blog.Tribulationperiod.com

Put A NICKEL On The PA Drum,

Save another Arab terrorist Bum!

Little JACK ABBAS pulled OFF a Plum,

Now PA will prove again WE are Dumb!

At meeting the US gives a 900 million Sum,

Gaza FOLKS from Aid Conference get Crumbs,

As HAMAS get their CUT covered with PA Cream!

March 4, 2009

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Benjamin Netanyhu makes a good point in the second of two excerpts which follow.

Begin Excerpt 1 from DEBKAfile

Some home truths about the Gaza aid conference

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

March 2, 2009, 8:17 PM (GMT+02:00)

Israeli air force bombs empty Gaza buildings

Amid a global economic meltdown, high-ranking delegations from 75 countries met at Sharm e-Sheikh Monday, March 2, and approve $5.5 billion for rebuilding the Gaza Strip ravaged during Israel’s 22-day anti-terror operation last month.

Hillary Clinton will announce at her debut Middle East appearance as secretary of state a $900 million donation: $600 million for the Palestinian Authority, $300 million for Gaza.

Germany too is expected to pledge 100 euros in addition to a European Union package, but the primary donors are Arab nations led by Saudi

Arabia.

Egypt will share the kudos with the Obama administration, which will use the occasion to reassert Washington’s role as lead Middle East peacemaker.

After they leave the Middle East, their donations will eventually be streamed to three destinations: The Palestinian Authority, Hamas in Gaza and… Tehran.

The donors are undecided over where to deposit the funds once they are delivered, understanding that not a cent can be spent on rehabilitating this Palestinian enclave without going through its ruler, Hamas. Some advise depositing the money with Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority, some suggest the World Bank, others a special mechanism (whose bureaucracy would eat up large sums).

The truism that Hamas controls everything that moves in Gaza was amply borne out by the Quartet’s envoy Tony Blair. He postponed entering Gaza for months over threats to his life. He finally went in – albeit not too far in – Sunday, March 1 under the protection of an armed Hamas escort.

While there, he may well have heard the whistle of the five missiles Hamas and its ilk fired into Israel that day, one destroying an Ashkelon school.

For eight years, the Israeli cities, villages and businesses ravaged by Palestinian missiles have been repaired at the expense of the Israeli taxpayer, who turns out ironically to be one of the Gaza donors.

Jerusalem has been transferring hundreds of millions of shekels per month to Gaza because the International Monetary Fund’s hold Jerusalem responsible for its banks – an anomaly when the US, the EU and World Bank have all agreed that by evacuating the Strip in 2005, Israel had no more responsibility.

Blair’s demand that Israel lift its embargo on the terrorist-ruled enclave to allow cement and iron to go through because “food and medicines are not enough” is far from innocent.

He knows that the cement would be used to fortify Hamas installations and the iron on weapons.

By following the donors’ money trail, DEBKAfile’s sources have found out exactly where the international aid for Gaza ends up: At the corruption-ridden Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, feeding Hamas’ military might and paying its armorer, Iran.

The pro-West Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad, who is credited with bringing order to Palestinian Authority finances, regularly diverts to the Gaza Strip funds from all PA revenues including donations. Israel and the donor-states agree to their transfer, purportedly to pay the wages of PA officials serving there.

Before Hamas’ seized the enclave two years ago, 35,000 officers served with the security services; today, allocations are transferred to cover wages for 70,000.

Since both figures were fictitious, it does not need a mathematician to figure out that Hamas is using the money as a war chest. Some well-informed Israeli sources have confided to DEBKAfile that had Israel carried out an economic Operation Cast Lead against Hamas, the military operation might have been superfluous.

DEBKAfile’s sources disclose how Hamas apportions the incoming donations:

Less then 15% for the Palestinian populace – badly hurt during Israel’s military offensive but chronically jobless, poverty-stricken, lacking schools and medical facilities since the Hamas takeover.

About 30% supports Hamas’ political and religious hierarchies.

Another 25% is spent on maintaining Hamas “security forces” including Izz e-Din al Qassam and its rocket units.

Some 30% purchases an assortment of missiles and rockets, weapons and explosives as well as fortifying military installations and command bunkers – some snaking under the Israeli border packed with explosives and suicide bombers or smuggling tunnels carrying Iranian supplies of improved rockets, explosives and weaponry through Sinai.

The most carefully hidden factor is the portion which pays for Hamas’ weapons supplies from Tehran.

DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose how these transactions work:

Iran delivers the hardware to the Bedouin smuggling gangs of Sinai, who transport the merchandise to Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which is charged bargain basement prices. The money (initially put up by Western donors and Israel) is handed to Tehran after the smugglers rake off their commission. Cairo’s pledges to stop the smuggling are cant. Egyptian officers and troops in Sinai are on the take.

The free world and its donors are not contesting their division of labor with Iran – they put up the cash, part of which is diverted to this terror sponsor par excellence for missiles. The delegations meeting in Sharm e-Sheikh prefer to go home feeling virtuous, having shown their support for the most fashionable international aid cause in the world.

Hamas and its sponsors stay behind. They can drop their public pose as victims and have a good laugh over the Western world’s gullibility, after maneuvering the US, Europe and Israel into shelling out to make Hamas stronger and footing the bill for its Iranian weapons.

Tehran has already celebrated its success in pulling the wool over 75 pairs of international eyes by asking Interpol, created by the West to internationalize the policing of crime, to arrest what it says are 15 Israeli “war criminals” who were involved in the conflict in Gaza in December and January.

This champion of human rights has even set up a court and launched its own “investigation.”

Begin Excerpt 2 from Jerusalem Post via Independent Media Review Analysis (IMRA)

Netanyahu: Why pour money into Gaza before rockets stop?

