Jesus is Lord, A Worshipping Christian’s Blog

From the same folks who brought us the hit movie “Facing the Giants”, Sherwood Pictures has another potential hit on their hands.

“At work, inside burning buildings, Capt. Caleb Holt lives by the old firefighter’s adage: Never leave your partner behind. At home, in the cooling embers of his marriage, he lives by his own rules.After seven years of marriage, Caleb and Catherine Holt have drifted so far apart that Catherine wishes she had never married. Neither one understands the pressures the other faces—as firefighter and she as the public relations director of a hospital. Regular arguments over jobs, finances, housework, and outside interests have readied them both to move on to something with more sparks. As the couple prepares to enter divorce proceedings, Caleb’s father challenges his son to commit to a 40-day experiment he calls “The Love Dare.” Wondering if it’s even worth the effort, Caleb agrees, but more for his father’s sake than for his marriage. When Caleb discovers the book’s daily challenges are tied into his parents’ newfound faith, his already limited interest is further dampened.While trying to stay true to his promise, Caleb becomes frustrated time and again. He finally asks his father, “How am I supposed to show love to somebody who constantly rejects me?” When his father explains that this is the love God shows to us, Caleb makes a life-changing commitment to love God. And—with God’s help—he begins to understand what it means to truly love his wife. But is it too late to fireproof his marriage? His job is to rescue others. Now Caleb Holt is ready to face his toughest job ever … rescuing his wife’s heart.”

Kirk Cameron and Erin Bethea bring their extensive entertainment experience to the big screen in this family friendly film. Full of action and in depth dynamics between the characters, “Fireproof” shows how God’s infinite love can overcome any seemingly insurmountable problem.
I’m very much looking forward to the release of this film. I have no doubt it will meet and exceed the success of “Facing the Giants”.

As Jews around the world celebrated the 60th anniversary of the birth of Israel as a modern state, the annual Yom Ha’Atzmaout (Israeli Independence Day) festivities in New York took place amidst a backdrop of controversy and protest outside of Radio City Music Hall on Wednesday evening May 7th.

At a gala, star studded musical event sponsored by the UJA-Federation, thousands of supporters of Israel filed into the landmark edifice to hear a historic mix of all star talent including Israeli stars David Broza, Idan Raichel, Rami Kleinstein, Habanot Nechama and Yael Naim. Also appearing on the bill were top American performer and Hasidic reggae phenomenon Matisyahu, recent MacArthur Genius Award winner John Zorn and “Late Show With David Letterman” bandleader Paul Shaffer. The event also included a moving tribute to Israel’s fallen soldiers and victims of terror as part of Israel’s Memorial Day.

Outside the hall, a vitriolic cadre of anti-Israel protestors staged a boisterous demonstration; excoriating both Israel and the United States for their ostensible “oppression” of the Palestinian people. An organization called “Palestinian Action - Union Square East” sponsored the protest along with members of the Revolutionary Communist Party, an anachronistic Maoist organization who saw its heyday back in the 1960s as an agitating force behind the Vietnam war protest movement. The 75 demonstrators expressed their opprobrium for the Jewish State by chanting such slogans as “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free” and “Not a Nickel, Not a Dime, No more Money for Israel’s Crimes” while drawing parallels of the plight of the Palestinian people to the “racist” verdicts in the Sean Bell case in which several New York City detectives were exonerated of the shooting in April 25th.

“We are calling for the absolute right of return of the Palestinian people to their homeland”, said Myka Abramson, 23, a protestor representing the Palestinian cause. Abramson, who identified herself as Jewish added that, “a two state solution to the Middle East conflict is not acceptable. We are rallying our forces to demand a one state solution, a secular democracy in which the Palestinians are masters of their own fate.” None of the protestors addressed the issue of incessant rocket attacks launched against southern Israel by Hamas in Gaza, but rather chided the IDF for committing “genocide” against Palestinians living in Gaza. Another demonstrator who was selling copies of the Revolutionary Communist Party newspaper, formerly titled “The Revolutionary Worker” said, “from Harlem to Palestine to Haiti we call for a revolutionary struggle for freedom for all oppressed peoples and we call for an end to the Israeli apartheid regime.”

The Palestinian contingent was also joined by 15 members of the notoriously anti-Zionist Chareidi movement, “Neturei Karta” whose members held signs calling for the “Peaceful Dismantlement of Israel” and claimed that “Jews in Exile are Forbidden to Have Their Own State”.

