News items that look towards Ezekiel 38 & 39

[Shammu]

TIME Speculates Israel May Attack Hizbullah

(IsraelNN.com) TIME magazine has reported that signs point to Israel's preparing for an attack on Hizbullah terrorists in Lebanon. Journalist Nicholas Blanford, writing from Beirut, pointed out that the IDF last week carried out a large-exercise as Israeli jets staged mock raids in Lebanese airspace. The flights drew anti-aircraft retaliation from Lebanese armed forces, the first time the army has shot at the planes since the end of the Second Lebanon War.

Branford also pointed out that Israel has reported to the United Nations that Hizbullah has re-armed with long-range missiles capable of hitting Tel Aviv from north of the Litani River, outside the patrol area of U.N. Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

The TIME journalist also reported that Major General Moshe Kaplinsky, outgoing deputy IDF Chief of Staff, said at a recent panel that Israel should conduct pre-emptive strikes in Hizbullah. Referring to Defense Minister Ehud Barak's refusal of IDF advice to attack Hizbullah after its terrorists kidnapped three Israeli soldiers in 2000, when Barak was prime minister, the reporter concluded, "That restraint encouraged Hizbullah over the next six years to build up an impressive military infrastructure of secret bunkers and rocket firing positions in the hills and valleys of south Lebanon, which was put to good use in last year's war."

TIME Speculates Israel May Attack Hizbullah

[Shammu]

Couple this with the reports that Israel is getting ready for a major operation in Gaza as well does not look good. Things look dark down the road for Israel, but there is light at the end of the tunnel, God will save them in the end, Glory to the Lamb of God.

I wonder what the comet looks like from the Israeli sky?? If the comet is indeed a sign, it would be very interesting to know what it looks like from Israel.

After reading all the news since 1:30 this morning. I have a crick in my neck from shaking my head so much this morning.

We need an shaking head smilie!!

[nChrist]

Couple this with the reports that Israel is getting ready for a major operation in Gaza as well does not look good. Things look dark down the road for Israel, but there is light at the end of the tunnel, God will save them in the end, Glory to the Lamb of God.

I wonder what the comet looks like from the Israeli sky?? If the comet is indeed a sign, it would be very interesting to know what it looks like from Israel.

After reading all the news since 1:30 this morning. I have a crick in my neck from shaking my head so much this morning.

We need an shaking head smilie!!

Hello Dreamweaver,

Thanks Brother! I'll look for a shaking head smilie for you.     I share many of your same thoughts. You've posted some news that I haven't heard about yet, but I had the same thoughts about the comet. It's a fascinating time that we live in. We have 1,000 percent agreement in Glory to the Lamb of God

Love In Christ,
Tom

Isaiah 13:9-13 NASB
Behold, the day of the LORD is coming, Cruel, with fury and burning anger, To make the land a desolation; And He will exterminate its sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not flash forth their light; The sun will be dark when it rises And the moon will not shed its light. Thus I will punish the world for its evil And the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud And abase the haughtiness of the ruthless. I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold And mankind than the gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, And the earth will be shaken from its place At the fury of the LORD of hosts In the day of His burning anger.

[HisDaughter]

We need an shaking head smilie!!

Here ya go Brother-

He did not rule out joint military action with Turkey against the PKK.

This is interesting considering that Turkey is itching to fight.  Just a small matter of time before they join this.

[Shammu]

Israel on offensive against IAEA over Iran

9 hours ago

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Campaigning for tougher sanctions on Tehran, Israel went on the offensive on Tuesday against the UN nuclear watchdog, accusing its chief Mohammed ElBaradei of playing into Iran's hands over its atomic drive.

The campaign comes with the International Atomic Energy Agency poised to publish a new report on Iran's nuclear ambitions, to serve as a key part of further discussions at the United Nations on whether to impose a third round of sanctions on Tehran.

"Unfortunately there are foreign officials playing the Iranians' game by contributing to the Iranian strategy of foot-dragging," Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev told AFP.

"From this point of view the International (Atomic Energy) Agency and its leadership are guilty," Regev added.

"One could ask whether the agency agreed to fulfil the role the Iranians want it to play, to allow Tehran to implement its strategy," he said.

Permanent members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany, are backing a third UN Security Council resolution and vote on Iran, unless upcoming IAEA and EU reports show "a positive outcome."

But China and Russia, which could in theory veto further sanctions, have yet to call publicly for more punishment against the Islamic republic.

"The ayatollahs hope the pace of diplomatic discussions under way is as slow as possible so they (the Iranians) can continue with their nuclear armaments programme at a faster pace," said Regev.

Israel and its chief ally the United States charge that Tehran is using its civilian nuclear programme as a cover to develop atomic weapons -- claims that Tehran flatly denies.

