Prophecy and End Time Series. - Israel

[Shammu]

Erekat 'sorry about Sharon's demise'
JPost staff and ap, THE JERUSALEM POST    Jan. 5, 2006

"We are all human beings and we are all sorry about Sharon's demise...We will of course negotiate with whoever leads Israel," said Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Thursday.

"We don't try to tell them who should lead their negotiations. Of course, we don't interfere in internal Israeli politics, but the fact is that if someone sneezes inside Israel, we Palestinians immediately catch a cold.

"The Palestinian elections will be held as scheduled at the end of this month, provided that Ehud Olmert was not so foolish as to prevent Palestinians from voting in East Jerusalem. Delaying the elections would only make Hamas stronger."

He estimated that Hamas would get at least 25-30 percent of support, but said that it was healthy for the Palestinian Authority to have genuine opposition and that Hamas in Parliament would have to mature and would not be allowed to maintain its own army.

Earlier in the day French President Jacques Chirac sent get-well wishes to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon following his brain hemorrhage and said Thursday that the ailing leader's "courageous" peace efforts must continue.

Chirac "hopes the Israeli prime minister will overcome the painful trial he is going through," the president's office said in a statement.

France also offered full support and friendship to Ehud Olmert, Sharon's deputy who is acting as premier in his place, the statement added.

The French president also said he hoped "the courageous initiatives that Mr. Sharon embarked on, which were praised by the entire international community, will continue."

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw praised Sharon Thursday as a "towering figure, not only in Israel, but in the entire Middle East," and wished him a speedy recovery.

US President George W. Bush praised Ariel Sharon on Wednesday night as "a man of courage and peace" and said he was praying for the prime minister to recover.

Bush said in a written statement that he and first lady Laura Bush "share the concerns of the Israeli people ... and we are praying for his recovery."

"On behalf of all Americans, we send our best wishes and hopes to the prime minister and his family," the president said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said much the same in a statement, wishing Sharon a full recovery.

However, Palestinian sources said Thursday that the US envoys have cancelled their visit.

Erekat 'sorryb about Sharons demise'

[Shammu]

Mideast Situation Grows More Uncertain

By BRIAN MURPHY, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 59 minutes ago

The list of uncertainties bedeviling the Middle East has grown longer and deeper: Palestinian factions fighting each other in the streets, the relentless insurgency in Iraq, the rising political clout of Islamic militants in Egypt, political uncertainty in Syria and Lebanon.

Now there's another: the direction Israel will take with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon unlikely to return to power.

"This makes a complicated picture even harder to sort out," said Ehsan Ahrari, a political analyst based in Alexandria, Va. "The old structures of the Middle East are gone or they are imploding."

Sharon himself had sensed the shifts. The former general once gave Israeli forces full rein to battle the Palestinian uprising, or intefadeh — which restarted after his September 2000 visit near Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam's most important sites.

But then he surprised the world by implementing a peace process on his terms: sealing off Palestinian lands and forcing Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip. It gave 1.3 million Palestinians a degree of self-rule, but also amplified the power struggles opened by the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 2004.

On Wednesday, rebellious Palestinian gangs rammed stolen bulldozers into the Gaza-Egyptian border wall and stormed buildings to protest the arrest of a leader of the Fatah Party, which is now led by Arafat's embattled successor, Mahmoud Abbas. Other troubles loom ahead for Fatah.

Palestinian parliamentary elections, planned for Jan. 25, are expected to hand a strong showing to the militant group Hamas, whose followers have carried out suicide bombings against Israeli targets in the past but have proclaimed a temporary truce. A Hamas spokesman, Mushir al-Masri, said Sharon's departure from politics "will change the world political map."

"And to the good," he added, "because a dictator and a murderer will be departing."

Hamas' turn to the ballot box mirrors moves by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, the once ultra-radical movement that took about 20 percent of parliament seats in elections last year. The Brotherhood — although officially outlawed — fielded independent candidates that exposed cracks in the hold of President Hosni Mubarak, one of the last old-guard Mideast leaders.

In Iraq, meanwhile, Shiite Muslim parties heavily influenced by conservative clerics are expected to control the new parliament after the results from last month's voting are officially announced.

It will be more than a stunning reversal from the decades of repression under Saddam Hussein's regime led by Iraq's minority Sunnis. A Shiite-dominated parliament will be forced to seek ways to confront a Sunni-led insurgency that shows no signs of weakening.

Suicide bombers claimed at least 130 lives Thursday, including Iraqi police recruits and Shiite pilgrims in the holy city of Karbala. A roadside bomb also killed five U.S. soldiers in the largest single-day death toll since Sept. 29.

"Everywhere you look on the map of the Middle East, you see trouble and no real solutions," said Diaa Rashwan, political researcher for Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, Egypt. "Go in any direction. It's not an encouraging picture."

In Lebanon, U.N. investigators may seek to go as high as Syrian President Bashar Assad for clues about last year's blast that killed Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 20 others in Beirut. Hariri opposed Syrian influence in Lebanon. Mass protests and international pressure eventually forced Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in April, ending a 29-year military presence.

Syria also is being pushed by Washington to tighten controls on its border with Iraq, which is considered to be a main pipeline for Iraqi insurgents. In Saudi Arabia, security forces have battled with homegrown militants opposing the U.S.-allied monarchy. And in Jordan, King Abdullah II has given the government a broad mandate to crack down on Islamic extremism following deadly suicide bombings in November.

But Iran's nuclear showdown with the West remains the highest priority.

In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Thursday that Iran is running out of time to avoid being brought before the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions. Her comments followed sharp criticism by the chief U.N. nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, about Iran's decision to resume test work on some equipment used in uranium enrichment — a possible pathway to nuclear arms.

Iran says the enrichment is needed to make fuel for energy-producing nuclear reactors. But the United States and other nations believe Iran seeks to make weapons-grade uranium for nuclear warheads.

In 1981, Israeli warplanes destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor and some Israeli politicians have openly discussed military options if Iran appears to be moving toward nuclear arms. The rhetoric has grown sharper since Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be "wiped off the map."

Israel neither admits nor denies it possesses nuclear arms, but it's thought to have about 200 warheads, according to the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Sharon's authority as prime minister has been temporarily transferred to Vice Premier Ehud Olmert. A next milestone — if Sharon cannot return — will be March 28 legislative elections.

