MARKETS UP TODAY

Rosh Hashanah SEPT 30,08 DAY 2 6PM ISRAEL, 11AM EST

In the seventh month, on the first of the month, there shall be a sabbath for you, a remembrance with shofar blasts, a holy convocation. -Leviticus 16:24
Rosh Hashanah occurs on the first and second days of Tishri. In Hebrew, Rosh Hashanah means, literally, head of the year or first of the year. Rosh Hashanah is commonly known as the Jewish New Year. This name is somewhat deceptive, because there is little similarity between Rosh Hashanah, one of the holiest days of the year, and the American midnight drinking bash and daytime football game. There is, however, one important similarity between the Jewish New Year and the American one: Many Americans use the New Year as a time to plan a better life, making resolutions. Likewise, the Jewish New Year is a time to begin introspection, looking back at the mistakes of the past year and planning the changes to make in the new year. More on this concept at Days of Awe. The name Rosh Hashanah is not used in the Bible to discuss this holiday. The Bible refers to the holiday as Yom Ha-Zikkaron (the day of remembrance) or Yom Teruah (the day of the sounding of the shofar). The holiday is instituted in Leviticus 23:24-25.

The shofar is a ram's horn which is blown somewhat like a trumpet. One of the most important observances of this holiday is hearing the sounding of the shofar in the synagogue. A total of 100 notes are sounded each day. There are four different types of shofar notes: tekiah, a 3 second sustained note; shevarim, three 1-second notes rising in tone, teruah, a series of short, staccato notes extending over a period of about 3 seconds; and tekiah gedolah (literally, big tekiah), the final blast in a set, which lasts (I think) 10 seconds minimum. Click the shofar above to hear an approximation of the sound of Tekiah Shevarim-Teruah Tekiah. The Bible gives no specific reason for this practice. One that has been suggested is that the shofar's sound is a call to repentance. The shofar is not blown if the holiday falls on Shabbat. No work is permitted on Rosh Hashanah. Much of the day is spent in synagogue, where the regular daily liturgy is somewhat expanded. In fact, there is a special prayerbook called the machzor used for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur because of the extensive liturgical changes for these holidays.

Another popular observance during this holiday is eating apples dipped in honey, a symbol of our wish for a sweet new year. This was the second Jewish religious practice I was ever exposed to (the first one: lighting Chanukkah candles), and I highly recommend it. It's yummy. We also dip bread in honey (instead of the usual practice of sprinkling salt on it) at this time of year for the same reason. Another popular practice of the holiday is Tashlikh (casting off). We walk to flowing water, such as a creek or river, on the afternoon of the first day and empty our pockets into the river, symbolically casting off our sins. Small pieces of bread are commonly put in the pocket to cast off. This practice is not discussed in the Bible, but is a long-standing custom. Tashlikh is normally observed on the afternoon of the first day, before afternoon services. When the first day occurs on Shabbat, many synagogues observe Tashlikh on Sunday afternoon, to avoid carrying (the bread) on Shabbat. Religious services for the holiday focus on the concept of G-d's sovereignty. The common greeting at this time is L'shanah tovah (for a good year). This is a shortening of L'shanah tovah tikatev v'taihatem (or to women, L'shanah tovah tikatevi v'taihatemi), which means May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year. More on that concept at Days of Awe. You may notice that the Bible speaks of Rosh Hashanah as occurring on the first day of the seventh month. The first month of the Jewish calendar is Nissan, occurring in March and April. Why, then, does the Jewish new year occur in Tishri, the seventh month?

Judaism has several different new years, a concept which may seem strange at first, but think of it this way: the American new year starts in January, but the new school year starts in September, and many businesses have fiscal years that start at various times of the year. In Judaism, Nissan 1 is the new year for the purpose of counting the reign of kings and months on the calendar, Elul 1 (in August) is the new year for the tithing of animals, Shevat 15 (in February) is the new year for trees (determining when first fruits can be eaten, etc.), and Tishri 1 (Rosh Hashanah) is the new year for years (when we increase the year number. Sabbatical and Jubilee years begin at this time). See Extra Day of Jewish Holidays for an explanation of why this holiday is celebrated for two days instead of the one specified in the Bible.

List of Dates
Rosh Hashanah will occur on the following days of the Gregorian calendar:

Jewish Year 5768: sunset September 12, 2007 - nightfall September 14, 2007
Jewish Year 5769: sunset September 29, 2008 - nightfall October 1, 2008
Jewish Year 5770: sunset September 18, 2009 - nightfall September 20, 2009
Jewish Year 5771: sunset September 8, 2010 - nightfall September 10, 2010
Jewish Year 5772: sunset September 28, 2011 - nightfall September 30, 2011

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.

