JERUSALEM NEWS NETWORK
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The Jerusalem News Network offers analysis of breaking Israeli news from a Biblical perspective. So much of the news coming out of the Middle East is plagued by bias against Israel and sensationalism. But, JNN serves as an anchor for those truly seeking to understand what is happening on the ground in the Holy Land...and then goes further.
God is not the author of confusion, so we endeavor to hear from the Lord in Jerusalem and pass on what is most important for prayer and reflection. We combine the best of journalism and Biblical scholarship into brief, but informative updates that can be absorbed during a morning commute or inserted into the front of your Bible to take in at a glance before going to prayer.
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NEWS ALERT
JERUSALEM-ON-THE-LINE
News Update February 15th 2012
“Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them.
Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all.” Isa 41:12
Save the Dates for the next Roots & Reflections Tour in 2012: “Journey to the Four Seas,” June 8-17 (European dates) or June 7-17 (N. American dates). The UK tour price is £1,699. The USA tour package price is $3,630. Click on http://www.visionforisrael.com/events for the June tour brochure.
ISRAEL POINTS FINGER AT IRAN IN BANGKOK EXPLOSION: An Israeli Cabinet minister says his country will “settle the score” with the perpetrators of a bombing attempt in Bangkok, heightening the state of alert throughout Israel on Tuesday. An Iranian man carrying grenades blew his own legs off in the blast. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday the explosion, which wounded five civilians, was an attempted terrorist attack backed by Iran. Israel has also blamed Iran for a pair of attacks on Israeli diplomatic targets in India and Georgia on Monday. Speaking on Israel Radio, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch did not mention Iran explicitly, but strongly implied Israel would seek revenge. “We know who carried out the terror attacks, we know who sent them, and Israel will settle the score with them,” he said. The US also condemned the terror attack in Thailand's capital on Tuesday, strongly suggesting it may be linked to Iran. (INN/ Ha’aretz)
NETANYAHU: IRAN BEHIND ATTACK ON ISRAELI OFFICIALS IN NEW DELHI: Iran is behind a car bomb attack on Israeli officials in India as well as a thwarted attack in Tbilisi, Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, adding that the Jewish state would continue to act against the international terror Iran produces. Netanyahu's comments came after a blast near Israel's New Delhi embassy left the wife of an Israeli diplomat moderately wounded. Speaking following the attack in India and the thwarted attack in Georgia, Netanyahu blamed recent attempts on Israeli officials abroad on Iran and its client, terrorist group Hezbollah.” He said that standing behind Monday's assaults is “Iran, the world’s greatest exporter of terror.” (Ha’aretz/INN)
DONATE NOW TO HELP US PREPARE FOR ISRAEL’S INEVITABLE WAR: Israel’s growing crisis with Iran and terrorist groups on its northern and southern borders is hitting world headlines by the hour. There is now little doubt the Jewish nation is upon the eve of war. More than 200,000 deadly terrorist missiles are pointed at - and able to reach - every urban center, town, village and outpost within its borders. Gas masks are being fitted for children and increased military exercises are taking place. Iran is on the brink of acquiring nuclear weapons while Tehran has repeatedly and increasingly made public its Islamist agenda to wipe out the nascent home of the Jewish people. We need all your support, assistance and finances to prepare Vision for Israel and The Joseph Storehouse to fulfill their roles in the pending crisis; the outcome of which we don't know or how many people will suffer. Your donations are urgent, vital and welcomed at www.visionforisrael.com. Make your online donations today. For residents in the UK and outside North America visit our website at www.josephstorehouse.co.uk.
MOSSAD, CIA HOLD TALKS ON IRAN: Israel’s Mossad chief held a meeting with the director of the CIA in Washington last weekend to discuss a potential military strike against Iran. The discussions between Tamir Pardo, head of the Mossad - the principal secret intelligence service of the state of Israel - and CIA director David Petraeus was said to have focused on Iran’s “immunity zone” - the amount of time Iran needs to hide its centrifuges in a place that will be impenetrable to Israeli air attack. Pardo reportedly aimed to discover how the US would react were Israel to unilaterally attack Iran's nuclear facilities. For Israel, when Iran becomes capable of burying its nuclear arms out of striking reach, a red line will have been crossed. The US, with a more advanced military capacity and a greater distance from Iran’s growing arsenal, has a different red line. A Newsweek report, also published this week, claims the Obama administration has made it clear it wants to count on economic sanctions to stop Iran’s race for a nuclear weapon. Above all, the White House doesn’t want Israel to start a war soon. Since Obama moved into the White House, Israel’s PM Netanyahu has increasingly felt that when the president “spoke about Iran and his opposition to the nuclearization of Iran the Israeli factor did not play prominently,” according to Newsweek. Senior intelligence officials said that Israel stopped sharing significant information with the US for about four months after Obama called for the Green Line to be the basis of peace talks with Palestinians. Despite resuming information sharing, the report says, Israel still withholds a “top layer of information” on Iran. In the face of differences, Newsweek wrote, the US and Israel have an implicit understanding on covert operations, with Israel carrying out those the US must legally avoid. (J.Post/INN) “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men who cannot save.” Ps 146: 3
