Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

U.S. Moves in Korean Crisis Watched Keenly By Xi Jinping, Putin, Khamenei and Assad
Apr 6th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

From the joint communiqué issued in Moscow Tuesday, April 2, one would imagine that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin had found nothing at all to discuss about the pressing crises over Korea, Syria and Iran.
All that seemed to happen was a meeting in a “friendly atmosphere” confirming the "special relations" between Russia and China. However, while Washington, Seoul and Tokyo have avoided looking at the connotations of the Korean issue for the two Middle East trouble spots, the Russian and Chinese presidents closely analyzed their reciprocal impact, drew conclusions and resolved to carry on with their Korean and Middle East policies as before.
Interestingly, Moscow and Beijing have never mentioned North Korean ruler Kim Jong-Un whenever they urged restraint on the three parties caught in the spiraling Korean standoff.
And not by chance: DEBKA-Net-Weekly's sources in Moscow disclose that one conclusion shared by Putin and Xi Jinping was that a limited North Korean military adventure might do both their interests in the Middle East some good.
For instance, a smallish military episode in the Far East might have the effect of easing some of the pressure on Syria’s Bashar Assad and save his regime, while also diverting American and Israeli minds from contemplation of a possible strike on the Iranian nuclear program.

Important Chinese and Russian military moves unnoticed

Conveniently for them, Western media watch like hawks the slightest North Korean move, whether real or not, and every US military step, while ignoring Chinese and Russian military movements synchronous with the Korean crisis.
So the Pentagon’s latest decision Wednesday, April 3, to send an advanced THAAD-Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery to the Pacific island of Guam to defend the US base against a North Korean missile attack was widely reported, along with the Pentagon’s expectations of the long-term danger of a North Korean attack.
So, too, were Pyongyang’s repeated war threats against the United States and its allies.
But no one covered Chinese tank and armored vehicle movements and air force flights which continued near the North Korean border in “Daqing in the northeastern Heilongjan Province and the border city of Shenyang in Liaoning Province.”
Neither did Russia’s Black Sea war games, starting on March 28, attract attention, although they were suddenly ordered by Putin without warning. He even caught the Russian chief of staff on the hop.

And the games were no laughing matter: According to Kremlin figures, they involved about 7,000 Russian servicemen: Special Forces and Marine units and airborne rapid deployment troops.
Over thirty Russian warships based out of the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol in the Crimean Peninsula and the Russian port of Novorossiysk in Krasnodar Krai were mobilized.
All of Russia’s different services were pressed into the mock war game as a test of their interoperability and demonstration of Russia’s capacity to mobilize for any eventuality at the drop of a hat.

How to cool Kim’s enthusiasm for playing brinkmanship with Washington

The young, inexperienced North Korean ruler correctly read the signals from Moscow and Beijing:
On Wednesday, the day after the Russian-Chinese summit, Pyongyang again raised temperatures by advising the United States in its state media to prepare to be "smashed" by "cutting edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means."
Although Beijing, Moscow, Pyongyang, Tehran and Damascus are not bound by formal treaties, they are linked by a strong, invisible thread which is tugged in all five capitals by any sign of American weakness which any or all of them can exploit.
Therefore, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s pledge of a "measured" response to Pyongyang's aggressive threats will not have the desired effect of lowering the tensions emanating from the Korean Peninsula.
It would be much more useful for US Secretary of State John Kerry to take a break from his far less urgent Middle East peace mission (see a separate article in this issue about Mahmoud’s plans for a “civil uprising’) and travel to Moscow and Beijing to discuss an integrated deal covering Iran, Syria, and North Korea.
Some give and take on all three crises might persuade the Russian and Chinese rulers to start bringing Kim Jong-Un to heel.
So long as Putin and Xi Jinping see Washington continuing to pursue separate tracks in the Middle East, especially against Syria and Iran, they have no incentive for curbing young Kim’s enthusiasm for the game of brinkmanship with America.
Informed sources in Washington have disclosed President Barack Obama’s latest posture on North Korean bellicosity as “strategic patience.” None of the sources could explain exactly what this means.
Maybe Kim can.

The U.S. - European Ship of Fools on a Nuclear Iran Stays Afloat
Apr 6th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Divorced as ever from reality, European Union foreign policy Executive Catherine Ashton said Wednesday April 3 that it is very important for Iran to respond to an offer by the world powers if the coming round of nuclear talks is to succeed.
None of the previous rounds have succeeded, any more than the next one in Almaty On April 5-6, is expected to, say DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s sources.
Her plea moreover fell on deaf ears in Tehran, although an Iranian delegation always puts in an appearance at the sessions with United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany which Ashton chaires,
A false optimistic note was offered Tuesday, April 2, by The Wall Street Journal’s “discovery” that Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had decided to slow down the Iranian nuclear program for the presidential polls of June.
This report was so wide of the mark that International Atomic Agency (IAEA) Director, the cautious and moderate Yukiya Amano, felt impelled to put the record straight.
He spoke Wednesday of the proof procured by his inspectors that Iran is secretly continuing to develop nuclear weapons. "Iran has done so in the past and is doing so now," he said.

Nuclear watchdog chief fed up with Western claptrap

Even Amano has become fed up with all the current claptrap and false figures put about in the West on Iran’s uranium enrichment and stocks. He has also had it up to here with red lines.
With a single sentence, Amano came right out with the truth which all the policy-makers and Iran mavens know, but avoid spelling out: That Iran continues to secretly enrich uranium to 20 percent, just short of weapons grade.
Indeed, according to DEBKA-Net-Weekly's intelligence sources, the White House itself has identified three or four small clandestine plants, where at least 30 new IR2 centrifuges are spinning to enrich uranium outside of the big facilities at Natanz and Fordo, which are at least partly monitored by the IAEA.
However those intelligence sources report there are more – at least ten such secret factories.
There may have been a slowdown in enrichment due to technical faults in the new centrifuges rather than politics, disappointing Iranian hopes of doubling of tripling their output. At the same time, this output long ago passed the red lines Washington and Jerusalem laid down.
Iran has by now accumulated enough fuel for several nuclear bombs.

