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U.S.-Israel - a potential 'diplomatic train wreck'
Jun 30th, 2009
Daily NewsOneNewsNow - Chad Groening
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Warning

A best-selling author and former political consultant to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes the U.S. and Israel are headed for a diplomatic train wreck over the alleged "peace process" with the Palestinians.

 The Associated Press has reported that, under pressure from the United States, Israel is reducing its security presence in four West Bank towns. Israeli and Palestinian defense officials say Israel is granting U.S.-trained Palestinian security forces greater autonomy in the four towns. The ability of Palestinian security forces to maintain law and order is key to Mideast peacemaking because Israel needs to be convinced that a future Palestinian state will not threaten its security.
 
Joel Rosenberg is the author of Inside the Revolution: How the Followers of Jihad, Jefferson, and Jesus are Battling to Dominate the Middle East and Transform the World. He thinks the Israelis have already made too many concessions.
 
"I see a diplomatic train wreck coming between the United States and Israel over this so-called 'peace process' and Washington's insistence on essentially forcing Israel to make territorial concessions," he notes.
 
Most Israelis do not trust Barack Obama, according to Rosenberg.
 
"Only 34 percent of Israelis see President Obama as a friend, as an ally; whereas more than 85 percent saw President Bush as a friend and ally," Rosenberg points out. "There are deep concerns in Israel about where President Obama is taking the U.S.-Israel relationship."
 
Rosenberg says many Americans, including himself, share those concerns.

Turkey losing interest in EU
Jun 30th, 2009
Daily NewsWND - Joseph Farah
Categories: Today's Headlines;Prophecy

Now following 'pro-Arab Islamist' foreign policy

After years of being refused entry into the European Union, Turkey is losing interest and is looking eastward where it has many friends. And it is seeking to reassert the influence it once held in traditionally Turkic countries, according to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

Formally, Ankara remains committed to joining the EU, but the idea of joining has lost much of its appeal after years of rejection and additional European demands to repeatedly prove that it is worthy.

Indeed, Germany and France remain adamantly opposed to Turkey's entrance to the EU. At a recent joint television appearance in Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy made clear their opposition to Turkish EU membership.

Turkey, however, has made efforts to develop better relations with Arab states and such other countries as Russia, Syria and Iraq – and even Armenia, a traditional foe.

Arab countries which never were enamored with the post-Ottoman leadership now look with admiration to what is referred to as the "Turkish model."

Turkey, however, has made efforts to develop better relations with Arab states and such other countries as Russia, Syria and Iraq – and even Armenia, a traditional foe.

Arab countries which never were enamored with the post-Ottoman leadership now look with admiration to what is referred to as the "Turkish model."

Keep in touch with the most important breaking news stories about critical developments around the globe with Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence news source edited and published by the founder of WND.

In addition, Turkey is looking to re-establish its historical influence in the Turkic countries of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. In this Central Asian region, Turkey sees itself in a peacekeeping role where it either ruled or dominated for centuries.

These developments recently have emerged despite a promise by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan when he assumed office in 2003 that he would lead Turkey into the EU.

The apparent change in course for Turkish foreign policy may be due partially to a new generation of advisers surrounding Erodogan. Turkey's new foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, is one such influential adviser who has outlined what he calls a "multidimensional policy" contrary to what has been practiced.

The Iraqi government wants to turn the Biblical site of Babylon into a major tourist attraction
Jun 30th, 2009
News UpdateJimmy DeYoung
Categories: Jimmy DeYoung News

With the rapidly improving security conditions in Iraq, the surrounding Babel province has persuaded the US State Department and the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage to embark on a preservation project with plans to make the ancient city of Babylon a major tourist attraction.

This war torn nation sees an opportunity to restore this Biblical city to a stage that could attract visitors from all over the world to the site of such great historic figures as Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander the Great.

The US and Iraq will work together on this project that they believe can become at least what it was before Saddam Hussein if they are not able to bring it to where it was when the ancient city of Babylon ruled the world.

Jimmy's Prophetic Prospective on the News

As the US and Iraq work together to restore the ancient Biblical city of Babylon as a tourist attraction for war torn Iraq, the stage is being set for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.

