IS IT 1938 ALL OVER AGAIN

1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS.2-Flooding causes state of emergency in Uruguay. 3-Wildfire spreads through Los Angeles suburbs. 4-Iran seeks improved ties with N. Korea. 5-SKorea and EU hail initial free trade talks as success. 6-Koreas adopt military agreement. 7-Voting and veto issues to dominate EU constitution discussions. 8-My love of Jerusalem. 9-This Week with Rabbi Eckstein.

EARTHQUAKES

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)

Update time = Fri May 11 12:34 PM EDT

MAY 11,07
MAP 2.6 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 3.9 NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP 5.0 SOLOMON ISLANDS
MAP 2.7 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 3.2 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.7 GREATER LOS ANGELES AREA, CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.7 SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA
MAP 3.2 SOUTHERN QUEBEC, CANADA
MAP 5.3 MARIANA ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.5 PUGET SOUND REGION, WASHINGTON
MAP 4.3 TAJIKISTAN
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN IDAHO
MAP 2.9 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 3.2 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.9 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 5.5 MAUG ISLANDS REG., NORTHERN MARIANA ISL.
MAP 4.9 KEPULAUAN BARAT DAYA, INDONESIA

MAY 10,07
MAP 4.6 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 2.6 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.3 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 5.1 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 5.0 MARIANA ISLANDS REGION
MAP 4.7 MARIANA ISLANDS REGION
MAP 5.3 KEPULAUAN KAI, INDONESIA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.4 NORTHWEST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.7 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.3 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.7 MENDOZA, ARGENTINA
MAP 2.6 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.7 MARIANA ISLANDS REGION
MAP 4.0 VOLCANO ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 4.6 SOLOMON ISLANDS
MAP 2.6 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 5.3 BOUGAINVILLE REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
MAP 4.9 BOUGAINVILLE REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
MAP 4.4 NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
MAP 4.6 SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
MAP 3.6 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 3.2 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 4.7 VALPARAISO, CHILE
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 4.0 OFFSHORE CHIAPAS, MEXICO
MAP 4.4 TONGA
MAP 4.3 TARAPACA, CHILE
MAP 3.3 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.6 HAWAII REGION, HAWAII

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

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.

Flooding causes state of emergency in Uruguay by Kirsty McCabe MAY 11,07

Uruguay has declared a national disaster after experiencing the worst flooding in 50 years. An exceptionally wet few months combined with a week of heavy rainfall has forced around 12,000 people to leave their homes. The floods have affected more than 110,000 people, destroying crops and infrastructure amounting to millions of dollars in damage.The central city of Duranzo has been hit the hardest, with 20% of the population being evacuated as the torrential rain continues. The Yi River rose to 14 metres above its average level resulting in flash floods and landslides, and leaving 30,000 people without access to clean water. As water is being pumped in from other cities, concerns are now being raised over the spread of diseases such as Malaria and the levels of sanitation. With the South American Met Office predicting the onset of more extreme weather, the number of people affected is expected to rise, with many now vulnerable communities fearing the worst.

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.

Wildfire spreads through Los Angeles suburbs. by Tomasz Schafernaker MAY 11,07

Fire fighters in Los Angeles have been battling a blaze which has been tearing through the bush covered hills of Hollywood over the past two days. The state is in the grip of the driest start to the year since records began in 1877, with the combination of high temperatures and drought conditions sparking the wildfire outbreak. The fire erupted Tuesday afternoon in Griffin Park, a mixture of wilderness and cultural sites set between Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley; already destroying the popular terraced garden of Dante’s View.

Although there have been no deaths or destruction of any homes, around 300 people have been evacuated. Councilman Tom LaBonge said it’s overwhelming, spreading through thick bush that hasn’t burned down in years.Across the state, fire fighters in northern Georgia have also been battling with wild fire for a fourth consecutive week. Deemed the largest blaze in state history, the fire has consumed over 100,000 acres of the Okefenokee National Wildfire Refuge. Conditions had begun to improve, with a drop in overnight temperatures enabling fire fighters to contain 40% of the 600 acre blaze. However with the National Weather Service stating they expect the weather reprieve to be short lived, the Los Angeles fire services may have a fight on their hands.

MUSLIM NATIONS

EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE MUSLIMS TO
MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

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)

2ND WAVE CHINA AND KINGS OF THE EAST MARCH TO ISRAEL

REVELATION 16:12
12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.(THIS IS THE ATATURK DAM IN TURKEY,THEY CROSS OVER).

