August 13….Russian defense officials and strategists project that an Arab-Israeli war could erupt in the Middle East over the next three to six months. The widely-held scenario described a war that would engulf Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, according to senior Russian diplomats. The trigger for the war could take place in September. The Russian analysts expect an Israeli offensive against the Palestinian Authority triggered by Palestinian bombings of Israeli cities. Such an offensive, they said, could prompt Egypt to direct its Third Army to enter the Sinai. Israeli tanks rumbled into the heart of the West Bank town of Jenin early on Tuesday in the most far-reaching incursion into Palestinian-ruled territory yet.

Iraq has offered to lend Syria military support in any war against Israel. The offer was relayed to Syria during the current visit by Syrian Prime Minister Mustafa Miro to Baghdad. Iraq has deployed troops near both the Jordanian and Syrian borders. Over the last year, Iraqi and Syrian military commanders have discussed the prospect of a war against Israel. In Cairo, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak sent a high-level delegation to Washington to discuss increasing military tension in the Middle East. Egyptian Information Minister Sawfat Sherif said the meeting reviewed potential Israeli military moves against the Palestinians. This includes the takeover of the Orient House, the PLO headquarters in Jerusalem, and anticipated Israeli moves into West Bank cities.

August 14….Israeli tanks moved into the West Bank city of Jenin and flattened the offices of known Hamas and Holy Jihad operatives. The defense establishment has labeled Jenin the "city of bombers" since at least eight Hamas and Islamic Jihad suicide bombers had come from there.
Israel has demanded the Palestinians take a firm hand in thwarting terror and crack down on terrorist cells, but it has so far refrained from doing so. Thus Israel has chosen to take these matters into its own hands. This situation obligates Israel to act from time to time in areas where terrorist organizations blatantly operate without any attempts by the PA to thwart them.
The city of Jenin is situated about four miles south of Nazareth, the city of Jesus youth. Jenin is only about 11 miles from Haifa, and only about 5-6 miles away from the infamous valley of Meggido. The city of Jerusalem lies to the south.

Israel intends to build the Third Temple on the Temple Mount in order to strengthen its hold on Jerusalem, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat told Arab information ministers in Cairo today. The Third Temple will be built on the site of Al-Aksa Mosque, Arafat said.
Arafat called upon the ministers to prevent the United States from moving its embassy to Jerusalem, and preempt Israel from taking over the Temple Mount!

Despite the opposition of the United States and Israel to the convening of the Security Council to discuss the conflict in the region. On the agenda will be the situation in the territories, "including Jerusalem," as well as the renewed Palestinian request to discuss the deployment of international observers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Arab initiative, which was organized at the behest of the PLO, comes in response to Monday's IDF operation in Jenin, in which Israel penetrated into the heart of a Palestinian city for the first time since the major cities were handed over to the Palestinian Authority.

August 16….Israel halted plans for a second ground attack into Palestinian territory after the United States was said to have warned Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, against increasing the violence. After a day of shooting between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli troops on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Israeli tanks and infantry were reinforced around the Palestinian town of Bethlehem and, in particular, above the Christian hillside village of Beit Jala. Beit Jala has been utilized by Palestinan snipers to shoot into south Jerusalem neighborhoods, intentionally endangering the Christian community of Beit Jala. The Israelis called off their operation, despite encouragement from Ehud Olmert, the Mayor of Jerusalem, and even Mr Sharon, who said in a speech that the time had come to settle "the problem of Beit Jala" once and for all. President Bush made a public intervention when he described the Israeli intervention on Monday in the Palestinian town of Jenin as a "provocation".

If pollsters took a global survey asking what is the major stumbling block to peace in the Middle East, the top answer would likely be: Jewish settlers on the West Bank. Nearly all the world’s nations support the Palestinian claim that the Jewish settlements there are illegal. For Jews, the West Bank of the Jordan River is Judea and Samaria, the land of their forefathers. The Bible calls it "the mountains of Israel." It is the place where God spoke to the prophets and it is the absolute foundation point for Jewish history.The Israelis took control of Judea and Samaria, as well as Jerusalem, in the 1967 War with the surrounding Arab states. Palestinians outnumber Jews by a large margin in Judea and Samaria. But this territory, smaller than Delaware, was promised to Abraham and conquered by Joshua for the Israelites more than 3,000 years ago.
The Jews placed the Tabernacle of God in Shiloh and crowned David their king in Hebron. In fact, most of the history of biblical Israel took place in what is now the West Bank. But the Palestinians call the territory occupied land, and the West Bank is literally bleeding from the conflicting claims. Hanan Ashrawi, spokesperson for the Arab League, says their side is backed by international law and a host of United Nations resolutions. She says; "It is illegal to acquire territory by force, including the movement of people from occupier to occupied territories and land confiscation, which means the settlements must be removed. But world pressure on the Sharon government to stop building in Judea and Samaria is relentless. As for the Jews’ historical claims to the land, Hanan Ashrawi says her ancestors go back even further, to the ancient Caananites. She rejects the Bible as a source for the title deed to the West Bank.
"First of all, God does not dispense land and you do not bring holy texts in order to translate them into an exercise of sovereignty and power in the 21st Century," Ashrawi said.
But many Jews do believe the Bible gives them the right to live in Judea and Samaria.

