Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

‘IDF Does not Deny Terror is on the Rise’
May 28th, 2013
Daily NewsINN - Maayana Miskin
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz may not want to allow soldiers to open fire on rock-throwing terrorists, but he does recognize that terrorism is a problem, MK Motti Yogev (Bayit Yehudi) said Tuesday, speaking to Arutz Sheva.

Yogev is the former commander of an elite infantry unit and serves as a colonel in the IDF reserves.

“I think the Chief of Staff does not deny how difficult it is for soldiers and commanders in Judea and Samaria. The Chief of Staff does not deny the increase in the number of [terrorist] incidents,” he said.

“I think that the Head of Central Command works night and day to protect residents of Judea and Samaria,” he continued.

“Despite that, there is a gap between the frequency of incidents and the operational response,” he added.

Gantz explained to the Knesset Tuesday why he believes that the IDF cannot change its orders regarding opening fire. “If we let go of the reins, there will be escalation and we will lose control,” he argued.

While Gantz has refused to change the open-fire orders, the IDF can still improve its response to terrorism, Yogev said. “The IDF is moving toward improving its response and increasing security, the IDF is examining the issue… I have no doubt that this will reduce the number of terrorist attacks and provide a better operational response.”

He condemned the recent hanging of signs criticizing Head of Central Command Major-General Nitzan Alon. “We need to understand that we and the Chief of Staff and the Major-General are all on the same side, with the shared goal of bringing security to Judea and Samaria and the state of Israel,” he said.

Yaalon: We'll Know What to Do If Syria Gets S - 300
May 28th, 2013
Daily NewsINN - Gil Ronen
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Israel "will know what to do" if Russia delivers highly advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Syria, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said Tuesday.

AFP said this was “an apparent allusion to another air strike” on Syria.

"The deliveries have not taken place – I can attest to this – and I hope they do not. But if, by some misfortune, they arrive in Syria, we will know what to do," Yaalon said.

His comments came after Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said providing the missiles to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad would be a "stabilizing factor" aimed at deterring any foreign intervention in Syria.

Speaking in Moscow, Ryabkov said "we consider these supplies a stabilizing factor and believe such steps will deter some hotheads from considering scenarios that would turn the conflict international with the involvement of outside forces." .

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met Russian leader Vladimir Putin two weeks ago, in an effort to forestall the transfer of the missiles to Syria. He reportedly told Putin that the missiles could be used to threaten Israeli civilian air traffic, among other things. In recent days, there have been reports that the transfer of the advanced systems would not be carried out.

Worst Case Emp Scenario? Half of U.S. Dead
May 28th, 2013
Daily NewsWND
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues;Warning

The sun has kicked into high gear and produced four so-called X-class solar flares over the past week from a solar spot that is expected to come more into alignment with Earth as the sun’s activity peaks this year and next.

The intense solar storms are expected to last as long as until 2020.

Until now, the sun has remained relatively dormant, but with four X-class eruptions in one week, it is beginning to reach its “solar storm maximum” in this latest 11-year cycle of activity.

Scientists of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Solar Dynamics Observatory say that the latest eruptions are the first X-class flares that the sun has produced in this cycle.

Of the four X-class flares, the first registered at X1.2, scientists said. It was the weakest, but as the week continued, more powerful flares registered at X3.2, which scientists say has been the strongest of the year.

The numbers assigned to the flares correlate to their strength. An X2, for example, is twice as intense as an X1, while an X3 is three times as intense.

The strongest flare recorded during the sun’s 11-year cycle was an X6.9. This occurred on August 9, 2011. The second strongest was an X5.4 on March 7, 2012.

The sun is going through Solar Cycle 24, which began in January 2008. So far during Solar Cycle 24 there have been 19 X-class solar flares, scientists say.

Along with the radiation from the flares, there also is a coronal mass ejection, or CME. During a CME, billions of tons of highly charged particles are ejected to interact with Earth’s magnetic field, causing radio blackouts and the shutdown or destruction of vulnerable electrical grid systems and sensitive electronic components.

