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Hudna – A Gateway to Prophecy Fulfillment!

March 12, 2008

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The actual timing of precisely “when” a time of unbroken “continuous” calm or truce will come into effect in Israel, such that all rocket attacks out of the Gaza Strip actually cease, I do not know. I expect spurious rockets to continue off and on for awhile, and for an occasional terrorist to be killed by the IDF, but Scripture does indicate that some sort of a “calm”, “truce,” or “hudna” will cause Israel to be crying out “Peace and safety,” at the very time “sudden destruction” comes on her.

The IDF statement by Ehud Barak in the first article, makes it clear that the current actions which seem to be lead

ing into an eventual hudna, could all go up in smoke at the drop of a hat, and the IDF may launch a full blown operation into the Gaza Strip at any moment. I do believe that after much more off again, on again, gone again, not again rhetoric, and skirmishes between them, a hudna will come into place between Israelis and the Palestinians at some point in time between 2008 and 2010, but that it will be suddenly broken by a bloodthirsty Jihad from the north at some point in time between 2010 and 2015.

Candidly Speaking, I totally agree with Isi Leibler’s title which appears in the second Jerusalem Post Article. As he states, hudna is indeed “A prescription for disaster.” And the prophecies, concerning the coming last day war Israel must eventually enter with her enemies, do lead the interpretation of a hudna preceding the war, to stand a good chance of being valid. So, from a prophetic standpoint, it appears that Leibler’s statement will soon see actual fruition. The enemies of Israel are said in Ezekiel 38 to be aware of Israel dwelling safely, seemingly as if they were in some sort of agreement with Israel about it – “shalt thou not know it?” And Paul indicates the Israelis will be saying “Peace and safety” when sudden destruction comes on them.

Ezekiel 38:8 – After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.

Ezekiel 38:14 – 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?

I Thessalonians 5:3,4 – For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. [4] But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

Begin Jerusalem Post Article 2

‘Before calm, Gaza will escalate beyond anything we’ve seen’

JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST

March 12, 2008

“Continued combat in Gaza will bring an escalation beyond what we have seen so far, before we reach a period of calm,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday.

Barak was touring the northern brigade of the IDF’s Gaza Division. With him were IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen Yoav Galant and OC Gaza Division Brig.-Gen. Moshe Tamir.

“We are not in a state of calm with Hamas, we are in ongoing activity meant to stop Kassam fire,” he said. “There is no change in what we are doing.

What awaits us here is further operations and [the soldiers] will need to be prepared again for action in order to win this issue.”

Barak cast doubts on the prospects of current peace negotiation with the Palestinian Authority, and lay the blame on the Palestinians.

“We are not on the verge of an accord with [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] despite making supreme efforts. I don’t know if there will be a deal, but if there isn’t, it won’t be because Israel wasn’t willing to make peace with the Palestinians, but because there isn’t a willingness on the Palestinian side to make difficult decisions for their people,” he said. “There isn’t an ability, so far, to establish a law enforcement system, a government, security and a will to succeed in fighting terror.”

Referring to a possible attack by Hizbullah in retaliation for Israel’s alleged involvement in the killing of arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh in February, Barak said “we are still the most powerful country in a 1,500 kilometer radius from Jerusalem and we are … prepared on all fr

onts. We can definitely expect that some will try to hurt Israel on that front.”

Begin Jerusalem Post Article 2

Candidly Speaking: Hudna? A prescription for disaster

Isi Leibler, THE JERUSALEM POST

March 11, 2008

Today we are threatened with two extremely dangerous situations that must be dealt with speedily and resolutely. The first, already far too advanced, is that the government seems to regard rocket attacks against our civilians as being part of an ongoing – and somehow manageable – war of attrition. Our enemies, for their part, appear to welcome the “martyrdom” of 100 or more Palestinian civilians and gunmen a week to promote their propaganda objectives.

In contrast, as the Mercaz Harav massacre exemplified, every Israeli casualty represents a cause for national grief. An ongoing war of attrition would therefore be disastrous. It would in time undermine our stamina and demoralize the nation.

The second danger is that we are being coerced, or seduced, into agreeing to a temporary truce arrangement with Hamas, enabling the organization to upgrade its missile infrastructure, smuggle in more advanced weapons, send its members for training abroad, and renew hostilities at a time of its choosing.

YET AS we lurch rapidly into a new phase of confrontation with the barbarians at our gates, our government is replicating the indecisiveness and absence of strategic planning that characterized its failed management of the Second Lebanon War.

Then, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert indulged in Churchillian bombast. Today, beyond promoting the illusory “peace process,” he seems loath to take any major initiatives and merely faithfully implements instructions from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He also appears to have concluded that – up to a point – sacrificing the lives and well-being of Israeli civilians is preferable to facing up to casualties arising from an all-out military confrontation.

