The Scriptorium

Things are looking ominous for Israel right now, and it seems each day brings a new crisis. Hezboallah was reportedly given scud missiles by Syria, leading Israel to step up civilian preparedness for a chemical or biological attack. Each new warning from Israeli leaders sounds more and more like they are getting themselves on a war footing. I wonder how much they know that we will never hear about. What a horrible time to have a U.S. President that has been hostile to our only ally in the Middle East from the first day of his presidency. Actually, everything about America’s new Tyrant-in-Chief is a nightmare waiting to happen.

Israel on Tuesday issued an “urgent” warning to its citizens to leave Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula immediately.

The warning refers to “concrete evidence of an expected terrorist attempt to kidnap Israelis in Sinai.”

The statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the unusual step of calling on families of Israelis touring the Sinai to establish contact with them.

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On the 70th anniversary of Russia’s WWII invasion of Poland, and on the same day a “secret” UN report announces that Iran can now make a nuclear bomb, our Community Organizer in Chief 86′d the Missile Defense system program for Eastern Europe and came up with a new naval based plan that is much more pleasing to the Russians. The Russians are ecstatic that Obama has once again demonstrated U.S. weakness and Obama’s complete ignorance of how to handle international threats. Even some Democrats were amazed that Obama tossed away our only leverage with Russia, which SHOULD have been used to demand that Russia cease and desist all of the military hardware sales and support they are giving Iran to aid them in their pursuit of nuclear weapons. I guess Obama thought giving Russia what it demanded would endear them to us, and they’d suddenly cooperate and tell their ally Iran to take a hike. His naivete is stunning.

Poland is predictably (for those with common sense) angry and offended by this decision. So much so that the Prime Minister of Poland is refusing to take Hillary Clinton’s call. Not only has this weakened us in the eyes of Russia, and angered the only allies who actually supported us with troops during the Iraq war, but it has damaged our credibility. We are now in a position where our promise of protection in return for assisting us militarily means nothing. This means that when Iran gets nuclear weapons, countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia will laugh in our faces when we ask them to rely on us for protection rather than develop their own nuclear arsenals to counter the Iranian threat. Way to create a nuclear arms race in the Middle East Obama. Lord help us if we can’t reign this loose canon in in 2010.

Analysis: Demise of U.S. shield may embolden Russia hawks

Russian diplomacy is largely a zero-sum game and relies on projecting hard power to force gains, as in last year’s war with Georgia over the rebel regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia or the gas dispute with Ukraine at the start of this year.

Western concepts of “win-win” deals and Obama’s drive for 21st century global partnerships are not part of its vocabulary.

Diplomats here say Moscow hardliners could read the shield backdown as a sign of Washington’s weakness. Far from doing the bidding of the United States, they may instead press for further gains to shore up Russian power in the former Soviet bloc.

Ukraine, Georgia and other Kremlin foes in the ex-Soviet Union may be the first to feel the consequences.

Poland and the Czech Republic are also nervous. In Warsaw, the timing of the U.S. move is particularly delicate as it coincides with the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland.

Analysts are particularly concerned about Ukraine, which faces a presidential election next January. Most of Russia’s vast gas exports flow through its territory and the country reluctantly hosts a large Russian naval base.

Russia has already rebuked Kiev for its “anti-Russian” stance and refused to deal with President Viktor Yushchenko, tactics which recall those used with Georgia in the period leading up to last year’s war.

Diplomats cite the Crimean peninsula — Russian territory until the 1950s and home to Moscow’s Black Sea fleet as well as thousands of Russian passport-holders — as one potential flashpoint.

In a sign of the level of concern, one senior Western envoy here privately estimated the chances of a Russian military intervention in the Crimea over the next year at 50-50.

Georgia could be another tinder box.

Change we can destroy the world and really heat up the Middle East with.

It looks highly Likely that Netanyahu will be the next Prime Minister of Israel, Evin though Livni’s Kadima party won one more seat in the elections. The right wing bloc won big overall, Labor is toast, and that means Netanyahu will be more likely to succeed at forming a unity government. This is the same way he won the last time he was Prime Minister. This is a good day for Israel, and bad news for Obama, who would have preferred to deal with the Labor party’s willingness to give away land to the Palis in exchange for more terrorism. It’s also a bad day for Hamas. Bibi becoming PM again is their worst nightmare. They know from past experience that when he says he will fight terrorism, he means it, and he isn’t going to hand them the West Bank and let them attack Israel from another side. He also won’t give the Golan up to Syria, as Livni supported doing. This would be especially dangerous, as Obama has lifted sanctions on Syria since taking office, and restored diplomatic relations with the terrorist supporting country. Israel definitely needs someone like Netanyahu with Liberals in America in power.

Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu declared victory in Tuesday’s parliamentary election as he addressed supporters in a speech early Wednesday, despite exit polls that predicted his party narrowly coming second to the ruling Kadima Party.

However, the exit polls also indicate that Likud is in a better position than Kadima to lead a coalition because of a strong showing by other nationalist parties.

“I’ve spoken to party leaders,” Netanyahu said, “and we have agreed to begin negotiations on forming a new government as soon as tomorrow.”

“Even if exit polls are accurate, there is no doubt regarding the only conclusion they point to: the Israeli people have said their word in a clear fashion, the nationalist bloc, led by Likud, won a clear victory,” Netanyahu added.

“The question is not what the polls say. The question is what the reality is. From this day on, the right wing bloc rises to an absolute majority in the Knesset,” the Likud chair went on to say.

“There is no doubt regarding our own movement’s meteoric rise. In the last Knesset we had only 12 seats, 10% of the Knesset. We have more than doubled our power and grown more than any other party,” Netanyahu continued.

“The rise of the right-wing camp and the Likud can only mean one thing, the people want change,” Netanyahu exclaimed. “The people want one path. Our path won and it will lead the people.”

Likud members, meanwhile, were quick to stress that Kadima’s apparent win did not mean it would necessarily be chosen to form the next coalition.

“I am certain that Netanyahu will be the next prime minister,” said Likud lawmaker Gilad Erdan. “Netanyahu has a clear advantage because the right wing parties have a larger bloc. The test is not which party gets the most votes, but which candidate has the best chance to form a coalition, and that person is Benjamin Netanyahu.”

Netanyahu, meanwhile, phoned Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman just after the exit polls were released, apparently to discuss the future of the next coalition.

Former minister Silvan Shalom, another member of Likud, said Kadima was “delusional” to declare such a quick win. A government led by Kadima Chairwoman Tzipi Livni was unrealistic, said Shalom, adding that Likud was the obvious choice for leading the next government.

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter (Kadima) responded to Shalom by saying: “Tzipi Livni is the leader of the State of Israel from today until the next Knesset elections.”

FYI: Livni has attempted to form a unity government once before and failed. With the polls showing strong support for the right wing bloc, she’ll have an even tougher time getting support now, even if she offers those parties the moon in return for switching sides. Anything is possible I suppose, but I’m praying Netanyahu can bring some sanity to Israel’s foreign policy, and thwart Obama’s plans for the region.

It looks like Muslim terrorists in Lebanon are still trying to create a second front in the war for Israel.

Militants in Lebanon sent rockets crashing into northern Israel on Wednesday, while Israeli aircraft pounded a Gaza cemetery, Hamas weapons positions and tunnels used for smuggling, witnesses and the military said Wednesday.

The rockets from Lebanon landed in open areas near the town of Kiryat Shemona, causing no injuries or damage, Israeli police said. Residents of northern Israel were instructed to head to bomb shelters following the second attack from Lebanon in less than a week….

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Osama bin Laden also chimed in with an audio tape calling on all Muslims to unite against Israel, and condemned the Arab governments who aren’t doing their part to wage Jihad. He is now back in his cave hiding, until next years video, when he once again feels insignificant and needs to get Al Qaeda’s dwindling terror group back in the news. That is if Obama hasn’t released the prisoners from Gitmo (the one’s who MAY even be dangerous) and stopped wire tapping, interrogating, and disrupting what’s left of Al Qaeda’s leadership.

