-
ISRAEL
-----
- CHRISTIANS BRUTALIZED IN HOLY LAND
- By Mark Glenn - "... The well publicized ceremony took
place under the auspices of the “Knesset Christian Allies
Caucus,” just one of a growing number of partnerships springing
up in recent years between organized Jewish and Christian Zionist
groups for the purpose of funneling Christian money and political
support toward Israel. Part of the statement reads as follows:
- “On behalf of millions of Christians, we repent before
you for crimes committed against the Jewish people throughout
history in the name of Christianity.…We have sinned against
God and against you.… To you we owe much.… Through
you, God gave us the Holy Scriptures, and because of this we
have a heritage, a destiny, a hope and a compass for living.…What
a treasure you are in the sight of our God! You are His chosen
and the apple of His eye.…” But despite the fact that
Israel was built (and continues to live) off of handouts from
Christian countries—principally the U.S. and Germany—and
for all the inherent groveling and breast-beating that this mea
culpa was meant to convey, it obviously did not “cut the
mustard” in improving Christian/Jewish relations in Israel,
the birthplace of Jesus Christ and the 2,000-year-old religion
created in His name..." Continued: http://www.cephas-library.com/christians_brutalized_in_the_holy_land.html
- -----
- SUKOTH AND HANUKKAH 2007
- Excerpts: Temple Mount Faithful - January 16, 2008 - For
the first time since the destruction of the Second Temple in
the year 70 c.e. the Faithful Movement lit the Hanukkah Menorah
in the front of the southern Hulda gates of the Holy Temple Mount
on the Hanukkah event of The Movement on the 3rd of Tevet 5678,
the 12th of December 2007 It happened For the first time in the
history of the Temple Mount since the destruction of the second
Temple in the year 70 c.e. that the Hanukkah Menorah was lit
in front of the southern Hulda gates of the Temple Mount. The
Hulda gates had a special significance in the history of the
first and the second Temple. It was the main entrance to the
Temple Mount for many millions of Israeli pilgrims. The gates
were called on the name of the prophet Hulda. She was one of
the most popular and important prophets of Israel on the first
Temple age.
- The people of Israel appreciated her so much that they buried
her not far from the southern gates of the Temple Mount. The
lit of the Hanukkah Menorah at this Holy place was the climax
of the Hanukkah event of the Faithful Movement on the Temple
Mount. This important event Started on the morning of Wednesday,
the eight day of Hanukkah, the 3rd of Tevet 5678, the 12th December
2007 at a very critical time in the history of Israel when Israel
is again surrounded from all the sides and even inside by so
many enemies. Pressure is coming on Israel from all the world
and by the president of the united states and his state secretary,
to divide the Holy land given by G-d to Israel only in an eternal
covenant. This pressure is coming at a time when the Israeli
leadership is very weak and unable to face and challenge it and
to avoid the establishment of an evil foreign "Palestinian"
state in the Holy land of Israel. This critical time reminds
the time of the Maccabees when the Greek empire controlled the
land of Israel and the Israeli leadership was spiritually too
weak and unable to stop the impact of the Greek control and culture.
- The Temple Mount Faithful Movement decided after the six
days war, like the Maccabees, to remove the enemies from the
Temple Mount and the land of Israel, to reject the political
and cultural pressure coming from all the world, to trust only
the G-d of Israel and His word and to rebuild His Temple in our
life time and to place G-d and His values in the meads of the
life of Israel and all the world. This critical situation, that
prophet of Israel called it "birth pains of redemption",
was the main motivation of this year Hanukkah event. When we
came in the early morning to Modi'in, the ancient city of the
Maccabees, we stood in front of the tombs of the Maccabees and
sworn to continue what they started 2174 years ago and not to
stop our struggle and campaign until the enemies of the G-d and
the people of Israel will be removed from the Temple Mount and
the Holy land of Israel and the Temple will be rebuild. Then
we lit the eight candles of the Hanukkah Menorah and the torch
of the Maccabees that we carried later to Jerusalem and the Temple
Mount to bring through its lights the testimony of the Maccabees.