Laura moving toward cold waters of north Atlantic Tue Sep 30, 12:33 PM ET

MIAMI - The National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Laura is moving toward the cold waters of the north Atlantic and expected to gradually weaken over the next few days. The 12th named storm of the season was centered about 435 miles south-southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland, at 11 a.m. EDT Tuesday and moving north near 13mph.Laura's maximum sustained winds are near 60 mph. The hurricane center says a gradual weakening is forecast and Laura may lose its tropical characteristics by Thursday.Forecasters said Laura's designation changed from a subtropical storm to a tropical storm during the morning. The change reflects different ways that a storm draws its energy from the atmosphere or the ocean and how widely spread-out it is.

(This version CORRECTS that Laura is 12th named storm of season. Next advisory at 5 p.m. EDT.)

Tropical storm kills 3 in central Vietnam Tue Sep 30, 8:47 AM ET

HANOI, Vietnam - Tropical Storm Mekkhala slammed into central Vietnam on Tuesday, killing three people and leaving 10 others missing, disaster officials said. A 9-year-old girl and her 7-year-old brother were swept away while crossing a stream in Quang Binh province, said disaster official Nguyen Ngoc Dien. Three other people were missing elsewhere in the province, he said.In neighboring Ha Tinh province, a man died when he was blown off the roof of his home while trying to reinforce it during the storm. Two teenagers in the province were missing after being swept away while crossing a stream, said disaster official Le Dinh Son.In Quang Tri province, five people were reported missing.The storm arrived as people in northern Vietnam were still cleaning up following Typhoon Hagupit, which killed 41 people last week and caused damage estimated at US$65 million.Mekkhala, packing winds of 55 miles per hour (88 kilometers per hour), blew tin roofs off houses in Quang Binh province, Dien said, adding that power blackouts were reported in the provincial capital Dong Hoi.Tran Minh Ky, vice governor of Ha Tinh province, said 10,000 people in coastal villages had earlier been evacuated. However, some began returning to their homes Tuesday afternoon as the storm moved into Laos and rains stopped, said Son.Rescue workers in northern Son La province are still struggling to reach isolated villages devastated by floods triggered by Typhoon Hagupit.Vietnam is prone to floods and storms that kill hundreds of people each year.Hagupit killed 17 people and left six missing in the Guangxi region of southern China last week, the official Xinhua News Agency reported in a story posted Tuesday. Nearly 700,000 people there were evacuated after heavy rains and flooding destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of homes.

HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

WELL THE MARKETS ARE UP TODAY, INTERESTING TO ME I THOUGHT THEY WOULD BE DOWN.

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS TUE SEPT 30,2008

09:30 AM +126.48
10:00 AM +193.30
10:30 AM +232.89
11:00 AM +237.19
11:30 AM +244.52
12:00 PM +295.25
12:30 PM +243.48
01:00 PM +301.78
01:30 PM +335.31
02:00 PM +341.85
02:30 PM +401.74
03:00 PM +383.98
03:30 PM +414.54
04:00 PM +485.21 10850.66

S&P 500 1164.74 +58.35

NAS 2082.33 +98.60

GOLD 875.0 -19.20

OIL 101.50 +5.50

Europe scrambles to save banking system LEIGH PHILLIPS
Today SEPT 30,08 @ 09:27 CET

European authorities in Brussels, Frankfurt and at EU member state level are scrambling to save the continent's financial system after bank stocks plunged when US lawmakers rejected a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street on Monday (29 September).

Banks are petrified of lending to one another for more than one day, requiring central banks to flood their coffers with the money they need to stay in business.
After yesterday's part-nationalisation of Belgo-Dutch banking giant Fortis and the nationalisation of the UK's Bradford & Bingley, Belgium-based Dexia, the biggest provider of lending to local governments in the world, could be the next financial institution to be rescued by taxpayers.In an email from Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme, the country's federal government reached an agreement with Belgium's regional assemblies to jointly support the bank, Bloomberg News reported.Even French President Nicolas Sarkozy has joined the rescue operation, despite the bank being headquartered in Belgium, issuing directions that the state investment body Caisse Des Depots offer Dexia funds.Elsewhere, the German government backed by a series of private banks bailed out collapsing mortgage lender Hypo Real Estate reportedly to the tune of €35 billion, according to the German Ministry of Finance.The list of nationalisations is rapidly growing, with Iceland - not an EU member state - also nationalising the country's third largest bank, Glitner. The government has taken out a 75 percent stake in the firm in return for €600 million.The Icelandic bailout is a larger per capita rescue operation than even the failed US $700 billion plan, representing some €2,000 for every Icelander. Following the move, the Icelandic Krona dropped to its lowest level ever against the euro.Russia's Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, has rushed to the forefront in the crisis, announcing authorities will offer domestic banks a fresh $50 billion atop the $120 billion already supplied.

