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U.S. to Drill Iranian Attack Scenario
Dec 17th, 2009
Daily NewsJpost.com
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

A top Pentagon official said Monday that a US missile defense drill would simulate an Iranian attack - a departure from the usual scenario of a North Korean attack - according to Reuters. 

"Previously, we have been testing the [Ground-Based Midcourse Defense] GMD system against a North Korean-type scenario. This next test... is more of a head-on shot like you would use defending against an Iranian shot into the United States. So that's the first time that we're now testing in a different scenario," Lt.-Gen. Patrick O'Reilly, head of the US Missile Defense Agency, said at the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit in Washington. 

According to O'Reilly, an Iranian attack would be more challenging than a North Korean attack because a missile fired from Iran would reach the US "more head-on than from the side," and therefore relatively faster. 

The test, scheduled for January, is expected to cost about $150 million. During the maneuver the US will fire an interceptor missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at a mock-Iranian missile which would be fired from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. 

O'Reilly was speaking just days after diplomats expressed concerns over reports that Iran had been testing a neutron initiator, a key element in producing nuclear weapons. 

A neutron initiator begins the implosion that ends with a nuclear blast. As a component of the nuclear cycle, it has no use in civilian or military programs, except in the production of atomic bombs. 

On Sunday, Britain's Times claimed it had obtained confidential intelligence documents from "foreign intelligence agencies" and quoted a source at an "Asian intelligence agency" as confirming that Iran had been working on the device "as recently as 2007." 

If the report is correct and Iran began developing the device while insisting its program was peaceful, it could be a casus belli, Mark Fitzpatrick, senior fellow for non-proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, was quoted by the Times as saying. 

"If Iran is working on weapons, it means there is no diplomatic solution," he said, adding, "Is this the smoking gun? That's the question people should be asking. It looks like the smoking gun. This is smoking uranium." 

U.S. Planning to Restart Israel - Pa Talks Based on '67 Borders
Dec 17th, 2009
Daily Newshaaretz.com
Categories: Today's Headlines;Peace Process

The United States and Egypt, along with France, are planning a joint move to restart Israeli-Palestinian talks on the basis of the June 4, 1967, borders, territorial exchanges and a complete freeze of construction beyond the Green Line, including East Jerusalem. The freeze would not be announced publicly. 

Egypt's foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said in an extensive interview with the Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat that "once they realized their earlier approach had failed, the Americans see themselves forced to change direction." 

He added that Egypt had recently discussed with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas the new strategies for negotiations raised in talks between Cairo, Washington and Paris. An Egyptian source told Haaretz that Egypt's intelligence minister, Omar Suleiman, is scheduled to visit Israel and then Washington in the coming days. 

At a press conference in Beirut last week, Abbas said he expects U.S. envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, to arrive in Jerusalem and Ramallah during the first week of January. He said Mitchell will be pushing an initiative to renew negotiations, in coordination with the Arab League and on the basis of a complete freeze of settlement construction for five months - without a public statement to that effect. 

Such an initiative would allow Abbas to hold general elections in the territories in June 2010. The Egyptian foreign minister said the new program would set up the basic principles of the negotiations, the intended results and a clear timetable. He added that an agreement would have to include the following points: Establishing a Palestinian state on all territories occupied in 1967, with a possibility for small-scale territorial exchanges; establishing East Jerusalem as a Palestinian capital; a just arrangement for all refugee issues; agreed security arrangements; normalization between the Arab world and Israel; and no construction in settlements until the negotiations are complete. 

Aboul Gheit also said the United States will soon present its position on this plan, and that there is a possibility that the plan would be made part of a United Nations Security Council resolution, a Quartet decision or speeches aimed at the negotiating sides. 

Meanwhile, a senior diplomatic source told Haaretz on Tuesday that there were gaps between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Abbas on the very definition of the negotiating process. Netanyahu demands the process be defined as "starting" negotiations, aiming to disregard understandings reached in talks between the Palestinians and his predecessor, Ehud Olmert. Abbas insists the process must take those understandings into consideration, and demands it be defined as a "resumption" of negotiations. The Americans propose a compromise in the form of "re-launching" the negotiations, said the source. 

