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.
Mild Earthquake jolts South Punjab, Balochistan
PESHAWAR : Mild earthquake tremors were felt in the areas of Southern Punjab and North Eastern Balochistan on Wednesday. The tremors were recorded at intensity of 4.7 on the Richter scale.
According to the meteorological department in Peshawar the earthquake tremors were felt on Wednesday morning at 8.15 am and its epicenter was the border area of Punjab and Balochistan some 450 km away from south of Peshawar. No loss of life or property was reported.
Eurozone troika ready to act on world stage
04.12.2007 - 09:28 CET | By Mark Beunderman
The eurozone - the EU's common currency area - is ready to defend its interests abroad through talks with foreign leaders at the highest political level, the eurozone's chief has said. Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's leader and finance minister who chairs meetings of eurozone states, told Financial Times Deutschland that last week's top-level EU mission to China could serve as an example for how the euro area could jointly stand up for its interests.Mr Juncker travelled to China together with European Central Bank (ECB) chief Jean-Claude Trichet and EU monetary affairs commissioner Joaquin Almunia for talks with Chinese officials – including prime minister Wen Jiabao – to discuss currency imbalances and resulting trade problems. Describing the China trip as a precedent, Mr Juncker said If there are reasons which make it necessary to act jointly, we will repeat this.
If the need arises we should promote our arguments, he stated. One does not always need to do this immediately at the highest political level however, he added. The comments raise the prospect of the top eurozone trio – the eurozone chair, the central bank chief and the monetary commissioner – operating more often as the EU's political troika on economic issues on the world stage. The euro is not only seen as playing an increasingly important role in the global financial system – but the recent strength of the currency is directly affecting European companies. Mr Juncker, Mr Trichet and Mr Almunia told the Chinese leadership last week that the ongoing depreciation of the Chinese currency, the remnibi, against the euro is hitting EU exports and damaging EU competitiveness. This is creating a lot of problems for the European economy and as a result protectionist reactions could occur, Mr Juncker said after the Beijing talks.At the meeting, the EU and China agreed to set up a central banks working group to tackle currency questions. Since 2005, the renminbi has fallen by almost 10 per cent against the euro while it has risen by more than 10 per cent against the US dollar - a development seen as a key factor in Europe's ballooning trade deficit with China. It is difficult to understand, whereas China is exporting less to the US than to Europe, why the yuan is appreciating vis-à-vis the dollar and why the yuan is depreciating against the euro, Mr Juncker said. We do think we have to correct this obvious imbalance, he added.
AP
EU Proposes to Open Defense Markets
Wednesday December 5, 11:36 am ET
By Paul Ames, Associated Press Writer
European Union Plans to Open Defense Supply Industry to More Cross-Border Competition
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- The European Commission unveiled plans Wednesday to open up the European Union's $117.9 billion defense market to more cross-border competition.Government protection of national defense companies has meant arms sales have been largely excluded from laws which have torn down barriers to trade around the 27-nation European Union.The Commission says the exemptions cost billions of dollars in waste, duplication and red tape, pushing up national defense budgets and holding back efforts to develop a European industry that can compete with the United States on the world stage.The EU's executive office has drafted two bills to remedy the situation. One will limit an EU country's ability to exempt defense-related goods from EU free market rules to truly exceptional cases where national security is engaged. The other will streamline licensing arrangements for defense sales between member countries.This gives us the instruments to allow for a more competitive and more innovative European defense industry, said Guenter Verheugen, the EU's industry commissioner.
The bills must be approved by EU governments and the European Parliament. Some governments have been hostile to the idea of the EU weakening national controls, but Commission officials said previous consultations with national capitals suggested the proposals could be adopted quickly.It shouldn't take an awfully long time to get through the legislative process, Charlie McCreevy, the EU's internal market commissioner told a news conference.EU officials stressed that the new rules would not shut out U.S. or other non-EU nations from European markets, stressing that governments would remain free to buy their weapons outside the bloc.EU defense ministers agreed in May that urgent action was needed to halt a decline in Europe's defense technological and industrial base and keep companies competitive by opening up protected national markets.If adopted, the new laws would strengthen a voluntary code of conduct launched last year by 23 EU nations under which they post tenders for defense contracts on an electronic bulletin board open to companies from across the bloc, rather than just to national ones.
So far, more than 200 tenders worth some 10 billion euros ($15 billion) have been published under that system. The first eight cross-border contracts have recently been awarded, worth a total of 44 million euros ($65 million).EU headquarters has long argued the fragmentation of the European market along national lines has pushed up prices and undermined competitiveness putting at risk the 300,000 European jobs in defense manufacturing.Officials say nations have abused the exemption from open market rules to include products like uniforms, boots, stationery and tents. McCreevy spoke of nations seeking to protect contracts for soldiers socks and underwear. The purpose of this directive is not to have that kind of nonsense going on, he said.The proposed laws will also remove stipulations that exporters must obtain security licenses each time they export defense goods to other EU nations, despite the close military cooperation among EU governments.
European companies have to apply for around 11,500 such licenses every year although not one has been turned down on security grounds since 2003, Verheugen said, estimating the overall cost of such red tape at 2.7 billion euros ($4 billion).
North American Union by 2010, be very afraid NOV 4,07
Globalist bankers work for years to subvert our freedoms, yet little is done by our own government to prevent them.
A 12- lane NAFTA TransAmerican Highway is being built from Mexico to Canada without the prior knowledge or approval of the American people, and our so-called free press mentions nothing about it.
President Bush signs the 2005 Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) with Mexico's Presidente Fox, and Canada's Prime Minister Martin which requires the three countries to be merged into one nation called the North American Union by 2010! Our Constitution is betrayed, our Bill of Rights trampled. American sovereignty is ending, our American dollar will be replaced by the amero, much the same as the euro has become the European Union currency.
A talk show host recently commented, Americans are no longer interested in freedom: they just hope that their new masters will be kind. History shows that no master is kind.Become informed through books like: The Insiders by John McManus, Shadows of Power by James Perloff, None Dare Call It Treason by John Stormer and magazines like The New American published by the John Birch Society.Let's kick our AWOL Congress into action! It is high time to get us out of the United Nations before our Constitution is annulled, our middle class is destroyed, and America is made into a third-world nation. It's also time to urge Maine's Legislature to impeach Bush as Vermont's has.Robert Bruce Acheson
Role of EU President will create conflict
By Martin Banks in Brussels and Henry Samuel in Paris
Last Updated: 12:24am GMT 04/12/2007
A leading Europhile has called into question the idea of creating a permanent position for a president of the European Union, one of the key clauses in the new EU reform treaty.The treaty, set to be signed by EU leaders later this month, proposes the creation of a President of the European council, replacing the current system of six month rotating presidencies.The job, with a reported salary of £200,000, would be on a two and a half year fixed term and would involved chairing EU meetings with the aim of creating a more efficient decision making process.It is supposed to give the EU a figurehead on the world stage, although national leaders insist the key decisions will continue to be made with them.Tony Blair, currently envoy in the Middle East, has been widely touted for the post, dubbed president of Europe.
But UK Socialist MEP Richard Corbett, a well known Europhile and strong supporter of the treaty, has warned the European parliament that there is huge potential for conflict between the post and that of European commission president, currently occupied by Jose Manuel Barroso, a former prime minister of Portugal.We could see the occupant of one not wanting to trespass on the responsibilities of the other. This situation could be a cause for real confusion and pose a threat and danger to workings of the EU, Mr Corbett said.His comments were echoed by Danish eurosceptic MEP Jens Peter Bonde who said: It will be a big battle and will never work. There will be a permanent competition over who should take the initiative between the commission president and the president of the European council.He warned that the proposal contained in the treaty would lead to confusion, particularly over foreign policy issues.Both were speaking at a joint parliamentary hearing on the treaty between MEPs and national parliamentarians from 27 member states.The job will not be on offer unless the treaty is ratified by all 27 member states.At the same time, a group of politicians from the French Left and Right have issued a joint call on president Nicolas Sarkozy to put the new simplified European treaty to referendum.Jean-Pierre Chevènement, a former left-wing interior minister, told a crowd of 1,000 that Mr Sarkozy’s plan to push through the treaty in a parliamentary vote was a denial of democracy.
France rejected the initial draft European constitutional treaty in a referendum in 2005, with 55 voting Non.What has been rejected by referendum should only be allowed to be re-established by universal suffrage, he said in a joint meeting with Marie-Noelle Lienemann, a Socialist MEP, and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, Gaullist leader of the Debout La Republique movement and a vocal No campaigner in 2005.They launched their campaign for a referendum in front of 1,000 sympathisers on Sunday night.Mr Sarkozy announced a mini-treaty. It’s a maxi-betrayal, he insisted.The changes to the original are purely cosmetic, said Mr Chevenement, who hopes to impose a referendum on Mr Sarkozy by persuading two fifths of parliament to oppose the simplified treaty — sufficient to block a vote to change the constitution.Pierre Lefranc, Charles de Gaulle’s former principle private secretary, said a parliamentary vote was tantamount to a coup d’etat and the rape of the nation.Mr Dupont-Aignan told The Telegraph that there was massive media, financial and political disinformation to hide the real nature of the treaty.They make out it is a mini-treaty when it is the exact copy of the Giscard constitution, he said.Mr Dupont-Aignan, who left Mr Sarkozy’s UMP party over the European issue earlier this year, has begun a tour of France to raise awareness before a parliamentary vote, which could come as early as late January.He remained optimistic: France is like a horse than can suddenly rear up when it realises it is being taken for a ride.However, should he fail, he called on the British to stand firm: "The British can save us once again! I count on them to block this treaty, which is very dangerous for all European democracies. Just as Europe is failing and the people are against the direction it is taking, it accelerates. It is folly.
He quoted Valery Giscard d’Estaing, who drew up the original constitutional text.In an article in Le Monde in October, the former French president said: In the Lisbon treaty, drawn up exclusively from the constitutional treaty plan, the tools are exactly the same. Only the order has changed...What is the point of this subtle manouevre? First and foremost to escape the constraint of a recourse to referendum, by spreading the articles out and dropping constitutional vocabulary.
Gulf Arabs leaders stress economic integration, regional stability despite divisions www.chinaview.cn 2007-12-05 04:40:35
DOHA, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- Six oil-rich Gulf Arab nations on Tuesday pushed forward the economic integration process in announcing establishment of a Gulf common market, while showing welcome to Iranian president's proposals for economic and security cooperation despite concerns over its nuclear program. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a regional alliance grouping Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, wrapped up their two-day annual summit in the Qatari capital of Doha on Tuesday. Omani Sultan Qaboos bin Said, Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and Saudi Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud (from L to R) pose for a group photo in the final day of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in Doha，Dec. 4, 2007. Abdul Rahman al-Attiya, secretary general of the six oil-rich GCC nations, announced the establishment of a common market at the closing session of the GCC summit here on Tuesday.(Xinhua Photo)
COMMON MARKET HIGHLIGHTED
At the closing session of the GCC summit, the GCC Secretary General Abdul Rahman al-Attiya announced the establishment of the common market, seen as a big step forward for the alliance striving for a European Union-style bloc. Reading out the Doha Declaration, al-Attiya said that the long-anticipated common market will be brought into play from Jan. 1, 2008, adding that launching the common market is for the interests of the Gulf people and out of desire to boost the Gulf economy. On the timetable of its economic integration, the GCC launched a customs union in 2003 and is also committed to adopt a single currency in 2010. In the final communique, the Gulf heads of state called on concerned policymakers to work out financial and monetary polices towards a common currency to take to the next GCC summit due to beheld in Oman. They expressed satisfaction over the progress on implementing the pan-GCC electricity power grid, urging concerned parties to finalize economic feasibility studies of a pan-GCC railway network project and a water network project. The leaders, however, sidestepped the pressing foreign exchange issue, which indicates divisions among the Gulf nations on how to deal with spiraling inflation and the tumbling dollar.
CAUTIOUS WELCOME TO IRAN'S PROPOSALS
Though still concerned about Iran's controversial nuclear program, the GCC expressed welcome earlier in the day to the proposals made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the opening ceremony of the GCC's annual summit on Monday. The GCC said in a brief statement that the bloc would study those proposals in a bid to boost good neighborliness and reciprocal respect and contribute to fostering peace and stability in the region.During his speech, Ahmadinejad brought forward a string of proposals, including opening borders with the GCC to strengthen economic relations, annulling visas to facilitate free movement of citizens and protecting regional environment. Moreover, Ahmadinejad offered to share Iran's expertise in various fields, including energy and the new technologies, and to provide water and natural gas to its Gulf neighbors. The Iranian president said the six Gulf Arab nations and Iran should work together to establish regional security and economic pacts without foreign influence. Well informed sources said that faced with stepped up international pressure over its controversial uranium enrichment program, Iran is eager to improve ties with its Gulf neighbors, which are staunch U.S. allies. GCC countries fear the rising tensions between the Shiite-dominated Islamic Republic and western countries over the issue might lead to regional instability.
PRESSING REGIONAL ISSUES
Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani said at the opening speech on Monday that the summit was being held in a climate of grave dangers threatening our homelands, the region and the world, noting that security and development were two faces of the same coin. With regard to the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the GCC countries expressed aspiration that the Annapolis peace conference held in the U.S. last week may attain more positive steps for peace in the Middle East.The bloc, once again, urged Israel to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and subject all of its nuclear facilities under the international inspection of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, the only nuclear power in the region, arousing great concerns in Arab countries, which have fought five wars with the Jewish state. Israel has never admitted or denied that it has nuclear weapons. The Sunni-dominated GCC countries also underscored the need to respect Iraq's unity, sovereignty and independence, affirming that the achievement of national reconciliation is essential for its stabilization. Founded in 1981, the GCC has been striving to achieve wide-ranging cooperation among member states in face of internal and international challenges.Editor: Yan Liang
PRESIDENT BUSH TO VISIT ISRAEL IN JANUARY.
Historic first -- plus new CIA estimate says Iran has stopped pursuing nuclear weapons. Are they right?
By Joel C. Rosenberg
(Washington, D.C., December 4, 2007) -- On January 9, 2008, President Bush will make his first official visit to Israel as commander-in-chief and leader of the free world. This is an excellent development. As readers of Flash Traffic know, I have been saying for the last 18 months -- including just last week -- that President Bush should make this historic visit to Jerusalem to show solidarity with the people of Israel. He has traveled repeatedly to Iraq and Afghanistan, and visited Jordan last summer. But until now, the only time Mr. Bush has visited the Jewish State was in 1998 as Governor of Texas. The President should be applauded for this bold move. Let us also pray for the peace of Jerusalem, for safety for the President and his team, and for a new era of quiet and calmness in the epicenter.
In other key news from the epicenter, a new assessment by American intelligence agencies made public Monday concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains on hold, contradicting an assessment two years ago that Tehran was working inexorably toward building a bomb, reports the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune. The assessment, a National Intelligence Estimate that represents the consensus view of all 16 American spy agencies, states that Tehran is most likely keeping its options open with respect to building a weapon, but that intelligence agencies do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons. Iran is continuing to produce enriched uranium, the report says, a program that the Tehran government has said is designed for civilian purposes. The new estimate says that the enrichment program could still provide Iran with enough raw material to produce a nuclear weapon sometime by the middle of next decade, a timetable essentially unchanged from previous estimates. But the new estimate declares with 'high confidence' that a military-run Iranian program intended to transform that raw material into a nuclear weapon has been shut down since 2003, and also says with high confidence that the halt was directed primarily in response to increasing international scrutiny and pressure.Translation: The U.S. is now far less likely to launch a series of preemptive military strikes against actual and suspected Iranian nuclear research facilities before the end of this President's term in office and the current Congressional leadership would be far less likely to support such a strike if one were proposed or made (not that they would have been that supportive anyway).