As the anti-Israel and patently anti-Semitic protestors spewed forth their vituperative railing and overt canards against Israel and the United States, directly across the street, members of “Stand With Us” a pro-Israel campus organization gathered. “Stand With Us” was established to counter the vociferous anti-Israel propaganda that has become a permanent part of and endemic to the American university campus scene.
Although greatly outnumbered by the anti-Israel protestors, the members of Stand With Us proudly hoisted an Israeli flag and held signs saying, “Stop the Hamas Terror” and “End the Hamas Bloody Occupation of Gaza”.

An African-American woman named Coretta James joined the members of Stand With Us to express her unwavering support for Israel, “Israel is the only viable democracy in the Middle East and a loyal ally of the United States”, she said, adding that, “As a member of Christians United For Israel, I am here today to tell the world that Israel has every right to exist as a clearly identifiable Jewish state. Every nation of the world that has risen up to attack the Jewish people and the Land of Israel has eventually become extinct and so too, these demonstrators who dare attack G-d’s chosen people and their claim to their G-d given land will also eventually disappear. The establishment of Israel as a Jewish nation is extolled in the Bible and those who curse the Jewish people and Israel will be cursed and conversely those who bless the Jewish people and the Land of Israel will be blessed by G-d. That is why I am here today.”

Another pro-Israel demonstrator said, “the fact that Israel is celebrating its 60th year since its formation is testimony to the fact that the G-d of Israel continually provides protection and succor to His people. In many ways, it is purely illogical that Israel should still be in existence. After five major wars and unceasing terrorism, the continued existence of tiny Israel, outnumbered by adversarial forces much mightier than herself is nothing short of a Divine miracle of mammoth proportions.” He added, “I feel and I fear that the times ahead will not portend well for Israel, as a Jewish State. The entire world is turning against Israel and she is becoming more isolated and reviled. As the global influence of radical Islamists continues to dramatically escalate, our only hope lies with our return to the G-d that saved our ancestors, to the G-d that will save us, if only we will beseech Him.”

———————————————-

Fern Sidman holds a B.A, in political science from Brooklyn College. She was the educational coordinator for the Betar Youth Movement in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She was national director of the Jewish Defense League from 1983-1985. She was a researcher for several books written by Rabbi Meir Kahane, ZTK”L. She was the managing editor of the publication entitled, The Voice of Judea, and is a regular contributor to its web site. She is currently a writer and journalist living in New York City. Her articles have appeared in The Jewish Press, The Jewish Advocate, The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, and numerous Jewish and general web sites including, Front Page Magazine, Daniel Pipes and Michael Freund.
We are delighted to have Ms. Sidman as a regular contributor to the Jesus is Lord, A Worshipping Christian’s Blog.

Students at a California public school have written a series of letters to Chicago’s Heartland Institute, which works to discover and develop free-market solutions to society’s problems, attacking its members for “destroying our planet” by refusing to endorse the politics of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” film.

According to students in the sixth-grade class of teacher Michael Steria at David A. Brown Middle School, the institute consists of “fools” and “horrible people.”

“I think your (sic) fools for denying G.W. you know it could kill us all & you’re just adding to it. I want you to help stop G.W. not increase it,” said one letter.

“We are going to tell you about global warming. I don’t care if you don’t want to read, but I’m making you read it you horrible people,” said another.

Officials at the school, a part of the Lake Elsinore School District, declined to respond to WND requests for a comment. Officials at the district office also declined to respond.

But Maureen Martin, a senior fellow for legal affairs for the institute, told WND that it was heart-breaking to see the results of such indoctrination of students.

“It’s tragic,” she said. “The kids were terrified.”

She said some of the students expressed their belief they would be dead in 10 years.

The district’s allowance of such teachings is “shameful, especially when there’s a divide in the scientific opinion,” she said.

She said the lessons reflected probably don’t even meet the requirements of the state’s educational guidelines, which for sixth graders demand lessons in earth sciences and the scientific methods of examining data.

Among the students’ other comments:

* “We feel that it is wrong what you are doing. We know that you know that global warming is NOT we repeat NOT a myth, And we think it is selfish that you would take money over yours and your peers lives.”

* “We feel upset because you are making Global Warming worse instead of helping it. We know that almost half of the country knows that G.W. is a crisis. We know that you could help the environment with the $800,000 you have.”

* “We feel that they are destroying our planet by saying G.W. is not a crisis. You think GW is not a crisis but it is; you know deep down that it’s a real thing that’s happening. Everyone has a part in helping GW, and you’re making worse.”

* “I do not think that what you are doing is right because you are telling people that global warming is not a crisis. If this is not a crisis, how come floods have occurred in asia, Mexico, and India. Plus, how can you explain why the glacier glaciers are melting. they can’t melt themselves, because they are in the coldest region in the world.”

