Mullahs in Iran going to fire missiles

 

Iran has been preparing Palestinian terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon to retaliate in the case of Israeli strikes against Tehran’s nuclear sites, according to Egyptian security officials speaking to WND.

The security officials said Tehran was convinced the Jewish state was going to attack its suspected nuclear sites in September, prompting Iran to hold joint military drills with Gazan jihad groups in August, including with Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Similar drills were held in August with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

Those drills were conducted by Iranian Revolutionary Guard members, the officials said. The exercises focused largely on coordinated missile onslaughts from both Gaza and Lebanon aimed at blanketing the Jewish.

According to the Egyptian security officials, any attack against Iran or Syria would result in an immediate Iranian missile campaign against Israel using proxies in Gaza and Lebanon.

The international news media has been replete with reports in recent days speculating Israel is strongly considering striking Iran’s suspected illicit nuclear sites.
Read more:Iran prepping for missile attack on Israel

 

Gaza Flotilla Video reveals the truth

Arab and Turkish journalists and media are big time lairs and biased to the core

By Mike Evans

On May 31, Israel walked straight into a trap—a trap set by a group of so-called activists determined to break Israeli attempts to halt the flow of arms and war materiel into the Gaza strip.

Having been warned in advance that the intent of the Free Gaza movement flotilla was to shatter the Israeli blockade, the IDF prepared to board the ships and divert them to Ashdod for inspection. A member of the Free Gaza organization credited with launching the flotilla, Greta Berlin, clarified the intent of the group: “We’re not trying to be a humanitarian mission.”

Apparently, Israel was ill-informed that the ship carried 700 pro-Palestinian activists prepared to do whatever necessary to reach their goal. American-born pro-Palestinian activist Hawaida Arraf threw down the gauntlet with the assertion: “We fully intend to go to Gaza regardless of any intimidation or threats of violence against us. They are going to have to forcefully stop us.”

According to Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon “the armada of hate and violence in support of the Hamas terror organization was a premeditated and outrageous provocation. The organizers are well-known for their ties to Global Jihad, Al-Qaeda and Hamas. They have a history of arms smuggling and deadly terror. On board the ship we found weapons that were prepared in advance and used against our forces…”

A number of the passengers aboard the Mavi Marmara Turkish passenger ship suspected of having connections with Global Jihad-affiliated terrorist organizations have refused to provide proper identification to the Israeli authorities. Many were carrying envelopes containing thousands of dollars in cash.

During a search of the ship on Tuesday a cache of bulletproof vests, night-vision goggles, and gas masks was discovered. A defense official stated, “This is the group that was behind the violent [attack] against the naval commandos. They came on board the ship prepared and after they had trained for the expected Navy takeover.”

When confronted by the Israelis, five of the six ships’ captains diverted to Ashdod; the sixth was decidedly on a mission of defiance. Obviously, the mistake made by the IDF was to assume that the voyagers on board the Mavi Marmara were a charitable group. Rather, it was loaded with pro-Palestinian terrorists, not with the specified humanitarian agenda, and determined to create an international media incident.

The IDF deployed about a dozen soldiers with the intent of taking the bridge and diverting the flotilla to the Israeli port. Instead, the troops fell into the hands of an angry mob of rioters armed with clubs, knives, scissors, pepper spray, and with side arms after having disarmed several IDF soldiers.

The Israelis boarded with non-lethal paintball guns, the kind used by teens on paintball courses, and pistols they never thought they would have to unholster. Video shows the unsuspecting IDF paratroopers being assaulted as they reached the deck. One IDF soldier was thrown over a railing to a deck 30 feet below.

In a statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he reiterated that this was “a clear case of self-defense because as our soldiers were inspecting these ships, they were attacked—they were almost lynched. They were attacked…and they had to defend themselves—they were going to be killed. Israel will not allow its soldiers to be lynched and neither would any other self-respecting country.”

Israel will become the target for every terrorist worldwide. Now more than ever America must stand with our only true ally in the Middle East

Israel has maintained the 4-year blockade to halt the flow of weapons from Iran to Hamas, its armed and funded proxy in Gaza. In November 2009, the Israeli navy intercepted a huge cache of weapons headed from Iran to Hezbollah and Hamas onboard Francop, a German container ship. The markings on the materiel discovered were clearly Iranian. The ship carried some 3,000 missiles including Katyusha rockets.

The Israeli embargo against Gaza has become more powerful than rockets; it created the perfect storm, the Vietnam, for the State of Israel. The secular media, which has always been prone to call terrorists “activists,” only encourages such actions.

In 2008, Israeli President Shimon Peres held a “Facing Tomorrow” conference to which he invited some of the most noted thinkers in the world. One of the conclusions of the meeting was that wars of the 21^st Century would be fought first as a media war, secondly as an economic war, thirdly as a proxy war, and finally with boots on the ground. Israel has lost this media war and is well on the way to losing the economic war.

Israel ceded Gaza in hopes of achieving peace in the region; its hopes were dashed. Hamas continued to lob some 1,200 missiles across the border at innocent Jewish civilians. Despite the ongoing provocation, Israel has allowed food and humanitarian supplies into Gaza through the Red Cross and UN.

This skirmish came amid plans for a meeting between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Barack Obama. The aim of the summit was to keep Iran at the top of the agenda, not the Palestinian Authority.

Iran found the perfect means to distract the liberal media—create a flag-waving, humanitarian crisis. The resulting propaganda-driven riots worldwide would certainly take attention from the IAEA announcement that Iran now possesses more than two tons of enriched uranium—enough for two nuclear warheads.

