blog.Tribulationperiod.com

The Separation of Religion and State in Islamic Countries,

Would be better than the merger found in the Middle East,

But if One considers which of the 2 is leading Islam to War,

It IS MUCH MORE the Fanaticism and Martyrdom of Religion,

Peace can Never be realized in a Middle East Jihad Scenario.

November 28, 2010

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

EXCERPT 1

THIS IS THE FANATICISM OF HAMAS, HIZBULLAH, ISLAMIC JIHAD, AL-QAEDA, AND ALL THE MANY TERRORIST GROUPS SPONSORED BY IRAN AND SYRIA. IF YOU THINK IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE MIDDLE PEACE WITH THIS TERRORIST ARMADA IN EXISTENCE, HAVE FUN IN YOUR DREAM AS YOU LISTEN TO THE SPEECH FROM THE LEADER OF HAMAS.

Begin Excerpt 1 from MEMRI

Middle East Media Research Institute

Hamas PM Ismail Haniya: We Are a Nation of Jihad and Martyrdom

Following is an excerpt from an address delivered by Hamas PM Ismail Haniya, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on November 15, 2010.

Ismail Haniya: We are a mujahid nation, a nation that makes sacrifices, a nation of Jihad. Our cries are of Jihad for the sake of Allah. This is a nation of martyrdom and martyrdom-seeking, a nation

of Jihad for the sake of Allah.

[The people] make a great sacrifice. They sacrifice their children, their sons, for the sake of Palestine and for the sake of the land of Islam and the Muslims

. The might of the nation of Jihad is revealed on the land of Palestine, as well as in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Sudan, and in all the fronts of confrontation with the enemies of Allah.

This is a nation whose beating heart knows no feebleness or confusion.

Its beating heart is Palestine and the Palestinian people. It is the nation of martyrdom and sacrifice.

[…]

EXCERPT 2

RELIGIOUS COMBINATION OF THE KORAN AND THE SWORD IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY

Begin Excerpt 2 from MEMRI

Middle East Media Research Institute

Special Dispatch No. 3399

November 25, 2010

Former Iraqi MP Sayyed Ayad Jamal Al-Din in a TV Debate about Separation of Religion and State: The Combination of the Koran and the Sword Is More Dangerous than Nuclear Technology

Following are excerpts from an Al-Arabiya TV debate on religion and the state in the Arab world, which aired on November 4 and 18, 2010.

Dr. Turki Al-Hamad: “Modern Goals Can Only be Achieved through the Modern State with Modern Values – and this Does Not Occur in a Religious State”

Saudi author Dr. Turki Al-Hamad: “If we want to join the modern world and adapt ourselves to this era, I believe that we must sever the religious establishment from the state. The religious establishment should become part of the state, but should not have hegemony over it. Otherwise, the sovereignty of the state is lost.

“Hence, the modern goals can only be achieved through the modern state with modern values – and this does not occur in a religious state.” […]

Sheik Khalil Al-Mays, Mufti of the Beqa’a Valley in Lebanon: “Who were the Arabs before the advent of Islam, and who are the Arabs following the advent of Islam? The answer is known to all.

”

Mediator: “You mean to say that it was Islam that gave the Arabs their identity.”

Sheik Khalil Al-Mays: “Of course. They opened up to the world through Islam.”
Mediator: “And if not for Islam…”

Sheik Khalil Al-Mays: “They would not have left the Arabian Peninsula.”

Mediator: “Let us be clearer. You see no justification for the separation of religion and state.”

Sheik Khalil Al-Mays: “How can that be?”

Mediator: “You do not believe in such a separation?”

Sheik Khalil Al-Mays: “The Prophet Muhammad established a religious state, did he not?” […]

Dr. Abd Al-Mun’im Abu Al-Futuh, Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt: “There can be no separation of religion and state. This holds true for the entire history of the human race – whether it is the religion of Islam, of Christianity, or of Judaism.”

Mediator: “But in the West, they did separate religion and state…”

Dr. Abd Al-Mun’im Abu Al-Futuh: “The Queen of England is the head of the Church. Nothing is absolute. Everything is relative. The strange thing is that at a time when the Arab secularists – of course, I am talking about the extremists among them – are calling for the separation of religion and state, that Zionist lowlife, Benjamin Netanyahu, is demanding that Israel be a Jewish state.

“What we suffer from is the state’s control over religion, not vice versa. Europe of the Middle Ages suffered from the control of religion over the people, but in our modern era, the state controls the religion.” […]

Sayyed Ayad Jamal Al-Din: “The State Should Provide Water and Electricity to Mosques, to Churches, and to Nightclubs”

Former Iraqi MP Sayyed Ayad Jamal Al-Din: “It is necessary, from both the religious and the human perspectives, to separate religion and state. There should be a buffer between the state and the religion, in order to protect religion from turning into a tool in the hands of politicians, as a result of the pressure exerted by the religious ideological system. […]

“Religion belongs to the human being. The state cannot have a religion. The state is a legal institution that has no color, no flavor, and no smell. It should be a neutral institution that provides services to all. The state should provide water and electricity to mosques, to churches, and to nightclubs.” […]

Sheik Khalil Al-Mays: “Who rules us, the Arabs or the Muslims, as individuals? Allah does. Is it conceivable that Allah rules the individuals, but not society as a whole?” […]

Dr. Turki Al-Hamad: “We should avoid making generalizations. When we say that Allah rules individuals as well as countries, that is a general statement. But the question is: Does Allah talk to us directly? There are people who write interpretations. They are human beings, and their own interests and notions make them paint religion in a certain hue.

