Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

‘Amazon Jews’ on Their Way to Israel
Apr 26th, 2013
Daily NewsINN - Maayana Miskin
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Hundreds of descendants of Peruvian Jews are planning to make aliyah (immigrate) to Israel, the Jewish Agency reports.

The community of Peruvians with Jewish ancestry has been dubbed the “Amazon Jews.”

The members of the community who will be moving to Israel have undergone a conversion to Judaism through the Conservative movement. Because the Conservative movement’s conversions differ from traditional Orthodox conversions the newcomers will not be recognized as Jewish by the government, despite being eligible for citizenship.

The Jewish Agency has already begun preparations for their arrival, and has obtained apartments in the city of Ramle for them to live in during their first months in Israel. Ramle was chosen because the city is home to a Peruvian-Israel community.

In 2004 the government froze aliyah of Jewish converts from India and Peru with Jewish ancestry. However, the decision was later changed and by 2010 aliyah from Peru had risen significantly.

Obama’s 20,000 - Troop “Surge” to Shield Jordan from Syria
Apr 26th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;War

On Friday, April 26, a few hours after this issue reaches DEBKA-Net-Weekly subscribers, Jordan's King Abdullah II will be sitting down at the White House with President Barack Obama. When they finish talking, they will shake hands on the exact date in the coming days for the consignment of 20,000 American troops to the Hashemite Kingdom.
Obama has ordered the biggest overt surge of US troops in six years in any Middle East country.
In 2007, the Bush administration approved the influx of 21,000 to Iraq followed in 2010, by Obama’s green light for a 33,000-troop surge in Afghanistan.
The 200 US 1^st Armored Division soldiers, whose deployment in Jordan was announced by US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel Wednesday, April 17, were in fact the vanguard of the main force.
The Pentagon described this initial deployment as giving the United States the capacity to "potentially form a joint task force [with Jordan] for military operations, if ordered," by the President.
The advance force’s mission was to lay the groundwork for the main body to take up quarters at King Hussein Air Base Mafraq, at a hamlet of 60,000 inhabitants, which is strategically located 80 km north of the Jordanian capital Amman, on the crossroads to Syria to the north and Iraq to the east.
This air base will be home to the incoming American troops. US engineering corps units have been working 24/7 to expand the base, adapt it to its new functions and construct accommodation for the GIs.

Israel deeply involved in US military boost for King Abdullah

Most of the contingents will be airlifted to their new base from US and Europe through Israeli air space, according to DEBKA-Net-Weekly's exclusive military sources.
Israeli Air Force jets will escort the transports over the eastern Mediterranean until they touch down in Jordan and keep an air umbrella in place over the American force for the duration of its stay.
The heavy equipment - tanks, missiles, self-propelled artillery, armored vehicles and Patriot missile intercept batteries – will be transported by sea to two destinations: Jordan’s Red Sea port of Aqaba and the Israeli port of Haifa.
These arrangements were tied up by Defense Secretary Hagel in his talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz.
In those conversations, our sources disclose, Israeli leaders offered every assistance, including air and intelligence resources, needed for preserving the Hashemite throne in Jordan, including support for the incoming US force. Netanyahu gave this pledge to King Abdullah on the four occasions that they met in Amman.

Shielding Jordan from Syria and al Qaeda

The sizeable American military force soon to be stationed in Jordan near the Syrian border has important connotations for the Obama administration:
1. For the first time since the Arab Revolt erupted in December 2010, the US is undertaking a commitment to buttress the stability of an Arab royal government.
Up until now, the administration shied off overt involvement in the turbulence overtaking Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Syria after those nations ousted their autocratic rulers. They were left to their own devices, even when Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood stepped into empty shoes.
Jordan is the exception. This royal house is to be saved from overthrow by the Muslim Brotherhood which is gunning for it, Washington has decided.
2. The US force is also there to defend King Abdullah and his kingdom from the threat of a Syrian attack.
(See DEBKA-Net-Weekly 584 of April 19: Assad is Poised to Attack Jordan – Unless Obama Stops Him).
3. The American shield is spread additionally to cover any possible al Qaeda incursions from eastern Iraq and northern Syria that would seek to shake the throne by sowing multiple terror in Jordan’s cities.

