Christianity Becoming Extict In Its Birthplace.

Hat Tip to Creeping Sharia

MIDDLE EAST historian Tom Holland told a briefing in London last night that the world is watching the effective extinction of Christianity from its birthplace.In an apocalyptic appraisal of the worsening political situation in the region, a panel of experts provided a mass of evidence and statistics for the end of the region’s nation states under the onslaught of militant Islam.‘In terms of the sheer scale of the hatreds and sectarian rivalries, we are witnessing something on the scale of horror of the European Thirty Years War,’ said Holland.‘It is the climax of a process grinding its way through the twentieth century – the effective extinction of Christianity from its birthplace.’The event titled ‘Reporting the Middle East: Why the truth is getting lost’ at the National Liberal Club in Whitehall, sought answers to the ‘anaemic’ coverage of attacks on Egypt’s Christians on 14 August.
Pre-planned destruction of scores of ancient churches, monasteries, schools, orphanages and businesses had gone unreported for days across the West, Nina Shea, Director of the Hudson Institute Religious Freedom Centre in Washington said.

After the Islamists swept multiple elections during the first revolution in 2011, US newspapers asking how it would change Egypt suggested merely that women would be prohibited from wearing skimpy clothes, and Sharm el-Sheikh would close as a tourist destination.

This was ‘utterly trivial’ she said.  Persecution of Copts, who dated their church to Gospel writer St Mark in Alexandria, was at its worst since the fourteenth century, with ‘horrific levels of violence’.
‘It has been the worst persecution in 700 years against the oldest, largest remaining Christian minority in the Middle East.’

The media had failed to ask the most basic questions, she said.  ‘Why were the Copts singled out, what was the significance and purpose of the attacks?’

A fourth-century church dedicated to St Mary – whom Muslims were supposed to revere – and that was a UNESCO World Heritage site, had been destroyed and designated as a Muslim prayer space.
It was 200 years older than the Bamyan Statues in Afghanistan, yet the mainstream media had ignored its demise.

Yet there was enough evidence to show that the violence was part of a plan to ‘drive out the Copts, to terrorize them into leaving’, she added.

Lapido Chief Executive Dr Jenny Taylor who organized the event which was co-hosted with foreign policy think tank Henry Jackson Society, said the media’s job was impeded by ‘secular blinders’.
They tended to report the Middle East’s religions as a ‘variant of a Westminster debate’ with ‘left-wing underdogs versus right-wing overdogs and the Christians getting lumped in with the overdogs if they get mentioned at all.’

Holland said Egypt was not a developing nation, which needed help to emerge as a Western democracy but had been the world’s first state, with a civilization on a level with China and Iran.  In Roman times, it had been the world’s bread basket.

Now it was the single largest importer of wheat anywhere on the planet.

In answer to a question from the floor he agreed there had been what felt like ‘silence’ from Western churches, governments and indeed Western Muslims after the attacks, which belied Islamist propaganda that the West colluded with Christians.

Shea also spoke about Syria.

Christians in Syria were now ‘caught in the middle’, she said.  There was a shadow war against them by rebels, with jihadis and al-Qaeda factions deliberately attacking Christians.

‘When they conquer a town they set up sharia courts and mini sharia states.  The Christians are fleeing.  Given the choice to be killed or to leave, they leave.  If they stay, the jizya tax is imposed, and then raised.  If they cannot pay they are killed.’

She said Christians dared not go to refugee camps run by rebels as they would be recruited to fight.
The so-called Damascus Plan drafted by the Free Syrian Army for after the war ends, included retribution killings against any who did not oppose Assad.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I feel sorry for the Churches of the Middle East.  In every Muslim nation  they are being destroyed.  In Bethlehem, under the Palestinian Authority, Christians have gone from a majority population of 85% to a minority population of 10%.  Pretty soon the only Christians in the city will be the priests, nuns, and tourists.  Already the Palestinian Authority has decided to turn the Church of the Nativity into a mosque.  The Church of the Nativity is one of the holiest sites in the Christian world.  Yet there will be no protests when this happens.

The only place in the Middle East where there is total and free religious liberty is Israel.  Yet the Christian Churches will not praise Israel for this, but condemns the Jewish State instead.

Between 1949 and 1955 every Arab nation forcibly removed most of the Jews from their nations.  They laughed doing so, saying:

First the Saturday people.
Then the Sunday people.

In most of the Arab world there are not enough Jews to satisfy their blood lust.  For instance there are only 9 Jews in Egypt.  (All elderly women.)  So now it is the turn of the Sunday people to leave.  And like with the Jews, the world is remaining silent.

Until Christian and World leaders cry out and demand a stop to the persecution, the murders, the rapes, the torture of their fellow Christians, the Muslims will keep doing what they want and laughing while we just sit back and do nothing.

Tensions Are Spinning Out Of Control!

Today an US drone was shot at in International Air Space by Iranian Forces.  It was repelled by US fighter Jets which are now flying escort for US drones.

The Syrian High Command issued an ultimatum to the Lebanese government to stop supporting the rebels or they will send their Air Force to strike the convoys and bases.

The Russian Navy decided not to have 3 warships dock at Tartus but diverted them to Beirut.

From Debka:

Middle East tensions are spiraling sharply six days before US President Barack Obama lands in the Middle East. Thursday night, March 14, an Iranian fighter jet tried to bring down a US Predator drone flying over Oman, i.e. the Straits of Hormuz - only to be warned off by flares from its US fighter escort.

This was not the first time a US drone was threatened by Iranian aircraft over the Persian Gulf, but in reporting the incident, the Pentagon revealed that the drones flying in the neighborhood of Iranian shores are now escorted by US jet fighters. A couple of hours earlier that evening, debkafile received an exclusive report from its military sources that the Syrian high command had just issued an ultimatum, on the orders of Bashar Assad, demanding that the Lebanese government put an immediate stop to the passage of armed Sunni fighters from Lebanon into Syria, else the Syrian Air Force would strike the Lebanese intruders’ convoys and also their home bases. Damascus claimed they were coming to fight the government alongside the al Qaeda-linked Jabrat al-Nusra.

