CONTENTS

WAR UNTIL THE END! ►►

THE PALESTINIAN CIVIL WAR ►►

WELCOME TO HAMASTAN! ►►

CONSEQUENCES OF THE GAZA TAKEOVER ►►

GAZA’S CHRISTIANS “MUST ACCEPT ISLAMIC RULE” ►►

ISRAEL’S OPTIONS IN GAZA ►►

ABBAS FORMS EMERGENCY GOVERNMENT ►►

U.S. WANTS FAST TRACK TALKS TO BOOST ABBAS ►►

SUMMIT AT SHARM EL-SHEIKH ►►

PATH TO DISASTER ►►

A 3-STATE SOLUTION ? ►►

ALAN JOHNSTON’S RELEASE ►►

THE “MODERATE” MAHMOUD ABBAS ►►

HAMAS’ GAZA ARMY GROWS ►►

A JORDAN-PALESTINIAN CONFEDERATION ? ►►

EGYPT FEARS MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD MAY

FOLLOW HAMAS EXAMPLE ►►

TONY BLAIR, THE NEW MIDDLE EAST ENVOY ►►

WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES’ INITIATIVE

TO DRIVE ISRAEL FROM “ARAB LANDS” ►►

ISRAEL FACES WAR WITH UP TO 5 ENEMIES ►►

SYRIA MAKING WAR PREPARATIONS ►►

IRAN MAY GO NUCLEAR IN 6 MONTHS ►►

NATO TO ISRAEL: “GO IT ALONE” ►►

WHEN EGYPT SHIFTS ITS POSITION ►►

THE GOOD NEWS ! ! ! ►►

WAR UNTIL THE END!

AND THE END WILL COME LIKE A FLOOD!

“The end will come like a flood. There will be war until the end. Desolations have been decreed.”

(Daniel 9:26)

THE current situation in Israel and the Middle East is alarming. A major conflict is expected any time now, as the US and Iran wage proxy war through their clients – Israel, Hamas, Syria, Hizb’allah, and Iraqi Shia and Sunni factions.

Lebanon, al-Qaida, and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood are expected to be involved in various ways. And the possibility is that the US and Iran may be directly involved. Everyone is preparing for war!

The tragic conditions in Iraq and the political situation in the US add to the increased Middle East anxiety. A possible breakup of Iraq followed by full scale civil war would have severe repercussions in the whole region. Jordan and Kuwait are particularly vulnerable and are deeply concerned. Egypt and Saudi Arabia are on alert; another Iran-inspired success in the region – in Lebanon, Iraq or Israel, would be a strategic catastrophe.

The billion dollars Saudi King Abdullah gave to the now defunct Unity Palestinian government has backfired. And so has the huge amount of armaments supplied to Fatah’s defeated forces in Gaza.

And with the Persians (Iran) reportedly set to begin nuclear weapons production within months, the whole Gulf and Arab world has the jitters – to say the least.

In this situation, there are Arab nations who do not want to see Israel destroyed! But unless Israel’s leaders return to the Scriptures, to Yahweh their God, and reaffirm their faith in God’s Covenant regarding the Land, more disasters will be their inheritance. Oh!

“Turn us back to You, O God of Hosts! Cause Your Face to shine upon us, and we will be saved!” (Psalm 80:7)

“ISRAEL MUST APPEASE SYRIA TO AVOID WAR”

SYRIA, encouraged by Israel’s unilateral withdrawals from south Lebanon and Gaza, and Olmert’s apparent willingness to withdraw from most of the West Bank, is demanding that Israel hand over the Golan Heights - the hills east and north of the Sea of Galilee - if it wants to live in peace. Syria says, “The state of war will continue until the Jews relinquish the plateau.”

JULY 12. The Israeli Defence Force believes that if war should erupt between Israel and Syria, it would be “ten times worse,” than last summer’s conflict with Hizb’allah. The recommendation of those making this assessment is that Israel must engage Syria in peace talks as soon as possible in order to avert such a war.

But last month Syria rejected Ehud Olmert’s offer to hold peace talks.

Despite Israel’s far superior claim to the Golan, many of its recent leaders - some motivated by a sincere desire to make peace - have indicated a willingness to surrender the territory to Syria. But a surrender of the strategic heights would greatly endanger Israel’s security.

TRAINING WESTERN TERRORISTS

Taliban leader, Mullah Dadullah, who was killed during an American helicopter attack in Afghanistan recently, was training both Americans and Britons to carry out suicide terrorist attacks on their homelands.

In a television interview just 36 hours before his death, Dadullah said: “We will be executing attacks in Britain and the US to demonstrate our sincerity to destroy their cities as they have destroyed ours.”

Meanwhile, most of the complacent West continues to go on its merry way, repealing Biblical injunctions, and wallowing in godlessness.

Maybe when the oil supplies are interrupted, and the terrorists strike locally, people will wake up and listen to the voice that is calling out to them:

“Turn and look to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:22)

“Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made the heavens, the earth.” (Revelation 14:7)

One good news is that many Christians are waking up to the reality of the times, and are turning to prayer.

RALLY CALLS AMERICA TO PRAY AND FAST

The sins of the nation brought an estimated 55,000 believers to Nashville, Tennessee, on 7.07.07, for a “solemn assembly.”

Christians from all 50 states and countries as far away as Nepal and Mongolia gathered to pray for spiritual awakening among America’s young people. Leaders hoped The Call – 12 hours of worship and prayer - would spark a renewal movement that would sweep the country.

God’s prescription for revival and the healing of drought-afflicted and disaster-stricken lands remains the same. He says:

“If I shut up the heavens and there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My Name ...

humble themselves and pray, and seek My Face and turn from their wicked ways,

then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and heal their land’.”

(2 Chronicles 7:13-14) AMEN!

Oh, that people everywhere might seek the Face of the Almighty while He may be sought!

“Look! I tell you, now is ‘the well-accepted time’; now is ‘The Day of Salvation’.” (2 Corinthians 6:2)

THE PALESTINIAN CIVIL WAR

Months of infighting between the Fatah and Hamas, and nearly three months of a disastrous trial “unity government,” came to a head in the Gaza Strip in the second week of June.

British journalist Melanie Phillips described the Gazan brutality, for Human Rights Watch:

“At least 15 Palestinians, including a United Nations relief worker, were killed today as Hamas looked set to complete its conquest of the entire Gaza Strip.”

“Muhammad Swairki, 28, a cook for Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ presidential guard, was thrown to his death, with his hands and legs tied, from a 15-story apartment building in Gaza City.”

“Muhammad al-Ra’fati, a Hamas supporter and mosque preacher, was thrown from a Gaza City high-rise apartment building.”

“Fatah gunmen began firing mortars and rocket-propelled grenades at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.”

“Hamas gunmen attacked the home of a Fatah security official with mortars and grenades, killing his 14-year-old son and three women inside, security officials said.

Other Fatah gunmen stormed the house of a Hamas lawmaker and burned it down.”

“Jamal Abu Jadian, a top Fatah commander, fled his home in the northern Gaza Strip dressed as a woman to avoid dozens of Hamas militiamen who had attacked it. When he arrived at a hospital a few hundred meters away from his house, he was discovered by a group of Hamas gunmen, who took turns shooting him in the head with automatic rifles. They literally blew his head off with more than 40 bullets.

The Fatah resistance turned a fiasco. Many Fatah leaders fled from the Gaza Strip. Some were machine-gunned to death in front of their wives and children, and other went into hiding, or tried to escape. Fatah collapsed!

WELCOME TO HAMASTAN!

“Hamas has completely taken over the entire Gaza Strip turning it into another Taliban state living under Islamic Sharia Law. And as everyone knew it would happen, most of the weapons supplied by the US to Abbas in Gaza are now in the hands of those who have sworn to destroy Israel and kill every Jew. And now the weapons continue to flow into Gaza in preparation for all out war.” – Jerry Golden, Jerusalem

It was Binyamin Netanyahu who coined the name that has now been affixed to Gaza. He warned against Israel’s “disengagement” from the Strip in 2005, saying the area would quickly be turned into “Hamastan.”

MOSHE YAALON’S WARNING

If Israel had listened to ex-Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon before the Disengagement in 2005, Israel might not now be facing such a dangerous situation in Gaza and the Negev. Yaalon warned at the time that a unilateral withdrawal would empower and give a ‘supportive tail wind’ to Gaza terrorists.

GAZA FALLS TO HAMAS Here are some extracts of an analysis by David Dolan, a Christian reporter based in Israel:

The significance of the Hamas takeover there is just beginning to sink in as regional and world leaders deal with the fallout from the virtual coup Hamas staged against the Palestinian Authority.

Twenty-eight years after a major Middle East country, Iran, fell under the control of radical Islamic fundamentalists, another piece of regional territory has been seized by Muslim extremists.

The fall of the Gaza Strip to complete Hamas control during June was a shocking bit of evidence that Islamic militants remain as powerful as ever in this troubled region after nearly six years of the “War on Terror.”

Many Israeli military commentators noted that the Palestinian Islamic group, an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood that has long been banned by Arab regimes ruling from Cairo, could not have taken complete control over the strategically-situated piece of real estate if Israeli soldiers and civilians were still present in the Gaza Strip.

The fact that Washington, London and other Western capitals urged Ariel Sharon - now in a deep coma for over 17 months - to uproot all 21 Jewish communities with over 8,000 residents from the coastal zone has come back to haunt them, as it does every day the thousands of Israeli civilians forced to endure intensified Hamas rocket fire ever since the pullout was completed in September 2005.

The latest Hamas triumph not only produced a new humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, it also dealt another major political blow to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who was the principal promoter of the unilateral withdrawal scheme.

Despite Olmert’s immediate contention during his recent June visit to Washington that the conquest might actually revive the dormant “land for peace” process, most analysts pointed out that this proposition was extremely unlikely - given that the Hamas victory can only further embolden the Islamic clerics who run Iran and their Syrian and Hizb’allah allies, not to mention Al-Qaida activists: re-energizing all of them to pursue Iran’s declared goal of annihilating the world’s only Jewish State.

