by Sara Yoheved Rigler
In a God-directed world, you're never stuck.
I used to empathize with the horse in the gate. The only way for a car to exit the walled Old City of Jerusalem, where I live, is through Zion Gate. Like all authentic ancient gates, Zion Gate is a massive L-shaped stone structure. My 21st century car has a hard time maneuvering through the 16th century gate, especially when it is thronged with tourists. My car, however, has it easy compared with the horses of yore trying to invade the city.
A hole in the ceiling of the gate was used to pour boiling oil down on the invading horsemen. If the horse slowed down to make the L-turn, the horseman would be fried by the boiling oil and the horse would slip and fall. If it galloped fast to avoid the oil, it would smash into the stone wall. It was doomed if it did and doomed if it didn't.I often feel like the horse in the gate. No-win situations abound in my life and, I suspect, yours. The morning when you have an important meeting at work with a visiting V.I.P., your child takes sick and ...   more »

The first Rally to "Defend Jerusalem" will be held on Sunday, October 28, 2007 from Noon to 2 P.M. at the Torch of Friendship in downtown Miami, 5th St. and Biscayne Blvd. Everyone needs to reach out to every caring person who supports Israel and wants a united Jerusalem to show your visibility at this event and to let your networks know as well.
Miami Rally to Defend Jerusalem
If you understand this crisis and need to act, please join us on these dates and if you can help in other ways and have additional suggestions we are happy to work with you, locally, nationally and internationally and suggest that folks in every community speak out on these dates as well and let your voices be heard. Silence at this time will only make matters worse.
DATE: October 28
TIME: 12:00 to 2:00 PM
LOCATION: Torch of Friendship
MORE: 5th Street and Biscayne, Downtown Miami
More Info: Contact Bob Kunst 305- 864-5110   
  If you receive this mail and live in another state, pleaes email us if you would like to have a Rally. Also pass this on to your friends who live in the Miami, Ft. Lauderdale area, ...   more »

Dion Nissenbaum | McClatchy Newspapers
JERUSALEM — The last time Israeli leaders sat down for meaningful peace talks with Palestinian negotiators, then-Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert led a march around the Old City's ancient walls to protest any plans to divide his adopted home.
"No concessions on Jerusalem," Olmert said on the eve of the 2000 Camp David summit. "For 33 years, Israel has said there will never be a compromise on Jerusalem. Do you think we were joking?"
But seven years, one Palestinian uprising and three Israeli elections later, Olmert, now Israel's prime minister, is floating the idea of carving up the city he led for 10 years. As he gears up for the most intense round of peace talks since the Camp David talks failed, Olmert has indicated that he's prepared to turn over Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem to the Palestinians.
In many ways, Jerusalem is the third rail of Israeli politics. Few are willing to touch it, and those who do often get burned. Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak came close to ceding control of about half of the Old City to the Palestinians before the Camp David talks crumbled, his government lost its credibility and Palestinians launched ...   more »

by Hillel Fendel(IsraelNN.com) The State Prosecution says a recent Hevron decision should be overturned and that Jews should be evicted from their marketplace homes.
Responding to the Supreme Court in the framework of a judicial process regarding Jewish presence just off the old Jewish marketplace, the State Prosecution stated that the Jews should be evicted.  Peace Now had appealed an earlier decision to allow one family to continue linving in an old store built several decades ago by the Jordanians on Jewish-owned property, and another family to reside in a room it added to an existing home. 
The State Prosecution is representing the government official responsible for abandoned property in Judea and Samaria.  The Military Appellate Committee had earlier - two months ago - decided that the Jews need not be evicted; the Prosecution now wishes to repeal that decision.
The reason for the change in position? Concern for the rule of law.  In its statement to the Court, the Prosecution writes, "The Appellate Committee's decision to issue an order preventing the eviction of the infiltrators does not give appropriate weight to the importance of maintaining law, or to the grave harm that will be caused to the rule of ...   more »

Israeli lawmaker Effi Eitam last week said it has become clear in light of the failure of international diplomatic efforts that Israeli will eventually have no choice but to launch a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.
Israel National News quoted Eitam as stating during a gathering in the Samarian town of Beit El that "Israel has the right and the ability to defend itself and that day is around the corner."
Eitam went on to say he is confident the United States will support Israel in any military action it deems necessary for the survival of the Jewish state and the Zionist dream.
In related news, American analysts said at the weekend that new satellite imagery shows Syria has completely razed and covered the site of a suspected nuclear installation that Israel bombed in September.
Syria maintains the site was not a nuclear facility built with North Korean help, as Israel charges, but its haste to apparently prevent nuclear inspectors from conducting an investigation there has given the lie to Damascus' official position.
The Syrians "took down this facility so quickly it looks like they are trying to hide something,'' David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and ...   more »

