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"Thus says the Lord GOD, `This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the center of the nations, with lands around her. - Ezekiel 5:5
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Shalom in Christ Jesus,
 Global Propaganda and the Center of the Nations
I do not
know what angers me more. The demonic religion of Islam that persecutes
Christians and Jews or the deception engulfing most of the so-called
"Christianized" western world who fails to see this madness.
On one
hand fundamentalist Islam teaches it's young men, women and children to murder
Jews and Christians in the name of a false god in suicidal madness while giving
them the false hope of paradise only to send them to an eternity in the Lake of
Fire. On the other are a countless number of media and press agencies,
governmental organizations and religious groups whose very origin can be traced
to the enlightenment and freedom gained due to the spread of the gospel in the
West. These groups have gradually turned their backs on Jesus Christ and His
written word that had been the key reason for the success and prosperity in
countries like Britain and America for the last 500 years or so.
One thing
is for sure. I believe God's grace has been turning from the former Christian
nations to those that are in unbelief for some time and this wickedness is
allowed as a tool of chastening and correction for those the Lord loves.
Clearly, those turning to Christ and being saved are now more numerous in
nations that are not considered "Christian."
Recently, Satan's propaganda machine which is now made up
of virtually most of the "free press" of the world, has entered into
an all-out binge of distortion, truth twisting and lying concerning Israel,
Christianity and anything else that apparently gets in the way of what they
consider to be their version of the truth or facts. A perfect
example of this was a recent report on ABC News America concerning Global
Warming. Both sides of the issue were 'reported' but those viewing the surge in
global natural disasters and recent climate fluxuations as being related to a
more complicated set of natural factors and not man-made were labeled "the
deniers" while those in agreement with the global warming theory were
labeled "the scientists." The
report went along "the deniers say
... but the scientists say..." always with the word
"deniers" spoken in a condescending tone. It was
never explained that the so-called "deniers" are thousands of scientists
themselves, many renown among peers and considered some of the best and the
brightest in the world in these fields. Nor did they mention the mounting
evidence concerning the effect of the Sun and oceans on climate or the
relationship between extreme periods of warming and cooling and long-term
historical trends. Neither did they happen to mention the indication of "global
warming" on all the other bodies in our Solar System despite the absence of man
on those bodies.
[See: 800 Peer-Reviewed Papers Supporting Skepticism of "Man-Made" Global Warming (AGW) Alarm] Additionally,
the global warming proponents have had to fudge the numbers, use un-scientific
methods and try to block the peer review process of competing views to come up
with, and substantiate their reports. This is
not reporting the news - but pure propaganda! Clearly, the media has an agenda
and one must ask why? Consider
Paul Krugman, celebrated New York Times columnist and Nobel
Prize winning economist of the left.
This quote from his op-ed column Fear and Favor published October 3rd
bashing FOX News and the Tea Party movement unleashes a torrent of not
just bias, but what has become part of a cultic new-age belief system that has
engulfed most of academia, government, the private sector and "churchianity": [...] Modern American conservatism
is, in large part, a movement shaped by billionaires and their bank accounts,
and assured paychecks for the ideologically loyal are an important part of the
system. Scientists willing to deny the existence of man-made climate change,
economists willing to declare that tax cuts for the rich are essential to
growth, strategic thinkers willing to provide rationales for wars of choice,
lawyers willing to provide defenses of torture, all can count on support from a
network of organizations that may seem independent on the surface but are
largely financed by a handful of ultrawealthy families. Whom is
he describing here? As you will read in this alert, modern progressive
liberalism is also a movement shaped by billionaires and their bank accounts
(George Soros, Bill Gates, and the mysterious and convoluted system of tax free
foundations set up by the same "handful of ultrawealthy families" - Ford,
Rockefeller, et al. - that fund anything and everything under the sun). Payoffs
for ideological loyalty in nothing new and has been happening on both the right
and left forever so who is he kidding? This is called "you vote for this and we will reward you with that," to gain more power and prestige
in the party. From
there, he just turns religious. The debates on causes of climate change, how to
fix the economy, global politics etc. are sadly legitimate debates in today's
fallen world, and the world knows not that Christ is the only answer. However,
the views of Krugman and the progressive left are not based on reason as
they falsely portray but rather faith
in a secular humanist religion that worships a god of their own making (that
will ultimately bow the knee to anti-Christ) and this reveals their hypocrisy. Something they so love to
point out in others.
Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory
of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of
birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them
over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be
dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and
worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed
forever. Amen. - Romans 1:22-25 This
explains the refusal for honest debate with those who have opposing views on
climate change or any other issue for that matter. This is
the generation of the 1960's that preached, "Question the status quo, and
question authority." Now that they have become the authority, questioning
authority is not only discouraged, it is not tolerated and there is an active campaign to brainwash the masses before they ever reach that point (more hypocrisy).
Those who do are attacked not with reason or brutality, but by false and biased
reporting, accusations in the press, comedy routines, political cartoons and
art. Yet, I fear it will not be too long before true physical brutality comes,
for Satan knows his time is short. So just
who is Paul Krugman, this Nobel Prize winning economist, NY Times columnist,
outspoken Obama supporter and darling of the left? He rightfully points out
the possible conflict of interest that FOX News has having a number of
possible Republican presidential candidates for the 2012 election on their
payroll as news contributors. Well you can view bio here at the NY Times website. Yet, it
seems to leave out the fact that he is a current member of The Group of Thirty.
Who
is The Group of Thirty? According
to the website, The Group
of Thirty, established in 1978, is a private, nonprofit, international body
composed of very senior representatives of the private and public sectors and
academia. The Group
aims to deepen understanding of international economic and financial issues, to
explore the international repercussions of decisions taken in the public and
private sectors, and to examine the choices available to market practitioners
and policymakers. ... The Group
of Thirty's report: Financial Reform: A Framework for Financial Stability continues to influence policy making. On
January 21st, President Obama announced a series of further financial reforms
drawing directly from the G30 report.* The
report is available for free electronically.
You may also view the continuing press coverage of this report. So,
Krugman has the gall to accuse conservative Americans, the Tea Party and FOX
News, one of the only conservative media organizations in America up
against a myriad of left-wing biased media groups when he himself is part of an
elite group writing economic policy for the Obama Administration, US government
and likely much of the world. He has
been actively waging an ongoing editorial campaign that smears and belittles
the ideas opposed to his and those of the Humanist religion and progressive
left, while accusing Christians and the right of being interconnected to very
rich, power brokers that he himself is a part (hypocrisy and insanity)! Please
understand this is not a rant to support conservatism, the Tea Party** or FOX
News, as there are serious problems there as well, and they are not the
ultimate answer. Don't forget that there many on the far left that are quite
unhappy at how things are going opposed to how they think they should be, those
who are actual principled in what they believe. This does not mean they are
righteous but they do have integrity. Let me point out sadly that there are
some serious evils such as hydro-fracking that only the very far left media
seem to be willing to tackle. Why conservative Christian media does not
aggressively expose this practice is beyond me. This reeks of hypocrisy as
well, and gives the impression of the oft-stated blind allegiance the right has
to oil companies and general corporate greed. This should not be so with anyone
claiming to be a follower of Christ. Anyone not familiar with this insane
approach to natural gas extraction that destroys the local water aquifers,
water wells and uses proprietary chemicals that are killing animals and making
people sick should look into it before it comes into your neighborhood. Therefore,
we need to be very aware of the darkness filling the minds of those who control
the majority of the information flowing into our households and churches in
these last days, something I call "the prince of the power of the air
(waves)." We must have a lens through which to view that takes out the
distortions because this occurs in nearly all 'news' that is reported whether
it be politics, history or much of anything else that goes on in the world
today. It just gets worse when it comes to Christianity and Israel. Additionally,
as mentioned before, God allows the things that are a tool of chastening for
the blind and slumbering church of Laodicea and God chastens those whom He
loves. However, as a watchman, I believe we must know the full scope of what we
are up against and that the men shouting at us from every corner of society no
matter what they call themselves are radical religious followers of their
father whether they know it or not. In fact, as you can see, they are so
radical in following the father of lies nearly everything they preach is a lie. This is
why most of the media, even many who are Jewish, are so anti-Zionist,
anti-Christian, and pro-Islamic. They radically and faithfully practice their
humanistic religion while trying to squash the religious freedom of Christians.
