Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Uk Implements Big Brother Controls
Dec 6th, 2009
Daily NewsFuturestorm blogspot. com
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary;Warning

When George Orwell wrote 1984, he probably never imagined that society would actually become that oppressive. Yet in some nations of the world it has. In fact, in nations such as the U.K., "Big Brother" controls have now been implemented that are so bizarre that Orwell could not have possibly envisioned them during the time in which he lived. The most intimate and personal details of the lives of millions of people in the U.K. are tightly monitored and controlled by a technocracy that would have been unimaginable just a few decades ago. The following are some signs that the U.K. has now become one of the most controlling Big Brother societies on earth.....

#1) The U.K. has more surveillance cameras per citizen than anywhere else in the world. In fact, according to one estimate, there are 4.8 million video cameras constantly watching every move citizens make.

#2) Government education inspectors in the U.K. have announced that the 40,000 parents who homeschool their own children must undergo criminal records checks.

#3) U.K. authorities are now admitting that every phone call, text message, email and website visit made by private citizens will be stored for one year and will be available for monitoring by government agencies.

#4) Officials in the U.K. have spent two years and massive amounts of money on a study they claim proves that 10-pin bowling is a health and safety hazard and should be banned.

#5) Parents at one school in the U.K. are being forced to undergo background checks to prove that they are not pedophiles before they are allowed to accompany their children to school Christmas carol events.

#6) A U.K. Parliamentary briefing note published in November 2009 maintains that the U.K. government has the power to impose nationwide mandatory swine flu vaccinations under the Civil Contingencies Act of 2004.

#7) Thousands of "dysfunctional" families in the U.K. are being subjected to intensive 24-hour surveillance to make sure that their children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals. About 2,000 families have already gone through these "Family Intervention Projects", and the U.K. government plans to increase the scope of this program to 20,000 more families over the next two years.

#8) A controversial new proposal in the U.K. would force political parties to make Parliament less white, male, middle-class and heterosexual.

#9) The U.K.'s new Internet law includes a "three strikes" rule that allows your entire family to be cut off from the Internet if anyone who lives in your house is accused of copyright infringement - without proof or evidence or trial.

#10) The U.K. government's obsession with collecting personal data has now extended to 5 year olds, as local Community Health Services are preparing to get parents to reveal the most intimate details of their child’s personal, behavioral and eating habits.

#11) The U.K. government is going to make sure that their citizens are "environmentally friendly" whether they like it or not. Under a new government plan, energy experts in the U.K. are going to visit every home in the country in order to "help them go green". As part of "The Great British Refurb", teams of "energy advisers" will go "house by house, street by street" to tell people what they must do in order to become eco-friendly.

#12) The U.K. has become absolutely obsessed with garbage, with huge fines imposed on those who do not dispose of their trash in the prescribed manner. 

#13) The head of the Environment Agency in the U.K. believes that implementing individual carbon allowances for each citizen will be the most effective way of meeting the targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

#14) In an almost inconceivable move, personal checks are to be abolished under controversial plans being drawn up by U.K. bankers.

#15) In the U.K., the study of evolution is to become a compulsory subject in all state primary schools.

#16) The U.K. government is being forced by the European Commission to eliminate exemptions that allow churches to refuse to employ homosexual staff.

#17) Parents in the U.K. are about to lose the right to withdraw their child from sex education classes when the child reaches 15 years of age.

#18) The U.K. is in the process of implementing a "National Identity Card" which will be able to hold fifty different categories of information on each U.K. citizen, including digital facial scans, digital iris scans and up to 10 fingerprints. 

Towards a One World Religious System - Parliament of the World’s Religions Elects Muslim As Chairman
Dec 6th, 2009
Daily Newsekklesia.co.uk
Categories: Today's Headlines;One World Church

At its recent biannual meeting, the Board of Trustees of the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions elected as its chair Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid. The new leader's term of office begins on 1 January 2010. 

He succeeds the Rev Dr William E. Lesher, who has served as chair since 2003. 

The organization traces its roots to the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions, which took place in conjunction with the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In 1993 the council organized and hosted the first modern Parliament of the World's Religions, also in Chicago. Subsequent Parliaments have been held in 1999 in Cape Town, South Africa; and in 2004 in Barcelona, Spain.