From Modi'in we arrived to the biblical Jerusalem where, at the
Jaffa Gate Plaza, we demonstrated against the foreign pressure,
coming from president Bush mainly, to establish a terror "Palestinian"
state in the land Holy of Israel and to make Jerusalem a "Palestinian"
capital.
- We swore, like our forefathers, faithfulness to Jerusalem
and to never allow this revolt against G-d and His Holy city
to happen. Jerusalem was thousands of years the capital ofthe
G-d and the people of Israel and now, thanks to G-d's miracles,
Jerusalem is again the undivided capital of the G-d and the people
of Israel and so it will be for ever. Gershon Salomon called
on the people of Israel to avoid this revolt against G-d and
His covenant with Israel to happen. He called them to trust only
the G-d of Israel and not any human being. He warned president
Bush and the united nation organization that only the G-d of
Israel controls the destiny of Israel and not any one of them.
He warned and called them to fear G-d and His judgment which
is soon to come. In the middle of the Plaza of Jaffa Gate the
Faithfuls raised up the flag of Israel with the star of David,
the greatest King of Israel who made Jerusalem 3000 years ago
to be the eternal capital of the G-d and the people of Israel,
together with the flag of the Temple. The Faithfuls prayed for
the peace of Jerusalem.
- We felt so strongly the presence of the spirit of the G-d
of Israel and His servant King David among us when the Psalm
of King David was heard again in the streets of His Holy city:
The climax of this important and exciting event was when we arrived
to the Hulda gates of the Temple Mount. When we lit the Hanukkah
Menorah at this place, for the first time after almost 2000 years,
it covered the gates and the walls of the Temple Mount with a
light that was not seen at this Holy place for such a long time.
We felt that the Arabs and the Muslims are experiencing their
last days of their last days of their occupation of the Holy
Temple Mount and that their desecration of the Holy hill of the
G-d of Israel is going to be finished soon. We swore at this
most Holy place that we shell not rest day and night until this
moment will come to pass soon. Gershon called on the people of
Israel not to wait any longer but to immediately rebuild the
Temple and to fulfil the expectations of the G-d of Israel from
His people at this time of redemption, exactly as He shard His
prophetic word with His prophet Isaiah: .. http://www.templemountfaithful.org/
- -----
- GAZA MASSES STREAM INTO EGYPT AS MILITANTS BLAST BORDER WALL
- Haaretz January 23, 2008 - (AP) By Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff,
and Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz - Tens of thousands of Palestinians
poured out of Gaza and into Egypt early Wednesday after masked
gunmen blew dozens of holes in the wall delineating the border,
rushing to buy food, fuel and other supplies that have become
scarce in Gaza because of Israeli sanctions on the Strip. Militants
detonated 17 bombs in the early morning hours, destroying some
two-thirds of the metal wall separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt.
Hamas did not take responsibility for knocking the border wall
down, but Hamas militants quickly took control of the frontier,
as Egyptian border guards took no action Israel said in response
to the chaos that it expects Egypt to solve the crisis.
- The destruction of the border continued later Wednesday morning.
Palestinians driving a Caterpillar bulldozer arrived at a point
where the frontier is marked by a low concrete wall topped with
barbed wire, tearing down the wall and opening a gap to allow
easier access for cars. Palestinians have breached the Egypt-Gaza
border several times since Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005.
In the past, Egyptian security forces restored order after hours
or days. Hamas police channeled the crowds through two sections
of the border, and inspected some bags, confiscating seven pistols
carried by one man returning to Gaza. Others walked unhindered
over the toppled metal plates that once made up the border wall,
carrying goats, chickens and crates of Coke. Some brought back
televisions and car tires, and one man bought a motorcycle. Vendors
sold soft drinks and baked goods to the crowds. Mohammed Abu
Ghazel, 29, said he had crossed the border three times since
the morning. He bought cigarettes worth NIS 200 in Egypt and
sold them for five times that in Gaza, he said. "This can
feed my family for a month," he said.