ISLAMIC RESISTANCE SEIZES THE DAY Just as Lebanese Shi’ite Hizb’allah leaders could reasonably claim that their jihad fighters had “liberated” the Land of the Cedars from detested “Israeli occupation” when IDF forces evacuated the country in May 2000, so the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement - widely known by its Arabic acronym, HAMAS - was successfully able to claim that its violent “resistance” to Israeli rule had driven the hated Jews from the Gaza Strip five years later.

This claim, widely accepted on the Gaza Strip’s troubled streets, and also in Palestinian-controlled areas in Samaria and Judea, led in turn to the group’s triumph in Palestinian Legislative Council elections just four months after the Gaza Strip evacuation was completed.

That in turn allowed the radical group significant political cover to openly organize and arm a 3,000 man Gaza militia force, buttressed by hundreds of local armed Hamas cells.

When the corruption-ridden PLO-Fatah-dominated PA security force resisted this bold Hamas gambit, the stage was set for internal armed clashes, which began in earnest just over one year ago. Battles also occasionally broke out in PA zones north and south of Jerusalem. But very few expected the official PA security contingent in Gaza-numbering some 40,000 men, to crumble so quickly, as they did in the fighting that raged for five days beginning on June 10.

Many analysts said the ominous truth was that many of the armed PA-Fatah policemen saw the Islamic writing on the wall and stayed out of the fray. This gave the heavily outnumbered Hamas forces the critical advantage they needed.

The implications of the Hamas military takeover - which overall PA leader Mahmoud Abbas termed a coup against his rule - are unsettling to both Israeli and PLO leaders. The immediate question that both are faced with is: Could the frightening Fatah collapse that unfolded like lightening in the Gaza Strip be repeated in Judea and Samaria?

Even more ominously, could clashes then spread to nearby Palestinian-dominated Jordan, possibly threatening the Hashemite monarchy that has ruled the country since its founding in the 1920s? And what about the several hundred thousand Palestinians living in Lebanon - will clashes break out there as well?

‘SHOCK AND AWE’ FOR WHITE HOUSE The Bush administration was initially stunned by the Fatah collapse, and Hamas’s capture of the Gaza Strip.

Officials said the defeat of forces aligned with Mahmoud Abbas took the administration by surprise.

They said that neither the administration nor the U.S. intelligence community expected Fatah to collapse.

“There is shock and awe,” an official said. “It’s a major blow to the administration’s policy.” At one point, according to Middle East Newsline, the US urged Egypt to send troops into the Gaza Strip to save Fatah. Officials said the Egyptians refused, and the administration then pressed Abbas to launch a full-scale offensive against Hamas. Abbas failed to do so.

Hamas is being perceived as being much less reasonable than Fatah, and is increasingly being viewed as a jihadist movement which threatens European and US interests.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE GAZA TAKEOVER The Gaza “coup” signals big regional trouble ahead.

* The creation of a separate Gaza entity complicates Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, and makes successful results very unlikely.

This could work in Israel’s favour, for as long as the Palestinians continue dividing themselves, Israel does not need to enter into the constant futile negotiations that serve only to weaken its security. But ...

* International pressure is already being applied, to cause Israel to fast forward negotiations aimed at producing a Palestinian state – in the West Bank.

* If Hamas made significant inroads in the West Bank, it would make things much more difficult for Israel.

* A Hamas-Fatah conflict in the West Bank could create a major crisis for Jordan. It could lead to the collapse of the Hashemite regime in Jordan.

A Jordanian government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the situation’s sensitivity, said: “The fear is that if the fighting spreads to the West Bank, it will further weaken Abbas and ultimately stir up trouble for Jordan.”

More than half of Jordan’s 5.5 million population is Palestinian. “A Gaza-style civil war in the neighboring West Bank could spark clashes between the factions’ supporters in the kingdom, particularly in refugee camps where many support Hamas,” the official said.

* Hamas has managed to smuggle tons of explosives and missiles into Gaza in spite of the EU and Egyptian guards and monitors on the Gaza-Egypt border. Reports say that Hamas now has anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles in its arsenal. An all-out war will be inevitable, in which Israel will be compelled to use more powerful weapons. This will produce much more “collateral damage,” and evoke the inevitable international outpouring of wrath on the Zionists.

* Hizb’allah, Hamas, Syria, Iran, and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt are encouraged at the way things are developing. With the Hizb’allah withstanding Israel’s assault last year, and now the Hamas “triumphant coup” in Gaza, these radical forces are getting the smell of victory!

* The Hamas conquest portends another round of armed attacks upon Israel from Iranian-back forces, including Hizb’allah, Hamas, and probably Syria also.

* The Hamas takeover also is another serious blow to US foreign policy in the region, which has been off course ever since President Bill Clinton pushed Yitzhak Rabin to shake hands with the weak Yasser Arafat on the White House lawns in September 1993. President Bush was warned early that an attack upon Saddam Hussein, would bring a Shi’ite-dominated government to Iraq, and that this would embolden Shi’ite Iran and all its allies, especially Hamas, Syria, and Hizb’allah.

Israeli generals also warned Ariel Sharon that a unilateral pullout from Gaza would lead to a Hamas terrorist state. Sharon and Olmert rejected the advice. Then the Bush administration insisted, over Israel’s better sense, that the outlawed terrorist group, Hamas, must be included in the political process for the “democratic” Palestinian elections in early 2005.

The result of Sharon’s and Bush’s stubborn decisions is that they have enabled Hamastan to become much more than a “thorn in the flesh,” and assures the region has more wars. As the prophet Daniel wrote:

“The end will come like a flood. To the end there will be war, and desolations have been decreed.” (9:26)

THE IRANIAN HAND Israeli Mideast experts were almost unanimous in seeing the veiled hand of Iran behind the latest regional upheaval. Some said that nearly 30 years after Ayatollah Khomeini marched into Tehran to the adulation of millions of Iranians, the Shi’ite regime believes it is now on the verge of establishing a new Persian empire that will eventually have ascendancy over regional Sunni Muslims.

Waking up to the harrowing possibility that a nuclear armed Iran just might succeed in reaching that vaulted goal, Arab League ministers held an emergency meeting in Cairo in mid-June to discuss the Gaza crisis. Predictably, Iran’s only Arab ally, Syria,

resisted attempts to issue a unanimous condemnation of the horrendously brutal Hamas takeover and a statement of support for Abbas.

GAZA NOW A POVERTY-STRIKEN, PARIAH STATE

A Hamas-run Gaza may seal the coastal strip’s pariah status. Already, two-thirds of Gazans live in poverty amid a punishing international aid boycott imposed after Hamas won parliamentary elections last year.

In 2006, Gaza’s unemployment rate was more than 35%, compared to 18% in the West Bank. Gaza’s poverty has led to political and religious radicalization.

GAZA’S CHRISTIANS “MUST ACCEPT ISLAMIC RULE”

In the first half of the 20th century, Palestinian Christians represented 25 per cent of the population, but due to migration as a result of the occupation, they now constitute less than 2 per cent of the population of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.

About 2,000 Christians, including a few hundred evangelical believers, live in the Gaza Strip, which has a population of about 1.4 million. Reports say they are in imminent danger following the Hamas takeover.

During the recent Fatah-Hamas battle, attacks were launched on several churches and a Christian school in Gaza City.

A senior Hamas official warned that Christian women, from now on, must cover their heads in public, as Muslim women are required to do. He added that all alcoholic beverages, including ceremonial wine, will be banned from Gaza.

“I expect our Christian neighbors to understand the new Hamas rule means real changes. They must be ready for Islamic rule if they want to live in peace in Gaza,” said Sheikh Abu Saqer, leader of Jihadia Salafiya, an Islamic movement that recently announced the opening of a “military wing” to enforce Muslim law in Gaza.

“The situation has now changed 180 degrees in Gaza,” he said. “Also the activities of Internet cafes, pool halls, and bars must be stopped. If it goes on, we’ll attack these things very harshly.”

Abu Saqer accused the leadership of the Gaza Christian community of “proselytizing and trying to convert Muslims with funding from American evangelicals. “This missionary activity is endangering the entire Christian community in Gaza,” he said, and threatened that any Christian caught carrying out any missionary activity would be “harshly dealt with.”

Pray for the Christian community as they will either have to flee, or live under terrible persecution.

“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert, for your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, standing firm in the faith.” (1 Peter 5:8-9)

SDEROT AND ASHKELON UNDER FIRE

More than 5000 rockets have been fired on Israel from Gaza since the withdrawal from Gaza in Sept. 2005).

Twelve Israelis have been killed, many people have been injured, and dozens of homes have been destroyed in this time. Residents in Sderot receive 15 seconds warning of incoming rockets.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said that his Islamist party is not responsible for protecting Israel.

ISRAEL’S OPTIONS IN GAZA

The Hamas victory in Gaza puts an Iranian-backed militia not just on Israel’s northern border, but also on its southern one. Israel will now be forced to retaliate harshly to protect its civilians, despite the fact that previous military incursions into the densely populated territory have failed to halt the rocket fire.

In a gloomy verdict, Reuven Pedatzur, an Israeli defence expert at the Center for Strategic Dialogue said, “Gaza is lost. We now have the worst of all worlds, and we have nothing to do. Israel, unfortunately, is out of options.”

Although Israel is wrestling with a complex set of military options to stop attacks from the territory, and with a debate over its humanitarian responsibilities for the strip’s 1.4 million people, former generals say Israel now has a wider range of military options to contain rocket fire from the strip.

Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the US, the EU and Israel, and the government it is running in Gaza has not been recognized internationally.

The fact that Hamas explicitly rejects the existence of the Jewish state gives the Israelis no reason to make concessions. (Bargaining with Hamas gets Israel nothing!)

But now that Gaza is Fatah-free, Israel is treating Gaza as a pariah ‘state.’ Some in the Israeli cabinet want to declare Gaza ‘an enemy state’ and respond to Hamas’s rocket attacks accordingly.