Regrettably, it is becoming clear that Olmert is desperately seeking a face-saving solution by which he can accept the Hamas offer of a hudna – a temporary cease-fire – without appearing to preside over yet another Israeli debacle.

He is already hinting that a truce will come into effect as soon as the missile launches ease, and he obviously welcomes the bizarre American-inspired Egyptian offer to mediate a cease-fire. If that fails, similar offers are already in the pipeline from other dubious intermediaries like former US president Jimmy Carter and former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan.

A HUDNA would indeed create a temporary period of calm. But in the long term, it is a prescription for catastrophe. Taking advantage of the porous Egyptian border, Hamas and its Iranian and Syrian backers would upgrade and replicate Hizbullah’s achievements in Lebanon. That would evolve into a disastrous replay of the Second Lebanon War, with the added handicap this time of the IDF possibly simultaneously being engaged on two fronts.

Minister of Defense Ehud Barak indulges in saber-rattling rhetoric about an impending invasion of Gaza, but invariably contradicts himself a few hours later. He has already earned a reputation for making empty threats, and, like Olmert, lacks any long-term strategy.

In fact, the IDF withdrawal from Gaza after two days begs the question of whether, beyond temporarily placating domestic public opinion, the incursion served any purpose at all. The subsequent Hamas victory parades certainly do not suggest that it strengthened our deterrence.

THE APPARENT lack of a game plan is frightening. Amid all the contradictory government statements, Israelis still remain utterly in the dark as to what is going on. Our dysfunctional government had a clear obligation to formulate options on how to deal with our current, totally predictable crisis. But its members were too obsessed with clinging to their seats of power.

We must now gird ourselves to end the terrorist abominations, lest what we have been facing in the south engulfs even more of the country. Israel must reject efforts by the international community to reconcile us to an indefinite war of attrition.

And this time, our public diplomacy must respond more effectively to those who mindlessly denounce us for reacting “disproportionately” in exercising our right to self-defense.

Their condemnations are irrational, unprecedented and unquestionably reflect the application of double standards against us.

When terrorists embed themselves within a civilian cocoon and launch their missiles from dense population centers, strangely, it is Israel’s retaliation which is condemned if noncombatants are inadvertently killed or wounded.

Whether we respond to attacks with targeted assassinations, take military action on the ground to eliminate missile launchers, or deny electricity to those manufacturing and launching missiles against us – we are condemned, knee-jerk style, on the grounds that any response is “disproportionate.”

Yet our critics disingenuously say that a government has an overriding obligation to defend its citizens from external attack. So what are we supposed to do when our neighbors deliberately target our civilians

? Appeal for help to the United Nations?

No country under rocket and missile barrages, least of all one which genuinely respects the sanctity of human life, can be expected to sacrifice its citizens in the name of ensuring a spurious proportionality. And if civilian casualties ensue because Palestinian noncombatants are employed as human shields, the blame must be directed toward the Palestinian belligerents, not the Israeli victims.

WE MUST therefore be prepared to defy our critics and swiftly defeat our foes with force. That was the basis on which Israel warded off its enemies in the past, in the days when our leaders still recognized that their prime obligation was to protect their citizens. Nothing has changed since. Preemption was and remains Israel’s cardinal strategy of defense.

One need not be a military genius to appreciate what must be done. Launching missiles against our civilians should be declared an act of war. Immediate action should be taken to cut off the head of the snake and methodically target the Hamas military and political leaders who direct the killings.

Should that fail, we must act more drastically. Following ample notice for civilians to evacuate, we should bombard specific areas from where missiles are being launched. When we are condemned for “responding disproportionately,” we should remind the United States and its allies that even in the absence of any threat of missile attacks to their civilians, they had no compunctions about carpet-bombing terrorist locations in Afghanistan and Iraq. NATO did likewise in Belgrade, even targeting residential areas during its botched attempt to assassinate Slobodan Milosevic.

If all else fails, recognizing that maintenance of the status quo would genuinely pose an existential threat to us, we would be obliged to launch a full-scale invasion of Gaza. That would be a calculated decision, not a gut reaction, and would be undertaken with the realization that such a conflict will lead to a major toll in lives on all sides.

CLEARLY, the vast majority of Israelis have no desire to occupy Gaza or rule over Arabs for longer than is absolutely necessary. But suggesting that we take no action at all because the aftermath will be complex is the worst of all options.

The time for words and threats has long passed.

We have no reason to harbor any feelings of guilt because we have explored every conceivable venue to attain a peaceful solution. We realize that those confronting us are more obsessed with achieving our demise than improving their own miserable lot and gaining independence.

We must act with determi nation and take whatever measures are deemed necessary to protect our citizens and the future of this

nation.

That will only be achieved if we restore our deterrent abilities. It can be done.

