Too bad that Gog can not comprehend. The burial site is even known already.

Ezek.38
[2] Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
[14] Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?

Ezek.39
[1] Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:

'Least prepared for chemical attack we've been in 20 years'


Defense Ministry, National Emergency Administration to upgrade atomic, biological, chemical protection kits; MK Steinitz warns redistribution plan lacks deadlines, endangers public

Roni Sofer Latest Update: 04.02.08, 22:43 / Israel News




"The cabinet's decision to upgrade the kits without clearly setting any deadlines is a farce that repeats all the mistakes made in the neglect of the home front during the Second Lebanon War. I can already see the committee of inquiry into the next war, and it will be far worse than Winograd," MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud) said on Wednesday.

Home Front Readiness

Barak authorizes nationwide emergency drill / Hanan Greenberg

Defense establishment, government and cabinet all to participate in exercise simulating crisis situation as part of upcoming national emergency drill to be held in April. Drill part of implementation of lessons from Second Lebanon War
Full story





The defense establishment announced earlier in the day that the atomic, biological, and chemical protection kits recently collected from the public will be upgraded and redistributed.



The decision to redistribute the kits was made by the Defense Ministry, in view of the recent ground-to-ground missile threats made evident against Israel and in an attempt to boost home front readiness against a possible chemical attack emanating form Iran or Syria.



Within a few months, said the ministry, all A.B.C kits given to the public will be collected, updated and redistributed, in a manner yet to be determined.



Steinitz, who in his capacity as chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in 2007 prepared an alarming report on the preparedness of the home front on the A.B.C. front, said it was irresponsible to take the kits out of people's homes.




The MK recommended that in light of the delays in the collection and redistribution of the kits, the defense establishment should provide citizens in danger zones (primarily in the North) with spare kits from Israel's storage.



Combat reservists should also receive kits, Steinitz said, so that they are able to report to the front lines for service already equipped with them.



"But not a single upgraded kit has been redistributed thus far," he said, "despite the billions that Israel has invested in purchasing and upgrading these kits, we are the least prepared we've been for such an attack in over 20 years."



Trying to prevent a panic
Security officials appearing before the cabinet stressed that the defense establishment has no intention of causing a public panic, but nevertheless, the government must be prepared for the possibility that missiles carrying "dirty" warheads may be fired on the exposed Israeli home front.



National Emergency Administration Chief Brigadier-General (Res) Ze'ev Tzuk-Ram told Ynet that "there is absolutely no need for panic of any kind. This was a predictable move, which got the go-ahead this morning; and following the (cabinet's) green light we will complete collecting the kits from the public, at which point they will be updated and then redistributed."



The expected cost of the project was not made public.



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The Home Front Command is expected to hold a nation-wide emergency drill next week simulating a series of emergency situations and checking readiness of security and emergency forces, local municipalities, schools, and even the cabinet itself – to respond to the developing events.



Syria is expected to follow the drill closely, as the London-based Arab newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi suggested Wednesday that Damascus perceives it to be part of Israel's preparations for a comprehensive Israeli strike on it.
............................................................benny

Exclusive: Barak calls off German trip next week as Damascus raises war alarm

April 2, 2008, 9:06 PM (GMT+02:00)

Israel’s security cabinet convened Wednesday, April 2, to examine the homeland’s preparedness for war. It decided to redistribute the bio/chemical warfare masks a few months after they were called in. DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose intelligence data indicating the possibility that Syria may transfer to Hizballah chemical or biological warheads known to have been developed for its war arsenal.

A few hours earlier, the London-based al Quds al-Arabi quoted Damascus officials as claiming that Israel is preparing a big attack on Syria and Hizballah. Syria was said to have ordered a partial call-up of its military reserves.

DEBKAfile reports that Damascus has placed its missile units on the alert after last week deploying two armored brigades on the Beirut-Damascus highway under the command of President Bashar Assad’s young brother Maher Assad, chief of the presidential guard. They were posted there to block the road in case Israeli armored columns attempted to reach Damascus through Lebanon.

Our sources also note Syria plans to release the findings of its inquiry into the death of Hizballah leader Imad Mughniyeh in February. Sources close to Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barak report he called off his trip to Germany next week because he expects Damascus to use those findings to put Hizballah on the spot where it can no longer duck exacting revenge for his death from Israel, which is held responsible for his death.

IDF sources report Iran has sent Syria state of the art equipment for surveillance and eavesdropping on Israeli military command centers and bases.

Israel’s home defense command scheduled April 6-10 a nationwide exercise to improve the home front’s readiness for emergencies. Warning sirens will be tested on April 8.

Tuesday, Barak toured Israel’s northern border and reported “a great deal of activity on the other side.” He added:”…we are learning the lessons of the last war, Israel is the strongest country in the region and I would not advise anyone on the other side to test us.”

In their briefing to the Knesset foreign affairs and security committee Tuesday morning, IDF intelligence officers confirmed intense Hizballah activity, much of it in South Lebanon by operatives in civilian disguise. The officers referred to the Lebanese Shiite terror group’s rearmament with more powerful and longer-range rockets.

On March 22, DEBKAfile first revealed that Hizballah had more than trebled its pre-war rocket arsenal.

“Some of their 40,000 rockets of Syrian and Iranian manufacture can hit Israeli targets as far south as Beersheba, 350 km. away. Not only has Tel Aviv come within range, but Hizballah and the Palestinian Hamas in Gaza can between them now cover most of Israel up to its southernmost tip at Eilat. The possibility is now under consideration that these rockets may be armed with Syrian non-conventional warheads.

Damascus has also shipped to Hizballah quantities of anti-air weapons, including shoulder-borne rockets and scores of Russian-made anti-aircraft ZSU-100 automatic 14.4 mm caliber cannon, which are most effective against low-flying aircraft, helicopters and drones

http://debka.com/headline.php?hid=5161.................benny

Russian Revival Challenges U.S. Interests
April 1, 2008

<STRATFOR>

Rumors of a soon-to-be-signed bilateral “roadmap” for cooperation and strategic relations between Washington and Moscow emerged Tuesday. While U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin have had on the face of it cordial personal relations during their tenures, there is little room for common ground on issues like Ukrainian membership in NATO or U.S. ballistic missile defense installations in former Warsaw Pact nations. However, whatever the White House might sign with the Kremlin, the U.S. is not one to trust a potential rising continental power in Eurasia.

The United States has long operated under five geopolitical imperatives. First, it needed to consolidate control over North America and secure strategic depth for the continental United States. Then it needed to control sea approaches to the North American continent and dominate the oceans. Finally, it sought to keep Eurasia divided.

Washington has enjoyed the rare freedom of struggling with its final imperative from a position of strong geographic advantage and consolidated geopolitical imperatives for more than fifty years. Even before that consolidation, U.S. grand strategy had a divided Eurasia as a core objective. A unified power that can harness the people and resources of the Eurasian land mass has the capacity to overwhelm U.S. control of the oceans, the sea approaches and ultimately the continent itself. But since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, even the spectre of such a threat has evaporated. The former Soviet Union sank into a deep and precipitous economic and military decline. Although European unity was on the rise in the 1990s, the repeated failure of Brussels and the major regional powers to act effectively in the Balkans – their own backyard – gave credence to the fact that the underlying balanced and divided structure of the European Union necessarily prevented the emergence of a coherent leadership and thus blocked any potential rise as a continental power.

The confusion of the September 11th attacks momentarily gave rise to the phantom threat of a unified Caliphate in the Middle East. But despite the sincerest hopes of al Qaeda, the geopolitical structure of that region was and is far too fragmented for even the possibility to warrant much discussion.

Nevertheless, the spectre of a dominant continental Eurasian power is firmly planted in the U.S. psyche. After nearly two decades of unprecedented unilateral hegemony, Washington for the first time has a power on its hands with at least the capability to rise to that status: Russia.

We have spent the last few weeks highlighting the potential for Cold War II. This has never been to suggest that 50,000 Soviet tanks are about to spring up along Eastern European borders or that the Berlin Wall will pop back out of the ground. But Russia may be emerging in a position to exercise significant power over the continent – in some ways with old Soviet tricks and in some ways with new tricks.

But the bottom line is that Moscow does have all the makings for a dominant continental Eurasian power:

Economically, Russia enjoys significant industrial capacity, although it is only now being brought back online in a meaningful way. The Kremlin has also felt the geopolitical heft of its resources in a world of rising global commodity and energy prices. It has the resources to sustain its own growth and the export capacity to exercise influence through foreign dependencies.
Financially, it has prudently ridden those rising prices and amassed vast currency reserves in the process. Put simply, it has the money to do things.
Politically, few countries in the world can claim the single, coherent, unified political leadership that the Kremlin enjoys.
Militarily, Russia maintains a standing military in excess of 1 million (though significant questions remain about Russia’s ability to improve qualitatively), deploys a nuclear arsenal second only to the United States and enjoys the accumulated knowledge of late Soviet technology, despite the fact that revitalization is still underway and significant challenges remain.
Geographically, although Russia suffers from long, difficult to defend borders, it has maritime access and (as a whole) stretches across the continent, giving it peripheral geographic influence from Finland to China.
Thickening the plot is the fact that Moscow also exercises one of the most practiced and skilled foreign intelligence services in the world. Between poisonings in London and Kiev to the use of oil and gas exports as a tool in foreign policy, Russia has no shortage of geopolitical levers it might cultivate.

Russia is now the first real legitimate, near-term threat to U.S. interests across Eurasia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. But the country has many challenges ahead. Moscow is now fighting along its own periphery to re-establish some semblance of strategic depth while the U.S. continues to enjoy its geographic and geopolitical strengths — and the lack of a threat to the underlying factors of those strengths. But the real potential for a rising Eurasian power has always had a tendency to weigh heavily on the architects of U.S. grand strategy. But just the same, Moscow would do well to remember how Washington treats those it perceives as challengers.
..........................................................benny

China reveals Iran's nuclear secrets to UN
By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 9:20pm BST 02/04/2008



China has betrayed one its closest allies by providing the United Nations with intelligence on Iran’s efforts to acquire nuclear technology, diplomats have revealed.

Concern over Tehran’s secretive research programme has increased in recent weeks after officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, discovered that Iran had obtained information on how to manufacture nuclear-armed weapons.