Abdul Malik Mujahid is an imam in the Chicago Muslim community and president of Sound Vision Foundation, which produces Radio Islam, America's only daily Muslim call-in talk show.

Dr Lesher said he considers Imam Mujahid "marvellously equipped" to serve as the board's highest elected officer. "He brings to the chair a deep commitment to his own faith tradition," he said. "The Imam has an understanding of how religion is a force in American society and also in societies throughout the world."

"Most older things are known to fade away, but the Parliament is a phenomenon that constantly reinvents itself," Imam Mujahid said. "We were ahead of our ourselves in Cape Town when we started engaging guiding institutions around the world on sustainability," Imam Mujahid said. "Now it's the talk of the town."

The organisation is preparing for the fourth modern Parliament to be held Dec. 3-9 in Melbourne, Australia. As part of the Parliament, an Indigenous assembly will convene Indigenous participants from around the world.

"As we deal with issues of poverty and climate change, we'll be nourishing all of our discourse with the perspective of Indigenous people - who happen to suffer the most from the excessive consumption that drives ruthless economic development," Imam Mujahid said.

"Little did we know, two or three years ago, that not only we would be focused on environmental issues and climate change, but that the whole world would be with the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference," Dr Lesher added.

Imam Mujahid is a former chair of the Council of Islamic Organisations of Greater Chicago, and has written extensively on religion, public policy and applied aspects of Islamic living. 

Revelation 14:12-13
Dec 6th, 2009
Exploring RevelationArt Sadlier
Categories: Commentary;Prophecy;Book Study

Vision five   The Patience of the Saints

"Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God. and the faith of Jesus.  And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them."

We know that many will not worship the beast, those that refuse will be killed. I personally believe that these tribulation saints that will be killed will be gentiles who will be saved during that time. I believe that the Jewish believers who will be saved at that time will be preserved through the tribulation. Zechariah tells us that they will make up one third of the Jewish population with the other Jews, whom God foreknows will not respond, being killed during that time, Zechariah 13:8-9.

John Phillips gives us a graphic description of that hour as the beast tries to intimidate the believers into submission. "I'll make you suffer screams!" the beast. "You'll make us saints!" reply the overcomers. "I'll persecute you to the grave,!" roars the beast, "You will promote us to glory", reply the overcomers. "I'll blast you!!" snarls the beast. "You'll bless us!" reply the overcomers. The beast's rage against these noble martyrs will be all in vain. He will utterly fail.

I see a parallel between this situation and the situation with Job. Satan said to the Lord, Job only serves you for what he gets out of you. He implied that God was not worthy of a man's worship. Job proved Satan wrong as will these tribulation martyrs. Job suffered for the glory of God and God richly rewarded him. The same will be true of the tribulation martyrs, their reward will far exceed the suffering. The suffering will be temporary, but for a fleeting moment, in which God will give grace, the glory will be forever and ever.

For those who will still be living during that time and will come to Christ, the Lord has a word of comfort. "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth", what a happy contrast with the eternal doom of those who blaspheme God by worshipping the beast. Our situation is similar, although not as dramatic.

This world of sin and rebellion against God is a very sad place, though Satan tries to paint it as attractive as he can. To escape this present world for heaven is the ultimate blessing, to be in the presence of God and Christ, what a blessing awaits us who know Him!

"Here is the patience of the saints", Patience  is one of the fruits of the Spirit, this generation of saints will give a marvellous demonstration of this fruit of the Spirit. The fruits of the Spirit are the manifestation of the life of Christ, at that time in the Tribulation period Christ will be manifest to the world in the lives of these patient believers. This is the calling of God's people all down through the ages, but like many other situations in the last days this will be emphasized and magnified. How pleased God will be with these special children of His.

The question that comes to our hearts, "is it fair for those tribulation martyrs to suffer so terribly when we in our calling have had no such trials?"

Let me give my answer. I knew a man when I was younger, his name was Robert McClintock. This man came over to Canada from Ireland in the late thirties. He began to build houses, a few at a time. When the second war ended there was a building boom and Mr McClintock became a very rich man. He was also one of the most godly humble men I have ever known, he was constantly trying to help those who had needs.

