While the military "quagmire" in Iraq was said to tip the scales of power in the U.S. midterm elections, most Americans have no idea more of their fellow citizens – men, women and children -- were murdered this year by illegal aliens than the combined death toll of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan since those military campaigns began.
Half of the 91,516 illegal aliens from terror-sponsoring countries and those of "special interest" apprehended at the border between 2001 and 2005 were released into the U.S. population, according to a report by the inspector general's office of the Department of Homeland Security.
Find out more at WorldNetDaily.com now!
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
1,400 Terrorists For Cpl. Gilad Shalit?
Reports of an imminent prisoner-exchange deal are once again in the air. This time, they speak of up to 1,400 Arab terrorist prisoners going free in three stages, in return for Gilad Shalit.
Egypt's Minister of Intelligence, Omar Suleimon, is scheduled to arrive in Israel within the next two days to finalize the details of the agreement. Egypt figures heavily in the deal: the abducted soldier Gilad Shalit is scheduled to be transferred to that country, and from there to Israel, as part of the deal.
The agreement under consideration stipulates the following three steps: An unknown number of Palestinian terrorists currently incarcerated in Israel for various crimes will be set free, immediately after which Corp. Shalit is to be transferred to Egypt. A second group of terrorists will then be freed, followed by Shalit's return to Israel. In the third stage, Israel will free a final group of terrorists.
Just yesterday, speaking at a memorial to David Ben-Gurion in Sde Boker, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert implied that terrorists would be freed only after the kidnapped soldier is returned home. "I hereby declare," he said, "that when Gilad Shalit is released and returned to his family, safe and sound, the Government of Israel will be willing to release many Palestinian prisoners – including ones who were sentenced to lengthy prison terms – in order to increase the trust between us and prove that our hand is truly extended in genuine peace."
That the agreement is reportedly close to fruition is due to a phone call between Olmert and Abu Mazen, an understanding between Abu Mazen and Hamas leader Ismail Haniye, and the fragile truce in Gaza reached this week between Hamas and Israel. However, similar agreements have reportedly been "nearly ready" several times in the past as well, yet did not materialize.
The identities of the terrorists to be freed are not yet known, nor whether Israel has agreed to the incessant PA demands to free convicted murderer Marwan Barghouti and the killers of Government Minister and former IDF General Rehavam Ze'evi.
The question of releasing hundreds of terrorists in exchange for kidnapped Israelis has long been a controversial one in Israel. IDF historian Meir Pa'il totally dismisses the theory that if Israel gives in to Hamas demands, terrorists will kidnap more Israelis. "It's important for every soldier and Israeli to know," Pa'il said, "that if he is taken captive, we'll do everything to redeem him."
Col. (ret.) Meir Indor of the Almagor Terror Victims Association retorts, "That's important, but it's also important for every soldier and every Israeli to know that he won't be the next candidate for kidnapping. The kidnappers must be dealt with forcefully."
Family members of Shalit, as well as those of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev - two soldiers who were kidnapped by Hizb'allah 4.5 months ago into Lebanon - have departed for Europe to lobby for their sons' release - or at least an initial sign that they are alive. No sign of life has been received from any of the three. The families will hold a public demonstration outside the European Parliament in Brussels, together with thousands of European Jews, on Wednesday.
Arutz Sheva
11.29.2006
Egypt's Minister of Intelligence, Omar Suleimon, is scheduled to arrive in Israel within the next two days to finalize the details of the agreement. Egypt figures heavily in the deal: the abducted soldier Gilad Shalit is scheduled to be transferred to that country, and from there to Israel, as part of the deal.
The agreement under consideration stipulates the following three steps: An unknown number of Palestinian terrorists currently incarcerated in Israel for various crimes will be set free, immediately after which Corp. Shalit is to be transferred to Egypt. A second group of terrorists will then be freed, followed by Shalit's return to Israel. In the third stage, Israel will free a final group of terrorists.
Just yesterday, speaking at a memorial to David Ben-Gurion in Sde Boker, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert implied that terrorists would be freed only after the kidnapped soldier is returned home. "I hereby declare," he said, "that when Gilad Shalit is released and returned to his family, safe and sound, the Government of Israel will be willing to release many Palestinian prisoners – including ones who were sentenced to lengthy prison terms – in order to increase the trust between us and prove that our hand is truly extended in genuine peace."
That the agreement is reportedly close to fruition is due to a phone call between Olmert and Abu Mazen, an understanding between Abu Mazen and Hamas leader Ismail Haniye, and the fragile truce in Gaza reached this week between Hamas and Israel. However, similar agreements have reportedly been "nearly ready" several times in the past as well, yet did not materialize.
The identities of the terrorists to be freed are not yet known, nor whether Israel has agreed to the incessant PA demands to free convicted murderer Marwan Barghouti and the killers of Government Minister and former IDF General Rehavam Ze'evi.
The question of releasing hundreds of terrorists in exchange for kidnapped Israelis has long been a controversial one in Israel. IDF historian Meir Pa'il totally dismisses the theory that if Israel gives in to Hamas demands, terrorists will kidnap more Israelis. "It's important for every soldier and Israeli to know," Pa'il said, "that if he is taken captive, we'll do everything to redeem him."
Col. (ret.) Meir Indor of the Almagor Terror Victims Association retorts, "That's important, but it's also important for every soldier and every Israeli to know that he won't be the next candidate for kidnapping. The kidnappers must be dealt with forcefully."
Family members of Shalit, as well as those of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev - two soldiers who were kidnapped by Hizb'allah 4.5 months ago into Lebanon - have departed for Europe to lobby for their sons' release - or at least an initial sign that they are alive. No sign of life has been received from any of the three. The families will hold a public demonstration outside the European Parliament in Brussels, together with thousands of European Jews, on Wednesday.
Arutz Sheva
11.29.2006
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
An Orphan's Appeal From Sderot
Yaacov Yaacobov was hard at work at the poultry processing plant in Sderot on Tuesday morning when Palestinian terrorists murdered him with a Kassam rocket.
Wednesday an Arutz 7 reporter spoke to his young son, Hanan. The reporter asked the boy whether he wanted to move away from his hometown to get away from the rocket bombardment. Hanan said no, he wanted to stay.
When the reporter asked him why he wanted to stay, the orphaned child with moonbeam eyes replied, "I love Sderot very much, and I won't leave it because I love the State of Israel. If I leave Sderot, if all of Sderot were evacuated, then the country would fall apart. The Palestinians will see that they are succeeding in Sderot, and then they'll shoot Kassams at Ashkelon and Ashdod too, and do the same in the whole country until nothing is left."
But three days after Hanan explained why Sderot must stand, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided to let it fall. Saturday night Olmert ordered the IDF to end the limited counterterror operations in Gaza he had allowed it to conduct in recent weeks.
Sunday morning Olmert explained, "Last night the chairman of the Palestinian Authority [Mahmoud Abbas] called to tell me of the decision by all the Palestinian [terrorist] factions to cease their fire, cease all their violent actions, including smuggling [of weapons] in tunnels [from Egypt to Gaza], [end] the deployment of suicide bombers and the firing of Kassam [rockets]. I was happy and congratulated the head of the Authority, and the two of us will do all we can for the cease-fire to get started this morning."
By 6 a.m. all IDF units had abandoned their battle stations in Gaza, as ordered. Yet, when Olmert made this statement Sunday morning, the cease-fire had already fallen apart. By 10 o'clock the Palestinians had launched 11 rockets. And by the end of the day Abbas's Fatah terror group's Aksa Brigades had already disavowed the cease-fire, claiming it was unfair because the IDF is still "allowed" to operate in Judea and Samaria.
OTHER FATAH groups didn't even wait that long. Saturday night the Fatah's Army of Islam and Popular Resistance Committees, which co-kidnapped Cpl. Gilad Shalit with Hamas in June, stated outright that they would ignore the cease-fire.
Sunday night Hamas was also threatening to resume its attacks. Hamas spokesmen argued that Abbas's intention to deploy 13,000 Palestinian forces to the border with Israel in northern Gaza was unacceptable. If Abbas deploys those forces, or if his forces arrest any of our terrorists, Hamas warned, the cease-fire will be history.
But then, even before it was announced or disavowed, the cease-fire was a lie. While Olmert told the Israeli public that as part of the cease-fire the Palestinians would stop smuggling weapons into Gaza from the Sinai and cease all weapons production in Gaza, every Palestinian official and unofficial body denied his claim. That is, the Palestinians view the cease-fire just as they viewed all previous cease-fires - as a respite to be used to replenish their arsenals and retrain their forces. Hamas's commander Khaled Mashaal made this point explicitly when he said that his group plans to go to war with Israel in six to eight months.
Olmert and his cabinet ministers spent Sunday extolling the virtues of PA Chairman Abbas and waxing poetic about the opportunity that the cease-fire affords us to strengthen him and pave the way for an eventual peace deal with him. So great is the government's trust in Abbas that Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told Israel Radio that if Israel receives information that the Palestinians are about to shoot off missiles at our cities, before allowing the IDF to defend us, the government will first ask Abbas to have his guys take a crack at it.
THE AMERICANS, for their part, are not merely cheering Abbas, they are funding, arming and training his "Presidential Guard" and pressuring Israel to allow an additional 1,500 PLO terrorists into Gaza from Jordan to join Abbas's personal army. As US Army Lt. General Keith Dayton, who oversees the US training of Abbas's forces explained to Yediot Aharonot on Friday, Abbas's private army is supposed to be a counterweight to Hamas to ensure "that the moderate forces will not be erased."
To Israelis concerned about the prospect of being erased, and for anyone concerned with fighting the global jihad, statements like Olmert's, Livni's and Dayton's are infuriating because they are based on two glaringly obvious factual errors. First, Abbas's forces are in no danger of being erased. Second, they are not and never have been moderate.
As The Jerusalem Post's Khaled Abu Toameh reported on Friday, Abbas is the commander-in-chief of all the PA's security forces. While it is true that in recent months Hamas has been fielding an army which now numbers some 6,000 jihadists in Gaza, Abbas has some 45,000 military forces in Gaza under his direct control. As the commander of all Fatah terror forces, Abbas also has several thousand additional terrorists under his thumb. Both the official Palestinian security forces and Fatah terror cells are armed to the teeth and are the chief beneficiaries of the weapons smuggling from the Sinai.
And yet, aside from shooting rockets, missiles, bullets and bombs at Israelis; co-kidnapping IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit with Hamas and holding him hostage; kidnapping foreign correspondents and forcibly converting them to Islam; murdering and torturing Palestinians suspected of assisting Israel in fighting Palestinians terror (as Abbas is pledged to do), and running protection rackets that terrorize Palestinian businessmen, workers and professionals alike, Abbas doesn't use his forces for much of anything.
The last thing Israel or the US should be worrying about is Abbas's forces' defeat at the hands of Hamas.
AT THE same time, the last thing they can expect is for these forces to act as moderates. Over the past six years, Fatah terrorists, both in and out of the official Palestinian security services, have committed more terror attacks than Hamas. While it is true that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are commanded by Iran, it is also true that Fatah terror units are deeply penetrated by Iran and Hizbullah.
And yet, rather than accept the fact that Abbas is an enemy, not an ally, and that his "security forces" and Fatah "party" are actively involved in terror and racketeering, the US and Israel pretend that they are credible interlocutors. The US trains them and Israel allows them to be trained and pretends there is a chance that they will protect us from themselves.
In its press release regarding the cease-fire, the Foreign Ministry stated: "Israel is interested in maintaining a cease-fire as a means to end the violence and to enable progress in the political negotiations. In doing so Israel is knowingly undertaking the risk that the terrorist organizations will exploit the cease-fire to rearm and to rebuild their infrastructure."
When asked on Israel Radio about the prospect of the Palestinians using the cease-fire to rebuild their arsenals, Defense Minister Amir Peretz's strategic adviser Maj. Gen. (ret.) Amos Gilad answered rhetorically, "And we were stopping the smuggling until now?"
He went on to assure his listeners that Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, who has to date facilitated massive arms shipments to cross Egypt into Sinai, will now make sure that no weapons get through.
IT IS POSSIBLE that Olmert is playing a game of chance with the lives of Hanan Yaacobov and his fellow residents of the south in the hope of winning points with US President George W. Bush when he visits in Jordan this week. Jordan's King Abdullah set the agenda when he shamelessly told ABC News on Sunday that peace in Iraq is dependent on Israel's willingness to capitulate to Palestinian terrorists because the whole Arab world is deeply emotional in its support of Palestinian terrorists against Israel.
Hanan Yaacobov, who no longer has his father to guide him through childhood, has some very mature guidance for Israel's leaders, who may think it preferable to be applauded by foreigners than to defend their countrymen from our enemies.
"I, Yaacobov's son, am turning to you. Resign your positions! Resign. The defense minister and Olmert should admit that they can't do this, and vacate their places in the government to Bibi Netanyahu and to [Avigdor] Lieberman. If they can [defend us] I want to see their answer. If not, they should vacate their seats, quickly."
Jerusalem Post
11.28.2006
Wednesday an Arutz 7 reporter spoke to his young son, Hanan. The reporter asked the boy whether he wanted to move away from his hometown to get away from the rocket bombardment. Hanan said no, he wanted to stay.
When the reporter asked him why he wanted to stay, the orphaned child with moonbeam eyes replied, "I love Sderot very much, and I won't leave it because I love the State of Israel. If I leave Sderot, if all of Sderot were evacuated, then the country would fall apart. The Palestinians will see that they are succeeding in Sderot, and then they'll shoot Kassams at Ashkelon and Ashdod too, and do the same in the whole country until nothing is left."
But three days after Hanan explained why Sderot must stand, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided to let it fall. Saturday night Olmert ordered the IDF to end the limited counterterror operations in Gaza he had allowed it to conduct in recent weeks.
Sunday morning Olmert explained, "Last night the chairman of the Palestinian Authority [Mahmoud Abbas] called to tell me of the decision by all the Palestinian [terrorist] factions to cease their fire, cease all their violent actions, including smuggling [of weapons] in tunnels [from Egypt to Gaza], [end] the deployment of suicide bombers and the firing of Kassam [rockets]. I was happy and congratulated the head of the Authority, and the two of us will do all we can for the cease-fire to get started this morning."
By 6 a.m. all IDF units had abandoned their battle stations in Gaza, as ordered. Yet, when Olmert made this statement Sunday morning, the cease-fire had already fallen apart. By 10 o'clock the Palestinians had launched 11 rockets. And by the end of the day Abbas's Fatah terror group's Aksa Brigades had already disavowed the cease-fire, claiming it was unfair because the IDF is still "allowed" to operate in Judea and Samaria.
OTHER FATAH groups didn't even wait that long. Saturday night the Fatah's Army of Islam and Popular Resistance Committees, which co-kidnapped Cpl. Gilad Shalit with Hamas in June, stated outright that they would ignore the cease-fire.
Sunday night Hamas was also threatening to resume its attacks. Hamas spokesmen argued that Abbas's intention to deploy 13,000 Palestinian forces to the border with Israel in northern Gaza was unacceptable. If Abbas deploys those forces, or if his forces arrest any of our terrorists, Hamas warned, the cease-fire will be history.
But then, even before it was announced or disavowed, the cease-fire was a lie. While Olmert told the Israeli public that as part of the cease-fire the Palestinians would stop smuggling weapons into Gaza from the Sinai and cease all weapons production in Gaza, every Palestinian official and unofficial body denied his claim. That is, the Palestinians view the cease-fire just as they viewed all previous cease-fires - as a respite to be used to replenish their arsenals and retrain their forces. Hamas's commander Khaled Mashaal made this point explicitly when he said that his group plans to go to war with Israel in six to eight months.
Olmert and his cabinet ministers spent Sunday extolling the virtues of PA Chairman Abbas and waxing poetic about the opportunity that the cease-fire affords us to strengthen him and pave the way for an eventual peace deal with him. So great is the government's trust in Abbas that Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told Israel Radio that if Israel receives information that the Palestinians are about to shoot off missiles at our cities, before allowing the IDF to defend us, the government will first ask Abbas to have his guys take a crack at it.
THE AMERICANS, for their part, are not merely cheering Abbas, they are funding, arming and training his "Presidential Guard" and pressuring Israel to allow an additional 1,500 PLO terrorists into Gaza from Jordan to join Abbas's personal army. As US Army Lt. General Keith Dayton, who oversees the US training of Abbas's forces explained to Yediot Aharonot on Friday, Abbas's private army is supposed to be a counterweight to Hamas to ensure "that the moderate forces will not be erased."
To Israelis concerned about the prospect of being erased, and for anyone concerned with fighting the global jihad, statements like Olmert's, Livni's and Dayton's are infuriating because they are based on two glaringly obvious factual errors. First, Abbas's forces are in no danger of being erased. Second, they are not and never have been moderate.
As The Jerusalem Post's Khaled Abu Toameh reported on Friday, Abbas is the commander-in-chief of all the PA's security forces. While it is true that in recent months Hamas has been fielding an army which now numbers some 6,000 jihadists in Gaza, Abbas has some 45,000 military forces in Gaza under his direct control. As the commander of all Fatah terror forces, Abbas also has several thousand additional terrorists under his thumb. Both the official Palestinian security forces and Fatah terror cells are armed to the teeth and are the chief beneficiaries of the weapons smuggling from the Sinai.
And yet, aside from shooting rockets, missiles, bullets and bombs at Israelis; co-kidnapping IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit with Hamas and holding him hostage; kidnapping foreign correspondents and forcibly converting them to Islam; murdering and torturing Palestinians suspected of assisting Israel in fighting Palestinians terror (as Abbas is pledged to do), and running protection rackets that terrorize Palestinian businessmen, workers and professionals alike, Abbas doesn't use his forces for much of anything.
The last thing Israel or the US should be worrying about is Abbas's forces' defeat at the hands of Hamas.
AT THE same time, the last thing they can expect is for these forces to act as moderates. Over the past six years, Fatah terrorists, both in and out of the official Palestinian security services, have committed more terror attacks than Hamas. While it is true that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are commanded by Iran, it is also true that Fatah terror units are deeply penetrated by Iran and Hizbullah.
And yet, rather than accept the fact that Abbas is an enemy, not an ally, and that his "security forces" and Fatah "party" are actively involved in terror and racketeering, the US and Israel pretend that they are credible interlocutors. The US trains them and Israel allows them to be trained and pretends there is a chance that they will protect us from themselves.
In its press release regarding the cease-fire, the Foreign Ministry stated: "Israel is interested in maintaining a cease-fire as a means to end the violence and to enable progress in the political negotiations. In doing so Israel is knowingly undertaking the risk that the terrorist organizations will exploit the cease-fire to rearm and to rebuild their infrastructure."
When asked on Israel Radio about the prospect of the Palestinians using the cease-fire to rebuild their arsenals, Defense Minister Amir Peretz's strategic adviser Maj. Gen. (ret.) Amos Gilad answered rhetorically, "And we were stopping the smuggling until now?"
He went on to assure his listeners that Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, who has to date facilitated massive arms shipments to cross Egypt into Sinai, will now make sure that no weapons get through.
