Source: Huckabee Tops McCain VP List
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Huckabee_McCain_VP_list/2008/05/13/95611.html
Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is at the top of the list of John McCain’s possible running mates, according to a top McCain fundraiser with ties to his inner circle.
Economic conservatives are likely to oppose the choice of Huckabee as McCain’s vice presidential candidate, given the populist tone of his campaign and his tax record as governor of Arkansas.
But in his “Capital Commerce” column for U.S. News & World Report, James Pethokoukis points to the fundraiser’s disclosure and cites several factors that could make Huckabee a strong asset for McCain.
For one thing, the former Baptist minister is a great campaigner who could garner support in the South among social conservatives and at the same time appeal to working-class voters in the crucial states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Huckabee would also appeal to many more voters on a “he cares about me” level than millionaire investor and possible vice presidential choice Mitt Romney, especially given all the turmoil on Wall Street this year.
Finally, even economic conservatives who might hesitate to back Huckabee would certainly favor him over the threat of Obamanomics and higher taxes across the board.
Pastor who backed McCain apologises for remarks
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/pastor.who.backed.mccain.apologises.for.remarks/18764.htm
A Texas evangelical leader who endorsed Republican presidential candidate John McCain earlier this year has apologised for anti-Catholic remarks that angered Church members and embarrassed McCain's campaign.
John Hagee, pastor of the 19,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, wrote a letter of apology to the Catholic League on Monday for comments in which he called the Church "apostate" and likened it to the "great whore" in a passage of the Bible.
Hagee's comments, which circulated on the Internet, drew comparisons with the controversy surrounding Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama over statements by his former pastor, the Rev Jeremiah Wright.
McCain, who accepted Hagee's endorsement before the Texas primary in March, had faced a call by Catholic League President William Donohue to repudiate the pastor, who, he said, had "a history of denigrating the Catholic religion".
Hagee said in the letter to Donohue made public on Tuesday that he now had an "improved understanding of the Catholic Church" and expressed his "deep regret" for any comments Catholics had found hurtful.
McCain welcomed Hagee's apology, telling reporters at a campaign stop in North Bend, Washington, that "whenever someone apologises for something they did wrong, then I think that that is a laudable thing to do".
Since accepting Hagee's endorsement, McCain has distanced himself from some of the preacher's remarks, including labelling as "nonsense" a statement by Hagee that God punished New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina for planning a gay pride parade.
At the start of this year's primary nominating season, the Arizona senator had limited support among Christian conservatives, an influential bloc in the Republican Party.
Hagee's comments about the Catholic Church were made in conjunction with his support for Israel. He says the Church did not do enough to prevent the Holocaust.
"In my zeal to oppose anti-Semitism and bigotry in all its ugly forms, I have often emphasised the darkest chapters in the history of Catholic and Protestant relations with the Jews," Hagee wrote to Donohue.
McCain told reporters, "I know that Pastor Hagee and the head of the Catholic League, Mr Donohue, have joined together and exchanged letters, and that's the kind of reconciliation that I've been engaged in for many, many years."
NRA Chief Stresses Common Ground With McCain
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/nra_presidential_politics/2008/05/13/95774.html
National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre says Republican John McCain isn't in lockstep with the group on every issue, but the nation's gun owners aren't "foolish enough" to ignore their common ground.
LaPierre sized up the presidential candidates in an interview Tuesday, a few days before the NRA opens its convention in Louisville. McCain is scheduled to speak to the group Friday.
McCain has voted against a ban on assault-type weapons, but he favors requiring background checks at gun shows. McCain also voted to shield gun-makers and dealers from civil suits.
LaPierre was critical of Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, saying both are pandering to gun owners by "mouthing pro-Second Amendment words."
Obama advisor: Jerusalem must be included in peace talks
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/982964.html
Daniel Kurtzer, former ambassador to Israel and advisor of U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama, said Tuesday that Jerusalem must be included in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
"It will be impossible to make progress on serious peace talks without putting the future of Jerusalem on the table," Kurtzer said in a conference organized by the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute (JPPPI).
Kurtzer, who has been appointed Obama's advisor for the Middle East, said that future governments will have to deal with the issue of Jerusalem, as opposed to the current Israeli administration which is not.
JPPPI head and Winograd war panel member Yechezkel Dror said that Jerusalem must become the cultural center of the Jewish people.
Kurtzer said in response that "before we do that, we must first accept a number of facts and the political reality of Arabs who live in East Jerusalem who do not feel part of the city."
Boy Scouts Defend their Honor
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/353450.aspx
CBNNews.com -- The City of Brotherly Love is squaring off with a long-time ally -- the Boy Scouts of America. At issue: the Scout's 80-year-old headquarters building in downtown Philadelphia. But what's really at stake is the right of the Scouts to ban homosexuals from leadership.
A Noble History
Since 1910, the Boy Scouts have sought to nurture young boys by teaching them things like how to pitch a tent and how to be brave, kind and cheerful. And over 100 million boys have benefited. Today, close to 5 million are active in Scouts nationwide.
Philadelphia's Cradle of Liberty Council is the third largest chapter in the country. Many supporters believe its work is critical to keeping young people in Philadelphia off the streets and out of trouble.
"It's really, really important that groups like the Boy Scouts step in to provide some of that mentoring influence," Horace Cooper of the American Civil Rights Union said. "That father influence -- to step in to make up where the rest of the family structure has failed."
But that influence may soon change.
Gay Ban Challenged
The City of Philadelphia says it will evict the Boy Scouts from their headquarters on June 1 if they don't change their policy banning homosexuals. The Scouts built the grand Italian Renaissance building 80 years ago and entered into an agreement with the city to lease it back for a dollar a year in perpetuity.
The city says it told the Boy Scouts last June that they either need to stop "discriminating" and abide by the city's fair practice ordinance or get out of the building.
Several conservative groups including the ACRU, Conservative Defense Alliance, and the Conservative Leadership PAC have launched a campaign to support the Boy Scouts.
The Cradle of Liberty Council told CBN that it's considering its options and a First Amendment action is one of them. But it remains hopeful that the matter can be resolved without litigation.
The Scouts cite a 2000 Supreme Court case which supports its right as a private organization to set membership rules.
Philadelphia joins several other cities including Berkeley and San Diego, California that have recently challenged the Scout's use of public facilities. And that has many wondering what type of scouting the second century for the Boy Scouts will bring.
Mike Baker: PWB Energy Proposal
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355489,00.html
What ever happened to free steak knives with every fill-up?
I thought about that the other day as I shelled out 72 crisp American dollars (that’s 4 euros, for our readers across the pond) to stick a couple ounces of regular gasoline in the truck.
Leaning against the side of the vehicle, sun beaming down and the smell of gas in the air, I stared at the pump while pondering the age-old question "…how come gas stations aren’t giving away stuff anymore?"
There was a time, years ago, when you couldn’t get a drink at my parent’s house without using a free drinking glass acquired from the local Shell station. We had highball glasses, rocks glasses, wine glasses and glasses we used anytime we wanted a nice, cold Tang or maybe had a hankering to mix up a packet of Funnyface drink powder. In the event you’re wondering, my personal favorite was Goofy Grape.
As I recall, sometime toward the end of the '60s, the government realized Funnyface drink powder contained something dangerous to lab rats. As a result, me and my friends were weaned off of Goofy Grape, Choo-Choo Cherry and Freckle Faced Strawberry to avoid whatever fate the lab rats suffered.
I know it’s all relative, but if I come back as a lab rat in another life, I hope I’m forced to eat powdered drink mixes instead of having a cigarette shoved in my little rat piehole or made to wear experimental lipstick. There are worse fates than an overdose of Goofy Grape.
What's my point?
Well, first of all, I wish we still lived in a time when you could drive into a gas station and be rewarded with a set of highball glasses. I haven’t done any significant empirical research, but I’m pretty sure there wasn’t an increase in drunk drivers as a result of those giveaways.
As a kid, sitting in the front seat of our big Chevy station wagon, I never once heard my Dad say "… son, hold this new set of highball glasses while I pour myself a drink from the cocktail shaker I keep in the glove compartment."
Nowadays? You think ExxonMobil seriously wants the legal headache that would come from handing out glasses? And steak knives? You can imagine what the Department of Homeland Security would say if Shell decided now was the time to ease the pain at the pumps by once again handing out sets of steak knives.
In today’s overregulated, coddled, testosterone-free society, it’s almost impossible to remember a time when no one blinked at the idea of a retailer giving away sharp-edged instruments to any mook capable of filling a car up with gas.
My second point?
Well, it occurred to me while filling up the car that if we don’t have the nerve to hand out free knives anymore, how do we expect to have the nerve do what’s necessary to sort out our energy problems? I know, the logic of my argument leaves you speechless. This, ladies and gentlemen, is why I’ve never been asked to run for office.
Here’s what I’m thinking. By now, everybody has an inkling that gas prices are rocketing at the pumps because of something called supply and demand. We all have a basic understanding that the global economy is demanding more oil, particularly places such as China and India.
Oil, of course, is a finite resource, meaning that it’s like the natural supply of clever, intelligent columns and op-ed pieces. Once the well is dry, it’s gone and all you hear is a loud sucking sound.
Add to this the issue of refining capacity. While the actual science is somewhat more complicated, oil goes through a series of pipes, gizmos and tanks during the refining process, eventually coming out the other end as gasoline.
You could have all the oil in the world, which we don’t, but without sufficient refining capacity, you’re hosed. Here’s an interesting fact that may or may not be true (PWB readers should always engage in fact-checking): There hasn’t been a new refinery built in the U.S. since the 1970s.
Aside from foreign supply/demand issues and a strained, at-capacity refining infrastructure, we have for years been struggling with the domestic issue of what to do with the oil reserves sitting in the Alaskan region known as ANWR.
Folks who like the idea of reducing our reliance on foreign oil argue that we should be drilling and exploiting our own national resources. On the other side are environmentalists and their supporters who argue that drilling in ANWR would damage a national treasure, harm the environment and do nothing to reduce our long-term dependence on oil. And it would tick off the moose. Mooses?
What have we got so far? Foreign supply/demand problems, insufficient refining capacity and an inability to utilize oil sitting in our own yard. OK, so far so good. Compounding the problem is our lack of serious effort over the last few decades to identify and develop meaningful alternative energy sources.
It’s not that we’ve been too stupid to understand that oil is a limited resource, it’s just that [...], when you’re paying a buck a gallon and getting free knives to boot, who cares about alternative energy sources?
Now that four bucks a gallon is a reality, we’ve all suddenly had a come-to-Jesus meeting.
Have you noticed how many folks jumped on the ethanol bandwagon? There’s a clever idea… clearly no one did the math ahead of time to figure out how much energy we blow through to produce a gallon of corn-based fuel. Not to mention the impact on food prices and supply. What a load of crap.
OK, one more review… global supply-and-demand issues, lack of refining capacity at home, huge untapped Alaskan oil reserves trapped in limbo and a nation incapable over the past few decades of seriously pursuing alternative energy.
On top of all this, as a nation we tend to want solutions immediately. It’s tied to our collective attention deficit disorder. The problem is that a meaningful, comprehensive energy program that takes into account the issues raised above will not produce immediate results. So what happens? People throw out possible ideas and politicians, environmentalists, rich oil tycoons (who secretly control the world) and others with a vested interest shoot them down, crying that those ideas will take too long to have an impact on the current situation.
Well, no crap, Sherlock. Actual solutions will require an investment in time. Here’s an example. Whenever someone indicates they are in favor of drilling in ANWR, someone on the other side shouts that it would take at least a decade for that oil to come on line.
Well, here’s some news… any serious alternative energy program will also take many years to come on line and have a meaningful impact. That’s the funny thing about big infrastructure projects… you gotta do the work before you get the freakin’ results and benefits.
As a result of my aggravation, I now present to you the official PWB Energy Proposal, which I would like the president to announce to the nation. I’d put some flags up on the stage, throw some cabinet members up there and wear a power tie:
"My fellow Americans… Our long-term goal is to reduce our dependence on oil, foreign or domestic, and transition to alternative energy sources that are renewable, environmentally sound and economically viable for our population. In the spirit of the space program of the 1960s, the U.S. government is turning the full power of the scientific community, in concert with the private sector, to the research and development of alternative fuel sources.
"We will achieve our goal within a decade. During this transition period we realize the reality of our current reliance on oil and will devote resources to maintaining a consistent and economically viable supply, including devoting resources to domestic oil exploration in a responsible manner and appropriate investment in our refining capacity.
"We are all experiencing the difficulty of rising fuel costs. Unfortunately, there are no quick fixes. The government will do its part by driving this energy campaign forward, by ensuring that the best minds, resources and capabilities are dedicated to achieving our goal.
"Oh, and we’ve authorized DHS to approve the disbursement of a free set of steak knives to every licensed driver who can provide a photo identification. God Bless America."
That should do it.
Till next week, stay safe.
1 in 10 boomers borrows for everyday expenses
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24586616/
NEW YORK - The economic downturn is hitting roughly one in 10 middle-aged and older Americans especially hard, compelling them to borrow money for everyday living expenses and to seek help from family, friends or charities, according to a survey released Tuesday by the AARP.
In the telephone survey of 1,002 adults 45 and older, nearly four in 10 said they had helped a child pay bills or expenses. Among retirees, one-third said they’d helped their children pay bills. Eight percent said they’d helped a parent pay bills or expenses. The survey’s margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.
One-third of survey participants said they stopped putting money into their 401(k) or retirement account and 14 percent said they had cut back on their medications.
“We have patients coming in fewer times,” said registered nurse Tucky Franz of Salisbury, Md. “They’ll cut back because of the copay.”
The majority of baby boomers said they were finding it more difficult to pay for essentials and utilities, and six in 10 said they had cut back on eating out and entertainment.
James Dyas, 75, of Sherman, Conn., said he and his wife go to their favorite Mexican restaurant about half as frequently as they used to. “About all the money we have goes to buying gasoline,” he said.
While the survey doesn’t show large numbers of people making radical changes — taking second jobs or moving to a smaller home — it did find that more than one-quarter of those surveyed are having trouble paying their mortgage or rent.
Compared with older people, a greater percentage of younger baby boomers, those 45 to 54, said they were cutting back on medications, prematurely withdrawing retirement funds and postponing paying bills.
“For the younger boomers, it’s been an especially rude wake-up call,” said Jim Dau, a spokesman for the AARP, a nonprofit that advocates Americans 50 and older.
Debra Koziol, a 48-year-old hospital finance worker in Rhode Island, said she’s started carpooling to work with her sister a few times a week and packing lunch every day.
“The food is better,” she said. “Some of this is creating better habits, not so much waste.”
Rising Prices = Shorter School Weeks?
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/374551.aspx
CBNNews.com - Because of high gas prices, school officials in Arkansas have come up with a unique plan to save district money.
Schools in western Arkansas could cut classes down to a four days a week.
One superintendent says that could reduce rising costs by 10 to 15 percent.
"All the products we purchase for the schools have increased dramatically from insurance to vegetables served in the cafeteria," Mansfield Superintendent Jim Hattabaugh said.
But changing to a four-day school week would make those days longer, and could cause child care issues for many working parents on the fifth day.
The four-day plan has been successful in other states.
Arkansas officials hope to have their research completed soon.
New Expose to Shed Light on Seventh-day Adventist Church Controversy
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07180.shtml
COLDWATER, Mich., (christiansunite.com) -- Dwight Hall, president of Remnant Publications, a non-profit Christian publisher, announces the release of Dr. Herbert E. Douglass' A Fork in the Road, a powerful new expose that chronicles a significant and controversial chapter in the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
A key eye-witness to the drama surrounding the publication of Seventh-day Adventists Answer Questions on Doctrine in 1957, Dr. Douglass shares his personal experience, and often provocative insights, with the backlash of the book and its continuing repercussions on church theology today. Says Dwight Hall, "Let there be no mistake: this isn't just a passive documentation of the events that followed Questions on Doctrine; it offers an important historical context from an insider's own experience in the crisis. It's a riveting read that asks and answers a lot of questions today's Adventist believers and thinkers are sure to have."
Asked why he chose to tackle the topic after 50 years, Dr. Douglass responded, "Most, if not all, of the so- called 'dissident' groups of the last 45 years are direct results of the positions espoused by Questions on Doctrine on the atonement and the incarnation. Our church needs insight now into this complex history as it seeks not only healing but also growth in the years to come."
Both informative and riveting, A Fork in the Road also shares evidence brought to light by Julius Nam and George Knight, who show the depth of criticism by those who were alarmed by the book's reformulation of Adventist theology-even as private letters and other evidences show how an important defender of Adventist theology was left to stand alone in the outcry.
During his distinguished career, Dr. Herbert Douglass has served as a pastor, ministry president, college professor, and administrator. He is also the author of more than 13 books and numerous articles focusing on Christ, the great controversy, and the church.
For more information about A Fork in the Road, and to order copies, contact Remnant Publications at 517- 279-1304. You may also visit www.RemnantPublications.com.
Crouse Says 'Evangelical Manifesto' Muddies the Evangelical Waters
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07177.shtml
WASHINGTON, (christiansunite.com) -- Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, Director and Senior Fellow of Concerned Women for America's Beverly LaHaye Institute, commented on Wednesday's release of "An Evangelical Manifesto," the product of a 10-member steering committee that "seeks to clarify the confusions and corruptions surrounding the term 'evangelical.'"
Dr. Crouse said, "The select group drafting the manifesto apparently excludes traditional conservative, pro-life and pro-family evangelical voices. Further, the timing of the manifesto - at the end of primary election season and just before the general election in a presidential election year - makes this a decidedly political document when millions of evangelical votes are at stake.
