September 5, 2010
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LIVING ON BORROWED TIME - DVD
A morally and spiritually bankrupt society …A worldwide economic meltdown…A planet racked with increasingly intense manmade and natural disasters…Are we the Final Generation?
Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Matthew 24:42-44
Reviews: The DVD should be seen by small groups and youth ministries far and wide. The clear quoting and referencing of bible verses is especially strong. The collage of dramatic imagery - both in photography and artwork, grabs the viewers' attention and weaves the conclusion that God is about to continue His plan in a major way. The video is so fresh - the oil explosion and spill in the Gulf of Mexico is shown as one example of how this old world is wearing out and is in flames
The video next defends the authorship and reliability of the bible before showing eight unmistakable developments in our world that point toward the soon return of the Lord Jesus Christ. The number one sign given to our generation is the return of the Jewish people to form the nation of Israel. Jesus Christ is now standing at the door waiting to take his beloved bride- His true believers. Like the admonition from the Book of Jude, verse 23, I pray that this DVD will be used by the Holy Spirit to pluck dying people out of the fire before the borrowed time runs out. - John Wicklund - Chair- Olive Tree Ministries Board of Directors - Maple Grove, MN
Great Job! We have watched all your DVD’s and we think this is the best one so far. After someone watches this DVD there is no way they could argue that we are not living in the last days! – Don & Cindy K. – Bakersfield, CA
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God bless you, the new DVD is amazing! I know that if there is anyone out there who doesn't know what the bible holds or has no clue about what is really going on after seeing this DVD they will surely be enlightened about what is truly going on in the world today. - The Taylor's - Bakersfield, CA
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Iran threatens Israel's Dimona reactor, will destroy Israel in nuclear war – www.debka.com
A top Iranian general said Friday, Sept. 3: "Iran hopes there won't be a need to target the nuclear facility of the Zionist regime, but if there is, Israel would receive dreadful retribution." Gen. Hasan Firouzabadi, supreme commander of Iran's military and Revolutionary Guards armed forces, went on to say, "Our developed weapons can hit any part of the Zionist regime."
Firouzabadi was the first senior Iranian military figure to publicly indicate Tehran readiness for the Middle East's first nuclear war. Saturday, Sept. 4, Israeli ambassador in Washington Michael Oren reported that Hizballah had posted in South Lebanon 16,000 rockets, altogether quadrupling the number ranged on the Israeli border four years ago (in violation of UN resolution 1701).
Their range now covered every part of Israel as far south as Eilat with enhanced precision.
This would obviously include Dimona.
In Havana, Fidel Castro again warned that a nuclear conflict was inevitable if the United States, in alliance with Israel, tried to impose international sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. His speech to students was highlighted by the Iranian media.
A few hours earlier, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a pro-Palestinian rally that the talks re-launched between Israel and the Palestinians must fail. "The fate of Palestine will be decided through resistance and not in Washington," he declared.
As thousands shouted "Death to America! Death to Israel!" the Iranian president mocked Arab leaders by yelling: "The people of the Middle East are capable of ridding the region of the state of Israel even if their leaders chose not to." He pointed a finger at Abdullah King of Jordan and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who took part in the ceremonial opening of Israel-Palestinian talks in Washington on Sept. 2, for a broad hint that their peoples would rise up against them.
Ahmadinejad then sneered at his favorite targets: "I want to say that not only the Zionists, but even their masters are too small to lay a finger on the Iranian nation and its rights." By' "rights," he referred to Iran's development of nuclear weapons, which he said they were "too small" to halt.
debkafile's Iranian sources stress that Iranian threats to the Jewish state have becoming increasingly harsh and pugnacious marking their contempt for the Netanyahu government's non-response and what they take as Israel's tacit surrender to the activation of their first nuclear reactor at Bushehr on Aug. 21.
'Mideast peace process poses a strategic threat to Iran' – Barak Ravid – www.haaretz.com
Minority Affairs Minister Avishay Braverman: Cancellation of Iran FM's visit to Cairo is proof of the importance of the peace process.
Minister of Minority Affairs Professor Avishay Braverman said Saturday that the recently relaunched peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians posed "a strategic threat to Iran."
Speaking at the Shabbat Tarbut event in Haifa, the minister said that "the cancellation of a visit by the Iranian foreign minister to Egypt and the historical events that have occurred in Tehran since the start of peace talks are proof that progress in the talks will lead to an alliance between Israel and the moderate Arab states versus the axis of evil of Iran-Hamas-Hezbollah."
Braverman was referring to Egypt's cancellation Friday of a meeting that was to include Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki over remarks he had made earlier, accusing of Arab leaders of betrayal for cooperating with the U.S.-sponsored peace talks.
Mottaki was quoted in the Iranian media on Tuesday as saying that the Arab leaders meeting in Washington in order to launch the renewal of peace talks with Israel are traitors to their respective peoples. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordanian King Abdullah II both attended the official launch of the direct talks in Washington.
Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, also criticized the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. In a speech he gave on Friday in honor of pro-Palestinian "Jerusalem Day," Nasrallah said that "these negotiations were born and have died."
