Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Saudi Arabia Throws Cold Water on Obama’s Peace Plan
Aug 2nd, 2009
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Tzvi Ben Gadalayhu
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Peace Process

 
Saudi Arabia has thoroughly rejected appeals by U.S. President Barack Obama that the Arab world make modest gestures to Israel to show it is interested in advancing a regional peace that would include the establishment of a Palestinian Authority state within Israel’s current borders.

"The question is not what the Arab world will offer," Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said at a joint press conference with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday. "The question really is: What will Israel give in exchange for this comprehensive offer?"

The Saudi rebuff, which also ignored an appeal by more than 200 members of Congress for “gestures” towards Israel, leaves President Obama with little room for maneuvering after his two-month-old demand that Israel freeze all building for Jews in eastern Jerusalem as well as in Judea and Samaria fell on deaf ears in Israel. American media and the Jewish community increasingly have criticized President Obama for going too far in trying to pressure Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East and a close ally of the United States.

Prince Saud sidestepped a question from a reporter who asked what Saudi Arabia would do if Israel were to agree to a freeze on building, as the U.S. has demanded. He charged that Israel is "trying to distract attention from the core issue" of creating a new PA state.

“This is not the way to peace," he said, warning that Israel may face a future of more “instability and violence."

He reiterated demands for a “comprehensive approach.” which would include full acceptance of the Saudi Arabia 2002 initiative. It calls for Israel to surrender all of the land restored to the Jewish state in the Six-Day War in 1967, including the Old City in Jerusalem and several residential neighborhoods in the capital that are home to approximately 300,000 Jews. The plan also demands that Israel allow the immigration of five million foreign Arabs who claim to have ancestry in Israel.

Israel for the past several years has continually granted concessions to the PA while allowing the U.S. to change its Roadmap peace plan and skip over steps for an interim PA state, pending moves to halt violent and incitement.

Reporters covering the State Department have noted that the U.S. in effect has been a proxy negotiator for the PA over a future state. In an attempt to change the focus from Israel to the PA, State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said at the Friday news briefing in Washington that the PA has a “responsibility to promote the peace process and return to negotiation.”

Following recent comments by American officials that indicated a more moderate tone towards Israel, Crowley added, “There’s this perception that we’re leaning in one direction and not others. We’re leaning in all directions.” One reporter drew laughter from colleagues when he responded, “Is that physically possible?”

Katz: Fatah 'plan' is declaration of war
Aug 2nd, 2009
Daily NewsJpost -
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Anti-Israel

Fatah's draft "political plan," leaked to several Arab newspapers over the weekend, "is a declaration of war on the state of Israel," Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz said Sunday during a meeting of Likud ministers.

"The refusal to acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state, the demand for a withdrawal to the 1967 lines and for the full right of return for Palestinian refugees - this means wiping Israel out of existence," he said.

The document reportedly also reiterates Fatah's commitment to the "armed struggle" against Israel as one of the methods of achieving an independent Palestinian state. It calls for Palestinians to unilaterally declare such a state if peace talks fail.

"We must adopt a clear stance in the face of these positions," Katz said.

According to Channel 10, the ministers agreed to await Fatah's official stance before responding.

The draft plan is to be discussed during the faction's general conference, set to take place in Bethlehem on Tuesday. The three-day conference is meeting for the first time in two decades to vote on members for its two key decision-making bodies.

Fatah to Back Violence, Reject Israel as Jewish State
Aug 2nd, 2009
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Tzvi Ben Gadalayhu
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Peace Process

 
The Fatah faction which leads the Palestinian Authority will meet in Bethlehem this week and call for “controlled violence” against Israel, the Saudi Arabian newspaper Al Watan reported. The French news agency AFP also confirmed an Al Watan statement that Fatah will reject the idea that Israel is a Jewish state.

The proposed Fatah platform in effect puts on ice any chance for negotiations over the establishment of a PA state. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said that talks with the PA must be predicated on its acceptance of Israel as the home of the Jewish people, which would provide an obstacle to an Arab plan to flood Israel with foreign Arabs.

Instead, Fatah, headed by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, is digging in its heels for a new PA state based on the 1949 Armistice Line borders that existed until 1967 as well as a “just solution” for several million Arabs living in foreign countries and claiming ancestry in Israel. It also demands that they be compensated.

The proposed document threatens a unilateral declaration of an independent PA country if Israel does not accept it through direct talks.



The encouragement of violence, which is a violation of the Roadmap agreement that calls for an end to incitement against Israel, is based on a claim that Israel wants a situation of “no peace [a no war.”

Christians Burned to Death in Islamist Attacks in Pakistan
Aug 2nd, 2009
Daily NewsCOMPASS DIRECT NEWS
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Church;Persecution

Islamic extremists today set ablaze more than 50 houses and a church in this town in northeastern Pakistan following an accusation of “blasphemy” of the Quran, leaving at least 14 Christians dead, sources said. The dead include women and children, with several other burn victims unable to reach hospitals for medical care, according to the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement. The attack came amid a protest by thousands of Muslim Islamists – including members of banned militant groups – that resulted in another six people dying when participants shot at police and officers responded with tear gas and gunfire. The same rumor of desecration of the Quran that led to today’s massive protest and attack in Gojra, 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Faisalabad, also prompted an arson assault on Thursday (July 30) by Islamic extremists on the village of Korian, seven miles from Gojra, that gutted 60 houses. Punjab Minister for Law Rana Sanaullah reportedly said an initial investigation of allegations of the Quran being blasphemed indicated “there has not been any incident of desecration.”

BRAGGING ABOUT GOD
Aug 2nd, 2009
Thought for the WeekA. W. Tozer
Categories: Inspirational;Exhortation

Basic beliefs about the Person and the nature of God have changed so much that there are among us now men and women who find it easy to brag about the benefits they receive from God-without ever a thought or a desire to know the true meaning of worship! I have immediate reactions to such an extreme misunderstanding of the true nature of a holy and sovereign God, for I believe that the very last thing God desires is to have shallow-minded and worldly Christians bragging about Him. Beyond that, it does not seem to be very well recognized that God's highest desire is that every one of His believing children should so love and so adore Him that we are continually in His presence, in spirit and in truth. Something wonderful and miraculous and life-changing takes place within the human soul when Jesus Christ is invited in to take His rightful place. That is what God anticipated when He wrought the plan of salvation. He intended to make worshipers out of rebels; to restore the place of worship which our first parents knew when they were created!