U.S. Debt Now Exceeds the Debt Ceiling
Dec 17th, 2009
Daily Newscbsnews.com
Categories: Today's Headlines

The latest calculation of the National Debt as posted by the Treasury Department has - at least numerically - exceeded the statutory Debt Limit approved by Congress last February as part of the Recovery Act stimulus bill. 

The ceiling was set at $12.104 trillion dollars. The latest posting by Treasury shows the National Debt at nearly $12.135 trillion. 

A senior Treasury official told CBS News that the department has some "extraordinary accounting tools" it can use to give the government breathing room in the range of $150-billion when the Debt exceeds the Debt Ceiling. 

Were it not for those "tools," the U.S. Government would not have the statutory authority to borrow any more money. It might block issuance of Social Security checks and require a shutdown of some parts of the federal government. 

Pending in Congress is a measure to increase the Debt Limit by $290 billion, which amounts to six more weeks of routine borrowing for the federal government. (The House just passed the increase, though the Senate has yet to act. It is expected to approve the measure.) 

Republicans and conservative Democrats blocked moves by House leaders to pass a $1.8 trillion dollar increase in the Debt Limit so the Democratic majority would not have to face the embarrassment of raising the Debt Limit yet again before next November's midterm elections. 

The Debt Limit has been raised about a hundred times since 1940, when it was $49 billion - about five days worth of federal spending now. 

The White House projects a record $1.5 trillion dollars deficit this year alone, and a 5-year deficit total of $4.97 trillion. 

The Debt figure goes up and down on a daily basis based on government borrowing and revenue. Technically, not all of the National Debt is subject to the Debt Limit - a small percentage is exempt. 

The Jews have erected a temple in Jerusalem but it is not located on the Temple Mount
Dec 17th, 2009
News UpdateJimmy DeYoung
Categories: Jimmy DeYoung News

On a rooftop in the Jewish Quarter on the Old City of Jerusalem and overlooking the Temple Mount is a newly constructed temple model weighing over one ton and this temple model is for the purpose of teaching the Jewish people their Biblical heritage as well as introducing to all non-Jews a worship center that will one day stand on the Temple Mount. This model, build on a scale of 1 to 60, is made of gold, silver, wood, and Jerusalem stone, and has a hydraulic system that raises the sanctuary section of the temple model exposing the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant.

A Jewish yeshiva, which is a place of learning, constructed this temple model for the purpose of training those who will one day work in the real temple to be built on the Temple Mount but will also inform the world of what one day will be reality in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount.

Jimmy's Prophetic prospective on the News

A model of the temple in Jerusalem overlooking the Temple Mount is a foretaste of things to come - according to Bible prophecy.

The religious Jews at the yeshiva, which is a Jewish learning center, located in Jerusalem have constructed a model of the temple that one day will stand less than one mile away on the Temple Mount and they believe that this is a step closer to seeing the temple worship restored for the Jewish people. Not only will this temple model be used at this training center to teach those qualified to work at the coming temple but it will also train all Jews to worship as their forefathers did some 2000 years ago. The model is truly a step closer to the renewal of temple sacrifice and temple worship for the Jewish people. It is also a reminder to all of mankind that Bible prophecy will be fulfilled.

There are many ancient Jewish prophets that speak of a coming temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Davidic Covenant, recorded in II Samuel 7, promises a temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Kingdom Temple will be built by the Messiah Jesus Christ (Zechariah 6:12). The description of the Kingdom Temple can be found in Ezekiel 40-46 with 202 verses of detailed information about that temple. Daniel wrote, however, of the next temple to be built in Jerusalem (Daniel 9:27) and all the preparations have been made for that temple.

Bible prophecy will be fulfilled.

Obama Adopts New Palestinian Hard - Line Positions
Dec 17th, 2009
Daily NewsIsrael Today
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Peace Process

Israel made what US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called "unprecedented" gestures to get the peace process back on track. But the Palestinians refused, and instead introduced new hard-line positions. So, naturally, Washington and other international peace brokers are going to appease the Palestinians amid their most recent tantrum and adopt their new positions.

That according to Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, who told the pan-Arab daily newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat this week that the Palestinian refusal to conduct unconditional talks had forced the Obama Administration to stop relying on Israeli gestures, and instead force Israel to fully accept Arab demands.

"Once they realized their earlier approach had failed, the Americans see themselves forced to change direction," said Gheit.

