Israel news from within Israel

[Def]

'Yahalom'  I had to look it up..... It is the word for diamond, and means fearless or invincible.

David had that trait when he met Goliath, Meshach, Shadrach and Abenego in the fire, Daniel in the lions den, Moses in the face of Pharoah, Messiah in the Garden. Israel in the present world........

We should be Yahalom...

IN THE NAME OF CHRIST JESUS " YAHALOM " ALWAYS TO YOU TOO AND TO ME..YEAH I LIKE THAT VERY VERY MUCH ..MAY THE GOODNESS OF GOD FOLLOW US  YOOPI!!""YAHALOM""
IN JESUS Def.

[Soldier4Christ]

Muslims hijack Jesus' birthplace 
Street peddlers bombard tourists, block Christian stores outside Manger Square

Muslim street peddlers here bombarded tourists with discounted souvenirs in Manger Square – the hub of Bethlehem's holiday activity – setting up shop in front of Christian stores some of whose owners complained their businesses were being hijacked.

"Tourism is up this year. Christians are visiting from all over. They come out of the Church of the Nativity and before they arrive at my store they've already been approached by a half-dozen Muslim vendors selling the same stuff but cheaper," said the manager of one shop situated across from the Church of the Nativity alongside Manger Square.

"We lower the prices, but then the vendors do, too," the manager complained.

The church is the believed birthplace of Jesus. It has seen an increase in the number of visitors since last year, according to locals. Directly outside the church begins the Manger Square thoroughfare, site of religious activity, Christmas decorations and mostly Christian-owned stores.

But the thoroughfare has been packed with Muslim vendors selling souvenirs and religious items such as crosses and cedarwood carvings – much the same objects found in the surrounding Christian stores.

Church visitors cannot exit the large structure without passing through the swarms of vendors.

Several local Christians, speaking on condition of anonymity, charged the Muslim vendors set up their stations without required permits after paying what were described as "special commissions" to the Palestinian Authority security forces that control the city.

WND asked three vendors if they had obtained permits, but they refused to respond.

Upon observing the scene for an afternoon, it was clear during that time the Muslim vendors were raking in the majority of business. According to local shopworkers, this has been the situation for the past two weeks.

The scene was the latest episode of Bethlehem's dwindling Christian population, which has reportedly been the target of rampant Islamic intimidation and persecution.

Bethlehem consisted of up to 80 percent Christians when Israel was founded in 1948, but immediately after the Palestinian Authority took over in 1995 in line with the U.S.-backed Oslo Accords, the Christian population quickly declined to about 23 percent, with a large majority of Muslims. The 23 percent Christian statistic is considered generous since it includes the satellite towns of Beit Sahour and Beit Jala. Some estimates place Bethlehem's actual Christian population as low as 12 percent, with hundreds of Christians emigrating every year.

Christian leaders and residents, most of whom spoke to WND on condition of anonymity during recent interviews, said they face an atmosphere of regular hostility. They said Palestinian armed groups stir tension by holding militant demonstrations and marches in the streets. They spoke of instances in which Christian shopkeepers' stores were ransacked and Christian homes attacked.

They said in the past, Palestinian gunmen fired at Israelis from Christian hilltop communities, drawing Israeli anti-terror raids to their towns.

In 2002, dozens of terrorists holed up inside the Church of the Nativity for 39 days while fleeing a massive Israeli anti-terror operation. Israel surrounded the church area but refused to storm the structure. Gunmen inside included wanted senior Hamas, Tanzim and Brigades terrorists reportedly involved in suicide bombings and shooting attacks. More than 200 nuns and priests were trapped in the church after Israeli hostage negotiators failed to secure their release.

Some Christian leaders said one of the most significant problems facing Christians in Bethlehem is the rampant confiscation of land by Muslim gangs.

"There are many cases where Christians have their land stolen by the [Muslim] mafia," said Samir Qumsiyeh, a Bethlehem Christian leader and owner of the Beit Sahour-based private Al-Mahd (Nativity) TV station.

"It is a regular phenomenon in Bethlehem. They go to a poor Christian person with a forged power of attorney document, then they say we have papers proving you're living on our land. If you confront them, many times the Christian is beaten. You can't do anything about it. The Christian loses and he runs away," Qumsiyeh told WND, speaking form his hilltop television station during a recent interview.

Qumsiyeh himself said he was targeted by Islamic gangs. He said his home was firebombed after he returned from a trip abroad during which he gave public speeches outlining the plight of Bethlehem's Christian population.

One Christian Bethlehem resident told WND her friend recently fled Bethlehem after being accused by Muslims of selling property to Jews, a crime punishable by death in some Palestinian cities. The resident said a good deal of the intimidation comes from gunmen associated with PA President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization.

A Jerusalem Post article in February cited the case of Faud and Georgette Lama, Christian residents of Bethlehem who said their land was stolen by local Muslims and when they tried to do something about it, Faud was beaten by gunmen.

Qumsiyeh and other Christian leaders said if current trends in Bethlehem continue, there may be no Christians left in the city in 15 years. He said he appealed to U.S. Christian leaders to help initiate housing projects and find ways to fortify and strengthen Bethlehem's Christian population, but that little assistance was offered.