Sharon's newly formed party, Kadima, or Forward, is essentially built around his personal aura. The race is suddenly thrown open with two distinct poles: hardline Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu and Labor Party chairman Amir Peretz. But any outcome has to grapple with one inescapable issue: whether to move forward with Sharon's vision of the peace process.

"Sharon caused a fundamental earthquake in the concept of the peace process," said Ned Walker, president of the Washington-based Middle East Institute and a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt. "His way was separation and to let the Palestinians stew in their own juices, so to speak ... How this will continue without Sharon is what everyone is asking now."

Mideast Situation Grows More Uncertain

[Shammu]

Sharon's Brain Scan Shows Improvement

10 minutes ago

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon showed "significant improvement" after five hours of emergency brain surgery Friday, and his intracranial pressure returned to normal, hospital officials said.

Sharon remains in serious condition, said Hadassah Hospital director Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef. He said Sharon was returned to intensive care after the surgery and a brain scan.

Sharon's Brain Scan Shows Improvement

[Shammu]

Arabs Don't See End to Mideast Conflict

By JASPER MORTIMER, Associated Press Writer Thu Jan 5, 9:48 AM ET

CAIRO, Egypt - Many in the Arab world despise the ailing
Ariel Sharon, blame him and Israel for the turmoil in the Middle East and — while giving credit for the withdrawal from Gaza — expressed little hope Thursday that his departure would end the decades-long conflict with the Palestinians.

Rejectionist Palestinians living outside the West Bank or Gaza were particularly gloomy.

"There isn't any political solution on the horizon, neither in Sharon's presence, nor in his absence so long as the Israeli policy is dependent on the United States," said Maher Taher, the representative of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Damascus.

Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Al-Arabiya television that Sharon's health crisis had cast a deep shadow of doubt over the Jan. 25 Palestinian elections, a bellwether of regional political sentiment.

"Will Sharon's health be used to hinder the elections?" he asked. "There are many questions we cannot answer at this stage."

The Palestinian vote was teetering between postponement and going ahead on schedule before Sharon was rushed to the hospital for extensive surgery after a massive stroke Wednesday night. The militant Hamas organization — the author of suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis — is running candidates for the first time and was poised to hand the Palestinian authority a drubbing.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas had already suggested the vote might have to be delayed, citing what most saw as the convenient cover of Israel's refusal to allow East Jerusalem Palestinians to vote. The Israeli crisis could provide yet another excuse.

Mohammed Nazzal, member of the Hamas political in Beirut, warned against postponing the Palestinian elections and said he expected the Israelis to use Sharon's illness or death as "an excuse to justify putting off the elections. This is something we reject."

"Sharon's absence removes from the political scene a professional killer who mastered the murder of Palestinians and addressed the most violent, brutal and bloody strikes (against Arabs) in the history of the Arab-Israeli struggle," he said. "The Palestinian people can only hope that what is coming is better, not worse."

A Beirut a newspaper editor said he feared Sharon's absence from the scene could lead to more Israeli-Palestinian violence and postponement of the election.

"This is a big event," said Sateh Noureddine, managing editor of Lebanon's As-Safir newspaper. If Sharon dies, it "could lead to the postponement of the Palestinian elections and the Israeli elections and possibly could lead to a security deterioration," he told The Associated Press.

He predicted, however, the repercussions would largely be limited to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"It's a quake, whose aftershocks will be local — Israeli and Palestinian — because the (Mideast) conflict has become a Palestinian-Israeli one," Noureddine told AP.

While some Palestinian and Arab hard-liners rejoiced over Sharon's illness — one calling it a gift from God — Arab media were largely restrained, with Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera, the pan-Arab satellite channels, carrying extensive and mainly straightforward reporting.

The television accounts gave considerable time to Sharon adviser Raanan Gissin as he explained the situation inside Israel.

And in a positive segment, Palestinian commentator Ghazi al-Saadi told Al-Arabiya that Sharon was "the first Israeli leader who stopped claiming Israel had a right to all of the Palestinians' land," a reference to Israeli's recent withdrawal from the
Gaza Strip.

"A live Sharon is better for the Palestinians now, despite all the crimes he has committed against us," he said.

Moderate Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi praised Sharon's strength and charisma but criticized his politics.

"Sharon was a strong and charismatic leader who steered the politics toward the right and extremism," Ashrawi told Al-Arabiya. "Now it is clear that Israel needs a leadership that proceeds strongly toward peace, or else the extremist right will hijack the situation."

Ahabs Don't See End to Mideast Conflict

[Soldier4Christ]

Iran leader's messianic end-times mission
Ahmadinejad raises concerns with mystical visions
Posted: January 6, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

Iranian President Mahmoud's Ahmadinejad's mystical pre-occupation with the coming of a Shiite Islamic messiah figure – the Mahdi – is raising concerns that a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic could trigger the kind of global conflagration he envisions will set the stage for the end of the world.

While Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been making headlines lately by questioning whether the Holocaust actually happened, by suggesting Israel should be moved to Europe and by demanding the Jewish state be wiped off the face of the earth, his apocalyptic religious zealotry has received less attention.

In a videotaped meeting with Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli in Tehran, Ahmadinejad discussed candidly a strange, paranormal experience he had while addressing the United Nations in New York last September.

He recounts how he found himself bathed in light throughout the speech. But this wasn't the light directed at the podium by the U.N. and television cameras. It was, he said, a light from heaven.

According to a transcript of his comments, obtained and translated by Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, Ahmadinejad wasn't the only one who noticed the unearthly light. One of his aides brought it to his attention.

The Iranian president recalled being told about it by one of his delegation: "When you began with the words ‘in the name of Allah,' I saw a light coming, surrounding you and protecting you to the end."

Ahmadinejad agreed that he sensed the same thing.

"On the last day when I was speaking, one of our group told me that when I started to say 'Bismillah Muhammad,' he saw a green light come from around me, and I was placed inside this aura," he says. "I felt it myself. I felt that the atmosphere suddenly changed, and for those 27 or 28 minutes, all the leaders of the world did not blink. When I say they didn't move an eyelid, I'm not exaggerating. They were looking as if a hand was holding them there, and had just opened their eyes – Alhamdulillah!"

Ahmadinejad's "vision" at the U.N. is strangely reminiscent and alarmingly similar to statements he has made about his personal role in ushering in the return of the Shiite Muslim messiah.

He sees his main mission, as he recounted in a Nov. 16 speech in Tehran, as to "pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance."