And no wonder they do this because they worship the very same god that the
Muslims do - and they worship him fervently. This
reveals the zeitgeist (spirit of the age) in the world today, that is the spirit of antichrist. There is no truth in the world or it's religions;
just distortions, twisting and confusion, a mark of the father of lies who is
leading the world to the coming of his son, and who's prophet will mark
those who follow him, but we have the mark of Christ. Truth is
found only in Scripture, the written Word of God, and we must hold to it more
than ever and use it as the lens through which we view all things. Below you
will see that lens used. Even the New York Times publishes articles
that prove it is that very last of the last days. Jesus is indeed coming soon. Blow a trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, For the day of the LORD is coming; Surely it is near - Joel 2:1
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"Thus says the Lord GOD, `This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the center of the nations, with lands around her. - Ezekiel 5:5 "I am a refugee" (& "The Paula Abdul theory of foreign policy")
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Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, The real "Ground Zero"  | TOM GROSS MEDIA > Mideast Dispatch Archive - By Tom Gross - September 7, 2010
- While many people constantly refer to the Arab or Palestinian refugees, few are even aware of the Jewish refugees from Arab lands.
- Even though the number of Jewish refugees and their assets are larger than that of the Palestinians, the international community only appears to be aware of the latter's plight.
- Before the State of Israel was reestablished in 1948, there were almost one million Jews in Arab lands, today there are around 5,000.
- Jews were an integral part of many Arab cities. Baghdad in the 1920s, for example, was almost 40% Jewish.
- UN Security Council Resolution 242, still seen as the primary legal framework for resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict, asserts that a comprehensive Mideast peace settlement should necessarily include "a just settlement of the refugee problem." -- No distinction is made between Arab refugees and Jewish refugees.
- Amazingly, the budget the UN allocates for Palestinian refugees is almost half the budget it allocates for all other refugees throughout the rest of the world.
- "A president [Mahmoud Abbas] whose term in office expired a long time ago, and a prime minister [Salam Fayyad] who won about 2% of the vote when he ran in an election, have now been invited by the U.S. to hold direct peace talks with Israel on behalf of the Palestinians."
Unedited :: Link to Original Posting http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/001133.html
Related:
The Middle East for Dummies How does the other side see it? For starters, the West believes in fair play, but the Moslem world believes in shedding the blood of one's enemies and is shamed by their very existence. ARUTZ SHEVA (Israeli National News) - Editorial by Mark Silverberg - October 1, 2010 Our media, talking heads, academics, and even our government strategic thinkers have been dealing with the Arab and Muslim world based on the politically-correct paradigm of even-handedness and engagement, attributing most international problems to poverty, misunderstandings, rectifying historical grievances, and, in the case of Israel, territorial disputes - while ignoring or underplaying key elements, such as the importance attributed in Middle Eastern culture to honor and shame, the overwhelming sense of victimhood that permeates Arab societies, conflicting clan loyalties, the importance attributed to retaining absolute power, and frustrated Islamic imperialism. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/9731
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Petition: Demand Red Cross access to Gilad Shalit. Now.
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On 25th June 2006 Gilad Shalid was kidnapped by Palestinian armed forces and taken in to captivity in Hamas controlled Gaza. For over 4 years repeated efforts by the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit, or even make contact with, Gilad Shalit have been rebuffed. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), of which Magen David Adom is a part, acts in various ways to protect the victims of armed conflicts and, as a consequence, to work for the defense of human rights. It has been entrusted by the Geneva Conventions themselves with the task of contributing to and watching over their application; this is does mainly by its visits to prisoners of war and civilian internees. By signing this petition you will be contributing to a worldwide movement to ensure that pressure is placed on Hamas to provide this access and to keep the issue of Gilad Shalit in the focus of all those who can influence events in that region.
Sign the Petition http://www.mdavisitshalit.org/petition.asp
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Hamas Reveals that Arafat Gave Green Light for 2000 War
| ARUTZ SHEVA (Israeli National News) - By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu - September 29, 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Yasser Arafat, predecessor to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas as head of Fatah, gave the green light to Hamas for the so-called "Second Intifada," actually a terror war of unprecedented magnitude that began in 2000, the terrorist organization admitted.
Mahmoud al-Zahar, Hamas foreign policy advisor and perhaps its most senior member after de facto Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, made the revelation during a special meeting in Gaza marking the 10th anniversary of what also is known sarcastically as the Oslo War in an allusion to the Oslo Peace Accords that preceded it. Over a thousand Israeli civilians were murdered, including many defenseless,unsuspecting elderly people, women and children, in the ensuing terrorist tidal wave. ...
Haniyeh also spoke at the meeting, but foreign news services reported only his praise of the intifada while totally omitting any reference to al-Zahar's statement on Arafat's coalition with Hamas terrorists.
Haniyeh lauded the Arab violence, known by the code word "resistance", and said that one of its achievements was the expulsion of Jews and the withdrawal of all IDF forces from Gaza five years ago. "The intifada restored the dignity of the Palestinian people and brought them closer to victory and liberation," he said during a special meeting of his government.
"Our people will not hand over their weapons nor stop the resistance because it is our legitimate right as long as there is an occupation," he added. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/139825
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Egyptian Journalist Describes 'Absolute Prosperity' in Gaza
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Gaza Prosperity Montage  |
ARUTZ SHEVA (Israeli National News) - By Maayana Miskin - July 29, 2010 With Hamas telling tales of deprivation and suffering in Gaza, Egyptian journalist Ashraf Abu al-Houl has added his report to others who were surprised to discover a "prosperous" Gaza in which prices are low and luxury businesses are booming. Al-Houl's story of his trip to Gaza and his realization that "in actual terms, Gaza is not under siege" was written up in the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
"A sense of absolute prosperity prevails, as manifested by the grand resorts along and near Gaza's coast. Further, the site of the merchandise and luxuries filling the Gaza shops amazed me," he reported.
Concerned that his initial impression of prosperity may have been misleading, "I toured the new resorts, most of which are quite grand, as well as the commercial markets, to verify my hypothesis. The resorts and markets have come to symbolize prosperity, and to prove that the siege is formal or political, not economic," Al-Houl said.