In perhaps the most frightening development, banks have deposited some €28 billion with the European Central Bank, afraid of leaving it stashed anywhere else, according to reports in the UK's Daily Telegraph, quoting Hans Redeker, currency chief at France's BNP Paribas.The ECB is no longer able to inject liquidity because the money is just coming back to them again, the British paper quotes the banker as saying.

Bank stocks plunge

Meanwhile, European bank stocks dropped through the floor on Monday, with Germany's Aareal and Commerzbank particularly badly knocked down, taking a 42 percent and 22 percent hit to share prices. Ireland's Anglo-Irish Bank was down 46 percent and Allied Irish down 16 percent. Italy's Unicredit, Sweden's Swedbank and France's Natixis all took a bruising as well, while a host of smaller banks in Denmark are set to collapse, according to the Financial Times. Spanish operations too are struggling.On Monday, the European Banking Federation tried to reassure citizens that the financial sector was on a sound footing despite the crisis, and that depositors' savings were not at risk.The global economy is facing an unprecedented crisis which is generating a certain degree of anguish due to the financial failure of some major banks, the EBF said in a press statement.The European banking system will weather the storm, the statement read, adding: In EU countries retail deposits are insured.

EU timetable

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet bank and insurance company directors on Tuesday to assess the financial sector's situation in his country, his office announced. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso also said that a structural European response was currently being prepared for the summit of European leaders in two weeks' time. Additionally, on Wednesday, EU internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy is to unveil a tripartite reform of European banks' capital requirements.

Stocks surge higher; credit worries persist By JOE BEL BRUNO and TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writers SEPT 30,08

NEW YORK - Wall Street has ended sharply higher as investors bet that lawmakers will salvage a $700 billion rescue plan for the financial sector. The Dow Jones industrials surged nearly 500 points to the 10,860 level. The rally offset Monday's 778-point rout, one of the biggest selloffs in years. The recovery wasn't unexpected as carnage on Wall Street often attracts bargain hunters.However, the seized-up credit markets where businesses turn to raise money showed no sign of relief. A key rate that banks charge to lend to one another shot higher, a tightening of the availability of credit that could cascade through the economy.

Stocks jump after steep sell-off; key rate rises By TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writer SEPT 30,08

NEW YORK - Wall Street snapped back Tuesday after its biggest sell-off in years amid growing expectations that lawmakers will salvage a $700 billion rescue plan for the financial sector. But the seized-up credit markets where businesses turn to raise money showed no sign of relief. In midday trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 253.04, or 2.44 percent, to 10,618.49 after falling nearly 7 percent on Monday to its lowest close in nearly three years. It was the largest point drop and 17th largest percentage drop in the blue chip index. The percentage decline was far less severe than the 20-plus-percent drops seen in the stock market crash of October 1987 and before the Great Depression.Broader stock indicators also bounced higher Tuesday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 34.25, or 3.10 percent, to 1,140.67, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 60.27, or 3.04 percent, to 2,044.00.The S&P fell 8.79 percent Monday, while the Nasdaq lost 9.14 percent.The rise in stocks wasn't unexpected as carnage on Wall Street often attracts bargain hunters, though questions remain about how investors will proceed. Without a bailout plan in place to absorb soured mortgage debt and other bad loans from banks' balance sheets, investors are wondering what might restore confidence in lending.Major stock indexes were almost a sideshow during the session, with the credit markets as the main event. A key rate that banks charge to lend to one another shot higher, a tightening of the availability of credit that could cascade through the economy.

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, still stunned from Monday's 778-point plunge in the Dow Jones industrial average, warned that the government needs to approve a plan that will sweep away the fears that hobbled the credit markets. While U.S. political leaders have vowed to revisit the issue, the House isn't slated to meet again until Thursday.If it doesn't pass, then look out below, said Jason Weisberg, an NYSE trader for Seaport Securities. It could get ugly.Though the blue-chip index rose more than 250 points at midday, the main worry for traders is that a lack of a plan will make it nearly impossible for some companies to fund basic operations like making payroll. Participants in the credit market buy and sell debt that companies use to finance operations.The benchmark London Interbank Offered Rate, or LIBOR, that banks charge to lend to one another rose sharply Tuesday, making it more expensive and difficult for consumers and businesses to borrow money. In addition, credit card debt and more than half of adjustable-rate mortgages are tied to LIBOR, so an increase isn't welcome for many consumers.LIBOR for 3-month dollar loans rose to 4.05 percent from 3.88 percent on Monday. LIBOR for 3-month euro loans, meanwhile, rose to 5.27 percent, from 5.22 percent Monday.Critics of the bailout package believe that it was too costly and wouldn't have done enough to jump-start lending. To maintain pressure ahead of Thursday's likely vote, President Bush said in a statement from the White House early Tuesday that the damage to the economy will be painful and lasting unless Congress passes the bailout measure.On Wall Street, many traders likely will proceed cautiously while they gauge prospects for resurrecting the bailout effort, which was backed by leaders of both parties.