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from which we extracted it.

ORDER OF
A PROPHECY –
FIRST A HUDNA –
BUT MUCH LATER –
JIHAD MARTYRDOM
THEN CONTINUES UNTIL
IT IS FINALLY STOPPED BY
THE SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST –
SCRIPTURE SHOWS THIS TO BE THE
WAY JIHAD BLOODSHED MUST CEASE
WHEN THE SWORD OF ISLAM KNOWS DEFEAT!

March 12, 2008

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

It seems to me, in all this maze of confusion in what will happen next, Hamas and Israel, after much consternation, will have a truce that ends up as a longer term Hudna, which will be broken suddenly and violently by a massive Jihad by ten Islamic nations at some point in time between 2010 and 2015.

Revelation 6:8 – And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

At its maximum historical expansion of its conquest extensions into the lands of the infidels, the Islamic Caliphate covered most of the “known” world at that time, which would amount proportionately to about one-fourth of the world today. I believe they will be in possession of an even greater Caliphate, with antichrist as its Caliph, which will be in place when Jesus returns at His Second Advent to end it as a Kingdom. (For a full exposition of the size of the Caliphate of antichrist, please consult Archive Prophecy Update Numbers 77, 77A, 77B, and 77C)

Revelation 13:10 – He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with

the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

The followers of Allah will lead many into captivity, where most of those led will be beheaded by the sword in the name of Allah. The Middle East will run red with the blood of the infidels. But the followers of Allah will themselves be led into captivity, and will die by the figure of the sword as an instrument of war.

The numerous excerpted selected paragraphs and statements from

an article by Bassem Eid, which appeared in a full article in the Jerusalem Post, give an insight into the basic root character of those who practice Jihad in the name of Allah.

These insights should make it quite clear the mindset is deeply ingrained in those who practice it. I believe the chances of it stopping, prior to the Second Advent of Christ, is about as likely as snow in the Sahara Desert in July.

However, I am going to go out on a limb, and say that the first article from Haaretz does give me hope that the current unbelievable mess on the Gaza Strip

will end in a truce, which will phase into a negotiated “period of calm,” which in turn will end in a hudna. It is then a definite possibility that at some point in time between 2010 and 2015, the very character of Islamic Jihad in the mindset of radical Islamic revenge, will be unleashed upon the Jews with an exposed bloodthirsty mania not seen since the holocaust.

The second previously mentioned article from the Jerusalem Post, containing paragraph excerpts, gives the ingrained mindset of the Martyrdom Jihad mindset, which can only be contained for a short period of time, before being released again in pent up fury.

Begin Haaretz Article

Hamas-Israel deal would put Abbas’ men at Gaza crossings

By Avi Issacharoff

March 12, 2008

A deal being formulated between Israel, Egypt and Hamas involves deploying Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ troops at the crossings with the Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources told Haaretz Tuesday.

According to the sources, Israel and Hamas have agreed to the Egyptian proposal to deploy Palestinian Authority Presidential Guard members along the Karni, Sufa and Kerem Shalom crossings, where cargo is transferred between Israel and Gaza, as well as at the Erez crossing, a passageway for people and goods.

Guard members will be deployed also at the Rafah crossing, which connects Sinai, Egypt with the Strip.

Hamas forces will be positioned nearby and will essentially control the movement of Palestinian civilians in and out of Gaza.

This agreement is in keeping with the 2005 crossings agreement, between the U.S., Israel and the PA, which called for placing the crossings under forces loyal to Abbas.

The Palestinian sources said that Hamas leaders are due to meet with Egyptian mediators within the next two days.

The Egyptians will convey Israel’s views on the Egyptian proposal, and Hamas is to state whether it agrees to a temporary cease-fire.

The current round of violence ended after Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders met with Egyptian officials last week.

The PA also has agreed to the Egyptian proposal. It is expected to present any agreement as a success, because this would mean Hamas has failed to break the siege on Gaza.

It has controlled the coastal strip since overthrowing Fatah there last June.

Meanwhile, Damascus-based Hamas leader Mohammed Nasser released the group’s conditions for a cease-fire with Israel Tuesday. Nasser says Hamas is demanding Israel completely cease “all acts of aggression” in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

By this demand, Hamas is toughening its stance regarding the cease-fire in the works, and is posing a demand that Israel steadfastly has refused to accept so far.

Israel rejects any deal that would bar it from arresting suspected militants in the West Bank.

Ayman Taha, a Hamas spokesman in the Strip, confirmed in a telephone conversation with Haaretz on Tuesday that the radical Islamic group is demanding Israel stop making arrests in the West Bank in exchange for a cease-fire deal.

Nasser also added that Hamas is ready for a temporary cease-fire with Israel, on the condition that it occurs simultaneously and applies to both sides.

