Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Yaalon: Don't Cooperate With EU
Jul 26th, 2013
Daily NewsINN - Elad Benari
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon has ordered the Coordinator of Government Activities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, Maj. Gen. Eitan Dangot, to turn down any request by the European Union which relates to these regions, Channel 2 News reported on Thursday evening.

Yaalon’s directive is a direct response to the EU’s new guidelines which forbid any contact with Israeli companies operating beyond the 1949 Armistice Lines, said the report. Last week the EU published these guidelines despite Israeli efforts to dissuade it from doing so.

According to Channel 2 News, Yaalon instructed Dangot to make it difficult for the Europeans to operate in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. In the past week, Israel has denied several European requests to fund projects in the Palestinian Authority. In addition, eight requests by EU officials to cross from Israel into PA-assigned areas were denied and meetings between EU and Israelis officials were canceled.

Two days before the guidelines were published, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Kerry and told him that European sanctions will hurt his attempt to restart negotiations between Israel and the PA. He also spoke with the with the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, asking him to postpone the publication of the new guidelines.

Israel met European envoys last Friday, warning them of a serious crisis between the European Union and Israel over the move.

Hundreds of legal experts from Israel and around the world have appealed to European Union Foreign Affairs Commissioner Catherine Ashton to annul the EU's plan.

The experts are noting that the decision does not have a legal basis, because, they argue, Judea and Samaria is not occupied territory in the legal sense of the term.

Will Failure of Peace Talks Lead to War of Psalm 83?
Jul 26th, 2013
Daily Newsgatestoneinstitute.org
Categories: Today's Headlines;Peace Process

More than three years after he decided to boycott peace talks with Israel, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas finally agreed last week to return to the negotiating table.

Abbas's decision came after a series of meetings with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who took it upon himself, ever since he assumed office, to revive the stalled peace talks.

Kerry's dramatic announcement last Friday in the Jordanian capital of Amman about the resumption of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks did not come as a surprise to many Palestinians, especially those familiar Abbas's performance.

By agreeing to resume the peace talks with Israel, Abbas is taking a big gamble.

His critics argue that Abbas dropped all his previous conditions for resuming the peace talks, particularly a full cessation of settlement construction and Israeli recognition of the pre-1967 lines.

The critics claim that all what Abbas received from Kerry were "verbal assurances" that Israel would accept his conditions. The critics maintain that in the eyes of Abbas's people, the absence of written assurances from the Americans will undermine his credibility.

Abbas's decision has already earned him the wrath of many Palestinians, including members of his Fatah faction.

With the exception of Fatah, all PLO factions have come out against the resumption of the peace talks under Kerry's terms. These factions include the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Peoples' Party, in addition to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Kerry's announcement came exactly 24 hours after PLO officials held a stormy meeting in Ramallah during which they refused to support the idea of resuming the peace talks unless Israel accepted all their demands.

Among Palestinians, it was impossible to find one individual or faction or movement that welcomed Kerry's announcement about the resumption of the peace talks.

For now, Abbas appears to be determined to swim against the tide, prompting many Palestinians to denounce him for committing "political suicide."

So what drove Abbas to say yes to Kerry?

Palestinians in Ramallah said this week that Abbas was being "dragged" against his will to the talks with Israel.

"President Abbas could no longer tolerate the immense pressure put on him by Kerry," explained a Palestinian Authority official.

The official said that Kerry had "threatened" to hold Abbas responsible for the failure of his mission to revive the peace process -- a threat that apparently scared the Palestinian Authority president into softening his position.

Some Palestinian officials have also talked about another threat made by Kerry -- this time to suspend financial aid or impose economic sanctions against the Palestinian Authority. That threat also left Abbas in a state of panic, the officials said.

Other Palestinians, however, believe that Abbas's decision is no more than a clever political gambit. They say that Abbas will return to the peace talks for a number of months, after which he will once again pull out and hold Israel fully responsible for the failure of the peace process.

Abbas will pull out of the talks once he realizes that Israel is not going to accept all his demands, foremost a full withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines and the "right of return" for Palestinians to their former homes inside Israel.

Pulling out of the negotiations and blaming Israel for "obstructing" peace would facilitate Abbas's original plan to embark on unilateral measures such as seeking full membership of a Palestinian state in the United Nations and its agencies.

The last time Israel was blamed for the failure of the peace process was in the summer of 2000, when Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat rejected former Prime Minister Ehud Barak's offer at the botched Camp David summit.

Arafat returned to Ramallah to tell Palestinians that Israel does not want peace. A few weeks later the second intifada erupted, claiming the lives of thousands of Israeli and Palestinians.

The same scenario is likely to be repeated when and if Abbas walks out of the Kerry-sponsored peace talks -- an action meaning a third intifada might be on its way.

U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton's attempt at the time to force Arafat to make peace with Israel was what paved the way for the second intifada. Kerry, by forcing Abbas to agree to something that most Palestinians are not willing to accept, appears to be moving in the same direction.

Why so Much Expert Resistance to Israeli Army Reform? is It Too Risky?
Jul 26th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Many distinguished military figures are blasting the slimmed-down Israel Defense Forces budget and reform program in the two weeks since they were unveiled by Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny.
The defense budget cutback of 1$ billion per year and attendant reforms were dictated by -
1. The deep, across-the-board 20-25% reduction of the state budget in order to start bridging the national debt, support the Israeli shekel, head off high inflation, keep unemployment low and make Israeli exports more competitive.
2. The changing military risks facing Israel from across its borders in the Middle East. It was decided that since the Arab Revolt overtook many parts of the region, Israel no longer faces the danger of aggression by large, conventional Arab armies.
The Egyptian armed forces are fully engaged in domestic upheaval, it is argued, and only this month executed a coup d’etat. In any case, they are starved of financial resources for embarking on full-scale war. The Syrian army is mired in a brutal civil conflict and the Iraqi army has no air force and is in any case hamstrung by raging sectarian strife.
3. The nature of war is swiftly changing. In keeping with contemporary demands, Ya'alon and Gantz decided to use budget cuts to introduce a radical reform program, under which the Israeli military would virtually junk hundreds of ageing heavy tanks, shut down mechanized infantry units and take outdated fighter plane squadrons requiring upgrading out of service.

Junking old tanks, airplanes and ground units for new technology

Instead, they plan to switch the IDF’s operational focus to highly-mobile special units with greater operational flexibility, a modernized air force, special covert intelligence units to feed the new forces and emphasis on cyber offensive and defensive systems.
DEBKA Weekly's military sources add: One complete armored division is destined to go by the board, along with two mechanized infantry brigades, and two F-15 fighter-bomber squadrons. The drastic reduction in training for reservists will affect the combat readiness of 70 reserve battalions.
Many senior officers and military experts are up in arms about these reforms.
The most common rebuttal relates to the poor timing for slashing Israel’s military leverage. The Syrian conflict has brought Iranian and Hizballah armies closer than ever before to Israel’s northeastern border, they say, and there is no knowing which way this conflict will eventually head.
Other critics have no issue with the principle of reform but urge the closure of units to be executed in slow stages, so that in the event of need posed by sudden aggression from Syria or Hizballah, the process can be reversed on the spot and the units put back into service.
Those are the moderates. Harsher critics are in the majority: They argue that there is no such thing as partially dismantling a unit or reversing the process halfway through.

