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WEEK of APRIL 22 THROUGH APRIL 28


Muslim Mob Attacks Christian Village

April 28
….(Harpazo) At least 12 people are reported to have been killed by a mob which attacked a Christian village in the Moluccan islands in eastern Indonesia. According to Christian sources, some of the victims have been decapitated. It is the most serious outbreak of violence in the region since a peace agreement was signed by Christian and Muslim leaders to end the sectarian conflict. Christian sources say the attack was carried out by a Muslim mob armed with machetes, knives and bombs. Their target was a Christian village on the outskirts of the provincial capital, Ambon. Three of the corpses, which have now been taken to a local hospital, are reported to have been decapitated. Houses in the village are reported to have been set on fire. The violence comes just two days after the leader of the extremist Islamic organisation, Lashkar Jihad, called on all Muslims in the Moluccan islands to launch a renewed war against the Christian community.

U.S. Eying Iraq Invasion in 2003

April 28
….(Harpazo) The Bush administration is reportedly lotting a potential major air campaign and ground invasion early next year to topple the Iraqi government of President Saddam Hussein. The U.S. is planning to send 70,000 to 250,000 troops to the Middle East to remove Saddam. For years, official U.S. policy has been to work for a "regime change" in Iraq. Since the September 11 strikes, which exposed America's vulnerability to attack, the Bush administration has repeatedly said it has to act to prevent the possibility of Baghdad using weapons of mass destruction. The White house concluded a coup in Iraq would be unlikely to succeed and a proxy battle using local forces there would be insufficient to bring about the downfall of Saddam Hussein.



U.S. Riding the Fence over Israel?
Commentary on news by: Darrell G. Young

April 26
….House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) is promoting a strongly worded declaration of congressional support for Israel over the objection of Bush administration officials. A White House official said the administration has warned DeLay that he could hamper the U.S. effort to persuade Israel's Arab neighbors -- including Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia -- to help curb Palestinian violence. "Nobody doubts our support for Israel, but putting it in neon lights and throwing it in the face of moderate Arab states is not helpful," the official said. During a private meeting with congressional leaders on Wednesday, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell urged DeLay to withdraw the resolution. Secretary Powell termed the declaration of support for Israel as a hindrance to U.S. interests in the region. The five-page "resolution expressing solidarity with Israel in its fight against terrorism" says the House "is gravely concerned that Arafat's actions are not those of a viable partner for peace. What's most important is to send a message to the world, to Europe and Arab countries, that this Congress, this House, stands squarely in support of Israel and its war on terrorism," DeLay said. "There should never, ever be negotiations with terrorists."

Note: American foreign policy makers at the State Department have always deemed the Bible as irrelevant in conducting the foreign affairs of this nation. But when it comes to the tiny nation of Israel, it is imperative for America ( if it is a Christian nation ) to stand by Israel. That does not mean to support every single action Israel takes, but it does mean to firmly support God's Covenant with that nation, and that Covenant involves the Land being Partitioned!

Policy Divide Thwarts Powell in Mideast Effort

April 26
….(Washington Post)State Department officials say Secretary of State Colin L. Powell has been repeatedly undercut by other senior policymakers in his effort to break the Middle East deadlock, warning this has left U.S. diplomacy paralyzed at an especially volatile moment. State Department officials say that Powell's return from the Middle East a week ago with few concrete results reflects a mis-management within the Bush Administration. They partly fault what they said was the administration's unwillingness to stand behind Powell, especially in pressuring Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to withdraw his forces from West Bank cities. Many in the State Department cite resistance to their diplomatic efforts coming from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who has more of a voice in shaping Middle East policy than his predecessors. The opinions of Rumsfeld and his key lieutenants, notably Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz and Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith, figure prominently because the Pentagon has been given a seat at interagency discussions over the Middle East conflict. In recent years, the peace process was largely the purview of the State Department and the White House. Rumsfeld and his advisers have advocated giving Sharon wide latitude to press his military operations, viewing the Israeli campaign as a legitimate war on terrorism. At the same time, they see little value in trying to engage Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in renewed negotiations. Powell and his team have a different view on Israel. The Powell team views Israel with much less affinity. With Powell back from the region, President Bush has as yet been able to resolve what a former State Department official called the "battle royal" between Defense and State Departments. Senior State and Defense Department officials have disagreed over a range of issues, including Iraq, peacekeepers in Afghanistan and arms agreements with Russia. But a senior administration official said the tension has become especially pronounced over the Middle East, and especially over Israel!



Bush Administration Divided on Israel

April 26
….(Israel My Beloved) The Bush Administration this week attempted to further close the door on outright US support for Israel's war on Palestinian terror by challenging two pro-Israel moves made by the Congress. In the first instance, a White House official said yesterday that the Bush Administration is at this time opposed to a Republican-backed $200 million emergency assistance package to Israel. House Republican leaders want the extra aid included in a special anti-terrorism package the Congress plans to begin writing next week. Comments made by budget director Mitchell Daniels underscored the administration's reluctance to do anything at this time that may cause further tensions between Washington and its Arab allies. Anger is growing in the Arab world over what it sees as American bias towards Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians. The second issue dividing congressional and administration officials this week is that of an upcoming House-sponsored resolution of support for Israel "in its fight against terrorism." US Secretary of State Colin Powell urged House leaders earlier in the week to put off the resolution, saying his peace efforts in the Middle East were at a delicate stage, and interference by the Congress at this time could damage the outcome.

Note: America's fate in the “controversy with God” over Israel, hangs in the balance of the pathway America chooses in this conflict.

Bush and Abdullah Share Same Vision

April 26
….President Bush, after meeting for five hours at his ranch with Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, yesterday called on Israel to complete its withdrawal from the West Bank and predicted oil would not be used as a weapon against the United States. Israel must finish its withdrawal, including resolution of standoffs in Ramallah, in Bethlehem, in a nonviolent way," he said. "We also agreed the world must join in offering humanitarian aid to the many innocent Palestinians who are suffering. "Mr. Bush and his advisers took pains to reaffirm America's strong friendship with Saudi Arabia and discredit press reports that had predicted deteriorating relationship. "Some forces would like to see a division between the United States and Saudi Arabia, but our relationship is strong" Mr. Bush said. “We both share a vision of two states, “Israel and Palestine”, living side-by-side in peace with security”. But Crown Prince Abdullah, who skipped the post meeting press conference delivered a stern warning to President Bush, saying that if the United States would face "grave consequences" if it does not rein in Israel. Reporting on Abdullah's sharp-edged message to Bush, Jubeir, the crown prince's foreign policy aide, said: "If Sharon is left to his own devices, he will drag the region over a cliff, and that does not serve America's interest and it does not serve Saudi Arabia's interest." "If the United States doesn't do more to reduce the violence," he said Abdullah told Bush, "there will be grave consequences for the U.S. and its regional interests." The United States buys 1.7 million barrels of Saudi oil a day, more than twice the amount of 15 years ago, and is Saudi Arabia's biggest customer. The Saudis in turn buy more American weapons than anyone else--$39 billion in purchases in the 1990s

President Bush also had some advice for the Crown Prince. Mr. Bush had his own stern message: a call to Saudi Arabia to be "constructive" in bringing peace to the Middle East. He urged the 78-year-old prince to stop funding the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and to put more pressure on Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, to control terrorism

But the Bush Administration appears to have some divisions within it. State Department officials said that Mr. Bush, Dick Cheney, the vice-president, and Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, were expecting to be "hammered on Israel" by the Secretary of State.



Saudi Arabia Blackmailing President Bush
Commentary by Darrell G. Young

April 25
….Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, is in Texas today to meet with U.S. President Bush, and is expected to tell the President in stark terms at their meeting that the strategic relationship between their two countries will be threatened if Mr. Bush does not harness his support for Israel and its military policies. In a bleak assessment, he said there was talk within the Saudi royal family and in Arab capitals of using the "oil weapon" against the United States, and demanding that the United States leave strategic military bases in the region. The Prince is set to inform President Bush that this is America's "last chance" for a constructive relationship with the Arab world. While the Prince plans to attend a gathering of the luminaries of the international energy industry in College Station after meeting the President, he also has disclosed that if the meeting with President Bush did not produce desired results that he would return to Saudi Arabia and issue a call for a summit meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The OIS and its 44 leaders represent 1.2 billion Muslims. Crown Prince Abdullah is reported to be bitter over the White House's assertion that the president is taking a balanced approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and he wants to evaluate in person whether Mr. Bush understands how his actions are being perceived in the Arab world. The Prince may tell the Islamic World that the new American President is pro-Israel and that all hands are off in the Saudi-American relationship.

Note: Saudi Arabia is courting Russia for a new strategic partnership in the Middle East. ( see FOJ news article for April 22…..Saudi Arabia seeks ties to Russia )

PLO Conducts Mock Trial Terrorists

April 25
….(Arutz) In what amounted to little more than a show for television news crews, PLO officials tried and convicted four Arabs of various levels of involvement in the murder of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi. The "trial" took place in a makeshift court within Yasser Arafat's Ramallah compound, where a member of Arafat's security force with no previous legal experience acted as judge. A PLO policeman who had never served as a lawyer in a legitimate court of law was the defense attorney. The terrorist who actually pulled the trigger and murdered Ze'evi, Hamdi Quran, was sentenced to 18 years in prison, his lookout Basel Al-Asmar received 12 years, and the driver of the getaway car, Majdi Rimawi, received an eight-year term. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon immediately announced that Israel does not recognize the trial. Palmach Ze'evi, the son of the slain minister, had this to say after hearing the news: "The so-called trial being held in Arafat's headquarters is an embarrassment to Israel and her sovereignty... It is yet another proof of the foolishness and disgrace of the Oslo Peace Accords. The PLO claims that it is not required to turn over terror suspects to Israel, saying that the Oslo Accords state that the PLO may try those accused of carrying out attacks against Israelis in their own courts. Israel, however, states that it has the right to try suspects accused of criminal activity perpetrated on Israeli soil. Ze'evi was murdered in the Hyatt Hotel, in Jerusalem. Since the signing of the accords in 1994, the PLO has yet to turn over to Israel a single wanted terrorist suspect.

Powell: No Massacre In Jenin

April 25
…..(Arutz) U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell testified before a Senate Committee yesterday that there is simply no evidence that IDF forces carried out a massacre in Jenin. Speaking before the Senate Appropriations Foreign Operations subcommittee, Powell said, "Clearly people died in Jenin, and persons who were terrorists died in Jenin and in the course of that battle innocent lives may well have been lost, but I've seen no evidence of mass graves and I've seen no evidence that would suggest a massacre took place."



The Terrorists Have been Quieted
Commentary by Darrell G. Young
April 25
…..Whatever one makes of the recent Israeli incursion into the West Bank in pursuit of terrorists, one thing is abundantly clear. The daily barrage of suicide bombings before the Israeli reprisals have ceased, at least for awhile. Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland, head of Israel's military's planning branch, reveals that in the West Bank "almost the entire leadership" of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militia linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, had been killed or arrested. So, why hasn't the world taken notice of the sudden reduction in Palestinian terrorist activity? Why does the world continue to harass Israel for taking such practical security measures? Apparently the world believes that Israel should have allowed the terrorists a free hand to continue their insidious assaults.

United Nations Sponsors Refugee Camps

April 25
….(Jerusalem Post) Israeli officials are going to press Secretary-General Kofi Annan to act against the establishment of terrorist centers in U.N. funded Palestinian refugee camps. "I think this should be the first point to be looked at, how it came about that supposedly civilian refugee camps have become infrastructures of terror," said Deputy Ambassador to the UN Aaron Jacob. He noted that 23 suicide bombers from Jenin exploded themselves among Israeli civilians before the IDF took action against the camp. The UN team is being dispatched to Jenin in accordance with Security Resolution 1405, passed unanimously by the 15-member body on April 19. The resolution calls on Annan "to develop accurate information regarding recent events in the Jenin refugee camp" through the appointment of a fact-finding team.

Note: While the U.N. seems more determined to find Israeli fault in Jenin, the real question with respect to Jenin and other Palestinian cities and refugee camps relates to how these civilian areas became centers of terrorist activity in the first place! And right under Yasser Arafat's nose!



Hizbullah Opening 2nd Front With Israel?

April 25
….(Jerusalem Post) The Hizbullah terrorist organization has almost total control of South Lebanon and is increasing its cooperation with Ahmed Jibril's Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command in an attempt to open a new front with Israel, according to an article published in Jane's Defense Weekly. The London-based journal noted that there has been a recent mobilization of Hizbullah forces in the south and an escalation of attacks on IDF positions and Israeli towns near the northern border. While it is widely assumed that the Hizbullah Shi'as and the Palestinian Sunnis have different agendas and do not coordinate militarily, there is "significant evidence to the contrary," with Hizbullah pledging to support a broad Islamic coalition to wrest the city of Jerusalem from Israel. ( see article for April 24 about Syrian marches for “war on Jerusalem” )

Arab Commanders Account on Jenin

April 25
….(world net daily) Testimonies given in the Arab media from Palestinian commanders support Israel's contention that its soldiers fought fierce battles at the Jenin refugee camp with Palestinian gunmen that used booby traps and civilians, including children, to engage in 'guerrilla warfare,' according to translations by the Middle East Media Research Institute in Washington, D.C. "The truth is that the fighting conducted in the Jenin Refugee Camp was fought from neighborhood to neighborhood, like in guerrilla warfare," said Sheikh Jamal Abu Al-Hija, the commander of the Hamas Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades in the Jenin refugee camp.



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President Bush Promoting Palestinian State

April 24
….( AP ) Lasting peace in the Middle East is possible only if a Palestinian state is established, President Bush said Tuesday as he reached out to the Arab world. Bush also urged Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to speed up the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank and pressed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to confront terrorism. "The only way for there to be lasting peace is for there to be two states living side by side at peace with each other," Bush said. The Presidents ideal would have Israel turn over the land the Arabs lost in the 1967 Mid-east war in exchange for pledges of peace and recognition. The issue of an international peace conference on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict was raised during Secretary Powell's recent trip to the region. Such a conference is hoped to foster a coalition of countries committed to peace, guaranteeing Israel's security.

Ariel Sharon Outlines Peace Proposal April 24…..( Jerusalem Post) Prime Minister Ariel Sharon spoke to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual policy conference yesterday and outlined his vision of a regional peace conference, which he said would provide a forum for him to present his vision of a peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians. Mr. Sharon said his peace plan contains three phases: 1.) a complete cessation of violence, hostilities, and especially incitement which leads to violent terrorist acts; a long-term intermediate agreement, similar to an armistice; and 2.) finally a permanent peace agreement in which Israel's final borders and the Palestinians' final borders will be established, ending the conflict between us and the Palestinians and the Arab countries." 3.) This must be based on Israel's right to exist in secure borders and provide for normalized relations with all countries in the region," he added.

Saudi Arabia Masses Troops Near Jordan

April 24
….(AP) Saudi Arabia has apparently sent eight brigades to its border with Jordan after receiving intelligence reports that Israel was massing troops along the Jordanian border, Saudi officials report. The eight brigades, compromising 8,000 soldiers equipped with armored personnel carriers and missile launchers, moved into the Tabuk region in northern Saudi Arabia. Another Saudi source at the kingdom's defense and aviation ministry stated that Saudi armed forces units are merely conducting “routine exercises” in the northwestern region, not beefing up their troop presence there. Israel indicates that it has not increased its troops along the border with Jordan. The Saudi air force has been instructed to intercept Israeli fighters that enter Saudi airspace and engage them if the Israeli fighters didn't leave. Tabuk is about 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) northeast of the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Saudi Arabia does not recognize the existence of the state of Israel.

(Debkafile) But according to Debkafile military sources, the Saudis were also aware that Iraq had already kicked off this round of military moves and that Israel had countered with a blocking tactic. Iraq started massing forces several weeks ago consisting of 4 of its 7 crack Republican Guard divisions, which are stationed in the center of the country opposite the Jordanian frontier. The Iraqi high command expects the first American strike, carried out under the cover of a bombing and missile barrage, will try and capture this area and take over four of its bases, much in the way a main US base was set up in Kandahar, Afghanistan. From there US forces could threaten the Iraqi Capital of Baghdad. The Israeli troop concentration the Saudis are countering is poised to defend Jordan against an Iraqi assault into Jordan. Iraqi has planned missile barrages aimed at Israel and US military targets in the Jewish state, as well as American military facilities in the Gulf. American military strategists have already prepared war plans for invading Iraq. Saudi Arabia Jordanian and Israeli military planners are also working hard on contingency plans.

Russia Will Expand Arms Exports

April 24
….(Middle East Newsline) Russia has announced yet another increase in weapons export based on a boost in purchases by Middle East clients. Russian defense officials said Moscow will expand its military market in 2002 after record exports last year. They said arms exports for this year will approach $5 billion. Moscow reported more than $4 billion worth of weapons sales in 2001. The biggest clients were China and India. India purchased more than $1.2 billion worth of defense equipment. Russian air defense systems are expected to be sold toe Algeria, Iran, Libya and at least two Gulf Cooperation Council states.

Note: Iran and Libya are noted allies of Russia in the great Ezekiel invasion upon the mountains of Israel in the Last Days.