If you were sitting in the seat of power in ancient Persia, what would you do when confronted with new sanctions against your nuclear program? You would sponsor a David-versus-Goliath flotilla—a media extravaganza—carrying a Nobel Peace Prize winner, an American activist, and a Holocaust survivor. Central casting could not have done it better.

The question becomes: When is a humanitarian mission not a humanitarian mission? It fails the test when it is peopled with terrorists on a suicide mission.

Gaza flotilla or Free Gaza Movement are Terrorists with a smile :)

Soldiers were met by well-planned lynch in Gaza waters

So-called Humanitarians started attacking Israeli Soldiers with live fires, batons and sticks when they boarded their ships suddenly becoming Terrorists with a Smile

Army says at least 10 activists killed, dozens injured, six Navy commandos wounded as protesters open fire in violent Israeli takeover of Gaza flotilla; Al Jazeera broadcasts footage.

International activists aboard the flotilla of ships on their way to the Gaza Strip opened fire on IDF soldiers who boarded the ships to prevent them from breaking the Israeli-imposed sea blockade, the IDF said Monday.

According to the IDF, the international activists “prepared a lynch” for the soldiers who boarded the ships at about 2 a.m. Monday morning after calling on them to stop, or follow them to the Ashdod Port several hours earlier.

According to IDF reports, at least 10 activists were killed during the ensuing clashes. Six Navy commandos were also wounded, some of them from gunfire and at least one was in a serious condition with a head wound. Foreign reports claimed that the number of dead was close to 15. Some of the wounded were evacuated to Israeli hospital by Air Force helicopters.

Upon boarding the ships, the soldiers encountered fierce resistance from the passengers who were armed with knives, bats and metal pipes. The soldiers used non-lethal measures to disperse the crowd. The activists succeeded in stealing the weapon from one of the IDF’s soldiers and reportedly opened fire, leading to an escalation in violence.

Al Jazeera on Monday broadcasted footage from the Gaza flotilla’s lead vessel, the Mavi Marmara, showing Israeli Navy commandos boarding the ship. Helicopters could also be seen flying overhead.

“It was like a well-planned lynch,” one IDF officer said. “These people were anything but peace activists.”

The IDF said that the ships would be taken to the Ashdod Port where, despite the violence, the cargo that are carrying will be inspected and then transferred to the Gaza Strip via land crossings. Israeli Navy commander Vice-Admiral Eliezer Marom was commanding over the operation from sea.

The Navy made initial contact with the flotilla at 11 p.m. on Sunday ordering the ships to follow them to Ashdod Port or otherwise be boarded.
The actual boarding of the ships took place at 2 a.m. Monday and was yet to be completed by 8 a.m.

Activists aboard the ships repeatedly said they would not respond with violence to the navy’s interception of their flotilla prior to the boarding.
Al-Jazeera reported Turkish leaders called an emergency meeting to discuss responses to the attack at sea. The Israeli ambassador in Turkey was called in to offer explanations, according to a report.

Hamas Prime Minister Haniyeh came on Al-Jazeera to condemn the “brutal attack” and called on the UN to intervene on the activists’ behalf.
The ministry condemned Monday’s raid on the ship carrying pro-Palestinian activists, called it unacceptable and demanded an “urgent explanation” from Israel. It says Israel violated international laws and will suffer consequences.

Mideast war in ‘very’ near future?

WND

By Aaron Klein

Dramatic escalation in cooperation between Israel’s foes

JERUSALEM – Egypt is concerned Israel could be in a conflict in the very near future with Syria or the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, a senior Egyptian security official told WND.

The security official said in any future war with Syria or Hezbollah, both actors have been preparing to storm the Israeli border with guerillas and commandos, an act unseen here since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the last conflict in which Syria was openly involved.

In previous conflicts with Hezbollah, the terrorist group fired rockets into Israel.

In addition, the security official said Syria has separately been contemplating launching low-grade attacks against Jewish communities in the Golan Heights to pressure Israel into negotiations aimed at relinquishing the strategic territory.

The official said his country is concerned about a coming conflict but did not mention a specific timeframe.

“It’s possible either side may misinterpret moves and launch the opening salvo very soon,” he said.

The official also said Israel is concerned Syria has recently passes advanced weaponry to Hezbollah in Lebanon. He said his country believes Israel may want to engage in a conflict with Hezbollah to minimize that group’s capabilities before any future strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Hezbollah could be used as part of Iran’s strategy of retaliation against Iran in a future war, the official said.

Recent weeks have seen a war of words between Israel and Syria, as well as a dramatic escalation of public cooperation between Israel’s foes Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas.

Last month, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned Syria’s president, Bashar Assad, that any war with his country would topple his regime.

“Assad should know that if he attacks, he will not only lose the war. Neither he nor his family will remain in power,” Lieberman said.

Lieberman was responding to a Syrian threat against Israeli cities one day earlier.

“Israel knows that if it declares war on Syria, such a war will reach its cities as well,” Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said following a meeting last week with Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos.

Syria has long demanded the Golan Heights as part of any deal with Israel. The Golan looks down on Israeli population centers and twice was used by Damascus to launch ground invasions into the Jewish state.

Last week, Syria hosted a summit with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and Khaled Meshal, head of the Hamas. All participants expressed solidarity with each other and vowed the destruction of Israel.

The meeting was followed up with another confab in Iran last weekend entitled “Islamic and National Solidarity with the Palestinian People.” The summit was attended by the leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria. All three again denounced Israel.

Osama bin Laden’s family in Iran: new strain on Saudi-Iran ties

CSMONITOR

Six children and one wife of Osama Bin Laden have reportedly been living in Iran since fleeing Afghanistan shortly before 9/11. His 17-year-old daughter recently escaped to the embassy of Saudi Arabia, Iran’s traditional rival.