"The manifesto seems to be targeting evangelicals by blurring the distinctions between liberal and conservatives, producing an amalgam that will become as impotent and barren in the 21st century as most mainline protestant churches became in the 20th century. Polls indicate that the majority of evangelical believers hold mainstream views and attend church weekly. They believe that the Bible is the Word of God and that personal faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. They oppose both homosexual 'marriage' and 'civil unions' as undermining marriage, and they believe that abortion should be illegal.
"The term 'evangelical' means a Biblical worldview and dictates a philosophical/theological perspective on the timeless moral issues of Scripture. Those positions ought to be clear and unequivocal, rather than muddied by sophisticated rhetoric and clever obfuscation. The subtle danger is, as the old axiom states: 'Those who stand for nothing will fall for anything,'" Crouse concluded.
Concerned Women for America is the nation's largest public policy women's organization.
Sing Changelujah: 'What Would Jesus Buy' Mission Presses on
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07176.shtml
MEDIA ADVISORY, (christiansunite.com) -- "It is powerful; it's rooted in a missional, gospel-centered view of the Christian reality," says Mickey Klink, New Testament professor at Talbot School of Theology. Film critic Darrel Mason of Hollywood Jesus agrees. "What Would Jesus Buy? has a message that needs to be spoken to a world that is out of control," he says.
What Would Jesus Buy? is a satirical documentary that follows Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping on a cross-country road trip to save Christmas from being consumed by consumption. It is a consumption that is unchecked by where and how Americans buy their goods, the values that purchasing habits suggest, and what it ultimately does to compromise the celebrated season of Christmas.
With a successful release last Christmas to a select number of theaters, Reverend Billy and producer Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) hope to expand their message to a wider audience when What Would Jesus Buy? releases to DVD on May 20.
And they've assembled a broad base of support. Evangelical groups like Buy Nothing Christmas and Advent Conspiracy (a group of more than 1,000 churches started by Rick Mckinley of Imageo Dei Church) and fair trade organizations like Global Exchange and Co-Op America see the film as a showcase for discussions about the simple message of Christmas and the problems of America's consumption habits. Simply put: buy less and give more. "Christmas is meant to shake the world up. Not just be an occasion for more shopping!" says Jim Wallis of Sojourners.
What Would Jesus Buy? releases on DVD May 20 in an effort to build awareness in the months leading up to Christmas. For complete information, including resource materials, ongoing events and church services please visit www.wwjbmovie.com and www.revbilly.com.
Wikipedia Peddles Porn to Kids
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07182.shtml
WASHINGTON, (christiansunite.com) -- It would be a tall order, but parents around the world may want to make every effort to keep their kids away from Wikipedia.com, the enormously popular, user-generated online encyclopedia. While doing homework, research for term papers, or for just plain fun, millions of kids visit Wikipedia every day. That's why parents may be alarmed to learn that, as recently exposed by WorldNetDaily.com, Wikipedia features hundreds, if not thousands, of hardcore pornographic images and online sex videos, making them easily accessible to children.
Matt Barber, Policy Director for Cultural Issues with Concerned Women for America (CWA), said, "Perhaps Wikipedia should change its name to Pornopedia. Providing clinical images that may assist people in research is one thing, but many of the images and videos featured by Wikipedia are gratuitous and obscene. They're entirely unnecessary and amount to hardcore pornography, plain and simple.
"These actions by Wiki founder Jimmy Wales and other executives with Wikipedia are reprehensible. By disseminating this obscene material, their misbehavior is no better than that of the sleazy smut peddler at the XXX bookstore down the street. They should be ashamed of themselves. In fact, the Department of Justice (DOJ) should look into whether Wikipedia may be in violation of federal obscenity laws.
"For this reason, we're calling on Wikipedia to either pull the pornography from its Web page, or, as do many other porn sites, place a prominent warning on the home page indicating that it features pornography, and requiring visitors to affirm that they are at least 18 years of age or older before entering," said Barber.
"People may notice that while searching a term using the Google search engine, a Wikipedia link is often the first to pop up. This makes Wikipedia one of the most visited websites on the Internet. With great power comes great responsibility. To willingly, if not intentionally, make pornography a mouse click away for kids is contemptibly low and represents the height of irresponsibility.
"Unfortunately, the federal government's reticence to prosecute violations of federal obscenity laws has created a climate where disseminating hardcore pornography, even to children, is considered 'no big deal.' Perhaps now, knowing that millions of children are being readily exposed to obscenity on Wikipedia.com, the DOJ will finally step up its efforts," concluded Barber.
Concerned Women for America is the nation's largest public policy women's organization.
Dr. Alveda King: 'Abortion Man' Video Is an Assault on Human Dignity, Just Like Abortion Itself
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07178.shtml
ATLANTA, (christiansunite.com) -- Dr. Alveda King, Pastoral Associate of Priests for Life and niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., today decried the WayoutTV.com video, "Abortion Man," now being broadcast on the internet. The video, an apparent attempt at dark humor, portrays a caped, flying "Abortion Man" who attacks a young pregnant woman until she loses her child, all at the behest of the baby's father.
"Abortion Man just comes off as horrifying in its treatment of the innocent and degrading in its treatment of blacks," said Dr. King. "As callous and unconcerned as Abortion Man is for women and babies, though, I found him little different from the abortion industry itself. If any man wants his pregnant girlfriend to abort, an abortion business will be there to help him get rid of his child. Basically, the abortion industry is Abortion Man without the cape and with less overtly offensive methods."
"I understand that there's a fine line between dark comedy and plain old offensive material," added Dr. King, "but wherever that line is, it's somewhere way in the distance of Abortion Man's rear view mirror. I'm convinced, though, that if the makers of this video had heard the stories I've heard of women coerced into abortions, they never would have tried to find humor in such gruesome situations. If the Abortion Man producers ever want to stimulate dialogue and find solutions for the horrors of abortion against the human race, I would welcome the opportunity to speak with them."
Priests for Life is the nation's largest Catholic pro- life organization dedicated to ending abortion and euthanasia. For more information, visit www.priestsforlife.org.
Two Tiller Complaints Progressing, Says KS Board of Healing Arts
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07175.shtml
TOPEKA, Kansas, (christiansunite.com) -- The Kansas State Board of Healing Arts has notified Cheryl Sullenger and Troy Newman in separate letters that complaints they filed against late-term abortionist George R. Tiller and his associates are progressing. The complaints request that the medical licenses of three abortionists be suspended.
Sullenger's complaint, filed against Tiller and abortionist Ann Kristin Neuhaus in October, 2006, involves allegations that Tiller conducted illegal late-term abortions using Neuhaus as the second concurring physician required by law for post-viability abortions. Sullenger submitted evidence compiled though Operation Rescue investigations that indicated that Neuhaus and Tiller were financially associated, which is prohibited by law.
Tiller has since been charged with 19 criminal counts of violating the non-affiliated physician law. That case is still pending and tentatively set for trial on June 16, 2008.
Newman's complaint against Tiller and California abortionist Shelley Sella was filed in October, 2007, and alleges that the coerced abortion of Michelle Armesto-Berge was done prior to obtaining proper consent and other violations of the standard of care. Newman filed the complaint on Armesto-Berge's behalf at her request.
Armesto-Berge's horrific late-term abortion experience was first made public when she testified last September before a joint legislative committee investigating illegal late- term abortions and the non-enforcement of Kansas abortion laws.
Abortionist Shelley Sella is a resident of Oakland, California, and is an employee of Tiller's and flies to Kansas every third week to abort babies at his Wichita abortion mill. Abortions after 24 weeks gestation are illegal in California.
"We are cautiously optimistic that the cases against Tiller, Neuhaus, and Sella will now be given the attention they deserve," said Newman. Two top members of the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts resigned last month in a shake up over the Board's slowness to act and over apparent cover-ups.
"Up to this point, the Board has refused to act to protect women and viable babies from illegal abortions. The situation in Kansas is critical. The lives of viable babies that laws were enacted to protect remain in jeopardy," said Newman. "We pray that these abortion complaints will get moved to the front burner where they belong, and that suspensions of licenses will be soon forthcoming in the interest of public safety."
About Operation Rescue
Operation Rescue is one of the leading pro-life Christian activist organizations in the nation. Operation Rescue recently made headlines when it bought and closed an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas and has become the voice of the pro-life activist movement in America. Its activities are on the cutting edge of the abortion issue, taking direct action to restore legal personhood to the pre-born and stop abortion in obedience to biblical mandates.
Tiller Loses Bid to End Grand Jury Investigation
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07181.shtml
TOPEKA, Kansas, (christiansunite.com) -- The Kansas Supreme Court ruled against late-term abortionist George R. Tiller who had asked the Court to rule that a citizen's called grand jury was unconstitutional and should be dismissed. Instead the Court found that such grand juries are indeed constitutional.
In the same opinion, the Court ruled that subpoenas issued by the grand jury in their investigation into illegal abortions done by Tiller and his associates should be further reviewed by the Sedgwick County District Court to insure that the subpoenas are not overly broad or harassing in nature.
The grand jury issued subpoenas to Tiller in January for 2,000 late-term abortion records, a request that was later reduced to 50 records randomly chosen for each of the last five years. The subpoenas specifically state that all patient identifying information should be redacted before being sent to the grand jury.
"While we are gratified that the Kansas Supreme Court has upheld the right of citizens to call for grand juries, we are concerned that the order to punt the subpoena question down to the lower courts could be a stall tactic," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "This decision leaves an open door for further mandamus actions by Tiller's attorneys. They know if they stall long enough with their frivolous motions, the grand jury term will expire, and the evidence will not have to be produced. That is obstruction of justice, pure and simple."
The grand jury was seated on January 8, 2008, for a term of three months. That term was extended by Judge Paul Buchanan, but will expire on July 8, 2008, with no further extensions available.
"It is our prayer that the District Court will act swiftly to get the necessary evidence into the hands of the grand jury so justice can be done," said Newman.
Read the KS Supreme Court's Ruling
About Operation Rescue
Operation Rescue is one of the leading pro-life Christian activist organizations in the nation. Operation Rescue recently made headlines when it bought and closed an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas and has become the voice of the pro-life activist movement in America. Its activities are on the cutting edge of the abortion issue, taking direct action to restore legal personhood to the pre-born and stop abortion in obedience to biblical mandates.
Audio Bible ministry takes Word of God to Amazon tribes
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/audio.bible.ministry.takes.word.of.god.to.amazon.tribes/18751.htm
In the Brazilian rainforest, the small village of Makita sits along the muddy banks of an Amazon River tributary. When the conditions are ideal, the trip takes two days by boat.
Jeff Scott, an American church leader, and his short- term mission team arrive at Makita and are welcomed by the villagers and swarms of mosquitoes and flies.
Scott and his team notice a small church building that was built by a previous team. Inside, bats rest overhead and tarantulas patrol dark corners. In this village and the thousands like it, which dot the Amazon's riverbanks, people live with limited access to clean water, the outside world and the Word of God.
In fact, Brazil has 258 tribes, and almost as many different languages - 235. More than 90 of these are cut off from the outside world, living deep in the rainforest and firmly protected by the Brazilian government. Out of these 258 tribes, only 20 have strong, indigenous church leadership.
Despite their remoteness or restrictions, these villagers are eager for the Word of God.
"I have never encountered people so hungry and begging for help in their walk with Christ as in this place," said Scott.
While working among this tribe, Scott and his team realised the power of teaching God's Word orally, discovering that many in the village, including the local church pastor, could not read. The lack of education and the inability to read broke Scott's heart.
Scott and his team then presented this pastor with the Proclaimer, a self-powered digital playback device that has an Audio New Testament pre-loaded on an embedded microchip. The Proclaimer was designed by Faith Comes By Hearing, one of the world's leading audio Bible ministry, for the most rugged and remote areas.
"The Proclaimer seemed to turn on a light bulb and empower this pastor in a way he had never known," said Scott.
At other Amazon villages they visited, Scott and his mission team continued to witness the effectiveness of God's Word in audio is among "oral peoples", which are people groups who pass on their beliefs, heritage and values through stories, parables, proverbs, music, and dances. Currently, oral peoples make up two-thirds of the world's population.
To disciple the world's oral majority, Faith Comes By Hearing records and uses heart-language audio Bibles and works through numerous partners, like Wycliffe Bible Translators, the United Bible Societies and Campus Crusade for Christ's JESUS Film.
Faith Comes By Hearing's language recording manager, Ray Warrior, said, "The majority of the people in the Amazon are oral learners, and the need for Audio Bibles is great."
To reach the 380,000 people in the oral cultures of the Amazon Basin, Faith Comes By Hearing recently trained two new recording teams.
"Adding these two teams means that people from the minority language groups in Brazil will soon have the opportunity to hear God's Word in their own language for the first time," said Warrior.
"Prior to the addition of these recording teams, only the Portuguese Audio New Testament was available. And while Portuguese is widely spoken, many people are monolingual, speaking only their heart language."
"These new teams are a natural fit," said Phil Kenney, Faith Comes By Hearing's regional manager for Latin America. "Both of these teams have worked cross-culturally in Brazil for years and have extensive recording experience."
With 36 New Testaments completed and ready for recording, these teams have no shortage of work. The first indigenous Brazilian New Testament recording is slated to begin in early July among the Waiwai tribe with the first listening groups expected to gather in the summer of 2009.
UK lawmakers clear first embryo research hurdle
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/uk.lawmakers.clear.first.embryo.research.hurdle/18754.htm
Legislation allowing human-animal embryo research, which scientists believe could help treat conditions like Parkinson's but which opponents say is unethical, cleared its first parliamentary hurdle on Monday.
But the battle has only just begun. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill is set to spark heated debate on either side when it returns to the House of Commons for its second reading.
MPs voted on Monday evening by 340 votes to 262 in favour of sending the Bill to its committee stage where they will argue the ethics behind stem-cell research as well as the legal limit on abortion.
Votes on amendments to the Bill - which will include proposals to lower the legal abortion limit to 16 or 18 weeks from 24 weeks - will happen in the next few weeks in the Commons.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, facing a potential cabinet revolt and intense pressure from the Roman Catholic church, agreed in March to give Labour Party MPs a free vote on the "ethical" aspects of the Bill.
These include a provision to allow the creation of human-animal embryos, a move to allow so-called "saviour siblings" - creating a sibling through IVF to treat a child with a life-limiting condition - and the removal of the requirement for doctors to consider "the need for a father" when offering fertility treatment.
Although the Bill makes no reference to abortion, pro-life MPs are tabling amendments proposing the legal limit be reduced.
Scientists say embryo research using hybrids will give them the large numbers of embryos they need to make stem cells to help find cures for diseases.
Sufferers of conditions like motor neurone disease or Parkinson's argue that all avenues must be pursued to find treatment or possible cures but opponents say the research is immoral and tampers with the laws of nature.
Researchers create inter-species hybrids by injecting human DNA into a hollowed-out animal egg cell. The resulting embryo is 99.9 percent human and 0.1 percent animal.
Britain is one of the leading states for stem cell research, attracting scientists from around the world with a permissive environment that allows embryo studies within strict guidelines.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which regulates the research, gave permission to two groups of British-based scientists to use hybrids in January.
The House of Lords rejected attempts earlier this year to include a ban on hybrid research in the draft legislation.
Britain Opens Up Secret UFO Files
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355509,00.html
LONDON — The men were air traffic controllers. Experienced, calm professionals. Nobody was drinking.
What they saw has never been explained. And they were so worried about losing their jobs that they demanded their names be kept off the official reports.
No one, they knew, would believe their claim that an unidentified flying object landed at the airfield they were overseeing in the east of England, touched down briefly, then took off again at tremendous speed.
But that's what they reported happening at four in the afternoon on April 19, 1984, at an unspecified small airport near the eastern coast of England.
Their "Report of Unusual Aerial Phenomenon" is one of more than 1,000 pages of formerly secret UFO documents released Wednesday by Britain's National Archives.
The air traffic controllers, each with more than eight years on the job, describe how they were helping guide a small plane to a safe landing on runway 22 when they were distracted by a brightly lit object approaching a different runway without clearance.
"Everyone became aware that the object was unidentified," the report on the incident said. "SATCO [codename for a controller with 14 years' experience] reports that the object came in 'at speed,' made a touch and go on runway 27, then departed at 'terrific speed' in a 'near vertical' climb."
The incident is one of the more credible in the newly public files because it was reported by air traffic controllers, said David Clarke, a UFO expert who has worked with the National Archives on the document release.
"They were absolutely astonished," he said. "It was a bright, circular object, flashing different colors, and after it touched down it disappeared at fantastic speed. The report comes from very qualified people, and it's one of the few that remained unexplained."
He said other incidents were at times reported by aircraft crews whose members also asked to remain anonymous because they did not want to jeopardize their careers by seeming to believe in UFOs.
In one case, the pilot of a commercial plane crossing the Atlantic reported an unidentified object just 1.5 nautical miles from his wing. He speculated that it might be a meteor or a missile.
Although there are some unexplained cases, there is no reported instance in which Britain's Ministry of Defense found any evidence of alien activity or alien spacecraft, said Clarke, who nonetheless expects conspiracy theories about a UFO coverup by the British defense establishment to persist.
"The Ministry of Defense doesn't have any evidence that our defenses were breached by alien craft," he said. "They never found one, no bits of one, that's all we can say."
Clarke said the documents released Wednesday, dealing with the late 1970s and early 1980s, are the first batch of a series that will be made public in the next few years.
The National Archives is releasing the files now because of numerous Freedom of Information requests seeking information about the government's UFO reports.
Officials said names of many individuals had been blacked out to protect their privacy and the entire files had been reviewed to make sure their release did not compromise national security.
Ministry of Defense officials indicate in the files that UFO reports were only investigated to make sure that no enemy aircraft had illegally entered British airspace. This was crucial during the Cold War when Russian planes posed an ongoing threat.
But officials say they did not try to solve the UFO riddles once an enemy attack had been ruled out.
