Sunday Headlines

Countdown: Iran's Finger On Nuclear Trigger

Iranian nuclear experts have completed the component for a nuclear bomb trigger, overcoming a major obstacle in obtaining the bomb, according to sources within Iran.

As reported last May, the Iranian nuclear and military industries, under the order of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were to weaponize at least two warheads with a nuclear payload no later than next month.

Sources within the Revolutionary Guards reveal that the work on the trigger is taking place covertly under the control of the Guards in the cities of Darkhovin and Isfahan.

Peter Vincent Pry, executive director of the newly established Task Force on National and Homeland Security, a congressional advisory board, concludes from IAEA intelligence that Iran’s nuclear weapons program is very advanced.

”Iran has already developed hemispherical explosive lenses and highly precise detonators,” Pry states, “a clear indicator Iran is working on, or has already built, an implosion-type nuclear weapon.

Some of us believe Iran may already have nuclear weapons but has concealed this from the West in order to avoid a preemptive strike until such time as Iran’s nuclear status will become irreversible, as with North Korea.”

Pry warns that Iran does not have to develop an ICBM in order to pose a nuclear threat to the United States. ”Iran has already demonstrated the capability to launch a missile capable of delivering a nuclear weapon from a freighter at sea.”

Wait, it gets worse:

Iran currently has enough enriched uranium for six nuclear bombs and is enriching uranium to the 20 percent level unabated, despite four sets of U.N. sanctions. Enriching to the 20 percent level is nine-tenths of the way to weaponization. It takes only several weeks to further enrich the 20 percent stock into weapons-grade material over the 90 percent level.

In another major development parallel to Iran’s nuclear program, Fars News Agency, which is close to the Revolutionary Guards, announced that Iran will launch a one-ton satellite into orbit in the Iranian New Year (starting March 20).

The news of a heavier satellite should come as a warning to the West, as the one-ton payload could very well carry a nuclear bomb any distance on earth.

Historically, orbiting a satellite is the criterion used for crediting a nation with ICBM capability.

And this:

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in another defiant speech on the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution on Saturday, announced that the world will soon witness another major accomplishment in the Iranian nuclear program within days. The Iranian president said his nation will ”never yield” to Western sanctions and threats of military action from Israel and the United States.

Negotiation and sanctions will not deter the Islamic regime in Iran to change its course from obtaining the nuclear bomb. It is not the economy, it is the ideology.

Israel Will Not Tolerate Threats Of Annihilation

Syndicated columnist and political commentator, Charles Krauthammer, appeared on FOX News over the weekend, addressing the issue of a possible Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities prior to the American general elections. He saw it as inevitable.

Referring to the recent remarks made by United States Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta that an Israeli attack is likely to occur in the coming months, Krauthammer asserted, “Our own Secretary of Defense has said it’s highly likely, and he gave a timeframe — April, May or June — which means the Israelis think that the moment, the zone of immunity where they can no longer attack successfully, is approaching.”

He said that Iran has no intentions of changing its policies and unless “something happens” between now and mid-year to threaten their nuclear developments, Israel will be left with no other choice but to take action.

Krauthammer continued by stating, “I think Israel will strike because it cannot live under the threat of annihilation from Iran. Unless something intervenes, I cannot imagine the Israelis are going to allow Iran to go nuclear and to hold the Damocles sword over 6 million Jews all over again. Israel was established to prevent a second Holocaust, not to invite one.

The vice continues to tighten around Israel. Iran is behind much of this. It shouldn't be a stretch to envision Iran as working behind the scenes to orchestrate the Isaiah 17 battles.

Iran Offers Aid To PA To Defeat Israel

Iran has used the visit of Gaza’s Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to offer “scientific and technological experience” to the PA for a “victory” over Israel.

...according to the official IranianPRESS TV news agency. Haniyeh replied, “Muslims through full unity and with the support of the Islamic Republic of Iran will liberate Al Aqsa mosque [on the Temple Mount] in the future.”

Iran’s offer of “scientific” assistance to the Palestinian Authority underlines the shared and stated objective of Iran and Hamas to destroy Israel.