Slashing ground forces exposes Israel to disaster unarmed

Shutting down a tank division means stopping the production lines of the Israel-made Merkava (Chariot) 3 and 4 tanks, laying off hundreds of workers specializing in tank manufacture and dismissing technical maintenance crews.
This process cannot be stopped on a dime or reversed in an instant.
Former Israeli National Security Adviser Maj. Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland said this week it would take five years to rebuild a unit and restore it to operational service. That’s a very long time in the Middle East, he remarked, where things tend to change suddenly in the space of weeks or even days.
Dispensing with essential conventional units, he warned, would leave the IDF vulnerable to being caught unready by a typical Middle East surprise.
Eiland was strongly backed by Brig. Gen. (res) Moshe Tamir, one of the IDF’s notable field commanders, who said the reform program plan would leave Israel without credible land forces for warding off a disastrous attack. Israel will have given away a vital component for deciding any war, the capacity to confront an enemy by seizing his territory. It would be a bad mistake, said Gen. Tamir, to invest in a modernized air force, military intelligence and cyber warfare while dismantling land units and tank outfits.
The strategic rationale offered by Ya’alon and Gantz for slashing Israel’s armed forces is strongly attacked by other critics on several grounds:
- The argument that the leading Arab armies are in no state to embark on sudden aggression against Israel has been disproved in the past. There have been times, especially 40 years ago, when several Arab armies ganged up for a surprise war on Israel, under Soviet influence and using Russian arms.
Russia is dabbling once again in Arab decision-making and supplying them with weapons.

Iran, Hizballah and al Qaeda are very much still around

- Claiming that the key Arab armies are falling apart is no argument either. In the 1967 Six-Day War, the Egyptian and Syrian armies were totally routed, yet six years later, they had recovered sufficiently to launch the bigger, more dangerous and costlier 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Today, it would take them less time to recover. There is no guarantee that seemingly unthreatening hostile armies won’t bide their time until Israel has fully implemented its reform program and then, in say, 5-6 years, emerge as strong and effective forces ready to fight again. It has happened before.
- In all their calculations, Ya'alon and Gantz are neglecting to take into account Iran and its proxy, the Lebanese Hizballah, which today ranks as a professional, combat-ready armed force. In the balance, the IDF still holds the edge. Still, although a surprise Hizballah attack on northern Israel would not endanger Israel's very survival, it could cause serious casualties and destroy strategic assets and infrastructure.
- The IDF is underestimating the magnitude of the military threat facing Israel from Al Qaeda forces gathering in Syria and Sinai. As soon as the second half of 2013, Israel might find itself up against situations there of the kind faced by the US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Special forces and high technology are no answer for this kind of war, only conventional units like the ones Israel’s war planners are planning to dump.

Palestinian Official: Abbas is a Dictator
Jul 26th, 2013
Daily NewsIsrael Today - Ryan Jones
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The Palestinian state that America and Europe are pressuring Israel to help create by surrendering its biblical heartland will be a repressive dictatorship on par with the region's worst regimes, according to a leading Palestinian official.

Western statements regarding the peace process always focus on securing freedom, dignity and prosperity for the Palestinian Arabs. But the truth is that the Palestinian Authority itself is doing far more than Israel to deny these rights, said Mohammed Dahlan, a former PA security chief and member of the Fatah Central Committee.

Dahlan has filed an international lawsuit against Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, whom Dahlan claims is "out to get him."

Dahlan is seen as a potential leadership rival, and has threatened to provide evidence exposing the vast corruption that continues to plague the Palestinian Authority.

In the lawsuit, which was filed by an Israeli firm with the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Dahlan accused Abbas of "tyrannical behavior the utter corruption of which, along with the corruption of his family, is damaging to the Palestinian people and the [PA's] institutions."

In remarks carried by Israel's Yediot Ahronot daily newspaper, Dahlan continued, "In practice, government in the authority is a tyrannical rule of one person — Mr. Mahmoud Abbas — and all of the [PA's] institutes, its budgets and international relations are nothing other than means available to Abbas and his family, and their financial, political and personal interests."

In fact, that is very much how Abbas' predecessor and mentor, Yasser Arafat, ran the show before his death in 2004. Arafat was widely criticized and even condemned for his less-than-democratic ways, while world leaders, including Israeli President Shimon Peres, continue to heap praise on the "moderate" Abbas.

There are mounting efforts to convince the US government and the European Union to stop funneling billions of dollars to the Abbas regime in light of both its ongoing corruption, and its refusal to meet basic peace commitments, like recognizing Israel's right to exist.

"Shut off the foreign aid to the Palestinians," demanded American pastor John Hagee on Tuesday during a rally in Washington hosted by his pro-Israel movement Christians United for Israel (CUFI).

Over the past year, Israeli Messianic lawyer Calev Myers has appeared before the EU parliament and campaigned in North America to bring a halt to the foreign funding of a Palestinian government that will only perpetuate conflict.

Palestinian Minister - Peace Deal Would be Temporary Arrangement Before Conquering Israel Read More
Jul 26th, 2013
Daily NewsThe Blaze
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

As Secretary of State John Kerry pushes full steam ahead to try to bring the Israelis and Palestinian back to the negotiation table, a new video is casting doubt regarding true Palestinian intentions and tactics. Palestinian Authority Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash in an on-camera sermon on Friday hinted any peace deal secured would secretly be only a short-term arrangement by comparing it to a truce the Muslim prophet Mohammed negotiated but broke two years later.

This is just the latest example of Palestinian leaders discussing their stepwise plan to liberate Palestine from the “river to the sea,” starting with the late Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.

At the Friday Ramadan services, which were attended by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and broadcast on Palestinian television, Habbash explained to Muslim worshipers that Palestinian Authority officials “only through the wisdom of the leadership, conscious action, consideration, and walking the right path” are headed toward “achievement, exactly like the Prophet [Mohammad] did in the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, even though some opposed it.”

Palestinian Media Watch – an Israeli research institution that translates anti-Israel broadcasts in the Palestinian media – explains that the Hudaybiyyah peace treaty of 628 A.D. refers to “a 10-year truce that Mohammad, Islam’s Prophet, made with the Quraish Tribe of Mecca. However, two years into the truce, Mohammad attacked and conquered Mecca.”

The Religious Affairs Minister emphasized that Mohammed’s choosing the path of negotiation with an enemy was not “disobedience” to Allah, but was rather “politics” and “crisis management.”

Indeed, he broke the peace treaty two years later and conquered Mecca.

The Palestinian minister called Mohammed’s example “the model” to be followed.