Martin told WND that by searching the Internet for key phrases used by the students, she was able to read seven of the 10 articles the students reported reading.

“Three of the articles have nothing to do with global warming or greenhouse gases. Two are dire predictions from non-scientists at the United Nations disaster relief agency, the U.N. Development Programme, and nongovernmental organizations engaged in disaster aid. One article relates state efforts at monitoring greenhouse gases,” she said.

One other was an attack on Heartland for its funding procedures, accusing the organization of selling out to energy corporations.

But Institute chief Joseph Bast said such donations never have amounted to more than 5 percent of the organization’s budget and more money comes in from individuals than from companies.

The facts, however, mattered little to the students doing the assignment.

“I am very unhappy with your disgracing actions to the world, because you guys and woman are trying to hide the facts about Global warming so you can make more money. Well you guys aren’t going to fool anybody except yourself. The reason is because if you were to look at a picture of Glacier National Park 50 years ago, you would see that there is less ice now then there was fifty years ago,” said one letter.

Martin told WND one of the articles apparently came from a blog and condemned the organization’s March conference in New York, which assembled hundreds of scientists and others who are skeptical of Al Gore’s belief in the earth-threatening capabilities of temperature change, and his affirmation that man is at fault for whatever changes there are.

One phrase that appeared was “global warming denier group,” which also had been used earlier on a critical blog article headlined, “Global Warming Denier Group Funded By Big Oil Hosting Climate Change Denial Conference.”

“No. 1, no matter what people think, those who disagree ought not to be vilified,” Martin said. “More than that, schools are supposed to be teaching kids about evaluating information. It’s a life skill. We deal with it as citizens every day of our lives.”

In this case, however, the students reflect teaching that tells them anyone who disagrees is “wrong and evil.”

Martin said she currently is working on a project for Heartland to address what the United Kingdom determined was propaganda in the Gore film, and present balancing information to public school classrooms whose students now often are shown the Gore production.

“We’re looking for parents, taxpayers, in the right situations. We’re prepared to go to the schools and make a demand for equal time. We’re not trying to stifle anything,” she said.

What about the California school?

“I wrote to the superintendent. I said I’d be willing to provide information, DVDs, printed material, a book, we can send speakers… I haven’t heard back yet,” she said.

Such teaching, however, raises huge concerns.

“Global warming ‘means that if we don’t fix the climate, everything will be destroyed and we won’t be able to survive,’ two students wrote. Others found their global warming lessons similarly frightening,” Martin wrote.

The students also left no room for discussion of the scientific issue.

“We’ve read article about global warming. And we know all the facts,” said one, while another added, “Natural disasters have quadrupled in 20 years, 53 bird species face extinction, World must fix climate in 10 years, Air pollution shrinks fetus size. THIS IS CAUSED BY GLOBAL WARMING!!!” said another.

When the Heartland Institute held its conference in New York in March, WND reported more than 100 internationally prominent environmental scientists argued that global warming is, instead, a natural process and not the result of human activity.

“The purpose of the conference is to provide a platform for the hundreds of scientists, economists, and policy experts who dissent from the so-called ‘consensus’ on global warming,” said Bast.

“Is global warming ‘An Inconvenient Truth,’ as Vice President Al Gore charges, or a ‘Global Warming Swindle?’ Harriet Johnson, spokeswoman for the Heartland Institute asked in a statement distributed at the conference.

“The alarmists in the global warming debate have had their say – over and over again, in every newspaper in the country practically every day and in countless news reports and documentary films,” a notice on the Heartland Institute website said. “But they have lost the debate.”

In one of the papers released, environmental scientist S. Fred Singer’s “Nature, Not Human Activity Rules the Climate” summarized a three-year international scientific research project conducted by the Nongovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or NIPCC.

He said the climate is affected by many factors, but what can be ruled out by scientific evidence is that greenhouse gases are an important factor in causing global warming.

Original Link.

Protesters are such “interesting” people.

Code Pink is now resorting to witchcraft to beef up the number of its supporters protesting Berkeley’s controversial Marine Corps Recruiting Center.

The women’s anti-war group has told ralliers to come equipped with spells and pointy hats Friday for “Witches, clowns and sirens day,” the last of the group’s weeklong homage to Mother’s Day.

“Women are coming to cast spells and do rituals and to impart wisdom to figure out how we’re going to end war,” Zanne Sam Joi of Bay Area Code Pink told FOXNews.com.

The group’s week of themed protests, which included days to galvanize grannies and bring-your-daughter-to-protest, appears to have done little to boost its flagging numbers.

Original Link.