The vast majority of the reports come from members of the public who see strange things in the sky and jump to the conclusion that a UFO is involved even though there is likely a logical scientific explanation for what they are observing, experts say.
"Mostly it's well-intentioned witnesses who are misidentifying things," said Nick Pope, another UFO expert who helped the Ministry of Defense investigate the phenomenon. "The most common things are aircraft lights, bright stars and planets, satellites, meteors, airships and things like that."
Some of the reports are fairly easy to explain — and quite possibly influenced by a pint or two of beer.
This was the case when a number of people leaving a Tunbridge Wells pub at 9:30 at night reported seeing a strange craft "with red and green" lights.
Asked by police where it seemed to be traveling, the pub crawlers said it appeared to be heading for London's Gatwick Airport.
Case closed.
It didn't take a scientist to figure out it was a commercial plane making a routine approach.
Vatican: It's OK to Believe in Aliens
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/vatican_aliens/2008/05/13/95644.html
VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican's chief astronomer says that believing in aliens does not contradict faith in God.
The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, says that the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones.
In an interview published Tuesday by Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Funes says that such a notion "doesn't contradict our faith" because aliens would still be God's creatures.
The interview was headlined "The extraterrestrial is my brother." Funes said that ruling out the existence of aliens would be like "putting limits" on God's creative freedom.
Putin in control as Russia names cabinet
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/putin.in.control.as.russia.names.cabinet/18738.htm
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday appointed three of Vladimir Putin's closest aides to run his administration, ensuring Putin retains his strong grip on power despite leaving the Kremlin.
Putin, who moves to become prime minister, also announced a cabinet which combined key ministers and powerful figures into what analysts said was an unusually strong team.
Medvedev and Putin have pledged to rule Russia together in an unprecedented "tandem" arrangement. But many analysts said the appointments confirmed that Putin remains the real boss, at least for now.
Key Putin ally Sergei Naryshkin - a former government chief of staff reported by Russian media to have links to the security services - was named head of Medvedev's Kremlin administration, while one of Putin's main ideologues Vladislav Surkov becomes the first deputy chief of staff.
"I don't think the appointment of Sergei Naryshkin as head of the presidential administration is the decision of Dmitry Medvedev," said independent political analyst Georgy Bovt.
"I think it is the decision of Vladimir Putin and I don't actually see any appointments apart from (new Justice Minister Alexander) Konovalov that you can put down exclusively to Dmitry Medvedev."
Surkov is credited with partly formulating Russia's "sovereign democracy" system of government which some observers say is autocratic and Medvedev has criticised in the past.
Alexei Gromov, Putin's former press secretary, will also stay in the Kremlin as deputy chief of the presidential staff.
Putin re-appointed his long-serving finance minister, Alexei Kudrin, seen by markets as a guarantor of Russia's free-market policies. Sergei Lavrov, the public face of Moscow's assertive, anti-Western diplomacy, also stayed on as foreign minister.
"While planning the optimisation of federal executive authorities, we aimed to increase the efficiency of the state machinery and its personnel," Putin told reporters as he announced his nominations.
Russia's stock market, which surged last week on the successful conclusion of the political transition, posted further gains of 1.5 percent on Monday.
TWO KEY FIGURES
Two key figures from the all-powerful Kremlin administration moved with Putin to take up new roles in the White House, the riverside seat of Russia's government.
Sergei Sobyanin, a former governor of the oil-rich region of Tyumen who headed the Kremlin administration under Putin, becomes the new premier's chief of staff and one of five deputy prime ministers.
Igor Sechin, formerly a deputy head of the presidential administration and a key Kremlin hardliner with close ties to the security services, becomes another of the five deputy prime ministers, tasked with overseeing industry and energy.
Analysts said the combination of key Kremlin figures and influential serving ministers made Putin's administration unusually strong. Under Russia's 1993 constitution, presidents have dominated with prime ministers usually being weak figures.
State-controlled oil major Rosneft strongly outperformed the stock market, with gains of 4.5 percent, in a performance which underlined the close ties between the Kremlin and business.
Traders attributed the rise to the promotions of Sechin and Naryshkin, who were also Rosneft chairman and deputy chairman respectively.
Former prime minister and ex-collective farm boss Viktor Zubkov continued in the cabinet as one of two first deputy prime ministers - the most senior posts after Putin's. The other was Igor Shuvalov, who was Putin's top economic aide at the Kremlin.
"Overall, there are no surprises," said Yevgeny Gavrilenkov, chief economist at Moscow brokerage Troika Dialog.
"It is no doubt a positive sign that Kudrin, known for his conservative policies, has stayed ... It is logical that people who worked with Putin in the presidential administration moved to the government."
Among the few major changes were the removal of Telecoms Minister Leonid Reiman, who has repeatedly denied media reports that he indirectly owns a major stake in Russia's number three mobile operator Megafon.
Medvedev's other two key appointments were the naming of former FSB spy service chief Nikolai Patrushev, a Putin ally, to run Russia's powerful Security Council and the promotion of FSB deputy chief Alexander Bortnikov to replace Patrushev.
Bortnikov was previously head of the FSB in Putin's home city of St Petersburg.
Under Russia's constitution, the prime minister proposes cabinet names to the president, who must approve them before they are final.
Dublin launches EU treaty 'yes' campaign
http://euobserver.com/9/26124
The Irish government has launched its campaign in favour of the EU treaty with the new prime minister, Brian Cowen, calling for a "yes" vote in next month's referendum.
"It would be a very backward step to resign from the strategic political positioning we have established in 35 years of (EU) membership," Mr Cowen said on Monday (12 May). "It would have very serious implications."
The government push comes as the most recent poll, by the Sunday Business Post, put the "yes" camp in front with 38 percent, the "no" side on 28 percent and "don't knows" at 34 percent.
This represents a better showing for the "yes" side than two weeks ago, when a poll by the same newspaper put the yes and "no" vote at 35 and 31 percent, respectively. The undecided remained static.
"To tackle modern forces such as globalisation, climate change and cross-border crime, countries cannot stand alone; and for us this means that we need an EU which has the structures, policies and procedures capable of having an impact," said Mr Cowen.
The prime minister, who only came into office earlier this month, hit out at the "no" side for what he said was its attempts to "distort" the contents of the treaty.
The referendum, now formally confirmed for 12 June, is set to be the first major challenge of his leadership.
The Referendum Commission, tasked with informing citizens about the EU treaty, has a budget of €5 million, while the slogan of Fianna Fail, the main governing party, is "Good for Ireland, Good for Europe."
Ireland is the only EU member state to have a referendum on the new treaty and the government is coming under enormous pressure to secure a "yes" vote, with all 27 countries needed to ratify the document for it to come into force.
Analysts suggest that much will depend on voter turnout among the 3-million-strong electorate. A low turn-out could result in a "no" vote, they say, while a higher turnout is set to work more in favour of the "yes" camp.
Questions raised over EU diplomatic service
http://www.euractiv.com/en/future-eu/questions-raised-eu-diplomatic-service/article-172309
The European Parliament is trying to influence the ongoing preparations for the establishment of a 'European External Action Service' (EEAS), to be set up jointly between the EU Council of Ministers and the Commission after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. But critics say this major novelty in the EU architecture is about to be introduced in almost complete secrecy.
Establishing the EU diplomatic service with missions in 125 countries will be on the menu of the Brussels EU summit on June 19-20, provided the referendum in Ireland on June 12 "goes well", diplomats said.
The common external service will not replace bilateral diplomacy, but some politicians fear the initiative may give ammunition to those who claim the Lisbon Treaty is transforming the EU into a superstate.
On 6 May, the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee put forward a draft report on the Common Foreign and Security Policy, which is intended to constitute MEPs' wish-list vis-Ã -vis the Council and the Commission on establishing EEAS.
The report points out that the future office of High Representative/Vice-President of the Commission will derive its legitimacy directly from the European Parliament. It also stresses the need for "transparency and democratic input" into the process of setting up the planned European External Action Service, and calls for a mechanism to be set up to provide confidential information to select Foreign Affairs Committee Members.
Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and author of the draft report, told EurActiv that "there is work going on, but not much has been publicly stated".
"The Treaty is not very specific on the issue. So far when we ask the questions we do not get detailed information. Our feeling is that although the Treaty is not yet ratified, the work is ongoing, but the proposals will be made public when the whole thing is ripe," Saryusz-Wolsky added.
He listed as open questions the interaction between the Council, the Commission and the member state staff, the role of the European Parliament, the formal title of the head of the missions and the formal title of the delegations. As British Conservative MEP Charles Tannock recently stated, "Britain would not accept full diplomatic trappings for the EU".
Parliament seeking more democratic legitimacy
"The key expectation of the Parliament is that it has more to say on that and Parliament can add additional democratic legitimacy from taking positions. And we expect to be involved in shaping these decisions ex ante, and not only post factum," Saryusz-Wolsky said.
The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee also said MEPs needed more clarity on where the EEAS and the foreign policy chief will be situated. Three options are possible, he says: In the Council, the Commission, or "in between", in separate premises.
According to Saryusz-Wolski, there is also a consensus in Parliament to establish another high job – the high official for foreign policy on energy security. This new office should be part of of the future "Foreign Minister's office", the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee said.
French MEP Alain Lamassoure told EurActiv that he personally has two recommendations concerning the EEAS. First, it should be a unified service, and overlap between the Council and the Commission should be avoided. Today, there is too much duplication between the Commission's representations and the missions of the Council, Lamassoure explained (in Kosovo there are currently five different EU missions, for example).
His second recommendation is that each diplomatic service should send its best diplomats to the new external action service. "Otherwise it will not be a European diplomacy, it will be a 28th diplomacy to be added to the existing 27," Lamassoure stated.
The French MP does not expect these changes to cause a blow to bilateral diplomacy. A distinction should be made between the diplomatic missions of the EU countries outside the EU and inside the Union, he argued. Even large EU countries are a long way from having embassies everywhere, therefore regrouping resources and better co-ordinating and redistributing roles is in Europe's interest, he insisted.
Controversially, Lamassoure calls for the abandonment of the terms 'Embassies' and 'Ambassadors' within EU territory.
"Because the relations between EU countries are not diplomatic relations - this is work done in common within the EU - let's also re-convert the consulates in the EU countries for the better enforcement of the rights of the European citizens living in another EU country," Lamassoure advocated.
Recently Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner admitted that "indeed none of us yet know how exactly this (EEAS) will work out in practice".
She said 2009 will be a "transitional year, with the entry into force of the new Treaty and the new institutional set-up that entails, a new Commission and European Parliament taking office and the Treaty's requirement that the new High Representative / Vice-President should finalise the proposals for the functioning of the External Action Service, which will then need to be agreed by the Commission as a whole, followed by the European Parliament and member states".
The final proposals for EEAS will only emerge in 2010, Ferrero-Waldner added.
Positions:
Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmitrij Rupel, whose country currently holds the EU Council presidency, said: "The European External Action Service is an important novelty of the new Treaty. It will be established by the Council's decision on the proposal of the High Representative, after consulting Parliament and obtaining the Commission's approval. Declaration 15 to the Lisbon Treaty stipulates that preparatory work for the European External Action Service shall start after the Treaty is signed. In accordance with the December European Council conclusions, the Slovenian Presidency will take on this job as part of comprehensive technical preparations which are necessary to ensure full and efficient functioning of the Treaty from the date of its entry into force. We are completely aware of the European Parliament's interest in this respect and of your request to be involved in the preparatory work. To this end, the Presidency, together with the General Secretariat of the Council, will make sure that the associates of the European Parliament's President will be kept up-to-date."
Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Karel de Gucht gave his backing to the EEAS: "Personally, I think this External Action Service needs to be deployed as soon as possible. A full deployment across the globe - in a sort of "big bang" scenario - seems neither feasible nor desirable. But it does seem necessary to swiftly start its early deployment at its central office in Brussels. By doing so we will create a useful foundation and a basis for a proper functional start of this new institutional creation also with the main international organizations and bilateral partners. I also believe it should be the ambition to make the External Action Service a service provider for the Commission, the High Representative and the President of the European Council. Thus, the latter will only need a small personal secretariat and the President's Office will receive a proper anchoring in the External Action Service."
Finnish Secretary of State Pertti Torstila commented recently: "Finland aims to send its "brightest and best" officials to the European External Action Service, to serve on a temporary basis in tasks which fit with our interests. Other member states will do likewise, I'd presume. Based on our current very rough estimations Finland would send approximately 15 to 25 officials during the first five years to the EEAS and the EU Delegations taken together. We're currently preparing our positions, consulting with other member states, the Secretariat and the Commission, and we will play a proactive role in the process."
Elmar Brok, a leading MEP from the centre-right EPP-ED group in Parliament, said: "To avoid creating a huge new bureaucracy, the proposal in the Constitution is that the Commission's 120-plus delegations all over the world would be integrated into the EEAS, with staff seconded from member states' national diplomatic services. Knitting together the EEAS and existing EU offices would have a double effect, as the use of diplomatic staff from member states avoids possible conflicts between national and EU interests, and is also an efficient use of personnel that avoids wasting human and financial resources."
E-who? The EU power game has begun
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/foreign/brunowaterfield/may2008/eupowerstruggle.htm
Behind closed doors, over diplomatic dinners, in the corridors of departments, embassies, ministries and chanceries, Europe’s rulers are playing a “once in a lifetime” game for the future of the European Union. As I have already noted, here and here, this is a power play to which the public is not even a spectator.
Substantial negotiations are underway on the biggest European job carve up package, including Nato, in the EU’s existence. The rules of the game, the players and the running score are known only to a tiny group of EU leaders and their most senior civil servants.
The battle to fill the top jobs, including powerful new posts, such as the EU president, will set Europe’s political agenda for the next decade. It is the complete opposite of democratic politics or an electoral race.
In this contest the candidates do not publicly declare, and the more serious a contender is, the more secret and restricted he will keep his ambition. “Speculation at this stage is pointless. The best you can say is that it may well be a name no one has yet thought of,” one diplomat told the FT.
I return to this (let me know if the record sounds stuck) because there have been some developments since I last covered the implementation of the new Treaty, a process that is gathering pace even while (unelected) Lords linger on Westminster ratification or the rest of us passively await a millionaire's appeal to the (also unelected) judges.
Lisbon may not quite be the old Constitution but in terms of reshaping the EU’s institutions (rather than creating new policy areas) the new Treaty goes well beyond its equally controversial Maastricht forebear. “A lot people are just beginning to realise what they have signed up to,” one of the negotiators working on the new EU constitutional settlement said.
One experienced, well placed EU "official", I shall call him, told me that the shake out that follows the Lisbon Treaty (never mind the irritating and trifling formalities of ratification) was “more profound and far-reaching than anything else in the EU’s 50 year history”.
“It might not be quite Constitutional in the national sense but for us here it is the most important time in our lives,” he said. “There has never been such a constellation of jobs and institutional changes aligned at the same moment. A lot of people are talking about a new epoch.”
As you have read here before, an EU summit on June 19 will be the first formal gathering of all Europe’s heads of state and government to discuss the issues. The timing is careful because it will come one week after the Irish vote in the EU’s only referendum on the Treaty. As one EU negotiator put it: “There will be no other expressions of popular prejudice to distract or to get in the way ”.
Current plans assume that an Irish Yes vote will remove the last obstacle to the new EU Treaty. Below I try and set out the deal as it seems to be emerging, based on a number of background briefings from national leaders, ministers, European Commission officials, diplomats, inter-institutional negotiators and Euro-MPs.
The deal will range well beyond the Treaty’s January 1 2009 D-day, when it enters into force, to pre-empt European elections in June 2009, a new Commission (a President and 27 Commissioners) in November 2009 and the appointment of a new Nato Secretary-General, in late 2009. Predictions over who will get what job are hazardous, as Mark Mardell observes.
Woven into the package will also be an agreement on a five year political work programme (whether this will be a public document is unknown) – an agenda to run independently of the vagaries of national elections, one presumes.
There are no manifestoes in this undemocratic dance. There are no alternatives on offer (for us). The best we, the public, can expect (only after Game, Set and Match is declared) is a series of bland and uninformative euro-communiqués in December, followed by others in Spring, October and November 2009.
E-Who? The hidden wiring
President of the Council
There is an intense struggle, see here, raging over the terms and conditions of the “EU President”. To a certain extent the personality chosen will reflect how this battle has been resolved or the direction it is going in. One person involved in the talks said: “Whoever it is, he will need to spend plenty of time throwing cocktail parties and he will need a palace or a cook or two”.
According to a briefing out of the Elysée last week, Tony Blair’s candidacy has been “burned” with “insufficient” support from the centre-left. This could be code that Mr Blair’s successor, Gordon Brown, has been less than enthusiastic. Or it could mean that Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy have agreed on someone else. Mr Blair’s candidacy horrified some, who saw it as damaging to the EU’s traditional “supranational” institutions, the Commission especially.
Paris has recently talked up Jean-Claude Juncker, Germany has smiled on him too. But Luxembourg’s leader is a dyed in the wool Federalist of the old school. He is likely to be opposed (in any top EU job) by the UK. Any candidate that does not have the support of France, Germany and Britain is highly unlikely to make it.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Denmark’s leader, could be a popular choice, especially if he wins a national referendum on Danish EU opt-outs. He denies he is in the running. Paris has briefed that he wants to head up Nato, not the EU.
UK diplomats stress that at the June summit, “they will look around the table first and then look outside”. In other words, the real candidate may as yet be unknown. Or to put it another way, the choice of who will hold the office of EU President is not for us the public but our betters.
President of the European Commission
This job falls vacant next November, the consensus seems to be that José Manual Barroso will take it for a second term. There has been some speculation that the former Portuguese PM (an expert at jumping ship at the opportune moment) could go to the EU President job. Officials close to Mr Barroso play this scenario down as it would damage the Commission if he chose the other job. If Mr Barroso does switch over it will leave a bad taste and might be the writing on the wall for the Commission in the post-Lisbon institutional landscape.
