Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Three Senior Hamas Commanders Killed in Pre - Dawn Airstrike
Aug 21st, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Attar (circled) seen with kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit

Reuters

The armed wing of Hamas announced Thursday that three of its senior commanders were killed in a pre-dawn Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades in a statement identified the leaders as Mohammed Abu Shamalah, Raed al-Atar and Mohammed Barhum. Emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said eight people were killed in the strike.

Witnesses said a four-storey family home was completely destroyed in a series of air strikes.

The airstrike was carried out based on intelligence provided by the Shabak (Israel Security Agency), which led to the identification of two central Hamas figures.

Most senior commanders in southern Gaza

Mohammed Abu Shamalah, 40, was the most senior Hamas commander in southern Gaza, classified by security services as the head of the "Southern Command" of Hamas. Abu Shamalah was responsible for the areas of Rafiah and Khan Younis, and is a longtime friend and associate of Ezzedine al-Qassam's elusive leader, Mohammed Deif, who was himself targeted in an IDF strike yesterday - a strike he is believed to have survived.

He was also a close associate of Raed al-Atar, another leading Hamas commander eliminated in this morning's strike.

Together, they have been involved in dozens of deadly terrorist attacks since the 1990s. Most famously, the pair planned and coordinated the 2006 attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing with Gaza in which two IDF soldiers were killed and Gilad Shalit was taken hostage.

Abu Shamalah was also behind a major attack on the same crossing in 2008 involving booby-trapped jeeps, which injured 13 soldiers.

During Operation Protective Edge Abu Shamalah was active in coordinating operations against the IDF, and was behind an infiltration by 13 terrorists via a terror tunnel from Gaza into Israel on July 17.

Raed al-Attar, also 40 years old, was the Brigade Commander of Hamas's southern command in Gaza, and one of the most senior figures within its "military wing". 

Attar was one of the key architects of Hamas's "terror tunnel" network in southern Gaza, and played an important role in coordinating the construction of tunnels elsewhere in Gaza.

He is also believed to have coordinated the attack in Rafah earlier this month in which IDF officer Hadar Goldin was killed and his body abducted, in breach of a 24-hour ceasefire in force at the time.

Together, the two men represented the very top echelons of Hamas's presence in southern Gaza.

The third terrorist, Mohammed Barhum, was a less senior Ezzedine al-Qassam commander. He was not the intended target of the operation but was killed while meeting with Attar and Abu Shamalah.

The strike comes just one day after Ezzedine al-Qassam's leader, Mohammed Deif, was targeted in an assassination attempt. Deif's wife and son were killed in that air strike, but Hamas says Deif himself is still alive - although it has not released details on his precise condition.

A Hamas spokesperson further claimed that an alleged "death certificate" purporting to show the death of the terrorist mastermind is a forgery.

Tuesday saw 170 rockets fired at Israel by Gazan terrorists, although Tuesday night was markedly quieter, with just one rocket launched at the southern Israeli town of Ofakim. At least one rocket was also fired this morning into southern Israel, falling in an open field in the Eshkol Region.

Prior to this morning's elimination of three Hamas commanders, the IDF said it struck 20 terror targets overnight, which Gaza medical sources claimed killed four people.

The War on Christian Education is About to Get Ugly
Aug 21st, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

In a recent article, Michael Zigarelli (of the Christian Post) sounded an alarm that was heard around the Christian world. The headline read, “The End of Christian Education.” In this article, Michael shared: 

President Obama recently signed an executive order making it illegal for federal contractors to discriminate against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees. Sounds innocuous enough, but an unintended consequence may be the closing of Christian colleges and schools. 

The order doesn't directly affect private education, but its unprecedented refusal to exempt religious organizations surely will. Without this exemption the President has signaled to regulators that it's open season on faith-based institutions. 

Here's one possible future: The order says if you want federal money you must hire gays. The US Department of Education decides that this applies to federal financial aid as well. Students are then prohibited from using their aid at colleges that do not hire gays. Christian colleges go out of business. 

Here's another future: With the exemption gone, accrediting bodies take the cue and insist that all colleges include "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" in their non-discrimination policies, revoking accreditation for those faith-based schools that won't genuflect. Students are prohibited from using their aid at non-accredited colleges. Christian colleges go out of business. [i] 

What Mr. Zigarelli may not realize is that his revelation identifies one facet of the Elite’s stratagem to end most Christian education in this nation. 
The tacit war of the Elite has been going on since the 1940’s. 

My Own Background and Perspective on This Tacit War 

Early on in my ministerial preparation, I was fortunate to have a mentor named, Dr. Thomas McLachlan (or Dr. Mac, as we all affectionately called him). Dr. Mac had completed both his Master of Divinity and Doctor of Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, and he was a retired U.S. Navy Chaplain. During his long career, he had served on a committee with a regional accrediting association. Those days on the committee were eye-opening for him. He discovered that there were many anti-Christian agendas at play within the government and the regional accrediting association system. 

Dr. Mac saw the gifting of God on my life for education. While others were being trained for the pastorate in seminary, I was being trained to become an educator. It was during our many discussions that he revealed to me that Department of Education approved accreditation and the Guaranteed Student Loan Program would eventually become instruments in the hands of the ungodly to first contaminate Christian education, and then to eventually close it down. 

His influence on my life and the concepts he taught me about Christian education would forever alter how I developed the educational ministry that God was placing in my heart. I created an educational system that was not embedded in the Elite’s system of educational control - no governmental accreditation and no participation in the Guaranteed Student Loan Program. With the choke hold that the Elite maintain on education in America, it seemed like an impossible plan. Yet, I was determined not to compromise in the vision and its execution for the Kingdom of God. 

Accreditation in America was originally nongovernmental by design. Educational expert, Dr. H.R. Kells (from Rutgers University) wrote in his book, Self-Study Processes: A Guide for Postsecondary and Similar Service-Oriented Institutions and Programs, a definition of accreditation: 

Accreditation is a voluntary process conducted by peers via nongovernmental agencies to accomplish at least two things – to attempt on a periodic basis to hold one another accountable to achieve stated, appropriate institutional or program goals; and to access the extent to which the institution or program meets established standards.[ii] 

At one time, Dr. Kells’ book was required for any postsecondary school seeking accreditation. It is unfortunate that the American Council on Education did not continue his work after the 3rd edition. 

Originally, the institutions themselves established accrediting associations and sought to keep the long arm of the government out of the process. Political agendas spread like the tentacles of a cancer into anything that is connected to government. The Department of Education (USDOE) was established in 1867 to collect information on schools and teaching that would help the States establish effective school systems. [iii] By 1958, its role had dramatically changed. 

After World War II, the USDOE began overseeing the GI Bill. Then came Title IV funding or the Guaranteed Student Loan Program. With the millions of dollars that came with these programs, the influence of the USDOE and its approved accrediting system (regional accreditation) began to hold a powerful sway over all educational institutions in the United States. A system that was perfect for the Elite to begin controlling and using for their own agenda. 

Dr. Kells warns about the misuse of accreditation: 

Some of the uses of accreditation at times may not correspond well with the basic nature of the process. An example, as explained earlier, is its use to transfer credit. Some uses have made the realization of accreditation’s basic purposes more difficult. Some people believe that the requirement that institutions be accredited in order to apply for federal funds, and furthermore the use of accrediting to enforce social policy, are examples of this misuse. 

At times the uses may be expressions of raw political leverage unrelated to program quality or reasonable needs in light of circumstances. That is, accreditation can be erroneously cited to promote or discourage change in a given setting. [iv] 

This governmental or political leverage is a reality in many postsecondary Christian institutions today. Many of our leading Christian universities, Bible colleges and seminaries have annual budgets that range from five to one hundred million dollars or more a year. Meeting those budgets is dependent upon governmental accreditation and the Guaranteed Student Loan Program. Compromise with the ever-increasing, anti-Christian agenda has become a game of survival for most Christian schools of higher learning. 

