blog.Tribulationperiod.com

Prices Flare and

Bread Lines Form!

Black Eyes of Famine,

For a Lack of Mammon,

When a Black Horse Man,

Shows His Long Boney Hand,

Across the Earth’s Farm Lands!

Famine Eyes and weakened Hands!

Grain Prices Rise under Chaotic Skies,

And Political Rhetoric is Filled with Cries,

Of Wonderful Solutions that are blatant Lies!

April 8, 2008

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Revelation 6:5,6 – And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. [6] And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

I wrote the following concerning famine in 2000 when we began this Web Site.

“The population explosion that has suddenly burst on the scene should come as no surprise to mankind. The world’s population has roughly, in somewhat similar manner, followed the principle of daily doubling pennies. Suppose that someone proposed to give you five billion dollars if you would double a penny he gave you for forty days. Would you take the deal? A single penny on the first day would produce two cents on the second day, four cents on the third day, eight cents on the fourth day, sixteen cents on the fifth day, thirty-two cents on the sixth day, sixty-four cents on the seventh day, and only $1.28 on the eighth day. So, based on what you’ve read so far, it seems like a pretty good deal. But on day forty you would have to fork over move than five billion dollars.

This principle is now being added into the famine equation.

The world’s famine outbreaks in the developing countries have been occurring closer and closer together in time since World War II, and this trend, like a woman’s birth pangs, will definitely accelerate until Jesus comes. Why? A few thousand years ago eight men and women descended in an ark “upon the mountains of Ararat,” and then began to multiply. At first, just like the penny, the increase was slow and insignificant numerically.

When Jesus was born, the world population had only reached about 200 million. When Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, it had only reached 400 million.

But, like the multiplying multiples of the penny, it began to accelerate about the time of the Civil War, and exploded after the Great Depression of the thirties. In 1989 the world population reached five billion and, the same year, eleven million of the earth’s residents died of starvation. The world population passed six billion in October of 1999, and is predicted to reach ten billion in 2030. There is no way under heaven that the developing countries across the Bible Lands of Asia and Africa, where most of this increase is forecast to occur, can fail to have an ever increasing, massive famine. Some say the population will only reach 8.5 billion in 2030. But even if this is true, how can the additional 3.5 billion be fed if 11 million died of starvation in 1989 with a population of only five billion.

In the late seventies, when I wrote my second book, The Tribulation Triad, I pointed out that the famines absolutely had to continue to increase in frequency and intensity. It is even more of a sure thing today! One might suppose that the prediction of thirty million Africans dying from AIDS during the next quarter century, would cause the predicted population growth to be canceled out. Nothing could be farther from the truth! In spite of this staggering AIDS toll, Africa’s population is expected to double during this time period.

Some say, don’t worry, agricultural technology will solve the famine problem. No way! The latest U.N. study found ten percent of the world’s soil profile badly damaged. The three-year study accessed soil conditions on a global scale, and involved more than 250 soil scientists.

It marked the first time since World War II that soil profiles had been assessed on a global scale. As reported by Larry B. Stammer in the Los Angeles Times, the study found that “about two-thirds of all seriously eroded land is in Asia and Africa, home to most of the world’s poor.” The article, using the report as its basis, stated: “ Despite the much acclaimed green revolution of the past several decades, which produced unprecedented gains in food production through the introduction of fertilizers and hybrid grains, the per-capita food production has declined in about eighty developing countries in the past decade.” The report, Vital Signs 1993: The Trends That Are Shaping Our Future, as reported by David Brisco in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette of July 18, 1993, stated: “This new report shows the first clear sign that population is outpacing the food available for humans. The trend is mostly because of record world population growth, but also reflects a slowdown in decades of increasing food supplies. The main sources of food – farms, ranches, and oceans – all appear to be approaching, or may have reached, their maximum per-capita output, according to Vital Signs 1993.” The simple truth is this, the world’s maximum food production, since the mid-nineties, has not been able to keep up with the stork, and the ever increasing population will cause it to fall farther and farther behind. Earthquakes, pestilence, and famine will continue to increase the pain of God’s creation while it awaits the manifestation of his sons at the appearance of his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.”

End quote of 2000 Article.

The two articles which follow deal with the world problem we are facing in grains from which is made “our daily bread.”

Begin Quote from SAUDI GAZETTE via IMRA

April 7, 2008

In Egypt, long queues for bread

Reuters QUOTE: “subsidized bread which provides daily nutrition to 50 million Egyptians – or over two-thirds of thepopulation”

EXCERPTS:

CAIRO – Abdel Nabi Salim’s main job in life is queuing for bread.

The graying 65-year-old retired administrator stands under Egypt’s glaring noon sun, waiting in a queue that snakes out to the street to buy 20 loaves of steaming subsidized pocket bread from a barred window for 1 Egyptian pound ($0.18).

Egypt has for decades provided cheap bread for the poor as an expensive butessential component of its economic policy because it enables millions tosurvive on low salaries and wards off political discontent.

But bread lines have lengthened in recent months as costs of other
non-subsidized Egyptian staples soared, forcing more reliance on a subsidy regime that depends heavily on costly imported wheat and is also strained by a thriving black market.

The current crunch means that once Salim buys his first batch of bread, he will return to the back of the line to wait, again, for the additional 10 loaves he needs to keep his extended family from going hungry. . . .Excruciating lines have prompted media headlines of a bread “crisis” in the most populous Arab country, where cuts in bread subsidies led to riots in 1977 that killed scores and forced the government to back down.

Observers say sustained problems in the subsidy system could lead to a repeat of the 1977 crisis, if not quickly contained.

“It may be something far more reaching and much more violent, I’m afraid, because people are increasingly feeling that their faces are to the wall,” said Gouda Abdel Khalek, a Cairo University economist.

Top Egyptian officials have vowed speedy intervention to restore easy access to subsidized bread, which provides daily nutrition to 50 million Egyptians – or over two-thirds of the population.