- On Monday, some 60 people were injured at a demonstration
at the Rafah crossing as the crowd tried to break through the
border gate, and Egyptian border guards used water cannons against
them. Israel imposed a full closure on the Gaza Strip last Thursday
in response to massive barrages of Qassam rocket fire on southern
Israel. Defense Minister Ehud Barak allowed limited transfers
of fuel Tuesday for the power plant in the Strip and medical
supplies for hospitals. Security sources told Haaretz on Tuesday
that Israel intends to keep the crossings into the Gaza Strip
permanently closed except when it is necessary to provide for
emergency humanitarian needs. This new policy will allow the
transfer of sufficient aid and materials to the Palestinians
to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe and minimize international
criticism, "but so long as the rocket attacks continue there
will not be a situation in which one hundred trucks a day cross
into the Strip," a security source said.
- From Damascus, Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshal declared
that the attacks would continue until Israel "ended the
occupation and the aggression, the resistance, including rocket
attacks, would not cease." At least 20 rockets were fired
against Israel on Tuesday, in addition to a handful of mortars.
This comes in stark contradiction to claims by Israeli security
sources Monday evening that the drop in the number of rocket
attacks reflected "an understanding by Hamas of the message
sent by the blockade." http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/947226.html
http://whtt.org/index.php?news=2&id=2047
- PALESTINIANS BREAK OUT FROM GAZA SEIGE
- 23 January 2007 -
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TocjkugWEEc
- -----
- CANADA PLACES U.S. AND ISRAEL ON TORTURE WATCH LIST
- Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Rob Wilson January
17, 2008 - OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's foreign ministry has put
the United States and Israel on a watch list of countries where
prisoners risk being tortured and also classifies some U.S. interrogation
techniques as torture, according to a document obtained by Reuters
on Thursday. The revelation is likely to embarrass the minority
Conservative government, which is a staunch ally of both the
United States and Israel. Both nations denied they allowed torture
in their jails. The document -- part of a training course on
torture awareness given to diplomats -- mentions the U.S. jail
at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba where a Canadian man is being held.
The man, Omar Khadr, is the only Canadian in Guantanamo. His
defenders said the document made a mockery of Ottawa's claims
that Khadr was not being mistreated.
- Under "definition of torture" the document lists
U.S. interrogation techniques such as forced nudity, isolation,
sleep deprivation and blindfolding prisoners. "The United
States does not permit, tolerate, or condone torture under any
circumstances," said a spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy
in Ottawa. A spokesman for Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier tried
to distance Ottawa from the document. "The training manual
is not a policy document and does not reflect the views or policies
of this government," he said. The government mistakenly
provided the document to Amnesty International Canada as part
of a court case the rights organization has launched against
Ottawa over the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan. Amnesty
Secretary-General Alex Neve told Reuters his group had very clear
evidence of abuse in U.S. and Israeli jails. "It's therefore
reassuring and refreshing to see that ... both of those countries
have been listed and that foreign policy considerations didn't
trump the human rights concern and keep them off the list,"
he said. Khadr has been in Guantanamo Bay for five years.
- He is accused of killing a U.S. soldier during a clash in
Afghanistan in 2002, when he was 15. Rights groups say Khadr
should be repatriated to Canada, an idea that Prime Minister
Stephen Harper rejects on the grounds that the man faces serious
charges. "At some point in the course of Omar Khadr's detention
the Canadian government developed the suspicion he was being
tortured," said William Kuebler, Khadr's U.S. lawyer. "Yet
it has not acted to obtain his release from Guantanamo Bay and
protect his rights, unlike every other Western country that has
had its nationals detained in Guantanamo Bay," he told CTV
television. Other countries on the watch list include Syria,
China, Iran, Afghanistan, Mexico and Saudi Arabia. "If Israel
is included in the list in question, the ambassador of Israel
would expect its removal," said Israeli embassy spokesman
Michael Mendel.
- The awareness course started after Ottawa was criticized
for the way it handled the case of Canadian Maher Arar, who was
deported from the United States to Syria in 2002. Arar says he
was tortured repeatedly during the year he spent in Damascus
prisons. An inquiry into the case revealed that Canadian diplomats
had not received any formal training into detecting whether detainees
had been abused.