Over the years, I have received reports from both educators at regionally accredited Christian schools and their students. Here is a brief list of some of the complaints I have received: 

Schools under constant pressure to modify their curriculum or statement of faith from the Word of God to a more politically correct position. 

Schools pressured to hire professors solely based on their academic pedigree, rather than biblical orthodoxy. 

Students having their theses or dissertations rejected because the Bible was referenced too many times, and there were not enough secular citations. 

Tenured professors slowly began to leave orthodox theologies and began teaching subjects more within the secularization movement within Christianity. 

Many educators do not share the severity of this situation in public, because of fear of retaliation from the accrediting associations. In the early 90’s, I was attending a conference of the American Association of Christian Counselors in Dallas, Texas. During those days at the conference, I was in a meeting for Christian educators and was seated next to the Vice Chancellor of one of the largest Baptist universities in our nation. While we sat together, we discussed issues facing Christian institutions. 

This man of God looked me straight in the eyes and said, “One day our university will need to relinquish our regional accreditation to maintain our biblical stance.” His face was set like flint, and his eyes were like fire as he said those words to me. Our open discussion left me with the impression that he was under a constant battle to maintain orthodoxy at his university. 

If we could have an open and honest discussion with educators across this nation, in which they had no fear of retaliation from their accreditors, their stories would convey just how powerful this tacit war against Christian education has been for decades. Our prayers and appreciation go out to all the Christian educators that have refused to compromise!

The War May Be Coming to a Close 

As Christian schools continue to fight for their biblical soundness, the Elite are preparing the possible last two salvos to destroy traditional Christian education as we know it: 

1. The Guaranteed Student Loan Program (Title IV Funds) is Now Implemented Through the Federal Government.

When the Federal Government took over the lending of the funds for the Guaranteed Student Loan Program, it was presented as a good thing for education. There are a few points of interest that most people do not know about the program: 

The program perpetuates the continual increase of tuition at most universities. The degrees in certain fields now cost more than a lifetime of work in the field can pay back. The average student debt from an undergraduate degree at a state university is now over $30,000. [v] The average tuition at an Ivy League school is between $38,000 to $50,000 per year (as of 2012). [vi] 

You cannot claim bankruptcy on your educational debt. It is with you for life and can be taken out of your social security during retirement. 

The minimum payments on the Guaranteed Student Loan Program usually do not even cover the interest on the loan. You could literally be paying on it after retirement. There is a loan forgiveness program in place that requires 120 timely payments in a row, plus a number of years in public service (i.e., indoctrination into political correctness). 

As the federal budget becomes more restrictive, I believe we will see a day in which only government approved programs at secular institutions will be eligible for participation in the Guaranteed Student Loan Program. Christian institutions that refuse to succumb to the political agendas will lose their Title IV status. This will bankrupt traditional Christian institutions overnight.

2. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Agenda Threat

As Michael Zigarelli has already shared, Christian institutions refusing to include classes promoting alternate sexual lifestyles and/or refusing to hire LGBT professors will lose either their accreditation or ability to receive Title IV funds. Again, this would bankrupt traditional Christian institutions overnight. 

Could this happen in America? Michael tells us later on in his article: 

Absurd? Alarmist? It's already happening to Gordon College in Massachusetts. Gordon's president merely co-signed a letter requesting that this executive order exempt religious institutions. Enter the Secret Police. The New England Association of Schools and Colleges is now reconsidering Gordon's accreditation. As their decision goes, so goes Gordon. And as Gordon goes, so may go Christian higher Ed. [vii]

When we developed Biblical Life College and Seminary back in 1982, the vision was simple: provide the same level of excellence in Christian education that is offered in traditional Christian institutions of higher learning, offer it nontraditionally (through home study), make it affordable, and keep it away from the influence of the Elite. Those have been our guiding principles over the years, and we have refused to compromise, even at our own expense. 

Over the past three decades, we have been training aspirants of the Gospel ministry through biblically and academically sound curriculum. Our professors are involved in full-time ministry within the fields they teach – this keeps our tuition low and our curriculum practical. We offer affordable monthly payment plans on tuition – when our students graduate, they are debt-free (and not burdened down with student loans). Today, we have thousands of graduates that are accomplished pastors, bishops, heads of international ministries, and published authors. 

Every semester, we hear from new students coming out of the “traditional system” that are relieved to be free of the secular influence. Through their studies at Biblical Life, they see the Word of God and their Christian faith come alive with untold clarity. We have received many testimonies that one module will get them deeper into the Word and Christian living than an entire semester in their former schools. 

Eventually, we may have to reexamine degrees in the Body of Christ. The option to issue any degree may eventually be taken away from us altogether. Years ago, God was leading us to make many changes to our ministry; God spoke these words to my wife, “One day, a diploma from Biblical Life will have more weight in the Body of Christ than a degree from traditional schools.” I have pondered those words in my heart for years. 

It was not until recently, as I examined the proverbial handwriting on the wall, that her prophetic word became clear. There is a paradigm shift coming to education in the Body of Christ, as the Elite labor to disarm Christian education in America. It will become paramount for those preparing for ministry to seek out a school that has not entangled itself in the Elite’s stronghold on education and has remained true to the Word and Kingdom of God.

Student Reportedly Suspended After Saying 'Bless You'
Aug 21st, 2014
Daily NewsWMC Action News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

(WMC) – A young girl, who claims she was standing up for her religious beliefs in the classroom, was suspended after breaking a class rule of saying "bless you" after a classmate sneezed.

Special Operations Contractors to Deploy 'High Threat Team' to Ferguson
Aug 21st, 2014
Daily Newsexaminer.com
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

PA Makes 'Political Decision' to 'Slaughter Settlers' Senior PA and Fatah Says
Aug 21st, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Jibril Rajoub

Flash 90

A senior Palestinian Authority (PA) official last Wednesday declared that his organization has made a "political decision" to support Arab terrorists "slaughtering" Jews living in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem.

Jibril Rajoub, head of the PA Sports Authority and Deputy Secretary of the Fatah Central Committee, made the statements on the independent Palestinian Arab TV channel Awdah. Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) exposed and translated the interview.

"OK, brother, here is the occupation, am I stopping you from slaughtering a settlement? No one is stopping anyone...our political decision is resistance in the occupied territories in order to bring an end to the occupation [using] all forms of resistance," Rajoub said.

Rajoub opened by saying "I'm telling everyone: Fatah has decided that our relations with the Israelis are relations between enemies. There is no kind of coordination between the Israelis and us." Apparently he was referring to the coordination between the PA security forces and Israel.

The comments are especially meaningful because Rajoub holds a close relationship with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. In February, Rajoub made an official trip to Iran as Abbas's representative, where he said "if the talks fail, armed struggle against (Israel) could be a strategic solution."

Fatah's "military wing," the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, this month announced a full return to terrorism, declaring "open war" on the Jewish state. Those calls have already been acted on in several shooting attacks and attempts at such attacks.

Just two weeks ago, the group falsely claimed to have murdered 11,000 Israelis, and has likewise called for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel.

Fatah's position is in line with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) charter of 1968, which calls for "armed struggle" and "armed revolution," declaring "armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine," and calling on local Arabs to "be prepared for the armed struggle." 

Following the charter, the PLO and Fatah were defined internationally as terror organizations, a status which was removed during the 1993 Oslo Accords process.

NGO Asks U.S. to Demand Extradition of Hamas Leader
Aug 21st, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Salah Al-Aruri

Flash 90

After the Hamas terrorist organization finally admitted that it was indeed responsible for the June 12 abduction and murder of Eyal Yifrah (19), Naftali Frenkel (16) and Gilad Sha'ar (16) hy''d, Shurat Hadin (Israel Law Center) is pushing to ensure justice is served.