When we talk about ‘religion,’ we are necessarily referring to a specific denomination or interpretation. It is those who write these interpretations who impose their will, not Allah.”

[…]

Sayyed Ayad Jamal Al-Din: “The rule of the Prophet Muhammad in Al-Madina produced, among other things, a phenomenon unknown to the Arabs in pre-Islamic times: hypocrisy. Hypocrisy was completely unknown to the Arabs of pre-Islamic times. They were as free as a falcon, and even more.

“The Prophet Muhammad lived in Mecca 13 years, as a herald and a warner. He had no police force, no army, and no money. In Al-Madina, he lived for 10 years, as a herald and a warner, but he also had military power, and [political] authority.

“The hypocrites emerged in Al-Madina, and there is an entire surah in the Koran titled ‘The Hypocrites.’ Many verses concerning hypocrisy were revealed in Al-Madina. There had not been a single hypocrite in Mecca. People were either Muslims or polytheists. That’s it.”

Mediator: “What are you getting at?”

Sayyed Ayad Jamal Al-Din: “The first negative phenomenon of the ideological state – even under the rule of the Prophet Muhammad himself – is that it produces people with a split personality. Hypocrisy is a reaction not to religion but to the ideological state – even if this ideological state is ruled by the Prophet Muhammad himself, not to mention when it is ruled by others. […]

“The goal of religion is to form a human being. When the rulers wanted to strengthen their grip on the people, they began to intimidate them with religion and the Hereafter, in order to tame these Muslims. My claim is that there should be a civil rule. All the prophets, not only the Prophet Muhammad, were sent in order to form human beings, not to construct buildings.” […]

Sheik Khalil Al-Mays: “The confusion about secularism has been exported to our society by the Church. Islam is secularism, and secularism is Islam. We have no hierarchy of clergy.

There is no rule of clerics in Islam. What we have is the rule of the Koran and the Sunna, rather than people ruling according to their own will. This concept that was imported to us is peculiar. […]

“The hypocrites appeared in Al-Madina because there were Jews

living there. In Mecca, there were only Arabs, and so there was no hypocrisy there. The presence of the Jewish element in Al-Madina caused hypocrisy, even in the days of the Prophet Muhammad.

“As we can see today, the same Jewish element causes the greatest hypocrisy in politics worldwide. […]

“You are I are ruled by Allah. I do not rule you, and you do not rule me. I am ruled by the Koran and the Sunna. I am ruled by the shari’a. I am not a ruler, I only implement the rule.” […]

Dr. Abd Al-Mun’im Abu Al-Futuh: “With all due respect to the sheik, I am sure he did not mean to say that we are ruled by Allah. No, the state is ruled by the majority of the people.

The majority of the people determines

the government system. Some people think that when we talk about an Islamic state, we mean that Islam, with all its values, principles, and rules, will be imposed upon the people, whether they like it or not

.

“This is a grave mistake. This is bound to produce an army of hypocrites, because, as I once said in the American University in Cairo, we would simply be replacing the Socialist Abu Za’bal [prison] with an Islamic Abu Za’bal. […]

“It is forbidden to rule any people – Muslim or non-Muslim – according to any law, constitution, or shari’a, unless this is in keeping with the will of the people. If the majority of the people refuse to be ruled by Islam, this is their right, and it is forbidden to impose Islam upon them.” […]

Sayyed Ayad Jamal Al-Din: “Sheik [Al-Mays] said that it is God

that rules. My question is: Which God? The God of the Muslims? The God of the Christians? The God of the Jews? There is more than one [notion] of God. […]

“Everybody says that they want to instate the law of Allah. Let us be specific: Are we talking about instating the shari’a, or not? I do not support the instating of the shari’a. The shari’a constitutes a personal commitment. Whether you are a Sunni Muslim, a Shi’ite Muslim, a Christian, or a Jew – that is your own business.

As for the state, it should be a neutral institution, which implements the civil law – a man-made law, not one conveyed by Allah. […]

“Sheik [Al-Mays] said that the hypocrites are the Jews. Absolutely not. Not a single one of the [Al-Madina] hypocrites was a Jew. They were all Arabs. In pre-Islamic times, the Arab was the ‘Servant-of-Me.’ In Mecca, the Arab was the ‘Servant-of-Him’ – the servant of Allah. And in Al-Madina, the Arab became the ‘Servant-of-the-State.'” […]

Dr. Turki Al-Hamad: “In my view, when religion becomes a state, or becomes politicized, it does not serve the interest of national unity or civil stability. In the modern state, the identity of its people is based on civic identity, which in turn, requires equality – between Muslims and Christians, blacks and whites, or men and women. But in a religious state, there is perforce discrimination, because religion discriminates between men and women, between free men and slaves, and so on.

