Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will put Jerusalem on the negotiating table as he hurtles toward a “joint declaration” with the Palestinian Authority ahead of next month’s U.S.-sponsored Mideast summit. The prime minister says that a joint declaration with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas prior to the summit will lead to direct negotiations.

The Arabic Al Quds Al-Arabiya newspaper reported Monday morning that Olmert has now come to an agreement with Jordan that Arabs in eastern Jerusalem will be granted Jordanian citizenship. The plan would leave Jerusalem's Muslim holy sites under the control of the Hashemite kingdom, according to the report.

Olmert vehemently denied the report in a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office. "The idea never existed," said the statement.

Vice Prime Minister Chaim Ramon, the Prime Minister's close aide and friend, however, has been pushing for the division of Jerusalem.  Ramon has been promoting his own plan to hand half of the city over to the Palestinian Authority (PA), not to Jordan.

Ramon also publicly backed an arrangement for sovereignty over Jerusalem's Old City. Only regarding the Jewish Quarter did Ramon state it would remain under Israeli rule. But Monday morning he cautioned that it is too early to detail possible arrangements. 

Dr. Guy Bechor, a leading expert on Arab affairs, said recently that the prime minister agreed in writing nearly two months ago to hand over half of Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority. He based his information on "leaks from the Palestinian side."

Dr. Bechor said that Judea and Samaria, the strategic highlands in the middle of the Jewish State where much biblical history occurred, are also on the chopping block. The Olmert government is pushing for the establishment of an Arab state to be called Palestine alongside the Jewish State. A large but undetermined number of thriving Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria that were built over the past 40 years will be destroyed, according to the agreement.

Dividing historic Jerusalem is an explosive point as four no-confidence motions are brought to a vote Monday, the first day of the Knesset's winter session.

A number of Knesset members strongly opposed the plan, including MK Ze'ev Elkin, a member of Olmert's own Kadima party.

“I very much hope this is simply a rumor,” Elkin told reporters on Monday. “But if it is true, it is certainly a perversion of the Kadima party platform, and I will fight Vice Prime Minister Ramon’s plan with everything in my power. I will defend the unity of Jerusalem, as we promised the voters,” he added.

National Union Knesset Member Tzvi Hendel contended that placing control over the Temple Mount under Jordanian sovereignty is nothing less than national suicide.

"I realized a long time ago to my sorrow that there was no doubt Olmert would divide Jerusalem," he said. "Today it has become clear that even the Temple Mount, the heart of hearts of the Jewish People, is on the sales sheet for destruction. "

Hendel added that Israel relinquishing control of the Temple Mount constitutes "an existential threat to the State of Israel." 

Olmert’s intent to divide Jerusalem also comes in direct contradiction to a previous promise he made to Christian Zionists a year ago, as well as one made by Foreign Minister and then-deputy Prime Minister Tzipi Livni several months ago.

“If there is any agreement with the Palestinians it will be brought to the government for its approval, and then to the Knesset for ratification as well," promised Livni.

Prime Minister Olmert assured cabinet ministers Sunday that he will not make any strategic concessions to the PA at the U.S.-sponsored Mideast summit next month, but added the caveat that he nonetheless has the authority to cut a deal if he so chooses, without the approval of the Knesset.

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has continued to up the ante in demands before the November 26th summit, insisting that a final agreement be spelled out to include all of Judea, Samaria and Gaza as part of a new Arab state, with Jerusalem as its capital.

Abbas’s demands signal a hardening of his stance that any future state include Israel's withdrawing from all of the land beyond the 1949 Armistice Lines and which was restored to the country after the Six Day War in 1967.

Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman came under heavy fire Sunday from right-wing movements and at least one Knesset member for statements he reportedly made during the weekly cabinet meeting. 

Lieberman was quoted as saying that Israel should transfer some of the neighborhoods and "refugee camps" in the Jerusalem to Arab hands, while adding that "the Old City and Mount Scopus are an inseparable part of Jerusalem."

MK Zevulun Orlev, Chairman of the National Religious Party, said that Lieberman's positions "were reminiscent of Ariel Sharon's U-turn in the Disengagement." Orlev added: "The cat is out of the bag. It is now clear that Lieberman was making 'right-wing noises' just to wink at the nationalist camp and blur the fact that he supported the 'Ramon Plan' for dividing Jerusalem."

