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Four Israelis Killed On the Eve of Peace Talks
[World Events]
08/31/2010
By Thomas, Brian
Associated Press writer Robert Burns contributed to this report from Washington.
JERUSALEM – The Islamic militant Hamas is claiming responsibility for a shooting attack that killed four Israelis in the West Bank.
Hamas military wing spokesman Abu Obeida told The Associated Press late Tuesday that Hamas carried out the attack near the West Bank city of Hebron.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
JERUSALEM (AP) — A Palestinian gunman opened fire Tuesday on an Israeli vehicle in the West Bank and killed four passengers on the eve of a new round of Mideast peace talks in Washington. The Islamic militant Hamas praised the shooting.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But in the past, militant groups have staged attacks in an effort to sabotage peace efforts.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the gunman opened fire at a vehicle traveling near Hebron — a volatile city that has been a flash point of violence in the past. Some 500 ultranationalist Jewish settlers live in heavily fortified enclaves in the city amid more than 100,000 Palestinians.
Israel's national rescue service said the victims were two men and two women. It gave no further details. Israeli media reported that one of the women was pregnant and that the dead ranged in age from mid-20s to mid-40s. The reports said everyone in the car was killed.
The attack occurred as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was en route to Washington for a White House summit launching peace talks on Wednesday. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was already in the U.S. capital meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
President Barack Obama hopes to forge a peace agreement within one year.
Asked about the shooting, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the U.S. is aware "there are those who will do whatever they can to disrupt or derail the process."
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak promised a tough response to an attack he said was aimed at sabotaging the talks.
"Israel will not allow terrorists to raise their heads and will exact a price from the murderers and those who send them," he said in a statement.
There is widespread opposition to the resumption of the peace talks among Palestinians. Hamas, which rules Gaza, opposes any contact with Israel and has harshly criticized Abbas for agreeing to resume the negotiations.
Hamas is considered a terrorist group by the U.S., Israel and European Union and is the main rival of Abbas and his Fatah movement. Hamas expelled Fatah forces from Gaza in its violent takeover in 2007.
In a statement, Gaza Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the group "praises the Hebron operation." He did not claim responsibility or mention the peace talks.
Netanyahu, leader of a hard-line coalition of religious and nationalist parties, has said that protecting Israel's security interests will be his top priority as he negotiates with the Palestinians.
Before leaving for Washington, Netanyahu told his Likud Party that he would seek "real arrangements on the ground" that ensure the security of Israelis.
"True peace is not a short break between wars, it's not a short break between terror attacks. True peace is something that persists dozens of years, that stands well for generations," he said.
Education Minister Gideon Saar, a member of Netanyahu's Likud Party, denounced the shooting. "This is not the first time, especially with peace talks in the background, that the automatic Palestinian reaction is terror attacks against Israelis," he told Israel's Channel 10 TV.
The attack disrupted a relative lull in the West Bank. The last fatal attack occurred in June, when Palestinians opened fire on a police vehicle near Hebron and killed one officer.
It was the deadliest Palestinian attack against Israelis since March 2008, when a lone assailant gunned down eight students in a Jerusalem rabbinical seminary.
Opposition to resuming talks is also coming from within the Palestine Liberation Organization, an umbrella group headed by Abbas. Some Fatah activists threaten to try to depose him if he makes concessions, and several hard-line PLO groups plan a demonstration in the West Bank administrative capital of Ramallah on Wednesday to protest resumption of negotiations.
A previous U.S. launching of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks was also accompanied by deadly violence. Palestinian gunmen shot and killed an Israeli in the West Bank before then-President George W. Bush convened Israeli and Palestinian leaders for a summit in Annapolis, Maryland, in November 2007. The gunmen said the attack was "an act of protest against the Annapolis conference."
Talking to reporters on his plane heading for Washington, Abbas called for decisive American involvement in the talks.
He said that if the two sides reach a deadlock, the Obama administration should "present bridging proposals to bridge the gap between the two positions."
In one major challenge to the first direct talks between the sides in two years, Abbas warned it would be difficult to continue negotiating if Israel fails to extend a 10-month curb on West Bank settlement construction that ends in late September. Netanyahu has not made a final decision.
Destroying Israel in Stages
[World Events]
08/27/2010
By Thomas, Brian
The following report was posted by Joseph Puder and filed under FrontPage.