I'm not getting the sense that investors are going to be jumping in with both feet until there is some kind of resolution on the plan, said James Maguire, an NYSE floor trader with Christopher J. Forbes. If there's a no vote, we're going to seen a lower overall drift in stocks. It will be a slow bleed.Traders also will likely focus on how the bloodshed will look on paper. Tuesday marks the final session of the third quarter — and what is typically the worst month for the stock market — so some portfolio managers might try to do what they can to dress up their performance. Others might simply wish to dump holdings in an unpopular corners of the market like the financial sector.The yield on the 3-month Treasury bill rose Tuesday to 0.67 percent from 0.14 percent late Monday. The yield fell Monday as investors clamored for the safety of government debt. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.74 percent from 3.58 percent late Monday. The dollar rose against other major currencies and gold prices advanced.While investors focused on what might come from Washington this week, Wall Street was cheered by several economic readings.A private research group reported that consumer confidence rose unexpectedly in September. The Conference Board said Tuesday its Consumer Confidence Index rose to 59.8 from a revised 58.5 in August; Wall Street had expected a reading of 55.5, according to Thomson/IFR. The reading, which doesn't reflect attitudes following Monday's steep stock market sell-off, remains near a 16-year low. The Chicago Purchasing Managers' index, which measures business conditions across Illinois, Michigan and Indiana, came in at 56.7 compared with 57.9 in August —a second straight month of a strong reading. Light, sweet crude rose $2.40 to $98.77 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil fell more than $10 a barrel Monday as investors worried that a weaker economy would curtail demand. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by about 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to a light 485.3 million shares. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 8.50, or 1.29 percent, to 666.22. Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 4.12 percent. But Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.76. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 1.73 percent, Germany's DAX index added 0.41 percent, and France's CAC-40 rose 1.99 percent. On the Net: New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com

Lawmakers scramble to revise bailout bill By CHARLES BABINGTON and JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writers SEPT 30,08

WASHINGTON - Congressional leaders labored Tuesday to find out how many changes are needed to sell the defeated $700 billion financial system rescue to rank-and-file members. John McCain and Barack Obama offered long-distance encouragement from the campaign trail, announcing separately their backing for a plan that some House Republicans had pushed earlier: raising the federal deposit insurance limit from $100,000 to $250,000. The aim would be to reassure nervous Americans and to shore up the economy.For his part, President Bush sought to avoid being marginalized, making another statement in the White House. Congress must act, he demanded in front of the cameras.I recognize this is a difficult vote for members of Congress, he said. And I understand that. But the reality is we are in an urgent situation and the consequences will grow worse each day if we do not act.Republican House aides said the FDIC proposal might be attractive to some conservatives who want to help small business owners and avert runs on banks by customers fearful of losing their savings. The leadership needs to find sufficient changes to attract about a dozen more votes, the number needed to avoid the kind of stunning defeat that supporters of a bailout suffered Monday.Obama's embrace of the idea might attract some Democratic votes.Democratic aides, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were three basic options under consideration. They included a simple revote of the bill that failed, in the hope it would command a majority following the stock market plunge; changing the measure to bring aboard more Democrats; or revising it to gain more support from lawmakers in both parties.The last option appeared the likeliest, although no decisions had been made by midday. Nor was it clear what specific changes legislative leaders had in mind.Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said it was time for all lawmakers to act like grown-ups, if you will, and get this done for all of the people.Bush warned that failing to pass such a plan would bring severe consequences to the U.S. economy. McCain and Obama echoed his sentiments. Both the Republican and Democratic nominees spoke with Bush on Tuesday, and both have let colleagues know they embrace the higher FDIC insurance idea.

Another possible change to the bill would modify mark to market accounting rules. Such rules require banks and other financial institutions to adjust the value of their assets to reflect current market prices, even if they plan to hold the assets for years.Some House Republicans say current rules forced banks to report huge paper losses on mortgage-backed securities, which might have been avoided.The House on Monday balked at approving the Bush administration's $700 billion proposal, its 228-205 vote, sparking the largest sell-off on Wall Street since the day after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.Bush noted that the maximum $700 billion in the proposed bailout was huge, but was dwarfed by the $1 trillion in lost wealth that resulted from Monday's stock-market plunge.Because the government would be purchasing troubled assets and selling them once the market recovers, he said, it is likely that many of the assets would go up in value over time. Ultimately, we expect that much - if not all - of the tax dollars we invest will be paid back.The rescue package and the nation's faltering economy was also Topic A on the presidential campaign trail.The first thing I would do is say, Let's not call it a bailout. Let's call it a rescue, McCain told CNN. The Arizona Republican said that Americans are frightened right now and it is the job of political leaders to give them both an immediate solution and a longer-term approach to the problem.McCain announced a brief suspension of his campaign last week to return to Washington and become involved in negotiations on the bailout but would not say whether he was contemplating that again. I will do whatever is necessary to help, he said.

