In LAST weeks Bible scripture reading in Israel we see the Flood occurs. Noah is to build an Ark.
GENESIS 6:14-18
Verse 14: Make for yourself an ark of cedar wood. Make the ark into compartments and caulk the inside and outside with tar.
Verse 15: This is how you should make it; the ark's length shall be three hundred amohs, its width fifty amohs and its height thirty amohs.
Verse 16: Make a skylight for the ark, and finish it to one amoh at the top. Place the opening of the ark in its side. Make a lower deck, a second and a third deck.
Verse 17: Behold I am bringing the flood waters on the earth, to destroy all flesh in which there is the breath of life, from under the heavens. Everything that is on the land will perish.
Verse 18: I will establish my covenant with you. You shall go into the ark, you, your sons, your wife and your son's wives, with you.
The Ark is made and for the next year the flood Occurs and dry land prevails.
GENESIS 7:6,11-12,20-24
Verse 6: Noach was six hundred years old when the flood waters were on the earth.
Verse 11: In the six hundredth year of Noach's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day, all the wellsprings of the great deep, burst open, and the windows of the heavens were opened.
Verse 12: There was rain on the earth forty days and forty nights.
Verse 20: Fifteen amohs above them [the mountains] did the waters prevail and they covered the mountains.
Verse 21: All flesh that moved on the earth perished; birds, animals, beasts, and all creeping creatures that creep on the earth and every man.
Verse 22: All that has a breath of the spirit of life--- everything on dry land---died.
Verse 23: [He] obliterated every being that was on the surface of the ground; from man to animals, to creeping creatures, and to the birds of the heaven. They were obliterated from the earth. Only Noach and those with him in the ark survived.
Verse 24: The waters prevailed over the earth for one hundred and fifty days.
GENESIS 8:3-6,10
Verse 3: The water receded from the earth continually, and the waters diminished at the end of one hundred and fifty days.
Verse 4: The ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
Verse 5: The waters continued to diminish until the tenth month. In the tenth [month], on the first of the month, the mountaintops became visible.
Verse 6: At the end of forty days, Noach opened the window of the ark which he had made.
Verse 10: He waited another seven days, and once again sent the dove out of the ark.
Verse 12: He waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove; it did not return to him again.
Verse 13: It was in the six hundredth and first year, in the first [month], on the first of the month, that the water on earth [began] to dry. Noach removed the covering of the ark. He looked and behold the surface of the ground had dried.
Verse 14: In the second month, on the twenty seventh day of the month, the earth was [completely] dry.
Now we get to the repopulation of Earth and God's promise that the earth and all things would never again be totally destroyed by water.
GENESIS 8:15-22
Verse 15: El-him spoke to Noach, saying,
Verse 16: Depart from the ark, yourself and your wife, your sons, and your son's wives with you.
Verse 17: Every living thing that is with you, of all flesh, [including] birds, animals, every creeping creature that creeps on the earth, let them depart with you. Let them spread over the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.
Verse 18: Noach departed [from the ark together with] his sons, his wife and son's wives.
Verse 19: Every living thing, every creeping creature, every bird, everything that creeps on the earth, departed from the ark according to their families.
Verse 20: Noach built an altar to Ad-noy, and took of every [ritually] clean animal and of every [ritually] clean bird, and brought up burnt-offerings on the altar.
Verse 21: Ad-noy smelled the pleasing fragrance, and Ad-noy said in His heart, Never again will I curse the ground because of man, for the inclination of man's heart is evil from [the time of] his youth. I will never again smite every living thing as I have done.
Verse 22: So long as the earth exists, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never be suspended.
GOD Blesses the families of the earth and says mulitply
GENESIS 9:1-7
Verse 1: El-him blessed Noach and his sons. He said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
Verse 2: Your fear and terror will be upon every wild beast of the earth, and upon every bird in the heavens. All that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, are given into your hands.
Verse 3: Every moving creature that lives, shall be yours for food; like the green vegetation [which I gave previously] I have [now] given you everything [for food].
Verse 4: Nevertheless, flesh with its lifeblood, you shall not eat.
Verse 5: However, of the blood of your souls, I will demand an account; from the hand of every beast will I demand it. From the hand of man, even from the hand of man's own brother, will I demand an account of man's soul.
Verse 6: He who spills the blood of man, through man shall his blood be spilled, for in the image of El-him, He made man.
Verse 7: And now be fruitful and multiply, spread throughout the earth and multiply on it.
GOD makes the covenant with Noah and all people on Earth.
GENESIS 9:8-17
Verse 8: El-him said to Noach and to his sons with him, saying,
Verse 9: Behold, I am making a covenant with you and with your offspring after you.
Verse 10: And with every living creature that is with you, with the birds, the animals, and all the beasts of the earth with you, all who departed from the ark, including every living creature on earth.
Verse 11: I will keep My covenant with you, that never again will all flesh be cut off by flood waters, never again will flood waters destroy the earth.
Verse 12: El-him said, This is the sign of the covenant that I pledge between Myself and you, and between every living creature that is with you, for the generations of all time.
Verse 13: I have set my [rain] bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Myself and the earth.
Verse 14: At a time when I bring clouds over the earth, the [rain] bow will be seen in the clouds.
Verse 15: I shall remember my covenant that is between Myself and you, and between every living soul in all flesh, that never again will flood waters destroy all flesh.
Verse 16: The [rain]bow shall be in the clouds, and I will see it to remember the eternal covenant between El-him and between every living soul that is in all flesh that is on the earth.
Verse 17: El-him said to Noach, This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between Myself and between all flesh that is on the earth
Noah becomes a farmer
GENESIS 9:20
Verse 20: Noach began to be a man of the soil and he planted a vineyard.
THE FIRST MAJOR SIN OCCURS ITS A SEXUAL SIN. It involves Alcohol and sodomy.
GENESIS 9:21-24
Verse 21: He drank of the wine and was intoxicated. He [then] uncovered himself in his tent.
Verse 22: Cham the father of Canaan saw the nakedness of his father, and told it to his brothers [who were] outside.
Verse 23: Sheim and Yafes took the cloak, placed it on their shoulders, and walked backwards, covering the nakedness of their father. They faced away from him, and did not see the nakedness of their father.
Verse 24: Noach awoke from his wine [induced sleep] and he realized what had been done to him by his youngest son.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF THIS SIN.
GENESIS 9:25-27
Verse 25: He said, Cursed is Canaan. A slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers.
Verse 26: He then said, Blessed is Ad-noy, G-d of Sheim; may Canaan be his slave.
Verse 27: El-him will enlarge Yefes, but He will dwell in the tents of Sheim, and Canaan will be their slave.
People were born to Noahs family and settled all over the Earth.
GENESIS 10:5
Verse 5: From these the nations were separated into islands, [set apart] in their own lands, each to its language, according to their families in their nations.
Nimrod becomes a Leader of Babylon (IRAQ)
GENESIS 10:8-10
Verse 8: Cush produced [a son] Nimrod. He began to be powerful on earth.
Verse 9: He was a mighty hunter before Ad-noy. It is therefore said, Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before Ad-noy.
Verse 10: The beginning of his kingdom was Babylon, Erech, Akad and Kalneh in the land of Shinar.
THE 1ST ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT.
GENESIS 11:1-9
Verse 1: The whole earth had one language, with conforming words.
Verse 2: When they journeyed from the east, they found a valley in the land of Shinar and they settled there.
Verse 3: They said one to another, Come, let us mold bricks and bake them thoroughly. They then had bricks to use as stone, and the clay for mortar.
Verse 4: Then they said, Come, we will build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach the heavens. Thus we will make ourselves a name, so that we will not be scattered all over the face of the earth.
Verse 5: Ad-noy descended to see the city and the tower that the sons of man built.
Verse 6: Ad-noy said, Behold, they are one people, all having one language, and this is their first undertaking. Now will nothing be unattainable for them, [to do] whatever they have a mind to do?
Verse 7: Come, let us descend and jumble their language, that they will not understand one another's language.
Verse 8: Ad-noy scattered them from there all over the face of the earth, and they stopped building the city.
Verse 9: Therefore He called its name, Bavel, for this was the place where Ad-noy jumbled the language of all the earth; and from there, Ad-noy scattered them all over the face of the earth.
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.
Weakening Noel parallels US coast By JESSICA ROBERTSON, Associated Press Writer Sat Nov 3, 6:18 AM ET
NASSAU, Bahamas - Hurricane Noel, the deadliest storm to hit the Atlantic this year, paralleled the U.S. coast on Friday, losing strength as it headed north towards Nova Scotia. Noel slammed the Caribbean earlier this week with heavy rains that caused flooding and mudslides, leaving 118 dead, officials said.After drenching the Bahamas and Cuba on Thursday, the Category 1 hurricane's sustained winds were at 80 mph on Friday and its center was about 425 miles south of Cape Hatteras, N.C., the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Noel is moving to the north-northeast at about 17 mph, but was expected to pick up speed.
Jack Beven, a hurricane specialist at the center, said Friday that we don't expect the center to cross the U.S. coast. The track would take the center of the system over Nova Scotia.But Beven also noted that the storm is going to increase rather significantly in size and that its effects could be felt in the U.S. Forecasters say 2 to 4 inches of rain could fall in North Carolina's Outer Banks, while isolated areas of New England might see 6 inches.On Thursday, muddy rain-swollen waters overflowed a dam in Cuba, washing into hundreds of homes, over highways and knocking out electricity and telephone service. Dozens of small communities were cut off.Cuban soldiers went door-to-door in low-lying areas and evacuated about 24,000 people, according to state radio and television reports. At least 2,000 homes were damaged by flood waters, but there was no official word of deaths.In Ciego de Avila province in central Cuba, flooding wiped out nearly 2,000 tons of corn, potato, banana, cucumber and tomato harvests, said Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, a vice president.The storm brought a record 15 inches of rain to the Bahamas, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said. Flooding killed at least one man in the Bahamas and forced the evacuation of almost 400 people. Ingraham said the majority of the evacuees were from the northeast Bahamian island of Abaco.Residents of Andros Island, one of the least-developed in the Bahamas, hunkered down as Noel's winds howled and rain pelted windowpanes.The walls were rattling, but we rode it out pretty well, said Angela Newton, who was waiting Thursday for the power to come back on.
Rescuers in Dominican Republic took off in helicopters and boats to reach isolated residents for the first time in three days. Hundreds of volunteers joined Dominican civil defense forces to help stranded residents, as rescue teams left at dawn Thursday — many in boats loaned by private owners.More than three days of heavy rain caused an estimated $30 million in damages to the Dominican Republic's rice, plantain and cacao plantations, said Minister of Economy Juan Temistocles Montas. Government officials will request loans from the Inter-American Development Bank to help with the recovery.Rescuers in Hispaniola, the island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti, found a rising toll of death and damage: at least 73 dead in the Dominican Republic and 43 in Haiti, where the majority of bodies were found in and around the capital of Port-au-Prince. One person was killed in Jamaica. Associated Press writers Ramon Almanzar in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Jonathan M. Katz in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, contributed to this report.
Thousands flee flooded Mexican city By Luis Manuel Lopez
Fri Nov 2, 5:27 PM ET
VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico (Reuters) - Thousands of people fled a Mexican city devastated by floods on Friday after rising waters burst through sandbag barriers in a disaster that has left most of the tropical state of Tabasco under water. Hundreds of thousands of people have been made homeless and one person killed in the worst flooding the low-lying swampy state has seen in more than 50 years.The banks of the Grijalva River, which winds through state capital Villahermosa, burst earlier this week after days of heavy rains.People and livestock swam through the streets on Friday after a murky, brown deluge burst through sandbags in Villahermosa, home to around half a million people.Hungry and thirsty residents stood in long lines at supermarkets, although some stores closed after running out of food, water and medicine.
There isn't much on the shelves, and what is left is very expensive, said Juan Pablo Rosas.The army evacuated most of the city center on Thursday night after a levee broke.President Felipe Calderon said Mexico's entire air force was engaged in an airlift to ferry supplies into Villahermosa and get residents out. He called on private airlines to help the effort.We are in a critical situation, Calderon said during a visit to the region.He said army troops and federal police would soon be patrolling the streets to prevent looting and price gouging.
GOVERNMENT SURPISED
Interior Minister Francisco Ramirez acknowledged the disaster took the government by surprise.The event overwhelmed everyone and that's why we all have to work intensely, he said. The city center was under between 6 1/2 feet and 19 feet of water.Rescue workers broke windows of homes to reach stranded residents. Thousands fled in military helicopters or private trucks.When will this finish? said resident Maria de la Luz Robles. This is chaotic and depressing.Tabasco Gov. Andres Granier said more than 1 million people, about half of the state's population, were affected by the flooding. Scores called local radio programs pleading to be rescued. Many shelters were evacuated after floodwaters overtook them.Navy helicopters rescued scores of people on Friday morning from the village of El Aguacate. They had gathered on a tiny plot of high land as flood waters rose around them.Water half-covered several giant carved stone heads built by the Olmecs, the mother culture of Mesoamerica, at Tabasco's La Venta archeological site. Some of the heads are more than 9 feet tall. The floods were triggered by storms that have wreaked havoc in the oil industry along Mexico's Gulf coast but the main oil port of Coatzacoalcos opened on Friday after closing earlier in the week due to the bad weather.
EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Pipe bomb locks down Ariz. nuclear plant By CHRIS KAHN and AMANDA LEE MYERS, Associated Press Writer Sat Nov 3, 7:40 AM ET
WINTERSBURG, Ariz. - As authorities tried to understand why a contract worker would bring a pipe bomb to the nation's largest nuclear power plant, one thing was immediately clear: The security worked. Guards stopped Roger William Hurd, 61, at the entrance to the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station when they spotted the bomb. He was detained about a half mile from the containment domes where the nuclear material is stored. Officials pulled his security clearances and placed the facility on lockdown.The guards were attentive and alert and took the appropriate action when they identified something suspicious, said Victor Dricks, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which will review the incident.Doug Walters, senior director of security for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's trade group, said Palo Verde's response was exactly as it should have been.
We have a checkpoint for this reason, Walters said. They were able to identify a suspicious item in the truck. I don't know what they could have done differently.The Department of Homeland Security said there was no known terrorism link to the incident at Palo Verde. Hurd, of Goodyear, Ariz., told investigators he did not know how the bomb got in his truck and was released Friday afternoon.Authorities described the device as a six-inch capped explosive made of galvanized pipe that contained suspicious residue. Tom Mangan, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said it was likely homemade.
If this thing went off in the bed of the truck, it certainly would put a hole in it, Mangan said. It was rather crude in construction, but it could certainly injure somebody.Capt. Paul Chagolla with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office said the pipe was not hidden. He said Hurd normally drove a motorcycle to work but was in a truck Friday because of the cool weather.
Sheriff's officials rendered the device safe.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said investigators searched Hurd's home but found nothing helpful. Hurd was not arrested, and Arpaio said he expects Hurd to help with the investigation.Nobody answered the door at Hurd's apartment in Goodyear. Messages left by The Associated Press at numbers listed for Hurd in Arizona and Hartsville, S.C., were not returned as of late Friday night.Hurd worked as a procurement engineer, responsible for evaluating equipment purchases for the plant, Palo Verde officials said.He had access to protected areas but had not been in any such area since Aug. 21, said Randy Edington, the chief nuclear officer for plant operator Arizona Public Service Co.Edington said Hurd would have had access to the reactors but officials did not know the last time he would have been near the reactors.The incident was considered an unusual event — the lowest of four emergencies the plant can declare, said Jim Melfi, an inspector with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.There was no threat to the public and the station operated normally Friday, McDonald said.McDonald wouldn't say which company employed Hurd. Like everyone who has access to the plant, Hurd submitted to a background check.
Workers also must pass through two security checkpoints to get inside one of the plant's three containment domes, which house the radioactive nuclear material. One of the checkpoints includes an automated system that sniffs workers for the presence of bomb-making materials, McDonald said. Palo Verde, operated by Arizona Public Service Co., is the nation's largest nuclear power plant both in size and capacity. Located in Wintersburg about 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix, the plant supplies electricity to about 4 million customers in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and California.
Associated Press Writer Chris Kahn reported from Phoenix.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences;(CHEMICAL,BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS) and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
Comet draws scientific, amateur interest Sat Nov 3, 12:57 AM ET
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - A comet that has unexpectedly brightened in the past couple of weeks and now is visible to the naked eye is attracting professional and amateur interest. Paul Lewis, director of astronomy outreach at the University of Tennessee, is drawing students to the roof of Nielsen Physics Building for special viewings of Comet 17P/Holmes.The comet is exploding and its coma, a cloud of gas and dust illuminated by the sun, has grown to be bigger than the planet Jupiter. The comet lacks the tail usually associated with such celestial bodies but can be seen in the northern sky, in the constellation Perseus, as a fuzzy spot of light about as bright as the stars in the Big Dipper.This is truly a celestial surprise, Lewis said. Absolutely amazing.
Until Oct. 23, the comet had been visible to modern astronomers only with a telescope, but that night it suddenly erupted and expanded.A similar burst in 1892 led to the comet's discovery by Edwin Holmes.This is a once-in-a-lifetime event to witness, along the lines of when Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 smashed into Jupiter back in 1994, Lewis said.Scientists speculate the comet has exploded because there are sinkholes in its nucleus, giving it a honeycomb-like structure. The collapse exposed comet ice to the sun, which transformed the ice into gas.What comets do when they are near the sun is very unpredictable, Lewis said. We expect to see a coma cloud and a tail, but this is more like an explosion, and we are seeing the bubble of gas and dust as it expands away from the center of the blast.Experts aren't sure how long the comet's show will last, but estimate it could be weeks — if not months. Using a telescope or binoculars help bring the comet's details into view, they said.Information from: The Knoxville News Sentinel, http://www.knoxnews.com
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Saturday, November 03, 2007
WORLDS SUPER SOFT POWER
Deadly storm Noel barrels over Bahamas by Nicanor Leyba NOV 1,07
SANTO DOMINGO (AFP) - The death toll from Tropical Storm Noel's Caribbean rampage rose to 100 on Thursday, as floodwaters hampered the rescue of people trapped on rooftops in the Dominican Republic. Even as the deadly storm barreled over Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, its sequels still wrought havoc in the Dominican Republic Thursday, four days after it slammed into the Caribbean nation.The death toll in that country rose to 66 people, with 27 more reported missing, officials said on Thursday.In Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, the death toll reached 34, officials said on Thursday. A further 14 people were listed as missing.No deaths were reported in Cuba, which was hit on Wednesday, but there was significant damage to agricultural fields.The islands of the northwestern Bahamas were placed under a hurricane watch amid concerns the storm could strengthen as it barrels over the Atlantic Ocean.