Gaza's markets are filled with a "plethora of goods," he wrote. Prices on many items, particularly food, are much lower than they are in Egypt, he said. With goods entering Gaza from both smuggling tunnels to Egypt and humanitarian aid shipments coming in via Israeli crossings, "supply is much greater than demand," he stated.
The evident prosperity is not enjoyed by all, or even most, of Gaza's residents, according to Al-Houl. The problem is the vast differences in the distribution of wealth. The luxury resorts and wide range of consumer goods are enjoyed by "only a few groups," he said, primarily those who own smuggling tunnels to Egypt and those who work for international organizations such as the United Nations' UNRWA and who do not include or aid the rest of the population.
Most of the new resorts "are owned by members, or associates, of Hamas," he reported. "In addition, the Hamas municipalities charge high fees, in Gaza terms, for the use of public beaches," he added.
Al-Houl quoted political activist Mustafa Ibrahim as saying that while Gaza's rich invest in the leisure industry, 80% of residents rely on UNRWA, and unemployment is approximately 45%. "This creates a distorted picture," Ibrahim explained.
Unedited :: Link to Original Posting http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/138860
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The prince of the kingdom of Persia Iran Threatens Israel Once Again
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ARUTZ SHEVA (Israeli National News) - By Hillel Fendel - September 18, 2010 Iranian and Syrian leaders meet for two hours at Damascus airport on Yom Kippur. "No room for Israel in the Middle East," Ahmadinajad says. Following the meeting, Iran's English-language news agency reported that Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinajad repeated what he has said countless times in the past, that Israel has no place in a future Middle East. He also called the talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority a "failure." The report of the meeting by the French news agency AFP did not include his threats against Israel, however. "The front of resistance is increasing in the region," the Iranian president said, referring to the Syrian-Iranian alliance, and "the people of the region support [this] policy." He also that Iran-Syria relations were "solid and strategic with a unified view on all issues." ... The SANA Syrian news agency reported that Ahmadinajad and Assad had discussed, among other things, the need to unite the various factions in Iraq in order that a new government be established there quickly. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/139680Related:
CBS Poll: Israel Can't Count on US Public If Iran AttacksIsrael would find itself without widespread support from the American public for United States reprisals against Iran if Tehran attacks the Jewish State, according to a new CBS poll. The survey gave respondents several options on which actions by Iran would justify an American attack. Three-quarters of the respondents would support an American attack on the Islamic Republic under various circumstances, but 25 percent rejected any attack--even if Iran were to strike on American soil. Only 15 percent of the respondents would support an American counter-attack if Iran were to limit its attack to Israel, although another 13 percent said that the United States should attack Iran if it conducts a nuclear weapons test. Presumably, some or all of the same 13 percent might also back a strike if Israel were attacked, bringing the theoretical total to 28 percent. Read Full Report: ARUTZ SHEVA (Israeli National News) - By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu - October 5, 2010 Assad and Ahmadinejad to meet in TeheranSyrian President Bashar Assad will visit Iran and meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday. The two are expected to discuss regional development, according to Iranian news sources. Read Full Report: THE JERUSALEM POST [Mirkaei Tikshoret] - By JPost.com Staff - October 1, 2010 Lebanon Transformed: A Hizbullah Nation, Iranian ProxyA new Hizbullah country seems to be developing in place of the sovereign nation of Lebanon, and its population is preparing for another war with Israel. ... [A]lthough the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the Lebanese Army were intended to enforce a demilitarized zone between Israel's northern border and the Litani River, ensuring Hizbullah disarmed, they did not. In fact, Hizbullah and the Lebanese Army have essentially merged into one seamless unit, with the Lebanese government asserting its support for Hizbullah's right to bear arms, and the terrorist group asserting its right to "defend" Lebanon. ... Ahmadinejad will tour several major Hizbullah installations, and will meet with the terrorist group's chief, Hassan Nasrallah, as well as with all of Lebanon's top officials, including the president, prime minister and parliamentary speaker. ... The terrorist organization has infiltrated most, if not all, of the towns and villages in the southern region of the country, building a comprehensive, integrated network of weapons facilities and other military infrastructure. ... At least one Hizbullah supporter in the town of Aita al Sha'ab - from which the Second Lebanon War was launched - told a reporter from The New York Times this week that he was "expecting the war this summer. It's late." Read Full Report: ARUTZ SHEVA (Israeli National News) - By Chana Ya'ar - October 7, 2010 Fidel Castro tells Ahmadinejad: Stop denying the HolocaustCuba's former leader Fidel Castro has urged Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to stop slandering the Jews, according to an article published on the U.S. website The Atlantic on Tuesday. ... Castro told The Atlantic that the Iranian government should understand the consequences anti-Semitism. "This went on for maybe two thousand years," he said. "I don't think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. I would say much more than the Muslims. They have been slandered much more than the Muslims because they are blamed and slandered for everything. No one blames the Muslims for anything." He added: "The Jews have lived an existence that is much harder than ours. There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust." ... Read Full Report: HAARETZ [Schocken/DuMont Schauberg] - By Natasha Mozgovaya and Haaretz Service - September 7, 2010 Israel prepping for war with Iran?Increasing speculation it may be preparing for a military assault on Iran or a regional war involving Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, Israel has placed its largest order of military fuel with the United States on record. The Jewish state, earlier this month, ordered 284 million gallons of JP-8 aviation jet fuel, 100 million gallons of diesel fuel and 60 million gallons of unleaded gasoline - all suitable for military uses - at an estimated cost of $2 billion. "It would be inappropriate for us to comment about what actions Israel may take or how they will use their fuel," Marine Corps Major Chris Perrine, a public affairs officer at the Department of Defense, told WND. "I would note, however, that it would take a lot more than fuel to attack a country or wage a regional war." The sale was detailed in an Aug. 5 notification the Defense Security Cooperation Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense posted on its website, in compliance with the requirement to give Congress advance notice of foreign military sales. ... Read Full Report: WORLDNETDAILY - By Jerome R. Corsi - August 28, 2010http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=196377 |
Poll: Turks prefer Mideast over Europe
| YEDIOTH AHRONOTH [Yedioth Ahronoth Group - Private] - September 16, 2010 More Turks favor strengthening ties with Middle Eastern countries, than with the 27 members of the European block, according to an international poll published on Thursday by British newspaper The Guardian. The Transatlantic Trends survey was held among the citizens of 11 European Union members, the United States and Turkey. Twenty percent of the Turkish respondents said that Middle Eastern countries need to be their key partners in the international ring, while only 13% said they prefer the European Union. In a similar survey held last year the trend was opposite, with more respondents favoring ties with the European Union than with the Middle East. According to the Guardian, the findings reflect the shift in Turkish public opinion following events of the past year. In May, Turkey formed an agreement with Iran vis-�-vis its nuclear program, which was rejected by the Western powers. Later that month, the Israeli navy raided the Turkish Marmara ship, killing several Turkish citizens. The survey revealed a similar trend among the European nations, with only a quarter of the respondents favoring Turkey's inclusion in the European Union. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3955168,00.htmlRelated:
Turkey and Iran Agree to Open New Border GatesTurkey
and Iran signed a series of agreements Thursday including the
establishment of new border gates as well as cooperation in higher
education, culture and youth. The agreements were signed in a
meeting between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian
First Vice President Mohammed Reza Rahimi in Istanbul. ... Erdogan
said that Ankara did not want nuclear weapons in the region but was not
against use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. ... Read Full Report: JOURNAL OF TURKISH WEEKLY [International Strategic Research Org. (USAK),Turkish think tank based in Ankara] - September 17, 2010 New web address hints at Putin return to KremlinA Russian government agency has registered the web address Putin-2012.rf in a sign Prime Minister Vladimir Putin plans to run in a presidential election he would seem almost certain to win. Russia's Federal Bodyguard Service registered six domain names combining Putin's name or initials with "2012," according to the official Cyrillic domain database, stat.ref.ru. It did not do the same for President Dmitry Medvedev. Putin says he has not decided whether to run in 2012, saying he and Medvedev will decide on a joint candidate closer to the time. But many diplomats and analysts expect him to return to the Kremlin, shunting Medvedev into a lesser post. ... Read Full Report: REUTERS [Thomson-Reuters] - By Conor Humphries - September 17, 2010 |
In a Computer Worm, a Possible Biblical Clue
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(Pictured: Partial front cover of Cyber Terrorism: Political and Economic Implications, by Andrew M Colarik)  | NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By John Markoff and David E. Sanger - September 29, 2010 Deep inside the computer worm that some specialists suspect is aimed at slowing Iran's race for a nuclear weapon lies what could be a fleeting reference to the Book of Esther, the Old Testament tale in which the Jews pre-empt a Persian plot to destroy them.