"The way things are, soon there will not be a single Christian living in the land of Jesus," he said.

[Shammu]

Jews demand right to pray on Temple Mount
Israeli law forbids non-Muslim worship while Hamas broadcasting from Judaism's holiest site
Posted: December 25, 2007
10:50 p.m. Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

JERUSALEM – Rabbinic leaders and Temple Mount activist groups here today demanded the Israeli government allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount – Judaism's holiest site.

Israeli restrictions forbid Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount and only allow Jews to ascend for certain hours on some days while the Mount is open to Muslims yearlong. Muslim prayer services take place throughout the day on the many mosques and Islamic religious schools situated on the holy site.

"We demand the Government of Israel allow the Jewish people to have freedom of religious expression on the Temple Mount. This will serve as a preliminary step in confirming the Jewish people's inexorable connection with the Temple Mount, location of the Holy Temple, under the sovereignty of the people of Israel," states a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert signed by the leaders of the New Jewish Congress, the Sanhedrin and the Holy Temple and Temple Mount movements.

The Congress is a group of religious Zionist leaders here while the Sanhedrin consists of prominent rabbinic leaders who in 2004 reformed the ancient group of Jewish judges that previously constituted the legislative body of Israel. The reformed Sanhedrin has been a subject of debate within some Jewish communities.

The rabbinic leaders and activists demanded the Israeli government move toward allowing non-Muslim worship by initially establishing special days for Jewish communal prayer in fixed locations on the Temple Mount.

They demanded Olmert allow prayer on the Mount on important Jewish holidays, including Passover, Shavuot, Sukkot, Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, the first day of Hanukkah and on the Israeli national holidays of Jerusalem Day and Israeli Independence Day.

Not all rabbinic figures allow Jewish prayer on the Mount although many schools do as long as entry and prayer is restricted to outer areas of the Mount, which can be measured by a change in the kind of foundation stone.

According to Jewish law, the sanctity of the Temple Mount is structured in concentric circles. In the innermost circles, where the Holy of Holies was said to be located, the restrictions of Jewish access are the greatest. Jewish tradition and literature relates that during Temple times, only the kohen gadal, or high priest, was allowed to enter the most restricted area, and this happened once a year on Yom Kippur. The outer layers are less restricted.

The rabbis' and activists' letter to Olmert was prompted by an episode last week – reported exclusively by WND – in which Israeli forces closed the Mount to Jews during an important Jewish fast day mourning the First Temple's destruction while the Hamas terror organization broadcast from the Mount's Al Aqsa Mosque, which Muslims say is their third holiest site.

"In light of the broadcast of Hamas from the Temple Mount and the serious implications of this situation, we demand that the Government of Israel allow the Jewish people to have freedom of religious expression on the Temple Mount," stated the rabbis' letter to Olmert.

WND broke the story that Hamas Wednesday exclusively broadcast Muslim prayers from the Mount's Al Aqsa Mosque on the group's official radio station, Al Aqsa Radio. The services are broadcast alongside anti-Semitic commentary, including incitement against Jews.

The official Hamas radio network announced last week it would continue airing exclusive daily streams of Muslim morning services from the Temple Mount, and, indeed, the broadcasts continued yesterday as scheduled. Hamas radio is heard throughout Palestinian cities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"Our broadcast is a victory for the Al Aqsa Mosque, which is suffering from Judaization efforts imposed by the Zionist government. Broadcasting daily radio is a way to bring Al Aqsa to the Gaza Strip and challenge the siege imposed on us by the Zionist entity," said Rami Kaoud, a manager at Al Aqsa Radio.

All broadcasts from the Mount must be approved by the Waqf, which guard the Muslim entrances to the Temple Mount along with the Israeli police. Broadcasts in theory must also be approved by the Israeli police, but cameramen and reporters routinely enter the site from Muslim gates to broadcast without prior police approval as long as Waqf agents allow the entry.

While Israel again has not yet acted to halt Hamas broadcasts, for most of last week it barred all non-Muslims from ascending the Mount, even on a Jewish holiday held last Wednesday.

Last Wednesday marked the start of Muslim holiday of Ein ul-Adhaa, which commemorates the Islamic belief of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael for Allah. According to Jewish and Christian tradition, Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac, not Ishmael.

Also last Wednesday, Jews commemorated the Jewish fast day of the Tenth of Tevet, mourning the First Temple's destruction and the siege placed on Jerusalem leading up to Temple's destruction during the reign of the Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar.

Jewish organizations and Temple Mount activist groups here were planning visits to the Temple Mount in observance of last Wednesday's Jewish day of mourning. Rabbi Chaim Richman, director of the international department at Israel's Temple Institute, a Mount activist group which planned to lead a tour of the site this week, said Israeli police informed his group earlier this week that they had decided the Mount would be closed the rest of the week to non-Muslims for fear of offending Muslims on the Islamic holiday.

Due to Israeli restrictions, the Temple Mount is open only to non-Muslims Sundays through Thursdays, 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., and not on any Christian, Jewish or Muslim holidays or other days considered "sensitive" by the Waqf, the Mount's Islamic custodians.