Residents boarded up their homes and stocked up on basic goods, as schools shut down and Bahamasair grounded its flights.The storm drenched the islands of Andros and New Providence Thursday and forecasters warned it could dump as much as 38 centimeters (15 inches) of rain.Even after the storm swirled over the Atlantic Ocean, the three Caribbean countries slammed by Noel earlier in the week remained on high alert.Rains in Hispaniola and Cuba are expected to cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides, said forecaster James Franklin of the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC).Noel's rip through the Caribbean came at a time when dams were already full, rivers bloated and the soil saturated from weeks of rain.Rescue officials said improved visibility made it possible for the first time on Thursday to deploy helicopters to the worst affected areas of the Dominican Republic, where surging flood waters forced people to perch on their rooftops.Torrents of water smashed several bridges, while authorities reported that 664 homes were destroyed and a further 15,600 were damaged. In all 62,428 people have fled their homes, 21,503 of whom are staying in official shelters.The Dominican government is seeking international emergency loans for a total of 100 million dollars to deal with the disaster, officials said.
In Haiti, the fatalities included a 14-year-old girl and her mother killed when an uprooted tree crushed their house in the capital, while several homes were swept away by floods.I want to appeal to the whole world .... send clothes, blankets, food, everything you can, said Gustave Benoit, the deputy mayor of Cite Soleil, a slum in the Haitian capital that at the best of times looks like it has been hit by a hurricane.With thousands of people in need of urgent assistance, Benoit did what he could to help, handing out rice and water from his beat up car.In Cuba, almost 1,300 homes were damaged. Some interior areas remain incommunicado due to flooded roads, and coffee crops were damaged by flooding.
On Thursday evening Noel packed maximum sustained winds of 104 kilometers (65 miles) per hour, with higher gusts, the NHC said. It said the storm could strengthen following its romp through the Bahamas, while at the same time losing its tropical storm characteristics as it travels north.
This Week with Rabbi Eckstein
November 2, 2007
Dear Friend of Israel,
This week is a special one for all of us at The Fellowship. On Wednesday, 114 participants in our 2007 Journey Home Tour to Israel arrived at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv. The next day, they began exploring the Holy Land, ending the day with dinner with myself and members of our Israel staff.For Christians and Jews alike, visiting the Holy Land can be a life-changing experience. Journey Home Tour participants will walk in the footsteps of the patriarchs, the apostles. For ten days, they will be able to see biblical sites many have only read about. Scripture will come alive for them and their faith walk will truly never be the same.Participants will also spend time visiting various Fellowship projects. Every month, we work hard to share stories with our donors about the lifesaving impact their faithful giving has on Israel and Jewish people worldwide. But few things can communicate this impact as effectively as firsthand experience. When you have served food to a hungry person at a Fellowship-sponsored soup kitchen in Jerusalem, held a baby in a Fellowship-supported daycare center, or seen the gratitude in the faces of new immigrants helped through our On Wings of Eagles program, your heart is touched and you view the work of The Fellowship with deeper understanding.
It would be wonderful if each and every Christian was able to personally experience Israel at least once in their life, but the reality is that not all who want to make the journey will have the opportunity. So for the next 10 days, we’re going to post daily updates and photos from tour participants on our website so that you can feel part of this extraordinary event. You’ll travel with them as they visit the Sea of Galilee, the ancient city of Jerusalem, the Garden of Gethsemane, ruins of ancient cities and Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Memorial). You’ll also feel their emotions as they visit Fellowship-sponsored projects.Please join me today in praying for a good, safe trip for this band of pilgrims, many of whom are making their first trip to Israel. If you’d like information on how you can be a part of our next Journey Home Tour, sign up to receive updates on our tour upcoming in 2008!
With prayers for shalom, peace,
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein
President INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP OF CHRISTIANS AND JEWS.
Report: Al Qaeda Schedules Cyber Jihad for Nov. 11
Unconfirmed report raises questions, sets bloggers blogging
OCTOBER 31, 2007 | 4:05 PM By Tim Wilson
The IT security blogosphere is burning up today, following an unconfirmed report that Osama Bin Laden and his followers are planning a massive cyber attack on Western targets in less than two weeks. DEBKAfile, an Israeli news organization, yesterday published a report stating that counter-terrorism sources have intercepted and translated an Arabic Internet announcement that proposes an attack on Western electronic targets to begin on November 11. The attack will begin with 15 targets and will expand to untold numbers, according to the report. Dark Reading canvassed U.S. law enforcement agencies in an attempt to confirm the report. So far, none has provided confirmation, although media representatives acknowledged that they have received numerous calls. Google searches show many instances of the DEBKA story on a variety of Websites, but so far there is no official word to suggest that the report -- attributed to unnamed sources -- is anything more than a rumor.
However, a security researcher says there might be cause for concern, following his analysis of the latest version of electronic jihad software being passed around the Web. Paul Henry, vice president of Secure Computing, said through a spokesman that the new software is significantly easier to use and potentially more dangerous than early versions. (See Electronic Jihad App Offers Cyberterrorism for the Masses .) The new Electronic Jihad Version 2.0 software has the potential to create havoc among sites that might be targeted, according to the spokesman. Secure has a screen shot that has been translated into English that shows how easy it is to configure attacks. Additionally, the version of the software adds detail and intelligent coordination capabilities, providing focus for the attacks to make them much more effective. It could get even scarier if the jihadists implement Web 2.0 style attacks down the road.Secure Computing has not seen the Internet announcement from Al Qaeda and cannot confirm the DEBKA report, the spokesman said.
US official warns Iran on nuke program By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer NOV 1,07
VIENNA, Austria - A senior U.S. official challenged Iran's hard-line president Thursday over his claim that Iranians are immune from further U.N. sanctions, saying such action is in the works unless Tehran meets demands to curb its nuclear program. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered his own warning in Tehran, saying his government would make unspecified economic retaliation against any European country that followed the U.S. lead in imposing sanctions on some Iranian banks and businesses.A Saudi Arabian official, meanwhile, said Arab states in the Persian Gulf had proposed to Tehran that they set up a consortium to provide Iran with enriched uranium as way to defuse the nuclear fight.
U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns made his comment after a meeting with the head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency that was meant to demonstrate unity following recent strains on how best to deal with Iran's defiance.Burns stopped to talk with Mohamed ElBaradei at the International Atomic Energy Agency's headquarters before heading to London, where he was to discuss the Iran standoff with his counterparts from Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.He planned to press them for agreement on a third set of U.N. sanctions to be threatened unless Tehran changes its position and obeys U.N. Security Council demands that it suspend uranium enrichment and related programs.
France and Britain back new sanctions if Tehran remains defiant, but Russia and China — the two other veto-holding permanent members of the Security Council — are skeptical.Washington and its allies say Iran is using the program to secretly develop nuclear weapons, while the Islamic republic insists it needs enrichment technology to produce fuel for atomic reactors that will generate electricity.Ahmadinejad has been adamant that Iran will not curtail its nuclear program and has ridiculed previous sanctions as ineffective.On Thursday, he said Europeans would suffer if they matched the latest U.S. sanctions that bar American companies from dealing with businesses and banks linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, a military force that has holdings in oil, construction and other sectors.
If they plan to cooperate with the enemy of the Iranian nation, we cannot interpret this as a friendly behavior. We will show reaction, Iranian state radio quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. You, Europeans, know well what will happen in the economic sphere if Iran takes a serious move in this matter.According to Iranian statistics, Europe is Iran's largest trading partner.ElBaradei angered Washington by suggesting it was too late to insist on a full Iranian enrichment freeze and then reaching an agreement with Tehran that commits Iran to answer questions it has been dodging about its nuclear program.While Washington has since swung its support behind that approach, U.S. officials worry Iran will use the deal to try to weaken Security Council attempts to force an enrichment halt. Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials have said that if Iran meets its commitment to tell all to the IAEA, the matter before the Security Council will be closed.Burns took pains to rebut that view after his hour-long meeting with ElBaradei.
Ahmadinejad said in September the Security Council case is closed, Burns told reporters. I am sorry to tell him it's not closed. There are sanctions being implemented ... and there will be a third Security Council sanctions resolution if Iran continues to defy the council.Burns said he and ElBaradei agreed that it's important that Iran finally tell the truth about its activities in the past ... but we also agreed that all of us back a third round of sanctions if necessary.Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, suggested a way out of the crisis is a proposal by the Arab nations around the Persian Gulf to form a consortium that would build a uranium enrichment plant to supply the region's states, including Iran, with reactor fuel. Speaking with the Middle East Economic Digest in London, he said the plant should be sited in a neutral country outside the region. The U.S. is not involved, but I don't think it (would be) hostile to this, and it would resolve a main area of tension between the West and Iran, the magazine quoted Prince Saud as saying. He said the idea had been proposed to Iran's government, which said it would consider the plan. The Iranians previously ignored a similar proposal from Russia — to host Iran's uranium enrichment facilities on its territory to allay Western concerns about monitoring. The agreement between the IAEA and Iran commits Tehran to clear up by December all questions about its program — much of which the Iranians had kept secret until discovered four years ago. In Tehran, Iranian officials and IAEA representatives wrapped up four days of talks on some of those questions Thursday, state media reported. The Iranian side expressed satisfaction with the discussions, but there was no comment from the U.N. agency. Associated Press writers Veronika Oleksyn in Vienna and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
World's choice: Super, soft or herbivorous power?
A global public-opinion survey reveals increasing support for a redistribution of international power, report Ivan Krastev & Mark Leonard. From openDemocracy.By Ivan Krastev and Mark Leonard for openDemocracy (30/10/07)
An ambitious survey of public opinion around the world contains valuable findings of great interest to the world's citizens and policymakers alike. The project, conducted by Voice of the People for the European Council on Foreign Relations and released on 25 October 2007, has discovered:There is widespread support for a more multipolar world and a greater role for herbivorous powers - countries not widely perceived as military superpowers.There is mistrust of the cold-war powers as well as Islamist-inspired Iranian autocracy. More people want to see a decline rather than an increase in the power of Russia (29 percent decline, 23 percent increase), of China (32 percent decline, 24 percent increase), of the United States (37 percent decline, 26 percent increase), and of Iran (39 percent decline, 14 percent increase). On the other hand, there is strong support for an increase in the power of fast-developing powers such as South Africa, India and Brazil (the IBSA countries).
The European Union is the most popular great power. Uniquely among great powers, more people across all continents want to see its power increase than decrease. This demand for more European power extends to many former European colonies.Whilst American soft power has declined, the rise of China has led to a resurgence in support for American power in Asia. Increasing Russian influence in Eastern Europe is paralleled by a demand for a greater American role.Outside Europe, the west is still seen to some extent as a single actor: countries suspicious of American power tend also to be against EU power.In the run-up to the Iraq war, Mary Robinson called global public opinion the second superpower. She may have exaggerated its ability to sway the decision to invade Iraq, but she was right to point to its importance as a source of legitimacy in world politics. Even in the many places where citizens cannot vote in free and fair elections, governments constantly poll the public to understand their aspirations and pre-empt them. Their findings can have an impact on decisions about war and peace and can even affect the positions they defend in institutions such as the United Nations and World Trade Organization.
Unipolar vs multipolar
Who will gain and who will lose from the emergence of global public opinion as a superpower? Which of the current great powers will succeed in capturing the global imagination? The results of the 2007 edition of Voice of the People - the world's largest survey of public opinion in 2007, based on interviews with 57,000 people from fifty-two countries - show that more world citizens want to see an increase in the power of the European Union than any other great power. In the survey, which asked people if the global influence of various major international powers (Brazil, China, the European Union, India, Iran, Russia, South Africa and the United States) should increase or decrease to make the world a better place, the EU received the highest number of positive answers. More than a third of respondents (35 percent) said they wanted to see an increase in EU power while only 20% want it to decline.Just over one in four respondents believe that India and South Africa should have greater influence (27 percent and 26 percent, respectively), whereas two in ten declare the opposite (20 percent and 18 percent). Almost a quarter (23 percent) think Brazil should be more influential while 17 percent believe the contrary. Russia and China provoke more negative than positive reactions. While 23 percent and 24 percent of respondents respectively want to see the power of these countries increase, 29 percent and 32 percent believe the world would benefit from a decline in their power.
Respondents are most hostile to the influence of Iran and the United States. Although 26 percent of respondents believe an increase in US power would make the world a better place, 37 percent think the opposite. In the case of Iran, 39 percent would like to see its power decline, while only 14 percent want it to have more influence in the world. Approval ratings for each of the eight powers have been inferred on the basis of the balance of respondents who wish to see a power's influence increase or decrease. These are set out in the love / hate maps that accompany the survey.Overall, the results suggest little enthusiasm for a unipolar world; but the multipolar world sought by world citizens appears more complex and unpredictable than some may have thought.
A new balance
The negative perceptions of Russia, China and Iran seem to be linked to the fact that they are perceived not so much as rising economic or political powers, but as military powers with potentially global reach. This suggests that the new world order will be determined not simply by the balance of hard power (the ability to use economic or military power to coerce or bribe countries to support you), but by the balance of what the American academic Joseph Nye has called soft power - the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion and payment, arising from the appeal of your culture, political ideals, and policies. The survey backs the view that the ability to project military power around the globe can substantially damage soft power.This theory seems to be borne out by the relatively positive view of the herbivorous powers - South Africa, India and Brazil - whose rise is not connected in the global imagination with military might on a worldwide scale. The public does not yearn for a world order where America's hegemony is simply replaced by the rivalry of other military powers such as Russia and China.
Two poles
Each continent has a different approach to power. Africa and Latin America mark two extreme positions. A majority of Africans would welcome increased influence among all the rival centers of power - there is support for a more powerful United States, European Union and China. In Latin America, by contrast, a majority is at best skeptical, and often hostile, to increases in the global influence of powers outside the region.Turkey presents a very special case. It demonstrates the instincts of an unrecognized world power. Turkish public opinion resists the influence of any of the rising powers and demonstrates a distinct lack of enthusiasm for the US as a global power. Turkish respondents expressed a strong rejection of both EU and US leadership of world affairs.
The stealthy superpower
The EU is unique among the big four powers (the other three being the US, China and Russia) in that no one wants to balance its rise. It is striking that a continent with a military budget second only to the United States, and the biggest number of serving peacekeeping forces, is perceived as a force for good. This suggests that EU policy-makers' attempts to achieve greater visibility for EU power may well be misguided. The fact that European peacekeepers tend to operate under a NATO or a national flag rather than a European one probably helps to make the EU seem less threatening. The fragmentation of European power among twenty-seven member-states endows the EU with a stealthy quality on the world stage.It is equally remarkable that the union's increase in power is supported by many former European colonies, demonstrating that the colonial legacy of EU member-states is declining in importance. What is more, unlike the United States, the EU is highly appreciated in its own neighborhood. However, a closer look at the figures and a comparison with previous surveys, reveals two worrying trends for the EU.
First, it suggests that the EU's soft power is closely related to the prospects of enlargement in the European neighborhood. It is safe to assume that the stark rise in the attractiveness of Russia in some parts of the former eastern bloc and the ex-Soviet Union - particularly in Ukraine - is linked to European foot-dragging on enlargement, which is having a negative impact on its reputation in the European neighborhood.Second, the poll shows a growing resistance to EU influence in places (such as Bosnia) where the union acts as a quasi-colonial power. This makes clear that the EU faces a choice in the Balkans either to press ahead with enlargement so as to normalize relations with these countries, or to face further hostility if it continues behaving like an imperial power.
Does the west still exist?
Has the EU benefited from the collapse in American soft power following the Iraq war? Has the EU gone from being a US ally to constituting an alternative world power?
The findings of the survey demonstrate that, at least in Europe (both western and eastern), the EU's stress on multilateralism and the rule of law, and its distaste of power politics means that it is perceived as an alternative to American unilateralism. But in other parts of the world, the EU and US are perceived as twins rather than alternatives.The dynamics differ from region to region, but there seems to be a hardening anti-western block in global public opinion that is particularly strong in Latin America.
The balancing superpower
Foreign-policy debates in recent years have centered on the question of how to deal with the unipolar moment - of how to balance US power. But strikingly, this survey reveals that in many parts of the world, a new question is being asked: how can the United States balance the rise of aggressive new emerging global powers? It is no coincidence that there is a great appetite for increased American power in Asia - the site of the contest between the new global powers.It is also intriguing to see that while the American public is hostile to increased Russian power, the Russian public is much more positive in its view of American power. This poll shows that the multipolar world might lead to a resurgence of American soft power - not necessarily as a model for the world, but as a way of buttressing the power of new regional superpowers.
The paradox of power
The findings of the Voice of the People poll make encouraging reading for European decision-makers. They reveal a world that is neither unipolar nor keen to return to traditional power politics. Furthermore, it is a world that seems to be crying out for greater European leadership. However, there are some warning signs among the good news.The paradox of the European Union's power is that its strength may be rooted to some extent in the perception of its weakness. The fact that nobody is interested in balancing the EU may stem - at least in part - from a perception that the EU is unlikely to get its act together. Moreover, the decline of the EU's soft power in the ex-Soviet Union, Turkey and the Balkans shows that softness in the long run may generate sympathy, but not necessarily respect. Whilst legitimacy is an increasingly important element in global politics, the EU must not make the mistake of confusing popularity with power.
Tears for a Divided Jerusalem?
By Chris Mitchell CBN News Jerusalem Bureau
October 30, 2007
CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - For weeks, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators - with help from the U.S. - have been preparing for the upcoming peace summit scheduled for late November.One of the main issues they've discussed is dividing Jerusalem - perhaps the most difficult issue of all.
Same Old Formula
CBN News has learned Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are using the same formula President Bill Clinton used seven years ago to divide Jerusalem. In those Camp David talks held in July 2000, Clinton proposed giving what's Jewish to Israel and giving what's Arab to the Palestinians.
JERUSALEM DATELINE:Dividing Jerusalem?
What Israelis Think about Dividing Jerusalem
The city of Jerusalem is a congested one, with one neighborhood running into the next. Walk through the city's streets and neighborhoods, and it becomes clear that Clinton's formula of dividing Jerusalem between Jewish Jerusalem and Arab Jerusalem is anything but simple.CBN News spoke with author Judy Lash Balint about what it would mean to divide Jerusalem. For more than ten years, Balint has studied, lived in, and written about Jerusalem.
If you look out in Jerusalem, look at a map of Jerusalem, it's very easy to see that there is no easy, clear division between eastern Jerusalem and western Jerusalem. We are all jumbled in together, she said.Balint notes the proposed plan would put major Christian sites like the Garden Of Gethsemane and The Church of the Holy Sepulcher under the control of an international body.