- http://africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnN17388465.html
-----
- ISRAELIS CREATE BIBLE SMALLER THAN A PINHEAD
Telegraph UK - December 19, 2007 - by our foreign staff - updated
December 20, 2007 - The scientists were able to pack the 308,428
words onto a surface smaller than a pinhead Israeli scientists
yesterday said they had created the world's smallest Hebrew Bible,
fitting the book on to a gold-coated silicon chip smaller than
a pinhead. Scientists at Technion, Israel's Institute of Technology,
were able to pack the 308,428 words of what Christians refer
to as the Old Testament on to a 0.5mm square of silicon by etching
its surface with particle beams.
 Israeli scientists yesterday said
they had created the world's smallest Hebrew Bible, fitting the
book on to a gold-coated silicon chip smaller than a pinhead.
The scientists were able to pack the 308,428 words onto a surface
smaller than a pinhead Scientists at Technion, Israel's Institute
of Technology, were able to pack the 308,428 words of what Christians
refer to as the Old Testament on to a 0.5mm square of silicon
by etching its surface with particle beams.
- "The Guinness Book of World Records has a Bible 50 times
bigger," said Ohad Zohar, who directed the project. He said
he now wanted to take pictures of the nano-Bible and blow it
up to a seven-by-seven metre poster, which will make it "possible
to read the entire bible with the naked eye".
- The tiny Bible was developed as part of an educational drive
to increase interest in nanoscience among teenagers. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/19/wbible119.xml
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DEATH OF THE BUSH DOCTRINE
The Jerusalem Connection - Boston Globe - January 24, 2008 -
By: Jeff Jacoby - The Bush Doctrine -- born on Sept. 20, 2001,
when President Bush bluntly warned the sponsors of violent jihad:
"You are either with us, or you are with the terrorists"
-- is dead. Its demise was announced by Condoleezza Rice last
Friday. The secretary of state was speaking to reporters aboard
Air Force One en route with the president to Kuwait from Israel.
She was explaining why the administration had abandoned the most
fundamental condition of its support for Palestinian statehood
- namely, an end to Palestinian terror. Rice's explanation, recounted
here by The Washington Times, was as striking for its candor
as for its moral blindness:
- "The 'road map' for peace, conceived in 2002 by Mr.
Bush, had become a hindrance to the peace process, because the
first requirement was that the Palestinians stop terrorist attacks.
As a result, every time there was a terrorist bombing, the peace
process fell apart and went back to square one. Neither side
ever began discussing the 'core issues': the freezing of Israeli
settlements in the West Bank, the right of Palestinian refugees
to return, the outline of Israel 's border, and the future of
Jerusalem.
- NO-ONE SHOULD BE UNDER ANY ILLUSIONS ABOUT THE US/S PART
IN THE IRANIAN SITUATION IN THE COMING YEAR SAID JOHN BOLTON
- Former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton said: "The
questions come to Israel, whether it will use military force
to stop Iran. ... The direction American policy is going, it
seems that for the next few years the United States will be a
bystander to the process. It's close to zero percent chance that
the Bush administration will authorize military action against
Iran before leaving office. At the same time in Teheran, they
took careful notice of how Israel got into Syria and began preparing
for such an action against Iran. Without American policy backing
anti-Iran action, Israel should be willing to see itself as a
possible last resort. No one should be under any illusions about
the US's part [in] the Iranian situation in the coming year."
- God says: "I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends
all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as
well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth
are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable
rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure
themselves. ... On that day I will make the leaders of Judah
like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves.
They will consume right and left all the surrounding peoples,
but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place." (Zechariah
12:2-3,6)
- The Jerusalem Connection says: With the death of the Bush
Doctrine regarding Israel and its refusal to stand up to Iran's
nuclear threat, Israel stands virtually alone. Now, the goal
of "The Road Map to Peace" is to establish a Palestinian
terrorist state. What boggles the mind is that Israel's Prime
Minister Olmert apparently agrees. Understandably, 64% of Israelis
do not. This is a call to arms for Christian Zionists. We must
let our voice be heard and our presence felt. Israel's existence
will not be determined by politicians, but by the God of Israel
and the grassroots Christian Zionist soldiers who will follow
Him.
