McCain Seeks Christian Conservative Advice
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/400105.aspx
CBNNews.com - John McCain is making a new effort to rally Christian conservatives.
Political analysts believe McCain will need their strong support to win the White House in November. The presumptive Republican Presidential nominee met with conservative Christian leaders Thursday in Cincinnati, Ohio.
During the hour-long meeting, the leaders urged McCain to talk more about social issues.
"If he doesn't start talking about the social issues, I don't see how he can possibly win Ohio," said Phil Burress, president of Citizens for Community Values.
The Arizona senator asked the leaders how he could win more conservative support.
"We made it very clear to him that if he doesn't start speaking on family issues, he's going to lose Ohio," Burress explained. "He needs to make the issues he agrees with us on very clear."
Ohio Christian Alliance president Chris Long said, compared to Barack Obama, McCain is "more of a quiet man when it comes to his personal faith."
But Long believes McCain's positions on abortion, marriage, and Supreme Court justices will attract Evangelicals. He added that McCain could bolster Christian support by choosing a socially conservative running mate.
"That will go a long way to welcome conservative voters," Long said. "If it's a pro-choice candidate, there is a segment that would be disheartened."
McCain's campaign has announced that he will meet with Franklin Graham, the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association on Sunday in Ashville, N.C. Graham is the son of evangelist Billy Graham.
'Hanoi Hilton' Jailer Says He'd Vote for McCain
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/vietnam_mccains_jailer/2008/06/27/108053.html
HAIPHONG, Vietnam -- John McCain has an unusual endorsement _ from the Vietnamese jailer who says he held him captive for about five years as a POW and now considers him a friend.
"If I were an American voter, I would vote for Mr. John McCain," Tran Trong Duyet said Friday, sitting in his living room in the northern city of Haiphong, surrounded by black-and-white photos of a much younger version of himself and former Vietnam War prisoners.
At the same time, he denies prisoners of war were tortured. Despite detailed POW accounts and physical wounds, Duyet claims the presumed Republican presidential nominee made up beatings and solitary confinement in an attempt to win votes.
His statements seem to echo the communist leadership's overall line on America: It insists the torture claims are fabricated, but that Vietnam now considers the U.S. a friend and wants to lay the past to rest. Duyet said one of the reasons he likes McCain for president is the candidate's willingness to forgive and look to the future.
Duyet, 75, grew testy during the interview when repeatedly questioned about torture and why so many other former POWs say they too were mistreated. He preferred to talk about McCain as an old buddy.
His photo collection doesn't include one of him with POW McCain, and he said they have not met on any of McCain's postwar visits to Vietnam. But Duyet said he often met the young Navy pilot when off duty, that McCain would correct his English, and that he had a great sense of humor. And although they never saw eye-to-eye on the war that killed some 58,000 Americans and up to 3 million Vietnamese, he said they listened to each others' views.
"He's tough, has extreme political views and is very conservative," Duyet said. "He's very loyal to the U.S. military, to his beliefs and to his country. In all of our debates, he never admitted that the war was a mistake."
Duyet also talked about prisoner volleyball games and said the captives were fed the same meals as average wartime Vietnamese in Hanoi. The same propaganda is depicted in photos of smiling American POWs displayed at the Hoa Lo prison, now a museum for tourists.
McCain spent 5 1/2 years behind bars in Hanoi. His flight suit and parachute were recently added to the museum display, which includes a recording of bombs falling and air raid sirens shrieking.
McCain still bears the evidence of his wounds and has described being repeatedly bound and beaten by his captors. After his plane was hit by a surface-to-air missile during a bombing mission over Hanoi in 1967, McCain ejected and suffered a broken leg, two broken arms, and was briefly knocked unconscious. The Vietnamese mob who found him smashed his shoulder and he was bayoneted.
He says medical attention was delayed in an attempt to get him to reveal information and he was held in solitary confinement for over two years.
Other former POWs also say they were tortured by communist forces at the jail, and many say they still suffer physical pain from it.
"They are liars. What they said is not true," said Duyet, who was a jailer at Hoa Lo from 1968 until the POW release in 1973, serving as prison chief the last three years. Duyet claimed McCain "invented that story that he was tortured and beaten to win votes."
Asked for a response, the McCain campaign referred The Associated Press to Orson Swindle, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel who was imprisoned with McCain. Swindle said Duyet "has no credibility on every utterance he makes."
"For him to say that no one was tortured, he's a damn liar, and the history books in the aftermath of Vietnam were replete with stories of what prisoners went through. I've got friends that died up there from torture."
"He says John McCain would make a great president. How the hell does he know? He has absolutely no credibility," Swindle added.
McCain has returned to Vietnam several times and visited what's left of the old prison, whose pilots' section has been replaced by a gleaming high-rise of offices, apartments and shops.
McCain was instrumental in pushing for normal relations between the two former foes, and the friendship was highlighted by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung's trip to see President Bush at the White House on Wednesday.
McCain's wife, Cindy, was in southern Vietnam last week doing charity work. She said if her husband wins the election the couple would delight in paying a presidential visit to the country.
If that happens, Duyet said, "I hope to meet with him again as two old friends. At that time, I would toast to congratulate him as U.S. president.
"We would talk about the future, and we would not talk about the past."
Mainline Church Coalition to Host Incendiary Pastor Jeremiah Wright
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07338.shtml
WASHINGTON, (christiansunite.com) -- An abortion rights coalition comprised primarily of mainline Protestant denominations is hosting controversial pastor Jeremiah Wright at its upcoming National Black Religious Summit on Sexuality in Washington, D.C. The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) will sponsor the event July 9-11, 2008 at the Howard University School of Divinity. The Institute on Religion & Democracy is urging RCRC and its member denominations to withdraw the invitation to Wright.
Wright has been denounced by his former parishioner, Senator Barak Obama, for his numerous incendiary comments, among them that the U.S. government was responsible for infecting African Americans with the virus that causes AIDS.
Washington-based RCRC defends unrestricted abortion rights in the name of its denominational members. The Washington-based United Methodist Board of Church and Society and the New York-based United Methodist Women's Division both belong to RCRC, as do the Episcopal Church and Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
UM Action Executive Director Mark Tooley commented,
"That Mainline Protestant denominations continue to belong to a shameless abortion rights coalition is outrageous. That they would do so after the coalition invited Jeremiah Wright is nothing short of a scandal.
"RCRC is not a faith organization. It is a radical political lobby that advocates limitless abortion on demand. It is funded primarily by left-wing foundations, while appropriating the credibility of mainline churches for a religious veneer over its abortion rights extremism.
"It is bizarre that RCRC would invite Jeremiah Wright after he had ignited so much controversy. But in some ways it is fitting that a group as extreme as RCRC would choose an equally extreme spokesman.
"Hosting the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whom even Senator Obama has denounced, further showcases how radical RCRC is. If RCRC will not withdraw the invitation, hopefully there will be further motivation for RCRC's member denominations to withdraw from RCRC."
The Institute on Religion and Democracy, founded in 1981, is an ecumenical alliance of U.S. Christians working to reform their churches' social witness, in accord with biblical and historic Christian teachings, thereby contributing to the renewal of democratic society at home and abroad.
NRA Sues to Overturn San Francisco's Handgun Ban
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,373122,00.html
SAN FRANCISCO — The National Rifle Association sued the city of San Francisco on Friday to overturn its handgun ban in public housing, a day after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a handgun ban in the nation's capital.
The legal action follows a similar lawsuit against the city of Chicago over its handgun ban, filed within hours of Thursday's high court ruling.
In San Francisco, the NRA was joined by the Washington state-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and a gun owner who lives in the city's Valencia Gardens housing project as plaintiffs.
The gun owner, who is gay, says he keeps the weapon to defend himself from "sexual orientation hate crimes." He was not identified in the complaint because he said he fears retaliation.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said the city will "vigorously fight the NRA" and defended the city's ban as good for public safety.
"Is there anyone out there who really believes that we need more guns in public housing?" Newsom said. "I can't for the life of me sit back and roll over on this. We will absolutely defend the rights of the housing authority."
San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said the Supreme Court ruling didn't address gun bans on government property and that he was "confident that our local gun control measures are on sound legal footing and will survive legal challenges."
San Francisco also requires residents to keep guns in lockboxes or equip them with triggerlocks. That law, passed by the county supervisors last year, wasn't challenged in Friday's lawsuit.
A state appeals court has overturned a broader citywide gun ban passed by voters in 2005.
The Chicago lawsuit challenges its 1982 ordinance that makes it illegal to possess or sell handguns in the city.
NRA lawyer C.D. Michel said both lawsuits were necessary to expand the Supreme Court's ruling beyond Washington, a federal district, to states and cities.
"The Supreme Court decisions was very encouraging," Michel said. "But it is just a start."
Supreme Court Gun Ban Ruling has Chicago Thinking It's Next
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,372568,00.html
CHICAGO — As news spread of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to strike down the handgun ban in Washington, D.C., one thing was clear in Chicago: The city's own ban now faces a challenge as serious as any in its 26-year history.
From a visibly angry Mayor Richard Daley to a federal lawsuit filed within hours that challenges Chicago's ban as unconstitutional, there was no mistaking that the high court's opinion Thursday puts the city's law squarely in the middle of a long legal fight.
While swift, the lawsuit wasn't a surprise given that Justice Stephen Breyer, in his dissenting opinion, noted "Chicago has a law very similar to the District's."
"In the sense the Supreme Court has found this is an individual right to bear arms, we recognize (the ruling) is a significant threat," said Jennifer Hoyle, spokeswoman for the city's law department. "It gives people an opening to challenge the ordinance in a way it hasn't been challenged in many years."