In a letter appeal to US Attorney General Eric Holder, Shurat Hadin is requesting that America demand the extradition of senior Hamas leader Salah Al-Aruri who took responsibility for the murder, given that Frenkel held American citizenship.

Al-Aruri was released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal, which saw 1,027 terrorists go free and many of them return to the acts of murder that had them behind bars in the first place. He currently lives in Turkey, the country that in 2012 overtook Iran as Hamas's main sponsor.

The Hamas leader is the one who let slip about the three Israeli teens, boasting at a conference of Muslim clerics in Turkey that his group's Al-Qassam Brigades was responsible for "the abduction of three settlers in Hevron."

According to Shurat Hadin, an earnest demand by the US through its ties with Turkey, resting on the fact that he was connected to the terrorist act of murdering a US citizen, will bring about Al-Aruri's extradition.

The US and Turkey have an extradition agreement for wanted criminals and terrorists, which along with the fact that Al-Aruri took responsibility for the murder on Turkish soil should obligate the country to honor an American request to have Al-Aruri in its custody.

Shurat Hadin director Nitzana Darshan-Leitner remarked in the letter "it cannot be that the Turkish regime will give a platform to an announcement of the murder of innocent 16-year-old youths on Israeli soil, and will appear as if it's concerned with issues of morality."

"Turkey is providing cover for a terrorist released in one abduction deal and proudly announcing his personal involvement in the abduction and murder of additional innocents," added the attorney.

Darshan-Leitner concluded by noting that the window of opportunity for a true investigation is closing.

While numerous examples of evidence and testimony can be gathered about Al-Aruri's activities supporting terrorism against Israel from Turkey, she argued that the chance of bagging conclusive proof will be harmed, the longer the investigation dawdles.

Hamas's headquarters in Turkey have in fact been very active in acting to influence the goings-on in Israel; just recently the IDF and Israel Security Agency (ISA) foiled a Hamas coup attempt orchestrated from Turkey to overthrow the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Judea and Samaria.

N.Korea Moves Tanks, Armored Vehicles to Chinese Border
Aug 21st, 2014
Daily NewsChosun Media
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

North Korea has moved scores of tanks and armored vehicles to an Army corps near the border with China in Ryanggang Province. The 12th Corps, which was established in 2010, is tasked with responding to movements of Chinese troops in an emergency.

A source on Monday said about 80 tanks have been deployed in Ryanggang Province, where there had not been a single one before. The corps has been "turned into an attack force after it has been reinforced" with an armored infantry unit, a unit of multiple rocket launchers, and a special warfare and sharpshooter brigade.

North Korean tanks parade to mark the 60th anniversary of the armistice that halted the Korean War in Pyongyang on July 27, 2013. /Reuters-Newsis

Some 80 new armored vehicles are expected to be deployed soon to the 42nd Brigade in the province. Leader Kim Jong-un has reportedly ordered the rapid deployment of these new vehicles, which have a top speed of 80km/h carrying 10 to 15 troops.

More than 10 new tanks with an automatic fire-control system and a computer monitor have also been deployed to this unit.

The source attributed the moves to fears that sole ally China could "betray" the North amid increasing pressure on Pyongyang to give up its nuclear program.

Minister: Israel 'Closer Than Ever' to Full - Scale Gaza Invasion
Aug 21st, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Minister Gilad Erdan

Flash 90

Communications Minister and Security Cabinet Member Gilad Erdan (Likud) has appealed for Israelis to be patient and to allow the IDF time to complete Operation Protective Edge, adding that the army was closer than ever to launching a full ground invasion of Gaza.

Speaking in an interview with Army Radio on Thursday morning, Erdan revealed that Israel did not yield to Hamas's demands during recent negotiations in Cairo.

"Hamas did not receive a single one of its demands and so it appears they have resumed firing," he stated.

Echoing sentiments shared by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu late last week, Erdan said that Israel was not prepared to concede its position of strength by suddenly capitulating to Hamas demands. He also noted that the negotiations were not expected to have achieved any major achievements for Israel apart from a period of calm, and added that 

"Israel is the stronger party, it is the party in control here, and so there wasn't much for Israel to receive apart from a long-term period of quiet. That is the achievement that we will receive, but in return we do not need to give anything more than humanitarian affairs."

"When will Hamas reach breaking point? There's no scientific formula," he continued. "At first Hamas wanted to come (to the table) with preconditions and at the end it came without preconditions - in the end it will reach breaking point.

He added that Israel was closer than ever to launching a full-scale ground operation, but cautioned "Will this happen tomorrow? It's not certain, since the price for this will be high, but we are closer today to a ground operation than we have been at any point since the start of the operation."

Let the Headlines Speak
Aug 21st, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Earthquake riddle as spectacular drone footage reveals giant crack in Mexico
This spectacular footage captured by a drone shows a mysterious giant trench, which has opened up in Mexican farmland. It has baffled locals, as well as officials, with many speculating that an earthquake at the San Andreas Fault may have been to blame.  

4.6 magnitude earthquake rattles the Amazon region
Shortly after three in the morning Thursday, August 21st, residents of the Amazon department were startled awake. According to the Geophysical Institute of Peru, the earthquake registered a 4.6 on the Richter scale.  

Richard Dawkins: 'Immoral' not to abort Down's foetuses
Richard Dawkins, the atheist writer, has caused a stir on Twitter claiming it is "immoral" to allow unborn babies with Down's syndrome to live. But what do the relatives of people with Down's syndrome think about the comments?

Learning From Young Atheists: What Turned Them Off Christianity

The ministers they respected were those "who took the Bible seriously," not those who sought to entertain them or be their "buddy."  

CNN Explodes After Larry Elder Says Racism ‘Is Not A Major Problem In This Country
“I think we’ve been training black people to think racism is a bigger deal,” he continued, “and I think the reason that the left wants that is because of votes and power. As long as black people believe that race and racism are the major problem in America, you’ve got that 95 percent, monolithic black vote, without which the Democratic Party cannot survive.”  

World Health Organization: Death toll from West Africa Ebola outbreak rises to 1,350
The latest figures Wednesday show that the deaths are mounting fastest in Liberia, which now accounts for at least 576 of the deaths. The U.N. health agency also warned in its announcement that "countries are beginning to experience supply shortages, including fuel, food, and basic supplies."  

Liberia seals off slums as West Africa's caseload tops all previous Ebola outbreaks combined
Riot police and soldiers acting on their president's orders used scrap wood and barbed wire to seal off 50,000 people inside their Liberian slum Wednesday, trying to contain the Ebola outbreak that has killed 1,350 people and counting across West Africa.  

From Manipur to Kfar Hassidim: A lost tribe makes Aliyah
They believe they are descendants of a lost tribe of Israel that was exiled by the Assyrians nearly 3,000 years ago; now the Bnei Menashe, who maintained their traditions and never ceased to yearn for Israel, are coming, despite Rabbinate’s demand they undergo conversion. The Bnei Menashe are believed to be descendants of the tribe of Manasseh, one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel...  

U.S. Supreme Court puts hold on gay marriage in Virginia
"The Supreme Court acted wisely in restraining the lower court from implementing a ruling of this magnitude before the high court has a chance to decide the issue," Byron Babione, a lawyer for McQuigg, said in a statement.  

Israeli air strike kills three Hamas commanders in Gaza
Israel killed three senior Hamas commanders in an air strike on the Gaza Strip on Thursday, the clearest signal yet that Israel is intent on eliminating the group's military leadership...  

