ISRAEL VOTES 12 TO 11 CHANGE GOVERNMENT

1-Tropical storm Paul heads for Mexico's Baja coas. 2-Storms, floods hit Greece for second time this week 3-A Strong Cold Sweeps the Nation. 4-Vatican calls for Catholics, Muslims to work together. 5-Fires caused by greenies. 6-Ahmadineyad: Israel was created to devour the mid eastern region. 7-Israel has no intention of attacking Iran-Peres. 8-11 rockets fired over past three days. 9-Official: Israel used phosphorous bombs. 10-Gov't Votes to Change Political System.

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Tropical storm Paul heads for Mexico's Baja coast Sat Oct 21, 6:00 PM ET

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Paul formed off Mexico's Pacific Coast on Saturday and looked set to turn into a hurricane as it headed toward luxury resorts on the Baja California Peninsula, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Charts showed Paul passing near the tip of the desert peninsula popular with U.S. tourists next week, before heading for the Mexican mainland across the narrow Sea of Cortez.Hurricanes that enter the Sea of Cortez, surrounded on three sides by land, tend to fizzle out after running aground, posing no risk to the United States.Paul was moving west with maximum winds near 50 mph (85 kph) and was expected to veer toward the peninsula and strengthen in coming days due to climatic factors including warm ocean currents, the hurricane center said.

Paul is currently on a strengthening trend, it said.The luxury resorts and golf courses of Los Cabos, on the tip of Baja California, which extends down from the U.S. mainland, had two narrow hurricane escapes last month.Hurricane Lane missed the resorts in mid-September before crashing into the mainland and leaving a path of destruction on the Pacific Coast, killing three close to areas Paul could hit later next week according to projections.Two weeks earlier, Hurricane John forced tourists to flee the resorts of Los Cabos but left the posh holiday spots unharmed. Three people, including a Briton, died when it slammed ashore farther north on the peninsula.Crossing their fingers that they would have a lucky escape for the third time in two months, civil protection officials in the resort of San Jose del Cabo said it was too early to begin evacuations but that they were tracking Paul carefully.You just don't know with these things,said local civil protection spokesman Salvador Banaga. In my opinion we've been a bit too lucky.

Storms, floods hit Greece for second time this week Sat Oct 21, 3:15 PM ET

ATHENS (AFP) - Torrential rains caused flooding in parts of southern Greece, just three days after storms triggered a state of emergency elsewhere in the region, authorities said. Around 30 homes were flooded in the southern Peloponnese and several occupants had to be rescued by firemen. Three cars were swept away by torrents, while landslides halted road traffic in parts of the region.On Tuesday parts of the Aegean islands, a tourist destination east of the Peloponnese, were struck by storms that flooded homes, hotels and businesses and forced many ships into port.A state of emergency was declared in parts of the Aegean on Wednesday, when three British tourists were reported drowned on the islands of Rhodes and Crete as a result of the extreme weather.

A Strong Cold Sweeps the Nation. W. Verno, Meteorologist, The Weather Channel Sun Oct 22, 6:08 AM ET

Northeast

Much colder weather is on the way for the Northeast. An area of low pressure will move into the Great Lakes, pushing a cold front eastward into the region today. Showers will spread across areas from Pittsburgh to Buffalo to Burlington this morning, and then arrive in Washington, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston by the afternoon.

Temperatures will be cool today with readings in the 50s and 60s. On Monday the cold front will be east of the area, and low pressure over the Great Lakes will pull much colder air across the area. Temperatures will only reach the 30s and 40s, and this combined with increasingly breezy conditions will result in lowering wind chills. Rain and snow showers will also increase in areas near the Great Lakes, as well as the high elevations of the Application Mountains.

South

A cool-down is on the way for the South. A cold front will sweep east across the southern states today, triggering showers and thunderstorms from New Orleans and Birmingham, to Atlanta this morning, and then to the east coast by afternoon. A few heavy downpours and perhaps a locally strong to severe thunderstorm will also be possible, especially along the Gulf Coast. Much cooler air will spread east and south behind the front by Monday, with afternoon temperatures only in the 50s and 60s, with 70s pushed south to neat the coast. Morning low temperatures may also become an issue Monday, and especially Tuesday morning, with readings dipping well into the 30s, with a few upper 20s as well. Some areas may see their first frost or freeze across the Deep South. High pressure will dominate the area behind the front, into Tuesday, before the next weather system approaches the area by midweek.

