Israel

I've written and erased , rewritten and erased, and I just have to say this in the Leading of the Lord, just pray for Israel.

Thats all I want to ask or say.

Pray for the safety of Israel.

Praying.

Security and defense: Catch a falling nuke

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Yaakov Katz, THE JERUSALEM POST Feb. 15, 2007

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This is the year of the missile in the Middle East. Everyone is launching and testing missiles, and flexing their muscles in defiance of the rest of the region and the world.

Two weeks ago, it was the Iranians who put on a massive military display during the largest missile maneuver since the United Nations imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic in December. Overseen by Revolutionary Guards commander Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi - who used the event to threaten to destroy Israel - the Iranians tested their Zalzal-1 and Fajr-5 missiles, which are also back in the hands of Hizbullah and capable of wreaking destruction as far south as Tel Aviv.

A week later, it was Syria's turn: Damascus tested the advanced Scud-D. The missile, which was detected by Israeli radar systems, reportedly flew for several hundred kilometers and landed near its target.

This week, it was Israel's turn, with the successful 15th test of the Arrow 2 missile defense system. Launched Sunday night from the IAF's Palmahim base, the Arrow intercepted a missile impersonating an Iranian Shihab-3 carrying a nuclear warhead.

While defense officials went out of their way to stress that the missile test was conducted as part of the routine development of the system, the message Israel sent to Iran and Syria was clear: You can successfully fire your missiles; we can successfully intercept them.

It is only February, and already three of the major players in the region have tested their missiles. This is just the beginning, however. Israel plans additional Arrow launches throughout the year as it continues to upgrade the defense system to stay ahead of Iran's developments to its Shihab missile series. Israel is also considering deploying additional Arrow batteries - including in the North and the South.

There is also now increased talk of exporting the Arrow to other countries, particularly South Korea, a strong ally of the US under an existential missile threat from North Korea.

THE ARROW is the pride and joy of its manufacturers at Israel Aerospace Industries. It is the only operational missile defense system in the world. Even the Americans are behind Israel and have only recently begun deployment of the Aegis ballistic missile defense destroyer. The US has also announced plans to station a missile interceptor in Poland and its accompanying radar system in the Czech Republic.

"There is a missile race in the Middle East," explained a top defense official. "It is our job to stay on top and to make sure that we develop our defenses more quickly than our enemies develop their missiles."

Developed as an answer to Saddam Hussein's Scuds - like the ones that hit during the Gulf War - the Arrow is today far more advanced than initially planned and it has the world's attention. But the fact that Israel has the defensive capabilities does not mean it is not preparing for an offensive step against Iran - one that could include a strike against its nuclear sites.

WHILE PRESIDENT George W. Bush reiterated this week that an American attack on Iran would be a "last resort," senior officials in Tel Aviv spoke with interest of the American leader's latest decision to appoint Adm. William Fallon commander of the US armed forces' Central Command based in Qatar.

While Fallon, former head of the Pacific Command, will be the supreme commander of America's war in Iraq, he will also be in charge of a military operation against Iran, if one is launched. The Israeli officials pointed to the seemingly coincidental timing of a naval officer's appointment to CENTCOM - traditionally a position for an army or Marine Corps officer - and the recent decision to send a second battle group, led by the aircraft carrier USS John Stennis, to the Persian Gulf to support the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

"If Bush is planning something, he is certainly getting ready for it," was one official's description.

Dr. Eran Lerman, director of the Israel/Middle East office of the American Jewish Committee and a former senior IDF intelligence analyst, had a similar read on the US military buildup in the region. During a conference at Tel Aviv University last week, Lerman said that the additional ships and the appointment of Fallon indicated that America was considering imposing a sea blockade on Iran, a move he said could prove to be more effective than the UN sanctions currently imposed on Teheran.

With all the missile tests and Iranian maneuvers going on, Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, who took up his new post as chief of General Staff on Wednesday, will not even merit a single moment of grace. He will have to oversee the increased training in the IDF, create his new General Staff and prepare for possible conflicts with Hizbullah, Syria, the Palestinians and a possible strike on Iran.

Former IAF commander David Ivry once said that the most difficult step during the preparations for Operation Opera - the successful IAF air strike on the Osirak reactor near Baghdad in 1981 - was convincing the political echelon that the IDF was capable of successfully carrying out the mission.

Ashkenazi will have to do the same. But before he attempts to persuade the politicians, he will first need - together with IAF commander Maj.-Gen. Eliezer Shkedy - to convince himself that the IDF that lost in Lebanon is capable of winning in Iran.

falasha, which means exiles or strangers, or falasha mura, which are Messianic Jews, followers of Jesus.

Some say Falasha descendants of the Tribe of Dan who left during the Solomonic civil war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam, some say King Solomon gave Queen Sheba a "royal gift".