I also read about another man in Russia. This man was separated from his family and sent to the labour camps of Siberia because of his faith in Christ which he refused to renounce. He suffered for many years as he laboured in the freezing cold. Finally he froze to death.

Contrast his life with the life of Robert McClintock, Mr McClintock lived in the best house, drove the best car, ate in the best restaurants, wore the best clothes and never suffered persecutation. I ask you, is that fair of God? The answer comes ringing back, it has nothing to do with fairness, it has everything to do with the purpose of God in their lives. Both men glorified God in the calling of God on there lives.

The same situation applies to the tribulation Martyrs. The same applies to you and I, God has a purpose in our lives and that purpose is to glorify His name in and through us. God will reward us according to our faithfulness to His purpose.

Netanyahu Building Freeze Prelude to New Evacuation, Warn Settlers
Dec 6th, 2009
Daily NewsIsrael Today
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Israeli settler leaders on Saturday warned that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 10-month limited settlement freeze implemented under international pressure is a prelude to another round of uprooting Jews from lands claimed by the Palestinian Arabs.

During an emergency meeting of settler leaders in the Samarian town of Ofra, Likud MK Dani Danon called Netanyahu's decision a new "White Paper," referencing efforts by the British Mandate regime to severely curtail Jewish immigration to the Holy Land during the first half of the last century.

Settler leader Itzik Shadmi added, "You have to understand that what is happening here is the prelude to an evacuation, and anyone who does not understand this is not facing the truth."

The anti-settlement freeze lawmakers and local community leaders urged their supporters to engage in non-violent protest, such as a mass rally planned opposite the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem on Wednesday. They also vowed that building will continue in the settlements despite Netanyahu's decree.

Despite being nearly 300,000 strong, the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria view a mass evacuation as a very real possibility after former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon surprised everyone by actually uprooting over 10,000 Jews from the Gaza Strip in 2005.

Netanyahu insists that his settlement freeze in temporary and will not be repeated. But those who have been observing the Middle East conflict closely know that once Israel has made a major concession, international pressure rarely allows the Jewish state to return to go back on it.

Jordan: Israeli Peace Moves Insufficient
Dec 6th, 2009
Daily NewsYahoo News - Roee Nahmias
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Peace Process

Jordanian foreign minister says steps taken by Israel are illegal, violate international law

Jordan offers support for Palestinian Authority: Israeli moves meant to restart peace talks with the Palestinian Authority are insufficient, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said Saturday.

 Speaking at a press conference with his Palestinian counterpart Riyad al-Maliki, Judeh said: "We must boost our efforts in order to end the impasse in the peace process and in order to reignite serious and time-limited negotiations aimed at reaching a two-state solution."

 Amman has stressed that the steps undertaken by Israel are illegal and constitute violation of international law by expanding its hold, as an occupying force, on the West Bank and east Jerusalem," the Jordanian minister said. He added that America's involvement is essential in order to restart the peace process.

Jordan's official news agency Petra reported that Minister Judeh stressed Amman's rejection of Israel's unilateral moves, especially in respect to Jerusalem, settlement construction, the razing of homes, a the expulsion of east Jerusalem residents, and steps that hurt holy Christian and Muslim sites.

Israel Settlement Freeze Inspectors Accompanied By Brutish Guards
Dec 6th, 2009
Daily NewsIsrael Today
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Residents of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria have taken to physically blocking entry to government inspectors sent to issue no-work orders and enforce Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's settlement freeze.

So on Sunday, the government responded by ordering units of Israel's hard-nosed Yasam anti-terror police unit to accompany the inspectors. Yasam officers are known for being very effective in their efforts to battle terrorists, but are even more known for their brutal tactics when deployed against fellow Israelis.

In one incident on Sunday at the Samarian town of Kedumim, Yasam officers reportedly struck the town's mayor and threw several young local girls to the ground to clear a way for the inspectors.

The government of former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert came under heavy fire for deploying Yasam officers against young Jewish settlers trying to prevent the destruction of small settler outposts. A number of young, unarmed Jews were severely wounded in those clashes nearly two years ago.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu on Sunday reminded average Israelis that the settlers are their brothers, sent to settle Judea and Samaria much as Jews were sent to settle Tel Aviv a century earlier. Netanyahu's settlement freeze and settler opposition to it has resulted in increased public vilification of those Jews who hold to their biblical mandate to settle all of the land given by God to their forefathers.