Nasrallah added, "Palestine from the river to the sea is the property of the Palestinian people, the Arabs and the Muslims, and no person has the right to give any of it away, not a grain of sand or a drop of water."
Nasrallah blessed the Hamas for the attacks it carried out this past week and said, "This is the message, and this is the way to liberate Jerusalem and Palestine. Hamas and other resistance fighters of their kind should hear voices of support from the entire Arab and Muslim world."
Sources close to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that by the end of the first round of talks between Israel and the PA in Washington, the mood of the Palestinian delegation had turned around 180 degrees.
The London-based newspaper Al-Hayat announced Saturday morning that the Palestinian delegation had expressed satisfaction with the Americans' intention to include all of the core issues in the peace agreement that is supposed to be finalized before the end of 2011.
Arab League chief Amr Moussa also expressed cautious optimism on Friday that the current round of talks between Israel and the Palestinians will be the final round. According to Moussa, participating in an economic conference in Italy, the Arab world is read for comprehensive peace with Israel in exchange for withdrawal to the 1967 borders, including in East Jerusalem.
Iran to Stage Massive Air Defense Drills – www.english.farsnews.com
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran plans to stage massive and countrywide air defense drills next month, a senior Iranian military commander announced.
Commander of Khatam ol-Anbia Air Defense Base Brigadier General Ahmad Miqani told FNA on Saturday that air defense wargames will be held in Mehr (September 22-October 22).
The commander noted that the air defense unit is scheduled to test-fire its latest anti-aircraft equipment.
Earlier, the Iranian defense minister said that Tehran plans to produce long-range air defense missiles without foreign aid.
"We build whatever we want inside the country… and the production of long-range air defense system in Iran is already on the agenda of the defense ministry," Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi told reporters in a press conference in Tehran on August 17.
Vahidi further underlined Iran's capabilities and potentials in developing and producing all types of military tools, weapons and equipment, and reiterated that Tehran will no more wait for the delivery of military products from abroad.
His remarks alluded to a contract on the delivery of Russia's sophisticated anti-aircraft S-300 missile system to Iran. Moscow has long delayed implementation of the contract terms under different pretexts and it is yet to deliver the system to Tehran.
Tehran launched an arms development program during the 1980-88 Iraqi imposed war on Iran to compensate for a US weapons embargo. Since 1992, Iran has produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles and fighter planes.
Yet, Iranian officials have always stressed that the country's military and arms programs serve defensive purposes and should not be perceived as a threat to any other country.
In November 2009, Lieutenant Commander of Khatam ol-Anbia Air Defense Base General Seyed Reza Taheri told FNA that Iran has successfully increased the speed and range of its air defense systems.
"The air defense systems' operational speed and range have been promoted thanks to the attempts made by our country's experts. We are witnessing a jump in this field when considering the previous models," the Commander said at the time.
Iran network said to be financing sleeper cells in all six Gulf states – www.worldtribune.com
ABU DHABI — The Persian Gulf states have determined that Iran established sleeper cells in member states.
Gulf Cooperation Council sources said Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has been operating intelligence and sabotage cells in all six Gulf Arab states. They said IRGC has been using local Shi'ites and others to designate critical facilities and other key military targets in any war between Teheran and the United States.
"The cells are all controlled from Teheran and Baghdad although they have nothing to do with each other," a GCC source said.
The sources said most of the information of the IRGC network has been provided by Bahrain and Kuwait. Each GCC state has arrested Shi'ites suspected of being part of Iranian intelligence and sabotage cells that have been operating over the last three years.
"These cells do not receive direct support from the Teheran government," another GCC source said. "Instead, IRGC has established a network of supporters through whom the money is channeled."
The sources said IRGC has established cells in every one of the six GCC states. They said virtually all of the cell members were Shi'ite, and they included nationals from Iran, Lebanon and Yemen.
"The biggest networks are in Bahrain and Kuwait," the source said. "They have access to government and security forces and have enough money to buy informers easily."
On Aug. 25, Bahrain and Kuwait held a security summit to discuss the IRGC threat. Kuwaiti Interior Minister Jaber Al Khaled Al Sabah met his Bahraini counterpart, Rashed Bin Abdullah Al Khalifa in Manama in what officials said included a comprehensive review of the Iranian threat.
"Such visits solidify historic relations between the two brotherly countries, as they come within consultation and coordination frameworks," Kuwait's ambassador to Bahrain, Azzam Mubarak Al Sabah, said.
Kuwait has captured an alleged IRGC-led cell that conducted surveillance on military facilities of the sheikdom as well as those of the United States. The Kuwaiti daily Al Qabas said the cell was one of several Iranian-directed sleeper networks in the region and ordered activated should Iran become the target of Israeli or Western air strikes.
The sources said GCC authorities have identified hundreds of IRGC agents in their countries. In Bahrain alone, about 250 suspects were said to have been arrested.
Israeli US envoy: Hizbullah has 15,000 rockets on border – www.jpost.com
Ambassador Oren says Islamist group amassing arsenal in southern Lebanon with long enough range to hit Eilat.