Question: Is this intelligence assessment correct? Maybe. And let's hope so. It would be wonderful if Iran is not the immediate nuclear threat that U.S. intelligence agencies have been saying they were right up to this week. But there is always the possibility that the U.S. assessment is wrong. The accuracy of some of our intelligence reports in the Middle East have certainly been in question in recent years. And we must always remember May 1998, when India and Pakistan conducted multiple nuclear weapons tests, stunning U.S. and Western intelligence agencies who had absolutely no idea either country so close to getting the Bomb. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), then the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called this a colossal failure of the U.S. intelligence community. God forbid we should have a similar such failure with regards to Iran. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the Jerusalem Post that U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates showed him the NIE in Annapolis last week but the Israeli conclusion remains that Iran is actively trying to build nuclear weapons. I am familiar with the American intelligence assessment, Barak said....Nevertheless, I say again that Iran is today a central threat on the world and the State of Israel....There is a lot that can be done with regard to the Iranian nuclear program but it is important to mention that words do not stop missiles, Action is needed in the form of sanctions, in the diplomatic sphere and in other spheres as well. In November, Barak warned military strikes might be needed in the next 24 months. We cannot take any option off the table and we need to study operational aspects. This is not just for the coming months but also for the coming two years.
Israel, Vatican close to historic accord: Israeli ambassador Tue Dec 4, 2:57 AM ET
VATICAN CITY (AFP) - Israel and the Vatican are close to concluding a historic bilateral accord on the legal and financial status of the Roman Catholic Church in Israel, the country's ambassador said Monday. We are very close to the conclusion of this historic accord, Oded Ben Hur was quoted as saying by Italy's ANSA news agency at a debate organised by a pontifical university in Rome.The text under negotiation is the economic section of the fundamental agreement on relations the Vatican and Israel signed in December 1993.About 85 percent of the text has been examined and approved by the representatives of Israel and the Vatican, said the ambassador.Negotiations on the text resumed in 2004 after a 10-year hiatus, and Ben Hur said the next round of talks will take place on December 13 in Israel.The two sides are seeking to hammer out an agreement concerning the legal and tax status of Church property in Israel and the commercial activities of Christian communities there.The Vatican is seeking tax-exempt status for Church institutions.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
HANNUKAH DAY 1 - 8 SCRIPTURES
TONIGHT AT 6PM HANNUKAH STARTS IN ISRAEL.
HERE ARE THE SCRIPTURES TO READ FOR ALL 8 DAYS
ZECHARIAH 2:1-13 King James Bible
1 I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand.
2 Then said I, Whither goest thou? And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof.
3 And, behold, the angel that talked with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him,
4 And said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein:
5 For I, saith the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.
6 Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north, saith the LORD: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith the LORD.
7 Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon.
8 For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.
9 For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me.
10 Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD.
11 And many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto thee.
12 And the LORD shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again.
13 Be silent, O all flesh, before the LORD: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.
ZECHARIAH 3:1-10 King James Bible
1 And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.
2 And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?
3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.
4 And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.
5 And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD stood by.
6 And the angel of the LORD protested unto Joshua, saying,
7 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.
8 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.
9 For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.
10 In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig tree.
ZECHARIAH 4:1-14 King James Bible
1 And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep.
2 And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:
3 And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
4 So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord?
5 Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.
7 Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.
8 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
9 The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you.
10 For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.
11 Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?
12 And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?
13 And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
14 Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the LORD of the whole earth.
GENESIS 37:1-36 King James Bible
1 And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan.
2 These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colors. 4 And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.
5 And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.
6 And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:
7 For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.
8 And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.
9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
10 And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?
11 And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.
12 And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem. 13 And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I.
14 And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.
15 And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou?
16 And he said, I seek my brethren: tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks.
17 And the man said, They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan.
18 And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.
19 And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh.
20 Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams.
21 And Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands; and said, Let us not kill him.
22 And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him; that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again.
23 And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colors that was on him;
24 And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it.
25 And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.
26 And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood?
27 Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content.
28 Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.
29 And Reuben returned unto the pit; and, behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his clothes.
30 And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The child is not; and I, whither shall I go?
31 And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood;
32 And they sent the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son's coat or no.
33 And he knew it, and said, It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces.
34 And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.
35 And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. 36 And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of the guard.
GENESIS 38:1-30 King James Bible
1 And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.
2 And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shuah; and he took her, and went in unto her.
3 And she conceived, and bare a son; and he called his name Er.
4 And she conceived again, and bare a son; and she called his name Onan.
5 And she yet again conceived, and bare a son; and called his name Shelah: and he was at Chezib, when she bare him.
6 And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, whose name was Tamar.
7 And Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew him.
8 And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.
9 And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.
10 And the thing which he did displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him also.
11 Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter in law, Remain a widow at thy father's house, till Shelah my son be grown: for he said, Lest peradventure he die also, as his brethren did. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house.
12 And in process of time the daughter of Shuah Judah's wife died; and Judah was comforted, and went up unto his sheepshearers to Timnath, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.
13 And it was told Tamar, saying, Behold thy father in law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep.
14 And she put her widow's garments off from her, and covered her with a vail, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place, which is by the way to Timnath; for she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given unto him to wife.
15 When Judah saw her, he thought her to be an harlot; because she had covered her face.
16 And he turned unto her by the way, and said, Go to, I pray thee, let me come in unto thee; (for he knew not that she was his daughter in law.) And she said, What wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me?
17 And he said, I will send thee a kid from the flock. And she said, Wilt thou give me a pledge, till thou send it?
18 And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And she said, Thy signet, and thy bracelets, and thy staff that is in thine hand. And he gave it her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him.
19 And she arose, and went away, and laid by her vail from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood.
20 And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive his pledge from the woman's hand: but he found her not.
21 Then he asked the men of that place, saying, Where is the harlot, that was openly by the way side? And they said, There was no harlot in this place.
22 And he returned to Judah, and said, I cannot find her; and also the men of the place said, that there was no harlot in this place. 23 And Judah said, Let her take it to her, lest we be shamed: behold, I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her.
24 And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.
25 When she was brought forth, she sent to her father in law, saying, By the man, whose these are, am I with child: and she said, Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet, and bracelets, and staff.
26 And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more.
27 And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins were in her womb.
28 And it came to pass, when she travailed, that the one put out his hand: and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first.
29 And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out: and she said, How hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez.
30 And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand: and his name was called Zarah.
GENESIS 39:1-23 King James Bible
1 And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmaelites, which had brought him down thither.
2 And the LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.
3 And his master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD made all that he did to prosper in his hand.
4 And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand.
5 And it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that the LORD blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of the LORD was upon all that he had in the house, and in the field.
6 And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand; and he knew not ought he had, save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person, and well favored.
7 And it came to pass after these things, that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me.
8 But he refused, and said unto his master's wife, Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand;
9 There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?
10 And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her.
11 And it came to pass about this time, that Joseph went into the house to do his business; and there was none of the men of the house there within.
12 And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.
13 And it came to pass, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and was fled forth,
14 That she called unto the men of her house, and spake unto them, saying, See, he hath brought in an Hebrew unto us to mock us; he came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice:
15 And it came to pass, when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled, and got him out.
16 And she laid up his garment by her, until his lord came home.
17 And she spake unto him according to these words, saying, The Hebrew servant, which thou hast brought unto us, came in unto me to mock me:
18 And it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled out.
19 And it came to pass, when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spake unto him, saying, After this manner did thy servant to me; that his wrath was kindled.
20 And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison.
21 But the LORD was with Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
22 And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it.
23 The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the LORD was with him, and that which he did, the LORD made it to prosper.
GENESIS 40:1-23 King James Bible
1 And it came to pass after these things, that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended their lord the king of Egypt.
2 And Pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers, against the chief of the butlers, and against the chief of the bakers.
3 And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.
4 And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them: and they continued a season in ward.
5 And they dreamed a dream both of them, each man his dream in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison.
6 And Joseph came in unto them in the morning, and looked upon them, and, behold, they were sad.
7 And he asked Pharaoh's officers that were with him in the ward of his lord's house, saying, Wherefore look ye so sadly to day?
8 And they said unto him, We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belong to God? tell me them, I pray you.
9 And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, In my dream, behold, a vine was before me;
10 And in the vine were three branches: and it was as though it budded, and her blossoms shot forth; and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes:
11 And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand: and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.
12 And Joseph said unto him, This is the interpretation of it: The three branches are three days:
13 Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy place: and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his butler. 14 But think on me when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house:
15 For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews: and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.
16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and, behold, I had three white baskets on my head:
17 And in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of bakemeats for Pharaoh; and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head.
18 And Joseph answered and said, This is the interpretation thereof: The three baskets are three days:
19 Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee.
20 And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants.
21 And he restored the chief butler unto his butlership again; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand:
22 But he hanged the chief baker: as Joseph had interpreted to them.
23 Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him.
HANNUKA SHABBAT (SABBATH) SCRIPTURES WHICH EVER DAY ON.
GENESIS 41:1-57 King James Bible
1 And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river.
2 And, behold, there came up out of the river seven well favored kine and fatfleshed; and they fed in a meadow.
3 And, behold, seven other kine came up after them out of the river, ill favored and leanfleshed; and stood by the other kine upon the brink of the river.
4 And the ill favored and leanfleshed kine did eat up the seven well favored and fat kine. So Pharaoh awoke.
5 And he slept and dreamed the second time: and, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good.
6 And, behold, seven thin ears and blasted with the east wind sprung up after them.
7 And the seven thin ears devoured the seven rank and full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and, behold, it was a dream.
8 And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled; and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof: and Pharaoh told them his dream; but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh.
9 Then spake the chief butler unto Pharaoh, saying, I do remember my faults this day:
10 Pharaoh was wroth with his servants, and put me in ward in the captain of the guard's house, both me and the chief baker:
11 And we dreamed a dream in one night, I and he; we dreamed each man according to the interpretation of his dream.
12 And there was there with us a young man, an Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard; and we told him, and he interpreted to us our dreams; to each man according to his dream he did interpret.
13 And it came to pass, as he interpreted to us, so it was; me he restored unto mine office, and him he hanged.
14 Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon: and he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh.
15 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it: and I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it.
16 And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.
17 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of the river:
18 And, behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, fatfleshed and well favored; and they fed in a meadow:
19 And, behold, seven other kine came up after them, poor and very ill favored and leanfleshed, such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for badness:
20 And the lean and the ill favored kine did eat up the first seven fat kine:
21 And when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that they had eaten them; but they were still ill favored, as at the beginning. So I awoke.
22 And I saw in my dream, and, behold, seven ears came up in one stalk, full and good:
23 And, behold, seven ears, withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them:
24 And the thin ears devoured the seven good ears: and I told this unto the magicians; but there was none that could declare it to me.
25 And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath showed Pharaoh what he is about to do.
26 The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one.
27 And the seven thin and ill favored kine that came up after them are seven years; and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine.
28 This is the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh: What God is about to do he showeth unto Pharaoh.
29 Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt:
30 And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land;
31 And the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following; for it shall be very grievous.
32 And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.
33 Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt.
34 Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years.
35 And let them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities.
36 And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land perish not through the famine.
37 And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.
38 And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?
39 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath showed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art:
40 Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou.
41 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.
42 And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck;
43 And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.
44 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.
45 And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnathpaaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.
46 And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.
47 And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls.
48 And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same.
49 And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was without number.
50 And unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, which Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On bare unto him.
51 And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house.
52 And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.
53 And the seven years of plenteousness, that was in the land of Egypt, were ended.
54 And the seven years of dearth began to come, according as Joseph had said: and the dearth was in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.
55 And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread: and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph; what he saith to you, do.
56 And the famine was over all the face of the earth: and Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt.
57 And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn; because that the famine was so sore in all lands.
GENESIS 42:1-38 King James Bible
1 Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, Why do ye look one upon another?
2 And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt: get you down thither, and buy for us from thence; that we may live, and not die.
3 And Joseph's ten brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt.
4 But Benjamin, Joseph's brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren; for he said, Lest peradventure mischief befall him.
5 And the sons of Israel came to buy corn among those that came: for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
6 And Joseph was the governor over the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the land: and Joseph's brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth.
7 And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them; and he said unto them, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan to buy food.
8 And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him.
9 And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, Ye are spies; to see the nakedness of the land ye are come.
10 And they said unto him, Nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy servants come.
11 We are all one man's sons; we are true men, thy servants are no spies.
12 And he said unto them, Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land ye are come.
13 And they said, Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and, behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is not.
14 And Joseph said unto them, That is it that I spake unto you, saying, Ye are spies:
15 Hereby ye shall be proved: By the life of Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither.
16 Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison, that your words may be proved, whether there be any truth in you: or else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye are spies.
17 And he put them all together into ward three days.
18 And Joseph said unto them the third day, This do, and live; for I fear God:
19 If ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison: go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses:
20 But bring your youngest brother unto me; so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die. And they did so.
21 And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.
22 And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear? therefore, behold, also his blood is required.
23 And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for he spake unto them by an interpreter.
24 And he turned himself about from them, and wept; and returned to them again, and communed with them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes.
25 Then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn, and to restore every man's money into his sack, and to give them provision for the way: and thus did he unto them.
26 And they laded their asses with the corn, and departed thence. 27 And as one of them opened his sack to give his ass provender in the inn, he espied his money; for, behold, it was in his sack's mouth.
28 And he said unto his brethren, My money is restored; and, lo, it is even in my sack: and their heart failed them, and they were afraid, saying one to another, What is this that God hath done unto us?
29 And they came unto Jacob their father unto the land of Canaan, and told him all that befell unto them; saying,
30 The man, who is the lord of the land, spake roughly to us, and took us for spies of the country.
31 And we said unto him, We are true men; we are no spies:
32 We be twelve brethren, sons of our father; one is not, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan.
33 And the man, the lord of the country, said unto us, Hereby shall I know that ye are true men; leave one of your brethren here with me, and take food for the famine of your households, and be gone:
34 And bring your youngest brother unto me: then shall I know that ye are no spies, but that ye are true men: so will I deliver you your brother, and ye shall traffic in the land.
35 And it came to pass as they emptied their sacks, that, behold, every man's bundle of money was in his sack: and when both they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid.
36 And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me.
37 And Reuben spake unto his father, saying, Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee: deliver him into my hand, and I will bring him to thee again.
38 And he said, My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he is left alone: if mischief befall him by the way in the which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.
GENESIS 43:1-34 King James Bible
1 And the famine was sore in the land.
2 And it came to pass, when they had eaten up the corn which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said unto them, Go again, buy us a little food.
3 And Judah spake unto him, saying, The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you.
4 If thou wilt send our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food:
5 But if thou wilt not send him, we will not go down: for the man said unto us, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you.
6 And Israel said, Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me, as to tell the man whether ye had yet a brother?
7 And they said, The man asked us straitly of our state, and of our kindred, saying, Is your father yet alive? have ye another brother? and we told him according to the tenor of these words: could we certainly know that he would say, Bring your brother down?
8 And Judah said unto Israel his father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go; that we may live, and not die, both we, and thou, and also our little ones.
9 I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him: if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever:
10 For except we had lingered, surely now we had returned this second time.
11 And their father Israel said unto them, If it must be so now, do this; take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds:
12 And take double money in your hand; and the money that was brought again in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again in your hand; peradventure it was an oversight:
13 Take also your brother, and arise, go again unto the man:
14 And God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother, and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.
15 And the men took that present, and they took double money in their hand and Benjamin; and rose up, and went down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph.
16 And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the ruler of his house, Bring these men home, and slay, and make ready; for these men shall dine with me at noon.
17 And the man did as Joseph bade; and the man brought the men into Joseph's house.
18 And the men were afraid, because they were brought into Joseph's house; and they said, Because of the money that was returned in our sacks at the first time are we brought in; that he may seek occasion against us, and fall upon us, and take us for bondmen, and our asses.
