Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Violence, Arrests in Eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria
Sep 27th, 2013
Daily NewsArutz Sheva - Staff
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Three Arab rioters were arrested for throwing rocks Friday, following disorders at the Damascus Gate (Shaar Shechem in Hebrew) to Jerusalem's Old City.  Another youth was arrested following a disorder next to the Church of All Nations on the Mount of Olives.

At the same time, additional disorders broke out in the area of the Rockefeller antiquities museum, across the street from the Flower Gate (Shaar Haperahim in Hebrew). Jerusalem District police, deployed with reinforcements since the early-morning hours in anticipation of pre-planned violent disorder, dispersed the rioters.

About 100 Arabs rioted next to Rachel's Tomb, between the Israeli capital and Bethlehem. They threw rocks at Israeli security forces.

Other disorders were reported in the Judean localities of Hevron and Kadum, the Samarian (Shomron) Arab village of Bituniya, near Ramallah, the Prigat Junction near the Shechem-area village of Huwara and near the Binyamin-region Jewish community of Neve Tzuf.

The violence came against the backdrop of a call by Hamas and Islamic Jihad for the launch of a third intifada uprising against Israel while Palestinian Authority Chairman, Mahmoud Abbas, told the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday evening that his goal is to achieve permanent peace with Israel. 

Abu Obaida, a spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing Izaddin Kassam brigades, has urged PA Arabs to wage a third intifada against Israel in response to Israeli efforts to “judaize Jerusalem," especially the Temple Mount. He told reporters in Gaza that Hamas has not abandoned the option of suicide bombings.

He accused Israel of exploiting the current “futile” peace talks with the PA to “liquidate the Palestinian cause and create new facts on the ground.”

Meanwhile, a senior Islamic Jihad leader Ahmed Al Mudallal said during a rally in the Gaza Strip that "the intifada must break in all areas of conflict. Resistance is the best response against the crimes of the occupation in the Al Aqsa Mosque." 

“A new intifada should erupt against the Zionist enemy and we believe that our people have the will and ability to liberate Palestine from the river to the sea,” Mudallal said. 

The Islamic Jihad leader continued to accuse Israel of attempting to replace the Al Aqsa Mosque with a Jewish Temple and urged the Palestinian Authority to pull out of negotiations with Israel. “The enemy is using these talks to pursue its crimes against the Aqsa Mosque,” Mudallal firmly stated. 

Masked gunmen belonging to Fatah’s armed wing, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, held a press conference in Gaza City during which they threatened to launch attacks against Israel. “The enemy will soon pay a heavy price for its crimes in Jerusalem,” a spokesman for the group said.

Following a fear of violent civil unrest after Friday's prayers, Jerusalem Police officials limited the Muslim worshipers at The Temple Mount to men over 50 with blue identity cards and women with no age limit.

The Temple Mount is Judaism's holiest site, being the location of the two Holy Temples of Jerusalem. Despite that fact Jews are banned from praying there by the Israeli police and Islamic Waqf trust (which administers the Islamic complex currently located on the site), in the face of threats of violence by Islamist groups. 

Numerous Israeli court rulings calling for the ban to be lifted in the name of freedom of religion have been circumvented by the police, who cite unspecified "security threats" to arrest Jewish visitors who worship there, and sometimes bar Jews from entering altogether.

Jewish groups have repeatedly challenged the restrictions on Jewish visits, and recent years have seen a marked increase in Jews ascending the Mount, much to the alarm of Islamist groups, who have upped a campaign of incitement against the Jewish presence there in response.

U.S. Appeasement of Iran Drowns Israel’s Military Option Against Nuclear Iran or Chemical Syria
Sep 27th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Thursday, Sept.26, will go down in Israel’s history as the day it lost its freedom to use force either against the Iranian nuclear threat hanging over its head or Syria’s chemical capacity – at least, so long as Barack Obama is president of the United States. During that time, the Iranian-Syrian-Hizballah axis, backed by active weapons of mass destruction, is safe to grow and do its worst.
Ovations for the disarming strains of Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani’s serenade to the West and plaudits for the pragmatism of its Foreign Minister Mohammed Zarif flowed out of every window of UN Center in New York this week.
Secretary of State John Kerry, who took part in the highest-level face to face encounter with an Iranian counterpart in more than 30 years, did say that sanctions would not be removed until Tehran produced a transparent and systematic plan for dismantling its nuclear program.

