Quote: ""As a UN spokesperson against racism, Iran will invert totally the message and mission of the United Nations," Anne Bayefsky, senior editor of the New York-based Eye on the UN, said in a press release. "Iran is now poised to wrap itself in a UN flag as a lead agent of the next global conference against racism, Durban II," she added, referring to the 2001 UN conference on racism held in Durban, South Africa, which saw unprecedented levels of anti-Zionist rhetoric and calls for Israel's destruction.

When a spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was asked by YNet News how Iran came to be on the committee, a country which is in breach of the UN's own Charter on Human Rights, they could only say that it was chosen for the position by other member states. The members for the committee were selected by the UN Human Rights Council, a UN body which is fixated in its condemnation of Israel. Since its inception the UN Human Rights Council has issued resolutions solely against Israel, while turning a blind eye to other countries with appalling human rights records, such as China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, etc. The body is controlled by a majority of Arab nations belonging to the Organization Islamic Conference. It recently voted to hold special sessions devoted entirely to Israeli human rights abuses at every gathering. The body was even criticized by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for its anti-Israel bias, something which he himself has been guilty of in the past. Earlier this year, the Director of another UN watchdog organization - UN Watch, stood up in front of the Human Rights Council and slammed them for their unwavering bias in levelling resolution after resolution against Israel while ignoring the plight of the very people they were claiming to be helping... 

Quote: "Let us consider the past few months. More than 130 Palestinians have been killed by Palestinian forces. This is three times the combined total that were the pretexts of calling special sessions in July and November... Little three year-old boy Salam Balusha and his two brothers were murdered in their car by Prime Minister Haniyeh's troops. Why has this council chosen silence? Because Israel could not be blamed," Neuer declared. "Because in truth, the despots who run this council couldn't care less about Palestinians or any human rights. They seek to demonise Israeli democracy. To delegitimize the Jewish state. To scapegoat the Jewish people. They also seek something else. To distort and pervert the very idea of human rights."

At the end of Neuer's speech, the UN Human Rights Council President declared that any further orations made in such a derogatory tone would be stricken from the records. I think it's very interesting that Iran and Libya should both find themselves at the centre of world affairs in this upcoming anti-racism conference. The Bible explicitly names both these nations as forming part of the alliance that will come against the state of Israel during the latter days. Perhaps it will be the fervour of these anti-Semitic states that will be instrumental in bringing Gog's armies against Israel, and perhaps the influence of the Organization Islamic Conference in the United Nations will be instrumental in preventing any other nation from coming to Israel's aid...

Ezekiel 38:13 
Sheba, and Dedan (Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States), and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?

Ask my fellow if I be a thief...

An article posted on the Russian Defence Ministry website has confirmed for the first time that Russian pilots flew sorties over Israeli territory in the days prior to the commencement of the Six Day War. Before the outbreak of the war, the armies of half a dozen Arab states were poised on Israel's borders, aiming for nothing less than the complete destruction of the Jewish state. The conventional understanding of the conflict was that Russia had spread disinformation on Israeli troop movements in order to draw the Arab nations into a battle, but did not expect a full scale war to erupt and certainly did not expect Israel to emerge victorious. Until now Russia had denied that it flew sorties over Israeli territory prior to the war, but authors Gideon Remez and Isabello Ginor claim in their new book, "Foxbats over Dimona", that Russia flew reconnaissance missions over Israel's nuclear reactor prior to the outbreak of war with the intention of destroying it. This interpretation of events has been verified in interviews with former Soviet pilots.

Quote: "However, a delighted Remez and Ginor told the The Jerusalem Post that official confirmation of the Soviet Foxbat sorties had now been published by Drobyshevsky in an article posted on the official Web site of the Russian Defense Ministry. The "extraordinary disclosure of a hitherto secret operation," they noted, "apparently was included inadvertently - in a statement that was published in a completely different context": to mark the anniversary of the test pilots' school from which one of the pilots who participated in the 1967 flights graduated. The relevant section of Drobyshevsky's article states (in translation): "In 1967, the military valour and high combat training of Col. Bezhevets, A.S. (now a Hero of the Soviet Union, an honorary test pilot of the USSR, [and] retired Air Force major-general), were demonstrated while carrying out combat operation in Egypt, [and] enabled [him] to perform unique reconnaissance flights over the territory of Israel in a MiG-25RB aircraft."

This news comes as Russia is seeking a more pro-active foreign policy, resuming its Cold War patrols, seeking to re-establish its aircraft industry and arming Arab states with advanced long range fighter aircraft and ground to air weaponry. We have seen how close the nation of Russia came to becoming embroiled in the Six Day War, and I have no doubt if it had, it would have been Russia that would have come out the loser. I guess we should have predicted that Russia would once again long for the return of Soviet Union days, for the Scriptures state that the nation will be brought against Israel in the latter days. And I believe that Russian aviation will play a major part in the coming war, for the Ezekiel 38:7,9 states that Russia will act as a "guard" to the Arab nations involved in the conflict, and will eventually "ascend and come like a storm" to cover the land.

Ezekiel 38:19-22
For in my jealousy [and] in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that [are] upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man's sword shall be against his brother. And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that [are] with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.

Source Jerusalem Post, Bloomberg

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