The Temple Mount was opened to the general public until September 2000, when the Palestinians started their intifada by throwing stones at Jewish worshipers after then-candidate for prime minister Ariel Sharon visited the area.

Following the onset of violence, the new Sharon government closed the Mount to non-Muslims, using checkpoints to control all pedestrian traffic for fear of further clashes with the Palestinians.

The Temple Mount was reopened to non-Muslims in August 2003, but only on select days for certain hours.

The First Jewish Temple was built by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in A.D. 70. Each temple stood for a period of about four centuries.

The Jewish Temple was the center of religious Jewish worship. It housed the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and was said to be the area upon which God's "presence" dwelt. The Al Aqsa Mosque now sits on the site.

The Temple served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices and was the main gathering place in Israel during Jewish holidays.

The Temple Mount compound has remained a focal point for Jewish services over the millennia. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem have been uttered by Jews since the Second Temple was destroyed, according to Jewish tradition. Jews worldwide pray facing toward the Western Wall, a portion of an outer courtyard of the Temple left intact.

The Al Aqsa Mosque was constructed around A.D. 709 to serve as a shrine near another shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which was built by an Islamic caliph. Al Aqsa was meant to mark where Muslims came to believe Muhammad, the founder of Islam, ascended to heaven.

The letter to Olmert called the Temple Mount "the holiest place in the world for the Jewish people, yet Jews are denied the right to pray in groups, and even as individuals ... they are granted no opportunity for any religious expression whatsoever on the Temple Mount."

"However, let it be known that the Jewish people will never accept the total refusal of Jewish communal prayer on the Mountain," the letter states.

[Shammu]

Iranian Jews find new homes in Israel
December 25, 2007

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) -- Greeted by joyous relatives and a crowd of reporters, about 40 Iranian Jews landed in Israel on Tuesday, leaving behind their lives in the Islamic republic for new homes in the Jewish state.

 Family members screamed in delight and threw candy at the newcomers as they emerged into the airport reception hall after a long bureaucratic procedure. No details about their route of exit from Iran were given.

"I feel so good," said Yosef, 16. He and his brother Michael arrived with their parents and a sister and were greeted by their grandparents, who went to Israel six years ago.

"I just saw all of my family. You can't put that into words," Yosef said. The brothers declined to give their family name to protect relatives still in Iran. Video Watch the emotional arrivals »

The new arrivals were sponsored by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a charity that funnels millions of dollars from evangelical donors each year.

Its founder, Rabbi Yehiel Eckstein, said by telephone from Chicago, Illinois, that each immigrant received $10,000 because they left behind all their possessions and "start in Israel with nothing," although many said at the airport that they were joining family already here.

Evangelical backers of Israel say they are following a biblical prophecy that the creation of a Jewish state here is a step toward the Messianic Age. Some Israeli critics saying their ultimate goal is to convert Jews to Christianity, which the evangelicals deny.

 Michael, 15, said he told all his friends where he was going, and they wanted to come along.

"I was scared in Iran as a Jew," he said.

No comment was available Tuesday from the Iranian government.

Iran's Jewish community of about 25,000 people is protected by the country's constitution and remains the largest in the Muslim Middle East. Synagogues, Jewish schools and stores operate openly in the capital, but Jews also report discrimination and increasing concerns about hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's hostility toward Israel.

About 200 Iranian Jews arrived in Israel this year, more than any other year since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, said Michael Jankelowitz, spokesman for the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency, which deals with immigration.

Benjamin Yakobi, 16, has lived in Israel seven years. As he waited for his cousin, he said Israel is safer than Iran.

"Here we are all Jewish, and we are not worried that someone will do something," he said.

"I'm in heaven," gushed Avraham Dayan, 63, as he waited for his son, daughter-in-law and grandson to arrive. He said he had not seen his 38-year-old son in 11 years, missing his son's wedding and the birth of his grandson.

The newcomers were also mobbed by Israeli reporters and TV camera crews. Their arrival was the top story on the evening newscast of Israel's Channel 2 TV. Television pictures broadcast locally did not show their faces, reflecting concern that publicity could lead to harm of Jews still in Iran.

Meir Javedanfar, an Israeli analyst whose family emigrated from Iran in the 1980s, said Jews are generally free to practice their religion inside Iran, but are increasingly concerned about the intensity of attacks on Israel by the Iranian press, which they view as bordering on anti-Semitism, he said.

But Eckstein warned that the situation facing Iranian Jews is critical because of the attitude of Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly called for the disappearance of Israel. Despite a recent U.S. intelligence report that found Iran has stopped its nuclear weapons program, Israel believes Iran is still trying to build a nuclear bomb.
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"By the time they realize it's not going to blow over, it'll be too late," Eckstein said. "All it needs is a U.S. or Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear program for them to come down strong on the local Jewish population."

In 2000, Iranian authorities arrested 10 Jews, convicted them of spying for Israel and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from four to 13 years. An appeals court later reduced their sentences under international pressure and eventually freed them.