Midwest

Winter-like weather will overspread the Great Lakes. Low pressure near the Great Lakes will pull much colder air south across that area. Rain and snow showers will increase near the Lakes later today, but especially ON Monday and Tuesday. Windy conditions will also develop, and with temperatures in the 30s, wind chills may become a factor. Over the rest of the Midwest and central plains, conditions will slowly improve into Monday and Tuesday, as high pressure builds into the area. Temperatures will begin to slowly moderate by midweek as southern flow increases.

West

Quite weather will dominate the west. Large high pressure will build across all of the western states, cutting off the mountain snows and continuing sunny and dry weather elsewhere. A slow moderation in temperatures can be expected over the next few days, before a new weather system moves into Northwest bringing showers and cooler weather.

Vatican calls for Catholics, Muslims to work together

VATICAN CITY The Vatican is again offering an olive branch to Muslims, in the wake of Pope Benedict's controversial remarks about Islam and violence.A top Vatican official says Muslims and Catholics need to work together to defeat terrorism.The Vatican's top official on inter-religious dialogue issued the appeal during a news conference to present the Vatican's annual Ramadan message. In previous years, the Holy See released a text of the message.The official said the message was aimed at Muslim friends who share common values in facing the challenges of the world.The news conference is an indication of the Vatican's concern over the outrage caused by the remarks Pope Benedict made in Germany last month. The pontiff has since expressed regret that Muslims were offended.2006 Associated Press.

FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS

REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

Fires caused by greenies

WITH reports of 200 bushfires in southeastern Australia, in the worst drought in our history, the blame should be sheeted home to those fanatics (Tree hugger, Enviromentalists) who have studiously blocked all government efforts to burn off tinder-dry undergrowth in national parks.Our sympathy should be directed to brave volunteers who fight these fires at risk to their lives, but certainly not to those armchair ideologues who cause this calamity Hobart and the Grampians once more and wherever else there is tinder waiting to be lit by man or nature.

Once again the taxpayer has been called in to foot the bill.This expenditure is one more costly example of the failure to meet the real cause of the threatening calamity this summer.Those responsible for this debacle, the Department of Sustainability and Environment and Parks Victoria and the National Parks and Wildlife Service of NSW, have failed to carry out effective burn-offs in advance.The belated Victorian response to the inquiry by the Victorian Emergency Services Commissioner into the 2002-2003 fire is too little too late.In the Grampians, there has been inadequate fuel reduction.In Victoria, there have been major bushfires every year since 2002.In NSW it is the same woeful lack of burning off in spite of the directions of both houses of Parliament in 2001.

This deliberate jettison of government recommendations can be put down to the organised opposition of the greenies both in and out of the parliaments.They claim burn-offs for fuel reduction destroy biodiversity.In contrast, Western Australia has imposed a concerted fire management policy which has protected the state from wildfires for more than 40 years.From 1963 to 2000 the state has burned off an average of 300,000ha a year of its total of 2,500,000ha of forest. This example needs to be followed urgently in the eastern states.— JOHN ELLIS,Jindera

ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

JOEL 2:20,30-31
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

October, 21 - 10:27 AM
Ahmadineyad: Israel was created to devour the mid eastern region

TEHRAN, Iran.- The Iranian president, Mahmud Ahmadineyad, assured today that the Zionist organization (Israel) was created to devour the region and accused the West to damage all that is considered holy trying to prevent the approaching Jewish holocaust.

In the occasion of a world-wide Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, Ahmadineyad insisted on: this Zionist organization (as he has referred to Israel in several occasions) was placed in the region to attack and to assassinate innocents and to accomplish continuous threats that allow control to the great powers.The imposition of the western hegemony on the world is a very rare subject, added Ahmadineyad to hundreds of Iranians that attended the act celebrated in Tehran.

Also, he commented that some western countries are imprisoned by this Zionist organization since World War II and asked him self: When are these relations based on World War II going end?. The speech precluded a march in the city of Islam Sheher, Tehran province.Thousands of Iranians marched carrying placards in support of Palestine and sentencing Israel. We have come to participate in today’s manifestation to show our support to the Palestinian people and to condemn the crimes the Zionist regime commits, said a participant who marched adorned with the traditional Iranian tunic that women dress.

Israel has no intention of attacking Iran-Peres
Sat Oct 21, 2006 6:37 PM BST

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has no aggressive intentions towards Iran, Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said on Saturday, after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert cautioned Tehran it would pay a price for pursuing its nuclear ambitions.We must never consider such a thing, Peres told Channel Two television when asked if he would support an independent Israeli military strike against Iran if other nations failed to curb its uranium enrichment programme.

