PA judge: Jews have no history in Jerusalem

Aug. 27, 2009
Khaled Abu Toameh , THE JERUSALEM POST

The Palestinian Authority's chief Islamic judge, Sheikh Tayseer Rajab Tamimi, said on Wednesday that there was no evidence to back up claims that Jews had ever lived in Jerusalem or that the Temple ever existed.

Tamimi claimed that Israeli archeologists had "admitted" that Jerusalem was never inhabited by Jews.

Tamimi's announcement came in response to statements made earlier this week by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who said that Jerusalem "is not a settlement," and that "the Jews built it 3,000 years ago."

"Netanyahu's claims are baseless and untrue," said Tamimi, the highest religious authority in the PA. "Jerusalem is an Arab and Islamic city and it always has been so."

Tamimi claimed that all excavation work conducted by Israel after 1967 have "failed to prove that Jews had a history or presence in Jerusalem or that their ostensible temple had ever existed."

He condemned Netanyahu and "all Jewish rabbis and extremist organizations" as liars because of their assertion that Jerusalem was a Jewish city.

Tamimi accused Israel of distorting the facts and forging history "with the aim of erasing the Arab and Islamic character of Jerusalem." He also accused Israel of launching an "ethnic cleansing" campaign to squeeze Arabs out of the city.

"By desecrating its holy sites, expelling its Arab residents and demolishing their homes and confiscating their lands and building settlements in Jerusalem, Israel is seeking, through the use of weapons, to turn it into a Jewish city," he said. "This is a flagrant violation of all religious, legal, moral and human values."


Complete story here

The Rigged Game

The rigged game

Read all of this fascinating and informative article HERE
Tuesday the Guardian reported that the Obama administration is now making Israel an offer it can't refuse: In exchange for a government order to freeze construction for Jews in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, the administration will adopt a "much tougher line with Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons program."

Israel should refuse this offer.

What the Guardian account shows is an Obama administration looking to blame Israel for the failure of its policy of attempting to appease the likes of Iranian dictator Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Come September, US President Barack Obama is going to have a difficult time of it. Obama set a September deadline for his strategy of diplomatically courting the mullahs. This policy involves deferring further sanctions against Iran and all but openly renouncing the option of using military force to destroy Iran's nuclear installations while waiting politely for the mullahs to sit down for tea with US officials.

Far from accepting Obama's offer, the Iranians have spit on it. Indeed, they have been too busy brutalizing their own people and building bombs and missiles to even respond to him directly. Instead, they have signaled their contempt for Obama by promoting known arch terrorists to high office. For instance Ahmadinejad just appointed Ahmad Vahidi, the suspected mastermind of the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia where 19 US servicemen and women were murdered to serve as Defense Minister.

In support of Obama's appeasement efforts, both the House and the Senate Foreign Relations committees set aside veto-proof bills that would place sanctions on companies exporting refined fuel to Iran. But Congress, now on summer recess, reconvenes in September and members are anxiously awaiting a green light from the White House to put the bills before a vote.

So unless something saves him, Obama will look like quite a fool next month. His appeasement policy has given the mullahs eight precious months of unimpeded work at their nuclear installations. Their uranium enrichment facility at Natanz is now operating some 5,000 centrifuges with another 2,400 centrifuges about to go online. That is an eightfold increase in centrifuge activity from a year ago.

Obama now turns to Israel to avoid embarrassment. If he can convince Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that the White House will only get serious about Iran's nuclear weapons program if Netanyahu freezes Jewish building in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem, then Obama can present his sudden willingness to sign on to veto-proof Congressional sanctions legislation not as a consequence of his own failure, but as a result of Israeli pressure.

If Obama succeeds in getting Netanyahu on board, the American media discussion of sanctions will focus on the issue of Israeli power over US policy. The so-called Israel lobby will be pummeled as pundits argue about whether Obama was right or wrong to succumb to Israeli pressure to support Congressional sanctions. No one will remember that Obama was forced to support the sanctions because he had no other choice, since next month his engagement policy will become indefensible.

On the other hand, if Israel refuses to play ball and doesn't provide Obama with a concession which he will be "forced" to pay for with a harder line on Iran, then he will still have to adopt a harder line on Iran. In this case however, it will be attributed to the failure of his appeasement policy towards Iran rather than to the success of his Middle East diplomacy against Israel.

Obama's apparent interest in setting Israel up as the fall guy for the failure of his engagement policy is the same policy he will doubtless follow if matters continue on course and Iran acquires nuclear weapons. At that point, Obama can be counted on to claim that it was Israel's recalcitrance in the negotiations with the Palestinians or the Syrians or the Lebanese that forced the mullahs' hands. That is, he will say it is the absence of "progress" in the "peace process" due to whatever imagined Israeli intransigence that made it impossible for the Iranian "moderates" to convince the "hardliners" to give up their nuclear weapons program.
................
The lesson of all of this for Israel is clear. Whether Netanyahu is dealing with Obama or European leaders, the game is rigged against us. Any move that Israel makes towards these leaders will simply facilitate their further castigation of the Jewish state and support their clear intentions to do nothing to prevent Iran from acquiring the means to destroy Israel.

As we have been all too often in our history, today Israel stands alone against our enemies. We can either defeat them, or we can be defeated. The choice is ours.

By: JWR contributor Caroline B. Glick, the senior Middle East Fellow at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC and the deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post.