I was going to ask you if you were Falasha, but I thought better of it.

Any Jew has right of return to Israel at any time, Ethiopian Jews serve bravely in the IDF, they have a hard time in Israel. Its a shame, white people and black people always seem to have a hard time together, and thats sad. But the good thing about Jesus is that you are my sister, you are my blood, bought thru the Blood.

I am falasha mura, but white, I'm a Jew who follows Jesus.

God will protect Israel, no fear. Just faith.

and God bless Ethiopia, may he bless the Church in Ethiopia to raise up many missionaries there, because after America attacked Iraq, its the missionaries raised WITHIN the Horn of Africa that will bring the Gospel to that blessed region, Ethiopia, Eriterea, Somalia, Sudan, Egypt, Mali, Niger, Chad.

your brother , neil

Ready for war
By Con Coughlin
Last Updated: 12:29am GMT 25/02/2007

There may not yet be gas masks in the street in Tel Aviv but no one should underestimate Israel's determination to prevent a nuclear Iran

Down on the seafront in Tel Aviv, where crowds of young Israelis are to be found taking advantage of the unseasonably warm spring sunshine this weekend, it is hard to imagine that Israel is confronting what is arguably the gravest threat to its survival since it emerged from the ashes of the Holocaust 59 years ago.

Statement of intent? A banner carried during demonstrations in Tehran

The apocalyptic rantings of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the menace posed by the ayatollahs' outlawed nuclear programme are a million miles from the minds of the couples lounging in the sun sipping cold beers, or engaged in vigorously competitive games of beach volleyball.

Apart from the occasional noisy interruption as a patrol of Cobra military helicopters passes overhead on its way to Gaza, or the sullen presence of the naval patrol vessels anchored offshore on the lookout for waterborne suicide bombers, these carefree souls seem blissfully unaware of the storm clouds of war gathering over the political horizon.

"We have nothing to fear from the Iranians," Amiram Levi told me. "If they become too much of a threat we can deal with them just as we dealt with the Iraqis when they tried to build a nuclear bomb."

Amiram, a 20-year-old computer science student at Tel Aviv University, was of course referring to the daredevil raid made by Israeli fighter jets against Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981, which destroyed at a stroke Saddam Hussein's dreams of turning his country into a nuclear superpower.

advertisementMost Israelis believe their country will do the same again if the outside world fails to call a halt to Iran's controversial uranium enrichment programme, which few in Israel doubt is ultimately aimed at giving the ayatollahs a nuclear weapons arsenal to fulfil Ahmadinejad's pledge to erase the Jewish state from the map.

Having already suffered a near-apocalypse in the form of the Holocaust, the Jewish people have no intention of being the hapless victims of Ahmadinejad's genocidal designs. Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, last month gave his most explicit warning to date that Israel was prepared to use military force to prevent Teheran from obtaining a nuclear weapon: "The Jewish people, with the scars of the Holocaust fresh on its body, cannot afford to allow itself to face threats of annihilation once again."

That single sentence sums up the consensus among most of the Israeli people. If the wider world is not prepared to take pre-emptive action to stop Iran from fulfilling its nuclear ambitions, then Israel is ready to act alone.

Normally, in times of national emergency, such as the build-up to the 2003 Iraq War, Israel is bustling with precautionary activity - civil defence organisers handing out gas masks and ensuring the bomb shelters are ready.

But today there is scant evidence of anyone preparing for a potential war. The only gas masks on display are those used by children for fancy dress, while recent press reports that the super-rich residents of Herzliya were building their own state-of-the-art nuclear bunkers were greeted with derision by less well-off citizens.

In contrast, the country's political, military and intelligence-gathering infrastructure has thrown all the resources it can muster at the challenge of neutralising Iran's nuclear capability.

"The amount of effort we are putting into this single issue is unprecedented in the history of the State of Israel," said a senior Israeli security official who works on the strategic committee that has been set up to deal with the Iran threat, which is personally chaired by Olmert.

The committee's main function is to ensure the closest possible liaison on the latest intelligence and military developments. It is also responsible for maintaining a close dialogue with countries supportive of Israel's concerns, particularly the United States, which has seconded officials to work alongside the Israelis.

The committee has yet to have any contact with Britain, although it is hoped that a dialogue will begin "in the not-too-distant future".

Nor should anyone be in any doubt as to the extreme sense of urgency that is driving the Israeli government's activity. To ensure that the country has the best available resources at its disposal, Olmert announced last week that Meir Dagan, the head of Mossad, Israel's overseas intelligence service, had been asked to postpone his retirement until at least the end of 2008.

Dagan, the son of Holocaust survivors, has already served six years in the post, during which time he has become Israel's leading expert on Iran's nuclear programme. "The last thing I want is to have to change horses at a time like this," Olmert remarked after Dagan agreed to serve the extra term.