Mr Juncker is also seen as a possible Commission chief. But the UK has previously blocked candidates the last two times around (Jean-Luc Dehaene and Guy Verhofstadt) because, like Mr Juncker, they were too Federalist.
President of the European Parliament
Those looking for evidence that euro elections are a pretty cynical, pointless exercise need look no further. The deal on the Parliament’s next President seems to have been stitched up a whole year before the European elections next June.
The Parliament’s two big groups the EPP (centre-right, with Conservatives affiliated) and the PSE (centre-left with Labour affiliated) will, as tradition dictates, divide the job into two. Jerzy Busek, a former Polish PM, will take it from autumn 2009. Then in early 2012, the German Socialist Martin Schulz will take over. This deal, if done, helps cement Poland behind the wider carve-up.
Sources close to the present incumbent, Hans-Gert Pöttering, suggest the centre-right Euro-MP, who is politically close to Miss Merkel, wants the job as Germany’s next Commissioner.
Nato Secretary General
EU security and defence policy will be beefed up in 2009 as France (if it goes ahead as planned) rejoins the Western Alliance’s military command. It is a clear sign that the EU and Nato are moving closer together that the Alliance job is part of the deal.
The French might bring forward Treaty plans for increased European defence cooperation. Probably involving Germany, France, Britain, Spain, Poland and Italy (possibly with Hungary and Lithuania too), the new structured “European army” will be organised around euro-style convergence criteria such as defence spending.
Germany has ambitions here.
This is all very hush hush until Ireland’s vote on June 12, because earlier moves to EU military cooperation in the Nice Treaty were blamed for a Irish referendum defeat in June 2001.
EU “foreign minister”, now called the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
Some see Javier Solana staying on in the job for 10 months, until a new Commission in November 2009. But France is opposed.
The High Rep will also be a Commission-Vice President so his appointment will be a key part of the power balance in Brussels.
Parliament sources have briefed that Mr Blair is up for the job, after his stint as envoy in the Middle East. But it seems unlikely that Mr Blair would take a job where he would second fiddle to both the EU President and Commission chief. The post seems set to go to someone from the centre-left. It could be a Frenchman like Bernard Kouchner.
European External Action Service
The creation of this service, read more here, has triggered a huge turf war. The outcome will shape the powers of the EU President, Commission chief and High Rep.
The European Commission is set to lose three departments (RELEX, 677 senior staff, ECHO, 162 staff and AIDCO, 585 staff). There is pressure to take two more departments away as well, Enlargement (239 senior staff) and Trade (438 staff).
The existing Council Secretariat, under the eurocrat’s eurocrat Pierre de Boissieu (his job will be part of the bunfight), will contribute up to 400 staff. These could come from some of the most sensitive, secretive parts of the EU’s security structure, such as SitCen.
European Commission
The EU executive’s plum policy portfolios will all be part of “corralling” agreement on an overall package. Formal announcements of the people to be the next 27 Commissioners will be left until October next year but policy jobs will be part of the secret small print in December this year.
E.U. Extends Cooperative Ties
http://www.forbes.com/home/2008/05/09/european-neighborhood-policy-cx_0512oxford.html
Last month, the European Commission presented its annual assessment of the implementation of the European Neighborhood Policy and called it a "resounding success."
The policy (ENP) currently covers 16 countries in the southern and eastern parts of the European Union and aims to offer those partners closer cooperation with the bloc. Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner introduced plans for an upgrade in the E.U.'s ties with four of these partners through a "targeted deepening of relations." The proposals represent the E.U.'s new preference for creating "enhanced" or "privileged" partnerships with its neighbors, rather than talking about enlargement.
Targeted deepening. The four states that will be targeted are Morocco, Israel, Moldova and Israel. They are seen by Brussels as the most ambitious and have gone furthest in achieving the reform goals set out in their ENP Action Plans. Deeper relations will be pursued within the context of the ENP and will use the "action planning" method, which sets out mutually agreed targets through benchmarking to upgrade political and economic relations. All four states will benefit financially by significant extra top-up funds from the E.U.'s governance facility, already awarded to Morocco and Ukraine in 2007:
-- Ukraine. This has already began with Ukraine. In February this year, Kiev started negotiations for a free-trade area in the framework of its New Enhanced Agreement. Detailed planning for the NEA started in March 2007.
-- Moldova. Ukraine's smaller neighbor Moldova was praised by the commission for its strong "political will" to carry out political and economic reforms, as well as its commitment to resolving the Transnistria conflict. The E.U. announced that it will work toward a new partnership agreement beyond the scope of the current Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, which is about to expire.
-- Morocco. The commission already viewed Morocco as a special partner owing to its extensive cooperation with the E.U. on the fight against terrorism and illegal immigration in recent years. Brussels is now supporting an "advanced status" for Morocco, which will have as a main focus freer movement of people to benefit Moroccan workers by allowing greater access to E.U. labor markets.
-- Israel. A reflection group will also be looking at ways in which Brussels can grant Israel a "special status" to enhance its involvement in the E.U.'s market and economy. Israel is already well-integrated into the E.U. research programs and is the only neighbor to participate in the Competitiveness and Innovation Program.
Avoiding enlargement. The ENP was designed to bring neighboring states closer to the E.U. but to stay mute on the question of membership. The new deals outlined by Ferrero-Waldner in reinforce this formula since the special partnerships were announced without reference to enlargement:
--Governments in Morocco and Israel view the new initiatives favorably; the Moroccan government has been lobbying hard for this for some time.
--The same cannot be said for Ukraine and, to a lesser extent, Moldova, as they see their futures not as perennial outsiders or neighbors but as members of the E.U.
Ukrainian disappointment. Ukraine has always demanded a clear membership perspective from the E.U.. Ukraine sees the ENP as a means to an end, and not an end in itself. The government still has 2017 as a target date for entry into the E.U.:
-- Kiev's reaction. The Foreign Ministry in Ukraine responded quickly and with vitriol to Ferrero-Waldner's speech, calling the proposals "unacceptable." Subsequently, Kiev called upon Brussels to come up with a new formula for E.U.-Ukraine relations, which would take into account Ukraine's desire for European integration and its "strategic role" in Europe. The Ukranian government had been hoping for a clear indication this year from the E.U. that membership would be forthcoming. Instead, from Kiev's viewpoint the new proposals are a massive setback in its European aspirations.
-- Brussels' concern. Ferrero-Waldner maintains that the door to membership for Ukraine "is neither open nor closed," and the commission has continued to commend Ukraine for its progress in the ENP. However, the E.U. remains concerned that the country is not able to go far and fast enough because of political turmoil at home. From Brussels' view, much of the problem behind Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration has to do with domestic instability and the fragility of democratic institutions.
German Archaeologist on Trail of Ark of the Covenant
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355264,00.html
BERLIN — It is only a breathless Hollywood script: treasure-hunter Indiana Jones races with German archaeologists to track down the fabled Ark of the Covenant, the chest that held the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were etched.
Now German researchers claim to have found the remains of the palace of the Queen of Sheba — and an altar that may have held the Ark.
The discovery, announced by the University of Hamburg last week, has stirred skeptical rumblings from the archaeological community.
The location of the Ark, indeed its existence, has been a source of controversy for centuries.
Regarded as the most precious treasure of ancient Judaism, it is at the heart of a debate about whether archaeology should chronicle the rise and fall of civilizations or explore the boundaries between myth and ancient history.
Professor Helmut Ziegert, of the archaeological institute at the University of Hamburg, has been supervising a dig in Aksum, northern Ethiopia, since 1999.
"From the dating, its position and the details that we have found, I am sure that this is the palace," he said.
The palace, that is, of the Queen of Sheba, who is believed to have lived in the 10th century B.C.
After she died, her son and successor, Menelek, replaced the palace with a temple dedicated to Sirius.
The German researchers believe that the Ark was taken from Jerusalem by the queen — who had a liaison with King Solomon — and built into the altar to Sirius.
"The results we have suggest that a Cult of Sothis developed in Ethiopia with the arrival of Judaism and the Ark of the Covenant, and continued until 600 A.D.," an announcement by the University of Hamburg on behalf of the research team said.
Sothis is the ancient Greek name for the star Sirius.
The Ark was made, according to the Bible, of gold-plated acacia wood and topped with two golden angels. It is said to be a source of great power. In about 586 B.C., when the Babylonians conquered the Israelites, the Ark vanished.
For many centuries finding it has been one of the great quests — inspiration not only for the 1981 film "Raiders of the Lost Ark," but also for countries seeking to position themselves in the mainstream of ancient civilization.
Many archaeologists believe that their profession should not be in the business of myth-chasing. Even if the Ark were found, it would be impossible to establish scientifically whether it was the original receptacle for the Ten Commandments.
Iris Gerlach of the German Archaeological Institute in Sanaa, Yemen, believes the religious centre of Sheba is in present-day Yemen.
Although she does not go head-to-head with her colleague Professor Ziegert, the message is clear: A relic such as the Ark would have been stored in an important religious city rather than in Aksum.
Quest goes on
— The location of the Ark has been put in Egypt, Zimbabwe and even Ireland, where the Hill of Tara was excavated
— The Ethiopian holy town of Aksum is regarded as a more credible site
— Ethiopians believe that it is defended by monks in the church of St. Mary of Zion and is seen only by the guardian of the Ark, making it impossible to verify
Israel Museum Displays Dead Sea Scroll
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/374881.aspx
CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM -- One of the most important Dead Sea scrolls is going on display in Jerusalem this week - more than four decades after it was last seen by the public. The 24-foot scroll with the text of the Bible's Book of Isaiah had been in a dark, temperature-controlled room at the Israel Museum since 1967. It went on display two years earlier, but curators replaced it with a facsimile after noticing new cracks in the calfskin parchment.
The museum decided to put the scroll back on show for three months as part of Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations.
The priceless manuscript, written by a Judean scribe around 120 B.C., was in a long glass case Tuesday, its neat rows of Hebrew letters distinct and legible. President Bush, visiting Israel this week for the anniversary celebration, will be one of the first to view it.
The Isaiah manuscript was the only complete biblical book discovered among the Dead Sea scrolls, one of the great archaeological finds of the 20th century. The ancient documents, which include fragments of the books of the Old Testament and treatises on communal living and apocalyptic war, have shed important light on Judaism and the origins of Christianity.
The Book of Isaiah is traditionally attributed to a prophet who lived in the 8th century B.C.
In the book, he calls for repentance, warns of impending doom, and - in one of the most famous passages ever written - offers an idyllic vision of the future: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."
Curator Adolfo Roitman called the Isaiah manuscript the "gem of the Dead Sea scrolls." It is "one of the most important treasures of the Jewish nation, if not the most important," he added.
A far smaller fragment of another Dead Sea scroll will be on display at the Jerusalem convention center where Bush will be speaking along with other dignitaries.
The segment, also rarely shown, contains the text of Psalm 133, which reads: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity."
Kings of the earth in Israel for 'event of the century'
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2447
Twenty current and former world leaders and hundreds of other international dignitaries were making their way to Jerusalem Tuesday and Wednesday for what has been described as an unprecedented gathering in the Israeli capital.
Not since the funeral of assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin have so many heads of state been in Israel at one time.
In the words of the far-left daily newspaper, Ha'aretz, the three-day "Israeli Presidential Conference" will be the "event of the century."
Under the banner theme "Facing Tomorrow," the dignitaries will come together "to discuss the future of humanity and Israel's role in the world".
Attendees will include the presidents of Albania, Burkina-Faso, Croatia, Georgia, Latvia, Mongolia, Palau, Poland, Rwanda, Slovenia, Uganda, Ukraine, the United States.
Other dignitaries will be US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, former prime minister of the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel, and the former president of Indonesia, Abdurrahman Wahid.
Among the non-politician VIPs will be Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Yahoo president Susan Decker, media magnate Rupert Murdoch, Nobel Prize Laureate Eli Wiesel, Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz, Ratan Tata, chairman of India's Tata group, US billionaire Sheldon Adelson.
On an Internet clip welcoming his distinguished and influential guests, Peres described Jerusalem as "the cradle of the world's greatest religion."
But while Israel had to remain "true to our heritage," the Jewish state also had "to adapt to a new age that has many offers, challenges and problems," he said.
While subjects under discussion will include science, arts, the media and other issues, “buried” among these will be the Land-for-Peace process of which Peres has been and remains one of Israel’s prime proponents.
The conference attendees would have "to try and imagine what will be the face of the world in the immediate future, what will be the direction of Jewish life in it, what will happen to our own state," the president said, blandly but ominously.
More than that, they would have to "try and offer directions."
"By devoting our time, not to the history of our lives, but to the future of the destinies of the still unborn," the leftist, pro-globalism veteran Israeli said the conference would provide "a real service to everybody, every nation, every religion, every person."
The outcome will be, he was sure, "a real contribution to a new age, to a new future."
The Miracle Called Israel
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/374276.aspx
CBNNews.com - Sixty years ago today, May 14, 1948, the modern State of Israel was born. The circumstances of Israel's re-birth were anything but average. In fact, some say Israel's renaissance -- after 2,000 years -- was nothing short of miraculous.
In a country the size of New Jersey, this thriving democracy, with its 7.3 million citizens, is a world leader in medicine, technology and agriculture, with a military that ranks among the finest.
Tiny Israel has given the world the cell phone, computer processors and voice mail. Israelis have made the barren desert bloom, reforested large portions of the country, and have made the nation a leading exporter of fruits, vegetables and flowers.
The State of Israel
The story of the modern State of Israel officially began that fateful day in May when the nation's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, declared the country's independence from a small building in Tel Aviv.
Just a few hours later, the United States, under President Harry Truman, became the first country to recognize nascent nation.
Israeli historian Michael Oren believes that Truman's faith gave him the power to defy his advisors' strong objections and support Israeli statehood.
In his latest book, Power, Faith and Fantasy, Oren says Truman, who committed lengthy passages of scripture to memory, had a biblical perspective on the Jewish homeland.
"He knew the map of Palestine better than he knew the map of his neighboring county in Missouri," Oren told CBN News. "When he was a senator, he was a member of American Christian Committee for Palestine, an evangelical, pro-Zionist organization," he said.
Because of his biblical perspective, President Truman must have understood when the newly born State of Israel immediately opened its doors to thousands of Jews who survived the Nazi Holocaust. These emaciated, homeless victims of man's inhumanity to man had lost most of their family and everything they owned.
A Homeland of Their Own
Yet hope arose in their hearts when Israel, the nation miraculously born in a day, offered them a homeland of their own.
"In the whole history of the world, no people, no country, has ever gone out of existence for anything like 2,000 years and then been reborn," author Brock Thoene told CBN News. "So it is correct to say that it is a miracle. But that is a dramatic understatement because the rebirth of Israel is a whole series of miracles," he said.
And Thoene wasn't exaggerating. Just to survive, Israel would need a whole lot of miracles.
The day after statehood was declared, Arab armies from surrounding nations attacked from all sides. Trained by the British and much better armed than the Israelis, the Arabs vowed to push the Jews into the sea, a reality that transformed many of the new Jewish refugees into instant soldiers.
"Many of them got off the docks, had weapons thrust into their hands and were told, 'Welcome to Israel. You are now fighting for her survival. And by the way, yours is kind of on the line, too,'" Thoene said.
At the tank museum in Latrun, located about halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, visitors can see the actual tanks and trucks, now decorated with wreaths, which were used in the 1948 Battle of Latrun. This was the key battle that broke the siege of Jerusalem and helped Israel survive its first war as a modern nation.
The fight for Jerusalem was intense. And although the Jewish residents of Jerusalem's Old City were forced to leave their homes, their bravery and fortitude helped Israel survive the early days of the war.
Historical novelist Bodie Thoene, Brock's wife, has thoroughly researched the battle for the Old City.
"They hung on with those 200 defenders and that particular battlefront distracted the Arabs from all other battles and enabled -- in the two weeks that the Old City held out -- the rest of Israel, the brand new baby State of Israel, to arm itself," Thoene said.
The Fight for Nationhood
In its 60 years, Israel fought three more wars on its own soil and two in Lebanon. And today's radical Islamists share the same goal as Israel's Arab foes in 1948 -- to push the Jews into the sea and reclaim the land for Allah.
Historian Paul Johnson believes supernatural timing played a critical role in Israel's creation, called the 'nakba' by many Arabs.
"The truth is, in asking for a national home, the Jews were about 10 to 15 years ahead of the Arabs" Johnson said. "If they'd been running neck and neck, they'd never have gotten it, in my opinion," he said.
"So they stepped through a window of history that suddenly opened briefly into nationhood, and it is one of the miracles of history that this happened, he said.
Sixty years of Middle East division
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7385156.stm
Where Israel's good farmland starts to turn into the scrub of the Negev desert there stands an agricultural settlement called kibbutz Yad Mordechai.
It is a delightful spot on a spring evening. Residents keep livestock, grow crops, and produce some of the country's best honey.
Sixty years ago they were preparing to fight for their lives.
The British, rulers of Palestine since 1917, were going home, leaving behind a legal system, red pillar boxes, chaos and war.
At 1600 on 14 May 1948 Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion read out its declaration of independence in a hall in Tel Aviv.
Just before midnight a Royal Navy battle cruiser carrying Britain's last high commissioner slipped out of Palestine's territorial waters.
By dawn the next day, forces from Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt crossed into territory the British left behind.
Turned back
Yad Mordechai was on Egypt's invasion route, blocking its path to Tel Aviv. The fight they put up made the kibbutz a symbol of resistance for Israelis.
Although it fell, the Egyptians were held long enough for the Israeli army to prepare a new defence line further north where the advancing troops were stopped and turned back.
The kibbutz was founded by Jewish immigrants from Poland, who wanted to escape centuries of persecution and build a new life and a new kind of state in Palestine.
