As we pray for the peace of
Jerusalem
Prophetic News and
Commentary
Reporting on Thursday, March 22, 2007
Jeremiah 6:17 Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet….
Isaiah 62:6 I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O
Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make
mention of the LORD, keep not silence,
V:7 And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise
in the earth.
Psalms
122:6 Pray for the peace of
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The following articles are compiled by:
Rick Allinson
UN chief shaken by Baghdad blast
Source: BBC
22 March 2007 – UN chief Ban Ki-moon has been left shaken by a blast which interrupted a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki in Baghdad.
As Mr Ban was speaking during the live televised event, a mortar or rocket landed about 100 metres (330ft) from the building, causing him to duck.
Mr Ban appeared frightened but neither he nor Mr Maliki was hurt.
The UN chief had earlier arrived on his first visit to Baghdad since he took office in January this year.
The BBC's Hugh Sykes in Baghdad says buildings and windows shook when the huge bang reverberated throughout the city shortly after 1530 (1230 GMT).
He says it appeared to be caused by a mortar or rocket attack on the international zone, otherwise known as the Green Zone, where all the diplomats and most of the US military are, in the centre of Baghdad.
Iraqi television showed Mr Ban and Mr Maliki seated at a desk, as a reporter asked a question.
Suddenly there was a bang, at which moment the camera shook and juddered to the left.
Mr Ban flinched and momentarily half-ducked behind the table before recovering his composure. Mr Maliki did not react.
Comments: When
you are a high profile figure in a highly dangerous area, Ban Ki-moon shouldn’t
be so surprised that he might become a target of attack. After all the bombings
in the last year in Iraq, the highest political figures can not expect to be
immune to the violence. Ban Ki-moon should consider himself lucky and I would
expect that he might think twice before he makes another surprise visit to one
of the most in-hospitable places on earth. There has been so much violence in
Iraq that you may as well call it a civil war and all the talk of American
forces bringing peace to this region is questionable and highly unlikely. In
fact the way things are looking, U.S. elections will bring all these troops back
home again. The attack on Ban Ki-moon may just be another warning to get out.
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Tight security at EU`s birthday
Source: M&C
22 March 2007 – Berlin will be the capital of Europe -- in political and security matters -- this weekend when the German government tries to revive the European Union`s constitution.
The dress rehearsal went well: On Wednesday Berlin was swept by a wave of some 1,500 cultural and political VIPs, all of whom attended the 80th birthday bash of Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Germany`s former foreign minister and one of the architects of the fall of the Berlin Wall. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was there, and so were her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Eduard Shevardnadze, Russia`s ex-foreign minister who later became president of Georgia.
This weekend Berlin has another top event to organize: the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which later gave rise to the EU.
…
Supporting the idea of a common EU foreign minister, the Germans have also granted Javier Solana, the EU`s top foreign-policy chief, the chair in no less than 11 of 21 EU meetings.
'We thought Solana would get to chair one or two meetings for symbolic reasons,' Maurer said. 'But 11, that`s more than just a symbol.'
And it won`t be just symbols in the future: After the Berlin Declaration, the festivities will be over and the German presidency has some tough groundwork still to do -- finding an agreement among the 27 member states for the binding framework of the future constitutional treaty. Then the world will see what Merkel is really able to achieve and where expectations have been too high.
'In the next
three months, it`s going to be much more difficult for Berlin,' Maurer said.
Comments: Update; this weekend celebration could be a critical test to see if the EU constitution has any legs to stand on after this birthday party is over. As we have read before, two years ago, the constitution appeared to be dead but now, the corpse of the European Constitution is coming back to life and staggering around the EU's corridors of power. This could very well play a significant role in end time events if the EU constitution is revived in the near future. The bible tells us in Rev. 13:3 that the empire that the Antichrist comes out of will receive a mortal wound that is so severe that the survival of this empire would be in jeopardy. Without an EU constitution the way foreword for the EU is in question. Angela Merkel the German Chancellor has taken the task of trying to revive this all important treaty and in her own words… Merkel says EU needs constitution, "We absolutely need the constitution to ensure the European Union is effective," she told German MPs.
Yes, this birthday party will be a critical test for the EU treaty and if it is to survive we may just find out after the celebration is over. Lets see if Merkel gets her wish after she blows out the candles.