The new peace initiative, which, according to Gheit, will be spearheaded by the US, Egypt and France, will be based on Israel implementing a full building freeze in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem at the outset of talks and a commitment by Israel to recognize a Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 borders, effectively prejudging the outcome of the negotiations.

Those conditions are fully in line with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' new positions, which he introduced days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu implemented a partial 10-month freeze on Jewish construction in order to facilitate a return to the negotiating table. The US at first praised Netanyahu's decision, and indirectly accused Abbas of holding up the peace process.

But as in the past, the US and international power brokers realize they cannot strong-arm the Palestinians without risking other regional assets, so they will apparently once again strong-arm Israel, which will upset no-one.

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell is expected to arrive in the coming weeks to get the new peace process rolling.

Minister: Obamacare Kills African - American Babies
Dec 17th, 2009
Daily NewsWND - Jerome R. Corsi
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Charges president has become 'the face of black genocide in America today'

A black minister who founded a website called BlackGenocide.org charges the Obama administration's health care reform legislation is designed to increase the number of abortions in the African-American community.

"It's sinister, but President Obama has become the face of black genocide in America today," said Rev. Clenard H. Childress Jr., senior pastor of the New Calvary Baptist Church in Montclair, N.J.

According to Childress, about 35 percent of the nearly 4,500 abortions performed each day in the U.S. are on African-Americans, even though African-Americans are only about 13.5 percent of the population.

Childress said 52 percent of all African-American pregnancies end in abortion, and three out of every five African-American women will obtain an abortion.

He estimated 16 million African-American babies have been aborted since the passage of Wade v. Roe in 1973.

Had the approximately 16 million African American babies aborted since the landmark Supreme Court decision been allowed to live, there likely would be more than 50 million African-Americans in the U.S. today. The last count, in 2007, was 40 million.

Iran Test - Fires Its Longest-range Missile - Israel, Europe Within Reach
Dec 17th, 2009
Daily News.foxnews.com
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

Iran on Wednesday test-fired an upgraded version of its most advanced missile, which is capable of hitting Israel and parts of Europe, in a new show of strength aimed at preventing any military strike against it amid the nuclear standoff with the West.

The test stoked tensions between Iran and the West, which is pressing Tehran to rein in its nuclear program. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said it showed the need for tougher U.N. sanctions on Iran.

"This is a matter of serious concern to the international community and it does make the case for us moving further on sanctions. We will treat this with the seriousness it deserves," Brown said after talks with U.N. chief Ban Ki-Moon in Copenhagen.

Wednesday's test was for the latest version of Iran's longest-range missile, the Sajjil-2, with a range of about 1,200 miles. That range places Israel, Iran's sworn enemy, well within reach, as well as U.S. bases in the Gulf region and parts of southeastern Europe.

The two-stage Sajjil-2 and is powered entirely by solid-fuel while the older, long-range Shahab-3 missile uses a combination of solid and liquid fuel in its most advanced form.

Iran has repeatedly warned it will retaliate if Israel or the United States carries out military strikes against its nuclear facilities, at a time when the U.S. and its allies accuse Tehran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran denies the claim, saying its program is intended solely to generate electricity.

Nuclear negotiations have been deadlocked for months, with Iran equivocating over a U.N.-drafted deal aimed at removing most of its low-enriched uranium from the country so it would not have enough stockpiles to produce a bomb. The U.N. nuclear watchdog last month sharply rebuked Iran for refusing to halt uranium enrichment.

State television broke the news in a one-sentence report accompanied by a brief clip of the test, showing the missile rising from the launch pad in a cloud of smoke.

Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi vowed that the Sajjil-2 would be a "strong deterrent" against any possible foreign attack. He said the new version can be fired more quickly and flies faster than previous ones making it harder to shoot down, though he did not give further details.

"Given its high speed," he said, speaking on state TV, "it is impossible to destroy the missile with anti-missile systems because of its radar-evading ability."

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor declined to comment on the latest missile test.

Iran has intensified its missile development program in recent years, a source of serious concern in Israel, the United States and its Western allies at a time when they accuse Tehran of seeking to build a nuclear weapon. Iran, which is under several sets of U.N. sanctions over its nuclear program, denies the charges and says its nuclear program is aimed solely at generating electricity.

Israel has not ruled out a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. Iran, in turn, has threatened that such an attack would be retaliated against with strikes on Israel's own nuclear sites.