In 1943 they renamed their settlement after Mordechai Anielewicz, the Jew who led the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto against the Nazis.
The Holocaust created a compelling new moral argument for a Jewish state, and history is everywhere at the kibbutz.
Yad Mordechai has its own Holocaust museum, and a statue of Anielewicz, heroically posed.
They have preserved a water tower that was smashed in the fighting in 1948, and the battlefield, where metal cut outs of Egyptian soldiers still charge towards a rusty line of weapons - Bren guns, Lee Enfields and Mausers - concreted into the trenches they defended 60 years ago.
Since Israel's victory there has been six decades of remarkably successful nation-building, though the wars have never ended.
Half-finished story
Jewish refugees and migrants have been absorbed into a modern state, with a parliamentary democracy, a hi-tech economy and nuclear weapons.
Its closest ally is the United States. On this anniversary Israelis and their friends around the world have a great deal to celebrate.
But that is only half the story. The other side of it is Palestinian.
The members of kibbutz Yad Mordechai, like almost everyone else in the land that became Israel, originally had Palestinian Arab neighbours, mainly farmers whose families had worked the land for centuries.
Every year for Palestinians this anniversary is a reminder of what they call the Nakba, or catastrophe. For them the last 60 years have been about dispossession and exile.
In 1948 Palestinian society collapsed under the weight of war. Starting in the last months of 1947, and going on until the early part of 1949, about 700,000 Palestinians became refugees from the land that became Israel.
Many were expelled by force or left because of the fear that they might be killed. Their property was expropriated and they were not allowed to return.
Around 4.5 million Palestinians are now registered as refugees by Unrwa, the United Nations agency that looks after them. Many Palestinians believe that Israel's success has been built on the backs of their loss.
Traces
You have to know what to look for to see the signs left behind by the Palestinians who used to be the neighbours of kibbutz Yad Mordechai.
Their villages were destroyed by Israel after they left. Sometimes clumps of prickly pears are a clue about what used to be there.
Cactus was used as hedging by Palestinian farmers, and in a land where two peoples who could scarcely be farther apart share many things, its fruit, the prickly pear, is also a national symbol for native-born Israelis.
They are known by its Hebrew name - sabra - because, they like to say, they are spiky on the outside but sweet when you get past the tough outer skin.
Even though Yad Mordechai's former Arab neighbours can no longer be seen from the kibbutz, many of them are in fact not very far away.
The kibbutz stands only a couple of miles from the main crossing point into the Gaza Strip, the narrow, overcrowded piece of land where 1.4 million Palestinians live in what they call the world's biggest prison.
Most of them are refugees. Children are brought up to know their home villages, even though their parents and sometimes even their grandparents have never been to them.
Why did they leave?
The reasons why the refugees left their homes are still bitterly contested, by historians as well as by leaders and activists.
Much of the controversy swirls around Plan D, which was adopted by Mr Ben Gurion and his generals in March 1948.
Some historians say it was a blueprint for the ethnic cleansing of Arabs from Palestine. Others say it was a simple military plan for seizing strategic ground and there was no political scheme to drive the Arabs out of a future state.
It is politically red-hot because agreement on the causes of the problem might eventually be part of a solution, and leaders do not want to abandon deeply-held positions.
Israel's President, Shimon Peres, an aide to Mr Ben Gurion in 1948, told the BBC in an interview to mark his country's 60th anniversary that it bore no responsibility for the exodus of Palestinians.
"I was present at the occasion," President Peres said. "I don't mind what historians are writing. Ben Gurion did not want the Arabs to leave the country."
Strength and weakness
The former Jordanian Foreign Minister, Hazem Nusseibeh, a Palestinian who was a journalist in Jerusalem in 1948, expressed surprise when the BBC put the Israeli president's words to him.
"No responsibility whatsoever? Then what caused the exodus to happen? It was the Israeli massacre of the villages of people whom they encountered," he said.
"I can count you the scores of massacres which happened all over the country. Do you think anyone would leave his home unless he was really threatened?"
Despite their country's strength, some Israelis today also feel threatened - by Palestinian nationalism, by Islamist extremists who target Jews, and by Iran.
Many more Palestinian civilians die and lose their homes than Israelis, and they believe that what they call the catastrophe of 1948 has never ended.
The current peace process - sponsored by US President George W Bush - will fail like all the others if it cannot solve problems that have a direct connection to l948.
Partition is still on the agenda, as it was 60 years ago, because they need to divide the land between Israel and a Palestinian state. Jerusalem is still claimed by both sides. And Palestinian refugees await a future.
Palestinian PM Condemns Israeli Anniversary Celebration
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355519,00.html
JERUSALEM — Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad reprimanded Israel on Tuesday for triumphantly celebrating its 60th birthday before having reached a peace deal with the Palestinians.
Such festivities are inappropriate and offensive as long as Israel rules over the Palestinians, the usually mild-mannered Fayyad said.
His comments during a speech marking the flip side of Israel's independence — the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the 1948 war over Israel's creation. Palestinians call it their "nakba," or catastrophe.
"I direct my speech ... to the people of Israel, to say, 'How can you?"' Fayyad said. "How can you celebrate and the Palestinian people are suffering from your settlements and the crimes of your settlers and the siege of your state and the conduct of your occupying army?"
"There is no meaning to celebration if we don't celebrate together, with a fair peace," he added.
In Gaza on Tuesday, Israeli aircraft attacked a group of Palestinian militants firing mortar shells at Israel, killing one militant. Israel's army confirmed the attack, and Gaza's ruling militant Hamas group said the dead man was one of its members.
The airstrike came a day after an Israeli woman was killed by a rocket attack on southern Israel. Gaza militants routinely fire rockets and mortars at southern Israel, and Israel often responds with deadly incursions and airstrikes in Gaza.
In Jerusalem, international Mideast envoy Tony Blair said Israel has agreed to remove several West Bank checkpoints and ease the flow of traffic through others.
However, only one checkpoint, south of the West Bank city of Hebron, is to be removed for sure, later this week. Israel is looking into dismantling several others but has not committed to a specific date, he said.
Blair spoke at a news conference almost a year after being named Mideast envoy by the Quartet of Mideast mediators — the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations. He remained hopeful, saying he believes Israel is negotiating in good faith.
Palestinians will hold their "nakba" memorials Thursday. On Tuesday evening, thousands of supporters of the militant group Islamic Jihad marched in Gaza City, some holding symbolic wooden keys to homes they left behind.
Thursday's plans include flying thousands of black balloons in a show of mourning, rallies in the West Bank and Gaza, and the screening of films about Palestinian history.
Hamas wants supporters in Gaza to march toward a main border crossing with Israel. Gaza has been virtually sealed since the violent Hamas takeover a year ago.
Arab students at Israeli universities in Haifa and Jerusalem plan nakba marches. In Jerusalem, artists plan to exhibit 3,000 figurines, meant to represent Palestinian refugees.
During the 1948 Mideast war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were uprooted and scattered across the region. Along with their descendants, they now total about 4.5 million, according to U.N. figures.
Commemorations are meant to direct attention to the unresolved plight of Palestinian refugees and to encourage young Palestinians to learn their history, activists said. The fate of refugees is a key issue in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
"Palestinians have been dispossessed long enough, and how many years do they have to wait before they come home?" said Huwaida Arraf, a 31-year-old Palestinian activist in Ramallah.
[FOOLISHNESS]--Joint declaration by Christian Leaders on Israel’s 60th Anniversary
http://justpeace60.blogspot.com/
The Declaration
We, the undersigned, church leaders and representatives of our different denominations and organisations, join together on the 60th anniversary of the Israeli state to offer a contribution to that which makes for peace.
We recognise that today, millions of Israelis and Jews around the world will joyfully mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the state of Israel (Yom Ha'atzmaut). For many, this landmark powerfully symbolises the Jewish people’s ability to defy the power of hatred so destructively embodied in the Nazi Holocaust. Additionally, it is an opportunity to celebrate the wealth of cultural, economic and scientific achievements of Israeli society, in all its vitality and diversity.
We also recognise that this same day, millions of Palestinians living inside Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and the worldwide diaspora, will mourn 60 years since over 700,000 of them were uprooted from their homes and forbidden from returning, while more than 400 villages were destroyed (al-Nakba). For them, this day is not just about the remembrance of a past catastrophic dispossession, dispersal, and loss; it is also a reminder that their struggle for self-determination and restitution is ongoing.
To hold both of these responses together in balanced tension is not easy. But it is vital if a peaceful way forward is to be forged, and is central to the Biblical call to “seek peace and pursue it” (Ps. 34:14). We acknowledge with sorrow that for the last 60 years, while extending empathy and support to the Israeli narrative of independence and struggle, many of us in the church worldwide have denied the same solidarity to the Palestinians, deaf to their cries of pain and distress.
To acknowledge and respect these dual histories is not, by itself, sufficient, but does offer a paradigm for building a peaceful future. Many lives have been lost, and there has been much suffering. The weak are exploited by the strong, while fear and bitterness stunt the imagination and cripple the capacity for forgiveness.
We therefore urge all those working for peace and justice in Israel/Palestine to consider that any lasting solution must be built on the foundation of justice, which is rooted in the very character of God. After all, it is justice that “will produce lasting peace and security” (Isaiah 32:17). Let us commit ourselves in prophetic word and practical deed to a courageous settlement whose details will honour both peoples’ shared love for the land, and protect the individual and collective rights of Jews and Palestinians in the Holy Land.
“Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid” (Micah 4:4)
What they are saying...
“A just peace between Israelis and Palestinians is both vital and possible. So is global solidarity to that end. This declaration joins human and Christian compassion for two wounded people's with the political passion to see right prevail. It is timely and essential.” Simon Barrow, Co-director of Ekklesia
“The Lord our God has always valued love and justice more than land and prosperity. ‘But I will be merciful only if you stop your evil thoughts and deeds and start treating each other with justice; only if you stop exploiting foreigners, orphans, and widows…’ As His people, we must agree with Him and stand for justice for all in the Middle East.” Lynn Green, International Chairman of YWAM
“A necessary and timely reminder that for 60 years Israel's ‘celebration’ of statehood has come at a high price for millions of refugees and occupied residents of the West Bank and Gaza. Israel's ‘60th anniversary’ could become a moment for profound introspection and self-examination for a state that wishes to be known for democracy and justice in the Middle East. It is not without reason that Palestinians call 1948 – Israel’s birth – the ‘catastrophe.’” Gary Burge
Background to the Declaration
As Israel marks its 60th anniversary this May, for Israelis and Palestinians the conflict and the suffering continues. We believe that this landmark is an important opportunity for Christian leaders around the world to add their voices to a special call for a justice-based peace.
The statement acknowledges the pain of both peoples – and the rights of both peoples to security and dignity. Grounded in biblical truth and supported by pastors, professors, heads of organizations and editors across denominational, national and political lines, this historic statement will be a prophetic cry and a powerful witness.
On May 8, Israeli Independence Day, the joint statement and a full list of signatories will be published on this blog and sent to the national press in the US and UK. To add your name to the list of signatories, or to get a copy of the statement as a Word document, email Philip or Ben at the address below.
Spread the word - the more people who get behind this call for justice and peace, the more powerful an impact it will be able to make.
Complete list of signatories:
* Adam Hunter, Mansfield Ohio
* Revd. Alan Hulme, St Paul, South Harrow, UK
* Dr. Alan Kreider, Associate Professor of Church History and Mission, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary
* Right Revd. Alan Wilson, Bishop of Buckingham in the Church of England Diocese of Oxford
* Dr. Alun Morinan, CAAT (Campaign Against Arms Trade) Christian Network National Co-ordinator
* Revd. Andrew Bevan, Pastor, Littlemore Baptist Church, Oxford UK
* Revd. Andrew Sillis, Vicar of St Nicholas' Church, North Hayes, Middlesex, UK
* Andy Radford, Associate Pastor, Hope Community Church, Greenford, Middlesex, UK
* Revd. Andy Ward, Vicar of St Augustine’s Church, Derby, UK
* Revd. Dr. Anna Robbins, Acting Principal of London School of Theology
* Antony Brown
* Revd. Arani Sen, Emmanuel Church, Southall, UK
* Arli Klassen, Executive Director, Mennonite Central Committee
* Revd. Canon Ben Enwuchola, Chaplain to the Nigerian Community in UK
* Revd. Ben Quant, Wormley Free Church, Hertfordshire, UK
* Bernard Fillion-Dufouleur, retired law professor
* Revd. Canon Dr. Bill Musk
* Bill Robinson, President, Whitworth University, Spokane, WA, USA
* Bill Rose, Tampa Florida
* Revd. Bob Almond, Senior Minister, Kirby Muxloe Free Church, Leicester, UK
* Bob Roberts Jr., Senior Pastor NorthWood Church
* Brian Haill, President of The Australian AIDS Fund Inc.
* Revd. Brian Jolly, Minister, Altrincham United Reformed Church, UK & Trustee of UK Charity Biblelands
* Brian McLaren, author/pastor
* Canon Bridget Rees, Chair of Friends of Sabeel UK (outgoing)
* Brother Andrew, author of ‘God's Smuggler’, ‘Light Force’
* Carl Moeller, President/CEO of Open Doors USA
* Catherine James, member of the Board of Cytun, Churches Together in Wales
* Cathy Nobles, Reconciliation Walk...the journey continues Field Director
* Charles Clayton, National Director of World Vision in Jerusalem on behalf of World Vision International
* Chris Alexander
* Revd. Dr. Christopher Cocksworth, Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge
* Christopher Rowland, Dean Ireland Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture, University of Oxford
* Father Claude Mostowik, Director of Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Justice and Peace Centre, and National President of Pax Christi Australia
* Claudine Castelnau, Journalist of l'Église réformée de France, Paris
* Revd. Colin Brookes, Assistant Vicar at St Barnabas Church, North London
* Revd. Colin Chapman, author of ‘Whose Promised Land?’ ‘Whose Holy City’ ‘The Cross and the Crescent’
* Right Revd. Cyril Ashton, Bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Doncaster
* Dave Bergen, Executive Secretary, Christian Formation, Mennonite Church Canada
* Right Revd. David Atkinson, Bishop of Thetford in the Church of England Diocese of Norwich
* Revd. Canon Dr. David Hewlett, Principal of The Queen's Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Foundation
* Very Revd. Dr. David Ison, Dean of Bradford Cathedral, Church of England Diocese of Bradford
* David J Carter
* David Robinson, Executive Director, Pax Christi USA: National Catholic Peace Movement
* David and Elspeth Rymer
* Revd. Dean Ayres, Chaplain of Thames Valley University, London
* Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
* Donald G. Peters, Executive Director, Mennonite Central Committee Canada
* Revd. Dr. Donald Wagner, Professor and Dir., Center for Middle Eastern Studies, North Park University, Chicago
* Eddie Lyle, CEO, Open Doors UK and Ireland
* Edward Francis
* Revd. Elenie Poulos, National Director, UnitingJustice Australia, Uniting Church in Australia
* Revd. Dr. Elizabeth A. Smith, Chair of Leeds Methodist District
* Elizabeth Deeks MBE
* Revd. Elizabeth A Welch, Moderator, West Midlands Synod, United Reformed Church
* Episcopal Bishop's Committee on Israel/Palestine for the Diocese of Olympia
* Evelyne A. Reisacher, Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies and Intercultural Relations at Fuller Theological Seminary
* Revd. Dr. Fahed Abu-Akel, Presbyterian minister, member of the Presbytery of Great Atlanta & Moderator of the 214th General Assembly of the Presbyterian church (USA)-2002-2003
* Frederic W. Bush, formerly of Fuller Theological Seminary
* Revd. Canon Garth Hewitt, Director of Amos Trust and Canon of St George's Cathedral, Jerusalem
* Prof. Gary Burge, Wheaton College, author of ‘Whose Land? Whose Promise?’
* Dr. Geoff Tunnicliffe, International Director/CEO, World Evangelical Alliance
* George Brushaber, President of Bethel University
* Gilles Castelnau, Pastor of l'Église réformée de France, Paris
* Revd. Glenn R. Palmberg, President of the Evangelical Covenant Church
* Right Revd. Graham Cray, Bishop of Maidstone in the Church of England Diocese of Canterbury
* Canon Dr Graham Kings, vicar of St Mary Islington and theological secretary of Fulcrum
* Right Revd. Greg Rickel, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, US.
* Revd. Gregor Henderson, President, The Uniting Church in Australia
* Revd. Gretchen Winkler, Lutheran Church of Martha and Mary (ELCA), Mt. Prospect, IL. USA
* Revd. G. T. Jones, Secretary, Church & Society Department, Presbyterian Church of Wales
* Hugh Mowat
* Jack Haberer, Editor, The Presbyterian Outlook, Virginia, USA
* Right Revd. Jack Nicholls, Bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Sheffield
* Right Revd. James Bell, Bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Knaresborough
* James and Tricia Goddard
* Revd. James Ramsay, University of East London Chaplaincy
* James W. Skillen, President of the Center for Public Justice
* James Wishart, Northampton UK
* Janet Plenert, Executive Secretary, Mennonite Church Canada Witness
* Jennifer Oldershaw, Coordinator, Friends of Sabeel UK
* Baroness Jenny Tonge, Patron, Friends of Sabeel
* Revd. Jerry Dykstra, Executive Director, Christian Reformed Church in North America
* Jerry Marshall, Marketing Strategy & Action Ltd.