Abbas said Monday during a meeting with Jordanian journalists that “a senior figure in the Israeli government is undermining the negotiations for internal reasons and because of personal hostility to me.” He was in Jordan to meet with King Abdullah.

A Jordanian journalist who published the story noted that Abbas was referring to Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

Abbas also said that any agreement on Palestinian refugees’ right of return would be implemented over the course of at least a decade after the signing of a peace deal.

Begin Jerusalem Post Article

Martyrdom and national identity

BASSEM EID, THE JERUSALEM POST

March 5, 2008

Moreover, nations should not be considered as static, or an unchanging society entity, but rather a dynamic process depending on the specific historical context, continually redefining it.

In this context, I want to outline certain elements of the Palestinian national identity which had emerged under the context of the Aksa intifada. Rashid Khalidi, the author of Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness, traces the construction process of the Palestinian national identity. Firstly, before World War I, a national identity was shared by a restricted circle of urban educated elite. This circle itself formed a new elite composed by teachers, clerks, government officials and businessmen, during the Ottoman rule. The Palestinian identity, however, “competed and overlapped with Ottomans and Arabism, as well as older religious, local, and family loyalties.”

[….]

The shocks of War World I deepened a sense of common fate, “making it a primary category of identity for many, if not most, Palestinians.”

Clarifying are the figures presented by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research: 87% of the Palestinian population support the armed attacks against Israeli soldiers, 86% against settlers, and 53% against civilians. Moreover, two thirds of the population believes that armed confrontations have helped Palestinians to achieve their national rights. It is worth mentioning that the vast majority support a mutual cessation of violence, in which both sides stop using arms against each other.

Nonetheless, resistance is perceived as not only “a right and duty,” but as a “remedy for the oppressed” and a means through which Palestinians should express their “human dignity.”

[….]

WITHIN PALESTINIAN society there are voices which try to promote non-violent resistance, arguing that it is the “best form of resistance” and it should include both Palestinians and Israelis in order to “rise together against evil.”

At any rate, violent or nonviolent resistance, apart of its pragmatic meaning, adopted a symbolic one; it is always addressed in nationalistic terms, expected to mobilize and unite Palestinians around their common national aim, namely to put an end to the Israeli occupation.

[….]

ANOTHER CENTRAL factor in shaping the Palestinian national identity is the idea of martyrdom. Palestinians perceive martyrs not only those who commit suicide bombings, but to all of those who died within the context of the struggle against the Israeli occupation.

Since the beginning of the Aksa intifada, Palestinian figures indicate that 2,736 Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli security forces and 152 Palestinians – men and women – committed suicide taking with them numerous Israeli civilians – men, women and children.

[….]

Eyad El Sarraj, a psychiatrist, founder and director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, and a human rights activist, summarizes the process through which suicide bombing and becoming a martyr constitutes an honorable act: “The people who are committing the suicide bombing in this intifada are the children of the first intifada – people who witnessed so many traumas as children. So as they grew up, their own identity merged with the national identity of humiliation and defeat, and they avenge that defeat at both the personal and national levels… During the first intifada, studies showed that 55 percent of the children had witnessed their fathers being humiliated or beaten by Israeli soldiers. The psychological impact of this is stunning. The father, normally the authority figure, comes to be seen as somebody who is helpless, who can’t even protect himself – let alone his children. So children became more militant, more violent.”

SARRAJ CONSIDERS that the symbol of power is the martyr, and “If you ask a child in Gaza today what he wants to be when he grows up, he doesn’t say he wants to be a doc

tor or a soldier or an engineer.

He says he wants to be a martyr.”

In another article by Sarraj, the nationalistic element in martyrdom is presented. He considers that in every country citizens who fight for their country are considered brave men, in the Palestinian side, those who die for their country will be remembered as martyrs.

[….]

The writer is the founder and the director of Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG) based in east Jerusalem.

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A TYPICAL DAY IN THE LAND OF UZ

WICKED WITCHES NORTH & SOUTH

HAMAS NAPS – HIZBULLAH AWAKES

WHILE THE DEVIL RUNS TO AND FRO

AFFLICTING ISRAEL AS HE DOTH GO

SO AFTER MUCH TROUBLE AND WOE

IT ALL ENDS WELL AS WE DO KNOW!

Hamas Lull in the South – But Hizbullah Ready in the North!

March 11, 2008

http://www.tribulaionperiod.com/

Job 1:1 – There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.

Job 1:6,7 – Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. [7] And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

Job 1:20,21 – Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, [21] And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.

Job 42:12,13 – So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. [13] He had also seven sons and three daughters.

NOW I KNOW JOB DOES NOT REPRESENT ISRAEL, BUT JUST AS JOB WENT THROUGH A TIME OF GREAT TROUBLE IN THE FLESH, SO IS ISRAEL ON THE VERGE OF GREAT DEATH AND TROUBLE AS SHE HAS NEVER KNOWN. BUT THE END OF THE TIME OF GREAT TRAVAIL FOR ISRAEL WILL CULMINATE IN THE GREATEST JOY SHE HAS EVER KNOWN.