Senior Israeli army intelligence officer Yossi Beidetz told parliament's foreign affairs and defence ministry that Iran could acquire the bomb by 2009.

"Assuming Iran is not faced with difficulties, the most severe scenario is that Iran could have a nuclear bomb by the end of 2009," Beidetz was quoted by committee members as saying.

Israel, which belongs to the IAEA but has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, is widely considered to be the Middle East's sole -- if undeclared -- nuclear-armed nation.

It considers Iran its chief enemy after repeated statements by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Jewish state should be wiped off the map.

Last month, on a tour of UN Security Council members to push for tougher sanctions against Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also criticised the IAEA chief.

"If ElBaradei thinks that an Iranian bomb in three years time does not bother him, it certainly worries me, even extremely," Olmert said in France.

"It would be better if ElBaradei made an effort to prevent them from obtaining a bomb."

ElBaradei said in an interview with France's Le Monde newspaper that Iran would need "between three and eight years" to develop a nuclear bomb and that there were was no immediate threat.

"I want to get people away from the idea that Iran represents a clear and present danger and that we're now facing the decision whether to bombard Iran or let them have the bomb. We're not in that situation at all," he said.

Gerald Steinberg, political science professor at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv, suggested that ElBaradei could either be anti-American or trying to avoid an attack on Iran at any price.

"What is certainly the case is that there is an increasingly flagrant contradiction between IAEA technical reports clearly showing Iran's intentions to build nuclear weapons and the mollifying conclusions of ElBaradei," he said.

In 1981, Israel bombed a nuclear reactor in Iraq, which under the rule of now executed dictator Saddam Hussein was its biggest enemy. The raid was heavily criticised by the United States and UN Security Council.

Israel on offensive against IAEA over Iran

[Shammu]

I know of at least 3 site that are in Iran, nuke program.

Natanz, this is the site, everyone knows about.

Arak, this is Iran's heavy water plant.

Esfahan, this is the bad boy of the bunch. Here it is estimated that plutonium can, and will be made here by (2008) by quite a few different world government agencies. Among them the governments of Israel, U.S.A., Canada, Saudi Arabia, and England.

[Shammu]

Saudi king to hold landmark meeting with pope

Rome, 5 Nov.(AKI) - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah Bin-Abd-al-Aziz Al Saud arrived in Italy late on Monday with a 22-member delegation for a two-day visit to the capital, Rome. During his stay he was due to meet Italy's president Georgio Napolitano, prime minister Romano Prodi and Pope Benedict XVI - for the first time.

Diplomatic sources told Adnkronos that the visit was taking place in the context of a consolidated relationship between Italy and Saudi Arabia. The leaders will sign on Tuesday sign several key accords in the areas of counter-terrorism, defence, higher education, professional training and health, the sources said.

Abdullah's talks with top government and institutional representatives are expected to centre on international politics, especially Lebanon, the Arab-Israeli peace process, Iraq and Iran's nuclear file.

Italian diplomats told Adnkronos they will be asking Abdullah and his delegation to elaborate on a recent Saudi proposal for a consortium of Gulf states to enrich uranium in a 'neutral country' as a way out of the international crisis over Iran's nuclear programme.

Abdullah's first official engagement was a dinner on Monday as Napolitano's guest at the Quirinale Palace - official residence of the Italian president.

The Saudi monarch is due on Tuesday to pay an historic visit the Vatican - a state with which Saudi Arabia does not have diplomatic relations - for an audience with Benedict XVI.

Custodian of the Mecca and Medina mosques in Saudia Arabia - two of the holiest Muslim sites - Abdullah is the first Saudi king to meet a pope.

Discussions between Abdullah - viewed as a moderate reformer - and Benedict XVI are expected to focus on increasing dialogue between Catholics and Muslims.

Although it does not have diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, the Vatican has ties with many other Islamic nations.

It is forbidden to practise Christianity inside Saudi Arabia and illegal to bring symbols from religions other than Islam into the country. Bibles and crucifixes must be left at the border.

The Vatican has stressed its demands for "reciprocity" meaning that countries such as Saudi Arabia should ease limits on worship by Christians and other non-Muslims.

Church relations with Muslims were badly strained last year after a speech by the pontiff in Germany linking Islam to violence. Benedict later said he regretted that Muslims were offended by his remarks, and the Vatican has since tried to improve relations with Muslims.

Abdullah will on Tuesday meet Rome's mayor and leader of the newly formed centre-left Democratic Party, Walter Veltroni. Also on Tuesday, he will meet Prodi during a meeting of the joint Italo-Saudi Business Council taking place at Rome's Excelsior Hotel.

Abdullah will later hold separate talks with Prodi and Italy's foreign minister Massimo D'Alema at the Renaissance Villa Madama, where he is staying during his visit.

