IAF PILOTS DESTROY 3 GAZA SMUGGLER TUNNELS – RESPONSE TO MORE ATTACKS ON ISRAEL!
by Hana Levi Julian

The “tit-for-tat war of attrition” has resumed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

PA Arab terrorists are increasing the number of daily attacks against Israeli drivers on the roads of Judea and Samaria, and Gaza terrorists have returned to lobbing one or two Kassam rockets at southern Israel at least several times a week — with the IAF retaliating by destroying a few smuggler tunnels in retaliation for each attack.

The latest attack came late Tuesday night when the Israel Air Force bombed three smuggler tunnels in southern Gaza, destroying all intended targets. All IDF personnel returned safely to base.

The air strike came as part of the government’s stated policy of immediate retaliation for any terror attack originating from Gaza.

One mortar was fired and two rockets were launched by Gaza terrorists at southern Israeli communities earlier Tuesday evening.

One Kassam rocket exploded in an open field belonging to Kibbutz Zikkim, in an area south of Ashkelon. The other rocket landed in the Eshkol region. A mortar shell was fired toward Ashkelon as well.

No one was injured in either attack, and there were no reports of property damage.

Also Tuesday night, Palestinian Authority Arabs hurled rocks at an Israeli bus traveling on the Gush Etzion road near the Judean city of Hevron. No one was injured in the attack.

In addition, Arab terrorists attacked Israeli civilians driving near the Gush Etzion tunnels on the same road. The firebombs hurled by the attackers missed the car, and the intended victims escaped injury, but the vehicle was slightly damaged by the explosions.

Binyamin Regional Council Director Avi Ro’eh told reporters Tuesday that a shooting attack that had taken place earlier in the day was the fourth such incident in the region in recent months.

“This attack is the direct result of the removal of security roadblocks,” he charged, “a move that has resulted so far, miraculously, only with injuries to Israelies. But we cannot base our defense policies on miracles,” he warned.

Unknown gunmen had ambushed an Israeli who was driving on the internal road that connects the Jewish communities of Shilo and Givat Shilo, in the Binyamin region north of Jerusalem. The driver sustained moderate gunshot wounds in the attack and was taken to the hospital, fully conscious.

MUSLIMS ATTACK YOM KIPPUR WORSHIPPERS ON TEMPLE MOUNT!
(Israel Today News)

Hundreds of Arab Muslims violently attacked a small group of Jews who ascended Jerusalem’s Temple Mount to mark Yom Kippur, the biblical Day of Atonement, atop Judaism’s holiest site.

The Jewish group was accompanied by a large police escort, which fired stun grenades at the riotous Muslims while helping the Jews flee to safety. Police subsequently bowed to Muslim demands and banned all non-Muslim visitors from the site for the remainder of the day.

But the concession by Israeli authorities did little to appease the Muslims, and violence quickly spread to the streets of the Old City, where Arab youth hurled stones and firebombs at Israeli police. At least 22 Israeli police officers and 15 Muslim rioters were wounded in the Temple Mount and Old City confrontations.

Later in the evening, Arab youth in the Jerusalem suburb of Isawiya hurled at least 20 firebombs at Israeli Border Police officers stationed nearby, wounding five.

The racial tension continued on Monday, when a small group of Jews threw stones at Arab vehicles violating traditional Yom Kippur cultural norms by driving on a major thoroughfare that passes several Jewish neighborhoods en route to Bethlehem. Five suspects were arrested in that incident.

Arab residents in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, the biblical City of David, threw two firebombs at the homes of Jewish neighbors, causing damage but no injuries. Police maintained a high security in the city on Tuesday, and arrested many of the Arabs involved in the violence.

The Palestinian Authority, meanwhile, blamed the flare-ups on the Jews for provoking Arab Muslims by praying atop Jerusalem’s Temple Mount on a Jewish holy day.

“At a time when US President Barack Obama is trying to bridge the divide between Palestinians and Israelis, and to get negotiations back on track, Israel is deliberately escalating tensions in Jerusalem,” said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who vaguely threatened a new terrorist uprising if Israel did not halt such “provocations.”

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights referred to the entry of Jews onto the Temple Mount as “settlement activity,” and likewise blamed the resulting violence solely on the Jews and Israel.

Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA noted that the Palestinian reactions to the day of violence should highlight how impossible it is to reach an acceptable compromise regarding control of Jerusalem and its holy sites, an issue international peace brokers continuously push off as a “final status” issue.