But at the same time, Israeli generals warn that Hamas’s forces are likely to grow stronger with complete control of weapons-smuggling routes into Gaza from Egypt.

Yaakov Amidror, a retired major general who headed the assessment and evaluation branch of Israel’s military intelligence, said Israeli forces could move into Gaza and occupy the rocket-launching areas, and deploy along the Egypt-Gaza border to deter smuggling.

“Is there a military solution to what has happened? Yes,” Amidror said. “But it will be very costly in Palestinian and Israeli lives, very time consuming, and very expensive. And it will be very hard to stay.”

Israel could continuously block the borders, leading to a deeper humanitarian crisis. And more dramatic steps, such as cutting off water and electricity to Gaza could be applied, even though it would create an uproar in the international community.

A prophecy about Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron and Ashdod which were Philistine cities.

“Ashkelon will see it and be afraid. Gaza too will writhe in great pain; Ekron also, for her expectation has dried up. Moreover, the king will perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon will not be inhabited. A mixed race will settle in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines.” (Zechariah 9:5-6)

LIEBERMAN WANTS NATO TROOPS IN GAZA

Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman discussed deploying NATO forces in the Gaza Strip in a meeting with NATO Deputy Secretary General Alessandro Minuto Rizzo in Brussels.

The two discussed deploying a force to preserve order and prevent weapon smuggling into the Gaza Strip. Lieberman also brought up the matters of aerial defence, technological research and development and intelligence cooperation between Israel and NATO.

Lieberman visited Europe in June to hold a round of talks with European leaders. The Yisrael Beiteinu chairman stopped in Brussels and Madrid to discuss several matters related to the situation in the Middle East, including the Iranian nuclear threat.

During his tour of Europe, Lieberman also met with representatives of the European People’s Party, the largest transnational European political party which consists mainly of conservative, center-right parties. Members of the EPP include German Chancellor Angela Merkel and new French President, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Lieberman is examining the possibility of having Yisrael Beiteinu join the EPP, as part of his declared plans to bring Israel into the European Union.

EGYPT OPPOSES INTNL FORCE ON BORDER

July. 3. Egypt opposes the deployment of a multi-national force along the Philadelphi Corridor, according to the London-based Asharq alawsat newspaper. Cairo and Washington have been working together to find a solution regarding the issue, an Egyptian source told the newspaper.

Hamas has rejected a call, initiated by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, to deploy an international force in the Gaza Strip, warning that its men would attack any such force.

Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, who heads the rival PA government in Gaza, said an international force was not acceptable. “We in Gaza and the Palestinian territories are under occupation and we don’t need any more forces to pressure the Palestinian people.” Source: The Jerusalem Post - http://www.jpost.com

EU OBSERVERS LEAVING GAZA-EGYPT CROSSING

The European Union is abandoning its role of monitoring the Gaza-Egypt border, one of the conditions of Israel’s leaving the strategic Philadelphi Route, which runs along the Israeli side of the border.

The border has been officially closed since Hamas won the civil war with Fatah over control of Gaza, though nearly 4,000 PA Arabs managed to cross over to Egypt in the following days.

The EU observers’ official departure is said to signal the Quartet’s (US, Russia, the EU and UN) expectations that the crossing will remain closed for the foreseeable future. The monitors’ effectiveness in preventing weapons smuggling has been questioned as well, with evidence that Hamas managed to smuggle tons of explosives and even missiles into Gaza despite the presence of the observers.

The EU office in charge of the observers said that of the 87 stationed there, all but 15 would be leaving Gaza. The remaining observers will be on standby in case the border opens on short notice. – Arutz Sheva / 8 July 07

ABBAS FORMS EMERGENCY GOVERNMENT Faced with the worst humiliation so far in his troubled time as President, Abbas wasted no time in dissolving the Hamas-dominated Palestinian Unity Government that was formed less than 3 months before.

The PA leader replaced it on June 15 with an “emergency government” made up mostly of technocrats led by former Finance Minister SALAM FAYYAD, who was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council in 2006 as head of the new “Third Way” political party.

Born in Jordan and a graduate of the University of Texas Austin campus, Fayyad spent two decades living in the United States - part of that time working at the World Bank. The former economist has strong ties to the Bush Administration. This well known fact naturally makes him an American lackey in the eyes of many Palestinians, and a probable target of Hamas attack.

Seemingly confirming Fayyad’s “collaborator” status in many Arab eyes, Western leaders flocked to endorse the new cabinet, followed later on by China and other world powers.

However, despite the quick international support, the new PA government will only effectively hold sway in portions of Judea and Samaria, where about 2.5 million Palestinians live (as compared to an estimated 1.4 now under Hamas control in Gaza).

The emergency government will at least have lots of money to play with - both the U S and the EU rushed to lift economic sanctions imposed on the former Hamas-led government in 2006. But some Israeli analysts questioned the wisdom of this move, noting that Fatah’s economic corruption was a major factor in the Hamas electoral victory in the first place.

They argued that opening the financial faucet once again will only breed the same results as last time - wide-spread Palestinian public revulsion against Fatah elites who are perceived to be living the high life due to generous international largess, while the masses virtually starve.

While holding talks in Washington with President Bush and other senior American officials, Ehud Olmert told reporters that the Hamas triumph and PA-Gaza collapse might somehow energize the PLO-Israeli Oslo peace process. According to his thesis, the fact that Abbas had effectively cut to pieces the February Mecca accord that joined his Fatah party with Hamas in a so-called unity government, might just open the way for a separate peace deal with Abbas in his only remaining base of power, PA-dominated areas of Jordan’s former West Bank.

However, dozens of Israeli Knesset members, including increasingly popular opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu, joined many media analysts in terming this extreme wishful thinking. They noted that Hamas had won an overwhelming majority of votes in the West Bank, as well as in Gaza, during the January 2005 Palestinian elections.

And despite the imposition of international economic sanctions against the Hamas-dominated cabinet, widespread support for the radical group did not wane, as proved by the group’s subsequent triumph in municipal elections in several Palestinian towns later in 2006.

The main reason many Palestinians gave for supporting Hamas in the first place - rampant corruption in the PA and Fatah - has not changed. In fact, various attempts to implement real reforms in both bodies since then have largely failed, as has been widely reported in the Palestinian press.

U.S. WANTS FAST TRACK TALKS TO BOOST ABBAS

The failure of its two-state plan which led to the establishment of an Islamist terror mini-state in Gaza, should – observers believe – compel Washington to admit to the bankruptcy of its policy.

But President Bush and Condoleezza Rice see an opportunity in the new situation, and they want to fast track “peace talks” that will see Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”) handed over to an Abbas-led Palestinian state.

Ha’aretz said, The US “aims to accelerate the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to allow Abbas to present some achievement. Washington will urge Israel to reconsider loosening its military grip on the PA-occupied parts of Judea and Samaria, and to unfreeze tax funds being withheld from the PA.”

But any US effort to push ahead with the land-for-peace process in the face of its implosion in Gaza will be looked upon as folly of the worst kind by many in Israel.

QUESTION: Some observers are asking, “Why would Israel suddenly be able to negotiate a final peace deal with Abbas that would actually stick in the face of overwhelming Islamic opposition - when it could not do that with the late Yasser Arafat, who was known as the ‘founding father of the Palestinian nation’?”

HAMAS-FREE GOVERNMENT?

Fatah has taken advantage of its violent expulsion from Gaza to claim that it has now established a Hamas-free government in Judea and Samaria.

A prominent Hamas man from the Gaza, however, has been appointed as Social Welfare and Agriculture Minister in Fatah’s unilaterally declared government. Sheikh Mahmoud Habbash said he agreed to be a part of Fatah’s new PA government because it is his “national duty at this very sensitive and difficult stage.”

For some days Fatah continued to arrest Hamas members in Judea and Samaria, until Hamas threatened to attack Fatah in the region if the persecution of its members continued.

SCEPTICISM ABOUT ABBAS

The decision to aid Abbas was made despite scepticism about his chances for success - in view of past experience. Olmert and Bush agree they must counter the impression that Abbas failed because Israel or the U.S. failed him.

Tzipi Livni, Israel’s minister for Foreign Affairs, stressed the importance of the new Government in the PA, saying that “it enables progress in matters that have been at an impasse during the period of the unity government and enables progress in the peace process.”

Livni and Fayyad had been in close touch during the months prior to the establishment of the Fatah-Hamas unity government, and have met occasionally to discuss the political horizon of the Palestinian track.

SUMMIT AT SHARM EL-SHEIKH

ABDULLAH OLMERT ABBAS MUBARAK

IN mid June, PM Ehud Olmert met with President Mahmoud Abbas, King Abdullah of Jordan, and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Mr Olmert was in a mood to make generous promises in an effort to boost the new emergency Palestinian government.

* He agreed to give Abbas’ new government hundreds of millions of dollars of the taxes Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinians, and which has been withheld over the past 18 months.

* He announced his decision to free 250 Fatah prisoners “without blood on their hands.”

* He is reportedly open to the idea of providing the veteran Fatah/PLO organization with military equipment.

* He acceded to Abbas’ request to continue to supply Gaza with electricity, water, medical services, food and drugs. “We have no interest in punishing that population only because it is ruled by a terrorist organization and extremist elements interested in destruction,” he said.

Mahmoud Abbas, responding, said: “The key is in our hands. I turn to my partner, PM Olmert, to begin diplomatic negotiations, with an agreed timetable, to establish a Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital, that will live in peace and security alongside Israel and assume responsibility for its people.”

The Palestinian president said that this would fulfill the desires of the vast majority of the Palestinian people - to live in peace and put an end to the Israeli-Arab conflict. Abbas reiterated that the PLO recognized Israel in the 1993 Oslo accords, and called on Olmert “not to miss this historic opportunity so we can live as neighbours in two states inside the 1967 borders.” He said the roots of terrorism needed to be uprooted and “a culture of peace” established.