The initial X-class flares came from the same active sunspot region, which scientists identify as AR-1748. They say it was away from the Earth, although it is possible that their effects could “just glance the Earth’s magnetic field.” As it was, it caused some radio blackout, scientists said.

While the flares spewing from this sunspot went off into space, the AR-1748 is rotating more in alignment with Earth, scientists say.

Scientists said that an increased number of solar flares are expected as the sun approaches its peak of high activity. The Space Weather Prediction Center said that upcoming solar activity is expected to be moderate, with a 50 percent probability of more X-class flares erupting in the weeks ahead.

Because the United States and other Western countries are technologically based societies, with critical infrastructures run by electronics, the increase in space weather activity takes on a high level of importance.

For one thing, the U.S. national grid system is vulnerable in its own right.

But with an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, generated from the sun’s flares – some of which can be up to 10 times the size of the Earth – the unprotected grid, including transformers, electrical components and automated control systems that everyone takes for granted in their everyday lives, could either be severely damaged or fried, taking months if not years to replace.

NASA estimates that a direct hit to Earth from one of these enormous flares would have a catastrophic impact on the nation’s critical infrastructures over a very wide geographical area.

In the first year alone, NASA estimates, such a disaster could cost just the U.S. upwards of $2 trillion. It also would take from four to 10 years to recover – if that even would be possible – and affect the lives of some 160 million people, threatening starvation and death.

Some EMP experts say that such a catastrophic event could wipe out America’s urban centers, due to their total dependency on critical infrastructures for electricity, communications, food and water delivery, oil and gas, transportation, automated banking and financial institutions and even emergency services.

The experts say grocery stores, for example, would have their shelves cleared in a matter of hours due to the panic that would sweep the population. Normally, grocery stores carry a maximum of three days of products before being restocked. However, restocking would come to a halt due to the inability of trucks to function, with fueling stations unable to pump the fuel needed to run the vehicles.

Automated control devices that regulate the flow of oil and natural gas through the hundreds of thousands of miles of pipelines that crisscross the nation would be tripped, causing geographically widespread secondary fires and explosions.

Such an event would not just occur out in a remote field. Fires and explosions also could occur under streets and even into people’s houses.

The inability of fire and medical emergency services to respond would result in further disastrous consequences for the population.

Because automated systems ensure fresh water delivery, all filtering and sewage systems in the urban setting would face the high prospect shutting down, leading to disease such as cholera and dysentery. In addition, there would be little likelihood of medical attention because the hospitals and first responders’ emergency equipment which rely on electronics and communications equipment may no longer function.

Hospitals would have backup generators. However, if the generators have electrical starters, they might not function at all. Others may run on gasoline or diesel and only function for as long as there is fuel, which would need to be trucked in by vehicles with automated starters.

NASA estimates that as many as 350 of the large, customized transformers, which maintain a power supply across the nation and are only produced abroad, would be destroyed.

Because they are expensive – some costing as much as $20 million a copy – utilities don’t keep spares on hand. They could take years to replace, especially if a number of technologically dependent countries’ transformers are affected by a direct solar flare impact.

Now It's a Social Worker for Every Child - in Scotland
May 28th, 2013
Daily NewsThe Telegraph - Christopher Booker
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

'Named persons': each Scottish child will have a state 'guardian' from birth Photo: REX FEATURES

For anyone familiar with how our “child protection” system too often works in practice, rather loud alarm bells might be rung by a Bill currently going through the Scottish Parliament that takes the state’s intervention in family life to a startling new level. Under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill, every child from birth will be given a “named person”, charged with keeping an eye on that child’s interests until it reaches adulthood.

We are familiar with the idea that state employees are expected to take an interest in a child’s welfare, from health visitors to teachers at school. But this proposal that local authorities should be empowered to appoint an official to act as a personal “guardian”, or social worker, to oversee every aspect of a child’s life from birth onwards is a world first.

In fact, the Bill is remarkably vague about the powers to be given to these “named persons”. Will they be free to arrive unannounced at the family home to check on how a child is being treated by its parents, when it goes to bed, what food it is given, what political or religious opinions it is being brought up with? In other words, the Bill gives no idea of how this hugely ambitious scheme, estimated to cost Scotland’s local authorities up to £138  million a year, will work in practice. And most worrying of all, to anyone familiar with the failings of our existing “child protection” system, is how often the most damaging errors can arise when professionals are charged with reporting to social workers their suspicion that something in a child’s life might be amiss.