A heavy-water nuclear facility in Arak and a security guard at an Iranian nuclear enrichment facility

Beijing is believed to have decided to assist the inspectors after documents seized from Iranian officials included blueprints for “shaping” uranium metal into warheads, the testing of high explosives used to detonate radioactive material and the procurement of dual-use technology.

Much of the new material was presented to the governors of the Vienna-based IAEA in February. That meeting is said to have triggered China’s change of heart.


Ahmadinejad on National Nuclear Day
Diplomats described Beijing’s decision to provide material related to Iran to the IAEA as a potentially significant breakthrough.

Chinese designs for centrifuges that refine uranium into a ''weaponised’’ state have been found in Iran but these are thought to have come through a network controlled by the disgraced Pakistani scientist AQ Khan.

John Bolton, the former American ambassador to the United Nations, said suspicions over the leakage of technology from China to Iran had long centred on uranium enrichment technology and their bilateral ballistic missile trade.

A spokesman for the IAEA said it did not comment on intelligence it received from its members.

Beijing has long-established ties with Iran’s clerical regime and has emerged as one of the country’s biggest customers for oil and gas.

It has allied itself with Tehran’s attempts to prevent the IAEA referring Iran to the UN Security Council, which can impose sanctions.

China has not used its veto powers to block US and British sponsored sanctions but it has ensured the measures were watered down.

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The council has levied three rounds of financial sanctions on Iran in an attempt to force the country to declare all its nuclear activities.

IAEA weapons inspectors report that Iran has not provided full co-operation.

An American intelligence assessment judged it likely that Iran stopped efforts to produce a nuclear weapon in 2003 but there are strong fears it has resumed the work under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Michael Hayden, the director of the CIA, said this week that he believed that Iran is still developing a nuclear bomb.

Meanwhile, Israel has accused Iran of setting up listening stations in Syria to eavesdrop on its military communications network.

............................................................benny

JPost.com » International » Article


Apr 3, 2008 2:22
US report says Saudi Arabia, Turkey may join a nuclear arms race
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON
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Saudi Arabia would most likely develop nuclear weapons if Iran acquires them, according to a report to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which was obtained Wednesday.

High-level American diplomats in Riyadh with excellent access to Saudi decision-makers said an Iranian nuclear weapon frightens the Saudis "to their core" and would compel them to seek nuclear weapons, the report said. The American diplomats were not identified.

Turkey would also come under pressure to follow suit if Iraq builds nuclear weapons in the next decade, said the report prepared by a committee staff member after interviewing hundreds of individuals in Washington and the Middle East last July through December.


....................................................................benny

It is only fair that every nation and every province and every city has a nuclear weapon, to deter their neighbors?
I demand of the World leaders the right for every man to wear the Word of God instead, so that there is no longer need to deter your neighbors!!!

THE RIGHT TO WEAR THE WORD OF GOD!

Israel worried Syrian army moves a preamble for Hezbollah op

By Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff, Yuval Azoulay and Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondents

03/04/2008 Israel is concerned that recent actions by the Syrian armed forces are a possible preamble for a Hezbollah operation against the northern border and a broader conflagration.

The Deputy Chief of Staff, Major-General Dan Harel, warned Wednesday that Israel will respond with a heavy hand against anyone trying to target Israel.

In a further sign that tensions are mounting along the Israel-Syrian border, Defense Minister Ehud Barak has canceled a scheduled visit to Germany.

The London-published daily Al-Quds al-Arabi reported Wednesday that the Syrians have recently deployed three armored divisions because Damascus is concerned about an Israeli attack.

Sources in the defense establishment say the report in the Arabic-language paper are exaggerated, but note that Syria has taken some unusual steps recently.

One of the possible explanations for the Syrian actions is that Damascus is aware of Hezbollah's plans to carry out a revenge attack against Israel for what it claims is Jerusalem's responsibility in the assassination of terrorist mastermind Imad Mughniyah in February.

According to defense sources in Israel, the Syrians are preparing for the likelihood that Israel's response to a Hezbollah attack will be severe and may result in a regional confrontation.

Senior political sources told Haaretz that Syria and Hezbollah are in close and constant coordination. They say that Hezbollah will not carry out an offensive operation against Israel without Syria being fully updated on the group's plans.

In recent months the Syrian army has held a defensive posture on a fairly broad level. This posture has been bolstered after the Mughniyah's assassination, and are reminiscent of the preparations made by the Syrian armed forces in the summer of 2007, before the Israel Air Force attack in northeast Syria.

Israel sees the Syrians' readiness mostly in their missile units, as well as in artillery and rocket battalions. There is also a bolstering of forces along the border with Lebanon, which seems to follow growing domestic tensions there as a result of a deadlock in the process for selecting a new president.

Smaller units have also been deployed in other areas, and an effort is evident to raise the level of preparedness of reserve units.

In recent months, the Syrian army has been carrying out more training than in earlier periods, a process that coincides with a bolstering of the armed forces with the procurement of sophisticated arms, much of it paid for by Iran.

The visit by Defense Minister Barak to the northern border on Tuesday was not coincidental and was directly linked to the growing tensions.

Barak said that Israel is the most powerful country in the Middle East and warned against challenging it.

At the same time, Israel sent messages to Damascus along secret channels that it has no offensive intentions, but warned that it would not hold back if attacked, even if Hezbollah and Syria argue that the attack was a retaliation for Mughniyah's assassination.

Israeli security sources said there is no intelligence that shows Syria is planning offensive action against Israel, but it pointed out that the Syrian deployment is troubling and requires a high level of readiness by the IDF. At Northern Command, the readiness is at high level, especially to counter possible Hezbollah attacks seeking to avenge the killing of Mughniyah.

Intelligence concerned by assassination possibility

According to intelligence assessments, Hezbollah may - in coordination with Syria and Iran - try to assassinate senior Israeli public figures.

The defense establishment is particularly worried about attacks against Israeli targets in the developing world, where Hezbollah may use local terrorist infrastructure affiliated with extremist Islamic organizations.

In its report, Al-Quds al-Arabi noted that the Syrians are preparing not only for an Israeli offensive against Syria, but also in Lebanon against Hezbollah.

The newspaper reported that Syria is following IDF movements very closely as well as the statements by Israeli leaders in the media. Here they see incitement and an attempt to ready Israeli and international public opinion toward war against Syria.

The report noted that the Syrian army is carrying out extensive exercises and that it has called up some reserves for a possible confrontation.

Syria also deployed three armored divisions, special forces and nine infantry brigades near the border in an area near Lebanon's Beka'a Valley, because of concerns that Israel may attack through its flanks, the newspaper reported.

Deputy Chief of Staff Harel discussed the reports in the Arab press on the elevated state of readiness in the Syrian army during a briefing with reporters yesterday.

"I see no reason at all for unusual tension in the North and I do not think that any side is interested in a military confrontation," he said.

But Harel also struck a threatening note when he reiterated what has lately become a favorite statement among the top IDF brass and Defense Minister Barak: "Anyone who tries to harm Israel needs to keep in mind that Israel is the most powerful country in the region and its response will be hard and painful. We are constantly vigilant and ready for action."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/971398.html
.......................................................................benny

Apr 3, 2008 0:25 | Updated Apr 3, 2008 3:40
Analysis: Return of the 'miscalculation'
By YAAKOV KATZ
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On Wednesday morning, Israel awoke to a headline in the London-based daily Al-Quds al-Arabi saying Syria had concentrated troops and tanks along the Lebanese border and summoned reserve forces in preparation for a possible Israeli attack.


Syrian troops stand in formation.
Photo: AP [file] , AP
A few hours later, the security cabinet decided to distribute gas masks to the public. The ministers also approved an unprecedented emergency exercise to be held next week aimed at preparing the country for a nonconventional missile attack.

All of this happened a day after Defense Minister Ehud Barak toured the northern border and issued a threat to Syria and Hizbullah declaring that "Israel is the strongest country in the region" and he would therefore "not recommend that anyone provoke us."

Earlier Tuesday, a senior Military Intelligence officer briefed the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Hizbullah's military buildup, claiming that the guerrilla group was rearming at a rapid pace and was preparing for a renewal of violence with Israel.

This talk of war, the distribution of gas masks and the rapid sequence of events took place over a 24-hour period - not unusual for Israel, where the news moves so quickly - is naturally concerning. At the same time, however, the reports need to be put into perspective.

The decision to distribute gas masks is not a new one. Two years ago, when the Defense Ministry began collecting the public's gas masks, the plan was to collect, refurbish and redistribute them. The announcement Wednesday that the masks would be returned to the public is also premature. The ministry has yet to finish collecting or refurbishing them, and is still months away from returning the masks to the public.

On Wednesday, however, it wasn't about the news but the timing. Next Sunday, the IDF, Defense Ministry, Israel Police and civilian emergency services will hold the largest emergency exercise in Israel's history, which will include simulated conventional and nonconventional missile attacks, cabinet meetings and hospital drills, as well as the activation of emergency sirens countrywide.

While defense officials did their best this week to claim that the drill and the gas masks were not connected to any intelligence information regarding an imminent war, both moves are nevertheless connected to regional trends and particularly the race to nonconventional capabilities in Iran and Syria and the buildup of tens of thousands of long-range missiles in those countries and by Hizbullah in Lebanon.

Barak's threats on Tuesday did not come out of nowhere. They were aimed at deterring Hizbullah from attacking Israel or an Israeli target abroad in retaliation to the February assassination of Hizbullah arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus. Israel is extremely disturbed by this possibility and has made major alterations to security arrangements throughout the world.

In the event of a major attack, there is a possibility that Israel would not limit its response to Lebanon - as it did during the Second Lebanon War in 2006 - but would expand the conflict to Syria and use a Hizbullah attack to strike at the group's main supplier of anti-tank and Katyusha rockets.

Then there's Iran, which continues - in defiance of the international community - to develop nuclear arms capabilities. According to the latest intelligence assessments, Iran could have a nuclear weapon as soon as the end of the decade.

With regard to Syria and Israel, however, it is no secret that both countries are preparing for war. Since the war in Lebanon, most of the IDF's exercises have simulated war with Damascus. The Syrians have held a number of major military exercises in recent months, including those reported in Al-Quds Al-Arabi on Wednesday. They are also buying advanced weapons and military platforms, mostly with Iranian funds.