* Jim Wallis, Sojourners
* Revd. Joel Edwards, General Director of the Evangelical Alliance
* Dr. Joel C. Hunter, Senior Pastor of Northland Church
* Revd. John Angle
* John Berg, VP for Program Advancement and Development at Middle East Fellowship
* John Brown, Secretary for Youth Work in the United Reformed Church
* Revd. John Coles, Director of New Wine
* Revd. John Cribb, retired United Reformed Church minister, UK
* Revd. John Hubers, Former Director of Reformed Church in America's Mission Programs in the Middle East and South Asia, PhD student in Christian-Muslim relations at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
* Revd. John Owen, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Wales
* Right Revd. John Pritchard, Bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Oxford
* Revd. John Pritchard, Chair of Governors, Southlands College, Roehampton University, and formerly general Secretary of the Methodist Church’s Overseas Division
* Revd. John White
* John & Debby Wright, Senior Pastors, Trent Vineyard, Nottingham, UK
* Jonathan Bartley, Co-director, Ekklesia
* The Revd. Jonathan Edwards, General Secretary, the Baptist Union of Great Britain
* Karen Shurety
* Revd. Kathy Galloway, Leader of the Iona Community
* Revd. Ken Summers, Minister at St. George's and Birkdale United Reformed Churches, Southport, and Senior Chaplain South Town Centre Chaplaincy Team
* Dr. Kevin Bray, Member of the National Council of Churches of Christ in Australia, Chair of the Canberra Ecumenical Working Group on Palestine-Israel and Chair of Australians for Justice and Peace in Palestine
* Revd. Kevin Watson, Yorkshire Synod Moderator, United Reformed Church, UK
* Kristine Glenn, US
* Leo Roberts, Youth and Children’s Work Training and Development Officer, United Reformed Church
* Leonard Rodgers, Director of Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding: An International Coalition
* Revd. Leslie Budhi, Pastor of Edenthorpe Pentecostal Church, Nr Doncaster, UK
* Leslie McLoughlin, Fellow, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, UK
* Linnea Nilsen Capshaw, Deep Shift
* Revd. Liz Moody, St Christopher's Church, Hanwell, London
* Lynn Green, International Chairman of YWAM
* Lynne Hart
* Maged Rizk, Christian publisher
* Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and co-founder of Peace People
* Revd. Malcolm Duncan, Leader of Faithworks
* Marianne Smith, Director of Public Relations for Hope Ventures International
* Revd. Marie Dove, Methodist Minister, Batley, West Yorkshire, UK
* Marilyn Borst, Director of Global Ministry at Peachtree Presbyterian Church
* Revd. Marlin Vis, Representative in Jerusalem, Reformed Church in America
* Prof. Mary Grey, Patron of Sabeel, Chair of Theology Group Sabeel UK
* Dr Merryl Blair, Lecturer in Older Testament Studies, Churches of Christ Theological College, Mulgrave, Australia
* Right Revd. Michael Doe, General Secretary of USPG Anglicans in World Mission
* Right Revd. Michael Langrish, Bishop of the Church of England Diocese of ExeterDr. Michael Marten, Lecturer in Postcolonial Studies with Religious Studies, School of Languages, Cultures and Religions at the University of Stirling
* Right Revd. Michael Scott-Joynt, Bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Winchester
* Revd. Prof. Michael Taylor, Patron, Friends of Sabeel
* Right Revd. Nicholas Reade, Bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Blackburn
* Revd. Nick Stanyon, minister Christ Well, Manselton United Reformed Church, Swansea, UK
* Pam Peters-Pries, Executive Secretary, Support Services, Mennonite Church Canada
* Revd. Patrick Forbes, semi-retired Anglican priest, writer and broadcaster
* Paul Gordon-Chandler, author of ‘Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road: Exploring a New Path Between Two Faiths’
* Revd. Paul J. Kottke, Senior Pastor at University Park UMC, Denver, Colorado, USA
* Dr. Paul W. Robinson, Director and Professor, Human Needs and Global Resources (HNGR) Program, Wheaton College
* Revd. Paul Weaver, General Superintendent of Assemblies of God in Great Britain
* Peter Adams, working in Intercultural Relations at St Mary’s Church, Luton, UK
* Right Revd. Peter Broadbent, Bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Willesden
* Revd. Peter C Noble, Moderator, National Synod of Wales, The United Reformed Church
* Right Revd. Peter Price, Bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Bath and Wells
* The Most Rev'd Dr. Phillip Aspinall, Archbishop of Brisbane and Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia
* Porter Speakman Jr., University of the Nations, Colorado Springs
* Revd. Pryderi Llwyd Jones, Morlan Faith and Culture Centre, Aberystwyth, Wales
* Revd. Ray Adams, Deputy General Secretary, The United Reformed Church
* Revd. Ray Skinner, Anglican Team Rector of Morden, Surrey, UK
* Right Revd. Richard Llewellin, formerly Bishop at Lambeth
* Richard J. Mouw, President, Fuller Theological Seminary
* Revd. Canon Richard K. Toll, Friends of Sabeel - North America
* Robert Bordin, Draguignan, France
* Dr. Robert E. Cooley, President Emeritus, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, MA. USA
* Right Revd. Robert Evens, Bishop of Crediton in the Church of England Diocese of Exeter
* Dr. Robert Miner, PhD., Amman, Jordan
* Robert J. Suderman, General Secretary, Mennonite Church Canada
* Rod Benson, Ethicist & Public Theologian at Tinsley Institute (Morling College)
* Roger Parmentier, Pastor of the Eglise Réformée France (Retraité), Le Mas d’Azil, France
* Revd. Dr Ross Clifford, President of the Baptist Union of Australia
* Revd. Rowena Francis, Northern Synod Moderator, United Reformed Church UK
* Revd. Sabina Alkire, Chaplain Associate at Magdalen College, Oxford University, and Director of Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI)
* Dr. Samuel O. Morris, Lead Pastor, First United Methodist Church, Columbus, MS USA and President Jerusalem Institute (for Biblical Exploration)
* Dr Severine Deneulin, Lecturer in International Development, Department of Economics and International Development, University of Bath, UK
* Sharen Green
* Simon Barrow, Co-director, Ekklesia
* Revd. Simon Winn, Vicar of St Joseph the Worker, Northolt and Trustee of the Church Mission Society (UK)
* Right Revd. Stephen Platten, Bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Wakefield
* Stephen Rand, writer
* Revd. Stephen Sizer, author of 'Christian Zionism', 'Zion's Christian Soldiers'
* Dr. Stephen Travis, St John's College Nottingham
* Steve Clifford, Pioneer/Inspire
* Revd. Dr. Steve Griffiths, Director of Centre for Youth Ministry, Cambridge
* Revd Steve Newbold, Associate Vicar, Christ Church Roxeth, UK
* Steve Smith, Director of Operations for World Indigenous Missions
* Stewart Hemsley, Chair of Pax Christi British Section
* Theresa Freeman
* Revd. Thomas Chin, Pastor, Wesley Methodist Church, Melaka, Malaysia
* Right Revd. M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE, Bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts
* Revd. Tony Crowe, Whitstable, Kent, UK
* Right Revd. Tony Robinson, Bishop of Pontefract in the Church of England Diocese of Wakefield
* Dr. Vernon Grounds, Chancellor of Denver Seminary
* Right Revd. Wallace Benn, Bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Lewes
* Dr. Walter Brueggemann, Professor Emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary, Old Testament scholar and author
Exclusive: Israel encourages Egyptian Hamas ceasefire effort - against military advice
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5262
Egyptian intelligence minister Gen. Omar Suleiman Monday, May 12, presented the truce plan he negotiated with Hamas leaders in Cairo to Israel’s prime minister Ehud Olmert, defense minister Ehud Barak and foreign minister Tzipi Livni.
DEBKAfile’s sources report Israeli ministers essentially accepted the offer with some caveats and sent the Egyptian general back for a second round of bargaining. They accepted his advice to treat kidnapped Israeli soldier Cpl Gilead Shalit as a separate issue from the emerging truce deal and leave it to a later stage.
Israeli military sources reacted angrily to the truce plan’s outline. They accused the prime minister of yielding to Hamas aggression in the same way as Lebanon’s Fouad Siniora capitulated to Hizballah after the Iran-backed terrorists seize large swathes of Lebanon. Those sources found Olmert’s surrender all the more unacceptable because, while the Lebanese prime minister lacks an army capable of taking on Hizballah, Israel has one of the finest armies in the world which the government is holding back from defending half a million civilians under daily attack.
These are the main points of Suleiman’s truce plan, according to our sources:
1. Israel must lift its blockade on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and open all the crossings.
2. Israel should heed Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal’s words to the Egyptian general in private rather than his public rhetoric. He quoted Meshaal as saying on the quiet that Hamas is not a political, military or religious organization; its decisions are not political and not governed by clerics. Hamas therefore deserves to be encouraged in its pursuit of this path.
3. The way to “stifle” Hamas is not by confrontation but rapprochement through a long-tem informal truce (hudna).
4. Once afoot, the truce will develop its own dynamic and start a process of change in Hamas.
5. A ceasefire is the only way to restore Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas to any sort of foothold in the Gaza Strip. Abbas’ Fatah and Hamas must be encouraged to bury the hatchet after a Hamas coup expelled PA forces last year and start talking about a Palestinian unity government.
6. Egyptian guarantees are on offer to halt the smuggling of arms and fighting men into the Gaza Strip through Sinai.
7. Israeli’s insistence on including the Gilead Shalit issue in the truce package will put an put paid to the entire deal. It should therefore be held separate and approached after the truce is up and running smoothly.
The prime minister told the Egyptian visitor that he accepts the Egyptian truce plan in principle but it needs further sweetening before he can bring it before the security cabinet for approval.
Heads of the IDF’s southern command found it hard to see the Israeli prime minister dickering over Hamas concessions when a 70-year old Israel woman was being murdered by a Palestinian missile from Gaza at Mosha Yesha. But, above all, they wished to remind the government that while Suleiman’s offer was smoothly presented and may have sounded reasonable to some, Meshaal’s promises and Egyptian guarantees have never stood up in the past.
The only effect of any cessation of hostilities has invariably been to grant Hamas a breather for upgrading its weaponry and bringing more Israeli targets within range of attack. In any case, rather than meeting Israeli halfway in indirect negotiations, Hamas is expected to run to form and intensify its attacks on Israel’s southwestern towns and villages. They will be trying to force Israel to waive further provisos as well as making a statement to mark US president George W. Bush’s Middle East trip this week, along with Hizballah and Tehran.
Bush: Face-to-face with the Word of the Lord
http://www.stangoodenough.com/?p=136
Although he almost certainly does not fully realize the ramifications, US President George W. Bush, who is due to arrive in Jerusalem Wednesday morning on a three-day visit, is set to come face to face with the Word of the Lord concerning the restoration of Israel.
Bush has been scheduled a private viewing Thursday evening of a 2000-year-old scroll containing the entire book of Isaiah.
Virtually every one of Israel’s ancient prophets foretold the dispersion (Diaspora) of the Jews, centuries before it happened in AD 70 and 135.
And virtually every one of Israel’s prophets, from Moses all the way through the Hebrew Scriptures, foretold the restoration of that globally-scattered and universally-persecuted people to the same land from which they were driven, and God’s securing of them as a resurrected nation in that land.
Of all the prophets, Isaiah is most famous for prophesying this physical and spiritual restoration of the Jews.
Among famous and well-loved passages from that book we have:
Isaiah 11:11-12: It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people who are left, from Assyria and Egypt, from Pathros and Cush, from Elam and Shinar, from Hamath and the islands of the sea. He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
Isaiah 40:1-2: “Comfort, yes, comfort My people!” says your God. “Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.”
And Isaiah 66:7-8: “Before she was in labor, she gave birth; before her pain came, she delivered a male child. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children.
“Coincidentally,” the Isaiah Scroll was the only complete document to survive out of the 220 pieces and parts of parchment discovered at Qumran, near the Dead Sea.
And “coincidentally” the Isaiah scroll was discovered in 1947, the very year when the United Nations voted to accord the Jews - who by then had been returning to the Land of Israel in successive waves of immigration - a state of their own in that land.
Many Bible-believing Christians saw the discovery as a divine sign - a stamp of approval and confirmation, if you like - of Israel’s rebirth.
Because of the Isaiah Scroll’s fragility, Ha’aretz reported Tuesday, the document was only displayed for two years after it had been studied, before being placed in a dark room with temperature and humidity controls, far from the public eye.
It lay there for 40 years, until now.
A few days ago, to celebrate Israel’s 60th anniversary as an independent state, the Israel Museum put the scroll on display.
It will be “out” for just two months.
And George W. Bush, who has personally committed himself to helping remove the Jews from half of this restored land so that a Palestinian state can be erected here, will get to see it.
Of course, the scroll is in ancient Hebrew, which as far as I know Mr. Bush does not read. Hopefully someone in his entourage will explain to him the significance of Isaiah’s words, and the folly and danger of trying to undo them.
Hopefully.
U.S. President Arrives in Israel
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/374857.aspx
CBNNews.com - TEL AVIV, Israel - US President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, were warmly welcomed upon arrival at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport Wednesday.
On hand to greet them were Israeli President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the Cabinet members and other national officials. The President greeted each one with a handshake.
"We consider the Holy Land a very special place, and we consider the Israeli people our close friends. Shalom," Bush said upon arrival.
"Welcome to Israel, 3,000 years old and going on 60," Peres responded, thanking America for standing "by our side on sunny mornings and stormy weather."
When the ceremonies were completed, the President flew by helicopter to Jerusalem to attend a 60th anniversary ceremony.
After meetings with Peres and Olmert, he will make an appearance at the Presidential Conference hosted by Shimon Peres.
President Bush is also expected to meet with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
Thursday morning, Bush will visit the ancient desert fortress of Masada, returning to the nation's capital to address a special session of the Knesset.
Afterward, he will greet some young Israelis at the Bible Lands Museum before his 11:00 a.m. departure for the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh to meet with Arab leaders.
Bush: Hizballah, Hamas and al Qaeda are identical terror organizations
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5267
On his arrival with the first lady to join Israel’s 60th anniversary celebrations, the US president George W. Bush challenged Syria’s Assad with doubts that he would abandon his pact with Iran. He said he feels obliged to leave the world a safer place when he leaves the White House.
The festive nature of the visit was marred by the broad police investigation in which Ehud Olmert is embroiled over past suspect payments by American donors. As the probe widens, serious doubts hang over his political future. When Bush landed, the prime minister confided to US national security adviser Stephen Hadley: “Holding on, holding on, don’t worry.” This was picked up by correspondents’ mikes.
Between conversations with Israeli leaders on the lack of progress in peace talks with the Palestinians and regional issues, Bush addresses the international conference hosted by president Shimon Peres Wednesday night, May 14. Thursday, he makes a trip to national shrine at Massada, before delivering a speech to the Israeli Knesset. In the evening, he is to view the Isaiah Scroll, the most complete and best-preserved of the Dead Sea Scrolls dating from 120 BCE.
Friday, the US president ends his mainly ceremonial trip to Israel and flies to the Sinai resort of Sharm el Sheikh as guest of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to hold substantive talks with a group of Arab rulers as well as leaders from Iraq and Afghanistan.
A section of downtown Jerusalem covering a wide radius around the King David Hotel which accommodates Bush and his 100-strong party was closed to traffic. More than 14,000 Israeli police were mobilized to secure the guests.
Behind the Scenes: Clock ticking on Mideast peace deal
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/13/btsc.henry/index.html?eref=rss_latest
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As I got ready to head back to Jerusalem with President Bush on Tuesday, I keep flashing back to one particularly eye-opening moment during his last trip to the region in search of a peace deal four months ago.
On that morning in January, members of the press corps boarded bulletproof buses for the journey from Jerusalem to Ramallah for Bush's press conference at the former compound of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, which had been bombed by Israeli forces many years ago.
We were also told the Secret Service had recommended that the Hebrew letters on our Israeli buses be covered with masking tape to make us less of a target for potential suicide bombers during our trek to the Palestinian territories -- a stark reminder of the horrific violence always lurking in the region.
And then suddenly during the press conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the most revealing moment of the trip popped out almost accidentally, as Bush was trying to stress to reporters that he was not in a hurry to get a peace deal.
"I'm not a timetable person," he said, before stopping himself and adding: "Actually, I am on a timetable -- got 12 months."
There was laughter in the room, including from the president as he stopped and realized that he had just blurted out something that is obvious and yet the White House hates to admit: His time in office is dwindling fast.
That's why Bush's second trip to the Mideast this year has so much urgency. Let's not forget that during his first trip, the president was downright bullish about the prospects for a peace deal before he leaves office.
"I believe it's possible, not only possible, I believe that it is going to happen, that there will be a signed peace treaty by the time I leave office. That's what I believe," Bush said at a January news conference in Ramallah.
Since then, however, there has been little tangible progress from the follow-up talks between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on the core issues, such as the borders for a proposed Palestinian state or how Jerusalem would be divided.
"It's kind of a gloomy mood, you might say, in the region," said Scott Lasensky of the United States Institute of Peace.
Further complicating matters is that both men are walking political tightropes, with Abbas fending off questions about whether he will soon be ousted now that Hamas is controlling Gaza, while Olmert is under the cloud of an intensive investigation into whether he accepted bribes as Jerusalem mayor.
Olmert has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, and he recently vowed to resign if he is indicted as a way of trying to make the probe slightly less distracting.
Amid the public pessimism, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Monday that quiet progress is being made.
"I don't think that you can deduce what's happening behind closed doors because we don't know," Perino told reporters. "And I actually think they're making more progress than we're able to say, because they're doing it in a way that is the right way to negotiate a deal."
Maybe. But time is running out. The clock that Bush referred to in January is now down to eight months -- and ticking.
Olmert: Understandings reached with PA
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1210668626294&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Hours before the arrival of US President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday evening that "real progress" has been achieved in the negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, and that "understandings and agreements have been reached on important matters, although not on all issues."
Speaking at the gala opening of the presidential conference in honor of Israel's 60th anniversary in Jerusalem, Olmert termed the discussions with the PA "highly serious and significant."
"There is some real progress, and some important understandings have been reached in important areas, though not in all areas," he said.
This was the first time, diplomatic officials said, that the prime minister had publicly characterized the talks in such an upbeat fashion.
