Brothers, my heart's desire and my prayer to God
is for Israel, that they may be saved. Rom. 10:1
Older but Still Relevant News Items
The following news items, although not new, are still relevant and need your prayers.
Report: Iran supplied Hizbullah with advanced missiles
Al-Quds al-Arabi reports missiles can accurately hit targets in Israel, weapons to be used by Lebanese organization in event that Israel or US launch attack against Islamic republic
Full story [Ynetnews.com]
'Israel defiled Al-Aqsa Mosque'
Tens of thousands flock to annual fundraising event held by Islamic Movement in Umm al-Fahm. Movement leader Sheikh Raed Salah delivers fiery speech calling on Arab world to fight 'Israeli occupation of Jerusalem'
Full story [Ynetnews.com]
PRC unveils new 'Nasser-4' rocket it says can reach Ashdod
The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) in the Gaza Strip have announced that they are in possession of "Nasser-4" rockets that have a range of 25 kilometers and pose a threat to Ashdod.
Full story [Jerusalem Post]
Lebanese government: Hizbullah can keep arms
Lebanese unity government authorizes policy draft affirming right of 'the resistance' to liberate territories under Israeli control. Pleased with achievement, veto-wielding Hizbullah already sets sights on new goal – ending IAF sorties
Full story [Ynetnews.com]
Livni says she will surrender Golan to Syria
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who is the frontrunner to take over for embattled Prime Minister Ehud Olmert when their Kadima Party holds primaries next month, confirmed on Sunday that she will continue land-for-peace talks with Syria.
Full story [israeltoday]
After strategic Mt. Sannine, Hizballah seizes Lebanese Mt. Barukh
Hizballah has moved on since its seizure of the towering Mount Sannine, the highest point of the Mount Lebanon range – which was first revealed by DEBKAfile.
As Iranian and Syrian radar and anti-air weapons officers settled on the strategic peak, our military sources report the Lebanese terrorist group proceeded to grab positions on the Western ridge of Jebel Barukh, east of Jezzine, a move which brings it closer to the Israel border.
Full story [DEBKAfile]
Knesset to form State commission of inquiry on water crisis
State Control Committee orders immediate formation of probe committee to investigate reasons for current waster crisis. Current situation result of series of governmental failures, says MK Orlev
Full story [Ynetnews.com]
New Israeli regulations could cripple Christian ministries
Israel's Ministry of Interior has decided to reinstate an old regulation that is threatening to cripple, if not shut down, several Christian ministries by limiting the time volunteers can spend serving in Israel to 27 months.
Full story [israeltoday]
Obama: We'll make sure Palestinians have a state
US presidential hopeful tells Meet the Press 'Israeli-Palestinian peace deal 'will weaken Iran and make it easier for Arab states and the Gulf States to support us when it comes to issues like Iraq and Afghanistan'
Full story [Ynetnews.com]
Diskin: Hamas successfully rearming
During weekly government meeting Shin Bet head delivers grave survey of recent events in Gaza; says 4 tons of explosives, Qassam-making materials, and 50 anti-tank missiles have entered Strip lately. In east Jerusalem, Hamas is moving in
Full story [Ynetnews.com]
Three covert Palestinian networks coordinate attacks in Jerusalem, say security sources
Masses of weapons and explosives are cached in the Palestinian villages and districts of Jerusalem, where three Palestinian terrorist networks are working together to coordinate attacks in the city, according to security-intelligence sources. They decide whether the lone killers use firearms, explosives, knives or mechanical weapons, like the diggers which smashed through Jerusalem’s main streets twice this month. With much of Jerusalem under intense development and Arabs employed at many building sites, police fear a future attack could be carried out by toppling a crane on a densely populated district.
Full story [DEBKAfile]
Official inaction boosts Palestinian terrorist cycle in Jerusalem
The second Palestinian terrorist-attack-by-bulldozer in Jerusalem this month, whereby an Arab terrorist injured 18 people before he was shot dead, took place Tuesday, July 22. And still the Israeli government dithered over whether or not to demolish the home of the originator of this form of rampage, who on July 2 sowed death and destruction on Israel's Jaffa Street.
