blog.Tribulationperiod.com

Big U.S. Naval Armada Massing!

This is a preview of coming Attractions

Which will continue after Islam attacks Israel

In sea and gulf waters touching Middle East Shores

For the three and one-half years Israel is trapped in Negev

We will Protect them Defensively until the Battle of Armageddon!

August 11, 2008

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

I do not believe

Islam will attack Israel until it actually believes it can defeat them, and I do not think they will believe themselves to be ready for such an endeavor until some point in time between 2010 and 2015.

Russia and China do not want a war with the U.S. and the West at the present time, but both will demonstrate their military capacities as they have done in Tibet and Georgia. They will demonstrate their power on their borders, but don’t want a major confrontation in the Middle East at the present time.

As I have taught for many years, the U.S. will provide defensive help to Israel in the form of logistical equipment and humanitarian supplies during her three and one-half years in the Negev, and our naval forces will sail the Middle East waters in a defensive protective umbrella mode to insure Israel has some degree of safety in the Negev, but we will not order direct offensive ground forces to attack on Israeli soil during the time she is in the Negev. The U.S., China, and Russia will not meet head on until the final great battle of Armageddon.

The scenario I have laid out in the preceding paragraphs is what I have taught for many years, as you can see in the following Archive Prophecy Update Number 74.

Begin Archive Prophecy Update Number 74

PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 74

June 27, 2002

Daniel 11:43 – But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

We closed Prophecy Update Number 73 with the antichrist in full control of Egypt in verse 43, after having driven the woman Israel into the Negev Wilderness, where she will remain for 3 and ½ prophetic years, or 1260 days. The woman will be made up of 1/3 of the Israel population (1.7 to 1.9 million) surviving his initial drive to Beersheva.

Zechariah 13:8 – And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.

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.

While Israel is boxed in the Negev for 3 and ½ years, the city of Cairo will be his capital, and the center of his empire. He would be a fool to return to his home in Syria. Cairo is the midpoint of an Islamic world that stretches far to the east from Morocco to India, with a long shoreline extending along the entire southern coastline of the Mediterranean Sea to the southern coastline of the Black Sea, along both sides of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, and eventually to the coastline of India. The political, economic, and military position of Cairo will meet all his requirements and he will rule his empire from Cairo. His influence in Europe, Africa, Eurasia, and Asia will be extremely strong, and by the end of his 3 and ½ years in Cairo, all of this area will politically be in his pocket. It is in this area that I believe the mark of the beast will be readily accepted, particularly in all the Islamic countries. It is also in this area that I believe the most horrific events of the Tribulation Period will occur.

I believe he will have influence in the western hemisphere, but I do not believe he will rule it (See Prophecy Update 73 and Special Prophecy Update Number 73A).

After 3 and ½ years of dominating the nations of Europe and the eastern hemisphere, he will receive news out of the north and out of the east that troubles him.

Daniel 11:44 – But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.

This was written in 600 B.C. Every time a great leader would arise in the east, his country would be identified as the one the antichrist would go forth to destroy with great fury, and to carry away many. Genghis Khan, the great Mongol ruler of one of the greatest empires in history, was believed to be the object in the east that was going to trouble the antichrist in A.D. 1200 to 1227. Attila, king of the Huns, from A.D. 441 to 450 claimed domination from the Alps and the Baltic to the Caspian Sea. He was labeled the Scourge of God, and was looked upon as being the source of bad news from the north that would trouble the antichrist. With the advent of the rise of the two great powers, the Soviet Union in the north, and China in the east, it was only natural that expositors would pick them as the culprits causing the bad news from the north and east.

Now, it is supposed to be Russia and China.

I do not doubt that both Russia and China will be among the nations that attack Israel at the final battle of Armageddon, but I do not believe one has to go all the way to Russia and China to find the source of the news that is troubling the antichrist.

Get an atlas with a map that has Cairo, Russia, and China on it and consider how far away the antichrist will be from Russia and China. Now consider this: the population of Russia is 150 million plus, and the population of China is 1 billion, 300 million plus. Now, look again at this scripture.

Daniel 11:44 – But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.

If he proceeds forth from Cairo with great fury to attack China and Russia, that’s quite a few folks “to destroy, and to make away many.”