“The human X and Y chromosomes (the two “sex” chromosomes) have been completely sequenced. Thanks to work carried out by labs all across the globe, we know that the X chromosome contains 153 million base pairs, and harbors a total of 1168 genes (see NCBI, 2004). The National Center for Biotechnology Information reports that the Y chromosome—which is much smaller—contains “only” 50 million base pairs, and is estimated to contain a mere 251 genes. Educational institutions such as Baylor University, the Max Planck Institute, the Sanger Institute, Washington University in St. Louis, and others have spent countless hours and millions of research dollars analyzing these unique chromosomes. As the data began to pour in, they allowed scientists to construct gene maps—using actual sequences from the Human Genome Project. And yet, neither the map for the X nor the Y chromosome contains any ‘gay gene.’”
“This is the Way God Made Me”.

Pay particular attention to the last sentence:
“And yet, neither the map for the X nor the Y chromosome contains any ‘gay gene.’”
Homosexuality is not “hardwired” into the DNA. One is not born homosexual.

The University of Toledo suspended an administrator for stating in a guest column in a local newspaper that choosing homosexual behavior is not the same as being black or handicapped.

Associate Vice President of Human Resources Crystal Dixon wrote in response to a newspaper editor’s column criticizing a lack of equality for homosexuals that, “I take great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are ‘civil rights victims.’ Here’s why. I cannot wake up tomorrow and not be a black woman.’”

Her piece in the Toledo Free Press quickly got her a suspension from officials at the University of Toledo, who condemned her beliefs, according to a report in the newspaper.

The newspaper said a spokesman for the college confirmed Dixon had been placed on paid leave but declined further comment. A WND request for comment elicited no response from the office of the president, Lloyd Jacobs.

The situation developed when Toledo Free Press Editor in Chief Michael S. Miller wrote a column boasting of his support for the “gay” community.

“I have been tangentially immersed in the gay culture for so long, it’s a natural and common aspect of life. Three decades of loving these friends and family and sharing their successes in managing careers and raising families has jaded me to the hatred and prejudice many people had against the gay community. … As a middle-aged, overweight white guy with graying facial hair, I am America’s ruling demographic, so the gay rights struggle is something I experience secondhand, like my black friends’ struggles and my wheelchair-bound friends’ struggles,” he wrote.

He also claimed credit for contributing “to the community’s growth.”

“At least three women I dated in college subsequently declared themselves gay,” he said.

“There are people who are so strongly anti-gay rights, they lust for legislation to limit the gay community’s freedoms. That makes no intellectual or moral sense to me. Some of this prejudice is based in religion. I find it confusing that people who believe in a savior who opens his arms to everyone think he’ll draw those same arms shut to keep gay people away,” he continued. “And do not tell me you are ‘tolerant’ or ‘tolerate’ gay people. Stop for a moment and think about how condescending and evil that attitude is.”

He drew the school into the conversation by mentioning he moderated a town hall meeting sponsored by two homosexual activists groups.

It dealt “with issues of employment discrimination against gay people,” he said. Acccording to the panelists, he contined, “UT has offered domestic partner benefits since then-president Dan Johnson signed them into effect. The Medical University of Ohio did not offer those benefits. When the institutions merged, UT employees retained the domestic-partner benefits, but MUO employees were not offered them. So, people working for the same employer do not have access to the same benefits.”

Dixon then responded.

“I respectfully submit a different perspective for Miller and Toledo Free Press readers to consider. … First, human beings, regardless of their choices in life, are of ultimate value to God and should be viewed the same by others. At the same time, one’s personal choices lead to outcomes either positive or negative,” she said.

“As a black woman who happens to be an alumnus of the University of Toledo’s Graduate School, an employee and business owner, I take great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are ‘civil rights victims.’ Here’s why. I cannot wake up tomorrow and not be a black woman. I am genetically and biologically a black woman and very pleased to be so as my Creator intended. Daily, thousands of homosexuals make a life decision to leave the gay lifestyle evidenced by the growing population of PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex Gays) and Exodus International just to name a few.

“Economic data is irrefutable: The normative statistics for a homosexual in the USA include a Bachelor’s degree: For gay men, the median household income is $83,000/yr. (Gay singles $62,000; gay couples living together $130,000), almost 80% above the median U.S. household income of $46,326, per census data. For lesbians, the median household income is $80,000/yr. (Lesbian singles $52,000; Lesbian couples living together $96,000); 36% of lesbians reported household incomes in excess of $100,000/yr. Compare that to the median income of the non-college educated Black male of $30,539. The data speaks for itself,” she said.

She said the alleged benefits disparity at the university, cited by Miller, came about simply because the employees of the two institutions were working under different contracts.

“The university is working diligently to address this issue in a reasonable and cost-efficient manner, for all employees, not just one segment,” she said.