Their incursion threatened to engender a major spillover of the Syrian conflict into Lebanon.

The danger of hostilities inching close to the Syrian port of Tartus, where Moscow maintains a naval base, decided the Russian Navy to instruct three warships carrying 700 marines to Tartus to change course and put in at Beirut instead.

The Iranians are openly supporting and fighting for Assad.  Al Qaeda is striving to take the Golan Heights, itching for a fight with Israel.  The Russians don't know which way to turn.  Support Assad or flee from the violence.  The UN peacekeepers on the Syrian-Israeli border have fled to Israel.  A patrol was kidnapped by al Qaeda.

All this on the eve of President Barack Hussein Obama's visit to the region.  A good example of his foreign policy in action.

The One State Solution

Here is an ideal solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem:

The One State Solution

Proposed by Andrew Klavan, this just may be the best option for the region.



Click here if the video doesn't load.

In an effort to bring peace to the Middle East, President Barack Obama has proposed that Israel should return to its 1967 borders in exchange for being annihilated by its enemies. PJTV's Andrew Klavan has a better idea.

The Chaos of Barack Obama's Middle East

Cross posted from Holger Awakens


I've said it many times that the foreign policy of Barack Hussein Obama is a nightmare - first off, he HAS NO foreign policy other than ensuring that islamic countries and organizations get away with murder and secondly, we have seen the President's attention span in regards to foreign policy in the Middle East is fleeting at best. For a guy who has such an affinity to a Blackberry, this President doesn't seem to be able to do more than one thing at a time.

In essence, we have seen Obama's approach to Israel go from the extreme of calling for Israel to give up its current borders to the pre-'67 lines and two months later he is calling for unified action against Iran - it's like having a bi-polar in charge.

Well, this article at Family Security Matters ties a bit of a bow on the chaos that is the Middle East at this time and how not only Barack Hussein Obama hasn't helped the situation but actually has contributed to it. Our allies across the world simply have no idea where America stands on anything...anymore. There has been so much flip flopping and sending of mixed signals that it makes John Kerry from his Presidential run look solid as a rock in his convictions.

Middle East Mayhem


No foreign policy frontier has plagued the Obama administration more than the Middle East. Last week, even as the President headed to Hawaii to the Asian economic summit the top item on the international agenda came from the other side of the world.

Without question, the top issue last week was a blockbuster report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirming suspicions that Iran continues to have an active nuclear weapons program. As Heritage Middle East expert Jim Phillips observed “[t]he IAEA report is sure to reopen the debate over the controversial 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), which concluded that Iran had halted its nuclear weaponization efforts in 2003.” Phillips recalled, [t]he Heritage Foundation lambasted the NIE at the time and has continued to point out the NIE’s weaknesses in light of Iran’s continued nuclear efforts.” The Obama administration had long relied on the IAEA report as an excuse for a go-soft approach with the regime in Tehran.

The IAEA report amounts to a smoking gun revealing that two years of a White House policy aimed at negotiating with Tehran and a half-hearted effort at implementing sanctions have done nothing to slow down the regime’s nuclear ambitions.

What is most troubling is not the IAEA’s belated confirmation of what’s up with the Iran nuclear weapons program, it’s how the world has changed since Tehran started its bomb-building quest. The prospect of Iran joining the nuclear club is far more terrifying today. Many analysts agree that nuclear-armed Tehran will spark an arms race in the region as countries seek to counter the regime’s advantage. The problem is that after they arm themselves, the nuclear camps won’t cleanly line up into two sides. Atomic competition in the Middle East will look “like a soccer game with a half dozen teams on the field, each trying to score their own goals.”

It is hard not to conclude that the administration’s mishandling of foreign affairs over the last two years has done anything but make “this nightmare scenario more likely, not less. It has done too little to slow Tehran’s nuclear program. It has been aloof from the Iranian democracy movement and a bystander in Egypt’s Arab Spring. It has botched relations with Iraq. It has calmly watched Turkey’s drift and taken the U.S.-Israeli alliance for granted. It’s much ballyhooed “reset” with Russia has accomplished nothing other than to make Moscow a more dominant nuclear power.” For that reason, President Obama’s grade for the week has to be “F” for failing to keep up with events in the Middle East.

Kish Meir Yiddicshe Tuchus

or Klavan's One-State Solution


Klavan's One-State Solution: Give the Middle East to the Jews



Hat Tip to Elder of Ziyon

A Mideast Devoid Of Christians

This is the goal of the Muslim world.  In every Muslim nation there is an official systematic policy to destroy every Christian church, community, life in order to free themselves of the blight they see within their midst.  This isn't a new phenomena in these countries, they rid themselves of Jews decades ago.

This is the saddest Easter in the long epic of Arab Christianity: The cross is near extinction in the lands of it origin. The much-vaunted diversity of the Middle East is going to be reduced to the flat monotony of a single religion, Islam, and to a handful of languages.

In 1919, the Egyptian revolution adopted a green flag with the crescent and the cross. Both Muslims and Christians participated in the nationalist revolution against British colonialism. Now, according to the Egyptian Federation for Human Rights, more than 70 Christians a week are asking to leave the country due to Islamist threats.

The numbers are telling. Today there is only one Middle Eastern country where the number of Christians has grown: Israel. As documented in the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, the Christian community that numbered 34,000 people in 1949 is now 163,000-strong, and will reach 187,000 in 2020.

In the rest of the Middle East, the drive for Islamic purity is going to banish all traces of pre-Islamic pasts. This has affected not only Christians, but other non-Islamic communities too, such as the Zoroastrians and Baha’is in Iran (the late also found refuge in Israel, in Haifa.)

The silence of the global forums, the flawed conscience of human rights groups, the self-denial of the media and the Vatican’s appeasement is helping facilitate this Islamist campaign. According to a report on religious freedom compiled by the US Department of State, the number of Christians in Turkey declined from two million to 85,000; in Lebanon they have gone from 55% to 35% of the population; in Syria, from half the population they have been reduced to 4%; in Jordan, from 18% to 2%. In Iraq, they will be exterminated.