Below is a picture of the younger children of the Shigueschuurder family, Leah (L) and Haya (2nd R) who were both wounded, Raya (2nd L) holding Chemda, and Abraham (R) who were killed in the August 9, 2001 suicide bomb blast in Jerusalem. A Palestinian suicide bomber killed at least 15 people, including six children, and wounded about 90 when he detonated a nail-packed bomb in the Jerusalem Sbarro pizza restaurant crowded with families. The Shigueschuurder parents also died in the blast.

The major world powers have blasted Israel for its takeover of the Palestinian headquarters
in Arab East Jerusalem in response to the Palestinian suicide bombing in the Jewish part of Jerusalem. The United States criticized Israel's reassertion of control over the Palestinian areas and branded the step a ''political escalation'' that sabotaged a negotiated settlement. These actions represent a political escalation, undermine faith and confidence in a negotiated settlement of this conflict and increase the risk of further deterioration of the political situation.''
Egypt joined the chorus of condemnation. Its foreign minister called the seizure of Orient House provocative. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov held urgent telephone talks with top Israeli and Palestinian, U.S. and U.N. officials, and warned of impending catastrophe if Israel persists in
holding onto the Orient House. France also slammed the Israeli takeover, noting that it violated the 1993 Oslo interim peace deal. Israel's crackdown is a direct challenge to Palestinian claims to East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. The Palestinian people are left with no choice but to escalate resistance and the Intifada to liberate Holy Jerusalem and regain the Orient House, said sources close to Arafat. Israeli Public Security Minister Uzi Landau said the Orient House takeover was a "permanent" measure meant to assert Israeli control over all of Jerusalem.
Israeli policeman raise an Israeli flag at the Orient House, the east-Jerusalem headquarter of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) August 10, 2001 after Israeli police and special forces entered and closed it following a deadly suicide bombing.

August 10….U.S. and British warplanes bombed three sites in southern Iraq on Friday. The planes struck targets described by the defense official as "a military communications center, a surface-to-air missile launching site and a radar" - all elements of Iraq integrated air defense network. All three targets were in southern Iraq, where U.S. and British planes have been enforcing a no fly zone since shortly after the end of the 1991 Gulf War.

August 10…Malka, 17, was killed and three other teenage girls were wounded, ne of them seriously, when Palestinian terrorists opened fire at their car en route to Kibbutz Merav on Mount Gilboa. Police said the gunmen fired from ambush as the girls were returning to their homes on the kibbutz, apparently from an outing in Beit She'an. The driver, a young woman doing national service, was not hit and managed to carry on to the entrance of the kibbutz.
The terrorists, who escaped, apparently came from the nearby town of Jenin, and the Israeli defense establishment believes they were Fatah members.

Jerusalem police closed down the PLO’s east Jerusalem Orient House headquarters and nine other Palestinian buildings, while the IDF has taken control of Palestinian military and political headquarters at Abu Dis just outside Jerusalem this morning. The IDF also attacked the Palestinian Authority's West Bank police headquarters in Ramallah. The compound in Abu Dis was slated to have become the future official parliament area for a Palestinian state. Far more than any military operation, Israel’s takeover and shutdown of institutions signifying a Palestinian state presence in Jerusalem are a severe political and psychological blow to Palestinian aspirations and to Yasser Arafat’s pride. It is a reversal of the most important of his gains from the Oslo Accords of 1993. However, the raids were less than many Israeli’s wanted. Many are calling for the elimination of Yasser Arafat himself.

August 9…. At least eight people were killed and more than 70 wounded when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up on Thursday in a crowded Jerusalem pizza restaurant during the busy lunch hour. The blast shook the busy shopping district in the heart of Jerusalem, blowing out the shop windows of the Sbarro's restaurant on Jaffa Street, the city's main thoroughfare. The bomb had been packed with nails to make it more deadly.
Ambulance crews carried the wounded on stretchers as those with less severe injuries watched with dazed expressions on their faces. Many of the wounded were covered in blood and their clothes had been blown off their bodies from the blast. The terrorist cell Islamic Jihad has claimed responsibility for the attack in Jerusalem. The attack came after numerous other assaults on individuals in downtown Jerusalem earlier in the day.

August 9…. Just inside the ancient walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, Israeli archaeologists have begun unearthing what they believe are parts of a palace built for King Herod about 2,000 years ago. The archaeologists say they have uncovered five walls from two different periods. Four of the walls, built with square limestone blocks, run parallel to each other and probably formed the foundations of Herod’s palace. Israeli archaeologists believe the fortress of the king, who reigned from 37 B.C. to 4 B.C., was located a few dozen yards away from the dig under what is now a police station. They base their theory on descriptions of the area by first-century historian Flavius Josephus and their knowledge that Herod built structures on large platforms. Both the Temple and Herod’s palace were destroyed by the Romans when they conquered the city in A.D. 70. One of the retaining walls survives as the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray today.