Mubarak Criticizes Israel and America

April 24
….(Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has made a televised speech bitterly condemning Israel and accusing it of using state terrorism to crush the Palestinians. He accused Israel of going beyond all limits and using state terrorism to commit appalling violations of human rights against Palestinian civilians. Mr Mubarak said that following their barbaric and systematic aggression, the Israelis were in the process of destroying evidence of the horrendous crimes perpetrated under the pretext of fighting terrorism. He also pointed to what he described as certain international powers for failing to live up to their responsibilities. While not naming the powers concerned there is no doubt that Mr Mubarak is putting the Bush administration high on that list. The Americans are likely to be dismayed that Mr Mubarak, one of their staunchest Middle East allies, has taken off the diplomatic gloves in his characterization of developments in the region. Mr. Mubarak even refused to meet U.S. Secretary of State Powell last week when the American Secretary stopped off in Cairo before leaving the Mid-east to return to Washington.

Syrians Support Palestinians War for Jerusalem

April 24
….(Reuters) A member of the State sponsored "Revolution Youth Union" holds a poster April 24, 2002 of the Al Aqsa Mosque inscripted "Syria's youth are ready to give their lives for Jerusalem" beside a portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Tens of thousands of the Union's members demonstrated in the streets of Damascus on Wednesday, calling upon the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to open borders with Israel to allow them fight on the side of the Palestinians.

Christian Internet Websites Experience Surge

April 24
….(BBC) Religious web-sites have experienced a surge of visitors in the past month according to analysts. Internet measurement firm Jupiter Media Metrix found that sites dedicated to religion were the fastest growing in the United States during March. "While religion sites have grown steadily over the past year, the surge in visitors in March 2002 was quite significant, with traffic to the category double what it was just six months ago," said Jupiter Media Metrix analyst Stephen Kim. In addition, religion has been the subject of intense media attention following the 11 September attacks and renewed tensions in the Middle East. The figures show that 6.4% of the US online population visited a religious site during March. The most visited site was Christianbook.com with 890,000 surfers logging on in a month. "So far the majority of religion sites to attract sizeable audiences focus on Christianity. Next month, the Pope will make a speech, warning of the dangers of Christian sites on the web but also proclaiming it as a new forum for evangelizing the Christian message.

Note: FOJ has experienced this same upsurge. September 2001 and March 2002 saw a dramatic rise in web-site visitor activity. FOJ shot up to 15,000 visits/month last month, double the average previous rate.



Catholic Church Struggling With Gays

April 23
….The head of the US Episcopal conference Wilton Daniel Gregory said today there was an ongoing struggle within the Catholic Church to ensure that the priesthood is not "dominated by homosexual men". Gregory and Chicago Archbishop, Cardinal Francis George, told reporters the issue of homosexual priests had been discussed in a morning meeting with Pope John Paul II and US cardinals on the issue of paedophile priests. The Catholic Church has a struggle to make sure that the Catholic priesthood is not dominated by homosexual men," Gregory told a news conference after the first session of talks. Note: Maybe the Catholic church needs to refuse ordination of “gay men” altogether. As other denominations contend with the issue of ordaining homosexuals as pastors, they might do well to observe the foolishness that is going on in the Universal Church. Sin is sin, and it always surfaces. (Romans1:27-28 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient)

White House and Capitol Support AIPAC

April 23
….White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. went before one of the nation's most powerful Jewish groups last night to promise President Bush's unshakable support for the state of Israel. The annual meetings of the group, known as AIPAC, have always drawn much of Washington's political firmament. Former Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu followed Card and said to applause, "There has never been a greater friend of Israel in the White House than President George W. Bush. With support for Israel running high at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, last night's banquet was attended by half the Senate and 90 members of the House. The theme of the conference was "America and Israel Standing Together Against Terrorism," and that message will be reinforced during delegates' visits to Capitol Hill today. The delegates have been provided talking points that echo Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's message that he is waging his part of the war on terrorism. "Both countries are victims of well-organized and well-funded extremist organizations," the talking points say. "Israel must defend against this terror just as surely as the United States must fight and destroy al Qaeda and other terrorist groups with global reach."

PLO Justice in the West Bank

April 23
….Palestinian vigilantes killed three suspected collaborators today to avenge Israel's slaying of a militia leader. The killings in Hebron came only a day after militiamen in the town of Ramallah, farther north in the West Bank, fired on three alleged informers in a crowded downtown square, killing one and wounding two. In Hebron, hundreds of bystanders, including children, gathered Tuesday around the three gagged and bound victims, who each had been shot in the head. One body was strung up on an electricity pylon, and bystanders kicked and spat at the other two. The enclosed picture shows PLO members dragging the corpse of a man through the streets of Hebron. The man was accused of acting against Arafat's directives, and collaborating with IDF forces.

Note: Such is the fate of anyone that dares to disagree with Yasser Arafat. Is this an example of Arafat's democracy?

Church of Nativity Siege Continues

April 23
….Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met on Tuesday to try to end a three-week-old standoff at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity. Dozens of Palestinian gunmen took refuge in the church, built on the spot where Christians believe Jesus was born. Israel has said it will keep up its siege of the sanctuary until wanted militants inside surrender to face trial in Israel or exile. There are 35 to 40 senior PLO terrorists in the church that were on a “wanted list” that Israel had requested that Arafat arrest. Mr. Arafat never arrested them and even included them in his militia. "There are also around 200 others who may be armed, but are not wanted. In addition, there are around 50 minors and 30 clergymen in the church. Three Armenian priests escaped the church with the aid of IDF troops stationed nearby during the night. They reported that PLO gunmen were holding prisoners at gunpoint.

Palestinians Weary of Intifada Too

April 23
….Some ordinary Palestinians are beginning to speak out and admit their distress with Yasser Arafat. In the Jabalya camp of the Gaza Strip, a terrified adolescent aged 14 freely told his story. He was coerced into a suicide mission against an Israeli military position with another boy by Arafat's Fatah organization. Halfway there, he stopped. “I didn't want to die,” he said, tears rolling down his face. “I only wanted to go back to my family.” He tried to persuade his friend to return home with him. The friend refused. The boy turned back alone and a few minutes later heard an explosion. Filled with fear, he ran hard until he reached the safety of his home. The boy's mother surrounded by her large brood said, “They tempt our children when they are too young to understand, to decide if they want to die. Why don't they take the louts hanging round the markets? My son is in shock. He can't stop weeping. We don't let him out of the house without his father. We are all in shock.” In a strong, assertive voice, she said that she was not the only mother in this situation. The Gaza Strip is full of women keeping a tight hold on their young sons. “All of us here are badly traumatized. But there is nobody to confront this menace in the whole territory.” The boy from Gaza was not by any means the youngest child to be marked out as a “martyr”. In Jenin, where the walls were plastered with large posters depicting dozens of dead youths, Israeli soldiers learned to beware of innocent-looking 10- and even 7-year olds with hidden bombs.

Anan Names Jenin InvestigativeTeam

April 23
….U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan chose a former Finnish president, a refugee expert and a top former Red Cross official on Monday to look into Israel's siege of the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. The team is headed by Martti Ahtisaari, the former president of Finland, and includes Sadako Ogata, the former U.N. high commissioner for refugees; and Cornelio Sommaruga, the former head of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Note: FOJ has always been curious as to why the U.N. doesn't send fact-finding investigative teams to the West Bank to search out the truth about suicide bombers, and the terror-militia's that recruits them. Shouldn't they be singled out for suspicion by the international community also?

President Carter Empathizes with Arafat

April 23
….Former President Jimmy Carter depicted Israel as the obstruction to peace in the Middle East in his editorial comments in the New York Times for April 21. His column read, “America Can Persuade Israel to Make a Just Peace.” His wording implies that it is Israel that objects to peace and all efforts must be directed towards forcing her to make this “just peace.” President Carter advocated withholding economic and military assistance from Israel to force Israel to comply with U.N. dictates in the conflict.

President Carter also termed the suicide bombers, as “misguided young men and women.” I have to wonder if the plane-hijackers of the September 11th attack on America were not also just “misguided people”.



Pro-Palestinian Marchers Urge U.S. to Abandon Israel

April 22
….A crowd estimated between 30,000 to 100,000 gathered at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., yesterday for what was billed as "the largest march in U.S. history to defend the Palestinian people." The event, advertised as a march against "war and racism," was billed as an answer to the reported 100,000-strong rally in support of Israel on April 15 at the Capitol, during which speakers linked the U.S. war on terror to Israel's offensive against the Palestinians. Although the pro-Israel demonstration featured remarks from Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, the Bush administration was not represented at Saturday's pro-Palestinian rally. The central theme was support for Palestine and an unequivocal denunciation of Israel, and American support for the Jewish state. Repeated throughout the event were calls for America to withdraw all financial support from Israel. "America first. Israel last!" was the cry.

Saudi's Say U.S. And Israel Are Axis of Evil

April 22
…..A group of Saudi Arabian commentators has condemned the United States and Israel and described them as the real axis of evil in the world. Borrowing the phrase U.S. President George Bush has used for Iran, Iraq and North Korea, prominent Saudi writers, said the American role in the Israeli military operation against the Palestinians was "shameful" and said the "Israeli massacres do not differ in shape or form from what the Nazis did." The writers called on all Arab governments to severe diplomatic, political and economic ties with Israel and urged Arabs to boycott American products. "We consider the United States and the current American administration the nurturer of international terrorism with distinction and it, along with Israel, form the axis of terrorism and evil in the world," said the statement.

Israel's Interesting Victory over Arafat's Terror Machine

April 22
….Israel's incursion into the West Bank against Yasser Arafat's terror machine was a victory and a resounding Palestinian defeat. All the Palestinian groups, including Yasser Arafat's Fatah al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, tried desperately to keep the suicide offensive alive, but the crippling of their terror machine has showed dramatic dividends. The Palestinian suicide offensive has tapered off conspicuously. One point is important to note:

1. The Battle of Jenin was the decider of the fight. Some parties have labeled this heroic battle, in which both sides fought valiantly a massacre, and often-tried stratagem for transforming an Arab battlefield defeat into a diplomatic victory - as students of past Israel-Palestinian and Israel-Arab conflicts will quickly recognize. The Bush White House came to appreciate why Arafat needs to be locked up in his Ramallah compound and ended up applauding the outcome of the Jenin battle. Apparently the Bush administration has determined Israel's victory against Arafat-terrorism to be a stepping stone for Washington's next Middle East moves. There is nothing sentimental about this support. It is predicated on Bush's fundamental campaign against world terror. The US president has affirmed outright, in deeds and not just words, that Yasser Arafat is an integral part of global terror.

After finishing with Arafat, President Bush intends to start on the Arab leaders who espouse the use of suicides for what the White House has come to call homicidal attacks. He has put Arab rulers, who prefer the term martyrs, on notice to stop glorifying and funding this form of terrorism.

These developments have set the following trends in motion:

1. Torn by this dilemma and the mounting pro-Islamic, pro-Palestinian pressure at home, the Saudis, like other Arab leaders, are bidding for third-party help against Washington's demands. Understanding that the White House, by its backing for Ariel Sharon, had dealt a death blow to his peace initiative and foreign policy, Crown Prince Abdullah sent his foreign minister Saud al-Faisal to Moscow on Sunday, April 18, for urgent talks with President Vladimir Putin. Abdullah hoped for some good news before he visits the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas on April 24. Moscow and Gulf sources report that Putin was surprised to hear al Faisal explaining bluntly and agitatedly that the Americans were pushing Riyadh into irrational and radical positions regarding their campaign against terror, so undoing the close affinity binding them as allies for decades. What the Saudis were therefore seeking was an ally or allies to offset American pressure. They could either turn to Russia or to the Iran-Iraq axis. The Saudi foreign minister said his government preferred Moscow and offered to coordinate its oil policies with the Kremlin and buy Russian arms.

2. A third world power, China, is bent on capitalizing on these shifting trends. President Jiang Zemin and prime minister Zhu Rongji, both of whom are near the end of their terms in office, are making the rounds of Arab and Gulf Emirate capitals and Iran. Posing as the only power siding with the Arab-Muslim camp, the Chinese leaders are offering largesse in the form of military assistance, including Chinese arms, and cooperation in oil strategy. China is buying up shares in oilfields and oil resources, to fill in the projected shortfall between its own oil production and the requirements of its burgeoning economic development. Beijing hopes to sell large quantities of military hardware to Arab states and Iran. Note: The “Kings of the East” are plotting their Middle East strategy. Saudi Arabia ( Sheba-Dedan ) is already courting the very power ( Russia ) that will threaten them in the great Ezekiel 38 conflict.

Demographics in the West Bank

April 22
….Among Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the annual birthrate is 40 for every 1,000 people. Among Palestinians living in Israel, the rate drops slightly, to 36 per 1,000. The birthrate among Jews across the region is 18.3 per 1,000. The dry, narrow strip of land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea already is overcrowded with 9.7 million people. A UN study predicts that by 2050, the population in the West Bank and Gaza will almost quadruple, to nearly 12 million. The high birth rates are due in part to Yasser Arafat who famously told Palestinian women to have 12 children: "Give 10 to Palestine and you may keep two for yourself."

The Jenin Refugee Camp

April 22
….Only 45 bodies have turned up thus far in the aftermath of the decisive Jenin battle between Israel and the Palestinian terrorists that made the Jenin area their headquarters. Jenin had been the sanctuary of many of the suicide hit squads that had hit Netanya and Northern Israeli cities. The enclosed aerial photograph shows the amount of the destruction. While the Palestinians claimed that a massacre took place, the evidence shows that only a couple dozen buildings were demolished. The terrorists used these buildings as hide-outs and used the refugee-residents as shields.



WEEK OF APRIL 15 THROUGH APRIL 21


Saudi Arabia Seeks Ties to Russia

April 20
….Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al Faisal traveled to Moscow yesterday to seek Russia's help in countering a belligerent U.S. agenda against Iraq. But Saudi Arabia has little to offer Russia and will likely leave empty-handed, so Riyadh will have few options left but to ally with rogue nations Iran and Iraq. The prince went to Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. The three talked about Iraq, the recent Saudi-proposed Israeli-Palestinian peace plan and Moscow's involvement in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is seeking Russia's help to counter the U.S. agenda in the Middle East. Frightened by the potential consequences of a U.S. strike against Iraq, Riyadh hopes to reverse Moscow's waning support of Baghdad and revive its involvement in Middle East politics A possible Saudi-Iraq-Iran coalition to resist U.S. pressure – even a temporary one built out of necessity – would entirely reshape regional politics and pose a significant dilemma to the United States. None of the three trust each other, even though technically Iran and Saudi Arabia have a security cooperation agreement. But together they could bring greater political and economic pressure to bear on the smaller Persian Gulf states, upon which Washington grows increasingly reliant. The government in Riyadh is worried that a U.S. war against Iraq would incite opposition within Saudi Arabia. It has already tried to counter the U.S. agenda by reviving the Middle East peace process and attempting to bring all the Arab states on board. However, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah's efforts at coalition building – meant to deflect U.S. pressure for cooperation against Iraq – failed miserably. Almost half the Arab heads of state failed to show at the March 26-27 Arab League summit in Beirut. The Saudi government is now turning to global powers like Russia and the European Union to offset U.S. hegemony. In addition to Faisal's trip to Moscow, Riyadh has also called on the EU to do more to end the violence in Israel. But this second attempt at coalition building is also doomed to fail. Europe's involvement in the peace process has done little to alter either Israeli or Palestinian war fighting policies.

Russia and Saudi Arabia have taken U-turns regarding policy toward Baghdad. Saudi Arabia backed the first U.S. war against Iraq, but does not want to see a similar military campaign now. Russia, which opposed Desert Storm, is now working with the United States. Moscow has several reasons not to cooperate with Saudi Arabia. Most importantly, Putin is concentrating his efforts on rebuilding the Russian empire, at least in part through a strategic partnership with the United States, and has apparently traded opposition to a strike against Iraq in exchange for cooperation with Washington. Moscow and Riyadh are also longtime geopolitical foes, with Russia traditionally backing Saudi Arabia's regional competitors: Iran, Iraq, Syria and even Yemen.

Europe Favors Palestinian Perspective

April 20
….Europeans while sympathetic to recent American efforts in the Middle East strongly feel that the United States has not done enough to bring about a peace settlement, according to coordinated polls in Britain, France, Germany and Italy. A key reason for the European unhappiness appears to be a much greater sympathy for the Palestinians than is found in the United States. The survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, showed that majorities of 71 percent in France, 67 percent in Italy, 64 percent in Germany and 57 percent in Britain said the United States was not "doing as much as it can to bring about a peace settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians." The respondents, about 1,000 people in each country, were asked, "In the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, which side do you sympathize with more?" In none of the European countries did more sympathize with Israel, while in a companion poll in the United Sates, 41 percent sided with Israel to 13 percent for the Palestinians.

Global Anger at Israel Mounts

April 20
….The United Nations, Britain and humanitarian groups yesterday stepped up pressure for an investigation into the Israeli attack on the Jenin refugee camp, which a UN envoy branded a "disgraceful chapter in the history of the state of Israel". "There is a strong case for Israel to answer," said Britain's Home Secretary, Jack Straw, while residents returning to Jenin started clawing at the rubble in a struggle to recover the dead. The UN special envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen, berated Israel for the force of its tank, bulldozer and helicopter assault on the camp, claiming: "No civilised nation can allow itself to use such means, even to reach the most just objective." Mr Straw called for an inquiry after receiving a report - said to be highly critical of the Israeli Defence Forces from Britain's Tel Aviv-based defense attache, who inspected destruction in the camp.