“It is more difficult than I think a lot of people realize,” the president-elect explained. “Part of the challenge that you have is that you have a bunch of folks that have been detained, many of whom may be very dangerous who have not been put on trial or have not gone through some adjudication. And some of the evidence against them may be tainted even though it’s true. And so how to balance creating a process that adheres to rule of law, habeas corpus, basic principles of Anglo-American legal system, by doing it in a way that doesn’t result in releasing people who are intent on blowing us up.”

Ya, that whole blowing us up thing might be important. How about we bring them to the United States where they’ll have the protections of our constitution, and we can house them in our prisons right here at home. That won’t attract any terrorist retaliation at all. I’m sure if they didn’t attack the Marines at Guantanamo, they won’t try to make martyrs of their buddies incarcerated here in the states either.

At least Obama has his priorities straight, and hasn’t ruled out prosecuting the Bush administration for their “crimes” against the terrorists.

Obama said that he is not ruling out prosecution for crimes committed by the Bush administration and left open the possibility of appointing a special prosecutor or commission to independently investigate abuses of power and illegal activity.

Obama’s comments came in response to the most popular question on his own Web site, www.change.gov, which has received 23,000 votes on the “Open for Questions” portion of the site. Bob Fertik of New York who runs the Democrats.com Web site asks Obama, “Will you appoint a special prosecutor — ideally Patrick Fitzgerald — to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping?”

“We’re still evaluating how we’re going to approach the whole issue of interrogations, detentions, and so forth. And obviously we’re going to be looking at past practices and I don’t believe that anybody is above the law.” Obama said. “But my instinct is for us to focus on how do we make sure that moving forward we are doing the right thing. That doesn’t mean that if somebody has blatantly broken the law, that they are above the law. But my orientation’s going to be to move forward.”

He’ll really be wanting to move forward and step away from the Bush bashing when he gets his first real intelligence briefings, and has to begin every morning hearing what might happen to his family and fellow Americans that day if he makes the wrong decision. When the next attack will fall squarely on his shoulders and there is no President Bush to blame, he’ll probably be wishing he hadn’t tied his hands behind his back with all of the “abuse of power” whining. I wouldn’t blame President Bush if he takes some pleasure in knowing that Obama will be forced to decide between tapping someone’s phone, and risking the Brooklyn Bridge being blown up during rush hour traffic. Obama’s choice in that situation will reveal the level of his narcissism. Let’s pray he’s not as arrogant and self serving as he appears to be.

Hamas is brutally murdering members of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, but the media has imposed a media blackout on Hamas atrocities in order to make room for the endless stream of anti-Israel news. They cover every propaganda piece Hamas puts out, and report the Palestinian death tole with glee, but ignore the terrorists the Palestinian people chose to rule over them. These are the people liberals want leading a Palestinian state.

The Hamas government has placed dozens of Fatah members under house arrest out of fear that they might exploit the current IDF operation to regain control of the Gaza Strip

Fatah officials in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post that Hamas militiamen had been assaulting many Fatah activists since the beginning of the operation last Saturday. They said at least 75 activists were shot in the legs while others had their hands broken.

Wisam Abu Jalhoum, a Fatah activist from the Jabalya refugee camp, was shot in the legs by Hamas militiamen for allegedly expressing joy over the IDF air strikes on Hamas targets.

“Hamas is very nervous, because they feel that their end is nearing,” a senior Fatah official said. “They have been waging a brutal campaign against Fatah members in the Gaza Strip.”

Meanwhile, sources close to Hamas revealed over the weekend that the movement had “executed” more than 35 Palestinians who were suspected of collaborating with Israel and were being held in various Hamas security installations.

“We will kill them all if they try to help Israel bring down our government,” the official said. “We will hang Mahmoud Abbas and [former Fatah security chief] Muhammad Dahlan in the public square if they try to enter the Gaza Strip aboard Israeli tanks.”

The Hamas official said that his security forces had launched a massive “preemptive” campaign aimed at thwarting Fatah’s attempts to “spread anarchy and chaos.” He confirmed that many Fatah operatives had been shot in the legs over the past few days by Hamas “to make sure that they don’t help Israel.”

Read more at Flopping Aces

The media really are clueless. Or, perhaps just dishonest. In this article about a coming Israeli ground invasion into Gaza, the AP talks about the recent attacks as coming on the heals of a 6 month cease fire that ended last month. There was no cease fire, other than on some piece of paper Jimmy Carter probably had his buddies in Hamas sign. Hamas continued to fire rockets further and further into Israel during the “cease fire”, and new sophisticated rockets have continued to damage civilian infrastructure and kill innocent Jews. THAT is not a cease fire. The only side that ceased firing was Israel.

Fox news also contributed to the article, which might account for this moment of mental clarity:

Hamas, whose charter specifically calls for the destruction of the state of Israel, had ordered a “day of wrath” against Israel on Friday over the killing of a senior commander.

Pray for the IDF soldiers tasked with routing out the terrorists who are launching rockets at their friends, family, and fellow Israelis. Hamas has threatened more attempts to abduct Israeli soldiers, so pray for the troops and their families.

Link to full article

Hamas may finally be overplaying their hand. Israel is not going to stand by and watch rockets fall on the only thing that stands between them and an attack from the Jihadist nations that surround them. Israeli politicians seemed willing to let Jews die in Hamas rocket attacks much longer than any other country would tolerate, but even liberal Israeli politicians know the dangers that face them enough to crack down hard when rockets start reaching Tel Aviv and their nuke facilities. At this point, who cares if the rest of the world whines about a “disproportionate response”. The only response they would accept anyway, is a volley of spit wads.

There were growing fears in Israel last night that Hamas missiles could threaten its top-secret nuclear facility at Dimona.

Rocket attacks from Gaza have forced Israelis to flee in ever greater numbers and military chiefs have been shaken by the size and sophistication of the militant group’s arsenal.

In Beersheba, until a few days ago a sleepy desert town in southern Israel, there is little sign of the 186,000 inhabitants. Schools are closed and the streets of shuttered shops echo with the howl of sirens warning of incoming rockets.

Israeli planes, meanwhile, began a new stage yesterday in their offensive on Gaza, killing Nizar Rayyan, a senior Hamas official. The one-tonne bomb in Jabaliya is also understood to have killed two of his four wives and four of his twelve children. More than 400 Palestinians have been killed in the six days of Israeli attacks.

Despite a diplomatic mission by Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Foreign Minister, to Paris, the Israeli army continued to muster thousands of troops and scores of tanks along Gaza’s border for a possible ground offensive. Israel’s airstrikes are designed to blunt Hamas’s capacity to fire its new Grad missiles deep into its territory. The weapons are smuggled in through tunnels and by sea, replacing homemade Qassam rockets.

Israeli officials say that Hamas has also acquired dozens of Iranian-made Fajr-3 missiles with an even longer range. Many fear that as the group acquires ever more sophisticated weaponry it is only a matter of time before the nuclear installation at Dimona, 20 miles east of Beersheba, falls within its sights. Dimona houses Israel’s only nuclear reactor and is believed to be where nuclear warheads are stored.

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Maybe the terrorists in Gaza are counting on a weak, inexperienced President who has historically supported Palestinian terrorists over our only ally in the Middle East. They have stepped up their rocket attacks on Israel once again, violating a “peace treaty” that never really was, and forcing Ehud Barak to whine that they might have to retaliate if the terrorists don’t play nice and stop killing Jews.

Despite some 24 rockets hitting the western Negev Wednesday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that Israel would not rush into an operation in Gaza.

“We are not deterred from an operation in Gaza but we are also not rushing into one,” Barak said during a conference at the Institute for National Security Studies. “When there is no choice we will act when and where we see fit.”

Three people were lightly wounded late Wednesday afternoon when two Kassam rocket fired by Gaza terrorists landed next to a Sderot shopping parade.

Cars and shops were also damaged in the attack, which came when hundreds of people were doing their shopping in the area.

The casualties were evacuated to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon.

Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for firing the rockets.