The prime minister reiterated that the settlement freeze will end in 10 months, regardless of how the international community views the situation.

Does the Bible Predict the use of Nuclear Weapons?
Dec 6th, 2009
Commentarywww.lamblion.com
Categories: Prophecy;Exhortation

"And I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him..." (Revelation 6:8)

On August 6, 1945, when the Enola Gay's bombardier Tom Ferebee sighted Hiroshima's Aioi Bridge, he knew the moment had arrived. Squeezing the trigger on his Norden bombsight, he became the first man in history to drop a nuclear weapon upon a populated city. Tail gunner Bob Caron, after being temporarily blinded, described what he saw on the ground below: 

"It's like bubbling molasses down there... the mushroom is spreading out... fires are springing up everywhere... it's like a peep into hell."

The people of Hiroshima within half a mile of the explosion were seared to bundles of smoking char in a fraction of a second. Thousands of these small black bundles could be seen stuck to streets, bridges, and sidewalks. Birds ignited in midair, and 70,000 buildings were obliterated. Mankind had entered the atomic age, the end of which was too terrifying to contemplate.

The Nature of Armageddon

Since the beginning of the atomic age, nuclear weapons and the term "Armageddon" have been frequently linked together. Billy Graham rose to prominence in the 1950's proclaiming that the nuclear "sword of Damocles" was hanging over all the nations, and that only Christ was a sure foundation in such perilous days. Hal Lindsey"s mega best seller, The Late Great Planet Earth (1970), made a strong case for a nuclear holocaust scenario in the days of tribulation predicted in the book of Revelation.

Even secular sources took up the theme. The June 12, 1981 Toronto Globe and Mail noted that the decision to go ahead with the neutron bomb was the biggest step taken toward Armageddon since 1961. In San Francisco today you can call a number and get a recorded message by the Doom Society for Secular Armageddonism, who, in melodramatic tones, tell you that we are living in the end times and that the coming end of the world is a fait accompli. They are quick to deny that God might have anything to do with this, however, and insist that the coming end of the world will be strictly do-it-yourself, as a result of such things as nuclear proliferation, racism, ultra nationalism, and (you might have guessed) religious fundamentalism.

The First Bombs

Many Americans associate nuclear weapons with Armageddon, because, of all man's discoveries and inventions, they alone contain the capacity to wipe out all human life on the earth within a few short hours. Let us consider the awesome power in the first primitive atomic bombs.

The bomb dropped on Hiroshima, called "Little Boy," was flown there in a B-29 bomber and aimed with a bombsight. It weighed nearly ten thousand pounds and had the explosive power of 12,500 tons of TNT. At ground zero, the point immediately beneath the weapon, the temperature reached above 3,000 degrees centigrade. Within seconds, what had been a thriving city became a wasteland. No part of the city was left untouched. Eighty thousand people died instantly, many burning into black bundles while in mid step. A six hour firestorm began. An eyewitness - a college professor - described it thus: 
"I climbed Hikiyama Hill and looked down. I saw that Hiroshima had disappeared... I was shocked by the sight... I saw many dreadful scenes after that - but that experience, looking down and finding nothing left of Hiroshima was so shocking that I simply can't express what I felt... Hiroshima didn't exist - that was mainly what I saw - Hiroshima just didn't exist."

50 Years Later

After the end of World War II, Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Los Alamos project which had given birth to this terrible weapon, was asked whether there were any significant limitations in the future of nuclear weapons. He replied, "If you are asking, 'Can we make them more terrible?' the answer is yes. If you are asking, 'Can we make lots more of them?' the answer is yes. If you are asking, 'Can we make them terribly more terrible?' the answer is, probably."

Today, some fifty years later, that probably has turned into a certainty. We have made them terribly more terrible.

Considering the horrific devastation caused by those first bombs dropped upon Japan, it would be reasonable to suggest that if we merely doubled their destructive power we would have created a monster of mind boggling dimensions. To triple or quadruple such a bomb would be worse still. If one such bomb can create such total destruction to a major city, what could a bomb four times that size do? But we have not merely created weapons three or four times as deadly. While the "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" bombs were measured in kilotons, today's bombs are measured in megatons. A one megaton bomb contains the explosive power of eighty Hiroshimas. Bombs have been tested which are 4,000 times as powerful as those dropped upon Japan. The only thing merciful about these bombs is that you wouldn't have to worry so much about horrible injuries to survivors - there wouldn't be any survivors!