U.N. Will Investigate Jenin Reports

April 20
….Israel and the United States have bowed to world pressure and agreed to a U.N. fact-finding mission into Israel's devastating military assault on the West Bank town of Jenin. As delegates at the United Nations haggled over details of the mission, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat sought a way out of Israel's siege of his Ramallah compound by suggesting on Friday the suspected killers of an Israeli cabinet minister be tried in a Palestinian court.

As the violence grows between Israel and the Palestinians, more Americans are viewing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as a terrorist rather than a responsible leader of a struggling people. According to a new survey released by pollster Scott Rasmussen 62 percent now believe Arafat himself is a terrorist, up from 51 percent when the latest violence escalated and 58 percent 10 days ago.



International Criminal Court ( Treaty of Rome )

April 19
….The ICC will be formally created on July 1, 2002, and will become a United Nations permanent court for the purpose of trying any individual from any country for crimes against humanity. The court will have the power to try individuals from any country, regardless of whether their country has ratified the treaty. Only nations or persons from countries that have ratified the treaty, however, may bring charges to the court. The United Nations may also bring charges on behalf of other nations or groups. The United States has refused to ratify the treaty because of these and other issues. Turkey, Russia, Egypt, Iran, China, India, Iraq, as well as Israel whose citizens have experienced a tremendous amount genocide this century have also all refrained from ratifying the “Rome Treaty”. In fact, Israel is the first nation suggested for attack by the ICC, as Palestinian sympathizers in Europe and the Arab world have already called for the Sharon-Israeli government to be investigated for war crimes. Secondly the U.S. has been castigated by Europe for its 'lone ranger' mentality and its “unilateralism in an interdependent world'. The U.S. also has the most to lose from this treaty, considering the number of nations that resent the U.S.'s power and independence.

Political Scientists Suggest War Likely

April 19
….The top political scientist in the U.S. State Department are predicting a war in the Middle East soon. Sources in the troubled Mid-east region suggest that the extreme steps taken by the Israeli army in recent weeks and the hesitant role of Arab leaders have shifted the balance of power to grass-root resistance movements among the masses of the entire Arab world. An escalated war beyond Palestinian borders is likely to be fought by volunteers from across the Arab world, with the main hub of resistance for strikes against Israel likely to be in Syria and Lebanon. The aim is to stoke violence to a point where the entire occupied territory becomes a flash-point in the Middle East and enflames the entire region. These potential scenarios coupled with the American war-on-terrorism suggest that the Syria-Lebanon-Israeli theatre could be the most likely hotspot.

Note: Ironically this very region is the place that Bible Prophecy seems to suggest that the prelude to the events of the Tribulation will take place. It bears watching and further analysis, but FOJ has postulated for years that the geo-political situation in the Syria-Iraq arena could trigger major events involving the worlds major power-brokers.



Saudi - US Summit to Discuss Israel, Iraq and Terrorism

April 19
…..Saudi Arabian Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz will meet with U.S. President Bush at the Presidents Texas farm on April 25 to discuss the entire Middle East situation. The differences between Saudi Arabia and the US concerning the Middle East, Iraq and the so-called "war against terrorism" will be discussed during the summit. The Saudi's will stress the need that Washington take a tough position towards Israel in order to restore back its credibility in the Arab world." Saudi officials have stated that the absence of firmness against the Israeli military attack in the West Bank will threaten the interests of the US in the Arab world. America suspects that Saudi Arabia has forged a secret alliance with Iraq and President Bush is going to press the Saudi Prince on that issue. Five of the most sensitive questions in contemporaneous U.S.-Saudi relations to be discussed are:



  • What happens to the U.S. nuclear umbrella over Saudi Arabia as the kingdom continues to march along the new security line it has drawn in the sand? Will Saudi Arabia want to take its chances in the stormy and volatile region? Will an angry United States fold up the umbrella in high dudgeon?

  • Will the United States remain committed to the security and defense of Saudi Arabia's oil fields and pipelines?

  • To what extent will the United States stay true to its pledge to protect the House of Saud from external or internal threat?

  • How far will Saudi Arabia go to take action against al-Qaida terrorists who have found shelter in the kingdom and have been operating there since March?

  • Under what conditions and to what degree would Saudi Arabia join, or reject, an oil embargo?


Getting To The Truth in Jenin

April 19
….The Jenin refugee camp was the scene of the bloodiest fighting in the crushing Israeli operation in the West Bank. Palestinians allege Israeli forces committed a massacre in the camp. The Israeli army has denied the charge, saying its soldiers did their utmost to prevent civilian casualties in Jenin, which Israel has described as a "hornet's nest of terrorists." Israel has completed its mission in Jenin" and pulled back to positions encircling the city and refugee camp. Most of the wanted arrested during the recent military offensive came from the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, the scene of the heaviest fighting. Israel found about 15 of the 33 most wanted terrorists in Jenin. The terrorists come from the Islamic militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as security services of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority and militias close to Arafat. Among the terrorists found was Thabet Mardawi, an Islamic Jihad leader, and two other militants from the group. Mahmoud Tawalbeh, 23, an Islamic Jihad leader and mastermind of several suicide bombings was killed there, Abdel Karim Awais, a local leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, and a militia close to Arafat, was also arrested in the camp. Most of the wanted terrorists were supposed to have been arrested by Arafat last year. Media watchdog organization HonestReporting.com reports that the IDF methods helped reduce civilian casualties. HonestReporting also conveys that hundreds of Palestinian gunmen were consistently firing on the Israeli soldiers in the house to house fighting and that the Palestinian terrorists themselves blew houses up in their attempts to kill IDF soldiers. In fact 13 IDF soldiers died in one such booby-trapped house. Honest Reporting indicates that IDF patrols called to camp residents to leave the city but the wanted Palestinian terrorists refused to allow residents to leave and used them as shields against the IDF troops.



Anan Promotes International Peace-Force

April 18
….U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the Security Council today that it was in Israel's interest to reverse course and accept a large armed international peace-keeping force in the Palestinian areas. Annan said the international community should pursue the option and not allow Israel act on their own. "A multinational force is essential to a gradual restoration of trust between the two sides, and it is vital if further steps toward a broad framework for a comprehensive just and lasting peace are to be taken. Israel has steadfastly rejected the idea of a U.N. peace-keeping force in the West Bank because such forces have invariably served merely to provide havens for anti-Israel terrorists. Kofi Anan has grown increasingly critical of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the two leaders do not correspond anymore.

Israel Captures Hamas Terrorist

April 18
….Israeli Defense Forces captured Husan Ali Badaran, head of Hamas' military wing in the Shomron. IDF ground troops, covered by combat helicopters, arrested him near Shechem. Badaran is probably responsible for the murder of over 100 Israelis, and helped to organize the suicide massacres at the Dolphinarium (21 killed), at Sbarro's pizza (15 killed), and at the Park Hotel Seder attack (28 killed), and also the Matza Restaurant where another 15 were killed.

Jenin Massacre Still A Mystery

April 18
….Washington Post correspondent Molly Moore indicated that, "Interviews with residents inside the Jenin camp and international aid workers who were allowed here for the first time today indicated that no evidence has yet surfaced to support allegations by Palestinian groups and aid organizations of large-scale massacres or executions by Israeli troops." "The media were has been forced to cope with the fact that a 'massacre' in reality has proven to be a few dozen casualties," but some reporters just could not bring themselves to 'adjust' their story to the facts on the ground." There is still no firm word on Palestinian casualties, but Muhammed Abu Ghali, director of Jenin hospital, told Reuters he could only confirm 36 dead and said the expected toll might reach anywhere between 200 and 400.

Note: FOJ continues to wait for the facts on this issue, but it seems the rest of the world, including the U.N. are parroting the Palestinian claim of a massacre. We shall see.

Bush Commends Israel

April 18
….President George W. Bush said this afternoon that Israel is keeping its promise to withdraw troops from Palestinian cities and turned up the pressure on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to crack down on terrorism. "Mr. Arafat did condemn terrorism and now we will hold him to account" and demand that he take action against terrorists, Bush said. In unusually conciliatory remarks, Bush appeared to bless the pace of Israel's withdrawal, which he had previously said should be conducted without delay. The president assessed the crisis in the Middle East in a meeting with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who returned hours earlier from a mission to the region. Joined by Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and White House chief of staff Andrew Card, the president shrugged off criticism that Powell's mission had failed. “The secretary of state laid out the framework and path to achieve peace, and we will continue to do that," Bush said. The President praised Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as "a man of peace. I'm confident he wants Israel to be able to exist at peace with its neighbor." Bush said he was satisfied that Sharon was acting in good faith. "History will show that they responded," Bush said. "He gave me a timetable and he met the timetable. Secretary Powell said that Arafat must "not only denounce violence but take actions against those" who commit terrorist acts. Bush praised Powell for laying out a vision of hope for a region that was at a "boiling point" two weeks ago. The President said that CIA Director George Tenet probably will go to the region next week.



Bush Renews “Axis of Evil”Rhetoric

April 18
….President George Bush has renewed calls for a campaign against those countries he describes as "rogue states", and said that the war on terror was far from over. "These states (Iran, Iraq, and S. Korea) represent an axis of evil and the world must confront them," he said. Nations must choose, they are either with us or they are with the terrorists." He also outlined the second stage of America's military conflict in Afghanistan, Operation Mountain Line, launched with the onset of spring. He said the aim of the operation was to prevent militants from regrouping and inflicting "murder and mayhem.

Egypt Accuses U.S. of Double Standard

April 18
….President Hosni Mubarak's chief spokesman accused the Bush administration of "playing a game of double standards" in the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. Nabil Osman lashed out angrily at the Bush administration for not criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for what he called "war crimes." Osman blamed Israel for invoking the war on terrorism. They have abused the American preoccupation with a war on terrorism and are trying to smear the image of the Palestinian leadership," he charged. "They are trying to blur the eyes of the world. Osman also predicted that the Israeli assault on the West Bank town of Jenin would rank with the infamous 1982 massacre in the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps in Lebanon.

U.N. Calls Jenin a Massacre

April 18
….UN Human Rights envoy Terje Larson says that Jenin is 'horrifying beyond belief.' The U.N. envoy to the Middle East, touring the Jenin refugee camp on Thursday, called the scene "horrifying beyond belief" and demanded unfettered access by international humanitarian agencies. Palestinians claim hundreds of people may be buried beneath rubble in the center of the camp, which was pounded earlier this month by tank shells and pulverized by Israeli army bulldozers. Israel says the casualties were much lower, and that those killed were mainly gunmen. "I think I can speak for all in the U.N. delegation (in saying) that we are shocked," the envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen, said as he walked through the camp's center, which is filled with huge mountains of rubble where dozens of buildings had stood. Larsen said he had seen the corpse of a 12-year-old boy and added that "evidently there are lots of other corpses" still un-recovered. I think this is absolutely, totally unacceptable and unheard of that an occupying power keeps a curfew and keeps a huge proportion of the civilian population suffering day by day.

Note: FOJ will keep following the unfolding developments surrounding the Jenin story. Thus far only 35 Palestinian dead have been confirmed.



Why is Arafat's Daughter Not a Suicide Bomber

April 17
…..Yasser Arafat routinely sends young boys and girls on suicide bombing missions in Israel. That begs the question, “Where is Arafat's teenage daughter”? Mrs. Suha Arafat stated in an Arab magazine this week that she'd gladly see her son become a suicide bomber in the intifada against Israel. Mrs. Arafat said "there would be no greater honor" than having her son blow himself to smithereens while strapped to a high explosive. That's mighty commendable of Mrs. Arafat since she has no son. But she does have a daughter that is just about the right age for martyrdom. But Mrs. Arafat and her daughter Zahawa, live in Paris, France, safely tucked away in a majestic mansion far from the ongoing Mid-east violence that her husband is manufacturing?

Saudi's Condemn United States

April 17
….A Saudi official informed President Bush and Congress in a letter that Palestinian suicide bombers are not terrorists, but rather are instead sacrificing "their souls for freedom, and therefore are heroes!" Ahmed al-Tuwaiji, a member of the Consultative Council also warned that Washington's perceived support for Israel would intensify mounting hatred toward the United States. Ahmed al-Tuwaijri also stated in his letter that U.S. policy has "destroyed our dreams and the dreams of peace-lovers around the world." The 120-member council is appointed by the king and reflects government opinion. Al-Tuwaijri condemned Washington's classification of Palestinian suicide bombings as terrorist acts. When young men and women offered their souls for the sake of freedom and independence and in defense of their religion, the United States could not find anything to describe these great sacrifices except to say they are terrorists, criminal actions," said al-Tuwaijri. Al-Tuwaijri said U.S. support for Israel "provokes hatred against America all over the world and is also a major element that sparks extremism and terrorism."

Note: Did you notice Al-Tuwaiji's contradiction in his own letter. He says America causes extremism and terrorism by supporting Israel, but then he chastises America for calling it terrorism. The Prince of Saudi Arabia last fall offered New York City 10,000,000 dollars for the WTC attack, but then remarked that it was America's own fault.

Why America Must Stand by Israel

April 17
….The Middle East mess should be of vital interest to all Americans. We must realize that America was attacked by the same brand of evildoers on September 11th that are the makeup of Yasser Arafat and his army of terrorist gangsters. If Arafat's tactics are seen as successful against Israel, either through an extended guerrilla warfare campaign or through a negotiated "peace" that jeopardizes Israel's national security, it will be viewed as a big victory by the terrorist organization and their “sponsoring states” that attacked America Sept. 11th. We must never forget the cheering crowds dancing in Arab streets when the WTC towers came crashing down. Arafat's thugs invented the airline hijacking in the first place. The September terrorists went one step further. When the terrorists win against Israel, they are encouraged to bring the onslaught to the U.S. They will use the same tactics. The lesson they are learning is that in the long run, terrorism pays. America has just one dependable ally in the Mid-east, and it has always been Israel. If Israel loses, the Islamic revolution goes worldwide. Israel doesn't need America to fight its war. But Israel does need America to realize who the real enemy is and to stop trying to appease the enemies who have sworn death to both Israel and America! Israel and America are naturally anti-war, and both nations have shown an almost superhuman restraint in the face of inhuman provocation. Now it's time to for both Israel and America to respond to terrorism with solidarity. President Bush referred to an Axis of Evil that hates America, but he left out most of the enemy. Perhaps the President hasn't yet come to terms with the true identities of the enemy. Maybe President Bush is doing all he can to avoid war, but a continued political paralysis in standing by Israel against terrorism will only invite the terrorists to sneak out of its hiding place and assault America with the same suicide attacks it utilizes against Israel today. Lets face it, they don't call America the Great Satan, and Israel the Little Satan for nothing. And there is one more reason that America needs to stand by Israel. That is because God almighty has indicated that he is going to rescue Israel in the time of her trouble. ( Zechariah 14:3 Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. ) ( Joel 3:16-17 The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.)

Powell Wraps Up Mid-East Mission

April 17
….U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has wrapped up his Middle East diplomacy mission. He will leave behind a contentious caldron. It is quite likely that a multi-front war looms now on the horizon.The threat of an oil embargo against the US and all of Israel's friends will expand. Iran and Iraq are likely to cajole Saudi Arabia and Venezuela into the boycott. Powell's final two-hour session with Yasser Arafat Wednesday in his besieged headquarters in Ramallah left the Palestinian leader boiling over with rage and threats. “My situation,” he spat out to reporters, “will be reflected in the stability of the whole region!” ( another threat--since we let the infamous olive branch fall from his hand )The US Secretary emerged from the confrontation tight-lipped. The failure of Powell's mission points out the serious erosion in America's military and diplomatic clout in the region. Mr. Powell, the lone dove in the Bush Administration met King Mohamed VI, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah; went to Damascus for talks with President Bashar Assad; to Beirut and met Haririi; and twice to Ramallah to see Yasser Arafat. He cautioned them all: If you keep going as you are and disregard American efforts and especially its demands to restrain terrorism, then you can prepare for a full-fledged showdown with Washington. Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak went so far as to call off his meeting with Powell on his way home to Washington, announcing he was “indisposed”. In private conversations with Jordan's King Abdullah and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the US secretary made no bones about gathering clouds of a regional war. At his final news conference in Jerusalem today, Powell laid down the prerequisites for progress towards a comprehensive settlement:

#1 The Israelis must end settlement construction and end the occupation.
#2 The Palestinians must renounce terror and violence, and especially suicide bombings!

In short, Powel translated the blunt Bush ultimatum to world leaders into Middle East language, namely: If you are not with us in the battle against global terror, you are against us.

Yasser Arafat refused to hear of any action to restrain terrorist action against Israel, and especially the suicide attacks. The moment Powell is gone the Palestinians will make every effort to unleash a fresh suicide offensive. As American reporters left his besieged headquarters in Ramallah Wednesday, the Palestinian leader stopped them with a diatribe: “What do you Americans think? Do you think it is acceptable for me not to be able to go out of this door? Don't you understand it will reflect on the stability of the entire Middle East? I will raise the escalation!

Note: Folks…GET READY FOR WAR! Focus on Jerusalem wishes to take this last line to compel all Christians to dive deeply into prayer for America, Israel, and all lost people around the world. War is iminent!