Following the attack, the IAF renewed air strikes against rocket squads, aiming at launchers in northern Gaza, the army said. Palestinian hospital officials said a 47-year-old man was killed when a missile hit his house and a balcony collapsed on him.

Later, four more Kassams hit the Sdot Negev region, one damaging a building, and another landed in the Sha’ar Hanegev region. No additional casualties were reported.

In response to the ongoing cease-fire breaches, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned of impending Israeli military action.

“The rocket fire is just clarifying what we’ve been saying all along, that we can’t have a situation where supposedly there is an agreed-upon ceasefire, while the reality on the ground is completely different,” Olmert said after voting in the Kadima primaries.

“Of course this demands that we address it,” the prime minister continued, “And we will address it.”

Link

More than ever before, it’s looking like prophecy is soon going to be fulfilled with a war in the Middle East involving Russia and Israel’s Arab enemies. Start looking up folks! The time is near.

JERUSALEM – Israeli security officials have confirmed fears in Jerusalem that Russia may spark a Cold War-like military build up in the Middle East by sending war ships and advanced weaponry to foe Syria.

Syrian President Bashar Assad arrived today on a two-day visit to Moscow, where he will reportedly discuss with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ways to expand military ties with Moscow, whose arms sales to Mideast countries, including Syria and Iran, have angered Israel and the U.S.

In a widely-circulated article, the London Times reported today Russia is expected to propose a revival of its Cold War-era naval bases at the Syrian ports of Tartus and Latakia on the Mediterranean. Moscow maintained bases in Damascus during the Cold War, but Russia’s influence in the region weakened after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Read it all

We march ever closer toward the Middle East war that will usher in the Tribulation, and one of Obama’s top advisers recently exposed Obama’s eagerness to help that along. In a visit to Syria, Obama’s advisor, and one of Israel’s greatest foes in Washington, Daniel Kurtzer urged Syria to speed up negotiations that would see Israel giving away the Golan Heights. The President of Syria is in Russia today discussing military cooperation with Moscow, a country that has recently threatened nuclear war against it’s neighbor Poland, and the Democratic candidate for President is trying to speed up the transfer of the same Israeli territory Syria used to attack Israel twice before. Kurtzer is likely to become the Illinois senator’s envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian issue, so there’s no question Obama would fast track the Democrat’s anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian policies and land give aways, if he wins the presidency. Democrats never learn from history.

A key foreign policy adviser to Sen. Barack Obama has traveled to Damascus where he reportedly urged Syrian officials to fast-track negotiations with Israel, it has emerged.

Both Israel and Syria announced in May they were holding indirect talks aimed in part at an Israeli evacuation of most of the Golan Heights, which looks down on Israeli population centers and twice was used by Damascus to mount ground invasions of the Jewish state.

The talks have been progressing at a very slow pace, with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Russia today discussing military cooperation between Damascus and Moscow.

But Daniel Kurtzer, a top adviser to Obama on Israeli-Palestinian affairs who visited Syria last month, reportedly has offered Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem some advice.

“I urged him to move ahead in the Israel-Syria negotiations as much as possible so that whoever is the next president would not start from too far down the track,” Kurtzer disclosed yesterday in an interview with the New York Sun.

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I’ll never understand why Bush saw Abbas as a partner in peace with Israel. His Fatah party is no better than Hamas. It’s equally puzzling that the Israeli government chooses to look the other way and blame Hamas for terrorist attacks carried out by Fatah. What good is having a political party to negotiate with if they are ultimately going to kill your people.

The military wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party today carried out a terrorist attack along with Hamas-linked gunmen who infiltrated Israel from the Gaza Strip and shot dead two Jewish civilians.

The Israeli media largely painted Hamas as responsible for the attack even though Fatah and other groups took responsibility. The Israeli government blamed Hamas as well and vowed retaliation.

The U.S. considers Fatah to be moderate. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s government has been holding regular negotiations with Abbas’ officials in line with last November’s U.S.-backed Annapolis Summit, which seeks to create a Fatah-led Palestinian state by the end of the year.

“We see in Hamas a complete and central figure in this attack, and we put direct blame on them,” said Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev of today’s attack. “Hamas will pay the full price on this aggressiveness.”

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Leave it to Carter to meet with a terrorist leader responsible for scores of Jewish deaths. It sickens me that he calls himself a Christian.

he Hamas terrorist organization has confirmed to WND plans are in the works for former President Jimmy Carter to meet the chief of Hamas on a trip this month to Syria.

Sources in the Gaza Strip office of Ismail Haniyeh, the deposed prime minister of the Hamas-led Palestinian government, confirmed Hamas is in talks with Carter’s representatives about setting up a meeting during his trip, scheduled for later this month.

The Hamas sources said no concrete date has been set but that Carter has expressed interest in meeting Hamas chieftain Khaled Meshaal, who resides in Syria.

In a statement to Fox News today, Carter’s press secretary, Deanna Congileo, did not deny the former president was slated to meet Meshaal.

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This is a scary thought. The Council on Foreign Relations has warned that when Iran gets the bomb, it will likely set off a nuclear arms race among Islamic nations in the Middle East. It makes sense, however, in light of the prophesied Islamic invasion of Israel that will coincide with the start of the Tribulation. It’s interesting that many of the nations the Bible says will be involved in the attack, are the same ones now admitting that they will likely pursue their own nuclear weapons programs if Iran gets nukes.

Saudi Arabia most likely would develop nuclear weapons if Iran acquires them, according to a report to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

High-level American diplomats in Riyadh with excellent access to Saudi decision-makers said an Iranian nuclear weapon frightens the Saudis “to their core” and would compel the Saudis to seek nuclear weapons, the report said. The American diplomats were not identified.

Turkey also would come under pressure to follow suit if Iran builds nuclear weapons in the next decade, said the report prepared by a committee staff member after interviewing hundreds of individuals in Washington and the Middle East last July through December.

While Turkey and Iran do not see themselves as adversaries, Turkey believes a power balance between them is the primary reason for a peaceful relationship, the report said…..

Continue Article….

In an effort to make a goodwill gesture to Abbas, and under pressure from Rice and the State Department, Israel took down some of the roadblocks that had been put in place to block terrorists from entering Israeli towns and launching terrorist attacks. Naturally, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group promptly tried to kidnap an Israeli at knife point. Israel seems to never learn that goodwill gestures made toward terrorists, just results in more terrorist attacks. Even more ridiculous is that this gesture was made while Hamas is launching rockets in to Israel on a daily basis. As usual, Israel is the only party required to meet their obligations under the Roadmap.

The removal of a series of Israeli anti-terror roadblocks yesterday was overseen directly by the U.S. and was carried out under heavy pressure from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, defense officials in Jerusalem told WND.

The removals also may have enabled an attempted terrorist attack against two Jewish civilians. The foiled attack yesterday, in the northern West Bank, was carried out just hours after Israel began lifting the roadblocks and was in an area where a major roadblock had been removed.

Defense officials here strongly opposed the roadblock removals, saying the obstacles impede the mobility of terrorists. Palestinians complain the roadblocks also make it more difficult for them to travel throughout the West Bank. The majority of West Bank roadblocks were established in the late 1990′s following repeated terrorist attacks from the territory.

In yesterday’s incident, an Israeli man shot and killed a Palestinian armed with a knife after he approached the Israeli and a teenager at a popular hitchhiking stop between the West Bank Jewish communities of Shiloh and Eli, about 20 miles from Jerusalem.

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The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism, and only the THIRD holiest site in Islam. Jerusalem didn’t even become important to Muslims until the 7th century when Caliph Abd el-Malik commissioned the best architects to build the Dome of the Rock on the conquered Temple Mount, after a successful invasion of the Jewish Holy Lands. His plan was based upon a Fourth Century Christian shrine on the Mount of Olives marking the site of Jesus’ Ascension. The Caliph’s new shrine was deliberately built as a political, economic, and religious counter attraction to Mecca. Medina and Mecca, the two cities holy to Islam, were under the control of a rival Caliph. Abd El-Malik sought to build up the importance of Jerusalem as an Islamic center for pilgrimage and worship. The holiest site in Judaism was only then identified with the spot where Mohammed’s horse ascended to heaven.