Hoyle said the high court's ruling that Americans can keep guns at home for self-defense does not invalidate Chicago's law, and attorneys are confident they can successfully fight any challenge to the 1982 ordinance that makes it illegal to possess or sell handguns in the city.
"We have very strong legal arguments to make at every level of the courts," she said, pointing out that the law establishes reasonable restrictions for densely populated urban areas.
Still, Hoyle fully expects legal challenges.
In fact, even as Richard Pearson, executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, was saying his organization may give Chicago and other Illinois municipalities time to change their laws, his group and others were filing a lawsuit against the city and Daley.
"By banning handguns, Defendants currently maintain and actively enforce a set of laws, customs, practices, and policies under color of state law which deprives individuals ... of their right to keep and bear arms," reads the lawsuit filed by the ISRA, the Second Amendment Foundation and four individuals.
The National Rifle Association planned to file a similar complaint against San Francisco, which bars people from carrying handguns on county property, including in parks, schools and community centers.
The quick action is welcome news to gun enthusiasts, who say such laws have chipped away at their rights.
"The justices just ruled today to uphold the Constitution," said Deb Gales, who owns Deb's Gun Range in Hammond, Ind., just across the state line from Chicago. "We all know that these anti-gun laws have been passed to the detriment of law-abiding citizens."
But all the talk about greater freedoms for gun owners doesn't begin to explain what the ruling means in Chicago, which has seen a recent spate of gun violence.
Nine people were killed in 36 shootings during one weekend this spring. The next week, five people were found shot to death inside a South Side home.
Chicago Public Schools officials say 27 students have been killed by gunfire since September.
Pamela Bosley lost her 18-year-old son two years ago, when a bullet struck him as he helped a fellow student unload instruments outside a South Side Church.
"If you didn't have the guns, we'd still have our children," she said.
Annette Nance-Holt, whose 16-year-old son was killed on a city bus last spring when someone sprayed bullets inside it, was livid with the court's decision.
"I'm still trying to figure out who we are more in love with, our children or our guns," she said. "It's crazy. I'm safer being a deer knowing people are hunting you."
Daley was also troubled by the ruling.
He predicted more violence and higher taxes to pay for extra police if his city's gun restrictions are lost.
"It's a very frightening decision," said the mayor, who routinely speaks out against guns, as he did after the fatal mass shootings at Northern Illinois University and a suburban women's clothing store. "We believe every mayor will be outraged by this."
District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty responded with a plan to require residents of the nation's capital to register their handguns. "More handguns in the District of Columbia will only lead to more handgun violence," Fenty said.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said the ruling "just flies in the face of reality. You just wish the Supreme Court could spend a week in public housing and then come out with this decision. It's very easy and comfortable to stand there with security guards and metal detectors and make these decisions."
Back in Chicago, Nance-Holt agreed.
"They live in safe neighborhoods," she said. "They don't have this. Until it's their family member, they're going to keep voting that way."
World Congress of Families Gravely Concerned About OAS 'Sexual-Orientation/Gender Identity' Resolution
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07339.shtml
MEDIA ADVISORY, (christiansunite.com) -- World Congress of Families Global Coordinator Larry Jacobs expressed "grave concern" over a recent resolution passed by the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) condemning perceived human rights violations based on so-called sexual orientation and gender identity.
The "Resolution on Human Rights, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity" (enacted at a June 3 session in Colombia) was sponsored by Brazil, whose president, Luis Lula, has stated publicly that he wants to criminalize dissent from the gay agenda (which he terms "homophobia") and legalize gay marriage.
According to a Reuters story, members of the OAS met with 20 activists from homosexual groups prior to adopting the resolution. Pro-family organizations were not given an opportunity for input.
The nebulous resolution speaks of member states taking unspecified steps to end "violence and discrimination" based on sexual orientation and "gender-identity" (men who think they're women and vice versa).
Jacobs asked: "Does anti-gay discrimination include laws limiting marriage to a man and a woman or limiting adoption to families with mothers and fathers? Would it require schools to affirm homosexuality and the other unhealthy perversions? Could it lead to 'hate crimes laws' and speech codes that criminalize dissent?"
Jacobs added: "Once again, a political institution has been co-opted by the international homosexual movement. Once again, a transnational organization has chosen to enlist with one side in the culture war, to the manifest displeasure of majorities in the nations they represent. Latin cultures, in particular, are noted for their traditional, pro-family orientation."
World Congress of Families recently garnered the support of 110 pro-family leaders from 23 countries for a petition in support of Romania's pending move to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
For more information on World Congress of Families, go to www.worldcongress.org. To schedule an interview with Larry Jacobs, contact Don Feder at 508- 405-1337.
The World Congress of Families (WCF) is an international network of pro-family organizations, scholars, leaders and people of goodwill from more than 60 countries that seeks to restore the natural family as the fundamental social unit and the 'seedbed' of civil society. The WCF was founded in 1997 by Allan Carlson and is a project of The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society in Rockford, Illinois (www.profam.org). To date, there have been four World Congresses of Families - Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004) and Warsaw, Poland (2007).
Upcoming Arts Alive Conference Connects Artistic Christians with Internationally-Known Speakers and Artists
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07340.shtml
NASHVILLE, (christiansunite.com) -- In an ongoing effort to connect the artistic Christian with the world at large, the first annual Arts Alive Nashville-Arts in Ministry and Missions Conference will be held on August 14-15 in Nashville, Tennessee at the Scarritt-Bennett Center (1008 19th Ave. South).
The conference, a training extension of the Brentwood- based Artists In Christian Testimony International (A.C.T. Intl), will bring together artists from all different disciplines including musicians, painters, sculptors, actors, dancers, authors, film-makers and poets.
Arts In Ministry 2008 supplies a common ground for participants as they learn and interact in seminars that tackle topics of biblical training for artistic Christians in spiritual formation as well as biblical teaching and strategies for the arts. Registration can be completed by going to http://www.actinternational.org/amti/.
"A conference of this nature is 40 years overdue" says Byron Spradlin, President and Founder of A.C.T. International.
"We're committed to raising up and mobilizing a whole new breed of artistic ministry specialists. This event is a springboard to encourage and equip artists of all kinds in the crucial role they play in today's culture."
The scope of guest presenters include Dr. Makoto Fujimura, Dr. Colin Harbinson, Dr. Vernon Whaley, Pastor Steve Berger, Sill Point Dance Co. & Sharon Perry, Plume Line Theater Company, Dr. Dianne Collard, actor Josh Childs, painter Jennifer Goss, artist consultant Dave Bunker, sculptor Curt Neunke, author Ramon Presson, arts advocate Matt Guilford, theologian Dr. Steve Guthrie, Arts Pastors David Taylor & John Farkas, and Rev. Byron Spradlin. Guest musicians will include 8-time GRAMMY nominated saxophonist Kirk Whalum, 3-time GRAMMY nominated singer Michele Pillar, Rick Cua, music missionaries Frank Fortunato & Bill Drake, Ugandan music group First Love, Jonathan Allen & the Grace Chapel Leipers Fork Worship Band, and Greg Wilbur & the Parish Presbyterian Franklin Worship Ensemble.
Artists in Christian Testimony International (A.C.T. Intl) was founded in 1973 with the goal of discipling and mentoring people out of music and the arts, and working them into the fabric of church, missions and marketplace ministry around the world. The Arts- Ministry Training Institute, an arm of A.C.T. Intl seeks to achieve that purpose through courses, conferences, and regional workshops taught by highly trained and experienced specialists. Courses span the range from the spiritual formation of the artist, practical and biblically based artistic strategies, biblical studies on imagination and creativity, as well as studies on the topics of mystery, transcendence, beauty, and aesthetics. A.C.T. Intl is also in process of developing an Arts-in-Ministry Certification Program especially for artistic Christians active in arts- ministries of all kinds in their church, region and/or missions, with the aim to eventually offer academic credit for the courses.
For more information on the organization, or the conference registration, go to www.actinternational.org/amti/
God hides His face
http://www.stangoodenough.com/?p=146
The story of Cain and Abel appears, on the face of it, to be simply the report of the first murder in history, which of course it is. But as with all Scripture, there are many things to be discovered in the text itself - not least the start of the line that would lead through Noah, to Abraham - the Father of Israel.
Cain and Abel were Adam and Eve’s first children; Cain their first seed. Potentially, he could have begun the bloodline that would lead to Messiah. Evil, however, newly unleashed on the earth, and obsessed with spiting and thwarting God at every possible turn, lurked at the door of Cain’s heart. When allowed in, it erupted in violence, leaving the younger son dead and the older cursed from the earth, forced to wander as a vagabond and to live in fear of his life.
Introduced in Genesis 4 is the offering up of sacrifices to the Lord. We learn that He accepts sacrifices so offered to Him, but that He has certain conditions He expects the sacrificer to meet. In this passage God rejects Cain’s offering of “the fruit of the ground” but respects “Abel and his offering” of a sacrificed lamb. This image - the sacrificial lamb - will become the most enduring, most beloved, and most important single image in the entire Bible and, thus, in human history.
Nowhere in the preceding three chapters of this first book of the Bible does God spell out what is an acceptable offering and what is not. Apparently it is the contrite and humble state of Abel’s heart that plays an important part in God’s being accepting of his sacrifice. The hardness of Cain’s heart, on the other hand, leads to the rejection. We also learn here that the shedding of blood is crucial to the whole matter of dealing with sin - Cain’s sacrifice lacked blood, and sin got to rule over him.