Matthew 24:21,22 – For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. [22] And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

Daniel 12:1 – And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

Zechariah 13:8,9 – And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. [9] And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.

Romans 11:25-29 –For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

[26] And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: [27] For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. [28] As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. [29] For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

THE SIDESHOW CONTINUES FROM MARCH 10TH AM BLOG, BUT NOISE WAKES UP SWEET HIZBULLAH IN LEBANON!

All the conflicting reports where “he said, she said, they said, nobody said, somebody said” and 10 or 15 “definite maybe” proclamations, a “sort of” cease fire” might become a real “could be” hudna one day in the Gaza Strip

land of “never, never,” in the “far off sweet forever.”

The two articles which follow lay out the lull in the south by Hamas and the awakening of Hizbullah in the north.

Begin Jerusalem Post Article

Israel reportedly ‘agrees to 30 days of quiet’ with Hamas

JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST

March 11, 2008

Israel is demanding that a formal calm with Hamas be preceded by a 30-day “feeling the pulse” period, the London-based daily Al-Quds al-Arabi reported Tuesday.

According to the newspaper, the demand was presented to Egyptian officials by Amos Gilad, who heads the Defense Ministry’s Diplomatic-Security Bureau.

The report quoted a “senior Palestinian source” as saying that if the 30-day period proves successful, Israel will assent to the Egyptian calm initiative, including the cessation of ground and air attacks in the Gaza Strip and refraining from retaliating for the terror attack at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva last week.

Another London-based pan-Arab daily, Al Hayat, quoted an Egyptian source as saying that the specific Israeli conditions for the 30-days test period included a complete halt of rocket attacks against Israel and on construction of smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border.

According to the source, Gilad emphasized that Israel agreed to the calm on the condition that it would not be used by Palestinians for rearmament.

Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Aiman Taha, told Al-Hayyat that the organizations still maintains that the calm should be mutual, simultaneous and all-inclusive. He said that Hamas’ s condition

s included extending the calm to the West Bank, opening the border passes and ceasing assassination of Palestinian targets.

On Monday, both Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak emphatically denied there was any kind of negotiating process with Hamas, and insisted that the IDF “retained its freedom of action” in the Strip.

Begin YNet News Article

Defense official: Hizbullah ready to fight Israel

YNet News

Intelligence assessment says Lebanese Shiite organization has completed its military, logistic preparations for resumed confrontation with IDF

Hanan Greenberg

March 11, 2008

The Hizbullah organization has completed its military and logistic preparations for a confrontation with Israel, a senior defense official told Ynet on Monday evening, based on recent intelligence assessments.

Hizbullah’s preparations reinforce the intelligence estimate that a conflict in northern Israel is closer than a wide-scale conflict in the Gaza Strip.

This may be one of the reasons why the IDF is not rushing into a comprehensive operation in Gaza.

Senior defense establishment officials, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, admitted several months ago that in terms of Hizbullah’s missile arsenal, the group has closed the gaps created after the Second Lebanon War.

The annual intelligence review, presented to cabinet ministers Sunday by officials from the Shin Bet internal security service, Miltary Intelligence and the Mossad, said that the likelihood for a wide-scale Hamas attack in 2008 was slim.

However, the likelihood that Hizbullah will resume its violent acts against Israel is higher th an the likelihood for

an escalation on other fronts. An escalation on one front may lead to a similar situation on additional fronts.

Hizbullah monitoring IDF’s movements

Hizbullah fighters are closely monitoring the IDF’s movements on the northern border, and have even come up with dozens of scenarios for the moment Israel acts against the organization.

According to the defense establishment, Hizbullah’s plans focus both on the activity in southern Lebanon and in the Bekaa Valley.

Another estimate is that Hizbullah has decided to carry out a terror attack in response to the assassination of the group’s senior official Imad Mugniyah in Damascus. Although there is no evidence that Israel was involved in the killing, the organization will seek to respond at the first opportunity it gets.

These estimates illustrate the risk in an escalation on the northern front this year, as expressed in the intelligence briefing presented to the cabinet ministers on Sunday. The IDF is preparing for such a possibility, holding a large number of exercises both among soldiers in compulsory service and among reserve forces.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Monday that “the intelligence assessment presidents a wide picture of threats on Israel’s security, from Jerusalem to Iran.

We must look at reality as it is, without any illusions, and prepare for the real threats we are facing.”

Barak spoke during a visit to the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem, where eight students were shot to death by an Israeli Arab terrorist Thursday.