Baruch atem b'Shem, Yeshua

Summer Camp with Hamas

On Summer Holiday With Hamas

Posted: Fri 28th August 2009 8.40 AM | Author: David Soakell Isrelate

Well it has been the summer holidays for school children, and once again, instead of playing football, cricket or buying ice cream, Palestinian kids went off to summer camp. Hamas opened, as usual, its summer camps for children and adolescents throughout the Gaza Strip with the slogan "Victory for Gaza, glory for Jerusalem."

The camps are run by the Hamas movement, and they consider the camps an important tool for inculcating the younger generation with its ideology and for fostering the next generation of terrorist operatives.

According to the Palestinian and Arab media, Hamas ran 700 camps this summer throughout the Gaza Strip which were attended by 100,000 Palestinian youths (from elementary school pupils to university students).

Preparations for them lasted months, and their 1,500 instructors participated in training courses before the season opened. Hamas appointed a committee and subcommittees responsible for running the camps. There was a marketing campaign to encourage attendance with the participation of Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV and a designated Internet site. The camps' budget was estimated at $2 million.

What happens at these camps?

Hamas claims that the camps promote social activities such as swimming, trips, sports competitions, drawing, singing, computer classes, etc, although reports of what actually goes on clearly show that at the same time, the youth undergo an intensive process of political and Islamic indoctrination (as occurred in previous years). The process is implemented by the instructors and senior Hamas figures visiting the camps.

The Hamas activists' statements do not hide the fact that the objective of the camps is to foster the movement's next generation. Abdallah al-Ghafur, a member of the summer camps' oversight committee, said that "the core of the struggle today is for the younger generation," which had to be fostered according to Islamic religious laws and trained for endurance and patience.

The Next Generation

Hamas activist Mahmoud AbuI'd said that the objective of the camps is to prepare the children to take the leadership of the path of "victory and liberation" upon themselves, hoping the camps would produce "soldiers for Jerusalem and Gaza."

Hamas shaheeds [martyrs], some of them killed in terrorist attacks, are turned into role models for Gazan youth. The biographies of Hamas shaheeds are studied by the campers. Posters of shaheeds are distributed and carried during processions. In addition, youth take part in Hamas propaganda exercises, for example, in demonstrations against the so-called "Israeli siege" or at the Rafah crossing to demand the release of Ayman Nawfal, a senior Hamas terrorist operative detained by Egypt.

Indoctrination

Hamas activists related to the theme chosen for the camp ~ " Victory for Gaza, glory for Jerusalem." They said it expressed the Gaza Strip's "victory" in Operation Cast Lead, which was "the first step toward liberating Jerusalem and all Palestine." They said the name was meant to indoctrinate the children with the status of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa as places in need of "liberation."

Palestinian youths at the Hamas summer camp wore green Hamas caps and trained with wooden and plastic rifles. The banner at the upper right, hung on a building of typical school design, reads "Allah is our goal, the messenger Muhammad is our role model, the Qur'an is our law, jihad is our path and death in jihad for the sake of Allah is our most exalted hope".

Nuclear Iran...

Please visit Isrelate and consider joining ~ it's a blessing!

Nuclear Iran

Posted: Fri 28th August 2009 8.18 AM | Author: David Soakell from Isrelate

For the first time in three years, the number of centrifuges enriching uranium at Iran's Natanz facility has not been increased, Reuters reported on Tuesday. The diplomats said the number of centrifuges had not been expanded since the end of May, following steady growth over the previous three years.

The reason for the slowdown was unclear. According to the last International Atomic Energy Agency report on Iran, nearly 5,000 centrifuges were processing uranium gas as of 31st May, while more than 2,000 others were ready for operation. Nearly 3,000 pounds - 1,300 kilograms - of low enriched uranium had been produced as of that date, said the more than four-page report. That compared to just over 1,000 kg. mentioned in the previous IAEA report in February, an amount that experts and US officials said was sufficient for the production of enough high enriched uranium for a nuclear warhead.
Baruch atem b'Shem, Yeshua

Arab League Furious over Jewish Prayer on Temple Mount

by Maayana Miskin

(IsraelNN.com) The Arab League reacted with fury on this week to reports that a small group of Jews had prayed on the Temple Mount on Sunday. Secretary-General Amr Moussa termed the spontaneous prayer gathering “a violation of international law.”

Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, head of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, led the guided tour on the Temple Mount. While guards on the mount have a policy of preventing Jewish prayer or religious gestures such as kneeling or bowing, Rabbi Ariel's group managed to briefly pray at the site.

"This is the first time since 1967 that Jews have conducted prayers on Al-Aksa during the month of Ramadan,” Moussa declared. “We condemn this act,” he added, in the name of the 22 countries belonging to the League.

The prayer session was “a serious blow to the holiness of the site,” Moussa claimed, adding that Jews should not be allowed to pray at the site "whether it is Ramadan or any other time of year.”

The Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City is the site on which the Temple and Second Temple once stood, and according to Judaism, is the holiest place on earth. For approximately 1,000 years, the mount has housed the Al Aksa mosque.

Rabbi Chaim Richman, another Temple Institute leader, said Moussa was misinformed. Rabbi Ariel's prayer was not the first of its kind – in fact, Jews pray on the Temple Mount whenever they can, he said, and always have.

