1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS. 2-Strong quake shakes Guatemala. 3-Rains blamed for 76 deaths in China. 4-Iraq bombers topple Samarra minarets. 5-Hamas seizing control of Gaza Strip. 6-Greece wants bigger EU role in Mideast peace. 7-Barak Wins Labor Race; Fraud Allegations at Arab Polling Station. 8-Minister Cohen Calls for Reinstating Religious Affairs Ministry. 9-Military plan against Iran is ready. 10-Ruth Bell Graham reported near death. 11-Pres. Race: Rivlin & Avital Withdraw, Peres to Become President.
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)
Update time = Sat Jun 16 12:01 AM EDT
JUNE 13,07
MAP 6.8 OFFSHORE GUATEMALA
MAP 3.1 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 5.4 KEPULAUAN TALAUD, INDONESIA
MAP 4.0 REVILLA GIGEDO ISLANDS REGION
MAP 3.3 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.9 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.6 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 3.5 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 2.7 SOUTH OF ALASKA
MAP 2.6 HAWAII REGION, HAWAII
MAP 3.4 KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA
MAP 2.6 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.0 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.7 BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA
MAP 3.4 CHANNEL ISLANDS REGION, CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.9 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 OFFSHORE BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 2.9 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.4 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
JUNE 12,07
MAP 4.7 TONGA
MAP 2.7 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.0 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 5.1 MACQUARIE ISLAND REGION
MAP 3.3 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 4.1 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.2 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 3.2 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 4.4 SAN JUAN, ARGENTINA
MAP 4.7 SOUTHEAST OF EASTER ISLAND
MAP 2.9 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 3.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.9 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP 4.8 NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
MAP 4.7 BOUGAINVILLE REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.8 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.2 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.6 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.6 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 OREGON
MAP 2.7 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 4.7 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 3.3 GULF OF ALASKA
MAP 2.7 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 4.8 NIAS REGION, INDONESIA
MAP 3.0 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP 2.8 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.8 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 5.0 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 2.7 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 4.7 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 3.1 ALASKA PENINSULA
JUNE 11,07
MAP 3.5 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 3.2 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 4.9 FIJI REGION
MAP 3.6 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS,
MAP 3.7 ALASKA HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
MAP 4.1 WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA
MAP 2.8 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 2.7 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.8 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.1 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.8 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 3.1 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 4.5 OFF THE EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA, RUSSIA
MAP 4.6 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.6 PERU-ECUADOR BORDER REGION
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.9 UTAH
MAP 3.2 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 5.2 NEAR THE COAST OF ECUADOR
Strong quake shakes Guatemala By RODRIGO ESTRADA, Associated Press Writer
JUNE 13,07
GUATEMALA CITY - A powerful earthquake shook Guatemala and parts of El Salvador Wednesday, causing some residents of the capital cities to rush from buildings into the streets for safety, officials said. The 6.8-magnitude quake snarled traffic in Guatemala City but there were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries.Aid workers across Guatemala reported only minor damage to homes in a couple of rural communities, according to Francois de la Roche, Latin America's director for humanitarian and emergency affairs for the aid organization World Vision.
I didn't notice it at first but then felt this long, swaying motion back and forward, de la Roche said in a telephone interview from Antigua, Guatemala.The quake struck at 1:29 p.m. and was centered 70 miles southwest of Guatemala City off the Pacific coast, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Guatemala's seismology institute said the quake lasted 49 seconds.In Guatemala City, people fled buildings into the streets, throwing traffic into chaos in the sprawling city.It rattled a lot of nerves, said Benedicto Giron, spokesman for the National Disaster Reduction Center.
Outside the capital, landslides were reported in the southwest province of Escuintla, but they apparently caused no casualties, Giron said. He added, however, that phone service was knocked out in some areas and information was only trickling in slowly.The quake was also felt strongly in neighboring El Salvador, where people ran into the streets in the capital of San Salvador, but the Red Cross there said it had no reports of damage or injuries.It was also felt in the Mexican city of Tapachula along the Guatemalan border.The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center based in Hawaii said no tsunami was expected from the quake.The region is prone to earthquakes. Almost 23,000 people died in a 1976 earthquake in Guatemala.Associated Press writers Ioan Grillo and Mark Stevenson contributed to this report from Mexico City.
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.
Rains blamed for 76 deaths in China Wed Jun 13, 1:24 AM ET
SHANGHAI, China - A southern Chinese province was rushing to shore up dams eroded by weeks of heavy rains and high waters that already have killed at least 76 people, state media reported Wednesday. Authorities in Guangdong also have diverted waters from the Hanjiang River into low-lying areas, forcing more than 10,000 people to evacuate inundated villages, the Xinhua News Agency said.Further downpours are expected through the week, according to local forecasters.
For centuries, China has relied on dams, dikes and reservoirs to control the waters of its rivers, but many were poorly built and are now feared in serious danger of collapse.Flooding and rain-triggered landslides this year have affected sections of six provinces where more than 13 million people reside. More than 788,000 people have been evacuated to high ground while economic losses have topped $606 million, Xinhua said.Half of those losses are in agriculture, sending prices for leafy greens and other vegetables soaring by 40 percent in southern cities, Xinhua said.Further to the north, authorities have warned of potentially disastrous flooding this year in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
Iraq bombers topple Samarra minarets By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent JUNE 13,07
BAGHDAD - Suspected al-Qaida bombers toppled the towering minarets of Samarra's revered Shiite shrine on Wednesday, dealing a bold blow to Iraqi hopes for peace and reopening old wounds a year after the mosque's Golden Dome was destroyed. The attack stoked fears of a surge in violence between Muslim sects. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government rushed to contain Shiite wrath against Sunnis: It clamped a curfew on Baghdad and asked for U.S. troop reinforcements in Samarra, 60 miles north of here, and for a heightened American military alert in the capital.But sketchy reports of sectarian strife began to come in. Police told of at least four Sunni mosques in Baghdad and south of the capital attacked by arsonists and bombers, and of a smaller Shiite shrine bombed north of here.
The Samarra attack also threatened to deepen Iraq's political crisis, as the 30-member bloc of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr immediately suspended its participation in parliament in protest.The Golden Dome bombing in February 2006, at one of Iraqi Shiism's holiest sites, was also blamed on Sunni militants linked to al-Qaida. That attack unleashed a bloodbath of reprisals of Shiite death squad murders of Sunnis, and Sunni bombing attacks on Shiites. At least 34,000 civilians died in last year's violence, the United Nations reported.Wednesday's stunning attack came in near-simultaneous explosions at about 9 a.m., completely bringing down the two slender golden minarets, 100 feet tall, that had flanked the dome's ruins. No casualties were reported.How the attackers evaded the Askariya shrine's guard force, strengthened considerably after the 2006 bombing, was a mystery.Al-Maliki said policemen at the shrine were detained for questioning 15 of them, according to a senior U.S. military official. The prime minister also said an unspecified number of other suspects were arrested in Samarra and were being interrogated in connection with the shrine attack.
The blasts shook the Tigris River-side city of Samarra, sending a cloud of dust billowing into the air, said Imad Nagi, a storeowner 100 yards from the shrine. After the dust settled, I couldn't see the minarets any more. So, I closed the shop quickly and went home.Nearby blacksmith shop owner Farouq al-Samaraie said, I didn't expect there would be another explosion at Askariya mosque because it was already attacked last year.Resident Abdul-Khali Mohammed predicted violence in the capital: The Shiite militias now will seize this opportunity to kill Sunni families in Baghdad.An indefinite curfew was immediately imposed on Samarra, and, as Iraqi army and police reinforcements and U.S. troops poured in, the streets emptied by mid-afternoon, witnesses said.A few hundred U.S. soldiers had been stationed around Samarra but had left shrine security to Iraqi forces.In Baghdad, the prime minister ordered an indefinite curfew, beginning at 6 p.m. Wednesday, on vehicle traffic and large gatherings in the capital. Al-Maliki, whose office said the curfew would be lifted Saturday, then traveled to Samarra with U.S. ground forces commander Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno and visited the mosque ruins.An official close to the prime minister, citing intelligence reports, said Wednesday's bombing was likely the work of al-Qaida, whose militants have recently moved into Samarra from surrounding areas.
A U.S. statement, from Ambassador Ryan Crocker and U.S. Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus, unequivocally blamed al-Qaida, saying the terror group sought to sow dissent and inflame sectarian strife.Such an attack by the Sunni extremist group al-Qaida in Iraq, increasingly at odds with more nationalist Iraqi insurgents, might have been intended to provoke Shiite retaliation that would help reunite various Sunni elements.In Washington, presidential spokesman Tony Snow said there will be aggressive outreach on all sides to try to prevent reprisal attacks. What happened after the original bombing of the mosque in Samarra I don't think the Iraqi government or the United Statesgovernment quite understood what was going to happen, in terms of a sectarian reaction, Snow said. Petraeus told ABC News that that although he initially had a terrible sinking feeling after the attack, he believes there is reason to be optimistic in the fight against al-Qaida in Iraq. There is even some hope, perhaps, that al-Qaida may have overplayed its hand, as it did in Anbar Province, as it has in some neighborhoods in Baghdad, and in some other areas where, as you know, Sunni Arabs have rejected al-Qaida and have actually sought to join coalition forces and Iraqi governmental institutions to fight against it.
Last year's surge in execution-style killings, largely blamed on Shiite militias, had begun to decline in Baghdad in February, at the start of a major U.S.-Iraqi security push to pacify the city. But violence has been on the rise elsewhere in Iraq and the Baghdad numbers have begun to rise again. On Wednesday, in what has become a routine report, Baghdad police said they found 25 handcuffed, blindfolded and bullet-riddled bodies in various locations, many with signs of torture. The al-Maliki aide and other Iraqi officials spoke on condition of anonymity, either because of the sensitivity of the matter or because they were not authorized to deal with the media. In a nationally televised address, al-Maliki said he had ordered security forces to bolster protection of religious shrines and mosques across Iraq. The Shiite prime minister also warned against reprisal sectarian attacks. In Shiite southern Iraq, the reaction to Wednesday's attack was swift. In Najaf, radical cleric al-Sadr called for a three -day mourning period and peaceful demonstrations. He criticized the government for not protecting the site, and said the U.S. occupation is the only enemy of Iraq and that's why everyone must demand its departure, or a timetable for its departure. More than 3,000 al-Sadr loyalists staged a protest in Najaf, chanting, No, no to America!, No, no to Israel! and No, no to sedition! Later, in Baghdad, the 30-member Sadrist bloc in parliament issued a statement saying it would boycott the 275-seat house until the government takes realistic steps to rebuild the shrine. The action by the Sadrists, whose support for al-Maliki has recently waned, is likely to weaken the Shiite-dominated government and delay adoption of a series of laws needed to build national reconciliation in Iraq. Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, issued a statement calling on believers to exercise self-restraint and avoid any vengeful act that would target innocent people or the holy places of others.In neighboring Shiite Iran, which has been accused of funding and arming Shiite militias in Iraq, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed U.S. forces for failing to prevent the mosque attack, and threatened to halt regional cooperation to stop Iraq's spiraling violence.
The mosque contains the tombs of the 10th and 11th imams Ali al-Hadi, who died in 868, and his son Hassan al-Askari, who died in 874. Both are descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, and Shiites consider them to be among his successors. The shrine also is near the place where the 12th imam, Mohammed al-Mahdi, disappeared. Al-Mahdi, known as the hidden imam, was the son and grandson of the two imams buried in the Askariya shrine. Shiites believe he will return to Earth to restore justice to humanity.Associated Press writers Sameer N. Yacoub, Lauren Frayer and Hamid Ahmed in Baghdad and Abdul-Hussein al-Obeidi in Najaf contributed to this report.
Hamas seizing control of Gaza Strip By SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press Writer JUNE 13,07
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Hamas fighters launched a fierce offensive on Gaza City Wednesday, firing mortars and rockets at Fatah's main security bases and the president's compound as the Islamic group appeared close to taking control of the entire Gaza Strip. Fatah's forces were crumbling fast, with some fighters seen fleeing their security posts and hundreds of others surrendering, hands raised, to masked Hamas gunmen.A Hamas military victory in Gaza could split Palestinians into a Hamas-controlled Gaza and a Fatah-run West Bank, and push the prospect of statehood even further away. It could also set the stage for a bloody confrontation with Israel, which might intervene to prevent attacks from Gaza.In the southern town of Khan Younis, Hamas militants surrounded a security headquarters and warned everyone inside to leave or they would blow it up, witnesses said. The building was then destroyed by a bomb planted in a tunnel underneath it, said Ali Qaisi, a presidential guard spokesman.An Associated Press reporter saw defeated Fatah fighters streaming out of the building after turning over their weapons to Hamas militants. Hamas took weapons, clothes and vehicles and flew a green Islamic flag over the building, then celebrated by firing in the air and passing out candy.Security forces later said they had lost control of the town.Khan Younis is finished, said Ziad Sarafandi, a senior security official.
At least 20 people were killed in fighting Wednesday. A Hamas militant was killed in a clash early Thursday in the southern town of Rafah, hospital officials said, bringing the total in four days of infighting to over 60. Among those killed Wednesday was a man shot when Hamas gunmen fired on a peaceful protest against the violence, witnesses said.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah called the fighting madness and pleaded with the exiled leader of Hamas to halt the violence.Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas issued a joint statement after nightfall, calling on all sides to halt fighting, and to return to language of dialogue and respect of agreements, according to a statement from Abbas' office. The call was broadcast on Palestinian TV.Hamas radio denied the two had agreed to a truce, and clashes intensified in the hour after their statement was broadcast.Hamas and Fatah nominally share power in a coalition government, while Fatah runs most of Gaza's security forces. But no one was listening to the elected leaders' pleas for calm as the focus of power passed to street militias.Hamas gunmen neutralized the main strongholds of the Fatah-linked security forces, ruling the streets and taking control of large parts of Gaza in the process.Abbas' forces desperately trying to cling to their besieged bases in Gaza lashed out at the president, saying he left them with no directions and no support in the fight.Hamas and Fatah have waged a sporadic power struggle since Hamas won parliament elections last year, ending four decades of Fatah dominance of Palestinian affairs. But the battle is now verging on civil war, as Hamas wages a systematic assault on security forces.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he discussed the possible deployment of a multinational force in Gaza with the Security Council on Wednesday after the Israeli and Palestinian leaders raised the idea.
With fighting raging on rooftops and streets in nearly all corners of Gaza, residents huddled in fear in their homes.Hamas, already in control of much of northern Gaza, seized Khan Younis on Wednesday and began a coordinated assault on the southern town of Rafah, security officials said. Hamas militants blew up a security building near Rafah after a long gunbattle, said Col. Nasser Khaldi, a senior police official. What can I say? This is a fall, a collapse, he said. Fayez Abu Taha, 45, a businessman in Rafah, said he was trapped in his apartment building with his family after Hamas fighters took over a nearby rooftop and Fatah responded by taking over the roof of his building.
I don't know what they are battling for now, he said. I can see the bullets flying from my windows. Coming and going.The rout of the security forces was so bad that 40 Palestinian security officers broke through the border fence in Rafah and fled into Egypt seeking safety, Egyptian police said.
In the afternoon, Hamas forces attacked the three main compounds of the Fatah-allied forces in Gaza City the headquarters of the Preventive Security, the Intelligence Service and the National Forces in what could usher in the final phase of the battle. Hamas fighters, firing rockets and mortar shells, took over the rooftops in nearby houses and cut off the roads to prevent reinforcements from arriving. They called on the beleaguered Fatah forces to surrender. Hamas gunmen in high-rise buildings also fired at Abbas' Gaza office and house and his guard force returned fire. Abbas was in the West Bank at the time of the fighting. During the battle at the Preventive Security Service base, both sides fired wildly from high-rise rooftops. Dr. Wael Abdel Jawad, a physician trapped in his apartment, said he heard Fatah fighters shouting at colleagues on an adjacent roof to send them more ammunition. All of us are terrified here. Shooting came through the windows of our apartment, children are screaming. We are hearing from a nearby mosque the call by Hamas to surrender, he said. Those fighters on rooftops are like Don Quixote, tilting at windmills. They don't know where to shoot, he said. In another dramatic battle in Gaza City, hundreds of members of the Fatah-allied Bakr clan, which had fought fiercely for two days, surrendered to masked Hamas gunmen and were led, arms raised, to a nearby mosque. Footage broadcast on Hamas' Al Aqsa TV showed some of the Bakr women trying to enter the mosque. Hamas gunmen later drove off with some of the Bakr fighters, witnesses said.
Two women from the clan tried to leave the area to take a sick girl to a hospital and were shot and killed by jittery Hamas gunmen, a clan member said. After nightfall, Hamas militants blew up the house of one of the Bakr clan's leaders, witnesses said. Early Thursday, Fatah officials said their forces withdrew from some bases in central Gaza and destroyed them, rather than allow them to fall into Hamas hands. In Washington, U.S. officials condemned the fighting. Violence certainly does not serve the interest of the Palestinian people, and it's not going to bring the peace and prosperity that they deserve, White House spokesman Tony Snow said. They are shooting at anyone and everyone who is Fatah, said Youssef Abu Siyam, a Preventive Security officer in Rafah. The fighting spilled into the Fatah-dominated West Bank. Hamas and Fatah gunmen exchanged fire in the city of Nablus and a nearby refugee camp after Fatah gunmen tried to storm a pro-Hamas TV production company. Hamas said 12 of its fighters were wounded. Hamas charged that Fatah-linked security forces were rounding up Hamas activists in the West Bank early Thursday. On Wednesday, Abbas spoke by phone with the Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal to try to stop the crisis, said Abbas aide Nimr Hamad. This is madness, the madness that is going on in Gaza now, Abbas told reporters.
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which provides aid to Palestinian refugees, said it would curtail its operations after two of its Palestinian workers were killed by crossfire. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, said the clashes could have been avoided if Abbas had given the Hamas-led Cabinet control over the security forces, which he blamed for a wave of kidnappings, torture and violence in Gaza. AP reporter Diaa Hadid contributed to this report.
Greece wants bigger EU role in Mideast peace
12 June 2007, 17:00 CET Eu Business
(DAMASCUS) - The European Union should play a bigger role in the Middle East peace process, Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis said during a visit to Damascus on Tuesday.The European Union should be much more involved, Bakoyannis told journalists. And our message is strong and clear: we need to encourage all the parties for a new process for peace in the Middle East.But with rumours swirling of a possible Israeli peace overture to Syria, from which the Jewish state captured the strategic Golan Heights in 1967, Bakoyannis denied she had any message from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.She described her talks with the Syrian leadership as very interesting and hailed Greece's relations with Syria as very good, despite Washington's efforts to sideline Damascus for its alleged sponsorship of terrorism.The minister repeated EU backing for an Arab League peace plan that offers Israel normalised relations with all Arab nations in return for land captured in 1967, a viable Palestinian state and the return of refugees.We have to give the Arab League's proposals a chance, she said. We have to encourage the European Union to be more involved in the region so that we can attempt peace which is the goal and we should spend more effort to do that.
Barak Wins Labor Race; Fraud Allegations at Arab Polling Station
by Ezra HaLevi (INN) JUNE 13,07
Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak narrowly won the Labor Party primaries Monday, once again becoming chairman of the party. Barak garnered a total of 34,542 votes - 51.3 percent. His opponent, former Shabak (General Security Service) chief MK Ami Ayalon, received 32,117 votes 47.7 percent. 65 percent of Labors eligible voters cast their ballots in this second round of primaries. Barak pledged to work to strengthen the IDF and restore Israels deterrence. It is widely believed that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will appoint Barak as Defense Minister in the near future, replacing outgoing Labor Chairman Amir Peretz. The former prime minister left politics for the private business sector after his loss to Ariel Sharon in 2001. His return to politics is considered a comeback he was placed fourth in early opinion polls among Labor voters.
Comeback or Fraud?
Ayalons camp accuses Barak of election fraud in the Arab and Druze sectors, where Barak received an overwhelming majority of the votes. In Shfaram, for example, Barak suddenly received 2,000 more votes than he had in the previous round. In Um el-Fahm, Barak received three times as many votes as Ayalon despite the towns hostility toward Barak for sending police into the town to quell Israeli-Arab riots in October, 2000. In that incident, several rioters were shot dead. A local electioneer, speaking with Army Radio, did not deny the possibility of fraudulent voting carried out by an election worker who then voted on behalf of his whole clan, for example.Labor Secretary-General MK Eitan Cabel said the allegations had been reviewed and been found to be not substantive. Ayalon said that he does not plan on appealing the results, though he does plan to pursue a police investigation into the fraud itself. Ayalon supporters say they have evidence of enough fraudulent voting to change the outcome of the election. Barak associates called the allegations the whining of losers.