Abdullah is on a 13-day European tour that has already taken in Britain and includes Germany and Turkey on the next leg of his journey.

Saudi king to hold landmark meeting with pope

[Shammu]

Historic Saudi visit to Vatican
6 November 2007

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has met Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican - the first audience by the head of the Roman Catholic Church with a Saudi monarch.

The Vatican described the private meeting as "warm" and said the two men discussed the presence and hard work of Christians in Saudi Arabia.

An estimated 1.5m Christians live in Saudi Arabia but are not allowed to worship publicly.

The Vatican said Abdullah requested the audience as part of a European tour.

The two sides have no diplomatic ties, although when Abdullah was crown prince he met the late Pope John Paul II.

Correspondents say the visit comes as relations between the Vatican and the Muslim world are improving, more than a year after the crisis caused by a papal speech appearing to associate Islam with violence.

The 84-year-old Saudi monarch is on the third leg of his European tour after visiting the UK and Switzerland. He will travel next to Germany and Turkey.

Inter-faith dialogue

Pope Benedict warmly greeted King Abdullah at the Vatican on Tuesday, grasping both his hands before leading him to a library for their brief private meeting, which lasted only 30 minutes, with both leaders speaking through interpreters.

Afterwards, the king offered his host a gold sword encrusted with jewels. He was given a 16th Century engraving of the Vatican in return.

The Vatican said the talks allowed a wide discussion on the need for religious and cultural dialogue among Christians, Muslims and Jews "for the promotion of peace, justice and spiritual and moral values, especially in support of the family."

Both sides also emphasised the need for a "just solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Vatican said.

About a million Catholics, many of them migrant workers from the Philippines, live in the conservative desert kingdom, which is the home of Islam's holiest shrines.

They are allowed to worship in private, mostly in people's homes, but worship in public places and outward signs of faith, such as crucifixes, are forbidden.

Christians complain that rules are not clear and hardline Muslim authorities sometimes crack down on legitimate congregations.

"The most important thing is to get the possibility to gather in freedom and security for our worship, our masses and our activities," said Bishop Paul Hinder, responsible for Catholics in Arabia, in an interview with Reuters news agency.

The Saudi authorities cite a tradition of the Prophet Muhammad that only Islam can be practised in the Arabian Peninsula.

King Abdullah, who is styled the Custodian of the Two Sacred Mosques - in Mecca and Medina - is an advocate of cautious reform in Saudi Arabia, often against the wishes of the powerful conservative religious establishment.

The BBC's Frances Harrison in Rome says the symbolism of the meeting was huge for those who believe there should be more dialogue between Islam and Christianity, especially after the pontiff's controversial September 2006 speech at Regensburg University.

In it, he quoted Emperor Manuel II Paleologos of the Byzantine Empire, who said in the 14th Century that the Prophet Muhammad had brought only "evil and inhuman" things.

The pope later stressed that these had not been his own words and expressed regret for any offence they had caused.

Historic Saudi visit to Vatican

[Shammu]

Some how that doesn't surprise me none. Dr. Joe VanKoervering has a book out for which he mentions that the RCC & Islam will eventually merge. They after all, have one common denominator who they worship. Can any of y'all guess who she is, that puts her on common ground with Islam?

[Shammu]

U.S. Navy starts exercises in Gulf waters

MANAMA (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy began a series of exercises in the Gulf and wider Gulf waters on Friday involving a U.S aircraft carrier and two expeditionary assault ships.

The five-day crisis response exercise involved amphibious, air and medical forces, the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, headquartered in Bahrain, said in a statement.

"The scenario is challenging but prepares us for a real-world event," Commander Jay Chambers, of Combined Task Force 59, said.

The start of the exercises coincided with world powers agreeing at talks in London to push ahead with a third round of sanctions against Iran, unless reports indicate Tehran has tried to address their concerns about its nuclear programme.

Washington has not ruled out military action against Iran, which lies on the Gulf. Tehran denies it is seeking nuclear weapons.

Fifth Fleet spokesman Lieutenant John Gay said the exercises had been planned for months and were not related to specific events, instead outlining only humanitarian assistance and natural disaster scenarios for the manoeuvres.

"Our primary goal is to enforce maritime security including the free flow of commerce through the Gulf for all regional partners ... We are committed to keeping the Strait of Hormuz open to ensure that there is a free flow of commerce throughout the region," Gay said.

The United States has launched several war games at Iran's doorstep in recent years. In June, the largest U.S. military flotilla to enter the Gulf since the 2003 Iraq war wound up two weeks of war drills off Iran's coast and near the Strait of Hormuz, a major channel for oil shipments from the Gulf.

Iran has dismissed the U.S. naval war games near its waters as a morale boosting exercise for American forces.

