A senior Palestinian official in President Mahmoud Abbas' security force has expressed his appreciation for the United States training programmes, which have helped the organization in its "resistance operations" against Israeli civilians. Abu Yousuf, who belongs to Abbas' presidential guard - Force 17, boasted that over 1000 Israelis have been killed in the past 6 years, partly thanks to help from the United States. Both the US and EU have been heavily involved in training and equipping the President's security force, which includes members from the armed wing of Fatah - the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. Abu Yousuf is head of the Ramallah division of that same terrorist organization. During an interview for his upcoming book, "Schmoozing with Terrorists", Yousuf detailed the techniques he was taught by the Americans, such as reconnaissance, espionage, sniping and weapons training, and described how the Palestinians applied them against Jews.

Quote: ""I do not think that the operations of the Palestinian resistance would have been so successful and would have killed more than one thousand Israelis since 2000...without these [American] trainings," Abu Yousuf, a senior officer in Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Force 17 Presidential Guard, told The New York Sun. Yousuf noted that the wave of Palestinian terror facilitated by Washington was directly responsible for driving Israel out of the Gaza Strip in 2005. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon admitted at the time that Israel could not continue dealing with the security threats in Gaza, and was withdrawing at least partially because of mounting casualties.

It's not the first time the US has been criticized for causing the deaths of Israelis by their support for Palestinian terrorist organizations. Within the last month, the US pledged $80 million to strengthen Abbas' "security" forces, for fear that the "moderate" terrorists might succumb to the fanatical ones. The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was recently criticized when she stated that the US could not guarantee weapons destined for Fatah would not fall into the hands of terrorists. Last year Abu Yousuf told WorldNetDaily that US weapons destined for Abbas' presidential security force would not even be used against Palestinians, but against Israelis only.

Quote: "Abu Yousuf told WND the US and Israel facilitated the May transfer of weapons to his Force 17 unit "for its own political purposes. We are not concerned with the reasons. The weapons will not be used against our brothers, only (against) Israelis." Sources close to the Al Aqsa Brigades told WND the American assault rifles were used in three separate anti-Israel shooting attacks in June. One attack killed a 35-year-old Israeli Arab on a major West Bank highway on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Israeli security officials say the shooters likely mistook the victim for a Jew. The second attack, which occurred June 13 on the same highway, lightly wounded an Israeli. In the third attack, the Al Aqsa Brigades on June 19 on a West Bank highway ambushed a bus carrying Israeli school girls. The bus was armored. The school girls escaped unharmed.

Despite these grim statistics, Israel, the United States and the European Union continue to arm and train Palestinian terrorists. Both "Moderates" like Abbas and "militants" like Haniyeh have the same ultimate goal - the destruction of the Jewish State. The only thing they differ on is how that should be accomplished.

Psalm 83:1-4
Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God. For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from [being] a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.

Source Israel Today, WorldNetDaily, WorldNetDaily

Russia has formally ended the broadcasting of the BBC World Service on Russian FM Radio, in the latest spat between the two nations. Bolshoye Radio, which had broadcast the World Service on its frequency, claimed its licence did not permit the company to redistribute the BBC's programming which the Company Spokesman referred to as "foreign propaganda"... 

Quote: "Bolshoye Radio's parent company, financial group Finam, said their license did not allow them to retransmit BBC's programs and the station will instead focus on originally produced material. Company spokesman Igor Ermachenkov said management made the decision on its own without outside interference. "It's no secret that the BBC was established as a broadcaster of foreign propaganda," Ermachenkov told The Associated Press.

Tensions between Russia and Britain have been high of late, following British demands that Russia extradite a businessman wanted for the death of Alexander Litivinenko, a former KGB agent who died of radioactive poisoning last year. Last month Russian bombers approached Scotland, and were only turned back when British aircraft were scrambled to intercept them. Today President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia intends to resume regular long range flights into foreign airspace in order to ensure the security of the Russian Federation...

Quote: ""We have decided to restore flights by Russian strategic aviation on a permanent basis," Putin told reporters after inspecting joint military exercises with China and four Central Asian states in Russia's Ural mountains. "Today, August 17 at 00:00 hours, 14 strategic bombers took to the air from seven airfields across the country, along with support and refuelling aircraft ... From today such patrols will be carried out on a regular basis. "We hope our partners will treat this with understanding."

US State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack played down the significance of the development, stating the world is not facing the same threat from Russia as it once did during the Cold War days. Personally I don't like the idea of any foreign power flying its planes over my head unannounced. But knowing what the Bible says about Russia in the latter days, it is plain to see that the nation is being prepared for the role it will play in the not too distant future. During the war of Ezekiel 38-39, Russia is to act as a guard to the Muslim nations that will fight against Israel. Ezekiel's prophecy seems to indicate that this will take the form of a massive air armada (Ezekiel 38:9), with Russian forces coming like a storm to cover the land. But rather than defending the Arab states, Russia moves against Israel in a desperate bid to secure the economic resources of the Middle East for itself.