Al Qaeda’s two new dynamic fronts

Before traveling to Washington, King Abdullah briefed Hagel who passed through Amman on April 23 on the 2,000-3,000 Jordanian al Qaeda jihadis fighting the Assad regime alongside Al Qaeda’s Syrian wing Jabhat al-Nusra, and other Islamist groups.
According to our intelligence and counterterrorism sources, these Jordanian Islamists are preparing to bring the “holy war” into their own country.
Initially, they planned to dispose of Bashar Assad first, but now that they grasp they are chasing a remote prospect (see separate article on the state of the Syrian war), their commanders are focusing on their homeland.
They would be led by “Abu Anas,” who is in charge of Al-Nusrah’s operations in the Syrian South and responsible for recruiting hundreds of Jordanians to Al Qaeda’s Syrian Front.
The concern in Washington, Amman and Jerusalem is that the jihadist onslaught on Jordan would be two-pronged, waged by expat fighters returning from Syria together with their al Qaeda allies from Iraq.
This would place the Obama administration in an ironic situation: Having reeled in its troops from Iraq and eventually Afghanistan, America may be dogged by two fresh and dynamic al Qaeda fronts – one in Jordan and a second in the Caucasus, as the Boston Marathon bombings of April 15 demonstrated.
The conversation Obama held with visiting Qatari ruler, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Tuesday. April 23 was less amicable than the one with Abdullah. According to our Washington sources, the president put his visitor on the carpet for funneling weapons and cash support to Syrian rebel groups linked to al Qaeda and other radical Islamic movements.
The president asked the emir to coordinate his largesse to the Syrian rebels henceforth with Washington and the Turkish government.
Al Thani's response is unknown, but he has rarely complied with Obama’s requests on this score in the past.

Opening the window for US intervention in Syria

4. The new US deployment on the Jordan-Syria border opens up the strongest option to date for US military intervention in the Syrian conflict – whether to target Bashar Assad’s brutal army, curb the use of chemical weapons or rein in the Al Qaeda momentum for radicalizing Syria.
Installing a substantial military force in the Hashemite Kingdom sends a signal that Washington proposes to confine any incursions into Syria to in-and-out operations after which American soldiers would return to the base they have set up in Jordan.
5. Their presence there will also be a barrier against aggression targeting Israel on the part of armed Iranian elements in Syria and Lebanon or a combined Syrian-Hizballah offensive.
At the heart of the new deployment is a row of US Patriot missile intercept batteries to be ranged along the Jordanian-Syrian border in case Assad decides to fire missiles against the kingdom. These Patriots will operate in sync with the Israeli missile intercept systems strung out along its borders with Syria and Lebanon, and the NATO Patriot anti-missile missiles guarding Turkey.
6. By parking a 20,000-strong force of US fighting men in Jordan, the Obama administration hopes to convince Gulf rulers that he is serious about his commitment to defend them against Iran.

Let the Headlines Speak
Apr 26th, 2013
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Congress works to repeal ObamaCare… for themselves
Is anyone truly surprised by this news, outside of a few dead-end Obama voters? There’s no way Congress was going to be part of the “train wreck” it inflicted upon the rest of America, to borrow retiring Democrat senator (and ObamaCare author) Max Baucus’ memorable phrase. The most urgent item on the American agenda is the full repeal of ObamaCare, but the political class is more interested in repealing it for themselves...

They Claim To Speak For God
A very large part of Christendom in the United States is enamored with those who claim to speak for God. If you think that’s an overstatement, simply tune into some of the programing on Trinity Broadcasting Network or some of the other cable religious networks. What you will see are churches filled with thousands of Christians hanging on to every word of a man or a woman who is declaring what God has just revealed to him or her.

How stable is Iraq? 13 candidates killed ahead of elections
Iraq's provincial elections tomorrow, the first since the US withdrawal, are considered a strong indicator of the country's stability. Pre-election violence does not bode well.

