Jesus is Lord, A Worshipping Christian’s Blog

What a cool idea. One way to put abortionist out of business is to buy their buildings and then refuse to renew their leases. Cool!!

The pro-life Operation Rescue shut down an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kan., by purchasing the building that housed it and turning the facility into new headquarters and a “memorial to the pre-born.”
The move began when Operation Rescue learned in late April that Central Women’s Services was months behind on its rental payments and that the property was for sale.
The pro-life group quickly made an offer on the building through a third party, stipulating in the contract that the current tenant not be retained.
Later, Operation Rescue learned Central Women’s Services had come up with the back rent after the building had entered escrow and had asked to continue the rental agreement under the new owner.
Under the new contract, however, the abortion clinic was forced to close.
“We have no doubt that if we had not moved quickly to buy that building, this abortion mill would still be in operation today,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.
The clinic had operated under a variety of names since opening in 1983, aborting an estimated 50,000 babies. It drew attention in 1991, when a demonstration there led by Operation Rescue resulted in the arrests of 80 pastors.
Operation Rescue relocated its offices from Southern California to Wichita in 2002 and launched an effort to expose the abortion industry in Kansas. The group says its efforts have resulted in a 16 percent drop in abortions in the state.
Operation Rescue believes the decrease in abortions contributed to Central Women’s Services financial difficulties.
“Any company that loses 16 percent of their business is going to be hurting,” said Newman.
The group previously bought an empty lot next to the clinic where it placed a large billboard warning women of the dangers of abortion. Since the clinic’s closure, the lot has been donated to a crisis pregnancy center called A Better Choice.
“God accomplishes his work through the obedient lives of his people. We believe that God brought us to Wichita to stop abortion, and that closing this mill and reclaiming it for Christ was part of his plan for us,” said Newman. “We are humbled and thankful that he chose to use us in this way.”
Operation Rescue staff member Cheryl Sullenger had an opportunity to see the abortion clinic in May before it closed, during a yard sale of office supplies and equipment. She described it as dingy, cramped and dirty.
After the abortion business moved out, Sullenger got a closer look.
“There was mold, and general filth,” she said. “The carpets outside the abortion rooms were stained with blood, even though it was evident that some effort had been made to clean them. The ceiling nearby was broken. All of the walls were dirty and some were covered with cheap contact paper instead of being properly maintained.”
Newman, Sullenger and Jeff White, who helped Operation Rescue obtain the property, discovered a small closet between the clinic’s two “procedure” rooms. The closet had a sink surrounded by gallon bottles of bleach and drain cleaner.
Operation Rescue says aborted babies once were disposed of in this sink
“Under the sink was one of the biggest garbage disposals I have ever seen,” said Newman. “The entire area had the stench of death. It was the sink where the suction machine bottles were washed. In fact, dried blood could be seen that had seeped out from the metal band that surrounded the sink top. There was a bucket marked ‘biohazard’ next to the sink.
“We were all sickened by the thought of all those thousands of innocent children whose blood had been washed down that sink. It was an experience I will never forget.”
Norma McCorvey, the “Roe” of Roe v. Wade who once ran abortion clinics but now is a pro-life activist, confirmed it once was common practice to put aborted baby remains down such disposals.
“Oh, yes!” she told Newman in a phone call. “And you can’t pour enough bleach down that drain to get rid of the smell.”
Operation Rescue said it has no doubt Central Women’s Services once disposed of the babies this way. More recently, as the group discovered last year, the clinic packaged and delivered the remains by courier to Engineered Recovery Systems in Newton, Kan., where they were “processed” and dumped in a landfill near Kansas City.

Original Link.

