Quote: ""We consider this a victory from Allah for the resistance," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said on Hamas radio. "We consider the resistance as the legitimate right of the Palestinians to defend themselves and restore their rights." The rocket strike, which wounded 69 IDF soldiers, was followed by a mortar barrage on the Gaza border. The Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for the attacks, and the Islamic Jihad later posted a video on its website purportedly showing the Kassam rocket launch.

In spite of the attack Israel is not expected to retaliate, so as not to upset relations with the Palestinian Authority ahead of the November peace conference. Israeli President Shimon Peres again questioned why the Palestinian terrorist organizations were continuing to launch attacks on Israel from Gaza, even after Israel's disengagement from the territory over two years ago...

Quote: "In his first comments on the subject since Tuesday morning's Kassam rocket attack which left 69 soldiers wounded, President Shimon Peres voiced wonder at the Palestinian terror groups' decision to continue with such tactics. "It makes no sense why they would continue to shoot at us despite the fact that we disengaged from the Gaza Strip," Peres said during a Rosh Hashana toast for foreign diplomats. 

But the war is not territorial. It never has been, and that is why Jews continue to find themselves under attack from their Arab enemies. This is a spiritual battle that is being waged between the seed of promise and the seed of the bondwoman. Satan desperately wants to destroy the Jewish people, for he knows that God's promises for this planet are wrapped up in that nation. During the diaspora, Satan sought to expel the Jews from every place they settled in. He attempted to wipe them out during the World War II, and afterwards to hinder their return to the mountains of Israel. Following the war, Satan tried to stop Britain from giving the Jewish people a national homeland in "Palestine". After Israel's independence in 1948, he tried on numerous occasions to drive them into the sea. But instead of being wiped off the map, the Lord has allowed His people to have the victory over their enemies. Today Satan is still seeking to destroy God's chosen people. Despite disengaging from Gaza and South Lebanon, and promising to give Judea, Samaria and much of East Jerusalem to their enemies, the ultimate goal of Palestinian terrorist organizations is still the complete destruction of the state of Israel. As Christ's Second Coming to earth draws near, so do Satan's attempts at preventing it become more desperate. Towards the end of the tribulation period, Satan launches one final attempt to destroy the Jewish people. The Antichrist sits in the Jewish Temple, the place where Jesus Christ is prophesied to rule from. And all nations on earth will gather against Jerusalem to do battle. Even as the Lord returns out of heaven, the Antichrist and his armies turn their guns on the Lion of Judah and the armies of heaven. But God will set His King upon His holy hill of Zion. Jesus Christ is coming again, not as a humble servant although He is that, but as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Do you have a relationship with Him? Today He is just, and having salvation, lowly, and riding upon a donkey (Zechariah 9:9). Tomorrow it will be in vengeance, riding upon a white horse. Trust in Him for salvation today.

Isaiah 34:8
For it is the day of the LORD'S vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.

Source Jerusalem Post, Jerusalem Post

A spokesman for the Syrian Army has claimed that Syria fired on Israeli Air Force aircraft last night. The Syrian army says that Israeli jets entered Syrian airspace and "dropped ammunition" (possibly empty fuel tanks), causing no damage or casualties. Syria then responded with anti-aircraft fire, forcing the Israeli pilots to retreat. The IAF have not yet responded to the claims. 

Quote: ""We warn the Israeli enemy government against this flagrant aggressive act, and retain the right to respond in an appropriate way," the Syrian spokesman said. The Israel Defense Forces had no immediate comment Thursday on the report. "We have no knowledge of anything like this. We will get back to you," an IDF spokeswoman said by telephone from Tel Aviv.

Israeli jets have entered Syrian airspace on previous occasions. The last such occurrence took place prior to the outbreak of the Second Lebanese War, in which Israeli pilots flew low over Syrian President Bashar Assad's palace. Israel wanted to send a warning message to Assad to end his support for Hamas, who had just kidnapped Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit. It is believed that the kidnapping, which sparked the conflict last July, could not have taken place without the Syrian President's approval. Tensions between the two nations have been high of late. President Assad had threatened to launch a war if Israel did not hand over the Golan Heights to Syria by September. But Javier Solana, the High Representative for the European Common, Foreign and Security policy, has stated that there is no potential for war between Israel and Syria this year.

Quote: "In an interview Sunday night with Haaretz, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he saw no reason for any forthcoming military conflict between Israel and Syria. After arriving in Israel last night, he met separately with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Solana said that Israel took several measures recently aimed at reassuring Damascus, noting that the decision by the Israel Defense Forces to move the location of a major military exercise from the Golan Heights to the Negev was a sign that Israel does not want Syria to misinterpret its actions.

Personally I think there is little chance of war with Syria, not unless some major development happens. Assad knows that international focus is currently on Iran, and it is doubtful that Olmert would have the public backing for another Middle East conflict, at least not after his performance in last year's war. Perhaps this latest spat is Assad's warning message to Olmert to remember the Golan Heights in the upcoming international peace conference in November of this year. The Bible does state that Syria will be dragged into a war with Israel, that will result in the destruction of Damascus (Isaiah 17). But I don't think this will happen just yet.

Source Haaretz, Haaretz

Quote: ""We are not talking about the first time this has happened," military correspondent Avi Yissacharov told Army Radio. "This phenomenon of Hamas paying ten shekels to children in order to retrieve the launchers has become the norm. The terrorists launch the rockets from afar via remote control and know that if they approach the launchers they will be hit, so they send young children."

It's not the first time Palestinian children have been caught in the cross fire of this deadly war. An eight year old boy and his six year old sister were killed by a Kassam rocket when it fell short of its target landing in the Gaza Strip. A Bedouin shepherd and his teenage son were recently killed after coming across an unexploded Kassam rocket. Not to mention the Gaza Beach incident, after which world leaders lashed out at Israel for supposedly killing an entire Palestinian family, but it later turned out that the explosion was caused by a Palestinian land mine intended for IDF forces. You would think that the deaths of children would convince the terrorist organizations to call a cease-fire. In any civilized culture this would be the case, but Palestinian mothers have stated that even if their children are killed by their own people, they will have died a martyr's death in the war against the Jews. Palestinian children are at the very forefront of this conflict. Hamas even runs a website encouraging children to become suicide bombers, filled with stories about child martyrs who sacrifice their own lives in order to kill Jews. Just today the IDF revealed it has prevented another suicide bombing attempt. The perpetrator was a 15 year old boy, who intended to detonate an explosives belt strapped to his waste in order to murder IDF soldiers...

Quote: "The IDF revealed Thursday that it foiled an attack by a would-be 15-year-old Palestinian suicide bomber who tried to attack soldiers operating in the northern Gaza Strip, Army Radio reported. The bomber was stopped overnight Tuesday as he approached soldiers, according to the IDF. He had reportedly strapped explosives to his body that he planned to detonate when he reached the force, the IDF said.

Dozens of people have also been killed as a result of Israel's unexploded cluster bombs in southern Lebanon. I have no idea why the government decided to use cluster bombs in the days leading up to the end of the war. I think it was a mistake to use them, especially when they have resulted in so many civilian deaths. But the difference between Israel and Palestinian terrorist organizations is, Israel does everything possible to avoid civilian deaths and apologizes when they occur, while Palestinian terrorist organizations actively seek to cause them. That is why there can be no moral equivalence between Palestinian terrorist organizations and Israel, and why Christians who support the Palestinian cause must justify murder.

Isaiah 5:20
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Source Arutz 7, Jewish Chronicle, Jerusalem Post, Jerusalem Post, Mail & Guardian

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...