“There's a positive commandment for Jewish people to pray on the Temple Mount,” Rabbi Richman explained. "I was on the Temple Mount on Wednesday, and I prayed.”

Far from being a violation of international law, Jewish prayer at the site is a fundamental human right, he said. “We go there out of a deep desire to express the most basic human right that we have, which is to pray to G-d.”


Story source here

Hamas Trains New Generation of Teenage Terrorists

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
(IsraelNN.com)

Hamas is training a new generation of terrorists in Gaza, where 50 percent of the population is under the age of 18, according to the French news agency AFP. The news agency reported that young teenagers lie on beds of nails while two other boys stand on their chests, prompting a nine-year-old to say, "No one will be able to mess with us after we become kung fu masters. Everyone will be afraid of us."

Hamas has been training teenage terrorists for years, and its terrorist leaders previously have been photographed training children at “summer camps” on the ruins of Jewish communities destroyed after the Israeli government’s expulsion of Gaza’s Jewish residents four years ago.
.
.
.
"Since the Hamas takeover, you're talking about two years of devastated economy in Gaza, a population that has no way of getting in or out, and almost a decade of humanitarian problems," Nathan Brown, a senior associate and expert on Palestinian politics at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, told the Monitor. "I can't believe that this type of abnormal situation wouldn't have effects that would send young Palestinians to these types of movements.


Story continues here


So...they think everyone will be afraid and not able to mess with them. Well, I have some breaking news they need to know about. One day soon their messing with Israel will result in a reaction they never dreamed about. They'll meet up with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - the One Who has promised to defend Israel and destroy all who go against her. Israel is the apple of God's eye and will never cease to exist, for His Name is there forever. That event will quickly sort out who fears whom.

Don

Israel's unexpected gas bonanza gets bigger

Thursday, August 13, 2009

TEL AVIV — Israel has reported an expanded offshore natural gas reserve.

A prime contractor in a consortium to search and develop gas reserves reported that Israel's Tamar well contained 16 percent more energy than in previous estimates.

Noble Energy said reserves at Tamar were estimated at 207 billion cubic meters rather than 178 billion cubic meters, Middle East Newsline reported.

"There is already enough Israeli-made natural gas to provide the country's needs for years to come, and we plan to determinedly seek out additional reserves in our many licenses along the coast of Israel," the consortium said in a statement on Aug. 11.

Delek Group president Yitzhak Tshuva, a member of the consortium, said Tamar could fulfill Israel's gas requirements for up to the next 25 years.

Other consortium members were identified as Isramco Negev 2 with 28.75 percent, Avner Oil Exploration with 15.625 percent and Dor Gas Exploration with four percent.


Story source here


I've heard it said that where there's gas, there's lots of oil nearby. Israel has said this would make them independent - with no more need to buy natural gas from other nations. That'll make the world sit up and take notice.

Praising God that the amount of natural gas in the fields keeps getting larger and larger! You go Israel!!!

Don

Planeload of Jews Land and Declare Israel Their New Home

(IsraelNN.com) A jumbo El Al airliner touched down at Ben Gurion International airport early Wednesday morning with 366 Jews aboard who all packed their belongings, kissed North America goodbye, and now continue their lives as residents of the Jewish State.

The planeload of North Americans was preceded by 23,000 others in the past seven years who made aliyah (immigrated to Israel) through the Nefesh B'Nefesh (NBN) organization, a group dedicated to revitalizing Jewish immigration to Israel en masse from North America and the UK.

The charter flight follows a group aliyah flght (a block of reserved seats in a regular commercial El Al flight) that departed from Canada Monday carrying 48 olim (new immigrants) to Israel. Another group flight will depart later Wednesday from Newark airport, capping off forty-eight hours in which 455 Western new immigrants will be making aliyah through Nefesh B'Nefesh.

The newcomers are among more than 3,000 Western immigrants moving to Israel on 16 flights this summer as part of an ongoing "aliyah revolution" launched by the NBN organization in 2002.

Forty-six people from Wednesday's flight will be moving to Israel's northern region as part of NBN's "Go North" program, a historic initiative which encourages Western olim to settle in northern Israel, by providing enhanced financial, employment and social support. "Go North" aims to bring over 1,000 immigrants to Israel's morth over the next few years and will have assisted 32 families by the end of this summer.

Minister of Diaspora Affairs Yuli Edestein told the olim at the welcome reception that he toured towns in the north on Tuesday and heard from local residents of the dire need to bring more Jews to populate the region, which has a large Arab presence. Edelstein opened his remarks saying that it is a sad day for him as Minister of Diaspora Affairs as he now has 366 less people for whom he is responsible in his government portfolio. "But as a Jew and a Zionist, it is a very happy day," he said.


