Friday, October 8, 2010

Arab League: Will Support Abbas Decision to Leave Talks

Arab League poised to back decision to end talks

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Libya on Thursday to seek Arab League backing for his decision to quit direct talks with Israel until the settlement construction moratorium is renewed, amid no signs that the US and Israel have a formula in hand to break the impasse.


Netanyahu made the following statements:

“We honored the government decision and took upon ourselves a commitment to the international community and the US to start the peace talks,” Netanyahu said of the 10- month moratorium that ended nearly two weeks ago.

“The Palestinians waited over nine months and, immediately at the onset of the talks, set a precondition even though they had promised that there would be no preconditions.”

But, said Netanyahu during a visit to Lod, “Today, the questions need to be directed to the Palestinians: Why are you abandoning the talks? Don’t turn your backs on peace; stay in the talks. This is what needs to be asked today, and not of the Israeli government.”


Back to the Arab League:

In Jerusalem, meanwhile, the widespread assessment was that the Arab League would back Abbas’s decision to leave the talks if Israel did not declare another settlement freeze, or did not declare that it would accept the principle of a Palestinian state based on the June 4, 1967, borders.

The Arab foreign ministers will be meeting in the Libyan city of Serte on Friday.


In other news, we see violence now escalating in the West Bank region:

IDF kills two Hamas militants in Hebron shootout

During an exchange of fire with Palestinian militants in the West Bank city of Hebron on Friday, Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed two Hamas men who took part in the Kiryat Arba shooting attack which resulted in the death of four Israelis.

Two militants, Mamun Natashe and Nasat al-Karmi, were killed during the operation. There were no Israeli casualties. Six additional Hamas men were arrested with a number of weapons in their possession.

The two wanted men, Mamun Natashe and Nasat al-Karmi, were considered terrorists "with blood on their hands," for their involvement in several shooting attacks in the West Bank. Both have served jail sentences in Israeli prisons.


Also back in the news is the Hezbollah-Syrian connection:

Satellite images reveal Hezbollah militants training in Syria

The Syrian army has a Scud missile base near Damascus, according to recent satellite photos. The photos also suggest that Hezbollah activists are being trained in the Scuds' use at the base.

Reports that Syria may have given Hezbollah Scuds ratcheted up tensions between Jerusalem and Damascus about six months ago, according to foreign media.

The photos, taken on March 22, can be seen by any web surfer on Google Earth. They show extensive construction at several military bases throughout Syria, including at one of the country's three largest missile bases, located 25 kilometers northeast of Damascus, near the city of Adra.

In April, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai reported that Syrian President Bashar Assad was arming Hezbollah with Scuds. The paper did not mention the type of Scud, but the Scud C has a range of approximately 600 kilometers.

About a month later, Amos Harel reported in Haaretz that Damascus had given Hezbollah highly accurate and lethal M-600 rockets with a range of 300 kilometers.

In late May, the Sunday Times of London reported that shipments of weapons from the Adra base were going to Hezbollah, and that according to anonymous security sources, Iran was sending missiles and other weapons to that base via the nearby Damascus airport. It also said Hezbollah had been given a section of the base for barracks, warehouses and a fleet of trucks to transport weapons to the Lebanese border, 40 kilometers away.

Earlier that month, Brig. Gen. Yossi Baidatz, the head of research for Military Intelligence, told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, "The long-range missiles Syria recently gave to Hezbollah are just the tip of the iceberg. Hezbollah already has thousands of rockets of all kinds and all ranges."


A region that is just on the brink. When this powder keg gets ignited, things are going to get very interesting.

12 comments:

  1. coupla things: 1)do you think war will break out before mid-term elections? 2)i think we covered this ground before but do thing isa 17 precedes (triggers) psalm 83, vice versa or do you think they are one and the same? 3)i hope things hold off til after the holidays (going home to alaska for christmas)

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  2. personally, i`m inclined to believe isa 17 precedes/triggers psalm 83. think about it, if.....if saudi is involved they need isreal for the sake of stopping iran. with the computer bug saudi may no longer need isreal and if isa 17 occured the entire region would be ticked (including saudi) so it would seem logical(to me anyway) to place isa 17 weeks or months before psalm 83 and psalm 83 months (a year or 2 at the most)before ezekiel 38&39. just my opinion. things can only heat up for so long.

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  3. Expected ImminentlyOctober 8, 2010 at 1:39 PM

    Scott
    This morning in bed (I overslept) around 9.00 a.m.,summat odd happened?

    I was led mainly on my front when I first felt, then heard, some sort of low rumbling. It seemed to come near then ebb away over several seconds; I opened one eye, and watched the frill on my pillowslip trembling – I was awake, alone, no traffic, not hungry. My head was pointing West – toes East and that’s the way it seemed to come and go.

    I have looked to see if a tremor was recorded, but nothing. I did notice there was a small quake in New Zealand sometime today and wondered if the rumble had passed through the earth to the UK … ?
    Dunno, sounds daft I know, but it was real. I hope it wasn’t one of those worms they got in Iran!

    Sue :-/

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  4. EI,
    This is a pre-recorded, post-rapture message as I am not really "here":

    That was the Rapture-Earthquake...
    ;)

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  5. That'll "learn you" to oversleep [as they say in the south]!
    :-D

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  6. Expected ImminentlyOctober 8, 2010 at 3:22 PM

    DrNofog
    I just KNEW you would get me grounded again if you were about!:D

    Secretly, I did wonder if 'this was it'.
    x

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  7. Well I sure hope it wasn't IT as
    I am still here watching and waiting.
    Kem

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  8. I'm sending this message from New Jerusalem, in Heaven....sorry guys :)
    (OK, I am stealing from Dr No's original idea :)

    Seriously - Hart - I see Psa 83 and Isa 17 as so closely intertwined, that it may be irrelevant which comes first.
    I could see Isa 17 resulting from an invasion as described in Psa 83, or I could see Isa 17 leading into Psa 83. Either way, I believe they are closely related and probably within weeks of each other.

    Sue - thats odd. I wonder what that could have been...(?) - no reports of even minor quakes in the region? I remember having that happen as a kid, and there ended up being a 3.0 in South Carolina, several hundred miles away, yet we still felt it.

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  9. Scott said...
    (OK, I am stealing from Dr No's original idea :)

    Not really original.
    Back in the early '70s [Man, that phrase sounds hauntingly familiar...], when I was in the Chattanooga [Bible-belt] area some of the PTR Church crowd would frequently say "Hey, you can have all my stuff after the Rapture!"
    "Sure, thanx a lot!..." :-/

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  10. Back in the 70's?
    Yikes don't bring back those memories.

    Were you one of the "original" readers of "Late Great Planet Earth", when it came out?

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  11. Me,Me! I was an 'original'! :D

    Sue

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  12. Sue
    I would have guessed that one!

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