ISRAELI-ARAB PLOTTED TO KILL IDF CHIEF!
by David Lev

An Israeli-Arab from Tira, Rawi Sultani, was indicted Monday for conspiring to kill senior Israeli officials, among them IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi. Sultani, 23, was arrested by Israel Security Service investigators and the international crimes unit of the Israel Police, and he admitted under questioning that he had planned to kill the Chief of Staff after he began working as an agent of Hizbullah. Sultani was indicted on a number of charges, including contact with foreign agents, conspiracy, and aiding and abetting enemies of the state.

According to the indictment, Sultani attended a “summer camp” in Morocco, sponsored by the Israeli-Arab political party Balad. At the camp, Sultani was befriended by a senior Hizbullah terrorist, Salaman Harab, who successfully recruited him to become a member of the terror group. Sultani told Harab that he had information on how Hizbullah would be able to “get” one of Israel’s top defense figures – Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, who worked out at the same gym in Kfar Sava that he did. Ashkenazi worked out according to a set schedule, and Sultani said he knew when the Chief of Staff would be at his gym, making it easy to set up an attack against him, he told Harab.

After returning home to Tira, Sultani was summoned in December 2008 to a meeting in Poland, where he met with Sami, Salama Harab’s brother and also a top Hizbullah terrorist. Sami Harab asked Sultani for information he had gathered on IDF troops movements and bases, and then asked him for details on Ashkenazi’s gym schedule.

He also requested information on the Chief of Staff’s gym membership, hours, guest attendance and security officials who might be at the gym with Ashkenazi – information that Sultani willingly handed over, the indictment says. Sultani was given a computer encryption program that would allow him to communicate with his Hizbullah handlers.

Upon his return to Israel from the Poland trip, Sultani kept in touch with both Harab brothers and other Hizbullah terrorists – by e-mail, Facebook and by phone. Israeli security officials got wind of the plot and were able to trace it to Sultani and his Hizbullah friends. Sultani was under investigation for months.

As a result of the information gathered in the Sultani case, police have been questioning other Israeli-Arab participants in the Balad Party camp in order to determine whether they also were recruited by Hizbullah for terror attacks. According to Israeli security officials, Hizbullah has been tirelessly attempting to recruit Israeli-Arabs in order to undertake attacks to avenge the death in Syria of Hizbullah mastermind terrorist Imad Mughniyeh. Israel has denied involvement in that attack.

MK Ben-Ari: Declare Balad Illegal

In a letter to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz Monday, MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) demanded that he declare the Balad party illegal. “Those who kept quiet during the spy activities of Bishara, and refused to declare Balad illegal then, are now witness to the development of a movement that has gone completely out of control and works from within the Knesset to destroy Israel,” the letter stated.

Sultani is being defended by his father, Fuad Sultani, who said that his son is either making the story up or is being framed. “The indictment has been blown up out of proportion for political purposes. My son was just bragging that he knows the Chief of Staff, but of course he does not know him. The defense will be examining this indictment closely,” he said.

Security officials said that it was no accident that Sultani was recruited by Hizbullah at a Balad-sponsored camp: Former Balad chairman ex-MK Azmi Bishara fled the country after the Second Lebanon War in light of allegations that he sold information to Hizbullah about IDF troop movements and the location of sensitive installations during the war. The elder Sultani also represented Bishara during several legal proceedings surrounding the former MK’s resignation from the Knesset.

US EASES DEMANDS, BUT ISRAELIS STILL DON’T TRUST OBAMA!
(Israel Today News)

The Obama Administration was seen on this past week to be slightly easing demands that Israel halt all settlement activity as a precondition for renewed peace talks, but a new poll showed that most Israelis still don’t trust the new American president.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said that Washington’s positions regarding the building of Jewish homes in areas claimed by the Palestinians (but clearly owned by Jews) had not changed, but that the Obama Administration was ready to be more flexible and certainly wasn’t going to impose conditions.

Crowley added, however, that while the US was ready to be more flexible, it would be up to the Arabs to decide if they were willing to restart peace talks even while new Jewish homes are being built. For anyone familiar with the conflict, that is a non-starter that the Obama Administration is certainly not in the dark about.

But even with Obama trying to distance himself from the hardline demands on Israel and the right for Jews to live where they choose, a poll conducted this week on behalf of The Jerusalem Post revealed that a mere four percent of Israelis believe the American leader is looking out for their interests.

Fifty-one percent of respondents said they view Obama’s policies as overtly pro-Palestinian, and 35 percent said the US president is managing to maintain a neutral position.

Unfortunately, Israeli Police had to deal with volatile Muslim prayers in Jerusalem

An Israeli police officer was wounded and five Palestinian Arabs were arrested as some 90,000 Muslims poured into Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday to hold the first major annual Ramadan prayers atop the Muslim-occupied Temple Mount.