Iran's Foreign Ministry says tougher U.S. sanctions are "doomed to fail"
U.S. puts sanctions on Iran's Revolutionary Guard, banks, individuals Head of Revolutionary Guard vows military force will defend Iranian revolution
Sanctions mean financial assets of Revolutionary Guard, others, are frozen
(CNN) -- The leader of Iran's Revolutionary Guard vowed Friday that the military group was ready to defend the Iranian revolution after the U.S. imposed sanctions against it amid simmering tensions over Tehran's refusal to halt its nuclear program.
Washington accuses the Revolutionary Guard, its elite Quds Force and a number of Iranian banks and companies of supporting nuclear proliferation and terror-related activities.
But General Mohammad Ali Jafari told Iranian state news agency IRNA: "They have applied all their efforts to reduce the efficiency of this revolutionary body. Now as always, the corps is ready to defend the ideals of the revolution more than ever before."
An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman also said sanctions were "doomed to fail," calling them "worthless and ineffective" and criticizing the U.S. for pursuing confrontational policies.
Meanwhile, speaking Thursday in Kuwait, Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi warned that any military attack on Iran would be met with a "crushing response."
"We will defend our ...   more »

PAUL L. WILLIAMS,
Author of The Day of Islam
The Global Islamic Media Front, the leading al Qaeda website, has posted a report that verifies Osama bin Laden's possession of nuclear weapons and his intent, if provoked, to deploy these weapons against the United States.
The report maintains that bin Laden, when asked what will happen if the US uses nukes against his terrorist organization, said: "If they hit us with them, we will hit them with the same."
In November 2001, bin Laden provided a similar response to the same question during an interview with Hamid Mir. ""We have chemical and nuclear weapons," he told the Pakistani journalist. "If America uses chemical or nuclear weapons against us, then we may resort with chemical or nuclear weapons." When Mir asked bin Laden where he obtained such weapons, the al Qaeda leader said: "It is not difficult [to acquire such weapons], not if you have contacts in Russia and with other militant groups."
The Global Islamic Media Front report goes on to say that al Qaeda, prior to 9/11, had commissioned an Egyptian scientist to prepare its arsenal of nuclear weapons - - obtained from arms dealers, such as Semion Mogilevich ...   more »

By DANIEL MARTIN -
Nurses will be able to decide that a dying patient should not be resuscitated under controversial new guidelines.
Until now, only GPs and consultants could say whether there was any point in continuing efforts to save a life. But guidance issued last night by the British Medical Association will allow 'suitably experienced nurses' to make this crucial decision.
New powers: A senior nurse attends to a critically ill patient, but she could soon be deciding whether to proceed witih treatment at all (posed by a model)
Patients' groups criticised the move, calling it 'another nail in the coffin' of the safety of the elderly and vulnerable which would condemn many to an 'early death sentence'.
The rules, published by the BMA in conjunction with the Royal College of Nursing and the Resuscitation Council, aim to help medical staff decide whether to resuscitate patients if their heart or breathing stops.
It says medical staff should use their judgment over whether there is any point in using the most common resuscitation method - chest compression, or 'cardiopulmonary resuscitation'.
But for the first time, this includes 'suitably experienced nurses'.
In the past, nurses faced with such a situation would ...   more »

By David D. Kirkpatrick
The hundred-foot white cross atop the Immanuel Baptist Church in downtown Wichita, Kan., casts a shadow over a neighborhood of payday lenders, pawnbrokers and pornographic video stores. To its parishioners, this has long been the front line of the culture war. Immanuel has stood for Southern Baptist traditionalism for more than half a century. Until recently, its pastor, Terry Fox, was the Jerry Falwell of the Sunflower State — the public face of the conservative Christian political movement in a place where that made him a very big deal.With flushed red cheeks and a pudgy, dimpled chin, Fox roared down from Immanuel’s pulpit about the wickedness of abortion, evolution and homosexuality. He mobilized hundreds of Kansas pastors to push through a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, helping to unseat a handful of legislators in the process. His Sunday-morning services reached tens of thousands of listeners on regional cable television, and on Sunday nights he was a host of a talk-radio program, “Answering the Call.” Major national conservative Christian groups like Focus on the Family lauded his work, and the Southern Baptist Convention named him chairman of its North American Mission Board.
For years, Fox flaunted ...   more »

By WAYNE SLATER
Conservative Christians have been the dominant force in American politics for almost three decades. But the movement may be restless over promises unfulfilled, a lack of enthusiasm over Republican presidential candidates and questions about the movement's future. This story is one in an occasional series examining several new directions for conservative evangelicals in politics.
SAN ANTONIO – Not far from where pastor John Hagee preaches the end of the world, the Tilt-a-Whirl and Ferris wheel are doing a booming business.  
J. MICHAEL SHORT/Special Contributor
Pastor John Hagee talks to a reporter in his office at Cornerstone Church in San Antonio. A group of evangelical women in bright costumes are dancing to "Hava Nagila," a Hebrew folk song of celebration. Booths selling roasted corn and turkey legs are identified with one of the ancient 12 tribes of Israel.
"In Isaiah, it says in the last days when the Messiah returns, all nations will come to Jerusalem and celebrate – Jew and gentile," said Renate McWright, a dancer on the grounds of the Cornerstone Church she attends.
The Rev. Hagee, head of the 19,000-member megachurch, is one of the nation's leading Christian supporters of Israel, using his Texas-based ...   more »