I have a prayer request this morning for a good friend, Randy.
Randy has cancer and is going to have to undergo both chemotherapy and radiation therapy soon. He is a Christian, but is in need of both direct healing from God and support of his spirit. I know that God listens to us when we pray. Please pray unceasingly for Randy. Please pray that God will completely heal him and that God will lift him up when he is feeling bad, sick and worn out. Please pray also for his wife and children, that they will feel God’s comfort and protection over them.
Please add him to your prayer list at church and let’s put the power of the internet to good use by collectively praying for Randy.
Thank you for your prayers!
-Steve

The Anti-Christ Litigation Union (ACLU) is at it again. Somehow they feel that having a picture of Jesus hanging on a wall in a school is an establishment of a state religion. Read my aricle on “What Does the U.S. Constitution Actually Say About Religion?”

A picture depicting Jesus Christ that has hung in a West Virginia high school’s halls for 30 years is the target of a lawsuit by an attorney and former teacher.
Harold Sklar, parent of a former student at Bridgeport High School in Clarksburg, W.Va., petitioned the Harrison County Board of Education to have the portrait removed, contending it violates the so-called separation of church and state in the U.S. Constitution, reports the West Virginia Record legal journal.
Following a tie-vote by the school board June 6 that determined the picture would stay, Sklar filed the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Clarksburg against the district board, Harrison Superintendent Carl Friebel, Jr. and Bridgeport Principal Lindy Bennett.
Sklar is represented by Washington-based public-interest group Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia also is a party in the suit.
“Any portrait of Jesus in a public high school sends the unmistakable message that that school is endorsing Christianity as the official religion of that school,” said Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United.
The lawsuit says: “The Jesus portrait has engendered conflict within the Bridgeport community for years, as school district officials have refused to remove the display and have instead resolutely retained it despite repeated complaints.”
The portrait is the familiar “Head of Christ,” created by Warner Sallman in 1941.
Sklar says he received no response from school officials after his first complaint was filed in 1996.
“The Jesus portrait, which the Harrison County School District displays alone and without any broader context, is a devotional work that constitutes unconstitutional religious expression by the district,” the lawsuit says. “The expenditure of public funds to maintain the Jesus portrait is unconstitutional.”
School officials defend their position on the basis of freedom of speech.
But school board President Sally Cann said the school didn’t have to keep the painting to profess its Christian values. She wanted it removed because she expected a lawsuit, the Charleston Gazette reported.
The Charleston paper said debate over the painting has cause unrest in the community.

Original Article.

I always say to take these claims with a grain of salt. But having said that, I have no doubt that the account of Noah’s Ark and the flood, did happen, and God will show us evidence of this, as well as other Biblical events when He wants to.

A 14-man crew that included evangelical apologist Josh McDowell says it returned from a trek to a mountain in Iran with possible evidence of the remains of Noah’s Ark.
The group, led by explorer Bob Cornuke, found an unusual object perched on a slope 13,120 feet above sea level.
Cornuke, president of the archeological Base Institute and a veteran of nearly 30 expeditions in search of Bible artifacts and locations, said he is cautiously, but enthusiastically, optimistic about the find.
Some of the team’s photos can be seen here.
Also on the team were Barry Rand, former CEO of Avis; Boone Powell, former CEO of Baylor Medical Systems; and Arch Bonnema, president of Joshua Financial.
The team returned with video footage of a large black formation, about 400 feet long – the length of the ark, according to the Bible – that looks like rock but bears the image of hundreds of massive, wooden, hand-hewn beams.
Bonnema observed: “These beams not only look like petrified wood, they are so impressive that they look like real wood – this is an amazing discovery that may be the oldest shipwreck in recorded history.”
The team said one piece of the blackened rock is “cut” at 90-degree angle.