Israel actually loosened restrictions on the event this year, despite eruptions of anti-Jewish violence in years past. This year, Palestinians from both eastern Jerusalem and Palestinian-controlled areas over the age of 50 were able to enter the Temple Mount freely. Additionally, Palestinian Arabs who were not residents of Jerusalem were allowed to enter if they obtained a special permit.

Police were able to quell or head off several instances of violence, leading to the five arrests. One of the detained men was taken into custody after police officers found a large knife in his possession.

The only instance of open violence occurred when an Arab resident of the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Isawiya attacked an Israeli police officer who tried to search him before allowing him entry to the Old City. The officer was lightly wounded in the altercation.

YEMEN IS BURNING; US, SAUDIS, EGYPT HELP ARMY FIGHT IRAN-BACKED REBELS!
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis

In two weeks of warfare, the Yemen conflict has left more than 2,000 dead and up to 150,000 people homeless. Yet the Yemeni army has failed to break through to the Iranian-armed and trained rebel strongholds in the northern mountains of Saada province, even as the Saudi air force pounds rebel positions.

This is the second war in less than a year in which US allies are pitted against Iran-backed forces. The first was Israel’s three-week campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which ended last January.

This strategically-located Red Sea country, for years a critical stage for the war on Islamist extremists, has now become a key arena where the United States and Iran jockey for regional primacy. Its outcome will bear heavily on the relative strategic positions in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea regions of the US – as well as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and indirectly Israel too – vis-?yis Iran.
Without a breakthrough by the Yemeni army, the conflict threatens to spread and escalate into the biggest and most dangerous war to strike any part of Arabia in the last 18 years, ever since Saddam Hussein ordered the Iraqi army to invade Kuwait in 1991.

NETANYAHU IN GERMANY: WE MUST STOP EVIL IN DUE TIME!
by Avraham Zuroff

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu received on Thursday in Germany 29 sketches of the Auschwitz death camp and declared, “We cannot allow evil to cause massive death. We must stop evil in due time.”

In a clear reference to Iran, he added, “There is a connection between despotism and terrorism, between freedom and peace. … Military barbarism knows no limits. We must prevent the spread of these armies on time so that humanity can be saved.”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stated several times that the State of Israel should be“ wiped out” and is advancing Iran’s nuclear program, which Israel and much of the Western world fears will enable the Islamic Republic to build a nuclear warhead to be aimed at Israel.

Ahmadinejad also is a leader in the movement to deny that the Nazi regime butchered six million Jews.

In a ceremony at the newsroom of the Berlin newspaper Bild, where the Prime Minister received the blueprints to be turned over to the Yad VaShem memorial museum, he added, “World leaders must act in time to avoid the fate of the Holocaust victims. We cannot allow those who are looking to cause mass death and threaten the Jewish State.”

The Bild newspaper was among those who purchased the blueprints and published their existence after an unidentified person found them last year in a Berlin apartment. Yad VaShem chairman Avner Shalev and director of its archives, Chaim Gertner, were present at ceremony where the Bild publisher handed the documents to the prime minister. The blueprints will be displayed at Yad VaShem in January 2010, marking 65 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. “As original plans detailing the construction of Auschwitz, where some one million Jews were murdered, these documents have great historical significance,” Shalev remarked. “They constitute concrete illustrations of the Germans’ systematic effort to carry out the ‘Final Solution’”, Shalev added, stating that the documents would be made available to researchers for years to come. The documents will be added to Yad VaShem’s archives, which currently holds over 125 million pages of Holocaust records.

The architectural plans, drawn on a 1:100 scale, show the addition of a gas chamber and crematorium, and a plan for a building to contain the corpses of the murdered Jews.

More than a million Jews and others deemed “sub-humans” by the Nazi regime were murdered at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps during the Holocaust.

Netanyahu is expected later in the day to visit the villa on the Wannsee Lake outside of Berlin, where Nazis adopted in January 1942 the “Final Solution to the Jewish Problem,” Germany’s plans for the extermination of Jews throughout the world.

The prime minister is culminating his visit with European leaders on Thursday, where he discussed Israel’s position on construction within Judea and Samaria and its delicate security situation, which he said could not be compromised in a final peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority.

NETANYAHU: Jerusalem is ours – get used to it!

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said as he departed for Europe on Monday that Israel will never accept limitations on its sovereignty in Jerusalem. His remarks were seen as a direct response to pressure from US President Barack Obama for Israel to stop building homes for Jews in those parts of Jerusalem claimed by the Palestinians.