Sue Lerner – Associate, IMRA

Begin WorldNetDaily Article

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

WorldNetDaily Exclusive

Silent’ famine sweeps globe

Rice, fertilizer shortages, food costs, higher energy prices equal world crisis

Posted: April 01, 2008

8:59 pm Eastern

WorldNetDaily

WASHINGTON – From India to Africa to North Korea to Pakistan and even in New York City, higher grain prices, fertilizer shortages and rising energy costs are combining to spell hunger for millions in what is being characterized as a global “silent famine.”
Global food prices, based on United Nations records, rose 35 percent in the last year, escalating a trend that began in 2002. Since then, prices have risen 65 percent.

Last year, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s world food index, dairy prices rose nearly 80 percent and grain 42 percent.

“This is the new face of hunger,” said Josetta Sheeran, director of the World Food Program, launching an appeal for an extra $500 million so it could continue supplying food aid to 73 million hungry people this year. “People are simply being priced out of food markets. … We have never before had a situation where aggressive rises in food prices keep pricing our operations out of our reach.”

The WFP launched a public appeal weeks ago because the price of the food it buys to feed some of the world’s poorest people had risen by 55 percent since last June. By the time the appeal began last week, prices had risen a further 20 percent. That means WFP needs $700 million to bridge the gap between last year’s budget and this year’s prices. The numbers are expected to continue to rise.

The crisis is widespread and the result of numerous causes – a kind of “perfect storm” leading to panic in many places:

In Thailand, farmers are sleeping in their fields because thieves are stealing rice, now worth $600 a ton, right out of the paddies.

Four people were killed in Egypt in riots over subsidized flour that was being sold for profit on the black market.

There have been food riots in Morocco, Senegal and Cameroon.

Mexico’s government is considering lifting a ban on genetically modified crops, to allow its farmers to compete with the United States.

Argentina, Kazakhstan and China have imposed restrictions to limit grain exports and keep more of their food at home.

Vietnam and India, both major rice exporters, have announced further restrictions on overseas sales.

Violent food protests hit Burkina Faso in February.

Protesters rallied in Indonesia recently, and media reported deaths by starvation.

In the Philippines, fast-food chains were urged to cut rice portions to counter a surge in prices.

Millions of people in India face starvation after a plague of rats overruns a region, as they do cyclically every 50 years.

Officials in Bangladesh warn of an emerging “silent famine” that threatens to ravage the region.

According to some experts, the worst damage is being done by government mandates and subsidies for “biofuels” that supposedly reduce carbon dioxide emissions and fight climate change. Thirty percent of this year’s U.S. grain harvest will go to ethanol distilleries. The European Union, meanwhile, has set a goal of 10 percent bio-fuels for all transportation needs by 2010.

“A huge amount of the world’s farmland is being diverted to feed cars, not people,” writes Gwynne Dyer, a London-based independent journalist.

He notes that in six of the past seven years the human race has consumed more grain than it grew. World grain reserves last year were only 57 days, down from 180 days a decade ago.

One in four bushels of corn from this year’s U.S. crop will be diverted to make ethanol, according to estimates.

“Turning food into fuel for cars is a major mistake on many fronts,” said Janet Larsen, director of research at the Earth Policy Institute, an environmental group based in Washington.

“One, we’re already seeing higher food prices in the American supermarket. Two, perhaps more serious from a global perspective, we’re seeing higher food prices in developing countries where it’s escalated as far as people rioting in the streets.”

Palm oil is also at record prices because of biofuel demands. This has created shortages in Indonesia and Malaysia, where it is a staple.

Nevertheless, despite the recognition that the biofuels industry is adding to a global food crisis, the ethanol industry is popular in the U.S. where farmers enjoy subsidies for the corn crops.

Another contributing factor to the crisis is the demand for more meat in an increasingly prosperous Asia. More grain is used to feed the livestock than is required to feed humans directly in a traditional grain-based diet.

Bad weather is another problem driving the world’s wheat stocks to a 30-year low – along with regional droughts and a declining dollar.

“This is an additional setback for the world economy, at a time when we are already going through major turbulence,” Angel Gurria, head of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, told Reuters. “But the biggest drama is the impact of higher food prices on the poor.”

According to the organization, as well as the U.N., the price of corn could rise 27 percent in the next decade.

John Bruton, the European Union’s ambassador to the U.S., predicts the current trend is the beginning of a 10-15 year rise in food costs worldwide.

The rodent plague in India occurs about every half century following the heavy flowering of a local species of bamboo, providing the rodents with a feast of high-protein foliage. Once the rats have ravaged the bamboo, they turn on the crops, consuming hundreds of tons of rice and corn supplies.

Survivors of the previous mautam, which heralded widespread famine in 1958, say they remember areas of paddy fields the size of four soccer fields being devastated overnight.

In Africa, rats are seen as part of the answer to the food shortage. According to Africa News, Karamojongs have resorted to hunting wild rats for survival as famine strikes the area.

Supplies of fertilizer are extremely tight on the worldwide market, contributing to a potential disaster scenario. The Scotsman reports there are virtually no stocks of ammonium nitrate in the United Kingdom.

Global nitrogen is currently in deficit, a situation that is unlikely to change for at least three years, the paper reports.

South Koreans are speculating, as they do annually, on how many North Koreans will starve to death before the fall harvest.

But this year promises to be worse than usual.

Severe crop failure in the North and surging global prices for food will mean millions of hungry Koreans.

Roughly a third of children and mothers are malnourished, according to a recent U.N. study. The average 8-year-old in the North is 7 inches shorter and 20 pounds lighter than a South Korean child of the same age.

Floods last August ruined part of the main yearly harvest, creating a 25-percent shortfall in the food supply and putting 6 million people in need, according to the U.N. World Food Program.

Yesterday, the Hong Kong government tried to put a stop to panic-buying of rice in the city of 6.9 million as fears mounted over escalating prices and a global rice shortage. Shop shelves were being cleared of rice stocks as Hong Kong people reacted to news that the price of rice imported from Thailand had shot up by almost a third in the past week, according to agency reports.

Global food prices are even hitting home in New York City, according to a report in the Daily News.