There is a great deal of evidence proving that Islam never considered the Temple Mount to be a holy site until it became politically important to the Arabs, and an excuse to wage war on the Jews. Their revisionist history has been so successful that Jews aren’t even allowed to give the APPEARANCE of praying on the Temple Mount, and anything even remotely related to Judaism is banned from being taken onto the site during the limited times when Jews are even allowed to go there. It’s not uncommon to see Jews being stoned by Palestinian youths, or arrested by Wafq police who determine the site has somehow been desecrated by their presence.

Anywhere else in the world, it would be considered totally unacceptable, and a violation of human rights, to forbid a person from praying whenever and wherever they want. The United States condemns China for their persecution of Christians (although they do little about it), and free speech laws in countries around the world would be quickly enforced if such restrictions were placed on any other religion (with the exception of Christianity, or course). Muslims would be the first to scream discrimination and Islamophobia if their right to pray five times a day were in any way hindered. Yet, the world is silent and sees absolutely no problem with religious persecution when it’s directed at Jews. Even more perplexing, a large percentage of the Jewish population sees no problem with it either. They might change their mind, though, when the Palestinians are given the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the rockets currently being fired at them from Gaza are suddenly coming at them from all sides. Or, maybe not.

Jews are not allowed to pray on the Temple Mount in any way whatsoever, even if they only move their lips or demonstrate other “signs” of prayer on Judaism’s holiest site, ruled Avi Dichter, Israel’s public security minister.

Dichter was responding to a recent decision by two Knesset members who said they would ascend the Temple Mount quietly – without informing the media or making any protest – and attempt to pray on the holy site.

The Vatican is coming out in support of a move that would lead to the destruction of the Jewish homeland, and return millions of Palestinians to land they once fled so that surrounding Arab countries could launch an attack on Israel. Where was the Vatican when Arab countries would not allow their fellow Arabs, who fled Israel before the Arab invasion began, into their countries, thereby forcing them to become refugees and political pons in an endless cycle of violence.

A Vatican official said Wednesday that Palestinian refugees have the right to return to their homeland, and said he hoped Israeli-Palestinian peace talks would address the issue.

Cardinal Renato Martino, who heads the Vatican’s office for migrants, said an agreement to restart peace talks, reached Tuesday in Annapolis, Maryland, was encouraging and that he hoped by this time next year concrete measures would be under way.

“It is my hope that all the parts of the problem are taken into consideration such as that of the Palestinian refugees, who like all other refugees, have the right to return to their homeland,” Martino said.

How sad is it that Hamas can openly prepare for a terrorist takeover of the West Bank at the same time that the U.S., Israel, and Abbas are meeting to discuss the Israeli handover of the entire West Bank in the name of peace. Members of Abbas’ own Fatah party have openly admitted that they side with Hamas and will work with the terrorist group to wreak the same havoc in the West Bank as they did in Gaza following the last Israeli land give-away. There is more at stake this time, though. A Hamas take over of the West Bank will put their rockets and mortars within firing range of Tel Aviv and the Israeli International Airport. It will also bring suicide bombers to the borders of Jerusalem. It’s pure insanity to claim that this move will lead to a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace. When will Israelis wake up and do more than protest for a few days, as their enemies are handed strategic land from which to launch more deadly attacks on innocent civilians?

Hours before the start of the U.S.-backed Annapolis summit aimed at handing the West Bank to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ organization, Israel cracked down on a cell of leading Palestinians suspected of setting up a Hamas military arm for the terror group to take over the strategic territory, WND has learned.

Hamas leaders in recent weeks vowed their organization would seize the West Bank if Israel hands the territory to Abbas, just as Hamas seized the Gaza Strip last June, overtaking all U.S.-backed Fatah security compounds in less than one week.

The West Bank borders Jerusalem and is within rocket range of Tel Aviv and Israel’s international airport.

According to Israeli and Palestinian security officials, Monday night the Israel Defense Forces arrested seven members of Abbas’ Fatah organization suspected of working on behalf of Hamas to establish a special forces unit for the terror group in the West Bank.

I will never understand why our President continues to pretend Israel has found a peace partner in Abbas and Fatah.

Bush is determined to give Israel’s land away, and compromise the Jews ability to defend themselves from terrorists before he leaves office. I wonder what Bible he’s reading, if he thinks that is going to bring peace to the Middle East. Even common sense should be enough to know the Palestinians won’t stop attacking Israel if their given more land and a better position from which to launch rockets.

President Bush told Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during a private meeting today the U.S. will ensure the Palestinians will have a state on the ground before Bush leaves office, a senior Palestinian negotiator told WND.

“Bush and the U.S. administration gave us a commitment there will be a Palestinian state before he leaves office, and not just an outline of a state on paper but contiguous territory on the ground,” said the Palestinian negotiator, who spoke on condition his name be withheld because he was revealing the contents of a private meeting.

“Bush said he is committed to seeing an Israeli withdrawal from most of the West Bank,” the negotiator said.

The Jews are taking to the streets this time, though. After Gaza, they know what another land give away means for their future.

Meanwhile the U.S. State Department is holding back any negative reports on the Palestinians’ promise to fight terrorism, ahead of the Annapolis Summit. Naturally, the Palestinians have been fully updated on any Israeli transgressions.

The media and the terrorist supporters on the left are nuts if they think there can be any meaningful ceasefire in the Middle East. The Quran itself instructs Muslims to use treaties and ceasefire agreements as a time to prepare for war. Hezbollah has been doing just that for years, and they’re not about to stop fighting as long as the “world community” will defend them and there are any of them still alive to sacrifice themselves for Allah.

A senior member of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party sent a letter to hundreds of Fatah members today asking them to prepare for an “escalated battle” against Israel while the Jewish state continues its military campaign in Lebanon, WND has learned.

The letter, written by Bani al-Hassan, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee and a former Fatah Interior Minister, also was sent to members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist group, the declared “military wing” of Abbas’ party.

“You the fighters are the new generation that will bring us victory over Israel,” Hassan wrote in the letter, which was obtained by WND from a Fatah official.

Syria and Iran won’t sit by and miss out on their chance at paradise either. It looks more and more each day like this could be the beginning of a fulfillment of prophecy. If the war escalates and Russia continues to help the Arabs (especially if they participate in a “peace keeping” force), all the players will be in place for the war of Gog and Magog that is to take place before the tribulation. The good news is, the good guys win.

I have to question Olmert’s sanity when he makes comments like this. While rockets are killing civilians and reaching farther into Israeli cities, terrorists are using Gaza as a base from which to kill Jews, and Muslims make daily threats to destroy the nation of Israel, Olmert is already bragging that the war in Lebanon will pave the way for more land give-aways. The terrorists launch attacks and kill Jews, and the left rewards them with the very thing they are fighting and killing for. How encouraging it must be to the cowards in Lebanon to hear that their campaign of terror is already paying off. Why stop doing what continues to work so well?

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’ s declaration Wednesday that the war in Lebanon will create new momentum for further West Bank pullouts was met by a harsh response on the part of right-wing parliamentarians as well as members of the PM’s own Kadima party.

“The backing Olmert received (for the war) went to his head,” Knesset Member Zvi Hendel (National Union) said in response to Olmert’s comments, which seemed to stun rightist Knesset members. “How many missiles and rockets need to fall on the North and South in order for Olmert to understand that state security cannot be achieved through bragging…and splitting the nation?”

The Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip (Yesha), meanwhile, said in a statement that “the continuation of the blind rush to realignment provides terrorism with a backwind and encourages Nasrallah to continue until all his objectives are achieved. It appears Olmert is interested in breaking up the consensus around the war, while this tough time calls for finding the common denominator.”