She also points out that Jewish and Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem are woven together like a tapestry.You have to come and see it. There's no way to describe it accurately. Even to look at photos I think. You really have to come here and feel Jerusalem. In the streets, in the alleys in the neighborhoods - it's really impossible for people to imagine how closely we live with each other, she said.
Divide Jerusalem and Suffer the Consequences
One place where Jews and Arabs live close to each other - literally side by side - is at a complex called Maale Ha Zeitim. It is located in the heart of the Arab neighborhood, Ras Alamud.
Arieh King lives in Maale Ha Zeitim and serves as its spokesman. He likens the complexity of Jerusalem to an onion, with successive layers of Jews and Arabs living around its heart, the Temple Mount.
Behind this first layer, we have a second layer. … We have another location where Jews are living around the first layer. But then again we have Arabs living. And behind the second layer of the Arabs we have a third layer of Jews again living, he explained.
King warns those trying to cut an onion or a city will suffer the consequences.What is happening when you are cutting the onion? You start crying. You have tears, he said. I believe this is what will happen to anybody that will try and cut this onion, he said.
A Matter of Security
With layers of neighborhoods so close, security remains one of the most serious issues. Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed this issue during a recent press conference from the Mount of Olives.We've seen what happens when we leave. It's not an Arab majority. It's Hamas. Let's be very clear. It's an Iranian base, he said. If we leave here, Hamas comes here. They start rocketing. They don't have to rocket. They can use small arms fire right into every one of these neighborhoods. Look how intertwined it is.Finally he said, It's hard for me to see how people cannot see that instead of being the end of conflict, it would be the beginning of a conflict we cannot even imagine.Despite any public warnings, the private negotiations continue for the November summit.In the midst of these plans, some see an irony of history.
This year, Israel celebrated the 40th anniversary of the re-unification of Jerusalem.The battle 40 years ago during the 1967 Six Day War reunited a divided city between Jordan and Israel. And for the first time in more than 2,000 years, Israel controlled the city of Jerusalem.Some fear that what Israel won on the battlefield could be lost at the negotiating table.
HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER
DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.
JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.
EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.
REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM
BIZNETDAILY Stocks dive as credit crisis deepens - Inflation concerns loom in wake of final interest rate cut of year
November 1, 2007 - 6:38 p.m. Eastern By Jerome R. Corsi
2007 WorldNetDaily.com
All major stock indexes took a fall today, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 362.14 points, or 2.6 percent. The Wall Street sell-off came two days after the Federal Reserve announced a 25 basis point (.25 percent) decrease in the target federal funds rate, lowering the rate to 4.5 percent. In making the cut, the Federal Open Market Committee advised that inflation concerns were looming and this rate cut was the last one the market should anticipate receiving this year. The Commerce Department also reported a seasonally adjusted 3.9 percent growth in the nation's Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, a higher-than-anticipated figure, which further stimulated market concerns that inflation risks are intensifying.
The sell-off was prompted after analysts downgraded Citicorp over concerns the company holds some $350 billion in CDOs, or collateralized debt obligations. CDOs are securities formed when financial institutions sell loans to institutional buyers. Since the bursting of the housing bubble, foreclosures in the housing market have eroded the underlying economic value of trillions of dollars of CDO instruments sold to banks and pension funds worldwide. Citicorp was the worst performer in the Dow, losing fully 7 percent of its value. At this point, analysts are uncertain how many billions of dollars of near-worthless CDOs institutions such as Citicorp hold on the balance sheet and in off-balance sheet funds. Fallout from the global collapse of the credit markets also has shaken Merrill Lynch & Co., where over the weekend the board voted to fire CEO Stanley O'Neal, again on huge losses taken in CDOs. As the stock market was being rocked with losses, the Federal Reserve quietly pumped a $41 billion cash infusion into the temporary reserves of U.S. financial institutions, the largest cash infusion since 9/11. As WND previously reported, the Fed is in a dilemma.
The lower interest rates being demanded by Wall Street to prop up a plummeting stock market have an adverse effect in pressuring the dollar downward in world currency markets. The dollar closed today at a new low of 76.67 on the U.S. Dollar Index, reflecting a continuing low of $1.44 to the euro. Gold, which closed above 800 earlier this week, remained high yesterday at $790 an ounce, while oil remained high, closing at $93.65 a barrel. The market sell-off triggered investor concerns that the bursting of the housing bubble could impact consumer spending, stimulating fears the U.S. is entering a recession.
EU rebuffs trade deal accusations
Mr Mandelson says the WTO has set the deadline European Union trade chief Peter Mandelson has denied accusations that controversial new trade deals will be harmful to developing nations. In a letter to the Guardian, Mr Mandelson said deals being discussed with some 80 former colonies would help a shift from dependency to growth. But campaign groups, including Oxfam, want talks to continue and say the deals are being rushed through.
The EU has warned that without the new deals, certain nations would miss out.
Poker
The EU argued that there were misconceptions about EPAs (economic partnership agreements) and that critics were complicating the job of those in the regions who want and need them. Mr Mandelson said: Calling for an end to Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) negotiations when there is no credible alternative is playing poker with the livelihoods of those we are trying to help.As for accusations that the EU is trying to hurry through the agreements before the year ends, the EU has said that the World Trade Organization - not it - has set the deadline. At present, some developing nations are given better trade terms than others, said the EU. This is not right morally, nor compatible with international trade rules, the trade commissioner wrote in the Guardian. He said the EU had pledged to put in place a new system by the end of 2007 for countries outside the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, and that unless it did, the WTO could and would challenge the EU.
SANTO DOMINGO (AFP) - The death toll from Tropical Storm Noel's Caribbean rampage rose to 100 on Thursday, as floodwaters hampered the rescue of people trapped on rooftops in the Dominican Republic. Even as the deadly storm barreled over Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, its sequels still wrought havoc in the Dominican Republic Thursday, four days after it slammed into the Caribbean nation.The death toll in that country rose to 66 people, with 27 more reported missing, officials said on Thursday.In Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, the death toll reached 34, officials said on Thursday. A further 14 people were listed as missing.No deaths were reported in Cuba, which was hit on Wednesday, but there was significant damage to agricultural fields.The islands of the northwestern Bahamas were placed under a hurricane watch amid concerns the storm could strengthen as it barrels over the Atlantic Ocean.
Residents boarded up their homes and stocked up on basic goods, as schools shut down and Bahamasair grounded its flights.The storm drenched the islands of Andros and New Providence Thursday and forecasters warned it could dump as much as 38 centimeters (15 inches) of rain.Even after the storm swirled over the Atlantic Ocean, the three Caribbean countries slammed by Noel earlier in the week remained on high alert.Rains in Hispaniola and Cuba are expected to cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides, said forecaster James Franklin of the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC).Noel's rip through the Caribbean came at a time when dams were already full, rivers bloated and the soil saturated from weeks of rain.Rescue officials said improved visibility made it possible for the first time on Thursday to deploy helicopters to the worst affected areas of the Dominican Republic, where surging flood waters forced people to perch on their rooftops.Torrents of water smashed several bridges, while authorities reported that 664 homes were destroyed and a further 15,600 were damaged. In all 62,428 people have fled their homes, 21,503 of whom are staying in official shelters.The Dominican government is seeking international emergency loans for a total of 100 million dollars to deal with the disaster, officials said.
In Haiti, the fatalities included a 14-year-old girl and her mother killed when an uprooted tree crushed their house in the capital, while several homes were swept away by floods.I want to appeal to the whole world .... send clothes, blankets, food, everything you can, said Gustave Benoit, the deputy mayor of Cite Soleil, a slum in the Haitian capital that at the best of times looks like it has been hit by a hurricane.With thousands of people in need of urgent assistance, Benoit did what he could to help, handing out rice and water from his beat up car.In Cuba, almost 1,300 homes were damaged. Some interior areas remain incommunicado due to flooded roads, and coffee crops were damaged by flooding.
On Thursday evening Noel packed maximum sustained winds of 104 kilometers (65 miles) per hour, with higher gusts, the NHC said. It said the storm could strengthen following its romp through the Bahamas, while at the same time losing its tropical storm characteristics as it travels north.
This Week with Rabbi Eckstein
November 2, 2007
Dear Friend of Israel,
This week is a special one for all of us at The Fellowship. On Wednesday, 114 participants in our 2007 Journey Home Tour to Israel arrived at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv. The next day, they began exploring the Holy Land, ending the day with dinner with myself and members of our Israel staff.For Christians and Jews alike, visiting the Holy Land can be a life-changing experience. Journey Home Tour participants will walk in the footsteps of the patriarchs, the apostles. For ten days, they will be able to see biblical sites many have only read about. Scripture will come alive for them and their faith walk will truly never be the same.Participants will also spend time visiting various Fellowship projects. Every month, we work hard to share stories with our donors about the lifesaving impact their faithful giving has on Israel and Jewish people worldwide. But few things can communicate this impact as effectively as firsthand experience. When you have served food to a hungry person at a Fellowship-sponsored soup kitchen in Jerusalem, held a baby in a Fellowship-supported daycare center, or seen the gratitude in the faces of new immigrants helped through our On Wings of Eagles program, your heart is touched and you view the work of The Fellowship with deeper understanding.
It would be wonderful if each and every Christian was able to personally experience Israel at least once in their life, but the reality is that not all who want to make the journey will have the opportunity. So for the next 10 days, we’re going to post daily updates and photos from tour participants on our website so that you can feel part of this extraordinary event. You’ll travel with them as they visit the Sea of Galilee, the ancient city of Jerusalem, the Garden of Gethsemane, ruins of ancient cities and Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Memorial). You’ll also feel their emotions as they visit Fellowship-sponsored projects.Please join me today in praying for a good, safe trip for this band of pilgrims, many of whom are making their first trip to Israel. If you’d like information on how you can be a part of our next Journey Home Tour, sign up to receive updates on our tour upcoming in 2008!
With prayers for shalom, peace,
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein
President INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP OF CHRISTIANS AND JEWS.
Report: Al Qaeda Schedules Cyber Jihad for Nov. 11
Unconfirmed report raises questions, sets bloggers blogging
OCTOBER 31, 2007 | 4:05 PM By Tim Wilson
The IT security blogosphere is burning up today, following an unconfirmed report that Osama Bin Laden and his followers are planning a massive cyber attack on Western targets in less than two weeks. DEBKAfile, an Israeli news organization, yesterday published a report stating that counter-terrorism sources have intercepted and translated an Arabic Internet announcement that proposes an attack on Western electronic targets to begin on November 11. The attack will begin with 15 targets and will expand to untold numbers, according to the report. Dark Reading canvassed U.S. law enforcement agencies in an attempt to confirm the report. So far, none has provided confirmation, although media representatives acknowledged that they have received numerous calls. Google searches show many instances of the DEBKA story on a variety of Websites, but so far there is no official word to suggest that the report -- attributed to unnamed sources -- is anything more than a rumor.
However, a security researcher says there might be cause for concern, following his analysis of the latest version of electronic jihad software being passed around the Web. Paul Henry, vice president of Secure Computing, said through a spokesman that the new software is significantly easier to use and potentially more dangerous than early versions. (See Electronic Jihad App Offers Cyberterrorism for the Masses .) The new Electronic Jihad Version 2.0 software has the potential to create havoc among sites that might be targeted, according to the spokesman. Secure has a screen shot that has been translated into English that shows how easy it is to configure attacks. Additionally, the version of the software adds detail and intelligent coordination capabilities, providing focus for the attacks to make them much more effective. It could get even scarier if the jihadists implement Web 2.0 style attacks down the road.Secure Computing has not seen the Internet announcement from Al Qaeda and cannot confirm the DEBKA report, the spokesman said.
US official warns Iran on nuke program By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer NOV 1,07
VIENNA, Austria - A senior U.S. official challenged Iran's hard-line president Thursday over his claim that Iranians are immune from further U.N. sanctions, saying such action is in the works unless Tehran meets demands to curb its nuclear program. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered his own warning in Tehran, saying his government would make unspecified economic retaliation against any European country that followed the U.S. lead in imposing sanctions on some Iranian banks and businesses.A Saudi Arabian official, meanwhile, said Arab states in the Persian Gulf had proposed to Tehran that they set up a consortium to provide Iran with enriched uranium as way to defuse the nuclear fight.
U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns made his comment after a meeting with the head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency that was meant to demonstrate unity following recent strains on how best to deal with Iran's defiance.Burns stopped to talk with Mohamed ElBaradei at the International Atomic Energy Agency's headquarters before heading to London, where he was to discuss the Iran standoff with his counterparts from Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.He planned to press them for agreement on a third set of U.N. sanctions to be threatened unless Tehran changes its position and obeys U.N. Security Council demands that it suspend uranium enrichment and related programs.
France and Britain back new sanctions if Tehran remains defiant, but Russia and China — the two other veto-holding permanent members of the Security Council — are skeptical.Washington and its allies say Iran is using the program to secretly develop nuclear weapons, while the Islamic republic insists it needs enrichment technology to produce fuel for atomic reactors that will generate electricity.Ahmadinejad has been adamant that Iran will not curtail its nuclear program and has ridiculed previous sanctions as ineffective.On Thursday, he said Europeans would suffer if they matched the latest U.S. sanctions that bar American companies from dealing with businesses and banks linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, a military force that has holdings in oil, construction and other sectors.
If they plan to cooperate with the enemy of the Iranian nation, we cannot interpret this as a friendly behavior. We will show reaction, Iranian state radio quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. You, Europeans, know well what will happen in the economic sphere if Iran takes a serious move in this matter.According to Iranian statistics, Europe is Iran's largest trading partner.ElBaradei angered Washington by suggesting it was too late to insist on a full Iranian enrichment freeze and then reaching an agreement with Tehran that commits Iran to answer questions it has been dodging about its nuclear program.While Washington has since swung its support behind that approach, U.S. officials worry Iran will use the deal to try to weaken Security Council attempts to force an enrichment halt. Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials have said that if Iran meets its commitment to tell all to the IAEA, the matter before the Security Council will be closed.Burns took pains to rebut that view after his hour-long meeting with ElBaradei.
Ahmadinejad said in September the Security Council case is closed, Burns told reporters. I am sorry to tell him it's not closed. There are sanctions being implemented ... and there will be a third Security Council sanctions resolution if Iran continues to defy the council.Burns said he and ElBaradei agreed that it's important that Iran finally tell the truth about its activities in the past ... but we also agreed that all of us back a third round of sanctions if necessary.Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, suggested a way out of the crisis is a proposal by the Arab nations around the Persian Gulf to form a consortium that would build a uranium enrichment plant to supply the region's states, including Iran, with reactor fuel. Speaking with the Middle East Economic Digest in London, he said the plant should be sited in a neutral country outside the region. The U.S. is not involved, but I don't think it (would be) hostile to this, and it would resolve a main area of tension between the West and Iran, the magazine quoted Prince Saud as saying. He said the idea had been proposed to Iran's government, which said it would consider the plan. The Iranians previously ignored a similar proposal from Russia — to host Iran's uranium enrichment facilities on its territory to allay Western concerns about monitoring. The agreement between the IAEA and Iran commits Tehran to clear up by December all questions about its program — much of which the Iranians had kept secret until discovered four years ago. In Tehran, Iranian officials and IAEA representatives wrapped up four days of talks on some of those questions Thursday, state media reported. The Iranian side expressed satisfaction with the discussions, but there was no comment from the U.N. agency. Associated Press writers Veronika Oleksyn in Vienna and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
World's choice: Super, soft or herbivorous power?
A global public-opinion survey reveals increasing support for a redistribution of international power, report Ivan Krastev & Mark Leonard. From openDemocracy.By Ivan Krastev and Mark Leonard for openDemocracy (30/10/07)
An ambitious survey of public opinion around the world contains valuable findings of great interest to the world's citizens and policymakers alike. The project, conducted by Voice of the People for the European Council on Foreign Relations and released on 25 October 2007, has discovered:There is widespread support for a more multipolar world and a greater role for herbivorous powers - countries not widely perceived as military superpowers.There is mistrust of the cold-war powers as well as Islamist-inspired Iranian autocracy. More people want to see a decline rather than an increase in the power of Russia (29 percent decline, 23 percent increase), of China (32 percent decline, 24 percent increase), of the United States (37 percent decline, 26 percent increase), and of Iran (39 percent decline, 14 percent increase). On the other hand, there is strong support for an increase in the power of fast-developing powers such as South Africa, India and Brazil (the IBSA countries).
The European Union is the most popular great power. Uniquely among great powers, more people across all continents want to see its power increase than decrease. This demand for more European power extends to many former European colonies.Whilst American soft power has declined, the rise of China has led to a resurgence in support for American power in Asia. Increasing Russian influence in Eastern Europe is paralleled by a demand for a greater American role.Outside Europe, the west is still seen to some extent as a single actor: countries suspicious of American power tend also to be against EU power.In the run-up to the Iraq war, Mary Robinson called global public opinion the second superpower. She may have exaggerated its ability to sway the decision to invade Iraq, but she was right to point to its importance as a source of legitimacy in world politics. Even in the many places where citizens cannot vote in free and fair elections, governments constantly poll the public to understand their aspirations and pre-empt them. Their findings can have an impact on decisions about war and peace and can even affect the positions they defend in institutions such as the United Nations and World Trade Organization.
Unipolar vs multipolar
Who will gain and who will lose from the emergence of global public opinion as a superpower? Which of the current great powers will succeed in capturing the global imagination? The results of the 2007 edition of Voice of the People - the world's largest survey of public opinion in 2007, based on interviews with 57,000 people from fifty-two countries - show that more world citizens want to see an increase in the power of the European Union than any other great power. In the survey, which asked people if the global influence of various major international powers (Brazil, China, the European Union, India, Iran, Russia, South Africa and the United States) should increase or decrease to make the world a better place, the EU received the highest number of positive answers. More than a third of respondents (35 percent) said they wanted to see an increase in EU power while only 20% want it to decline.Just over one in four respondents believe that India and South Africa should have greater influence (27 percent and 26 percent, respectively), whereas two in ten declare the opposite (20 percent and 18 percent). Almost a quarter (23 percent) think Brazil should be more influential while 17 percent believe the contrary. Russia and China provoke more negative than positive reactions. While 23 percent and 24 percent of respondents respectively want to see the power of these countries increase, 29 percent and 32 percent believe the world would benefit from a decline in their power.