Clinging to ancient traditions, the last Samaritans keep the faith
Torn between two embattled national entities, the Samaritans have managed — against all odds — to weather centuries of persecution, from the Jewish Hasmoneans in the second century BCE to the Muslim Ottomans in the 17th century

U.S. denies plan to convene 4-way Mideast summit in June
Despite denials, well-placed U.S. sources insist that a four-way summit heralding the launch of renewed talks between Israel and the Palestinians had been discussed with Mideast leaders, foreign ministers.

Pope Francis 'to appoint more women to key Vatican posts'
Senior Catholic cardinals appointed by Pope Francis to shake up the Vatican's secretive bureaucracy have called for more key jobs at the Holy See to be handed to women and fewer jobs to be given to Europeans.

Gov. Rick Scott Signs Florida Drone Regulation Bill
Specifically, the new law forbids federal agents “from using a drone to gather evidence or other information” on citizens of Florida. Should a state citizen be the target of an unlawful search and seizure in violation of this bill, he or she would be authorized “to initiate a civil action in order to prevent or remedy” that violation.

Rain-soaked Midwest braces for more flooding
Flood-weary residents in parts of the Midwest were still trying to stem the tide of murky river water Thursday, as late snow-melt combined with days of spring rain sent rivers toward high-water records. Floodwaters had begun an inch-by-inch retreat in inundated Peoria, Ill., after the Illinois River crested Tuesday at 29.35 feet, eclipsing a 70-year record.

GEOMAGNETIC STORMS UNDERWAY
A solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic field, sparking minor (Kp=5) geomagnetic storms around the poles.

'Growing evidence' of chemical weapons use in Syria - UK
There is "limited but growing" evidence that Syrian government troops have used chemical weapons, UK Prime Minister David Cameron says. "It is extremely serious, this is a war crime," Mr Cameron told the BBC. On Thursday, the White House said that US intelligence agencies believed "with varying degrees of confidence" that Syria had used the nerve agent sarin.

Spain in new move to revive economy
Spain is set to unveil new measures later aimed at reviving the economy, a day after unemployment in the country hit another record. Many economists believe the proposals will focus less on austerity and more on stimulus measures. The news will be watched closely amid a growing debate in Europe about whether austerity plans should be reined back.

Assad’s forces defeat rebels at key strategic hub near Damascus
On April 24, Assad forces drove out the rebels from Otaiba, described as a strategic hub for rebel units. “This is a huge defeat for the rebels because Otaiba was where all the weapons sent from Jordan were arriving,” an opposition source said.

CISPA Is Dead: Senate To Shelve Controversial Bill
Privacy advocates can breathe a sigh of relief as the controversial US Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) appears to be all but dead in the water, with all signs pointing to it being shelved by the Senate.

U.N. Votes to Send Peace Force to Mali
The U.N. Security Council on Thursday established a 12,600-strong peacekeeping force to be deployed in areas of northern Mali, where a French military intervention has pushed back an Islamist insurgency that threatened to seize control of the West African nation.

Reps challenge DHS ammo buys, say agency using 1,000 more rounds per person than Army
Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz said Thursday that the Department of Homeland Security is using roughly 1,000 rounds of ammunition more per person than the U.S. Army, as he and other lawmakers sharply questioned DHS officials on their "massive" bullet buys. "It is entirely ... inexplicable why the Department of Homeland Security needs so much ammunition," Chaffetz, R-Utah, said at a hearing.

'Many dead' in Russia psychiatric hospital fire
At least 38 people are feared dead after a fire swept through a psychiatric hospital in the Moscow region, officials say. The blaze started shortly after 02:00 local time (22:00 GMT Thursday) at the No 14 hospital in Ramenskiy village.

China slams Philippine bid to "legalise" occupation of islands
China accused the Philippines on Friday of trying to legalise its occupation of islands in the disputed South China Sea, repeating that Beijing would never agree to international arbitration.

North Korea ignores Seoul deadline for talks
South Korea says Pyongyang has ignored Seoul's deadline for responding to a demand for talks on a shuttered inter-Korean factory park. Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk said Friday that Seoul is considering countermeasures but refused to discuss what they might be.