Herb Keinon , THE JERUSALEM POST

March 2, 2009

Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu voiced serious reservations
during recent meetings with foreign leaders about money going into the Gaza
Strip for reconstruction before the rocket fire on Israel has stopped, The
Jerusalem Post has learned.

After hearing in one meeting that European taxpayers were concerned about
investing in Gaza only to see further destruction at the hands of the IDF,
Netanyahu explained that Israel tried hard to avoid civilian casualties and
targeted only those areas used by terrorists.

He then reportedly said he was
not willing to sacrifice Israel’s security “for a smile.”

Sources close to Netanyahu said it would be critical for humanitarian aid to
bypass Hamas, especially with the Islamist group continuing to fire rockets
into Israel.

One Netanyahu aide said that with the Gaza reconstruction conference, it
seemed as if the world felt that attacks

on Isr ael were

a thing of the past,
when they were taking place daily.

Representatives of some 80 countries – including US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton – are gathering in Sharm e-Sheikh on Monday to pledge
billions of dollars to rebuild the damage from Operation Cast Lead, with the
US reportedly ready to invest $900 million in the enterprise.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned at the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday
that “should the firing from the Gaza Strip continue, it would be met by a
painful, sharp, strong and uncompromising response by the security forces,
led by the IDF.”

Gazan terrorists continued their attacks on Israeli civilian areas on Sunday
night, firing two rockets at the western Negev. One of the Kassams hit the
yard of a Sderot home, causing light damage.

Minutes later, another rocket struck an open area in the Sdot Negev region.

There were no casualties in either attack.

Earlier, terrorists fired a rocket that landed south of Ashkelon, near where
a rocket hit overnight on Saturday. No one was wounded and no damage was
caused.

Olmert said Israel could not countenance the continued attacks, and that the
response would not be what the terrorist organizations expected.

Later in the day, Olmert met with Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon,
who was on his way to the donor meeting.

The prime minister told him that
Israel supported aid for the Palestinians in Gaza but that ways had to be
found to ensure that the support did not strengthen Hamas.

The important thing was not just to pledge money, Olmert said of the
expected $2.8 billion in pledges, including $1b. from Saudi Arabia. The
important thing was to see how the aid was to be delivered, and what
monitoring mechanism would be set up so the money didn’t end up helping
Hamas.

Like Netanyahu, Olmert said it would be a mistake to believe that the matter
of rockets from Gaza was over.

The assumption that there was now quiet in
the South and that all efforts could be focused on reconstruction was
faulty, he said.

In the run-up to the conference, Quartet envoy Tony Blair became the latest
in a parade of international figures making their way to the Gaza Strip,
going there Sunday for the first time since taking up his post in the summer
of 2007.

“This money will not have a lasting impact unless there is a political
solution,” Blair said. “It is ultimately in the politics that the solution
lies.”

At a UN-run school in Beit Hanun, Blair said, “I wanted to come to hear for
myself first-hand from people in Gaza, whose lives have been so badly
impacted by the recent conflict.

These are the people who need to be the
focus of all our efforts for peace and progress from now on.”

Britain’s International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander also visited
Gaza, and pledged GBP 30m. to rebuild homes, schools and hospitals damaged
or destroyed in the recent IDF offensive.

During his visit, Alexander urged Israel to relax restrictions on items
allowed into the area.

“There is a desperate need for tough restrictions on the supply of goods to
be relaxed,” he said. “Gaza needs money, fuel and construction materials,
and whilst these goods are turned away at the borders, repairs to homes,
water systems and the electricity network will remain impossible. Israel
must do the right thing and allow much-needed goods to get through to those
men, women and children who continue to suffer.”

In a statement released by the British Embassy, Alexander did not relate to
Israeli concerns that it could not allow construction materials such as
steel and concrete into the region for fear they would be used to build
rockets and rocket factories.

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GEOLOGICAL AND TRIBULATION FEATURES ON ISRAELI TOUR PATHS

PART 5B

Dead Sea – Masada – Ein Gedi– Qumran – Jericho – Jerusalem – Normal Fifth Day of Tours in 2 Parts

Part 2 of 2 parts for Fifth Day

The Ruins of Qumran

The site of Qumran ruins (Khirbet Qumran) had been occupied at various times in antiquity. At a low level were found the remains of walls and pottery from Iron Age II (8-7th centuries BC). A deep circular cistern also belongs to this period (centuries later it was incorporated in an elaborate system of aqueducts and reservoirs). Probably this was the site known as the Biblical “Ir ha-Melah” – City of Salt.

In approximately 130 B.C. new occupants cleared the circular cistern, added two rectangular cisterns, constructed a few rooms, and installed two pottery kilns. 30 years later two- and three-storey buildings were added, and an elaborated water-collecting system was constructed (incorporated the earlier ones) consisting of cisterns connected by channels and supplied by aqueduct from a dam. There is a vast evidence that the manuscripts discovered in the Qumran caves belonged to the library of the occupants of the site in this period – a small hermit community referred as the Dead Sea Sect .

During the Jewish War the place was apparently stormed by Romans and ruined, and then occupied by a Roman garrison for 20 years.

Bar-Kokhba fighters occupied the ruins in 132-135 A.D.

The main building on the site occupied about 37 square meters, constructed of large undressed stones, and with a strong tower in the northwestern corner. On the west side is a long room used apparently as an eating-

room. In the adjacent smaller room over a thousand of ceramic vessels were found. They may have been manufactured on the spot, since the excavations brought to light the best preserved pottery thus far found in the Land of Israel.