The "Jewish Front" movement announced: "We always knew that Lieberman was a Trojan horse within the Right. We will not forget that in the Disengagement, too, he helped Sharon and stayed in the government until the last moment."

"He is just a politician looking for a seat to sit on," the Jewish Front summed up.

'Double agent'
The "Headquarters for Saving Israel" said that Lieberman has been exposed as a" fifth column" within Israel and a double agent, who goes around "making extreme-sounding but irrelevant statements while at the same time helping [ultra-leftist] Peace Now and the Palestinians achieve their aspirations."

The organization went on to call Lieberman "Sharon-compatible" and accuse him of being "operate
MK Zevulun Orlev said that Lieberman's positions "were reminiscent of Ariel Sharon's U-turn in the Disengagement"
d" by others.

Did he really reverse his position?
Has Lieberman really misled and sold out his voters, though? A look at the platform of Yisrael Beiteinu, the party he heads (as it appears on the party's Hebrew language website), would seem to suggest otherwise.

The platform explains that the Arab demographic threat to Israel's Jewish majority is a very real and pressing problem and suggests solving it by carving out of Israel those parts which have an Arab majority in them. On the issue of Jerusalem, the website says that "in order to make regular life possible on the one hand and remove the demographic threat in this complex city on the other, we must understand that the solution is demographic, not geographic."

"Unless there is a partition between the Arab residents of metropolitan Jerusalem and its Jewish residents, Israel will find itself with an additional 200,000 Arab Israelis who will turn Jerusalem into a city with an Arab majority," the platform reads. "Of course, the addition of such a large number of Arabs to Israel has general demographic importance," it adds.

The solution, it says, is "to draw a line in the ground without dividing Jerusalem." All of the Jerusalem neighborhoods with Jewish majorities (like Neve Yaakov, Pisgat Ze’ev, Talpiyot East and Gilo) will stay under “full Israeli sovereignty," according to the platform. "Neighborhoods like Jebel Mukaber, a-Ram and others can go to 'Palestinian sovereignty,'" it adds.

According to the website, sovereignty on the Temple Mount is Israel's, never to be relinquished.

MK Rabbi Benny Elon is reissuing his Right Road to Peace plan that calls for the Palestinian Authority to cease to exist, and be replaced by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

MK Elon, head of the National Union party and its Moledet Party faction, originally wrote the plan in May 2003 and has now updated it with references to, and lessons learned from, the Second Lebanon War, the Disengagement from Gaza, and other recent events.

The plan calls for Israel, the United States and the entire international community to recognize the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan as the sole legitimate representative of the Arabs of Judea and Samaria.  Israel will assume full sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, while Jordan grants citizenship to the Arabs living there. Israel and Jordan will cooperate in coordinating the running of local affairs.

All weapons in the PA areas will be seized from the various terrorist groups.  "Jordan is a reliable partner interested in stability," Elon explains, "and will replace our Palestinian 'partner' who is unable to bring peace."

"Palestine has already been divided once into two states, a Jewish one and an Arab one," Elon told the reporters.  "The Arab state is now Jordan, which was originally established in 1922 when Britain gave most of the land to Amir Abdullah.  Most of the population of present-day Jordan is originally Palestinian, having come from the West Bank of Jordan."

Jordan's Return to the Picture
In July 1988, Jordan announced its "disengagement" from the areas of Judea and Samaria, leaving its former citizens stateless.  Today, MK Elon says, in light of the failure of the Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic process and the realization that a Palestinian state will not contribute to regional stability, Jordan and its King Abdullah have returned to the idea of Jordanian-Palestinian unity.  "Reliable polls taken among the Arabs of Judea and Samaria indicate great support for the return of Jordan to the picture," Elon says.

MK Rabbi Elon, who served twice as Tourism Minister and Dean of Yeshivat Beit Orot, will present the plan on Wednesday to the foreign press, with a special emphasis on the role he expects the US to play in his plan.  The program, which can be viewed at www.hayozma.org, has been translated into English, Arabic, Russian, German, Spanish and French. 