King Abdullah Shakes Up the Order of Princely Posts
Apr 26th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Saudi King Abdullah executed a key government reshuffle just a few days before US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was due in Riyadh this week. He dropped pro-American Prince Khaled bin Sultan as deputy defense minister and replaced him with Prince Fahd bin Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Abd al-Rahman.
The new man is clearly more competent to handle contacts with Hagel on the big US arms package on its way to the kingdom, although Khaled would have been a friendlier face. However, the change clearly suited the king’s domestic political agenda.
Fahd is a former military officer who retired in 2002 with the rank of lieutenant general, after serving as Saudi Royal Navy chief. He was later appointed Assistant Minister of Defense and Aviation for Civil Aviation Affairs.
His qualifications, military background and experience make him the right choice to fill the functions of defense minister at a time when the minister himself, Prince Salman, is in poor health.
Fahd’s ascent on the defense establishment’s ladder was first noted in November 2011 when, after the death of the former defense minister, Crown Prince Sultan, he was appointed chairman of the General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA).
This authority was then separated from the Defense Ministry so as to confer on Prince Fahd the rank of minister, along with his chairmanship of the boards of directors of the Saudi Arabian Airlines general corporation.

Too many deaths soften the Sudeiri royal faction’s clout

This appointment accentuated the failing fortunes of Fahd’s rival, Prince Khaled, whose expectation of the defense portfolio after Sultan’s death was disappointed. Both princes had held the ranks of deputy defense minister, but Fahd was clearly pulling ahead.
Apart from the question of his competence for the job, the timing of Fahd’s promotion now could indicate a serious falling-out between the king and the Prince Khaled who, as the eldest son of the late Crown Prince Sultan, took his place as head of the family in keeping with Saudi tradition.
Khaled’s dismissal in favor of Fahd focuses attention on the decline of the powerful Sudeiri wing of the royal family in recent years.
Founded by seven full brothers, sons of Hussa al-Sudeiri, this wing reigned for 50 years as the royal family’s strongest faction.
But the deaths of three senior members - two in recent months - took their toll: King Fahd in 2006, Crown Prince Sultan in 2001 and Prince Nayef in 2012, months after he was named Crown prince and next in line to the throne.
Two surviving Sudeiri brothers, Abdel Rahman and Ahmed, were sacked; Turki went into business 30 years ago and Salman became Crown Prince in 2011 and defense minister in 2012.
Although he seems to be carrying out his public functions, Salman is in poor health and believed to be suffering from dementia. Hence, the importance of the Fahd promotion to deputy defense minister.
But ill health has not stopped Salman working hard to place his own sons in cushy posts, which they will most likely lose when he is gone.

Upgrading rivals to offset the Sudeiris

The late Prince Sultan’s sons have had a mixed fate. Khaled’s climb to the top post in defense has just been cut short. However, the king awarded another son, Prince Bandar, a former long-serving Saudi ambassador to Washington, the plum post of Director of General Intelligence.
Not content with reducing the power of the Sudeiri princes, Abdullah has spent recent years bringing into central positions princes of rival branches and descendants of the collateral families of the vast extended royal family. He has been plucking them from the sidelines to which they were relegated by the powerful Sudeiris.
The monarch started with his own sons. In 2009, Miteb was appointed commander of the National Guard and minister of state; Abd al-Aziz, deputy foreign minister; Mishaal, governor of Najran Province and in 2013, Turki became deputy governor of Riyadh Province.
Abdullah then moved on to other non-Sudeiri branches, naming Prince Mogrin Second Deputy Prime Minister in 2012 and Khaled bin Bandar Governor of Riyadh in 2013
Fahd, the new deputy defense minister, is a scion of Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Abd al-Rahman, brother of the dynasty’s founder Ibn Saud. Faisal, who belongs to another non-Sudeiri branch of the royal family, married the king’s daughter and was appointed in 2009 Minister of Education.
He is in charge of the education reforms approved by his father-in-law.