IT IS POSSIBLE that Olmert is playing a game of chance with the lives of Hanan Yaacobov and his fellow residents of the south in the hope of winning points with US President George W. Bush when he visits in Jordan this week. Jordan's King Abdullah set the agenda when he shamelessly told ABC News on Sunday that peace in Iraq is dependent on Israel's willingness to capitulate to Palestinian terrorists because the whole Arab world is deeply emotional in its support of Palestinian terrorists against Israel.
Hanan Yaacobov, who no longer has his father to guide him through childhood, has some very mature guidance for Israel's leaders, who may think it preferable to be applauded by foreigners than to defend their countrymen from our enemies.
"I, Yaacobov's son, am turning to you. Resign your positions! Resign. The defense minister and Olmert should admit that they can't do this, and vacate their places in the government to Bibi Netanyahu and to [Avigdor] Lieberman. If they can [defend us] I want to see their answer. If not, they should vacate their seats, quickly."
Jerusalem Post
11.28.2006
Monday, November 27, 2006
Thoughts About Thanksgiving
We hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving and had the opportunity to share with family and friends your praise and thanks to the Lord for all that He has done for you! Many of us endure such a holiday as the family is not united in the Lord, and the emphasis is upon turkey and football or simply having a day off from work. In early American history the churches always had services on Thanksgiving morning to encourage the believers in giving thanks to the Lord. With all that is going on in the world presently, it would be good if the churches would return to that practice! There are a few churches who still have services on Thanksgiving Day and for that we are thankful! But, the majority simply close their doors.
I Thessalonians 5:18 says: In every thing give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. When believers are filled with the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 5:18-21 lists what we can expect to take place in a Spirit-filled believers life. One of those evidences of being Spirit-filled is giving thanks for all things.
Consider what King David did as he encouraged the people to bring offerings for the building of the Temple (which was accomplished through his son Solomon) I Chronicles 29:10-13:
Wherefore David blessed the LORD before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed be Thou, LORD God of Israel our Father, for ever and ever. Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine; Thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and Thou art exalted as Head above all. Both riches and honor come of Thee, Thou reignest over all; and in Thine hand is power and might; and in Thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee, and praise Thy glorious Name.
What a blessing to read this message of thanksgiving from the heart of Israels King David! Try reading it out loud!
How wonderful it would be to once again have leaders like King David who would praise our LORD, the LORD GOD of ISRAEL!
May God help us all to give Him thanks every day, and not simply on a national Day of thanksgiving!
Comments: editor@hftm.org
Hope for Today Ministries, PO Box 3927, Tustin, CA 92781
I Thessalonians 5:18 says: In every thing give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. When believers are filled with the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 5:18-21 lists what we can expect to take place in a Spirit-filled believers life. One of those evidences of being Spirit-filled is giving thanks for all things.
Consider what King David did as he encouraged the people to bring offerings for the building of the Temple (which was accomplished through his son Solomon) I Chronicles 29:10-13:
Wherefore David blessed the LORD before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed be Thou, LORD God of Israel our Father, for ever and ever. Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine; Thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and Thou art exalted as Head above all. Both riches and honor come of Thee, Thou reignest over all; and in Thine hand is power and might; and in Thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee, and praise Thy glorious Name.
What a blessing to read this message of thanksgiving from the heart of Israels King David! Try reading it out loud!
How wonderful it would be to once again have leaders like King David who would praise our LORD, the LORD GOD of ISRAEL!
May God help us all to give Him thanks every day, and not simply on a national Day of thanksgiving!
Comments: editor@hftm.org
Hope for Today Ministries, PO Box 3927, Tustin, CA 92781
Megapastor Warren Denies Praising Syria!
'I said nothing of the sort,' he says: 'I don't pretend to be a diplomat'
WASHINGTON – Megachurch Pastor Rick Warren is adamantly denying he praised Syria on his recent trip, which he describes as a favor to his Muslim next-door neighbor.
Warren, author of the best-selling "The Purpose-Driven Life," visited Syria this week and was quoted by official Syrian news agencies as saying the U.S. should have been holding dialogues with Damascus, that Syrian Muslims and Christians co-exist peacefully and the Syrian leadership is responsible for the nation's tolerance and stability.
In an e-mail to WND Editor Joseph Farah, who blasted Warren today in his daily column, Warren writes: "Joseph, why didn't you contact me first and discover the fact I said nothing of the sort? The trip was a favor to my next-door neighbor, had nothing to do with policy, and was done with the State Department's knowledge."
In fact, Saddleback Church declined repeated requests to respond to WND's questions yesterday.
Warren added that the State Department had warned him "to expect exactly what Syria did – a PT blast. I don't pretend to be a diplomat. I'm a pastor who just gets invited places."
However, in a video posted on YouTube but removed today, titled "Building Bridges," Warren is shown walking down a Damascus street commenting on political and social life in Syria, saying Christians and Muslims get along with each other.
"It's a moderate country, and the official government role and postion is to not allow any extremism of any kind," Warren says.
The reports from the official Syrian news agency included statements that:
"Pastor Warren hailed the religious coexistence, tolerance and stability that the Syrian society is enjoying due to the wise leadership of President al-Assad, asserting that he will convey the true image about Syria to the American people."
"Syria wants peace, and Muslims and Christians live in this country jointly and peacefully since more than a thousand years, and this is not new for Syria."
Warren told Syria's Islamic grand mufti there could be no peace in the region without Syria and 80 percent of Americans reject the U.S. administration's policies and actions in Iraq.
The comments attributed to Warren contradict documentation by the International Counter Terrorism organization and U.S. State Department of Syria's extensive use of terrorism for its political goals.
The ICT said "frequent use of the 'terror weapon' has been made by Syria against Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinians" in an attempt "to impose Syrian hegemony over them and bring them into line with Syrian policy."
"The main Lebanese leaders killed by Syrian proxies were: Bashir Gemayel (who was accused by Syrian propaganda of being a 'Zionist proxy'); and Kamal Jumblatt (accused of being a 'traitor' and an 'American agent.')," the ICT said.
Saddleback Church, with 30,000 members, was begun by Rick and Kay Warren in 1979 and now has more than 200 ministries in the Orange County area.
His popular book, which has sold about 12 million copies, focuses on worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and evangelism. It tells readers the life is "not about you," and shows how God can enable each one to live for His purposes.
Warren is scheduled to preach in North Korea next year.
In a letter to his congregation, Warren explained in more detail why he went to Syria, referring to his international "PEACE plan" ministry.
"Our team is on a three nation PEACE plan tour," he wrote. "After leading a PEACE plan briefing for 44 major Christian missions organizations that we'd gathered in Atlanta, our team traveled to Germany where we taught the PD Preaching seminar to pastors and shared the PEACE plan with about 5,000 church leaders. Right now we're in Rwanda teaching the PD Preaching seminar and the PEACE plan to the leaders of denominations. In between Germany and Rwanda, we visited Syria. Since our trip to Syria has already been misunderstood and attacked, I wanted you to know the real story, because you can't believe everything you read on the internet."
He continued: "Why Syria? The simple truth is that I was invited by my neighbor! We were talking over his backyard fence a couple months ago when my Muslim neighbor, Yassar, said, "Rick, you visit so many countries, I want to show you mine." I was touched by this invitation from my friend and promised, "The next time I'm traveling that direction, I'll visit your home with you." It was a favor for a friend, not a political statement.
"When we got to Syria, our first event was a home cooked meal with 20 of Yassar's family," he wrote. "Then he showed us many of the sacred Christian sites in Syria: the road to Damascus where St Paul was converted, Straight street where the Holy Spirit led Paul, the house where Ananias prayed for his healing, (2,000 years old!), the wall where Paul was let down in a basket to escape the Romans, the tomb of John the Baptist, and the oldest Christian church building in existence (AD 315)."
Warren went on to explain that every Christian he met expressed gratitude to the government for protecting their right to worship.
"Next, my neighbor arranged for me to meet many of the key Christian leaders of Syria, including the Presbyterian pastor who leads the coalition of Evangelical Churches of Syria, the patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Catholic Church, the patriarch of the Catholic Church, and the pastor of the oldest church in the world," he continued. "You may be surprised to know that Christianity is legal in Syria, that the government provides free electricity and water to all churches, allows pastors to buy a car tax-free (a tax break not given to Imams), appoints pastors as Christian judges to handle Christian cases, and allowed Christians to create their own civil law instead of having to follow the laws for Muslims. One city we visited, Malula, is two-thirds Christian. Every Christian I met with expressed gratitude to the government for protecting their right to worship. Honestly, that shocked me."
Warren explained how his meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad came about.
"Then my neighbor invited me to meet the president since I often meet presidents of countries we visit," he explained. "I had talked to Franklin Graham of Samaritan’s Purse who has had years of experience with Lebanon and Syria and asked him what to say. Franklin told me, 'Thank the Syrian president for protecting the freedom of Christians and Jews to worship there.' After what I had seen in the churches I’d visited, I did just that."
Warren said no press covered that meeting but, nonetheless, the Syrian news agency issued a report "that sounded like I was some politician negotiating the Iraq war and praising everything in Syria. Of course, that's ridiculous, but it created a stir among bloggers who typically editorialize before verifying the truth. It's ironic that people who distrust Syria trust their press releases!"
"By the way, even though this was just a private trip, we notified our friends at the U.S. State Department in advance of our meeting with President Bashar (sic) and sought advice," he wrote. "They told us that Syria would likely offer press releases after the meeting – which they did."
Warren concluded: "Regrettably, because I praised Syria's welcoming of Christian refugees from Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon into their country, some bloggers concluded that I approved of everything Syria does. That's nonsense! Syria needs many reforms, but in terms of religious freedom, they are ahead of places like Burma, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, and many others."
Warren made no apologies for putting himself in a position to be used by the police state. But he did say: "I also know that anyone who speaks publicly all the time, is bound to say something dumb every now and then. So I ask for your patience and forgiveness in advance because I’m sure it will happen! Every day I'm amazed that God uses someone as flawed as I am. You should be too. Just don't believe everything you read by bloggers or hear in the media."
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com - 11.27.2006
WASHINGTON – Megachurch Pastor Rick Warren is adamantly denying he praised Syria on his recent trip, which he describes as a favor to his Muslim next-door neighbor.
Warren, author of the best-selling "The Purpose-Driven Life," visited Syria this week and was quoted by official Syrian news agencies as saying the U.S. should have been holding dialogues with Damascus, that Syrian Muslims and Christians co-exist peacefully and the Syrian leadership is responsible for the nation's tolerance and stability.
In an e-mail to WND Editor Joseph Farah, who blasted Warren today in his daily column, Warren writes: "Joseph, why didn't you contact me first and discover the fact I said nothing of the sort? The trip was a favor to my next-door neighbor, had nothing to do with policy, and was done with the State Department's knowledge."
In fact, Saddleback Church declined repeated requests to respond to WND's questions yesterday.
Warren added that the State Department had warned him "to expect exactly what Syria did – a PT blast. I don't pretend to be a diplomat. I'm a pastor who just gets invited places."
However, in a video posted on YouTube but removed today, titled "Building Bridges," Warren is shown walking down a Damascus street commenting on political and social life in Syria, saying Christians and Muslims get along with each other.
"It's a moderate country, and the official government role and postion is to not allow any extremism of any kind," Warren says.
The reports from the official Syrian news agency included statements that:
"Pastor Warren hailed the religious coexistence, tolerance and stability that the Syrian society is enjoying due to the wise leadership of President al-Assad, asserting that he will convey the true image about Syria to the American people."
"Syria wants peace, and Muslims and Christians live in this country jointly and peacefully since more than a thousand years, and this is not new for Syria."
Warren told Syria's Islamic grand mufti there could be no peace in the region without Syria and 80 percent of Americans reject the U.S. administration's policies and actions in Iraq.
The comments attributed to Warren contradict documentation by the International Counter Terrorism organization and U.S. State Department of Syria's extensive use of terrorism for its political goals.
The ICT said "frequent use of the 'terror weapon' has been made by Syria against Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinians" in an attempt "to impose Syrian hegemony over them and bring them into line with Syrian policy."
"The main Lebanese leaders killed by Syrian proxies were: Bashir Gemayel (who was accused by Syrian propaganda of being a 'Zionist proxy'); and Kamal Jumblatt (accused of being a 'traitor' and an 'American agent.')," the ICT said.
Saddleback Church, with 30,000 members, was begun by Rick and Kay Warren in 1979 and now has more than 200 ministries in the Orange County area.
His popular book, which has sold about 12 million copies, focuses on worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and evangelism. It tells readers the life is "not about you," and shows how God can enable each one to live for His purposes.
Warren is scheduled to preach in North Korea next year.
In a letter to his congregation, Warren explained in more detail why he went to Syria, referring to his international "PEACE plan" ministry.
"Our team is on a three nation PEACE plan tour," he wrote. "After leading a PEACE plan briefing for 44 major Christian missions organizations that we'd gathered in Atlanta, our team traveled to Germany where we taught the PD Preaching seminar to pastors and shared the PEACE plan with about 5,000 church leaders. Right now we're in Rwanda teaching the PD Preaching seminar and the PEACE plan to the leaders of denominations. In between Germany and Rwanda, we visited Syria. Since our trip to Syria has already been misunderstood and attacked, I wanted you to know the real story, because you can't believe everything you read on the internet."
He continued: "Why Syria? The simple truth is that I was invited by my neighbor! We were talking over his backyard fence a couple months ago when my Muslim neighbor, Yassar, said, "Rick, you visit so many countries, I want to show you mine." I was touched by this invitation from my friend and promised, "The next time I'm traveling that direction, I'll visit your home with you." It was a favor for a friend, not a political statement.
"When we got to Syria, our first event was a home cooked meal with 20 of Yassar's family," he wrote. "Then he showed us many of the sacred Christian sites in Syria: the road to Damascus where St Paul was converted, Straight street where the Holy Spirit led Paul, the house where Ananias prayed for his healing, (2,000 years old!), the wall where Paul was let down in a basket to escape the Romans, the tomb of John the Baptist, and the oldest Christian church building in existence (AD 315)."
Warren went on to explain that every Christian he met expressed gratitude to the government for protecting their right to worship.
"Next, my neighbor arranged for me to meet many of the key Christian leaders of Syria, including the Presbyterian pastor who leads the coalition of Evangelical Churches of Syria, the patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Catholic Church, the patriarch of the Catholic Church, and the pastor of the oldest church in the world," he continued. "You may be surprised to know that Christianity is legal in Syria, that the government provides free electricity and water to all churches, allows pastors to buy a car tax-free (a tax break not given to Imams), appoints pastors as Christian judges to handle Christian cases, and allowed Christians to create their own civil law instead of having to follow the laws for Muslims. One city we visited, Malula, is two-thirds Christian. Every Christian I met with expressed gratitude to the government for protecting their right to worship. Honestly, that shocked me."
Warren explained how his meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad came about.
"Then my neighbor invited me to meet the president since I often meet presidents of countries we visit," he explained. "I had talked to Franklin Graham of Samaritan’s Purse who has had years of experience with Lebanon and Syria and asked him what to say. Franklin told me, 'Thank the Syrian president for protecting the freedom of Christians and Jews to worship there.' After what I had seen in the churches I’d visited, I did just that."
Warren said no press covered that meeting but, nonetheless, the Syrian news agency issued a report "that sounded like I was some politician negotiating the Iraq war and praising everything in Syria. Of course, that's ridiculous, but it created a stir among bloggers who typically editorialize before verifying the truth. It's ironic that people who distrust Syria trust their press releases!"
"By the way, even though this was just a private trip, we notified our friends at the U.S. State Department in advance of our meeting with President Bashar (sic) and sought advice," he wrote. "They told us that Syria would likely offer press releases after the meeting – which they did."
Warren concluded: "Regrettably, because I praised Syria's welcoming of Christian refugees from Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon into their country, some bloggers concluded that I approved of everything Syria does. That's nonsense! Syria needs many reforms, but in terms of religious freedom, they are ahead of places like Burma, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, and many others."
Warren made no apologies for putting himself in a position to be used by the police state. But he did say: "I also know that anyone who speaks publicly all the time, is bound to say something dumb every now and then. So I ask for your patience and forgiveness in advance because I’m sure it will happen! Every day I'm amazed that God uses someone as flawed as I am. You should be too. Just don't believe everything you read by bloggers or hear in the media."
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com - 11.27.2006
Sunday, November 26, 2006
In Washington: What's Your Solution?
The other day a young colleague and I were discussing the best argument to use against those who say that advocating negotiations as the only means to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is "naive." We debated the most effective response to the charge that there is no Palestinian partner; that Oslo failed because of Palestinian cheating; that the Hamas victory ends any hope for peace; and that the only realistic approach for Israel is to militarily crush the Palestinians.
I offered my own detailed response to each of those points - responses that are, in my opinion, airtight. But my colleague wouldn't have any of it. He said that all you have to do is ask the status-quo supporters, "So, how is your solution doing?" That is a perfect response.
There is no reason for those of us who support negotiations to feel defensive or to give a point-by-point rebuttal to those who champion the status quo. Just tell them to read the newspapers.
The Oslo process collapsed in the fall of 2000 and, ever since, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has intensified with a vengeance. Compare the half dozen civilians killed inside Israel between the fall of 1997 and the fall of 2000, and the 1,125 Israelis and 4,286 Palestinians killed since. The only people who should be defensive about the diplomatic process are those who oppose it.
Of course, no one ever flat-out says they oppose negotiations. Nowadays the name of the game is to say you favor both negotiations and the two-state solution, but then to offer a host of conditions that make either impossible. Most often used is the argument that one must negotiate but not with these people! Or not at this time. Or not until they do this, that, or the other thing.
On Wednesday of last week, Spain, France and Italy put forward a five-point plan to help end the conflict. The plan consists of the following: an immediate cease-fire, formation of a national unity government by the Palestinians that can gain international recognition, an exchange of prisoners - including the Israeli soldiers whose capture sparked the war in Lebanon and fighting in Gaza - talks between Israel's prime minister and the Palestinian president, and an international mission in Gaza to monitor a cease-fire.
Sounds reasonable.
Nevertheless, sources in Israel reported that the plan has been rejected out of hand. The objection is that the Europeans put out their ideas without first consulting with Israel.
But why? Why should the Europeans have to consult with the Israelis or the Palestinians? The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has reverberations far from Israel and Palestine. The Europeans have every right to offer a blueprint for ending it, just so long as they do not attempt to force it on anyone, which they have no intention of doing and couldn't do even if they were so inclined.
As Prime Minister Blair said recently: "Israel-Palestine is the one issue that, unresolved, allows extremists" to defeat "the more moderate elements of the Muslim and Arab world."
Why the repeated rush to rejection?
WHAT'S NEEDED are negotiations with the Palestinians to establish a full cease-fire. Yes, those very negotiations which both sides say they are committed to but which never quite seem to happen.
Obviously, Israel is not going to negotiate with Hamas but there is no reason to avoid negotiations with President Mahmoud Abbas, whether he is president of the Palestinian Authority with Hamas running the government or, preferably, with a new non-Hamas "unity government" in charge.
The process should start with a prisoner exchange. What possible objection could there be to an exchange in which Israel gets back Corporal Shalit and Mahmoud Abbas achieves the release of some of the Palestinian prisoners, perhaps starting with the parliamentarians seized earlier this year?