So the very basis of civic identity – equality – is nullified.”

Sayyed Ayad Jamal Al-Din: “Under the Rule of Islam, There is No Equality among People”

Mediator: “Does proper civic identity exist in Arab countries?”

Dr. Turki Al-Hamad: “No. Everybody talks about equality in the eyes of the law, but the truth is that some groups are marginalized, while others are privileged.” […]

Sheik Khalil Al-Mays: “Did the Arabs, from the days of the Prophet until the fall of the Ottoman Sultanate, have any regime that was not religious – regardless of whether the ruler in question was just or not? There was the religion, and there were believers of other religions, and Islam did not exclude people of other religions. On the contrary, the shari’a gave them latitude… They have their own religious law, their beliefs, and so on. Thus, according to our jurisprudence, civic identity exists. Who says that Islam wishes to exclude others? Islam strives to guide others. Whether they accept it or not – that is their business.” […]

Dr. Abd Al-Mun’im Abu Al-Futuh: “The Western peoples, who respect human rights, maintain equality, and hold free elections – not forged elections, like in the Arab world… If you say that these values of the modern state run counter to Islam, it’s not true. On the contrary, they were invented by Islam. The first covenant of citizenship was drawn up by the Prophet Muhammad in Al-Madina.” […]

Mediator: “Why doesn’t this work with us [Arabs]? Because we do not implement it?”

Dr. Abd Al-Mun’im Abu Al-Futuh: “No, that’s not the only reason. There are groups that purport to be Islamic, but they convey a mistaken notion of Islam to the nation’s youth. If you teach the nation’s youth that a woman is forbidden to drive – what does this have to

do with Islam? When in the Gulf states, they claim that women are forbidden to vote, does this have anything to do with Islam?” […]

Sayyed Ayad Jamal Al-Din: “First of all, the notion of civic identity is a completely Western notion. It has absolutely nothing to do with Islam. Even the Prophet’s hadith, ‘The love of the homeland is part of faith,’ has nothing to do with the modern notion of civic identity, which is based on equality in the eyes of the law.

Under the rule of Islam, there is no equality among people. Absolutely not. A Muslim is not like a dhimmi. The term dhimmi embodies a great deal of scorn and contempt. It is as if the Christian is saying: I am under your protection, under your thumb. This is what it means…”

Mediator (to Dr. Abd Al-Mun’im Abu Al-Futuh): “He didn’t interrupt you…”

Sayyed Ayad Jamal Al-Din: “The notion of civic identity is based on equality in duties and rights, but under the rule of Islam, Muslims and non-Muslims are not equal – neither in their duties, nor in their rights. […]

“The late regime of the Taliban in Afghanistan was a pure Sunni Islamic rule. A clear Shi’ite regime is that of the Jurisprudent Ruler, who claims to be substituting the Prophet Muhammad, and… He is Allah upon the Earth, more or less.

“Whoever wants the rule of the shari’a should turn to the Taliban government or to the Ayatollah’s government in Iran. Or else he should select the Western, Crusader, infidel regime, which created New Zealand and Canada, for instance, as well as human rights and the notion of liberties. These human rights do not exist in Islam.”

[…]

Sayyed Ayad Jamal Al-Din: A Union of Secularism and Sufism Represents the Only Hope for the Future

Audience member: “I am a Christian, and I was exiled from Iraq. There are thousands of Christian refugees here, in Lebanon. I would like to ask Sayyed Ayad whether it was Islam or politics that exiled us from Iraq.”

[…]

Ayad Jamal Al-Din: “The combination of the Koran and the sword is dangerous. It is more dangerous than nuclear technology. Today, people are being exiled on religious and sectarian grounds. The Christians were exiled from Iraq, and so were the Sabians. The peaceful Yazidis of Iraq were attacked. There are hardly any Sabians left in Iraq, although they

are a peaceful sect.

“The sectarian deportation is all done in the name of Allah. We were plagued with an emir who would slaughter the people while praising Allah. Now they are slaughtering in the name of Allah, deporting people in the name of Allah, and burning down their homes in the name of Allah.

“This is not something new. It happened in the past as well. One emir of the Muslims came from Tunisia, which was called Africa, and he sold one million boys into slavery in Damascus, the capital of the Umayyads. In addition, 300,000 girls, aged 5-6, were sold as slave-girls.

1.3 million children were snatched from their mothers and fathers, and were sold as slaves. Is this what the Prophet Muhammad was sent for?! Was he sent to enslave people, and to sell them as slaves in the markets of Damascus, Cairo, and Baghdad? […]

“The union of the secularism of Ataturk and the Sufism of Jalal Al-Din Rumi is the only hope for the survival of the Muslims as a nation, for the survival of Islam as a religion, and for the survival of the human within the Muslim.” […]

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EXCERPTS from 2 DEBKAfile SPECIAL REPORTS FOLLOW:

SPECULATIVE REPORTS THAT WERE WORTH READING.