Ebola Patient Kent Brantly To Be Released From Atlanta Hospital; Nancy Writebol Too Maybe Released
Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital announced Thursday that at least one of the two American patients who are being treated for the Ebola virus with the experimental drug ZMapp, will be released from the hospital Thursday. "Today I join all of our Samaritan's Purse team around the world in giving thanks to God as we celebrate Dr. Kent Brantly's recovery from Ebola and release from the hospital," Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan's Purse, said, according to AP.  

Iceland Volcano Bardarbunga: 1,000 Earthquakes Detected Near Volcano, Adding To Fears Of A Potential Explosion
An intense earthquake swarm continues to rattle Iceland’s Bardarbunga volcano, adding to fears that a potential eruption could disrupt the region’s air traffic. Weather officials say they detected about 1,000 small quakes through Tuesday night, which were triggered by an unusually strong earthquake on Monday. The tremors are tied to the increasing movement of magma underground.  

Ominous signs point to ISIS connection at US southern border
A news story surfaced today indicating that there are signs pointing to a direct ISIS terror connection at the U.S. border with Mexico. Citizens who have constantly warned that the lack of attention to the illegal alien crisis would lead to Islamic terrorists crossing the border into the United States from Mexico are expressing alarm at the latest developments. Breitbart is reporting that U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, stated during a news forum that Mexican drug cartels are in regular talks with the dangerous Islamist terrorist organization ISIS.  

Magnitude 5 earthquake hits parts of Himachal Pradesh
As per reports, tremors were felt in various places of the state including Dalhausi, Chamba, Dharamsala, Kangra and Joginder Nagar. As per the Indian Meteorological Department, the struck at 1:41 pm and its epicentre was Chamba-Kangra border region.  

Adversaries seize chance to lecture U.S. on Ferguson unrest
Governments scolded by the United States over their human rights records have seized on racial unrest and a police crackdown in the Missouri town of Ferguson to wag their fingers back in disapproval. Adversaries and uneasy allies from Russia and Iran to China and Egypt have accused the United States of hypocrisy as images of police brandishing lethal weapons and tear-gassing protesters have been shown around the world.  

Thailand coup General Prayuth Chan-ocha named PM
Thailand's junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha has been named the new prime minister of the southeast Asian nation. Gen Prayuth, 60, was nominated on Thursday in a legislature hand-picked by the junta and made up of mostly military and police figures. The general was the head of the army when he led a dramatic coup in May.  

Gaza conflict: Israel PM Netanyahu vows further campaign
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed a continued campaign against Gaza militants, amid renewed fighting between the two sides. Israel's military says it carried out 92 air strikes on Wednesday in response to 137 rockets fired from Gaza.  

Hamas warns foreign airlines not to fly into Tel Aviv
A Hamas warning to foreign airlines to halt flights into Tel Aviv was to take effect Thursday as a six-week war with Israel spiralled into further bloodshed after truce talks collapsed.  

Ferguson shooting amplifies calls for police to wear video cameras
Mysteries like the shooting death of Michael Brown by a Missouri police officer could be resolved more easily with video cameras in common use. But the technology also brings financial costs and raises privacy concerns.  

Ukraine warplane shot down as clashes kill dozens
A Ukrainian warplane was blown out of the sky over rebel-held territory Wednesday as fierce clashes between government troops and pro-Russian insurgents left dozens of civilians dead.  

Learning from Young Atheists: What Turned Them Off Christianity
Aug 21st, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

It's something most Christian parents worry about: You send your kids off to college and when they come back, you find they've lost their faith. The prospect of this happening is why many parents nudge their kids towards Christian colleges, or at least schools with a strong Christian presence on campus.

But in many ways, the damage has been done long before our children set foot on campus. That's the message from a recent article in the Atlantic Monthly.

My friend Larry Taunton of the Fixed Point Foundation set out to find out why so many young Christians lose their faith in college. He did this by employing a method I don't recall being used before: He asked them.

The Fixed Point Foundation asked members of the Secular Students Associations on campuses around the nation to tell them about their "journey to unbelief." Taunton was not only surprised by the level of response but, more importantly, about the stories he and his colleagues heard.

Instead of would-be Richard Dawkins', the typical respondent was more like Phil, a student Taunton interviewed. Phil had grown up in church; he had even been the president of his youth group. What drove Phil away wasn't the lure of secular materialism or even Christian moral teaching. And he was specifically upset when his church changed youth pastors.

Whereas his old youth pastor "knew the Bible" and made Phil "feel smart" about his faith even when he didn't have all the answers, the new youth pastor taught less and played more.

Phil's loss of faith coincided with his church's attempt to ingratiate itself to him instead of challenging him. According to Taunton, Phil's story "was on the whole typical of the stories we would hear from students across the country."

These kids had attended church but "the mission and message of their churches was vague," and manifested itself in offering "superficial answers to life's difficult questions." The ministers they respected were those "who took the Bible seriously," not those who sought to entertain them or be their "buddy."

Taunton also learned that, for many kids, their journey to unbelief was an emotional, not just an intellectual one.

Taunton's findings are counter-intuitive. Much of what passes for youth ministry these days is driven by a morbid fear of boring our young charges. As a result, a lot of time is spent trying to devise ways to entertain them.

The rest of the time is spent worrying about whether the Christian message will turn kids off. But as Taunton found, young people, like the not-so-young, respect people with conviction—provided they know what they're talking about.

Taunton talks about his experiences with the late Christopher Hitchens, who, in their debates, refrained from attacking him. When asked why, Hitchens replied, "Because you believe it."

I don't know what that says about Hitchens' other Christian debate partners, but it is a potent reminder that playing down the truth claims of the Christian faith doesn't work. People don't believe those they don't respect.

Here's something that one of the students told Larry Taunton; he said, "Christianity is something that if you really believed it, it would change your life and you would want to change [the lives] of others. I haven't seen too much of that."

Folks, that's pretty sobering. This puts the ball in our court. Are we living lives that show our children that we actually believe what we say we believe? And here's another question—do we actually believe it? I have to say, as a parent I'm taking this very seriously.

Latin American Dictators Slam Gaza 'Genocide' Chavez's Successor Makes Surprise Visit to Fidel Castr
Aug 21st, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro

Reuters

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who took power after dictator Hugo Chavez died last March, made a surprise visit to Cuba on Tuesday to meet with the former Cuban despot Fidel Castro and bash Israel for its defensive operation in Gaza.

"I congratulated Maduro for his extraordinary solidarity with the heroic people of the Gaza Strip," the 88-year-old Castro said after the meeting, reports AFP. Castro handed the reins of power in 2006 to his brother Raul due to health issues.

The former Cuban dictator said that Maduro, who recently sent 12 tons of humanitarian aid to Gaza, took action "as soon as news arrived of the genocide and the high number of children, mothers and (other) people wounded or murdered by Israel's genocidal attacks."

In fact Hamas has been actively conducting a propaganda war against Israel, skewing the proportion of civilian casualties and forbidding an independent appraisal. The IDF has reported that roughly 50% of the casualties are terrorists, making for a 1:1 ratio of civilian to combatant deaths, despite Hamas's attempts to maximize Gaza civilian deaths by firing rockets from civilian neighborhoods.

"The genocide being carried out in the Gaza Strip...is one of the most dramatic events" in history, Castro claimed, terming Israel "a nuclear power that is at once sophisticated and irresponsible. The chaos in world politics has become evident. That's why my meeting with the Venezuelan president was so useful."

The two socialist states of Venezuela and Cuba maintain a tight alliance, and Castro said the visit, which was unannounced by either government, was made by Maduro during a "foreign trip regarding the defense of his country's major oil interests."

Castro recently led a group of international dignitaries signing a manifesto "supporting Palestine," which demanded that Israel withdraw from "Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem."

