News for the day:

There are four more interesting and prophetically related stories circulating:

The coming "PA State":

Palestinian institutions ready for statehood: U.N.

The Palestinian Authority is ready to run an independent state but will struggle to make further institutional progress due to the restrictions of the Israeli occupation, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Without reading any further, this statement alone makes me think of the "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine, posted earlier today.

"In six areas where the U.N. is most engaged, governmental functions are now sufficient for a functioning government of a state," said the report, entitled "Palestinian State-building: A Decisive Period."

It listed the six areas as rule of law and human rights; livelihoods; education and culture; health; social protection; and infrastructure and water.

However, it said the PA could not make significant further advances given the continued Israeli occupation of much of the West Bank and a breakdown in Middle East peace talks.

Interesting. It really does look like they are setting the stage for "Responsibility to Protect", doesn't it?

Direct negotiations aimed at ending the decades-old conflict broke down last September following a dispute over continued Jewish settlement building on the West Bank.

Given the impasse, Palestinian leaders aim to ask the United Nations General Assembly in September for recognition of statehood on all of the territory Israel occupied in 1967, including Gaza -- over which the PA has no control.

the report said the main constraint to the creation and successful running of a Palestinian nation remained the Israeli occupation. Israel still controlled 62 percent of the West Bank, including major road links, it said.

"The current situation leaves Palestinians significantly constrained in terms of movement of people and goods and access to land," the report said.

Israel says the security controls are needed to maintain security in the West Bank, which is home to around 2.5 million Palestinians and 192,000 Israeli settlers.

In other words, Israel may need external forces in order to "confirm" any signed covenant. Interesting.

Also in the news, Joel Rosenberg weighs in on the recent Iranian released video which describes the "coming" of the Mahdi:

Exposure Of Iranian Film About The Coming Of The Messiah Causing Turmoil

The exposure in the Western media of a new Iranian documentary film, “The Coming Is Near” (also translated, ”The Coming Is Upon Us”) about the imminent arrival of the so-called Islamic messiah known as the Twelfth Imam and a soon-coming apocalyptic war with Israel and the West is apparently causing turmoil within the regime in Tehran

“The film reveals the regime’s true ideology and plans for the world,” notes Kahlili. “Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei — President Ahmadinejad’s top adviser and chief of staff — was directly involved with this project...

The Iranian regime never intended for the documentary to be made public. Reports indicate that funds for its production came directly from the Revolutionary Guards: they intended to distribute it en masse throughout the Middle East to incite further uprisings, while calling for the unification of Arabs to overthrow U.S.-backed governments and promising the destruction of Israel and the imminent coming of the Shiite messiah.”

As I noted when the documentary was first released, the Iranian film is full of false teaching (the Twelfth Imam is not the true Messiah, cannot save mankind and will not set up a global Islamic kingdom). It is delivered by false teachers (Iranian clerics) who follow a false religion (Islam).

But it is useful in that it is further evidence that our Lord Jesus Christ was absolutely correct when He warned His disciples in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 that “false messiahs” and “false prophets” will come in the last days before Christ’s own return.

The good news is that the film is helping to accelerate and intensify an on-going conversation among Muslims and Jews throughout the world who are asking, “Who is the Messiah? When will He come? What signs will precede His coming? How shall we recognize Him when He comes? And how shall we live differently in light of His soon arrival?”

Also in the news:

Japan ups nuke crisis severity to match Chernobyl

Japan raised the crisis level at its crippled nuclear plant Tuesday to a severity on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, citing high overall radiation leaks that have contaminated the air, tap water, vegetables and seawater.
Japanese nuclear regulators said they raised the rating from 5 to 7 - the highest level on an international scale of nuclear accidents overseen by the International Atomic Energy Agency - after new assessments of radiation leaks from the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant since it was disabled by the March 11 tsunami.

Fukushima nuclear disaster as bad as Chernobyl

and this:

Yellowstone Supervolcano Bigger Than Thought