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Yaalon: Jews Must Live Everywhere in Israel
Aug 20th, 2009
Daily NewsIsrael Today - Maayana Miskin
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

  In an address to the Jewish Leadership faction of the Likud on Sunday night, Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon expressed strong support for continued Jewish growth in Judea and Samaria. “Jews can and must live in every part of the land of Israel,” Yaalon said to applause.

Footage of the speech, captured on a participant's cellphone, was released Wednesday night.

Israelis have grown used to the idea that Arabs are allowed to live in all regions, while some areas are off-limits to Jews, Yaalon said. One example of this mindset is the term “illegal settlement,” used to refer to unauthorized Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, he explained.

“How do we give legitimacy to the idea that a Jew can't live anywhere in the land of Israel? The very use of the words 'illegal settlement' is extremely serious, and shows that we have given up territory, that our presence there is illegal,” he said.

While he promoted Jewish life throughout the land, Yaalon cautioned that all new building should take place with government approval. “A person cannot just go build wherever he wants,” he said, adding that the existence of illegal building in Arab and Bedouin communities does not justify illegal Jewish construction.

He criticized the government for terming building projects “illegal” simply because the authorization process regarding those areas was not yet complete. “Who paved those highways? Who laid the water pipes?” Yaalon asked, as proof of the government's involvement in building the so-called illegal communities.

Instead of agreeing to destroy unauthorized communities in response to lawsuits, he said, “The state needs to tell the Supreme Court, 'We need to finish the planning process, leave us alone until we complete the authorization.'”

Yaalon's remarks stood in contrast to government policy, which includes a freeze on new construction in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, in line with America's demands for a halt to building in those areas.

Netanyahu Censures Yaalon's Statements

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu remarked Wednesday night that Yaalon’s calling Peace Now activists “a virus” is “unacceptable, not in their content and not in their style, and they do not represent the government’s position.”

Netanyahu requested that Yaalon personally meet with him. The Prime Minister’s Office stated, “Against the pluralism of Israeli public opinion, the Prime Minister believes that mutual respect and unity of the nation must be preserved. This is correct for all times, especially for this time.” Nonetheless, Yaalon doesn't express remorse for his statements.

The Iraqi government wants to turn the Biblical site of Babylon into a major tourist attraction
Aug 20th, 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 setting the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.

Pa Arabs Better Off Than Most of Arab World
Aug 20th, 2009
Daily NewsIsraelNN
Categories: Today's Headlines

The situation of Arabs in Judea, Samaria and Gaza is far better than the image that media present, and their gross domestic product and, life expectancy are among the highest in the Arab world, the Asian Times reported.

Calling their situation “hopeless but not serious,” the newspaper’s columnist “Spengler” wrote on Tuesday that the gross domestic product in Judea, Samaria and Gaza is $3,380 per person, higher than in Egypt, Jordan and Syria. The figures are based on the 2004 populating studies by the Begin-Sadat Center that estimates the Palestinian Authority population at 2.5 million people and not the 3.8 million reported by the PA.

The columnist explained that the PA uses higher numbers in order to receive more foreign aid and added, "Where is life not intolerable in the Arab world?"

Although the United Nations frequently reports on the dire straits of Arabs in Gaza, 44 percent of Egyptians live on less than $2 a day, according to U.S. estimates.

Life expectancy for PA Arabs is 73.4 years, higher than almost every other Arab country, except for Oman and Bahrain, where the average is 75.6 years, while Arabs in Egypt live on average to the age of 71.3 years and in Jordan 72.5 years.

Literacy in the PA is 92.4 percent, compared with 71.4 percent in Egypt and 80.8 percent in Syria.

Other statistics show that the Palestinian Authority is emerging as a police state, with a higher force of security personnel per capita than most other areas. With one out of every four Arabs between the ages of 20 and 40 using guns for a living in the armed forces, Spengler noted that the potential for violence is high.

Jordan recently announced plans to train a 50,000-member police force in Judea and Samaria, which would leave one armed officer for every 41-70 citiziens, depending on which population statistics are used. The ratio is four times that of major American cities.

