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May 27th, 2008
UncategorizedMORNING MEDITATION
Categories: Today's Headlines

"If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up" - Job 22:23

Return from backsliding

ELIPHAZ, in this utterance, spoke a great truth, which is the summary of many an inspired scripture. Reader has sin pulled you down? Have you become like a ruin? Has the hand of the Lord gone out against you, so that in estate you are impoverished, and in spirit you are broken down? Was it your own folly which brought upon you all this dilapidation? Then the first thng to be done is to return to the Lord. With deep repentance and sincere faith, find your way back from your backsliding. It is your duty, for you have turned away from Him whom you professed to serve. It is your wisdom, for you cannot strive against Him and prosper. It is your immediate necessity, For what He has done is nothing compared to what He may do in the way of chastisement, since He is Almighty to punish.

See what promise invites you! You shall be "built up." None but the Almighty can set up the fallen pillars and restore the tottering walls of your condition; but He can and will do it if you return to Him. Do not delay. Your crushed mind may quite fail you if you go on to rebel, but hearty confession will ease you, and humble faith will console you. Do this, and all will be well. - C.H. Spurgeon

May 27th, 2008
UncategorizedIsrael Today May 26 2008
Categories: Today's Headlines

OLMERT: IT IS DELUSIONAL TO BELIEVE IN 'GREATER ISRAEL'
It is delusional, in the current situation, to cling to a vision of ‘Greater Israel,’ according to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who spoke to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday, shedding light on his reasoning for discussing the giveaway of the Golan Heights and West Bank. “Today we face the choice between Greater Israel and a Jewish nation – the two are mutually exclusive. They only exist together in the minds of deluded fantasists who misconstrue reality,” he said.

The prime minister said secrecy was of the utmost importance surrounding talks such as ceding control of 91 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinians and giving the Golan Heights to Syria.

“I initiated this move in February 2007, with a record of four predecessors who went to Damascus and committed to painful concessions, and let no one put me to the test on proving those commitments – they are all accounted for.”

“I was one of those who thought the two-state solution was wrong, but that was a mistake,” he said regarding the Palestinians. “Most today understand that the choice is between two states for two peoples or one state in which all have an equal right to vote.”

Knesset Member Limor Livnat said that the only thing delusional was a prime minister at the end of his political career who can receive envelops of cash and hold talks on the return of the Golan Heights, referring to an ongoing investigation that Olmert took bribes.

Parliamentarian Effie Eitam said the committee would not fall for Olmert’s “cunning” words: “His slickness will be of no help to him, we all remember how he brought Hamas to Gaza and Hizballah to Lebanon and now he is plotting to bring Iran to the Golan Heights. He must be stopped, in the political arena and perhaps the criminal one.”

May 27th, 2008
UncategorizedIsrael Today May 26 2008
Categories: Today's Headlines

ISRAELI SCURITY CHIEF: HAMAS LONG-RANGE ROCKETS JUST A MATTER OF TIME

Hamas has rockets capable of striking Ashdod, a city about 15 miles north of Gaza, according to the head of Israel’s internal security service, Yuval Diskin.

“It is only a matter of time” before these long-range rockets will be used, Diskin said in a security briefing, adding that a truce with Hamas would be useless.

“Hamas is preparing for another round of escalation,” Diskin explained. “Time is in Hamas’ favor and the threat on Israel is only getting worse.”

In fact, Hamas is looking to buy time to strengthen its capabilities. Arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip is continuing and the products are getting more lethal. Iran, Diskin said, is trying to transfer more sophisticated rockets to the Gaza Strip.

Diskin also warned that there are attempts to carry out attacks and kidnappings in the West Bank, and said the Shin Bet is trying to foil them.

Hamas blamed the problems on a blockade by Israel of the Gaza Strip and insisted Israel must open the borders before a truce can be reached. Ayman Taha, a spokesman for the movement in Gaza, told Haaretz: “We are demanding the lifting of the entire blockade and Israel is not interested in doing this. This is the central problem at this time "If Israel is worried about a military confrontation with Hamas, then by all means, it should agree to a cease-fire.”

May 27th, 2008
UncategorizedWND MAY 26 2008
Categories: Today's Headlines

IF I WERE PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL

By Joseph Farah - What can Israel do to achieve peace with its Middle East neighbors?