DANIEL 11:44 (2ND WAVE OF WW3)
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)

REVELATION 9:12-18
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.(IRAQ-SYRIA)
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.(1/3 Earths Population die in WW 3 2ND WAVE)
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand:(200 MILLION MAN ARMY FROM CHINA AND THE KINGS OF THE EAST) and I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)

Iran seeks improved ties with N. Korea By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer MAY 11,07

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's foreign minister said North Korea's debts stand in the way of improving ties between the two countries — both U.S. foes under international pressure over their nuclear programs.

It was the first time an official of either country referred to their dealings, which go back to at least the 1980s but are not publicly known. The extent of North Korea's debts to Iran remain unknown.North Korea's debts to Tehran are among the obstacles in the way of cooperation, the official IRNA news agency quoted Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying Friday. The two countries can find a formula to remove this obstacle.Mottaki met late Thursday with North Korean acting Foreign Minister Kim Yong Il. He added that Iran was still interested in improving ties with North Korea in the fields of politics, economics and culture with North Korea.Kim said his country was ready to cooperate with Iran in various economic fields and support the country on the international level.

On Friday, Vice President Dick Cheney issued a warning to Iran while aboard an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, saying the United States would join allies to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating this region.

The U.N. Security Council has imposed two sets of sanctions against Iran for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, a process that can produce fuel for nuclear reactors or the material for atomic bombs. Iran, which denies it is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons, has another deadline later this month to freeze enrichment or face tighter sanctions.The Security Council imposed sanctions on North Korea last year for conducting its first nuclear weapons test. North Korea has since refused to act on a February pledge to start dismantling its nuclear program in exchange for economic aid and political concessions.The North Korean government is believed to have cooperated with Iran militarily since early 1980s, when Saddam Hussein waged an eight-year war against Iran. Officials of the two countries regularly meet.

SKorea and EU hail initial free trade talks as success by Lim Chang-Won MAY 11,07

SEOUL (AFP) - Initial talks between South Korea and the European Union on forging a free trade agreement have been a success, both sides said Friday at the end of the first round. Seoul's chief negotiator Kim Han-Soo called the five days of talks highly successful while his EU counterpart Ignacio Garcia Bercero said discussions were very constructive.

Asia's third largest economy and the world's biggest trading bloc began talks Monday, focusing on rules and principles. Bercero said they aim for a very ambitious and comprehensive free trade agreement.The first round was highly successful, said Kim, the deputy trade minister. Mutual trust was built considerably between negotiators of the two sides.He said they have agreed in principle to scrap about 95 percent of each other's tariffs on merchandise. A draft text on tariff concessions would be exchanged by the end of June, with a second round of talks starting July 16 in Brussels.South Korea's average tariff is 11.2 percent compared to the EU's 4.2 percent, according to Kim's office.

South Korea has said it wants to conclude a pact within a year. Kim said it was too early to say when an agreement would be sealed, but I hope we will be able to conclude the deal as quickly as possible.South Korea, fresh from a landmark trade pact with the United States, hopes to become a free trade hub linking America and Europe and to steal a march on its export rivals China and Japan.

The European Union sees an agreement as giving it a bridgehead in Northeast Asia.The EU was South Korea's second largest trading partner after China last year, with trade reaching 78.56 billion dollars. It is the biggest single foreign investor, committing 4.97 billion dollars last year alone.South Korea wants to gain more access to the EU market for auto parts, electronics and textiles. The EU wants Seoul to remove barriers on automobiles, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and cosmetics.

The EU cited rules of origin, services and sustainable development as sensitive issues for future negotiations, while South Korea regards environment and labour matters as the most difficult areas.

South Korea hopes the EU will ease anti-dumping rules and countervailing duties, while the EU wants Seoul to ease regulations on imported cars.The EU has called for reciprocity in services and investment, Bercero said, adding he also raised intellectual property rights.South Korea has in recent years tightened laws to tackle copyright violations. But European businessmen believe there is still no
effective deterrent and are also concerned at the theft of intellectual property in software.In an annual report this year the United States kept South Korea on its watch list for intellectual property rights, as a country not providing an adequate level of protection or enforcement.

Koreas adopt military agreement By JAE-SOON CHANG, Associated Press Writer
Fri May 11, 8:10 AM ET

SEOUL, South Korea - North and South Korea adopted a military agreement Friday enabling the first train crossing of their heavily armed border in more than half a century, the South's Defense Ministry said. The rail test, planned for Thursday, would be the first time trains have crossed the tightly sealed border since inter-Korean rail links were severed in the middle of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Two tracks have been reconnected as part of a series of reconciliation projects launched since the two sides held the first-ever summit of their leaders in 2000.The test would be just a single run of trains along the restored tracks on each side of the peninsula, with regular train service between the two sides unlikely to begin anytime soon.The two Koreas had agreed in principle on security for the rail test earlier this week, but the adoption of a formal agreement came only after more than 30 hours of extended talks that stretched into Friday due to unspecified sticking points.