NETANYAHU PUTS PEACE PROCESS BACK IN PROPER PERSPECTIVE!
(Israel Today News)

For decades the international community has let the Arabs define the Middle East peace process as the rectifying of wrongs done to the Palestinians by the Israelis. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to correct that error when he addressed the UN General Assembly last week.

In a brief but powerful speech, Netanyahu reminded the world that it was the ancient prophets of his people that once inhabited the Holy Land and whose words are today Holy Scripture for billions of people.

“The Jewish people are not foreign conquerors in the Land of Israel. This is the land of our forefathers,” declared Netanyahu. “Inscribed on the walls outside this building is the great Biblical vision of peace: ‘Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. They shall learn war no more.’ These words were spoken by the Jewish prophet Isaiah 2,800 years ago as he walked in my country, in my city – in the hills of Judea and in the streets of Jerusalem. We are not strangers to this land. It is our homeland.”

The Israeli leader said he is ready and willing to make peace based on giving part of that land to the Palestinian Arabs who live there, but will not do so based on lies and false accusations against his people.

In particular, Netanyahu said he wants the Palestinians to finally acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state, just as the UN itself did in 1947 when it divided the Holy Land between Jews and Arabs, a decision the Jews accepted but the Arabs rejected.

“We ask the Palestinians to finally do what they have refused to do for 62 years: Say yes to a Jewish state.”

Netanyahu also devoted a large chunk of his speech to blasting the recent UN-mandated Goldstone Commission report, which accused Israel of committing war crimes in its invasion of the Gaza Strip earlier this year in response to years of Hamas rocket fire.

The Prime Minister recalled how the world cheered when Israel withdrew from Gaza and promised to “back our right of self-defense” should anything go wrong, only to turn around and accuse Israel of the most heinous crimes when it was forced to defend itself.

And that despite the fact that Israel went to extraordinary lengths to avoid Palestinian casualties, unlike the way self-righteous Western powers responded when one of their cities was rocketed decades earlier.

“There is only one example in history of thousands of rockets being fired on a country’s civilian population. It happened when the Nazis rocketed British cities during World War II,” said Netanyahu, in a short history lesson. In response, “the Allies leveled German cities, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties.”

Netanyahu insisted that if Israel cannot count on fairness, even when is goes the extra mile to protect innocent lives on the other side, then it will find it increasingly difficult to take risks with its security in the name of peace.

The bulk of Netanyahu’s speech focused on Iran, and the Islamic Republic was even mentioned in those sections of the speech dealing with the peace process.

Netanyahu said that without firmly dealing with existential regional threats, the international community could not reasonably hope to oversee a viable peace between Israel and its neighbors. He also strongly condemned the UN for providing a podium to Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a day earlier, despite Iranian leader’s repeated denial of the Nazi Holocaust and his open desire to destroy Israel.

“Yesterday, the man who calls the Holocaust a lie spoke from this podium. To those who refused to come here and to those who left this room in protest, I commend you. You stood up for moral clarity and you brought honor to your countries,” said Netanyahu. “But to those who gave this Holocaust-denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, the Jewish people, and decent people everywhere: Have you no shame? Have you no decency?”

Netanyahu warned the international community that “history has shown us time and again that what starts with attacks on the Jews eventually ends up engulfing many others.”

IRAN TESTS ADVANCED MISSILES, THREATENS ISRAEL!
by Maayana Miskin

Iran fired some of its most powerful missiles on Monday as the Revolutionary Guard concluded two days of war games. Among the missiles tested, according to Iranian state media, were the Shahab-3 and Sajjil.

Both missiles have a range of more than 1,000 miles, and are capable of hitting Israel, Europe, and United States military bases.

On Sunday, the Revolutionary Guard fired a number of short-range missiles. Military leaders said they had also tested a multiple missile launcher for the first time, and had successfully fired two missiles at once.

The announcement of the two-day war games, which began Sunday, was made at the same time as Iranian leaders admitted the existence of a covert uranium enrichment site. “Allah willing, this plant will be put into operation soon, and will blind the eyes of the enemies,” the Supreme Leader’s Office said in an official announcement.

Iranian officials said the exercises were unconnected to the discovery of the site, and had been planned for some time. Government-run media quoted military leaders as saying the exercises would serve as a message for “arrogant countries which intend to intimidate.”