As believers know, and as Israel has known, when we enjoy the blessing of the Lord, the light of His countenance shines upon us. In verse 14 we see that when we lose that blessing, we are “hidden from His face.” Then we are forced, as a consequence of our sin, into the shadow of God’s disfavor and judgment. Another way of putting this is that He hides His face from us.
Much later on in biblical history we shall see how Israel’s sin causes God to hide His face from His own, Chosen People.
And we will learn how and when those days of darkness were to - at last! - be swallowed up in glorious, blazing light.
Reading on we discover that sin, having now been welcomed into the world through the free-will choice of man, spread like the plague, fueling vengeance and violence. It will soon multiply to the point where God is actually sorry that He made man at all.
But before this chapter ends, we see God’s grace - and how He remains determined to fulfill His promise through Adam’s seed. Adam and Eve have yet another son, and he has this special calling enshrined in his name: Seth: “For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel…”
Then, with the birth of Seth’s son, Enosh, mankind enters a whole new era as, in his days, “men began to call on the name of the LORD.”
I am not sure what this means. Does this mean that they started to know God by His name YHWH, or by His nature as “I AM?” How did they know Him before? Or does it mean that they really only began to pray then, to try and communicate with their Maker?
If so, was there no communication from earth to heaven before this? Of course, there were not all that many men around as of yet as this was only the third generation after creation. Still, more than two centuries had passed. And of course, every verse is there for a reason.
Matthew Henry comments:
“The worshippers of God began to distinguish themselves. The margin reads it, Then began men to be called by the name of the Lord, or to call themselves by it. Now that Cain and those that had deserted religion had built a city, and begun to declare for impiety and irreligion, and called themselves the sons of men, those that adhered to God began to declare for him and his worship, and called themselves the sons of God. Now began the distinction between professors and profane, which has been kept up ever since, and will be while the world stands.”
What this question does open up is something that fascinates me: the timeline of history and how it is divided up, and covered, in the Bible. Or, to frame this as a question: Why DO we have all these “tedious” genealogies in the Word?
Chapter five will give us some insights, I believe. But that’s for next time.
Document Actions Austria's left wants referendum if EU treaty modified
http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1214498841.37
(VIENNA) - Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer said Thursday that his ruling coalition wants a referendum if the European Union's Lisbon Treaty is modified in any way.
"We think any future changes to the treaty which affect Austrian interests must be decided in Austria by a referendum," Gusenbauer wrote in an open letter to the tabloid daily Kronen Zeitung.
"A lot of people are under the impression that the EU is not concerned with their real problems but that it is interested above all in looking after itself.
Gusenbauer's Social Democrats, partners in the ruling coalition with the conservative Austrian People's Party, are driving the policy stance.
The newspaper has for many years led an anti-Europe campaign and has openly called for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
The letter, published on the newspaper's website, was also signed by the new president of the Social Democrats, Werner Faymann.
Austria's parliament has already ratified the treaty, designed to streamline EU decision-making following enlargement of the bloc to 27 members. But the document, which must be approved by all member states, was rejected by Irish voters in a referendum earlier this month.
The Social Democrats' European deputy, Hannes Swoboda, said earlier Thursday that his party would have no problem if the treaty went ahead in its current form, despite the Irish 'No' vote, but also said that any modification would have to be put to a referendum in Austria, he told the Austrian news agency APA.
Swoboda pointed to increasing scepticism among Austrians with regard to the EU.
"We've seen that it's now completely impossible to push through a new treaty," he said.
A massive information campaign would be needed to inform the public from the very beginning what a new treaty really meant and the question would have to be asked whether increased powers for the EU parliament, national parliaments and common foreign and security policies were desirable, the politician said.
Among Austrian political parties, only the far-right FPOe and BZOe have so far been in favour of a referendum.
In April, a pro-referendum petition called "Let's Save Austria" collected more than 100,000 signatures.
Solana: EU to have a leading role in Kosovo
http://www.newkosovareport.com/20080627999/Politics/Solana-EU-to-have-a-leading-role-in-Kosovo.html
EU Diplomacy Chief Javier Solana said that EU aims to have a leading role in Kosovo.
EU aims the main role especially in the fields of rule of law. The decisions made in New York give us the possibility that in close cooperation with the United Nations to accelerate the deployments of the EU civilian mission in Kosovo and give it an important and active role,” Solana is quoted as saying.
The EU supports the report of the UN Secretary-General for the work the UN mission in Kosovo and his plan on UNMIK’s reconfiguration, European diplomats report.
Also, spokesman for the U.S. State Department, Tom Casey, hailed the decision of the UN Secretary-General to start reconfiguration of UNMIK and said that the move is in accordance to the stand of the international community and will help development of local institutions. He also said the decision is a logical step after Kosovo declared independence.
Written interview with Javier Solana by Alexandre Mineev for Interfax and Novaya Gazeta for the EU-Russia Summit
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/EN/sghr_int/101515.pdf
1. Is the EU - after a long period of delay - fully ready to begin talks with Russia on a new partnership agreement?
The EU is ready and eager to begin negotiations on a new EU-Russia Agreement. All Member States are now on board and we are convinced that we can make the negotiations a success. The aim is to have a good agreement which will put our relations on a new strategic footing.
2. Can the crisis in ratification of the Lisbon Treaty in any way affect these talks and EU-Russia relations in a broader sense?
Since the referendum in Ireland , work has already been launched at the EU summit in Brussels last week on finding ways forward and I am optimistic that we will soon see progress. In the meantime there are no direct effects on the Union, which will continue to function on the basis of the current treaties. I can therefore assure you that the EU will remain a reliable partner for Russia, with or without the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. As for the negotiations on the new Agreement, these should not be negatively affected.
3. How the Council's directives for talks look like, what main items does it include?
We are aiming for a comprehensive agreement which reflects the depth of our relationship today, rather than our relations ten years ago. In our view, the agreement should cover the full range of areas of cooperation between the EU and Russia: political dialogue and external security; trade and economic cooperation; freedom, security and justice; and research, education and culture. They also cover the appropriate institutional provisions to ensure the efficient functioning of the EU-Russia relationship.
4. Is it important for EU to include into the future agreement legally binding provisions on energy as some member states want or a rather basic and compact document can be envisaged?
Obviously, the whole complex of energy-related issues is one of the most important elements of our relations with Russia. It is an area where our interdependence is very strong, and it is only natural that this should be reflected in the new agreement. The general aim of the EU is to build a true energy partnership with Russia, based on the principles of transparency, fair competition, reciprocity and non-discrimination. This partnership should offer security and stability for both sides and pave the way for the necessary long-term investments in new and existing capacity, and promote greater attention to energy efficiency, energy savings and renewable energy. However, I think it would be too early to talk already now, before negotiations have even started, about what kind of provisions will be put in the agreement.
5. Does the EU expect coordinating with Russia a common policy in the post-Soviet area or common neighbourhood? Can EU take part in resolving "frozen" conflicts in Georgia and Moldova? Are they an issue of talks on the new EU-Russia agreement?
Russia is the EU's strategic partner, and we continue to work closely on conflict-resolution in what you call the “post-Soviet space”. It is in our shared interest to try to solve any crisis which could have repercussions for the region as a whole. Our engagement is not aiming to compete with anyone. We want to work with all sides to defuse tensions, build confidence between the parties to the conflicts, support existing conflict resolution efforts and facilitate negotiations. Russia will continue to play an essential role in this work. Resolving the conflicts in Georgia and Moldova is a priority for both the EU and Russia and we of course expect the new Agreement to reflect this shared priority. For our part, we are already working hard to convince all parties involved of the necessity to pursue dialogue and find solutions through peaceful means. I recently had the opportunity to convey this message in person to the authorities in Tbilisi and Sukhumi. We encourage direct talks between the Government of Georgia and the de facto authorities in Abkhazia, and stand ready to contribute to conflict resolution efforts, if the parties to the conflict want us to.
6. What place in the directive take common values, democracy, rule of law, freedom of expression? Are they tied up with cooperation in other areas?
Both EU Member States and Russia have signed up to respect democratic principles and fundamental human rights as defined in particular in the Helsinki Final Act, and other European human rights instruments. The current agreement refers to these principles and I expect that we will agree to include such references also in the new agreement.
Spanish parliament overwhelmingly approves EU's Lisbon Treaty
http://www.pr-inside.com/spanish-parliament-overwhelmingly-approves-r667121.htm
MADRID, Spain (AP) - The Spanish parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly approved the European Union's reform treaty in document's second test since Irish voters rejected it earlier this month.
Spain's Parliament voted 322-6, with two abstentions, to adopt the treaty meant to streamline EU decision-making and help accommodate the bloc's further expansion. The treaty is to be put to the Senate for final approval after the summer recess. Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said the vote could be held earlier, possibly in July.
Spain's parliament is the 20th within the EU to approve the document. All 27 EU members must ratify the treaty for it to take effect.
Ireland rejected the treaty in a referendum June 12. It was the only country to put the document to a public vote.
EU leaders have agreed that member countries should continue ratifying the treaty, and delayed any decisions on how to overcome the Irish rejection until October.
Britain ratified the treaty a week after Ireland's rejection.
The treaty, replacing a proposed EU constitution that Dutch and French voters rejected in 2005, seeks to reform EU powers and institutions in line with a rapid expansion of the bloc eastward in recent years.
It aims to simplify how an expanded EU club is run. It includes a bill of rights, and creates the post of a full-time EU president and a more powerful EU foreign policy representative.