For his part, Maduro has kicked out US diplomats and floundered amid local unrest opposing his autocratic rule. He has continued Chavez's friendship with Iran, while being an outspoken enemy of the "repressive state of Israel."

Kerry Spoke With PM, Liberman on Efforts to Reach Ceasefire
Aug 21st, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

US Secretary of State, John Kerry, held separate talks with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman on the matter of the situation in Gaza, the US State Department reports.

A message made public made it clear that Kerry believes that both sides can agree to return to a temporary ceasefire, from which a more permanent agreement can be reached.

Jihadists Prep for Takeover of Spain
Aug 21st, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

Jihadists inside Spain have begun prepping for a takeover of the nation by ISIS, also known as Islamic State, the terror army that has been marching across Iraq, destroying Christians and evidence of their faith and imposing the extreme control of Islam’s Shariah law.

According to a new report from Soeren Kern, a senior fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute, there have developed more frequent and more strident statements regarding Spain being ruled once again by the violence of Islam.

Muslims, known then as Moors, occupied that region of the world from 711 until 1492.

“Clearly Spain forms part of the strategic objectives of global jihad,” Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz is quoted in the report. “We are not the only ones but we are in their sights.”

Soeren documents that a new campaign has evolved inside Spain in which images of famous landmarks or monuments are emblazoned with Arabic slogans, including “We are all the Islamic State.”

“One poster includes an image of the medieval Islamic Aljafería Palace in the Spanish city of Zaragoza and the black flag associated with the IS. Another uses an image of the famous La Concha beach in the Basque city of San Sebastián. Yet another includes an image of the statue of Jesus Christ on Monte Urgull in San Sebastián, with the Arabic words ‘Al-Andalus Country’ instead of ‘Basque Country,’” he reports.

One social media statement made the threat specifically, with, “@alwahsh1983 Support from Andalus means when we come to #spain won’t be hard to take it back,” in a Tweet from Abubasir Alkhalidiye.

Soeren, who also is a senior fellow for European politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estrategicos, reports that the poster campaign follows a video from Islamic State jihadists in which they vow to “liberate” what they call Al-Andalus from non-Muslims.

WND reported just weeks ago on an Islamic State video in which IS jihadists are vowing to “conquer Israel, Rome and Spain.”

IS would redraw boundaries of countries, separate Shia and Sunni Muslims, and subject everyone to extreme Islamic law, or Shariah.

Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri also has called for restoring to Muslim rule the Iberian Peninsula, referring to as Al-Andalus, as it was known in the eighth century.

“O our Muslim Umma (community) in the Maghreb of ribat and jihad (land of resistance and holy war): restoring Al-Andalus (Spain) is a trust on the shoulders of the Ummah in general and on your shoulders in particular,” Zawahiri said in 2007.

He also called for the “cleansing” of the “sons of Spain and France” in North Africa, which includes the Maghreb. Today, Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, is waging its jihad there.

“Restoring al-Andalus is a trust on the shoulders of the nation in general and on your shoulders in particular, and you will not be able to do that without first cleansing the Muslim Maghreb of the children of France and Spain, who have come back again after your fathers and grandfathers sacrificed their blood cheaply in the path of God to expel them,” Zawahiri said.

“Radical Muslims (and many moderate Muslims) believe that all territories Muslims lost during the Christian Reconquista of Spain still belong to the realm of Islam,” Soeren reported. “They claim that Islamic law gives them the right to return there and re-establish Muslim rule.”

He continued, “In recent years, the return of ‘occupied’ Al-Andalus to the fold of Islam has become an obsession for Muslims of all stripes, and calls to reconquer al-Andalus have become more frequent and more strident.”

The report said Moroccan authorities also have warned Spain that “some of the more than 3,000 Moroccan jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq are beginning to return home, and that many of them are likely to attempt to infiltrate the Spanish mainland via the North African Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.”

For example, not even a week ago, there were reports that nine members of an ISIS recruitment team were arrested not far from Cueta, the report said.

“Some of those recruited by the cell are believed to have participated in beheadings in Syria and Iraq. Police say they are also examining computers and data storage devices to determine if there were plans to carry out a terror attack on Moroccan soil,” the Gatestone report said.

“On August 4, a 19-year-old Spanish woman and a 14-year-old Spanish girl were arrested in Melilla just days before they were due to join the jihad in Syria. They are first Spanish females to be prevented from becoming jihadists,” the report said.

Other arrests with alarming implications happened in May and June.

“In May, Spanish police broke up a cell in Melilla that allegedly recruited 26 jihadists (24 Moroccans and two Spaniards) for al-Qaida groups fighting in Libya and Mali. All six members of the cell are Spanish citizens. One of them, Benaissa Laghmouchi Baghdadi, is the first Spanish jihadist known to have returned from the fighting in Mali. Police say the cell used social media platforms such as ‘Sharia4Spain’ to recruit jihadists,” the report said.

Israel, What are You Doing?
Aug 21st, 2014
Daily NewsJerusalem Watchman
Categories: The Nation Of Israel;Commentary

You pipe electricity to Gaza, drop leaflets over your intended targets to give your enemy time to escape and live to fight another day, put your own soldiers lives at risk rather than endanger the lives of Israel-hating Gazans.

You send medical and humanitarian aid through your crossings into Gaza (while Egypt keeps its Rafah Border Crossing tightly closed as it has for the past seven years – Egypt itself blockading the Strip even as it piously calls on Israel to lift its blockade and ‘siege.’) and you permit Palestinians wounded in Gaza to be brought to Ben Gurion International Airport and from there to be flown to the anti-Semitic, near-enemy state of Turkey for medical treatment.

You refrain from killing the men leading Hamas – those primarily responsible for the rocket rain of terror that has driven millions of your people to seek shelter in their reinforced rooms, and that has caused unknown numbers of Israelis to flee from the vicinity of the Gaza Strip.

For some unfathomable reason, Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashaal – the men directly responsible for the deaths of dozens of your soldiers – are still breathing, together with their top tier of terrorism directors and propagators; instead of leveling your weapons at their heads and taking them out, you level threats to kill them unless they do this or unless they do that.

You send official delegates to Cairo to hold negotiations with this organization whose goal mirrors that of the Nazis – and who would enthusiastically pursue that goal if only they had the wherewithal to perpetrate against Israel’s Jews what Germany did to Europe’s.

It is as if you are negotiating with Hitler! Do you really think there is any difference whatsoever?

I was led to believe that, when he trained militarily unskilled Jews in Palestine to fight, Charles Orde Wingate taught your first soldiers to combat your enemies for the sake of your existence, for the sake of your nation. His teachings purportedly formed the foundation of your subsequently created Israel Defense Forces – the IDF.

The name sounds nice but it should be the Israel Offensive Forces – you know that winning means taking the initiative…being an offensive force, albeit only insofar as you would take the battle all the way to those who declared war on you.

What you need to do (I don’t have to be an expert or be privy to inside intelligence to say this) is you need to accurately identify your enemy (as Islam’s mujahideen or holy warriors, not Arab nationalists), target this enemy in its Hamas form, and crush it without mercy.

You need to win this – and the only way to win it is to take from Hamas both the ability and the will to continue to fight.

Unless you do this – unless you take hold of the battle with both hands and fully engage your foe, you are sending your young men needlessly to their deaths, adding to the never ending pile of dead soldiers whose sacrifices will have to be repeated all over again by others who will die with the next round and in the next wave.

What are you criteria? What is your outlook? What are you hoping to achieve? Really? Just quiet for quiet?

It sounds good, but for you quiet means your citizens continue with their lives as uninterruptedly as possible, day in day out, month in month out, all the while waiting for the next volley of rockets to fall, or the next wave of terrorism to break upon them.