That use of the word "Myrtus" - which can be read as an allusion to Esther - to name a file inside the code is one of several murky clues that have emerged as computer experts try to trace the origin and purpose of the rogue Stuxnet program, which seeks out a specific kind of command module for industrial equipment.
Not surprisingly, the Israelis are not saying whether Stuxnet has any connection to the secretive cyberwar unit it has built inside Israel's intelligence service. Nor is the Obama administration, which while talking about cyberdefenses has also rapidly ramped up a broad covert program, inherited from the Bush administration, to undermine Iran's nuclear program. In interviews in several countries, experts in both cyberwar and nuclear enrichment technology say the Stuxnet mystery may never be solved.
There are many competing explanations for myrtus, which could simply signify myrtle, a plant important to many cultures in the region. But some security experts see the reference as a signature allusion to Esther, a clear warning in a mounting technological and psychological battle as Israel and its allies try to breach Tehran's most heavily guarded project. Others doubt the Israelis were involved and say the word could have been inserted as deliberate misinformation, to implicate Israel.
"The Iranians are already paranoid about the fact that some of their scientists have defected and several of their secret nuclear sites have been revealed," one former intelligence official who still works on Iran issues said recently. "Whatever the origin and purpose of Stuxnet, it ramps up the psychological pressure."
So a calling card in the code could be part of a mind game, or sloppiness or whimsy from the coders.
The malicious code has appeared in many countries, notably China, India, Indonesia and Iran. But there are tantalizing hints that Iran's nuclear program was the primary target. Officials in both the United States and Israel have made no secret of the fact that undermining the computer systems that control Iran's huge enrichment plant at Natanz is a high priority. (The Iranians know it, too: They have never let international inspectors into the control room of the plant, the inspectors report, presumably to keep secret what kind of equipment they are using.)
The fact that Stuxnet appears designed to attack a certain type of Siemens industrial control computer, used widely to manage oil pipelines, electrical power grids and many kinds of nuclear plants, may be telling. Just last year officials in Dubai seized a large shipment of those controllers - known as the Simatic S-7 - after Western intelligence agencies warned that the shipment was bound for Iran and would likely be used in its nuclear program. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/world/middleeast/30worm.html
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Stuxnet Analysis Supports Iran-Israel Connections
| THREATPOST.com [Kaspersky Lab Security News Service] - By Paul Roberts - September 30, 2010 VANCOUVER - A Symantec researcher filled in more critical details about the Stuxnet worm here, demonstrating the worm's ability to take control of programmable logic controllers (PLCs) by Siemens Inc. and disable machinery connected to them. Liam O'Murchu of Symantec, speaking at the Virus Bulletin Conference here, provided the first detailed public analysis of the worm's inner workings to an audience of some of the world's top computer virus experts. O'Murchu described a sophisticated and highly targeted virus and demonstrated a proof of concept exploit that showed how the virus could cause machines using infected PLCs to run out of control. O'Murchu said that Symantec analysts were able to reverse engineer the virus's code and now understand exactly what Stuxnet does. However, without understanding what types of machinery the targeted logic controllers were connected to, it is impossible to know what harm the worm caused on infected industrial control systems - if any. "We know what Stuxnet does on PLCs, but not the "real world effects of this code," he said.
The worm used a novel method to compromise the PLCs, with the first ever root kit program designed to control PLCs. O'Murchu told attendees that Stuxnet was highly targeted, looking for systems using a specific type of network adapter card by Profibus and connected to specific models of programmable logic controllers, Siemens model S7-300 and S7-400 devices. The virus also compromised specialized software known as Step 7 to program the PLC for specific tasks, inserting a rootkit to intercept and modify instructions sent to and from the PLC. The result for victims would be to secretly program PLCs, but deny their owners the ability to know what code was really running inside the devices, he said. To demonstrate the real world impact of that loss of control, O Murch demonstrated the infection of an S7-300 PLC device connected to an airpump. Using the Step 7 software, he programmed the pump to run for three seconds, gently inflating a balloon attached to the pump. O'Murchu then demonstrated how a Stuxnet infected PLC would instruct the pump to run, instead, for 140 seconds, quickly bursting the balloon. "If this PLC was connected to an oil pipeline, you can see that the result would be much worse," he said.
Speculation about the Stuxnet work has grown rampant in the last week, as everyone from computer security experts to political scientists to divinity experts have weighed in on details of the worm, which was first identified in July. The story burst into the popular media after security and industrial control experts - looking at the capabilities and infection statistics from the Stuxnet worm -- suggested that it may have been a targeted attack aimed at Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities, and each day has brought new revelations about the impact of the worm and its possible origins. Recent discussions have focused on Israel as a possible source of the virus, given its sophistication and in Israel's stated interest in disrupting Iran's development of a nuclear weapon and clues in the malware itself, including a reference to Myrtus, the biblical character of Miriam. Though most of the conversation about Stuxnet is still based on conjecture, O'Murchu said that Symantec's analysis of Stuxnet's code for manipulating PLCs on industrial control systems by Siemens backs up both the speculation that Iran was the intended target and that Israel was the possible source of the virus. As for Iran, O'Murchu merely pointed to Symantec data that show the country was the source of the most Stuxnet infections. Iran has since blocked communications to Stuxnet's command and control infrastructure, he said.
As for suggestions that Israeli intelligence may have authored the virus, O'Murchu noted that researchers had uncovered the reference to an obscure date in the worm's code, May 9, 1979, which, he noted, was the date on which a prominent Iranian Jew, Habib Elghanian, who was executed by the new Islamic government shortly after the revolution. Anti virus experts said O'Murchu's hypothesis about the origins of the virus were plausible, though some continue to wonder how the authors of such a sophisticated piece of malware allowed it to break into the wild and attract attention. "It should have been more successful and stayed off the radar," said Ivan Macalintal, a virus researcher at Trend Micro. The virus is a "game changing event" for the anti malware industry, he said - expanding the scope of virus analysis into the political realm and beyond the purview of systems running the Windows operating system.