Iranian Jews find new homes in Israel

[Shammu]

Iranian Jews find new homes in Israel
December 25, 2007

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) -- Greeted by joyous relatives and a crowd of reporters, about 40 Iranian Jews landed in Israel on Tuesday, leaving behind their lives in the Islamic republic for new homes in the Jewish state.

Evangelical Christians that give millions of dollars to bring Jews from around the world to Israel may be preparing the way for Satan's impact on the world in the Last Days according to Bible prophecy.

The controversy surrounding the arrival of 40 new Iranian Jewish immigrants at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel has highlighted the Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Yehiel Eckstein's organization that has raised over 100 million dollars from Evangelical Christians to help hasten the Coming of the Messiah.

The recent arrival of 40 Iranian Jews sponsored by Eckstein's group has been referred to by the leader of the Iranian-Jewish Community as a misinformation campaign and eluded to the fact it could indeed be fraud. Though Bible prophecy does say that in the time before the Messiah, Jesus Christ, comes back, Jews from around the world will make their way to Israel, not one time does it say that giving money to bring them back will hasten the Lord's return. Satan's End Time plan of deception is to misdirect Christians from God's plan of winning Jewish people and Gentiles to Jesus Christ, Matthew 24:4, 5, 11, 24.

A deceitful rabbi raising millions of dollars from Christians to bring Jews to Israel is indeed evidence that Bible prophecy will be fulfilled.

[Shammu]

Terrorists' new mission: Protect President Bush
Most active West Bank militant group in security team for Middle East visit
Posted: December 26, 2007
11:30 p.m. Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

JERUSALEM – Members of the most active West Bank terror organization are set to participate in security forces being deployed to protect President Bush during his visit to the Palestinian territories next month, WND has learned.

Bush is due in the region Jan. 9 as part of a follow-up to last month's U.S.-led Israeli-Palestinian Annapolis summit.

During his trip, the American president is scheduled to hold talks with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem, and meet quickly with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

According to Israeli security officials coordinating deployments of forces with the PA for Bush's Ramallah visit, members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah's declared military wing, have been called upon by the PA to participate in the protection of Bush's convoy and in securing the perimeter during the meeting with Abbas.

The Brigades is listed as a terror organization by the U.S. State Department. The group took credit along with the Islamic Jihad terror organization for every suicide bombing in Israel between 2005 and 2006, and is responsible for thousands of shootings and rocket firings. Statistically, the Al Aqsa Brigades perpetuated more terrorism from the West Bank than Hamas, according to the Israeli Defense Forces.

Many Brigades members, including the group's chiefs, serve openly in Fatah's Force 17 presidential guard units and the Palestinian Preventative Security Services; thousands of Force 17 and Preventative officers are slated to secure Ramallah during Bush's visit there.

A chief of the Al Aqsa Brigades in Ramallah who also serves as a senior officer in Force 17 confirmed to WND he has been tapped to participate in Bush's security. The chief, who spoke on condition his name be withheld, said he is slated to patrol the road outside Abbas' compound during the Palestinian leader's meeting with Bush.

The Israeli Defense Forces will protect the main West Bank highway Bush's convoy will use to approach Ramallah. Security for Bush will be largely turned over to the Palestinians once he enters Ramallah, although security plans are being heavily coordinated with the U.S.

According to Israeli security officials, over 6,000 Fatah forces will be deployed in three rings in central Ramallah to secure the area during Bush's brief stay, including Palestinian security officers who also serve in the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

About 40 Ramallah-based Brigades leaders, including the Brigades chief scheduled to participate in Bush's security, were granted amnesty by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in June as a gesture to Abbas, but many Brigades members, including the Ramallah-based leadership, are accused of violating the agreement by failing to disarm and by carrying out a spate of terror attacks.

Many high-profile Al Aqsa Brigades terrorists serve in Fatah's security forces, including those in Ramallah. The current chief of Fatah's Force 17, Abu Hayyet, is accused by Israel of planning or involvement in at least 10 deadly terror attacks, according to Israeli security officials.

Abbas last June appointed senior Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leader Mahmoud Damra as commander of Force 17, a major, U.S.-financed Fatah security force. Damra, who was arrested by Israel last November, was on the Jewish state's most-wanted list of terrorists.

The chief of the Brigades in Ramallah also serves in the Preventative Security Services.

Bush's upcoming visit will not be the first time a U.S. official would be protected by Brigades terrorists.

October visit to the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, U.S. security coordinator for the Palestinian territories, was protected by a security team that included the chiefs of the Brigades in that city. Nablus is the stronghold of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

Among those in Nablus protecting the route of Dayton's convoy as official members of the Palestinian security forces were Ala Sekakreh, the Brigades' overall West Bank chief, and Nasser Abu Aziz, no. 2 of the Brigades in the West Bank.

Speaking about his role in protecting Dayton, Senakreh told WND during a recent interview he was "impressed" with the U.S. envoy's bodyguards.

"One of them could eat 10 of our people," said Senakreh, who also commented he liked the "fancy" vehicle in which Dayton arrived.

Senakreh's cell is accused of planning four suicide bombings in Israel, including an April 2006 bombing in Tel Aviv that killed eight Israelis and American teenager Daniel Wultz.