Mr Mubarak said that peace could be attained “if brave steps were taken,” and that he believed Hamas and Fatah would overcome their “differences.” He offered to play a mediating role to bring them back together.

OLMERT’S PROMISE OF ARMS FOR FATAH

Ehud Olmert promised, at the summit, to enable Fatah to carry weapons. But in 1994, when the implementation of the Oslo process was just getting underway, Olmert was one of those who signed a petition calling on then-PM Yitzchak Rabin not to give guns to the Palestinian Authority.

The Rabin-Peres government of those days felt that the arrival of tens of thousands of PLO terrorists into Judea, Samaria and Gaza, and the need for them to instill law and order and assert their authority over anti-Oslo elements, justified Israel’s giving them weapons. Rabin said at the time, “Fatah will fight Hamas without [the restrictions of] the Supreme Court.”

MK Uri Ariel (National Union), who served at the time as Secretary-General of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, notes that Olmert was only one of the many Knesset Members who objected to this approach.

Ariel gathered the signatures of no fewer than 68 MKs who objected. The petition they signed read, “Giving weapons to Arabs who took part in the murder of their own brothers, and of Jews, is an unethical act, and is an unjust endangerment of Jews and Arabs.”

MK Ariel admits that the circumstances have changed since then - making it even more wrong to give them guns now: “Before the Oslo Accords, it could have been claimed that we should experiment with strengthening the Palestinian moderates

against the extremists - but today, after 1,500 Israelis have been murdered in terrorist attacks, it is clear the experiment has failed. Now that we have given them guns which they turned against us, it would be madness and total folly to try this ridiculous recklessness again.”

But, in what critics have described as a desperate effort to reassert himself in a role he is widely regarded unfit for, PM Ehud Olmert is taking steps that will have a major, detrimental effect on his nation’s security, and will certainly cost more Jews their lives.

His commitment to establishing Fatah as a “peace partner” is wholehearted. - Jerusalem Newswire / 26 June

PATH TO DISASTER COMMENT BY JERUSALEM NEWSWIRE

“June 24. The Israeli government has set the Jewish state once more on course towards destruction by opening the door for the creation of a Fatah-controlled Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria.

“This move – which is wholeheartedly approved by the US administration – comes after Abbas showed himself incapable of exercising what authority he had been given over the previously Hamas-controlled PA.

“Olmert has moved to establish an artificial Israel-and-US-created entity, and has provided it with a temporary life-support system in the hope that by doing so the Arabs on the street will swing their support behind Fatah and away from Hamas.

“Apparently lost behind this smokescreen is the reality that Abbas and his Fatah are anti-semitic terrorists whose hands are drenched with the blood of Jews, and who remain as committed as Hamas is to eradicating the Jewish state from the Middle East - even though they are as secularites rather than Islamists.

“Right-thinking Israelis and Christian Zionists have warned about the folly of continuing on a path whose premise has already been proven bankrupt, which has terribly eroded Israel’s security, and which has cost the lives of thousands of Jews.”

GOV’T VOTES TO FREE 250 TERRORISTS The government has approved the release of 250 convicted Arab prisoners, as a goodwill gesture to PA chief Mahmoud Abbas. Only prisoners without “blood on their hands” are to be released. (Some of the terrorists being freed, attempted to murder Israelis but missed their targets.)

Voting against Abbas’ proposal were Transportation Minister Sha’ul Mofaz, the four Shas ministers (Yishai, Attias, Nahari and Yitzchak Cohen), and Tourism Minister Yitzchak Aharonovitch of Yisrael Beiteinu. Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor

Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu leader ) was not present, but voted in writing against the deal.

Shas ministers stated that if Arab terrorists are freed, Jews in prison for security-related crimes should also be released.

Olmert admitted that releasing the 250 terrorists will not convince Hamas and Hizb’allah terrorists to free their IDF hostages. But, he explained, the move was a “good will” gesture to support President Abbas’ new government.

Minister Mofaz said the decision was pointless, in that “releasing 250 small-fry would not help Abbas at all.” Mofaz predicted that in any event, Hamas and Fatah would re-unite within several months.

Olmert said, “We hope to be able to use every means that can strengthen and encourage the moderate elements in the Palestinian Authority, so that we can go in the direction of creating conditions of real dialogue.”

This “strengthening the moderates” strategy has governed much of Israeli policy since the signing of the Oslo Accords with Yasser Arafat in 1993. Ever since then, the Fatah terrorist organization has received guns and money that were used to murder hundreds of Israelis, has refused to change its charter calling for Israel’s destruction, and has lost control of Gaza to Hamas. – Arutz Sheva / 8 July 07

ABBAS WANTS STATEHOOD

The PA president has called for immediate negotiations to determine the borders of a Palestinian state, the status of refugees, and the future of Jerusalem. The Israeli Prime Minister has tepidly pledged to talk with Abbas about how to begin such negotiations.

“ONLY WAY TO RESCUE ABBAS”

“The only way Abbas can be rescued is by getting a political process started with Israel,” said Walid Salem of the Panorama center, a Palestinian institute in Jerusalem that promotes democracy. “Otherwise, what happened in Gaza will happen in the West Bank within two years.”

The political split between the West Bank and Gaza has cast doubts on whether the formula of a Palestinian state existing side by side with Israel is still viable. And it strengthens calls in Israel for the government to abandon the idea of a Palestinian state.

Former Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu, and other politicians, have redoubled their arguments that the idea of a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank is over.

FATAH WANTS IMMUNITY FOR WANTED TERRORISTS

While Hamas is working on a deal to release kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian terrorists currently imprisoned in Israeli jails, Abbas’ Fatah party is seeking to keep PA terrorists from being targeted by Israel.

According to an official in the PA, during recent meetings between Israeli and PA officials, the PA side sought a moratorium on Israeli pursuit of wanted terrorists in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

Riad Al-Maliki, Minister of Justice and Information in the Judea and Samaria-region PA government, said in order to strengthen Abbas’ and Fatah’s hands in PA society, he expects Israel to provide guarantees that it will cease hunting down PA terrorists. This, he explained, will smooth the way for the implementation of the new PA’s security plans.

Maliki also revealed that the head of Israel’s General Security Services (GSS), Yuval Diskin, met with the PA’s Interior Minister, Abd Al-Razek Al-Yahya. Their central issue was the PA’s moratorium request.

At a recent meeting, the new Palestinian PM, Salam Fayyad, and Abd Al-Razek Al-Yahya discussed with new Israeli Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, the moratorium and other security-related issues, including Fayyad’s plans to collect weapons from the Palestinian populace. Fayyad also raised the issue of ways in which Israel could strengthen the regime of Abbas and his emergency government, such as removing IDF checkpoints in Judea and Samaria.

ABBAS WANTS LOTS OF ARMOURED VEHICLES, RIFLES AND AMMUNITIONS

Prior to the Sharm el-Sheikh summit, a spokesman for Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinian president would demand that Israel release hundreds of terrorists and supply his Fatah “security forces” with more weapons, purportedly to keep Hamas from taking over Judea and Samaria as it recently took the Gaza Strip.

The Jerusalem Post quoted a PA official as insisting, “We want thousands of rifles, hundreds of armored vehicles and a lot of ammunition.”

ABBAS WANTS MARWAN BARGHOUTI FREED

July 10. Marwan Barghouti is serving five life-sentences for the murder of Israeli Jews and the attempted murder of more, but he may soon be set free to take his place as the wildly popular leader of Fatah’s young guard.

His release would largely be attributed to the leftist political camp in Israel. The wheels that will likely see Barghouti walk out of Hadarim prison as a “heroic champion of the ‘Palestinian’ cause” have been rolling ever since his sentencing and imprisonment in May 2004. They began running faster this month, when Israel’s former deputy defence minister, Ephraim Sneh, held a secret two-hour meeting with the convict.

Mahmoud Abbas is known to have called for Barghouti’s release during a meeting with Ehud Olmert two weeks ago. Olmert at the time indicated this would not happen. But Abbas’ argument that Barghouti’s freedom at his request would further support him in his power struggle against the Hamas leadership, appears to have resonated with the Israeli government, which has publicly spelled out its strong intention to help strengthen Abbas and his government.

Middle East observers note that today’s political recommendations, especially when they fit the left’s agenda, frequently become tomorrow’s political realities.

YADLIN’S WARNING AND ASSURANCE

Major General Amos Yadlin, Chief of Military Intelligence, told participants at a Jewish Agency conference in Jerusalem in June that Israel should not withdraw

from Judea and Samaria (The West Bank). Nor should it fear a nuclear threat from Iran.

THE WEST BANK

Yadlin was addressing a wide range of security-related issues, among them the controversial subjects of Israeli withdrawal from parts of Judea and Samaria, and the possible need for a military response to a nuclear threat from Iran. He warned that a unilateral withdrawal from Palestinian-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria would be tantamount to inviting Hamas to re-enact its takeover of Gaza.

“Hamas does not want peace with Israel,” he pointed out. “It is continuing its terrorist activities, and moderate Palestinians are unable to do anything about [the situation], even though they want peace.”

Yadlin added that he does not believe a political agreement with the PA is in Israel’s best interest. “If Israel withdraws from the West Bank,” he warned, “what happened in Gaza will happen there.”

The intelligence chief also spoke about the threat of war with Syrian and/or another possible conflict with Hizb’allah this summer on Israel’s northern border. Yadlin admitted that Syria is indeed readying itself for war, but added that it does not appear to be committed to carrying out an attack on Israel.

A more serious threat, said Yadlin, is the prospect of an Islamic Republic armed with an atomic bomb.

“Iran is trying to prevent any control over its nuclear development activities,” he said, but noted that the growing threat to Israel is now becoming a threat to Arab nations in the region, “who are beginning to understand that Iran is dangerous” to them as well.

Yadlin was upbeat about Israel’s ability to deal with the threat of terrorism, be it local or international.

“Today, Israel is prospering, and terrorism has very little influence over our everyday life. IDF and General Security Service (Shin Bet) officers arrest terrorists every night,” he emphasized.