Main points of the plan include:
* Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria - an end to the "Occupation" and a move to sovereignty, which will prevent Hamas taking control and will grant security to Israel and to the countries of the region 

* The rehabilitation of the Arab refugees and the dismantling of the camps, which will mean an end to the refugee problem in a humanitarian and generous manner.  "Israel and its governments have long erred by pushing aside the matter of the refugees," Elon explained, "possibly in the fear that we would be required to allow them in.  But we will not be able to celebrate 60 years of independence [next year] while the Arabs continue their campaign to show that Israel is temporary, and that millions of them will soon return.  There must be an Israeli initiative to raise this issue.  We must demand from the international community a plan as to how, with Israel's help, to close the camps, and how to solve this humanitarian problem that the Arab leaders have caused."

"The first step," he said, "is the closure of UNRWA [United Nations Relief and Works Agency], which has long perpetuated this problem.  Next must be a generous compensation program for all the refugees, who will have the option of starting new lives and becoming citizens in various countries.  This is the desire of most of the refugees, according to reliable recent surveys carried out among them.  A solution of this nature is an Arab interest as well."

* Regional stability. Elon's plan takes into account the entire Middle East, and not just Israeli-Palestinian relations.  "Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey and the U.S. will together build a strategic framework by which to stop the Islamic axis, which is headquartered in Teheran."

Israeli motorists were repeatedly targeted over the weekend by Israeli-Arab rock-throwers along Highway 65, which runs through Wadi Ara in the Galilee. Police and local residents say the incidents have become more and more common in recent months.

Wadi Ara – named Nahal Eeron in Hebrew but still widely referred to by the Arabic name – connects the Caesarea area with Megiddo. It is considered a strategically vital transportation route connecting central Israel with its north. In October, 2000, simultaneous to the launching of the Oslo War by PA Arabs, Israeli-Arabs in Wadi Ara rioted, blocked roads, attacked Jewish passersby and clashed with police.

Locals say that recent Arab assaults may signal an uprising similar to that of October 2000.

Three Arabs were arrested Friday at the Arara Junction after throwing rocks at motorists. They later told investigators that they intended to hit Israeli soldiers. Two motorists were wounded lightly, and two cars were damaged.

This is the seventh recent reported attack at the Arara Junction, according to police. The spate of attacks is not limited to Highway 65, however. On Highway 574, near the Kalaniyot Junction and Baka al-Gharbiya, at least 12 vehicles were targeted by rock-throwers in recent months – many driven by female motorists.

Police told Maariv that the attacks occur in waves, and have only been contained thanks to a large increase in police presence along the major highway. They admitted, however, that such a deployment is not sustainable in the long term.

Wadi Ara is also home to the largest rural concentration of Arabs in Israel and contains the city of Umm el-Fahm, known for its radical leadership. The leader of the northern branch of the Israeli-Arab Islamic Movement, Sheikh Ra’ad Salah, was recently indicted for incitement after calling for an “Israeli-Arab Intifada.”

Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman has suggested that Wadi Ara be handed over to the PA in a future permanent status deal.

For the second time in the course of four weeks, a senior editor of ultra-leftist Haaretz has openly given voice to his radical agenda.

This time it was Akiva Eldar, the paper's senior political editor, who endorsed the recently published book "The Israel Lobby," which alleges that a powerful network of lobby groups and Jewish organizations induce the US to pursue policies that are against its best interests.

Eldar made the statements in recent lectures in the United States. On October 1st and 2nd, he was hosted by Americans for Peace Now, and on September 20th he was the guest of the Meretz party at its New York offices.

Eldar praised the thesis of "The Israel Lobby," and said: “A small minority of people dictates their interests to the US and the Middle East, and the mainstream American Jewish lobby is directing US decisions from Israel.”

Echoing CNN’s Christianne Amanpour, who in her recent documentary “God’s Jewish Warriors” used the settlement of Judea and Samaria to criticize the American Jewish establishment, Eldar seemed to seek the next step: American Jewish adoption of the anti-settlement line of the Israeli hard-left. “The settlements are the ultimate proof that the American Jewish lobby should get an award for dictating their policy to the US government,” Saudi-based Arab News reported Eldar as saying.