The Oslo Accords signed on the White House lawn in September 1993 served Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) well. The Accords were the Trojan Horse that enabled Arafat to return to “Palestine” as a hero. Only a few years earlier, he had supported Saddam Hussein’s brutal occupation of Kuwait. But when the U.S.-led coalition pushed Iraqi forces out of Kuwait, Palestinians living in the region paid the price for Arafat and Saddam’s alliance — half–a-million Palestinians were expelled by the Kuwaitis. Arafat’s fortunes had nose-dived. He was in exile in Tunisia, and the dream of expelling the Jews from “Palestine” seemed remote. Then, lo and behold, he was saved by Israel and the U.S.
Arafat inaugurated a new strategy in the early 1970s with regard to dismantling Israel. The strategy was based on diplomacy, along with armed struggle. Some called it the “Destroying Israel in Phases” plan. The idea was to gain enough territory through diplomacy so that the Jewish State’s defensive capacity would be weakened. Then, they would finish it off in an armed struggle — using the pretext of “Palestinian Right of Return” to engage in terrorism. In September 2000, Arafat reached the conclusion that Israeli society was too weak to stomach terrorism (armed struggle) in Israeli cities. He believed the Israeli public would crack under pressure from terror and fear, and would then call on the Barak government to make further concessions to the Palestinians.
Mahmud Abbas, Arafat’s successor as chairman of the Palestinian Authority (PA), adopted Arafat’s strategy of tough diplomacy – i.e., complete intransigence, while calling for Israeli concessions and continuing the terrorist attacks. Abbas, like Arafat, took a chapter from Adolf Hitler’s playbook on how to conduct diplomacy. Abbas is willing to engage Israel in diplomacy in the same way Hitler engaged Britain’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain: with peace illusions. Meanwhile, Hitler extracted a huge concession – the dismantling of Czechoslovakia. Like Israel, the Czechs had a highly developed armaments industry and a large, well trained army. And like Czechoslovakia, Israel is about to be betrayed by its “partner,” the Obama administration, in the name of securing “peace.”
The similarity between Abbas and Hitler is further exhibited by their use of incitement. Hitler incited the Sudeten-Germans against their country, Czechoslovakia, while assuring the Western powers he wanted peace. Today, Abbas is inciting the Palestinian masses through the media, mosques, and schools against Jews and Israel, while professing to want peace. Hitler was able to take Czechoslovakia without firing a shot thanks to “useful idiots” who refused to question his motives and appeasers like Chamberlain. Abbas is counting on Obama and EU leaders to do his bidding, i.e., extract strategic concessions from Israel, which would render the country defenseless.
The question that looms largely is: has Israel learned anything from history? Will Israel premise future negotiations on the complete cessation of Palestinian incitement (and not fall for a repeat of Oslo’s seventeen year-old unfulfilled obligations)? Will the Palestinians be bound to sign an “end of conflict” document that unequivocally prohibits Palestinian refugees from returning to Israel? Finally, will the Palestinians state publicly – in all languages, including Arabic – that they recognize Israel as a Jewish State? Without the fulfillment of these conditions, it would be meaningless to continue the façade of “peace negotiations.” Do Israeli leaders have the fortitude to withstand pressure from its allies, especially the Obama administration, a hostile international media, and its own leftist press?
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s resolve seems to have cracked already, with his stated willingness to concede land to the Palestinians in order to bring Abbas to the negotiating table. Arutz Sheva reported on August 8, 2010 that “Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu actually offered to cede control of certain land to the Palestinian Authority at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee last week in exchange for their agreeing to direct talks with Israel. He said that he would be willing to transfer to Area B status – i.e., under Israeli military control and PA administrative control – a strip of land north of Ramallah, in the Binyamin region, so that the new PA city of Rawabi could have easy access to Ramallah.” PA chairman Mahmud Abbas has said that even that is not enough. Abbas says he will refuse to sit down and talk with Israel until the latter agrees to stop all construction in Judea and Samaria, and in eastern Jerusalem.
In a August 9 Jerusalem Post article, Benny Begin, Israel’s Minister without portfolio and a member of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s forum of seven senior ministers, stated that “The Palestinians are after a ‘two-stage solution’ and not a two-state solution. There is no other rational explanation for the total, vehement rejection of the far-reaching proposals by two previous Israeli governments.” Begin, the son of former Prime Minister Menachem Begin emphasized:
the Palestine Liberation Organization seeks the liberation of Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, which is why its true aim is not a two-state solution but a two-stage solution. In stage one it tries to push Israel to the 1949 armistice lines. In stage two, it will push for the insertion of hundreds of thousands of refugees into the State of Israel, to liberate Palestine.