As far as the threat from Iran, said Yadlin, “We will do whatever is necessary to neutralize the Iranian threat. Israel is strong enough to handle any danger.”

A 3-STATE SOLUTION ? The Hamas takeover of Gaza revealed deep divisions within the Palestinian identity.

And while some think the split between Fatah and Hamas will be temporary, the vision of a united Palestine state living alongside Israel seems more remote than ever.

There is now a growing opinion that believes a three-state solution makes historical sense.

To a large extent, the people of Gaza and the West Bank are two different peoples. With the exception of the joint distribution of foreign aid and political patronage, the two regions have very little to tie them together.

Gaza, from the early 1800s, was culturally dominated by neighboring Egypt, and a large number of its residents were Egyptians.

The West Bank, on the other hand, became culturally and economically linked with Jordan after the kingdom’s founding in 1921. It also has had a prosperous Christian minority, which served as a moderating influence.

After the establishment of Israel in 1948 there were quite different results. In 1950, Jordan annexed the West Bank, granted its residents citizenship and created a bureaucratic and legal infrastructure that helped connect the West Bank with the rest of the Arab world.

The Egyptian occupation of Gaza, however, was both careless and brutal. Gazans remained stateless and were forbidden to leave the strip. Egypt never created a Gazan civil service, placing Egyptians in charge of all civil and military posts.

More than a million refugees and their descendants live in the Gaza Strip, making up more than 84% of the total population - and nearly 50% still live in camps.

The much larger West Bank integrated its refugees far more successfully. Only 26% of refugees are in camps there - representing less than 10% of the total population. Because they have family and economic ties to the West Bank, they are more rooted and amenable to political compromise.

The West Bank has been the staging area for the vast majority of suicide bombings during the Palestinian uprising that began in 2000. And Fatah militants have killed more Israelis than the Hamas has!

The problem with a three state solution is that neither of the Palestinian factions will agree to it as a permanent solution!

FATAH-HAMAS BATTLES NOT FINISHED!

June 21. The forces of the West Bank government have raided Hamas offices in Ramallah and Nablus and reportedly arrested some 1,500 Hamas activists.

A Hamas spokesman told the Associated Press that the Islamist group would use its terrorist tactics of suicide bombers and car-bombs against Fatah in an upcoming battle. The group continues to execute Fatah men in Gaza, where checkpoints have

been set up, with laptop databases upon which it is marked whether the person should be executed, crippled or arrested.

Fatah “security” chief Mohammed Dahlan, who fled Gaza for Egypt two months ago, fearing for his life, and is now living in Ramallah, warned that there is a grave danger of Hamas beating Fatah in Judea and Samaria as well.

Dahlan told Reuters that the US and Israel were not funding and arming Fatah enough, calling Hamas’s takeover of Gaza “an occupation.”

He also claimed he went to Germany for knee surgery, - not to flee the fighting.

Jailed Fatah terrorist Marwan Barghouti released a statement from his cell at Israel’s Hadarim Prison calling for Dahlan and other Fatah leaders to be replaced.

ALAN JOHNSTON’S RELEASE

After orchestrating the release of the kidnapped BBC journalist, Alan Johnston, on July 4, (after being held captive by Gaza militants for 114 days), Hamas is seeking to present itself as being humanitarian and conciliatory.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh presented Alan Johnston “alive and well” at a special press conference,

Beaming benevolently, Haniyeh joked with reporters as he draped a “Palestinian” flag around the neck of the still dazed Briton.

Johnston sheepishly removed the flag but an unfazed Haniyeh smiled and pressed a “Palestine” badge onto his lapel, before shaking his hand once more, and describing the event as “a happy moment for the Palestinian people.”

Jerusalem Newswire commented: “Still smiling, as if he were really committing a charitable act, Haniyeh went on to tell Israel how it could secure the release of its son, IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit who Hamas kidnapped more than a year ago and has held without once allowing a member of his family to see a picture of his face.

‘If the Israelis think reasonably and rationally, and take into account the humanitarian issue and the suffering of the Palestinian prisoners, we will be able to reach a deal,’ the generous Hamas leader said. (Of course, Hamas wants hundreds of Hamas prisoners released in exchange for Gilad.)

“In looking to the world for applause and admiration for this proof of its ‘humanity,’ Hamas had a clear and unmistakable goal: to lever enough appreciation from the

media so as to be portrayed in a different light, thereby nudging western nations into recognizing the organization as an address for doing business with. And the world’s press fell for it, as did some of its politicians.”

It was a moment of satisfaction for the Hamas leader. Buoyed by showing that Hamas can deliver, Haniyeh is gambling on sharing power with Abbas once more, and/or, receiving sufficient recognition to make him a direct recipient of foreign aid.

Arab groups have a long and colorful history of splitting up and then making up again. It is the enduring common hatred of Israel that most frequently works to heal those fractured friendships.

BRITISH MPS URGE ENGAGEMENT WITH HAMAS

July 5. A group of British parliamentarians is calling for international engagement with the militant Hamas movement, after it helped free Alan Johnston in Gaza. Twenty MPs from all parties, including Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, signed the Commons motion a day after the BBC correspondent’s release. It says Hamas’s “pivotal role” in ending his kidnap shows it should join Palestinian reconciliation efforts. - BBC

HAMAS ANTICIPATES INHERITING FATAH’S ARMS AND CASH

As PM Olmert continues to pledge his support for the newly-formed PA shadow-government set up by Fatah, Hamas is looking forward to ultimately inheriting the aid that will come to the Fatah government.

A senior Hamas leader told WorldNetDaily that Hamas is encouraged by the funding and arming of Fatah in Judea and Samaria – as the Islamist group is certain it will inherit those weapons and funds just as it did when it took over Gaza.

“Like the American weapons in Gaza we told you would come to Hamas, the weapons and aid the Americans are giving to Abu Mazen (Abbas) as part of their conspiracy against us in the West Bank, will also find its way to the Palestinian resistance and Hamas,” Hamas’ Abu Abdullah said. He “hopes” that the US will continue to provide large quantities of weaponry to Fatah so Hamas can inherit them.

Hamas is currently “swimming” in American weapons seized from Fatah facilities, according to Abdullah.

EGYPT MOVES EMBASSY TO THE WEST BANK

JUNE 19, 07. In a stark sign of its rejection of the Hamas bloody takeover of the Gaza Strip, Egypt announced it was moving its embassy from Gaza to the West Bank.

A group of Egyptian diplomats have already left for the West Bank town of Ramallah, the statement said, ending a 15-year presence in Gaza. The Egyptian ambassador is due to arrive in Ramallah in the coming days. – AP

THE “MODERATE” MAHMOUD ABBAS

COMMENTS FROM ISRAEL “Hamas has taken over the entire Gaza Strip and has turned it into another Taliban state. Now the world is being told the good news is that Mahmoud Abbas can now be dealt with in Judea and Samaria because he is a ‘moderate.’

“Everyone seems to have forgotten that Fatah is a terrorist organization, and that the Aksa Martyrs Brigade which has killed more Jews with suicide bombers than Hamas has, is under the control of Abbas and Fatah!

“Everyone seems to have forgotten that the reason the average “Palestinian” voted for Hamas in their election was because they were fed up with all the corruption in the Abbas government.

“And now we hear Condoleezza Rice say Israel must now support Abbas and give him millions of dollars to rearm his brigades.”

Last January, in what was described as “a major speech that was warm to Hamas and harsh to Israel and the US, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas declared: “Our rifles, all our rifles are aimed at the Occupation. Both Hamas and Fatah should be turning their guns on Israel and not on each other.”

Even since Hamas turned on Abbas and drove his Fatah PLO faction from the Gaza Strip, a commentator in Israel says, “Nothing else has changed, least of all Fatah’s resolve to wipe Israel off the map of the Middle East.”

WILL FATAH EVER CHANGE?

The big idea now sweeping Western capitals is that Fatah must learn to compete with Hamas as a provider of social services.

But as one commentator says, “It’s not very realistic to imagine that Fatah can suddenly change its ways and learn to run aid programs honestly. Fatah is a criminal gang, and it inevitably acts like one.”

Over the years, billions of dollars of aid have been donated to the Palestinian Authority. Much of that money has been stolen or wasted.

In 2006, the Palestinians collected more Western aid per capita than any other people on earth: US $300 per year, as compared to US $44 for sub-Saharan Africa.

Even worse, because UN relief agencies have allowed themselves to be penetrated and captured by Hamas, much of the Western aid has ended up reinforcing the people we supposedly want to defeat.

FATAH’S AL-AKSA BRIGADES REMAINS DEFIANT, RECKLESS

July 8. Fatah’s pledge to disarm its Al-Aksa Brigades has not been fulfilled, and the group’s militants still rule the streets of PA-controlled Judea and Samaria.

Al-Aksa Brigades has issued a press release demanding Abbas fire Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. Fayyad, who is trusted by the US and controls the bank account through which Western monies are funneled to the PA, was appointed when Fatah established its own government in Judea and Samaria after being overthrown in Gaza.

Fayyad has recently called for Al-Aksa Bridages to be dismantled and also warned Islamic preachers that they would be arrested if they incited against Fatah.

Al-Aksa Brigades accused Fayyad of “providing Hamas with a free service and giving it an alibi to attack the emergency government and its policies, since such statements [calling for local terror groups to be disarmed] indicate that this government is against the resistance.”

The group also quoted Fayyad’s interview with CNN where he claimed that local terror gangs had “brought misery to the Palestinian people.” The Brigades said: “Now the truth is clear to us. Fayyad is America’s man in Palestine. He is the first Palestinian Prime Minister who carries an American citizenship.” – Source: Arutz Sheva / 8 July 07

ISRAELI TROOPS STILL HAVE TO BATTLE FATAH MILITANTS

JUNE 28. Israeli troops imposed a curfew on downtown Nablus and clashed with Fatah militants in a raid that was an indication that Israel will not stop fighting militants linked to the Fatah movement - even though Israel is supporting Abbas in his struggle against Hamas.