So with tension running high along the border, there is concern that a misstep, a wrong move, an accident or what the defense establishment is calling a "miscalculation" will lead to a full-fledged war, one with very severe consequences for both sides. The IDF warned about this sort of miscalculation last June, when tensions with Syria were also high.
.....................................................................benny

Informative Benny.

These things are happening and when we see Jerusalem (Israel) surrounded with armies [Luke 21:20] we can know that the successful invasion by satan's beast and followers is near. The danger I see with nuclear weapons production in the Middle East is the supplying of militant Islamic terror cells located in western nations like Britian and the USA. This possibility can afford them with implantation of these nuclear devices, if they have not done so already, that can be detonated from within the cell locations. Interception of incoming delivery devices like missles will not be the response and any calculated retaliatory responses will not be possible. I do not believe that nuclear weapons will be used in the Middle East proper because many events of the tribulation period must take place there and this would not be possible if the area were to be exposed to nuclear destruction and resultant contamination. We have a very dangerous threat here with regard to nuclear weapons production by the enemies of Israel and the west that will be almost impossible to stop.

You can say that again!

Two easters ago l saw an egg come in...

War Is Talk Of Syria And Israel
By BENNY AVNI
Staff Reporter of the Sun
April 3, 2008

Reports that Syria has stepped up its military presence near Israel's northern border have sparked increasing speculation on both sides that war may be imminent. Although some Israeli politicians are advocating negotiations with President al-Assad of Syria, the Israeli army deputy chief of staff said yesterday that retaliation against any nation that launches a war against Israel, the "strongest country in the region," would be "painful."

Syria has called up its reserve units and deployed them near the Israeli border after bellicose remarks by Israeli officials spurred concerns in Damascus, a Londonbased Arabic-language newspaper reported yesterday. Al-Quds al-Arabi did not specify which Israeli comments raised the alarm. The newspaper reported that Syria deployed its units to the Bekaa Valley, an area it said Israel would be most likely to attack.

On the face of it, Syria may have enough of a pretext to launch a military offensive this spring. although Israeli officials have never provided confirmation, a number of press outlets have reported that Israel bombed a nascent Syrian nuclear facility in September. and next weekend Syria reportedly will release an official report on the assassination in Damascus of Hezbollah's operational commander, Imad Mughniyeh, which is likely to hold Israel responsible. However, yesterday's al-Quds report said Hezbollah, which is funded by Iran and Syria, would not retaliate over the killing of Mugniyeh, to avoid giving Israel a pretext for war. Syria and its chief ally, Iran, are not angling for a war, either, according to analysts. and with Israelis preparing for their country's 60th-anniversary celebrations in May, the public and the government are largely averse to war, as well.

Syria's war maneuvers may have been sparked by a push by some Israeli pundits and politicians to renew diplomatic negotiations with the assad government, some analysts say.

"War would be bad for the Syrians and bad for the Iranians," a former Israeli Foreign Ministry official, Jonathan Dahoah Halevi, said. an unsuccessful military campaign could lead to a revolt by Syrian army generals, and Syria's Sunni majority could go on to topple Mr. assad's alawi sect, which means that Iran would lose its most reliable arab ally, Mr. Dahoah Halevi said. Syria may be dangling the war option merely "to show Israelis what would be the painful alternative to peace talks," he said.

The report in al-Quds "is totally false," a member of the Syrian parliament's National Security Committee, retired Colonel ahmad Munir Muhammad was quoted as saying by the Jerusalem Post. "Syria is not concentrating forces and is not summoning its reserves," he said.

Mr. assad's "message is clear: We are for a just and comprehensive peace and for the implementation of the United Nations resolutions." But Colonel Muhammad added that there are signs that Israel and america are preparing for war against Syria to "divert attention" from Iraq and from Israel's internal problems.

"I don't see any reason for unusual tension in the north, and I don't think that either side, be it this one or that, is interested in a military conflict," the deputy chief of staff of the Israel Defense Force, Major General Dan Harel, told reporters in Jerusalem yesterday. Still, he added, "anyone who tries to harm Israel must remember that it is the strongest country in the region, and retaliation will be powerful and painful."

"I haven't read al-Quds al-arabi in the last two days, so I have no idea what you are talking about," Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai joked in an interview with Israel radio. Nevertheless, he said Israel would begin distributing protective gear against chemical and biological attacks to its citizens "as soon as possible," rather that in early 2009, as originally planned.

according to several recent press reports, Syria and Iran have transferred chemical- and biological-tipped warheads to Hezbollah, which some claim possesses more missiles now than it did before the 2006 Lebanon war. The organization is "growing more powerful," Israel's defense minister, ehud Barak, told reporters Tuesday during a visit to northern Israel, adding he would not "recommend" for anyone to "test us."

http://www2.nysun.com/article/74123
...................................................................benny

Nationwide prayer services in Israel

By Stan Goodenough
April 02, 2008
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2405


As rumors of war and danger circulated throughout Israel Wednesday, Jews in 40 cities and towns countrywide planned to hold simultaneous prayer and repentance services in the afternoon on April 3.

According to Israel National News, "the military threats that have energized concerned Jews throughout the country to organize the prayer services include long-range non-conventional Iranian and Syrian missiles, Hizb’allah's thousands of missiles not far from Israel's northern border, and the continuing weapons flow from Iran and Syria into Lebanon.
"Historically and traditionally," INN continued, pointing to the lives of Jacob, Moses, Mordechai and Esther, "whenever the Jewish people have been threatened, they have responded with an outpouring of prayer and repentance."

At six-o-clock Thursday evening Israel time, prayer services will take place in Jerusalem, Ofakim, Nof Ayalon, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Tel Tzion, Be'er Sheva, Beit Shemesh, Bnei Brak, Bat Yam, Afula, Petach Tikvah, Givatayim, Nesher, Tel Aviv and some 20 other cities and locations on both sides of the Green Line.


.......................................................................benny

Israel hosts NATO naval drill

Published: 04/01/2008


Israel is hosting a NATO naval exercise.

http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/107829.html


Six NATO frigates commanded by a Turkish admiral arrived Monday in Haifa for a joint drill with Israeli Navy missile boats.

"During the visit, a demonstration of naval capabilities took place, as well as an exchange of information on a range of topics," the Israeli military said in a statement.

Israel has been shoring up ties recently with NATO as part of preparations for any future showdown with Iran.

For the first time, Israel this year posted a naval liaison at NATO headquarters in Napoli, Italy.

............................................................benny

Israel laying foundation for Iran war

Wednesday, April 02, 2008 IranMania.com
LINK


LONDON, April 2 (IranMania) - Israel has reportedly unveiled plans to prepare for missile strikes it believes will be launched by states like Iran and Syria, PressTV reported.

During the five-day preparation operation, Israel will reportedly simulate conventional and non-conventional missile strikes to test emergency response against Iran and Syria as well as the evacuation of cities.

The operation is slated to begin on April 6, according to the WorldTribune.com.

Although the operation seems to be an innocent attempt to improve defense capabilities, pundits are beginning to question whether the exercise may be aimed at laying the foundation for a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

Analysts claim this news echoes the latest developments and points to a war on Iran as it follows a recent report that a US nuclear submarine had been deployed to the Persian Gulf.

Another reason that has caused speculation that the Islamic Republic will come under attack is the sudden resignation of US Admiral William "Fox" Fallon.

Admiral Fallon played one of the most decisive roles in US foreign policy by overseeing military operations in the Middle East. He was well-known for his opposition to the Bush administration rattling sabers with Iran.

Another development that has worried analysts is that Saudi Arabia reportedly started taking measures to prepare for nuclear fallout a day after US Vice President Dick Cheney met with Saudi officials during his Mideast tour.

As the details of Cheney's recent discussions with his Arab allies remain unclear, question have been raised regarding the timing of such drastic measures.

According to popular government-guided Saudi newspaper Okaz, Saudi Arabia will start the implementation of 'national plans to deal with any sudden nuclear and radioactive hazards that may affect the Kingdom following expert warnings of possible attacks on Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactors'.

This is while Iran maintains that as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, it is entitled to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

Tehran has warned on numerous occassions that any attack launched against it shall be met with a 'crushing response'.



.................................................................benny

U.S. Diplomats Forecast Nuclear Arms Race in Middle East if Iran Gets the Bomb
Wednesday, April 02, 2008



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WASHINGTON —

Saudi Arabia most likely would develop nuclear weapons if Iran acquires them, according to a report to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

High-level American diplomats in Riyadh with excellent access to Saudi decision-makers said an Iranian nuclear weapon frightens the Saudis "to their core" and would compel the Saudis to seek nuclear weapons, the report said. The American diplomats were not identified.

Turkey also would come under pressure to follow suit if Iran builds nuclear weapons in the next decade, said the report prepared by a committee staff member after interviewing hundreds of individuals in Washington and the Middle East last July through December.

While Turkey and Iran do not see themselves as adversaries, Turkey believes a power balance between them is the primary reason for a peaceful relationship, the report said.

Egypt most likely would choose not to respond by pursuing its own nuclear weapons program, said the report prepared in late February and obtained Wednesday. The impact on relations with Israel and the United States were cited as the primary reasons.

A U.S. intelligence estimate late last year said Iran worked on nuclear weapons programs until 2003 before abandoning them. However, the intelligence analysts also reported Iran was continuing to enrich uranium, a key weapons component, and possessed the capacity to produce nuclear weapons if it decided to do so.

Sen. Richard G. Lugar, R-Ind., the senior Republican on the committee, directed staff member Bradley Bowman to conduct the study.

Among its conclusions, the report said demands for nuclear energy and for matching Iran's nuclear progress virtually guarantees that three or four Middle Eastern countries will generate nuclear power by 2025.

And this, in turn, will reduce the obstacles to acquiring nuclear weapons, the report said.

The spread of nuclear weapons in the Middle East could reduce regional security and endanger U.S. interests, the report said.

In the next two or three years, the United States must take steps to restore Arab and Turkish confidence in U.S. security guarantees, the report concluded.

Otherwise, it said, "the future Middle East landscape may include a number of nuclear-armed or nuclear weapons-capable states vying for influence in a notoriously unstable region."