19 And they came near to the steward of Joseph's house, and they communed with him at the door of the house,
20 And said, O sir, we came indeed down at the first time to buy food:
21 And it came to pass, when we came to the inn, that we opened our sacks, and, behold, every man's money was in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight: and we have brought it again in our hand.
22 And other money have we brought down in our hands to buy food: we cannot tell who put our money in our sacks.
23 And he said, Peace be to you, fear not: your God, and the God of your father, hath given you treasure in your sacks: I had your money. And he brought Simeon out unto them.
24 And the man brought the men into Joseph's house, and gave them water, and they washed their feet; and he gave their asses provender.
25 And they made ready the present against Joseph came at noon: for they heard that they should eat bread there.
26 And when Joseph came home, they brought him the present which was in their hand into the house, and bowed themselves to him to the earth.
27 And he asked them of their welfare, and said, Is your father well, the old man of whom ye spake? Is he yet alive?
28 And they answered, Thy servant our father is in good health, he is yet alive. And they bowed down their heads, and made obeisance. 29 And he lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, Is this your younger brother, of whom ye spake unto me? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son.
30 And Joseph made haste; for his bowels did yearn upon his brother: and he sought where to weep; and he entered into his chamber, and wept there.
31 And he washed his face, and went out, and refrained himself, and said, Set on bread.
32 And they set on for him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians, which did eat with him, by themselves: because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews; for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians.
33 And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth: and the men marveled one at another.
34 And he took and sent messes unto them from before him: but Benjamin's mess was five times so much as any of theirs. And they drank, and were merry with him.
GENESIS 44:1-17 King James Bible
1 And he commanded the steward of his house, saying, Fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man's money in his sack's mouth.
2 And put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest, and his corn money. And he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken.
3 As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their asses.
4 And when they were gone out of the city, and not yet far off, Joseph said unto his steward, Up, follow after the men; and when thou dost overtake them, say unto them, Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good?
5 Is not this it in which my lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth? ye have done evil in so doing.
6 And he overtook them, and he spake unto them these same words.
7 And they said unto him, Wherefore saith my lord these words? God forbid that thy servants should do according to this thing:
8 Behold, the money, which we found in our sacks' mouths, we brought again unto thee out of the land of Canaan: how then should we steal out of thy lord's house silver or gold?
9 With whomsoever of thy servants it be found, both let him die, and we also will be my lord's bondmen.
10 And he said, Now also let it be according unto your words: he with whom it is found shall be my servant; and ye shall be blameless.
11 Then they speedily took down every man his sack to the ground, and opened every man his sack.
12 And he searched, and began at the eldest, and left at the youngest: and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack.
13 Then they rent their clothes, and laded every man his ass, and returned to the city.
14 And Judah and his brethren came to Joseph's house; for he was yet there: and they fell before him on the ground.
15 And Joseph said unto them, What deed is this that ye have done? wot ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine?
16 And Judah said, What shall we say unto my lord? what shall we speak? or how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants: behold, we are my lord's servants, both we, and he also with whom the cup is found.
17 And he said, God forbid that I should do so: but the man in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant; and as for you, get you up in peace unto your father.
HERE ARE THE SCRIPTURES TO READ FOR ALL 8 DAYS
ZECHARIAH 2:1-13 King James Bible
1 I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand.
2 Then said I, Whither goest thou? And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof.
3 And, behold, the angel that talked with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him,
4 And said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein:
5 For I, saith the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.
6 Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north, saith the LORD: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith the LORD.
7 Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon.
8 For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.
9 For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me.
10 Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD.
11 And many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto thee.
12 And the LORD shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again.
13 Be silent, O all flesh, before the LORD: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.
ZECHARIAH 3:1-10 King James Bible
1 And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.
2 And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?
3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.
4 And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.
5 And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD stood by.
6 And the angel of the LORD protested unto Joshua, saying,
7 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.
8 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.
9 For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.
10 In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig tree.
ZECHARIAH 4:1-14 King James Bible
1 And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep.
2 And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:
3 And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
4 So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord?
5 Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.
7 Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.
8 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
9 The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you.
10 For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.
11 Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?
12 And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?
13 And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
14 Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the LORD of the whole earth.
GENESIS 37:1-36 King James Bible
1 And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan.
2 These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colors. 4 And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.
5 And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.
6 And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:
7 For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.
8 And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.
9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
10 And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?
11 And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.
12 And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem. 13 And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I.
14 And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.
15 And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou?
16 And he said, I seek my brethren: tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks.
17 And the man said, They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan.
18 And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.
19 And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh.
20 Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams.
21 And Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands; and said, Let us not kill him.
22 And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him; that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again.
23 And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colors that was on him;
24 And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it.
25 And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.
26 And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood?
27 Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content.
28 Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.
29 And Reuben returned unto the pit; and, behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his clothes.
30 And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The child is not; and I, whither shall I go?
31 And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood;
32 And they sent the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son's coat or no.
33 And he knew it, and said, It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces.
34 And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.
35 And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. 36 And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of the guard.
GENESIS 38:1-30 King James Bible
1 And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.
2 And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shuah; and he took her, and went in unto her.
3 And she conceived, and bare a son; and he called his name Er.
4 And she conceived again, and bare a son; and she called his name Onan.
5 And she yet again conceived, and bare a son; and called his name Shelah: and he was at Chezib, when she bare him.
6 And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, whose name was Tamar.
7 And Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew him.
8 And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.
9 And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.
10 And the thing which he did displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him also.
11 Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter in law, Remain a widow at thy father's house, till Shelah my son be grown: for he said, Lest peradventure he die also, as his brethren did. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house.
12 And in process of time the daughter of Shuah Judah's wife died; and Judah was comforted, and went up unto his sheepshearers to Timnath, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.
13 And it was told Tamar, saying, Behold thy father in law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep.
14 And she put her widow's garments off from her, and covered her with a vail, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place, which is by the way to Timnath; for she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given unto him to wife.
15 When Judah saw her, he thought her to be an harlot; because she had covered her face.
16 And he turned unto her by the way, and said, Go to, I pray thee, let me come in unto thee; (for he knew not that she was his daughter in law.) And she said, What wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me?
17 And he said, I will send thee a kid from the flock. And she said, Wilt thou give me a pledge, till thou send it?
18 And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And she said, Thy signet, and thy bracelets, and thy staff that is in thine hand. And he gave it her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him.
19 And she arose, and went away, and laid by her vail from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood.
20 And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive his pledge from the woman's hand: but he found her not.
21 Then he asked the men of that place, saying, Where is the harlot, that was openly by the way side? And they said, There was no harlot in this place.
22 And he returned to Judah, and said, I cannot find her; and also the men of the place said, that there was no harlot in this place. 23 And Judah said, Let her take it to her, lest we be shamed: behold, I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her.
24 And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.
25 When she was brought forth, she sent to her father in law, saying, By the man, whose these are, am I with child: and she said, Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet, and bracelets, and staff.
26 And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more.
27 And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins were in her womb.
28 And it came to pass, when she travailed, that the one put out his hand: and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first.
29 And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out: and she said, How hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez.
30 And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand: and his name was called Zarah.
GENESIS 39:1-23 King James Bible
1 And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmaelites, which had brought him down thither.
2 And the LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.
3 And his master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD made all that he did to prosper in his hand.
4 And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand.
5 And it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that the LORD blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of the LORD was upon all that he had in the house, and in the field.
6 And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand; and he knew not ought he had, save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person, and well favored.
7 And it came to pass after these things, that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me.
8 But he refused, and said unto his master's wife, Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand;
9 There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?
10 And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her.
11 And it came to pass about this time, that Joseph went into the house to do his business; and there was none of the men of the house there within.
12 And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.
13 And it came to pass, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and was fled forth,
14 That she called unto the men of her house, and spake unto them, saying, See, he hath brought in an Hebrew unto us to mock us; he came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice:
15 And it came to pass, when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled, and got him out.
16 And she laid up his garment by her, until his lord came home.
17 And she spake unto him according to these words, saying, The Hebrew servant, which thou hast brought unto us, came in unto me to mock me:
18 And it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled out.
19 And it came to pass, when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spake unto him, saying, After this manner did thy servant to me; that his wrath was kindled.
20 And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison.
21 But the LORD was with Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
22 And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it.
23 The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the LORD was with him, and that which he did, the LORD made it to prosper.
GENESIS 40:1-23 King James Bible
1 And it came to pass after these things, that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended their lord the king of Egypt.
2 And Pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers, against the chief of the butlers, and against the chief of the bakers.
3 And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.
4 And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them: and they continued a season in ward.
5 And they dreamed a dream both of them, each man his dream in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison.
6 And Joseph came in unto them in the morning, and looked upon them, and, behold, they were sad.
7 And he asked Pharaoh's officers that were with him in the ward of his lord's house, saying, Wherefore look ye so sadly to day?
8 And they said unto him, We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belong to God? tell me them, I pray you.
9 And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, In my dream, behold, a vine was before me;
10 And in the vine were three branches: and it was as though it budded, and her blossoms shot forth; and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes:
11 And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand: and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.
12 And Joseph said unto him, This is the interpretation of it: The three branches are three days:
13 Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy place: and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his butler. 14 But think on me when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house:
15 For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews: and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.
16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and, behold, I had three white baskets on my head:
17 And in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of bakemeats for Pharaoh; and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head.
18 And Joseph answered and said, This is the interpretation thereof: The three baskets are three days:
19 Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee.
20 And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants.
21 And he restored the chief butler unto his butlership again; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand:
22 But he hanged the chief baker: as Joseph had interpreted to them.
23 Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him.
HANNUKA SHABBAT (SABBATH) SCRIPTURES WHICH EVER DAY ON.
GENESIS 41:1-57 King James Bible
1 And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river.
2 And, behold, there came up out of the river seven well favored kine and fatfleshed; and they fed in a meadow.
3 And, behold, seven other kine came up after them out of the river, ill favored and leanfleshed; and stood by the other kine upon the brink of the river.
4 And the ill favored and leanfleshed kine did eat up the seven well favored and fat kine. So Pharaoh awoke.
5 And he slept and dreamed the second time: and, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good.
6 And, behold, seven thin ears and blasted with the east wind sprung up after them.
7 And the seven thin ears devoured the seven rank and full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and, behold, it was a dream.
8 And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled; and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof: and Pharaoh told them his dream; but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh.
9 Then spake the chief butler unto Pharaoh, saying, I do remember my faults this day:
10 Pharaoh was wroth with his servants, and put me in ward in the captain of the guard's house, both me and the chief baker:
11 And we dreamed a dream in one night, I and he; we dreamed each man according to the interpretation of his dream.
12 And there was there with us a young man, an Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard; and we told him, and he interpreted to us our dreams; to each man according to his dream he did interpret.
13 And it came to pass, as he interpreted to us, so it was; me he restored unto mine office, and him he hanged.
14 Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon: and he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh.
15 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it: and I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it.
16 And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.
17 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of the river:
18 And, behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, fatfleshed and well favored; and they fed in a meadow:
19 And, behold, seven other kine came up after them, poor and very ill favored and leanfleshed, such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for badness:
20 And the lean and the ill favored kine did eat up the first seven fat kine:
21 And when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that they had eaten them; but they were still ill favored, as at the beginning. So I awoke.
22 And I saw in my dream, and, behold, seven ears came up in one stalk, full and good:
23 And, behold, seven ears, withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them:
24 And the thin ears devoured the seven good ears: and I told this unto the magicians; but there was none that could declare it to me.
25 And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath showed Pharaoh what he is about to do.
26 The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one.
27 And the seven thin and ill favored kine that came up after them are seven years; and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine.
28 This is the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh: What God is about to do he showeth unto Pharaoh.
29 Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt:
30 And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land;
31 And the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following; for it shall be very grievous.
32 And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.
33 Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt.
34 Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years.
35 And let them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities.
36 And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land perish not through the famine.
37 And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.
38 And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?
39 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath showed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art:
40 Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou.
41 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.
42 And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck;
43 And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.
44 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.
45 And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnathpaaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.
46 And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.
47 And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls.
48 And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same.
49 And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was without number.
50 And unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, which Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On bare unto him.
51 And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house.
52 And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.
53 And the seven years of plenteousness, that was in the land of Egypt, were ended.
54 And the seven years of dearth began to come, according as Joseph had said: and the dearth was in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.
55 And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread: and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph; what he saith to you, do.
56 And the famine was over all the face of the earth: and Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt.
57 And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn; because that the famine was so sore in all lands.
GENESIS 42:1-38 King James Bible
1 Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, Why do ye look one upon another?
2 And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt: get you down thither, and buy for us from thence; that we may live, and not die.
3 And Joseph's ten brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt.
4 But Benjamin, Joseph's brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren; for he said, Lest peradventure mischief befall him.
5 And the sons of Israel came to buy corn among those that came: for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
6 And Joseph was the governor over the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the land: and Joseph's brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth.
7 And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them; and he said unto them, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan to buy food.
8 And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him.
9 And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, Ye are spies; to see the nakedness of the land ye are come.
10 And they said unto him, Nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy servants come.
11 We are all one man's sons; we are true men, thy servants are no spies.
12 And he said unto them, Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land ye are come.
13 And they said, Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and, behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is not.
14 And Joseph said unto them, That is it that I spake unto you, saying, Ye are spies:
15 Hereby ye shall be proved: By the life of Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither.
16 Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison, that your words may be proved, whether there be any truth in you: or else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye are spies.
17 And he put them all together into ward three days.
18 And Joseph said unto them the third day, This do, and live; for I fear God:
19 If ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison: go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses:
20 But bring your youngest brother unto me; so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die. And they did so.
21 And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.
22 And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear? therefore, behold, also his blood is required.
23 And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for he spake unto them by an interpreter.
24 And he turned himself about from them, and wept; and returned to them again, and communed with them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes.
25 Then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn, and to restore every man's money into his sack, and to give them provision for the way: and thus did he unto them.
26 And they laded their asses with the corn, and departed thence. 27 And as one of them opened his sack to give his ass provender in the inn, he espied his money; for, behold, it was in his sack's mouth.
28 And he said unto his brethren, My money is restored; and, lo, it is even in my sack: and their heart failed them, and they were afraid, saying one to another, What is this that God hath done unto us?
29 And they came unto Jacob their father unto the land of Canaan, and told him all that befell unto them; saying,
30 The man, who is the lord of the land, spake roughly to us, and took us for spies of the country.
31 And we said unto him, We are true men; we are no spies:
32 We be twelve brethren, sons of our father; one is not, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan.
33 And the man, the lord of the country, said unto us, Hereby shall I know that ye are true men; leave one of your brethren here with me, and take food for the famine of your households, and be gone:
34 And bring your youngest brother unto me: then shall I know that ye are no spies, but that ye are true men: so will I deliver you your brother, and ye shall traffic in the land.
35 And it came to pass as they emptied their sacks, that, behold, every man's bundle of money was in his sack: and when both they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid.
36 And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me.
37 And Reuben spake unto his father, saying, Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee: deliver him into my hand, and I will bring him to thee again.
38 And he said, My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he is left alone: if mischief befall him by the way in the which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.
GENESIS 43:1-34 King James Bible
1 And the famine was sore in the land.
2 And it came to pass, when they had eaten up the corn which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said unto them, Go again, buy us a little food.
3 And Judah spake unto him, saying, The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you.
4 If thou wilt send our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food:
5 But if thou wilt not send him, we will not go down: for the man said unto us, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you.
6 And Israel said, Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me, as to tell the man whether ye had yet a brother?
7 And they said, The man asked us straitly of our state, and of our kindred, saying, Is your father yet alive? have ye another brother? and we told him according to the tenor of these words: could we certainly know that he would say, Bring your brother down?