According to Shiites, the 12th imam disappeared as a child in the year 941. When he returns, they believe, he will reign on earth for seven years, before bringing about a final judgment and the end of the world.

Ahmadinejad is urging Iranians to prepare for the coming of the Mahdi by turning the country into a mighty and advanced Islamic society and by avoiding the corruption and excesses of the West.

All Iran is buzzing about the Mahdi, the 12th imam and the role Iran and Ahmadinejad are playing in his anticipated return. There's a new messiah hotline. There are news agencies especially devoted to the latest developments.

"People are anxious to know when and how will He rise; what they must do to receive this worldwide salvation," says Ali Lari, a cleric at the Bright Future Institute in Iran's religious center of Qom. "The timing is not clear, but the conditions are more specific," he adds. "There is a saying: 'When the students are ready, the teacher will come.'"

For his part, Ahmadinejad is living up to at least part of his call to the faithful. According to reports, he lives so modestly that declared assets include only a 30-year-old car, an even older house and an empty bank account.

Ahmadinejad and others in Iran are deadly serious about the imminent return of the 12th imam, who will prompt a global battle between good and evil (with striking parallels to biblical accounts of "Armageddon").

An institute set up in 2004 for the study and dissemination of information about the Mahdi now has a staff of 160 and influence in the schools and children's magazines.

In Iran, theologians say endtimes beliefs appeal to one-fifth of the population. And the Jamkaran mosque east of Qom, 60 miles south of Tehran, is where the link between devotees and the Mahdi is closest.

Ahmadinejad's cabinet has given $17 million to Jamkaran.

Shiite writings describe events surrounding the return of the Mahdi in apocalyptic terms. In one scenario, the forces of evil would come from Syria and Iraq and clash with forces of good from Iran. The battle would commence at Kufa – the Iraqi town near the holy city of Najaf.

Even more controversial is Ahmadinejad's repeated invocation of Imam Mahdi, known as "the Savior of Times." According to Shiite tradition, Imam Mahdi will appear on Judgment Day to herald a truly just government.

Missed by some observers in Ahmadinejad's speech at the U.N. was his call to the "mighty Lord" to hasten the emergence of "the promised one," the one who "will fill this world with justice and peace."

Who stands in the Mahdi's way?

A top priority of Ahmadinejad is "to challenge America, which is trying to impose itself as the final salvation of the human being, and insert its unjust state [in the region]," says Hamidreza Taraghi, head of the conservative Islamic Coalition Society.

Taraghi says the U.S. is "trying to place itself as the new Mahdi." This may mean no peace with Iran, he adds, "unless America changes its hegemonic ... thinking, doesn't use nuclear weapons, [or] impose its will on other nations."

[Soldier4Christ]

Jewish groups urge:
Secede from Israel
New effort seeks 'biblical heartland' to break away for own sovereignty
Posted: January 6, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Aaron Klein
2006 WorldNetDaily.com

JERUSALEM  A new movement is set to be presented next week by residents of Judea and Samaria calling for Jews there to secede from Israel and create their own autonomous Jewish entity in part to head off the possibility of further unilateral Israeli withdrawals from the area, WND has learned.

The Judea Initiative, led by northern Samaria resident Yekutel Ben Yaacov, is seeking to gather signatures from Judea and Samaria's nearly 200,000 Jews for a manifesto declaring the creation of a sovereign Jewish authority that would govern itself independently according to Jewish law and would provide its own security.

Judea and Samaria are referred to by some as the West Bank, the name coined for the area after Jordan annexed it in 1948.

The initiative aims to create the new Jewish authority in any part of Judea and Samaria, even a small settlement, in hopes of eventually ruling the entire territory, Ben Yaacov said, explaining his initiative was prompted by talks of possible Israeli withdrawals from the area.

"We can't sit around and wait until Israel sends the bulldozers to take down Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria before attempting to counter the next Israeli withdrawal. We are acting now so we can retain our rightful biblical heritage," Ben Yaacov told WND.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon withdrew Israel's Jewish communities from the Gaza Strip last summer in spite of fierce opposition from members of his own Likud party. He recently announced he was leaving Likud to start his own "centrist" party, Kadima, prompting new elections currently scheduled for March. Since then, multiple Kadima members have told reporters the new party is looking to change Israel's borders with possible withdrawals from Judea and Samaria. There have been talks of disengagements from parts of Jerusalem as well.

It's unclear as yet how Sharon's massive stroke this week and his inability to govern will affect the future politics of Israel.

Currently, Judea and Samaria, inhabited by about 2.4 million Palestinians, is considered landlocked territory not officially recognized as part of any country. Israel calls the land "disputed." The United Nations claims Judea and Samaria is "occupied" by Israel, which maintains overall control of most of the area while the Palestinian Authority has jurisdiction in about 40 percent.

Judea and Samaria remained under Jordanian rule from 1948 until Israel captured the territory in 1967 after Jordan's King Hussein ignored Israeli pleas for his country to stay out of the Six Day War. Most countries rejected Jordan's initial claim on the area, which it formally renounced in 1988.

Ben Yaacov says his Judea Initiative takes advantage of Judea and Samaria's murky legal status to argue for independent Jewish sovereignty.

"Legally it's a no-man's land. The Palestinians used that status to create their own authority, so there is absolutely no reason the Jews can't do the same thing."

Ben Yaacov's group, Mishalot Israel, is holding a conference next week in Jerusalem's Old City to present the Judea Initiative. It will then begin petitioning both private citizens and entire communities to join.

He says already he has garnered interest from local residents and some town leaders.

"The plan hasn't even been announced or presented and already I am getting a lot of phone calls from people and at least one town that wants to sign on. They are hearing about it by word of mouth," Ben Yaacov said. "The area is the site of a lot of the Bible and has had a Jewish population for centuries. We will not allow the Israeli government to kick us out."

Many villages in the Judea and Samaria area, which Israelis commonly reefer to as the "biblical heartland," are mentioned throughout the Old Testament.

The Book of Genesis says Abraham entered Israel at Shechem (Nablus) and received God's promise of land for his offspring.

The nearby town of Beit El, anciently called Bethel meaning "house of God," is where Scripture says patriarch Jacob slept on a stone pillow and dreamed of angels ascending and descending a stairway to heaven. In that dream, God spoke directly to Jacob and reaffirmed the promise of territory.

And in Exodus, the holy tabernacle rested in Shilo, which is believed to be the first area the ancient Israelites settled after fleeing Egypt.