Respondents are most hostile to the influence of Iran and the United States. Although 26 percent of respondents believe an increase in US power would make the world a better place, 37 percent think the opposite. In the case of Iran, 39 percent would like to see its power decline, while only 14 percent want it to have more influence in the world. Approval ratings for each of the eight powers have been inferred on the basis of the balance of respondents who wish to see a power's influence increase or decrease. These are set out in the love / hate maps that accompany the survey.Overall, the results suggest little enthusiasm for a unipolar world; but the multipolar world sought by world citizens appears more complex and unpredictable than some may have thought.
A new balance
The negative perceptions of Russia, China and Iran seem to be linked to the fact that they are perceived not so much as rising economic or political powers, but as military powers with potentially global reach. This suggests that the new world order will be determined not simply by the balance of hard power (the ability to use economic or military power to coerce or bribe countries to support you), but by the balance of what the American academic Joseph Nye has called soft power - the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion and payment, arising from the appeal of your culture, political ideals, and policies. The survey backs the view that the ability to project military power around the globe can substantially damage soft power.This theory seems to be borne out by the relatively positive view of the herbivorous powers - South Africa, India and Brazil - whose rise is not connected in the global imagination with military might on a worldwide scale. The public does not yearn for a world order where America's hegemony is simply replaced by the rivalry of other military powers such as Russia and China.
Two poles
Each continent has a different approach to power. Africa and Latin America mark two extreme positions. A majority of Africans would welcome increased influence among all the rival centers of power - there is support for a more powerful United States, European Union and China. In Latin America, by contrast, a majority is at best skeptical, and often hostile, to increases in the global influence of powers outside the region.Turkey presents a very special case. It demonstrates the instincts of an unrecognized world power. Turkish public opinion resists the influence of any of the rising powers and demonstrates a distinct lack of enthusiasm for the US as a global power. Turkish respondents expressed a strong rejection of both EU and US leadership of world affairs.
The stealthy superpower
The EU is unique among the big four powers (the other three being the US, China and Russia) in that no one wants to balance its rise. It is striking that a continent with a military budget second only to the United States, and the biggest number of serving peacekeeping forces, is perceived as a force for good. This suggests that EU policy-makers' attempts to achieve greater visibility for EU power may well be misguided. The fact that European peacekeepers tend to operate under a NATO or a national flag rather than a European one probably helps to make the EU seem less threatening. The fragmentation of European power among twenty-seven member-states endows the EU with a stealthy quality on the world stage.It is equally remarkable that the union's increase in power is supported by many former European colonies, demonstrating that the colonial legacy of EU member-states is declining in importance. What is more, unlike the United States, the EU is highly appreciated in its own neighborhood. However, a closer look at the figures and a comparison with previous surveys, reveals two worrying trends for the EU.
First, it suggests that the EU's soft power is closely related to the prospects of enlargement in the European neighborhood. It is safe to assume that the stark rise in the attractiveness of Russia in some parts of the former eastern bloc and the ex-Soviet Union - particularly in Ukraine - is linked to European foot-dragging on enlargement, which is having a negative impact on its reputation in the European neighborhood.Second, the poll shows a growing resistance to EU influence in places (such as Bosnia) where the union acts as a quasi-colonial power. This makes clear that the EU faces a choice in the Balkans either to press ahead with enlargement so as to normalize relations with these countries, or to face further hostility if it continues behaving like an imperial power.
Does the west still exist?
Has the EU benefited from the collapse in American soft power following the Iraq war? Has the EU gone from being a US ally to constituting an alternative world power?
The findings of the survey demonstrate that, at least in Europe (both western and eastern), the EU's stress on multilateralism and the rule of law, and its distaste of power politics means that it is perceived as an alternative to American unilateralism. But in other parts of the world, the EU and US are perceived as twins rather than alternatives.The dynamics differ from region to region, but there seems to be a hardening anti-western block in global public opinion that is particularly strong in Latin America.
The balancing superpower
Foreign-policy debates in recent years have centered on the question of how to deal with the unipolar moment - of how to balance US power. But strikingly, this survey reveals that in many parts of the world, a new question is being asked: how can the United States balance the rise of aggressive new emerging global powers? It is no coincidence that there is a great appetite for increased American power in Asia - the site of the contest between the new global powers.It is also intriguing to see that while the American public is hostile to increased Russian power, the Russian public is much more positive in its view of American power. This poll shows that the multipolar world might lead to a resurgence of American soft power - not necessarily as a model for the world, but as a way of buttressing the power of new regional superpowers.
The paradox of power
The findings of the Voice of the People poll make encouraging reading for European decision-makers. They reveal a world that is neither unipolar nor keen to return to traditional power politics. Furthermore, it is a world that seems to be crying out for greater European leadership. However, there are some warning signs among the good news.The paradox of the European Union's power is that its strength may be rooted to some extent in the perception of its weakness. The fact that nobody is interested in balancing the EU may stem - at least in part - from a perception that the EU is unlikely to get its act together. Moreover, the decline of the EU's soft power in the ex-Soviet Union, Turkey and the Balkans shows that softness in the long run may generate sympathy, but not necessarily respect. Whilst legitimacy is an increasingly important element in global politics, the EU must not make the mistake of confusing popularity with power.
Tears for a Divided Jerusalem?
By Chris Mitchell CBN News Jerusalem Bureau
October 30, 2007
CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - For weeks, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators - with help from the U.S. - have been preparing for the upcoming peace summit scheduled for late November.One of the main issues they've discussed is dividing Jerusalem - perhaps the most difficult issue of all.
Same Old Formula
CBN News has learned Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are using the same formula President Bill Clinton used seven years ago to divide Jerusalem. In those Camp David talks held in July 2000, Clinton proposed giving what's Jewish to Israel and giving what's Arab to the Palestinians.
JERUSALEM DATELINE:Dividing Jerusalem?
What Israelis Think about Dividing Jerusalem
The city of Jerusalem is a congested one, with one neighborhood running into the next. Walk through the city's streets and neighborhoods, and it becomes clear that Clinton's formula of dividing Jerusalem between Jewish Jerusalem and Arab Jerusalem is anything but simple.CBN News spoke with author Judy Lash Balint about what it would mean to divide Jerusalem. For more than ten years, Balint has studied, lived in, and written about Jerusalem.
If you look out in Jerusalem, look at a map of Jerusalem, it's very easy to see that there is no easy, clear division between eastern Jerusalem and western Jerusalem. We are all jumbled in together, she said.Balint notes the proposed plan would put major Christian sites like the Garden Of Gethsemane and The Church of the Holy Sepulcher under the control of an international body.
She also points out that Jewish and Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem are woven together like a tapestry.You have to come and see it. There's no way to describe it accurately. Even to look at photos I think. You really have to come here and feel Jerusalem. In the streets, in the alleys in the neighborhoods - it's really impossible for people to imagine how closely we live with each other, she said.
Divide Jerusalem and Suffer the Consequences
One place where Jews and Arabs live close to each other - literally side by side - is at a complex called Maale Ha Zeitim. It is located in the heart of the Arab neighborhood, Ras Alamud.
Arieh King lives in Maale Ha Zeitim and serves as its spokesman. He likens the complexity of Jerusalem to an onion, with successive layers of Jews and Arabs living around its heart, the Temple Mount.
Behind this first layer, we have a second layer. … We have another location where Jews are living around the first layer. But then again we have Arabs living. And behind the second layer of the Arabs we have a third layer of Jews again living, he explained.
King warns those trying to cut an onion or a city will suffer the consequences.What is happening when you are cutting the onion? You start crying. You have tears, he said. I believe this is what will happen to anybody that will try and cut this onion, he said.
A Matter of Security
With layers of neighborhoods so close, security remains one of the most serious issues. Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed this issue during a recent press conference from the Mount of Olives.We've seen what happens when we leave. It's not an Arab majority. It's Hamas. Let's be very clear. It's an Iranian base, he said. If we leave here, Hamas comes here. They start rocketing. They don't have to rocket. They can use small arms fire right into every one of these neighborhoods. Look how intertwined it is.Finally he said, It's hard for me to see how people cannot see that instead of being the end of conflict, it would be the beginning of a conflict we cannot even imagine.Despite any public warnings, the private negotiations continue for the November summit.In the midst of these plans, some see an irony of history.
This year, Israel celebrated the 40th anniversary of the re-unification of Jerusalem.The battle 40 years ago during the 1967 Six Day War reunited a divided city between Jordan and Israel. And for the first time in more than 2,000 years, Israel controlled the city of Jerusalem.Some fear that what Israel won on the battlefield could be lost at the negotiating table.
HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER
DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.
JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.
EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.
REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM
BIZNETDAILY Stocks dive as credit crisis deepens - Inflation concerns loom in wake of final interest rate cut of year
November 1, 2007 - 6:38 p.m. Eastern By Jerome R. Corsi
2007 WorldNetDaily.com
All major stock indexes took a fall today, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 362.14 points, or 2.6 percent. The Wall Street sell-off came two days after the Federal Reserve announced a 25 basis point (.25 percent) decrease in the target federal funds rate, lowering the rate to 4.5 percent. In making the cut, the Federal Open Market Committee advised that inflation concerns were looming and this rate cut was the last one the market should anticipate receiving this year. The Commerce Department also reported a seasonally adjusted 3.9 percent growth in the nation's Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, a higher-than-anticipated figure, which further stimulated market concerns that inflation risks are intensifying.
The sell-off was prompted after analysts downgraded Citicorp over concerns the company holds some $350 billion in CDOs, or collateralized debt obligations. CDOs are securities formed when financial institutions sell loans to institutional buyers. Since the bursting of the housing bubble, foreclosures in the housing market have eroded the underlying economic value of trillions of dollars of CDO instruments sold to banks and pension funds worldwide. Citicorp was the worst performer in the Dow, losing fully 7 percent of its value. At this point, analysts are uncertain how many billions of dollars of near-worthless CDOs institutions such as Citicorp hold on the balance sheet and in off-balance sheet funds. Fallout from the global collapse of the credit markets also has shaken Merrill Lynch & Co., where over the weekend the board voted to fire CEO Stanley O'Neal, again on huge losses taken in CDOs. As the stock market was being rocked with losses, the Federal Reserve quietly pumped a $41 billion cash infusion into the temporary reserves of U.S. financial institutions, the largest cash infusion since 9/11. As WND previously reported, the Fed is in a dilemma.
The lower interest rates being demanded by Wall Street to prop up a plummeting stock market have an adverse effect in pressuring the dollar downward in world currency markets. The dollar closed today at a new low of 76.67 on the U.S. Dollar Index, reflecting a continuing low of $1.44 to the euro. Gold, which closed above 800 earlier this week, remained high yesterday at $790 an ounce, while oil remained high, closing at $93.65 a barrel. The market sell-off triggered investor concerns that the bursting of the housing bubble could impact consumer spending, stimulating fears the U.S. is entering a recession.
EU rebuffs trade deal accusations
Mr Mandelson says the WTO has set the deadline European Union trade chief Peter Mandelson has denied accusations that controversial new trade deals will be harmful to developing nations. In a letter to the Guardian, Mr Mandelson said deals being discussed with some 80 former colonies would help a shift from dependency to growth. But campaign groups, including Oxfam, want talks to continue and say the deals are being rushed through.
The EU has warned that without the new deals, certain nations would miss out.
Poker
The EU argued that there were misconceptions about EPAs (economic partnership agreements) and that critics were complicating the job of those in the regions who want and need them. Mr Mandelson said: Calling for an end to Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) negotiations when there is no credible alternative is playing poker with the livelihoods of those we are trying to help.As for accusations that the EU is trying to hurry through the agreements before the year ends, the EU has said that the World Trade Organization - not it - has set the deadline. At present, some developing nations are given better trade terms than others, said the EU. This is not right morally, nor compatible with international trade rules, the trade commissioner wrote in the Guardian. He said the EU had pledged to put in place a new system by the end of 2007 for countries outside the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, and that unless it did, the WTO could and would challenge the EU.
Friday, November 02, 2007
1WG GROUPS MAY ELECT USA PRESIDENCY
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.
Californians reminded of danger to come By SCOTT LINDLAW, Associated Press Writer Wed Oct 31, 9:05 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO - The largest earthquake to hit the San Francisco Bay area in years was a seismic throat-clearing of sorts, compared with the magnitude-7.0 quake that experts anticipate will hit the region in the next 25 years. Tuesday's magnitude-5.6 quake, centered about 9 miles northeast of San Jose, shook nerves and reminded residents of the seven major earthquake faults that run through the region.The quake and the more than three dozen aftershocks that followed — the largest registering magnitude 3.7 on Wednesday afternoon — produced no reports of serious injury or damage, officials said. Tuesday's quake was felt as far away as Santa Rosa, Sacramento and Monterey.Even so, it paled in comparison to the larger one that experts anticipate. That quake will hit one of the seven major faults and pack 60 times the force of Tuesday's quake, said Tom Brocher, a senior U.S. Geological Survey seismologist.Tuesday's quake originated along the Calaveras Fault, which is not thought to be as dangerous as a fault it intersects, the Hayward Fault. Scientists estimate the Hayward Fault has a 27 percent chance of causing a quake of magnitude 6.7 or greater. Historically, severe quakes have occurred on the Hayward Fault every 151 years, give or take 23 years. The last one to hit was in 1868, meaning another could strike soon.
The Association of Bay Area Governments estimates a powerful Hayward quake would wipe out about 155,000 housing units, 37,000 in San Francisco alone.Tuesday's quake, which struck shortly after 8 p.m., raised questions about whether a quake hitting the Hayward Fault was now more likely.Under certain circumstances, a quake on one fault can transfer energy to another, adding instability and potentially triggering events on the other fault, seismologists said.By Wednesday morning, a consensus emerged at the U.S. Geological Survey that the previous night's quake did not significantly elevate the likelihood of a dreaded Hayward Fault quake. Tuesday's quake sent ripples of energy largely to the south, while the Hayward Fault extends north from the epicenter, Brocher said.Still, state officials issued an alarming warning.
The California Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council, a panel of scientists that advises the governor on earthquake forecasts, warned that Tuesday's earthquake has significantly increased the probability above the normal level for a damaging earthquake along the Calaveras and/or Hayward faults within the next several days.
However, the panel said, the overall likelihood of such an event is still low.In addition to the seven major faults, hundreds of smaller faults form a latticework of cracks beneath the region, perhaps a dozen of which could snap and generate moderate quakes, said David P. Schwartz, chief of the U.S. Geological Survey's Bay Area Earthquake Hazards Project.A hypothetical trench dug around the Bay Area would reveal hundreds of these small fissures, Schwartz said.The Earth's crust, which has been around for millions of years, has been pushed and pulled in all different directions, and is very broken up, he said. It's literally cracked up.Meanwhile, state and local inspectors examined sections of California's extensive levee system on Wednesday. Experts said the earthquake's center was too far from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to threaten the state's water supply.
Last night's jolt was not large enough to cause extensive damage, but it's a reminder of what will come, said Les Harder, deputy director of the state Department of Water Resources. A massive levee failure in the delta would cripple California's water supply system, which relies on the inland river delta to feed fresh water from the state's northern rivers to 750,000 acres of farmland and 25 million people in Southern California and the San Francisco Bay area. In an effort to prepare, California voters last November passed nearly $5 billion in bond money to strengthen the delta's levees and improve flood control throughout the state. (This version CORRECTS that there are seven major faults in the region, instead of eight.)
Powerful earthquake hits Pacific islands Wed Oct 31, 9:46 AM ET
TOKYO - A powerful earthquake struck in the Pacific Ocean near the Marianas Islands, Japan's weather agency said Wednesday, adding that there was no threat of a tsunami. The Meteorological Agency initially said the quake's magnitude was 7.5 but later revised it to 7.0 after analyzing the data. The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude was 7.2.The quake struck about 12:30 p.m. and occurred at a depth of about 150 miles, the Meteorological Agency said.The agency said the temblor's epicenter was in the northernmost reaches of the island chain in the northwest Pacific.
The islands lie along the Pacific Basin's Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanos and fault lines where quakes are frequent.(This version CORRECTS that the Marianas are in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, sted South Pacific.)
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.
Death toll mounts from Tropical Storm Noel By German Marte
Wed Oct 31, 9:33 PM ET
SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) - Two rivers burst their banks and swept away a Dominican Republic village, taking the death toll from Tropical Storm Noel's downpours on the Caribbean country and neighboring Haiti above 90 on Wednesday. Local politicians and residents said the El Duey and Haina rivers swelled after days of rain and drowned at least 25 people, left 50 to 100 missing and made dozens of families homeless in Villa Altagracia, about 26 miles outside the capital, Santo Domingo.Survivors said most of the 200 houses were swept away. There were a lot of dead, said Luis Melo.Dominican lawmaker Marino Mendoza said he had seen between 25 and 30 bodies strewn on the banks of the rivers.
Dominican President Leonel Fernandez declared a national emergency. The country's official toll rose to 56 deaths with 27 missing, as rescue teams reached villages cut off by raging rivers and inundated by chest-high floods. Unofficial reports put the dead much higher.A least 25,540 people were homeless and 6,300 homes had been destroyed, said Luis Luna Paulino, head of the Dominican Republic's emergency operations. He appealed to boat owners to help rescue people trapped in cut-off villages.Several bridges had collapsed, mudslides blocked roads and at least 39 communities were cut off by floods, he said.Noel strengthened a little over water after emerging off Cuba's northern shore, but was not expected to become a hurricane as it headed for the Bahamas, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.Forecasters projected the 14th named storm of the 2007 Atlantic storm season would veer northeast over the Bahamas on Thursday, away from Florida and well clear of U.S. oil and gas installations in the Gulf of Mexico.But a storm watch was issued for parts of the southeast Florida coast as the storm's interaction with a high pressure zone over the eastern United States kicked up a fierce surf and brought strong winds and whipping rains to the peninsula.