Washington still insists Khamenei is exercising nuclear restraint

This did not deter Catherine Ashton from following the trail of illusions well-trodden by Washington.
On April 1, Gary Samore, until recently the White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction, insisted – contrary to all the evidence - that the Iranians are “slowing down aspects of their nuclear program for the time being.”
Speaking at the Brookings Institute think tank, he said that “ups and downs and differences and frustrations are going to continue for the foreseeable future in world powers’ negotiations with Iran.”
Still, he added, “Even if there isn’t a formal deal, I do think the Iranians are exercising some constraints on their program for political reasons.”
Those reasons, in Samore’s view, were the care Khamenei was taking “not to come near the red line of advanced uranium enrichment that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu laid down at the UN in the fall, since he doesn’t want to trigger more sanctions or a military attack before the elections are held.”
At the same time, he said, it would be “unrealistic to expect there would be some kind of breakthrough in the talks” with world powers at the end of the week.

A linkage between Iran and Syria? Certainly not

The former Obama adviser went on to knock over the thesis put forward at the same session by
former European Union Iran negotiator Javier Solana, that Iran was unlikely to agree to a nuclear deal at this point unless negotiations were expanded to include the issue of Syria.
There is no connection between the two, Samore argued, reflecting President Barack Obama refusal to see any linkage between the issues.
He also disputed the perceptions of a fellow former White House strategist, Dennis Ross, saying he did not favor trying to pivot to negotiating a more comprehensive “go big” offer with Iran which Ross has advocated, “because,” he said, “there’s little chance it would succeed.”
“The primary factor which determines whether military force will be used is what happens on the ground,” Samore said. “I can imagine [a scenario] in which the diplomacy continues, in fits and starts. But the Iranians remain cautious to not take action that would trigger military strikes."
Alireza Miryousefi, a spokesman for the Iranian UN mission, asked to respond on Samore’s comments, said: “Iran’s presidential elections were not a chief impediment to a nuclear deal.
There is a national consensus in Iran on the inalienable right of the country to peaceful nuclear technology, including the right of uranium enrichment for peaceful purposes and any president in Iran must follow this national consensus…which is shared by the Iranian people.."

The Most Coveted Spoils in the Middle East: Gas Pipelines
Apr 6th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

In celebratory mood, Israel began pumping its first offshore natural gas from the Tamar gas field last week, with the prospect of full capacity within weeks. It took 24 hours to reach the onshore terminal at Ashdod port through a 90-km pipeline.
The Bank of Israel estimates that the Tamar field will boost by one percentage point the country's gross domestic product growth, raising it this year to an estimated 3.8 percent. This is even before the larger, undeveloped Leviathan well goes on stream and makes Israel’s offshore gas finds among the world’s biggest in the past decade.
Former Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, Minister for Intelligence and Strategic Affairs in the current government, calculates Israeli earnings from gas will total $450 billion over the next 25 years.
In its annual report, the Bank of Israel has recommended considering additional taxation on natural gas lest low prices encourage the development of a gas-based industry that could accelerate the depletion of the gas reservoirs.
The central bank also criticized the Tzemach Committee’s recommendations against exporting a large portion of the gas and urged the Treasury to save export revenues in a reserve fund as a cushion for the economy in the coming 25 years.

The choice between Russia and Turkey as energy allies

Conflicting recommendations over the gas bonanza have presented Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with a dilemma: He must choose between -
1. Accepting the recommendations of the Tzemach Committee to export just a small portion of the natural gas to clients in the immediate vicinity;
2. Exporting 30 percent of the gas reservoirs’ product;
3. And if so, then to whom – to Europe or to Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians?
4. Turning down once and for all Moscow's insistent bid for the concession to Russian national Gazprom corporation for channeling Israeli gas exports to Europe?
Or, bringing Turkey in as Israel’s partner in the export of gas to Europe from the big Leviathan reservoir when it comes on stream?
Assigning Ankara a share in conveying Israeli natural gas to Europe through a pipeline running from the offshore field across Turkey could be the bedrock for a US-backed energy alliance stronger than the Turkish-Israel military cooperation pact which governed relations for decades until it was suspended by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan three years ago.
In effect, DEBKA-Net-Weekly reports, the die has been cast.
Unbeknownst to the Israeli public, the United States took a hand in the choice through Noble Energy of Texas, one of the two biggest shareholders in Tamar and Leviathan alongside the Israeli Delek Group.

Erdogan eager for Israel to join his energy deal with Iraqi Kurdistan

Netanyahu was persuaded to finally reject President Vladimir Putin's offer of Russian financing for production development and a pipeline network from the Israeli gas reservoirs to European markets.
Acceptance of the Putin offer would have made Europe more dependent on Russia for its gas. This Washington was resolved to forestall.
But Putin doesn’t give up easily – especially when Russia’s near-monopoly over Europe’s sources of natural gas is affected. He now aims to purchase at least 30 percent of Israel’s export product and so, over Netahyahu’s head, become an important player in Israel’s burgeoning gas industry.
The Russian president is soliciting aid for his scheme from Israeli billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva, owner of the Delek Group.
While Tshuva tends to eye the megabucks potential of a deal with Moscow, Netanyahu is looking at the strategic potential offered by a strong partnership with Turkey approved by Washington.
Prime Minister Erdogan continues to abuse Netanyahu and policies in public. But in private conversation, he shows his eagerness for an energy alliance with Israel.
His plans are far-reaching: They are to draw Israel into an ambitious partnership with the Kurdish Regional Government of Iraq for Turkey’s Genel Energy to build a multiple gas and oil pipeline infrastructure to bring Kurdish hydrocarbons from Kirkuk to Europe via Turkey.
The first step was taken when KRG Prime Minister Necirvan Barzani visited Ankara last week.