Michael Oren, Israeli Ambassador to the United States, wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Monday that the economic growth rate in Judea and Samaria is seven percent and that wages are up 24 percent.

Israelis Remind U.S. of Its Land - Grabbing Past
Aug 20th, 2009
Daily NewsIsrael Today
Categories: One World Church;The Nation Of Israel

A group of Israelis on Wednesday protested US President Barack Obama's demand for a Jewish settlement freeze by dressing up as Native Americans outside the US Embassy in Tel Aviv.

The protestors noted that not so long ago, the US seized land it has no prior connection to in order to expand its borders, while Obama is denying Jews the right to live on lands that form the very cradle of their civilization and faith.

To demonstrate the absurdity of Obama's position, the protestors carried signs insisting that the US surrender lands it stole from the Native Americans. They read:

"Three countries for three races"
"America, we understand you – understand us, too"
"Freeze building west of the Atlantic Ocean. Red-skinned American within 1492 border"

Organizers told Ynet they were unable to obtain a permit to hold a larger demonstration, but that many tourists and passersby saw what they were doing and joined in the protest.

Fatah's Ticking Time Bomb May Bring a Return to Terror
Aug 20th, 2009
Daily NewsJpost
Categories: Commentary;The Nation Of Israel;Peace Process

What happened at the Fatah congress? It was largely successful at maintaining the status quo, but the outcome is unlikely to be conducive to a comprehensive peace. And there's one terribly dangerous issue - the next Fatah leader - which could blow up everything. 

Once Mahmoud Abbas appoints four more officials to form a Fatah central committee of 22 people, at least two-thirds will be old-style Fatah bureaucrats, with almost all the rest members of the younger guard. Of the 18 elected, at least five are hard-liners who don't even accept the peace process and the Oslo Accords and the rest are Abbas's allies or lieutenants. The latter are not extremists by Palestinian standards; they are happy to negotiate with Israel and don't want to go to war, for now at least. But they will insist on having all Palestinian refugees who wish to do live in Israel, adherence to the 1967 borders, no recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, and perhaps they won't support a formal ending of the conflict and will give very little, if anything, on security arrangements. 

Only two men can be called moderates: Muhammad Shtayyeh, a private sector reformist type who was last to get into the committee, making it by a single vote, and Nabil Sha'ath, a Fatah loyalist. 

And only one of the 18 men elected has been an important critic of the establishment: Marwan Barghouti, who is currently serving time in an Israeli prison. Call him a practically-minded radical who believes Israel must be driven out of the West Bank by force. 

There is no question that the meeting was a success for the Fatah establishment and for the PLO, and PA leader Mahmoud Abbas in particular. But like many such successes, it will be paid for by an inability to move toward peace as well as Palestinian suffering. As Fatah continues the conflict and blocks a resolution for years, they face lower living standards and destructive violence. If Fatah becomes more radical, as indicated by Abbas's choice for successor, the Palestinian people will suffer even more. 

Yet despite the fact that rejecting peace will hurt their people more than those of Israel, on every issue where it had to choose between peace-oriented flexibility and intransigence, the Fatah leadership chose the latter. For example, Fatah has now officially adopted the al-Aqsa Brigades as its armed wing. The next time that group commits a terror attack, Fatah is going to have to take responsibility for it. That decision will make peace less possible and Israel-Palestinian clashes more likely. 

And what about the implications of the now-official conspiracy theory that Israel killed Yasser Arafat, when actually it was his own lifestyle and inadequate medical care that did so? 

I want to stress that Fatah in its current form is not an extremist entity eager to tear up previous agreements and go to war (though that could happen), it is a group with which Israel must try to work to stabilize the situation, minimize violence and keep Hamas from seizing control of the West Bank. 

More importantly for Western governments, this isn't a leadership which will strive for a comprehensive peace agreement. Since achieving that often seems the number-one goal of US and European governments, it is of broad significance. 

But there's one more thing that should be the main headline. 

Fatah has apparently chosen as its next leader a man who rejects the 1993 Israel-PLO (Oslo) agreement and the ensuing peace process. Muhammad Ghaneim was so passionately opposed even to negotiating with Israel that he refused to go to the Gaza Strip and West Bank with Arafat in 1994. 