The name "Sajjil" means "baked clay," a reference to a story in the Quran, Islam's holy book, in which birds sent by God drive off an enemy army attacking the holy city of Mecca by pelting them with stones of baked clay.

The Sajjil-2 was first tested in May. Iranian officials touted it as a breakthrough over the Sajjil-1 unveiled months earlier, saying the new missile had a more sophisticated navigation system. The Sajjil-2 was tested a second time in September.

Solid-fuel missiles like the Sajjil-2 are more accurate than the liquid fuel missiles of similar range currently possessed by Iran. They are also a concern because they can be fueled in advance and moved or hidden in silos. Iran previously had a solid-fuel missile, the Fateh, with a far shorter range of 120 miles.

Iran's arms manufacturing program began during the country's ruinous 1980-88 war with neighboring Iraq to compensate for a U.S. arms embargo. Since 1992, Iran has produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles and a fighter plane. The actual capabilities of the weapons, including the accuracy and range of the country's homemade missiles, are difficult to ascertain given the secrecy of the Iranian military.

Hamas Still Wants to Liberate 'all of Palestine'
Dec 17th, 2009
Daily NewsHaaretz
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Warning

The cat is out of the bag: Palestine, all of Palestine. Standing before 100,000 people in the center of Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh this week declared the objective of the Hamas movement. The moderate prime minister of the moderate faction of the Palestinian religious movement publicly announced the peace solution for which his government is aiming.

The ultimate solution is not the total liberation of the Gaza Strip or a Palestinian state. It is the liberation of all of Palestine.

Haniyeh did not say so outright, but his words are clear. Hamas is demanding Ramle and Lod, Haifa and Jaffa, Abu Kabir and Sheikh Munis. It is also demanding the land on which this article was written and the land on which this article was printed - the land on which the editorial offices of Haaretz are located and the land on which the Haaretz printing plant is located. The land, the entire land. Greater Palestine.

In recent years, quite a number of experts have promised us that Hamas does not really mean it. Hamas is only playing tough, but its intentions are lofty: cease-fire, Green Line, coexistence. Live and let live. But no message conveyed by any senior Hamas member to any diplomat behind closed doors is equal in status to the message conveyed by Haniyeh to the masses. What counts is only the direct and open statement made by the Palestinian leader to his people. Palestine, all of Palestine. Every piece of Israeli land on which any Israeli citizen lives. His home, your home, our home. The land beneath our feet.

Ostensibly, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is an alternative to Hamas. Two days ago Abbas told Haaretz correspondent Avi Issacharoff that an agreement could be reached within six months. There's one small problem: Similar things were said to us when the Beilin-Abbas agreement was formulated in 1995. Similar things were said to us on the eve of Camp David 2000. Similar things were promised us when the Geneva Initiative was signed in 2003. Similar things were promised us when Israel went to Annapolis in 2007.

But every time an Israeli leader took another significant step toward Abbas, Abbas became evasive. To this day Abbas has not responded positively to the offer of 100 percent made to him by former prime minister Ehud Olmert 15 months ago.

We can understand why Abbas is suspicious of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. But it's impossible to understand why Abbas has once again evaded Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and former Meretz chairman Yossi Beilin, or why the Palestinian "peace leader" has never signed a draft peace deal or offered a peace compromise.

Minister Benny Begin says the reason is that, in its own way, Fatah is also a Greater Palestine movement. Others say the reason is that since Abbas is a refugee from Safed, he will never give up the right of return. Some argue that Abbas wants to but cannot, and others believe he can but doesn't want to.

Whatever the case, Mahmoud Abbas seems to be presenting a mirage of peace. He has been talking about two states for the past 21 years, without being willing to pay the price the Palestinians must pay in order to implement the two-state solution.

The truth is harsh. The occupation is destroying Israel. It is undermining Israel's ethical, democratic and diplomatic foundations. But both Hamas and Fatah are making it very difficult to end the occupation. With Hamas controlling the Gaza Strip, arming itself to the teeth and enjoying the support of about one-third of the Palestinians, it has the right to veto any diplomatic progress. With Fatah unwilling to recognize the Jewish nation-state and objecting to a demilitarized Palestinian state, there is no chance for a peace treaty.