Hizbullah has an arsenal of approximately 15,000 rockets amassed on Lebanon's border with Israel, including some with a long enough range to hit the southern city of Eilat, Israeli envoy to the US Michael Oren told AFP on Friday.
"The Syrian-Iranian backed Hizbullah poses a very serious threat to Israel...Hizbullah today now has four times as many rockets as it had during the 2006 Lebanon war. These rockets are longer-range. Every city in Israel is within range right now, including Eilat," he said.
Oren expressed Israeli concerns with Hizbullah's concealment of the weapons as well.
"In 2006, many of their missiles were basically out in the open, in silos and the Israeli air force was able to neutralize a great number of them...Today those same missiles have been placed under hospitals, and homes and schools because Hizbullah knows full well if we try to defend ourselves against them, we will be branded once again as war criminals."
This was not the first time that Oren has warned of the threat that Hizbullah poses to Israel. Following a clash on the northern border between the Lebanese Army and IDF soldiers last month, in which Lebanese soldiers opened fire on two IDF officers, killing one and seriously wounding the other, Oren warned that the distinction between Lebanon's Army and Hizbullah has become "cloudy." He expressed concerns that advanced weaponry given to the regular army could find its way into the hands of the Islamist group.
Following the border clashes and Oren's warnings, the US Congress voted to suspend $100 million in aid to the Lebanese Armed Forces.
US warns Assad of Israeli counter-strike for terror campaign – www.debka.com
The Obama administration has sent Syrian president Bashar Assad a stern warning that he will be held personally accountable and face consequences if Israel and the Palestinian Authority are subjected to a terror campaign - whether by Hizballah or the Palestinian extremist groups based in Damascus, debkafile reports from Washington. The warning went out Thursday, Sept. 2, as Israelis and Palestinians sat down to talk in Washington in the shadow of threats from extremists sheltering under Syria's wing and after two attacks on the West Bank.
The caution was put in Assad's hands in Damascus by Fredric Hof, adviser to US envoy George Mitchell as Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas met for the first time under the aegis of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and support of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah.
debkafile's sources do not know exactly what was said at the interview but Saturday, Sept. 4, they confirmed the severity of the US message to the Syrian ruler.
Our military sources report that last week, Syria and Hizballah took joint steps against a possible Israeli strike against the sophisticated rockets which Hizballah is storing for safekeeping at Syrian bases close to the border and holding ready for immediate use. Hizballah militiamen have been visiting those bases to learn how to use the advanced hardware.
Assad is deepening his military partnership with Hizballah and advancing joint preparations for war under Iranian sponsorship. Last Sunday, Aug. 29, he urged Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri to stand solidly behind Hizballah when they met in Damascus. The Syrian ruler stressed to Hariri "…the importance of supporting the resistance [a euphemism for terrorism used by radical Arab elements] as the only way to preserve Lebanon's strength and security against regional threats."
Our sources report that the hands of Assad and the Iran-backed Hizballah are detected in fomenting terror in another part of the Middle East - Iraq, especially in Baghdad.
Saudi Al Qaida leader calls for 9/11 type air strikes against Israel – www.worldtribune.com
ABU DHABI — For the first time, Al Qaida has called for suicide air strikes in Israel as part of an Arab war coalition.
A leading Al Qaida operative has appealed for recruits for suicide air strikes in Israel similar to those that rocked the United States in 2001.
Said Al Shehri called on Arab pilots to fly their planes into Israeli targets in a repeat of Al Qaida's air suicide strikes in New York and Washington.
Al Shehri, a Saudi national, has been identified as the deputy commander of the Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
AQAP has been responsible for numerous attacks in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, including an attempted suicide bombing of a U.S. airliner in December 2009.
In an audio message on Aug. 19, Al Shehri said Al Qaida would join any Iranian war against Israel. He said Israel was likely to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, which would spark a regional war.
Al Shehri said Al Qaida would seek to exploit any Iranian-Israeli war to attack the Jewish state. He called on followers to assassinate pro-Western Arab leaders the way Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was killed in 1981.
Report reveals site of secret Israeli base – www.upi.com
A French magazine has revealed the Israeli location of one of the largest and most important signals intelligence bases (SIGNIT) in the world.
Le Monde Diplomatique said the base is located near Kibbutz Urim in the Negev, not far from the city of Beersheba.
Israeli daily newspapers published details of the report Sunday, noting the location of the base had been kept secret prior to the French report.
The magazine also had photographic images showing the location of the base -- some downloaded by Google Earth and others taken from the roadside.
The base has 30 antennas and satellite dishes capable of eavesdropping on telephone calls and accessing the e-mail of "governments, international organizations, foreign companies, political groups and individuals in the Middle East and Europe, " the Haaretz newspaper said.
The base is home to the Israel Army's intelligence unit 8200.
The French magazine said one of the base's main purposes is to listen to transmissions from ships in the Mediterranean. It also has the capability to tap underwater communication cables, mostly in the Mediterranean, connecting Israel with Europe.