In January 2004 Israel released 500 Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners in return for a kidnapped Israeli businessman and the bodies of four soldiers. They were released not to Abbas but to Hizbullah - an act that simultaneously weakened Abbas and strengthened the Hizb'allah leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Handing Palestinian prisoners to Abbas would not only produce freedom for Shalit but would strengthen Abbas at the expense of Hamas, which would again be shown to be incapable of delivering anything for the Palestinian people.
A prisoner exchange and cease-fire would set the stage for negotiations based on the road map, or on any new US plan that emerges from the Baker-Hamilton Report, or any other vehicle. The bottom line is that the violence stops, that Israel gets its soldiers back, and the Palestinians see that Abbas can deliver the goods.
I know all the objections to negotiations, but they don't add up. Why do those who argue that the Palestinians won't negotiate in good faith - or comply with agreements reached - oppose testing them? In the past, both Palestinians and Israelis have reached agreements with which both have abided, sometimes, and reneged on, at other times.
The answer to the failure of past agreements to fully succeed is not to avoid all future agreements but to negotiate better ones. Besides, negotiations are not a favor that Israel gives to the Palestinians when they "behave." Negotiation is the only workable device for ending a conflict for two peoples who are not mere neighbors but who actually share the same land.
Israel can no more "defeat" the Palestinians than the Catholics in Northern Ireland could have "defeated" the Protestants. Nor can the Palestinians defeat them. All each side can do is kill each other's kids, and that is what they are doing.
Those who object to negotiations need only be asked one thing. "So, how is your solution doing?" In a choice between "solutions" which we know in advance will not work, and a solution that might, the sensible path is obvious. It is not more of the same.
By MJ ROSENBERG
11.26.2006
I offered my own detailed response to each of those points - responses that are, in my opinion, airtight. But my colleague wouldn't have any of it. He said that all you have to do is ask the status-quo supporters, "So, how is your solution doing?" That is a perfect response.
There is no reason for those of us who support negotiations to feel defensive or to give a point-by-point rebuttal to those who champion the status quo. Just tell them to read the newspapers.
The Oslo process collapsed in the fall of 2000 and, ever since, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has intensified with a vengeance. Compare the half dozen civilians killed inside Israel between the fall of 1997 and the fall of 2000, and the 1,125 Israelis and 4,286 Palestinians killed since. The only people who should be defensive about the diplomatic process are those who oppose it.
Of course, no one ever flat-out says they oppose negotiations. Nowadays the name of the game is to say you favor both negotiations and the two-state solution, but then to offer a host of conditions that make either impossible. Most often used is the argument that one must negotiate but not with these people! Or not at this time. Or not until they do this, that, or the other thing.
On Wednesday of last week, Spain, France and Italy put forward a five-point plan to help end the conflict. The plan consists of the following: an immediate cease-fire, formation of a national unity government by the Palestinians that can gain international recognition, an exchange of prisoners - including the Israeli soldiers whose capture sparked the war in Lebanon and fighting in Gaza - talks between Israel's prime minister and the Palestinian president, and an international mission in Gaza to monitor a cease-fire.
Sounds reasonable.
Nevertheless, sources in Israel reported that the plan has been rejected out of hand. The objection is that the Europeans put out their ideas without first consulting with Israel.
But why? Why should the Europeans have to consult with the Israelis or the Palestinians? The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has reverberations far from Israel and Palestine. The Europeans have every right to offer a blueprint for ending it, just so long as they do not attempt to force it on anyone, which they have no intention of doing and couldn't do even if they were so inclined.
As Prime Minister Blair said recently: "Israel-Palestine is the one issue that, unresolved, allows extremists" to defeat "the more moderate elements of the Muslim and Arab world."
Why the repeated rush to rejection?
WHAT'S NEEDED are negotiations with the Palestinians to establish a full cease-fire. Yes, those very negotiations which both sides say they are committed to but which never quite seem to happen.
Obviously, Israel is not going to negotiate with Hamas but there is no reason to avoid negotiations with President Mahmoud Abbas, whether he is president of the Palestinian Authority with Hamas running the government or, preferably, with a new non-Hamas "unity government" in charge.
The process should start with a prisoner exchange. What possible objection could there be to an exchange in which Israel gets back Corporal Shalit and Mahmoud Abbas achieves the release of some of the Palestinian prisoners, perhaps starting with the parliamentarians seized earlier this year?
In January 2004 Israel released 500 Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners in return for a kidnapped Israeli businessman and the bodies of four soldiers. They were released not to Abbas but to Hizbullah - an act that simultaneously weakened Abbas and strengthened the Hizb'allah leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Handing Palestinian prisoners to Abbas would not only produce freedom for Shalit but would strengthen Abbas at the expense of Hamas, which would again be shown to be incapable of delivering anything for the Palestinian people.
A prisoner exchange and cease-fire would set the stage for negotiations based on the road map, or on any new US plan that emerges from the Baker-Hamilton Report, or any other vehicle. The bottom line is that the violence stops, that Israel gets its soldiers back, and the Palestinians see that Abbas can deliver the goods.
I know all the objections to negotiations, but they don't add up. Why do those who argue that the Palestinians won't negotiate in good faith - or comply with agreements reached - oppose testing them? In the past, both Palestinians and Israelis have reached agreements with which both have abided, sometimes, and reneged on, at other times.
The answer to the failure of past agreements to fully succeed is not to avoid all future agreements but to negotiate better ones. Besides, negotiations are not a favor that Israel gives to the Palestinians when they "behave." Negotiation is the only workable device for ending a conflict for two peoples who are not mere neighbors but who actually share the same land.
Israel can no more "defeat" the Palestinians than the Catholics in Northern Ireland could have "defeated" the Protestants. Nor can the Palestinians defeat them. All each side can do is kill each other's kids, and that is what they are doing.
Those who object to negotiations need only be asked one thing. "So, how is your solution doing?" In a choice between "solutions" which we know in advance will not work, and a solution that might, the sensible path is obvious. It is not more of the same.
By MJ ROSENBERG
11.26.2006
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Wake up, Israel! By Joseph Farah
I don't know what it will take to awaken Israelis from their slumber. But I know they don't have much more time.
For years, Israelis have fooled themselves into thinking they could negotiate peace with all their neighbors – even those whose only real objective is to see all the Jews dead.
Israelis have convinced themselves that if they are reasonable, if they go the extra mile, if they just continue to demonstrate random acts of compassion for their enemies, that they will be their enemies no longer.
It should be clear to everyone by now that these random acts of compassion are actually random acts of suicidal compassion.
Take, for instance, last year's exodus from the Gaza Strip. The Israelis forcibly dismantled the homes and communities of perfectly law-abiding Jews bringing prosperity and life to a previously unsettled, arid land.
Why did they do it?
Because Gaza is to be part of the new Palestinian state. And the Palestinian Authority, the governing institution of this pre-state, doesn't want any Jews in their new country.
The Israelis didn't argue that this is a racist notion. They didn't protest that no nation should be created on such a foundation of hatred. They didn't suggest that forcibly removing law-abiding civilians from their homes and businesses because of their religion and ethnicity represents the worst form of ethnic cleansing.
No, they didn't do any of those things. Instead, the Israelis knuckled under to the Hitlers in headscarves of the Palestinian Authority. They drove out the peaceful Jews – not the violent haters of Jews.
Now the chickens are coming home to roost in Gaza. Did Hamas reform? Did the terrorists lay down their arms as a result of Israel's beneficence? Were the Palestinians so shocked and awed by the Israel's latest random act of suicidal compassion that they decided to live within their new borders and leave the Jews alone?
No, of course not. Those are not the lessons they learned. The lesson they learned from the latest strategic retreat by Israelis is that they have their enemy on the run. They learned they should keep doing what they are doing – that terrorism works.
So, now that Hamas has consolidated its power in Gaza, they are, as promised, using this territory to launch attacks on Jewish civilians in Israel proper.
The only way to stop the regular rocket fire on the Israeli city of Sderot – about three miles from Gaza – is for the Jews to evacuate from there, too, says Hamas.
The idea of withdrawing from Gaza was to give the terrorists what they said they wanted – land for their new state.
But that was never the real goal.
The real goal is the destruction of Israel. The new state is only a means of getting there.
Israelis and many Americans don't understand this yet. They believe the Palestinians will be happy if they get a new state. They will forget about destroying Israel. But this conflict has never really been about a new state. It has always been about destroying Israel. The new state is merely a vehicle for achieving Israel's destruction.
What we're seeing in Gaza today is a perfect illustration of what I am saying.
If you give this beast an inch, it will take a mile. You cannot quench its appetite with appeasement. It only makes the beast more ravenous.
Will Israel ever learn?
When will the Jewish state awaken from this slumber?
How long can a nation keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results?
Want Peace? Crush Gaza!
Jerusalem Post columnist Evelyn Gordon has composed an excellent and clear argument why Israel does in fact have a military solution to escalating rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, despite claims to the contrary by Israel’s political leadership.
Whenever politicians or army officers say that there is no military solution to the problem of Kassam rockets, my reaction is: Just how stupid do you think we are? After all, more than 1,000 Kassams have been fired at Israel from Gaza over the last 12 months, yet not a single rocket has been fired at Israel from the West Bank during this period. So unless you believe that West Bank terrorists, unlike their Gaza counterparts, have no desire to launch rockets - an assumption that defies both logic and the facts (the media periodically report on Palestinian efforts to start a West Bank Kassam industry) - the obvious conclusion is that the army has succeeded in preventing Kassam fire from the West Bank.
The question, then, is why the army has been unable to do the same in Gaza. And the answer, quite simply, is that even before the disengagement, the army never controlled Gaza as fully as it did the West Bank.…
In short, in the West Bank, military doctrine held that terror had to be stopped at the source, meaning inside the towns and cities where attacks originated. But in Gaza, there was never any attempt to control what was happening inside Palestinian cities; the army focused instead on perimeter defense, of both Israel and the settlements.
I would add to this that militarily squashing the Gaza rocket threat is the only way to end the daily attacks on towns like Sderot. What there is not is a political solution to the problem, because as long as they are able to fire the rockets, the “Palestinians” will cling to the belief that they can extract concessions by leveraging the violence.
The “Palestinians” must be bereft of any hope of victory over Israel, any reason to put their trust in violence. By not crushing Gaza, Israel is allowing them to maintain a shred of that most diabolical hope of one day destroying Israel.
Not until the “Palestinians” - the sworn enemies of the Jewish state by their own admission and actions - understand that they have been defeated can there be any movement toward anything resembling real peace.
Copyright © 1996-2006 - Christian Action for Israel
For years, Israelis have fooled themselves into thinking they could negotiate peace with all their neighbors – even those whose only real objective is to see all the Jews dead.
Israelis have convinced themselves that if they are reasonable, if they go the extra mile, if they just continue to demonstrate random acts of compassion for their enemies, that they will be their enemies no longer.
It should be clear to everyone by now that these random acts of compassion are actually random acts of suicidal compassion.
Take, for instance, last year's exodus from the Gaza Strip. The Israelis forcibly dismantled the homes and communities of perfectly law-abiding Jews bringing prosperity and life to a previously unsettled, arid land.
Why did they do it?
Because Gaza is to be part of the new Palestinian state. And the Palestinian Authority, the governing institution of this pre-state, doesn't want any Jews in their new country.
The Israelis didn't argue that this is a racist notion. They didn't protest that no nation should be created on such a foundation of hatred. They didn't suggest that forcibly removing law-abiding civilians from their homes and businesses because of their religion and ethnicity represents the worst form of ethnic cleansing.
No, they didn't do any of those things. Instead, the Israelis knuckled under to the Hitlers in headscarves of the Palestinian Authority. They drove out the peaceful Jews – not the violent haters of Jews.
Now the chickens are coming home to roost in Gaza. Did Hamas reform? Did the terrorists lay down their arms as a result of Israel's beneficence? Were the Palestinians so shocked and awed by the Israel's latest random act of suicidal compassion that they decided to live within their new borders and leave the Jews alone?
No, of course not. Those are not the lessons they learned. The lesson they learned from the latest strategic retreat by Israelis is that they have their enemy on the run. They learned they should keep doing what they are doing – that terrorism works.
So, now that Hamas has consolidated its power in Gaza, they are, as promised, using this territory to launch attacks on Jewish civilians in Israel proper.
The only way to stop the regular rocket fire on the Israeli city of Sderot – about three miles from Gaza – is for the Jews to evacuate from there, too, says Hamas.
The idea of withdrawing from Gaza was to give the terrorists what they said they wanted – land for their new state.
But that was never the real goal.
The real goal is the destruction of Israel. The new state is only a means of getting there.
Israelis and many Americans don't understand this yet. They believe the Palestinians will be happy if they get a new state. They will forget about destroying Israel. But this conflict has never really been about a new state. It has always been about destroying Israel. The new state is merely a vehicle for achieving Israel's destruction.
What we're seeing in Gaza today is a perfect illustration of what I am saying.
If you give this beast an inch, it will take a mile. You cannot quench its appetite with appeasement. It only makes the beast more ravenous.
Will Israel ever learn?
When will the Jewish state awaken from this slumber?
How long can a nation keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results?
Want Peace? Crush Gaza!
Jerusalem Post columnist Evelyn Gordon has composed an excellent and clear argument why Israel does in fact have a military solution to escalating rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, despite claims to the contrary by Israel’s political leadership.
Whenever politicians or army officers say that there is no military solution to the problem of Kassam rockets, my reaction is: Just how stupid do you think we are? After all, more than 1,000 Kassams have been fired at Israel from Gaza over the last 12 months, yet not a single rocket has been fired at Israel from the West Bank during this period. So unless you believe that West Bank terrorists, unlike their Gaza counterparts, have no desire to launch rockets - an assumption that defies both logic and the facts (the media periodically report on Palestinian efforts to start a West Bank Kassam industry) - the obvious conclusion is that the army has succeeded in preventing Kassam fire from the West Bank.
The question, then, is why the army has been unable to do the same in Gaza. And the answer, quite simply, is that even before the disengagement, the army never controlled Gaza as fully as it did the West Bank.…
In short, in the West Bank, military doctrine held that terror had to be stopped at the source, meaning inside the towns and cities where attacks originated. But in Gaza, there was never any attempt to control what was happening inside Palestinian cities; the army focused instead on perimeter defense, of both Israel and the settlements.
I would add to this that militarily squashing the Gaza rocket threat is the only way to end the daily attacks on towns like Sderot. What there is not is a political solution to the problem, because as long as they are able to fire the rockets, the “Palestinians” will cling to the belief that they can extract concessions by leveraging the violence.
The “Palestinians” must be bereft of any hope of victory over Israel, any reason to put their trust in violence. By not crushing Gaza, Israel is allowing them to maintain a shred of that most diabolical hope of one day destroying Israel.
Not until the “Palestinians” - the sworn enemies of the Jewish state by their own admission and actions - understand that they have been defeated can there be any movement toward anything resembling real peace.
Copyright © 1996-2006 - Christian Action for Israel
Friday, November 24, 2006
Sigd ~ The Holiday of Return and Longing
Each year, on the 29th day of the Hebrew month of Cheshvan, thousands of Ethiopian Jews gather overlooking the Temple Mount to observe an ancient holiday of yearning for Zion and the Torah.
The holiday is called Sigd (one syllable), which means prostration in Amharic and shares its root with the word for temple. The ceremony resembles the one held for the renewal of the Divine covenant by Ezra the Scribe during the Second Commonwealth, described in the Book of Nechemia.
"All the people gathered themselves together as one man into the broad place that was before the water gate; and they spoke unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel" (Nehemiah 8:1)
Prior to their immigration to Israel, the Beta Israel (meaning 'House of Israel') or Falashas (meaning ‘strangers,’ a term used by their non-Jewish neighbors in Africa) community would observe Sigd each year on mountaintops outside their villages. The Kessim, the community's rabbis and ritual leaders, would ascend the mountain, which was meant to represent Mount Sinai.
There, the double message of renewal of the Divine covenant and yearning for the return to Zion was expressed. During the celebration members of the community would fast, and read from the Orit (i.e., oraita, "Torah" in Aramaic), expressing their longing to return to Jerusalem and the Holy Temple. After the Kessim descended from the mountain, joyous celebrations would take place to welcome and accept the Torah anew.
Upon their arrival in Israel, the question of how to observe the holiday arose. On the one hand, the dream of return had been fulfilled, but on the other, the Temple is still missing and redemption has not yet arrived. In addition, the challenge of rejoining the Jewish people, with the evolution of the oral law in their absence, added extra significance to the Sigd tradition of annually renewing the commitment to the Torah as well.
"The Lord will bring back a remnant of his people...returning them to the land of Israel from Assyria, Lower Egypt, Upper Egypt, Ethiopia, Elam, Babylonia, Hamath, and all the distant coastlands" (Isaiah 11:11)
Now, Ethiopian Jews from all over Israel gather at Jerusalem's Armon HaNetziv Promenade, where a stage is erected and Kessim read passages and prayers in Ge’ez, the language reserved for scripture. Native-born Israelis and Amharic-speaking grandparents come together to observe the holiday. Some remember Sigd back in Ethiopia and others recount the event as though they were there, having been told of it by their parents and grandparents.
Absorption Minister Ze’ev Boim (Kadima) addressed the worshippers, expressing his hope that like the Moroccan holiday of Mimouna, which takes place immediately following Passover, Sigd would one day become a holiday in which all of Israel will take part.
Yaakov (Jejo) Tala manned a table down the promenade from the stage filled with tefillin, phylacteries, which he helped visitors place on their heads and forearms, with the blessings written out in both Hebrew and Amharic. “We are making great efforts to help the young generation understand the older generation – their traditions, heritage, and the depth of our unique Jewish traditions, while facilitating a return to mainstream Judaism at the same time,” he explains. “It is very difficult, but a holiday like Sigd embodies Beta Israel's traditions and they unite us with all of Israel.”
The young man, a yeshiva student, says that a number of cultural forces compete for the minds of young Beta Israel men and women, who are not always given the oppurtunity to receive a Jewish education, even in the State of Israel.
Tala says he agrees with Boim and hopes that Sigd can both add to the fabric of Jewish life in Israel, and maintain the exquisite nature of the Ethiopian Jewish narrative within that patchwork tapestry. “It is great to see Israelis joining in the celebration here. It really warms my heart,” he says.
On the stage, Kessim recite prayers as older women in the crowd close their eyes and hold their hands up toward Heaven. Large denomination shekel bills are handed up to the stage from the crowd for charity, and people scramble to get a handful of Jerusalem dirt being handed out by the elderly Kessim holding colorful umbrellas and wearing traditional garb.
Nesya Raanan was born in Israel, but she describes Sigd in Ethiopia as though she has observed it each year of her life. “It was awesome,” she says – catching herself. “What do I mean ‘It was awesome’ – I was never there – but I feel like I was.”
Nesya Raanan is part of the Society For the Protection of Nature in Israel in an area with many Beta Israel. She holds a poster encouraging young people to get involved in telling the story of Sigd.
Though she is wearing a shirt from the Society For the Protection of Nature in Israel and distributing information about protecting the environment, Raanan is more than happy to tell and retell the story of Sigd in the first person to anyone who asks. “Once the Kessim came down from the mountain,” she describes, “cows would be slaughtered and placed on the fire. Meanwhile, everybody would dance like crazy even though they were fasting, until the food was ready.”