Hezbollah launched a record number of rockets into Israeli towns last night, reaching as far as the West Bank for the first time. A million Jews are now living in bomb shelters in Israel now, and the media is still asking when Israel is going to agree to a cease fire. It’s rare to hear any of the them acknowledge that Hezbollah will never agree to stop killing Jews. To the liberals in the MSM, it’s perfectly reasonable to demand that Israel stand down and live with rockets raining down on their civilian population centers. They only have a problem with civilian deaths when Muslims (terrorist or civilian – what’s the difference?) die in an Israeli attack. It’s the most sickening display of anti-semitism I’ve seen in a while.

Israel pressed the first full day of a massive new ground attack, sending 8,000 troops into southern Lebanon on Wednesday and seizing five people it said were Hezbollah fighters in a dramatic airborne raid on a northeastern town. Hezbollah retaliated with its deepest strikes yet into Israel, firing a record number of more than 160 rockets.

Diplomatic efforts faltered, with France saying it will not participate in a Thursday U.N. meeting that could send troops to help monitor a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah. France, which may join or even lead such a force, said it does not want to talk about sending peacekeepers until fighting halts and the U.N. Security Council agrees to a wider framework for lasting peace.

Why does it not surprise me that France won’t participate in a peace keeping force until there’s been a complete cessation of fighting?

Awwwwww. That’s too bad. Coincidence? I doubt it.

The sudden outbreak of new violence in the Middle East may have the unexpected effect of cancelling the week-long homosexual extravaganza WorldPride in Jerusalem, scheduled for August 6 to 12.

An outcry went up from religious groups and faith communities around the world when Jerusalem was named by organizers as the city of choice for the next WorldPride event. The choice of Jerusalem was seen by many as a flagrant taunting of religious groups opposed to homosexuality, as was the choice of Rome for WorldPride 2000.

The gay pride event was originally scheduled to be held last year in Jerusalem, which led to concerted efforts by religious leaders in the country to block the homosexual celebration from taking place. Organizers eventually decided to postpone the event, citing upheaval due to the Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip.

Religious leaders from the Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities within Israel have been working together to prevent the event from taking place in the holy city—earlier in the month Jerusalem police officials finally conceded that the event would “likely” be moved to Tel Aviv. The decision was not finalized, but the police said in a statement to the press, “Tel Aviv is more used to such events, and therefore it should take place there also this time.”

Fighting continues in the Middle East, but we can all rest easy. Kofi Annan of the “do nothing” U.N. has the answer.

Israeli troops met fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas Thursday as they crossed into Lebanon to seek tunnels and weapons for a second straight day, and Israel hinted at a full-scale invasion. Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the Security Council that “hostilities must stop” between Israel and Hezbollah.

That’ll work! I’m sure terrorists everywhere are pondering Kofi’s words, and considering putting down their rockets, missiles, and suicide belts to live peacefully with the Jews.

Israeli pilots have told local news stations that they’ve already dealt Hizbellah a critical blow in preperation for a possible ground invasion. Most interesting, is the support Israel is getting for this kind of attack. Even some of the Arab countries, who fear this war could backfire and ruin their chances to nuke Israel later, are giving Israel a green light to fight back.

If anything good can come from this clear example of why we’re fighting a war on terrorism, maybe it will wake up the Israeli government, and they’ll stop handing over more Jewish lands to terrorists.

Israeli warplanes also launched new airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, shortly after daybreak, followed by strikes in the guerrillas’ heartland in the south and eastern Bekaa Valley.

The strikes followed bombings Wednesday that killed as many as 70 people, according to Lebanese television, making it the deadliest day since the fighting began July 12.

Of course, Kofi never misses a chance to condemn Israel. As the media tosses around the idea of charging Israel with war crimes (terrorist attacks don’t count as war crimes), Kofi condemned Israel for using excessive force. I guess they should be more gentle and understanding with the animals launching rockets at innocent civilians in Israel.

Annan also condemned Israel’s “excessive use of force” against Lebanon.

“There are serious obstacles to reaching a cease-fire or even to diminishing the violence quickly,” Annan said.

He added that the fighting had triggered a humanitarian crisis.

Russia sharply criticized Israel over its onslaught against Lebanon, now in its ninth day, sparked when Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers. The Russian Foreign Ministry said Israel’s actions have gone “far beyond the boundaries of an anti-terrorist operation” and repeating calls for an immediate cease-fire.

Good grief!

Here are some of the headlines I’ve seen this morning concerning the war in the Middle East.

Blair in push for peace in Middle East
Big power diplomacy to stop the fighting in Lebanon ground into gear yesterday as Britain and other European states pushed hard for the deployment of an international intervention force on the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Arab world fed up with Hizbullah
With the exception of the Palestinians, the Arab world appears to be united in blaming Iran and Syria for the fighting in Lebanon. Until last week, Arab political analysts and government officials were reluctant to criticize Hizbullah in public. But now that Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and his top aides are in hiding, an anti-Hizbullah coalition is emerging not only in Lebanon, but in several other Arab countries as well.

Diplomacy Gains Traction in Mideast Crisis
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Diplomatic efforts to end Israeli-Hezbollah fighting gained traction Monday, with Israeli officials saying they would agree to halt fighting if their two captured soldiers were returned and Islamic guerrillas withdrew from the border.

New York Jews rally in support of Israel
Thousands of American Jews clogged the streets leading to the United Nations building here in a massive show of support for Israel on Monday afternoon. The turnout was particularly impressive for a weekday and one of the hottest so far this summer.

Americans, Europeans Begin to Evacuate Lebanon Amid Mideast Conflict
Lebanon — Westerners fled by land, sea and air as Israel launched three waves of bombings on southern Beirut and on a Lebanese army base in the early hours Tuesday.

Congress Considers Resolutions Supporting Israel
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are preparing to vote this week on resolutions backing Israel and condemning Hezbollah, which last week kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, sparking violence across the Israel-Lebanon border.

Iran parliament speaker: No part of Israel safe
Iran’s parliament speaker warned Tuesday that no part of Israel is safe during Hizbullah’s battle with Lebanon – a statement made despite Iran’s claim that it is not aiding the guerrillas in their fight.

Here are more headlines and links concerning the war in the Middle East.

Hezbollah Rockets Hit Nazareth
By Sher Zieve – Hezbollah rockets are reported to have struck upper Nazareth, Sunday night. Reports are that the attacks also hit 5 other close by towns.

Israel strikes back after Haifa attacked
BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) — The Israeli military and Hezbollah traded deadly attacks for a fifth straight day on Sunday, with the Lebanon-based militants striking Haifa and other towns deeper inside Israel.

U.S. Evacuation Teams Arrive in Lebanon
U.S. security teams landed at the American embassy just outside Beirut on Sunday to plan the evacuation of some of the estimated 25,000 U.S. citizens living in war-torn Lebanon.
Witnesses said two helicopters flew in from over the Mediterranean and landed on the embassy grounds, located on a fortified hilltop in the north Beirut suburb of Aukar.
“The arrival of the teams is an important first step in facilitating the safe departure of Americans who want to leave Lebanon,” the embassy said in a statement.

Rockets hit Haifa, Tiberias, Safed, Karmiel, Acre
A barrage of rockets fired from Lebanon hit the Haifa region Monday afternoon.
A rocket hit a building in Haifa causing it to collapse. Two people were evacuated by medical personnel and others have been trapped beneath the rubble.
Two of the rockets landed before the city’s warning siren was sounded.
Rockets landed in Tiberias and adjacent Lake Kinneret beaches, Acre and Safed as well. In addition, rockets were fired for the first time on communities in the southern Golan Heights.

Hezbollah Appears in Control of Lebanon
Hezbollah and its backers, not the government, now appear in control of Lebanon’s fate.
After moderating their stance in recent years, the guerrillas surged back to the war front with a surprise attack on Israel and a sophisticated arsenal, leaving Lebanon’s politicians and army looking nearly powerless. The government seems paralyzed over how to deal with Hezbollah, whose Shiite Muslim fighters have had near autonomy in the south for more than a decade.