There were several reports of violence at Labor voting stations.
Victory Speech
There is no governing without the public's trust, Barak said in his victory speech. In these times of anxiety, distrust and a general feeling that we have lost our way and our leadership, the Labor Party must position itself at the head of a democratic alternative leadership of Israel Today begins the long journey toward bringing back level-headed, responsible, and experienced leadership to the State of Israel. He also issued a call to Kadima party members who left when Shimon Peres lost to Amir Peretz to come home.Likud Knesset Member Silvan Shalom has challenged Barak to break up the government coalition and face new general elections. Barak said prior to his election that he will not remain in a government headed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert but wants a replacement from within the coalition instead of elections. This is the true public test of him [Barak], MK Shalom stated. Can he be trusted on his promises to the public or was he elected to be faithful to those who want to hold onto their positions in the government?
IsraelNationalRadio.com Commentator Jay Shapiro noted: The percentage of Labor voters who turned out to vote was highest in the Arab sector - and the Arabs voted overwhelmingly for Barak. He won the election by a slim majority, and the Arab vote was the deciding one. So the new head of the Labor party who will probably move into the present government and probably will be the Minister of Defense is a man who created the situation in the north that resulted in the war last summer and the growing threat in the north even today. The leader of the Labor party owes his election to the Arabs. None of this bodes well for Israeli democracy or for the State of Israel in general.
Minister Cohen Calls for Reinstating Religious Affairs Ministry
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz (INN) JUNE 13.07
In the wake of a sharply critical ombudsman's report on state religious services, the Minister for Religious Affairs in the Prime Minister's Office, Shas Knesset Member Yitzchak Cohen, suggested reviving the defunct Religious Affairs Ministry. During a meeting of the Knesset's State Control Committee on Monday, representatives discussed the State Comptroller's report on the municipal religious councils and on the national Religious Affairs Authority. According to the report: many municipalities have failed to transfer funds earmarked for the use of their respective religious councils; the councils themselves have displayed serious administrative failures; the Religious Affairs Authority did not administer the religious councils appropriately; the Authority was often staffed by politically motivated appointees, primarily from the Likud party. The Comptroller recommended reforms in state-provided religious services.
In light of the report, Minister Cohen said, The situation has yet to improve. We have not yet healed the religious councils, [but] in terms of reform, we have successes in broad areas. However, we believe that the transfer of the religious councils to the municipalities was a correct step. At the same time, Cohen noted that the debt owed the councils by the municipalities is around 150 million shekels, and the employees of the councils and the rabbis are not getting paid. To improve the situation, Minister Cohen recommended that the state provide 75% of the religious councils' funding, while the municipalities provide the remainder, as is common regarding health and social services.Minister Cohen added that the only reason he is heading a ministry that is not a ministry is due to a whim of the [now-defunct] Shinui party [during the Sharon administration] to dismantle the ministry. The Ministry of Religious Affairs must be reinstated.MK Orlev noted that the issue has been on the public agenda since 2002.
On the other hand, Meir Shpiegler, Director of the Religious Affairs Authority, claimed that the establishment of the body that he heads has led to intensified supervision and control of the regional religious councils. Such oversight, he noted, includes a review of expenditures by accountants. Shpiegler confirmed, however, that there are rabbis who have not been paid their salaries, just as there are mayors and other officials in similar situations. Knesset Member Zevulun Orlev (National Religious Party), Chairman of the State Control Committee, summed up the discussion, saying that there is no agreed-upon reform for religious services at the moment. He noted that the issue has been on the public agenda since 2002, when budgetary cutbacks began to take effect. Unless there is a governmental decision on the matter, complete with a time table for implementation, according to MK Orlev, there will be no solution to the problem.
Military plan against Iran is ready
By YAAKOV KATZ JUNE 11,07
Predicting that Iran will obtain a nuclear weapon within three years and claiming to have a strike plan in place, senior American military officers have told The Jerusalem Post they support President George W. Bush's stance to do everything necessary to stop the Islamic Republic's race for nuclear power. Bush has repeatedly said the United States would not allow Iran to go nuclear.Israel successfully launches Ofek 7 spy satellite
JPost special: US candidates talk tough on Iran
A high-ranking American military officer told the Post that senior officers in the US armed forces had thrown their support behind Bush and believed that additional steps needed to be taken to stop Iran.
Predictions within the US military are that Bush will do what is needed to stop Teheran before he leaves office in 2009, including possibly launching a military strike against its nuclear facilities. On Sunday, Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut said the US should consider a military strike against Iran over its support of Iraqi insurgents. I think we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq, he said. And to me, that would include a strike over the border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers.According to a high-ranking American military officer, the US Navy and Air Force would play the primary roles in any military action taken against Iran. One idea under consideration is a naval blockade designed to cut off Iran's oil exports. The officer said that if the US government or the UN Security Council decided on this course of action, the US Navy would most probably not block the Strait of Hormuz - a step that would definitely draw an Iranian military response - but would patrol farther out and turn away tankers on their way to load oil.
On Sunday, the Israel Air Force held joint exercises with visiting US pilots, but IDF sources dismissed speculation that the drills were connected to an attack on Iran. The US officer said that perhaps even more dangerous to Israel and the Western world than Iranian nukes was the possibility that a terrorists cell associated with al-Qaida or global jihad would acquire a highly radioactive dirty bomb or a vial of deadly chemical or biological agents. The officer said al-Qaida was gaining a strong foothold in the Middle East and that Israel was being surrounded by global jihad elements in Lebanon, Jordan and Sinai. Iran is a state-sponsored type of terrorism that can be dealt with, he said, adding that it was far more difficult to strike at the source of an isolated terrorist cell. To combat this threat, the US Navy has come up with a plan for a 1,000-ship navy - a transnational network composed of navies from around the world that would raise awareness of maritime threats and more effectively thwart sea-based terrorism and the illicit transfer of arms by sea. The idea is to allow free trade and to prevent criminal and terror activity at sea, the officer said. A smaller-scale example of the US Navy's vision is NATO's Active Endeavor antiterrorism operation based in Naples. Israel plans to send an officer to be stationed there in the coming months. NATO launched Operation Active Endeavor in wake of 9/11 and has succeeded in bringing together a number of Mediterranean countries to work together in Naples to share information on naval terrorism and suspicious vessels in the region.
Ruth Bell Graham reported near death
Famed evangelist, gathered with children, says wife 'close to going home to heaven'
June 13, 2007 - 3:51 p.m. Eastern - 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Ruth Bell Graham
Ruth Bell Graham, the wife of evangelist Billy Graham, slipped into a coma this morning after suffering from pneumonia and is near death, according to a family spokesman. Four of the couple's five children are at their home in Montreat, N.C., and son Ned Graham is on his way, said A. Larry Ross. Billy Graham issued a statement today saying he and his wife, who turned 87 Sunday, had decided to be buried next to each other at the Billy Graham Library in Billy Graham's hometown of Charlotte. We have held this decision privately and only decided to announce it now that she is close to going home to heaven, Billy Graham said. Ruth is my soul mate and best friend, and I cannot imagine living a single day without her by my side. I am more in love with her today than when we first met over 65 years ago as students at Wheaton College.
Graham, 88, said Ruth and I appreciate, more than we can express, the prayers and letters of encouragement we have received from people across the country and around the world.Our entire family has been home in recent days and it has meant so much to have them at our side during this time, he said. We love each one of them dearly and thank God for them.In December, the Washington Post reported the family was divided over the Grahams' burial place, indicating Ruth objected to a site at a museum being built in Charlotte that was favored by son Franklin. Billy Graham responded to the story, stating he and Ruth would make the decision together privately.
Pres. Race: Rivlin & Avital Withdraw, Peres to Become President
by Hillel Fendel (INN) JUNE 13,07
Shimon Peres will be Israel's ninth President, following Ruby Rivlin's surprise withdrawal from the presidential race after the results of the first round became known. With the news that Peres had received 58 votes, third-place finisher Labor MK Collette Avital (21 votes) withdrew her candidacy, as expected, leaving Peres and Rivlin to battle it out in the second round. However, Rivlin, who had expected to receive many more than the 37 votes he garnered, then surprised the nation by announcing his withdrawal from the race. Given the fact that most or all of Avital's votes were expected to go to former Laborite Peres, a Peres victory seemed to be a foregone conclusion.With a breaking voice, MK Ruby Rivlin thanked all the 70 MKs who had said they would support my candidacy... and informed the country that he was withdrawing from the race. With teary eyes, he asked the Knesset to support Shimon Peres.Even Peres's victory, practically his first in public electoral life, was thus tainted by the fact that he did not win outright; his opponents merely withdrew.
Three MKs abstained in the first round, and one vote was disqualified.
In what is virtually certain to be a two-round contest, the Knesset will elect Israel's 9th president today. Underdog Ruby Rivlin still hopes to beat Shimon Peres. Israel's three largest parties are fielding candidates in today's election: Kadima is running with Vice Premier Shimon Peres, Labor - three-time MK Collette Avital, and the Likud with five-term MK Ruby Rivlin. The 120 Knesset Members will vote in a secret ballot for the new President, beginning at noon. If no one candidate receives at least 61 MKs, which is virtually certain, a second round will be held. Any candidate has the option of bowing out at that point, and tremendous pressure will likely be exerted upon the third-place finisher - likely to be Avital - to do so. If in the second round as well, no one receives 61 votes, the rules change slightly, and become complex. If in the second round three candidates run, then the two higher-placing candidates run against each other, and whoever receives more votes than the others is declared Israel's president. If, however, only two candidates ran in the second round, then in the third round, only the highest-placing candidate runs - and the MKs must vote either for or against.Behind the scenes, the lobbying of the MKs continues to be feverish. For Peres, famous throughout Israel as a perennial "loser" of elections, today's election is a last-ditch effort to change his historic reputation. His support in Kadima is mostly strong, and he is also expected to garner most or all of the votes of the Pensioners and Meretz parties. Shas has officially announced its support for him.Rivlin, on the other hand, known to be right-wing politically, is well-respected in the Knesset for his fairness and affability. The Likud, National Union/NRP, Yisrael Beiteinu and UTJ are expected to support him nearly unanimously. MK Avital's support comes only from Labor, and even there it is fairly weak.
In each voting round, every MK will be called by name and will step up to the curtained ballot box in front of the Knesset podium. Behind the curtain, he or she will take a slip of paper with his/her chosen candidate's name, place it into the supplied envelope, and then step out from behind the curtain and place the envelope into the ballot box. Many questions remain unanswered as the MKs near the moment of decision - and some will remain unanswered even after the election. For instance, does Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef's ruling in favor of Peres obligate all 12 Shas MKs - or did some of them receive "private" rulings allowing them to vote for Rivlin? Nissim Ze'ev, the most right-wing Shas MK, denied this possibility today, saying that Rabbi Yosef's ruling was unambiguous and firm and that he does not believe anyone will go against the rabbi's will. Despite this, skepticism still reigns in the Knesset as to whether every Shas MK will vote for Peres.It is widely believed that in the previous election seven years ago, when Moshe Katzav defeated Peres in the second round, Shas MKs did not fulfill their semi-pledges to vote for Peres, thus giving Katzav the victory. It is also not clear how many Kadima MKs who say they will vote for Peres will actually do so. Many of them are former Likud members and have strong loyalties to Peres. MK Ze'ev Elkin, a Peres man, says he knows of some party colleagues who plan to defy the party decision.In addition, what will Labor do after Avital drops out? Many Labor MKs are friends and long-time party allies of Peres, but many of them are furious at him for having quit the party to join Kadima. The Arab MKs, too, are a question mark. Even Prime Minister Olmert himself, though he instructed his party to vote for Peres, may not want to see such an active president beside him at the helm of leadership. Some of the answers will be provided within a few hours - and others will remain forever secret.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Thursday, June 14, 2007
VARIOUS STORIES
1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS. 2-China flood death toll rises to 76, as villages submerged. 3-EU approves visa data system. 4-Peres bids again for Israel president in close race. 5-From the Nile to the Euphrates - PA continuous libel. 6-Anti-Israel rally meets stiff resistance in DC. 7-WASHINGTON DEEPLY DIVIDED OVER IRAN. 8-Hamas seizes Fatah security headquarters.
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)
Update time = THU Jun 14 12:01 AM EDT
TUE JUNE 12,07
MAP 4.1 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.2 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 4.7 SOUTHEAST OF EASTER ISLAND
MAP 2.9 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 3.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.9 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP 4.8 NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
MAP 4.7 BOUGAINVILLE REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.8 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.2 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.6 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.6 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 OREGON
MAP 2.7 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 4.7 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 3.3 GULF OF ALASKA
MAP 2.7 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 4.8 NIAS REGION, INDONESIA
MAP 2.8 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.8 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 5.0 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.7 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 3.1 ALASKA PENINSULA
JUNE 11,07
MAP 3.5 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 3.2 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 4.9 FIJI REGION
MAP 3.6 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 4.9 HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
MAP 3.8 WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA
MAP 2.8 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 2.7 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.8 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.1 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.8 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 3.1 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 4.5 OFF THE EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA, RUSSIA
MAP 4.6 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.6 PERU-ECUADOR BORDER REGION
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.9 UTAH
MAP 3.2 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 5.2 PERU-ECUADOR BORDER REGION
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.
China flood death toll rises to 76, as villages submerged JUNE 12,07
BEIJING (AFP) - The death toll from nearly a week of heavy rain in southern China rose to 76 on Tuesday, as reports emerged of authorities deliberately flooding some villages in an effort to save bigger cities. More than 13.5 million people have been affected by the disaster, which has caused an estimated 4.73 billion yuan (606 million dollars) in economic losses, the civil affairs ministry reported on its website.According to the ministry, 76 people have died and 13 are missing from torrential rains that have battered the region since June 6.The death toll on Monday had stood at 66.
At present the disaster situation is rather grave in some areas as there are a lot of people out there and the damage caused by water is serious, Li Ronggen, vice governor in charge of flooding in Guangdong province, said.On top of this the rain is continuing to fall, making the fight against flooding and other mitigating circumstances much more arduous, he said in a Tuesday statement posted on the website of the state flood headquarters.Tens of thousands of people were safely
evacuated from up to 24 villages that were submerged by floods in six provinces and regions in southern China, China Central Television said.Guangdong province has been the worst hit and authorities there have deliberately diverted water to flood six villages so that more important towns and cities would not be inundated, Xinhua news agency reported.
The unavoidable flooding of villages occurred when authorities opened sluice gates at a dam on Guangdong's Hanjiang river because water there was building up to too high a level, it said.Landslides and collapses have been frequent along the river dam area, Guo Chunshan, the chief of Liuhuang town which encompasses the six villages, was quoted as saying.If we hadn't opened the discharge gate, the dam might have overflowed and the losses would have been much more serious, he added.According to the ministry, 788,000 people have been evacuated from the six regions and provinces affected by the flooding -- Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Fujian and Jiangxi.
More than 479,600 hectares (1.18 million acres) of farmland have been damaged by the disaster, with crops completely destroyed on nearly a third of the area, the ministry said.More than 144,000 buildings and homes have been damaged by the floods and landslides, while 69,000 have been destroyed, it said.The week of devastating rains has marked the start of the months-long storm season for southern and eastern China, although it began later than in 2006.From April to August last year, natural disasters killed more than 2,200 people in China, with most deaths in the typhoon and flood-prone regions in the south and east, according to previously released government data.
Looters hit flooded Australian homes, shops Tue Jun 12, 10:43 AM ET
SYDNEY (AFP) - Looters raided abandoned houses, businesses and cars during four days of violent storms in Australia, stealing everything from iPods to alcohol and cigarettes, outraged victims said Tuesday. As a massive clear-up operation got into full gear after storms and floods that claimed nine lives, residents and traders said thieves had exploited the weekend's chaos to break in and steal.
About 5,000 residents in the Hunter and Central Coast areas north of Sydney have now returned home following the storms, which caused damage estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars. Power utility EnergyAustralia said almost 30,000 homes were still blacked out and some may not be reconnected until the end of the week as technicians struggle to repair the worst damage to its network in 30 years.Paul Murphy, a businessman in Newcastle, said the devastation of up to one million dollars' (840,000 US) of flood damage at his electrical goods shop was exacerbated when he found looters had taken advantage of his plight.
On inspection, I'd seen that they had smashed the display cabinets and taken the iPods, and they've gone for the top class sort of products, so it's just very, very sad, he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.Pub owner Vanessa Loades said her premises in Newcastle was hit twice by gangs of looters who stole cigarettes and alcohol, as well as causing 250,000 dollars in damage to gaming machines that they tried to pry open looking for money.Loades told Australian Associated Press that she had hired a security guard after her pub was first hit Friday, but he was beaten up when about 30 looters returned the next night.Police said cars abandoned in the floodwaters had radios and possessions removed, while the Australian newspaper reported looters in boats had cruised swollen creeks in the Central Coast region stealing from empty homes.Police denied complaints from victims who said they had been told nothing could be done about the looters because available resources were concentrated on helping the emergency response.Among those killed as the storms swept the east coast were three children and two adults from one family, who died when their car plunged into a flooded creek after the road collapsed beneath them.
The Insurance Council of Australia said it had received 15,000 claims and estimated storm damage at 200 million dollars.Stephen Delaney, spokesman for emergency services in New South Wales state, said authorities were concentrating on reaching a small number of people still isolated in the Hunter Valley and repairing storm damage as waters receded.
Our people are definitely planning on working right until it's over and at this stage that incorporates right through to Friday, he said.Health authorities warned people to keep away from the floodwaters where possible because it may have been contaminated by overflowing sewerage pumping stations.Maritime officials in the state said stabilisation work was continuing on the coal carrier Pasha Bulker, which was forced aground in Newcastle harbour Friday by gale-force winds and huge seas.Newcastle Port Corporation chief executive Gary Webb said that removing the 40,000 tonne vessel was a complex task.This isn't like backing a tow truck to tow a car out after an accident, Webb told commercial television. Some coal loading resumed Tuesday at Newcastle, but operations are expected to be hampered by damage to rail tracks used to move coal into the port from mines in the Hunter Valley.
EU approves visa data system Tue Jun 12, 10:52 AM ET
LUXEMBOURG - The European Union on Tuesday approved a European visa data system which will store biometric information like fingerprints and photos on 70 million visa-holders who pass through the EU's borderless travel zone each year. The agreement reached by EU justice and interior ministers will set up a common EU database which can be accessed by all 15 EU nations participating in the so-called Schengen borderless travel area.
Our plans are to make the visa information system operational by spring 2009, said EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini.EU officials said the system will be the world's largest database of its kind containing fingerprints and photographs of people applying or holding a Schengen visa.
Frattini said the new system will offer a new practical tool both for consulates and border checkpoints, to stop and apprehend criminals or terrorists at the EU's external borders.
The new system beefs up security and aims to prevent identity fraud of travel visas issued by EU nations.The visa data contained on the system will contain the name, address, and occupation of the visa applicant or holder. It will also include the date and place of the application and any decision taken by the country responsible to issue, reject, or extend the visa.Citizens of more than 100 countries need a visa to enter the EU.Authorities from the EU member states and Europol, the Europe-wide law enforcement organization, may access the data in specific cases if it can help investigate terrorist or serious criminal offenses.
Peres bids again for Israel president in close race Tue Jun 12, 8:59 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel's elder statesman Shimon Peres is running neck and neck with a former parliament speaker in his second bid to be elected president, media said on Tuesday on the eve of a vote in parliament. The 83-year-old Nobel laureate is contesting the largely ceremonial post with two other candidates, former speaker Reuven Rivlin of the right-wing Likud party, and Colette Avital of the centre-left Labour.The Knesset's 120 MPs will cast secret ballots beginning at noon on Wednesday to replace Moshe Katsav, who with a looming rape indictment is the second consecutive Israeli president to end his term in disgrace.The mass-selling Yediot Aharonot predicted that Peres will receive 50 votes, Rivlin 51, and Avital 19 during the first ballot.If no candidate garners 61 votes, a second round will be held between the top two finishers. If no one still makes the required 61 votes, a third round will be held and the candidate with the most ballots declared the winner.
Peres ran for president seven years ago and was widely thought assured of victory only to watch in shock as the then obscure Moshe Katsav of Likud beat him for the prize after the surprise defection of ultra-Orthodox MPs.Admired abroad, Peres has been tagged with the monicker of a perennial election loser in his home country, following his failure to lead his Labour party to victory in legislative polls in 1977, 1981, 1984, 1988 and 1996.The tag was sealed by the shock defeat to Katsav in July 2000 and his failure to win the Labour leadership in 2005, after which he jumped ship from his life-long party to join the new centrist Kadima set up by former premier Ariel Sharon.Twice prime minister, Peres enjoys widespread respect abroad, including for having been the motor behind the 1993 Oslo limited autonomy accords with the Palestinians.For that, he shared the 1984 Nobel peace prize with former premier Yitzhak Rabin, who was later assassinated by a Jewish extremist, and the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.He has also held a string of other top posts, including the foreign and defence portfolios, and is considered the father of the Jewish state's biggest deterrent -- its suspected but undeclared nuclear weapons programme.Born in Poland in 1923, Peres emigrated to British-mandated Palestine when he was 11. A speaker of English and French as well as Hebrew, he and his wife Sonya have three children and numerous grandchildren.