Sources close to Netanyahu told The Jerusalem Post that is the message he will deliver to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US Middle East envoy George Mitchell after touching down in London. From there, Netanyahu will travel to Berlin to convince German Chancellor Angela Merkel of Israel’s steadfastness when it comes to the holy city.

Netanyahu is expected, however, to soften that news by offering to halt construction in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria for a period of one year to determine if Israel truly has any peace partners on the Palestinian side.

The prime minister said he expects his peace gestures and the international community’s reaction to them will persuade Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to resume peace talks by October.

Netanyahu will also press his European hosts for greater economic sanctions against Iran over it’s defiant nuclear program. Netanyahu said that if Europe and the rest of the international community would sufficiently tighten the screws on Iran, then there would be no need for talk of a last-ditch military option.

OBAMA LEVERAGES IRAN TO EXTRACT ISRAELI CONCESSSIONS

US President Barack Obama has more or less officially offered Israel firm pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear program if Israel agrees to stop building homes for Jews in areas claimed by the Palestinian Arabs.

That according to a report in London’s Guardian newspaper that cited Israeli, US, Palestinian and European officials.

According to the proposal outlined in the article, Obama would put heavy diplomatic pressure on Iran and possibly even impose new sanctions if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu halted most current construction projects and refused to approve any new ones in Judea, Samaria and the eastern half of Jerusalem.

Commentators noted that Obama appears to not see Iran’s nuclear program as a threat to US security, and so feels free to use it as a bargaining chip to obtain concessions from Israel.

Last week a source in Netanyahu’s office pointed out that the Pime Mnister has already refused to approve any new building projects in the disputed areas since taking office in March. However, halting current building projects could result in a political and judicial storm at home.

Prior to meeting with US Middle East envoy George Mitchell in London on Wednesday, Netanyahu said Israel and the US were very close to smoothing out their differences regarding the natural growth of Jewish towns. The Pime Mnister said the conclusion that issue and a resumption of official peace talks with the Palestinians should take place by the end of next month.

Meanwhile, a poll conducted by the Maagar Mohot survey Istitute on Sunday showed that a 52 percent majority of Israelis oppose any kind of building freeze in already established Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, and especially in Jerusalem.

Nearly 75 percent of respondents said that if Israel gives in now on this issue, Obama will pressure Netanyahu to maintain the building freeze indefinitely, even if the Arabs fail to respond with the hoped-for political gestures.

The word “Zion” is used over 150 times in the Bible and refers to the the Land of Israel, the city of Jerusalem, the children of Israel, the mountain of the LORD, the message of salvation which the Messiah of Israel will bring, the return of the Jewish people to their God-given Land, and even refers to the eternal home of all believers (Hebrews 12:22-23). Though some have called “Zionism” – “racism” – that is totally false! The word “Zion” is a great word, and even the LORD GOD of Israel is a “Zionist” – the One Who roars as a Lion out of Zion, which is clearly identified as the city of Jerusalem where God has put His Name forever! Zion is the name given to God’s people whom He has engraved on the palms of His hands (Isaiah 49:13-16).

Zechariah 9:9 is a wonderful prophecy referring to the coming of the Messiah into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, lowly, humble, but having salvation! Zion is referring to the hope of eternal life and we must never forget that the Redeemer comes out of Zion, bringing salvation and His reward!

True believers have no question about identifying themselves as “Zionists” – may God open our eyes to the truth of the Bible!

David will be speaking today at Calvary Chapel of Pearl Harbor, located at 94-1044 Waipio Uka Street in Waipio, Hawaii – on the beautiful island of Oahu. After two morning services (9:00 and 11:00 AM) where David will be speaking on “WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF ISRAEL?” and then tonight at 6:00 PM on “THE REAL TRUTH ABOUT CHRISTIAN ZIONISM!”

Our current US administration along with the United Nations have declared Christian Zionism to be “racist” and a serious hindrance to the so-called “peace process” between Israel and her hostile enemies – but, is that the real truth? For all of you on the Island of Oahu – don’t miss tonight’s message!

Shalom, and to our Hawaii friends – SHALOAH!

No doubt about it – it is easier to trust the Lord when everything is going well with you and your circumstances. But, when things start falling apart – well, that’s a different story!

We need to start with the fact that things in our lives do change – and often it is NOT for the better (from a human perspective!). However, as believers, we still have the wonderful promise of Romans 8:28 – “all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.” We don’t know the future at all! But He does! And He is working out His wonderful plan – exactly the way the Bible predicts.

We need to remember that He will NEVER leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5) – a wonderful comfort in dark times. He is the God Who is there!

Israel is facing some very difficult times these days. It appears that the support of the United States is not as strong as it used to be. Israel is being condemned, pressured, and attacked on a daily basis! But, the eternal LORD GOD of Israel is still on His throne!

TRUST THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART!
Proverbs 3:5-6