Israel has never shown aggressive intentions (towards Iran) it has none. I don't think we have to, or can, deal with this issue, he said, cautioning that Israel could face international isolation if it attacked Iran.Israel has said repeatedly it wants the United States and other countries to take the lead in dealing with Iran over a nuclear programme that has raised international concern the Islamic Republic could build atomic weapons.

Iran this month rejected demands that it suspend uranium enrichment, prompting United Nations Security Council to consider sanctions. It says it wants nuclear power only to generate electricity.The issue was high on the agenda of talks Olmert held this week in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country, a U.N. Security Council member with veto power, has been reluctant to support sanctions.The Iranians should be afraid they must understand if they object to every compromise there will be a price to pay,Olmert, who has said a nuclear Iran would pose a threat to Israel's existence, told reporters on Thursday.He did not elaborate. But his comments were described in the Israeli media as the strongest warning yet by an Israeli leader to Iran that Israel might consider a pre-emptive strike to try to ensure Tehran cannot build an atomic bomb.

Israel bombed Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981, an attack that Peres, then leader of the opposition Labour Party, opposed as diplomatically damaging to the Jewish state. Israel is widely believed to have nuclear weapons but has never confirmed it.Peres said in the television interview that Israel should focus on exposing the real face of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for the Jewish state's destruction.(Ahmadinejad) is the only (leader) calling for genocide: a member of the United Nations threatening to destroy another member of the United Nations. And ... a large part of the world is silent,Peres said.In a speech on Friday, Ahmadinejad said Europe was stirring up hatred in the Middle East by supporting Israel and warned it may get hurt if anger in the region boiled over.

11 rockets fired over past three days
JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST Oct. 20, 2006

Eleven Kassam rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel since Friday morning. Most recently, Palestinians fired two Kassam rockets from the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday morning. One rocket landed in the western Negev and the second landed in a Kibbutz in the Ashkelon area.No one was wounded and no damage was reported in either incident.

Ben-Eliezer: Gaza won't be retaken

On Saturday, Palestinians fired four Kassam rockets at the western Negev, a day after several other rockets hit Israel. All of them landed in open areas, causing no injuries or damage. The IDF said early Saturday that a Palestinian man killed during an operation

in the Gaza Strip had been armed, and his death was the result of a clash between soldiers and terror operatives. Earlier, Palestinian sources reported that a 50-year-old civilian had been killed shortly after troops moved into Gaza through the Sufa cargo crossing.Soldiers were searching fields and homes when the man was shot shortly after exiting his home on his way to morning prayers. Clashes between IDF troops and Palestinians in Gaza have continued consistently all week. On Friday, a firefight erupted between Palestinian gunmen and IDF units operating in the southern Gaza Strip. One Palestinian was reported wounded.

The IDF was operating in the area to locate tunnels being used for weapons smuggling from Egypt to Gaza. IDF troops operating elsewhere in Gaza on Friday also reported coming under fire, but there were no casualties. Meanwhile, one person suffered light shrapnel wounds and others were in shock after two Kassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip landed in Sderot on Friday evening, hitting an apartment building. A spokesman for the Sderot Municipality said that the city's early warning system had been triggered shortly before the rockets landed. Earlier in the day, three Kassams struck Sderot and Ashkelon. There were no reports of wounded or damage. In addition, a barrage of five mortar shells fired from the Gaza Strip landed harmlessly near the security fence.

Official: Israel used phosphorous bombs
Updated 10/22/2006,Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli army dropped phosphorous bombs against Hezbollah guerrilla targets in Lebanon during a war there this summer, an Israeli official said Sunday, confirming Lebanese allegations for the first time.Until now, Israel had said it only used the weapons which cause severe chemical burns to mark targets or territory, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.But last week, Cabinet minister Jacob Edery confirmed during a parliamentary query session that Israel had used the weapons during August fighting against Hezbollah, his spokeswoman, Orly Yehezkel, said. Edery was speaking on behalf of Defense Minister Amir Peretz, she said.The Israeli army holds phosphorous munitions in different forms, Haaretz quoted Edery as saying. The Israeli army made use of phosphorous shells during the war against Hezbollah in attacks against military targets in open ground.

Edery did not specify where or against what types of targets the phosphorous bombs were used.Edery said international law does not ban the use of such weapons. However, many international human rights groups, including the Red Cross, have pushed to ban phosphorous weapons.During the war, the Lebanese government accused Israel of dropping phosphorous bombs.Israel's defense minister said Sunday that air force flights over Lebanon would continue because arms smuggling to Lebanese guerrillas has not stopped.Amir Peretz, in remarks at Israel's weekly Cabinet meeting, accused the Lebanese government of failing to carry out its obligations under a U.N. cease-fire to keep weapons from reaching Hezbollah.