Food pantries and soup kitchens in the city are desperately low on staples for the area’s poor and homeless.

The Food Bank for New York City, which supplies food to 1,000 agencies and 1.3 million people, calls it the worst problem since its founding 25 years ago.

Last year, the Food Bank received 17 million pounds of food through

the Emergency Food Assistance Program, less than half of the 35 million pounds it received in 2002. And donations from individuals and corporations are also down about 50 percent, according to the report.

High gas prices, increased food production costs and a move to foreign production of American food are contributing to the problem.

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

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WAR COVERS GOD’S LAND

IN THE SWEET BY & BY AS

BOTH WILL MEET IN THAT

GLORIOUS LAND ON THAT

BEAUTIFUL SHORE, WHEN

NORTH & SOUTH COLLIDE

AND JEWISH SAINTS HIDE!

April 7, 2008

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

The reports of an immediate Middle East war are flying like soap rings out of a child’ s handheld wire circle dipped in liquid

soap solution. And while I do expect a war will eventually break out in the Middle East, it is most likely to begin in the sweet by and by at a point in time between 2010 and 2015, not next week. I am afraid all these current war bubbles are going to pop before a war breaks out, but I would love to be wrong.

IN THE SWEET BY AND BY THE FORCES OF THE KINGS OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH WILL INDEED MEET ON THE VERY BEAUTIFUL SHORES OF AKHZOV IN ISRAEL AS THE KING OF THE SOUTH IS PUSHED SOUTH TOWARD THE NEGEV, BUT I DO NOT EXPECT THIS EVENT TO OCCUR IN THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE. HOWEVER, I DO BELIEVE THE SCRIPTURES WHICH FOLLOW ARE MORE LIKELY TO BEGIN TO BE FULFILLED AT A POINT IN TIME BETWEEN 2010 TO 2015.

Daniel 11:40,41 – And at the time of the end shall the king of the SOUTH push at him: and the king of the NORTH shall come agains

t him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. [41] He shall enter also into THE GLORIOUS LAND, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.

Isaiah 26:20,21 – Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: HIDE THYSELF as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. [21] For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

Revelation 12:6 – And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

Begin Jerusalem Post Article

Hizbullah: IDF preparing for new war on Lebanon

Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST

April 6, 2008

Israel’s new military exercises are intended to prepare for a new war on Lebanon, the deputy leader of Hizbullah said Sunday.

Sheik Naim Kassem also warned that Hizbullah is fully ready to defend Lebanon if Israel attacks again.

Kassem’s remarks came as Israel began a five-day home front security drill Sunday, simulating responses to war and other emergency situations, including a large-scale terror attack or natural catastrophe.

Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said the drill was meant to help Israel apply lessons from its inconclusive 2006 war against Hizbullah guerrillas, during which the group fired hundreds of conventional rockets into Israel. However, he and other Israeli officials denied the exercise was related to current friction along Israel’s northern border with Syria and Lebanon.

“These drills are part of preparations for war because Israel is always in a warlike situation,” Kassem told a rally south of Beirut.

“These maneuvers are part of preparations for something in the future – probably it could be far off – but it is a preparation for war.”

Kassem said the Israeli drills were also intended “to raise the collapsing morale of the people inside Israel following the defeat in the 2006 war.”

Israel attacked Lebanon that summer after Hizbullah killed three Israeli soldiers and seized two others in a cross-border raid. But the Israel has acknowledged it failed to achieve two of its declared objectives: freeing the two captured soldiers and destroying Hizbullah’s military structure.

After the war, a 13,500-strong UN force, along with 15,000 Lebanese troops, was deployed along the Lebanese-Israeli border to monitor a UN cease-fire.

Kassem said Hizbullah was ready to defend Lebanon if it was attacked again by Israel.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, whose Western-backed government is locked in fierce power struggle with the Syrian-backed opposition led by Hizbullah, told reporters Sunday that he opposes the Israeli exercise.

Saniora said he had instructed the Lebanese army and the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon to be vigilant “so that Israel will not use (the drills) as a pretext to violate our airspace or launch an attack on Lebanon.” He spoke in Cairo after meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

In a speech last month, Hizbullah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah threatened to retaliate with an “open war” against Israel for the assassination of one of his top commanders, Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed Feb.

12 in a car bomb in Syria. Hizbullah and Iran, its main backer, blamed Mughniyeh’s assassination on Israel, which denied any role.

Israel declared a heightened security alert after Mughniyeh’s death, fearing Hizbullah retaliation.

Begin Arutz Sheva Article

‘Day Four of the War’ – Israel’s Largest Emergency Drill Ever

1 Nissan 5768, 06 April 08 09:12

by Ezra HaLevi

(IsraelNN.com) The State of Israel is under attack from Syria, Lebanon and Gaza according to the practice exercise starting Sunday.

The IDF Home Front Command, in cooperation with the recently-established National Emergency Authority, called “Rachel” for its Hebrew acronym, local authorities, different governmental offices, security and rescue teams and the educational system will participate in a comprehensive national training exercise which will take place across the country beginning Sunday.

Israelis awoke to radio announcers describing the scenario being practiced for: It is the fourth day of

the war. Israel is under missile attack from the Hizbullah in Lebanon and from Syria. Kassam rockets and Grad-type Katyusha missiles are being launched at Netivot and Ashkelon from Gaza.

The IDF dispatched a statement assuring citizens that the drill has been planned “as part of the IDF 2008 work plan,” and emphasizing: The exercise was not planned in relation to any current events.

Syria and Lebanon are reportedly on high alert, nonetheless. Army Radio reported that while the practice exercizes are being held, Hizbullah terrorists and Syria will be deployed and readied for an all-out confrontation – something Syria is claiming is a result of the fear that Israel will launch an attack.

The National Emergency Authority

This will be the first exercise led by “Rachel”.

“The aim of the exercise is to prepare the different services and institutes operating in the civilian environment for various emergency situations,” the IDF said. “The exercise will incorporate operations at a staff and field level, and will be operated by the National Emergency Authority and the Home Front Command.”