Reform – A broader and more balanced royal family leadership

Abdullah, who is getting on for 90, knows he hasn’t much time left to build his legacy as a reformist monarch.
He grew up as the only son of one of the Ibn Saud wives and so had no full brothers as kindred allies. Over the years, during which the Sudeiris tried to block his ascent to the throne, he came to believe the governing of the oil kingdom must be shared out among the various branches of the royal house, i.e. descendants of the founder’s different wives. It was vitally important, he felt, to dilute the strength of the powerful Sudeiris, who for decades monopolized the top posts of king, crown prince, defense minister and interior minister.
To compensate for his lack of direct kin, Abdullah cultivated friendships with his half-brothers and their families, as well as with more remote branches of the extended royal family.
Since ascending the throne in 2006 - and before that, as crown prince to the ailing King Fahd - Abdullah assiduously imported non-Sudeiri princes to key positions in government – as well as his own sons and son-in-law.

Abdullah races to complete his reform program

Abdullah is not done with his drive to reform the elite level of royal government.
A vacancy still to be filled is the post of deputy to Interior Minister Muhammad bin Nayef. A new foreign minister is needed to take over from the veteran Saud al-Faisal and some of the district administrators.
By diversifying the royal family’s ruling structure, Abdullah will bequeath the kingdom a more cohesive and broader-based governing elite. Not only the direct Ibn Saud lines of succession, but other royal branches too, will own an interest in keeping the regime in their hands, as top posts become available to a new princely class and generation of royals. Given the many thousands of princes, this would be the closest the desert kingdom may ever come to democracy.
At the same time, his shakeup will likely fuel resentments among the displaced Ibn Saud descendants who held pride of place in Riyadh for more than half a century. They may resist being dislodged from high position by family members whom they regard as inferiors.

Israeli - Turkish Military Intelligence Cooperation on Syria is Up and Running
Apr 26th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

An Israeli delegation opened negotiations with Turkish officials in Istanbul Monday, April 22, on the amount of compensation to be paid out to the families of the nine Turks who died in a clash of arms with Israeli naval commandoes in May 2010, when their ship, the Mavi Marmara, was stopped from completing its mission to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The first session was brief. Criteria for determining the amounts of the payouts were settled in less than an hour. A joint Israeli-Turkish group will calculate the sums and refer them back to the delegations for approval. The two delegations were then free to get down to the brass tacks of the real issues of interest to them both.
A day earlier, US Secretary of State John Kerry had urged Turkey to hurry up and restore its relations with Israel because the security interests they share with the United States in the Middle East are pressing. The turbulence in Syria and Iran’s drive for a nuclear bomb posed extreme perils to all three.
The delegations responded, DEBKA-Net-Weekly's intelligence sources say, with an intense discussion of ways to further their military and intelligence cooperation for the common benefit.
Before setting off for home, the Israeli delegation and Turkish hosts broke through to concurrence on three issues:

Turkey and Israel to pool Syrian intelligence

1. Turkey agreed to lift its veto on Israel’s participation in NATO military exercises.
The ban was imposed after the Mavi Marmara episode. By lifting it, Ankara took the first step toward the phased resumption of its army’s old, longstanding military cooperation with Israel’s Defense Forces, the IDF.
The London Sunday Times reported on April 21 that Turkey and Israel were negotiating terms for the Israeli Air Force to use a Turkish air base near Ankara in the event of a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
2. Turkey and Israel have agreed to set up a joint mechanism for sharing intelligence on the Syrian conflict.
According to DEBKA-Net-Weekly, Turkey and Israel have the best Syrian intelligence in the business, but they are different in content and tradecraft and gathered from disparate sources.
The Turks use Syrian rebels and Lebanese sources operating in Syria. They don’t command the electronic resources which Israel possesses. The two agencies also maintain contact with different rebel militias.
It was therefore agreed that Ankara and Jerusalem would profit from pooling their incoming intelligence data at the highest level - i.e., between Mossad chief Tamir Pardo and Turkish MIT intelligence chief Hakan Fidan.