According to a transcript provided by Palestinian Media Watch, Habbash explained how Mohammed’s followers who weren’t enlightened as to his true intentions were upset. “The hearts of the Prophet’s companions burned with anger and fury. The Prophet said: ‘I’m the Messenger of Allah and I will not disobey Him.’ This is not disobedience, it is politics. This is crisis management, situation management, conflict management,” Habbash said, adding, “Allah called this treaty a clear victory.”

In his sermon, Habbash made a distinction between the Palestinian Authority strategy and Hamas which rules Gaza, saying “All this never would have happened through Hamas’ impulsive adventure.” In his speech, he insisted that “We hate war. We don’t want war. We don’t want bloodshed, not for ourselves, nor for others. We want peace.”

The Palestinian Authority has been insisting to Kerry that it will only negotiate on the basis of the pre-1967 borders, which means it refuses to agree to anything less than a full Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and east Jerusalem, including the Old City, the Western Wall and the Temple Mount which is the holiest site in the Jewish religion. Some Israeli officials refer to those borders as “Auschwitz borders,” because it would leave Israel only nine miles wide at its narrowest point.

If Palestinian officials say this is just a stepping stone, the suggestion is that the true goal is to take over all of the land of Israel as part of a future Palestinian state. Note the Palestinian Authority is considered by the U.S. and Europe to be the more moderate Palestinian leadership, as opposed to the Islamist Hamas which states openly that its goal is to destroy the State of Israel.

PMW writes, “Since the signing of the Oslo Accords, there have been senior PA officials who have presented the peace process with Israel as a deceptive tactic that both facilitated the PA’s five-year terror campaign against Israel (the Intifada), and which will weaken Israel through territorial compromise that will eventually lead to Israel’s destruction.”

In an article discussing Friday’s sermon, Palestinian Media Watch provided past quotes from Palestinian officials touting the same piecemeal peace negotiations tactic.

In 1994, Arafat also compared the Olso Accords to the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah saying, “This agreement [the Oslo Accords], I am not considering it more than the agreement which had been signed between our Prophet Mohammad and Quraish…”

Arafat was speaking at a mosque in Johannesburg and did not know that he was being recorded on audiotape.

Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki in 2011 tried to calm critics of the peace agreement with Israel, explaining, “the President [Mahmoud Abbas] understands, we understand, and everyone knows that it is impossible to realize the inspiring idea, or the great goal in one stroke.”

“If I say that I want to remove it [Israel] from existence, this will be great, great, [but] it is hard. This is not a [stated] policy. You can’t say it to the world. You can say it to yourself,” Zaki told Al Jazeera.

Palestinian Authority Representative for Jerusalem Affairs Faisal Husseini said in 2001, “This effort [the Intifada] could have been much better, broader, and more significant had we made it clearer to ourselves that the Oslo agreement, or any other agreement, is just a temporary procedure, or just a step towards something bigger.”

“We distinguish the strategic, long-term goals from the political staged goals, which we are compelled to temporarily accept due to international pressure. … [Palestine] according to the higher strategy [is]: ‘from the river to the sea.’ Palestine in its entirety is an Arab land, the land of the Arab nation,” Husseini added.

Moscow & Tehran Won’t Let U.S. Climb Atop Kerry’s Peace Plan to High Ground in the Mid East
Jul 26th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Peace Process

US Secretary of State John Kerry, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas are deep in top-secret conversations on how to restart peace negotiations after a three-year stalemate. The trouble is that they are acting as though they are all alone on some remote Middle East island, oblivious to the eyes in Moscow, Tehran, Damascus, and Hizballah in Beirut on the lookout for the first chance to throw a spanner in the works.
Nothing appears able to cool the enthusiasm raised by Kerry’s tentative plan for renewed peace talks, say DEBKA Weekly’s sources, citing officials close to the preparations apace in Washington, Jerusalem and Ramallah for the negotiations to begin.
In the first place, say those optimists, President Barack Obama has given the Secretary of State unprecedented carte blanche to go for an accord. (See the opening item in this issue).
Then, Binyamin Netanyahu believes his historic legacy as three-term Israel prime minister is within his reach. Like Obama, who is counting down the 1,200 days left of his presidency, Netanyahu has high hopes that after he bows out, a few months after Obama, he will be remembered as the Likud leader who led Israel to peace with the Palestinian people, capping Likud Prime Minister Menahem Begin’s epic feat of achieving the 1979 peace treaty with Egypt, the first with an Arab country.

A rosy picture with a key missing element

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is in the game because, at 78, he is shrewd enough to see that his administration’s only chance of survival in the current Middle East and world economic climate - least of all build an independent Palestinian state - is to procure massive and steady economic sustenance from the US and Israel. It will be on tap provided he sits down with Israeli negotiators.
Abbas feels he has arrived at a carpe diem moment for Palestinian statehood: He finds Israel in an unusually flexible mode and a US Secretary of State smart enough to win the cooperation of Saudi Arabia and Persian Gulf states in his peace effort.
The Palestinian leader reckons that the Gulf rulers, after showering billions of dollars on Egypt to get rid of the Muslim Brotherhood and restore the bond between the army and secular parties, might spare a few billions to bolster the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah against its rival, the Hamas government in Gaza.
All these factors seriously contribute to the air of optimism hanging over the prospect of returning to the Middle East peace track.
Yet a key element is missing from this rosy picture, DEBKA Weekly's Mideast experts comment:
The US is short of credible military assets on hand in the Mideast for fighting off forces determined to derail the process.

Obama reverts to his Sunni bloc via Mid-East peacemaking

By now, it is common knowledge that President Obama is averse to investing credible military assets for backing up this or any other diplomatic process. He is trusting Secretary of State Kerry to vindicate his philosophy for keeping the US military clear of any Middle East involvement after America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq, because better results are gained by diplomacy and economic measures than by force of arms.
Obama has never given up on his original plan to establish a pro-American moderate Sunni Muslim bloc. Kerry has been tasked with reaching this objective via Israeli-Palestinian peace diplomacy, which is configured to bring Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Gulf emirates aboard a pro-US grouping with Israeli military and intelligence backing.
This grouping will be designed to challenge the Russian-backed radical Shiite bloc of Iran, Syria and Hizballah.
That plan started off on the wrong foot, as far President Obama was concerned.
The new Sunni alliance he envisioned went into action on July 3 for a goal he would never have approved, backing for a military coup to topple the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Cairo. Israel was in on the action with cooperation and intelligence input.
This placed Kerry in a quandary – or two.