Bush's visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories is his first trip here as president. He'll spend two days with Israeli and Palestinian leaders before continuing on a larger nine-day Middle East tour that will bring him to Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

While the PA has been busy preparing for Bush's visit, Israel security preparations for the trip kick-started earlier this month. The trip will see the second-largest police deployment in Israeli history, topped only by Israel's 2005 Gaza evacuation, according to security officials.

At least 8,000 police officers will provide security for Bush's visit, in addition to thousands more from local fire departments, the Jerusalem municipality and Israel's Airports Authority.

Bush will arrive to an Israeli military parade that will close down Ben Gurion International, the country's main airport. Sure to create a driving nightmare, Israel's main highway from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv will be completely shut to all civilian traffic while the U.S. president's convoy heads from the airport to Jerusalem for private meetings with Olmert and Israeli President Shimon Peres.

[Shammu]

Our World: Lies and deceits
Caroline Glick
THE JERUSALEM POST
Dec. 24, 2007

In a Paris courtroom last month, after seven long years, the myth of Muhammed al-Dura finally unraveled. That myth, propagated in a report by France 2 television network on September 30, 2000, falsely accused Israeli soldiers of killing a Palestinian child named Muhammad al-Dura while he was crouched behind a barrel with his father at Netzarim junction in the Gaza Strip.

An IDF probe into the incident, ordered by then-OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Yom Tov Samia, has ruled out the possibility that the gunfire that apparently harmed the boy was fired by IDF soldiers.

Last month, France 2 was ordered to show the 27 minutes of uncut footage its cameraman testified he filmed at the scene that day and from which the 55 second news story of the purported shooting of al-Dura by IDF soldiers emerged. Charles Enderlin, France 2's permanent correspondent in Israel who reported the story, made a grand entrance into the courtroom where Philippe Karsenty is appealing a libel conviction he received last year after Enderlin and France 2 sued him for publishing an article arguing that the al-Dura story was a hoax.

In the courtroom, in seeming defiance of the court order, Enderlin showed an 18-minute film - which eyewitnesses claimed was obviously heavily edited - of the events of the day. Although apparently doctored, the film's finale was all that was necessary to prove his report to have been a massive deception. For in the last three seconds of the film, al-Dura, showing no signs of injury, raised his hand and peeked at the camera after Enderlin proclaimed him dead and gone.

The French court is in recess until February but the session last month incontrovertibly destroyed the myth of al-Dura. Yet the truth which took seven years to come out cannot erase the consequences of the falsehood.

Enderlin published his report two days after the Palestinians launched their jihad against Israel. The false image of the victimized al-Dura served as a moral indictment of Israel which fueled the murderous campaign against Israel and Jews worldwide which followed. Just as al-Dura's name was invoked by Palestinians as justification of their massacres of Israeli civilians, so it was invoked by Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl's executioners and by Muslim mobs in Europe as they attacked Jews and Jewish institutions.

Enderlin's alleged hoax went beyond journalistic malfeasance. He put blind faith in the reports of a cameraman who was clearly lying to him. And when faced with the facts of the deception, he aggressively dismissed them over the course of seven years. While it is hard to say how events might have unfolded if he hadn't chosen to act as he did, looking forward the murderous consequences of the al-Dura myth speak volumes about the moral imperative for journalists to get their facts straight and to acknowledge mistakes when they are discovered. So too, it underlines the need for policymakers to base their decisions on facts, even when they expose difficult and inconvenient realities.

FACTS OF course, are slippery things. Authoritarian regimes and political movements often engage in the deliberate dissemination of disinformation to advance their interests. The KGB in its day devoted the overwhelming majority of its efforts not to classical espionage activities but to the dissemination of false information to the West in an effort to demoralize Western societies and convince them that there was no moral justification for fighting communism.

Since Israel was established in 1948 the Arabs have devoted the lion's share of their efforts against Israel not to armed attacks against the state but to the dissemination of false information about Israel which is aimed at demonizing it internationally and demoralizing Israelis internally. So too, both the Arab states and the Palestinian Authority indoctrinate their own people to seek Israel's violent destruction through massive internal propaganda efforts.

Even when independent media outlets use their best efforts to report the facts in a credible way, they sometimes get it wrong. For instance, on November 27, the Jerusalem Post reported a quote made by an Arab diplomat to AFP news agency in Riyadh claiming that the Bush Administration had bowed to the Arab demand to force the Israeli delegation at the Annapolis conference to enter the conference hall through a separate entrance from the Arabs. In the diplomat's words, "The Saudis told Washington that they do not want to meet anyone from the Israeli delegation, either by chance or by prior arrangement. Hence it was decided that ... delegations would enter into the meeting room from different doors."

cont'd next post

[Shammu]

His assertion was made credible by statements from US officials regarding the Saudi demand for segregation between the Arabs and the Israelis at the conference. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, "As the Saudi foreign minister put it, nobody's interested in these uncomfortable situations where there are theatrics for the sake of photographs. We'll of course be respectful and mindful of that as we'll put together the various events."