Muslim Prayer on Palestinian Authority TV

April 17
….Palestinian Mufti Ikrama Sabri recently retorted on Palestinian television that "The Jews await the false Jewish messiah, while we await with Allah's help for the Mahdi and Jesus, peace be upon him”. Jesus's pure hands will murder the false Jewish messiah in the city of Lod in Palestine. Palestine will be a graveyard for the Jewish invaders, and Allah will reign in Palestine.” "Oh Allah, show the Jews a black day…" "Oh Allah, annihilate the Jews and their supporters"

Note: PA television is Arafat approved. The Palestinians pray for the annihilation of Israel. While they assert correctly that Israel will accept a False Messiah, they fail to realize that he will also save Israel!

Powell Gets Snubbed in Egypt
( The U.S.-Jordan-Egypt-Saudi Pact is Fractured )
April 17
….U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell waves upon his arrival at Cairo airport Wednesday April 17, 2002. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak failed to even show up, canceling talks with Powell. The snub of Powell capped a difficult U.S. mission that Arabs decried as a failure for not stopping Israel's incursion against Palestinian terrorists. Egyptian officials gave no reason why President Hosni Mubarak decided not to meet Powell. Several Egypt-based analysts said Mubarak's decision not to meet Powell was a deliberate snub to show his displeasure at the outcome of the tour, but most analysts suggest that it was to not look too closely allied with theU.S.

The inset photo shows Secretary Powell peering out of his plane to see that nobody has come to welcome him to Cairo. FOJ would suggest that the diplomatic snub by Mr. Mubarak is really because he knows that war is coming to the Middle East, and he does not wish to be misconstrued as being an ally of America by the gangs of terrorists and terror-sponsoring nations gathering that are targeting America and Israel.



More on EU Middle East Peace Plan

April 16
….Germany's Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer's Middle East Peace Plan includes a two-year timeframe to establish a durable cease-fire and withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank. It also calls for the dismantling of Jewish settlements and the creation of a Palestinian state and an “internationally monitored buffer zone”. This would be followed by talks on the touchy "final status" issue of the future of Jerusalem. The plan also provides for international security guarantees under the auspices of the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia.

Israeli Leader Threatened by Hamas

April 16
….The armed wing of the Islamic Hamas movement, the popular rival to the secular Fatah of Yasser Arafat hailed its heroic brother Marwan Barghouthi in a statement issued in Beirut, Lebanon. "We say to Ariel Sharon, and his government that you have opened the doors of Hell on yourselves by detaining this national leader and you are now transformed into legitimate targets of assassination."

Global Criminal Court Becomes Reality

April 16
….During a solemn ceremony at the U.N. ratification was given to the treaty of Rome establishing the International Criminal Court. The required number of 60 ratifications for the entry into force of the Rome statute has been reached," said chief U.N. legal counsel Hans Corell to sustained applause. The tribunal is expected to go into operation next year in The Hague, Netherlands, a belated effort to fulfill the promise of the Nuremberg trials 56 years ago. This new “Global Criminal Court” is nothing more that a judicial arm of the UN. That spells more bad news for Israel. The UN already spends half its time condemning Israel. Their immediate target is likely to be Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon!

Palestinians Need a Leader That isn't a Terrorist

April 16
….We all know that the Palestinian people deserve better. They deserve freedom, and dignity, and justice. But there is simply no chance of the Palestinian people acquiring any of these basic rights while they accommodate a terrorist as their leader, and terrorists in their government. The world needs to confront that problem, rather than continually slamming Israel for aspiring to live securely, free from the constant harassment of terrorists that controls the Palestinian landscape. Overlooked in the current conflict is the fact that the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza demonstrated against Arafat and his terror-buddies just before the intifada began 19 months ago. It is the assessment of FOJ that Arafat launched the Intifada at least in part to distract everyone's attention from his corrupt dealings. Imad Faluji, the Palestinian Authority's communications minister, told a PLO rally in the Ein Hilwe refugee camp in South Lebanon on March 9, 2001, that Arafat and PA had planned the current intifada during July 2000, something FOJ had documented earlier. Shortly after the current intifada began, Arab donor countries pledged to give $1 billion to the Palestinian Authority to help ease the economic hardship of the Palestinian people. However, the Arab donors' past experience with money given to Arafat prompted them to demand from Arafat that he show complete transparency with the funds and a detailed report on how he spent it. Arafat and the Palestinian Authority declined to comply. Now that Arafat has once again become the icon of radical Muslim terrorists, hundred of millions of dollars from the Saudis and Saddam Hussein, is pouring into the PA. These funds aren't likely to reach the suffering Palestinian people, but instead will go to Arafat, thereby empowering Arafat Terrorism Inc. and continuing the war against Israel as long as possible. Arafat pleads poverty, yet he controls billions of dollars in assets. For him, the access to his fortune is a mere cell-phone call away. For his people the only way to receive money is to respond to Arafat's urging and strap a bomb-belt over their belly, with his blessing and go blow themselves up. Arafat has successfully claimed that Israel causes the economic hardship suffered by the Palestinian people. However before Yasser Arafat and the PLO took control over the refugee camps and the territories in May of 1994, the Palestinian per capita GDP in the West Bank was about 40 percent of the $8,000 Israeli per capita GDP for the same period. In the 1990s the economic development of the West Bank even exceeded that of Israel. If that trend would have been allowed to continue the West Bank's GDP would have reached $7,000, which is about 700 percent higher than the average in other oil-devoid Arab states such as Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Morocco. Some surveys show that the West Bank per capita gross domestic product before the Oslo accord in 1993 was approximately $3,500, and in Gaza, about $2,800. Now, the per capita GDP for both territories is around $1,300. Soon after the current Intifada began, U.N. Envoy Terje Roed-Larsen reported that 30 percent of the Palestinian people live on less than $2.10 a day. Today they live on much less. Hence Arafat is able with EU financing to maintain his breeding grounds for suicide bombers.



Vatican Proposes “World Military” to “Secure” Mideast

April 16
…. Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, Vatican Secretary of State insists that an independent military force should be organized to control the Middle East. The Vatican appealed in November 2000 for an independent force to act as a policeman against violence in the Holy Land. Archbishop Tauran believes this third force should act as a "friend," which arrives on the scene "to separate the two contenders, and enforce security.

Note: FOJ is just voicing a word of caution with this news article. What if this new “third force to secure peace” in the Mid-east is associated with the “third party,” that the EU and the UN keep proposing should become the new “mediator” in the peace process? Sound familiar?

New Bin Laden Video?

April 16
….Al Jazeera TV broadcast another video footage purporting to show Osama bin Laden alive and still defiant. However mystery still surrounds the al Qaeda chief 's fate amid uncertainty over the origin and timing of the recordings. The tape is clearly an attempt to show the world's most wanted man, for the 11 September atrocities, still active and able to taunt opponents. It would confirm he survived the most intense bombing since the Second World War. In a clip shown today his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, calls the Twin Towers attacks a "great victory".

Thousands Rally for Israel in Washington

April 16
….Tens of thousands of Americans rallied in solidarity with Israel yesterday beneath the dome of the US Capitol building. On the mall in Washington, a spectrum of American Jews chanted and cheered alongside non-Jews who also came out to show their support for Israel's war against Palestinian terrorism. The main unifying theme of the diverse crowd, as reflected in the signs and opinions of those present was simple: The US war against terrorism and Israel's war against terrorism are one and the same. Similarly, there was much anger directed at Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat in particular and toward the European Union, which last week called for a trade embargo against Israel. "Among those who addressed the crowd were Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Construction and Housing Minister Natan Sharansky, Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior, Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, and several American Congressional leaders as well as former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

Pope Summons U.S. Cardinals

April 16
….Stepping into a controversy that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II has summoned U.S. cardinals to Rome for a meeting at the Vatican to discuss the problem of priests who molest children. One Catholic theologian in the United States described the highly unusual call by the Pope as a visit to the "woodshed" for the U.S. cardinals. The meetings are to take place April 23-24.

Bush Welcomes Pro-Israel Rally

April 16
….President Bush welcomed the pro-Israeli demonstrators to Washington yesterday via a televised hookup. The crowd chanted and cheered its solidarity with Israel, equating the military onslaught on Palestinian militants with Bush's war on terrorism. Benjamin Netanyahu declared: "Israel and the United States are today fighting the same battle, waging the same war, confronting the same evil." To huge cheers, he said: "Like the United States, Israel did not seek this war. It was forced on us by a savage enemy that glorifies in a culture of death, a culture where murderers are called martyrs and suicide is sanctified." Several speakers said it was the biggest pro-Israeli rally ever in the United States. But the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a statement calling the rally "a desperate attempt to put a positive spin on Israel's brutal occupation of another people." Council Director Nihad Awad said the rally reflected complicity in Israel's denial of Palestinian rights and would not convince "ordinary Americans that Israel is anything but a strategic liability."

Israel to establish 'buffer zones'

April 16
…..Israel's security Cabinet has decided to begin establishing "buffer zones" along the edge of the West Bank, beginning near the cities of Tulkarem and Jenin and around sections of greater Jerusalem, in an effort to prevent Palestinian militants from entering Israel. The zones will include about 57 kilometers of fortifications such as fences, electronic sensors and troop deployments. The fortifications will also cut the Palestinians off from many Israeli Arabs, 60 percent of whom live in northern Israel. Most of Israel's Arab population has remained neutral in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

Germany Proposes New Plan for Mid-east

April 16
….Germany's Joseph (Joschka) Fischer has proposed a new seven-point plan for a political solution to the Middle East conflict. Mr. Fischer's plan details how a cease-fire could be achieved and political negotiations started, as well as calling for a joint peace effort led by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia and the facilitation of an “international security component”. According to Mr. Fischer, these outside groups should guarantee any commitments made by Israel and the Palestinians on the way to a peaceful coexistence. It is up to the Europeans and the Arabs to cooperate so that these ideas can be realized and bear fruit, Fischer said. The main object of the Saudi peace plan is a complete Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian areas in exchange for peace and security. Within this framework, Israel would be able "to conclude peace treaties and establish normal relations with all Arab nations, but the international security component needs to facilitate this prospect.

Note: Peace-with-security…..sound like Bible prophecy? 1Thessalonians 5:2-4 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, ( Christians) brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.



Hezbullah-Syria Control Lebanon

April 15
….Hizballah, is a Shiite Muslim militia movement formed in 1982 in response to the Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon in pursuit of Arafat's PLO terrorists. Hezbullah has grown to be a vast political force in that dominates the Lebanese political landscape. It has fractured the nation of Lebanon into a Syrian stronghold. Hezbullah is labeled as a terrorist group by the United States for its involvement in the bombing of the Marine barracks in 1983 and for its racketeering, arms and drug smuggling activities in South America. While Hizballah is ideologically and financially tied to Iran, it looks to Syria for operational and military guidance. Militant Islamic and Palestinian splinter groups, such as the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) are headquartered in Damascus, and move arms and money into Lebanon along the Syrian controlled “Silk Road” bordering the Bekaa Valley. Lebanon also has a significant Palestinian population. By U.N. estimates, over 382,000 Palestinians live in Lebanon, 56 percent of them in refugee camps. The refugees are supported by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, to which the United States is by far the biggest donor. Hezbullah and Iran-Syria utilize the Palestinian refugee camps as breeding grounds to incite hatred of Israel, and support for the West Bank Palestinian uprising.

Israel Will Withdraw, Except for Ramallah

April 15
….Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said today that IDF troops will be out of all West Bank cities except for Ramallah and Bethlehem within a week. We have problems in Bethlehem because the terrorists took shelter in the Church of the Nativity. Once they are eliminated we will be leaving," Sharon said. He quickly added Ramallah to the exception saying that Israel wants to apprehend the terrorists secluded in Arafat's haven. The Prime Minister spoke of his desire for peace but reiterated his view that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is not a partner in peace and that Secretary of State Colin Powell should not have met with him.



Cool Reception in Syria for Powell

April 15
….Colin Powell was met in Damascus with signs saying “Go to Hell”! Isn't it amazing that America will bend over backwards to treat many of these countries with respect and work to garner concessions on their behalf from Israel, and yet these same countries burn the American flag and chant “death to America”. Have you ever seen a demonstration within America where Americans file into the streets and chant death to their countries? There is a spirit of evil that pervades the world and compels the world to hate Israel, and anybody that associates with Israel.



Israel Arrests Fatah Leader

April 15
….Israel has arrested Marwan Barghouthi, a leader of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction in the West Bank and regarded by Israel as the top militant in the area. Marwan Barghouti has been implicated in planning many of the suicide terror bombings in Israel. Barghouti is often mentioned as a possible successor to Yasser Arafat. Barghouti was arrested at the house of a member of Arafat's Fatah group not far from Yasser Arafat's headquarters. Military sources estimate that he will now stand trial in a military court. Barghouti, 41 held the position of secretary-general of the High Committee of Fatah in the West Bank and a commander of the Al Asqa Brigades, which operates under Arafat's command through Barghouti.



Independence Day in Israel

April 15
….Yom HaZikaron, Israel's Memorial Day, is a day to remember those who lost their lives fighting for the State of Israel. In recent years, Yom HaZikaron has been expanded to include civilians killed by terror attacks as well. This year, 2002, Yom HaZikaron begins at nightfall 15th April and continues through April 16th (Iyar 4, 5762). Throughout the world, but especially in Israel, the day is carefully spent in reflection of the human cost of the wars fought for the State of Israel. Israel was reborn as a nation on May 14, 1948.

The Powell-Sharon Meeting

April 15
….In attempting to unscramble the Palestinian-Israel-Hizballah confrontation, US Secretary of State Colin Powell faces the toughest assignment of his career. Its complexities persuaded him to ask the President for more time in the Middle East, well beyond the 48 hours first allowed him. President Bush gave Secretary Powell a full hand to test the Middle East situation. Powell: You really must wind up your campaign against Palestinian towns and get out so that we can go ahead with our offensive against Iraq. We can't hit Saddam while you're hitting the Palestinians.

Sharon: The situation is not of our making. It was generated by the Arabs. Iraq, Iran and Syria keep on whipping up terror and war. With the best intentions of helping you as well as Egypt and Jordan, our first duty must be to help our own people who live in constant fear of suicide bombings. We find ourselves in the front line of global terror.

Powell: But the Iraq operation is in your interest too. You've got to help yourselves, as well as Egypt and Jordan.

Sharon: That is correct. But you are looking at the problem the wrong way. Assuming we interrupt our offensive against the Palestinian terrorists and quit their towns. What next? Shall we have peace? Will the Palestinians call off their suicides? Never! They will send twice as many. We've had nine or ten ceasefires declarations from Arafat and we know how much they're worth. This time round, the Hizballah will follow where the Palestinians lead. You may think our conflict is separate from yours. Arafat does not. He has got it into his head that he is the mighty leader of the region and what he says goes. You'll find that when you fight a single-front war against the Iraqis, we'll have two fronts on our hands.

Powell: I don't deny this is possible. But try and see it our way. Our offensive against Iraq will be far from plain sailing. What you are saying is that the war will be fought on several fronts at once - Iraq, Palestinians, Hizballah, maybe Syria too – and there is still Egypt and Jordan to worry about. Jordan too could face two fronts – a Palestinian uprising at home and an Iraq attack. We don't want our offensive against Saddam to plunge the entire Middle East into all-out war. That would not be correct strategy.

Sharon: I understand you very well. I would be happy to hear any ideas you may have to stop this happening and to help as much as we can. But I must shoot square with you. Whatever understandings we may reach with you - and whatever happens in the Middle East - we are determined never to sit still for another Seder massacre such as the one we suffered at the Netanya hotel. If it happens again – and we know the Palestinians are preparing more of the same – they can expect a second Jenin. Nothing will stop us dealing out the same punishment again. Secretary Powell then carried this message to Arafat, when he called on him Sunday, April 14, in Ramallah. Powell was also armed with a proposition. The Palestinian cease-fire declaration would be matched by Israel's consent to pull its army out of Palestinian cities. Both sides, with US mediation, would then go to work on formulae and timetables for the next stage.If they get this far, the United States will guarantee that both sides live up to their undertakings, while American monitors, no other nationals oversee implementation.

Arafat remained skeptical of Powell's intentions and believes he is only trying to buy time for Israel's military to establish itself in the West Bank.The Palestinian leader responded to Sharon's threat with one of his own: Continued Israeli military presence and attacks in West Bank towns would be met with more suicide terrorism.

When Powell asked Arafat how long the suicide attacks would go on, warning him that they damaged the Palestinian people's prospects of a state, the Palestinian leader did not answer.

The US Secretary then setout for Beirut and Damascus on a last-ditch effort to avert an eruption on Israel's Lebanese and Syrian frontiers. He now believes that the situation in that sector is more dangerous than the crisis with the Palestinians, since it involves Iran!

But Secretary Powell reaches Damascus and Beirut on the heels of Iraq's deputy president, Taha Yassir Ramadan, and Iranian foreign minister Kemal Kharazi. Both visited Syrian president Bashar Assad last week to align their concerted front against the United States and Israel. The US Secretary will be undertaking the unrewarding task of persuading Assad to back out of his deals with both and pacify the Lebanese-Israel frontier, across which the Hizballah has been attacking Israel for two weeks. His chances of success are about as slim as those of drawing Arafat away from terror. Over the weekend, the US secretary sought the aid of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, asking him to inform Syrian leaders that Cairo would stay out of any military action in the Middle East, even if Israeli launches an attack against the Hizballah and Syria. You're on your own, Mubarak told Assad. Secretary Powell hopes this warning will induce the Syrian president to fall into line behind Mubarak and stay clear if war action is launched against the Palestinians and the Hizballah. However, just as Arafat's terror campaign is Iraq's forward line against the US, the Hizballah terrorists act in the same capacity for Iran. Assad and Arafat are both committed to supporting the terrorists in America's war-on-terrorism!