A Turkish-Israeli mechanism for coordination on Kurdistan

3. Another new Turkish-Israeli mechanism will coordinate Turkish and Israeli activities regarding the self-governing Kurdish Republic of Iraq, and its president, Masoud Barzani.
According to our intelligence sources, this is essentially a renewal of a practice they pursued before the 2010 breakdown of relations between Ankara and Jerusalem, whereby both agreed to refrain from actions in relation to Kurdistan that might be detrimental to the other’s strategic, military of intelligence interests.
Iraqi Kurdistan is a major player in Turkey's regional game plans. President Barzani has been extremely helpful to Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's bid to bury the hatchet between his government and the outlawed PKK (Kurdish Workers Party).
The Kurdish leader, for his party, relies on Turkey’s military umbrella to protect the KRG from the hostile Baghdad government headed by the Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Both Irbil and Ankara share in interest in the continued pumping of oil from the Kirkuk fields.
Israel’s role has focused on training and supplying arms to the independent Kurdish army, the Peshmerga, as well as building and assisting Kurdish intelligence organizations.

Israel May Face Wars With Iran and Syria Within Two Months Say Analysts
Apr 26th, 2013
Daily NewsAnshel Pfeffer
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Israeli fighter jet (Photo: Flash 90)

Israeli intelligence officials say the moment is fast approaching when the country’s so-called “red line” triggers for military action in both Syria and Iran will have been crossed.

President Bashar al-Assad is already believed to have crossed the line in Syria by using chemical weapons.

And there is now a widely shared view within Israeli intelligence that Iran will have the option of a nuclear capability by the end of the year.

Analysts made clear at this week’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) conference at Tel Aviv University that Israel potentially faces two large-scale wars within months.

Amos Yadlin, the former commander of Israeli Military Intelligence, said of Iran: “We are headed toward a collision course by the end of this year.”

Mr Yadlin explained that by the summer it may be almost impossible for Israel to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons: “We have about two months to sleep soundly, until the Iranian elections. After that, I believe the Iranians will have to make a difficult decision.”

Meanwhile, Brigadier-General Itai Brun, commander of the IDF’s Military Intelligence Research Directorate, was unequivocal that “the Syrian regime has made use of chemical weapons”.

This has always been seen as a “red line” issue which would prompt Israeli military action.

According to Brig Gen Brun, photographic evidence indicates that Assad has “used deadly chemical substances in a number of cases against the rebels, most likely sarin gas.”

Israeli intelligence estimates that Syria has around 1,000 tons of chemical weapons. The main concern is that these and other advanced weapons could fall into the hands of Hizbollah and other jihadist movements.

US President Barack Obama warned the Syrians last August that using chemical weapons would be crossing “a red line”. Any verifiable use could force the Americans to abandon their policy of not intervening on the ground in Syria.

The US has been reticent in confirming the reports and Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday that he had “talked to Prime Minister Netanyahu this morning. I think it is fair for me to say that he was not in a position to confirm that... I don’t know yet whatthe facts are.”

Despite his public scepticism, Mr Kerry has asked Nato to prepare a plan to counter the Syrian chemical weapons network.

Israel has been warning its allies in recent weeks to exercise extreme caution in helping arm the Syrian rebels as many have been infiltrated by elements with ties to Al Qaeda and the weapons could be used against Israel.

Mr Netanyahu emphasised this in his meeting in London last week with David Cameron.

An Israeli official involved in the talks said: “Syria is rapidly becoming a black-hole that can suck us in and keep us busy for years to come”

The warnings came while US Defence Secretary, Chuck Hagel, was ending his 3-day visit to Israel. Secretary Hagel announced an agreement to supply new weapons systems to Israel as part of a move to bolster the armed forces of Middle East nations facing Iran.

Mr Hagel’s visit was in a large part intended to allay any concerns Israel has over his personal commitment to its security. His appointment two months ago took place after an intense Senate battle in which pro-Israeli senators tried to block the confirmation of President Barack Obama’s who had in the past criticised Israel and its lobby in Washington and had also voiced opposition to an American strike on Iran’s nuclear programme.

In an attempt to win Israel’s trust, his office announced a major arms deal with Israel in advance of his visit and his statements throughout the stay in Israel were carefully tailored to reassure Israeli concerns.

“This is a difficult and dangerous time,” he said to the press before his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “This is a time when friends and allies must remain close, closer than ever.”

