DAY 2 WEDNESDAY 6PM to THURSDAY 6PM IN ISRAEL SHAVUOT,WEEKS,PENTICOST
SCRIPTURES TORAH
DEUTORONOMY 15:19-16:17
19 All the firstling males that come of thy herd and of thy flock thou shalt sanctify unto the LORD thy God: thou shalt do no work with the firstling of thy bullock, nor shear the firstling of thy sheep.
20 Thou shalt eat it before the LORD thy God year by year in the place which the LORD shall choose, thou and thy household.
21 And if there be any blemish therein, as if it be lame, or blind, or have any ill blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto the LORD thy God.
22 Thou shalt eat it within thy gates: the unclean and the clean person shall eat it alike, as the roebuck, and as the hart.
23 Only thou shalt not eat the blood thereof; thou shalt pour it upon the ground as water.
1 Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.
2 Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the passover unto the LORD thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the LORD shall choose to place his name there.
3 Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life.
4 And there shall be no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy coast seven days; neither shall there any thing of the flesh, which thou sacrificedst the first day at even, remain all night until the morning.
5 Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee:
6 But at the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt.
7 And thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose: and thou shalt turn in the morning, and go unto thy tents.
8 Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread: and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD thy God: thou shalt do no work therein.
9 Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn.
10 And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the LORD thy God, according as the LORD thy God hath blessed thee:
11 And thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to place his name there.
12 And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes.
13 Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine:
14 And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates.
15 Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD shall choose: because the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice.
16 Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:
17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee.
NUMBER 28:26-31
26 Also in the day of the firstfruits, when ye bring a new meat offering unto the LORD, after your weeks be out, ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work:
27 But ye shall offer the burnt offering for a sweet savour unto the LORD; two young bullocks, one ram, seven lambs of the first year;
28 And their meat offering of flour mingled with oil, three tenth deals unto one bullock, two tenth deals unto one ram,
29 A several tenth deal unto one lamb, throughout the seven lambs;
30 And one kid of the goats, to make an atonement for you.
31 Ye shall offer them beside the continual burnt offering, and his meat offering, (they shall be unto you without blemish) and their drink offerings.
PROPHETS DAY 2 SHAVUOT (WEEKS,PENTICOST)
HABAKKUK 3:1-19
1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth.
2 O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.
3 God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.
4 And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power.
5 Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet.
6 He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting.
7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
8 Was the LORD displeased against the rivers? was thine anger against the rivers? was thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation?
9 Thy bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers.
10 The mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high.
11 The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear.
12 Thou didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh the heathen in anger.
13 Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed; thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the neck. Selah.
14 Thou didst strike through with his staves the head of his villages: they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me: their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly.
15 Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, through the heap of great waters.
16 When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops.
17 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:
18 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
19 The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.
The magic of Shavuot, 1967
By Larry Domnitch May 23, 2007
Reprinted from our publication of this piece in 2005, on the 40th anniversay of the holiday.
Over the last two millennia, Jews have visited Jerusalem in honor of the festivals, in lieu of the Biblically ordained pilgrimages. On the holiday of Shavuot, there was also the custom to visit the grave of King David on Mount Zion, since according to tradition, the date of his birth and passing was the holiday of Shavuot. When Shavuot arrived in 1948, it was a month after the establishment of the State of Israel, and Jews could no longer continue to make the pilgrimage to the Western Wall.
The Jordanians, who occupied the eastern half of the city since the War of Independence, blocked all rights of passage to the Jews. However, the pilgrimage to King David's tomb on nearby Mount Zion, located on the Israeli side of divided Jerusalem, continued. Over the next nineteen years, crowds made their way to Mount Zion, where they could view the Old City and the Temple Mount.
On the morning of Shavuot June 15, 1967, just six days after the liberation of the Old City of Jerusalem following the Six Day War, the Old City was officially opened to the Israeli public. For the first time in almost two thousand years, masses of Jews could visit the Western Wall and walk through the cherished streets of Judaism's capital city as members of the sovereign Jewish nation.
Each Jew who ventured to the Western Wall on that unforgettable day represented the living realization of their ancestors' dreams over the millennia. It was one of those rare, euphoric moments in history. From the late hours of the night, thousands of Jerusalem residents streamed towards Zion gate, eagerly awaiting entry into the Old City. At 4 a.m., the accumulating crowds were finally allowed to enter the area of the Western Wall. The first Minyan (traditional quorum of ten men) soon began.
Over fifteen hundred people shared that special moment. As the sun continued to rise, there was a steady flow of thousands who made their way to the Old City. In total, two hundred thousand visited the Western Wall that day. It was the first pilgrimage, en masse, of Jews to Jewish-controlled Jerusalem on a Jewish festival in two thousand years, since the pilgrimages for the festivals in Temple times.
The Jerusalem Post described the epic scene:
Every section of the population was represented. Kibbutz members and soldiers rubbing shoulders with Neturei Karta. Mothers came with children in prams, and old men trudged steeply up Mount Zion, supported by youngsters on either side, to see the wall of the Temple before the end of their days. Some wept, but most faces were wreathed in smiles.
For thirteen continuous hours a colorful variety of all peoples trudged along in perfect order, stepping patiently when told to do so at each of six successive barriers set up by the police to regulate the flow.
An eyewitness described the moment:
I've never known so electric an atmosphere before or since. Wherever we stopped, we began to dance. Holding aloft Torah scrolls we swayed and danced and sang at the tops of our voices. So many of the Psalms and songs are about Jerusalem and Zion and the words reached into us a new life. As the sky lightened, we reached the Zion gate. Still singing and dancing, we poured into the narrow alleyways beyond.On Shavuot, three thousand two hundred and seventy nine years earlier, the Israelites stood at Mount Sinai and felt the gravity of the moment as a unique relationship was formed between themselves and their Creator. On the day of Shavuot following Israel's amazing victory of the Six-Day War, multitudes ascended to the Western Wall, as their ancestors had done in the past, and they celebrated the holiday just a short distance from the Temple Mount. They, too, felt the magic of the moment. Views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
SHAVUOT STARTS TONIGHT
Today In Jewish History 5 Sivan May 22,07
In 1981, Israel bombed and destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor in Baghdad. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had pronounced himself as the reincarnation of Babylonian tyrant Nebuchadnezzar, and named the nuclear reactor Tammuz -- the name of the calamitous Jewish month when Nebuchadnezzar's troops laid siege on Jerusalem 2,500 years earlier. Ilan Ramon (later to become Israel's first astronaut, who died in the explosion of the Space Shuttle Columbia) and seven other pilots executed the daring raid -- flying over enemy Arab territory for hours, and avoiding detection with their tight formation that emitted a radar signal resembling a commercial airliner. However, even as Israel celebrated the successful raid, condemnation was nearly universal. One prominent U.S. senator called it one of the most provocative, ill-timed and internationally illegal actions taken in that nation's history. Two decades later, as the world feared Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, the Israeli action was vindicated.
EXODUS 23:16
16 And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.
The holiday of Shavuot,(WEEKS,PENTECOST) which begins tonight, is known as the Festival of Harvest.
DAY 1 TUESDAY from 6PM to 6PM. DAY 2 WEDNESDAY from 6PM to 6PM THU. THE THIRD TEMPLE HAS TO BE REBUILT TO PERFORM THESE FEASTS PROPERLY, PLEASE ISRAEL REBUILD THE 3RD TEMPLE NOW. ALL ISRAEL GET BEHIND THE SANHEDRIN AND LETS PRAISE THE GOD OF ISRAEL PROPERLY IN THE 3RD TEMPLE. IM ONLY A SINGLE VOICE BUT WITH LOTS OF VOICES IT CAN HAPPEN. ALL CHRISTIANS ALSO ENCOURAGE CHURCHES TO GET THE WORD AROUND, WE NEED THE 3RD TEMPLE REBUILT.
DAY 1 OF FIRSTFRUITS (SHAVUOT) SCRIPTURES
ACTS 1:1-26, 2:1-47
1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
2 Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:
3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:
4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
12 Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day’s journey.
13 And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.
14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
15 And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,)
16 Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.
17 For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry.
18 Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.
19 And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood.
20 For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take.
21 Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
22 Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.
23 And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.
24 And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen,
25 That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.
26 And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
12 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?
13 Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.
14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:
15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:
19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:
20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:
21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:
23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.
25 For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:
26 Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:
27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
28 Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.
29 Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.
30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;
31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.
32 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
33 Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
34 For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,
35 Until I make thy foes thy footstool.
36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
40 And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
42 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
TORAH SCRIPTURES
EXODUS CHAPTERS 19-20
1 In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.
2 For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.
3 And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;
4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.
5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
7 And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him.
8 And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.
9 And the LORD said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the LORD.
10 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes,
11 And be ready against the third day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.
12 And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death:
13 There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.
14 And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes.
15 And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives.
16 And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.
17 And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.
18 And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
19 And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.
20 And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.
21 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish.
22 And let the priests also, which come near to the LORD, sanctify themselves, lest the LORD break forth upon them.
23 And Moses said unto the LORD, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it.
24 And the LORD said unto him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with thee: but let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto the LORD, lest he break forth upon them.
25 So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them.
1 And God spake all these words, saying,
2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
13 Thou shalt not kill.
14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
15 Thou shalt not steal.
16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.
19 And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.
20 And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.
21 And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.
22 And the LORD said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.
23 Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold.
24 An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.
25 And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.
26 Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.
NUMBERS 28:26-31
26 Also in the day of the firstfruits, when ye bring a new meat offering unto the LORD, after your weeks be out, ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work:
27 But ye shall offer the burnt offering for a sweet savour unto the LORD; two young bullocks, one ram, seven lambs of the first year;
28 And their meat offering of flour mingled with oil, three tenth deals unto one bullock, two tenth deals unto one ram,
29 A several tenth deal unto one lamb, throughout the seven lambs;
30 And one kid of the goats, to make an atonement for you.
31 Ye shall offer them beside the continual burnt offering, and his meat offering, (they shall be unto you without blemish) and their drink offerings.
PROPHETS SCRIPTURES DAY 1 FIRSTFRUITS WEEKS (SHAVUOT)
EZEKIEL 1:1-28
1 Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
2 In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity,
3 The word of the LORD came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was there upon him.
4 And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.
5 Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.
6 And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings.
7 And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass.
8 And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings.
9 Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward.
10 As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.
11 Thus were their faces: and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies.
12 And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went.
13 As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.
14 And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.
15 Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces.
16 The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.
17 When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went.
18 As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four.
19 And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.
20 Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
21 When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
22 And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.
23 And under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward the other: every one had two, which covered on this side, and every one had two, which covered on that side, their bodies.
24 And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host: when they stood, they let down their wings.
25 And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads, when they stood, and had let down their wings.
26 And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.
27 And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about.
28 As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.
EZEKIEL 3:12
12 Then the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of the LORD from his place.
OTHER NEWS
1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS. 2-Quake experts all shook up by zoo animals. 3-Government forecasts active Atlantic hurricane season. 4-2-3 Pacific storms expected this year. 5-U.N. relief convoy hit in Lebanon battle. 6-Israel says Hamas leaders may be targets. 7-Three More Kassams as Sderot Prepares for Funeral. 8-Calls to Re-settle Gush Katif.
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 = Tue May 22 15:59:54 UTC 2007
MAY 22,07
MAP 3.4 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.2 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.7 MARIANA ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.8 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 3.4 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.9 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.9 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 4.9 SIMEULUE, INDONESIA
MAP 2.8 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAY 21,07
MAP 5.0 CRETE, GREECE
MAP 2.9 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.5 MOLUCCA SEA
MAP 4.7 MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
MAP 4.7 DODECANESE ISLANDS, GREECE
MAP 4.7 NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
MAP 4.2 NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.5 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 4.4 SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA
MAP 5.1 SOLOMON ISLANDS
MAP 4.8 TARAPACA, CHILE
Quake experts all shook up by zoo animals Mon May 21, 9:37 PM ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese zoo is monitoring its animals extra carefully to study how their behaviour predicts earthquakes, the China Daily said on Tuesday. Guangzhou Zoo, in the southern province of Guangdong, had set up observation points near peacocks, frogs, snakes, turtles, deer and squirrels to monitor and record their behaviour for the city's seismology office.We have found many animals behave oddly before an earthquake, the newspaper quoted experts as saying. Hibernating animals, for example, will wake up and flee from their caves, while the aquatic ones will leap from the water's surface.The report did not say how long before a quake the animals react, or whether the aim of the exercise was to provide timely warnings. According to the seismology office, abnormal behaviour can be observed among 130 animals before an earthquake.Mice and snakes, for instance, normally do not leave their hiding places during day time, but you will see them scurrying about when an earthquake is about to strike, the newspaper quoted Chen Honghan, vice-director of Guangzhou Zoo, as saying.
Chen said giraffes ran away from trees for fear of being crushed, while hippos headed for land, and in the case of a tsunami, they kept diving into deep water to protect themselves from the waves.The earthquake bureau in Nanning, capital of the Guangxi autonomous region in southern China, monitors snakes at local snake farms via video cameras 24 hours per day.Of all the creatures on Earth, snakes are perhaps the most sensitive to earthquakes, bureau director Jiang Weisong was quoted as saying in December.China is struck by frequent earthquakes, most hitting remote rural areas.
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.
Government forecasts active Atlantic hurricane season By Christopher Doering MAY 22,07
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The 2007 Atlantic hurricane season will be active with 13 to 17 named storms, seven to 10 of which are expected to become hurricanes, the U.S. government's top climate agency predicted on Tuesday.
Of the seven to 10 hurricanes forecast, three to five will be major ones of Category 3 or higher with winds over 110 miles per hour, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in its annual forecast.An average Atlantic hurricane season brings 11 named storms, with six becoming hurricanes, including two major hurricanes, NOAA said.Earlier forecasts for the Atlantic hurricane season also have predicted the return of an active pattern this year.
Weather forecaster AccuWeather.com has predicted 13 or 14 tropical storms or hurricanes would form in the Atlantic this year and six or seven could hit the United States, with the Gulf Coast and Gulf of Mexico oil installations at high risk.The Colorado State University team under forecast pioneer William Gray predicted 17 storms, of which nine would become hurricanes, and London-based Tropical Storm Risk predicted 16.7 storms and 9.2 hurricanes.The Atlantic hurricane season typically peaks between August 1 and late October.
A devastating 2005 Atlantic hurricane season generated 28 tropical storms, of which 15 became hurricanes. A record four major hurricanes hit the United States, including Katrina, which devastated New Orleans, killed 1,300 people and caused $80 billion in damage. Forecasters had expected an active 2006 season as well, but only 10 storms formed, five of which became hurricanes. No hurricanes hit the United States last year.
2-3 Pacific storms expected this year By BRIAN CHARLTON, Associated Press Writer Mon May 21, 11:27 PM ET
HONOLULU - Hawaii and the rest of the central Pacific face a slightly below-average hurricane season this summer, with just two or three tropical cyclones expected, federal forecasters said Monday.
With sea surface temperatures lower than average, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Central Pacific Hurricane Center predicted possible La Nina conditions resulting in less tropical cyclone activity.Those conditions and the overall reduction in hurricane activity in that region since 1995 led to the prediction for the June-November season, said Jim Weyman, director of the hurricane center, at a news conference.In a La Nina — the opposite of the better-known El Nino events — the waters of the mid-Pacific equatorial region are cooler than normal. Hurricane season begins June 1 and ends Nov. 30. The islands get an average of 4.5 tropical cyclones a year and one hurricane about every 15 years. Last year, the central Pacific had five tropical cyclones after NOAA predicted two to three.
When I give a slightly below average forecast it always troubles me because people always think they don't have to worry, and that is not the message we want to take, Weyman said.