Should the exodus of Christians from Bethlehem continue in the next two or three decades, there may be no clergy left to conduct religious services in Jesus’ birthplace. In Iran, Christians have become virtually non-existent since 1979, when Khomeini ordered the immediate closure of all Christian schools. In Gaza, the 3,000 who remain are subjected to persecution. In Sudan, Christians in the South are forced into slavery.

Israel’s flag a symbol of hope

In Lebanon, the Maronites, the only Christians to have held political power in the modern Arab world, have been reduced to a minority because of Muslim violence and Hezbollah’s rise. In Saudi Arabia, Christians have been beaten or tortured by religious police. Benjamin Sleiman, archbishop of Baghdad, is talking about “the extinction of Christianity in the Middle East.”

The Christian Egypt was symbolically represented by former United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a Christian married to a Jewish woman whose sister was the wife of Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban. In 1977, Boutros-Ghali, who was then Egypt’s foreign minister, accompanied President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem.

Sadat, who as a child had attended a Christian school, was killed because the treaty his signed with the “Zionists,” among other reasons, and his cold peace is now under attack from the new rulers in Cairo.

In 1948, the Middle East was cleansed of its ancient Jews. Today is the Christians’ turn. Just as Islamist totalitarians have ruthlessly persecuted Christians in the Middle East, they have been waging war for the past 63 years to destroy the Jewish state in their midst. That’s why the fate of Israel is intertwined with the fate of the non-Muslim minorities.

Should the Islamists prevail, the Middle East will be completely green, the colour of Islam. Under atomic and Islamist existential threats, the remnant of the Jewish people risks being liquidated before Israel’s centennial in 2048. It’s time for Christians to recognize that Israel’s survival is also critical and vital for them. During the Holocaust, when most Christians were bystanders or collaborators, the Yellow Star was a symbol of death for the Jews. Today, the white flag with the beautiful six pointed star is a symbol of survival and hope for both Jews and Christians.

Giulio Meotti, a journalist with Il Foglio, is the author of the book A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel's Victims of Terrorism

Full Story

After

Before

I wrote in 2008 that the PA is planning to turn the Church of the Nativity into a Mosque.  It is only a matter of time until there are almost no Christians in Bethlehem. Then the PA can evict the Nuns, Priests and Brother who reside at the church (Their usefulness as mouth pieces will be done.), and then loot the place and rework it into a Mosque.

It is not as if Muslims have any respect for the Holy sites of other people.  The desecration of Joseph's Tomb or the Statues of Buddha is the best example of what will happen to every Christian holy site that falls under the sway of these madmen.

Joseph's Tomb

Why is it the Christian churches for the most part, are silent on this? Only a few will cry out for their persecuted brethren.  What is scaring them into silence?

The silence of the Christian world is deafening. Especially to those communities who are being erased from the lands they lived in since way before Mohammad was born.

Too Horrible To Contemplate!

I received this via an e-mail and did some checking up on the facts I am about to present to you.  Most of this I have been able to confirm through my own sources.

Earlier today I posted about the warning Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely issued about the grave danger Israel is in. Following that, I received this from a colleague who has close friends in Israel. Here’s what she wrote:

I have just received this: from my friend in Israel who moves in high circles there.

No attribution possible. It’s from a very trustworthy source who was himself the recipient and knows these people. They send him information clandestinely and they remain incognito, so that they can safely inform Americans of what is actually happening. I’m sure that they would be pleased to have the information disseminated.

Incidentally, in my opinion, this is what appears to be happening. Obama has made secret deals with the Iranian mullahcracy to facilitate the weakening of both the USA and Israel, even the planned destruction of Israel, in exchange for promises from Iran and now the Turkish leadership that ‘all they want’ – à la Munich, 1938 – is their individual MidEast Sudentenland, each of them.

Turkey and Iran have decided to split the ME between them – East and West. Turkey will recreate a new Sunni-controlled Ottoman Empire, and Iran will be allowed its own ‘greater Iran’ hegemony…i.e. a new Shiite Caliphate stretching beyond its current borders.

Obama, who is a Muslim, agrees with this plan and has pledged to help throw Israel – along with all American national security interests – to the wolves.

This appears to me to be what is currently happening, and Americans had better awaken to this reality long before November, 2012, or we won’t have a country, or an Israel, to save any longer.

***

Tonight Clive and I heard very disturbing information – we heard it from a consultant to the United States who meets once a month with the President in the White house. He is in the know. This is what actually has happened with the relationship with Israel and the USA and it is not pretty:

1. Israel during the Bush and Clinton Administrations – had landing rights in Turkey, and in the USA bases in the middle east and more recently under George Bush, in Iraq. This was in case they were invaded by Iran , or Saudi or any other Arab country. Obama has withdrawn those landing rights. Israel now has nowhere to refuel in the Middle East.

2. Netanyahu was instructed to come to the White House for a meeting. He was brought in through a servants entrance – the only head of state ever in US history to be given that disgraceful treatment. He was not offered even a cup of tea – but was lectured to by Obama who told him that he is not permitted to attack Iran and that he has to withdraw all forces from the West Bank and may not build any more settlements ( neighborhoods) in East Jerusalem.

3. Israel found out that there were four terrorists meeting in Dubai . As they have done for the past 62 years, they informed the US of that and said that these terrorists had to be dealt with. Obama said under no circumstances. Israel decided to go ahead. They killed the one terrorist who showed up. However the CIA was sent there to film the entire event by Obama – and then a concerted PR campaign was waged by the White house to discredit Israel and what they did – this kind of action has taken place with US support for the past 62 years since we have common enemies.

4. Obama has refused to oppose Syria’s rearming of Hezbollah and Hamas – Israel now sits in imminent danger from the amounts of missiles that can be sent into her territory.