But then, in an interview to CBS TV, he backpedaled. Permission for international inspectors to visit the Fordo underground enrichment facility would suffice for the easing of sanctions starting in three months’ time.
By these words, the US pushed back Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s first demand to shutter Fordo and its equipment for enriching uranium to near-weapons grade, which he reiterated at this week’s Israeli cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

To Tehran, Kerry therefore held out the promise of a short deadline for starting to wind sanctions down - this coming December.

Tehran’s primary objective is therefore within reach, the easing for sanctions without having to rescind any part of its nuclear aspirations - called “nuclear rights” in Iranian parlance.

The foreign ministers of the five permanent Security Council members and Germany, meeting Thursday with Zarif, arranged to resume formal nuclear negotiations next month in Geneva.
In another chamber of the UN building, the Americans were busy climbing all the way down from the military threat Barack Obama briefly brandished against Bashar Assad’s use of chemical weapons eons ago – on August 31 – before he killed it by passing the decision to the US Congress.
Any suggestion of force against Assad was finally buried at the UN Security Council Thursday, when the United States accepted a formal motion requiring Syria to comply with the international ban on chemical weapons, while yielding to Moscow’s insistence on dropping the penalty for non-compliance incorporated in the original US-British-French draft.

The message relayed to Tehran from both wings of UN headquarters was that it was fully shielded henceforth by a Russian veto and US complaisance against the oft-vaunted “credible military option” waved by Washington. Iran and its close ally, the Syrian ruler Assad, were both now safe from military retribution – from the United States and Israel alike – and could develop or even use their weapons of mass destruction with impunity.

Israel’s Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz, who was on the spot, could do little but repeat his government’s demands of Tehran to anyone who would listen, shouted down by the flood of conciliation pouring out for the new Iranian president. There was no escaping the conclusion that the Netanyahu government’s policy – if that is what it could be called - for preventing a nuclear-armed Iran is in tatters.

Iran, instead of facing world pressure to disarm its nuclear program, managed to turn the spotlight on Israel, requiring the world to denuclearize the entire Middle East and force Israel to join the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty.

Given the atmosphere prevailing in the world body these days, it is not surprising that the speech delivered to the assembly by the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas was rated moderate – even when he called the establishment of the State of Israel a “historic, unprecedented injustice which has befallen the Palestinian people in al-Nakba of 1948” and demand redress.
This perversion of the UN's historic action to create a Jewish state could only go down as moderate in a climate given over wholly under John Kerry’s lead to appeasing the world’s most belligerent nations and forces, so long as they made the right diplomatic noises.

Let the Headlines Speak
Sep 27th, 2013
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Philippines Earthquake Today 2013 Strikes Near Cabra
A 5.2 magnitude Philippines earthquake today 2013 has struck near Cabra. A strong Philippines earthquake today September 27, 2013 has hit off the coast. Damage assessment is pending.  

World powers say window open for Iran nuclear deal
The US and its international partners emerged from a meeting with Iran declaring that a “window of opportunity has opened” to peacefully settle their nuclear standoff. But diplomats asked Tehran to come back with a detailed plan of action to reassure the world it is not trying to build an atomic bomb.  

World powers reach deal to eliminate Syria chemical weapons
The five permanent members of the deeply divided UN Security Council reached agreement Thursday on a resolution to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons, a major step in taking the most controversial weapon off the battlefield of the world’s deadliest ongoing conflict.  

Assad: We have weapons that could blindside Israel
“Originally, we produced chemical weapons in the 1980s as a deterrent to Israel’s nuclear capabilities,” Assad said in an interview with the Hezbollah-affiliated, Lebanon-based Al-Akhbar newspaper, adding that “today, we have weapons that are far more important and sophisticated and that can blindside Israel in the blink of an eye.”  

WEAK MAX
The weakest Solar Max in 100 years continues today with another 24 hours of quiet. None of the sunspots on the Earthside of the sun are actively flaring.  