The message is it only takes that one to cause tremendous devastation. Since 1959, 62 hurricanes, 67 tropical storms and 61 tropical depressions have been tracked in the central Pacific. The last hurricane to hit Hawaii was in 1992 when Iniki ravaged Kauai, killing six people and causing $2.5 billion in damage.In a nod to Hawaiian culture, the hurricane center will now use only Hawaiian names for tropical storms and hurricanes, Weyman said. The next one will be called Kika. Private and university forecasters have predicted that the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season will be especially active, producing as many as 17 tropical storms and hurricanes and a well above average possibility of at least one striking the U.S.
The federal government plans to release its predictions Tuesday.On the Net:Central Pacific Hurricane Center: http://www.weather.gov/cphc
U.N. relief convoy hit in Lebanon battle By SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI, Associated Press Writer MAY 22,07
TRIPOLI, Lebanon - A convoy of U.N. relief supplies was hit in a third day of fighting Tuesday between Lebanese troops and an Islamic militant group holed up in a crowded Palestinian refugee camp.
In two other refugee camps in Lebanon, angry Palestinians burned tires to protest the Lebanese army assault on the northern camp of Nahr el-Bared. The unrest heightened fears that the military's attempt to crush the al-Qaida-inspired Fatah Islam could provoke a broader backlash among hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in other refugee camps, where Islamic extremists have been growing in influence. Overnight, the Lebanese government ordered the army to finish off the militants who have set up in Nahr el-Bared, where 31,000 Palestinian refugees live on the outskirts of the northern port of Tripoli. At least 50 combatants have been killed since fighting erupted Sunday.
Black smoke billowed from the area Tuesday amid artillery and machine gun exchanges between troops and militants. Lebanese troops skirmished with Fatah Islam fighters, trying to seize militant positions on the outskirts of the camp.There are dead and wounded on the road, inside the camp, screamed a Lebanese woman, Amina Alameddine, who ran weeping from her home on the edge of the camp. She fled with her daughter and four other relatives after Fatah Islam fighters started shooting at the army from the roof of her house.At the same time, Lebanese troops sought to flush out fighters hiding in Tripoli. Soldiers raided a building where Fatah Islam militants were believed to be hiding out, blasting an apartment with grenades, gunfire and tear gas.They found no one in the apartment, but hours later, while pursuing a militant, they ordered him to surrender. He dropped a pistol but then detonated an explosives belt on his body, police officials said. None of the troops was injured.
Reports emerged from Nahr el-Bared of heavy destruction from the three days of bombardment by Lebanese artillery and tanks and militants who returned fire with mortars and automatic weapons.The shelling is heavy, not only on our positions, but also on children and women. Destruction is all over, Fatah Islam spokesman Abu Salim Taha told The Associated Press by telephone from inside the camp.A U.N. refugee official said dozens of buildings were believed demolished, with residents trapped inside. There was also word that food and medical supplies were running out. The reports could not be confirmed because officials and reporters could not enter the camp.The camp is being destroyed from inside, a U.N. Relief and Works Agency staffer told the AP. The construction is very weak and the houses are very close to each other. We have reports that there are dozens of homes that were destroyed with the residents inside. Truly people are under the rubble. This is no exaggeration, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.The militants have killed 29 soldiers since Sunday and about 20 of the fighters have also been killed. The number of civilian casualties is unknown because relief officials have had limited access.Lebanese authorities do not enter the refugee camps under a nearly 40-year-old agreement with the Palestinians.
The tens of thousands of Palestinians live in two- or three-story white buildings on the camp's densely packed narrow streets. Refugees have been hiding in their homes inside the camp and Palestinian officials there said nine civilians were killed Monday.After a morning of battles, the camp briefly fell silent Tuesday afternoon. Taha said the militants called a unilateral cease-fire, but it collapsed within an hour and heavy exchanges of fire and several explosions were heard. It was not known which side started firing.An UNRWA official said a pickup truck and a water tanker were caught between the lines of the two sides and hit as they entered the camp. There may have been some casualties, at least one, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. We could not distribute everything, he told the AP by telephone from the camp entrance.
The Lebanon representative of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, which has been mediating a cease-fire, confirmed the relief effort had come under attack. Speaking on Al-Jazeera television, Abu Imad Rifai said that while people were trying to pick up food supplies for UNRWA, they were shelled and some were injured, some seriously.Rifai said he did not know who had breached the cease-fire.
Earlier, Taleb al-Salhani of UNRWA said the agency scrambled to evacuate one of its employees, a Palestinian aid worker wounded Monday. The army earlier stopped six UNRWA trucks, including a water tanker, saying it was too dangerous to enter the camp. The government of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora appeared determined to pursue Fatah Islam. Lebanon's Cabinet late Monday authorized the army to step up its campaign and end the terrorist phenomenon that is alien to the values and nature of the Palestinian people, Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said. The Bush administration reaffirmed its support for Saniora's government Tuesday and indicated it suspected Syrian involvement.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said the Fatah Islam militants want to disrupt the nation's security and distract international attention from a U.N. effort to establish a special tribunal try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut. The United States will not tolerate attempts by Syria, terrorist groups or any others to delay or derail Lebanon's efforts to solidify its sovereignty or seek justice in the Hariri case, Snow said. Lebanese security officials accuse Syria of backing Fatah Islam to disrupt Lebanon. The charges are denied by Syria, which controlled Lebanon until 2005 when its troops were forced to withdraw from the country following Hariri's assassination. The fighting, Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war, has added yet another layer of instability to an uneasy balancing act among numerous sects and factions vying for power. Saniora's government already faces a domestic political crisis, with the opposition led by Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah demanding its removal.
Dozens of refugees angered by the assault on Nahr el-Bared burned tires in protest in the southern camp of Ein el-Hilweh, Lebanon's largest Palestinian camp. Protesters also burned tires in Rashidiyeh camp, farther south. The protests raised the specter that Palestinians in Lebanon's 11 other refugee camps could rise up in anger over the assault on Nahr el-Bared. The overcrowded camps — housing more than 215,000 refugees, out of a total of 400,000 Palestinians in Lebanon — are also home to many armed Palestinian factions who often battle each other and have seen a rising number of Islamic extremists. Major Palestinian factions have distanced themselves from Fatah Islam, which arose here last year and touts itself as a Palestinian liberation movement. But many view it as a nascent branch of al-Qaida-style terrorism with ambitions of carrying out attacks around the region. The group's leader, Palestinian Shaker al-Absi, has been linked to the former head of al-Qaida in Iraq and is accused in the 2002 assassination of a U.S. diplomat in Jordan. He moved into Nahr el-Bared last fall after being expelled from Syria, where he was in custody. Since then, he is believed to have recruited about 100 fighters, including militants from Saudi Arabia, Yemen and other Arab countries, and he has said he follows the ideology of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Among the militants killed Sunday was a man suspected in a plot to bomb trains in Germany last year, according to Lebanese security officials.
Major Palestinian faction leaders met with Saniora for the second time in as many days. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana arrived Tuesday in Beirut to discuss the crisis. Late Monday, an explosion went off in a shopping area in a Sunni Muslim sector of Beirut, wrecking parked cars and injuring seven people — a day after a bomb in a Christian part of the capital killed a woman. The two bombings while the fighting was going on in Tripoli were highly unusual. Taha, the Fatah Islam spokesman, denied his group was behind them.
Israel says Hamas leaders may be targets By LAURIE COPANS, Associated Press Writer MAY 22,07
JERUSALEM - Israeli aircraft struck two camps used by the Islamic militant group Hamas on Tuesday, a day after a Palestinian rocket attack killed an Israeli woman, and officials suggested even Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas could be a target. Israel vowed harsh retaliation in response to Monday night's deadly rocket attack on the southern town of Sderot, about a mile from Gaza. However, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert acknowledged there is no quick solution for the rocket barrages.Israeli defense officials said the army would step up attacks on Palestinian militants, warning even top leaders of Hamas could be in danger. The defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said there were no immediate plans for a large-scale ground operation in Gaza.Asked about Haniyeh in a radio interview, Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh described Hamas' leadership as terrorists in suits.We don't care if he's a ringleader, a perpetrator of rocket launching or if he is one of the political leaders, Sneh later told The Associated Press. No one has immunity.
Leaders of Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in Gaza already have taken a series of precautions to avoid Israeli attacks, turning off cell phones and staying indoors.In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri threatened harsh retaliation if the group's leaders were attacked.Harming... any of Hamas' leadership will cost the occupation dearly, he said. This will mean responses. He did not elaborate.Hamas dominates the Palestinian government after sweeping to power in a 2006 election.
But it recently formed a coalition with the rival Fatah faction.The moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah planned to head to Gaza later Tuesday in hopes of restoring a cease-fire with Israel, officials said. But Israeli and Palestinian officials accused each other of undermining truce efforts — raising the likelihood of further fighting.Abbas planned to meet with Hamas leaders to discuss fighting with Israel as well as the recent factional violence between Hamas and Fatah.
After a six-month lull, Israel resumed airstrikes on militant targets in Gaza on May 16 in response to heavy rocket fire. More than 40 Palestinians, most of them militants, have been killed.But Israel's high-tech army has not been able to find a solution for countering the crude, homemade rockets. In the past week, more than 150 rockets have landed around nearby Sderot, a town of 24,000 people.
Seven more rockets were fired Tuesday, injuring two people, the army said. Israel responded with four airstrikes, targeting two suspected weapons depositories and the two Hamas camps. Palestinian officials said seven people were wounded.Tensions were heightened following Monday night's deadly rocket attack, which killed a 31-year-old woman. She was the first Israeli killed by a Qassam rocket since November.Olmert rushed to Sderot late Monday for the second time in a week to try to calm residents.
We will continue to invest and will continue to protect you, but you of course know that there is no immediate solution for the Qassams and there is no definitive solution, Olmert said, according to a statement from his office.He pledged to speed up the process of reinforcing homes to protect against the rockets.
I understand your anger, frustration and hardship, he said. On Tuesday, the government evacuated hundreds of Sderot residents to hotels in other parts of the country for the Shavuot holiday, which was beginning at sundown. The evacuation was orderly, and Israeli soldiers helped people board the buses, shouting out orders through megaphones. This is really an unbearable situation. But one thing is for certain. We have to wake up the government to the fact that this is not the solution. The real solution is that the Palestinians should have to evacuate, said Michael Amsalem, a Sderot town councilor. Monday night's attack came during a meeting in Sderot between Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief. They were not harmed.
Angry Sderot residents demonstrated outside the building where Solana and Livni were meeting and later burned tires, charging that the Israeli government has failed to protect them. Solana denounced the violence, and Livni called for international action to put pressure on the terrorists and the Palestinian government and not compromise with terror.Hamas' rocket attacks apparently have been aimed at drawing in Israel and ending the Palestinian infighting, which killed some 50 people last week.
Ahmed Youssef, a senior Hamas official, said the group would consider talks on a cease-fire if Israel first stopped its mad attacks.The aggression must stop so we can talk about a comprehensive cease-fire, said Youssef, a top aide to Haniyeh. The government is working on expanding the truce.
This is a national interest.However, Israel dismissed talk of a new cease-fire, saying Hamas never sticks to them. Hamas ... is leading the violence, Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Tuesday before meeting Solana in Jerusalem. We don't intend on stopping. We will stop at the point that the rockets stop.
Three More Kassams as Sderot Prepares for Funeral
by Hillel Fendel (INN) MAY 22,07
With Kassams continuing to rain down upon Sderot and environs - three more were fired Tuesday morning, causing no damage - it appears that the public is just as confused about what to do as the government is. In a poll taken this week for the Knesset TV Channel, 78% of the public opined that the government was not responding forcefully enough to the Kassam-firing terrorists in Gaza.
However, at the same time, a majority of the respondents still feel that ground forces should not be sent in. It should be noted that the poll was carried out before the Kassam-caused death of Shir'el Friedman of Sderot Monday night.
Kassam Victim's Funeral at Noon
Shir'el, who was born in Sderot and is survived by her parents and two older brothers, is to be laid to rest in the Sderot cemetery at noon today (Tuesday). Shir'el was Israel's ninth fatal casualty of a Kassam rocket. Mordechai Yosifov, 49, and Afik Zahavi, a 3.5 year old on his way to nursery, were killed in June 2004. Three months later, two young cousins - Dorit Aniso, 2, and Yuval Abebeh, 4 - were killed just before the onset of the Sukkot holiday. Four months later, Ella Abukasis, 17, was killed by a Kassam rocket as she was walking home; she jumped to protect her brother when the Red Dawn rocket warning alert sounded. In July 2005, Dana Gelkowitz, 22, was killed in a Kassam attack at Netiv HaAsarah - the only non-Sderot Kassam casualty among Israelis. Last summer, in July 2006, Moshe Shlomo, 52, died of a heart attack he suffered after a Kassam rocket landed near his home a few days earlier. Last November, Fatima Slutzker, a Moslem woman married to a Russian Jew, was killed by a Kassam that landed in downtown Sderot. In addition, three foreign workers were killed in a Kassam attack in Gush Katif in 2005, and two Bedouin were killed when they moved a previously-unexploded Kassam in a field.
Wheat Fields About to be Harvested Go Up in Flames
In terms of monetary damage caused by the rockets, it is not limited to an apartment or a car here and there. Wheat fields in at least two agricultural communities in the western Negev, nearly ready for harvest after months of work, have gone up in flames when rockets hit them. I sat and cried this morning when I saw it, said one member of Kibbutz Nir-Am, just outside Sderot.
This is our harvest season, Betty Gavri of Nir-Am told Ynet. When you hear on the radio 'no one was hurt and there was no damage' - when our wheat fields go up in flames on the eve of Shavuot, that's not damage? The holiday of Shavuot, which begins tonight (Tuesday night and Wednesday), is known as the Festival of Harvest (Exodus 23,16). As opposed to the city of Sderot, the nearby agricultural communities have a more earthy connection to the land; barely any of the 350 residents of Kibbutz Nir-Am, for instance, have left. Our imbibed values are that our very presence here determines the State's borders.
This is an agricultural tradition, that says that the land is our roots and our sustenance. If everyone would get up and leave, we could just close the entire country.
Rabbis and Educators Call for Social, Military Help
A group of some 100 rabbis and educators, many of them representing hesder yeshivot and yeshiva high schools around the country, descended upon the Yeshivat Hesder of Sderot on Monday to show their solidarity with the city residents. Among the participants were Rabbis Chaim Druckman, Chanan Porat, Tsomet Institute head Yisrael Rosenne, Yigal Kaminetzky of Gush Katif, Elisha Vishlitzky, David Fendel of Sderot, and Eliezer Sheinvald of Modiin, as well as Col. (ret.) Geva Rapp of the 'Face to Face' outreach organization. The rabbis resolved to continue activities such as hosting Sderot residents in their towns and schools, further visits to Sderot, offering economic and social help to needy families, special Sabbath and other events around the country dedicated to Sderot, and more. In addition, the educators called upon the Government of Israel to end this national disgrace of the abandonment of Jewish lives in Sderot and the area, by embarking on another Operation Defensive Shield [i.e., a massive military anti-terror offensive] in order to restore the self-respect and the security of the residents of Sderot. To this end, the group resolved to embark on a campaign, including billboards, bumper stickers, rallies, and the like to garner public support for the cause. Other visitors to Sderot on Monday included Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzippy Livny, the European Union's Javier Solana, and Britain's Ambassador to Israel Tom Phillips. The Home Front Command distributed pamphlets to many communities in the Sderot-Ashkelon area, advising the residents how to protect themselves during Kassam attacks. Among those who received them were 500 expellee families from Gush Katif, currently living in Nitzan, just north of Ashkelon.For more information on Sderot, see the Yeshivat Sderot http://www.sderot.org/ and Sderotmedia websites http://sderotmedia.com/
Calls to Re-settle Gush Katif
by Hillel Fendel (INN) MAY 22,07
With every crash of a Kassam rocket in the Negev, increasingly more voices are calling for a return to Gaza - for different reasons. Respected journalists from Yediot Acharonot and Haaretz have written that re-occupying Gaza is the only solution - lending an air of political correctness to the simultaneous ideological call by settlement leaders and Gush Katif expellees to return to Gush Katif. The reasons advanced for reoccupation by the various elements are, to be sure, not identical.