Deceptive promises
http://www.stangoodenough.com/?p=147
Just before French President Nicolas Sarkozy came to Jerusalem last Sunday, he reportedly told an Israeli news outlet France would do “everything” to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear armed power.
“Those who outrageously call for Israel’s destruction,” he emphatically told Ynetnews, “will be confronted by France and will be blocked.”
Sarkozy’s expressed sentiments were not unique among Western leaders.
Intentionally or not, he was echoing the adamant commitment voiced by Hillary Clinton on April 22, when she was still running against Barack Obama for the Democrat’s presidential nomination.
If she was made president of the United States, and Tehran attacked Israel during her term in office, she would unleash an extremely painful retaliatory strike against Iran, she said.
“I would make it clear to the Iranians that an attack on Israel would incur massive retaliation from the United States. … In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them.”
For his part, Obama told the audience gathered for the AIPAC Convention in Washington DC last month that “those who threaten Israel threaten us.”
And outgoing US President George W. Bush has similarly sought to reassure Israelis with pledges of readiness to come to their defense.
Last January, just before making his first presidential visit to Israel, he declared:
If Iran were to strike Israel, “we will defend our ally. No ands, ifs or buts.”
This is all very heart warming; very kind; very thoughtful, very encouraging, very supportive.
It is all very everything but meaningful.
Obviously these are promises politicians in the west think Israelis want to hear. But are they? And even if Israelis are encouraged by such assurances, what is the real motive behind the giving of them?
The realities on the ground make such pledges worthless. Dangerous, actually.
The facts are cold, hard and frightening:
1: Israel is really small: Its length from north to south is 260 miles. From east to west it runs just 60 miles at its widest point; three miles at its narrowest (across the Hula Valley to the foot of the Golan Heights). Israel could comfortably fit inside the United States 768 times.
2: Seventy-five percent of Israel’s 7.2 million citizens live and work in a tiny strip of this tiny land. Just 65 miles long - from Tel Aviv-Jaffa in the south to Haifa in the north - and between 25 and nine miles wide, the Coastal Plain is also home to as much as 80 percent of Israel’s industry base.
3. Missile flight time from Iran and Syria is just 10 minutes (for a Shihab-3 missile fired from western Iran) and one minute (for a SCUD from Syria). While Tehran is still apparently seeking to acquire its first nuclear warhead (though there are reports it may already have gotten hold of one or two) both it and Damascus are known to already have weaponized chemical and biological agents as well as the means to deliver them to Israel’s coastal plain.
4. Israel’s anti-missile defense system is being improved all the time, and has successfully taken out single rocket targets in simulated attacks. Its ability to neutralize even 25 percent of a missile blizzard on Israel is unknown.
5. The MAD (mutually assured destruction) doctrine of military strategy that kept the Cold War from turning hot is seriously compromised –irrelevant - when the aggressor state glories in the prospect of dying in the act of killing the Infidel.
What this all boils down to can be stated in just a line or two:
If Iran and/or Syria get in a first strike, launching a barrage of WMDs at Israel’s Mediterranean Coast, we will have a war that will not last six weeks or even six days. It will be over in hours.
And if enough non-conventional warheads - and it won’t have to be all that many - make it through to detonate over Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Netanya, Hadera, Karmiel and Haifa - the State of Israel will, for all intents and purposes, be no more.
What, then, Messrs Sarkozy, Clinton, Obama, Bush et al, would be the purpose of a retaliatory strike on Iran? Why do you keep making these grand sounding, but empty promises?
We know the answer. Sarkozy spelled it out in the very same interview.
“Everyone (sic) knows that any durable solution involves the establishment of a democratic Palestinian state. France encourages both sides to firmly continue the negotiations and move forward towards a permanent agreement before the end of 2008.”
To facilitate this, Israel “must freeze the constructions in the settlements in the territories (sic), which are the main obstacle towards peace with the Palestinians (sic),” he said.
What then? In the face of an increasingly hostile and positively bristling Middle East, and while incessantly bled by terrorism from without and within, Israel must agree to “take risks for peace,” surrendering virtually half of its miniscule country - not to mention the very cradle of its nationhood, and so rendering itself smaller and even more vulnerable than ever?
Not to worry: The “great powers” have sworn to defend Israel.
Similar reassurances were doubtless given to the Czechoslovakian people by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Premier Édouard Daladier after they signed the Munich Dictate permitting Hitler to take over the Sudetenland. Back then it was the Czechs who were depending on France, with whom they had an alliance, to politically and militarily assist them.
So much for French promises, and for British and American ones too.
For the sake of the “common good” of the international community they are ready to gamble with the very existence of the Jewish state and the Jewish nation.
May it fall back on their own heads.
But my eyes are upon You, O GOD the Lord;
In You I take refuge;
Do not leave my soul destitute.
Keep me from the snares they have laid for me,
And from the traps of the workers of iniquity.
Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
(Psalm 141:8-10)
Sarkozy hits Israel where it hurts
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=171787
France's President Nicolas Sarkozy's state visit to Israel on June 22-24 was striking for the candor with which he addressed his hosts. He spoke as an intimate friend -- certainly Israel's best friend in Europe -- but he did not mince his words, both on his arrival at Ben Gurion airport and a day later in the Knesset.
“The time to make peace is now,” he told the Israelis. “Tomorrow, it will be too late.” Rarely has a foreign leader spelled out so clearly what Israel has to do for peace -- and what it has sought at all costs to avoid.
Sarkozy laid particular emphasis on three points, which he hammered in at every opportunity. The first, and most important, was this: “Israel's security will not be truly assured until we see, at last, at its side an independent, modern, democratic and viable Palestinian state.”
Two other themes were given equal prominence - and were equally unwelcome to many Israelis. “There can be no peace without an immediate and complete halt to settlements (colonies),” he declared. The settlers (colonizers)], he said, should be compensated and brought back to Israel. And then -- in a statement which was nothing less than sacrilege for Israeli hard-liners -- he added: “There can be no peace without recognition of (occupied) Jerusalem (Beit-ul-Moqaddas) as the capital of two states and the guarantee of free access to the holy places for all religions.”
Knesset members greeted his remarks with polite, but hardly enthusiastic, applause.
This was the speech the U.S. President George W. Bush should have made when he attended Israel's 60th birthday celebrations in May; the speech Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama should have made when he addressed Israel's U.S. lobby, American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), in early June; the speech German Chancellor Angela Merkel should have made when she was in Israel in March; the speech Tony Blair should have made when he was Britain's prime minister, but which he shrank from uttering then, and which he has continued to funk and fudge as Quartet representative.
In his reply to Sarkozy, Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was quick to say that “We don't always agree on every issue, on every detail, see things exactly the same way”. Clearly, he had an eye on his right-wing constituents and the powerful lobby of colonizers.
Ever since he became prime minister after Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke, Olmert has pressed ahead with Israeli expansion on the West Bank, and has ringed Arab Jerusalem (Beit-ul-Moqaddas) with Jewish colonies, cutting it off from its hinterland. He has vowed that the city will remain Israel's undivided capital for all time, brushing aside Arab outrage and America's mild objections.
When on her last ineffectual visit to the region this month -- the last of 15 such visits in as many months -- the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dared to say that “continued settlement activity has the potential to harm the peace talks.” Danny Dayan, the chairman of the colonizers' Yesha council called her remarks “impertinent and shameless”.
“Israel,” he said, “has been spat in the face and the government treats it as rain drops”. Washington chose not to respond to this insult.
It remains to be seen whether Sarkozy will achieve something of substance, or whether his brave words will simply fade away -- like all the other international rulings, injunctions and resolutions Israel has resolutely ignored. Sarkozy is an ambitious politician who revels in spectacular coups. If he were to start a process leading to a comprehensive peace in the Middle East he will have won his place in history.
To many observers, Sarkozy is attempting nothing less than to transfer the lead role in Middle East peace-making from the United States to Europe, and more particularly to France (which, on July 1, assumes the presidency of the European Union.)
It is worth noting what he said in Israel:
“France, which loves and respects the peoples of the Middle East, wishes to make its contribution to peace.
“It is prepared to organize on its territory all the talks which could lead to peace, whether it be the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, or the Syrian-Israeli dialogue, or the discussions which should resume, I hope at an early date, between Israel and Lebanon.
“On these three tracks of the peace process, France is ready to offer its guarantee, it is ready to mobilize its diplomacy, its resources, its troops, as it is already doing with other European partners, in south Lebanon.”
To make his message -- and his ambition -- acceptable to the United States and Israel, Sarkozy has spared no effort to woo both countries. He has posed as their closest friend and ally. He has aligned himself with Washington and has flattered Israel, and pledging that, if it were ever threatened, France would be at its side.
According to well-placed French sources, Sarkozy's diplomacy reflects a widespread feeling among many European decision-makers that Bush's Middle East policy has been a disaster. The last months of the lame-duck Bush presidency create an opportunity for Europe to step in with an initiative of its own.
Equally, Sarkozy is said to believe that Israel is digging itself into a hole by its brutalities towards the Palestinians and towards Lebanon, as in its 2006 war. Its attempts to crush Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza have been strikingly unsuccessful. Both these (Islamic) resistance movements on Israel's borders have managed to achieve a measure of deterrence, forcing Israel into an exchange of prisoners and, in the case of Hamas, a truce.
Sarkozy, French sources say, sees himself as the man who can rescue Israel from its errors and set in on the path of peace and acceptance in the region.
In dealing with Israel, the French president has one useful lever to hand. Israel is keen to strengthen its political, economic, educational, defense and scientific ties with Europe during France's six-month presidency of the EU. But Sarkozy is an emotional man, quick to anger if rebuffed. If Israel pays no heed to his message, it may not get the privileged partnership with Europe to which it aspires.