By Scott Peterson

Istanbul, Turkey

Seven members of Osama bin Laden’s immediate family have been under house arrest in Iran and living in a high security compound outside Tehran since 2001, news outlets reported on Wednesday.

The group includes six children of the Al Qaeda leader and one of his wives, all of whom reportedly fled Afghanistan and walked to the Iran border just prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington, according to The Times in London.

One 17-year-old daughter, Iman, escaped from from the Tehran compound and has been holed up in the Saudi Arabia Embassy for 25 days, according to the Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq al-Awsat.

The asylum request – and public revelations about the continuing Bin Laden family presence in Iran – are sure to complicate relations between the two traditional rivals for power in the Middle East: Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia.

During his first term, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad went on a charm offensive to woo Saudi and other Arab leaders. But Iran’s rising influence and that of its “Axis of Resistance” – with Hezbullah, Hamas, and Syria – raised concern in Riyadh and other Arab capitals.

The disputed June election was final proof for many in the Arab world that Iran’s regional power was on the wane again. For Saudi Arabia, evidence of that came just last week when it was able to precipitate an unlikely meeting between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, an Iran ally, and Lebanon’s pro-West Prime Minister Saad Hariri – who for five years has accused Syria of killing his father.

US turned down Iranian offer for Al Qaeda operatives

One of Bin Laden’s oldest sons, Saad, was known for years to be among some 35 Al Qaeda operatives that fled to Iran after the US toppling of the Taliban government and expulsion of Al Qaeda from Afghanistan in late 2001.

The government of President Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005) eventually offered to indirectly exchange those Al Qaeda figures with the US, if Washington would rein in, or hand over, leaders of the anti-Iran Mujahideen-e Khalq. Known as the MEK or MKO, the anti-Iran group considered a terrorist group by the US State Department was based in Iraq under Saddam Hussein’s wing. But the members there fell under the jurisdiction of American forces after a US-led coalition toppled the Hussein regime in 2003.

Iran’s offer was rejected, according to reports at the time, because the Pentagon wanted to keep hold of the MEK as a possible force to be used against Iran in any Washington-orchestrated bid for regime change.

Bin Ladens’ presence off the radar

Still, it was never made public that so many Bin Laden family members were in Iran. The Washington Post reported in October 2003 that Saad bin Laden had “emerged in recent months as part of the upper echelon of the Al Qaeda network … that is managing the terrorist organization from Iran,” quoting US, European and Arab officials.

The story held that Saad bin Laden was “protected by an elite, radical Iranian security force loyal to the nation’s clerics and beyond the control of the central government” – the Qods Force of the Revolutionary Guard.

Reports emerged earlier this year that Iran had quietly released Saad bin Laden in late 2008, and let him go to Afghanistan.Then it was reported in July that he had been killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan.

But the presence of so many Bin Laden relatives in Iran was a surprise. The Times of London has reported that 11 Bin Laden grandchildren also lived on the compound.

“Until a month ago, we did not know where the siblings were,” Omar bin Laden, the fourth son who lives in Qatar, told Asharq al-Awsat. “The Iranian government did not know what to do with this large group of people whom nobody else wanted, so they just kept them safe…. For that we owe them much gratitude.”

Hamas children’s TV program again calls for the ‘slaughter of Jews’

JPOST

By JOSIAH DANIEL RYAN

Click to Watch on YouTube

A popular Hamas children’s program that usually gives advice to youngsters, such as instructing them to listen to their parents, aired a call for the “slaughter” of Jews in Israel late last month, according to Palestinian Media Watch.

All Jews must be “erased from our land,” Nassur, a stuffed bear who hosts the weekly program, Tomorrow’s Pioneers, on Hamas’s Al-Aksa television, explained to a child who called in to a September 22 show. “We want to slaughter them, Saraa, so they will be expelled from our land… we’ll have to [do it] by slaughter.”

Nan Jacques Zilberdik, an analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, which translated the program and regularly monitors Palestinian media, said Tomorrow’s Pioneers, which comes out of the Gaza Strip, is available via satellite around the world. The program often blends pragmatic advice with hate, she said.

“Generally the program also transmits good messages to kids like drinking milk or asking parents permission to do something, but we also find these very problematic messages like the call to kill Jews,” she said.

Furthermore, Zilberdik said that in her organization’s broader monitoring of Palestinian media, no objections to or repudiation of hatred-inciting messages being included in children’s programs had been found.

This is not the first time Palestinian Media Watch has discovered hateful content in programs made for children.

In 2007, the NGO discovered a Mickey Mouse-type figure who also called for the slaughter of Jews.

After worldwide outcry, the character was executed on the program by an Israeli interrogator, and was soon replaced by another character who expressed similar sentiments, Zilberdik said.

The following comes from a transcript of the program aired on September 22:

Nassur: “There won’t be any Jews or Zionists, if Allah wills. They’ll be erased.”

Saraa: “Chased away.”

Nassur: “And just like we will visit the Qaaba [in Mecca]… everyone will visit Jerusalem.”

(A seven-year-old boy on the phone tells how his father, a member of Hamas’s Izzadin Kassam Brigades, “died as a shahid (martyr).”)

Nassur to boy: “What do you want to do to the Jews who shot your father?”

Boy: “I want to kill them.”

Saraa: “We don’t want to do anything to them, just expel them from our land.”

Nassur: “We want to slaughter (nidbah-hom) them, so they will be expelled from our land, right?”

Saraa: “Yes. That’s right. We will expel them from our land using all means.”

Nassur: “And if they don’t want [to go] peacefully, by words or talking, we’ll have to [do it] by slaughter (shaht).”