Ben Yaacov said his new Jewish authority would be "governed by Jewish law. Non-Jews, including Palestinians, are more than welcome to live there as long as they accept Jewish sovereign and agree to abide by the Seven Noahide laws, the most basic of biblical dictates."

He said the annexed territory would provide for its own security.

"A large contingent of Judea and Samaria residents served in the Israeli army. They currently defend their own settlements to a large extent. We would base ours on the same concept as Israeli security. Immediately after Israel was founded, it was attacked on all sides and it won every war because of the help of God and because of the same people we have with us."

The initiative states there are three primary reasons to form a Jewish authority in Judea and Samaria:

# "The new Jewish authority will protect Israel from terror and enhance Israeli security. It is more advantageous to have Jewish autonomy in Judea and Samaria in place of complete Palestinian autonomy, which will give the Palestinian terrorist groups more land from which to fire Qassams and launch attacks. The Jews who remain in the area will be accepting a certain level of self-sacrifice by putting themselves in harms way."

# "The creation of a Jewish authority will relieve tension and prevent bloodshed between Jew and fellow Jew by halting an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria. There are hundreds of thousands of Jews in the area, some of whom may use violent resistance in the face of any withdrawal. It will also alleviate some of the tension and rifts that would be created in Israeli society by any withdrawal."

# "The new Jewish authority will offer appropriate self-determination to fulfil the national aspirations of many religious Jews in Israel. The area will be ruled by Torah law as opposed to the current anti-religious government."

Ben Yaacov's Judea Initiative is not the first major push for Jews to secede from Israel. In 1989, the late author and Knesset member Rabbi Meir Kahane, a mentor of Ben Yaacov, attempted to found the State of Judea, a Jewish state in Judea and Samaria. That effort eventually fell through.

"Ours is different in that we are starting small," explained Ben Yaacov. "We are not talking about our own state, just an entity or authority, however small or large it will be."

Reacting to the news of calls for Jews to create their own authority, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told WorldNetDaily, "This is the chaos and lawlessness [the Palestinian Authority] has warned about. If the Israeli government does not get its act together concerning the settlers, who by the way are armed to the teeth and acting like a parallel authority, the price will be paid in Palestinian blood."

Israeli government spokesmen Raanan Gissin and David Baker refused to comment on the issue.

Said Ben Yaacov, "There may be resistance at first, but eventually people will come to understand a lot of Jews in Judea and Samaria will not go along with any further withdrawals. Now those Jews will have a solution."

________________________

Things are definitely heating up in the Mideast.

[Shammu]

Iran leader's messianic end-times mission
Ahmadinejad raises concerns with mystical visions
Posted: January 6, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Iranian President Mahmoud's Ahmadinejad's mystical pre-occupation with the coming of a Shiite Islamic messiah figure – the Mahdi – is raising concerns that a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic could trigger the kind of global conflagration he envisions will set the stage for the end of the world.

While Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been making headlines lately by questioning whether the Holocaust actually happened, by suggesting Israel should be moved to Europe and by demanding the Jewish state be wiped off the face of the earth, his apocalyptic religious zealotry has received less attention.

In a videotaped meeting with Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli in Tehran, Ahmadinejad discussed candidly a strange, paranormal experience he had while addressing the United Nations in New York last September.

He recounts how he found himself bathed in light throughout the speech. But this wasn't the light directed at the podium by the U.N. and television cameras. It was, he said, a light from heaven.


Ahmadinejad at the U.N.

According to a transcript of his comments, obtained and translated by Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, Ahmadinejad wasn't the only one who noticed the unearthly light. One of his aides brought it to his attention.

The Iranian president recalled being told about it by one of his delegation: "When you began with the words ‘in the name of Allah,' I saw a light coming, surrounding you and protecting you to the end."

Ahmadinejad agreed that he sensed the same thing.

"On the last day when I was speaking, one of our group told me that when I started to say 'Bismillah Muhammad,' he saw a green light come from around me, and I was placed inside this aura," he says. "I felt it myself. I felt that the atmosphere suddenly changed, and for those 27 or 28 minutes, all the leaders of the world did not blink. When I say they didn't move an eyelid, I'm not exaggerating. They were looking as if a hand was holding them there, and had just opened their eyes – Alhamdulillah!"

Ahmadinejad's "vision" at the U.N. is strangely reminiscent and alarmingly similar to statements he has made about his personal role in ushering in the return of the Shiite Muslim messiah.

He sees his main mission, as he recounted in a Nov. 16 speech in Tehran, as to "pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance."

According to Shiites, the 12th imam disappeared as a child in the year 941. When he returns, they believe, he will reign on earth for seven years, before bringing about a final judgment and the end of the world.

Ahmadinejad is urging Iranians to prepare for the coming of the Mahdi by turning the country into a mighty and advanced Islamic society and by avoiding the corruption and excesses of the West.

All Iran is buzzing about the Mahdi, the 12th imam and the role Iran and Ahmadinejad are playing in his anticipated return. There's a new messiah hotline. There are news agencies especially devoted to the latest developments.

"People are anxious to know when and how will He rise; what they must do to receive this worldwide salvation," says Ali Lari, a cleric at the Bright Future Institute in Iran's religious center of Qom. "The timing is not clear, but the conditions are more specific," he adds. "There is a saying: 'When the students are ready, the teacher will come.'"

For his part, Ahmadinejad is living up to at least part of his call to the faithful. According to reports, he lives so modestly that declared assets include only a 30-year-old car, an even older house and an empty bank account.

Ahmadinejad and others in Iran are deadly serious about the imminent return of the 12th imam, who will prompt a global battle between good and evil (with striking parallels to biblical accounts of "Armageddon").

An institute set up in 2004 for the study and dissemination of information about the Mahdi now has a staff of 160 and influence in the schools and children's magazines.

In Iran, theologians say endtimes beliefs appeal to one-fifth of the population. And the Jamkaran mosque east of Qom, 60 miles south of Tehran, is where the link between devotees and the Mahdi is closest.

Ahmadinejad's cabinet has given $17 million to Jamkaran.

Shiite writings describe events surrounding the return of the Mahdi in apocalyptic terms. In one scenario, the forces of evil would come from Syria and Iraq and clash with forces of good from Iran. The battle would commence at Kufa – the Iraqi town near the holy city of Najaf.

Even more controversial is Ahmadinejad's repeated invocation of Imam Mahdi, known as "the Savior of Times." According to Shiite tradition, Imam Mahdi will appear on Judgment Day to herald a truly just government.