For many years, I have reported the restoration of the Biblical site of Babylon under the leadership of the late Saddam Hussein. There are reports that Saddam spent 500 million dollars to restore Babylon not necessarily as a tourist site, but because Saddam believed he was a reincarnation of King Nebuchadnezzar who ruled the world from Babylon 2,500 years ago.

This Babylon project is in reality setting the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled. A number of ancient Jewish prophets wrote centuries ago that Babylon would once again come to power before it was totally and completely destroyed, which has never happened.

Revelation 18 calls for the literal city of Babylon to be the economic center of the world and to be ruled over by the Antichrist for the last three and a half years of the seven year Tribulation Period. Isaiah in his prophecy, chapters 13-14, Jeremiah in chapters 50-51 and John the Apostle, in Revelation 16:17-20 all call for the total and complete destruction of Babylon.

The move to make Babylon a tourist attraction is indeed Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.

Schneller: Settlement freeze demand 'extortion'
Jun 30th, 2009
Daily NewsJpost
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Schneller: Settlement freeze demand 'extortion' | Jerusalem Post

MK Otniel Schneller (Kadima) lashed out Monday against the US demand for a settlement freeze, labeling it "extortion" and warning it could set back Israeli readiness for peace.

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Schneller assailed Obama administration officials as holding beliefs shaped by "far-Left opinions outside of the Israeli consensus."

Schneller, who has been involved in peace deals with the Palestinians and Jordan since 1994, sent a letter Sunday to Defense Minister Ehud Barak in advance of the minister's visit to the US in which he said he "searched for ways to find a meeting-point between Israel's desire to advance peace, the recognition of the agreement of the majority of Israeli people to recognize a Palestinian state, and the fatalism of America that is pushing us into a corner."

"The most dangerous thing to the peace process is to push the Israeli public into a corner," he said.

Barak is to meet in New York Tuesday morning with US Mideast envoy George Mitchell to discuss the settlement dispute between Israel and the US, at a time when key voices in both Jerusalem and Washington are trying to get their governments to "climb down" from their respective positions.

Even as the US prepares to reiterate to Barak that he must freeze settlement activity, the draft 2009-2010 state budget calls for NIS 280 million to be spent on improvements for Route 1, in the area of Ma'aleh Adumim, located east of Jerusalem on the way to the Dead Sea.

Schneller argued that the pressure to stop natural growth in settlements was a "fatal mistake," but said that although Israel "must go as much as possible in the direction of American interests through democracy, maintaining peace, continuing to work together with Abu Mazen [PA President Mahmoud Abbas], when the Obama government extorts the government of Israel by putting forward the question of natural growth and settlements opposite the Iranian question, it is extortion in the full meaning of the word."

"What does the president of the United States think - that a nuclear Middle East is less dangerous than natural growth in a small settlement? What does the American Jew who voted for Obama think? To allow him to endanger our physical existence in Israel because my daughter is going to have a baby?

"I think that the US government must stop its charge forward and instead go forward hand in hand with Israel on two channels - one, the Iranian channel, without any connection to the Palestinians, and two, the peace process with the Palestinians while understanding that the consensus within Israel is the most serious lever that can be operated toward that end," Schneller said.

In his letter to Barak, Schneller argued that "in no case can one agree to freezing natural growth - not even temporarily. Beyond the ideological question (the right of people to give birth, to raise children) and beyond the humanitarian questions (preschools, clinics), the believability of Israel's government will be tested. There is no legal or public ability to carry out a complete freeze and there is no chance to prevent all building. America's temporary freeze will cause us to pay a moral price and we will be found untrustworthy opposite the Americans."

Schneller said there was no legal basis for the government to stop private construction that had already been contracted, or to prevent building by those who already had made down payments, unless "we enforce the government's will in an illegal and anti-democratic manner. The American pressure endangers Israeli democracy. Human rights and the power of democracy are not dependent upon the interest of a particular nation."

Instead, Schneller said, the American call to freeze all Jewish building in the West Bank were "unifying the Israeli public against the American demands."

He weighed in on the debate regarding US agreements regarding building in the West Bank, arguing that the Americans had always understood that it was a necessity. As early as Camp David II, which he attended in 2000 as part of then-prime minister Barak's delegation, Schneller said, there was already an understanding. All of the argument regarding whether Israel would keep 8 percent or 12% of the West Bank meant that there was already a recognition that settlement blocs would be maintained, and that the debate centered around how much would be included.