- Palestinian Friday Sermon by Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris:
- "We have ruled the world before, and by Allah, the day
will come when we will rule the entire world again. The day will
come when we will rule America. The day will come when we will
rule Britain and the entire world." http://www.tjci.org/
- http://www.cephas-library.com/israel_death_of_the_bush_doctrine.html
- -----
- BOLTON: ISRAEL IS LAST CHANCE FOR MILITARY STRIKE ON IRAN
- Israel Today - January 24, 2008 by Staff Writer - Speaking
at the eighth annual Herzliya Conference on Israeli defense and
peace policy this week, former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton
said the Jewish state must realize that it is now the only nation
willing and able to carry out a last resort military strike against
Iran's nuclear program. Bolton explained that last year's US
National Intelligence Estimate suggesting that Iran abandoned
its quest for nuclear arms years ago made it all but impossible
for President George W. Bush to authorize US military action
against Iran before the end of his term.
- What's worse, said Bolton, is that the contested intelligence
report had all but relegated the US to the position of a bystander
in the Iran nuclear crisis, severely blunting its ability to
even influence the imposing of sanctions. Bolton said Israel's
strike on a suspected nuclear facility deep inside Syria last
year had greatly concerned and even struck fear in the Iranian
leadership, and that Jerusalem should play up that success as
a deterrent. http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=15097
- -----
- ABBAS THREATENS TO NIX PEACE TALKS OVER BOGUS GAZA POWER
CRISIS
- Israel Today - January 21, 2008 by Staff Writer - Palestinian
leader Mahmoud Abbas has threatened to suspend peace negotiations
over Israel's latest measures against the Hamas-controlled Gaza
Strip, an Egyptian newspaper reported on Monday. A limited Israeli
fuel embargo imposed in response to escalating rocket attacks
from Gaza on nearby Jewish towns in southern Israel resulted
in Gaza's main electrical power station shutting down at the
weekend.
- The Palestinians claimed that the closure left much of the
territory in darkness, and forced local hospitals to suspend
medical care. Abbas transmitted urgent telegrams to international
leaders demanding that Israel be made to lift what he called
its "siege" of Gaza. However, senior employees of the
Israel Electric Company noted in an interview with Ynet that
Israel supplies more than 70% of Gaza's electrical needs, so
the closure of the Gaza plant should not result in a major power
shortage. One electric company official expressed outrage over
the Palestinian effort to demonize Israel, explaining that hundreds
of electric company employees working at Israel's largest power
plant in the southern coastal city of Ashkelon are daily putting
their lives at risk to supply electricity to Gaza while terrorists
operating from the Palestinian territory are firing rockets at
them.
- Additionally, Israel Electric Company employees are often
sent at great risk to themselves to repair transformers in the
Gaza vicinity to prevent a power shortage to the Palestinians,
despite the fact that it is the Palestinians' own rockets that
often knock out the transformers. Israeli army officials also
called out the Palestinians after international media broadcast
images of a blacked-out Gaza where thousands of residents were
seen carrying candles. The officials said the blackout images
were a charade organized by Hamas and utilized by the Palestinian
Authority to increase global criticism of Israel.
- Abbas' threat was seen in Jerusalem as an attempt to bring
American pressure on Israel to cease its war on terror. US President
George W. Bush is determined to oversee a final status Israeli-Palestinian
peace deal by the end of his term, and told both sides when he
visited the region earlier this month to engage in intense non-stop
negotiations until that goal is reached.
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=15067
- -----
- THE ISRAELI INITIATIVE RIGHT ROAD TO PEACE
 Message from Rabbi Benny Elon,
creator of The Israeli Initiative and chairman of the National
Union Party in the Knesset: Since the establishment of the State
of Israel, we have longed for peace with our Arab neighbors.
We dream of a time when we will be able to devote our efforts
and resources not to war and survival but to growth and prosperity
for the benefit of all residents of the region.
- The Oslo dream has become a nightmare
- Despite our strong desire for peace and in spite of repeated
attempts to find solutions, many of which have included painful
concessions on our part, the Israeli-Arab conflict continues
and exacts a high price from us. The actions of the Israeli governments
to establish a Palestinian State in the spirit of the Oslo Agreement
have not brought about peace but rather a whirlpool of blood:
Hamas controls Gaza; Kassam rockets are fired at the residents
of Sderot; Hezbollah has missiles trained on Haifa, and only
the persistent activities of the IDF are preventing terrorist
attacks originating in Judea and Samaria.