Full story and videos here

14 Lies Blocking Peace in the Middle East

If a Martian were suddenly to land on earth and start listening to and reading the mainstream media, he would form the impression that the entire Middle East conflict were due to Israel building some settlements in land that much of the world thinks should become a Palestinian state. A near-consensus exists among the governments of the world and among media writers that peace has yet to break out in the Middle East because of three principle reasons. The first is that the Jews and the Arabs have been unable to agree about whether there should be a Palestinian state. The second is because Israel has obstinately refused to withdraw its troops from (so-called) “occupied Arab” lands. The third is because Israel behaves cruelly towards the Palestinians. The Martian could easily carry these beliefs back to its home planet, as long as it did not bother to learn the background and the history of the Middle East conflict. Those three reasons cannot survive an antibiotic of familiarity with Middle East history.
President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seem to think the idea of Palestinian statehood is the most wonderful idea to come along since the Thirteenth Amendment. And almost all world politicians, along with the Israeli Left, insist that all Israeli settlements must be removed from the West Bank because they serve as the main obstacle to peace. The reality is that the conflict has very little to do with debate over Palestinian statehood and even less to do with Israeli “settlements.” In fact Israel has agreed in principle, somewhat foolishly, to the erection of such a Palestinian state, at least subject to some security conditions and other concessions from the Palestinians -- like recognizing Israel’s right to exist. As it turns out, even so-called “moderate” Palestinians reject any such idea.
Meanwhile debate about the Middle East conflict is based on an incredible absence of historic information and on a series of stylish misconceptions about Middle East history. The anti-Israel Lobby, which grows by the day in its maliciousness and anti-Semitism, counts on the ignorance of much of the public concerning how the Middle East got to where it is.
Here are just a handful of popular misconceptions and their antidotes:

1. Falsehood: Israel was erected on land that belonged to Palestinian Arabs.

Truth: Before Israel was created its territory never belonged to Palestinian Arabs and had not been ruled by any Arabs at all since the Middle Ages. It had been a Turkish province for centuries until it was captured by Britain during World War I. The League of Nations awarded governance of “Palestine” to Britain at the end of the war in exchange for its commitment to turn the area into a Jewish homeland. The lands on which Jewish immigrants settled before Israel was created were purchased by Jews at above-market prices and in most cases had no Arabs living on them. Virtually no Arabs were evicted.

2. Falsehood: The Jews came to "Palestine" as foreigners and aliens whereas the Palestinians were the indigenous people of the territory.

Truth: Jews lived in “Palestine,” which is the Land of Israel or "Eretz Yisroel," continuously from the time of the Bible. Most families of “Palestinians” migrated into "Palestine,” during the same period as the Zionist waves of immigration, starting in the second half of the 19th century. The largest ethnic group in the country at the time was the Turks. The “Palestinian Arabs” in 1948 were primarily families of migrants from Lebanon and Syria. Ironically, they were motivated to become “Palestinians” in the first place thanks to the Zionist movement, which brought capital and labor into “Palestine” and improved living conditions there. Huge numbers of the names of “Palestinian” Arab villages and towns are slightly-modified Hebrew names. It is difficult to dig in the ground of “Palestine” without uncovering Jewish artifacts, some thousands of years old. Meanwhile, two-thirds of Mandatory Palestine’s territory had been sliced off in the 1920s and used to set up Jordan, an Arab Palestinian state much larger than Israel. The remaining territory, Western Palestine, was to become the Jewish homeland. That was the original “two-state solution,” the same "innovation" now being promoted for the Western third of the remaining part of Palestine.

3. Falsehood: There is no Palestinian state today because of Israeli aggression and obstinacy.

Truth: There is no Palestinian state today because of Arab aggression and obstinacy. In late 1947, the United Nations approved by a two thirds majority a proposal to create in to create in Western Palestine two states to replace the British Mandatory regime there. One would be Jewish and the other a Palestinian Arab state. The Jews agreed. The Arabs rejected the idea. The Arab states launched an attack of genocidal aggression against the Jews, invaded “Palestine” and gobbled up the lands earmarked for the Arab Palestinian state. Most of those lands were then held illegally by Jordan and semi-legally by Egypt until 1967 when they were liberated by Israel in the Six Day War. The Arab world has maintained a state of war with Israel since 1948, refusing to recognize its legitimacy, and attacking Israel over and over in a series of wars and terrorism campaigns. The Arab states attacked Israel in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, 2006, and sponsored terrorist atrocities against Jews in Israel since it was created. The reason for the attack which produced the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948 is exactly the same thing that stands in the way of any real peace settlement today.

4. Falsehood: Israel conducted “ethnic cleansing” of the Palestinian Arabs in 1948-49.

Truth: The Arab states conducted ethnic cleansing of Jews after 1948. About a million Jews were expelled by Arab states, their property stolen, and most then became citizens of Israel. Palestinian Arabs became refugees in 1948-49 as a direct result of the Arab war of aggression against Israel, in which the Palestinians participated. The estimated number of such Arab refugees varies between 400,000 and 750,000, with the former the more likely correct estimate. Afterwards, many were quietly allowed to return to Israel. Hundreds of thousands of Arabs from other Arab countries then declared themselves “Palestinian refugees” in order to get handouts from the UN and other international relief organizations. The actual Palestinian Arabs became refugees for the same reason that ethnic Germans living in Eastern Europe became refugees after World War II: because they were on the losing side of the war of aggression launched by their own political leaders.