From the Nile to the Euphrates - PA continuous libel (1997 -2007)
about secret plan to conquer Arab nation
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook JUNE 12,07
Palestinian Media Watch. CREDIT TO.
Lies and libels have been used for many years by the Palestinian Authority to present Israel as a dangerous existential threat to the Arab and Muslim world. One of the repeating libels, that Israel is planning to conquer Arab lands, including lands in Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia from the Euphrates until the Nile was repeated this week in the PA daily Al-Ayyam. For many years the Palestinian Authority (PA) has promoted this Euphrates to the Nile libel, and below PMW has cited more than 20 additional Palestinian references in recent years. As with all effective propaganda, detailed fictitious allegations are often advocated to make the lie sound credible.
The following are some of these PA fabrications:
The term From the Nile to the Euphrates your land, oh Israel, is written above the gates of the Knesset.The term The Nile to the Euphrates appears on Israeli money. The two blue stripes on the Israeli flag represent the Nile and the Euphrates and the Star of David represents the state of Israel.
Israeli children in school are taught through repetition of the expression: Land of Israel -from the Nile to the Euphrates. Repeatedly presenting Israel as a country that plans to expand and destroy other countries is an integral part of Palestinian hate promotion. Palestinians are more likely to feel justified fighting and killing Israelis when it is presented as an act of self-defense. The repetition of this charge over so many years should categorize this almost as an ideology.This week the PA presented the Nile to the Euphrates libel again as an principle so intrinsic to the State of Israel it is said to be written above the gates of the Knesset: From the Euphrates until the Nile, your land oh Israel.Former Israeli PM, Ariel Sharon, on a map of Mid-East looking at the Nile.Caption: From the Euphrates to.[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 5, 2003]
Below is this latest version of this libel, and more than 20 other references from among the many times this libel has been made in the past:A video clip which has been airing on PA TV since 2001 depicts a classroom of Jewish children wearing kippot (religious skullcaps) in front of the Israeli flag, repeating after a teacher: The Land of Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates. The video clip is shown
as if were an actual classroom in an Israeli school. The child actors speak Hebrew
.[PA TV, since January 31, 2001]
In 1967, it [Israel] occupied all that was left of Palestine in addition to the larger Arab territory...before initiating the third stage, in order to make the slogan written on the top of the gates of the Knesset come true: From the Euphrates until the Nile, your land oh Israel.[Al-Ayyam, June 4, 2007]
The Zionists’ aspirations are not limited to Palestine from the sea to the river, and not to Egypt and the Sha’am lands [includes parts of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel], extending to Iraq and Al-Medina, or from the Euphrates to the Nile … the idea of ‘the greater Middle East’ includes [lit: swallows] many countries in the Islamic world…[Al-Risalah, December 7, 2006]
Political sciences lecturer, Dr. Hamd Al-Fara claims that Israel already realized with success its dream to be from the Nile to the Euphrates – since, currently, Israelis from the Mossad [Israeli secret service] are in Iraq, and there is an Israeli embassy in Egypt.[PA TV, July 7, 2006]
The Israelis think in a completely different way. They think that the problem is summarized with how to get away with the loot they looted during unusual circumstances, in the near and distant past, that is the land of Palestine they hold serves as a departure point to the [territory] between the Euphrates and the Nile.[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nihad Munir Al-Rees, March 20, 2006]
Barakat Al-Fara of the PLO, former Palestinian deputy ambassador to Egypt:The June 67 war took place and emphasized that the Zionist enemy did not set as a goal only Palestine, but it set as a goal the Arab nation, from the ocean to the gulf, and it plans a Jewish state which will spread out from the Nile to the Euphrates…[PA TV, January 1, 2006]
There is a fairy tale or a slogan of the global Zionist movement which states that the borders of Israel are from the Euphrates to the Nile. When [the settlements] were destroyed, and when the settlers were banished from the settlements, the Palestinian people, all the free people and all Arabs erased this fairy tale.[PA TV, August 5, 2005]
There is no escape, but to clarify to the world that our enemies, that Zionism in particular, yearn to establish their state to control the world from east to west, and not the greater state of Israel from the Euphrates to the Nile, but they stare and want to establish their state over the entire planet earth.
[PA TV, June 18, 2004]
The Arabs and Muslims must consolidate a political-military defense strategy, in which the armed masses will participate… I emphasize the word defense… for taking a defensive stance and a defensive initiative, which are meant to prevent the most dangerous and the worst [thing] of all, that is seen in the horizon, that is approaching comes from the United States, that is allowing Israel to establish the Israeli empire from the Euphrates to the Nile including the city of Medina [the second most sacred site in Islam, the burial site of the Prophet Muhammad].[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, September 22, 2003]
Headline: Why are the Palestinians committed to the Hudna [ceasefire] and the Roadmap, and the Israelis are acting as opposed to it? by international law lecturer, Dr. Hana Isah:There is no doubt that the politicians in Israel are not interested in stability, and as a result, they escape from any agreement we will sign with them, since their goal is to extend their theft and their arrogant repression with all that concerns Palestine… The land of Israel from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates, from Lebanon to the Nile. This slogan is the basis which drives the foundation of Israel since the foundation of the Zionist movement until today, and the future.[Al-Hayat Al’Jadida, August 10, 2003]
[Ahmad Halas Abu-Maher, Fatah secretary in the Gaza Strip] confirms the matters: We are not only fighting for the Palestinian people. We are fighting in defense of the Arab nation and on this region, in which every people is a target for Israeli aggression. The slogan of Israel is from the Nile to the Euphrates, in geographic terms. But in terms of its interests, Israel is larger than that. It extends to the
entire Arab and Muslim territory. Therefore, when we are fighting and being killed in Gaza and Jenin, it is for the sake of the entire Arab nation.[PA TV, July 29, 2002]
Abu-Karsh: Even the Israeli flag, the blue line and the second blue line, and the Star of David in the middle, this is what is between the two rivers, that is the Nile and the Euphrates.Abu-Sharakh: The Zionist project still exists. They want a greater state of Israel from the Euphrates to the Nile. If it will not happen in the next 50 years, they will ask [to make it come true] within the next hundred years,
until their hopes and their aspirations in establishing a greater state of Israel will be realized. And this must be understood by the Arab nation and the entire world… They [Israelis] think about the state of Israel from the Euphrates to the Nile as something that cannot be avoided. From the Euphrates to the Nile.[PA TV, July 17, 2002]
The Zionists are behind the plot aiming to disconnect the rivers that extend from outside the Arab homeland in, such as the Euphrates and the Nile. The Zionists stole the Palestinian water and founded projects that transferred the water from the north to southern areas. They control the southern waters and steal them, and established the settlements above the water sources.[PA TV, March 22, 2002]
Zionism decided in the Basel committee in 1897 that Israel will be established between the Nile and the Euphrates, and this is what Israel aspires to realize. Therefore, every piece of land that we achieve is a withdrawal from the Zionist idea.[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, February 11, 2002]
The Hebrew state adopted an official flag – a blue Star of David (symbolizing the state of Israel), between two blue lines symbolizing the Nile River and the Euphrates which the Zionist movement viewed as its borders.[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, October 28, 2001]
Poor Israel: Its primitive, childish dream the land of Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates is reduced to a flag with a Star of David and two blue lines, one of them is the Nile, in the imagination, and the other is the disappointing Euphrates. These two lines will approach inwards, and will squeeze the Star of David until it bursts. This is what it [Israel] chose for itself…The Voice of Women in Al-Ayyam, July 19, 2001]
All the killing is followed by an intensive bombing of the national security outposts… what does it mean if not a declaration of an encompassing war on the Palestinian people, if not the determination to realize the constant goal of Zionism, of extending the occupation territory as far as possible, from the Euphrates to the Nile…Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 19, 2001]
Friday sermon by preacher Dr. Muhammad Madi: Arabs and Muslims! The Zionist slogan, the slogan of the Jews’ state in Palestine – from the Nile to the Euphrates. It is written in their books and on their coins…[PA TV, May 4, 2001]
The Palestinians view the Israeli flag as a symbol for the greater Jewish state that spreads out from the Nile to the Euphrates according to the Zionist dream: the two blue lines symbolize the two rivers, and the Star of David between them is the symbol of the state. The Palestinians pride themselves in their flag with the four colors, which represents the blood, the war, and the peace…[Al-Ayyam, May 14, 2000]
A strategy was consolidated by some of the ones who hold a Jewish perspective, which was subsequently known as Zionism aiming to establish a national homeland for the Jews in Palestine – or according to the traditional idea which sets the borders of the state of Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates.[Al-Ayyam, February 12, 2000]
Hussein Abu-Shanab: The map storm reminds us of the three superpowers [that emerged] in the [original] map in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion… Herzl sent a furious letter to these nations and demanded they change the mandatory borders of Palestine so that they include the Litany River, that is from the water to the water – [a slogan] expressed by the poster spread over the Knesset from the Euphrates to the Nile. Sharon’s declarations to journalists following the Palestinian- Israeli-American triple-meeting were for abolishing the process… considering that the historical homeland, according to the Zionist perspective, is from the Nile to the Euphrates…[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, December 21, 1997]
Anti-Israel rally meets stiff resistance in DC
Jim Brown - OneNewsNow.com - June 12, 2007
A group known as United for Peace & Justice co-sponsored an anti-Israel rally that took place Sunday on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol. The head of a pro-Israel group says organizers of the rally are seeking the destruction of the Jewish state.The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, as well as other groups gathered on the west lawn of the Capitol Sunday to protest what they call Israel's illegal military occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. One liberal magazine acknowledged the rally was for the dissolution of the Jewish state.Several groups held a Stand with Israel rally nearby to counter the event. One group, Stand with US, recently published ads in the Washington, DC, metro rail system to counter anti-Israel ads that included a small Palestinian boy standing in front of an Israeli tank.
Herb Zweibon, chairman of Americans for a Safe Israel, contends the anti-Israel movement has evil intent and must be confronted. You can understand how serious this movement is when they call -- not for a two-state solution, which we oppose, [nor] for some sort of amelioration of a Palestinian population -- but for the dissolution of the state [of Israel], he says. I mean, this is beyond understanding.It is important, says Zweibon, to counter the claims of those who say the Palestinians have been done an injustice and that Israel must be punished.If there is no reaction, particularly in Washington ... people get the wrong impression, he says. The fact of the matter is that if there's any injustice in the Middle East, it's done to the state of Israel and to the Jewish people.Zweibon says people who oppose Israel's presence in the Middle East which includes all Palestinians and neighboring countries want nothing more than to eliminate that presence.American Family News Network
WASHINGTON DEEPLY DIVIDED OVER IRAN
By Joel C. Rosenberg
(WASHINGTON, D.C., June 11, 2007) -- Senator Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut Independent who ran for Vice President on Al Gore's ticket in the 2000 presidential race, on Sunday warned that it may be time for aggressive military action to stop Iranian agents from attacking U.S. forces in Iraq and to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. On CBS's Face The Nation, Lieberman said: I think we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq.
And to me, that would include a strike over the border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers....I want to make clear I'm not talking about a massive ground invasion of Iran, but we have good evidence. If they don't play by the rules, we've got to use our force and to me that would include taking military action to stop them from doing what they're doing.Few other U.S. Senators have been so clear that military action may be necessary soon, but Lieberman appears to believe that 2007 is the Year of Decision. If President Bush is going to take military action at all, he most likely would not do so during a presidential election year so that would leave only the next six months.
The Jerusalem Post is reporting that senior U.S. military officials say they have a strike plan in place, and U.S. and Israeli forces began joint war games over the weekend in the Negev desert. But it is still by no means clear that President Bush believes military action against Iran is necessary yet, or even feasible at this point. Indeed, Washington is deeply divided over Iran, as is the international
community. The U.N. Security Council can't even agree to condemn Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for saying that the countdown to Israel's destruction has begun. Kuwait has just announced that the U.S. may not use its bases to launch a strike against Iran. And the head of the Iranian parliament is discounting the possibility of a U.S. strike.
After its bitter experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States is unlikely to launch a military showdown with Iran, said Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel. Tehran is also warning of a missile blitz against the Gulf states and the Gulf oil fields if the U.S. tries to attack Iran. All that said, let me be perfectly clear: I don't want the U.S. or Israel or the Western powers to go to war with Iran. I would much prefer decisive international economic sanctions against Iran combined with a massive infusion of cash, technology and other encouragement to pro-democracy movement leaders inside Iran to bring about an entirely new, moderate, peaceful regime.
But let us all understand that time is running out. Ahmadinejad's Shiite Islamic eschatology -- or end times theology -- is telling him he must destroy Judeo-Christian civilization as we know it in order to bring about the return of the Islamic Messiah known as the Mahdi or the Twelfth Imam. Ahmadinejad and his spiritual advisors have a timetable. They believe the end of the world is imminent, and that's why they're feverishly trying to build, buy or steal nuclear weapons and the means to use them to attack Israel and the U.S. Unfortunately, the hard cold truth is that most political leaders in the U.S. and Europe don't get it. They don't understand the apocalyptic theology that is driving Iranian foreign policy right now, and thus most of them remain convinced that a few more negotiations might do the trick and persuade the Iranian regime to seek peace instead of war. To them I ask: how exactly do you successfully negotiate with or deter a regime whose leaders believe it is their God-given mission to destroy Judeo-Christian civilization in order to bring back their Messiah and spend eternity in paradise?
Hamas seizes Fatah security headquarters By SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press Writer JUNE 12,07
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Hundreds of Hamas fighters firing rockets and mortar shells captured the headquarters of the Fatah-allied security forces in northern Gaza on Tuesday, scoring a key victory in the bloody battle for control of the seaside strip. Both sides said Gaza had descended into civil war, as the death toll from two days of fighting reached 37.
Tuesday's battles marked a turning point, with Hamas moving systematically to seize Fatah positions in what some in the Islamic militant group said would be a decisive phase in the yearlong power struggle. The confrontations turned increasingly brutal in recent days, with some killed execution-style in the streets, others in hospital shootouts or thrown off rooftops.President Mahmoud Abbas accused the Islamic militants of trying to stage a coup, and leaders of his Fatah movement urged him to declare a state of emergency.A survivor of the Hamas assault on the northern security headquarters said the Fatah forces were outgunned and reinforcements never arrived. We were pounded with mortar, mortar, mortar, the Fatah fighter, who only gave his first name, Amjad, said, breathing heavily. They had no mercy. It was boom, boom.
They had rockets that could reach almost half of the compound.Battles raged across the Gaza Strip during the day. The staccato of gunfire echoed across Gaza City, plumes of smoke rose into the air from far-flung neighborhoods and one firefight sent a dozen preschoolers scrambling for cover.
In one desperate attempt to boost morale, disorganized Fatah forces attacked Hamas' main TV station, but were repelled after a heavy battle.Many Gazans, pinned down in their homes, were furious with the combatants. Both Fatah and Hamas are leading us to death and destruction, said Ayya Khalil, 29, whose husband serves as an intelligence officer. They don't care about us.In the West Bank, Abbas was meeting with Fatah movement leaders, some of whom urged him to leave the coalition government with Hamas, established three months ago, declare a state of emergency, which would give him sweeping powers, or call early elections.Fatah ministers decided at the meeting to suspend participation in the unity government until fighting stops, Fatah-affiliated government spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh said late Tuesday.In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposed stationing international forces along the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt to prevent arms from reaching Palestinian militants, including Hamas. However, he ruled out assistance to Abbas' forces.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an immediate halt to the violence and urged all sides to support Abbas.
Hamas and Fatah have waged a power struggle in fits and spurts since Hamas won parliamentary elections in January 2006, and Hamas signaled that the fighting was moving into a decisive phase. It ignored pleas by Abbas and exasperated Egyptian mediators to honor a cease-fire.
Decisiveness will be in the field, said Islam Shahwan, spokesman for the Hamas military wing.In contrast, Fatah commanders complained they were not given clear orders by Abbas to fight back and that they had no central command. Fatah's strongman in Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan, has spent the last few weeks in Cairo because of a knee injury. Other leading Fatah officials left Gaza for the West Bank after previous rounds of bloodshed.There's a difference between leading on the ground and leading by mobile phone, police Col. Nasser Khaldi said of Dahlan's absence. Hamas is just taking over our positions. There are no orders.Both sides have been arming themselves in recent weeks, smuggling weapons through tunnels from Egypt.Abbas accused Hamas leaders of trying to seize control of Gaza by force.
The headquarters of the Fatah-allied security forces in northern Gaza, a key prize for Hamas, was taken by the Islamic militants after several hours of battle. Some 200 Hamas fighters had fired mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at the compound, where some 500 Fatah loyalists were holed up and returned fire. Thirty-five jeeploads of Fatah fighters were sent as reinforcements. After nightfall, Hamas seized control, said a Hamas commander, Wael al-Shakra.
A Fatah security official confirmed the building had been lost. At least 12 people were killed and 30 wounded in the fighting. Earlier, Hamas fighters also overran several smaller Fatah positions in Gaza. Hamas gunmen also exchanged fire with Fatah forces at the southern security headquarters in the town of Khan Younis, but did not launch a major assault there. The town's streets were empty as people huddled inside. One Hamas man was killed, according to Hamas and medical officials. In Gaza City, Hamas fired mortars and explosives at the pro-Fatah Preventive Security headquarters, drawing return fire from watchtowers in the compound. Elsewhere, Fatah fighters killed four Hamas gunmen in a battle near the besieged house of a senior Fatah commander. Hamas and Fatah have been at odds since the Hamas election victory ended four decades of Fatah rule.
The sides agreed to share power in an uneasy coalition three months ago, but put off key disputes, including control over the security forces. Most of the forces are dominated by Fatah loyalists, while Hamas has formed its own militia and has thousands of gunmen at its command. Beverley Milton- Edwards, a Hamas expert at Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, said Gaza is heading for a final showdown. This has become the existential battle for the soul of the Palestinian people, Milton-Edwards said. Brutality has gown in recent days, with people shot at close range in street executions. On Sunday, a member of Abbas' presidential guard, Mohammed Sweirki of Fatah, was kidnapped and hurled off a 15-story apartment building, followed a few hours later by the killing of a Hamas fighter, Abu Kainas, thrown from the roof of a 12-story building in apparent retaliation. In all, more than 80 people have been killed since mid-May, most of them militants. The State Department and the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, warning of a very dangerous security situation, advised journalists not to travel to Gaza. They also urged journalists to leave
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)
Update time = THU Jun 14 12:01 AM EDT
TUE JUNE 12,07
MAP 4.1 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.2 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 4.7 SOUTHEAST OF EASTER ISLAND
MAP 2.9 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 3.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.9 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP 4.8 NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
MAP 4.7 BOUGAINVILLE REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.8 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.2 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.6 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.6 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 OREGON
MAP 2.7 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 4.7 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 3.3 GULF OF ALASKA
MAP 2.7 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 4.8 NIAS REGION, INDONESIA
MAP 2.8 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.8 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 5.0 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.7 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 3.1 ALASKA PENINSULA
JUNE 11,07
MAP 3.5 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 3.2 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 4.9 FIJI REGION
MAP 3.6 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 4.9 HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
MAP 3.8 WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA
MAP 2.8 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 2.7 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.8 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.1 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.8 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 3.1 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 4.5 OFF THE EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA, RUSSIA
MAP 4.6 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.6 PERU-ECUADOR BORDER REGION
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.9 UTAH
MAP 3.2 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 5.2 PERU-ECUADOR BORDER REGION
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.
China flood death toll rises to 76, as villages submerged JUNE 12,07
BEIJING (AFP) - The death toll from nearly a week of heavy rain in southern China rose to 76 on Tuesday, as reports emerged of authorities deliberately flooding some villages in an effort to save bigger cities. More than 13.5 million people have been affected by the disaster, which has caused an estimated 4.73 billion yuan (606 million dollars) in economic losses, the civil affairs ministry reported on its website.According to the ministry, 76 people have died and 13 are missing from torrential rains that have battered the region since June 6.The death toll on Monday had stood at 66.