Ezekiel 38:11-12
And thou (Gog) shalt say, I will go up to the land (Israel) of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

As we have seen recently, Russian ties with Iran are continuing to grow. Russia has helped build Iran's nuclear facilities, has supplied the country with advanced anti-aircraft missiles to defend them and is planning to sell Iran long range jets to protect its airspace. If anything Russia will be keen to ensure that its lucrative deals with the Iranian regime do not go up in a cloud of smoke. Perhaps the threat of conflict with Iran will soon spur Russia into moving into the Middle East in order to secure its "strategic interests". In any case I believe we should look for Russia to start becoming more and more prominent in the region in the coming months.

Source Jerusalem Post, Reuters

Abraham Rabinovich, Jerusalem | August 15, 2007

ISRAELI Defence Minister Ehud Barak has suspended the planned distribution of gas masks to the Israeli public because of fears the move could be taken by Syria as preparation for imminent war and trigger a pre-emptive attack by Damascus.

For months, the Israeli media have been reporting concern by Israeli military intelligence over the possibility that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad might launch a missile strike against Israel or undertake a more limited attack on the Golan Heights.

Mr Assad's ascribed motives include an attempt to prod negotiations over the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in 1967, and fear that Israel is planning a strike against Syria to regain the deterrence lost in its inconclusive war against Hezbollah in Lebanon last year.

Syria has in the past year undertaken a significant build-up of its armed forces that for the first time in decades gives it a military potential Israel must take seriously, including numerous ground-to-ground missiles capable of striking anywhere in Israel, including Tel Aviv.

Tel Aviv newspaper Yediot Achronot reported that Syria, to offset Israel's air superiority, had the densest array of anti-aircraft missile batteries in the world, including the latest models coming off Russian production lines.

The Syrian army has been carrying out intensive manoeuvres and has built up its forces opposite the Golan Heights. It has also equipped itself with new Russian anti-tank missiles that can penetrate tank armour.

Israel distributed gas masks to its entire population before the Gulf War of 1991 in anticipation of a missile attack, possibly with chemical warheads, by Saddam Hussein. The Iraqis fired several dozen missiles at Israel but only with conventional warheads.

After last year's war, during which thousands of Hezbollah rockets hit Israel, the defence establishment decided to collect all masks still in civilian hands for refurbishing and then redistribute them so as to be prepared for chemical weapons use in a future conflict. It is this redistribution Mr Barak has put on hold.

The threat of a chemical attack in Israel is very real indeed. I myself had my own gas-mask, and plastic sheets to seal my room in Tel-Aviv in the 90s. Israel is well used to these threats from it's enemies. Once again we hear that Syria has "Russia" on it's side, but Israel has a much greater helper on her side, His name is "Adonai Tzevaot" the Lord of Hosts. Gog and his armies are getting ready to do battle with tiny Israel, and as the Bible tells us, Gog will be destroyed on the mountains of Israel. The bible says it, I believe it, that settles it. Halleluyah

The latest official IDF intelligence branch assessment, adopted by the Israeli government, is that Syria is not planning to attack Israel. At least not in the coming months.

The accelerated preparations for war undertaken by the Syrian army recently, according to the assessment, are not aimed at launching an offensive, but rather, stem from fears in Damascus that the IDF plans to attack Syria. As proof of this, IDF intelligence researchers point to the fact that the Syrian army has not fundamentally changed its deployment, which is still mostly defensive, vis-à-vis Israel.

However, intelligence officials estimate that there is still a risk of a war breaking out even in the near future as a result of a wrong estimate (here or there) regarding the other side’s intentions – a "miscalculation" as it is referred to by IDF intelligence officers. This is why Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made sure to declare Wednesday that he was not seeking war.

This is the official assessment. Yet this is not the complete picture. The truth is that there is no certainty within Israel’s intelligence community that Syria is not planning to initiate a military confrontation with Israel. Quite a few researchers in the IDF intelligence branch and Mossad suspect that Syria is waiting for a convenient point in time – which is not necessarily in the distant future.

We’re not talking about the kind of war we’re familiar with like the Six Day War or Yom Kippur War, but rather, a Hizbullah-style war – but on an immense scale. These arguments and assessments are being taken very seriously by officials in Jerusalem, and this is the reason why the cabinet tasked with monitoring home front preparedness convened again Wednesday for its third or fourth session in order to discuss the possibility of a massive Syrian missile offensive.

Source YNet News

TEL AVIV – Israel's security cabinet, composed of the country's top ministers, today held what was deemed a "very sensitive" closed-door meeting to plan for the possibility of war with Syria.

Ministers were asked to leave their cell phones outside to prevent the possibility of leaks. In attendance were Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman and nine top lawmakers. It was the sixth such security cabinet meeting in recent weeks.

According to security officials, the ministers were briefed on recent Syrian military movements and Damascus' acquisition of missiles and rockets capable of hitting civilian population centers, including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The ministers were told Syria recently stepped up the pace of its own rocket production and moved some rockets close to the Israeli border.

The ministers were briefed on possible war scenarios, Israeli military options for countering any Syrian attack and the readiness of Israel's home front, including bomb shelters and anti-missile systems, security sources said.