Israel and Syria - Several news items that look towards Isaiah 17

[Shammu]

U.S. Navy Simulated Iran-Syria-Lebanon Attack on Israel

(IsraelNN.com) A U.S. Navy exercise last week practiced defending Israel against a combined missile attack from Syria, Lebanon and Iran. The exercise involved two Aegis warships, one off the coast of Israel, and the other in the Persian Gulf, StrategyPage reported. The website noted that the exercise was meant to "send a message."

"So far, the Aegis system has knocked down nearly 90 percent of the missiles fired towards it. This includes shooting down a low flying space satellite," the report said. The Aegis system consists of anti-aircraft missiles combined with the Aegis radar system, that shoots down ballistic missiles.

The recent exercise mainly tested the communications and computer operations of the Aegis systems in the two warships. No missiles were actually fired.

U.S. Navy Simulated Iran-Syria-Lebanon Attack on Israel
~~~~~~~~~

Israeli forces using US airbases, the US Navy practicing to protect Israel. This stuff needs to be on the evening news!!

I am just glad to know that this appears that we will back Israel in case of an attack. There have been times, I have had doubts that we would.

[nChrist]

Brother,

If no other country in the entire world backs Israel, I would hope and pray that we do, regardless of the consequences. This wouldn't make up for years of many in this country of turning their backs to GOD, but it would at least be token appreciation to GOD for the many years of blessings GOD has showered on us. We share the same KING OF KINGS - JESUS CHRIST. If we get taken out defending GOD'S people, that would be a matter of love and honor to GOD.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Favorite Bible Quotes 193 - Isaiah 2:19-22 And they shall go into the
holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the
LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake
terribly the earth. 20 In that day a man shall cast his idols of
silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to
worship, to the moles and to the bats; 21 To go into the clefts of the
rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD,
and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly
the earth. 22 Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for
wherein is he to be accounted of?

[HisDaughter]

If no other country in the entire world backs Israel, I would hope and pray that we do, regardless of the consequences.

It is exactly my fear that if we get a Democrat in office, that we won't be backing Israel anymore.  I actually, in my heart of hearts, believe that there will come a day when we don't back Israel any longer.  I think this is something that has to happen to cause the great unrest that will usher in the Antichrist with his promise of peace.  Why else would Israel have reason to turn to him with their hope?  And sign a peace treaty.  If they still had America in their corner they wouldn't need to listen to him.

[Shammu]

Kuwaiti Paper: Hizbullah Arming Rockets With Gas

(IsraelNN.com) The Kuwaiti daily al-Siyasa reported today that Hizbullah has acquired  the chemicals needed to make chemical weapons such as nerve gas or mustard gas from North Korean suppliers and is allegedly preparing to arm its Katyusha rockets with chemical warheads. The Kuwaiti paper also declared that the assistance of Syria and Iran was crucial for Hizbullah’s efforts. The reports were based on information provided  to al-Siyasa by Syrian opposition figures in the United States.

Kuwaiti Paper: Hizbullah Arming Rockets With Gas
~~~~~~~~~~~

Israel has vowed any Chem/Bio/Nuclear weapon will be treated the same. Israel knows Syria controls Hizbullah with financial backing from Iran

There is a city starting with the letter "D" that might be worth watching, if the first chemical rocket lands in Israel.

[nChrist]

Kuwaiti Paper: Hizbullah Arming Rockets With Gas

(IsraelNN.com) The Kuwaiti daily al-Siyasa reported today that Hizbullah has acquired  the chemicals needed to make chemical weapons such as nerve gas or mustard gas from North Korean suppliers and is allegedly preparing to arm its Katyusha rockets with chemical warheads. The Kuwaiti paper also declared that the assistance of Syria and Iran was crucial for Hizbullah’s efforts. The reports were based on information provided  to al-Siyasa by Syrian opposition figures in the United States.