In south: Lull, with or without agreement

Barak said earlier Monday that the operational activity in Gaza would continue. According to Barak, “Whoever thinks that this is the end of the story and that there’s already a truce is wrong… We haven’t finished anything and the important trials are still ahead.”

The minister noted that the defense establishment’s goal was to stop the rocket fire at Israel and

the terror emanating from Gaza, while dramatically reducing weapon smuggling into the Strip.

A ceasefire can only be considered once t hese things materialize,

he said.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni also addressed the issue Monday, saying that “We don’t believe in (arriving to) a situation whereby Hamas can choose when it attacks and when it doesn’t in order to strengthen itself.”

According to Livni, “in the Middle East, every hesitation is taken as weakness. The states in the region are testing the leadership in the international community

She added that the problem of weapons smuggling from Egypt into the Gaza Strip cannot be neglected.

Despite the Israeli denials, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas confirmed the existence of a truce between Israel and Hamas.

“There is an agreement in principle,” he told reporters following a meeting with Jordan’s K ing Abdullah

in Amman.

Neta Sela contributed to this report

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FOUR ISLAMIC CONQUEST GOALS!

Al-Qaida

& Iran-Syria-Hezbollah-Hamas Quadrangle

March 11, 2008

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

In the following article, “The Road to Gaza runs through Tehran,” I have extracted three paragraphs, which partially delineate the working relationship between Al-Qaida and the Quadrangle of Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas. They do have a plan which is much more far reaching than many will accept as being their real ambition. I will indeed admit that had I not lived, taught, and served among them, I would write off it off as being a fantastic goal made up to invent a conspiracy against them. Marine Corps Commandant James Conway is right on target as he states the five phases or goals of their unbelievable far reaching program to become the rulers of a one-world, one-religion, Islamic government. The five phases of Al-Qaida’s Plan were developed after they were able to drive the Soviet Union from Afghanistan.

The plan is now becoming adapted as the model followed by the Quadrangle.

The four phases or goals are as follows:

1. Expulsion of American and other foreign forces from the Middle East

2. Toppling of Pro-Western Arab regimes and others not in agreement

3. The destruction of Israel

4. The conquest of Europe

5. Conquest of the rest of the world

I strongly suspect they would settle for Phase 4 if they were able to take back all the territory they once historically occupied at their maximum extensions into the lands of the infidels.

Ten Islamic rulers will follow the Islamic Leader of the Pack, and three will fall before him. He will keep Israel boxed in the Negev Wilderness for three and one-half years. He will attempt to change times and laws to the Islamic way wherever he conquers, but Christ at his 2nd Advent, as the Son of man and Son of God, will come with the clouds of heaven to take away his dominion, and Jesus will rule forever as Lord of Lords, and King of Kings.

This is the scenario presented in Chapter 7 of the Book of Daniel.

Daniel 7:24-27,13,14 – And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.

[25] And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. [26] But the judgment shall sit, and they

shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. [27] And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. [13] I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. [14] And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

Begin Three Extracted Paragraphs from Haaretz Article

The Road to Gaza runs through Tehran

By Amir Oren

March 10, 2008

Without Hamas, there is no point in an agreement with Abbas, and the only way to restore Hamas to its natural proportions is if Iran is not in the picture. The approach of the American defense establishment, which is expressed more forcefully than Rice’s stance, refers to the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah-Hamas quadrangle.

Despite internal tensions, there are some who add a fifth side,

in the form of Al-Qaida. Back in the 1990s, a Muslim who served in the U.S. armed forces and was recruited by Al-Qaida testified to having been a guard at a meeting between Osama Bin Laden and Imad Mughniyeh, the senior operations figure of Hezbollah, who was recently assassinated.

In the American ranking, Al-Qaida and Hezbollah top the terror chart. Marine Corps Commandant James Conway recently reminded his forces that the campaign against the Iraqi branch of Al-Qaida is intended to contain the Global Jihad and foil the first phase of its plan – the expulsion of the Americans from the Middle East. In the second phase, conservative and pro-Western regimes are to be toppled (Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states, Jordan, Egypt). The third phase sees the destruction of Israel.

The fourth is the conquest of Europe, and in the fifth – the rest of the world.

[…..]

Both Tel Aviv and Washington are rightly reluctant to pay the price in blood of a large-scale military operation, in Gaza and in Iran.

Accordingly, they are looking for a crack that will constitute an opening to hope – maybe the problem will simply go away, maybe the Hamas government in Gaza will fall apart, maybe the Iranian people will topple the ayatollahs 30 years after the flight of the shah and the takeover by Khomeini.

What is now in the cards is a wait of another year or more, until the next U.S. admin istration has stabilized, while the internal developments in Iran continue to be monitored and a coordinated American-Israeli posture

is worked out. By any political calculation, the rocket attacks on Sderot and Ashkelon will send the IDF into Gaza long before that, but it may be that only then, when it will be possible to isolate Gaza from Iran, will the IDF be able to leave Gaza.