Full story [DEBKAfile]
Shin Bet sources: East Jerusalem security measures ineffective
In face of east Jerusalem residents' growing involvement in terror, Shin Bet officials tell Ynet current security measures ineffective; Israeli security forces should enter Arab villages in Jerusalem more frequently, one official says
Full story [Ynetnews.com]
Senior Israeli official: If nuclear talks fail, Bush will order Iran attack between November and January
This assessment was reported by Israeli national radio Saturday overnight quoting a high-placed "security-political" official.
The source predicted that President George W. Bush would order Iran attacked between the November 4 presidential election and his exit from the White House in January. The quote was aired shortly after the six-power talks with Iran in Geneva – with US official participation for the first time – failed, and just before Israel chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi set out for Washington. He is to spend a week there as guest of Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Full story [DEBKAfile]
Feature: One on One: Out of the mouths of bombers
"The one thing the terrorists don't like," says author Aaron Klein, "is being called terrorists."
a columnist for the equally conservative Jewish Press - the subjects of his best-selling book, Schmoozing with Terrorists (published by World Ahead Media), are unhappy with its title.
Full story [Jerusalem Post]
Iranian Early Warning Station, Anti-Air Base on Lebanese Peak
In the past few weeks, Hizballah at the behest of Iran and Syria has commandeered the 7,800-foot Mt. Sannine, a strategic asset capable of determining the outcome of the next war, as DEBKA-Net-Weekly 356 revealed.
Full story [DEBKAfile]
Official says Iran will destroy heart of Israel if attacked
Assistant to Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei threatens that 'smallest move' against Islamic Republic over its disputed nuclear program will prompt missile attack on Jewish state, 32 US bases in Middle East 'before the dust from the US missile settles'
Full story [Ynetnews.com]
'Worst water crisis in 80 years'
"This is the worst crisis since records started being kept 80 years ago," Water Authority head Uri Shani declared Tuesday morning at a special press conference in Tel Aviv. "Like most countries, Israel is dependent on rainfall and the amount of rainfall is decreasing. There is a drop of 100 million cubic meters per year."
Full story [Jerusalem Post]
Iran, Syria sign secret new intelligence cooperation accord
Under the intelligence cooperation agreement Iran and Syria signed secretly in Tehran on June 27, thousands of Syrian intelligence and police officers will receive special training in Iran, DEBKAfile's intelligence sources report. It was signed at the end of an unpublicized five-day visit to Tehran of Syria's clandestine and security service chiefs headed by Gen. Fouad Sultan, superintendent of internal security. His opposite number was the director of the Iranian interior ministry's external affairs department Ahmed Hosseini.
Full story [DEBKAfile]
Israeli military intelligence: Hizballah stocks tens of thousands of rockets in restored bunker network
Head of AMAN's research division Brig. Yossi Baidatz brought bad news on two fronts to the Knesset foreign affairs and security committee Tuesday, June 17. He reported that Hamas needed a ceasefire in Gaza after 350 of its terrorists had been killed. In his view, this ceasefire if finally negotiated would be fragile and short-lived.
Full story [DEBKAfile]
'Peace isn't the only way to get Golan'
Several weeks after Jerusalem announced the renewal of indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria, one senior member of the foreign ministry suggested that if Israel did not willingly give up the Golan, then Syria would take it by force.
Full story [Jerusalem Post]
Iran Achieves a Four-Front Missile Command, Breakthrough on Nuclear Missile Warheads
DEBKAfile's military sources disclose that Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps have created a separate missile command, in which Syria's missile force is to be integrated. The joint command was formalized in a new mutual defense treaty signed by the Syrian defense minister, Gen. Hassan Turkmani in Tehran last week.
Full story [DEBKAfile]
PA Daily: Arabs Fled in '48 Hoping For Israel's Destruction
A recent report by a senior Palestinian Authority journalist in the PA daily Al-Ayyam documented the decision by masses of Arabs in 1948 to leave their homes in the hopes that they would return once Israel was defeated.
Full story [IsraelNN.com]
Opinion: History lesson for Khatib
Assaf Wohl replies to Arab-Israeli leader who claimed that land's past belongs to Arabs
Full story [Ynetnews.com]
Hizbullah Will Dispatch Israeli Arabs to Attack From Rear in War
A Syrian newspaper reported that Hizbullah plans to activate masses of Israeli Arab terrorists in the next war.
