Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Yaalon: Combat Units ‘likely to be Called Up Soon’
Jun 26th, 2013
Daily NewsINN - Maayana Miskin
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon hinted Wednesday that Israel may call up its combat soldiers for a major operation in the near future.

Yaalon spoke as he and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu observed a Golani Brigade drill in the Golan.

“I was impressed by the Golani Brigade’s capability, preparedness and skill,” he said.

“Golani, like many other IDF combat units, is likely to be called to operational service on short notice,” he added. “That’s why this exercise, like other drills in recent days, has special meaning at this time and in this place.”

He made his warning more explicit, saying, “We will not tolerate violations of our sovereignty or harm done to our soldiers and civilians, whether here, in Gaza or elsewhere.”

“It’s important to clarify to everyone on the other side of the border who may be planning to harm us in some way, that we are prepared and determined to act,” Yaalon said.

Fighting in Syria has spilled over to the Golan on recent occasions, prompting urgent warnings from Israel.

Netanyahu spoke about the current fragile quiet in the Golan as well. “The reality around us is changing at tremendous speed,” he said. “It is volatile and dynamic, and we have to be prepared accordingly.”

“Nobody will hurt the State of Israel,” Netanyahu declared. “We have a very strong, very decisive response.”

“We need the will to break our enemies and to put the fear of death into them,” he added.

The Return of Nazi - Style Anti-semitism?
Jun 26th, 2013
Daily NewsIsrael Today - Ryan Jones
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

No one is under the illusion that anti-Semitism died after the Nazi Holocaust. But for decades following that dark chapter, it was certainly taboo to openly express anti-Semitic positions or demonstrate anti-Semitic behavior.

It would seem with the escalation in anti-Semitic incidents in the West of late that what was once taboo is again socially acceptable, at least to enough of a degree for anti-Semites to once again openly peddle their particular brand of hate.

A recent incident in Antwerp, Belgium is demonstrative of this phenomenon.

Last month, a local Jewish woman and her Israeli girlfriend (the two are in an homosexual relationship) were assaulted by neighbors after daring to openly identify themselves as Jews by placing a mezuzah on the door of their apartment.

Belgian Jewish magazine Joods Actueel reported that at first, the assailants confined themselves to banging on the walls and shouting "stinking Jews." But that didn't last long, and the anti-Semites' appetite soon led them to breaking down the apartment door and beating the local Jewish woman to the point that she required hospitalization for 15 days.

As the Jewish woman was being taken away by an ambulance, she reportedly saw the responding police officers joking and laughing with the unrepentant assailants.

The assailants later stated that they had come "to finish what the Nazis started," according to lawyer Mischael Modrikamen. Israel Today wrote about Modrikamen last year after he launched a pro-Israel political party in Belgium.

The Antwerp incident and the police reaction to it "sounds like something from 1930s Germany," Joel Rubinfeld, co-chair of the European Jewish Parliament, was quoted as saying by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

One of the chief enablers of this renewed wave of anti-Semitism has been has been the rise of anti-Israel sentiment, or anti-Zionism. Conveniently cloaked as "legitimate" criticism of the State of Israel, anti-Zionism in fact takes aim at the hopes and dreams the Jewish people harbored for thousands of years as they suffered in foreign lands. In essence, it says that the Jews deserve, at best, persecution and exile.

Supreme Court Strikes Down Doma Provision Denying Benefits to Gay Couples
Jun 26th, 2013
Daily NewsFox News
Categories: Moral Decline;Contemporary Issues

In a big day for gay-rights advocates, the Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a federal provision denying benefits to legally married gay couples and issued a separate ruling that paves the way for same-sex marriages to resume in California.

Cheers erupted on the steps of the high court, as the rulings were handed down. The latter decision did not speak to the constitutionality of gay marriage bans in California, or in the country as a whole. The court avoided a broad ruling, and rather, determined that the defenders of California’s Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage did not have the standing to appeal lower court rulings against the ban.

As a result, California is likely to allow same-sex marriages to resume in a matter of weeks.

The more sweeping decision came in relation to the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which the court said was unconstitutional and effectively gutted by ruling against a provision that denied benefits to legally married gay couples.

The 5-4 ruling — a major victory for gay-rights advocates — means those same-sex couples would be eligible for federal benefits.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion.