Is This What John Saw?

Nearly two thousand years ago, an elderly Christian leader was banished to an island as a punishment for sharing his faith in Christ. There, as he communed with the Lord on the island, he had a series of visions which described things which would take place in the last days. The man's name was John and the visions he saw were recorded and are now known as the book of Revelation.

Many have tried to defuse the book by turning it into a giant parable in which nothing can be definitely known except that in the end Christ will triumph and all will be well. But such an interpretation makes all the details of the visions meaningless. Some have dared to suggest that John's visions may have been more literal than most have supposed. This more literalistic interpretation just might make sense if John was seeing the terrible results of a nuclear holocaust just before Christ's coming to claim planet earth.

In his book There's A New World Coming (1973), Hal Lindsey writes: 
"Although it is possible for God to supernaturally pull off every miracle in the Book of Revelation and use totally unheard of means to do it, I personally believe that all the enormous ecological catastrophes described in this chapter (Revelation 8) are the direct result of nuclear weapons. In actuality, man inflicts these judgments on himself. God simply steps back and removes His restraining influence from man, allowing him to do what comes naturally out of his sinful nature. In fact, if the Book of Revelation had never been written, we might well predict these very catastrophes within fifty years or less!"

Copenhagen Climate Change Talks Set to Begin
Dec 6th, 2009
Daily NewsBBC News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues;World Government

Officials from 192 countries are gathering in Denmark's capital Copenhagen for talks aimed at reaching a new global deal on climate change.

Any agreement is intended to supplant the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

The UN official panel on climate change says emissions must be limited to avoid dangerous global temperature rises.

Ahead of the talks, the panel hit back at claims that human influence on global warming has been exaggerated.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said it was standing by its findings in response to a row over the reliability of data from a UK university.

Hacked e-mail exchanges from East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit have prompted climate change sceptics to claim that data has been manipulated.

Expectations lowered

The Copenhagen talks are being held in recognition of the fact that the Kyoto Protocol's targets are not sufficient to avoid impacts projected by the IPCC, and run out in 2012.

They are set to go on for nearly two weeks, with dozens of world leaders set to attend the later stages.

These include US President Barack Obama, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Almost all countries attending the meeting agree a deal must be reached.

The main areas for discussion include:

• Targets to curb greenhouse gas emissions, in particular by developed countries
• Financial support for mitigation of and adaptation to climate change by developing countries
• A carbon trading scheme aimed at ending the destruction of the world's forests by 2030

Environmental activists are planning demonstrations in Copenhagen and around the world on 12 December, in an attempt to encourage delegates to reach the strongest possible deal.

Tens of thousands marched in London and other UK and European cities on Saturday to urge action.

But expectations for the meeting have fallen, correspondents say.

Whatever is agreed will no longer have a legally binding basis. Instead, experts hope to produce a framework which could lead to the signing of binding final agreements by next year.

The European Union, which had sought a legally-binding agreement, has offered a 20% cut in its emissions from 1990 levels by 2020, rising to 30% in the event of a global agreement.

The US is pledging to cut its emissions in several stages, beginning with a 17% cut from 2005 levels by 2020.

India and China have both agreed to reduce their "carbon intensity", a measure of the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per unit of GDP.

Washington is currently unable to commit to its pledges for the talks, as a bill to cap its emissions is currently stuck in the Senate and will not be passed before the new year.

Australia is in a similar position, after its opposition-controlled Senate rejected a bill to curb emissions.

Christ Precedence
Dec 6th, 2009
Thought for the WeekA.W.Tozer
Categories: Commentary;Inspirational

. . ?If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple? (14:26-27).
What Christ is saying here is that faith in Him immediately introduces another and a higher loyalty into the life. He demands and must have first place. For the true disciple it is Christ before family, Christ before country, Christ before life itself. The flesh must always be sacrificed to the spirit and the heavenly placed ahead of the earthly, and that at any cost. When we take up the cross, we become expendable, along with all natural friendships and all previous loyalties, and Christ becomes all in all.