Haaretz said the author of the article, Nick Hager, is a New Zealand investigative reporter specializing in intelligence and technology related stories involving signals intelligence.
Haaretz said some of the military unit's successes include the interception of a telephone call between Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and King Hussein of Jordan during the first day of the Six-Day War, and the interception of a call between Yasser Arafat and the terrorist group that hijacked the Achille Lauro cruise ship in the Mediterranean in 1985.
Hizbullah: 'Jerusalem cannot be the capital of state called Israel' – www.jpost.com
Nasrallah derides peace talks as dead on arrival in "Jerusalem Day" speech after explosions erupt from suspected Hizbullah arms cache.
The current round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks will not succeed, Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said during a "Jerusalem Day" commemoration speech on Friday.
Nasrallah characterized the talks as "stillborn" and said, "Jerusalem, and not even one of its streets, cannot be the capital of the state called Israel."
The Hizbullah chief's comments came hours after explosions ripped through a building Friday in southern Lebanon that might - according to Lebanese security officials - have been used to store weapons for the terrorists group.
It was not clear whether there were any casualties from the blasts, which set off a large fire, the officials said. Rescue crews responded to the scene.
The three-story building is in the Hizbullah-dominated village of Shehabiyeh, part of a volatile border zone south of the Litani River in which Hizbullah has been banned from having weapons under a UN resolution that ended the 2006 war between the terror group and Israel.
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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may end up as Genghis Khan with a nuclear bomb - www.telegraph.co.uk
Iran will not be shamed into abandoning stoning, or its nuclear ambitions, says Alasdair Palmer.
Joseph Stalin was once described as "Genghis Khan with a telephone". President Ahmadinejad may soon be Genghis Khan with a nuclear bomb. Admittedly, Ahmadinejad hasn't yet committed mass murder on that scale, although when he promised to "wipe Israel off the map", he showed that he would – if only he could. And he may treat his own people slightly better than Genghis Khan treated his. But as Dr Johnson said, "there is no settling orders of precedence between a louse and a flea".
Ahmadinejad has imprisoned thousands for protesting against the brutality, incompetence and illegitimacy of his rule; he has condoned the imposition of the death penalty for any Muslim who converts to another faith; and he supports punishing adultery by stoning those involved to death.
"There has been a global campaign to persuade Iran to end stoning, a disgustingly barbaric punishment which inflicts pain of the same order as impaling, Genghis Khan's favourite method of execution, and may take even longer to cause death. It centres on the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 44-year-old mother and widow who was convicted of adultery in 2006 and punished with 99 lashes. She has been in prison ever since, as the judges decided that 99 lashes wasn't a severe enough sentence for the crime of loving someone who isn't your spouse: she deserved to be stoned to death.
When her lawyer (who fled Iran, after discovering that he was about to be arrested) alerted the world, the campaign began. A petition was created; more than 300,000 people signed it; several celebrities stated their disapproval in the strongest possible terms; and a number of Western governments made official protests.
And what happened? Far from condemning stoning, or reducing the punishment, Iran's Supreme Court has just ruled that a couple who had both been convicted of adultery should also be stoned to death. The authorities seem impervious to attempts to shame – or at least to embarrass – them into disowning such a medieval practice (although to be fair to the Middle Ages, stoning wasn't that common even then).
The reason is that a large portion of Iran's leadership, and of its population, is not ashamed or embarrassed: they think stoning is entirely right and proper. It has divine sanction – so how can any mere human be entitled to question it?
This is the reality of multiculturalism: human rights are not universally recognized or accepted. Barbaric practices can be deeply embedded in the convictions of thousands, even millions, of people. That is why it is so hard to change them, and why the invasion of Afghanistan, for instance, has not had the results that were hoped for. In rural areas, the arrival of Western troops and aid has not transformed the locals into Westerners. They may not love the Taliban's version of social care, but they prefer their own ways to ours, and those ways are a lot closer to the Taliban's vision of the good society than to ours.
What will persuade Iran's leaders, and many of its rural and impoverished voters, to respect human rights and to give up their attempts to acquire a nuclear bomb? No Western country is going to invade and occupy Iran: the experience in Iraq has put an end to our flirtation with the idea that we can transform countries for the better by invasion. But we cannot shame or embarrass Iranians into changing their ways when they are proud of stoning, and of their struggle to get nuclear weapons.
Probably the only thing capable of stopping Iran from getting the bomb is a successful raid by Israel or America on its centrifuges. But that would merely delay Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons, rather than prevent it from happening.
So it looks as if it is inevitable that we will be confronted by Genghis Khan with a nuclear bomb. It is unquestionably a terrifying prospect, and one which may produce Armageddon. We need to work out a way to stop it, and fast.
Middle East Peace - Hopes and fears – David Horovitz – www.jpost.com
The heart says do anything for peace. The head worries that Netanyahu’s admirable goal of finding, in Abbas, a new Sadat, will prove elusive.
