blog.Tribulationperiod.com

Lebanon has become a Hizbullah State

Government has become Irrelevant,

Country is controlled by Terror,

Israeli Vice President Ramon

Hizbullah is Government

May 11, 2008

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

On paper, the pro-U.S. government is still the government of Lebanon but, in real ity

, Hizbullah is in control of the government, as indicated by Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon in the Jerusalem Post article which follows.

Begin Jerusalem Post Article 1

‘Lebanon is a Hizbullah state, gov’t has become irrelevant’

JPost.com Staff and AP, THE JERUSALEM POST

May 11, 2008

“Lebanon must be treated as a Hizbullah state,” Vice Premier Haim Ramon said Sunday, as violence in the country spread to the northern city of Tripoli, claiming three lives.

“Everything that happens there is the responsibility of Hizbullah. The country is controlled by this terror organization and its government has become irrelevant,” Ramon said at the weekly cabinet meeting.

“The notion that there is another government apart from Hizbullah is entirely fictitious,” added the vice premier.

Ramon’s remarks came after head of Military Intelligence, General Amos Yadlin, provided an intelligence briefing to the cabinet ministers on the recent clashes in Lebanon and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel was paying close attention to the unfolding crisis.

Yadlin said Israel must be prepared for a new state of affairs. “Hizbullah’s use of arms inside Lebanon is a different sort of message. We need to be realistic, but there is no need for hysteria.”

He said Hizbullah had exposed a weakness because it had violated the 1989 Taif Agreement – an Arab blueprint for freeing Lebanon from foreign influence.

Following the agreement, Hizbullah refused to disarm, claiming it was protecting Lebanese interests against Israel in order to return the Sheba Farms.

However, said Yadlin, using their weapons inside Lebanon violated this agreement.

Religious Affairs Minister Yitzhak Cohen called for an urgent appeal to the UN in order to renew discussions on Security Council Resolution 1701, which brought an end to the Second Lebanon War.

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter said that “Hizbullah continues to be in control of Lebanon, without carrying the responsibility of managing the country.”

“[They] continue to create problems for Israel, like during the Second Lebanon War, and this prevents us from fighting terror,” he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna’i told Army Radio that Israel was prepared for the possibility of the situation in Lebanon deteriorating into another civil war and was closely monitoring the situation’s developments, though would not get involved in the latest outbreak of violence there.

As well as the clashes in Tripoli, fighting between pro- and anti-government supporters also broke out in Lebanon’s central mountains overlooking the capital.

The violence that has killed some 40 people in four days was sparked when the US-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora tried to crack down on Hizbullah last week.

Hizbullah responded by seizing control of many Beirut neighborhoods loyal to the government.

Beirut, which experienced four days of bloody sectarian clashes between Sunnis and Shi’ites, spent a quiet night Sunday. But many of its roads remained blocked, including the one to the airport, however, by the ongoing civil disobedience campaign of the opposition, and heavy fighting broke out between pro and anti-government supporters in northern Lebanon, security officials reported.

Vilna’i said the current sectarian fighting could end with a Hizbullah takeover of the government.

“We need to keep our eyes peeled and be especially sensitive regarding all that is happening there,” Vilna’i said.

“We shouldn’t get involved. We need to watch and should follow this very closely even when we are dealing with other fronts,” he said, referring to continued fighting against Hamas.

Israel is especially concerned about the situation in Lebanon in light of the Hamas’s control of Gaza, Vilna’i said. Hamas and Hizbullah, as Iranian proxies, are mutually dependent, he said.

Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit said Israel should not yet take any action, but warned that things could change if Hizbullah takes over Lebanon.

“I think it’s very dangerous, the (possible) situation in which Iran is in fact sitting on our border, and controlling Lebanon,” Sheetrit said. “It’s really dangerous in the long term because now its plain to everyone that … Hizbullah is just the long arm of Iran and that’s the way we should relate to it.”

Maj.-Gen. (res.) Eyal Ben-Reuven, who served as deputy head of the Northern Command during the Second Lebanon War, said Hizbullah’s increasing strength stems from the 2006 conflict.