Note: It is the analysis of FOJ from a prophetic standpoint that America is entering upon dangerous ground. Jeremiah 18:11-12 conveys the idea that God almighty devises devices against those nations that ignore God's design for “his land”. God says that he will “frame evil” and devise a trap resulting in judgment against that nation that forgets God and does evil in his sight. America must never forget that the “disputed land” that is fueling the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is God's Land! America is treacherously close to getting itself “entrapped” in the controversy over Zion!



Powell Heads to Lebanon and Syria

April 15
….After meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and PA Chairman Arafat over the weekeend, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell travels today to Lebanon and Syria to discuss concerns over the recent escalation of Hezbollah guerrilla attacks on Israeli positions along the Israel-Lebanon border. Powell plans to meet with Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in Beirut and then go to Damascus, Syria, before returning back to Jerusalem. For two weeks, Hezbollah militants have targeted Israeli army outposts in the north, particularly in the disputed Shebaa Farms area on the edge of the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. Israel has responded with heavy air attacks against suspected Hezbollah hideouts in southern Lebanon. The escalation in violence there threatens to open a second front in the Middle East conflict.

Historians Discuss Pope Pius XII & Holocaust

April 15
…..A noted historian speaking at a conference on “Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust” said that the Pope believed the elimination of the Jews would help preserve the strength of the Catholic church. Historian and author Richard Rubenstein said the Pope did not want to stand up to Nazi Germany and felt threatened by the growing freedom and influence of Jews in an increasingly secular European society. "The question is, did he regard the elimination of the Jews as a benefit, and the answer to that, I think, is yes," said Rubenstein, director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Bridgeport, and author of books including "After Auschwitz." Defenders have said Pope Pius XII did all he could to help Jews and other victims of the Holocaust. The Vatican maintains Pope Pius XII tried to help Jews behind the scenes, saving hundreds of thousands. The debate has intensified with plans to beatify Pope Pius XII, putting him on the path to sainthood. A panel appointed by the Vatican and a Jewish group said in a preliminary report in October 2000 that Pope Pius pursued fruitless diplomacy as the Vatican learned of atrocities. Whatever the reality was, the truth has been stymied by the Vatican's refusal to release all of its wartime archives.

Arafat Rejects Powell Plea

April 15
….Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat rebuffed Secretary of State Colin Powell's demand Sunday for a halt to violence, saying Israel first must withdraw its troops from the West Bank. Powell, shuttling back to Israel for a meeting in Tel Aviv, then pressed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for a complete pullback. It is amazing that only three weeks ago before the Israeli incursion into the West Bank that Yasser Arafat still couldn't agree to a cease-fire. Now, the only prerequisite is an Israeli withdrawal. What was his problem before the incursion? Now he admits he can stop the violence, but three weeks ago he could not control it. Is somebody lying here?

Iran, Iraq, Syria, Hezbollah, Palestinians Ready to attack Israel

April 15
…..When Secretary of State Colin Powell departs the Middle East region, Israel's Middle East foes, namely Iran, Iraq, Syria, Hezbollah and the Palestinians will be set to initiate a coordinated military action against Israel with a view of reducing the United States to a powerless spectator. While openly slamming Prime Minister Sharon, the Bush Administration has not missed the operational partnership between the Palestinians and Hezbollah and their combined buildup with the Iraq-Iran-Syrian axis. This bloc's first goal is to ward off a U.S. military assault on Iraq, while at the same time rocking pro-American Arab regimes by rousing violent anti-government demonstrations in their cities. Iran and Iraq intend to stoke Middle East tensions, making sure that they strike first before America fires a shot in its campaign against Baghdad. This strike may take the form of an Iraqi missile attack on Israel. Syria's Bashar Assad's and Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah met in Damascus recently and arranged agreements with Iran to escalate an assault on Israel. The first wave could come via 120mm artillery, more advanced Katyusha rockets and eventually short-range Iranian surface-to-surface missiles to replace the anti-tank missiles and mortars Hezbollah has been fielding. The Hezbollah leader also gained arranged to shoot missiles from Lebanon at Israeli targets on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights, which Syria lost in the 1967 war. Qusai Hussein, Saddam Hussein's son and commander of the elite Republican Guards, declared: "The Iraqi people are ready to fight Israel alongside the Palestinians, but our geographical location makes it hard to join the struggle, thus the Syrian pathway is necessary. “Still, the Jews know that their doom will come from Babylon, he said."

Israel to U.S.: Go After Iraq

April 15
….Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the U.S. administration not to wait until there is calm in the territories before going ahead with its planned attack on Iraq. Netanyahu spoke to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon before going to the White House to meet with U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Israel last night. Israel has indicated that the problems in the Middle East are only going to get worse, and postponing an attack on Iraq and trying to appease Arafat is only encouraging Iraq, Iran, Syria, and the PLO. Watch the Lebanon-Israel border if you want to know where the Israeli-Palestinian war is going. Israel went into Lebanon 20 years ago for one reason: to protect Israel's northern frontier from various guerrillas, first Yasser Arafat's PLO, then the Lebanese Shiite Party of G-d (Hezbollah) that used south Lebanon to attack Israel. Today Hezbollah has embarked on a serious and deadly escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by firing rockets into Israel. Hezbollah is armed with 8,000 Katyusha rockets. Practically all of northern Israel lies under its guns. Hezbollah's spiritual leader, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, has threatened hit Haifa with Katyusha rockets if Israel dared to respond to Hezbollah attacks. Were that to happen, the northern front would explode. Israel has been sending urgent messages through the United Nations and the United States that it would not tolerate such aggression. It would be forced to counterattack on Lebanon, and n Syrian army positions in Lebanon and possibly on Syria itself, Syria could not withstand such an Israeli attack conventionally. It might then launch its missiles equipped with chemical weapons into Israeli cities. And that could trigger the whole world towards Armageddon, but prior to that final cataclysm the Antichrist will emerge to confirm a Peace-with-Security covenant with Israel. Israel is now looking squarely in the face of Armageddon, and she might respond against Syria with unimaginable force if the Iraq-Iran-Syria alliance pushes her just right.

American Kids Know not God

April 15
…..George Barna says there has been a steep decline of American Christians among children and teenagers.. Good News Publishers noted that 50 years ago 70 percent of the children in America had heard the Gospel and were familiar with the Bible. Today that percentage is a mere 22percent. It appears as if the years of anti-Christian secular humanism in the schools and media have had an effect on our children, and the U.S. has unfortunately traveled down a well-worn path to postmodern paganism.

Arafat Vows to Continue Suicides!

April 15
….There is "no hope" of reconciliation with Israel, and Palestinians will continue using human bombs as their leading weapon, the official news agency of the Palestinian Authority says. While Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat held talks with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell in Ramallah, the official news agency of the PA issued a statement saying that the United States should "anticipate and be prepared to act to prevent the worst." It said, "Fighting weaponry is possible, but fighting a human bomb is impossible because it is the weapon of the individual and it is hidden deep inside the individual's brain and is unseen." Yesterday's Palestinian commentary lashed out at Mr. Powell, saying, "The USA minister should have come to the region with less hatred to the Palestinians, and with much less spite toward the Arabs." It said Mr. Powell had come to the region "regretfully reflecting the typical USA position, favoring Israel.” Mr. Arafat refused to even accompany Secretary Powell to the post meeting press conference.

Powell Meets Leaders of Lebanon-Syria

April 15
….Secretary of State Colin Powell appealed to Lebanon and Syria on Monday to rein in Hizbollah guerrillas whose recent border attacks against Israel he said threatened to escalate into a regional conflict. In Beirut, Powell met with Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud and then President Emile Lahoud and Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, warning that violence along the border between Lebanon and Israel could spread the conflict throughout the region. Powell later flew to Damascus where he held 80 minutes of talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose country is the main power broker in Lebanon. In Beirut, he was greeted with chants of "Death to America" by thousands of Lebanese Hizbollah supporters. Powell's talks with Arafat failed to yield agreement on a cease-fire that the Palestinians say must start with an Israeli withdrawal. Israel says it will only pull out once it uproots the "terror infrastructure" in the West Bank. Powell told reporters on arrival in Damascus he had come to "talk about the situation in the southern part of Lebanon and some of the dangers with respect to firing across the (border)." Hizbollah has intensified attacks against Israeli positions in recent weeks. Israel, which withdrew its forces from southern Lebanon in May 2000, has warned of widescale retaliation if the Lebanese guerrilla group continues its cross-border strikes.

U.N. Condemns Israel, Again!

April 15
….The United Nations top human rights body condemned Israel today for a supposed "mass killing" of Palestinians and demanded it end its military offensive in the occupied territories. The annual session of the Geneva-based Commission on Human Rights approved a resolution from Arab and Muslim states that blasted Israel for "gross violations" of humanitarian law and affirmed the "legitimate right of Palestinian people to resist." The motion was backed by most European Union states including France, expressed grave concern at "the killing of men, women and children" in West Bank refugee camps, among them Jenin where Palestinians accuse Israeli troops of massacring Palestinian women and children as well as fighters.



WEEK OF APRIL 8 THROUGH APRIL 14


Suicide Bomber Hits Again in Jerusalem!
Bulletin ( 11am est )

April 12
….Yet another Palestinian suicide bomber blew herself up at a bus stop in central Jerusalem Friday, killing six people and wounding as many as 60 others. Israeli TV said the bomber may have been a woman because there was a severed head of a woman at the scene. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which is loyal to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, claimed responsibility for the explosion. Israel TV said Secretary of State Colin Powell was flying over Jerusalem at the time of the blast, en route to a tour of Israel's tense border with Lebanon.



March Madness in Israel

April 11
…..The following map depicts the complex situation Israel faces. Israel is only 9 miles wide at the old 1948 armistice line ( green line around West Bank ) that the world maintains is “occupied territory”. “Focus on Jerusalem” is more than just a name, it has the world's attention!





U.S. Will Assist Taiwan?

April 11
….The Bush administration will do "whatever it takes" to defend Taiwan from military strikes by China, according to Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. The Defense Secretary's remarks drew an angry response from China. China's Communist government yesterday criticized Mr. Wolfowitz's comments, saying they interfered with China's internal affairs.

Note: Why won't America demonstrate that it will “do whatever it takes” to defend Israel? There is much more at stake with Israel.

Israel Pulls out of 24 West Bank Towns

April 11
….Israel pulled out of two dozen small towns and villages in the West Bank, but Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said he would not end the offensive in the West Bank until Palestinian militias have been crushed. In the Jenin refugee camp, three dozen armed Palestinians surrendered Thursday, apparently the last holdouts from hundreds of gunmen who put up tough resistance for days, barricading themselves and booby-trapping buildings and alleys. Most of the 13,000 residents of the shantytown had fled the fighting, sleeping in homes and mosques in nearby towns. As Secretary Powell arrives, Israel and the United States appeared at odds over two key issues , the speed of the Israeli pullback and the role of Yasser Arafat. Sharon has branded Arafat a terrorist and has suggested he will have no more dealings with the Palestinian leader. However, Powell said Wednesday that Arafat "is the partner that Israel will have to deal with."

Why Is Yasser Arafat Indispensable?
Commentary by Darrell G. Young

April 11
….. Why is it that the Bush administration, which in September 2001 seemed deadly serious about opposing terrorists and opposing those states that harbor terrorists, now can allow Colin Powell to declare that Yasser Arafat is not a terrorist, and meet with him? Although Arafat was caught red-handed funding the Al Aksa suicide bombers, and importing weapons from Iran the world says that he not only is not a terrorist but that he, and only he is the viable lone peace-partner for Palestine. Nobody can have as many political lives as Yasser Arafat, (forty years as a terrorist) and be rescued by the West every time he gets cornered, unless he is deeply important to the power brokers in the Western world. The power structures in the West have “mysteriously” never missed an opportunity to resurrect Yasser Arafat, and bring him back into the Middle East mix, and prop him up as a stumbling block for Israel and the Palestinians to contend with.Why? President Reagan offered no compromise with the "evil empire,", the former Soviet Union.Yet in the 1980s, President Reagan pressured Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to permit Arafat and his terrorist-fighters to be rescued from a ravaged West Beirut, and relocated to Tunis in North Africa. Yitzhak Rabin, after fighting Arafat much of his adult life, helped to resurect and rearm Arafat when the Oslo Peace Process was born in Europe, precisely when Mr. Arafat was at his weakest, and presented no threat whatsoever to Israel. The Oslo game re-established Arafat with a base in Gaza, and the conflict was reinvigorated. President Bush came into office refusing to talk to Arafat or treat him like a normal head of state, yet now his entire Presidency hangs on a precipice over Arafat. Even President Clinton lost his legacy over Arafat's rebuttal at Camp David. What connection does Arafat have in the Western power base? He has met 18 times with the Pope, and on each occasion the Pope and Arafat have remarked that Jerusalem should be an international city like the Vatican City is in Italy. He has received hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid from the West. The European Union and the U.N. demand that Israel must negotiate with him, and now even demand that America stand-aside and allow a “third party” to take the lead in the peace process. Why is America expendable, and every Israeli leader expendable, but Arafat keeps getting a solid vote-of-confidence from Europe and the Arab world? The financing of Palestinian refugee camps is almost entirely bankrolled by Europe. Why do Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and the PA force the Palestinians to remain in these refugee camps? The Palestinians are being used as “pawns”, against Israel, and “Arafat is the in-expendable Lord” that has been managed, financed, and planted by the “Kings of Global strategems” in Palestine to undermine the Providence of God for the nation of Israel! Perhaps Arafat is indispensable because the Antichrist needs is services. Based on Bible Prophecy this scenario seems appropriate.



Arab World Defying Powell Mission

April 10
….U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell is confronting a wall of defiance in his Middle East peace mission this week, a wall thrown up by Arab leaders. The leaders of Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt in the past two days have refused Powell's call for them to speak out against suicide bombers and other forms of violence against Israel, and have declined to embrace any new peace plan that displaces Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat! The United States was now pressuring Sharon to end the offensive, while ''giving a free ride to Arafat and the terrorists that he personally directs, and the Arab leaders condone it. The US had been seeking a difficult strategy to regionalize the effort, asking Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia to deal with the Israelis over the heads of the Palestinian Authority. Powell, toying with that strategy hopes to put Arab leaders on center stage in the peace process with a lesser role for Arafat. The United States now reluctantly appears to be returning Arafat to the role as the key player in the current crisis by meeting with him. President Bush stated last week that Israel's Arab neighbors need to take the lead role for peace. Speaking about Arafat, Bush said, ''The situation in which he finds himself today is largely of his own making'. He's missed his opportunities and thereby betrayed the hopes of the people he's supposed to lead.'' And that is certainly the truth!

Benjamin Netanyahu Warns America of Terror!

April 10
….Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considers President Bush "a great friend of Israel," but he disagrees with the U.S. leader's call for a swift Israeli troop withdrawal from Palestinian cities. "If Israel is not allowed to shut down the human bomb terror factories that Yasser Arafat is pioneering today, they will surely, as the light of day, reach the United States with greater and greater devastating force," Netanyahu said before members of the U.S. Senate. Netanyahu also stated, "I don't think any meeting with Arafat will produce anything. His word is worthless, his signature is worthless, he's violated every single line of every single item of every single provision of every single contract he's signed with us. "He has ruled himself out and as soon as he is taken out of the area ... the better."

Sharon Says Powell Meeting Arafat is Grave Mistake

April 10
…..Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sounding defiant against mounting US pressure to withdraw from Palestinian cities said that Powell's meeting with Arafat is an invitation for tragedy in America. While the US is worrying about its regional considerations, Sharon said, Israel is burying its dead. "We understand the US has problems in the region, and we are trying to assist to the best of our ability, but while they have problems, we have funerals." Sharon termed US Secretary of State Colin Powell's intention to meet Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat a "tragic mistake" that will only encourage more terrorism. Note: The encouragement of terrorists against Israel will also work to encourage terrorists to strike at the United States. They are seeing that terrorism pays!

Annan Rips Israel as a Human Rights Violator

April 10
….United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan chided Israel Wednesday for human rights violations as it pursues its offensive against Palestinians, calling its behavior unbecoming of a country that claims to be a democracy. ( What about the behavior of suicide bombers Mr. Anan? )

U.S. Fears 2nd Front In Mideast Conflict

April 10
….The Bush administration is increasingly concerned about a possible second front in the Middle East conflict opening along Israel's northern border with Lebanon. In an unusually direct and high-level diplomatic warning, Vice President Cheney telephoned Syrian President Bashar Assad to warn the Syrian leader about the activities of the Hezbullah launching raids on Northern Israel. Syria provides transit for Hezbollah guerrillas and weapons that come from Iran. Relations between the United States and Syria have been in flux since the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. Cheney said that the time has come for Syria to decide which side of the war against terror it is on. The United States has also accused Syria of aiding the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, a homegrown Palestinian group that has claimed responsibility for a number of the suicide bombings in Israel.