(Al-Aksa (Hamas) TV, September 22, 2009)

Obama spies monitoring Jews house-to-house

WND

‘They try to mingle with us to get more information on what we’re doing’

By Aaron Klein

President Obama

JERUSALEM – The Obama administration has set up an apparatus to closely monitor Jewish construction in Jerusalem and the strategic West Bank to the point of watching Israeli moves house-to-house in certain key neighborhoods, WND has learned.

Obama has called for a complete halt to what he refers to as settlement activity, meaning Jewish construction in eastern Jerusalem or the West Bank. Obama’s edict extends to natural growth, or accommodating for the housing needs of existing local settler population centers. The demand is an apparent abrogation of a deal Israel struck with the Bush administration to allow natural growth.

For the past few months, Obama’s Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, has protested to the highest levels of the Israeli government about evidence found of any Jewish housing expansion in those areas, informed Israeli officials said.

The officials, who spoke on condition that their names be withheld, said that last March Mitchell oversaw the establishment of an enhanced apparatus based in the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem that closely monitors the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods, incorporating regular tours of the areas, at times on a daily basis.

Previously, under the Bush administration, the consulate kept a general eye on Jewish Jerusalem and West Bank construction, receiving much of its information from nongovernmental organizations.

“Mitchell’s apparatus takes things to a whole new level. They are watching very closely,” said an Israeli official.

Jewish leaders in the West Bank said the consulate takes no pains to hide their activities.

“They come out. They tour our communities. They try to interact with our leadership,” David Ha’ivri, spokesmen for the Shomron Regional Council in the West Bank, told WND.

“They drive around the towns, check up on what’s going on. They try to mingle with us to get more information on what we’re up to and what we’re doing,” he said.

Get your copy of “Schmoozing with Terrorists: From Hollywood to the Holy Land Jihadists Reveal their Global Plans – to a Jew!”

Ha’ivri said the consular officials present themselves as advisers to the U.S. consul-general.

“But we know they are really spies for the Obama administration,” he said.

Jerusalem officials affirm the consular staff report to Obama’s envoy, Mitchell.

The U.S. the past few weeks has been publicly protesting Israeli actions in Jerusalem on the municipal level, making an international incident out of individual homes. Yesterday, for the second time the past few weeks, the Obama administration summoned Israel’s ambassador to Washington to protest Israel asserting its municipal rights in eastern sections of Jerusalem which the Palestinians claim as a future capital.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman summoned Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, with a message that the Obama administration views the eviction Sunday of two Palestinian families from homes in eastern Jerusalem as “provocative” and “unacceptable.”

In the case, Israel last week enforced its own property law in Jerusalem by evicting Arabs from a Jewish housing complex they purportedly had been illegally occupying for almost a century.

Oren reportedly responded today by explaining that the housing complex has been Jewish-owned since before Israel’s founding in 1948. Oren explained a court ordered the families’ eviction since they had been living there illegally.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week also denounced the evictions, calling them “deeply regrettable” during a joint press conference in Washington with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh.

Much of the U.S. and international media the past few days have been reporting on Israel’s eviction of Arab families from a house in eastern Jerusalem.

The housing complex is located in the Sheik Jarra neighborhood of eastern Jerusalem. The home was originally Jewish, but its Jewish occupants were chased out during countrywide anti-Jewish Arab riots in 1929. Arabs then squatted on the property, with one family, the Hejazi family, becoming the de facto occupants despite never having purchased the property.

Even though documentation shows the complex is owned by Jews and that Arabs have been squatting on it illegally for almost a century, Jewish groups say they still legally re-purchased the property from the Hejazi family.

Following pressure from the Palestinian Authority, however, the family later denied selling the complex back to the Jews despite documentation and other evidence showing the sale went through.

The PA in April warned Palestinians against selling their homes or properties to Jews, saying those who violate the order would be accused of “high treason” – a charge that carries the death penalty.

Israel’s court system twice ruled the property belongs to Jews.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office earlier this week released a statement to WND objecting to U.S. condemnation of the Israeli government for enforcing property law in Jerusalem.

“The eviction in Jerusalem was a result of a ruling by our Supreme Court that had to decide in a dispute between two parties over the legal control of a property,” Netanyahu’s spokesman, Mark Regev, told WND.

Continued Regev: “The Supreme Court ruled for one side and not the other. In all democracies the rulings of the courts must be upheld, and it is incumbent on the executive branch to implement such decisions.”

Regev said the Israeli Supreme Court “is renowned internationally for both its independence and its professionalism. There are countless examples of the Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Palestinians in land disputes.”

Yesterday marked the second time the past three weeks Israel’s ambassador has been summoned by Washington to protest Israeli conduct in eastern Jerusalem. Last month, Oren was summoned by the State Department to demand a Jewish construction project in eastern Jerusalem be immediately halted.

The construction project, financed by Miami Beach philanthropist Irving Moskowitz, is located just yards from Israel’s national police headquarters and other government ministries. It is a few blocks from the country’s prestigious Hebrew University, underscoring the centrality of the Jewish real estate being condemned by the U.S.

Netanyahu strongly rejected the State Department demand, telling a cabinet meeting Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem was not a matter up for discussion.

“Imagine what would happen if someone were to suggest Jews could not live in or purchase [property] in certain neighborhoods in London, New York, Paris or Rome,” he said just after his ambassador was summoned.

“The international community would certainly raise protest. Likewise, we cannot accept such a ruling on eastern Jerusalem,” Netanyahu told ministers.