Missed by some observers in Ahmadinejad's speech at the U.N. was his call to the "mighty Lord" to hasten the emergence of "the promised one," the one who "will fill this world with justice and peace."

Who stands in the Mahdi's way?

A top priority of Ahmadinejad is "to challenge America, which is trying to impose itself as the final salvation of the human being, and insert its unjust state [in the region]," says Hamidreza Taraghi, head of the conservative Islamic Coalition Society.

Taraghi says the U.S. is "trying to place itself as the new Mahdi." This may mean no peace with Iran, he adds, "unless America changes its hegemonic ... thinking, doesn't use nuclear weapons, [or] impose its will on other nations."

Iran Leader's messianic end-times mission

[Shammu]

Satan's little helpers
Posted: January 6, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

The Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently referred to Israel as "the occupying regime of Al-Quds [Jerusalem]," describing it as a "disgraceful blot" that ought to be "wiped off the map." He was officiating at a "World Without Zionism" university conference, a forum duplicated like viral RNA on campuses the world over.

The United Nations, which has underwritten similar conferences, convened an emergency tea and crumpets session. Did members of the Security Council expel Iran for threatening genocide against a member state? Don't be silly – they simply condemned Ahmadinejad. As did the European Parliament. For their part, Ahmadinejad's Iranian supporters blamed the Jews for daring to deflect attention from the plight of the Palestinians to their own threatened demise. As for the Palestinians, they've already wiped Israel off their maps, cartographically at least.

The wickedly stupid online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, expressed confidence in the Islamic Republic's "constitutional" separation of powers: Ahmadinejad hasn't the authority to declare war on Israel – only Iran's Supreme Leader has. However, before warning all Arab countries against recognizing Israel's right to exist, this gabbing gorgon assured coreligionists that his prescription for Israel bore the imprimatur of Iran's first Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Khomeini.

It's unlikely Khomeini's cankered successor (Ali) would diverge. In any event, to prosecute an illegal and unjust war, George Bush overcame the obstacles American democracy placed in his path. Ahmadinejad, no doubt, has the will to find a way around the Iranian theocracy's "checks and balances."

Muslims don't disguise their finer feelings about Jews – no more than the Institute for Historical Review and its various patrons, Ahmadinejad included, do. Speak to Muslims from Baghdad to Birmingham to Bellingham and you'll likely hear the kind of "crude anti-Semitic propaganda unheard since Streicher," to quote Serge Trifkovic. That notorious anti-Semitic Tsarist forgery, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," is a best-seller across Arabia. Holocaust denial is as popular.

Neither is Ahmadinejad the first Iranian ruler to promise atomic retribution against Israel. According to William Sweet, writing in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer's Spectrum Magazine, the former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said this:

If one day ... the world of Islam is mutually equipped with the kind of weapons Israel presently possesses, the world's arrogant strategy will then come to a dead end, because the use of an atomic bomb on Israel won't leave anything; however in the world of Islam [use of a bomb] will just cause harm, and this scenario is not far fetched.

To destroy the Jewish state, he's willing to dispatch Arabs with the same clinical detachment. Clearly, the problem with Mad Mahmoud and his predecessors isn't their fondness for pseudo-history, but their love of authentic (nuclear) science.

As Sweet has reported – and as Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has confirmed in a number of subsequent reports – the country with "the world's largest reserves of fossil fuels" is assembling the nuclear wherewithal with a speed and determination not seen since the heyday of Iraq's infamous nuclear weapons program of the 1980s."

The IAEA, which "operates the world's most elaborate tripwire system," is scared stiff, warning of a pattern and scope of violations hitherto unseen in the agency's experience. ElBaradei, you will recall, was right all along about Iraq. On Feb. 14, 2003, he stated categorically that there was no evidence of ongoing prohibited nuclear or nuclear related activities in that country.

This cautious man is now sounding the alarm about an Iranian nuclear program which "consists of practically everything needed to fuel a reactor or in effect to produce materials for bombs, including uranium mining and milling, conversion, enrichment, fuel fabrication, and heavy water production."

[Iran's assets, at Natanz, include a centrifuge pilot plant capable of churning out about 12 kilograms of bomb-grade material a year ... as well as a large, commercial-scale plant still under construction. The larger plant, to be situated in a hardened bunker 20 meters underground, could produce as much as half a ton to a ton of weapons-grade material a year. Iran is also known to have operated a more technologically sophisticated laser-enrichment pilot plant a few years ago, producing small amounts of lightly enriched uranium.

These activities are not all illegal under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – secrecy about them is. Last month, DEBKAfile reported that "Iran's hard-line Guardian Council, the real power in the land ... ratified a parliamentary decision to block U.N. inspections should the Islamic republic's nuclear activities be referred to the U.N. Security Council for sanctions. In August, uranium conversion was resumed."

Robert Einhorn, top proliferation specialist in the Clinton administration, agrees: Iran has a nuclear weapons program. Her supporters disagree. They say Ahmadinejad is only "playing to the base." His bellicose threats they treat as mere exotic idiosyncrasies. And they draw moral equivalence between Israel and Iran: "Israel has nuclear weapons. Why not Iran?"

Other apologists have framed Iran's nuclear belligerence as the "ultimate safeguard against an attack." The reference is, presumably, to Iran's legitimate quest to defend against an American army that advanced on a neighbor – Iraq – and conquered it in the absence of provocation.

That Iran fears an out-of-control, aggressive United States is likely – and understandable. However, Iran's Majnun-in-Chief hasn't threatened the United States – he has threatened Israel. Yet Iranophiles seldom depict Israel's nuclear program as an equally legitimate, last-ditch defense. Instead, they contort like Cirque du Soleil contortionists to downplay the threat Iran poses to Israel.

To their credit, Muslims make no bones about the need to solve The Jewish Question for once and for all. (In case you're a public-school graduate, this is code for liquidation.) It's time Iran's dissembling defenders were as honest.

Satan's little helper

[nChrist]

Dreamweaver Said:

To their credit, Muslims make no bones about the need to solve The Jewish Question for once and for all. (In case you're a public-school graduate, this is code for liquidation.) It's time Iran's dissembling defenders were as honest.