I'm often asked that question by radio and TV interviewers. I won't tell you there are any easy answers – especially after so many strategic blunders by Israeli political leaders.

But there is a starting point. If I were prime minister of Israel, I would begin by explaining to the country's enemies and friends alike – all over the world – that practically everything they have heard about the conflict between Arabs and Israelis is wrong.

First, the Jews in Israel took no one's land.

When Mark Twain visited the Holy Land in the 19th century, he was greatly disappointed. He didn't see any people. He referred to it as a vast wasteland. The land we now know as Israel was practically deserted.

This is very important to understand. Because one of the biggest demands of so-called Arab "Palestinians" today is the "right of return." They contend that millions and millions of Arabs must be permitted to settle in Israel with full voting rights. Most of these people have never set foot in Israel before. Many of their parents never set foot in Israel before. A few had lived in the area in 1948 or 1967 and fled at the instructions of Arab invaders who pledged to "liberate" the land and annihilate the Jews.

But it is important to understand these are not refugees in the usual sense of the word. Instead, they are political pawns, exploited by Arab leaders who use the refugee issue to empower and enrich themselves.

It is a fraud, however, to say that these Arab Palestinians had lived in the region "from time immemorial," as the propagandists say. When "Palestine" was under the control of Muslims – right up through World War I – Arabs and Muslims showed little interest in the land, including Jerusalem.

A travel guide to Palestine and Syria, published in 1906 by Karl Baedeker, illustrates the fact that, even when the Islamic Ottoman Empire ruled the region, the Muslim population in Jerusalem was minimal. The book estimates the total population of the city at 60,000, of whom 7,000 were Muslims, 13,000 were Christians and 40,000 were Jews.

"The number of Jews has greatly risen in the last few decades, in spite of the fact that they are forbidden to immigrate or to possess landed property," the book states.

Even though the Jews were persecuted, still they came to Jerusalem and represented the overwhelming majority of the population as early as 1906. And even though Muslims today claim Jerusalem as the third holiest site in Islam, when the city was under Islamic rule, they had little interest in it.

As the Jews came, drained the swamps and made the deserts bloom, something interesting began to happen. Arabs followed. I don't blame them. They had good reason to come. They came for jobs. They came for prosperity. They came for freedom. And they came in large numbers.

Winston Churchill observed in 1939: "So far from being persecuted, the Arabs have crowded into the country and multiplied till their population has increased more than even all world Jewry could lift up the Jewish population."

This is the modern real history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. At no time did the Jews uproot Arab families from their homes. When there were title deeds to be purchased, they bought them at inflated prices. When there were not, they worked the land so they could have a place to live without the persecution they faced throughout the world.

It's a great big lie that the Israelis displaced anyone – one of a series of lies and myths that have the world on the verge of committing yet another great injustice to the Jews.

But there's more to this story. It illustrates why non-Jews were not interested in the Holy Land until the Jews returned.

It's something I learned from a rabbi in Brooklyn by the name of Menachem Kohen, author of a book called "Prophecies for the Era of Muslim Terror."

Do you know why the Holy Land became a wasteland during the 1,800-year dispersion of the Jews that lasted until they returned in significant numbers beginning in the early 20th century?

Rabbi Kohen points out the land suffered an unprecedented, severe and inexplicable (by anything other than supernatural explanations) drought that lasted from the first century until the 20th – a period of 1,800 years coinciding with the forced dispersion of the Jews.

Kohen sees this as a miraculous fulfillment of prophecy found in the book of Deuteronomy – especially chapter 28:23-24.

"And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.

"The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed."

The climate in Israel dramatically changed during this 1,800-period – way before Al Gore discovered "global warming" or invented the Internet.

Before the Jews entered Canaan, it was described in the Bible as a land flowing with milk and honey. If you read what Israel's climate and natural landscape was like from the time Joshua crossed the Jordan right up until the time of Jesus, it sounds like a heavily forested land. There were amazing crops raised by the people who inhabited the land when the Jews arrived.

Sometimes I've wondered what happened to Israel to turn it into the dusty, arid land it was when the Jews came back in the 20th century. Until I read that prophecy in Deuteronomy, brought to my attention by Rabbi Kohen, I had no clue.

