Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

U.S. Mideast Envoy Fails to Strike Settlement Deal
Sep 19th, 2009
Daily NewsBreitbart
Categories: Today's Headlines;Peace Process

US envoy George Mitchell appeared Friday to have failed to secure a key deal on Jewish settlements aimed at paving the way for a resumption of Middle East peace negotiations.

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Map of the occupied West Bank, locating planned expansions of Israel settle...

The former senator shuttled between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Friday, after having met with both leaders earlier this week.

He has been trying to wrest a compromise on the thorny issue that would have led to a three-way meeting between Netanyahu, Abbas and US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of next week's UN General Assembly.

"Mitchell told us he did not reach an agreement with the Israelis on freezing settlements," key Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told reporters after Mitchell held talks with Abbas in the occupied West Bank.

Mitchell met with Abbas after huddling with Netanyahu in the morning and was to hold a second meeting with the premier in Jerusalem later in the day.

He has been aiming to get some kind of an Israeli moratorium on settlement construction that would be acceptable to the Palestinians and enable the resumption of peace talks that were suspended in late December.

Netanyahu has so far rebuffed US calls to freeze settlement construction in the West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, and Palestinians are sticking to their demand for such a halt before negotiations can resume.

Abbas told Mitchell that "the issue of a settlement halt is not up for compromise," Erakat said.

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Obama Promised Jewish Homes to Palestinians?
Sep 19th, 2009
Daily NewsWND - Aaron Klein
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Peace Process

Official says American president 'fed up' with Israel

JERUSALEM – President Obama is "fed up" with Israel while his administration has given the Palestinians guarantees they will eventually take over Jewish homes and buildings throughout most of the West Bank, a top Palestinian Authority official claimed to WND.

"We heard from the U.S. that no matter what Israel is building in the West Bank, it will not affect a final status agreement to create a Palestinian state," said the PA official, who spoke on condition his name be withheld.

"The Americans told us (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu might construct in the West Bank for now but we (Palestinians) can enjoy these houses later. The evacuated homes will not be destroyed like some were when Israel pulled out of Gaza," the official said.

The official said Obama has adopted the position of PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who presented a plan to create a Palestinian state within two years based largely on the 1967 borders, meaning Israel would retreat from the West Bank and eastern sections of Jerusalem.

The official said the U.S. would back Israel retaining what are known as main settlement blocs, a reference to certain large Jewish West Bank communities such as Gush Etzion.

The official, however, said the U.S. does not support Israel retaining the E1 area in Jerusalem, referring to Maale Adumim, a Jewish community in eastern Jerusalem.

The issue of Jewish construction is contentious. Obama has demanded Israel halt all settlement activity, or Jewish building projects in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem.

Obama's Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, is in the region attempting to negotiate a settlement freeze. Talks between Netanyahu and Mitchell, which continued today, failed to reach an agreement. A deal could allow for a tripartite meeting between Obama, Netanyahu, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly next week.

Nasrallah: Eradicate Cancerous Israel
Sep 19th, 2009
Daily NewsYnet News - Roee Nahmias
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Peace Process

Hezbollah Chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah criticized moderate Arab nations which support normalization with Israel  Friday, saying that Israel was "a cancer… a metastasis which must be eradicated."

In a speech given in honor of the last day of Ramadan and "al-Qods day," Nasrallah stressed that "normalization with Israel is forbidden according to the sage ones (of Shiite tradition). Palestine, from river to sea, in the property of the Palestinian nation.

"The Zionists have no right to the land and no one – Arab, Palestinian, Muslim or Christian – has any right to give away one inch of Palestinian land. The Israeli entity is aggressive, cancerous and illegal. No one is allowed to recognize its existence or pursue normalization with it."

The Hezbollah leader pointed out that his support of Palestinian groups correlates with his criticism of the moderate Arab forces, especially Egypt, calling on all to "support the Palestinian people and the Palestinian resistance – lift the siege they are under. You don’t have to supply them with arms, but let them smuggle them.

"If you don’t want to aid the Palestinian, Iran  will," he continued, "But don’t give Israel information on the Palestinian tunnels, or on their leaders' whereabouts. Either support the Palestinian people, or let it be."

As for the chances of another war, Nasrallah aid that "if Israel will try to attack Lebanon in the future we will have to turn the threat into an opportunity… if we can run them to the ground and destroy them, if we can eliminate the Israeli army, what kind of future will Israel have in the region

Muslim Militants Slay Long - Time Christian in Somalia
Sep 19th, 2009
Daily NewsCompass Direct News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Persecution

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept. 18  – The faith journey of a long-time underground Christian in Somalia ended in tragedy this week when Islamic militants controlling a security checkpoint killed him after finding Bibles in his possession. Militants from the Muslim extremist al Shabaab killed 69-year-old Omar Khalafe on Tuesday (Sept. 15) at a check-point they controlled 10 kilometers from Merca, a Christian source told Compass. A port city on the Indian Ocean 70 kilometers (45 miles) from Mogadishu, Merca is the main city of the Lower Shabele region. Leaving Mogadishu by bus at 7:30 a.m., Khalafe was carrying 25 Somali Bibles he hoped to deliver to an underground fellowship in Somalia. By 10:30 a.m. he had arrived at the checkpoint controlled by al Shabaab, a rebel group linked with al Qaeda that has taken over large parts of the war-torn country. A source in Somalia who spoke on condition of anonymity told Compass that the passengers were ordered to disembark from the bus for inspection. The Islamic militants found 25 Somali Bibles in one of the passengers’ bags; when they asked to whom the Bibles belonged, the passengers responded with a chilled silence. The militants found several photos in the bag and saw that the elderly Khalafe resembled a face in one of them, the source said. They asked Khalafe if he was the owner of the Bibles; he kept quiet. They shot him to death