IRAN PREPARES SUICIDE BOMB BOATS IN GULF: Iran has built up its naval forces in the Gulf and prepared boats that could be used in suicide attacks, but the US Navy can prevent it from blocking the Strait of Hormuz, the commander of US naval forces in the region said earlier this week. Vice Admiral Mark Fox emphasized that Iran has increased the number of submarines and the number of fast attack craft. He warned that some of the small boats have been outfitted with a large warhead that could be used as a suicide explosive device. “The Iranians have a large mine inventory. We have watched with interest their development of long range rockets and short, medium and long range ballistic missiles and of course, the development of their nuclear program,” Fox said at a briefing on the fleet’s base in Bahrain. He added that Iran now has 10 small submarines. Military experts say the US Navy's Fifth Fleet patrolling the Gulf is overwhelmingly more powerful than Iran's navy. (Reuters)
IRAN THREATENS GULF ARABS: Iranian parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani, this week, warned Gulf Arab nations that Tehran "will not forgive" them if they continue backing “US plots” against the Islamic Republic. “We recommend to some of the countries in the region who sided with Saddam Hussein and now are siding with the US plots against the Iranian nation to give it up,” state news quoted him as saying. “There will be consequences in the region if new plots against our nation are carried out,” Larijani said. Gulf Arab nations, primarily Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, provided extensive financial and political support to Iraq in its war with Iran from 1980-1988. Larijani's comments come at a time of heightened tensions in the Persian Gulf as Iran finds itself under new sanctions from the US and European Union over its nuclear program. (INN)
HAMAS PREMIER VISITS IRAN: Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister of the Hamas terrorist government in Gaza, arrived in Iran late last week for a visit that suggested that relations between Hamas and Iran remained good despite reports of tensions over Syria. The Iranian news media reported on the warm official welcoming ceremony. News reports have indicated Hamas has resisted pressure from Iran to express support for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. But analysts said the Iranian welcome for Haniyeh indicated relations between Hamas and the Islamic Republic remained positive. “For anyone who had any illusions as to the extremist nature of Hamas, I would hope this would serve as a wake-up call,” said a spokesman for Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. “The leadership of Iran and the leadership of Hamas share the same extremist goals. In many ways, Hamas is Iran's proxy.” (J.Post/NY Times)
HAMAS IS AN UNREPENTANT TERRORIST ORGANIZATION: The Hamas terrorist organization and Fatah, the ruling faction in the Palestinian Authority, (Israel’s so called peace partner), signed an agreement on February 6, 2012 to form an interim unity government. According to the agreement, Palestinian Authority (PA) President and leader of Fatah, Mahmoud Abbas, will head the government, replacing the current prime minister, Salam Fayyad. Hamas is an unrepentant terrorist organization, supported by Iran and dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Its charter states that “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” The Hamas charter also makes clear the method of Israel's destruction: “There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad.” Hamas' actions are not limited to hate speech. It is responsible for suicide bombings as well as gun and rocket attacks on Israeli civilians, while its terrorist activities against Israel increased after Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Hamas brutally seized control of Gaza in 2007, transforming the Strip into a radical Islamist territory from which it continues to target Israeli civilians with mortar and rocket strikes. The organization has murdered hundreds of Israeli civilians and continues to arm itself in order to perpetrate even deadlier terrorism.The international community has branded Hamas a terrorist entity. Not only the United States, but also the European Union, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and Japan have officially listed Hamas as a terrorist organization. The international Quartet, (US, EU, Russia and UN), set out three requirements for any Palestinian government, specifically the renunciation of terrorism, the recognition of Israel's right to exist and the recognition of signed agreements between the Palestinians and Israel. Hamas has not accepted these minimal conditions of the international community and gives no sign that it will ever be willing to do so. (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs) Pray that these facts will be absorbed by foreign leaders and by all who put pressure on Israel to make a false peace with terrorist entities that never have intended to dwell peacefully with the Jewish state. Such Islamist groups, in reality, loathe their Jewish neighbors. They both harbor and act out violence and murder towards them.
ISRAEL ALLOWS GAZA TO EXPORT TO JORDAN AND SAUDI ARABIA: Despite continuing rocket attacks from Hamas and other related terrorist groups in Gaza, the Israeli government is bending over backwards to help ordinary Gazan farmers. Israeli authorities this week opened doors to allow tomatoes to be exported from the Gaza Strip to Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Israeli laboratories even ensured that the tomatoes met the international standardization. (Ma’an News)
Save the Dates for the next Succot Celebration in Israel, October 2-4, 2012: Inspiring speakers for Succot 2012 events, include: Lance Lambert, Chuck Cohen, Barry Segal and more to come. To secure your place early, or to obtain glimpses of festivities being planned, click on www.succotcelebration.com.
Meet us in London in 2012: If you can’t participate in Israel’s Succot conference during October 2-4, 2012, plan on celebrating The Feast of Tabernacles with us in London, October 19 and 20 at the Emmanuel Centre. Better yet, join with us for both events. For registration and more information, please call: +44 (0) 1793-862121.
BE SURE TO NOTE THE NEW SCHEDULE FOR ROOTS & REFLECTIONS VIEWERS IN THE USA: http://jnnnews.com/RR2011.pdf
Blessings from Jerusalem,
Barry Segal with the Editorial Staff
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