5. Israel will never tell the US again of its plans – since they cannot trust us.

6. Israel intends to attack Iran –there are over 30 installations of which 4 have underground bunkers that contain nuclear weapons. Israel cannot wait any longer. The US is no longer supporting Israel ’s self defense.

7. This is the same man that gave the White House a full file on the 9.11 attack – his warnings and proof were laughed at.

8. He believes that the next attacks in the USA will be mass transportation – subways and malls – especially the largest malls where the most people can be killed – and that Vegas and wherever there are conventions of employees will be a huge target. We are not prepared and are naive in our lack thereof.

9. Once Israel attacks Iran , every Jew and Jewish institution will be at risk – temples, religious schools etc. We must be prepared.

10. This kept a room of 200 people spellbound. It is not fiction. It is fact.

What can be done?

It is essential that everyone who doesn’t know yet, now understands that the protection and survival of Israel is not on Obama’s list – and he is now taking ACTUAL steps to move all protections away – no more landing rights, negotiating with Iran and Syria, making nice to the Muslim World in the face of allies of long standing and he is no friend of the Jewish people and Israel.

We must be sure that we elect politicians who protect Israel as well as the USA – our interests are intertwined. Please forward to everyone you know.

I was able to verify through my own sources every one of the 10 points cited here. Yet Barack Hussein Obama is sending his Kapos

With this happening, no wonder Netanyahu is on edge!

Something for all of us to remember:

On this date, 5 Sivan 5741 (June 7, 1981), Israel bombed and destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor in Baghdad. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had pronounced himself as the reincarnation of Babylonian tyrant Nebuchadnezzar, and named the nuclear reactor "Tammuz" -- the name of the calamitous Jewish month when Nebuchadnezzar's troops laid siege on Jerusalem 2,500 years earlier. Ilan Ramon (later to become Israel's first astronaut, who died in the explosion of the Space Shuttle Columbia) and seven other pilots executed the daring raid -- flying over enemy Arab territory for hours, and avoiding detection with their tight formation that emitted a radar signal resembling a commercial airliner. However, even as Israel celebrated the successful raid, condemnation was nearly universal. One prominent U.S. senator called it "one of the most provocative, ill-timed and internationally illegal actions taken in that nation's history." Two decades later, as the world feared Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, the Israeli action was vindicated.

Operation Opera

Israel will do what is necessary to survive regardless of what Barack Hussein Obama want them to do, even if it costs them funding and/or support.

MEMRI: Camp David Accords Are Valid According to Shari'a

This week the world was witness to the hatred and bigotry of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad towards the tiny nation of Israel. Over and over on a weekly basis the people of Iran and the world are subjected to hateful and bigoted speeches denouncing not just the formation of Israel, and calls for its destruction, but the rebuking of the treaties signed by both Egypt and Jordan with Israel. Treaties which validate the existence of Israel in International Law.

Yet the militant Islamic group: Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya not only disagrees with Iran's President, but asserts that the Camp David Accords are legal in Islamic Law.

Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya: Camp David Accords Are Valid According to Shari'a

Thirty years after Israel and Egypt signed the Camp David peace accords, a senior Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya official stated that the accords were sanctioned by shari'a and had served Egypt's interests. This statement was remarkable in light of the fact that, for many years, Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya had vehemently opposed recognizing Israel and establishing peaceful relations with it.

In recent years, however, Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya, responsible for numerous terrorist attacks in Egypt in the 1980s and '90s, has categorically reversed its position. Its leaders, who are imprisoned in Egypt, have pledged to renounce violence, apologized for their past terrorist activities, and are now promulgating a new ideology that advocates coexistence with the regime. [1]

Following are excerpts from the statement by the movement's founder and mufti, Najeh Ibrahim, which was posted on www.islamonline.net: [2]

Mufti: "Peace Accords with Israel Are Valid According to Islamic Religious Law"

Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya mufti Najeh Ibrahim, who served a 25-year sentence for colluding in the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Al-Sadat, told www.islamonline that the Israel-Egypt peace treaty was valid according to Islamic religious law. Relying on the precedent of Hudaybiyya, [3] Ibrahim contended that "shari'a permitted agreements and peaceful relations - whether between Muslims and Muslims or between Muslims and Jews, Christians, or members of any other ethnic group - provided that they served the interests of Muslim countries." Ibrahim added that claims that peace with the Jews was forbidden, made by several young members of the movement from the 1970s until today, flew in the face of shari'a.

Recognizing Israel - A Temporary Pragmatic Concession to Circumstances

Ibrahim went on to state, "Despite the many drawbacks of the Camp David accords, they were the best [option] available to Egypt at the time, especially since Egypt's domestic, regional, and international circumstances preclude an ongoing military conflict with Israel."

He added: "Egypt has no military, political, or economic capabilities to liberate all Palestine, nor has it attempted to accomplish this in any of the wars [it has waged]… which sought to achieve the political, military, and economic goals of Egypt [alone]." Ibrahim stressed, however, that "while Israeli occupation of Palestine was religiously illegitimate, it was part of reality." At the same time, he added, "facing up to this reality and recognizing Israel as a [sovereign] state did not grant it religious legitimacy…"

Ibrahim justified his position based on history: During the Crusades, two Muslim leaders - Salah Al-Din Al-Ayoubi, one of the greatest Muslim kings of the time, and Nour Al-Din Mahmoud, the last ruler of the Zangi period - signed peace treaties and hudna truces with the Crusaders. He argued that "no religious authority [of that period] had objected to these agreements, except on the grounds that they religiously sanctioned the occupation of Muslim lands by Crusaders… However, this was a temporary compromise, dictated by interests and the balance of power."

No Opponents of Camp David Had a Better Alternative

Ibrahim also claimed that none of the Arab countries that opposed Camp David, foremost among them Iraq and Syria, "suggested a better political or military alternative, and none of them accomplished anything as noteworthy as Camp David, with all its drawbacks."

[1] See MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 309, "The Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya Cessation of Violence: An Ideological Reversal," by Y. Carmon, Y. Feldner, and D. Lav, December 22, 2006, http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA30906.