Haniyeh and Abbas are pushing Israel into a trap, each in his own way. Only naifs believe that additional negotiations over a final-status agreement will extricate Israel from the trap. But the alternative to a final-status agreement is not a continuation of the status quo. The alternative is an Israeli initiative. MK Shaul Mofaz's plan is one possibility; a second disengagement is another.

Whatever the case, Israel must deal with the existential threat of the occupation on its own. Time is running out, and the writing is on the wall. "Palestine," the wall is blaring, "all of Palestine."

'Christians' of the Holy Land Denounce Israel and Evangelicals
Dec 17th, 2009
Daily NewsIsrael Today
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

In a lengthy declaration labeled as a message of "faith, hope and love," dozens of Arab Christian leaders from various churches represented in the region denounced Israel as the main obstacle to peace and rejected the validity of the biblical link between the Jews and the land. 

Published on Friday by regional leaders of the Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican and Baptists churches, the document, titled "A Moment of Truth," lamented that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process had reached an impasse, and that there was now little hope of reversing "Palestinian suffering." 

"We, a group of Christian Palestinians, after prayer, reflection and an exchange of opinion, cry out from within the suffering in our country, under the Israeli occupation, with a cry of hope in the absence of all hope, a cry full of prayer and faith in a God ever vigilant, in God's divine providence for all the inhabitants of this land," read the statement. "Today we have reached a dead end in the tragedy of the Palestinian people." 

Israel was solely blamed for the situation. In a section titled "The reality on the ground," the Christian leaders listed the reasons peace had not been reached, including Israel's security wall, the presence of Jews in Judea and Samaria, Israeli checkpoints, the jailing of Palestinian terrorists, and Israel's control of a unified Jerusalem. 

Like their Muslim counterparts, the Christian leaders insisted that the suicide bombings and other attacks against Israelis that necessitate many of the above measures are not terrorism, but rather legitimate resistance: 

"Israel justifies its actions as self-defense... In our opinion, this vision is a reversal of reality. Yes, there is Palestinian resistance to the occupation. However, if there were no occupation, there would be no resistance, no fear and no insecurity." 

That position, of course, ignores the fact that Arab terrorism against Israel began long before 1967, when Israel liberated the so-called "Palestinian territories" from Jordanian occupation and took possession of them in line with the original UN mandate for the region. 

The leaders then took aim at Evangelical Christians around the world that support Israel based on biblical precepts. 

"[Jesus] came with 'a new teaching' (Mk 1:27), casting a new light on the Old Testament, on the themes that relate to our Christian faith and our daily lives, themes such as the promises, the election, the people of God and the land," read the statement. 

"For this reason, it is unacceptable to transform the Word of God into letters of stone... This is precisely the error in fundamentalist Biblical interpretation that brings us death and destruction when the word of God is petrified and transmitted from generation to generation as a dead letter. This dead letter is used as a weapon in our present history in order to deprive us of our rights in our own land," it continued. 

The Christian leaders insisted that the biblical mission of universal salvation had everything to do with the land itself and the body of believers in it, and not with the Nation of Israel, as defined in scripture. They were adamant that the Bible offers no spiritual or divine mandate for the Jews to have sovereignty over the land today: 

"We know that certain theologians in the West try to attach a biblical and theological legitimacy to the infringement of our rights. Thus, the promises, according to their interpretation, have become a menace to our very existence. 

"We declare that any use of the Bible to legitimize or support political options and positions that are based upon injustice, imposed by one person on another, or by one people on another, transform religion into human ideology and strip the Word of God of its holiness, its universality and truth. 

"We also declare that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land is a sin against God and humanity because it deprives the Palestinians of their basic human rights, bestowed by God." 

Many will recognize these positions as thinly-disguised Replacement Theology. While the church leaders are not calling for Jews to be expelled from the land, they are disputing the Jews' right to lay claim to biblical promises, since in the Christians' view, those promises are either no longer valid, or have been transferred to "the Church." 

Ironically, while the bulk of the statement rejected the politicization of spiritual matters when they were used to justify Israel's right to the land, the Christian leaders demanded political "justice" and the fulfillment of their political aims in the name of "Christian love." 

Israel is home to many Arab Christian-run ministries that advocate peace and reconciliation, both good and biblical goals. However, with very few exceptions, their idea of reconciliation is nothing short of Jews getting on their knees and begging for forgiveness for "stealing" Arab lands, and offering to unconditionally return that land.