In too many of the cases I have followed where children have been removed from their families for what seems to be no good reason, their nightmare began with a report by a teacher or a doctor that got some overheard remark or slight injury absurdly out of proportion. Too often, such suspicions then harden into allegations that are never properly tested against the evidence, and the damage is done. However admirable, in theory, the thought of appointing a “guardian” to watch over every child might seem, experience suggests that, in practice, this may exacerbate those weaknesses in our existing “child protection” system, which make a mockery of the noble aims it was set up to promote.

ÞLast week I promised to give an update on the increasingly bizarre story of Vicky Haigh, the mother of a two-year-old daughter who was last month sent back to prison for breach of a probation order, on the basis of a solitary “witness statement” that she hadn’t been allowed to see. After evidence was produced that seemed to show that this statement was highly questionable, Miss Haigh was released from prison to return to her bemused family.

Let the Headlines Speak
May 28th, 2013
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Underwater volcano mapped in South-East Alaska
“I was just checking the website before I headed out one day,” he said, “and when I saw the survey results of an area near Ketchikan, all I can remember saying is, ‘Oh, my gosh!’” Buried inside the NOAA data were 3D renderings of a previously unknown volcano.  

Strong earthquake in the Caucasus
The same area had very strong earthquakes in 1905 (M6.4) and in 1963 (M6.7). the current earthquake may have the benefit to have released a lot of the culminated stress. The location of the epicenter is close to Dombay, a tourist village with approx. 700 inhabitants. The village is popular with skiers and hikers.  

Russia slams end of EU arms embargo, calls S-300s ‘stabilizing factor’ in Syria
The failure of the European Union to agree on a new arms embargo for Syria is undermining the peace process, Moscow says. But the delivery of S-300 surface-to-air missiles may help restrain warmongers. The comments come from Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, referring to the results of Monday’s meeting in Brussels. After a lengthy negotiating session, EU governments failed to resolve their differences and allowed a ban on arming the Syrian opposition to expire, with France and Britain scoring an apparent victory at the expense of EU unity.  

ELECTRON STORM
In the past 24 hours, the flux of high-energy electrons swarming around Earth has increased more than tenfold. The source of this "electron storm" is a 700 km/s stream of solar wind buffeting Earth's magnetic field. NOAA cautions satellite operators that "satellite systems may experience significant charging" in response to accumulated electrons.  

New class of people identified as IRS enemies
New information from the Taxpayer Advocate Service says that 90 percent of those who filed for the adoption tax credits in 2012 were asked for “additional information.” And the study says 69 percent of the families who adopted were ultimately audited by the IRS. In comparison, millionaires have 12 percent chance of being audited.  

S-300 Air Defense Systems Deployed at Snap Alert Drills
Four regiments of S-300 air defense systems have been deployed at the Ashuluk firing range in southern Russia as part of another snap combat readiness check of the Russian armed forces, the Defense Ministry said.  

Confused Weather Drops Over 30 Inches of Snow on Memorial Day Weekend
It's a snowy Memorial Day weekend for parts of the U.S. On the aptly named Whiteface Mountain in upstate New York, there are at least 34 inches of snow on the ground.

Spin Zone: Physicists Get 1st Look at Strange Quantum Magnetism
Using super-chilled atoms, physicists have for the first time observed a weird phenomenon called quantum magnetism, which describes the behavior of single atoms as they act like tiny bar magnets.  

Scientists: AR Earthquake Outbreak Akin to 'Powerball Kind of Odds'
"Are they being being triggered or are they natural? That's something we don't know," Arkansas Geological Survey scientist Scott Ausbrook said Sunday. The chances of so many temblors in the region in such a short time are "Powerball kind of odds," says Ausbrook. "What was unusual was to have four different areas in the state to be active in the same week."