83 Percent of Statistics Made Up on the Spot
Sep 19th, 2009
Daily NewsCanada Free Press - Dr. Tim Ball
Categories: Commentary;Warning

Saki (H.H Munro) said, "A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation." Today we have tons of inaccuracy and very little explanation. Most inaccuracies come from claims based on non-existent or inadequate historical data, extremely crude estimates, computer model projections, or are simply incorrect. It's prevalent in environmental issues but particularly bad with climate and animal extinctions. The reason is because they're the most politicized, which automatically takes them further from the truth. As Henry Adams said, "Practical politics consists of ignoring the truth."

Speculative and Theoretical Nonsense

A good example is a 2008 report that claimed, "Human activity is wiping out close to one per cent of every other species on Earth every year, a global environmental report said Friday." What absolute rubbish. They can't possibly substantiate these claims. We don't know how many species there are. We are finding new species all the time. We don't have even crude estimates of populations. We don't know how much population numbers vary. What do they mean by "every other"? They should name all the species that comprise their claims?

Numbers in the 2008 Report are part of the ridiculous, completely unscientific, claims made originally by E.O. Wilson about species extinction. Self-proclaimed Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki traveled across the country a few years ago claiming the demise of 2 species an hour. He wouldn't name any of them because it's a false claim. It undoubtedly originated with E.O Wilson, who is listed as an honorary Board member of the Suzuki Foundation in the 2003 Annual Report.

Wilson introduced his idea of extinction based on mathematical estimates and false assumptions. "A good proxy for the rate of extinction is the rate of growth in energy used by the human population. In other words, extinction rates are increasing in step with the product of population growth times the growth in affluence."

Wilson's actual extinction claim was 27,000 per year. He also predicted 22 percent of all species will be extinct by 2022. It's time the media provided a daily obituary column with names of the 48 species provided by the Suzuki Foundation. It won't happen because they don't exist, but that won't stop others making false claims.

Claims of declining numbers work because we're emotionally vulnerable to charges we're negatively impacting animal populations. They work because people believe populations don't change much naturally therefore large or sudden changes are due to humans.

They works because the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) made a statement in their 2007 Impact Report that "Global-scale assessment of observed changes shows that it is likely that anthropogenic warming over the last three decades has had a discernible influence on many physical and biological systems."

This is out of context and unsupportable. The word "likely" is defined as a 66 to 90% probability, which undercuts the certainty of the statement. It's out of context because you can't determine the human effect without knowing or understanding natural change. This is the major problem with the IPCC Science Report on climate so it is not surprising to see it repeated in the Impact Report.

'gaza Report Unfair, Lenient With Hamas'
Sep 19th, 2009
Daily NewsAP - Jpost
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

The Obama administration sharply criticized a UN report Friday alleging that Israel committed multiple war crimes in Operation Cast Lead this year. The State Department statement ended nearly a week of muted reactions to findings already rejected by Israel.

The US State Department said the conclusions of a UN commission headed by South African Justice Richard Goldstone were unfair to Israel and did not fully deal with the role in the conflict of the Palestinian group Hamas. It said the United States objected to a recommendation that Israeli actions be referred to the International Criminal Court.

"Although the report addresses all sides of the conflict, its overwhelming focus is on the actions of Israel," spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.

"While the report makes overly sweeping conclusions of fact and law with respect to Israel, its conclusions regarding Hamas's deplorable conduct and its failure to comply with international humanitarian law during the conflict are more general and tentative," he said.

The UN report, released Tuesday, faulted Israel for civilian deaths in Gaza, saying it used disproportionate force in the offensive. About 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the three-week conflict. Israel charged that Hamas was to blame, saying its fighters placed rocket launchers and forces in crowded neighborhoods.

The report also called Hamas's firing of rockets at Israeli civilians a war crime.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu slammed the findings, saying Israel's security forces were exercising their country's right to self-defense. The United States had been largely silent until Friday, limiting its response to expressions of concern about unspecified content and the panel's mandate.

That mandate was given to Goldstone and his colleagues by the UN Human Rights Council this year, before US President Barack Obama decided to end the Bush administration's policy of snubbing the body and join it.

Kelly said Friday that the United States wanted to keep discussion of the report within the council and had "very serious concerns" about a recommendation that it be raised at other bodies, including the International Criminal Court.

"We note in particular that Israel has the democratic institutions to investigate and prosecute abuses, and we encourage it to use those institutions," he said.

US officials also are troubled by the possibility that Arab states and others might attempt to raise the report at next week's UN General Assembly session. Kelly said it was important for the world to remain focused on trying to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

"We hope efforts related to the Middle East at the Human Rights Council and other international bodies will look to the future and how we can support the goal of a two-state solution," he said.