“I must say, as one who deeply participated in the Second Lebanon War, I feel sad, because if we then would have done what we needed to do and turned Hizbullah into a failed force, we would be in a different situation today,” Ben-Reuven told Army Radio.

Begin Jerusalem Post Excerpt 2

‘Even Israel didn’t act like Hizbullah’

JPost.com Staff and AP, THE JERUSALEM POST

May 11, 2008

“Even the Israeli enemy didn’t dare to do in Beirut what Hizbullah has done,” Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said Sunday as he toured the city’s embattled streets with reporters.

Saniora spoke as heavy fighting broke out between pro- and anti-government supporters in Lebanon’s central mountains overlooking the capital, and violence also spread to the northern city of Tripoli, claiming three lives.

Also Sunday, top Arab diplomats called on Shi’ite gunmen to pull out of west Beirut and leave Lebanon’s army in charge of security across the city.

Sunni Arab heavyweights Egypt and Saudi Arabia organized an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo.

The two nations are deeply suspicious of Hizbullah, accusing it of sidelining Lebanon’s Sunni minority and being a proxy for extending Iran’s power in the Middle East.

The ministers issued a statement urging Lebanon “to immediately halt the violence.”

They are also expected to relaunch a January plan that called for the immediate election of army chief Michel Suleiman as a consensus president and the formation of a national unity government.

Earlier Sunday, Vice Premier Haim Ramon said “Lebanon must be treated as a Hizbullah state. Everything that happens there is the responsibility of Hizbullah. The country is controlled by this terror organization and its government has become irrelevant,” Ramon said at the weekly cabinet meeting.

“The notion that there is another government apart from Hizbullah is entirely fictitious,” added the vice premier.

Ramon’s remarks came after Head of Military Intelligence, General Amos Yadlin, provided an intelligence briefing to the cabinet ministers on the recent clashes in Lebanon and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel was paying close attention to the unfolding crisis.

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The Lebanese Frog in Temperature Rising Water

Is Doomed to Loss of Freedom and Life Bit by Bit,

As the Pawns of Syria and Iran raise Water Temp!

May 11, 2008

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Episode by episode, assassination by assassination, threat by threat, scare by scare, and demonstration by demonstration, the Hizballah is being used by Iran and Syria to break the will of the majority party in Parliament, as well as the will of the Sunni and Christian majority of the Lebanese people. It is succeeding, and it is just a question of time until the pro-Syrian political parties control the Lebanese government and the Lebanese army.

The current pro-U.S. backed majority party in the Lebanese Parliament is like a frog placed slowly in a pan of cool water over a small flame on a stove’s top burner. T he frog slowly loses his existence over a period of time as

he is eventually cooked in place.

I will be amazed if the present pro-U.S. government is in ex

istence by 2011.

Lebanon will be one of the 10 Pro-Islamic countries that are likely to attack Israel at some point in time between 2010 and 2015.

Begin First DEBKAfile Excerpt

Exclusive: Lebanese PM opens door to surrender. Army grants two key Hizballah demands

May 10, 2008, 11:23 PM (GMT+02:00)

After four days of fierce fighting in which at least 37 people died, the Lebanese army revoked two government measures in obedience to Hizballah demands: the Shiite group’s independent telecommunication network will not be shut down and the pro-Hizballah Brig. Gen Wafiq Shqeir would keep his job as Beirut international airport head of security.

In a broadcast speech, Saturday, May 10, the pro-Western prime minister Fouad Siniora asked the army to defuse the crisis after Hizballah seized control of western Beirut, besieged the government center and attacked pro-government Sunni centers across Lebanon. Government loyalists found no support from Sinora’s powerful backers, the United States, France or even Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The pro-Western government was therefore forced to back down.

This means its acceptance of Hizballah’s communication system in central, southern and eastern Lebanon and its direct link to Syrian and Iranian command centers in Damascus; and the Shiite group’s Beirut headquarters online communications link to its Revolutionary Guards bosses in Tehran.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report: Triumphant, the Hizballah chief Hassan Hasrallah will be a more dangerous enemy than ever. The army rather than the government laid down the condition that Hizballah withdraw from the Sunni districts of Beirut and the rest of the country and remove its armed men from the streets.