Top congressional and White House officials were stunned when the House rejected the massive rescue plan, and a host of lawmakers said Tuesday they thought Congress should persevere in its attempt to find a political consensus. Obama issued a statement Tuesday saying lawmakers should not start from scratch as they weigh their next move. The Illinois senator said that significantly increasing federal deposit insurance would help small businesses and make the U.S. banking system more secure as well as restore public confidence in the nation's financial system. White House spokesman Tony Fratto said that McCain and Obama each called and spoke to the president on the crisis. Both calls were very constructive, and the president appreciated hearing from them, he said. Fratto said both senators offered ideas and agreed the crisis was a critical one that needed to be addressed. We appreciate hearing them and will continue to work with congressional leaders on ideas that will help the economy, Fratto said. In his comments from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, Bush pointed to Monday's drop in the Dow Jones industrials. The dramatic drop in the stock market that we saw yesterday will have a direct impact on retirement accounts, pension funds and personal savings of millions of our citizens, he said. And if our nation continues on this course, the economic damage will be painful and lasting.Bush said this was a critical moment for the U.S. economy. And we need legislation that decisively addresses the troubled assets now clogging the financial system, helps lenders resume the flow of credit to consumers and businesses, and allows the American economy to get moving again.Earlier, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said doing nothing is not an option as lawmakers scrambled to structure a new bailout proposal that would attract reluctant lawmakers and still soothe the unnerved financial markets. With the House not scheduled to meet again until Thursday, congressional leaders and administration officials promptly sought to assess what types of changes could win over enough votes to guarantee success. Obama said Tuesday that lawmakers should not start from scratch as they weigh their next move. The bill's failure came despite furious personal lobbying by Bush and support from House leaders of both parties. But the legislation was highly unpopular with the public, ideological groups on the left and the right organized against it, and Bush no longer wielded the influence to leverage tough votes. Even pressure in favor of the bill from some of the biggest special interests in Washington, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Realtors, could not sway enough votes. The legislation the administration promoted would have allowed the government to buy bad mortgages and other deficient assets held by troubled financial institutions. If successful, advocates of the plan believed it would have helped lift a major weight off the already sputtering national economy. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson emerged after the vote and warned of a credit crunch that would affect American businesses and said families would find it harder to get student loans and car loans. We need to work as quickly as possible, he said gravely. We need to get something done.Associated Press writers David Espo, Tom Raum, Ben Feller, Andrew Taylor and Julie Hirschfeld Davis contributed to this report.

In IRS Protest, Pastors Back Candidates,Conservative Legal Group Fighting To Abolish Restrictions On Church Involvement In Politics WEST BEND, Wis., Sept. 28, 2008

(AP) Pastor Luke Emrich prepared his sermon this week knowing his remarks could invite an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service. But that was the whole point, so Emrich forged ahead with his message: Thou shalt vote according to the Scriptures. I'm telling you straight up, I would choose life, Emrich told about 100 worshippers Sunday at New Life Church, a nondenominational evangelical congregation about 40 miles from Milwaukee. I would cast a vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin, he said. But friends, it's your choice to make, it's not my choice. I won't be in the voting booth with you.All told, 33 pastors in 22 states were to make pointed recommendations about political candidates Sunday, an effort orchestrated by the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund. The conservative legal group plans to send copies of the pastors' sermons to the IRS with hope of setting off a legal fight and abolishing restrictions on church involvement in politics. Critics call it unnecessary, divisive and unlikely to succeed. Congress amended the tax code in 1954 to state that certain nonprofit groups, including secular charities and places of worship, can lose their tax-exempt status for intervening in a campaign involving candidates. Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, said hundreds of churches volunteered to take part in Pulpit Freedom Sunday. Thirty-three were chosen, in part for strategic criteria related to litigation Stanley wouldn't discuss. Pastor Jody Hice of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Bethlehem, Ga., said in an interview Sunday that his sermon compared Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain on abortion and gay marriage and concluded that McCain holds more to a biblical world view.