[2] www.islamonline.net, March 27, 2009. Ibrahim made similar statements to the Gama'a Al-Islamiyya website www.egyig.com, stressing that he was expressing his personal opinion, and not the movement's official position.

[3] The truce of Hudaybiyya, signed in 628 A.D. between the Prophet Muhammad and his Meccan enemies the polytheist Quraysh tribe, was for a period of 10 years. It was signed by the Prophet when he realized that his forces were inferior to those of the Meccans. Two years after signing the truce, Muhammad captured Mecca.

Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya is not an organization of moderate Muslims, but just the opposite. The James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies has this description of this group:

Militant Islamist. The group seeks to establish Islamic rule in Egypt by force and targets any secular establishment that they believe to be heretical, including secular Arab governments. Has targeted government ministers and officials, police officers, secular intellectuals, Christian Copts, foreign tourists, banks (to enforce an Islamic ban on usury), anything considered "morally offensive," including music performances, film, and video stores.

This organization is a large, loosely organized militant group that has been active since the late 1970s in Egypt, though the group's last attack in Egypt was in August 1998. Most of the group's attacks have been against Egyptian and other government officials, Coptic Christians, and Egyptian opponents of "Islamic extremism." Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya is believed to pursue lower-profile targets than other Egyptian Islamist groups. The group issued a ceasefire in March 1999, which was rescinded by al-Rahman in June 2000.

The group has a very close relationship with Al-Jihad al-Islami: state sponsorship is unknown. The Egyptian government believes the group has received support from Iran, bin Laden, and "Afghan militant groups. In August 1992, Deputy Egyptian Prime Minister Youssef Wali claimed that weapons were being smuggled into Egypt to Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya from Iran and Sudan: Algerian authorities were also concerned that training camps were being sponsored by Iran and Sudan for militant Islamic fundamentalists. The involvement of Pakistan and Afghanistan has also been highlighted due to the numerous military training camps that are located on the Afghan-Pakistani border.

These boys won't be attending any picnics sponsored by Muslims against Shar'ia I can tell. In fact they are could become Egypt's version of the Taliban, for they have the same goals for Egypt that the Taliban has for Pakistan and Afghanistan. And yet, while viewed with the concept of the Hudna, there is something many try to forget: The Camp David Accords have lasted 30 years. A Hudna is valid for only 10.

When it was signed, the pundits claimed that the peace would not last for more than a few years. I guess the pundits were wrong about that too.

New York Times Columnist Calls For U.S. To Embrace Relations With Hezbollah and Hamas

Cross posted by Holger Awakens

Roger Cohen. Write that name down folks, because it's the name of the New York Times columnist who wrote one of the most significant pieces of terror-appeasing filth we've seen in a very long time. This guy should be embarrassed to call himself an American, hell....he should be (edited) for this kind of treason spewing from his finger tips. I encourage all of you to go to the full article here at the New York Times so you can see what surrender to radical islam looks like - I've excerpted key portions of the article here. Read with your own eyes how an American has fallen to the ground, bowed his head, dug his nose into the sand and given up to the islamist pigs of this world:

Britain aligned itself with the U.S. position on Hezbollah, but has now seen its error. Bill Marston, a Foreign Office spokesman, told Al Jazeera: “Hezbollah is a political phenomenon and part and parcel of the national fabric in Lebanon. We have to admit this.”
Hallelujah.

The United States should follow the British example. It should initiate diplomatic contacts with the political wing of Hezbollah. The Obama administration should also look carefully at how to reach moderate Hamas elements and engineer a Hamas-Fatah reconciliation.

The 1988 Hamas Charter is vile, but I think it’s wrong to get hung up on the prior recognition of Israel issue. Perhaps Hamas is sincere in its calls for Israel’s disappearance — although it has offered a decades-long truce — but then it’s also possible that Israel in reality has no desire to see a Palestinian state.

Of course it’s desirable that Hamas recognize Israel before negotiations. But is it essential? No.

Now, I could go on for hours shooting holes in Cohen's argument from a Middle East strategic perspective and quite frankly, my blood pressure would spike throughout it all. But all I will do is insert this (from Arlington Cemetary Net) for Mr. Cohen to read and remember:

Twenty-five years ago, a suicide bomber steered a truck loaded with the equivalent of six tons of TNT down the airport road in Beirut, Lebanon. He plowed into the four-story barracks where more than 300 U.S. troops from a U.N. peacekeeping mission slept and detonated what the FBI called the largest non-nuclear bomb in history.The explosion and fireball pulverized the concrete fortress, killing 241 U.S. service members, most of them Marines. A second blast minutes later at the compound of the French peacekeeping force killed 58 more Western troops.

Mr. Cohen, that was Hezbollah that killed 241 American Marines and soldiers and sailors. And you call for America to recognize this terrorist group. You should be ashamed of yourself. Hell, you should shunned by every American on this planet.

Middle East Reality Check

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton grabbed headlines with an invitation to Iran to attend a conference on Afghanistan, but the significant Middle Eastern news last week came from Britain. It has “reconsidered” its position on Hezbollah and will open a direct channel to the militant group in Lebanon.

Speaking of violence, it’s worth recalling what Israel did in Gaza in response to sporadic Hamas rockets. It killed upward of 1,300 people, many of them women and children; caused damage estimated at $1.9 billion; and destroyed thousands of Gaza homes. It continues a radicalizing blockade on 1.5 million people squeezed into a narrow strip of land.At this vast human, material and moral price, Israel achieved almost nothing beyond damage to its image throughout the world. Israel has the right to hit back when attacked, but any response should be proportional and governed by sober political calculation. The Gaza war was a travesty; I have never previously felt so shamed by Israel’s actions.No wonder Hamas and Hezbollah are seen throughout the Arab world as legitimate resistance movements.It’s time to look at them again and adopt the new British view that contact can encourage Hezbollah “to move away from violence and play a constructive, democratic and peaceful role.”

What Really Happened In The Middle East

A 10 minute presentation on the history and background of the Arab-Israeli conflict that you will never see on CNN, BBC, MSNBC, or CBC. But you should.