I DO NOT KNOW HOW VALID THE REPORTS MAY BE,

I’LL WATCH THE UNFOLDING SENARIO IT SHOWS

TO DETERMINE IF ALL OR SOME OF IT IS TRUE!

Nove

mber 28, 2010

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Begin Excerpt 1 from DEBKAfile Special Report

Br its

declare war on Stuxnet. Americans say: Use it on North Korea

DEBKAfile Special Report

November 25, 2010, 1:36 PM (GMT+02:00)

The Stuxnet virus which has crippled Iran’s nuclear program has suddenly become the object of a British MI6 Secret Service campaign to convince the British and American public that it is the enemy of the West and sold on the black market to terrorists, DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources report. Thursday morning, Nov.

25, Sky TV news led with a story claiming Stuxnet could attack any physical target dependent on computers. An unnamed Information Technology expert was quoted as saying enigmatically: “We have hard evidence that the virus is in the hands of bad guys – we can’t say any more than that but these people are highly motivated and highly skilled with a lot of money behind them.”

No one in the broadcast identified the “bad guys,” disclosed where they operated or when they sold the virus to terrorists. Neither were their targets specified, even by a row of computer and cyber-terrorism experts who appeared later on British television, all emphasizing how dangerous the virus was.

Our intelligence sources note that none of the British reporters and experts found it necessary to mention that wherever Stuxnet was discovered outside Iran, such as India, China and Indonesia, it was dormant.

Computer experts in those countries recommended leaving it in place as it was harmless for computer programs and did not interfere with their operations. The fact is that the only place Stuxnet is alive and harmful is Iran – a fact ignored in the British reports.

Indeed, for the first time in the six months since Stuxnet partially disabled Iran’s nuclear reactor at Bushehr, Iran has found its first Western sympathizer, one who is willing to help defeat the malignant virus.

DEBKAfile’s sources note that the British campaign against Stuxnet was launched two days after Yukiya Amano, Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA, reported that Iran had briefly shut down its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz, apparently because of a Stuxnet assault on thousands of centrifuges. According to our Iranian sources, the plant had to be closed for six days, from Novem

ber 16-22.

Our sources also reported that the virus raided Iranian military computer systems, forcing the cancellation of parts of its large-scale air defense drill in the second week of November. Some of the systems used in the exercise started emitting wildly inaccurate data.

The Hate Stuxnet campaign London launched Thursday carried three messages to Tehran:

1. We were not complicit in the malworm’s invasion of your systems.

2. We share your view that Stuxnet is very dangerous and must be fought and are prepared to cooperate in a joint program to destroy it.

3. Britain will not line up behind the United States’ position in the nuclear talks to be resumed on Dec. 5 between Iran and the Six Powers (the five Permanent UN Security Council members + Germany). It will take a different position.

In the United States, meanwhile, DEBKAfile’s Washington sources report that Stuxnet’s reappearance against Iran’s nuclear program is hailed. A number of American IT experts and journals specializing in cyber war have maintained of late that if the malworm is so successful against Iran, why not use it to disable North Korea’s nuclear program, especially the 2,000 centrifuges revealed on Nov. 20 to be operating at a new enrichment facility?

The popular American publication WIRED carried a headline on Monday, November 22, asking, “Could Stuxnet Mess With North Korea’s New Uranium Plant?” The article noted that some of the equipment North Korea was using for uranium enrichment was identical to Iranian apparatus and therefore perfect targets for the use of Stuxnet by American cyber experts.

Begin Excerpt 2 from DEBKAfile Special Report

Stuxnet knocks Natanz out for a week, hits Iran’s air defense exercise

DEBKAfile Special Report

November 24, 2010, 9:02 AM (GMT+2:00)

Despite Iranian claims in October that their nuclear systems were cleansed of the Stuxnet virus, DEBKAfile’s intelligence and Iranian sources confirm that the invasive malworm is still making trouble.

It shut down uranium enrichment at Natanz for a week from Nov.

16 to 22 over breakdowns caused by mysterious power fluctuations in the operation of the centrifuge machines enriching uranium at Natanz.

The shutdown was reported by the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency Yukiya Amano to the IAEA board in Vienna on Tuesday, Nov.

23.

Rapid changes in the spinning speed of the thousands of centrifuges enriching uranium to weapons-grade can cause them to blow apart suddenly without the monitors detecting any malfunction. The Iranian operators first tried replacing the P1 and P2 centrifuges used at Natanz with the more advanced IR1 type, but got the same effect.

They finally decided to shut the plant down until computer security experts purged it of the malworm.

But then, when work was resumed Monday, about 5,000 of the 8,000 machines were found to be out of commission and the remaining 2,500-3,000 partially on the blink.