8 And Judah said unto Israel his father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go; that we may live, and not die, both we, and thou, and also our little ones.
9 I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him: if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever:
10 For except we had lingered, surely now we had returned this second time.
11 And their father Israel said unto them, If it must be so now, do this; take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds:
12 And take double money in your hand; and the money that was brought again in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again in your hand; peradventure it was an oversight:
13 Take also your brother, and arise, go again unto the man:
14 And God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother, and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.
15 And the men took that present, and they took double money in their hand and Benjamin; and rose up, and went down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph.
16 And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the ruler of his house, Bring these men home, and slay, and make ready; for these men shall dine with me at noon.
17 And the man did as Joseph bade; and the man brought the men into Joseph's house.
18 And the men were afraid, because they were brought into Joseph's house; and they said, Because of the money that was returned in our sacks at the first time are we brought in; that he may seek occasion against us, and fall upon us, and take us for bondmen, and our asses.
19 And they came near to the steward of Joseph's house, and they communed with him at the door of the house,
20 And said, O sir, we came indeed down at the first time to buy food:
21 And it came to pass, when we came to the inn, that we opened our sacks, and, behold, every man's money was in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight: and we have brought it again in our hand.
22 And other money have we brought down in our hands to buy food: we cannot tell who put our money in our sacks.
23 And he said, Peace be to you, fear not: your God, and the God of your father, hath given you treasure in your sacks: I had your money. And he brought Simeon out unto them.
24 And the man brought the men into Joseph's house, and gave them water, and they washed their feet; and he gave their asses provender.
25 And they made ready the present against Joseph came at noon: for they heard that they should eat bread there.
26 And when Joseph came home, they brought him the present which was in their hand into the house, and bowed themselves to him to the earth.
27 And he asked them of their welfare, and said, Is your father well, the old man of whom ye spake? Is he yet alive?
28 And they answered, Thy servant our father is in good health, he is yet alive. And they bowed down their heads, and made obeisance. 29 And he lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, Is this your younger brother, of whom ye spake unto me? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son.
30 And Joseph made haste; for his bowels did yearn upon his brother: and he sought where to weep; and he entered into his chamber, and wept there.
31 And he washed his face, and went out, and refrained himself, and said, Set on bread.
32 And they set on for him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians, which did eat with him, by themselves: because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews; for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians.
33 And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth: and the men marveled one at another.
34 And he took and sent messes unto them from before him: but Benjamin's mess was five times so much as any of theirs. And they drank, and were merry with him.
GENESIS 44:1-17 King James Bible
1 And he commanded the steward of his house, saying, Fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man's money in his sack's mouth.
2 And put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest, and his corn money. And he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken.
3 As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their asses.
4 And when they were gone out of the city, and not yet far off, Joseph said unto his steward, Up, follow after the men; and when thou dost overtake them, say unto them, Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good?
5 Is not this it in which my lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth? ye have done evil in so doing.
6 And he overtook them, and he spake unto them these same words.
7 And they said unto him, Wherefore saith my lord these words? God forbid that thy servants should do according to this thing:
8 Behold, the money, which we found in our sacks' mouths, we brought again unto thee out of the land of Canaan: how then should we steal out of thy lord's house silver or gold?
9 With whomsoever of thy servants it be found, both let him die, and we also will be my lord's bondmen.
10 And he said, Now also let it be according unto your words: he with whom it is found shall be my servant; and ye shall be blameless.
11 Then they speedily took down every man his sack to the ground, and opened every man his sack.
12 And he searched, and began at the eldest, and left at the youngest: and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack.
13 Then they rent their clothes, and laded every man his ass, and returned to the city.
14 And Judah and his brethren came to Joseph's house; for he was yet there: and they fell before him on the ground.
15 And Joseph said unto them, What deed is this that ye have done? wot ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine?
16 And Judah said, What shall we say unto my lord? what shall we speak? or how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants: behold, we are my lord's servants, both we, and he also with whom the cup is found.
17 And he said, God forbid that I should do so: but the man in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant; and as for you, get you up in peace unto your father.
Monday, December 03, 2007
RUSSIA ELECTIONS UNFAIR
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.
Power is out, schools closed, rivers rising - it's fall in B.C. Mon Dec 3, 2:39 PM
VANCOUVER (CBC) - The biggest storm of the season transformed the South Coast of B.C. from a winter wonderland into a slushy mess overnight Sunday.More than 40,000 BC Hydro customers lost power as high winds blasted Vancouver Island and the South Coast from Victoria to Hope, while heavy rain washed away the five to 50 centimetres of snow that fell Saturday and Sunday.With 40 to 140 millimetres of rain expected to come down by Monday night, the combination of heavy rain and melting snow promoted government officials to issue a flood watch for Greater Vancouver, South and Central Vancouver Island, Howe Sound and the Lower Fraser valley.
Environment Canada's Alyssa Charbonneau said Monday morning the rain that started Sunday night will continue through Monday night, as the weather system won't move beyond the South Coast until late Tuesday. But there is sunshine in the forecast beginning Thursday.
The largest power outages were in Courtenay, Comox, Campbell River, Cowichan Valley, the Southern Gulf Islands and across the Fraser Valley. According to the BC Hydro website, people should expect their power back later this afternoon.Schools were reporting closures in Campbell River, the Southern Gulf Islands, Cowichan Valley, Nanaimo-Ladysmith, Comox Valley and the Malaspina University College at its Nanaimo and Parksville campuses.West Vancouver police were asking drivers to avoid the Sea-to-Sky Highway because of deep puddles between Horseshoe Bay and Lion's Bay.Freezing rain and snowfall coats Interior highways.Even though winter is does not official begin until Dec. 22, the Eastern Fraser Valley and the Interior were getting a prolonged blast of the winter weather, with freezing rain and as much as 60 cm of snow at higher elevations predicted for the Southern Interior.
The colder temperatures in the Eastern Fraser made roads icy, and public schools from Agassiz to Boston Bar were reporting closures.
Travel east of Vancouver was treacherous, with the Trans-Canada Highway closed from Hope to Jackass Mountain and from Jackass Mountain to Spences Bridge because of a high avalanche hazard. Most other Interior routes were reporting compact snow.The Coquihalla Highway remained open, but there was compact snow and limited visibility, although temperatures were expected to climb later Monday.The Vancouver Island Avalanche Bulletin issued an extreme advisory for the Mount Cain Ski Area in the north to the Beaufort Ranges in the south, including Strathcona Regional Park and the ranges surrounding Mt. Washington.
Winter storm barrels through Northeast after pounding Midwest; wrecks deadly on slippery roads Mon Dec 3, 2:14 PMBy Valerie Bauman, The Associated Press
ALBANY, N.Y. - Drivers in much of the Northeast navigated a treacherous mix of rain, sleet and snow Monday as a storm blamed for at least 16 deaths slid through the region after pounding the Upper Midwest. Schools cancelled or delayed classes from New York to Maine as the region's first snowstorm of the season whipped up wind gusting to 65 km/h. At the same time, a new storm system was wreaking havoc on the West Coast and expected to give the Midwest a second blast of snow. States in the Northeast put hundreds of plows on the roads, including about 650 in New Hampshire alone. The speed limit on part of the Massachusetts Turnpike was cut to 60 km/h as police reported numerous traffic accidents around the state. Most courts in Maine closed for the day and Gov. John Baldacci considered sending state workers home early. Communities around the state imposed parking bans for Monday and Tuesday to make way for snowplows. It's snowing so hard you can hardly keep your eyes open, said Bill Swain, spokesman for Maine's Sugarloaf USA ski area in Carrabassett Valley. The National Weather Service said 30 centimetres of snow was possible in northern New England, with the potential for 50 centimetres in northern Maine. Winter storm warnings were in effect in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and northern and western New York. Nearly 26,000 customers were without power around noon Monday in Connecticut.
The tail end of the storm raked northeastern Ohio on Monday with wind gusting to 80 km/h, and up to 30 centimetres of snow was possible in the area along Lake Erie into Tuesday. Power outages in northeast Ohio northwest Pennsylvania had blacked out more than 20,000 customers, according to Duke Energy, FirstEnergy and American Electric Power. Air travel was disrupted Monday at the Portland International Jetport in Maine as flights were cancelled because of poor conditions at connecting airports. Hundreds of flights were cancelled or delayed by wind, ice and poor visibility during the weekend at the New York City area's three main airports and Chicago's O'Hare. Airliners slid off slippery pavement during the weekend at airports in Syracuse, N.Y.; Des Moines, Iowa, and Madison, Wis. No one was injured. On the opposite side of the country, a new storm system hammered the Northwest with wind gusting higher than 160 km/h in some spots and surf reported about 14 metres high.
Mudslides halted north-south Amtrak passenger train service between Eugene, Ore., and Vancouver. Fallen trees and flooding blocked all highways into Tillamook, Ore., and at one point early Monday almost every road into Aberdeen, Wash., was closed, authorities said. Utilities said some 70,000 homes and businesses were blocked out in Northern California, Oregon and Washington. In 30 years of law enforcement, it's as bad as I've ever seen, said Grays Harbor County Sheriff Michael J. Whelan, whose own truck was smashed in his driveway by a falling tree. A second blast expected on the coast later Monday could be the strongest storm coming ashore since 1999, weather service meteorologists said, issuing issued the region's first warning for hurricane-force wind. The Northwest's severe weather was expected to reach the Upper Midwest with snow on Tuesday, the weather service in Minneapolis said. That would be just three days after that region was battered by the storm that was affecting the Northeast on Monday. Minnesota's Grand Marais, on Lake Superior's North Shore, got 50 centimetres of snow Saturday, according to the weather service. Earlier, that same system dumped about 90 centimetres of snow in one mountain area in western Colorado. Icy or wet pavement was blamed for four deaths in Michigan, three in Wisconsin, two each in New Jersey and Ohio, and one each in Illinois, Indiana, New York, North Dakota and Colorado. One of the New Jersey deaths occurred during the night in a 15-car pileup that also injured 28 people, police said.
Winter storms plague many Canadian regions Mon Dec 3, 12:33PM
EDMONTON (CBC) - Atlantic Canada is bracing Monday for heavy snowfalls by the same massive weather system that has hammered Ontario and Quebec.The official start to winter may be still three weeks away, but wintry weather is already blasting much of Canada.
It's going to be a very messy day across a good part of the country, the CBC's Colleen Jones said early Monday.Many Canadians were still digging themselves out after three weather systems brought snow to much of the country over the weekend, with systems moving up along the Atlantic and Pacific shorelines as well as through Central Canada.Environment Canada's senior climatologist, David Phillips, remarked Sunday that if Monday were Dec. 25, we'd have a white Christmas from coast to coast to coast. By Monday's end, Phillips said, snow could be everywhere.
Rain brings new woes to B.C.
Many residents in southern B.C. didn't get the chance to shovel away the five to 50 centimetres of snow that fell over the weekend before rain washed it away.Flooding is now a concern as river levels rise. A flood watch was issued for Greater Vancouver, south and central Vancouver Island, Howe Sound and the Lower Fraser Valley, with 40 to 260 millimetres of rain expected by the end of Monday.But other parts of the province were still feeling the chill of winter, with freezing rain and snowfall forecast for parts of the southern Interior and southeastern B.C.At the other end of the country, thousands of residents in eastern Newfoundland awoke to darkness after heavy snow and strong winds brought down power lines. Crews inspecting the electrical lines said it was some of the worst damage they've seen in a decade.More than 45 centimetres of snow fell in Gander and more than 20 centimetres in St. John's.That same storm struck Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, dumping more than 20 centimetres of snow over the weekend.
The storm that was tracking through Ontario and Quebec on Monday was expected to move into Atlantic Canada by Tuesday. Up to 50 centimetres are forecast for New Brunswick and up to 40 centimetres for Nova Scotia. In anticipation of the heavy snowfalls, school officials in southwestern Nova Scotia closed some schools earlier than usual.
Storm slams Ontario, Quebec
Large sections of Ontario and Quebec were under weather warnings as a storm system moved in from Colorado.Up to 20 centimetres of fresh snow promised to bury much of eastern Ontario and western Quebec. Ten more centimetres were also in the forecast for Montreal, which had about 15 centimetres over the weekend.A number of flights at Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport were cancelled or delayed, while the Ottawa International Airport faced some delays.In the Prairies, meanwhile, many parts were shivering through a temperature of -25 C with wind chill.
Environment Canada warned of a potentially severe winter weather system moving in from Alberta that could bring 10 to 20 centimetres of snow to southwestern Manitoba and southeastern Saskatchewan.With files from the Canadian Press
Troubled waters adds tension in West Bank
By MEL FRYKBERG (Middle East Times)Published: December 03, 2007
Amid peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians over how to divide land, there is another conflict bubbling just beneath the surface; this one is over water, a precious resource in the Middle East. The sleepy Palestinian village of Qattaneh just north-west of Jerusalem and with approximately 10,000 inhabitants, many of them refugees, has had its piped water reduced to only one day per week, according to a recent Humanitarian Monitor report released by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Just exactly who is to blame for this depends on whom you talk to, with accusations and counter accusations being traded between the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) and the Israeli Water Authority (IWA). During the rest of the week the villagers have to rely on rainwater collected in their cisterns from last winter's rains, and this has almost run out due to a recent drought. Or if they can afford it, they pay for tanked water which costs four times that of piped water.
However, many people in the village are unemployed and there is a high level of poverty as many of them lost work in Israel because they were not given security permits to cross the separation wall which was partially built on land expropriated from their village.
The villagers living on top of the steep hill have even less water due to a decrepit piping network with the weak water pressure unable to reach the higher homes. Sometimes we don't have water even to flush the toilets. We have to purchase tanked water which UNWRA doesn't pay for and this eats into our limited budget, a teacher from the UNRWA elementary school, situated at the higher end of the village, said. Wissam Mali, an engineer from the Qatteneh municipality told the Middle East Times the village loses about 40 percent of its water through leakage. Fadel Kaawash, head of the Palestinian Water Authority, accused the Israelis of deliberately cutting off and decreasing water supply to both Qatteneh and many other villages and towns in the West Bank. However, Israeli Water Authority spokesman Uri Schor denied that the Israeli water company Mekorot, which supplies water to the PWA, was either cutting off or decreasing water supply to the Palestinians. Schor told the Middle East Times, Israel is actually supplying the PWA with more water than was agreed to in the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement signed in Washington in 1995 and how the PWA chooses to distribute the water is up to them.
At present the Palestinians get approximately 40 million cubic meters from Israel and the same amount annually from wells and springs in the West Bank, according to Kaawash. The consumption rate in the West Bank is less than 50 liters per capita per day in 90 percent of communities connected to networks, said Kaawash. The situation in Gaza is even more dire.According to the World Health Organization the minimum requirement for domestic consumption is 100 liters per capita per day. Kaawash said the daily consumption of Israelis is between 300-400 liters, a figure backed by Israeli geography professor, Moshe Inbal. The average in London and other Western capitals is about 200 liters. The Palestinians are obviously not getting their fair share, said Rima Abu Middan, the Natural Capital team leader from the U.N. Development Program in Jerusalem. The amount being supplied is inadequate and the Israelis should be obliged to supply more.Approximately 85 percent of the West Bank's water resources are appropriated by the Israelis, the Palestinians get the remaining 15 percent and much of this they have to purchase from Mekorot. Under international law and according to various U.N. Security Council resolutions the West Bank and its resources belong to the Palestinians so they should not have to be either sharing the water with or purchasing it from Israel. Kaawash added, The shortages are also due to the age and state of disrepair of the water networks in the West Bank, some of which are over 25 years old, and an inadequate amount of water being supplied from wells and springs also in urgent need of upgrading.