In these days of sweet and easy Christianity, it requires inward illumination to see this truth and real faith to accept it. We had better pray for both before time runs out on us.

Beware the Winds of December
Dec 6th, 2009
Commentarywww.atimes.com
Categories: Contemporary Issues;The Nation Of Israel

While America has been absorbed by the Afghan election imbroglio, a less-noticed event slid into place in the Middle East. It is less dramatic than President Hamid Karzai's near removal; but this event tilts the strategic balance: Turkey finally shrugged off its United States straight-jacket; stared past any beckoning European Union membership; and has fixed its eyes toward its former Ottoman Asian and Middle Eastern neighbors. 

Turkey did not make this shift merely to snub the West; but it does reflect Turkey's discomfort and frustration with US and EU policy - as well as resonate more closely with the Islamic renaissance that has been taking place within Turkey. 

This "release" of Turkish policy towards a new direction - if successful - can be as significant as the destruction of Iraq and the implosion of Soviet power was, 20 years ago, in "releasing" Iran to emerge as one of the pre-eminent powers in the region. 

In the past months, a spate of new agreements have been signed by Turkey with Iraq, Iran, Syria and Armenia, which suggest not just a nascent commonality of political vision with Iraq, Iran and Syria, but more importantly, it reflects a joint economic interest - the northern tier of Middle East states are in line to become the principal suppliers of natural gas to Europe - thus displacing Russia as the dominant purveyor of gas to central Europe. In short, the prospective Nabucco gas pipeline to central Europe may gradually eclipse the energy primacy of Saudi oil. 

What is mainly symbolic in the prospective passing of the baton of energy "kingpin" - at least for Europe - from Saudi Arabia to the "northern tier", however, is given substance, rather than symbolic form, in the simultaneous weakening of the "southern tier" - Saudi Arabia and Egypt - both of which have become partially incapacitated by their respective succession crises and domestic preoccupations. 

The weakening of the "southern tier" comes at a sensitive time. The region sees the drift of power from erstwhile US allies, Egypt and Saudi Arabia towards the northern tier, and, as is the way in the Middle East, is starting to readjust to the new power reality. 

This can be most clearly seen in Lebanon today, in the growing procession of former US allies and critics of the Syrian government, making their pilgrimage to Damascus. The message is not lost on others in the region either. 

The US administration sees these changes too. It additionally knows - as writers on the elsewhere have made clear - that any sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program ultimately will fail. They will fail not only because Russia and China will not play ball but precisely because the much touted "moderate alliance of pro-Western Arab states" is looking increasingly to be a paper tiger: the "moderates" are not seriously going to confront Iran and its allies. 

Hopes by those, such as John Hannah, writing on foreignpolicy.com, that the Saudi bombing of the Houthi rebels in Yemen would mobilize a sectarian Sunni hostility towards Shi'ite Iran have not been realized. On the contrary, the Saudis' action has been clearly seen in the region for what it is - a partisan and tribal intervention in another state's internal conflict. 

But if sanctions on Iran are widely acknowledged - at least in private within the US administration - as destined to fail, this must be provoking some interesting self-questioning within the White House: The US is in the process now of withdrawal from Iraq, it is looking for the exit in Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is getting messier. None of these events seems likely to become particularly glorious episodes for the administration. 

It is not hard to imagine White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel and White House senior adviser David Axelrod asking themselves, "why the president should want to risk another perceived failure" - as sanctions on Iran surely will be. "Why", they may ask, "do sanctions and open ourselves to persistent Republican jeering at their inevitable failure and then ultimately force us to have to ask ... well, what do we do next, Mr President"? 

"Worse, will we," they may ask, "be going into mid-term congressional elections with the Republicans raising that old Vietnam taunt that the ‘US Army did not lose in Vietnam - it was the politicians who stabbed the military in the back' but with that same mantra now being used by our political enemies to depict Iraq and Afghanistan as failures of political nerve? Do we want to go into the midterm elections with failing Iran sanctions hanging like an albatross around our necks too?" 