.......................................................benny

Thursday, 03 April 2008
Israel in the Crosshairs
By Alan Caruba
“Israel's security cabinet convened Wednesday, April 2, to examine the homeland's preparedness for war. It decided to redistribute the bio/chemical warfare masks a few months after they were called in. DEBKAfile's military sources disclose intelligence data indicating the possibility that Syria may transfer to Hezbollah chemical or biological warheads known to have been developed for its war arsenal.”

When you have spent every day of your sixty years of sovereignty having to deal with either full-scale wars against your existence, persistent terrorist attacks on your citizens, or the constant rain of rockets and mortars from Gaza, preparing for war becomes second nature.
Hezbollah and Hamas are Iran’s proxy militias, created, funded, and equipped by a nation led by ayatollahs that daily chant “Death to America! Death to Israel!” Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmedinijad, hasn’t even smooth-talked its plans to “wipe Israel off the face of the map.”

A cursory perusal of Israel’s leading newspapers and Internet news sites does not reveal that it is about to move to a full war-footing, but that might just be part of the effort to deceive the militias poised in Lebanon and Gaza, as well as the military forces being massed in Syria. The Syrians are still smarting from a recent Israeli attack on structures said to contain possible nuclear or other WMDs.

If I was to guess when an attack would come, I would put a red circle around April 20 because that is the first day of Passover. The contempt and hatred felt for Israel’s Jews promoted the now famous and failed attack on Yom Kippur in 1973. It reflects the widely held hatred by many Middle Eastern Muslims for all “Crusaders (Christians) and Zionists.”

Israel is on the front line, an affront to the Islamic hubris that lays claim to Jerusalem, a city holy to Christians and Jews. A city built by Jews as the capital of Israel more than 2,000 years before Islam existed. Christians sought to reclaim it from Muslims during the Crusades.

The Zionist movement, begun in 1897, was a response to widespread anti-Semitism in Europe and Russia. It encouraged Jews to return to their ancient holy land, the area that became a British protectorate under the post-WWI Treaty of Versailles. Following WWII, the original settlers were waiting for the survivors of the Nazi Holocaust.

Then as now, the Arab response was war. An attack on Israel is a declaration of war on the West. If the West does not rally to the defense of Israel it will signal the jihadists that we are ripe for conquest.

Anti-Semitism is rampant throughout Great Britain these days despite the terrorist attacks it suffered. The BBC is supine in its surrender to Islam. In Europe, the responses to Muslim protests have ranged from timid to moments of moral outrage. America’s focus is the occupation of Iraq and the backwater conflict in Afghanistan.

The Islamic Revolution’s threat is growing. Israel cannot ignore it. The United States for whom 9/11 is a receding memory does so at the peril of its existence. Half-hearted or measured military responses have not worked.

The Koran is a battle plan.


http://www.borderfirereport.net/alan...rosshairs.html
.....................................................................benny

Isaiah 17, An Oracle Concerning Damascus
Ikvot ha'Mashiach

A Bible Study by Jack Kelley

Recently I was asked to update my commentary on Isaiah 17, which I thought was still pretty fresh. When I looked, I realized that the current events portion of the study was over a year old. This update is long overdue. (Is it just me or is time going faster now?)

What's New?
In the past year it has become even clearer that Isaiah's prophecy against Damascus may soon come to fulfillment. Syria, emboldened by the outcome of the Hezbollah Israel conflict, has become ever more bellicose in it's behavior toward Israel.

Aggressive acts have included moving large military forces onto the Golan, opening the crossing that gives Syrians access to Israel for the first time since 1973, forming and training a Hezbollah like terrorist force to infiltrate Northern Israel, and demanding that the Golan be returned at once or else this force would begin committing terrorist acts inside Israel.

They've mobilized reserves, set up alternate communication centers, and moved all official historical and legal documents out of Damascus. They did this because they believe that Israel will respond to a chemical attack by destroying Damascus with nuclear weaponry. They've recalled all their citizens living in Lebanon. They've purchased Russian arms and defensive systems costing hundreds of millions of dollars in an effort to protect Damascus.

It's been known for some time that Syria has one of the world's most advanced chemical weapons programs, even though such things are illegal, and probably inherited the bulk of Saddam Hussein's WMDs that the MSM (main stream media) delights in telling you never existed.

In July, a chemical warhead exploded at a Syrian missile facility while being fitted to a Scud missile, killing dozens of Iranian and Syrian technicians. Syria at first said it was an ammo dump that exploded due to high desert temperatures, but the real story was recently uncovered by Jane's Defense Weekly. The only likely target within range of the missile is Tel Aviv.

Going Nuclear
On Sept. 6 the Israeli bombing of another Syrian facility deep inside the country made headlines and demonstrated Israel's ability to render the Russian state-of-the-art anti-air defenses ineffective. These systems were sold to both Syria and Iran to protect against US or Israeli attacks by air. The Russians still can't figure out how Israel did it, but the presence of nuclear materials at the Syrian base has been confirmed. It might have been the location of at least a dirty bomb assembly plant and perhaps even a clandestine nuclear weapons facility.

Rumor has it that the North Koreans have been heavily involved in this, and are currently helping Syria to perfect an air burst capability that would dramatically increase casualties by causing a warhead to detonate in the atmosphere above its target city.

The New York Times has revealed that on Oct. 6 Turkish officials presented Damascus with an “Israeli dossier” on a Syrian nuclear program, which Israel relayed to Washington before its Sept. 6 air strike. Israel's purpose in relaying the dossier to Ankara was to demonstrate that Syrian nuclear activity could be a problem for neighboring Turkey as well as US regional interests and Israel. Syrian President Assad promised that he would retaliate at a time and in a manner of Syria's choosing.

According to DEBKAfile, this past Thursday night (Oct. 11, 2007) Syria placed its civil defense services on a state of preparedness and mobilized their reservists. Government and military hospitals across Syria have also been alerted. All these measures and the accompanying rhetoric strongly indicate the Syrian regime is convinced that either an American or Israeli assault, or attacks by both against Syria and Iran are due shortly.

“I cannot play games of anticipation,” said the Syrian ruler. “I must be ready for any US or Israeli operation against Iran or Syria.”

And finally, Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have picked Damascus as the coordinating center for the covert military and intelligence activities of the anti-US governments in the Middle East and Latin America.

The US, who would likely have to give prior approval to any Israeli move against Damascus, has good reason to say yes, what with Syria's meddling in Lebanon and Iraq. President Bush has informed Israeli PM Olmert that he's opening secret channels with the Syrian government to try and resolve these issues through negotiations, but assured him that no discussion about the Golan would take place. If these talks fail to get Syria out of Lebanese and Iraqi affairs, the US would have strong motives to give the green light when it comes time for Israel to act.

While all this is more than Katie Couric has been willing to share with you, it is a matter of public record. My guess is that there's a lot more going on that we don't know, making matters appear even more urgent. So let's take another look at Isaiah 17, An Oracle Against Damascus, while it's still prophecy.

An oracle concerning Damascus:
"See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins. The cities of Aroer will be deserted and left to flocks, which will lie down, with no one to make them afraid. (Isaiah 17:1-2)

Because of the language of these verses, many scholars believe that this prophecy was only partially fulfilled when the Assyrians defeated the Arameans and overran their capital, Damascus, in 732 BC. To this day Damascus is thought to be the world's oldest continuously inhabited city with a 5000-year history and a population close to 2 million, yet Isaiah 17:1 indicates that it will one day cease to exist.

Some believe the phrase "cities of Aroer" refers to Aramean territory east of the Jordan River around the Arnon River, which flows into the Dead Sea in southern Jordan. However, the Jewish Encyclopedia claims that this phrase in Isaiah 17:2 is probably translated incorrectly, because of its geographical distance from Damascus. While they say it's possible that there may have been another Aroer near Damascus, it is more likely that the passage should be rendered "the cities thereof shall be forsaken." If that's the correct translation, it would include the Hezbollah stronghold in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, which was part of Aramean territory in Isaiah's time, and is in a direct line between Beirut and Damascus.

The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, and royal power from Damascus; the remnant of Aram will be like the glory of the Israelites," declares the LORD Almighty. "In that day the glory of Jacob will fade; the fat of his body will waste away. It will be as when a reaper gathers the standing grain and harvests the grain with his arm- as when a man gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim. (Isaiah 17:3-5)
This segment speaks of the fall of Samaria 10 years later in 722 BC, and the systematic relocation of everyone showing any leadership tendencies to the far reaches of the Assyrian Empire. This was standard Assyrian policy to reduce the likelihood of subsequent rebellion among their conquered peoples. Jacob and Ephraim are alternate names for the Northern Kingdom, and Samaria was its capital. Judah was the name given to the Southern Kingdom, later changed to Judea in the Greek and Roman eras.

Yet some gleanings will remain, as when an olive tree is beaten, leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches, four or five on the fruitful boughs," declares the LORD, the God of Israel. (Isaiah 17:6)

Not all the people were dispersed. A remnant remained in the land, casting further doubt on the "lost 10 tribes" hypothesis. It was this remnant that came to be known as the Samaritans in the time of Jesus. (A quick reading of 2 Chronicles 11:16 shows that all 12 tribes were represented in the Southern Kingdom of Judah at the time of the civil war that divided the nation. There are no lost tribes. The Lord has always preserved a remnant of all the Tribes of Israel.)

In that day men will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel. They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands, and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles and the incense altars their fingers have made. In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation. (Isaiah 17:7-9)

This is another passage that's problematic for those who try to consign the whole prophecy to history. There is simply no reason to believe that the Assyrians turned to God following their conquest of Aram and Israel. And far from abandoning their cities because of the Israelites, it was the Israelites who were defeated and dispersed. The yet future Jewish attack on Damascus causing the destruction and abandonment of Syrian cities, and the eventual return of the survivors to their God is a much more likely fulfillment. And it could happen soon.

You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress. Therefore, though you set out the finest plants and plant imported vines, though on the day you set them out, you make them grow, and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud, yet the harvest will be as nothing in the day of disease and incurable pain. (Isaiah 17:10-11)

Asshur, father of the Assyrians, and Aram, father of the Arameans were both sons of Shem. Aram's son Uz is the traditional founder of Damascus. The knowledge of God in the memories of these patriarchs cannot be questioned. It wasn't that they never knew Him, but that they had forgotten Him, abandoned Him in favor of the Canaanite gods of the region, Baal and his consort Ashtoreth (aka Asherah, Astarte, Ishtar, Aphrodite, Venus.) Currently Syria is almost totally Moslem. Until they return to their Maker and Savior none of their plans and schemes will prosper in the long run.