Eldar endorsed the Arab League’s recent “Peace Initiative,” actually a repackaging of the Saudi Initiative of 2002 – which demands Israel withdraw to its pre-1967 borders, divide Jerusalem and compensate or accept Arab expatriates in return for recognition by the Arabs. “The majority of Israelis agree with this, but the settlers’ lobbies — both in the US and Israel — are so strong that it turns us away from peace," he said.

The Haaretz editor expressed his great support for the Partition Wall between most of Judea and Samaria and the rest of Israel, and voiced hope that the Annapolis conference in November would result in the eviction of Jews from the “Palestinian” side. “I believe the wall did us a favor,” Eldar said, “as it brought back the idea of partition in Israel. The problem is no longer where, but when we withdraw to the line…The settlements are about Jewish hegemony — and they failed.”

Another Haaretz Editor, Danny Rubinstein, caused a stir in September when he called Israel an “apartheid state” when speaking before a UN conference in Brussels, on a World Zionist Organization sponsored speaking tour. Rubinstein refused to apologize for his allegations.

Prominent journalist Nahum Barnea wrote in November 2000 (in a publication printed by The Israel Democracy Institute) that there are Israeli reporters who do not pass the "lynch test": these, he said, are journalists who could not bring themselves to criticize the Arabs even when two Israelis were savagely murdered by a mob in Ramallah. The journalists he named were Gideon Levy, Amira Hass and Eldar - all of Haaretz. Barnea wrote: "And then the lynch test came, and before it the test of the shooting and fire bombs of the Tanzim fighters, and before it the test of the violations of the Oslo Agreement by Arafat, and it turns out that the support of some of the prominent reporters [for PA positions] is absolute...They have a mission."

Click here for a critique of Eldar and Haaretz by Andrea Levin, the Executive Director of the Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA).

Neo-Nazi activity is rising around the world, as incidents in September and early October were reported in Europe, Southeast Asia and the U.S.

In the United States, an epidemic of neo-Nazi vandalism is beginning to surface on the eastern seaboard.

New York

Anti-Semites erected a four-foot high swastika at a Long Island, New York school this week in the latest of a rash of anti-Semitic incidents. Swastikas were also sprayed at another school and hate mail was sent to at least seven Jewish homes.

On September 23, Yom Kippur eve, a bus outside the Bnei Shimon Yisroel yeshiva in Brooklyn was found marked up with swastikas and anti-Jewish slurs. Vandals used soap or lotion to smear the mirrors and bus interior. The incident occurred in Williamsburg, a primarily Jewish Chassidic section of the borough.

Police are investigating the incident, but a school official quoted in local papers said educators don't expect results anytime soon.

“You see people doing all kinds of graffiti in this neighborhood,” said the school official, who asked not to be identified. Even if there had been witnesses, he added, they would probably not have paid attention to the incident.

Pennsylvania

In a rural area near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania this week, a 60-foot wide swastika was carved in a cornfield. The farmer destroyed it by harvesting the crop.

A similar, but more extreme incident occurred in the same area last month, when a huge 600-foot wide swastika was found carved in another cornfield.

In Southeast Asia, and Eastern and Western Europe, anti-Semitism increases with neo-Nazi incidents, some quite creative.

India

A bed linen dealer in India named a new bedspread collection NAZI, which he claimed stands for “New Arrival Zone of India.” The claim was suspect, however, due to the Nazi symbol of a hooked cross that forms part of the logo as well as the dealer’s lack of concern about the furor the design has caused.

“It really does not matter to me who feels bad about it,” said the dealer, Kapilkumar Todi, according to a report last week in the Times of India. The Jewish Council of India said it was exploring the possibility of legal action against the dealer, and Chairman Jonathan Solomon of the India Jewish Federation said his community would lodge a protest as well.

Eventually, the company backed down and withdrew the collection.

Korea

A bar in a Seoul, Korea suburb promotes a Nazi theme, according to a report Monday in the English-language Korea Herald. Israeli Ambassador Yigal Caspi has filed a protest, saying, "I feel repulsed, outraged and disgusted."