I do not believe you have to look thousands of miles to the east, and thousands of miles to the north, to find the source of the news that troubles the antichrist. Just look directly east of the city of Cairo and you will see the Negev Wilderness where he left the children of Israel some three years before, and then look to the north and you will see that portion of the Mediterranean Sea extending to the southern shores of Turkey. Those are the two locations from which the bad news will radiate. Some three years before the antichrist heavily fortified the zone along the northern border of the Negev north of Beersheva in order to prevent a breakout by the Israelis. But the narrow zone that is marked today by the Gaza Strip begins to look vulnerable to him because of the news he hears from the north and the east.

The U.S. Navy has a frequent publication titled TRANSITIONS – All the Ships at Sea. It gives the location of the fleet on a specific date. You will discover from it that a U.S. carrier, and fighter attack squadron are routinely kept in the Mediterranean between Egypt and Turkey, and that at times it may consist of cruisers, destroyers, attack submarines, frigates, and support ships. In a recent mission in this area there were some 15,000 sailors and marines on these ships.

During the last 25 years there have been some 18 episodes of U.S. marines conducting joint exercises with the IDF in the Negev. What the antichrist hears is that the U.S. and the IDF may be planning to cut off his rear flank back to his home country by conducting a military operation in the Gaza Strip. With the marines conducting an amphibious landing on the south of the Gaza Strip, and the IDF driving northwest to join them, they would do what no military commander wants to happen, that is, have his rear flank cut off from direct access to his major source of land supplies. The Scripture does not say whether what he hears is true or untrue, merely that what he hears troubles him. I would imagine it is only a rumor, but apparently he believes it enough to take the appropriate response. He heads for the city of Jerusalem, super reinforcing the Gaza Strip on his way, and sets himself up to issue a call for all nations to come and help him do what he could not do to Israel some 3 and ½ years before. He calls for all the nations of Europe, Eurasia, Asia, and Africa to come and help him to “go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many” Israelis in the Negev Wilderness.

Daniel 11:44,45 – But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. [45] And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

Begin Excerpt from DEBKAfile

Three major US naval strike forces due this week in Persian Gulf

August 11, 2008, 10:37 AM (GMT+02:00)

New America armada around Iran

DEBKAfile’s military sources note that the arrival of the three new American flotillas will raise to five the number of US strike forces in Middle East waters – an unprecedented build-up since the crisis erupted over Iran’ s nuclear program.

This vast naval and air strength consists of more than 40 carriers, warships and submarines, some of the last nuclear-armed, opposite the Islamic Republic, a concentration last seen just before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Our military sources postulate five objects of this show of American muscle:

1. The US, aided also by France, Britain and Canada, is finalizing preparations for a partial naval blockade to deny Iran imports of benzene and other refined oil products.

This action would indicate that the Bush administration had thrown in the towel on stiff United Nations sanctions and decided to take matters in its own hands.

2. Iran, which imports 40 percent of its refined fuel products from Gulf neighbors, will retaliate for the embargo by shutting the Strait of Hormuz oil route chokepoint, in which case the US naval and air force stand ready to reopen the Strait and fight back any Iranian attempt to break through the blockade.

3. Washington is deploying forces as back-up for a possible Israeli military attack on Iran’s nuclear installations.

4. A potenti al rush of events in which

a US-led blockade, Israeli attack and Iranian reprisals pile up in a very short time and precipitate a major military crisis.

5. While a massive deployment of this nature calls for long planning, its occurrence at this time cannot be divorced from the flare-up of the Caucasian war between Russia and Georgia.

While Russia has strengthened its stake in Caspian oil resources by its overwhelming military intervention against Georgia, the Americans are investing might in defending the primary Persian Gulf oil sources of the West and the Far East.

DEBKAfile’s military sources name the three US strike forces en route to the Gulf as the USS Theodore Roosevelt , the USS Ronald Reagan and the USS Iwo Jima . Already in place are the USS Abraham Lincoln in

the Arabian Sea opposite Iranian shores and the USS Peleliu which is cruising in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

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Satan has Two Evident Discerning Characteristics

The 2 Are Manifested In His Middle East KINGDOM

1st Bible Appearance describes Him as very “Subtil”

The Beast more “Subtil” than Any Beast of the Field

And His first Beastly Appearance Was in His Kingdom

Which Lies Between and along the Euphrates & Tigris

It Is The Historical Spot of Satan’s Seat of Great Power

Euphrates River holds Four of Devil’s bound Angels in It

Satan’s three Frogs come out of it at call to Armageddon

The rulers of this area today still manifest his subtle Ways

By the Time one has read from Genesis to Revelation’s End

We also know Satan now has a determination to Wage War

Another Trait That’s Readily discernable in his kingdom Today

Two of Satan’s Characteristics Are Being Subtle & Determined!