But there are other more formidable obstacles. Can Israel's land-theft and colonization be reversed? Can the fanatical, gun-toting colonizers be tamed? Can Israel's lethal combination of arrogance and paranoia be converted into a readiness to coexist in peace with its neighbors?
For Israel, the benefits of peace would be enormous. Normal relations with all 22 members of the Arab League; an end to the armed resistance of Hezbollah and Hamas; a new chapter in relations with Iran; and a chance to restore Israel's international image, battered by its many wars and aggressions and its cruelty to the Palestinians under occupation.
There is just a chance -- if only a slim one -- that Nicolas Sarkozy might be the leader Europe and the Middle East have been waiting for, a leader who, in partnership with a new American president, could rally the world behind a genuine peace effort.
Patrick Seale is a commentator and author of several books on Middle East affairs.
Blair: Mideast peace process must move faster
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3540888,00.html
Quartet envoy calls on Israel to remove additional roadblocks in West Bank. 'Removing one checkpoint is not enough,' he tells Sky News
Quartet envoy to the Middle East Tony Blair said Thursday that the Mideast peace process needs to move faster if there is to be any chance of an agreement this year.
The former British prime minister's associates have said that the coming weeks will be critical and will be make or break for the chances of an agreement.
In an interview with the Sky News network during a visit to the West Bank city of Jenin, Blair called on Israel to remove roadblocks and lift restrictions on the Palestinians in a bid to improve their economy.
The Quartet has asked Israel to dismantle 12 roadblocks across the West Bank, but only one has been removed so far.
"There are a whole set of proposals that we've put to the Israelis and actually the next few weeks will be critical on delivering those and yes, removing one is not enough. But what is necessary is for Palestinians to be able to move relatively freely around their own territory. That is what they cannot do now," the former British prime minister said.
According to Sky News, Blair was mobbed by hundreds of Palestinians when he went on walkabout through Jenin's marketplace, potentially a nightmare for his security detail but one that passed without incident.
Blair believes the Palestinians are making progress and so are countries supporting them with money - and there are signs the Israelis are seeing how they can help, he told Sky.
Gentile who saved chief rabbi identified
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2501
Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi Meir Lau was reportedly deeply moved Friday as he told how the identity had recently been discovered of a man who helped save his life during the Holocaust 63 years ago.
Lau, formerly chief rabbi of Israel, told Israel Radio that while he had known the first name of his, at the time 18-year-old, rescuer, Fyodor, he had not known his family name of Michajlitschenko, a name that was only uncovered during a search of hitherto inaccessible Nazi records.
The rabbi said he had been a small boy in the Buchenwald concentration camp when Michajlitschenko - imprisoned by the Gestapo - looked after him, knowing he was a Jew. The young man had helped protect Lau against the biting cold and had stolen extra potatoes with which to feed him.
Jews call the relative handful of Europeans who risked their lives to save Jews from the Nazis "righteous gentiles."
Lau said that if Michajlitschenko should choose to visit Israel, he would personally welcome him to Ben Gurion International Airport and "make efforts to ensure he is bestowed the Righteous Among the Nations title."
"I always admired him," Lau said emotionally, according to The Jerusalem Post. "He knew I was Jewish boy [and he] protected me with his body."
'Don't free terrorist who destroyed my family'
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2499
A majority of ministers in the Olmert government support the release of Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar in exchange for the return of two Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hizb'allah in 2006.
This is according to The Jerusalem Post, which Friday reported that 15 ministers had conveyed their intention to vote for Kuntar's freedom in the cabinet debate that is set for Sunday.
While Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had yet to indicate whether or not he will support the exchange, another 10 ministers are thought likely to vote in favor.
Before the vote is taken the Cabinet will reportedly be informed whether the IDF soldiers, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, or even still alive.
Kuntar's release is an extremely controversial and painful issue in Israel.
Among those who oppose it are Mossad chief Meir Dagan, and one of Kuntar's victims - Smadar Haran Kaiser.
On June 18 Kaiser, The Washington Post published an opinion article by Kaiser headlined "[The world should know what he did to my family](http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A2740-2003May17 )."
"It had been a peaceful Sabbath day" when Kuntar unleashed hell on her world, Kaiser wrote, as she recounted what happened:
"My husband, Danny, and I had picnicked with our little girls, Einat, 4, and Yael, 2, on the beach not far from our home in Nahariya, a city on the northern coast of Israel, about six miles south of the Lebanese border. Around midnight, we were asleep in our apartment when four terrorists, sent by Abu Abbas from Lebanon, landed in a rubber boat on the beach two blocks away. Gunfire and exploding grenades awakened us as the terrorists burst into our building. They had already killed a police officer. As they charged up to the floor above ours, I opened the door to our apartment. In the moment before the hall light went off, they turned and saw me. As they moved on, our neighbor from the upper floor came running down the stairs. I grabbed her and pushed her inside our apartment and slammed the door.
"Outside, we could hear the men storming about. Desperately, we sought to hide. Danny helped our neighbor climb into a crawl space above our bedroom; I went in behind her with Yael in my arms. Then Danny grabbed Einat and was dashing out the front door to take refuge in an underground shelter when the terrorists came crashing into our flat. They held Danny and Einat while they searched for me and Yael, knowing there were more people in the apartment. I will never forget the joy and the hatred in their voices as they swaggered about hunting for us, firing their guns and throwing grenades. I knew that if Yael cried out, the terrorists would toss a grenade into the crawl space and we would be killed. So I kept my hand over her mouth, hoping she could breathe. As I lay there, I remembered my mother telling me how she had hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust. 'This is just like what happened to my mother,' I thought.
"As police began to arrive, the terrorists took Danny and Einat down to the beach. There, according to eyewitnesses, one of them shot Danny in front of Einat so that his death would be the last sight she would ever see. Then he smashed my little girl's skull in against a rock with his rifle butt. That terrorist was Samir Kuntar.
"By the time we were rescued from the crawl space, hours later, Yael, too, was dead. In trying to save all our lives, I had smothered her."
While she had never sought to take revenge for what happened to her family, Kaiser said, she was "determined that Samir Kuntar should never be released from prison."
But the Goldwasser and Regev families want their sons back and they have lobbied their government to let Kuntar go free.
Education Minister Yuli Tamir said Thursday she believed Israel "must make every move to bring them [the soldiers] home."
While the price was "painful and intolerable ... it shouldn't be an obstacle," Minister-without-Portfolio Ruhama Avraham-Balila told the Post.
A senior MK in the opposition Likud Party, Yuval Steinitz, said that were he in the government he would oppose the deal.
"I think this deal is a disaster," he said when contacted by the Post, and it was particularly so because "we have strong evidence that [Goldwasser and Regev] are dead."
It was a mistake to "start any kind of negotiation before you get solid information about the fate [of the captives]."
If Israel "bargained for corpses" terrorists would have no reason to provide information about future captives or to keep them alive.
PLO spokesman: We'll make bigger impact than Jesus
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2497
PLO chief and PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas' senior spokesman Thursday asserted presumptuously that the "successful" outcome of the land-for-peace process would make a greater impact on the Middle East than that made by Jesus Christ.
Saeb Erekat was speaking at a conference funded by the ultra-leftist 'Peres Center for Peace' in Tel Aviv.
"If we want a peace agreement – there are only six months left. This is the time to make decisions," Erekat said.
He insisted that there are solutions to the "core issues" of who will get Jerusalem, what will happen to the "Palestinian refugees," and what the final borders of Israel and Palestine will be.
"The Israeli and Palestinian (sic) leaders who reach an agreement will be more important to the region's history than Jesus," Erekat proclaimed.
Abbas’ man, unsurprisingly, also expressed support for the ceasefire between Israel and the Gaza-controlling Hamas terrorists who are exploiting the truce to re-arm in preparation for the next onslaught on Jewish population centers in the south.
"We want the truce in Gaza to hold. It is good to give a chance for peace, and the calm is necessary for us," he said.
Erekat: 6 months to peace deal
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3560969,00.html
Top negotiator for Palestinian Authority says solutions at hand for all core issues, now is time for decision-making. Speaking at conference organized by Peres Center for Peace, Erekat says 'Israeli and Palestinian leaders who reach an agreement will be more important to region's history than Jesus'
"If we want a peace agreement – there are only six months left. This is the time to make decisions," Saeb Erekat said on Thursday evening.
Speaking at a conference organized by the 'Peres Center for Peace' at Tel Aviv University, the top negotiator for the Palestinian Authority was joined for a discussion on the recent renewal of Israeli negotiations with Syria by MK Yossi Beilin (Meretz) and former director-general of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Dr. Alon Liel.
"Our goal is to reach an agreement. Regarding the core issues: Jerusalem, the refugees and the borders – all these have solutions. This is the time for decisiveness. We will not go back to talks over temporary arrangements or temporary border, we intend to reach an agreement and this is possible for all the core issues. We need to make decisions, and (Prime Minister) Olmert and (Palestinian President) Abbas are capable of making them.
"The 'Israeli and Palestinian leaders who reach an agreement will be more important to region's history than Jesus," said Erekat.
"Ultimately the only solution possible is that of two states in the 1967 borders. Like it or not, you have three options: two states, a bi-national state, and the current situation," said Erekat, alluding to an 'apartheid state.'
The senior Palestinian diplomat also addressed the situation in the Gaza Strip: "We want the truce in Gaza to hold. It is good to give a chance for peace, and the calm is necessary for us."
