Standing on the Mount of Olives, where untold numbers have stood down the centuries before me, I let my gaze take in the magnificent expanse of Jerusalem’s Old City, half framed by the converging Kidron and Hinnom valleys which become one to my left - the rocky gorge cutting down through the Judean wilderness to the Dead Sea.
One day, a powerful fresh river will flood that canyon and bring life to the lifeless water far below…
My eyes play over the scarred battlements on top of the ancient yellow walls of the City of Peace that has never known peace.
They sweep the eastern wall with its sealed Gate Beautiful (Golden Gate) closing this access to the platform that covers Mount Moriah - the Temple Mount.
Spires, minarets and synagogue roofs pepper my field of vision, crowding the space inside the walls, vying for prominence in - and control of - the most venerated city in the world.
Just outside the famous Jaffa Gate, Jerusalemites and tourists are bringing their custom to the first stores and cafes that have opened for business in the new Millo Mall. Across the road stand the already occupied million-dollar homes and tree-lined boulevards ...   more »

As a believer in the Bible, it is difficult to watch Israel’s leaders declare that their nation’s security and future depend solely on its own military strength and the aid of foreign powers.
Trust in God as the protector and upholder of Israel has likely never formed the basis of any Israeli leader’s policy platform, though there are indications that at least some of the country’s prime ministers did believe in and acknowledge the Almighty’s hand in defending and restoring the Jewish state.
But the heads of the parties currently leading this nation - Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni, Ehud Barak, Avigdor Lieberman, and their mentor, Shimon Peres - have completely abandoned God’s Word as the basis for anything, especially their diplomatic and security policies.
Consider this recent statement by Defense Minister Barak:
The IDF’s strength is the guarantee of our rule and fate, it is what will decide in a war if one is forced on us, and it is what will bring peace.
And this one by Prime Minister Olmert about a week later:
We have renewed agreements and a renewed commitment from the Americans that would help preserve our advantage over the Arab countries
Israel is warned in ...   more »

IsraelNN.com) Contrary to the official Military Intelligence line, according to which Syria does not intend to attack Israel in the near future, many researchers in the intelligence community suspect that Syria is waiting for the right moment to strike, and that the moment may come soon. This is the reason that Israel's Home Front Readiness Cabinet met Wednesday to discuss the possibility of a massive Syrian missile attack, according to Ynet's veteran military analyst, Ron Ben-Yishai.
Ben-Yishai says Syria is completing the construction of a large rocket array aimed at Israel from the Syrian Golan Heights. These are not Katyusha rockets but larger ones with a much greater range: 222 mm., 302 mm. and 600 mm. rockets with a payload of up to half a ton, which can reach Tel Aviv. Dozens of launchers have already been set up and these are capable of firing hundreds of missiles simultaneously.
Syria also has SCUD missiles which can reach southern Israel, but these can supposedly be intercepted by the Israeli Arrow anti-missile system. The heavy missiles in the Golan cannot be intercepted by the Arrow, however. According to Ben-Yishai, all this means that the Syrians can launch a massive attack on Israel's ...   more »

By STEVEN ERLANGER
JERUSALEM, Aug. 7 — Pelted by rocks and chunks of metal, hundreds of Israeli riot police officers on Tuesday forcibly removed Jewish settlers from houses they had been occupying illegally for months in the West Bank city of Hebron.
The police said at least 15 people had been injured, 11 of them police officers. The settlers said 26 of their protesters had been treated for injuries. Five settlers were arrested for forcibly resisting a court order.
The scenes were reminiscent of some of the more violent episodes during the evacuation of Israeli settlers from Gaza in 2005, when settlers and their supporters, many of them teenagers in masks and women, shouted insults and hurled large rocks, pieces of metal, soda bottles, slippers, shoes and pots of cooking oil at Israeli police officers in riot gear.
The confrontation on Tuesday began at dawn, and grew more heated with the sun, as the police forced their way into occupied buildings that the inhabitants and their 200 or so supporters had welded shut and barricaded.
The police were backed up by concentric circles of troops from the Israeli Army that closed off the area.
The settlers, consisting of two families ...   more »

Russia successfully test fired a ballistic missile from a strategic nuclear missile submarine in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, a navy spokesman said.
"The strategic nuclear missile submarine Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky... successfully fired a ballistic missile as part of military exercises at a testing range in northern Russia," the spokesman Igor Dygalo told AFP.
The Interfax-AVN news agency reported that the missile was of the new long-range Sineva, or RSM-54 type, acquired for use by the navy last month.
Dygalo declined to confirm this.
The Delta-class submarine used in the test dates from the Soviet era and was designed to attack cities and military installations.
The test firing comes as tensions have increased between Russia and the United States over missile defence.
President Vladimir Putin has angrily hit out at the United States' plans to place missile defence facilities in the Czech Republic and Poland, countries that were once ruled from Moscow, and has said that this could lead to a new Cold War.
The Sineva missile had already been test fired from a submarine at the North Pole last year.
It has a maximum range of 8,300 kilometres (5,200 miles) and can be launched with up to 10 independently targetable warheads ...   more »