Technorati : ARAB LEADERS, ARAB PEACE INITIATIVE, BREAKING NEWS, EVICTIONS, FATAH, HAMAS, ISRAEL, JERUSALEM, LATEST NEWS, NETANYAHU, NEWS, OBAMA, POLITICS, PRESIDENT OBAMA, RELIGION
Del.icio.us : ARAB LEADERS, ARAB PEACE INITIATIVE, BREAKING NEWS, EVICTIONS, FATAH, HAMAS, ISRAEL, JERUSALEM, LATEST NEWS, NETANYAHU, NEWS, OBAMA, POLITICS, PRESIDENT OBAMA, RELIGION
Zooomr : ARAB LEADERS, ARAB PEACE INITIATIVE, BREAKING NEWS, EVICTIONS, FATAH, HAMAS, ISRAEL, JERUSALEM, LATEST NEWS, NETANYAHU, NEWS, OBAMA, POLITICS, PRESIDENT OBAMA, RELIGION
Flickr : ARAB LEADERS, ARAB PEACE INITIATIVE, BREAKING NEWS, EVICTIONS, FATAH, HAMAS, ISRAEL, JERUSALEM, LATEST NEWS, NETANYAHU, NEWS, OBAMA, POLITICS, PRESIDENT OBAMA, RELIGION

64% of Israelis want Temple rebuilt

WND

Even half of secular Jews say time is right

Temple Mount in Jerusalem

Nearly two-thirds of Israelis say the time is right to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple, according to a Ynet-Gesher survey.

Even half of non-religious Jews favor rebuilding the Holy Temple – an idea politically unthinkable in Israel just 10 or 20 years ago.

The poll was release on the saddest day on the Jewish calendar – the fasting day of Tisha B’Av, or the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av. It commemorates a series of tragedies that befell the Jewish people all on the same day, most significantly the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, which occurred about 656 years apart on the same day. Jewish tradition calls for the reading of Lamentations.

Israel already done for? Read Aaron Klein’s “The Late Great State of Israel”

Aside from the destruction of the Jewish Temples, a remarkably large number of massive calamities befell the Jewish people on Tisha B’Av. Jewish rebellion leader Bar Kokhba’s famous revolt against Rome failed in A.D. 136. Following the Roman siege of Jerusalem, the razing of Jerusalem occurred the next year. The first crusade pogrom against Jews in Palestine began on that date in A.D. 1096.

The Jews were expelled from Britain on Tisha B’Av in 1290 and were expelled from Spain that same day in 1492. The Warsaw Ghetto uprising was crushed by the Nazis on that day in May 1943, resulting in the slaughter of about 50,000 Jews.

Nationalists in Israel also mourn the removal of Jews from the Gaza Strip in 2005, which began the day after Tisha B’av.

The book of Lamentations, written in poetic verse, mourns the desolations brought on Jerusalem and the Holy Land by the Chaldeans.

The rebuilding of the Temple is an extremely controversial idea in Israel because currently Jewish access to the Temple Mount is restricted by the Muslim Waqf, which was granted administrative authority over the Jews’ holiest sites, which are occupied by Muslim shrines.

Some Jewish leaders believe access to Jews should be restricted until the Third Temple is built.

Israel recaptured the Temple Mount during the 1967 Six Day War. Currently under Israeli control, Jews and Christians are barred from praying on the Mount.

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

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

The Temple Mount was reopened to non-Muslims in August 2003. It remains open, but only Sundays through Thursdays, 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., and not on any Christian, Jewish or Muslim holidays or other days considered “sensitive” by the Waqf.

During “open” days, Jews and Christian are allowed to ascend the Mount, usually through organized tours and only if they conform first to a strict set of guidelines, which includes demands that they not pray or bring any “holy objects” to the site. Visitors are banned from entering any of the mosques without direct Waqf permission. Rules are enforced by Waqf agents, who watch tours closely and alert nearby Israeli police to any breaking of their guidelines.

During Tendler’s visit to the mount, he can be heard in the video complaining about the Israeli rules.

“I’m little bit annoyed at the instructions that we get,” he quipped, “as if we were aliens and have to be told how to behave on [the Temple Mount].”

King Solomon built the First Temple in the 10th century B.C. The Babylonians destroyed it in 586 B.C. The Jews built the Second Temple in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. The Romans destroyed the Second Temple in A.D. 70.

The First Temple stood for about 400 years, the second for almost 600. Both Temples served as the center of religious worship for the whole Jewish nation. All Jewish holidays centered on worship at the Temple – the central location for the offering of sacrifices and the main gathering place for the Jewish people.

According to the Talmud, God created the world from the foundation stone of the Temple Mount.

The site is believed to be the biblical Mount Moriah, where Abraham fulfilled God’s test of faith by demonstrating his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Jewish tradition also holds that Mashiach – literally “the anointed one,” the Jewish Messiah – will come and rebuild the third and final temple on the Mount in Jerusalem and bring redemption to the entire world.

The Western Wall, called the Kotel in Hebrew, is the one part of the Temple Mount that survived the Roman destruction of the Second Temple and stands to this day in Jerusalem.

The Temple Mount has remained a focal point for Jewish services for thousands of years. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple have been uttered three times daily by religious Jews since the destruction of the Second Temple. Throughout all the centuries of Jewish exile from their land, thorough documentation shows the Jews never gave up their hope of returning to Jerusalem and reestablishing their Temple. To this day Jews worldwide pray facing the Western Wall, while Muslims turn their backs away from the Temple Mount and pray toward Mecca.

Muslims constructed the al-Aqsa Mosque around A.D. 709 to serve as a place of worship near a famous shrine, the gleaming Dome of the Rock, built by an Islamic caliph, or supreme ruler.