By designating Abbas as a “moderate,” Israel has basically undermined its own position. Israel’s unilateral concessions have only served to whet the Palestinian appetite for more cost-free Israeli concessions. Secular Israeli political leaders have adopted the reasoning of their secular Western friends in the U.S. and Europe, who fail to see that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not about land or borders but about Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state; which Abbas and the PA are unwilling to recognize. The so-called “secular” Fatah leadership, that runs the Palestinian Authority, regards all of Israel as part of Arab-Muslim Palestine – land that falls within the domain of Islam. Consequently, a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians cannot be realized until Islam undergoes reform, and true secularism takes hold in Arab societies and among the Palestinians.
Western democracies helped Hitler devour democratic Czechoslovakia and they will do the same with democratic Israel in the name of “peace” (aided, in large, measure by Arab petro-dollars). To survive, Israel must get tough not only with its Palestinian enemies but even tougher with its friends. It must convey a strong message that Israel is no longer open for concessions and that if the U.S. and the West seek peace in the region, they must pressure the Arab states and the Palestinians to transform their authoritarian regimes into democracies that tolerate religious diversity and ensure human rights. Without accepting Israel as a legitimate Jewish state, we are left with the Arafat legacy of destroying Israel in stages.
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Giant Mecca Clock Seeks to Call Time on Greenwich
[Prophecy]
08/06/2010
By Thomas, Brian
The following article was provided by By Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent, and Martin Beckford
of the Telegraph.co.uk.
Form more than a century, a point on the top of a hill in south-east London has been recognised as the centre of the world time and the official starting point of each new day.
But now the supremacy of Greenwich Mean Time is being challenged by a gargantuan new clock being built in Mecca, by which the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims could soon be setting their watches.
Due to start ticking on Thursday as the faithful begin fasting during the month of Ramadan, the timepiece sits atop the Royal Mecca Clock Tower which dominates Islam’s holiest city.
It is at the heart of a vast complex funded by the Saudi government that will also house hotels, shopping malls and conference halls.
Bearing a striking resemblance to both St Stephen’s Tower, which houses the bell of Big Ben, and the Empire State Building, the Saudi upstart aims to outdo its revered British rival in every way.
The clock’s four faces are 151ft in diameter and will be illuminated by 2million LED lights along with huge Arabic script reading: “In the name of Allah”. The clock will run on Arabia Standard Time which is three hours ahead of GMT.
When a glittering spire is added, topped with a crescent to symbolise Islam, the edifice will stand at nearly 2,000 ft, making it the world's second tallest building.
The clock of Big Ben, by comparison, is just 23ft in diameter, while its tower stands at a mere 316ft.
Residents of Mecca will also be reminded that it is time to pray when 21,000 green and white lights, visible at a distance of 18 miles, flash five times a day.
But Islamic scholars hope the clock’s influence will stretch far further than the sands of Saudi Arabia, as part of a plan for Mecca to eclipse the Greenwich Observatory as the “true centre of the earth”.
For the past 125 years, the international community has accepted that the start of each day should be measured from the prime meridian, representing 0 degrees longitude, which passes through the Greenwich Observatory.
A standard time by which other clocks were set was needed to organise global travel and communications, but in the Islamic world the idea that it should be centred on a part of London is seen as a colonial anachronism.
As Mohammed al-Arkubi, manager of one of the hotels in the complex, put it: "Putting Mecca time in the face of Greenwich Mean Time. This is the goal."
According to Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian cleric known around the Muslim world for his popular television show "Sharia and Life", Mecca has a greater claim to being the prime meridian because it is "in perfect alignment with the magnetic north."
This claim that the holy city is a "zero magnetism zone" has won support from some Arab scientists like Abdel-Baset al-Sayyed of the Egyptian National Research Centre who says that there is no magnetic force in Mecca.
"That's why if someone travels to Mecca or lives there, he lives longer, is healthier and is less affected by the earth's gravity," he said. "You get charged with energy."
Western scientists have challenged such assertions, noting that the Magnetic North Pole is in actual fact on a line of longitude that passes through Canada, the United States, Mexico and Antarctica.