Kerry Wants Major Israeli Concessions for Palestinians, Including Sovereign Northern Dead Sea Coast
May 28th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Peace Process

Veteran Kibbutz Kalia on the Dead Sea

US Secretary of State John Kerry put a package of proposals for reviving the moribund Israel-Palestinian peace process before Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and peace negotiator Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and then returned to Amman Monday, May 27.
He keeps the package's contents firmly under his hat. However, according to some of the details revealed here for the first time by debkafile’s sources, Kerry’s top-secret plan places on Israel the onus of major concessions including strategic and national assets, for the sake of buying the Palestinian leader’s consent to sit down and talk. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) is not required to pay anything real in return - although it was who stalled the peace negotiations in the first place.

As the first of these concessions, Kerry wants Israel to permit the Palestinians to build in Jericho for their prospective state an international airport for direct civilian flights to and from America and Europe. Those flights would cross Israeli air space and be coordinated with Israeli flight control authorities.

Our exclusive sources further disclose that, while Palestinian authorities would be in charge of security at the future Jericho airport, Israel would maintain control of passengers and freight traffic by means of computer and surveillance camera networks.
In 2006, a similar remote system was installed at the Gaza Strip’s Rafah border post under European controllers after Israel’s withdrawal from the territory. It soon broke down when the foreign controllers were scared away by Palestinian threats.
Kerry envisages the transformation of the entire Jericho region north of the Dead Sea and near the Jordanian border into a busy hub for galvanizing the economy of the future Palestinian state. He wants Israel to hand over to the Palestinians the Kalia region on the northern shore of the Dead Sea. Kibbutz Kalia, albeit part of sovereign Israel from its inception in 1948, is nonetheless one of the assets Kerry wants Israel to cede to the Palestinians.
The fate of the veteran Israeli kibbutz is left up in the air.
Israeli concessions would not end at the northern Dead Sea coast, according to the secret Kerry plan; it would be just the first in a series of land and sovereignty handovers granted the Palestinians in trilateral negotiations among Israel, the Palestinians and the United States.

The Palestinians would also be awarded by the process a three-year economic reconstruction program for boosting their Gross National Product by 50 percent and slashing unemployment from 21 to 8 percent.
The Middle East Quartet’s Special Envoy Tony Blair will head the program, Secretary Kerry reported to the world economic forum meeting in Jordan Sunday, May 26. His goal is to raise $4 billion for investing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“This is the biggest, boldest and most ambitious program ever granted the Palestinians since Oslo, 20 years ago,” Kerry told the forum.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has not divulged his views on the Kerry proposals - merely for winning Palestinian consent to talk peace. Since the payment of sovereign Israeli territory would be no more than the down- payment for pulling the Palestinians to the table, how many more high-value security and national assets will Israel will be required to part with along the road toward meeting the Palestinians’ ever-rising price tag?
Abu Mazen has gone on record as rejecting any economic proposals unaccompanied by political concessions. However, Kerry is still hard at his shuttle diplomacy and his talks with the Palestinian leader continue.

Jailed for Facebook Comments, Marine Sues
May 28th, 2013
Daily NewsWND
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

It happens in China routinely. It frequently happened in the old Soviet Union. Undoubtedly in North Korea, although generally there’s no one around to witness it. But in the United States? It happens here, too, apparently.

A lawsuit has been filed by officials with the Rutherford Institute on behalf of a Marine who was jailed and held for the comments he made on Facebook – comments that expressed a dissatisfaction with the present direction of the U.S. government.

According to officials at Rutherford, the civil rights action names as defendants members of law enforcement and the government who were involved in last year’s episode where Marine veteran Brandon Raub, 27, was arrested by a swarm of FBI and Secret Service and forcibly detained in a psychiatric ward for a week.

His crime was posting controversial song lyrics and political views on Facebook, the institute reported.

In one of his postings, he cited the evil in the world.

“The United States was meant to lead the charge against injustice, but through our example not our force. People do not respond to having liberty and freedom forced on them,” he wrote.

He was released later when a judge stepped in and concluded the prosecution’s case against Raub was “so devoid of any factual allegations that it could not be reasonably expected to give rise to a case or controversy.”