It was these twin reports that informed my own decision to begin my Nov. 30 column "Apartheid not peace" with the story of the separation of Israeli representatives from Arab representatives at Annapolis. Happily, after my column was published, both the State Department and Israeli officials denied that the US had enforced the Arab demand for segregated entrances.

YET WHILE the Bush administration did not bow to the Arab demand for segregation at Annapolis, it is moving to advance the Arabs' bigoted demand for apartheid rather than peace in the Middle East. Since the Annapolis conference, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has repeatedly invoked the false Arab view that the physical presence of Israelis beyond the 1949 armistice lines is the source of the Arab-Israeli conflict rather than the Arab world's expressed refusal to accept Israel's existence and Palestinian society's expressed resolve to destroy Israel.

Rice's open and repeated assaults against Israel's plans to build housing in Jewish neighborhoods in its capital city of Jerusalem and her studied silence on the issue of Arab and Palestinian Authority sponsorship of terrorism against Israel make her internalization of the bigoted and false Arab narrative clear. Indeed, in an interview with the BBC last week, Rice placed the blame for the seven-year suspension of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians not on the Palestinian Authority which directed and sponsored the terror war against Israel which has claimed more than a thousand Israeli victims, but rather on the Israeli government for its support of the presence of Jews in disputed lands. As she put it, "On the Middle East peace process, I don't think in 2001, with the intifada having just been launched and frankly, Ariel Sharon, the father of the settlement movement, having just been elected prime minister of Israel, that there was much prospect for a final-status negotiation."

IT COULD be argued that in adopting her overtly anti-Israel and bigoted view of the Arab world's conflict with Israel that Rice is the victim of disinformation and general ignorance. This view might have some credibility were it not for the fact that the administration itself is actively ignoring evidence which shows its view of the Palestinians and other Arab states to be false.

For instance, in upholding PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas as a man of peace, the administration ignores an overwhelming body of evidence showing his own security forces' involvement in terrorism and his government's rejection of Israel. Rice ignores the fact that Fatah security forces murdered Ido Zoldan last month while she supports the arming and training of those same forces. So too, while she insists that Israel must not build in its capital city and must plan to expel some 250,000 Israelis from their towns in Judea and Samaria, she has been silent on the fact that Fatah's 43rd anniversary posters depict the map of Israel covered by a Palestinian keffiyeh, a rifle, and a portrait of Yasser Arafat.

Regionally, as the US legitimizes Bashar Assad's murderous regime in Syria, the administration is making concerted efforts to prevent Congress from understanding the depth of Syria's involvement in terror and nuclear proliferation. According to a publication by the Federation of American Scientists, President George W. Bush is threatening to veto the 2008 Intelligence Authorization bill because the bill requires that the While House fully brief the House and Senate intelligence committees about the nature and target of Israel's September 6 attack on what was reportedly a North Korean-built nuclear installation in Syria.

According to Congressional sources, the administration is withholding information about the Israeli attack for it believes that a revelation of the nature of the attack will cause an outcry in Congress. Such an outcry will force the US to back away from its current engagement of Syria and North Korea and instigate the tightening of sanctions against both countries - and perhaps against Iran.

TYRANNIES require disinformation to maintain and justify their grip on power to their own people and to the outside world. But democracies can only flourish through the open flow of information. When the media of free nations publish lies and distorted accounts of fact, and the governments of free nations base their policies on falsities, their national interests are necessarily harmed.

Mistakes happen. Falsities inevitably find their way into discourse. But with good will and a basic, underlying commitment to facts, these mistakes can be easily corrected.

Unfortunately, between the Western and Arab media's often deliberate dissemination of disinformation and the studied refusal of Western policymakers to acknowledge inconvenient facts in favor of easy lies and deliberate deceits which enable them to avoid contending with harsh realities, it is no surprise that our public discourse today is increasingly based on equal doses of mendacity and wishful thinking. And tragically, as the al-Dura affair showed so well, the murderous results won't be long in coming.

Our World: Lies and deceits

[Shammu]

No one is standing with Israel anymore. The Bible tells us this would happen...... I just never thought it would be this quick!!

Zechariah 12:3 And in that day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all peoples; all who lift it or burden themselves with it shall be sorely wounded. And all the nations of the earth shall come and gather together against it.

This diplomatic farce of peace talks has reached new levels of stupidity. There can be no peace when one group will only be happy with the total destruction of the other. We must be in the nearing end times as I see no way out for Israel except for the Lord's help as He has promised them.

[Shammu]

Israel finds explosive chemicals in EU aid bags
27/12/07
Israeli soldiers carry equipment near Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel said on Saturday it had recently seized a truck carrying chemicals used to make explosives hidden in bags marked as European Union aid for the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

The army said 6.5 tonnes of potassium nitrate were in bags marked as sugar from the European Union for Palestinians in the coastal enclave.

"We are looking into this report," said an EU official in Israel. "If it is found to be accurate, this is an illegal act that should be condemned."

The cargo in a Palestinian truck was travelling in the occupied West Bank and seized several weeks ago at an Israeli checkpoint, the army said.