He said he urged the Southern Baptist congregation to vote for McCain. The basic thrust was this was not a matter of endorsing, it's a First Amendment issue, Hice said. To say the church can't deal with moral and societal issues if it enters into the political arena is just wrong, it's unconstitutional.At the independent Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond, Okla., pastor Paul Blair said he told his congregation, As a Christian and as an American citizen, I will be voting for John McCain.It's absolutely vital to proclaim the truth and not be afraid to proclaim the truth from our pulpits, Blair said in an interview. Because the pastors were speaking in their official capacity as clergy, the sermons are clear violations of IRS rules, said Robert Tuttle, a professor of law and religion at George Washington University. But even if the IRS rises to the bait and a legal fight ensues, Tuttle said there's virtually no chance courts will strike down the prohibition. The government is allowed, as long as it has a reasonable basis for doing it, to treat political and nonpolitical speech differently, and that's essentially what it's done here, Tuttle said. Not all the sermons came off as planned. Bishop Robert Smith Sr. of Word of Outreach Center in Little Rock said he had to postpone until next week because of a missed flight. Smith, a delegate to this month's Republican National Convention, declined to say whom he would endorse. Promotional materials for the initiative said each pastor would prepare the sermon with legal assistance of the ADF to ensure maximum effectiveness in challenging the IRS.Stanley said the pastors alone wrote the sermons, with the framework that they be a biblical evaluation of the candidates for office with a specific recommendation. That could be a flat-out endorsement or opposition to one or both candidates, he said. The legal group declined to release a list of participants in advance, citing concerns about potential disruptions at services. A list and excerpts from sermons will be made public early this week, with the delay necessary for lawyers to review the material, the group said. Under the IRS code, places of worship can distribute voter guides, run nonpartisan voter registration drives and hold forums on issues, among other things. However, they cannot endorse a candidate, and their political activity cannot be biased for or against a candidate, directly or indirectly - a sometimes murky line. The IRS said in a statement it is aware of Sunday's initiative and will monitor the situation and take action as appropriate.

The agency has stepped up oversight of political activity in churches in recent years after receiving a flurry of complaints from the 2004 campaign. The IRS reported issuing written advisories against 42 churches for improper politically activity in 2004. The ban on churches intervening in candidate campaigns survived a court challenge when a U.S. appellate court upheld the revocation of tax-exempt status of a New York church that took out a newspaper ad urging Christians to vote against Bill Clinton in the 1992 presidential election. Opposition to Sunday's sermon initiative was widespread. A United Church of Christ minister in Ohio rallied other religious leaders to file a complaint with the IRS. Roman Catholic Archbishop John Favalora of Miami wrote that the archdiocese abides by IRS rules in part because we can do a lot for our communities with the money we save by being tax-exempt.Three former IRS officials also asked the agency to investigate the initiative, questioning the ethics of lawyers asking ministers to break the law.

Two-thirds of adults oppose political endorsements from churches and other places of worship and 52 percent want them out of politics altogether, according to a survey last month from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. It is good public policy that in exchange for the valuable privilege of a tax exemption, you cannot turn your church or charity into a political action committee, said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Church and State, which intends to report the participating churches to the IRS, along with any other churches acting independently.

Israel army buys self-destruct cluster bombs: radio SEPT 30,08

JERUSALEM (AFP) - The Israeli army is equipping itself with self-destruct cluster bombs in order to lower the number of civilian victims of this type of weapon, used in the 2006 war in Lebanon, military radio said. The army has reduced its purchases of US made cluster bombs, instead buying Israel-made M-85 cluster bombs, which contain a mechanism to destroy themselves if they fail to explode immediately on impact, according to the report.Cluster munitions spread bomblets over a wide area from a single container.The United Nations estimates that a million cluster bombs were dropped on Lebanon by Israel between July 12 and August 14 in 2006 in the conflict with Hezbollah.About 40 percent of these did not explode on impact and are spread among villages and orchards in the south of Lebanon.According to a UN report in June, at least 38 people have been killed and 217 wounded by bomblets exploding since the end of the fighting.The Israeli government's Winograd Commission of enquiry into the mistakes of the Lebanon war recommended the army use fewer cluster bombs in future to reduce civilian injuries.In May, delegates from 111 countries agreed a landmark treaty in in Dublin to ban the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions by its signatories.However, the agreement lacked the backing of major producers and stockpilers including Israel, China, India, Pakistan, Russia and the United States.