From Front Page Magazine

It is an urgent matter to counteract the hatred and lies of radical Islam. Their lies are a formidable weapon in their jihad to defeat the West and to impose Islam across the globe. Their lies are used to justify their killing of innocent men, women and children, and their drive to take over country after country, to radicalize moderate Muslims, and to impose Sharia (Muslim) law on people everywhere.

They lie about America. But most of all they lie about Israel, telling the world that Israel is the aggressor in the Middle East, and especially that their grievances would end if Israel didn't exist.

Most Americans know that when Osama bin Laden says America is making war on Islam he is lying. When radical Islamists say that 9/11 was our fault, most Americans know they are lying.

But when they say that Israel stole land from the Palestinians . . . that Israel routinely brutalizes Palestinian civilians...that Israel initiates aggression against its neighbors - many Americans do not know they are lying.

An astonishing number of academics believe their lies. Israel-hating is so common at colleges and universities that it is taken for granted. On some campuses Muslim student groups host virulently anti-Israel and anti-Semitic speakers, disrupt Jewish and pro-Israel activities, and even physically intimidate Jewish students, without a peep from the administration.

What Really Happened In The Middle East



View at YouTube

Made by The Terrorism Awareness Project.

Grandpa Carter Is At It Again!

Somebody find Grandpa Carter a good nursing home. I do believe he is showing the signs of senility and might start wandering off.

Carter to publish new peace book

Jimmy Carter has written a new book about Middle East peace.

The former president told his Carter Center, based in Atlanta, that his new book, "We Can Bring Peace to the Holy Land," would be published after President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration in January. Carter otherwise would not discuss the book.

On Wednesday, Carter spoke of Israel's "persecution of the Palestinians" during a panel discussion that concluded a two-day seminar at the Carter Center on international human rights.

The ex-president's last book, "Palestine: Peace not Apartheid," sparked controversy for likening Israeli settlement policies to apartheid and for accusing pro-Israel groups of muzzling debate in the United States.

His last book was an anti-Semitic tirade against Israel. This one will not be any better. Maybe Carter should spend some time on the persecutions of the natives of Darfur, Rwanda, Bosnia, Zimbabwe, and China. But they aren't being persecuted by Jews, so it is acceptable for the persecution to continue.

This man is a joke. He acts as if he is some great statesman and world leader, but his presidency was a dismal failure. He failed in foreign policy when he turned his back on our friend the Shah of Iran and accept with joyful glee the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's idea of government. Too bad that one bit him in the ass. Any other President of the United States would have seen the taking of the US Embassy in Tehran as what it was, an Act of War. But not Dhimmi Carter. He appeased and gave in to the Iranians.

So now, a new book. A new idea on how to finally finish the job Hitler started and make himself look like a peacemaker when in fact he should be wearing a tiny mustache and a swastika armband instead.

Open One's Mouth, Insert Foot!

Hamas is at it again. They are trying to force Israel into accepting a truce with them. This truce wouldn't stop the rockets into Israel, return Gilad Schalit, but would open the borders between Gaza and Israel.

They must really be hurting in Gaza. All those starving children and bodies of the sick must be piling up. Almost every day another Hamas leader and his family is killed, another rocket factory is blown up. The Palestinians cry to the world: "We are being oppressed, under occupation, and have no fuel, no food. Help us!" But they have cried this mantra once too often. The world doesn't see starving children, they don't see the sick dying in great numbers. They do see a group that is bent on both self-destruction and the destruction of their neighbor.

So now Hamas as decided in a new tactic. This time intimidation. They now cry:
"We have 200,000 suicide bombers!" And the Israelis are suppose to shake in fear? Not now, not today. They can have 20, 200, 200,000 or 2,000,000 suicide bombers, it would make no difference. Israel will not open its border with Gaza.

Hamas wants open borders without any supervision. It was Hamas that removed the EU monitors. They say they will allow them back, but only if they live in Egypt or Gaza. They would not be allow to live in Israel. The EU and Israel has said no. The EU doesn't believe their monitors would be safe in Gaza or Egypt.

So Hamas goes for the tactic of having the Arab League monitor the border crossings. Israel has said no to that. That would be the fox guarding the chicken coop.

There should be no truce with Hamas unless 2 things are done:

1. Total cease-fire of all rockets into Israel.
2. The return of Gilad Schalit

Until this happens, the border should be kept sealed, and to further drive home the point, all electricity should be cut off immediately.

Somebody's Having a Temper Tantrum!

Lebanon: 12 IAF Jets Fly Over Beirut
by Associated Press

IAF warplanes violated Lebanese airspace on Monday, flying on reconnaissance missions over Beirut and elsewhere in the country, the Lebanese army said.
The army said in a statement that "12 enemy Israeli warplanes" violated Lebanese airspace before noon, four flew over the Mediterranean off the coastal city of Byblos in the north and headed toward the eastern province of Hermel.

Eight other Israeli warplanes flew over the southern town of Rmeish, then headed north to Beirut, the Chouf mountains, southeast of the capital, and Hermel before heading back to the "occupied territories," the statement said. It added that the Israeli over-flights lasted about an hour.

Full Story

So what is Lebanon going to do now? Launch fighters in response? Not this or any time. As long as Hezbollah is in Lebanon and rearming, Israel will launch its planes and keep an eye on them. As long as that Tower of Babel known as the UN is looking the other way while Hezbollah rearms, Israel will launch its planes and keep watch.

During the Second Lebanese War Israel launched scores of sorties and had full control of the air much to Lebanon's and Hezbollah's chagrin. They had their proxies in Europe and the United States protest the bombing of civilians, screaming for a cease-fire. The result was UN Resolution 1701. It called for a full cease-fire by Israel and Hezbollah (not Lebanon mind you, but treated the terrorist organization as a nation), and the disarming of Hezbollah.

What was the result? Israel ceased its attack. Hezbollah is rearming. The UN is looking the other way, hoping that Hezbollah can finally finish the job that Hitler started. And Lebanon is crying that Israel has violated the cease-fire.