The European Union is the largest provider of humanitarian assistance to Gaza. Israel tightened its military and economic cordon of the Gaza Strip after Islamist Hamas seized the territory in a June war with secular Fatah.

Potassium nitrate can be used to make explosives and to power homemade rockets. It can also be used as a fertiliser.

Israel finds explosive chemicals in EU aid bags

[Soldier4Christ]

Iranian Jews arrive to begin new lives in Israel

About 40 Iranian Jews have landed in Israel, leaving behind their lives in the Islamic Republic for new homes in the Jewish state.

Family members screamed in delight as the newcomers emerged into the airport reception hall Tuesday.

The new arrivals were sponsored by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a charity that funnels millions of dollars from evangelical donors each year.

Its founder, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, says each immigrant received $10,000 because they left behind all their possessions in Iran and wanted to "start in Israel with nothing."

Many evangelicals view the return of Jews to modern Israel as a fulfillment of Biblical prophecies, but some Israeli critics suspect that evangelicals just want to convert Jews to Christianity.

[Soldier4Christ]

Israel gets warned:
Al-Qaida coming! 
Indications terror network sending cells
to Jewish state using foreign passports

Israel in recent months received warnings from foreign intelligence agencies that al-Qaida operatives were seeking to infiltrate the Jewish state to set up cells to carry out large-scale attacks, WND has learned.

The warnings were followed up by the release this weekend of a new audiotape in which al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden made an unusually sharp threat of attacks against Israel.

According to Israeli security officials, Israel several times received general warnings indicating al-Qaida was attempting to fly operatives into the Jewish state's international airport disguised as tourists carrying foreign passports. The latest warning was received a few months ago and indicated the passports may be from Britain, Australia and the United States.

The security officials said al-Qaida has come to the conclusion Palestinian terror groups operating in the Gaza Strip and West Bank have had great difficulty infiltrating Israel due to the country's security barrier and antiterror measures and that Palestinians who do successfully infiltrate are not capable of carrying out large-scale attacks inside the country.

The Israeli security officials said the latest warning, which was shared with Palestinian intelligence agencies, indicated al-Qaida has made a strategic decision to attempt to send foreign cells into the Jewish state instead of relying on Palestinian militants.

The warning also listed other countries aside from Israel that al-Qaida may attempt to infiltrate using the same methods, the officials said.

Groups ideologically aligned with al-Qaida are widely suspected to be operating in the Gaza Strip and there have been some reports of similar groups attempting to establish themselves in the West Bank.

But with strict border controls in place at airports and crossings, Israel is largely thought to be difficult for al-Qaida to infiltrate.

Israeli security officials did not indicate there were any thwarted al-Qaida attempts to infiltrate the country. A Palestinian security official familiar with the report also said he was not aware of any recent attempts.

Israel previously acknowledged it arrested suspected al-Qaida infiltrators. In August 2003, Israel's mission to the U.N. submitted a report stating the country had thwarted several attempts by al-Qaida operatives carrying foreign passports to enter Israel in order to gather intelligence and conduct attacks. The Jewish state also noted in the report it had captured Palestinians recruited by al-Qaida abroad to conduct attacks in Israel.

The latest al-Qaida warning was received here just a few months before bin Laden's videotape was released this weekend vowing to "expand jihad to Palestine."

"I would like to assure our people in Palestine that we will expand our jihad there," said bin Laden. "We intend to liberate Palestine, the whole of Palestine from the (Jordan) river to the sea," he continued, threatening "blood for blood, destruction for destruction."

While bin Laden and other Al-Qaida figures many times vowed to attack Israel, the latest comments were a more direct language than bin Laden usually uses.

"We will not recognize even one inch for Jews in the land of Palestine as other Muslim leaders have," bin Laden said.

The majority of the terror chieftain's message dealt with Iraq, including a warning to Iraq's Sunni Arabs against joining tribal councils fighting Al-Qaida or participating in any unity government.

Israeli officials said they were taking bin Laden's latest threat seriously. After yesterday's meeting here of the government's security cabinet, Tzachi Hanegbi, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, told reporters, "The threat of al-Qaida is real. They've struck in Lebanon, Australia, Indonesia, Madrid, New York and London. They can easily target the Middle East and we need to be prepared for that."

Al-Qaida at Israel's border

While al-Qaida is not thought to have infiltrated Israel, the global jihad group is suspected of operating in Gaza and previously carried out numerous attacks near the Jewish state's borders.

Al-Qaida took responsibility for a series of hotel bombings in Amman, Jordan in November 2005 killing 60 and injuring over 115 others. While Jordan, which borders Israel, has had some successes fighting al-Qaida cells, security officials fear the terror group still maintains a significant infrastructure there capable of carrying out attacks.

Egypt has had difficulty eliminating al-Qaida cells, particularly those operating among Bedouin villages in the Sinai desert bordering the Gaza Strip.

Al-Qaida has been widely blamed for several Sinai attacks the past three years including the bomb blasts in April 2006 that killed 24 people and injured over 85 in the Sinai town of Dahab, and deadly bombings in the resort centers of Taba and Ras gotcha2an in October 2004 as well as in Sharm el-Sheik in July.