As for the indirect negotiations with Syria, Erekat said: "I hope the Israeli-Syrian channel is successful. We want Syria to be involved in the peace process because we would like to see a final arrangement for the entire region."
'Assad – driving force behind talks'
Alon Liel said that success with the Syrian channel would have a positive effect on the Palestinian one.
"If we reach an agreement with Syria before we do with the Palestinians, there will be several elements aiding the Palestinian channel – like the issue of the refugees for instance. Syria will apparently agree to grant the refugees citizenship," he said.
"I know that there's a lot of panic in Lebanon about this issue, as they fear that the Palestinian refugees will be settled there as well and alter the country's demographics. What's more, the Syrians will no longer allow Khaled Mashaal (Hamas' exiled politburo chief) to remain in Damascus. If we reach a stage where Syria stops aiding Hamas and Hizbullah, the balance of power will shift in Fatah's favor and this will help the peace process."
The former director-general of the Foreign Affairs Ministry said noted that the "driving force" behind the renwed talks with Syria was none other than Syrian President Bashar Assad himself. Olmert, said Liel, would not have initiated the negotiations.
"I believe the reason for this is that Assad is afraid of Iran. The Syrians know exactly who the Iranians are, just as we do. They also know how dependent they've become in fields like military strength and their economy. I believe they came to the conclusion that they were under a 'friendly takeover' by Iran, and that Iran may yet do to them what they did in Lebanon."
Liel said that only the United States would be able to broker a regional agreement with Syria that would block its "Iranization.
"After that, with the help of the Syrians, we will be able to come to the public and ask them something very simple: 'What do you prefer – having Israel surrounded by an Iranian belt in Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip – or a friendly belt that will normalize relations with us and agree to end the conflict?"
'Palestinians' make mileage out of truce
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2500
As they have done since earlier on this week, the Palestinian Arabs continued to play Israel for the fool Friday, on the one hand saying that they supported the truce, and on the other firing missiles from Gaza in the hope of killing Jews and torpedoing it.
Two mortars were fired from Gaza into the Western Negev in the morning, hitting near a kibbutz but causing no injuries or damage.
The Fatah faction of the PLO's Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigades claimed credit for the attacks. Just hours earlier a senior spokesman for Fatah chairman and Palestinian Authority "President" Mahmoud Abbas said the PA was thankful for the ceasefire and was hoping it would hold.
Friday's firings followed two earlier rocket attacks in breach of the truce. On Thursday a Kassam rocket exploded near a gas station in the battered town of Sderot, and on Tuesday three rockets slammed into the same town, badly damaging a house and sending a number of people into shock.
Hamas Friday purportedly condemned the rocket firing of the day before.
While Israel has yet to respond militarily to the attacks, the Arab side is making a great deal of mileage out of it, proclaiming its "victory" over Israel by getting the IDF to sign a ceasefire in the face of multiple barrages on Israeli territory, instead of sending a ground force into the Strip as it threatened to do.
At the same time, by continuing to hit at Israel while its mighty military machine sits castrated in the sand around Gaza, the "Palestinians" are only strengthened in their conviction that, together with their god, they will ultimately vanquish the Jewish state.
Palestinians Fire Mortars Despite 'Truce'
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/400020.aspx
CBNNews.com - KIBBUTZ KFAR AZA, Israel - Palestinian terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip fired two mortar shells at southern Israel Friday, further compromising the tahdayeh (temporary calm), which went into effect nine days ago.
One shell exploded near Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where Jimmy Kedushim, 48, was killed by a mortar shell six weeks ago. The second shell landed in an open field. No injuries or property damage were reported.
Friday is the third day that Palestinians breached the truce agreement, which calls for a cessation of rocket and mortar shell attacks and a reciprocal halt of Israeli counter-terror operations in the Strip.
The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the 'military' wing of the Hamas terror organization, claimed responsibility for Friday's mortar shell attacks.
Thursday, Islamic Jihad took credit for four Kassam rockets launched at southern Israeli communities. Two people were injured and two suffered shock when one of the rockets scored a direct hit on a home in Sderot, causing extensive property damage.
On Thursday afternoon, the al-Aksa Martyrs' Brigades, affiliated with Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, took credit for a Kassam rocket that landed near a gas station in the Sderot industrial area.
Israel promised a tough response if the rocket fire continued once the truce went into effect.
Last Wednesday, the day before the truce began, Major General Amos Gilad, head of the Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Military Bureau, said a single rocket or mortar shell attack would end the truce.
Gilad represented Israel in negotiations with Egyptian Intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who brokered the cease-fire agreement with Hamas.
"If tomorrow morning one single rocket is fired, it will be a violation of the agreement. There is no room for interpretation, and no mediating body is needed. We will not accept the firing of even one Kassam," Gilad said.
Instead of a military response to the attacks, Israel opted to close the border crossings, with the exception of the Erez pedestrian terminal.
On Sunday, following three quiet days, Israel had begun a gradual lifting of the economic blockade on non-essential goods entering Gaza via the crossings.
But the rocket and mortar fire put an end to that for now.
Hamas officials in the Gaza strip said the closures were a breach of the cease-fire and PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Israel should allow the free flow of goods into the Strip.
But the Defense Ministry stood its ground.
"Any violation of the cease-fire will be met with an apt response on our part," one defense official said.
"At present time, we are focusing on the crossings and if need be we will turn to other measures as well. However, if the calm is maintained, we will also know how to uphold our end of the deal," he said.
On Friday, Israel allowed a limited transfer of fuel through the Nahal Oz fuel terminal.
Livni: Israel should respond militarily
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1214132688680&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
While neither Prime Minister Ehud Olmert nor Defense Minister Ehud Barak released statements following a Kassam rocket attack on Sderot on Thursday, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni issued an uncharacteristically sharp demand for an immediate military response.
The rocket hit the Sderot industrial area on Thursday afternoon, exploding near a gas station and shattering the truce for a fourth time this week. No casualties or damage to property were reported in the attack.
At the beginning of a meeting with visiting Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere in Tel Aviv, Livni told her counterpart about the attack and said there was a similar hit two days ago.
"It doesn't interest me who fired it, we need to respond militarily and immediately to every infraction [of the cease-fire] like this," she said.
Livni said she made her position clear to both Olmert and Barak after the rocket fire on Tuesday, and that she intended to make her position known to her counterparts around the world.
Olmert's spokesman only said he held consultations regarding Israel's response. Tuesday's rocket attacks led to the closing of the Gaza crossings, and it was not immediately clear when Israel would re-open them.
One government source said it seemed that Livni's response, more typical of the Likud's Silvan Shalom or Gideon Sa'ar than the foreign minister, was made with an eye on the September Kadima primary and was an attempt to capture the party's right flank.
"This is not characteristic of Livni," the source said. "She is generally the one who wants to think twice, and is worried about [PA President Mahmoud] Abbas's standing."
The source added that Olmert and Barak, who pushed for the cease-fire earlier this month over the objections of a number of key cabinet ministers, were not interested at this time in bringing about its complete collapse with a heavy military response.
Deputy Premier Haim Ramon said the cabinet should convene once more to discuss the truce agreement.
In his meeting with the Norwegian foreign minister, Ramon said he was not surprised by Palestinian violations of the cease-fire.
"If Israel does not react strongly and close the crossings [to Gaza] we will be subjected to a daily trickle of rockets in the South in an effort to force us into a pattern where any Israeli action in the West Bank is countered by Kassam fire," he warned.
Meanwhile, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza said the truce was "a Palestinian national interest" and called the rocket fire an "anti-national" action.
The spokesman warned other militant groups that Hamas would not tolerate further violations of the cease-fire, and urged Egypt to put pressure on them to honor the agreement.
Hamas also accused Fatah of seeking to ruin the Gaza cease-fire by firing rockets at Israel, and warned all the armed Palestinian factions against violating the accord that went into effect last week.
The warning came after Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, claimed responsibility for firing two rockets at Israel.
The Aksa Martyrs Brigades announced that its members would not honor the cease-fire and accused Hamas of "betraying" the Palestinians by striking the deal.
"Hamas is trying to impose a unilateral cease-fire on our people in the Gaza Strip," the Fatah group said in a leaflet. "This is national treason that can't be allowed to pass."
The group said it was opposed to the agreement because it did not apply to the West Bank. It called on Abbas to intervene to reach a new agreement with Israel that would also include the West Bank.
Abu Qusai, a spokesman for the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, condemned Hamas for reaching what he called a bad deal with Israel.
He said in the past, the PA leadership had managed to reach better cease-fire agreements that included the reopening of the Gaza border crossings and the withdrawal of IDF troops from certain areas in the Strip.
"Hamas's cease-fire is very different from the one we had under the Palestinian Authority," Abu Qusai said. "Hamas has separated between the West Bank and Gaza Strip."
A senior Hamas official in the Strip accused the Fatah leadership in Ramallah of "inciting" Fatah gunmen in Gaza to breach the cease-fire. He said Thursday's rocket attacks had been aimed at preventing the reopening of the border crossings.
"Fatah is not happy with the cease-fire agreement because its leaders fear that it will solidify Hamas's control in the Gaza Strip," the Hamas official said. "That's why they have instructed their men in the Gaza Strip to continue launching rockets at Israel."
According to the Hamas official, Fatah's main concern was that Hamas would be given a role in running the Rafah border crossing to Sinai, a move which would give Hamas legitimacy and turn it into a major player in the Palestinian arena.
PA and Fatah officials denied the Hamas accusations, saying Abbas fully supported the truce.