On the military side, Olmert has also taken the significant step of handing responsibility for preparing Israel's response to the Iranian challenge to the commander of the Israeli Air Force, Eliezer Shkedi.

Shkedi, a former F-16 fighter pilot who saw active service in Lebanon during the 1982 invasion and shot down two Syrian MiG fighters, is in charge of Iran Command, the unit responsible for dealing with any possible threat the Iranians might pose to Israel's security.

As part of the defensive preparations for a missile attack, the Israelis recently conducted a successful test-firing of the new Arrow anti-missile defence system, a development that has mainly been funded by the Pentagon.

The Arrow is the successor to the American Patriot missile system used to shoot down Saddam's Scuds during the 1991 Gulf War. But where the Patriot attacks the incoming missile as it nears its target, the Arrow is designed to intercept a hostile missile much earlier, in the upper atmosphere.

From Israel's perspective this is a crucial advance, especially if the Iranians were to attempt to fire missiles armed with nuclear warheads. "There's no point shooting down a nuclear missile once it's over Israel - the devastation would be just the same," an Israeli military officer explained this week. "The idea is to take it out long before it hits Israel."

That would mean such a missile exploding somewhere over Iraq or Jordan, thereby potentially causing widespread devastation in those countries.

"No one has done much thinking about what might happen if you exploded a nuclear weapon in the upper atmosphere," added the officer. "It's probably something people should look at."

But ensuring Israel has an effective defence against an Iranian missile attack is crucial. Iran has made it clear it will respond to any attack against its nuclear facilities, and its Shahab-3 ballistic missiles have the range to strike throughout Israel.

As for Israel's offensive plans against Iran, the Iran Command team's task is to demonstrate that Israel has the capability to act unilaterally.

"No one is going to take this threat seriously until the State of Israel can demonstrate to the outside world that we have the ability to deal with this menace on our own," said a senior security official who serves on Iran Command.

"The only way we can put pressure on the outside world to deal effectively with Iran's nuclear programme is to demonstrate that we can do this ourselves.

''Of course, we hope it doesn't come to a military solution, and we hope that this can be resolved through diplomacy. But Iran's track record is not good."

For the Israelis, taking out Iran's nuclear facilities is a very different proposition to the 1981 attack on Iraq's nuclear reactor. Back then, the Israelis had the element of surprise - the last thing the Iraqis expected to see was a squadron of Israeli warplanes in their airspace.

Iraq's nuclear programme also posed a relatively straightforward target in that all the facilities were concentrated at the Osirak complex, south of Baghdad. A few well-targeted bombs released in a single air raid were sufficient to do the job.

The Iranians, on the other hand, learning the lessons of the Osirak debacle, have scattered their resources around the country. Obvious targets, such as the controversial uranium enrichment complex at Natanz, are set in specially constructed bomb proof bunkers that would require high-precision, bunker-busting bombs to inflict any serious damage.

Yet another challenge is presented by the recent arrival of the Russian-made Tor M1 anti-aircraft missile system as part of an arms deal signed between Moscow and Teheran last year.

"Of course, attacking Iran is not going to be easy, but we cannot just sit here and let the ayatollahs develop a nuclear weapons arsenal," said a senior Israeli defence official. "Doing nothing is just not an option."

Israeli defence officials are understandably coy about revealing precisely how far advanced their plans are for launching air strikes against Iran in light of the current diplomatic offensive at the United Nations to halt Teheran's enrichment programme ending in failure.

But that the Israeli Air Force, as The Daily Telegraph exclusively discloses today, is negotiating with US coalition commanders in Iraq for permission to fly through US-controlled air space suggests Israeli military planners have overcome most of the key technical hurdles, such as in-flight refuelling and target selection.

"One of the last issues we have to sort out is how we actually get to targets in Iran," an Israeli officer involved in the military planning told me. "The only way to do this is to fly through US-controlled air space in Iraq. If we don't sort these issues out now we could have a situation where American and Israeli war planes are shooting at each other."

The pace of military planning in Israel, which has markedly accelerated since the start of the year, is being driven by Mossad's stark intelligence assessment that Iran, given the rate of progress on uranium enrichment at Natanz, could have enough fissile material for a nuclear warhead by 2009.

This is, it should be stressed, only an assessment as opposed to hard fact, and the Israeli assessment is starkly at odds with those made by other Western intelligence agencies, and by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN-sponsored body responsible for monitoring nuclear development activities worldwide.

Last week, Dr Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the IAEA, said his assessment was that Iran was still five to ten years away from developing a nuclear warhead, a view that is generally supported by the British and American intelligence communities.

But the Israelis are insistent that their assessments are more realistic. "The problem is that no one really knows what is going on in Iran," said a senior Israeli security official working on Iran's nuclear brief. "Iran has consistently lied to the outside world about what its true intentions really are, and we can't allow a situation to develop where the Iranians, like North Korea, announce they have an atomic bomb, when all the so-called experts said they didn't have the capability or expertise to do it."