Satan's little helper

Hello Dreamweaver,

Brother, I wonder how much of the world knows that a show-down MUST happen with Iran now in less than 60 days. Many Christians who study Bible prophecy understand the possible implications. Regardless, the show-down MUST and will happen unless there are some dramatic changes. The worst-case scenario would be Israel having to handle the problem. The best case scenario would be some country other than America or Israel ending the problem without an attack. However, the mad-man of Iran does not appear to be interested in anything but war, so he will probably get his wish.

Everyone should already know there are probably dozens of plans to end the nuclear capability of Iran. It would be more intelligent to give Dennis the Menace nuclear weapons. So, hang on for a wild ride!

Love in Christ,
Tom

Galatians 2:19-21 NASB  "For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. "I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly."

[Soldier4Christ]

I think Dennis the Menace would be a much better choice.

[Shammu]

Everyone should already know there are probably dozens of plans to end the nuclear capability of Iran. It would be more intelligent to give Dennis the Menace nuclear weapons. So, hang on for a wild ride!

I think Marmaduke would be a better choice.

[Shammu]

Doctors Plan to Bring Sharon Out of Coma

By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer 44 minutes ago

JERUSALEM - Doctors planned to start bringing Ariel Sharon out of his induced coma on Monday to determine how much brain damage the prime minister suffered from a massive stroke, hospital officials said Sunday.

Experts said the process could take six to eight hours and doctors should have a good idea of the extent of the damage by the end of the day.

One of Sharon's doctors said the prime minister — if he survives — would not be able to resume office, and acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Cabinet he would work to carry on Sharon's political legacy.

Sharon remained in critical condition Sunday at Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital after suffering a stroke late Wednesday and undergoing two lengthy surgeries to stop bleeding in his brain.

A new brain scan Sunday showed his vital signs, including intracranial pressure, were normal, Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, the hospital's director, said.

"His condition is still critical but stable, and there is improvement in the CT picture of the brain," Mor-Yosef said.

The 77-year-old Sharon, Israel's most popular politician, was seen by many here as the best hope for resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict. His grave illness, just three months before elections, stunned Israelis and left Middle East politics in limbo.

Geula Cohen, an old friend of Sharon's, visited him in the hospital Sunday and talked with his son Omri.

"Omri came out to me and saw my face and got really angry at me. 'What happened to you?' (he said) and 'Everything will be fine,'" she told Army Radio.

Doctors have kept Sharon in a medically induced coma and on a respirator since Thursday to give him time to heal from the trauma of the stroke and the surgeries.

Sharon's medical team decided that on Monday morning they would begin reducing the level of sedatives he is receiving and to begin pulling him out of the coma.

Doctors will pass their assessment of brain damage to Attorney General Meni Mazuz. "They will inform us the moment they wake him up from the sedation and they will know what systems were damaged and what his situation is," said Justice Ministry spokesman Jacob Galanti

If doctors determine that Sharon is permanently incapacitated, the Cabinet would immediately meet to choose a new prime minister from the five sitting Cabinet ministers from Sharon's Kadima Party who are also lawmakers.

Olmert is seen as Sharon's potential heir.

Doctors had planned to start pulling Sharon from the coma Sunday, but decided to wait another day after performing the new scan.

The scan Sunday showed Sharon's brain swelling had gone down, his intracranial and blood pressure were within normal range, and his cerebral spinal fluid was draining well, Mor-Yosef said.

"In light of all these factors, the panel of experts decided to start the process of taking him out of the sedation tomorrow morning," he said. "This all depends of course on whether the prime minister makes it until tomorrow morning without any significant incidents."

One of Sharon's surgeons, Dr. Jose Cohen, said that while Sharon's chances of survival were high, his ability to think and reason would be impaired.

"He will not continue to be prime minister, but maybe he will be able to understand and to speak," the Argentina-born Cohen said in comments published Sunday by The Jerusalem Post.

Outside experts were even less optimistic.

"There is zero expectation on my part that he will have the capacity to perform in any kind of formal way," said Dr. Keith Siller, Medical Director at the NYU Comprehensive Stroke Care Center.

"We are basically hoping he survives and that he has some kind of ability to get some rehab so he can have some useful function again. But we are talking about the basics, we are talking very basic things. The complexity of this man, and what he did for a living, this is not to even be considered now. This is absolutely unrealistic at this time."

Israel's Cabinet met for its weekly gathering Sunday for the first time since Sharon's stroke.

Olmert sat next to Sharon's empty chair, the prime minister's untouched gavel rested in the middle of the table.

Olmert told the ministers that Sharon would want everyone to get back to work on the country's pressing security, social and economic issues.

"This we will continue to do," he said. "We will continue also to carry out the wishes of Sharon, to manage affairs as necessary."

The Cabinet meeting was Olmert's first formal opportunity to persuade Israelis and the world that the nation's affairs were in good hands and that he would work to carry out Sharon's political program.

Speaking to reporters later, Olmert expressed hope Sharon would get better. "I pray with all the people of Israel that my tenure as acting prime minister will be short, so soon enough we will be able to see again the leader of Israel," he said.

Before his collapse, Sharon appeared headed to a landslide victory in March 28 elections as head of his new centrist Kadima Party, formed in the wake of his withdrawal from Gaza this summer. Sharon was expected in a third term to try to draw Israel's permanent boundaries, evacuating small West Bank settlements while strengthening Israel's hold over larger ones.

But it is unclear whether Olmert or any other successor would have the popularity or charisma to carry out such a plan.

Sharon had been reluctant to resume long-stalled peace talks, saying the Palestinians were not a trustworthy partner.

In the West Bank, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia wished Sharon a quick recovery and expressed hope for new peace talks. "We are looking for a new era in which we can negotiate and be partners in a real peace that serves both peoples," he told his Cabinet.

Sharon, who experienced a mild stroke on Dec. 18, felt weak Wednesday and was rushed to Hadassah from his ranch in southern Israel when a blood vessel on the right side of his brain burst, causing massive cerebral hemorrhaging.

Doctors plan to bring Sharon out of Coma

[Shammu]

Iran to remove U.N. seals at atomic research sites
Sun Jan 8, 2006 3:42 AM ET9

 By Parisa Hafezi

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Sunday it was preparing to remove U.N. seals at some nuclear research and development sites, despite strong Western opposition to its decision to resume atomic research halted over two years ago.

It would be the second time in five months that Iran, which insists its nuclear programme is peaceful, removed some seals put in place by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

European Union and U.S. officials have said the move, which follows Iran's resumption of uranium processing at its Isfahan plant in August, will jeopardize efforts to find a diplomatic solution to Iran's atomic ambitions and could accelerate calls for its case to be sent to the U.N. Security Council.