Mr Hagel’s meetings with Israel’s political and military leaders focused mainly on the Iranian threat and the situation in civil war-torn Syria.

Mr Netanyahu said that Israel and the United States were facing together the “arming of terrorist groups by Iran with sophisticated weapons, and equally, Iran’s attempt to arm itself with nuclear weapons.”

In a previous statement, Mr Hagel had said that “Israel is a sovereign nation; every sovereign nation has a right to defend itself” and that the decision whether to attack Iran “has to be made by Israel.” But while the tone in public was conciliatory, in his meeting, Mr Hagel, as had other senior American officials on previous visits to Israel, sought to assure that Israel would not attack Iran without coordinating its moves with the administration.

While a great deal of attention was focused during the Hagel visit on the proposed arms deal - its main components, do not dramatically change the strategic balance between Israel and Iran. The promised supply of aerial tankers will not take place for at least two years and though the tankers will expand Israel’s capability to launch wide-scale long-range airborne operations, this capability already exists due to the tankers Israel already has. In addition, the Americans will supply the V-22 vertical take-off and landing transport aircraft which will improve the Israeli Air Force’s special operations and search and rescue capabilities. But so far, the Obama administration is not supplying Israel with new bunker-busting bombs which would be useful in attacking Iran’s underground nuclear installations.

Israeli officials acknowledged that while they were grateful for the new arms deal, it was not aimed at helping Israel carry out a future strike on Iran, rather reinsuring Israel that American continues to support it and will deal with the Iranian threat itself if all other diplomatic channels and sanctions fail. In addition, the U.S. is also planning major arms deals with its Persian Gulf allies Saudi Arabia (further stops on Hagel’s itinerary) and the deal with Israel was in part designed to minimize any possible opposition to those deals from Israel’s supporters in Washington.

Establishing Israel - Controlled Buffer Zones in Southern Syria
Apr 26th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Two security enclaves forming a buffer zone are being cut into southern Syrian territory along its borders with Israel and Jordan. It is part of the security plan the US, Israel and Jordan have charted, along with the impending deployment of 20,000 US soldiers in the kingdom of Jordan.

The two enclaves will be designed to keep Assad’s soldiers and the rebel militias alike at bay from the borders of Jordan and Israel, and at a distance from the new US military force of 20,000 men which is due to take up position at King Hussein Air Base in Mafraq, at the intersection of the borders of Jordan, Syria and Iraq.
Israeli military and intelligence officers will establish, arm, fund and train local militias to police the two enclaves under their command.
The plan which has gained President Barack Obama’s nod was borrowed from the “Good Fence” buffer zone born of the Lebanese civil war of 1976. Israel then threw up a security fence along its border with Lebanon against Palestinian incursions and attacks and forged an alliance with Lebanese Christian Maronites. The South Lebanese Army – SLA – was formed to contend with their common foe, Yasser Arafat and his PLO.

Modeling Syrian enclaves on Israel’s old Lebanese buffer zone

Israel and the Maronites developed an alliance based on a system of give-and-take, whereby the latter fed Israel intelligence and helped hold armed Palestinian forces back from the Israeli border, in return for permits to work in Israel and the export of their farm produce through Haifa port.
Israeli physicians treated south Lebanese Christians at six medical stations set up along the “Good Fence” border.
In partnership with the 2,500 well-armed SLA, Israeli troops controlled the South Lebanese buffer region for two decades until 2000. It was then that Ehud Barak, Israel’s prime minister of the day, decided it was time to pull Israeli troops out of Lebanon and give up the buffer zone.
No sooner did the last Israeli soldier shake the dust of Lebanon off his boots, than the Good Fence border and its shared facilities buckled and the radical Shiite Hizballah moved in and took over.
The two security enclaves that Israel’s Defense Forces have begun carving out in Syria are based on the South Lebanese model.
The southernmost zone is situated at the southwestern tip of Syria and is enclosed by Jordan in the south and Israel in the west. As a barrier against a direct Syrian military or al Qaeda invasion of Jordan, it will also shield the US force to be deployed at Jordan’s Mafreq air base. Extending 45 kilometers deep into Syrian territory and 75 kilometers broad, it starts at a point south of Daraa and ends at the Jabel al-Druze mountain range.
At this point, the plan runs into an obstacle.