Gun-rights activists sue Maryland to block new firearms law
Gun-rights activists in Maryland have filed a federal lawsuit to block the state's new gun law before new requirements on assault weapons and large magazines go into effect Oct. 1. In the lawsuit in filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Maryland, the plaintiffs argues the the Second Amendment and case law protect their right to own assault rifles and magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, The Baltimore Sun reported.  

Governments stealing from bank accounts
The questionable practice of “bail-ins” begun by Cyprus a year ago to keep banks solvent is beginning to spread to other nations, and holders of large deposits are starting to see their balances plunge literally overnight.  

White House compares GOP to terrorists as government shutdown nears
Senior White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer on Thursday compared Republican lawmakers to suicide bombers as the showdown over a possible government shutdown intensified. “We are for cutting spending, we are for reforming our tax code, we are for reforming entitlements,” Mr. Pfeiffer told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “But what we are not for is negotiating with people who have a bomb strapped to their chest.”  

Scientists accidentally create real-life lightsaber
‘What we have done is create a special type of medium in which photons interact with each other so strongly that they act as though they have mass, and bind together to form molecules.  

Kerry Signs UN Arms Trade Treaty — Civilian Disarmament Advancing
Kerry addressed the world body: On behalf of President Obama and the United States of America, I am very pleased to have signed this treaty here today. I signed it because President Obama knows that from decades of efforts that at any time that we work with — cooperatively to address the illicit trade in conventional weapons, we make the world a safer place. And this treaty is a significant step in that effort.  

Small quake rattles Hawaii island
A magnitude 3.6 earthquake shook Hawaii island's Puna district this morning. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake, which struck at 8:36 a.m., was centered 25 miles south of Hilo and 17 miles south-southwest of Hawaiian Paradse Park. The epicenter was about 5.7 miles deep, according to the USGS.  

War is Coming in Syria Regardless of Chemical Weapons
After beating the drums of war for a few days, the news media is reporting the threat of war in Syria has passed. They claim the issue was all about the use of chemical weapons and it is now heading for a peaceful diplomatic solution. Unfortunately, nothing they have reported so far is true.  

U.S., Russia agree on Syria U.N. chemical arms measure
Ending weeks of diplomatic deadlock, the United States and Russia agreed on Thursday on a U.N. Security Council draft resolution that would demand Syria give up its chemical arms, but does not threaten military force if it fails to comply. ...if Syria fails to comply with the resolution, the council would impose unspecified punitive measures under Chapter 7, which would require a second resolution that Russia could veto.  

Mexico's Acapulco hit by heavy rain and fresh floods
Torrential rain has caused fresh floods in the Mexican beach resort Acapulco, less than two weeks after two storms killed 139 people. Authorities evacuated people from high-risk areas and closed schools, after flooding reached more than 1m (3ft). Acapulco was one of the areas worst affected by the bad weather, which left thousands of tourists stranded.  

Republicans demand healthcare law delay for debt rise
Republicans have said they will only agree to raise the US debt ceiling if the Obama health law is delayed a year. The demand headlines a conservative wish list that the party is set to put forward in negotiations over the federal borrowing limit. President Barack Obama hit back by accusing Republicans of "crazy" scaremongering about the health law.  

Hamas, Islamic Jihad call for a third intifada
On the eve of PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s speech at the UN General Assembly, a number of Palestinian groups called for launching a third intifada against Israel. The calls were issued in protest against visits by Jewish groups to the Temple Mount.  

Preparing for shutdown, government plans furloughs
More than a third of federal workers would be told to stay home if the government shuts down, forcing the closure of national parks from California to Maine and all the Smithsonian museums in the nation's capital. Workers at the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs wouldn't be around to process visa and passport applications, complicating the travel plans of hundreds of thousands.  

U.S. sues company over miner's religious objection to handscan
A Pennsylvania mining company sued by the federal government on behalf of a worker who refused a biometric handscan because he believes in the Bible's mark of the beast prophecy, said on Thursday that it supports religious freedom.  

Russia, China Hold Large-Scale War Games
Pentagon intelligence agencies are closely watching Russian and Chinese war games now taking place in Europe and Asia involving tens of thousands of troops.  

Toll in Peshawar church bombings rises to 83
The death toll from the suicide bombings at a church on Sunday has risen to 83 after two more injured succumbed to their injuries. Earlier, 81 victims of the tragedy were laid to rest in graveyards across Peshawar. A four-member committee had been constituted to probe the deadly bombing and a new security plan has been prepared for the protection of minorities.  