But she argued God created male and female, according to Genesis 1:27, and “there are consequences for each of our choices, including those who violate God’s divine order.”

“It is base human nature to revolt and become indignant when the world or even God Himself, disagrees with our choice that violates His divine order,” Dixon said.

Then came the suspension announcement from the school, along with Jacobs’ condemnation of Dixon’s writings.

“Her comments do not accord with the values of the University of Toledo. It is necessary, therefore, for me to repudiate much of her writing,” he said.

“Our Spectrum student group created the Safe Places Program to ‘invite faculty, staff and graduate assistants and resident advisers to open their space as a Safe Place for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Questioning [LGBATQ] individuals.’ I took this action because I believe it to be entirely consistent with the values system of the university. Indeed, there is a Safe Places sticker on the door of the president’s office at the University of Toledo,” Jacobs said.

“We will be taking certain internal actions in this instance to more fully align our utterances and actions with this value system,” he said..

Miller said he disagreed with Dixon, but acknowledged she had the right to express her beliefs.

“The university operates in an atmosphere of idea exchange, and while I recognize the institution’s desire to distance itself from her, this is a basic free speech issue and I am disappointed she has been punished for expressing her views,” he said.

An official with the pro-homosexual Equality Ohio said Dixon’s ideas were “more appropriate for her place of worship” and didn’t belong elsewhere.

The school’s diversity program is set up “to attract and retain diverse faculty, staff, and students” by pledging “to respect and value personal uniqueness and differences.”

Original Link.

Israel’s 60th anniversary commenced Wednesday evening with a formal torch-lighting ceremony on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. The celebrations were held under tight security, due to warnings received on terror organizations’ plans to carry out attacks.

Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik said during the ceremony, “The nation of Israel will never be able to pay off its debt to its fallen soldiers.

“The State of Israel is an extraordinary success story; a wonder by any historical measure,” she said. “We built this magnificent enterprise with our own hands. There are countries that are wealthier and certainly more peaceful, but there is no other country like the State of Israel. There are flaws and we still have things to do, but behind these flaws is a great country.”

Addressing the Palestinian terror organizations, Itzik said, “As long as Israel has one Asher Tuito (eight-year-old boy who was seriously wounded in a Qassam attack on Sderot) – you do not stand a chance. We want peace not only for our children but for yours as well; however, you must realize that we will know how to fight if needed.”

Original Link.

“[The] most comprehensive account on Internet of women predators on campus.” from WorldNetDaily.

Here is a list of the teacher ’sexpidemic’ cases WND has documented where female teachers have been accused, or convicted, of assaulting students:

Rachael Burkhart, 25: Teacher at Lenoir City High School in Tennesee resigned in May 2008 amid allegations she had an inappropriate relationship with an 18-year-old male student. Burkhart stepped down after Lenoir City School Superintendent Wayne Miller confronted her. Miller said in a statement, “When an incident such as this happens, it undermines the foundation of what every teacher should stand for. It breaches the trust that teachers spend their entire career nurturing and offends everyone associated with education. It saddens me when one teacher has the ability to so negatively impact our community.”

Abbie Jane Swogger

Abbie Jane Swogger, 34: Teacher’s aide at Highlands Senior High School in Harrison, Pa., was arrested Feb. 22, 2008, for renting a hotel room where police found beer, marijuana, an open condom wrapper and at least four teenage girls and boys, including several of her 15-year-old son’s friends. Though categorically denying rumors she was having sex with students from the school, Swogger was quoted as saying, “I was stupid, very stupid. I already know I was and I can understand you looking at me wrong. It’s the biggest mistake I ever made in my whole life.” Police allege Swogger “asked or encouraged” two 15-year-old runaway girls to have sex with her. According to a police papers, Swogger admitted to having sex with a 17-year-old boy and asked police, “How serious is that?” The one-time exotic dancer resigned Feb. 25, 2008.

Adrianne Hockett: Accused of having sex with a 16-year-old special-needs student in a Houston apartment she rented for the get-togethers. The boy has testified the pair would “have sex, drink beer and smoke weed.”

Alison Mosbeck

Alison Mosbeck, 33: History teacher at Dueitt Middle School in the Spring, Texas, school district was arrested Oct. 26, 2007, for allegedly having intercourse at least three times with one of her students, a 14-year-old boy. The mother of one of the students’ friends saw text messages from Mosbeck on the student’s cellphone and alerted authorities.