Schor said the IWA would supply Qatteneh villagers with more water but the network had to first be repaired. Kaawash said that repairing the networks in the West Bank would cost about $800 million and would take up to 10 years. Money which he says the PWA doesn't have. During the decades of Israeli occupation, the Israeli authorities did little to upgrade the Palestinians' water network but neither did the PLO when it took over certain parts of the West Bank following the Oslo Accords. Schor acknowledged the disproportionate rationing of the West Bank's water resources but said that would be dealt with in a final political settlement between Palestine and Israel. The scarcity of water is one of the key areas of conflict in the region and one of the issues that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wanted to discuss at Annapolis. But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his negotiating team refused to address any of the core issues, preferring to leave them for a later date.
Israel frees Palestinian prisoners to help Abbas By Wafa Amr Mon Dec 3, 8:25 AM ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israel released 429 Palestinian prisoners on Monday to bolster President Mahmoud Abbas after a U.S.-sponsored conference last week on Palestinian statehood, Israeli officials said. The inmates, most of whom belong to Abbas's secular Fatah movement and were serving sentences ranging from seven months to 15 years, were bussed from the desert prison of Kitsiyot to Israel's borders with the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.There are nearly 11,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails. The Jewish state says most are there for involvement in militant groups behind a Palestinian revolt that erupted in 2000.Israel's Prisons Service said 20 prisoners were sent to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and 409 to a crossing near the West Bank city of Ramallah, where a formal homecoming reception took place attended by Palestinian Authority officials and families.
The Israelis need to release those with long sentences to show they are serious about the peace process, said Abbas aide Tayeb Abdel-Rahim. President Abbas has exerted maximum effort to keep the prisoner issue on top of the world's agenda.Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert launched formal peace talks at the conference in Annapolis, Maryland. The plan is to reach a peace agreement by the end of 2008 as U.S. President George W. Bush winds up his term in office.But Olmert has balked at declaring a deadline for the talks given past accords which collapsed amid mutual non-compliance.We refused to set a deadline for concluding the talks for obvious reasons, but we need to finish these negotiations as quickly as possible, Olmert told his parliamentary faction.
PEACE MOMENTUM
Israel has refused to commute sentences of Palestinians jailed over lethal militant attacks but Monday's release is meant to strengthen Abbas against Hamas Islamists who seized Gaza in June.Israel understands it is crucial to reinforce the political dialogue by concrete actions on the ground, said Israel government spokesman Mark Regev. We are hopeful that today's release will help to contribute to the growing momentum in the political dialogue between us and the Palestinians.Hamas rejects peace moves with Israel.The Jewish state's forces have been rounding up Palestinians in almost nightly raids on the West Bank and Gaza. Forty-two were detained on Monday, the Israeli army said.One of those seized was Khaled Barbari. His family said he was taken by Israeli troops as he traveled to the homecoming celebration for his brother, Ahmad, who was freed on Monday.They simply made an exchange. They released Ahmad and arrested Khaled, said Mahmoud Barbari, another brother. Khaled Bardari's relative said he had no known militant affiliations.
The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the case.
Families of prisoners who gathered at the Beitunia checkpoint outside Ramallah said they were happy to see their loved ones return, but noted most of the freed inmates had only a few months left to serve behind bars.My happiness is not complete because I want to see all prisoners released and see all mothers happy like I am today,said Bahiyeh Alayan, whose son Hamdallah was released after serving a 5-year term. The issue of prisoners is highly emotive for Palestinians, who see their brethren held in Israeli jails as fighters against foreign occupation. Many Israelis fear that such amnesties encourage Palestinian militants to strike again. (Additional reporting by Avida Landau in Jerusalem, and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Writing by Dan Williams and Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Catherine Evans)
Vladimir Putin keeps Russia guessing on future
By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow 7:50pm GMT 03/12/2007
Russians are anxiously awaiting word on their leader's future as Vladimir Putin prepares to use his overwhelming victory in a flawed parliamentary election to retain power beyond his official retirement date next year. But after years of waiting, the Russian people could discover within a fortnight what his official job description will be after next March's presidential elections - a contest in which Mr Putin is currently constitutionally forbidden from participating. On December 17, the ruling United Russia party meets to choose its presidential candidate. With its crushing victory in Sunday's parliamentary election now confirmed, the party could argue that it has the popular mandate to select Mr Putin - a move that would require either a referendum or the discovery of a constitutional loophole to be put into effect. If it chooses a pliant alternative candidate, Mr Putin is instead likely to emerge as prime minister or leader of the party, positions that could be imbued with new powers now that United Russia has a constitutional majority in a parliament that lacks even a single genuine opposition deputy. Whatever option is put into place, Mr Putin's international credibility has suffered a serious buffeting, after the small number of foreign observers that were allowed to monitor the parliamentary election condemned it as seriously flawed. United Russia won over 70 per cent of the seats in the State Duma but observers said the election was characterised by intimidation and numerous violations and the West united to condemn the conduct of the poll. The Foreign Office called on the Kremlin to investigate electoral regularities while the German government took the unprecedented step of declaring that Russia was not a democracy. These were not free and fair elections, they were not democratic elections, government spokesman Thomas Steg told reporters.
Russia was no democracy and is no democracy.
Despite the international storm that it is likely to cause, analysts say that there are growing signs Mr Putin could defy the West - who he recently told to keep its snotty noses out of Russian affairs - by running for a third term. As the parliamentary campaign reached its crescendo last month, apparently spontaneous demonstrations erupted across the country calling for Mr Putin to stay on as president. By mid-November it was revealed that the demonstrations were being spearheaded by a movement that simply called itself Za Putina or For Putin. Its leaders insisted that the organisation was nothing more than a grassroots initiative created to express the spontaneous love of the Russian people for their president. But analysts said the movement showed all the hallmarks of being a Kremlin concoction and predicted it would be used as a vehicle to allow Mr Putin to remain as president. They also claimed that Za Putina had been deliberately modelled on Mao Tse Tung's Red Guards movement during the Cultural Revolution and would be used to make denunciations against ruling party deputies considered disloyal to the president. The organisation has already created an online petition and is planning to deliver 30 lorries with 30 million signatures to the Kremlin, pleading with the president to stay on. Everything is now ready for a referendum, said Yevgeny Kiselyov, a leading political commentator. Now this movement is being used to reinforce the notion of Putin the father, Putin the son and Putin the Holy Spirit.
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.
Power is out, schools closed, rivers rising - it's fall in B.C. Mon Dec 3, 2:39 PM
VANCOUVER (CBC) - The biggest storm of the season transformed the South Coast of B.C. from a winter wonderland into a slushy mess overnight Sunday.More than 40,000 BC Hydro customers lost power as high winds blasted Vancouver Island and the South Coast from Victoria to Hope, while heavy rain washed away the five to 50 centimetres of snow that fell Saturday and Sunday.With 40 to 140 millimetres of rain expected to come down by Monday night, the combination of heavy rain and melting snow promoted government officials to issue a flood watch for Greater Vancouver, South and Central Vancouver Island, Howe Sound and the Lower Fraser valley.
Environment Canada's Alyssa Charbonneau said Monday morning the rain that started Sunday night will continue through Monday night, as the weather system won't move beyond the South Coast until late Tuesday. But there is sunshine in the forecast beginning Thursday.
The largest power outages were in Courtenay, Comox, Campbell River, Cowichan Valley, the Southern Gulf Islands and across the Fraser Valley. According to the BC Hydro website, people should expect their power back later this afternoon.Schools were reporting closures in Campbell River, the Southern Gulf Islands, Cowichan Valley, Nanaimo-Ladysmith, Comox Valley and the Malaspina University College at its Nanaimo and Parksville campuses.West Vancouver police were asking drivers to avoid the Sea-to-Sky Highway because of deep puddles between Horseshoe Bay and Lion's Bay.Freezing rain and snowfall coats Interior highways.Even though winter is does not official begin until Dec. 22, the Eastern Fraser Valley and the Interior were getting a prolonged blast of the winter weather, with freezing rain and as much as 60 cm of snow at higher elevations predicted for the Southern Interior.
The colder temperatures in the Eastern Fraser made roads icy, and public schools from Agassiz to Boston Bar were reporting closures.
Travel east of Vancouver was treacherous, with the Trans-Canada Highway closed from Hope to Jackass Mountain and from Jackass Mountain to Spences Bridge because of a high avalanche hazard. Most other Interior routes were reporting compact snow.The Coquihalla Highway remained open, but there was compact snow and limited visibility, although temperatures were expected to climb later Monday.The Vancouver Island Avalanche Bulletin issued an extreme advisory for the Mount Cain Ski Area in the north to the Beaufort Ranges in the south, including Strathcona Regional Park and the ranges surrounding Mt. Washington.
Winter storm barrels through Northeast after pounding Midwest; wrecks deadly on slippery roads Mon Dec 3, 2:14 PMBy Valerie Bauman, The Associated Press
ALBANY, N.Y. - Drivers in much of the Northeast navigated a treacherous mix of rain, sleet and snow Monday as a storm blamed for at least 16 deaths slid through the region after pounding the Upper Midwest. Schools cancelled or delayed classes from New York to Maine as the region's first snowstorm of the season whipped up wind gusting to 65 km/h. At the same time, a new storm system was wreaking havoc on the West Coast and expected to give the Midwest a second blast of snow. States in the Northeast put hundreds of plows on the roads, including about 650 in New Hampshire alone. The speed limit on part of the Massachusetts Turnpike was cut to 60 km/h as police reported numerous traffic accidents around the state. Most courts in Maine closed for the day and Gov. John Baldacci considered sending state workers home early. Communities around the state imposed parking bans for Monday and Tuesday to make way for snowplows. It's snowing so hard you can hardly keep your eyes open, said Bill Swain, spokesman for Maine's Sugarloaf USA ski area in Carrabassett Valley. The National Weather Service said 30 centimetres of snow was possible in northern New England, with the potential for 50 centimetres in northern Maine. Winter storm warnings were in effect in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and northern and western New York. Nearly 26,000 customers were without power around noon Monday in Connecticut.
The tail end of the storm raked northeastern Ohio on Monday with wind gusting to 80 km/h, and up to 30 centimetres of snow was possible in the area along Lake Erie into Tuesday. Power outages in northeast Ohio northwest Pennsylvania had blacked out more than 20,000 customers, according to Duke Energy, FirstEnergy and American Electric Power. Air travel was disrupted Monday at the Portland International Jetport in Maine as flights were cancelled because of poor conditions at connecting airports. Hundreds of flights were cancelled or delayed by wind, ice and poor visibility during the weekend at the New York City area's three main airports and Chicago's O'Hare. Airliners slid off slippery pavement during the weekend at airports in Syracuse, N.Y.; Des Moines, Iowa, and Madison, Wis. No one was injured. On the opposite side of the country, a new storm system hammered the Northwest with wind gusting higher than 160 km/h in some spots and surf reported about 14 metres high.
Mudslides halted north-south Amtrak passenger train service between Eugene, Ore., and Vancouver. Fallen trees and flooding blocked all highways into Tillamook, Ore., and at one point early Monday almost every road into Aberdeen, Wash., was closed, authorities said. Utilities said some 70,000 homes and businesses were blocked out in Northern California, Oregon and Washington. In 30 years of law enforcement, it's as bad as I've ever seen, said Grays Harbor County Sheriff Michael J. Whelan, whose own truck was smashed in his driveway by a falling tree. A second blast expected on the coast later Monday could be the strongest storm coming ashore since 1999, weather service meteorologists said, issuing issued the region's first warning for hurricane-force wind. The Northwest's severe weather was expected to reach the Upper Midwest with snow on Tuesday, the weather service in Minneapolis said. That would be just three days after that region was battered by the storm that was affecting the Northeast on Monday. Minnesota's Grand Marais, on Lake Superior's North Shore, got 50 centimetres of snow Saturday, according to the weather service. Earlier, that same system dumped about 90 centimetres of snow in one mountain area in western Colorado. Icy or wet pavement was blamed for four deaths in Michigan, three in Wisconsin, two each in New Jersey and Ohio, and one each in Illinois, Indiana, New York, North Dakota and Colorado. One of the New Jersey deaths occurred during the night in a 15-car pileup that also injured 28 people, police said.
Winter storms plague many Canadian regions Mon Dec 3, 12:33PM
EDMONTON (CBC) - Atlantic Canada is bracing Monday for heavy snowfalls by the same massive weather system that has hammered Ontario and Quebec.The official start to winter may be still three weeks away, but wintry weather is already blasting much of Canada.
It's going to be a very messy day across a good part of the country, the CBC's Colleen Jones said early Monday.Many Canadians were still digging themselves out after three weather systems brought snow to much of the country over the weekend, with systems moving up along the Atlantic and Pacific shorelines as well as through Central Canada.Environment Canada's senior climatologist, David Phillips, remarked Sunday that if Monday were Dec. 25, we'd have a white Christmas from coast to coast to coast. By Monday's end, Phillips said, snow could be everywhere.
Rain brings new woes to B.C.
Many residents in southern B.C. didn't get the chance to shovel away the five to 50 centimetres of snow that fell over the weekend before rain washed it away.Flooding is now a concern as river levels rise. A flood watch was issued for Greater Vancouver, south and central Vancouver Island, Howe Sound and the Lower Fraser Valley, with 40 to 260 millimetres of rain expected by the end of Monday.But other parts of the province were still feeling the chill of winter, with freezing rain and snowfall forecast for parts of the southern Interior and southeastern B.C.At the other end of the country, thousands of residents in eastern Newfoundland awoke to darkness after heavy snow and strong winds brought down power lines. Crews inspecting the electrical lines said it was some of the worst damage they've seen in a decade.More than 45 centimetres of snow fell in Gander and more than 20 centimetres in St. John's.That same storm struck Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, dumping more than 20 centimetres of snow over the weekend.
The storm that was tracking through Ontario and Quebec on Monday was expected to move into Atlantic Canada by Tuesday. Up to 50 centimetres are forecast for New Brunswick and up to 40 centimetres for Nova Scotia. In anticipation of the heavy snowfalls, school officials in southwestern Nova Scotia closed some schools earlier than usual.
Storm slams Ontario, Quebec
Large sections of Ontario and Quebec were under weather warnings as a storm system moved in from Colorado.Up to 20 centimetres of fresh snow promised to bury much of eastern Ontario and western Quebec. Ten more centimetres were also in the forecast for Montreal, which had about 15 centimetres over the weekend.A number of flights at Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport were cancelled or delayed, while the Ottawa International Airport faced some delays.In the Prairies, meanwhile, many parts were shivering through a temperature of -25 C with wind chill.
Environment Canada warned of a potentially severe winter weather system moving in from Alberta that could bring 10 to 20 centimetres of snow to southwestern Manitoba and southeastern Saskatchewan.With files from the Canadian Press
Troubled waters adds tension in West Bank
By MEL FRYKBERG (Middle East Times)Published: December 03, 2007
Amid peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians over how to divide land, there is another conflict bubbling just beneath the surface; this one is over water, a precious resource in the Middle East. The sleepy Palestinian village of Qattaneh just north-west of Jerusalem and with approximately 10,000 inhabitants, many of them refugees, has had its piped water reduced to only one day per week, according to a recent Humanitarian Monitor report released by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Just exactly who is to blame for this depends on whom you talk to, with accusations and counter accusations being traded between the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) and the Israeli Water Authority (IWA). During the rest of the week the villagers have to rely on rainwater collected in their cisterns from last winter's rains, and this has almost run out due to a recent drought. Or if they can afford it, they pay for tanked water which costs four times that of piped water.
However, many people in the village are unemployed and there is a high level of poverty as many of them lost work in Israel because they were not given security permits to cross the separation wall which was partially built on land expropriated from their village.