Sealed with pitch
Even more intriguing, they said, some of the wood-like rocks tested this week proved to be petrified wood.
It’s noteworthy, they pointed out, that the Bible recounts Noah sealed his ark with pitch, a black substance.
When the retrieved pieces were cut open, a marine fossil was discovered. In the area around the object, the team found thousands of fossilized sea shells, and Cornuke brought back a one-inch thick rock slab replete with fossilized clams.
With the discovery of wood splinters and broken pottery at the remote 15,300-foot level, the team says it also found evidence that ancients considered it an important worship site for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
Cornuke became involved in the search for the ark after meeting Apollo 15 astronaut James Irwin, participating with him in several searches on Mount Ararat in Turkey, but with disappointing results.
Cornuke began looking elsewhere, after finding clues in the Bible such as Genesis 11’s reference to descendants of Noah coming to the Mesopotamian valley from the east. Cornuke believes that would put the biblical mountains of Ararat somewhere in northern Iran.
He also points to ancient historians such as Nicholas of Damascus and Flavius Josephus who wrote, just before and after Christ, that timbers of the ark had survived in the higher mountains of present-day Iran.
Cornuke noted that during World War II, an American Army officer and road construction engineer in Iran named Ed Davis said he saw the ark on a high mountain in the country after being led there by Iranian friends. After the war, according to Cornuke, Davis passed a lie detector test affirming he saw timbers from an ark-like object.
Before his death, Davis gave Cornuke a map showing the way to the object.
“It was right where Ed said it was in his map,” Cornuke said. “After seeing it from a distance, I thought it at first unimpressive, but once we stood on the object we were all amazed at how it looked just like a huge pile of black and brown stone beams.”

Original Article.
See some of the team’s photos here.
Link to the B.A.S.E. Institute Website.

This type of thing makes me see red!! A memo issued last month by the Lake County Cooperative Extension Service says prayer is forbidden at all times, including to “begin or close meetings, fundraisers, camp sessions, including meals, and/or award ceremonies.” Check out this comment from the Stan Sims, the County Extension director: “We want to respect peoples’ beliefs and be inclusive.”

“Inclusive”??? How on earth is forbidding a whole group of people from practicing their constitutionally protected Freedom of Speech, “inclusive”?? Only an anti-Christian liberal could think that excluding people is “inclusive”.

(AgapePress) - An Indiana pro-family group is objecting to a ban on prayer at 4-H meetings in one county.
A memo issued last month by the Lake County Cooperative Extension Service says prayer is forbidden at all times, including to “begin or close meetings, fundraisers, camp sessions, including meals, and/or award ceremonies.” Stan Sims, the County Extension director, says he issued the directive because “We want to respect peoples’ beliefs and be inclusive.”
But Micah Clark, executive director of the American Family Association of Indiana, says Sims is not being inclusive of people of faith — nor of most people in the Hoosier State, who Clark says support “things like having ‘under God’ in the Pledge and ‘in God we trust’ on our money.”
Clark notes recent activity as proof of his claim. “We just created in Indiana an ‘In God We Trust’ license plate that will be available next year, and they’re expecting to sell tens of thousands of them from the Bureau of Motor Vehicles,” the family activist says. “Indiana is very tolerant of religion — but we’re also very respectful of faith and of God in general.”
Most Hoosiers, he contends, have no problem with prayer in public schools and at sporting events like the Indianapolis 500. “People are not offended by prayer,” Clark states. And while he acknowledges there may be a “radical minority” that is “very intolerant of religion,” the AFA of Indiana leader that is not the case generally.
“[T]he vast majority of Hoosiers, people in Indiana and the Midwest, support prayer and the right to pray,” Clark maintains. “I think this is a very poor move, and I think it will offend a lot of families in Indiana.”
The formal prayers had been a tradition at various events, including 4-H, which has more than 800 youth members in Lake County.

Original Link.
See my article “What Does the U.S. Constitution Actually Say About Religion?”.

For those who do not know, Eliyahu Asheri was the young Israeli settler who was kidnapped and murdered by the slimy pali Holy Land occupiers last Sunday (June 25). Read this insightful article about him by Fern Sidman.

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF ELIYAHU PINCHAS ASHERI, ZTK”L

BY: FERN SIDMAN

On this day, June 29th, 2006, the 3rd day of Tammuz 5766, the nation of Israel buried a true Eved Elokim, a faithful servant of the Almighty G-d of Israel. Today thousands of Jews across the State of Israel attended the funeral of 18 year old Eliyahu Pinchas Asheri, ZTK”L, the yeshiva student from the settlement of Itamar who was kidnapped and murdered by Arab terrorists. Asheri, a student at the pre-military yeshiva academy in N’vei Tzuf in the western Binyamin region was last seen at 9:00 p.m. on Sunday at the French Hill junction in northern Jerusalem. He was hitching a ride to his yeshiva in N’vei Tzuf.