No doubt in this discussion one of the White House staffers will point out that, in the case of Iraq, sanctions were indeed pursued, despite the likelihood of their failure, but for one reason only: to entice the Europeans on board; to go through the diplomatic motions - so that the Europeans would have no choice but to accept the consequences of their failure. But this does not apply in the case of Iran, the officials might point out: Britain and France, and to a lesser extent Germany, are, on this issue, more committed to "imploding" the Iranian state - by "soft" war, if not by "hot" war - than is Washington - so what would be the purpose of sanctions now? 

We do not know the outcome to this hypothetical debate. We do not yet know that negotiations with Iran will fail; although it seems that the debate within the administration seems to be hardening against the idea of Iran retaining any enrichment capacity. If this does become the administration's position, then failure of negotiations is assured. Iran will not abjure its right to a nuclear fuel cycle for power generation - even at the risk of war. This is the essence of the dilemma: if sanctions seem likely to lead to nothing more than Republican sniping and taunts of weakness, how does the president display "toughness" on Iran - against the backdrop of withdrawal from Iraq, Afghanistan and abstention on the Israeli-Palestinian political process? 

It is clear that Israel must be reading the region in the same fashion. Israelis are acutely sensitive to US politics, and the Israeli media already express understanding for the acute dilemma that will face the US president if sanctions do not succeed in persuading Iran to abandon all enrichment (the Israeli objective). How might Israel see the way to help President Barack Obama resolve this dilemma - given the improbability that Israel will be given any "green light" to attack Iran directly, with all the consequences that such military action might entail for US interests in the region? 

A recent article by the veteran and well-connected Israeli columnist, Alex Fishman, in the Hebrew language newspaper, Yediot Ahronoth, perhaps offers some insights into how Israelis may be speculating about such issues when he warns about "the approaching December winds”. These winds, Fishman tells us, will bring more and new revelations - not about Iran's nuclear ambitions - but about Syria's nuclear projects: the departure of Mohamed ElBaradei from the chair at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), he states, will open the door to new IAEA demands to inspect two suspected nuclear sites in Syria. 

Fishman notes that, following the surfacing last month in Germany of stories that Israeli special forces had been on the ground covertly in Syria, no one should be surprised if more evidence and photographs of the nuclear reactor, destroyed by Israeli air attack in September 2007, come to dominate the headlines in the Western press this December. 

The "star" turn in this prospective public relations campaign is to be evidence proving a direct Iranian nuclear connection and finance for Syria's alleged nuclear project. 

Fishman suggests that it suits "Israel's internal as well as foreign PR efforts" for the time being to play along with talk of peace between Israel and Syria; but that both the December campaign against Syria's alleged Iranian nuclear cooperation in the Western press, and the playing along with the Syrian peace track "are directly linked to negotiations" that the US is conducting with Iran. Fishman concludes that these could end in confrontation with Iran - "and also lead to a military strike", in which case, "whomsoever is in the Iranian camp will also get a pounding" - a reference to Syria. 

Does this piece truly reflect Israeli thinking? We do not know; but Fishman certainly is well connected. Does the Israeli security establishment really conceive that the road to military action against Iran passes through Damascus? For those who recall the tacit support given by Europe and the US to Israel's 2007 surprise military attack on Syria, Fishman's scenario is not as unlikely as it may seem. 

That earlier episode could easily have escalated to a wider war. More likely is that this is but one of a number of "game changing" scenarios that Israel is considering, but which ultimately all have Iran as the "end game". 

In the past, Israel's political parties of the right had a reputation for conceiving unconventional military actions, which sought to transform and invert the political paradigm of that time. Such actions did not always wait on, or seek, a US "green light". There was not direct collusion with the US. Israeli leaders looked more to the direction of the political wind in Washington. It was viewed by Israelis historically as finding a creative way to help a US president "get to yes" - to borrow Obama's own phraseology - by creating the public support and momentum to let a US president feel pulled forward by sentiment from a need to "hold Israel back". 

Is a new scandal of Iranian nuclear malfeasance and proliferation into Syria to serve as the pretext? Will a repeat of the 2007 air strikes on Syria lead to a wider conflict? Does the Israeli leadership think to ease Obama out of his Iran dilemma, by using the supposed "provocation" of a "Syrian-Iranian nuclear partnership" for a widening conflict? Perhaps we should beware these December "winds"?