- Neither have the Palestinians reaped any benefits from the
Oslo Agreement. Poverty and suffering and a regime that employs
terrorism against its own citizens are the net results of the
Oslo approach.
New thinking, new hope
- We were not mistaken in striving for peace, but only in the
way we set out to achieve it. We must re-examine all the assumptions
that guided us, understand where we were mistaken, and move forward
in the right direction. I call on you to join me in this new
thinking, in learning from our mistakes, and in re-reading the
regional map toward a revitalized and genuine quest to achieve
peace: The Israeli Initiative.
- The Israeli Initiative is the product of in-depth assessments
that address all the players in the region: Palestinians, Americans,
the international community and first and foremost, Israelis
and Arabs.
- The Israeli Initiative is the first initiative that takes
into consideration the new global and regional reality -- the
rise in power of Iran, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah and Hamas.
The Israeli Initiative is based on the belief that conditions
can become much better here, that a new Israel can emerge. We
believe that a new language can be created between us and our
Arab neighbors, a language based on preservation of what is important
to us, while at the same time respecting their needs and rights.
I should like to offer you this hope. Sincerely, Benny Elon,
M.K
- http://support.tjci.org/site/PageServer?pagename=announcement
- -----
- MK BENNY ELON ANNOUNCES THE LAUNCHING OF THE ISRAELI INITIATIVE.
2 PARTS
- http://support.tjci.org/site/PageServer?pagename=announcement
- -----
- SENATOR BROWNBACK PARTNERS WITH BENNY ELON
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl2QC9842Hc&feature=related
-----
- PALESTINIANS TO BECOME CITIZENS OF JORDAN?
New plan calls for dismantlement of 'refugee camps,' termination
of Abbas' rule
WorldNetDaily.com - By Aaron Klein - November 23, 2007 - JERUSALEM
– As the international community gears up for next week's
U.S.-sponsored Annapolis summit aimed at outlining a Palestinian
state, a new diplomatic initiative that proposes Jordanian citizenship
for the Palestinians has been gaining some support here from
across the political spectrum. Named the Israeli Initiative,
the alternative plan seeks to end widespread backing for the
Palestinian Authority, dismantle what are termed Palestinian
refugee camps and have Jordan grant citizenship to Arabs remaining
in the West Bank while the Jews there maintain their Israeli
citizenship. Israel would extend its sovereignty over the entire
West Bank...
- Elon's plan calls for millions of Palestinians living in
59 U.N.-maintained camps to be given rehabilitation packages
and the option of moving to outside participating countries,
where agencies would work to help with resettlement, employment
and housing solutions.
- The Palestinians who wish to remain in the West Bank would
become Jordanian citizens who could remain in the territory -
controlled by Israel - while the Jordanian Kingdom would serve
as their representative body... Continued: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58837
- -----
- THEY CLAIM WITH THE ESTABLISJMENT OF ISRAEL THE ENTIRE WORLD
WAS LOST
- This video shows just a tiny sampling of the kind of ideology
Israel is up against. When will the Jihadists be satisfied? According
to this Friday sermon, and thousands more like it, only when
Islam rules the world.
 http://switch5.castup.net/frames/20041020_MemriTV_Popup/video_480x360.asp?ClipMediaID=60227&ak=null
- -----
- OLMERT GOVERNMENT MOVES STEP CLOSER TO COLLAPSE
Right-wing Israel Beiteinu Party quits government over Olmert's
intention to surrender to Arab demands despite unlikely peace
more Wednesday, January 16, 2008 by Staff Writer The government
of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert moved a step closer to collapse
on Wednesday when Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Leiberman
resigned his cabinet chair and announced the withdrawal of his
Israel Beiteinu Party from the ruling coalition. Lieberman said
he could no longer remain in a government that was making policy
based on the illusion that surrendering land to the Palestinians
will bring peace to the region.
- The move comes less than a week after US President George
W. Bush sat down to dinner with the Israeli cabinet and strongly
urged the gathered ministers to refrain from destabilizing the
Olmert government while it is involved in helping to birth a
Palestinian Arab state.