Kuwaiti Paper: Hizbullah Arming Rockets With Gas
~~~~~~~~~~~

Israel has vowed any Chem/Bio/Nuclear weapon will be treated the same. Israel knows Syria controls Hizbullah with financial backing from Iran

There is a city starting with the letter "D" that might be worth watching, if the first chemical rocket lands in Israel.

Hello DreamWeaver,

This would be a very stupid thing to do, but Bible Prophecy has already told us many stupid things will be done. Regardless, GOD has already told us that Damascus will be completely destroyed. This is so sure that we can consider it already done, and it will be. We don't know the time, but the time-table has already been set by GOD. It appears that time might be soon. This is simply a Bible fact that will be reality soon, and nothing can be done to prevent it. Christians should know that GOD keeps all of HIS Promises! AND, THERE IS MUCH MORE!

Love In Christ,
Tom

Favorite Bible Quotes 191 - Isaiah 13:9-13 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.

[Shammu]

Hizbullah moves into 'every town'
Jul. 17, 2008
Yaakov Katz
THE JERUSALEM POST

Hizbullah is bolstering its presence in south Lebanon villages with non-Shi'ite majorities by buying land and using it to build military positions and store missiles and launchers, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The decision to build infrastructure in non-Shi'ite villages - where Hizbullah has less support - is part of the group's post-war strategy under which it has mostly abandoned the "nature reserves," forested areas in southern Lebanon where it kept most of its Katyusha rocket launchers before the Second Lebanon War.

Behind the change is the mandate given to UNIFIL by the United Nations after the war in 2006. According to the mandate, the peacekeeping force can patrol freely throughout southern Lebanon but cannot enter villages or cities without being accompanied by soldiers from the Lebanese Armed Forces, which regularly tips off Hizbullah ahead of the raids.

News of the change in Hizbullah strategy came as Israel is trying to persuade the UN to strengthen UNIFIL's mandate to give it the right to patrol the villages freely.

"Hizbullah is moving into every town that it can," a senior defense official told the Post. "This is in order to evade UNIFIL detection."

On Thursday, Lebanese complained they were receiving recorded phone messages from Israel promising "harsh retaliation" for any future Hizbullah attack. The automated messages also warn against allowing Hizbullah to form "a state within a state" in the country.

The phone messages end with the words: "The State of Israel."

There was no immediate confirmation from Israel, though similar reports surfaced of Israeli phone campaigns during the 2006 war trying to persuade Lebanese not to support Hizbullah.

Lebanon's official National News Agency said residents in the country's south and east, as well as in Beirut reporting receiving the calls. It said Telecommunications Minister Jibran Bassil contacted the United Nations to complain, calling it a "flagrant aggression against Lebanese sovereignty."

Also Thursday, defense officials warned that with the prisoner swap completed, Hizbullah would no longer need to restrain itself and might decide to avenge the assassination of the group's operations chief, Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed by a car bomb in Damascus last February.

As a result, the IDF has slightly increased its level of alert along the border, based on the assessment that even if a retaliatory attack took place abroad the violence would spread to the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Hizbullah moves into 'every town'

[Shammu]

'Lebanese residents say Israel warned them not to support Hizbullah'
Jul. 17, 2008
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

Residents of Lebanon claimed that they had received warnings from Israel on their phones, Israel Radio reported Thursday.

The residents reportedly claimed that they were warned not to cooperate with Hizbullah and threatened with retribution in case Hizbullah launches a military attack on Israel.

'Lebanese residents say Israel warned them not to support Hizbullah'
~~~~~~~~

If this is true, I can't imagine what it might be like to get that particular phone call.

"Israel here, we need to talk."

[nChrist]

It would appear there is determination for another war against Israel. Any future aggression against Israel could easily escalate into Bible Prophecy and the End Days of this Age of Grace. Regardless, we should know that the time is short. It obviously won't take much to get most of the world involved. When the Prophetic Clock starts, the world will have NO control over it. What most of the world doesn't understand is that NOTHING can be done to stop, slow, or hasten what GOD said would happen. Bluntly, all will happen at GOD'S Appointed Time that was set before the foundation of the world. The time table and sequence of events will be GOD'S, including the loosing of the devil.

Sadly, most of the world doesn't believe this, laughs at it, and still laughs at GOD. Christians are made fun of and persecuted for trying to share the TRUTH and GOD'S GOSPEL. In fact, Christians are already being persecuted and killed in record numbers around the world. Nothing has been able to stop the preaching of the GOSPEL OF THE GRACE OF GOD around the world, regardless of the increasing number of Christians being killed. Bible Prophecy clearly states that the GOSPEL will be preached to the world, and it is. Great numbers of people are still accepting JESUS CHRIST as LORD and SAVIOUR! Through it all - THE TIME GROWS SHORT! Christians must believe this. This has been said many times in the distant past, but the Prophetic Signs were NOT present. As an example, many thought that Hitler might be the anti-Christ, but Israel WAS NOT in place. Israel IS in place now, and the requirements for starting the Prophetic Clock of the End Days of this Age of Grace have been met. The TIME is most definitely and clearly NEAR!