Under the last government, of Ehud Olmert, direct talks with the Palestinians became a routine feature of the political landscape. Foreign minister Tzipi Livni and her Palestinian counterpart, Ahmed Qurei, would meet frequently for lengthy sessions designed to hammer out the substantive elements of an accord. And the two men at the top of the hierarchies, Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas, would also get together intermittently, sometimes even walking arm in arm for the cameras, ostensibly building up a relationship of trust that, it was hoped, would filter down to their respective teams and enable real progress.
That attempt at peacemaking collapsed with the implosion of Olmert’s political career amid a welter of corruption allegations. It collapsed, too, in a typical orgy of Israeli and Palestinian recrimination: Olmert blamed the Palestinians for failing to seize on his departing offer to relinquish almost all of the West Bank and divide Jerusalem in the cause of a deal. Abbas complained variously that Olmert’s terms were either not good enough or not credibly presented.
In the more than a year and a half since then, the absence of any substantive direct contact between the leaderships of the two sides has invested the resumption of face-to-face talks – via this week’s White House-hosted ceremonies – with a resonance quite unlike those Olmert-era sessions. What had become the unremarkable rhythm of negotiations between protagonists claiming to be quietly making headway is now, this time around, a very public, fraught and incredibly high-stakes exercise in improbable bridge-building, between two leaderships that appear to be talking across each other, with naysayers on both sides predicting dire fallout should the endeavor break down, and the resumption of terror attacks reinforcing the dismal sense of bloody déjà vu.
BINYAMIN NETANYAHU has moved a long way from the opposition politician who, in the Knesset at the start of the Oslo process 17 years ago, denounced Yitzhak Rabin as being “much worse than the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, because Chamberlain threatened the security and freedom of another nation, while you are threatening the security and freedom of your own nation.”
Netanyahu, the champion of the settlement enterprise, has presided over an almost 10- month freeze in housing starts at those beloved settlements, in order to get the Palestinians back to the peace table, at the behest of an American administration whose own heavy-handed missteps on settlements were central to Abbas’s staying away in the first place.
Netanyahu, the Likud leader, has reversed his party’s emphatic opposition to the idea of a second sovereign entity between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, last year pledging his support for an independent Palestinian state, complete with flag and national anthem, and declaring on Wednesday that “we recognize that another people shares this land with us.”
Netanyahu, the security hawk, rapidly outflanked his dovish predecessor Olmert in removing roadblocks and checkpoints and easing freedom of movement for Palestinians in the West Bank – including in the area near Kiryat Arba where four Israelis were murdered on Tuesday night – taking “calculated security risks” to enable the Palestinian economy to flourish, in the hope that “economic peace” would eventually galvanize Palestinian support for the real deal.
And this week, as he finalized his trip to Washington, Netanyahu, the peace-deal skeptic, deliberately placed himself in his peacemaking Likud predecessor Menachem Begin’s shoes, telling his own party’s immensely dubious activists, “I hope to find [in Abbas] as courageous a partner as Begin found in [Egypt’s president Anwar] Sadat” more than 30 years ago.
“Hope,” rather than “expectation,” is most certainly the operative word, however. Would a peacemaker in the Sadat mold, some of those around the prime minister ask rhetorically, have deliberately spent the first nine months of the unprecedented opportunity provided by the settlement freeze wriggling away from negotiations?
THE PALESTINIANS, for their part, are most certainly moving along the path to statehood. Indeed, an official PA document delivered to the US ahead of the direct talks ceremonies specified that the PA intends to seek a UN Security Council resolution recognizing the state of Palestine on the pre-1967 lines with east Jerusalem as its capital.
PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, with input and support from his former International Monetary Fund boss, now Netanyahu’s Bank of Israel governor, Stanley Fischer, has overseen an economic transformation in the West Bank. Growth is in double digits, in stark contrast to so much of the global economy. Jenin, the former suicide bomber capital, made headlines last month for opening a cinema complex. Ramallah’s shopping culture and night life are thriving so brightly as to put east Jerusalem in the shade – a kind of West Bank Tel Aviv, dancing till dawn in hedonistic contrast to the sleepy, conservative holy city.
Israeli officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and many in the IDF’s senior ranks, have also praised the PA security forces, trained with US funding and under US oversight, for helping maintain rare calm in the Palestinian cities and for their role – until Tuesday night – in the marked decline in terrorism.
Of course, Abbas’s PA has every interest in stifling Hamas-orchestrated dissent. And while PA commanders demand that the IDF pull back further, and hand over greater areas of control, those same Israeli officials are extremely cautious about doing so. When push comes to shove, the sense in Israel is that Hamas is far more ready than Fatah to both kill and be killed, as it proved in Gaza, and that, without the IDF’s presence, the threat of it replicating its takeover in the West Bank could not be discounted.
The PA forces did prevent popular disquiet over Operation Cast Lead in Gaza almost two years ago from erupting into a full-scale violent solidarity in the West Bank. And the sense of stability created by their deployment has made a deep impression on a succession of visiting American and European leaders, notably including even the most consistently pro-Israel American Jewish legislators.
Fayyad, too, with his understated, earnest diligence, has personally won over those same policy-makers. This, they all report back, is undoubtedly a man fashioning the institutions of statehood – gradually connecting the dots of a blueprint designed to win international legitimation. The more awkward question is whether Abbas and Fayyad are building a state at reconciliation with Israel.