- Even with Israel Beiteinu's departure, the Olmert government
still commands a 67-seat majority in the Knesset. However, many
expect the religious Shas Party to follow Israel Beiteinu's lead
for similar reasons, and for Olmert's largest coalition partner,
the Labor Party, to pullout next month following the publication
of the Winograd Commission investigation into the mishandling
of the 2006 war against Lebanon's Hizballah. http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=15041
-----
- ISRAEL FACES SEVERE WATER CRISIS
- Israel Today - January 28, 2008 by Staff Writer - Israeli
National Infrastructures Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer warned
the cabinet on Sunday that Israel is on the verge of suffering
a major water crisis.
- In a joint presentation with Water Authority Dir.-Gen. Uri
Shani, Ben-Eliezer said that last year only 55 percent of expected
rainfall actually fell in Israel, resulting in an extreme drought
year. The lack of rainfall has resulted in the Sea of Galilee
dropping to less than two feet above its bottom red line.
- Among the short-term recommendations offered to the cabinet
were increasing the amount of fresh water currently produced
by Israel's desalination plants, reducing the amount of fresh
water allocated to farmers, launching a nationwide water-saving
campaign, and imposing limits on the amount of water that can
be used for private and public gardens and parks. In the long-term,
Israel plans to build several more desalination plants that will
eventually provide the bulk of the Jewish state's water needs.
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=15118
-----
- MORE THAN 90 ROCKETS ON ISRAEL IN 48 HOURS
Gaza-based terrorists fire 50 rockets at southern Israel on Wednesday,
40 more a day earlier; numerous people wounded more» Monday,
January 14, 2008 by Staff Writer 'Gazans must run for cover,
just like Israelis' Israeli Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter
on Monday urged the government to allow the Israeli army to escalate
its response to terrorist rocket fire from Gaza. Dichter noted
that more than 3,000 residents have abandoned the battered southern
Israel town of Sderot because they are no longer willing to live
under siege. In remarks carried by Israel National News, Dichter
said that if the resident of Sderot must scurry for cover on
a daily basis, then the residents of Gaza must be made to do
the same.
- Dichter has for more than a year been advising that the current
policy of limited pinpoint strikes against terrorists is insufficient
to bring the Gaza rocket fire to an end.
- http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=15021
-----
- ISRAEL RES[PONDS FIERCELY AS GAZA TERROR IS UNLEASHED
Four Israelis wounded in barrage of 25 Palestinian rockets; foreign
worker murdered by Palestinian sniper; IDF kills 16 terrorists
in retaliation. Four Israelis, including a seven-year-old child,
were wounded on Tuesday when 25 rockets fired by Gaza-based Palestinian
terrorists slammed into the southern Israel town of Sderot and
surrounding communities. Many other Israelis were treated for
shock. An Iranian-supplied Katyusha missile was also fired at
the port city of Ashkelon. The missile landed next to a community
tennis court, causing damage but no injuries. A number of mortar
shells were also fired at shorter-range targets.
- Earlier in the day, a Palestinian Arab sniper operating along
the Gaza security fence shot dead an Ecuadorian laborer going
about his morning duties at a farming community in southern Israel.
- Israeli forces responded to the initial attacks with a series
of fierce strikes on terrorist positions embedded among civilian
neighborhoods in Gaza City. At least 19 Palestinians were killed
in the strikes, including the son of local Hamas leader Mahmoud
Zahar. Continued:
- http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=15032
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- OLMERT REJECTS GAZA OP AS ISRAEL OPENS TALKS WITH PALESTINIANS
PM brushes aside recommendations to invade Gaza, as FM Livni
opens talks with Palestinians on "core issues" preventing
peace deal Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Knesset
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday that, notwithstanding
the situation in Gaza, he will not approve the broad military
action being advocated by security experts. Olmert's decision
came despite his aides revealing at the weekend that US President
George W. Bush had given Israel a green light to invade Gaza
when he was visiting the region last week. Olmert said he believes
that the political price Israel would pay to defend the residents
of the southern Negev region from ongoing terrorist rocket fire
from Gaza would be too high.Continued: http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=15023
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- EGYPT ALLOWED GAZA TO BRING $100 MILLION INTO GAZA
Far from aiding in the battle against Hamas control of Gaza,
the head of the Israel Security Agency or Shin Bet told his Knesset
overseers on Sunday that Egypt recently allowed senior Hamas
members to smuggle more than $100 million into the coastal territory.