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Cease Fire Sincere?

But Shots we still Hear!

No War Predicted This Year

But Security Dangers Raise Fear!

Ceasefire is “said” to be Coming Here

But Iran and Syria “say” No Peace is Near!

March 10, 2008

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

THE IMMEDIATE SITUATION IN ISRAEL TODAY!

The following excerpts from four articles are followed by two articles from DEBKAfile.

The four excerpts show the mass confusion as to the possibility of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. The two articles from DEBKAfile give what is most likely the way it is in Israel at the moment.

Begin Excerpts

Excerpt 1 from Haaretz

Abbas: Israel has agreed to cease-fire with Hamas

By Barak Ravid and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents

Haaretz Service and Agencies

March 10, 2008

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday told the Arabic-language al Arabiya television network that Israel had in fact agreed to a cease-fire with Hamas, contradicting comments made earlier by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who insisted that no cease-fire agreement had been made.

The discussion regarding a possible cease-fire was ignited after Qassam rocket fire from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and Israel Defense Forces strikes subsided over the past days.

Excerpt 2 From Associated Press

Israel Reduces Activity in Gaza Strip

By LAURIE COPANS

March 10, 2008

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has instructed the army to halt air strikes and raids into the Gaza Strip in response to a serious drop in rocket fire from the territory, officials in his office said Monday.

Israeli defense officials and the Hamas rulers of Gaza said there was no formal truce in place. But the officials in Olmert’s office said the prime minister had ordered the army to scale back its operations to allow Egypt to proceed in mediation talks. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of

the talks.

Excerpt 3 From Jerusalem Post

Olmert denies cease fire talks with Hamas taking place

Herb Keinon, JPost.com Staff and AP, THE JERUSALEM POST

March 10, 2008

There is no agreement on a cease fire with Hamas, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said emphatically on Monday after meeting with visiting Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek.

“There are no negotiations and there’s no agreement” Olmert said, reiterating a sweeping denial made by Defense Minister Ehud Barak earlier in the day. “I said a few days ago that if there are no Kassam or Grad attacks on the citizens of the South, Israel will have no reason to return fire.”

After the press conference, the prime minister told reporters that the IDF was “retaining freedom of action in the South.”

He denied that Egypt was mediating between Israel and Hamas, and said that Cairo had no mandate to speak in Israel’s name with the group.

Begin Excerpt 4 From Jerus alem Post

H

amas denies reaching truce with Israel

Khaled Abu Toameh, THE JERUSALEM POST

March 9, 2008

Hamas denied Sunday that it had reached understandings with Israel over a truce or period of calm, but confirmed that Egypt was playing a role in trying to achieve a cease-fire.

Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post that Hamas and Israel had reached “secret understandings” to stop the violence. The officials claimed that the latest agreement was reached under the auspices of the Egyptians and that Hamas had pledged to stop firing rockets at Israel.

Begin Two DEBKAfile Articles

DEBKAfile Article 1

Exclusive: Israel places Lebanese, Syrian, Gaza borders, its cities and highways on high terror alert

March 10, 2008, 11:00 AM (GMT+02:00)

The annual intelligence report submitted to the Israeli government Sunday, March 9, predicted grave dangers to Israeli security in the coming year. However, even in the short term, DEBKAfile’s military and Middle East sources report the Israeli army, police and security forces are on guard for stormy events in the second half of March.

1. To bring reluctant Arab rulers to the Damascus Arab League summit on the 29th, Syria has quietly slipped the word that the contentious Lebanese issue will be left off the agenda. Deliberations would be confined to the Gaza crisis. The Saudis were therefore persuaded to accept the Syrian invitation on March 9 after several refusals.

Israeli intelligence has warned that in the interim Hamas and Jihad Islami would make every effort to ignite the Gaza front in order to unite the Arab rulers behind a dramatic Arab resolution in support of the Palestinian Islamists. This tactic would transfer the Gaza issue’s center of gravity from Cairo, which is brokering a Hamas-Israel ceasefire deal, to radical Damascus.

Egged on by Syria and Iran, Hamas keeps on stalling this track and raising its demands. Amos Gilead, security adviser in Israel’s defense ministry, who traveled to Cairo Sunday to try and break the deadlock, came back empty-handed. He said the coming summit was the key to progress and warned that the current slowdown in Palestinian rocket and missile attacks from Gaza in the last two days was extremely fragile. Hamas was poised to generate a flare-up at any time that it suited the book of Syria and Iran. Nevertheless, Israel has scaled down its anti-rocket operations in the Gaza Strip.

2. Most of all, the coming Arab League summit will for the first time host an Iranian head of state. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be seated beside Syrian president Bashar Assad as guest of honor to parade the Tehran-Damascus axis’ pre-em inent role

in Arab Middle East affairs, with Iran setting the pace.