Moscow and Tehran will not let the pro-US bloc call the shots

Although Washington disapproves of the Egyptian coup, the US diplomat needs the blessing of Egyptian, Saudi and Persian Gulf rulers to carry forward his plan for bringing Israelis and Palestinians around the negotiating table.
His other difficulty is that the moderate Sunni bloc sponsored by America is on the losing side of the Syrian war. The winners, Damascus, Moscow, Tehran and Hizballah, will on no account let John Kerry - and certainly not Binyamin Netanyahu – call the shots in the region.
To pull them up short and show them how far the Middle East has changed, the Russian-Shiite bloc is holding in its quiver three sharp arrows on the ready.
1. The P5+1 nuclear negotiations with Iran.
The long dialogue between six world powers and Iran has acquired a diplomatic life of its own, over and above the controversy over Iran’s nuclear program which it was designed to address.
Wednesday July 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin was reported by the Russian daily Kommersant to be planning his first visit to Tehran in eight years, arriving on August 12, six days after incoming Iranian President Hassan Rouhani takes office. The theme of his visit will be the revival of the P5+1 dialogue with Iran. Although the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “I cannot confirm this,” it was obvious to the US and Europeans that the Russian leader had acted to pre-empt their preparations for a fresh round of talks with Tehran under the new president.

A Russian-Iranian nuclear deal would make the P5+1 redundant

2. A Russian-Iranian nuclear deal?
If Putin and Rouhani come to a bilateral deal on Iran’s nuclear program during that visit, DEBKA Weekly's sources say, the international group’s diplomatic track with Tehran will be made redundant.
This joint Russian-Iranian nuclear arrangement would cement their partnership behind Syria’s Bashar Assad and strengthen their alliance.
A Moscow-Tehran nuclear transaction would cause great concern in Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. By exploiting Obama’s reluctance to employ military force in any Middle East issue, this rival bloc will make itself the ultimate pacesetter in the Mideast and Persian Gulf regions.
3. Restoring Hamas as anti-Israel center of Palestinian resistance
The radical Palestinian Hamas has lost its center of gravity twice – once when it deserted Assad and lost Iranian and Hizballah’s financial support, and again last May with the abdication of the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, supporter of its parent, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.
The last nail in its coffin was driven in by the military coup which unseated the Brotherhood in Cairo on July 3.
Hamas and its regime in the Gaza Strip are on their uppers, with no financial backers, no prospects, and at the mercy of the Egyptian military who suspect them of conniving with escaped Brotherhood leaders to stage a counter-coup in Cairo.

Hamas and Hizballah wait in the wings for a chance to strike Israel

But in this volatile region, no one would be surprised if Hamas tried to save itself from a desperate plight by ingratiating itself with its old allies, Iran, Syria and Hizballah, with an offer to restore the Gaza Strip as the center of Palestinian military resistance to Israel as well as Egypt.
The Palestinian radicals have not let the grass grow under their feet. They have molded 7,000 armed Bedouins with ties to Al Qaeda into the core of an uprising against the new regime in Cairo. With Russian and Iranian military and financial aid, Hamas could soon be back on its feet.
If this happens, Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah would take a beating. He would be hard pressed to stick with the Kerry initiative and the peace track with Israel.
3. A Hizballah offensive against Israel.
Hizballah backed by Syria might initiate a military clash with Israel. The Syrian ruler has already opened the door for Hizballah, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian terrorist groups to deploy on the Golan border with Israel, among them the pro-Syrian Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command. A major military outbreak of aggression against Israel could torpedo John Kerry's plan.

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

Large earthquake off Vanuatu, no tsunami warning
A large earthquake has hit in the ocean between islands of the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu. Geoscience Australia estimated the quake at a magnitude of 5.7 while the US Geologial Survey said it was 6.2-magnitude. The tremor was not expected to generate a tsunami and there have been no immediate reports of injuries or damage.  

5 Most Sinful Cities in America
"Our list includes some things that might not make a city very desirable -- like the level of violent crime -- but five of the seven things we looked at are actually kind of harmless," says Randy Nelson of property-listing site Movoto.com, which recently ranked America's largest cities for residents' involvement with the Seven Deadly Sins.  

6 Apocalyptic Technologies That Most People Have Not Even Heard About Yet
Today, scientists are rapidly developing bizarre new technologies that most science fiction writers never even would have dreamed of a couple decades ago. For example, would you be willing to get rid of your bank card and start paying for things with only your face? Would you be willing to allow a technology company to put one large computer chip or thousands of really, really small ones (“neural dust”) into your brain? These are some of the technologies that are coming.  

Texas Republicans push back against Holder on voting rights challenge
Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn accused Holder of trying to go around the high court. "This decision has nothing to do with protecting voting rights and everything to do with advancing a partisan political agenda," Cornyn said.  

Plague-infected squirrel closes California campgrounds
Los Angeles County public health department officials confirmed Wednesday that a trapped ground squirrel tested positive for plague and closed four campgrounds as a precaution. "Plague is a bacterial infection that can be transmitted to humans through the bites of infected fleas, which is why we close affected campgrounds and recreational areas as a precaution while preventive measures are taken to control the flea population," said public health officer Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding.  

Feds tell Web firms to turn over user account passwords
The U.S. government has demanded that major Internet companies divulge users' stored passwords, according to two industry sources familiar with these orders, which represent an escalation in surveillance techniques that has not previously been disclosed.  

Scientists warn on Arctic ‘economic time bomb’
The rapidly melting Arctic is an "economic time bomb" likely to cost the world at least $60 trillion, say researchers who have started to calculate the financial consequences of one of the world's fastest changing climates. A record decline in Arctic sea ice has been widely seen as economically beneficial until now, as it opens up more shipping and drilling in a region thought to contain 30 percent of the world's undiscovered gas and 13 percent of its undiscovered oil.  

Storms deliver triple digit winds, hail nearly 5 inches in diameter, street flooding
Hail as large as baseballs was reported in east Hutchinson, according to Reno County Emergency Management. Winds estimated as high as 100 miles an hour were reported in southern Reno County near Pretty Prairie. The town itself was hit hard by hail and strong winds, knocking down trees and blocking streets.  

Slightly weaker Tropical Storm Dorian path aims toward Bahamas
Tropical Storm Dorian is projected to arrive near the southern Bahamas on Tuesday. Dorian's maximum sustained winds reached 60 mph on Thursday but have since dropped by 10 mph. The projected path continues to aim toward the Bahamas, Cuba or Florida.  

Army Giving Up Stopping Power for 'Green' Bullets
The Army is switching from lead bullets in many small caliber arms to "environmentally friendly" rounds in 2014, even through the lead bullets are tried and true while the stopping power of the "green" bullets is already being questioned.  

Obama Worst President for Middle Class 'in Modern Times'
The Wall Street Journal published a lead editorial on Thursday that responded harshly to President Barack Obama's new series of economic speeches. "The President called his speech 'A Better Bargain for the Middle Class,' but no President has done worse by the middle class in modern times," the editorial noted.  

Pentagon: Obama to halt F-16 delivery to Egypt amid unrest
Obama has decided to halt the planned delivery of four F-16 fighter jets to Egypt, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, amid the unrest that erupted after the military ousted Egypt's first democratically elected president.  

Hague to Steinitz: Britain has Israel’s back
“I reaffirmed that the UK was strongly committed to Israel’s security, and that we wanted to deepen and advance our links in education, science and technology, where both countries had much to share and benefit from mutual cooperation,” said Hague after meeting with the visiting Steinitz.  