Below the promenade, on a grassy area, young members of the Beta Israel community relax, sitting in groups and talking. Others dance wildly with members of the B’nei Akiva youth group, singing songs in Amharic and Hebrew. A large number of the young people are IDF soldiers, who received a dispensation from the army to ascend to Jerusalem for the holiday.
Beta Israel members of the IDF Navy, given the day off to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
A booth was set up inviting people to study the meaning of the prayers recited by the Kessim during the holiday. The prayers are in Ge’ez, a language reserved for prayer and scripture and only understood by the Kessim. Manning the booth is Shoshana ben-Dor, an English-speaking woman who is not from the Beta Israel community but wears Ethiopian tradition dress and is a scholar in the realm of Ethiopian Jewry.
Young Ethiopians, enter the booth and Ben-Dor hands them Hebrew translations of selected prayers.
“Come, we shall bow down, pray, sing, bless and sanctify our Father, Creator of Heaven and Earth,” one prayer begins. “We shall bow within the sanctuary of Your Holy Temple, though we now bow in our hearts. All creations in the world will prostrate and thank You. Amen, Amen.”
Shoshana Ben-Dor offers to go over the Kessim's prayers with young members of the community unfamiliar with Ge'ez, the language used by the Kesim.
Young Ethiopian men and women stop by the entrance of the booth and Ben-Dor offers to go through the booklet with them. Many take her up on it. “I sat for an hour with one young man,” she said.
Ben-Dor worries about Minister Boim’s comments about popularizing the holiday. “If he means that Sigd should become just a day of revelry for Israeli society, then I think that would be a tragedy,” she says. “But if he shares my hope that all Jews be allowed to share and embrace this incredible tradition, which embodies the integration of the yearning for redemption and commitment to the Torah, then I agree with him 100 percent.”
Arutz Sheva
11.24.2006
The holiday is called Sigd (one syllable), which means prostration in Amharic and shares its root with the word for temple. The ceremony resembles the one held for the renewal of the Divine covenant by Ezra the Scribe during the Second Commonwealth, described in the Book of Nechemia.
"All the people gathered themselves together as one man into the broad place that was before the water gate; and they spoke unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel" (Nehemiah 8:1)
Prior to their immigration to Israel, the Beta Israel (meaning 'House of Israel') or Falashas (meaning ‘strangers,’ a term used by their non-Jewish neighbors in Africa) community would observe Sigd each year on mountaintops outside their villages. The Kessim, the community's rabbis and ritual leaders, would ascend the mountain, which was meant to represent Mount Sinai.
There, the double message of renewal of the Divine covenant and yearning for the return to Zion was expressed. During the celebration members of the community would fast, and read from the Orit (i.e., oraita, "Torah" in Aramaic), expressing their longing to return to Jerusalem and the Holy Temple. After the Kessim descended from the mountain, joyous celebrations would take place to welcome and accept the Torah anew.
Upon their arrival in Israel, the question of how to observe the holiday arose. On the one hand, the dream of return had been fulfilled, but on the other, the Temple is still missing and redemption has not yet arrived. In addition, the challenge of rejoining the Jewish people, with the evolution of the oral law in their absence, added extra significance to the Sigd tradition of annually renewing the commitment to the Torah as well.
"The Lord will bring back a remnant of his people...returning them to the land of Israel from Assyria, Lower Egypt, Upper Egypt, Ethiopia, Elam, Babylonia, Hamath, and all the distant coastlands" (Isaiah 11:11)
Now, Ethiopian Jews from all over Israel gather at Jerusalem's Armon HaNetziv Promenade, where a stage is erected and Kessim read passages and prayers in Ge’ez, the language reserved for scripture. Native-born Israelis and Amharic-speaking grandparents come together to observe the holiday. Some remember Sigd back in Ethiopia and others recount the event as though they were there, having been told of it by their parents and grandparents.
Absorption Minister Ze’ev Boim (Kadima) addressed the worshippers, expressing his hope that like the Moroccan holiday of Mimouna, which takes place immediately following Passover, Sigd would one day become a holiday in which all of Israel will take part.
Yaakov (Jejo) Tala manned a table down the promenade from the stage filled with tefillin, phylacteries, which he helped visitors place on their heads and forearms, with the blessings written out in both Hebrew and Amharic. “We are making great efforts to help the young generation understand the older generation – their traditions, heritage, and the depth of our unique Jewish traditions, while facilitating a return to mainstream Judaism at the same time,” he explains. “It is very difficult, but a holiday like Sigd embodies Beta Israel's traditions and they unite us with all of Israel.”
The young man, a yeshiva student, says that a number of cultural forces compete for the minds of young Beta Israel men and women, who are not always given the oppurtunity to receive a Jewish education, even in the State of Israel.
Tala says he agrees with Boim and hopes that Sigd can both add to the fabric of Jewish life in Israel, and maintain the exquisite nature of the Ethiopian Jewish narrative within that patchwork tapestry. “It is great to see Israelis joining in the celebration here. It really warms my heart,” he says.
On the stage, Kessim recite prayers as older women in the crowd close their eyes and hold their hands up toward Heaven. Large denomination shekel bills are handed up to the stage from the crowd for charity, and people scramble to get a handful of Jerusalem dirt being handed out by the elderly Kessim holding colorful umbrellas and wearing traditional garb.
Nesya Raanan was born in Israel, but she describes Sigd in Ethiopia as though she has observed it each year of her life. “It was awesome,” she says – catching herself. “What do I mean ‘It was awesome’ – I was never there – but I feel like I was.”
Nesya Raanan is part of the Society For the Protection of Nature in Israel in an area with many Beta Israel. She holds a poster encouraging young people to get involved in telling the story of Sigd.
Though she is wearing a shirt from the Society For the Protection of Nature in Israel and distributing information about protecting the environment, Raanan is more than happy to tell and retell the story of Sigd in the first person to anyone who asks. “Once the Kessim came down from the mountain,” she describes, “cows would be slaughtered and placed on the fire. Meanwhile, everybody would dance like crazy even though they were fasting, until the food was ready.”
Below the promenade, on a grassy area, young members of the Beta Israel community relax, sitting in groups and talking. Others dance wildly with members of the B’nei Akiva youth group, singing songs in Amharic and Hebrew. A large number of the young people are IDF soldiers, who received a dispensation from the army to ascend to Jerusalem for the holiday.
Beta Israel members of the IDF Navy, given the day off to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
A booth was set up inviting people to study the meaning of the prayers recited by the Kessim during the holiday. The prayers are in Ge’ez, a language reserved for prayer and scripture and only understood by the Kessim. Manning the booth is Shoshana ben-Dor, an English-speaking woman who is not from the Beta Israel community but wears Ethiopian tradition dress and is a scholar in the realm of Ethiopian Jewry.
Young Ethiopians, enter the booth and Ben-Dor hands them Hebrew translations of selected prayers.
“Come, we shall bow down, pray, sing, bless and sanctify our Father, Creator of Heaven and Earth,” one prayer begins. “We shall bow within the sanctuary of Your Holy Temple, though we now bow in our hearts. All creations in the world will prostrate and thank You. Amen, Amen.”
Shoshana Ben-Dor offers to go over the Kessim's prayers with young members of the community unfamiliar with Ge'ez, the language used by the Kesim.
Young Ethiopian men and women stop by the entrance of the booth and Ben-Dor offers to go through the booklet with them. Many take her up on it. “I sat for an hour with one young man,” she said.
Ben-Dor worries about Minister Boim’s comments about popularizing the holiday. “If he means that Sigd should become just a day of revelry for Israeli society, then I think that would be a tragedy,” she says. “But if he shares my hope that all Jews be allowed to share and embrace this incredible tradition, which embodies the integration of the yearning for redemption and commitment to the Torah, then I agree with him 100 percent.”
Arutz Sheva
11.24.2006
Thursday, November 23, 2006
A Call To Repentance ~ By Dave Hunt
It is now nearly 500 years since October 31, 1517. We need a new Reformation—this time more biblical and thorough. We are drowning in “political correctness.” Having changed from a president who couldn’t define “is,” we have one who persists in calling Islam “peace” in the face of mountains of evidence to the contrary. What the Bible clearly calls sin is whitewashed as “alternate” styles of living. Nothing is wrong, so nothing is right. The church has joined the world, the gospel has been compromised, and we think God doesn’t care. Elijah’s words come across 3,000 years of history to rebuke us as he did Israel:
How long halt ye between two opinions? If the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. (1 Ki 18:21)
More than 90 percent of Americans claim to believe in God. About 80 percent call themselves Christians. But when asked to define God, the answers range from “Mother Earth” to a “higher power.” Even many who claim to be born again deny that Jesus Christ is the “only way to God.” About 70 percent of Americans, 64 percent who call themselves born again, and 40 percent of self-proclaimed evangelicals reject the idea of absolute truth. And most of those who claim to believe in absolutes have fallen victims to a universal reluctance to speak the truth.
In a prophetic description of our day, God warned: “And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter....And he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him...” (Is 59:14,15).
Even the church has forgotten that the God of the Bible is “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Ex 3:15,16, and 11 more times). No matter what one thinks of Jews, God chose them as a “special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth” (Dt 7:6), the “apple of His eye” (Dt 32:10; Lam 2:18; Zec 2:8). He gave them the land of Canaan “from the river of Egypt unto...the river Euphrates” (Gn 15:18) to be their “everlasting possession” (Gn 17:7,8;
1 Chr 16:16-18, etc.), promising that Israel’s latter end would be better than her beginning (Ezk 36:8-38; 37:21-28, etc.), and that she would never cease to be a nation (Jer 31:35,36). He declared that the land of Israel was His land never to be sold (Lv 25:23) and that all nations would be punished for dividing His land (Joel 3:2). This is God’s Word! World leaders (including professing Christians, President Bush and Condoleezza Rice) have openly defied God by dividing His land, giving most of it to Arabs who fraudulently call themselves “Palestinians,” claiming that Israel is occupying their land. In fact, they have stolen land God gave to Israel. (See Judgment Day.)
Forgotten is God’s promise to Abraham: “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Gn 12:3). Both the world and the church have spurned this promised blessing and are calling God’s curse upon themselves for their treatment of Israel! We call upon Western leaders and Muslims to repent of their atheism, false gods, and rebellion. God might then have mercy on today’s world as He did on Nineveh.
Like politicians, religious leaders, too, defy God. In 2002, D. James Kennedy, R.C. Sproul, and dozens of others declared that Israel has no special title to land in the Middle East, having been replaced by the church. They claimed that all of God’s “land promises specific to Israel in the Old Testament were fulfilled under Joshua.” One trembles at their defiance of God, who has said: “Behold, the days come...that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, the LORD liveth, which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land” (Jer 23:7,8).
The obvious fulfillment of such promises today (not in Joshua’s day) rebukes those who say that the church has replaced Israel! In the last 60 years, Jews have returned by the millions to Israel from more than 100 nations. Those who deny God’s promises to Israel for today need to repent!
It is shocking how many Christian organizations oppose Israel. We have exposed Bob Finley, Christian Aid Mission’s founder, with anti-Semitic revision of history, lies against Israel—even blaming her for Muslim terrorism and exonerating Islamic murderers of Israeli women and children. (See Q&A Jan ’03.) The Mennonite Central Committee, having worked in “Palestine” for more than 50 years, has nothing good to say about Israel, whom it condemns for its “occupation” of Palestine and for its “58-year-old denial of fundamental rights for nearly seven million Palestinian refugees”—a false accusation.
World Vision (WV) is one of the largest Christian relief and development organizations in the world, with a budget of $1 billion. WV helps “Palestinians” but not Israel, for whom it has nothing but criticism. Nearly 3,000 of its 22,500 staff don’t even pretend to be Christians. Many are Muslims. WV says, “They share our values.” What does that mean? Isn’t the gospel of Christ, which alone brings salvation, the greatest blessing WV could bring anywhere? But WV doesn’t share the gospel. How could it? Material aid is given, but neglected is Christ’s warning that to gain the whole world and lose one’s soul is to lose all! World Vision needs to repent or stop pretending to represent Christ.
Christians seem prone to jump on every folly invented by “science” for doomsayers and publicity-seekers. Christian leaders are joining the “global warming” hoax to support Gaia, or Mother Earth. Yet Earth was probably far warmer before the flood, when life flourished as never since; there was a Medieval Warm Period AD 800-1300; Earth has been both colder and warmer than now in the last 100 years; and as recently as 1940-1975, the warnings were all about the coming ice age.
A network of evangelical leaders recently issued an urgent warning about global warming titled, “Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action.” It was signed by more than 20 NAE board members and about 80 other Christian leaders, most of them heads of Christian colleges, denominations, or other organizations (among them Timothy George, Jack Hayford, Duane Litfin, Brian McLaren, David Neff, Ron Sider, Jim Wallis, Rick Warren, and Thomas Wang). It echoes Al Gore’s one-sided film, An Inconvenient Truth, widely refuted by climatologists. Those interested should read the speech delivered by Senator James Inhofe on the Senate floor September 25, 2006 (http://epw.senate.gov/speechitem.cfm?party=rep&id=263759).
Paul warned Timothy (and us today) that the faith would be opposed by false “science”: “avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: which some professing have erred concerning the faith” (1 Tm 6:20,21). The theories of local flood advocates and theistic evolutionists have invaded our Christian colleges, churches, and media. This is false “science” opposing God’s truth, and it has so much biblical and scientific evidence against it that supporters ought to be ashamed and repent.
The Bible states: “the mountains were covered...all in whose nostrils was the breath of life...died....Every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground” (Gn 7:20-23, etc.); “the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished” (2 Pt 3:6). Yet John Stott writes, “The flood seems to have been a comparatively local—though widespread—disaster,” and Billy Graham agrees.
Evolution has been thoroughly refuted by true science. (See In Six Days and In the Beginning in Resource Pages). Theistic evolution (“Progressive Creationism”) slanders God’s character by having Him use such a cruel, inefficient, and tedious method of “creation.” Yet Hugh Ross writes, “[M]y acceptance of Adam and Eve as historical is not incompatible with my belief that several forms of pre-Adamic ‘hominid’ seem to have existed for thousands of years previously....It is conceivable that God created Adam out of one of them....”
So Christ’s mother may have been descended from primal slime and soulless brutes as even John Ankerberg (like Graham and Dobson) apparently believes? The Bible declares that death entered the world through Adam’s sin (Rom 5:12), not through “natural selection,” which filled the earth with dead bodies before Adam “evolved.” Those who hold this wicked theory need to repent on their faces before the Creator!
We have previously referred to the Renovaré Spiritual Formation Bible, touted as “THE BIBLE AS IT WAS INTENDED TO BE” in a two-thirds-page ad in Christianity Today (Jul ’05), next to the masthead declaring that Billy Graham was the founder and J.I. Packer one of the Executive Editors. In its notes, 50 “biblical scholars” declare that the first 11 chapters of Genesis, foundational to the entire Bible, came from “Near Eastern religious narrative and mythology [and] were reshaped with monotheistic intent”! Yet Jesus and the apostles referred to Adam and Eve, the creation, and the flood as historical (Mt 19:4, 24:38; Mk 10:6; 13:19; Lk 17:26-32; Rom 1:20, 5:14; 1 Cor 15:22, 45-47; Col 1:16; 1 Tm 2:13; Heb 1:10, 9:4, 11:7; 1 Pt 3:20; 2 Pt 2:5,6; Jude 1:14, etc.).
The Renovaré “scholars” treat Israel as replaced by the church, consider the prophets as poets, deny that the Pentateuch was written by Moses, Isaiah by Isaiah, Daniel by Daniel, etc. But Jesus and the apostles treated all of the Bible as inspired of God (Mt 12:40, 42, 23:35; Lk 24:27, 44,45; Rom 15:4; 2 Tm 3:15-17; 2 Pt 1:19-21, etc.). Renovaré downplays the powerful Old Testament prophecies, which are the foundation of the faith and vital to the salvation of mankind—even denying that Isaiah 53 foretells Christ’s sufferings for our sins! The contributors, endorsers, and those who read this “Bible” need to fall on their faces and repent for their mockery of God’s Holy Word!
Christian publishers began to put profits ahead of sound doctrine, made a lot of money by giving readers what they wanted instead of the biblical truth they needed, then sold out to the world monetarily as they already had spiritually. Zondervan is now owned by Fox News and Rupert Murdoch, twice knighted by the past pope and a member of the Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great. He has consistently made TV shows aimed at destroying the family and pursues his godless ambitions through a vast empire, of which “Christian publishing” has become one part. Murdoch published The Purpose-Driven Life, and Rick Warren has claimed to be his pastor.1 We don’t have space to name other major “Christian” publishers who have also sold out to the world (see TBC Extra Page Aug ’06). It is too late to stop this trend now.
The Roman Catholic Church has been in apostasy for 1,300 years while persecuting and killing true Christians. It has never repented of this evil. Though it proclaims a false gospel of indulgences, Christ being sacrificed in a wafer over and over, and prayers to Mary and the “saints” for salvation, it is now enjoying the support of leading evangelicals in a way that would have shocked true Christians only 50 years ago. Those involved in this seduction of lost souls need to repent in deep sorrow.
Nearly 50 years ago, Billy Graham declared, “Anyone who makes a decision at our meetings is...referred to a local clergyman—Protestant, Catholic or Jewish.”2
For more than 50 years, Billy has affirmed Roman Catholicism as the true gospel and has sent Roman Catholics who come forward at his crusades back to the Catholic churches they had left. Billy praised John Paul II as a preacher of the true gospel3 and declared that he and the Pope agreed on almost everything. Yet John Paul II (as does his Church), looked to Mary instead of Christ for salvation. In his Last Will and Testament of March 6, 1979, he entrusted “that decisive moment [of death] to the Mother of Christ and of the Church [and] of my hope....” His Apostolic Letter of October 16, 2002, ended thus:
O Blessed Rosary of Mary...our comfort in the hour of death: yours our final kiss as life ebbs away...the last word from our lips will be your sweet name...O Refuge of Sinners....
Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptists’ Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, praised John Paul II’s “staunch defense of traditional Christian faith....”4 Pat Robertson enthused, “Pope John Paul II stands like a rock...in his clear enunciation of the foundational principles of the Christian faith.”5 Jack Van Impe hailed the Pope as a staunch defender of the faith and calls the Catechism of the Catholic Church biblical.
Billy Graham has praised Bishop Fulton Sheen as the “greatest communicator of the 20th century,”6 Though Sheen preached a false gospel, and his hope of heaven was that Mary would let him in because of his 40 pilgrimages to Marian shrines at Fatima and Lourdes,7
Graham expressed his gratitude to Sheen “for his ministry and his focus on Christ.”8 When Sheen died, Billy said, “I...look forward to our reunion in heaven.”9
J.I. Packer, a signatory to “Evangelicals and Catholics Together,” who called John Paul II “a fine Christian man,”10 had already many years ago declared, “Catholics are among the most loyal and virile brothers evangelicals can find these days.”11 As early as 1992, in The Body, Chuck Colson called for ecumenical union with Rome. Likewise John Stott has said, “Evangelicals should join...in working toward full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.”12 These men and many others need to repent for endorsing a false gospel that has led multitudes to hell.