This prospect has raised the military barometer across the region and injected a radical note in “moderate” Arab utterances.

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak suddenly declared Monday, March 10, that Israel continues to be responsible for the Gaza Strip after its pull-out and its status in both Gaza and the West Bank is that of an occupation force. In an interview, he endorsed the Hamas line which called on Israel to halt military operations not only in Gaza but also on the West Bank.

The Lebanese impasse may have been left off the formal agenda, but it looms large over the Arab world as the key divisive element. Over the weekend, the US navy built up its deployment opposite the Lebanese coast with the USS Ross guided missile destroyer and the USS Philippine Sea cruiser.

Syria responded by placing its air and naval bases, where too Russian warships are docked, on a state of preparedness.

Israel’s new national intelligence report affirms that the United States’ declining role in the region has left a vacuum for radical elements to fill. Its authors, the chiefs of military intelligence, the Mossad, Shin Bet and the foreign ministry’s intelligence unit, warned of the heightened threat from missiles in the arsenals of a future nuclear-armed Iran (within two years) and Syrian. A Hizballah attack and a stronger Hamas were also in prospect.

In the coming two weeks, Syria, Iran, Hizballah and Hamas will be further tightening the military and terrorist loop around Israel – to the north, the south, and among Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, at the expense of Israel’ s deterrent

strength.

According to our military sources, Hizballah is completing its preparations for revenge on Israel, whom it accuses of killing its military commander Imad Mughniyeh last month.

The latest estimate is that the Shiite terrorists will strike on the border and/or inside Israel, rather than hit overseas targets.

Israel’s prime minister Ehud Olmert steadily refuses to look these facts in the face and insists that Israel’s security situation has never been better.

Both he and foreign minister Tzipi Livni are still carefully treading the line drawn by US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, whose main preoccupation these days is to keep foreign crises at bay for the rest of the Bush presidency.

In Jerusalem last week, Rice confided that to achieve a lull in the cross-border violence in Gaza, even concessions to Hamas were acceptable.

This stance, which Israel accepted, substantially enhanced the Islamists’ bargaining position.

DEBKAfile Article 2

Olmert and Barak deny ceasefire accord with Hamas – as does Hamas

March 10, 2008, 7:46 PM (GMT+02:00)

Creating some confusion, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas insisted in Amman that a Gaza truce had been finalized.

The first denial came from Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barak Monday, March 10, when he sharply rebuffed reports of a truce deal with Hamas and the scaling back of military operations in the Gaza Strip.

“There is no accord, nor is one close,” he stressed. “We will continue to fight until missile fire and terrorist attacks end and arms smuggling into Gaza is cut down. We are committed to these three goals.”

Until these goals are attained, we will take any military steps we think fit.

But it is no one-off operation. The tough challenges are still to come.”

The minister spoke during a tour of the Technology and Logistics Base at Tel Hashomer outside Tel Aviv.

Referring to the two-day slowdown of missile fire from Gaza, Barak said no one should complain if Sapir College and Ashkelon are free of Grad and Qassam missile fire. “The military will do everything necessary to complete its mission, even if it faces long and tough challenges.” He noted that all sorts of considerations affect military decisions, such as weather conditions and the accessibility of targets.

Asked to respond to the grim intelligence report of threats facing Israel in the year go come, which was submitted to the cabinet Sunday, Barak said: “Israel is still the strongest nation in the region.”

DEBKAfile’s military sources pose a couple of questions raised by the defense minister’s remarks:

1. Are they backed by prime minister Ehud Olmert

? DEBKAfile’s political sources reply in the negative. The prime minister has developed his own two-track strategy: While publicly pledging a series of military knockout blows against Hamas, he is privately engaged in indirect dialogue with Hamas representatives and forcing the IDF to hold its fire. Barak is trying to correct the public’s low opinion of this performance.

2. He correctly stated that a ceasefire deal with Hamas is nowhere near but he did not explain that the delay is not the result of Israel’s tough bargaining position but because Hamas keeps on raising new demands. The latest, endorsed Monday by Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, was that Israeli forces forego their counter-terror operations not only in Gaza, but on the West Bank too.

3. Israel is commonly accepted as the strongest nation in the region. However, the Olmert government’s military policies constantly transmit weak resolve and hesitancy. This was illustrated by its stop-go handling of the Palestinian missile escalation from Gaza. These tactics are eroding the IDF’s deterrent strength. If Israel concludes a ceasefire accord with Hamas from a position of weakness, the rockets and missiles will soon be flying again.

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the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more detailed information go to:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.

You may use material originated by this site.

However, if you wish to use any quoted copyrighted material from this site, which did not originate at this site, for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner from which we extracted it.