Related Links:

UN Resolution 1701
Israel Wants UNIFIL to be Tougher
Hezbollah Beefs Up Forces

News From Israel

Commander of legendary ship, Exodus dies

Yossi Harel, commander of the illegal Jewish immigrant ship Exodus, immortalized in the Leon Uris novel and Otto Preminger movie, died Saturday at the age of 90.

His daughter Sharon said Harel suffered cardiac arrest at his Tel Aviv home.

The ill-starred voyage of the Exodus, which sought to bring thousands of European refugees to Palestine after World War II, became a potent symbol of the Jewish struggle for statehood.

More than 4,500 Holocaust survivors packed the ship in 1947 when it tried to run the British blockade of Palestine, meant to severely limit the immigration of Jews. The British Navy seized the vessel off Palestine's shores in July 1947, and after a battle on board that left three people dead, turned the ship and its passengers back to Europe.

Read more

My condolences go out to his family. This was a quiet, modest man who did what he could to help establish the modern State of Israel. He will be buried tomorrow at Kibbutz Sdot Yam. If you wish to remember him, please donate for a tree at the Jewish National Fund. They cost only $18.

Hamas disrupts fuel supply to Gaza

Hamas militiamen in the Gaza Strip on Sunday attacked fuel trucks headed toward the Nahal Oz border crossing, forcing them to turn back, sources in the Palestinian Petroleum Authority said.

The fuel was supposed to go to the UN Relief and Works Agency [UNRWA] and hospitals in the Gaza Strip, the sources said.

"Dozens of Hamas militiamen hurled stones and opened fire at the trucks," the sources added. "The trucks were on their way to receive fuel supplied by Israel. The drivers were forced to turn back. Some of them had their windshields smashed."

Full Story

How strange that Hamas and the UN scream that there is no fuel in Gaza and then disrupts the fuel supply. This shortage is Hamas made so that they can scream to the world: "We are victims of Israeli oppression!"

Eyewitnesses in Gaza City said that at least on four occasions over the past few weeks, Hamas militiamen confiscated trucks loaded with fuel shortly as they were on their way from Nahal Oz to the city.

They added that the fuel supplies were taken to Hamas-controlled security installations throughout the city. "Hamas is taking the fuel for it the vehicles of is leaders and security forces," the eyewitnesses said. "Because of Hamas's actions, some hospitals have been forced to stop the work of ambulances and generators."

There is plenty of fuel in Gaza. Just that the gangsters called Hamas have stolen it all. Let Hamas provide the fuel for Gaza then, and Israel should cut the supply immediately!

Related Articles:
EU faults Hamas for Gaza fuel crisis


2 Kassams hit Sderot; none wounded

Two Kassams hit Sderot on Sunday. No one was wounded. One rocket exploded in the city, setting a house on fire, and the second hit an open field outside the town. Islamic Jihad's al-Quds Brigade claimed responsibility for the attacks. Also on Sunday, a Kassam launched from Northern Gaza hit a kibbutz in the Negev. None were wounded and no damage was caused. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by the Salah al-Din Brigade of the Popular Resistance Committees.

Earlier the same day, Palestinian terrorists fired a rocket towards Ashkelon, Israel Radio reported. The rocket, likely a Grad type Katyusha, exploded before landing but caused serious damage to a garage in the city's industrial zone. No one was hurt in the attack.

Full Story

Over 6800 rockets attacks, over 50 deaths, hundreds injured, thousands terrorized and the UN condemns Israel for trying to stop these attacks. Given the right conditions, Sderot could be any US city.

Palestinians are the Indigenous People?

Again and again this Truth Seeker hears this cry. But the Palestinians were here first! They are the indigenous people of the land. To look at recent history one might at first agree with it. But recently genetic studies have shown them not as indigenous as one might have thought.

From Global Politician:

A study by the University of Chicago found that Arab populations, including Palestinians, Jordanians, Syrians, Iraqis, and Bedouin, have at least some sub-Saharan African genes. Non-Arabs from the region, including Turks, Kurds, Armenians, Azeris, Georgians, and Jews did not have any African roots. A possible explanation is the proximity of the Arabian peninsula to the Black African nations. This conclusion is favored by the fact that Yemenite Arabs have 35% Black African genes in their mtDNA (which passes through the mother), while others have less. Yemen, of course, is very close geographically to several Black African nations. Other Arabs, especially those far away from the Arabian peninsula, have as little as 10% African blood in their mtDNA. As such, it is possible that the African gene was merely diluted by the introduction of non-Arab (and non-African) genes to the pool when Arabs began to conquer other Middle East people after the rise of Islam. The "real" Arabs -- those who have Arab ancestors stretching beyond the last 1,400 years - are actually 35% Black in their mtDNA. These Arabs are from the Arabian peninsula.

Only the Christian Arabs have a genetic link to the land.

Palestinians, however, differ from other Arabs in some ways. As the web site for Harper's Magazine reported, one study showed that Jews and Palestinians have common ancestry that is so recent that it is highly likely that at least some of the Palestinian blood actually descends from Jews. [3] Another study by New York University confirmed a remarkable similarity between Jewish and Palestinian genes. "Jews and Arabs are all really children of Abraham," said Dr. Harry Ostrer, director of the Human Genetics Program at New York University School of Medicine, who worked on the study. "And all have preserved their Middle Eastern genetic roots over 4,000 years.

According to several other studies, Palestinians and Jews are genetically closer to each other than either is to the Arabs of Arabia or to Europeans. A study of congenital deafness identified an allele limited to Palestinian and Jews of Ashkenazi origin (those who lived in Europe in recent centuries), suggesting a common origin. Furthermore, Y-chromosome polymorphism is very similar among Palestinians and Sephardic Jews.

There is a significant Christian population among Palestinian Arabs, leading some to claim that at least part of the Palestinian population (the Christians) descended from the original followers of Christ, who were, of course, Jews (they were Jews ethnically, even if they didn't follow Judaism).

These people can claim decent from the original Christians who were once Jews in the land.