Syria vows to respond directly to any Israel strike
Syria has warned it would respond directly and by all means necessary to any Israeli attack on its territory, in its first official reaction to Israel’s offensive on neighbouring Lebanon.
The warning Sunday coincided with a similar threat by Damascus’s key ally Iran, and came amid rising fears that the Middle East is being dragged deeper into the spiralling conflict sparked by the capture of Israeli soldiers by militants linked to Hamas and Hezbollah.

Iran heaps praise on Hezbollah fight against ‘tumour’ Israel
TEHRAN (AFP) -Iran has rallied behind allies Hezbollah and Syria, praising the Lebanese Shiite militant movement’s battle against “infected tumour” Israel and warning the Jewish state against widening the conflict.

Ground troops enter southern Lebanon
A government spokesman said Monday afternoon that IDF ground forces have entered southern Lebanon to attack Hizbullah bases along the border in order to push the terrorist group out of rocket-firing range.
In addition, the IDF has denied Lebanese news reports that an Israeli F-16 jet was downed near Beirut. Virtually all Lebanese news agencies were showing unclear video footage of what was claimed to be the downed jet.

Things could escalate rapidly in the Middle East.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today an Israeli strike on Syria would be considered an attack on the whole Islamic world that would bring a “fierce response,” Haaretz reports.
“If the Zionist regime commits another stupid move and attacks Syria, this will be considered like attacking the whole Islamic world and this regime will receive a very fierce response,” Ahmadinejad was quoted by Iranian state television as saying in a telephone conversation with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Israel has blamed Syria and Iran for the Hezbollah rocket attacks on towns and cities in northern Israel. In recent weeks, Israel has buzzed the palace of Assad with fighter-bombers as a warning against hostile actions.
Ahmadinejad has called repeatedly for the destruction of Israel – or for moving the Jewish state to Europe. Iran is believed to be developing a nuclear weapons program and has long-range missiles capable of striking the Jewish state.
Hezbollah rockets today rained down on northern Israeli towns as the Jewish state’s warplanes carried out strategic strikes against the Hezbollah’s infrastructure and the Beirut International Airport. A total air and sea closure was imposed over Lebanon.
Hezbollah threatened to use longer range rockets against the major northern port city of Haifa, in which case military officials tell WND Israel would likely launch a major ground invasion inside Lebanon.
The fighting today was instigated by a well-orchestrated Hezbollah attack against Israel’s northern border yesterday in which two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped and three others were killed.

Original Link.

Here are the latest headlines concerning the developments in the Middle East.

US says Israel has right to defend itself
ROSTOCK, Germany (Reuters) – The United States, reacting to escalating violence between
Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, on Thursday urged restraint on both sides but said Israel had a right to defend itself.
In a widening of reprisals after Hizbollah guerrillas captured two soldiers in a border clash, Israel aircraft attacked Beirut airport and blockaded Lebanese ports.
“We are urging restraint on both sides, recognizing Israel’s right to defend itself,” a U.S. administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Lebanon braces as Israel responds to attack
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon braced for spiraling violence on Thursday a day after Israel vowed a severe response to Hizbollah attacks in which two Israeli soldiers were captured and eight killed by the Syrian-backed group.
A statement issued by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s cabinet after an emergency meeting on Wednesday night said that Israel held the Lebanese government responsible for the attacks and for the safe return of the seized soldiers.
But it offered no details about what type of action would be taken.
Hizbollah’s bold attack drew Olmert into a second crisis over captured soldiers. Israel is engaged in a military offensive in the Gaza Strip after Palestinian militants captured a soldier on June 25.
Israeli aircraft attacked the Palestinian Foreign Ministry in Gaza City on Thursday, causing a fire in the building, witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Israel killed at least 23 Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday, including nine members of one family in an air strike that destroyed a house where the army said senior Hamas commanders were meeting.
Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the soldiers had been seized to force Israel to release prisoners, but Israel state says the attack was an act of war and that it would not swap prisoners.
“You don’t negotiate with terror organizations,” Gideon Meir, senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official, told Reuters.

Syrian VP blames Israel for escalation amid worry over Israeli retaliation
Syria’s vice president blamed Israel for the escalating violence in Lebanon and Palestinian territories Wednesday, and Arab countries worried over possible Israeli retaliation against Syria after the capture of two Israeli soldiers by its ally, Hezbollah.

Ahmadinejad: World will soon witness the demise of Israel
Tehran, Iran, Jul. 12 – Hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that the world will soon witness the demise of Israel, the government-run news agency Fars reported.
“In the near future we will witness the rapid collapse of the Zionist regime”, Ahmadinejad told a crowd in the north-western city of Jolfa.
“The nations of the region will record the names of states that support the Zionist regime alongside the Zionist’s crimes”, he added.
Ahmadinejad caused an international furore last year when he publicly declared that the Holocaust was a “myth” and said that Israel must be “wiped off the map”.

Even ignoring the Biblical aspect of the withdraws, we have already seen that it hurts Israel security rather than helping it.

KIBBUTZ NAHAL OZ, Israel – A group of prominent rabbis is calling on President Bush to refuse political and financial support for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s plan to evacuate most of Judea and Samaria, stating the withdrawal is against U.S. interests, and that it violates basic tenets of Jewish law.
“U.S. interests are being impacted by Israel’s proposed retreat from terrorist strongholds in Judea and Samaria. In addition, as rabbis our obligation is to teach, guide, and lead our congregations to conduct their daily lives in accordance with Jewish Law. This holds especially true in a matter of life or death threatening the residents of Israel,” stated a letter sent to Bush and signed by leaders of the Rabbinical Congress for Peace, a coalition of over 1200 rabbinic leaders and pulpit rabbis.
Congress members include some of the most esteemed Orthodox rabbis in the Jewish world.
Olmert is attempting to push through a withdrawal from most of Judea and Samaria, mountainous territory that is within rocket firing range of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Israel’s international airport. The territory is also commonly called the West Bank.
The rabbis point out in their letter to Bush that villages slated for withdrawal from Judea and Samaria are mentioned throughout the Torah.
They state a withdrawal from the area violates Jewish law because an evacuation will lead to massive violence.
“There is a clear definitive ruling in the Jewish Code of Law ‘Orach Chaim’ Chapter 329 which rules that it is strictly forbidden to give up even one inch of a Jewish border town to foreigners because it will lead to bloodshed. How much more so regarding retreating from holy land that enemies bent on your destruction have already stated will be used to launch attacks against Jews,” states the letter to Bush.
The rabbis wrote to Bush that Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza last summer has already impacted regional U.S. interests and that Olmert’s proposed Judea and Samaria evacuation will have “disastrous” consequences for the American-led war on terror.
“Israel’s 2005 retreat from Gaza has been perceived as a cave-in by the role-model of counter-terrorism. It paved the road to Hamas’ electoral victory and upgraded the posture of Islamic Jihad and al-Qaida, thus providing friendly platforms for Iran, Syria, Sudan, Yemen and the pro-Saddam elements. The Gaza retreat has established the largest terrorist base in the Middle East, threatening accelerated anti-U.S. terrorism.
“Bolstering the Palestinian profile by enforcing a withdrawal in Judea and Samaria constitutes a present and immediate lethal danger to pro-U.S. regimes in Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Gulf states and will establish an enormous terror sanctuary threatening US troops in the Gulf area. It would also undermine Israel’s posture of deterrence, which is critical to the enhancement of regional stability.”
The rabbis urged Bush against “morally or financially supporting Israel’s disastrous withdrawal plan.”

Original Link.

This is an interesting development. I like it though.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) – Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian cabinet ministers and legislators from the Islamic Hamas, increasing pressure on militants to release a captured Israeli soldier and witnesses said tanks moved into northern Gaza, widening Israel’s largest military operation in the year since Israel pulled out of the seaside territory.
Adding to the tension, a Palestinian militant group said it executed an 18-year-old Jewish settler kidnapped on the West Bank of the Jordan River. Israeli security officials said Eliahu Asheri’s body was found buried near Ramallah. They said he was shot in the head, apparently soon after he was abducted Sunday.
Palestinian security officials said Israeli forces detained Palestinian deputy prime minister Nasser Shaer and three other cabinet ministers, as well as four legislators in Ramallah. Two others were arrested in the town Jenin they said and Israeli news media reported a roundup of Hamas legislators in Jerusalem and other locations. More than 30 legislators were detained, Palestinian security officials said.
Army Radio said the arrested Hamas leaders might be used to trade for the captured soldier. Israel had refused earlier to trade prisoners for the soldier’s release.