Allenna Ward

Allenna Ward, 24: Minister’s daughter from Laurens County, S.C., was a second-year teacher at Bell Street Middle School in Clinton, S.C., when she was fired Feb. 28, 2007, for allegedly having sex with at least five boys. Some of the purported victims, ages 14 and 15, were students at Ward’s school. Authorities say the married woman had sex with the boys not only on campus, but also at a motel, in a park and behind a restaurant. On Sept. 6, 2007, Ward pleaded guilty to six charges – three second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor and three lewd acts on a minor. “Today, I publicly admit my guilt and would like to apologize. I sincerely apologize for the effects of my actions,” she told the court. On Feb. 19, 2008, she was sentenced to six years in prison.

Read the rest of the list here.

The Day of Silence is promoted by the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) as an event to draw attention to alleged persecution suffered by students who claim to be homosexual or confused about their gender. But Pastor Ken Hutcherson of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, Washington, claims the event was actually designed by homosexual activists to promote their lifestyle to students. So Hutcherson worked with other parents in the area of his daughter’s Mount Si High School to protest the event.

Hutcherson and his wife purchased a half-page ad in the local newspaper urging concerned parents and Christians to join them in protest of the event. “Then the word went out,” he explains. “It went out to my prayer warriors. And they prayed about it … and last Friday [April 25], we had probably about 250 to 300 parents there,” he contends.

But parents were not the only ones opposed to an entire school day being used to promote a lifestyle the Bible declares to be immoral, says Hutcherson. “There were 638 kids out of 1,410 kids that didn’t come to school that day,” he remarks.

Original Link.

Another Pali sob story, this time brought to us by al-Reuters, who is always a worthy propaganda machine for the Pali terrorist.
This statement really sums up how the so-called Pali “right of return” should be treated.
“You can’t come back and say ‘my mother used to live here 50 years ago and it is mine now’”.

Let me parse the article a bit for you so you understand just how badly Reuters is spinning it to make the Israelis the demons and the Pali’s the so-called “innocent victim”.

“For Shamali, it is time to mourn the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” when 700,000 Palestinians, his own family among them, fled in fear of Jewish attacks as violence mounted”,
These attacks never occurred. The Pali’s fled out of fear based on lies fed to them by the surrounding Arab nations.

“As violence on both sides killed thousands in the months after a U.N. decision in 1947 to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, the Shamali family and their neighbors crammed into a truck bound further down the Mediterranean coast to Gaza, outside the zone designated to Jewish control.
They slept on the beach while they hunted for lodgings.
After attending a United Nations school for refugees, Shamali built a business fixing cars and says he studiously avoided the politics and violence that shaped so many others.
But he resents Israelis for “stealing” his land and bristles at Feist’s suggestion he gave up the right to his Jaffa home.
‘How can the Israelis push us out of our land and homes and bring millions of people from Russia instead?’ he said, referring to Jewish immigration. ‘No one just leaves their house for no reason.’”
“Violence on both sides”? Here is more of Reuters selective memory concerning the war. Let me refresh everyone’s memory of how history actually happened.
The Arab countries, armed with a massive amount of World War Two weaponry left to them by the British and other allies, were poised on the borders of what was to become Israel. They had made their intent quite clear; if the U.N. followed through with it’s intention of declaring Israel a country, they would attack with every intent to destroy the fledgling country before it ever got started. And they tried to do exactly that. Once Israel came into existence, in a matter of hours, they attacked.
“Violence on both sides”? Yes, there was violence on both sides; the Arab side bent on the total annihilation of Israel, and the Israeli side, fighting for their very existence.
But let’s look at whole picture.
Although, according the article, 700,000 Arabs left the area out of “fear”, there were just as many who did not. They stayed in their homes.
Today, those people, or their ancestors, are Arab Israelis, with the same rights and privileges as any other Israeli citizen. And, if they so choose, are living on the same land they owned before the war. They were not attacked or killed by the Israeli. They didn’t believe the lies spun by the Arab nations. They were not killed, but became part of the new country of Israel.
“Stealing” the Arab’s lands? Not hardly. They left and never tried to come back until it was too late. Sure, they wanted to come back, but they waited for an Arab victory before attempting it; an Arab victory that never happened. They waited too long.
“You can’t come back and say ‘my mother used to live here 50 years ago and it is mine now’.” What a true statement.

REHOVOT, Israel/GAZA (Reuters) - Like the state of Israel, Akram al-Shamali and Moshe Feist both turn 60 this year. But that’s about where the similarities end.

For Feist, an Israeli, the anniversary is a chance to celebrate the Jewish state’s hard-fought achievements and swap stories of survival and patriotism over a glass of local wine.

For Shamali, it is time to mourn the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” when 700,000 Palestinians, his own family among them, fled in fear of Jewish attacks as violence mounted. He lives in the Gaza Strip, where Islamist rule makes alcohol taboo and an Israeli blockade cuts into any festivities.