About 100 years ago, Muslims began to associate al‐-Aqsa in Jerusalem with the place Muhammad ascended to heaven. Islamic tradition states Muhammad took a journey in a single night from “a sacred mosque” – believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia – to “the farthest mosque,” and from a rock there ascended to heaven to receive revelations from Allah that became part of the Quran.

While Palestinians and many Muslim countries claim exclusivity over the Mount, and while their leaders strenuously deny the Jewish historic connection to the site, things weren’t always this way. In fact, historically, Muslims never claimed the al-Aqsa Mosque as their “third holiest site” and always recognized the existence of the Jewish Temples.

According to an Israeli attorney, Shmuel Berkovits, Islamic tradition mostly disregarded Jerusalem. He points out in his book “How Dreadful is this Place!” that Muhammad was said to loathe Jerusalem and what it stood for to the other monotheistic faiths.

Muhammad also made a point of eliminating pagan sites of worship and sanctifying only one place – the Kaaba in Mecca – to signify the unity of Allah. As late as the 14th century, Islamic scholar Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya, whose writings later influenced the strict Wahhabi movement in Arabia, ruled that sacred Islamic sites exist only on the Arabian Peninsula, and that “in Jerusalem, there is not a place one calls sacred, and the same holds true for the tombs of Hebron.”

Not until the late 19th century – when Jews started immigrating to Palestine – did Muslim scholars claim that Muhammad tied his horse to the Western Wall and associate Muhammad’s purported night journey with the Temple Mount.

Technorati : AL AQSA, AL QUDS, ALLAH, ARABIA, ARIEL SHARON, Abraham, BIBLE, BREAKING NEWS, CHALDEANS, CHRISTIANITY, CHRISTIANS LINK WITH JEWS AND ISRAEL, CURRENT NEWS, GAZA STRIP, GOD, HAMAS, HEBRON, INTIFADA, ISLAMIC TRADITION, ISRAEL, Islamic scholar Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya, JERUSALEM, JEWS, Jewish people, KAABA, LATEST NEWS, MADINA, MECCA, MUHAMMAD, MUSLIMS, Mount Moriah, NEWS, PALESTINE, POLITICS, QURAN, SAUDI ARABIA, TEMPLE MOUNT, WAHHABI, WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING, WESTERN WALL
Del.icio.us : AL AQSA, AL QUDS, ALLAH, ARABIA, ARIEL SHARON, Abraham, BIBLE, BREAKING NEWS, CHALDEANS, CHRISTIANITY, CHRISTIANS LINK WITH JEWS AND ISRAEL, CURRENT NEWS, GAZA STRIP, GOD, HAMAS, HEBRON, INTIFADA, ISLAMIC TRADITION, ISRAEL, Islamic scholar Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya, JERUSALEM, JEWS, Jewish people, KAABA, LATEST NEWS, MADINA, MECCA, MUHAMMAD, MUSLIMS, Mount Moriah, NEWS, PALESTINE, POLITICS, QURAN, SAUDI ARABIA, TEMPLE MOUNT, WAHHABI, WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING, WESTERN WALL
Zooomr : AL AQSA, AL QUDS, ALLAH, ARABIA, ARIEL SHARON, Abraham, BIBLE, BREAKING NEWS, CHALDEANS, CHRISTIANITY, CHRISTIANS LINK WITH JEWS AND ISRAEL, CURRENT NEWS, GAZA STRIP, GOD, HAMAS, HEBRON, INTIFADA, ISLAMIC TRADITION, ISRAEL, Islamic scholar Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya, JERUSALEM, JEWS, Jewish people, KAABA, LATEST NEWS, MADINA, MECCA, MUHAMMAD, MUSLIMS, Mount Moriah, NEWS, PALESTINE, POLITICS, QURAN, SAUDI ARABIA, TEMPLE MOUNT, WAHHABI, WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING, WESTERN WALL
Flickr : AL AQSA, AL QUDS, ALLAH, ARABIA, ARIEL SHARON, Abraham, BIBLE, BREAKING NEWS, CHALDEANS, CHRISTIANITY, CHRISTIANS LINK WITH JEWS AND ISRAEL, CURRENT NEWS, GAZA STRIP, GOD, HAMAS, HEBRON, INTIFADA, ISLAMIC TRADITION, ISRAEL, Islamic scholar Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya, JERUSALEM, JEWS, Jewish people, KAABA, LATEST NEWS, MADINA, MECCA, MUHAMMAD, MUSLIMS, Mount Moriah, NEWS, PALESTINE, POLITICS, QURAN, SAUDI ARABIA, TEMPLE MOUNT, WAHHABI, WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING, WESTERN WALL

Rick Warren does it, again

FROM WND

BY JOSEPH FARAH

While millions of other Americans will be celebrating Independence Day weekend, Rick Warren, often called “America’s Pastor,” will be serving as the keynote speaker for a Saudi-backed Muslim group that promotes a radical strain of Wahhabi Islam in about 80 percent of U.S. mosques.

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting tired of Rick Warren’s bad judgments.

This time Warren will be schmoozing with the Islamic Society of North America, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood – just as are al-Qaida, Hamas and most other Muslim terrorist organizations.

ISNA puts on a façade of moderation, yet, according to terrorism expert Steven Emerson, it “convenes annual conferences where Islamist militants have been given a platform to incite violence and promote hatred.”

After Hamas leader Mousa Marzook was arrested in 1997, ISNA raised money for his defense. He was eventually deported.

ISNA condemned the U.S. government’s seizure of the financial assets of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad after Sept. 11.

Brigitte Gabriel combats politically correct notions about the “religion of peace” in “They Must be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How we Can Do It”

“I think ISNA has been an umbrella, also a promoter of groups that have been involved in terrorism,” explains Emerson. “I am not going to accuse the ISNA of being directly involved in terrorism. I will say ISNA has sponsored extremists, racists, people who call for jihadagainst the United States.”