A first-storey room in the southwest part of the building was evidently furnished as a writing-room. Flour mills, a stable, a laundry and various workshops were also uncovered. The occupants apparently aimed to be as self-sufficient as possible. There were apparently no sleeping quarters; tents or caves may have served the occupants for shelter. Near the settlement and separated from it by a wall there is a large cemetery

The Dead Sea Scrolls

In 1947 two Bedouin shepherds accidentally came across a clay jar in a cave near Khirbet Qumran that contained seven parchment scrolls. The scrolls came into the hands of dealers in antiquities who offered them to scholars. The first scholar to recognize their antiquity was E.L. Sukenik, who succeeded in acquiring three of them for the Hebrew University. Between 1948 and 1950 he published specimens of them, his “editio princeps” appearing posthumously in 1955. The four other scrolls were smuggled to the United States, where three of them were published in 1950-51. Later they were offered for sale (in a usual newspaper ad, five lines long, under “Miscellaneous for sale). Yigael Yadin, the son of E.L. Sukenik and also an outstanding archaeologist, succeeded in buying them and bringing back to Israel.

The Israel Museum in Jerusalem constructed a special site for exhibiting the scrolls – the Shrine of the Book (opened in 1965). Strict atmospheric conditions are observed there to minimize the possible dam age

to the scrolls.

In the meantime a group of scholars under the leadership of R. de Vaux began to search and excavate the cave where the first scrolls were found, as well as some 40 caves in its vicinity. Many scrolls and thousands of fragments were found in 11 caves. Y. Yadin has acquired several important items from them. Due to difficulties in deciphering, the material it was published very slowly.

Most of the manuscripts arrived to the Rockfeller Museum in Jerusalem, and became available to to Israel scholars after the Six-Day War in Jerusalem.

The Qumran manuscripts were mostly written on parchment, some on papyrus. They are dated by the closing period of the Second Temple and assumed to be a part of the library belonging to a community from Qumran, known also as a “Dead Sea Sect” . In some caves the manuscripts were carefully placed in covered cylindrical jars, whereas in other ones they appear to have been dumped in haste. In a cave that yielded the greatest amount of documents, the storage conditions were the worst, and the manuscripts disintegrated into tens of thousands of fragments, which had to be pieced together with the utmost patience and care.

The news of the discovery of the first scrolls in 1947 aroused intense interest throughout the world and considerable controversy, especially with regard to their dating. The largest manuscript (the complete Isaiah Scroll in Hebrew, 7m. long) was authoritatively dated by around 100 BCE. Some scholars claimed that the scrolls belonged to a much later date and have no scientific importance. However, this was proved wrong when similar materials were discovered at Masada, in the archaeological stratum dated not later than 73 A.D.

The documents contain over 100 copies of the books of the Hebrew Bible, most of which survived only as fragments. Out of 24 books all except the Book of Ester are represented. Fragments of Septuagint text have been also identified, some of them evidently the oldest documents of this kind.

A further contribution to the biblical material from Qumran is made by the commentaries on various books. Since the biblical text is quoted in them phrase by phrase before the comment is appended, they provide important evidence for the text of the Hebrew Bible at the end of the Second Temple time.

Before the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls, three variants of the Hebrew Bible texts were known: the “proto-masoretic” type (one that was a base for a later canonized text), the type apparently underlying the Septuagint, and the one close to Samaritan Bible. Not only texts belonging to all three types were found in Qumran, but texts of types unknown before, as well as texts of mixed types.

Several important apocryphal documents in Hebrew and Aramaic were found, some of them previously unknown.

Certain manuscripts apparently describe the life of Qumran community: the Manual of Discipline, the Damascus Document, the Thanksgiving Psalms, and the War scroll. They tell about the community’s origin and history, its rules of life, and expectations for the dawn of new age.

The Dead Sea Sect

The community to which the Dead Sea Scrolls apparently belonged occupied Qumran around 130 B.C. to 70 A.D., and possibly lived also in other places in the region. The name “Dead Sea Sect” was given to it because the main knowledge of

the sect derives from these manuscripts.

The sect was an extremist offshot of the Jewish apocalyptic movement, whose basic doctrine was the expectation of the soon end of days.

When it comes, the wicked would be destroyed, and Israel freed from the yoke of the nations. Before this, God would raise for Himself a community of elect who were destined to be saved from the divine visitation, and who were the nucleus of the society of the future.

The Dead Sea Sect carried these views to extremes specific to itself. They believed that God had decreed not only the end but also the division of mankind into two antagonistic camps called “the sons of light and the sons of darkness”, lead by superhuman “prince of light” and “angel of darkness” respectively. Reference is also made to “the spirit of truth” and “the spirit of perverseness” which are given to mankind. Of these, each person receives his portion, in accordance with which he is either righteous or wicked. Between these two categories God has set “eternal enmity” which would cease only in the end of days, with the destruction of the spirit of perversion and the purification of the righteous from its influence. Then “the sons of the spirit of truth” would receive their reward.

The bulk of mankind was immersed in evil and liable to suffer divine visitation. To avoid this destiny, members of the sect chose to go to the wilderness and to conduct there a strict way of life in a zealous preparation for future reward. The members of the sect regarded themselves as “an eternal planting”, and lived in readiness for the advent of the end of days, when God would raise up for Himself the future Human society, in which they would be “leaders and princes”.

The members of the sect may have had several forms of organization. Two of them are described in documents known as the Manual of Discipline and the Damascus Document. The Manual of Discipline called for a full communal life: “they shall eat communally, and bless communally, and take counsel communally”. The document does not deal with an event of anyone being born, and the community was presumably a celibate male one. The community strictly observed the laws of ritual purity, regarded all non-members as ritually unclean, and insisted on “obedience from he lower to the higher”. For this purpose there was a list of members according to their gradings that was drawn anew every year. The members of the sect were “volunteers” who joined its ranks of their own free will. Offenses against internal discipline were punished, in accordance with the special code, by temporary exclusion.

