The following articles are compiled by:

Leo Wong

Leo@WatchmenWatching.com

 

 

 

PM Ehud Olmert: 'Israel seeks peace with Syria'

Source: Jerusalem Post

 

June 6, 2007 -- "Israel seeks peace with Syria, but we must be wary of miscalculations which could bring about an unwanted escalation," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday after the security cabinet meeting devoted almost exclusively to Syria.

 

The Prime Minister's Office said Israel has no belligerent intentions toward Syria and has relayed this message to Damascus through various diplomatic channels.

 

The results of the meeting that ended around noon Wednesday were kept secret except for an announcement regarding a special forum that would be devoted to analyzing Syria's intentions and relaying them to the prime minister.

 

The forum would receive updates from military intelligence sources and other agencies. The members of the forum would be Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman, National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer and Labor, Trade and Industry Minister Eli Yishai.

 

The meeting on Wednesday morning followed weeks of conflicting signals regarding whether Israel is, or should, look into the meaning of Syria's declared interest in negotiations.

 

The ministers are expected to hear briefings from various governmental agencies - the Mossad, the National Security Council, military intelligence and the Foreign Ministry - regarding Syria's intentions.

 

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's position for months has been that the Syrians were interested in the "peace process" in order to end their international isolation, but not in peace itself. According to his argument, Syria's policy of housing terrorist organizations, having a close alliance with Iran and shipping arms to Hizbullah were not indications of a regime that was truly interested in peace with Israel.

 

This position is very much in line with that of the Bush Administration, which - despite a meeting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had recently with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem - continues to want to see Damascus isolated.

 

The US also believes that the focus of attention now should be on the Palestinian track, rather than the Syrian one, on the assumption that Israel cannot work on both tracks at the same time, and that the Palestinian situation is more urgent.

 

Comments:  “Look over here”, clamours Syria, “We’re not going to play second fiddle to the Palestinians any longer.”  You can’t help but sympathize with the Syrians’ plight.  For 40 years now, they’ve been upstaged by Yasser Arafat and his successor in shining the spotlight on the Palestinians’ cause over Syria’s sporadic demands for the return of the strategic Golan Heights.  Maybe it was Arafat’s effusive charisma or Syria’s stoic leaders who didn’t quite capture the press media’s attention that Syria had been perennially relegated to the background.  Israel does take Syria’s threat of another war against the Jewish state very seriously.  However, the U.S. wants Syria isolated and the Americans dictate to Israel what her priorities ought to be.  Of course, America doesn’t have a clear pulse of the situation over there in the Middle East as does Israel.  It will be Israeli fighter jets and tanks that will have to respond to any Syrian pre-emptive attack, not the U.S.  It’s best to talk with Syria about returning the Golan Heights and the sooner the better because Syria’s patience is wearing thinner than ABC Correspondent Hugh Downs’ knee caps were prior to his knee cap operation.  War with Syria seems certain as Isaiah 17:1 and Jeremiah 49 have not yet been fulfilled.

 

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EU needs to move from 'post-Soviet era' strategic thinking towards euro-Mediterranean and African countries

Source: EUObserver.com

 

June 6, 2007 -- The EU remains in post Soviet-era strategic thinking and has yet to adapt itself to the new threats posed by terrorism and radicalised Islamic ideology, according to Portugal's foreign minister.

 

Giving a preview of his country's priorities when it takes over the EU presidency on 1 July, Luis Amado on Tuesday (15 May) at a meeting of NGO Friends of Europe indicated Lisbon will shift the political focus of the bloc towards euro-Mediterranean and African countries, which he said were the origin of many of these new challenges.

 

"I think we need to understand that the strategic environment has changed after the 9/11 events," said the minister referring to the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington in 2001.

 

He added that the bloc is still working in a "post-Soviet era," with much of the focus on Europe's borders to the east.

 

Instead, said Mr Amado, the EU should find the same "strategic vision and leadership" that it used to keep peace in its eastern neighbourhood after the disintegration of the Soviet empire - which eventually resulted in the EU taking on eight new member states from the region - in a new focus beyond Europe's southern borders.

 

"This strategic cycle is ending," he said of the bloc's eastern focus noting that extreme poverty and fractured states crippled by organised crime are contributing to an "escalation in resentment" and "growing radicalism" in some African and euro-Mediterranean countries.