At present the disaster situation is rather grave in some areas as there are a lot of people out there and the damage caused by water is serious, Li Ronggen, vice governor in charge of flooding in Guangdong province, said.On top of this the rain is continuing to fall, making the fight against flooding and other mitigating circumstances much more arduous, he said in a Tuesday statement posted on the website of the state flood headquarters.Tens of thousands of people were safely
evacuated from up to 24 villages that were submerged by floods in six provinces and regions in southern China, China Central Television said.Guangdong province has been the worst hit and authorities there have deliberately diverted water to flood six villages so that more important towns and cities would not be inundated, Xinhua news agency reported.
The unavoidable flooding of villages occurred when authorities opened sluice gates at a dam on Guangdong's Hanjiang river because water there was building up to too high a level, it said.Landslides and collapses have been frequent along the river dam area, Guo Chunshan, the chief of Liuhuang town which encompasses the six villages, was quoted as saying.If we hadn't opened the discharge gate, the dam might have overflowed and the losses would have been much more serious, he added.According to the ministry, 788,000 people have been evacuated from the six regions and provinces affected by the flooding -- Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Fujian and Jiangxi.
More than 479,600 hectares (1.18 million acres) of farmland have been damaged by the disaster, with crops completely destroyed on nearly a third of the area, the ministry said.More than 144,000 buildings and homes have been damaged by the floods and landslides, while 69,000 have been destroyed, it said.The week of devastating rains has marked the start of the months-long storm season for southern and eastern China, although it began later than in 2006.From April to August last year, natural disasters killed more than 2,200 people in China, with most deaths in the typhoon and flood-prone regions in the south and east, according to previously released government data.
Looters hit flooded Australian homes, shops Tue Jun 12, 10:43 AM ET
SYDNEY (AFP) - Looters raided abandoned houses, businesses and cars during four days of violent storms in Australia, stealing everything from iPods to alcohol and cigarettes, outraged victims said Tuesday. As a massive clear-up operation got into full gear after storms and floods that claimed nine lives, residents and traders said thieves had exploited the weekend's chaos to break in and steal.
About 5,000 residents in the Hunter and Central Coast areas north of Sydney have now returned home following the storms, which caused damage estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars. Power utility EnergyAustralia said almost 30,000 homes were still blacked out and some may not be reconnected until the end of the week as technicians struggle to repair the worst damage to its network in 30 years.Paul Murphy, a businessman in Newcastle, said the devastation of up to one million dollars' (840,000 US) of flood damage at his electrical goods shop was exacerbated when he found looters had taken advantage of his plight.
On inspection, I'd seen that they had smashed the display cabinets and taken the iPods, and they've gone for the top class sort of products, so it's just very, very sad, he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.Pub owner Vanessa Loades said her premises in Newcastle was hit twice by gangs of looters who stole cigarettes and alcohol, as well as causing 250,000 dollars in damage to gaming machines that they tried to pry open looking for money.Loades told Australian Associated Press that she had hired a security guard after her pub was first hit Friday, but he was beaten up when about 30 looters returned the next night.Police said cars abandoned in the floodwaters had radios and possessions removed, while the Australian newspaper reported looters in boats had cruised swollen creeks in the Central Coast region stealing from empty homes.Police denied complaints from victims who said they had been told nothing could be done about the looters because available resources were concentrated on helping the emergency response.Among those killed as the storms swept the east coast were three children and two adults from one family, who died when their car plunged into a flooded creek after the road collapsed beneath them.
The Insurance Council of Australia said it had received 15,000 claims and estimated storm damage at 200 million dollars.Stephen Delaney, spokesman for emergency services in New South Wales state, said authorities were concentrating on reaching a small number of people still isolated in the Hunter Valley and repairing storm damage as waters receded.
Our people are definitely planning on working right until it's over and at this stage that incorporates right through to Friday, he said.Health authorities warned people to keep away from the floodwaters where possible because it may have been contaminated by overflowing sewerage pumping stations.Maritime officials in the state said stabilisation work was continuing on the coal carrier Pasha Bulker, which was forced aground in Newcastle harbour Friday by gale-force winds and huge seas.Newcastle Port Corporation chief executive Gary Webb said that removing the 40,000 tonne vessel was a complex task.This isn't like backing a tow truck to tow a car out after an accident, Webb told commercial television. Some coal loading resumed Tuesday at Newcastle, but operations are expected to be hampered by damage to rail tracks used to move coal into the port from mines in the Hunter Valley.
EU approves visa data system Tue Jun 12, 10:52 AM ET
LUXEMBOURG - The European Union on Tuesday approved a European visa data system which will store biometric information like fingerprints and photos on 70 million visa-holders who pass through the EU's borderless travel zone each year. The agreement reached by EU justice and interior ministers will set up a common EU database which can be accessed by all 15 EU nations participating in the so-called Schengen borderless travel area.
Our plans are to make the visa information system operational by spring 2009, said EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini.EU officials said the system will be the world's largest database of its kind containing fingerprints and photographs of people applying or holding a Schengen visa.
Frattini said the new system will offer a new practical tool both for consulates and border checkpoints, to stop and apprehend criminals or terrorists at the EU's external borders.
The new system beefs up security and aims to prevent identity fraud of travel visas issued by EU nations.The visa data contained on the system will contain the name, address, and occupation of the visa applicant or holder. It will also include the date and place of the application and any decision taken by the country responsible to issue, reject, or extend the visa.Citizens of more than 100 countries need a visa to enter the EU.Authorities from the EU member states and Europol, the Europe-wide law enforcement organization, may access the data in specific cases if it can help investigate terrorist or serious criminal offenses.
Peres bids again for Israel president in close race Tue Jun 12, 8:59 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel's elder statesman Shimon Peres is running neck and neck with a former parliament speaker in his second bid to be elected president, media said on Tuesday on the eve of a vote in parliament. The 83-year-old Nobel laureate is contesting the largely ceremonial post with two other candidates, former speaker Reuven Rivlin of the right-wing Likud party, and Colette Avital of the centre-left Labour.The Knesset's 120 MPs will cast secret ballots beginning at noon on Wednesday to replace Moshe Katsav, who with a looming rape indictment is the second consecutive Israeli president to end his term in disgrace.The mass-selling Yediot Aharonot predicted that Peres will receive 50 votes, Rivlin 51, and Avital 19 during the first ballot.If no candidate garners 61 votes, a second round will be held between the top two finishers. If no one still makes the required 61 votes, a third round will be held and the candidate with the most ballots declared the winner.
Peres ran for president seven years ago and was widely thought assured of victory only to watch in shock as the then obscure Moshe Katsav of Likud beat him for the prize after the surprise defection of ultra-Orthodox MPs.Admired abroad, Peres has been tagged with the monicker of a perennial election loser in his home country, following his failure to lead his Labour party to victory in legislative polls in 1977, 1981, 1984, 1988 and 1996.The tag was sealed by the shock defeat to Katsav in July 2000 and his failure to win the Labour leadership in 2005, after which he jumped ship from his life-long party to join the new centrist Kadima set up by former premier Ariel Sharon.Twice prime minister, Peres enjoys widespread respect abroad, including for having been the motor behind the 1993 Oslo limited autonomy accords with the Palestinians.For that, he shared the 1984 Nobel peace prize with former premier Yitzhak Rabin, who was later assassinated by a Jewish extremist, and the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.He has also held a string of other top posts, including the foreign and defence portfolios, and is considered the father of the Jewish state's biggest deterrent -- its suspected but undeclared nuclear weapons programme.Born in Poland in 1923, Peres emigrated to British-mandated Palestine when he was 11. A speaker of English and French as well as Hebrew, he and his wife Sonya have three children and numerous grandchildren.
From the Nile to the Euphrates - PA continuous libel (1997 -2007)
about secret plan to conquer Arab nation
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook JUNE 12,07
Palestinian Media Watch. CREDIT TO.
Lies and libels have been used for many years by the Palestinian Authority to present Israel as a dangerous existential threat to the Arab and Muslim world. One of the repeating libels, that Israel is planning to conquer Arab lands, including lands in Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia from the Euphrates until the Nile was repeated this week in the PA daily Al-Ayyam. For many years the Palestinian Authority (PA) has promoted this Euphrates to the Nile libel, and below PMW has cited more than 20 additional Palestinian references in recent years. As with all effective propaganda, detailed fictitious allegations are often advocated to make the lie sound credible.
The following are some of these PA fabrications:
The term From the Nile to the Euphrates your land, oh Israel, is written above the gates of the Knesset.The term The Nile to the Euphrates appears on Israeli money. The two blue stripes on the Israeli flag represent the Nile and the Euphrates and the Star of David represents the state of Israel.
Israeli children in school are taught through repetition of the expression: Land of Israel -from the Nile to the Euphrates. Repeatedly presenting Israel as a country that plans to expand and destroy other countries is an integral part of Palestinian hate promotion. Palestinians are more likely to feel justified fighting and killing Israelis when it is presented as an act of self-defense. The repetition of this charge over so many years should categorize this almost as an ideology.This week the PA presented the Nile to the Euphrates libel again as an principle so intrinsic to the State of Israel it is said to be written above the gates of the Knesset: From the Euphrates until the Nile, your land oh Israel.Former Israeli PM, Ariel Sharon, on a map of Mid-East looking at the Nile.Caption: From the Euphrates to.[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 5, 2003]
Below is this latest version of this libel, and more than 20 other references from among the many times this libel has been made in the past:A video clip which has been airing on PA TV since 2001 depicts a classroom of Jewish children wearing kippot (religious skullcaps) in front of the Israeli flag, repeating after a teacher: The Land of Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates. The video clip is shown
as if were an actual classroom in an Israeli school. The child actors speak Hebrew
.[PA TV, since January 31, 2001]
In 1967, it [Israel] occupied all that was left of Palestine in addition to the larger Arab territory...before initiating the third stage, in order to make the slogan written on the top of the gates of the Knesset come true: From the Euphrates until the Nile, your land oh Israel.[Al-Ayyam, June 4, 2007]
The Zionists’ aspirations are not limited to Palestine from the sea to the river, and not to Egypt and the Sha’am lands [includes parts of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel], extending to Iraq and Al-Medina, or from the Euphrates to the Nile … the idea of ‘the greater Middle East’ includes [lit: swallows] many countries in the Islamic world…[Al-Risalah, December 7, 2006]
Political sciences lecturer, Dr. Hamd Al-Fara claims that Israel already realized with success its dream to be from the Nile to the Euphrates – since, currently, Israelis from the Mossad [Israeli secret service] are in Iraq, and there is an Israeli embassy in Egypt.[PA TV, July 7, 2006]
The Israelis think in a completely different way. They think that the problem is summarized with how to get away with the loot they looted during unusual circumstances, in the near and distant past, that is the land of Palestine they hold serves as a departure point to the [territory] between the Euphrates and the Nile.[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nihad Munir Al-Rees, March 20, 2006]
Barakat Al-Fara of the PLO, former Palestinian deputy ambassador to Egypt:The June 67 war took place and emphasized that the Zionist enemy did not set as a goal only Palestine, but it set as a goal the Arab nation, from the ocean to the gulf, and it plans a Jewish state which will spread out from the Nile to the Euphrates…[PA TV, January 1, 2006]
There is a fairy tale or a slogan of the global Zionist movement which states that the borders of Israel are from the Euphrates to the Nile. When [the settlements] were destroyed, and when the settlers were banished from the settlements, the Palestinian people, all the free people and all Arabs erased this fairy tale.[PA TV, August 5, 2005]
There is no escape, but to clarify to the world that our enemies, that Zionism in particular, yearn to establish their state to control the world from east to west, and not the greater state of Israel from the Euphrates to the Nile, but they stare and want to establish their state over the entire planet earth.
[PA TV, June 18, 2004]
The Arabs and Muslims must consolidate a political-military defense strategy, in which the armed masses will participate… I emphasize the word defense… for taking a defensive stance and a defensive initiative, which are meant to prevent the most dangerous and the worst [thing] of all, that is seen in the horizon, that is approaching comes from the United States, that is allowing Israel to establish the Israeli empire from the Euphrates to the Nile including the city of Medina [the second most sacred site in Islam, the burial site of the Prophet Muhammad].[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, September 22, 2003]
Headline: Why are the Palestinians committed to the Hudna [ceasefire] and the Roadmap, and the Israelis are acting as opposed to it? by international law lecturer, Dr. Hana Isah:There is no doubt that the politicians in Israel are not interested in stability, and as a result, they escape from any agreement we will sign with them, since their goal is to extend their theft and their arrogant repression with all that concerns Palestine… The land of Israel from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates, from Lebanon to the Nile. This slogan is the basis which drives the foundation of Israel since the foundation of the Zionist movement until today, and the future.[Al-Hayat Al’Jadida, August 10, 2003]
[Ahmad Halas Abu-Maher, Fatah secretary in the Gaza Strip] confirms the matters: We are not only fighting for the Palestinian people. We are fighting in defense of the Arab nation and on this region, in which every people is a target for Israeli aggression. The slogan of Israel is from the Nile to the Euphrates, in geographic terms. But in terms of its interests, Israel is larger than that. It extends to the
entire Arab and Muslim territory. Therefore, when we are fighting and being killed in Gaza and Jenin, it is for the sake of the entire Arab nation.[PA TV, July 29, 2002]
Abu-Karsh: Even the Israeli flag, the blue line and the second blue line, and the Star of David in the middle, this is what is between the two rivers, that is the Nile and the Euphrates.Abu-Sharakh: The Zionist project still exists. They want a greater state of Israel from the Euphrates to the Nile. If it will not happen in the next 50 years, they will ask [to make it come true] within the next hundred years,
until their hopes and their aspirations in establishing a greater state of Israel will be realized. And this must be understood by the Arab nation and the entire world… They [Israelis] think about the state of Israel from the Euphrates to the Nile as something that cannot be avoided. From the Euphrates to the Nile.[PA TV, July 17, 2002]
The Zionists are behind the plot aiming to disconnect the rivers that extend from outside the Arab homeland in, such as the Euphrates and the Nile. The Zionists stole the Palestinian water and founded projects that transferred the water from the north to southern areas. They control the southern waters and steal them, and established the settlements above the water sources.[PA TV, March 22, 2002]
Zionism decided in the Basel committee in 1897 that Israel will be established between the Nile and the Euphrates, and this is what Israel aspires to realize. Therefore, every piece of land that we achieve is a withdrawal from the Zionist idea.[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, February 11, 2002]
The Hebrew state adopted an official flag – a blue Star of David (symbolizing the state of Israel), between two blue lines symbolizing the Nile River and the Euphrates which the Zionist movement viewed as its borders.[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, October 28, 2001]
Poor Israel: Its primitive, childish dream the land of Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates is reduced to a flag with a Star of David and two blue lines, one of them is the Nile, in the imagination, and the other is the disappointing Euphrates. These two lines will approach inwards, and will squeeze the Star of David until it bursts. This is what it [Israel] chose for itself…The Voice of Women in Al-Ayyam, July 19, 2001]
All the killing is followed by an intensive bombing of the national security outposts… what does it mean if not a declaration of an encompassing war on the Palestinian people, if not the determination to realize the constant goal of Zionism, of extending the occupation territory as far as possible, from the Euphrates to the Nile…Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 19, 2001]
Friday sermon by preacher Dr. Muhammad Madi: Arabs and Muslims! The Zionist slogan, the slogan of the Jews’ state in Palestine – from the Nile to the Euphrates. It is written in their books and on their coins…[PA TV, May 4, 2001]
The Palestinians view the Israeli flag as a symbol for the greater Jewish state that spreads out from the Nile to the Euphrates according to the Zionist dream: the two blue lines symbolize the two rivers, and the Star of David between them is the symbol of the state. The Palestinians pride themselves in their flag with the four colors, which represents the blood, the war, and the peace…[Al-Ayyam, May 14, 2000]
A strategy was consolidated by some of the ones who hold a Jewish perspective, which was subsequently known as Zionism aiming to establish a national homeland for the Jews in Palestine – or according to the traditional idea which sets the borders of the state of Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates.[Al-Ayyam, February 12, 2000]
Hussein Abu-Shanab: The map storm reminds us of the three superpowers [that emerged] in the [original] map in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion… Herzl sent a furious letter to these nations and demanded they change the mandatory borders of Palestine so that they include the Litany River, that is from the water to the water – [a slogan] expressed by the poster spread over the Knesset from the Euphrates to the Nile. Sharon’s declarations to journalists following the Palestinian- Israeli-American triple-meeting were for abolishing the process… considering that the historical homeland, according to the Zionist perspective, is from the Nile to the Euphrates…[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, December 21, 1997]
Anti-Israel rally meets stiff resistance in DC
Jim Brown - OneNewsNow.com - June 12, 2007
A group known as United for Peace & Justice co-sponsored an anti-Israel rally that took place Sunday on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol. The head of a pro-Israel group says organizers of the rally are seeking the destruction of the Jewish state.The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, as well as other groups gathered on the west lawn of the Capitol Sunday to protest what they call Israel's illegal military occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. One liberal magazine acknowledged the rally was for the dissolution of the Jewish state.Several groups held a Stand with Israel rally nearby to counter the event. One group, Stand with US, recently published ads in the Washington, DC, metro rail system to counter anti-Israel ads that included a small Palestinian boy standing in front of an Israeli tank.
Herb Zweibon, chairman of Americans for a Safe Israel, contends the anti-Israel movement has evil intent and must be confronted. You can understand how serious this movement is when they call -- not for a two-state solution, which we oppose, [nor] for some sort of amelioration of a Palestinian population -- but for the dissolution of the state [of Israel], he says. I mean, this is beyond understanding.It is important, says Zweibon, to counter the claims of those who say the Palestinians have been done an injustice and that Israel must be punished.If there is no reaction, particularly in Washington ... people get the wrong impression, he says. The fact of the matter is that if there's any injustice in the Middle East, it's done to the state of Israel and to the Jewish people.Zweibon says people who oppose Israel's presence in the Middle East which includes all Palestinians and neighboring countries want nothing more than to eliminate that presence.American Family News Network
WASHINGTON DEEPLY DIVIDED OVER IRAN
By Joel C. Rosenberg
(WASHINGTON, D.C., June 11, 2007) -- Senator Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut Independent who ran for Vice President on Al Gore's ticket in the 2000 presidential race, on Sunday warned that it may be time for aggressive military action to stop Iranian agents from attacking U.S. forces in Iraq and to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. On CBS's Face The Nation, Lieberman said: I think we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq.
And to me, that would include a strike over the border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers....I want to make clear I'm not talking about a massive ground invasion of Iran, but we have good evidence. If they don't play by the rules, we've got to use our force and to me that would include taking military action to stop them from doing what they're doing.Few other U.S. Senators have been so clear that military action may be necessary soon, but Lieberman appears to believe that 2007 is the Year of Decision. If President Bush is going to take military action at all, he most likely would not do so during a presidential election year so that would leave only the next six months.
The Jerusalem Post is reporting that senior U.S. military officials say they have a strike plan in place, and U.S. and Israeli forces began joint war games over the weekend in the Negev desert. But it is still by no means clear that President Bush believes military action against Iran is necessary yet, or even feasible at this point. Indeed, Washington is deeply divided over Iran, as is the international
community. The U.N. Security Council can't even agree to condemn Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for saying that the countdown to Israel's destruction has begun. Kuwait has just announced that the U.S. may not use its bases to launch a strike against Iran. And the head of the Iranian parliament is discounting the possibility of a U.S. strike.
After its bitter experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States is unlikely to launch a military showdown with Iran, said Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel. Tehran is also warning of a missile blitz against the Gulf states and the Gulf oil fields if the U.S. tries to attack Iran. All that said, let me be perfectly clear: I don't want the U.S. or Israel or the Western powers to go to war with Iran. I would much prefer decisive international economic sanctions against Iran combined with a massive infusion of cash, technology and other encouragement to pro-democracy movement leaders inside Iran to bring about an entirely new, moderate, peaceful regime.
But let us all understand that time is running out. Ahmadinejad's Shiite Islamic eschatology -- or end times theology -- is telling him he must destroy Judeo-Christian civilization as we know it in order to bring about the return of the Islamic Messiah known as the Mahdi or the Twelfth Imam. Ahmadinejad and his spiritual advisors have a timetable. They believe the end of the world is imminent, and that's why they're feverishly trying to build, buy or steal nuclear weapons and the means to use them to attack Israel and the U.S. Unfortunately, the hard cold truth is that most political leaders in the U.S. and Europe don't get it. They don't understand the apocalyptic theology that is driving Iranian foreign policy right now, and thus most of them remain convinced that a few more negotiations might do the trick and persuade the Iranian regime to seek peace instead of war. To them I ask: how exactly do you successfully negotiate with or deter a regime whose leaders believe it is their God-given mission to destroy Judeo-Christian civilization in order to bring back their Messiah and spend eternity in paradise?