But return to Him they will. In Isaiah 19 we're told that in the Kingdom Age there'll be a highway extending from Egypt to Assyria, and both will stand with Israel to receive the Lord's blessing. (Isaiah 19:23-25)

Oh, the raging of many nations- they rage like the raging sea! Oh, the uproar of the peoples- they roar like the roaring of great waters! Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters, when he rebukes them they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweed before a gale. In the evening, sudden terror! Before the morning, they are gone! This is the portion of those who loot us, the lot of those who plunder us. (Isaiah 17:12-14)

Having conquered both the Arameans and the Northern Kingdom, the Assyrians set their sights on the Southern Kingdom, Judah. Assyria's King Sennacherib brought his armies almost literally to the gates of Jerusalem, so close his commanders were within speaking distance of the Jewish defenders. On the night before they were to attack, the Lord sent His angel into the Assyrian camp on Mt. Scopus to slaughter 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. Before dawn they had packed up and fled, ending 44 years of conquest. (Isaiah 37:36-38) This time in Israel's history so parallels the Jewish view of the End Times that Sennacherib is seen by them as a type of the anti-christ, while Judah's King Hezekiah models the Messiah.

But notice that Isaiah speaks of many nations raging against God's people, not just Assyria, leading us once again to consider Sennacherib's defeat as a partial fulfillment.

Today many nations are stirred up against Israel. The Middle East Peace Conference scheduled for November could see Israel standing alone against all but irresistible pressure to negotiate away its very existence. Syria and Iran are dead certain that either Israel or the US or both will attack soon, and are acting accordingly. We can easily envision a scenario that includes the final fulfillment of Isaiah 17, the destruction of Damascus.

The phrase "rushing of many waters" is often used to describe a loud voice. Such a thing would certainly cause an incredible uproar among the nations, and many loud voices.

If you listen carefully, you can almost hear the footsteps of the Messiah.
..........................................................................benny

Bipartisan US House resolution 185 would declare Jewish, Palestinian 1948 refugees equal
April 3, 2008, 8:52 AM (GMT+02:00)

It was introduced Tuesday by Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Joseph Crowley (D-NY) and Mike Ferguson (R-NJ).

From 1948, 850,000 Jews were attacked, dispossessed and expelled from 10 Arab lands, where some Jewish communities had existed for 2,500 years. The number of Jewish refugees exceeds Arab refugees from Israel by more than 100,000 (United Nations Conciliation Commission, October 23, 1950).

All prior UN resolutions referred only to Arab refugees. The new nonbinding resolution affirms for the first time that the U.S. government must now recognize that all victims of the Arab-Israeli conflict must be treated equally. It further urges that, as a member of the Middle East Quartet, the President and U.S. officials ensure that any reference to Palestinian refugees must henceforth "also include a similarly explicit reference to the issue of Jewish refugees from Arab countries."

..............................................................benny

http://www.acwitness.org/psalm83english.html ..............benny

A senior Syrian journalist reports Iraq WMD located in three Syrian sites
06 January, 2004

AFP

Nizar Nayuf (Nayyouf-Nayyuf), a Syrian journalist who recently defected from Syria to Western Europe and is known for bravely challenging the Syrian regime, said in a letter Monday, January 5, to Dutch newspaper “De Telegraaf,” that he knows the three sites where Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) are kept. The storage places are:



click for images of Iraq's WMD location in Syria

-1- Tunnels dug under the town of al-Baida near the city of Hama in northern Syria. These tunnels are an integral part of an underground factory, built by the North Koreans, for producing Syrian Scud missiles. Iraqi chemical weapons and long-range missiles are stored in these tunnels.

-2- The village of Tal Snan, north of the town of Salamija, where there is a big Syrian air force camp. Vital parts of Iraq's WMD are stored there.

-3-. The city of Sjinsjar on the Syrian border with the Lebanon, south of Homs city.

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Nayouf writes that the transfer of Iraqi WMD to Syria was organized by the commanders of Saddam Hussein's Special Republican Guard, including General Shalish, with the help of Assif Shoakat , Bashar Assad's cousin. Shoakat is the CEO of Bhaha, an import/export company owned by the Assad family.

In February 2003, a month before America's invasion in Iraq, very few are aware about the efforts to bring the Weapons of Mass Destruction from Iraq to Syria, and the personal involvement of Bashar Assad and his family in the operation.
Nayouf, who has won prizes for journalistic integrity, says he wrote his letter because he has terminal cancer.

Click here for Satellite Images of the Syrian-Iraq's WMD Locations

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First Message from the Syrian source to Nizar Nayouf

First messages from a Syrian Source, WMD Location
"Dear Nizar.

We received confirmations that the Iraqi weapons, which were moved to Syria by the help of General Zoul-Himla Chalich are now hidden in three places inside Syria:

First place: a tunnel dug in the mountain close to the Al-Baïdah village, which is roughly two kilometers from Misyaf village. This place is under the 489 Safety cipher Documents' office control .

Second place: the factory of the Air Armed Forces in the village of Tal Sinan, between the town of Hama and Salamiyyah. This factory is under the Air Force control.

Third place: the location of Shinsar, 40 kilometers south of Homs, two kilometers east of the Homs - Damascus road. There are underground tunnels there, controlled by Brigade 661 of the armed air Forces. It is a Brigade of air Patrol. The tunnels are several tens of meters deep.

The weapons were transported in large wooden cases and barrels, under the supervision of the General Zoul-Himla Chalich and the son of his brother Assef, who works at Al-Bachaer company.

The company is owned by the Assad family and has offices in Beirut, Damascus and Baghdad.

This company also undertook the illegal Iraqi oil importation in Syria, and supplied weapons to Saddam. I will try to send you all the new information as i get .

Take care and be safe."


Second Message to Nizar Nayuf

Second messages from a Syrian Source, WMD Location
"Dear Nizar.

I have sent you another chart of the positions which tells where the weapons which were sent from Iraq into Syria, are hidden. Because the preceding chart that I sent you earlier is not clear.

Until now, the authorities in Syria did not worry of what was being published by the Dutch television news about this subject.

New information: The weapons were evacuated by the means of ambulances. Mohammed Mansoura also took part in the operation.

There are other serious, detailed pieces of information concerning the money of Saddam being moved into Syria and into Lebanon and those who took part in moving it - Syrians and Lebanese.Also there are more details about the assassination of the General Moustapha Tajer which took place last summer.

Take care of yourself.

Damascus, January 7, 2004."

Prophetic Signs of the Second Coming
(Chapter 15 from Armageddon - Appointment With Destiny)
by Grant Jeffrey
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, andwith the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remainshall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:16­18)

During the early centuries following the ascension of Jesus into heaven, Christians often greeted one another by saying, "Maranatha," which means "the Lord cometh." Despite constant persecution from both the pagans and the officials of the Roman government, the early Christians rejoiced in the certain knowledge that Jesus had prophesied that He would someday return to establish His Kingdom on earth. These believers knew that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day following His crucifixion - as He had foretold during His ministry. Jesus Christ was seen by many people during the forty days following His resurrection. Thirty years after Jesus ascended to heaven in the sight of His followers, the apostle Paul wrote, "After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep" (1 Corinthians 15:6). The truth of His death and resurrection was widely known and taught by the early Church, encouraging a widespread expectation of His glorious return to destroy evil and establish His righteous government on earth forever.

The Second Coming of Jesus Christ is the greatest single theme in Scripture. While there are approximately three hundred prophecies in the Old Testament that foretold the first coming of Christ, there are more than eight times as many verses describing the Second Coming. In total, some 2400 verses throughout the Old and New Testaments reveal God's promises about the return of Jesus Christ. The enormous number of prophetic verses about the Second Coming underlines the vital importance of this event in God's plan for mankind. Consequently, we dare not ignore the prophetic signs pointing to the nearness of His return.

Significantly, the first prophecy in the Bible (Genesis 3:15), which God addressed to Satan after Adam and Eve's sin, predicted three major events in the redemptive plan of God, concluding with the Second Coming of Christ. The first event was the virgin birth of Jesus ("her seed"); the second event was Satan's apparent victory when Jesus was crucified ("thou shalt bruise his heel"); the third event will be fulfilled at the Battle of Armageddon when Jesus Christ will defeat Satan ("thy head") and his seed, the Antichrist ("it [her seed, Jesus] shall bruise thy head"). The New Testament book of Jude recalls that the righteous patriarch Enoch was raptured to heaven before the Flood. Jude revealed that Enoch prophesied about the Second Coming, when the Lord would return to earth with millions of His saints. "Enoch, also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying: 'Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all'" (Jude 14­15).

The prophet John recorded our Lord's final prophecy in the final verses of the book of Revelation: "And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be" (Revelation 22:12). Jesus Christ's final message to His Church concludes with these words: "He which testifieth these things saith, Surely, I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus" (Revelation 22:20).

Prophetic Signs of the Return of Christ
For thousands of years students of the Bible's ancient prophecies have pondered the question of whether they would live to witness the return of Christ to redeem the earth. Many Christians living in our generation naturally long for the return of Jesus Christ. Skeptics remind us that past generations of believers also longed for the Second Coming but died with the promise still unfulfilled. These skeptics naturally ask, "Why should we believe that our generation is the one that will witness the return of Christ when other generations were disappointed in their hopes?" After thirty years of careful Bible study, I am convinced that the overwhelming evidence concerning the fulfillment of these predictions in our generation points to the return of Jesus Christ in our lifetime. Jesus and the other prophets described a number of specific prophecies that would occur in the lifetime of those who would see Him return with their own eyes. Is ours the generation that will see Christ coming for His Church? The answer to this question has profound implications for our lives as Christians, our witnessing, and our life priorities.

In this chapter and the chapter following, we will examine a number of significant prophecies made more than two thousand years ago that are being fulfilled in our generation. Each individual prophecy is a unique and significant event that has not been totally fulfilled in any past generation. The unique nature of many of these predictions suggests strongly that these prophecies are unlikely to be fulfilled a second time in another future generation. Our Lord Jesus Christ warned us to watch carefully for these prophetic signs: "And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh" (Luke 21:28). Let's examine the most significant predictions that point to Christ's imminent return.