View Source Article
End of Telegraph.co.uk Report
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I cannot dogmatically state that this event is directly tied to the antichrist that is soon to come (I tend to think he will not be muslim). But I can say that the "antichrist spirit" seems to be written all over this. In light of this article, the following verse is something to ponder.
He shall speak pompous words against the Most High,
Shall persecute the saints of the Most High,
And shall intend to change times and law.
Then the saints shall be given into his hand
For a time and times and half a time. – Daniel 7:25
Netanyahu Turns to the Bible in Tussle Over Jerusalem
[World Events]
05/21/2010
By Thomas, Brian
(Reuters) - Beset by questions about Jerusalem's future in talks with the Palestinians, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached for the Bible on Wednesday to stake out the Jewish state's contested claim on the city.View Source Article
The battle over Jerusalem is prophesied in the Bible as an end of the age sign: Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. – Zechariah 12:2-3
Earthquakes in Various Places - Puerto Rico
[World Events]
05/16/2010
By Thomas, Brian
A 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck Puerto Rico early Sunday morning, the United States Geological Survey said.
The USGS placed the epicenter of the quake near the city of Moca, in the northwestern end of the island.
Officer Guidiberto Torres Valle with the Moca Police Department said some parts of the city lost power, but service was quickly restored.
The Municipal Hospital in the city of Cayey treated a woman suffering from anxiety caused by the earthquake but no other injuries.
Araceli Vega, a nurse in the hospital, told CNN that she was treating a patient when she felt the building rattle, followed by a short moment of fear and confusion.
View Source Article
Earthquakes in Various Places - Indonesia
[World Events]
05/09/2010
By Thomas, Brian
(CNN) -- A 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia on Sunday but did not trigger a tsunami, the National Weather Service said.
The quake, with a depth of 28 miles (45 kilometers), struck about 140 miles (226 kilometers) southeast from Banda Aceh, according to the United States Geological Survey said.
It triggered a tsunami watch that was canceled about 45 minutes later when sea level readings indicated that a significant tsunami was not generated, the weather service's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
No immediate information on damage was available.
In April, a 7.7-magnitude earthquake in the same area triggered two tsunamis and wounded several people.
Indonesia is on the so-called Ring of Fire, an arc of fault lines circling the Pacific Basin that is prone to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
In 2004, a 9.1-magnitude underwater earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra, triggering a tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people in 14 countries.
The tsunami, which washed away entire communities, caused nearly $10 billion in damage and more casualties than any other tsunami in history, according to the United Nations. Indonesia was among the hardest hit nations.
View Source Article
End of CNN Report
Earthquakes in Various Places - China
[World Events]
04/16/2010
By Thomas, Brian
The following report was provided by The New York Times.
View Source Article
End of NY Times Report
America Becoming an Enemy of Israel
[World Events]
04/09/2010
By Thomas, Brian
The following was written by Nathan Jones of Lamb & Lion Ministries:
Is America becoming Israel's enemy?
American-Israeli relations are at a 35 year all-time low, according to the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren.
The relationship between the United States and Israel has not been this battered since Gerald Ford was president, sparring with Israel after their refusal to withdraw from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, which Israel eventually did. There were some rocky moments since then between President Ronald Reagan and Israel over Israel invading Lebanon and bombing Iraq's nuclear reactor, as well as American actions over the U.S. selling air defenses to Saudi Arabia. Again in 1991, President George Bush, Sr.'s government denied loan guarantees to Israel over disagreements on West Bank settlements. Those past disputes were merely disagreements among committed friends, though. Today the tone has become far, far worse.
The United States and Israel began to see rapid deterioration in their relationship as soon as President Barack Obama took the reigns in January 2009. President Obama began his term of office by reaching out to Muslims in a speech in Cairo, and since then has repeatedly given his ear to Israel's enemies while publicly berating Israel at every opportunity. With world public opinion set hostilely against Israel over the fallacious Goldstone Report which accuses Israel of war crimes in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, Israel needs a real friend that doesn't talk like an enemy.
Mr. Obama next began calling for something no previous administration has insisted on. He demanded that Israel completely halt all "settlement" activity in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.
For Israel supposedly being one of America's closest ally, Mr. Obama has yet to visit Jerusalem as president. Politically such a disregard is considered a snub.
How has the United States responded to Israel's threat to their very existence?