Last April, al-Qaida was blamed for two bombings near multinational peacekeeping force in the Sinai adjacent to Gaza. Almost simultaneously inside Gaza, the Popular Resistance Committees attempted to carry out a large-scale car bombing at the Karni Crossing, the main cargo passageway between the Gaza Strip and Israel. The attack was foiled at the last minute after Palestinian forces became suspicious and opened fire at an approaching vehicle. Some security officials told WND the thwarted Karni attack was planned in conjunction with al-Qaida elements in Gaza.

[Soldier4Christ]

Terrorists: We're not dismantling
Palestinian official claimed group would willingly disband


JERUSALEM – The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization, yesterday denied statements by Fatah's top security official that his government was dismantling militant groups, including the Brigades.

"There is no Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades any more," Interior Minister Abdel-Razak al-Yahya told Fatah's Voice of Palestine radio.

He spoke one day after the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades took responsibility for killing two Israelis who were hiking on Friday near the West Bank city of Hebron.

Fatah's Al Aqsa Brigades is listed as a terror organization by the U.S. State Department. The group took credit along with the Islamic Jihad terror group for every suicide bombing in Israel between 2005 and 2006, and is responsible for thousands of shootings and rocket firings. Statistically, the Al Aqsa Brigades perpetuated more terrorism from the West Bank than any other Palestinian terror group.

Yahya claimed the Brigades agreed to go along with his government's stated security plan of dismantling militant groups.

But Brigades leaders, speaking to WND, denied they were contacted about dismantling and said they would refuse to disband.

Responding to Yahya's claims, the Brigades released the following statement to WND:

"The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades deeply condemns the declaration of Yahya ... . We in the Brigades say no one will dare to dismantle us. Resistance is our address and we warn Yahya and his colleagues in the occupation not to touch our fighters or try to dismantle us.

"We will never throw our arms away. We are asking Yahya and his colleagues: did the Israeli occupation end? No, it did not. Instead of dreaming about dismantling us, you should support us with money and weapons to confront the Zionist enemy."

The statement referred to as the Brigades' "commander and leader," and called on him to take "measures against these declarations of Yahya and all those threatening our armed struggle."

"We promise to keep walking on the road of our teacher, Abu Amar (Yasser Arafat)," said the statement.

This weekend, four armed Palestinians driving a jeep killed off-duty Israeli soldiers Ahikam Amihai and David Rubin as they were hiking with a woman just outside Hebron. Amihai and Rubin, both in their early 20s, managed to return fire before they died, reportedly killing one of the terrorists and injuring another. Their female companion was uninjured.

Immediately following the attack, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility during a news conference from the Gaza Strip.

Yesterday, the Islamic Jihad terror group said the dead gunman was a member of its West Bank cell. The Brigades and Islamic Jihad routinely carry out joint operations.

Senior leaders of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, speaking on condition their names be withheld, told WND the shooting attack was coordinated between Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Brigades.

Contradicting claims by Abbas' officials that they arrested the perpetrators of the shooting, Islamic Jihad yesterday said in a statement the three gunmen who survived the clashes were in hiding.

Fatah leaders many times stated they would dismantle the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and other so-called armed militias – key demands in the U.S.-backed Road Map.

Implementation of the Road Map is supposed to be a requirement before the creation of any Palestinian state, which November's Israeli-Palestinian Annapolis summit aims to establish before the end of next year.

[Shammu]

Christian leaders attend reception at presidential residence

President Peres hosts annual ceremony in honor of Christian leaders, sends message of peace and harmony. 'We all have one God and enriched uranium wasn't one of his commandments,' he says

Aviram Zino
Published: 12.31.07, 14:44
Israel News

President Shimon Peres met Monday with the leaders of the Christian factions in Israel, in honor of the Christmas and the New Year celebrations.

"The Palestinians are not our enemy and neither is Islam," said Peres. "Terror, violence and the alliance between religious fanaticism and nuclear weapons are our – and the world's – enemies." (Boy is he in for a suprise!!    DW)

The religious leaders were Peres' guests for an official ceremony held at the presidential residence. "The human spirit declares science and religion to be noncontradictory, but one must separate between religion, faith and violence," added Peres.

"We all have one God, and enriched uranium wasn't one of his commandments," said the president.

Israel, promised Peres, would continue to ensure freedom of religion: "Israel will protect all its churches and will allow total freedom of religion.

"Let's make Israel the land from which a message of tolerance and love goes out to the world," added Peres. "I wish all of you a happy, peaceful, new year."

Christian leaders attend reception at presidential residence

[Shammu]

'We all have one God and enriched uranium wasn't one of his commandments,' he says

Say what??

Something very wrong here people, since the rebirth of Israel Islamic Nations have attacked Israel and came close to it's destruction. Now if Islamic fascism and extremism is the enemy then it would seem to me that whole nations are lead by that fascism and extremism.

There seems to be way too much trying come together these days by people who should know that it can't be done without God's intervention. In the name of Peace and Security a whole lot of wrongs seem to be overlooked...........

This has to be the beginning of the end, I believe.... God Protect Israel and us in these times of need!!