 

Comments:  There’s a Patsy Cline song called “South of the Border (Down Mexico Way).” Similarly, the EU plans to go south down Club Mediterranean-Africa Way.  Where there’s a will, there’s a way. The Old Roman Empire was comprised of Eastern and Western Europe as well as countries that presently have shorelines along the Mediterranean Sea such as Morocco, Lebanon and Israel.  These nations will no longer be “Strangers on the Shore.” We’re seeing before our very eyes the revival of that old empire.  Being that we’re well along the Bible prophetic timeline, it’s not too surprising that Portugal (the 12^th nation to join the EU) intends to shift focus from Russia and Eastern Europe to the southward direction.  The consummation of this revival may occur prior to or just after the Rapture event!

 

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Muhammad is No. 2 in boy's names in Britain

Source: timesonline.co.uk

 

June 6, 2007 -- Muhammad is now second only to Jack as the most popular name for baby boys in Britain and is likely to rise to No 1 by next year, a study by The Times has found. The name, if all 14 different spellings are included, was shared by 5,991 newborn boys last year, beating Thomas into third place, followed by Joshua and Oliver.

 

Scholars said that the name’s rise up the league table was driven partly by the growing number of young Muslims having families, coupled with the desire to name their child in honour of the Prophet.

 

Muhammad Anwar, Professor of Ethnic Relations at Warwick University, said: “Muslim parents like to have something that shows a link with their religion or with the Prophet.”

 

Comments:  “What’s in a name?” they say.  Well, in this instance, it says a lot about Britons who named their newborn son Muhammad.  There’s a reverence and adulation for the deceased prophet of Islam.  He’s now more popular than when he was alive and slaughtering “infidels” by the thousands.  Will his namesakes follow in his footsteps?  If they adhere to the Koran in the most literal sense, they will.  The Islamicization of Europe is well under way.  Britain is farther along than other EU countries.  In America and Canada, there’s a growing interest by some of their citizens to learn all they can about the religion of Islam.  Many have signed up for evening courses in Middle Eastern culture, Islam and Allah, All You Ever Wanted to Know About the Koran But Were Afraid to Ask, the footsteps of Muhammad, etc.  Unlike Christianity, Islam is a mysterious religion that piques the interest of our youths, Generation Xers and even the Baby Boomers.  In a post-Rapture world, expect Islam, apostate Christendom, and other pagan based faiths to share the religious stage.

 

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Vatican to tap solar energy 

Source: Associated Press/www.breitbart.com

 

June 6, 2007 -- Home Holy See buildings will start using solar energy, reflecting Pope Benedict XVI's concern about conserving the Earth's resources, a Vatican engineer said Tuesday.

 

The roof of the Paul VI auditorium will be redone next year, with its cement panels replaced with photovoltaic cells to convert sunlight into electricity, engineer Pier Carlo Cuscianna said.

 

The 6,300-seat auditorium is used for the pontiff's general audiences on Wednesdays in winter and in bad weather during the rest of the year. Concerts in honor of pontiffs are also staged in the hall, with its sweeping stage.

 

The cells will produce enough electricity to illuminate heat or cool the building, Cuscianna said.

 

Comments:  The greening of the Vatican has begun.  Maybe Pope Benedict will turn into an Irishman in time.  All kidding aside, it stands to reason that eventually, the pope would hop aboard the ‘save Earth” freight train.  Everyone who is endeared to “Mother Earth/Mother Nature” is sounding the alarm bells that time of the essence.  If we don’t do something drastic soon (within 15 years), planet Earth will be devoid of all organic life.  Every humanoid must get off his/her duff and do his/her part.  The stop global warming agenda is religious based.  It is effective in uniting the entire world for a common cause.  Scientists who have examined the data and who haven’t been brainwashed by Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth have decried that mankind can affect climate change by very little (perhaps by 5%).  Throughout history, Earth had experienced cyclical global warming and cooling and mankind was no where as highly advanced as he is today.  The pagan worship Mother Earth program will eventually lead to the worship of the Antichrist.