On Monday, Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi appeared on state television to threaten Israel with destruction in case of an Israeli strike on Iran. “If this strike happens… its ultimate result would be that it expedites the Zionist regime’s last breath,” he said.

Vahidi claimed that Israel is “on a slope of destruction,” and that its “lifespan is today coming to an end,” whether or not it attempts to strike Iranian nuclear sites.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (RUSSIA) said on Monday that his country was worried about Iran conducting test launches of missiles. Earlier in the day, Iran successfully launched upgraded missiles capable of reaching Israel. Lavrov was quoted by several Russian news agencies as saying, “Of course it is worrisome, when missile launches happen against the backdrop of unresolved situation concerning Iran’s nuclear program.”

After meeting with his Iranian counterpart at the United Nations in New York, Lavrov said that he urged Tehran to be “maximally cooperative” in its contacts with the International Atomic Energy Agency regarding its previously undisclosed uranium enrichment facility. “It’s necessary to show restraint, and we talked about it as well,” Lavrov said.

US: TOO LATE TO STOP IRAN!
by Hana Levi Julian

A top official in the Obama Administration has at last admitted what intelligence agents and Israeli government officials have been warning about for years: Iran intends to build a nuclear arsenal.

In media interviews with American television news networks scheduled to air Sunday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said bluntly, “The Iranians have the intention of having nuclear weapons.”

The statement was made just days after the discovery of a covert uranian enrichment site in Iran.

Even as the world expressed its outrage, however, Gates pointed out that there was little left to be done about it. “The reality is there is no military option that does anything more than buy time,” he told CNN. “The estimates are three years or so.”

In a separate interview with ABC News, he noted that Iran had engaged in “a pattern of deception and lies… from the very beginning,” even as it claimed it was developing nuclear power for peaceful domestic energy purposes.

“If this were a peaceful nuclear program, why didn’t they announce this site when they began to construct it?” Gates asked. “Why didn’t they allow IAEA inspectors in from the very beginning?”

International leaders demanded the Islamic Republic immediately disclose all its nuclear efforts, including any programs involving weapons development, or face the consequences.

“The Iranian government must now demonstrate through deeds its peaceful intentions, or be held accountable to international standards and international law,” said U.S. President Barack Obama following the discovery.

In a statement made at the G-20 meeting in Europe, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Obama ordered Iran to allow the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect the newly revealed site.

“We will not let this matter rest,” Brown said. Sarkozy noted that the G-6 had given Iran until December to comply or face additional, intensified economic sanctions.

While Iran is to meet with the U.S. and others next week to discuss its nuclear program, however, it is planning to conduct war games on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

The announcement of the drill, which will include firing missiles that can hit Israel, was made at the same time the covert uranium enrichment site was revealed.

“Allah willing, this plant will be put into operation soon and will blind the eyes of the enemies,” boasted Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani, the head of the office of the Supreme Leader.

The Revolutionary Guards website said over the weekend that military exercises, including the simultaneous firing of missiles at targets, will begin Sunday and last for several days.

Israeli officials do not necessarily agree that the military option would be ineffective.

IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi last week politely warned the Islamic Republic that the Jewish State is prepared to defend itself against any nuclear or other attack it might launch.

“We all understand that the best way of coping [with the Iranian nuclear threat is through international sanctions,” Ashkenazi told an interviewer on IDF Army Radio. However, he added, “Israel has the right to defend itself, and all options are open. The IDF’s working premise is that we have to be prepared for that possibility, and that is exactly what we are doing.”

SHOMRON COUNCIL TO STATE DEPARTMENT SNOOP: OBAMA DOESN’T GET IT!
by Gil Ronen

After a State Department official requested Jewish pioneers’ reaction to U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly, the Shomron (Samaria) Liaison Office responded by explaining that the American leader failed to grasp the basic issues involved.

The American official, Cyndee Trinh of the Political Section of the U.S. Consulate-General in Jerusalem, sent an e-mail message Thursday to David HaIvri, Head of the Shomron Liaison Office, in which she asked him for a reaction to Obama’s speech in New York on Wednesday. Obama said there that he “does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements” and called to “end the occupation that began in 1967.”

Trinh asked HaIvri: “I was wondering if you saw, heard, or read about President Obama’s speech before the UN yesterday, and if so, if you have any opinions or reactions you would like to convey to Washington?”