He also refused to participate in the PA as long as it was involved in the peace process. 

So can Ghaneim participate now because he has changed his mind, or rather - as seems more likely - that Fatah no longer takes the peace process seriously? This situation is equivalent to Russia picking a hard-line Stalinist as its next leader. 

Why did two-thirds of the delegates vote for him? Ghaneim got 33 percent more votes than Barghouti, who not only has a personal base of support but the chic of being a prisoner. 

Ghaneim is not that personally popular. I speculate that he's the chosen candidate of hard-line Fatah chief Farouk Kaddoumi, a man close to Syria's radical dictatorship, who is popular but too old to run himself. 

The key reason is that Abbas and his colleagues told delegates to vote for Ghaneim. Why? Part of the answer might be that he has a good personal relationship with Ghaneim. In addition, Ghaneim seems able to bridge the two groups which make up the Fatah leadership: radicals who thought Arafat too moderate, and hardliners who supported Arafat and now back Abbas. 

Finally, the West Bank warlords and political barons find it hard, as so often happens in politics, to give up their own ambitions and accept one of their rivals as chief. It's easier to accept an outsider who hasn't been in the West Bank at all and with whom one hasn't personally quarreled or competed. Abbas may well retire in the next year, and Ghaneim would then become leader of the PA, PLO and Fatah, too. This is incredibly important, far more so than the minor changes which are monopolizing debate over the meeting. 

I'm reminded here of the last Palestinian elections, when I correctly predicted a Hamas victory. How? Simply by analyzing the previous local elections and looking at the candidate lists. 

The State Department depended, however, on opinion polls taken by a Fatah activist, a decent and moderate guy but nevertheless a partisan. Hamas won and later seized the Gaza Strip. This was a disaster for US policy (and also the Palestinians, the Arab regimes, Israel and the region in general). 

Should I mention the idea held by many in the West that it didn't matter when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini emerged in 1978 as the Iranian revolution's leader? This kind of mistake is not equivalent to predicting a complex, relatively unexpected event (say, the reformist turn and political collapse of the USSR) because here we have all the information we need to see the direction of events. 

If Ghaneim takes over, you can not only forget about peace - which doesn't look too promising anyway - but the status quo could also be jeopardized. The re-radicalization of Fatah might lead to a very big, even violent, sustained crisis. Attention must be paid to this development. 

When propagandists distort the facts, they fool only others. When Western policy-makers distort the facts, they fool themselves with ultimately devastating results.

Buffett: U.S. Could Become Banana Republic
Aug 20th, 2009
Daily NewsMoney News.com - Julie Crawshaw
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

Warren Buffett says the growing mountain of U.S. debt could turn the country into a banana republic.

“Unchecked carbon emissions will likely cause icebergs to melt,” Buffett writes in The New York Times.

“Unchecked greenback emissions will certainly cause the purchasing power of currency to melt.”

The U.S. economy appears to be on a slow path to recovery, Buffett notes, but “enormous dosages of monetary medicine continue to be administered,” creating an annual deficit more than twice any since 1920 aside from war-impacted years of 1942-1946.

Most of the effects of this are still invisible, but “their threat may be as ominous as that posed by the financial crisis itself.”

Congress, Buffett says, must end the rise in the debt-to-GDP ratio and bring U.S. growth in obligations back in line with U.S. growth in resources.

Even if much of this debt were covered by foreign investors and by Americans saving substantially more than they have done in years, Buffett estimates Treasury would have to find $900 billion to finance the remainder of the debt it is issuing.

“We don’t want our country to evolve into the banana-republic economy described by Keynes,” he says.

China reduced its holdings of U.S. government debt by the largest margin in nearly nine years in June, cutting its holdings by nearly 3 percent, according to data from the Department of Treasury.

In 2008, the Chinese increased their holdings in U.S. debt by 52 percent over 12 months.