For Hamas and the larger Arab-Muslim world, quiet means it has the chance to renew its strength, equip and plan for the next round. And this while the Islamic State is expanding its territory and sowing tsunamis of terror through the Middle East, the number of its adherents exploding as it pulls in new members across Arab national borders. Day by day, month by month, the Middle East is becoming increasingly dangerous for Jews and for the Jewish state.

Israel, you are trying to fight Hamas like politicians, staging operations – weighing the cost and the risks and the possible international fall out – the threat of prosecution in international criminal courts, etc. tying your own hands with your own calculations.

What you need to do, for the sake of your nation, for the sake of Israel’s very existence down the road, is order all journalists out of Gaza, order all Gaza’s civilians to head south to Rafah and break through the Egyptian crossing, flooding into the Sinai.

You need to stop taking calls from the White House, the Kremlin, 10 Downing Street, the Palais de l’Élysée the Bundeskanzleramt and the Vatican.

Address your nation, tell the people of Israel you are neither continuing an operation, nor beginning a new one, against Hamas.

Tell them you are declaring war on Hamas to destroy them.

And set to it.

The sooner you do, the sooner you will secure your nation – the Jewish nation – in the homeland you have returned to to stay.

In light of the long and pain-filled history of the Jewish people, your people, this is your duty to them.

Islamic State Warns It Has Sleeper Cells in the West, Raises the Stakes With Beheading of American
Aug 21st, 2014
Islamic StateThe Jerusalem Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Isaiah 9:10 Linked With 9/11
Aug 21st, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

The links between the 9/11 attacks and the Bible verse Isaiah 9:10 are so striking they helped make Jonathan Cahn’s “The Harbinger” the bestselling Christian book of the last three years.

The book was spun off into a documentary, “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment,” which became the bestselling Christian movie of 2012 and 2013.

And now, with the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks nearing, Cahn is following up his uber-successful “The Harbinger” with a sequel, “The Mystery of the Shemitah.”

But in the mean time he has found Isaiah 9:10 has another remarkable link to 9/11.

Long before Cahn penned “The Harbinger” or gave his first teaching on the connections he found between Sept. 11 and Isaiah 9:10, the editors of “The One-Year Bible,” which has 365 days of Scripture readings, decided to include that verse in the Sept. 11 reading.

Isaiah 9:10 is included that day in every version for the 16 years prior to 9/11 and the 13 years since.

“This has been the case since 1985,” said Cahn. “It’s been there for years. Millions of Americans have been reading this verse on Sept. 11 for 16 years before 2001.”

“It’s a remarkable coincidence,” said Joseph Farah, producer of “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment.” “Unless it’s not coincidence at all. That would make it even more remarkable.”

In 1985, “The One-Year Bible” was published using the text of many different Bible translations around the world – from the Living Bible to the Catholic Bible to the New King James version to the New American Standard and the English Standard Bible.

A reader who turns to the date of Sept. 11 – no matter the year – sees Isaiah 9:10: “The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.” (KJV)

It’s just the another striking example of dozens and dozens of sometimes eerie links between the attack of 9/11 in America and the attack on ancient Israel described in Isaiah 9:10, revealed in both the book and the movie. Cahn says the harbingers for America – messages he believes are from God – continue to mount.

For those who have read “The Harbinger” or seen “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment,” the words of Isaiah 9:10 have special meaning. It was a message heard often from U.S., state and city leaders in the wake of the 9/11 attack: “We will rebuild. We will come back stronger.”

The words mimicked – sometimes with precision – those of ancient Israel in Isaiah 9:10.

And that’s the pattern that has been revealed in Cahn’s bestseller and the movie that has been the No. 1 faith film in America for the last 35 weeks.

“A number of years ago, as I was standing at the edge of Ground Zero in New York City, I came across the first puzzle piece of an ancient biblical mystery and a prophetic message known as ‘The Harbinger’ that concerns the future of America,” explains Cahn, who helped write and narrate the two-hour documentary “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment.”

In completing his first book, Cahn says he found nine harbingers that tie the problems America has experienced beginning Sept. 11, 2001, with parallels that led to the destruction of ancient Israel.

“Before God judges a nation, He sends warning,” explains Cahn. “He sent warning to ancient Israel. He even allowed its enemies to breach its borders in a devastating strike that would traumatize the nation. It was a wake-up call, the call to return to God. But the nation responded with defiance. God then gave nine harbingers of judgment, nine prophetic signs, alarms and foreshadows of what was to come. Now America is the nation in rapid departure from God’s will. And God likewise allowed an enemy to breach its borders in a devastating strike – the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It was, likewise, a wake-up call. But America, like Israel, has not responded with repentance, but with defiance. And now the nine harbingers of judgment have reappeared and have done so on American soil.”

In Isaiah 9:10, Israel’s national leaders utter a vow of defiance following an attack by Assyria. The leaders declared that the nation would not repent before God but would defy Him instead. Cahn reveals in “The Harbinger” – and in even more dramatic fashion in the movie – that beginning the day after Sept. 11, 2001, American leaders began repeating that 2,500-year-old vow, word for word.

“Having no idea what he was doing, the majority leader of the U.S. Senate (Tom Daschle) was declaring America as under the judgment of God,” Cahn says. “It was the reenactment of an ancient mystery – and bore the most grave of consequences.”

He continues: “According to the ancient mystery revealed in the Book of Isaiah, if after that first calamity and warning, the nation doesn’t return to God but responds in defiance, it will end up triggering a second calamity. It was because of this ancient key, that, seven years after 9/11, the American economy collapsed. In the days after 9/11, the Federal Reserve slashed the base interest rate in an attempt to defy the consequences of the attacks. That action put us on the path leading to the collapse of the American economy seven years later. In 2008, the government made a second fatal mistake, another ill-fated financial decision that would trigger the collapse of the American economy. Amazingly, it took place on the seventh anniversary of the uttering of the ancient vow on Capitol Hill.”

Cahn also reveals in “The Harbinger” and “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” something that readers and viewers universally find astonishing – that New York’s Ground Zero actually represents more than the former financial center of the country. It represents the exact place at which America was first consecrated to God in prayer by the country’s new leaders.

“When judgment came to Israel, the calamity returned the people’s attention to the place where the nation had been consecrated to God – the Temple Mount,” says Cahn. “God was calling the nation back to Himself. What about 9/11? Could there be, in the American calamity, as well, a mystery of return? Could there be a prophetic message hidden in the place where it happened? There is a place where America was consecrated to God in prayer. It is also a place linked to a prophetic warning given on that same day – uttered by the nation’s first president – now coming to pass.”

In 1789, newly inaugurated President George Washington gave a prophetic warning at Federal Hall in New York City. He declared that America’s prosperity and protection were dependent upon its adherence to God. Later, the political leaders of the young nation gathered at St. Paul’s Chapel to commit the nation’s future to God’s purposes. That chapel is located at Ground Zero and miraculously survived 9/11 virtually unscathed.

Cahn, the pastor of the Jerusalem Center-Beth Israel Congregation in Wayne, New Jersey, says America is uncannily re-enacting ancient Israel’s behavior prior to its judgment and eventual fall.

He found a sympathetic ear for his message in WND founder Farah, who produced “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment,” as a follow-up to “The Harbinger.”

The key to decoding the harbingers, Cahn says, is found in understanding the seemingly innocuous words of Isaiah 9:10, what it meant to Israel and how the history seems to be repeating itself in America today.

These words were first uttered by leaders in Israel and in response to a limited strike by Assyria on the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali – an attack the prophet makes clear is actually part of a limited judgment by God against apostasy. It wasn’t meant to destroy the nation, but to awaken it, according to most commentaries.