"President Abbas believes that it's important to preserve the cease-fire because it serves the interests of the Palestinian people," they said.
Hamas, meanwhile, decided to establish a "crisis committee" to follow up on the truce and document Israeli "violations."
Hamas Interior Minister Said Siam said the committee would consist of representatives of various Palestinian groups and that its main mission would be to ensure that that the cease-fire was preserved in accordance with the Egyptian-brokered deal.
Thursday's rocket attack came after three rockets were fired at Sderot on Tuesday, sending two women into shock and severely damaging a house.
"No one in Sderot believes there is a truce, neither in the municipality nor among the residents," said Shalom Halevi, a spokesman for Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal.
"We wish the government would stop being stupid and begin to take military action. We are at war, and we need to stop acting like bleeding hearts," Halevi said. "The whole world is waiting for it. But here, leaders are only looking out for themselves."
Moyal, Halevi added, had said during the opening ceremony of a games factory that he did not believe the cease-fire was credible.
The additional rocket fire means the Gaza border crossings are likely to remain closed, following a decision by Barak on Tuesday. On Wednesday, a Hamas spokesman said their continued closure would be seen as a violation of the truce.
But Israel is unlikely to go beyond that and declare the truce a failure, security analyst Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror said.
"There is no Fatah in Gaza. The people who fired the rocket are fragments of what was once Fatah. They operate independently, and it would not be fair to blame their actions on Abbas," Amidror said.
"What these rockets show is that Hamas does not fully control Gaza, despite what some of us thought," he continued. "That is why Hamas wants this truce so badly - it wants to be Gaza's sole ruler, and it needs quiet from us in order to act internally to consolidate its rule. So Hamas will do all it can to continue the cease-fire."
Israeli leftists: Peace with Syria will wean Damascus from Tehran
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2498
Israelis have the choice: Either they can agree to give Syria the Golan Heights in exchange for promises of peace, or they can face a future surrounded by an Iranian belt in Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip.
This logical-sounding argument was put forward Thursday at a conference sponsored by the Tel Aviv "Peres Center for Peace."
It was made by Alon Liel, a former director-general of Israel’' foreign ministry and sold-out champion of the land-for-peace process.
Syria's President Bashar el-Assad is fearful of the growing Iranian influence over his country and wants out, Liel maintained.
It was Assad, rather then Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who was pushing for negotiations towards a peace agreement with Israel.
"I believe the reason for this is that Assad is afraid of Iran," said Liel, according to Ynetnews.
"The Syrians know exactly who the Iranians are, just as we do. They also know how dependent they've become in fields like military strength and their economy. I believe they came to the conclusion that they were under a 'friendly takeover' by Iran, and that Iran may yet do to them what they did in Lebanon."
To Israeli and Middle East realists, Liel's proposition, which was laden with "apparentlys," is so much wishful thinking.
His reasoning held that pulling Damascus out of Tehran's orbit would have "a positive effect" on negotiations with the Palestinian Arabs as some of the obstacles in the way of a Palestinian state - "like the issue of the [Arab] refugees for instance" - would be resolved.
"Syria will apparently agree to grant the refugees citizenship," Liel said.
Such an arrangement would ease the minds of the Lebanese, who "fear that the Palestinian refugees will be settled there as well and alter the country's demographics."
Removing this threat will ostensibly starve Hizb'allah of much of its support, thereby radically reducing Iran's influence to Israel's north.
"What's more," Liel continued, "the Syrians will no longer allow [Hamas leader] Khaled Mashaal to remain in Damascus.
Therefore, if "we reach a stage where Syria stops aiding Hamas and Hizb'allah, the balance of power will shift in Fatah's favor and this will help the peace process."
Liel told the Peres Center gathering that Israelis who wish to live with such a "friendly belt" around their state should support an American brokerage of an agreement that would see Syria normalize relations with Israel and agree to end the conflict.
The Peres Center was founded by Israel's current state president Shimon Peres, architect of the disastrous Oslo Accords and the leading light among anti-Jewish Israeli Jews.
Peres' philosophy, as embraced by leftists like Liel, sees Israel's Jews severing themselves from their biblical and Diaspora history and moving ahead into a "new Middle East" as "modern Israelis."
The European Union Sanctions Target Tehran, But More Is Needed
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,372164,00.html
Early this week, finally, the European Union (EU) adopted a new set of sanctions designed to discourage the Iranian regime’s drive to develop nuclear weapons.
These new measures include an asset freeze on Iran’s largest bank, Bank Melli, and other business and financial outfits affiliated with the nuclear and weapons programs. The European bloc is reportedly also studying sanctions against Iran's oil and gas sector, to be implemented in the next several months, and has published a blacklist of Iran’s nuclear experts and companies connected to these programs. The list includes 15 additional individuals and 20 companies.
The EU’s latest sanctions is welcomed news and will no doubt have an impact on the clandestine program, but they must be augmented by a set of bold, new policy initiatives to be effective.
True, the new measures, approved at a meeting of the 27-nation bloc in Luxembourg, signal the EU’s growing frustration with Tehran’s continued foot-dragging and lack of transparency. The frustration went through the roof after the EU’s chief diplomat, Javier Solana, failed to induce the ayatollahs to change course, despite a package of incentives.
The EU measures also follow a recent U.N. Security Council decision authorizing a third round of sanctions, freezing the financial assets of additional Iranian officials and companies with links to the country's nuclear and missile programs. Separately, the United States has levied several punitive financial measures against Tehran’s sponsorship of terrorism in the region and in Iraq, and against its nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.
Last fall, Washington sanctioned Bank Melli, Bank Mellat and Bank Saderat. The growing array of sanctions coming from both sides of the Atlantic, raise a key question about the effectiveness of such punitive measures. The short answer is that, while not sufficient on their own, these unilateral and multilateral measures have put a measurable squeeze on Tehran’s financial flow. Equally important, they have been instrumental in fueling the political disarray within the regime.
In the past several months alone, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the darling of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and the ayatollahs’ supreme leader, has fired his key cabinet members in the financial and economic fields. The sudden announcement of fuel rationing last summer turned Tehran and other major cities into scenes of protest where — far beyond the regime’s energy policies — the totality of the ayatollahs’ regime was targeted. The politically-suppressed, socially-suffocated and economically-deprived people burnt down hundreds of state-run fuel pumps, chanting “death to dictatorship.”
After these riots, a state-run daily, Etemad, acknowledged that bread and butter issues have turned into major national security problems for the regime. "It does not matter what the event is; it could be the loss of the national soccer team, sudden loss of electricity, the cutting off of drinking water, or the sudden and unexpected rationing of fuel ... they all can spark a riot ... although most of these riots are put down after the security and military agencies intervene, every act of subversion adds to the collective memory of the people, who will use it as capital or a learned experience for the next uprising," the paper warned.
It is, therefore, evident that sanctions have an impact on Tehran’s political and financial capabilities. The ruling regime is extremely vulnerable, after being weakened by a series of dismissals and factional rivalries. It is plagued by an intrinsically dysfunctional theocratic system, confronted with an increasingly defiant and repression-resilient populace, and challenged by an organized opposition. A European correspondent reported last summer from Tehran that “Today, MEK is highly capable of attracting the young people born and raised after the revolution.”
On Monday, June 23, the British House of Commons and House of Lords formally removed the MEK from the UK’s blacklist. According to the Associated Press, the removal procedure is now complete and the group is effectively off the list of banned organizations in the UK.
To complement its new set of sanctions and gain effective leverage in its campaign to defuse the nuclear threat posed by the ayatollahs, many European parliamentarians are pressing the EU to follow suit and immediately remove the Iranian opposition from its own blacklist. In a parliamentary debate that led to delisting of the Iranian opposition in the UK on Monday, Lord Clarke of Hamstead said: "It was clear that the lead given by the British Government, which has now been proved to have been unlawful, motivated other countries to put the PMOI [MEK] on the European list. The Government should work now to redeem themselves. They can do a penance by saying to our friends in Europe 'We got in wrong'."
Thousands Cheer as Pakistani Militants Decapitate, Shoot Afghans Accused of Spying for U.S.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,372883,00.html
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A gang of Pakistani militants executed two alleged U.S. spies in front of thousands of cheering supporters Friday as a top U.N. official expressed fears that Pakistani government peace deals with the gunmen were sparking a wave of human rights abuses.
At least 5,000 people gathered by a stream in the Bajur region to watch the executions, which highlighted the power of local Taliban forces in the lawless tribal areas near the Afghan border.
Masked militants pulled the two blindfolded Afghans from a car and forced them to kneel on the ground.
Waliur Rehman, a local Taliban commander, told the crowd that the two men confessed to aiding in a suspected U.S. missile strike on a house in the border town of Damadola that killed 14 people last month. The men disclosed the names of others involved, and they would be killed as well, he said.
"Whoever, for the sake of money, for the sake of America, harms the interest of the Islamic world will meet the same fate," he said.
Gunmen with daggers then pounced on one of the men — identified as Jan Wali, 36 — decapitated him and waved his bloody head to the cheering crowd.
The militants then argued over how to kill the other man because he may have been a teenager, before one lost patience and shot him with an assault rifle.
The crowd erupted in cheers of "God is great!" and gunmen fired in the air in jubilation. The celebratory gunfire killed two bystanders and wounded six, local official Fazal Rabbi said.
The recently elected Pakistani government has supported negotiations that would give local tribes and militants broad authority over some tribal areas. The U.S. says those deals will only give Taliban and Al Qaeda forces in the border region more freedom to attack Afghanistan.