Unedited :: Link to Original Posting http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/stuxnet-analysis-supports-iran-israel-connections-093010?
Related:
NYT links Iran worm to bible: File named 'Myrtus', moniker for Esther, has experts believing Israel planted virus in Iran's computers Computer specialists charged with examining the Stuxnet computer virus, which has reportedly infected Iranian nuclear infrastructure, have found that one of its files was named 'Myrtus', a moniker used to refer to Esther in the biblical book by her name. A New York Times report published Thursday says another biblical clue found in the virus's code was the word 'guava', a fruit belonging to the Myrtus family. The report names as its source Ralph Langner, a German computer security consultant and the first to devise that the worm was a pointed cyber attack. The word 'Myrtus' is most simply used as a name for a family of fruit, also used for religious purposes during the Sukkot holiday, but some computer analysts see it as a biblical clue linking Israel to the attempt at breaking into Iran's nuclear technology. However other analysts see the clue as a red herring intended at focusing suspicion on Israel and thus removing it from other possible culprits. ... Read Full Report: YEDIOTH AHRONOTH [Yedioth Ahronoth Group - Private] - By Dudi Cohen - September 30, 2010
Coding of Virus Attacking Iran May Refer to Queen Esther Stuxnet hit Iran much harder than any other nation, affecting an estimated 62,000 systems. A total of 100,000 computers are thought to have been hit with the worm worldwide. The worm was designed to target software created by the German company Siemens; Iran relies heavily on Siemens systems. ... A detailed analysis released by security firm Symantec revealed two clues that, according to Wired.com, may indicate Israeli involvement in the attack - or may indicate that another country is trying to implicate Israel in the attack. Two file directory names, "myrtus" and "guava," could be an allusion to the biblical Queen Esther, who intervened to save the Jewish people from destruction at the hands of a Persian king. Persia is now known as Iran. Esther was also known as Hadassah, a name which means "myrtle" in Hebrew. Guavas are in the myrtle family of fruit. A second possible hint at Israeli involvement is the halt marker 19790509, a possible reference to the date May 9, 1979, when Iran executed Persian Jew Habib Elghanian, prompting the mass exodus of Iranian Jews from the newly Islamic state. The Symantec analysis was released in an attempt to get information on what, exactly, Stuxnet is targeting. Queen Esther seems to be a ubiquitous symbol, imagined or otherwise. Two years ago, an Egyptian cleric called for a boycott of Starbucks' Coffee after he claimed to have identified the image of Queen Esther in its logo. Read Full Report: ARUTZ SHEVA (Israeli National News) - By Maayana Miskin - October 3, 2010
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The lessons of Stuxnet
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JEWISH WORLD REVIEW - By Caroline B. Glick - October 4, 2010 There's a new cyber-weapon on the block. And it's a doozy. Stuxnet, a malicious software, or malware, program was apparently first discovered in June.
Although it has appeared in India, Pakistan and Indonesia, Iran's industrial complexes - including its nuclear installations - are its main victims.
Stuxnet operates as a computer worm. It is inserted into a computer system through a USB port rather than over the Internet, and is therefore capable of infiltrating networks that are not connected to the Internet.
Hamid Alipour, deputy head of Iran's Information Technology Company, told reporters Monday that the malware operated undetected in the country's computer systems for about a year.
After it enters a network, this super-intelligent program figures out what it has penetrated and then decides whether or not to attack. The sorts of computer systems it enters are those that control critical infrastructures like power plants, refineries and other industrial targets.
Ralph Langner, a German computer security researcher who was among the first people to study Stuxnet, told various media outlets that after Stuxnet recognizes its specific target, it does something no other malware program has ever done. It takes control of the facility's SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition system) and through it, is able to destroy the facility.
No other malware program has ever managed to move from cyberspace to the real world. And this is what makes Stuxnet so revolutionary. It is not a tool of industrial espionage. It is a weapon of war.
From what researchers have exposed so far, Stuxnet was designed to control computer systems produced by the German engineering giant Siemens. Over the past generation, Siemens engineering tools, including its industrial software, have been the backbone of Iran's industrial and military infrastructure. Siemens computer software products are widely used in Iranian electricity plants, communication systems and military bases, and in the country's Russian-built nuclear power plant at Bushehr.
The Iranian government has acknowledged a breach of the computer system at Bushehr. The plant was set to begin operating next month, but Iranian officials announced the opening would be pushed back several months due to the damage wrought by Stuxnet. On Monday, Channel 2 reported that Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment facility was also infected by Stuxnet.
On Tuesday, Alipour acknowledged that Stuxnet's discovery has not mitigated its destructive power.
As he put it, "We had anticipated that we could root out the virus within one to two months. But the virus is not stable and since we started the cleanup process, three new versions of it have been spreading."
While so far no one has either taken responsibility for Stuxnet or been exposed as its developer, experts who have studied the program agree that its sophistication is so vast that it is highly unlikely a group of privately financed hackers developed it. Only a nation-state would have the financial, manpower and other resources necessary to develop and deploy Stuxnet, the experts argue.
Iran has pointed an accusatory finger at the US, Israel and India. So far, most analysts are pointing their fingers at Israel. Israeli officials, like their US counterparts, are remaining silent on the subject.
While news of a debilitating attack on Iran's nuclear installations is a cause for celebration, at this point, we simply do not know enough about what has happened and what is continuing to happen at Iran's nuclear installations to make any reasoned evaluation about Stuxnet's success or failure. ...
ALL THAT we know for certain is that Stuxnet is a weapon and it is currently being used to wage a battle. We don't know if Israel is involved in the battle or not. And if Israel is a side in the battle, we don't know if we're winning or not.
But still, even in our ignorance about the details of this battle, we still know enough to draw a number of lessons from what is happening.
Stuxnet's first lesson is that it is essential to be a leader rather than a follower in technology development. The first to deploy new technologies on a battlefield has an enormous advantage over his rivals. Indeed, that advantage may be enough to win a war.
But from the first lesson, a second immediately follows. A monopoly in a new weapon system is always fleeting. The US nuclear monopoly at the end of World War II allowed it to defeat Imperial Japan and bring the war to an end in allied victory.
Once the US exposed its nuclear arsenal, however, the Soviet Union's race to acquire nuclear weapons of its own began. ...
The risks of proliferation are the flipside to the advantage of deploying new technology. Warning of the new risks presented by Stuxnet, Melissa Hathaway, a former US national cybersecurity coordinator, told the Times, "Proliferation is a real problem, and no country is prepared to deal with it. All of these [computer security] guys are scared to death. We have about 90 days to fix this [new vulnerability] before some hacker begins using it."