But, says Cahn, Israel didn’t take the cue. Instead, the response from the people in Isaiah 9:10 is one of defiance. The brick buildings were toppled, but they vowed to build bigger and better. The little sycamore trees may have been uprooted, but they vowed to plant bigger and better cedars in their place.

God, speaking through Isaiah, explains what will happen as a result of their pride and arrogance and failure to heed the harbinger: Bigger and more potent attacks will follow. Because neither the northern kingdom of Israel nor the southern kingdom of Judah truly repents, the first is eventually swept away by Assyrian invaders and the latter is carried off into captivity by the Babylonians for 70 years.

But what does this have to do with the United States of America – particularly what the U.S. experienced on 9/11 and since? Cahn has found some eerie parallels.

“In the aftermath of the attack, the nation was stunned,” said Cahn. “Everyone was trying to make sense of what had happened – this unprecedented attack on America. The very next day, Sept. 12, then Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle presented America’s response to the world. And what did he say?”

Daschle said: “America will emerge from this tragedy as we have emerged from all adversity – united and strong. Nothing … nothing can replace the losses of those who have suffered. I know there is only the smallest measure of inspiration that can be taken from this devastation. But there is a passage in the Bible from Isaiah that speaks to all of us at times like this.”

He then went on to read Isaiah 9:10.

“Daschle has no idea what he is doing here,” explains Cahn. “He thinks he’s offering comforting words to a grief-stricken people, but he is actually embracing the spiritually defiant and arrogant words of the children of Israel, proclaiming the ancient and ominous vow of the leaders of that nation. He doesn’t realize it, but he is actually inviting more judgment on the nation.”

It might be of some significance that Daschle, one of the most powerful men in the nation when he spoke those words, later fell into disgrace – to the point where he couldn’t even serve in Barack Obama’s Cabinet.

That might have been the end of the story – if no other top leader in the nation uttered those strange and obscure words after 9/11. But that’s not the case.

On the third anniversary of the attack, Sept. 11, 2004, another powerful U.S. senator running for vice president that year and who would famously run for the presidency four years later, gave a speech to the Congressional Black Caucus.

This time, John Edwards’ entire speech was built on a foundation of Isaiah 9:10:

“Today, on this day of remembrance and mourning, we have the Lord’s Word to get us through,” he said. He then read Isaiah 9:10. He went on to talk about how America was doing just that – rebuilding with hewn stone and planting cedars.

Later, in his first State of the Union Address in 2009, Barack Obama hearkens back to the same theme.

In “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment,” viewers get to see these remarkable, largely forgotten or overlooked speeches, which directly link the events of 9/11 and the events referred to in Isaiah 9:10.

But aside from such statements, which could be chalked up to political talk and coincidences, is there anything else linking Isaiah 9:10 to 9/11 and the shockwaves that followed, including two economic crashes?

The video documentary, like the book, is full of shocking parallels. There was actually a very famous sycamore tree felled in the attack on the World Trade Center. It was replaced by trees in the same genus as the cedar. There have been many plans made to rebuild the twin towers bigger and better and a large “hewn stone” was actually quarried out of the Adirondack Mountains in New York and brought to Ground Zero as a cornerstone.

“The parallels are truly stunning,” says Farah, founder of WND, who produced the documentary for WND Films. “In fact, they are overwhelming in their number and their exactitude. I am persuaded God is trying to tell America something and Rabbi Cahn has found the key to unlocking the message.”

IDF Expected to Call Up Thousands More Reservists
Aug 21st, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Following the escalation of the fighting in Gaza, the IDF is expected to call up thousands more of reservists in the coming days.

At present, there has been no announcement of any intention to launch an additional ground ops, and many of the reservists are expected to be called in to help the Home Front Command for the time being.

Hundreds Evacuated After More Than 300 Earthquakes Herald Another Ash Cloud
Aug 21st, 2014
Daily NewsExpress
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

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The Eyjafjallajoekull eruption caused travel chaos for days in 2010[EPA]

Hamas Leader: Ceasefire Can Still be Reached
Aug 21st, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

A senior member of Hamas told IDF Radio on Thursday morning that a ceasefire can still be reached, so long as the “seizure” of Gaza is removed.

According to the source, the current mediator, Egypt, may need to be replaced with another country.

France Calls for International Cooperation in War Against IS
Aug 21st, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, called upon the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Arab nations and Iran to join forces in a battle against the “Islamic State” (IS) terrorist organization.

France’s President, Francois Hollande called for an international conference to explore methods of fighting against the organization.

FED Minutes Signal Growing Pressure to Raise Interest Rates Sooner
Aug 21st, 2014
Daily NewsLATimes
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press)

Federal Reserve officials at their last policy meeting debated an earlier-than-expected move in raising interest rates, suggesting the central bank may be shifting to a more aggressive stance in light of the recent pick-up in job growth and inflation.

Although Fed officials remain divided in their assessment of the labor market, the minutes from the last policy meeting, released Wednesday, reflected a growing acknowledgment of the recent progress in the employment situation as well as the rise in inflation.  

 

Fed Chairwoman Janet L. Yellen has repeatedly indicated the labor market isn't as strong as the rapid drop in the jobless rate might suggest. The unemployment figure has fallen to 6.2% from 7.3% in July 2013, but Yellen has pointed to the large number of involuntary part-time employees and high long-term joblessness -- as well as stagnant wage growth in general -- as signs of a still-weak job market with a lot of slack, or excess supply of workers relative to demand.

Those points were reiterated in the last Fed meeting three weeks ago, but the minutes said that “many” policy members noted the characterization of the labor market may have to “change before long." Some of these members are concerned the Fed will wait too long before raising rates, and thus sending inflation shooting higher.

Inflation has been subdued for years, although recent data have shown it moving up closer to the Fed's 2% target. 

Paul Dales, an economist at Capital Economics, said the minutes reinforced his view the first rate hike would take place in March, three months earlier than the consensus view on Wall Street.

It sounds as if the Fed is increasingly thinking that "slack is disappearing," said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in New York. "Change is in the air," he said, adding Yellen may give further signals of this in a speech Friday at an annual central bankers' conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo.

The Fed has kept its benchmark short-term interest rate, which has a broad influence on the cost of borrowing for businesses and consumers, at near zero since late 2008. Recent Fed policy statements have said it expects to keep the so-called federal funds rate at rock bottom for a "considerable time" after it completely winds down a bond-buying stimulus program, expected in October.

The minutes said, however, that "some" participants were "increasingly uncomfortable with the committee's forward guidance. In their view, the guidance suggested a later initial increase in the target federal funds rate as well as lower future levels of the funds rate than they judged likely to be appropriate."

Even so, the minutes indicated that "most" participants wanted to wait for further data on the economy, labor market and inflation, before issuing a change in their guidance for when people might expect the first rate increase.

Egypt Charts Putin - Led Grouping With Saudis and Israel for Resolving Syrian Crisis
Aug 21st, 2014
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Contemporary Issues;Commentary

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has broached a new Russian-Saudi-Egyptian alliance which, backed by Israeli firepower, would seek to end to Syria’s civil war. According to DEBKA Weekly’s intelligence sources, Sisi huddled with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the issue Tuesday, August 12 at the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Sisi has emerged in the past months as the most prominent Arab leader to openly support the embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad and his three-year war against the rebels, a stance few Western intelligence officials have picked up on.
Our sources relay that the Egyptian president pitched the new axis by drawing a connection between the current war in Gaza and the strife in Syria, explaining to Putin that Israel’s assault on Hamas is only the first step of nascent cooperation between Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
He explained that Operation Protective Edge has given Egypt and the Saudis the chance to take on the Muslim Brotherhood in one corner of the Middle East - via an IDF campaign against its Hamas offspring in Gaza - while also tackling the Brotherhood’s Al Qaeda backers in its Sinai Peninsula hinterland.
There is no reason, said Sisi, why this campaign should not be carried over to Syria for vanquishing the fundamentalist Islamists fighting Assad.