There are so many false prophets on radio and TV (most of them on TBN) that we couldn’t begin to name them all. The most popular today is Benny Hinn, praised by evangelical leaders (including Jerry Falwell). Hinn’s false prophecies are too many to recite. One is enough: on December 31, 1989, claiming that he was in the very throne room of God, Hinn declared: “The Lord also tells me...about ’94 or ’95, no later than that, God will destroy the homosexual community of America...by fire....”13 It didn’t happen. Yet the more false prophecies he utters, the larger Hinn’s following grows and the louder do Paul Crouch and his TBN dupes praise him.
Robert Schuller said that if all of his descendants became Muslims, it would not bother him. Multitudes who call themselves Christians and are not have heaped to themselves false teachers who tell them what they want to hear.
Some of the worst heretics and practitioners of the occult, while claiming to be Christians, have gotten together in what they call the Chrysostom Society. It began with Richard Foster, Calvin Miller, and Karen Mains, joined later by Eugene Peterson. “They felt it was really important to just get together, write together, and believe in each other as practitioners of a craft to the glory of God.”14 It is a “craft,” all right.
Truth has been assassinated by political correctness, the gospel has fallen victim to “we must not offend other religions,” God is being mocked, and eternal souls are being robbed of the salvation that is only in Jesus Christ. That tragedy prevails in nearly all churches. Let us weep and repent for the church, for our country, for ourselves, and speak the truth in love. TBC
Endnotes
1. Marc Gunther, Fortune Magazine, October 31, 2005.
2. San Francisco News, November 11, 1957.
3. Saturday Evening Post, January/February 1980.
4. Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service, April 11, 2005.
5. Pat Robertson, The Turning Tide (Word, 1993), 279.
6. Ad for Sheen Gems: The Best of Fulton J. Sheen video, vol 1-2, quoting Billy Graham.
7. The Woman I Love video (Clifton, NJ: Keep the Faith).
8. Billy Graham, Just As I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham (HarperSanFrancisco/Zondervan, 1997), 692-93.
9. Nashua Telegram, December 10, 1979.
10. Take Heed Ministries, Belfast Northern Ireland, March 1999.
11. Christianity Today, May 17, 1985.
12. Arthur Johnston, Battle for World Evangelism (Tyndale House Publishers, 1978), 328.
13. G. Richard Fisher and M. Kurt Goedelman, The Confusing World of Benny Hinn (St. Louis, MO: Personal Freedom Outreach, 2002), 199-200.
14. Mars Hill Review, 1995, “A Conversation with Eugene Peterson.”
How long halt ye between two opinions? If the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. (1 Ki 18:21)
More than 90 percent of Americans claim to believe in God. About 80 percent call themselves Christians. But when asked to define God, the answers range from “Mother Earth” to a “higher power.” Even many who claim to be born again deny that Jesus Christ is the “only way to God.” About 70 percent of Americans, 64 percent who call themselves born again, and 40 percent of self-proclaimed evangelicals reject the idea of absolute truth. And most of those who claim to believe in absolutes have fallen victims to a universal reluctance to speak the truth.
In a prophetic description of our day, God warned: “And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter....And he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him...” (Is 59:14,15).
Even the church has forgotten that the God of the Bible is “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Ex 3:15,16, and 11 more times). No matter what one thinks of Jews, God chose them as a “special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth” (Dt 7:6), the “apple of His eye” (Dt 32:10; Lam 2:18; Zec 2:8). He gave them the land of Canaan “from the river of Egypt unto...the river Euphrates” (Gn 15:18) to be their “everlasting possession” (Gn 17:7,8;
1 Chr 16:16-18, etc.), promising that Israel’s latter end would be better than her beginning (Ezk 36:8-38; 37:21-28, etc.), and that she would never cease to be a nation (Jer 31:35,36). He declared that the land of Israel was His land never to be sold (Lv 25:23) and that all nations would be punished for dividing His land (Joel 3:2). This is God’s Word! World leaders (including professing Christians, President Bush and Condoleezza Rice) have openly defied God by dividing His land, giving most of it to Arabs who fraudulently call themselves “Palestinians,” claiming that Israel is occupying their land. In fact, they have stolen land God gave to Israel. (See Judgment Day.)
Forgotten is God’s promise to Abraham: “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Gn 12:3). Both the world and the church have spurned this promised blessing and are calling God’s curse upon themselves for their treatment of Israel! We call upon Western leaders and Muslims to repent of their atheism, false gods, and rebellion. God might then have mercy on today’s world as He did on Nineveh.
Like politicians, religious leaders, too, defy God. In 2002, D. James Kennedy, R.C. Sproul, and dozens of others declared that Israel has no special title to land in the Middle East, having been replaced by the church. They claimed that all of God’s “land promises specific to Israel in the Old Testament were fulfilled under Joshua.” One trembles at their defiance of God, who has said: “Behold, the days come...that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, the LORD liveth, which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land” (Jer 23:7,8).
The obvious fulfillment of such promises today (not in Joshua’s day) rebukes those who say that the church has replaced Israel! In the last 60 years, Jews have returned by the millions to Israel from more than 100 nations. Those who deny God’s promises to Israel for today need to repent!
It is shocking how many Christian organizations oppose Israel. We have exposed Bob Finley, Christian Aid Mission’s founder, with anti-Semitic revision of history, lies against Israel—even blaming her for Muslim terrorism and exonerating Islamic murderers of Israeli women and children. (See Q&A Jan ’03.) The Mennonite Central Committee, having worked in “Palestine” for more than 50 years, has nothing good to say about Israel, whom it condemns for its “occupation” of Palestine and for its “58-year-old denial of fundamental rights for nearly seven million Palestinian refugees”—a false accusation.
World Vision (WV) is one of the largest Christian relief and development organizations in the world, with a budget of $1 billion. WV helps “Palestinians” but not Israel, for whom it has nothing but criticism. Nearly 3,000 of its 22,500 staff don’t even pretend to be Christians. Many are Muslims. WV says, “They share our values.” What does that mean? Isn’t the gospel of Christ, which alone brings salvation, the greatest blessing WV could bring anywhere? But WV doesn’t share the gospel. How could it? Material aid is given, but neglected is Christ’s warning that to gain the whole world and lose one’s soul is to lose all! World Vision needs to repent or stop pretending to represent Christ.
Christians seem prone to jump on every folly invented by “science” for doomsayers and publicity-seekers. Christian leaders are joining the “global warming” hoax to support Gaia, or Mother Earth. Yet Earth was probably far warmer before the flood, when life flourished as never since; there was a Medieval Warm Period AD 800-1300; Earth has been both colder and warmer than now in the last 100 years; and as recently as 1940-1975, the warnings were all about the coming ice age.
A network of evangelical leaders recently issued an urgent warning about global warming titled, “Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action.” It was signed by more than 20 NAE board members and about 80 other Christian leaders, most of them heads of Christian colleges, denominations, or other organizations (among them Timothy George, Jack Hayford, Duane Litfin, Brian McLaren, David Neff, Ron Sider, Jim Wallis, Rick Warren, and Thomas Wang). It echoes Al Gore’s one-sided film, An Inconvenient Truth, widely refuted by climatologists. Those interested should read the speech delivered by Senator James Inhofe on the Senate floor September 25, 2006 (http://epw.senate.gov/speechitem.cfm?party=rep&id=263759).
Paul warned Timothy (and us today) that the faith would be opposed by false “science”: “avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: which some professing have erred concerning the faith” (1 Tm 6:20,21). The theories of local flood advocates and theistic evolutionists have invaded our Christian colleges, churches, and media. This is false “science” opposing God’s truth, and it has so much biblical and scientific evidence against it that supporters ought to be ashamed and repent.
The Bible states: “the mountains were covered...all in whose nostrils was the breath of life...died....Every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground” (Gn 7:20-23, etc.); “the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished” (2 Pt 3:6). Yet John Stott writes, “The flood seems to have been a comparatively local—though widespread—disaster,” and Billy Graham agrees.
Evolution has been thoroughly refuted by true science. (See In Six Days and In the Beginning in Resource Pages). Theistic evolution (“Progressive Creationism”) slanders God’s character by having Him use such a cruel, inefficient, and tedious method of “creation.” Yet Hugh Ross writes, “[M]y acceptance of Adam and Eve as historical is not incompatible with my belief that several forms of pre-Adamic ‘hominid’ seem to have existed for thousands of years previously....It is conceivable that God created Adam out of one of them....”
So Christ’s mother may have been descended from primal slime and soulless brutes as even John Ankerberg (like Graham and Dobson) apparently believes? The Bible declares that death entered the world through Adam’s sin (Rom 5:12), not through “natural selection,” which filled the earth with dead bodies before Adam “evolved.” Those who hold this wicked theory need to repent on their faces before the Creator!
We have previously referred to the Renovaré Spiritual Formation Bible, touted as “THE BIBLE AS IT WAS INTENDED TO BE” in a two-thirds-page ad in Christianity Today (Jul ’05), next to the masthead declaring that Billy Graham was the founder and J.I. Packer one of the Executive Editors. In its notes, 50 “biblical scholars” declare that the first 11 chapters of Genesis, foundational to the entire Bible, came from “Near Eastern religious narrative and mythology [and] were reshaped with monotheistic intent”! Yet Jesus and the apostles referred to Adam and Eve, the creation, and the flood as historical (Mt 19:4, 24:38; Mk 10:6; 13:19; Lk 17:26-32; Rom 1:20, 5:14; 1 Cor 15:22, 45-47; Col 1:16; 1 Tm 2:13; Heb 1:10, 9:4, 11:7; 1 Pt 3:20; 2 Pt 2:5,6; Jude 1:14, etc.).
The Renovaré “scholars” treat Israel as replaced by the church, consider the prophets as poets, deny that the Pentateuch was written by Moses, Isaiah by Isaiah, Daniel by Daniel, etc. But Jesus and the apostles treated all of the Bible as inspired of God (Mt 12:40, 42, 23:35; Lk 24:27, 44,45; Rom 15:4; 2 Tm 3:15-17; 2 Pt 1:19-21, etc.). Renovaré downplays the powerful Old Testament prophecies, which are the foundation of the faith and vital to the salvation of mankind—even denying that Isaiah 53 foretells Christ’s sufferings for our sins! The contributors, endorsers, and those who read this “Bible” need to fall on their faces and repent for their mockery of God’s Holy Word!
Christian publishers began to put profits ahead of sound doctrine, made a lot of money by giving readers what they wanted instead of the biblical truth they needed, then sold out to the world monetarily as they already had spiritually. Zondervan is now owned by Fox News and Rupert Murdoch, twice knighted by the past pope and a member of the Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great. He has consistently made TV shows aimed at destroying the family and pursues his godless ambitions through a vast empire, of which “Christian publishing” has become one part. Murdoch published The Purpose-Driven Life, and Rick Warren has claimed to be his pastor.1 We don’t have space to name other major “Christian” publishers who have also sold out to the world (see TBC Extra Page Aug ’06). It is too late to stop this trend now.
The Roman Catholic Church has been in apostasy for 1,300 years while persecuting and killing true Christians. It has never repented of this evil. Though it proclaims a false gospel of indulgences, Christ being sacrificed in a wafer over and over, and prayers to Mary and the “saints” for salvation, it is now enjoying the support of leading evangelicals in a way that would have shocked true Christians only 50 years ago. Those involved in this seduction of lost souls need to repent in deep sorrow.
Nearly 50 years ago, Billy Graham declared, “Anyone who makes a decision at our meetings is...referred to a local clergyman—Protestant, Catholic or Jewish.”2
For more than 50 years, Billy has affirmed Roman Catholicism as the true gospel and has sent Roman Catholics who come forward at his crusades back to the Catholic churches they had left. Billy praised John Paul II as a preacher of the true gospel3 and declared that he and the Pope agreed on almost everything. Yet John Paul II (as does his Church), looked to Mary instead of Christ for salvation. In his Last Will and Testament of March 6, 1979, he entrusted “that decisive moment [of death] to the Mother of Christ and of the Church [and] of my hope....” His Apostolic Letter of October 16, 2002, ended thus:
O Blessed Rosary of Mary...our comfort in the hour of death: yours our final kiss as life ebbs away...the last word from our lips will be your sweet name...O Refuge of Sinners....
Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptists’ Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, praised John Paul II’s “staunch defense of traditional Christian faith....”4 Pat Robertson enthused, “Pope John Paul II stands like a rock...in his clear enunciation of the foundational principles of the Christian faith.”5 Jack Van Impe hailed the Pope as a staunch defender of the faith and calls the Catechism of the Catholic Church biblical.
Billy Graham has praised Bishop Fulton Sheen as the “greatest communicator of the 20th century,”6 Though Sheen preached a false gospel, and his hope of heaven was that Mary would let him in because of his 40 pilgrimages to Marian shrines at Fatima and Lourdes,7
Graham expressed his gratitude to Sheen “for his ministry and his focus on Christ.”8 When Sheen died, Billy said, “I...look forward to our reunion in heaven.”9
J.I. Packer, a signatory to “Evangelicals and Catholics Together,” who called John Paul II “a fine Christian man,”10 had already many years ago declared, “Catholics are among the most loyal and virile brothers evangelicals can find these days.”11 As early as 1992, in The Body, Chuck Colson called for ecumenical union with Rome. Likewise John Stott has said, “Evangelicals should join...in working toward full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.”12 These men and many others need to repent for endorsing a false gospel that has led multitudes to hell.
There are so many false prophets on radio and TV (most of them on TBN) that we couldn’t begin to name them all. The most popular today is Benny Hinn, praised by evangelical leaders (including Jerry Falwell). Hinn’s false prophecies are too many to recite. One is enough: on December 31, 1989, claiming that he was in the very throne room of God, Hinn declared: “The Lord also tells me...about ’94 or ’95, no later than that, God will destroy the homosexual community of America...by fire....”13 It didn’t happen. Yet the more false prophecies he utters, the larger Hinn’s following grows and the louder do Paul Crouch and his TBN dupes praise him.
Robert Schuller said that if all of his descendants became Muslims, it would not bother him. Multitudes who call themselves Christians and are not have heaped to themselves false teachers who tell them what they want to hear.
Some of the worst heretics and practitioners of the occult, while claiming to be Christians, have gotten together in what they call the Chrysostom Society. It began with Richard Foster, Calvin Miller, and Karen Mains, joined later by Eugene Peterson. “They felt it was really important to just get together, write together, and believe in each other as practitioners of a craft to the glory of God.”14 It is a “craft,” all right.
Truth has been assassinated by political correctness, the gospel has fallen victim to “we must not offend other religions,” God is being mocked, and eternal souls are being robbed of the salvation that is only in Jesus Christ. That tragedy prevails in nearly all churches. Let us weep and repent for the church, for our country, for ourselves, and speak the truth in love. TBC
Endnotes
1. Marc Gunther, Fortune Magazine, October 31, 2005.
2. San Francisco News, November 11, 1957.
3. Saturday Evening Post, January/February 1980.
4. Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service, April 11, 2005.
5. Pat Robertson, The Turning Tide (Word, 1993), 279.
6. Ad for Sheen Gems: The Best of Fulton J. Sheen video, vol 1-2, quoting Billy Graham.
7. The Woman I Love video (Clifton, NJ: Keep the Faith).
8. Billy Graham, Just As I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham (HarperSanFrancisco/Zondervan, 1997), 692-93.
9. Nashua Telegram, December 10, 1979.
10. Take Heed Ministries, Belfast Northern Ireland, March 1999.
11. Christianity Today, May 17, 1985.
12. Arthur Johnston, Battle for World Evangelism (Tyndale House Publishers, 1978), 328.
13. G. Richard Fisher and M. Kurt Goedelman, The Confusing World of Benny Hinn (St. Louis, MO: Personal Freedom Outreach, 2002), 199-200.
14. Mars Hill Review, 1995, “A Conversation with Eugene Peterson.”
Arab Parade Of Shame
Imagine a giant march in Jerusalem led by Avigdor Lieberman, alongside his faction members, various religious clerics, and settlers – a proud Israeli public; determined masses. Now, imagine the outcry across the country had Lieberman uttered statements such as "We'll be stepping all over MK Ahmed Tibi", "We'll be meeting MK Sarsur below the ground."…imagine what band of hypocrites would have emerged and screamed out.
Amir Peretz would have called for promptly indicting Lieberman and would even threaten to dismantle the coalition. Zahava Gal-On would have submitted to interviews with any available media and called for banning the Israel Our Home party. The country would have been in turmoil for many days, and sensitive social groups would have organized huge left-wing protests, submitted complaints, and demanded an incisive investigation, with Lieberman's head on a platter the only conclusion that would have calmed all the harsh critics.
Of course, the scenario I just described never happened. The opposite is true. Last weekend, a group of Israel haters, people who seek to wipe Israel off the map and the sooner the better, marched in a giant parade. This group was led by none other than "friend of Israel" Sheikh Raad Salah, known for his great "affection" to the country. Along with him we saw Arab-Israeli Knesset members who earn NIS 32,000 (roughly USD 7,000) per month, funded by the Israeli taxpayer.
Treat Salah like a Jew
The picture was lovely, no doubt, pastoral even. Everyone came together, held each other's arms, and with fantastic coordination listened to Salah's call for eliminating Lieberman.
And make no mistake about it, there is no other interpretation to the words uttered there: "We had thousands of Liebermans – and they disappeared. They're lying below the ground. Beit Hanoun will become your cemetery." Those were the words uttered, with great enthusiasm, before thousands of marchers including a large number of Muslim fanatics who would gladly translate the slogans and threats to deeds.
Where are all the bleeding hearts now, I wonder? How is it that the defense minister went silent, and what about the noble nature of MK Galon? None of them saw fit to speak up and condemn those harsh words, uttered in that pathetic, hate-filled parade.
There were days where officials in the State of Israel would treat harsh incitement severely, and arrest any person who dared say something against late prime minister Rabin or who threatened to kill Arik Sharon. Legal officials would immediately utilize the incitement clause in the law or the one about murder threats, and that person would spend a long time undergoing interrogations and under arrest. And rightfully so. The Israeli Left knows how to condemn, attack, and incite against Jewish settlers whoever they may be.
Yet when it comes to the Arab-Israeli public, those same legal bodies are cautious, moderate, and considerate. They claim that the Arab community is deprived and that not enough has been done for this sector. Are the ministerial committees on Arab affairs not enough? The total disregard to illegal construction? The forgiveness displayed by the attorney general in the face of visits and meetings of Arab Knesset members in enemy countries?
It should be clear beyond any doubt: The marches and protests by Raad Salah and his gang constitute a grave danger to the State of Israel. The law should treat Arab MKs as it does Israelis who meet with the enemy in a hostile country. Salah should be treated under the law just like any Jew detained over suspicions of incitement and threats. There are cases where there's no room for Left or Right; any Israeli with just little sense of patriotism must stand by Lieberman and condemn this parade of shame.
The writer is a former Israel Police Major General and a Knesset member on behalf of Israel Our Home.
Gamla
11.23.2006
Amir Peretz would have called for promptly indicting Lieberman and would even threaten to dismantle the coalition. Zahava Gal-On would have submitted to interviews with any available media and called for banning the Israel Our Home party. The country would have been in turmoil for many days, and sensitive social groups would have organized huge left-wing protests, submitted complaints, and demanded an incisive investigation, with Lieberman's head on a platter the only conclusion that would have calmed all the harsh critics.