1. A Warning about the Rise of False Christs
"And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many" (Matthew 24:4­5). It is significant that Christ's first specific prophetic warning involved the rise of false messiahs and false prophets in the last days. The first false messiah arose about a hundred years after Christ. It is fascinating to note that there are no historical references to any false messiahs appearing until the years following the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. The Jewish scholar C. G. Montefiore wrote, "Of false Messiahs, we know of none among the Jews until Bar Cochba in 131 C.E." The genuine article always precedes the appearance of counterfeit ones.

Simon Bar Cochba, a Jewish rebel commander led his conquered people in a furious revolt against their brutal Roman conquerors in a.d. 132. Many of the Jews joined the rebellion in the vain hope that Bar Cochba was their genuine messiah. The great Jewish rabbinical scholar Akiba announced that Simon Bar Cochba was the true messiah. This encouraged many Jews to join his desperate revolt. Despite the tremendous initial Jewish victories over the Romans during the first few years, six Roman legions of Emperor Hadrian invaded Israel and decisively defeated the Jewish army on the ninth day of Av (August) in a.d. 135 (the very same day the Babylonians and Romans destroyed the Temple centuries before). Hadrian's legions killed over one-half million Jewish soldiers in a desperate battle several miles southwest of Jerusalem. Tragically, as a result of the war, more than three million Jews were slaughtered throughout the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, and millions of Jews were sold into abject slavery. The Roman Senate passed a law prohibiting the Jews from approaching Jerusalem, their conquered capital. The defeat of the Jews, doomed rebellion by following a false Messiah led to their exile from the Promised Land for almost eighteen hundred years.

During the following centuries, false messiahs would arise from time to time, including Moses of Crete in the fifth century. He promised the Jews of Crete that he would miraculously part the waters, allowing his followers to march across the Mediterranean Sea to the Promised Land. In the seventeenth century a Jew living in Turkey named Shabbethai Zebi claimed he was the Messiah and attracted a vast following. Many influential rabbis throughout the Middle East and Europe acclaimed him as the true messiah. Finally the Turkish Sultan arrested him for sedition. The Sultan threatened to test Zebi's supernatural claims by having his archers shoot arrows at him to see if his claimed "miraculous" powers would ward off the deadly missiles. Realizing that he was doomed, Zebi converted to Islam to save his life and died in disgrace a few years later. In our generation, hundreds of thousands of Jewish followers of the deceased Rabbi Schneerson, who died in 1991, still believe that he was the promised messiah and that he will soon rise from the dead.

The truth is that no other person in history has ever fulfilled even a fraction of the forty-eight specific biblical prophecies about the coming Messiah except Jesus of Nazareth. As outlined in a previous chapter, the historical evidence is overwhelming that Jesus is the true Messiah. He is the only one who has fulfilled every one of the specific messianic prophecies. A respected Jewish rabbi named Abarbanel wrote extensively in the fifteenth century about the qualifications of the coming Messiah. Abarbanel noted that one of the qualifications of the true Messiah would be that the Gentiles will seek after him and acknowledge his claims (Micah 4:1­4). In fulfillment of this qualification of the Messiah, hundreds of millions of Gentiles throughout history in every nation on earth have devoted their lives to following Jesus Christ's teachings and worshiping Him as their Messiah and God.

Throughout history a false messiah has appeared approximately once every century since the days of Christ. Millions of people today are longing for a messiah who will lead them to a transcendent experience. Significantly, we are experiencing an explosion of false christs in our generation, exactly as Jesus prophesied two thousand years ago. A report from Los Angeles indicated that hundreds of individuals in California currently claim they are the messiah. In England someone who calls himself Lord Maitreya periodically publicizes claims that he is the Christ. Every few years Benjamin Creme issues full-page ads that appear in major newspapers around the world announcing the advent of the messiah in the person of the Lord Maitreya. These imposter messiahs in our generation include such figures as the deceased David Koresh, Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Charles Manson, Jim Jones, Ron L. Hubbard, and many others. Recently a New Age cult called Heaven's Gate encouraged thirty-nine of its members to commit suicide following the leadership of Marshall Applewhite and his partner Bonnie Nettles, who took the names Do and Ti. He claimed to be the messiah and stated that his partner Bonnie was "God the Father." Never before has the world seen so many false messianic claims. As we approach the year 2000 we will see a virtual flood of false messianic figures and false prophets declaring that they are the only hope for mankind. The rising number of false messiahs in our generation is preparing our society for the spirit of Antichrist worship in the last days. We are witnessing the beginning of attitudes that will manifest themselves some day in the worship of the Antichrist in the Temple in Jerusalem.

2. Wars and Rumors of Wars
Jesus Christ said, "And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom . . ." (Matthew 24:6­7). Twenty-five centuries ago, the prophet Joel saw a divine vision concerning our generation and prophesied the following message: "Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up. Beat your plow shares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong" (Joel 3:9­10).

Throughout history mankind has endured thirteen years of war for every single year of peace. However, since 1945 the number of wars has increased tremendously. As dozens of new nations demanded independence and old empires disintegrated, more than three hundred wars were fought since World War II. A military study, The War Atlas, concluded that the world has not known a single day since World War II without some nation waging a war or conflict somewhere on earth. Despite thousands of peace treaties, the last one hundred years has truly become "the century of war." As a result of the obvious dangers, most nations have joined worldwide military alliances in which only the stars are neutral.

Far more sobering than the increasing frequency of war is the fact that modern scientific discoveries and massive military budgets have combined to produce devastating new weapons of mass destruction that have the potential, for the first time in history, to destroy humanity. Despite the constant affirmations about the nations' desire for peace, weapons labs and armories are producing nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, together with astronomical numbers of conventional weapons, in virtually every nation on earth. Consider some of the following facts and ask yourself where we are heading.

The standing armies of the world today contain hundreds of millions of soldiers. The major powers could mobilize hundreds of millions of troops if needed for war. According to the Reshaping International Order Report issued by the Club of Rome, almost 50 percent (some 500,000) of all scientists on earth are working on weapons research. Research indicates that almost 40 percent of all scientific research funding worldwide is focused on arms research. The international arms trade exceeds $1 trillion annually. If only a small fraction of this enormous investment was redirected "from swords into plowshares," we could permanently solve the Third World's food, sanitation, and health problems. The armament factories of Russia, China, and the Western nations are producing sophisticated weaponry at a truly awesome rate. China is the now the world's fifth largest arms supplier - after Russia, the United States, Britain, and France - selling some $2 billion annually. Many of the Chinese weapons are direct copies of Western or Russian arms, but they are much cheaper. China's arms salesmen are fuelling a massive arms race in the Middle East, with huge sales of sophisticated missiles and low-cost copies of Russian rifles, tanks, and planes. China has recently sold more tanks to Africa than have all western countries combined. A poor African nation can buy four Chinese t-59 tanks for the price of one m-1 tank from the United States. China is also selling intermediate-range missile systems to many Arab regimes that are preparing for war with Israel. Iraq, Iran, and Libya now possess long-range missiles with biological and chemical warheads capable of destroying Paris or London. For the first time since the Middle Ages, Europe faces a formidable military threat from the Muslim Arab nations who are absolutely committed to the destruction of both the Jews and Christians.

Despite years of peace negotiations between the PLO, the Arab states, and Israel, the continuing tensions in the Middle East are developing into a time bomb that could soon explode into a devastating war. This war may involve the use of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. Although these nations have been discussing peace for decades, the twenty-one Arab nations surrounding Israel have accumulated more than three times the artillery and tanks possessed by the combined European armies of NATO. Despite America's support of Israel, the United States has sold staggering amounts of sophisticated Abram's m-1 tanks, advanced anti-tank missiles, communications gear, and the most effective f-16 fighter planes in the American arsenal to the Arab states dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state. The Arab nations have no significant enemies other than Israel. Consider the implications. Over the last fifty years, NATO has built up a huge sophisticated military force to confront the massive armies of Russia, the fourteen nations of the C.I.S., and the nations of eastern Europe. However, the Arab nations confronting the tiny nation of Israel have amassed huge armies that exceed NATO's military forces by more than one-half million soldiers. There is no conceivable reason for the Arab states to devote such huge financial, technical, and manpower resources to their military forces unless they are absolutely committed to the annihilation of the Jews of Israel.

The Jewish state is confronted with a combined Arab military force far larger than the combined armies of North America and Europe, the countries that make up the forces of the NATO alliance. In light of the repeated Arab threats to destroy Israel, Israel cannot safely agree to surrender the military control of the West Bank. If the 80,000-man Palestinian army of the PLO controlled the high mountainous region of the West Bank of Israel in a future war, the combined Arab armies could easily attack across the remaining narrow band of land along the Mediterranean Sea connecting northern and southern Israel. At certain points this vital and strategic strip of coastal land connecting northern and southern Israel is only nine miles wide between the West Bank and the Mediterranean Sea. Israel's military control of the strategic depth of the West Bank is essential, according to all military studies, to absorb and withstand the assault of combined Arab tank and infantry forces. Numerous military studies by the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff have concluded that if Israel ever surrenders military control of the West Bank, the Arab armies would be able to cut Israel in two within a few hours using their overwhelming Arab armored tank forces. If Israel negotiates the surrender of the military control of the West Bank to Arafat and the PLO and allows the creation of a Palestinian state, Israel will not likely survive the coming war with the combined Arab armies. UN Security Resolution 242, the resolution that governs the continuing peace negotiations, guaranteed that Israel would retain "recognized and secure borders." Without the military control of the West Bank, Israel cannot win the next war. In addition, without the control of the West Bank and the Golan Heights in the north, Israel would be forced to use its nuclear weapons almost immediately following a powerful Arab attack.

Five of the ten major arms-importing nations in the world are in the Middle East. Even the poorest of the Third World countries borrow hundreds of millions of dollars annually to buy huge supplies of modern, sophisticated weapons. As soon as the western nations design a new version of a weapon, their arms salesmen sell the obsolete version of that weapon system to a Third World country. As a result of this cycle of arms build-up, there is now one military weapon and the equivalent of four thousand pounds of explosives for every man, woman, and child worldwide.