Re 13:3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
The following articles are compiled
by:
Leo Wong
EU nervous and introspective at 50 years of age
Source: EUObserver.com
March 22, 2007 -- The EU sees itself as a force for good in the world; it practises soft power, preaches human rights and sets the global bar in environmental standards. Yet a sizeable part of the bloc's 492 million population still remain disaffected from the one-of-a-kind political experiment that has evolved over the past 50 years.
"This process of European integration...is now being called into question by many people; it is viewed as a bureaucratic affair run by a faceless, soulless Eurocracy in Brussels - at best boring, at worst dangerous," said the then German foreign minister Joschka Fischer in 2000.
Five years later, citizens of two founding members of the European Union – France and the Netherlands – rejected the EU constitution, a document that would have led to further European integration.
And today, surveys continue to show a lack of enthusiasm. A Financial Times poll of the five biggest EU states published on Monday (19 March) show that just 25 percent of those asked feel that life in their country had improved since it joined the EU, while 44 percent feel it has become worse.
Since the seismic political shock in 2005, EU leaders have been trying to do more than just pay lip-service to getting citizens on board the "European project" while the European Commission has launched a whole series of citizen-friendly initiatives.
But crowd-pleasing moves such as ensuring lower plane fares and mobile phone charges merely gloss over the fact that people are still shocked that as much of 80 percent of national laws come from Brussels or when they hear that EU law has supremacy over national law – a principle that was established several years ago by the European Court of Justice.
And even when they can do something to affect what goes on in Brussels - namely with their vote, they are not rushing in droves to the ballot box. The last European elections in 2004, with citizens from ten spanking new member states, saw the lowest turnout ever.
This can't-be-bothered attitude comes despite the fact that the EU affects the minutiae of people's lives down to the labeling of the food that goes on their tables and the safety standards for their children's toys through to how long their maximum weekly working hours are.
So why is Brussels so unloved?
Largely it has come about because of how things are done at the EU level, although this is slowly changing.
But the real challenge will continue to be to get citizens on board emotionally. It remains to be seen whether these two issues will be enough to engage people now as much as the idea of a Europe-as-a-peace-project engaged people in previous decades.
Comments: Who loves you, baby? It seems like many do not. Depressing, is it not? It’s more than just a midlife crisis the EU is going through. It’s chronic depression on a grand scale. The EU experiment is in grave danger of being scrapped. There’s no leader in sight with vision who can reverse the apathy, indifference and melancholy that seem to grip this so called emerging superstate. It’s more like the Soviet Union in the latter stages of decline just before it was put out of its miseries.
Bible prophecy authors and students have long asserted that the EU is the Revived Roman Empire that has appeared in the last days and that will bring forth the Antichrist (AC). He will be revealed almost immediately after the Rapture event. The world will be in utter chaos due the sudden disappearance of millions of true born again believers. (Not one Christian will be Left Behind.) Lawlessness and anarchy will be rampant throughout the Western world. Stock markets will crash, citizens will take to the streets in panic, groceries stores will be ransacked, vigilante groups will roam the streets and alleys preying on traumatized souls, police will shoot on sight… The world will clamor for a superman to restore law and order.
The EU tall foreheads in Brussels will huddle together and call on Satan for help. Satan offers his man of sin, the Antichrist whom the EU chooses to lead their empire. Revelation 17:[13] These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. That’s what the godless people of this world want and that is what they’ll get. The Rapture event will shake the EU out of its doldrums and you’ll see it soar to withering heights only to be brought down low by the God of Heaven.
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HIV positive man 'wanted to infect as many people as possible with the virus'
Source: ABC NEWS ONLINE
March 22, 2007 -- A committal hearing in Melbourne has heard a HIV positive Coburg grandfather wanted to infect as many people as possible with the virus.
Michael Neal, 48, is charged with infecting two people with HIV and deliberately attempting to infect 14 others.
The DPP alleges Neal told some of his victims he was intent on infecting as many men as possible with HIV to widen his pool of potential partners.
The court heard he lied many times about his HIV status and heard his sexual practices were driven by personal choice and not by mental illness.
Comments: Luke 21:[11] And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. I read that AIDS appeared sometime in the early 1980s before it was given a name. The HIV virus has an incubation period of 15 years meaning that there might be no indication or symptoms for up to 15 years. Just ask former pro-basketball star Magic Johnson who boasted that he had over 10,000 lovers. Therefore, a promiscuous person who has had multiple partners and has taken preventative measures might still have contracted the HIV virus and not know it. The only real prevention is total abstinence from sexual acts.