Suicide Attacks Continue as Israel Tries to Withdraw

April 10
…..As Israel began withdrawing from parts of the West Bank as demanded by President Bush, another suicide bomber struck in Israel. Palestinian fighters also laid an elaborate ambush killing 13 Israeli soldiers Tuesday in the narrow streets of a densely populated refugee camp at Jenin. The bomber set off an explosion on a passenger bus in northern Israel, killing 8 people and wounding at least 14. It was the first major suicide bombing in more than a week.

Saudi Arabia Supporting Terrorism Too?

April 10
….The Saudi Arabian government has paid out at least $33 million to families of Palestinians killed or injured in the 17-month-old Intifada and in December 2001 earmarked another $50 million for payments for more suicide bombers. The Saudi Committee for Support of the Al-Aqsa Intifada distributes payments of $5,333 to the families of the bombers. Saudi Arabia created the fund in October 2000 at a conference of Arab nations held in Cairo, Egypt. It donated 25 percent of the $1 billion fund, $200 million of which goes for direct payments to families of the dead and injured and $800 million to fund economic development in the Palestinian territory. The Bush administration has avoided commenting on the Saudi funds for Palestinian terrorists!

UN Demand for a “Third Party”

April 10
….The United States and Arab nations appeared on a collision course at the United Nations on Wednesday as Washington vowed to veto an Arab-drafted text on the Middle East crisis that includes a demand for a "third Party" presence in the region. Europe and Russia also support the idea of a third party to negotiate between Israel and the Palestinians. In Madrid, the so-called Quartet of major Middle East peace players , the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations continued to apply pressure on Israel. The Madrid meeting included Powell, Annan, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, representing the European Union. Waiting in the wings, eager for his call, is EC President Romano Prodi. Prodi went on record last week saying the United States had failed and that it is time to give Europe a try.

Note: The prophet Daniel conveys that the Prince that came 2000 years ago and dispersed Israel would return from that domain to forge a Covenant of Peace-with-Security in the final days. Are we witnessing the events leading to that dramatic stage? We will keep watching this development. In any event, I see a demise in American prestige and power in the Middle East as the E.U. comes to the forefront as the “Third Party”. Who is it?



Powell Will Meet With Arafat!

April 9
…..U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said today that he will meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat later this week. He also praised the beginning of an Israeli withdrawal from occupied Palestinian areas, saying he hoped it was "the beginning of the end" of the spiraling violence in the region. For the first time, Powell said positively that he intends to meet with the Palestinian leader Arafat during his peacekeeping trip. As part of a truce settlement, Powell said, "The United States is prepared to put U.S. observers on the ground." Powell voiced strong support for having the peace process also include a political leg pointing the way to the ultimate creation of a Palestinian state made up of occupied Palestinian areas.

Note: From a prophecy standpoint this meeting holds dire consequences for America! America is negotiating with the world's number one terrorist, and at Israel's expense! America is flirting with entrapment of God's judgment over the Covenanted Land.



Palestinian Envoy Emphasizes Vatican's Role

April 9
…..The Palestinian diplomatic representative to the Holy See has emphasized the importance of Vatican efforts to resolve the crisis in the Middle East. Afif Safieh, the director of the "bureau of representation" for the Palestinian Liberation Organization at the Vatican says that the Papacy has a powerful impact on international discussions "by virtue of the respect it inspires in all the parties." He added that the personal appeals by the Pope have been warmly received by the Palestinian people. "John Paul II is an important reference point for us” he said.

Vatican Blames Israel for Church Battle

April 9
….Vatican leaders called for Israel to leave the biblical city of Bethlehem after a gun-battle and fire erupted Monday around the Church of the Nativity. The Vatican said it was following the situation with "extreme apprehension," and reminded Israel of a 1993 pledge not to interfere at holy places. The Vatican angrily accused Israel of provoking the unprecedented violence around the Church. Rev. David Jaeger of the office of the Custodian of Catholic sites in the Holy Land called the pre-dawn clash and fire an Israeli attack that violates "every canon of human decency. It shreds the credibility of the people who launched it." Relations between the Vatican and Israel, formalized only in 1993, long have been sensitive, largely because of differences over Pope Pius XII's role during the Holocaust and the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. Israel has insisted that the Palestinian gunmen within the church caused all the damage to the building. Nevertheless Israel is getting blamed because the Palestinian militants took up refuge in the church.

Anticipating a Powell-Arafat Rendezvouz

April 9
….Palestinian officials have already said that there is no chance for a cease-fire unless US Secretary of State Colin Powell meets Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and agrees that the cease-fire will be based on UN Resolution 1402. That resolution calls for an Israeli withdrawal from the PA and the implementation of the Tenet cease-fire plan and the Mitchell Report, and then a renewal of final status talks. The Palestinian leadership accused the US yesterday of giving Israel a green light for its war on the PA. The PA believes that the Arab states, Europe, Russia, and the UN can pressure the US to base its cease-fire efforts on the UN resolution. Morocco's King Mohammed VI, a close U.S. ally, greeted Secretary of State Colin L. Powell on the first leg of his peace mission by pointedly asking why he was not heading to Jerusalem immediately. Powell was also informed that the Arabs would demand more than just the withdrawal of the Israeli military from the West Bank. They will demand the deployment of American monitors on the ground and U.S. monetary help in rebuilding Palestinian institutions destroyed by Israel during the offensive.

The Holocaust Should not be Forgotten

April 9
…..Today's world can be divided into four groups. One group hates the Jews and wants them dead. Thus the venom of their screams recoils in the phrase, “Death to Israel”. Then there is a group that simply ignores the hatred. They turn a blind eye to it just like the world did in the 1940's. There is another group that pacifies the hatred of Israel by placating the “haters of Israel” to make inroads in the Middle East. And finally there is a fourth group that has a heritage linked directly to the Jews. This link is based upon a Judeo-Christian foundation. The hate-mongers of Israel consist primarily throughout Muslim and Arab countries. Arab hatred of Israel is demonstrated through politics, literature, religion, propaganda, media, and diplomacy. Because Europe fears its immense Muslim population and because of its own anti-Semitism, and because it is leftist, and is dependent on Arab oil, and because America supports Israel, Europe is the primary support of those who advocate another Jewish Holocaust. Europe and the rest of the world excluding the United States, is either pro-Arab or oblivious to the hatred of the Jewish State and that the fate the world prescribes for it. The fourth group consists of Americans. In America, Jews live in unprecedented equality and security, and America is a staunch defender of Israel. The United States is the only country that has always defined itself as Judeo-Christian. America is the only Judeo-Christian country in the world. American support of Jews and Israel is not due to "Jewish/Zionist influence." It is due to America's values and to its identification with the Jews and Israel. Christians founded the United States, and therein lies the reason for the Judeo-Christian heritage. But if America is ever constrained to placate one of the other groups Israel may be entirely abandoned in this world. Then another holocaust is quite likely.



Pro-Israel Demonstrations Mount

April 8
…..While the whole world has seemingly turned out in the streets to condemn Israel, a wave of support for Israel has mounted in America. Tens of thousands of Americans demonstrated across the country in support of the Jewish state and its efforts to protect its citizens. In New York, many thousands of people crowded into Dag Hammarskjold Plaza across from the UN only 2 days after 2,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched down Times Square supporting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. FOJ has taken note of a significant difference in the pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrations. Many signs and speeches for Palestine called for the “death of Israel” while the pro-Israel demonstrations merely focused on Israel's right to defend itself against extremists. Americans also take a dim view of US Secretary of State Colin Powell meeting with PA Chairman Yasser Arafat during his visit to Israel this week! Meet Arafat was....26 % while do not meet Arafat was.....74 %.



Palestinians Grieve and Sorrow Too!

April 8
…..Israeli's mourn in shock and anguish when their loved ones are murdered at the hands of a suicide bomber. The horrible loss is unfathomable. But while many Palestinian families initially seem proud that their children have offered their bodies as a weapon against Israel, their sorrow is often masked, and overwhelmed by the cheers and praise of the local community. In one case, Shuhail Masri says he was never proud of what his son Izzedine Masri did last fall when he walked into the Sbarro pizza restaurant in downtown Jerusalem and blew himself up for Hamas, killing 15 innocent people. Hundreds of Palestinian well-wishers went to the Masri home in the West Bank town of Aqqaba after the attack and praised Izzedine as a martyr and consoled Shuhail and his wife, Fatima. In nearby Jenin, other Palestinians handed out candy on the streets to celebrate the bombing. But, Shuhail relates that the crowds of support soon disappeared and our minds returned to the loss of our son. After the crowds are gone and hoopla fades the misery and sense of wasted loss remains. “My grief remains, and I wish I still had my son around”. If I knew he would do such a thing, I would have stopped him, says Shuhail.” Iyad Sarraj, a Palestinian psychologist who studies the phenomenon of suicide attacks, says the families of the suicide bombers get caught up in an anti-Israel frenzy, “but if you go back to these families six months later, you see nothing but grief and heartache”.

Note: Jesus died for everyone! Jesus was manifest in a human body as a Jew, but he came to save all peoples. The Palestinian people need Jesus Christ! The man born “King of the Jews” loves all the Palestinians and offered himself as a living sacrifice for them. Only he can offer them the hope and peace that they need. The only winner in suicide bombings is the Devil.



Holocaust Remembrance Day

April 8
…..April 9th is Holocaust Remembrance Day! The Allied soldiers who entered the Nazi concentration camps in 1945 as well as the stunned visitors to Holocaust museums today ask themselves, "How could such things occur in the world?" "How could the world let this happen? Why didn't anybody stop it? Six million Jews, including one and a half million children, were brutally murdered in the Holocaust, a systematic genocide of one third of the entire world Jewish population. Holocaust Day is a day to remember the victims - those that survived, and the many more who did not. As noted historian George Santayanna once said: “Those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it." Today, many around the Arab world deny that the Holocaust even happened. Many people right now are marching in the streets chanting “Death to Israel”, in the midst of Israel's desperate attempt to deflect terrorists from the territory that she is only too willing to give to the Palestinians. It seems that history is coming full circle again.



Anan Says the World is Against Israel

April 8
…..Israel must withdraw immediately from Palestinian towns or risk finding itself at odds with the "whole world," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Monday. "The whole world is demanding that Israel withdraw," Annan said, and "I don't think that the whole world, including friends of the Israeli government, can be wrong." Annan, is in Madrid for a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who will be on his way to the Mideast. European Union and Russian officials are also to join the talks. U.N. Security Council resolution 1402 demands that Israel withdraw from the West Bank immediately.

Note: Well, it is certainly not news that the whole world is against Israel. God is going to allow the whole world to come against Israel before the great Day of the Lord. The demonstrations around the world depict accurately that the spirits of devils are already gathering the nations of the world together against Israel.



Arafat Says Victory is Assured

April 8
….Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat says he is sure of victory against the Israeli army. Arafat sent a message of victory over Israel to the conference of European leftist and communist parties in Cyprus. Arafat said in his message: "Be sure that we are not a defeated people. We have paid a high price but at the end the Israeli army will be defeated because it represents an unjust cause, and we will win because we represent a just cause." "We are fighting for freedom, liberty, justice and sovereignty and we are sure we will free Palestine," Arafat's message said. "The day is not far when peace will prevail in the land of peace and when we will all march to Jerusalem hand in hand, and when a new era will begin."

Arafat “Teamed Up” With Saddam

April 8
….U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is enroute to Europe prior to his visit to the Middle East. His trip takes on added significance in light of reports that Saddam Hussein and Yasser Arafat are planning to stage joint terrorist attacks in the region. Senior officials of Saddam's General Intelligence Agency (GIA) have held talks with Mr. Arafat's Palestinian Authority to identify potential targets, according to Western intelligence experts. They even passed details of a meeting in Baghdad at the end of last month when an Arafat aide is said to have provided a list of strategic sites in Israel and Saudi Arabia that might be attacked in the event of American air strikes on Baghdad. The list of possible targets were presented to officials at the GIA, which is controlled by Uday Hussein, Saddam's eldest son. Apart from agreeing to share intelligence, the Palestinians are said to have provided Iraqi security agents with 37 blank passports, obtained from a variety of Arab countries, that might be used by the Iraqis when mounting terrorist attacks against American targets.

Thousands of Pro-Palestinians March in US, Paris, Rome

April 8
…..Tens of thousands of activists marched through Paris and Rome in protests demanding Israel cease its offensive in the West Bank and expressed solidarity with the Palestinians. In Paris, more than 20,000 people marched Saturday to the Place de la Bastille, where hundreds of police stood by. Some protesters carried shredded American flags and shouted slogans against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in a statement Saturday that he was concerned about the "humanitarian situation throughout the Palestinian territories." In Rome, about 20,000 protesters marched through downtown, ending up at a rally in Piazza del Popolo, where the crowd swelled to about 50,000 people. A few marchers at the front of Saturday's procession wore black face masks and bandanas like those worn by Palestinian militants. Others carried banners calling for "Intifada until victory," and chanted for a "Liberated Palestine.

Iran Traiing Hizbullah

April 8
….Iran has dismissed appeals by the Bush administration to end training of the Lebanese-based Hizbullah movement, one of 33 groups on the State Department list of terrorist organizations. U.S. officials said Iran continues to finance and train Hizbullah insurgents in sabotage and terrorism as well as operating anti-aircraft and other missiles. They said Iran provides as much $100 million a year to Hizbullah. "There's also no question, but that Iran has been very active in funding Hizbullah, and those folks have a way of going from Iran to Damascus, moving down through the Damascus-Beirut road into the Bekaa Valley and launching attacks on Israel.

Death to America and Israel

April 8
…..Protesters in several Islamic nations called for death to Israel, and death to America. Some of the demonstrations turned violent, with scores of pro-Palestinian demonstrators taking to the streets in Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Jordan and Lebanon to take a stand against the Israeli military's action in Palestinian territories against terrorist infrastructur. Those in Bahrain, Egypt and Jordan turned ugly hurled rocks into the compound, and burned an American flag, chanting "Death to America! Death to Israel!" Note: So much for the argument of negotiating the right to exist! They just want the death of Israel!

Europe Threatens Israel With Sanctions

April 8
….The European Union is preparing billion-dollar sanctions against Israel if Ariel Sharon continues to defy international opinion and reject calls for an end to the Israeli incursion into the Palestinian territories in pursuit of PLO-Fatah terrorists. The E.U. sends millions of dollars to the PA each year to support the Palestinian governmental infrastructure. That money in turn is used to help finance Arafat's terror-machine.

Will Powell Meet Arafat?

April 8
…..As the world awaits Colin Powell's involvement in attempting to de-flame the current Israeli-Palestinian confrontation, the big question is whether or not Mr. Powell will meet with Yasser Arafat. The Bush Administration has admonished Arafat as a terrorist, and insisted upon Arafat taking steps to destroy the terrorists cells within his authority. He has never done so, even though this was the first stipulation in the Peace Process. While America insists that it does not negotiate with terrorists, Powell insists that Arafat is not a terrorist, but a viable peace-partner. A face to face meeting with Arafat will reflect that Arafat-styled terrorism is winning in America's war-on-terrorism. The E.U. calls the U.S. attitude in fighting terror, “arrogant”, and a go-it-alone mentality that is typical of a prideful superpower.

World Criminal Court

April 8
….The International Criminal Court is set to be born this week in Europe. Sixty nations have promised their signatures to foster the birth of an international court to try war criminals and national leaders that defy standards of acceptable international behavior. Israeli Prime Minister Sharon could be a target of this Global tribunal. American President Bush could become a defendant someday also in light of the world outcry against American support for Israel.



WEEK OF APRIL 1 THROUGH APRIL 7


Terrorism is Winning, America is losing!
Commentary by Darrell G. Young

April 5
…..President Bush, who stated in the aftermath of the September attacks on America that no terrorist would be safe in his haven, and that all states that harbor terrorists would come under America's wrath, has unwittingly surrendered in the war-on-terrorism. Mr. Bush, although a great and good man has been railroaded by the pressures that terrorism can bring to bear on a man. Enormous powers have negated America's resolve to let the world hear from us. While America toys with a disappearing ghostly foe in the Himalayan caves, the real terrorists are busy influencing world public opinion, and sensing victory, and planning to expand their campaign against future targets. While President Bush castigated Arafat and the Axis of Evil that lurks in the shadows, he has sounded a retreat by compelling Israel to heed world outcry, and leave Arafat and his terrorists intact. The initial Palestinian response was that the White House had given Israel carte blanche to rid itself of Arafat. The Palestinians have taken note that President Bush did not stipulate that Israel must lift its siege against Arafat or negotiate with him, but only with “the Palestinian people.” Yes, the Palestinian people need saving. They are mere pawns in a power between titans. A close Arafat aide, Hassan Asfour said Bush's insults to Chairman Arafat would set off a massive explosion in the region. As Arafat told US envoy Anthony Zinni, if Mr. Bush wants a cease-fire he must remember the 1974 rule-of-thumb. “Do not allow the Olive Branch to fall from my hand”, or “I will redraw my freedom-fighters gun!” There is no chance whatsoever of the Palestinian leader pulling the rug from under the suicide offensive he views as giving him a victory. In his Rose Garden speech, Bush denigrated the rewards Saddam sends to the families of suicide bombers, calling them a pay-out to parents willing to sacrifice their children, and proof of Baghdad's role in international terrorism. What President Bush omitted to mention was that Arafat sent emissaries to Baghdad to solicit such financial support for his martyrs. Abbas Zakhi, a member of the central committee of Arafat's Fatah, was in the Iraqi capital March 18 and handed Hussein a personal commendation from Arafat for supporting the terrorism! Arafat has used the Oslo process to move his base of hate from Beirut to Ramallah! He is encouraged, and backed by the Axis of Evil!