“DOMA divests married same-sex couples of the duties and responsibilities that are an essential part of married life and that they in most cases would be honored to accept were DOMA not in force,” he wrote.

Kennedy wrote that the law “places same-sex couples in an unstable position of being in a second-tier marriage.”

The ruling prompted tension among the divided court. Multiple dissenting opinions were filed. Justice Antonin Scalia, reading from his dissent, said the components of the majority’s ruling are “wrong.”

“The error in both springs from the same diseased root: an exalted notion of the role of this Court in American democratic society,” he said.

Russia Evacuates Tartus, Also Military, Diplomatic Personnel from Syria. High War Alert in Israel
Jun 26th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

.Shortly after the DEBKA aired a special video on the Syrian war’s widening circle, Moscow announced Wednesday June 26, that the evacuation which had begun Friday of all military and diplomatic personnel from Syria was now complete, including the Russian naval base at Tartus.

“Russia decided to withdraw its personnel because of the risks from the conflict in Syria, as well as the fear of an incident involving the Russian military that could have larger consequences,” said a defense ministry official in Moscow. He stressed that a 16-ship naval task force in the eastern Mediterranean remains on post and arms shipments, including anti-air weapons, would continue to the Syrian government in keeping with former contracts.

In another sign of an impending escalation in Syria, the Israeli Golan brigade staged Wednesday an unannounced war maneuver on the Golan, attended by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and top army chiefs. In London, Prime Minister David Cameron called the government’s National Security Council into session in Downing Street on Syria. Opposition leader Ed Milliband was invited to attend the meeting, a custom observed only when issues of the highest security importance are discussed.

Earlier Wednesday, debkafile carried the following report in its special video presentation under the heading: Putin and Obama cross swords on Syrian. What Next?

The sullen confrontation between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama at the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland last week condemned Syria to five months of escalating, unresolved vicious warfare – that is until the two leaders meet again in September.

For now, tempers are heating up between Washington and Moscow on Syria and other things too, notably the elusive American fugitive Edward Snowden.
US and Israeli intelligence watchers see the Syrian crisis entering seven ominous phases:
1. A five-month bloodbath centering on the battle for Aleppo, a city of 2.2 million inhabitants.

The Syrian army plus allies and the fully-mobilized opposition will hurl all their manpower and weapons into winning the city.

Military experts don’t expect the rebels to hold out against Assad’s forces beyond late August.

2.  Neither side has enough manpower or game-changing weaponry for winning the war outright.

That is, unless Presidents Obama or Putin steps in to retilt the balance.

3. The US and Russia are poised for more military intervention in the conflict up until a point just short of a military clash on Syrian soil – or elsewhere in the Middle East. US intelligence analysts have judged Putin ready to go all the way on Syria against the US - no holds barred.
The Russian president is meanwhile deliberately goading Washington and raising temperatures by playing hide-and-seek over the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, charged with espionage for stealing and leaking classified intelligence. At home, he is considered variously as a traitor and a brave whistleblower.

For several hours Snowden vanished between Hong Kong and Moscow – until the Russian president admitted he was holed up in the transit area of Moscow airport and would not be extradited by Russia to the United States.

4.  Iran, Hizballah and Iraq will likewise ratchet up their battlefield presence.

5. A violent encounter is building up between Middle East Shiites flocking to Syria to save the Assad regime alongside Russia, and the US-backed Sunni-dominated rebel forces.
It could scuttle the secret US-Iranian negotiating track on its nuclear program, which was buoyed up by the election of the pragmatic Hassan Rouhani as President of Iran.

6.  The Geneva-2 Conference for a political solution for the Syrian crisis is dead in the water. Moscow and the US are divided by unbridgeable issues of principle, such whether Bashar Assad should stay or go and Iranian representation. 

7.  So long as the diplomatic remains stuck in the mud, the prospects of a regional war spreading out of the Syrian conflict are rising. Iran, Israel, Jordan and Lebanon may be dragged in at any moment – if they have not already, like Lebanon.

A small mistake by one of the Syrian warring parties in Syria could, for example, touch off Israeli retaliation and a wholesale spillover of violence.