Abbas announced that he would disarm all militants in the West Bank, even Fatah gunmen who nominally owe him allegiance - the same ones battling the Israelis in Nablus. But it was unclear how the weakened Abbas would enforce the order.

A Fatah militant in the West Bank town of Jenin said that while he supported Abbas’ decree, his men would not lay down their arms because they were needed to fight Israel.

Hamas, now the sole ruler in Gaza, has reduced its attacks on Israel since its lightning 5-day rout of its Fatah rivals, concentrating instead on consolidating its rule in the chaotic territory.

Most of the dozens of rockets fired at Israel’s southern towns in recent weeks were launched by the smaller Islamic Jihad group, which also has taken to shelling border crossings used to send humanitarian aid from Israel into Gaza.

The internationally isolated Hamas government appealed this week for a halt to attacks on the crossings, calling them Gaza’s “lifeline.”

AL-AKSA TERRORISTS TRYING FOR DIPLOMAS

Dozens of armed Fatah terrorists claiming membership in the Al-Aksa Brigades group stormed high school matriculation exams in Shechem Saturday, shooting in the air. They expressed outrage that they were not being allotted a special room to take tests in, which they claimed was necessary “for security reasons” as many are wanted by Israel.

The Al-Aksa terrorists reportedly are seeking to obtain high-school diplomas in preparation for being hired by Fatah’s security forces, which offer a higher salary for high-school graduates.

Fatah will reportedly offer amnesty to terrorists who join the security forces, offering them a salary and the ability to keep their weapons in return for loyalty to Abbas and Fayyad. – Arutz Sheva / 8 July 07

“MODERATE” ABBAS EXPLODES AS HE DISCOVERS AN ASSASSINATION PLAN

The Bush administration has helped to launder and re-package Mahmoud Abbas as a “moderate.” Of course the last thing in the world he would ever call himself is a “terrorist;” and he would not even call Hamas suicide bombers terrorists.

For decades Mahmoud Abbas was one of Yasser Arafat’s inner circle, a top PLO lieutenant who planned, approved of, and/or openly supported the murder and maiming of thousands of Jewish men, women and children in numerous acts of terrorism. And he has always refused to restrain or criticize in any way, the Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades which has carried out more acts of terrorism than Hamas.

His doctoral thesis denied the Holocaust, and he has repeatedly rejected the Jews’ historic claim to their heartland. He does not hesitate in allowing “Palestinian” television to freely broadcast lies and anti-semitic libels against the State of Israel and the Jewish people.

Not once, since the signing of the Oslo Agreement in 1993, has he condemned any “Palestinian” attack on Jews; restricting his criticism to the perpetrators of those attacks for “hurting the Palestinian cause.” But when Abbas this week saw video footage of a group of “Palestinians” dragging an enormous bomb into place in a tunnel beneath a Gaza Strip road, he could contain himself no longer.

“Murderous terrorists!’ he exploded in what the Associated Press called “an uncharacteristically fiery speech.” He employed the T word (terrorist), which research could well show has never passed over his tongue ever before in reference to his own people.

Abbas described in great detail what he said was a Hamas attempt to assassinate him. He obtained footage, he said, of Hamas members dragging large amounts of explosives through a tunnel they had dug under Gaza’s main road - the one he used to take on his way to his Gaza office - and saying, “this is for Abu Mazen (Abbas’ nickname).” Abbas was convinced that Hamas had been planning to kill him Beirut style.

Fatah, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad terrorist groups all have what they call their armed wings, created primarily to enable the leaders of the mother organizations to deny their direct involvement in terrorist attacks.

ABBAS CALLS HAMAS “A FRONT FOR AL-QAIDA”

The Hamas-Fatah rift shows signs of becoming wider, as the Fatah Chief calls Hamas “a front for Al-Qaida.”

Speaking on Italian TV, Mahmoud Abbas, says he has no intention of partnering up with Hamas. He says he has no plans to even talk with Hamas on the topic.

The Fatah leader attacked Hamas for being a “defensive shield for the international terrorist organization Al-Qaeda.” He said Hamas “enables Al-Qaeda terrorists to enter Gaza, thus endangering Gaza and causing it to require urgent aid.”

Some commentators believe Fatah and Hamas have the same end goal. Emanuel A. Winston, for one, says Fatah’s inexplicable and sudden loss to Hamas can be explained as being a system by which Hamas seizes armaments that it otherwise would not have received, and then the “moderate” Fatah is reimbursed by the US and other donor countries. They will finally re-unite into one happy Palestinian Authority, the theory goes, and will receive ever-stronger world sympathy for their demands that Israel evacuate Judea and Samaria. Selah!

HAMAS’ GAZA ARMY GROWS Hamas has wasted no time in consolidating its power in the Gaza Strip. The organisation has reportedly undergone structural changes and is modeling itself on the Lebanese Hizb’allah.

Israeli intelligence officials say Hamas has already established its army - a 7,000 to 10,000-strong force. Hizb’allah, by comparison, is estimated to have just 1,000 fulltime members and another 6,000 to 10,000 so-called volunteers.

Hamas’ army is building up its armament supply through the continuous smuggling of weapons from Egypt and has complemented this by the development of “a real military industry which operates inside buildings and private houses.”

A senior IDF intelligence officer apprised visiting Italian PM Roman Prodi of the situation in Gaza. Mr Prodi was dumbstruck to hear that more than 5,000 Kassam rockets have been fired from Gaza, many hitting the Negev city of Sderot.

All this is taking place just 44 miles south of Tel Aviv. And it is the result of the Bush-Sharon dream of giving Gaza to the Arabs in order that they could begin to establish their Palestinian state there.

SIGNS THAT FATAH AND HAMAS WILL ULTIMATELY PATCH UP

DEBKAfile’s Iran sources reveal that Fatah and Hamas representatives have launched secret talks to patch up their quarrel. Their first session took place in Stockholm Sunday, July 8, under the guiding hands of the Iranian and Saudi ambassadors.

HAMAS CAN REJUVENATE

July 4. Despite the complete Hamas takeover of Gaza and the Fatah suppression of Hamas in Judea and Samaria, the two terrorist organizations may be moving towards a renewed cooperation.

This assessment was presented to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee by Brigadier General Ronen Cohen of IDF Intelligence. “Despite the brutal process Gaza has gone through,” Brig. Gen. Cohen told the Knesset committee, “Hamas aspires to return to a dialogue with regional Arab states, such as Egypt and Syria, as well as with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

The Palestinian Authority acted during the first few days [after the Hamas coup in Gaza] against the Hamas in Judea and Samaria. That activity has declined in recent days, until we see no further activity in that direction.”

“According to the IDF assessment,” Cohen explained, “We can make preparations for the existence of two [PA] entities for a long period of time. In central Gaza, Hamas is now in control, with an Islamic regime that will try to prove to the people that it is not corrupt and that it is attentive to the private citizen. The primary challenge of Hamas is stable internal security in the Strip.”

As Hamas establishes itself further in Gaza, the IDF intelligence officer continued, “its ability to transmit information, money and weapons will grow and it will increase its military strength.”

As for outside Gaza, Brig. Gen. Cohen said, “In our estimation, Hamas can rejuvenate itself in Judea and Samaria. It mustn’t be forgotten that [Hamas] won the elections in all of the large cities [of those regions], and that, at the moment, what prevents the entrenchment of Hamas in Judea and Samaria are IDF and (Israeli) General Security Services (GSS) operations, carried out over the years.”

Advances by Hamas in the West Bank would threaten Israel’s security far more than the Hamas takeover of Gaza.

The Israeli government has not yet completed the 456-mile barrier separating Israel from the Palestinian population of the West Bank.

INTERNATIONAL AID: IS IT FINANCING MORE DISASTER?

Israeli PM Olmert and US President Bush were falling over each other this week to stress how helpful and generous they intend to be in supporting PA President Abbas.

Meanwhile in Jerusalem, Israeli-Arab Khaled Abu Taomeh was telling Media Central guests that Fatah is on the verge of meltdown. Khaled is regarded as the expert on Palestinian affairs. Every one talks to him. He is the Palestinian expert at The Jerusalem Post. He writes for major international media. He started his career as a cadet journalist working for the PLO and Yasser Arafat.

Khaled told foreign press representatives that they are missing the main story in the Palestinian civil strife. The Palestinian people in the streets have given up on Abbas and the Fatah leadership, he observed.

“They’ve done nothing about the corruption at the top,” he said. They have maintained the same lifestyle that existed under Arafat, and the Palestinian on the street is fed up and disillusioned by the business-as-usual approach. And there are factions within Fatah that are beginning to want a change in leadership.

Khaled Abu Taomeh said Hamas had played effectively on the obvious preference by the US and Israel for Abbas and Dahlan and had painted those Fatah leaders as foreign puppets. He said he would not give any support, financial or otherwise, without negotiating terms of assessment. Fatah should be held accountable to clean house and rid their structure of corruption.

Khaled warned that building up Fatah will only enable them to establish a base on the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), which may well be overthrown by Hamas or democratic elections in the near future.

YAALON: “PALESTINIAN STATE NO LONGER PRACTICAL OR RELEVANT”

July 5. “We have to replace the conception of a two-state solution – it is not relevant anymore,” former Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon, told Army Radio. “This is not pessimism, but realism. It is not practical to keep assuming it is the answer.”

“We are trying to find answers for the situation in Gaza without diagnosing the problem,” the previous IDF chief said. “What we are witnessing in Gaza is the establishment of a Jihadist Islamic society.”

Yaalon says that any talk of negotiations and withdrawing to the 1967 borders pushes peace further away. “These are movements that are not interested in territorial issues between us and the Palestinians, but in other issues altogether. This was proven with the Disengagement and now is our opportunity to look and learn. It was a victory in their eyes for the global Jihad and gave strength to Hizb’allah, Hamas, and all the other Islamist groups.”