Even so, a government minister remarked that the deal awaits approval by Hizballah leaders and the Iranian ambassador in Beirut. It is far from certain that the Shiite terrorists will give up the territory they gained in the last four days.

Also in question are the roadblocks on highways and the shutdown of Beirut air and sea ports.

Begin Second DEBKAfile Excerpt

Exclusive: Iran-backed Hizballah offensive closes in on Israeli border

May 10, 2008, 12:05 PM (GMT+02:00)

DEBKAfile’s military sources report: Hizballah’s advance on two key Lebanese locations Saturday, May 10 had immediate effect on the strategic balance between

the Iran-backed Shiite group and Israel. Sidon in the south, Lebanon’s second largest city, which provides Hizballah with control of a continuous coastal strip from its southern Beirut district all the way to Tyre.

The second point is on the northern slopes of the Hermon range.

After Hizballah seizes control of this enclave and the Syrian 10th and 14th armored divisions step over the border into Lebanon, the two forces can join to form a strong military line opposite Israel near the Litani River.

Our military sources report that the vanguard of

the 10th Division has already moved across to the Lebanese side of the border.

Hizballah’s victory in taking over western and central Beirut therefore has had the effect of adding another link to the pro-Iranian chain encircling Israel. In many ways it is a more damaging setback for Israel’s national security than the Palestinian Hamas’ seizure of the Gaza Strip

Yet Israel’s prime minister, defense minister and foreign minister are all too busy with the political fallout of the bribery case against Ehud Olmert to lift a finger to arrest Lebanon’s decline to a Tehran satellite before it is too late – any more than Hamas was stopped from developing into a major military menace.

Equally inert are the two presidents who are pledged to support the Siniora regime, George W. Bush and Nicolas Sarkozy.

The United Nations, which maintains 15,000 armed peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, backed by marine forces off the shores of Beirut, has no thought of stopping the Iranian-Syrian-backed terrorist militia from capturing the country.

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from which we extracted it.

Shiite Forces in Lebanon having their Day!

Pro-U.S. Influence in Lebanon Slipping Away!

A Pro-U.S. Lebanese Party will eventually Lose!

Pro-Syrian Party will control Lebanon before 2011!

Why Did Hizbullah Attack the Lebanese Government?

Shiites were Caught Linking to Syrian Army Intelligence

Allowing Syria to monitor internal activities across Lebanon

Plus the personnel traveling in and out of the Lebanese Airport

Excerpt 1 from Naharnet Article was Hizbullah’s excuse to Attack

May 10, 2008

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Begin Excerpt 1 from Naharnet

Syria’s Intelligence Operates Via Hizbullah Lebanon Communications

(Naharnet-Lebanon)

Hizbullah has linked its private telephone networks to the Syrian Army’s communications system as well as to Syria’s mobile telephone network, allowing Syrian intelligence to operate freely in Lebanon and avoid Lebanese controls, al-Mustaqbal reported Tuesday.

Excerpt 2 from Arutz Sheva tells what Hizbullah did when Lebanon Government tried to remove Hizbullah’s spy videos from Lebanon’s International Airport.

Begin Excerpt 2 from Arutz Sheva

Nasrallah Warns Against Disarming Hizbullah

Hizbullah chief terrorist Hassan Nasrallah claimed the Lebanese government had declared war by outlawing its telecommunications network, which it called “the most important part of the weapons of the resistance.”

The government deemed the independent Hizbullah land lines and private communications system a threat to national security. After a marathon 11-hour meeting that stretched from Monday night into Tuesday morning, the Cabinet also decided to fire airport security chief Brig.-Gen. Wafiq Shoukair for alleged ties to the terrorist group, further enraging Hizbullah. It also said Hizbullah has been flying weapons from Iran on a routine basis.
Excerpts 3 and 4 are a review of what has transpired in the conflict.

Excerpt 3 – What Has Happened.

Begin DEBKAfile Exclusive

Exclusive: Lebanese army chief defies government as Syria steps in to back Hizballah�

��s conquest of Beirut districts

May 9, 2008, 6:19 PM (GMT+02:00)

At least 11 people were killed Friday, May 9, Day 3 of fierce clashes between Hizballah and pro-government forces, the worst since the 1975-90 civil war. At noon, Syrian Social Nationalist Party’s units entered Beirut to support Hizballah’s advancing occupation of Sunni West Beirut districts.

DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources report that Thursday night, army chief Gen. Michel Suleiman refused to obey prime minister Fouad Siniora’s order to declare a state of emergency for the crisis created by Hizballah’s declaration of war against the government.

The general warned that if the government enacted an emergency, he would order the troops to return to barracks.

The SSNP is a Greek Orthodox arm of Syrian military intelligence.

Hizballah and fellow Shiite Amal fighters were thus able to seize control of most of pr-government Sunni West Beirut in clashes that have spread to other parts of the Lebanon while the government was left unprotected.

The urban warfare shut down Lebanon’s port and all but closed the international airport, with burning barricades on major highways in Beirut.

The army has only interfered in extreme situations. Friday, soldiers rescued the anti-Syrian majority leader Saad Hariri and allied Druze leader Walid Jumblatt when their mansions were surrounded and attacked by Shiite forces, but they did not make the assailants move out. The Lebanese army, half of whose members are Shiites, thus permitted Hizballah and Amal clinch their control of the Sunni neighborhoods.

The Lebanese army also took over the pro-government Future TV station and newspaper owned by Hariri after they were blown up. The army agreed to keep the station off the air.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the United States, France and Israel are watching passively as Lebanon falls to Iran’s surrogate terrorist group Hizballah. Since the 2006 Lebanon war, prime minister Ehud Olmert has insisted improbably that the conflict had left Hizballah seriously weakened.

Hizballah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah warned Thursday night that the only way to stop the violence was for the “black gang” ruling the government to withdraw its decisions to close his military telecommunications network and restore Hizballah loyalists to key positions at Beirut international airport.

Excerpt 4 – What Is Happening Now

Begin Jerusalem Post Article

Saniora calls on army to remove Hizbullah from the streets

Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST

May 10, 2008

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora called on the nation’s army Saturday to restore law and order across Lebanon and remove gunmen from the streets, accusing Hizbullah of staging an armed coup.

The dream of democracy in Lebanon has been dealt “a poisonous stab by the armed coup carried out by Hizbullah and its allies,” he said, saying Beirut was an “occupied, besieged” city.

Addressing the army, he said: “I call on it once again to impose security on all, in all areas, deter the gunmen and immediately remove them from the street … to restore normal life.”

In his nationally televised speech, Saniora also said Lebanon could no longer tolerate Hizbullah having weapons – signaling that the US-backed government was toughening its stand against the Shiite opposition group despite its loss of ground in street fighting in Beirut.

But despite his tough talk, Saniora’s embattled government appeared unable to move against Hizbullah or force the army to act.

The army has stayed out of the fighting and has deployed troops in the last 24 hours.

Saniora also appeared to be retreating from the government decisions that triggered the street confrontation, offering a compromise that would effectively shelve them. The offer, however, was unlikely to be accepted by Hizbullah and its allies who have already rejected a similar compromise from Sunni majority leader Saad Hariri earlier.

Saniora’s first comment since fighting erupted Wednesday came as conditions appeared to be mostly calm in Beirut’s Muslim sector a day after Shiite gunmen

swept through the area.

Elsewhere around the country, however, violence appeared to be on the rise.

Some 25 people have died in four days of clashes.

In a Sunni Muslim neighborhood of the capital, a Shiite shopowner opened fire on a funeral procession, killing two and wounding six, police and witnesses said.

In a mountain town east of Beirut, Hizbullah accused a pro-government Druse group of kidnapping two of its members and killing them.

A statement held Druse leader Walid Jumblatt “personally responsible” for the safety of a third Hizbullah man.

In Beirut’s western Muslim sector, though, the focus of the fighting, most Hizbullah gunmen had pulled out leaving just small bands of their Shiite Amal allies to patrol the streets.

The funeral shooting and the reported kidnapping and execution underlined the state of lawlessness and the sharpened sectarian tensions that have engulfed the country since Sunni-Shiite fighting erupted in the capital’s Muslim sector on Wednesday resulting in Hizbullah’s takeover of Sunni neighborhoods.