One doesn't need to be a Bible Scholar to see that things are near. One simply needs to read the Holy Bible and BELIEVE GOD 100%. Only a Christian would BELIEVE GOD 100%, so this is a key to knowing what's about to happen. We don't have to understand everything about the devil and evil - we just have to BELIEVE GOD!

Love In Christ,
Tom

Christian Quotes 110 -
Beware of wasted moments!
The marvels and triumphs of the printing-press have
now made accessible to peasant and laborer, the
wondrous blessing of Christian literature! Neither
Croesus nor Plato - the two old-world representatives
of wealth and thought - had a library to compare with
what is readily available to us.
Let the young especially prize this splendid inheritance,
making it alike a privilege and obligation to devote some
hours to reading and garnering mental stores. Let them
beware of wasted moments - golden ingots - too often
mortgaged to . . .
sloth,
frivolity,
idleness,
voluptuous ease and
degrading passion.
"Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." Ephesians 5:16
 -- John MacDuff  1895

[Shammu]

Syria Chooses: Assad to Visit Iran; Israel Continues Talks
 
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz

(IsraelNN.com) Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is to visit Iran this weekend, even as Syrian and Israeli negotiators are slated to continue talks in mid-August. Al-Assad's visit answers the Israeli demand that Syria choose between Iran and peace.

In meetings with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Assad will be discussing bilateral, regional and global matters. Among the issues on the agenda will be Iran's nuclear aspirations and its confrontation with the West, Syrian talks with Israel, and the situations in Lebanon and Iraq. Official Iranian sources said Ahmadinejad is looking forward to meeting Assad and furthering relations with Syria. He will greet the Syrian dictator in Tehran upon the the latter's arrival on Saturday.

In addition to Ahmadinejad, Assad is scheduled to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and other senior officials of the Islamic Republic during the two-day visit. The talks come on the heels of Tehran hosting a gathering of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), at which Ahmadinejad received support for Iran's nuclear program, and ahead of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's September visit to Damascus. The London-based al-Hayat newspaper reported that Assad and Ahmadinejad will be coordinating the message Assad will convey to Sarkozy on Iran.

Ali Larijani, Speaker of the Iranian Legislative Council, the Majlis, told Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mualem on Tuesday that Iran and Syria both play important roles in thwarting ongoing threats to the Muslim world. Therefore, he called for expanding bilateral cooperation and coordination in light of current regional and global conditions.

The Syrian Foreign Minister, who was in Tehran for the NAM meeting, concurred and added that such an alliance, expressed in international organizations and conferences, will serve the wider interests of the rest of the Middle East. Laying the groundwork for al-Assad's visit, Mualem met with Ahmadinejad, Mottaki and Larijani over the past few days.

Syria Chooses Iran
Assad's upcoming visit to Iran may be seen as a direct reply to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's statement this week that Syria must choose between maintaining its relationship with Iran and peaceful international relations.

Speaking at the National Defense College graduation ceremony in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Olmert said, "The peace negotiations depend on Syria. There is no place solely for overtures, but there must also be action. Syria must decide between Iran, the axis of evil and international isolation, and between peace and prosperity."

However, he confimed, Israel "is continuing with the negotiations in good faith, with the intent of giving Syria a genuine alternative, so that it may make the right decision."

In a statement, al-Assad said that Israel's ultimatum is "as if Syria asked Israel to break off relations with the United States."

Since May, Israeli and Syrian negotiators have been conducting indirect talks, brokered by Turkey. The latest of four such meetings concluded in Istanbul on Wednesday, with a fifth session scheduled for mid-August. Neither al-Assad's upcoming visit to Iran, nor the recent mutual Syrian and Iranian declarations of coordination have, as yet, changed those plans. In fact, a sixth round of Israel-Syria indirect talks is slated for September. 

Syria Chooses: Assad to Visit Iran; Israel Continues Talks

[Shammu]

Syria's grand mufti invites pope to Syria
ASSOCIATED PRESS

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Syria's grand mufti, the country's top Sunni Muslim religious authority, says he would like to meet Pope Benedict XVI and persuade him to visit Syria.

The mufti, Sheik Ahmad Badereddine Hassoun, made the comments in Damascus, according to the Italian news agency Apcom and other reports Friday.

"I would like to invite the Holy Father to visit our country, following in the footsteps of St. Paul," Hassoun was quoted by Apcom as saying. "I am available for a meeting at the Vatican. I would like to see him one on one to plan the visit together."

Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul II, made a groundbreaking visit to the Ummayad Mosque in Damascus in May 2001.

Benedict has been vacationing in the Italian Alps.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the invitation attests to the current "serene climate" in Syria and "good relations" with the country.

Benedict has been trying to improve ties with Islam since giving a speech in Germany in 2006 that angered many in the Muslim world.

In the Regensburg University speech, Benedict cited a medieval text that characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith."

The pope later said he was "deeply sorry" about the reactions his remarks sparked and stressed that they did not reflect his own opinion.

Hassoun, a moderate cleric, said the case was closed.

"There is a dialogue, and between religions and intellectuals there are always discussions," he said, according to Apcom. "One can fight with one's wife, but then the love grows."

Hassoun is among a group of 138 Muslim scholars that has called for greater dialogue between Christians and Muslims.

Benedict XVI met with Syria's vice president in September to discuss the situation of Christians in Syria and the role Damascus should play in bringing peace to the Middle East.

The pope has urged Syria to use its influence in the region to help resolve conflicts and counter terrorism.

Syria's grand mufti invites pope to Syria

[Shammu]

Syria turned away IAEA

By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer Sat Aug 9, 5:17 AM ET

VIENNA, Austria - Syria has blocked a new visit by International Atomic Energy Agency experts seeking to follow up on intelligence that Damascus built a secret nuclear program built with the help of North Korea, diplomats told The Associated Press on Saturday.

The diplomats also said Washington was circulating a note among members of the IAEA board opposing a Syrian push for a seat on the 35-nation board. The board normally works by consensus and a seat held by Damascus could thus hamper any investigation into its alleged nuclear activities.

Syria fears a massive atomic agency investigation similar to the probe Iran has been subjected to more than five years.

"Syria's election to the board while under investigation for secretly ... building an undeclared nuclear reactor not suited for peaceful purposes would make a mockery" of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, said the note, as read to the AP.

The diplomats said that the U.S. was pushing to encourage Kazakhstan to challenge Damascus for the seat, but the Kazakhs apparently are reluctant to do so, fearing lack of support.

Syria rejected the IAEA request for a visit late last month, the diplomats said. The visit would have been a follow up to an initial trip by IAEA inspectors in June.

"The Syrians said that a visit at this time was inopportune," said a senior diplomat, who, like two others agreeing to discuss the issue, demanded anonymity because their information was confidential.

That appeared to leave open the possibility of a later visit. But one of the other diplomats said members of the Syrian mission to the IAEA were spreading the word among other missions that further trips beyond the one in June were unlikely.

If so, that could cripple international efforts to probe U.S. allegations that a site in a remote part of the Syrian desert, which Israel destroyed last year, was a near-finished plutonium-producing reactor built with North Korean help, and that Damascus continues to hide linked facilities.

IAEA experts came back June 25 from a four-day visit, carrying environmental samples from the Al Kibar site hit by Israel in September. Those are now being evaluated.

But the results might fall short of providing a conclusive results.

A traditional method at suspected nuclear sites — taking swipes in the search for radioactive traces — was unlikely to have been of use at Al Kibar. That's because none had been introduced into the alleged reactor before it was struck by Israel, according to intelligence given to the agency by the U.S., Israel and a third country the diplomats declined to identify.

So, the inspectors also looked for minute quantities of graphite, which is used as a cooling element in the type of North Korean prototype that was allegedly being built with help from Pyongyang. Such a reactor contains hundreds of tons of graphite, and any major explosion would have sent dust over the immediate area.

But — if the Syrians were interested in a cover-up — they would have scoured the region to bury, wash away and otherwise remove any such traces. And although U.S. intelligence says the reactor was close to completion, it is possible that graphite elements were not yet installed at the time of the Sept. 6 bombing.

If so, the initial probe might be inconclusive, making further trips necessary. The agency also is interested in going to three other locations suspected of possibly harboring other secret nuclear activities — sites the Syrians insist are off limits.

More broadly, IAEA experts had hoped to use a follow-up visit to put questions to Syrian officials based on the intelligence available to them outlining years of extensive cooperation between the Syrians and teams of visiting North Korean nuclear officials.

North Korea exploded a nuclear device in 2006. The North is believed by experts to have produced enough weapons-grade plutonium to make as many as 10 nuclear bombs before agreeing to dismantle its weapons program early last year.

But the diplomats said Syria was strenuously denying any concerted North Korean presence in the country — despite U.S. intelligence alleging that the building bombed was reactor of the type only built by the communist state.