Citizens to be Involved Tuesday

As part of the exercise, a minute and a half long siren will be heard on Tuesday, April 8th, at 10 a.m. across the country. Every town will be included except for “Sderot and the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip,” according to the IDF – ostensibly because terrorists would use a practice drill as an opportunity to launch real rockets. It is unclear whether Ashkelon will be included.

The government has hired veteran news anchor Gadi Sukenik to broadcast emergency instructions Tuesday – and to do the same in the event of a real emergency. Channel 33 will feature instructions from 10 to 11 a.m., broadcast from the Home Front Command’s new studio. During the broadcast Sukenik will speak on behalf of GOC Home Front Command (H.F.C.), Maj. Gen. Yair Golan. H.F.C. will broadcast guidance and tutorial videos on how to choose a protected space and

how to behave during an alert.

At the same time, an exercise led by the national educational institutions will take place in which schools and kindergartens will practice entering protected spaces. During the sounding of the siren, Home Front Comm and bases, as well as Governmental Offices

and Public Institutions, will also practice entering protected spaces. A national exercise will also take place with the participation of local and other authorities and with the participation of the Home Front’s liaison units, which were especially recruited for the exercises.

On Tuesday- Thursday, April 8-10th, 2008, a field exercise that will simulate various potential scenarios will take place. Among the scenarios to be practiced: conventional and non-conventional rockets hitting Israel, chemical-biological incidents, an exercise in “HaEmek” hospital in Afula and different search and rescue drills.

A notice regarding the location and possible hours for covering the exercise will be sent separately to the media. For further information: Home Front Information Center- *1207, or online: www.oref.org.il.

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REASON FOR ALERTS IN MIDDLE EAST

April 6, 2008

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

The DEBKAfile Exclusive which follows is a good explanation for the current Middle East rumors of war floating through the British Media.

I agree with the analysis as to WHY the numerous surge of alerts have swept across the Middle East during the past week, but I do not believe this is going to be “the big one” that kicks off the final war

of the Age of the Gentiles. I still believe the most likely time for “the big one” to start will be initiated at some point in time between 2010 and 2015.

Exclusive: Iran, Syria, Lebanon

on military alert over US Gulf movements and Israel’s home defense drill

April 6, 2008, 12:09 PM (GMT+02:00)

According to British media, the US is set

to attack Iranian military facilities. DEBKAfile’s military sources add that the USS Abraham Lincoln Strike Force is heading for the Persian Gulf.

War tensions in the Middle East have shot up – not only over the signals flashing between Syria, Lebanon, and Israel, but also on the US-Iranian front in Iraq in the wake of rising in violence around the Basra conflagration.

Tuesday, April 8, US Iraq commander, Gen.

David Petraeus and ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, will stress in their report to Congress that Iran is waging war on America in Iraq, say sources in Washington, London and Baghdad.

This emerged strongly last week, when US intelligence learned that Iran had intervened directly in the Iraqi government’s crackdown on renegade militias in Basra and southern Iraq, by directing and provisioning those militias through the Revolutionary Guards’ al Qods Brigades.

Official sources in London predict that Iran’s interventi on against the American effort to stabilize Iraq may well prompt a US attack

on the military installations in Iran which are orchestrating the interference.

Gen. Petraeus is on record as accusing Iran of being the source of the daily rocket bombardment of Baghdad’s Green Zone, seat of government and US diplomatic and military headquarters.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Moscow has dropped its two nickels into the rising war alarm.

In the last two weeks, Russian military and intelligence officials have been leaking claims of intensified American military movements around Iranian shores.

Iran is certain to come up in Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin’s farewell talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi Sunday, along with other controversial business, such as Moscow’s objections to NATO’s eastern expansion and US missile shield in East Europe.

Saturday, US defense secretary Robert Gates turned up in Oman, the site of big American air bases, for talks with Sultan Qaboos. He then flew straight back to Washington. While Gates insisted to correspondents aboard his plane that the US is committed to a diplomatic solution for Iran’s covert nuclear program, the surpise visit struck sparks in the already fraught regional atmosphere, particularly as it followed on the heels of US Vice President Dick Cheney’s talks in Oman two weeks ago.

DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources sum up how Tehran and Damascus read these events and the picture they have built up of Washington’s intentions as combined with Israel’s military steps:

1. US is prepar ing to attack the Iranian military

installations linked to subversion in Iraq. The operation will widen out into strikes on the Islamic Republic’s suspect nuclear sites.

2. Israel will use the chance for a concurrent attack on Syria.

3. Israel will attack Hizballah’s strongholds in Lebanon.

4. A broad, coordinated US-Israeli offensive will be mounted against Iran, Syria and Hizballah.

Iran and Syria view Israel’s four-day home defense exercise against missile attack, conventional or non-conventional, beginning Sunday, as setting the stage for these attacks.

Both believe Washington and Jerusalem are in close military step.

Neither is reassured by soothing statements from prime minister Ehud Olmert and defense minister Barak that Israel does not seek violent confrontation – especially when the US administration is withholding all comment. Hence the high state of preparedness ordered by the jittery governments in Tehran, Damascus and Beirut.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by 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:

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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.

BAPTISTS, JEWS FOR JESUS, AND MESSIANIC JEWS INFO

April 6, 2008

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

We receive a lot of e-mail from time to time asking me about different groups of believers in Israel. I have refrained to interject my own ideas about them because they are testifying about Jesus as the Savior and Messiah, which is a difficult task in Israel, and subject to persecution by some Jewish groups that can’t stand believers in Christ, especially if they try to convert Jews to a belief in Jesus. My doctrinal beliefs on the ordinances of the church and the church itself are different from theirs, but I applaud them for their testimony of Jesus Christ, particularly in a hostile environment, and I pray for them and the work they do there for a testimony of Jesus.

Philippians 1:15-18 – Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: [16] The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: [17] But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel. [18] What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.

I do rejoice, and will rejoice that Christ is preached in the same place that the first church in Jerusalem preached it, and I thank God for their courage. Therefore, I do not intend to discuss their doctrinal practices with my own opinions.