Hizbullah moved Thursday to seize the Sunni neighborhoods of Beirut in a show of force after its leader Hassan Nasrallah accused the government of “declaring war” on his group when it declared the organization’s communications network illegal and ordered the removal of the airport security chief for alleged ties to the group.

On Saturday, Beirutis cautiously ventured out in small numbers to streets held by both Lebanese troops and lingering b

ands of Shiite gunmen.

Beirut had a quiet night after the worst sectarian violence since the end of the 1975-90 civil war. But the violence moved outside the capital, leaving eight more people dead near the town of Aley late Friday. Ano ther civilian died in

the clashes in the southern city of Sidon.

Hizbullah has shut Lebanon’s airport by barricading the road leading to it. The seaport also was closed.

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THE FINAL SCENARIO OF 10 HORNS IS NEAR

A SYRIA, IRAN, HIZBULLAH HORN CONQUEST

THEY ARE A BOND THAT WILL NOT BE BROKEN

ISRAEL & U.S. WATCHING LEBANON HORN TAKEN

BETWEEN 2010 & 2015 WE LIKELY WILL SEE HORN 11

May 10, 2008

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Eventually, the first of three horns will fall to the forces of Islam, and I believe it quite likely that we will see the eleventh horn, the Antichrist, lead an attack against Israel at some point in time between 2010 and 2015. Some three and one-half years will pass from the time of the attack to the end of the final battle of Armageddon and the Second Advent of Christ.

Daniel 7:24-27 – 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.

Luke 21:27 – And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

Daniel 7:13,14 – 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.

I believe the 10 toes in Daniel 2, the 10 horns in Daniel 7, and the 10 horns in Revelation 13, 17, and 18 are all one and the same, and that the most likely countries to make up this end time coalition are Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco.

On our E-Mail notification of this Blog we included an excellent video of an assessment of the Middle East situation between the Hizbullah, Iran, Syria bond from a moderate Islamic viewpoint. I urge you to watch it.

Begin Jerusalem Post Excerpt 1

Rice says Syria, Iran responsible for violence in Lebanon

Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST

May 9, 2008

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says Hizbullah, backed by Syria and Iran, is killing and injuring innocent civilians in Lebanon.

Hizbullah is “seeking to protect their state-within-a-state,” she said in statement was read at a State Department briefing Friday.

Rice said that Hizbullah’s violence has demonstrated “its contempt for its fellow Lebanese.”

Begin Jerusalem Post Excerpt 2

‘We won’t cut Iran or Hizbullah ties’

JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST

Syrian President Bashar Assad rejected Israel’s demand that Syria cut its ties with Iran and Hizbullah.

He said that detaching his country from the two was “irrelevant” to reviving peace talks.

In an interview published Friday with the Italian magazine L’Espresso, Assad went on to emphasize that his country was offering peace in return for the Golan Heights – captured from Syria in 1967 and then again in 1973 after recurrent Syrian cross-border attacks.

The Syrian president said it would be possible to advance the peace process when the new US president was elected.

Syria maintains ties with both Hizbullah and Iran, an extremist Shi’ite terror organization and a dominantly-Shi’ite state respectively, which both seek Israel’s destruction.

Begin Jerusalem Post Excerpt 3

Hizbullah seizes Beirut neighborhoods

AP and JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST

May 8, 2008

Hizbullah gunmen seized control of key parts of Beirut from Sunnis loyal to the US-backed government Friday, in a dramatic show-of-force.

An ally of Hizbullah said the group intended to pull back, at least partially, from the areas its gunmen occupied overnight and Friday morning – signaling that Hizbullah likely does not intend a full-scale, permanent takeover of Sunni Muslim parts of Beirut.

The clashes eased by Friday evening as Lebanon’s army began peacefully moving into some areas where Hizbullah gunmen had a presence.

Lebanon’s army largely stood aside as the Shi’ite militiamen scattered their opponents and occupied large swaths of the capital’s Muslim sector early Friday.