Israeli officials point out that IAEA inspectors are not allowed access to the main underground chamber at Natanz where uranium enrichment will soon be taking place on an industrial scale. They are also convinced that the evidence so far accumulated by IAEA officials shows that Iran has a clandestine nuclear weapons programme.

"No one who knows about this - and this includes the experts in London and Washington - is in any doubt that Iran is secretly trying to build a bomb," said the security official. "The only issue at stake is how long it will be before they get one."

If that is the case, then the only question that remains is how much longer the Israelis are prepared to wait before they take matters into their own hands.

For the moment, the Olmert government seems prepared to let the United Nations process play out, even though Israeli officials make no secret of their disdain for the way ElBaradei is handling the crisis. "He doesn't seem to care one way or another whether the Iranians get a bomb. All he wants is a quiet life," said one senior government adviser.

And there is no doubt that the Israelis would prefer their superpower protector, the United States, to do their dirty work for them if the UN-sponsored diplomacy fails to bring Teheran to its senses. But the bottom line is that if, within the next two years, the Iranians are still maintaining their rate of progress on the nuclear front, the Israelis are ready and able to act on their own if need be.

"After the September 11 attacks, we now live in an age of pre-emption," said a senior Olmert adviser. "The Jewish people have not forgotten the last time the world watched and did nothing. We are determined that shall never happen again."

Why don't we ever pray for Palestine?

Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

My prayer is that the Palestinian people get more land, and make East Jerusalem their Capitol.

We should pray for the peace of the state of Israel and the state of Palestine.

Israel is not Gods' chosen people

then you worship a fork tongued god who is a liar.......and if you believe that God goes back on His Word, and His Covenant promises, than what makes you so sure He won't go back on the promises made to the people that follow the Messiah? and give these promises to say...muslims, hmm?

If don't believe that the Jews and the Nation of Israel figure into the end time prophesies, I don't know what Bible you're reading.

nice prayer, too bad they cant stop killing one another, too bad that Israel doesnt have a real partner for peace in the region.

Hi IRONMAN,

What I'm about to say is [u]not replacement theology[/u]. If you are thinking that what follows [i]is[/i] replacement theology, then challenge me in the other thread, please. *

Also, this is long, but (I think), necessarily so.

You said

for example, the temple must be rebuilt and made functional again as it was in the days of old, only the Jews can do that.

Also, if there is anything about who will build it, please direct me.

Here are the scriptures which I associate with the third temple.

[color=006666]John 2:13 - 22 (NKJV)
Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers doing business.

When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"

Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up." (Psalm 69:9)

So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?" Jesus answered and said to them, [b]"Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."[/b]Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" [b]But He was speaking of the temple of His body.[/b]

Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

Ephesians 2:11 - 22
Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh -- who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands -- that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity - the law of commandments in ordinances - so as to create in Himself [u]one new man[/u] [i]from[/i] the two, making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near.

For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

1 Peter 2:1 - 10
Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord [i]is[/i] gracious. Coming to Him, a living stone rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God, precious, you also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house - a holy priesthood - to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture,

"Behold, I lay in Zion
A chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame."

Therefore, to you who believe, [i]He is[/i] precious; but to those who are disobedient,

"The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone,"

and

"A stone of stumbling
And a rock of offense."

They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.

But you [i]are[/i] a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; [u]who once [i]were[/i] not a people but [i]are[/i] now the people of God[/u], who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

John 10:14 - 16
"I am the good shepherd; and I know My [i]sheep[/i] and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock [i]and[/i] one shepherd.

Hebrews 12:22 - 24
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than [i]that of[/i] Abel.

Galatians 4:19 - 31
My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you, I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone; for I have doubts about you. Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?

For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic.

For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar -- [u]for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children[/u] -- but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.

For it is written:

"Rejoice, O barren, who do not bear!
Break forth and shout,
You who are not in labor!
For the desolate has many more children
Than she who has a husband."

Now we, brethren, as Isaac, are children of promise.

But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him [i]who was born[/i] according to the Spirit, even so, now.

Nevertheless what does the Scripture say?

"Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for [u]the son of the bondwoman [b]shall not be[/b] heir with the son of the freewoman[/u]."

So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.

Galatians 6:12 - 16
As many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these [i]would[/i] compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.

For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy upon them, and upon the Israel of God.[/color]

bartle,

Please be patient (with me), as this is only [i]part[/i] of my thesis.

* [url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=15106&post_id=117206&order=0&viewmode=flat&pid=117082&forum=35#117206]https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=15106&post_id=117206&order=0&viewmode=flat&pid=117082&forum=35#117206[/url]