Their opposing views on the conflict into which they were born reflect lives lived in close proximity — they grew up about 60 km (37 miles) from each other — but worlds apart.

Shamali slept in his mother’s arms in April 1948 as she fled the family home in Jaffa, a biblical city now a part of the Israeli city of Tel Aviv but for centuries a bustling Arab port. He has never since set foot in his parents’ house, but dreams of one day reclaiming it.

“I don’t know how or when, but one day I will go back to our house in Jaffa,” Shamali told Reuters in an interview at his dimly lit Gaza City office. “I feel it in my heart.”

The son of a German farm worker who fled Nazi Germany for a kibbutz in British-ruled Palestine, Feist was born a few months later than Shamali into the infant state of Israel, created as a haven for Jews after six million died in the Holocaust in Europe.

For Feist, Jaffa and other towns are now an inseparable part of his homeland and his view is that Palestinians gave up their rights there decades ago.

“You can’t come back and say ‘my mother used to live here 50 years ago and it is mine now’. So what?” Feist told Reuters at his airy apartment in Rehovot, near Tel Aviv. “The Arabs didn’t want to live with the Jews so they left. No one pushed them.”

REFUGEES

That’s not how Shamali sees it. When his parents and their four sons left Jaffa, they expected to return in months. He said they had hoped violence between Jews and Arabs would abate. It never happened.

As violence on both sides killed thousands in the months after a U.N. decision in 1947 to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, the Shamali family and their neighbors crammed into a truck bound further down the Mediterranean coast to Gaza, outside the zone designated to Jewish control.

They slept on the beach while they hunted for lodgings.

After attending a United Nations school for refugees, Shamali built a business fixing cars and says he studiously avoided the politics and violence that shaped so many others.

But he resents Israelis for “stealing” his land and bristles at Feist’s suggestion he gave up the right to his Jaffa home.

“How can the Israelis push us out of our land and homes and bring millions of people from Russia instead?” he said, referring to Jewish immigration. “No one just leaves their house for no reason.”

Shamali’s garage is struggling because of an Israeli economic and military cordon meant to isolate Hamas, which seized the enclave in June. His workshop was empty this week due to fuel shortages that have forced most cars off the road.

The spirited businessman once shuttled back and forth to Tel Aviv to collect spare parts, but has not left Gaza — which is encircled by Israeli fences — since Israel tightened restrictions last June. “The worst thing is the lack of freedom,” he said.

TANKS

Feist also fixes vehicles — tanks.

He began his compulsory military service just before the 1967 Middle East war in which Israel captured and occupied the Gaza Strip and West Bank, and has fought in four conflicts. His three sons have all seen battle.

Feist now runs his own electrical business in Rehovot. He rarely comes into contact with Palestinians and has visited Gaza only four times in his life — three of those as a soldier, long before Israel pulled out its troops from the enclave in 2005.

Like many Israelis, Feist views the conflict with the Palestinians as important but remote — a serious problem but one that rarely disrupts his daily life, especially now suicide bombings have tailed off from a peak six years ago.

“Do you know how many people get hurt in traffic?” he joked, as he relaxed in shorts and a T-shirt in a living room bedecked with roses. “Terrorism is a big problem but Israeli drivers are a much bigger problem.”

Feist says he does not fret about much-discussed threats to the continued existence of the Jewish state and laughs if asked whether Israel will survive the next 60 years.

“For us as Jews, the best place to live is Israel — just like for the English, the best place to live is in England,” he said. “Why should Israel not exist in 60 years? You don’t talk about other countries just ceasing to exist?”

Original Link.

Matthew 24:1-8

Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ, and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

Russia’s deployment of extra troops in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia has brought the prospect of war “very close”, a minister of ex-Soviet Georgia said on Tuesday.
Separately, in comments certain to fan rising tension between Moscow and Tbilisi, the “foreign minister” of the breakaway Black Sea region was quoted as saying it was ready to hand over military control to Russia.

“We literally have to avert war,” Temur Iakobashvili, a Georgian State Minister, told reporters in Brussels.

Asked how close to such a war the situation was, he replied: “Very close, because we know Russians very well.”

“We know what the signals are when you see propaganda waged against Georgia. We see Russian troops entering our territories on the basis of false information,” he said.

Georgia, a vital energy transit route in the Caucasus region, has angered Russia, its former Soviet master with which it shares a land border, by seeking NATO membership.

Original Link

**I cannot believe this. Muslim groups responsible for terror cells on US soil? Unimagineable.**
I wonder when our government will put political correctness and tolerance aside and protect us from the religion of Islam.