I seriously surmise deep within my soul that America is in for dark days. As Jeremiah chapter 18 conveys, God will judge all nations, and he will fashion devices in the world of geo-political intrigue that will entrap them in the great controversy over Zion! America's war-on-terrorism may engulf America in a trap involving the Axis of Evil, and America might very well find itself in the eyes of the storm; just like Israel is now!



Israel Eliminates Two Terrorists

April 5
….Although the world media is painting a picture of Israeli abuses of Palestinians, Israel is in fact trying to eliminate known terrorists within Arafat's domain. Aafat's failure to eradicate this problem has necessitated the present IDF reaction. Israeli troops killed two leading Palestinian militants, including the mastermind of the Passover suicide bombing in Israel that killed 26 people. The militant leaders were identified as Qeis Odwan, head of the military wing of the Islamic militant group Hamas in the northern West Bank, and Nasser Awais, leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade. Odwan was the mastermind of the March 27 attack at the start of the Passover holiday. Awais was responsible for scores of shooting and bombing attacks on Israelis in the past 18 months. The Al Aqsa terror-militancy Brigade is a unit directly under Arafat.



Israeli's Favor War on Arafat

April 5
….Seventy-two percent of Israelis support the government's decision to wage wide-scale war in the West Bank territories. About 59% of Israelis favor the removal of Arafat from any future peace process. Polls indicate that 36% favor Yasser Arafat's exile from the territories, while another 23% believe he should be killed. Only 15% of Israeli's favor a return to negotiations with him. Most Israeli's (42%) are opposed to any occupation of West Bank territory.



Al-Qaida-Hezbollah Operatives in Israel

April 5
….Al-Qaida-Hezbollah terror hit-teams have landed on the Israeli coast in the dark of night. Al-Qaida cells are also known to be heading for the United States. While Arafat was launching his Al Aqsa Brigade martyrs inside Israel, the Hezbullah secretly infiltrated Israel's northern seacoast with hundreds of Lebanese based Al Queda cells. After every suicide attack, black dinghies were found buried on the sandy beach, prompting wide-scale searches up and down the Israeli coast from Rosh Hanikra in the north to Ashkelon in the south. Intelligence sources report that al-Qaida and Hezbollah obtained the commando dinghies from the naval facility in Lebanon run by Palestinian hardliner Ahmed Jibril, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. They are apparently lying in wait for the signal from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for the fireworks to begin. Arafat from his besieged three-room enclave in the West Bank town of Ramallah is apparently gauging the winds of the media blitz against Israel before giving a pre-arranged signal for the sleeper cells to become active in Israel and probably in America. A deepening sense of foreboding has consequently settled over U.S. and Israeli counter-terrorism agencies. They fear that the signal for a concerted terror attack in Israel will come after the U.S. coerces Israel to withdraw from the West Bank. The U.S. has already begun withdrawing the families of its embassy representatives in Israel in anticipation of a coming wave of attacks.

Israel Spanked for Defending Against Terrorism

April 5
….Israel is the only country whose right to defend itself is not self-evident, but subject to strict international limits. The transplantation of this axiom into the post-September 11th world order is a tragedy, not just for Israel, but for America as well. Over the past month alone, Israel has lost 125 of its citizens to terrorism, almost double the proportionate toll the US suffered on September 11th. The world today is demonstrating in the streets of its capitols because Israel has the audacity to wage war on terrorists. Yet when a suicide bomber enters a mall, or café in Israel and blows people to pieces, there are no angry demonstrations in the streets around the world. But when Israeli's are being blown limb from limb and their skulls are rolling in their streets, the Arab world is out DANCING in the street! Every country in the world blames Israel. The Vatican blames Israel. Europe, Russia, and China all blame Israel. Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Canada, France, Italy, South Africa, Australia, etc….everybody blames it all on Israel. The nations of this whole world are confederated against Israel. Why? Luke 21:17 And ye ( Israel ) shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. ( Jesus Christ ) Matthew 24:9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.

God is gathering all nations against his anointed! Soon he will judge and make war against those nations that hate Israel. Israel is not perfect ladies and gentlemen! I know that. But Almighty God brought Jesus Christ into the world via that nation, and he is going to send him back to that nation; and he will rule with a rod of iron from Jerusalem! It is for this reason that the world denies Israel a place in the world! The world is opposed to Jesus, the true King of the Jews! This is why there is a conflict in this region!



Hussein the Hypocrite

April 4
….Saddam Hussein has said that the Palestinians need weapons and money instead of peace proposals. Therefore Hussein has advertised throughout the West Bank that he is increasing money for the relatives of suicide bombers from $10,000 to $25,000. The Palestinians say the bombers are not driven by money, but by a priceless thirst for revenge, religious zeal and dreams of glory. A pro-Iraqi Palestinian group, the Arab Liberation Front, acknowledged that the support payments for relatives makes it easier for some potential bombers to make up their minds. Fifty-five Palestinians have blown themselves up in attacks on Israeli civilians in the past 18 months of fighting. Young Palestinian males are promised 70+ virgins in heaven, while their families receive cash awards. It makes me wonder what female suicide bombers get. At some point, these deceived young people need to be instructed that instead of paradise, they may end up in Hell. If Hussein really believes in martyrdom, then why did he hide in a bunker in 1990?



Battling In Bethlehem

April 4
…. Israeli tanks and infantry battled Palestinian gunmen, some dressed as Israeli soldiers, in and around Bethlehem's Manger Square yesterday. The IDF troops drove back the gunmen until about 200 shot their way into the ancient Church of the Nativity, built over the reputed birthplace of Jesus, to seek refuge. The 200 armed Tanzim-terrorists took shelter from their Israeli pursuers in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. IDF forces encircled the building.

One Arab was killed in the exchange of fire. But ten PLO terrorists held several nuns as hostages, and then escaped through a back door that they blew open. Among those holed up in the church, say military sources, are Kamal Hamayid, the Fatah leader in the Bethlehem area, and considered the "strong man" in the city. PA propagandists then took full advantage of the damage by claiming the back door of the church was been blown out by the Israeli forces. The Bethlehem standoff sparked heated discussions between Israel and the Vatican. Later, the Pope vehemently upbraided Israel for causing this tragedy to the Palestinian people.



Bush Will Send Powell to Mid-East

April 4
….President Bush, under intense diplomatic pressure from the United Nations, Europe, and the Vatican to curtail the Israeli offensive against PLO terrorism is dispatching Secretary of State Colin Powell to the Middle East region. Powell suggested earlier that he might get personally involved next week with Israeli and Arab leaders. Powell is due to meet with his European counterparts in Madrid, Spain, next week. Arab leaders, with considerable support from the Europeans, are demanding that President Bush force Israeli Prime Minister Sharon to withdraw Israeli troops from embattled Palestinian-held areas. President Bush will be meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Friday. The European Union is deeply angered by the U.S. refusal to restrain Israel's assault on Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank, and is instructing Mr. Blair to advise President Bush to stand aside and allow the E.U. to lead a multi-pronged initiative to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Secretary Powell insists, as do the diplomats in the E.U. that Arafat is still a peace-partner. President Bush is virtually being shoved aside along with Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld in the American declared war on terrorism. Philosophically, Bush and Rumsfeld see the necessity of opposing terrorism wherever it exists, ( states that harbor terrorists ) and the Israeli pursuit of PLO terrorists is a parallel in that war on terrorism. Yesterday US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld publicly linked Iran, Iraq and Syria to the terror attacks on Israel, accusing those three nations of "inspiring and financing a culture of political murder and suicide bombing, and advancing that battle on the perimeter of Israel!" The Bush Doctrine dictates that any state who directly supports terrorism is a terrorist, and by definition, is a declared enemy of the United States in an ongoing war. That means Iraq, Syria and Iran are legitimate military targets and suggests the front line in the war on terror may soon be the fragile line separating Israel from the areas under Arafat-Palestinian control.

Note: The E.U. call for the U.S. to stand aside on the Israel situation is in reality a demand that America and Israel surrender their war on terrorism and allow a new Peace Maker run the show. Focus on Jerusalem has long predicted that the U.S. would indeed be subjugated to a lesser role in the Middle East Power Game. Someday, at the end of this chess-match, the Antichrist will emerge and present a mirage of a dynamic resolution to the whole quagmire. While Israel seeks to isolate Arafat from his terrorist infrastructure, the world is seeking to isolate Israel into a compromise with the Devil!



Pope Accuses Israel of Humiliating Palestinians

April 4
….Pope John Paul II berated Israel for what the Pope termed the humiliation and degradation of the Palestinian people. The Vatican summoned the Israeli Ambassador to the Holy See to accuse Israel of imposing “unjust conditions and humiliations” upon the Palestinians. The burden of the Vatican's remark's were heavily anti-Israeli, although the Vatican issued a statement condemning suicide bombings. The Pope said that Israel however was to blame. He said that Israel should respect United Nations resolutions, a reference to Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian-ruled areas. L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, accused Israel of desecrating the birthplace of Jesus, as Israeli tanks encircled Manger Square in Bethlehem.

EU Continues Funding Palestine

April 4
….The European Union has approved a continuation of its Budgetary Assistance to the Palestinian Authority for the sum of 50 million euros, which will be paid in monthly installments of 10 million euros over the period of March to July 2002. The Commission said that the main objective is to help the Palestinian Authority to deal with problems encountered by the interruption of monthly transfers of tax receipts by the Israeli government following the Intifida outbreak last October. The EU which recently received information that EU funds to the PA were diverted to finance terrorism against Israel, said that the funding would continue.

Egypt Severs Ties With Israel

April 4
….Egypt has moved to sever political ties with Israel. The move comes as President Mubarak's dissatisfaction with American support for Israel grows, especially during Israel's military incursion into West Bank towns in search of terror havens. Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, sent a message to the US president, George Bush, yesterday urging him to "take immediate action" to stop the Israeli offensive. Egypt was given the entire Sinai by Israel in 1979 in return for diplomatic and peaceful ties.

Looking for the Top Terrorists

April 4
….Israel is searching for the top terrorists in the world. Their success would greatly enhance America's war on terrorism. They have Yasser Arafat and Palestinian intelligence chief Tawfik Tirawi under thumb Ramallah. Two others are Fatah-Tanzim militia chief Marwan Barghouti and Rashid Abu Shbak. Others are Mohammed Dahlan and Yahya Ayyash. The world's most publicized terror-fugitive is al Qaeda's Osama bin Laden, and his senior lieutenant, the notorious Imad Mughniyeh! These men along with the spiritual chiefs of Hamas and Hezbollah are the top terrorists in the world. Israel is the front-line in the battle on terror, as it always has been.

Israel Warns Syria-Hezbullah

April 4
….Israel has boldly warned Syria and the Hezbullah terrorist organization about launching attacks in Northern Israel. Hezbollah fighters shelled three Israeli outposts yesterday evening in two attacks in the so-called Shebaa Farms, a remote strip of mountainside along Lebanon's southeast border with the Golan Heights. Beirut claims the Shebaa Farms is Lebanese territory occupied by Israel and describes Hezbollah's attacks as legitimate resistance. The United Nations says the area was captured by Israel from Syria in 1967 and its fate is subject to bilateral peace talks. Hezbollah has hidden a substantial arsenal, including rockets and anti-tank missiles, in the border district in anticipation of renewed fighting with Israel. Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's secretary-general, has admitted that his fighters are “getting fully ready for direct military intervention from Lebanon” to assist the Palestinian intifada. Israel has warned Lebanon and Syria that they are “not immune” to severe reprisals if the attacks continue.



American Attitudes on Arafat

April 3
…Americans have by and large concluded that Yasser Arafat is indeed a terrorist. A recent poll revealed that 51% of Americans identify Arafat as a terrorist, while 17% believe that he is not a terrorist. ( 32% were unsure ) Sixty per cent of American men say that Arafat is a terrorist and blame him for the current mess. Approximately 46% of Americans view the PA-PLO as being blamable for the current conflict while 16% lay the blame squarely on Israel. The attitudes of Americans regarding the present situation between Israel and the Palestinians are exactly opposite from the reactions in every other nation in the world. One is left to earnestly speculate as to why this distinction prevails. Why do the Islamic-Arab nations rally and chant “death to America” and burn American flags? Perhaps it is because America is the only nation in the world that still respects the Biblical relationship to the nation that God chose. Might the current international political storm revolving around Israel cause an undercurrent of pressure that will coerce the U.S. to re-evaluate its relationship to Israel? Roughly 75% of the world-wide e-mails that FOJ is currently receiving suggests that the Bible is irrelevant to the present Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. American attitudes on Mr. Arafat and terrorism in general are going to be severely tested as America pursues its war-on-terror!



Bush and Powell Reaffirm Vision of Palestinian State

April 3
….President Bush reiterated his vision for the Middle East that says Israel must be allowed to exist securely, while allowing for a state in the West Bank for the Palestinians. "I hope that they can have their own peaceful state and live in peace with their neighbor Israel”. Secretary of State Colin Powell dismissed Israeli suggestions that Arafat should be forced into exile and said he expected Israel's incursion into the West Bank city of Ramallah to last a couple of weeks. "We think that Chairman Arafat still has a role to play”! Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States does not consider Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat a terrorist because he is the recognized leader of the Palestinian people and has worked with Israel and the United States toward peace in the Middle East. Bush said that Arafat has made past efforts to negotiate peaceful settlement. Therefore, Bush concluded, Arafat does not fit into the same category as other leaders who support terrorism. However, while the U.S. is supporting statehood for Palestine, the Palestinians are calling for attacks on U.S. interests. It is the first time in this conflict that Palestinian groups have called for attacks on U.S. targets. Addressing their appeal to the Islamic and Arabic world, the PA leaflets quote from the Quran, repeating a passage frequently used by Usama bin Laden: "Kill them wherever you find them and kick them out from the places that they have expelled you from." As for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Bush urged him to "keep a pathway to peace open. Colin Powell stated that sending Arafat into exile will just give him another place from which to conduct the same kinds of activities. ( terrorism? ) Until Arafat decides to leave the country, it seems to me we need to work with him where he is.

Saudi Arabia Linked to Terrorism?

April 3
….The Clinton administration shut down a 1995 investigation of Islamic charities, concerned that a public probe would expose Saudi Arabia's suspected ties to a global money-laundering operation that raised millions for anti-Israel terrorists. Had those Islamic charities been shut down, they would have been unable to raise the millions that since have been used by terrorists in hundreds of suicide attacks against Israel. Operation Green Quest," an FBI probe into the funding by charities of suspected terrorists, raided 14 Islamic groups uncovering financial ties to terrorist groups in the West Bank. The FBI accused the Saudi government of a massive scheme involving charities in Virginia and Florida that routed cash to terrorists. The Islamic Concern Project and the World and Islam Studies Enterprise were named by the State Department as front organizations that raised funds for militant Islamic-Palestinian groups such as Islamic Jihad and Hamas. They have been tied to the diversion of millions of dollars to terrorists for weapons, safe haven, training and equipment. The FBI said in a sealed affidavit that the Islamic Concern Project and World and Islam Studies Enterprise, worked with charities in Virginia committing fraud and "served as a vehicle by which Islamic Jihad raised funds to support terrorist activities in the “occupied territories." Included in the evidence is the transfer of $100,000 to Mohamed Atta to sustain him on an undisclosed mission.

Peace Possible if Israel withdraws from Occupied Territory?

April 3
….President Clinton and Prime Minister Barak were shocked when Syrian dictator Hafez Assad rejected Israel's offer to hand over the entire Golan Heights a few years ago. Assad increased his demands insisting that the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee as well (which Syria never legally possessed) be handed over to him. Yasser Arafat topped Assad's ante-up demand by refusing Barak's offer for a pullout from around 90 percent of Judea and Samaria, the dismantling of most Jewish settlements, the return of around 100,000 Palestinian refugees to Israel proper, and most significantly, an effective Palestinian capital in the eastern half of Jerusalem and sole possession of the sacred Temple Mount. Today Syria continues to utilize the Hezbollah terrorists to launch raids on Northern Israel even though Israel withdrew from Lebanon. The Assad's and Arafat's continue to refuse to live in peace with Israel. They are not content to be offered land-for-peace! They insist on continued confrontation. They want more than just the land. They are intent on destroying Israel! They are driven by a passion of hate, a hatred that compels them to keep up the battle against Israel, no matter what Israel offers for peace. Occupation isn't the issue, the mere existence of Israel is the issue.

Palestinian Collaborators of Israel

April 3
….Yasser Arafat has ordered the murders of dozens Arabs, hundreds who are suspected of collaborating with Israel. Collaboration in the Palestine territories means being in disagreement with Arafat on anything from tactics to goals. These are the methods by which Arafat rules his own people. He rules by sheer terror, brute force, and through barbaric tactics. He maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward even the mildest forms of dissent. Selling property to an Israeli merits a death sentence. Question Arafat and die. The world does not need another terrorist state in the Mid-east. There are too many of them already! But when we call for the creation of a Palestinian state under the leadership of Arafat, we are actually lobbying for another terrorist state. Why does the world insist that Arafat is the only hope for peace in the Mid-east? Where are his political counterparts? Recently a suspected Palestinian collaborator with Israel was strung up on a metal pylon in Ramallah. His head and heart were cut out. So much for the argument of the PLO being freedom-fighters!