Due to the Damascus document, however, another form of organization also existed, allowing private property, women and children, and organization as a whole was looser.

Jericho

Jericho is the capital of the Jericho Governorate, and has a population of over 20,000 Arabs.

Situated well below sea level on an east-west route 16 kilometers (10 mi) north of the Dead Sea, Jericho is the lowest permanently inhabited site on earth. It is also believed to be the oldest continuously inhabited city of the world.

Described in the Hebrew Bible as the “City of Palm Trees”, copious springs in and around Jericho have made it an attractive site for human habitation for thousands of years.[6] It is known in Judeo-Christian tradition as the place of the Israelites’ return from bondage in Egypt, led by Joshua, the successor to Moses. Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of over 20 successive settlements in Jericho, the first of which dates back to 11,000 years ago (9000 BC).

Ancient times

Jericho is believed to be one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in the world, with evidence of settlement dating back to 9000 BC, providing important information about early human habitation in the Near East. The first permanent settlement was built near the Ein es-Sultan spring between 8000 and 7000 BC by an unknown people, and consisted of a number of walls, a religious shrine, and a 23 feet 0 inches (7.0 m) tower with an internal staircase.

After a few centuries, it was abandoned for a second settlement, established in 6800 BC, perhaps by an invading people who absorbed the original inhabitants into their dominant culture. Artifacts dating from this period include ten skulls, plastered and painted so as to reconstitute the individuals’ features.[9] These represent the first example of portraiture in art history, and it is thought that these were kept in people’s homes while the bodies were buried.[14][5] This was followed by a succession of settlements from 4500 BC onward, the largest of these being constructed in 2600 BC.

Archaeological evidence indicates that in the latter half of the Middle Bronze Age (circa 1700 BC), the city enjoyed some prosperity, its walls having been strengthened and expanded. The Canaanite city (Jericho City IV) was destroyed c.1200 BC, and the site remained uninhabited until the city was refounded in the 9th century BC.

In the 8th century BC, the Assyrians invaded from the north, followed by the Babylonians, and Jericho was depopulated between 586 and 538 BC, the period of the Jewish exile to Babylon. Cyrus the Great, the Persian king, refounded the city one mile southeast of its historic site at the mound of Tell es-Sultan, and returned the Jewish exiles after conquering Babylon in 539 BC.

Remains from Herod’s palace

Jericho went from being an administrative center under Persian rule, to serving as the private estate of Alexander the Great between 336 and 323 BC after his conquest of the region. In the middle of the 2nd century BC, Jericho was under Hellenistic rule, and the Syrian General Bacchides built a number of forts to strengthen the defenses of the area around Jericho against invasion by the Macabees (1 Macc 9:50). One of these forts, built at the entrance to Wadi Qelt, was later refortified by the Herod the Great, who named it Kypros after his mother.

Herod initially leased Jericho from Cleopatra after Mark Antony gave it to her as a gift. After their joint suicide in 30 BCE, Octavian assumed control of the Roman empire and granted Herod free rein over Jericho. Herod’s rule oversaw the construction of a hippodrome-theater (Tel es-Samrat) to entertain his guests and new aqueducts to irrigate the area below the cliffs and reach his winter palace built at the site of Tulul al-Alaiq.[17]

The dramatic murder of Aristobulus III in a swimming pool at Jericho, as told by the Roman historian Josephus, took place during a banquet organized by Herod’s Hasmonean mother-in-law. The city, since the construction of its palaces, functioned not only as an agricultural center and as a crossroad, but as a winter resort for Jerusalem’s aristocracy.[18]

Herod was succeeded by his son, Archelus, who built an adjacent village in his name, Archelais, to house workers for his date plantation (Khirbet al-Beiyudat). First century Jericho is described in Strabo’s Geography as follows:

“Jericho is a plain surrounded by a kind of mountainous country, which in a way, slopes toward it like a theatre. Here is the Phoenicon, which is mixed also with all kinds of cultivated and fruitful trees, though it consists mostly of palm trees.

It is 100 stadia in length and is everywhere watered with streams. Here also are the Palace and the Balsam Park.”

The rock cut tombs of a Herodian and Hasmonean era cemetery lie in the lowest part of the cliffs between Nuseib al-Aweishireh

and Jebel Quruntul in Jericho

and were used to between 100 BC and 68 AD.

The Christian Bible states that Jesus passed through Jericho where he healed two blind men and converted a local tax collector named Zacharias. After the fall of Jerusalem to Vespasian armies in 70 AD, Jericho declined rapidly, and by 100 AD it was but a small Roman garrison town. A fort was built there in 130 that played a role in putting down the Bar Kochba revolt in 133. Accounts of Jericho by a Christian pilgrim are given in 333. Shortly thereafter, the built-up area of the town was abandoned, and a Byzantine Jericho, Ericha was built a mile to the east, around which the modern town is centered. Christianity took hold in the city during the Byzantine era and the area was heavily populated. A number of monasteries and churches were built, including St. George of Koziba in 340 AD and a domed church dedicated to Saint Eliseus. At least two synagogues were also built in the 6th century CE. The monasteries were abandoned after the Persian invasion of 614.

Bethany

Bethany is recorded in the New Testament as the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, as well as that of Simon the Leper. Jesus is reported to have lodged there after his entry into Jerusalem, and it was from Bethany that he parted from his disciples at the Ascension. Bethany is commonly identified with the Palestinian village of al-Eizariya located about 1.5 miles (2 km) to the east of Jerusalem on the south-eastern slope of the Mount of Olives.[1]

The oldest house in present-day al-Eizaraya (Arabic, meaning “Place of Lazarus”) is a 2,000 year old dwelling that has attracted pilgrims who believe it might have been (or at least serves as a reminder of) the House of Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus.