Last week, after Olmert met with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, it was Olmert's spokesmen - not the prime minister himself - who said the talks were progressing significantly, leading some to charge that the Prime Minister's Office was merely trying to deflect attention from the Talansky affair with positive diplomatic news.
Olmert's assessment Tuesday came the same day Quartet envoy Tony Blair unveiled a package of measures to allow Palestinians greater movement in the West Bank and help the Palestinian economy grow in a way that he said would be consistent with Israeli security. Among the measures are the removal of four checkpoints, the upgrade of seven others, and the relocation of another to a less intrusive position.
Diplomatic sources in Jerusalem said both Olmert's positive assessment and Blair's announcement were timed for Bush's visit, and were an attempt to show progress and momentum in the diplomatic process.
The officials said the Americans had originally wanted some kind of memorandum of understanding spelling out what had been agreed upon to be signed between the PA and Israel during Bush's two-day visit, but that this did not pan out.
Although Bush's visit will be largely ceremonial, including an address to the Knesset, participation in the presidential conference and a trip to Massada, he will also be spending a great deal of time with Olmert, during which time the diplomatic process with the Palestinians is expected to loom large.
Olmert is scheduled to meet Bush shortly after his arrival on Wednesday, accompany him to Massada on Thursday morning and dine with him on Thursday night. Diplomatic officials said that in addition to the Palestinian track, all the other major issues now on the agenda - Iran, Syria and Lebanon - would be discussed.
During his speech on Tuesday night, Olmert said he hoped an agreement would be reached that would be gradually implemented and linked to the road map peace plan.
"That agreement will ensure the future of Israel as a Jewish state, with the full backing of the US and the international community," he said, adding that it would win acceptance of the Arab world.
"A peace agreement with other Arab countries is also very important to our future," Olmert said, in a possible reference to Syria. "It is obvious that to open a promising horizon for Israel's tomorrow, we have to make all efforts to moderate, and also to dismantle and remove, the grave security threats clouding our skies."
Blair, meanwhile, said that the steps Israel and the PA agreed upon could begin to change the reality on the ground, something he said was critical in giving "credibility" to the diplomatic process.
Blair said the four checkpoints slated for removal were the Kvasim checkpoint and Halhoul bridge roadblock, both near Hebron, the container checkpoint south of Ma'aleh Adumim, and the Shavei Shomron checkpoint in Samaria. The checkpoint by Beit El is to be relocated.
The first of the checkpoints is to be removed this week, and the others over the next few weeks. Blair said these changes would "significantly free up" north-south traffic in the West Bank, as well as traffic to the east. He pointed out that at this point, the freeing-up of traffic would not be westward, in the direction of the Green Line.
Blair said the changes would be done in a phased manner, and that it was an "indication of change I hope will come."
"For Palestinian statehood to be possible in the eyes of Palestinians, there must be hope that the occupation will, over time, be lifted," Blair said. "For Palestinian statehood to be possible in the eyes of Israelis, there must be hope, over time, that the security of Israel will be improved and not harmed by the way the Palestinians run their territory."
This package, which Blair hammered out in negotiations that extended over weeks and continued until Tuesday morning, was the first tangible result of his efforts since being appointed the Quartet's envoy in June. Blair is scheduled to meet with Bush on Thursday.
Blair, at a press conference at his headquarters in the capital's American Colony Hotel, said that the centerpiece of the package was a 360-sq. km. area in and around Jenin - a land mass he said was larger than the Gaza Strip - where the Palestinians were to be given increased security authority and where a number of economic and social projects would begin. Among the projects slated for the area is a German-funded industrial park.
He said that this area would be a "pilot," and if the formula worked there, it could be reproduced elsewhere.
In addition, Blair said Israel had agreed to let the Palestinians develop certain parts of Area C, the area that, under the Oslo Accords, comprises some 60 percent of the West Bank, but for which Israel retains some administrative and all security responsibility.
"It has been a long-standing grievance felt by Palestinians that they have been unable to improve or develop Area C," Blair said. He added that it was extremely important the Palestinians get a chance to develop the Jordan Valley.
Blair's plan was panned by Dani Dayan, who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. He said he opposed the removal of the checkpoints, which had been placed in strategically sensitive areas where more security was needed.
These checkpoints were put up after numerous shooting attacks by Palestinians against Israelis civilians and soldiers in Judea and Samaria, he said.
Dayan accused the government of bowing to international pressure at the expense of Israelis' lives. In a letter he wrote last week to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Dayan said that any diplomatic steps had to bear in mind the safety of the more than 270,000 Israelis who lived in Judea and Samaria.
"We won't agree to any measure that endangers lives," Dayan wrote.
Outgoing Israeli Air Force commander: Israel faces unparalleled threats
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5264
Handing over the command of the air force at a ceremony on Tuesday, May 13, Maj. Gen. Eliezer Shkedy warned that Israel faces threats unknown in the past. “We must prepare itself to withstand them as a nation, as an army and as an air force,” he said. The incoming air force chief Maj. Gen. Eidan Nehushtan said the regime in Tehran combines poisonous rhetoric with actions drawn from an ideology that denies Israel the right to exist.
Analysis: Lebanese army will not step in before Hizballah fights pro-government forces to the finish
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5263
DEBKAfile’s military sources report: After six days of fighting between government loyalists and Hizballah leave close to a 100 dead and 200 wounded, the Lebanese army’s demand that all combatants lay down their arms will go unheeded until the Shiite terrorists decide they have achieved their goals.
Hizballah is now focusing on the northern Tripoli region and the central mountains east of Beirut in line with those goals after deciding there is no need at this stage to topple the pro-Western Siniora government:
1. The northern port of Tripoli is important to Hizballah and Syria - both as the largest pro-Syrian Sunni stronghold in Lebanon and as a supply hub for incoming Iranian arms for Tehran’s Shiite proxy. The arms are unloaded from Iran freighters at the Syrian ports of Latakiya and Tartous and trucked to Tripoli.
2. Hizballah has a strategic interest in crushing the Druze militias of the anti-Syrian pro-government Walid Jumblatt, which control the Chouf mountains east of Beirut. Over and above this goal, DEBKAfile’s military sources stress that, after capturing most of Beirut last Saturday, Hizballah has focused on isolating and disarming the Sunni supporters of the Siniora government.
After a series of fierce clashes, Hizballah slapped down an ultimatum for Jumblatt: Pull your militiamen out of their bases and hand over your heavy weapons i.e. cannon, mortars, heavy machine guns, RPG’s and explosives, to the Lebanese army, or face the consequences. Hizballah then brought in heavy artillery, with Syrian help, and set about pounding Druze mountain positions. It is hard to see them holding out for long before Hizballah seizes control of the hills which command the entire Beirut plateau.
After the Druze militias fall, Hizballah may be expected to focus on vanquishing majority leader Saad Hariri’s Sunni forces in Sidon. This would isolate the only armed force left in Lebanon, the Christian Phalangists led by Samir Geagea.
In the face of the Iranian surrogate army’s lightning conquest of Lebanon, US president George W. Bush’s statement in Washington, on the even of his Middle East trip, that the United States would not let Syria and Iran undermine Lebanon’s sovereignty comes very much after the fact. His offer to help Siniora by strengthening his armed forces is equally belated. The Lebanese army is by now more an operational arm of Hizballah than an armed force that serves the government.
Counterforce to Tehran's “Terrorists without Borders”
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355498,00.html
Lebanon is the latest battleground in the Iranian ayatollahs’ war by proxy against Washington, Paris and those Arab countries resistant to Tehran’s hegemonic ambitions. The recent bloodshed in Beirut was unleashed by the Tehran-controlled, armed and financed Hezbollah, whose militants are currently marching to the east and north, where they hope to neutralize their outnumbered and outgunned rival forces. Armed to the teeth with weapons supplied by Tehran via Damascus, they embody the specter of a puppet government beholden to the murderous ayatollahs in Iran.
To be sure, there will be more of the same-old, same-old.: Some tough talk and words of condemnation, a new round of shuttle diplomacy, and maybe a couple of U.N. resolutions. And when the dust finally settles, the region will have to deal with an emboldened Tehran whose proxies in Lebanon have scored major political and military gains. And the world will wait anxiously until the next time Tehran, feeling no real pressure or retribution for its regional transgressions, decides when and where to again unleash its proxies.
Is there no counterforce against the ayatollahs’ army of “terrorists without borders” in Lebanon, Iraq, and the rest of the region? Is Tehran’s ascendance in Beirut and Baghdad a foregone conclusion, or can it be reversed?
The short answer is that the ayatollahs’ regime is much more vulnerable than meets the Western eye. The ayatollahs’ political fragility at home was on display during two rounds of elections in March, both essentially boycotted by the populace. At the same time, labor strikes and general protests about economic woes have taken on a decidedly political tone. Students at a number of universities are calling for the ouster of Ahmadinejad and his entire regime, although even suggesting as much warrants a death sentence.
The election flop and widespread discontent expose the reality that just beneath the veneer of Tehran’s claims of popular support for its rogue regional and nuclear ambitions lays a regime despised by its people. After the election, power was concentrated in the hands of the most extreme factions of the theocracy, embodied by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and Ahmadinejad. That will further isolate the rulers from the ruled, but the ayatollahs’ have few options; they have depleted their strategic potential at home.
Tehran’s rulers must look outward, anchoring their survival on the dual-pronged policy of terrorism and nuclear weapons capability. With its terror network essentially unhindered, Tehran, as expected, brags about its regional reach and boasts that the fate of its nuclear weapons program will ultimately be decided in the streets of Beirut and Baghdad.
The ultimate irony is that Western capitals — now wringing their hands as the bloodshed escalates in the region — themselves deprived the Iranian people and their own citizens of the most potent and viable antidote to the Islamic fundamentalist threat brewing in Tehran. Several years ago, when they were stepping over each other to placate the ayatollahs in exchange for short-lived commercial benefits, Washington and London gave in to the ayatollahs’ demand and blacklisted Iran’s main opposition movement, the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) which is “singularly dedicated to overthrowing the ayatollahs.”
Afterwards, these capitals’ diplomatic efforts to halt Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and terror network were frustrated, and a military solution was deemed undesirable. But a landmark ruling by a high court in Britain last week could herald a strengthening of a third, viable option which, if persued promptly and effectively, could dramatically impact on efforts to bring lasting peace to Lebanon, Iraq and the rest of the region and democracy to Iran.
On May 7, the UK Court of Appeal ruled that the MEK, which the Court described as “a political organization” whose “purpose is the replacement of the theocracy with a democratically elected secular government in Iran,” is “not concerned in terrorism.” The Court ordered the British government to promptly remove the MEK from its terrorist list.
According to the New York Times, the MEK’s “members were among the primary victims of terrorist attacks that Tehran’s new rulers carried out against their opponents,” and “thousands of them were tortured and executed.” MEK says “it is committed to restoring democracy in Iran and opposes any attempt by Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.”
The Wall Street Journal said that “Wednesday's court ruling in London… found that the U.K. government had ‘no reliable evidence,’ either public or classified, on which to base a finding that the MEK continues to be a terrorist group or intends to commit terrorist acts in the future.”
The Court’s emphatic ruling no doubt will have wide ranging implications for the legality and validity of the MEK’s blacklisting in the U.S. In his April 25 Policy Watch, Patrick Clawson, deputy director for research at The Washington Institute, opined that “Any designation review should be based only on terrorism issues, not on the general U.S. government view of the organization in question. If the decision to designate a group is made on foreign policy considerations rather than evidence, then the list will be branded as a political instrument.”
This is in line with bi-partisan consensus of a majority in the U.S. Congress. On Tuesday May 13, Congressman Bob Filner (D-Calif.) told a news conference held in the House of Representatives that “I support the decision of the British Court to recognize the legitimate nature of the MEK, and I hope that the U.S. State Department will quickly follow suit and reconsider the MEK’s terrorist designation.”
Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) told reporters that “After a thorough examination of the facts, the UK courts have come to the conclusion that the MEK is not a terrorist organization. I am confident that if the U.S. State Department looks objectively at these same facts, they will come to the same conclusion.”
The prerequisite to a realistic and effective policy toward Tehran is to close the door, once and for all, on appeasing the ayatollahs. It is a matter of fact that it does not work. De-listing the MEK, as the UK Court of Appeal ruled, is lawful, just, and long overdue; it is also the clearest sign of the end of the appeasement era.
Ahmadinejad: Israel Is Doomed
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355599,00.html
TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that Israel is dying and that its 60th anniversary celebrations are an attempt to prevent its "annihilation."
He spoke hours after President Bush arrived in Israel for the anniversary celebrations.
"The Zionist (Israeli) regime is dying," said Ahmadinejad during a speech in northern Iran. "The criminals assume that by holding celebrations ... they can save the sinister Zionist regime from death and annihilation."
Ahmadinejad used an Arabic word, ismihlal, that can also be translated as destruction, death and collapse.
Iran doesn't recognize Israel, and Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for Israel's destruction. Threatening exchanges between Iran and Israel have intensified since 2005, when Ahmadinejad said in a speech that Israel will one day be "wiped off the map." The Iranian leader has also described the Holocaust as a "myth."
"Nations of the region hate this criminal fabricated regime (Israel) and will uproot this fabricated regime if the smallest and shortest opportunity is given to them," Ahmadinejad said Wednesday in an address broadcast live on state television.
Israel considers Iran a serious threat because of its support for Hamas and Hezbollah militants, its nuclear program and its arsenal of long-range missiles, which can be fitted with nuclear warheads and are capable of striking the Jewish state.
Tehran is equipped with Shahab-3 missiles, which have a range of up to 1,250 miles. Israel is about 625 miles west of Iran.
Israel and the U.S. accuse Iran of using its nuclear program as a cover for a weapons program. Iran has denied the charges, saying its nuclear program is geared merely toward generating electricity, not bomb making.
Israel is widely believed to have a large stockpile of nuclear weapons, but follows a policy it calls "nuclear ambiguity" and has never acknowledged or denied having a nuclear weapons program.
Iranian military officials have warned Israel in recent years that Iran would destroy Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor if the Jewish state were to attack Iranian nuclear facilities.
Rudd Mulls Court Action Against Ahmadinejad
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/Rudd_Ahmadinejad/2008/05/14/95929.html
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says his government is still taking legal advice on whether it will take Iran's president to the International Court of Justice for inciting violence against Israel.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had threatened to eliminate the Jewish state and the government was taking legal advice on launching a case against him at the international court in the Hague, Rudd said.
"The Iranian president's repeated extraordinary statements, which are anti-Semitic and expressing a determination to eliminate the modern state of Israel from the map, are appalling by any standards of current international relations," he told Sky News.
"They are an incitement of international violence and what we have said in the past is that we will take legal advice, which the attorney-general is currently doing, on whether there is a profitable way forward here through the appropriate international legal mechanisms and we'll study that advice carefully."
Mr Rudd was commenting on a report in The Australian newspaper that he had promised Australia's Jewish community last year that if he won power in November elections his government would act against Ahmadinejad.
Iran does not recognise the Jewish state, and since becoming president in 2005 Ahmadinejad has repeatedly provoked international outrage by predicting that Israel is doomed to disappear.
He has also caused controversy by playing down the scale of the Holocaust.
Mr Rudd said the comments were "dangerous stuff" in the context of international relations.
"It's not just hyperbole from the bully pulpit of Tehran, it's the roll-on effect across the Islamic world, particularly those who listen to Iran fortheir guidance," he said.
Attorney-General Robert McClelland confirmed to The Australian that the government was seeking legal advice on taking Ahmadinejad to the International Court of Justice.
"The government considers the comments made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, calling for the destruction of Israel and questioning the existence of the Holocaust, to be repugnant and offensive," McClelland said.
"The government is currently taking advice on this matter."
Israel: Iran could have nukes by '09
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627027461&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
With Iran racing forward with its nuclear program, Israel now believes the Islamic Republic will master centrifuge technology and be able to begin enriching uranium on a military scale this year, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
The new assessment moves up Israel's forecasts on Teheran's nuclear program by almost a full year - from 2009 to the end of 2008. According to the new timeline, Iran could have a nuclear weapon by the middle of next year.
Iran, a senior defense official said on Tuesday, had encountered numerous technical obstacles on its way to enriching uranium but was now on track to master the technology needed to enrich uranium within six months.
Israel is also concerned that Teheran is developing a cruise missile that can evade interception by the Arrow, the IDF's anti-ballistic missile defense system. Iran is suspected of having smuggled Ukrainian X-55 cruise missiles and using them as models for an independent, domestic project. A cruise missile, which flies at low altitudes to dodge radar detection and interception, could be used to carry a nuclear warhead.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday that Israel had the ability to create the tools needed to ensure its continued existence. Hinting at Iran, Olmert said that nothing in the world could undermine or bring an end to Israel's existence.
In a speech to a Keren Hayesod group, Olmert said, "I am asking that you take this with you and tell it to your communities everywhere - the people of Israel are strong, the State of Israel is strong, there is no enemy that can destroy us."
"We will not place ourselves in a position where anyone will, in an effective manner, threaten us with destruction, because if there was one thing that has changed since the establishment of the State of Israel 60 years ago until today, it is not that here the Jews are safe in every situation, in every condition and that there will not be any dangers," Olmert said. "There are also dangers here, like in many other places.
"But here, my friends, the Jewish people can fight, and when it needs to, it fights, and when it fights, it wins."
Last week, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz said during a visit to the US that Teheran would likely achieve control of the technology to enrich uranium for an atomic bomb within a year.
In the past, the consensus in the intelligence community was that Iran had encountered technical difficulties with fuel enrichment and that its attainment of nuclear capability was much further off, Mofaz said, but a recent IDF Military Intelligence assessment showed that the Islamic Republic could go nuclear before the end of the decade.