Of course, the scenario I just described never happened. The opposite is true. Last weekend, a group of Israel haters, people who seek to wipe Israel off the map and the sooner the better, marched in a giant parade. This group was led by none other than "friend of Israel" Sheikh Raad Salah, known for his great "affection" to the country. Along with him we saw Arab-Israeli Knesset members who earn NIS 32,000 (roughly USD 7,000) per month, funded by the Israeli taxpayer.
Treat Salah like a Jew
The picture was lovely, no doubt, pastoral even. Everyone came together, held each other's arms, and with fantastic coordination listened to Salah's call for eliminating Lieberman.
And make no mistake about it, there is no other interpretation to the words uttered there: "We had thousands of Liebermans – and they disappeared. They're lying below the ground. Beit Hanoun will become your cemetery." Those were the words uttered, with great enthusiasm, before thousands of marchers including a large number of Muslim fanatics who would gladly translate the slogans and threats to deeds.
Where are all the bleeding hearts now, I wonder? How is it that the defense minister went silent, and what about the noble nature of MK Galon? None of them saw fit to speak up and condemn those harsh words, uttered in that pathetic, hate-filled parade.
There were days where officials in the State of Israel would treat harsh incitement severely, and arrest any person who dared say something against late prime minister Rabin or who threatened to kill Arik Sharon. Legal officials would immediately utilize the incitement clause in the law or the one about murder threats, and that person would spend a long time undergoing interrogations and under arrest. And rightfully so. The Israeli Left knows how to condemn, attack, and incite against Jewish settlers whoever they may be.
Yet when it comes to the Arab-Israeli public, those same legal bodies are cautious, moderate, and considerate. They claim that the Arab community is deprived and that not enough has been done for this sector. Are the ministerial committees on Arab affairs not enough? The total disregard to illegal construction? The forgiveness displayed by the attorney general in the face of visits and meetings of Arab Knesset members in enemy countries?
It should be clear beyond any doubt: The marches and protests by Raad Salah and his gang constitute a grave danger to the State of Israel. The law should treat Arab MKs as it does Israelis who meet with the enemy in a hostile country. Salah should be treated under the law just like any Jew detained over suspicions of incitement and threats. There are cases where there's no room for Left or Right; any Israeli with just little sense of patriotism must stand by Lieberman and condemn this parade of shame.
The writer is a former Israel Police Major General and a Knesset member on behalf of Israel Our Home.
Gamla
11.23.2006
Arab Parade Of Shame
Imagine a giant march in Jerusalem led by Avigdor Lieberman, alongside his faction members, various religious clerics, and settlers – a proud Israeli public; determined masses. Now, imagine the outcry across the country had Lieberman uttered statements such as "We'll be stepping all over MK Ahmed Tibi", "We'll be meeting MK Sarsur below the ground."…imagine what band of hypocrites would have emerged and screamed out.
Amir Peretz would have called for promptly indicting Lieberman and would even threaten to dismantle the coalition. Zahava Gal-On would have submitted to interviews with any available media and called for banning the Israel Our Home party. The country would have been in turmoil for many days, and sensitive social groups would have organized huge left-wing protests, submitted complaints, and demanded an incisive investigation, with Lieberman's head on a platter the only conclusion that would have calmed all the harsh critics.
Of course, the scenario I just described never happened. The opposite is true. Last weekend, a group of Israel haters, people who seek to wipe Israel off the map and the sooner the better, marched in a giant parade. This group was led by none other than "friend of Israel" Sheikh Raad Salah, known for his great "affection" to the country. Along with him we saw Arab-Israeli Knesset members who earn NIS 32,000 (roughly USD 7,000) per month, funded by the Israeli taxpayer.
Treat Salah like a Jew
The picture was lovely, no doubt, pastoral even. Everyone came together, held each other's arms, and with fantastic coordination listened to Salah's call for eliminating Lieberman.
And make no mistake about it, there is no other interpretation to the words uttered there: "We had thousands of Liebermans – and they disappeared. They're lying below the ground. Beit Hanoun will become your cemetery." Those were the words uttered, with great enthusiasm, before thousands of marchers including a large number of Muslim fanatics who would gladly translate the slogans and threats to deeds.
Where are all the bleeding hearts now, I wonder? How is it that the defense minister went silent, and what about the noble nature of MK Galon? None of them saw fit to speak up and condemn those harsh words, uttered in that pathetic, hate-filled parade.
There were days where officials in the State of Israel would treat harsh incitement severely, and arrest any person who dared say something against late prime minister Rabin or who threatened to kill Arik Sharon. Legal officials would immediately utilize the incitement clause in the law or the one about murder threats, and that person would spend a long time undergoing interrogations and under arrest. And rightfully so. The Israeli Left knows how to condemn, attack, and incite against Jewish settlers whoever they may be.
Yet when it comes to the Arab-Israeli public, those same legal bodies are cautious, moderate, and considerate. They claim that the Arab community is deprived and that not enough has been done for this sector. Are the ministerial committees on Arab affairs not enough? The total disregard to illegal construction? The forgiveness displayed by the attorney general in the face of visits and meetings of Arab Knesset members in enemy countries?
It should be clear beyond any doubt: The marches and protests by Raad Salah and his gang constitute a grave danger to the State of Israel. The law should treat Arab MKs as it does Israelis who meet with the enemy in a hostile country. Salah should be treated under the law just like any Jew detained over suspicions of incitement and threats. There are cases where there's no room for Left or Right; any Israeli with just little sense of patriotism must stand by Lieberman and condemn this parade of shame.
The writer is a former Israel Police Major General and a Knesset member on behalf of Israel Our Home.
Gamla
11.23.2006
Amir Peretz would have called for promptly indicting Lieberman and would even threaten to dismantle the coalition. Zahava Gal-On would have submitted to interviews with any available media and called for banning the Israel Our Home party. The country would have been in turmoil for many days, and sensitive social groups would have organized huge left-wing protests, submitted complaints, and demanded an incisive investigation, with Lieberman's head on a platter the only conclusion that would have calmed all the harsh critics.
Of course, the scenario I just described never happened. The opposite is true. Last weekend, a group of Israel haters, people who seek to wipe Israel off the map and the sooner the better, marched in a giant parade. This group was led by none other than "friend of Israel" Sheikh Raad Salah, known for his great "affection" to the country. Along with him we saw Arab-Israeli Knesset members who earn NIS 32,000 (roughly USD 7,000) per month, funded by the Israeli taxpayer.
Treat Salah like a Jew
The picture was lovely, no doubt, pastoral even. Everyone came together, held each other's arms, and with fantastic coordination listened to Salah's call for eliminating Lieberman.
And make no mistake about it, there is no other interpretation to the words uttered there: "We had thousands of Liebermans – and they disappeared. They're lying below the ground. Beit Hanoun will become your cemetery." Those were the words uttered, with great enthusiasm, before thousands of marchers including a large number of Muslim fanatics who would gladly translate the slogans and threats to deeds.
Where are all the bleeding hearts now, I wonder? How is it that the defense minister went silent, and what about the noble nature of MK Galon? None of them saw fit to speak up and condemn those harsh words, uttered in that pathetic, hate-filled parade.
There were days where officials in the State of Israel would treat harsh incitement severely, and arrest any person who dared say something against late prime minister Rabin or who threatened to kill Arik Sharon. Legal officials would immediately utilize the incitement clause in the law or the one about murder threats, and that person would spend a long time undergoing interrogations and under arrest. And rightfully so. The Israeli Left knows how to condemn, attack, and incite against Jewish settlers whoever they may be.
Yet when it comes to the Arab-Israeli public, those same legal bodies are cautious, moderate, and considerate. They claim that the Arab community is deprived and that not enough has been done for this sector. Are the ministerial committees on Arab affairs not enough? The total disregard to illegal construction? The forgiveness displayed by the attorney general in the face of visits and meetings of Arab Knesset members in enemy countries?
It should be clear beyond any doubt: The marches and protests by Raad Salah and his gang constitute a grave danger to the State of Israel. The law should treat Arab MKs as it does Israelis who meet with the enemy in a hostile country. Salah should be treated under the law just like any Jew detained over suspicions of incitement and threats. There are cases where there's no room for Left or Right; any Israeli with just little sense of patriotism must stand by Lieberman and condemn this parade of shame.
The writer is a former Israel Police Major General and a Knesset member on behalf of Israel Our Home.
Gamla
11.23.2006
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Members Of A ´Lost Tribe of Israel´ Return to Zion
Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion Airport was the setting for an emotional homecoming Tuesday morning, when the first planeload of 51 Bnei Menashe immigrants arrived here on an El Al flight from Bombay.
The Jewish Agency, headed by Ze'ev Bielski, will oversee the community's arrival in the Jewish state, as well as various aspects of its absorption in the country. The newcomers are moving into absorption centers in the northern Israeli towns of Karmiel and Upper Nazareth. The youngest of the Bnei Menashe immigrants who arrived today is a two-week-old infant, while the oldest is an 84-year-old grandmother.
Welcome!
A sub-group of the Shinlung tribe, who reside in the northeastern Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, near the border with Burma and Bangladesh, the Bnei Menashe claim descent from the tribe of Menashe (Manasseh), one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel exiled by the Assyrians over 2,700 years ago. A legendary ancestor of theirs, known variously as Manmasi, Manasseh or Menasia, is identified among the Bnei Menashe as the Biblical Manasseh son of Joseph. In addition, the community has several traditions strongly indicative of Israelite origins.
Last year, at the initiative of the Jerusalem-based Shavei Israel organization, Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar formally recognized the Bnei Menashe as "descendants of Israel," and later sent a rabbinical court to India to oversee their process of return to the Jewish people. The court formally converted 218 Bnei Menashe back to Judaism, including those who arrived in Israel this morning. The remainder will be making Aliyah (immigrating) in the coming days, making it the largest group of Bnei Menashe ever to come to Israel at once. While ensuring the right of any Indian citizen to emigrate freely, and while recognizing the Bnei Menashe as Jews, Indian authorities expressed opposition to the mass conversion carried out in their territory.
Over the past decade, nearly 1,000 members of the community have moved to Israel, thanks largely to the efforts of Shavei Israel. Up until three years ago, a total of 100 Bnei Menashe were allowed to come to Israel each year as tourists, where they would study towards conversion before obtaining Israeli citizenship. But in June 2003, then-Interior Minister Avraham Poraz, of the radically secularist Shinui party, decided to freeze the Bnei Menashe Aliyah. Minister Poraz's move prompted Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund to turn to Israel's Chief Rabbinate, thereby paving the way for the group's return.
Another 7,000 Bnei Menashe remain in India, awaiting permission from the Israeli government to move here, but Freund is optimistic that they too will eventually be allowed to come.
"It was an incredibly moving experience," Freund said, having spent the Sabbath with the group in Bombay and accompanied the immigrants on the flight to Israel this morning. "After so many years of obstacles and impediments, we are at last witnessing the resumption of the Bnei Menashe's return to their ancestral homeland, the Land of Israel. The Aliyah of the Bnei Menashe is nothing less than a miracle," said Freund. "No human being can stand in the way of the Divine plan for Israel, and however bleak things might appear to be, we can take comfort in the fact that the return of the Jewish people from the four corners of the Earth continues to unfold."
Arutz Sheva
11.22.2006
The Jewish Agency, headed by Ze'ev Bielski, will oversee the community's arrival in the Jewish state, as well as various aspects of its absorption in the country. The newcomers are moving into absorption centers in the northern Israeli towns of Karmiel and Upper Nazareth. The youngest of the Bnei Menashe immigrants who arrived today is a two-week-old infant, while the oldest is an 84-year-old grandmother.
Welcome!
A sub-group of the Shinlung tribe, who reside in the northeastern Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, near the border with Burma and Bangladesh, the Bnei Menashe claim descent from the tribe of Menashe (Manasseh), one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel exiled by the Assyrians over 2,700 years ago. A legendary ancestor of theirs, known variously as Manmasi, Manasseh or Menasia, is identified among the Bnei Menashe as the Biblical Manasseh son of Joseph. In addition, the community has several traditions strongly indicative of Israelite origins.
Last year, at the initiative of the Jerusalem-based Shavei Israel organization, Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar formally recognized the Bnei Menashe as "descendants of Israel," and later sent a rabbinical court to India to oversee their process of return to the Jewish people. The court formally converted 218 Bnei Menashe back to Judaism, including those who arrived in Israel this morning. The remainder will be making Aliyah (immigrating) in the coming days, making it the largest group of Bnei Menashe ever to come to Israel at once. While ensuring the right of any Indian citizen to emigrate freely, and while recognizing the Bnei Menashe as Jews, Indian authorities expressed opposition to the mass conversion carried out in their territory.
Over the past decade, nearly 1,000 members of the community have moved to Israel, thanks largely to the efforts of Shavei Israel. Up until three years ago, a total of 100 Bnei Menashe were allowed to come to Israel each year as tourists, where they would study towards conversion before obtaining Israeli citizenship. But in June 2003, then-Interior Minister Avraham Poraz, of the radically secularist Shinui party, decided to freeze the Bnei Menashe Aliyah. Minister Poraz's move prompted Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund to turn to Israel's Chief Rabbinate, thereby paving the way for the group's return.
Another 7,000 Bnei Menashe remain in India, awaiting permission from the Israeli government to move here, but Freund is optimistic that they too will eventually be allowed to come.
"It was an incredibly moving experience," Freund said, having spent the Sabbath with the group in Bombay and accompanied the immigrants on the flight to Israel this morning. "After so many years of obstacles and impediments, we are at last witnessing the resumption of the Bnei Menashe's return to their ancestral homeland, the Land of Israel. The Aliyah of the Bnei Menashe is nothing less than a miracle," said Freund. "No human being can stand in the way of the Divine plan for Israel, and however bleak things might appear to be, we can take comfort in the fact that the return of the Jewish people from the four corners of the Earth continues to unfold."
Arutz Sheva
11.22.2006
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Police Foil Planned Terror Attack On El Al Plane
Six people were under investigation in Germany on Monday over an alleged terrorist plot to blow up an El Al aircraft.
The six, as well as other people who have not yet been identified, are believed to have begun preparations for an attack on behalf of "so far unknown" terrorist backers, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
Several of the accused approached a person with security clearance at an unidentified airport last summer, the statement said. That person agreed to smuggle a case or bag containing explosives onto a plane in an exchange for an unspecified payment, it added.
Prosecutors said some of the accused then contacted the plot's alleged backers, but were unable to agree on the value of the promised reward.
A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the matter, said the plot was centered on the Frankfurt airport and the intention apparently was to attack a plane belonging to El Al.
An El Al spokeswoman in Israel declined to comment.
Three of the suspects were apprehended in Hesse state, where the airport is located, the official said.
The six, who could face charges of belonging to or supporting a terrorist organization, were temporarily detained on Friday, but five of them were released Saturday after questioning. The remaining suspect was kept in custody over an unrelated matter.
Under German law, authorities must release suspects after a maximum of 48 hours unless they have enough evidence to convince a judge that they can be held in long-term investigative custody.
Prosecutors would not elaborate on the circumstances of the ongoing case, nor give any more details about the suspects.
They said nine apartments were searched in Hesse and the neighboring state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Police agencies from both states, as well as German federal police, Frankfurt airport police and Frankfurt's city police all refused comment, referring questions to the federal prosecutors.
Interior Ministry spokesman Stefan Kaller declined to comment on details of the alleged plot, its timing, what specific airport was involved or why the suspects were released, pointing to the ongoing investigation.
"This case is encouraging in that our security authorities are clearly very observant, get very close to possible (terrorist) structures and, at least so far, have succeeded in intervening early enough," Kaller told reporters.
Jerusalem Post
11.21.2006
The six, as well as other people who have not yet been identified, are believed to have begun preparations for an attack on behalf of "so far unknown" terrorist backers, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
Several of the accused approached a person with security clearance at an unidentified airport last summer, the statement said. That person agreed to smuggle a case or bag containing explosives onto a plane in an exchange for an unspecified payment, it added.
Prosecutors said some of the accused then contacted the plot's alleged backers, but were unable to agree on the value of the promised reward.
A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the matter, said the plot was centered on the Frankfurt airport and the intention apparently was to attack a plane belonging to El Al.
An El Al spokeswoman in Israel declined to comment.
Three of the suspects were apprehended in Hesse state, where the airport is located, the official said.
The six, who could face charges of belonging to or supporting a terrorist organization, were temporarily detained on Friday, but five of them were released Saturday after questioning. The remaining suspect was kept in custody over an unrelated matter.
Under German law, authorities must release suspects after a maximum of 48 hours unless they have enough evidence to convince a judge that they can be held in long-term investigative custody.
Prosecutors would not elaborate on the circumstances of the ongoing case, nor give any more details about the suspects.
They said nine apartments were searched in Hesse and the neighboring state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Police agencies from both states, as well as German federal police, Frankfurt airport police and Frankfurt's city police all refused comment, referring questions to the federal prosecutors.
Interior Ministry spokesman Stefan Kaller declined to comment on details of the alleged plot, its timing, what specific airport was involved or why the suspects were released, pointing to the ongoing investigation.
"This case is encouraging in that our security authorities are clearly very observant, get very close to possible (terrorist) structures and, at least so far, have succeeded in intervening early enough," Kaller told reporters.
Jerusalem Post
11.21.2006
Monday, November 20, 2006
Holocaust Archive To Be Released By Red Cross
The 21-year-old Russian sat before a clerk of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate's office, describing the furnaces at Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp where he had been a prisoner until a few weeks previously.
"I saw with my own eyes how thousands of Jews were gassed daily and thrown by the hundreds into pits where Jews were burning," he said.
"I saw how little children were killed with sticks and thrown into the fire," he continued. Blood flowed in gutters, and "Jews were thrown in and died there"; more were taken off trucks and cast alive into the flames.
Today the Holocaust is known in dense and painful detail. Yet the young Russian's words leap off the faded, onionskin page with a rawness that transports the reader back to April 1945, when World War II was still raging and the world still knew little about gas chambers, genocide and the Final Solution.
The two pages of testimony, in a file randomly plucked off a shelf, are among millions of documents held by the International Tracing Service, or ITS, an arm of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
This vast archive -- 16 miles (26 kilometers) of files in six nondescript buildings in a German spa town -- contains the fullest records of Nazi persecutions in existence. But because of concerns about the victims' privacy, the ITS has kept the files closed to the public for half a century, doling out information in minimal amounts to survivors or their descendants on a strict need-to-know basis.
This policy, which has generated much ill-feeling among Holocaust survivors and researchers, is about to change.
In May, after years of pressure from the United States and survivors' groups, the 11 countries overseeing the archive agreed to unseal the files for scholars as well as victims and their families. In recent weeks the ITS' interim director, Jean-Luc Blondel, has been to Washington, The Hague and to the Buchenwald memorial with a new message of cooperation with other Holocaust institutions and governments.
ITS has allowed Paul Shapiro, of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, to look at the files and has also given The Associated Press extensive access on condition no names from the files are revealed unless they have been identified in other sources.
"This is powerful stuff," said Shapiro, leafing through the file containing the Russian's statement and some 200 other testimonies that take the reader into the belly of Hitler's death machine -- its camps, inmates, commandants, executioners and trusted inmates used as low-level guards and known as kapos.