Military affairs correspondent Ron Ben-Yishai, writing for Yediot Acharonot last week (May 17), explained that it is based solely on security considerations: Israel's key problem at this point in time is the violent anarchy reigning in the Palestinian arena, Ben-Yishai wrote. Even if Israel chooses to undertake drastic measures such as cutting off electricity and water from Gaza residents, while indiscriminately bombing launch sites, there would still be no one on the Palestinian side able to stop the Kassam attacks. The only thing that will happen is that Israel will face condemnation and be isolated in international public opinion. Under current circumstances, Ben-Yishai continued, one consideration must guide the Israeli government: How do we prevent casualties among western Negev residents as a result of Kassam attacks, and how do we thwart the digging of tunnels by the Palestinians and a worse situation in the future as a result of Hamas' rapid strengthening? The most effective and virtually only modus operandi to achieve these objectives is an occupation of wide sections of the Gaza Strip.
Once the IDF controls most Gaza territory, it will be able, in conjunction with the General Security Service (Shabak), to gather intelligence information and apply it in anti-terror operations while proceeding to destroy terror infrastructures. Meanwhile, the digging of a seawater tunnel would curb the smuggling through Gaza's Philadelphi route.
Ben-Yishai added that limited aerial and ground operations would not curb Kassam rockets, would draw terrorist fire and endanger Israeli troops, and would end with international pressure upon Israel.
Instead, a very large military force [is] required to stay in the Strip for many months... The question is whether the Olmert government will continue to deal with political survival and endless 'assessment sessions, or whether it will finally start to act practically.Similarly, on the same day, correspondent Avi Issacharoff penned a piece for Haaretz entitled, No Other Solution For Gazans But Israeli
Occupation. Explaining that Fatah has been left without strong leadership and is headed for a military defeat at the hands of Hamas, the Gazans are repeating one clear message: only Israeli occupation will save them. There is no other solution on the horizon.These calls were somewhat encouraging to people like Adi Mintz, a former Director of the Yesha Council [Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza], who was in the midst of publicizing his own call for a return to Gaza.
Mintz, a resident of Dolev in the Binyamin region of the Shomron, wrote in the most recent edition of B'Sheva:
...Jacob was unable to be comforted for the loss of his son Joseph, because one cannot becomforted for the loss of someone who is actually alive... We, too, are unable to be comforted over the loss of Gush Katif for two reasons: Because we know that we will return, and also - just like in the case of Jacob and Joseph - because the crime was committed against us by our own brothers. For 19 years, the survivors of Kibbutz Kfar Etzion [destroyed and captured by the Jordanians in 1948 - ed.] would go up to a hilltop overlooking Gush Etzion, and see the lone oak tree there. That tree became a symbol of the longed-for return... and Kfar Etzion became the first town to be rebuilt by Israel after the liberation of Judea and Samaria during the Six Day War... More and more journalists and former IDF generals who supported the Disengagement now regret it, and admit that it was a strategic mistake - the rotten fruits of which we ate in the war in Gaza and in Lebanon. A strategic mistake can be rectified only by another strategic move: Returning to Gush Katif. Such a move might seem, at present, detached from reality. However, with the IDF apparently preparing for a major offensive in Gaza, and with the government seemingly waiting only for Kassam deaths before acting, the return to Gush Katif is the only answer.This will show the Arabs, Mintz explained, that they cannot defeat us, that this is our land, and that only we have the rights to it.
Mintz emphasized the fact that the Jewish towns in Gush Katif and northern Gaza were not built on Arab land, and that the State of Israel's terrible act of throwing out its sons can still be rectified: The public is still in the throes of the earthquake of last summer's war, and is open to new conceptions. The call and demand to return to Gush Katif is moral and just, on the one hand, and is a strategic necessity, on the other hand... Together with the 'Homesh First' people [who are leading a campaign to return to the Disengagement-destroyed town of Homesh in the Shomron - ed.], we must broaden the scope of the struggle to include also a struggle to win over the public's soul. This is the time to join forces and to wage a campaign that will keep the idea of a return to both Homesh and Gush Katif in the public consciousness. Even if we don't succeed in the short run, this type of struggle has supreme importance for the long run.
In 1981, Israel bombed and destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor in Baghdad. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had pronounced himself as the reincarnation of Babylonian tyrant Nebuchadnezzar, and named the nuclear reactor Tammuz -- the name of the calamitous Jewish month when Nebuchadnezzar's troops laid siege on Jerusalem 2,500 years earlier. Ilan Ramon (later to become Israel's first astronaut, who died in the explosion of the Space Shuttle Columbia) and seven other pilots executed the daring raid -- flying over enemy Arab territory for hours, and avoiding detection with their tight formation that emitted a radar signal resembling a commercial airliner. However, even as Israel celebrated the successful raid, condemnation was nearly universal. One prominent U.S. senator called it one of the most provocative, ill-timed and internationally illegal actions taken in that nation's history. Two decades later, as the world feared Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, the Israeli action was vindicated.
EXODUS 23:16
16 And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.
The holiday of Shavuot,(WEEKS,PENTECOST) which begins tonight, is known as the Festival of Harvest.
DAY 1 TUESDAY from 6PM to 6PM. DAY 2 WEDNESDAY from 6PM to 6PM THU. THE THIRD TEMPLE HAS TO BE REBUILT TO PERFORM THESE FEASTS PROPERLY, PLEASE ISRAEL REBUILD THE 3RD TEMPLE NOW. ALL ISRAEL GET BEHIND THE SANHEDRIN AND LETS PRAISE THE GOD OF ISRAEL PROPERLY IN THE 3RD TEMPLE. IM ONLY A SINGLE VOICE BUT WITH LOTS OF VOICES IT CAN HAPPEN. ALL CHRISTIANS ALSO ENCOURAGE CHURCHES TO GET THE WORD AROUND, WE NEED THE 3RD TEMPLE REBUILT.
DAY 1 OF FIRSTFRUITS (SHAVUOT) SCRIPTURES
ACTS 1:1-26, 2:1-47
1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
2 Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:
3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:
4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
12 Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day’s journey.
13 And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.
14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
15 And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,)
16 Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.
17 For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry.
18 Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.
19 And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood.
20 For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take.
21 Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
22 Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.
23 And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.
24 And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen,
25 That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.
26 And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
12 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?
13 Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.
14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:
15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:
19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:
20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:
21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:
23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.
25 For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:
26 Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:
27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
28 Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.
29 Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.
30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;
31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.
32 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
33 Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
34 For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,
35 Until I make thy foes thy footstool.
36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
40 And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
42 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
TORAH SCRIPTURES
EXODUS CHAPTERS 19-20
1 In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.
2 For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.
3 And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;
4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.
5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
7 And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him.
8 And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.
9 And the LORD said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the LORD.
10 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes,
11 And be ready against the third day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.
12 And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death:
13 There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.
14 And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes.
15 And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives.
16 And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.
17 And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.
18 And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
19 And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.
20 And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.
21 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish.
22 And let the priests also, which come near to the LORD, sanctify themselves, lest the LORD break forth upon them.
23 And Moses said unto the LORD, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it.
24 And the LORD said unto him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with thee: but let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto the LORD, lest he break forth upon them.
25 So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them.
1 And God spake all these words, saying,
2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
13 Thou shalt not kill.
14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
15 Thou shalt not steal.
16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.
19 And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.
20 And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.
21 And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.
22 And the LORD said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.
23 Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold.
24 An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.
25 And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.
26 Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.
NUMBERS 28:26-31
26 Also in the day of the firstfruits, when ye bring a new meat offering unto the LORD, after your weeks be out, ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work:
27 But ye shall offer the burnt offering for a sweet savour unto the LORD; two young bullocks, one ram, seven lambs of the first year;
28 And their meat offering of flour mingled with oil, three tenth deals unto one bullock, two tenth deals unto one ram,
29 A several tenth deal unto one lamb, throughout the seven lambs;
30 And one kid of the goats, to make an atonement for you.
31 Ye shall offer them beside the continual burnt offering, and his meat offering, (they shall be unto you without blemish) and their drink offerings.
PROPHETS SCRIPTURES DAY 1 FIRSTFRUITS WEEKS (SHAVUOT)
EZEKIEL 1:1-28
1 Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
2 In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity,
3 The word of the LORD came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was there upon him.
4 And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.
5 Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.
6 And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings.
7 And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass.
8 And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings.
9 Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward.
10 As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.
11 Thus were their faces: and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies.
12 And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went.
13 As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.
14 And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.
15 Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces.
16 The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.
17 When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went.
18 As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four.
19 And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.
20 Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
21 When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
22 And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.
23 And under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward the other: every one had two, which covered on this side, and every one had two, which covered on that side, their bodies.
24 And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host: when they stood, they let down their wings.
25 And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads, when they stood, and had let down their wings.
26 And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.
27 And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about.
28 As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.
EZEKIEL 3:12
12 Then the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of the LORD from his place.
OTHER NEWS
1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS. 2-Quake experts all shook up by zoo animals. 3-Government forecasts active Atlantic hurricane season. 4-2-3 Pacific storms expected this year. 5-U.N. relief convoy hit in Lebanon battle. 6-Israel says Hamas leaders may be targets. 7-Three More Kassams as Sderot Prepares for Funeral. 8-Calls to Re-settle Gush Katif.
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 = Tue May 22 15:59:54 UTC 2007
MAY 22,07
MAP 3.4 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.2 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.7 MARIANA ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.8 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 3.4 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.9 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.9 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 4.9 SIMEULUE, INDONESIA
MAP 2.8 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAY 21,07
MAP 5.0 CRETE, GREECE
MAP 2.9 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.5 MOLUCCA SEA
MAP 4.7 MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
MAP 4.7 DODECANESE ISLANDS, GREECE
MAP 4.7 NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
MAP 4.2 NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.5 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 4.4 SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA
MAP 5.1 SOLOMON ISLANDS
MAP 4.8 TARAPACA, CHILE
Quake experts all shook up by zoo animals Mon May 21, 9:37 PM ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese zoo is monitoring its animals extra carefully to study how their behaviour predicts earthquakes, the China Daily said on Tuesday. Guangzhou Zoo, in the southern province of Guangdong, had set up observation points near peacocks, frogs, snakes, turtles, deer and squirrels to monitor and record their behaviour for the city's seismology office.We have found many animals behave oddly before an earthquake, the newspaper quoted experts as saying. Hibernating animals, for example, will wake up and flee from their caves, while the aquatic ones will leap from the water's surface.The report did not say how long before a quake the animals react, or whether the aim of the exercise was to provide timely warnings. According to the seismology office, abnormal behaviour can be observed among 130 animals before an earthquake.Mice and snakes, for instance, normally do not leave their hiding places during day time, but you will see them scurrying about when an earthquake is about to strike, the newspaper quoted Chen Honghan, vice-director of Guangzhou Zoo, as saying.
Chen said giraffes ran away from trees for fear of being crushed, while hippos headed for land, and in the case of a tsunami, they kept diving into deep water to protect themselves from the waves.The earthquake bureau in Nanning, capital of the Guangxi autonomous region in southern China, monitors snakes at local snake farms via video cameras 24 hours per day.Of all the creatures on Earth, snakes are perhaps the most sensitive to earthquakes, bureau director Jiang Weisong was quoted as saying in December.China is struck by frequent earthquakes, most hitting remote rural areas.
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.
Government forecasts active Atlantic hurricane season By Christopher Doering MAY 22,07
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The 2007 Atlantic hurricane season will be active with 13 to 17 named storms, seven to 10 of which are expected to become hurricanes, the U.S. government's top climate agency predicted on Tuesday.
Of the seven to 10 hurricanes forecast, three to five will be major ones of Category 3 or higher with winds over 110 miles per hour, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in its annual forecast.An average Atlantic hurricane season brings 11 named storms, with six becoming hurricanes, including two major hurricanes, NOAA said.Earlier forecasts for the Atlantic hurricane season also have predicted the return of an active pattern this year.
Weather forecaster AccuWeather.com has predicted 13 or 14 tropical storms or hurricanes would form in the Atlantic this year and six or seven could hit the United States, with the Gulf Coast and Gulf of Mexico oil installations at high risk.The Colorado State University team under forecast pioneer William Gray predicted 17 storms, of which nine would become hurricanes, and London-based Tropical Storm Risk predicted 16.7 storms and 9.2 hurricanes.The Atlantic hurricane season typically peaks between August 1 and late October.
A devastating 2005 Atlantic hurricane season generated 28 tropical storms, of which 15 became hurricanes. A record four major hurricanes hit the United States, including Katrina, which devastated New Orleans, killed 1,300 people and caused $80 billion in damage. Forecasters had expected an active 2006 season as well, but only 10 storms formed, five of which became hurricanes. No hurricanes hit the United States last year.
2-3 Pacific storms expected this year By BRIAN CHARLTON, Associated Press Writer Mon May 21, 11:27 PM ET
HONOLULU - Hawaii and the rest of the central Pacific face a slightly below-average hurricane season this summer, with just two or three tropical cyclones expected, federal forecasters said Monday.
With sea surface temperatures lower than average, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Central Pacific Hurricane Center predicted possible La Nina conditions resulting in less tropical cyclone activity.Those conditions and the overall reduction in hurricane activity in that region since 1995 led to the prediction for the June-November season, said Jim Weyman, director of the hurricane center, at a news conference.In a La Nina — the opposite of the better-known El Nino events — the waters of the mid-Pacific equatorial region are cooler than normal. Hurricane season begins June 1 and ends Nov. 30. The islands get an average of 4.5 tropical cyclones a year and one hurricane about every 15 years. Last year, the central Pacific had five tropical cyclones after NOAA predicted two to three.
When I give a slightly below average forecast it always troubles me because people always think they don't have to worry, and that is not the message we want to take, Weyman said.
The message is it only takes that one to cause tremendous devastation. Since 1959, 62 hurricanes, 67 tropical storms and 61 tropical depressions have been tracked in the central Pacific. The last hurricane to hit Hawaii was in 1992 when Iniki ravaged Kauai, killing six people and causing $2.5 billion in damage.In a nod to Hawaiian culture, the hurricane center will now use only Hawaiian names for tropical storms and hurricanes, Weyman said. The next one will be called Kika. Private and university forecasters have predicted that the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season will be especially active, producing as many as 17 tropical storms and hurricanes and a well above average possibility of at least one striking the U.S.
The federal government plans to release its predictions Tuesday.On the Net:Central Pacific Hurricane Center: http://www.weather.gov/cphc
U.N. relief convoy hit in Lebanon battle By SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI, Associated Press Writer MAY 22,07
TRIPOLI, Lebanon - A convoy of U.N. relief supplies was hit in a third day of fighting Tuesday between Lebanese troops and an Islamic militant group holed up in a crowded Palestinian refugee camp.
In two other refugee camps in Lebanon, angry Palestinians burned tires to protest the Lebanese army assault on the northern camp of Nahr el-Bared. The unrest heightened fears that the military's attempt to crush the al-Qaida-inspired Fatah Islam could provoke a broader backlash among hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in other refugee camps, where Islamic extremists have been growing in influence. Overnight, the Lebanese government ordered the army to finish off the militants who have set up in Nahr el-Bared, where 31,000 Palestinian refugees live on the outskirts of the northern port of Tripoli. At least 50 combatants have been killed since fighting erupted Sunday.