“I am not saying to sit and do nothing…but in the face of the wave of Jihad, any discussions of agreements are not relevant. Any talk like this distances us further from peace rather than bringing us closer… It is a kind of blindness to continue to pursue these policies.” - Arutz Sheva / 5 July

A JORDAN-PALESTINIAN CONFEDERATION ?

June 21. The Media Line reported that the Palestinians and Jordanians are considering a plan to link the West Bank to Jordan politically in a confederation that would boost both parties and make them economically far more stable. Israel is also party to the discussion with politicians from government and opposition parties backing the idea.

Many Israeli politicians would like to see the merger of the West Bank into an enlarged Jordan, but leading Jordanians, including a former prime minister, say first they want to see a Palestinian state declared, and then they would unite the fledgling Palestine with Jordan. Leading Palestinians adopt a similar line - that confederation is a definite option after statehood.

At least one senior Israeli politician has suggested that Gaza should return to its pre-1967 status as a part of Egypt. That is the idea of former Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom, who these days is the number two in the hawkish Likud party, which is expected to win the next general election. Shalom also backs the idea of a Palestinian confederation with Jordan.

This is man’s plans for peace in the Middle East. But it is God’s land that is being divided up. Pray that the nations will come to understand that it is a fearful thing to touch anything God has set aside for Himself.

Jordanian and Israeli sources told The Media Line the initiative is believed to be coming directly from the royal palace in Amman, with King Abdullah himself the main backer. But …

JORDAN’S KING ANGRY AT FEDERATION IDEA

July 1. Jordanian King Abdullah was reportedly angry after being asked whether Jordan, whose population is around 75% Palestinian Arab, would be interested in forming some kind of federation with a Palestinian state created on the “West Bank.” Such suggestions were “a conspiracy against both Jordan and Palestine,” he said.

Abdullah also slammed Israel in a published interview, calling the Jewish state a “solid enemy” of the Palestinian Arabs and warning that Israel would not know peace unless and until “Palestinian political rights are addressed.” – Jerusalem Newswire

EGYPT FEARS MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD MAY FOLLOW HAMAS EXAMPLE

The Egyptian government, understandably, is not keen to take over Gaza!

July 11, 07. According to a report by the World Tribune, the Egyptian government is concerned over how the Hamas takeover of Gaza will affect the Islamic opposition in Egypt.

Officials and analysts have expressed concern that the Hamas victory would encourage the Islamic opposition to develop military capabilities in an effort to overthrow the regime of President Hosni Mubarak. They say the Interior Ministry has already been examining options to deal with the Muslim Brotherhood, the sponsor of Hamas, and the largest opposition group in Egypt.

The officials say Cairo regarded the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip as a victory for Iran and Syria. “The Hamas military victory in Gaza is not what Egypt wanted. It makes everything more dangerous.”

President Mubarak believes the Hamas takeover will hinder the prospect of a diplomatic breakthrough between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

“In Egypt, there are those seeking to reproduce what Hamas did in the Gaza Strip,” Tariq Hassan, a columnist for the Egyptian state-owned daily Al Ahram said. “For anyone who has the slightest doubt about this and wants proof, it is enough to consider statements by Brotherhood representatives in parliament.” Hassan said the Hamas victory marked a setback for any Arab country that sought peaceful relations with Israel.

TONY BLAIR, THE NEW MIDDLE EAST ENVOY June 29. After resigning his job as British PM Tony Blair was appointed by The Quartet as an envoy to the Middle East. His main focus will be preparing the Palestinians for statehood.

According to a DEBKAfile report, that there is dismay in Washington and Jerusalem over Tony Blair’s first steps as envoy.

Shortly after Tony Blair stepped into his new job, he assured Russia and the Europeans that he did not mean to adhere to the US-Israeli boycott of Hamas. One of his first tasks would be to establish ties with Hamas representatives in Gaza and Damascus.

Washington sources reported that Mr Blair conveyed this intention in a telephone conversation with Russian president Vladimir Putin on June 26. This assurance persuaded Moscow to drop its resistance to naming him as envoy.

The sources said that Blair’s sudden turnaround contradicts the understandings he reached with President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on his leave-taking visit to the US.

German chancellor Angela Merkel is also looking critically at the new Blair strategy. On June 28 she commented: “Tony Blair’s mandate as new Middle East envoy would be limited and he would report to the international Quartet, not the other way round.”

EU TO BLAIR: TURN THE SCREWS ON THE JEWS

July 10. Ten European Union foreign ministers have messaged newly-appointed Middle East envoy Tony Blair to increase the pressure on Israel to make more “concessions for peace.”

And they let the former British PM know that they want to see an international conference on the Arab-Israeli conflict convened - one at which Israel would stand decidedly alone against the pro-Palestinian world.

Ynetnews reported that the foreign ministers of the EU’s Mediterranean states – Bulgaria, Cyprus, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Malta, Romania and Slovenia – said they welcomed Arab states’ efforts for peace following the stalled US-backed “road map.”

There was therefore a need to “redefine our objectives.” One of their new objectives was “to obtain from Israel concrete and immediate measures in favor of Mahmoud Abbas.”

Among these measures was the transfer of all taxes due, the release of the thousands of prisoners who do not have blood on their hands, the release of the main Palestinian leaders [like Marwan Barghouti who does have blood on his hands] to ensure succession within Fatah, a freeze in new [Jewish] settlements and the evacuation of unauthorized settlements, [read ethnically cleansing the West Bank of Jews]” they said.

While these challenges were surely daunting, “We know how inventive and resolute you are,” the ministers told Blair.

WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES’ INITIATIVE TO DRIVE ISRAEL FROM “ARAB LANDS”

AMMAN, Jordan – The Geneva-based WCC said it would launch a global initiative to have churches worldwide rally for an end to Israel’s occupation of Arab lands seized in the 1967 Mideast war.

The World Council of Churches said in a statement that it designated Jordan as a venue for its initiative, which would enlist support from religious groups worldwide. “The initiative aims at calling on all churches to work seriously for putting an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Arab lands.”

The WCC, founded in 1948, groups 347 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing over 560 million Christians in more than 100 countries.

The Council also will create an advocacy initiative, the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum, meant to improve cooperation among churches worldwide which are advocating Mideast peace.

The Council’s call came during the opening of a three-day meeting gathering 130 member churches and related organizations from around the world. – AP /Jun 26, 07 / http://www.oikoumene.org/en/home.html

CONSPIRING TOGETHER

The Palestinians are a hybrid race that has come from Middle Eastern races, and from all the areas mentioned in this prophetic passage.

“Do not be still, O God! For look, Your enemies are roaring; and those who hate You have raised their heads.

“They have said, ‘Come, and let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.’

“For they have conspired together with one mind; they make a pact against You; the tents of Edom (S. Jordan) and the Ishmaelites (Arabs); Moab (Central Jordan) and the Hagarites (Egyptians); Gebal (an area between the Dead Sea and Petra), Ammon (N. Jordan), and Amalek (Arabs); Philistia (Gaza) with the inhabitants of Tyre (S Lebanon).

“Assyria (N. Iraq) also had joined with them; they have been a help to the sons of Lot (Moab and Ammon).” (Psalm 83:1-8)

ISRAEL FACES WAR WITH UP TO 5 ENEMIES

June 25. JERUSALEM — Israel is preparing for an imminent war with Iran, Syria and/or their non-state clients. Israeli military intelligence has projected that a major attack could come from any of five adversaries in the Middle East. Officials said such a strike could spark a war as early as July 2007.

Israeli military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin told the Cabinet that the Jewish state faces five adversaries in what could result in an imminent confrontation. Yadlin cited Iran, Syria, Hizb’allah, Hamas and Al-Qaida. “Each of these adversaries is capable of sparking a war in the summer.”

Officials said Iran has direct influence over Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas. He said even Al-Qaida has increasingly come under Iranian influence and was being used by Iran and Syria in such countries as Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon.

Military intelligence has assessed that Hamas has already acquired more than 50 missiles with a range of 22 kilometers. Officials said this would allow Palestinian missile strikes on any part of Ashkelon, the largest city in southeastern Israel and which contains strategic sites.

Hamas has also deployed at least 20 SA-7 anti-aircraft systems, officials said. They said the missiles threaten Israeli combat helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft that conduct missions over the Gaza Strip. – Source: World Tribune

SYRIA MAKING WAR PREPARATIONS The Israeli inner security cabinet held a special session in early June to discuss the possibility of war in the coming months with Syria. This came as a Syrian parliament member confirmed in an Al Jazeera interview that his government is currently making active war preparations, and as several military analysts predicted that a conflict could break out as early as August.

Syria’s puppet militia force in Lebanon is also said to be feverishly preparing for another round of conflict with Israel. Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, a former military chief of staff and defence minister, said in early June that Hizb’allah now has around 20,000 rockets in its growing arsenal, most of them secretly smuggled in from Syria over the past year in violation of last summer’s UN ceasefire accord.

More ominously, he claimed that some of the missiles are of a longer range than the group possessed last year, saying they could now potentially strike all of Israel, including the southern port city of Eilat.

The Labour party’s new party leader, former prime minister Ehud Barak, has replaced Amir Peretz as Defence Minister in the Kadima coalition.

In a presidential vote, veteran statesman Shimon Peres became Israel’s ninth president. Almost one third of the Knesset members did not agree to a unanimous election of Peres. Some said they feared the aged firebrand politician would use his new platform to further his left-wing agenda, including a Golan Heights pullout and the uprooting of most Jews currently living in Judea and Samaria.

RUSSIAN FIGHTER PLANES SALE TO SYRIA

June 19. Israel is concerned about reported Russian deliveries of advanced MiG-31 fighter planes to Syria as part of an armaments drive, according to the Hebrew daily, Yediot Aharonot.

The MiG-31, considered one of the best fighters in the world, can carry guided missiles with a range of more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) and is capable of striking 24 different targets simultaneously.