The villagers living on top of the steep hill have even less water due to a decrepit piping network with the weak water pressure unable to reach the higher homes. Sometimes we don't have water even to flush the toilets. We have to purchase tanked water which UNWRA doesn't pay for and this eats into our limited budget, a teacher from the UNRWA elementary school, situated at the higher end of the village, said. Wissam Mali, an engineer from the Qatteneh municipality told the Middle East Times the village loses about 40 percent of its water through leakage. Fadel Kaawash, head of the Palestinian Water Authority, accused the Israelis of deliberately cutting off and decreasing water supply to both Qatteneh and many other villages and towns in the West Bank. However, Israeli Water Authority spokesman Uri Schor denied that the Israeli water company Mekorot, which supplies water to the PWA, was either cutting off or decreasing water supply to the Palestinians. Schor told the Middle East Times, Israel is actually supplying the PWA with more water than was agreed to in the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement signed in Washington in 1995 and how the PWA chooses to distribute the water is up to them.
At present the Palestinians get approximately 40 million cubic meters from Israel and the same amount annually from wells and springs in the West Bank, according to Kaawash. The consumption rate in the West Bank is less than 50 liters per capita per day in 90 percent of communities connected to networks, said Kaawash. The situation in Gaza is even more dire.According to the World Health Organization the minimum requirement for domestic consumption is 100 liters per capita per day. Kaawash said the daily consumption of Israelis is between 300-400 liters, a figure backed by Israeli geography professor, Moshe Inbal. The average in London and other Western capitals is about 200 liters. The Palestinians are obviously not getting their fair share, said Rima Abu Middan, the Natural Capital team leader from the U.N. Development Program in Jerusalem. The amount being supplied is inadequate and the Israelis should be obliged to supply more.Approximately 85 percent of the West Bank's water resources are appropriated by the Israelis, the Palestinians get the remaining 15 percent and much of this they have to purchase from Mekorot. Under international law and according to various U.N. Security Council resolutions the West Bank and its resources belong to the Palestinians so they should not have to be either sharing the water with or purchasing it from Israel. Kaawash added, The shortages are also due to the age and state of disrepair of the water networks in the West Bank, some of which are over 25 years old, and an inadequate amount of water being supplied from wells and springs also in urgent need of upgrading.
Schor said the IWA would supply Qatteneh villagers with more water but the network had to first be repaired. Kaawash said that repairing the networks in the West Bank would cost about $800 million and would take up to 10 years. Money which he says the PWA doesn't have. During the decades of Israeli occupation, the Israeli authorities did little to upgrade the Palestinians' water network but neither did the PLO when it took over certain parts of the West Bank following the Oslo Accords. Schor acknowledged the disproportionate rationing of the West Bank's water resources but said that would be dealt with in a final political settlement between Palestine and Israel. The scarcity of water is one of the key areas of conflict in the region and one of the issues that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wanted to discuss at Annapolis. But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his negotiating team refused to address any of the core issues, preferring to leave them for a later date.
Israel frees Palestinian prisoners to help Abbas By Wafa Amr Mon Dec 3, 8:25 AM ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israel released 429 Palestinian prisoners on Monday to bolster President Mahmoud Abbas after a U.S.-sponsored conference last week on Palestinian statehood, Israeli officials said. The inmates, most of whom belong to Abbas's secular Fatah movement and were serving sentences ranging from seven months to 15 years, were bussed from the desert prison of Kitsiyot to Israel's borders with the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.There are nearly 11,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails. The Jewish state says most are there for involvement in militant groups behind a Palestinian revolt that erupted in 2000.Israel's Prisons Service said 20 prisoners were sent to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and 409 to a crossing near the West Bank city of Ramallah, where a formal homecoming reception took place attended by Palestinian Authority officials and families.
The Israelis need to release those with long sentences to show they are serious about the peace process, said Abbas aide Tayeb Abdel-Rahim. President Abbas has exerted maximum effort to keep the prisoner issue on top of the world's agenda.Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert launched formal peace talks at the conference in Annapolis, Maryland. The plan is to reach a peace agreement by the end of 2008 as U.S. President George W. Bush winds up his term in office.But Olmert has balked at declaring a deadline for the talks given past accords which collapsed amid mutual non-compliance.We refused to set a deadline for concluding the talks for obvious reasons, but we need to finish these negotiations as quickly as possible, Olmert told his parliamentary faction.
PEACE MOMENTUM
Israel has refused to commute sentences of Palestinians jailed over lethal militant attacks but Monday's release is meant to strengthen Abbas against Hamas Islamists who seized Gaza in June.Israel understands it is crucial to reinforce the political dialogue by concrete actions on the ground, said Israel government spokesman Mark Regev. We are hopeful that today's release will help to contribute to the growing momentum in the political dialogue between us and the Palestinians.Hamas rejects peace moves with Israel.The Jewish state's forces have been rounding up Palestinians in almost nightly raids on the West Bank and Gaza. Forty-two were detained on Monday, the Israeli army said.One of those seized was Khaled Barbari. His family said he was taken by Israeli troops as he traveled to the homecoming celebration for his brother, Ahmad, who was freed on Monday.They simply made an exchange. They released Ahmad and arrested Khaled, said Mahmoud Barbari, another brother. Khaled Bardari's relative said he had no known militant affiliations.
The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the case.
Families of prisoners who gathered at the Beitunia checkpoint outside Ramallah said they were happy to see their loved ones return, but noted most of the freed inmates had only a few months left to serve behind bars.My happiness is not complete because I want to see all prisoners released and see all mothers happy like I am today,said Bahiyeh Alayan, whose son Hamdallah was released after serving a 5-year term. The issue of prisoners is highly emotive for Palestinians, who see their brethren held in Israeli jails as fighters against foreign occupation. Many Israelis fear that such amnesties encourage Palestinian militants to strike again. (Additional reporting by Avida Landau in Jerusalem, and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Writing by Dan Williams and Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Catherine Evans)
Vladimir Putin keeps Russia guessing on future
By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow 7:50pm GMT 03/12/2007
Russians are anxiously awaiting word on their leader's future as Vladimir Putin prepares to use his overwhelming victory in a flawed parliamentary election to retain power beyond his official retirement date next year. But after years of waiting, the Russian people could discover within a fortnight what his official job description will be after next March's presidential elections - a contest in which Mr Putin is currently constitutionally forbidden from participating. On December 17, the ruling United Russia party meets to choose its presidential candidate. With its crushing victory in Sunday's parliamentary election now confirmed, the party could argue that it has the popular mandate to select Mr Putin - a move that would require either a referendum or the discovery of a constitutional loophole to be put into effect. If it chooses a pliant alternative candidate, Mr Putin is instead likely to emerge as prime minister or leader of the party, positions that could be imbued with new powers now that United Russia has a constitutional majority in a parliament that lacks even a single genuine opposition deputy. Whatever option is put into place, Mr Putin's international credibility has suffered a serious buffeting, after the small number of foreign observers that were allowed to monitor the parliamentary election condemned it as seriously flawed. United Russia won over 70 per cent of the seats in the State Duma but observers said the election was characterised by intimidation and numerous violations and the West united to condemn the conduct of the poll. The Foreign Office called on the Kremlin to investigate electoral regularities while the German government took the unprecedented step of declaring that Russia was not a democracy. These were not free and fair elections, they were not democratic elections, government spokesman Thomas Steg told reporters.
Russia was no democracy and is no democracy.
Despite the international storm that it is likely to cause, analysts say that there are growing signs Mr Putin could defy the West - who he recently told to keep its snotty noses out of Russian affairs - by running for a third term. As the parliamentary campaign reached its crescendo last month, apparently spontaneous demonstrations erupted across the country calling for Mr Putin to stay on as president. By mid-November it was revealed that the demonstrations were being spearheaded by a movement that simply called itself Za Putina or For Putin. Its leaders insisted that the organisation was nothing more than a grassroots initiative created to express the spontaneous love of the Russian people for their president. But analysts said the movement showed all the hallmarks of being a Kremlin concoction and predicted it would be used as a vehicle to allow Mr Putin to remain as president. They also claimed that Za Putina had been deliberately modelled on Mao Tse Tung's Red Guards movement during the Cultural Revolution and would be used to make denunciations against ruling party deputies considered disloyal to the president. The organisation has already created an online petition and is planning to deliver 30 lorries with 30 million signatures to the Kremlin, pleading with the president to stay on. Everything is now ready for a referendum, said Yevgeny Kiselyov, a leading political commentator. Now this movement is being used to reinforce the notion of Putin the father, Putin the son and Putin the Holy Spirit.
PUTINS PARTY LEADS (REAL SURPRISE)
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.
Another earthquake jolts, Jordan, Israel and West Bank
Posted: 02-12-2007 , 12:52 GMT
A minor earthquake was felt in Israel, Jordan and the West Bank on Sunday, the fourth in two weeks, without causing injuries or damage, officials said. None of the recent quakes have caused injuries or damage. Sunday's earthquake measured 4.0 on the Richter scale and was felt mostly in Jerusalem, Jericho and near the Dead Sea, said Israel's geophysics institute, according to AFP. Jordan's Natural Resources Authority reported a quake measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale north of the Dead Sea. NRA spokesman Darwish Habbes said the earthquake occurred at 9:40 am.
2007 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
Fourth quake in 2 weeks shakes Israel
Earthquake measuring 4.0 on the Richter Scale felt in Dead Sea, Jerusalem and Coastal Plain areas Sunday morning; no injuries or damage reported Ynet reporters Published: 12.02.07, 10:14 / Israel News
A mild earthquake was felt throughout Israel Sunday morning, the fourth tremor to be registered in the country in the last two weeks.Reports of the quake poured in from the Dead Sea, Jerusalem and the Coastal Plain areas. Head of the Geophysical Institute of Israel Rami Hopshteter reported that the quake measured 4.0 on the Richter Scale, and that the quake's epicenter was, yet again, the Dead Sea. Last Saturday, a 4.1 magnitude earthquake was felt throughout the country. No injuries or damage were reported. According to reports, the earthquake hit around 00:19 am, originating in Israel's plains area. Earlier in the week, two earthquakes, measuring 3 and 4.2 on the Richter scale, were felt throughout Israel, also causing no damage or injuries. Hopshteter explained that the quake is not surprising as there is a lot of activity in the Dead Sea area… However, it is impossible to draw any clear conclusions about the future from this quake. Israel has been preparing for a possible large-scale earthquake for the past several years now, but we can always do more to improve our preparedness.
Asia-Pacific News
Moderate earthquake jolts western coast of Indonesia's Java
Dec 2, 2007, 1:24 GMT
Jakarta - A 6.0-magnitude earthquake jolted the western coast of Indonesia's Java island Sunday morning, but there were no immediate reports of injury or property damage, seismologists said. The quake struck the Ujung Kulon National Park area on the western tip of Java at about 6:01 am (2301 GMT Saturday), with its epicentre in the Indian Ocean about 75-kilometres south-east of Ujung Kulon, Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said. It occurred about 32-kilometres beneath the seabed. The agency said the quake, the latest in a series to hit Indonesia in recent days, has no potential of triggering a tsunami. Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago nation, is prone to earthquakes because the country sits atop the Pacific 'Ring of Fire,' where continental plates collide, making earthquakes and volcanic eruptions frequent. 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
NUCLEAR WEAPONS WILL BE USED.
ISAIAH 66:15-18
15 For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
17 They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD.
18 For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.
ISAIAH 26:21
21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.(WW3,1/2 earths population die).
ISAIAH 13:6-13 KJV
6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:(FROM FRIGHT)
8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
ISAIAH 24:17-23 KJV
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.
2 TIMOTHY 3:1
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.
JOEL 2:20,30
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
REVELATION 9:18
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
LUKE 17:34-37
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).
MATTHEW 24:37-51
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49 And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
December 2, 2007
Israelis hit Syrian ‘nuclear bomb plant’
Uzi Mahnaimi in Tel Aviv and Michael Sheridan in Seoul
ISRAEL’S top-secret air raid on Syria in September destroyed a bomb factory assembling warheads fuelled by North Korean plutonium, a leading Israeli nuclear expert has told The Sunday Times. Professor Uzi Even of Tel Aviv University was one of the founders of the Israeli nuclear reactor at Dimona, the source of the Jewish state’s undeclared nuclear arsenal. I suspect that it was a plant for processing plutonium, namely, a factory for assembling the bomb, he said. I think the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] transferred to Syria weapons-grade plutonium in raw form, that is nuggets of easily transported metal in protective cans. I think the shaping and casting of the plutonium was supposed to be in Syria.All governments concerned - even the regime in Damascus - have tried to maintain complete secrecy about the raid.
Israeli raid hit Syrian nuclear reactor
They apparently fear that forcing a confrontation on the issue could spark a war between Israel and Syria, end the Middle East peace talks and wreck America’s extremely complex negotiations to disarm North Korea of its nuclear weapons. The political stakes could hardly be higher. Plutonium is the element which fuelled the American atomic bomb that destroyed the Japanese city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Critics in the United States say proof that North Korea supplied such nuclear weapons material to Syria, a state technically at war with Israel, would shatter congressional confidence in the Bush administration’s diplomatic policy. From beneath the veil of military censorship, western commentators have formed a consensus that the target was a nuclear reactor under construction. But Even said that purely from scientific observation, he had reached a different conclusion - that it was a nuclear bomb factory, posing a more immediate danger to Israel. He said that satellite photos of the site, taken before the Israeli strike on September 6, showed no sign of the cooling towers and chimneys characteristic of nuclear reactors. Syria’s haste after the attack to bury the site under tons of soil suggested that hundreds of square yards were contaminated and there were fears of radiation, the professor added. Since then the Syrians have sealed up the location, levelled the site and diverted curious journalists to a place that had not been attacked by Israel.
The professor’s theory fits with authoritative technical evidence about North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme. The North Koreans are able to produce weapons-grade plutonium, which is electro-refined, alloyed and cast into shapes ready to be machined to fit into a warhead, according to a team of distinguished American nuclear weapons scientists who visited the country’s laboratories.
One of those scientists, Siegfried Hecker, was allowed to hold a sample and was told that it was “good bomb grade plutonium, because it had a very low content of plutonium240, the isotope which reduces the overall quality of the material. Assembly of a Nagasaki-type bomb involves mating a plutonium core with a uranium wrap and inserting a small quantity of polonium and beryllium to initiate the chain reaction. Plutonium is highly dangerous material, explained the Israeli professor. It is easily oxidised in air unless protective measures are taken. The oxide is easily dispersed as dust in air when machining plutonium to create the pit [a hollow sphere in many nuclear weapons] and thus can be inhaled, causing a fatality in minute quantities. Plutonium pellets are handled and machined exclusively in a large array of glove boxes, to protect the technicians and their environment. That is why you need a relatively large containment building and cannot assemble a nuclear weapon in your garage - unless you are suicidal of course.The debris from a destructive raid on a weapons-building facility could therefore contain toxic radioactive waste. But the main danger for Syria would be the telltale exposure of the elements to surveillance and detection by America. This would explain the cover-up at the site. North Korea, for its part, has more than enough plutonium to sell some of its stock to Syria. The same team of visiting US scientists estimated that by late 2006 the nation had made 40-50kg (88-100lb) of the material. Between six and eight kilograms are needed for a weapon. For the US and its allies the Syrian connection raises the deeply worrying possibility that North Korea has succeeded in building what the US scientists called a sophisticated design with smaller dimensions and mass so as to fit onto a . . . medium-range missile. That puzzle was complicated when North Korea announced that it had tested its first nuclear bomb on October 9 last year. The yield of the blast was small - less than a 20th of the Nagasaki bomb - suggesting to some scientists that the device was sophisticated and small while others believed the North Koreans had simply not made a very good bomb. Professor Even believes the North Koreans have not yet perfected small warheads. The mechanical dimensioning at this stage is extremely demanding (less than 0.01mm). So is the casting of the explosives around the plutonium core and the initiation of the implosion, he said.