Then there is the asymmetry of vulnerability to cyberweapons. A cyberweapon like Stuxnet threatens nation-states much more than it threatens a non-state actor that could deploy it in the future. For instance, a cyber-attack of the level of Stuxnet against the likes of Hizbullah or al-Qaida by a state like Israel or the US would cause these groups far less damage than a Hizbullah or al-Qaida cyber-attack of the quality of Stuxnet launched against a developed country like Israel or the US. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1010/glick100410.php3
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Interfaith Group Urges U.S. To Press For Middle East Agreement
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RELIGION NEWS SERVICE [Advance/Newhouse] - By Nicole Neroulias - September 30, 2010 A broad coalition of U.S. Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders has backed the Obama administration's efforts to broker peace between Israel and Palestinians. Members of the National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace in the Middle East met Wednesday (Sept. 29) with National Security Advisor Gen. James Jones and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The coalition called for "active, fair and firm U.S. leadership for Arab-Israeli-Palestinian peace." "We believe that concerted, sustained U.S. leadership for peace is essential," the coalition said. "And we know that time is not on the side of peace, that delay is not an option." The group has expressed faith in a two-state solution since forming in 2003. Its latest statement was signed by 15 Christian leaders representing Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, evangelical and mainline Protestant denominations; six rabbis and a professor from Judaism's Reform and Reconstructionist movements; and six Muslims representing the Islamic Society of North America and other groups. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/01/interfaith-group-urges-us_n_746315.html
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PA Refuses to Recognize Israel's Jewishness
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ARUTZ SHEVA (Israeli National News) - By Hillel Fendel - September 27, 2010 The construction freeze is taking center stage in the Israel-PA talks, but what about the PA's refusal to agree that Israel remain a Jewish state? Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and the U.S. are continuing negotiations for another week to see if a way can be found to have the PA accept Israel's renewal of construction for its 320,000 citizens in Judea and Samaria. Largely overlooked, however, is the refusal of Mahmoud Abbas and fellow PA negotiators to accept Israel as a Jewish state. Just last week, PA prime minister Salam Fayyad attempted to officially sum up a meeting of a UN committee by writing the phrase "two states," without specifying that these were "two states for two peoples." Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon refused to approve this summary, and Fayyad walked out in anger. ... International Opposition Israel's insistence on being considered a Jewish state is even less understood internationally. An article in Great Britain's Guardian entitled "Israel's unreasonable demand" says that for Israel to be a Jewish state clashes with its claim that it is democratic. "Moreover," the article continues, "by forcing the Palestinian Authority to recognize the state's 'Jewishness,' Israel is obliging the Palestinians to recognize a system in which Israel's Arab citizens are second class." Actually, however, Arabs in Israel have more rights than do many Palestinians in Arab countries. Palestinians in Lebanon, for instance, have been banned from most work opportunities for decades. Balfour Declaration, San Remo: Israel to be "Jewish National Home" The Balfour Declaration of 1917, the modern international legal basis for the establishment of the State of Israel, makes it clear that Israel is to be a national home for the Jewish people. The declaration also states that "nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine" - but nothing about any "national" rights of said communities. Less than three years later, at the San Remo Conference, the three leading post-World War One European powers (Great Britain, France and Italy) and Japan agreed that the Balfour Declaration must be implemented, and once again called for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." This call, too, said that "nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine," again saying nothing about "national" rights.
Edited :: See Original Report Here http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/139789
Related:
PA: Give us a State or It's WarSenior Palestinian Authority negotiator Nabil Shaath has announced that the PA will never accept Israel as a Jewish state. In addition, he threatened war if the PA fails to obtain its demands through negotiations, saying, "A Palestinian state will arise, either through negotiations or through armed resistance." The Arab League voted last week to support PA Chairman Abbas' refusal to recognize Israel as Jewish. ... Read Full Report: ARUTZ SHEVA (Israeli National News) - By Maayana Miskin - September 19, 2010Jordan's king warns of war by year's end WASHINGTON - Several hours after describing what Israel and the Palestinians are expected to gain from peace in his UN General Assembly address, Jordan's King Abdullah warned Thursday night that if the settlement construction freeze issue would not be solved, a violent conflict could break out by the end of 2010. "If we don't get past the 30th, which shows sincerity that the Israelis and Palestinians are going to move forward," expect a war by the end of the year, the Jordanian king told Jon Stewart on the Daily Show. ... He implicitly criticized Iran's involvement in the Middle East, saying that the Palestinian issue "has been hijacked by some non-Arab elements and that the moderates have very little to say. ... He didn't talk about the occupation, the liberation of Jerusalem or "Israel's murderous crimes" - as the Turkish and Iranian presidents did before him, but mentioned the Arab peace initiative, which will allow the normalization of relations between Israel and 57 Arab and Muslim states - one-third of the United Nations. ... In line with US President Barack Obama's speech, the Jordanian king stressed that there was no other regional crisis with a greater influence on global security and stability. There is no other crisis which has been on the UN's agenda longer or has frustrated peace makers more, he said. ... Read Full Report: YEDIOTH AHRONOTH [Yedioth Ahronoth Group - Private] - By Yitzhak Benhorin - September 24, 2010 |
Obama Sidesteps PA's Refusal to Call Israel' A Jewish State'
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ARUTZ SHEVA (Israeli National News) - By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu - September 12, 2010 U.S. President Barack Obama has sidestepped a chance to back Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's demand that the Palestinian Authority call Israel a Jewish State, but he told reporters that the Prime Minister should accept Abbas's demand and extend the building freeze for four more months. The freeze on building Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria, and the issue of Israel's being a Jewish State, are the major demands that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu have made for direct talks to address the issue of establishing the PA as a new Arab country. ... In a press conference Friday, President Obama directly told reporters that Israel should meet Abbas' demand but ignored the Israeli demand, stated in a reporter's comment that "Abbas...said the Palestinians won't recognize Israel as a Jewish state." The reporter continued, "The question is, if these talks fail at an early stage, will this administration disengage? Or maybe you're ready to step up and deepen your personal involvement." President Obama did not refer to the "Jewish State" issue except to clearly imply that its definition depends on Israel's surrendering all of the areas restored to the country in the Six-Day War in 1967. ... The only demand he made from Abbas was that he sit down with Israel for discussions, which Abbas has said are not open for any negotiations on the PA demands for total sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, the Temple Mount and all parts of Jerusalem that were under the Jordanian occupation between 1949 and 1967. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/139567
Related:
Clinton Lays Groundwork for PA as Necessary for 'Jewish State' [...] Clinton stated,
"The status quo is unsustainable" even if it can last for another 30
years. "The only path to ensure Israel's future as a secure democratic
and Jewish state" is an Arab state, headed by the Palestinian Authority,
"alongside" Israel. The United States has adopted almost all of PA
Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's demands that a new PA state should include all
of Judea and Samaria and parts of Jerusalem that were restored to Israel
in the Six-Day War in 1967, nearly 2,000 years after the destruction of
the Second Temple and the end of Jewish rule over the city. Many PA
clerics and leaders deny that the Temples ever existed. Clinton's
speech effectively expresses the thesis that the continued existence of a
"Jewish Israel" is dependent on transforming all of Judea and Samaria,
where 300,000 Jews live, into a new country under the sovereignty of the
Palestinian Authority. ... Read Full Report: ARUTZ SHEVA (Israeli National News) - By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu - September 15, 2010
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U.S. backs Palestinian airport near Jerusalem
| Construction could affect outcome of future agreement with Israel WORLDNETDAILY - By Aaron Klein - October 1, 2010 JERUSALEM - The Obama administration supports the concept of the Palestinian Authority opening an airport near Jerusalem, according to PA sources speaking to WND.