South Korea hopes the inter-Korean railways could ultimately be linked to Russia's Trans-Siberian railroad, and could allow an overland route connecting the peninsula to Europe significantly cutting delivery times for freight that now requires sea transport.Economic officials from both sides agreed last month to conduct the train run, but North Korea's military had the final say on whether it goes forward because such a border crossing requires security arrangements.

The security accord sets out protocols for the train crossings next week, including what areas of the border should open and for how long, as well as pledges from each side to guarantee travelers' safety.South Korea had hoped to expand the agreement to cover similar future border crossings, but the North refused.The two sides also agreed in principle to set up a joint fishing area around their disputed western sea border and continue talks on that issue and other measures aimed at preventing accidental clashes in the area, according to a joint statement summarizing the negotiations' outcome.

North Korea doesn't recognize the current sea border demarcated by the United Nations at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, and has long claimed it should be further south.The waters around the border are rich fishing grounds and boats from the two Koreas routinely jostle for position during the May-June crab-catching season. In 1999 and 2002, their navies fought deadly skirmishes, killing several sailors and sinking six ships.The two sides agreed to hold the next general-level talks in July and continue discussions to set up a defense ministers' meeting, the joint statement said.This week's talks were the first high-level military contacts between the two sides in a year. The two Koreas remain technically at war because the Korean War ended in a cease-fire that has never been replaced with a peace treaty.

Ties between the two sides have warmed significantly since the 2000 summit, although they suffered during the international standoff over North Korea's nuclear ambitions.Pyongyang conducted its first-ever nuclear test in October, chilling relations with the South.But the South began reaching out again to the North after Pyongyang agreed in February to shut down its nuclear reactor under an agreement with the United States and four other neighboring countries.Still, the communist regime missed an April deadline to close the reactor because of a separate financial dispute with the United States, and it is unclear when it will close down the facility.

Voting and veto issues to dominate EU constitution discussions
11.05.2007 - 17:39 CET | By Honor Mahony and Mark Beunderman

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The voting system and where member states should have a right to a veto are shaping up to be the two biggest issues at the treaty summit next month in Brussels with diplomats already gearing themselves up for a long meeting.The German EU presidency has finished the technical consultations with member state officials - a last gathering of all of these technocrats will occur next week on Wednesday - and is now expected to enter the political phase.According to diplomats close to the talks, member states are heading towards a consensus to abandon the idea of substituting all the previous treaties by one constitutional treaty.Instead the draft constitution, rejected by Dutch and French voters in 2005, will take the form of an amendment to current treaties.

Discussions are ongoing about attaching part one of the constitutional treaty containing the institutional innovations to the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht and attaching part three containing the policies of the EU to the original 1957 Treaty of Rome.

Getting as much cleared as possible at the June summit

According to one diplomat, Germany, using its political weight as a large country as well as holding the current presidency of the EU, will try to get as much of the political issues cleared up at the 21-22 June summit so that the following intergovernmental conference on the treaty is as technical as possible.This stance has led diplomats in Brussels to assume that the summit is going to be long and
contentious, with some looking back to the Nice Treaty summit, a bad-tempered political bout that lasted several days.There is talk of a lengthy council ... I have noticed it creeping into the language of other diplomats, one EU diplomat remarked.This talk reflects the list of controversial points that need to be agreed - including two fundamental issues on voting weights among member states and the
extension of qualified majority voting.For Germany, the voting system contained in the draft constitution is something not to be touched. Whoever touches this [issue] has to know that he will not reach a compromise, state secretary Georg Boomgaarden said on Thursday in the Netherlands. But Berlin still has to reckon with an increasingly tough-talking Poland.

Sticking points

Speaking to French daily Le Monde, Polish prime minister Lech Kaczynski said we will not accept the voting system proposed in the current project. For Poland this is a crucial question.The current Nice Treaty is extremely favourable to Warsaw in terms of voting weights, a privilege it loses under the draft constitution where a re-jigged voting system takes into account population size, making it much more favourable to Germany.Britain's wish to cut down the amount of areas that can be agreed by qualified majority voting is another brewing, and potentially even tougher, fight. The draft constitution, already largely ratified by 18 member states, extends the rights of the parliament to co-legislate, thus reducing the right of veto, in 49 new areas - mainly in freedom, security and justice.London is looking to claw some of this back to make the treaty an easier sell to a sceptical public and largely anti-Europe press.But this is strongly opposed in several countries, including Spain and Italy, while Paris has also signalled it will not compromise on this topic.Alain Lamassoure, an advisor to French president-elect
Nicolas Sarkozy told the EUobserver that while the UK might be tempted to revisit the list of issues that should be decided by qualified majority vote rather than unanimity (...) for the rest of member states this is not negotiable.