Tuesday, Ali Akbar Salehi, Director of Iran’s Nuclear Energy Commission tried to put a good face on the disaster. “Fortunately the nuclear Stuxnet virus has faced a dead end,” he said. However, the IAEA report and Western intelligence confirm that the virus has gathered itself for a fresh onslaught on Iran’s vital facilities.

According to an exclusive report reaching DEBKAfile, Stuxnet is also in the process of raiding Iran’s military systems, sowing damage and disorder in its wake.

On Nov. 17, in the middle of a massive air defense exercise, Iranian military sources reported six foreign aircraft had intruded the airspace over the practice sites and were put to flight by

Iranian fighters. The next day, a different set of military sources claimed a misunderstanding; there had been no intrusions. Iranian fighters had simulated an enemy raid which too had been repulsed.

DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose there was no “misunderstanding.” The foreign intruders had shown up on the exercise’s radar screens, but when the fighter jets scrambled to intercept them, they found empty sky, meaning the radar instruments had lied.

The military command accordingly decided to give up on using the exercise as a stage for unveiling new and highly sophisticated weaponry, including a homemade radar system, for fear that they too may have been infected by the ubiquitous Stuxnet worm.

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Israel Prepares for Eventual Hizbullah Takeover of Lebanon

November 27, 2010

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

The Prophet Habakkuk wrote his book in about 610 BC, five years prior to the Chaldean attack against Jerusalem in 605 BC. The Chaldeans came through Lebanon conquering, then roared south to capture the city of Jerusalem. Habakkuk warned Jerusalem that the violence and blood shed in Lebanon was headed toward

Jerusalem, and prophesied Jerusalem would soon experience it, which it did five years after he predicted it.

Habakkuk 2:17 – For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee, and the spoil of beasts, which made them afraid, because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.

Lebanon has experienced violence and much bloodshed since the Palestinians found sanction there after fleeing there from Israel. Soon the violence and bloodshed Lebanon has suffered from Hizbullah

and Syria will rush south in an Islamic attack, and once again Jerusalem will fall and be under another Beast from the East for some three and one-half years.

Daniel 11:41a – He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown:

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 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.

Zechariah 14:1,2 – 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.

Daniel 7:25 – And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

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 14:3-9 – 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.

Begin Excerpt from Arutz Sheva

Israel Preparing for Hizbullah Coup in Lebanon

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

November 24, 2010

The Israeli Security Cabinet convened Wednesday to prepare for a Hizbullah takeover of Lebanon in the wake of the Hariri probe crisis, while Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrives in Beirut to preach unity.

An increasing number of foreign officials and analysts have stated the past several months that it is only a question of time as to when, rather than if Hizbullah will take over the Lebanese government.

The catalyst could be an expected report

by the United Nations Tribunal in Lebanon announcing that Hizbullah was behind the bloody 2005 car bomb attack that killed former anti-Syrian Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, whose son now is prime minster and who has forged ties with the Syrian regime.

Wracked by mounting Syrian and Hizbullah military and political influence in Lebanon, the Beirut government is fragile, with Hizbullah holding veto power over major Cabinet decisions.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned earlier this month that the Hizbullah terrorist army has in effect merged with the Lebanese Armed Forces to the point that it is difficult to distinguish between the two.

Outgoing IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi has warned that Lebanese armed forces are assisting the Hizbullah army which includes terrorists trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and which has been heavily armed with weapons from Syria and Iran.

Last week, Ashkenazi again brought up the possibility of a Hizbullah coup, less than a month after intelligence officials estimated that the terrorist organization could take over the country “in a matter of hours, not days.”

In southern Lebanon, where then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak led an abrupt withdrawal of the IDF in 2000, Hizbullah has filled the vacuum with a “state within a state,” providing social and public services for civilians. The presence of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon has (UNIFIL) has not stopped Hizbullah from stockpiling tens of thousands of missiles, more than three times the number it possessed before the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

Fears that the timing for a Hizbullah coup is near were sparked this week by a Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) report that the United

Nations tribunal investigating the Hariri assassination has implicated Hizbullah terrorists.

Hizbullah has warned there will be repercussions if it is blamed. The office of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu did not comment on the Canadian report.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Beirut in an effort to maintain political calm, but he also was met at the airport by 100 Armenian protesters, who raised signs proclaiming, “The Lebanese have not forgotten Turkey’s bloody history in the region” and “Today’s Turkey is yesterday’s Turkey: malicious, oppressive and an ally of the enemy” — meaning Israel.

The Lebanese community of 140,000 Armenians charged Turkey with genocide in fighting under the Ottoman regime nearly a century ago.

(IsraelNationalNews.com)

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is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more detailed information go to:

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Land of Magog Election in 2012 will be Prophetically Interesting,

As Described in the Excerpt in This Blog from the BBC News,

But the Winner of the Election will not be the Antichrist!