She added: “Your opinions and thoughts are important to us” and wished him “Chatima Tovah.”

HaIvri responded by writing that “President Obama’s speech reflects his failure to understand the basic issues,” which he went on to list:

(1) The Jewish “settlements” in Judea and Samaria are not illegal; Geneva IV is not applicable.

(2) Israel has not illegally “occupied” anyone else’s land.

(3) The Armistice lines of 1949 were never accepted by any Arab country as Israel’s borders; nor does Israel consider them as such.

(4) A second (or third) Arab Palestinian state will not resolve core issues (“refugees,” Jerusalem, etc) — the solution is regional and comprehensive, not local and piecemeal.

(5) Opposition to Jewish building in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria is rank discrimination.

(6) “Palestinian” terrorism and incitement are ongoing and officially sanctioned; it must stop immediately before anything else.

A source in the Liaison Office said that while Trinh is officially an adviser to the Consul, her actual assignment is to keep tabs on settlement growth. “They come out to visit and ask for our explanations regarding building efforts, etc.,” the source said. “Unofficially, she is a spy. I heard from knowledgeable sources that she reports directly to U.S. Middle East Special Envoy George Mitchell.”

NETANYAHU SLAMS UNITED NATIONS, IRAN – United Nations Web Site

Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addresses the 64th General Assembly at the United Nations Sept. 24, 2009.

Israel’s Prime Minister scolded the United Nations for allowing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at a U.N. session.

In an address before the General Assembly Thursday, Binyamin Netanyahu commended delegates who left the hall during Ahmadinejad’s speech. But to those who remained to hear the speech, Netanyahu said: “Have you no shame? Have you no decency? A mere six decades after the Holocaust you give legitimacy to a man who denies that the murder of 6 million Jews took place and pledges to wipe out the Jewish State,” Netanyahu said.

The greatest threat facing the world today is the ” marriage between religious fanaticism and the weapons of mass destruction,” he said.

Netanyahu slammed the U.N. Human Rights Council over its failure to condemn Hamas attacks on Israel in a recent report submitted by South African judge Richard J. Goldstone that accuses Israel of war crimes in Operation Cast Lead in Gaza earlier this year.

“Never has a country gone to such extraordinary lengths to remove the enemy’s civilian population from harm’s way,” Netanyahu said. “Yet faced with such a clear case of aggressor and victim, who did the U.N. Human Rights Council decide to condemn? Israel. … If this body does not reject this report, it would send a message to terrorists everywhere: Terror pays; if you launch your attacks from densely populated areas, you will win immunity.'”

Israel seeks genuine peace with the Palestinians, Netanyahu said. “And if the Palestinians truly want peace, I and my government, and the people of Israel, will make peace. But we want a genuine peace, a defensible peace, a permanent peace.”

GENERAL PRAISE FOR NETANYAHU’S HISTORIC UN SPEECH!
by Hillel Fendel

Rare wall-to-wall praise was heard in Israel and abroad for Netanyahu’s historic speech in the UN on Thursday – though Hamas didn’t like it.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who was present in the hall, was restrained in his praise: “It was a very persuasive speech, the hall was filled, there was great interest, and he did it well.” Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who was also there, was more effusive: “The Prime Minister’s speech was a speech that will be imprinted in the world’s consciousness. He knows how to do it. The photograph of him with the plans for Auschwitz will be carved into international memory.”

President Shimon Peres and many government ministers called Netanyahu immediately afterwards to warmly congratulate him, and it took him some 40 minutes to exit the building because of all the well-wishers. He even received an embrace from a long-time guard at the UN who said he remembered Netanyahu from his days as Israel’s Ambassador from over 20 years ago.

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Michael Oren, called the speech, “Successful and even historic.” Oren told Army Radio that the speech received across-the-board support in the UN, adding, “In general this was a good week for Israeli diplomacy. Netanyahu had a very full and successful week – a historic week in terms of American-Israeli relations.”

Netanyahu was applauded twice during his speech: When he said that though the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish People, and despite the historic links between them, Israel is willing to allow a demilitarized PA state to be formed there; and when he concluded with quotes from Churchill and the Prophets.

Some criticism was leveled, both in Israel and in New York, at the fact that Netanyahu saw fit to go to such lengths to rebut Iranian President Ahmadinajad and prove the veracity of the Holocaust. On the other end of the spectrum, a Hamas spokesman lambasted Netanyahu’s “crooked logic” and said he was merely trying to recruit the UN in his “Zionist-terrorist agenda.”