Consider the destructive power possessed by the thirty Trident submarines that represent only one-third of the present American nuclear arsenal. At a cost of $3 billion dollars apiece, each submarine can fire twenty-four missiles with up to fourteen individually targeted D5 warheads per missile. These advanced super-accurate missiles can deliver their lethal thermonuclear warheads from a submerged ocean location over ten thousand miles away to detonate within one hundred yards of their target. Each Trident D5 nuclear warhead is five times more powerful than the atomic bomb that devastated Hiroshima. Every one of these thirty submarines has the capability to destroy 408 separate enemy cities or military bases. As a result of modern weapons technology, we have progressed to the point that one single Trident submarine can deliver more devastation than all of the combined weapons used by both sides in five years of warfare during World War II. According to the Center for Defense Information, we know that the U.S. military has experienced ninety-six serious nuclear accidents, each one bringing us one step closer to nuclear Armageddon. The tragic history of thousands of years of warfare suggests that these nuclear weapons will ultimately be used someday in a future conflict.

For thousands of years mankind has engaged in deadly warfare. However, throughout the last fifty centuries, most battles involved only a few thousand participants. Nations previously lacked the means of totally destroying the enemy country. However, our century has perfected the art of mass warfare by which all nations unite to annihilate the opponent and obtain unconditional surrender. Global military spending now exceeds $1 trillion every year according to the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. A trillion dollars is so large a number that it is hard to comprehend the true magnitude of the dollars mankind now invests in preparation for war. To put it in perspective, the cost of a single Exocet air-to-ship missile exceeds the combined annual income of more than ten thousand people in many Third World countries. Massive military spending has distorted our priorities. For example, western countries are spending less than one-half of 1 percent of their annual military budgets on foreign aid.

Over 200 million people have died as a result of warfare since 1900. Since 1945, ten nations, including Israel, have accumulated more than sixty thousand nuclear warheads in their growing arsenals. According to the book The Fate of the Earth, by Jonathan Schell, the Russians possess enough nuclear warheads to destroy every single American military target several times over. After that, they would still have eight thousand nuclear missiles left over. If the Russians then targeted every U.S. city and town, in order of decreasing population size, they would still have enough one-megaton nuclear warheads (eighty times the power of the Hiroshima bomb) to destroy every single town in America with a population of fifteen hundred people or more. It should be obvious from these calculations that in a future world war the Russians, the Chinese, and the American military would run out of meaningful military and civilian targets long before they ran out of nuclear warheads. Jesus Christ prophesied that the Antichrist's armies, represented by the red horseman of the Apocalypse, will ride forth to destroy many nations during the Great Tribulation (Revelation 6:3­4). Surely, even now, we can hear the approaching hoof beats.

Jesus also warned, "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened" (Matthew 24: 21­22). When you consider the enormous problems facing mankind - disease, famine, ecological disasters, and tens of millions of homeless people - you recognize the terrible moral vacuum at the core of our modern civilization, which chooses to spend trillions of dollars on the tools of annihilation rather than begin to solve the massive problems facing humanity.

The words of President Eisenhower, as reported in the New York Times on April 17, 1953, still challenge us today:

A life of perpetual fear and tension; a burden of arms draining the wealth and the labor of all peoples; a wasting of strength that defies the American system or the Soviet system or any system to achieve the true abundance and happiness for the people of this earth. Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8000 people . . . This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity, hanging from a cross of iron.

The people of the world cry out for peace, but no rational nation can dare to unilaterally disarm before it's enemy does the same.

Jesus Christ described the final conflict facing mankind in these words: "Upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; . . . men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken" (Luke 21: 25­26). Since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia and America have engaged in a complex series of disarmament treaties, producing a wave of euphoria among millions of people worldwide who hope that true peace is at hand. According to the historical research of author Sidney Lens, since 1945 more than six thousand disarmament negotiating sessions have taken place. Despite these disarmament treaties, very few nuclear bombs were actually destroyed. Unfortunately, most treaties allowed the older nuclear warheads to be simply recycled into new, more accurate missiles.

The biblical prophecies predict clearly that the world will experience a devastating world war involving all nations in the last days. The second red horseman of the Apocalypse represents the terrible world war during the final years of the seven-year Tribulation period. "And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went our another horse that was red; and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another; and there was given unto him a great sword" (Revelation 6: 3­4). The prophets Daniel and John predicted that the nations of the world would ultimately surrender their sovereignty to the Antichrist in the hope that he would provide security and true peace. Many politicians today believe that the only way to prevent such a devastating world war is for every nation to surrender its sovereignty to a future world government. However, the Scriptures warn that the earth will never know true peace until the Prince of Peace comes. Although men are desperately seeking peace, the Antichrist will only be able to produce a short period of false peace. The prophet John revealed that the first Horseman of the Apocalypse would be a rider on a white horse with a bow but no arrows. This symbol represents the Antichrist impersonating the true Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, who will appear riding on a white horse during His triumphant return to earth (Revelation 19). John prophesied: "I looked, and behold, a white horse. And he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer." The Antichrist will use men's deep longing for peace "to conquer" the world's nations and force them to join his world government.

U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen warned, in his speech to a University of Georgia forum on terrorism, that the Internet is now providing a medium for terrorists to widely distribute instructions for building bombs as well as racist propaganda. He called for increased vigilance against terrorist use of unconventional chemical and biological weapons (including the deadly Ebola River Virus) that are now available to these terrorist groups. In addition, he warned ominously about the dangers presented by new electromagnetic weapons that might be used by terrorists or rogue Islamic nations to "punch holes in the ozone layer or trigger earthquakes or volcanoes" (Toronto Star, April 29, 1997).

Despite the fact that the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention unconditionally prohibited the developing, producing, and stockpiling of biological and chemical weapons, many Third World nations are now acquiring deadly chemical and biological weapons (CBW). Most of the world's nations, including Russia and the United States, have ratified this arms agreement. However, many nations are secretly developing deadly biological and chemical weapons that will devastate unprotected populations in a future conflict. Some future dictator may be tempted to use these deadly CBW weapons because of their low cost and their ability to be used secretly against an enemy. These chemical and biological weapons are a tempting alternative for a Third World nation, compared to the enormous cost of developing a huge conventional army or producing a sophisticated nuclear capability. Some researchers have described biological and chemical weapons as the "poor man's nuclear bomb."

Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and Iran are rapidly developing advanced chemical weapons programs. Libya recently built two huge chemical and biological weapons plants located deep within the mountains at the edge of the southern Libyan desert. Over sixty German and Swiss companies have provided extensive chemical engineering services and the sophisticated laboratory equipment required to modify Libya's Russian-built SCUD missiles to carry chemical warheads. Many of these same European companies built Iraq's chemical-weapons facilities before and after the Gulf War and are still willing to sell their technological soul to the highest bidder. During the closing days of the Gulf War, the Prime Minister of Israel took the visiting German foreign minister to the ruins of an Israeli apartment building in Tel Aviv that had been destroyed by one of the thirty-nine Iraqi SCUD missiles that were targeted at the Jewish state. The prime minister showed him the German company's serial numbers on the modified SCUDs that Saddam Hussein launched against Israel. President Hussein of Iraq threatened to "burn half of Israel" with his advanced chemical weapons supplied by European countries. Despite his defeat in the war in the Gulf, and the continued UN sanctions, Saddam Hussein has now totally rebuilt his army. Over ten thousand Russian nuclear scientists and technicians continue to develop Iraq's secret nuclear arsenal, despite the presence of U.N. arms inspectors.

Chemical weapons were rarely employed in past wars, partly because of the universal repugnance against their use. Unfortunately, chemical weapons have proven to be both effective and deadly. In World War I chemical weapons killed almost one hundred thousand soldiers in Europe. In the Vietnam War, America unleashed hundreds of tons of chemical weapons, including herbicides such as Agent Orange, on Viet Cong areas in an attempt to defoliate the jungle cover. President Saddam Hussein repeatedly used massive amounts of chemical weapons against Iranian soldiers in the eight-year Iran-Iraq War. In the late 1980s, Saddam launched chemical attacks against his Kurdish minority, killing at least 13,000 villagers in Iraq's northern provinces. When American soldiers occupied southern Iraq at the end of the Gulf War, they discovered over one hundred thousand Iraqi chemical artillery shells ready for use. Tragically, thousands of American troops were exposed to these chemical weapons when U.S. soldiers blew up Iraqi chemical weapons following the allied victory. Many reports from Afghanistan and Cambodia confirm that chemical and biological weapons were used under Russian control. Despite the 1925 Geneva Protocol against chemical and biological warfare, many countries have stockpiled huge quantities of these doomsday weapons in case they are needed in a future conflict. Every western country has developed a stockpile of these deadly munitions.

A recent report from Jane's Land Based Air Defence 1997­1998 revealed that Russia's military laboratories have developed a dangerous new variant of the deadly anthrax toxin that is impervious to antibiotics. Historically, anthrax has been a fatal disease affecting primarily sheep. However, if anthrax infects humans, they will die an agonizing death characterized by festering boils and severe pain. In addition, the report claims that Russian defectors admitted that three new nerve gases were recently developed that can be made easily from commonly available chemicals. The authoritative Jane's report declared: "It only needs this, or the new chemical nerve agents, to be independently discovered by an ostracized nation's scientists and then developed for missile delivery for an Armageddon situation to occur whereby the only reliable retribution may well be overwhelming nuclear response" (Toronto Star, April 4, 1997). All of these nations justify their chemical-weapons research based on the clause in the 1925 Geneva Protocol agreement that allows a country to conduct limited research for "defensive" purposes. However, it is obviously impossible


.......................................................................benny

My My, we have a new member .............http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...2/wiran102.xml

hina reveals Iran's nuclear secrets to UN
By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:51am BST 04/04/2008


China has betrayed one its closest allies by providing the United Nations with intelligence on Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear technology, diplomats have revealed.
Outcry as Chinese activist Hu Jia jailed

Concern over Tehran's secretive research programme has increased in recent weeks after officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear watchdog, discovered that Iran had obtained information on how to manufacture nuclear-armed weapons.

Beijing is believed to have decided to assist the inspectors after documents seized from Iranian officials included blueprints for "shaping" uranium metal into warheads, the testing of high explosives used to detonate radioactive material and the procurement of dual-use technology.

Much of the new material was presented to the governors of the Vienna-based IAEA in February. That meeting is said to have triggered China's change of heart.
Ahmadinejad on National Nuclear Day


Diplomats described Beijing's decision to provide material related to Iran to the IAEA as a potentially significant breakthrough.