Olmert's Lame-Duck Epiphany About Palestinian Peace By SCOTT MACLEOD
Tue Sep 30, 11:45 AM ET

He is a former leader in the rightist Likud Party who for decades staunchly believed that the West Bank and Gaza Strip belonged to the Jewish people and that the territories, along with the Golan Heights, should remain part of Greater Israel forever. Along with former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert gradually came to understand that this was a fantasy. They broke away from Likud and created the centrist Kadima ("Onward") Party three years ago. Now, as Olmert hands over to Tzipi Livni and leaves office amid a corruption scandal, he's made a series of stunning departure statements that form a swan song of historical importance. Peace advocates, Israeli dreamers, Arab skeptics and U.S. mediators in a future McCain or Obama administration should read his words carefully and take note.The political lame duck's views expressed in interviews and public comments reveals the sweeping reversals that have taken place among some of Israel's ultra-nationalists. Olmert says Israel should withdraw from almost all of the West Bank and Golan Heights. A former mayor of the undivided capital of the Jewish state, he now advocates dividing Jerusalem with the Palestinians. He wants to keep some of the Jewish settlements that adjoin Israel's pre-1967 border, but accepts giving the future Palestinian state Israeli territory in a land swap with a close to 1-to-1-ratio.The notion of a Greater Israel no longer exists, Olmert says, and anyone who still believes in it is deluding themselves.True, these are not radical views. Former Labour PM Ehud Barak put something like this on the table at Camp David negotiations with the Palestinians eight years ago. What Olmert is saying today broadly conforms to the thinking of Israeli Labour politicians, mainstream Palestinian and Arab leaders, U.S. officials as well as the international community. What is important is the source, content and context of Olmert's statements.

Olmert is no Arab-loving pacifist. As prime minister, he ravaged half of Lebanon in 2006 in a military offensive after Hizballah killed and kidnapped Israeli soldiers. He has unmercifully turned the screws on Hamas-controlled Gaza. Olmert's comments reflect a profound shift toward realism among Israeli rightists, akin to what Palestinian and Arab nationalists started going through three decades ago when Israel was in the prime of its strategic strength. The shift is evident not only in Olmert's prescription for a peace settlement, but in his severe critique of a righteous Israeli mindset that has turned out to be self-destructive.Forty years after the Six Day War ended, we keep finding excuses not to act, Olmert says. We refuse to face reality... The strategic threats we face have nothing to do with where we draw our borders... For a large portion of these years, I was unwilling to look at the reality in all its depth. Saying Israel would not attack Iran unilaterally to stop Tehran's nuclear program, Olmert scoffs, Part of our megalomania and our loss of proportions is the things that are said here about Iran. We are a country that has lost a sense of proportion about itself.Olmert is by no means agreeing to a surrender. Yet, after Israel's failure to impose its will on Arab opponents by force over four decades, he's crying uncle. We invested our mental resources and thoughts in how to build Judea and Samaria, yet history made clear to us that the State of Israel has other realistic and viable options, he says. The State of Israel's future won't be found in intermixing with the Palestinians, but rather, is to be found in unpopulated regions that are desperate for our entrepreneurship and innovation.Palestinian demands, Olmert is acknowledging, won't go away. Recall, the Likud Party where Olmert made his career always refused any dealings with the PLO or to recognize its demands for Palestinian independence. Indeed, Sharon invaded Lebanon in 1982 with a grand vision of re-drawing the Middle East map with no place for a Palestinian state. The expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank proceeded rapidly in the ensuing decades. With his about-face, Olmert effectively acknowledges that the Palestinian uprisings of 1987 and 2000 succeeded in forcing Israel to address Palestinian rights. Everybody including Camp David host Bill Clinton loved to blame Arafat for the collapse of the peace process. When Sharon succeeded Barak as Prime Minister in 2001, he began implementing a unilateral vision of a settlement by ending Israel's occupation of Gaza. Yet, for the last year, at the tragically belated coaxing of the Bush admininstration, Olmert, who replaced the ailing Sharon in 2006, has been quietly engaged in a revival of negotiations with Arafat's successor. Like Olmert's willingness to enter those talks, his swan song amounts to an admission that Israel itself never went quite far enough toward accommodating Palestinian basic requirements for peace.

The realism behind Olmert's charge of heart is of tremendous import, summed up by one sentence: The international community is starting to view Israel as a future binational state. In other words, forget about Ahmadinejad's threats to wipe Israel off the map. Echoing views he initially expressed in 2003, Olmert reasons that without an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, the Jewish state faces the self-inflicted mortal danger of being destroyed by demographics, overwhelmed by Muslim and Christian Arabs demanding political representation. Olmert fears that the international community could ultimately favor a one-state solution, thus spelling the death of the two-state partition that has been at the core of an acceptable Israeli-Palestinian solution for decades. Time is not on Israel's side, Olmert says. I used to believe that everything from the Jordan River bank to the Mediterranean Sea was ours... But eventually, after great internal conflict, I've realized we have to share this land with the people who dwell here - that is, if we don't want to be a binational state.In the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Aluf Benn disparages the Israeli Prime Minister's epiphany, saying Olmert is an excellent commentator, but he lacks the firmness to execute his ideas. Sadly, that seems to be the case. Yet, Olmert, on the eighth anniversary of the second Palestinian intifadeh, has done history a valuable service by puncturing some myths about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. If future negotiators, as well as American mediators, abandon their fantasies as Olmert has done, a peace that truly benefits all the parties is much likelier to come.