"If you sat here for a day and read these files, you'd get a picture of what it was really like in the camps, how people were treated. Look -- names and names of kapos, guards -- the little perpetrators," he said.
Moved to this town in central Germany after the war, the files occupy a former barracks of the Waffen-SS, the Nazi Party's elite force. They are stored in long corridors of drab cabinets and neatly stenciled binders packed into floor-to-ceiling metal shelves. Their index cards alone fill three large rooms.
Mandated to trace missing persons and help families reunite, ITS has allowed few people through its doors, and has responded to requests for information on wartime victims with minimal data, even when its files could have told more.
It may take a year or more for the files to open fully. Until then, access remains tightly restricted. "We will be ready any time. We would open them today, if we had the go-ahead," said Blondel.
When the archive is finally available, researchers will have their first chance to see a unique collection of documents on concentration camps, slave labor camps and displaced persons. From toneless lists and heartrending testimony, a skilled historian may be able to stitch together a new perspective on the 20th century's darkest years from the viewpoint of its millions of victims.
"The overall story is pretty well established, but many details will be filled in," said Yehuda Bauer, professor of Holocaust Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
"There is a great deal of very interesting material on a very large number of concentration camps that we really don't know much about," he said. "It may contain surprises. We don't know. It has material that nobody's ever seen."
A visitor to the archive comes into direct contact with the bureaucracy of mass murder.
In a bound ledger with frayed binding, a copy of a list of names appears of Jews rounded up in Holland and transported to the death camps. Buried among the names is "Frank, Annelise M," her date of birth (June 12, 1929), Amsterdam address before she went into hiding (Merwerdeplein 37) and the date she was sent to a concentration camp (Sept. 3, 1944).
Frank, Annelise M. is Anne Frank.
She was on one of the last trains to Germany before the Nazi occupation of Holland crumbled. Six months later, aged 15, she died an anonymous death, one of some 35,000 casualties of typhus that ravaged the Bergen-Belsen camp. After the war, "The Diary of Anne Frank," written during her 25 months hiding in a tiny apartment with seven others, would become the most widely read book ever written on the Holocaust.
But most of the lives recorded in Bad Arolsen are known to none but their families.
They are people like Cornelis Marinus Brouwenstijn, a Dutchman who vanished into the Nazi gulag at age 22 for illegally possessing a radio. In a plain manila envelope are his photo, a wallet, some snapshots, and a naughty typewritten joke about women in the army.
After the war, his family repeatedly wrote to the Red Cross asking about him. In 1949, his parents received a terse form letter saying he died sometime between April 19 and May 3, 1945, in the area of a German labor camp. The personal effects, however, remained in Bad Arolsen, and with the family long deceased, there is no one left to apply for their return.
To critics who accuse them of being tightfisted with their information, the Red Cross and ITS counter that they have to abide by German privacy laws and protect the reputations of victims whether alive or dead. They say the files may contain unsubstantiated allegations against victims, and that opening up to researchers would distract ITS from its main task of providing documentation to survivors or victims' relatives.
One area of study that will benefit from the ITS files is the "Lebensborn" program, in which children deemed to have the "proper genes" were adopted or even kidnapped to propagate the Aryan master race of Hitler's dreams.
Another subject is the sheer scope of the Holocaust system. The files will support new research from other sources showing that the network of concentration camps, ghettos and labor camps was nearly three times more extensive than previously thought.
Postwar historians estimated about 5,000 to 7,000 detention sites. But after the Cold War ended, records began pouring out of the former communist nations of East Europe. More sites were disclosed in the last six years in claims by 1.6 million people for slave labor reparations from a $6.6 billion (?5.2 billion) fund financed by the German government and some 3,000 industries.
"We have identified somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000 camps and ghettos of various categories," said Geoffrey Megargee of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, who is compiling a seven-volume encyclopedia of these detention centers.
The archive has some 3.4 million files of DPs -- Displaced Persons. They include names such as John Demjanjuk and Viorel Trifa, who immigrated to the United States and later became internationally known because their role in the Holocaust came into question.
Between 1933 to 1945, the Nazi persecution grew to assembly-line proportions, slaughtering 6 million Jews and an equal number of Gypsies, homosexuals, mental patients, political prisoners and other "undesirables." Tens of millions were conscripted as forced laborers.
To operate history's greatest slaughter, the Nazis created a bureaucracy that meticulously recorded the arrest, movement and death of each victim. Sometimes even the lice plucked from heads in concentration camps were counted.
But as the pace of genocide stepped up, unknown numbers were marched directly from trains to gas chambers without being registered. In the war's final months, the bookkeeping collapsed, though the extermination continued.
What documents survived Nazi attempts to destroy them were collected by the Allies to help people find missing relatives. The first documents were sent in 1946 to Bad Arolsen, and the administration was handed over to the Red Cross in 1955.
Some 50 million pages -- scraps of paper, transport lists, registration books, labor documents, medical and death registers -- make reference to 17.5 million individuals caught up in the machinery of persecution, displacement and death.
Over the years, the International Tracing Service has answered 11 million requests to locate family members or provide certificates supporting pension claims or reparations. It says it has a 56 percent rate of success in tracing the requested name.
But the workload has been overwhelming. Two years ago it had a backlog of nearly half a million unanswered queries. Director Blondel says the number was whittled down to 155,000 this summer and will disappear by the spring of 2008. New queries have slowed to just 700 a month.
One of ITS' critics is Sabine Stein, archivist at the Buchenwald concentration camp 150 miles (240 kilometers) from Bad Arolsen. She says the archive's refusal to share its files has caused heartbreak to countless survivors and their descendants.
For instance, in 1989, Emilia Janikowska asked ITS to trace her father, Ludwig Kaminski, a coal miner from Poland who was never heard from again after his arrest in 1939. It took more than three years to send her a standard form reporting Kaminski had died in Buchenwald Dec. 1, 1939.
But there was more she could have been told.
Documents copied by the U.S. Army before they went to Bad Arolsen, which were seen by AP at Buchenwald, include mention of Kaminski. They say he was prisoner No. 8578, that he had arrived in Buchenwald six weeks earlier with 600 other Poles and had been placed in Camp 2. The known history of Buchenwald says Camp 2 was a wooden barracks and four big tents, jammed with 1,000 Poles and Vienna Jews. Dozens of inmates died from the cold that winter. The cause of Kaminski's death was pneumonia.
No one ever told his daughter any of this.
"We had no news from my father since the moment he was arrested," Janikowska said when contacted at her home in Krakow, Poland. She now wants more information for a compensation request.
Archivist Stein says: "Former inmates and their families want to see some tangible part of their history; they want to tell their stories," she said. "What I find most frustrating is that they have all these documents and they are just sitting on them."
Earlier this month, ITS went some way to make amends, delivering a full inventory of its records on Buchenwald and promising to give priority in searching for 1,000 names Stein had requested.
Compounding the delay in releasing the files is the cumbrous makeup of the governing committee. Any decision on their future requires the assent of all 11 member nations -- Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and the United States.
Last May's agreement to open the archive stipulates that it will remain off-limits until formal ratification by the 11 governments. After that, each of the 11 countries can have a digital copy of the files and decide who has access to it.
But some delegations are worried the process will take too long, at a time when aged survivors are dying every day.
"What victims of these crimes fear the most is that when they disappear -- and it's happening very fast now -- no one will remember the names of the families they lost," said Shapiro of the Washington museum, who was a delegate to the talks.
"It's not a diplomatic timetable, and not an archivist's timetable, but the actuarial table. If we don't succeed in having this material public while there are still survivors, then we failed," he said.
Israel insider
11.20.2006
"I saw with my own eyes how thousands of Jews were gassed daily and thrown by the hundreds into pits where Jews were burning," he said.
"I saw how little children were killed with sticks and thrown into the fire," he continued. Blood flowed in gutters, and "Jews were thrown in and died there"; more were taken off trucks and cast alive into the flames.
Today the Holocaust is known in dense and painful detail. Yet the young Russian's words leap off the faded, onionskin page with a rawness that transports the reader back to April 1945, when World War II was still raging and the world still knew little about gas chambers, genocide and the Final Solution.
The two pages of testimony, in a file randomly plucked off a shelf, are among millions of documents held by the International Tracing Service, or ITS, an arm of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
This vast archive -- 16 miles (26 kilometers) of files in six nondescript buildings in a German spa town -- contains the fullest records of Nazi persecutions in existence. But because of concerns about the victims' privacy, the ITS has kept the files closed to the public for half a century, doling out information in minimal amounts to survivors or their descendants on a strict need-to-know basis.
This policy, which has generated much ill-feeling among Holocaust survivors and researchers, is about to change.
In May, after years of pressure from the United States and survivors' groups, the 11 countries overseeing the archive agreed to unseal the files for scholars as well as victims and their families. In recent weeks the ITS' interim director, Jean-Luc Blondel, has been to Washington, The Hague and to the Buchenwald memorial with a new message of cooperation with other Holocaust institutions and governments.
ITS has allowed Paul Shapiro, of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, to look at the files and has also given The Associated Press extensive access on condition no names from the files are revealed unless they have been identified in other sources.
"This is powerful stuff," said Shapiro, leafing through the file containing the Russian's statement and some 200 other testimonies that take the reader into the belly of Hitler's death machine -- its camps, inmates, commandants, executioners and trusted inmates used as low-level guards and known as kapos.
"If you sat here for a day and read these files, you'd get a picture of what it was really like in the camps, how people were treated. Look -- names and names of kapos, guards -- the little perpetrators," he said.
Moved to this town in central Germany after the war, the files occupy a former barracks of the Waffen-SS, the Nazi Party's elite force. They are stored in long corridors of drab cabinets and neatly stenciled binders packed into floor-to-ceiling metal shelves. Their index cards alone fill three large rooms.
Mandated to trace missing persons and help families reunite, ITS has allowed few people through its doors, and has responded to requests for information on wartime victims with minimal data, even when its files could have told more.
It may take a year or more for the files to open fully. Until then, access remains tightly restricted. "We will be ready any time. We would open them today, if we had the go-ahead," said Blondel.
When the archive is finally available, researchers will have their first chance to see a unique collection of documents on concentration camps, slave labor camps and displaced persons. From toneless lists and heartrending testimony, a skilled historian may be able to stitch together a new perspective on the 20th century's darkest years from the viewpoint of its millions of victims.
"The overall story is pretty well established, but many details will be filled in," said Yehuda Bauer, professor of Holocaust Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
"There is a great deal of very interesting material on a very large number of concentration camps that we really don't know much about," he said. "It may contain surprises. We don't know. It has material that nobody's ever seen."
A visitor to the archive comes into direct contact with the bureaucracy of mass murder.
In a bound ledger with frayed binding, a copy of a list of names appears of Jews rounded up in Holland and transported to the death camps. Buried among the names is "Frank, Annelise M," her date of birth (June 12, 1929), Amsterdam address before she went into hiding (Merwerdeplein 37) and the date she was sent to a concentration camp (Sept. 3, 1944).
Frank, Annelise M. is Anne Frank.
She was on one of the last trains to Germany before the Nazi occupation of Holland crumbled. Six months later, aged 15, she died an anonymous death, one of some 35,000 casualties of typhus that ravaged the Bergen-Belsen camp. After the war, "The Diary of Anne Frank," written during her 25 months hiding in a tiny apartment with seven others, would become the most widely read book ever written on the Holocaust.
But most of the lives recorded in Bad Arolsen are known to none but their families.
They are people like Cornelis Marinus Brouwenstijn, a Dutchman who vanished into the Nazi gulag at age 22 for illegally possessing a radio. In a plain manila envelope are his photo, a wallet, some snapshots, and a naughty typewritten joke about women in the army.
After the war, his family repeatedly wrote to the Red Cross asking about him. In 1949, his parents received a terse form letter saying he died sometime between April 19 and May 3, 1945, in the area of a German labor camp. The personal effects, however, remained in Bad Arolsen, and with the family long deceased, there is no one left to apply for their return.
To critics who accuse them of being tightfisted with their information, the Red Cross and ITS counter that they have to abide by German privacy laws and protect the reputations of victims whether alive or dead. They say the files may contain unsubstantiated allegations against victims, and that opening up to researchers would distract ITS from its main task of providing documentation to survivors or victims' relatives.
One area of study that will benefit from the ITS files is the "Lebensborn" program, in which children deemed to have the "proper genes" were adopted or even kidnapped to propagate the Aryan master race of Hitler's dreams.
Another subject is the sheer scope of the Holocaust system. The files will support new research from other sources showing that the network of concentration camps, ghettos and labor camps was nearly three times more extensive than previously thought.
Postwar historians estimated about 5,000 to 7,000 detention sites. But after the Cold War ended, records began pouring out of the former communist nations of East Europe. More sites were disclosed in the last six years in claims by 1.6 million people for slave labor reparations from a $6.6 billion (?5.2 billion) fund financed by the German government and some 3,000 industries.
"We have identified somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000 camps and ghettos of various categories," said Geoffrey Megargee of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, who is compiling a seven-volume encyclopedia of these detention centers.
The archive has some 3.4 million files of DPs -- Displaced Persons. They include names such as John Demjanjuk and Viorel Trifa, who immigrated to the United States and later became internationally known because their role in the Holocaust came into question.
Between 1933 to 1945, the Nazi persecution grew to assembly-line proportions, slaughtering 6 million Jews and an equal number of Gypsies, homosexuals, mental patients, political prisoners and other "undesirables." Tens of millions were conscripted as forced laborers.
To operate history's greatest slaughter, the Nazis created a bureaucracy that meticulously recorded the arrest, movement and death of each victim. Sometimes even the lice plucked from heads in concentration camps were counted.
But as the pace of genocide stepped up, unknown numbers were marched directly from trains to gas chambers without being registered. In the war's final months, the bookkeeping collapsed, though the extermination continued.
What documents survived Nazi attempts to destroy them were collected by the Allies to help people find missing relatives. The first documents were sent in 1946 to Bad Arolsen, and the administration was handed over to the Red Cross in 1955.
Some 50 million pages -- scraps of paper, transport lists, registration books, labor documents, medical and death registers -- make reference to 17.5 million individuals caught up in the machinery of persecution, displacement and death.
Over the years, the International Tracing Service has answered 11 million requests to locate family members or provide certificates supporting pension claims or reparations. It says it has a 56 percent rate of success in tracing the requested name.
But the workload has been overwhelming. Two years ago it had a backlog of nearly half a million unanswered queries. Director Blondel says the number was whittled down to 155,000 this summer and will disappear by the spring of 2008. New queries have slowed to just 700 a month.
One of ITS' critics is Sabine Stein, archivist at the Buchenwald concentration camp 150 miles (240 kilometers) from Bad Arolsen. She says the archive's refusal to share its files has caused heartbreak to countless survivors and their descendants.
For instance, in 1989, Emilia Janikowska asked ITS to trace her father, Ludwig Kaminski, a coal miner from Poland who was never heard from again after his arrest in 1939. It took more than three years to send her a standard form reporting Kaminski had died in Buchenwald Dec. 1, 1939.
But there was more she could have been told.
Documents copied by the U.S. Army before they went to Bad Arolsen, which were seen by AP at Buchenwald, include mention of Kaminski. They say he was prisoner No. 8578, that he had arrived in Buchenwald six weeks earlier with 600 other Poles and had been placed in Camp 2. The known history of Buchenwald says Camp 2 was a wooden barracks and four big tents, jammed with 1,000 Poles and Vienna Jews. Dozens of inmates died from the cold that winter. The cause of Kaminski's death was pneumonia.
No one ever told his daughter any of this.
"We had no news from my father since the moment he was arrested," Janikowska said when contacted at her home in Krakow, Poland. She now wants more information for a compensation request.
Archivist Stein says: "Former inmates and their families want to see some tangible part of their history; they want to tell their stories," she said. "What I find most frustrating is that they have all these documents and they are just sitting on them."
Earlier this month, ITS went some way to make amends, delivering a full inventory of its records on Buchenwald and promising to give priority in searching for 1,000 names Stein had requested.
Compounding the delay in releasing the files is the cumbrous makeup of the governing committee. Any decision on their future requires the assent of all 11 member nations -- Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and the United States.
Last May's agreement to open the archive stipulates that it will remain off-limits until formal ratification by the 11 governments. After that, each of the 11 countries can have a digital copy of the files and decide who has access to it.
But some delegations are worried the process will take too long, at a time when aged survivors are dying every day.
"What victims of these crimes fear the most is that when they disappear -- and it's happening very fast now -- no one will remember the names of the families they lost," said Shapiro of the Washington museum, who was a delegate to the talks.
"It's not a diplomatic timetable, and not an archivist's timetable, but the actuarial table. If we don't succeed in having this material public while there are still survivors, then we failed," he said.
Israel insider
11.20.2006
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Israel Orders Killing Of Hamas MP's
IN a desperate attempt to stop the barrage of rockets fired by Hamas at Israeli villages, Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister, has ordered his security chiefs to target the Islamic movement’s political leadership.
According to Israeli security sources, a decision to assassinate leading Hamas politicians was taken by Olmert and his defence minister, Amir Peretz. Early yesterday Israeli missiles struck Hamas targets in Gaza, including a charity run by the group.
Since withdrawing from Gaza more than a year ago, Israel has targeted Hamas’s military activists, but that has not stopped the rockets. Outraged by an attack last Wednesday on the village of Sderot, Israel is determined to ensure the political leadership in Gaza, the West Bank and abroad will “no longer escape responsibility”.
The controversial change in tactics has been driven by Peretz, who broke down in tears when one of his bodyguards was badly injured in Sderot, his home village. The army has been battling against Palestinian rocket units in northern Gaza for months and has intensified its operations there in recent weeks. Since the beginning of this month, 98 Palestinians have been killed.
“The Gaza Strip is about to turn into the biggest terrorist compound on earth,” Yuval Diskin, the head of the Israeli internal security service, warned a parliamentary committee last week. “We have no choice but to consider a massive military operation there.”
Yesterday, deputy prime minister Avigdor Lieberman called for the assassination of Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders. "They have to disappear, go to paradise, all of them," he said.
Sunday Times
11.19.2006
According to Israeli security sources, a decision to assassinate leading Hamas politicians was taken by Olmert and his defence minister, Amir Peretz. Early yesterday Israeli missiles struck Hamas targets in Gaza, including a charity run by the group.
Since withdrawing from Gaza more than a year ago, Israel has targeted Hamas’s military activists, but that has not stopped the rockets. Outraged by an attack last Wednesday on the village of Sderot, Israel is determined to ensure the political leadership in Gaza, the West Bank and abroad will “no longer escape responsibility”.
The controversial change in tactics has been driven by Peretz, who broke down in tears when one of his bodyguards was badly injured in Sderot, his home village. The army has been battling against Palestinian rocket units in northern Gaza for months and has intensified its operations there in recent weeks. Since the beginning of this month, 98 Palestinians have been killed.
“The Gaza Strip is about to turn into the biggest terrorist compound on earth,” Yuval Diskin, the head of the Israeli internal security service, warned a parliamentary committee last week. “We have no choice but to consider a massive military operation there.”
Yesterday, deputy prime minister Avigdor Lieberman called for the assassination of Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders. "They have to disappear, go to paradise, all of them," he said.