Chinese designs for centrifuges that refine uranium into a "weaponised" state have been found in Iran but these are thought to have come through a network controlled by the disgraced Pakistani scientist AQ Khan.

John Bolton, the former American ambassador to the United Nations, said suspicions over the leakage of technology from China to Iran had long centred on uranium enrichment technology and their bilateral ballistic missile trade.

A spokesman for the IAEA said it did not comment on intelligence it received from its members.

Beijing has long-established ties with Iran's clerical regime and has emerged as one of the country's biggest customers for oil and gas.

It has allied itself with Tehran's attempts to prevent the IAEA referring Iran to the UN Security Council, which can impose sanctions.

China has not used its veto powers to block US and British sponsored sanctions but it has ensured the measures were watered down.
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The council has levied three rounds of financial sanctions on Iran in an attempt to force the country to declare all its nuclear activities.

IAEA weapons inspectors report that Iran has not provided full co-operation.

An American intelligence assessment judged it likely that Iran stopped efforts to produce a nuclear weapon in 2003 but there are strong fears it has resumed the work under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Michael Hayden, the director of the CIA, said this week that he believed that Iran is still developing a nuclear bomb.

Meanwhile, Israel has accused Iran of setting up listening stations in Syria to eavesdrop on its military communications network.


***
no wonder Bush sounded so confident about Iran.
................................................................benny

Everyone's can have their own opinion. Good for your "free thinking". Mr. "Godisn'treal".

Maybe you can explain that to Him when you are bowind down before him along with EVERY person who ever lived on this earth.

For your case it would be better that you should be "worm food" once you die but unfortunately we all have a spirit that will one day be judged for everything we've done.

The only thing that can clean us sinners is the blood of Jesus, and you are correct that Jesus did die appox. 2000 years ago. But you forgot to mention that He rose again, overcame death for all of us, and is preparing a place for us and will come again. and perhaps soon. So let's get our heart in order.

Praying for you, dude.

Oh my............

Benny...A couple of really good articles you've scouted out here. I think l can even be safe in e-mailing a couple to my two liberal sisters to encourage their enlightenment on the facts of the day that's about to grow much darker.

www.ddolan.com


THURSDAY APRIL 3, 10:00 PM

SHALOM FROM JERUSALEM,

Widespread media reports of possible imminent war with Syria—probably initiated by an attack upon the Jewish state by Syria’s puppet Hizbullah militia force in Lebanon, supported by Palestinian Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip, and possibly by Iran itself—have spread like wildfire this week here in Israel. Military analysts say this indicates something is indeed occurring on the ground to raise the war alert, as confirmed by army sources. The cancellation today of a scheduled visit to Europe next week by Israel’s Defense Minister has only added to the war jitters.

On Wednesday, Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Harel warned that Israel will respond “with a heavy hand” against anyone trying to target the country. Israel TV newscasts this evening are all featuring reports and analysis of the tense situation along the northern borders with Syria and Lebanon. Analysts are saying that while neither side probably wants war, the current tense situation could easily spiral out of control, given the heightened military alerts on both sides.

This all comes as Israel makes final preparations for the largest civilian home front war exercises ever conducted in the country, due to begin on Sunday and last through next Thursday. The cabinet is scheduled to meet Sunday morning in a special session meant to simulate an actual war emergency, followed by war drills in many hospitals, army bases, emergency response services, municipalities, police stations, etc. An actual war siren will be sounded on Tuesday morning at 10 AM all over the country. People everywhere will be instructed by the media in the coming days to respond then as if an enemy attack was in progress, to test their preparations for the same.

Jerusalem Post military reporter Yaakov Katz confirmed on Israel state television tonight that IDF forces are on the highest possible level of alert in the north, in response to intelligence information that the Iranian-backed Syrian regime—supplemented by major army reserve call-ups reported in various Arab media outlets in London and elsewhere in recent days—have recently moved two armored brigades into the Lebanese Beeka Valley, where Hizbullah has its main military bases.

Katz said that while neither Israel or Syria probably wants a full war right now, the Syrians are wary that Israel will attack them if Hizbullah launches the promised “revenge” response to the killing of arch terrorist Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus on February 12, which the radical Lebanese group and its Iranian paymasters blame on Israel, despite denials of responsibility from Jerusalem. Katz added that Syria may be preparing for war because it knows that Hizbullah has a major operation pending against Israel, probably supported, if not ordered, by Iran—whose extremist Shiite leaders have vowed to avenge the car bomb attack on Mughniyeh, who was closely associated with them.

Speculation that a major conflict might be brewing grew substantially after the Israeli security cabinet held a special meeting on Wednesday—usually only convened in times of heightened military tensions or activity—mainly to discuss the situation in the north. The cabinet then announced that authorities will begin distributing anti-gas mask and biological weapons kits to the general public in the coming days—adding to the growing sense of crisis. Still, officials pointed out the distribution process would take some time, and therefore did not indicate that Israeli leaders thought major conflict was necessarily imminent. This assertion was repeated today by President Shimon Peres, who said that mounting talk of imminent conflict was exaggerated.

Nevertheless, various Israeli media outlets reported today that officials suspect that Syria may have transferred chemical weapons to Hizbullah forces, including deadly Sarin nerve gas. This comes after Iranian Armed Forces Chief Hassan Firouzabadi hinted in February that short range nuclear warheads might have been sent to the rogue Lebanese militia force, which is partially commanded by Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Meanwhile a Syrian parliament member was quoted in the Arabic media today as confirming that his country is currently monitoring Israeli military communications with the help of advanced Iranian equipment and listening outposts set up in Syria.

Today’s announcement that Defense Minister Ehud Barak had cancelled a scheduled visit to Germany next week because of the heightened war tensions with Syria has definitely caught the attention of the Israeli public. All of the new war talk comes as the country’s hotels are fuller than they have been since just before the Palestinian Al Aksa terrorist war was launched in September 2000, with record numbers, especially American Jews, scheduled to come here next month to celebrate Israel’s 60th anniversary.

I continue to do weekly radio news reports on Israel and the region for several media outlets, including a Saturday update heard over the Prophecy Today radio network (http://prophecytoday.com/html/ptrn.php) and a Monday report broadcast on the American Moody Radio network (www.mbn.org) . I recently appeared on two “Front Page Jerusalem” panel discussion programs with Jerusalem Post columnist Calev Ben David, heard over the US Salem Network, and I also continue to record weekly feature reports on Israel that are broadcast during Janet Parshall’s national radio program.

Last week, I filmed some TV reports in the besieged Israeli town of Sderot and the Gaza Strip border area for the Inspiration TV network, scheduled to be broadcast in May. I also received a final copy of a television special that I host on camera about the biblical Ark of the Covenant, which should be broadcast in the coming months—details to follow. I am currently completing a feature article on Israel’s 60 years as a modern state for the Jerusalem Post’s Christian Edition, which will also be printed in other publications connected to the International Christian Embassy. The Post article is scheduled to appear in May. I sincerely hope it will not be trumped by yet another war before it is printed, but of course I realize, given the present news, that this could well be the case. I was supposed to be in the United States on a speaking tour at present, but cancelled that some months ago mainly due to personal family reasons. Now I am wondering if I was simply meant to be here for whatever action might take place over the next two months—but obviously only time will tell. One thing IS certain: We who live here do appreciate your prayers very much in these traumatic days.
__________________
.............................................................benny

Apr 4, 2008 10:39 | Updated Apr 4, 2008 20:01
Assad: We'll use any means in Lebanon
By JPOST.COM STAFF
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Syria won't hesitate to use any means at its disposal to deal with the ongoing political crisis in Lebanon, even at the price of renewed fighting between Israel and Hizbullah, Syrian President Bashar Assad has reportedly said.


A Syrian soldier. [illustrative]
Photo: AP [file]
Army Radio credited the report to "high-ranking Arab sources," who quoted Assad as speaking in a closed meeting during the recent Arab summit in Damascus

Earlier Friday, the London-based daily Al-Hayat quoted Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem as saying that Syria was willing to renew peace negotiations with Israel, but only "if Israel shows seriousness."

The paper also said that Israel and Syria had exchanged reassuring messages amid reports of rising tensions along the northern border.

RELATED
Israel assures Syria it doesn't seek war

Moallem, who was meeting with ambassadors from the European Union, added, however, that "We must be on alert for any Israeli attack."

According to a report in the Sudanese News Agency Moallem said that Western pressure on his country would intensify and assessed that the United States might try to foment new crises and perhaps even a new war in the region. He also said that negotiations between Israel and Syria "must not come instead of the Palestinians."

As the IDF maintains its high level of alert along the northern border, defense officials revealed on Thursday that in recent weeks - due to the escalation in tensions with Damascus - the air force has increased the number of times it has had to scramble jets to the border, fearing an infiltration by a Syrian aircraft.

At the same time, however, intelligence officials attributed Syrian military movements near the border more to nervousness than a likelihood of conflict. And defense officials said Israel had passed a message to the Syrian military via UN forces in Syria that Israel has no offensive intentions. Nonetheless, the message said, it would respond forcefully if attacked.

Defense officials said Thursday that Israel would maintain a high level of alert along the border due to an increase in tensions marked Wednesday by a report in the London-based daily Al-Quds al-Arabi, which said Syria had concentrated troops and tanks along the Lebanese border and summoned reserve forces in preparation for a possible Israeli attack.

Vice Premier Haim Ramon said on Thursday that "Israel has no intention of attacking Syria." Speaking to Israel Radio, Ramon said that "the anxiety of the last few days is surprising and has no basis."

"While the government is always looking to negotiate with Syria," Ramon said, "unfortunately, Syria is stuck deep in the evil axis of connections with Hizbullah."

Earlier, during a visit to a high school in Arad, President Shimon Peres also declared that "We have no intention of attacking Syria - Israel is not looking to go to war, and I hear that Syria says the same."

Yaakov Katz contributed to this report
.............................................................benny

Prelude to Destruction?
by Michael G. Mickey
(4-4-08)

Isaiah 17:1: The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

Damascus, Syria. It's the longest continuously-inhabited city on earth according to many sources - an interesting tidbit of information in light of Bible prophecy and current events.

The Middle East Times is reporting the following, in part:


The London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi on Wednesday quoted Syrian officials as saying Damascus was bracing for an