Then to Ambassador Hotel in Jerusalem

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Obama is Not Just Going to Change the United States,

HIS NEW Appointees To Middle East Diplomatic Positions,

Involved in Diplomatic Dialog With Israel and Her ARAB Foes,

Are not the champions or friends of little Israel but pals of Islam,

So America Will Not Fight for Israel and Jerusalem Will Fall to Arabs!

So at the end Israel will stand alone with only Christ to fight her Foes,

After 1260 days in the Negev God Will Use Earth to Destroy her Enemies,

Messiah will return to destroy the massive army of Antichrist and rule Earth!

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.

Zechariah 14:1-9 – Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. [2] For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

[3] Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.

[4] And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

[5] And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. [6] And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: [7] But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. [8] 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.

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.

March 3, 2009

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Begin Excerpts from netvision.net.il via Jerusalem Post

Candidly Speaking: Ill winds from Washington

March 2, 2009

Isi Leibler , THE JERUSALEM POST

There are ominous vibes emanating from Washington signaling impending confrontations between the Obama administration and the incoming Netanyahu government.

Over recent weeks the administration has appointed to senior government postings, personnel with track records of hostility towards Israel such James Jones and Samantha Power.

But what utterly shocked friends of Israel was the selection of former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Chas Freeman, to head the National Intelligence Council. Freeman, who will determine what intelligence is to be presented to the president and personally attend his intelligence briefings, is a bitter foe of Israel. Until now he actually headed the Saudi-funded Middle East Policy Council where he justified Palestinian terror against Israel and even tried to rationalize Hamas behavior. Last year he accused the Bush administration of “supporting right wing Israeli governments to undo the Oslo Accords and to pacify the Palestinians rather than make peace with them”. He also dismissed the two state solution as too little and too late “because what is on offer looks to Palestinians more like an Indian reservation than a country”.

There were also disconcerting statements from George Mitchell, Obama’s Middle East envoy. Some Israelis recollect that in the course of his involvement in the region during the Clinton era, his obsessive even-handedness resulted in an inability to distinguish between terrorists and victims. His failed 2001 plan was a classic manifesto of moral equivalency, repeating mantras about cycles of violence and condemning both sides equally for lacking restraint.

H itherto, the US administration and Israel agreed not to negotiate w

ith Hamas unless it unequivocally reneged on its objective to destroy the Jewish state. Mitchell has now planted the seeds for a confrontation with the incoming Netanyahu government by asserting that the divisions between the two Palestinian factions represent a major obstacle towards achieving a settlement and urged Hamas and Fatah to unite. He failed to explain the benefits of submerging the weaker Fatah into the more powerful Iranian proxy whose extremism matches that of the Taliban.

THERE ARE other troubling signals. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is providing Gaza with close to a billion-dollar bailout to be transferred through tainted bodies like UNWRA which will unquestionably strengthen Hamas. Clinton also angrily insists that Israel open border crossings, dismissing the fact that Gilad Schalit remains incarcerated and that Hamas continues launching missiles and shooting at Israelis.

Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman John Kerry ominously suggested that while ultimately Israel must decide, the US would try to steer its ally in a direction that was good for Israel and the international community. Congressman Gary Ackerman, chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, until now a strong supporter of Israel, made bizarre remarks bracketing “the same destructive dynamic which creates terrorism and the march of settlements and outposts” and “leads to the firing of rockets and perpetration of settler pogroms.” Democrat Congressman Robin Baird urged the administration to reassess aid to Israel to pressure the new government.

Former US ambassador to Israel Dan Kurzer, a long-standing Obama Middle East adviser, warned that “a government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu which included Avigdor Lieberman would be a bad combination for American interests” which would be loath to “embrace a government that included a politician who was defined as a racist.”

BUT THE GREATEST shock was the initial decision by the administration to participate “for the time being” in the preparatory committee for the Durban II conference, scheduled in Geneva on April 20. The original Durban “anti racism” conference in 2001 was a vile anti-Semitic hate fest boycotted by the Bush Administration. The Durban II Preparatory Committee is under the auspices of the Orwellian named UN Human Rights Commission, an evil body dominated by a coven of Moslem states and tyrannical regimes creating an obscene parody of human rights.

The committee is currently chaired by Libya, whose president accused Israel of responsibility for the genocide in Darfur and also recently recommended that Israeli Jews be resettled in Alaska.

Iran and Cuba are deputy chairs. The drafts for Durban II reaffirm the call to delegitimize Israel, the only country singled out for human rights violations.

The Jewish state is defined as a “foreign occupation founded on settlements, and operated by laws based on racist discrimination… a contemporary form of apartheid and a security threat to international peace”.

The Canadians last year announced that they would boycott Durban. The US may have done likewise had our confused Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni not prevaricated and naively hinted that Israel might yet participate if the organizers changed course.

[…….]

Confronted by an eruption of public indignation, the administration subsequently withdrew from this despicable forum.

But enormous damage has already been incurred, and some European countries who initially intended absenting themselves may still participate.

Although the jury is still out, we face difficult times.

If in order to obtain accolades from the Arab world, the Obama Administration is planning to distance itself from Israel or pressure her into making concessions which undermine her basic security needs, we must maintain a united front and stand firm.

Our American Jewish allies and friends of Israel must gird themselves for new challenges. In contrast to the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush eras when support of Israel was synonymous with US policy, they may now find themselves conflicting with a powerful administration intent on distancing itself from Israel. They are also being undermined by a minority of noisy renegade Jews who shamelessly lobby the administration to employ what they describe as “tough love,” a code message for threatening Israel with sanctions if it does not obey their demands for further unilateral concessions. American Jewish leaders now face the challenge of convincing a hopefully pragmatic President Obama – whom they overwhelmingly supported in the election – that appeasing an Iranian terrorist proxy and prematurely creating a Palestinian state controlled by Jihadists can only undermine prospects for peace and harm US interests.