Syria chemical weapons: UN discusses draft resolution
The UN Security Council has discussed a draft resolution on ridding Syria of chemical weapons after the US and Russia agreed the text. A vote in the 15-member Council could now take place later on Friday, diplomats at the UN in New York said. The agreement breaks a two-and-a-half year deadlock in the UN over Syria

Vatican declares Nancy Pelosi may no longer receive Communion
The Vatican’s chief justice, Cardinal Raymond Burke, said the California Democrat should no longer receive the sacrament of Holy Communion, according to CNS News.

Israel Celebrates Gift of God's Word
Sep 27th, 2013
Daily NewsIsrael Today
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

From Eilat in the south to Kiryat Shemona in the north, Israelis on Thursday marked Simchat Torah, the annual rejoicing in the giving of God’s Word to their ancestors.

The festival brings to a conclusion the biblical High Holy Days that began with Rosh Hashanah and ran through the recently concluded Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot.

It is fitting that the High Holy Days end in a day of rejoicing over the Torah, the cornerstone of God’s Word. In the five Books of Moses, God revealed His will and determination for the nation of Israel.

This special day is celebrated with parades in which Torah scrolls are lifted up and read aloud for all to hear. The highlight of the Simchat Torah service is the reading of the final annual Torah portion, and a return to the very first chapter of Genesis to start the whole Bible-reading cycle over again.

Simchat Torah is also celebrated by Messianic and Christian congregations across Israel, though with a slightly different tone, for we also rejoice in the fact that Yeshua the Messiah has fulfilled the Torah: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17)

Climate Expert Warns of Impending Global Cooling Crisis
Sep 27th, 2013
Daily NewsTrue News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

A prominent climate scientist says the earth actually faces a global cooling crisis on the eve of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) release of its latest climate change report.

David Archibald, an Australian scientist and visiting fellow at the The Institute of World Politics (IWP) in Washington, D.C., said during an IWP presentation Wednesday that contrary to a perceived consensus among the scientific community, the planet’s climate is not warming. Global temperatures have essentially remained flat in the last thirty years, he said.

While temperatures have increased by a modest 0.8 degrees Celsius in the last 150 years, that rise is unremarkable compared to previous increases in earth’s history, he said. Temperature spikes have occurred for hundreds of thousands of years and were slightly higher in the Roman Empire and Medieval periods, he added, according to a Swedish study and data from ice cores in Vostok, Antarctica.

Additionally, about 80 percent of the warming that has occurred can be attributed to water vapor compared to about 10 percent for carbon dioxide, said Archibald. The IPCC’s report, scheduled for release Friday, is expected to state with 95 percent certainty that greenhouse-gas emissions generated by humans are responsible for 20th century warming.

“The IPCC models have failed,” Archibald said, adding that meetings like the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark are “hilarious.”

A Saudi Quartet Pursues Pro - Active Policy Against Obama
Sep 27th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Three royal princes and a top functionary are venturing on a new style of Saudi government that begins to move away from strict royal family interests to a broader approach aiming at gradual reform at home and an activist foreign policy abroad.
The world’s biggest and wealthiest oil and gas power is being steered in its new direction by a Quartet of powerbrokers identified by DEBKA Weekly’s Saudi experts as General Intelligence Director Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Interior Minister Mohamed bin Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, National Guard Commander Prince Miteb – who is the son of King Abdullah, and President of the Royal Court Khalid al-Tuwaijri. His post is equivalent to prime minister. He also doubles as the king’s personal secretary.
The makeup of this quartet is intriguing and significant for a number of reasons:
1. King Abdullah has made sure that two of its members defer to him for key military and political decisions. However because of his advanced age, 91, and feeble health, more and more decisions will necessarily devolve to this pair.
2. In 1970 King Faisal decreed that the order of succession would operate on the guiding principle of passing among the first generation of the founder Ibn Saud’s sons, according to age and ability. Now for the first time in 40 years, the kingdom’s has passed into the hands of an elite group which does not match this order.

