames rising into the night sky.
After midnight, mobs roamed downtown streets, attacking cars they suspected had Christian passengers. In many areas, there was no visible police or army presence to confront or stop them.
Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's 80 million people, blame the country's ruling military council for being too lenient on those behind a spate of anti-Christian attacks since Mubarak's ouster. As Egypt undergoes a chaotic power transition and security vacuum in the wake of the uprising, the Coptic Christian minority is particularly worried about the show of force by ultraconservative Islamists.
Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, addressing the nation in a televised speech, said the violence threatened to throw Egypt's post-Mubarak transition off course.
"These events have taken us back several steps," he said. "Instead of moving forward to build a modern state on democratic principles we are back to seeking stability and searching for hidden hands — domestic and foreign — that meddle with the country's security and safety."
"I call on Egyptian people, Muslims and Christians, women and children, young men and elders to hold their unity," Sharaf said.
The Christian protesters said their demonstration began as a peaceful attempt to sit in at the television building. But then, they said, they came under attack by thugs in plainclothes who rained stones down on them and fired pellets.
"The protest was peaceful. We wanted to hold a sit-in, as usual," said Essam Khalili, a protester wearing a white shirt with a cross on it. "Thugs attacked us and a military vehicle jumped over a sidewalk and ran over at least 10 people. I saw them."
Wael Roufail, another protester, corroborated the account. "I saw the vehicle running over the protesters. Then they opened fired at us," he said.
Khalili said protesters set fire to army vehicles when they saw them hitting the protesters.
Ahmed Yahia, a Muslim resident who lives near the TV building, said he saw the military vehicle plow into protesters. "I saw a man's head split into two halves and a second body flattened when the armored vehicle ran over it. When some Muslims saw the blood they joined the Christians against the army," he said.
Television footage showed the military vehicle slamming into the crowd. Coptic protesters were shown attacking a soldier, while a priest tried to protect him. One soldier collapsed in tears as ambulances rushed to the scene to take away the injured.
At least 24 people were killed in the clashes, Health Ministry official Hisham Sheiha said on state TV.
State media reported that Egypt's interim Cabinet was holding an emergency session to discuss the situation.
The protest began in the Shubra district of northern Cairo, then headed to the state television building along the Nile where men in plainclothes attacked about a thousand Christian protesters as they chanted denunciations of the military rulers.
"The people want to topple the field marshal!" the protesters yelled, referring to the head of the ruling military council, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi. Some Muslim protesters later joined in the chant.
Later in the evening, a crowd of Muslims turned up to challenge the Christian crowds, shouting, "Speak up! An Islamic state until death!"
Armed with sticks, the Muslim assailants chased the Christian protesters from the TV building, banging metal street signs to scare them off. It was not immediately clear who the attackers were.
Gunshots rang out at the scene, where lines of riot police with shields tried to hold back hundreds of Christian protesters chanting, "This is our country!"
Security forces eventually fired tear gas to disperse the protesters. The clashes then moved to nearby Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the uprising against Mubarak. The army closed off streets around the area.
The clashes left streets littered with shattered glass, stones, ash and soot from burned vehicles. Hundreds of curious onlookers gathered at one of the bridges over the Nile to watch the unrest.
After hours of intense clashes, chants of "Muslims, Christians one hand, one hand!" rang out in a call for a truce. The stone-throwing died down briefly, but then began to rage again.
In the past weeks, riots have broken out at two churches in southern Egypt, prompted by Muslim crowds angry over church construction. One riot broke out near the city of Aswan, even after church officials agreed to a demand by ultraconservative Muslims known as Salafis that a cross and bells be removed from the building.
Aswan's governor, Gen. Mustafa Kamel al-Sayyed, further raised tensions by suggesting to the media that the church construction was illegal.
Protesters said the Copts are demanding the ouster of the governor, reconstruction of the church, compensation for people whose houses were set on fire and prosecution of those behind the riots and attacks on the church.
Last week, the military used force to disperse a similar protest in front of the state television building. Christians were angered by the treatment of the protesters and vowed to renew their demonstrations until their demands are met.
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