Report: Netanyahu Agrees to Kerry Peace Talk Terms
Jun 26th, 2013
Daily NewsIsrael Today - Ryan Jones
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to a series of concessions proposed by US Secretary of State John Kerry with the aim of kick starting peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, according to Israeli media.

Netanyahu will reportedly set free 120 Palestinian terrorists jailed prior to the signing of the "Oslo" peace accords in 1993. The Palestinian insist that because these men carried out their crimes prior to the signing of any agreements, they must be viewed as prisoners of war, not criminals, despite their attempts to mass murder Jewish men, women and children.

Of course, the Palestinian regime also insists that terrorists jailed after the signing of the peace agreements are, in fact, not terrorists either, since they merely killed Jews who were "occupying" their land.

Netanyahu is also said to be ready to halt all Jewish construction outside of major settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria, the so-called "West Bank" that the Palestinians claim for their future state. Israeli officials have already acknowledged that a de facto construction freeze is in place.

The goal of these concessions is to give Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas something he can present as a "victory" in order to entice him back to the negotiating table.

According to Palestinian reports, it was only partly successful.

While Abbas is reportedly ready to drop his preconditions for renewing talks, he will only do so temporarily. In essence, according to Palestinian media reports, Abbas will come to the negotiating table with the intent of blackmailing Netanyahu.

If Netanyahu fails to make a proposal that meets all Arab demands right away, Abbas has threatened to again turn to the United Nations to unilaterally recognize an independent Palestinian state.

Despite what many in the region recognize as the same old intractable positions, Kerry is hailing the deal as a historic opportunity and is expected back in the region shortly.

Poll: Most Israeli Arabs Support Violent Uprising
Jun 26th, 2013
Daily NewsINN - Gil Ronen
Categories: Today's Headlines;Anti-Israel

About 58% of the Arab citizens of Israel say that the Palestinian Authority Arabs would be justified in starting a violent rebellion (“intifada”) if the diplomatic process does not advance. A similar percentage advocate an “intifada” by Israeli Arab citizens if their situation does not improve considerably, according to a poll, which was carried out by Prof. Sami Samoha of Haifa University, with the Israeli Democracy Institute.

The views are in line with the call Monday by an Arab Knesset Member, for an Arab intifada inside Israel.

The poll shows that 63% of Israel's Arab citizens think Iran should continue its nuclear development, despite the evidence that Iran seeks Israel's destruction through nuclear weapons.

About 54 percent of the Arabs prefer Israel over any other country as a place to love. And yet, 70% do not accept Israel's right to maintain a Jewish majority.

While 70% of the Arabs say that the government is treating them like second-class citizens, a full 72% would like the Arab parties in the Knesset to join the coalition – although the Arab MKs themselves oppose this move.

Prof. Samoha said that while the opinions in the Arab sector have become more extreme, “the red lines have not yet been crossed.” However, he warned, “a continued deterioration of relations could cause disquiet and instability.”

Pentagon Celebrates Gay Troops
Jun 26th, 2013
Daily NewsThe Washington Times
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The Pentagon on Tuesday toasted gays in the military, with a top adviser to President Obama declaring the country is “safer” now that they may serve openly in the ranks.

“Because we repealed ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ our military … is stronger and our country is safer, more equal and more just,” said Valerie Jarrett, the keynote speaker at the Pentagon’s gay pride celebration.

It was the Defense Department second annual gay pride gathering since September 2011, when Mr. Obama signed the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” a ban on gays serving openly in the military implemented during the Clinton administration.

This year’s 35-minute gathering in the Pentagon auditorium was more low-key and shorter than last year’s event, which featured a gay Marine officer, an Air Force lawyer and a lesbian West Point graduate.

Wednesday’s speakers were assembled by a new group, DOD Pride, and featured three senior officials, topped by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

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

Visitors to Yellowstone See Rise in Illness
Park officials for Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks announced recently that there has been a noticeable spike in visitor illness. According to a statement by Yellowstone on their Facebook page, officials are especially worried about norovirus, a common contagion that could be spread through food and water.  

Scientists: 2013 Gulf of Mexico “Dead Zone” Potentially Largest Ever
Scientists at the University of Michigan predict that the region will experience its largest dead zone this year, with high-end estimates placing the size of the oxygen-depleted waters at between 7,286 and 8,561 square miles. If the dead zone reaches the higher end of the estimate it would exceed the largest ever reported in the world, and be roughly the size of New Jersey.  