The PA is planning to start the infrastructure of the airport in the town of al Buqya, between Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley. WND has learned that PA official Saadi el-Krunz is heading the PA campaign to raise money for the airport.
In line with the demand that Israel freeze all Jewish construction in the West Bank and eastern section of Jerusalem, WND has learned that the U.S. is aiding the Palestinians in building infrastructure in largely Arab eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods controlled by Israel.
In so doing, the U.S. is working with the PA to change the facts on the ground, which could affect the outcome of a future Israel Palestinian agreement. ...
Palestinian Authority officials have threatened to halt the direct negotiations that began in early September if Israel does not reinstate the 10-month-old freeze on Jewish construction in the West Bank that expired Sunday. ...
PA officials, meanwhile, said the U.S. has been negotiating the borders of a future Palestinian state that would see Israel eventually withdraw from most of the West Bank and some areas of eastern Jerusalem with the exception of the three blocs.
While the PA does not believe it will see an actual Palestinian state within a year, it expects in that time it will take over many more neighborhoods in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem that are normally controlled on the ground by Israel.
The PA said the expectation is based on pledges by the Obama administration. They said The U.S. received a pledge from Netanyahu to transfer more security control of West Bank towns as well as release a number of Palestinian prisoners as gestures to entice Abbas to stay in the talks. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=210137
Related:
Shock plan: Palestinians scheduled to govern Jews JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly has proposed a new plan whereby Jews living in the West Bank will remain in their communities after the territory becomes part of a Palestinian state, WND has learned. Officials in both Israel and the Palestinian Authority have confirmed the plan to this reporter, marking the first time an Israeli leader has ever put on the table in a serious way a proposal involving Jewish West Bank residents remaining in a Palestinian state. Conventional negotiations always has assumed an Israeli evacuation of its communities inside any territory taken over by the PA. Middle East officials said the plan is being considered seriously by the Obama administration, while the PA has been less than enthusiastic. PA sources said they held a meeting last week over the plan. The full details of the plan, such as specific security guarantees for the remaining Jews, were not disclosed. It was unclear how the Jewish residents of the West Bank will react to a plan that would seemingly place their security in the hands of the PA, whose militia members have carried out scores of attacks targeting those very Jewish communities. PA President Mahmoud Abbas has been on record multiple times speaking against Jews living in a Palestinian state. ... Read Full Report: WORLDNETDAILY - By Aaron Klein - September 6, 2010
Israel concedes Jerusalem before negotiations even begin Also agrees to forfeit holy sites to be governed by 'special regime' JERUSALEM - Ahead of the start of today's Mideast summit in Washington, the Israeli government publicly conceded sections of Jerusalem will become part of a Palestinian state while holy sites would be governed by a "special regime." Speaking in an interview with Israel's Haaretz newspaper, Defense Minister Ehud Barak outlined a deal with the Palestinians: "West Jerusalem and 12 Jewish neighborhoods that are home to 200,000 residents will be ours. The Arab neighborhoods in which close to a quarter million Palestinians live will be theirs." "There will be a special regime in place along with agreed upon arrangements in the Old City, the Mount of Olives and the City of David," added Barak. ... A WND investigation previously determined the U.S. has been aiding the Palestinians in developing infrastructure in eastern Jerusalem, including on property owned by Jews. ... A WND tour of the three Jerusalem neighborhoods found some surprising developments. Official PA logos and placards abound, including one glaring red street sign at the entrance to the neighborhoods warning Israelis to keep out. ... Read Full Report: WORLDNETDAILY - By Aaron Klein - September 1, 2010
Jews killed where Obama demanded removal of checkpoints JERUSALEM - Today's deadly terror attack that killed four people took place on a road where the Israeli government removed staffed anti-terror checkpoints in line with requests from the Obama administration, WND has learned. ... In the last year, the Israeli government removed 19 staffed checkpoints in the West Bank. At least 15 of the removed barriers are in the vicinity of Hebron. A spokeperson for the Israel Defense Forces confirmed to WND that in the last year and a half, all roadblocks have been removed from Route 60. The checkpoints were dismantled in line with demands from the Palestinian Authority that were passed on to Israel by the Obama administration. ... Read Full Report: WORLDNETDAILY - By Aaron Klein - August 31, 2010
US Insists 'No Change in PA Status' Despite Flag Waving The United States insists that allowing the Palestinian Authority to fly its flag in Washington does not represent an upgrade in its diplomatic status. The PA said Friday that the American government is changing the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) mission's designation from "mission" to "special delegation." The change allows the flying of the PA flag at the entrance to its office and grants PA officials cetain privileges.. However, U.S. State Department spokesman Phillip Crowley told reporters that the report was partially incorrect and that the permission for flying the PA flag was only symbolic. "There has been no change in the status of the Palestinian mission here in Washington.... It does not have any diplomatic privileges or immunities," he stated. Crowley explained that an "improvement in the relations between the United States and Palestinians" led to the allowing of a PLO request "to call itself the General Delegation of the PLO, which is a name that conforms to how they describe their missions in Europe, Canada, and several Latin American countries. But these steps have symbolic value...but they have no meaning under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations." ... Read Full Report: ARUTZ SHEVA (Israeli National News) - By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu - July 25, 2010
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'I will curse those that curse thee' Smugglers of Drugs Burrow on Border
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NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Marc Lacey - October 2, 2010 NOGALES, Ariz. - Drone aircraft patrol the United States-Mexico border from the skies. Fast boats look out for smugglers at sea. And tens of thousands of Border Patrol agents use trucks, horses, all-terrain vehicles and bicycles to stop unauthorized crossers on land. But there is another route across the border, one in which smugglers slither north. As enforcement efforts have increased and border barriers have been built, tunneling has gained in popularity, with Nogales becoming the capital. On Thursday, the Border Patrol was filling an underground tunnel that had been discovered right under the immigration checkpoint in Nogales. But even before the concrete was poured to make that tunnel inoperative, another subterranean passageway was discovered a block away. The second tunnel, which had been used to bring bales of marijuana from Mexico, will be filled as well. There are patches, in fact, all across this city, where the authorities have tried to tap the tunnels that traffickers build off the extensive underground storm drain system that connects Nogales with another city by the same name across the fence in Mexico. ... Over the last four years, at least 51 unauthorized tunnels, or more than one a month, have been found in the two border cities. Some are short, narrow passageways that require those navigating them to slither. Others are long, sophisticated underground thoroughfares strung with electric cables and ventilation hoses. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/us/03tunnels.html
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Then he said, "Do you understand why I came to you? But I shall now return to fight against the prince of Persia; so I am going forth, and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come. - Daniel 10:20 Greece, Israel to Tighten Ties After PM's Visit
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ARUTZ SHEVA (Israeli National News) - By Maayana Miskin - July 23, 2010 Greece and Israel will undergo "a major upgrade of relations," said Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's spokesmen following a meeting between Netanayhu and Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, whose visit this week was the first visit by a Greek prime minister in decades. Israel's tighter ties with Greece come on the heels of a sharp deterioration in ties between Israel and Turkey. Papandreou denied a connection between the two, telling reporters, "I've been thinking of forging closer ties with Israel for about two years." However, the history of Greek-Turkish relationships has been characterized more by conflict than by cooperation, with the once violent controversy of the two countries over contorl of Cyprus a noted example. Both countries' national days celebrate victories over one another. Papandreou met with President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and Opposition leader Tzipi Livni. He also travelled to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. In his meeting with Papandreou, Netanyahu gave the Greek prime minister a message to pass along to Abbas. "I am not skeptical, and neither are you, about peace with the Palestinians," he said. The two prime ministers discussed their countries' shared ground. Jerusalem and Athens provided the basis for Western civilization, Netanyahu said, and Israel and Greece are now sources of stability in the Middle East. Papandreou recalled the Holocaust, in which many Greeks were killed, concluding, "We too say 'never again.'" The planned upgrade in ties is expected to include closer cooperation regarding finance and technology. Greece has been experiencing a severe economic crisis in recent months. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/138749 |
Secret is Out: Pro-PA Billionaire George Soros Funds J Street
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ARUTZ SHEVA (Israeli National News) - By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu - September 26, 2010 Pro-Palestinian Authority billionaire George Soros, who once said Israeli and American policies fuel anti-Semitism, helps fund the J Street lobby that is sympathetic to Hamas, The Washington Times revealed Saturday. Soros never was a supporter of Zionist activities, and a biography of him states that Judaism "did not express itself in a sense of tribal loyalty that would have led him to support Israel."