August 11, 2008

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Genesis 3:1-4 – Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden

? [2] And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: [3] But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. [4] And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

Revelation 9:12-15 – One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter. [13] And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, [14] Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. [15] And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.

Revelation 16:10-14 – And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, [11] And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. [12] And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. [13] And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of

the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. [14] For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

Begin Excerpt from Jerusalem Post

Analysis: Subtly and determinedly, Syria is taking over Lebanon

August 7, 2008

Jonathan Spyer , THE JERUSALEM POST

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman

is to visit Syria next week, to discuss the opening of diplomatic relations between the countries, a Lebanese official told reporters this week.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy last month hailed President Bashar Assad’s expression of willingness in principle to establish diplomatic relations with Lebanon as “historic progress.”

The establishment of a first-ever Syrian Embassy in Beirut is probably not imminent, for various reasons. Nevertheless, the signs of normalization in relations between Syria and Lebanon are significant. They are the latest indication of Syria’s growing confidence, and far from being a harbinger of more peaceful times in the neighborhood, they offer clues as to the shape of possible further strife.

The formation of the new Lebanese government after the Beirut clashes in May represented a very significant gain for the pro-Syria element in Lebanese politics. Hizbullah now controls a blocking 11 of the 30 cabinet seats. With a Lebanese government of this type, there is no reason for Syria to be in dispute there. The short period when Damascus felt the need to express its will in Lebanon solely in a clandestine way is drawing to a close.

Still, Western hopes for the rapid establishment of formal relations between the two countries are probably exaggerated. Damascus is in no hurry.

Syria’s return to Lebanon is a work in progress. Assad has listed the preconditions for the establishment of diplomatic relations to become a real possibility. These include the passing of an election law, and the holding of the scheduled May 2009 general election.

Behind Assad’s honeyed words, one may glimpse the contours of Syrian strategy in the next stage. The election of May 2009 will be conducted under the shadow of Hizbullah’s independent and now untouchable military capability.

Intimidation will go hand in hand with the real kudos gained by the movement and its allies because of recent events – including the prisoner swap with Israel, and the Doha agreement that followed the fighting in May. The result, the Syrians hope, will be the establishment of a government more fully dominated by Hizbullah and its allies, in which the pro-Western element will have been marginalized.

Such a government would mark the effective final reversal of the events of the spring of 2005, when the Cedar Revolution compelled the Syrian army to leave Lebanon. Damascus would then go on to conduct friendly and fraternal relations with the new order in Beirut.

Mission accomplished.

If this strategy plays out, however, it will represent not the normalization of Syrian-Lebanese relations, but rather the enveloping of Lebanon into the regional alliance led by Iran, of which Syria is a senior member.
On the ground in Lebanon, this regional alliance is still engaged in consolidating its gains.

The lines separating the official Lebanese state from the para-state established by Hizbullah continue to blur. The new government’s draft policy statement, which is still to be discussed by the parliament, supports the “right of Lebanon’s people, the army and the Resistance to liberate all its territories.”

This statement thus nominally affords the Resistance. i.e. Hizbullah, equal status with the Lebanese Armed Forces, and appears to consider it an organ of official government policy.

The new organ of government policy, meanwhile, is building its strength. Ostensibly for the mission of “liberating” 20 square kilometers of border farmland, Hizbullah has built a capability of 40,000 missiles and rockets, is frenziedly recruiting and training new fighters, and is expanding and developing its command and logistics center in the Bekaa.

The latest talk is of Iranian-Syrian plans to supply Hizbullah with an advanced anti-aircraft capacity that would provide aerial defense to the investment in rockets and missiles. Such a move would represent a grave altering of the balance of power. Serious moves towards it could well prove the spark for the next confrontation.

In all its moves, the Iranian-Syrian-Hizbullah alliance has known how to combine brutal military tactics on the ground with subtle and determined diplomacy. Its willingness to throw away the rule book governing the normal relations between states has been perhaps its greatest advantage.

While the West sees states as fixed entities possessing certain basic rights, Iran and Syria see only processes of rising and falling power. They see themselves as the force on the rise, and the niceties of internationally fixed borders as a trifle unworthy of consideration.

The region has known the rise of similar systems of power and ideology in the past. Experience shows that such states and alliances have become amenable to change and compromise – if at all – only after experiencing defeat, setback and frustration.