November 27, 2010

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Ezekiel 38:1,2 – “And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, [2] Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him.” Gog (high extension) appears for the first time in Ezekiel. He is the Antichrist of whom so much has been written. Please note that he is identified as the “chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.” Many commentators, especially in the last 100 years, have not identified him as the Antichrist, but have identified him as the ruler or chief prince of the land of Magog, which I do not believe Scripture justifies.

Before the 20th Century, most identified him as the Antichrist. In verse 2 Ezekiel is told to set his face against two separate things, a person and a place. The person is Gog (Antichrist), and the place is the land of the descendants of Magog where it existed in Ezekiel’s day. If we do not locate the territories of Magog, Meshech, and Tubal as they existed in Ezekiel’s day, then we can have no idea as to where the Antichrist will soon rear his head, or the area from which his attack will be launched.

Why? – Because more than 2500 years have slipped by since Ezekiel wrote his prophecies, and the bloodlines of all three men been distributed across the entire planet. In order to correctly identify the area, from whence the Antichrist will attack Israel, we must identify where the descendants of Meshech and Tubal were residing in 500 and 600 B.C. Why? Because the Antichrist is not the chief prince of Magog, he is the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. He will come from the area where their descendants were settled in 500 and 600 B.C.

I will attempt to use two different sources to locate where the descendants of Meshech and Tubal were clustered at the time of Ezekiel’s writings. The first is found in the 27th chapter of Ezekiel, and the second is from the Assyrian monument stones of that period. Ezekiel 27:3 – “And say unto Tyrus, O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles, Thus saith the Lord God; O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty.” Tyrus (Tyre) was a seapor

t on the southern coast of what we know today as Lebanon, which is directly north of Israel. Tyrus built its first great sea wall to protect its harbored ships more than 3000 years ago, and was a thriving seaport in Ezekiel’s day. Its ships carried merchandise from the countries of the east across all the Mediterranean, and even as far north as the shores of the English Channel. Zidon (Sidon) was also a sea port, and less than 20 miles separated the two cities. The wise men of Tyrus were the navigators of the ships, and the men of Zidon were the deck hands, as portrayed in Ezekiel 27:8 – “The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy mariners: thy wise men, O Tyrus, that were in thee, were thy pilots.” Now, bearing all this in mind, let us look at Ezekiel 27:13 – “Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market.” Meshech and Tubal were warlike tribes, who often took their captives (persons of men) and the vessels of brass they had captured, or hammered out themselves, and carried them to the NEAREST seaport for trading. The captives were, of course, loaded on the ships and sold as slaves in foreign ports of trade. Why the NEAREST seaport? Because, in Ezekiel’s day, travel was by foot, donkey, camel, and horse.

People always carried their trading goods to the nearest port, particularly slaves. Therefore, I conclude that Meshech and Tubal must have roamed in the area we know today as Syria, Lebanon, northwestern Iraq, and southern Turkey.

Meshech and Tubal are the Mushki and Tabali of the Assyrian stone monuments.

In the time of Sargon and Sennacherib (700 B.C.) the territory of Tubal adjoined southern Cilicia, while that of Meshech filled the highlands to the east of Tubal. Considering the locations derived from the Bible and stone tablets, it appears that the Antichrist, as the chief prince of the area once occupied by Meshech and Tubal, is likely to arise, and eventually to attack Israel, from Syria or Lebanon. And, since Lebanon is virtually controlled by Syria, it appears Syria is the best guess for his homeland.

But what about the land of Magog – Where were the Magogites settled in Ezekiel’s day?

Ezekiel 38:1-3 – “And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, [2] Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, [3] And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:”

Up to this point I have made a case to establish, both from the Scriptures and the Assyrian stone monuments, that the descendants of Meshech and Tubal, at the time Ezekiel wrote his prophecies, were primarily located in what we know as Syria and Lebanon. I also established that the prophecy is again a person, Gog (Antichrist), and against a land, the land of Magog. I am convinced that the Antichrist will attack Israel from Syria. So – What about this “land of Magog” – Where were the Magogites located at the time of Ezekiel’s writings? Flavius Josephus, the noted Jewish historian makes the following statements concerning the Magogites in Antiquities of the Jews, Chapter VI, under the title, HOW EVERY NATION WAS DENOMINATED FROM THEIR FIRST INHABITANTS: “Japhet, the son of Noah, had seven sons.” “They called the nations by their own names.” “Magog founded those that from him were called Magogites, but who by the Greeks were called Scythians.” The Greek writers of the Classic Age said the Scythians occupied the area which today we identify as stretching from Moldova eastward across the Ukraine, southern Russia, and into Kazakhstan, then southward into Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan – Roughly the area north of the Black Sea, between the Black and Caspian Seas, and the area northwest, north, and northeast of the Caspian Sea. I do not believe the nations in this area will join in the initial attack against Israel, but I am certain they will come down for the final battle of Gog’s war, which is the Battle of Armageddon. The Battle of Armageddon, found in Revelation 16:16, is the final battle in Gog’s war, which began 3 and ½ years earlier.

Verse 3 fails to include the “land of Magog,” and is a message directly pointed, and personally addressed, against the Antichrist Gog, who once again is identified as the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.