Israeli official: Turkey wants to humiliate Israel, not reconcile with it
Turkey is not interested in a diplomatic reconciliation with Israel, but rather in humiliating it and bringing it to its knees...The comments came after Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told the Turkish media that the reason for the deadlock in compensation talks with Israel over the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident was that Jerusalem was not willing to admit that the compensation payment was the result of a wrongful act.  

US using Syrian rebel supply lines as it prepares to send arms
The United States has quietly been testing the Syrian opposition's ability to deliver food rations, medical kits and money to rebel-held areas as Washington prepares to send arms to the rebel fighters. US officials meet weekly in Turkey with Syrian opposition leaders to work out how best to keep supply lines open to rebel fighters and war-ravaged towns and districts.  

Hatch to Newsmax: White House Like 'Despots' With Holder Move on Civil Rights
Eric Holder's plan to ask a federal court to reinstate the Justice Department's authority over voting laws in Texas smacks of despotism by the Obama White House, Sen. Orrin Hatch tells Newsmax TV in an exclusive interview. "The court has already ruled — and he's trying to reinstitute the Voting Rights Act in Texas," the Utah Republican tells Newsmax. "If I were a Texan, I'd be so doggone livid that I don't think I'd ever get over it. That's not the thing to do, and it just shows how this administration ignores the law.  

Steinitz: Israel willing to make 'serious territorial concessions' for peace.
“We are prepared to make considerable concessions and it’s not going to be easy,” Steinitz said, The Telegraph newspaper reported on Thursday. "We are ready for a two states for two people solution," he said. “We hope that the talks will begin next week in Washington between Israeli and Palestinian representatives,” Shalom said.  

Egypt braces for mass rallies as Morsi held for conspiring with Hamas, murder
The Egyptian army is detaining ousted President Mohamed Morsi over accusations of kidnapping, killing soldiers and other charges, the state news agency said on Friday.

Report: Two Americans Enrolled In Food Stamps For Every Job Obama 'Created'
The White House has been touting the success of its economic agenda recently, claiming to have created 7.2 million jobs. But a look at the growing rolls of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) shows that for every job the administration says it created, two Americans have been added to the food stamp rolls.  

Barred from Rouhani inaugural, Israel ‘not taking it personally’
Officials in Jerusalem were unruffled by Iran’s announcement this week that Israel is not being invited to the inauguration of president-elect Hasan Rouhani. “We’re not taking it personally,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Paul Hirschson told The Times of Israel Thursday. “What is perhaps a little pathetic is that the Iranians felt the need to tell the whole world that they won’t be tainted by our presence. That says more about them than about us.”  

Court Rules No 'Jerusalem, Israel' on Passport
A U.S. appeals court struck down a law allowing Americans born in Jerusalem to list Israel on their passports. The ruling effectively supports the State Department's refusal to enforce the law because it violates the Constitutionally mandated separation of the executive and legislative branches. In 2002, Congress passed a law allowing Americans born in Jerusalem to choose whether their passports showed they were born in Israel.  

Islamists Demand Death Penalty for 'Blasphemy' As Another Couple Awaits Trial
Jul 26th, 2013
Daily NewsWorld Watch Monitor
Categories: Today's Headlines;Persecution

“Only one punishment for the blasphemer; sever his head from the body... Life imprisonment not acceptable, not acceptable and not acceptable.”

Tensions are high in the Punjabi city of Gojra after a court sentenced a Christian man, Sajjad Masih, to life imprisonment for blasphemy, only weeks before the fourth anniversary of an outbreak of extreme violence against Christians in the same city.

In August 2009, seven Christians from the same family were killed – six burned to death – and more than 100 Christian homes set alight by angry Muslims, again over an accusation of blasphemy.

Now, even as local Islamists demanded that Masih’s life imprisonment sentence be exchanged for the death penalty, a further blasphemy case was lodged on July 20; police arrested a Christian couple who were sent to jail the next day.

On July 13, the Gojra Additional Sessions Court convicted Masih of committing blasphemy under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code; for insulting Muhammad, which carries the death penalty.

Masih had been accused of sending blasphemous text messages in a case first lodged in December 2011. Despite an absence of evidence, the court sentenced Masih to life imprisonment (25 years in Pakistan).

The alleged text messages were sent from a SIM card registered in the name of Masih’s former fiancée, Roma. Neither the cell phone nor the SIM was recovered from Masih during police investigation. Nor was there any eyewitness or forensic evidence available. 

Analysts say lower court judges, who are provided little security in Pakistan, often concede to pressure from religious groups in blasphemy cases and convict the accused even if little evidence is available.

Some say this is the reason the judge awarded Masih life imprisonment (though not the death penalty) rather than acquitting him.

The day after the verdict, hard-line Islamists staged a sit-in on Mankanwala Crossing in Gojra and condemned the court’s decision.

The protestors demanded Masih’s death, chanting that nothing less than the death of a ‘blasphemer’ was acceptable.

Banners were hung across the city which read: “Only one punishment for the blasphemer; sever his head from the body... Life imprisonment not acceptable, not acceptable and not acceptable.”

This slogan has been promoted in recent years by Lashkar-e-Taiba (currently known as Jammat-ud-Dawa after the US State Department branded Lashkar-e-Taiba a “foreign terrorist organisation” in 2001).

Four U.S. - Led Mechanisms will Superintend New Israel-palestinian Peace Track
Jul 26th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Peace Process

For Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to start, US Secretary of State John Kerry, who has dragged the stalemated peace process one step further than anyone else, needs to take two more very tricky steps to make it happen.
1. He must send the two teams invitations. The Israeli team will be headed by Israel’s Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's political adviser Yitzhak Molcho; and the Palestinian team by Mahmoud Abbas’ senior adviser Yasser Abed Rabbo, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee.
Those invitations have not yet been sent out.
2. That is because Kerry is still working on two letters containing US assurances of understanding for President Barack Obama to sign before they are posted separately to the two addressees, Prime Minister Netanyahu and PA Chairman Abbas.
DEBKA Weekly’s sources disclose that the two assurances are also mutually contradictory.
Given the contortions required, the secretary of state is drafting the letters in person. He knows that a single untoward word or misplaced comma could shatter the fragile edifice he has begun to shape and the whole process would fall back to the starting point.
So the invitations to the Israeli and Palestinian delegations will not be sent out – and the negotiations will not start - before the two letters are received and confirmed.
In the meantime, it was reported in Jerusalem Thursday, July 25, that the Israeli and Palestinian teams will meet in Washington next Tuesday – not for substantive talks but only for a preliminary exchange on modalities and procedures. It also turns out that when the real negotiations do get underway, the tendency is to pick a Middle East venue, possibly Jerusalem.