Full story [IsraelNN.com]
One-third of Israelis gripped by severe poverty
A full one-third of all Israelis are so poor they cannot even purchase all of the essential foods that make up a basic diet, according to a government report issued on Monday.
Full story [israeltoday]
IDF: Hizbullah recruiting Israeli spies
Less than a week after the IDF revealed it had arrested a non-commissioned officer for allegedly spying for Hizbullah, security officials warned over the weekend that the Lebanese group was targeting Druse and Beduin soldiers for anti-Israel espionage.
Full story [Jerusalem Post]
PA's Message: In English — Coexist; In Arabic — Destroy Israel
The Palestinian Authority (PA) is delivering two very different messages to the Western and Arab world. The message to the West, declared in English in front of media microphones and cameras, glorifies an independent Palestinian state coexisting peacefully beside Israel.
Full story [IsraelNN.com]
Northern residents still suffering trauma of Second Lebanon War
Sixteen months after the Second Lebanon War, a significant number of the residents of Kiryat Shmona suffer from high or very high levels of stress and post-traumatic stress syndrome symptoms, according to a study conducted for the UJA-Federation of New York.
Full story [Jerusalem Post]
New Evidence Increases Suspicion of French TV Blood Libel
Eighteen minutes of the raw footage by a Gazan Arab photographer which stand at the center of a libel suit were screened in a Paris courtroom Wednesday. The video served as the basis for a France-2 TV report showing the alleged killing by the IDF of 12-year-old Muhammad al-Dura in September 2000.
Full story [IsraelNN.com]
Majadle Justifies Destruction of Temple Remains
The Israeli government's first Arab minister made it clear Wednesday that as far as the Temple Mount is concerned, Israeli sovereignty is nonexistent and Islam rules. The minister spoke in his official capacity as Minister of Science, Culture and Sport, from the Knesset podium, in response to a parliamentary question by MK Aryeh Eldad (NU/NRP) regarding the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Full story [IsraelNN.com]
Leaflets at Haifa U call for Arabs to reoccupy Jerusalem
Arab students distribute pamphlets calling for the reoccupation of capital; material not sanctioned by university. 'They are guilty of incitement,' says MK Miller
Full story [Ynetnews.com]
'Hamas establishing bunker system along Gaza fence'
Hamas is trying to establish a bunker system as well as fortified rocket-launching and surveillance positions along the security fence with the Gaza Strip, Brig.-Gen. Moshe (Chico) Tamir, head of the Gaza Division, said Monday.
Tamir said that Hamas was "building an army" in the Gaza Strip and had obtained unprecedented capabilities through smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt. On Monday, head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Yuval Diskin said that since Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, the Palestinians have smuggled over 112 tons of explosives into the Strip.
Full story [Jerusalem Post]
Editor's note: The following 'Opinion' article is linked to here in order for us that love Israel to better understand the thinking of the Orthodox (Haredim) Jewish viewpoint.
Opinion: The missionary danger
Current-day missionaries use friendly tactics, but are just as dangerous as before
Full story [Ynetnews.com]
FM Livni: 'Israel is Committed to Establishing Palestine'
Addressing the United Nations' Ad Hoc Liaison Committee for Assistance to the Palestinian People (AHLC) on Monday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni declared Israel's support for the creation of an Arab state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. However, she also strongly defended Israel's current security measures in those areas.
Full story [IsraelNN.com]
Russian Navy to operate from Syria
For first time since fall of Iron Curtain, Russia plans to build permanent bases on Syrian soil as part of large arms deal between two countries. Defense establishment officials fear Russian ships may try to spy on Israel's weapon systems
Full story [Ynetnews.com]
DEBKA Reports: Iran buys 250 long-distance Sukhoi fighter-bombers, 20 fuel tankers, from Russia
Tehran and the Russian Rosoboronexport arms group are about to sign a mammoth arms deal running into tens of billions of dollars for the sale to Tehran of 250 Su-30MKM warplanes and 20 IL-78 MKI fuel tankers. DEBKAfile's military sources report Iran has stipulated delivery of the first aircraft before the end of 2007.