Tens of thousands of Iranians marched through Tehran this morning chanting "Death to America! Death to Israel!" in a rally in support of the Palestinians. As they marched, the demonstrators chanted "God is Great!" as well as "Death to America Death to Israel!"
In Arabic, they chanted "Muslims, Muslims, unify! Unify!" Meanwhile thousands of Palestinians danced in the streets throughout the West Bank celebrating the suicide killing of the 19 Israeli’s gathered in a lunch hour Jerusalem pizza parlor.

August 9….Eighteen people were killed and nearly 90 wounded when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up on Thursday in a crowded Jerusalem restaurant during the busy lunch hour. The blast shook the central shopping district in the heart of Jerusalem, blowing out the shop windows of the Sbarro restaurant on Jaffa Street, the city's main thoroughfare. Ambulance crews carried badly wounded people on stretchers as those with less severe injuries watched, dazed expressions on their faces. Many of the wounded were covered in blood, their clothes stripped from them by the blast. Hospitals reported 87 people were wounded in the blast, including four babies and two children. Witnesses described seeing at least one girl lying dead at the scene.
The terrorist cell Islamic Jihad has claimed responsibility for the attack in Jerusalem. A statement issued by Islamic Jihad in Beirut, Lebanon, and faxed to The Associated Press claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing, saying it was carried out by Hussein Omar Abu Naaseh, 23. It said the bombing was a part of our response to the cowardly assassinations that Israel is carrying out against Palestinians and that more suicide bombers are on their way. The attack came after numerous other assaults on individuals in downtown Jerusalem earlier in the day.

August 7….Some of the nation's evangelical leaders are hoping thy can wield some political capital with the White House and influence U.S. policy in the Middle East. They are urging President Bush to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem because, the Holy Land belongs to the Jews. Congress passed a law in 1995 aimed at moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, but President Clinton used an escape clause allowing him to postpone the move on national security grounds. During the 2000 presidential campaign Mr. Bush promised to implement the law. However, in June he signed a waiver postponing any relocation for six months. They characterized PLO leader Yassar Arafat as not being a "legitimate negotiating peace partner," and that U.S. policy was driven by concern over Arab oil, not the Palestinian uprising or terrorism in Israel.

Senior Palestinian officials are warning of a collapse of the regime of Yasser Arafat. The officials described a state of chaos in the Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip amid an escalating economic and military crisis. They said Arafat, chairman of the Palestinian Authority, has refused to address the issue. Over the weekend, the Palestinian Wafa news agency urged an end to Palestinian attacks against Israel. The agency said the attacks are counterproductive and hurt the Palestinian cause abroad. For his part, Arafat has warned of an impending collapse of the PA. Israeli peacenik sources indicate that Arafat might even be assassinated by Palestinians unless Israel lends a helping hand to prop up the Arafat regime. Shimon Peres and his Labor peace-at-any-price associates fear that the loss of Arafat will destroy any legitimate hopes of a peace deal. There is growing support and solidarity among the Palestinian population for Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Some reports indicate that Arafat is considering a Palestinian National Unity Front against Israel. Arafat seems to have placed too many of his cards on the wrong side of the table, by inciting the Temple Mount violence. He now faces assassination threats from multiple fronts.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher yesterday called Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government a "gang of assassins". Egyptian President Mubarak has repeatedly denounced Ariel Sharon as a legitimate leader. A top Saudi Arabian official says moderate Arab states Egypt and Saudi Arabia should not rule out war with Israel. Ghazi Al-Quseibi, the Saudi ambassador to the United Kingdom, says Arab states need to overcome their fear of a war with technologically superior Israel, a war, whose result is not inevitable if the Jewish state is forced to fight on two fronts.

Following are excerpts from a sermon given by Sheik Ibrahim Madhi at the Sheik ’Ijlin Mosque in Gaza and recently broadcast on official Palestinian Authority television:
The greatest enemies of the Islamic nation are the Jews, may Allah fight them.
All weapons must be aimed at the Jews, the enemies of Allah, the cursed nation in the Koran, the nation whom the Koran describes as monkeys and pigs, worshippers of the calf and all idol worshippers. Whoever wants to save himself, should enter to the true religion, "Islam" and repent, and then there will be no problems between him and us, our rights will be his and his obligations will be ours. However, he who came to this land as an invader and did not enter the religion of Allah, should go back to the place he came from, or else, our spears will reach him, Allah willing."Allah shall make the Moslem rule over the Jew! We will blow them up in Hadera, we will blow them up in Tel-Aviv and in Netanya in the righteousness of Allah against this germ-people. "We will enter Jerusalem as conquerors, and Jaffa as conquerors, and Haifa as conquerors and Ashkelon as conquerors! We bless all those who educate their children to Jihad and to Martyrdom, blessings to he who has shot a bullet into the head of any Jew..."