Israel now faces a crisis of epic proportions as Iranian Muslim clerics and their President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are hell-bent on developing a nuclear weapon and arming terrorist regimes like Hamas and Hezbollah to follow through on their threat to "wipe Israel off the map." The world has tried every diplomatic means possible to curtail Iran's development, but every effort has been met with a slap in the face by Ahmadinejad. All attempts at placing serious sanctions on Iran have been vetoed due to the gas interests Russia and China have in Iran.
American support of Israel in their dealings with Iran has ironically only been friendly to Iran. The World Tribune reports: "Since taking office, Obama has refused to approve any major Israeli requests for U.S. weapons platforms or advanced systems. Officials said this included proposed Israeli procurement of AH-64D Apache attack helicopters, refueling systems, advanced munitions and data on a stealth variant of the F-15E."
And the latest, President Obama has blocked a 2008 deal to deliver to Israel bunker-buster bombs capable of destroying underground facilities such as the Iranian nuclear weapons sites. The bunker-buster bomb is a "2,000-pound bomb, produced by Boeing and coupled with a laser guidance kit" that "was designed to penetrate concrete bunkers and other underground hardened sites." While en route, the U.S. military was ordered to divert the shipment of 387 bunker-buster bombs from Israel to a military base in Diego Garcia.
What the Obama administration is effectively doing, according to the World Tribune's congressional source, is to place an embargo on Israel. This makes good on U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's threat to reduce military aid to Israel because of its construction policy.
With Iran just a year away from having two atomic bombs and already proving they have the delivery missile system capable of delivering a warhead to anywhere in Israel, Washington's timing couldn't have been worse. The Obama administration believes that once the Palestinians have their own country Iran will back down, naiveté at its best considering Iran is willing to irradiate the very land they say belongs to the Palestinians. The Palestinians are a pawn to Iran and nothing more; a pawn that Washington is too focused on, missing Iran's larger and often announced ambitions to bring Shiite Islam to the whole world.
What is the source of the breakdown in relations between America and Israel?
On the surface, the degradation of relations is over the Israeli right to build homes in Jerusalem.
Having proven historic ownership of Jerusalem since King David 3,000 years ago, only since the Six Day War of 1967 has Israel again regained control over Jerusalem, having lost it when the Babylonians conquered it in the sixth century B.C. Though contested by some Muslim nations, by all legal rights Israel owns Jerusalem and has the right to build on their own land. As Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu confirmed in a March speech to the pro-Israel lobby group, Aipac, "Jerusalem is not a settlement, it's our capital" and Israel has a "right to build."
The Obama administration sides with Israel's enemies, declaring the left-over Syrian invaders now called Palestinians have the right to the eastern portion of Jerusalem and all the West Bank lands in the very heart of Israel. President Obama has made the freezing of all Jewish construction the paramount factor in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. His eventual goal is to forcibly make Israel cede East Jerusalem to the Palestinians as their capital, rather than Ramallah, and set up an independent Palestinian nation.
Below the surface of the souring American-Israeli relations is President Obama's well known ego. The continuation of Israel building apartment complexes and businesses on their own land against President Obama's wishes has been taken by the President as a personal insult — ultimately as an act of disobedience.
BBC News reports that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has expressed Mr. Obama's anger by calling Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's continued defiance of Obama's will by continuing construction "insulting." David Axelrod, an aide to President Obama, has dubbed Netanyahu's persistence "an affront" and a "calculated attempt to undermine the expected launch of indirect talks." Vice President Joe Biden in his March visit to Jerusalem displayed Mr. Obama's contempt by showing up hours late to all of his meetings and publicly berating Israeli officials on their own soil.
The bedrock reason for Americas' continued distancing from Israel is the fulfillment of Bible prophecy.
Israel is in the processes of regathering from the four corners of the world back into their own land, which is a fulfillment of Isaiah 11:11-12. Israel becoming a nation again as it did on May 14, 1948, was a fulfillment of Isaiah 66:7-8 and Ezekiel 37:21-22. The Jews reoccupying the city of Jerusalem found its fulfillment on June 7, 1967, as Zechariah 8:4-8 said they would. The Jews restored the barren land making it fertile again, just as Ezekiel 36:34-35 said would happen. And finally, the reason for America's increasing hostility towards Israel, the fulfillment this very day that all the nations of the world will come together against Israel over the issue of the control of Jerusalem, as written in Zechariah 12:1-3.