The question is under urgent study by nations who might one day be targets of a North Korean device sold to Syria or Iran. Iran is known to have financed missile and weapons deals between North Korea and Syria, causing concern to Israel and the US. One day after the Israeli attack, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, sent his nephew with a personal letter to Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian leader. The professor’s theory of a clear and present danger that Damascus would get the bomb may be the only credible explanation why Israel carried out a military strike against Syria and risked an all-out conflict. Indeed on September 6 Israel was ready for war with Syria. Israeli sources said its military chiefs assumed Syria would launch a retaliatory attack, but no reprisal came. Meanwhile, President Bush has authorised his chief negotiator, Christopher Hill, to go on talking to North Korea in the search for a peaceful solution. Hill will visit Pyongyang this week to pursue negotiations after international technicians got to work on disabling the reactor at Yongbyon, the source of North Korea’s plutonium. The North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il is supposed to make a full declaration of his nuclear programmes by December 31. The US says that must include information on his weapons deals with Syria and Iran.
JERUSALEM DIVIDED
ZECHARIAH 12:1-5 King James Bible
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.
4 In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.
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 14:1-9 King James Bible
1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.
Sunday, December 02, 2007 by Staff Writer
Olmert gave us the Temple Mount, say Palestinians
A senior Palestinian negotiator says Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert lied last week when he said Israel's control of Jerusalem's Temple Mount is not up for negotiation. Speaking to WorldNetDaily, the Palestinian official revealed that Olmert has already all but signed away the holy site. What Olmert said (regarding the Mount) is absolutely false. I think he's not yet ready to tell the Israeli public and is waiting for the right time, said the negotiator. We had intense debates on many topics, which remain open and unsettled, but the Harem Al-Sharif (Temple Mount) is not a sticking point. The Israelis didn't argue with us.According to the deal Olmert reportedly agreed to on the Temple Mount, the site would be surrendered to joint control by Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.
Olmert: Annapolis Declaration Doesn't Mean Specific Timeline by Hana Levi Julian DEC 2,07
(IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert tried to convince cabinet ministers Sunday morning that his joint statement with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Annapolis last Tuesday does not mean Israel would have to meet a specific deadline for a final agreement.Olmert told the cabinet that the statement, which calls for final status talks to be completed by the end of 2008, was not a binding commitment to a certain timetable. He claimed that the government would be able to review the statement, adding that the negotiations would be conducted according to the American Road Map plan, which he said would protect Israel's security interests.A number of ministers were vocal in their efforts to point out that Olmert's assurances were in direct contradiction to the joint declaration he signed last week with Abbas and U.S. President George W. Bush.
Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman doubted Abbas's ability to follow through on his commitments, saying, Abu Mazen [Abbas's nom de guerre - ed.] represents the Palestinians like I represent the Norwegians. The chances that Abbas can retake control of Gaza are very slim, he said. Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, a member of Olmert's Kadima party, pointed out that the Prime Minister had agreed to reach a final agreement with Abbas by 2008, leaving them with less time for serious negotiations than had been set aside for the first stage of the Roadmap. Even if negotiations begin soon, Dichter said, Israel cannot discuss core issues such as the status of Jerusalem or the PA's demand for Israel to accept millions of Arab refugees as citizens until the PA fulfills its Roadmap obligations, particularly the obligation to fight terrorism. This, however, appears to stand in opposition to Olmert's agreement to begin final-status negotiations as early as this month.The joint declaration, read at the conference by U.S. President Bush, included a statement saying, In furtherance of the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security, we agree to immediately launch good-faith bilateral in order to conclude a peace treaty resolving all outstanding issues, including all core issues without exception, as specified in previous agreements. We agree to engage in vigorous, ongoing and continuous negotiations and shall make every effort to conclude an agreement before the end of 2008. The declaration throws into overdrive the 2003 Roadmap process that withered and died within days of the American attempt to create order out of terrorism and chaos.
The Real Roadmap Plan, Uncut Version
The text released by the U.S. State Department on April 30, 2003, required Phase I - entitled Ending Terror And Violence, Normalizing Palestinian Life, and Building Palestinian Institutions - to be fulfilled within the first month. The agreement states: In Phase I, the Palestinians immediately undertake an unconditional cessation of violence according to the steps outlined below; such action should be accompanied by supportive measures undertaken by Israel…. By the end of that initial process, according to the document, Palestinian leadership issues an unequivocal statement reiterating Israel’s right to exist in peace and security and calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to end armed activity and all acts of violence against Israelis anywhere. All official Palestinian institutions end incitement against Israel.Discussions on provisional borders for a PA state, in Phase II, were not to begin until Phase I had been successfully implemented. Phase III, which includes final status talks rested upon successful completion of the tasks in Phase II.Included in the document was a section in Phase I outlining an agreement that Arab states cut off public and private funding and all other forms of support for groups supporting and engaging in violence and terror, among other requirements.
MUSLIM NATIONS
EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
EZEKIEL 39:1-8
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.
JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
Vladimir Putin's party leads Russian polls
By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow
Last Updated: 7:03pm GMT 02/12/2007
President Vladimir Putin’s ruling party has swept towards an overwhelming victory in a heavily manipulated parliamentary election dismissed by critics as a sham. Stop Vladimir Putin by spoiling vote, say rivals.Exit polls showing more than 60 per cent of the vote point to a landslide for Mr Putin’s United Russia party, triggering fresh speculation that a referendum could be called to change the constitution and allow him to remain in office after his second and final term expires next May. Few doubt that the widely anticipated result will be used as a pretext to justify Mr Putin retaining power in some capacity.Whether he plans to do so as president, prime minister or from some other post is, however, only likely to become apparent later this month.Mr Putin was as enigmatic as ever as he cast his ballot at a Moscow polling station where he largely restricted his comments to pleasantries.
Fearing international opprobrium, Mr Putin has always pledged to respect the constitution by not seeking a third term.But commentators suggest that a recent series of ostensibly spontaneous demonstrations beseeching Mr Putin to stay on indicate that the president may have changed his mind.With so much hinging on the result, critics slammed the vote as the most dishonest in Russia’s post Soviet history, outstripping even Boris Yeltsin’s highly questionable re-election in 1996.If under Yeltsin there were two ways to get votes, intimidation and ballot fixing, now they have thought up at least 15 ways to entrap and betray voters, said the Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov.While the election retained an illusion of competition, critics condemned it as an exercise in phantom democracy. Although voters theoretically had a choice of 11 parties on their ballot papers, the only ones with a chance of making it into Russia’s notoriously feckless Duma are either creations of the Kremlin or broadly loyal to it.Even the Communist Party, likely to take second place, is reluctant to criticise Mr Putin openly even if it is allowed to oppose the government on peripheral matters.
Two small pro-western parties, Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces were allowed to participate - but only, critics say, because their failure to unite meant they have no chance of crossing the seven per cent threshold needed to gain representation in the Duma.Mr Putin’s most serious opponents, an unlikely coalition of pro-western liberals and radical nationalists known as The Other Russia, were prevented from standing. Its leader, the ex-chess champion Garry Kasparov, was jailed for five days last weekend after being found guilty of participating in an unlawful opposition protest which was violently broken up by police.They are not just rigging the vote, they are raping the whole electoral system, Mr Kasparov said after casting a deliberately spoiled ballot. These elections are a reminder of Soviet elections when there was no choice.While the elections will lack international legitimacy after Europe’s main observer body boycotted the poll, many Russians appeared happy to endorse the president - who they credit with bringing the country chaotic decade in the 1990s - by supporting United Russia.Life has improved for both me and my circle of friends, said Yelena Parinova, an economist, as she left a polling station. Instead of drinking vodka we now drink something healthier because we have something to live for now. For the first time we have a government we can trust.Affection for Mr Putin is widespread, thanks both to Russia’s energy driven economic boom and the heavy censorship of much of the media.
Needing to double United Russia’s share of the vote from the 35 per cent it received in 2003 to justify the president’s power grab, the election campaign has been almost laughably one-sided. State television has lavished positive coverage on the party, whose billboards has been almost omnipresent across Russia’s 11 time zones. Some university academics, civil servants and students claim to have been threatened with dismissal or expulsion if they do not vote for United Russia, while opposition protests have been violently broken up.Many Russians believe the loss of freedom has been an acceptable price to pay for the stability they have enjoyed in the past few years - but not everyone agrees.Stability isn’t really stability if basic human rights are violated, said Georgy Tskhadadze, a 23-year-old risk management analyst, after casting his vote for the Union of Right Forces.I don’t want to live in a country where repression, the absence of freedom of speech and political prisoners are again the norm.
Temple Institute Announces: High Priest's Crown is Ready!
by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) The Temple Institute in Jerusalem announces the completion of the Tzitz, the High Priest's headplate - now ready for use in the Holy Temple.The tzitz is made of pure gold, was fashioned over the course of a more than a year by the craftsmen of the Temple Institute, and is ready to be worn by the High Priest in the rebuilt Holy Temple in Jerusalem.The words Holy for G-d are engraved on the headplate, in accordance with Exodus 28:36.A short video clip presenting the tzitz can be viewed here. Rabbi Chaim Richman, International Director of the Temple Institute, explained to Arutz-7 that until it can actually be used, the tzitz will be on view in the Institute's permanent exhibition display, together with other vessels and priestly garments fashioned for use in the Holy Temple by the Institute.
Legal Aspects: Impurity and Hekdesh
Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, Director of the Institute, explained to Arutz-7 some of the Halakhic [Jewish legal] aspects of the fashioning of the vessels for the Temple. For one thing, he said, they are made in impurity - for now we are impure, and will remain impure until we are able to have a Red Heifer whose ashes can be used in the Torah-prescribed purification ceremony. If no Red Heifer is available, then the High Priest must even serve in the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur in a state of impurity.Asked whether the fact that the vessels are dedicated for the Temple does not render them hekdesh (consecrated) and therefore forbidden for any other use, Rabbi Ariel explained, There are two stages. First of all, we make it very clear to the donors and to the craftsmen that the ultimate purpose of these vessels is not to be used for exhibitions or the like, but rather for the fulfillment of Torah commandments in the Holy Temple. They must know this in advance. However, to gain the actual status of hekdesh, we similarly make it clear that this does not happen until the vessel is actually brought in to the Temple Mount for use in the Temple. This means that someone can try on and measure the headplate, for example, without worrying that he is benefiting in any way from something that has been consecrated to the Temple.
Menorah Moves Closer to Temple Mount
Rabbi Richman noted that in less than two weeks from now, on Rosh Chodesh Tevet, the famous Menorah (candelabrum) - suitable for use in the Holy Temple, familiar to visitors to the Cardo section of the Old City of Jerusalem - will be relocated to the landing of the wide staircase that leads down from the Jewish Quarter to the Western Wall. It will be protected inside the same type of glass structure that now houses it.The new tzitz is an improvement on one made several years ago, in that it has a backpiece, in accordance with some commentators and the account of Josephus. In addition, it has a locking mechansim so that it will not slip off the Priest's head, and can be adjusted to fit heads of different sizes. The old one will be preserved, of course as a spare, in keeping with the Mishnaic account that several models of various vessels were kept in the Temple, in case the need arose to replace one.Asked what project they're working on at present, Rabbi Richman said, We have begun work on 120 sets of garments for 'regular' priests, not the High Priest. This involves special thread from India, etc. In addition, we have begun work on architectural blueprints for the Third Temple, including cost projection, modern supplies, electricity, plumbing, computers, etc.
Bringing G-d Into Our World
At present, Rabbi Richman explained, people are in despair, and wonder if we're not dreaming futilely while around us our leaders are planning to give the country away. We say to them: It appears that those who went to Annapolis are the dreamers, thinking that their efforts to make peace will succeed, or that the public is with them in their efforts to give away our Jerusalem, our Temple Mount, and other national historic assets.We are now approaching the holiday of Chanukah, Rabbi Richman continued, which is the holiday that commemorates the re-dedication of the Holy Temple. We're not just building beautiful vessels; we're interested in granting G-d the dwelling place that He wants in this world; the Temple is not merely a building, but a way of bringing G-d into our lives in a very real way. And that is what we aim to do. This tzitz is G-d's Chanukah present to us, and our Chanukah gift to the Jewish People.
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.
Another earthquake jolts, Jordan, Israel and West Bank
Posted: 02-12-2007 , 12:52 GMT
A minor earthquake was felt in Israel, Jordan and the West Bank on Sunday, the fourth in two weeks, without causing injuries or damage, officials said. None of the recent quakes have caused injuries or damage. Sunday's earthquake measured 4.0 on the Richter scale and was felt mostly in Jerusalem, Jericho and near the Dead Sea, said Israel's geophysics institute, according to AFP. Jordan's Natural Resources Authority reported a quake measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale north of the Dead Sea. NRA spokesman Darwish Habbes said the earthquake occurred at 9:40 am.
2007 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
Fourth quake in 2 weeks shakes Israel
Earthquake measuring 4.0 on the Richter Scale felt in Dead Sea, Jerusalem and Coastal Plain areas Sunday morning; no injuries or damage reported Ynet reporters Published: 12.02.07, 10:14 / Israel News
A mild earthquake was felt throughout Israel Sunday morning, the fourth tremor to be registered in the country in the last two weeks.Reports of the quake poured in from the Dead Sea, Jerusalem and the Coastal Plain areas. Head of the Geophysical Institute of Israel Rami Hopshteter reported that the quake measured 4.0 on the Richter Scale, and that the quake's epicenter was, yet again, the Dead Sea. Last Saturday, a 4.1 magnitude earthquake was felt throughout the country. No injuries or damage were reported. According to reports, the earthquake hit around 00:19 am, originating in Israel's plains area. Earlier in the week, two earthquakes, measuring 3 and 4.2 on the Richter scale, were felt throughout Israel, also causing no damage or injuries. Hopshteter explained that the quake is not surprising as there is a lot of activity in the Dead Sea area… However, it is impossible to draw any clear conclusions about the future from this quake. Israel has been preparing for a possible large-scale earthquake for the past several years now, but we can always do more to improve our preparedness.
Asia-Pacific News
Moderate earthquake jolts western coast of Indonesia's Java
Dec 2, 2007, 1:24 GMT
Jakarta - A 6.0-magnitude earthquake jolted the western coast of Indonesia's Java island Sunday morning, but there were no immediate reports of injury or property damage, seismologists said. The quake struck the Ujung Kulon National Park area on the western tip of Java at about 6:01 am (2301 GMT Saturday), with its epicentre in the Indian Ocean about 75-kilometres south-east of Ujung Kulon, Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said. It occurred about 32-kilometres beneath the seabed. The agency said the quake, the latest in a series to hit Indonesia in recent days, has no potential of triggering a tsunami. Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago nation, is prone to earthquakes because the country sits atop the Pacific 'Ring of Fire,' where continental plates collide, making earthquakes and volcanic eruptions frequent. 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
NUCLEAR WEAPONS WILL BE USED.
ISAIAH 66:15-18
15 For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
17 They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD.
18 For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.
ISAIAH 26:21
21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.(WW3,1/2 earths population die).
ISAIAH 13:6-13 KJV
6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:(FROM FRIGHT)
8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
ISAIAH 24:17-23 KJV
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.
2 TIMOTHY 3:1
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.
JOEL 2:20,30
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
REVELATION 9:18
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
LUKE 17:34-37
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).
MATTHEW 24:37-51
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49 And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
December 2, 2007
Israelis hit Syrian ‘nuclear bomb plant’
Uzi Mahnaimi in Tel Aviv and Michael Sheridan in Seoul
ISRAEL’S top-secret air raid on Syria in September destroyed a bomb factory assembling warheads fuelled by North Korean plutonium, a leading Israeli nuclear expert has told The Sunday Times. Professor Uzi Even of Tel Aviv University was one of the founders of the Israeli nuclear reactor at Dimona, the source of the Jewish state’s undeclared nuclear arsenal. I suspect that it was a plant for processing plutonium, namely, a factory for assembling the bomb, he said. I think the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] transferred to Syria weapons-grade plutonium in raw form, that is nuggets of easily transported metal in protective cans. I think the shaping and casting of the plutonium was supposed to be in Syria.All governments concerned - even the regime in Damascus - have tried to maintain complete secrecy about the raid.