Using energy to power a Turkish-Israeli-Kurdish alliance

This scheme would leave the Baghdad government headed by the Shiite Nuri al-Maliki out in the cold and be intensely disapproved by Tehran.
By carrying it forward, Erdogan would also provide an extra push for Kurdish independence in Iraq and Syria. This would mesh well with the Turkish leaders’ current peace moves with the Turkish Kurdish underground leader Abdullah Ocalan and his historic reconciliation with the Kurdish minority in his own country.
Joining the Turkish-KRG energy partnership would also fit in with the strong strategic, military and intelligence ties Israel has cultivated with the Kurds of Iraq. It would pave the way for the formation of a Turkish-Israeli-Kurdish Middle East Crescent, that would be grounded in an energy partnership which uses Turkey as the highway for exporting gas from the region to Europe.
The Turkish and Israeli armies, navies and air forces would need to restructure for their new mission of defending the gas and oil fields and their pipelines. They would also have to work together and share these duties.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly's intelligence sources report that in recent private conversations with US Secretary of State John Kerry, Erdogan promised repeatedly not to act on his harsh verbal assaults on Cyprus regarding the gas issue, or press his claim for the Turkish Cypriot Republic’s right to a share. Ankara, he said, would not force its will on this issue by military means – partly because of its present focus on transactions with Israel and, even more, on cutting down Russia’s share in Europe’s gas supply to a minimum.

The Bible Vs. Heart
Apr 6th, 2013
CommentaryJWR - Dennis Prager
Categories: Inspirational;Exhortation

I offer the single most politically incorrect statement a modern American — indeed a modern Westerner, period — can make: I first look to the Bible for moral guidance and for wisdom.

I say this even though I am not a Christian (I am a Jew, and a non-Orthodox one at that). And I say this even though I attended an Ivy League graduate school (Columbia), where I learned nothing about the Bible there except that it was irrelevant, outdated and frequently immoral.

I say this because there is nothing — not any religious or secular body of work — that comes close to the Bible in forming the moral bases of Western civilization and therefore of nearly all moral progress in the world.

It was this book that guided every one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, including those described as "deists." It is the book that formed the foundational values of every major American university. It is the book from which every morally great American from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln to the Rev. (yes, "the Reverend," almost always omitted today in favor of his secular credential, "Dr.") Martin Luther King, Jr., got his values.

It is this book that gave humanity the Ten Commandments, the greatest moral code ever devised. It not only codified the essential moral rules for society, it announced that the Creator of the universe stands behind them, demands them and judges humans' compliance with them.

It gave humanity the great moral rule, "Love your neighbor as yourself."

It taught humanity the unprecedented and unparalleled concept that all human beings are created equal because all human beings — of every race, ethnicity, nationality and both male and female — are created in G0D's image.

It taught people not to trust the human heart, but to be guided by moral law even when the heart pulled in a different direction.

This is the book that taught humanity that human sacrifice is an abomination.

This is the book that de-sexualized G0D — a first in human history.

This is the book that alone launched humanity on the long road to abolishing slavery. It was not only Bible-believers (what we would today call "religious fundamentalists") who led the only crusade in the world against slavery, it was the Bible itself, thousands of years before, that taught that G0D abhors slavery. it legislated that one cannot return a slave to his owner and banned kidnapping for slaves in the Ten Commandments. Stealing people, kidnapping, was the most widespread source of slavery, and "Thou shall not steal" was first a ban on stealing humans and then on stealing property.

It was this book that taught people the wisdom of Job and of Ecclesiastes, unparalleled masterpieces of world wisdom literature.

Without this book, there would not have been Western civilization, or Western science, or Western human rights, or the abolitionist movement, or the United States of America, the freest, most prosperous, most opportunity-giving society ever formed.

For well over a generation, we have been living on "cut-flower ethics." We have removed ethics from the Bible-based soil that gave them life and think they can survive removed from that soil. Fools and those possessing an arrogance bordering on self-deification think we will long survive as a decent society without teaching the Bible and without consulting it for moral guidance and wisdom.

If not from the Bible, from where should people get their values and morals? The university? The New York Times editorial page? They have been wrong on virtually every great issue of good and evil in our generation. They mocked Ronald Reagan for calling the Soviet Union an "evil empire." More than any other group in the world, Western intellectuals supported Stalin, Mao and other Communist monsters. They are utterly morally confused concerning one of the most morally clear conflicts of our time — the Israeli-Palestinian/Arab conflict. The universities and their media supporters have taught a generation of Americans the idiocy that men and women are basically the same. And they are the institutions that teach that America's founders were essentially moral reprobates — sexist and racist rich white men.

When the current executive editor of the New York Times, Jill Abramson, was appointed to that position she announced that "In my house growing up, The Times substituted for religion." The quote spoke volumes about the substitution of elite media for religion and the Bible in shaping contemporary America.

The other modern substitute for the Bible is the heart. We live in the Age of Feelings, and an entire generation of Americans has been raised to consult their heart to determine right and wrong.

If you trust the human heart, you should be delighted with this development. But those of us raised with biblical wisdom do not trust the heart. So when we are told by almost every university, by almost every news source, by almost every entertainment medium that the heart demands what is probably the most radical social transformation since Western civilization began — redefining marriage, society's most basic institution, in terms of gender — it may be wiser to trust the biblical understanding of marriage rather than the heart's.

My heart, too, supports same-sex marriage. But relying on the heart alone is a terribly flawed guide to social policy. And it is the Bible that has produced all of the world's most compassionate societies.

This, then, is the great modern battle: the Bible and the heart vs. the heart alone.

Rebels Launch New High - Tech Anti-tank, Anti-air Weapon in Damascus Offensive
Apr 6th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Miles before reaching the front lines in Damascus, Syrian army tanks have been bursting into flames like fire crackers from direct hits by rebel forces using their recently acquired high-tech weapons for the first time on the Syrian battlefield..
This radical shift in the face of the fighting elicited the Assad regime’s most dire threat yet: An unnamed Syrian military commander warned Wednesday, April 3, that any further push into the capital would mean “certain death” for the rebels and their leaders. Talking to the pro-government paper al-Watan, he said “The bravery of government troops on the battlefield is keeping Damascus safe.”
DEBKA-Net-Weekly's intelligence and military sources report that the rebel fighters’ newly-acquired antitank guided missiles-ATGM (of both Russian and American manufacture) are knocking over the T-72 tanks of the 4^th Republican Guard Division and the 3^rd Division, the backbone of the capital’s defenses, while their portable MANPAD air defense systems have brought practically all takeoffs and landings at Damascus International Airport to a standstill.
The port is deserted most hours of the day and night.