The United States is unwittingly playing its role in Bible prophecy, coming against Israel over its ownership of Jerusalem. It will ultimately fulfill its role along with every other nation by invading Israel and having its armies destroyed by Jesus Himself in the final battle of the upcoming 7-year Tribulation — Armageddon (Rev. 19:11-21).
The United States has been soured by Satan's hatred of the Jews. Satan hates the Jews with a passion because through them God brought the world the Messiah and His salvation, the Bible, and the promises of future restoration. Israel fulfilling Bible prophecy today proves that God's destiny for Satan — the Lake of Fire — is unalterable and conclusive (Rev. 20:7-10).
Is God today warning us ahead of judgment?
God never brings about judgment without forewarning, for He is a just and loving God. The Bible says that God will bless those who bless Israel, and He will curse those who curse Israel (Gen. 12:3). The Bible also says that he who touches Israel touches "the apple of God's eye" (Zech. 2:8).
The current administration has been poking God in the eye tremendously as of late. When Vice President Biden was in Israel, God responded with a freak storm in the Northeast that flooded New Jersey and left half a million without power. God then held His restraining hand back, and now Americans have been straight-jacketed into socialized healthcare, suffocating under even more governmental control and losing hard won freedoms.
In the Bible, whenever a leader disobeyed God (such as King David did when making the census), the people also paid the penalty. God's method of operation has not changed, and the American people have paid the price for our elected leaders' sins against God. We have injured ourselves by trying to divide Israel, just as Zechariah 12:3 warned. We will continue to pay the price for our leadership's stand against Israel and God Himself, ultimately being destroyed as a nation when we side with the Antichrist against Israel in the last days.
Christians should prepare for God's warnings through natural disasters and economic chaos by humbly calling out to God to forgive us, holding back His anger against the United States, at least until after the Rapture. During hardship we should continue doing as we've always done — pulling close to God in prayer and Bible reading, living holy lives, and using the time we have to share the Gospel with others.
In these tumultuous and terrifying times, as our leaders rocket us to our own nation's destruction, we should heed what Psalm 56:3 teaches us concerning God, "When I am afraid, I will trust in you."
Obama blasted for ‘browbeating’ Israeli PM
[World Events]
04/02/2010
By Thomas, Brian
OneNewsNow Reports:
Various press reports described Obama's meeting with Netanyahu as a "dressing down" and humiliation of the prime minister during his recent visit to Washington, DC.
Gary Bauer, president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families, recently returned from a trip to Israel himself. He is not complimentary of Obama's treatment of the prime minister.
"Talking to insiders, I get mixed accounts of what exactly happened. So I would take with a little bit of a grain of salt some of those descriptions," he acknowledges. "But what there's absolutely no question about is that President Obama is browbeating our most reliable ally in the Middle East."
According to Bauer, a pattern in President Obama's Middle East policy makes one fact incredibly clear. "The president has reached out repeatedly to Iran in spite of everything that that government has done -- [and] he has not once visited Israel, although he has visited a number of Muslim countries in the Middle East," he points out.
"There just can be no doubt here that this is the most anti-Israel president of the United States that we have seen in the history of our country."
Bauer does not believe that bodes well for American national security.
Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, feels the president's treatment of the Israeli prime minister is shameful.
"Everybody knows that any map of a two-state solution, that part of east Jerusalem is going to be part of Israel," Land comments. "This is Obama at his best. He kowtows to our enemy and sticks his finger in the eye of our friends."
The few newspaper accounts of the meeting note that it is virtually unheard of for a U.S. president to treat a visiting head of state in such a manner.”
View Source Article
End of OneNewsNow Report
Clinton: Israeli Settlement Announcement Insulting
[World Events]
03/19/2010
By Thomas, Brian
The following recent CNN report revealed that Hillary Clinton feels Israel’s decision to announce construction in Jerusalem is insulting.
Washington (CNN) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday that Israel's announcement of new settlement construction in disputed territory in East Jerusalem was "insulting" to the United States.
The Israeli announcement came during Vice President Joe Biden's visit this week to Israel. It complicated U.S. efforts to set up so-called proximity talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, the latest attempt to nudge the two sides back toward talking directly.
Clinton said the United States' relationship with Israel is not at risk: "Our relationship is durable. It's strong. It's rooted in common values."
"But we have to make clear to our Israeli friends and partners that the two-state solution -- which we support, which the prime minister himself says he supports -- requires confidence-building measures on both sides," Clinton told CNN's Jill Dougherty. "And the announcement of the settlements the very day that the vice president was there was insulting."