Israeli raid hit Syrian nuclear reactor
They apparently fear that forcing a confrontation on the issue could spark a war between Israel and Syria, end the Middle East peace talks and wreck America’s extremely complex negotiations to disarm North Korea of its nuclear weapons. The political stakes could hardly be higher. Plutonium is the element which fuelled the American atomic bomb that destroyed the Japanese city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Critics in the United States say proof that North Korea supplied such nuclear weapons material to Syria, a state technically at war with Israel, would shatter congressional confidence in the Bush administration’s diplomatic policy. From beneath the veil of military censorship, western commentators have formed a consensus that the target was a nuclear reactor under construction. But Even said that purely from scientific observation, he had reached a different conclusion - that it was a nuclear bomb factory, posing a more immediate danger to Israel. He said that satellite photos of the site, taken before the Israeli strike on September 6, showed no sign of the cooling towers and chimneys characteristic of nuclear reactors. Syria’s haste after the attack to bury the site under tons of soil suggested that hundreds of square yards were contaminated and there were fears of radiation, the professor added. Since then the Syrians have sealed up the location, levelled the site and diverted curious journalists to a place that had not been attacked by Israel.
The professor’s theory fits with authoritative technical evidence about North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme. The North Koreans are able to produce weapons-grade plutonium, which is electro-refined, alloyed and cast into shapes ready to be machined to fit into a warhead, according to a team of distinguished American nuclear weapons scientists who visited the country’s laboratories.
One of those scientists, Siegfried Hecker, was allowed to hold a sample and was told that it was “good bomb grade plutonium, because it had a very low content of plutonium240, the isotope which reduces the overall quality of the material. Assembly of a Nagasaki-type bomb involves mating a plutonium core with a uranium wrap and inserting a small quantity of polonium and beryllium to initiate the chain reaction. Plutonium is highly dangerous material, explained the Israeli professor. It is easily oxidised in air unless protective measures are taken. The oxide is easily dispersed as dust in air when machining plutonium to create the pit [a hollow sphere in many nuclear weapons] and thus can be inhaled, causing a fatality in minute quantities. Plutonium pellets are handled and machined exclusively in a large array of glove boxes, to protect the technicians and their environment. That is why you need a relatively large containment building and cannot assemble a nuclear weapon in your garage - unless you are suicidal of course.The debris from a destructive raid on a weapons-building facility could therefore contain toxic radioactive waste. But the main danger for Syria would be the telltale exposure of the elements to surveillance and detection by America. This would explain the cover-up at the site. North Korea, for its part, has more than enough plutonium to sell some of its stock to Syria. The same team of visiting US scientists estimated that by late 2006 the nation had made 40-50kg (88-100lb) of the material. Between six and eight kilograms are needed for a weapon. For the US and its allies the Syrian connection raises the deeply worrying possibility that North Korea has succeeded in building what the US scientists called a sophisticated design with smaller dimensions and mass so as to fit onto a . . . medium-range missile. That puzzle was complicated when North Korea announced that it had tested its first nuclear bomb on October 9 last year. The yield of the blast was small - less than a 20th of the Nagasaki bomb - suggesting to some scientists that the device was sophisticated and small while others believed the North Koreans had simply not made a very good bomb. Professor Even believes the North Koreans have not yet perfected small warheads. The mechanical dimensioning at this stage is extremely demanding (less than 0.01mm). So is the casting of the explosives around the plutonium core and the initiation of the implosion, he said.
The question is under urgent study by nations who might one day be targets of a North Korean device sold to Syria or Iran. Iran is known to have financed missile and weapons deals between North Korea and Syria, causing concern to Israel and the US. One day after the Israeli attack, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, sent his nephew with a personal letter to Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian leader. The professor’s theory of a clear and present danger that Damascus would get the bomb may be the only credible explanation why Israel carried out a military strike against Syria and risked an all-out conflict. Indeed on September 6 Israel was ready for war with Syria. Israeli sources said its military chiefs assumed Syria would launch a retaliatory attack, but no reprisal came. Meanwhile, President Bush has authorised his chief negotiator, Christopher Hill, to go on talking to North Korea in the search for a peaceful solution. Hill will visit Pyongyang this week to pursue negotiations after international technicians got to work on disabling the reactor at Yongbyon, the source of North Korea’s plutonium. The North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il is supposed to make a full declaration of his nuclear programmes by December 31. The US says that must include information on his weapons deals with Syria and Iran.
JERUSALEM DIVIDED
ZECHARIAH 12:1-5 King James Bible
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.
4 In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.
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 14:1-9 King James Bible
1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.
Sunday, December 02, 2007 by Staff Writer
Olmert gave us the Temple Mount, say Palestinians
A senior Palestinian negotiator says Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert lied last week when he said Israel's control of Jerusalem's Temple Mount is not up for negotiation. Speaking to WorldNetDaily, the Palestinian official revealed that Olmert has already all but signed away the holy site. What Olmert said (regarding the Mount) is absolutely false. I think he's not yet ready to tell the Israeli public and is waiting for the right time, said the negotiator. We had intense debates on many topics, which remain open and unsettled, but the Harem Al-Sharif (Temple Mount) is not a sticking point. The Israelis didn't argue with us.According to the deal Olmert reportedly agreed to on the Temple Mount, the site would be surrendered to joint control by Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.
Olmert: Annapolis Declaration Doesn't Mean Specific Timeline by Hana Levi Julian DEC 2,07
(IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert tried to convince cabinet ministers Sunday morning that his joint statement with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Annapolis last Tuesday does not mean Israel would have to meet a specific deadline for a final agreement.Olmert told the cabinet that the statement, which calls for final status talks to be completed by the end of 2008, was not a binding commitment to a certain timetable. He claimed that the government would be able to review the statement, adding that the negotiations would be conducted according to the American Road Map plan, which he said would protect Israel's security interests.A number of ministers were vocal in their efforts to point out that Olmert's assurances were in direct contradiction to the joint declaration he signed last week with Abbas and U.S. President George W. Bush.
Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman doubted Abbas's ability to follow through on his commitments, saying, Abu Mazen [Abbas's nom de guerre - ed.] represents the Palestinians like I represent the Norwegians. The chances that Abbas can retake control of Gaza are very slim, he said. Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, a member of Olmert's Kadima party, pointed out that the Prime Minister had agreed to reach a final agreement with Abbas by 2008, leaving them with less time for serious negotiations than had been set aside for the first stage of the Roadmap. Even if negotiations begin soon, Dichter said, Israel cannot discuss core issues such as the status of Jerusalem or the PA's demand for Israel to accept millions of Arab refugees as citizens until the PA fulfills its Roadmap obligations, particularly the obligation to fight terrorism. This, however, appears to stand in opposition to Olmert's agreement to begin final-status negotiations as early as this month.The joint declaration, read at the conference by U.S. President Bush, included a statement saying, In furtherance of the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security, we agree to immediately launch good-faith bilateral in order to conclude a peace treaty resolving all outstanding issues, including all core issues without exception, as specified in previous agreements. We agree to engage in vigorous, ongoing and continuous negotiations and shall make every effort to conclude an agreement before the end of 2008. The declaration throws into overdrive the 2003 Roadmap process that withered and died within days of the American attempt to create order out of terrorism and chaos.
The Real Roadmap Plan, Uncut Version
The text released by the U.S. State Department on April 30, 2003, required Phase I - entitled Ending Terror And Violence, Normalizing Palestinian Life, and Building Palestinian Institutions - to be fulfilled within the first month. The agreement states: In Phase I, the Palestinians immediately undertake an unconditional cessation of violence according to the steps outlined below; such action should be accompanied by supportive measures undertaken by Israel…. By the end of that initial process, according to the document, Palestinian leadership issues an unequivocal statement reiterating Israel’s right to exist in peace and security and calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to end armed activity and all acts of violence against Israelis anywhere. All official Palestinian institutions end incitement against Israel.Discussions on provisional borders for a PA state, in Phase II, were not to begin until Phase I had been successfully implemented. Phase III, which includes final status talks rested upon successful completion of the tasks in Phase II.Included in the document was a section in Phase I outlining an agreement that Arab states cut off public and private funding and all other forms of support for groups supporting and engaging in violence and terror, among other requirements.
MUSLIM NATIONS
EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
EZEKIEL 39:1-8
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.
JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
Vladimir Putin's party leads Russian polls
By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow
Last Updated: 7:03pm GMT 02/12/2007
President Vladimir Putin’s ruling party has swept towards an overwhelming victory in a heavily manipulated parliamentary election dismissed by critics as a sham. Stop Vladimir Putin by spoiling vote, say rivals.Exit polls showing more than 60 per cent of the vote point to a landslide for Mr Putin’s United Russia party, triggering fresh speculation that a referendum could be called to change the constitution and allow him to remain in office after his second and final term expires next May. Few doubt that the widely anticipated result will be used as a pretext to justify Mr Putin retaining power in some capacity.Whether he plans to do so as president, prime minister or from some other post is, however, only likely to become apparent later this month.Mr Putin was as enigmatic as ever as he cast his ballot at a Moscow polling station where he largely restricted his comments to pleasantries.
Fearing international opprobrium, Mr Putin has always pledged to respect the constitution by not seeking a third term.But commentators suggest that a recent series of ostensibly spontaneous demonstrations beseeching Mr Putin to stay on indicate that the president may have changed his mind.With so much hinging on the result, critics slammed the vote as the most dishonest in Russia’s post Soviet history, outstripping even Boris Yeltsin’s highly questionable re-election in 1996.If under Yeltsin there were two ways to get votes, intimidation and ballot fixing, now they have thought up at least 15 ways to entrap and betray voters, said the Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov.While the election retained an illusion of competition, critics condemned it as an exercise in phantom democracy. Although voters theoretically had a choice of 11 parties on their ballot papers, the only ones with a chance of making it into Russia’s notoriously feckless Duma are either creations of the Kremlin or broadly loyal to it.Even the Communist Party, likely to take second place, is reluctant to criticise Mr Putin openly even if it is allowed to oppose the government on peripheral matters.
Two small pro-western parties, Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces were allowed to participate - but only, critics say, because their failure to unite meant they have no chance of crossing the seven per cent threshold needed to gain representation in the Duma.Mr Putin’s most serious opponents, an unlikely coalition of pro-western liberals and radical nationalists known as The Other Russia, were prevented from standing. Its leader, the ex-chess champion Garry Kasparov, was jailed for five days last weekend after being found guilty of participating in an unlawful opposition protest which was violently broken up by police.They are not just rigging the vote, they are raping the whole electoral system, Mr Kasparov said after casting a deliberately spoiled ballot. These elections are a reminder of Soviet elections when there was no choice.While the elections will lack international legitimacy after Europe’s main observer body boycotted the poll, many Russians appeared happy to endorse the president - who they credit with bringing the country chaotic decade in the 1990s - by supporting United Russia.Life has improved for both me and my circle of friends, said Yelena Parinova, an economist, as she left a polling station. Instead of drinking vodka we now drink something healthier because we have something to live for now. For the first time we have a government we can trust.Affection for Mr Putin is widespread, thanks both to Russia’s energy driven economic boom and the heavy censorship of much of the media.
Needing to double United Russia’s share of the vote from the 35 per cent it received in 2003 to justify the president’s power grab, the election campaign has been almost laughably one-sided. State television has lavished positive coverage on the party, whose billboards has been almost omnipresent across Russia’s 11 time zones. Some university academics, civil servants and students claim to have been threatened with dismissal or expulsion if they do not vote for United Russia, while opposition protests have been violently broken up.Many Russians believe the loss of freedom has been an acceptable price to pay for the stability they have enjoyed in the past few years - but not everyone agrees.Stability isn’t really stability if basic human rights are violated, said Georgy Tskhadadze, a 23-year-old risk management analyst, after casting his vote for the Union of Right Forces.I don’t want to live in a country where repression, the absence of freedom of speech and political prisoners are again the norm.
Temple Institute Announces: High Priest's Crown is Ready!
by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) The Temple Institute in Jerusalem announces the completion of the Tzitz, the High Priest's headplate - now ready for use in the Holy Temple.The tzitz is made of pure gold, was fashioned over the course of a more than a year by the craftsmen of the Temple Institute, and is ready to be worn by the High Priest in the rebuilt Holy Temple in Jerusalem.The words Holy for G-d are engraved on the headplate, in accordance with Exodus 28:36.A short video clip presenting the tzitz can be viewed here. Rabbi Chaim Richman, International Director of the Temple Institute, explained to Arutz-7 that until it can actually be used, the tzitz will be on view in the Institute's permanent exhibition display, together with other vessels and priestly garments fashioned for use in the Holy Temple by the Institute.
Legal Aspects: Impurity and Hekdesh
Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, Director of the Institute, explained to Arutz-7 some of the Halakhic [Jewish legal] aspects of the fashioning of the vessels for the Temple. For one thing, he said, they are made in impurity - for now we are impure, and will remain impure until we are able to have a Red Heifer whose ashes can be used in the Torah-prescribed purification ceremony. If no Red Heifer is available, then the High Priest must even serve in the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur in a state of impurity.Asked whether the fact that the vessels are dedicated for the Temple does not render them hekdesh (consecrated) and therefore forbidden for any other use, Rabbi Ariel explained, There are two stages. First of all, we make it very clear to the donors and to the craftsmen that the ultimate purpose of these vessels is not to be used for exhibitions or the like, but rather for the fulfillment of Torah commandments in the Holy Temple. They must know this in advance. However, to gain the actual status of hekdesh, we similarly make it clear that this does not happen until the vessel is actually brought in to the Temple Mount for use in the Temple. This means that someone can try on and measure the headplate, for example, without worrying that he is benefiting in any way from something that has been consecrated to the Temple.
Menorah Moves Closer to Temple Mount
Rabbi Richman noted that in less than two weeks from now, on Rosh Chodesh Tevet, the famous Menorah (candelabrum) - suitable for use in the Holy Temple, familiar to visitors to the Cardo section of the Old City of Jerusalem - will be relocated to the landing of the wide staircase that leads down from the Jewish Quarter to the Western Wall. It will be protected inside the same type of glass structure that now houses it.The new tzitz is an improvement on one made several years ago, in that it has a backpiece, in accordance with some commentators and the account of Josephus. In addition, it has a locking mechansim so that it will not slip off the Priest's head, and can be adjusted to fit heads of different sizes. The old one will be preserved, of course as a spare, in keeping with the Mishnaic account that several models of various vessels were kept in the Temple, in case the need arose to replace one.Asked what project they're working on at present, Rabbi Richman said, We have begun work on 120 sets of garments for 'regular' priests, not the High Priest. This involves special thread from India, etc. In addition, we have begun work on architectural blueprints for the Third Temple, including cost projection, modern supplies, electricity, plumbing, computers, etc.
Bringing G-d Into Our World
At present, Rabbi Richman explained, people are in despair, and wonder if we're not dreaming futilely while around us our leaders are planning to give the country away. We say to them: It appears that those who went to Annapolis are the dreamers, thinking that their efforts to make peace will succeed, or that the public is with them in their efforts to give away our Jerusalem, our Temple Mount, and other national historic assets.We are now approaching the holiday of Chanukah, Rabbi Richman continued, which is the holiday that commemorates the re-dedication of the Holy Temple. We're not just building beautiful vessels; we're interested in granting G-d the dwelling place that He wants in this world; the Temple is not merely a building, but a way of bringing G-d into our lives in a very real way. And that is what we aim to do. This tzitz is G-d's Chanukah present to us, and our Chanukah gift to the Jewish People.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)