Hamas seizes Fatah security headquarters By SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press Writer JUNE 12,07
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Hundreds of Hamas fighters firing rockets and mortar shells captured the headquarters of the Fatah-allied security forces in northern Gaza on Tuesday, scoring a key victory in the bloody battle for control of the seaside strip. Both sides said Gaza had descended into civil war, as the death toll from two days of fighting reached 37.
Tuesday's battles marked a turning point, with Hamas moving systematically to seize Fatah positions in what some in the Islamic militant group said would be a decisive phase in the yearlong power struggle. The confrontations turned increasingly brutal in recent days, with some killed execution-style in the streets, others in hospital shootouts or thrown off rooftops.President Mahmoud Abbas accused the Islamic militants of trying to stage a coup, and leaders of his Fatah movement urged him to declare a state of emergency.A survivor of the Hamas assault on the northern security headquarters said the Fatah forces were outgunned and reinforcements never arrived. We were pounded with mortar, mortar, mortar, the Fatah fighter, who only gave his first name, Amjad, said, breathing heavily. They had no mercy. It was boom, boom.
They had rockets that could reach almost half of the compound.Battles raged across the Gaza Strip during the day. The staccato of gunfire echoed across Gaza City, plumes of smoke rose into the air from far-flung neighborhoods and one firefight sent a dozen preschoolers scrambling for cover.
In one desperate attempt to boost morale, disorganized Fatah forces attacked Hamas' main TV station, but were repelled after a heavy battle.Many Gazans, pinned down in their homes, were furious with the combatants. Both Fatah and Hamas are leading us to death and destruction, said Ayya Khalil, 29, whose husband serves as an intelligence officer. They don't care about us.In the West Bank, Abbas was meeting with Fatah movement leaders, some of whom urged him to leave the coalition government with Hamas, established three months ago, declare a state of emergency, which would give him sweeping powers, or call early elections.Fatah ministers decided at the meeting to suspend participation in the unity government until fighting stops, Fatah-affiliated government spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh said late Tuesday.In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposed stationing international forces along the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt to prevent arms from reaching Palestinian militants, including Hamas. However, he ruled out assistance to Abbas' forces.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an immediate halt to the violence and urged all sides to support Abbas.
Hamas and Fatah have waged a power struggle in fits and spurts since Hamas won parliamentary elections in January 2006, and Hamas signaled that the fighting was moving into a decisive phase. It ignored pleas by Abbas and exasperated Egyptian mediators to honor a cease-fire.
Decisiveness will be in the field, said Islam Shahwan, spokesman for the Hamas military wing.In contrast, Fatah commanders complained they were not given clear orders by Abbas to fight back and that they had no central command. Fatah's strongman in Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan, has spent the last few weeks in Cairo because of a knee injury. Other leading Fatah officials left Gaza for the West Bank after previous rounds of bloodshed.There's a difference between leading on the ground and leading by mobile phone, police Col. Nasser Khaldi said of Dahlan's absence. Hamas is just taking over our positions. There are no orders.Both sides have been arming themselves in recent weeks, smuggling weapons through tunnels from Egypt.Abbas accused Hamas leaders of trying to seize control of Gaza by force.
The headquarters of the Fatah-allied security forces in northern Gaza, a key prize for Hamas, was taken by the Islamic militants after several hours of battle. Some 200 Hamas fighters had fired mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at the compound, where some 500 Fatah loyalists were holed up and returned fire. Thirty-five jeeploads of Fatah fighters were sent as reinforcements. After nightfall, Hamas seized control, said a Hamas commander, Wael al-Shakra.
A Fatah security official confirmed the building had been lost. At least 12 people were killed and 30 wounded in the fighting. Earlier, Hamas fighters also overran several smaller Fatah positions in Gaza. Hamas gunmen also exchanged fire with Fatah forces at the southern security headquarters in the town of Khan Younis, but did not launch a major assault there. The town's streets were empty as people huddled inside. One Hamas man was killed, according to Hamas and medical officials. In Gaza City, Hamas fired mortars and explosives at the pro-Fatah Preventive Security headquarters, drawing return fire from watchtowers in the compound. Elsewhere, Fatah fighters killed four Hamas gunmen in a battle near the besieged house of a senior Fatah commander. Hamas and Fatah have been at odds since the Hamas election victory ended four decades of Fatah rule.
The sides agreed to share power in an uneasy coalition three months ago, but put off key disputes, including control over the security forces. Most of the forces are dominated by Fatah loyalists, while Hamas has formed its own militia and has thousands of gunmen at its command. Beverley Milton- Edwards, a Hamas expert at Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, said Gaza is heading for a final showdown. This has become the existential battle for the soul of the Palestinian people, Milton-Edwards said. Brutality has gown in recent days, with people shot at close range in street executions. On Sunday, a member of Abbas' presidential guard, Mohammed Sweirki of Fatah, was kidnapped and hurled off a 15-story apartment building, followed a few hours later by the killing of a Hamas fighter, Abu Kainas, thrown from the roof of a 12-story building in apparent retaliation. In all, more than 80 people have been killed since mid-May, most of them militants. The State Department and the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, warning of a very dangerous security situation, advised journalists not to travel to Gaza. They also urged journalists to leave
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
IRAN THREAT TO HIT GULF
1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS. 2-Landslides, storms kill 77 in Bangladesh. 3-Floodwaters follow savage Australian storm. 4-66 die in China flooding, landslides. 5-EU step to resume Palestinian aid. 6-Iran threat to hit gulf states
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)
Update time = Tue Jun 12 12:00 AM EDT
June 11,07
MAP 2.8 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.1 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.8 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 4.5 OFF THE EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA, RUSSIA
MAP 4.6 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.6 PERU-ECUADOR BORDER REGION
MAP 2.5 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.9 UTAH
MAP 3.2 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 5.2 PERU-ECUADOR BORDER REGION
JUNE 10,07
MAP 3.0 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 4.8 NEAR THE WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 4.4 NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.3 FIJI REGION
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 3.4 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.8 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.5 WASHINGTON
MAP 4.5 SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP 3.4 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.7 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 4.7 MARIANA ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.5 OREGON
MAP 3.4 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
JUNE 9,07
MAP 4.3 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.9 GULF OF ALASKA
MAP 4.5 MOLUCCA SEA
MAP 2.6 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 4.4 HALMAHERA, INDONESIA
MAP 2.9 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.7 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 4.4 NEAR THE COAST OF NICARAGUA
MAP 5.1 SIMEULUE, INDONESIA
MAP 4.6 SIMEULUE, INDONESIA
MAP 2.5 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.3 NEW MEXICO
MAP 3.0 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 2.8 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.1 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.8 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES
LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
Landslides, storms kill 77 in Bangladesh by Nurul Alam JUNE 11,07
CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh (AFP) - Landslides and lightning strikes have left dozens dead in Bangladesh as torrential monsoon rains pounded the disaster-prone country, officials said Monday.
At least 70 people were killed when weekend rains flooded the southeastern port city of Chittagong and set off landslides in surrounding areas. A further seven people were struck by lightning in two northern and western districts.Chittagong police and city council officials said the landslides had buried dozens of homes in hilly districts around the city of five million, and warned the death toll could still rise.The situation is very grave ... it is still raining hard in the city, Chittagong police chief Moinur Rahman Chowdhury told AFP.Local government chief Mukhlesur Rahman said so far 70 bodies had been recovered in the port city. Most of the victims were killed by landslides.These are the worst ever rain-triggered landslides in Chittagong, said head of the city's fire brigade Rashedul Islam, adding that it could take at least another 24 hours to recover all the dead.
Home after home has been buried in tonnes of mud and we still haven't reached all the affected areas yet, he said.Thousands of troops, police and fire brigade personnel, plus civilian aid teams, had been mobilised while mosques were asked to provide shelter to those evacuating their homes, Rahman said.Fakhruddin Ahmed, head of the country's emergency government, had sent communications minister M.A. Matin to the city to coordinate the relief effort.It's a huge task but we are trying to reach everyone, Rahman added.Communications within the city were paralysed and telephone links with the rest of the country were down.One-third of the city is now under three to four feet (around one metre) of water, affecting more than 1.5 million people, said Chittagong's mayor, ManjurulAlam.Bangladesh's meteorological office has also warned that low-lying areas in coastal districts and small islands were likely to be submerged under tidal water.
It said further heavy rains were expected all over Bangladesh during the next 24 hours.We have asked fishing trawlers and boats not to go to deep sea as squally weather and rains will continue for some time, the department's Sanaul Haq Mandal said.Officials said flights to the city's Shah Amanat International Airport had been temporarily suspended and Chittagong Seaport, which handles more than 90 percent of the country's foreign trade, was also forced to close.Landslides are a regular occurrence in hilly areas of Chittagong. Experts have previously warned of environmental disasters due to the government's failure to stop the illegal clearing of hill areas for housing.The landslides were very much linked to the cutting of hills in this region, Rahman said.
Floodwaters follow savage Australian storm Mon Jun 11, 5:49 AM ET
MAITLAND, Australia (AFP) - Floodwaters engulfed homes and farms and swept through areas north of Sydney on Monday while disaster workers began a massive clean-up following deadly storms which battered Australia's east coast. New South Wales state premier Morris Iemma said the level of destruction around Maitland, some 130 kilometres (80 miles) north of Sydney in the Hunter Valley, was heartbreaking.It's unbelievable, the amount of water. It's almost as if the entire valley is covered in water, he said after flying over the region.Prime Minister John Howard said the water, dumped on Sydney and regions to the north during several days of severe storms starting Friday, had rendered the area almost unrecognisable from the air.It is a vivid illustration to me, as it has been to other people, just how savage the storms have been, he said.Violent storms lashed Sydney and Newcastle and the Central Coast to the north over the weekend, cutting power to tens of thousands of homes, disrupting train and ferry services and leaving nine people dead.Among those killed were five people from the same family, including three children, who died when their car plunged into a swollen creek after the road collapsed beneath them.
As the rain abated, it was feared that Maitland would be inundated if a levee failed to keep the Hunter River at bay.Some 100 properties were flooded but the threat of more widespread damage eased overnight after floodwaters rose more slowly than expected.Fears that Newcastle lay in the path of the flooding eased on Monday after the weather bureau downgraded its forecast for the river level. Newcastle was hammered by the storm system, with a massive freighter washed aground on a popular beach by giant waves and officials describing the city as looking as if it had been hit by an earthquake.
Officials said they were now concentrating on cleaning up after the gale force winds and torrential downpours.We just want to tidy things up and we'll be in recovery mode for some weeks and months to come, Newcastle Council general manager Janet Dore said.It's been incredible -- it's been quite devastating.
Premier Iemma, who has ordered recovery centres be set up in the Hunter Valley and on the Central Coast to coordinate disaster relief, said the damage bill would be tens of millions of dollars.Just one shopkeeper, it all went. He copped a triple whammy, he said.He lost his business, he lost his car and when he went home on Friday night, he arrived home to a house that had been destroyed by fallen trees. So if you take that family and those circumstances, that's nearly one million dollars.Meanwhile, workers were still trying to reconnect thousands of homes to the electricity grid some four days after they were cut off by the storm. We have to go in and rebuild and restring entire lines because the poles have just collapsed where the side of the road may have just collapsed, EnergyAustralia spokesman Anthony O'Brien said. Maritime officials were hopeful that the 40,000-tonne bulk carrier Pasha Bulker, which sits stranded on Nobby's Beach at Newcastle, could be towed away despite a hole in the hull. A salvage team, which found the outer hull was breached but that the inner hull appeared intact, was working to stabilise the vessel so it can be dragged into port by several tugs later this week, they said. Despite the devastation, Australians have been wary of criticising the rain which comes as the country experiences the worst drought in living memory. There is some consolation, Maitland resident Tim Bean told The Sydney Morning Herald. We definitely needed the water, but perhaps not this much.
66 die in China flooding, landslides Sun Jun 10, 11:53 PM ET
BEIJING - Landslides and flooding unleashed by heavy rains have killed at least 66 people in China and left nearly 600,000 homeless, a state news agency reported Monday. The highest death toll was in southeastern Guangdong province, where 18 people were killed and four were missing since the rains started Thursday, the Xinhua News Agency said. More than 72,000 people were evacuated from their homes.The populous province is the heart of China's export-driven light manufacturing industries, but there was no word of any damage to factories or shipping facilities.Deaths and damage were reported throughout southern China and the northwest. Torrential rains, mudslides and floods have also hit Hunan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Jiangxi and Fujian provinces, where at least 48 people died, Xinhua said.
China suffers deaths and damage every summer when seasonal rains cause flash floods.
Big cities are sheltered by giant dikes but deaths are reported in farm communities that lack protection from rising rivers, and in mountain towns that are hit by flash floods.Millions of people in central and southern China live on reclaimed, flood-prone farmland.Flooding and typhoons killed 2,704 people last year, according to the China Meteorological Administration. That was the second-deadliest year on record after 1998, when summer flooding claimed 4,150 lives.In Guangxi, the floods killed 13 people and destroyed hundreds of homes, Xinhua reported. The province is a poor, mountainous region to Guangdong's west.Thousands of students who were taking national university entrance exams in Guangxi had to move to emergency centers after school buildings were flooded, the agency reported.Rains in Guangxi destroyed 29 reservoirs and forced 59 factories to suspend production, Xinhua said, citing Chen Rundong, deputy director of the regional flood control office.
EU step to resume Palestinian aid JUNE 12,07
Mr Fayyad, left, is a former official at the World Bank The EU has signed an agreement to train officials in the Palestinian Authority's Finance Ministry, so that direct aid can resume in the future.
An official said this agreement was to provide technical assistance, not financial aid. The Palestinian Authority has been under an aid embargo since the militant movement Hamas won elections last year.
The BBC's Alix Kroeger in Brussels says the step is part of an EU bid to resume aid without breaking its rules. It cannot provide aid to Hamas officials because the group is on the EU's list of terrorist organisations. The EU and the other major donors have set up a mechanism to bypass the Palestinian Authority but continue to pay for health services and fuel costs.
Earlier this year, the EU signalled it would be prepared to work with some ministers it considered reliable, including Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad. On a visit to Brussels, Mr Fayyad, a former World Bank official, said training would be useful to prepare officials for the resumption of direct aid, after a year without it. The EU got agreement from other donors, including the Americans, for the offer of technical assistance. An official in Brussels said: We are not giving them money to do other things, we are training them, we are giving them technical knowledge of something.
Iran denies threat to hit Gulf states if US attacks from them
Compiled by Daily Star staff - Tuesday, June 12, 2007
A former Iranian defense minister dismissed as baseless Monday a report quoting him as saying Iran would attack Gulf countries used as a launch pad for a US strike on Iran. Admiral Ali Shamkhani was reacting to comments published Sunday in the US Journal of Defense News. The Journal quoted Shamkhani as saying that in the event of a US strike, Iran would stun the US missile-defense system using dozens if not hundreds of missiles that will be launched simultaneously at certain targets.Special targets would include Arab Gulf states that help Washington to justify a strike, the journal quoted Shamkhani as saying. It quoted him as saying that the missiles would be fired not only at US bases but also at strategic facilities such as oil refineries and power stations.But Shamkhani dismissed the report as a bunch of lies.
We consider the oil facilities of Arab nations just as important as Iran's oil refineries, Shamkhani told state media. He described regional Arab countries as Iran's real friends.There was no interview [with the Journal] and the news is fake and unreal, he said in remarks carried by Iran's Student News Agency (ISNA). He said the Iranian government's policy was based on generating regional peace, security and sustainable stability Shamkhani, head of Iran's Strategic Defense Research Center, called for better cooperation with Gulf countries in security and defense issues.The US has targeted unity among Muslims by generating propaganda through its related media and plotting political intrigues in order to justify its illegal presence in the region, said Shamkhani, describing Sunday's report as rumor-mongering, ISNA said.I ask the Arab states: Hasn't Iran concluded joint defense and non-aggression agreements with them? Shamkhani said. Can a country which has constantly tried to respect such agreements be viewed as a threat? Shamkhani also runs the Center of Strategic Studies, a think tank comprised of former senior foreign, defense and interior ministers who advise supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Shamkhani was also quoted by the Journal as saying: All the talk about a Sunni-Shiite divide and Iranian expansionist or hegemonic ambitions are lies spread by the US and Israel to rally regional support and justify a military attack on Iran ... All the troubles in the region are caused by the US military presence and Israel. http://www.dailystar.com.lb Iran has an array of medium-range missiles and claims that its longer-range Shahab-3 missile has a reach of 2,000 kilometers which would put US bases on the Arabian Peninsula within reach. Earlier Sunday, Iranian Parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel ruled out the possibility that our neighbors ... will allow the US to use their territory in attacking Iran.But if this actually happens, we will be forced to defend ourselves ... We will target those bases or points used to attack Iran, he told reporters during a trip to Kuwait.Adel said some Gulf states, which he did not name, had assured Tehran they would not allow their territory to be used in the event of an attack on Iran.On Monday Kuwait said it would not allow the US to use its territory as a launch-pad for any attack on Iran.Asked if Washington had made such a request, Defense Minister Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Sabah told reporters: The United States did not ask [to use Kuwaiti military facilities for any attack] and even if it did, we will not allow anybody to use our territory.Kuwait is concerned about any strike on the Bushehr nuclear power station that Russia is building for Iran. The station lies 300 kilometers from Kuwait.
In Vienna, UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Monday the brewing confrontation with Iran over its atomic ambitions must be defused, as Tehran failed to provide sensitive information it had promised.A meeting Monday between ElBaradei and a senior Iranian negotiator was cancelled since the Iranians didn't want to talk substance at this point on questions about possibly weapons-related work in a long-running investigation by the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a diplomat said.I am increasingly disturbed by the stalemate and the brewing confrontation - a stalemate that urgently needs to be broken, and a confrontation that must be defused, ElBaradei told an IAEA meeting in Vienna.The IAEA's 35-nation board of governors began Monday in Vienna a week-long meeting that could bring Iran a step closer to a third round of UN sanctions. - Reuters, The Daily Star
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)
Update time = Tue Jun 12 12:00 AM EDT
June 11,07
MAP 2.8 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.1 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.8 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 4.5 OFF THE EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA, RUSSIA
MAP 4.6 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.6 PERU-ECUADOR BORDER REGION
MAP 2.5 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.9 UTAH
MAP 3.2 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 5.2 PERU-ECUADOR BORDER REGION
JUNE 10,07
MAP 3.0 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 4.8 NEAR THE WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 4.4 NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.3 FIJI REGION
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 3.4 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.8 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.5 WASHINGTON
MAP 4.5 SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP 3.4 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.7 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 4.7 MARIANA ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.5 OREGON
MAP 3.4 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
JUNE 9,07
MAP 4.3 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.9 GULF OF ALASKA
MAP 4.5 MOLUCCA SEA
MAP 2.6 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 4.4 HALMAHERA, INDONESIA
MAP 2.9 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.7 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 4.4 NEAR THE COAST OF NICARAGUA
MAP 5.1 SIMEULUE, INDONESIA
MAP 4.6 SIMEULUE, INDONESIA
MAP 2.5 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.3 NEW MEXICO
MAP 3.0 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 2.8 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.1 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.8 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES
LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
Landslides, storms kill 77 in Bangladesh by Nurul Alam JUNE 11,07
CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh (AFP) - Landslides and lightning strikes have left dozens dead in Bangladesh as torrential monsoon rains pounded the disaster-prone country, officials said Monday.
At least 70 people were killed when weekend rains flooded the southeastern port city of Chittagong and set off landslides in surrounding areas. A further seven people were struck by lightning in two northern and western districts.Chittagong police and city council officials said the landslides had buried dozens of homes in hilly districts around the city of five million, and warned the death toll could still rise.The situation is very grave ... it is still raining hard in the city, Chittagong police chief Moinur Rahman Chowdhury told AFP.Local government chief Mukhlesur Rahman said so far 70 bodies had been recovered in the port city. Most of the victims were killed by landslides.These are the worst ever rain-triggered landslides in Chittagong, said head of the city's fire brigade Rashedul Islam, adding that it could take at least another 24 hours to recover all the dead.
Home after home has been buried in tonnes of mud and we still haven't reached all the affected areas yet, he said.Thousands of troops, police and fire brigade personnel, plus civilian aid teams, had been mobilised while mosques were asked to provide shelter to those evacuating their homes, Rahman said.Fakhruddin Ahmed, head of the country's emergency government, had sent communications minister M.A. Matin to the city to coordinate the relief effort.It's a huge task but we are trying to reach everyone, Rahman added.Communications within the city were paralysed and telephone links with the rest of the country were down.One-third of the city is now under three to four feet (around one metre) of water, affecting more than 1.5 million people, said Chittagong's mayor, ManjurulAlam.Bangladesh's meteorological office has also warned that low-lying areas in coastal districts and small islands were likely to be submerged under tidal water.