West Bank settler violence challenges Israel By Mohammed Assadi
Tue Sep 30, 9:19 AM ET

ASIRA AL-KIBLIYA, West Bank (Reuters) - Armed with guns, slingshots, knives and stun grenades, Jewish settlers pelted the house of Palestinian Nahla Makhlouf with stones, uprooted young trees and painted the Star of David on her walls. In Makhlouf's West Bank village of Asira al-Kibilya, Palestinians brace for possible attack by their Jewish settler neighbors from nearby Titzhar almost every weekend. But the latest attack exceeded their expectations.They sprayed some sort of tear gas through the window. It smelled strong and made our eyes run and made it hard to breath, especially for my baby, said the 33-year-old mother of four.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reacted strongly to the September 13 attack, saying he would not tolerate pogroms by Jewish extremists who are determined on religious grounds to stop Israel swapping occupied land for peace.Last week, an outspoken Israeli critic of the settlements was wounded by a pipe bomb outside his Jerusalem home, in what Olmert said was evidence of an evil wind of extremism, of hatred, of violence threatening Israeli democracy.Settlers and the Israeli army said the Asira assault was triggered by the wounding of a nine-year-old settler boy by a Palestinian whom he had disturbed in the act of setting fire to a house in the Yitzhar settlement while the family was away.But settler vigilante violence is growing, according to a recent U.N. report, which recorded 222 incidents in the first half of 2008, versus 291 in all of 2007.

HARDLINE

Some half a million Jewish settlers live in the West Bank, including Arab East Jerusalem. Their presence, viewed by major powers as illegal under international law, is partly shielded by a 790 km (490 mile) barrier Israel has been building since 2002.In a newspaper interview on Monday, Olmert broke new ground by urging Israel's withdrawal from almost all the territories captured in the 1967 Middle East war in return for peace.But Olmert says Israel plans to keep major settlements in the West Bank in any peace deal, and would have to compensate the Palestinians for land lost.The Palestinians say they cannot have a viable country of their own if it is chopped into pieces by Israeli settlement islands and the snaking walls and fences of the new barrier.U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called the settlements an obstacle to peace which must go.Some settlers justified the attack on Asira, saying the army failed to protect them against a violent infiltration.If the Israeli army had done what it should, maybe this wouldn't have happened. They should either have prevented that infiltration or carried out a raid after, Renana Cohen said.Dani Dayan of Israel's mainstream settlers' organization says the Arabs do not want peace. A Palestinian state would be a launching pad from which they would conduct ethnic cleansing against the Israelis, he argues. Many Israelis feel the same.Most settlers oppose vigilante violence. But most agree that withdrawal would be a sure recipe for war, as Dayan puts is, because there will no peace-loving Palestinians taking over.A younger, more aggressive breed of religious ideologues vows a violent response to any eviction threat, warning a heavy price would be exacted for any bid to close settlements down.

NO PROTECTION

Residents of Asira say the settlers need no provocation or pretext. Attacks on Asira date back three years, Makhlouf said. Palestinians complain of unremitting harassment, such as the burning of their olive trees and stoning attacks on farmers in the fields, as a prelude to land-creep and confiscation. The garden and rooftop of Makhlouf's neighbor, Ahmed Dawood, were littered by stones rained onto his house in the settler rampage. The water tank was holed by four bullet. Dawood's son and a laborer in his field were shot and wounded. The army, he said, made no effort to stop the attack. I complained to the soldiers and they shouted back Get inside and started shooting, he said. We have nothing to protect ourselves with. We just take precautions such as putting metal grids on the windows. But the solution is to have them uprooted from here.Asira's predicament is well known to Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, who gave Makhlouf a small video camera in 2007 to document violence. The lens was knocked off focus by a rock in the latest attack but still provided an audio record. Yoav Gross of B'Tselem said the settlers can be heard giving the army a one-minute ultimatum to act against the Palestinians or they would do the job themselves. They started counting one, two, three..., he said. They were giving orders to the soldiers, not the other way around.One Israeli human rights lawyer, Michael Sfard, says most soldiers do not realize they have not only the right but also the duty, as the occupying power, to defend Palestinians. Settler attacks may rise in the upcoming olive harvest, when Arab farmers work the groves close to settlement perimeters. One Palestinian woman in Asira was stocking up on corrosive cleaning fluids to throw at the attackers next time they visit. They have the army to protect them even while they are attacking us, said the woman, who was afraid to give her name. But we have no one to defend us.(Editing by Douglas Hamilton and Samia Nakhoul)