FBI Director Robert Mueller said last week that the FBI has uncovered small groups of Al Qaida terrorists in the United States, although he declined to provide details.
In House Judiciary Committee testimony, Mueller was asked about cells of Al Qaida in the country.

“As to your first question as to whether we have found affiliates or, as you would call them, cells of Al Qaida in the United States, yes, we have. Again, I cannot get into it in public session, but I would say yes, we have.”
Mueller defended the FBI’s Muslim outreach program that critics say have put the bureau in a role of providing legitimacy to Muslim groups that support overseas extremists.

Original Link

We need to pray for the families of these victims.

A total of 22,464 people have been killed in two divisions of Yangon and Ayeyawaddy in Cyclone Nargisthat swept Myanmar’s five divisions and states last Friday and Saturday, state radio reported Tuesday evening, quoting an updated figure released at noon.

Among the victims, 21,793 are in Ayeyawaddy division, while 671in Yangon division.

A total of 41,054 are still missing — 40,695 in Ayeyawaddy division and 359 in Yangon division, the report said, adding that 670 were injured in the Yangon division alone.

The deadly cyclone, which occurred over the Bay of Bengal, hit five divisions and states — Yangon, Bago, Ayeyawaddy, Kayin and Mon, of which Ayeyawaddy and Yangon sustained the most casualties.

Myanmar declared the five divisions and states as natural-disaster-hit regions a day after the cyclone hit the country.

However, Bago, Mon and Kayin as well as some five townships of Yangon division and 19 townships of Ayeyawaddy division were withdrawn from being the natural-disaster-hit areas on Tuesday with a claim that these areas have basically returned to normal, according to an earlier official announcement on Tuesday afternoon.

A total of 40 townships in Yangon division and seven townships in Ayeyawaddy division still remain as natural-disaster-hit areas.

Original Link

Energy Prices

PETROLEUM ($/bbl)

PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME Nymex Crude Future 119.87 -.10 -.08 07:23 Dated Brent Spot 117.39 2.62 2.28 07:53 WTI Cushing Spot 119.97 3.65 3.14 05/05

PETROLEUM (¢/gal)

PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME Nymex Heating Oil Future 329.86 -.79 -.24 07:21 Nymex RBOB Gasoline Future 304.80 -.49 -.16 07:23

NATURAL GAS ($/MMBtu)

PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME Nymex Henry Hub Future 11.16 -.02 -.13 07:23 Henry Hub Spot 10.76 .39 3.76 05/05 New York City Gate Spot 11.55 .55 5.00 05/05

ELECTRICITY ($/megawatt hour)

PRICE* CHANGE % CHANGE TIME Mid-Columbia, firm on-peak, spot 77.86 -1.13 -1.43 05/05 Palo Verde, firm on-peak, spot 81.97 1.14 1.41 05/05 Bloomberg, firm on-peak, day ahead spot/West Coast 87.75 -1.18 -1.33 05/05

*Commodity futures and energy prices are in U.S. dollars.

Bloomberg Oil Buyers Guide

Original Link.

No surprise here. The man is milking his 15 minutes of fame for all it’s worth…..problem is, his fame is worth nothing.

Otis Moss, the man slated to become the new chief pastor at the Trinity United Church of Christ, referenced a rap song during one of his recent sermons that includes among its lyrics “F— America” and states the U.S. is “still with triple K” – referring to the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan.

Moss was lauded last week by Sen. Barack Obama as a “wonderful young pastor,” and an acceptable choice to replace retiring pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose controversial remarks landed the presidential candidate in hot water.

Among some of Wright’s previous sermons quoted by scores of news media outlets, the pastor notoriously exclaimed “God damn America” and called his country the “U.S. of KKK-A.”

Following a series of national media interviews given by Wright last week, Obama strongly denounced some of Wright’s statements as “divisive and destructive.”

Original Link

Join me in praying for the victims in Myanmar who were affected by the cyclone.

YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar’s foreign minister acknowledged in a briefing Monday that the death toll from a devastating cyclone could rise to 10,000, diplomats said.

This came after a state radio station reported that almost 4,000 people were killed and nearly 3,000 others are unaccounted for in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city.

Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit the Southeast Asian country, also known as Burma, early Saturday with winds of up to 120 mph. The cyclone blew roofs off hospitals and schools and cut.

The government had previously put the death toll countrywide at 351 before increasing it Monday to 3,939.

The radio station broadcasting from the country’s capital, Naypyitaw, said that 2,879 more people are unaccounted for in a single town, Bogalay, in the country’s low-lying Irrawaddy River delta area where the storm wreaked the most havoc.

Original Link.