For 1,800 years, it hardly ever rained in Israel. This was the barren land discovered by Mark Twain. So-called "Palestine" was a wasteland – nobody lived there. There was no indigenous Arab population to speak of. It only came after the Jews came back.

Beginning in A.D. 70 and lasting until the early 1900s – about 660,000 days – no rain.

I decided to check this out as best I could and examined the rainfall data for 150 years in Israel beginning in the early 1800s and leading up to the 1960s. What I found was astonishing – increasing rainfall almost every single year – with the heaviest rainfall coming in and around 1948 and 1967.

Is this just a coincidence?

I'll be quite honest with you: I don't think so.

Nor do I think Israel can continue today to make bad stewardship decisions regarding the land bequeathed the Jews by God without consequences – serious consequences.

So, if I were prime minister of Israel – even just for one day – I'd start out giving the world a little history lesson. Maybe people would listen. Maybe they wouldn't. But it must be said. And if Israel won't tell that story, who will?

May 27th, 2008
UncategorizedArutz Sheva May 27 2008
Categories: Today's Headlines

TALANSKY TESTIFIES: OLMERT REQUESTED CASH

By Nissan Ratzlav-Katz - American Jewish philanthropist and businessman Moshe Talansky testified before the Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert requested contributions in the form of cash to hisvarious political campaigns.

Talansky recounted that in 1992, he offered to write Olmert checks for his campaign, but was told to give cash instead. He said that he knew some of the money was used for "expensive cigars and expensive pens." Despite the thousands of dollars that both Olmert and Talansky admit changed hands, the New York native told the court, "I never received anything, and I never expected anything [in exchange]."

During his pre-trial testimony, given before three judges, Talansky recounted meeting Olmert during the First Gulf War, when the latter was Minister of Health. "We became close," Talansly said. "I saw that he wanted to run for mayor of Jerusalem, that he believed in a strong, united city... I had great admiration for him. We used to call him 'the prince of Likud.' I truly loved him. The most important thing for me was the unity of Jerusalem."

When asked why he "loved" the then-Likud politician, Talansky replied that, for him, Olmert represented someone who could unite the religious and secular sectors of Israeli society

May 27th, 2008
UncategorizedArutz Sheva May 27 2008
Categories: Today's Headlines

EXPERT: GOLAN WILL BECOME CROWDED TERROR BASE

By Hillel Fendel - Arab affairs expert Dr. Guy Bechor of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya estimates that a "Golan for peace" deal will net Israel, in the long run, anything but peace.

Bechor, who authors aHebrew-language newsblog on Israel and the Middle East, wrote an article for Ynetnews in which he predicts that no matter what Syrian Dictator Bashar Assad promises, he is likely to be toppled by radical Moslem forces - leaving northern Israel vulnerable to the terrorists.

Bechor predicts that an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan would be followed by a three-stage process:

Stage I
"About a million Syrian residents will be settled in the Golan immediately.... A presidential decree has already been issued [by Bashar Assad] announcing that any Syrian resident who moves to the Golan will receive a government allowance... This will enable [Assad] to realize his dream with no interruptions: establishing a 'resistance' against Israel in the Golan Heights. Officially, Assad will argue that he has no connection to the terror attacks that would be directed at the Galilee region and northern Israel from the Golan; yet in practice, Syrian intelligence officers will do as they please vis-a-vis northern Israel, [as] they already did in northern Lebanon."

Stage II
Bechor argues that despite the friendly relations between Lebanon and Syria, Syria supports subversive activity against the Lebanese government: "Why wouldn’t the Syrians do the same in the Golan? Would a peace deal with Israel stop them? With Lebanon they have not only peace, but even an official relationship of fraternity and friendship."

Stage III
"Assad’s minority Alawite regime will be toppled," for the "peace deal will in fact serve to precipitate his downfall (and for that reason, Bashar won’t be pursuing real peace with Israel.) His regime has no legitimacy in Syria as it is, particularly when it comes to the Muslim Brothers, whose power keeps growing."

Once this happens, "the Golan Heights will turn into the radical spearhead against Israel, and not only from Syria: People will be coming from Iran, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Terrorism will be two-pronged both from the Golan and from Lebanon. Life in the north will turn into an unbearable nightmare, yet the situation will be irreversible..."