Why Egypt's Holding Americans Hostage

1. The military rulers want to show they cannot be pushed around by the United States. This is, of course, also a big way to muster popularity within Egypt.

2. The armed forces want to weaken the “moderate” parties by blocking foreign aid to them.

4. The Islamists, who did get almost 75 percent of the vote in the election, support this tough strategy in order to weaken their moderate rivals and also becaue they are anti-American and xenophobic. This is only the beginning of the anti-American populism/nationalism/Islamism we are going to be seeing in Egypt from now on.

What’s amazing is that nobody is pointing out that if an Egyptian government is willing to risk U.S. aid and have a confrontation on this small issue, what are they going to do regarding big issues!? What happens when the Egyptian government moves toward Islamism or helps Hamas fight Israel on some level? We have been told that fear of losing U.S. aid will constrain Egypt. But we are now seeing that this simply isn’t true.

Note also that the Obama administration’s bluff is already being called. If trials go forward — and some compromise might be found to save face for both sides — will the Obama administration cut off aid or is it bluffing and will back down? I’ll bet on the latter, and that will send a real message to every radical in the region.

The Obama administration seems to be on the road to proving beyond any doubt that it is a paper tiger. And the consequences will be felt in a dozen countries, promoting more dissing of America and new crises.

Egyptian Christians Forced To Leave?

Analysts have begun warning that the recent increase in violent protests in Egypt is putting the nation’s millennia-old minority Christian community in great danger, and members may be forced to leave their homeland.

“Tolerance is not a characteristic Islamists embrace,” said Michael Rubin, Middle East analyst for the American Enterprise Institute.

“Just as Arab nationalists drove Jews out of Arab countries in the 20th century, Islamists will drive Christians out in the 21st. I’m afraid a millennium-old community in Egypt will soon disappear.”

“Right now, there is a lot of uncertainty among moderates, Christians and other minorities in Egypt. We’ve seen several reports that thousands of Christians are trying to leave the country. Yet, the church as a whole is taking courage and is determined to remain in their homeland,” Clay said.

Palestinians Reject 2-State Solution

Israel is widely portrayed as the primary obstacle to peace in the Middle East, but a new poll reveals that Israelis may have very good reason for not trusting the intentions of their Palestinian peace partners.

Conducted by American pollster Stanley Greenberg and the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion, the survey found that 61 percent of Palestinians do not accept the "two states for two peoples" formula that has thus far driven the peace process.

A full 92 percent said that even in a two-state solution phase, Jerusalem can be the capital of "Palestine" only, regardless of whether or not Israel retains control over the Jewish-dominated western half of the city.

Their intractable hard-line positions are the result of the fact that an overwhelming 72 percent of Palestinians reject any Jewish historical connection to Jerusalem and the land as a whole.

Anti-Semitism In The Presbyterian Church

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), an umbrella organization of 125 local Jewish federations and 14 national Jewish organizations, issued a press release on February 6, calling for the Presbyterian Church PC(USA) to “take concrete actions to address the anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and at times anti-Semitic content that has been all too common in the church’s Israel Palestine Mission Network (IPMN-PCUSA),” the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) reported.

The JCPA issued a press release stating: “The IPMN-PCUSA Facebook page includes a cartoon of President Obama wearing weighty Jewish star earrings to suggest Jewish control of the American leaders, a common theme on the site. The IPMN-PCUSA has posted articles that accuse Jews of controlling Hollywood, the media, and Americanpolitics - and blaming Israel for the American housing and economic crisis. IPMN-PCUSA's communications chair also posted her opposition to a two-state solution and the existence of a Jewish state, something which she terms ‘anachronistic.’

The Presbyterian Church had been advised to end this anti-Israel and anti-Semitic propaganda but did not do so. It was only after the JCPA gathered a collection of hateful postings on the IPMN’s Facebook page and distributed these findings to the leaders of the organization,that the IPMN-PCUSA finally deleted its Facebook page, CAMERA reported.

For more on the American church's attitude to Israel and Jews, click here. For the World Council of Churches and Israel, click here.

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