They claim a long standing claim to Canaan and how they are the original Canaanites. Again genetic studies show only Arab Christians with any of these genes, but surprisingly also show that Jews from Europe with these genes too.

It has been shown that Jewish men of the Cohen line (Priestly caste) has a deep genetic link to Israel. Jewish Genetics are being studied on the male line, and the female line studies should be out next year.

Forgetting genetics, something now the Palestinians are trying to do. Let us turn to history. History shows that there has always been a Jewish presence in Israel for the last 3500 years.


Historical evidence of this presences in found in the historical writings of the Babylonians, Greeks, Roman, Muslims, Crusaders, Turks and Westerners. Mark Twain mentions the Jews in his travels. The Greeks mention the Jews and their obscene practice of circumcision. The Romans mention them in many places. So looking at historical sources, I give you, the Truth Seeker the following:

• When Joshua led the people of Israel back to the promise land, he was fulfilling God's commandment to return to the land of their forefathers. God admonished him to kill everything and everyone. There were Jews again in the land.
• When the Babylonians conquered, there were Jews in Israel.
• When the Greeks conquered, there were Jews in Israel.
• When the Romans conquered, there were Jews in Israel.
• When the Muslims conquered, there were Jews in Israel.
• When the Crusaders conquered, there were Jews in Israel.
• When the Muslims re-conquered, there were Jews in Israel.
• When the Ottoman Turks conquered, there were Jews in Israel.
• When the British were given the Mandate, there were Jews in Israel.
• When in 1948, the Jews took back the land stolen from them, there were Jews in Israel.

For 3500 years there has never been a time when there wasn't a Jew in the land of Israel. We have always been there.

In conclusion, the only logical verdict there can be is:

The Jews are the Indigenous People of Israel. The Palestinians are the outsiders, mostly from Yemen and should be returned to their ancestral land.

Related reading:

Words Matter
Who and What are the Palestinians

IRANIAN THREAT: Iran ballistic missile facility?

Photo analysts view many photos each day. It is their job. Sometimes they discover secrets that some nations want to keep from other nations. That was the case in October 1962 when US photo analysts found Soviet Missiles in Cuba. And it looks like it is the case today in Iran.

Do satellite photos show Iran ballistic missile facility?

A new report by The Times of London says that satellite photographs of a site in Iran indicate the location is being used to develop a ballistic missile that could reach most of continental Europe. The Times writes that the photographs show the launch site of a Kavoshgar 1 rocket that Iran tested on February 4. Tehran claimed that the rocket was intended to further a nascent Iranian space program, but The Times says that the photos suggest otherwise.

Space program? Right. Where are they going? To the Moon? They use other nations' satellites when they can.

Analysis of the photographs taken by the Digital Globe QuickBird satellite four days after the launch has revealed a number of intriguing features that indicate to experts that it is the same site where Iran is focusing its efforts on developing a ballistic missile with a range of about 6,000km (4,000 miles).

4000 miles or 6,000 km you can hit London (2,740 miles). This puts Paris , Berlin, and Rome within their reach. A sobering thought.

If the Iranian facility is indeed developing a long-range ballistic missile, it would explain NATO's decision last week to move ahead with the missile shield program supported by the US. The Christian Science Monitor reported last week that the Bush administration scored a key success by persuading NATO to approve the missile shield, which is meant to protect against missiles like those that Iran is linked to. NATO members all supported the US position on missile-shield defense, which is to be deployed in the Czech Republic and Poland. "There is a threat ... and allied security must be indivisible in the face of it," read the statement on missile defense.

Europe is starting to wake up to the real threat that Iran is posing on them. It was ok for Iran to threaten Israel, but when it's their own nations, that's another story.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad... said on state-run television: "We need to have an active presence in space. We witness today that Iran has taken its first step in space very firmly, precisely and with awareness." When ever this man speaks, why is it I feel like I want to wash out his mouth with soap for lying? So what does this mean for missile proliferators in general and Syria and Iran (and North Korea since they are all involved in the development of these missiles) in particular? It means that they are still having a hard time producing graphite tough and pure enough to be used in large missiles. It also indicates that a top priority for their missile engineers will be to develop other thrust vector control mechanisms. Just add nuclear weapons and you will have a recipe for disaster. Make no mistakes about Iranian intentions. They are developing nuclear weapons and rockets that now threaten Israel, the whole Middle East and Europe. How much longer will it be before they have a missile that could attack the US?

'Gazans pay doctors to declare them ill'

Shin Bet's claim follows allegations that 12 cancer patients prevented from receiving treatment in Israel.

Faking illness to enter Israel. Now for what reason could that be? I don't think a shopping trip is the correct one. Does anyone?

read more | digg story

Muslim Leaders Want Mecca to Be Center of World Time Zones

From Fox News:

The Islamiczation of the world has begun. There is nothing wrong with Greenwich Mean Time. Mecca is not the center of the world. This planet has no center.

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) could be replaced by "Mecca Time," if a group of Muslim leaders get their way.

At the conference, "Mecca, the Center of the Earth, Theory and Practice," Muslim scientists and clerics called for the change, arguing that the holy city in Saudi Arabia is the center of the Earth and should be the reference point for world time, not Greenwich, England, the British Broadcasting Corp. reports.

One geologist at the Qatar conference said Mecca's longitude is perfectly aligned with magnetic north and should therefore replace the English city, which has been measuring time zones since 1884, the BBC reports.

Attendees of the conference also reviewed the "Mecca Watch," an invention by a French Muslim which reportedly rotates counter-clockwise and displays Mecca's direction from any point in the world, the BBC said.

The conference is part of a trend called “Ijaz al-Koran" or "miraculous nature of the holy text," which tries to find precedents for modern science from passages in the Koran, the BBC reports.

But its critics say Ijaz al-Koran confuses spiritual truth — which depends on constant faith — with empirical truth, which depends on ever-changing science, the BBC said.

It is in my humble opinion that this is only the first step. What next? Forcing us to adhere to Shar'ai law in all nations?