The lawsuit asks for damages for Raub for the attack he endured. It was filed in U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va., and claims Raub’s seizure and detention were part of a plan executed by the Obama administration called “Operation Vigilant Eagle.”

That, the institute explains, was a federal program to do surveillance on military veterans who express views critical of the government.

Institute attorneys claim the attempt to label Raub as “mentally ill” and authorities’ efforts to involuntarily commit him into custody was intended to silence his criticism of the government. However, they explain the strategy also violated Raub’s First and Fourth Amendment rights.

“Since coming to Raub’s defense, The Rutherford Institute has been contacted by military veterans across the country recounting similar incidents. In filing a civil suit against government officials, Rutherford Institute attorneys plan to take issue with the manner in which Virginia’s civil commitment statutes are being used to silence individuals engaged in lawfully exercising their free speech rights,” the organization said.

“Brandon Raub’s case exposed the seedy underbelly of a governmental system that is targeting military veterans for expressing their discontent over America’s rapid transition to a police state,” said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute.

“Brandon Raub is not the first veteran to be targeted for speaking out against the government. Hopefully, by holding officials accountable, we can ensure that Brandon is the last to suffer in this way.”

It was last Aug, 16 when Chesterfield police, Secret Service and FBI agents arrived at Raub’s home and asked to talk with him about his Facebook posts.

“Like many Facebook users, Raub, a Marine who has served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, uses his Facebook page to post song lyrics and air his political opinions. Without providing any explanation, levying any charges against Raub or reading him his rights, law enforcement officials handcuffed Raub and transported him to police headquarters, then to John Randolph Medical Center, where he was held against his will,” the Institute reported.

“In a hearing on Aug. 20, government officials pointed to Raub’s Facebook posts as the reason for his incarceration. While Raub stated that the Facebook posts were being read out of context, a Special Justice ordered Raub be held up to 30 more days for psychological evaluation and treatment.”

When Circuit Court Judge Allan Sharrett, however, found out about the case, he ordered it dismissed and Raub released, because there was no evidence of a case.

In asking the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to acknowledge the harm done to Raub and to rectify the violation of his First, Fourth, Fifth and 14th Amendment rights, Institute attorneys are requesting that Raub be awarded damages.

The 14-page complaint describes Raub’s “baseless incarceration” and said it violated his free speech, due process and other rights.

The complaint claims the arrest was a “pretext” that was orchestrated to “silence Raub’s speech critical of the government by subjecting him to involuntary commitment."

Israeli Minister: We Have No More Land to Give
May 28th, 2013
Daily NewsIsrael Today - Tommy Mueller
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Israeli Economic and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett this week publicly disagreed with President Shimon Peres that Israel has any more land to give in an already failed land-for-peace process.

"Every time we leave an area, more people are killed," said Bennett in response to Peres' appearance at the World Economic Forum in neighboring Jordan, where the Israeli president gushed that Israel is prepared to pay almost any price for a peace deal with the Palestinians.

Bennett, head of the Jewish Home party and an influential member of the ruling coalition, said Peres' vision of birthing a Palestinian Arab state on ancient Jewish lands is beyond faulty: "Now is the time to make it clear that this is our country and it is not for sale."

Bennett is one of the chief players in an increasingly tense debate within the Israeli government over how to approach and handle the Middle East peace process, upon which the Obama Administration is again focusing an exaggerated amount of attention.

Bennett also pointed out that every day, mothers with children in the car are pelted with stones on the main roads in Judea and Samaria. For Bennett, there can be no difference between the residents of Tel Aviv and the 400,000 Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria, and the Israeli army must protect both equally.

Bennett (41) was a software entrepreneur in the United States, a multi-millionaire. He took the helm of the settler-friendly Jewish Home party in November 2012.

Eu Ministers Cancel Embargo on Arms to Syrian Rebels
May 28th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Erdan: Iron Dome Couldn’t Stop a Barrage of Hundreds of Missiles
May 28th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Home Front Minister Gilead Erdan warned Tuesday that Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system is not designed to intercept a large barrage of hundreds of missiles in the event of Israel’s northern neighbors declaring war. The civilian population should be aware of the facts and prepare accordingly, he said in a comment at the end of the two-day Home Front war exercise.