Rebels knock out tanks, race to preempt chemical warfare

In the last issue of DEBKA-Net-Weekly issue (No.591 of March 29), we reported that officers of the 3^rd and 4^th Divisions had received protective chemical warfare suits and gasmasks.
For Bashar Assad and his generals, the entry of the new ATGMs to the battlefield was the final red line. Without tanks, the two loyal divisions can hardly hope to save Damascus from the rebels, and so the most extreme measure, chemical weapons, has been prepared to stop them.
Rebel leaders aware of this train of thought upped their pressure in two ways in the past week: They have been driving hard to breach the defenses of central Damascus by seizing the city’s eastern districts; and are battering the defensive ring around the chemical weapons complex at Dumeir, 40 kilometers northeast of the capital.
It is there that Assad has put together a stock of chemical components, including the nerve gas sarin, for use as the final resort if the rebels are a step before taking Damascus.
For Assad, the ATGMs pose the ultimate threat to his army’s capacity to fight.
So far, the rebels appear to be concentrating the few dozen advanced anti-tank weapons in their possession on the battle to win Damascus. But if their source should increase supplies to several hundred ATGMs, the rebels would have the ability to disable the Syria army’s entire tank fleet across the country.
They could also keep the surviving tanks pinned down uselessly and unable to move from one warfront to another by ambushing the tank transporters as they move along the roads and setting them on fire.
The loss of its tanks would immobilize the Syrian army as well as its Iranian, Hizballah and Iraqi Shiite allies.

Planned rebel Scud blitz on Damascus

The Syrian ruler is also seriously jittery over the rebels’ efforts to start using the Scud C and Scud B missiles, taken booty from army bases, against regime institutions in Damascus, such as the presidential palace and General Staff Headquarters.
According to our intelligence sources, the rebels have got hold of at least six missile launchers from which 12-16 Scud missiles could be launched continuously with a few hours space between firings.
But they appear to still have two difficulties to overcome before using the captured Scuds.
1. Lack of rebel teams trained for the continuous and precise launching of surface-to-surface missiles against defined targets. A handful of their fighters appear capable of sporadic and random launches. But that is not good enough. For effective use of the Scuds, the rebels will have to hire professional missile teams.
Our sources have picked up reports of agents of Arab intelligence services, especially Qatar, propositioning officers from the Libyan army’s Scud units with offers of a $5,000 monthly wage – payable to their families if they are killed or wounded – for service with the Syrian rebels
2. Western intelligence experts don’t believe the Syrian opposition fighters have accumulated sufficient Scud missiles for the continuous blitz they are planning.
Their renewed concentrated assault on the Al Safira military complex near Aleppo in northern Syria aims not just at seizing a major chemical weapons depot. As one of the Syrian army’s main artillery bases, it houses more than 120 surface-to-surface missiles of various types.

Can Moscow or Tehran save Damascus and avert chemical war?

Either way, DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military sources say, the rebels will soon try their hand at shooting Scud missile at government targets in Damascus. At this time, they appear to control East Goutha, which commands eastern access to the city.
Moscow and Tehran are unlikely to stand back and watch this sharp escalation in the force and efficacy of rebel weaponry and their progress toward capturing major sections of Assad’s capital.
However their options are limited.
At this stage of the fast-moving Syrian conflict, it would not be practical to ship to Damascus a large number of Russian tanks – say, 50-100 – of types resistant to the rebels’ weapons as replacements for the crippled Syrian tanks.
Can the Russian and Iranian arsenals yield up tools of war with the superior firing power needed to beat down the rebels’ ATGM and MANPADS? And if so, can they deliver them quickly enough to save Damascus before Assad brings chemical weapons into play?

Questions
Apr 6th, 2013
Daily NewsWND
Categories: Contemporary Issues

Have you ever wondered why, no matter which political party is in power nothing much meaningful ever seems to get done?

Have you ever pondered the fact that in spite of the plentiful energy reserves in our nation, we continue to spend trillions of dollars buying oil from people who would like nothing better than to see America turned into a grease spot and blame our reticence to drill on a handful of environmental groups?

Did you ever question why a gaggle of supposed public servants would vote for a multi-trillion-dollar piece of legislation they didn't even take the time to read?

Why do some of the mineral-richest countries on Earth have the most destitute populations?

Why are there politicians who are teflon as far as the media are concerned and others who resemble velcro when it comes to their coverage?

Why, after 200 years of being a free and fiercely independent nation, would the U.S. even consider giving over our precious sovereignty to a corrupt anti-American, double-dealing bunch of losers like the United Nations?

Why is our Southern border as porous as a colander, and why does it make sense to be able to vote without proper identification when you can't even check into a hotel room without it?

Why would our money supply be determined by one man who can tighten up our currency or flood the world with cheap dollars that could trigger hyperinflation?

Let the Headlines Speak
Apr 6th, 2013
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

6.2 magnitude earthquake shakes Russia's Far East, close to China and North Korea
The epicenter of the quake was 9km from the Russian village of Zarubino, about 60km northeast of the North Korean city of Aodzhiri and approximately 608 km from the capital Pyongyang. No casualties or damage have been reported. The earthquake struck at a depth of 561.9 km.  

Earthquakes rattle nerves in local area
PEMISCOT COUNTY, MO. - On shaky ground. Two tremors in the New Madrid Seismic Zone this week have people wondering if a big earthquake could be coming. The two are considered minor. No damage has been reported from either.  

7.1 magnitude earthquake hits off Indonesia
"The quake very strong. It scared us … my wife was screaming, my children were crying," said Yosef Roa of Tolikara, adding there was no damage around his neighborhood where most houses are simple and made of wood in the traditional style. The quake was felt across many parts of Papua, including the capital, Jayapura, and the copper town of Timika and Wamena, another town in the mountains, Imran said. Residents ran from their houses, and many remained outside fearing aftershocks.  