FEMA, Russian Ministry to Join Forces Against Space Threat
“We have decided that the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Russia's Emergencies Ministry will work together to develop systems to protect people and territory from cosmic impacts,” Russia’s Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov told journalists.  

Abortion Battle: Chaos Erupts in Texas Senate as Protesters Try to Shut Down Vote on Pro-Life Bill After Failed Filibuster
Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst has reversed his stance and has informed the Senate that the vote on the tough abortion bill came too late to pass. “Regrettably,” Dewhurst said time expired before the vote and cannot be enrolled. “It’s been fun, but, um, see ya soon,” he reportedly said.  

Islamic Extremists Slit Christian Pastor’s Throat for Refusing to Renounce His Faith, Gun Down Teens as Horror Rages in Nigeria
The pastor would not renounce his Christian faith so the Islamic extremists slit his throat. High school students were taking exams in defiance of the militants of Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden.” So the gunmen mowed them down at their desks.  

‘Hypocrite of the century’: Irish MP blasts US president’s G8 visit
Barack Obama is a “war criminal” and a “hypocrite,” an Irish politician has said in a damning attack on the US president. The MP slammed the Irish treatment of Obama during his G8 visit as akin to ‘prostituting’ Ireland for a “pat on the head.” Irish MP Clare Daly took no prisoners in her heated attack on the visit of the Obama family to Ireland during this year’s G8 summit, which was held in the five-star resort of Lough Erne, Northern Ireland. During a session of the Irish parliament last Tuesday, Daly slammed media coverage of the visit as tantamount to "a nation of pimps, prostituting ourselves in return for a pat on the head."  

Syrian death toll tops 100,000
More than 100,000 people have been killed since the start of Syria’s conflict over two years ago, an activist group said Wednesday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has been tracking the death toll in the conflict through a network of activists in Syria, released its death toll at a time when hopes for a negotiated settlement to end the civil war fade.  

Netanyahu tells troops northern training is ‘not theoretical’
‘Instill the fear of death into enemy,’ PM advises as he reviews Golan Heights drill; defense minister warns call-up may come soon.  

Central bankers rush to calm jittery markets
Worried central bankers are scrambling to ease public fears in the wake of a harsh market reaction to their words and actions. Widespread concerns that the U.S. Federal Reserve Board is ready to turn off the easy-money taps and ratchet up interest rates have driven bond yields to their highest levels in almost two years, putting the global recovery at risk if markets don’t stabilize soon.  

AERB studying undersea volcano near Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu
Confirming the presence of an underwater volcano five weeks ago, an AERB reply to an RTI query said the Geological Survey of India (GSI) has also recommended an advanced study to figure out the status of the volcano, though initial investigations did not detect any significant geological signs.  

Saudis, WHO report 8 asymptomatic MERS cases
Saudi Arabia reported nine new MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) cases in the past 3 days, including six cases that were asymptomatic. In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Jun 22 that two Saudi MERS cases that had been announced earlier were also asymptomatic. The Saudi and WHO reports offered the clearest evidence yet of such cases, which suggest the possibility that people can unknowingly carry and spread the virus.  

94 in Alaska? Weather extremes tied to jet stream
Lately, the jet stream isn't playing by the rules. Scientists say that big river of air high above Earth that dictates much of the weather for the Northern Hemisphere has been unusually erratic the past few years. They blame it for everything from snowstorms in May to the path of Superstorm Sandy.  

CORONAL HOLE
The biggest thing on the sun today is not a sunspot, it's a coronal hole. The yawning dark gap in the sun's atmosphere is almost directly facing Earth, as shown in this June 25th image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory: Coronal holes are places where the sun's magnetic field opens up and allows solar wind to escape. A stream of solar wind flowing from this particular coronal hole will reach Earth on June 29-30.  

Obama Ramps Up His War On America
The Barack Obama regime opened a new front in his war on America yesterday when he unveiled his plans to skirt Congress and cut so-called carbon pollution from existing power plants.  

Nearly 30% of Americans advocate for an armed rebellion
Nearly one-third of Americans say an armed revolution might need to occur in the next few years to prevent an escalating war against constitutional liberties, a new study finds. Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind surveyed 863 US residents randomly in late April and found that 29 percent of those polled believe a revolution isn’t just imminent but imperative.  