He has long been rumored to be behind the left-wing political lobby, but J Street previously denied that he contributed money to the group until now. "George Soros very publicly stated his decision not to be engaged in J Street when it was launched - precisely out of fear that his involvement would be used against the organization," the J Street website stated before The Times questioned it about Soros. The site immediately was changed to read, "J Street has said it doesn't receive money from George Soros, but now news reports indicate that he has in fact contributed."
Times' reporter Eli Lake said that the newspaper obtained tax forms revealing that Soros and his two children gave J Street nearly a quarter of a million dollars. Soros originally helped found J Street as an alternative lobby to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), whose pro-Israel polices angered him. He contributed heavily in an attempt to defeat President Bush when he ran for re-election in 2004, telling The New York Times that getting rid of Bush was the "central focus of my life" and "a matter of life and death."
Soros was a strong supporter of President Barack Obama during his presidential campaign, and the president has included J Street officials frequently in White House consultations, trying to promote the political lobby as representing American Jews.
J Street promotes itself as a "pro-Israel and pro-peace lobby. It favors including Hamas in the "peace process. The former founder of a Hamas-linked charity recently attended a J Street event in Florida and was welcomed by applause.
Soros, who was born in Hungary, and whose family changed its name from Schwartz to Soros in order to escape growing anti-Semitism. made a fortune on currency speculation.
He has contributed billions of dollars to charities, none of which are Zionist and almost all of which are non-Jewish. His financial contributions have been aimed at promoting democracy, particularly to the former Soviet bloc and to black students and to fight poverty in South Africa. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/139768
Related:
Soros: I Can't Stop a Republican "Avalanche" George Soros, the billionaire financier who was an energetic Democratic donor in the last several election cycles but is sitting this one out, is not feeling optimistic about Democratic prospects. ... Mr. Soros, a champion of liberal causes, has been directing his money to groups that work on health care and the environment, rather than electoral politics. Asked if the prospect of Republican control of one or both houses of Congress concerned him, he said: "It does, because I think they are pushing the wrong policies, but I'm not in a position to stop it. I don't believe in standing in the way of an avalanche." Read Full Report: NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Sewell Chan - October 11, 2010
Caught in the Act: Peace Now Escorts US Officials at SettlementsHagit Ofran, an official of the political lobby group Peace Now, was photographed Tuesday escorting U.S. officials and taking pictures at the Jewish community of Revava in Samaria. American officials declined to comment and referred questions to the Consulate spokeswoman, who so far has not returned a phone inquiry. Ofran, granddaughter of the late Israeli philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowich, often travels to Jewish communities in Judea to document construction of Jewish homes, which Peace Now opposes. She hid her face after seeing that she was being photographed by Samaria Liaison Council director David Ha'Ivri, who greeted her with a "hello." HaIvri also saw her with Jonathan Cullen, a political officer with the Consulate. Ha'Ivri, whose group is an official Samaria government agency, previously has traveled with Cullen to explain to him facts that had not been known to American officials, such as the relations between Jewish employers and Arab workers and the extent of Jewish industrial development in Judea and Samaria. ... Read Full Report: ARUTZ SHEVA (Israeli National News) - By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu - October 5, 2010 Declassified docs show Kissinger siding with ArabsNEW YORK - Israel's "special relationship" with the United States, so often cited during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent U.S. visit, may not have always been so special, according to declassified White House documents. References to the controversial file were featured in a recent editorial in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. The transcripts cover some of the waning days of the Nixon administration and the 18 months of the Ford administration when Secretary of State Henry Kissinger directed U.S. foreign policy. While it was never a secret that Kissinger had problems with several Israeli governments, the depth of antagonism was never as clearly illustrated as in the previously secret documents, copies of which were obtained by WND. In the papers, Kissinger refers to then-Israeli Defense Minister Shimon Peres, currently Israel's president, as a "liar." He refers to the Syrians as "my friends." He notably states that a fifth Arab-Israeli war might not be so bad for Washington and the Arabs. ... Kissinger's comments came just two and a half years after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which, after initial setbacks, saw Israeli tank forces under Gen. Ariel Sharon surround and cut off 50,000 Egyptian crack troops before moving to within 50 miles of Cairo. ... Read Full Report: WORLDNETDAILY - By Stewart Stogel - July 17, 2010 |
EU accused of meddling in Israeli democracy
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EU OBSERVER - By Leigh Phillips - June 30, 2010 BRUSSELS - An archly conservative group with strong links to the Israeli government has attacked the human rights community in the Jewish state, saying that it is being bankrolled by the EU in a secretive attempt to undermine democracy. Israeli diplomats are touting in Brussels the "investigative" work of NGO Monitor, a body which claims that a clutch of officials in the heart of the EU is plotting to "delegitimise" Israel by funding local human rights organisations. Professor Gerald Steinberg, NGO Monitor president, was in Brussels last week speak MEPs and Israel's EU mission promoted his work among journalists. The EU gives "public funds to a small group of opposition groups in an effort to manipulate the political process," he told eurodeputies. "In violation of the principle that democracies do not attempt to manipulate or interfere with the internal political processes in other democracies, anonymous European officials in charge of NGO allocations seek to exploit a minority group of Israelis to impose EU-favoured policies on the wider Israeli public." ... He compared the sums, amounting to 68.8 million shekels (€15 million) since 2006 for Israeli civil society groups including B'Tselem, Peace Now, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Mossawa and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, whom he terms "radical fringe" NGOs, to the €15 million annually Israel spends internationally on its public diplomacy efforts. Mr Steinberg also named Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam as part of what he calls "third-generation warfare" against Israel. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here http://euobserver.com/24/30383 |
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The Dilemma of  Laodicea
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The first problem Laodicea had and has is its blindness A NEW BOOK BY JAMES JACOB PRASCH
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