Popular writers in the last century brought a teaching into play that is simply not true.

They said the word “chief” was “rosh” in the Hebrew language, which is true. But they said it meant “Russian,” which is not true. The Russian and Hebrew language have never overlapped in history to support such a claim. He is not a Russian prince. He is the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, most likely having a Syrian father. The word “rosh,” in the KJV, is translated as “chief” 90 times, as “head” 349 times, as “top” 75 times, as “beginning” 14 times, as “company” 12 times, as “captain” 10 times, as “sum” 9 times, as “first” 6 times, as “principle” 5 times, as “chief man” 4 times, and as “ruler” on two occasions. At no time, in all of history, could it legitimately be identified as someone who is a Russian.

I am convinced the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal will come from northwestern Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, or southern Turkey. He will be the leader of a multilateral Islamic force that will carry out a surprise attack against Israel from the north.

I believe this is spoken of in Revelation 17:12,13 – “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. [13] These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.”

Antichrist will have the support of ten Islamic nations.

The ones directly involved in the initial attack against Israel will be Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran from without, along with the Palestinians from within.

I believe the other nations, which will then immediately become involved in the Jihad, are most likely to be Turkey, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Sudan.

Begin Excerpt from BBC News

November 24, 2010

Medvedev warns of political ‘stagnation’ in Russia

Russia risks slipping into a period of political “stagnation”, President Dmitry Medvedev has warned.

In his videoblog, Mr Medvedev spoke about the lack of real competition in the political arena, heavily dominated by the pro-Kremlin United Russia party.

“This stagnation is equally damaging to both the ruling party and the opposition forces,” he said.

Russia’s marginalized opposition has accused the authorities of harassment – a claim denied by the Kremlin.

The opposition has also frequently complained of being denied access to airtime during recent election campaigns, saying the authorities give unfair advantages to United Russia.

‘Brezhnev times’

Analysis

Steve Rosenberg BBC News, Moscow

Most Russians view their prime minister – not their president – as the person who is really running Russia.

Dmitry Medvedev has traditionally been seen as “Putin’s man”; many here expect him to hand back the keys to the Kremlin to Mr Putin at the presidential election in 2012.

But there have been signs that Mr Medvedev is becoming a more independent figure; there are rumours of differences between the prime minister’s and the president’s teams. They are difficult to confirm; information about the inner workings of the political “tandem” running Russia rarely leaks out.

President Medvedev certainly appears to be crafting an image which is separate from Mr Putin’s, positioning himself as a reformer, a moderniser and a democrat.

Some political commentators see his latest comments about “stagnation” as a dig at the system of power constructed by Mr Putin.

Others believe that reports of a split are exaggerated and that the double act is alive and well.

They argue that the two men are simply trying to maximise support for the authorities by appealing to different parts of society.

“If a political opposition doesn’t stand the slightest chance of winning a fair election, then it degrades and becomes marginalised,” Mr Medvedev said on Tuesday.

“But if the ruling party never has to worry about losing an election anywhere, then it too degrades and ‘bronzes over.'”

He said that for “these reasons it has become necessary to raise the degree of political competition”.

The president also admitted that Russian democracy was “imperfect”, but said the country was nevertheless “moving forward”.

Mr Medvedev also argued that he had already taken a number of measures to make the political system fairer.

When they hear the word “stagnation” many Russians immediately think of the 1970s and the days of Leonid Brezhnev – when the Soviet Union lost direction and “stagnation” laid the foundation for the USSR’s future demise, the BBC’s Steve Rosenberg in Moscow reports.

Our correspondent says that it is a word one hears more and more in Russia’s political circles – a sign of the growing frustration with a political system that has become so tightly controlled by the authorities.

Mr Medvedev’s comments come ahead of his major policy address in parliament.

Some analysts say the president is trying to position himself as a modernising force in the run-up to the presidential elections in 2012, where he can potentially stand against former president and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Neither Mr Medvedev nor Mr Putin has publicly declared their intention to run for Russia’s top job.

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Suddenly One Day it was time for US to get out of Vietnam,

Now suddenly it is ‘One Day’ for US to get out of Afghanistan,

I Agree with Ed Koch – Why Not Leave Afghanistan Tomorrow?

Please take time to read this Excerpt, He is telling US the Truth!

November 26, 2010

Why Not leave Afghanistan Tomorrow?

By Former Legendary New York Mayor Ed Koch

November 26, 2010

President Barack Obama met with his NATO counterparts in Lisbon last week. According to the November 21 New York Times, they agreed “to the goal of a phased transfer of security responsibility to the Afghan government by the end of 2014, but NATO officials acknowledged that allied forces would remain in Afghanistan at least in a support role well beyond that date.”