'The battlefields are merging': Surge in violence raises fears of new war in Iraq and beyond
A major uptick in sectarian violence which has killed about 2,000 people since April 1 has sparked fears that Iraq is heading for a full-scale civil war that could draw in powerful regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia. There are already signs that the current conflict is starting to merge with the bitter fighting in Syria, creating a war zone from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf.  

Are businesses bracing for U.S. to fall like Rome?
Technologically, the best companies in the world like Apple, Google, and Facebook are all made in the United States. Without a doubt, the United States is the Rome of its time. However, while all may seem well from that perspective, all is not well. Economically, our growth has become stagnant. Our national debt has skyrocketed to some $17 trillion, standing taller than our 2012 GDP of $15.68 trillion. In practical terms, if everyone worked the entire year and gave everything that every company, man, woman, and child produced, we still wouldn’t have enough money to pay off all of our debts.  

New Iran president thanks 'messiah' for victory
Iran’s newly elected president, Hassan Rohani, attributed his victory in the June 15 voting to the 12th Imam, Mahdi, a statement with ominous overtones in the Islamic regime’s quest for nuclear weapons. The Shiites believe that at the end of times, the 12th Imam, a 9th-century prophet, will reappear with Jesus Christ at his side, kill all the infidels and raise the flag of Islam in all four corners of the world. Many analysts believe Iran is seeking nuclear capability to bring on that Armageddon.  

Tsunami hit US East Coast, NOAA says
A tsunami was observed on June 13, 2013 at East Coast, Bermuda and Puerto Rico, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said. At Newport, Rhode Island tsunami wave reached just under 25cm above sea level. At least two divers were injured in Barnegat Inlet in Ocean County, New Jersey. Minor tsunami damage was reported at the yacht club to the dock and two boats. Scientists are still trying to determine the cause of Tsunami.  

Yaalon: Combat Units ‘Likely to Be Called Up Soon’
Yaalon spoke as he and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu observed a Golani Brigade drill in the Golan. “I was impressed by the Golani Brigade’s capability, preparedness and skill,” he said. “Golani, like many other IDF combat units, is likely to be called to operational service on short notice,”  

Pentagon celebrates gay troops
The Pentagon on Tuesday toasted gays in the military, with a top adviser to President Obama declaring the country is “safer” now that they may serve openly in the ranks. “Because we repealed ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ our military … is stronger and our country is safer, more equal and more just,” said Valerie Jarrett, the keynote speaker at the Pentagon’s gay pride celebration.  

Obama lays out climate action plan
US President Barack Obama has laid out a package of measures aimed at curbing climate change, including limits on emissions from power plants. He also unveiled plans for an expansion of renewable energy projects, improved flood resilience and calls for an international climate deal. Administration officials had earlier rejected the idea of a "carbon tax".  

Almost half Israeli Arabs believe Palestine will eventually replace Israel
A majority of Israeli Arabs feel they would be justified in launching an intifada, or uprising, if their situation did not improve, according to a survey conducted by Haifa University sociologist Sammy Smooha. At the same time, more than half reconcile themselves to living in a state with an Israeli-Hebrew culture.  

Italy Embroiled In Latest Derivative Loss Fiasco Through Another Mario Draghi-Headed Scandal
It was roughly four years ago when details surrounding such Goldman SPV deals as Titlos first emerged, that it became clear how for over a decade, using deliberately masking transactions such as currency swaps, Greece had managed to fool the Eurozone into believing its economy was doing far better, and its debt load was far lower than it actually was in order to comply with the Maastricht treaty's entrance requirements.  

Iraq protest camp hit by deadly twin suicide bombings
At least 10 people have been killed in Iraq after two suicide bombers targeted a protest camp north of the capital, Baghdad, officials say. The attack took place near the village of Tuz Khurmato, 175km (110 miles) north of Baghdad. The protesters are understood to have been ethnic Turkmen demanding better security for the area  

Gold hits three-year low, soothing c.bank talk steadies world stocks
Gold slumped to a near three-year low on Wednesday as healthy U.S. data supported the Federal Reserve's plan to cut back its stimulus, while reassurance that Europe was not about to follow suit bolstered the region's stocks and government bonds. Gold, typically seen as a hedge against the kind of inflation central bank money printing can lead to, fell 2.3 percent and silver dropped 4 percent to leave both at their lowest levels since September 2010.