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GEOLOGICAL AND TRIBULATION FEATURES ON ISRAELI TOUR PATHS

PART 5A

Dead Sea – Masada – Ein Gedi – Qumran – Jericho – Jerusalem – Normal Fifth Day of Tours

Part 1 of 2 Parts of Fifth Day

The Dead Sea

It’s called the Dead Sea because nothing lives in it. It is some of the saltiest water anywhere in the world, almost six times as salty as the ocean! The Dead Sea is completely landlocked and it gets saltier with increasing depth. The surface, fed by the River Jordan, is the least saline. Down to about 130 feet (40 meters), the seawater comprises about 300 grams of salt per kilogram of seawater. That’s about ten times the salinity of the oceans. Below 300 feet, though, the sea has 332 grams of salt per kilogram of seawater and is saturated. Salt precipitates out and piles up on the bottom of the sea.

What Caused the Dead Sea to Form?

This lesson takes us back to the subject of plate tectonics.

In this part of the world there is a rift forming where two crustal plates are spreading apart. The East Rift Valley runs through most of Africa, but it starts north of the Dead Sea and runs south along the eastern side of the continent. The Sea is located right along the Rift Valley where the earth’s crust is being stretched thin. To get an idea of how this “crustal spreading” thing works, take a bar of taffy, or taffy-like candy and try to pull it apart. You’ll see where the candy starts to come apart it gets really thin just before it breaks. That’s what is happening to the earth’s crust in the Rift Valley. Where the earth’s crust gets thin, that part of the surface sinks downward. Look at the picture at left to see how the rift forms, sinking downward where the crust is stretched thin. You know what? The Dead Sea is still sinking lower, even today. Scientists figure that the Dead Sea lowers by as much as 13 inches per year. On a geologic time scale that’s incredibly fast!

Why is the Dead Sea so Salty?

Anyway, back to the formation of the Dead Sea. We talked about how the surface of the Sea got down so low in elevation, but why is it so salty? All roads lead to the Sea when it comes to the rivers in the area. The Dead Sea is continually fed water from the rivers and streams coming down off the mountains that surround it.

But the kicker is this….no rivers drain out of the Dead Sea. The only way water gets out of the Sea is through evaporation.

And boy does it evaporate! This part of the world gets plenty hot. When the water evaporates, it leaves behind all the dissolved minerals in the Sea, just making it saltier. In fact, it’s through the dual action of; 1) continuing evaporation and 2) minerals salts carried into the Sea from the local rivers, which makes the Sea so salty. The fact that the water doesn’t escape the Sea just traps the salts within its shores. There’s nothing living in the Dead Sea because it got so salty, so quickly.

There’s no seaweed or plants of any kind in or around the water. There are no fish or any kind of swimming, squirming creatures living in or near the water. As a matter of fact, what you’ll see on the shores of the Sea is white, crystals of salt covering EVERYTHING. And this is no ordinary table salt, either.

The salts found in the Dead Sea are mineral salts, just like you find in the oceans of the world, only in extreme concentrations. The water in the Dead Sea is deadly to living things.

Fish accidentally swimming into the waters from one of the several freshwater streams that feed the Sea are killed instantly, their bodies quickly coated with a preserving layer of salt crystals and then tossed onto shore by the wind and waves.

Brutal!

We can swim in the Dead Sea, just like we can swim in the ocean. Well, people don’t really “swim” in the Dead Sea – they just “hang out”. That’s what’s so cool about the Dead Sea. Because of the extremely high concentration of dissolved mineral salts in the water its density is way more than that of plain old fresh water. What this means is our bodies are more buoyant in the Dead Sea – so you bob like a cork.

In fact, people are so buoyant in this water, it makes it kinda tough to actually swim.

Masada

Site of Jewish revolt and martyrdom, 74C.E.

Masada was turned by King Herod the Great of Judea (37 – 34 B.C.) into a major stronghold.

In 66 A.D., at the onset of the Jewish revolt against Rome, the extremist Sicarii (“dagger-men”) captured Masada; after the revolt’s suppression, it remained the last Jewish fortress to hold out. When the Romans were about to storm its walls in the spring of 74 A.D., the defenders, preferring death to slavery, decided to commit collective suicide. Men slew their women and children, then killed one another – thus relates Flavius Josephus, the only historian to describe these events.

The story of the mass suicide is supported by comparable occurrences in the Greco-Roman world.

In traditional Judaism, Masada went largely un-mentioned for centuries. Only with the advent of Zionism did it gain prominence, with the defenders portrayed as freedom-loving heroes and their stance hailed as an example to live by.

In Yitzhak Lamdan’s influential poem of 1927, Masada came to symbolize the entire Zionist enterprise, with the most famous line announcing, “Masada shall not fall again.” From the 1940s, Masada became the goal of ritual treks organized by Zionist youth movements; from the 1950s, recruits of Israel’s army swore their oath of allegiance in ceremonies atop Masada.

The excavation of the fortress in the 1960s enhanced still further its salience in Israeli consciousness.

The veneration of Masada was never total; for instance, in 1946 David Ben-Gurion coined the slogan “Neither Masada nor Vichy.” From the 1970s onward, the Masada myth repeatedly came under attack.

The credibility of Josephus’s account was questioned; the cruelty of Masada’s “dagger-men” toward other Jews was emphasized; and the portrayal of the perpetrators of a group suicide as national heroes was decried as incongruent with Judaism’s teachings and educationally misguided. Hard-line Israeli leaders were accused of being possessed by a “Masada complex” – that is, of so identifying with Masada’s desperate situation that they were no longer reacting to the reality of their own times.