The PA’s initial official response to Tuesday night’s terrorist attack only redoubled misgivings. PA-controlled media referred to it as a “military operation.” Abbas and Fayyad, while ordering a Hamas crackdown with a reported 300 arrests, merely condemned it as being “against the Palestinian interest.”
Later, at the White House on Wednesday, Abbas was more humane, saying that “We do not want any blood to be shed, one drop of blood, on the part of the Israelis or the Palestinians.”
THE HEART yearns for the success of this latest attempt at peacemaking. The same heart that pleaded for good relations with our neighbors 62 years ago, even as we founded this country amid the war that was designed to destroy it at birth.
The heart says do anything for peace. Freeze the settlements – depriving Abbas of the pretext he is already advancing to scupper the talks – and prepare to dismantle most of them, in areas where we cannot expand sovereignty. Work for compromise on border routes and even in Jerusalem. Encourage international compensation for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, and even consider a very limited entry into Israel for family reunification purposes.
Anything, says the heart. Anything to free us of the terrible, debilitating, unwanted burden of ruling the Palestinians. Anything to ensure the preservation of an Israel at once Jewish and democratic. Anything to widen the circle of normalization and create greater regional support for the struggle against Islamic extremism and its patron state, Iran.
And the head? The head, in a murderous week such as this, cannot forget that second intifada bloodbath, and the Palestinian leadership duplicity that fostered it. The head too well remembers the hatred emblemized by the mindless destruction of the settlement greenhouses in Gaza, and the rise of Hamas – the Palestinian voter-endorsed rise of Hamas – when the opportunity to build a model state in the Strip was spurned.
The head, even as it recognizes the toxic outbursts of the likes of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, from which the Netanyahu leadership quickly dissociated itself, cannot ignore the relentless demonization of Israel in PA TV broadcasts, in ceremonies honoring terrorist “martyrs” and in Fatah resolutions. Demonization that is tolerated, sometimes encouraged, by the Abbas leadership. Demonization that renders Israeli citizens fair game for drive-by shootings.
The head considers the validity of Netanyahu’s only two real caveats regarding Palestinian statehood – that the new Palestine not be capable of threatening Israel militarily, and not be allowed to alter the Jewish character of our country via an influx of refugees – and cannot find a sympathetic explanation for why an Abbas bent on peacemaking would have wriggled out of talks with such a prime minister as the precious months of the settlement freeze passed fruitlessly by. The head searches in vain for evidence that the Palestinian leadership is conveying to its people that the Jews have a sovereign legitimacy in this land.
The heart so fervently wants to see all the current pessimism proved wrong. But the head deduces that Netanyahu’s admirable hope of finding, in Abbas, a new Sadat, will prove forlorn, and fears that this week’s return to terror attacks was only the first murderous consequence.
Shroud a 'radiation photo' of resurrection? - By Jerome R. Corsi – www.wnd.com
New study bolsters theory that body of Jesus Christ produced image
Scientists are building the case that the image of a crucified man on the Shroud of Turin was created by radiation that emanated from the body itself, a theory remarkably supportive of the traditional resurrection account that is central to Christian theology.
A scientific paper co-authored by attorney and historian Mark Antonacci and physicist Arthur Lind argues that the image of the crucified man in Shroud of Turin might constitute what amounts to a photograph taken at the instant Jesus' body transformed as he rose from the dead.
In the paper, "Particle Radiation from the Body," Antonacci's and Lind's argument centers around the 29 unique or unusual features that scientists over the past four decades have found on the Shroud's body image and fiber.
Among the 29 features are the following:
· Lack of fading of the image;
· Uniform coloring around each fiber of linen;
· All fibers collectively colored with the same intensity;
· Oxidation and dehydration of fibers;
· Stability of the body image to water and heating;
· Insolubility of the body image to acids, redox and solvents;
· Equal intensity of the body image for frontal and dorsal views;
· Negative images of the body with left/right and light/dark reversals that develop into highly resolved, photographic quality images;
· Three-dimensionality encoded through the space between the body and the cloth.
"All of these features can be accounted for by radiation, and only radiation will account for them all," the authors conclude.
For instance, the authors noted the Shroud's frontal and dorsal body images are "encoded with the same amount of intensity, independent of any pressure or weight from the body," such that the bottom part of the cloth that bore all the weight of the crucified man's supine body is not encoded with a greater amount of intensity than the frontal image.
"Radiation coming from the body would not only explain this feature, but also the left/right and light/dark reversals found on the cloth's frontal and dorsal body images," the authors note.
In arguing that the source of light that created the body image on the Shroud came from within the body, the authors observed that "neither the outside or inside of the tomb, nor the outside or inside of either the front or back sides of the cloth" are found on the Shroud's image.
"This means that the source of light does not originate outside of the body, the cloth or the tomb, but with the body itself," they write. "The weave of the inner part of the cloth containing the frontal and dorsal images is note even part of the distinctive images, which they too, would have been, if the light came from anywhere outside the body."