CUBA DOUSED
Thousands of people were evacuated from vulnerable areas but no casualties were reported in Cuba, which boasts one of the most effective civil protection operations in the region.The storm dumped 6 inches of rain in just six hours over Baracoa in Cuba, causing floods and cutting off roads at the already waterlogged eastern tip of the island.We are getting a constant downpour and strong gusts of wind. The sea is very rough, said Hector Rodriguez, a hotel worker in Cayo Coco, an island resort on the north coast of central Cuba.In Haiti, the most vulnerable of Caribbean countries to flash floods and mudslides because most of its trees have been chopped down to make charcoal, at least 24 people died, said national Civil Protection Office Director Alta Jean-Baptiste.About 3,400 people were staying in emergency shelters and around 400 houses had been destroyed.In Jamaica, one person died when a house collapsed in the heavy rain, the disaster preparedness agency said.The storm's center was located about 160 miles south-southwest of Nassau in the Bahamas, and 230 miles (370 km) south-southeast of Miami at 8 p.m. (0000 GMT Thursday), the hurricane center said. Noel was expected to continue drifting slowly northward for the next 24 hours, the hurricane center said. Its top sustained winds increased to near 60 mph (95 km per hour), some way short of the 74 mph (119 kph) at which tropical storms become hurricanes. (Additional reporting by Joseph Guyler Delva in Port-au-Prince and Anthony Boadle in Havana)
Tens of thousands flee Mexico flooding By LISA J. ADAMS, Associated Press Writer Wed Oct 31, 8:55 PM ET
MEXICO CITY - A week of heavy rains unleashed massive flooding Wednesday in southeastern Mexico, where tens of thousands fled the rising waters for shelters in Tabasco and Chiapas states. At least 20,000 people had sought shelter in Tabasco's oil-rich capital of Villahermosa, where floodwaters reached the rooftoops of homes, and Gov. Andres Granier was urging residents to evacuate.If they do not leave, I'm going to order them out by force, Granier told reporters in an interview broadcast on the Televisa television network.The flooding, which is not related to Tropical Storm Noel, also apparently caused the soil supporting a 10-inch natural gas pipeline to give way and spring a leak, officials from the state-owned company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, said. Tabasco state officials said the pipeline had exploded, but that there were no deaths or injuries.Water also crept up around the huge stone heads of an Olmec Indian archaeological site in Tabasco.
President Felipe Calderon flew to the area Wednesday and offered all help humanly possible to the more than 300,000 people of the state whose homes were flooded, damaged or cut off.In the southern state of Chiapas, 7,000 people were evacuated due to floods, the daily newspaper El Universal reported.In Villahermosa, rooftops barely jutted above the surface of brackish waters flooding the city's streets after at least one major river overflowed its banks.
Tabasco (normally) has water on 34 percent of its territory, but I can tell you that now, it's more than 70 percent water, Granier said Tuesday, according to a transcript of his comments posted on the state government's Web site. In 48 hours, our state has been devastated, totally devastated.The site did not indicate how many people had been evacuated. Telephones at Tabasco state offices rang busy all day Wednesday.Heavy rains started swelling rivers on Sunday.Associated Press Writer Mark Stevenson contributed to this report.
Israel says Hezbollah can hit Tel Aviv By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer Wed Oct 31, 8:16 PM ET
UNITED NATIONS - Israel alleges that Hezbollah militants in Lebanon have rearmed with new long-range rockets capable of hitting Tel Aviv and tripled their arsenal of land-to-sea missiles since last summer's war, the United Nations secretary-general said in a report Wednesday. Ban Ki-Moon said the reports of Hezbollah's rearming are a cause of great concern for the stability of Lebanon.
Israel has stated that the nature and number of weapons in Hezbollah's control constitutes a strategic threat to its security and the safety of its citizens, he said.Israel claims Hezbollah's long-range rocket force is stationed in areas north of the Litani River and that most of the new rockets, including hundreds of Zilzal and Fajr generation rockets, have a range of 155 miles, enabling them to reach Tel Aviv and points further south, the report said.
Israel also claims that Hezbollah has tripled its shore-to-sea C-802 missiles and have established an air defense unit armed with ground-to-air missiles, Ban said.While Israel has not provided the United Nations with specific intelligence due to the sensitivity of the sources, Ban said several speeches by Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah in the past few months seem to confirm these Israeli claims.Senior Hezbollah officials have said Nasrallah's comments were made to serve as a deterrent to aggression rather than as threats to Israel, Ban said.Reports of rearming are a cause of great concern which pose serious challenges for the sovereignty, stability and independence of Lebanon, he added.
Ban said Israel's contention that Hezbollah has rearmed to a level higher than before last year's war — and that arms continue to be smuggled across the Lebanon-Syria border despite Syrian denials — raise serious concerns about implementation of the U.N. resolution that ended the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah.Under the Security Council resolution, weapons transfers to the Iranian- and Syrian-backed militants are banned. Ban warned during a visit to Lebanon in March that arms smuggling threatened the Aug. 14, 2006 cease-fire. The resolution calls for the disarming of all militias.
Ban said there has been no progress the disarmament of Hezbollah and other militias, although he sees this as essential to fully restoring government authority throughout the country. The current political crisis in Lebanon has hindered efforts to implement the resolution.Ban has said the Chebaa Farms, captured by Israel during the 1967 war, remains a key issue in implementing the 2006 resolution. The United Nations determined that the area is Syrian. But Lebanon claims Chebaa Farms — a claim backed by Syria — and Hezbollah continues to fight over the disputed land, arguing that Israel's occupation justifies its resistance.The report for the first time publishes the provisional definition of the Chebaa Farms area, which was prepared by a senior U.N. cartographer.Ban said he is encouraged by the Lebanese government's first strides to enhance the control of its borders. He again urged Syria to demarcate its border with Lebanon and establish formal diplomatic relations with its neighbor.He criticized Israel for failing to provide Lebanon with the exact location, quantity and type of cluster munitions utilized during last summer's conflict which has led to an increasing number of deaths and injuries of Lebanese civilians.Israel's continued violations of Lebanese airspace not only constitute repeated violations of Security Council resolutions but also undermine the credibility of the U.N. ... and damage efforts to reduce tension, build confidence and stabilize the situation in southern Lebanon, Ban said.
Israel, Palestinians hold new talks ahead of Mideast meet Wed Oct 31, 3:51 PM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qorei held talks in Jerusalem late Wednesday ahead of the planned Middle East meeting in the United States. Saeb Erakat, a member of the negotiating team, told AFP the two sides met for more than two hours and could reconvene in the coming days, but that work had not started on drawing up a joint document.So far we haven't started to draw up the document. The Palestinian side has asked that we start putting down on paper the ideas that will allow the joint document to be written down, he said.The Palestinian and Israeli teams are trying to draft a joint document outlining the parameters for an agreement to be discussed at the meeting.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas called on Tuesday for a six-month deadline for a final status deal with Israel following the international peace meeting due later this year.The joint document must... set an adequate timeframe to complete negotiations on a final resolution after the next meeting, Abbas told journalists.
We have proposed a maximum timeframe of six months. Until now, we haven't reached an agreement with the Israelis or the Americans on this timeframe but we feel it is sufficient, he said.Six months is enough time to discuss and agree on the problems of the final phase, he said, adding that we will not accept leaving these questions open forever.Both sides hope to have the document ready before the convening of the meeting aimed at reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and expected to take place in Annapolis, Maryland.Israel refuses to commit to a timeframe for a peace deal, demanding that the Palestinians first crack down on militants.
Qorei has said the two sides have not yet touched on issues relating to the final status (agreement) of the Palestinian territories, including borders, the political status of Jerusalem, and the fate of refugees.
Hamas setting stage for West Bank seizure - Leader vows U.S.-backed Fatah will fall in a matter of weeks at most November 1, 2007 -1:00 a.m. Eastern - By Aaron Klein -2007 WorldNetDaily.com
[breaking] WorldNetDaily Exclusive While Israeli leader expected to give away strategic territory WND Hamas is setting the stage for a takeover of the West Bank similar to the coup in which the terror group seized control of the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli and Palestinian security officials. Hamas leaders confirmed to WND they are planning a West Bank takeover. Fatah will fall in a matter of weeks at most, and the Islamic resistance (Hamas) will reign in the West Bank just as we do in Gaza, said Abu Abdullah, considered one of the most important operational members of Hamas' so-called resistance department. The West Bank borders Jerusalem and is within rocket range of Tel Aviv and Israel's international airport. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, slated to arrive here next week for her second visit this month, has been serving as mediator for an upcoming U.S.-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian summit later this month. At the meeting, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is widely expected to outline a Palestinian state in most of the West Bank, ultimately handing the strategic territory to security forces associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah militias.
But Israeli security officials are warning Abbas' forces are not strong enough to contend with controlling the West Bank without the aid of the Israel Defense Forces. Yuval Diskin, head of Israel's Shin Bet Security Services, estimated during a Knesset meeting earlier his week that if control of the West Bank were handed over to Abbas, Israel would suffer a significant threat to its security.Palestinian security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, admitted to WND they cannot control the West Bank without Israeli intervention. According to the officials, Fatah's intelligence apparatus routinely hands the IDF lists of Hamas militants that threaten Fatah rule, requesting that Israel make arrests. Israeli and Palestinian security officials told WND they have specific information Hamas is quietly setting the stages for an imminent West Bank takeover attempt. The officials said that among other things, Hamas has been acquiring weaponry in the West Bank and has set up a sophisticated system of communication between cells for a seizure attempt. In what is considered the most threatening Hamas move, according to the officials, the terror group is thought to have heavily infiltrated all major Fatah forces in the West Bank and has been attempting to buy off Fatah militia members, many times successfully. According to Palestinian sources, Hamas has, among other things, recruited important members of Fatah's declared military wing, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. The terror group particularly has targeted those who were against a deal this past summer in which Olmert extended amnesty to Brigades members as a gesture to Abbas.
The Brigades, along with the Islamic Jihad terror group, has taken responsibility for every suicide bombing in Israel the past three years along with thousands of shootings and rocket firings against Jewish civilian population centers. According to the Palestinian sources, a West Bank shooting against a Jewish vehicle last week carried out by the Brigades was planned by Hamas. The shooting, in which a man was seriously wounded at a major junction near the Jewish community of Ariel, was perpetrated by a Brigades cell calling itself the Army of al-Boraq, named after the Muslim prophet Muhammad's horse. The cell used weapons given by Hamas, the sources said. The issue of Hamas infiltration of Fatah was thought to have been the Achilles heel that led to the terror group's takeover last summer of the entire Gaza Strip, including dozens of major, U.S.-backed Fatah security compounds there. Hamas' seizure is thought to be a partial consequence of Israel evacuating Gaza in 2005. Hamas' infiltration of Fatah was so extensive, according to top Palestinian intelligence sources speaking to WND, it included the chiefs of several prominent Fatah security forces, including Yussef Issa, director of the Preventative Security Services, the main Fatah police force. Issa regularly coordinated security with the U.S. and Israel. WND first reported Hamas' infiltration of Fatah in April, quoting a high-ranking Palestinian intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, stating Fatah is extensively infiltrated by Hamas.
A senior Abbas aide, Nabil Amr, admitted Fatah security forces are in a state of infiltration by Hamas. Hamas' Abu Abdullah told WND Fatah in the West Bank is heavily infiltrated by Hamas. Fatah hasn't yet touched the extent of our infiltration [of their groups] in the West Bank.Muhammad Abdel-El, spokesman for the Hamas-allied Popular Resistance Committees terror group, told WND his group and Hamas have infiltrated very deep in Fatah. We already are planning to obtain American weapons and take over the West Bank like we did in Gaza with help from the Palestinian resistance, including elements in Fatah, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the Fatah Security Services. The Committees and Hamas has infiltrated very deep in Fatah, Abdel-El said. Top Hamas leaders vowed to stage soon a coup in the West Bank. Earlier this week, Nizar Rayyan, a senior Hamas leader, stated Hamas will soon control Abbas' office in the West Bank. In the autumn, Hamas supporters will be praying in the Muqata compound in Ramallah (the site of Abbas' presidential office), he said. We are now praying at the presidential compound in Gaza, just as we said we would. Abbas' regime will fall like a leaf come autumn.
THE EU DICTATOR
REVELATION 6:1-2,13:1-3,7-9,16
1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
2 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.(THIS IS THE EU DICTATOR)
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.(7 HEADS ARE THE 7TH WORLD EMPIRE IN HISTORY (THE EU) AS WELL AS THE VATICAN WHICH IS BUILT ON 7 HILLS. 10 HORNS ARE 10 KINGS THAT ARISE FROM THE EU, THEN #11 COMES ON THE SCENE BECOMES THE HEAD OF 3 OUNTRIES AND THEN THE EU DICTATOR, COMES FROM 1 OF THE 3 COUNTRIES THAT RULE FOR THIS TERM. I BELIEVE THE 3 COUNTRIES RULING AT THE TIME ARE SPAIN AND 2 OF THE ORIGINAL 6 THAT STARTED THE EU. FROM 1 OF THESE 3 COUNTRIES COME THE FUTURE EU DICTATOR PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION WHO GUARENTEES ISRAELS SECURITY FOR A LAND FOR PEACE 7 YEAR TREATY.
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.(THE JEWISH EU DICTATOR GETS HIS POWER FROM SATAN,HE COMES FROM THE OCCULT).
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.(THE DICTATOR HAS A FALSE RESURRECTION. JUST LIKE JESUS HAD A LITERAL RESURRECTION THIS DICTATOR GETS MURDERED AT THE 3 1/2 YR MARK OF THR 7 YEAR TREATY AND COMES BACK TO LIFE. THIS IS HOW HE CAN CLAIM TO BE GOD AND GET AWAY WITH IT AND CONTROL THE WHOLE EARTH.
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
DANIEL 11:36-40
36 And the king shall do according to his will;(EU PRESIDENT) and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS A EUROPEAN JEW) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(HES A MILITARY GINIUS) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds (CONTROL HEZBOLLAH,AL-QUAIDA MURDERERS ETC) with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south(EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR PROTECTING ISRAELS SECURITY) and the king of the north(RUSSIA) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
THE NEW WORLD DISORDER Law of the Sea Treaty sails ahead Senate panel overwhelmingly passes measure empowering U.N.October 31, 2007 11:09 p.m. Eastern - 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
The United Nations' Law of the Sea Treaty, a wide-ranging measure critics say will grant the U.N. control of the 70 percent of the planet under its oceans, is now headed to the full Senate for ratification. The measure passed the Senate Foreign Relations committee today by a 17-4 vote. If you want a U.N. on steroids, you want the Law of the Sea Treaty, Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., has said. I am absolutely convinced it undermines U.S. sovereignty. A two-thirds vote is required for approval, meaning only 34 no votes can kill it. This is not the first time LOST has come up. International negotiators drafted it in 1982 in an attempt to establish a comprehensive legal regime for international management of the seas and their resources. President Ronald Reagan, however, refused to sign LOST because he realized that the treaty doesn't serve U.S. interests. In 1994, however, President Clinton signed a revised version of the treaty and forwarded it to the Senate. The record shows the Senate was not convinced the 1994 changes corrected the problems, and it has deferred action on the treaty ever since.
The Heritage Foundation warns the treaty would have unintended consequences for U.S. interests – including a threat to sovereignty. The conservative think tank says bureaucracies established by multilateral treaties often lack the transparency and accountability necessary to ensure that they are untainted by corruption, mismanagement or inappropriate claims of authority. The LOST bureaucracy is called the International Seabed Authority Secretariat, which has a strong incentive to enhance its own authority at the expense of state sovereignty.For example, this treaty would impose taxes on U.S. companies engaged in extracting resources from the ocean floor, wrote Heritage fellows Baker Spring and Brett D. Schaefer. This would give the treaty's secretariat an independent revenue stream that would remove a key check on its authority. After all, once a bureaucracy has its own source of funding, it needs answer only to itself.The United States should be wary of joining sweeping multilateral treaties negotiated under the auspices of the United Nations, say Spring and Schaefer of Heritage. Specifically, the benefit to U.S. national interests should be indisputable and clearly outweigh the predictable negative consequences of ratification.Other critics fear the treaty will be used as a back-door to implement policies against global warming without any accountability to the American people. Parts of the treaty, they say, mandate international regulation of U.S. economic and industrial activities on land. With that in mind, critics of the treaty believe so-called greenhouse gases could be viewed as ocean pollutants. In the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing recently, Bush administration officials were repeatedly embarrassed by tough questioning from Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who also has led opposition to ratification. For instance, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte testified the U.N. body established by the treaty has no jurisdiction over marine pollution disputes involving land-based sources.Why is there a section entitled pollution from land-based sources? questioned Vitter.
Vitter also questioned who decides what is considered military activity under the treaty. We will decide that. We consider that within our sovereign prerogative, said Negroponte. Where does the treaty say that we decide that and an arbitral body does not decide that? questioned Vitter. Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England answered: My understanding – and I'll ask my lawyer behind me – that that's in the treaty that we make that determination and that's not subject to review by anyone else.It's not in the treaty because I point to Article 298 1b where it simply says disputes concerning military activities are not subject to dispute resolution, explained Vitter. But it doesn't say who decides what is and what is not a military activity.England conceded the point.
We say it is up to us, but nobody else in the world says it is up to us, Vitter said. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said the United States had special military and commercial interests as the globe's only superpower, interests that the treaty did not take into account. He said many of the concerns over loss of national sovereignty that surfaced in the recent debate over immigration reform were surfacing once again in the Law of the Sea debate. This is not a good time to be bringing something like this before the American people, he said.
The battle over the Law of the Sea Treaty first began 25 years ago, eventually being torpedoed by President Reagan. It resurfaced in 2004 under the sponsorship of Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and was defeated by then Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
Then a short time ago President Bush announced his intention to seek reintroduction of LOST for ratification to a small group of trusted Republican grass-roots organizers – an announcement that was met with horror and scorn. Eagle Forum leader Phyllis Schlafly, Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney, Leadership Institute President Morton Blackwell, Free Congress Foundation founder Paul Weyrich and leaders of the Heritage Foundation were quick to denounce the idea in forceful terms, calling on their members to begin lobbying the White House immediately. LOST has long had the support of environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council. It would establish rules governing the uses of the of the world's oceans – treating waters more than 200 nautical miles off coasts as the purview of a new international U.N. bureaucracy, the International Seabed Authority The ISA would have the authority to set production controls for ocean mining, drilling and fishing, regulate ocean exploration, issue permits and settle disputes in its own new court.Companies seeking to mine or fish would be required to apply for a permit, paying a royalty fee. Critics also point out the new U.N. agency would have the right to compete directly with private companies in those profit-making activities. The U.S. would have only one vote of 140 – and no veto power as it has on the U.N. Security Council. The Bush administration claims the initiative for reintroduction of the treaty comes from the military, which likes the 12-mile territorial limits it places on national claims to waters. Yet, critics point out international law already protects non-aggressive passage, including non-wartime activities of military ships.
One of the main authors of LOST not only admired Karl Marx but was an ardent advocate of the Marxist-oriented New International Economic Order. Elisabeth Mann Borgese, a socialist who ran the World Federalists of Canada, played a critical role in crafting and promoting LOST, as WND reported in 2005. Borgese was hailed by her U.N. supporters as the Mother of the Oceans or First Lady of the Oceans. She died in 2002. In an article co-authored with an international lawyer, Borgese noted how LOST stipulates that the oceans shall be reserved for peaceful purposes and that any threat or use of force, inconsistent with the United Nations Charter, is prohibited.She argued LOST prohibits the ability of nuclear submarines from the U.S. and other nations to rove freely through the world's oceans.
DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADE BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).
Will secret clubs pick next prez? CFR, Bilderbergers, Trilateral Commission insiders usually run for, win White House, shows new book - November 1, 2007 - 1:00 a.m. Eastern - 2007 WorldNetDaily.com - WASHINGTON – It started in 1952.
Nearly every person elected as president of the United States since then – and nearly every opponent – has belonged to a secretive, globalism-oriented organization known as the Council on Foreign Relations. Some presidents and their challengers have belonged to additional clubs of internationalists – the Bilderberg Group and the Trilateral Commission. Running mates, too, more often than not have had ties to the groups. That the groups exert enormous influence on public policy is indisputable. What is disputed is whether such groups are, as adherents and members argue, just discussion forums for movers and shakers, or, as critics have long alleged, secret societies shaping a new world order from behind the scenes. On that last point at least, no one could challenge the critics: All these groups operate in considerable secrecy, away from the scrutiny of the American public. Regardless of how one characterizes them, the fact that virtually all presidents belong to the same secret clubs prompts the author of a new book to wonder if the 2008 election will also be a contest between globalist insiders. Judging from the list of frontrunners of each party, Daniel Estulin, author of The True Story of the Bilderberg Group, may be on to something.
According to a variety of sources, the following presidential candidates are either members of one of the groups or have strong ties: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, John McCain, John Edwards, Fred Thompson, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd and Bill Richardson. Mike Huckabee, though not a member, spoke to the CFR in September. Since then, his political star has risen to the point that he has become a top-tier candidate. So often throughout recent history it has been the case. Ever since Democrat Adlai Stevenson challenged Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956, the odds have significantly favored those with membership in the elite groups. In 1960, both John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon were members. In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson was not a member. Neither was his opponent, Barry Goldwater. But Johnson had already staffed his administration with plenty of insiders. In 1968, it was Nixon versus club member Hubert H. Humphrey. In 1972, it was Nixon again against Democratic Party CFR member George McGovern. In 1976, it was CFR Republican Gerald Ford losing to CFR Democrat Jimmy Carter.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan was not a member, but his running mate, George H.W. Bush, was. So were both of his opponents – Carter and independent John Anderson. Assuming office, however, Reagan quickly named 313 CFR members to his team. In 1984, another CFR member, Walter Mondale, was nominated by the Democratic Party to challenge Reagan. In 1988, CFR member Bush took on CFR member Michael Dukakis. In 1992, Bush was challenged by an obscure governor from Arkansas, Bill Clinton, who won the trifecta by being a member of the CFR, Trlateral Commission and Bilderberg Group. He was also a Rhodes scholar – another favored credential of the worldwide elite. In 1996, Clinton was challenged by CFR member Bob Dole. In 2000, CFR member Al Gore ran against non-member George W. Bush, but his running mate, Dick Cheney, was. In 2004, Bush was challenged by CFR member John Kerry. David Rockefeller, whose family financed the CFR, is a common denominator among these parallel groups, writes Estulin. Not only is he the CFR chairman emeritus, but he also continues to provide financial and personal support to the TC, CFR and Bilderberg Group.
What is the agenda behind these groups, which Estulin says are comprised of self-interested elitists protecting their wealth and the investments of multinational banks and corporations in the growing world economy at the expense of developing nations and Third World countries?
The policies they develop, he writes, benefit them as well as move us towards a one-world government.Those questioning Estulin's conclusion as mere speculation need only recall organizational financer David Rockefeller's own words as recorded in his Memoirs. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as internationalists and conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure – one world, if you will, he wrote. If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.With regard to insider roles in recent U.S. presidential races, two of the most interesting were 1976 and 1992. In the spring of 1972, a high-profile group of men gathered for dinner with W. Averell Harriman, the grand old man of the Democratic Party, a Bilderberger and a member of the CFR, writes Estulin. Also present were Milton Katz, a CFR member and director of international studies at Harvard, Robert Bowie, who would later become deputy director of the CIA, George Franklin, David Rockefeller's coordinator for the Trilateral Commission, and Gerald Smith, U.S. ambassador-at-large for non-proliferation matters. The focus of their discussion was the not-too-distant 1976 presidential elections. Harriman suggested that if the Democrats wanted to recapture the White House, we had better get off our high horses and look at some of those southern governors. Several names cropped up. Among them were Ruben Askew, governor of Florida, and Terry Sanford, former governor of North Carolina and, at the time, president of Duke University.Katz reportedly informed David Rockefeller of the viability of Jimmy Carter, then governor of Georgia. According to the author, he could be sold politically to the American people. At a dinner in London, recorded by the London Times, Rockefeller got acquainted with Carter and became convinced he could become the next U.S. president. Carter was invited to join the Trilateral Commission and quickly accepted. Later, U.S. News and World Report would have this to say about the Carter administration: The Trilateralists have taken charge of foreign policy-making in the Carter administration, and already the immense power they wield is sparking some controversy. Active or former members of the Trilateral Commission now head every key agency involved in mapping U.S. strategy for dealing with the rest of the world.
In 1992, Estulin concludes Bill Clinton was similarly anointed for the presidency at the 1991 Bilderberg Conference in Baden-Baden. Following the meeting, Clinton immediately took a trip to Russia to meet with Soviet Interior Minister Vadim Balatin, then serving Mikhail Gorbachev. Later, when Boris Yeltsin won the presidential election, Bakatin became the new chief of the KGB. The meeting went unnoticed in most of the press, with the exception of the Arkansas Democrat, whose headline told the story: Clinton has powerful buddy in U.S.S.R – New head of KGB.Estulin's book, first written in 2005 in Spain, has been translated into 24 languages, most recently this English edition. He has covered the Bilderberg Group as a journalist for more than 15 years.
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.
Californians reminded of danger to come By SCOTT LINDLAW, Associated Press Writer Wed Oct 31, 9:05 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO - The largest earthquake to hit the San Francisco Bay area in years was a seismic throat-clearing of sorts, compared with the magnitude-7.0 quake that experts anticipate will hit the region in the next 25 years. Tuesday's magnitude-5.6 quake, centered about 9 miles northeast of San Jose, shook nerves and reminded residents of the seven major earthquake faults that run through the region.The quake and the more than three dozen aftershocks that followed — the largest registering magnitude 3.7 on Wednesday afternoon — produced no reports of serious injury or damage, officials said. Tuesday's quake was felt as far away as Santa Rosa, Sacramento and Monterey.Even so, it paled in comparison to the larger one that experts anticipate. That quake will hit one of the seven major faults and pack 60 times the force of Tuesday's quake, said Tom Brocher, a senior U.S. Geological Survey seismologist.Tuesday's quake originated along the Calaveras Fault, which is not thought to be as dangerous as a fault it intersects, the Hayward Fault. Scientists estimate the Hayward Fault has a 27 percent chance of causing a quake of magnitude 6.7 or greater. Historically, severe quakes have occurred on the Hayward Fault every 151 years, give or take 23 years. The last one to hit was in 1868, meaning another could strike soon.
The Association of Bay Area Governments estimates a powerful Hayward quake would wipe out about 155,000 housing units, 37,000 in San Francisco alone.Tuesday's quake, which struck shortly after 8 p.m., raised questions about whether a quake hitting the Hayward Fault was now more likely.Under certain circumstances, a quake on one fault can transfer energy to another, adding instability and potentially triggering events on the other fault, seismologists said.By Wednesday morning, a consensus emerged at the U.S. Geological Survey that the previous night's quake did not significantly elevate the likelihood of a dreaded Hayward Fault quake. Tuesday's quake sent ripples of energy largely to the south, while the Hayward Fault extends north from the epicenter, Brocher said.Still, state officials issued an alarming warning.
The California Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council, a panel of scientists that advises the governor on earthquake forecasts, warned that Tuesday's earthquake has significantly increased the probability above the normal level for a damaging earthquake along the Calaveras and/or Hayward faults within the next several days.
However, the panel said, the overall likelihood of such an event is still low.In addition to the seven major faults, hundreds of smaller faults form a latticework of cracks beneath the region, perhaps a dozen of which could snap and generate moderate quakes, said David P. Schwartz, chief of the U.S. Geological Survey's Bay Area Earthquake Hazards Project.A hypothetical trench dug around the Bay Area would reveal hundreds of these small fissures, Schwartz said.The Earth's crust, which has been around for millions of years, has been pushed and pulled in all different directions, and is very broken up, he said. It's literally cracked up.Meanwhile, state and local inspectors examined sections of California's extensive levee system on Wednesday. Experts said the earthquake's center was too far from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to threaten the state's water supply.
Last night's jolt was not large enough to cause extensive damage, but it's a reminder of what will come, said Les Harder, deputy director of the state Department of Water Resources. A massive levee failure in the delta would cripple California's water supply system, which relies on the inland river delta to feed fresh water from the state's northern rivers to 750,000 acres of farmland and 25 million people in Southern California and the San Francisco Bay area. In an effort to prepare, California voters last November passed nearly $5 billion in bond money to strengthen the delta's levees and improve flood control throughout the state. (This version CORRECTS that there are seven major faults in the region, instead of eight.)
Powerful earthquake hits Pacific islands Wed Oct 31, 9:46 AM ET
TOKYO - A powerful earthquake struck in the Pacific Ocean near the Marianas Islands, Japan's weather agency said Wednesday, adding that there was no threat of a tsunami. The Meteorological Agency initially said the quake's magnitude was 7.5 but later revised it to 7.0 after analyzing the data. The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude was 7.2.The quake struck about 12:30 p.m. and occurred at a depth of about 150 miles, the Meteorological Agency said.The agency said the temblor's epicenter was in the northernmost reaches of the island chain in the northwest Pacific.
The islands lie along the Pacific Basin's Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanos and fault lines where quakes are frequent.(This version CORRECTS that the Marianas are in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, sted South Pacific.)
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.
Death toll mounts from Tropical Storm Noel By German Marte
Wed Oct 31, 9:33 PM ET
SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) - Two rivers burst their banks and swept away a Dominican Republic village, taking the death toll from Tropical Storm Noel's downpours on the Caribbean country and neighboring Haiti above 90 on Wednesday. Local politicians and residents said the El Duey and Haina rivers swelled after days of rain and drowned at least 25 people, left 50 to 100 missing and made dozens of families homeless in Villa Altagracia, about 26 miles outside the capital, Santo Domingo.Survivors said most of the 200 houses were swept away. There were a lot of dead, said Luis Melo.Dominican lawmaker Marino Mendoza said he had seen between 25 and 30 bodies strewn on the banks of the rivers.
Dominican President Leonel Fernandez declared a national emergency. The country's official toll rose to 56 deaths with 27 missing, as rescue teams reached villages cut off by raging rivers and inundated by chest-high floods. Unofficial reports put the dead much higher.A least 25,540 people were homeless and 6,300 homes had been destroyed, said Luis Luna Paulino, head of the Dominican Republic's emergency operations. He appealed to boat owners to help rescue people trapped in cut-off villages.Several bridges had collapsed, mudslides blocked roads and at least 39 communities were cut off by floods, he said.Noel strengthened a little over water after emerging off Cuba's northern shore, but was not expected to become a hurricane as it headed for the Bahamas, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.Forecasters projected the 14th named storm of the 2007 Atlantic storm season would veer northeast over the Bahamas on Thursday, away from Florida and well clear of U.S. oil and gas installations in the Gulf of Mexico.But a storm watch was issued for parts of the southeast Florida coast as the storm's interaction with a high pressure zone over the eastern United States kicked up a fierce surf and brought strong winds and whipping rains to the peninsula.
CUBA DOUSED
Thousands of people were evacuated from vulnerable areas but no casualties were reported in Cuba, which boasts one of the most effective civil protection operations in the region.The storm dumped 6 inches of rain in just six hours over Baracoa in Cuba, causing floods and cutting off roads at the already waterlogged eastern tip of the island.We are getting a constant downpour and strong gusts of wind. The sea is very rough, said Hector Rodriguez, a hotel worker in Cayo Coco, an island resort on the north coast of central Cuba.In Haiti, the most vulnerable of Caribbean countries to flash floods and mudslides because most of its trees have been chopped down to make charcoal, at least 24 people died, said national Civil Protection Office Director Alta Jean-Baptiste.About 3,400 people were staying in emergency shelters and around 400 houses had been destroyed.In Jamaica, one person died when a house collapsed in the heavy rain, the disaster preparedness agency said.The storm's center was located about 160 miles south-southwest of Nassau in the Bahamas, and 230 miles (370 km) south-southeast of Miami at 8 p.m. (0000 GMT Thursday), the hurricane center said. Noel was expected to continue drifting slowly northward for the next 24 hours, the hurricane center said. Its top sustained winds increased to near 60 mph (95 km per hour), some way short of the 74 mph (119 kph) at which tropical storms become hurricanes. (Additional reporting by Joseph Guyler Delva in Port-au-Prince and Anthony Boadle in Havana)
Tens of thousands flee Mexico flooding By LISA J. ADAMS, Associated Press Writer Wed Oct 31, 8:55 PM ET
MEXICO CITY - A week of heavy rains unleashed massive flooding Wednesday in southeastern Mexico, where tens of thousands fled the rising waters for shelters in Tabasco and Chiapas states. At least 20,000 people had sought shelter in Tabasco's oil-rich capital of Villahermosa, where floodwaters reached the rooftoops of homes, and Gov. Andres Granier was urging residents to evacuate.If they do not leave, I'm going to order them out by force, Granier told reporters in an interview broadcast on the Televisa television network.The flooding, which is not related to Tropical Storm Noel, also apparently caused the soil supporting a 10-inch natural gas pipeline to give way and spring a leak, officials from the state-owned company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, said. Tabasco state officials said the pipeline had exploded, but that there were no deaths or injuries.Water also crept up around the huge stone heads of an Olmec Indian archaeological site in Tabasco.
President Felipe Calderon flew to the area Wednesday and offered all help humanly possible to the more than 300,000 people of the state whose homes were flooded, damaged or cut off.In the southern state of Chiapas, 7,000 people were evacuated due to floods, the daily newspaper El Universal reported.In Villahermosa, rooftops barely jutted above the surface of brackish waters flooding the city's streets after at least one major river overflowed its banks.
Tabasco (normally) has water on 34 percent of its territory, but I can tell you that now, it's more than 70 percent water, Granier said Tuesday, according to a transcript of his comments posted on the state government's Web site. In 48 hours, our state has been devastated, totally devastated.The site did not indicate how many people had been evacuated. Telephones at Tabasco state offices rang busy all day Wednesday.Heavy rains started swelling rivers on Sunday.Associated Press Writer Mark Stevenson contributed to this report.
Israel says Hezbollah can hit Tel Aviv By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer Wed Oct 31, 8:16 PM ET
UNITED NATIONS - Israel alleges that Hezbollah militants in Lebanon have rearmed with new long-range rockets capable of hitting Tel Aviv and tripled their arsenal of land-to-sea missiles since last summer's war, the United Nations secretary-general said in a report Wednesday. Ban Ki-Moon said the reports of Hezbollah's rearming are a cause of great concern for the stability of Lebanon.
Israel has stated that the nature and number of weapons in Hezbollah's control constitutes a strategic threat to its security and the safety of its citizens, he said.Israel claims Hezbollah's long-range rocket force is stationed in areas north of the Litani River and that most of the new rockets, including hundreds of Zilzal and Fajr generation rockets, have a range of 155 miles, enabling them to reach Tel Aviv and points further south, the report said.
Israel also claims that Hezbollah has tripled its shore-to-sea C-802 missiles and have established an air defense unit armed with ground-to-air missiles, Ban said.While Israel has not provided the United Nations with specific intelligence due to the sensitivity of the sources, Ban said several speeches by Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah in the past few months seem to confirm these Israeli claims.Senior Hezbollah officials have said Nasrallah's comments were made to serve as a deterrent to aggression rather than as threats to Israel, Ban said.Reports of rearming are a cause of great concern which pose serious challenges for the sovereignty, stability and independence of Lebanon, he added.
Ban said Israel's contention that Hezbollah has rearmed to a level higher than before last year's war — and that arms continue to be smuggled across the Lebanon-Syria border despite Syrian denials — raise serious concerns about implementation of the U.N. resolution that ended the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah.Under the Security Council resolution, weapons transfers to the Iranian- and Syrian-backed militants are banned. Ban warned during a visit to Lebanon in March that arms smuggling threatened the Aug. 14, 2006 cease-fire. The resolution calls for the disarming of all militias.
Ban said there has been no progress the disarmament of Hezbollah and other militias, although he sees this as essential to fully restoring government authority throughout the country. The current political crisis in Lebanon has hindered efforts to implement the resolution.Ban has said the Chebaa Farms, captured by Israel during the 1967 war, remains a key issue in implementing the 2006 resolution. The United Nations determined that the area is Syrian. But Lebanon claims Chebaa Farms — a claim backed by Syria — and Hezbollah continues to fight over the disputed land, arguing that Israel's occupation justifies its resistance.The report for the first time publishes the provisional definition of the Chebaa Farms area, which was prepared by a senior U.N. cartographer.Ban said he is encouraged by the Lebanese government's first strides to enhance the control of its borders. He again urged Syria to demarcate its border with Lebanon and establish formal diplomatic relations with its neighbor.He criticized Israel for failing to provide Lebanon with the exact location, quantity and type of cluster munitions utilized during last summer's conflict which has led to an increasing number of deaths and injuries of Lebanese civilians.Israel's continued violations of Lebanese airspace not only constitute repeated violations of Security Council resolutions but also undermine the credibility of the U.N. ... and damage efforts to reduce tension, build confidence and stabilize the situation in southern Lebanon, Ban said.
Israel, Palestinians hold new talks ahead of Mideast meet Wed Oct 31, 3:51 PM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qorei held talks in Jerusalem late Wednesday ahead of the planned Middle East meeting in the United States. Saeb Erakat, a member of the negotiating team, told AFP the two sides met for more than two hours and could reconvene in the coming days, but that work had not started on drawing up a joint document.So far we haven't started to draw up the document. The Palestinian side has asked that we start putting down on paper the ideas that will allow the joint document to be written down, he said.The Palestinian and Israeli teams are trying to draft a joint document outlining the parameters for an agreement to be discussed at the meeting.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas called on Tuesday for a six-month deadline for a final status deal with Israel following the international peace meeting due later this year.The joint document must... set an adequate timeframe to complete negotiations on a final resolution after the next meeting, Abbas told journalists.