In one instance, the army stood aside as Shi’ite militiamen burned the building of the newspaper of their main Sunni rival – acting only to evacuate people and then allow firefighters later to put out the blaze.

The army has pledged to keep the peace but not take sides in the long political deadlock – which pits Shi’ite Hizbullah and a handful of allies including some Christian groups, against the US-backed government, which includes Christian and Sunni Muslims.

President Shimon Peres said Friday that it was clear that this onslaught was part of Iran’s attempts to take over the Middle East.

“It is a tragedy for Lebanese residents,” added Peres. “It has no connection whatsoever with Israel. It is internal conflict.”

“As a human being and as an Israeli I pray that a civil war is avoided,” he said, Army Radio reported.

Three days of street battles and gunfights capped by Friday’s Hizbullah move have killed at least 14 people and wounded 20 – the country’s worst sectarian fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Three more people were killed in two separate incidents on Friday after the Hizbullah takeover. Two of them were Druse allies of Hizbullah who died in a shooting in a hilly suburb southeast of the capital late Friday, security officials said.

The takeover by the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hizbullah was a blow to US policy as President George W. Bush’s administration has been a staunch supporter of the government in Beirut over the last three years.

“We are very troubled by the recent actions of Hizbullah,” White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Friday.

“We urge Hizbullah to stop their attempt to defy the lawful decisions taken by the democratically elected Lebanese government. We also urge Iran and Syria to stop their support of Hizbullah and its destabilizing effects on Lebanon,” he added. “We have confidence in the government of Lebanon.”

The Hizbullah takeover was peaceful in some neighborhoods as the militants fanned out across the Muslim sector of the city.

Later in the day, Lebanese troops began taking up positions in some Sunni neighborhoods abandoned by the pro-government groups, but did not intervene in the clashes, which had largely tapered off into sporadic gunfire by early afternoon. Some of the gunfire was celebratory in the air by the militants.

A senior security official said the army began deploying on some streets with the end of the clashes and would soon take over the Sunnis’ last stronghold of Tarik Jadideh.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

In some cases Hizbullah handed over newly won positions to Lebanese troops, presumably after having made clear to everyone its strength ahead of the next round of negotiations with opponents over the country’ s political future.

Hizbullah’s power was demonstrated dramatically Friday morning when it forced the TV station affiliated to the party of Lebanon’s top Sunni lawmaker, Saad Hariri, off the air.

Gunmen also set the offices of the party’s newspaper, Al-Mustaqbal, on fire in the coastal neighborhood of Ramlet el-Bayda.

Later in the afternoon, anti-government gunmen loyal to a pro-Syrian group attacked and set on fire a two-story building where Hariri’s Future TV have their archives. The building, in the western neighborhood of Rawche, is about 100 meters from the Saudi embassy.

With top leaders Hariri of the Sunnis and Druse leader Walid Jumblatt besieged in their residences in Muslim western Beirut, officials of the pro-government majority held an emergency meeting in a mountain town in the Christian heartland northeast of Beirut

After the meeting, they issued a statement calling on the army to take control of the streets and urging Arab and international intervention to pressure the countries that support Hizbullah – meaning Iran and Syria.

“The bloody coup d’etat aims at returning Syria to Lebanon and placing Iran on the Mediterranean,” said the statement read by Christian pro-government leader Samir Geagea. “Violence will not terrorize us, but it will increase our resolve,” he said.

He said the Hizbullah takeover violated the constitution which governs Christian-Muslim coexistence in Lebanon.

Earlier, a rocket-propelled grenade slammed into the fence of Hariri’s heavily protected residence, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the media.

Hariri is the son of assassinated former premier Rafik Hariri.

Late Friday, a group of gunmen fired about a dozen bullets at a statue of Rafik Hariri next to the seafront road where he was killed in a massive 2005 truck bombing. The statue was raised in February on the anniversary of the assass

ination.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and several ministers were holed up in Saniora’s downtown office surrounded by troops and police.

An emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo to discuss the crisis will be held in two days, said Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki.

Street clashes exploded into gunbattles Thursday afternoon after Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah accused Lebanon’s Western-backed government of declaring war on his Shiite militant group. It was the militant leader’s strongest comments since Lebanon’s political crisis erupted 17 months ago.