The construction, announced Tuesday, will be in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, in disputed territory in East Jerusalem. The Israeli Interior Ministry denies that the territory is in East Jerusalem.
Biden arrived in Israel on Monday, meeting first with Israeli President Shimon Peres at his official residence in Jerusalem and then with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Biden emphasized the close relationship between the United States and Israel as he met with Israeli leaders Tuesday, a visit that also touched on relations with the Palestinians and Iran.
However, later Tuesday, after getting word of the settlement announcement, Biden said the United States condemned Israel's decision to build 1,600 housing units in the Jerusalem neighborhood, calling it "a step that undermines the trust we need right now."
The Israeli Interior Ministry said the construction plan was approved by a district committee, and the public can express objections to it over the next 60 days.
"I mean, it was just really a very unfortunate and difficult moment for everyone -- the United States, our vice president who had gone to reassert our strong support for Israeli security -- and I regret deeply that that occurred and made that known," Clinton said Friday.
She added that she has no reason to believe that Netanyahu knew about the announcement during Biden's visit but added, "He is the prime minister. Like the president or secretary of state ... ultimately, you are responsible."
The controversy over Israel's announcement came just a day after the Obama administration's special envoy for Middle East peace announced that Israeli and Palestinian leaders had accepted indirect talks.
George Mitchell said Monday that the two sides, with him acting as intermediary, had begun to discuss the "structure and scope" of the talks.
"I will return to the region next week to continue our discussions," Mitchell said. "As we've said many times, we hope that these will lead to direct negotiations as soon as possible."
Negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis have been stalled for more than a year, despite the Obama administration's attempt to move toward a resolution of the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Under current agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Israel maintains full control over the West Bank and its borders while the Palestinian government oversees administration of major population centers.
Speaking at a Christians United for Israel convention in Jerusalem on Monday, Netanyahu said he welcomes "the initiation of the peace process between us and the Palestinians."
"We have been calling to resume the talks without prior conditions for almost a year now," he said. "I hope that the proximity talks will soon lead to direct talks."
View Source Article
The statements by Clinton and Biden are in direct contradiction with God’s word concerning Jerusalem and Israel. Clinton stated Israel insulted the United States but God stated that He would bring judgment upon all nations that attempt to divide Jerusalem and/or Israel. Jerusalem was promised to the Jews by God and Israel does not need anyone’s permission concerning construction in the Holy City. This administration is bringing the judgment of God upon our nation.
I will also gather all nations, And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; And I will enter into judgment with them there On account of My people, My heritage Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations; They have also divided up My land. – Joel 3:2
Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. – Zechariah 12:2-3
Earthquakes in Various Places – Turkey
[World Events]
03/08/2010
By Thomas, Brian
The following report was provided by CNN.
(CNN) -- A pre-dawn earthquake collapsed homes and killed at least 38 people in a mountainous region of southeastern Turkey on Monday, government officials said.
About 100 people were injured when the magnitude-5.8 earthquake struck at 4:32 a.m., according to officials.
The quake struck in Elazig province, with the village of Okcular the worst hit, according to Ozcan Yalcin, the press secretary for the province's governor.
About five hours later, a magnitude-5.5 aftershock shook the region, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. That followed at least 40 other aftershocks up to 4.4 magnitude, the prime minister's press office said.
No casualties were reported immediately after the aftershocks.
At least 38 people were killed in the initial quake, Kovancilar Mayor Bekir Yanilmaz told CNN Turk, CNN's sister network.
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Jerusalem – A Cup of Trembling
[Prophecy]
03/05/2010
By Thomas, Brian
Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. – Zechariah 12:2-3
The battle over Jerusalem is happening in this generation. Uprisings between the Palestinians and the Jews are a common occurrence as they quarrel over rights to the Holy City. The most recent conflict took place on February 28, 2010. The report from The Associated Press Writer, Aron Heller, is as follows:
JERUSALEM - Israeli police forces stormed the most contentious holy site in Jerusalem on Sunday to disperse masked Palestinian protesters hurling objects at visiting foreign tourists.
The incident was over quickly, but the area remained tense afterward. In the past, violence at the site - known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary - has erupted into deadly battles.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police dispersed some 20 masked protesters who had holed up overnight in Al-Aqsa mosque building inside the hilltop compound. The protesters pelted tourists with objects early Sunday, and threw rocks at the police when they responded to the incident, he said.Calm was quickly restored, he said, and about a thousand tourists have since visited the area.