Bechor concludes that Israel's agreements in the past and future with Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority are either reversible or did not cost much. "But with Syria, the situation will be different: From being an empty buffer zone, the Golan Heights will turn into a crowded anti-Israel region for generations to come. From being a strategic asset to Israel, the Golan will turn into a burden on top of the other regional efforts to eliminate Israel. Our future generations will not forgive anyone who would do that."

May 27th, 2008
UncategorizedArutz Sheva May 27 2008
Categories: Today's Headlines

CITIES TO GAIN ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION AUTHORITIES

By Hillel Fendel - A newly-proposed bill stipulates that cities in Israel will be obligated to enforce environmental laws and levy fines upon violators, as of next year. The Knesset Interior and Environmental Committee passed the bill paving the way for its final Knesset reading in the coming weeks.

The name of the bill: "Environmental Enforcement and Inspectors' Authority."

Cities with a population of 20,000 or more - of which there are about 70 in Israel - will be obligated to operate a system of environmental inspectors and fines. Smaller cities will be permitted, but not obligated, to have such networks. The fines will be paid to the cities themselves, thus providing the incentive to operate the new system.

May 27th, 2008
UncategorizedArutz Sheva May 27 2008
Categories: Today's Headlines

MKs FROM RIGHT AND LEFT: WE ARE STAYING ON THE GOLAN

By Nissan Ratzlav-Katz -Dozens of MKs and Golan Heights community leaders participated in an emergency meeting of the Knesset Golan Lobby on Monday. The session was convened in the wake of last week's announcements by Syrian officials and by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that negotiations were already underway with the Ba'athist dictatorship.

MKs from parties in the coalition and in the opposition were represented at the meeting, including one cabinet minister.
Minister Eitan added an up-to-date geostrategic perspective on the issue.

Knesset Member Aryeh Eldad (National Union-National Religious Party) provoked a storm of controversy when he said that relinquishing sovereign Israeli territory to Syria would constitute a crime which entails the death penalty. MKs from both the political right and left called on Eldad to take back his statements, but the legislator has refused to do so, saying he was merely quoting the Israeli Penal Code. He subsequently went further and requested that Attorney General Menachem Mazuz order a police investigation of Prime Minister Olmert for the crime of treason

May 27th, 2008
UncategorizedRIA Novosti May 27 2008
Categories: Today's Headlines

MAGNITIUDE 5.3 EARTHQUAKE HITS NORTHWEST IRAN

TEHRAN, May 27 (RIA Novosti) - A 5.3-magnitude earthquake hit the Zandjan province in northwest Iran on Tuesday, a seismological assessment center in Tehran reported.

The quake was registered at 10:48 local time (06.18 GMT). No reports of destruction or casualties have been released.

May 27th, 2008
Uncategorized
Categories: Today's Headlines

SYRIA SAYS WILLING TO UP COOPERATION WITH IRAN

While Israel hopes renewal of peace talks will lead Damascus to sever relations with Iran, Syria seems to be signaling it may even be boosting existing ties with Tehran

Turkmani with Ahmadinejad Photo: AFP
General Safawi Photo

Syrian Defense Minister Hassan Turkmani said on Tuesday that his country was prepared to increase its military cooperation with Iran

The Iranian news agency 'Fars' reports Turkmani expressed this willingness to General Yahya Rahim Safawi, a trusted military advisor of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the former commander of the Revolutionary Guards

May 27th, 2008
UncategorizedTimes on Line May 27 2008
Categories: Today's Headlines

SCIENTISTS IDENTIFY SECOND H7 STRAIN OF BIRD FLU COULD CAUSE PANDEMIC

Mark Henderson, Science Editor -The H5N1 strain of bird flu that has killed 241 people is not the only one that could trigger a pandemic, according to research in America. A few H7 strains of the flu virus have started to evolve some of the traits they would need to infect people easily, scientists have discovered.

The findings, from a team led by Terrence Tumpey, of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, show that while there is no immediate indication that H7 flu is about to acquire potentially damaging mutations, it is critical that global surveillance and research covers this virus class as well as the more obvious H5N1, scientists said.