As long as the resolution isn't implemented, there is no other choice,he said, referring to the U.N. resolution that ended Israel's month-long summer war with Hezbollah.Peretz spoke after the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon termed the overflights a clear violation of the U.N. cease-fire resolution.He accused the Lebanese government of failing to prevent Hezbollah from receiving arms from its Syrian and Iranian backers.The accumulating intelligence in our hands points to a rising effort to transfer arms, and so the legitimacy for overflights increases, Peretz said.The Aug. 14 cease-fire calls on both sides to respect the U.N. boundary drawn in 2000 after Israel ended its 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon.

Israel says it has no choice but to conduct flights across that line because arms continue to flow to Hezbollah and because of the guerrilla group's continued armed presence in southern Lebanon. Under the resolution, the region must become a weapons-free zone.Up to 15,000 Lebanese army troops and an equal number of U.N. troops have been assigned to patrol southern Lebanon. Last week, Maj. Gen. Alain Pellegrini, leader of the U.N. peacekeeping force, criticized Israel for sending its jets over the area.Peretz said the U.N. force was designed to operate against Hezbollah, not Israel.

Gov't Votes to Change Political System
By Hillel Fendel(INN)

In its weekly Cabinet session this morning, the government voted narrowly, 12-11, to back legislation calling for a change in the political system. The vote paves the way for the entry into the government coalition of Yisrael Beinteinu, the party that made this bill a condition for its entry into the government coalition.Just seven weeks ago, Yisrael Beiteinu leader MK Avigdor Lieberman announced that he would join a national unity government only on five conditions. These included a change in the political system, the establishment of an official investigative committee into the mishandling of the recent war in Lebanon, and the non-destruction of Jewish outpost neighborhoods in Judea and Samaria. Most of these conditions are not being fulfilled, yet Lieberman appears on his way into the government.

Even the issue of the political system was no longer a deal-breaker for Lieberman. There is not necessarily a connection between the government's vote on the law, he said beforehand, and our decision whether to join the coalition. It's not the decisive consideration.The main feature of the proposed changes, as voted upon today, is a switch to a presidential system, in which the president is elected every four years and is not dependent on a majority in the Knesset. The changes also include a stipulation that Cabinet ministers cannot serve simultaneously as Knesset Members, and a rise in the minimum voter support that a party needs in order to be represented in the Knesset. It had been previously decided, by a vote in the ministerial committee for legislation, that the Cabinet would back the legislation but the narrow vote was contested by Labor's Eitan Cabel, and a full Cabinet vote was therefore held today. Kadima voted in favor, while Labor and Shas were against. The Pensioners continued their mixed approach on the bill, expressing opposition but voting in favor; one of its two ministers voted for the bill, while the other one abstained.

Shas Chairman Minister Eli Yeshai said that efforts to stabilize the ruling system is desirable, but it should be done in coordination with all the Knesset factions. After more than 50 years of statehood, let us not make superficial changes that will take us another 50 years to repair.Prof. Arik Carmon, head of the Israel Institute for Democracy, wrote in B'Sheva last week that a presidential system in Israel is not an option, as it has grave dangers for democracy.He feels that unlike in the U.S., where the president's powers are balanced by the individual states' powers, in Israel, too much power will be invested in one man, disenfranchising the supporters of the many small parties and worsening the gaps between the sectors.

Prof. Moshe Koppel of Bar Ilan University was also asked by B'Sheva to opine on the proposed changes.

We are far from being the United States, he wrote, which is almost the only country in which the presidential system has succeeded. Unfortunately, our political culture and the blurred borders separating between the military and civilian [sectors] are more reminiscent of South America, where the perpetual tensions between the legislature and the president, without appropriate release-points, has led to dictatorships (in Ecuador, for instance) or to military coups (such as in Chile). If we want stability and a separation of powers, there are simpler and better solutions than changing over to a presidential system. Making it harder to dissolve the Knesset would bring stability, and passing the Norwegian Law, according to which an MK must resign from the Knesset before he can become a minister, would bring about a separation of powers.

Dr. Reuven Hazan of Hebrew University wrote for B'Sheva: We can list several aspects of a democratic country: rule of law, control over corruption, representation for various social sectors, political participation, fewer social gaps, and more. If we take the world's 60 leading democracies, half of which are parliamentary democracies and half of which are presidential, we will see that by and large, the presidential systems receive lower scores than the parliamentary states in every parameter... True, the average duration between elections in a presidential system is 3.8 years, instead of 3.4 years for a parliamentary system but this is the only parameter, and only saves a few months between elections.