EU Says U.S. Must Step Aside In Mid-East

April 3
….E.U. Commission executive urged the United States to stand down as the primary peacemaker in the Middle East Peace Process and let a broad alliance of nations mediate a cease-fire and a durable Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. Foreign ministers from the European Union gathered for an urgent session about the violence in the Middle East, is response to Israel's large-scale assault in the West Bank and the isolation of Yasser Arafat. Romano Prodi stated: “It is clear American mediation efforts have failed and we need “a new mediator” before the Israeli-Palestinian conflict balloons into an all-out regional war”! Prodi said the EU ministers meeting should endorse a call for new negotiations, involving not just the United States, but also the European Union, the United Nations, Russia, moderate Arab states, Israel and the Palestinian Authority. “We cannot get out of this conflict situation with any other, partial solutions,'' said Prodi. The United States has dominated mediation since 1993 Israeli-Palestinian accords. The EU, the largest donor of aid to the Palestinians, has long sought to play a greater Mid-east peace role but has always taken a backseat to the United States because Israel prefers to work through the U.S. Israel views the EU as being pro-Arab, while the Arab world views the U.S. as being pro-Israel. Many EU member states warned that they were considering cutting economic and military ties with Israel because of the West Bank military operation. The EU commission is concerned about violations of international humanitarian law by Israel.

Note: I have always speculated that the U.S. would be replaced by a E.U. multi-national mediator in the Middle East Peace Process. I have to also wonder if the “new mediator” is synonymous with the “third party” that U.N. Secretary General Kofi Anan is always advocating. Europe has historically been anti-Israel ( Holocaust ) and America has traditionally been pro-Israeli existence-with-security. My spiritual sensitivities suggest to me that Israel will soon be cornered, and the Antichrist will begin to climb closer to the forefront of the stage of the Confirmation of that Covenant that Israel will make with Hell!



Arafat Financed the Suicide Bombers!

April 2
….Correspondence discovered by Israeli troops who went through the files in Yasser Arafat's personal accounting department in Ramallah have uncovered the truth to Yasser Arafat's constant lies that he was doing his utmost to limit terrorism in his territory. An itemized bill signed by the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades of Palestine and dated September 16, 2001, exactly five days after the September 11 suicide attacks in the United States, shows that Arafat budgeted the daily outlay for the arming of suicide bombers with explosives and ammo, memorial ceremonies and funeral posters. The documents show that Arafat supervised every last detail of the Palestinian suicide attacks. He laid out the funds for attacks, funded their training, paid for posters of martyrs, funerals for martyrs, he paid for electrical/chemical explosive material for bombs, with the demand that there be 5-10 explosive devices for suicide attacks produced per week, he paid for travel and lodging expenses to hide bombers, and he budgeted the payroll for suicide trainers, planners, and underground bomb factories. Yet, Mr. Arafat routinely answered reporters questions that he was unable to stop the terrorists! Mr. Arafat sees no suicide bombers, hears no suicide bombers. He and his associates are liars! Furthermore Yasser Arafat has financed and approved plans for a sleeper group of another 30 suicide bombers to hit Jerusalem. His plea for millions of martyrs to march on Jerusalem is a call for more terrorism!



Islamic States Warn of “All-Out War” in Mid-East

April 2
….Islamic foreign ministers warned of "all-out war" in the Middle East. They said that "Israel's terrorist actions and aggressive practices, were posing a threat to international peace and security and dragging the region towards an all-out war. The statement was made unanimously by the 53 members of the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference. (OIC)

Arafat Rejects Exile

April 2
…Palestinian President Yasser Arafat will not accept exile from his homeland under any circumstances, Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat announced from Ramallah. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he would only let Arafat leave his besieged headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah on a "one-way ticket." Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat is shown here participating in noon prayers at his compound in the West Bank City of Ramallah.



Oil as a Weapon?

April 2
….Crude oil prices shot higher on Monday following a weekend of escalating violence between Palestinians and Israelis. Fears that the violence could spread unrest in the Middle East, where two thirds of the world's reserves reside could ignite a world crises of oil supplies. At 1030 GMT, US Nymex crude futures in off-hours access dealings were up over a dollar to $27.40 per barrel. Muslim countries may use oil as a weapon to make Western nations force an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank . Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, of Iran said his nation would back Iraq's call to use oil as weapon against the West to pressure Israel's hand. He said: "I believe the Islamic world has enough instruments to use if we have a collective decision of Islamic countries to use oil as a weapon. A 1970s Arab oil embargo shook the world, quadrupling oil prices and badly damaging the U.S. economy. Muslim spokesmen of Arab countries say they have the right to coordinate their policies to put pressure on Israel and those who defend Israel!

U.N. “We Need a 3rd Party”

April 2
….U.N Secretary General Kofi Annan said the issue of a “third party” had been raised by many of the world leaders he spoke to this weekend. Leaders around the world are demanding a neutral third party to mediate peace between Israel and the Palestinians! “They need someone to help them resolve this issue," Annan said in New York. "That third party must help with the mediation and perhaps in some other forms too."

Note: Are we not looking for a candidate for Antichrist here?

U.S. Assails Iraq, Iran, and Syria

April 2
….The Bush administration accused Iran, Iraq and Syria of fomenting terror while it urged Yasser Arafat to disengage from his terrorist allies. The multifaceted message emerged after President Bush met at the White House with Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and, by video linkup, Vice President Dick Cheney. The president stopped short of applying to Arafat his oft-repeated statements that those who harbor terrorists are terrorists. He said the Palestinian leader is excepted because of his past efforts to negotiate peace.

At the Pentagon, Secretary of DefenseRumsfeld offered a searing indictment of Iran, Iraq and Syria as supporters of a terrorist "war on civilization." The clear, overall aim is to register U.S. resolve against terrorists who have subjected Israel to the deadliest, most unrelenting series of bombings in its difficult 54-year history. Rumsfeld specifically accused Iran and Syria of funneling arms to Lebanon for use by terrorists and criticized Iraq for offering payments of up to $25,000 to families of Palestinian suicide bombers.

Misreporting About PLO Terrorism

April 2
…..The PLO Fatah and Tanzim-Al Aqsa Brigades cells, both which report directly to Yasser Arafat are responsible for 85% of the terrorist attacks on Israel in recent months.

Arafat Contefeiting Israeli Currencies

April 2
….Above and beyond the large arms caches found in Arafat's Mukata compound in Ramallah, it has been discovered by Israeli officials that Arafat's headquarters served as the heart of a secret Palestinian operation to flood Israel with counterfeit money. Apparently Arafat has been using counterfeit money to undermine the already-weakened Israeli economy and use the phony money to pay the salaries of terrorists.



Arafat: “Allah, Give me Martyrdom”
(Listen carefully to the words of a Demon from Hell!)

April 1
….Yasser Arafat is making bragging statements about becoming a martyr for Allah. He has no such intention. He is basically issuing a call for other people to become martyrs. "Israel decided to take me as a prisoner, a deportee, or to kill me. I say to them that I will be a martyr, a martyr, a martyr, and a martyr. …”And they will be in the front line until Judgment Day”… and 'one of their martyrs who falls in the battle for Jerusalem is worth 40 martyrs'... Allah, give me martyrdom in Jerusalem, the place from which the Prophet Muhammad ascended to the heavens, and the place our lord Jesus was born… I may be martyred, but certainly one of our boys or one of our girls will wave the flag of Palestine over the walls of Jerusalem, over the minarets of Jerusalem, and over the churches of Jerusalem. 'They think it is distant, but we know it is imminent, and we are right'… This is the path I have chosen… Allah, give me martyrdom..." "We defend not only Palestine, the Arab nation, and not only the holy Islamic and Christian places – but also all men of freedom and honor in the world. This is our destiny. This is a divine decree..." "Let those far and near understand: None, among the Palestinian people or the Arab nation, will be willing to bow and surrender. But we ask Allah to grant us martyrdom, to grant us martyrdom. To Jerusalem we march – martyrs by the millions. To Jerusalem we march – martyrs by the millions. To Jerusalem we march – martyrs by the millions. To Jerusalem we march – martyrs by the millions." "This is a call to the Arab and Islamic nations and to all the Christians in the world. This is the sacred land called in the West 'Terra Sancta,' Holy Land. We defend these holy places..." Don't you know this will shake the Middle East? I say to our Palestinian people: 'Oh mountain, the wind will not shake you.' I say to our Arab nation: 'To Jerusalem we march – martyrs by the millions.'"

Sharon and Israel are a den of terrorism? I seek martyrdom. Allah, grant it to me. Am I better than that heroic youth Fares Odeh? We are seekers of martyrdom. We are all seekers of martyrdom. The entire Palestinian people is a seeker of martyrdom..." They are the plunderers, the murderers, the real terrorists in the entire world, in the entire world. We are the only people in the world under occupation. Arafat: "By Allah, we consider all possibilities. Nobody is shaken, nobody is scared, nobody is retreating. To Jerusalem we march – martyrs by the millions." Sharon besieges us… he uses all the weapons prohibited by international law. True he uses depleted uranium, true he uses toxic gases…but we are steadfast… 'And we will be in the frontline until Judgment Day'…"

Note: Mr. Arafat should be killed! He is a blight on humanity! He is an agent of hell. He is no different that Adolph Hitler. He casts himself as the protector of Christian places as well as Muslim Holy places. He hates Christians! He hates Jews, and he cares nothing for the Palestinian people either!



U. S. finds Haven for Beseiged Yasser Arafat.
Bulletin…..11:45am

April 1
….The Bush administration has obtained approval from Morocco to provide asylum to Arafat. Over the past few days U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell contacted Arab and Islamic countries in an effort to end the Israeli takeover of Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah. The only problem is that Arafat doesn't want to leave. Officials said that one of the obstacles to Arafat's exile is his insistence that he bring with him scores of aides and Palestinian insurgents wanted by Israel. The insurgents include up to 70 Fatah and Hamas agents responsible for the wave of suicide bombings in Israeli cities. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has refused Arafat's demand to leave with the terrorists. The effort to find Arafat safe haven is being aided by the European Union. Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia have refused to provide Arafat with asylum. Israel has pledged to the Bush administration not to assassinate Arafat. Officials said the administration, in fear of a regional war in the Middle East sparked by Hizbullah!, The U.S. administration has come under tremendous pressure from Arab allies of the United States as well as from the European Union. Sen. Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has called on the United States and EU to send troops to the West Bank and Gaza Strip to implement a ceasefire between Israel and the PA.

Note: FOJ has advised its readers for months of the potential of a second front opening in conjunction with a massive wave of terror-assaults within the West Bank. An American attack on Iraq in conjunction with the present Israel-PA-Hezbullah scenario with American peace-keepers in the West Bank is an invitation for a regional war with horrendous consequences! Why save Arafat? He is the enemy of America just as much as he is the enemy of Israel!



Sharon Speaks to Israel

April 1
….Ariel Sharon speaking to the nation of Israel declared that the nation is in a state of war. “We are in a war for our survival”! Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed to smash Palestinian militants in an uncompromising offensive, as he addressed his people, rattled by five suicide bombings in five days, including back-to-back attacks Sunday that killed 15 Israelis. In an expansion of Israel's "Operation Protective Wall, Sharon said Israel is fighting a "war over our home" and branded Arafat an enemy of the Jewish state and an enemy of the "entire free world," as well as a danger to the Middle East. "One man directs and initiates this terrorism, the head of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat," Sharon said. "Arafat is the head of a coalition of terrorism and employs a strategy of terrorism." "All those who strive for freedom, who were educated on the values of liberty and democracy, need to know that Arafat is an obstacle to peace in the Middle East. Arafat is a danger to stability in the whole region."

End Clinton Mideast 'Appeasement' Policy

April 1
…..The Bush administration is being advised to review its Middle East policy particularly as it regards the Palestinian Authority, and its leader Yasser Arafat. The Washington-based Heritage Foundation said the United States must reverse the policies of the former Clinton administration, which supported Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. The report said Arafat is not a credible partner for peace negotiations and has aligned himself with Iran. Washington must fundamentally rethink the flawed appeasement policies of the Clinton era that whetted Arafat's appetite for concessions, and led the Oslo negotiating process into a diplomatic dead end. "The peace negotiations can be salvaged by holding the PA until responsible for attacks on Israel. "If Arafat refuses to end his incitement to violence and support of terrorism, Washington should break relations with the Palestinian Authority, close the PA's office in Washington, and seek to isolate it diplomatically.

Note: Hallelujah! FOJ has advocated this diplomatic posture for years. Arafat played Bill Clinton for Santa Claus! Considering Arafat's strategy was to gain a footing inside Israel to launch the next phase of his campaign to destroy Israel, it worked too.

China Warns of Disaster if Arafat Harmed

April 1
….China's Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan warned Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres in a phone conversation on Sunday of disastrous consequences for the Middle East if Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is harmed. China supports the Palestinian uprising against Israel.
Note: The “Kings of the East” are squarely in the corner of the demonic anti-Israel hate-mongers. It is amazing to me how the whole world stands is support of Yasser Arafat and terrorism. Israel has few friends in the world. God have mercy on America if the day ever comes when it joins the world in favoring murderers and terrorists over God's Chosen people.

Thousands March in Baghdad in Support of Palestinians

April 1
….Thousands of Iraqis marched in Baghdad Saturday denouncing Israel's "savage attacks" against the Palestinians and calling on Saddam Hussein to "hit Tel Aviv, with missiles. "Palestine is Arab, down with Zionism," "Don't worry Arafat, with our blood we will redeem Palestine," "Beloved Saddam, hit Tel Aviv," the demonstrators chanted. The protesters, who carried portraits of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, were referring to Scud missiles fired by Iraq at Israel during the 1991 Gulf War.

French Join Pro-Palestinian Marches

April 1
….Thousands gathered across France Saturday to call for an independent Palestinian state after Israel thrust into Palestinian cities and smashed into the compound of their leader Yasser Arafat. Protesters gathered in Strasbourg, Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Bordeaux, shouting slogans such as "Free Arafat," "Respect Palestinian rights". Protestors marched past the European Parliament waving Palestinian flags and chanting "Bush, Sharon assassins, referring to the U.S. and Israeli leaders. Protesters carried scrolls marked with an alternative "10 Commandments," including "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's land" and "Thou shalt dissolve Zionism.

Note: The hate of Israel is relative to the world's hate of God's law!

Israeli “Isolation” Exposes the Real Arafatu

April 1
….Israel demanded that Arafat surrender top master terrorists responsible for dozens of serious attacks, who were enjoying sanctuary within his Ramallah compound quarters. Among them were organizers of Israeli minister Rehavam Zeevi's assassination last year. Arafat's response was adamant: If Israeli troops attempt to take the men under my protection and remove any more documents from my office, I will fight to the death. Arafat refused Israel's demand to turn over the terror activists and masterminds he has been harboring in his quarters now for months, including Tawfiq Tirawi, general intelligence chief and commander of the Fatah's al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, PFLP secretary Ahmed Sadat as well as the assassins of Israeli minister Zeevi. Arafat has been keeping his international telephone hook-up busy, pleading with world leaders to save him from great danger, without explaining that he was using his personal immunity to shelter top terrorists and sending suicide bombers on the rampage in Israeli cities. In the Ramallah operation, military intelligence and Shin Beit operatives, who went in with Israeli forces, collected documentary proofs from Arafat's presidential suite linking the Palestinian leader personally with suicide attacks. His most trusted lieutenants, some with high diplomatic standing in the international community, are also personally connected to some of the most horrifying terror outrages presently going on in Israeli cities, including Jerusalem. Between 50 and 60 of the deadliest terror activists on Israel's wanted list, have been discovered sheltering in Arafat's quarters and command center. Thus far, Israeli troops have captured 500 known or suspected terrorists in Ramallah. Intelligence operatives accompanying the troops scoured the files in the Palestinian leader's headquarters, collecting documentary evidence linking Arafat and members of his inner circle to the orchestration of terror atrocities. They also turned up huge depots of banned weapons, such as 43 RPGs, 200 Kalashnikov assault rifles and anti-tank missiles, as well as millions of counterfeit Israeli currency notes.

Bush Considering Linking War on Terror to PLO?

April 1
….President Bush has for the first time drawn a connecting line between America's war on global terror and Israel's fight against Palestinian terrorists. His stance that Israel has a right to defend itself against Palestinian terror has implications in the war on terror America is anticipating waging on Iraq. Saddam Hussein is heavily involved in supporting Palestinian terrorists organizations in the West Bank. President Bush, who has branded Iran part of an "axis of evil" along with Iraq and North Korea, said "the Iranians and the Syrians must stop fostering terrorism. Iran and Syria have faced U.S. diplomatic pressure for backing militant Palestinian groups and Lebanon's Hizbollah terror guerrillas. Syrian and Iranian leaders are discussing ways to counter Israel's ongoing siege of Palestinian cities and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Ramallah compound. Note: President Bush alluded to the states that “harbor terrorists” in his declaration of war on terror in September. If the U.S. is really serious about fighting terrorism, then the proposed new state of Palestine is the real battle front in that war!




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