Bob Creel The Death Of A Nation
Aug 20th, 2009
Audio Message
Categories: Audio Messages;Warning;Audio Messages

Ayatollah Calls for Muslim Nations to Unite Military Into Islamic 'mahdi
Aug 20th, 2009
Daily NewsWND
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei yesterday called on Muslim nations around the world to unite militarily in response to the imminent coming of Islam's messianic savior – the Mahdi. 

Khamenei, through his spokesman Ali Saeedi, specifically beckoned the nations of Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan and Afghanistan to join together with Iran in preparation for the Mahdi's soon coming. 

The purpose of uniting now, a report in Al Arabiya explained, is to fight Israel and the U.S. – seen as the two greatest obstacles to the coming of the Mahdi and the age of Islamic "justice" that would ensue. 

"We have to train honest forces that can stop the obstacles that may hinder the coming of the Mahdi like the United States and Israel," Saeedi stated. Saeedi also emphasized that the Iranian revolutionary guard possessed a special religious authority to prepare the way for the Mahdi. 

Iran also recently concluded its fifth Annual Conference on Mahdism doctrine in the Iranian city of Qom, from which Shi'a Muslims believe the Mahdi will emerge. 

"While the belief in the Mahdi has been widely held by Shi'a Muslims, it has taken on a dramatically more political tone in recent years since the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad," explains Joel Richardson, author of a new book called "The Islamic Antichrist," which hypothesizes that Islam's prophesied Mahdi is one and the same as the Bible's Antichrist. 

According to Savyon and Y. Mansharof an Iranian scholar, "From the establishment of the Islamic Regime in 1979 to Ahmadinejad's rise to power in August 2005, Mahdism had been a religious doctrine and a tradition that had no political manifestation. The political system operated independently of this messianic belief and of the anticipation of the return of the Mahdi. It was only with Ahmadinejad's presidency that this religious doctrine has become a political philosophy and taken a central place in politics." 

Mahdism is now increasingly being used as a political tool by appealing to the religious and nationalistic tendencies of various Muslims groups. This particular call for Islamic unity stands out because of its pan-Islamic, cross-sectarian appeal. 

While many have assumed that the marked rise in fervor and devotion in recent years in Iran was primarily due to the influence of Ahmadinejad, this statement reveals that Mahdist devotion is also held quite fervently by Ayatollah Khamenei as well. 

According to Al-Arabiya, Saeedi emphasized that obedience to the Ayatollah is the same as obedience to the Mahdi or the "guided one" – "who is the prophesied savior of Islam." 

With news arriving this past week that Iran now has the capability to develop nuclear weapons, the Mahdist conference and this call for Islamic unity under the banner of the Mahdi takes on an added dimension of interest. Last year, one of the presenters at the Mahdist conference, Dr. Mariam Tabar, asserted the, "military capabilities of the future Mahdist state depend on Islamic governments in the here and now acquiring abilities to stand against the enemies of the imam [al-Mahdi]." 

Opening the conference this year, was Dr. Mahdi Mostafavi, the chairman of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization, who spoke against the dangers and evils of Christian Zionism. "Putting an end to the tyranny and brutality" of Zionism is one of the basic goals of Mahdism, he explained. 

Dr. Mostafavi also offered a wildly distorted version of the Christian end time narrative. Claiming that Christians are making efforts to bring about the Battle of Armageddon, he stated: 

"In order to make this war happen they consider brutality, war and violence allowed and in their propaganda, they ask Christians and especially soldiers to create a situation for Jesus to reappear. These soldiers would be considered martyrs if they are killed in this way and would be in the circle of Messiah's Twelve disciples," Dr. Mostfavi explained. 

"These evangelists try to reinforce their belligerent notion ideologically even by mentioning verses from Gospel. They start war in Afghanistan and Iraq, torture prisoners of war in detention camps like Abu Ghraib, and spread their doctrines throughout the whole world." 

While the Christian narrative of the return of Jesus is one where Christians passively await a savior to deliver them from an aggressive empire, Islamic narratives often portray Muslims as aggressively and actively pursuing Islamic world dominance, particularly over the nation of Israel. 

This year, it was also announced that Iran will be establishing a University of Mahdism to train theologians and politicians, according to Richardson, who has been assembling details of the recent conference. 