Black smoke billowed from the area Tuesday amid artillery and machine gun exchanges between troops and militants. Lebanese troops skirmished with Fatah Islam fighters, trying to seize militant positions on the outskirts of the camp.There are dead and wounded on the road, inside the camp, screamed a Lebanese woman, Amina Alameddine, who ran weeping from her home on the edge of the camp. She fled with her daughter and four other relatives after Fatah Islam fighters started shooting at the army from the roof of her house.At the same time, Lebanese troops sought to flush out fighters hiding in Tripoli. Soldiers raided a building where Fatah Islam militants were believed to be hiding out, blasting an apartment with grenades, gunfire and tear gas.They found no one in the apartment, but hours later, while pursuing a militant, they ordered him to surrender. He dropped a pistol but then detonated an explosives belt on his body, police officials said. None of the troops was injured.
Reports emerged from Nahr el-Bared of heavy destruction from the three days of bombardment by Lebanese artillery and tanks and militants who returned fire with mortars and automatic weapons.The shelling is heavy, not only on our positions, but also on children and women. Destruction is all over, Fatah Islam spokesman Abu Salim Taha told The Associated Press by telephone from inside the camp.A U.N. refugee official said dozens of buildings were believed demolished, with residents trapped inside. There was also word that food and medical supplies were running out. The reports could not be confirmed because officials and reporters could not enter the camp.The camp is being destroyed from inside, a U.N. Relief and Works Agency staffer told the AP. The construction is very weak and the houses are very close to each other. We have reports that there are dozens of homes that were destroyed with the residents inside. Truly people are under the rubble. This is no exaggeration, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.The militants have killed 29 soldiers since Sunday and about 20 of the fighters have also been killed. The number of civilian casualties is unknown because relief officials have had limited access.Lebanese authorities do not enter the refugee camps under a nearly 40-year-old agreement with the Palestinians.
The tens of thousands of Palestinians live in two- or three-story white buildings on the camp's densely packed narrow streets. Refugees have been hiding in their homes inside the camp and Palestinian officials there said nine civilians were killed Monday.After a morning of battles, the camp briefly fell silent Tuesday afternoon. Taha said the militants called a unilateral cease-fire, but it collapsed within an hour and heavy exchanges of fire and several explosions were heard. It was not known which side started firing.An UNRWA official said a pickup truck and a water tanker were caught between the lines of the two sides and hit as they entered the camp. There may have been some casualties, at least one, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. We could not distribute everything, he told the AP by telephone from the camp entrance.
The Lebanon representative of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, which has been mediating a cease-fire, confirmed the relief effort had come under attack. Speaking on Al-Jazeera television, Abu Imad Rifai said that while people were trying to pick up food supplies for UNRWA, they were shelled and some were injured, some seriously.Rifai said he did not know who had breached the cease-fire.
Earlier, Taleb al-Salhani of UNRWA said the agency scrambled to evacuate one of its employees, a Palestinian aid worker wounded Monday. The army earlier stopped six UNRWA trucks, including a water tanker, saying it was too dangerous to enter the camp. The government of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora appeared determined to pursue Fatah Islam. Lebanon's Cabinet late Monday authorized the army to step up its campaign and end the terrorist phenomenon that is alien to the values and nature of the Palestinian people, Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said. The Bush administration reaffirmed its support for Saniora's government Tuesday and indicated it suspected Syrian involvement.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said the Fatah Islam militants want to disrupt the nation's security and distract international attention from a U.N. effort to establish a special tribunal try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut. The United States will not tolerate attempts by Syria, terrorist groups or any others to delay or derail Lebanon's efforts to solidify its sovereignty or seek justice in the Hariri case, Snow said. Lebanese security officials accuse Syria of backing Fatah Islam to disrupt Lebanon. The charges are denied by Syria, which controlled Lebanon until 2005 when its troops were forced to withdraw from the country following Hariri's assassination. The fighting, Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war, has added yet another layer of instability to an uneasy balancing act among numerous sects and factions vying for power. Saniora's government already faces a domestic political crisis, with the opposition led by Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah demanding its removal.
Dozens of refugees angered by the assault on Nahr el-Bared burned tires in protest in the southern camp of Ein el-Hilweh, Lebanon's largest Palestinian camp. Protesters also burned tires in Rashidiyeh camp, farther south. The protests raised the specter that Palestinians in Lebanon's 11 other refugee camps could rise up in anger over the assault on Nahr el-Bared. The overcrowded camps — housing more than 215,000 refugees, out of a total of 400,000 Palestinians in Lebanon — are also home to many armed Palestinian factions who often battle each other and have seen a rising number of Islamic extremists. Major Palestinian factions have distanced themselves from Fatah Islam, which arose here last year and touts itself as a Palestinian liberation movement. But many view it as a nascent branch of al-Qaida-style terrorism with ambitions of carrying out attacks around the region. The group's leader, Palestinian Shaker al-Absi, has been linked to the former head of al-Qaida in Iraq and is accused in the 2002 assassination of a U.S. diplomat in Jordan. He moved into Nahr el-Bared last fall after being expelled from Syria, where he was in custody. Since then, he is believed to have recruited about 100 fighters, including militants from Saudi Arabia, Yemen and other Arab countries, and he has said he follows the ideology of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Among the militants killed Sunday was a man suspected in a plot to bomb trains in Germany last year, according to Lebanese security officials.
Major Palestinian faction leaders met with Saniora for the second time in as many days. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana arrived Tuesday in Beirut to discuss the crisis. Late Monday, an explosion went off in a shopping area in a Sunni Muslim sector of Beirut, wrecking parked cars and injuring seven people — a day after a bomb in a Christian part of the capital killed a woman. The two bombings while the fighting was going on in Tripoli were highly unusual. Taha, the Fatah Islam spokesman, denied his group was behind them.
Israel says Hamas leaders may be targets By LAURIE COPANS, Associated Press Writer MAY 22,07
JERUSALEM - Israeli aircraft struck two camps used by the Islamic militant group Hamas on Tuesday, a day after a Palestinian rocket attack killed an Israeli woman, and officials suggested even Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas could be a target. Israel vowed harsh retaliation in response to Monday night's deadly rocket attack on the southern town of Sderot, about a mile from Gaza. However, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert acknowledged there is no quick solution for the rocket barrages.Israeli defense officials said the army would step up attacks on Palestinian militants, warning even top leaders of Hamas could be in danger. The defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said there were no immediate plans for a large-scale ground operation in Gaza.Asked about Haniyeh in a radio interview, Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh described Hamas' leadership as terrorists in suits.We don't care if he's a ringleader, a perpetrator of rocket launching or if he is one of the political leaders, Sneh later told The Associated Press. No one has immunity.
Leaders of Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in Gaza already have taken a series of precautions to avoid Israeli attacks, turning off cell phones and staying indoors.In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri threatened harsh retaliation if the group's leaders were attacked.Harming... any of Hamas' leadership will cost the occupation dearly, he said. This will mean responses. He did not elaborate.Hamas dominates the Palestinian government after sweeping to power in a 2006 election.
But it recently formed a coalition with the rival Fatah faction.The moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah planned to head to Gaza later Tuesday in hopes of restoring a cease-fire with Israel, officials said. But Israeli and Palestinian officials accused each other of undermining truce efforts — raising the likelihood of further fighting.Abbas planned to meet with Hamas leaders to discuss fighting with Israel as well as the recent factional violence between Hamas and Fatah.
After a six-month lull, Israel resumed airstrikes on militant targets in Gaza on May 16 in response to heavy rocket fire. More than 40 Palestinians, most of them militants, have been killed.But Israel's high-tech army has not been able to find a solution for countering the crude, homemade rockets. In the past week, more than 150 rockets have landed around nearby Sderot, a town of 24,000 people.
Seven more rockets were fired Tuesday, injuring two people, the army said. Israel responded with four airstrikes, targeting two suspected weapons depositories and the two Hamas camps. Palestinian officials said seven people were wounded.Tensions were heightened following Monday night's deadly rocket attack, which killed a 31-year-old woman. She was the first Israeli killed by a Qassam rocket since November.Olmert rushed to Sderot late Monday for the second time in a week to try to calm residents.
We will continue to invest and will continue to protect you, but you of course know that there is no immediate solution for the Qassams and there is no definitive solution, Olmert said, according to a statement from his office.He pledged to speed up the process of reinforcing homes to protect against the rockets.
I understand your anger, frustration and hardship, he said. On Tuesday, the government evacuated hundreds of Sderot residents to hotels in other parts of the country for the Shavuot holiday, which was beginning at sundown. The evacuation was orderly, and Israeli soldiers helped people board the buses, shouting out orders through megaphones. This is really an unbearable situation. But one thing is for certain. We have to wake up the government to the fact that this is not the solution. The real solution is that the Palestinians should have to evacuate, said Michael Amsalem, a Sderot town councilor. Monday night's attack came during a meeting in Sderot between Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief. They were not harmed.
Angry Sderot residents demonstrated outside the building where Solana and Livni were meeting and later burned tires, charging that the Israeli government has failed to protect them. Solana denounced the violence, and Livni called for international action to put pressure on the terrorists and the Palestinian government and not compromise with terror.Hamas' rocket attacks apparently have been aimed at drawing in Israel and ending the Palestinian infighting, which killed some 50 people last week.
Ahmed Youssef, a senior Hamas official, said the group would consider talks on a cease-fire if Israel first stopped its mad attacks.The aggression must stop so we can talk about a comprehensive cease-fire, said Youssef, a top aide to Haniyeh. The government is working on expanding the truce.
This is a national interest.However, Israel dismissed talk of a new cease-fire, saying Hamas never sticks to them. Hamas ... is leading the violence, Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Tuesday before meeting Solana in Jerusalem. We don't intend on stopping. We will stop at the point that the rockets stop.
Three More Kassams as Sderot Prepares for Funeral
by Hillel Fendel (INN) MAY 22,07
With Kassams continuing to rain down upon Sderot and environs - three more were fired Tuesday morning, causing no damage - it appears that the public is just as confused about what to do as the government is. In a poll taken this week for the Knesset TV Channel, 78% of the public opined that the government was not responding forcefully enough to the Kassam-firing terrorists in Gaza.
However, at the same time, a majority of the respondents still feel that ground forces should not be sent in. It should be noted that the poll was carried out before the Kassam-caused death of Shir'el Friedman of Sderot Monday night.
Kassam Victim's Funeral at Noon
Shir'el, who was born in Sderot and is survived by her parents and two older brothers, is to be laid to rest in the Sderot cemetery at noon today (Tuesday). Shir'el was Israel's ninth fatal casualty of a Kassam rocket. Mordechai Yosifov, 49, and Afik Zahavi, a 3.5 year old on his way to nursery, were killed in June 2004. Three months later, two young cousins - Dorit Aniso, 2, and Yuval Abebeh, 4 - were killed just before the onset of the Sukkot holiday. Four months later, Ella Abukasis, 17, was killed by a Kassam rocket as she was walking home; she jumped to protect her brother when the Red Dawn rocket warning alert sounded. In July 2005, Dana Gelkowitz, 22, was killed in a Kassam attack at Netiv HaAsarah - the only non-Sderot Kassam casualty among Israelis. Last summer, in July 2006, Moshe Shlomo, 52, died of a heart attack he suffered after a Kassam rocket landed near his home a few days earlier. Last November, Fatima Slutzker, a Moslem woman married to a Russian Jew, was killed by a Kassam that landed in downtown Sderot. In addition, three foreign workers were killed in a Kassam attack in Gush Katif in 2005, and two Bedouin were killed when they moved a previously-unexploded Kassam in a field.
Wheat Fields About to be Harvested Go Up in Flames
In terms of monetary damage caused by the rockets, it is not limited to an apartment or a car here and there. Wheat fields in at least two agricultural communities in the western Negev, nearly ready for harvest after months of work, have gone up in flames when rockets hit them. I sat and cried this morning when I saw it, said one member of Kibbutz Nir-Am, just outside Sderot.
This is our harvest season, Betty Gavri of Nir-Am told Ynet. When you hear on the radio 'no one was hurt and there was no damage' - when our wheat fields go up in flames on the eve of Shavuot, that's not damage? The holiday of Shavuot, which begins tonight (Tuesday night and Wednesday), is known as the Festival of Harvest (Exodus 23,16). As opposed to the city of Sderot, the nearby agricultural communities have a more earthy connection to the land; barely any of the 350 residents of Kibbutz Nir-Am, for instance, have left. Our imbibed values are that our very presence here determines the State's borders.
This is an agricultural tradition, that says that the land is our roots and our sustenance. If everyone would get up and leave, we could just close the entire country.
Rabbis and Educators Call for Social, Military Help
A group of some 100 rabbis and educators, many of them representing hesder yeshivot and yeshiva high schools around the country, descended upon the Yeshivat Hesder of Sderot on Monday to show their solidarity with the city residents. Among the participants were Rabbis Chaim Druckman, Chanan Porat, Tsomet Institute head Yisrael Rosenne, Yigal Kaminetzky of Gush Katif, Elisha Vishlitzky, David Fendel of Sderot, and Eliezer Sheinvald of Modiin, as well as Col. (ret.) Geva Rapp of the 'Face to Face' outreach organization. The rabbis resolved to continue activities such as hosting Sderot residents in their towns and schools, further visits to Sderot, offering economic and social help to needy families, special Sabbath and other events around the country dedicated to Sderot, and more. In addition, the educators called upon the Government of Israel to end this national disgrace of the abandonment of Jewish lives in Sderot and the area, by embarking on another Operation Defensive Shield [i.e., a massive military anti-terror offensive] in order to restore the self-respect and the security of the residents of Sderot. To this end, the group resolved to embark on a campaign, including billboards, bumper stickers, rallies, and the like to garner public support for the cause. Other visitors to Sderot on Monday included Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzippy Livny, the European Union's Javier Solana, and Britain's Ambassador to Israel Tom Phillips. The Home Front Command distributed pamphlets to many communities in the Sderot-Ashkelon area, advising the residents how to protect themselves during Kassam attacks. Among those who received them were 500 expellee families from Gush Katif, currently living in Nitzan, just north of Ashkelon.For more information on Sderot, see the Yeshivat Sderot http://www.sderot.org/ and Sderotmedia websites http://sderotmedia.com/
Calls to Re-settle Gush Katif
by Hillel Fendel (INN) MAY 22,07
With every crash of a Kassam rocket in the Negev, increasingly more voices are calling for a return to Gaza - for different reasons. Respected journalists from Yediot Acharonot and Haaretz have written that re-occupying Gaza is the only solution - lending an air of political correctness to the simultaneous ideological call by settlement leaders and Gush Katif expellees to return to Gush Katif. The reasons advanced for reoccupation by the various elements are, to be sure, not identical.
Military affairs correspondent Ron Ben-Yishai, writing for Yediot Acharonot last week (May 17), explained that it is based solely on security considerations: Israel's key problem at this point in time is the violent anarchy reigning in the Palestinian arena, Ben-Yishai wrote. Even if Israel chooses to undertake drastic measures such as cutting off electricity and water from Gaza residents, while indiscriminately bombing launch sites, there would still be no one on the Palestinian side able to stop the Kassam attacks. The only thing that will happen is that Israel will face condemnation and be isolated in international public opinion. Under current circumstances, Ben-Yishai continued, one consideration must guide the Israeli government: How do we prevent casualties among western Negev residents as a result of Kassam attacks, and how do we thwart the digging of tunnels by the Palestinians and a worse situation in the future as a result of Hamas' rapid strengthening? The most effective and virtually only modus operandi to achieve these objectives is an occupation of wide sections of the Gaza Strip.