Germany Blasts Britain Over Gchq’s Secret Cable Trawl
Jun 26th, 2013
Daily NewsThe Guardian
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The German government has expressed the growing public anger of its citizens over B

ritain’s mass program of monitoring global phone and internet traffic and directly challenged UK ministers over the whole basis of GCHQ’s Project Tempora surveillance operation.

The German justice minister, who has described the secret operation by Britain’s eavesdropping agency as a catastrophe that sounded “like a Hollywood nightmare”, warned UK ministers that free and democratic societies could not flourish when states shielded their actions in “a veil of secrecy”.

Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger sent two letters on Tuesday to the British justice secretary, Chris Grayling, and the home secretary, Theresa May, stressing the widespread concern the disclosures have triggered in Germany and demanding to know the extent to which German citizens have been targeted.

It is the first major challenge to David Cameron’s government to publicly justify its mass data-trawling operation, which was revealed in documents leaked by the former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, has made clear her frustration that many of the questions raised by the disclosures made by the whistleblower have gone unanswered by the Obama administration.

William Hague, the British foreign secretary, again dismissed concerns on Tuesday in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Library in California, saying Britain should have nothing but pride in its “indispensable” intelligence-sharing relationship with the US.

“Let us be clear about it: in both our countries intelligence work takes place within a strong legal framework. We operate under the rule of law and are accountable for it. In some countries secret intelligence work is used to control their people – in ours it only exists to protect their freedoms.”

Egypt Braces for New Revolution
Jun 26th, 2013
Daily NewsIsrael Today - Ryan Jones
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Most Egyptians have today come to the realization that the Muslim Brotherhood's hijacking of their country's pro-democracy revolution two years ago was not a good thing.

Next Sunday, June 30th, they might just set things straight when the burgeoning "Tamarud" (Rebels) presents its 15 million-strong petition demanding the resignation of President Mohammed Morsi.

"There is a sense that something very significant is about to happen with both fear and hope intermingled," said Dr. Ashraf Ramelah, director of Voice of the Copts, an organization that seeks to highlight the plight of Egyptian Christians.

June 30 is the one year anniversary of Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood's rise to power, and the Tamarud have said enough is enough. In fact, the 15 million signatures collected by the group outstrips the 13 million votes Morsi received in the last election, and even then he had to resort to fraud, according to Ramelah.

The hope of the Tamarud is that Morsi will step down and that the courts will establish a constitutional assembly to manage the nation until fresh parliamentary and presidential elections can be held, in that order.

Of course, no one expects things to go so smoothly.

Already last week, Sunni Muslim mobs associated with the Muslim Brotherhood butchered a number of Shiite Muslims who allegedly opposed the regime. Arab media is predicting that next Sunday's showdown will be even more bloody, as the Morsi regime orders police and military forces to step back, thereby allowing Muslim Brotherhood militias to have their way with the demonstrators.

"Islamic groups affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) are restless, ready to defend their President and willing to incite bloodshed," explained Ramelah. "The Brotherhood [could try to] create terror in the hearts of the willful Egyptian people through an orchestrated killing spree in advance of the scheduled protest on June 30th."

Noting the cooperation between the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and even Al Qaeda, Ramelah and others fear the Islamists "could potentially lead a bloodthirsty crowd from mosques after Friday prayers on June 28th to commit brutalities -- spreading panic and a fatal blow to protest efforts."

If they are to have any hope of success, Ramelah said the Tamarud must convince honest officers in the police and military to join their cause and arrest Muslim Brotherhood criminals. They must also be ready for a drawn out confrontation that could very well require tremendous sacrifice.

Another loser in this whole scenario would be the United States, which, according to Ramelah, is much resented these days by ordinary Egyptians for its previous assistance to the Muslim Brotherhood in its rise to power.

Ramelah reported that recently US Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson approached Egypt's Christian leadership in an effort to convince the community to stay out of the June 30th protests. Washington would appear at this point to have a vested interest in keeping the Muslim Brotherhood in power.