The Syrian Druzes must be won over

The Syrian Druze clans, a population of 180,000 scattered in 120 mountain villages, have dug their heels in against joining the revolt against the Assad regime. Their militias have at the same time closed their villages to both parties to the conflict, army and rebels alike.
It is hoped in Washington that Druze chiefs can be persuaded to join the buffer system by the presence of 20,000 US troops just across the border and the Israeli Air Force umbrella over an area that includes the Druze mountain strongholds.
The decision is up to one man, Walid Jumblatt, whose word for the Syrian Druze community is law.
If that community and its militia are added to the buffer zone mix, it will make the Israeli-controlled security zone in southeastern Syria too formidable and stable a strategic entity for Assad’s army to attack.
It might also become a catalyst for the breakup of Syria into self-governing sectors based on ethnic, religious and national groupings which refuse any longer to defer to Damascus.
But if the Druzes decide to stay aloof from the buffer project, the defense of the southern enclave will be that much harder.
The second security zone lies further north. When it is finally laid out, it will cover the 60-kilometer stretch of Syria's Golan border with Israel, and bring the Syrian town of Quneitra under Israeli control.
This strip, about 30 kilometers wide, is home to 300,000 Syrians.

Israeli liaison officers at work in the two enclaves

DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military sources disclose exclusively that the Israeli military has already posted liaison officers and forward medical and supply units in this area. IDF special forces positions are in battle array on the border ready to step in should a security emergency arise.
In both the security enclaves, Israel is handing out to rebel units, screened first for Islamist elements and willing to cooperate, supplies of weapons, money, intelligence, food and medical aid.
These militias file their requests with the liaison officers who relay them to the special headquarters Israel has set up on the Golan for pulling together the functioning of the two enclaves.
The Israelis try to fill all the requests either directly or through Jordanian military personnel.
Israeli military medical teams are working the security zones and referring the seriously ill or injured to the large military hospital the IDF has recently set up on the Syrian border or to hospitals in Israel.
The ultimate purpose of the emerging buffer zone system, as conceived by the US, Israeli and Jordanian governments, is to mold the various Syrian militias playing ball with the project into a single military force. Sustained by the three powers, that force should be capable of securing the two regions as a solid bulwark against the Syrian civil war’s spillover into its two southwestern neighbors.

Emerging Church & the Road to Rome
Apr 26th, 2013
CommentaryRoger Oakland
Categories: Exhortation;Prophecy

British PM: Syria Chemical Weapons Evidence 'serious'
Apr 26th, 2013
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Satff
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Friday that growing evidence of the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime was "extremely serious".

Cameron agreed with President Barack Obama that such use would represent a "red line" for the international community, but said the response would likely be political rather than military, the AFP news agency reported.

"This is extremely serious. And I think what President Obama said was absolutely right, that this should form for the international community a red line for us to do more," Cameron told the BBC.

"I've always been keen for us to do more. The question is how do we step up the pressure,” he said.

"In my view what we need to do -- and we're doing some of this already -- is shape that opposition, work with them, train them, mentor them, help them so we put the pressure on the regime and so we can bring this to an end."

Asked whether that would mean putting British troops on the ground in Syria, Cameron responded by saying, "I don't want to see that and I don't think that is likely to happen.

"But I think we can step up the pressure on the regime, work with our partners, work with the opposition in order to bring about the right outcome."

The United States said Thursday for the first time that Syria had likely used chemical weapons against rebel forces, but emphasized spy agencies were still not definitively sure of the assessment.

Britain's Foreign Office confirmed it also had "limited but persuasive" evidence of the use of chemical agents in the conflict which the UN says has left more than 70,000 dead since March 2011.

"It is limited evidence, but there is growing evidence that we've seen too of the use of chemical weapons, probably by the regime," Cameron said on Friday, according to AFP.

"It's extremely serious -- this is a war crime and we should take it very seriously."