Further, if the Afghan army isn’t ready by the end of 2014 to “manage” its own security, 2014 was not a hard and fast deadline for the end of combat operations.” Why would anyone think that Afghan forces will ever be combat ready and able to defend their own country against the Taliban

? Surely it is by now an unsolvable mystery why the Afghan military forces, trained for 9 years by US and NATO troops, is currently unable to defend their country while the Taliban is capable of major successful strikes in Kabul, the capital, and apparently governs large parts of the country either by night when US army patrols return to their bases, or 24 hours a day when US forces don’t dare enter the neighborhood. We know that the Taliban is supplied with substantial funding from the local drug trade.

We know that drug trade is dominated by the Karzai family, and that President Karzai’s own brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, is acknowledged to be a drug kingpin.

We know that Afghanistan is one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

We know that Iran regularly sends millions of dollars to President Karzai for his personal use.

We know all of these things because The New York Times reporters day after day, week after week, year after year, have reported how the Karzai government has cooperated with the Taliban forces seeking to bring them into the Afghan government. Bizarrely, the US government has cooperated with those efforts, while our soldiers die in the killing fields of Afghanistan.

In June of this year, the Wall Street Journal reported:

“More than $3 billion in cash has been openly flown out of Kabul International Airport in the past three years, a sum so large that US investigators believe top Afghan officials and their associates are sending billions of diverted US aid and logistics dollars and drug money to financial safe havens abroad. The cash — packed into suitcases, piled onto pallets and loaded into airplanes — is declared and legal to move.

But US and Afghan officials say they are targeting the flows in major anticorruption and drug trafficking investigations because of their size relative to Afghanistan’s small economy and the murkiness of their origins. Officials believe some of the cash, if not most, is siphoned from Western aid projects and US, European and NATO contracts to provide security, supplies and reconstruction work for coalition forces in Afghanistan.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization spent about $14 billion here last year alone.

Profits reaped from the opium trade are also a part of the money flow, as is cash earned by the Taliban from drugs and extortion, officials say.

The amount declared as it leaves the airport is vast in a nation where the gross domestic product last year totaled $13.5 billion. More declared cash flies out of Kabul each year than the Afghan government collects in tax and customs revenue nationwide.

‘It’s not like they grow money on trees here,’ said a US official investigating corruption and Taliban financing. ‘A lot of this looks like our tax dollars being stolen. And opium, of course.’”

We also know that President Karzai endangers American and other NATO troops (we have about 100,000 troops in Afghanistan while the rest of NATO has 40,000) by demanding according to The Times, “that the NATO led coalition stop carrying out night raids and limit airstrikes, which military commanders consider among their most effective tools but which have caused civilian casualties.”

President Obama in response to Karzai’s demands that the US limit its military responses said, “If we’re ponying up billions of dollars to ensure that President Karzai can continue to build and develop his country, then he’s got to also pay attention to our concerns as well…He’s got to understand that I’ve got a bunch of young men and women who are in a foreign country being shot at” and “need to protect themselves.”

Nevertheless, despite his protestations, our young men and women continue to die to protect a corrupt government and country where many people hate us.

The Times reported on November 21 that “At a closed door meeting here, General David H. Petraeus, the top American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, set out his strategy for the transition, confirming that the kind of operations Mr. Karzai has criticized, including drone missile strikes and nighttime raids would continue aggressively.”

If the Afghan government persists in denouncing and objecting to our tactics, I have no doubt that they, not we, will prevail.

Our being in Afghanistan and the way we conduct ourselves is subject to his approval.

We have said many times that we will leave Afghanistan whenever and if ever the Afghan government demands we do. Why should they ever demand we leave

? We are their piñata. The US obviously doesn’t want to leave. To date, we have spend over $300 billion on the Afghan war and we have suffered 1,273 US troop deaths. NATO has suffered 822 troop deaths.

We have suffered over 7,000 combat injuries. Those injuries are the worst kind, coming primarily from Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) roadside bombs, causing many amputations and brain injuries.

What do we have to show at this point for the bloodbath we have suffered and the billions we have expended

? We are hindered in defending ourselves by a corrupt Afghan government with a particularly corrupt Afghan President playing a double game with our sworn enemy, Iran.

The latter sees Afghanistan as a satellite tribal area to be bought not only with Iranian bribes, but also with religious and ethnic ties.

Afghans know that Iran will be there forever, while the US will ultimately leave if not tomorrow, and not in 2014, sometime in the future when ultimately a now apparently lethargic American public finally wakes up and demands we leave. We would have left long ago were we still defended by a draft army instead of a volunteer army.

Surely, the combination of spilled blood with the expenditure of billions of dollars on the war in Afghanistan, when we are now contemplating reductions in Social Security benefits and educational funds for teaching our children, will cause the American public to rise up in wrath and say “No,” with a mighty roar. The question of remaining in Afghanistan, while not even an issue in the 2010 election, will become one in the presidential election of 2012. Why this ongoing stupid war which cannot be won on the ground because there is nothing worth winning has not received the attention that it deserves from the American public is a conundrum. Nevertheless, the American public, even if at times it acts too slowly, will ultimately act. Getting out of Afghanistan now, not in 2014 or thereafter, is the right thing to do.

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.