The Palestinian Authority delegate walked out of the hall when Netanyahu spoke about Gaza, the thousands of rockets fired by Hamas, and Israel’s restrained response.

Netanyahu: We Have to Know if We Should Take Risks

Netanyahu blasted the international community for encouraging Israel to leave Gaza, and then condemning Israel in the Goldstone Report when it responded to the rocket attacks that resulted: “This biased and unjust report is a clear-cut test for all governments. Will you stand with Israel or will you stand with the terrorists? We must know the answer to that question now, and not later. Because if Israel is again asked to take more risks for peace, we must know today that you will stand with us tomorrow. Only if we have the confidence that we can defend ourselves can we take further risks for peace.”

The Mattot Arim grassroots organization did not like that implication: “A thousand risks have already been taken, a thousand Israelis have already lost their lives, and the Netanyahu government must not repeat this pointless approach.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE: How we thank the Lord for answering prayer as thousands of believers were praying for Prime Minister Netanyahu. Our “Proclamation to Israel” has already resulted in thousands of signatures, and many have already been sent to the Knesset to assure them that there are many Christians in North America who support Israel’s God-given right to the Land as a Nation that will NEVER be destroyed! Jeremiah 31:31-37)

OBAMA ORDERS ISRAEL TO “END THE OCCUPATION!”
by Maayana Miskin

United States President Barack Obama issued a stinging condemnation of the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria on Wednesday in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly. The U.S. “does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements,” Obama announced.

Using unusually harsh terminology, Obama called to “end the occupation that began in 1967″ – referring to Israel’s control of Judea and Samaria.

Obama also stated that the U.S. must put more pressure on Israel to accept Arab demands. “The United States does Israel no favors when we fail to couple an unwavering commitment to its security with an insistence that Israel respect the legitimate claims and rights of the Palestinians,” he said.

The U.S. president had demands for Israel’s opponents as well, and called on UN member states to avoid “vitriolic” attacks on Israel and recognize Israel’s legitimacy. In addition, he called on the Palestinian Authority to “end incitement against Israel.”

In his speech, Obama reported that progress had been made in a meeting the day before with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Obama has pressured Israel to completely freeze building for Jews in Judea and Samaria, a plan Netanyahu has rejected. Israeli leaders have stated that many Judea and Samaria communities are within the “national consensus” regarding towns that are expected to remain in Israeli hands permanently, and that building should continue in those areas. The Obama administration’s most recent statements on the subject made clear, however, that a freeze on settlements could not be a precondition for peace talks between Israel and the PA.

Regarding Iran, Obama expressed support for both diplomacy and consequences. Iran and North Korea should be offered “greater prosperity and a more secure peace” if they agree to abide by international guidelines, but “must be held accountable” if they insist on pursuing nuclear weapons, he said.

Bolton: Israel on the Chopping Block

Former United States ambassador to the UN John Bolton said the President’s message had strong significance, particularly given the venue. Obama has put Israel “on the chopping block,” Bolton warned.

‘World Must Work Together’

Obama called for the nations of the world to work together, saying, “Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility.”

“Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world’s problems alone,” he added pointedly.

Obama said UN member states had fallen short in addressing the world’s problems. Among the issues he called to address were genocide, “protracted conflicts,” nuclear proliferation, and global warming.

US CONGRESS ANGERED BY CONTINUED SAUDI BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL!
(Israel Today Report)

US congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle have expressed outrage after learning that Saudi Arabia is blatantly violating a pledge to stop boycotting Israel and Israeli-made goods.

The congressional leaders voiced their anger following a Jerusalem Post report last week that detailed how the Saudis have in fact been steadily intensifying the enforcement of the Arab League trade embargo against Israel in recent years.

That is despite a promise by Riyadh in 2005 to drop the boycott in exchange for Washington’s support in gaining entry into the World Trade Organization.

“Saudi Arabia’s disregard of its 2005 pledge to end the boycott against Israel is unacceptable,” Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind) told the Post. “Congress and the Administration must hold Saudi Arabia accountable.”

Rep. Howard Berman (D-Ca), who chairs the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he didn’t appreciate being lied to by the Saudis, and vowed to “pursue this matter with the Obama Administration.”