Combining phased reform with foreign policy activism

Seasoned observers of the Saudi scene recall Prince Bandar’s comment as ambassador to Washington 30 years ago that he hoped one day to shape his country’s policies free of “royal family considerations.” Now that he has attained high office in Riyadh, he appears to be powerful enough to start breaking with the old convention.
At the same time, most Saudi experts, while discerning the first steps of change, predict a drawn-out and gradual process of reform over a period of years. They are meanwhile watching to see if the Quartet’s cohesion and unity of purpose holds up.
3. Two powerful Saudi figures back the Quartet: Crown Prince and Defense Minister Salman bin Abdul Aziz, on the quiet, and the international tycoon Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Al-Saud, who has placed his considerable international connections and fortune at their disposal.
Alwaleed’s total worth is estimated at $20 billion. He ranks 26^th on the Forbes list of the world’s richest individuals.
4. The four Quartet members agreed on policy guidelines for the promotion of reform in all walks of Saudi life while pursuing an activist strategy in foreign policy.

Opposing Obama, pragmatically collaborating with Putin

DEBKA Weekly’s Gulf sources view this activism in terms of a novel approach and break with tradition both with regarded to the US President Barack Obama and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Whereas the princely elite group is resolutely opposed to the current US policy in the Middle East and the war on terror, it is more often in tune with Russian policy in these two areas without subscribing to Moscow’s objectives.
5. The Saudi leadership takes strongest exception to Obama’s policies in two fields: his initiative for a US rapprochement with Iran and his recognition of the Muslim Brotherhood as the key rising political force in the region.
Bandar views the US president’s approach to Iran as an American license for Tehran to maintain nuclear arms. He does not trust Obama’s avowed pledge to prevent this happening or believe he will ever resort to military force to this end.
Riyadh perceives the Muslim Brotherhood as the moving force in the Islamist terrorist movement and a threat to the very existence of the Saudi kingdom. The Saudis are therefore willing to bolster any Middle East force ready to fight the Muslim Brotherhood and resist the Obama administration’s patronage of this movement.

Arab regimes cajoled to purge Brotherhood from government

The clash of Saudi-US interests has had its strongest impact on the moving Egyptian stage. Saudi political, military and financial largesse is in steady spate toward Egypt’s military leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and the heads of judiciary, who this week outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood and ordered its assets seized.
Activist Saudi policy in relation to Cairo has succeeded in detaching the Egyptian military regime from its dependence on US economic and military assistance and turning it round to reliance on Saudi Arabia for sustenance.
The same Saudi Quartet pulled the strings for the Qatari coup, which caused the abdication of Emir Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani and removal of Prime Minister Shaikh Hamad bin Jasem Al-Thani, who was leading Muslim Brotherhood champion in the Gulf region.
Their hand was less visible, though critical, in purging the Muslim Brotherhood from the ruling echelons in Tunisia and Morocco.
In Rabat, King Mohammed VI was forced to sack Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane, head of the Moroccan Muslim Brotherhood’s Justice and Development Party.
In Tunis, Ennahda, the Muslim Brotherhood, was persuaded by a promise of financial rewards to quit the Tunisian government.

Saudis dig up a candidate for Syrian provisional prime minister

On the incendiary topic of the Syrian civil war, the ruling Saudi Quartet is dead against Obama’s policies, convinced they will end up perpetuating Bashar Assad’s rule and strengthen the belligerent Iran-Syrian-Hizballah axis.
6. Notwithstanding fundamental differences between Riyadh and Moscow on Syria and Iran, Prince Bandar’s visit to Moscow on July 31 and his long exchange of views with Vladimir Putin covered enough common ground to clear the way for a series of back-channel exchanges between them ever since on cooperation.
Most of all, they are of one mind on the importance of battling the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood. They are also agreed on one aspect of the Syrian question: their common energy interests.
Both would accept a transitional regime in Damascus provided it prevented Qatar running oil and gas lines through Iraq and Syria to the emirate’s fuel to the Mediterranean and out to Europe.
The Saudi Quartet is for first time intervening in Syrian politics with a view to setting up a transitional government headed by Ahmad Tomeh in the teeth of Washington’s plans. Moscow has not demurred.
A long stride towards this objective was taken on Sept. 14, when the main Syrian opposition coalition elected Tomeh, 48, a dentist and longtime anti-Assad dissident, as its candidate for provisional prime minister.