Once the IDF controls most Gaza territory, it will be able, in conjunction with the General Security Service (Shabak), to gather intelligence information and apply it in anti-terror operations while proceeding to destroy terror infrastructures. Meanwhile, the digging of a seawater tunnel would curb the smuggling through Gaza's Philadelphi route.
Ben-Yishai added that limited aerial and ground operations would not curb Kassam rockets, would draw terrorist fire and endanger Israeli troops, and would end with international pressure upon Israel.
Instead, a very large military force [is] required to stay in the Strip for many months... The question is whether the Olmert government will continue to deal with political survival and endless 'assessment sessions, or whether it will finally start to act practically.Similarly, on the same day, correspondent Avi Issacharoff penned a piece for Haaretz entitled, No Other Solution For Gazans But Israeli
Occupation. Explaining that Fatah has been left without strong leadership and is headed for a military defeat at the hands of Hamas, the Gazans are repeating one clear message: only Israeli occupation will save them. There is no other solution on the horizon.These calls were somewhat encouraging to people like Adi Mintz, a former Director of the Yesha Council [Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza], who was in the midst of publicizing his own call for a return to Gaza.
Mintz, a resident of Dolev in the Binyamin region of the Shomron, wrote in the most recent edition of B'Sheva:
...Jacob was unable to be comforted for the loss of his son Joseph, because one cannot becomforted for the loss of someone who is actually alive... We, too, are unable to be comforted over the loss of Gush Katif for two reasons: Because we know that we will return, and also - just like in the case of Jacob and Joseph - because the crime was committed against us by our own brothers. For 19 years, the survivors of Kibbutz Kfar Etzion [destroyed and captured by the Jordanians in 1948 - ed.] would go up to a hilltop overlooking Gush Etzion, and see the lone oak tree there. That tree became a symbol of the longed-for return... and Kfar Etzion became the first town to be rebuilt by Israel after the liberation of Judea and Samaria during the Six Day War... More and more journalists and former IDF generals who supported the Disengagement now regret it, and admit that it was a strategic mistake - the rotten fruits of which we ate in the war in Gaza and in Lebanon. A strategic mistake can be rectified only by another strategic move: Returning to Gush Katif. Such a move might seem, at present, detached from reality. However, with the IDF apparently preparing for a major offensive in Gaza, and with the government seemingly waiting only for Kassam deaths before acting, the return to Gush Katif is the only answer.This will show the Arabs, Mintz explained, that they cannot defeat us, that this is our land, and that only we have the rights to it.
Mintz emphasized the fact that the Jewish towns in Gush Katif and northern Gaza were not built on Arab land, and that the State of Israel's terrible act of throwing out its sons can still be rectified: The public is still in the throes of the earthquake of last summer's war, and is open to new conceptions. The call and demand to return to Gush Katif is moral and just, on the one hand, and is a strategic necessity, on the other hand... Together with the 'Homesh First' people [who are leading a campaign to return to the Disengagement-destroyed town of Homesh in the Shomron - ed.], we must broaden the scope of the struggle to include also a struggle to win over the public's soul. This is the time to join forces and to wage a campaign that will keep the idea of a return to both Homesh and Gush Katif in the public consciousness. Even if we don't succeed in the short run, this type of struggle has supreme importance for the long run.
Monday, May 21, 2007
LEBANON ARMY CAMP SHOOTERS
BREAKING NEWS
In the Palestinian Refugee Camp 7 miles North of Tripoli Lebanon. Al Quida Terrororists are shooting it it out against the Lebanese Army. I can expect the EU ARMY to come together now to get into the scene to Guarentee peace in the mideast first, then in the future Guarentee Israels security for a Land for peace 7 year treaty. This is no Accident Bible Prophecy has to be fulfilled that the EU gets their army into the Mideast.
1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS. 2-The Nation's Weather. 3-Hurricane season looms, New Orleans worries. 4-End EU constitution stalemate: Solana. 5-Hamas: Jews Must Run From Ashkelon Like From Sderot. 6-80 Bomb Shelters in Sderot Unfit for Use. 7-How to outlaw Christianity. 8-Lebanese army shells refugee. camp
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 = Mon May 21 15:12:03 UTC 2007
MAY 21,07
MAP 4.2 NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.5 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 4.4 SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA
MAP 3.1 KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA
MAP 5.1 SOLOMON ISLANDS
MAP 4.8 TARAPACA, CHILE
MAY 20,07
MAP 2.6 KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA
MAP 3.4 SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.3 SEA OF JAPAN
MAP 4.5 SOUTH OF PANAMA
MAP 2.8 NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.6 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.8 IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 2.5 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 4.8 BONIN ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 3.2 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.6 GULF OF CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.0 SIKKIM, INDIA
MAP 4.9 KHABAROVSKIY KRAY, RUSSIA
MAP 5.3 COQUIMBO, CHILE
MAP 4.7 MARIANA ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.5 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 2.9 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.7 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.6 SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP 4.6 ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE
MAY 19,07
MAP 4.9 FIJI REGION
MAP 2.8 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.5 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.7 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.3 COLORADO
MAP 2.8 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 5.0 LA RIOJA, ARGENTINA
MAP 3.1 SOUTH OF ALASKA
MAP 3.1 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 4.3 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.8 SOUTH OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
MAP 2.8 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 5.5 SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.7 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 4.7 MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
MAP 4.6 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 2.8 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.7 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
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.
The Nation's Weather By WEATHER UNDERGROUND, For The Associated Press
Mon May 21, 6:12 AM ET
Thunderstorms swirled over the northern Plains early Monday — raising fears of strong winds, damaging hail and tornadoes — while a warm day dawned over the Midwest and Southeast. Thunderstorms were forecast in the Rockies and western Plains, though the focal point of the activity will most likely shift slightly to the east, with more storms occurring over the Plains than the eastern slopes of the mountains.
Clear skies were predicted over the East as high pressure builds. Temperatures were expected to be about the same as Sunday's highs, but abundant sunshine should make it feel warmer.In the West, temperatures were to warm up as low pressure finally passes through the region and moves into the Intermountain region.The Northwest was unlikely to feel the warmup, though, since Washington and Oregon will likely see continued cloud cover lingers over the states.Fog should also keep Southern California cool throughout the day Monday, but will likely burn off over the beaches by afternoon.
Temperatures in the Lower 48 states on Sunday ranged from a low of 28 degrees at Grand Marais Airport, Minn., to a high of 110 degrees at Death Valley, Calif.
Hurricane season looms, New Orleans worries By Russell McCulley and Haitham Haddadin Sun May 20, 8:58 AM ET
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - In a New Orleans still recovering from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the city safety plan for the next storm can be summed up best in two words: Get out. As the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season begins, New Orleans officials say the city is better prepared than it was before Katrina, but cannot assure people's safety.When the mayor tells the citizens to evacuate, the citizens should listen and heed the mayor's warning, said Jerry Sneed, director of the city's office of emergency preparedness.Jesse St. Amant, emergency preparedness director for Plaquemines Parish southeast of New Orleans, agreed. I would rather have somebody say I was inconvenienced (by evacuating) than to have to recover their body.Last year's hurricane season passed without a storm hitting Louisiana, which gave the city much needed time to continue its slow rebuilding.But this year, forecasters predict the hurricane season, which starts on June 1, will be busy, and the U.S. Gulf Coast could well be hit.The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has spent at least $1 billion strengthening levees that failed so miserably when Katrina hit on August 29, 2005, but experts say it will take billions more to secure the city, which is mostly below sea level.
The result, said Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center in Baton Rouge, is that another hurricane like Katrina could do just as much damage.Katrina, a Category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale when it hit New Orleans, flooded 80 percent of the city when its storm surge swamped the surrounding levees. A Category 3 storm has maximum winds of 130 miles per hour (209 kph).The storm killed at least 1,300 people and did an estimated $81 billion in damage, the most by a natural disaster in the United States.
IT WILL COMPLETELY FLOOD EVERYTHING
If we got a slow-moving Category 3, it will completely flood everything, van Heerden told Reuters at a recent hurricane conference.Louisiana Insurance Commissioner James Donelon said he believed the city's protection was strong enough to stand up to another Katrina, but beyond that, there were no guarantees.We have never, ever ... in the history of New Orleans been better protected against strong surge from hurricanes than we are today, he said in an interview. But a Category 4 or 5 hurricane on the critical path, that I can't answer.The issue is moot to local officials, who say that if a storm of any strength heads toward New Orleans, people should leave.They do not want a repeat of the anarchy after Katrina when people who did not evacuate died in the flooded city while crime and chaos reigned in the streets and in public shelters.Officials said there will be no shelters open for the next storm because they do not want to encourage people to stay. Nor do they want them trying to ride it out in their homes.
The lessons of Katrina have not been lost on New Orleans residents, many of whom have refused to return to a city they still view as a sitting duck for hurricanes. The latest population estimates show that about 255,000 people live in New Orleans now, compared to 480,000 before the storm. Those who are back worry about what this hurricane season will bring. Ina Keelen, a 21-year-old hotel employee who rode out Katrina in the city, said that next time she will leave, adding I can't take another chance with my life.
End EU constitution stalemate: Solana - REUTERS MAY 18,07
AACHEN • European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana urged the bloc yesterday to resolve the two-year-old stalemate over its stalled constitution, arguing the deadlock was undermining EU’s influence in the world. Receiving a prestigious German peace prize in the border city of Aachen, Solana backed efforts by Chancellor Angela Merkel to launch a blueprint for reforms of EU structures that would be in place from mid-2009. Just when we should be at our most alert, just when the world’s demand for Europe is at its highest, the Union has turned inwards, immersed in a sterile institutional crisis, Solana said. We cannot go on like this. This must be resolved as soon as possible, if possible in 2007, he told an audience packed with past and present European dignitaries. The bloc’s 27 capitals disagree on how to revive a charter all but killed off in 2005 by rejections in Dutch and French referendums. Diplomats say some consensus is, however, emerging around a slimmed down mini treaty proposed by new French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
It is not clear how much will be salvaged of the original text, which would have streamlined EU voting structures, created a more permanent presidency and a single foreign minister. Spanish Socialist Solana would have been the first holder of such a post, giving him control over EU instruments such as its vast overseas aid budget. Yet with his mandate expiring in 2009, any attempt to restore the position come too late for him. We can only develop a genuine foreign policy if we give ourselves the necessary structures, said the 64-year-old former NATO secretary-general. In the last few years, we have come a long way ... But today, we are very close to the limit of what can be achieved in this way.Solana, who has mediated in conflicts from the Balkans to the Middle East, received the Charlemagne Award.
Hamas: Jews Must Run From Ashkelon Like From Sderot
by Hillel Fendel (INN) MAY 21,07
Nizar Riyan, a Hamas leader in Gaza, says his organization is determined to have Israel wiped off the map and be replaced by a state of Palestine. Speaking with the Hamas television station, Riyan called upon the PA Arab factions in Gaza to keep fighting the Jews even if the Arabs and Abu Mazen do not agree, until the last Jew leaves Palestine.Further dispelling any illusions that only Judea and Samaria are contested lands, Riyan called for the bombardment of Ashkelon until its Jews run away just like those of Sderot... The Arabs were expelled from Sderot and Ashkelon, and now the time has come to expel the land-stealers and allow the Arabs to return.
Preparing in Ashkelon
Ashkelon Mayor Roni Mahtzri is to meet with the Director of the Prime Minister's Bureau Monday in light of the threats facing the city. Mahtzri has already had meetings with top government and military figures on the question of how to protect Ashkelon from a feared onslaught of Kassam rockets. The city of Sderot, besieged for over five years by Kassam rockets, has many non-reinforced homes and schools; Ashkelon's population, close to 110,000, is more than five times that of Sderot. In late October 2005, Gen. Dan Harel, completing his term as head of the IDF Southern Command, warned that Ashkelon was already in range of Kassam rockets and that the city would eventually be targeted. Within a few weeks, rockets began hitting the southern outskirts of the city almost weekly, often landing near the Rotenberg Power Plant. The station is Israel's second-largest electric station, supplying about a quarter of Israels electricity. Meanwhile, Cabinet ministers are threatening Hamas leaders with personal liquidation. Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor), a former Defense Minister, said Monday that terrorist officres and even Hamas government ministers must be targeted directly, in addition to those who plan and execute Kassam attacks.Public Security Minister Avi Dichter said Monday that even Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh and exiled leader Khaled Mashaal are legitimate targets.
Dichter further said that fears for the fate of captured soldier Gilad Shalit should not govern Israel's war against terrorism, nor are they well-grounded. The return of Gilad Shalit safe and sound is a very important mission, Dichter told Army Radio. This is a goal that must be sought as if there was no war against terrorism, while at the same time we must fight against terrorism as if there was no Gilad Shalit issue. Once you start fighting terrorism with the fear of what might happen to Shalit, you endanger not only more soldiers, but also more citizens... Shalit is a great asset for Hamas, and they know that he is a very important negotiating card; they don't care about his life, but they care about his value, and will make sure to preserve it.Shalit was captured 11 months ago while guarding the Gaza border. He is being held somewhere in Gaza. Two other soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, were kidnapped on the Lebanon border 18 days later, kicking off the Second Lebanon War. It is not known if the latter two are alive, and, unlike with Shalit, negotiations have not been underway for their exchange.
80 Bomb Shelters in Sderot Unfit for Use
1 Sivan 5767, May 18, '07
(IsraelNN.com) A recent study showed that 80 bomb shelters in the city of Sderot are unfit for use. As there is no available funding to fix them, they have been used for storage. A remaining 36 shelters are functional, but most are in need of repair. The American-based Fellowship organization met with Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal on Thursday afternoon and promised 6.5 million shekels to fix the shelters. When the meeting was interrupted by dozens of Sderot residents who wished to evacuate the city, the Federation promised to sponsor 350 weekend vacations as well. Minister of Pensioners Affairs Rafi Eitan said Thursday that he had a plan to provide immediate protection for Sderot. He will meet with Moyal on Friday to present his plan.
How to outlaw Christianity (Steps 2 & 3)
May 21, 2007 - 1:00 a.m. Eastern Chuck Norris
C.S. Lewis, the former atheist and famous Oxford scholar, once said, Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning.
There are a myriad of eminent scholars (like Lewis) who understand the folly of atheism. I will list a few others in this second part of my treatise to expose atheists' agenda to ban Christianity from the courts of culture. In my last article I discussed step 1 of their plan. In this discourse I will address steps 2 and 3.
Step two: target younger generations with atheism
Atheists are making a concerted effort to win the youth of America and the world. Hundreds of web sites and blogs on the Internet seek to convince and convert adolescents, endeavoring to remove any residue of theism from their minds and hearts by packaging atheism as the choice of a new generation. While you think your kids are innocently surfing the Web, secular progressives are intentionally preying on their innocence and naïveté. What's preposterous is that atheists are now advertising and soliciting on websites particularly created for teens. The London Telegraph noted that, Groups including Atheists for Human Rights and Atheist Alliance International Call 1-866-HERETIC - are setting up summer camps and an internet recruiting campaign.YouTube, the most popular video site on the Net for young people, is one of their primary avenues for passing off their secularist propaganda. Another antagonistic and self-proclaimed blasphemous site even beckons youth to record their anti-Christian beliefs on it. Even Oxford scientist Richard Dawkins is on personal campaign and militant quest to spread his name, books, and atheism all over the Internet by hoping young people will post his graphics on their MySpace page. Rather than question or critique his methods as slick marketing, young atheists are proud to post his links, follow and defend him like a religious sage, and cite his texts as infallible truth.