Yuval Steinitz, an MP from Israel’s right-wing opposition Likud party, was quoted as telling the daily, “If Syria acquires the MiG-31 we can no longer rule out the idea that this country is preparing for war.” Steinitz was a former chairman of Israel’s defence and foreign affairs parliamentary committee.

AHMADINEJAD WARNS “MODERATE” ARABS

26 June 07. Egypt and Jordan have been informed that the Iranian president disapproves of their “moderate” stance towards Israel and holds them accountable for “helping the Zionist regime oppress the Palestinian people.” They are guilty of “betrayal,” he said.

Both Egypt and Jordan have signed peace agreements with the Jewish state.

Ahmadinejad has ambitions to dominate the Middle East by rushing to fill the void left when a “defeated” United States pulls its soldiers out of Iraq.

Middle East observers expect that, with 45% of Middle East oil then under Iran’s control, and with nuclear weapons within reach, Tehran will seek to coerce Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan into once again adopting rejectionist policies towards Israel.

IRAN MAY GO NUCLEAR

IN 6 MONTHS

“Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors! Let all the men of war draw near; Let them come up to attack!” (Joel 3:9)

July 10. According to the Israel Defence Force, Iran will be able to begin producing nuclear weapons within six months.

The IDF Military Intelligence (MI) assessment was reported to the Knesset and included a concrete assessment determining that Iran could cross the technological threshold required to produce nuclear weapons in the next 6-12 months and possess an operational warhead by the middle of 2009.

The assessment is at odds with US estimates that put the date between 2010 and 2013. Both agree, however, that military strikes on Iran could set back their technology for years.

IDF MI also is of the opinion that sanctions against Iran have not weakened the regime, because huge oil reserves still provide all the money necessary to neutralize any pressure created by the international community.

The assessment also revealed that Israel’s withdrawals – from Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005 – have added precedents and solidified belief throughout the Middle East that armed struggle can achieve the destruction of Israel within this generation.

NATO TO ISRAEL: “GO IT ALONE” NATO says Israel must ‘go it alone’ reports Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman (He is head of the Yisrael Beiteinu party which is a part of the Kadima-led coalition).

Avigdor Lieberman whose government portfolio was created specifically to deal with the Iranian threat, met with NATO’s Assistant Secretary-General Alexandro Minoto Rizo and the European Union’s representative Franco Partini. Lieberman reported that NATO’s senior officials said Israel should not assume that the international community will stop Iran just to help Israel.

“Israel should prevent the threat, herself, and should not expect support of other countries,” Lieberman reported as the conclusions reached at the meeting. “NATO is stuck in Afghanistan and European and American troops are wallowing in the Iraqi quagmire, which is something that is going to prevent the leaders of countries in Europe and America from deciding on the use of force to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities.”

Lieberman also said that although Europe or the US could not be relied upon to attack Iran on Israel’s behalf, they would support Israel’s actions. “If we start military operations against Iran alone, then Europe and the US will support us,” he said.

ANOTHER LIEBERMAN IN FAVOR OF IRAN STRIKE

US Senator Joseph Lieberman has been publicly calling for US strikes on Iran.

He repeated the call last week, saying the Islamic Republic “has declared war on the US” and is waging a “proxy war” against coalition forces in Iraq.

The Connecticut Senator and former Vice-Presidential candidate said intelligence reports proved Iran was behind much of the terrorism in Iraq and must be confronted directly. “Although no one desires a conflict with Iran, the fact is that the Iranian government by its actions has declared war on us.” - Arutz Sheva / 11 July 07

GATHERING WAR CLOUDS According to a Debkafile report (July 9), the US administration has not made final decisions on …

1. Whether to launch a military operation to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities and cripple its strategic-economic infrastructure.

2. How to respond if Iran decides on a pre-emptive attack on US Middle East interests by fomenting local assaults against Israel by Syria, Hizb’allah and Hamas and a civil war in Lebanon.

Will President Bush seek to avert these flare-ups of violence? Or will he use them as the starting shot for his military strike against Iran?

IRANIAN MISSILES COULD THREATEN ISRAEL FROM SYRIA

Iran is planning to deploy, in Syria, missiles that can hit Israel, as a deterrent against a Western anti-nuclear strike upon Iran. It could happen soon, the British newspaper Telegraph reports.

An agreement to this effect was signed two years ago between Iranian President Ahmadinejad and Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. The rockets in question are the Shihab-3, Scud-B, and Scud-C, which can reach any part of the State of Israel. They can be fired from mobile launchers.

Ahmadinejad announced earlier this year that if his country feels threatened regarding its nuclear program, Israel will become its first military counter-target.

The Shihab-3 is a medium-range ballistic missile with a range of over 2,000 kilometers. It has the ability to change its trajectory more than once in mid-course, protecting it significantly against Israel’s anti-ballistic missile Arrow system. The Scud missiles have a range of 300 to 600 kilometers, and are less accurate than the Shihab. – Source: Arutz Sheva / 5 July 07

Former US State Department envoy to the Middle East Dennis Ross told a conference in Jerusalem on 10 July, that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Iran “believes in the destruction of Israel and they’re developing the means to actually do it.”

And Iran has hundreds of long range missile aimed at Israel of which anyone of them could be carrying a nuclear warhead purchased from any number of the old USSR countries.

WHEN EGYPT SHIFTS ITS POSITION

Terror attacks on Israel, from Gaza or Lebanon, although painful, do not represent a strategic threat to the survival of the state. A Hamas takeover of the West Bank would no doubt bring a lot of affliction, but Israel would be forced to retaliate and inflict more severe punishment on the Palestinians.

The only thing that could threaten the survival of Israel, apart from a nuclear barrage, would be a shift in position of neighboring states. At present Israel has peace treaties with both Egypt and Jordan, and while those treaties continue, a multi-national Arab attack on Israel is considered unlikely.

Egypt is Israel’s most important neighbor which controlled Gaza until 1967 and retained considerable influence there even after the 6-day war.

The danger ahead is that this “peace partner” will be radicalized and will change its stance towards Israel.

The extremist Muslim (Salafist) Brotherhood in Egypt, which had for years been banned, now has a good number of members in the Egyptian parliament, and it has initiated a new campaign to demand “political reform.”

As President Mubarak’s health fails and he reaches the end of his time as leader in Egypt, the question is whether his successor will be able to control the situation, or whether the Muslim Brotherhood will believe the time is ripe to follow in the footsteps of the Gaza group.

As Hamas is in fact an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hosni Mubarak, like the Saudi and Jordan kings, is very concerned about Hamas and the growing Islamic radicalization emanating from both the Sunni al-Qaida, and Shia Iran.

While the Brotherhood was delighted to see its progeny’s dramatic triumph in Gaza, the Egyptian government’s response was a quick move of its diplomatic staff from Gaza to the West Bank. But there is a significant paradox in the Hamas-Egypt relations.

A Strafor Intelligence report says: “The Mubarak regime, through its intelligence chief (and prospective Mubarak successor) Omar Suleiman, has a good working relationship with Hamas, despite the government being tough on the Muslim Brotherhood.

“The strategic consequence of an Islamist Gaza is that it can act as a catalyst for change in Egypt. If an Islamist rising occurred in Egypt and a regime was installed that could energize the Egyptian public against Israel, this could indeed lead to a strategic threat to the survival of the Jewish state.”

Jeremiah’s prophecy indicates that Egypt will come up against Israel in the endtimes:

“Egypt rises like a flood, and like the rivers whose waters surge about; and he says, ‘I will go up; I will cover that land; I will destroy the city and its inhabitants.”

“For this is the day of the Sovereign Master, YHWH of Hosts; a day of vengeance, so that He may take vengeance on His foes.”

“Pack your bags ready for exile, O daughter dwelling in Egypt, for Memphis will become a desolation. It will be burned down and bereft of inhabitants.” (Jeremiah 46:8, 10, 19)

THE GOOD NEWS ! ! !

There does not seem to be much good news in the world today, but there is some good, here and there. However, you have to look for it!

Yahweh the Almighty is working in many places in great grace. Many precious souls are turning to the Almighty, and are being saved, delivered and healed.

The Bible certainly gives us good news. Here are three main promises of God:

GOOD NEWS #1

This is the great and glorious Gospel:

“Now I make known to you, brethren, the Gospel which I preached to you ... that Christ (the Messiah) died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:1, 3-4)

“For the Scripture says, whoever believes in Him (the Messiah) will not be disappointed. There is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Master is Master of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him, for whoever will call upon the Name of Y’shua the LORD will be saved.” (Romans 10:11-13)

This Good News is for everyone who will receive and believe it.

“For Yahweh, the Eternal God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten (His one-and-only, unique) Son, so that whoever believes in Him. should not perish, but have eternal (everlasting) life.” (John 3:16)

GOOD NEWS #2

This Good News is for all who have received Y’shua the Messiah as their personal Saviour. This is the glorious Rapture - the catching up of believers to meet the Master in the air.

“For the Master Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. Then the dead in Christ - those who died in union with the Messiah - shall rise first. Then we, the living believers who remain, will simultaneously be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Master in the air. And so we will be with the Master for ever.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

This event is imminent. It could happen any day now! So believer, look up!

GOOD NEWS #3

The Kingdom of God is to replace the kingdoms of this world, and the Messiah King will reign in righteousness. The whole earth will be filled with the knowledge and glory of God.

“The LORD ... for He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.” (Psalm 98:9)

“For the LORD of Hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and His glory will be before His elders.” (Isaiah 24:23)

“Then I saw thrones, and sitting on them were those to whom authority to judge was given. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Y’shua and because of the Word of God - these had not worshipped the beast or his image and had not received his mark upon their foreheads or upon their hands. They came to life and reigned with the Messiah for the thousand years.” (Revelation 20:4)

This is Good News for the remnant of people who will be saved in the Great Tribulation. It is good news for the planet Earth, for the Master will come to bring restoration. It is good news also for the Body of the Messiah (the born again believers), for they will reign with the King (from the Heavenly City) during the 1,000 year Millennial kingdom.

Blessed are all who have placed their trust in the Messiah, Y’shua!

AMEN!