Antonacci and Lind ask, "What if the man's body became insubstantial or dematerialized instantly leaving behind some energy in the form of the basic particles of matter, such as protons, neutrons and electromagnetic waves, such as gamma rays?"
They answer that the part of the cloth that was originally closest to the body would have received the most radiation, while the part originally farthest away would have received the least – a phenomenon that "would result in true three dimensional information being encoded onto the two dimensional cloth," precisely as is found on the Shroud.
"The evidence acquired from more than a century of scientific, medical, archaeological and historical examination of the Shroud is not only consistent with its authenticity as the burial garment of the historical Jesus Christ, but with every element of his passion, crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection as described in the Gospels," they concluded.
WND previously reported on the work of graphics artist Ray Downing to produced a computer model of the face imprint on the Shroud of Turin, leading to a two-hour History Channel special presentation, "the Real Face of Jesus?"
Mark Antonacci is the founder and president of the non-profit Resurrection of the Shroud Foundation and author of the book "The Resurrection of the Shroud."
Arthur C. Lind, Ph.D., is a physicist who created Lind Scientific after retiring from the Boeing Co. in 1998; he obtained a doctorate in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1966.
God's Trade-In Deal – Greg Laurie – www.harvest.org
Did you know that the Lord has an amazing trade-in deal in store for you? That's right; you are going to trade in your existing body, with its aches and pains, for the newest model.
Of course, that is not a perfect analogy, because there will be a link between your old body and your new one.
Here are some thoughts about the new body God has for you when you get to heaven.
The blueprints for our glorified bodies are in the bodies we now possess—but in heaven they will be perfected. When we pass over to the other side, our minds and our memories will be clearer than ever before.
As the apostle Paul writes: "Our bodies now disappoint us, but when they are raised, they will be full of glory. They are weak now, but when they are raised, they will be full of power. They are natural human bodies now, but when they are raised, they will be spiritual bodies" (1 Corinthians 15:43–44 NLT).
Our new bodies will be the same as our old bodies in some ways, and different in other ways, but without question radically improved!
No more physical disabilities. No signs of age and no sinful tendencies.
Joni Erickson Tada is a quadriplegic who has glorified God despite her disability, which was the result of a diving accident in her youth. In her book Heaven: Your Real Home, she writes about our new bodies God has for us:
"No more bulging middles or balding tops. No varicose veins or crow's feet. No more cellulite or support hose. Forget the 'thunder thighs' and 'highway hips.'
Just a quick leapfrog over the tombstone, and it's the body you've always dreamed of. Fit and trim, smooth and sleek."
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There Is No Seven Year Tribulation! - This Week’s Feature Article by Jack Kelley – www.gracethrufaith.com
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 NKJV)
“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.” (Matt. 24:21 NKJV)
Every now and then I get a question from someone who says even though the pre-trib position seems to make sense scripturally, they can’t accept it because Jesus said we would have tribulation in this world, and that must mean the church will go through at least the first part of the Tribulation. When they say this they’re thinking of the first 3 ½ years.
Let’s get this straight. There is no mention anywhere in the Bible of a seven year tribulation. According to Strong’s Concordance the Greek word translated tribulation in these two passages appears 45 times in the New Testament and tribulation is the English word of choice in 21 of them, including the two above. It comes from a root meaning “to press” as grapes are pressed. When used metaphorically it can mean oppression, affliction, tribulation, distress, hardship, or trouble. But while tribulation is the word that appears in both these verses, their intent is completely different.
What Does That Mean?
In John 16:33 Jesus said, in effect, that becoming a believer doesn’t mean your troubles are over. Troubles are characteristic of this world and as long as you’re in it you’ll have them. But He has overcome this world and through faith in Him you will overcome it too.
He was referring to the fact that because of our faith we can have peace even in times of trouble (Phil 4:4-7). First because we know he’s working everything in our lives together for our good (Romans 8:28) and second because one day this will all be over and we’ll live in a state of eternal peace and happiness with Him. Therefore we should focus on that world not this one (2 Cor. 4:16-18). When you read the passage in context you can see that John 16:33 is meant for the entire Church Age and addresses individuals and our individual lives.
A Different Matter
But Matt. 24:21 is a different matter altogether. First of all it applies to a specific period of time, commencing on the heels of the abomination of desolation (Matt. 24:15) and ending just before the 2nd Coming (Matt. 24:29). And Jesus prefaced the word tribulation with “great” saying nothing like it has ever happened in the history of the world, or ever will happen again. From other references we know the Great Tribulation will last for 3 ½ years and will be far more severe than anyone can imagine. So much so that if the Lord doesn’t return to put an end to it, not a single human will survive (Matt. 24:22)
So as far as the Bible is concerned, there are two kinds of tribulation. The first is the general condition of our fallen creation. Hardship, illness, persecution and other kinds of unfair treatment, and a general state of uncertainty characterize our world. These are facts of human life that to a greater or lesser extent have impacted all human beings throughout the Age of Man. This is the tribulation Jesus spoke of in John 16:33. Of the 21 times the word tribulation appears in the New Testament (KJV) 16 of them are in this context.