Obama’s “poised for recovery” = Jimmy Carter’s workforce levels
This sort of thing is a standard feature of the Obama economy: anemic job creation – which occasionally bounces up to decent levels for a month or two – coupled with enormous workforce contractions, as discouraged job-seekers give up looking and exit the market. Very few of the small ticks downward in the unemployment rate over the past few years have been unaccompanied by workforce contractions.  

North Korea: we can't keep you safe, Pyongyang tells foreign embassies
The foreign ministry on Friday gave ambassadors in Pyongyang until Wednesday to say if they needed help with closing their missions and evacuating staff. Britain responded by saying there was "no immediate" plan to shut its embassy in North Korea.  

UN agency 'broke' as Syria refugee funds run out
A UN agency has said it will soon be unable to provide "life-saving" aid to Syrian refugees in Jordan and other countries due to funds running out. "The needs are rising exponentially and we are broke," said Marixie Mercado, a spokeswoman for children's charity Unicef. Some 1.2 million Syrians have fled since the uprising began in March 2011.  

US judge lifts 'morning after' pill age limit
A US federal judge has ordered the government to make the "morning after" pill available over the counter to girls of all ages within 30 days. Judge Edward Korman said a decision by the US health secretary to limit over-the-counter purchases of the drug to those 17 and older was "capricious". The reproductive rights group which brought the case called the ruling a victory for women.  

Obama to host Mideast leaders in renewed effort
Just two weeks after he brokered the dramatic rapprochement between Israel and Turkey, US President Barack Obama is to welcome four Middle Eastern heads of states, including Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the White House next month. In a statement to the press, the White House affirmed the meeting between the United States and Turkey, saying the visit "underscores the close friendship" between them.  

Iran’s silent war in the Gulf
A series of trials under way in the neighboring Gulf states of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain offer a glimpse into the ongoing, silent war being waged by Iran against its regional rivals. Bahrain is of particular interest to Tehran. The tiny island emirate is home to a Shi’a majority – ruled over by the Sunni Khalifa monarchy. Iranian officials often describe Bahrain as rightfully constituting the “14th province” of Iran.  

Putin and Merkel set for a prickly Russian-German summit?
When Russian President Vladimir Putin flies to Germany on Sunday to open this year's Hannover Messe, the world's biggest industrial fair, it will be one of those key milestones – like the upcoming Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and Russia's chairmanship of the G-20 this year – that demonstrate to the world that Russia is back as a leading global power and economic force to reckon with.  

Iran nuclear talks 'yield little progress'
Iran has failed to deliver a "clear and concrete response" to a proposal aimed at ending deadlock over its nuclear programme, a Western diplomat has said. Tehran said it had offered "specific plans" at the opening of the talks with world powers in Kazakhstan. But the diplomat there said they were a "reworking" of proposals rejected at last year's talks in Russia.  

Sixth death from H7N9 bird flu reported
East China's Zhejiang Province on Friday morning reported that a man has died from the H7N9 bird flu, bringing the death toll from the new deadly strain to six in the country. The city has reported three infections to date, and two have died, the Health Bureau of Zhejiang Province said Friday.  

The Sad Rise Of Prostitution In Cairo
There's a point when the parents of a country get so desperate they sell whatever they can to make ends meet, including their daughters.  

Obama budget to take aim at wealthy IRAs
President Obama’s budget, to be released next week, will limit how much wealthy individuals – like Mitt Romney – can keep in IRAs and other retirement accounts. The proposal would save around $9 billion over a decade, a senior administration official said, while also bringing more fairness to the tax code  

Syrian president warns of fallout if regime falls
President Bashar Assad warned the fall of his regime or the breakup of Syria will unleash a "domino effect" that will fuel Middle East instability for years to come, in his sharpest warning yet about the potential fallout of his country's civil war on neighboring states.  

NKorea aggression could strengthen US-China bond
North Korea's latest outburst of nuclear and military threats has given the U.S. a rare opportunity to build bridges with China — a potential silver lining to the simmering crisis that could revitalize the Obama administration's flagging policy pivot to Asia.  

Dave Hunt 1926-2013
Apr 6th, 2013
Daily NewsIn Memorium
Categories: Commentary

Friday, April 5, 2013, Dave Hunt drew his final breath and entered into the presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His beloved wife Ruth was at his side.

Born in 1926, David Charles Haddon Hunt enjoyed the advantages of a godly upbringing and placed his trust in Jesus Christ as his personal Savior and Lord in his early teens.

As a young man, he served in the military toward the end of World War II. Afterward, he attended UCLA and received a degree in mathematics. It was during that time that he met the love of his life, Ruth Klassen. In 1950, they were married, and since both loved the outdoors, they enjoyed a beautiful honeymoon hiking in the High Sierras--perfect for two young people madly in love and with very little money to their name. Marriage was soon followed by the birth of two sons and two daughters. Ruth was a busy mother and also a gifted writer herself. She had a tremendous interest in and knowledge of history, an ability that would help Dave further down the road. Dave's own career path led him into a position as a CPA/management consultant and later as the manager of several corporations.

Along with church-related activities, Dave initiated and became involved in numerous campus ministries and meetings in their home, with a special outreach to Jewish young people and foreign students. Many of these have stayed in touch with Dave and Ruth through the years, fondly recalling those Bible studies at the Hunts' house.

Dave and Ruth also traveled abroad, spending time in various locations throughout Europe, meeting with believers there and ministering in many ways while raising their own family. Dave also brought Bibles and other materials into the Soviet Union during a time when it was very difficult to do so. Throughout his later years, he and Ruth traveled extensively as he was invited to speak in churches and fellowships, large and small, all over the world. Often they stayed in people's homes, dining with them, learning their customs, and sharing God's Word and God's love.

The desire of Dave's heart was ultimately to be involved in fulltime ministry, especially since he saw firsthand everywhere he went the breaking down of the true church as the world began to work its way into her midst. He began to write in 1973, warning believers about the incursion into Western culture and into the church itself of Eastern religion, psychological and selfist philosophies, ecumenism, and other unbiblical teachings.