But since many have asked me about it over the years, I am including two articles for informational purposes, which express their opinions based on research and personal day to day living in Israel. I am really not qualified to discuss it with the authority and knowledge I personally have of the individual groups of believers in the Holy Land.

I was there before the Jerusalem Baptist Church building was burned down by Jewish Orthodox extremists in 1982, and for years afterwards the local officials kept giving Baptists flack in getting building permits in order to stop its restoration as a place where Baptists worship. And I eventually stopped keeping track of the different groups recognized as believers in Jesus as the Messiah during my many trips there. My last trip there was in 1999.

I did not know the Baptist Church Building had finally been restored as a place of worship until the article which follows came out on March 27, 2008. The church was reinstituted in 1996, 14 years after the building was burned, and three years before I made my last trip to the Holy Land, but I was not aware of it.

The ABA work there in Jerusalem and Ramallah consists of a small group, almost entirely Arab in makeup, and since the first intrafada the work in Ramallah has become increasingly difficult.

The Information contained in the blog which follows came from a wide variety of sources who took it from other sources. If the source is not named it came from standard informational research documentation, such as is listed in encyclopedias, religious journals, or denominational statements of faith.

Begin Jerusalem Post Article

JERUSALEM’S BAPTIST CHURCH

Greener Pastors

Gil Zohar, THE JERUSALEM POST

March 27, 2008

Pastor Al Nucciarone – he doesn’t like Dr. Rev. – arrived just before Christmas to lead Jerusalem’s Baptist Church on Rehov Narkiss on the edge of Rehavia.

“We have a small congregation of 50 to 60 people,” says the Italian-American pastor. The sign outside their picturesque house of worship is in Hebrew, English and Russian, reflecting the three smaller linguistic congregations that share the building. Technically the Baptist congregation is the only one listed on the amuta.

“It’s all nations,” Nucciarone smiles, counting off congregants who are American, Canadian, German, Dutch, British, Italian, French, Finnish and African.

Recently a Korean tourist group came and packed the church to the rafters. “Tourists want to have a worship experience. They’ve seen all the sites. Now they want to worship God.

They want song and fellowship, something inspirational,” explains Nucciarone.

Jerusalem’s Baptist congregation was founded in 1925. The present congregation, reinstituted in 1996, is a member of the Baptist Convention of Israel and is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention of the United States.

Those credentials evidently offended some of Jerusalem’s religious zealots, who burnt down the church in 1982.

Another arson attempt last October caused extensive smoke damage before three fire trucks and a dozen firefighters extinguished the blaze.

Nucciarone was apprehensive about granting an interview for fear of adverse publicity. “We believe in the Old Testament precepts of loving God and your fellow man,” he says.

In addition to Nucciarone’s preaching duties every Sunday, he pays pastoral visits to congregants who are sick, elderly or alone. He is also studying Hebrew at Ulpan Mila on Rehov Hillel.

“I did study biblical Hebrew at the Dallas Seminary a long time ago,” he laughs. “But that doesn’t allow me to converse with people.”

Like any new immigrant family, Nucciarone, his wife Billie and daughter Allison are also adjusting to life here. Billie is not working here and studies Hebrew four days a week with her husband. Allison is in ninth grade at the Anglican School on Rehov Hanevi’im. The Nucciarones also have two older daughters in the US.

Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1951, Jerusalem is the “last stop” on a world tour that has taken him to Milan for 12 years and Vienna for 14, says Nucciarone.

The Baptist minister first visited Israel in 1978, and returned in 2006 with a group of pastors studying to lead Holy Land tours. “One Sunday I visited the Jerusalem Baptist Church. It just so happened that the man preaching was a friend from Italy now working in Israel. He asked me to give a greeting and to close the service with a benediction. Afterwards, one of the deacons came up to me and said, ‘You’d be a good pastor here. You look Jewish, you’re Italian and have a Mediterranean personality like Israelis.’ And so I said, ‘Well, I’m quite happy in Vienna.'” But the Lord works in mysterious ways.

“Returning to the United States for a sabbatical, I felt God telling me to come back to Israel.” Thanks to the Baptist Convention’s non-profit status, Nucciarone qualified for a clergy visa, which is renewable annually. Theoretically the visa doesn’t allow Nucciarone to work for money here, and his salary comes from the Kansas City-based Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Like other Americans who live here but receive an income in greenbacks, he too suffers from the “dollar doldrums.” “You can go crazy worrying about the exchange rate,” he cautions. “I don’t even think about it.”

Down the road, he’d like to study to become a licensed tour guide – even though as a man of the cloth he is exempt from the Ministry of Tourism requirements.

Giving away 1,500 books in Vienna, Nucciarone arrived here with his most valuable 20 books. “For a man who loves books, that was hard. But in Israel the whole country is a book,” he smiles.

Nucciarone’s prayers were answered when he inherited a library of 600 volumes of Jewish history, Bible and theology from a congregant who passed away.

INFORMATION ON BAPTIST CHURCHES IN ISRAEL

The Association of Baptist Churches in Israel (ABCI) is a Baptist association of churches in Israel.

Shukri Musa, who was baptized by George Truett at the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, was the first known modern Baptist to enter Israel (then the British Mandate of Palestine). He arrived in 1911, with the support of the Illinois Baptist State Association, and began in Zefat, where he baptized his first convert. He later founded a church in Nazareth. The Southern Baptist Convention sent missionaries in 1923. A congregation was established in Jerusalem in 1925, and another in Haifa in 1936.

Due to their circumstances, individual churches often emphasize their positions on the Old and New Covenants. The Jerusalem Church, having suffered the original body adopting charismatic practices, emphasize their stand on spiritual gifts. Premillennialism is the predominant eschatological belief, though some younger more educated believers are adopting Amillennialism.

