In The News Saturday:

Iranian Official: Attack On Syria Is Attack On Us

Setting the stage for proxy wars; we've already heard from Russia making similar statements, and now another part of the Gog-MaGog axis weighs in:

 Iran considers any attack against Syria an attack on itself, an advisor to the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader was quoted as saying Saturday, the strongest warning to date by a top Iranian official that Tehran will use any available means to keep the regime of President Bashar Assad in power.

Ali Akbar Velayati, an aide to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Syria plays a major role in the “resistance front” of anti-Israel states and militant groups.

“Syria plays a very key role in supporting, or God forbid destabilizing, the resistance front. For this same reason, attack on Syria is considered attack on Iran and Iran’s allies,” Velayati was quoted by the semiofficial Mehr news agency as saying.

The comments reflect Iran’s commitment to prevent the possible collapse of Assad, who is fighting a bloody war with rebels. More than 60,000 people have been killed since the conflict began in March 2011, according to the U.N.

Velayati, Iran’s former foreign minister, said the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas would had been defeated in wars with Israel without Syrian support.

“If Syria didn’t provide logistical support to Hezbollah, Hezbollah and Hamas would have not achieved victory in the 33-day and 22-day wars (respectively),” he said.

He was referring to the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War and Gaza War during the winter of 2008-2009. Both militant groups claimed victory although Israel has disputed this.

“Regional reactionary (regimes) and the West attacked the golden ring of resistance by targeting Syria,” Mehr quoted him as saying, a reference to US and Gulf Arab backing for the rebels.

Iran is Syria’s most important ally in the Middle East. Tehran has provided Assad’s government with military and political backing for years, and has kept up its strong support for the regime since the uprising began in March 2011.

Jordan's King: Door Closing On Peace

Moving closer and closer to Daniel 9:27 and the emergence of the antichrist:

The door is closing on the chances of a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and will be firmly shut by the end of U.S. President Barack Obama's second term, Jordan's King Abdullah II warned on Friday.

“If we’re not too late, the two-state solution will only survive as long as President Obama’s term. If we don't fix it in the next four years, I don't believe it will ever happen,” AFP quoted King Abdullah as having told political and business leaders gathered in Davos, Switzerland.
“Jordan with some Arab countries, and with three leaders in Europe -- the British, the French and Germans -- are all marching towards Washington in February and March to say 'Mr. President, it's time to really engage in the Israeli-Palestinian process',” the king said, according to AFP.

He predicted that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who is preparing to form a coalition government after this week's election, will come under pressure to make progress in the peace process.

“Whatever he does to form his coalition, he's got to keep in mind that the international community... is going to be knocking on his door and that of the Palestinians to move the process forward,” the king said.

The Beauty Of Israel

Scroll to the bottom of this page (link above) to see some beautiful photos of God's land, Israel. Additionally, the link below provides for an array of incredible pictures of the Holy Land:

Photo Gallery

The coming famine:

U.S. Drought Expands In Top Wheat State: Kansas

Kansas is generally the top U.S. wheat-growing state, but the new crop planted last fall has been struggling with a lack of soil moisture. Without rain and/or heavy snow before spring, millions of acres of wheat could be ruined.

But a new climatology report issued Thursday showed no signs of improvement for Kansas, or neighboring farm states. Instead, drought was holding tight or growing worse in that region, according to the Drought Monitor report issued Thursday by a consortium of federal and state climatology experts.

Roughly 57.64 percent of the contiguous United States was in at least "moderate" drought as of January 22, an improvement from 58.87 percent a week earlier, according to the Drought Monitor. But the worst level of drought, dubbed "exceptional," expanded slightly to 6.36 percent, up from 6.31 percent of the country.

The worst-hit area is the High Plains. Severe drought blanketed 87.25 percent of the High Plains, unchanged from the week before, but extreme drought grew to 61.30 percent, up from 61.27 percent, and exceptional drought expanded to 27.02 percent, up from 26.81 percent the prior week.

Fully 100 percent of the land area in Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska and Oklahoma remained engulfed in severe drought or worse, according to the Drought Monitor.

Gun Owners Refuse To Register Under New York Laws

After Democrats in New York rammed a sweeping assault on the right to keep and bear arms through the legislature that failed to exempt police officers from the draconian restrictions, gun owners and even some lawmakers are planning what has been dubbedpotentially the largest act of civil disobedience in state history. According to news reports, gun rights activists are urging everyone to defy far-left Governor Andrew Cuomo’s new registration mandate while daring authorities to “come and take it.”

Analysts say the legislation, passed in a frenzy last week in the wake of the Newtown shooting, represents the most brazen infringement on the right to keep and bear arms anywhere in the nation. Among other points, the so-called SAFE Act seeks to limit magazines to just seven bullets, require virtually all of the estimated one million semi-automatic rifles in the state to be registered with authorities, mandate reporting of patients who express indications that they may have thoughts about hurting themselves or others by doctors, and more. 

Aside from being unconstitutional, experts on gun violence also point out that the draconian schemes are a bad idea: Studies have repeatedly shown that more guns lead to less crime, and the phenomenon is obvious across America — just compare Chicago or D.C. to Alaska or Wyoming. The mandated reporting requirements for doctors, meanwhile, have come under fire from across the political spectrum. Whether it will even be possible to enforce the bill, however, remains to be seen. 

Preparations are already being made for mass resistance. “I’ve heard from hundreds of people that they’re prepared to defy the law, and that number will be magnified by the thousands, by the tens of thousands, when the registration deadline comes,’’ said President Brian Olesen with American Shooters Supply, among the biggest gun dealers in the state, in an interview with the New York Post.

Even government officials admit that forcing New Yorkers to register their guns will be a tough sell, and they are apparently aware that massive non-compliance will be the order of the day. “Many of these assault-rifle owners aren’t going to register; we realize that,’’ a source in the Cuomo administration told the Post, adding that officials expect “widespread violations” of the new statute.

Threats of imprisoning gun owners for up to a year and confiscating their weapons are already being issued by governor’s office, headed by a rabid anti-Second Amendment extremist who suggested before the bill passed that “confiscation” of all semi-automatic rifles was being considered. If tens or even hundreds of thousands of otherwise law-abiding citizens refuse to comply, however, analysts say New York would either have to start raising taxes and building a lot more prisons, or give up on the scheme that experts say will do nothing to reduce violence and that lawmakers say is aimed at eventual confiscation.  

Activists involved in the state-wide boycott against the unconstitutional statute who spoke to the Post almost taunted authorities, saying gun owners would essentially dare authorities to “come and take it away.” According to the paper, leaders of some of the state’s hundreds of gun clubs, dealers, and non-profit organizations, citing the New York Constitution’s guarantee that gun rights “cannot be infringed,” are currently involved in organizing the resistance. Among the primary concerns is that, with registration, authorities would know where to go for confiscation, an idea already proposed openly by Governor Cuomo himself.

“They’re saying, We’re not going to register our guns,’ and I think they’re serious. People are not going to do it. People are going to resist,” explained State Rifle and Pistol Association President Tom King, who also serves on the National Rifle Association board of directors. “They’re taking one of our guaranteed civil rights, and they’re taking it away.”