US loath to take action in the Mid East

Vaunting his close understanding with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the Egyptian president asserted that persuading him to cut off Israel’s military helpline to the anti-Assad rebels in southern Syria would be a cinch. Assad would gain a victory and America’s cautious operation against Assad would come to an end – or so Sisi assured Putin.
For six months, those rebels have been undergoing training in Jordan at the hands of US and Jordanian military instructors, before being shuttled back into southern Syria. There, they were expected to make it up to the southern outskirts of Damascus and establish a rebel stronghold for Washington’s use as a bargaining chip with the Assad regime.
But our sources say this effort has been rather haphazard and, although the US has funneled tens of millions of dollars into the scheme, it refuses to go the whole hog and is deliberately holding back heavy weaponry from the rebels. Without the promised anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, the fighters are sitting ducks for the Syrian Army.
The administration of US President Barack Obama talks big about the danger of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) and its rapid advances through Syria and Iraq, but Sisi claimed to Putin that this is nothing but lip service. (See a separate item in this issue on US action in Iraq).
Just as Washington hasn’t armed Iraqis and Kurds against IS, it has done nothing to counter the Islamic fundamentalists in Syria. As a result, the Egyptian president continued, Al Qaeda and its ilk feel free to roam from place to place as they please, imperiling Mid East nations, but also posing a threat to southern Russia and the Caucasus.

Saudis find a new use for Assad: a bulwark against Al Qaeda

This angle appears to have piqued Putin’s interest, because many anti-Russian Islamist fighters from the restive Russian republics of Chechnya, Uzbekistan and Dagestan have been drawn into joining the expanding jihad.
DEBKA Weekly has also learned that Sisi offered the Russian president an update on his tête-à-tête with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah in Jeddah two days earlier, reporting that the king had approved the plan to offer Putin a leading role in the evolving alliance.
Saudi Arabia sank well-nigh $2 billion in the Syrian war, in the hope of drawing the US president into an active and direct commitment to Assad’s downfall. It didn’t work. So now, the oil kingdom has reversed course and decided to bankroll its erstwhile nemesis, President Assad, who is now perceived as a fitting instrument for curbing Al Qaeda.
Sisi has been in touch with Assad, the sources add, mainly via top-secret messengers. He was able to inform Putin that he had persuaded the Syrian president to take three steps to further the objectives of the fledgling alliance:
1. To abstain from opening a second front against Israel in support of Hamas - or even launching limited or token military action from the Syrian border, for the duration of Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.
2. Assad was asked to intercede with his ally, Hizballah leader Hasan Nasrallah to ascertain that he, too, would not strike Israel from Lebanon, in token of his support for his embattled fellow-terrorist Hamas.
3. To hold back comments sympathetic to Hamas from Damascus, so as not to interfere with the new grouping’s effort to condemn the Palestinian fundamentalists to isolation in the Arab world.

Sisi’s circuitous flight home followed a chain of world crises

And indeed, thus far, no word has been uttered in Damascus on the Gaza war, surely a one-time occurrence in the history of Israel-Arab conflicts.
Our ears on the ground say the Russian president promised to seriously think over Sisi’s invitation to join the grouping taking shape in the Middle East. They would meet again soon, he said, most likely in Cairo.
On his way home from Sochi on Wednesday August 13, Sisi’s official plane, an Airbus 340-200, was forced to choose a careful flight path to Cairo.
It was decided to circumvent Turkish air space, in view of the diplomatic crisis between Cairo and Ankara. The two countries have been at odds since the July 2013 ouster of former President Mohammed Morsi and Sisi’s crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization with close ties to Turkey.
It was also necessary to avoid Ukrainian airspace, in consideration of the clashes during which Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine.
As a result, the Egyptian presidential aircraft finally reached Cairo via Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece.

Clashes As Liberia Slum Sealed Off to Curb Ebola
Aug 21st, 2014
Daily NewsSky News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Security forces reportedly fire live rounds at residents protesting at being barricaded into their neighbourhood by barbed wire.

A soldier clashes with a resident in West Point

Liberian security forces have clashed with desperate protesters after using scrap wood and barbed wire to seal off a sprawling slum to prevent ebola from spreading.

Hundreds of angry protesters took to the streets on Wednesday to confront riot police and soldiers who reportedly fired live rounds and tear gas to disperse the stone-throwing crowd.

Residents vented their fury at the government for isolating their West Point neighbourhood in the Liberian capital Monrovia and said they were given no warning of the blockade which has prevented some 50,000 people from getting to work or buying food.

"I don't have any food and we're scared," said Alpha Barry, a resident with four children under the age of 13.

Liberia's ebola task force enforcing the quarantine

The coastguard was also in action, patrolling sewage-strewn waters offshore to ensure no one fled the area by sea.

And there was further fury when relatives of Miata Flowers, the local government representative, were escorted away from the slum by security forces.

Around four people were injured in the clashes which erupted as the World Health Organisation (WHO) raised the total death toll from the ebola epidemic to 1,350 - and warned the disease was spreading fastest in Liberia, where at least 576 people have died.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf ordered a nationwide curfew - and the West Point barricades - insisting the country had been unable to control the spread of ebola.

Relatives of Miata Flowers run to an awaiting car to be taken from the slum

She blamed the rising death toll on denial, defiance of authorities and cultural burial practices.

However, residents have accused the government of being slow to remove dumped infected bodies from the streets, some of which have been left for hours and days.

On Tuesday, protesters broke into an isolation clinic housing 29 patients in West Point - 17 of whom fled and were later found.

WHO officials have warned that measures to restrict travel in heavily infected areas, including quarantines of whole villages and counties, are limiting access to food and medical supplies in many cases.

West Point is one of the capital's poorest and most densely populated neighbourhoods, with poor sanitation and overcrowding.

'If the Idf Doesn't Crush Hamas We Won't Survive'
Aug 21st, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Yair Farjoun

Flash 90

In an exclusive Arutz Sheva interview on Thursday, Hof Ashkelon Regional Council chairman Yair Farjoun said that his region, which has been battered by rockets from the terror enclave of Gaza, cannot continue under the current status quo.

"Out of 160 rockets, 60 fell in our territory - that's a serious blitz," Farjoun commented about the renewed rocket barrage, which began with a breach of the ceasefire on Tuesday around 4 p.m.

The chairman continued "it's incredible to see how people live here by sheer miracles; beside a direct hit on a synagogue, rockets have landed just 200 meters (650 feet) from buildings of the Regional Council. There was a full day of very intensive fire."

The Hof Ashkelon chairman told Arutz Sheva that residents of his Regional Council will not be able to hold on for many months under the current situation of constant rocket fire, interspersed by temporary lulls broken by renewed rocket salvos.

"We must not enter a state of attrition that could stretch into September and October, because they will continue to produce rockets and in this way hold an entire population captive," said Farjoun.

Regarding the future of Operation Protective Edge, Farjoun remarked "if there will be an order for the army to keep on going and pulverize Hamas until militarily subduing them, we'll be able to last another month, but if not and it goes on three months, the residents will not be able to survive."

The call for decisive action raised by Farjoun was heard last Thursday in Tel Aviv, where 10,000 Israelis, including residents of the area surrounding Gaza, called for the government to finish the job in Gaza.

Farjoun praised the IDF for the pre-dawn airstrike Thursday morning that took out three senior Hamas "military wing" Al-Qassam Brigades commanders Mohammed Abu Shamalah, Raed al-Attar and Mohammed Barhum.

"The fact that they succeeded in eliminating those worthy of death is encouraging, it's what must be done. The government needs to order an operative program to crush Hamas's military ability," appraised Farjoun.