In 2004, the ABCI had 19 congregations with about 2000 members. The congregations are ethnically and linguistically diverse, with 13 Arabic-speaking, two Hebrew-speaking, two Spanish, one Filipino, and one Russian. The majority of Baptist believers live in Galilee. Chairman of ABC board is Mr. Fuad Haddad. Treasurer from Association is Bader Mansour, the owner and general manager from Nazareth Data Quest a technology provider corporation.In June 2006,the ABC elected a new chairman:Mr. Monther Naum,a nutrition engineer from Shefa-Amr. A “K-12” school (founded 1949), which is housed near the Evangelical Baptist Church at Nazareth, is related to the organization .The Nazareth Baptist school was rated lately as the 7th school nationally in the percentage of excellent students in the matriculation exam.The general director of the school is Botrus Mansour, and the principal is Dr.Ousama Moalem.see www.nbs.org.il. The leading Baptist church is the local Baptist church-Nazareth. The Association of Baptist Churches is a member of the European Baptist Federation and the Baptist World Alliance. In addition to the churches of the ABCI, there were two churches in Israel affiliated with the American Baptist Association (1 each in Jerusalem and Ramallah) and one Reformed Baptist church near Tel Aviv. Christians make up about 2% of the religious affiliation in Israel, and Baptists are only a small part of that. Yet, the Association of Baptist Churches in Israel is the largest individual evangelical body in Israel. The majority religion is Jewish – about 80%. In 2006, ABC initiated the establishment of the Nazareth Centre for Christian studies and asked Dr.James Bryson Arthur from Scotland to lead it. A majority of Israel’s Baptists live in the Galilee.

INFORMATION ON MESSIANIC JEWS & JEWS FOR JESUS

Jews for Jesus take mainstream Christian positions that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, that his coming was prophesied in the Jewish scriptures, and that Jesus is the Son of God and the second person of the Trinity.

A summary of Jews for Jesus’ beliefs:

in the divine inspiration and inerrancy of the Old and New Testaments, as originally written.

God the creator exists as a Trinity, is perfect, all wise, all powerful and all loving.

Jesus is the Messiah, the second person of the Trinity, was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died for the sins of all humanity, rose again, and is co-equal with God. Jesus will return to earth in the near future.

People are saved through a belief in Jesus as savior and an acknowledgment of their sins; not by their achievements.

Heaven is a reward for those who are saved; Hell is a place of “everlasting conscious punishment” for the lost.

According to an article on Jews for Jesus by B. Robinson of Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance,

Their doctrinal statement is basically indistinguishable from Evangelical and other conservative Christian groups. … They differ from some Evangelical Christian groups in their belief that Israel continues to exist as a “covenant people.” They also integrate some Jewish customs and use Hebrew and Yiddish in some literature.[10]

One of the most important Jewish principles of faith is the belief in one God and one God only with no partnership of any kind (see Deuteronomy 6:4), and belief in Jesus as deity, son of God, or Christ, is held as incompatible with Judaism. In his book A History of the Jews, Paul Johnson describes the schism between Jews and Christians caused by a divergence from this principle:

To the question, Was Jesus God or man?, the Christians therefore answered: both. After 70 AD, their answer was unanimous and increasingly emphatic. This made a complete breach with Judaism inevitable.

Jews for Jesus believes it is entirely compatible with the view of God presented in Jewish scriptures and that the doctrine of the Trinity, fundamental to the Christian faith, is not entirely alien to Judaism: “While it is true that the Old Testament portion of Scripture does not present as clear a picture of the three-in-one/one-as-three Godhead, there are indications of the plurality of the Godhead in the Hebrew Scriptures.”

According to a common belief in Judaism, these “indications” are based on mistranslations and Jesus did not fulfill the qualifications for Jewish Messiah. The vision of God as a trinity is seen by Judaism as a deviation from monotheism and therefore is rejected.

America’s Religions. An Educator’s Guide to Beliefs and Practices contains “[a] note about Jews for Jesus, Messianic Jews, Hebrew Christians, and similar groups: Jews in these groups who have converted to Christianity but continue to observe various Jewish practices are no longer considered part of the Jewish community in the usual sense.”

The Messianic Jewish Congregational Movement

by David A. Rausch

Dr. Rausch is associate professor of church history and Judaic studies at Ashland, (Ohio) Theological Seminary. This article appeared in the Christian Century September 15-22, p.

926. Copyright by the Christian Century Foundation and used by permission. Current articles and subscription information can be found at www.christiancentury.org. This material was prepared for Religion Online by Ted & Winnie Brock.

To my surprise, even most evangelicals opposed the Messianic Jews, accusing them of rebuilding the wall of partition between Jewish and gentile Christians and, in fact, of going back under the Law. A well-known Hebrew Christian whom I interviewed, a leader in missionary outreach to the Jewish community, shook his head and quietly explained:

To these “Messianic Jews” Jewishness means Judaism . . . a rabbinic Judaism of the Ashkenazic flavor. . . . They neither have a real knowledge of Jewish history or of Jewish-Christian history, nor do they possess a good handle on biblical exegesis. . . . Like the Ebionites of old they will finally blend into Judaism and deny the Messiah.

This evangelical attitude came as a shock, for initially I had thought that the movement was simply a “Jews for Jesus” extension of previous Hebrew Christian evangelistic organizations that also had been opposed by both Christians and Jews.

Whatever one’s stand on the issue, it is important to gain some understanding of this movement. Although many regard the concept as unthinkable, the movement is growing and is gaining gentile supporters. The number of Messianic congregations (“synagogues”) continues to rise, and there is a fervent commitment on the part of these Messianics to “discover their Jewishness.”

However, Messianic Jews themselves were of little help to me in tracing the historic roots of the movement. As I interviewed their leaders across the United States, I found a prevalent belief that they had coined the term “Messianic Judaism.” Others thought that the term had originated within the past ten or 20 years. Most of their opponents also agreed that this was so.

In fact, both the term “Messianic Judaism” and the frustration with the movement go back to the 19th century. Dur ing 1895 Our Hope magaz

ine, which became a bulwark in the fundamentalist-evangelical movement under the editorship of Arno C. Gaebelein, carried the subtitle “A Monthly Devoted to the Study of Prophecy and to Messianic Judaism.” An organ of the Hope of Israel movement in New York City, the magazine maintained that Jewish converts should not sever themselves from their people and their Jewish practices. It castigated the gentile Christian church for teaching that Jewish believers must refrain from observances proclaimed in the Mosaic Law.