5. Falsehood: Israelis an apartheid regime and mistreats Arabs.

Truth: Israel is the only Middle East> country that is NOT an apartheid regime. Arabs living under Israeli rule are the only Arabs in the Middle East who enjoy freedom of speech and of the press, free access to courts operating with due process, legal protection for property rights and the right to vote. Israeli Arabs have higher standards of education and health than any other group of Arabs in the Middle East. Israeli Arabs are quite simply the best-treated political minority in the and are in some ways better treated than are minority groups in many European countries. Israel is the only country in the Middle East that does NOT deal with Islamist terror through wholesale massacres of the people in whose midst the terrorists operate

6. Falsehood: Arabs engage in aggression and terrorism because Israel occupies territories.

Truth: Israel occupies territories (that had been controlled by Jordan and Egypt before 1967) because of Arab aggression and terrorism. Had the Arabs made peace with Israel after 1949, the West Bank and Gaza would have remained under the hegemony of Arabs and they could easily have erected a Palestinian Arab state there any time they wished. Instead, they attacked Israel in an attempt at genocidal extermination in 1967 and they lost.
7. Falsehood: The Middle East conflict is and has always been based on Israeli opposition to Palestinian self-determination.
Truth: The Middle East conflict is and has always been based on Arab opposition to Israeli-Jewish self-determination. There is one and only one cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict, even if that single cause is buried beneath an avalanche of media mud designed to obfuscate and confuse. That single cause is the refusal of the Arab world to come to terms with Israel’s existence within any set of borders whatsoever. The cause of the war is Arab refusal to come to terms with Jewish self-determination in any form whatsoever. The Middle East conflict is not about the right of self-determination of “Palestinian Arabs,” but rather it is about the Arab rejection of self-determination for Israeli Jews. For a century, the Arabs have attempted to block Jewish self-determination, using violence. No Palestinians before 1967 demanded any “homeland,” although they did demand that the Jews be stripped of theirs. That is because Palestinians are not a “people” at all and do not consider themselves such, any more than do the Arabs of Paris or of Detroit. Palestinians never had any real interest in their own state, and in fact rioted violently in 1920 when “Palestine” was detached from Syria by the European powers. Indeed the original term “Nakba” (“catastrophe” in Arabic and in leftist NewSpeak) was coined to refer to the outrage of Palestinians separated from their Syrian homeland. Immediately after the Six Day War a sudden need for a Palestinian state was fabricated by the Arab world, as a gimmick to force Israel back to its pre-1967 borders. Israel would then again be ten-miles wide at its narrowest, and so prepped for the new Arab assault of annihilation and genocide. The Arab world invented the “Palestinian people” so that it would serve the same role as the Sudeten Germans did in the late 1930s. That role was to provide a pretense of legitimacy for the war aims and aggression of a large fascist power. The term “self-determination” has been repeated as a rhetorical “inalienable right” for so long that few people recall that pursuing “self-determination” can also serve as a tool of aggression by barbarous aggressors and totalitarian powers. When Hitler decided to go on a war of conquest in the late 1930s, he dressed up his intentions in the cloak of legitimacy, merely “helping disenfranchised and oppressed people attain self-determination.” He distorted the plight of ethnic Germans living in the Czech Sudetenland and elsewhere in Eastern Europe, inventing tales of mistreatment. In reality of course these ethnic Germans already had the option of “self-determination” within the neighboring, sovereign German nation-states, and in fact enjoyed far more freedom and rights than did Germans inside Germany. Germany’s invasion of Czechoslovakia was prepared through postured indignity over the mistreatment of Germans by Germany’s neighbors. Hitler insisted he was simply seeking to relieve the “misery of mistreated ethnic Germans,” supposedly suffering inside democratic Czechoslovakia. “Self-determination” was also the pretense when Germany attacked Poland and other countries. The Arab world decided that the “Palestinians” must play the role of Sudetens, serving as the political and moral pretense for Arab aggression and Islamofascist imperialism. The Arab fascists then misrepresent themselves as pursuing noble efforts at protecting a mistreated oppressed minority group of Arabs in need of “self-determination.”
Read the rest of the 14 Lies by Steven Plaut HERE
Baruch atem b'Shem, Yeshua

We're Not Contemplating an Iran Strike...

We're Not Contemplating An Iran Strike'
08.17.2009

*Israeli Ambassador to the United States Dr. Michael Oren said Sunday that Israel was "far from even contemplating" an attack against Iran's nuclear installations.

Asked by CNN's Fareed Zakaria whether former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton's recent assessment that Israel would attack Iran before the end of the year was accurate, Oren replied "I don't think it's true, I think that we are far from even contemplating such things right now."

"The government of Israel has supported [US] President [Barack] Obama in his approach to Iran, initially the engagement, the outreach to Iran..."

When the interviewer dismissed Oren's statement saying "it is well known that the government of Israel is deeply uncomfortable and nervous with the idea of engagement with Iran," Oren replied "We were, but we were greatly comforted during [Israeli] prime minister [Binyamin Netanyahu]'s visit here in May, when the president told the prime minister [that] shortly there would be a serious reassessment of the engagement policy before the end of the year, and we are further reassured now, that the end of the year deadline has been moved up to September [and] we actually have a date when it's going to occur."

According to Oren, "We are comforted by the fact that the [US] administration, in the aftermath of recent events in Iran, has exhibited greater willingness to consider formulating a package of sanction against Iran even now, in advance of the reassessment."

Oren was referring to the violent crackdown of the Iranian government against reformists in the wake of an election which was seen by many Iranian opposition members as rigged by the regime.

Israel has remained vague on its intentions regarding Iran, but the IDF has been conducting comprehensive training missions for both the Navy and the Israel Air Force.

Recently a navy submarine reportedly capable of launching nuclear tipped sea-to-land torpedo missiles crossed the Suez Canal to the Red Sea in what was interpreted by analysts and neighboring countries as an overt message to Iran that its ships in the Persian Gulf were within reach.