We have proposed a maximum timeframe of six months. Until now, we haven't reached an agreement with the Israelis or the Americans on this timeframe but we feel it is sufficient, he said.Six months is enough time to discuss and agree on the problems of the final phase, he said, adding that we will not accept leaving these questions open forever.Both sides hope to have the document ready before the convening of the meeting aimed at reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and expected to take place in Annapolis, Maryland.Israel refuses to commit to a timeframe for a peace deal, demanding that the Palestinians first crack down on militants.
Qorei has said the two sides have not yet touched on issues relating to the final status (agreement) of the Palestinian territories, including borders, the political status of Jerusalem, and the fate of refugees.
Hamas setting stage for West Bank seizure - Leader vows U.S.-backed Fatah will fall in a matter of weeks at most November 1, 2007 -1:00 a.m. Eastern - By Aaron Klein -2007 WorldNetDaily.com
[breaking] WorldNetDaily Exclusive While Israeli leader expected to give away strategic territory WND Hamas is setting the stage for a takeover of the West Bank similar to the coup in which the terror group seized control of the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli and Palestinian security officials. Hamas leaders confirmed to WND they are planning a West Bank takeover. Fatah will fall in a matter of weeks at most, and the Islamic resistance (Hamas) will reign in the West Bank just as we do in Gaza, said Abu Abdullah, considered one of the most important operational members of Hamas' so-called resistance department. The West Bank borders Jerusalem and is within rocket range of Tel Aviv and Israel's international airport. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, slated to arrive here next week for her second visit this month, has been serving as mediator for an upcoming U.S.-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian summit later this month. At the meeting, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is widely expected to outline a Palestinian state in most of the West Bank, ultimately handing the strategic territory to security forces associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah militias.
But Israeli security officials are warning Abbas' forces are not strong enough to contend with controlling the West Bank without the aid of the Israel Defense Forces. Yuval Diskin, head of Israel's Shin Bet Security Services, estimated during a Knesset meeting earlier his week that if control of the West Bank were handed over to Abbas, Israel would suffer a significant threat to its security.Palestinian security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, admitted to WND they cannot control the West Bank without Israeli intervention. According to the officials, Fatah's intelligence apparatus routinely hands the IDF lists of Hamas militants that threaten Fatah rule, requesting that Israel make arrests. Israeli and Palestinian security officials told WND they have specific information Hamas is quietly setting the stages for an imminent West Bank takeover attempt. The officials said that among other things, Hamas has been acquiring weaponry in the West Bank and has set up a sophisticated system of communication between cells for a seizure attempt. In what is considered the most threatening Hamas move, according to the officials, the terror group is thought to have heavily infiltrated all major Fatah forces in the West Bank and has been attempting to buy off Fatah militia members, many times successfully. According to Palestinian sources, Hamas has, among other things, recruited important members of Fatah's declared military wing, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. The terror group particularly has targeted those who were against a deal this past summer in which Olmert extended amnesty to Brigades members as a gesture to Abbas.
The Brigades, along with the Islamic Jihad terror group, has taken responsibility for every suicide bombing in Israel the past three years along with thousands of shootings and rocket firings against Jewish civilian population centers. According to the Palestinian sources, a West Bank shooting against a Jewish vehicle last week carried out by the Brigades was planned by Hamas. The shooting, in which a man was seriously wounded at a major junction near the Jewish community of Ariel, was perpetrated by a Brigades cell calling itself the Army of al-Boraq, named after the Muslim prophet Muhammad's horse. The cell used weapons given by Hamas, the sources said. The issue of Hamas infiltration of Fatah was thought to have been the Achilles heel that led to the terror group's takeover last summer of the entire Gaza Strip, including dozens of major, U.S.-backed Fatah security compounds there. Hamas' seizure is thought to be a partial consequence of Israel evacuating Gaza in 2005. Hamas' infiltration of Fatah was so extensive, according to top Palestinian intelligence sources speaking to WND, it included the chiefs of several prominent Fatah security forces, including Yussef Issa, director of the Preventative Security Services, the main Fatah police force. Issa regularly coordinated security with the U.S. and Israel. WND first reported Hamas' infiltration of Fatah in April, quoting a high-ranking Palestinian intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, stating Fatah is extensively infiltrated by Hamas.
A senior Abbas aide, Nabil Amr, admitted Fatah security forces are in a state of infiltration by Hamas. Hamas' Abu Abdullah told WND Fatah in the West Bank is heavily infiltrated by Hamas. Fatah hasn't yet touched the extent of our infiltration [of their groups] in the West Bank.Muhammad Abdel-El, spokesman for the Hamas-allied Popular Resistance Committees terror group, told WND his group and Hamas have infiltrated very deep in Fatah. We already are planning to obtain American weapons and take over the West Bank like we did in Gaza with help from the Palestinian resistance, including elements in Fatah, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the Fatah Security Services. The Committees and Hamas has infiltrated very deep in Fatah, Abdel-El said. Top Hamas leaders vowed to stage soon a coup in the West Bank. Earlier this week, Nizar Rayyan, a senior Hamas leader, stated Hamas will soon control Abbas' office in the West Bank. In the autumn, Hamas supporters will be praying in the Muqata compound in Ramallah (the site of Abbas' presidential office), he said. We are now praying at the presidential compound in Gaza, just as we said we would. Abbas' regime will fall like a leaf come autumn.
THE EU DICTATOR
REVELATION 6:1-2,13:1-3,7-9,16
1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
2 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.(THIS IS THE EU DICTATOR)
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.(7 HEADS ARE THE 7TH WORLD EMPIRE IN HISTORY (THE EU) AS WELL AS THE VATICAN WHICH IS BUILT ON 7 HILLS. 10 HORNS ARE 10 KINGS THAT ARISE FROM THE EU, THEN #11 COMES ON THE SCENE BECOMES THE HEAD OF 3 OUNTRIES AND THEN THE EU DICTATOR, COMES FROM 1 OF THE 3 COUNTRIES THAT RULE FOR THIS TERM. I BELIEVE THE 3 COUNTRIES RULING AT THE TIME ARE SPAIN AND 2 OF THE ORIGINAL 6 THAT STARTED THE EU. FROM 1 OF THESE 3 COUNTRIES COME THE FUTURE EU DICTATOR PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION WHO GUARENTEES ISRAELS SECURITY FOR A LAND FOR PEACE 7 YEAR TREATY.
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.(THE JEWISH EU DICTATOR GETS HIS POWER FROM SATAN,HE COMES FROM THE OCCULT).
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.(THE DICTATOR HAS A FALSE RESURRECTION. JUST LIKE JESUS HAD A LITERAL RESURRECTION THIS DICTATOR GETS MURDERED AT THE 3 1/2 YR MARK OF THR 7 YEAR TREATY AND COMES BACK TO LIFE. THIS IS HOW HE CAN CLAIM TO BE GOD AND GET AWAY WITH IT AND CONTROL THE WHOLE EARTH.
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
DANIEL 11:36-40
36 And the king shall do according to his will;(EU PRESIDENT) and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS A EUROPEAN JEW) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(HES A MILITARY GINIUS) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds (CONTROL HEZBOLLAH,AL-QUAIDA MURDERERS ETC) with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south(EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR PROTECTING ISRAELS SECURITY) and the king of the north(RUSSIA) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
THE NEW WORLD DISORDER Law of the Sea Treaty sails ahead Senate panel overwhelmingly passes measure empowering U.N.October 31, 2007 11:09 p.m. Eastern - 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
The United Nations' Law of the Sea Treaty, a wide-ranging measure critics say will grant the U.N. control of the 70 percent of the planet under its oceans, is now headed to the full Senate for ratification. The measure passed the Senate Foreign Relations committee today by a 17-4 vote. If you want a U.N. on steroids, you want the Law of the Sea Treaty, Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., has said. I am absolutely convinced it undermines U.S. sovereignty. A two-thirds vote is required for approval, meaning only 34 no votes can kill it. This is not the first time LOST has come up. International negotiators drafted it in 1982 in an attempt to establish a comprehensive legal regime for international management of the seas and their resources. President Ronald Reagan, however, refused to sign LOST because he realized that the treaty doesn't serve U.S. interests. In 1994, however, President Clinton signed a revised version of the treaty and forwarded it to the Senate. The record shows the Senate was not convinced the 1994 changes corrected the problems, and it has deferred action on the treaty ever since.
The Heritage Foundation warns the treaty would have unintended consequences for U.S. interests – including a threat to sovereignty. The conservative think tank says bureaucracies established by multilateral treaties often lack the transparency and accountability necessary to ensure that they are untainted by corruption, mismanagement or inappropriate claims of authority. The LOST bureaucracy is called the International Seabed Authority Secretariat, which has a strong incentive to enhance its own authority at the expense of state sovereignty.For example, this treaty would impose taxes on U.S. companies engaged in extracting resources from the ocean floor, wrote Heritage fellows Baker Spring and Brett D. Schaefer. This would give the treaty's secretariat an independent revenue stream that would remove a key check on its authority. After all, once a bureaucracy has its own source of funding, it needs answer only to itself.The United States should be wary of joining sweeping multilateral treaties negotiated under the auspices of the United Nations, say Spring and Schaefer of Heritage. Specifically, the benefit to U.S. national interests should be indisputable and clearly outweigh the predictable negative consequences of ratification.Other critics fear the treaty will be used as a back-door to implement policies against global warming without any accountability to the American people. Parts of the treaty, they say, mandate international regulation of U.S. economic and industrial activities on land. With that in mind, critics of the treaty believe so-called greenhouse gases could be viewed as ocean pollutants. In the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing recently, Bush administration officials were repeatedly embarrassed by tough questioning from Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who also has led opposition to ratification. For instance, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte testified the U.N. body established by the treaty has no jurisdiction over marine pollution disputes involving land-based sources.Why is there a section entitled pollution from land-based sources? questioned Vitter.
Vitter also questioned who decides what is considered military activity under the treaty. We will decide that. We consider that within our sovereign prerogative, said Negroponte. Where does the treaty say that we decide that and an arbitral body does not decide that? questioned Vitter. Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England answered: My understanding – and I'll ask my lawyer behind me – that that's in the treaty that we make that determination and that's not subject to review by anyone else.It's not in the treaty because I point to Article 298 1b where it simply says disputes concerning military activities are not subject to dispute resolution, explained Vitter. But it doesn't say who decides what is and what is not a military activity.England conceded the point.
We say it is up to us, but nobody else in the world says it is up to us, Vitter said. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said the United States had special military and commercial interests as the globe's only superpower, interests that the treaty did not take into account. He said many of the concerns over loss of national sovereignty that surfaced in the recent debate over immigration reform were surfacing once again in the Law of the Sea debate. This is not a good time to be bringing something like this before the American people, he said.
The battle over the Law of the Sea Treaty first began 25 years ago, eventually being torpedoed by President Reagan. It resurfaced in 2004 under the sponsorship of Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and was defeated by then Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
Then a short time ago President Bush announced his intention to seek reintroduction of LOST for ratification to a small group of trusted Republican grass-roots organizers – an announcement that was met with horror and scorn. Eagle Forum leader Phyllis Schlafly, Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney, Leadership Institute President Morton Blackwell, Free Congress Foundation founder Paul Weyrich and leaders of the Heritage Foundation were quick to denounce the idea in forceful terms, calling on their members to begin lobbying the White House immediately. LOST has long had the support of environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council. It would establish rules governing the uses of the of the world's oceans – treating waters more than 200 nautical miles off coasts as the purview of a new international U.N. bureaucracy, the International Seabed Authority The ISA would have the authority to set production controls for ocean mining, drilling and fishing, regulate ocean exploration, issue permits and settle disputes in its own new court.Companies seeking to mine or fish would be required to apply for a permit, paying a royalty fee. Critics also point out the new U.N. agency would have the right to compete directly with private companies in those profit-making activities. The U.S. would have only one vote of 140 – and no veto power as it has on the U.N. Security Council. The Bush administration claims the initiative for reintroduction of the treaty comes from the military, which likes the 12-mile territorial limits it places on national claims to waters. Yet, critics point out international law already protects non-aggressive passage, including non-wartime activities of military ships.
One of the main authors of LOST not only admired Karl Marx but was an ardent advocate of the Marxist-oriented New International Economic Order. Elisabeth Mann Borgese, a socialist who ran the World Federalists of Canada, played a critical role in crafting and promoting LOST, as WND reported in 2005. Borgese was hailed by her U.N. supporters as the Mother of the Oceans or First Lady of the Oceans. She died in 2002. In an article co-authored with an international lawyer, Borgese noted how LOST stipulates that the oceans shall be reserved for peaceful purposes and that any threat or use of force, inconsistent with the United Nations Charter, is prohibited.She argued LOST prohibits the ability of nuclear submarines from the U.S. and other nations to rove freely through the world's oceans.
DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADE BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).
Will secret clubs pick next prez? CFR, Bilderbergers, Trilateral Commission insiders usually run for, win White House, shows new book - November 1, 2007 - 1:00 a.m. Eastern - 2007 WorldNetDaily.com - WASHINGTON – It started in 1952.
Nearly every person elected as president of the United States since then – and nearly every opponent – has belonged to a secretive, globalism-oriented organization known as the Council on Foreign Relations. Some presidents and their challengers have belonged to additional clubs of internationalists – the Bilderberg Group and the Trilateral Commission. Running mates, too, more often than not have had ties to the groups. That the groups exert enormous influence on public policy is indisputable. What is disputed is whether such groups are, as adherents and members argue, just discussion forums for movers and shakers, or, as critics have long alleged, secret societies shaping a new world order from behind the scenes. On that last point at least, no one could challenge the critics: All these groups operate in considerable secrecy, away from the scrutiny of the American public. Regardless of how one characterizes them, the fact that virtually all presidents belong to the same secret clubs prompts the author of a new book to wonder if the 2008 election will also be a contest between globalist insiders. Judging from the list of frontrunners of each party, Daniel Estulin, author of The True Story of the Bilderberg Group, may be on to something.
According to a variety of sources, the following presidential candidates are either members of one of the groups or have strong ties: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, John McCain, John Edwards, Fred Thompson, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd and Bill Richardson. Mike Huckabee, though not a member, spoke to the CFR in September. Since then, his political star has risen to the point that he has become a top-tier candidate. So often throughout recent history it has been the case. Ever since Democrat Adlai Stevenson challenged Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956, the odds have significantly favored those with membership in the elite groups. In 1960, both John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon were members. In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson was not a member. Neither was his opponent, Barry Goldwater. But Johnson had already staffed his administration with plenty of insiders. In 1968, it was Nixon versus club member Hubert H. Humphrey. In 1972, it was Nixon again against Democratic Party CFR member George McGovern. In 1976, it was CFR Republican Gerald Ford losing to CFR Democrat Jimmy Carter.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan was not a member, but his running mate, George H.W. Bush, was. So were both of his opponents – Carter and independent John Anderson. Assuming office, however, Reagan quickly named 313 CFR members to his team. In 1984, another CFR member, Walter Mondale, was nominated by the Democratic Party to challenge Reagan. In 1988, CFR member Bush took on CFR member Michael Dukakis. In 1992, Bush was challenged by an obscure governor from Arkansas, Bill Clinton, who won the trifecta by being a member of the CFR, Trlateral Commission and Bilderberg Group. He was also a Rhodes scholar – another favored credential of the worldwide elite. In 1996, Clinton was challenged by CFR member Bob Dole. In 2000, CFR member Al Gore ran against non-member George W. Bush, but his running mate, Dick Cheney, was. In 2004, Bush was challenged by CFR member John Kerry. David Rockefeller, whose family financed the CFR, is a common denominator among these parallel groups, writes Estulin. Not only is he the CFR chairman emeritus, but he also continues to provide financial and personal support to the TC, CFR and Bilderberg Group.
What is the agenda behind these groups, which Estulin says are comprised of self-interested elitists protecting their wealth and the investments of multinational banks and corporations in the growing world economy at the expense of developing nations and Third World countries?
The policies they develop, he writes, benefit them as well as move us towards a one-world government.Those questioning Estulin's conclusion as mere speculation need only recall organizational financer David Rockefeller's own words as recorded in his Memoirs. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as internationalists and conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure – one world, if you will, he wrote. If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.With regard to insider roles in recent U.S. presidential races, two of the most interesting were 1976 and 1992. In the spring of 1972, a high-profile group of men gathered for dinner with W. Averell Harriman, the grand old man of the Democratic Party, a Bilderberger and a member of the CFR, writes Estulin. Also present were Milton Katz, a CFR member and director of international studies at Harvard, Robert Bowie, who would later become deputy director of the CIA, George Franklin, David Rockefeller's coordinator for the Trilateral Commission, and Gerald Smith, U.S. ambassador-at-large for non-proliferation matters. The focus of their discussion was the not-too-distant 1976 presidential elections. Harriman suggested that if the Democrats wanted to recapture the White House, we had better get off our high horses and look at some of those southern governors. Several names cropped up. Among them were Ruben Askew, governor of Florida, and Terry Sanford, former governor of North Carolina and, at the time, president of Duke University.Katz reportedly informed David Rockefeller of the viability of Jimmy Carter, then governor of Georgia. According to the author, he could be sold politically to the American people. At a dinner in London, recorded by the London Times, Rockefeller got acquainted with Carter and became convinced he could become the next U.S. president. Carter was invited to join the Trilateral Commission and quickly accepted. Later, U.S. News and World Report would have this to say about the Carter administration: The Trilateralists have taken charge of foreign policy-making in the Carter administration, and already the immense power they wield is sparking some controversy. Active or former members of the Trilateral Commission now head every key agency involved in mapping U.S. strategy for dealing with the rest of the world.
In 1992, Estulin concludes Bill Clinton was similarly anointed for the presidency at the 1991 Bilderberg Conference in Baden-Baden. Following the meeting, Clinton immediately took a trip to Russia to meet with Soviet Interior Minister Vadim Balatin, then serving Mikhail Gorbachev. Later, when Boris Yeltsin won the presidential election, Bakatin became the new chief of the KGB. The meeting went unnoticed in most of the press, with the exception of the Arkansas Democrat, whose headline told the story: Clinton has powerful buddy in U.S.S.R – New head of KGB.Estulin's book, first written in 2005 in Spain, has been translated into 24 languages, most recently this English edition. He has covered the Bilderberg Group as a journalist for more than 15 years.
Thursday, November 01, 2007
ISRAELI POLICY TOWARD TEMPLE MOUNT
Official Israeli Policy toward the Temple Mount
Below is the text of the 1967 Protection of Holy Places Law, the 1980 Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel, and the 1993 Israel Supreme Court decision concerning the religious and legal status of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.Following the text of these three documents is an article which first appeared in 1996, written by Israel Medad, in which he describes the systematic collusion between the Israel Supreme Court and the Israel Police, (as well as with the Moslem Wakf and whatever angry Moslem mob they throw together for the ocassion), allowing for the flagrant violation of the rights delineated by law and by Supreme Court declaration. The Supreme Court has, in effect, created a fool-proof means with which to flout the very basic rights it has upheld in its own rulings.