Other sticking points include the Charter of Fundamental Rights with member states bickering over how to incorporate it into the treaty. Currently it is in there as a whole, but some capitals are pushing for it to be referred to only in one article which says that it will only be applicable to EU law and giving member states the right to adapt it to their own traditions and legislation.

Enlargement is another controversial factor. While enlargement criteria are likely to make it into the treaty, sources are already predicting a quarrel over whether the EU's own capacity to take on new member states should be put into the treaty. Meanwhile, the German presidency is already working on additional protocols on climate change, social Europe and energy solidarity.Remarking on the difficulties facing chancellor Merkel to balance the wishes of those already having ratified and the nine countries that have not, one diplomat noted that she has a big stick to beat member states with - that they all signed up to the contents of the constitution in 2004.It's a very dangerous tactic to sign up to something at heads of state and government level and then try and wiggle out of it, said an official adding especially when there is a big presidency in town.

My love of Jerusalem
By Sir Jonathan Sacks - Thursday 10th of May 2007

There are times when you know you are living through history: that what you are witnessing will be remembered for centuries. That is what I, and surely every Jew, felt on the day forty years ago when the word went round the world: Har haBayit beyadenu. The Temple Mount is in our hands.. That day, 28 Iyar, the Chief Rabbi of the Israel Defence Forces, R. Shlomo Goren, carried a Sefer Torah to the Kotel, blew shofar and recited Psalms. Yitzhak Rabin, Chief of Staff, described the scene: We stood among a tangle of battle-weary men who were unable to believe their eyes or restrain their emotions.

Their eyes were moist with tears, their speech incoherent. The overwhelming desire was to cling to the Wall, to hold on to that great moment as long as possible.When the Israelis reached the Jewish Quarter, they discovered that it had been reduced to rubble. Synagogues had been destroyed and holy places desecrated.

Moshe Dayan made an immediate public announcement that Israel would act differently: To our Christian and Muslim fellow citizens, we solemnly promise full religious freedom and rights. We did not come to Jerusalem for the sake of other peoples. holy places and not to interfere with the adherents of other faiths, but in order to safeguard its entirety. Israel has kept that promised since. No people has ever loved a city as, for 3,000 years, Jews have loved Jerusalem. The Book of Psalms calls it beautiful in its heights, joy of all the earth, city of the great King. The word Jerusalem appears almost 700 times in Tanakh.There are few laments that speak to us with such undiminished force as the words Jews said, twenty-six centuries ago, when Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonians: If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.Wherever Jews

prayed, they prayed towards Jerusalem. At every wedding they broke a glass in its memory. At the two great climaxes of the Jewish year, on Pesach and at the end of Yom Kippur, they sang, Le-shanah haba bi-Yerushalayim. It is said that once Napoleon was passing a synagogue and heard sounds of lamentation.

Why are the Jews crying., he asked. They are mourning the loss of Jerusalem, one of his officers replied. How long ago was that?. he asked. More than seventeen centuries ago, the officer replied. A people that can mourn the loss of Jerusalem for so long, will one day have it restored to them, Napoleon said. And so it was, forty years ago. It is worth remembering that on the first day of the war, 5 June, Israel sent three messages to King Hussein of Jordan – one through the United Nations representative, another via the American ambassador and a third directly. Israel would not attack Jordan if Jordan did not enter the war. Israel would honour the armistice agreement with Jordan in its entirety. The West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Old City, would remain under Jordanian control.

There was no reply. Instead, Jordan attacked. Had King Hussein not hardened his heart, Jerusalem would still be in Arab hands. It is one of the great ironies of history. I remember the first time I looked down on the old city and the Temple Mount. I was standing on Mount Scopus, the original and now rebuilt site of the Hebrew University. I recalled the moment described in the Talmud when Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues stood on the same spot, looking down at the ruins of the Temple. The rabbis wept. Rabbi Akiva smiled. How can you smile? they asked.