A deal has not yet been reached over Bajur, but the militants are clearly able to operate freely in the area.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said Friday she was concerned that the peace deals undermined state authority and left residents vulnerable to a range of human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings.
"The government has the responsibility to ensure the protection of civilians," she told reporters in Islamabad.
Minorities and women were particularly in danger, she said.
Hours before Arbour spoke, suspected Taliban militants torched two girls schools in the Swat region, the latest in a string of attacks on the female education system in the area, police said.
The attack on the schools cast doubt on efforts to shore up the collapsing peace deal in Swat. Local government officials said talks Thursday with representatives of a pro-Taliban cleric were a success, however both sides acknowledged serious disagreements remained.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani met with Arbour earlier Friday to discuss the human rights situation in the country.
A statement released by his office did not directly address her concerns about abuses in the tribal areas. However, he told her the U.S.-led war on terror had badly damaged Pakistan's economy and the country needed to take action, the statement said.
The government was talking with "the moderate elements who have laid down arms" and would resort to military force if the agreements were violated, he told her according to the statement.
He also assured Arbour he was committed to women's rights and to ensuring that girls have access to education, the statement said.
Arbour also expressed concerns about the human rights violations in the government's counterterrorism operations, including the disappearances of hundreds of people.
She also called on the ruling coalition to resolve its dispute over reinstating dozens of senior judges fired by President Pervez Musharraf last year, saying the crisis was paralyzing the government.
Pastor Attacked in Madhya Pradesh, India
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07342.shtml
(christiansunite.com) - Pastor Rampal Masih was attacked by Hindu militants while leading a morning church service in the town of Gurh, Madhya Pradesh on June 15. At approximately 11:30 a.m. militants gathered outside the church building and began to shout curses at the 70 believers present.
Five of the militants forcibly entered the church, dragged Pastor Masih outside and beat him. When some of the church members rescued the pastor, the militants fled to the local police station. Later that day, the militants returned with two police officers and another group of militants.
They ordered Pastor Masih to come outside of the building and when he did, they beat him for a second time. Before leaving the premises, the attackers threatened to set fire to the church.
Pray for healing for Pastor Masih. Pray that he and his congregation will grow in Christlikeness through the ongoing opposition they face (James 1:2-4). Pray that the faithfulness of Indian Christians will be a light that draws others to Christ.
For more information on the persecution of Christians in India, go to www.persecution.net/country/india.htm.
Christian Girl Beaten by Fellow Students in Middeniya, Sri Lanka
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion07341.shtml
(christiansunite.com) - A Christian girl was attacked by her classmates following an anti-Christian meeting held in a mostly Buddhist school in the village of Middeniya, Hambantota district on June 17, according to a June 17 report from the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka.
After a speech by the principal warning students not to go to church, a group of students beat the Christian girl.
Ask God to heal and comfort the Christian girl who, at last report, was too afraid to return to school. Ask God to strengthen Christians in Sri Lanka to stand in God's grace in the midst of civil war and opposition (1 Peter 5:12).
For more information on persecution facing Christians in Sri Lanka, go to www.persecution.net/country/srilanka.htm.
Japan: Filling the God Vacuum
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/400060.aspx
CBNNews.com - Christianity in Japan has faced an uphill battle for hundreds of years. Religious freedom didn't come to the island nation until around the time of America's civil war.
Before then, persecution was so severe that many Japanese Christians were nailed to crosses or burned at the stake with their children.
As recent as World War II the emperor called himself god, demanding the worship of his country.
After Hiroshima and surrender, the call went out for 1,000 missionaries. U.S. General Douglas MacArthur called Japan a spiritual vacuum. Sixty years later, that vacuum still remains, leaving a state of confusion.
In today's Japan, there's a popular saying: Japanese are "born Shinto, marry Christian, and die Buddhist." The lines between the predominant religions are blurred in a spiritual hodge-podge.
Many have looked to the economy to fill their 'God vacuum.' But recently it's been faltering, and many jaded Japanese have lost hope.
"But now we have everything, but what is lacking is purpose," Christian leader Kiku Horinouchi explained. "Why are we here? We can't answer the question 'who are you?' unless we know the Creator God -- then everything makes sense."
"There is what you might call a 'dark night of the soul' to use that phrase to describe the Japanese right now," said renowned researcher George Gallup, Jr.
In fact, Gallup found that 11 percent of the Japanese wish they had never even been born. That's reflected in the country's unusually high suicide rate. But a new survey by Gallup says that might be changing.
When asked about their religion, four percent of adults and seven percent of teenagers checked "Christian," out of a list of many different religions. That figure made big news when it was released earlier in 2006. The official number of Christians, according to the CIA World Fact Book, is less than one percent of the population.
Pastor Hosoi Makoto leads a congregation in Tokyo.
"From our point of view, the sense we have that the percentage suddenly went from under one percent to maybe five times that is, uh, unimaginable -- and we don't get the feeling that that has actually happened," he said.
While that number may not be born-again believers in Jesus Christ, researchers believe it could definitely mean Japanese hearts are softening toward the Gospel.
"This doesn't mean that they are church members," Gallup said, "And it doesn't mean that they are solidly committed. But they identify with Christianity. Something about the ideas of Christianity and the values of Christianity appeal to them."
One of the reasons why so many Japanese feel they can associate themselves with Christianity is the popularity of Western or Christian-style weddings.
"It's the element of joy that comes through in the Christian weddings that appeals to the Japanese," Gallup said.
Beyond that, the Japanese love affair with all things Western means a growing number of them are trading in the traditional kimono for the big white dress and tux.
Another reason the Japanese are softening up to the message of the Bible is the incredible phenomenon of black Gospel music. Believe it or not, the reserved Japanese love the toe-tapping, finger-snapping, always swaying music.
Gospel music singer Garrison Davis has lived in Japan for eight years.
"When they get in to an atmosphere of faith, where there is the Word being spoken or where there is Gospel music that is anointed and coming forth, their spirit is pricked," Davis said. "They really don't understand what's happening at that point. What they're dealing with is really the emotional aspect of it."
Many Japanese who like Gospel music have yet to understand the words behind the music, and much of it has become a commercial industry.
"They don't have a sense of value with regard to who God really is and why we need to receive Christ," Davis said. "What they see is the Western images of 'religiosity' -- 'religiosity and Christendom, if you will."
That is where Gallup believes a movement called the Alpha Course can have some success. People meet in small groups and hear a thorough presentation of the Gospel, while hitting real-life issues head on. It meets the Japanese at their point of need, hoping to shed some light into the "dark night of the soul."
"God says, 'You are precious in My sight, I love you.' And that is a key word for Japan," Kiku said. "Everybody is looking for their value, worth, state of worth, but God says, 'You are valuable.'"
It's that disconnect between a Christian image and a real relationship with Jesus Christ that the Japanese don't seem to get.
"More Japanese need to know who Jesus is and what Christianity stands for," Gallup said. "Jesus is irresistible, regardless of culture. That's the way I feel. If you know enough about Jesus, He's irresistible."
Scott Parrish, a missionary with Asian Access, said, "Romans 10:14 is really key. It says you can't believe in One you haven't heard of, and you can't hear unless someone tells you…Unless you hear about Him, you can't believe."
Radical Muslims Threaten Indonesia's Liberty
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/392126.aspx
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Thousands of Indonesia's Muslims took to the streets in protest this week, expressing outrage over the government's refusal to outlaw a moderate Islamic sect.
The protesters are part of an extremist group that attacks Christians and moderate Muslims. Their actions threaten to destroy religious liberty in Indodnesia.
The radical Muslims demonstrate outside Indonesia's presidential palace. Why? Because the government failed to ban a moderate sect of Islam called Ahmadiyah.
The government recently ordered the sect to stop its activities or face up to five years in prison. But that was not enough for these Islamic fundamentalists.
They're called the Islamic Defenders Front - or FPI - and they believe that any religious belief that does not conform to their view of Islam should be outlawed.
Dr. Syafii Anwar, executive director of the International Center for Islam and Pluralism, condemned their actions.
"I don't agree with Ahmadiyah, but our Constitution states that there can be freedom of religious beliefs," he said. "Nobody has the right to persecute and FPI's behavior is against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."
The group is even more violent against Christians. In recent years the FPI has closed down and even set fire to Christian churches.
They've also attacked Christians with stones and have caused them to be imprisoned,
Sunday School teachers Etty, Ratna and Rebekka were put in jail for two years after they were falsely accused of converting Muslim children to Christianity.
The FPI became even more controversial after its members burned and destroyed mosques of the Ahmadiyah sect because their beliefs differ from mainstream Islamic teaching.
The group even attacked a peaceful rally promoting religious tolerance in the country.
Senny Manafe is public relations officer of the Arastamar Bible School. The FPI attacked the school several times last year. He says the group is bad not only for Christians, but is hurting the whole country.
"What FPI is doing is against the law therefore it is going against the government," he said. "Our government should stop the FPI from doing jihad. The businessmen leave the country because there is no peace and unity."
But for now, the Indonesian government appears to be bowing to the wishes of this radical group.
"I believe the President is pressured because of the coming elections," Dr. Anwar said. "Those in government are supported by Islamic parties. FPI is capitalizing on political issues threatening them that they will not vote for them if Ahmadiyah is not banned."
Even though the government has called on the FPI to stop its attacks against other religious groups, it remains to be seen if the authorities will take real action against Islamic extremists to protect religious freedom in Indonesia.
Indonesia's constitution guarantees religious freedom for five faiths: Islam, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
However, Indonesia has more Muslims than any other nation in the world. More than 90 percent of its 240 million people practice Islam.
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