Original Link.

Oh this was just choice. As if anyone was willing to believe that pali terrorist actually could carry out a threat like that. Anyway, suckering teens into blowing up innocent Israelis is more their speed anyway.

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) – A threat by a militant group to use biological and chemical weapons if Israel invades the Gaza Strip is probably a bluff, an expert here said on Monday.
The Al-Aksa Martyrs’ Brigades (the militant wing of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction) said it would surprise Israel with new kinds of weapons if Israel invaded the Gaza Strip.
“With the help of Allah, we are pleased to say that we succeeded in developing over 20 different types of biological and chemical weapons…after a three-year effort” the group said in a leaflet distributed on Sunday.
“We say to Olmert and [Defense Minister Amir] Peretz: Your threats of invasion do not frighten us. We will surprise you with new weapons you have not faced until now,” they said. “As soon as an [Israeli] soldier sets foot on Gaza land, we will respond with a new weapon.”
The group said that it would declare “open warfare without limits” if Israel invaded the Gaza Strip.
But Israeli counter-terrorism expert Dr. Ely Karmon described the statements as “wishful thinking.” They already indicated that they had chemical weapons in 2003, he said.
It’s “psychological warfare,” said Karmon. Hamas tried to put chemicals in explosive belts worn by suicide bombers and it didn’t work, he said.

Original Link.

Look at what disengagement has done. Now Israel is going to have to go back into Gaza, but as invaders this time. The media is going to have a hayday with this one. Well done, Olmert…NOT!
Can you please not make the same mistake in the West Bank?

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) – Israeli troops massed along the Gaza Strip border on Monday, ready to launch a major ground offensive if a kidnapped Israeli soldier is not returned immediately.
Israel said it is holding P.A. Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his Hamas-led government responsible for the early Sunday morning assault on an Israeli army outpost at Kerem Shalom on the Gaza-Israeli border near Egypt. Two Israeli soldiers were killed, four wounded and a seventh wounded and kidnapped in the sneak attack.
Palestinian gunmen tunneled half a mile under the Gaza border fence, came up 975 feet into Israel and attacked the outpost and a tank from behind, the army said.
Two Palestinians were killed in the ensuing battle. The remaining terrorists blew a hole in the fence and retreated back into Gaza, taking Israeli soldier Corporal Gilad Shalit with them.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and top ministers involved in security decisions gave the army the go-ahead to prepare for battle in the Gaza Strip and said they were holding the P.A. responsible for Shalit’s well-being.
“No person or organization will have immunity at this time,” the cabinet said in a statement.

Original Link.

This is the security Israel got in return for evacuating their territory. Also, who in their right mind is going to believe a slimy pali terrorist anyway?

On Wednesday, Israel informed Hamas Authority leader Haniye that he himself could be the next target of Israeli missiles if the Kassam rockets don’t stop. According to some reports, Haniye ordered them stopped.
At the same time as Ismail Haniye was supposedly ordering Hamas terrorists in the field to lay down their rockets, Hamas administrators were preparing a ceasefire offer to Israel: Israel must stop all targeted killings of terrorists, and Hamas will cease its rocket fire. However, Hamas is not the only terrorist group in Gaza, and in fact Islamic Jihad, Fatah and the Popular Resistance Committees have not agreed to stop their attacks on Israel.
After firing more than 100 rockets from Friday through Tuesday, Hamas was, in fact, quiet yesterday. Only one Kassam was fired in the course of the day – an Islamic Jihad affair that landed close to a strategic infrastructure just south of Ashkelon. The rocket caused no damage.
Israeli officials have implied all along that Israel would not initiate an escalation in hostilities, but would only respond to attacks by the terrorists.

Original Link.

I’ve been frustrated for quite some time with the relative silence coming from the White House in the face of skewed anti-Iraq War criticism. The anti-war crowd has been playing fast and loose with the facts and spinning the story with little opposition. It was refreshing to see presidential aide Peter Wehner throw a big stick in the spokes of that spin machine with this op-ed in the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal. Here is a brief excerpt, but the whole article is a must-read!

Iraqis can participate in three historic elections, pass the most liberal constitution in the Arab world, and form a unity government despite terrorist attacks and provocations. Yet for some critics of the president, these are minor matters. Like swallows to Capistrano, they keep returning to the same allegations–the president misled the country in order to justify the Iraq war; his administration pressured intelligence agencies to bias their judgments; Saddam Hussein turned out to be no threat since he didn’t possess weapons of mass destruction; and helping democracy take root in the Middle East was a postwar rationalization. The problem with these charges is that they are false and can be shown to be so–and yet people continue to believe, and spread, them….

The Bush administration pressured intelligence agencies to bias their judgments. Earlier this year, Mr. Gore charged that “CIA analysts who strongly disagreed with the White House . . . found themselves under pressure at work and became fearful of losing promotions and salary increases.” Sen. Kennedy charged that the administration “put pressure on intelligence officers to produce the desired intelligence and analysis.”

This myth is shattered by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s bipartisan Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq. Among the findings: “The committee did not find any evidence that intelligence analysts changed their judgments as a result of political pressure, altered or produced intelligence products to conform with administration policy, or that anyone even attempted to coerce, influence or pressure analysts to do so.” Silberman-Robb concluded the same, finding “no evidence of political pressure to influence the Intelligence Community’s prewar assessments of Iraq’s weapons programs. . . . Analysts universally asserted that in no instance did political pressure cause them to skew or alter any of their analytical judgments.” What the report did find is that intelligence assessments on Iraq were “riddled with errors”; “most of the fundamental errors were made and communicated to policy makers well before the now-infamous NIE of October 2002, and were not corrected in the months between the NIE and the start of the war.” …

Seattle Post Intelligencer (P-I) columnist Robert L. Jamieson has taken a header off the deep end. Jamieson has always been a liberal moonbat, but his most recent column reaches new levels in moral equivalency. In his column, Jamieson targets Washington State senatorial candidate Mike McGavick (R), and McGavick’s proposal that Iran be barred from the World Cup soccer tournament if it refuses to give up its nuke program. McGavick is challenging incumbent Senator Maria Cantwell (D). RJ quotes McGavick’s reference to South Africa being banned from Rugby competition due to its apartheid policy, then takes his long walk off a short pier:

The trouble with McGavick extending rugby logic to Iranian soccer is one of perspective.

South Africa’s government policy was morally reprehensible, inhumane and lethal. Apartheid also was sanctioned and embraced across South African society, from the elite to commoners.

Iran has no such repugnant policy. It has not implemented any diabolical plans, unless you count its push to become a nuclear power like the United States, China and other members of that club.

Admittedly, Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has invoked language that is tough, defiant and downright ugly at times.

That just puts him in good company.

In many parts of the world, President Bush doesn’t exactly come across as a honeyed voice of reason, either.

Most irksome about McGavick’s plaintive cry on the pitch is how Americancentric and huffy he sounds. He seems to suggest that because America doesn’t like Iran’s nuclear saber-rattling the rest of the world should join us on some soccer-sacking sortie.

The aspiring senator is broaching dangerous territory by mixing sports and politics in this instance.

If it were up to a vote of World Cup nations, the United States — not Iran — may get the boot first.

Other countries could point to our bungled and legally questionable invasion of Iraq, as well as our continuing, imploding occupation there. A recent poll of more than 91,000 people in 50 countries by the Pew Research Center found that anti-American sentiment is at its highest level ever. Much of the antipathy is no doubt a reflection of American foreign policy and our lost art of diplomacy.