However, small groups of masked Palestinians continued to clash with police elsewhere in Jerusalem's Old City and in a nearby neighborhood just outside the walled area.
Rosenfeld said police dispersed the protesters without having to use force, but two officers were lightly wounded and seven Palestinian rioters were arrested. By midday, the clashes had ended, but about 15 Palestinians remained holed up inside the complex.
Tensions have been high in recent days following the Israeli government's announcement that two West Bank shrines would be added to Israel's list of national heritage sites. Palestinians denounced the move as a provocation, and President Mahmoud Abbas has warned the incident could spark a "religious war."
Rosenfeld said it was unclear what sparked Sunday's violence, but said the decision on the West Bank shrines was clearly in the "background."
Conflicting claims to the hilltop site of Sunday's violence lie at the heart of the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Jews revere it as the site of the two biblical Temples, while Muslims regard the Al-Aqsa compound, home to the gold-capped Dome of the Rock, as Islam's third-holiest site, where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.
The compound has been a frequent flashpoint for conflicts before. A visit to the site in 2000 by Ariel Sharon, then an Israeli opposition leader and later prime minister, helped ignite deadly clashes that escalated into violence that engulfed Israel and the Palestinian territories for several years.
Israel has controlled the compound since capturing east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and insists it will retain it forever, though it has left day-to-day administration to a Muslim clerical body.
That body, the Waqf, said young men rushed to the compound after hearing a rumor that hardline religious Jews intended to storm the area.
"The police were provoking people. Maybe the youths threw shoes, but they were not hurling rocks," said Abdul Azim Samhadana, the head of the council.
He said he was not aware of Palestinian youths harming tourists.
Palestinians see east Jerusalem, including the Old City where the sacred complex lies, as the capital of a future state.
Hamas' minister of religious affairs, Taleb Abu Shaar, called on Palestinians to rise up violently against Israel and "protect our Islamic holy places from the risk of Judaization."
He called on the United Nations to impose sanctions on Israel "because of its crimes."
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Earthquakes in Various Places – Taiwan
[World Events]
03/04/2010
By Thomas, Brian
The following report was provided by CNN.
(CNN) -- A 6.4-magnitude earthquake jolted southern Taiwan on Thursday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. There were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths but some damage has occurred to buildings and major bridges, and power was cut off near the epicenter.
The quake struck at about 8:20 a.m. (7:20 p.m. Wednesday ET) in a mountainous region about 25 miles northwest of Taitung, on the southeast coast, and 40 miles east of Tainan and Kaohsiung on the southwest coast.
Thursday's quake was followed by several aftershocks, the largest reaching 4.8. The initial 6.4 quake rumbled to the surface from 14 miles deep.
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End of CNN Report
Earthquakes in Various Places – Chile
[World Events]
02/27/2010
By Thomas, Brian
The nation of Chile has been struck with an 8.8 magnitude earthquake. This devastating earthquake comes just a month and a half after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake left thousands dead in Haiti. The Chile earthquake is tied for the fifth strongest since 1900, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The current death toll is 723 and rising. The nation’s president, Michelle Bachelet, stated, “We're facing an emergency without parallel in the history of Chile. The passage of time has demonstrated that we're facing a catastrophe of unforeseen intensity, one that caused damages that are going to require immense, united efforts from all sectors of the country -- private and public”. Christian Ministers Murdered in the United States
[World Events]
02/26/2010
By Thomas, Brian
Tite Sufra, 24, and 23-year-old Stephen Ocean were recently shot to death by a man they had witnessed to in Boynton Beach.
According to police, the men met 18-year-old Jeriah Woody and spoke with him for 15 minutes on the public sidewalk. The witnessing encounter was halted when Woody received a phone call and told the preachers he had to go. Police say as the pair walked away, Woody turned and followed them, pulled a gun and shot both men. He has been arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
Dr. Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission wonders why the tragic murder has not received widespread media attention.
"Had these been other types of people -- perhaps two Muslim clerics or even two rabbis -- I know we would never hear the end of it," he comments. "But because these were only two African-American, young black ministers, apparently the media has not covered this, and I think that it's completely ashamed that they haven't mentioned this because it's such a chilling crime."
Woody is being held without bond.
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