Sunday Times
11.19.2006
Saturday, November 18, 2006
French Troops Prepare Guns Against IAF Jets
French UN anti-aircraft batteries have taken "preparatory steps" to respond to Israeli jets violating Lebanese airspace, despite global criticism of such incursions.
"The anti-aircraft unit of the (French) battalion took initial preparatory steps to respond to these actions," Milos Strugar, spokesman for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) told AFP on Friday.
He said "UNIFIL observed and reported 14 Israeli air violations this morning, on November 17, 2006, and 11 of these violations occurred in the area of operation of the French battalion with UNIFIL."
UNIFIL Force Commander General Alain Pellegrini "strongly protested to the Israeli authorities and asked them to cease these actions which are unacceptable and in violation of Resolution 1701," the spokesman said.
Strugar said the French battalion took action to respond "in accordance with UNIFIL rules of engagements and UN Security Council Resolution 1701."
"They stipulate that in implementing their mandate, all UNIFIL troops may exercise the inherent right of self-defense and take all necessary action to protect UN personnel, facilities, installations and equipment," he said.
'Circling above French battalion headquarters'
Strugar said the overflights took place in the central sector of southern Lebanon where the multinational UNIFIL force was boosted to more than 9,000 troops after the Israeli-Hizbullah war in July and August.
"In one instance, two Israeli F15 jets flew over the area at low altitude and high speed," he said.
"At the same time, two Israeli reconnaissance RC12 aircraft were circling above the headquarters of the French battalion located in Jabal Marun," east of the southern port city of Tyre, he said.
When asked about Friday's overflights, an Israeli military spokesman in Jerusalem said only: "We don't elaborate on aerial activity".
On October 31, the French UNIFIL forces came within seconds of firing at Israeli aircraft when they overflew UN positions in southern Lebanon, sparking an official complaint from Paris against the overflights.
But French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said on November 13 that Israeli warplanes had stopped buzzing French troops in southern Lebanon, following two close incidents in the area.
Ignoring harsh international criticism, Israel has vowed to continue the overflights, claiming they were needed to monitor alleged arms smuggling by the Shiite terrorist group Hizb'allah
Y Net News
11.18.2006
"The anti-aircraft unit of the (French) battalion took initial preparatory steps to respond to these actions," Milos Strugar, spokesman for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) told AFP on Friday.
He said "UNIFIL observed and reported 14 Israeli air violations this morning, on November 17, 2006, and 11 of these violations occurred in the area of operation of the French battalion with UNIFIL."
UNIFIL Force Commander General Alain Pellegrini "strongly protested to the Israeli authorities and asked them to cease these actions which are unacceptable and in violation of Resolution 1701," the spokesman said.
Strugar said the French battalion took action to respond "in accordance with UNIFIL rules of engagements and UN Security Council Resolution 1701."
"They stipulate that in implementing their mandate, all UNIFIL troops may exercise the inherent right of self-defense and take all necessary action to protect UN personnel, facilities, installations and equipment," he said.
'Circling above French battalion headquarters'
Strugar said the overflights took place in the central sector of southern Lebanon where the multinational UNIFIL force was boosted to more than 9,000 troops after the Israeli-Hizbullah war in July and August.
"In one instance, two Israeli F15 jets flew over the area at low altitude and high speed," he said.
"At the same time, two Israeli reconnaissance RC12 aircraft were circling above the headquarters of the French battalion located in Jabal Marun," east of the southern port city of Tyre, he said.
When asked about Friday's overflights, an Israeli military spokesman in Jerusalem said only: "We don't elaborate on aerial activity".
On October 31, the French UNIFIL forces came within seconds of firing at Israeli aircraft when they overflew UN positions in southern Lebanon, sparking an official complaint from Paris against the overflights.
But French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said on November 13 that Israeli warplanes had stopped buzzing French troops in southern Lebanon, following two close incidents in the area.
Ignoring harsh international criticism, Israel has vowed to continue the overflights, claiming they were needed to monitor alleged arms smuggling by the Shiite terrorist group Hizb'allah
Y Net News
11.18.2006
Friday, November 17, 2006
Olmert Despondent On Qassams
Prime Ministrer Ehud Olmert, who was making his way back to Israel from the United States, said Thursday morning that he had a lot of thoughts on how to deal with the Qassam fire.
Olmert's comments coincided with the release of a report of a terrorist seized in Jerusalem's Tzahal Sqaure in July who was carrying an explosive belt with a liquid material, which prevents it from being detected by a metal detector.
The terrorist was a Popular Resistance Committees activist and was guided from Gaza. A similar belt was later captured in Ramallah.
Olmert, who had met with senior American officials during his five-day visit, said that "there is not one easy solution for the war against Qassams. The fact is that even after Operation Defense Shield, terror from Judea and Samaria continued. There is not one thing to do to stop the Qassam."
The prime minister promised: "We will continue to promote diplomatic activities. It should be noted that there is no problem in the Palestinians' ability to fight terror."
Asked whether it has been agreed to let the Bader Unit enter the territories from Jordan, he answered that "their force is already much more armed today than in the past, but this force is not doing what it should."
The prime minister made it clear that he would expect Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to manifest a "firmer and more decisive stance."
As for the continuation of the operation in Gaza, Olmert said that "in the south of the country there is an ongoing firing of Qassams, and I view it with great severity. We have been taking measures for a long time. Since June, 360 terrorists have been killed in our anti-terror activities.
"There is no doubt that what happened yesterday in Sderot and Ashkelon is difficult. Our activity will continue each time in accordance with the news and the circumstances."
Meanwhile, Vice Premier Shimon Peres rejected the possibility of a wide-scale operation in Gaza such as Operation Defense Shield which was held in the West Bank.
"We can occupy Gaza, but that would be a cardinal mistake. Sinking into the Gaza mud will not guarantee the end of missiles fired at Israeli communities. The IDF will also serve as a convenient target for hurting soldiers," he said.
According to Peres, "With patience and restraint we must continue the international pressure which will get Hamas off the tree. The solution is to talk when Hamas stops entrenching itself and the missiles stop."
Deep understanding on Iranian issue
As for a possible meeting with Abbas, Olmert said that he and his Palestinian colleague were holding continuous talks.
"My people talk to his people all the time. As far as I am concerned, there is nothing delaying the meeting between us," he added.
"Our hope is to reach a meeting with Abu Mazen (Abbas) in the near future. We want to hold discussions with him in order to reach the objectives which both we and the international community and the Palestinians want to reach," he said.
As for his government's diplomatic program, Olmert said that he did not wish to elaborate on the ideas he raised with the American president.
"Since my conversation with Bush was tete-a-tete, it is inappropriate to refer to what was discussed in it," he said in response to a question whether it was true that he presented Bush with a diplomatic plan based on the realignment plan.
He agreed to say that "regarding two issues we discussed, both the Palestinian issue and the Iranian issue, I left the meeting with a strong feeling that there is a deep understanding between us."
Addressing the Saudi plan, Olmert said that he does not wish "to obligate or disqualify this country or another. The moderate Arab countries' peace plan has elements one can agree on, points which can be negotiated."
"Every Arab country which is willing to take part in an effort to create a dialogue is a country which I consider worthy for promoting diplomatic processes," the prime minister stated.
Israel Insider
11.17.2006
Olmert's comments coincided with the release of a report of a terrorist seized in Jerusalem's Tzahal Sqaure in July who was carrying an explosive belt with a liquid material, which prevents it from being detected by a metal detector.
The terrorist was a Popular Resistance Committees activist and was guided from Gaza. A similar belt was later captured in Ramallah.
Olmert, who had met with senior American officials during his five-day visit, said that "there is not one easy solution for the war against Qassams. The fact is that even after Operation Defense Shield, terror from Judea and Samaria continued. There is not one thing to do to stop the Qassam."
The prime minister promised: "We will continue to promote diplomatic activities. It should be noted that there is no problem in the Palestinians' ability to fight terror."
Asked whether it has been agreed to let the Bader Unit enter the territories from Jordan, he answered that "their force is already much more armed today than in the past, but this force is not doing what it should."
The prime minister made it clear that he would expect Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to manifest a "firmer and more decisive stance."
As for the continuation of the operation in Gaza, Olmert said that "in the south of the country there is an ongoing firing of Qassams, and I view it with great severity. We have been taking measures for a long time. Since June, 360 terrorists have been killed in our anti-terror activities.
"There is no doubt that what happened yesterday in Sderot and Ashkelon is difficult. Our activity will continue each time in accordance with the news and the circumstances."
Meanwhile, Vice Premier Shimon Peres rejected the possibility of a wide-scale operation in Gaza such as Operation Defense Shield which was held in the West Bank.
"We can occupy Gaza, but that would be a cardinal mistake. Sinking into the Gaza mud will not guarantee the end of missiles fired at Israeli communities. The IDF will also serve as a convenient target for hurting soldiers," he said.
According to Peres, "With patience and restraint we must continue the international pressure which will get Hamas off the tree. The solution is to talk when Hamas stops entrenching itself and the missiles stop."
Deep understanding on Iranian issue
As for a possible meeting with Abbas, Olmert said that he and his Palestinian colleague were holding continuous talks.
"My people talk to his people all the time. As far as I am concerned, there is nothing delaying the meeting between us," he added.
"Our hope is to reach a meeting with Abu Mazen (Abbas) in the near future. We want to hold discussions with him in order to reach the objectives which both we and the international community and the Palestinians want to reach," he said.
As for his government's diplomatic program, Olmert said that he did not wish to elaborate on the ideas he raised with the American president.
"Since my conversation with Bush was tete-a-tete, it is inappropriate to refer to what was discussed in it," he said in response to a question whether it was true that he presented Bush with a diplomatic plan based on the realignment plan.
He agreed to say that "regarding two issues we discussed, both the Palestinian issue and the Iranian issue, I left the meeting with a strong feeling that there is a deep understanding between us."
Addressing the Saudi plan, Olmert said that he does not wish "to obligate or disqualify this country or another. The moderate Arab countries' peace plan has elements one can agree on, points which can be negotiated."
"Every Arab country which is willing to take part in an effort to create a dialogue is a country which I consider worthy for promoting diplomatic processes," the prime minister stated.
Israel Insider
11.17.2006
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Iran Vows To Pursue Atomic Plans 'Until The End'
Iran's president said on Wednesday his country would press on with its nuclear program "until the end" and would not be stopped by the West, which fears the Islamic Republic is trying to build atomic bombs.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was speaking a day after the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a report Iran was still stonewalling probes aimed at determining whether its plans are peaceful.
"The Iranian nation stands for its nuclear right and will go ahead until the end," Ahmadinejad said in a speech to a rally in western Iran, broadcast live on state television.
"Time is on the Iranian nation's side. With each passing day, (the West) must retreat one step and acknowledge the rights of the Iranian nation and with each passing day the Iranian nation goes ahead toward the summits of victory," he said.
"By the grace of God, we will hold a great nuclear celebration before the end of this year, all over Iran," he said, without elaborating. The Iranian year ends in March 2007.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is solely for power generation, faces possible sanctions for failing to heed U.N. demands to stop enriching uranium, a process that can yield fuel for power plants or, ultimately, for atomic bombs.
Ahmadinejad told a news conference on Tuesday Iran was aiming to build 60,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium. Iran now operates two experimental chains of 164 centrifuges each.
Reuters
11.16.2006
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was speaking a day after the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a report Iran was still stonewalling probes aimed at determining whether its plans are peaceful.
"The Iranian nation stands for its nuclear right and will go ahead until the end," Ahmadinejad said in a speech to a rally in western Iran, broadcast live on state television.
"Time is on the Iranian nation's side. With each passing day, (the West) must retreat one step and acknowledge the rights of the Iranian nation and with each passing day the Iranian nation goes ahead toward the summits of victory," he said.
"By the grace of God, we will hold a great nuclear celebration before the end of this year, all over Iran," he said, without elaborating. The Iranian year ends in March 2007.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is solely for power generation, faces possible sanctions for failing to heed U.N. demands to stop enriching uranium, a process that can yield fuel for power plants or, ultimately, for atomic bombs.
Ahmadinejad told a news conference on Tuesday Iran was aiming to build 60,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium. Iran now operates two experimental chains of 164 centrifuges each.
Reuters
11.16.2006
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
WHAT IS GOD DOING WITH ISRAEL?
We can always speak of many things that are happening in Israel today, but a question has been on our minds of late as to “What is God doing with Israel?” The focus on events, politics, battles, economies, nations, terrorists, etc., can be received on many web sites. But, what is God doing?
1. GOD IS DECLARING HIS UNIQUE PERSON AND IDENTITY!
The message of Isaiah 44 is given to help Israel and the rest of the world understand what God is doing. In that powerful passage, we are told the following in Isaiah 44:6-8: “Thus saith the LORD (YHWH) the King of Israel, and His Redeemer the LORD (YHWH) of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside Me there is no God. And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for Me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming and shall come, let them shew unto them. Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have DECLARED it? ye are even My witnesses. Is there a God beside Me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.”
It is God who chose the “ancient people (Israel)” and it is God Who reveals the things that are coming - it is God Who DECLARED it - and His message to Israel and the rest of the world is - THERE IS NO GOD BESIDE ME - He is the LORD GOD of ISRAEL, and there is NO OTHER GOD!
2. GOD IS DEMONSTRATING HIS MIGHTY POWER!
Isaiah 43:15 says: “I am the LORD (YHWH), your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.” Isaiah 44:24 adds: “Thus saith the LORD (YHWH), thy Redeemer, and He that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD (YHWH) that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by Myself.”
Creation demonstrates the mighty power of God (Psalm 19:1) and so does His work in creating Israel. Isaiah 43:1 says “But now saith the LORD (YHWH) that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine.” The word “created” is the Hebrew word “bara” - out of nothing!
3. GOD IS PROVING HIS FAITHFUL PROVIDENCE!
Providence refers to God’s control over circumstances and events that He is working for His glory and praise. Deuteronomy 7:6-9 speaks of how God has chosen Israel to teach two major things about Himself: One, that He is the “faithful God” Who will keep His promises to His people no matter what their performance or failures! And, two, He is a God of love Who will love them no matter how they respond to Him. Isaiah 44:21 says “thou shalt not be forgotten of Me.”
4. GOD IS SHOWING HIS CONTINUAL PROTECTION!
Isaiah 43:1 says “Fear not” and that command is repeated in Isaiah 43:5 and Isaiah 44:2, 8. Throughout the last 27 chapters of Isaiah the LORD GOD reminds the people of Israel of His comfort and protection. He will never leave them or forsake them! Isaiah 51:12 reminds Israel: “I, even I, am He that comforteth you: who are thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass.”
5. GOD IS DOING HIS SOVEREIGN PLEASURE!
In Isaiah 43:21 we learn that God formed the people of Israel to show forth His praise, or as 43:7 says, they were “created…for My glory.” In Isaiah 46:10-11 we read these strong words: “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My PLEASURE; Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth My counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purpose it, I will also do it.”
6. GOD IS FULFILLING HIS WONDERFUL PROMISES!
Promises of redemption, restoration, rejoicing, and even the return of the Messiah will all be fulfilled in His time and in His way. Isaiah 45:21 says: ” Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD (YHWH)? and there is no God else beside Me; a just God and a Saviour; there in none beside Me.”
7. GOD IS PROCLAIMING HIS WONDERFUL PARDON!
Israel has often been disobedient to God and has forsaken Him, but He has never forsaken them, and He is (Psalm 86:5) “ready to forgive” and “abundant in pardon.” Isaiah 45:22 says: “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” Isaiah 44:21-22 says: “Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art My servant: I have formed thee; thou art My servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of Me. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee.” Psalm 130:7-8 says: “Let Israel hope in the LORD (YHWH): for with the LORD (YHWH) there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.”
PRAISE THE LORD FOR WHAT HE IS DOING WITH ISRAEL!
Copyright © 2005 Dr. David Hocking - Hope For Today Ministries
1. GOD IS DECLARING HIS UNIQUE PERSON AND IDENTITY!
The message of Isaiah 44 is given to help Israel and the rest of the world understand what God is doing. In that powerful passage, we are told the following in Isaiah 44:6-8: “Thus saith the LORD (YHWH) the King of Israel, and His Redeemer the LORD (YHWH) of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside Me there is no God. And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for Me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming and shall come, let them shew unto them. Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have DECLARED it? ye are even My witnesses. Is there a God beside Me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.”
It is God who chose the “ancient people (Israel)” and it is God Who reveals the things that are coming - it is God Who DECLARED it - and His message to Israel and the rest of the world is - THERE IS NO GOD BESIDE ME - He is the LORD GOD of ISRAEL, and there is NO OTHER GOD!
2. GOD IS DEMONSTRATING HIS MIGHTY POWER!
Isaiah 43:15 says: “I am the LORD (YHWH), your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.” Isaiah 44:24 adds: “Thus saith the LORD (YHWH), thy Redeemer, and He that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD (YHWH) that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by Myself.”
Creation demonstrates the mighty power of God (Psalm 19:1) and so does His work in creating Israel. Isaiah 43:1 says “But now saith the LORD (YHWH) that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine.” The word “created” is the Hebrew word “bara” - out of nothing!
3. GOD IS PROVING HIS FAITHFUL PROVIDENCE!
Providence refers to God’s control over circumstances and events that He is working for His glory and praise. Deuteronomy 7:6-9 speaks of how God has chosen Israel to teach two major things about Himself: One, that He is the “faithful God” Who will keep His promises to His people no matter what their performance or failures! And, two, He is a God of love Who will love them no matter how they respond to Him. Isaiah 44:21 says “thou shalt not be forgotten of Me.”
4. GOD IS SHOWING HIS CONTINUAL PROTECTION!
Isaiah 43:1 says “Fear not” and that command is repeated in Isaiah 43:5 and Isaiah 44:2, 8. Throughout the last 27 chapters of Isaiah the LORD GOD reminds the people of Israel of His comfort and protection. He will never leave them or forsake them! Isaiah 51:12 reminds Israel: “I, even I, am He that comforteth you: who are thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass.”
5. GOD IS DOING HIS SOVEREIGN PLEASURE!
In Isaiah 43:21 we learn that God formed the people of Israel to show forth His praise, or as 43:7 says, they were “created…for My glory.” In Isaiah 46:10-11 we read these strong words: “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My PLEASURE; Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth My counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purpose it, I will also do it.”
6. GOD IS FULFILLING HIS WONDERFUL PROMISES!
Promises of redemption, restoration, rejoicing, and even the return of the Messiah will all be fulfilled in His time and in His way. Isaiah 45:21 says: ” Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD (YHWH)? and there is no God else beside Me; a just God and a Saviour; there in none beside Me.”
7. GOD IS PROCLAIMING HIS WONDERFUL PARDON!
Israel has often been disobedient to God and has forsaken Him, but He has never forsaken them, and He is (Psalm 86:5) “ready to forgive” and “abundant in pardon.” Isaiah 45:22 says: “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” Isaiah 44:21-22 says: “Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art My servant: I have formed thee; thou art My servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of Me. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee.” Psalm 130:7-8 says: “Let Israel hope in the LORD (YHWH): for with the LORD (YHWH) there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.”
PRAISE THE LORD FOR WHAT HE IS DOING WITH ISRAEL!
Copyright © 2005 Dr. David Hocking - Hope For Today Ministries
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