It said further heavy rains were expected all over Bangladesh during the next 24 hours.We have asked fishing trawlers and boats not to go to deep sea as squally weather and rains will continue for some time, the department's Sanaul Haq Mandal said.Officials said flights to the city's Shah Amanat International Airport had been temporarily suspended and Chittagong Seaport, which handles more than 90 percent of the country's foreign trade, was also forced to close.Landslides are a regular occurrence in hilly areas of Chittagong. Experts have previously warned of environmental disasters due to the government's failure to stop the illegal clearing of hill areas for housing.The landslides were very much linked to the cutting of hills in this region, Rahman said.
Floodwaters follow savage Australian storm Mon Jun 11, 5:49 AM ET
MAITLAND, Australia (AFP) - Floodwaters engulfed homes and farms and swept through areas north of Sydney on Monday while disaster workers began a massive clean-up following deadly storms which battered Australia's east coast. New South Wales state premier Morris Iemma said the level of destruction around Maitland, some 130 kilometres (80 miles) north of Sydney in the Hunter Valley, was heartbreaking.It's unbelievable, the amount of water. It's almost as if the entire valley is covered in water, he said after flying over the region.Prime Minister John Howard said the water, dumped on Sydney and regions to the north during several days of severe storms starting Friday, had rendered the area almost unrecognisable from the air.It is a vivid illustration to me, as it has been to other people, just how savage the storms have been, he said.Violent storms lashed Sydney and Newcastle and the Central Coast to the north over the weekend, cutting power to tens of thousands of homes, disrupting train and ferry services and leaving nine people dead.Among those killed were five people from the same family, including three children, who died when their car plunged into a swollen creek after the road collapsed beneath them.
As the rain abated, it was feared that Maitland would be inundated if a levee failed to keep the Hunter River at bay.Some 100 properties were flooded but the threat of more widespread damage eased overnight after floodwaters rose more slowly than expected.Fears that Newcastle lay in the path of the flooding eased on Monday after the weather bureau downgraded its forecast for the river level. Newcastle was hammered by the storm system, with a massive freighter washed aground on a popular beach by giant waves and officials describing the city as looking as if it had been hit by an earthquake.
Officials said they were now concentrating on cleaning up after the gale force winds and torrential downpours.We just want to tidy things up and we'll be in recovery mode for some weeks and months to come, Newcastle Council general manager Janet Dore said.It's been incredible -- it's been quite devastating.
Premier Iemma, who has ordered recovery centres be set up in the Hunter Valley and on the Central Coast to coordinate disaster relief, said the damage bill would be tens of millions of dollars.Just one shopkeeper, it all went. He copped a triple whammy, he said.He lost his business, he lost his car and when he went home on Friday night, he arrived home to a house that had been destroyed by fallen trees. So if you take that family and those circumstances, that's nearly one million dollars.Meanwhile, workers were still trying to reconnect thousands of homes to the electricity grid some four days after they were cut off by the storm. We have to go in and rebuild and restring entire lines because the poles have just collapsed where the side of the road may have just collapsed, EnergyAustralia spokesman Anthony O'Brien said. Maritime officials were hopeful that the 40,000-tonne bulk carrier Pasha Bulker, which sits stranded on Nobby's Beach at Newcastle, could be towed away despite a hole in the hull. A salvage team, which found the outer hull was breached but that the inner hull appeared intact, was working to stabilise the vessel so it can be dragged into port by several tugs later this week, they said. Despite the devastation, Australians have been wary of criticising the rain which comes as the country experiences the worst drought in living memory. There is some consolation, Maitland resident Tim Bean told The Sydney Morning Herald. We definitely needed the water, but perhaps not this much.
66 die in China flooding, landslides Sun Jun 10, 11:53 PM ET
BEIJING - Landslides and flooding unleashed by heavy rains have killed at least 66 people in China and left nearly 600,000 homeless, a state news agency reported Monday. The highest death toll was in southeastern Guangdong province, where 18 people were killed and four were missing since the rains started Thursday, the Xinhua News Agency said. More than 72,000 people were evacuated from their homes.The populous province is the heart of China's export-driven light manufacturing industries, but there was no word of any damage to factories or shipping facilities.Deaths and damage were reported throughout southern China and the northwest. Torrential rains, mudslides and floods have also hit Hunan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Jiangxi and Fujian provinces, where at least 48 people died, Xinhua said.
China suffers deaths and damage every summer when seasonal rains cause flash floods.
Big cities are sheltered by giant dikes but deaths are reported in farm communities that lack protection from rising rivers, and in mountain towns that are hit by flash floods.Millions of people in central and southern China live on reclaimed, flood-prone farmland.Flooding and typhoons killed 2,704 people last year, according to the China Meteorological Administration. That was the second-deadliest year on record after 1998, when summer flooding claimed 4,150 lives.In Guangxi, the floods killed 13 people and destroyed hundreds of homes, Xinhua reported. The province is a poor, mountainous region to Guangdong's west.Thousands of students who were taking national university entrance exams in Guangxi had to move to emergency centers after school buildings were flooded, the agency reported.Rains in Guangxi destroyed 29 reservoirs and forced 59 factories to suspend production, Xinhua said, citing Chen Rundong, deputy director of the regional flood control office.
EU step to resume Palestinian aid JUNE 12,07
Mr Fayyad, left, is a former official at the World Bank The EU has signed an agreement to train officials in the Palestinian Authority's Finance Ministry, so that direct aid can resume in the future.
An official said this agreement was to provide technical assistance, not financial aid. The Palestinian Authority has been under an aid embargo since the militant movement Hamas won elections last year.
The BBC's Alix Kroeger in Brussels says the step is part of an EU bid to resume aid without breaking its rules. It cannot provide aid to Hamas officials because the group is on the EU's list of terrorist organisations. The EU and the other major donors have set up a mechanism to bypass the Palestinian Authority but continue to pay for health services and fuel costs.
Earlier this year, the EU signalled it would be prepared to work with some ministers it considered reliable, including Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad. On a visit to Brussels, Mr Fayyad, a former World Bank official, said training would be useful to prepare officials for the resumption of direct aid, after a year without it. The EU got agreement from other donors, including the Americans, for the offer of technical assistance. An official in Brussels said: We are not giving them money to do other things, we are training them, we are giving them technical knowledge of something.
Iran denies threat to hit Gulf states if US attacks from them
Compiled by Daily Star staff - Tuesday, June 12, 2007
A former Iranian defense minister dismissed as baseless Monday a report quoting him as saying Iran would attack Gulf countries used as a launch pad for a US strike on Iran. Admiral Ali Shamkhani was reacting to comments published Sunday in the US Journal of Defense News. The Journal quoted Shamkhani as saying that in the event of a US strike, Iran would stun the US missile-defense system using dozens if not hundreds of missiles that will be launched simultaneously at certain targets.Special targets would include Arab Gulf states that help Washington to justify a strike, the journal quoted Shamkhani as saying. It quoted him as saying that the missiles would be fired not only at US bases but also at strategic facilities such as oil refineries and power stations.But Shamkhani dismissed the report as a bunch of lies.
We consider the oil facilities of Arab nations just as important as Iran's oil refineries, Shamkhani told state media. He described regional Arab countries as Iran's real friends.There was no interview [with the Journal] and the news is fake and unreal, he said in remarks carried by Iran's Student News Agency (ISNA). He said the Iranian government's policy was based on generating regional peace, security and sustainable stability Shamkhani, head of Iran's Strategic Defense Research Center, called for better cooperation with Gulf countries in security and defense issues.The US has targeted unity among Muslims by generating propaganda through its related media and plotting political intrigues in order to justify its illegal presence in the region, said Shamkhani, describing Sunday's report as rumor-mongering, ISNA said.I ask the Arab states: Hasn't Iran concluded joint defense and non-aggression agreements with them? Shamkhani said. Can a country which has constantly tried to respect such agreements be viewed as a threat? Shamkhani also runs the Center of Strategic Studies, a think tank comprised of former senior foreign, defense and interior ministers who advise supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Shamkhani was also quoted by the Journal as saying: All the talk about a Sunni-Shiite divide and Iranian expansionist or hegemonic ambitions are lies spread by the US and Israel to rally regional support and justify a military attack on Iran ... All the troubles in the region are caused by the US military presence and Israel. http://www.dailystar.com.lb Iran has an array of medium-range missiles and claims that its longer-range Shahab-3 missile has a reach of 2,000 kilometers which would put US bases on the Arabian Peninsula within reach. Earlier Sunday, Iranian Parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel ruled out the possibility that our neighbors ... will allow the US to use their territory in attacking Iran.But if this actually happens, we will be forced to defend ourselves ... We will target those bases or points used to attack Iran, he told reporters during a trip to Kuwait.Adel said some Gulf states, which he did not name, had assured Tehran they would not allow their territory to be used in the event of an attack on Iran.On Monday Kuwait said it would not allow the US to use its territory as a launch-pad for any attack on Iran.Asked if Washington had made such a request, Defense Minister Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Sabah told reporters: The United States did not ask [to use Kuwaiti military facilities for any attack] and even if it did, we will not allow anybody to use our territory.Kuwait is concerned about any strike on the Bushehr nuclear power station that Russia is building for Iran. The station lies 300 kilometers from Kuwait.
In Vienna, UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Monday the brewing confrontation with Iran over its atomic ambitions must be defused, as Tehran failed to provide sensitive information it had promised.A meeting Monday between ElBaradei and a senior Iranian negotiator was cancelled since the Iranians didn't want to talk substance at this point on questions about possibly weapons-related work in a long-running investigation by the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a diplomat said.I am increasingly disturbed by the stalemate and the brewing confrontation - a stalemate that urgently needs to be broken, and a confrontation that must be defused, ElBaradei told an IAEA meeting in Vienna.The IAEA's 35-nation board of governors began Monday in Vienna a week-long meeting that could bring Iran a step closer to a third round of UN sanctions. - Reuters, The Daily Star
Monday, June 11, 2007
STATUS OF JERUSALEM CUP OF TREMBLING
1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS. 2-Deadly storms hit Australian city like a quake. 3-Three dead after storms, flash floods in Switzerland. 4-Rain lashes southern, eastern Ont. as Environment Canada warns of tornadoes. 5-Thousands without power as storm moves across Ontario. 6-Forest fire edges toward Fort McMurray. 7-Russia's Putin calls for WTO alternative. 8-Syrian paper: Israel sends mixed signals. 9-Bush administration forcing Israel to endanger itself. 10-NATO Chief Wants New Ties With EU. 11-Conference focuses on status of Jerusalem.
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)
STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES
LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
Deadly storms hit Australian city like a quake Sun Jun 10, 2:33 AM ET
SYDNEY (AFP) - Rescue workers evacuated hundreds of people from their homes as deadly storms lashed Australia's east coast Sunday, leaving parts of one city looking like an earthquake had struck, officials said. The death toll rose to eight when police found the body of a man who died when his car was swept off a highway into a swollen creek.His wife and their three young children, aged two, three and nine, and who were travelling with him, also died when the road collapsed underneath them, but their bodies had been found earlier.Eight people have died so far since the storms hit Sydney and the Central Coast and Newcastle to the north on Friday.They include a 29-year-old man who was crushed when a tree fell on his car near Newcastle and a couple perished when their vehicle was swept off a bridge while crossing a flooded river in the Hunter Valley.
Another man from Newcastle is missing after being swept down a stormwater drain.Officials said Newcastle looked as if it had been hit by an earthquake.What I saw were parts of Newcastle that resembled the kind of damage that followed the (1989) earthquake, New South Wales state premier Morris Iemma said after visiting the city.Construction sites and scaffolding, debris on roads, abandoned cars, homes that were damaged, trees having fallen on homes, extensive damage. It was quite disbelieving, he added.The 1989 earthquake packed a magnitude of 5.6 and killed 13 people.
Newcastle resident Harry Gregory told The Sunday Telegraph he fled his home after his bed and fridge started to float in the floodwaters.Everything's ruined, he said. I have a lounge (sofa) stuck in my front fence and I have got no idea who it belongs to.
Emergency workers evacuated 400 people from their homes along the Central Coast overnight, including by boat and helicopter, and were Sunday working on convincing residents in Maitland, just to the north, to seek shelter in case the Hunter River bursts its banks.Although it has brought much-needed rain to Sydney and towns to its north, the storm has wreaked havoc.Accompanied by gale force winds, it has driven a massive freighter aground in Newcastle, prompted the suspension of ferry services on Sydney Harbour and blacked out tens of thousands of homes.State Emergency Services (SES) spokesman Philip Campbell said 200 properties in the Maitland region were being evacuated.The most serious point for the SES in terms of this flood emergency will be later on this evening, he told Australian Associated Press.Prime Minister John Howard said those affected by storm and flooding would be entitled to cash payments in addition to natural disaster funding offered by the state government. Our thoughts and prayers are with the communities who have suffered and are continuing to feel the impact of this natural disaster, he said.
Maritime officials said the 30,000-tonne vessel Pasha Bulker, still stranded on a Newcastle beach after running aground amid huge seas on Friday, had had some power restored to it and appeared to be intact. Meanwhile, power outages on the Central Coast were threatening the water supply because a black-out at two pumping stations meant that reservoirs were only 10 percent full. We're anticipating if we don't get power back today that we may lose water to some suburbs by this evening, Gosford
City Council's Stephen Martin said.
Three dead after storms, flash floods in Switzerland Sat Jun 9, 2:57 PM ET
GENEVA (AFP) - Three people were killed in central Switzerland after they were caught in flash floods overnight caused by heavy thunderstorms, police said Saturday. A couple died in the small town of Huttwil after they were swept away by a small river which turned into a raging torrent during the storms late Friday, police in the canton of Bern said at a press conference.Their son was saved by onlookers, they added.Police also said an elderly woman died in the nearby village of Eriswil when her home was flooded.Cars were swept away by the fast flowing water, several houses were flooded and two bridges in the region were severely damaged, authorities said.Local roads were also cut briefly as flood waters reportedly rose within seconds.Flash flooding and mudslides were also reported overnight during storms near Lucerne in central Switzerland and in the northern city of Basel, mainly affecting home cellars and roads. No one was injured, authorities said.
Friday, June 8th, 2007
Rain lashes southern, eastern Ont. as Environment Canada warns of tornadoes
Canadian Press
TORONTO (CP) - Tornado warnings have been issued for some parts of east-central Ontario as a very dangerous storm moves across the province. Environment Canada says the warnings include Renfrew, Arnprior, Petawawa, Pembroke and Barry's Bay. There's also a tornado watch for the Ottawa and Gatineau area, Peterborough, Bancroft, Smiths Falls, Haliburton County and Pembroke.
Funnel clouds were spotted in the Brantford and Hamilton areas this afternoon, but as of 5 p.m., had dissipated or moved out of St. Catharines, Hamilton and the northern Niagara region. Severe thunderstorm warnings remain in effect for parts of southern and eastern Ontario. Environment Canada says such storms can produce damaging winds, lightning and large hail. Emergency management officials recommend seeking shelter immediately when threatening weather approaches.
Environment Canada says a strong cold front from lower Michigan now stretches just east of Georgian Bay to eastern Lake Erie. The storm threat in eastern Ontario will likely persist into early evening. There have been reports that the weather has affected commuter transit. An eastbound GO Train from Toronto's Union station to Pickering has been cancelled due to severe weather. Another train heading westbound to Hamilton has also stopped west of the Clarkson station due to a fallen tree on the tracks.
Thousands without power as storm moves across Ontario
Last Updated: Friday, June 8, 2007 | 7:01 PM ET CBC News
Tornado warnings have ended for some parts of southern Ontario Friday, but high winds have left about 70,000 people without power in parts of the province.Hydro One says customers in Georgian Bay, Hunstville, Muskoka, Hamilton and St. Catharines are reporting widespread outages.
In Toronto, heavy rain and winds played havoc with motorists after traffic lights were knocked out. As the storm passed, the temperature in the Toronto area dropped from 30 C to 19 C in 11 minutes.The storm downed trees and power lines across southwestern Ontario as winds gusted to a peak of 95 km/h. Temperatures began rebounding in Toronto as the severe thunderstorm warnings were dropped. The storm delayed many flights in and out of Pearson International Airport.The eastbound GO Train from Union station to Pickering has been cancelled due to severe weather.Earlier, Environment Canada said funnel clouds were spotted in the Brantford and Hamilton areas, but as of 5 p.m. had dissipated or moved out of St. Catharines, Hamilton and the northern Niagara region.A tornado watch is still in effect for Peterborough, Kawartha Lakes, Bancroft, Haliburton, Renfrew and Pembroke.
Forest fire edges toward Fort McMurray
Last Updated: Friday, June 8, 2007 | 9:04 AM MT CBC News
Firefighters are busy Friday morning trying to stop Alberta's biggest forest fire from advancing toward the northern city of Fort McMurray.
The fire has spread over 150 square kilometres, making it the largest one burning in Alberta and the only blaze deemed out of control.Wind has been blowing the smoke into Fort McMurray for the past 24 hours.Fire information officer Rob Harris said the smoke hasn't been enough to cause problems, but firefighters are counting on another wind shift to clear the smoke and help them hold the line on the east side of the fire.It's going to be a test over the next day because of the winds, but after that it looks like Mother Nature will start working in our favour and start blowing that fire away from town again.
Russia's Putin calls for WTO alternative By ALEX NICHOLSON, AP Business Writer JUNE 10,07
ST.PETERSBURG, Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin called Sunday for creating an alternative to the World Trade Organization that would favor developing economies and suggested giving a greater role to regional currencies. Speaking at an economic forum in Russia's second-largest city of St. Petersburg, Putin lamented that today's international economic organizations look archaic, undemocratic and awkward by protecting the interests mainly of developed economies.Today protectionism which the WTO is intended to fight oftentimes comes from developed economies that set up this structure, Putin told the conference.In order to stimulate trade and investment it is worth thinking about creating a regional Eurasian institute on free trade that could take advantage of the positive experience of WTO, he said. He did not elaborate.Putin said the stalled Doha round of global trade talks were a sign of the problems with the organization: Old methods of decision-making at times don't work.
The talks have stumbled repeatedly since their inception six years ago in Qatar's capital, largely because of wrangling between rich and poor countries over eliminating barriers to farm trade.Putin also said that, currently, global financial markets evolved around one or two currencies an apparent reference to the euro and the dollar and their fluctuations often have highly negative effects on many countries' economies and financial reserves.There can be only one answer to this challenge the creation of several world currencies, several financial centers, he said. Putin suggested Russia could become one of them.Russia remains the only major economy outside the WTO, the Geneva-based 150-member group, which sets global trade rules.To join, Russia still needs to reach agreement with its tiny ex-Soviet neighbor Georgia, which protests Russia's strong ties with its two breakaway provinces.
Russia also is in ongoing WTO talks with the European Union. Although the EU formally backs Russia's World Trade Organization membership, issues including foreign investors' access to Russia's vast energy sector has complicated Moscow's WTO application.Russian officials are using the two-day forum to court international capital and talk up the resurgent country, combining ambitious economic projections with promises of an open investment climate.Associated Press Writer Maria Danilova contributed to this report from Moscow.
Syrian paper: Israel sends mixed signals Sun Jun 10, 7:02 AM ET
DAMASCUS, Syria - Syria had no official reaction Sunday to Israel's announcement that it has sent secret peace feelers to the Arab country, but a state-run Syrian newspaper accused Israel of sending mixed signals.
The state-run, English-language Syria Times daily said it believed the Israeli government had no intention of making peace with Arabs, and accused Israel of sending contradictory messages.Syria has every right to doubt the intentions of (Israeli Prime Minister Ehud) Olmert and his statements regarding his desire to talk peace, at a time when his war generals and senior aides are launching warlike threats, the newspaper said. It's a blatant contradiction.Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz said Saturday that the Israeli government had put out secret peace feelers to Syria, but said there was so far no response from Damascus.Mofaz said a letter had been sent to Damascus, but refused to divulge its contents.
His public confirmation came a day after an Israeli newspaper reported that Israel had told Syrian leaders it could give up the captured Golan Heights as part of a peace deal in which Syria would distance itself from Iran's virulently anti-Israeli regime.The paper, the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, said Olmert had recently sent messages to Syrian President Bashar Assad, through German and Turkish diplomats, saying Israel was open to direct peace negotiations and was prepared to give up the strategic plateau, which it seized in the 1967 Mideast war.On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz told Israeli Radio that the country's military was preparing for any scenario.The Israeli military has to be ready on all fronts, he said.