Obama’s letters must both endorse and duck the 1967 borders

Kerry called on Obama at the White House Monday when he returned from his sixth trip to the Middle East after announcing on July 19 a tentative agreement by both sides to resume Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations “very soon.”
The letter Kerry is drafting for Netanyahu will promise US cooperation for establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, defining the former as the national state of the Palestinian people and the latter as the national state of the Jewish people while pledging to safeguard legitimate Israeli security needs.
The negotiations will based on the 1967 borders although the US president will acknowledge the need for new borders, taking into account Israel’s security needs and the demographic changes on the ground since 1967, i.e. Israeli West Bank settlements.
The letter to the Palestinians will cite the 1967 borders as the basis for the negotiations to establish an independent Palestinian state and refer also to the release of an unspecified number of Palestinians in Israel jails.
In respect of Israeli reservations, this Obama letter does not incorporate Palestinian demands for Israeli commitments to withdraw to the 1967 lines and freeze settlement construction in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Netanyahu’s territorial concessions

Despite the delayed formalities in Washington, the two parties and the top US diplomat have not been idle.
DEBKA Weekly's sources in Washington and Jerusalem report that Kerry, Netanyahu and Abbas are locked in behind-the-scenes interchanges, carried forward by the Secretary who has been nudging both toward approaching the core issues of the conflict.
This week, Kerry asked Netanyahu for three answers:
Would he adopt the security arrangements-versus-borders formula presented by his predecessor Ehud Olmert to President Obama and Abbas in early 2009, in which he offered to cede close to 94.6 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinians?
Although the Palestinians never accepted the offer, they want to use it as the starting-point for the next round of talks. If Netanyahu rejects this, Kerry asks what alternative he has in mind in terms of territory he is prepared to cede on the West Bank – bearing in mind that Jewish settlements stand on app. 9.8 percent of the West Bank (not counting Jerusalem).
The Israeli prime minister was also asked for figures on the scope and depth of Israel’s withdrawal from the Jordan Rift Valley (a strip of land along the Jordan River which marks the border between Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan).
Netanyahu has said that Israel must retain a military presence on the Jordan Rift Valley. Kerry wants to know if he accepts the removal of Jewish communities, leaving behind only military presence.

Abbas must stop anti-Israel steps through UN

Netanyahu’s answers would give Kerry the tool for predetermining the outcome of negotiations on the juxtaposition between security arrangements and the demarcation of borders between Israel and the future Palestinian state.
He also wanted to find out how much financial aid Israel was committing to for raising the standard of living of West Bank Palestinians.
Turning to the Palestinian leader, Kerry asked how Abbas envisions solutions to two highly sensitive issues – Jerusalem and the borders of the future Palestinian state, taking into account that more than half a half a million Jews live in towns and villages up and down Judea and Samaria.
He also indicated that the Palestinian leader would be required to desist from his anti-Israel campaign through the UN and other international institutions.
DEBKA Weekly reveals that Kerry is preparing a set of four interlinked diplomatic mechanisms, political, economic, security and general, for thrashing out the four main subjects at issue under close US supervision.

High-powered US officials and officers recruited

One of the candidates mentioned to oversee the civilian segment is Frank Lowenstein, former Senate Foreign Relations committee chief of staff who acted as policy advisor to Senator Kerry. He has joined the Kerry State Department as a senior advisor, currently focusing on Middle East issues.
Lowenstein joins State after a year at the Podesta Group
Another candidate is the veteran American diplomat, Martin Sean Indyk, 62, Vice President and Director for Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
Indyk has served twice as US Ambassador to Israel as well as Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs during the Clinton administration.
The name of Rob Malley, former President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council Middle East adviser, has also been mentioned in the context of the team advising the peace negotiations.
Malley would give the White House standing in the hitherto exclusive State Department project.
An American general will run the military segment. The name of John Allen, a retired Marine general and the former US commander in Afghanistan, is bruited.
The State Department insisted Wednesday, July 24, that decisions on the envoy and negotiating team were still in the works and not final.

US diplomats will superintend every aspect of the talks

Kerry has crafted his four-part construct to superintend every aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. US diplomacy will jog both Netanyahu and Abbas back into line whenever they look like moving away from the course predetermined by Washington.
It is also designed as Kerry’s framework for introducing the Arab League and Gulf Arab nations into the peace process. He envisages their role to be integral.
Core elements of the four mechanisms have been on the job in Washington for the past six weeks. When the talks begin in earnest, they will be filled out and relocated to Jerusalem whence they will work closely with Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials.
Some US official sources told DEBKA Weekly that President Obama had given Kerry a free hand to orchestrate the Middle East peace process – in sharp contrast to his hands-on approach to every foreign policy step pursued by Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State.
In his second term, the US president appears determined to stay out of foreign policy-making for the Middle East. This decision will be tested if Kerry’s initiative is a success.
Kerry, Netanyahu and Abbas have kept the lid tightly on any progress they have made so far.
Our sources have learned that they are of one mind on the critical decision not to seek a final-status accord in the coming negotiations, but go for the partial goal of a set of interim agreements to enable a Palestinian state to be established alongside the State of Israel.
Even a partial accord would require Israel to pull out and hand over extensive areas of the West Bank and evacuate between 30-40 small settlements with a total population of 30,000-40,000 Israelis.

No final status accords. Ergo, no referendum

The negotiations overseen by Kerry will not address the issues of the two states’ final borders or Jerusalem sovereignty – although a partial modus vivendi may be broached. The Palestinian refugee issue will also be held over to a future date.
Interestingly, both the Israeli and the Palestinian leaders pledged this week to put to referendum by their respective peoples any final-status peace accord achieved in negotiations.
But what about interim accords that also entail major concessions, including the handover of major territorial assets and evacuation of entire communities?
Which elected bodies will be required to endorse or even ratify these transactions? Or will the two governments dispense with such niceties and simply go ahead with implementation on the grounds that the accords negotiated thus far are not the complete and final product?
Both Netanyahu and Abu Mazen no doubt hope this device will serve them as a tactic for avoiding the opposition lying in wait to challenge them.

Feds Tell Web Firms to Turn Over user Account Passwords
Jul 26th, 2013
Daily Newsc/net
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The U.S. government has demanded that major Internet companies divulge users’ stored passwords, according to two industry sources familiar with these orders, which represent an escalation in surveillance techniques that has not previously been disclosed.

If the government is able to determine a person’s password, which is typically stored in encrypted form, the credential could be used to log in to an account to peruse confidential correspondence or even impersonate the user. Obtaining it also would aid in deciphering encrypted devices in situations where passwords are reused.

“I’ve certainly seen them ask for passwords,” said one Internet industry source who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We push back.”

A second person who has worked at a large Silicon Valley company confirmed that it received legal requests from the federal government for stored passwords. Companies “really heavily scrutinize” these requests, the person said. “There’s a lot of ‘over my dead body.’”

Some of the government orders demand not only a user’s password but also the encryption algorithm and the so-called salt, according to a person familiar with the requests. A salt is a random string of letters or numbers used to make it more difficult to reverse the encryption process and determine the original password. Other orders demand the secret question codes often associated with user accounts.

A Microsoft spokesperson would not say whether the company has received such requests from the government. But when asked whether Microsoft would divulge passwords, salts, or algorithms, the spokesperson replied: “No, we don’t, and we can’t see a circumstance in which we would provide it.”