I could go on with many more details about ISNA. Suffice it to say it is no friend of Christianity and no friend of America.

So what is Rick Warren doing speaking at the group’s national conference?

I don’t know what Warren’s agenda is. He would probably say he doesn’t have one. But I can tell you the effect of his appearance – it is designed to disinfect and rehabilitate a group that is dangerous and subversive to U.S. national security.

But it should surprise no one, at this point, that Rick Warren will be there. One of the first times I ever wrote about Rick Warren was in 2006 when he took an equally misguided trip to Syria to meet with dictator Bashar Assad and praise him for his pleasant treatment of Christians. Syria was then and remains today one of the world’s leading state sponsors of Islamic terrorism. Almost every terrorist group in the world maintains offices there. Nevertheless, Rick Warren said, while in Syria, that the country “does not allow extremism of any kind.”

Less than a week after Warren’s absurd proclamations in Syria, a Christian leader in Lebanon, former President Pierre Gemayel, was assassinated in the streets of Beirut. Everyone in Lebanon knows who killed him – the Syrian government.

As I wrote at the time, “it is imperative that Christians – and especially Christian leaders – have discernment about evil in our world. And true, unadulterated evil is what you have running Syria today. The government led by Bashar Assad, who met with Rick Warren last week, is anti-American, anti-freedom, anti-Christian, anti-Jewish and pro-terrorist.

“Rick Warren should know this. Yet, he has placed himself in a position of apologizing and excusing the government in Damascus, one of the most evil on the face of the earth.

“It is not an exaggeration to say that government got cover last week as a result of Warren’s shameful public relations on its behalf. I won’t go so far to say there was a direct cause-and-effect relationship between Warren’s embrace of Assad and the assassination of Gemayel yesterday, but it is both a coincidence of striking proportions as well as an illustration of the true character of Damascus’ totalitarian police-state regime.”

In 2007, Rick Warren was one of 100 or so “evangelical leaders” who signed a document begging forgiveness from Muslims for all the evil deeds perpetrated against them by Christians.

Rick Warren loves to apologize for things he didn’t do, for things other people did that weren’t wrong, even for things that occurred hundreds of years before he was born – such as apologizing to Muslims worldwide for atrocities committed against their ancestors during the Crusades.

In 2007, he also apologized for American “excesses in the war on terrorism.”

And he has apologized for the church because it hasn’t done enough about the spread of AIDS and problems like global warming.

Yet, I must observe that despite his predilection for apologies, he has a great deal of trouble owning up to his own personal mistakes.

Once again, just like his trip to Syria, serving as the keynote speaker to the Islamic Society of North America is a very, very bad personal mistake – one that demonstrates a complete lack of spiritual discernment.

Technorati : AIDS, AMERICA’S PASTOR, BASHAR ASSADJEWS, BIBLE, BREAKING NEWS, CHRISTIANITY, ENTERTAINMENT, EVANGELICAL LEADERS, FAMILY, Hamas, IRAN, ISLAM, ISNA, ISRAEL, Islamic Society of North America, JESUS, JEWISH, LATEST NEWS, LIFE, MINISTRY, MUSLIMS, Muslim Brotherhood, Muslim terrorist organizations, NEWS, POLITICS, PRO-ISRAEL, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, RELIGION, RICK WARREN, SYRIA, THREAT OF RADICAL ISLAM, U.S MOSQUES, WAHHABI ISLAM, al-Qaida
Del.icio.us : AIDS, AMERICA’S PASTOR, BASHAR ASSADJEWS, BIBLE, BREAKING NEWS, CHRISTIANITY, ENTERTAINMENT, EVANGELICAL LEADERS, FAMILY, Hamas, IRAN, ISLAM, ISNA, ISRAEL, Islamic Society of North America, JESUS, JEWISH, LATEST NEWS, LIFE, MINISTRY, MUSLIMS, Muslim Brotherhood, Muslim terrorist organizations, NEWS, POLITICS, PRO-ISRAEL, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, RELIGION, RICK WARREN, SYRIA, THREAT OF RADICAL ISLAM, U.S MOSQUES, WAHHABI ISLAM, al-Qaida
Zooomr : AIDS, AMERICA’S PASTOR, BASHAR ASSADJEWS, BIBLE, BREAKING NEWS, CHRISTIANITY, ENTERTAINMENT, EVANGELICAL LEADERS, FAMILY, Hamas, IRAN, ISLAM, ISNA, ISRAEL, Islamic Society of North America, JESUS, JEWISH, LATEST NEWS, LIFE, MINISTRY, MUSLIMS, Muslim Brotherhood, Muslim terrorist organizations, NEWS, POLITICS, PRO-ISRAEL, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, RELIGION, RICK WARREN, SYRIA, THREAT OF RADICAL ISLAM, U.S MOSQUES, WAHHABI ISLAM, al-Qaida
Flickr : AIDS, AMERICA’S PASTOR, BASHAR ASSADJEWS, BIBLE, BREAKING NEWS, CHRISTIANITY, ENTERTAINMENT, EVANGELICAL LEADERS, FAMILY, Hamas, IRAN, ISLAM, ISNA, ISRAEL, Islamic Society of North America, JESUS, JEWISH, LATEST NEWS, LIFE, MINISTRY, MUSLIMS, Muslim Brotherhood, Muslim terrorist organizations, NEWS, POLITICS, PRO-ISRAEL, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, RELIGION, RICK WARREN, SYRIA, THREAT OF RADICAL ISLAM, U.S MOSQUES, WAHHABI ISLAM, al-Qaida

‘Peace partner’ boasts of more terrorism than Hamas

FROM WND

U.S.-funded group stages televised play attended by its top officials

TEL AVIV – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah organization recently staged a televised play in which the group bragged it is responsible for more terrorism against Israelis than the rival Islamist Hamas organization.