His parents, Yitro and Miriam Asheri reported him missing on Monday, but according to reports from the IDF he had already been murdered by that time. According to Arutz Sheva, “A Ramallah Tanzim terror cell, taking orders from the Gaza headquarters of the Popular Resistance Committee, carried out the kidnapping and murdered of pre-military Torah academy student Eliyahu Asheri, according to the IDF.”

The report went on to say, “Itamar resident Eliyahu Asheri, z’l, died immediately when he was kidnapped on Sunday, according to OC Central Commander Yair Naveh. Naveh told reporters at a briefing on Thursday that the 18-year-old victim was not kept alive, as claimed by the terrorist group that abducted him, but was “without a doubt murdered immediately.”
Popular Resistance Committees terrorists claimed they had kept Asheri alive until Tuesday while considering the possibility of holding him for ransom. Said Naveh, “They had absolutely no intention to hold negotiations.”

According to The Jerusalem Post, (6/27/06), “On Wednesday, elite police and IDF forces arrested Popular Resistance Committees operative Osam Abu Rajil, who was suspected to have been involved in the kidnapping. Abu Rajil led the forces to a mountainside north of Ramallah, where Asheri’s body was found buried, Army Radio reported. Naveh confirmed Thursday that Abu Rajil was personally involved in the kidnapping.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for the Hamas-affiliated PRC told Al-Jazeera that Asheri would be “butchered in front of TV cameras” if the IDF operation in Gaza did not stop. “Our patience is running out,” he said. “I am announcing for the first time that the kidnapped Zionist Israel is searching for is the same settler who is being held by us. He is aged 18-1⁄2… and is a soldier in a pre-military academy,” said the spokesman, who identified himself as Abu Abir.”

In addition, Arutz Sheva reported that, “The IDF did not say whether the assault rifles which the Olmert government and the United States transferred to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, (Abu Mazen) earlier this month were used at any point in the kidnapping or murder. WorldNetDaily reported in the name of “sources close to the Al Aqsa Brigades” that the guns had been used in two separate shooting attacks against Israelis within days of the transfer.”

Roads in Jerusalem were closed in honor of the funeral, which is to end with the youth’s burial in the Mt. of Olives cemetery. Eliyahu’s teachers and family, one after the other, spoke about what a sweet person he was. Over and over it was mentioned that Eliyahu’s prayers were “like fire.”

“You went up to Heaven in a storm, like Eliyahu (Elijah) the prophet,” Eliyahu’s mother Miriam eulogized, in a calm and determined voice. “Now, Eliyahu - stand before G-d and speak out in favor of the Nation of Israel - don’t let up until our Father in Heaven agrees to reveal Himself to His people.”

Yitro Asheri spoke of his son, recalling that he would always sit in their home and make peace between his siblings. “When you get to Heaven,” the Australian immigrant said, addressing his son, “make peace within our people and between the Nation of Israel and our Father in Heaven.”

Asheri added that the world has much less prayer in it now that Eliyahu is gone and implored all of Israel to “Pray! Pray - because you are righteous and G-d desires your prayers.”

Eliyahu’s mother Miriam told Voice of Israel Radio this morning, “At this time, I do have not much to say, for the pain is so unbearable; I can barely find a way to hold it. But one thing I can say is that many times in the past years, because of the many disagreements-between-brothers we have in this country, many times I asked G-d to give me, first of all, love in my heart for everyone. And now, following this terrible thing that happened to us, it has become clear to me how really great the Nation of Israel is - how much help we have received, and all the volunteers, and the army - there are no words to describe it… And this was the way of Eliyahu as well…”

Rabbi Chaim Druckman, the national head of the Bnei Akiva Yeshivot movement and Eliyahu’s adopted grandfather, said at the funeral that sometimes funerals are like sunsets, but that Eliyahu’s passing is like the sun going dark at noontime. “This is not just a private funeral, but one belonging to all of Israel,” he said. “His murderers intended to kill any one of us and all of us.”