In addition, the IAF last year conducted a massive drill in cooperation with Greece, where long range sorties were practiced. Greece, a friendly country, owns the Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missile defense system, a system which Iran is also trying to procure.

According to foreign media sources, one of the drill's goals was to test the system's capabilities.

Israel's current and previous administrations have refused to take off the table the military option in preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear armed country."

I guess we'll see, won't we? Time will tell...
Baruch atem b'Shem, Yeshua

Iran Calls for Ban on Striking Nuclear Facilities

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

VIENNA, Austria — Iran, whose nuclear facilities are under threat of possible Israeli military strikes, has proposed that a 150-nation conference convening in the fall ban such attacks.

Iran says Wednesday's proposal, revealed to The Associated Press by diplomats and confirmed by a senior Iranian envoy, is not linked to veiled threats by Israel of an attack as a last resort if the international community fails to persuade Tehran to freeze its nuclear activities.

Instead, all of the diplomats said the Iranian initiative seeks support for a generally worded document prohibiting all armed attacks against nuclear installations anywhere, when 150 nations convene for the September general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"We are not worried about Israel," said Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's chief envoy to the IAEA. "Nobody dares to do anything against Iran."

He said an Iranian resolution will seek a worldwide ban on such attacks as "a matter of principle."

"I think this is an urgent concern for all of the international community," he said. "All member states will support the idea."


Read full story here


This must be the joke of the day. I about spilled my coffee laughing when I read the title.

In effect they are saying, "Please don't bomb us until we get our nukes ready. We're not ready to nuke Israel yet."

As if a 'ban' would stop Israel!

Don

Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade responsible for terror attack

Fatah’s Al-Aksa Brigades Responsible for Terror Attack
by Zalman Nelson Arutz Sheva
Al-Aksa Claims Shooting

The Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for Wednesday night’s terrorist shooting attack in Binyamin which left two Israelis lightly injured and riddled their car with bullets.

The terrorist group is linked to the Fatah faction led by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. At its General Conference which ended this week, Fatah reaffirmed its endorsement of the Al Aksa Martyr's Brigade – responsible for numerous suicide bombings and terrorist attacks – as its armed wing.

"It is not possible to rule out or to marginalize the military option. The Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades are the jewel in Fatah's crown. We must strengthen their status... [a maintain them in a state of alert,” Fatah spokesman Fahmi Al-Za'arir stated at the conference.

The injured Israeli civilians told authorities they were driving near the community of Eli when a car with Israeli license plates signaled them to stop. The passengers in the other car then opened fire from their window. The Israeli civilians were evacuated to the Shaarei Tzedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. Both are reported to be suffering from light wounds.

Soldiers are searching for the attackers, who fled the scene.

Samarian Regional Council head Benny Katzover linked the recent dismantling of IDF checkpoints to attacks on Israeli civilians, and warned that “when it comes to security, we will be in a state of anarchy, due to American pressure [to remove IDF security roadblock.”

As part of the government's overtures to the Barack Obama administration, Israel has implemented several measures to improve mobility for PA Arabs in the Binyamin and Samaria regions in recent months. Dozens of IDF checkpoints have been removed and soldiers no longer check Arab travelers for weapons at one of the largest Samaria checkpoints, Hawara, where would-be terrorists have often been stopped in the past.

Nice, eh? These are those Israel is suppose to capitulate to in peace talks!!
Baruch atem b'Shem, Yeshua

J Street Slander of Christians who love Israel

*It is often said that ridiculing Christians and their beliefs is the last acceptable form of bigotry. Ultra-secular critics on the left, of course, usually scoff at this notion. But sometimes an example of anti-Christian bile comes along that is so blatant, misleading and littered with judgmental smugness, that I find it difficult to remain silent.

Consider the left-wing organization J Street, which claims to be a pro-Israel advocacy group, but which, oddly enough, never misses a chance to slam Israeli policies, particularly when the Jewish State dares defend itself against Islamic terrorism. J Street released a bordering-on-hysteria press release last month to coincide with the annual Christians United for Israel (CUFI) conference in Washington, D.C. Here is the most relevant excerpt:

...J Street opposes an unholy alliance between right-wing Christian Zionist evangelicals and pro-Israel organizations. Besides being out of step with fundamental Jewish American values, Hagee’s so-called support for Israel is actually a means to an apocalyptic end of destruction or conversion for the Jewish people.

In our search for allies in the fight to keep Israel secure, American Jews should neither compromise our core Jewish values of tolerance and justice, nor gloss over the reality of the damage the settlement enterprise causes to Israel and the prospects for peace.

Where to begin? First off, let’s try a little experiment. Substitute “devout, Koran-believing Muslims” or “Torah-believing Jews” for “right-wing Christian Zionists.” The outcry from leftist groups like J Street would undoubtedly be loud and intense. But slander Christian evangelicals as J Street does in this outrageously bigoted press release, and it registers nary a blip on the radar of the mainstream media or most civil rights groups.

Indeed, J Street’s statement goes far beyond criticizing the views of Pastor John Hagee, who organized the CUFI conference. The group is, of course, perfectly free to criticize Hagee if it disagrees with his personal viewpoints. This is a free country. But by tarring all evangelical Christian supporters of Israel as part of some sinister movement that is “unholy,” “apocalyptic” and destructive for the Jewish people, J Street descends into stereotyping and demonization of the worst kind.