Step three: package and promote atheism as reasonable and scientific
Presenting atheism as scientific fact might be secularists' greatest plan and others point of greatest gullibility, in hope of winning the battle for the ultimate view of reality. And hailed as their chief advocates are men like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, Oxford University's ethologist and evolutionary biologist, with his book, The God Delusion, atheists newest bible or authoritative text.
So what credentials does a man like Dawkins have to discuss the presence or absence of God? Answer: He's a scientist. And the fact is anyone in our age who is a naturalist professor or wears a white lab coat can virtually speak upon any issue (even God) and their words are received as gospel – unless of course they are a theist! What's interesting is that atheists like Dawkins fall into the same snare they accuse of theists. While he might condemn Christians like me for not being educated enough to speak about theism or creation, his own expertise remains outside the realm of antagonism that defines his world crusade. To make dogmatic assertions about the absence of God and not possess expertise in cosmology, astrophysics, or even theology gives him no more of a credible platform than you and me, except to his devoted followers of course. He is an ethologist and evolutionary biologist – since when does that make one an expert on God? (Similarly, Sam Harris has a bachelor's in philosophy – since when does that make one an expert on the universe?) What they and other atheists are hoping you overlook are the hundreds of qualified scientists who believe in a Creator.
Dawkins condemns Christians for being narrow minded and non-adaptive to other cultures which believed in Thor or Zeus, yet he is unwavering in disrespecting any other creation authority except Western science. What about the wisdom of African, Middle-Eastern or Far-Eastern sages, shamans, or religious figures? Just because science can explain many things in the natural realm, does that mean it owns the corner market on metaphysics and God? Is it possible that the scientific worldview is inferior to reveal the truths behind the curtain of creation? Even Paul Davies, the renown British-born physicist, agnostic, professor of cosmology, quantum field theory, and astrobiology, said to Time, Science, God, and Man, that no one can rightfully say there is no God. Agnosticism – reserving judgment about divine purpose – remains as defensible as ever, but atheism – the confident denial of divine purpose – becomes trickier. If you admit that we can't peer behind a curtain, how can you be sure there's nothing there?
John Horgan, a former senior staff writer for Scientific American and the Director of the Center for Science Writings at the Stevens Institute of Technology, wrote a book titled, The End of Science. In it he discusses the futility of men like Oxford's Dawkins, Cambridge's Hawking, and others pursuit to discover a theory of everything. He agrees with Paul Davies in purporting that we must face the limits of science in the twilight of the scientific age, opting that the discovery of ultimate answers about the universe will not rely in rationale and empirical examination but possibly a metaphysical practice. (A striking similarity to the words in the Bible, By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command.) Of course for men like Harris, Dawkins, and other atheists, the thought that science cannot provide these ultimate answers must be a horrifying reality to face, as their whole lives depend upon the western-scientific paradigm of reality. Their predicament reminds me of the words of Robert Jastrow, American astronomer, physicist and cosmologist, from his work, God and the Astronomers.
The universe has a beginning….This is an exceedingly strange development, unexpected by all but the theologians. They have always accepted the word of the Bible: In the beginning God created heaven and earth….For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries. Once again the Bible is proven correct, The fool has said in his heart, There is no god.
Lebanese army shells refugee camp By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer MAY 21,07
TRIPOLI, Lebanon - Lebanese troops pounded a Palestinian refugee camp with artillery and tank fire for a second day Monday, raising huge columns of smoke as they battled a militant group suspected of ties to al-Qaida in the worst violence since the end of the 1975-90 civil war. Nearly 50 combatants were killed in the first day of fighting Sunday, but it was not known how many civilians have been killed inside the Nahr el-Bared camp on the outskirts of the northern port city of Tripoli, the site of the heaviest battles.Palestinian officials in the camp reported at least nine civilians were killed Monday, along with 40 wounded. The figures could not be confirmed because emergency workers or security officials have not been able to get in.The State Department defended the Lebanese army, saying it was working in a legitimate manner against provocations by violent extremists operating in the camp.
Black smoke engulfed the skies over the camp as fires raged and heavy gunfire and explosions rang out. The fierce fighting resumed after a brief truce that allowed the evacuation of 18 wounded civilians, according to Saleh Badran, an official with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.Lebanon was already in the midst of its worst political crisis between the Western-backed government and Hezbollah-led opposition since the end of the civil war.The battle was an unprecedented showdown between the Lebanese army and militant groups that have arisen in Lebanon's Palestinian refugee camps, which are home to tens of thousands of people living amid poverty and crime and which Lebanese troops are not allowed to enter.The troops were fighting a group called Fatah Islam, whose leader has said he is inspired by al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and was training militants for attacks in other countries. Lebanese officials have also accused Syria of using Fatah Islam to stir up trouble in Lebanon, a charge Damascus has denied.Lebanese officials said one of the men killed Sunday was a suspect in a failed German train bombing another indication the camp had become a refuge for Fatah Islam militants planning attacks outside of Lebanon. In the past, others affiliated with the group in the camp have said they were aiming to send trained fighters into Iraq and the group's leader has been linked to al-Qaida in Iraq.
Hundreds of Lebanese troops, backed by tanks and armored carriers, surrounded the refugee camp Monday. M-48 battle tanks unleashed their cannon fire on the camp, home to 30,000 Palestinian refugees. The militants fired mortars toward the troops at daybreak.An army officer at the front line said troops directed concentrated fire at buildings known to house militants. He said troops also had orders to strike hard at any target that returned fire.Everything we know that they were present in has been targeted, he told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.A spokesman for Fatah Islam, Abu Salim, warned that if the army bombardment did not stop, the militants would step up attacks by rockets and artillery and would take the battle outside Tripoli.He did not elaborate.It is a life-or-death battle. Their aim is to wipe out Fatah Islam. We will respond and we know how to respond, he told the AP.Earlier in the day, another refugee camp, Ein el-Hilweh in southern Lebanon, was tense after Lebanese troops surrounded it and armed militants went on alert.At least 27 soldiers and 20 militants were killed Sunday, Lebanese security officials said. But they did not know how many civilians had been killed in the camp because it is off-limits to their authority.
Lebanon says it has no authority to enter the camps under understandings with the Palestinians that give the PLO the authority in the camps. But Lebanon also is believed to be leery of entering for fear that any such actions would cause widespread unrest, be very costly and could spark pan-Arab sympathy for the Palestinian refugees that would trigger a backlash against the country. The clashes were triggered Sunday when police raided suspected Fatah Islam hideouts in several buildings in Tripoli, searching for men wanted in a recent bank robbery. A gunbattle erupted at one of the buildings between the group's fighters, and troops were called in to help the police. Militants then burst out of the nearby refugee camp, seizing Lebanese army positions, capturing two armored vehicles and ambushing troops. Lebanese troops later laid siege to the camp, where Fatah Islam militants were believed to be hiding.Fatah Islam is led by a Palestinian named Shaker al-Absi, who is wanted in three countries. He told The New York Times in March that he was trying to spread al-Qaida's ideology and was training fighters inside the camp for attacks on other countries. He would not specify which countries but expressed anger toward the United States. And he was sentenced to death earlier in absentia along with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq killed last summer by U.S. forces in Iraq, for the 2002 assassination of an American diplomat in Jordan.
In a news conference in March, al-Absi denied he was sending fighters to Iraq.
Fighting in our homeland (Palestine) is more important, he said then. We have no connection with any regime or organization on this earth. Our connection is with There is no God but God' (the slogan of Islam). We have come to raise it over the skies of Jerusalem.Al-Absi had been in custody in Syria until last fall but was released and set up his group in the camp, where he apparently found recruits, Lebanese officials said. Lebanon's national police commander, Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, said Damascus was using Fatah Islam as a covert way to wreak havoc in the country. He denied Fatah Islam's al-Qaida links, saying it was a Syrian-bred group. Perhaps there are some deluded people among them but they are not al-Qaida. This is imitation al-Qaida, a Made in Syria one, he told the AP. Lebanese security officials said Fatah Islam has up to 100 members who come from Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and Syria, as well as local sympathizers who belong to the conservative Salafi branch of Islam. The Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. TV station reported the dead militants included men from Bangladesh, Yemen and other Arab countries. Some wore explosive belts, security officials said.
Officials identified the suspect in the failed German train bombing as Saddam El-Hajdib, the fourth -highest ranking official in the Fatah Islam group, an official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. El-Hajdib had been on trial in absentia in Lebanon in the failed German plot. It was unclear whether Lebanese authorities had known the whereabouts of El-Hajdib or al-Absi before the gunbattle first broke Sunday out in Tripoli. The State Department gave its support to the Lebanese army's battle with Fatah Islam. This is a group that has been involved in violence to achieve whatever their stated objective may be, spokesman Sean McCormack said. McCormack declined to discuss whether the group may be tied to al-Qaida or other groups outside Lebanon. Asked about a possible Syrian link, McCormack said, At this point I wouldn't draw that connection.In Monday's fighting, a driver for the AP, working with journalists at the scene, was injured when he was hit in the thigh by a bullet or shrapnel. He was being treated at a hospital and was expected to recover. Ahmed Methqal, a Muslim cleric in the camp, told Al-Jazeera that five civilians had been killed. You can say there is a massacre going on in the camp of children and women who have nothing to do with Fatah Islam, he said. They are targeting buildings, with people in them.Lebanon has struggled to defeat armed groups that control pockets of the country — especially inside the 12 Palestinian refugee camps housing 350,000 people. Some camps have become havens for Islamic militants accused of carrying out attacks in the country and of sending recruits to fight U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq. Palestinian officials from the moderate Fatah faction in the West Bank sought to distance themselves from Fatah Islam and urged Palestinian refugees in the camp to isolate the militant group. Associated Press Writer Hussein Dakroub in Beirut contributed.
In the Palestinian Refugee Camp 7 miles North of Tripoli Lebanon. Al Quida Terrororists are shooting it it out against the Lebanese Army. I can expect the EU ARMY to come together now to get into the scene to Guarentee peace in the mideast first, then in the future Guarentee Israels security for a Land for peace 7 year treaty. This is no Accident Bible Prophecy has to be fulfilled that the EU gets their army into the Mideast.
1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS. 2-The Nation's Weather. 3-Hurricane season looms, New Orleans worries. 4-End EU constitution stalemate: Solana. 5-Hamas: Jews Must Run From Ashkelon Like From Sderot. 6-80 Bomb Shelters in Sderot Unfit for Use. 7-How to outlaw Christianity. 8-Lebanese army shells refugee. camp
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 = Mon May 21 15:12:03 UTC 2007
MAY 21,07
MAP 4.2 NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.5 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 4.4 SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA
MAP 3.1 KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA
MAP 5.1 SOLOMON ISLANDS
MAP 4.8 TARAPACA, CHILE
MAY 20,07
MAP 2.6 KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA
MAP 3.4 SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.3 SEA OF JAPAN
MAP 4.5 SOUTH OF PANAMA
MAP 2.8 NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.6 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.8 IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 2.5 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 4.8 BONIN ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 3.2 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.6 GULF OF CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.0 SIKKIM, INDIA
MAP 4.9 KHABAROVSKIY KRAY, RUSSIA
MAP 5.3 COQUIMBO, CHILE
MAP 4.7 MARIANA ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.5 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 2.9 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.7 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.6 SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP 4.6 ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE
MAY 19,07
MAP 4.9 FIJI REGION
MAP 2.8 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.5 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.7 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.3 COLORADO
MAP 2.8 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 5.0 LA RIOJA, ARGENTINA
MAP 3.1 SOUTH OF ALASKA
MAP 3.1 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 4.3 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.8 SOUTH OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
MAP 2.8 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 5.5 SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.7 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 4.7 MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
MAP 4.6 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 2.8 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.7 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
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.
The Nation's Weather By WEATHER UNDERGROUND, For The Associated Press
Mon May 21, 6:12 AM ET
Thunderstorms swirled over the northern Plains early Monday — raising fears of strong winds, damaging hail and tornadoes — while a warm day dawned over the Midwest and Southeast. Thunderstorms were forecast in the Rockies and western Plains, though the focal point of the activity will most likely shift slightly to the east, with more storms occurring over the Plains than the eastern slopes of the mountains.
Clear skies were predicted over the East as high pressure builds. Temperatures were expected to be about the same as Sunday's highs, but abundant sunshine should make it feel warmer.In the West, temperatures were to warm up as low pressure finally passes through the region and moves into the Intermountain region.The Northwest was unlikely to feel the warmup, though, since Washington and Oregon will likely see continued cloud cover lingers over the states.Fog should also keep Southern California cool throughout the day Monday, but will likely burn off over the beaches by afternoon.
Temperatures in the Lower 48 states on Sunday ranged from a low of 28 degrees at Grand Marais Airport, Minn., to a high of 110 degrees at Death Valley, Calif.
Hurricane season looms, New Orleans worries By Russell McCulley and Haitham Haddadin Sun May 20, 8:58 AM ET
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - In a New Orleans still recovering from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the city safety plan for the next storm can be summed up best in two words: Get out. As the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season begins, New Orleans officials say the city is better prepared than it was before Katrina, but cannot assure people's safety.When the mayor tells the citizens to evacuate, the citizens should listen and heed the mayor's warning, said Jerry Sneed, director of the city's office of emergency preparedness.Jesse St. Amant, emergency preparedness director for Plaquemines Parish southeast of New Orleans, agreed. I would rather have somebody say I was inconvenienced (by evacuating) than to have to recover their body.Last year's hurricane season passed without a storm hitting Louisiana, which gave the city much needed time to continue its slow rebuilding.But this year, forecasters predict the hurricane season, which starts on June 1, will be busy, and the U.S. Gulf Coast could well be hit.The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has spent at least $1 billion strengthening levees that failed so miserably when Katrina hit on August 29, 2005, but experts say it will take billions more to secure the city, which is mostly below sea level.
The result, said Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center in Baton Rouge, is that another hurricane like Katrina could do just as much damage.Katrina, a Category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale when it hit New Orleans, flooded 80 percent of the city when its storm surge swamped the surrounding levees. A Category 3 storm has maximum winds of 130 miles per hour (209 kph).The storm killed at least 1,300 people and did an estimated $81 billion in damage, the most by a natural disaster in the United States.
IT WILL COMPLETELY FLOOD EVERYTHING
If we got a slow-moving Category 3, it will completely flood everything, van Heerden told Reuters at a recent hurricane conference.Louisiana Insurance Commissioner James Donelon said he believed the city's protection was strong enough to stand up to another Katrina, but beyond that, there were no guarantees.We have never, ever ... in the history of New Orleans been better protected against strong surge from hurricanes than we are today, he said in an interview. But a Category 4 or 5 hurricane on the critical path, that I can't answer.The issue is moot to local officials, who say that if a storm of any strength heads toward New Orleans, people should leave.They do not want a repeat of the anarchy after Katrina when people who did not evacuate died in the flooded city while crime and chaos reigned in the streets and in public shelters.Officials said there will be no shelters open for the next storm because they do not want to encourage people to stay. Nor do they want them trying to ride it out in their homes.
The lessons of Katrina have not been lost on New Orleans residents, many of whom have refused to return to a city they still view as a sitting duck for hurricanes. The latest population estimates show that about 255,000 people live in New Orleans now, compared to 480,000 before the storm. Those who are back worry about what this hurricane season will bring. Ina Keelen, a 21-year-old hotel employee who rode out Katrina in the city, said that next time she will leave, adding I can't take another chance with my life.