- Ignoring objections from Israel, Egypt permitted Gazan Muslims
returning from the annual pilgrimage to Mecca last month to cross
the Gaza-Egypt border without proper security checks, ISA chief
Yuval Diskin reported to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense
Committee. Continued: http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=15022
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- HUMILIATING WORDS - PEREZ SAID ISRAEL WOULD BUY HUNGARY POLAND
AND MANHATTAN
- Letters to the editor Máté Vágó
- Hungary - November 14, 2007 - Hungarian diplomacy recently
suffered the most humiliating blow, in what is probably the most
controversial statement by a foreign statesman in the last 17
years. A statement hushed up by most of the Hungarian media outlets,
as well as the Foreign Ministry of Hungary itself. What actually
were the notorious words, that will likely be quoted in history
books? In a recent speech at an economic forum in Tel-Aviv, Israeli
President Shimon Peres said the following: “Israel’s
economy is flourishing. … Israeli businesspeople are investing
everywhere in the world. Israel has unprecedented economic success.
By today, we have won economic independence and are buying up
Manhattan, Poland and Hungary.” The above quote first appeared
in Hebrew in the Israeli daily Maariv, following an annual general
assembly of the Association of Trade Offices on Oct 10.
For the next couple of days, however, despite a report by radical
news portal Kuruc.info, nothing but silence ensued.
Mainstream Hungarian media, including organs with reporters based
in Jerusalem such as Hungarian Radio, state news agency MTI,
and Magyar Nemzet, failed to cover the case. That is to say they
either covered it up, or simply did not consider it newsworthy.
Until news broke in the largest circulation Israeli newspaper
Yediot Aharonot. This prompted Hungarian daily Magyar Nemzet
to look into the matter, and ask the Israeli Embassy for further
clarification. Embassy spokesman András Büchler acknowledged
the veracity of the words, although he added that they had been
ill-conceived. Meanwhile, the Oct 22 edition of Israeli daily
Maariva once again dealt with the ill-worded statement.
This time it also included the original recording, now available
for viewing on YouTube. For those who don’t speak Hebrew,
this is what Peres says in not so eloquent language: “For
a small country like ours, this is truly amazing. I see that
we are buying up Manhattan and we are buying up Hungary and we
are buying up Romania and we are buying up Poland. And the way
I see it, we have no problems. Thanks to our talent, our contacts
and our dynamism, we get almost everywhere.” My question,
therefore, to the Hungarian media channels, is this: What does
it take for a statesman’s manifestation to be considered
newsworthy? Does the fact that another country is “buying
up Hungary” not hit a nerve for media organs?
My other question is for the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
What action did Hungarian diplomacy take in order to clarify
the issue and state its position, with respect to Act XX of the
1949 Constitution of the Republic of Hungary, and I quote:
“Chapter I. General Provisions
Article 1.
The State of Hungary is a republic.
Article 2.
(1) The Republic of Hungary is an independent, democratic constitutional
state.
(2) In the Republic of Hungary supreme power is vested in the
people, who exercise their sovereign rights directly and through
elected representatives.
(3) No activity of any social organization, government body,
or individual citizen may be directed at the forcible acquisition
or exercise of public power, nor at the exclusive possession
of such power. Everyone has the right and obligation to resist
such activities in such ways as permitted by law.”
Finally, as a Jewish Hungarian, I want to express the view that
such irresponsible comments are not shared by most Jews living
in Hungary, and will only serve to be seen as an example of arrogance
and hubris by a state called Israel. Máté Vágó
Hungary http://www.budapestsun.com/cikk.php?id=27536
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- PEREZ STATES IT IN HEBREW ISRAELIS WOULD BUY POLAND, TURKEY
AND MANHATTAN http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohtU7x6dKb8
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- PALESTINE AND THEODOR HERZL
- http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/herzl.htm
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