Also Tuesday, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer warned that more nations would follow the examples of Iran and North Korea and work to develop nuclear weapons. He said that the possibility that Syria was building a weapons-capable nuclear reactor before the IAF destroyed it on September 6 showed that NATO must find an answer to ballistic missile threats.
"The nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea threaten to set in motion a domino effect that will be difficult to contain," de Hoop Scheffer said in a speech at a missile defense conference at the Czech Foreign Ministry.
"If there is a serious suspicion that in Syria there was a facility in the making, it only increases the arguments... for finding a collective answer to a ballistic missile defense threat," the NATO chief said.
CIA Director Michael Hayden said last month that the alleged Syrian nuclear reactor would have produced enough plutonium for one or two bombs within a year of becoming operational.
"The number of states that possess ballistic missiles is already growing, slowly and surely," de Hoop Scheffer said. "The proliferation of ballistic missiles is a reality that concerns us all."
Afghanistan protests to Iran over border killings
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/afghanistan.protests.to.iran.over.border.killings/18781.htm
KABUL - Afghanistan has protested to neighbouring Iran over the killing of a number of its nationals by Iranian forces, the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
The ministry summoned the Iranian charge d'affairs and expressed its strong concern on Tuesday about the killings which happened a day earlier on Iranian soil near the south-western Afghan province of Nimroz.
It was the second killing of Afghans by Iranian forces in less than a month, the ministry said in a statement. It did not give details of Monday's incident or numbers involved.
Afghanistan's western border is generally peaceful though smugglers occasionally clash with security forces. Iran is a conduit for drugs smuggled from Afghanistan, the world's biggest producer of opium.
Last month, an Afghan teacher was killed and two Iranian border guards were wounded in a gunbattle between Iranian and Afghan forces in Nimroz, the Afghan government said.
The clash broke out after four Iranian border guards crossed into an Afghan village and beat up a number of residents, it said.
Also in April, Afghan police said Iranian border guards killed 13 Afghan refugees on the Afghan side of the border.
Afghan Teacher Killed After Speech Condemning Homicide Bombings
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355597,00.html
KABUL, Afghanistan — A teacher was shot to death in northern Afghanistan after he gave a speech condemning homicide bombings, officials said Wednesday.
Abdul Hadi criticized such attacks as un-Islamic and un-Afghan during a speech Tuesday in the Archi district of Kunduz province, said Khair Mohammad Subat, the provincial education department director.
Hadi spoke at a gathering of about 700 people, including the Kunduz governor, and was on his way home when he was killed, Subat said.
Kunduz police chief Gen. Mohammad Ayub Salangi said police were investigating. No arrests have been made.
In January, Education Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar said the number of students and teachers killed in Taliban attacks spiked in the past year in a campaign to close schools and force teenage boys to join the Islamic militia.
According to UNICEF, there were 236 school-related attacks last year.
In central Logar province, meanwhile, education department director Kamaluddin Zadran said three girls schools have been set ablaze in the past three weeks.
Girls were barred from schools under the Taliban regime. After the Taliban fell in 2001, girls were allowed to return to attend, but many conservative and uneducated Afghans still forbid their girls from going.
Arsonists regularly attack girls schools. Last year, gunmen killed two students walking outside a girls school in Logar.
Education Ministry statistics indicate only 35 percent of students enrolled are girls.
Pastor Martyred in Jharkhand, India
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07184.shtml
(christiansunite.com) - Pastor Letaro Horo was killed by a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Hindu militant group in the village of Burju, Jharkhand state on April 28.
The militant, Durgan Mundu, invited Pastor Horo to his home to pray for healing for his family members. When Horo closed his eyes to pray, Mundu sliced his throat with an axe, killing him instantly.
Pray that those who mourn for Pastor Horo will find strength, courage and peace in Christ. Pray that God will raise up other cross-bearing disciples to continue His work in India.
For more information on the persecution of Christians in India, go to www.persecution.net/country/india.htm.
Curfew at Indian Jaipur bomb site, 8 detained for questioning
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5266
Up to 80 people were killed, 150 injured, when eight bombing devices exploded in bustling streets outside the crowded Mawa Mahal temple Tuesday, May 13. Some of the devices were strapped to bicycles, one to a rickshaw puller. No group has claimed the attack.
Some local police sources pointed to the Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islamia which has established cells in Rajasthan; others suggested an extremist Islamic Pakistani group staged the attack to undermine the India-Pakistan peace process. The province has asked for police reinforcements to keep the peace.
In July 2006, seven bombs killed 180 people in Mumbai’s railway system. Last August, 38 people died in three explosions that struck an amusement park in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad.
Franklin Graham preaches to 12,000 in mainland China
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/franklin.graham.preaches.to.12000.in.mainland.china/18760.htm
Franklin Graham preached to some 12,000 people in mainland China on Sunday at the largest church in the country.
The event was described as historic owing to the magnitude of listeners in attendance in spite of China's frequent repression of religious freedom. According to the senior pastor of Hangzhou Chong-Yi Christian church, Graham’s event this past weekend was the church’s largest gathering ever.
“Franklin Graham’s May 11 sermon at Hangzhou Chong-Yi Christian Church is very significant,” said the US Embassy in Beijing, according to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. “It highlights the strong possibility for cooperation that exists between United States and Chinese religious institutions and marks a positive path forward.”
Graham, the president and CEO of BGEA, and son of Billy Graham, preached a Gospel message about the cross and asked those present to stand if they wanted to become followers of Jesus Christ. Some 1,250 people responded to the invitation and Bibles were given to those who responded, according to BGEA.
Following the event, Hangzhou Chong-Yi Christian Church is also offering an eight-week course for those who want to become followers of Jesus Christ to teach them the basics of the Christian faith.
During his message, Graham shared that he has always loved China because it is the land where his mother was born. But he also admitted to having previous doubts on whether he would ever have the opportunity to “see this much change and progress” in China.
However, coming to China and having been able to openly preach has given Graham "great hope" for religious expression in China.
He will visit Beijing, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Shanghai for official visits with government and church leaders before his 10-day visit wraps up on Thursday.
“I believe it is more productive to meet face to face and encourage the progress that has been made here,” he said. “Stronger relationships are forming and we’re developing a greater understanding of each other.”
Although China has shown improvement in freedom of worship, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) still recommended that the State Department continue to blacklist the country as a “Country of Particular Concern” this year.
A CPC designation is the worst label for a religious freedom violator, and the country can face sanction by the US Government for such a designation.
China: Quake left 18,000 buried in one city
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24589987/
MIANYANG, China - Soldiers hiking over landslide-blocked roads reached the epicenter of China's devastating earthquake Tuesday, pulling bodies and a few survivors from collapsed buildings. The death toll of more than 12,000 is certain to rise as the buried are found.
Crews worked through a steady rain as they searched wrecked towns across hilly stretches of Sichuan province that were stricken by Monday's magnitude-7.9 quake, China's deadliest in three decades. Tens of thousands of homeless spent a second night outdoors, some sleeping under plastic sheeting, others bused to a stadium in the city of Mianyang, on the edge of the disaster area.
Street lamps were switched on in Mianyang on Tuesday night, but all the buildings were dark and deserted after the government ordered people out of them for fear of aftershocks. Security guards were posted at apartment blocks to keep people out.
The industrial city of 700,000 people — home to the headquarters of China's nuclear weapons industry — was turned into a thronging refugee camp, with residents sleeping outdoors.
"I'm cold. I don't dare to sleep, and I'm worried a building is going to fall down on me," said Tang Ling, a 20-year-old waitress wrapped in a borrowed pink down jacket and camped outside the Juyuan restaurant with three co-workers. "What's happened is so cruel. In one minute to have so many people die is too tragic."
First wave of troops
As night fell, 200 troops entered the town of Wenchuan, near the epicenter, trudging across ruptured roads and mudslides, state television said. Initial reports from soldiers said one nearby town could account for only 2,300 survivors out of 9,000 people, China Central Television said.
At least 12,012 deaths occurred in Sichuan alone while another 323 died in five other provinces and the metropolis of Chongqing, state media reported. That toll seemed likely to jump sharply as rescue teams reached hard-hit towns.
The devastation and ramped-up rescue across large, heavily populated region of farms and factory towns strained local governments. Food dwindled on the shelves of the few stores that remained open. Gasoline was scarce, with long lines outside some stations and pumps marked "empty."
Buses carried survivors away from Beichuan, which was flattened — a few buildings standing amid piles of rubble in a narrow valley, according to CCTV video.
More than 10,000 people from there and surrounding areas packed Mianyang's Jiuzhou Gymnasium, with empty water bottles, boxes of instant noodles and cigarette cartons littering the ground.
"I saw rocks and earth rolling down the hill, and they destroyed whatever they hit below," said a farmer who only gave his surname, Chen, from the village of Leigu near Beichuan. "There's nothing I can do about this. It's all in the hands of the government."
In the provincial capital of Chengdu, FM-91.4 all-traffic radio station operated around the clock, reading text messages sent by survivors of stricken areas to let relatives know they are alive.
'We will save the people'
The government's high-gear response aimed to reassure Chinese while showing the world it was capable of handling the disaster and was ready for the Aug. 8-24 Olympics in Beijing. Although the government said it welcomed outside aid, officials said that the assistance would be confined to money and supplies, not to foreign personnel.
As Prime Minister Wen Jiabao crisscrossed the disaster area to oversee relief efforts, the official Xinhua news agency cited the Defense Ministry as saying that some 20,000 soldiers and police arrived in the disaster area, with 30,000 more on the way by plane, train, truck and on foot.
"We will save the people," Wen said through a bullhorn to survivors in Shifang, where two chemical plants collapsed and buried more than 600 people, according to CCTV. "As long as the people are there, factories can be built into even better ones, and so can the towns and counties."
The Finance Ministry said it had allocated $123 million in quake aid.
At the world famous Wolong National Nature Reserve, all 86 pandas were reported safe late Tuesday in the first word since communications with the preserve were cut off. A group of 31 British tourists panda-watching in the preserve also returned safely to Chengdu, the Foreign Ministry said, although there was no word on 12 missing Americans on a World Wildlife Fund tour.
Mourning, moment of silence
Still, prospects for survivors in the quake zone dwindled. Only 58 people were pulled from demolished buildings across the quake area so far, China Seismological Bureau spokesman Zhang Hongwei told Xinhua.
Weeping parents held a vigil outside a collapsed school in the town of Juyuan, where more than 900 high school students were initially trapped. Only one survivor has been found: a girl pulled free by rescue team.
Bowing to public calls, Beijing Olympics organizers scaled down the boisterous ongoing torch relay, saying Wednesday's leg in the southeastern city of Ruijin will begin with a minute of silence and more somber ceremonies. People along the route, which next month is scheduled to arrive in quake-hit areas, would be asked for donations, an organizing committee spokesman said.
In the areas around Mianyang, more than 7,300 people died and another 18,000 were believed trapped in rubble, most in Beichuan. Amid the rubble, CCTV showed the six-story Beichuan Hotel listing, half its first story collapsed. Medical teams tried to treat the wounded in dirt courtyards littered with broken furniture and concrete.
Air drops in difficult areas
Though Wen and others called for air drops of emergency supplies to hard-to-reach areas, rain impeded efforts for a second day, and Xinhua said a group of paratroopers called off a rescue mission.
Strong aftershocks — one of magnitude-6, according to Chinese seismologists — hit Chengdu, the region's usually busy commercial center. A KFC outlet ran out of chicken and cooking oil.
Expressions of sympathy and offers of help poured in from Japan and the European Union. Russia was sending a plane with 30 tons of relief supplies, the Interfax news agency said. Chinese President Hu Jintao discussed the disaster by phone with President Bush.
The U.S. is offering an initial $500,000 in relief in anticipation of an appeal by the International Red Cross, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
While welcoming the support, the Chinese government suggested that aid would be confined to supplies and money, not foreign personnel.
"We welcome funds and supplies. We can't accommodate personnel at this point," Wang Zhenyao, the Civil Affairs Ministry's top disaster relief official, told reporters in Beijing.
Dalai Lama offers prayers for victims
The Dalai Lama, who has been vilified by Chinese authorities who blame him for recent unrest in Tibet, offered prayers for the victims. The epicenter skirts the Tibetan highlands, where some communities staged anti-government protests in March.
Seismologists said the quake was on a level the region sees once every 50 to 100 years. The region's last strong quake was in 1933, when a magnitude 7.5 quake killed more than 9,300 people. Monday's quake was powered up the pent-up stress, experts said.
"I don't think this is unheard of," said Amy Vaughn of the U.S. Geological Survey. "It's more an issue of how long and how much stress has been built up in this region."
Christians in thick of China earthquake response
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/christians.in.thick.of.china.earthquake.response/18762.htm
Christians were among the first to respond to the 7.9-magnitude earthquake that brought terrible devastation and huge loss of life to China's southwestern Sichuan province on Monday.
The earthquake, the worst natural disaster to strike the Middle Kingdom in over three decades, has left an estimated 13,000 dead, although the death toll is expected to rise. Thousands more are missing beneath the debris of fallen buildings. Xinhua News Agency reported that 18,645 people were still buried in and around Mianyang, a city about 60 miles east of the epicentre.
World Vision, which has a community development centre just 200 kilometres from the earthquake’s epicentre, was just one of the many Christian organisations that said that it had relief and aid workers ready to deploy at any notice.
The Amity Foundation, the only member of Action by Churches Together International, working extensively in China, sent staff to the affected areas to assess the situation and plan a response. It reports that access to the quake hit areas has been made very difficult by the destruction of communications and transport links.
Franklin Graham, who is currently travelling through China on a goodwill tour in support of the country’s rapidly growing Christian community, indicated that his relief organisation, Samaritan’s Purse, would be ready to send aid immediately during a meeting with Chinese officials.
Graham, whose mother was born in China, has often spoken openly of his love for the nation and its readiness to receive the Gospel. On Sunday, Graham described the country as a “great hope” after preaching powerfully of Jesus Christ to over 12,000 people at Hangzhou Chong-Yi Christian Church, the nation’s largest megachurch. Over 1,000 people in attendance responded immediately to Graham’s invitation to become followers of Jesus Christ.
Monday’s earthquake so soon after the cyclone disaster in Burma has brought to attention the readiness and dedication of Christian relief organisations.
The Chinese Government, in response, has said that it would welcome all international aid and relief.
The earthquake is said to be China’s worst since 1976, when over 200,000 people perished in the city of Tangshan after it was hit by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake.
Water Missions International Prepares Water Purification Systems to Aid Survivors in Myanmar
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07183.shtml
CHARLESTON, Sc., (christiansunite.com) -- Water Missions International (WMI) is preparing 44 water purification systems for immediate deployment to aid survivors of last Saturday's deadly cyclone in Myanmar. The 44 Living Water(TM) Treatment Systems (LWTS(TM)) have been requested from other organizations around the United States who are working to get relief to the people of Myanmar.
World Vision has requested 20 water systems, Operation Blessing has requested up to 12, and Samaritan's Purse has asked for 12 water systems to be ready for transport this Friday, May 9. The first water systems to depart Water Missions International for this disaster effort will leave via the Samaritan's Purse transport truck on Friday morning. In addition to these initial 44 systems, Water Missions International is equipped to assemble another 19 water systems in case further requests are received. Each water system treats up to ten gallons of water per minute, approximately 10,000 gallons per day, and supports communities of up to 3,000 people.
Cyclone Nargis, a Category 3 storm, ripped though Myanmar on Saturday, May 3, affecting more than two million people. According to the latest reports, the death toll may top 100,000, and more than 70,000 people are still missing and feared dead. This is the worst disaster to strike Southeast Asia since the Tsunami in 2004. A state of emergency has been declared across five regions of Myanmar, and up to one million people are in desperate need of immediate, life-saving assistance. Clean, safe drinking water tops the list of urgent needs.
Donations are needed immediately to assist with disaster relief efforts. "With a response of this magnitude, Water Missions International could incur costs nearing $1 million," explains Danya Jordan, WMI's VP of Development. "To save lives we must act quickly, and to act quickly, we desperately need funding. We encourage everyone to act now. Every gift makes a difference," Jordan says. For more information on how to help, please contact Danya Jordan at (843)769-7395 or donate online at www.watermissions.org.
About WMI:
Water Missions International (WMI) is a nonprofit, Christian engineering organization based in Charleston, SC. WMI's mission is to provide sustainable access to safe water and an opportunity to hear the "Living Water" message in developing countries and disaster areas. Assistance is provided regardless of age, sex, race, or faith. To date, WMI has deployed a total of 560 water systems in 35 countries worldwide and two U.S. states, making safe water available to more than one million people. Visit us at www.watermissions.org.
If you would like more information about Water Missions International, or to donate funds to disaster relief projects, please contact Danya Jordan at (843) 769-7395 x 210 or djordan@watermissions.org. Donations are also accepted online at www.watermissions.org. For volunteer opportunities, contact Kelly Lewis at (843)769-7395 x 207 or volunteers@watermissions.org.
Pastor Killed in Mindanao, Philippines
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07179.shtml
(christiansunite.com) - Pastor Vic Vicera was shot dead by unknown assailants in Mindanao on April 15, according to VOMC contacts in the Philippines. That evening , the attackers stormed into Pastor Vicera's home and opened fire on him, his wife and another pastor present.
Pastor Vicera was shot eight times and killed. His wife, Beth, was shot in her hand and leg. Pastor Saturnino was also shot in his leg. Local Christians suspect that the attackers were Muslim militants. Pastor Vicera lived and worked among Muslims and some of them had reportedly tried to convince him to convert to Islam.
Pray for the family and congregation of Pastor Vicera. Pray for healing for his wife and Pastor Saturnino. Pray that Christians in Mindanao will rejoice in their afflictions knowing that those who share in Christ's sufferings will also share in His glory (1 Peter 4:12-13).
For more information on the difficulties facing Christians in Philippines, go to www.persecution.net/country/philippines.htm.
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