The owner of the bar, who was quoted in the report said he chose the theme in order "to be different." The bar features a red Nazi swastika over the entrance.

The newspaper's front-page article explained that it did not print the name of the establishment or its exact location because it did not want to give the bar publicity.

Portugal

Jews in Lisbon, Portugal were shocked by the first-ever desecration of a Jewish cemetery in the country's capital this week. Police have arrested two youths accused of vandalizing 20 gravestones and painting Nazi swastikas.

Jewish community leader Esther Mucznik will protest to the government the "pure act of racism and anti-Semitism," according to the European Jewish Press. Approximately 1,000 Jews live in Portugal.

Germany

In northern Germany, a news anchorwoman for the region’s public television channel was fired Sunday after she praised the way the Nazi regime treated women and the family unit.

The presenter, Eva Herman, said that the Nazi regime included "many very bad things, Adolf Hitler for example, but it included some good things, like the appreciation of women." 

Austria

Austria’s Defense Ministry issued a statement early last month announcing that four soldiers had been suspended from service for creating neo-Nazi propaganda. 

The four were found guilty of preparing two videos in which they were seen using the Nazi salute while in uniform on an army base.  One of the soldiers exposed a tattoo of a swastika.
 
Austrian authorities began investigating the matter after discovering the videos on the popular website YouTube.  Defense Minister Norbert Darabos said the soldiers could face charges. 

Czech Republic

Prague officials over the weekend banned a march by the neo-Nazi Young National Democrats who planned to parade through the city's Jewish quarter the day after the anniversary of Kristallnacht, when Nazis terrorized Jews and burned down synagogues 69 years ago.

City officials responding to pleas by Jews to cancel the event stated that the planned march would lead to incitement and further hatred of Jews.

Prague leaders originally said that they could not stop the march because a court overturned a ban on a similar march last year.

Poland

Polish vandals desecrated a Jewish cemetery in the central city of Kalisz in the first week of September in the latest of several desecrations in the same cemetery over the past several months.

According to the European Jewish Press, the vandals also destroyed a memorial plaque dedicated to the Jews of Kalisz, where some 20,000 to 30,000 Jews lived before the Nazi invasion.

Hungary

Hungarian government officials are also on edge after a large neo-Nazi cell marched in the capital in the first week of September.

Fifty-six Magyar Garda [Hungarian Guard] members marched in polished combat boots and black uniforms to Budapest's presidential palace and raised their right hands in a salute to defend the country from "bloodsuckers."
The neo-Nazi marchers took an oath of allegiance in a ceremony that evoked "images of the Hungarian fascists who flew the same banner in the 1930s," Bloomberg News reported.

Hungary's Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany vowed in response to make inciting racial hatred a crime. The Anti-Defamation League has stated that prejudice against Jews in Hungary is more widespread than in any other European country. The Magyar Garda denies being anti-Semitic.

"Astonishing knowledge and unrestrained command of all walks of Torah.  Unusual sharpness and intelligence; and most of all, his ability to generate Torah thoughts and reasoning..."

So wrote Rabbi Neriah Gutel, the head of the Orot College for Women in Elkana, in eulogizing his teacher Rabbi Avraham Elkana Shapira, who passed away on the Sukkot holiday at the age of 96.  The traditional shiva seven-day mourning period began only on Friday, postponed because of the holiday.

Rabbi Gutel described how Rabbi Shapira would prepare for his weekly Shiur Clali (high-level Talmud class) in Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav: "He would prepare the class before he left his home. Then he would develop a totally different approach during the drive from his home in the Geulah neighborhood to the yeshiva in Kiryat Moshe, and a third altogether different way when he actually delivered the class to the students."

Passionately against Ariel Sharon's expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif and northern Shomron in 2005, he urged IDF soldiers not to take part - and even to disobey orders if necessary.

Possibly for the first time, some of his leading students publicly disagreed with him on this issue, leading to a split in the religious-Zionist camp as to whether or not to disobey Disengagement orders.

Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, who served as Israel's Sephardic Chief Rabbi with Rabbi Shapira as his Ashkenazi counterpart (1983-92), said, "He continued the path of Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook and his father Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook in his love for the Nation and the Land... Yeshivot that exist around the country and their Deans are because of him and his teachings."