In 2002 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) proclamation of Masada as a World Heritage Site entailed another round of exchanges between Masada’s admirers and detractors.

The Ein Gedi Oasis

Ein Gedi is an oasis in Israel, located west of the Dead Sea, close to Masada and the caves of Qumran.

It is known for its caves, springs, and

its rich diversity of flora and fauna.

Ein Gedi is mentioned several times in biblical writings, for example, in the Song of Songs; “My beloved is unto me as a cluster of henna flowers in the vineyards of Ein Gedi” (1:14). According to Jewish tradition, David hid from Saul in the caves here; “And David went up from thence, and dwelt in the strongholds of Ein Gedi” (1 Samuel 24:1).

A kibbutz, founded in 1956, is located about a kilometer from the oasis. It offers various tourist attractions and takes advantage of the local weather patterns and the abundance of natural water to cultivate out-of-season produce. Prior to the founding of the kibbutz, the Ein Gedi area had not been permanently inhabited for 500 years.

Ein Gedi National Park

Ein Gedi National Park was founded in 1972 and is one of the most important reserves in Israel. The park is situated on the eastern border of the Judean Desert, on the Dead Sea coast, and covers an area of 6,250 acres (25 km2). The elevation of the land ranges from the level of the Dead Sea at 418 meters (1,371 ft) below sea level to the plateau of the Judean Desert at 200 meters above sea level.

Ein Gedi National Park includes two spring-fed streams with flowing water year-round: Nachal David (David Stream) and Nachal Arugot (Arugot Stream). Two other spr ings, the Shulamit and E

in Gedi springs, also flow in the reserve. Together, the springs generate approximately three million cubic meters of water per year. Much of the water is used for agriculture or is bottled for consumption.

The park is a sanctuary for many types of plant, bird and animal species.

The vegetation includes plants and trees from the tropical, desert, Mediterranean, and steppian regions, such as Sodom apple, acacia, jujube, and poplar. The many species of resident birds are supplemented by over 200 additional species during the migration periods in the spring and fall. Mammal species include the ibex and the hyrax.

In the summer of 2005, nearly two-thirds of the oasis burned to the ground after a tourist dropped a lit cigarette onto the park grounds.

The Botanical Garden at kibbutz Ein Gedi

The kibbutz area contains an internationally acclaimed botanical garden covering an area of 100 dunams (10 ha, 24.7 acres). There one can find more than 900 species of plants from all over the world.

Biblical mentions

In Second Book of Chronicles it is identified with Asasonthamar (Cutting of the Pain), the city of the Amorrhean, smitten by Chedorlaomer in his war against the cities of the plain. Book of Joshua enumerates Ein Gedi among the cities of the Tribe of Judah in the desert Betharaba, but the Book of Ezekiel shows that it was also a fisherman’s town. Later on, King David hides in the desert of Engeddi and King Saul seeks him “even upon the most craggy rocks, which are accessible only to wild goats”. Again, it is in Ein Gedi that the Moabites and Ammonites gather in order to fight against Josaphat and to advance against Jerusalem “by the ascent named Sis”. Finally, Song of Solomon speaks of the “vineyards of Engaddi”; the words, “I was exalted like a palm tree in Cades” (’en aígialoîs), which occur in Ecclus., xxiv, 18, may perhaps be understood of the palm trees of Ein Gedi.

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Peace & Safety = A Total Quiet,

Will be in Force Before the Fight,

Which Drives IDF Forces to Flight,

To Negev due to Islam Army Might!

March 2, 2009

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

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

Begin Excerpt 1 from Jerusalem Post

PM vows to bring ‘total’ quiet to South

March 1, 2009

JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

Following a weekend of rocket fire on Ashkelon and other areas of the western Negev, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday that Israel would not tolerate the escalation and would employ a wide array of measures in order to end the threat on southern Israel.

“Terrorists, led by Hamas, are trying to recuperate from the hard blow of Operation Cast Lead, and are doing this in the only way they know how to – through terror,” he told ministers at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.

“The Israeli government has formulated policies and a unanimous decision has been made by the cabinet according to which, should the rocket fire continue, we will respond in a serious, painful, strong and uncompromising way,” Olmert continued. “The cabinet’s decision will be carried out until the terror organizations understand that Israel is not willing to accept their way.

“Israel has a wide range of options which can be used and these options will be utilized until total quiet is brought to the South,” he added.

On Friday and Saturday, at least eight rockets struck various areas of the western Negev, including one that hit a school in Ashkelon.

Nobody was wounded in any of the attacks, but various buildings sustained extensive damage.

During the meeting, the cabinet upheld its approval of an additional NIS 2.5 billion for the defense budget, rejecting the Finance Ministry’s appeal against the extra funds.

Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On had said that the additional financing were unnecessary since the IDF could get its required funds from money already allotted to the defense establishment.

Prior to the cabinet meeting, Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Israel “must respond severely” to the rocket fire.

Similarly, Pensioners Minister Rafi Eitan said that Israel “cannot leave the situation like it is,” and that it needs to respond “decisively.”

Meanwhile, Public Security Minster Avi Dichter said he had “no doubt” that there would be more IDF operations in Gaza.

Speaking to Israel Radio, Dichter said that the operation had achieved its main objective of hitting Hamas hard, citing “700 Hamas gunmen killed and some one thousand wounded,” but he conceded that it hadn’t totally deterred the group from launching more rockets and smuggling weapons.

Dichter said that “whoever thinks Hamas can be smashed with one blow is mistaken,” adding that although it would take years to destroy the group’s military capability, that should be Israel’s ultimate goal.