Barak has been saying in recent days that his talks with Mitchell were aimed at moving forward on a comprehensive agreement in the region. Within this framework, he said Monday before departing for the US that it would be possible to hold negotiations with the Palestinians, and that a solution to the settlement issue can be reached in these negotiations.

After a meeting he held just prior to his one-day US trip to the US, Barak met with other inner cabinet members - their second meeting on the issue within 24 hours - in which two camps reportedly emerged.

The first, which includes Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Intelligence Agencies Minister Dan Meridor, as well as Barak, is interested in a compromise - perhaps freezing construction for a limited time while allowing building to continue on housing units that are in an advanced stage - to avoid continued friction with the Obama administration on what they consider a peripheral issue.

Such a move, according to this school of thought, would remove the Palestinian excuse for not restarting negotiations, and paint the Palestinian Authority as the "intransigent" party if it continued to refuse the talks, since they have made a settlement freeze a condition for renewed dialogue.

The other camp, represented by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Minister-without-Portfolio Bennie Begin and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon, believes it would be a mistake for Israel to stop building in the settlement blocs that will likely remain in Israel's hands in any future agreement. They also are opposed to any pre-conditions to renewed negotiations.

Ethiopian church speaks out on Ark of the Covenant
Jun 30th, 2009
Daily NewsWND -
Categories: Today's Headlines

Statement says Ten Commandments box won't be displayed

There was considerable confusion last week when the leader of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church apparently told an Italian news agency of an upcoming announcement about the possible public display of the Ark of the Covenant – the box holding the Ten Commandments – and then the prescribed time passed with no word.

However, there was no equivocation today in an e-mail received by WND from the webmaster of a church website in response to an inquiry about the truth of the matter.

"It is not going to happen so the world has to live with curiosity," said the statement, signed only "Webmaster" in response to the WND inquiry.

The webmaster statement described the tempest as being caused either because of a translation mistake or "a slip [of the] tongue from the patriarch."

Ark hunters and Bible enthusiasts had been buzzing for days on the report from the Italian news agency Adnkronos that Patriarch Abuna Pauolos, visiting in Italy last week for a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, was quoted, "Soon the world will be able to admire the Ark of the Covenant described in the Bible as the container of the tablets of the law that God delivered to Moses and the center of searches and studies for centuries."

He apparently had suggested the possibility the artifact might be viewable in a planned museum.

"I repeat (the Ark of the Covenant) is in Ethiopia and nobody … knows for how much time. Only God knows," he said in the Adnkronos report available online.

The report said Pauolos reported the artifact "is described perfectly in the Bible" and is in good condition.

"The state of conservation is good because it is not made from man's hand, but is something that God has made," Pauolos said, according to the report.

The agency had reported an announcement would be made at the Hotel Aldrovandi in Rome, and a hotel spokeswoman told WND Pauolos had been in residence there, but no news conference or event was scheduled.

"The Ark of the Covenant is in Ethiopia for many centuries," said Pauolos in the report. "As a patriarch I have seen it with my own eyes and only few highly qualified persons could do the same, until now."

Bob Cornuke, biblical investigator, international explorer and best-selling author, has participated in more than 27 expeditions around the world searching for lost locations described in the Bible. A man some consider a real-life Indiana Jones, he has written a book titled "Relic Quest" about the Ark of the Covenant and participated in History Channel production called "Digging for Truth."

Cornuke will travel to Ethiopia soon for the 13th time since he began his search for the Ark. He told WND he believes it is possible Ethiopia could have the real artifact.

"They either have the Ark of the Covenant or they have a replica that they have believed to be the Ark of the Covenant for 2,000 years," he said.

Cornuke said, if it is genuine, there's a plausible explanation of how the Ark may have come to the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Ethiopia.

"The Ark could have been taken out of the temple during the time of the atrocities of Manasseh," he said. "We have kind of a bread crumb trail that appears to go to Egypt, and it stayed on an island there for a couple hundred years called Elephantine Island. The Ark then was transferred over to Lake Tana in Ethiopia where it stayed on Tana Qirqos Island for 800 years. Then it was taken to Axum, where it is enshrined in a temple today where they don't let anybody see it."