A computer enhanced image of earth from space at sunset
Lewis Smith, Environment Reporter
The speed at which mankind has used the Earth’s resources over the past 20 years has put “humanity’s very survival” at risk, a study involving 1,400 scientists has concluded.
The environmental audit, for the United Nations, found that each person in the world now requires a third more land to supply his or her needs than the Earth can supply.
Thirty per cent of amphibians, 23 per cent of mammals and 12 per cent of birds are under threat of extinction, while one in ten of the world’s major rivers runs dry every year before it reaches the sea.
The bleak verdict on the environment was issued as an “urgent call for action” by the United Nations Environment Programme, which said that the “point of no return” was fast approaching.
The report was drafted and researched by almost 400 scientists, all experts in their fields, whose findings were subjected to review by another 1,000 of their peers.
Scientists conducting the review, 157 of whom were nominated by 48 governments, were split into groups of expertise for each of the ten chapters of the report. Other experts ...   more »

By Pepe Escobar
The barely reported highlight of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Tehran for the Caspian Sea summit last week was a key face-to-face meeting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
A high-level diplomatic source in Tehran tells Asia Times Online that essentially Putin and the Supreme Leader have agreed on a plan to nullify the George W Bush administration's relentless drive towards launching a preemptive attack, perhaps a tactical nuclear
strike, against Iran. An American attack on Iran will be viewed by Moscow as an attack on Russia.
But then, as if this were not enough of a political bombshell, came the abrupt resignation of Ali Larijani as top Iranian nuclear negotiator. Early this week in Rome, Larijani told the IRNA news agency that "Iran's nuclear policies are stable and will not change with the replacement of the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council [SNSC]." Larijani will keep attending SNSC meetings, now as a representative of the Supreme Leader. He even took time to remind the West that in the Islamic Republic all key decisions regarding the civilian nuclear program are made by the Supreme Leader. Larijani actually went to Rome to meet with the European ...   more »

Last week's column, "Christians confusing meekness with weakness," was a necessary rebuke of the pantywaist pushovers who are giving Christians a bad name.
But it wouldn't be fair to leave it there, as though all Christians are pushovers.
Since my debut at WorldNetDaily, I have at times been gratified and encouraged by the response my columns have generated. But nothing could have prepared me for the reaction to last week's article. Hundreds of people wrote in to express their sincerest appreciation, and I was deeply humbled.
Frankly, some of the e-mails moved me to tears – and I'm not an emotional guy.
The culture war can be very lonely and tiring. Just ask any one of the men and women who are on the front lines. People like Joseph Farah and his staff at WND, or Janet Folger from Faith2Action, or even our stalwart heroine – Ms. Controversy herself – Ann Coulter.
Sometimes it's not easy to tell the truth. And it can certainly be unpopular. So when readers come out of the woodwork with words of support and encouragement, or even just share their stories, it lights a fire in our soul.
But I recognize that there's something far ...   more »

John Naughton
A spectre is haunting the net but, outside of techie circles, nobody seems to be talking about it. The threat it represents to our security and wellbeing may be less dramatic than anything posed by global terrorism, but it has the potential to wreak much more havoc. And so far, nobody has come up with a good idea on how to counter it.
It's called the Storm worm. It first appeared at the beginning of the year, hidden in email attachments with the subject line: '230 dead as storm batters Europe'. The PC of anyone who opened the attachment became infected and was secretly enrolled in an ever-growing network of compromised machines called a 'botnet'. The term 'bot' is a derivation of 'software robot', which is another way of saying that an infected machine effectively becomes the obedient slave of its - illicit - owner. If your PC is compromised in this way then, while you may own the machine, someone else controls it. And they can use it to send spam, to participate in distributed denial-of-service attacks on banks, e-commerce or government websites, or for other even more sinister purposes.
Storm has been spreading steadily since last ...   more »

"This program is an effort to satisfy an urgent operational need for the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, a 30,000 pound (13,608 kilogram) GPS guided penetrator weapon on B-2 for hard and deeply buried" targets, the air force's request budget said.
Citing an "urgent operational need," the Pentagon is seeking funds to modify B-2 stealth bombers to deliver an experimental 30,000 pound (13.6 tonne), satellite-guided bunker busting bomb, officials said Wednesday.
The likely purpose of the new weapon is to strike Iran's underground nuclear facilities, experts said.
"It raises a red flag," said Representative Jim Moran, a Democrat from Virginia who called for hearings on the request. "My immediate assumption is that it is a target in Iran, rather than Iraq or Afghanistan."
The air force has asked Congress for nearly 88 million dollars to complete development of the so-called Massive Ordnance Penetrator and modify B-2 bombers so that they can deliver it, an air force spokeswoman said.
"This program is an effort to satisfy an urgent operational need for the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, a 30,000 pound (13,608 kilogram) GPS guided penetrator weapon on B-2 for hard and deeply buried" targets, the air force's request budget said.
The item was buried in ...   more »