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NEWS FROM ISRAEL AND THE MIDDLE EAST


‘Jerusalem cannot be the capital of state called Israel’


The Jerusalem Post reports: “The current round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks will not succeed, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said during a ‘Jerusalem Day’ commemoration speech.

Nasrallah characterized the talks as ‘stillborn’ and said, ‘Jerusalem, and not even one of its streets, cannot be the capital of the state called Israel.’

The Hezbollah chief’s comments came hours after explosions ripped through a building in southern Lebanon that might – according to Lebanese security officials – have been used to store weapons for the terrorists group.

It was not clear whether there were any casualties from the blasts, which set off a large fire, the officials said. Rescue crews responded to the scene…” (This headline goes against God’s 930 promises in His Holy book, the Bible, that Jerusalem belongs to his Chosen People, the Jews and that their Messiah, the Christian Lord Jesus will rule from Jerusalem – Luke 1:32, 33; Matthew 5:35.)


Iran May Take Over Persian Gulf


Israel National News reports: “Dr. Mordechai Kedar, an expert on Arab politics and Islamic Fundamentalism at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies warns that Iran may be planning a full takeover of Persian Gulf states. He is also concerned that Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon may try to build a nuclear reactor similar to Iran’s Bushehr reactor, and obtain atomic weapons that could be used against Israel.

In a blog post which appeared on News1, Dr. Kedar says that there are several reasons that pressure is building between Iran and the Arab states in the Persian Gulf:

Firstly, Arab states in the Gulf believe that Iran’s saber-rattling and aggressive statements towards Israel are actually a decoy, aimed at shifting the focus from its real purpose, a full takeover of the oil and gas-rich Persian Gulf…

Secondly, Arab states assess that Israel and Iran will not attack each other, since each side is fearful of the outcome of such attack and its necessary counter-attack. Iran, says Kedar, knows that Israel has 200 – 300 nuclear warheads, which could wipe out all of its major cities. On the other hand, Israel, says Kedar, is concerned about the Iranian arsenal of long-range missiles in Hezbollah’s possession, which are far more accurate that those the Hezbollah used in the 2006 attack against its southern neighbor.

Thirdly, in recent years, tens of thousands of Iranian citizens have immigrated to other Arab states in the Gulf. Kedar says that Arab leaders fear that many of these ex-Iranians are actually sleeper cells, who, when activated, could supply Iran with the necessary intelligence information to successfully stage an attack on Arab Gulf states…

Finally, Kedar warned that the next dangerous threat against Israel could be a Hezbollah attempt to imitate Iran’s nuclear ambitions, by building a nuclear reactor in Lebanon, similar to Iran’s Bushehr reactor…” (This report is why Saudi Arabia and the Gulf nations are pleading with America to stand with them against Iran.)


Jordan and Syria call for Israeli withdrawal from all Arab lands


Haaretz reports: “Jordanian King Abdullah II and Syrian President Bashar Assad stressed the need for Israel to pull out from all Arab territories it occupied in the 1967 war, if peace with the Palestinians is to be achieved.

Abdullah made a whirlwind visit to Damascus to brief the Syrian leader on the outcome of his talks in Washington with United States President Barack Obama, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a royal court statement said.

The monarch had attended the six-way meeting on the eve of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians being relaunched.

Abdullah and Assad ‘emphasized that resolving the Palestinian- Israeli conflict on the basis of the two-state vision requires the regaining of all Arab rights in accordance with … the Arab peace initiative,’ the statement said.

The Arab peace initiative offered Israel recognition by all Arab states if it pulled out from all Arab territories it occupied in the 1967 Six-Day War, including East Jerusalem…” (This is an impossible request as Jerusalem belongs to God’s Chosen People, the Jews, as promised by Yahweh 930 times in God’s Holy Book.)


U.S. Assures Israel That Iran Threat Is Not Imminent


The New York Times reports: “The Obama administration, citing evidence of continued troubles inside Iran’s nuclear program, has persuaded Israel that it would take roughly a year — and perhaps longer — for Iran to complete what one senior official called a ‘dash’ for a nuclear weapon, according to American officials.

Administration officials said they believe the assessment has dimmed the prospect that Israel would pre-emptively strike against the country’s nuclear facilities within the next year, as Israeli officials have suggested in thinly veiled threats.

For years, Israeli and American officials have debated whether Iran is on an inexorable drive toward a nuclear bomb and, if so, how long it would take to produce one. A critical question has been the time it would take Tehran to convert existing stocks of low-enriched uranium into weapons-grade material, a process commonly known as ‘breakout.’

Israeli intelligence officials had argued that Iran could complete such a race for the bomb in months, while American intelligence agencies have come to believe in the past year that the timeline is longer…” (This headline is questionable since Iran’s president awaits the Shia messiah who only arrives after Israel’s destruction by the Shia leader, Ahmadinejad.)


PA hits back at Ahmadinejad: You have no right to speak about Palestine


Haaretz reports: “A Palestinian Authority spokesman lashed out at the president of Iran for criticizing Palestinian negotiations with Israel and PA President Mahmoud Abbas in particular, Ma’an News Agency reported.

‘The one who does not represent the Iranian people, who falsified election results, who oppressed the Iranian people and stole authority has no right to speak about Palestine, its president or its representatives,’ Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh said about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad addressed a rally at Teheran University, where he dismissed the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, saying the fate of Palestine would be decided in Palestine and through resistance and not in Washington.

The Ma’an News Agency reported that he also said Mahmoud Abbas was a hostage of Israel who lacked the legitimacy to negotiate on the Palestinian’s behalf.

‘President Mahmoud Abbas came to power through free, democratic and authentic elections supervised by more than 2,000 international and Arab monitors,’ Abu Rudaineh said in response. ‘We are the ones who fought for Palestine and Jerusalem … the Palestinian leadership did not oppress its people as did the Iranian leadership under Ahmadinejad.’…” (There is a great division between Muslims as to how, when, and where to successfully move on the situation in Israel.)