End EU constitution stalemate: Solana - REUTERS MAY 18,07
AACHEN • European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana urged the bloc yesterday to resolve the two-year-old stalemate over its stalled constitution, arguing the deadlock was undermining EU’s influence in the world. Receiving a prestigious German peace prize in the border city of Aachen, Solana backed efforts by Chancellor Angela Merkel to launch a blueprint for reforms of EU structures that would be in place from mid-2009. Just when we should be at our most alert, just when the world’s demand for Europe is at its highest, the Union has turned inwards, immersed in a sterile institutional crisis, Solana said. We cannot go on like this. This must be resolved as soon as possible, if possible in 2007, he told an audience packed with past and present European dignitaries. The bloc’s 27 capitals disagree on how to revive a charter all but killed off in 2005 by rejections in Dutch and French referendums. Diplomats say some consensus is, however, emerging around a slimmed down mini treaty proposed by new French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
It is not clear how much will be salvaged of the original text, which would have streamlined EU voting structures, created a more permanent presidency and a single foreign minister. Spanish Socialist Solana would have been the first holder of such a post, giving him control over EU instruments such as its vast overseas aid budget. Yet with his mandate expiring in 2009, any attempt to restore the position come too late for him. We can only develop a genuine foreign policy if we give ourselves the necessary structures, said the 64-year-old former NATO secretary-general. In the last few years, we have come a long way ... But today, we are very close to the limit of what can be achieved in this way.Solana, who has mediated in conflicts from the Balkans to the Middle East, received the Charlemagne Award.
Hamas: Jews Must Run From Ashkelon Like From Sderot
by Hillel Fendel (INN) MAY 21,07
Nizar Riyan, a Hamas leader in Gaza, says his organization is determined to have Israel wiped off the map and be replaced by a state of Palestine. Speaking with the Hamas television station, Riyan called upon the PA Arab factions in Gaza to keep fighting the Jews even if the Arabs and Abu Mazen do not agree, until the last Jew leaves Palestine.Further dispelling any illusions that only Judea and Samaria are contested lands, Riyan called for the bombardment of Ashkelon until its Jews run away just like those of Sderot... The Arabs were expelled from Sderot and Ashkelon, and now the time has come to expel the land-stealers and allow the Arabs to return.
Preparing in Ashkelon
Ashkelon Mayor Roni Mahtzri is to meet with the Director of the Prime Minister's Bureau Monday in light of the threats facing the city. Mahtzri has already had meetings with top government and military figures on the question of how to protect Ashkelon from a feared onslaught of Kassam rockets. The city of Sderot, besieged for over five years by Kassam rockets, has many non-reinforced homes and schools; Ashkelon's population, close to 110,000, is more than five times that of Sderot. In late October 2005, Gen. Dan Harel, completing his term as head of the IDF Southern Command, warned that Ashkelon was already in range of Kassam rockets and that the city would eventually be targeted. Within a few weeks, rockets began hitting the southern outskirts of the city almost weekly, often landing near the Rotenberg Power Plant. The station is Israel's second-largest electric station, supplying about a quarter of Israels electricity. Meanwhile, Cabinet ministers are threatening Hamas leaders with personal liquidation. Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor), a former Defense Minister, said Monday that terrorist officres and even Hamas government ministers must be targeted directly, in addition to those who plan and execute Kassam attacks.Public Security Minister Avi Dichter said Monday that even Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh and exiled leader Khaled Mashaal are legitimate targets.
Dichter further said that fears for the fate of captured soldier Gilad Shalit should not govern Israel's war against terrorism, nor are they well-grounded. The return of Gilad Shalit safe and sound is a very important mission, Dichter told Army Radio. This is a goal that must be sought as if there was no war against terrorism, while at the same time we must fight against terrorism as if there was no Gilad Shalit issue. Once you start fighting terrorism with the fear of what might happen to Shalit, you endanger not only more soldiers, but also more citizens... Shalit is a great asset for Hamas, and they know that he is a very important negotiating card; they don't care about his life, but they care about his value, and will make sure to preserve it.Shalit was captured 11 months ago while guarding the Gaza border. He is being held somewhere in Gaza. Two other soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, were kidnapped on the Lebanon border 18 days later, kicking off the Second Lebanon War. It is not known if the latter two are alive, and, unlike with Shalit, negotiations have not been underway for their exchange.
80 Bomb Shelters in Sderot Unfit for Use
1 Sivan 5767, May 18, '07
(IsraelNN.com) A recent study showed that 80 bomb shelters in the city of Sderot are unfit for use. As there is no available funding to fix them, they have been used for storage. A remaining 36 shelters are functional, but most are in need of repair. The American-based Fellowship organization met with Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal on Thursday afternoon and promised 6.5 million shekels to fix the shelters. When the meeting was interrupted by dozens of Sderot residents who wished to evacuate the city, the Federation promised to sponsor 350 weekend vacations as well. Minister of Pensioners Affairs Rafi Eitan said Thursday that he had a plan to provide immediate protection for Sderot. He will meet with Moyal on Friday to present his plan.
How to outlaw Christianity (Steps 2 & 3)
May 21, 2007 - 1:00 a.m. Eastern Chuck Norris
C.S. Lewis, the former atheist and famous Oxford scholar, once said, Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning.
There are a myriad of eminent scholars (like Lewis) who understand the folly of atheism. I will list a few others in this second part of my treatise to expose atheists' agenda to ban Christianity from the courts of culture. In my last article I discussed step 1 of their plan. In this discourse I will address steps 2 and 3.
Step two: target younger generations with atheism
Atheists are making a concerted effort to win the youth of America and the world. Hundreds of web sites and blogs on the Internet seek to convince and convert adolescents, endeavoring to remove any residue of theism from their minds and hearts by packaging atheism as the choice of a new generation. While you think your kids are innocently surfing the Web, secular progressives are intentionally preying on their innocence and naïveté. What's preposterous is that atheists are now advertising and soliciting on websites particularly created for teens. The London Telegraph noted that, Groups including Atheists for Human Rights and Atheist Alliance International Call 1-866-HERETIC - are setting up summer camps and an internet recruiting campaign.YouTube, the most popular video site on the Net for young people, is one of their primary avenues for passing off their secularist propaganda. Another antagonistic and self-proclaimed blasphemous site even beckons youth to record their anti-Christian beliefs on it. Even Oxford scientist Richard Dawkins is on personal campaign and militant quest to spread his name, books, and atheism all over the Internet by hoping young people will post his graphics on their MySpace page. Rather than question or critique his methods as slick marketing, young atheists are proud to post his links, follow and defend him like a religious sage, and cite his texts as infallible truth.
Step three: package and promote atheism as reasonable and scientific
Presenting atheism as scientific fact might be secularists' greatest plan and others point of greatest gullibility, in hope of winning the battle for the ultimate view of reality. And hailed as their chief advocates are men like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, Oxford University's ethologist and evolutionary biologist, with his book, The God Delusion, atheists newest bible or authoritative text.
So what credentials does a man like Dawkins have to discuss the presence or absence of God? Answer: He's a scientist. And the fact is anyone in our age who is a naturalist professor or wears a white lab coat can virtually speak upon any issue (even God) and their words are received as gospel – unless of course they are a theist! What's interesting is that atheists like Dawkins fall into the same snare they accuse of theists. While he might condemn Christians like me for not being educated enough to speak about theism or creation, his own expertise remains outside the realm of antagonism that defines his world crusade. To make dogmatic assertions about the absence of God and not possess expertise in cosmology, astrophysics, or even theology gives him no more of a credible platform than you and me, except to his devoted followers of course. He is an ethologist and evolutionary biologist – since when does that make one an expert on God? (Similarly, Sam Harris has a bachelor's in philosophy – since when does that make one an expert on the universe?) What they and other atheists are hoping you overlook are the hundreds of qualified scientists who believe in a Creator.
Dawkins condemns Christians for being narrow minded and non-adaptive to other cultures which believed in Thor or Zeus, yet he is unwavering in disrespecting any other creation authority except Western science. What about the wisdom of African, Middle-Eastern or Far-Eastern sages, shamans, or religious figures? Just because science can explain many things in the natural realm, does that mean it owns the corner market on metaphysics and God? Is it possible that the scientific worldview is inferior to reveal the truths behind the curtain of creation? Even Paul Davies, the renown British-born physicist, agnostic, professor of cosmology, quantum field theory, and astrobiology, said to Time, Science, God, and Man, that no one can rightfully say there is no God. Agnosticism – reserving judgment about divine purpose – remains as defensible as ever, but atheism – the confident denial of divine purpose – becomes trickier. If you admit that we can't peer behind a curtain, how can you be sure there's nothing there?
John Horgan, a former senior staff writer for Scientific American and the Director of the Center for Science Writings at the Stevens Institute of Technology, wrote a book titled, The End of Science. In it he discusses the futility of men like Oxford's Dawkins, Cambridge's Hawking, and others pursuit to discover a theory of everything. He agrees with Paul Davies in purporting that we must face the limits of science in the twilight of the scientific age, opting that the discovery of ultimate answers about the universe will not rely in rationale and empirical examination but possibly a metaphysical practice. (A striking similarity to the words in the Bible, By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command.) Of course for men like Harris, Dawkins, and other atheists, the thought that science cannot provide these ultimate answers must be a horrifying reality to face, as their whole lives depend upon the western-scientific paradigm of reality. Their predicament reminds me of the words of Robert Jastrow, American astronomer, physicist and cosmologist, from his work, God and the Astronomers.
The universe has a beginning….This is an exceedingly strange development, unexpected by all but the theologians. They have always accepted the word of the Bible: In the beginning God created heaven and earth….For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries. Once again the Bible is proven correct, The fool has said in his heart, There is no god.
Lebanese army shells refugee camp By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer MAY 21,07
TRIPOLI, Lebanon - Lebanese troops pounded a Palestinian refugee camp with artillery and tank fire for a second day Monday, raising huge columns of smoke as they battled a militant group suspected of ties to al-Qaida in the worst violence since the end of the 1975-90 civil war. Nearly 50 combatants were killed in the first day of fighting Sunday, but it was not known how many civilians have been killed inside the Nahr el-Bared camp on the outskirts of the northern port city of Tripoli, the site of the heaviest battles.Palestinian officials in the camp reported at least nine civilians were killed Monday, along with 40 wounded. The figures could not be confirmed because emergency workers or security officials have not been able to get in.The State Department defended the Lebanese army, saying it was working in a legitimate manner against provocations by violent extremists operating in the camp.
Black smoke engulfed the skies over the camp as fires raged and heavy gunfire and explosions rang out. The fierce fighting resumed after a brief truce that allowed the evacuation of 18 wounded civilians, according to Saleh Badran, an official with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.Lebanon was already in the midst of its worst political crisis between the Western-backed government and Hezbollah-led opposition since the end of the civil war.The battle was an unprecedented showdown between the Lebanese army and militant groups that have arisen in Lebanon's Palestinian refugee camps, which are home to tens of thousands of people living amid poverty and crime and which Lebanese troops are not allowed to enter.The troops were fighting a group called Fatah Islam, whose leader has said he is inspired by al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and was training militants for attacks in other countries. Lebanese officials have also accused Syria of using Fatah Islam to stir up trouble in Lebanon, a charge Damascus has denied.Lebanese officials said one of the men killed Sunday was a suspect in a failed German train bombing another indication the camp had become a refuge for Fatah Islam militants planning attacks outside of Lebanon. In the past, others affiliated with the group in the camp have said they were aiming to send trained fighters into Iraq and the group's leader has been linked to al-Qaida in Iraq.
Hundreds of Lebanese troops, backed by tanks and armored carriers, surrounded the refugee camp Monday. M-48 battle tanks unleashed their cannon fire on the camp, home to 30,000 Palestinian refugees. The militants fired mortars toward the troops at daybreak.An army officer at the front line said troops directed concentrated fire at buildings known to house militants. He said troops also had orders to strike hard at any target that returned fire.Everything we know that they were present in has been targeted, he told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.A spokesman for Fatah Islam, Abu Salim, warned that if the army bombardment did not stop, the militants would step up attacks by rockets and artillery and would take the battle outside Tripoli.He did not elaborate.It is a life-or-death battle. Their aim is to wipe out Fatah Islam. We will respond and we know how to respond, he told the AP.Earlier in the day, another refugee camp, Ein el-Hilweh in southern Lebanon, was tense after Lebanese troops surrounded it and armed militants went on alert.At least 27 soldiers and 20 militants were killed Sunday, Lebanese security officials said. But they did not know how many civilians had been killed in the camp because it is off-limits to their authority.
Lebanon says it has no authority to enter the camps under understandings with the Palestinians that give the PLO the authority in the camps. But Lebanon also is believed to be leery of entering for fear that any such actions would cause widespread unrest, be very costly and could spark pan-Arab sympathy for the Palestinian refugees that would trigger a backlash against the country. The clashes were triggered Sunday when police raided suspected Fatah Islam hideouts in several buildings in Tripoli, searching for men wanted in a recent bank robbery. A gunbattle erupted at one of the buildings between the group's fighters, and troops were called in to help the police. Militants then burst out of the nearby refugee camp, seizing Lebanese army positions, capturing two armored vehicles and ambushing troops. Lebanese troops later laid siege to the camp, where Fatah Islam militants were believed to be hiding.Fatah Islam is led by a Palestinian named Shaker al-Absi, who is wanted in three countries. He told The New York Times in March that he was trying to spread al-Qaida's ideology and was training fighters inside the camp for attacks on other countries. He would not specify which countries but expressed anger toward the United States. And he was sentenced to death earlier in absentia along with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq killed last summer by U.S. forces in Iraq, for the 2002 assassination of an American diplomat in Jordan.
In a news conference in March, al-Absi denied he was sending fighters to Iraq.
Fighting in our homeland (Palestine) is more important, he said then. We have no connection with any regime or organization on this earth. Our connection is with There is no God but God' (the slogan of Islam). We have come to raise it over the skies of Jerusalem.Al-Absi had been in custody in Syria until last fall but was released and set up his group in the camp, where he apparently found recruits, Lebanese officials said. Lebanon's national police commander, Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, said Damascus was using Fatah Islam as a covert way to wreak havoc in the country. He denied Fatah Islam's al-Qaida links, saying it was a Syrian-bred group. Perhaps there are some deluded people among them but they are not al-Qaida. This is imitation al-Qaida, a Made in Syria one, he told the AP. Lebanese security officials said Fatah Islam has up to 100 members who come from Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and Syria, as well as local sympathizers who belong to the conservative Salafi branch of Islam. The Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. TV station reported the dead militants included men from Bangladesh, Yemen and other Arab countries. Some wore explosive belts, security officials said.
Officials identified the suspect in the failed German train bombing as Saddam El-Hajdib, the fourth -highest ranking official in the Fatah Islam group, an official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. El-Hajdib had been on trial in absentia in Lebanon in the failed German plot. It was unclear whether Lebanese authorities had known the whereabouts of El-Hajdib or al-Absi before the gunbattle first broke Sunday out in Tripoli. The State Department gave its support to the Lebanese army's battle with Fatah Islam. This is a group that has been involved in violence to achieve whatever their stated objective may be, spokesman Sean McCormack said. McCormack declined to discuss whether the group may be tied to al-Qaida or other groups outside Lebanon. Asked about a possible Syrian link, McCormack said, At this point I wouldn't draw that connection.In Monday's fighting, a driver for the AP, working with journalists at the scene, was injured when he was hit in the thigh by a bullet or shrapnel. He was being treated at a hospital and was expected to recover. Ahmed Methqal, a Muslim cleric in the camp, told Al-Jazeera that five civilians had been killed. You can say there is a massacre going on in the camp of children and women who have nothing to do with Fatah Islam, he said. They are targeting buildings, with people in them.Lebanon has struggled to defeat armed groups that control pockets of the country — especially inside the 12 Palestinian refugee camps housing 350,000 people. Some camps have become havens for Islamic militants accused of carrying out attacks in the country and of sending recruits to fight U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq. Palestinian officials from the moderate Fatah faction in the West Bank sought to distance themselves from Fatah Islam and urged Palestinian refugees in the camp to isolate the militant group. Associated Press Writer Hussein Dakroub in Beirut contributed.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
TEMPLE MOUNT CONTROVERSY CONTINUES
1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS.2-Eight feared dead after storm lashes Myanmar coast. 3-The Nation's Weather. 4-Israel to offer new peace initiative 5-125 Kassams Launched Since Tuesday. 6-Lieberman Issues Ultimatum: Dismantle Hamas or Dismantle Gov't. 7-Temple Mount Controversy Continues.