The Syrians and their allies, of course, are far weaker in measurable military and societal terms than their rhetoric would suggest. Western (including Israeli) actions over the last years have tended to blur this fact. The general acceptance of the transformation of Lebanon into a platform for this alliance – and the lauding of it as ‘historical progress’ – is the latest example of this. The reacquaintance of rhetoric with reality on all sides is long overdue.

Jonathan Spyer is a senior research fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs Center at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya.

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A Very Sad Ninth Day Of the Hebrew Month Of Av

Began this weekend in Israel to remember its Woes

They are outl

ined in the Jerusalem Post Excerpt Below

We Now Fast approach the Time of Israel’s greatest Woe

It is followed by Messiah’s return because his Word says So

Then sadness on this earth will be a thing Israel doesn’t Know

August 10, 2008

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

THIS IS THE SADDNESS THAT WILL SOON COME ON ISRAEL

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.

Zechariah 13:8 – And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left

therein.

Luke 21:25-27 – And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; [26] Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. [27] And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

BRIEF MOURNING OCCURS BUT THEN COMES ETERNAL JOY!

Zechariah 13:9 – And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.

Zechariah 12:9-14 – And it shall come to pass in that day,

that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

[10] And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. [11] In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. [12] And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; [13] The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; [14] All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.

JOY LASTS 1000 YEARS ON EARTH AND FOREVER IN HEAVEN

Zechariah 14:8,9 – And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. [9] And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name

one.

Ezekiel 39:21-29 – And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. [22] So the house of Israel shall know that I am

the Lord their God from that day and forward. [23] And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword. [24] According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from

them. [25] Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name; [26] After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid.

[27] When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations; [28] Then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. [29] Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.

Begin Excerpt from Jerusalem Post

A day of responsibility

August 9, 2008

THE JERUSALEM POST

Tisha Be’av, which began last night, is the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av. On it we commemorate the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, in 586 BCE and 70 CE, respectively, and the expulsion of the Jewish people from Israel.

Along with Yom Hashoah and Remembrance Day, Tisha Be’av is one of the most melancholy days in the Jewish calendar. Beyond the destruction of the two Temples, the Ninth of Av has the distinction of being inauspicious in other ways.

On that date:

In 1096, the First Crusade began, destroying Jewish communities in Europe. In 1290, the Jews were expelled from England, and, in 1306, from France. In 1492, the Jews were thrown out of Spain.

In 1648, thousands of Polish Jews were murdered in the Chmielnicki massacres. In 1882, pogroms swept Russia. In 1914, World War I broke out. In 1942, the Nazis convened at Wannsee, Germany to finalize plans for the Final Solution.

Today we cannot but also reflect upon the existential threats facing the Jewish state.

THE DAY is traditionally marked by fasting and recitation of the Book of Lamentations, the Prophet Jeremiah’s heart-wrenching narrative of Jerusalem’s fall:

O how the city once so populous

Remained lonely like a widow!

She that was great among nations,

A princess among the provinces,

Has become a tributary.

BEYOND THE sacred and historical significance of Tisha Be’av, the day is replete with contemporary relevance.

Our attention is called to the Temple Mount, which, hundreds of years before Muhammad was born or Jesus preached, was the epicenter of Jewish civilization.

Too bad, then, that even relatively moderate Palestinian leaders such as Mahmoud Abbas and Ahmed Qurei will not acknowledge the Jews’ ancient link to this place. Their refusal makes efforts to reach an accommodation immeasurably more complicated.

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All the Monkey’s are Not in Arab Zoos!

In Gaza tunnels we do see quite a Few

So Muslims can see its now left up to You

Arabs Could Have Lots more fun if they Are

Driving Through One Of The Tunnels In A Car

Fatah cannot ever be Better off than They Are,

If Hamas Hangs Them High On The Islamic Star!

August 10, 2008

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Middle East tunnels running under, and in and out of, cities is certainly nothing new to the descendants of Abraham. The tunnels and caves, under the city of Jerusalem were so many its citizens would, at times, go underground and wait for the attackers to leave or be driven off.

I may have spent more time crawling and prowling in tunnels and caves under Jerusalem than I have walking on the top of it. The Jordanians still possessed the Temple Mount when I was in the Middle East for the first time in 1952, and maintained control of it until Israel took it over in the 1967 War during June. Up until the Israelis drove the Jordanian forces out of Israel, it was possible to go under the Temple Mound through a large Western Wall opening in the tunnel now called the “Rabbi’s Tunnel,” which in 1952 was a narrow dusty maze of spider webs, ancient boards, stones, and rubble, extending underground as a northward running tunnel along the western face of the northern half of the west Temple Mount wall. The large opening was very easy to walk through and made it possible to go into a maze of tunnels under the surface of where Herod’s temple stood. But just as soon as the Jewish forces discovered it, they cemented it in. However, it can still be seen where they performed their sealing work.