Google also declined to disclose whether it had received requests for those types of data. But a spokesperson said the company has “never” turned over a user’s encrypted password, and that it has a legal team that frequently pushes back against requests that are fishing expeditions or are otherwise problematic. “We take the privacy and security of our users very seriously,” the spokesperson said.

A Yahoo spokeswoman would not say whether the company had received such requests. The spokeswoman said: “If we receive a request from law enforcement for a user’s password, we deny such requests on the grounds that they would allow overly broad access to our users’ private information. If we are required to provide information, we do so only in the strictest interpretation of what is required by law.”

Apple, Facebook, AOL, Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner Cable, and Comcast did not respond to queries about whether they have received requests for users’ passwords and how they would respond to them.

Richard Lovejoy, a director of the Opera Software subsidiary that operates FastMail, said he doesn’t recall receiving any such requests but that the company still has a relatively small number of users compared with its larger rivals. Because of that, he said, “we don’t get a high volume” of U.S. government demands.

The FBI declined to comment.

Coming Soon: America's Own Islamic 'no - Go' Zones
Jul 26th, 2013
Daily NewsWND
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Coming soon to dozens of locations across the United States: America’s own “no-go” zones where Muslims install their own courts, government, justice and punishment, much like the zones that already exist across the European Union.

That’s according to Martin Mawyer of the Christian Action Network.

His organization has been so strong in its opposition to radical Muslim expansion in the U.S., he’s been targeted in a $30 million defamation lawsuit by a group called Muslims of the Americas, founded by Pakistan Sheik Mubarak Ali Gilani.

The claims are that Muslims of the Americas was damaged by CAN’s publication of the book “Twilight in America: The Untold Story of Islamist Terrorist Training Camps Inside America.”

The book accuses Muslims of the Americas of “acting as a front for the radical Islamist group Jamaat al-Fuqra.”

CAN leaders Tuesday told WND the case is at the stage of exchanging documents in preparation for further discovery.

Mawyer recently told Fox News that the leaders of the Muslim organization “feel they have to defend themselves to their own members,” because he would have expected the case to be dropped. It is based on the claims of a former New York informant who posed as a member of the Muslims group and alleged it was involved in “street crimes, drugs, brothels, unemployment fraud and other offenses.”

There is no question that terror training camps exist across the U.S. According to a documentary, “Homegrown Jihad: The Terrorist Camps Around the U.S.,” there are nearly three dozen Islamist terrorist training compounds operating under the name Muslims of the Americas.

The documentary states: “Under the leadership of a radical Pakistani cleric, Sheik Mubarak Gilani, Muslims of the Americas has thousands of devoted followers who are being groomed for homegrown jihad.”

The project by CAN “exposes these dangerous terrorist compounds and reveals for the first time a secret training tape in which American Muslims are recruited to join one of the most advanced training courses in Islamic military warfare … right here in America.”

Training includes instructions in “explosives, kidnapping, murder, firing weapons and guerrilla warfare,” the documentary explains.

Mawyer told WND he now has learned that the Muslim organization is attempting to model the previously secretive training camps after the European “no-go” zones.

Across the EU, there are enclaves where Muslims make up almost 100 percent of the population. They have been known to set up Shariah religious-law courts alongside secular court systems. They exert control over every facet of life, up to and including applying Islamic limits to what people do, say, wear and believe.

“What they’re trying to do is step up from the training camp, the secretive, plotting location … and become their own state within a state,” he told WND.

Law enforcement often even is afraid to enter such zones, he noted.

Then, he said, they want to “connect the dots” and link all of the “no-go” zones together.

The concept is shocking to Western civilization, where for generations the rule of law has prevailed, he said.

“We are so used to in the past hearing about [Islam's plan], now there’s a whole strategy change, to infiltrate and immigrate, and set up societies within societies,” he said.

Dearborn, Mich., where hundreds of thousands of Muslims have settled, is an example, he said. There, city and police officials have been sued in many cases that allege discrimination against Christians effectively by applying Shariah law.

He said the new idea of “no-go” zones is significant.

“They provide weapons and guards, and government officials in their own societies. They build what they want on their compounds, they bury their own people, [their] kids do not go to public schools,” he said.

The concerns about Islamist compounds continue to rise. Only a few weeks ago, according to WTOV-TV in West Virginia, Brooke County Sheriff Chuck Jackson tried to assure residents that there is no terror cell active in his region.

He told the station he would reviewed the claims. He investigated the purported site as recently as this year.

“Myself and the chief deputy talked to the farmers in the area over there. We went over to the property in question. It’s primarily a hunting camp. There’s some guys out there. They do some target practice and they’re all local guys. It is not a terrorist training camp, I assure you,” he said.

But the West Virginia Intelligence Fusion Center said it’s actively investigating information that suggests terrorists are within the borders of the state, the report said.

WND’s own reporting on the issue has revealed some surprising elements in America.

The report said Jamaat ul-Fuqra, known in the U.S. as Muslims of the Americas, owns or is leasing hundreds of acres of property from New York to California in which the leader boasts of conducting “the most advanced training courses in Islamic military warfare.”

In a captured recruitment video he states in English: “We are fighting to destroy the enemy.

The recruitment video shows American converts to Islam being instructed in the operation of AK-47 rifles, rocket launchers and machine guns and C4 explosives. It provides instruction in how to kidnap Americans, kill them and how to conduct sabotage and subversive operations.

Jamaat ul-Fuqra’s attacks on American soil range from bombings to murder to plots to blow up U.S. landmarks. A 2006 Department of Justice report states Jamaat ul-Fuqra “has more than 35 suspected communes and more than 3,000 members spread across the United States, all in support of one goal: the purification of Islam through violence.” In 2005, the Department of Homeland Security predicted the group would continue to carry out attacks in the U.S.

Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was attempting to interview Jamaat ul-Fuqra’s leader, Gilani, in 2002 when he was kidnapped and later beheaded. One year later, Iyman Faris, member of both Jamaat ul-Fuqra and al-Qaida, pleaded guilty in federal court to a plot to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge.

“What we are witnessing here is kind of a brand-new form of terrorism,” says FBI Special Agent Jody Weis in the documentary. “These home-grown terrorists can prove to be as dangerous as any known group, if not more so.”

Bennett: They’re Trying to Scare us
Jul 26th, 2013
Daily NewsINN - Maayana Miskin
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Minister Naftali Bennett, head of the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) faction, sent a message of encouragement to his supporters on Friday, telling them not to be worried by doomsday proclamations in advance of the Israeli-Palestinian Authority negotiations which are to begin next week.

“They’re trying to scare us,” he wrote. “’Without giving up the land, there will be terrorism. There will be a demographic problem. There will be international isolation. There will never be peace,’” he quoted opponents as saying.

“It’s always another excuse. Even when we see that it’s actually concessions that bring terrorism, that hurt our international reputation, that bring us further from peace, they are looking for the next excuse,” he charged.

“Fear paralyzes,” he warned. “If we had listened to those who tried to scare us in previous generations, we would have stayed in the Arab world and in Europe, and we would have continued to be obliterated there.”