The place that was once the most sacred spot on earth is now laid waste and fox is walking across the Holy of Holies where once only the High Priest was allowed to enter, and only on the holiest of days. I smile, Rabbi Akiva replied, because the prophets prophesied that Jerusalem would be laid waste, and they prophesied that it would be rebuilt. Now that the one prophesy has been fulfilled, can we doubt that the other will be likewise? That was when I realized the power of faith. Jews never lost faith that one day they would return. And they did. It was faith that brought the Jewish people back to Israel and rebuilt the ruins of Jerusalem. So, as we remember those events of forty years ago, let us thank G-d for the freedom to stand once again in David.s city, joining our prayers to those of our ancestors in the place the Divine Presence never left and to which the Jewish people has now returned.

This Week with Rabbi Eckstein
Is it 1938 all over again - May 11, 2007

Dear Friend of The Fellowship,

Over the last couple of years, we've seen evidence that France is becoming a less hospitable place for Jews. First, there were the 2005 riots in the Paris suburbs by Muslim youth, which gave the French Jewish community special reason to be wary—at the time, one Jewish man commented, When there are problems in this area (the suburban housing projects that are home to many Muslims), Jews are always easy scapegoats.

The uneasiness from these riots helped contribute to a record year for French aliyah (Jewish immigration to Israel). The following year came the heartbreaking story of Ilan Halimi, a young French Jew abducted, tortured and ultimately killed by members of a Muslim gang, just for being Jewish. This was one of many events in 2006 which contributed to a 45% increase in anti-Semitic violence and vandalism in France in 2006.Anti-Semitic incidents since 2006 have been less spectacular, but no less disturbing. In the last month alone, attackers beat a young Jewish woman in the southern city of Marseille. She reported that they tore a necklace with a Jewish ornament off her neck, crying this is the symbol of evil, before assaulting her. On April 19, a rabbi was beaten in a Paris train station, his attackers shouting, Dirty Jew, you are looking at me—I will smash your face, dirty Jew. In the city of Villeurbanne, a Jewish man standing in front of a kosher restaurant was stabbed just last week.

The election of Nicolas Sarkozy as France's president offers some encouragement. In his role as Interior Minister, Sarkozy was instrumental in alerting the French government to the growing problem of anti-Semitic attacks and Islamic radicalism. There is every reason to believe that, with him holding the nation's highest office, France will become a better friend of Israel and the Jewish people.

However, with the continued growth of Islamic radicalism, the new French president will have his work cut out for him when he takes office next week. While some of the most highly publicized anti-Semitic incidents have occurred in France, this is a phenomenon repeated across Europe and the former Soviet Union. Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Russia—all these countries, and more, have recorded a disturbing number of anti-Semitic attacks, desecration of Jewish cemeteries, and vandalism of Jewish institutions.

It was with these and other incidents in mind that I participated recently in a very interesting and important seminar. Held at Queens College in New York, it brought together Jewish (and some non-Jewish) leaders to discuss the question, Is it 1938 all over again? 1938 was, of course, the year of Kristallnacht, when Jewish synagogues and businesses were destroyed and Jewish men and women were attacked throughout Germany. While oppressive laws against Jews were in place years before this, 1938 is generally seen as the unofficial beginning of Hitler's Final Solution the Nazis' effort to destroy Europe's Jews. This conference looked at theconvergence of world events today—Iran's pursuit of nuclear arms and vows to destroy Israel, the strengthening of virulently anti-Jewish, anti-Israel Islamist terrorist groups, the growth of anti-Semitism worldwide—and asked if history is repeating itself.

There were a number of interesting viewpoints expressed at the conference, far too many to go into here. But one of the most compelling and arresting talks came from a non-Jew, David Pryce-Jones, an Englishman, Oxford professor and senior editor of the magazine National Review. Speaking on the subject, Europe, Islam and the Future of European Jewry, Mr. Pryce-Jones painted a bleak picture of the rise of anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish attacks and sentiment and the growth of a vocal and increasingly radicalized Muslim minority in Europe. By the time he was done, it seemed clear to me that, just 60 years after the Holocaust, the survival of Europe's Jewish community is far from assured.

Is it 1938 all over again? Ultimately, of course, no one knows the answer to that question. And perhaps it is less important to try to answer it than it is to continually be on the defense against the ugly forces of hate and anti-Semitism that are again rearing their ugly heads—not just in Europe, but worldwide. You can help us gather more people to join with us and stand for Israel and Jewish people around the world by sending this update to your friends and inviting them to sign up for The Fellowship's e-newsletter. Thank you for your continued concern, care, and prayers for the peace of Jerusalem.

With prayers for shalom, peace,
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein
President International Fellowship of Christians and Jews