Begin Jerusalem Post Excerpt

Lions, monkeys take underground route to Gaza zoo

August 8, 2008

Associated Press , THE JERUSALEM POST

The monkeys and lions were drugged, tossed into cloth sacks and pulled through smuggling tunnels under the border between Egypt and the besieged Gaza Strip before ending up in their new homes in a dusty Gaza zoo. But to draw the crowds, what zoo manager Shadi Fayiz really wants to bring through the underground passages is an elephant.

The “Heaven of Birds and Animals Zoo,” stocked almost entirely with smuggled animals, is a sign of Gaza’s ever-expanding tunnel industry. At least dozens of passages are thought to snake under the border, serving as a mainstay of the local economy.

Smugglers say a new effort by Egypt to blow the passages up will have little effect, allowing the flow of products like cigarettes, weapons and lion cubs to continue unhindered.

Gaza’s commercial trade was literally forced underground after Hamas seized the coastal territory last summer, prompting neighboring Israel and Egypt to restrict the flow of goods through commercial passages.

While Israel has allowed more goods in after since a June truce with Hamas, it is not enough to answer Gaza’s needs. Tunnel smugglers fill the gaps, bringing in contraband drugs and guns and more mundane items like frilly underwear, laptop computers and exotic animals, like the lion and lioness that prowl in a cage at the Rafah zoo.

They were purchased as cubs from Egypt for $3,000 each, drugged and dragged through a tunnel in sacks. Fayiz said he went through a middleman to put in his order.

At the small zoo, umbrellas shade battered couches. Under one covered walkway is a parrot who was sneaked through a tunnel in a cage. The parrot can ask for a kiss in Arabic, Fayiz said, which startles conservatively veiled Gazan women walking by.

Two monkeys were bought together as babies. So were three spindly-legged gazelles, one of whom bit several tunnel smugglers when they forgot to drug it, Fayiz said.

All told, his animals cost over $40,000. He opened shop in June.

“Without the tunnels, I couldn’t have done this,” the 23-year-old said.

Egypt, under Israeli pressure, has noticeably ratcheted up its efforts in recent weeks to destroy the passages, blasting tunnel entrances on its side. But smugglers say they can easily build new ones.

“You can’t kill a snake,” said middleman Abu Mohammed, referring to the passages by their Gazan slang.

Like other traders interviewed by the AP, he declined to give his real name, fearing retribution from Egypt and tax demands from Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

Gaza traders come to his office in Rafah with lists of products – food, clothes, motor oil.

He contacts Egyptian traders to find them, then shops for the cheapest tunnel to haul them through, ensuring a bigger profit.

“Some tunnels want $100 a box, some just $70. You have to compare prices,” he said.

Such competition in the smuggling market was unthinkable before the Hamas takeover, when there were fewer passages and overland borders still worked.

Rows of lacy underwear hang in Abu Mohammed’s shop, left from a previous shipment. They were big sellers through the summer, when most Gazan weddings take place. This season, traders are ordering nuts for Ramadan, an upcoming Muslim holy month when the devout fast throughout the day and usually snack through the night.

Traders estimate around a hundred tunnels now run under the border, with the number rising since the Hamas takeover.

Israel has demanded that Egypt block weapons smuggling into Gaza. Israel’s main concerns about the current truce is that Hamas will use it rearm.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s spokesman Mark Regev said he believed Egypt was devoting more energy to destroying the passageways, but also said Hamas was exploiting the calm to strengthen its military wing.

Earlier this month, five tunnel workers were killed when Egypt blew up a tunnel exit, suffocating them inside.

An Egypti an border offici

al said authorities destroy about a tunnel a day.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, says tunnels can’t provide a solution to Gaza’s woes.

“A tunnel can bring in a mobile phone, but it can’t bring in raw materials, and because of that, Gaza is paralyzed,” Abu Zuhri said.

But zoo manager Fayiz has a high opinion of the smugglers’ ingenuity.

“It’s just a matter of time until they make a tunnel an elephant can walk through,” he said.