An Iranian Revolutionary Guards naval commander suggested on Monday that Iran's Islamic militia forces would be capable of disrupting strategic Gulf oil shipping routes with a small operation if ever the need arose.

Chambers said the manoeuvres were designed to practise a coordinated response to a natural disaster or crisis in the region.

The navy said the exercise inside the Gulf was led by a task force that includes the Wasp, an amphibious assault ship. The vessel, which looks like a small aircraft carrier, carries Marine corps helicopters and landing craft.

The navy also said the aircraft carrier Enterprise and its strike group and the Kearsarge expeditionary strike group had begun training in wider Gulf waters.

The Kearsarge is another amphibious assault ship equipped with helicopters and landing craft. The U.S. Marine Corps operates from the ship, which is designed for rapid deployment.

"Multiple strike groups are capable of executing a broad range of operations," the U.S. Navy said.

U.S. Navy starts exercises in Gulf waters

[Shammu]

The U.S. Navy began a series of exercises in the Gulf and wider Gulf waters on Friday involving a U.S aircraft carrier and two expeditionary assault ships.

The five-day crisis response exercise involved amphibious, air and medical forces, the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, headquartered in Bahrain, said in a statement.

Perhaps Pakistan could be the real reason why we're there. Keep a eye on the Nukes, and the Pakistan government.

[HisDaughter]

The Vatican said the talks allowed a wide discussion on the need for religious and cultural dialogue among Christians, Muslims and Jews "for the promotion of peace, justice and spiritual and moral values, especially in support of the family."

Historic Saudi visit to Vatican

They accomplished all that in 30 minutes? 

[Soldier4Christ]

They accomplished all that in 30 minutes? 

Yeah, it doesn't take long to say subjugate to islam and to get a response of ok even through interpreters.

[Shammu]

Yeah, it doesn't take long to say subjugate to islam and to get a response of ok even through interpreters.

Yup!!

[Littleboy]

Iran says it reaches nuclear milestone By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 3 minutes ago
 


BIRJAND, Iran - Iran has reached a milestone in its nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday, suggesting that the country now has 3,000 uranium-enriching centrifuges fully operating.


 
"We have now reached 3,000 machines," Ahmadinejad told thousands of Iranians gathered in Birjand, in eastern Iran, in a show of defiance of international demands to halt the program that the U.S. and its allies say masks the country's nuclear arms efforts.

Ahmadinejad has in the past claimed that Iran had succeeded in installing the 3,000 centrifuges at its uranium enrichment facility at Natanz.

But Wednesday's claim appeared to go further, with Ahmadinejad's words and the tone and setting of his Wednesday speech suggesting he meant all 3,000 were running.

An official with knowledge of Iran's nuclear activities said that Iran does now have nearly 3,000 centrifuges operating at Natanz. But that official said it would take years for all the centrifuges to run smoothly without frequent breakdowns.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the sensitive program.

The number 3,000 is the commonly accepted figure for a nuclear enrichment program that is past the experimental stage and can be used as a platform for a full industrial-scale program that could churn out enough enriched material for dozens of nuclear weapons, should Iran chose to go the route.

Experts have estimated Iran would need only 1,500 centrifuges to produce one such warhead.

In Washington, the State Department could not confirm the accuracy of Ahmadinejad's statement but said it was proof that that Iran was continuing to defy international demands.

"Generally, the Iranians have followed through on doing what they said they were going to do," spokesman Sean McCormack said. "That isn't to say that I am aware that they have reached the 3,000 centrifuge mark, but they have been very consistent in pushing toward the goals they have laid out for themselves.

"Whether it is 2,000 or 2,500 or 3,000 or 1,000 centrifuges, the irrefutable fact is that they are continuing to defy the international community, that they have refused the offers of negotiations and cooperation offered them," McCormack said.

A recent report by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei that had put the number of centrifuges working in Natanz at close to 2,000, with another 650 being tested.

Officials from the Vienna-based agency could not be reached for immediate comment Wednesday.

Uranium gas, spun in linked centrifuges, can result in either low-enriched fuel suitable to generate power in a nuclear reactor, or the weapons-grade material that forms the fissile core of nuclear warheads.

Tehran denies that Iran is using its civilian nuclear program as a cover for weapons' development, insisting it is geared toward generating electricity.

Iran says it plans to expand its enrichment program to up to 54,000 centrifuges at Natanz in central Iran, and is fully within its rights to pursue the enrichment to produce fuel under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Two rounds of U.N. Security Council sanctions have failed to persuade Iran to halt the enrichment.

Ahmadinejad on Wednesday reiterated his rejection of any suspension of Iran's enrichment activities, or even a compromise over how Tehran will proceed beyond the 3,000 centrifuges.

"The world must know that this nation will not give up one iota of its nuclear rights," he said. "If they think they can get concessions from this nation, they are badly mistaken."

Here we go, man o man!