Iran has no such repugnant policy?! It has not implemented any diabolical plans?! Jamieson isn’t forgetting that Ahmadinejad has stated that Israel should be “wiped off the map.” He isn’t forgetting that He has threatened violence against U.S. and Israeli interests. He simply doesn’t care! To Jamieson, Ahmadinejad’s statements don’t make him dangerous – they’re just unique little peccadillos that we should chuckle and shake our heads at. After all, Iran wants nothing more than equality with other nations. Right? Yea, right! And perhaps the rain we’ve had lately in Seattle has caused some facts to leach from Jamieson’s head. For instance, Jamieson intimates that the desire to prevent an Iran nuke program is simply an American desire. Uh, Bobby? That’s an issue that most nations are united on. That’s why the IAEA, the UN, and the EU are so heavily involved! Perhaps you should try getting your news from some other source than the Seattle P-I. And what is so WRONG about being Americacentric?! McGavick is an AMERICAN! It comes natural for Americans to be Americacentric. Well, not for all Americans, apparently. Jamieson is a loyal citizen of the People’s Socialist Republic of Seattlestan. His thinking is a little Seattlecentric.

Read Jamieson’s article, and make sure you give him some feedback: robertjamieson@seattlepi.com

This just might explain a lot. I’ve always wondered how Israeli’s could support giving land away when they had to know that the land would be take over by terrorists with rockets and suicide bombers at the ready. It appears their government may have been covering up this need-to-know information (although much of the threat should be common sense). The Israeli government’s complete disregard for the security of their own people sounds an awful lot like the liberals here in the U.S. What is it with liberals and their self destructive politics and self hatred?

According to some intelligence officials, Israel has been deliberately minimizing the threat of rocket attacks by Palestinian terror groups in Judea and Samaria, the biblical Jewish lands now known as the West Bank, parts of which are within rocket firing range of Jerusalem and other major Israeli cities.

Security analysts maintain publicity about terror groups’ current missile capabilities in the territories could generate criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s plan to withdraw from most of Judea and Samaria.

Monday, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group in the northern Samaria town of Jenin told WND they fired two rockets aimed at an Israeli military installation about a mile away. The leaders said the projectiles were called Bahaa rockets, named after Saed Bahaa, an Al Aqsa Brigades member killed last week in an Israeli anti-terror operation. A source close to the Brigades said the rockets actually were Jenin 1s, a less advanced Qassam rocket that can travel about one mile.

Nice. What’s wrong with these people. . . .besides being members of the most violent, evil religion on the planet?

Tourists and thrillseekers in Iran could have a new attraction in downtown Tehran: the former United States Embassy being converted into a “Great Satan Park.”

A top Iranian commander is calling for the creation of such a theme park at the one-time location U.S. facility, which has seen a troubled history dating back to the Carter administration of the 1970s.

“We would be able to nicely show off the American crimes to citizens strolling in the park,” General Mir-Faisal Bagherzadeh told the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency. “The former American Den of Spies should become the park of Great Satan.”

Bagherzadeh is in charge of the Sacred Defense Foundation, a propaganda organ originally created to commemorate the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

The property is perhaps best known from 1979 news footage, when in the wake of Iran’s Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed shah, the embassy was taken over by Islamist students, with 52 staffmembers taken hostage for 444 days.

The downtown location is now used for military training by Iran’s ideological army, the Revolutionary Guards, while the main building also serves as a museum to display the “documents of American espionage and crimes against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Europe might want to give up on the strongly worded letter and think seriously about preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. The U.S. can’t come to their rescue if they’ve already been “wiped off the map“, as President Ahmanutso likes to say.

Iran has received a first batch of BM-25 surface-to-surface missiles that put European countries within firing range, Israel’s military intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, was quoted as saying in the Haaretz daily on Thursday.

The missiles, purchased from North Korea, have a range of 1,550 miles and are capable of carrying nuclear warheads, Haaretz reported.

The report comes as U.N. members consider slapping sanctions on Iran for refusing to halt uranium enrichment. The United States, Israel and other Western countries say Iran is trying to get nuclear arms, but the Islamic regime says its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only.

Just as so many of us predicted, Gaza has become a terrorist base, not just for Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups, but for Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda attempted their first attack inside Israel today, and it won’t be the last. I hope for Israel’s sake they consider what’s happening to Gaza before they give up more of the Holy Lands.

I wonder, when Al Qaeda has a fully functioning AQ training camp in Gaza and they’re launching attacks, not just on Israel, but in the West as well, what will the international community and the U.S. do? If they ignore these Al Qaeda attacks on Jews, just like they do when Hamas or Fatah blow up innocent civilians, the next attack might hit closer to home.

A suicide attack today in Egypt’s Sinai desert near the Israeli border and a second, nearly simultaneous foiled large-scale bombing against the main Israel-Gaza crossing were coordinated by al-Qaida and mark the global jihad group’s first strike inside the Jewish state, senior Palestinian security officials told WND.

Palestinian forces today stopped a car with several terrorists from passing through the Karni border checkpoint, the main cargo passage between Israel and the Gaza Strip. The crossing is controlled by the Palestinians on the Gaza side and by Israeli officers on the Israeli side.

Israel immediately closed the Karni crossing after the explosives-laden car was found and evacuated all Israeli personnel. Security sources said the car, which was safely captured by Palestinian officers, contained “enormous” amounts of explosives likely meant to be detonated at the border crossing inside Israel.

At almost the exact same time in Sinai, on the Egyptian side of the Gaza-Egypt border just outside Israel’s Rafah crossing, two suicide bombers exploded near a multinational United Nations peacekeeping force, injuring at least four people.

The attackers hit just two days after a triple bombing killed 24 at Egypt’s Sinai resort city of Dahab on the Gulf of Aqaba.

Israeli security officials, for now, are refraining from commenting on whether today’s bombings and attempted bombing were coordinated or if they were related to Monday’s Dahab attacks, which already are being widely attributed to al-Qaida.

The maniacs in charge of Iran are making threats if the West imposes sanctions or other “stern” measures. They have threatened to hide their nuke program from the IAEA. They have also met with Sudan to plan for transferring nuclear technology to that country. The possibility of Sudan having nuclear technology is as frightening a proposition as Iran having nukes.

Iran ratcheted up its defiance ahead of a U.N. Security Council deadline to suspend uranium enrichment, threatening Tuesday to hide its program if the West takes “harsh measures” and to transfer nuclear technology to chaos-ridden Sudan.

Ali Larijani, the top Iranian nuclear negotiator, also renewed a vow to end cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency and said increasing pressure on Iran would only stiffen its resolve.

“If you take harsh measures, we will hide this program. If you use the language of force, you should not expect us to act transparently,” Larijani said, adding that Western nations “have to understand they cannot resolve this issue through force.”

Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice fired back almost immediately, saying, “Iranians can threaten, but they are deepening their own isolation.”

Top leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the offer to transfer nuclear technology at a meeting Tuesday with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

“Iran’s nuclear capability is one example of various scientific capabilities in the country. … The Islamic Republic of Iran is prepared to transfer the experience, knowledge and technology of its scientists,” Khamenei told al-Bashir.

Al-Bashir said last month that his impoverished, violence-ridden country was considering a nuclear program to generate electricity.
…

“Electricity”. Yeeeaa, right.

You would think the Associated Press might choose a headline for this article that mentions Ahmadinejad’s new threat to destroy Israel. Wouldn’t that be more attention grabbing? More news worthy? In typical fashion, the AP tries to minimize the situation by emphasizing something less inflammatory in Ahmdinejad’s speech. Those who only skim the headlines and then make their own assumptions (liberals) will assume the speech was just another anti-Israel rant much like the ones you’ll hear at any pro-Pali protest in the U.S.

If you actually read the article, you find that Iran’s insane President actually called Israel a “fake regime” that cannot continue to exist.

Another Associated Press tactic is to portray the U.S. as the only party who has a problem with Iran and other Islamic dictators/terrorists. The idea is to make it appear that the U.S. is trying to start another conflict without the support of the international community.

The United States says Iran is using a civilian nuclear program as a cover for producing weapons. Iran denies that, saying its program is designed only to generate electrical power.

I guess the rest of the world has no problem with Iran’s nuke program then, right?