The ministry of The Berean Call was founded by Dave in 1992. It grew out of a previous organization, of which Dave was also a founding member since 1986. With T.A. McMahon working alongside him at The Berean Call, Dave was able to share his love for and defense of Christ in the subsequent newsletters, books, videos, and speaking engagements that resulted from this ministry. Dave and T.A. wrote three books together, including the best-known The Seduction of Christianity, which was groundbreaking in its boldness, exposing false teachings in the church and daring to identify the names of the ones behind the deception.

By the early 2000s, Dave's love for Christ and his desire to defend the name of the Lord had grown even stronger, and his concern over Islamic politics and religion are reflected in many of his articles, lectures, books, and interviews.

Then Richard Dawkins and the "new atheists" came onto the scene with a vengeance, seeking to destroy the very concept of God in the minds of everyone. Dave began to write and teach and speak more passionately than ever about the absolute truth that is in the Word of God and our need to immerse ourselves in it daily in order to prevent being taken up in the evolutionist delusion that is sweeping the world.

One of Dave's favorite activities was to see whom God would seat next to him on airplanes as he traveled and spoke. He often said that he "could prove the existence of God" just by these providential occurrences. While writing about Islam, he would end up seated next to a Muslim who didn't really understand what Islam was about but was eager to hear the difference between the Bible and the Qur'an. When writing about creation vs. evolution, the Lord would bring him, as a seat companion, an atheistic scientist who thought he had all the answers and was very surprised that there was another verifiable explanation to this universe.

Dave's bold yet loving approach to any situation allowed him entrance into these conversations where many others would have been shut out. His love for Jesus, for Israel, and for people in general was obvious to all. His enthusiasm for the truth, along with his anger over the sin and wickedness that he knew was robbing people of what God wanted for them, flamed his desire to share the Lord with anyone with whom he had contact.

At least 4 million copies of his books have been sold, many of them translated into more than 50 languages. They include: The Cult Explosion; The God Makers (with Ed Decker); The Seduction of Christianity (with T.A. McMahon); Global Peace and the Rise of Antichrist; Peace, Prosperity, and the Coming Holocaust; The New Spirituality (with T.A. McMahon); Whatever Happened to Heaven?; Occult Invasion; A Woman Rides the Beast; A Cup of Trembling; In Defense of the Faith; An Urgent Call to a Serious Faith; To Russia with Love (with Hans Kristian); What Love Is This?; Countdown to the Second Coming; Seeking and Finding God; Honest Doubts; Judgment Day!: Islam, Israel, and the Nations; Yoga and the Body of Christ; and his final book, Cosmos, Creator, and Human Destiny.

He also wrote two novels, The Mind Invaders (formerly The Archon Conspiracy) and Sanctuary of the Chosen, along with a children's book called The Money Tree, illustrated by his daughter Karen.

This is by no means a complete listing of all of Dave's works. One of his videos, Israel, Islam & Armageddon, has become a tremendous tool for churches and for anyone interested in helping to spread the truth about events prior to and since the attack on the World Trade Center. His video A Woman Rides the Beast is a favorite among those who are witnessing to Catholics, a group for whom Dave had a deep love and sorrow, desiring to see them come to the knowledge of the truth.

Dave Hunt's own drive to find and then deliver the truth is evident in everything he did. His impeccable research and recognized scholarship were based on in-depth studies of original documents and publications, interviews with key experts from around the world, and extensive travel-including to South America, Australia, Europe, India, and throughout the Middle East.

Dave has left us a legacy of inestimable value. We are blessed to be able to see and hear and read what he has taught about the evidence for God in a breathtaking number of materials. From explaining about the history of Christianity, to exposing the deception that has crept into the church, to teaching about the prophecies that are being fulfilled even today, this humble, brilliant man will go on teaching us for a very long time. We look forward to the day when we will see him again.

Christ Died on Thursday
Apr 6th, 2013
CommentaryDave Hunt - Berean Call
Categories: Exhortation;Topical Study

Through the writings of Jeremiah, Daniel learned that the Babylonian captivity would last 70 years (Dn 9:2). God had commanded that each seven years the Hebrew slaves should be set free, debtors forgiven, and the land given a one-year sabbath of rest (Ex 21:2; Lv 25:2-4; Dt 15:1,2,12). For 490 years Israel had disobeyed this precept. In judgment, the Jews became slaves of Babylon while their land rested for 70 years of sabbaths.

Daniel confessed this sin, pondering and praying, and was given the revelation that another period of 490 years (70 weeks of years) lay ahead for his people and for Jerusalem (9:24). Then all of Israel’s sins would be purged, all prophecy fulfilled and ended, and the Messiah would reign on David’s throne in Jerusalem. These 70 weeks of years were to be counted “from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem” (v. 25). That crucial date is given to us in Scripture.

Nehemiah tells us: “in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king” (2:1), he received the authorization to rebuild Jerusalem. When the day of the month was not given, the first day was intended. There were several Artaxerxes, but only one, Longimanus, who ruled more than 20 years—from 465-425 BC. Thus we have the key date from which this incredible prophecy was to be calculated: Nisan 1, 445 BC.

At the end of 69 of these “weeks” (7x69 = 483 years) “Messiah the Prince” would be made known to Israel (Dn 9:25) and then “be cut off [slain]” (v. 26). Counting 483 years of 360 days each (the Hebrew and Babylonian calendar), a total of 173,880 days from Nisan 1, 445 bc brings us to Sunday, April 6, ad 32. On that very day, now celebrated as Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a young donkey and was hailed as Messiah the Prince! (See also Zec:9:9Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.)

There is, however, an even deeper meaning to the phrase, “In the fulness of time”: April 6, ad 32, on the Hebrew calendar was the tenth of Nisan. On that day, the Passover lamb was taken from the flock and placed under observation for four days to make certain that it was “without blemish.” During the same four days, Christ, whom John the Baptist had hailed as “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (Jn:1:29The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.), was likewise on display before Israel. On the fourteenth of Nisan, “the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it [the passover lamb] in the evening [between 3:00 and 6:00 pm]” (Ex 12:6). It was during that precise time period that Jesus died on the cross!