Rabbi Avi Ronski, the Rabbi of Itamar and the man who has been tapped to become the next Chief Rabbi of the IDF, said at the funeral, “It is now clear that they murdered Eliyahu very soon after they kidnapped him, and all their announcements and threats afterwards were merely psychological pressure against us.”

The murder of Eliyahu Asheri comes on the heels of a Hamas terrorist attack several days ago when a Hamas 8-man force crawled through an underground tunnel into Israel, lobbing grenades and bombs at a military outpost killing two IDF soldiers, Lt. Hanan Barak, 20, from Arad and Sgt. Pavel Slutzker, 20 from Dimona A third soldier, Corp. Gilead Shalit from Mitzpe Hila was kidnapped.

The kidnapping of Corp. Shalit, prompted the IDF to launch its “Operation Summer Rains” offensive Wednesday with the entry of Israeli forces into Southern Gaza. The stated goal: The release of kidnapped solider Gilad Shalit.

In addition to knocking out electricity in much of Gaza, the operation has included an aerial missile attack on an electricity station south of Gaza City, aerial attacks on three bridges in the central Gaza Strip, over dry river beds, artillery fire at open areas in the southern Gaza Strip and entry of armored forces into the Dahaniya area, mainly the abandoned airport, where the IDF has set up a headquarters. This area represents a strategic control and observation point over the southern Gaza Strip.

In response to the murder and kidnapping, Israeli forces arrested one-third of the Hamas-led Palestinian Cabinet and 20 lawmakers early Thursday and pressed their incursion into Gaza.

Today is a day of tremendous grief and mourning for the family and friends of Eliyahu Asheri. It is also a day of mourning for the entire nation of Israel. It is not easy to forget a day on which a young Jew was buried. A young Jew, heinously murdered by Arab savages. A Jew who feared G-d and walked in the way of his ancestors, in the way of Hashem’s holy Torah.
It will be difficult to forget the looks of profound grief and misery etched on the faces of his parents, his siblings, his friends and neighbors. The murder of Eliyahu Pinchas Asheri was the murder of a part of each and every one of us. For the murder of Eliyahu Pinchas Asheri could have been the murder of our own son or brother. Ask any parent that has lost a child and they will tell you that they never get up from sitting shiva. The sadness and despair is all consuming and does not diminish with the passing of time.

We are commanded by the Almighty G-d of Israel to be our brother’s keeper, for we are all one nation, a collective body and soul. When one of us grieves and suffers, we all grieve and we all suffer. Today we have lost a brother and our tears flow freely and without respite. And we ask, why was Eliyahu Asheri murdered? Why was it he that had to spend his last moments on this earth as a captive of barbaric Arab terrorists who have no respect for the sanctity of life?

We may never know the answer, however we do know that the blood of Eliyahu Asheri is on the hands of those who control the government of Israel. Of those who aid and abet Arab terrorists by evacuating thousands of Jews from their homes in Gush Katif and who plan to uproot more Jewish settlements in the ultimate goal of creating “peace” with our Arab enemy. The blood of Eliyahu Asheri is on the hands of those in the government of Israel who transfer thousands of assault rifles and a million rounds of ammunition into the hands who those who seek our destruction.

We can blame a government of Israel who oppresses the free speech of Jews who oppose the Olmert convergence-realignment plan. We can point our fingers in outrage and indignation at a government who is bent on national suicide. A government comprised of spiritually bankrupt leaders that lead us to believe that genuine and long lasting “peace” can come to fruition with an enemy that has sworn our destruction. An enemy who interprets territorial compromise and conciliation as acts of weakness and surrender and who respond with even more contempt and disdain.