Full story [DEBKAfile]
Syrian Official: War with Israel will be Ballistic
Syria sees the next war with Israel as involving missile attacks on civilian infrastructure and front-line guerilla warfare, an anonymous senior official in the Syrian Ministry of Defense told Defense News Weekly, in an interview appearing Monday. Syria prefers to avoid a direct, "classic" confrontation with Israel, he said. Instead, the next war will involve Katyusha rocket and ballistic missiles that will target strategic points in Israel, especially civilian infrastructure.
Full story [IsraelNN.com]
Iranian Missiles Could Threaten Israel from Syria
Iran is planning to deploy, in Syria, missiles that can hit Israel, as a deterrent against a Western anti-nuclear strike upon Iran. It could happen soon, the British newspaper Telegraph reports.
Full story [IsraelNN.com]
Syria Winds up Planning for Campaign of Terror on Golan
On June 26, Syria opened the Damascus-Golan road to Quneitra to civilian traffic for the first time since the Six-Day War of 1967. No announcement was made. The dozens of military roadblocks studding the 60 km high road connecting the capital with the Syrian part of Golan for 40 years were removed, except for two – one at the entrance to Qunetra from the Syrian end and one at the town's exit to Israeli Golan. DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military sources report that this measure went mostly unnoticed, although it made Israeli military intelligence sit up.
Full story [DEBKAfile]
DEBKAfile Exclusive: UN Spanish peacekeepers cut covert protection deal with Hizballah behind backs of UN secretary and UNIFIL commander
DEBKAfile reveals a clandestine approach to Hizballah commanders in Beirut made by officers of the Spanish UN contingent. It was made after the loss of six members in a terrorist attack last Sunday, June 24. The Spanish peacekeepers offered Hizballah intelligence and military collaboration in return for protection and agreed to set up a hot line for their exchanges.
Full story [DEBKAfile]
Syria making more missiles - Israeli official
Syria is producing more long-range missiles and is equipping its armed forces with as much anti-tank and anti-aircraft weaponry as it can get its hands on, warned the head of Israeli Defense Ministry's political-military bureau on Saturday.
Full story [israeltoday]
Golan Heights residents 'ready for resistance'
Syrian official warns of attacks if Israel won't vacate strategic territory
TEL AVIV – If the Jewish state doesn't vacate the Golan Heights in the near future, Golan residents living under Israeli administration will launch "resistance operations" aimed at prompting an Israeli retreat from the territory, an official from Syrian President Bashar Assad's Baath party told WND in an exclusive interview yesterday.
Full story [WorldNetDaily]
'Terror cell in capital ready for attacks'
Militant leader claims Israeli residents recruited to carry out bombings
JERUSALEM – The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization, has formed a terrorist cell living in the vicinity of Jerusalem consisting of Israeli residents ready to carry out attacks within the Jewish state, according to a top Brigades leader speaking to WND.
Full story [WorldNetDaily]
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Ambitious Saudi-Egyptian-Kuwaiti plan for two bridges to span Gulf of Aqaba could block Israel's outlet to Red Sea
One bridge across the Tiran Strait will span a distance of 25 km from the Saudi mainland at Ras el-Sheik Humayd to Tiran island; the second will carry traffic up to the Egyptian Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, becoming the first direct link between Arabia and Africa.
DEBKAfile reports: Israel was not advised of the $3bn project or informed how international shipping in the Tiran Strait would be regulated - even though its military and economic interests are vitally affected.
Full story [DEBKAfile]
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Israel-Jordan tensions flare over discovery of king's covert support for hard-line Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal
Israeli officials and army chiefs were taken aback by an intelligence report summing up two years of research, which exposed Jordan's King Abdullah, Israel's partner in peace and the war on terror, as being secretly in league with the Damascus-based radical Khaled Meshaal.
Full story [DEBKAfile]
Israeli military and government sources report Syria has positioned thousands of rockets on its border with Israel
Quoting three Israeli military and two government sources, the French news agency AFP reports the Syrian army has accelerated its deployment of medium and long-range rockets capable of striking major towns across northern Israel.