In fact, the rabbis had determined not to arrest Jesus during Passover, “lest there be an uproar of the people” (Mk 14:2). Yet that was when He had to die. Judas was not only Satan’s pawn but God’s. Even the “thirty pieces of silver” for which he so shrewdly bargained fulfilled prophecy (Zec:11:12-13 [12] And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.
[13] And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.
). Peter would declare in his Pentecost sermon, “Him...delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain” (Acts:2:23Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:). Paul wrote, “Christ our passover [lamb] is sacrificed for us” (1 Cor:5:7Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:).

The fourteenth of Nisan began at sunset Wednesday evening. That night, Jesus and His disciples had the “last supper” in the upper room where they were preparing to eat the Passover the following night. At this meal “ before the feast of the passover ” (Jn:13:1Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.), Jesus told His disciples, “One of you shall betray me” (Jn:13:21When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.). Earlier He said, significantly, “I tell you before...that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he” (Jn:13:19Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he.). The word “he” is in italics and does not appear in the original. Jesus was declaring once again to His disciples that He was Yahweh, the I AM of Israel, who tells beforehand what will happen and makes certain that it comes to pass (Is 46:9-10).

Arrested by the Judas-led troop in the Garden later that night, Christ was taken secretly to the palace of Caiaphas, the high priest. A sham trial with hastily called false witnesses convened sometime after midnight and condemned Christ to death as dawn broke. Pilate, the Roman governor, was notified of the emergency. Hurriedly taken down side streets, the prisoner was received into the citadel at “the third hour” (Mk 15:25), (about 9:00 am), Nisan 14. All over Israel preparations were underway to kill the Passover lamb, which was to be eaten that night.

Pilate let his citizens decide the prisoner’s fate. The bloodthirsty rabble turned against the One who had miraculously healed and fed so many of them. “Crucify him, crucify him” (Lk 23:21). “His blood be on us, and on our children” (Mt 27:25).

Shortly before noon, Jesus, scourged and beaten, was led out of the city to “the place of the skull.” By noon, the One whom Jerusalem, in fulfillment of prophecy, had hailed as its long-awaited Messiah, was hanging naked on the center cross between two thieves. Man had crucified his Creator!

The next three hours of that Thursday afternoon the earth was darkened mysteriously (Mt 27:45) as God “laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Is 53:6). Thursday? Not “Good Friday”? Indeed not. Jesus himself had said, “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth [i.e., “Abraham’s bosom”]” (Mt 12:40; Lk 16:22). The gospel includes the declaration that Christ “rose again the third day” (1 Cor:15:4And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:).

Had Christ been crucified on Friday, He couldn’t possibly have spent three days and three nights in the grave by Sunday morning. We are distinctly told that the angel rolled away the stone “as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week” (Mt 28:1). The tomb was already empty, so Christ must have risen from the dead sometime prior to dawn.

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday—does it really matter? Yes! The day of our Lord’s crucifixion is of the utmost importance. If Christ was not three days and three nights in the grave, then He lied. His death, to fulfill prophecy, had to occur at the very time the Passover lambs were being slain throughout Israel. It is an astronomical fact that Nisan 14, AD 32, fell on Thursday.

“And it was the preparation of the passover ....The Jews therefore...that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day...besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away” (Jn:19:14And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!,31). Wait! Not a bone of the Passover lamb (Ex 12:46) or of the Messiah (Ps:34:20He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.) could be broken. Not knowing why he did it, “one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side” (Jn:19:34But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.), fulfilling yet another scripture: “they shall look upon me whom they pierced” (Zec:12:10And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.).

John explains that the “Sabbath,” which began at sunset the Thursday Christ was crucified, “was an high day.” It was, in fact, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, of which the first and last days were special sabbaths. It ended Friday at sunset, immediately followed by the weekly sabbath that ended at sunset on Saturday. Thus two sabbaths followed Christ’s death, preventing the women from coming to the grave until the third day, Sunday morning.

The rabbis thought that having Jesus crucified proved He wasn’t the Messiah. In fact, it was one more proof that He was! The soldiers took His clothes for a souvenir and gambled for His robe (Ps:22:18They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.; 69:21); He was given vinegar mixed with gall to drink, nails were driven into His hands and feet, and a spear pierced His side, drawing forth the blood of our redemption—all in fulfillment of prophecy!

Abbas Plans “Civil Intifada” to Coincide With Mid - May Peace Talks With Israel
Apr 6th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) has decided to borrow a tactic from his predecessor, the master terrorist Yasser Arafat.
US Secretary of State John Kerry is to meet Abbas in Amman Sunday, April 7, to try and talk him out of launching what he is calling in briefings to Palestinian activists a “civil intifada (uprising)” without guns against Israel.
Kerry will try and hold Abbas to the pledge he gave President Barack Obama during his March 21 visit to Ramallah to abjure violent action so long as the United States actively promotes direct negotiations with Israel.
But Abu Mazen will wave this argument away. He will maintain he is out of patience and has set April 15 as the date for mass Palestinian street action to start and build up to accompany a preliminary US-sponsored meeting of Palestinians and Israelis scheduled to take place in mid-may in Turkey.
But this “intifada,” he will insist, will not go beyond mass protest marches, burning Israeli flags, pelting its security forces with rocks and Molotov cocktails, blocking West Bank highways, and staging collective hunger strikes in which schoolchildren will also take part for dramatic effect.
And indeed, for the past two weeks, he has been gradually fanning popular Palestinian unrest toward this climax,on one pretext or another.
The US Secretary will no doubt argue that any civil disturbances would quickly get out of hand in the tense climate pervading the Middle East.
His point will have been strengthened by the incident Wednesday, April 3 when Palestinians shooting guns and lobbing fire bombs staged their first organized attack in eight years on an Israeli army post just inside the southern border of the West Bank. The raiders, who came from the Palestinian village of Anabta, lost two men in the firefight with Israeli troops. One was captured when they fled the scene.