This approach did not escape unscathed; other Jewish missionary enterprises labeled Our Hope’s “Messianic Judaism” as outright “Judaizing,” declaring that such theology was “unscriptural, mischievous and dangerous.” Even the coeditors, Gaebelein and Ernst F. Stroeter, a former professor at Denver University, later split over the issue.

Gaebelein switched his position regarding Messianic Judaism; Stroeter maintained its validity to the end of his life. This was very important in Gaebelein’s case: he might not have been accepted as a leader within fundamentalist evangelicalism, nor become a famous Bible and prophecy conference speaker, if he had not changed his view.

For the scholar who seeks to unravel this tangled history, there are many surprises.

It is fascinating that the movement would arise in the American branch of the Hebrew Christian Alliance (HCAA), an organization that has consistently assuaged the fears of fundamentalist Christians by emphasizing that it is not a separate denomination but only an evangelistic arm of the evangelical church. The organization’s Quarterly, however, reveals that the tension between the Messianic Jewish movement and the Hebrew Christian movement had always been present. After the inception of the HCAA in 1915, the first major controversy was over an “old” heresy — and the “heretical” dogma that was being proposed was Messianic Judaism. The controversy could have split the organization asunder during that period but for a strong united effort against Messianic Judaism. The outcome was a statement explaining that “history and experience proved [Messianic Judaism’s] doomed failure” and emphasizing, “We will have none of it!” The statement concluded: We are filled with deep gratitude to God, for the guidance of His Holy Spirit in enabling the Conference to so effectively banish [Messianic Judaism] from our midst, and now the Hebrew Christian Alliance has put herself on record to be absolutely free from it.

Well, not quite. The Hebrew Christian Alliance of America was forced by popular vote nearly 60 years later, in 1975, to change its name to the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America. At the annual conference in Dunedin, Florida, in 1973, the politics involved in replacing the “old guard” with the “new guard” resembled a novel about life in Washington, D.C. The impetus for the change came from younger members within

the HCAA, whose ranks were nearly nonexistent before the 1960s. By the final ballot they were joined by some older members as well. In 1981, at the association’s conference, Martin (Moishe) Rosen, the leader of the controversial “Jews for Jesus,” was not even nominated for the executive committee position he had previously held.

Rosen is an enigma with regard to Messianic Judaism, and perhaps his organization engenders both gentile and Jewish confusion over Messianics. The slogan “Jews for Jesus” caught on in the 1970s and catapulted Rosen’s little band of missionaries into national prominence. Subsequently, enterprises ranging from overt Jewish missionary efforts to orthodox Messianic congregations have been called “Jews for Jesus.” The label is unfortunate, because it blurs the two distinct threads within Jewish Christianity that have historically run side by side. At one end of the spectrum is the Hebrew Christian movement, made up of missionary societies and individual missionaries who regard themselves primarily as an evangelistic arm of the evangelical church to the Jewish community. At the other end of the spectrum are the most orthodox of the Messianic congregations and individual adherents who regard themselves primarily as Jewish — Jews who believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Between the ends of this spectrum fall an array of congregations and individuals. And, to complicate the matter, some Hebrew Christians now call themselves Messianic Jews.

Another reason why the all-encompassing label “Jews for Jesus” is unfortunate is that Rosen’s organization uses confrontation tactics which many Messianic Jews (and some evangelical Christians) cannot condone. In practice, the principle of confrontation holds that making the Jewish community angry or stirring up controversy equates with “publicity,” no matter whether a Jew is converted or not. Sensitivity is sacrificed for confrontation. Understanding is sacrificed for getting the message out.

This point was not clear to me when I began my research, but Moishe Rosen soon set me straight. He told me that an article I had written for a Jewish publication, in which I had briefly mentioned him, was “sugarcoated” with respect to Jews for Jesus. It was a mistake I never made again. Once I understood the concept of confrontation and had documented its effect, pieces of the “Jews for Jesus” puzzle began to fall into place.

Evangelical Christians are to be found on both sides of the confrontation issue. A professor at an evangelical liberal arts college explained to me that he liked the intense confrontation, saying: “My money goes to Jews for Jesus, because you can see they are doing something. Jews are ready to kill them for their boldness — yes, for their antagonism!” Quite a few Christians agree with him; Rosen’s organization grossed nearly $2.5 million last year. However, Messianic Jews and other Christians (evangelicals among them) are not so sure.

Even Billy Graham has come out against evangelistic enterprises aimed solely at Jews. These people believe that the confrontation tactic only increases the historic antipathy felt between Christians and Jews — antipathy that has expanded into crusades and pogroms. The effectiveness of the message of Christ is thus lost.

Currently, I find many Messianic Jews dissociating themselves from the label “Jews for Jesus,” explaining that the organization is “just a small group of 100 or so Hebrew Christians in a west coast missionary enterprise that is very vocal and widely publicized.” For the messianic congregation that is seriously attempting to foster a first century, Jewish-Christian worship experience, repeatedly defending Rosen’s actions exacts too high a price for them to pay.

Among his many activities, Juster serves on the board of the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America, holds extensive discussions with rabbis in the Washington, D.C., area, and w as invited

as a participant in the 1980 dialogue between evangelicals and Jews. He is an open and eloquent individual who strives for complete honesty in Messianic Judaism, and so does his wife, Patti. She once received a phone call scoring the Messianic congregation for being deceptive, because Jews could not believe in Jesus. Since the caller had identified himself as being from Conservative Judaism, she suggested that he talk to the “nice rabbi” at the Conservative congregation down the street. There was silence on the other end of the line.

Finally, the caller said: “I don’t know quite how to tell you this, but I’m the rabbi of that congregation.”