They said Syrian officials described meetings between nuclear officials from Pyongyang and their Syrian counterparts occasional and informal, despite intelligence information to the contrary.

Syria turned away IAEA

[Shammu]

Seems like the bombing of the Syrian ‘nuclear bomb plant’ last year, have produced results the Syrian government didn't want.

[Shammu]

Syria, Lebanon to negotiate border demarcation

08.14.08, 23:20
Israel News

Syria and Lebanon agreed Thursday to negotiate the demarcation of their border, a longtime demand of the Lebanese as they seek to normalize relations with their long dominant larger neighbor.

The demarcation is a key symbolic move recognizing Lebanon's sovereignty, as is a decision by the two

countries a day earlier to establish diplomatic ties for the first time. But it won't mean an end to Syria's influence in Lebanon, and some Lebanese - as well as Washington - remain concerned Damascus will continue to try to exercise power in its neighbor.

Syria, Lebanon to negotiate border demarcation

[Shammu]

President Assad to meet President Medvedev in Moscow
Aug. 14, 2008
JPost.com Staff
THE JERUSALEM POST

Syrian President Bashar Assad will arrive in Moscow next week to meet with his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvdev, Army Radio reported Thursday.

Among other issues, the two leaders will discuss Syria's indirect talks with Israel and the Iranian nuclear plan, sources in Damascus told Al-Hayat Newspaper.

According to the Syrian sources, Russia was still interested in hosting a peace summit of Middle Eastern nations, as a follow up to the 2007 Annapolis summit, hosted by the United States.

President Assad to meet President Medvedev in Moscow

[Shammu]

Syria may host Russian missiles

Aug. 20, 2008
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

Syrian President Bashar Assad has pledged to support Russia in its conflict with Georgia and said that Damascus was ready to consider deploying Russian Iskander missile systems in its territory, in response to the US missile shield in Europe.

In an interview with the Russian paper Kommersant, cited by the Interfax News Agency, Assad said regarding the option to install Rusian missiles on Syrian ground "In principle, yes. We have not thought of it yet. No such proposal has been received. In any case, all similar projects must be first studied by military experts. And when everything is decided, we will
make an open and public announcement," Assad said in the interview, published on Wednesday, the day before his visit to Russia was scheduled to begin.

The Iskander missile (NATO reporting name SS-26 Stone) is a short range, solid fuel propelled, theater quasi-ballistic missile system.

The system is intended to use conventional warheads for the engagement of small and area targets, such as hostile fire weapons (missile systems, multiple launch rocket systems, long-range artillery pieces), air and antimissile defence weapons, especially those located in relatively fixed sites, command posts and communications nodes, critical civilian infrastructure facilities and other vital small and area targets.

During his visit, Assad will meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Assad's visit to Moscow is primarily meant as an introduction between him and Russia's recently appointed Medvedev, but the visit follows on the heels of Russia's attack on Georgia and a top Russian general's remarks that Israel was one of Georgia's key arms suppliers.

Syria was a client state of Russia during the Soviet era and the Syrian military is equipped mostly with Soviet-made weapons.

The Qatari-based Al Wattan quoted Syrian sources as saying the meeting would deal with the crisis in Georgia and with the importance of the strategic alliance between Damascus and Moscow, which, the sources said, "has always been a stabilizing factor in the Middle East."

Syria kept its strategic ties with Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union, and is still a buyer of Russian arms.

Al Wattan analysts assessed that during Assad's present visit, as in the past, Russia and Syria would sign deals for the sale of advanced weapons. The sources quoted by the paper said Syria's interest in the Russian-Georgian conflict grew "following the surprising discoveries of the dangerous role Israel played in transferring weapons to Georgia and the involvement of Israeli Mossad in carrying out terror attacks against Russian citizens in South Ossetia and Abkhazia."

Besides the military cooperation, the two countries also have economic interests. Tatneft, one of Russia's 10 top oil producers, is conducting geological surveys in Syria and plans to drill exploratory wells in Syria under a 2005 contract.

Despite speculation that this visit could up the ante in the region, from Syria's perspective, bolstering defense ties with Russia is entirely defensive, Dr. Samir A-Taqi, director of the Damascus-based Orient Center for Studies said.

"It's mainly repelling dangers more than anything else," he told The Media Line. "The balance of force in the region is broken and a restoration of balance would be positive to allow and convince different belligerents to come to the table. The Syrians are fighting to negotiate," he said.

Syria may host Russian missiles