"We will remove the seals and we have announced that we are ready to start research from tomorrow," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference.

"It depends on the IAEA to announce its readiness as this will take place under the agency's supervision," he added.

A resumption of atomic research and development would mean that all of Iran's nuclear programme, much of which was put on hold as part of negotiations with the EU that started in late 2003, was active once again apart from the actual enrichment of uranium at its unfinished Natanz facility.

Uranium enrichment is the most sensitive part of the nuclear fuel cycle since it can be used to produce bomb-grade material as well as nuclear reactor fuel.

Iran has not publicly disclosed what activities it plans to resume on Monday. Diplomats and analysts say atomic research and development could involve some laboratory tests of uranium enrichment and the assembly of enrichment centrifuges.

"R&D activities will be under the IAEA's supervision and there is nothing to be worried about," Asefi said.

IAEA IN THE DARK

IAEA officials say an Iranian team failed to show up for talks in Vienna last week to explain what activities Iran planned to resume.

Asked why the Iranian team flew back from Vienna without meeting the IAEA, Javad Vaeedi, deputy head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told state television on Saturday:

"Holding any meeting has to be based on the attainment of an aim and a result. The cancellation of the meeting in fact took place in this light."

Iran said on Saturday that an IAEA team had arrived in Tehran to supervise the resumption of research work. But an IAEA spokeswoman said the IAEA team were on a "routine visit" and that the agency was still awaiting clarifications from Iran.

Washington and the EU want Iran to agree to a proposal, put forward by Moscow, that Iran transfer all its uranium enrichment activities to a joint venture in Russia.

Russian and Iranian officials met in Tehran over the weekend to discuss the plan but Iran has made it clear it will only consider ideas that allow it to enrich on its own soil.

"We have a positive view regarding these talks, as do the Russians," Asefi said. "These talks can discuss different plans but the main issue is respecting and accepting Iran's legitimate rights."

Vaeedi warned that it would not be in the West's interest to refer Iran's case to the U.N. Security Council, where sanctions could be imposed on Tehran.

He noted that Iran's parliament approved a bill late last year whereby, should Iran's case be sent to the Security Council, Tehran would resume enrichment and scale back cooperation with IAEA inspectors.
Iran to remove UN seals at atomic research sites

[Soldier4Christ]

Police raid headquarters
of Israel-secession group
Hundreds of cops sweep into settlement ahead of call to create own sovereignty
Posted: January 8, 2006
3:45 p.m. Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

JERUSALEM – A Jewish group's headquarters were raided today by hundreds of security officials just days before the movement, led by residents of Judea and Samaria, was to present a plan calling for Jews of the area to secede from Israel and create their own autonomous Jewish entity.

The massive police raid came after a WorldNetDaily article this weekend broke the story regarding the Judea Initiative, which is seeking to gather signatures from Judea and Samaria's nearly 200,000 Jews for a manifesto declaring the creation of a sovereign Jewish authority that would govern itself independently according to Jewish law and would provide its own security.

Security officials involved in today's raid say the WND article was "read very closely."

At the order of the Israeli Defense Forces, a joint taskforce consisting of 200-300 officers from the Israeli Police Authority and Shin Bet security services swooped down on the Kfar Tapuach settlement in northern Samaria and raided the offices of the initiative's leader, northern Samaria resident Yekutel Ben Yaacov. Computers and documents were confiscated and a kennel started by Ben Yaacov several years ago to train dogs to protect area settlements was closed down.

Simultaneously, Jerusalem police and Shin Bet agents raided a Jerusalem Internet café and a nearby apartment owned by Ben Yaacov. Four computers and stacks of documents were confiscated and four café employees were taken in for questioning.

Ben Yaacov was not arrested in the raid.

On Wednesday, Ben Yaacov is set to deliver his Initiative at a conference in Jerusalem's Old City. The plan aims to create the new Jewish authority in any part of Judea and Samaria, even a small settlement, in hopes of eventually ruling the entire territory, Ben Yaacov said.

Judea and Samaria are referred to by some as the West Bank, the name coined for the area by Jordan after it annexed the territories in 1948.

Ben Yaacov's group, the Jewish Legion, was founded in 2001 to foster self-protection for Judea and Samaria communities plagued by terror attacks. His Judea Initiative is a new movement of the Legion not yet officially made public.

"We have been around for four years. Suddenly, they raid my offices three days before the conference to announce our initiative? The authorities are hysterical. They want to stop this initiative, but now they have succeeded in giving it a lot of publicity, so the conference, which doesn't violate any law, will go on and probably draw even bigger crowds," Ben Yaacov told WND.

Mikey Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the Israeli Police Authority, had no comment about whether the raid was in response to the initiative conference.

A high-level source close to the raid told WND, "The raid was in the works for several weeks. It is the result of the movement's activities and planned activities."

The source said WND's article breaking the story about Ben Yaacov's plans to call for Jews to secede from Israel "was read very carefully and with interest."

Ben Yaacov told WND in the article his initiative was prompted by talks of Israeli withdrawals from Judea and Samaria.

"We can't sit around and wait until Israel sends the bulldozers to take down Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria before attempting to counter the next Israeli withdrawal. We are acting now so we can retain our rightful biblical heritage," he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon withdrew Israel's Jewish communities from the Gaza Strip last summer in spite of fierce opposition from members of his own Likud party. He recently announced he was leaving Likud to start his own "centrist" party, Kadima, prompting new elections currently scheduled for March. Since then, multiple Kadima members have told reporters the new party is looking to change Israel's borders with possible withdrawals from Judea and Samaria. There have been talks of disengagements from parts of Jerusalem as well.

It's unclear as yet how Sharon's massive stroke this week and his inability to govern will affect the future politics of Israel.

Currently, Judea and Samaria, inhabited by about 2.4 million Palestinians, is considered landlocked territory not officially recognized as part of any country. Israel calls the land "disputed." The United Nations claims Judea and Samaria is "occupied" by Israel, which maintains overall control of most of the area while the Palestinian Authority has jurisdiction in about 40 percent.

Judea and Samaria remained under Jordanian rule from 1948 until Israel captured the territory in 1967 after Jordan's King Hussein ignored Israeli pleas for his country to stay out of the Six Day War. Most countries rejected Jordan's initial claim on the area, which it formally renounced in 1988.