Then, there’s the Great Tribulation. Three and one half years of extreme judgments that will fall upon just one generation, the one alive just before the second coming. This is the focus of Matt. 24:21 and just four other verses (Matt. 24:29, Mark 13:24, Rev. 2:22, Rev. 7:14) . You can see that the conditions of the two kinds of tribulation are very different. Whenever the word tribulation appears it’s referring to one of these two kinds and you know which one the Bible has in view by looking at context in which the word is being used. But you’ll never see it used to describe the seven years just prior to the 2nd Coming.
Where Did That Come From?
So how did the idea of a seven year tribulation originate? Well if it didn’t come from God, it had to have come from man. In researching this, I was not able to discover who first taught this, but I believe it started in the days when even the most learned scholars didn’t realize that Israel would be reborn. Neither did they understand that the Age of Grace didn’t follow the Age of Law but rather interrupted it seven years short of its completion. So calling the last seven years by their Old Testament name, Daniel’s 70th Week, didn’t make sense because doing so implied that Israel would come back from the dead and play a part in the End Times. This is something most scholars believed would not happen.
Even so there were seven years that had to be accounted for. The last three and a half were easy, Jesus had already named them the Great Tribulation (Matt. 24:21). That just left the first three and a half. These have been variously called the beginning of sorrows or the false peace or the tribulation period, but eventually scholars incorrectly began calling the entire seven year period the tribulation with the last half being the Great Tribulation. Since the rapture takes place before the seven years begin, it has also been incorrectly named. Instead of being pre-trib, it’s really pre 70th Week.
So What’s The Problem?
Other questions I’ve received concern the effect of this incorrect interpretation. “Why does it matter?” they ask. It matters because isn’t Biblical. And what’s more it’s confusing, as questions I get on the End Times demonstrate. Many people don’t distinguish between the two uses of the word tribulation and incorrectly use John 16:33 and similar passages to deny the pre-trib rapture.
For example, Acts 14:21-22 (KJV) is another passage sometimes used to question the pre-trib rapture.
And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch,
Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
Paul and Barnabas were encouraging new gentile converts to keep the faith in spite of the hardship and persecution they were facing, in effect saying it was something that should be expected as a result of their profession of faith. Reading about the current plight of Christians in places like India, Indonesia and China shows us these things are still going on in the world. Even in America we’re becoming used to seeing two things our constitution forbids. Persecution of Christians and promotion of other religions. But like it was in Paul’s day this has nothing to do with the Great Tribulation, and everything to do with religious persecution.
Also, referring to Daniel’s 70th Week (which concerns Israel) as the tribulation (which is worldwide) hides the fact that Israel and the Church can’t co-exist during that time. Because of this, many Christians don’t realize that during Daniel’s 70th Week God’s focus will be on Israel, with its Old Covenant Temple, animal sacrifice, keeping the commandments and all things Jewish. How can the dispensation of Law and the Dispensation of Grace exist in the same place at the same time when the two are theologically incompatible? Truth be told this is perhaps the most compelling reason for a pre 70th Week rapture.
After We’re Gone
In Romans 11:25-27 Paul said that Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in, but after that Israel will be saved. The Greek word for hardening also means blinded. This is a clear indication that God’s unfinished business with Israel won’t be concluded until he’s finished with the Church. We know He won’t be finished with us until the rapture. Until then Israel will remain at least partly blinded to the truth, just as Jesus warned would happen in Luke 19:41-44.
This sentiment was echoed at the Council of Jerusalem when James disclosed that God would first take from the Gentiles a people for Himself (the Church) and after that would turn again to Israel (Acts 15:13-18). In Greek the phrase translated take from literally means “to take in order to carry away from” and is another reference to the rapture.
These two passages of Scripture are not widely used in defense of the pre-trib rapture because they speak to the theology behind the Church’s disappearance rather than the event itself. But they’re extremely helpful in putting the missing week of Daniel 9:24-27 in its proper perspective. It’s the remaining 7 years of God’s assignment for Israel to complete 6 tasks in preparation for the coming Kingdom, as outlined in Daniel 9:24,
“Seventy ’sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy (place).”
The phrase seventy sevens means seventy weeks of years, or 490 years. Some of these tasks were at least partially completed in the 483rd year at the time of the Crucifixion. But Israel’s rejection of the Messiah stopped the clock 7 years short of the total leaving the rest undone. These 7 years are yet to be completed, but as Paul and James both specified, the clock will not start running again until the Church disappears. This is what makes knowing all about Daniel’s 70th Week so important to the Church. It helps us understand why the rapture can’t happen during any part of it.
The Bible is not a book of generalities; it’s a book of specifics. Those last 7 years are missing and must be completed. When you read the Bible literally, as was intended, there’s no sense in which they can be placed in the past. They’re part of the future and they’re not called the tribulation, they’re called Daniel’s 70th Week.
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Maranatha!
(Lord Come Quickly)
"On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand, All other ground is sinking sand."
"Let Us make the short time we have left count for all eternity!"
YBIC-Randy