It is true that the government of Israel is one that is devoid of belief and faith, true belief and faith in the G-d of Israel and Torah. It is a government that has elevated the concepts of a westernized democracy into their own personal god. A government that displays a callous disregard when Jewish blood is spilled. We must express our anger and our outrage and rise up in indignation at the actions of a government who is responsible for the murder of our brother, Eliyahu Pinchas Asheri. For Eliyahu’s murder can be harbinger for the potential murders of our own brothers.

Let us raise our collective voices in prayer and supplication to the Almighty G-d of Israel. Let us plead with Hashem to give us the strength, courage, fortitude and tenacity to oppose a government that does not protect its people. Let us beseech the Almighty to provide comfort, strength and courage to the Asheri family and to all of the nation of Israel, for on this day, a part of each and every one of us has died.

My Original Post.

It is unbelievable to me the many ways Satan uses the name of God to work evil. The leader (notice I didnt use the term Pastor) of this church is a vessel of Satan and he is not of God. His agenda is one of hate and self-righteousness - both of which God despises. I pray for the families of these soldiers that gave their lives in service to our country. These men paid the ulitimate price so that we can live without fear. Their funeral services should be a time to honor them and comfort their families, but this nutty Kansas man and his cronies are turning it in to a free-for-all. Satan loves this type of thing - these people are making him look good, while making God out to be an angry monster. Dont be deceived, God is loving and He does not approve of this type of activity.

The controversial Westboro Baptist Church will bring its message of an “angry God” to Fort Campbell next month as church members picket the ceremony where Pfc. Thomas Tucker and Pfc. Kristian Menchaca will be among those remembered.

The protest begins at 7 p.m. July 12 at the Main Fort Gate in Oak Grove, Ky.

On the second Wednesday of each month, Fort Campbell holds the Eagle Remembrance Ceremony, a tribute to fallen Screaming Eagles.

Members of the 101st Airborne Division, Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore., and Menchaca, 23, of Houston were abducted south of Baghdad, Iraq. Their bodies were recovered June 20 near a power plant in Youssifiyah, where they had been manning a vehicle checkpoint that was attacked. The soldiers reportedly were beheaded after being tortured, according to officials.

In a statement released last night, the Westboro church based in Topeka, Kan., wrote: “They died at the hands of an angry God in His retaliatory wrath in punishing America’s godless military for their violent persecution of Westboro Baptist Church for preaching the truth to America about her abominations.”

In March, Gov. Ernie Fletcher signed into law a bill that prevents protesters from disrupting funerals, burials or memorial services.

The law declares protesters within 300 feet of any funeral service guilty of first-degree disorderly conduct, punishable by up to a year in jail. It also prohibits protesters from using bullhorns at funerals.

Original Link

This has my stamp of approval.

(AgapePress) - A constitutional attorney says school districts often employ a double-standard when making religious accommodations for students.
Last week The Washington Post reported that the Howard County (Maryland) School Board may continue a policy that has allowed Muslim students to leave school 20 minutes early on Fridays to attend prayer services. Opponents of the policy say the students are missing too much instruction time over the course of a year. But Joshua M. Kaufman, chairman of the Howard County Board of Education, told The Post that “constitutionally, we are obligated to make reasonable accommodation to those who wish to practice their religion.”
Steve Crampton, chief counsel at the American Family Association’s Center for Law & Policy, says there is a great deal of irony involved in the situation.
“For the first time perhaps, the public schools are starting to actually put teeth into the constitutional requirement that they make reasonable accommodations for the practice of religion,” Crampton points out. “The irony, of course, is that if this was a Christian bunch asking to leave because they had a Bible study or something, they would be roundly ignored or flatly refused.”
Crampton says this may be a prime opportunity for Christians to push for religious instruction in district schools, as Howard County may have no choice but to make similar accommodations for Christian students.
“Back in 1952, the U.S. Supreme Court [in Zorach v. Clauson] faced a situation in which public school students were allowed to leave campus to receive explicit Christian religious instruction,” the attorney notes, “and the school upheld the practice under the so-called ‘released time’ program.”
In fact, high school students in South Carolina now receive academic credit for off-campus religion classes. The South Carolina Released Time Credit Act was signed into law in early June by Governor Mark Sanford. The act states that “the free exercise of religion is important to the intellectual, moral, civic, and ethical development of students” in the state.