Protection of Holy Places Law
June 27, 1967
1. The Holy Places shall be protected from desecration and any other violation and from anything likely to violate the freedom of access of the members of the different religions to the places sacred to them or their feelings with regard to those places.
2. a. Whosoever desecrates or otherwise violates a Holy Place shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of seven years.
b. Whosoever does anything likely to violate the freedom of access of the members of the different religions to the places sacred to them or their feelings with regard to those places shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of five years.
3. This Law shall add to, and not derogate from, any other law.
4. The Minister of Religious Affairs is charged with the implementation of this Law, and he may, after consultation with, or upon the proposal of, representatives of the religions concerned and with the consent of the Minister of Justice make regulations as to any matter relating to such implementation.
5. This Law shall come into force on the date of its adoption by the Knesset.
Levi Eshkol
Prime Minister
Zerach Warhaftig
Minister of Religious Affairs
Shneur Zalman Shazar
President of the State
Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel
17th Av, 5740 (30th July, 1980)
Jerusalem, Capital of Israel
1. Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel.
Seat of the President, the Knesset, the Government and the Supreme Court
2. Jerusalem is the seat of the President of the State, the Knesset, the Government and the Supreme Court.
Protection of Holy Places
3. The Holy Places shall be protected from desecration and any other violation and from anything likely to violate the freedom of access of the members of the different religions to the places sacred to them or their feelings towards those places.
Development of Jerusalem
4. (a) The Government shall provide for the development and prosperity of Jerusalem and the well-being of its inhabitants by allocating special funds, including a special annual grant to the Municipality of Jerusalem (Capital City Grant) with the approval of the Finance Committee of the Knesset.
(b) Jerusalem shall be given special priority in the activities of the authorities of the State so as to further its development in economic and other matters.
(c) The Government shall set up a special body or special bodies for the implementation of this section.
* Passed by the Knesset on the 17th Av, 5740 (30th July, 1980) and published in Sefer Ha-Chukkim No. 980 of the 23rd Av, 5740 (5th August, 1980), p. 186; the Bill and an Explanatory Note were published in Hatza'ot Chok No. 1464 of 5740, p. 287.
Israel Supreme Court decision (HG 4185/90) concerning the religious and legal status of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem
Sept. 23 1993
Following are excerpts from the Supreme Court's unanimous decision issued Sept. 23 1993, written by Justice Menachem Elon: The uniqueness and the destiny of the Holy Temple found expression in the prayer of King Solomon upon completion of that building's erection (I Kings, Ch. 8): ...when a prayer or a plea is made by any person, by any of your people Israel - each one aware of the afflictions of his own heart, and spreading out his hands towards this Temple - then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive and act; deal with each man according to all his deeds, for you know his heart - you alone know the hearts of all men... In the year 538 BCE, Cyrus, King of Persia, issued a proclamation to the Jews of the Babylonian exile in which he announced his wish to raise up the Holy Temple in Jerusalem from its ruins, and urged the exiles to go up to their land and to participate in the rebuilding of the Temple...
King Herod wrought a great change in the annals of the Temple Mount and in its contours: The shape of the Mount as we see it today is his work... The Temple Mount and the Holy Temple itself were the heart of the nation and the focus of its faith, whence emanated law and instruction to the people of Israel, and around them gathered all its sons and daughters, from near and far... In the year 70 CE, Titus, the son of the Emperor Vespasian, activated the Roman legions in Jerusalem, which overcame the fierce resistance of the Jewish defenders of the Temple Mount...The historian Gedaliah ...thus sums up the place of the Temple in that era and the reason for its demolition at Titus' hands:
The status and significance of the Temple as the foundation of the state and its religious life, and as the stronghold and the symbol of this people's national spirit and faith - this, more than all else, brought on Titus' order to burn it down...
...the Temple Mount has been the holiest place for the past 3,000 years, ever since King Solomon erected the First Temple on Mt. Moriah (II Chron. 3:1); and Mt. Moriah itself had been held sacred because of [an event that took place there some 1 ,000 years earlier], the binding of Isaac by Abraham, the father of the Hebrew nation, 'in the land of Moriah' (Gen. 22:2)... Thus primeval sanctity of the Temple Mount continues unabated to this day - even after the destruction of the First and Second Temples... and the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, which stands to this very day, is the holiest site in Jewish tradition.
For adherents to the Muslim faith, the Temple Mount has been held sacred for the past 1,300 years - since the conquest of Jerusalem by the Muslims in 638 - and on it they erected the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The sanctity of the Mount, for Muslims, comes after the sanctity of Medina, which in turn comes after the sanctity of Mecca... The Christians, too, ascribe religious importance to the Temple Mount.
The following article was first published in 1996. Shomron News Service - 1 Av 5756 / July 17, 1996 - by Yisrael Medad
This being the special three-week period, which culminates on Tisha B'av, commemorating the destruction of the two Temples, SNS brings its readers a review and analysis of the legal parameters, as well as the public policy concerning the Temple Mount, as regards entry and prayer.
Despite the Law for the Protection of the Holy Places, 1967, and its clauses assuring freedom of access to and worship within each religion's holy sites, despite their reconfirmation in the Basic Law: Jerusalem, 1980, and despite the recognition of those rights, in principle, by Israel's High Court of Justice, in practice the Israeli police consistently refuse to permit any form of Jewish prayer in the confines of the Temple Mount compound. In addition, any outward appearance of religiosity such as Tallit (Prayer Shawl) fringes hanging out, a Prayer Book or other religious tome or any ritual object such as Tefillin (Phylacteries), Lulav (palm branch) or the like are banned. In essence, a Jew may enter his Most Sacred Site but may not do so in a way that would be Jewish.
Some two dozen petitions have been heard by the High Court of Justice in the past 28 years. Throughout them all, the main thread is less a formalistic argument than an agreement by the justices, that in the matter of the Temple Mount, there is an overriding principle of sensitivity. The principle of sensitivity dictates that because Muslims view the Temple Mount Courtyard as their exclusive domain and will engage in violent acts to counter any display of Jewishness, then it is in the interests of public order to prevent a Jew from exercising his legal rights. The presence of a Jew, as a Jew and not as a tourist or visitor, is a provocation. As Professor Itzhak Englard has written: In substance, the prohibition of public prayer is a violation of the principles of collective freedom of religion (Amer. Journal of Comparative Law, 35:1987, p. 198).
Jurists and legal experts from the West and especially the United States will readily realize, that based on such a principle, the Civil Rights movement would never had made any gains, not to speak of gay rights and a plethora of social, religious and ethnic issues.
In one instance, in 1994, the Justices ordered the police to insure the entry of Jews (H.C.J. 3995/94) but nevertheless gave the police a free hand to cancel their order if public order needed to be preserved. Needless to say, with 300 angry Muslims led by the Deputy Mufti gathered inside the main entrance of the compound, the Jews assembled outside were denied entry.
The point should be stressed that it is not the wish of Jews to pray inside any Muslim building. In this regard, though, it is worth drawing attention to the fact, that such an arrangement already does exist in Hevron, where Jews and Muslims pray under the same roof. The Israeli Police and Border Guard Units, utilizing electronic instruments, assure the peace at that holy site.
It is undeniable that, legal and security arguments aside, it is a political consideration which denies Jews their civil rights and liberties. For example, although the High Court of Justice has confirmed, inter alia, that the Temple Mount surely is a Jewish holy place, the Department for Holy Places of the Ministry for Religious Affairs does not list the Temple Mount as such, budgets no money for it and in no other way administers the site. Most crucial, the Judges refuse to obligate the relevant Minister to formulate and adopt administrative regulations that would allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount by defining, for example, the location and times for prayer.
The day-to-day administration, actually, is in the hands of the Jordanian Wakf. The religious officials tending to the Temple Mount are not Israeli government employees. They are uniformed and carry sophisticated communications equipment. The Temple Mount is a testing-ground for the undercurrent of tensions between supporters of Arafat, King Hussein and Islamic fundamentalists among those in charge and who run the institutions that exist there: educational, cultural and political.
Many people presume that Jewish Halachic (Jewish law) restrictions would deny entry into the Compound because of a Rabbinic Ban on stepping into sacred precincts. However, that prohibition extends only to a 500 cubit-square area, which is considerably smaller than the current esplanade. Former Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren and others have pronounced in favor of a limited access.
Archaeological and scientific engineering research, which could contribute to the location of the 500 cubit-square are is disallowed. In fact, Jewish archaeological remains are systematically destroyed or covered over. The underground passageways of astounding historical importance are off-limits.
What we are witness to is the exploitation of the juridical system to the political demands of policy. Israel's Courts must be convinced that their duty is to uphold the law and the norms of justice. They themselves, lend a legitimacy to the flouting of legal principles. It should be noted that as recently as this month, Israel's High Court of Justice ordered the police to prepare for the protection of the right of Meretz supporters to demonstrate, even in a provocative fashion, along the Bar-Ilan Boulevard. Will they apply the same outlook to allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount.
Below is the text of the 1967 Protection of Holy Places Law, the 1980 Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel, and the 1993 Israel Supreme Court decision concerning the religious and legal status of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.Following the text of these three documents is an article which first appeared in 1996, written by Israel Medad, in which he describes the systematic collusion between the Israel Supreme Court and the Israel Police, (as well as with the Moslem Wakf and whatever angry Moslem mob they throw together for the ocassion), allowing for the flagrant violation of the rights delineated by law and by Supreme Court declaration. The Supreme Court has, in effect, created a fool-proof means with which to flout the very basic rights it has upheld in its own rulings.
Protection of Holy Places Law
June 27, 1967
1. The Holy Places shall be protected from desecration and any other violation and from anything likely to violate the freedom of access of the members of the different religions to the places sacred to them or their feelings with regard to those places.
2. a. Whosoever desecrates or otherwise violates a Holy Place shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of seven years.
b. Whosoever does anything likely to violate the freedom of access of the members of the different religions to the places sacred to them or their feelings with regard to those places shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of five years.
3. This Law shall add to, and not derogate from, any other law.
4. The Minister of Religious Affairs is charged with the implementation of this Law, and he may, after consultation with, or upon the proposal of, representatives of the religions concerned and with the consent of the Minister of Justice make regulations as to any matter relating to such implementation.
5. This Law shall come into force on the date of its adoption by the Knesset.
Levi Eshkol
Prime Minister
Zerach Warhaftig
Minister of Religious Affairs
Shneur Zalman Shazar
President of the State
Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel
17th Av, 5740 (30th July, 1980)
Jerusalem, Capital of Israel
1. Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel.
Seat of the President, the Knesset, the Government and the Supreme Court
2. Jerusalem is the seat of the President of the State, the Knesset, the Government and the Supreme Court.
Protection of Holy Places
3. The Holy Places shall be protected from desecration and any other violation and from anything likely to violate the freedom of access of the members of the different religions to the places sacred to them or their feelings towards those places.
Development of Jerusalem
4. (a) The Government shall provide for the development and prosperity of Jerusalem and the well-being of its inhabitants by allocating special funds, including a special annual grant to the Municipality of Jerusalem (Capital City Grant) with the approval of the Finance Committee of the Knesset.
(b) Jerusalem shall be given special priority in the activities of the authorities of the State so as to further its development in economic and other matters.
(c) The Government shall set up a special body or special bodies for the implementation of this section.
* Passed by the Knesset on the 17th Av, 5740 (30th July, 1980) and published in Sefer Ha-Chukkim No. 980 of the 23rd Av, 5740 (5th August, 1980), p. 186; the Bill and an Explanatory Note were published in Hatza'ot Chok No. 1464 of 5740, p. 287.
Israel Supreme Court decision (HG 4185/90) concerning the religious and legal status of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem
Sept. 23 1993
Following are excerpts from the Supreme Court's unanimous decision issued Sept. 23 1993, written by Justice Menachem Elon: The uniqueness and the destiny of the Holy Temple found expression in the prayer of King Solomon upon completion of that building's erection (I Kings, Ch. 8): ...when a prayer or a plea is made by any person, by any of your people Israel - each one aware of the afflictions of his own heart, and spreading out his hands towards this Temple - then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive and act; deal with each man according to all his deeds, for you know his heart - you alone know the hearts of all men... In the year 538 BCE, Cyrus, King of Persia, issued a proclamation to the Jews of the Babylonian exile in which he announced his wish to raise up the Holy Temple in Jerusalem from its ruins, and urged the exiles to go up to their land and to participate in the rebuilding of the Temple...
King Herod wrought a great change in the annals of the Temple Mount and in its contours: The shape of the Mount as we see it today is his work... The Temple Mount and the Holy Temple itself were the heart of the nation and the focus of its faith, whence emanated law and instruction to the people of Israel, and around them gathered all its sons and daughters, from near and far... In the year 70 CE, Titus, the son of the Emperor Vespasian, activated the Roman legions in Jerusalem, which overcame the fierce resistance of the Jewish defenders of the Temple Mount...The historian Gedaliah ...thus sums up the place of the Temple in that era and the reason for its demolition at Titus' hands:
The status and significance of the Temple as the foundation of the state and its religious life, and as the stronghold and the symbol of this people's national spirit and faith - this, more than all else, brought on Titus' order to burn it down...
...the Temple Mount has been the holiest place for the past 3,000 years, ever since King Solomon erected the First Temple on Mt. Moriah (II Chron. 3:1); and Mt. Moriah itself had been held sacred because of [an event that took place there some 1 ,000 years earlier], the binding of Isaac by Abraham, the father of the Hebrew nation, 'in the land of Moriah' (Gen. 22:2)... Thus primeval sanctity of the Temple Mount continues unabated to this day - even after the destruction of the First and Second Temples... and the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, which stands to this very day, is the holiest site in Jewish tradition.
For adherents to the Muslim faith, the Temple Mount has been held sacred for the past 1,300 years - since the conquest of Jerusalem by the Muslims in 638 - and on it they erected the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The sanctity of the Mount, for Muslims, comes after the sanctity of Medina, which in turn comes after the sanctity of Mecca... The Christians, too, ascribe religious importance to the Temple Mount.
The following article was first published in 1996. Shomron News Service - 1 Av 5756 / July 17, 1996 - by Yisrael Medad
This being the special three-week period, which culminates on Tisha B'av, commemorating the destruction of the two Temples, SNS brings its readers a review and analysis of the legal parameters, as well as the public policy concerning the Temple Mount, as regards entry and prayer.
Despite the Law for the Protection of the Holy Places, 1967, and its clauses assuring freedom of access to and worship within each religion's holy sites, despite their reconfirmation in the Basic Law: Jerusalem, 1980, and despite the recognition of those rights, in principle, by Israel's High Court of Justice, in practice the Israeli police consistently refuse to permit any form of Jewish prayer in the confines of the Temple Mount compound. In addition, any outward appearance of religiosity such as Tallit (Prayer Shawl) fringes hanging out, a Prayer Book or other religious tome or any ritual object such as Tefillin (Phylacteries), Lulav (palm branch) or the like are banned. In essence, a Jew may enter his Most Sacred Site but may not do so in a way that would be Jewish.
Some two dozen petitions have been heard by the High Court of Justice in the past 28 years. Throughout them all, the main thread is less a formalistic argument than an agreement by the justices, that in the matter of the Temple Mount, there is an overriding principle of sensitivity. The principle of sensitivity dictates that because Muslims view the Temple Mount Courtyard as their exclusive domain and will engage in violent acts to counter any display of Jewishness, then it is in the interests of public order to prevent a Jew from exercising his legal rights. The presence of a Jew, as a Jew and not as a tourist or visitor, is a provocation. As Professor Itzhak Englard has written: In substance, the prohibition of public prayer is a violation of the principles of collective freedom of religion (Amer. Journal of Comparative Law, 35:1987, p. 198).
Jurists and legal experts from the West and especially the United States will readily realize, that based on such a principle, the Civil Rights movement would never had made any gains, not to speak of gay rights and a plethora of social, religious and ethnic issues.
In one instance, in 1994, the Justices ordered the police to insure the entry of Jews (H.C.J. 3995/94) but nevertheless gave the police a free hand to cancel their order if public order needed to be preserved. Needless to say, with 300 angry Muslims led by the Deputy Mufti gathered inside the main entrance of the compound, the Jews assembled outside were denied entry.
The point should be stressed that it is not the wish of Jews to pray inside any Muslim building. In this regard, though, it is worth drawing attention to the fact, that such an arrangement already does exist in Hevron, where Jews and Muslims pray under the same roof. The Israeli Police and Border Guard Units, utilizing electronic instruments, assure the peace at that holy site.
It is undeniable that, legal and security arguments aside, it is a political consideration which denies Jews their civil rights and liberties. For example, although the High Court of Justice has confirmed, inter alia, that the Temple Mount surely is a Jewish holy place, the Department for Holy Places of the Ministry for Religious Affairs does not list the Temple Mount as such, budgets no money for it and in no other way administers the site. Most crucial, the Judges refuse to obligate the relevant Minister to formulate and adopt administrative regulations that would allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount by defining, for example, the location and times for prayer.
The day-to-day administration, actually, is in the hands of the Jordanian Wakf. The religious officials tending to the Temple Mount are not Israeli government employees. They are uniformed and carry sophisticated communications equipment. The Temple Mount is a testing-ground for the undercurrent of tensions between supporters of Arafat, King Hussein and Islamic fundamentalists among those in charge and who run the institutions that exist there: educational, cultural and political.
Many people presume that Jewish Halachic (Jewish law) restrictions would deny entry into the Compound because of a Rabbinic Ban on stepping into sacred precincts. However, that prohibition extends only to a 500 cubit-square area, which is considerably smaller than the current esplanade. Former Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren and others have pronounced in favor of a limited access.
Archaeological and scientific engineering research, which could contribute to the location of the 500 cubit-square are is disallowed. In fact, Jewish archaeological remains are systematically destroyed or covered over. The underground passageways of astounding historical importance are off-limits.
What we are witness to is the exploitation of the juridical system to the political demands of policy. Israel's Courts must be convinced that their duty is to uphold the law and the norms of justice. They themselves, lend a legitimacy to the flouting of legal principles. It should be noted that as recently as this month, Israel's High Court of Justice ordered the police to prepare for the protection of the right of Meretz supporters to demonstrate, even in a provocative fashion, along the Bar-Ilan Boulevard. Will they apply the same outlook to allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount.
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