Since I spent two full days covering the CUFI conference at the Washington Convention Center on July 21 and 22 (watch my report on the event here and read my blog entry here), let me give some personal observations on what I saw and heard-and what J Street is so contemptuous of.

Not once-in the course of some 20 hours of coverage and countless conversations with conference-goers-did I hear the terms “apocalypse,” “Armageddon,” ‘Antichrist,” or “End Times,” mentioned. Nor did I hear any discussion of the Book of Revelation or of converting Jews. I realize this may come as a shock to J Street, which apparently views such events as fire-and-brimstone hatefests complete with snake taming and calls to nuke Mecca. What I witnessed instead were thousands of attendees, Christian, Jewish and secular, expressing a genuine, deep and heartfelt love for the Land of Israel-its history, beauty and legacy—and especially, its people. As you can see from my report, the place was literally a sea of Israeli and American flags: a true celebration of the Jewish State. There were Hebrew prayers, Hebrew songs, shofars, Torah readings and passionate speeches by Jewish leaders, lawmakers and religious figures. There were also some tears shed. I know it may all sound very “kumbaya,” but I have covered countless manufactured, shallow mega-events in DC over the past six years and let me tell you: what I saw at CUFI was 100 percent genuine.

If this was the kind of doom-and-gloom affair that J Street alludes to, I must have missed it. So must have Senator Joe Lieberman, Rep. Shelley Berkley and talk radio hosts Dennis Prager and Michael Medved: all prominent, proud Jews who spoke at the CUFI gala.

Since the folks at J Street obviously have a very narrow view of what it means to be a Christian supporter of Israel, let me enlighten them a bit by sharing my own personal story. I was raised in a heavily Catholic area of working class Philadelphia by a father who was a veteran of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division. Not surprisingly, my Dad was a big military history buff and a close follower of current events. He passed those passions on to my brother and me. By the time I reached my teen years, we would stay up, sometimes into the wee hours, discussing history’s great empires, battles and military leaders.

Maybe it was the fact that we Philly guys always love an underdog. But my dad was one tough dude, and there was no country he admired more for its grit and determination than Israel. “That tiny sliver of land,” he used to marvel. “They’re surrounded by enemies on all sides. And yet still they pull off victory after victory. Those are some tough Jews!” From Moshe Dayan to Entebbe, from King David to Camp David, through my father, I became well acquainted with Israeli history in my formative years and developed a lasting admiration for the Land and its people. As I reached high school, I was also fortunate enough to develop great friendships with Jewish teammates, teachers and coaches.

Nowhere did my religious beliefs factor into those friendships. As a matter of fact, all of this happened years before I even picked up a Bible or began taking my Christianity seriously. Interestingly enough, I found that my buddies from the neighborhood in Philly shared my positive view of Israel. They may not have been big observers of geopolitics, but they were hugely patriotic. common sense told them that the Israelis were fighting the good fight and were kindred spirits: a free, democratic people who were loyal allies of the United States.

When I finally did get around to picking up a Bible about seven years ago, I discovered a startling thing: this Book was essentially a history of Israel and the Jewish people up until the first century AD. Even more jarring to my senses was the realization that Jesus was a Jewish rabbi who fiercely loved his fellow Jews. His mother, Mary, was also a Jew. So were all twelve apostles. In fact, Christianity was founded by—you guessed it—Jews. In addition, Abraham, Moses, Joseph, King David and all the Old Testament heroes who I had grown to love and admire so much were Israeli Jews. I began to realize that Christianity owed a huge debt to Israel and the Jewish people. It may sound crazy to some, but let’s face it: this is both a historically and biblically undeniable fact, and-apologies to J Street-has nothing to do with the “end of the world.”

Bringing it back to the secular level, the friendships I have developed with Israeli colleagues over the past six years, and especially my trip to Israel last November, have solidified my support for the country. As if I didn’t realize it before, walking through the besieged city of Sderot and seeing Hamas missiles literally stamped “Made in Iran” truly brought home the fact that Israel’s enemies are America’s enemies. We share a common radical Islamic foe that seeks our destruction. That alone is reason enough for mutual understanding and support.

I strongly suspect that the vast majority of attendees at the CUFI conference view Israel in a similar way. Or as JTA’s Eric Fingerhut—who also covered the event—puts it:

“I've talked to enough Christian Zionists over the past few years to believe that for the vast majority of them, their support for the Jewish state is genuinely motivated by Genesis's admonitition that God will bless those who bless the Jewish people, as well as their respect for Judaism as a foundation for Christianity or even their general beliefs about U.S. foriegn policy.”

In closing, if J Steet truly has Israel’s best interests at heart, why on earth would it seek to alienate an estimated 70 million American evangelical Christians who are strongly inclined towards Israel during a time of great need? What is really going on here? And when will J Street issue an apology to evangelicals for its inflammatory CUFI press release?

By Erick Stakelbeck

frontpage

Why Obama Should not Waste Time Communicating with Israelis

Posted by SHMUEL ROSNER

Follow Rosner's Domain on Twitter!!!