Original Link.

This is a sad situation. Why the leadership of the Episcopal Church can’t see what their support of homosexuality, against the teaching of the Bible, by the way, is doing to their fellowship is beyond me. At least the U.S. churches have a recourse by being able to withdraw from the Episcopal Church.

(CNSNews.com) - The head of the worldwide Anglican Church has laid out a proposal aimed at keeping the fractious denomination together by means of a two-tier structure of conservatives and liberals, but a leading conservative archbishop says the church is already divided.
This week, several U.S. dioceses began a process of withdrawing from Anglicanism’s liberal American branch, the Episcopal Church (ECUSA).
Differences over homosexuality have triggered one of the most severe crises in the history of the 77 million-strong worldwide Anglican Communion, whose roots predate the Reformation.
ECUSA in 2003 consecrated an openly homosexual clergyman as bishop of New Hampshire, and some Canadian dioceses agreed to bless same-sex unions.
Earlier this month, ECUSA’s general convention in Ohio failed to adopt high-level recommendations to repent and declare a moratorium on the ordination of practicing homosexuals and the blessing of same-sex unions.

Original Link.
See our article “The Bible and Homosexuality”.

Even ignoring the Biblical aspect of the withdraws, we have already seen that it hurts Israel security rather than helping it.

KIBBUTZ NAHAL OZ, Israel – A group of prominent rabbis is calling on President Bush to refuse political and financial support for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s plan to evacuate most of Judea and Samaria, stating the withdrawal is against U.S. interests, and that it violates basic tenets of Jewish law.
“U.S. interests are being impacted by Israel’s proposed retreat from terrorist strongholds in Judea and Samaria. In addition, as rabbis our obligation is to teach, guide, and lead our congregations to conduct their daily lives in accordance with Jewish Law. This holds especially true in a matter of life or death threatening the residents of Israel,” stated a letter sent to Bush and signed by leaders of the Rabbinical Congress for Peace, a coalition of over 1200 rabbinic leaders and pulpit rabbis.
Congress members include some of the most esteemed Orthodox rabbis in the Jewish world.
Olmert is attempting to push through a withdrawal from most of Judea and Samaria, mountainous territory that is within rocket firing range of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Israel’s international airport. The territory is also commonly called the West Bank.
The rabbis point out in their letter to Bush that villages slated for withdrawal from Judea and Samaria are mentioned throughout the Torah.
They state a withdrawal from the area violates Jewish law because an evacuation will lead to massive violence.
“There is a clear definitive ruling in the Jewish Code of Law ‘Orach Chaim’ Chapter 329 which rules that it is strictly forbidden to give up even one inch of a Jewish border town to foreigners because it will lead to bloodshed. How much more so regarding retreating from holy land that enemies bent on your destruction have already stated will be used to launch attacks against Jews,” states the letter to Bush.
The rabbis wrote to Bush that Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza last summer has already impacted regional U.S. interests and that Olmert’s proposed Judea and Samaria evacuation will have “disastrous” consequences for the American-led war on terror.
“Israel’s 2005 retreat from Gaza has been perceived as a cave-in by the role-model of counter-terrorism. It paved the road to Hamas’ electoral victory and upgraded the posture of Islamic Jihad and al-Qaida, thus providing friendly platforms for Iran, Syria, Sudan, Yemen and the pro-Saddam elements. The Gaza retreat has established the largest terrorist base in the Middle East, threatening accelerated anti-U.S. terrorism.
“Bolstering the Palestinian profile by enforcing a withdrawal in Judea and Samaria constitutes a present and immediate lethal danger to pro-U.S. regimes in Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Gulf states and will establish an enormous terror sanctuary threatening US troops in the Gulf area. It would also undermine Israel’s posture of deterrence, which is critical to the enhancement of regional stability.”
The rabbis urged Bush against “morally or financially supporting Israel’s disastrous withdrawal plan.”

Original Link.