Begin Excerpt from German Der Spiegel via Jerusalem Center for Daily Affairs – Daily Alert

Tunnels to Egypt Keep Hamas in Business

Juliane von Mittelstaedt

August 9, 2008

Abu Ibrahim, 38, the king of the Gaza tunnel builders, is the richest man in Rafah and is believed to be worth millions.

He drives a gold-colored Jeep

and has built a multistory commercial building.

Hamas owes its power in Gaza to Abu Ibrahim. It was Ibrahim who helped arm the Islamists and provided them with the weapons they have used since assuming power in June of last year. According to Israel, 175 tons of explosives have been smuggled into Gaza since June 2007, along with 10 million rounds of ammunition, tens of thousands of machine guns, grenades, land mines and precision-guided missiles.

Abu Yakub, an assistant of Ibrahim, squats next to a new shaft where his men are in the process of digging a new tunnel. Using satellite images from Google Earth, they install power cables, oxygen lines and intercom systems underground.

Hamas is believed to collect about $10,000 a day from the tunnel owners in the form of “usage fees,” as well as “value-added taxes” – all payable in cash to armed money collectors who wait at the tunnel exits.

(Der Spiegel-Germany)

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When a last Middle East War finally breaks Out

Lebanese and Hizbullah armies will join no Doubt

So when Israel attacks Lebanon all world will Shout

Arab Armies Will Un ite

and Jews They Will Be Clouting

U.S. and Allies are Sure Israel Will Win without Doubting

But when Israel is driven into Negev for truce are Shouting

Three and a half years later Israel’s foes God will be Routing

At the Second Advent of Jesus coming on a triumphant Outing!

August 9, 2008

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

The two excerpts that follow make a clear statement by both Lebanon and Israel as to what to expect in the next war between Israel and her foes lying just across her northern border.

Lebanon has given Hezbullah the authority to free all disputed territory lying north and south of today’s border between Israel and Lebanon by direct force. And Israel has advised Lebanon she will attack Lebanon as well as Hizbullah when such an event is attempted.

As I have stated many times, when Hizbullah makes the attempt it will be part of a full blown, closed door, conspiracy between Syria,

Iran, Hizbullah, and the Hamas to lure Israel across the border to give justification for a very well coordinated Middle East war against Israel by the 10 toes of Daniel 2.

Begin YNet News Excerpt

Siniora: We must regain occupied land

Begin YNet News Excerpt

PM Siniora: Lebanese people fought hard to liberate land, must regain areas still occupied

Roee Nahmias

August 8, 2008

The Lebanese people have fought hard to liberate their land and now must “regain the land that has remained occupied,” Lebanon’s Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Friday, referring to areas currently under Israeli control.

The Lebanese leader made the remarks during a festive session where the new Lebanese government sought the endorsement of parliament.

This included clause 24 of the new government platform that maintains the right to liberate occupied land, meaning that Hizbullah would be able to continue its struggle against Israel.

“We view the establishment of this government as a new stage in the joint work of the Lebanese people on behalf of their homeland and country, and for the sake of the future of Lebanon’s democratic regime,” Siniora said.

The Lebanese unity government approved earlier this week a platform that grants Hizbullah the right to use all means possible in order to liberate “occupied Lebanese land.”

The clause was a source of disagreement between the rival camps in Lebanon, yet Hizbullah’s demands were ultimately full accepted.

The proposal was approved unanimously on Monday, despite the reservations expressed by four ministers.

Begin Haaretz Excerpt from Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Daily Alert

Israel to Hold Lebanon Responsible for Hizbullah’s Actions

Barak Ravid

Israel will hold Lebanon responsible for any attacks against Israel, in particular for any Hizbullah efforts to avenge the death of its military leader Imad Mughniyeh.

This decision on Wednesday by the security cabinet represents a change in Israeli policy, which had always firmly separated Hizbullah and the Lebanese government.

Israel will treat the Lebanese unity government, which is headed by Fouad Siniora and includes Hizbullah, as responsible for any event that takes place in its sovereign territory or events for which Lebanese nationals are responsible.

A senior Jerusalem source said if Hizbullah attacks Israel from Lebanese territory, shoots at Israel Air Force aircraft, or carries out a terror attack abroad, Israel will hold Lebanon responsible and respond appropriately.

In the Second Lebanon War, Israel avoided damaging Lebanese civilian infrastructure such as power stations, ports or government institutions, despite the recommendation of then-IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, due to pressure from Washington on Israel.

Defense officials noted that the guidelines of the new Lebanese government, approved by President Michel Suleiman, allow Hizbullah to continue its military activity against Israel. (Ha’aretz)

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.

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.