Hariri later went on television urging Hizbullah to pull its fighters back and “save Lebanon from hell.” He proposed a compromise that would involve the army, one of the sole national institutions respected by Lebanon’s long deadlocked factions.

But Hizbullah and its allies swiftly rejected the offer.

The unrest has virtually shut down Lebanon’s international airport and barricades closed major highways. The seaport also was closed, leaving one land route to Syria as Lebanon’s only link to the outside world.

The clashes are the latest turn in a test of wills between the Hizbullah-led opposition and the Saniora government.

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The Beast will rise out of the present Islamic World

Which was once a southern part of Rome’s Empire

The Beast will finally arise on an Islamic Seashore

From the Mediterranean Sea as Revived Empire

From the great Islamic Empire of Allah’s Design

That was wounded to death by Europe’s Sword

Jihad is resurrecting to life

to settle the Score!

May 9, 2008

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Revelation 13:1-6 – And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. [2] And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. [3] And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

[4] And they worshipped

the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him

? [5] And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

[6] And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

Daniel 7:25-27 – 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.

It is merely a guesstimate, but I believe the current chaos to the north, south, and distant east of Israel will eventually lead to an attack against Israel by 10 Islamic nations at some point in time between 2010 and 2015. I do not believe the identity of the Antichrist is going to remain a secret much longer.

Begin Khaleej Times Online Article

Lebanon teeters on edge of civil war

(AFP)

9 May 2008

BEIRUT – Sectarian fighting rocked the Lebanese capital for a third day on Friday as the country teetered on the brink of a new civil war, prompting urgent appeals for calm from the international community.

Sporadic gunfire and the thump of exploding rocket-propelled grenades could be heard through the night in various parts of west Beirut, where the fighting was concentrated between Sunni militants loyal to the Western-backed government and supporters of the Hezbollah-led opposition.

At least seven people were reported dead and dozens injured in fierce gunbattles that erupted after Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah declared that a government crackdown on his group was tantamount to a declaration of war.

Armed militants could be seen walking about or hiding in buildings in the otherwise deserted streets of Beirut as gunfire rang out, in scenes ominously reminiscent of the 1975-1990 civil war.

The international community launched urgent appeals for calm in the deeply divided country amid fears of a descent into chaos after a bitter 18-month power struggle.

The managing editor of Al Mustaqbal newspaper, which is run by the pro-government Future Movement, told AFP that opposition gunmen had circled the paper’s building in west Beirut early Friday, firing guns and rocket-propelled grenades and setting fire to the fourth floor of the six-storey building.

‘There are a number of journalists and officials inside the building but luckily no one has been injured,’ George Bkassini said. He said troops arrived in the area shortly after the incident.

Air traffic, meanwhile, was set to be paralyzed for the third straight day with no flights scheduled to land or take off from Beirut international airport, an airport official said.

The United States delivered a blunt warning to the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah to stop its ‘disruptive activities’ while UN Security Council members said they were ‘deeply concerned’ over the crisis.

Nasrallah delivered his fiery speech Thursday, on the second day of anti-government protests which saw supporters of the feuding factions block roads in various parts of the country.

‘The (government) decisions are tantamount to a declaration of war and the start of a war… on behalf of the United States and Israel,’ Nasrallah charged during a rare press conference.

The government on Tuesday launched a probe into a private communications network run by the powerful Shia movement, which is seen in the West as a terrorist outfit and which critics say has become a ‘state within a state.’

‘The hand that touches the weapons of the resistance will be cut off,’ Nasrallah warned. ‘We have the right to confront he who starts a war with us by defending our rights and our weapons.’

Nasrallah said Hezbollah was ready for dialogue but demanded the government rescind its measures against his movement.

Majority leader Saad Hariri made a television appeal to calm the situation saying the army could be put in charge of the decision on the communication network.

‘My appeal to you and to myself as well.

the appeal of all Lebanon, is to stop the slide toward civil war, to stop the language of arms and lawlessness,’ Hariri said.

Underscoring fears of continued instability, people rushed to stores to stockpile food and bread, while the United Arab Emirates began evacuating its nationals from Beirut.

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