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)
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.
Eight feared dead after storm lashes Myanmar coast Sun May 20, 3:42 AM ET
YANGON (Reuters) - Eight people were feared dead and more than 900 houses were destroyed by a storm in the Bay of Bengal that swept through coastal districts of Myanmar last week, a fisherman and a state newspaper said on Sunday. A small fishing trawler with 13 crew sank off Sindamaw Island, 18 miles southeast of Rakhine state's capital Sittwe, last week, the fisherman told Reuters.Three of the 13 crew were rescued by a nearby fishing boat while two got ashore using a plastic drum and eight went missing, he said.As of Sunday morning, two dead bodies had been found and the remaining six are believed to be dead, he said.More than 900 homes, including 363 in Sittwe Township in Rakhine state, were damaged by the storm, which had winds of up to 130 kilometres (80 miles) per hour, semi-government Myanmar Times weekly reported quoting a Myanmar Red Cross Society official as saying.Emergency kits were supplied to the affected families in the coastal region, which is frequently struck by storms, the official said.
The Nation's Weather By WEATHER UNDERGROUND, For The Associated Press
Sun May 20, 5:29 AM ET
Scattered showers and thunderstorms were forecast for Sunday across the eastern Great Lakes, New England and northern Mid-Atlantic. Heavier rainfall amounts were anticipated in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. A cold front was expected to push through the Northern Plains and Upper Mississippi Valley, producing widely scattered showers and thunderstorms. Stronger storms were likely in parts of Montana and the Dakotas, with possible isolated tornadoes and hail.Light to moderate rain was forecast for the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies.Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Saturday ranged from a low of 28 degrees at Saramac Lake, N.Y., to a high of 109 degrees at Death Valley, Calif.
Israel to offer new peace initiative By DALE GAVLAK, Associated Press Writer MAY 20,07
SOUTHERN SHUNEH, Jordan - Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres said Sunday his government would offer a counterproposal to an Arab peace initiative to resolve the conflict with Palestinians.
He urged Arab leaders to meet with Israel to hash out the issue.Arab League chief Amr Moussa suggested he would entertain the Israeli offer but said it would not be seriously considered unless it was reasonable.Arab countries have been trying to re-ignite the stalled peace process with their plan that offers Israel full recognition in exchange for a total withdrawal from lands it captured in the 1967 Middle East war and the creation of a Palestinian state.
Israel has welcomed the plan as a good starting point for negotiations, but objects to several key provisions such as pulling back to the pre-1967 borders and taking in millions of Palestinian refugees.The Arab League has proposed, fine.
We will make a counterproposal, Peres said during heated discussions that included Moussa and Saeb Erekat, a top aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, at the World Economic Forum in Jordan.We will come to the Arab League, to the Saudis, where they want. ... If you are serious and we are serious, let's sit together. You cannot send us a document and say take it or leave it.He did not elaborate on the counteroffer or say when it would be proposed.Peres' offer coincided with a new outburst of violence in the Gaza Strip over the past week with a combination of Palestinian factional fighting and Israeli airstrikes on the Islamic militant group Hamas that has killed scores of Palestinians. The airstrikes, in reprisal for Hamas rocket attacks on Israel, have destroyed a 6-month-old truce between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Arab peace plan was first floated by Saudi Arabia in 2002 and renewed in March at a meeting of the Arab League. Arab leaders have urged Israel to seize the new opportunity.But the proposal has remained grounded with the Palestinian infighting in Gaza and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's domestic problems after his handling of a summer war with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon was sharply criticized. Moussa said he would wait to see what sort of offer Israel proposed before considering it.If there is a counteroffer and a reasonable one, then we're all in business, he said.But Erekat said he backed the Arab peace deal, calling it the most important strategy.Mr. Peres, our negotiations have finished. ... Today, it's time for decisions, Erekat said. Stop the bombardment of Gaza immediately and restart the truce between us immediately. We are willing to engage now in sustaining the cease-fire.On Sunday, Moussa asked Peres if he had the authority to speak for Israel, alluding to the domestic turmoil over the war's fallout.When I see what is going on in the occupied territories, and what is being said by other officials I really find myself at a loss, he said. Who is speaking for the state of Israel?
Peres insisted he was.
In Jerusalem, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev declined to comment because he had not heard Peres' proposal. Even though Israel sees the Arab initiative as very positive, he predicted it would remain grounded. Israel has no interest in stagnation and unfortunately, if the Arab initiative is take it or leave it, that will be a recipe for stagnation, Regev said. Peres adviser Yoram Dori also would not give details on the counterproposal or a timetable for its submission to the Arab League and Saudi Arabia. Our government, our Cabinet will discuss it, and we will submit our proposal to the Arab League and to the Saudis, he said. Erekat urged Israel to solve the thorny issues including the future status of Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories. If Israel doesn't cooperate, he warned the region would be doomed. If we leave things to conflicts and wars and
settling differences by bombardments and wars we will go into the 21st century in the vehicles of darkness and extremism, he said.
125 Kassams Launched Since Tuesday
3 Sivan 5767, May 20, '07
(IsraelNN.com) At least 125 Kassam rockets were fired by Palestinian Authority terrorists at western Negev communities since last Tuesday, according to Israel police. The figure includes the 14 rockets fired at Israel on the Sabbath, but does not include the five Kassams which landed in the western Negev Sunday morning. More than 400 rockets have been fired at Israeli communities since the supposed ceasefire with PA Gaza terrorists on November 26, 2006.
Lieberman Issues Ultimatum: Dismantle Hamas or Dismantle Gov't
by Ezra HaLevi (INN) MAY 20,07
As we go to press, Strategic Threats Minister Avigdor Lieberman has issued an ultimatum to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.Lieberman, who heads the Yisrael Beiteinu party and is a critical part of the Olmert government, said that he is on his way to the Cabinet meeting, where he will demand an IDF ground operation to completely destroy the Hamas. Anything short of that, he said, would force him to lead Yisrael Beiteinu out of the government and work to bring about the end of the current
government.
Temple Mount Controversy Continues
by Ezra HaLevi and Hillel Fendel (MAY 20,07 INN)
Record numbers of Jews have ascended the Temple Mount since a large group of religious-Zionist rabbis issued a public call to visit Judaisms holiest site in accordance with Jewish legal strictures.
On Jerusalem Day, for the first time in recent history, multiple groups of 40 or more Jews were allowed to ascend the Temple Mount at once. In the past, groups were severely limited in size and only one allowed on the mount at a time. Two Jewish visitors were arrested Wednesday for belting out Shma Yisrael the Jewish declaration of faith and G-d's Oneness of Deuteronomy 6:4. Unlike on previous occasions, the rest of the group was not penalized, and many returned the next day to visit as well. The religious precautions required of one who wishes to ascend the Mount in purity include immersing in a mikveh (ritual bath), taking off one's shoes, and clarifying the precise areas forbidden for entry - or else going only with a guide who knows the area.
There has been a marked increase in Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount since the large group of rabbis ascended, the Movement for the Preparation of the Temple said in a statement. The public is encouraged to study the relevant laws and familiarize themselves with their holiest place.However, many rabbis in the religious-Zionist camp continue to rule out visits to the sacred site.
Former Chief Rabbi Avraham Shapira, the nonagenarian [in his 90's] dean of Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav, told the massive crowds who came to celebrate Jerusalem Day at the yeshiva that entry to the Mount is not permitted at this time, because of the lack of certainty as to the exact location of the Biblically forbidden areas on the mount.Former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu and Rabbi Shlomo Aviner are also among those who forbid Jewish entry to the Temple Mount. It is felt that the extreme nature of the Biblical prohibition against entering the site of the Temple outweighs both political/ nationalist concerns and the confidence of those who claim they know the precise location of the forbidden areas.
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)
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.
Eight feared dead after storm lashes Myanmar coast Sun May 20, 3:42 AM ET
YANGON (Reuters) - Eight people were feared dead and more than 900 houses were destroyed by a storm in the Bay of Bengal that swept through coastal districts of Myanmar last week, a fisherman and a state newspaper said on Sunday. A small fishing trawler with 13 crew sank off Sindamaw Island, 18 miles southeast of Rakhine state's capital Sittwe, last week, the fisherman told Reuters.Three of the 13 crew were rescued by a nearby fishing boat while two got ashore using a plastic drum and eight went missing, he said.As of Sunday morning, two dead bodies had been found and the remaining six are believed to be dead, he said.More than 900 homes, including 363 in Sittwe Township in Rakhine state, were damaged by the storm, which had winds of up to 130 kilometres (80 miles) per hour, semi-government Myanmar Times weekly reported quoting a Myanmar Red Cross Society official as saying.Emergency kits were supplied to the affected families in the coastal region, which is frequently struck by storms, the official said.
The Nation's Weather By WEATHER UNDERGROUND, For The Associated Press
Sun May 20, 5:29 AM ET
Scattered showers and thunderstorms were forecast for Sunday across the eastern Great Lakes, New England and northern Mid-Atlantic. Heavier rainfall amounts were anticipated in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. A cold front was expected to push through the Northern Plains and Upper Mississippi Valley, producing widely scattered showers and thunderstorms. Stronger storms were likely in parts of Montana and the Dakotas, with possible isolated tornadoes and hail.Light to moderate rain was forecast for the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies.Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Saturday ranged from a low of 28 degrees at Saramac Lake, N.Y., to a high of 109 degrees at Death Valley, Calif.
Israel to offer new peace initiative By DALE GAVLAK, Associated Press Writer MAY 20,07
SOUTHERN SHUNEH, Jordan - Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres said Sunday his government would offer a counterproposal to an Arab peace initiative to resolve the conflict with Palestinians.
He urged Arab leaders to meet with Israel to hash out the issue.Arab League chief Amr Moussa suggested he would entertain the Israeli offer but said it would not be seriously considered unless it was reasonable.Arab countries have been trying to re-ignite the stalled peace process with their plan that offers Israel full recognition in exchange for a total withdrawal from lands it captured in the 1967 Middle East war and the creation of a Palestinian state.
Israel has welcomed the plan as a good starting point for negotiations, but objects to several key provisions such as pulling back to the pre-1967 borders and taking in millions of Palestinian refugees.The Arab League has proposed, fine.
We will make a counterproposal, Peres said during heated discussions that included Moussa and Saeb Erekat, a top aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, at the World Economic Forum in Jordan.We will come to the Arab League, to the Saudis, where they want. ... If you are serious and we are serious, let's sit together. You cannot send us a document and say take it or leave it.He did not elaborate on the counteroffer or say when it would be proposed.Peres' offer coincided with a new outburst of violence in the Gaza Strip over the past week with a combination of Palestinian factional fighting and Israeli airstrikes on the Islamic militant group Hamas that has killed scores of Palestinians. The airstrikes, in reprisal for Hamas rocket attacks on Israel, have destroyed a 6-month-old truce between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Arab peace plan was first floated by Saudi Arabia in 2002 and renewed in March at a meeting of the Arab League. Arab leaders have urged Israel to seize the new opportunity.But the proposal has remained grounded with the Palestinian infighting in Gaza and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's domestic problems after his handling of a summer war with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon was sharply criticized. Moussa said he would wait to see what sort of offer Israel proposed before considering it.If there is a counteroffer and a reasonable one, then we're all in business, he said.But Erekat said he backed the Arab peace deal, calling it the most important strategy.Mr. Peres, our negotiations have finished. ... Today, it's time for decisions, Erekat said. Stop the bombardment of Gaza immediately and restart the truce between us immediately. We are willing to engage now in sustaining the cease-fire.On Sunday, Moussa asked Peres if he had the authority to speak for Israel, alluding to the domestic turmoil over the war's fallout.When I see what is going on in the occupied territories, and what is being said by other officials I really find myself at a loss, he said. Who is speaking for the state of Israel?
Peres insisted he was.
In Jerusalem, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev declined to comment because he had not heard Peres' proposal. Even though Israel sees the Arab initiative as very positive, he predicted it would remain grounded. Israel has no interest in stagnation and unfortunately, if the Arab initiative is take it or leave it, that will be a recipe for stagnation, Regev said. Peres adviser Yoram Dori also would not give details on the counterproposal or a timetable for its submission to the Arab League and Saudi Arabia. Our government, our Cabinet will discuss it, and we will submit our proposal to the Arab League and to the Saudis, he said. Erekat urged Israel to solve the thorny issues including the future status of Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories. If Israel doesn't cooperate, he warned the region would be doomed. If we leave things to conflicts and wars and
settling differences by bombardments and wars we will go into the 21st century in the vehicles of darkness and extremism, he said.
125 Kassams Launched Since Tuesday
3 Sivan 5767, May 20, '07
(IsraelNN.com) At least 125 Kassam rockets were fired by Palestinian Authority terrorists at western Negev communities since last Tuesday, according to Israel police. The figure includes the 14 rockets fired at Israel on the Sabbath, but does not include the five Kassams which landed in the western Negev Sunday morning. More than 400 rockets have been fired at Israeli communities since the supposed ceasefire with PA Gaza terrorists on November 26, 2006.
Lieberman Issues Ultimatum: Dismantle Hamas or Dismantle Gov't
by Ezra HaLevi (INN) MAY 20,07
As we go to press, Strategic Threats Minister Avigdor Lieberman has issued an ultimatum to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.Lieberman, who heads the Yisrael Beiteinu party and is a critical part of the Olmert government, said that he is on his way to the Cabinet meeting, where he will demand an IDF ground operation to completely destroy the Hamas. Anything short of that, he said, would force him to lead Yisrael Beiteinu out of the government and work to bring about the end of the current
government.
Temple Mount Controversy Continues
by Ezra HaLevi and Hillel Fendel (MAY 20,07 INN)
Record numbers of Jews have ascended the Temple Mount since a large group of religious-Zionist rabbis issued a public call to visit Judaisms holiest site in accordance with Jewish legal strictures.
On Jerusalem Day, for the first time in recent history, multiple groups of 40 or more Jews were allowed to ascend the Temple Mount at once. In the past, groups were severely limited in size and only one allowed on the mount at a time. Two Jewish visitors were arrested Wednesday for belting out Shma Yisrael the Jewish declaration of faith and G-d's Oneness of Deuteronomy 6:4. Unlike on previous occasions, the rest of the group was not penalized, and many returned the next day to visit as well. The religious precautions required of one who wishes to ascend the Mount in purity include immersing in a mikveh (ritual bath), taking off one's shoes, and clarifying the precise areas forbidden for entry - or else going only with a guide who knows the area.
There has been a marked increase in Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount since the large group of rabbis ascended, the Movement for the Preparation of the Temple said in a statement. The public is encouraged to study the relevant laws and familiarize themselves with their holiest place.However, many rabbis in the religious-Zionist camp continue to rule out visits to the sacred site.
Former Chief Rabbi Avraham Shapira, the nonagenarian [in his 90's] dean of Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav, told the massive crowds who came to celebrate Jerusalem Day at the yeshiva that entry to the Mount is not permitted at this time, because of the lack of certainty as to the exact location of the Biblically forbidden areas on the mount.Former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu and Rabbi Shlomo Aviner are also among those who forbid Jewish entry to the Temple Mount. It is felt that the extreme nature of the Biblical prohibition against entering the site of the Temple outweighs both political/ nationalist concerns and the confidence of those who claim they know the precise location of the forbidden areas.
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