James Baker's disciples
Bush administration forcing Israel to endanger itself
by Caroline Glick June 7, 2007 JPOST
Ahead of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's trip to the White House on June 19, the Bush administration is pressuring Israel to endanger itself on at least two fronts. First the Americans are pressuring the Olmert government to agree to Palestinian Authority and Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas's request to bring millions of bullets, thousands of Kalashnikov assault rifles, RPGs, anti-tank missiles and armored personnel carriers into Gaza from Egypt. The government has yet to respond to the request.
Those who oppose it argue that Fatah forces in Gaza are too weak and incompetent to battle Hamas forces and so any weaponry transferred to Fatah militias will likely end up in Hamas's hands. This logic is correct, but incomplete. It is true that Fatah forces are unwilling and presumably unable to defeat Hamas forces. But it is also true that Fatah forces use their arms to attack Israel. So even if there was no chance of Hamas laying its hands on the weapons, allowing Fatah to receive them would still endanger Israel.
The same limited logic informs Israel's strenuous objection to the Pentagon's intention to sell Saudi Arabia Joint Direct Attack Munition satellite-guided smart bombs or JDAMS. The government claims that while it has no truck with the Saudis, it fears for the stability of the regime. If the House of Saud falls, Osama bin Laden would get the bombs. Yet like Fatah, the Saudis aren't simply vulnerable.
They are culpable. In addition to being the creators of al Qaida and Hamas's largest financial backers, the Saudis themselves directly threaten Israel.In direct contravention of their commitment to the US, (and the US's commitment to Israel), the Saudis have deployed F-15 fighter jets at Tabuk air base located 150 km from Eilat. On May 13th, the Saudi Air Force held an air show at Tabuk for the benefit of King Abdullah and senior princes where the F-15s where ostentatiously shown. The timing of the show was interesting. It took place the day before Abdullah hosted Vice President Richard Cheney at Tabuk.
The administration is not just asking Israel to facilitate the arming of its enemies. It is also placing restrictions on Israel's ability to arm itself. As The Jerusalem Post reported on Wednesday, the Pentagon has yet to respond to Israel's request to purchase the F-22 stealth bomber. Moreover, the US seems to be torpedoing Israel's acquisition of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The Pentagon recently voiced its objection to Israel's plan to install Israeli technology in the jets that are to be supplied starting in 2014. Israel's installation of its own electronic warfare systems in its F-16s and F-15s is how it has managed to maintain the IAF's qualitative edge over Arab states that have also purchased the aircraft. The administration's hostility towards Israel is unfortunately not an aberration. It is the result of a policy shift within the administration which occurred immediately after the Republican Party's defeat in the Congressional elections last November. After the Republican defeat, the administration embraced former secretary of state James Baker's foreign policy paradigm which is based on the belief that it is possible and desirable to reach a stable balance of power in the Middle East. As Baker sees it, the balance can be reached by forcing Israel to shrink to its natural proportions and assisting supposedly moderate and stable states like Egypt and Saudi Arabia to grow into their natural proportions. Once the states of the region (including Syria and Iran which Baker wishes to appease) have settled into their proper proportions, stability will be ensured.
Baker fleshed on his view in the Iraq Study Group's recommendations which were published immediately after the elections. Although President George W. Bush rejected the ISG's recommendations, the day after the elections he sacked defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and replaced him with Robert Gates who served on the ISG. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is a disciple of Baker's ally former national security advisor Brent Scowcroft. The problem with the Baker paradigm is that it has never been borne out by reality. It collapsed during the Cold War both as the Soviet Union worked tirelessly to destabilize countries allied with the US and when the states of East-Central Europe revolted against the teetering empire and gained their freedom with its collapse.
In the 1990s, Baker's stability paradigm failed to foresee the post-nationalist movements that swept through Western Europe and the Muslim world and embraced the Soviet goal of weakening the US. Baker still denies the phenomenon and ignores its policy implications.
Today, the notion that stability is a realistic aim is even more far fetched. Specifically, the willingness of Muslim secularists to form strategic relations with jihadists and the willingness of Shiites to form strategic partnerships with Sunnis was unimaginable twenty years ago. Aside from that, the specter of a nuclear-armed Iran throws a monkey wrench into any thought of regional stability. A look around the region shows just how absurd Baker's notions truly are. In Lebanon today, Fatah al Islam, which is apparently allied with al Qaida, is fighting the Lebanese army in a bid to bring down the Siniora government at the behest of its sponsor — the secular Ba'athist regime in Damascus. Fatah al Islam is also aligned with Hizbullah, which shares its goal of bringing down the Lebanese government and with Iran which gives the Syrians their marching orders.
This state of affairs is also the name of the game in Iraq where Iran and Syria support both Muqtada al Sadr's Shiite Mehdi army and al Qaida's Sunni death squads. It repeats itself in Afghanistan where Iran is arming the Taliban and in the Palestinian Authority. Furthermore, the paragons of moderation and stability in Egypt and Saudi Arabia which Baker and his followers are so keen to strengthen are
neither stable nor moderate. Both Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah are old men of uncertain health.
To stabilize their regimes they wrought unholy alliances with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Wahabis which are the only forces in Egyptian and Saudi societies that have not been flattened under their jackboots. This week Channel 10 reported that the Bush administration recently informed Israel and the Gulf states that it has no intention of launching military strikes against Iran's nuclear installations. The Americans explained that they need Iranian assistance in stabilizing Iraq to pave the way for an American withdrawal from the country before Bush leaves office. Under Baker's regency, the administration apparently now subscribes to the belief that they will be better off out of Iraq with a nuclear-armed Iran than in Iraq without a nuclear-armed Iran. For their part, the Arabs have demonstrated clearly that they do not share the administration's newfound faith that a nuclear-armed Iran will reach a stable equilibrium in a Bakeresque Middle Eastern balance of powers.
Their stated aim to build nuclear reactors is a clear sign that they recognize the danger of a nuclear-armed Iran. The administration's support the Arabs' quest for nuclear reactors makes clear that it is now willing to have a Middle Eastern nuclear arms race. This brings us back to Israel, which is situated smack in the middle of the regional chaos. How is Israel contending with this threatening state of affairs?
For its part, the IDF seems to be contending with it fairly well, at least with regard to Syria and Lebanon. The IDF's decision have television crews film IDF soldiers fighting in mock-up Syrian villages this week, like Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi's announcement that the IDF is prepared to fight on two fronts simultaneously are signs that the IDF recognizes that its only safe bet is to prepare for all contingencies. Were the IDF to complement these actions with warnings to Iran and operational plans to attack Iran's nuclear installations and distribute gas masks to the public, the General Staff would go a long way towards proving that it is adopting the only reasonable strategic posture available given the cards Israel has been dealt. Yet not only is the IDF not warning Iran, the Olmert government is undermining the IDF's correct posture towards Syria and Lebanon. Indeed, on every front, including towards Israel itself, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has himself adopted Baker's failed paradigm. Rather than publicly explain that in light of Syria's position as an Iranian client state in Lebanon, Iraq and Israel, there is nothing for Israel to talk to Syria about, Wednesday Olmert announced that he wishes to open negotiations on the Israeli surrender of the Golan Heights with the Syrians. The Syrians for their part cornered Olmert Thursday by agreeing to his offer. As Karl Moor and David Rivkin explained Thursday in The Jerusalem Post, it is not true, as Olmert and his minions claim that Israel has nothing to lose by negotiating with Syria. Given Israel's perceived weakness in the
wake of last summer's war and Syria's perceived strength, speaking to Syria about an Israeli surrender of the Golan Heights will only encourage Syrian belligerence.
And as with the Syrians, so too with the Palestinians, the Olmert government acts as Baker's water boy. Rather than waging a rational military campaign to defeat the jihadist front that has seeded itself in Gaza, Olmert issues near daily statements telling the Palestinians that Israel will cause them no harm.
He defends this policy by declaiming on the importance of strengthening the stability of the Palestinian Authority. Then there is the daily brown nosing Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni engage in towards the Egyptians and Saudis. Israel praises both as moderates while Egypt vows publicly not to take action to stop the transfer of weapons from Sinai to Gaza and the Saudis bankroll Hamas and demand that Israel implement their peace plan which calls for Israel's destruction. Yet all of this incompetent bumbling pales in comparison to Israel's weakness towards Iran. Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz's assertion this week to the Post that he does not think it is right today to talk about military options towards Iran because he thinks that sanctions can still convince the mullahs to give up their nuclear ambitions comes dangerously close to an Israeli collapse in the face of an existential threat. The fact that Mofaz made this statement the same week that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that Iran had crossed the nuclear threshold only exacerbates the perception of Israeli strategic disarray. Sooner or later the US will pay a price for the Bush administration's decision to embrace the delusion of stability as its strategic goal. With jihadist forces growing stronger around the globe, if the Americans leave Iraq without victory, there is no doubt that Iraq (and Iran and Syria) will come to them. But whatever the consequences of America's behavior for America, the price that Israel will pay for embracing Baker's myths of stability will be unspeakable.
NATO Chief Wants New Ties With EU
By BROOKS TIGNER, BRUSSELS JUNE 10,07
NATO and the European Union must set aside their doctrinal differences and forge a new strategic partnership based on close and regular consultations, said the alliance’s leader and other security officials.New NATO-EU institutional links deserve the highest attention, but it is a question that [EU security and defense chief Javier] Solana and I cannot solve. We need higher-level resolution of this
problem, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a one-day security conference here.
And it is something I will fight for as long as I occupy this position. The challenges of Afghanistan and Kosovo demand that NATO and the EU redouble their effort to forge a strategic relationship. The June 8 conference heard many speakers from NATO and European national capitals call for closer relations between the two organizations. The EU has not been as forthcoming as it could to foster closer relations with the alliance. While it says it needs to reinforce its security and defense policy by working with international partners, the EU’s declarations mention NATO as an afterthought or not at all, said Tomur Bayer, head of international security affairs at Turkey’s Foreign Ministry. This spirit must become more positive.
A Greek official said EU-NATO cooperation works very well on the ground but expressed concern about the suitability today of the so-called Berlin Plus arrangement, agreed in 2003, whereby the union can borrow allied assets for its own missions. Berlin Plus pertains to military missions only and has rarely been used by the European Union.
We cannot do our work to counter terrorism under Berlin Plus. This would be a disaster if the Taliban understood this. While Berlin Plus was once a solution, it is now part of the problem [regarding the fight against terrorism and the need for civil-military approaches to failed states and other crises], said the official. We need something else [to replace it].While high-level contacts between NATO and the EU remain patchy, cooperation on the ground is healthy, according to Mihai Carp, deputy head of crisis management policy at NATO’s Operations Division.
NATO-EU interaction on Kosovo and Afghanistan is moving ahead. For Kosovo we’ve identified potential security gaps that need plugging and our staffs have completed technical negotiations regarding border management, NATO military support to [future EU] police operations, the exchange of intelligence and our response to civil disturbances, observed Carp.
Though he said these arrangements will be implemented only at the tactical level, they are nonetheless meant to link the two organizations together.Officials from EU institutions were more circumspect about the issue. While agreeing that NATO and the European Union share much in common, they also insisted that the union can apply a wider gamut of policy tools to crisis management in the form of mixed civil-military missions whereas the alliance’s focus is military.
De Hoop Scheffer was quick to squash any implications, however, this might have for squeezing NATO out of the international security picture particularly regarding its leadership role within the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.We must guard against calls, in NATO that is, for increased civilian activity becoming an alibi for reducing our military efforts. After all, the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan cannot take place if ISAF does not succeed in providing security and stability, he said.The European Union is putting together a 160-strong police monitoring, mentoring and training mission in Afghanistan, which begins in mid-July and will last three years.
JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
ZECHARIAH 12:1-3
1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
Conference focuses on status of Jerusalem
By: Joseph Pinnetti 2007-06-09
WASHINGTON — On June 4, 2007, the American Task Force on Palestine, Americans for Peace Now, and the Foundation for Middle East Peace held a joint congressional briefing entitled Jerusalem on the 40th Anniversary of the Six Day War: Challenges to the Viability of a Two State Solution.
The event, featuring Danny Seidemann and Dan Rothem, focused on the problems facing the city of Jerusalem as well as the repercussions of these problems on a two state solution. Both Seidemann and Rothem went into great detail on the strife caused by the division of Jerusalem, both physically and politically.
Rothem used a PowerPoint presentation to illustrate how the incursions of Israel’s wall into Palestinian territory are used by different Israeli governments and politicians for political purposes. The wall currently being constructed in the West Bank is on hold in many areas because of legal challenges. He contrasted current plans, which would place more than 10% of Palestinian lands on the Israeli side of the wall, with a more moderate proposal by the Israeli NGO, Council for Peace and Security. Led by several retired Israeli generals, the organization provides an alternate plan which divides the city along ethnic lines. This plan would leave many more villages on the Palestinian side of the wall and is only expected to take 5% of occupied West Bank land. Mr. Rothem also noted a third plan that would connect the settlements to Israel via secure roadways.
Seidemann concentrated on the effect division had on the city of Jerusalem. He noted the small victories which the peace movement has had throughout the years. He emphasized the fact that Jerusalem will be divided because Palestinians and Israelis have never aspired to share the same city. Seidemann discussed the failings of previous negotiations on Jerusalem such as the failure to incorporate Palestinians into the process, as well as treating Jerusalem as a peace of real estate instead of analyzing its significance. Even through this analysis of past failings, Seidemann pointed out that success was possible. He cited the example stopping the construction of E-1 as an example. The E-1 plan would have created a land bridge between Jerusalem and the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim; ending prospects of a two state solution.Seidemann observed that the conflict is being reduced to its volcanic core, the old city and its environs. This point formed the center of his argument. Seidemann believes that if there was an element that was mismanaged this was it. He stated that Jerusalem itself has the capability to touch off conflict if mishandled and that recent history abounds with examples to support this claim. He addressed what he sees as a threat to the stability of Jerusalem. The Israeli Antiquities Authority, which receives more than 50% of its income from extreme religious settlers, harbors clear political goals, including displacement of Palestinians, messianic aspirations on the Temple Mount, and the sabotaging of any political process. He pointed out such plans as the opening of tunnels beneath, and relocation of ramps to the Temple Mount as possibly destabilizing to the peace process.Yet, throughout his entire presentation, there was an underlying tone of hope as illustrated by him saying that never before have the Israeli and Palestinian public been more aware of what they need to do.
During the question and answer period Seidemann stressed that he believed that a political division does not mean a physical division, an idea which differed from his counterpart Rothemen. When questioned on how to take the religious needs of the Muslims, Christians, and Jews into consideration in the dividing of the city he stated, Israel will need to cede sovereignty over the Temple Mount as part of a package of assurances of unimpeded access and respect for religious sites. He also
expressed the belief that when a final agreement will be made there will be no alternative than the extraction of settlers.
In closing Seidemann may have made the most powerful statement of the presentation, stating that as both a Zionist and a Jew my achievement can only be given to me by a Palestinian… only we can give the Palestinians what they want. This clearly illustrates the need by both sides to be validated by the other.Seidemann’s statements about the effect Jerusalem has on the Arab-Israeli conflict are important. He advocated a political rather than a physical division of the city, helping bring to the forefront a problem that has been at the center of many U.N. resolutions to date.
Attempting to make Jerusalem, more Jewish, is completely unfeasible. The location of the holy sites in Jerusalem makes it impossible to physically divide Jerusalem while respecting peoples’ religious rights. The idea that two groups can be physically kept apart is one of the most dangerous ideas confronting a two state solution, and attempts to change the existing religious status quo of Jerusalem.
Any effort to alter the demographics of Jerusalem must be seen in the same light; an effort to exclude one group from what they view as their birth right. Without respecting the rights of all, a peace initiative will again create a discontented minority, which could sacrifice the security of all, as Jerusalem is the focal point of the conflict.
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)
STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES
LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
Deadly storms hit Australian city like a quake Sun Jun 10, 2:33 AM ET
SYDNEY (AFP) - Rescue workers evacuated hundreds of people from their homes as deadly storms lashed Australia's east coast Sunday, leaving parts of one city looking like an earthquake had struck, officials said. The death toll rose to eight when police found the body of a man who died when his car was swept off a highway into a swollen creek.His wife and their three young children, aged two, three and nine, and who were travelling with him, also died when the road collapsed underneath them, but their bodies had been found earlier.Eight people have died so far since the storms hit Sydney and the Central Coast and Newcastle to the north on Friday.They include a 29-year-old man who was crushed when a tree fell on his car near Newcastle and a couple perished when their vehicle was swept off a bridge while crossing a flooded river in the Hunter Valley.
Another man from Newcastle is missing after being swept down a stormwater drain.Officials said Newcastle looked as if it had been hit by an earthquake.What I saw were parts of Newcastle that resembled the kind of damage that followed the (1989) earthquake, New South Wales state premier Morris Iemma said after visiting the city.Construction sites and scaffolding, debris on roads, abandoned cars, homes that were damaged, trees having fallen on homes, extensive damage. It was quite disbelieving, he added.The 1989 earthquake packed a magnitude of 5.6 and killed 13 people.
Newcastle resident Harry Gregory told The Sunday Telegraph he fled his home after his bed and fridge started to float in the floodwaters.Everything's ruined, he said. I have a lounge (sofa) stuck in my front fence and I have got no idea who it belongs to.
Emergency workers evacuated 400 people from their homes along the Central Coast overnight, including by boat and helicopter, and were Sunday working on convincing residents in Maitland, just to the north, to seek shelter in case the Hunter River bursts its banks.Although it has brought much-needed rain to Sydney and towns to its north, the storm has wreaked havoc.Accompanied by gale force winds, it has driven a massive freighter aground in Newcastle, prompted the suspension of ferry services on Sydney Harbour and blacked out tens of thousands of homes.State Emergency Services (SES) spokesman Philip Campbell said 200 properties in the Maitland region were being evacuated.The most serious point for the SES in terms of this flood emergency will be later on this evening, he told Australian Associated Press.Prime Minister John Howard said those affected by storm and flooding would be entitled to cash payments in addition to natural disaster funding offered by the state government. Our thoughts and prayers are with the communities who have suffered and are continuing to feel the impact of this natural disaster, he said.
Maritime officials said the 30,000-tonne vessel Pasha Bulker, still stranded on a Newcastle beach after running aground amid huge seas on Friday, had had some power restored to it and appeared to be intact. Meanwhile, power outages on the Central Coast were threatening the water supply because a black-out at two pumping stations meant that reservoirs were only 10 percent full. We're anticipating if we don't get power back today that we may lose water to some suburbs by this evening, Gosford
City Council's Stephen Martin said.
Three dead after storms, flash floods in Switzerland Sat Jun 9, 2:57 PM ET
GENEVA (AFP) - Three people were killed in central Switzerland after they were caught in flash floods overnight caused by heavy thunderstorms, police said Saturday. A couple died in the small town of Huttwil after they were swept away by a small river which turned into a raging torrent during the storms late Friday, police in the canton of Bern said at a press conference.Their son was saved by onlookers, they added.Police also said an elderly woman died in the nearby village of Eriswil when her home was flooded.Cars were swept away by the fast flowing water, several houses were flooded and two bridges in the region were severely damaged, authorities said.Local roads were also cut briefly as flood waters reportedly rose within seconds.Flash flooding and mudslides were also reported overnight during storms near Lucerne in central Switzerland and in the northern city of Basel, mainly affecting home cellars and roads. No one was injured, authorities said.
Friday, June 8th, 2007
Rain lashes southern, eastern Ont. as Environment Canada warns of tornadoes
Canadian Press
TORONTO (CP) - Tornado warnings have been issued for some parts of east-central Ontario as a very dangerous storm moves across the province. Environment Canada says the warnings include Renfrew, Arnprior, Petawawa, Pembroke and Barry's Bay. There's also a tornado watch for the Ottawa and Gatineau area, Peterborough, Bancroft, Smiths Falls, Haliburton County and Pembroke.
Funnel clouds were spotted in the Brantford and Hamilton areas this afternoon, but as of 5 p.m., had dissipated or moved out of St. Catharines, Hamilton and the northern Niagara region. Severe thunderstorm warnings remain in effect for parts of southern and eastern Ontario. Environment Canada says such storms can produce damaging winds, lightning and large hail. Emergency management officials recommend seeking shelter immediately when threatening weather approaches.
Environment Canada says a strong cold front from lower Michigan now stretches just east of Georgian Bay to eastern Lake Erie. The storm threat in eastern Ontario will likely persist into early evening. There have been reports that the weather has affected commuter transit. An eastbound GO Train from Toronto's Union station to Pickering has been cancelled due to severe weather. Another train heading westbound to Hamilton has also stopped west of the Clarkson station due to a fallen tree on the tracks.