Shooting while talking, a classical strategy

While Kerry will maintain that simmering Palestinian violence would serve the ends of Syria, Hizballah and Hamas rather than their own interests, Abbas will counter that he can no longer hold the Palestinians down when the rest of the Arab world is on the march – either protesting against or battling its rulers.
He will protest that his job is to keep his people in the Arab flow - not on the sidelines.
But in fact, say DEBKA-Net-Weekly's Middle East sources, Abbas is adopting this course to replicate the maneuver his predecessor Yasser Arafat pursued profitably thirteen years ago.
In August 2000, when Arafat was invited by President Bill Clinton to sit down for talks at Camp David with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, US and Israeli intelligence both knew that the Palestinian leader had secretly finished his preparations for Intifida No. 2.
The Camp David encounter provided the cover story for the onset of the four-year Palestinian reign of blood and terror which, for the first time in history, pursued the tactic of suicide attacks predominantly targeting civilians - buses, schools, cafes, markets, malls and institutions – disrupting the life of a country and darkening is cities.
Of the 1,030 Israeli deaths caused by Arafat’s war on Israel, 70 percent were civilian, as were 82 percent of the 5,598 injured. They were the casualties of 138 Palestinian suicide attacks, 13,730 shooting incidents and about 450 Qassam launchings.
It took Israel another four years to start recovering.
The Palestinians “lost” 959 – of which 95 percent were self-declared “martyrs” - who died to murder Israelis.
Israel caught and detained 6,005 terrorists.
More than 360 Palestinians were killed by their own extremists.
That uprising saw a steep rise in the number of women, children and civilians volunteering or mobilized for violent attacks, including 292 Palestinian minors.
Although Clinton and Barak knew that Arafat's mind was set on war, they painted the Camp David meeting to their respective publics in upbeat colors as negotiations for peace - not an attempt to stave off his belligerent intent - which is what it really was.

Abbas takes a leaf out of Arafat’s textbook

Abu Mazen hopes to pull off a similar dual-track stratagem.
While orchestrating what he calls a non-violent intifada sans gunfire, he will pretend to follow the Washington guidelines laid down by John Kerry for joining the peace process, just as Arafat faked his cooperation in the early 2000s with the peace efforts of former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell.
Meanwhile, Abbas has gone for the high diplomatic ground on Jerusalem, one of the three core issues in dispute between the Palestinians and Israelis (along with refugees and boundaries). Even before facing Israel at the table, he is building his assets.
On Sunday, March 31, he signed an historic agreement in Amman with Jordan’s King Abdullah II in which the Palestinians acknowledged the monarch as the Custodian of the Holy Sites in Jerusalem. Abdullah was given authority over the Palestinian waqf (religious foundation) and accorded the status of representative on the Jerusalem question in all international forums and organizations.
By this ploy, Abbas has moved into position for posing at the projected peace talks as having made a grand Palestinian concession to Jordan of religious, diplomatic, legal and security responsibility for Temple Mount and the other Muslim, Christian and Jewish holy sites.
This posture is in fact mostly make-believe, because the Palestinians never owned any of those rights – only tried claiming them - and were therefore in no position to cede them.
Since every Israeli government has vowed that Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal capital will never again be divided, Abu Mazen hopes by his Jordanian ploy to detach historic Jerusalem from Israeli sovereignty and force the city’s repartition. The Palestinians would then have a chance of gaining East Jerusalem as their capital.

The Palestinian-Jordanian ploy – may head for confederation

Mahmoud Abbas may be able to pull off his sleight-of-hand ploy internationally. His offer to “give up” real estate he never owned may well be hailed in Washington and European capitals as an important Palestinian concession for peace, and even by some Israelis on the radical Left.
At the same time, the agreement Abu Mazen signed with Abdullah may serve as the starting-point for a broader plan which the Netanyahu government may find more palatable.
Five months ago, on December 27, 2012, debkafile's sources were the first to reveal that Jordan’s Abdullah and visiting Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had discussed among other ideas bandied about between Washington, Jerusalem and Amman, a proposal to establish a confederation between the Palestinians on the West Bank and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
This conjoined entity would conduct the final-status peace talks with Israel.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly does not rule out the possibility that the Jordanian-Palestinian deal for transferring custody of Jerusalem’s holy sites to the king - if it is ever realized - may fit in eventually with that proposal.
At all events, Washington is maintaining the impetus for getting the peace dialogue back on track, as Obama promised Abbas.
On May 11, DEBKA-Net-Weekly's sources report that representatives of Prime Minister Netanyahu and PA Chairman Abu Mazen will be brought together for the first time in two years by Secretary Kerry. Turkish officials will also be there.
This informal meeting is designed to be the starter gun for the resumption of proper negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Abu Mazen accuses Israel of “criminal responsibility”

Abu Mazen’s scheme for keeping up the heat on the conference was already underway on his home ground this week. A handy pretext fell in his lap on April 1, when Palestinian security prisoner Abu Hamadiya, 64, died of throat cancer in the Soroka Hospital in Beersheba. A decade ago, this Hamas militant was sentenced to life for plotting a multiple murder attack on a Jerusalem café.
Blaming Israel’s “negligence” for the death and demanding an international probe, Abbas set up “spontaneous” outbreaks of Palestinian street riots and hunger strikes in Israeli prisons.
Warders had to use tear gas to break up the disturbances. Six warders and three prisoners suffered ill effects from gas inhalation.
Abbas was evidently clearing the way for his demand for the release of hundreds of jailed Palestinian terrorists prior to peace talks.
He deftly used two incidents to put Israel in the wrong ahead of negotiations in Turkey, aiming charges of “criminal responsibility” in the deaths of the Abu Hamadiya and even the two Palestinian gunmen (!).
But he can hardly convince the Americans and Israelis he is capable of keeping the lid on the Third Intifada - and at the same time take part in bone fide peace talks – while Palestinians are encouraged to surge out of control on the streets and Palestinian gunmen are praised for attacking an Israeli military post.