 

Democratic presidential hopefuls share their views on faith, God and Jesus

Source: Associated Press/www.breitbart.com

 

June 6, 2007 -- In a rare public discussion of her husband's infidelity, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that she probably could not have gotten through her marital troubles without relying on her faith in God.

 

Clinton stood by her actions in the aftermath of former President Clinton's admission that he had an affair, including presumably her decision to stay in the marriage.

 

"I am very grateful that I had a grounding in faith that gave me the courage and the strength to do what I thought was right, regardless of what the world thought," Clinton said during a forum where the three leading Democratic presidential candidates talked about faith and values.

 

"I'm not sure I would have gotten through it without my faith," she said in response to a question about how she dealt with the infidelity.

 

The forum, sponsored by the liberal Sojourners/Call to Renewal evangelical organization, provided an uncommon glimpse into the most personal beliefs of Clinton and rivals John Edwards and Barack Obama. The three candidates were invited by Sojourners founder Jim Wallis; most of the other Democratic candidates appeared on CNN later Monday to discuss their faith.

 

The most intimate question came about the Clintons' relationship, one of the world's most debated marriages but one that the husband and wife rarely speak openly about.

 

Clinton said she's "been tested in ways that are both publicly known and those that are not so well known or not known at all." She said it's those times when her personal faith and the prayers of others sustain her.

 

"At those moments in time when you are tested, it is absolutely essential that you be grounded in your faith," she said.

 

Edwards revealed that he prays—and sins—every day. The crowd gasped loudly when moderator Soledad O'Brien asked Edwards to name the biggest sin he ever committed, and he won their applause when he said he would have a hard time naming one thing.

 

"I sin every single day," said Edwards, the 2004 vice presidential nominee. "We are all sinners and we all fall short."

 

Edwards, wearing a purple tie to match Sojourners' signature color, promoted himself as the candidate most committed to the group's mission of fighting poverty. He said he doesn't feel his belief in evolution is inconsistent with his belief in Christ and he doesn't personally feel gays should be married, although as president he wouldn't impose his belief system on the rest of the country.

 

"I have a deep and abiding love for my Lord, Jesus Christ," Edwards said, but he said the United States shouldn't be called a Christian nation.

 

He said he has been going to church since he was a child and was baptized as a teen. He said he strayed from his faith as an adult and it came "roaring back" when his teenage son died in 1996.

 

"It was the Lord that got me through that," Edwards said, along with both of his wife's cancer diagnoses.

 

Clinton acknowledged that talking about her religious beliefs doesn't come naturally to her.

 

"I take my faith very seriously and very personally," she said. "And I come from a tradition that is perhaps a little too suspicious of people who wear their faith on their sleeves."

 

Each candidate was given 15 minutes to appear before the packed auditorium at George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium and a live audience on CNN. They were questioned by O'Brien and by church leaders across the country.

 

Obama's appearance focused more on policy than the personal. Asked whether he agreed with President Bush's portrayal of the current global struggles in terms of good verses evil, Obama said there is a risk in viewing the world in such terms.

 

He said he believes that the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, were the result of evil.

 

Comments:  The two amigos and one amiga sure do want the Christian votes next November.  Even though they’re liberal Democrats in terms of political persuasion, they profess some faith in God and in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Of course, only God/Jesus knows whether they’re saved or lost.  To hold a personal belief in evolution is to say to God, “You’re a liar” when the very first verse in the Bible is disbelieved.  Evolution is a doctrine of demons.  Ms. Clinton thinks that Christians who wear their faith on their sleeves aren’t to be trusted.  Hello Hillary!  There’s no point in hiding your lighted candle under your bed where the boogie woogie man is hiding to pounce on you.  Real believers who love their Lord Jesus are to proclaim their faith in an open way.  As for Barack Obama, he’s a Muslim and a professing Christian.  It’s not coincidental then that he would try to deflect the subject of God and faith toward 9/11 which he attributed to the work of the Devil.  It was radical Islam that perpetrated the attacks on America soil.  The attacks were the result of evil men fuelled by Islam’s call for destroying all infidels.  Yes, America isn’t a Christian country anymore.  It is going down the swirling toilet and into the sceptic tank of iniquity.

 

 

 

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Keep watching (Matt 24:42)!

 

Until next time,

Shalom!

 

 

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