Thousands without power as storm moves across Ontario
Last Updated: Friday, June 8, 2007 | 7:01 PM ET CBC News
Tornado warnings have ended for some parts of southern Ontario Friday, but high winds have left about 70,000 people without power in parts of the province.Hydro One says customers in Georgian Bay, Hunstville, Muskoka, Hamilton and St. Catharines are reporting widespread outages.
In Toronto, heavy rain and winds played havoc with motorists after traffic lights were knocked out. As the storm passed, the temperature in the Toronto area dropped from 30 C to 19 C in 11 minutes.The storm downed trees and power lines across southwestern Ontario as winds gusted to a peak of 95 km/h. Temperatures began rebounding in Toronto as the severe thunderstorm warnings were dropped. The storm delayed many flights in and out of Pearson International Airport.The eastbound GO Train from Union station to Pickering has been cancelled due to severe weather.Earlier, Environment Canada said funnel clouds were spotted in the Brantford and Hamilton areas, but as of 5 p.m. had dissipated or moved out of St. Catharines, Hamilton and the northern Niagara region.A tornado watch is still in effect for Peterborough, Kawartha Lakes, Bancroft, Haliburton, Renfrew and Pembroke.
Forest fire edges toward Fort McMurray
Last Updated: Friday, June 8, 2007 | 9:04 AM MT CBC News
Firefighters are busy Friday morning trying to stop Alberta's biggest forest fire from advancing toward the northern city of Fort McMurray.
The fire has spread over 150 square kilometres, making it the largest one burning in Alberta and the only blaze deemed out of control.Wind has been blowing the smoke into Fort McMurray for the past 24 hours.Fire information officer Rob Harris said the smoke hasn't been enough to cause problems, but firefighters are counting on another wind shift to clear the smoke and help them hold the line on the east side of the fire.It's going to be a test over the next day because of the winds, but after that it looks like Mother Nature will start working in our favour and start blowing that fire away from town again.
Russia's Putin calls for WTO alternative By ALEX NICHOLSON, AP Business Writer JUNE 10,07
ST.PETERSBURG, Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin called Sunday for creating an alternative to the World Trade Organization that would favor developing economies and suggested giving a greater role to regional currencies. Speaking at an economic forum in Russia's second-largest city of St. Petersburg, Putin lamented that today's international economic organizations look archaic, undemocratic and awkward by protecting the interests mainly of developed economies.Today protectionism which the WTO is intended to fight oftentimes comes from developed economies that set up this structure, Putin told the conference.In order to stimulate trade and investment it is worth thinking about creating a regional Eurasian institute on free trade that could take advantage of the positive experience of WTO, he said. He did not elaborate.Putin said the stalled Doha round of global trade talks were a sign of the problems with the organization: Old methods of decision-making at times don't work.
The talks have stumbled repeatedly since their inception six years ago in Qatar's capital, largely because of wrangling between rich and poor countries over eliminating barriers to farm trade.Putin also said that, currently, global financial markets evolved around one or two currencies an apparent reference to the euro and the dollar and their fluctuations often have highly negative effects on many countries' economies and financial reserves.There can be only one answer to this challenge the creation of several world currencies, several financial centers, he said. Putin suggested Russia could become one of them.Russia remains the only major economy outside the WTO, the Geneva-based 150-member group, which sets global trade rules.To join, Russia still needs to reach agreement with its tiny ex-Soviet neighbor Georgia, which protests Russia's strong ties with its two breakaway provinces.
Russia also is in ongoing WTO talks with the European Union. Although the EU formally backs Russia's World Trade Organization membership, issues including foreign investors' access to Russia's vast energy sector has complicated Moscow's WTO application.Russian officials are using the two-day forum to court international capital and talk up the resurgent country, combining ambitious economic projections with promises of an open investment climate.Associated Press Writer Maria Danilova contributed to this report from Moscow.
Syrian paper: Israel sends mixed signals Sun Jun 10, 7:02 AM ET
DAMASCUS, Syria - Syria had no official reaction Sunday to Israel's announcement that it has sent secret peace feelers to the Arab country, but a state-run Syrian newspaper accused Israel of sending mixed signals.
The state-run, English-language Syria Times daily said it believed the Israeli government had no intention of making peace with Arabs, and accused Israel of sending contradictory messages.Syria has every right to doubt the intentions of (Israeli Prime Minister Ehud) Olmert and his statements regarding his desire to talk peace, at a time when his war generals and senior aides are launching warlike threats, the newspaper said. It's a blatant contradiction.Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz said Saturday that the Israeli government had put out secret peace feelers to Syria, but said there was so far no response from Damascus.Mofaz said a letter had been sent to Damascus, but refused to divulge its contents.
His public confirmation came a day after an Israeli newspaper reported that Israel had told Syrian leaders it could give up the captured Golan Heights as part of a peace deal in which Syria would distance itself from Iran's virulently anti-Israeli regime.The paper, the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, said Olmert had recently sent messages to Syrian President Bashar Assad, through German and Turkish diplomats, saying Israel was open to direct peace negotiations and was prepared to give up the strategic plateau, which it seized in the 1967 Mideast war.On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz told Israeli Radio that the country's military was preparing for any scenario.The Israeli military has to be ready on all fronts, he said.
James Baker's disciples
Bush administration forcing Israel to endanger itself
by Caroline Glick June 7, 2007 JPOST
Ahead of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's trip to the White House on June 19, the Bush administration is pressuring Israel to endanger itself on at least two fronts. First the Americans are pressuring the Olmert government to agree to Palestinian Authority and Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas's request to bring millions of bullets, thousands of Kalashnikov assault rifles, RPGs, anti-tank missiles and armored personnel carriers into Gaza from Egypt. The government has yet to respond to the request.
Those who oppose it argue that Fatah forces in Gaza are too weak and incompetent to battle Hamas forces and so any weaponry transferred to Fatah militias will likely end up in Hamas's hands. This logic is correct, but incomplete. It is true that Fatah forces are unwilling and presumably unable to defeat Hamas forces. But it is also true that Fatah forces use their arms to attack Israel. So even if there was no chance of Hamas laying its hands on the weapons, allowing Fatah to receive them would still endanger Israel.
The same limited logic informs Israel's strenuous objection to the Pentagon's intention to sell Saudi Arabia Joint Direct Attack Munition satellite-guided smart bombs or JDAMS. The government claims that while it has no truck with the Saudis, it fears for the stability of the regime. If the House of Saud falls, Osama bin Laden would get the bombs. Yet like Fatah, the Saudis aren't simply vulnerable.
They are culpable. In addition to being the creators of al Qaida and Hamas's largest financial backers, the Saudis themselves directly threaten Israel.In direct contravention of their commitment to the US, (and the US's commitment to Israel), the Saudis have deployed F-15 fighter jets at Tabuk air base located 150 km from Eilat. On May 13th, the Saudi Air Force held an air show at Tabuk for the benefit of King Abdullah and senior princes where the F-15s where ostentatiously shown. The timing of the show was interesting. It took place the day before Abdullah hosted Vice President Richard Cheney at Tabuk.
The administration is not just asking Israel to facilitate the arming of its enemies. It is also placing restrictions on Israel's ability to arm itself. As The Jerusalem Post reported on Wednesday, the Pentagon has yet to respond to Israel's request to purchase the F-22 stealth bomber. Moreover, the US seems to be torpedoing Israel's acquisition of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The Pentagon recently voiced its objection to Israel's plan to install Israeli technology in the jets that are to be supplied starting in 2014. Israel's installation of its own electronic warfare systems in its F-16s and F-15s is how it has managed to maintain the IAF's qualitative edge over Arab states that have also purchased the aircraft. The administration's hostility towards Israel is unfortunately not an aberration. It is the result of a policy shift within the administration which occurred immediately after the Republican Party's defeat in the Congressional elections last November. After the Republican defeat, the administration embraced former secretary of state James Baker's foreign policy paradigm which is based on the belief that it is possible and desirable to reach a stable balance of power in the Middle East. As Baker sees it, the balance can be reached by forcing Israel to shrink to its natural proportions and assisting supposedly moderate and stable states like Egypt and Saudi Arabia to grow into their natural proportions. Once the states of the region (including Syria and Iran which Baker wishes to appease) have settled into their proper proportions, stability will be ensured.
Baker fleshed on his view in the Iraq Study Group's recommendations which were published immediately after the elections. Although President George W. Bush rejected the ISG's recommendations, the day after the elections he sacked defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and replaced him with Robert Gates who served on the ISG. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is a disciple of Baker's ally former national security advisor Brent Scowcroft. The problem with the Baker paradigm is that it has never been borne out by reality. It collapsed during the Cold War both as the Soviet Union worked tirelessly to destabilize countries allied with the US and when the states of East-Central Europe revolted against the teetering empire and gained their freedom with its collapse.
In the 1990s, Baker's stability paradigm failed to foresee the post-nationalist movements that swept through Western Europe and the Muslim world and embraced the Soviet goal of weakening the US. Baker still denies the phenomenon and ignores its policy implications.
Today, the notion that stability is a realistic aim is even more far fetched. Specifically, the willingness of Muslim secularists to form strategic relations with jihadists and the willingness of Shiites to form strategic partnerships with Sunnis was unimaginable twenty years ago. Aside from that, the specter of a nuclear-armed Iran throws a monkey wrench into any thought of regional stability. A look around the region shows just how absurd Baker's notions truly are. In Lebanon today, Fatah al Islam, which is apparently allied with al Qaida, is fighting the Lebanese army in a bid to bring down the Siniora government at the behest of its sponsor — the secular Ba'athist regime in Damascus. Fatah al Islam is also aligned with Hizbullah, which shares its goal of bringing down the Lebanese government and with Iran which gives the Syrians their marching orders.
This state of affairs is also the name of the game in Iraq where Iran and Syria support both Muqtada al Sadr's Shiite Mehdi army and al Qaida's Sunni death squads. It repeats itself in Afghanistan where Iran is arming the Taliban and in the Palestinian Authority. Furthermore, the paragons of moderation and stability in Egypt and Saudi Arabia which Baker and his followers are so keen to strengthen are
neither stable nor moderate. Both Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah are old men of uncertain health.
To stabilize their regimes they wrought unholy alliances with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Wahabis which are the only forces in Egyptian and Saudi societies that have not been flattened under their jackboots. This week Channel 10 reported that the Bush administration recently informed Israel and the Gulf states that it has no intention of launching military strikes against Iran's nuclear installations. The Americans explained that they need Iranian assistance in stabilizing Iraq to pave the way for an American withdrawal from the country before Bush leaves office. Under Baker's regency, the administration apparently now subscribes to the belief that they will be better off out of Iraq with a nuclear-armed Iran than in Iraq without a nuclear-armed Iran. For their part, the Arabs have demonstrated clearly that they do not share the administration's newfound faith that a nuclear-armed Iran will reach a stable equilibrium in a Bakeresque Middle Eastern balance of powers.
Their stated aim to build nuclear reactors is a clear sign that they recognize the danger of a nuclear-armed Iran. The administration's support the Arabs' quest for nuclear reactors makes clear that it is now willing to have a Middle Eastern nuclear arms race. This brings us back to Israel, which is situated smack in the middle of the regional chaos. How is Israel contending with this threatening state of affairs?
For its part, the IDF seems to be contending with it fairly well, at least with regard to Syria and Lebanon. The IDF's decision have television crews film IDF soldiers fighting in mock-up Syrian villages this week, like Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi's announcement that the IDF is prepared to fight on two fronts simultaneously are signs that the IDF recognizes that its only safe bet is to prepare for all contingencies. Were the IDF to complement these actions with warnings to Iran and operational plans to attack Iran's nuclear installations and distribute gas masks to the public, the General Staff would go a long way towards proving that it is adopting the only reasonable strategic posture available given the cards Israel has been dealt. Yet not only is the IDF not warning Iran, the Olmert government is undermining the IDF's correct posture towards Syria and Lebanon. Indeed, on every front, including towards Israel itself, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has himself adopted Baker's failed paradigm. Rather than publicly explain that in light of Syria's position as an Iranian client state in Lebanon, Iraq and Israel, there is nothing for Israel to talk to Syria about, Wednesday Olmert announced that he wishes to open negotiations on the Israeli surrender of the Golan Heights with the Syrians. The Syrians for their part cornered Olmert Thursday by agreeing to his offer. As Karl Moor and David Rivkin explained Thursday in The Jerusalem Post, it is not true, as Olmert and his minions claim that Israel has nothing to lose by negotiating with Syria. Given Israel's perceived weakness in the
wake of last summer's war and Syria's perceived strength, speaking to Syria about an Israeli surrender of the Golan Heights will only encourage Syrian belligerence.
And as with the Syrians, so too with the Palestinians, the Olmert government acts as Baker's water boy. Rather than waging a rational military campaign to defeat the jihadist front that has seeded itself in Gaza, Olmert issues near daily statements telling the Palestinians that Israel will cause them no harm.
He defends this policy by declaiming on the importance of strengthening the stability of the Palestinian Authority. Then there is the daily brown nosing Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni engage in towards the Egyptians and Saudis. Israel praises both as moderates while Egypt vows publicly not to take action to stop the transfer of weapons from Sinai to Gaza and the Saudis bankroll Hamas and demand that Israel implement their peace plan which calls for Israel's destruction. Yet all of this incompetent bumbling pales in comparison to Israel's weakness towards Iran. Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz's assertion this week to the Post that he does not think it is right today to talk about military options towards Iran because he thinks that sanctions can still convince the mullahs to give up their nuclear ambitions comes dangerously close to an Israeli collapse in the face of an existential threat. The fact that Mofaz made this statement the same week that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that Iran had crossed the nuclear threshold only exacerbates the perception of Israeli strategic disarray. Sooner or later the US will pay a price for the Bush administration's decision to embrace the delusion of stability as its strategic goal. With jihadist forces growing stronger around the globe, if the Americans leave Iraq without victory, there is no doubt that Iraq (and Iran and Syria) will come to them. But whatever the consequences of America's behavior for America, the price that Israel will pay for embracing Baker's myths of stability will be unspeakable.
NATO Chief Wants New Ties With EU
By BROOKS TIGNER, BRUSSELS JUNE 10,07
NATO and the European Union must set aside their doctrinal differences and forge a new strategic partnership based on close and regular consultations, said the alliance’s leader and other security officials.New NATO-EU institutional links deserve the highest attention, but it is a question that [EU security and defense chief Javier] Solana and I cannot solve. We need higher-level resolution of this
problem, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a one-day security conference here.
And it is something I will fight for as long as I occupy this position. The challenges of Afghanistan and Kosovo demand that NATO and the EU redouble their effort to forge a strategic relationship. The June 8 conference heard many speakers from NATO and European national capitals call for closer relations between the two organizations. The EU has not been as forthcoming as it could to foster closer relations with the alliance. While it says it needs to reinforce its security and defense policy by working with international partners, the EU’s declarations mention NATO as an afterthought or not at all, said Tomur Bayer, head of international security affairs at Turkey’s Foreign Ministry. This spirit must become more positive.
A Greek official said EU-NATO cooperation works very well on the ground but expressed concern about the suitability today of the so-called Berlin Plus arrangement, agreed in 2003, whereby the union can borrow allied assets for its own missions. Berlin Plus pertains to military missions only and has rarely been used by the European Union.
We cannot do our work to counter terrorism under Berlin Plus. This would be a disaster if the Taliban understood this. While Berlin Plus was once a solution, it is now part of the problem [regarding the fight against terrorism and the need for civil-military approaches to failed states and other crises], said the official. We need something else [to replace it].While high-level contacts between NATO and the EU remain patchy, cooperation on the ground is healthy, according to Mihai Carp, deputy head of crisis management policy at NATO’s Operations Division.
NATO-EU interaction on Kosovo and Afghanistan is moving ahead. For Kosovo we’ve identified potential security gaps that need plugging and our staffs have completed technical negotiations regarding border management, NATO military support to [future EU] police operations, the exchange of intelligence and our response to civil disturbances, observed Carp.
Though he said these arrangements will be implemented only at the tactical level, they are nonetheless meant to link the two organizations together.Officials from EU institutions were more circumspect about the issue. While agreeing that NATO and the European Union share much in common, they also insisted that the union can apply a wider gamut of policy tools to crisis management in the form of mixed civil-military missions whereas the alliance’s focus is military.
De Hoop Scheffer was quick to squash any implications, however, this might have for squeezing NATO out of the international security picture particularly regarding its leadership role within the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.We must guard against calls, in NATO that is, for increased civilian activity becoming an alibi for reducing our military efforts. After all, the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan cannot take place if ISAF does not succeed in providing security and stability, he said.The European Union is putting together a 160-strong police monitoring, mentoring and training mission in Afghanistan, which begins in mid-July and will last three years.
JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
ZECHARIAH 12:1-3
1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
Conference focuses on status of Jerusalem
By: Joseph Pinnetti 2007-06-09
WASHINGTON — On June 4, 2007, the American Task Force on Palestine, Americans for Peace Now, and the Foundation for Middle East Peace held a joint congressional briefing entitled Jerusalem on the 40th Anniversary of the Six Day War: Challenges to the Viability of a Two State Solution.
The event, featuring Danny Seidemann and Dan Rothem, focused on the problems facing the city of Jerusalem as well as the repercussions of these problems on a two state solution. Both Seidemann and Rothem went into great detail on the strife caused by the division of Jerusalem, both physically and politically.
Rothem used a PowerPoint presentation to illustrate how the incursions of Israel’s wall into Palestinian territory are used by different Israeli governments and politicians for political purposes. The wall currently being constructed in the West Bank is on hold in many areas because of legal challenges. He contrasted current plans, which would place more than 10% of Palestinian lands on the Israeli side of the wall, with a more moderate proposal by the Israeli NGO, Council for Peace and Security. Led by several retired Israeli generals, the organization provides an alternate plan which divides the city along ethnic lines. This plan would leave many more villages on the Palestinian side of the wall and is only expected to take 5% of occupied West Bank land. Mr. Rothem also noted a third plan that would connect the settlements to Israel via secure roadways.
Seidemann concentrated on the effect division had on the city of Jerusalem. He noted the small victories which the peace movement has had throughout the years. He emphasized the fact that Jerusalem will be divided because Palestinians and Israelis have never aspired to share the same city. Seidemann discussed the failings of previous negotiations on Jerusalem such as the failure to incorporate Palestinians into the process, as well as treating Jerusalem as a peace of real estate instead of analyzing its significance. Even through this analysis of past failings, Seidemann pointed out that success was possible. He cited the example stopping the construction of E-1 as an example. The E-1 plan would have created a land bridge between Jerusalem and the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim; ending prospects of a two state solution.Seidemann observed that the conflict is being reduced to its volcanic core, the old city and its environs. This point formed the center of his argument. Seidemann believes that if there was an element that was mismanaged this was it. He stated that Jerusalem itself has the capability to touch off conflict if mishandled and that recent history abounds with examples to support this claim. He addressed what he sees as a threat to the stability of Jerusalem. The Israeli Antiquities Authority, which receives more than 50% of its income from extreme religious settlers, harbors clear political goals, including displacement of Palestinians, messianic aspirations on the Temple Mount, and the sabotaging of any political process. He pointed out such plans as the opening of tunnels beneath, and relocation of ramps to the Temple Mount as possibly destabilizing to the peace process.Yet, throughout his entire presentation, there was an underlying tone of hope as illustrated by him saying that never before have the Israeli and Palestinian public been more aware of what they need to do.
During the question and answer period Seidemann stressed that he believed that a political division does not mean a physical division, an idea which differed from his counterpart Rothemen. When questioned on how to take the religious needs of the Muslims, Christians, and Jews into consideration in the dividing of the city he stated, Israel will need to cede sovereignty over the Temple Mount as part of a package of assurances of unimpeded access and respect for religious sites. He also
expressed the belief that when a final agreement will be made there will be no alternative than the extraction of settlers.
In closing Seidemann may have made the most powerful statement of the presentation, stating that as both a Zionist and a Jew my achievement can only be given to me by a Palestinian… only we can give the Palestinians what they want. This clearly illustrates the need by both sides to be validated by the other.Seidemann’s statements about the effect Jerusalem has on the Arab-Israeli conflict are important. He advocated a political rather than a physical division of the city, helping bring to the forefront a problem that has been at the center of many U.N. resolutions to date.
Attempting to make Jerusalem, more Jewish, is completely unfeasible. The location of the holy sites in Jerusalem makes it impossible to physically divide Jerusalem while respecting peoples’ religious rights. The idea that two groups can be physically kept apart is one of the most dangerous ideas confronting a two state solution, and attempts to change the existing religious status quo of Jerusalem.
Any effort to alter the demographics of Jerusalem must be seen in the same light; an effort to exclude one group from what they view as their birth right. Without respecting the rights of all, a peace initiative will again create a discontented minority, which could sacrifice the security of all, as Jerusalem is the focal point of the conflict.
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