Full story [DEBKAfile]
Syria ready with bio-terror if U.S. hits Iran
Damascus reportedly hiding WMD among commercial pharmaceuticals
An American biodefense analyst living in Europe says if the U.S. invades Iran to halt its nuclear ambitions, Syria is ready to respond with weapons of mass destruction — specifically biological weapons.
"Syria is positioned to launch a biological attack on Israel or Europe should the U.S. attack Iran," Jill Bellamy-Dekker told WND.
Full story [WorldNetDaily]
Olmert: My vision is a Palestinian state
Prime minister tells foreign press corps realignment plan was lost due to 'change in circumstances', but stresses vision of Palestinian state is strong. Olmert also says Syria will find Israel ready and willing if it is serious about negotiations
Full story [Ynetnews.com]
Jordan quietly gaining Temple Mount control
Officials say Arab kingdom using shell firms to buy key properties with access to holy site
JERUSALEM — Jordan has been quietly purchasing real estate surrounding the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in hopes of gaining more control over the area accessing the holy site, according to Palestinian and Israeli officials.
Full story [WorldNetDaily]
DEBKAfile reports: Syria has delivered Russian-made SA-18 "Grouse" Igla 9K38 anti-air missiles to Lebanese Hezballah
Moscow guaranteed the shoulder-carried SA-18 "Grouse" Igla 9K38 was sold to Damascus under the strict prohibition of its transfer to Hizballah, DEBKAfile notes. The pledge was given to the US and personally by Russian president Vladimir Putin to Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert.
Full story [DEBKAfile]
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Iran sends shoulder-borne QW-1 anti-air missiles to Iraqi Sunni insurgents and Hizballah to shoot down US and Israeli helicopters
DEBKAfile's sources in Tehran and Kurdistan disclose that, last month, two Iranian QW-1 and SA-7 missile consignments reached Iraqi insurgents allied with al Qaeda and one, radical Shiite Moqtada Sadr's Shiite militia, the Mehdi Army. Israeli sources report the same anti-air weapons were delivered at about the same time to Hizballah units in Lebanon including the south.
Full story [DEBKAfile]
Academic: Israeli-Arabs want end of Jewish state
There is no way to accommodate demands of Israeli-Arabs, short of replacing Israel with an Arab state, says Dr. Dan Schueftan
Full story [Ynetnews.com]
Yaalon: Occupation is not root of conflict
Former IDF chief of staff says Palestinians, Hizbullah are fighting to destroy Israel, not liberate lands; Israeli concessions will only aid jihadists, he adds
Full story [Ynetnews.com]
DEBKAfile reports: Russia sells Iran sophisticated missile systems capable of repelling US or Israeli air or missile assaults
The first of 29 Tor-M1 systems in the $700m deal have been delivered to Iran by Moscow despite US opposition to their sale of a weapon widely regarded as the most advanced of its kind in the world. Some Iranian and Russian air defense experts say its full deployment at Iran's nuclear installations will make them virtually invulnerable to American or Israeli attack in the foreseeable future. Therefore, no more than six months remain, until the Russian Tor-M1 systems are in place, for any attempt to knock out Iran's nuclear weapons industry.
Full story [DEBKAfile]
Abbas recognition of Israel 'political calculation'
JERUSALEM — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' stated recognition of Israel's right to exist is part of a "political calculation" aimed at ultimately destroying the Jewish state, a terror group leader and member of Abbas' Fatah party told WND in an interview.
Full story [WorldNetDaily]
Israel deliberately minimizing rocket threat?
Analysts say publicity about missiles could damage PM Olmert's withdrawal plan. National Religious Party MK Effie Eitam: 'Any West Bank withdrawal will be followed by rockets fired at major Israeli cities'.
Full story [Ynetnews.com]
Homosexuals headed for Tel Aviv
The first Hebrew city wants to be the first gay city. Work is underway in conjunction with the Ministry of Tourism to turn Tel Aviv into the international tourist destination for the gay-lesbian community in order to boost business in restaurants, hotels, city attraction sites and beaches.
Full story [Ynetnews.com]
Pray that God would oppose such flagrant displays of perversion and that He would forgive the sins of those officials that see financial income more important than moral values.
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