The staged drama, broadcast on official PA television June 17, was attended by top Fatah leaders, including officials who routinely coordinate security with the U.S. and engage in negotiations with Israel.

The performance included a segment in which a classroom of Fatah and Hamas students and teachers debated each other on who was responsible for more “resistance” against Israel, with Fatah ultimately prevailing while criticizing Hamas for failing to launch enough attacks against the Jewish state in recent years.

A translation, provided by Palestinian Media Watch, reads:

Fatah student taunts Hamas: “Since Hamas seized power, we haven’t heard of any Martyrdom operation (suicide-bombing).

Hamas teacher: “It’s called ‘fighter’s rest.’”

Fatah student: “A Hamas fighter needs rest, but a Fatah fighter doesn’t need rest?!”

Hamas teacher: “Every fighter has the right to rest.”

Fatah student: “Why is it that when Fatah stops fighting, you (Hamas) say they’re cowards, but when Hamas stops fighting, you say it’s ‘fighters’ rest’?”

Hamas teacher: “I don’t know much about resistance (terror) and fighters. …”

Fatah student: “The first shot was fired by the PLO; the first Jihad was carried out by the PLO (audience applauds), with all the other factions – but Hamas always opposed.

Hamas student: “What do you say about Hamas having kidnapped the (Israeli) soldier Shalit (still held hostage – Ed.)?”

Hamas teacher: “Ahaaa!”

Student: “By Allah, it’s good.”

Hamas student: “Did Fatah ever capture a soldier?!”

Fatah student: “It was the (other) brigades who captured him (Shalit) and sold him to you (Hamas). It’s a deal that you (Hamas) made for your own benefit, not for the (Palestinian) people’s benefit. (Applause)

Fatah student: Remember, in Ramallah the (PA-Fatah) police arrested two soldiers – have you forgotten, teacher?!”

The reference to Fatah’s “arresting” two Israeli soldiers in Ramallah in 2002 left out the details that followed. The two Israeli reservists – Vadim Nurzhitz and Yossi Avrahami – had unintentionally entered Ramallah and were arrested by PA police. The police allowed a Palestinian mob to murder the pair and throw their lifeless bodies out a second floor police window. A crowd then tore apart the bodies and mutilated them beyond recognition. Some Palestinians were recorded dancing and singing in the streets, which were covered in the soldiers’ blood.

The broadcast PA play was attended by top Fatah officials, including Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan, former head of PA security; Kadura Faras, head of the PA Prisoners’ Association; Nasser Al-Qidwa, former PA minister of foreign affairs; and Samir Al-Mashharawi, a top Fatah official.

Dahlan, considered “moderate,” routinely coordinates security affairs with the U.S., while Faras, also considered “moderate,” has long been involved in negotiations with Israel. Faras also regularly speaks to Israeli and U.S. Jewish audiences about the so-called peace process.

The claim that Fatah is responsible for more terrorism than Hamas is accurate. The U.S.-backed group has committed more than double the number of violent attacks than Hamas from the West Bank.

U.S. and Israeli policy considers Fatah to be moderate, while its so-called military wing, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, is a declared terrorist organization, according to the State Department.

The Brigades is responsible for a large number of suicide bombings, deadly shootings and rocket attacks aimed at Jewish civilian population centers.

Many members of the Brigades serve openly in the PA’s U.S.-funded militias. Nearly every senior Brigades member also doubles as a paid member of the PA’s security forces, which are armed, trained and funded by American tax dollars.

Technorati : BREAKING NEWS, FATAH, HAMAS, IRAN, ISRAEL, JERUSALEM, JIHAD, LATEST NEWS, MAHMOUD ABBAS, MARTYRDOM, MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS, NEWS, PA, PA TELEVISION, PA-FATAH, PALESTINE, PALESTINIAM AUTHORITY, POLITICS, RELIGION, SHITTE, SUCIDE BOMBING, SUNNI, SYRIA, TEL AVIV, U.S.
Del.icio.us : BREAKING NEWS, FATAH, HAMAS, IRAN, ISRAEL, JERUSALEM, JIHAD, LATEST NEWS, MAHMOUD ABBAS, MARTYRDOM, MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS, NEWS, PA, PA TELEVISION, PA-FATAH, PALESTINE, PALESTINIAM AUTHORITY, POLITICS, RELIGION, SHITTE, SUCIDE BOMBING, SUNNI, SYRIA, TEL AVIV, U.S.
Zooomr : BREAKING NEWS, FATAH, HAMAS, IRAN, ISRAEL, JERUSALEM, JIHAD, LATEST NEWS, MAHMOUD ABBAS, MARTYRDOM, MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS, NEWS, PA, PA TELEVISION, PA-FATAH, PALESTINE, PALESTINIAM AUTHORITY, POLITICS, RELIGION, SHITTE, SUCIDE BOMBING, SUNNI, SYRIA, TEL AVIV, U.S.
Flickr : BREAKING NEWS, FATAH, HAMAS, IRAN, ISRAEL, JERUSALEM, JIHAD, LATEST NEWS, MAHMOUD ABBAS, MARTYRDOM, MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS, NEWS, PA, PA TELEVISION, PA-FATAH, PALESTINE, PALESTINIAM AUTHORITY, POLITICS, RELIGION, SHITTE, SUCIDE BOMBING, SUNNI, SYRIA, TEL AVIV, U.S.