This bizarre episode led to a dinner invitation and dialogue, but the rabbi still feels that there are awesome dangers in the Messianic movement. In light of the history of Jewish Christianity, one cannot blame the Jewish community for being suspicious. In his study The Conflict of the Church and the Synagogue (1934), James Parkes concluded: “In the whole of this account it is significant that no honorable part has been played by converted Jews, as interpreters of their old faith to the new.” Nonetheless, Messianic Jews are now determined to reverse that stigma. A training institute has been established in Chicago, and some congregations have begun religious schools for their children.

The annual conference, which used to struggle to reach an attendance of 150, now draws nearly 1,000 participants for its weeklong session. The schedule has been dominated by topics such as rabbinic theology, the Holocaust, modern anti-Semitism, gentilization of Messianic Judaism, Messianic congregations, Messianic communities, and Messianic Jewish history.

For some, however, much more is needed. In my travels throughout the United States and Canada, I met scores of Messianic Jews for whom most of their congregations are too “liberal” with regard to traditional (or Orthodox) Jewish practice. Many of these people are on the periphery of the movement, watching its progress but choosing to worship in regular Orthodox or Conservative Jewish synagogues.

Those few modern Messianic congregations which have tried to institute Orthodox worship have invariably met with disaster. When the Los Angeles congregation was judged to have become “too Jewish,” the Assemblies of God took their building away from them (Phil Goble, author of a book titled Everything You Need to Grow a Messianic Congregation, had attended that group). In Pittsburgh, because of internal friction, the Orthodox Messianic congregation has dissolved.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by 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.

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INVITING THE PA WOLF IN

TO A HENHOUSE PASSOVER MEAL!

THE LATEST FOREIGN POLICY BLUNDER,

INSPIRED BY OUR STATE DEPARTMENT RICE!

April 5, 2008

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

If I thought there was the slightest chance that removal of checkpoints

would do any good, then I would not be critical of the continual effort of our State Department to apply pressure on Israel to do it. After these many years of making “good will” gestures to the Palestinians in hopes it would produce at least a small decline in terrorism, our policy makers have learned nothing. The Palestinians do not look upon “good will” gestures as such, but as a sign of weakness by their sworn enemies. I regret that is the case, but they respond only to exercises of strength against them. And I wish I could say that if we let Israel apply pressure rather than good will gestures, then peace would finally come between the Israelis and Palestinians, but alas, I cannot. Nothing can stop the fulfillment of Biblical Prophecy, and only the horror of God’s judgment, on both Jews and Gentiles, awaits the Middle East and the rest of this planet God created long ago.

However, I do say this, if we would let the Israelis protect themselves by an “eye for an eye,” and a “tooth for a tooth,” they would have a lot less death inflicted on them by rockets and suicide bombers, than if we kept making them open the door to the henhouse by “good will” gestures.

However, no matter what we do, the following Scriptures will soon come to fruition, and the warning to Israelis by Isaiah will be fulfilled over a three and one half year period prior to Armageddon. Unfortunately, contrary to popular belief, the saved along with the rest of the Gentiles will be here on the same planet when it when this warning begins to be fulfilled.

Isaiah 25:7-12 – And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.

[8] He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it. [9] And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. [10] For in this mountain shall the hand of

the Lord rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill. [11] And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim: and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands. [12] And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.

Isaiah 26:19-21 – Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. [20] Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. [21] For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and

shall no more cover her slain.

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.

Begin Arutz Sheva Article

Ten Checkpoints Removed as Goodwill, PA and Rice Not Satisfied

29 Adar Bet 5768, 05 April 08 07:41

by Ezra HaLevi

(IsraelNN.com) The IDF, on orders from the Olmert government, removed 10 manned checkpoints in the Binyamin region and Samaria Thursday evening. The roadblocks were taken down near Ramallah, Shechem, Tal Karem and Kalkilya.

Officials explained that the roadblocks were removed as part of a series of “goodwill gestures” to the Palestinian Authority.

Ostensibly under US pressure, Israel recently agreed to remove dozens of checkpoints and roadblocks in Judea and Samaria in order to make travel easier for local Arabs. In return, the PA said it would try to stop terrorism.

Daily attacks continue on roads in Judea and Samaria – Jewish resident say as a result of previous decision to remove roadblocks and open up bypass roads to PA Arabs.

The IDF reports daily findings of weapons and explosives at security checkpoints across Judea and Samaria as well.

Goodwill Not Accepted

A Palestinian Authority official quoted in Yediot Acharonot Froday accused IDF officials of fabricating reports regarding the removal of the checkpoints. “The number of checkpoints the IDF removed is zero,” the man claimed.

“The Israelis are raising the bar of lies and fraud.” In the eyes of the Fatah-run PA, Israel has made no significant changes in the past several months, he added.

Other PA sources confirmed that two major checkpoints around Jericho were removed and that several dirt roadblocks were flattened and abandoned as well.

The manned dirt roadblocks generally are located between particularly hostile villages and major roads used by Jewish motorists. Residents of the villages use alternate routes, such as driving to the nearest major PA city and getting on a highway from there.

The dirt mounds were conceived as a way of preventing attackers in Israeli-controlled Area B from fleeing after an attack to PA-controlled Area A territory – as defined in the Oslo Accords.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did not praise the move. She instead called for the removal of 50 such roadblocks and said General William Fraser, whose job is to monitor the implementation of the Road Map plan, would “follow up on the specifics and will make certain that in fact there are 50 and that they are going to be removed.”

During the press conference in Jerusalem, Rice said that “General William Fraser will be following up on the specifics and will be making certain that in fact that are 50 [roadblocks] and that they are being removed, that in fact they have some impact on the access and movement.”

More Goodwill Gestures

Other unilateral Israeli moves to assist the constituency-lacking Fatah include the authorization of up to 8,000 new homes for a new PA Arab settlement in the Binyamin region; providing Fatah with armored vehicles from Russia; the deployment of PA police despite their involvement in recent fatal attacks; the removal of the Rimonim security checkpoint and the upgrading of facilities at other checkpoints, such as Hawara, south of Shechem.

Terrorist attacks have continued unabated.

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

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