One speaker at the conference, Abdollah Adam Gaya from Nigeria, spoke about the need to export Mahdism to the West:

"In order to fight against the Western cultural invasion against Islamic Shiite values, we must also export the Mahdism culture to the West… Imperialist powers fear the growth of that culture and therefore they are after attacking it. …"

Gaya also explained that the vehicle of Mahdism was the most effective tool to unite not only all Muslim countries, but also the whole world:

"Propagating and defining the Mahdism Culture are the most effective steps in order to establish unity among Muslim Nations of the world because not only Mesianism and Mahdism are the common grounds for understanding between all Muslims but between all religions in the world," he added.

While some Muslims have emphasized the peaceful nature of the Mahdi's reign, many in Iran obviously disagree. 

Adnan Oktar, a prominent Turkish intellectual and Sunni author has repeatedly emphasized that under the Mahdi; no blood will be shed, guns and weapons will be eliminated and any traditions which infer anything different are unreliable. 

Others however have a very different view. In His work Imam al-Mahdi, the Just Leader of Humanity, Ayatollah

Ibrahim al Amini, professor at the Religious Learning Center at Qom affirms Larijani’s comments, when he states, "The Mahdi will offer the religion of Islam to the Jews and Christians; if they accept it they will be spared, otherwise they will be killed." 

Many evangelical Christians believe the Bible predicts a charismatic ruler, the Antichrist, will arise in the last days, before the return of Jesus. The Quran also predicts that a man, called the Mahdi, will rise up to lead the nations, pledging to usher in an era of peace. Richardson makes the case these two men are, in fact, one in the same.

Art's Commentary....I believe these two will appear to be one and the same, but that will be due to the desception of the Roman prince, the Antichrist.

'traditionalist Catholics' Attack, Expel Christians in Mexico
Aug 20th, 2009
Daily NewsCompass Direct News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Persecution

MEXICO CITY, August 19  – “Traditionalist Catholic” leaders last month expelled 57 evangelical Christians from towns in two states for refusing to participate in their religious festivals. Leaders of traditionalist Catholicism, a mixture of Roman Catholicism and native rituals, expelled 32 Christians from their homes in a village in Hidalgo state and another 25 from a town in Oaxaca; in each case, the evangelicals were deprived of their property for refusing to participate in drunken festivals that included worship of Catholic icons. Hundreds of evangelical Christians from six states of Mexico organized a caravan on Aug. 10 on behalf of the 32 evangelicals from Los Parajes, near Huejutla in Hidalgo state, who were violently torn from their homes on July 13 when the town’s traditionalist Catholic leaders struck them with machetes and ropes. They were forced to leave behind 121 acres of land planted with crops, as well as their homes and animals. The Christians had reached an agreement with the community in February allowing them to choose to follow their own faith, but when Enedino Luna Cruz became town leader he burned the document, according to the evangelicals. In the southwestern state of Oaxaca, in the Yavelotzi community near San Jacinto, 25 Christians were threatened and expelled from their homes on July 17, also for refusing to participate in drunken festivals and worship of Catholic icons, according to Christian support organization Open Doors.

'i Am not Afraid of the Americans,' Declares Israeli Minister
Aug 20th, 2009
Daily NewsIsrael Today
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon said at a public event earlier this week that he does not fear American pressure regarding Jewish settlements, and urged the rest of the government to take a similar stand against US President Barack Obama's demands that Jewish construction come to a halt in areas claimed by the Palestinians.

"I, for one, am not afraid of the Americans," Ya'alon said. "I believe that Jews have the right to live anywhere in the Land of Israel forever."

Ya'alon called often-militant left-wing groups that regularly assail Israeli settlers "a virus," and lashed out at a left-leaning media that frequently resorts to character assassination against right-wing politicians.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summoned Ya'alon for an urgent meeting regarding his remarks. Netanyahu was reportedly upset that Ya'alon spoke at an event organized by his Likud Party rival, Moshe Feiglin.

Sources close to Netanyahu told The Jerusalem Post that he is "annoyed" by what he sees as pressure from Ya'alon and other right-wing ministers prior to next week's meeting with US Middle East envoy George Mitchell.