Concerning Gilad Schalit, Dichter said Israel was making the utmost effort to secure the captive soldier’s release and dismissed claims that recent internal Israeli developments had hindered chances of a deal.

With regards to the Hamas reconciliation talks with Fatah, the public security minister said they were an attempt by the Islamic group to take over the whole of the Palestini

an territories.

“Hamas aims to rule the entire Palestinian Authority,” he said. “It tried to do this militarily and failed, so it’s now trying legally, just like Hizbullah did in Lebanon.”

Begin Excerpt 2 from Haaretz

Six Qassams hit Negev after Olmert vows ‘painful’ response

By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent

March 1, 2009

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip on Sunday launched six Qassam rockets into southern Israel, just hours after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised a ‘painful, uncompromising response’ to Palestinian rocket fire.

One of the rockets struck in a field in the Sha’ ar Hanegev region.

Another exploded in the backyard of a Sderot home, causing damage.

A third launched earlier in the day hit near Ashkelon,

There were no casualties reported in any of the strikes.

Olmert’s vow came a day after ten rockets were fired at Israel from the coastal territory, bringing the number of projectiles launched from Gaza since the truce to more than 100.

Speaking before the weekly cabinet meeting, Olmert accused Hamas of using Qassam rockets to make up for their losses suffered during the three-week Israel Defense Forces offensive in the Gaza Strip which ended in late January.

“Hamas is trying to recover from the stiff blow they suffered during Operation Cast Lead through the use of terror,” Olmert said.

Olmert said that Israel would respond to rocket fire until “terror groups understand that Israel will not accept these attacks.” He also said that Israel’s response will not adhere “to the expectations of terrorists,” and include a wide array of operations that can implemented “until quiet is restored to the South.”

Six of the rockets fired Saturday targeted Gaza-area communities, two hit Ashkelon, one landed in the Eshkol district and one near Sdot Negev area, the IDF said.

There were no casualties or property damage in the rocket attacks, with the exception of an empty schoolyard in Ashkelon that suffered some damage.

Israel launched a three-week offensive into the Gaza Strip on Dec. 26th, in response to continued rocket fire on southern communities over the last several years. During the operation, 10 IDF soldiers and three Israeli civilians were killed, in addition to over 1,300 Palestinians, according to Palestinian sources.

Begin Except 3 from DEBKAfile Special Report

Hamas missile upsurge erodes Israeli deterrence, dashes ceasefire hopes

DEBKAfile Special Report

March 1, 2009, 9:37 PM (GMT+02:00)

Ten Palestinian missiles struck Israel from the Gaza Strip Saturday, Feb. 28, including two heavyweight Grads aimed at Ashkelon.

The number since Israel halted Operation Cast Lead Jan. 18 has risen to eighty – 81 Sunday night with a direct hit which set a Sderot home on fire.

DEBKAfile’s military sources directly correlate the upsurge of Palestinian rockets attacks on Israel and the setbacks in securing the release of the captive Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit

with defense minister Ehud Barak’s dogged insistence on the imminence of an Egyptian-brokered long-term ceasefire.

The figures are irrefutable, the ceasefire is receding and the message from Cairo is plain. The Egyptians say the rockets will keep on coming and the Israeli soldier stay missing until the rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah reach an accord on sharing power, which is Cairo’s top priority.

Israel is not offered any say in this process; neither is Hamas required to abandon violence or its ruling ambition to destroy Israel. But the Palestinian Islamists’ conditions for a deal are largely addressed to… Israel. Hence the pressure-by-missile.

Cairo optimistically forecasts a “successful” outcome later this month; other Arab sources mention April-May.

But Barack and his envoy to Cairo Amos Gilead seem to have no qualms about Cairo’s linkage of Palestinian missile fire and a Palestinian unity accord, although this makes Ashkelon hostage to a Palestinian factional reconciliation. And what happens if the Palestinian deal falls through, as it has before?

For more than a month, therefore, Israeli retaliation for the missile attacks has been muted, restricted to the harmless aerial bombardment of empty buildings and smuggling tunnels in Gaza.

This tactic contradicts the promises Barak and foreign minister Tzipi Livni made that Israel would respond instantaneously and effectively to Palestinian aggression from Gaza, if the military operation of January failed to bring the promised “new security reality” to southern Israel.

Sensing this weakness in Israel’s stance, Hamas which has quickly recovered from its hammering at Israel’s hands is moving forward on three fronts:

1. An upsurge in missile attacks: Saturday, two newly upgraded 170mm Grad missiles were launched against Ashkelon.

One went through the fortified roof of a schoolroom where no lessons were held because of the Sabbath.

This attack on an important Israeli port-city made nonsense of the defense minister’s claim that Israel’s deterrence capacity was in place.

2. Iran is smuggling larger quantities of weapons to Hamas via Sinai than during the days prior to Operation Cast Lead: 50 improved Grad rockets, different types of anti-air missiles and tons of explosives were delivered in the last two weeks.

That takes care of another solemn promise (delivered by Amos Gilead) that, if Israel agreed to a Cairo-brokered unilateral ceasefire last month, Egypt would reciprocate with strenuous action to stem the smuggling of arms to Hamas through its territory.

Our sources add that Tehran, which took that promise seriously, had planned alternative, more expensive and roundabout smuggling routes. Now Iran sees it can save itself the trouble and go back to shipping arms via Sinai to Gaza relatively undisturbed.

3. Hamas is digging its heel in harder than ever before on the release of Gilead Shalit.

This tramples yet another of Barak’s assurances, this one endorsed by the outgoing prime minister Ehud Olmert, that the military offensive would bring his freedom closer. Hamas has made it clear that the price for his release is up and still rising.

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