“The land of Israel and the state we established are ours. We came back after thousands of years of longing and repeated attempts. We have to declare this to the world,” he concluded.

Bennett also urged his supporters not to be upset by the election of two hareidi-religious candidates, Rabbi David Lau and Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, to the Chief Rabbinate.

Bayit Yehudi had supported religious-Zionist candidates in the hopes of promoting reform in the Rabbinate.

“We really hoped to make change through the Rabbinate. We didn’t succeed,” Bennett admitted on Facebook.

“But we can’t get depressed now, or start hurling accusations,” he continued. The Bayit Yehudi party “is working daily on behalf of the people of Israel,” he said. “Sometimes we will succeed, and sometimes not.”

“Chin up,” he declared.

Assad Refurbishes His Image, Plans Summit With Putin and Rouhani
Jul 26th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Unfazed by a civil conflict entering its third year and more than 100,000 Syrians slaughtered, President Bashar Assad is so sure that victory is in the palm of his hand that he has launched a project for refurbishing his public image. The Russian and Iranian advisers who served him so well in the war are assisting him in this project. Arab PR specialists working in Europe have been hired for exorbitant fees to come to Damascus and apply a thick coat of paint over the White House portrayal of Assad on July 23, as “one of the worst tyrants of his era.”
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said on that occasion that the United States and other allies would continue to support the opposition to Assad. “There is no way out of this that doesn’t include a transition to a post-Assad Syria,” he said. “The Syrian people will not stand for it, and the Syrian opposition and the military opposition will continue to resist Assad and resist with the assistance of the United States and many partners and allies in the effort."
According to DEBKA Weekly's intelligence sources monitoring the situation in Syria, Carney’s words are belied by the facts in the field. He may believe that 'the Syrian people will not stand for it,' however the reality is different: Rebel fighters and their families are starting to desert and a trickle of several hundred are laying down their arms and returning to their families in their old homes in areas controlled by government forces and security services.

Rebels begin to desert, return home

The deserters’ calculations are simple. Although the war is far from over, the Syrian ruler has won as far as they are concerned because it has become safer to live in the country under the Assad regime than in the refugee camps of Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. Even areas controlled by government military and security forces are less dangerous than rebel-ruled territory.
In London, The Daily Telegraph reported on the day of the White House comment that growing numbers of rebels, exhausted after more than two years of conflict and feeling that they are losing, are signing up for a negotiated amnesty offered by the Assad regime.
Reading the same signals, rebels’ families are quietly moving to their former homes in government-controlled territory, watching the intensive army push into rebel-held areas from a safe distance.
So confident is the government of a successful outcome of the conflict that it has established a Ministry of Reconciliation for easing the return of former opponents to the regime’s fold.
The minister Ali Haider, explaining his function, said: "Our message is, 'If you really want to defend the Syrian people, lay down your weapons and come to Syria’s defense in the right way, through dialogue."
Just as White House spokesman’s comments were meant to defend President Barack Obama's non-intervention in Syria, The Daily Telegraph item sought to justify British Prime Minister David Cameron's U-turn against the rebels in favor of recognizing that it was time to acknowledge that Assad come out of the conflict the winner and would rule Syria for many years to come.

Assad ready for his first foreign trip and world summit

This situation, which DEBKA Weekly's sources first depicted six months ago in a February issue, was underscored this week when the leaders of the nearly half-a-million Syrian Druzes finally turned down heavy Saudi pressure to throw in their lot with the Syrian rebels.
The Druzes live in 120 villages scattered on the rugged Jebel al-Druze mountain range in the southwest near Syria's borders with Iraq and Jordan. Their support would have been a valuable asset for the rebel movement. But they decided against joining - notwithstanding generous Saudi aid offers in the multimillion dollar range to develop their region, establish a Druze army and provide it with all the weapons required to fight Syrian government forces.
Riyadh also pledged an Israeli Air Force umbrella and backup from the US special forces stationed in Jordan, on the strength of guarantees from Washington and Jerusalem.
Although tempted by the prospect of establishing an autonomous military force as the kernel of an independent Druze state in southern Syria, their leaders turned the offer down. As a result,
the Saudis had to give up on their bid to gain control of southern Syria.
In these circumstances, Assad understandably feels his most urgent task now is to rebuild his image and re-emerge in the guise of Savior of Syria and the only leader capable of bringing about desperately needed national reconciliation.
His PR advisers are now counseling him to prepare for his first foreign trip. A plan is afoot for Assad to travel to Tehran and attend the August 4 swearing-in ceremony of President Hassan Rouhani. Russian President Vladimir Putin may also be there and the occasion could be used for an eye-catching trilateral summit.

Air Force Censors Chaplain Over 'no Atheists in Foxholes' Essay
Jul 26th, 2013
Daily NewsNewsmax
Categories: Today's Headlines;Persecution

A Christian chaplain currently serving at the Air Force Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska could face punishment for posting a religious column on the base's website.

Lt. Col Kenneth Reyes wrote an essay titled "No Atheists in Foxholes: Chaplains Gave All in World War II" and posted it on his page on the site, called "Chaplain's Corner," reports Fox News

The phrase has been attributed to Father William Cummings, a Catholic priest in the Second World War; it was later used by President Dwight D. Eisenhower during a 1954 speech, when he said, "I am delighted that our veterans are sponsoring a movement to increase our awareness of God in our daily lives. In battle, they learned a great truth that there are no atheists in the foxholes."

But shortly after Reyes posted his essay online, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), led by activist Mikey Weinstein, sent a letter to the base allegedly on behalf of 42 anonymous airmen who had complained about it.

"In the civilian world, such anti-secular diatribe is protected free speech," the MRFF reportedly wrote in a letter to Col. Brian Duffy, the base commander.

"Beyond his most obvious failure in upholding regulations through redundant use of the bigoted, religious supremacist phrase, 'no atheists in foxholes,' he defiles the dignity of service members by telling them that regardless of their personally held philosophical beliefs they must have faith," the letter said.

Five hours after the complaint was received, Reye's essay was taken down "out of respect for those who considered its title offensive," Duffy told Fox News.

Duffy also wrote an e mail to the MRFF saying, "While certainly not intended to offend, the article has been removed from our website. We remain mindful of the governing instructions on this matter and will work to avoid recurrence."

But the MRFF reportedly still wants Reyes to be punished for what he wrote, insisting, "Faith-based hate is hate all the same. Lt. Col Reyes must be appropriately reprimanded."

Ron Crews, the executive director of Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, said Reyes was within his duties to write an article about faith, telling Fox News, "Chaplains have religious liberty as well to speak to issues. It is a sad day for the Air Force and for our country when officers obey every command from Weinstein to silence even chaplains from talking about their faith."

According to Breitbart News legal columnist Ken Klukowski, "The Obama-Hagel Defense Department and Air Force have met with Weinstein and MRFF over a period of four years and recently told Congress that there were no problems with suppressing religious speech in the military."