This reckless uncaring man is on a mission to infect as many victims as he can. His thinking is, “If I’m going to die eventually, I’ll take as many lovers with me as I can. Why should they live when I’m doomed?” Talk about utter selfishness and self-centeredness! But, such is the spirit of the unsaved these days. It’s mostly about self with little regard for others. God inflicts sexual deviants with pestilences such as the HIV virus and other sexually transmitted diseases in order to punish them for their fornication, adultery and perversion. (Their prevalence indicates to us the nearness of Christ’s 2nd coming. The explosion of homosexuality and bi‑sexuality can only lead to more HIV cases.) Instead of repenting of their sins, they blaspheme God. Revelation 16:[11] And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.
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Analysis: WMD drill is fine, but not enough
Source: Jerusalem Post
March 22, 2007 -- The official motto of the IDF Engineering Corps's Atomic, Biological and Chemical Unit is "Survive, and continue fighting." Its unofficial motto, the one most of its fighters learn in their first 10 minutes in the unit, is: "If they're using us, everybody else is either hiding, underground or already dead."
The official motto explains not only the function of the unit - to protect armor and infantry on a battlefield peppered with chemical or biological agents - but also the spirit in which the unit was established: absorb the worst the enemy can throw at you (in this case, unconventional weapons); fight off enemy troops by taking advantage of the destruction and the chaos; and provide a cleansed area for the regular troops to launch a counterattack.
These units are attached to every IDF division, and its soldiers know what to tell the regular combat units about surviving a nonconventional attack.
The unit is not attached to the Home Front Command, which is tasked with "citizen protection" and which oversaw Tuesday's massive conventional/nonconventional preparedness drill. This means the Atomic, Biological, and Chemical unit was not involved in the exercise - an unfortunate omission, and not the only one.
The underlying goal of Tuesday and Wednesday's Home Front Command drill is to avoid a complete breakdown of Israeli society should it be confronted with a prolonged series of mixed conventional/unconventional attacks.
In the case of such attacks on schools, power facilities, strategic installations and urban areas, security forces are trained to quickly clear the area of chemical agents, remove the dead and wounded, and restore a semblance of order.
Experts say that neither the security forces nor the general population can be prepared for every eventuality, but a minimum of preparedness among the general population is required if we are to avoid the panic an unconventional attack could cause.
The real thing, if and when it comes, will not begin promptly at 2 p.m.
It could begin at 7:13 a.m. as parents are dropping their children off at school and, caught at the start of a hostage situation, try to rush the attackers; it could occur at 5:30 p.m. during peak traffic, when tens of thousands of cars are blocking the major highways and security and rescue vehicles find it impossible to reach any destination in the cities, or between the cities, let alone several simultaneously; it could happen when all the cellular networks are down and you're out of your mind with worry; it could happen during a large sports event; and it could happen in the middle of a general strike.
Since it is the citizens themselves who will most be affected by a nonconventional weapons attack, it is the citizens who need to be trained how to act during such times of extreme stress, and how best to cooperate with security forces.
Comments: Yes, it is not enough because nowhere in this article was God ever mentioned. What short memories the children of Israel have! Was it not the Lord who brought them out of Egypt’s slavery and through the Red Sea when Pharaoh chased after them? Didn’t the Lord save Israel time in time again when her many enemies assailed against her? Yet, here we are in 2007 and the spectre of Iran’s nukes and Syria’s biological and chemical arsenal loom over the tiny Jewish State. In the days of old, Israel’s godly leaders put on sackcloth and got down in a prostrate state before the Lord and left all matters of security to the God of Heaven. God miraculously protected Israel and utterly confounded and destroyed her enemies as a testimony and witness to the surrounding Gentile nations.
It was God who finally permitted the re-establishment of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948. Through five wars and numerous conflicts, God had preserved Israel from insurmountable (from a human standpoint) odds and God will continue to cast His protective arms over her no matter if her leaders are secular humanists. God’s promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to bless the children of Israel forever will never be rescinded no matter what. Israel might suffer a severe military setback in order to humble her, but her total destruction will never take place. All the pushing of nuke buttons will accomplish little and any missiles that do get launched loaded with WMDs will be totally annihilated by God Himself.
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Keep watching (Matt 24:42)!
Shalom!