Rabbi Shmuel Shapira, a son of the late Rabbi Avraham, related, "On Sukkot, Abba [my father] was wont to quote the early Sage Rabbi Yehuda Ben HaRosh, that one who engages in joy is actually engaging in bringing Jews back to their faith - because people sometimes think that happiness is the opposite of repentance, which is perceived as something sad and solemn; but with Abba, everything was connected."

The Unique Combination
"I believe that our great teacher was uniquely blessed with a rare combination of four abilities," Gutel wrote, enumerating them, including examples, as follows: Phenomenal knowledge, sharpness, creativity, and a smiling, pleasant manner.  "It was rare to see him without a smile shining from his face.  It was also rare to talk with him without him spicing the conversation with stories of rabbis, Hassidim and old Jerusalem.  He had a common language with all kinds - Torah scholars, politicians, young, old, men, women... I recall that I once brought a group of female G-d-fearing doctoral candidates, for questions and answers with him.  At first, he allowed himself to slide into a story or anecdote, but when he saw that these were women who were truly knowledgeable in Torah while at the same time their 'fear of G-d preceded their wisdom,' he began to get down to real Halakhic detail."

Rabbi Feinstein and the Chazon Ish
Rabbi Gutel noted that the late Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, recognized as the preeminent Halakhic authority in the United States in the previous generation, recognized Rabbi Shapira as the top rabbinical judge in Israel.  Rabbi Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz, the leading hareidi-religious sage known as the Chazon Ish of Bnei Brak, also treated the much-younger Rabbi Shapira with great respect. 

Yeshivat Ateret Cohanim dean Rabbi Shlomo Aviner eulogized Rabbi Shapira in the HaTzofeh newspaper as follows: "Whoever saw his smiling, shining face, saw a face of Torah and absorbed Torah... I never merited to be among his students - but his stature was such that we were all his students, to varying degrees."

The Torah Was an Open Book for Him
"This great Torah giant spent his whole life studying and teaching, to the extent that one could not distinguish between the man and his Torah.  He filled the most important positions in national Torah life: A judge on the Rabbinical Court, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, the Dean of Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav, and the spiritual leader of the religious-Zionist camp.  The entire Torah was like an open book for him, and he was therefore able to rule on the entire range of Halakhic issues.  The entire nation was beloved to him, as befitting a High Priest, but he also loved every individual as well... He stood at the helm of the struggle for the integrity of the Land of Israel - a struggle that was not only in his mind, but in his heart as well.  He was once asked a deep question in Torah law; holding his head, he said he could not answer, as the treacherous plans to give up parts of the Land of Israel do not allow him to sleep..."

"He once heard of a Jewish refugee from the Holocaust with no relatives or friends, and he used to visit him over the course of years in his house in the Bucharim quarter, talking with him at length..."

"With all his gentleness, this great man was a man of war - not on small things, but on matters that are the essence of our lives - the preservation of the Torah, the Nation and the Land.  These were not three separate things for him, but were rather one, for his thinking was integral and complete..."

Turmeric, known in Israel as “kurkum,” is a main component in the popular Yemenite spice mixture (hawaij), but has now also become the new centerpiece in a natural pesticide developed by Israeli Druze researcher Professor Fadel Mansour.

The northern Israel scientist, who has worked for 35 years with the Israel Agriculture Ministry’s Volcani Research Center in lower Galilee, uses the spice as the central ingredient in a substance used to treat plastic sheets spread on the ground before sowing or planting.

According to a report on the Israel21c website, the repellent sheets are manufactured by Biopack, the commercial venture founded by Professor Mansour to market his discovery.

Preliminary field tests of the product found that the invention prevented infiltration by even one pest into melon and date crops.

Turmeric is produced from the boiled, dried underground rhizome or rootstalk of the Curcuma longa plant. Native to tropical South Asia, it is a member of the ginger family.

The pungent golden spice is used as a coloring and seasoning agent in numerous commercial food products as well as in Middle Eastern and South Asian cooking. It is also considered a powerful medicinal plant.