If you missed my article in The New Republic earlier this week, read it in full here. The headline says: "Hey Obama, don't waste your time giving a speech in Israel". Here's a paragraph:

Yes, Israelis might appreciate the honor of having the U.S. president talking directly to them. (As Benn writes, "In the 16 rosy years of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Israelis became spoiled by unfettered presidential attention.") But what exactly is he going to tell them? That peace is good for all and that he wants to advance peace? They know. That Palestinians suffer? They know. That he cares deeply for Israel's security? They know he says that, and would like to believe it, but the real game-changer will require proof, not words. Clinton and Bush didn't just say "We care for Israel" and instantly become darlings of the Israeli public. They showed they care--mostly by getting along well with the Israeli governments of Rabin and Sharon respectively. The Obama administration has done little to curry Israeli trust with their churlish attitude toward Netanyahu. In this sense, I agree with Benn and Burston: Regardless of the inevitable vapidity of an Obama speech directed at Israelis, the act of making the trip to Israel would be at least be a "deed"--a demonstration of good will on his part.

But words alone will not make Israelis trust Obama. Israelis do not suffer from lack of understanding of the issues; they suffer from peace-fatigue. They look at "peace processes" with suspicion, based on experience and events. They are scarred enough to know what has working and what has not, and they are tired of the good intentions of enthusiastic novices, believing that with their youth and their smarts they'll be able to come up with some magic trick that can somehow round a square. What Obama needs is a convincing plan that makes sense. It does not look like he has one.
Baruch atem b'Shem, Yeshua

Temple Model Displayed

Temple Model / Israel news photo: Aish HaTorah
The model, built at a scale of 1:60, was built by Michael Osanis for the Aish HaTorah Yeshiva in Jerusalem’s old city, and is displayed on the roof of its new museum, which at seven stories above the Western Wall plaza has a breathtaking view of the Temple Mount.

The Temple model sits on top of Aish HaTorah’s new Exploratorium museum, which explores how Judaism and Jewish ideas have changed the world and continue to impact humanity. The model is meant to show how these contributions “were nurtured, studied and exported to humanity from the center of our spiritual world, in the Temple,” according to Shore.

“There is a growing ignorance about the centrality of the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount,” Shore explained. “The Temple model is the beginning of a project that it is hoped will help Jews connect with their heritage and provide non-Jews with the awareness of our rich and broad history in these holy places.”

Besides its yeshiva in Jerusalem, Aish HaTorah also operates an international network of 31 branches dedicated to revitalizing the Jewish people by providing opportunities for Jews of all backgrounds to discover their heritage.
By Yehudah Lev Kay

Read about this and watch a video on IsraelNN.com

Baruch atem b'Shem, Yeshua

Israel Will Govern Itself, Thank You!

*In a statement to WND, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office today objected to U.S. condemnation of the Israeli government for enforcing property law in Jerusalem by evicting Arabs from a Jewish housing complex they purportedly had been illegally occupying for almost a century.

"The eviction yesterday in Jerusalem was a result of a ruling by our Supreme Court that had to decide in a dispute between two parties over the legal control of a property," Netanyahu's spokesman, Mark Regev, told WND.

Continued Regev: "The Supreme Court ruled for one side and not the other. In all democracies the rulings of the courts must be upheld, and it is incumbent on the executive branch to implement such decisions."

Regev said the Israeli Supreme Court "is renowned internationally for both its independence and its professionalism. There are countless examples of the Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Palestinians in land disputes."

Washington today condemned the Arab evictions. State Department spokeswoman Megan Mattson said such actions in eastern Jerusalem constitute violations of Israel's obligations under the U.S.-backed "Road Map" peace plan.

"Unilateral actions taken by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community," she said in a statement.

Much of the U.S. and international media the past two days have been reporting on Israel's eviction of Arab families from a house in eastern Jerusalem. Many of the reports failed to provide proper background regarding why the Arabs were kicked out of the home.
This article is from World Net Daily... click HERE to read the entire article by Aaron Klein
Baruch atem b'Shem, Yeshua

wnd

US Turns its back on Israel

World Events Today Are Fulfilling Prophecy Tomorrow
They [USA] have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people [Israel] slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.
Jeremiah 6:14-15

USA Turns Back On Israel & God

[08.04.2009] It is official. The United States of America has officially turned it's back on the Nation of Israel. If you think things are bad now, just wait. The Obama Administration is opening the door to negotiate with radical Islamic factions across the globe. He seems will to compromise with nations that have vowed to wipe Israel off of the map and convert the entire world to Islam while killing all that try to stop them.

Recent talks with enemies of Israel have been aimed to push the movement for a two-state solution in Israel. This fact alone indicates that the US is not standing by the interests of God's chosen people, the Jews.

And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] I will seek to destroy all the NATIONS that come against Jerusalem. Zechariah 12:9

BLESSED BE the LORD thy God, which delighted in thee to set thee on his throne, [to be] king for the LORD thy God: because thy God loved Israel, to establish them for ever, therefore made he thee king over them, to do judgment and justice. 2 Chronicles 9:8

God's chosen land is Israel, His chosen people the Jews.

It is for this reason alone that the USA has been blessed with the fruitfulness and prosperity that it has enjoyed for the last 233 years. God will bless the nations that bless Israel and destroy nations that turn against Israel.

Our current President is, as we speak, turning his back on Israel. He says he has the best interests of our nation built into his foreign policies. Looks to me like he is trying his best to destroy this nation by any means necessary, including calling upon the wrath of God. A two-state solution will never happen, God will not allow it to happen. Prepare yourselves, the KING OF KINGS shall soon return.
From The End Times Observer 21st Century

Baruch atem b'Shem, Yeshua