Ben Yaacov says his Judea Initiative takes advantage of Judea and Samaria's murky legal status to argue for independent Jewish sovereignty.

"Legally it's a no-man's land. The Palestinians used that status to create their own authority, so there is absolutely no reason the Jews can't do the same thing. The area is the site of a lot of the Bible and has had a Jewish population for centuries. We will not allow the Israeli government to kick us out."

Many villages in the Judea and Samaria area, which Israelis commonly reefer to as the "biblical heartland," are mentioned throughout the Old Testament.

The Book of Genesis says Abraham entered Israel at Shechem (Nablus) and received God's promise of land for his offspring.

The nearby town of Beit El, anciently called Bethel meaning "house of God," is where Scripture says patriarch Jacob slept on a stone pillow and dreamed of angels ascending and descending a stairway to heaven. In that dream, God spoke directly to Jacob and reaffirmed the promise of territory.

And in Exodus, the holy tabernacle rested in Shilo, which is believed to be the first area the ancient Israelites settled after fleeing Egypt.

Ben Yaacov said his new Jewish authority would be "governed by Jewish law. Non-Jews, including Palestinians, are more than welcome to live there as long as they accept Jewish sovereign and agree to abide by the Seven Noahide laws, the most basic of biblical dictates."

He said the annexed territory would provide for its own security.

"A large contingent of Judea and Samaria residents served in the Israeli army. They currently defend their own settlements to a large extent. We would base ours on the same concept as Israeli security. Immediately after Israel was founded, it was attacked on all sides and it won every war because of the help of God and because of the same people we have with us."

The initiative states there are three primary reasons to form a Jewish authority in Judea and Samaria:

# "The new Jewish authority will protect Israel from terror and enhance Israeli security. It is more advantageous to have Jewish autonomy in Judea and Samaria in place of complete Palestinian autonomy, which will give the Palestinian terrorist groups more land from which to fire Qassams and launch attacks. The Jews who remain in the area will be accepting a certain level of self-sacrifice by putting themselves in harms way."

# "The creation of a Jewish authority will relieve tension and prevent bloodshed between Jew and fellow Jew by halting an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria. There are hundreds of thousands of Jews in the area, some of whom may use violent resistance in the face of any withdrawal. It will also alleviate some of the tension and rifts that would be created in Israeli society by any withdrawal."

# "The new Jewish authority will offer appropriate self-determination to fulfil the national aspirations of many religious Jews in Israel. The area will be ruled by Torah law as opposed to the current anti-religious government."

Ben Yaacov's Judea Initiative is not the first major push for Jews to secede from Israel. In 1989, the late author and Knesset member Rabbi Meir Kahane, a mentor of Ben Yaacov, attempted to found the State of Judea, a Jewish state in Judea and Samaria. That effort eventually fell through.

"Ours is different in that we are starting small," explained Ben Yaacov. "We are not talking about our own state, just an entity or authority, however small or large it will be."

Reacting to the news of calls for Jews to create their own authority, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told WorldNetDaily, "This is the chaos and lawlessness [the Palestinian Authority] has warned about. If the Israeli government does not get its act together concerning the settlers, who by the way are armed to the teeth and acting like a parallel authority, the price will be paid in Palestinian blood."

Israeli government spokesmen Raanan Gissin and David Baker refused to comment on the issue.

Said Ben Yaacov, "There may be resistance at first, but eventually people will come to understand a lot of Jews in Judea and Samaria will not go along with any further withdrawals. Now those Jews will have a solution."

[Shammu]

Rockets against Israel "ordered by Bin Laden": Iraqi Al-Qaeda chief
Jan 09 12:16 AM US/Eastern
Email this story    

Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said in an audio tape put onto the Internet that rockets had been fired at Israel from Lebanon last month "on the instructions" of the network's overall chief Osama bin Laden.

"The rocket firing at the ancestors of monkeys and pigs from the south of Lebanon was only the start of a blessed in-depth strike against the Zionist enemy (...). All that was on the instructions of the sheikh of the mujahedeen, Osama bin laden, may God preserve him," said the voice attributed to the Jordanian extremist.

The tape was placed on the site normally used by his group, the Organization of Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, which had claimed responsibility for the rockets in an on-line statement on December 29.

"This commendable feat came in application by the mujahedeen of the oath by fighter sheikh Osama bin Laden, emir of the Al-Qaeda network, may God preserve him," added the recording referring to repeated statements by Bin Laden that the Israelis should not enjoy security as long as Muslims were not safe.

Israel the previous day had carried out an air strike against a base of a Syrian-backed Palestinian group on the southern outskirts of Beirut in retaliation for cross-border Katyusha rocket attacks on northern Israel.

Zarqawi also said the guerrillas had carried out nearly 800 operations against "the crusader forces" since the occupation of Iraq, putting "crusader" casualties at around 40,000 soldiers.

"Since the start of mujahedeen operations after the fall of the Baathist regime and until today, nearly 800 martyr operations aimed at crusader targets and military convoys have been carried out (...). We estimate casualties among the adorers of the Cross in Iraq at no less than 40,000 soldiers," he declared.

"That's why they (the Americans) asked for help from the Arab League, represented by its secretary-general Amr Mussa, and called for the Cairo meeting," said Zarqawi, hitting out at member countries that took part in the November meeting dedicated to Iraq under Arab League auspices.

The Iraqi leaders who participated in the Cairo meeting agreed on a "road map" for national conciliation, calling for a calendar for withdrawal of foreign forces and the release of detainees who had not been charged.

Zarqawi hit out at the Sunni Muslim Iraqi Islamic Party for having taken part in the December 15 general elections, and called on it to renounce such actions.

"We call on the Islamic Party to abandon the road to perdition on which it has embarked and which threatened to cause the loss of the Sunni community," Zarqawi said, adding that the party "should have called the people to jihad (holy war)."

The Iraqi Al-Qaeda leader then laid down two conditions for giving up the jihad.

"First, chase out the invaders from our territory in Palestine, in Iraq and everywhere in Islamic land.

"Second, instal sharia (Islamic law) on the entire Earth and spread Islamic justice there (...). The attacks will not cease until after the victory of Islam and the setting up of sharia," he swore.

Zarqawi concluded: "O young Muslims everywhere in the world, and in particular in the neighbouring countries (of Iraq) and in Yemen, I recommend jihad to you (...). O nation of Islam, America is today drawing its last breath."

Rockets against Israel "ordered by Bin Laden": Iraqi Al-Qaeda chief