They number only eight, but they are the remnant of a community 2,700 years old - the last Jews left in modern Baghdad.
An Anglican clergyman who watches over the tiny Jewish group says they are increasingly desperate and want to leave Iraq for the Netherlands. But Israeli, Dutch and Jewish officials dispute claims by the Rev. Andrew White that the Jews want to leave.
The claims were met with surprise by Dutch officials and by the Dutch Jewish community.
"We have had no official request or visa applications," said Rob Dekker, a Foreign Ministry spokesman.
Michael Jankelowitz, a spokesman for the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem which is responsible for immigration, said none of the eight Jews left in Baghdad has expressed a desire to leave.
Original Source
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DEARBORN, Mich. — When pools of water began accumulating on the floor in some restrooms at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and the sinks pulling away from the walls, the problem was easy to pinpoint. On this campus, more than 10 percent of the students are Muslims, and as part of ritual ablutions required before their five-times-a-day prayers, some were washing their feet in the sinks.
The solution seemed straightforward. After discussions with the Muslim Students’ Association, the university announced that it would install $25,000 foot-washing stations in several restrooms.
But as a legal and political matter, that solution has not been quite so simple. When word of the plan got out this spring, it created instant controversy, with bloggers going on about the Islamification of the university, students divided on the use of their building-maintenance fees, and tricky legal questions about whether the plan is a legitimate accommodation of students’ right to practice their religion — or unconstitutional government support for that religion.
“It’s an awkward thing,” said Alexis Oesterle, a junior. “If I’m sitting with Muslim friends, I wouldn’t want to bring it up. In this country, at this time, it’s not so easy to discuss the issues of ...   more »

Kenneth R. Timmerman
Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2007
Former CIA Director R. James Woolsey tells NewsMax in an exclusive interview that terrorists could strike the American homeland — possibly with a weapon of mass destruction — this summer or early fall.
He also warns that if Iran fails to comply with international efforts to stop its nuclear weapons program, the U.S. will have no other option than to bomb it.
"I think the threat of a serious attack in the next few months is very real," Woolsey said. A terrorist strike with a dirty bomb or with biological weapons was "a real possibility." [Editor's Note: Special: 6 Days of Hell - The Coming War With Iran. Click here for more.]
Woolsey's comments echo those of FBI Director Robert Mueller, who told NewsMax in May that al-Qaida's paramount goal is clear: to detonate a nuclear device that would kill hundreds of thousands of Americans.
Terrorists Plotting Now
While Woolsey doubted terrorists would be able to acquire a nuclear explosive device, he warned that terrorists were trying to acquire one, either on the black market from the former Soviet Union, or from Iran or North Korea.
The former CIA director said he favored ...   more »

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.
Blog - Dollar to collapse?   
Fistful of dollars - China's trade surplus reached $26.9bn in June 
Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - that Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress.
Shifts in Chinese policy are often announced through key think tanks and academies.
Described as China's "nuclear option" in the state media, such action could trigger a dollar crash at a time when the US currency is already breaking down through historic support levels.
It would also cause a spike in US bond yields, hammering the US housing market and perhaps tipping the economy into recession. It is estimated that China holds over $900bn in a mix of US bonds.
Xia Bin, finance chief at the Development Research Centre (which has cabinet rank), kicked off what now appears to be government policy ...   more »

Jim Brown 
A conservative Idaho lawmaker believes America's founding fathers would not have wanted a Muslim elected to Congress or a Hindu prayer delivered in the U.S. Senate.
Hear this Report
Last month, the U.S. Senate was opened for the first time ever with a Hindu prayer. Although the event generated little outrage on Capitol Hill, Representative Bill Sali (R-Idaho) is one member of Congress who believes the prayer should have never been allowed.
"We have not only a Hindu prayer being offered in the Senate, we have a Muslim member of the House of Representatives now, Keith Ellison from Minnesota. Those are changes -- and they are not what was envisioned by the Founding Fathers," asserts Sali.
Sali says America was built on Christian principles that were derived from scripture. He also says the only way the United States has been allowed to exist in a world that is so hostile to Christian principles is through "the protective hand of God."
"You know, the Lord can cause the rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike," says the Idaho Republican.
According to Congressman Sali, the only way the U.S. can continue to survive is under that protective ...   more »